Interview with Leonor Herrera
In this episode, we will uncover 3 keys:
- The Importance of Mindset in Business Success
- Overcoming Shame and Judgment
- Understanding and Embracing Self-Worth
A Podcast Transcription
Episode 46: From Struggle to Success: My Money Breakthrough Journey ~Money Mindset Coach Leonor Herrera Del Rio
Intro
Odiva Vasell: (00:33)
Welcome, welcome, my fabulous fempreneurs! I am excited to have here with me today Leonor Herrera, and she is gonna discuss with us the money mindset breakthrough that us female entrepreneurs need to focus on because this is the breakthrough that is really going to take your business to the next level. Welcome, welcome, Leonor.
Leonor Herrera: (01:04)
Thank you so much, Odiva. I am so happy to be here sharing, you know, more insights for all the women that are out there trying to move forward and just go to the next level of income. I love to share my insights and all the things that I’ve learned based on my experience as well.
The Importance of Mindset in Business Success
Odiva Vasell: (01:23)
And I love this because I think it’s something that we need to talk about more because when you have years and years of programming about beliefs, and limiting beliefs at that, about money mindset and about what you can achieve in your business, it’s time to do the deprogramming and move to the next level.
Leonor Herrera: (01:49)
Yes.
Odiva Vasell: (01:50)
So let’s start at the beginning. Tell us how you started in business. Where did you start?
Leonor Herrera: (01:56)
Yes, well, you know, I actually, you know, started really young. Back when I was living in Mexico, I actually had a paper store, but then, you know, you go through the years, and then I’m married. I started working in the educational field. I was a teacher for many years, and then I actually had a little school where I used to teach children Spanish as a, you know, as a second language. And then we moved, so I continued teaching, and then, for, you know, family needs, my older child had some health problems, so I decided to stay home to stop teaching. But I didn’t want to be without an income, you know, so then I started my first nanny agency. That was back in 2008, and I started a nanny agency. My nanny agencies are still working. We place nannies in six different cities here in the US. And then people always ask me, “So how did you do it? How did you work and how did you manage the family?” I mean, my children are grown-ups now, but people used to ask me. And at the beginning of my entrepreneurial career, I was doing okay. I’m always very well organized, so I had strategy in place, I had everything, but it was hard for me to get the clients. It was hard because I didn’t have the right mindset. And as we all know, the mindset is the powerhouse, the foundation. If you don’t have it right, you have a very hard time, you know, being in a successful business. But I went on, you know, with the nanny agencies, and I actually grew them with a lot of work, you know, just pushing through and a lot of work. And years later, it’s when I realized, you know what, I stumbled upon a lady that works with the mindset, and that’s when I realized this is what I need. And I started working on my own mindset, on my own money mindset, and then I decided to become a certified coach because I think it’s needed, and I think, you know, especially for women in business, it’s something we really need. Because we do a lot of things, we can do a lot of things, but it’s always, you know, that little voice that says, “You can’t. Maybe you’re not ready. You’re not good enough. This is not going to work. No, no, no, you’re being too ambitious,” things like that, what we are constantly thinking, and sometimes we don’t even recognize them, we don’t even notice that.
Odiva Vasell: (05:14)
Yes, I think that is the key factor. Like the years of what you’ve been seeing and experiencing and hearing from other generations and other people around you can affect you in a way that you haven’t even recognized. And so we are excited to be entrepreneurs, and we jump into this business, and then we can fall into the mindset of it’s all about hard work. Now, hard work is a part of it, and you achieve much of your success through very, very hard work.
Leonor Herrera: (05:50)
Yes.
Odiva Vasell: (05:51)
But sometimes we get into the mindset that’s the only thing you can do, and you are getting to the phase of burnout and exhaustion and wondering why you can’t just move to the next level.
Leonor Herrera: (06:04)
To the next level. And the reality is that hard work can only take you so long. I mean, it doesn’t actually take you to a higher level. It helps you to just go through the day and keep going, but it doesn’t take you to the level where we want to go, where ambitious women like us want to go. It keeps you in the same line. It keeps you, you know, doing okay but not doing the way you envision because there are only so many hours in the day, so many days in a week. So even if you keep working, keep working, keep working, let’s pretend that you’re not going to burn out, but you only have 24 hours. That’s it, no more.
Odiva Vasell: (07:01)
Okay, so that’s a great point because, you know, the people who don’t even join the entrepreneur journey—they’re working for companies, they are just working and putting out and not much changes in their lives. There’s no taking care of self, there’s just—they’re just on this, I call it, kind of a factory.
Leonor Herrera: (07:29)
Yes.
Odiva Vasell: (07:30)
A factory line, and they’re just going, going, going, going until it’s time to retire, should they make it there. But when we look at being an entrepreneur, it’s like entrepreneurship is like therapy.
Leonor Herrera: (07:49)
Well, it is a magical world because when you start, when you are an entrepreneur, you go through a life-changing journey. Your personal growth starts. I mean, it completely changes; you start a different path, and that’s the only way you can succeed when you’re an entrepreneur. A lot of people start and they quit because they don’t utilize or they don’t start working on their personal growth as well. But you have to if you want to succeed in this career. You have to introduce that personal growth factor in there. But you’re right, going back to the working hard, that’s one of the major, I would say, money blocks that we have, you know, as women. Because we’re so used to work, work, work, give, give, give. And generation after generation, we see our mothers working hard all the time, and they’re the last ones that go to bed, they are the first ones that wake up in the morning, and they need to keep working and working and working. And if you add that you grew up with a father that used to work really hard and work all the time, then yes, it’s imprinted in your subconscious that you need to work very hard in order to make the next dollar. And you keep doing the same, and you know, the cycle continues and continues, and you keep going the same way. That, for me, working hard, I would say, is probably one of the major money blocks that I encounter. For me, it’s a very bad one because I grew up with both parents working really hard, so I feel that you have to work all the time in order to make a little.
Odiva Vasell: (10:00)
That’s interesting, yeah, and I can totally relate. And that also feeds into culture as well. Not that everyone is working hard, but I mean backbreaking work and not really feeling well. Step one is the awareness of that mindset of backbreaking work, but the second part, I think, is not feeling valuable enough to be comfortable and achieve and receive wealth. How can we break through as entrepreneurs to that?
Leonor Herrera: (10:37)
And you know what, in general, the first or the starting point is just as you say: start paying attention, be aware of what’s coming to your mind. Because when you don’t pay attention, you don’t notice. Honestly, I have so many women that come and tell me, “But I don’t have many blocks,” and I’m like, whoa, okay, we’re starting right there. You probably have a bunch of them, but you don’t even notice them. And people ask me, “So do you think I have money blocks?” And I say, well, as a general rule, we all have them. We just have to pay attention to the things we repeat to ourselves, you know, if not verbally, then in our own minds. The things that we’re repeating to ourselves like, “Oh no, this is not going to work, I need to work a little bit more, I need to learn another thing.” That’s another—that’s so common because you find women that they’re very well prepared, they know, or they’re experts on a specific topic, and they still feel that they need another course, another certificate, another thing in order to start executing and put an offer out there.
Odiva Vasell: (12:07)
Yes, and that kind of holds them back. There was a study done, and it said that a woman, before applying for a job, wants to be 110% qualified. Most of the women that apply, they’re like 110% qualified, whereas men will feel 70% qualified, just go for it, and get it. So it’s such a mindset of value, of personal value. And that’s the hard but the great thing about entrepreneurship, is that you’re putting out that mirror to yourself and saying, hey, what am I telling myself? What is holding me back? Everything is possible, but you’ve got to realize that you are the catalyst to getting yourself there.
Leonor Herrera: (13:00)
Correct, you are the only one that puts limits on yourself, no one else. You’re the only one, and you need to understand as an entrepreneur as well, you need to understand that the one thing that you can be sure about is that you’re going to make mistakes. There’s no way around it, you’re going to make mistakes at some point, so you need to give yourself permission to be imperfect and to make mistakes. But it all starts when you start listening to what you are saying to yourself. What is it that you are telling yourself? Because if you don’t pay attention to what you’re thinking, it’s going to be very difficult to break through those money blocks. If you don’t pay attention, you’re not going to notice them.
Odiva Vasell: (13:54)
So I have a question about how do we open our ears? Because I’ve been through this as well. As a woman, you could be sitting in an uncomfortable seat, but because you’re so busy—let’s say you’re on the computer, you’re so busy with the work in front of you and the phone calls and the family and all the go, go, go, go, go—you don’t even realize that you’re sitting on a tack, literally. You’ve blocked out that physical pain, you’re just going, going, and eating just to survive. You don’t enjoy the food. So when we talk about this listening to your body and listening to your inner voice, how does that—what’s the first step to getting there where you open up your ears and hear what you’re saying to yourself?
Leonor Herrera: (14:47)
This is very important because we can go through life without ever noticing. So that’s why it’s so important that we talk about it so more women get, you know, at least a little bit interested or say, “Oh, what’s that?” so they can get started. Because it all starts with that decision. You need to decide first. If you don’t decide that you want to work on your mindset, on breaking these limiting beliefs, it’s never going to happen. It all starts with a decision, and you decide that when you notice that there’s something out there that can be very beneficial for you. But if we don’t talk about it, if we don’t discuss it, if we don’t have, you know, places like this to raise the post and say, “This is what is happening,” then a lot of people are never going to notice. So the first thing is just listen to what is out there, and if it’s something that you feel you can benefit from, go for it. So decide that you want to go, that’s the first thing. Decide that there’s more out there for you. And we all feel that. The funniest part is we all feel like, you know what, I feel like there’s more out there for me. At some point when you’re working for someone else, even when you are already working in your business, you feel like, I know there’s something more. I know there’s something more. And you feel it, but you start saying, “Oh no, what am I dreaming?” But once you decide, yes, then just start working. And the first step is deciding that you want to see what else is out there for you. And then, I always tell them, you decide first and then you start showing up like a different person. You start showing up like you want to learn. Just start showing up. And even if you don’t have someone that can guide you right now, we live in a world that is so wonderful because you can find a lot of things just by browsing around in your computer browser. So start digging. Start saying, okay, how can I get started? But what I always say is, write your thoughts. Start in the morning, and you know what, it’s funny because a lot of people think I’m big at journaling. I always say journaling is a fantastic thing, but not like a woo-woo thing like that. For me, journaling is a way to get your thoughts organized. Once you start writing what you are thinking, you can get them organized. You have them on paper, you see them, and you organize them. So give yourself permission to start putting everything in writing. What is it that you are thinking? And this could be, you know, a lot of people call it meditation. For me, it’s journaling. And, you know, in the morning, at night, start thinking or meditating if you want to call it that way, and see, okay, what is coming to my mind? What is it that I really want? And once you start writing, you’re going to notice some patterns there. You write it, you read it, and you’re going to notice some patterns like, for example, “Oh, you know what, I’m dreaming about having a house by the beach, but I know that the house by the beach is just too much for me. I will never be able to pay for that, blah blah blah.” And you’re going to see that narrative. You’re going to see what you are saying to yourself.
Odiva Vasell: (18:48)
Okay, this is good. So this is like getting it out of you. And I like what you mentioned. You said about meditation. We can meditate, and we can expand our mind that way, but then our mind tends to go in different places. And journaling is a way to kind of concrete, put down everything that you think. Getting into that habit, there is so much power in the pen. I truly believe that. I’ve accomplished so much in my business just by writing.
Leonor Herrera: (19:23)
Just by writing it down, right?
Odiva Vasell: (19:24)
I have all the apps, and I put all the to-do things in the apps, but when I write something down, it happens. And then I go back and look at the things I had thought about years ago, and it might have taken longer than I expected, but it happened. Putting things on paper really makes it real in the world.
Leonor Herrera: (19:50)
It makes a difference. And again, you think, okay, I’m thinking of all these things that I have in mind, but you cannot organize them. When you have them right there, you write them down, and you start saying, okay, now I get it. This goes here, this goes there. You start writing. I’m telling you, I have notebooks and notebooks and notebooks. It’s like, yes, just… because it really helps. But that’s the easiest way that I found on how to get started. Start writing. Because a lot of times, you know, people say, okay, start meditating, but if I’m starting, I don’t even know what meditating entails. I don’t even know how to do that, but I know how to write.
Overcoming Shame and Judgment
Odiva Vasell: (20:45)
Yes, so this is a great baby step to get it out there. And another key point that you touched upon was, and I want to just expose this, the shame. I think that for women, even if you have accomplished a great level of success, let’s say you’re a millionaire now in business, but you want to go to the next level, you know there’s more out there for you. Your business can grow even greater, more internationally, and you’re saying to yourself, what is holding me back? You could have money mindset or money blocks that are still there even at that level. You can still have money blocks that you need to work out, but you are afraid to admit it because you don’t want anybody to see that you haven’t arrived.
Leonor Herrera: (21:40)
That’s so important. Let me clarify that for everyone: money blocks, they don’t go away ever. They just never go away. You have them, you learn how to control them. When you’re at this level, you go to the next level, and all the money blocks start showing up again in a different way. The same ones, sometimes new ones, but they start to show up in a different way because we have them. We say we are going to reprogram, kind of we do, but we have these money blocks for such a long time that they keep showing up. So what happens is that we become good at handling them. When we are aware of what’s going on, we recognize them sooner and we say, okay, this is what I need to do. I need to work on this, I need to work on that. But they keep showing up.
Odiva Vasell: (22:55)
Fabulous, fabulous, fabulous key information that they could show up in different ways and you need to continually work on this part of your growth. No one has arrived, and the research shows it. There are people that, well, the typical example is people that win the lottery, and then they go right back to being in a state of poverty after a few years. And that is because just having that level of money and success does not change what’s going on up here.
Leonor Herrera: (23:24)
No, it doesn’t. You know what, it’s funny because I have a group, it’s actually in Spanish, every Tuesday of ladies where I guide them through going through all these money blocks. We were talking exactly about this. What happens is that people who win the lottery, they have, you know, a special event which is winning all this money, but no one helped them to break the pattern that they had before. For example, it could be that they always had a lack of money, so then they win the money and everybody starts saying, “Oh, can I borrow this money?” and they start like, “Yeah, yeah, yeah.” By the time they notice, it’s all gone. Patterns like that. But they are not equipped to break the pattern. It happens. After four years of winning, I think it’s 70% of people who win lose everything after four years. And that’s in the mind. It is something, yeah, that you need to break the pattern. You need to learn new things on how to handle all this. But yeah, in general, your money blocks do not disappear, you learn how to handle them. That’s what happens.
Odiva Vasell: (25:04)
And this is great because this is like setting a foundation for entrepreneurs or anyone to realize that you have to work on your personal growth, and money mindset is part of that. It’s an ongoing journey.
Leonor Herrera: (25:23)
Yes, it is an ongoing journey. I always feel, you know, especially with my clients, I always tell them, don’t see it like a burden. Going through personal growth is a blessing. We are, you know, so blessed to have a new day, but what would be a new day if you don’t have an opportunity to keep growing? Yes, so you need to see it as a great thing. We are here, we have another day, and we have the opportunity to continue growing, improving, and becoming better. That’s why we’re here.
Odiva Vasell: (26:03)
Can you explain a little bit about how the money limiting beliefs come back at a different level? Like what kinds of limiting beliefs are there, and how do they kind of reset after the person has gotten through one set, and then they come back again? How does that happen?
Leonor Herrera: (26:29)
I’m going to use the example of working really hard. So you go through your business, you start, and because you are just starting, you think, okay, I have to put in all these hours. You keep working, working, and working. Then you realize, well, I didn’t start my business to be working all the time. I actually started my business to be with my children more, to have more time for my family. But then it became that, okay, since you are starting and building this business, you work, work, work. And then you realize, okay, this is not what I wanted. This is not right. So you start working on your mind and seeing new ways to do things, new ways to utilize your time better. Maybe you are already at the point where you can delegate something. You work around that and understand that you cannot be working all the time, and you start rearranging that.
Then, let’s say you hire a new team member and you’re making more money, your business starts growing more, and you see, okay, it’s growing more. I don’t want to not utilize this opportunity that’s coming my way, so I’m going to put in more hours. You start doing the same thing, or you start making more money and become afraid that if you don’t put in more hours, at some point you won’t make the same amount of money. You think you need to make more, make more. Making more is not a bad thing, but you need to find ways to make money without working all the time. You need to find ways to make money in an easier way. There’s also this belief that to be valuable, you need to work a lot of hours. The truth is, as humans, we have some skills that come easy to us, not all skills, but some. It’s okay to use those skills to make money. Many times we say, for example, “I’m going to talk about how to organize your kitchen,” but then you think, “That’s so simple, why should I charge for that?” You think, “That’s simple for me, but it doesn’t mean it’s simple for everyone.”
Odiva Vasell: (29:18)
Okay, our value, our personal value.
Leonor Herrera: (29:21)
Exactly.
Odiva Vasell: (29:22)
And making sure that we charge what we’re worth.
Leonor Herrera: (29:27)
Exactly, and I actually have a great exercise for finding all the valuable things your service provides. It’s very easy. Just start writing it down. Again, I always say just write it down so you can see it. Write down the service you’re providing and how your service impacts other areas of your client’s life. For example, if you provide home organization, how does that impact the well-being of your client? How does it impact their relationship with their family? How does it impact the way they manage money? Look at other areas your work impacts, and you’ll become more aware of the value you are providing.
Odiva Vasell: (30:28)
Excellent, excellent tip. I also want to talk about shame as a factor. That’s a huge one. I’ve noticed even women who reach a certain level of success in business face shame. There are people who will put shame on you, but the biggest problem is you putting shame on yourself. They say, “Oh, I make this much, but I give this much to charity.” While I love that they do that, I feel sometimes they are trying to compensate for allowing themselves to achieve wealth by saying, “Once I get this, I will give it away.”
Leonor Herrera: (31:13)
Yes, yes, and this is the thing. One of the big mistakes we as women make is that we believe we need to provide justification for everything we do. If I make more money, I need to justify that it’s okay because I give money away. You don’t need to justify anything to anyone. You don’t owe an excuse to anyone, that’s for starters. The second thing we need to know, if we don’t know it yet, is that when women have more money, they impact everyone around them. The way women handle money when they have more is very different from how men do it. It starts without a woman even noticing. The first thing that happens is a woman makes more money and she starts providing a better life for her family, a better life for her children, a better life for everyone around her. Then, when she gets even more, she starts impacting her communities as well.
Odiva Vasell (32:50):
Community, yes, yes, yes, yes.
Leonor Herrera (32:51):
And so hard, and it keeps expanding.
Understanding and Embracing Self-Worth
Odiva Vasell (32:56):
I just saw something on Instagram. An expert was saying that if women were paid equally to men, that would put 400 billion more dollars in the US alone. I memorized that number. It’s just a little bit more money in the hands of women would make a huge impact on communities and the entire income of the country. So, that’s evidence right there, and that’s something that we need to think about as we grow our businesses and put away the shame and the judgment.
Leonor Herrera (33:43):
Yes, and that’s very important—the judgment as well—because we are used to judging every other woman that we see. Most of us do that. We should not do that. As women, we need to support each other. As women, we need to just understand that we’re all different, and the way we do things are different among ourselves. I mean, the way I do one thing is going to be very different from the way you do it, but there’s no wrong or right. There’s no wrong or right. There’s no shame in doing it one way or another. We just need to support each other. It is important to do that. But yes, once women have the power, when they have the power, the money, everybody around them benefits from that—everyone. And that’s why I love working with women, because you see that it’s immediate.
Odiva Vasell (34:57):
Absolutely, and I want to just highlight what you said about the judgment, because I actually did a workshop on money blocks. I did a little test where I showed women a picture of a very wealthy woman, and I asked them to come up with the judgments that were going through their mindset. And I asked them to think about if they are judging themselves in that same way, and typically, it is—it’s a mirror to yourself.
Leonor Herrera (35:33):
Yes, and we have that—again, it’s a limiting belief itself. We have that thing that, you know, if you’re rich, you are not nice, you are this—you portray a woman that has money in a very negative way. We actually do an exercise where we look at ourselves in the mirror, and we say, “This is how a wealthy woman looks like.” Just by looking at yourself in the mirror, put your hand on your heart and say, “This is what a wealthy woman looks like.”
Odiva Vasell (36:17):
This is what a wealthy woman looks like.
Leonor Herrera (36:21):
And just you, you know—it’s amazing how you feel when you say that because we—I mean, there are many different women, many different styles to being rich. It doesn’t have to be one or the other. And another thing that is very important to know is making more money is not going to make you a better person, but it’s not going to make you a bad person either. You’re going to be the same. Your essence is going to be the same. So, if you think that just because you’re going to get money, you’re going to be spoiled—whatever—it’s not going to happen. You’re going to be the same person.
Odiva Vasell (37:13):
Your essence remains the same.
Leonor Herrera (37:16):
Remains the same. It only highlights what you already are—that’s all.
Odiva Vasell (37:22):
Oh, beautiful, beautiful, and so we need to continue to support each other.
Leonor Herrera (37:29):
It is very important to find that community where you can go and talk about your desires without feeling that you are being judged or that something negative is going to come out from there. It is important. It is important to find that place where you can express your desires. And something that I always tell my clients is, if you have the desires, it’s because you can handle it and because you can get it.
Odiva Vasell (38:04):
Oh, say that again.
Leonor Herrera (38:07):
If you have a desire, it’s because you can handle it and you can get it.
Odiva Vasell (38:12):
It’s because you can handle it and you can get it. Yes.
Leonor Herrera (38:16):
You know, depending on your personal beliefs—if you believe in God, the universe, whatever you believe in—you need to just pay attention. God is not going to want something bad for you—never. So, if you have that desire, it’s because you can achieve it.
Odiva Vasell (38:45):
And achieve it. Thank you, thank you so much, Leonor, for joining us today and spreading wisdom, awareness, and just really positive vibes around this subject. And I embrace you and I embrace the knowledge that you have shared with us. And I encourage our listeners to really apply it—the baby steps—and how they can just take themselves from the next level to the next and see it as part of the ongoing personal growth journey without shame, without judgment, and finding that supportive community.
Leonor Herrera (39:33):
Excellent, thank you so much. Thank you, Odiva, thank you so much for having me.
[Music]
Conclusion
This conversation highlights the importance of balancing work and personal life, overcoming judgments, and recognizing the value of women’s financial success. The journey from struggling to attract clients to achieving breakthroughs often begins with a shift in mindset. By embracing unique paths, supporting each other without judgment, and seeing the value brought to the table, new levels of success can be reached. As women build businesses they love with the right strategies and mindset, it’s essential to remember that if there’s a desire, it’s achievable. Supporting each other can create positive change in both personal lives and communities.