Your Relationship With Money Is Broken | Here's Why

Building Leadership Community Podcast

Transforming Your Money Story with Financial Wellness Coach Erika Dox-Martinez

In this episode of Building Leadership Community, financial wellness coach Erika Dox-Martinez shares how leaders can transform their relationship with money, build financial confidence, and create long-term wealth aligned with their values.

Professional Context

For many professionals, especially leaders of color, conversations about money are often shaped by silence, shame, or inherited beliefs about scarcity.

Erika Dox-Martinez helps ambitious women rethink those narratives by combining financial strategy with mindset work.

In this conversation with host Dora Mendez, Erika shares how she transformed her own financial life after struggling with debt despite working in financial services. She eventually paid off her debt, built wealth, and launched Blissful Vida, a platform dedicated to helping women rewrite their money stories.

This episode explores how financial wellness supports career advancement, leadership confidence, and long-term professional stability.

Key Takeaways

• Why your money mindset shapes your financial decisions and leadership confidence
• How early experiences with money influence career growth and financial habits
• The role of community accountability in financial progress
• How leaders can move from financial stress to financial empowerment
• Why rewriting your money story is essential for inclusive leadership development
• Practical strategies for building financial confidence and long-term wealth

Connect with Erika Dox-Martinez

Website
https://MyBlissfulVida.com

LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/erika-dox-martinez/

Dates With Dinero
https://myblissfulvida.com/dateswithdinero

Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/myblissfulvida/

Resources

Get Coach Dora Merch
https://www.coachdoramendez.com/merch

Shop the Coach Dora Books (Affiliate Links)
https://amzn.to/3Z0B4fB
https://amzn.to/4qONHqh

Timestamps

00:00 Introduction
01:23 Welcome to Building Leadership Community
03:37 Introducing Erika Dox-Martinez
05:38 Erika’s leadership journey and leaving corporate finance
08:16 Why community matters in financial empowerment
09:19 The power of accountability and money conversations
11:35 Understanding your money story
15:46 Debt, credit cards, and financial planning
18:17 Investing in education and financial strategy
26:31 Advice for emerging and established leaders
28:13 Challenging the myth that women of color can’t build wealth
30:13 Financial planning and long-term strategy
32:14 Why money mindset and emotional healing matter
34:01 Resources from Erika

Stay Connected with Coach Dora

Website
https://CoachDoraMendez.com

LinkedIn
https://linkedin.com/in/coachdoram

Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/coachdoram

Substack
https://coachdoram.substack.com

Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/coachdoramendez

About Coach Dora Mendez

Coach Dora Mendez is a leadership strategist, speaker, and founder of Coach Dora LLC. Her mission is to be a beacon of bold authenticity, igniting conversations about diversity, equity, and inclusion through writing, speaking, and leadership development.

Through coaching, consulting, and community dialogue, she works to help leaders build workplaces rooted in courage, compassion, and measurable equity.

If you'd like, I can also show you a podcast-growth optimized version of these show notes (slightly different structure that improves Apple Podcasts search indexing and Spotify discoverability).

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome back, amazing leaders, to another powerful episode of Building Leadership Community. I'm your host, Coach Dora Mendez. And today's conversation is one that so many of us need to hear. We're diving into the topic that affects every single one of us, yet it's one we don't always talk about openly, our relationship to money. Today I'm thrilled to welcome a guest who is transforming how women, especially Latinas and women of color, think about, feel about, and build wealth. Our guest is financial wellness coach, founder of Blissful Vida, and advocate for financial empowerment, Erica Dux Martinez. By the end of this conversation, you will walk away with practical tools to shift your money mindset, the courage to release shame around your financial story, and a renewed belief that abundance isn't just a wish, it's your birthright. This episode is your invitation to rewrite your money story boldly, unapologetically, and with the conviction that financial wellness begins with you. So settle in, take a breath, and get ready. Hello and welcome to Building Leadership Community. I'm your host, Laura Mendez. I'm the founder and CEO of LLC, our youthful entrepreneur business leaders, and community leaders that drive social movements. It can be lonely at the top, but it doesn't have to be. It means so much to us that you join us week after week for these conversations. That you are back with us for season three. It can be lonely at the top, but it doesn't have to be. And that is why we started this podcast. If you're new to the building leadership community, we're so glad you're here. Don't forget to like, share, and subscribe so you never miss an episode. Say hi in the comments. We love hearing from you and hit that bell button so you get the notifications of when new episodes drop. We have some great resources to share with you today. If you're thinking of starting your own podcast, check out our mini course, The Entrepreneurs Podcast Blueprint. I've partnered with my husband and co-producer Dylan Rogers to create five easy-to-follow video modules, along with a workbook that you can download and follow along at your own pace. And you get a very handy AI prompt sheet that will make getting your episodes out there into the world a breeze. The link is in the description. So if you're listening, um you can get that information in the description. And if you're watching, you can go ahead and click. I'm so excited. We are continuing this season with powerful, purposeful conversations. Let me tell you about how I bonded with today's guest, Erica. Erica and I connected as book sisters. We are co-author in Extraordinary Latinas Volume 4: Fearless Narratives of Triumph, Unity, and Purpose. And if you look over my shoulder, over this shoulder, there's the book right there. Our beautiful faces grace the cover. Erica tells her story in this book, and we are so happy that she is here to share it with us today. She is a financial wellness coach and a founder of Blissful Vida, a company created to help women, primarily Latinas and women of color, live and fund their most blissful lives. Erica guides ambitious women in transforming their relationship with money from the inside out, blending mindset work with practical tools to build aligned goals, habits, and financial confidence. Her mission is rooted in rewriting money stories, releasing shame, and reclaiming abundance. We all could use some of that, right? I'm so happy she's here. Because it's not just a wish, it's our birthright. Today, Erica is here to pour into you to help you reimagine what's possible when you heal your relationship with money and step into your financial power. Let's bring her to the stage. Hi, Erica!

SPEAKER_01 5:01

Hi, so happy to be here. Thank you for having me on.

SPEAKER_00 5:04

Oh, we I'm so glad you're here. Um, as you know, um, you know, we bonded, you know, over being co-authors. And I was just, yes, there you go. It's it's it's like on my wall too. And um, and your story was just so impactful. And I just knew you we you had to share with my audience, with our listeners and our viewers. So I've talked a lot already, and we would love to hear from you. Why don't you share a little bit about your leadership story?

SPEAKER_01 5:38

Yeah, so thank you for having me again. And my leadership story really begins from betting on myself at the end of the day. So after years in a secure six-figure job in financial services, I realized that I wasn't happy. Like I had the salary, but not the freedom, the purpose, or the impact that I wanted. But I had also done a lot of work to transform my finances, hence why I started with a Silvita because I ended up paying off my debt. I saved and I invested and I built a solid foundation after struggling for so long in a six-figure position. And I didn't have any savings or and I had tons of debt. And I was like, this just doesn't make sense anymore, especially when I got engaged and I wanted to have this beautiful wedding that I couldn't afford. So that's kind of the transition of why like how I started to invest in myself and in that leadership of betting on myself when it comes to my finances, but also eventually betting on myself by launching a my own company, which was never in the in the timeline for me. So um, and I quit my nine to five shortly after launching Liz Ovida too. So a lot of um the leadership pieces for me are just doing things I never thought that were possible and um choosing myself at the end of the day. And um now I choose to lead with purpose and I want to help more of us break free from financial stress, like you were saying, uh rewrite our money stories and step into the confidence and abundance and help more women, especially women of color, achieve our version of financial freedom, or what I like to call financial bliss. So I just think that leadership is just stepping into being courageous and showing others what's possible when you do.

SPEAKER_00 7:19

I love that. I love that courage and compassion is uh how we live here at Coach Dora, as you know. And one of the things that's so Yeah, Eric, I mean, uh you know, I'm so happy that you know our paths cross. Um, we're both on this sort of new entrepreneurial journey together. We have shared many spaces together, and I just I can um I can share with our audience and our viewers that you practice what you preach. You really do have that abundance mindset, and you're not a gatekeeper, you're someone who really welcomes people in and supports. So I I just want to thank you so much for all the support you've provided, me personally and Coach Dora. So, that being said, this is one of the things that's a great segue to our next conversation prompt. Can you share with with our audience what community means to you? What does it mean?

SPEAKER_01 8:16

Yeah, community to me just means having a sense of belonging. And I really think that that's so, so important, whether it's entrepreneurship you're focusing on, or your money journey or healing journey, anything that that helps you in your in your journey of becoming, right? Because it can be a lonely road. And a lot of people aren't talking about money. So I'm gonna shift this to the to the money piece, right? Because it's so taboo. Nobody talks about this. Or and so many people are just struggling silently and they have a lot of feelings around money, like there's guilt, there's shame. A lot of us are overwhelmed with our finances. But that's why I believe that like in community work so much because when we do things in community, it does make a difference and it is healing when you hear somebody else say, Hey, I've been there for two, or I've experienced the same things. Oh, your mom said the same thing about money or felt this way. And it just opens a door for compassion, like you said. So compassion is such a big part of this. Also opens a door for compassion for yourself and with your past money decisions. So just realizing like you're not alone, I think is just a big component and knowing that you don't have to figure it all out by yourself. Like there's plenty of spaces out there that can support you. And one of those spaces is uh one that I created, which is dates with dinero, which is my bi-monthly virtual money co-working space. So it's a space where we come together to knock out your money tasks. Like in a Zoom room, is that you're just working on your own, but I say never alone because there's other Mohedas in there attack attacking, you know, making sure they get their money tasks done and knocking things off their to-do list. And at the end, we open it up for 30 minutes to talk about money. We share wins, we ask questions, we share resources with each other because I don't know everything. And um, we just come in together to talk about money in a safe space and in a brave space where we don't have to feel like we're doing this alone. So that's um, I think such an important component with a lot of things that we want to accomplish. It's like we get there faster together, right?

SPEAKER_00 10:19

Yeah, so this is this is what I want to I love this dates with dinero, dinero idea. Um, and for those who don't speak Spanish, Dineto is money. Um, and so uh I love the idea that it's you're alone, but you're not, and I think it's more about accountability, right? So if you have a habit or accountability, can you talk a little bit more about um and maybe give some tips to our audience about like how to how to like how do you start? Like you mentioned debt, which is which is huge. I mean, since you know, I know I have student debt, I have student loan debt, I have um credit card debt, um, and mainly because I started the business, mainly because I started a business, right? So I'd love to, I'd love to hear a little bit about like how what would you tell someone who's like really feeling like like they have no money story, like they have no money to to tell a story about.

SPEAKER_01 11:35

Yeah. Cause I think um the money stories piece of it is really digging into our past. So, what I like to do is have my clients tap into how they grew up and look at what stories did you hear about money? What did you learn about money? What did you end up believing about money? And those are the money stories that I want us to transform. So I'll say, like, for me, uh, one of my biggest stories was when I was little, my brother got $100 sneakers. And I was like, how is that possible? We're Puerto Ricans, as my dad would always call us. And I was like, all right, well, cool for you, bro. Um, I want new sneakers too. So I asked my dad, hey, you know, can I get new sneakers? In, you know, in my mind, I was like, I'm gonna get $100 sneakers too, because that makes sense, right? But how come we were driving up to Marshall's and I ended up getting $40 Nikes? And I remember this is how I know that this was a significant moment for me to remember because they were black Nikes with a purple swoosh. And that was when I was 11 years old. So that was uh decades ago, and I still remember this story. So in my 11-year-old child, you know, little niña mind, I had to make sense of what that meant because it's not like we can just go ask our parents, like, you know, you have to be grateful for what you get, right? So it couldn't be like, how come you did this for him? So my mind, I made it up like, well, they must love him more than me, or I'm not good enough to get hundred dollar sneakers either. I'm not worthy. And then I just started equating money with love. So that was what one of the stories that I brought with me when I grew up, is like, oh, if I spend money on people, they will love me. And little Erika that day had a void, right? Because I I didn't feel as loved as my brother. I thought I wasn't good enough. So if you have these emotional things, and this is where like money trauma comes in, right? So there then there's different levels of trauma, like of things that could happen. But for me, I had no outlet to share my feelings about that. I just internalized it and felt this way. So in the future, especially when I was dating, I would spend money on my boyfriends. And I remember being like, oh, I need to get them stuff and they'll love me and feeling this emotional peace. So I think a lot of the work around money stories and our in our finances is to establish the emotions that you have around money and your habits about spending or not look or avoiding your money. Like, why is that a thing? Maybe, you know, other money stories we might have is like maybe you saw your parents fighting about money. So then you're like, oh, money causes problems. I'm gonna like, you know, steer clear of maybe making money, holding on to money, or looking at my money. Like it can affect you in all different ways, but it's good to be aware of what these things are. And once we are aware, we're like, all right, I know now I can show love in other ways. I don't have to spend money, right? Or if people spend money on me, I don't need to equate that with love. And and I'm not saying spending money on other people is is a bad thing, it's just make sure the intention behind it is because you want to be generous or you want to be giving, right? It's not because you want something in return, like I was wanting to feel loved, right? So that's just sharing one of my money stories and why it's important. And once you like start tacking, like digging into these things and why I say I like to heal and transform people's relationship with money from the inside out is because these things are important because I can tell you to save, to pay off your debt, so you're blue in the face, but you're not gonna stick with the habits if you have these underlying things running in your subconscious, they're running in the background, right? And to your point, accountability is huge when it comes to money things with anything we want to change. I think it's it's uh even for me with other things. I'm I'm working on my health, right? So I have a health coach and I have meetings and go in and check in. This is how I'm doing. And so in a non-judgmental, non-shamful type place, like we can look back at what what we've experienced and forgive people. Like they, you know, maybe they had a bonus that week and they had extra money for my brother. I don't know why that happened, right? Um, so it's just kind of like being like, all right, they did the best that they could. I didn't know what I didn't know at the time. And this this is like talking about your habits growing up. So I grew, I graduated college with $25,000 of credit card debt on top of my student-in-law. Oh, like everybody else? Like everybody give 18-year-olds credit cards and back. I don't know how old you are, but I'm a little older when they would be outside the colleges with their free t-shirts and giving out pizza or whatever they were giving out, and I had tons of credit cards for no reason with limits. Why did I have access to $25,000 when it wasn't even working yet? Like it's it was ridiculous. And I didn't understand how credit cards work and then the compound interest on how that all accumulates. And when I graduated school, I was only making $36,000 a year and I had $80,000 in student loans. So it's like there was no way I could even manage getting out of that debt in a in a realistic way. But also I didn't know how to manage my money, right? So I was just making sure I paid the minimum payments and I was like, all right, that's good enough, but I didn't have a plan. And I think with anything, we need to have plans for our money, and that's where accountability comes in too. So it's like you making these plans for your money. And if you need a space to get things done, that's what dates with the netto is for. It is a great space to hold yourself accountable. Like I am intentionally making time for my money and I don't have to do it alone. So we're in the room working on our stuff alone, but like you said, like we're never alone because we're here, where they're in a space where other people are intentionally working on their money too. And I call the people in my community bliss seekers because I want us to achieve that bliss and live abundant, blissful financial lives too. So I think it's just a great space. And back to the community piece, real quick. I also like host book clubs because I like the conversations that we can have. And I don't only do um financial books. We've done Cultura and Cash was the first one, and then we did um Badass Bonita was the second one. So one about like empowerment and tapping into your inner guerrera and believing that you're worthy of the things that you want in life, including having financial freedom.

SPEAKER_00 17:38

So your inner guerrera uh warrior. Um, I wanna I wanna pick up on something that you said because what I have found um with uh the segues into our next question, but I would love for you to talk about is what I have found with the next generation of leaders is that especially women of color and Latinos, um, Latinx, Latins, however you identify, they often don't want to go to college because they're worried about that debt. And I tell them, well, I t I tell them don't don't worry. It was the best investment I ever made at Erica. And I think you would agree, right? That even though we didn't know what we were doing and we figured it out, and it was a huge investment in ourselves. And so when I hear young people saying that they don't want to go to college, um, and um, and we're living in a time when you know there's a dismantling of the Department of Education and there's a lot of confusion about financial aid. I I so much I really want people to understand how um there are ways to invest in themselves, that their education is worth it. Um and I don't want all these stories about struggle to hold them back. I want them to get the opposite picture, which is look, look at Dora and Erica. They figured it out and they're where they want to be in life. Um, and you know, and so can is there and I would love for you to kind of speak to that because I I really worry about the next generation of of leaders who who who think about money and and say no to things and say no to investing in themselves. So I would love to I would love for you to sort of share your thoughts on how to encourage the next generation of leaders to invest in themselves and invest in their education.

SPEAKER_01 19:53

Yeah, so I think investing in ourselves is super important as long as you understand what comes from it, right? The return on investment, right? So I think for us, you're saying like college was a good return on investment. I did end up making good money, making six figures. And I was able to eventually, once I buckled down, pay all of that off. And it took some time. But I think for college, first of all, I don't think it's for everyone. So it just depends if that's what you the road you want to go down. Then for sure, you got to start strategizing about what that could look like. And I think um for me, I graduated from Northeastern University in Boston, and um I back then it was $28,000 a year. I think now it's it's double, right? And that's a five-year school. Um, so because they do a co-op program. So just thinking about, I understand the hesitation of being like, all right, I'm gonna have over $250,000 of debt if I go to college. So I get that. Um, but it's like planning beforehand too. Um, and I think the bet the the more that um more of us do better with our money, the better the next generations can do. And us as parents can plan a little bit better for our children's education. Like I didn't have any college money to go away with. My mom did take out my first year, my student, my student loan for the first year, though. Um, but there's five two nines that that you can, you know, your families can start for you early on. All of my nieces and nephews, I started those. Um, once I started learning about money and like, hey, you can invest and get free money and not pay taxes on the earnings for these five two nines and things like that. But not everybody goes to college. So some of my nieces and nephews did not go to school. So I had their their money is is just there. Um, but the thing good thing with those is you can pass them down to other kids in your family if you need to. Um, but I think that there's different strategies.

SPEAKER_00 21:37

Hold on with the 529, I have my HR hat on. Sure. Because I have I started my 529 as soon as possible with my with my children. And what I learned is if you don't, even if you don't go to college, you can use it for yourself if you want to go back to school. And it's not just college, it's any educational credit education. So collect. Culinary school, art school, film school, all of those things you can use. And you can use it for private high school.

SPEAKER_01 22:08

So I just wanted to say I just wanted to say that. And you can also use it to pay student loans. So let's say you have someone in your family, like for me, I moved some of the money over to my sister. So I she wasn't in the initial 529 plan, but she is in school now and she's like, oh, can you help me? I was like, I have this extra stupid, you know, ex um school expense money, like it has to go to that, right? So uh I was just like, who needs help? Like, I got you. And I think also you can, if after 15 years the money is not used, you can you can roll it into a Roth IRA for for one of the beneficiaries. So there's different things you can do with it and it it's it's beneficial. But another thing I want to say is like just strategizing for school. Um, I know some people who go to community college first and then they decide to go to a bigger name school so that they can save a few, you know, a little bit of money the first two years or maybe get an associate somewhere and then transfer into a higher name, like a better accredited school or whatever. Um, so that that's like a good strategy too. But there's a lot of scholarships and things that you can look into too. It takes a little bit of extra work, but I think there's a lot of free money out there that's accessible. But you know, maybe you got to write a couple essays or you gotta like sit there and do the research. Um, so if you have like a good, a good mind to do that, I think that there's there's options if that's the the route route you want to go. And just um making sure after you get out of school, like you're handling whatever the expenses are. But uh, so I'm a financial wellness coach, right? So I have my clients that I work with and seeing these payments that they have to make on these student loans is wild. So, you know, it it's it's really um takes a big chunk of your money too. So, as you know, I see these young adults come out of school and it's like, oh, everybody wants these kids, you know, these kid adults to be adults, but it's like really hard to manage outside of, you know, being on their own when it comes to having to pay back all this money too. So you have to think about, you know, are you okay living at home while you're paying off your student loans? Because that's that's her position right now. And she's like, I want to get out of here, but I don't think I can afford it. So we're just looking at other ways that, you know, maybe she could bring in more income so that we can start strategizing and saving for her for her future in that capacity. But I see her student loan payments and I'm like, this is it's no joke. And you know, the government decides what her payments are or whoever gave her the loan. So it's not like you know, she doesn't choose and it goes based on salary and things like that. And it's um it's just something that takes a big chunk of your budget. So just be cognizant of that.

SPEAKER_00 24:36

Um, and so I I have found that um it's easier now to find money because when back in the day when I went to school, we didn't have AI that can scrape the internet. We had to like we had to go to the library, go to the books, and so I was like the same age that when you want to find stuff, you can. So, and then I just think um that also I love this idea of how you support people like with like figuring it out, like peeling the onion. Um I love it, I love it, and I think that that is great um because I just I want I don't want people ever to be discouraged from investing in their in themselves, you know. I and I I I'm so happy that we have you here because so that people know that there are resources, that there are wellness coaches, and that there are spaces where you can have these discussions. Um because sometimes, you know, you know, as a first generation uh American, there's a different attitude culturally toward towards money um than there would be someone who's fourth or fifth generation, right? And well and building wealth. So on that end, I wanna I wanna get to our um, because I feel like I could talk to you all day, Erica. We could swap all kinds of stories. Um, but I would love for you to um, you know, what advice would you like to impart on our on our listeners and viewers who are are mostly um leaders. Um our audience are mostly entrepreneurs, um you know, emerging and established leaders, um uh who might be feeling lonely, who are feeling lonely. And we really want to make sure everyone leaves here feeling um inspired and uh validated. So I would love for you to share what what advice would you give to you know an emerging or established leader who who wants who needs to or wants to reshape their money story.

SPEAKER_01 27:07

Yeah, I think the first piece of advice is really understanding that you're worthy of anything that you want, especially when it comes to getting out of whatever financial situation that you're in and you're capable of achieving any financial goals that you want. So I think that's the first one a lot of uh, you know, my clients too, they just don't feel like they're worthy or they're capable of figuring this out, especially on their own. But that's because the system is set up that way, right? They didn't teach us how to manage our money in school. We have to learn from our surroundings or from our family or from our loved ones. And who knows what they know about money and it, you know, so we have to take it upon ourselves to really take action and learn to master our money. So that's like number one, but know that you're capable and that you're worthy. And one of the money stories I had from before too was like people like us, so Latinas, women of color, uh, don't get rich or don't invest. And that's just not true. So I think like it's like we have to find examples out there of people who are doing the things that we want to do, whether that is with money, with entrepreneurship, like it's been so helpful for me to see other Latinas thriving in this space. So I'm like, all right, they got this. I can do it too. And I want you to know with money, having examples from from financial leaders and experts like myself, like we were struggling. I was struggling so bad. And I got out of that and I built a net worth of over half a million dollars. I saved a runaway of $100,000 to be able to quit my job and bet on myself. So if I could do it, anybody can do it. It just takes planning and it takes strategy. It takes, you know, being accountable and um just knowing that you're worth and that you're worthy of this and that you can do it. And um, the other thing is just really prioritizing your financial well-being. Like there are things that you probably have to tap into, and I know it's not the easiest thing to do to relive these stories or go back to your past. Like I had to. Like when I tell my money story about the sneakers, sometimes I cry. I'm like, oh, I didn't feel loved as a kid, and that affected me when I grew up. And there's other stories, um, things like um, my husband grew up really, really poor, and he would get donations from our school. We went to elementary school together, so that's a whole nother story. That's a love story too. Yeah, and but I didn't know this right about him. But he would get we would donate food to the schools, and his family was the one that would get that. So when he grew up um and started making money, he's like, I don't ever want to feel poor, like or other people to think I'm poor. So his spending habits was like, Oh, I I got I got you, I got you, I'll pay for this whole dinner, I'll buy a round of drinks. You know, when we used to go out and when I first met him, I'm like, why do you do that? Like, that's I mean, great for you. You have enough funds to do that. And that was another thing that motivated me because I was like, oh, he has all this extra money because he doesn't have debt, right? And I had so much debt. So that like was an eye-opening, aha moment for me too. But it's like looking at those things where I was like, you're like that because you don't like about an emotion. He felt really bad. So it's like digging into these money stories and just like giving you some examples of how it shows up in your our adult life and how it is affecting our financial goals. So, really, you need to know what you want and come up with a plan to how to get it. And it's not easy and it's not a quick fix. So I just want to share my like really quickly. Um, when I decided, like I had my aha moment when I got engaged to my husband. I was like, I want to get married, I want to have a nice wedding, but I will not go into more debt for it. So we're like, we're gonna save enough to be able to pay for our wedding in cash. And we did. It took three years for both of us to save $10,000 each. And then one year later, I became debt-free. So it took four years for me to achieve my financial goal of paying off my debt and save and saving. And then I got out of the paycheck to paycheck cycle because I released all of that money I was paying to creditors. And then from there, I learned how to, you know, invest and save and do better with my money. I did not like up-level my life, which a lot of people do. Like they, you know, so that's another thing is like thinking about why do you want the things that you want? And I think culturally too, we're conditioned to think we need to have these nice things, or you know, maybe you paid off your car and now you're like, I gotta get a new car. Like, why, why? It's okay if that's what you want. Or buying property, I think is a big one. I see a lot of my clients, oh, I want to buy a house. I'm like, why? Like, if that's what you want, but they're like, Oh, my mom said I should buy a house. So it's like really thinking about what it is that you want and why you want it and not comparing yourself to what everybody else is doing and make sure that you live a holistically blissful vida. So money supports different pillars of your life. And I want more of us to live in that uh balanced um life, right? So that's what blissful Vida, like the premise behind blissful Vida is is like really, I want you to live and fund a life that makes you feel happy and whole. And um money honestly just helps you do that because there's a lot of stress around money. We want to relieve that as well and just know that we are worthy again and capable of getting our finances back on track and that it it is it is work, but it's so worth it. It's worth it.

SPEAKER_00 32:14

I love that worthiness. Worthiness is really at the core and um blissful. Um now I I have a really good understanding of of why that's at the center. It's emotion, like money is emotional, um, which people often don't tie the two. So I love this. You're um you are empowering women and people of color to really tackle their emotional um relationship with money and then plan um and strategize and build wealth. So I want to thank you so much for being here, for being on our show, for sharing what you do, for explaining what a financial wellness coach is, um, and for elevating um your own um vulnerability and and how you um you share your own story to help others to help uplift others. So Erica, I want to thank you so much for being here. And thank you. I'm gonna ask you to hold on a second. We're gonna make sure that all of the links to um your programming are in the description of the episode. So if you are watching or listening, um you'll be able to have a chance to connect with Erica. What's the best way? What's the best way for folks to reach you, Erica?

SPEAKER_01 34:00

Yeah, I would say it's my website. So www.myblissfulvita.com. And I also want to share with your listeners that anybody who's listening, I have a shift your money mindset workbook that you can get for free. Also be my website backslash Dora, and you can access that workbook for free just by because you're uh listening to the podcast. So that will be in the show notes as well. And um Erika Docs Martinez on LinkedIn at my Blissful Vida on Instagram, and um you can uh reach me to do a one on a free one-on-one financial empowerment call where we can talk about what it would look like for you to step into living and funding your blissful vida and what that could look like working together. So um states with dinero is free also, so that's on my website. And um you can get all the information, I guess, in the show notes. So thank you so much for having me again. And this was so much fun.

SPEAKER_00 34:55

I'm so glad that you came. Thank you so much. Hold on a second while we do our um outro. I want to remind everyone to please like, share, and subscribe. Hit that subscribe button so that we can continue to give you um great content and wonderful advice and bring you wonderful uh guests uh like Erica, who's gonna help reshape uh your money story. Thank you so much. Thank you. You've been listening to Building Leadership Community. Watch on YouTube at Coach Dora M. Listen wherever you get your content. Follow me on LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube at Coach DoraM. Visit me on the web at coachdoraMendez.com. Posted by me, DoraMendez. Produced by DoraMendez and Demon Monitors. Graphic editing and downloading at demon monitors.