Books have changed my life in so many different ways. Every time I want to make a change, or grow, or even if I’m just curious about a topic, I do a little bit of research and pick up a book. I can’t tell you how much good it’s done for me. Even just one book, the Alchemist, has changed the trajectory of my life three times! The Alchemist gave me the courage I needed when I wanted to break off my engagement, when I left my six-figure tech job, and when I decided to move back home. I needed a new perspective to give me the courage I needed to make those changes, and I found it in that book.

Books are an amazing way to start your self-development journey. They’re accessible, convenient, and full of information. You can find books online, at your local bookstore, and for free at your local library. You can get a library card for a few bucks, or sometimes even free! Books are an incredible resource, and in this episode, I’m sharing a few of my favorites. 

In this week’s episode, I’m going to share the 10 books that changed my life and why you’ll want to read them too. I’m sharing everything from fiction to non-fiction, some books on creativity and discipline, and some books from authors I personally know! I also share their corresponding podcast episodes if you’re interested in learning more about their books and their journeys. If you’re ready to take the next step and start attracting your most amazing life, this episode is for you. 

Resources Mentioned:
EP. 75: The Ultimate Courage Project: How Linda Garcia Pivoted to Teach POC the Stock Market with Linda Garcia
EP. 113: Cultura and Cash: Managing Finances & Cultural Expectations w/ Giovanna González
EP. 140: Become Financially Lit with Jannese Torres

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How to work with Erika:

Sign up for the “The Purpose Pivot” webinar here.

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Podcast production for this episode was provided by CCST.

Episode Transcript:

Erika: Hello friends. Welcome back to another episode of Chingona Revolution podcast. I’m excited for today’s episode because I have not done something like this before. What if I told you that you could learn about virtually any topic in a really cost effective way, and it doesn’t require you going back to school.

It doesn’t require a ton of money and you get to do it at your own pace and whenever it’s convenient for you. You’re probably like sign me up. Well, what if I told you that is the power of books? Yes, the power of books. A lot of books are people’s life works. If it’s a psychologist or a scientist, this is research that they’ve maybe conducted their entire life and then put it into a book for us.

A lot of us who lack mentorship and are looking for it can actually find it in books. Reading a book is the best way to quote unquote pick someone’s brain. And if you’re listening to this and you’re like, damn, Erica, I’m not a huge reader. Neither was I. I was not a big reader, but I do think that as women of color, or if you come from an underserved community, it is so important for you to have access to knowledge.

And until recently, we had the ability to read any book, any time, and now there have been talks about eliminating certain books, and historically that’s what has happened, whenever colonizers are looking to erase books. The past, right? It’s what literally what the Spaniards did, not just Spaniards, right?

But the European colonizers did to the Aztecs, like they burned all of their text, all of their, all of the evidence and that now, now I’m going off topic here. Point is, even if you aren’t a big reader, I encourage you To read, but not just read anything. Don’t just read something ’cause I’m telling you, oh, this book was life changing.

Read what is appealing to you because us who didn’t have mentorship, or parents who worked in corporate or who knew how to guide us, who knew how to be mentors For us, we can benefit so much from books. I’ve learned a tremendous amount of things from the books that I am going to share with you today, and if you have a hard time sitting down to read, I encourage you to think of other ways.

You can look up book summaries on YouTube. If you have Spotify Premium, they have Books that come included in Previum and they are audio books. Most of the books that I’m going to talk about today, I also have them in audio version. I am a huge audio book person. Whenever I’m in the car, when I’m on an airplane, if I’m out for a hike, I’m usually listening to a podcast or an audio book because I absolutely love learning and that’s always been a thing for me.

But it wasn’t until recently, like in the last, I don’t know, 10 years that I really began to see the value in books. And this all happened after I called off my engagement and I ended up spending so much time alone. And I was looking for more meaning, more connection, more, more for myself. I really wanted to learn more about who I was and where it was that I wanted to go.

And I was craving more in my life. And I ended up turning. to books. And through reading is where I really came across spirituality and mindfulness and self development. And I remember as a kid, I always loved whenever motivational speakers would come and speak to us. I should have known that I was going to end up doing something like this, but you know, you don’t know what you don’t know,but one thing was certain.

And that was that I loved self development So what I want to do today is I want to share with you. 10, it might be 11, 10 books that changed my life. And these are books that I have read over the last 10 years that changed the way that I thought. I mean, there’s so many more books that I would actually recommend, but these are books that shifted the way that I was thinking.

They shifted my mentality. And I feel like they still are books that I can go back and read. And a lot of these I haven’t read in years, so it’ll be interesting whenever I summarize my takeaways and what it was that I liked about these books. But in no particular order, I have a combination between self development books, spirituality books, creativity books, women’s health books.

So these are all books. Books that I would go back to and read or hand to a friend. So I’m gonna start with my favorite book ever and this is the only book in the pile that is a fiction book. So if you don’t know the difference between nonfiction and fiction, What helps me is I just think of the word, instead of fiction, I think fake.

So if it’s non fake, then that means it is all about, you know, like more of a self help book. If it’s fiction, then that means it’s fake. It’s like a story. That helps me. So this is the only fiction book, but it is. Hands down my favorite book ever. And it is The Alchemist. It is such a classic book. This book is written by Paulo Coelho and this book is all about a boy named Santiago who is based in Spain and he has this reoccurring dream of a treasure in Egypt, at the pyramids of Egypt.

And this book is all about his journey going to go look for This gold, this treasure chest in Egypt, but the real story isn’t necessarily the treasure. It’s about the journey getting there. It’s about how Santiago had to walk away from everything he knew in Spain and make his way down to Africa and just letting go of old identities, finding new identities, everything he learned along the way.

And he’s pretty much in pursuit of his, what they call in the book, his personal legend. Which is nothing more than your life’s purpose or your life’s calling and it’s so interesting because there’s so many times in the book Where he’s given an easy out to no longer follow his personal legend and as the founder of Courage Driven Latina which used to be called Purpose Driven Latina, this book speaks to me so much because how, how willing are you to live your life’s purpose and what will you do in the face of challenges and and Who are you going to become in the face of those challenges?

So I mean, this book is incredible. This is probably the book I’ve read the most. The first time I read it, I gained the courage to walk away from my engagement. The second time I read it, I gained the courage to walk away from a six figure tech job. The next time I read it, I gained the courage to pretty much not, I don’t want to say say bye to my independence, but I grew the courage to move back home, which was a very big blow to my ego.

Cause I’ve always been this very independent woman. And This book, every time I read it, I feel like I get something new out of it. But at the core, it’s really about following what is for you, but it’s written in such an easy to read story, but there’s so many messages and so much significance in it.

I mean, we’re talking self development, spiritual, mindfulness stuff. It really is an incredible book and I think what’s even cooler about it is I once saw an interview with Oprah and the author of Paulo Coelho and he said he wrote the book and nobody bought it and one day a traveler, he’s Brazilian, one day a traveler is from the United States was in Brazil.

And this must’ve been years after he published the book. I don’t remember how many years, but the person bought the book and liked it so much. They went back to the bookstore and got another one. And those were the first two sales of the book. But that person happened to be an American and brought the book back and ended up making it popular here.

And it ended up blowing up. But I mean, I’m pretty sure this happened. I should have Googled this, but I’m pretty sure this happened years after writing this book. And even that in itself is amazing to me because Paulo Coelho, his parents thought there was something wrong with him because he was so creative.

And he ends up writing this transformational life changing book that, I mean, celebrities ended up reading it and it really became a bestseller. So it went from like going gears on the shelf with nobody buying it to becoming a bestseller. So that in itself, I absolutely love the book. Okay, next on the list, another classic.

It is The Four Agreements. And this one is by Don Miguel Ruiz. And this talks about four Rules of life. I don’t want to use rules of life for a literally, let’s just use the name of the book, the four agreements of life to live a peaceful, to live a fulfilling life. 

So the four agreements are very simple, but they are not easy. And this is also a book that I’ve read many times and every time I read it, I’m like damn, I needed that reminder. I needed to be reminded of this. So the first agreement is be impeccable with your word. What does that mean? That means speak with integrity.

Say only what you mean, not only to other people, but to yourself. How is it that you are speaking to yourself? Because you don’t talk to anybody else more than you speak to yourself. And he pretty much says how you can use the power of your word. And use it as a sword or use it for love, right? You can hurt somebody so much with your words or you could bring someone up And you can use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love or not And again, not just for other people but for yourself and sometimes we say things and we don’t intend to be Rude or mean but it can totally come off that way So this book just really helps with your self awareness.

The second agreement, which is the one that I constantly come back to and I constantly think about, is don’t take anything personally. So he says, nothing others do is because of you, what others say and do is a projection of their own reality, of their own dream of, you know, I, my aunt says, every, every head is a world.

Everybody’s brain is its own little world.

 When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering. This is so true. I mean, y’all, we as human beings take everything personally and it’s not our fault because it is human nature to immediately think about ourselves in any circumstance.

As you’re listening to this podcast, you ain’t worried about me. You’re like, how can this help me? How is this going to benefit me? Or if you’re about to post something on social media and you’re feeling really vulnerable, you’re like, what are people going to think about me? Or if you hear people whispering in a corner, you’re immediately going to ask yourself, are they talking about me?

Right. And whether this is in your business, uh, creating content in your romantic relationships, in your family relationships, if you can live. By this agreement of not taking anything personally, which is so much easier said than done, you are going to have so much peace in your life. The next agreement is don’t make any assumptions.

Have you ever been in a relationship with somebody and then they’ll say something to you and you’re like, Whoa, you totally just assumed that. Or whenever you’re talking to your friends and then they’re like, oh, and then this, this, this, and then you realize it’s their assumption. This wasn’t actually a fact.

I mean, my friends and I do this all the time. It helps that we’re all coaches, right?because we’ll ask, is that the truth or is that the story you’re telling yourself? And that is a great question that you can ask yourself whenever you aren’t sure if you are making assumptions. so the description under, under this is find the courage to ask questions and express what you really want.

Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness, and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life. And then the last agreement is always do your best. Your best is going to change from moment to moment. It will be different when you are healthy as opposed to when you’re sick.

Under any circumstance, simply do your best and you will avoid self judgment, self abuse, and regret. I love this one because I remember when I was a yoga teacher, we used to say find your edge, and your edge was the most that you could go. And what we meant by that was what, how far can you go today, right?

 yeah, in yoga, maybe one day your best was doing a pushup as you were doing a downward dog or a chaturanga. And other days it was literally letting yourself be in child’s pose and letting yourself take a break. And both of those are versions of doing your best. So what does your best look like today?

Is that going to go take a nap or is that pushing yourself to go run five miles? And only you know the answer to that.

Okay, book number three.

Let’s go to a more practical strategic book. Atomic Habits. This is such a classic. It’s all about habit formation. And I haven’t read this book in a while. It’s probably been, geez, probably five years since I’ve read this book, but I still remember the main concepts and what it was that stood out from this book.

I’m pretty sure I also have this book in an audio book and I just listened to it the last time, but I got the physical book as well because sometimes I like to look at the physical book. Have I actually used it? Probably not, but it is a very good book to help you. change habits, especially, I mean, I wanted to record this podcast episode being that we’re at the beginning of a new year and people are really doing their best to keep up with their new year’s resolutions or adopting new habits or letting go of old habits.

This is a phenomenal book. He really creates practical steps as to how you can Not just stop doing a habit because that’s actually really hard to do, but how you can go from transitioning the habit from a not so positive one to a more positive one. And he has systems to help you do it as well. So one of the, the, I guess, ideas that he says is, every action you take is a vote towards the person that you want to become.

So if you want to be this disciplined in shape person, every time you go to the gym, You’re like casting a vote for that identity and that version of you versus every time you hit and snooze on your alarm and just stay home and don’t work out, you’re opting for the opposite of that. You’re, you’re voting for the identity or the version of you that isn’t disciplined.

That doesn’t go to the gym often. Another thing that he also says is a good way to stop doing things is by making it really hard to do them. So perfect example would be let’s say you want to eat less candy or less chocolate. Well, don’t keep it on your desk. Why don’t you make it difficult or add some barriers?

So that it doesn’t be it’s so that it’s not so easy for you to just pick up and grab and eat. So maybe you put it in a little box that has a lock on it and the key is somewhere else and you have to go get the key and blah, blah, blah. Or if watching TV is something that’s really an issue for you, unplug the TV so that every time you want to go watch the TV, you have to plug it in and do all this extra work because that makes it less appealing.

And then the other thing is make the positive habits more appealing. I mean, I’m literally giving you all the quick summary based on what I remember from five years ago. I’m pretty sure in this book he’s also talking about how it actually takes about 90 days to form a habit, which varies, right? It can happen sooner, it can take longer, depending on the habit itself.

But I highly recommend that book if you are looking to form healthier habits. And I mean, I’ll tell you inside of courage driven Latina, I use a lot of the principles from that book when it comes to crafting courage projects, which, which is what every person inside of CDL works on because in CDL, we’re literally helping people change habits.

okay, book number four, Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert. The voiceover or the audiobook of this is really good. I love her voice. She is actually the author of Eat, Pray, Love, but this is my favorite book of hers because it’s all about how to live creatively without fear. So if you want to make art, create content.

Write, maybe write a book or write poetry. If you want to do anything creative, it requires a tremendous amount of courage. And this book is all about how to allow yourself to be creative. Even though it’s really scary and really vulnerable to be creative. I mean, just think about it. Imagine that you’re a painter, and then people are suddenly coming to, like, see your work.

You’re literally opening yourself up to being critiqued. But the other thing about this book is that what she also says is a lot of times we are lacking fulfillment, and it’s because we’re not allowing ourselves to be creative anymore. And this was a big book for me when it came to content creation and showing up.

So highly recommend again, the audio book is fantastic. And there’s also a little bit of spirituality in it, which I love, but still practical at the same time. So that one was big magic. There’s a few that I don’t have the physical copy of and I didn’t want to talk about, but let me get through the ones that are physical and in front of me right now. So the next one that I want to talk to you all about book number five is the hidden messages in water. And this book is written by Masaru Emoto.

He’s Japanese, a Japanese researcher, and I’m just going to read the little summary as soon as you open the book. This book has the potential to profoundly transform your worldview. Using high speed photography, Dr. Emoto discovers that crystals formed in frozen water reveal changes when specific concentrated thoughts are directed toward them.

 He found that water from clear springs and water that had been exposed to loving words Shows brilliant complex and colorful snowflake patterns in contrast Polluted water or water exposed to negative thoughts forms incomplete asymmetrical patterns with dull colors The implications of this research create new awareness of how we can positively impact the earth and our personal health.

Okay, if I totally lost you there, don’t worry, I’m going to explain. What this guy did is he took samples of water and then they would do post its or just speak to the water or play different music and what they found is whenever they had loving, messages. So for example, they did a little test where they had children do this and the children said, you’re beautiful.

A few times to the water, it formed these beautiful, beautiful crystals. And if you’re looking at the video version, I’m showing them to you right here or any words like thank you or love, love and gratitude. It came up with this beautiful, beautiful snowflake. Yet, whenever they said mean things to the water, so for example, you fool, it’s all distorted and different colors and dull, or this one down here says, you make me sick, I will kill you.

And it is just very non symmetrical, no crystals were actually formed. And you’re probably like, okay, what, what, Erica, what does this mean? So it wasn’t necessarily the words written or the words said, what they found was that The water absorbed energy. So if you walk up to a glass of water and you say, you’re amazing.

I love you so much versus if you say you fool, I will kill you. The water literally picks up that energy and they were able to capture it through photographs. So if you can literally just Google the hidden messages in water images or something like that, you can see the images from the water that had the positive notes or the negative notes.

And again, this could be. They had, they did a few different samples of this, they did a few different, uh, tests of this. Sometimes they just like wrote the word on the water and left it there for a little bit. Other times they just exposed the water to music. So they exposed the, the water to Beethoven, classical music, and then they found these beautiful crystals formed.

And then they exposed the water to heavy metal and then it was all deformed. So what does this mean for you as a

Inside your body are 70 percent water, more than 70 percent water, the way you are talking to yourself or just the energy of you towards you is being carried in your body. Or when it comes to, I think it was Frozen, the movie Frozen, they were like talking about how the water holds memory and they talk about that in this book as well, how water holds vibration, water holds frequency and water holds energy.

So, us as individuals, but also planet Earth, is all affected by the words that we use and the energy that we have.

And anybody spiritual is like, oh yeah, of course, duh. But the reason this book is so life changing is because they did researchthey were able to capture this with water and by freezing water. 

Okay, hold on real quick. Before we continue on with this episode, I have a question for you. Have you ever woken up and thought, there has to be more to life than this? If so, I feel you, I was stuck in a job that looked perfect on paper, but felt empty inside. And if you are in the same situation, you are not alone.

Most of the women that I work with feel the same way, like they should be grateful for what they have yet deep down. They also feel this calling and they know that they are meant for more. And then comes the guilt. Who am I to want more? Especially when I already have so much more than my parents did, I should just be grateful.

But let me tell you something, wanting more doesn’t mean that you are ungrateful. It means that you are ready to step into your full potential.

Some of my clients are pivoting into new industries. Others are saying forget the industry and they are starting their own businesses and working for themselves. Others are looking for more meaning through creating content and impact. But they all have one thing in common.

They are finding their way back to their purpose and to fulfillment.

And this is a common thing I’m seeing in our community. We are no longer just chasing titles or chasing money. We’re really in it for impact and meaning, especially in today’s climate.

and that is why I’m hosting a free live webinar called the purpose pivot, dare to dream again and align your career or business with your calling in 90. days. It’s happening on Wednesday, March 5th at 5 p. m. Pacific time. In this webinar, I will share how I went from a stable yet unfulfilling tech career to building a purpose driven business that aligns with my true calling and how you can discover your purpose as well.

Here’s what you’ll learn. The surprising reason why ambitious mujeres feel stuck and how to break free. You’re going to learn how to align your career or your business with your calling without walking away from everything that you’ve already built. I’m also going to share the proven strategies that worked for me and hundreds of clients in order for them to not only find their purpose, but also live their purpose.

So be sure to save your seat. The link is down below or you can just go to courage driven latina. com and secure your spot there.

Also be sure to tell a friend, be sure to tell your bestie because courage loves. company. It’s so much easier to do hard things when you do hard things with amazing people by your side. So again, this is happening on Wednesday, March 5th at five o’clock Pacific time. You can register using the link down below, or you can go directly to couragedrivenlatina.

com. there is a cherry on top

Webinar attendees do get an exclusive bonus when the doors for Courage Driven Latina open after the webinar. So I’ve been getting a bunch of questions about when I’m opening the doors again for CDL, for Courage Driven Latina. They are opening again right after the webinar. So talk to your partner. A lot of people have been waiting for the doors to open.

Do whatever it is that you have to do. Get ready for it. If you have specific questions, you can always send me a DM, but definitely attend the webinar.

Amiga, your future self is waiting. I can’t wait to see you on March 5th at 5 PM Pacific time. Okay, the next book that changed my life. Let’s see. One, two, three, four, five. The sixth book that changed my life is called Period Power. This is definitely a book for women. It is all about Learning about your hormones and your cycle and how certain weeks you are going to feel like Beyonce and other weeks you are going to feel like you just want to hide from the world.

This book allowed me to understand me as a, myself as a woman so much better than health class ever had. I feel like this should be required reading for women because I know myself so much more now. There are four phases of your cycle and she talks about all of them and I’m talking about your period cycle And she talks about them in the book She also talks about the importance of ovulation and how hormonal birth control prevents us from ovulating which can affect us in so many different ways.

but I’ll just quickly tell you about the four different cycles. So the first day of your cycle is when you bleed that is considered your winter phase. So what happens during the winter? The days are shorter. There’s not, you don’t have that much energy. You kind of want to stay inside.

You kind of have to keep warm. And that’s kind of the same thing that’s happening. happening to our bodies whenever we are in this winter period. But after you, and of course it can come with different symptoms like cramping and bloating and you don’t really want to be social, which is very relevant to the actual winter season.

But then imagine that you know, a few days into your period, maybe five days later, you’re just starting to feel so much better. You have a lot more energy and that’s considered the spring season. So if we think about what’s happening in nature, right? Flowers begin to brew, bloom, things begin to get green and lush.

And that’s kind of who we are as well during this part of our cycle. And it’s different for everyone, right? Everybody’s going to have different symptoms during different phases of their cycle. I’m just trying to go more generic. But in this spring season, you start to really get a lot more energy. This is when you can get a little bit more work done.

You tend to be a little bit more productive. You could do harder workouts while in the winter, you may be in your winter season. Whenever you’re that week that you’re bleeding, you probably don’t want to go do intense ass workouts. Maybe going for a walk is exactly what you need, or doing some yoga is what you need.

But then in the spring season, you’re like, all right, I’m ready to go to high intensity interval training. For me, I’m like, let me go to kickboxing. And then the week after that is summer and the, the phases can, it doesn’t, it’s not exactly a week, it’s not seven days, seven days, seven days. Everybody’s cycle is different and she talks about it in the book, but then after your spring season is summer and summer is when the days are the longest.

Summer is when your body is. ovulating. It is when your body is ready to make a baby, your sex drive goes up, you have a lot more, your skin is clear. I mean, you’re just like more confident. This is like your Beyonce week. You’re like ready to wear the cute outfit that you’ve been wanting to wear. You want to be social.

It’s a good time to go on dates. It’s a good time to do speaking engagements. You’re ready to be in front of people during this time. And then after the summer comes fall and fall for me personally is my least favorite phase. Fall is, uh, as you begin to come down from your hormones are changing at each of these phases, and she talks about it in the book.

So I highly recommend checking out the book. You’re going to learn so much about your body and why certain days you feel certain ways and why other days you have so much more energy. But fall, I almost call it like the self doubt week. It’s really when you start doubting yourself, you’re like, what am I doing?

You get emotional. And the next thing you know, your period starts and you’re like, ah, that’s why. So your fall season. It’s right before your winter phase, so I didn’t mean to go into detail so much, but this book has been so helpful for me just with running a business, so right now I’m actually in my fall phase, and I knew that I was in my fall phase because I started to feel extra sensitive.

So I saw something on Instagram today where a stray dog brought its little puppy to a vet because it knew that they could help, but the dog didn’t belong to anyone. It was a stray dog and it brought the puppy to the vet because the puppy was unconscious. And luckily the people at the vet took the puppy in and You just see them like reviving the puppy and I was just like crying watching this and I love animals like I feel like I’m just a highly sensitive person already but the fact that I quickly wanted to cry I’m like oh yeah I’m totally in my fall phase right now and it also means I’ve like started to question my business and I start and I’m like oh I’m in my fall phase and just having that awareness of like oh this is the week when this happens I am so much more gentle with myself you Rather than believing these thoughts.

So I think every woman, and again, I think this is something that should be taught in school. Every woman should really learn about their menstrual cycle because we do not work on a 24 hour clock the way men do. We work on a usually 28 day cycle, but again, it could vary for you. You could be 26, you could be 32 days, but on average 28 days.

We are going to feel different every single day. We’re going to have different levels of energy, different levels of positivity. Our hormones are going up and down and it’s very, it’s a superpower for you to have that awareness. And she even talks about it in the book. She’s like, Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. When you know it’s going to rain, you can’t do anything about the rain, but you can bring an umbrella.

So, for example, me this week, me knowing I’m more sensitive, I can’t take away the sensitivity, but I can have compassion for myself. Or if you know, okay, I’m going to be on my, in my winter week, I’m going to be on my period this specific week, let me bring the things that I need. Let me bring sure, make sure that I bring pain medications, um.

Heat patches for cramps, you know, whatnot. All right. The next book that I would like to talk to you all about is kind of in line with Period Power. Not exactly. But this one is called Come As You Are and this is by Emily Nagoski. I hope I said that correctly. She is a PhD and she is a scientist that studies women’s sexuality and women’s health.

This book can feel very science y at the beginning,especially because she goes over anatomy and whatnot, but she also just goes over how people vary sexually and how people have different sexual preferences. Some people are more easily turned off, more easily turned on and how to talk about these things to your partner. And it really, I mean, again, this is something I think should be, that should be read in science class.

And unfortunately it’s not, but it was just such a validating book. It gave me so much, made me feel so much safety around my own body and sexuality and just learning about how our bodies work and how there are different sexual preferences. It’s a good book. Just trust me. This one was also a good, again, because I mentioned at the beginning, it’s kind of sciency at the beginning, but if you do the audio book, she narrates it and I feel like she does a phenomenal job narrating it.

I should probably reread this book. It’s been, it’s been many years since I read that one, but highly recommend. And then the last two that I have here are more about money. So let’s see, how many books have I read? I don’t even know what I’m at anymore. Two Four, six, seven. Okay. So this would be eight and nine.

Also, I can only pick one more from my audiobook because I said I was going to give you all 10. Okay. So I also want, disclaimer, there’s so many books that I’ve read over the last couple of years that are incredible, but these are books that did change my life that I read. When I was starting off on this self development journey, so I mean, even just this month, I read Let Them by Mel Robbins, which was amazing, as well as It Starts With You by Julian, I can’t remember her last name, but she’s like a relationship coach.

Both were phenomenal. But I wanted to do this first episode on the books that really shifted the direction of my life and have led me to where I am today. So one of them is We Should All Be Millionaires by Rachel Rogers. I was a super new business owner when this book came out and she just made it. She made money feel like something that was accessible and safe and something that was our right.

So she talks about how if all of your friends were millionaires, would the world be a better place or a worse place? It would be a better place, right? She also talks about how Beyonce actually ended up contributing more to Hurricane Katrina than the US government did. And how when you have money, you can actually make really positive influences.

The fact that she’s also some type of, you know, coach and speaker. She really just has different practical chapters. So this is more of a business y book and money book. She also has episodes on her podcast. I think it’s like Hello7, I think is the podcast and she has the audio book, like a few different chapters, the audio book version on her podcast.

So if you wanted to sample it, that would be a good one for you. And then overall with Money Mindset, You Are a Badass at Making Money by Jen Sincero. I don’t know why I had a hard time saying that by Jen Sincero. It is a an Italian last name I totally didn’t pronounce that with the right accent. I know cuz I’ve been studying Italian.

But anyway, that is besides the point This is all about Mastering the mindset of wealth and she talks about how you think about money I mean she went from being like a broke college student and stayed broke for Years after to being a best selling author and now has a bunch of these you are a badass books There’s like you are a badass at habits and like and all the I haven’t read that one I’ve only read that you are a badass at making money and it’s been a while since I’ve read it but

If you have a hard time believing that you are worthy of money, I highly recommend this book. if you are looking for more, I mean, again, I mentioned these are books that change the way that I think. I’m gonna throw out a few additional books, especially around money, because some incredible people have come out with books about money.

And they all happen to have also been on the podcast. So Wealth Warrior by Linda Garcia. Let me actually see which episode it is and I can tell you.

And this one’s all about mastering the stock market as a woman of color or a person of color.

Wealth Warrior and Linda Garcia were episode 75. Highly recommend that book and that podcast episode. 

Cultura and Cash by Giovanna Gonzalez is episode number 113, and it’s all about managing finances. and cultural expectations. Freaking incredible. It’s such a good book. Very practical tips, tips, but also looks at the cultural differences between being American, but also coming from Latino roots or just underserved communities that are typically more.

Collective, right, instead of individualistic, where the idea is that you have to, oh, you have to help your parents or you have to do all these different things. Very good book. And then last but not least, also, if you’re looking for a book about money, especially written by a woman of color.

Then I would recommend Financially Lit by Janice Torres.

Okay. Episode number 140 is with Janice Torres and it is all about her book, Financially Lit. The reason I love this book is because not only does it give very practical, practical tips, but she also talks about protecting yourself from financial abuse. And things like pre nups and post nups and her transition from working as an engineer to leveraging her food blog to make passive income and then eventually going full time in entrepreneurship.

Very, very good book. So if money is kind of your thing and that’s what you are looking to, to work on you are about us and making money was the one that initially shifted my thoughts. But I do have to say that these three incredible women have written some amazing books. So definitely check those out or at least listen to the podcast episodes.

We will link all of those episodes down below so that you can check them out as well. 

my tenth pick is The Untethered Soul. That book was my introduction into consciousness, into spirituality, into the way that we, who we are as our consciousness, not our physical body. So, or not our thoughts, because you can be aware that you’re having the thoughts, you’re not the thought, or you would never say, like, M hand, you say my hand, or my name, or, right, it’s something you have.

And I’m not doing the best job at describing it right now, but I, I promise that the Untethered Soul, and the audiobook of it is great as well, is going to make you rethink the way that you speak to yourself, the way that you think about the way that you think about yourself, the way that you think about overcoming traumas.

I mean, I could go on and on about my favorite book, so I’m having a really hard time right now just stopping here, but that is it. We might have to do a part two, but these are the books that shifted my life and changed my direction and allowed me to be the coach, the friend, the person that I am today.

So if you took anything away from this podcast episode, please share it with me. I would love to know Which of these books you got, what was your favorite takeaway, what your favorite books are. And let me know if you would like a second podcast that goes over some of my favorite books. But this episode is all about the books that changed my life.

So thank you for hanging out with me. 

 I will see you all in the next episode. And I did get a few questions regarding when I’m opening the door for Courage Driven Latina again, and that’s actually coming up pretty soon. It’s happening on March 5th. So get your mindset in order, get your finances in order, talk to your partner, ask me questions if you have any, but prepare yourself because March 5th will be the days that The day that we opened doors for Courage Driven Latina again.

All right, y’all. Thank you all so much for hanging out with me. This was a little bit of a longer podcast episode, but I hope you enjoyed it and I will see you next week.