Today, I am joined by my long-time client and my money coach, Soledad. Soledad shares how she practices self care and how self care is an important part of her business.
Rita-Soledad is a Queer Mexican-American, former math teacher turned money & self-care coach. After years of dealing with various autoimmune health issues, PTSD, and ADHD, Soledad learned to use money as a tool to support their wellness and is now committed to teaching other progressive BIPOC, women, and LGBTQ+ folk how to do the same. Soledad wants to see you engage in D.I.V.E.R.S.E. self-care daily because your wellness is essential to the collective.
Learn more about Soledad at wealthparatodos.com and @wealthparatodos.
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Cat (00:04.324)
Hi Soledad. Welcome to the Show Up Real podcast now, which we’ve changed the name since you’ve last been on. I’m so excited to have you here because this is the first episode where on the podcast where you’ve been on the show, but you’ve also been my money coach and I’ve gotten to learn from you in such a different way.
And I’m really pumped to have you on the show because one, I want everyone to have a very good understanding of what diverse self-care is. It’s something that you’ve taught me, you’ve taught your community, and you teach your clients inside your programs. I just think it’s such, it’s just pivotal to anyone’s growth in anything in their life. So I wanna talk about that.
And I am just grateful for you. I think I’m just in awe of you’re such an example of walking the walk and doing the hard work. And I personally have gotten to see so much of that, but you’ve also seen it in me, you know, like not even just with money, just been working together for so long. And I’m just so grateful for you. So anyways, how you doing?
Soledad (01:31.791)
Well, I’m so grateful for you too. For anyone who’s never heard any of the last episodes, go watch them, go listen to them. I guess I should say, listen to them. And I just want to say that Cat has been my business coach since I started my coaching business in October of 2021. So it’s only been Cat. Cat has been my business coach and I’ve done one-on-one coaching and the mastermind multiple times. And that’s a little context that I feel like people need to also be aware.
Cat
I wanted to talk about kind of the journey of kind of where you started and kind of like the moments that self-care helped you throughout. So go ahead and introduce yourself.
Soledad (02:35.983)
I’m Rita Soledad Fernandez-Pablino. You can call me Soledad. I’m a money and self-care coach. I work with Black, Indigenous, People of Color, women and LGBTQ plus folk who identify as anxiously ambitious. These are people who have big goals, big dreams. They’re dreamers. And because they’re first gen or second gen, they’re figuring this out on their own. They’re paving their own way and it causes anxiety repeatedly.
They are people who have big hearts, who are progressive, and I love working with them. And these are the type of people who need to be working because they want to, not because they have to, because they have big dreams and goals, even beyond just work, just in terms of the impact that they want to make in the world. And so I work with the coolest people, and Cat was one of those cool people, and I am just really passionate. I’m really, really passionate about making sure that we have systems in place
to make sure that we have the money to engage in self-care and that we also understand how self-care impacts our ability to grow money. So I do both.
Soledad & Cat (03:42.096)
Yeah, yeah, 100%. And you’re such an example of that. OK, so let’s get started with when we started working together. We started working together. You worked with me in one-on-one coaching. I think we started, what, October of 2021? And at that time, there was a lot of, I mean, you were brand new to coaching offerings, I’d say.
Just like the foundational kind of selling. But you kind of hit the ground running. You had built an amazing audience yourself. I want to talk about what we’re like, I don’t know how to exactly break it up, but let’s just say your first 100k. That first 100k.
Soledad (04:30.287)
Well, the crazy thing about the first 100 K is that, well, I went into coaching with Cat knowing that like, I’m going to pay 10 K and I’m going to 10 X this investment. And I was so focused on 10 X in the investment. So like, I knew, I knew I was going to make a hundred K. I like right away. I went from not having a LLC to like having an LLC and making sure it was set up as an S corp, because I wanted to make sure to pay less.
Soledad & Cat (04:42.808)
Mm
Soledad & Cat (04:59.587)
My God, I remember.
Soledad (05:00.248)
Taxes, you know, because I was like, I know I’m gonna make 100k like I knew it, I knew it. And yet that first 100k was, I feel like such an out of body experience, because I was so focused always on the next thing, versus enjoying so much of the process. And I had you like telling me all the time, like, did you celebrate? Did you celebrate? And I would get annoyed by that. I’d be like, no.
Soledad & Cat (05:13.722)
Mm
Soledad & Cat (05:20.016)
Mm-hmm.
Soledad (05:29.506)
Cat, come on, we gotta keep it moving. We gotta keep it moving. So I would say that was the biggest energy around my first 100K, that it was very, always focused on the future and not really enjoying and taking pride in it.
Soledad & Cat (05:43.162)
How did you, yeah, give us a little perspective. Like, what did you actually sell to make that first 100K?
Soledad (05:53.775)
One-on-one coaching and I increased my prices from $3,000 to $4,000 to $5,000 to $6,000 every three months. I increased it by $1,000. also did some speaking engagements and then towards the very end I launched Wells Baratolos Academy.
Soledad & Cat (06:03.738)
That was her plan, not mine.
Soledad & Cat (06:15.772)
My God, that was so fast. Wow. Wow. Okay. Let’s talk about, and we’ve talked about that launch, the first Wealth Para Todos launch before, but I know that the first time you launched Wealth Para Todos, it was a huge learning lesson, but I really want, I want to talk about two things.
Soledad (06:18.958)
Yeah, that was all in 2022.
Soledad & Cat (06:43.382)
One, I wanna talk about that launch and I also wanna talk about the lessons you learned and how your diverse self-care framework, how that has helped you kind of learn those lessons and not repeat them, right? Or repeat little pieces one step at a time. Let’s talk about that first launch. You learned a lot of lessons. Give us a little synopsis of like, what you learned about yourself launching a new program. This was in 2022, I think it was. Okay.
Soledad (07:18.959)
Too. October 2022. You know, that first launch wasn’t like, I had set this big goal. I launched this program while Cat was on maternity leave. Cat comes back and I had so much confidence and I was so determined to do it that it like I thought I was going to get 100 people into this program at one time. And I had no idea, no idea around what was going to be activating and triggering for me. Like I was just so chill and I was just like, I’m just going to email people every day for 30 days. And I was like, doors are open and then a hundred people are going to come in. Like, just had like such high, high belief. And when I like, was a good launch. Think there was like 23 people that joined the first time. in so many ways, like, yeah, like, really good, but it wasn’t a hundred. So in my mind, I was like, I failed and then I just quit.
Soledad & Cat (08:07.878)
Amazing!
Soledad (08:16.546)
I just stopped the lunch. I stopped inviting people to work with me. And I did it. I was like, eh, it’s okay. I just stopped.
Soledad & Cat (08:22.466)
I you telling me you were gonna, you were like, yeah, I’ll get a hundred people in. And in my head, I was like, I don’t want to break into her. Like, I really don’t want to, but, and I also was like, she very well could. Like, I’m not gonna like, this is the first launch. You don’t know, you know? It was so good.
Soledad (08:42.703)
But I like launched
that without having any onboarding systems. Like I just really had to go with it and grow with it. And then I decided like the last week of 2022 was to do like a mini launch. And I just like opened it up again for seven days just to my email list, emails again, and then another eight people joined. And I increased the price. I increased the price from when it opened up in October.
Soledad & Cat (09:01.754)
Mm-hmm.
Soledad & Cat (09:09.872)
I’m sorry.
Soledad (09:12.719)
To when it opened up in December. So it was a very like, I didn’t like confianza. Yeah, but I don’t even think I was testing learning. I think I was just like, I don’t think I was testing and learning. Mentally where I was, I was just like shooting my shot. I’m just gonna shoot my shot, shoot my shot. But by January, I was like, fuck. Having a group program is different. It is different than one-on-one coaching. It is different. And then I was like, there was so many things I didn’t have in place. I didn’t have like a
Soledad & Cat (09:16.718)
You’re testing and learning.
Soledad & Cat (09:22.928)
Let’s just go.
Soledad & Cat (09:28.655)
Yeah.
Soledad & Cat (09:36.708)
Yeah.
Soledad (09:42.543)
A community channel. didn’t have like an onboarding thing. It’s like I had all these people who like had joined and I felt so responsible, but I was figuring out things as I had to go. in 2023, it was, I was like, maybe I should just refund everybody their money. Maybe I should just refund their money. And it was in February during our like, like the mastermind event.
Soledad & Cat (10:01.317)
Yeah.
Soledad & Cat (10:10.168)
Yeah, the virtual event.
Soledad (10:10.351)
I was an online mastermind event that you said, that’s it. So I don’t want to hear you complain about what’s at those are counting me again, like you decided to do this program, you’re going to commit to fixing it. And I was like, okay, I’m gonna do that. I made that decision. I was like, okay, we’re not going to opt out. We’re going to move forward. trying to make it better. But I spent 2023 like in a lot of negative self-talk because I felt inadequate, inferior. Like I felt
Soledad & Cat (10:18.37)
Yeah. Yeah.
Soledad & Cat (10:34.244)
Mm-hmm.
Soledad & Cat (10:39.747)
Foolish, I instead of being like, so you’re doing something that you’ve never done before. I would shit on myself for not having certain experience and skills for not being prepared enough. And I didn’t just like meet myself where I was at. Like I could have just been like, so like, you’re on for a ride. We didn’t know. Like I think it’s similar to like when you become a parent. It’s like you have all these ideas of how you’re going to prepare.
Soledad & Cat (10:53.968)
Yeah.
Soledad (11:08.879)
And what you’re going to get in place and everything that you’re going to do. I didn’t even do all of that preparation. Okay. So I think there was a little shame around that, that I had not done any preparation. I just thought, I’ll just, I’ll just wing it, which is also how I had my first child. So I guess it kind of makes sense. That’s how I do things. But at the end of it, you just have to, you just have to decide to show up consistently. But the launch that I knew like, Ooh, I have a problem was the launch that I did in May of 2023.
Soledad & Cat (11:16.175)
Yeah.
Soledad & Cat (11:24.047)
Yeah.
Soledad (11:38.073)
‘Cause that was the one that my self-talk was so critical, so judgmental. Anytime anything went wrong, I was just shitting on myself so much that I wanted to quit and I was burnt out. because I was like, because I was shitting on myself so much, then there was a part of me that didn’t allow myself to rest. Didn’t allow myself to take a break. Didn’t allow myself to surrender. Like, hey, everything’s not going to be as planned.
Soledad & Cat (11:59.344)
Yeah.
Soledad & Cat (12:06.469)
Yeah.
Soledad & Cat (12:06.55)
Like I just kept going, going, going and things were going, continued to go wrong and I continued to shit on myself. And so that was the launch that I was just like, I’m going to burn it all down. World Wide Apprentice Academy. Fuck World Wide One Coaching. Fuck World Wide Apprentice LSP in general. Like I’m done, done. You know what? I think.
Soledad & Cat (12:12.847)
Mm
Soledad & Cat (12:20.847)
Yeah.
Soledad & Cat (12:27.244)
All of it. We’ve all been there.
Soledad (12:31.286)
I think I’ll be a stay-at-home parent again. Like that was really what I thought was going to be this place. And, and I came to you and I had to get coached. And for those of you who joined the mastermind, you’ll have access to that coaching. Check the archives, watch that video because it was really good coaching. And I remember that
Soledad & Cat (12:45.294)
Yeah, that recording. Yeah.
Soledad (12:55.963)
And this is something that I really appreciate about you and why I’ve continued to work with you for all these years is because I truly, I always say like my mindset when it comes to my mindset, I only trust Cat so far, so far, you know, maybe there’ll be other people, but as of right now, it’s like, I trust Cat when it comes to my mindset because I do a lot of coaching on my own and I’m like very self-aware. I journal a lot and yet Cat has repeatedly been able to say things as certain questions that just, I’m like, damn, I didn’t think about that. And it’s just that one little question that just tweaks things a little. And then I’m like, okay, I’m in it. I can still do this. I can still do this. And that, that launch was when I realized, ooh, I have a problem. have a problem specifically when it comes to emotional self-care. And see at that time I had started to develop again, because of your coaching about the importance of having our intellectual property and developing that and creating a process for our clients and really studying our clients to see what happens. had studied my clients enough to see like, hey, why are some clients able to 10x their investment in the time that we get together? And some of them like, you know, they pay off their credit cards or they save or they’re able to increase their income, but they don’t do like, I’m talking about like,
Soledad & Cat (13:55.608)
Yeah, your process. Yeah.
Soledad (14:16.367)
$30,000, $40,000 and increasing your income by $60,000 in six months. it’s, you know, there’s a gap. There’s a, a gap, there’s a sliding scale, I guess. And so as I studied it, I started to notice like, well some of these clients are, have certain habits, skills and beliefs that help them engage in certain types of self-care more consistently. And I started to map out like what are the types of self-care that I started listening to my clients.
About what were the common complaints? What were the things that got in the way of them budgeting? What got in the way of them transferring their 401k from a previous employer into an account with a role of IRA? What were the stressors that interfered with them taking actions for their financial security? And as I was taking my notes…
And I started, you know, seeing more and more. was like, you know, like that I learned about the seven types of rest. I researched stuff in terms of like a self-care, a self-care checklist that I learned from some social workers. And so was combining both. And what I noticed is like people what interfered with their financial security was their social life. So interpersonal self-care, their relationships with their mothers, with their siblings, with their partners.
Vocational self-care, struggling with burnout, having toxic employers, feeling like they cannot take a day off and they’re like showing up every day for their employer, but then not making sure to show up for themselves. I also heard complaints about, you know, their mental health, feeling a lot of
anxiety, having insomnia, feeling very stressed out, feeling dealing with depression. Then there was their health, right? If they were getting sick a lot with cold.
Or if they found themselves like complaining about their bodies and not having to be able to fit in the clothes that they wanted. So then I was like, physical health, restorative body self-care. Then there was also, this was something that I learned once I had walked out of those Academy. Cause I noticed that there was some clients that would have to dip into their emergency fund when something came up and they were okay with it. And then there was some clients
Soledad (16:36.259)
Who when they use their emergency fund, they would feel like hopeless, very pessimistic, like, damn, it’s all done. And I was like, why is it that some of them are okay with it and some of them aren’t? And what I noticed is that the ones that were okay with it had very strong spiritual self-care practices, which is not something that I had at the time. And they were like, they had like, know, prayer that they did, really certain rituals that just really tended to themselves.
So then that’s how it goes like, spiritual self-care is something that matters. And then also people would be like, my house is a mess. I just have so much things. I can’t find my credit card. So I wasn’t able to change my credit cards. The car is so messy. So that’s where environmental self-care came in. And all of those six impacted their de-mental self-care. So these are the seven types of self-care that really just came from me studying my clients and.
Soledad & Cat (17:24.368)
Yes.
Soledad (17:29.795)
And looking for what interferes with their ability to build financial security. So from doing that framework, I then had you in my ear who said like, okay, if you’re going to teach someone to do it, you have to be about it. You have to lead and you have to do it first. And then I realized like, shit, like I have ADHD. Like I don’t really like creating a schedule or to-do lists. Like I’m not about that life. Like how the fuck am
Soledad & Cat (17:43.856)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Soledad & Cat (17:50.767)
Yeah.
Soledad & Cat (17:54.894)
Yeah.
Soledad (17:59.119)
I going to be able to create some systems and some like, like build these self-care habits. And I was like, well, if I could figure it out for myself, then I’ll be able to teach it to other people. And so with that May, 2023 launch being so rockety-tockety that I was burnt out and I was like, okay, this is the time for me to start committing to the self-care. So I started creating like different handouts for myself that would help me just stay more accountable to myself. And I also saw that like,
Soledad & Cat (18:07.781)
Mm
Soledad & Cat (18:12.398)
Yeah.
Soledad & Cat (18:22.148)
Yeah.
Soledad & Cat (18:29.167)
There was certain types of self-care that I did not even have the capacity to care about. So I didn’t care about interpersonal self-care. If you could imagine that I did not care about interpersonal self-care for all of 2023. I didn’t care about vocational self-care during 2023. I was so willing even after that experience to continue the dance of burnout. And I also like spiritual self-care was so like, because of my own church hurt. I think I had some avoidance, but I did dumbled down.
Soledad & Cat (18:34.842)
Yeah.
Soledad & Cat (18:48.312)
Yeah, yeah.
Soledad & Cat (18:55.811)
Yeah.
Soledad (18:58.337)
When it came to the nettle self-care and emotional self-care, restorative body self-care and environmental self-care. Like I really, really fell down on environmental self-care because I had this whole thought of like, have two kids and my house is always going to be a mess and it’s always going to be a stressor and it’s always going to be frustrating. And so I was like, okay, let’s just focus on creating systems to make the house a little bit more cleaner because it was impacting like
Soledad & Cat (19:23.151)
Yeah.
Soledad (19:26.575)
My ability to rest and relax. And so that was 2023. Now in 2024, now I have this version of me that can engage in the seven types of self-care daily, but it took time. And I will say this, it took practice, it took intentionality. And the launch that I had in, I think it was November of 2023, I had so much going on in my life with my grandmother’s being sick.
Soledad & Cat (19:37.936)
Mm-hmm. I’m a journey.
Soledad (19:55.687)
And my car had just gotten stolen that I thought like, it was the first time where was like, I don’t really care. Like I don’t really care. Whatever happens with this launch, it’s gonna happen. What I care most about is actually starting to prioritize interpersonal self-care and starting to prioritize spiritual self-care because I realized that all of a sudden there was a part of me that was like.
Soledad & Cat (20:14.586)
Mm-hmm.
Soledad & Cat (20:20.129)
If my abuelas die, how the hell am I going to manage this? And I just wanted to know that they were still going to be with me even if they passed. So I wanted to have that connection. And so as I leaned into practicing more of those types of self-care, I was like, you know, for this launch, the goal is just to launch and it not burn out. Like that’s the number one focus. And that
Soledad & Cat (20:24.558)
Yeah. Yeah.
Soledad & Cat (20:38.522)
Yeah, I remember. But you had a lot in place too. Like you also were, I mean, I think one of the reasons that you, correct me if I’m wrong, one of the reasons that you could give yourself that space is because you repurposed a ton at that, there were levels of repurposing, but you repurposed a ton. Yeah.
Soledad (20:53.647)
Because you told me to. No, because you told me to. You said, I came to you and I was like, Cat, I don’t care about this launch. I don’t even have to launch. Again, if you join the mastermind, check the archives. No, like I am pretty like I remember being like, maybe I just won’t do it. And you were like, okay, instead of giving up on like, this has been the constant, it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. So instead of just 100% put aside, let’s make accommodations.
Soledad & Cat (21:03.504)
It’s like, let’s not have that attitude.
Soledad & Cat (21:13.294)
Like, yeah.
Soledad & Cat (21:21.735)
And I remember you said you’re going to keep your, your grid very simple. We’re going to create the most simplest posts. You’re going to just repurpose emails. You’re going to delegate this completely to your VA. She’s going to schedule it. And that was the first time that I had scheduled content during, that was the first time I repurposed content and I scheduled content on Instagram. And I remember at one point you, you, you called me and you’re like, so
Soledad & Cat (21:26.735)
Mm-hmm.
Soledad & Cat (21:35.577)
Mm
Soledad & Cat (21:44.538)
Mm-hmm.
Soledad (21:51.791)
I know you have all the scheduled content and it’s all going out. And I also like these scheduled emails, but you you still have to, you still have to show up and tell people to work with you. And I remember being like, Pat, don’t, I don’t have it in me. I don’t, I don’t have it in me. And she’s like, just, just fine. Like maybe like 10 minutes, give, give 10 minutes. You go on your stories and you invite people. And I remember one of the things I did is I would write down in terms of my self-care plan, 10 minutes, show up for 10 minutes. That’s it.
Soledad & Cat (22:00.549)
Thanks.
Soledad & Cat (22:20.164)
Mmm, so good.
Soledad (22:21.007)
And that taught me the value of, I think for a long time I always thought it had, like, you know, it’s all or nothing, right? So I’d always have to be like, it is either like this whole plan and you’re spending a whole hour engaging in all these types of self-care. And I realized the value of just 10 minutes of just little, little acts, little things where it doesn’t need to be,
you know, a whole one hour workout, 15 minutes, a 30 minute walk.
Soledad & Cat (22:30.786)
Mm
Soledad & Cat (22:37.999)
Yeah.
Soledad & Cat (22:47.727)
You know, it doesn’t need to be the entire thought model, right? It could just be a brain dump. Like I started to learn the value of really poco a poco, like how small little actions can be that have such a big impact in our resourcefulness. Four to January of 2024, my brother’s in the hospital and I’m in charge of all his medical decisions. And that version of me knew that the only way I was going to
Soledad & Cat (22:51.012)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Soledad & Cat (22:56.386)
Yeah. Yeah.
Soledad (23:15.983)
Be able to show up for him and my family at that time was if I was so intentional with my self-care. And so was there at the hospital, still creating my diverse self-care plan, thinking about how I could engage in the seven types of self-care, even as somebody who’s staying at a hospital, you know, and then like coming home and learning to set boundaries. And that just, I was just like, by January of 2024, realized diverse self-care is my superpower.
Soledad & Cat (23:22.404)
Mm
Soledad & Cat (23:32.975)
Yeah.
Soledad & Cat (23:42.627)
Yeah.
Soledad (23:43.608)
And that’s if I can focus on that, if I just focus on how I’m going to tend to myself in these seven different ways, then I am so much more calmer. I am so much more grounded. am all like so much more resilient. And that’s where we have this version of me.
Soledad & Cat (23:48.9)
Yeah.
Soledad & Cat (23:56.122)
Mm
Soledad & Cat (23:59.664)
It’s been so fun seeing you lean into this and really just be such an example of, I mean, I started it saying by like walking the walk and really like taking everybody on the journey with you. I want to talk about the, mean, you’ve helped me through that. Like in our coaching, feel like I didn’t realize one thing that, and we talked about this on an old episode, but one thing that Sonia that
told me once upon a time was like, are you so self-compassionate for myself? Because one thing like there are parts when we look at the your seven steps of self-care, when we look at them, for me, one thing I’m pretty good at is giving myself slack, giving myself just allowing myself to like not
I don’t know how to say it. Not just, yeah, feel my feelings. Yeah.
Soledad (25:00.078)
Feel your feelings. You feel your feelings, you’re aware of it, it’s emotional self-care. You’re really, really good at that. Really, really good at that. And I remember feeling, like in my mind, there was versions of me that that like, well, not all seven types of self-care equal. Not all of them are like, are so important. Like for a long time, I the net of self-care is the most important one because that impacts all areas of your life. And
Soledad & Cat (25:06.006)
Yes. Yes. Thank you.
Soledad & Cat (25:27.588)
Yeah.
Soledad (25:28.919)
As time went on, seeing my clients, I saw, actually, if you only focus on two types of self-care, let it be restorative body self-care and emotional self-care, your physical health and your mental health. Those two time and time again, I’ve seen how instrumental they are in people’s resilience. And as soon as I realized that, was like, so, cause in my mind, was like, well, I go to therapy and I have to go to couples therapy. Like I’m so good with my mental health.
Soledad & Cat (25:38.544)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Soledad & Cat (25:48.559)
Yeah.
Soledad & Cat (25:57.846)
And yet there I was being so judgmental, so self-critical, so not allowing myself to cry and expressing my emotions and kind of wanting to like push through, push through, don’t feel it. And I’ve learned the power of feeling our feelings, you know, from you.
Soledad & Cat (25:58.084)
Yeah.
Soledad & Cat (26:03.906)
Yeah. Yeah.
Soledad & Cat (26:12.802)
Mm-hmm especially in growing your business. I feel like and it’s probably one of the reasons why because I cry like all the time I mean, I’m a crybaby right like It’s it does does come natural not natural but like I clearly my mom gave me some space to cry I remember her yelling at me for But clearly I cried a lot and it was safe for me too, right and I think now I
Soledad (26:23.938)
That’s a talent. I love that.
Soledad & Cat (26:43.396)
Go to that pretty freaking quick emotionally. Like my emotional self-care does feel, that’s like the first place I run to when I am stuck or in my head. Yeah, I try, right? But I think when we look at all of it, one that has been so helpful for me in my time working, not only working with you, but just like growing in my business and
I also had a baby, right? So there’s also life circumstances. But lately I’ve been doing so much physical self-care. I think this year actually, I shouldn’t say just lately, this has been the year my baby turned two in August. So when I started this year, I started, he was a year and a half. So I was really getting over that postpartum hump. And it was just so.
Beneficial for me. And it’s also, think around the time when we started working with each other and you being able to like call out these little areas in my own growth or in the way I shame myself or the, you know, my thought process around, I forget, I, from a money perspective, I keep going back and forth on like, we, we touched on a lot of areas, but I’m a person who’s very risk tolerant.
And I’m also a person who, I don’t know, I have like this, like, I still have it a little, but like this denial of like, but I could always make money, but I could always make money. And I think you have so much helped me realize how important, I shouldn’t say important, how self-care really is the vessel to let the…
Growth that you need to work on be more clear to you, one. And then two,
Soledad & Cat (28:45.942)
Also like the work of taking good care of yourself and self-care. The work in doing that also allows you to just chip at it, right? Like chip away at it. So even if it was these like little small tasks or, you know, even if it was like a little load of laundry or whatever the case is, it just, it helps the gunk come up.
I’m trying to get like a visual, it almost feels like, it almost feels like you clear chip away at the gunk and then like something else will come up and it’ll just help you get more clear. And anyways, it’s just been so, so, so helpful to me. And I love that you’re an example of that. Okay, I wanna touch on a couple of things. You said earlier,
You were talking about, I’m going a little bit backwards, but you were talking about how you improved your programs in Wealth Para Todos. Your seven steps of self-care, diverse self-care, has been such a vessel for you to be able to be productive in your business, to execute plans. Because we know that, and we talk about this inside Show Up and Lead, but like having the plan is like amazing, right?
But it’s also just step one. having the, look, there’s a lot of strategies out there. You definitely need them to grow your business and grow your programs. You need to be willing to create a plan. And we talk about this, create a plan ahead of time and learn how to execute it. But the hard part comes in executing it because what happens is you just find your own shit that you need to work on.
In the middle of the execution, whether it’s like deep-rooted healing shit that comes up, or it could just be circumstantial. Like in my case, it could be I was postpartum or pregnant, right? Or my, just finally this year got diagnosed for ADHD, which I’ve just been learning how to navigate and how it affects my work and how it affects my business and how it affects my life. But the execution,
Soledad & Cat (31:12.746)
Is the part where the learning and the growth comes from. And I feel like when you are giving yourself compassion, when you are practicing these things, right, it helps you fix problems and see them and step by step make our programs better. So question for you, well, not question for you. I wanted to just call these things out because you said them.
You were saying how like little by little you decided to focus on making
wealth para todos better. And I wanted to call these out. You said, I started listening to client calls. I started studying my client results and I started asking myself questions about why some people got results and why some didn’t.
And I just wanted to call that out because this is the work from a business perspective of how you make your programs better. I think there’s a lot of people who want group programs and have an assumption that it’s easier, which is just silly. I mean, actually, it is easy to have a group program if it’s, I mean, with all respect, but if it’s mediocre.
Soledad (32:38.047)
Thank
Soledad & Cat (32:38.36)
Anybody could put a program together, slap a call every week and call it a day, right? And it’ll probably be a value and very decent. But long term, when you’re wanting to build something that is really an extension of you and your values and your work and the impact you wanna make, when you are creating a program like that, you wanna make it better.
Not only do you want to make it better, like you always want to be the person who’s leading that program and looking for ways to improve it. And I think you’re just such an example of that. And I wanted to call that out because like that is the work that I think people forget about.
Soledad (33:25.795)
That I think has always been my favorite part of like I’m somebody who struggled so much with making a plan because I think for a long time plan, a plan led to burnout. That’s just in my brain. It was just like, if I create a plan, then I’m to be so obsessed with rigidly following the plan that at some point I’m going to deal with burnout. So I was averse to creating plans and it literally, I don’t know if you remember this, how every VIP day that I had with you, I was always like, can we create the launch plan? Like I needed.
Handholding in order to create the plan. And then I also needed coaching when I had to be flexible and adapt to life happening and meaning to like adjust the plan. was something I struggled with a lot too. So I actually struggled with those things. And then this was the year that I really wanted to, I was like, I’m gonna be in my listen to Cat era and I’m gonna really practice the self-trust cycle.
Soledad & Cat (33:56.132)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Soledad & Cat (34:05.306)
Yeah.
Soledad & Cat (34:19.381)
Mm
Soledad & Cat (34:19.511)
Of like making a decision, which I realized I struggled with making decisions. And the reason I struggled with making decisions is because I’m, we could be so rigid and so judgmental and critical. And so I had to work on that. But once I like, and you gave me the, I always talk about it, to the third power, the little like the framework for nurturing, nurturing compassion. I use it on all my programs, Cat. Tell all my clients, this is from Cat Del Carmen. This is end to the third power.
Soledad & Cat (34:39.127)
I forgot about that.
Soledad (34:48.43)
First you need to notice your physical sensations and name your emotions and then normalize both. I teach it all the time now because it was very instrumental in my ability to get to the point where I can create plans. Studying my clients, figuring out the why’s and the how’s, that’s so fun. I think that’s the really fun part. And now that like Huaparatos, this is Huaparatos’ second year.
We’re going to be moving into the third year. I’m just like so excited about how do I get everybody to increase their net worth by $22,000 in 12 months? How do we get the faster results? How do I get it? How do we do it? So they get it in six months, but they even still have access to more support in 12 months. Like I’m so curious about figuring that out because I am just, I just want to live in a world where my people are working because they want to not because they have to. So I’m like so determined to like,
Figure that out, study. Like I love listening to all my client calls, but I listen to them on 2X speed, but I’ll listen and listen and I’m like always studying. And that’s something that you also taught us, like the importance of super thinking. I block that out in my schedule where I have times where I’m just studying my clients. And that part, I mean, that’s the funnest part.
Soledad & Cat (36:06.448)
Question for you. Where in your experience as an expert with money, but also someone who’s built such an incredible business, when people are feeling financially scarce, because this comes up in business so much, right? Like, I feel like every, I mean, this is the cycle of growth, right? Like you’re like, when you do achieve the big thing, right?
It’s typically gonna come after the big, you know, triumph. It’s typically gonna be a lot of growth right after that. And it’s going to get gunky and feel yucky. And one of those things that happens is just feeling an intense amount of financial scarcity, whether it’s like literal, like your bank account. I mean, there’s been so many times that my bank account has gotten so small. I remember the first time was my maternity leave.
Where I really had to test my business to see if I could really sustain my business. For you, how have you gone through the moments in your business where your actual cash in the business was getting low? And what do you do about it now? Whether it’s actually literal, right? Whether your bank account is literally small? Because what I’ve learned too, and I don’t.
You could say if you’ve experienced this, what I’ve learned too is like, I could feel that with the money in the bank. Like now it’s like, it’s actually not fully related to the dollar amount. Although sure, there is that too, but I’ve also felt the same type. I remember feeling very, very scarce after a really big launch, after a really big launch because it didn’t go my way. So I’m curious for you. What is your advice?
To people with your business experience and your, obviously, expertise. What’s your advice? What should the people do when they’re feeling money scarcity?
Soledad (38:08.258)
Yeah. Such a good question. Yeah. I think money wounds get triggered throughout different times of your business. And whilst at the Tholus Academy, I started hosting, I added as a component, a feature of the program, entrepreneur office hours, because I noticed that I had clients who would like develop all these skills when it came to their personal finances. And then they would just not apply them when it came to their business finances. And it was because of the
Soledad & Cat (38:23.432)
Mm
Soledad (38:33.658)
Separate.
Soledad (38:35.694)
The rules and it’s really because you’re starting all over again. And it’s crazy to say that, but it is guys. Like when it’s one thing to manage your debt and have systems and habits in place to manage your personal finances. And then guess what? Even though you have those skills, you have to be willing to test and learn and figure out how that’s going to look like for your business finances. One thing I would, my biggest like piece of advice.
Soledad & Cat (38:39.16)
Yeah.
Soledad (39:03.726)
Is checking in with your business finances on a weekly basis. And if you’re not doing that on a weekly basis, and this is like no more than 30 minutes, you either sit down and look at all your bank accounts, look at your profit and loss, look at your upcoming expenses, see the cash flow that has come in, understand like where you are in terms of your sales to date or your revenue, you know, look at all that. But if you can’t look at that, then instead choose to journal and journal about why you don’t want to look.
What is your brain telling you about it? My brain has told me, you don’t have time to do this. You have to focus on selling. My brain has told me like, what’s the point of looking? There’s nothing you can do to change it. If you look at it, you’re only going to feel so stressed out and you’re already stressed. Like, my brain came up with so many things, but I just made that rule for myself. It’s either on Friday, I look at my business finances or I journal about the reason why I don’t want to look at my business finances.
Soledad (39:58.926)
When I saw repeatedly that my brain was just always saying the same thoughts, I was like, okay. So now I kind of just accept it and it kind of like normalized like, okay, so this is what my brain is going to say. And then I started looking at my business finance. Now what I do is I have my routine and I still have concerns. I have a business credit card that has a $25,000 available limit. And right now there’s $24,000 charged to it.
Soledad & Cat (40:00.671)
Good.
Soledad (40:25.23)
So I’m only $1,000 away from like maxing out that credit card. And that’s my only credit card left with a 0% interest. And then I like applied for another credit card and all my business credit cards have like huge limits. And this motherfucking company only gave me $2,000 in available credit limit. And I’m like, what the hell am I supposed to do with that? But it’s allowed me to sit.
Soledad & Cat (40:30.106)
Mm
Soledad & Cat (40:50.437)
Yeah.
Soledad & Cat (40:50.447)
With like the discomfort of like, okay. So I have to make some different decisions and I have to see, I look at my numbers. I can tell you right now that like my business expenses a month around 4,500. And in October, because of payment plans, some payment plans being done, have $3,800 money coming in. So there’s going to be a gap, which means there’s going to be an increase of meaning to rely on credit card. And I already know,
Soledad & Cat (40:54.927)
Yeah.
Soledad & Cat (41:10.212)
Yeah.
Soledad (41:18.83)
I’m going to be short $1,300 and my credit card only has $1,000 available to it. So where am I going to put that other $300, which business credit card with which interest is going to go there? But I can talk about my numbers like this and it feel like I’m talking about which lip liner I’m going to choose at Sephora. Like it could feel like so neutral. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like I sometimes when I share this with my clients, they’re like, no.
Soledad & Cat (41:39.482)
Yeah,
Soledad & Cat (41:49.018)
My, what are you gonna do? you gotta get rid of it. And to me, it’s like, no, it’s business. And I’m aware of it. And if I’m aware of it, then I can create a plan. And so when I have those moments where I do have concerns, when I look at it and I see the numbers and the numbers do not look fun, I have a rule that I look at my concern, one for every one concern, I write down three celebrations. And that’s part of my weekly money routine.
And so, I mean, I could read to you like the week that I had that realization about my Amex card being almost maxed out and the celebrations that I, you know, wrote right next to it. Let’s see.
So Amex with a 20, Amex credit card with a 0% APR is 97.49% full. So I knew that. And then I wrote down, I have quarter three payroll fully funded. I have $3,500 in business savings, $7,500 it’s on its way by October 6th.
And that specific week, I had three concerns. I had this other concern of Chase credit card with an 18.49% APR has a $3,000 balance. So I knew I’m going to pay interest. I’m going to pay interest. So I forced myself to think about other things. I have recurring revenue around $4,000. Like that I have to always celebrate that so much to know like, I have money that comes up like $4,000. Like that’s such a blessing. And I think about the version of myself.
Soledad & Cat (43:20.762)
Yeah. Yeah.
Soledad & Cat (43:22.222)
That was like, is anyone ever going to pay to work with me? So to have reoccurring revenue, I just want everyone like, if you have reoccurring revenue, own that and reflect on that and hold on to it. And I have, you know, like these other things that I even wrote down. My taxable brokerage account has $29,567.90. And I bring that one out because I always think worst case scenario, I will sell all my stock and I will pay off all the debt and I’m in it again.
Soledad & Cat (43:46.074)
Yeah. Same.
Soledad & Cat (43:51.479)
You know, and so it’s like just always having access to the full picture. And that’s only available to us when we allow ourselves to sit with temporary discomfort and really get cute and curious what they thought.
Soledad & Cat (43:51.536)
100 %
Soledad & Cat (44:03.544)
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I mean, when you know how to calm your scarcity down, it’s pretty, it’s phenomenal. Thank you so, so much for being here, for talking self-care and the needle with us. I appreciate you. I’m so honored to have worked with you as your coach for so long. And I’m so, so grateful to have had you as my coach. Okay, where can the people find you?
Soledad (44:36.76)
Please connect with me on Instagram. love to, if you listen to this podcast episode, please tag us and then DM me. I wanna know that you listen to it. I love connecting with anybody and everybody. Well, as long as you’re like, cool, I’m not a Trumpster. That’s like my only thing, but I’m pretty sure like this is the same space. Thank you so much.
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