If you grew up living in a scarcity mindset, this episode is for you. Growing up, my family’s financial situation had some pretty decent highs and the lowest of lows. Those lows were terrifying and the lack mentality that came from that time followed us everywhere we went. Even when I was making six figures at my tech job, I always felt like there was not enough to go around. 

It wasn’t until I bet it all on my business and started having faith in myself that I started to rewrite my thoughts and start tapping into abundance. 

Tapping into abundance is a journey. That’s why in this episode, I’m going to tell you about my abundance journey and give you 3 tips to tap into abundance yourself. 

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Website:
www.theerikacruz.com

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How to work with Erika:

Join the waitlist for Courage Driven Latina here.

Join the waitlist for the Magnetic Mastermind here.

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Post-production for this episode was provided by CCST, a podcast production company. 

Episode Transcript

Erika: Hello, and welcome to this week’s episode of Ch*ngona Revolution podcast. I am super excited to talk to you about abundance today because abundance is something a lot of us strive for. And yet, a lot of us were raised in households where scarcity, mindset, and lack, and limitation were the main narrative, right?

Maybe you heard your parents say, you know, money doesn’t grow on trees, or we can’t afford that, or eso ricos, that’s for rich people, almost implying that you don’t deserve, The nice things that maybe wealthy people can attain and you know, abundance and scarcity comes into our lives in really sneaky ways.

Obviously there’s the very obvious form of monetary and finances and materialistic things, but abundance and scarcity can come into our mind in very sneaky ways. Scarcity mindset can be not leaving a relationship that you feel unfulfilled in because you’re afraid that you won’t find another partner.

Scarcity mindset can also be staying in an unfulfilled job or a toxic job because you’re afraid that you may not find something else. Scarcity mindset is also saying yes to clients who are not in alignment with you and your values because you’re afraid that you may not get or land another client.

Scarcity mindset is going against your values and your ethics and saying yes to business opportunities that maybe are not in aligned with in alignment with you because you feel like another one may not come around. So I have written nothing down for this podcast episode. That seems to be the theme lately with Erica.

 I also just want to quickly talk about how we learn our mindsets, right?

 we weren’t born, knowing lack and limitation. This is something that was learned. This was something that was taught to us from our parents, from our culture, from our community. And if you’re listening to this podcast, then chances are you may be an immigrant. Maybe your parents are an immigrant.

Maybe your grandparents are an immigrant. And the immigrant experience is all about. Uprooting yourself from what you know and going somewhere else to establish a home elsewhere. And there’s a lot of unfamiliarity and you may lack the resources and the language knowledge or just the connections and the opportunities that you had in the motherland, which means that a lot of immigrants may struggle with seeing abundance.

And it’s so crazy because everybody… ends up immigrating in search of abundance, right? Whether that’s an abundance of freedom, an abundance of opportunities, an abundance of money, an abundance of land, right? It doesn’t matter exactly what type of abundance people are looking for, but that’s typically why people have immigrated.

So if you’re listening to this podcast and you come from either an underserved community or maybe immigrant background, or maybe you’re, you are an immigrant yourself, then you. More often than not, more likely than not, have been taught. Scarcity mindset and have been taught that there is not enough to go around and have been taught that it’s best to save your money and not splurge or perhaps that you should be very mindful of how much space you’re taking.

Maybe that you should be really humble because if you take up too much space, you will no longer be humble and being frugal is something that a lot of times our cultures really do value. So growing up in my household, actually, I’ll tell you all a little bit about my story from this scarcity / abundant mentality.

So my mom is from Mexico. I’ve talked about this many times. My mom grew up in rural Mexico. She has a third-grade level education. There was a period in time when she didn’t even have shoes. They had no running water, no electricity, but yet they had a farm and they had animals and they grew beans and corn and all of the different stuff.

They were living off the grid before living off the grid was something cool. And they had what they needed because of. the cattle that they had that produced milk for them. So my grandmother would make cheese because they had corn, and they were able to make tortillas. So they had what they needed as far as food goes, but there was not an abundance of money for toys or for anything that our generations in the States have today.

Her life was very different. And when she came to the U S in her early teens, She started working at a restaurant, and I think she told me she was paid 3. 25 or something like that, and she just was taught to save her money and it’s so interesting because, and I don’t know if other people have had this experience, but my mom is a hoarder and she is a hoarder because she grew up on this farm where, yeah, they had enough food, but they never really had materialistic things.

So it hurts her. to get rid of things and let things go. I could go into my mother’s closet and probably find five pairs of new shoes that she doesn’t even know are there because she has so many things. And I say this with so much love. My mom is a clean person, but it’s very hard for her to let go of things.

And if you’re listening to this nodding your head, you’re like, Oh, my mom’s the same way. She can’t even throw away an old food container because she wants to. to use it for her beans or for her rice or for whatever leftovers. So I think this is pretty relatable, right? But this is scarcity mindset. So not being able to let go of something because you are worried, what if I need it?

Oh man, what, but what if we need this? Let’s not get rid of this because then we may need it in the future. And that’s always what her response is. Y que pasa si lo necesitamos? What happens if we need it? So as she, began to work here in the United States and then ended up marrying my dad. They, I’m sorry, they never got married.

My parents were never married. I am lying right now. When she got together with my father, they actually were really poor and they used to live in a horse stall. So these were horse stalls that were turned into apartments and that’s where they lived. They, obviously it was no longer like. Horses no longer lived there, but it was formerly a horse stall.

I know this because of my brother. He’s older than I am. He’s six years older. So he lived a lot of that poverty with my parents. And by the time I was born, my parents had already invested in their first property. And then by the time I was. 10 years old or 11. They had about two or three houses that they owned and about five apartments that they owned and they would rent all of them out.

And then they were each small business owners. So my dad did yard work and my mom cleaned houses and they were workers in their business. So it wasn’t like they had these massive empires. They were the main person directing the business. And then they had like one or two helpers. So by the time that Erica was born and old enough to really know what money was, I grew up not missing anything.

I grew up in a pretty abundant household. And when I turned about 11 or 12, my parents ended up splitting up, and when they split up, they went to court and they pretty much lost everything. Like, so I went from having a really abundant young childhood to my teenage years, having to work to get myself clothes, or if there was anything that I needed.

And I’ve been working since I was 14 and it really, I feel like my mom reverted back to the time when she lived on the farm and so did I because I was living with my mom and we went from this abundant mindset of like, Oh, there’s always kind of enough to, Oh no, there’s not enough. Are we going to have enough?

And I realized I didn’t really share much of my father’s story. I don’t know if he wants me to share anything. So all I’ll say is that he had, he, he also, he was actually probably. In more poverty than my mom and what I know from stories I’ve been told, there was many times that him and his family did go hungry and he was the eldest son and his father was not present.

So he ended up taking that father role and really had to grow up really fast. So for him, it was, I mean, scarcity was literally all he knew and that hunger and drive to not only provide for his mom and siblings, that’s what drove him to the US and then to provide for our family. So that’s his background.

So back to where we are, 12-year-old Erica, parents got a divorce. Everybody’s now struggling financially. And because I have mainly been living around my mom right now, if you aren’t aware, I did move back into my mom’s house to start this business. And I am still here because I keep traveling and my mom takes care of my cat and my Peloton and the dog.

So I’m able to use this as my home base and continue to travel around. Bye. I will never forget when I had told my mom that I was going to leave my tech job, her, I could just see her scarcity mindset coming up and for her, it was like, how is it that you’re going to leave this secure job that guarantees you over six figures of.

Payments it within the year, right? Your paychecks, your salary is over six figures and it’s guaranteed and you don’t have to do that much and it’s less pressure on you because you don’t have to run it. But we also have to understand her version of entrepreneurship is very different than my version of entrepreneurship.

Her version was cleaning houses all day and my version is creating content and doing something I love, right? So it’s just a very different experience, but she could not see the abundance. opportunity for me with taking entrepreneurship. So being that I’ve lived in my mom’s energy, a lot of her comments about scarcity can really begin to register for me. And obviously, I didn’t just hear these comments in the last couple of years. I also heard them growing up even when we were financially okay. But her mentality was that there’s not enough to go around and we shouldn’t spend money recklessly, which I am an agree.

I agree with that as well. And, it’s so crazy how even though I was making six figures when I worked in tech, I still had that mentality of, oh, I’m broke and there’s not enough to go around and I don’t belong in these nice restaurants. And I’ve shared the story about when I’ve tried to take my mom to nice restaurants in the past.

And how she was like, no man destroy in the last two lugares. And then after I kept taking her to these places and she started to get a little bit more comfortable and more familiar with them. Then she felt worthy. Then she wanted to go to them and I’ve shared the story on the podcast before about when I said I took her to a place in Miami and it wasn’t as nice as we thought it was going to be and she goes, I thought we were going to go to a nicer place and that cracked me up because just two years prior when I had taken her to a nice rooftop in San Diego, that’s when she was like, don’t bring me to these nice places. I don’t belong here. That’s specifically what she told me. So now I’m rambling, but the point is being in my mom’s energy.

I’ve had a lot of that scarcity mindset and almost like the shame or feeling guilty when I’ve invested in something for myself or when I’ve, I did not buy a designer bag until. not this summer, but the summer before when I was in Portugal, that was my first ever designer bag. And, this is after having created a multiple six-figure business.

But even then there was a part of me that was like, should I be doing this? This feels irresponsible.

So all of this to say that if you struggle with your thoughts about money, your thoughts about opportunities, it’s not your fault. Chances are that these narratives and these stories were instilled in you. They were told to you. And of course, you are going to believe the stories that you are told. You learn what you are taught.

So it’s not your fault, but you do have the power of tapping into abundance. Every single one of us does. So I want to talk to you all about how to tap into abundance. So what in the world What is scarcity and what in the world is abundance? Scarcity is feeling like there is not enough to go around. Like things are limited, like things are lacked.

Scarcity mindset says, Oh man, because Erica was on the New York times, she took that opportunity away from me and now I’m never going to have that opportunity. Scarcity mindset says, Oh damn, that girl wrote a book. Now I can never write a book or scarcity mindset says, Oh, that person got a raise. That means less money for me.

And that narrative doesn’t help us because that narrative isn’t even true. I mean, if you’re looking for evidence of that being true, I’m sure you’ll find some, but I’m going to give you reasons why it’s not true. So abundance on the other hand is always knowing that there’s enough to go around because there’s always more money.

being printed, more opportunities being created, more love to give around. There’s an abundance of people. There’s like what, 8 billion people on the planet. There’s an abundance of jobs that are created every single day. If you go on LinkedIn and look at the job section, there’s always new jobs posted. Yes, people are being laid off, but there’s always new jobs.

Right. And it’s like, yep, the economy goes down, but it also goes up. Stocks go down, but they also come up. So abundance is knowing that there is always enough to go around and that more is available to you and that it is not limited. It is abundant. It is unlimited.

So if you listen to the podcast episode with Linda Garcia, where we talk about the prosperity plan and we talk about the abundance book, that is a very powerful book. I’ve participated in her, prosperity plan a couple of times and I’ve actually began to do one with my circle of friends. And this book is such a little powerful green book all about.

abundance and what abundance is.

And I’ve also read other books about abundance mindset and how to improve your money mindset and overall mindset, right? Mindset is a lot of what I do. That’s probably about 60% of what I help my clients with their mindset, because mindset matters more than anything. You can have all the strategies in the world, but if you don’t believe in yourself, or if you don’t have the correct mindset or the aligned mindset.

You’re not going to take action. And that’s just the reality. So what I’ve learned through all of my research on abundance is that abundance is going to happen regardless of if you let it into your life or not. And I’m going to give you some examples. If you look outside, there is some trees. I mean, I don’t know where you are, but I’m looking outside right now and there’s two trees in front of me.

And while the tree loses leaves and at some point in the season, when it’s winter, it may lose all of its leaves. There’s always new leaves growing back and I can’t even count the amount of leaves that are on this tree because there’s an abundance of them, right? And if you go outside, if you see grass, you can’t count each blade of grass because there’s so many blades of grass.

You can’t count how many grains of sand there are when you go to the beach because there are so many. And this is all evidence of abundance. And there’s a tree around the block that I see a lot and this tree, I call it the abundance tree because every time I walk by this tree, it has new leaves, it has apples, and it just keeps growing and giving and never in my life.

And I’ve been living in this house for three years, never in the three years that I lived here. And most of these years were during the pandemic when all I was really able to do was walk around the block. So I paid a lot of attention to the trees because there wasn’t anywhere to go because everything was closed in California.

But this tree, I’ve never seen anybody water it. I’ve never seen anybody tend to it. And this tree grows so many leaves and then it grows these apples and they’re not little baby apples. They become big apples. And then those apples fall off the tree. And guess what? Those apples nurture the tree and it keeps growing.

And I call it the abundance tree because it keeps. growing without having to do anything. And that’s exactly how Abundance works. Abundance is available to each and every one of us. But it’s up to us if we want to let it into our lives or not. So I want you to think of a water hose. And I learned about this from the book.

I told you, I’ve done a lot of research on abundance. I heard about this from the book atomic habits and the guy inside of atomic habits talks about abundance, like a water hose, right? Like the water hose is always on, it’s always on, but what happens whenever you bend the water hose? You don’t let water come out.

And that’s what a lot of us are doing with our scarcity mindset. And because we could convince our brains of anything, we’re like, Oh, see, there’s not enough to go around. See, look, this person got laid off. And then that person got laid off and see inflation is really taking over. And that’s why I can’t start my business.

And it’s like, if you’re constantly looking for that, yeah, you’re going to find evidence of that. But that is nothing more than you blocking the water hose and not letting the water come out. and the thing is, all you need to do is release resistance. But so many of us have learned resistance.

We’ve learned resistance from our parents. We’ve learned resistance from generations. We’ve all learned this resistance about being able to receive. It’s also why I talk about the fourth M, which is masturbation, which is allowing yourself to receive, because it’s so hard for many of us in our community to allow ourselves to receive.

Abundance is knowing that your community is out there, that you don’t have to be friends with people who are no longer in alignment for you because there’s more people out there. Abundance isn’t just about receiving. Abundance is also about saying no to the things that are not in alignment for you.

And abundance comes in so many shapes and forms, right? So it can come through money. It could come through friendships. It can come through love, through rest. Through opportunities, through conversations, there’s so much evidence of abundance all around us. And sometimes we fail to recognize that. And as you know, I have started a group called Magnetic Mastermind, which is my higher-level group program.

And what I learned is that all of these people have already started to take action, but what they really need support with is expanding and really becoming magnetic and not playing small and allowing abundance to come into their lives. So I’m taking my mastermind through the 40-day prosperity plan that’s inside of the Abundance Book.

But I decided to test it out with a friend group first. So this friend group consists of, Mariela, of Liz, of Kat Del Carmen, of Karina, of my private client, Jeanette, as well as Cuco. So there’s, Wait, I guess including me, that’s seven of us. Is there that many of us? Hold on. Let me recount.

Yeah. So there’s seven of us and we are currently on day number 18 of this plan and there’s been an abundance of things that have occurred and we’ve only had two meetings and this is moved so much in each and every one of us. So for me, I was able to say no to a client who was not in alignment because I knew that the right clients were going to show up.

And now my mastermind is at 50% capacity of ideal freaking clients, which, by the way, As of today, we, you can now book a call with me. So if you’re interested in this mastermind, go to the link down below. So okay, that’s one of the things that has happened for me. The other thing is I had somebody reach out about a brand deal and they wanted to offer me 40% of what I would normally charge for more work.

And I’m just so proud of myself for saying no. And telling them for that budget, here’s what I can do. And really standing my ground. I also ended up, manifesting speaking at a conference that I really wanted to go speak at. It’s one of the largest Latino conferences. I’m now moderating a panel and I could not be more excited.

I have invested in not one, but two masterminds where I’m going to be a student. And these are the biggest investments I’ve ever made in my life. One of them. You’re going to be like, Erica’s crazy. One of them is a 25, 000 investment. And I had no drama about it because I have proven to myself over and over that when I invest in myself, I generate more money.

I generate more results. And I also am a better coach for my clients. And what kind of coach doesn’t invest in themselves? Right? So. That is just some of the abundance that has happened for me in my life. Oh yeah, there’s another one. So when I wanted to open up my business bank account about a year and a half ago or maybe two years ago, I went to this branch here locally and the person who was helping me was so not taking me seriously because I was in yoga clothes.

I wasn’t wearing makeup. I walked in just like, you know, after class, like it ain’t no big deal. And she was like, you know, you kind of have to put money in the account. And I was like, kind of offended, you know? And she was just putting a lot of roadblocks in my way. It wasn’t like she ever really discriminated against me, but she was like, you have to put money in within 48 hours.

And I was like, yes, I got it. I have money in my Bank of America account. I’m trying to leave Bank of America account and come to chase. Let me open a damn account. And it wasn’t until she finally like. found my, because we had to look up my entity number, my EIN number. I mean, I had some of that stuff, but something we had to look up in the, on the California LLC.

I’m not speaking English right now because I don’t know the damn, I don’t know the name of the directory. The point is once you saw my business was valid and actually learn more about what I did, then she was nice. But. It was so crazy how she was putting all these, she was making these assumptions about me based on my appearance because I didn’t look like a professional.

I didn’t look like a business owner, but it’s like, girl, I’m taking care of my first M of movement and like doing yoga. And like, you know, that’s what a responsible business owner does in the first place. So anyways, that happened two years ago. And literally the week that we started the prosperity plan or the abundance plan.

I got a phone call from somebody at that branch saying, Hey, Ms. Cruz, I’m just calling because I’m your dedicated banker. And I just wanted you to know that you’re paying for a basic account, but you qualify for a large account because of the amount of money that you have in here. You also qualify for this and that.

And I’m here to support you with anything that you need. And it was just such a moment of abundance where just two years ago. They didn’t even want me to open an account there and now I’m being given this personal banker. How awesome is that for my business specifically? Other things that have occurred from other people inside of the group is, oh my gosh, so I’m just going to hype up my client, Jeanette.

She was on the podcast, so you probably heard her episode. It was such a good episode. The journey to freedom. That’s what that one’s called. And she. Has been killing it like she was already killing it before the abundance plan, but since starting the abundance plan She has sold 95. I’m sorry not since starting the abundance plan this year.

She has sold 95, 000 in her business making her ahead of schedule of her goal of a hundred thousand and she’s landed speaking engagements and like Liz and Mariela have attracted amazing clients, dream clients, an abundance of clarity calls. And the reason that I’m bringing this up is because when you have a group around you, that’s keeping you accountable.

about the things that are happening in your life that are abundant. It allows you to look and open for more abundance. So because we’re all in this group together and every day we’re doing these meditations on abundance, which I know I mentioned earlier, but we’re doing this inside of the mastermind. So if you are enrolled in magnetic mastermind, we are going to work on this, but there’s something so magical and special about being in a group That’s keeping you accountable when it comes to abundance Because you are constantly then looking for evidence of abundance in your life And when you keep looking for evidence of abundance in your life Guess what you attract more and more abundance into your life.

Okay. So how in the world do you tap into abundance? The first tip that I have for you, you will need your journal. You will need something to write with, or you can use your voice note I prefer pen and paper, so you do you, but I need you to quickly reflect. The first tip is to identify the stories around lack, limitation, and abundance In other words, what were the stories that you were told about abundance, about money, about opportunities?

Because the first step is always identifying, right? You need to be aware of what narrative you’re telling yourself because unless you know what that narrative is, you cannot change it. So identify what were the money stories you heard growing up? If somebody got an opportunity, did your parents hate on them or did they celebrate them?

How did lack limitation and abundance show up? Okay. The second thing that I want you to do is I want you to rewrite that story. How do you wanna think about money, opportunities and abundance? Because abundance is your birthright, friends. It is your birthright. So I want you to write the story, and then step two is change the story.

And then step three, or tip number three, is I want you to document abundance. I want you to start documenting where in my life am I abundant? Do I have an abundance of health? An abundance of friends? An abundance of good food? An abundance of love from my dog, or my cat, or my friends, or my family. Do I have an abundance of work on my plate that I’m grateful for?

Where can you look for abundance? Is it on an opportunity? It could be your bank account. It does not have to be your bank account. Remember, you can find evidence for anything. So I want you to get in the habit of finding abundance. I don’t only want you to do this for yourself, but as you’re documenting abundance, I also want you to document the abundance that you see in other people, because what is available for one person is available for all of us.

Okay, so if you can even look at me, you’re like, okay, Erica has an abundance of followers or an abundance of podcast episodes or an abundance of the word like inside of her podcast. She keeps throwing it out there as her filler word. So if you see any abundance around that you desire, make note of that abundance.

Did your friend just get a promotion? Amazing! Celebrate that abundance because if your friend got that promotion then the fact that you are seeing it means it’s also available for you.

And we’re going to throw a bonus tip in here. So tip number four, which is very in alignment with what we’ve talked about inside of this podcast episode, Can you find an accountability buddy that you share your abundance with and they share their abundance with you? So maybe this could look like a text once a day.

So, today I noticed an abundance of smiles during my day. Or today, There was an abundance of opportunities to connect with amazing people. And having somebody to share this with is going to keep you accountable because then you can share abundance from one another. And maybe this friend will share a form of abundance that you didn’t even know you had in your life too until they brought it up for you, right?

Like, what if they’re like, Oh, I had an abundance of time to sleep over the weekend. And you’re like, wow, I didn’t even think about that. So there’s just so much power in community. And then, obviously, if you really want to tap into abundance with a structured community, then, of course, I invite you into Magnetic Mastermind, and I would love to have you.

So abundance is in conclusion Abundance is available to each and every one of us And when you are focusing on abundance in a community setting, your abundance just continues to increase and increase. And when you are abundant, you are also allowing the people around you to become abundant. I hope you enjoyed this podcast episode of me pretty much rambling.

And if you have found yourself in scarcity mindset, just to recap, this is Not your fault. But you are able to change that narrative. You’re able to change the story that you’re telling yourself. And if you want to work with me in Magnetic Mastermind, the doors are now open. We are at 50% capacity. We only have five spots left.

 So schedule your call using the link down below, and I cannot wait to work with you. And I’m wishing you all the good vibes and all of the abundance. And I will see you next week.