00;00;00;12 - 00;00;39;14
Coach Dora
Welcome back, Amazing Leaders, to another powerful episode of Building Leadership Community. I am 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.
00;00;39;16 - 00;01;18;07
Coach Dora
Our guest is financial wellness coach, founder of Blissful Vida and advocate for financial empowerment, Erika Dox-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.
00;01;18;09 - 00;01;23;21
Coach Dora
So settle in. Take a breath and get ready.
00;01;23;24 - 00;01;48;25
Coach Dora
Hello and welcome to Building Leadership Community Podcast. I'm your host, Dora Mendez. I am the founder and CEO of Coach Dora LLC. Our guests will be entrepreneurs, small business owners, and community leaders that drive social impact. It can be lonely at the top, but it doesn't have to be.
00;01;48;27 - 00;02;13;01
Coach Dora
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!
00;02;13;02 - 00;02;59;04
Coach Dora
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 eye prompt sheet that will make getting your episodes out there into the world a breeze.
00;02;59;07 - 00;03;37;03
Coach Dora
The link is in the description, so if you're listening, 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, Erika Aragon. I connected as book Sisters. We are coauthor an extraordinary Latinas volume for fearless narratives of triumph, unity, and purpose.
00;03;37;03 - 00;04;09;24
Coach Dora
And if you look over my shoulder, over this shoulder, there's the book right there. Our beautiful faces, graced the cover. Erika 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.
00;04;09;26 - 00;04;41;18
Coach Dora
Erika 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.
00;04;41;20 - 00;04;58;27
Coach Dora
Today, Erika's 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.
00;04;59;00 - 00;05;01;19
Coach Dora
Hi, Erika.
00;05;01;22 - 00;05;04;17
Erika Dox-Martinez
Hi. So happy to be here. Thank you for having me on.
00;05;04;20 - 00;05;30;28
Coach Dora
Oh, I'm so glad you're here. As you know, you know, we bonded, you know, over being coauthors, and I was just. Yes. There you go. It's it's it's like on my wall, too. And, And your story was just so impactful, and I just knew you you had to share with my audience, with our listeners and our viewers.
00;05;31;00 - 00;05;38;10
Coach Dora
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?
00;05;38;12 - 00;06;01;19
Erika Dox-Martinez
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.
00;06;01;19 - 00;06;22;22
Erika Dox-Martinez
Hence why I started Blissful Vida because I ended up paying off my debt. I saved and I invested, and I built a solid foundation. After struggling for so long and a six figure position. 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.
00;06;22;25 - 00;06;40;09
Erika Dox-Martinez
So that's kind of the transition of what, like how I started to invest in myself and in that leadership of of betting on myself when it comes to my finances, but also eventually betting on myself by launching, my own company, which was never in the in the timeline for me.
00;06;40;10 - 00;06;41;14
Coach Dora
So.
00;06;41;16 - 00;07;00;02
Erika Dox-Martinez
And I quit my 9 to 5 shortly after launching Blissful Vida to. So a lot of the leadership pieces for me are just doing things I never thought that were possible. And, choosing myself at the end of the day. And, now I choose to lead with purpose, and I want to help more of us break free from financial stress.
00;07;00;02 - 00;07;19;22
Erika Dox-Martinez
Like you were saying, 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.
00;07;19;24 - 00;07;50;03
Coach Dora
I love that, I love that courage and compassion is, how we live here. I coach Dora, as you know, and one of the things and so, yeah, I mean, you know, I'm so happy that, you know, our paths cross. We're both on this sort of new entrepreneurial journey together. We have shared many spaces together, and I just I can, I can share with our audience and our viewers that you practice what you preach.
00;07;50;03 - 00;08;11;04
Coach Dora
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 that 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.
00;08;11;04 - 00;08;16;11
Coach Dora
Can you share with with our audience what community means to you? What does it mean?
00;08;16;13 - 00;08;36;27
Erika Dox-Martinez
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 to becoming right, because it can be a lonely road and a lot of people aren't talking about money.
00;08;36;27 - 00;08;57;16
Erika Dox-Martinez
So I'm going to shift this so that to the money piece, right? Because it's so taboo. Nobody talks about this word. 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, like, in community work so much, because when we do things in community, it does make a difference.
00;08;57;16 - 00;09;19;00
Erika Dox-Martinez
And it is healing. When you hear somebody else say, hey, I've been there too, 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 it's compassion is such a big part of this. So opens a door for compassion for yourself and with your past money decisions.
00;09;19;02 - 00;09;38;21
Erika Dox-Martinez
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 that can support you. And one of those spaces is, one that I created, which is dates with the Arrow, which is my bi monthly virtual money co-working space.
00;09;38;28 - 00;09;56;20
Erika Dox-Martinez
So it's a space where we come together to knock out your money tasks, like in a zoom room, is you just working on your own? But I say Never alone because there's other monitors in there tackling, you know, making sure they get their money task done and knocking things off their to do list. And at the end, we open it up for 30 minutes to talk about money.
00;09;56;20 - 00;10;19;17
Erika Dox-Martinez
We share wins. We ask questions, we share resources with each other because I don't know everything. And, 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, I think such an important component with a lot of things that we want to accomplish is like, we get there faster together, right?
00;10;19;19 - 00;11;01;17
Coach Dora
Yeah. So this is this is what I want. I love this āDates with Dineroā idea. And for those who don't speak Spanish, Dinero is money. And so, 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, and maybe give some 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.
00;11;01;17 - 00;11;30;16
Coach Dora
I mean, since, you know, I know I have student debt, I have student loan debt, I have, credit card debt. 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, what would you tell someone who's, like, really feeling like. Like they have no money story.
00;11;30;16 - 00;11;35;16
Coach Dora
Like they have no money to to tell a story about.
00;11;35;19 - 00;11;55;12
Erika Dox-Martinez
Yeah. Because I think, 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.
00;11;55;14 - 00;12;16;08
Erika Dox-Martinez
So I'll say, like, for me, 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. I want new sneakers, too. So I asked my dad, hey, you know, can I get new sneakers?
00;12;16;11 - 00;12;34;05
Erika Dox-Martinez
And, you know, in my mind, I was like, I'm going to get $100 sneakers, too, because that makes sense, right? But how come we were driving up to Marshalls and I ended up getting $40 Nike's? And I remember this is how I know that this was a significant moment for me to remember, because they were black Nike shoes with a purple swoosh, and that was when I was 11 years old.
00;12;34;12 - 00;12;50;20
Erika Dox-Martinez
So that was a decades ago, and I still remember this story. So in my 11 year old child, you know, little ninja 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 you get. Right? So it kind of be like, how come you did this for him?
00;12;50;27 - 00;13;08;21
Erika Dox-Martinez
So my mind, I made it up like, well, they must love him more than me or I'm not good enough to get $100 sneakers either. I'm not worthy. And then I just started equating money with love. So that was one of the stories that I brought with me when I grew up. It's like, oh, if I spend money on people, they will love me.
00;13;08;24 - 00;13;27;01
Erika Dox-Martinez
And little Erika that day had a void, right? Because 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 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.
00;13;27;01 - 00;13;49;28
Erika Dox-Martinez
I just internalize it and felt this way. So in the future, especially when I was dating, I would spend money on on my boyfriends. And I remember being like, oh, I need to get them stuff and they'll love me. And feeling this emotional piece. So I think a lot of the work around money stories in 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.
00;13;49;28 - 00;14;07;12
Erika Dox-Martinez
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 going to like, you know, steer clear of of maybe making money, holding on to money or looking at my money like it can affect you in all different ways.
00;14;07;16 - 00;14;25;10
Erika Dox-Martinez
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 anonymous things. Spending money on other people is is a bad thing.
00;14;25;16 - 00;14;48;17
Erika Dox-Martinez
It's just make sure the intention behind it is because you want to be generous. So 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 to like digging into these things and why say, I'd like to heal and transform people's relationship with money from the inside out is because these things are important.
00;14;48;17 - 00;15;07;15
Erika Dox-Martinez
Because I can tell you to save, to pay off your debt to your blue in the face, but you're not going to stick with the habits. If you have these underlying things running in your subconscious or 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 a even for me with other things.
00;15;07;15 - 00;15;28;18
Erika Dox-Martinez
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 judgmental, non shameful 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.
00;15;28;18 - 00;15;46;10
Erika Dox-Martinez
I don't know why that happened. Right. 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 is like talking about your habits growing up. So I grew I graduated college with $25,000, a credit card debt on top of my student loans.
00;15;46;12 - 00;15;55;12
Coach Dora
Like everybody else, like, you know, I didn't understand. Why did they give 18 year olds credit cards and back?
00;15;55;12 - 00;16;13;13
Erika Dox-Martinez
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 I wasn't even working at like, it was ridiculous and I didn't understand how credit cards work.
00;16;13;13 - 00;16;30;19
Erika Dox-Martinez
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 I was 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.
00;16;30;19 - 00;16;46;22
Erika Dox-Martinez
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 our accountability comes in too. So it's like you're making these plans for your money. And if you need a space to get things done, that's what these within it is for.
00;16;46;22 - 00;17;03;14
Erika Dox-Martinez
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. We're there in a space where other people are intentionally working on their money, too.
00;17;03;14 - 00;17;23;09
Erika Dox-Martinez
And I call the people my community 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, financial books we had done.
00;17;23;09 - 00;17;38;18
Erika Dox-Martinez
(???) Cash was the first one, and then we did, Badass Bonito 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.
00;17;38;21 - 00;18;17;12
Coach Dora
So your inner get it, warrior. Yeah. So I want to I want to pick up on something that you said, because what I have found, with, the Segways 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 light and Latinos, Latinx, Latinas, however you identify, they often don't want to go to college because they're worried about that debt.
00;18;17;14 - 00;18;53;12
Coach Dora
And I tell them or I tell them, don't no more. It was the best investment I ever made at Eric. Erika. 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, and, 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 hate so much.
00;18;53;14 - 00;19;21;17
Coach Dora
I really want people to understand how, there are ways to invest in themselves that their education is worth it. 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 Erika. They've figured it out, and they're where they want to be in life.
00;19;21;20 - 00;19;53;04
Coach Dora
And you know, and so is there. And I would love for you to kind of speak to that, because 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 and 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.
00;19;53;06 - 00;20;12;28
Erika Dox-Martinez
Yeah. So I think investing in ourselves is super important as long as you understand what what comes from it, right? The return on investment. All 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.
00;20;12;28 - 00;20;33;01
Erika Dox-Martinez
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, for me, I graduated from Northeastern University in Boston and, I back then it was $28,000 a year.
00;20;33;01 - 00;20;56;01
Erika Dox-Martinez
I think now it's it's double right. And that's a five year school. So because they do a co-op program. So I was thinking about I understand the hesitation of being like, all right, I'm going to have over $250,000 of debt if I go to college. So I get that, but it's like planning beforehand to, and I think the, the the more that, more of us do better with our money, the better the next generations can do.
00;20;56;01 - 00;21;12;25
Erika Dox-Martinez
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 to take out my first year, my student, my student loan for the first year though, but there's 5 to 9 that that you can, you know, your families can start for you early on.
00;21;12;25 - 00;21;30;20
Erika Dox-Martinez
All of my nieces and nephews, I started those, 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 just there.
00;21;30;22 - 00;21;37;22
Erika Dox-Martinez
But I think good thing with those is you can pass them down to other kids in your family if you need to. But I think that there's different strategies.
00;21;37;28 - 00;21;59;08
Coach Dora
With the 529, I have my hat on. Sure. Because I have. I started my Pi 29 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 or credit education.
00;21;59;11 - 00;22;09;15
Coach Dora
So culinary school, art school, film school, all of those things you can use and you can use it for private high school. So I just want.
00;22;09;16 - 00;22;09;28
Erika Dox-Martinez
To say.
00;22;09;28 - 00;22;10;26
Coach Dora
That's the fun of.
00;22;10;28 - 00;22;24;14
Erika Dox-Martinez
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 move some of the money over to my sister. So she wasn't in the initial 5 to 9 plan, but she's in school now and she's like, oh, can you help me? I was like, I have this extra stoop.
00;22;24;21 - 00;22;43;18
Erika Dox-Martinez
You know, it's, school expense money. It has to go to that. Right? So, 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 use, 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.
00;22;43;18 - 00;23;04;06
Erika Dox-Martinez
And it's, it's beneficial. But nothing I want to say is like just strategizing for school. 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 and maybe get an associate's somewhere and then transfer into a higher name, like a better accredited school or whatever.
00;23;04;09 - 00;23;19;03
Erika Dox-Martinez
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 got to like, sit there and do the research.
00;23;19;06 - 00;23;40;20
Erika Dox-Martinez
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 route you want to go. And just some making sure after you get out of school, like you're handling whatever the expenses are. But, 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.
00;23;40;22 - 00;24;01;24
Erika Dox-Martinez
So, you know, it's it's really, 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.
00;24;01;24 - 00;24;18;20
Erika Dox-Martinez
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.
00;24;18;20 - 00;24;34;01
Erika Dox-Martinez
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, it's just something that takes a big chunk of your budget.
00;24;34;01 - 00;24;37;00
Erika Dox-Martinez
So just be cognizant of that.
00;24;37;03 - 00;24;58;21
Coach Dora
And so I, I have found that, it's easier now to find money because when back in the day when I went to school, we didn't have I that can scrape the internet and find we had to like we had to go to the library, go to the books. And so I was.
00;24;58;21 - 00;25;00;17
Erika Dox-Martinez
Like the same age that you want to.
00;25;00;17 - 00;25;29;14
Coach Dora
Find stuff you can. So and then I just think, that also I love this idea of how you support people, like with like figuring it out, like peeling the onion. I love it. And and I think that that is great. Because I just, I want I don't want people ever to be discouraged from investing in their, in themselves.
00;25;29;16 - 00;26;06;10
Coach Dora
You know, I and I, I'm so happy that we have you here so that people know that there are resources, that there are wellness coaches, and that there are spaces where you can have these discussions. Because because sometimes, you know, you know, as a first generation, AmErikan, there's a different attitude culturally toward, towards money. Then there would be someone who is fourth or fifth generation, right, and well, and building wealth.
00;26;06;12 - 00;26;31;18
Coach Dora
So, that and I want to I want to get to our, because I feel like I can talk to you all day. Erika. We could swap all kinds of stories. But I would love for you to, You know, what advice would you like to to impart on, on our listeners and viewers who are are mostly, leaders?
00;26;31;20 - 00;27;06;00
Coach Dora
Our audience are mostly entrepreneurs, you know, emerging and established leaders, through who I know might be feeling lonely, who are feeling lonely. And we really want to make sure everyone leaves here feeling, inspired and, 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.
00;27;06;00 - 00;27;07;04
Coach Dora
My story.
00;27;07;07 - 00;27;29;17
Erika Dox-Martinez
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, you know, my clients truly just don't feel like they're worthy or they're capable of figuring this out, especially on their own.
00;27;29;17 - 00;27;46;26
Erika Dox-Martinez
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.
00;27;46;28 - 00;27;56;19
Erika Dox-Martinez
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.
00;27;56;19 - 00;27;57;07
Coach Dora
00;27;57;07 - 00;28;13;16
Erika Dox-Martinez
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 are 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. I'm like, all right, they got this.
00;28;13;16 - 00;28;31;18
Erika Dox-Martinez
I can do it too. And I want you to know with money, having examples from from financial leaders, like own 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 $1 million. I saved a runway of $100,000 to be able to quit my job and bet on myself.
00;28;31;21 - 00;28;52;20
Erika Dox-Martinez
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, just knowing that your worth and that you're worthy of this and that you can do it. And, the other thing is just really prioritizing your financial well-being. Like, there are things that you probably have to tap into.
00;28;52;20 - 00;29;14;00
Erika Dox-Martinez
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, things like, my husband grew up really, really poor, and he would get donations from our school.
00;29;14;00 - 00;29;16;06
Erika Dox-Martinez
We went to elementary school together. Oh.
00;29;16;09 - 00;29;18;27
Coach Dora
Another story, love story to go.
00;29;19;01 - 00;29;38;21
Erika Dox-Martinez
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, 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 got, I got you, I got you.
00;29;38;21 - 00;29;52;29
Erika Dox-Martinez
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?
00;29;52;29 - 00;30;13;11
Erika Dox-Martinez
And I had so much debt. So that like was an eye opening moment for me too. But just like looking at those things where I was like, you're like that because you don't think about 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 our adult life and how it is affecting our financial goals.
00;30;13;11 - 00;30;32;18
Erika Dox-Martinez
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. When I decided like, I had my 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.
00;30;32;20 - 00;30;49;17
Erika Dox-Martinez
So we're like, we're going to 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.
00;30;49;24 - 00;31;09;08
Erika Dox-Martinez
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 Uplevel 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?
00;31;09;08 - 00;31;23;17
Erika Dox-Martinez
And I think culturally too, we are conditioned to think we need to have these nice things. Or, you know, maybe you paid off your car and now you'd like, I got to 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.
00;31;23;17 - 00;31;39;21
Erika Dox-Martinez
Oh, I want to buy a house. And I'm like, why? Like, if that's what you want, but like, they're like, oh, my mom said I should buy a house. So I was 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.
00;31;39;24 - 00;32;00;14
Erika Dox-Martinez
So money supports a different pillars of your life, and I want more of us to live in that, balanced, 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, life that makes you feel happy and whole and, money honestly just helps you do that because there's a lot of stress around money.
00;32;00;15 - 00;32;14;11
Erika Dox-Martinez
We want to relieve that as well and just know that we are worthy again and capable of of getting our finances back on track. And that it is it is work, but it's so worth it. It's worth it.
00;32;14;13 - 00;32;59;20
Coach Dora
I love that worthiness. Worthiness is really at the core and, blissful. Now I, I have a really good understanding of, of why that's at the center. It's emotion. Like money is emotional, which people often don't tie the two. So I love this. Your, you are empowering women and people of color to really tackle their emotional, relationship with money and then plan, and strategize and build wealth.
00;32;59;20 - 00;33;35;13
Coach Dora
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, and for elevating, your own, vulnerability and, and how you, you share your own story to help others, to help uplift others. So, yeah. Erika, I want to thank you so much for being here.
00;33;35;16 - 00;33;59;21
Coach Dora
And thank you. I'm going to ask you to hold on a second. We're going to make sure that all of the links to, your programing are in the description of the episode. So if you are watching or listening, you'll be able to have a chance to connect with Erika. What's the best way? What's the best way for folks to reach you?
00;33;59;21 - 00;34;00;29
Coach Dora
Erika.
00;34;01;02 - 00;34;21;11
Erika Dox-Martinez
Yeah, I would say it's my website. So my blissful Vodacom 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. So be my website, backslash Dora, and you can access that workbook for free. Just buy it because you're, listening to the podcast.
00;34;21;11 - 00;34;43;22
Erika Dox-Martinez
So that will be in the show notes as well. And Erika-Dox-Martinez on LinkedIn, @MyBlissfulVida on Instagram. And, you can 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 āBlissful Vidaā, and what that could look like working together.
00;34;43;22 - 00;34;55;11
Erika Dox-Martinez
So, āDates with Dineroā is free also. So that's on my website. And, 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.
00;34;55;14 - 00;35;22;20
Coach Dora
I'm so glad that you came. Thank you so much. Hold on a second while we do our, outro I want to remind everyone to please, like, share and subscribe. Hit that subscribe button so that we can continue to give you, great content and wonderful advice and bring you wonderful, guests. Like Erika, who's going to help reshape, your money story.
00;35;22;22 - 00;35;24;24
Coach Dora
Thank you so much.
00;35;24;26 - 00;35;26;28
Erika Dox-Martinez
Thank you.
00;35;27;01 - 00;40;14;19
Intro-Outro
You've been listening to Building Leadership Community. Watch on YouTube @CoachDoraM. Listen, wherever you get your podcasts, follow me on LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube @CoachDoraM. Visit me on the web at CoachDoraMendez.com. Hosted by me, Dora Mendez. Produced byDora Mendez and Dylan Rogers. Graphics, editing, and sound mixing by Dylan Rogers.
00;40;14;21 - 00;40;37;20
Coach Dora
00;40;37;22 - 00;40;37;29
Coach Dora
