As we close out the year, we naturally start thinking about everything we’ve accomplished and everything we still need to work on. And if you didn’t achieve all your goals, that’s ok! That’s what next year is for. 

For now, let’s organize our thoughts and reset our mindset. Because if you’re anything like me, there comes a point when you’re tired of hiding, and you’re ready to be more visible. That’s how I felt back in 2019, and now I have a successful business, a thriving podcast, and I’ve appeared on National television on multiple TV segments. It is possible, and you don’t have to do it alone. Let’s face our fears together! 

In this week’s episode, we’re working through 10 questions to ask yourself before 2026. If you’re tired of hiding and ready to be visible, pull out your journal and get ready to get reflective. We are entering the new year with clear minds and open hearts. Tune into this week’s episode to kickstart the new year with 10 insightful journal prompts that will help your next courage project become a success. 

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http://www.theerikacruz.com

How to work with Erika:

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Podcast production for this episode was provided by CCST, an Afro-Latina-owned boutique podcast production and copywriting studio. 

Episode Transcript:

Erika: Hello. Hello. Welcome back to this week’s episode of Chingona Revolution podcast. This is your host, Erika Cruz, and I think we are all naturally in this phase of the year, this part of the year in which we’re already reflecting on the previous year. Thinking about our intentions for the next year, and what I wanna do in today’s episode is I want to leave you with 10 questions to ask yourself before the new year, before 2026.

Obviously, if you’re listening to this in the future, you can [00:02:00] still use these questions to reflect on an existing gear leading to another year, but the reason that people end up. Kind of giving up on their New Year’s resolutions is because they. Aren’t very specific on what they want. They, focus too much on creating this crazy elaborate plan and then expecting motivation to be what it is that pulls them through.

But motivation runs out. We all get exhausted. We all get tired. So the key is to. Have a sustainable plan to be disciplined and show up for ourselves even if we don’t feel like it. And that doesn’t mean burning yourself out, right? But it does mean creating goals that are very intentional. But most importantly, and this is what this episode is about, we must become the person that can.

[00:03:00] Achieve these goals and keep these goals because if we do not feel worthy of the thing that we are calling in, then we’re going to go back to our old habits. In other words, in order for you to create a new life, it’s required for you to let go of the old one. And it’s so difficult to do this. I know this firsthand from experience.

But what I wanna go through with you today in the episode is these reflection questions to support you in becoming the version of you who can achieve the things that you want. So the questions that I am going to share with you today, and I, I encourage you. To take the time to reflect on them. If you’re driving, you can just listen, but come back to this episode and pause after each question and really give yourself time to journal on it or to voice note about it, or maybe talk to a friend.

You could do this with a friend, but this is one of those episodes where you will be answering these questions and [00:04:00] reflecting with me as I go through them. And these are not checklist questions with like, here’s your perfect plan too. Achieve all your resolutions in the next year, or to achieve all of your goals in the next year.

These are actually becoming questions. So these are the questions that have helped me transform from hiding to visibility, from, from not allowing myself to be seen, to then becoming visible from overthinking to acting, as well as from fear led to courage led. And this happened for me in 2019. I will never forget that holiday season.

I was like, I am tired of being in the same place and something needs to change, and I was already taking small steps, but I remember that 2019 holiday season. Like it was yesterday, there was almost like a, a shift in in my identity. So if you are in this place where you’re like, I don’t know what’s going to change, but I do [00:05:00] not wanna be in the same place next year as I am right now, and this doesn’t mean that you’re not grateful for everything that you have and that you haven’t worked hard.

Of course, we’re not dismissing any of that. But if you’ve been feeling called to something else and you’re tired of procrastinating, you’re tired of relying on motivation, then this is the episode for you. Before we get into the questions, I would love to invite you to imagine what the version of you looks like in December of 2026. So imagine that we are exactly a year from now, and you are your most ideal self. You have the things you want, you feel the way you want to feel. You have manifested the partner, the money, the job, whatever it is that you are looking to call in.

How does this version of you feel? How does it feel to be this version of you? Where is it that she is sitting? And you can close your eyes to imagine this. Obviously, if you’re driving, please do not close your eyes. [00:06:00] What is it that she’s created? Imagine you, you open your computer and you’re like, damn, this is everything that I’ve created.

What kind of energy does this version of you radiate?

Okay. Well, now that you have set your intention for this future version of you, let’s go ahead and kick off the questions. The first question is, who am I becoming and what beliefs do I need to release to step into her? I know that if you are first gen, this question probably hits for you because we’ve been carrying beliefs that.

We’ve learned from childhood and a lot of these beliefs aren’t even ours, right? So be grateful. Don’t make too much noise. Choose the safe route. Always don’t take risks. You must work twice as hard as everybody else. These are some of the beliefs that that we have. So [00:07:00] when I was, and I’m going to share my reflection, I invite you, if you’re doing this with me, pause the episode.

Allow yourself to journal and reflect on this question. Again, it is, who am I becoming and what beliefs do I need to release to step into her or him? We are inclusive or them, you can use whatever pronoun you would like here. So my response to this in 2019 is. Okay, who am I becoming? I think I was becoming a more confident version of myself that was ready to be authentic because 

I had this belief that I needed to fit in. I was working in the tech industry at a startup. I was surrounded by engineers. So I really had this belief that in order for me to be successful, I needed to go become an engineer, or I needed to learn how to code when the reality was that I [00:08:00] didn’t even care for that, right?

That wasn’t even me. And because I was surrounded. By all of these engineers, and I was surrounded by the tech industry. I couldn’t even think broader. I couldn’t even think to the unlimited possibilities that there were. So I had to release the belief that I was not good enough because I felt like the natural skills I had weren’t. Weren’t important because they weren’t supporting me in getting further ahead in this career. But little did I know that that would be, that coming year of 2020 would be the year the world completely shut down and the year that my business was born and all of those skills that I once hid, even being Latina, it wasn’t that I was ever ashamed of being Latina, but I definitely felt like the only one, and I definitely felt like.

And all these people have a bigger vocabulary than I do, and Spanish isn’t even that necessary here, which wasn’t even true because Spanish speaking Spanish sent me to Spain multiple times. [00:09:00] It, it allowed me to work with some of our partners who were Spanish speaking, so. Even some of these beliefs, they weren’t even true.

They were just deep rooted beliefs because I didn’t feel good enough because I was working in this environment where everybody was so different. So if I wanted to become the version of myself that was confident, that was authentic, those were some of the beliefs that I had to let go. Another belief that I had was that I wasn’t ready yet.

Uh, how could I start a business if I didn’t know what kind of business it was going to be and I needed to go back to school and I needed to go get these certifications and blah, blah, blah. And that was something that I needed to let go of because I was never going to find the clarity until I started taking action.

Honestly, my whole, this whole podcast episode could be just about that one question. But let’s get through them because I wanna ensure that you have time to reflect on yours. And, I’ll just share small bits about my, my responses to these. So question number two is what [00:10:00] fear, what did fear, stop me from doing in 2025, and how do I want to be different this year?

Again, what did fear stop me from doing in 2025 and how do I want to be different this year? I’ll let you pause. Reflect. So for me, this was my holiday season happened in 2019, leading into 2020. So. Fear stopped me in 2019 from getting started. This belief that I mentioned earlier of, oh, I needed to wait until I was ready and I had also had a fear of being judged, right?

And a fear of what are people going to think or say about me? Or when I decided to become a coach, how are people? How am I going to coach people if they know that I didn’t even know what I was doing in my life just a few years ago? So to sum it up, fear stopped me from showing up online. It stopped me from starting a business. It stopped [00:11:00] me from asking questions, and it stopped me from being authentic. It stopped me from doing a lot of different things that year. So what is it that fear has stopped you from doing this leader this year, and how is it that you want your next year of 2026 to be different?

Question number three is what courage project have you been avoiding? What imperfect action can you take this month to change that? So, courage project is more of a, it’s, it’s my own term. If you’re new to the podcast, a courage project is something that you’ve been wanting to do, but it scares you to do it.

So for me, it was starting a business. For me, it was creating content on TikTok. For me, it was. Launching the podcast, all of that is what I would consider a courage project because it’s essentially a project that you want to do. It could be a business or it could be content, or it could be working on your, on your confidence.

But the point [00:12:00] is that it’s something you’re afraid of doing, but you really want to do. And that’s why we call it a courage project. So what’s one thing that you’ve been feeling called to do but you haven’t been taking the action towards it? Maybe you just follow other people who are doing it. Maybe you do research on this, maybe you journal about it, but no action is really being taken.

And then I want you to ask yourself, if I was going to take one small step towards this today, this week, this month, what would it be? And then reflect on that. Question number four is how do I want people to feel when they interact with my personal brand, online or in person? So I’ll, I’ll, that was written from first person. Let me translate it for you. How do you want people to feel when they interact with your personal brand, whether this is online or in.

Person. Remember, we [00:13:00] all have a personal brand. It’s just about are you being intentional about it? And your personal brand is how other people think about you. Feel about you. And this isn’t from the point of, oh my gosh, like do people like me? Do people not like me? This is more about. What persona are you showing up as?

What persona are you putting out there? Are you just being really quiet in your meetings at work, or do you suggest things? Do you ask questions when, let’s say that you have a business, right, and you wanna post online. Are you actually making the offers? Are you telling people about your business? Or are you just posting photos of your kids?

Which there’s nothing wrong with that, right? But if you want to leverage your personal brand to grow your business, you do need to talk about. Your offers, you do need to talk about. You essentially need to kind of sell yourself, right? Personal branding is all about selling yourself and not selling yourself in a sleazy way.

But let’s say that you go into a job interview, you have to sell yourself. In the job interview in order to [00:14:00] get the job. If you go on a date, guess what? You have to sell yourself. And not from a conceited way, but from a place of worthiness. So now I’m going to ask the question again with that context. How do you want people to feel when they interact with your personal brand, whether it’s online or offline?

And for me, that question, that answer was I wanted people to feel like I was this wise person that they could go to for advice. I wanted to feel, I wanted people to feel inspired and motivated after interacting with me. And I, I would love to think that that is how you all feel after listening to this podcast.

If you follow me on Instagram, hopefully whenever you come across my stuff, you feel better rather than worse. And that’s. Key to me that’s really important, so I want you all to be very intentional. How do you want people to feel when they interact with you? Question number five. Oh, this is such a good question. I think we can get so focused on where we want to go, that we forget how far we’ve actually come. [00:15:00] So the question here is, what are you proud of this year? Even if no one saw it? Because self recognition and inner validation is where confidence is built.

So I remember when, in 2019, I started doing this exercise that I then. Gave to my clients and the exercise was whenever I was feeling the sensation or the, I had thoughts that I should be further along. What I started to do is I would write in the last 12 months I have, and then I write. All of my accomplishments, all of my wins, all of the things I tried but failed at, but taught me something really valuable, and I was always blown away by that list.

I was always blown away by how much had actually happened in the last 12 months. And this question. Is exactly that. What is it that you are proud of? What is it that you are celebrating yourself for? Even if nobody else saw, right? Maybe you felt like you could not get through a [00:16:00] week at work and you did.

And of course nobody’s going to come bake a cake for you about that because maybe they didn’t even know that you were struggling. But where is it that you can be proud of yourself? And if you spend time on any question that I go through in this podcast episode, let it be this one. And the reason is that.

When you are proud of yourself, you are building confidence, you are feeling gratitude, and gratitude is the ultimate form of receivership. It’s hard to receive when we aren’t feeling grateful when we’re we’re feeling in lack. So if you spend time on any question, let it be this one. And if I was going to answer this question, there’s a lot of things I’m proud of from.

2019, which is the context in which I’ve, I’ve been sharing, but even just in 2025, there was many times in which I was like, am I doing the right thing? Should I go get a normal job? Is this even what I’m supposed to be doing? What direction [00:17:00] should I go? And I’m very proud of the fact that I did not give up and that I was, I, I don’t wanna say that I went into hustle because I, I didn’t, I didn’t, I didn’t go into hustle, but I did.

Stay resilient and that is one thing I’m very proud of this year. So I would love if you share anything with me, share your response to this question. I would love to hear it. DM me on Instagram. Tell me what it is that you are so proud of yourself for this year, or even a little bit proud of this year. I love hyping people up.

 if you are listening somewhere where you can leave comments, then leave a comment down below What is it that you are proud of this year, because it starts with you or recognize yourself, and then other people will recognize you as well. If you haven’t paused yet to reflect on this question, please do that. But I do wanna share one quick example. So, and it has to do with personal branding, and it has to do with celebrating ourselves. So I was recently on Telemundo. I I did a whole podcast episode about [00:18:00] the behind the scenes of it. And when I was on this Telemundo interview, I remember, um, my, my online business manager, my operations person.

Her name is Brenda. Brenda got up early to help me record it, and Telemundo ended up creating this. This is all, I’m gonna come back to the questions in a second, but this is a quick story I just wanted to share, and it’s coming back to a specific point, but they have a new firewall of some sort where they don’t allow you to screen record, so she couldn’t get it recorded.

Luckily, the interview aired like two hours later, so I was able to capture the interview from my phone. But the, the interesting thing is that after the interview, whenever we didn’t capture the video, she only captured the audio of it. And I mean, this is my technical person, right? She’s technical, and then I tried testing it and it, it wasn’t working either.

So they must have some type of security feature where you can’t record the actual screen [00:19:00] on live tv. Sowhat I thought was, damn, if we do not get. This photo or video. Nobody will ever really know that this happened unless they were watching the news. And I think such a big part of building your personal brand isn’t even like what you do, it’s what you share that you do.

Because I could have been on Telemundo and not told anybody and not shared it to my social media and not done a podcast episode and you all would’ve had no idea. Especially because I was live at like five in the morning Eastern time. Wait, no, I’m sorry. It was six in the four, seven in the morning Eastern time because I was on at.

For my time. So unless you were watching and unless you knew who I was, nobody would really know. Right. And as I think about this question about what is it that you’re proud of, if you don’t recognize yourself, who’s going to recognize you? And I don’t mean you have to go post to your whole life on social media, that’s not what I’m saying, but it, it does [00:20:00] require that you like, in order to be recognized, it starts with you recognizing yourself.

Okay. Question number six, where are you still playing? Small because of cultural, because of culture? Maybe like cultural expectations, comparison or, and if you don’t speak Spanish, that means what are people going to think of me? So where are you still playing small because of culture comparison or what will people think or say?

Go ahead and pause and reflect on that. Personally, I was playing small at work because I felt like I was too much. I felt like I was the only loud one because again, I only worked with engineers and then I also was comparing myself to content creators thinking I could never do that. And I was afraid of what people would think. And it’s so funny, I was afraid of what people that I went to high school would think, and I don’t even talk to them, right?

So a lot of my [00:21:00] clients have also been afraid of posting on LinkedIn because their old colleagues are there, and it’s like, you don’t even work with them anymore. We’re letting these people dictate our decisions and our actions, and they’re not even thinking about us, just like you’re rarely thinking about them and what they’re doing, and we’re so afraid of being cringe.

You’re only cringe until it works and then everybody like wants to be your friend. It’s so crazy. Okay. Question number seven. What future opportunities are you blocking by staying invisible? It is such a common thing to fear being seen if you are a woman of color, if you come from an underserved community, if you are Latina, if you’re first gen, if you’re a child of immigrants, there’s, especially with. Everything going on recently with the attacks on immigration, it does not feel safe to be seen from a, like this is something that has been passed down from generation. So it makes so much sense. So if you are in a circumstance in which it’s not safe for you [00:22:00] to be seen, I want you to take every step possible to feel safe.

But if you are in a place whereYou know it’s safe to be seen. It’s just your own fear. Then answer this question. So, and I’ll give you an example for me, I am a citizen of the United States. If I was to come across ice, I know that in the end I would be okay, right? Even if I was detained. I’m a US citizen.

I understand that that is a huge privilege. Um, but when I, in 2019, I was not very visible because I was so afraid and it had nothing to do with because ICE wasn’t, obviously ICE was around, but there wasn’t a big attack on immigration at that moment. But that was more just my own fears. So if you’re in that same situation where you’re just afraid of being seen, it could be generational trauma because generational trauma has passed down, and I don’t wanna dismiss that.

And while that’s so not your fault, what I will say is what are you missing out on? Or what are you blocking [00:23:00] by staying invisible when it actually is okay for you to be visible? And some examples from my own life is that I would’ve never been found by Harvard. Harvard ended up hiring me to lead meditations for their first gen group.

Because they found me on TikTok, and if I would’ve stayed invisible, they would’ve never found me. I also ended up on the front page of the New York Times for leaving my tech job because I constantly shared my story on social media. I would have never landed half of the speaking engagements, not even most of the speaking engagements.

All of my clients wouldn’t be here. If I was invisible, all my clients find me through my personal brand and through showing up. So, you know, even if you aren’t like a big content person, let’s say that you want to move up in your career. Well, where are you being? Where are you staying invisible, and how can you change that?

So again, this question is what future opportunities are you blocking by staying invisible? Go ahead and pause and reflect on [00:24:00] that. Next question, question number eight. We’re almost done here. What would my life look like or what would your life look like if you stopped waiting for clarity and started trusting courage instead again, what would your life look like if you stopped waiting for clarity and started trusting courage? I think we’re all waiting for certainty.

Like, oh, I need certainty before I can start. But certainty doesn’t exist. Nobody knew that in 2020 the world would shut down, right? That like nothing is certain. And if you keep waiting for a hundred percent clarity, you’re going to be waiting forever. Courage means that you are still taking steps regardless of knowing how it’s going to turn out.

It means starting the business, whether it works out or not, without knowing that it means posting the video without knowing if it’s going to go viral or do well, or maybe getting mean comment. It means starting the podcast even when you aren’t [00:25:00] sure if you have the right name for your podcast show or if you don’t even know exactly how you’re going to edit.

Courage means to figure it out as you go. It means that you’re afraid, but you still take the action. So what would your life look like if you stopped waiting for a hundred percent clarity and certainty and started trusting courage instead, started trusting it was going to work out as you went. Go ahead and pause and reflect on that. And let me just share that. This is what changed everything for me. I stopped waiting for clarity when I was building my personal brand, and opportunities kind of started coming my way. I didn’t really know what I was doing, but what I knew is I need to keep going. I need to keep showing up. I need to keep leaning on courage.

I remember when I. Started my program, courage Driven Latina. At that point, it was called Purpose Driven Latina. I had a sales call or a consult call, and the first person said yes, and then I was like, oh my gosh. How do I charge her? How do I accept payment? I [00:26:00] literally did not know how I was going to do that until somebody had said Yes.

People think they need to have everything figured out, but it’s like, imagine if you spend all this time building out beautiful systems and then you finally go to land your first client and then realize it wasn’t even what you wanted to do, and then you did all that work for nothing. In my opinion and what I teach inside of Courage Driven Latina is we ghetto first draft it a ghetto First draft is the most simple, basic form of testing out your project to see if you like it, and if so, you improve as you go, but you don’t wait for perfection because if you wait for perfection, you’re going to be waiting forever. Question number nine, what are you done caring. Into 2026. So in other words, what are you letting go going into 2026? What’s something that’s been with you? Maybe you are having a hard time with being patient. [00:27:00] Maybe you are constantly laying in bed before you go to sleep, overthinking your entire life.

What is it that you want to let go of? What is it that you wanna just surrender? Because when we are holding on really tight. We are not allowing possibility. So what is it that you are trying to control? What is it that you want to let go of in 2026? Because remember, we can’t become the new version of us if we’re holding onto the old version.

So what is it that you are done holding onto in this year of 2025 that you wanna let go for 2026? I will let you. Pause and reflect when I answered these questions in, in 2019 going into 2020. I remember I was done carrying perfectionism. I was done with comparing myself. I was done with beating myself up. I spent so much time beating myself up because I wasn’t where [00:28:00] I wanted to be, and I was so focused on where I didn’t wanna be that it was hard to envision where I did want to go because if we think about law of attraction, what we focus on grows.

I was so focused on what I didn’t want, that I kept creating more of what I didn’t want.

And last but not least, question number 10. If you fully trusted yourself, what dream would you commit to? Loud, visibly and unapologetically? And this question totally changed my life again. It is if you fully trusted yourself, what dream would you commit to? Loudly, visibly, and apologetically. Making a decision is one of the most powerful things you can do.

It’s part, we have something called the courage cycle. Inside of Courage driven Latina, make a decision is the first step of that courage cycle. In order for you to take steps forward. It’s vital. It’s important that you make a decision. [00:29:00] But some of you all, and I know this from experience, this was me as well, we have one foot in, one foot out.

We kind of wanna do this thing, but we’re not fully committed. So that’s why this question is how can you commit to it loudly, visibly, and unapologetically? What is it that you’re going to go all in on? And in 2019, I decided that I was going to figure out what kind of business I was going to start, and I was going all in, even if I had not a hundred percent certainty.

And I actually said by December of 2020. I am going to leave this job, and I made that decision and I ended up leaving the job like three months before that. But it took me making that decision when you decide. When you are a hundred percent into that decision, and again, it doesn’t mean that you know how it’s going to happen or when it’s going to happen or what the details are, but simply making the decision changes you energetically, it changes you from an identity [00:30:00] perspective.

It changes. If you listen to last week’s episode, you self concept changes. You, you then make that decision. It’s like, let me think of an example In real life. Which this is also real life, right? But like a more common one. Let’s say that you are debating whether you are going to go to Target or to Trader Joe’s.

Hopefully you have a Trader Joe’s where you live, because it is my favorite store ever. If you make a decision that you are going to drive to Trader Joe’s, you start driving towards Trader Joe’s, you hit a detour, you just go around. You get to Trader Joe’s, but now imagine that you’re like, okay, I think I’m gonna go to Trader Joe’s.

And you start going and then they’re doing construction. So you hit a little detour and you’re like, oh, okay, well I guess this is a sign I’m gonna go to Target. So then you start driving to Target, and then there’s like too many potholes. So you’re like, oh, let me go back to Trader Joe’s. And it’s like you never get anywhere you’re going because you’re constantly driving from one to the other, to the other, to the other.

That is [00:31:00] what we look like when we haven’t made a fully a decision on what it is that we want to do. So. If you fully trusted yourself, which right now, remember, you’re embodying this version of you, a year from now, you’re embodying your higher self. What is it that you would commit to? What dream would you commit to?

Even if there may be some obstacles along the way, make a decision. Do it loudly, visibly, unapologetically. It doesn’t mean you have to go post it on social media, but make a decision for yourself. Share it with a friend. Do what what you can to hold yourself accountable. So these questions are not necessarily about doing more, they’re not about hustling, it’s about becoming more you. I hope you’ve enjoyed this podcast episode. Hopefully you paused, took notes, reflected. I would love to hear from you. I would love to hear what came up for you. Be sure to share this episode with a friend and if you would like my support stepping into this version of you, the one that you met at the beginning of this [00:32:00] episode, then I invite you to work with me inside of Courage Driven Latina.

I am currently, if you refer to this podcast episode because. I currently have a bonus going on, and that is when you join Courage Driven Latina, you will get a free 90 minute personal branding intensive with me, which that personal branding intensive is $999. You get that completely free when you join me inside of Courage Driven Latina, and at this moment the program is 12 months access.

So then you get to work with me 90 minutes to really figure out your personal brand, whether it’s on social media or off social media. And then you get to work with me for an entire year. You will get the built-in, accountability that I just referred to. You’ll be surrounded by other amazing women who are building businesses, building their brands, creating content, building their confidence.

And this is the work that will help you walk into 2026 Proud. And it doesn’t take a whole year to get [00:33:00] results. You get results really, really quick. So if you’re ready to walk into 2026 visible and aligned, then join me inside of Courage Driven Latina. This bonus does close on. December 3rd, which is very shortly after this episode comes out, but if you refer to this podcast episode, I will honor the bonus for you.

Okay, friends, I will see you next week. Thank you so much for joining me, and I hope you have wonderful, wonderful holiday season. I’ll see you next week. [00:34:00]