Analiza: Welcome to the Women of Color Rise Podcast. I'm Analiza Quiroz Wolf, proud Filipino American executive leadership coach, and former CEO of a nonprofit and Captain in the US Air Force, and also the author of The Myths of Success: A Woman of Color's Guide to Leadership. It's based on the lessons learned of many women of color leaders, including those on this podcast.

We talk with successful CEOs and C suite women leaders of color, and learn about their leadership journeys. I'm on a mission to support having more diverse leaders at the table. If you're a woman or woman of color who wants a seat at that table, you're in the right place. Now let's get into today's show.

I am thrilled to be talking with Laura Saldivar Luna. She's a wife, mom, entrepreneur, coach and a believer in limitless potential for humans. She's the founder and CEO of Pinata Possible. It's a transformational coaching practice, and she's committed to helping leaders access powerful breakthroughs through possibility. So I want to talk through Laura's background so that you have context. She's an educator, especially with Teach for America, where she eventually became Chief People Officer. Laura, there's so much to learn from you. Thank you. Thank you so much for joining us.

Laura: Oh, I'm so glad to be here. Thank you for the invitation.

Analiza: Laura. I asked this question, of all guests, but can you tell me your identity and how that helped shape your career path?

Laura: Yes, so I identify as a Latina. I am the first in my family to go to and graduate from college. I am from San Antonio, Texas. I live just two streets over from where my parents raised me in the same neighborhood, but identify as Latina, and that's probably one of the most important identity markers for me. In addition to being a wife and a mom and all the beautiful intersectionality that that brings together.

Analiza: Laura, your background is pretty successful. I mean, I think about your education and how you've primed this success, and where did that drive come from?

Laura: Oh, you know, I already talked a little bit about my parents and living so close to them, and I would say all of my drive for success and all of my drive for dreaming really came from the two of them. So my mom, Diana Saldivar, and my father, Alan Saldivar, were the architects of many of my dreams when I was a young girl, and I often like to describe that my mom was a planter of possibility. She would just declare certain seeds of possibility as potential pathways for me from a very, very early age, and she started painting pictures of those possibilities, even if they were realities that our family, no one in our family had yet unlocked. And my dad the same way he would immerse me in these worlds of imagination where anything could be possible, anything could be true. And so growing up around the two of them, they just set me on a path that felt limitless. And if we faced any constraints or any concerns, they really never let let on to it. It was just there is just pure possibility, and the world is pure opportunity.

Analiza: For me, Laura, that's so refreshing, because in this world we live in today, where scarcity is, I feel like part of our culture, it's capitalism we're all fighting. I mean, you led human capital at an educational organization. It was also to, I mean, to be clear, we're trying to maximize each of your people so that we can do that for kids. And so I look at your trajectory. You went to Georgetown, the university tn Madrid, dual degrees in English and Spanish. You went on to have this very successful career, and now you're a CEO of your own company. I mean, where does this come into play, in terms of what's possible, given that there is a sense of what's enough? Because I feel like there's this tension of striving, maximizing, and yet we're okay as we are. I'm curious, what are your thoughts on this?

Laura: Yes, the first thing that comes to mind when I hear you speak is the difference between what's probable and what's possible. And this was something that I think I learned during my time as an Executive leader, that there are outcomes and likelihoods based on the systems that surround us, for all of our people, for our communities, in terms of what are those traditional pathways that we are destined to follow just by default? So what are the default pathways? And we can. On striving and competing and doing the very best we can, and oftentimes find ourselves still on these default paths at the same time, though, what exists for me and what I've come to be a believer in exists for all people is the power to create a new possibility out of seemingly impossible circumstances, and to create a possibility is very much about creating the future that has yet to exist.

And so instead of continuing to improve upon the problems of the past and continuing to look backward on what hasn't yet been the way we want it to be, I like to turn my attention to, well, let's create then a possibility of what has yet to exist, and start carving the path in that direction of possibility. So it's come to be a really central part of the way that I choose to live is to be unencumbered by the problems of the past and to instead be inspired by the potential of the future and to allow that future to pull us into it.

And so, for example, you mentioned this idea of people being maximized, right? And that, in many ways, can come from the conditioning of many of these oppressive systems that we are all constantly navigating where people are expendable, or people are meant to be productive, or people are contributing to a labor force. And so just acknowledging that those are the conditions of culture, of society, of history. And so we can continue to improve upon and tweak those conditions, and that can be very valuable work. And at the same time, we can say, well, then what is a totally new paradigm? What is a paradigm that we want to build that is less about maximizing people's productivity and more about supporting human flourishing, supporting belonging, supporting human thriving, so that we can move out of a paradigm that is focused on survival and more into a paradigm that is for human thriving. And so I say all of that just kind of boils down to letting go of what has been in the past that leads us on the probable path. You know, how can we improve upon what has been and start charting a course for something that has yet to be, which I believe, then, is squarely in the realm of possibility.

Analiza: It's interesting how you don't just trash, right? Because it's easy to say poo poo on what's happening now, or just working people all of this mess, there's nothing to to learn from it. And I appreciate that you're that you say, you know there is some work to be done there. And also, can we look forward with a new frame of we don't know what we don't know, and can we actually aim for flourishing? Because often it's not like we maximize every inch, every every piece of energy that we can get from people, but actually, how can we flourish? How can all of us flourish?

So as for people of color, for women of color, how can we bring all those identities, right? And say there's strength in it, there is beauty in it, and we're stronger together. I mean, it's, it is, it's, it's like, sounds so dreamy, right? It sounds so dreamy.

So I want to, I want to move us into some practical, yes, here, because, because it's fun to be in the clouds, right with our language. But actually, let's, let's, let's, let's come down to practical examples thinking about your career. I mean, you could have Laura kept on keeping on this impact on students and families. You could have taken the next role, right? You imagine people reached out to us to say, Laura, I'd love for you to run this project, this team, this organization, and yet you chose a different path. And so can you talk about that? It seems to me there's some parallel with what you shared with pinata possible. And how do you think about that here?

Laura: Yes, I really appreciate what you said about how can we also just honor what has been as we then build towards what can be, because that very much feels resonant from my own experience in my career as well. So I had a very long career with a national education nonprofit called Teach for America. And Teach For America gave me so many gifts in my leadership. It really allowed me to step to new edges and new levels of possibility in my leadership, growth in what I could be accountable for, growing and investing and supporting for my community and for our country overall, and so I can really honor the journey that I had at Teach for America, and at the same time, when I reflect on how that journey came to its close. After many, many years with that organization, I left that organization in many ways, feeling quite broken. And that is not necessarily the fault of the organization. I think it was a fault of or function of many of the different systems coming together to create a lived experience within me.

So for example, I was the Chief People Officer of Teach for America, in charge of all of our human capital during the era of covid, during and post the George Floyd murder. That was an era of deep reckoning within many organizations, all organizations across the country, many communities across the country. And it was a time where lots that was under the surface for people, for humanity, was coming above the surface, to be seen, to be heard, to be dealt with, to be honored, to be celebrated, and in many ways, to be in dialog around and so as I was in my leadership position through that time, I think I got up close with some of the what's in the underbelly of the human experience, you know, where we were all caring suffering and real questions and real concerns about who we wanted to be, how we wanted to work, what's the role of those questions in our organizational dialog.

And so at the conclusion of my time leading Teach For America on the other side of that era, I myself feel like I had internalized and taken a lot of that pain within me. And so it led to me feeling quite broken in many ways, almost fractured. Fragmented was, was the word that I would use to describe where I just felt like it had taken its toll in many, many ways. And so I remember when I was concluding my time at the organization, I told myself, I said, there is no way that I can be of service to another role, another place right now in the current state that I'm in, what has to be done, and the only thing that I know to do is to focus on restoring myself, restoring my wholeness, restoring my integrity, my alignment, and reconnecting what felt like a broken connection between my mind, my heart, my body, my spirit.

And so as I entered into that period of reconnection within myself, what I discovered there in that space in between was that what felt like these cracks were just the opening to a new level of growth, a new level of expansion and actually allowing those cracks to break wide open turned what felt like a breakdown into a real breakthrough to something next and new and possible, but it took courage to look at those cracks with that new sense of possibility, because in my past Experience, cracks oftentimes needed to be plugged, needed to be bandaged, needed to be hidden, needed to be not acknowledged, so that we could focus on whatever it was that we were trying to accomplish and get to whether that was in my personal life or my professional life as well. So that is really where this idea of limitless possibility and the breakthrough behind the pinata, in the pinata possible came to be.

Analiza: I want to dive deeper. And I also love the visual of a pinata and breaking a pinata, because there's joy in it, right? It's both destruction and a joy, and they're both so I want to go through the restoration, because there are pieces of our leadership, especially as women of color, it's not just the head, right, right, moving around, talking where our head and our bodies and our heart and our spirit, all of those pieces help, first, make us whole, yes, but second, help us lead better as a as a mother, As a at home, but also in when we show up with our community and at work. And so I want to talk about your process, because it's not easy. It's especially as high achieving women, women of color, who have we're used to right, right, achieving at all things, giving 100-200% to everything we do. So to say, and look at a new way of being for me personally, has been counter to all the things that have made me successful. Can you talk about you and your process? What does it mean to restore Can you walk us through, if you have steps, if you have ways of your life, because these are things that are not easy, but it was required to break that pinata for the possible thing that happens afterwards.

Laura: Yes, yes, I would describe this process as pretty emergent. It was one of the first places, like in my life where I did not have a plan, and I say that because it was super counterintuitive to how I had led up until that point, I always was the type of person that had a plan, that had a deadline for different things, that had a set of steps that I wanted to climb in order to get to my final destination. Question. And so as I stepped away from that paradigm of life, I stepped away with a question, which is, is that the only way to do life? If so, I'll double down. I'll recommit if not, perhaps there's something to discover. And I don't know if there's another paradigm. And so I don't know, it is an invitation to play and to discover.

So I would describe this process as pretty emergent. So I remember I woke up on the very first day where I had left my job, and I was now in this space in between where I did not know what my next job was going to be. I just knew that my priority was focusing on my wholeness. And so I woke up to this blank calendar. And I thought, What do I even do with a blank calendar? How long has it been since I've had a blank calendar, since I haven't been on back to back zoom meetings? What does one do with time? And I realized, then, oh goodness, that's scary in a whole different way. You know, if I thought it was overwhelming to be blocked back to back to back. Actually, permission to say, do something with this open space, or allow this open space was a totally new place to explore for me.

So I remember one of the first things I did was I found my way into a dance class, not necessarily something that I had practiced in a very long time, but I said, You know what? I'm going to go to this dance class and I'm going to see if I can move my body, because my body and my health needs some attention after I had been ignoring its needs over quite an extended period of time. And so in this dance class, I remember it was me and a bunch of other women who were already retired because this dance class was in the middle of the work day. And so I just loved being around all these women who were so fully expressed and just didn't care about what anyone else was experience was experiencing, you know, in the dance, because they were so in their own experience, yet at the same time, they collectively honored the fact that we were all together in a community. It was a beautiful example of their own experience and celebrating the collective and I thought, You know what this is? This is magic right here, like this idea of coming back into the body, of being fully expressed, I want to continue to play with this. So I started dancing. Part of my process, emergent as it was, was then, how do I be in my body? Point number one, how do we in my body so I can come back home, into listening to myself, into honoring myself and the voice that's within wanting and yearning to speak.

I think the second thing that I found along the way was coaching. So I had always had an executive coach during my time as an Executive leader. In fact, I worked with the same executive coach for almost 10 years, and so when I was concluding my role as an executive, I remember I asked her, I said, Would you be willing to still coach me, even if I'm not an executive anymore? Could we do executive coaching, but executive coaching for life? And she said, Yeah, let's do it. I said, because I'm sure I'm an executive of something, but right now I'm an executive of just me. So let's, talk a little bit about how we lead in life, and so all these principles around leadership and planning and whatnot, we just turned the attention to, what do I really want for my family? What do I really want for my health? What do I really want for happiness? And we started measuring goals differently, like, what's the felt experience?

I'd say the third thing then, that was part of my process, was really looking in the mirror, really looking in the mirror at where these cracks existed throughout my life, whether those were cracks in my marriage, cracks in my mothering, cracks in my own health and wellness, and being able to say, Okay, this is A place for exploration, because what all of these places have in common is that I am in relationship with them. I've played a role. So who do I want to be in my marriage, in restoring my marriage to the fullness of what it can be? Who do I want to be in restoring my mothering? Who do I want to be in restoring my health? And so I would say those were pieces of the process, it started out pretty emergent, coming home to my body, being in coaching, conversations for life and a holistic approach overall, and really being willing to look in the mirror at the role I was playing in the reality I had created so I could take full responsibility and ownership in creating a different reality thereafter.

Analiza: Laura, I want to stamp a few things. In addition embracing the emergence that we don't have to have a plan, space is where we create possibility. So I love that so much. In addition to moving your body, connecting with your body, making sure we get a coach, looking at the cracks, and then owning responsibility, but also declaring a vision. I love, love all of those things. I want to go to a piece that you had mentioned, which was, I set goals. Well, we're goal setters, right? Like, yes, the goal, let's go at it. Yay. Go us. And I thought it was interesting that you actually said specifically, I. I was aiming looking at the felt experience. Yes, talk more about that. What does that mean? A felt experience? Can you give an example? You mentioned health, family, life, like what does that even mean?

Laura: One of the things that I stumbled upon in this emergent journey, which came out of the world of coaching, because once I got more involved in the world of coaching, as someone who was being coached, I then started to say, Ah, how do I learn how to be a coach, to support and hold space for others? And so along this journey, I joined this program that was facilitated by a coach that was a year long experience about taking a leap in life. And this was an introduction to this concept of setting goals that were about a felt experience. I had never really done anything like this before. I'd always had goals kind of matched to a destination or an achievement or a level, a finish line that I want to cross, if you will. And so it was embracing this concept that instead of focusing on the finish line alone, we can still have a finish line, and what if we focused on the experience we're having as we're traveling toward that finish line?

And so we had this exercise where we drafted statements for ourselves in four different areas of life. Health was number one, wealth was another one, full self expression was a third and love and those come from, I believe, Florence Scovel Shinn. I think that's a model and a methodology that came from Florence Scovel Shinn. So we use that as just some scaffolding, some architecture, if you will, to say we're going to create powerful statements that paint a picture of what it feels like when we have those things, when we have love, when we have wealth, when we have full self expression.

And so we were given this exercise to write these with these statements that were all about the felt experience, you know, and I remember I wrote a statement that was something like for health. It was around I feel a sense of vitality. I look at myself in the mirror and I feel radiant. I am pleased with what I see in the mirror staring back at me. So statements like that. And so then what happened is we started playing with getting that feeling in our bodies, in the now, cultivating that feeling of looking in the mirror that now becomes a practice for do I feel appreciation for what I'm seeing staring back at me? What's the body sensation that I see when I am exploring this concept of vitality? Right? So we started playing with seeing these statements that were designed for the future showing up in the now, and what I found is that those statements really carried me to a new level of presence with my experience and also possibility of what could be.

Analiza: I love that it's getting a whole when we're trying to integrate ourselves, we're more than the doing, right in fact, for the being and the being in these aspects of health and love and wealth and fully being expressed, I love that because it now gets us into these pieces that we don't necessarily focus on, but yet are really important. And then to hear you say, okay with these specific areas, how do I want to feel, and then bringing that future vision to life now through felt experience. So I want to talk through that, because even going deeper here, yes, so imagine, and you can use this one or use a different example. You're looking in the mirror and you feel you want to feel pleased. I feel pleased, proud of who's looking back at me, and tell me exactly. So now you're checking your body. Now you're saying yes or no, like, what exactly is happening there? Yes.

Laura: Okay, so I'm actually going to pull a different example from this, because this is the place where I remember practicing cultivating a different sense. So I had a statement for love that was all about my marriage being easy, light and easy. And so it was very easy for me to find places in my marriage where it was not light and easy, and because my husband and I were able to really engage in good dialog around where it was not light and easy.

And so I would often find myself in these situations, and he would, too, where we're saying, oh gosh, you know, we're having the same conversation over and over again. But I knew that the statement I had created was about things being easy and light, and so I started looking at, okay, what am I doing, and who am I being in this conversation with my husband right now, and is it contributing to ease and a sense of being light? Because if it's not, instead of me focusing on what I want him to change and who I want him to be, I'm just going to invite in that this is an exercise for me to consider how I show up differently. So then I started practicing things like letting things go. Uh, letting things go. This statement that wants to come out of my mouth doesn't need to come out of my mouth right now.

Or can I hold that statement not because I'm, you know, quelling my authentic truth, but because I'm so committed to my marriage being light and easy that I realize that that statement is actually in contrast and running contrary to the thing I'm committed to. So I'm going to set that statement aside and instead bring forward another statement that is in the spirit of being light and easy. So that might mean thanking my husband for his truth, like thanking him for telling me something that was hard for me to hear, but I know he said it because he loved me and over a lot of like many practices like that, I was able to see one of the ways my husband loves me is by telling me the truth.

And for a long time, I was just rejecting that, rejecting that, rejecting that, because it was hard for me to hear the truth. So I was contributing to it not being light and easy. So what if I could receive the truth and it be light and easy, and that contributes to a different dynamic between the two of us. So that's an example of like, it's not showing up in reality right now. I could continue to perpetuate that reality. It's probable, it's likely, it's default, or I could say I'm going to be someone different in this conversation, but the person I'm going to be is actually who I've committed to being.

Analiza: In that statement, I hear, Laura, a commitment that is more about this alignment of light and easy over being right, yes, and I mean, Chief People Officer at a huge organization, you're paid to be right, right. You're in Georgetown, like going on and on and on. You are, you know, a lot of your success is because you were right. You saw the right vision, you led the right way, you said the right words. You had to be right. I mean, we're both petite women of color. We gotta, you know, power of positions, we got to be right. And so I want to even drill down further on that. Because, how do you, how does one release like, how do you release that like, rightness, that that because there's something in the body, right, that's like, right? Oh, I gotta react, at least I'm speaking from where I'm like, Yes, and I'm gonna say it there, there, there's a piece I wonder. If you can even drill down further, how do you pull that back to say, Stop, yes, me right here. There's a bigger game we're playing. Can you, can you even? Do you have any?

Laura: Yes, oh, you are speaking my language, because I really do feel that wrapped up as a core part of my identity and a core part of kind of this first chapter act of life, I might say, has been a real commitment to be right and a real pressure to be right, and a real sense that the expectation around me is to be right. And so in my mind, I would often and continue, this is still something that I work on. I would architect the worst case scenario for when I'm wrong, if I do something wrong, or if the situation turns out wrong, it means that I, as a human, am wrong, and that turns into worst case scenario, a lot of catastrophizing, and so I will end up taking what feel like really small things and painting them all the way forward to the worst case scenario of what happens if I'm wrong. And so what does that do? That leads me to stay right here, where it's nice and safe and secure, small, hidden from any kind of consequence, negative consequence, and that has often held me back from being really big and really fully expressed.

So kind of back to like. So how do we break it down? How do we break down this sense of being right in our mind? And so back to my marriage example. I just love my husband so much because he has taught me so much. He's been a wonderful mirror for me to be able to see things within myself that I otherwise could not have seen. And I remember exploring this question once about do you want to be right, or do you want to be in love? Do you want to be right, or do you want to be in love?

And it's this idea of the strategy behind this is finding a commitment that's bigger than the fear, finding a commitment that is bigger, more inspiring and able to hold the fear in a warm embrace, if you will, so and to just treat the sense of wanting to be right with compassion and tenderness and love as well. Because I think for a long time I wanted to just pretend like I wish I didn't have this tendency to want to be right, and I wish I wasn't battling this. And I think what I've learned through working with incredible coaches, through having space held for me and my growth is to soften into what if that is actually just part of a human experience? And how can I forgive myself for that? How can I love myself for that? How can I honor that?

That is a strategy that has served me really well, and it's not the only strategy that I can have going forward, and so creating a lot of space and permission to just allow those beliefs to be there, to then find a commitment that is big enough to hold out of the next possibility. And I think what it looks like in practice is telling myself there's no problem here. If I'm wrong, there's no problem here, there's no problem here. And as hard as it can be to believe that, especially when the stakes are high and people are counting on you. And you know, here's this deadline and everything. But just to say, no matter how this turns out, there will be the next step to work on. There will be the next possibility. There will be the next problem, if you will, right, if you want to look at it that way, there's the next place to be able to engage whether you're right or you're wrong. And so I can say a little bit more about that, but I think that captures the essence of like, no problem, honor, that this is the real, lived experience of what I'm currently believing, and then begin to create a new belief that's bigger than the one that I've been Holding about being right.

Analiza: Laura, what's your sense of courage, comfort, wanting to step into possibility, and yet there's risk, right? So take Laura, this new gig, right? And we're on similar paths, exploring uncharted territory and figuring out day by day. And I'm curious, what do you think about failure? What do you think about being a navigator of uncharted waters and not having a clarity of if I do XYZ, if I do the things that I know to do, it will all turn out for me. I'm curious, how do you navigate? Because it's so beautiful, right? Like there's no problem here. Everything is great and grand. How do you take this big leap? Right? Think about, what do you think about, there's no problem. I will go big, and yet there's no problem. There's gonna be the next possibility. Can you bring me into that world for you?

Laura: Yes. Well, first off, I would say you're totally like, it's just such a human experience to face the risk, to face the fear, to face the unknown, and to feel all the things that we feel when we encounter those, those elements in life, and I encounter those constantly, and I think what I've started to learn and be in the practice of is old paradigm. Laura would have tried to pretend I wasn't feeling those things, that I wasn't feeling the risk, that I wasn't feeling the fear. I would try to pretend I've got it all together. It's all working out here. It was no problem, but kind of in a different sense, it was like no problem, like nothing to see here, nothing to see here. Just look somewhere else. There's no problem here.

And I think what New Paradigm Lara has been in the practice of is, let's open up and see it all. Let's see the fear. Let's see the risk. Let's sit with the emotions that come up when risk comes to visit. Let's open that wide up so it can be seen and heard and felt as if it were a dear friend we're inviting to tea, and instead of pushing it aside and not looking at it, let's look at it fully. Let's see what instruction it has, these fears or these feelings or the risk and and to come into the body as a source for knowing where we need to go.

And I would say that's been my biggest tip, is honoring that my body is full of wisdom, and sometimes my mind is overriding that trying to search for but what do we need to do? What do we need to do? How do we need to figure this out? And being able to give permission to the brain to say, It's okay that we don't know right now can then allow me to come back into my full body to say, then the knowing comes from somewhere else. The knowing actually comes from deeper within. And it's no longer about figuring it out and pushing to get there. It's about opening up and allowing and allowing that vision to pull the next step then emerges. The next step becomes clear, because it's coming from a deeper place of knowing.

And I think the best way that I have found to be able to access that is to be able to soften into honoring that inner experience that is within and allow it to be seen, because just like us, if, especially if we think about our identity as women of color, right when we are not seen, it takes a toll. It takes a toll. Are on us when we're not seen, heard, validated, honored, celebrated, you name it. The same is true for our inner experience and our emotions. If we bypass them, we ignore them, we pretend like they don't exist. We haven't allowed them to show up fully, to give the gifts that they have for us, which are oftentimes instructions on where to go, what to do, how to show up, who to be, and it comes from that place of knowing.

Analiza: So powerful. Laura and our bodies have such wisdom. If we only allow them to speak, let's allow our bodies to feel and can we be compassionate? Because often right we're trying to be whatever Barbie dolls. So there's Yes, criticism in the mirror. So there's not only are we not compassionate, but we're like, mean, like me, yeah, like what? You're not perfect, perfect. And right now you're, you will have all these feelings that are negative. No, thank you, right? And you're trying to tell me, tell me things that are scary also, no thank you. It's like a triple whammy for our bodies. And so I appreciate so much where you're so right. We're trying to say, Look body, you're amazing, and thank you, and let's, let's, let's, let me hug you, and let me thank you, and let me listen to your wisdom. And this wisdom has passed. Laura, right? We know through our ancestors, because we share a chemistry and energy, right? And we also pass that too if we have children, our children, and so I love this so much, so much wisdom. Laura, with that, are you ready for lightning round questions?

Laura: Yes, I am.

Analiza: Chocolate or vanilla?

Laura: Chocolate with sprinkles.

Analiza: Cooking or takeout?

Laura: Cooking, preferably my husband's cooking.

Analiza: Climb a mountain or jump from a plane?

Laura: Definitely. Climb a mountain.

Analiza: Have you ever worn socks with sandals?

Laura: I don't think so. I don't think so? No, let's say no.

Analiza: How would you rate your karaoke skills on a scale of one to ten, ten being Mariah Carey?

Laura: Oh my gosh, in my mind, I think that I am a seven. In reality, the world mirrors back to me that I'm a three.

Analiza: What's a recent book you read?

Laura: Get Rooted by Robyn Moreno.

Analiza: What is your favorite way to practice self care?

Laura: Writing, journaling, writing with lots of colorful pens.

Analiza: What's a good professional development you've done?

Laura: I want to say being a mom, really good professional development and being a wife, really good professional development.

Analiza: What's your definition of a Boss Mama?

Laura: Mama who makes space for herself to be her full self.

Analiza: What advice would you give your younger self?

Laura: It's okay to get it wrong.

Analiza: And then where can we find you? Like LinkedIn, your website.

Laura: You can find me on LinkedIn and Instagram, pinyatapossible, or Laura Saldivar Luna and @www.pinyatapossible.com

Analiza: Last question, do you have a final ask recommendation or any parting thoughts to share?

Laura: The answers are all within and it's just a matter of allowing them to come forward.

Analiza: Laura, thank you so much for this beautiful conversation. Your journey is so full of just beautiful wisdom. Thank you. Thank you.

Laura: Thank you, my friend, for creating the type of container and space that allows it to come forward. I see you and I celebrate you as well.

Analiza: Thank you so much for carving out time to hear today's podcast. Read things before you go. First, if you found it helpful, please leave a five star review. Second, you can get a free chapter of my book. The midst of success, a woman of color's guide to leadership at Annalisa wolf.com/free chapter. And lastly, if you're interested in executive coaching, please reach out to me at analiza@analizawolf.com. Thank you so very much.