Channeling My Latina Resiliency to Live a Life Sin Límites

Bienvenida to the first episode of Latina Sin Límites! This podcast is your space to discover, embrace, and channel your Latina resiliency to create a life of abundance and authenticity. I’m Vanessa Rae Alonso, and I’m thrilled to share my journey of navigating challenges as a first-generation Latina professional. Together, we’ll uncover what it means to thrive sin límites.

In this episode, I reflect on my own experiences—surviving financial hardships, cultural barriers, and professional challenges—and how I used my inner Latina resiliency to move from surviving to thriving. Como las rosas que crecen del concreto, Latina resiliency is about blooming even in the harshest conditions. By leaning into your story and building a strong support system, you can unlock your full potential.

No dream is too big when we embrace our power and support one another. Vamos juntas, because when one of us wins, we all win.

Listen to Learn

• What Latina resiliency is and how to harness it.
• How to identify and overcome the límites holding you back.
• Practical tools, like journaling, to align with your identity and values.

We Also Discuss

• The power of leaning on your rosas (support network).
• Overcoming cultural barriers like machismo and lack of representation.
• Vanessa’s personal story of resilience, growth, and self-discovery.

What’s in your Caja de Tesoros?

We’re ending every episode with a recommendation from my Caja de Tesoros. This week’s tesoro is my weekly newsletter—a roadmap to help you thrive sin límites. Each week, I share tools, reflections, and challenges to inspire your journey. Sign up via the show notes to join our growing comunidad.

So, I want to ask you, from what you listened to on the episode, what will you add to your caja de tesoros? I’d love for you to share your tool with me either by leaving a review or sharing it on your Instagram Stores. Don’t forget to tag @LatinaSinLimitesPod so I can see and share! 

Interact with Latina Sin Límites

Learn more at vanessaraealonso.com, watch the episodes on YouTube, follow the podcast on Instagram at @latinasinlimitespod, and subscribe to our newsletter.

Latina Sin Límites is hosted by me, Vanessa Rae Alonso. This show is produced, edited, managed, mixed, and supported with marketing and PR by Ellas Media.

Transcript

[00:00:00] Vanessa Rae Alonso:

How often do you reflect on your challenges and recognize the inner Latina resiliency you've been using to overcome them? I'll show you how to build a support network and leverage your cultural strengths in practical ways so you can shift from surviving to thriving and live a life sin límites.

[00:00:17] Vanessa Rae Alonso:

Growing up Latina in the United States is living without privilege experiencing machismo and with little to no female empowered role models to look up to. Instead of hiding from issues, we bounce back by facing difficulties head on. However, you still dream of a life beyond an unbeaten path. You are already built to do this. How do I know? When life is difficult do you still feel empowered to keep going until you make it through? Do you treat yourself with cariño, self acceptance and self compassion when you make a mistake or experience a failure? When you are faced with stressful situations are you able to recognize the anger, sadness or fear that you're feeling and know that those emotions are temporary? Can you manage them until they pass and not explode like a volcano? Do you have a solid network of supportive people and recognize the importance of apoyo and knowing when to ask for help? Do you feel you have control over the outcome when you are facing a challenge in your life? Do you look at the situation rationally and think of solutions that will make a difference? If you answered ¨Sí¨ to some of these questions, you have been channeling your inner Latina resiliency since día uno, if you answered ¨No¨ to some questions, you might be accustomed to living in a fight or flight mode. You do have Latina resiliency inside of you because you have overcome difficult obstacles. You just need to know how to channel it in the right direction. We're going to build upon what we already have. At the core of it all, there's a baseline to your Latina resiliency, because you're living and surviving a life of marginalism in some way, some shape or some form. Many of us, at one point or another have thought, “What if I don't believe in myself to ask for that raise or promotion?” Or maybe you're on the brink of divorce and the changes are too overwhelming, and you think, “I'll never get through this. I can't do it.” Perhaps, you lost a ser querido and can't imagine a life without them, and it's too much for you to handle. When we're faced with these distressed moments or on the brink of change, our brain makes us distress and makes us think we're not equipped to handle the challenge, and don't know how to cope with the situation healthily. If you want to learn how to unleash your Latina resiliency, a superpower unique to us, so that you can have it in your back pocket, you can focus on thriving instead of surviving. Well then,

[00:02:31] Vanessa Rae Alonso:

Hola bienvenida, I'm your host and Latina mentor, Vanessa Rae Alonso, you're listening to Latina Sin Límites. My podcast para tus sueños, tu business y todo lo que quieras conseguir en la vida, relaciones, dinero y más. I'm a speaker, business, hada madrina, immigration attorney and CEO of Alonso & Alonso Attorneys at Law, where I make dreams come true and keep families together. For the first episode, I want to share my backstory of channeling my inner Latina resiliency to live a life sin límites. But what is Latina resiliency? To me, Latina resiliency is a strength ingrained in us because we are roses that have grown from concrete. In spite of our perilous conditions of cultural bindings, trauma, family problems, financial stressors, machismo and lack of examples and role models to show us what's possible. We still aspire, we still dream, we still want and we still believe. That's what makes us roses growing from concrete, and that's where your true Latina resiliency lies. We bounce back from these difficult experiences and gain profound personal growth. I want you to ask yourself, what's a difficult time you've overcome before? Perhaps, you went through a difficult situation that lasted months or years, like experiencing financial instability, but you survived. Tal vez, you experienced an incident where you beat the odds, like gaining your green card and losing the fear of deportation, or becoming a female attorney, a Latina especially, we’e only 2% in the whole United States. You have many reminders from your past of tough times and difficult situations that you can use to remind yourself that si se puede vivir a life sin límites, you're here today looking to self improve, trying to figure out what's next, because you want to thrive instead of survive. Just by listening to this podcast and seeking this knowledge, you already have a baseline from which you can build your Latina resiliency. Like you, I was in a state of survival to reach my goals within my family, like many of you, I was a first generation college student. I was also a first generation lawyer, first generation professional. And, gracias a Dios, first generation wealthy, all of those things just set us up to where we have aspirations, but we don't have the infrastructure. We don't have the guidance or anyone in our family, in our circles, to help us get there. I started Latina Sin Límites,

[00:05:00] Vanessa Rae Alonso:

because I wanted to be that mentor that I needed back in 2010 when my career began as a freshly licensed attorney with no guidance and no idea what to do. Back then, my biggest goal was to earn $50,000 a year. I thought my whole life would change with that salary. I thought I would be able to do so much. At 25 I had just finished law school, passed the bar and became licensed. My next thought was, how am I going to support myself? How am I going to start paying back these bills? How am I going to help my mom? How am I going to pay my rent? This is a basic yet realistic question to have at this age, especially as a Latina who has been accustomed to surviving instead of thriving. The end goal was to earn the $50,000 a year, and in my mind, once I reached that goal, everything would be okay. Now, one obstacle I did not have control over was graduating in 2008 during the recession. It was a bleak time, and the job market was at its lowest point. I didn't have any experience as a lawyer. Before graduating, I worked at a non profit and did some legal work, but not enough to justify anyone wanting to give me a job. I also depended on hopefully receiving a bar loan, which at the time was around $5,000 and pretty customary for all graduating law students to get this loan. This loan would cover my expenses during the four month waiting period to get my bar result. It would cover my expenses while studying for the bar. And everyone was just used to getting this loan and this money if you needed it, so that you can take the bar, pass it and then hopefully get a job. This waiting period is instilled for recent law graduates who cannot legally practice law as an attorney in any jurisdiction until they receive their bar exam results and pass. So, my plan was to use this loan to keep me afloat during this waiting period, help me pay for my bar study prep course, which at the time was about $3,000

[00:06:52] Vanessa Rae Alonso:

and pay for my move back home from Toledo, Ohio to El Paso, Texas. However, I graduated in 2008

[00:07:00] Vanessa Rae Alonso:

and my bar loan application was denied. In fact, no one was getting approved for these bar loans s banks became stricter in lending to the unemployed. I was expecting to have $5,000 to cover all of these expenses, to give me the peace of mind to focus on studying for the bar and comfortably pay for my living expenses. When I got the news I wasn't approved, it felt like a rug was pulled out from under me. How did it get so far without being able to get to that next step, the crucial step, the step that's going to help me get the $50,000 a year. My first action was to ask for help, a crucial step when you're faced with a challenge that feels too insurmountable. I looked around my circle and asked my dad to apply for a loan for me, but he refused, because he was afraid I would ruin his credit. His refusal to help me hit me like a ton of bricks, like, “How am I going to even finish my career?” I had worked so hard to get to that point in my life, and I was finally almost at the finish line, and I had no loan, no money and no support. It was a huge blow. However, the roses in my life came out and bloomed to help me, the resiliency, support and perseverance of my grandmothers and my mom lifted me up because together, they had all pooled money and were able to raise the $3,000 for my bar study prep course. I then was able to live with my grandmother in San Antonio, Texas to study for the bar the entire summer, and I was fortunate enough to not have to pay rent or help pay for any of her amazing home cooked meals. A friend of mine from law school, actually one of the only four Latinos in the entire law school, was also by chance, moving back to his hometown of El Paso Texas, and offered to move my belongings if I pitched in 500 bucks for the truck he was already renting. So, by the grace of God and surrounding Latino power, we got it together. I was able to get it together and even finish this and that was a huge feat. But it was very difficult in this process to see and be surrounded by fellow classmates who had affluent families or whose parents were financially smart and had saved up for their bar exam and would cover their expenses easily and help them reach their goals. On top of that, some of these classmates already had big law jobs where they had spent a whole summer prior getting schmooze by big law firms where they made a lot of money, and with that money, were able to pay for their summer, pay for their needs, and already have a guaranteed job. So, every step of the way, I felt like I was climbing a mountain, and I was very much aware of the difference between my experiences and the experiences of my classmates. I didn't have the financial resources, nor the guidance to show me how to properly navigate these moments, these pivotal life moments and milestones, without fearing I could lose it any second. I was very much deep in my survival mode and not properly channeling my Latina resiliency. I was in fight or fight mode, and while I was waiting for my bar exam results, I couldn't work as a lawyer, but I needed to support myself. Luckily, another rose bloomed for me during this time.

[00:10:00] Vanessa Rae Alonso:

Was my stepmom. My stepmom helped me become a substitute teacher at a private high school that she was working at for very many years, and I was fortunate enough to make some money in this transitional phase of my life, all of these strong roses that showed up in my life, all of these amazing people who came through for me and helped me make this happen. They showed me and reminded me that I wasn't alone, all of them Latinas, except for my grandma, who was Filipina, but all of these women were able to help me move forward in my path. This value of familismo, the dedication, commitment and loyalty to family, really shined bright for me during this hard time, and it also reminded me that I couldn't fail. I needed to pass this bar exam because there were no second opportunities to raise the money and take it again. Luckily, I passed the bar exam on my first try. I was elated, and my next step was to channel my inner Latina resiliency and reach out to yet another Latina rose. She was a high school classmate who also went to the same college that I did when she found out I was studying law, she was gracious enough to introduce me to her sister, Lorena, who was a managing attorney at a big immigration law firm. This was a winter break before my graduation, so we met briefly, and Lorena said, “As soon as you graduate, let me know and we can talk.” As soon as I passed my bar exam, I texted my friend for her sister's number, and I called her. When Lorena answered, she said: “Why didn't you call me like a week ago? We just hired somebody for a position, and I would have loved to have interviewed you.” Timing, My dear listener, is everything. I felt like I missed the finish line. I thanked Lorena, and she told me she would keep an ear out for me and any other positions. So, six months passed after my graduation, and I was still in survival mode. I was teaching at the private school as a substitute teacher and applying to all these positions online, but no one wanted to give someone a chance with no law firm experience, especially in such a terrible economic time. A month passed, and now it's January of 2009. I get a call from Lorena, and she says, “Hey, that guy that I hired, he didn't work out. Do you still need a job?” And I'm like, “Yes, I'm dying here! I've had no job as a lawyer this whole time. I'm still a substitute teacher at a private school.” And so she said, “Well, can you start tomorrow?” I was like, “Yeah, I can absolutely start tomorrow. Where do I go?” So, she gives me the address and says, “Okay, I'll see you tomorrow.” I said, “Wait, wait, Lorena, what's the starting pay?” And she says, “$50,000 a year.” I was like, “My god, I made it,” and back then I didn't fully realize it, but the first step to properly channel your inner resiliency is to lean on other Latinas. No one is self made in this world. Many people will play crucial and supportive roles in your life to help you move forward to the next step. Without realizing it, I leaned on a Latina, someone like me, who understood where I came from, who walked my path before me, and consciously or unconsciously agreed to lift me up in the process. Lift me up in the legal field where she was already working, and she helped me by giving me my first associate position. No formal interview, no let me review your resume. This was Latina to Latina love like, “Hey, I'm gonna climb and lift you in the process.” This rose that we have inside of us, this Latina resiliency also depends on the support of other people. You don't have to go through these difficult situations alone. It is okay to ask for help, because when you do, help will come your way. So fast forward, I worked for two different high volume immigration law firms as an associate for seven years. However, like many of you, I stayed at jobs that didn't always appreciate me, and where I wasn't happy and I felt like I wasn't living my purpose, but I had money, I had a job, and I was getting to perform my career. My lack of mentorship, guidance and even where to begin, delayed my success. After many doubts, fears and supportive efforts, later, I started my own law firm in 2017.

[00:14:06] Vanessa Rae Alonso:

It wasn't until I began to make large leaps that I started to see my own dream life come to fruition, and that's because I sought mentorship, coaches, therapists, guidance and even masterminds. And, that's what we're gonna do together here on Latina Sin Límites. So, I want to be that person that I needed 10 years ago and hopefully help you get to your success and your dream life faster. I want to be that Latina supporter, that Latina mentor and Latina business hada madrina, who gives you that magical shortcut. My biggest obstacle back then was a lack of awareness and experience, not only my own experience, but my family's experience with success, their fear of owning a business and even advancing in life. My mom was going to college at the same time that I was and I didn't have many people to say, “Vanessa, this is how you do it”, or “Wow, you have aspirations to be a lawyer.

[00:15:00] Vanessa Rae Alonso:

That's extraordinary! I've done it too. Let me show you the way.” “This is how you apply for law school.” “This is how you best get your degree.” I had a few people along the way, but not enough that I can rely on or lean on, on a daily or consistent basis. I didn't have anyone to say. “This is how you build your business, to be happy with your choices and be happy with your career” and like you, I didn't have a mentor to guide me or show me the way when I wanted to enter a new field in my life. I had to seek mentorship or information for people that weren't my family and not close whatsoever. When I started my firm, there were many pivotal lessons learned and decisions made during those years, which I will share with you in future podcasts episodes. But as my firm scaled and my money too, it grew lonely. I arrived at places I had never dreamed of. I took luxurious vacations to places like Monaco and attended expensive wellness retreats to disconnect from my life and reconnect with myself. Each time I arrived at these places unique to wealthy and successful people, I found one commonality, I was the only Latina in the room, and if there were other Latinas, it's because I brought them with me and paid for it. I began having deep conversations with my mentor, turn bestie, who would encourage me to explore why Latinas were not prevalent in places of affluence. She has helped me unlock much of the success in my life by changing my mindset, setting an example, and encouraging me every step of the way. She would lovingly say I was a stuck Mexicana, because she would give me roadmaps to success, things she had already accomplished, and the shortcuts and I seemed to just contemplate them for years before taking any action. She showed me how to be a girl's girl, how a community of women with a shared experience or shared mission was magic, sacred and powerful. When she learned more about my past and the things I had overcome, she would double down on encouraging me to share it all, to be the inspiration I needed for so long. My excuses for staying small became the reasons I needed to succeed, to understand myself and why I hesitated to implement her advice or feel entitled to success. I began trying to figure out why, as Latinas, we shared such a limited experience, and though the answer seemed so easy, cultural limitations, machismo, lack of opportunity, marginalization, I felt that wasn't a sufficient reason for me not to seek the life I knew I deserved, the life my mom and my family deserved too. My self esteem would erode when I couldn't make decisions quickly in my business, or when I sought approval and acceptance from others who didn't have the experience to give an opinion to begin with, I felt even more discouraged when I finally did implement business advice and grow to new heights in my life, only to find there were few other Latinas like me around to share it with. And though I wasn't mistreated per se in these places, I couldn't shake the longing for connection with women like me in these new spaces we also deserve to be in. It was like being in a room with aliens. These affluent people didn't share the same cultural values, language, background or struggles, making it impossible for me to connect or cheese me out with them. That's how I would feel each time I unlocked a new level of wealth and the new experiences that came with it, each time I reached a new goal in my life. I wanted to share with other Latinas like me and say, “Look at what we're doing, taste this or smell this. Look at this. Can you believe this?” And there were no other Latinas like me around. I was solita in my cultura and my experiences. I wanted help navigating new wealth with old mindsets about money and balancing the hard line between individual freedom and adhering to traditional family values. Every time I had a question, the people around to advise me didn't look like me. They didn't share my cultura. They were even surprised I was there. They didn't understand my challenges, and they didn't even fathom what it is to be a stuck Latina with big dreams. I began to think how our Latino comunidad could come together to create a strong foundation for successful business and a future of abundance. If we focus on our strengths, like collectivism and supported one another through life's challenges, we could evolve into a comunidad that thrives professionally and financially, instead of a comunidad that survives and lives in fear of not being able to make it work. This is when the conversation evolved into a seedling mission to change the status quo. I began to dream of a different future where being Latino had its privilege, though it doesn't exist now, with the growth of the Latino population in the US, We could have it one day. I want rich Latinas in amazing places to take up space with me. I want rich Latina besties.

[00:19:48] Vanessa Rae Alonso:

I want to talk about how best to retire our parents and pay off their houses while creating tax shelters and preserving our parents' pride. I want to discuss the best bilingual private education options, because.

[00:20:00] Vanessa Rae Alonso:

in my dream, we have many for our children, and have our prestigious networks funnel the best opportunities back to our own. Most of all, I want my two Latina daughters to have better opportunities, connections and proven role models as they journey into their own lives as Latinas sin límites, I journaled about it for many years, and realized, if I wanted to get Latinas to the top and to a vida sin límites, I would have to start at the beginning of my own journey. I would have to start at the point of my life where I needed the most mentorship. So, we are going back to 2010 when I was 25 years old, the age where all the decisions I made after truly mattered and determined my future vida sin límites, looking back, I had to push so many límites, opinions and expectations of others and my cultura to achieve a life of financial independence. I made pivotal decisions slower than I should have. Had I moved quicker and pushed through the fear with fierceness, I would have helped others much earlier, pero ni modo. I am here now as your business, hada madrina, in a place of abundance, where I have the skills and the resources to pull through any situation where I live according to my values, I am committed to being the mentor I needed back then. Y espero que esto te sirva de algo. Reflecting on when I was 25 I wasn't thriving. I was simply surviving to reach the next step in my goals, knowing what I know now, a strong support system of Latina roses is necessary to have in your life. This bouquet of roses will help you keep going when things get tough. They will raise money when you need it, and they will hire you for your first job. Your bouquet of roses will also help you through many of the common límites that Latinas experience. Earlier in the episode, I shared my experience with each of these límites, and now I want to focus on how to overcome them. So bring out your journal. I personally prefer to hand write. I feel like there's a better connection through handwriting than there is through typing, but that's just my personal preference. So keep this handy. Keep your journal and your notes always with you, because in moments of self doubt or moments of inspiration, it's going to be a great guide for you. So, we're going to set a timer for two minutes. We're setting the timer now, and during the first minute, I want you to create a list of all the hard things you've ever gone through, not to remind you that your life is difficult, pero, to remind you that you have used your inner Latina resiliency and survived these challenges, and now is the time to thrive. While you're writing, I want you to reflect on these moments. You can even choose one specific moment when you were faced with an impossible situation, what guided you through? Who were the Latina roses that helped you through this moment? Did you trust your instinct? Did you have to adapt and commit to going for it? There are no wrong answers to these questions, whatever situation you were in, perhaps in a situation where you were financially unstable, on the brink of a divorce, choosing between two career paths, you took the best decision that you had at that moment, and now you're here. And it was through these decisions and the roses that supported you that got you through and got you here with me today. So, now for the second minute, I want you to write down the names of Latina roses that played pivotal roles in helping you overcome the situations you wrote in the first minute.

[00:23:30] Vanessa Rae Alonso:

Were these roses your supporters or mentors?

[00:23:34] Vanessa Rae Alonso:

Were they amigas who encouraged you and helped you find a solution? Did they help alleviate stress by getting  a mani and pedi or just listening to you? Who were these roses that showed up and held you down?

[00:23:47] Vanessa Rae Alonso:

These roses are a reminder that you aren't alone in this journey, because when we openly discuss our struggles, our dreams, our goals. We're inviting the universe to bring these roses to our life to create a ripple effect and help us pursue a life sin límites, and create a strong comunidad. So, looking at your list, maybe you're not seeing all of the roses in your life, and there are names that are missing, I invite you to write down anyone that could help you overcome a situation if that same thing you were going through before were happening today. Identify these roles that you need in your life and actively seek these missing roses. And while you're at it, add my name to the list. As your business hada madrina, I'm here to help you thrive. To help you thrive, we'll be exploring and gaining clarity on your identity, values and how you feel you're most authentic now that we have our evidence sheet of the challenges we overcame and the roses that helped us bloom through these struggles, we need to know who we are, ahora mismo. We need to channel our inner Latina resiliency by knowing who we truly are and what we're capable of. You have the strength to take action. We have the seeds 

[00:25:00] Vanessa Rae Alonso:

planted inside of us, but we need to water them every so often, and we'll be doing that today. We're not getting into the weeds, but we'll be dipping our toes with a simple three minute identity journaling exercise. You can reference when these límites start to creep up and you're unlocking new levels in your life

[00:25:18] Vanessa Rae Alonso:

for the first minute, we'll be asking about identity

[00:25:21] Vanessa Rae Alonso:

now, set a timer for one minute

[00:25:24] Vanessa Rae Alonso:

and write the first things that come to mind when you ask yourself, Who am I? You can include roles such as student, artist, doctor or personality traits, empathetic, determined, adaptable, independent, mindful or kind. Even list interests such as music lover, nature enthusiast, culinary, art, history, whatever you can even write a couple of hobbies like gardening, yoga, volunteering, hiking, painting or reading. Don't overthink it. Just let your thoughts flow freely without judgment. Remember, no one will read this, just you. So I'll read off my list to you guys. I wrote mentor, animal lover, advocate, lawyer, business woman, dancer, writer. And those are just the first things that came to mind. And this is who I feel I am today. Now for the second minute, we'll be focusing on values, set your timer again and then next minute, I want you to ask yourself, What do I care about deeply? Write down the three to five things that matter most to you. Personal values help us get in better touch with our thoughts and feelings. Some examples are family, independence, creativity, community, spirituality or learning. Consider how these values show up in your daily life and how they guide your decisions. These values will be your guiding light. In minute three, we'll focus on feeling our most authentic selves. So set your timer, and for the final minute, I want you to reflect on when or where do I feel most like myself? When do I feel most alive? Write about specific environments, activities, relationships, where you feel comfortable being yourself. For example, it can be taking up a writing workshop with your friends to improve your short story writing skills, or helping high school students prepare for college entrance exams, write down how these moments allow you to feel authentic and aligned with who you are after the timer goes off briefly, review what you've written. Okay, the timers up, and I can't wait to see in the comments below what you guys wrote down, what makes you feel most alive, because that is something that's very interesting to me. I love when one discovers what makes them feel the happiest.

[00:27:50] Vanessa Rae Alonso:

So what I wrote down is I wrote laughing with my friends, because that is when I absolutely am in my highest joy.

[00:27:58] Vanessa Rae Alonso:

The second one is giving a client life changing immigration documents, because that is one of the highlights of my career, and a reason to wake up every single day and face a stressful workload. And the third is hearing how someone has made a dream of theirs come true. So please comment below. Share with me. I want to see what you guys came up with. You might discover patterns or themes that reflect key aspects of your identity make you realize or strengthen your instincts of what path to take or who to invite on this journey. This is a very simple identity check in journaling exercise, but it will help you connect with your true self by focusing on what role you want to play in your life, because the role you have played thus far isn't going to take you to the next level. The role that you have placed on yourself to survive instead of thrive is not going to take you where you want and need to be. This exercise will help you align with your values, how to make critical decisions, who to align with yourself to thrive, and what and who you will say no to. It'll also provide insight into what experiences can actually benefit you and help you settle into the true role that you want to take in your life. I actually sat down before this recording to write this same identity check in, but I answered as my 25 year old self. I want to show you the difference between my answers for each question and to help you see that growth is part of thriving and part of this process of living a life sin límites, and I want you to intentionally do this identity check in either every quarter, every six months, or on your birthday. So at 25 I would have described myself as licensed but unemployed lawyer, hopeful, anxious to work, broke,

[00:29:44] Vanessa Rae Alonso:

frustrated

[00:29:46] Vanessa Rae Alonso:

and open to new opportunities. I invite you to intentionally do this identity check in either every quarter, every six months or on your birthday. That's a great time to do this. And when you do this in the future, I want you to reflect 

[00:30:00] Vanessa Rae Alonso:

And compare. I want you to compare how you identified six months ago to your new list at the time, or your prior birthday to your current birthday.

[00:30:11] Vanessa Rae Alonso:

And this will be further evidence of your growth. Listening to this episode of Latina Sin Límites, you are already doing the work. You're in the right mindset to question yourself, Who am I today? What makes me who I am today? And the next time you do this exercise, you'll compare both lists and see how and what has propelled you to write a different list of things that make up your identity in that moment. Did you grow? Did you improve? Did you not lean on roses? Did you not channel your resiliency enough? Did you have areas where you could have channeled it further? Did you let your fear stop you from achieving a certain role and goal in your life? This exercise is a foundation to help you further develop your purpose, which we'll be covering in future episodes, and even how to use your fear to jump in and go for it, and you and I both know that you can go for it and learn as you go, porque we have Latina resilience inside of us. It's our unique ability to overcome obstacles in our vida, because we have known nothing but obstacles since birth, regardless of our childhoods, which are as vast as the ocean is wide, we all grew up limited by cultural bindings, machismo and a lack of strong female role models to show us what's possible. We still aspire, we still dream, we still want and we still believe we are roses growing from concrete. We beam and we bloom from even the most hostile of soil, and that's what your true Latina resiliency is. We all have Latina resiliency inside of us. It's just a question of harnessing and building upon it. As we accomplish new levels of our dreams, the higher the level, the more Latina resiliency we need to leverage. Other cultures have magic, and we have this as our magia, and it's our birthright. It's generational. It's been building from past generations, and it's time we put it to work for our collective good. For every episode, I'll share something from my caja de tesoros, a tool, a product, a resource, something that can help you along this journey of becoming a Latina Sin Límites, my first recommendation is my weekly newsletter, and you can sign up via the show notes. Each newsletter has a weekly challenge to create clarity for yourself and what you should work on pursuing to help bring your dreams out into the world. Recuerda Latina, resilience has been planted inside of us because you know what? We're roses that grew from the concrete, and that is already an edge we have on accomplishing our dreams. On top of that, we have things to do to improve the soil around us, and that's how we'll use our identity, values and feeling authentic to ourselves to build that resilience even further, take your notes from earlier. This is your evidence sheet, a key component to guide your path in channeling your resiliency and your reminder that you can accomplish your dreams, and I want you to write, “I have what I need to get through this because I live according to my values. I know failure is part of the journey to success, and I'm ready to test new things and challenge myself, because all I can do is my best. I'm in control of how I think, feel and behave, and if I get knocked down, I know I can bloom again.” Say it out loud to yourself as many times as you need. And recuerda, we are in this together. We are colegas. That's it for today's episode of Latina Sin Límites, I am your host and mentor, Vanessa Rae Alonso, and you can find more for me at www.vanessaraealonso.com

[00:33:46] Vanessa Rae Alonso:

and on Instagram at @VanessaRaeAlonso. You can also continue the conversation over at @LatinaSinLimitespod

[00:33:54] Vanessa Rae Alonso:

Latina Sin Límites is hosted by me, Vanessa Rae Alonso. This show was produced, managed and mixed by Ellas Media. My team includes, my producer and marketing strategist, Brenda Hernández Jaimes. Editor, audio engineer, Marz Marcello. Podcast branding designer, Ileana Melendez. Associate producer, Sebastian Ramírez. Video producer, Brandon Villalobos. Camera operator, Paola Holguín And my personal and creative assistant, Gisele Cárdenas, if you are listening on Apple podcast, please leave us a five star rating and review. Muchas gracias for listening to Latina Sin Límites.