She spent 16 years in the sex industry and now helps fellow sex trafficking survivors.

Annie Lobert is our guest this week on Nevada Week In Person.

♪♪♪ Support for Nevada Week In Person is provided by Senator William H. Hernstadt.

Welcome to Nevada Week In Person.

I'm Amber Renee Dixon.

Her entry into the sex industry was by choice initially, but she says a pimp posing as the boyfriend eventually snatched that freedom from her.

When she was able to leave her trafficker, she says it was her heart's mission to go back and reach the ladies she'd left behind.

She founded Hookers for Jesus in 2005, now known as Pink Chair.

Founder and CEO Annie Lobert, thank you for joining Nevada Week In Person.

(Annie Lobert) I'm so honored.

This is so fun.

-I think that people watching, there are plenty out there, who are well aware of the work you do in the Las Vegas community and well aware of you partly because, in my opinion, you've always been the Hookers for Jesus lady.

-Yes.

-That name is so catchy and memorable.

But you are rebranding, and I want to know why.

-We are because--this is what's really sad--even though Google is not an enemy, but they have been blackballing us from any advertisement.

And that crosses over to other social media sites.

But here's the good news is that when you rebrand, you get to get a new chance with advertising.

So we're trying to do this for not just donations, but also it's a push towards dignity for our clients that we serve.

A lot of people misunderstand the name Hookers for Jesus.

And it literally means fishing for people that are drowning in the dark waters of sex trafficking.

Some people don't get that.

So Pink Chair is basically a chair, a conversation, a change.

And that's initially how the outreach started, just giving my card to one of my fellow industry workers and then them asking me, Hey, can I have coffee with you?

And I'm like, Sure, let's go to dinner, lunch, and we start talking.

And I share my story, they share their story, and we have a common denominator: We're being abused.

How do we get out of this?

How do I save my money, leave my boyfriend, aka trafficker, and succeed at being the person I really want to be?

Maybe a business owner, maybe someone that's married with children, or someone that's ready to be a judge or police officer or the President to change the world.

Even if we reach high, I like that, it can happen.

-I mentioned in the intro, your entry into sex trafficking was your own choice.

-It was.

-Why?

-Most girls, it's their choice--women I should say--because the money.

I did not have a good upbringing.

My father-- we all know that there's this weird thing with children if the father is not present or if he's present and abusive.

There's a missing link that happens to the heart, and the heart feels like it needs to be loved.

So I went out looking for love in all the wrong places.

And unfortunately, my girlfriend and I went to a bar one night.

I was about 18 years old.

I had three jobs.

I tried to go to college.

My mother and father didn't have money for college.

And we met these two men, and my girlfriend dated one of them.

We didn't know, but they were undercover sex traffickers.

Next thing you know, I'm in Hawaii.

The first night I worked, I sold myself.

Did not have a pimp.

I was against traffickers.

I was against pimps.

I got back to Minnesota, quit all three of my jobs, and then met a man at the strip club that I was working at.

He was actually a patron.

He was a person that was tipping.

But he turned out to be an undercover pimp.

And by the time I got to Las Vegas with him, the first night that I worked at Las Vegas, he beat me to an unrecognizable state.

And all I could hear was muffled sounds of swearing at me, I'm your pimp now, B.

This is how it's gonna be.

You're gonna give me all your money.

You messed up.

You should respect me.

And so the next, believe it or not, five years I was with this man that I was in love with, he got every single dollar.

We had, you know, houses, jewelry, cars, beautiful clothing.

But when I walked away, I walked away with nothing.

I had to sneak away.

He kidnapped me back.

I went back to him as well.

When a person leaves a trafficker, it takes five to seven times before they actually stay away for good.

When I did leave him, I was alone for a little while, but I was so lonely.

I started going to the clubs.

I met a man that was in a show--yes, a real dance show in Las Vegas, a very famous casino that is no longer here--and he was a showman.

He was a dancer.

He sang.

I fell in love with him.

Guess what?

He posed as my fake trafficker at the nightclubs, so I could get rid of my old trafficker chasing me.

Because when you get out of trafficking, it's like the Mafia, blood in, blood out.

You do not survive, normally.

They hunt you down, and sometimes they will kill you because you cannot say what has been done to you.

It's very dangerous and lethal.

I've had-- you're not going to believe this.

I counted the other day 18 people that I know that have been murdered, that have died of cancer, that committed suicide, that have disappeared from the industry that were my friends.

I don't want to start crying, but I could go to the graveyard and see their graves.

And I, when I finally got out, which was another five years, I got with that other guy and he became my trafficker as well.

I was like, I have to get out of here.

-The dancer?

-Yes.

I trained him to pretend he was my pimp, but he actually became my pimp.

I know people would say, well, that's your fault.

To be honest with you, it's force, fraud, and coercion.

Your brain is manipulated into believing that they love and care for you.

Being a high-class call girl, I wasn't walking on the street.

I was going on calls with the escort services.

I worked for Desert Foxes.

I worked for Flashdance.

I worked for Strippers Elite.

You can look all these up on the Internet.

They're all closed down now.

-You can find women on the Internet through escort services?

-Yeah.

There was no Internet back then.

I was in the yellow pages and the weekly.

So this was in the late '80s, early '90s.

I was still a teenager when I got to Las Vegas.

I was not of drinking age.

I was illegal.

And, yeah, I finally got away, eventually.

The last time I ever worked was the week of August 2003, because I got out for the first time for about six years.

But I kept turning tricks, and with my friend-- and you know what?

They're gonna have to read the book, because it's too long to tell.

But I was so self-sabotaging, because I believed that I deserved the punishment that I was getting.

I never thought I deserved a married husband.

I never thought I deserved children and my own business and just a normal life.

I believed that I needed to be punished for what I had done in my life.

-And it strikes me because you are at that point where you think you deserve to be punished for what you are doing.

When you started, though, you were out for revenge against men?

-Yes, I was.

And also I wanted to keep the sex industry secret, because the more something's taboo, the higher money you can charge.

And that's why when it comes to legalization, across the board--all parties, I'm talking about pimps being legalized, the people that are working in the industry being legalized, all the patrons, everything being legal--it takes the mystery away.

It also lowers our costs, because we become a commodity that's super easy to get a hold of.

-Where do you stand on legalization or partial decriminalization?

-Partial decrim.

-Which means?

-Do not arrest the people that are working.

Stop arresting the workers.

-Women like you?

-Yes.

Because this helps us have resources.

It helps stop the violence towards the pimps that are beating the women and the actual traffickers that are purchasing the women.

Because they're traffickers, too, the people that are buying.

They're adding to the big problem, the supply and demand.

I don't want it actually across the board.

But if I was going to choose something, it would be the Nordic model.

And that's where, again, we don't get arrested for working.

-There is an overdose in your history.

-Yes.

-When did that happen?

How did it impact you?

-August 2, 2003.

I was working on a pimp's car.

-Was this the last-- -An Escalade.

- --weekend you said you worked?

-Yes.

He came in, dropped the keys off, and my friend and I were having a contest who could get the car ready for paint quicker.

-You know how to fix cars?

-Yes.

I worked at an auto body shop with my friend that rescued me out the first time for many years.

-Not a mechanic, but you were doing-- -The first time I was an entrepreneur, I had 11 employees, believe it or not.

But I used to work in the autobody business.

And I could paint.

I could prep a car.

I could fix a dent.

-You were working on a pimp's car?

-Yes, a pimp's car.

He paid us 12 grand to paint his car.

Which I wouldn't charge that much now.

I would double that price, 24 grand to change the color.

We were painting it baby blue sparkle, believe it or not.

We were doing cocaine, and I literally took too much.

I fell back, passed out, had a heart attack, my friend called 911, and I literally had a near death experience.

I saw my body in a coffin, and my mom was walking towards the coffin.

And all she could say was, She was just a prostitute.

And I jumped.

Like, I screamed.

-That's what you're seeing in your head?

-Yeah.

At that point, I came back into my body, and I could feel the pain in my heart.

It felt like somebody was stabbing me.

Like, a heart attack is no joke.

I went to the hospital, and the doctor told me that I had so much drugs in my system that I should have died.

And that was when I surrendered my life to God.

And I had this epiphany.

And I literally was like, I can never do this again.

And I made a promise to myself and to, like, some people call "The Source" I would never sell my body ever again, and I would help women like me get out and give them a way to get their lives together and bring them a chance at a brand new life full of promise, peace, and prosperity.

-Let's talk about Jesus.

The inclusion of religion in your nonprofit program, that might scare some people away from seeking your help.

-Sure, but we don't force it.

We don't.

When we serve victims of trafficking or survivors, that is not a requirement to believe or to practice what I believe personally.

This is just a way for them to come into the door and to give them faith if they want faith.

Most clients that come to us know, and they have a background of church or a background of religion in their life.

And some people that come are atheists.

Some people are practicing even, believe it or not, witches.

I mean, people do not put us to the side because we have a faith-based belief system.

But we offer both tracks for our clients.

They don't have to go to church if they don't want to.

They can stay home.

They can watch television.

They can, you know, work out if they want, go walk on the path, go swim.

So that's what's good about our program.

It's trauma informed.

-Another question about Jesus: Can you solve this debate?

Did He actually hang out with prostitutes?

-He did.

-Was He friends with prostitutes?

-He did.

And He hung out with anyone that needed help, like anyone that needed that space in their heart that was broken and empty to be filled.

Because once-- in real life, we all know this: Once we find out that cars, money, houses, a business, being on the top of the world, being the most famous person in the world, we already know what happens.

We've had a lot of examples.

Look at Elvis.

Look at Prince.

These people, their lives were not fulfilled by their fame and their money.

-Last question for you: Part of the purpose, part of the four pillars of your mission-- there's hook, the outreach; hope, which is Jesus; help, which is housing you provide; and then heal, which is a whole lot of therapy, I imagine.

Is a sex trafficking survivor ever fully healed?

Do you consider yourself fully healed?

-I do in the spiritual sense, because when my body leaves, like when my soul leaves this body, I will be complete and whole again.

My body will be brand new.

But our body keeps the score.

So our body is going to always be catching up with the healing that we need of our self-actualization of realizing where we're hurting and how we're repeating certain patterns that we continue.

That's called PTSD and trauma.

So that's the part.

-I know you are dealing with physical repercussions as well, which you can read about in your book, Fallen.

-Yes.

-Also perhaps hear about on your podcast, Annie's Pink Chair podcast.

Thank you for joining Nevada Week In Person.

-You're welcome.

-For more interviews like this, go to vegaspbs.org/nevadaweek.