Grateful and Growing: Lessons in Boldness and Balance

In this Thanksgiving mini-episode, Angelica gets real about gratitude—beyond the turkey and table talk. She shares how she’s giving back by opening doors for women in exclusive spaces, spills on finding her voice in intimidating rooms, and dishes out hard-earned lessons on setting boundaries and reclaiming her energy. It’s a heartfelt, no-fluff reflection on growth, grit, and the courage to celebrate yourself this season.

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Welcome to She's Ambitious AF, the bold and empowering podcast that turns up the volume on female entrepreneurship. Join us as we dive headfirst into the wild world of boss babes, where we spill the tea on all things ambition, success, and the occasional hilarious disaster. 

angelica-maestas--host-_1_11-27-2024_104020: Welcome to another episode of She's Ambitious AF, and this is a mini edition because of the Thanksgiving holiday. obviously, This is a season of thanks and gratitude and lots of reflection on the many things that we all have to be grateful for, all unique to each of us. And for sure my list is long of people and experiences that I'm very grateful for just in this year alone. But I wanted to talk a little bit about how we go about showing gratitude and we all have our own ways and something else I want to talk about too is [00:01:00] expressing gratitude for ourselves.

angelica-maestas--host-_1_11-27-2024_104020: So we'll start by expression of gratitude and the way I do that is by giving. I give access primarily whether it's access to people by making introductions, plugging people into folks that they need to know based on where they're at, what they're building, whatever it is. those are always easy ways to make, to give a gift and to help someone else in their journey.

angelica-maestas--host-_1_11-27-2024_104020: So I love doing that. I also give access to My experience, which I believe has created some degree of wisdom. And over the years, I've, I've always had women approach me and ask me for advice, whether it's their career, whether they're thinking of starting a business, I've become a mentor in that capacity.

angelica-maestas--host-_1_11-27-2024_104020: And that was why I started this podcast is, is [00:02:00] all of these topics would come up and I wanted a way to talk about them. And I found that the best way to do it was to leverage the wisdom of all of these badass founders that we've had on the show. So they share their wisdom. I share mine personally, just because it has been a journey professionally.

angelica-maestas--host-_1_11-27-2024_104020: It's been a wild one. It's been heartbreaking at times. It's been, I've been filled with just complete joy, gratitude, just completely elated at times. But All of those experiences have given me just a little bit of wisdom, a couple of white hairs, and I like to share that to women who are either in the same boat or who could potentially leverage that experience and knowledge of it to avoid some of their own pitfalls.

angelica-maestas--host-_1_11-27-2024_104020: So that's how I show gratitude is I give that. I also provide access to knowledge. I believe that knowledge is power and that we need to make [00:03:00] information more accessible to folks who, who otherwise wouldn't have a seat at the table. And that's why I've loved my journey into venture capital.

angelica-maestas--host-_1_11-27-2024_104020: It's been a largely inaccessible asset class to women. It's been primarily men, wealthy men, and primarily white men. And that is starting to change. And so part of my, my passion is to educate women on this asset class. That there is a path to wealth creation that is not untouchable. It's, it seemed completely out of reach, but it's just because women haven't been at the table and in the right rooms.

angelica-maestas--host-_1_11-27-2024_104020: And so, that's one way that I give back. I also believe that access to wealth creation still aligned with venture capital, but also recognizing that for women who have not been investing or have been maybe [00:04:00] giving their dollars philanthropically, you know, easy to make charitable contributions. Um, there, there is a path to wealth creation with investment, and that's not a bad thing.

angelica-maestas--host-_1_11-27-2024_104020: It's not, it should not be associated with greed. Men don't view it that way. That's why men have made millions and millions of dollars on this path and with this asset class. And so, Whether it's women who invest in small checks and they're angel investors and they're just getting used to it. Um, or whether they're on the larger side and they're ready to invest in a venture fund, whatever it is.

angelica-maestas--host-_1_11-27-2024_104020: Um, I like sharing my story and my path because it's not traditional. But, anyone can do it. And so those barriers are slowly being brought down by the more women that we get investing. So I'm happy to be able to give women an [00:05:00] opportunity to create wealth of their own. The last thing I want to talk about is expressing gratitude for ourselves.

angelica-maestas--host-_1_11-27-2024_104020: I don't think we do that often enough. We, um, we spend this season thinking about, people and the people that we're grateful for the experiences, which is something we need to do, obviously. But I know that I've never reflected on what I'm grateful for about myself during Thanksgiving season. It's always about other people.

angelica-maestas--host-_1_11-27-2024_104020: And I was, um, doing some, some reminiscing and looking through some old family photo albums. And I came across this picture. of me at Thanksgiving. I was probably about two and I, um, I have the same face that plagued me for the rest of my life, which is that very uninterested, unamused face. Yeah, funny how things, some things never change.

angelica-maestas--host-_1_11-27-2024_104020: But what I was doing [00:06:00] was reflecting on how far I've come from that two year old Angelica to the 40 year old Angelica, who's had very rich experiences, who's had very hard experiences, um, but they shape me every, every year. And this year I was thinking about the things that I'm most proud about, and they're not accomplishment related.

angelica-maestas--host-_1_11-27-2024_104020: They're personal things that I've stepped into and I've owned. And one of those things this year has been, I have had the courage to be bold in spaces that I hadn't before. A lot of it was imposter syndrome, being in rooms with people that I'm not used to being a part of their circle. And I felt very uncomfortable speaking up.

angelica-maestas--host-_1_11-27-2024_104020: And what I've done recently is,because I'm always about evolution and I believe in personal development and that it never [00:07:00] ends and that that's beauty, that that's a gift. I'm always thinking about leveling up, but. What I realized this year is that I always think about this person that I aspire to be and the traits that I'm going to grow and develop into.

angelica-maestas--host-_1_11-27-2024_104020: And this year I recognized that I am that person to some degree. Those traits are already within me and so is the the Capacity to be bold. It's been there It's always been there and I've done it in lots of ways that I never realized were bold But to other people it was quitting your full time job to start a business.

angelica-maestas--host-_1_11-27-2024_104020: That was bold Those things never seemed like that to me. It didn't seem courageous It just seemed like something I felt I needed to do and so I did it But for me, being courageous enough to speak up in rooms where I am the minority on many levels, female, [00:08:00] Latina, emerging fund manager, you know, all of these things, but I've, I've really stepped into that to, you know, to a degree that would have like frightened me, terrified me.

angelica-maestas--host-_1_11-27-2024_104020: And in fact it has. I've, I've spoken up in rooms where I felt my heart was going to leap out of my chest. I was, you know, afraid I was committing career suicide, all of these things, but I felt the need to, to say what I had to say. And so I did it. so that's, that's one thing that I'm grateful for in myself.

angelica-maestas--host-_1_11-27-2024_104020: Oh, good job, Angelica. You're, you're killing it. The other is for, Learning to say no more often and I did that this year not really by intention. I didn't set out to do that. It kind of happened with circumstances and I just got to the point in, around August of this year where I just could not say yes to more and, um, kind of I thought, uh, [00:09:00] what are people going to think of me if, you know, if I can't participate in this event or if I can't, you know, do these lunches or coffees or whatever.

angelica-maestas--host-_1_11-27-2024_104020: I had to say no to a lot because I needed to preserve my physical energy, but also my headspace. Saying yes to these things that seem very trivial and it's, oh, it's only an hour out of your day or maybe two hours. All of that stuff starts adding up and it occupies headspace and it takes emotional and mental energy and especially for an introvert like me, I need time to recharge and I was not planning my days to account for that.

angelica-maestas--host-_1_11-27-2024_104020: And so this year I I didn't force myself, had to say no. Again, a lot of it was circumstance. I had lots of things going on, lots of planning to do. I had an event of my own that I was hosting. I had a daughter's wedding. I, um, I had to scale back on some of my [00:10:00] formal mentorship, which you know that I love, I adore it.

angelica-maestas--host-_1_11-27-2024_104020: Had to scale it back a little. And that was okay. And I had to say no to in person meetings versus virtual, and that was okay. I was very selective on when I chose to do that. I had to say no to participating in events or presenting sometimes, and that was also okay. And I feel so much lighter mentally, even physically, all of that stuff was just becoming really taxing.

So those are the things I'm grateful for in myself. And I really encourage you when you are sitting at the Thanksgiving table and offering gratitude for those that are sitting there with you and for the people that you love. Reserve a spot for yourself and express that gratitude. [00:11:00] And that's a wrap on another episode of She's Ambitious AF. Remember to dream big, hustle harder, and show the world that when it comes to success, we're not just ambitious, we're Ambitious AF.