What If The Real Flex Is Feeling Safe With Money? With Guest Sarah Dumas

What if the real leap isn’t to more, but to enough—enough safety to hold money, enough clarity to work fewer hours, and enough courage to choose your family first without shrinking your ambition? That’s the heart of our conversation with strategist and former CFO Sarah Dumas, whose story moves from poverty and pregnancy loss to boardrooms and bold, sovereign leadership.

We dig into the money patterns that start early—growing up surrounded by wealth you can’t access, the shame of asking for help, the survival mode that turns success into a roller coaster. Sarah shares how she traded proving for presence, canceled the complexity that kept her hustling, and built a business that scales without sacrifice. We unpack a practical, powerful pairing: nervous system safety and clean business design. Think: simple offers, right pricing, narrow delivery, clear boundaries, and a calendar that begins with family. The result is more deep work in fewer hours and a body that feels safe holding cash instead of rushing to spend it.

You’ll hear a case study of a client who moved from 12-hour days to a hybrid model that hit seven figures in six months—no extra grind required. We talk about receiving vs holding, why celebrating small inflows retrains your system, and how gratitude plus structure makes money more consistent. And we go there on leadership: walking into biased rooms with quiet, grounded confidence, letting facts speak, and ending the habit of overexplaining. The goal isn’t perfection; it’s sovereignty—success that actually feels like freedom.

If you’ve built the business but lost yourself on the way, this conversation offers a reset. Press play, take one small action—raise a price, set a boundary, schedule presence—and watch stability grow. If this resonated, subscribe, share with a friend who needs it, and leave a review to help others find the show.

Connect with Sarah:

Website: www.sarahdumascoaching.com

Instagram: @themoneycoach888

Facebook: Sarah Dumas

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Guest Introduction
• 1:05 Sarah’s Early Struggles And Isolation
• 5:20 Anger, Support, And Meeting Her Rock
• 8:20 Money Story: Poverty Amid Wealth
• 12:30 Roller Coaster Success And Setbacks
• 16:30 Choosing Family First And Redefining Work
• 19:40 From Hustle To Alignment
• 23:00 Nervous System Safety And Holding Money
• 27:20 The Random Checks Practice And Gratitude
• 31:40 Expectancy, Manifestation, And Business Energy
• 34:50 Scaling With Sovereignty Not Sacrifice
• 39:00 Case Study: From Burnout To Seven Figures
• 43:10 Presence, Calendars, And Time Boundaries
• 49:00 Family-First Business And Regret Prevention
• 53:00 Unapologetic Leadership And Owning Too-Muchness
• 57:20 Boardrooms, Bias, And Silent Power
• 1:02:00 Closing Thanks And Listener Send-Off

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:01

Welcome back to the Against All Odds. The Less and One Percent Chance podcast.

SPEAKER_01: 0:20

Hey, hey, welcome back to Against All Odds, the Less than 1% Chance podcast with your host, Maria Afon today. I am so excited for today because we have such an amazing conversation coming up. So I'm just going to quickly introduce her so we can get started. I am still so pumped because I feel like this is exactly what we need to hear at this moment in time. So my guest today, Sarah Dumas, who's a former CFO, her sole first business strategist for power to health women who are ready to scale with sovereignty, not sacrifice. I love that. But her story didn't start in boardrooms or eight-figure companies. She was born into poverty, who has experienced pregnancy loss, domestic violence, and even homelessness. And when she finally started finding success, she faced new battles like business partner stealing from her and walking into boardrooms as a Hispanic woman who constantly had to prove she belonged there. I cannot relate more. Every season demanded a new version of herself, one that refused to be defined by circumstance. Today she is mentored high achieving women who've built the business but lost themselves somewhere along the way. She helped them rebuild from truth, alignment, and embodied leadership, creating success that actually feels like freedom. Because her story was never about beating the odds. It was about becoming the woman who no longer sees any. I love that so much. So welcome, Sarah. So excited to have you. Thank you. Thank you for having me. So give us a little bit of background. That's obviously just from the introduction, you have been through so much. Give us a little bit of where you started and how this has evolved to where you are now.

SPEAKER_02: 2:12

Yeah. So I have always been entrepreneurial spirited. I attribute that to my dad. He always had something going on. And I had my first business when I was like five years old, making little bracelets and everything like that. And so I've always had that kind of bug, so to speak, or desire and feeling like I was here to do more than just what other people were doing. When I went through a really tough time in my teenage years, and my parents separated, and we were never well off by any means, but now came into single mom life for my mom and the struggles with that, and having to go to food pantries and be on food stamps. And I had like one pair of pants and like three shirts, and like just trying to survive high school with that. And then I got caught up with the wrong guy. And at 17, I ended up in this domestic violence situation, ended up pregnant, ended up losing the baby, and which was really hard, but it was very isolating at the same time because I also grew up in a very Christian household where you don't have sex before marriage and all of these things. And so I was outed by the fact that I was pregnant. Obviously, there's only one way to happen. And everything I knew came crashing down around me. The support I thought I had, like family or church family that I thought was family that knew me from the time I was born, literally turned their backs on me, talked so much crap. And friends did the same thing. When I had the miscarriage, I got so much judgment. People were like, You had an abortion, stop lying. People told me my domestic violence situation that I was making it up for attention. Like it was just the most isolating thing ever, and yet the best thing that ever happened to me. Because before that happened, I was such a judgmental person. And it's like the she was on the other foot, and I was like, wow, this is what it feels like to be on the other side of it. And I was completely alone going through that pregnancy loss. I remember the only person who consoled me, who gave me a hug, who said anything nice about it was the ER doctor who told me I had who confirmed that I had the miscarriage. My mom was not supportive. The baby daddy could literally care left. He literally laughed about it. It was just a very isolating place. And I also found myself very angry. And I was the type of person you just would not want to look at the wrong way because we were going to throw down in the middle of Walmart. It was just like I was letting that anger out whatever way that I could. And in the midst of that, I actually met my husband. And it's so funny because he could attest, he saw me in those rough days. He, when he saw that flip switch in me, sometimes he would just grab me and try to like pull me out of whatever the situation was that I was expressing my anger in. And he was my rock through that. And today I'm a very different person, but it just I think it's an important thing to highlight because it's that anger that we go through when there's nobody we can turn to and too poor for therapy, like there was no resource, right? And at the same time, also something else with my childhood and teenagers is very interesting for me because this same story parallels very much with a money story. I grew up in poverty, like I said, but my mom's side of the family was very well off. And so literally having to rely on food pantries at home, but then going to holidays and mansions. And it instilled in me one, I put six figures on a pedestal because I was like, oh my gosh, the minute I hit the magical one and five zeros following that, like all of my problems are just magically going to disappear and it's gonna solve everything, and I'm never gonna have to want like such a misconception of what six figures can actually create for you. Yeah, but I put it on a pedestal, but at the same time, it always felt like money was for everybody else except me because it was all around me, but I couldn't have it. My mom couldn't have it. Literally, when we would ask for like, hey, could we have some money because we can't afford groceries? The answer was, well, show me your bank statements. Let me see. Like I remember my grandfather telling my mom, let me see how irresponsible you've been with your money. And these are people who they literally buy their cars in cash. They have multiple million dollar homes, not just one. There's no conception of, and they to give them credit, my side of the family, I am a first generation immigrant on one side, second generation immigrant on the other. So do they come here with nothing and build that? Sure. But you should know and be willing to help and not have this attitude of control and all of these things around it. So it was a very interesting place that I had to start from of like, I've got this drive, as I mentioned. I had my first business at five that didn't stop. I had businesses all throughout like high school, I was like hustling selling candy out of my book bag.

SPEAKER_01: 7:32

Like it was blowpops were like the thing.

SPEAKER_02: 7:38

Called me the blow pop girl, and that sounds so horrible. Yes, that's so funny.

SPEAKER_01: 7:46

Oh my god, I could totally couldn't Yeah, that's hilarious.

SPEAKER_02: 7:50

So, yeah, and my friends used to tell me they're like, Sarah, you could sell water to a whale, you will sell ice to an Eskimo if it's to be sold. You're a hustler, it's gonna happen. So, yes, but so in my 20s, as I started building and all of these things, it became very interesting because I got success very quickly, but then it felt like a roller coaster. All of these things would pop up that took the success, took the money somehow. So there was never really, it was like as soon as I felt like I could breathe, there was another gut punch, whether it was somebody stealing, some we had some corrupt business partners that were doing all sorts of shady stuff, whether we had unexpected deaths in the family that just were like took us out of being able to focus on what we were doing, unexpected medical bills, like you name it, we have experienced it. And I've been on food stamps more than once in my life and had really high success and then hit rock bottom and had to be right back on them. And so it was a journey, and really in my 20s, especially and a little bit into my early 30s, I was living that life. And at the same time, really hustling and prioritizing the money. But I had my daughter when I was 24, and so I was sacrificing my time with my kids. I felt I was that mom that felt like my kids were a burden. And one day it hit me as she was, I think she was coming into like fifth grade. My husband and I always made a deal. I was a latchkey kid. I never wanted my kids to experience that because that's where everything started going wrong in my life. Too much time freedom for a teenager is not good. And so I always said, I'm like, you know what, I will miss their, I will put them in daycare, I will miss their young years, but I have to be there when they're teenagers because I'm not letting that happen. And so me and my husband made a deal. We're like, come hell or high water, we're gonna figure out a way for one of us to be home once she hits middle school. And I remember her, she was either finishing up fourth grade or going into fifth grade, but it was around that time that I was like, oh my goodness, I have one year and I'm nowhere near where I feel like we need to be for this to actually occur. And we ended up, long story short, within that year, by the time she was in middle school, not just one of us were home, but both of us were home. And I was thinking more money in my business than I ever had. And it was one of those things of I realized you don't necessarily know how you're gonna do it until you actually do it. And it's gonna come this moment of looking back and being like, oh, in hindsight, what did I do? And the worst thing your mind wants to reverse engineer it, but also the worst thing in that space is to go try to reverse engineer it because that's why it didn't work in the first place. And so I really started just playing with that and being like, all right, how do I figure out how to maintain this money success? What was I doing when it was that roller coaster feeling? All of that. And I realized I was really in that space of chasing, proving, hustling, and all of that. Really, what I found for myself, and I think it's for a lot of us that come from that space where we've hit more than rock bottom and having to build ourselves back up. We hustle from a place of survival. And when we're constantly just in that survival, I gotta survive, I gotta eat, I gotta like things are not gonna work out the way that we really wanted.

SPEAKER_01: 11:32

No, it's like fight or flight at its and yeah, the energy that you give off is never of abundance, it's always of scarcity. And you're like, it just doesn't work that way.

SPEAKER_02: 11:46

Yes, exactly. So that was my big aha. And I'm like, all right, I did it that way, I got that result. What's the opposite of that? Because my mind, I'm always like, I go from one extreme to the other, and just like playing with that and figuring what that was for me and what that looked like. And for me, that really looked like one of the practical things I did was I was scaling my business. I brought it back to simplicity and I brought it back to really people say you have to understand your why. And I feel like that can just fall on deaf ears because it's so oversed, but it's also so true. Like really coming back to in your heart, in your gut, what do you feel you're here to do? And really trusting and leading with that passion, that purpose. And you don't have to have that be this crystal clear thing, but just knowing I'm here for impact, I'm here to help women, I'm here for helping them with getting over their trauma or with their business or whatever. It could be vague like that. It doesn't have to be the exact special secret sauce, but that is enough to say, all right, I'm gonna build my business in this way that I feel called to build it, not what society's telling me to do or these marketing branding people are telling me to do and all of that. So I've been a rebel my whole life, but I really leaned into my rebel in business. I was like, F everything. I'm canceling all the expensive software, all of this stuff, and I'm really just like going from if it does not light me up, if I don't want to do it, I'm not doing it. I don't care who says it needs to be done, like that type of mentality. And that's what really was the game changer in business for me. And from a just money, and there was a lot of body healing I needed to do. Feeling safe around receiving big numbers. And I think that's another place where we can discredit that and we're like, oh, that's woo-woo. But for real, yeah, if somebody handed you a million dollars today, yeah, your mind's gonna be like, Oh, I'm gonna pay this debt down, I'm gonna buy a house, I'm gonna buy my mom or sister or whoever a house, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna go on vacation. It's that answer right there, is a dysregulated answer, right? Like that's not the money feeling safe in your body. That is a we immediately get it and we immediately want to spend it and we have to like get rid of it.

SPEAKER_01: 14:11

Yeah, the people that that that win the lotto usually yeah, they end up broke by year to year. Yeah, or sometimes yeah, so crazy. Yeah, my boyfriend has a person that he used to work with that their mom won some huge settlement, and they did that. They bought a house, cash, they bought everything, and it happened in less than a year. They literally don't have any more money left. And that comes back to your money mindset and what you your beliefs around money. And believe me, I've been at the top of my career and was let go after a huge merge because I was their highest paid director, and they were like, all right, deuces, we can get someone younger than you for a lot less. And I was a single mom of three kids. So it was like okay, yeah, I'll have to go on food stands. And and for some time I was I felt so guilty and I was like, oh, and I'm like, I've paid into this my entire life. Yeah, exactly. What are we talking about? And it just became okay with receiving that helped me get out of that mindset. It's crazy what our traumas, what we go through, the way that we grew up shapes as much as you want to think abundantly. Sometimes it's just you have to, I don't know, get through those weeds before being able to actually be in a space for that too.

SPEAKER_02: 15:45

Yeah, absolutely. And that was a lesson I feel like I had to learn the hard way because I feel like I knew that and thought that, but like I was like, no, no, no, that's like BS. Like the real millionaires aren't saying that stuff, so I'm not gonna pay attention to it. And yeah, it just like slapped me in the face. It had to slap me in the face more than one time to like really be like, oh wait, let's see. Maybe there's actually something to this. Maybe there's something there. Yeah, and what's interesting is ever since doing that work and really anchoring in that safety within money, safety within myself, and really showing up unapologetically, and all of these things, the success has been consistent and and continuing to grow. So it's the proof is in the pudding. It's really if you're listening to this and you're like, I don't know, you're like and still in that hustle mode and not really feeling into it. Here's what I would say to you what is the worst that could happen? It hasn't worked the way that you've wanted to now. So maybe try something new and just see if it works. And if it doesn't, okay, fine. But there is something to this because the other thing I will say too is obviously you can make money and still be miserable and all of that. I have seen, I have sat with so many millionaires, billionaires, and have seen that literally firsthand, where it's like they're a miserable person. And the way that they deal with that is they take their helicopter to their yacht and go party for the weekend and then come back and do it all over again. Numb themselves. Yeah, they're just numbing themselves. They're on their fifth, sixth, seventh marriage, whatever it is, and visiting the mistress still on the I've seen a lot in my time that it's yeah, you can make money and still be miserable. Money is not gonna solve the problem at the end of the day, it's gonna just amplify whatever problems you have, it's gonna amplify who you are as a person. So you have the decision, and the decision you need to make is the type of person you want to be as the person who has the money and the success.

SPEAKER_01: 17:46

Yeah. So what do people often min misunderstand about success after trauma? And how did your healing journey kind of change the way you lead and build wealth? Because you talked about it a little bit, but I feel like there's so much imposter syndrome in that. Yeah. So if you can dig into that a little bit.

SPEAKER_02: 18:11

Yeah, absolutely. There's so many components to it. I feel like we could probably sit here the rest of today and just talk about that topic alone. But I think the main thing is around there, there's two things that are the key components. And one is in the receiving of the money, and the other is in the holding of the money, right? Because, like I said in that example, and like we talked about with lottery, when you are unhealed around money, it's like a compliment. It's like the people who you know you have a problem receiving compliments. If somebody's like, oh my gosh, Maria, that's a beautiful shirt. And you're like, thanks, your shirt's beautiful too. It's like you're throwing it right back, you're not holding it, you're not, it's literally bouncing off of you. You're not even receiving it. It is the same exact thing with people who win the lottery or having a big number. If I say to you, if I sign you a check for$10,000,$100,000, seven figures, whatever, and I hand it to you right now, like, how does that feel in your body? Is it like, oh my gosh, like I gotta go spend it, I gotta get rid of it, I don't even know what to do with that money when you can't process beyond the answers and 99.9% of the people say when you say, What would you do if I handed you a check for whatever amount it is? That is an indication that there is work to be done around receiving money. Because in order to receive big money and have consistent success and allow that success to continue to grow, you have to be comfortable with having a six-figure number sitting in your bank account, a seven-figure number sitting in your bank account. Whatever that there's different people that it might even feel like$10,000 sitting in your bank account is like, what? I can't even fathom that because I have 13 cents in there right now. I've been there, I get it. Or it's overdrawn. That's another right. But it's just seeing where those triggers are for you and at what level, and that's where you can start to understand where the work needs to be done, especially if you're desiring, I just want to build my business or I want to be a millionaire. Great. But in order to get to that place, you have to be comfortable being able to even handle that kind of money. You have to know what you would do with it. There has to be safety within your body. This is gonna sound really probably go really into the woo-woo, but I like the woo-woo. Okay. One of the things I'm known for, and I I mastered this when it accidentally happened to me. I am known for receiving random checks in the mail. And one year, the most I've received in one year is about$80,000. I think it was like$78,000. And when I say random checks in the mail, people are always, this is the first response, they're like, oh, that's nice that you have family members that can send you that money. Wasn't my family member? Random means random. Like I've gotten refunds for random things five years later, when the year that it was the largest, 20,000 of it was around taxes. We had saved, put money aside for our business taxes. Even our CPA was surprised. They're like, what? Like the way that things worked out, we didn't even anticipate that we were gonna have to pay a lot lower taxes. So we had put about$20,000 more away than we needed to. So that was like an instant refund to ourselves that they're like, yeah, no, you're good to just go spend it on whatever you want. But again, in$76,000,$77,000 in one year of unexpected money coming back, only$20,000 of that was from taxes. The rest of that was from checks. I remember one week in that year, this was I think that year was I think it was 2023, that 77 year happened. And we went away for one week and came back and checked the mail, and there was$16,000 in five checks in that in the mail. Oh, some of these checks, like one of those checks, I remember distinctly because I was laughing. Like one of the checks was like for a dollar and fifty-eight cents or whatever, and then like a couple of the other checks, right? That's the thing. It and this is what I tell people what I have a program that I've done that uh it's like this challenge that we do where I help my clients like manifest random money. And I always say, I don't care if a check comes in for a penny, like celebrate that like it was a million dollars because I pick up like all of the the pennies and the nickels that I find on the floor and I'm like, I'm abundant. Yes, exactly. So this actually, it's funny. This started for me back in my daughter was like two at the time. So, like about 13 years ago. And we were in a place where it was like we were dead broke. We were living paycheck to paycheck. I could not even, I think I had, I don't even know. I had like just a couple of dollars in the bank account. And I remember we were at a space where it was like, I needed new clothes, my husband's needed new clothes, my daughter had outgrown her crib and really needed her child their bed. And I'm like, I can't afford anything. And I remember this going, I was like, I just wish somebody would send us a thousand dollars. If I could receive like a thousand dollar random check in the mail, that would be amazing right now. And like, I don't know why I started saying this. I just really felt it. And my husband was literally like, he's like, Sarah, you're crazy. Who is gonna when have we ever received a thousand dollars in the mail? I was like, I don't know. I just I really wish a thousand dollars would just come in the mail right now. And it was about, I wish I had journaled it and wrote it down, but I know it was three to five days after I started feeling that way. I checked the mail, and there's this envelope that I almost shredded it because it looked like those envelopes that have like just a P.O. box return address, no name. And it's like this is junk mail. But like I felt the envelope and I felt the card and I was like, hmm, like let's see. I don't know. So I just ripped it open and it's a Visa gift card, and it is from just Visa, and it says nothing about where it's from. I'm like, where the heck did this card come from? I have no idea. It looked like it was just sent from like the Visa website or whatever. And I'm like, oh, okay, this is weird. And like it's addressed to me, so I knew it was for me. It didn't go to the wrong address or anything. And I'm like, all right, it doesn't say anything about the dollar amount or anything that's on there. So I'm like, let me just call the number on the back. There's probably like whatever, maybe this is one of those rewards reward, right? So my husband's at work and I'm home and I call this number, and you know, it's the automated system, and it goes, your balance is one thousand dollars.

SPEAKER_03: 25:05

And I was like, What?

SPEAKER_02: 25:07

And I hung up, I was like, nope, I put their card number in wrong because you know how you have to like enter the card number and all that. I call back and I'm like push making sure I'm pushing those numbers correctly because I'm like, there's no way, and it's like your balance is one thousand dollars, and I was like, and I called my husband and I'm like, you are never crying.

SPEAKER_01: 25:28

That's so exciting!

SPEAKER_02: 25:29

I know, I know, girl. I you would have thought I hit like the$50 million lottery. Like, I it was like everything, all of my it felt like hitting six figures, all of my problems disappeared with that thousand dollars. I was like, huh. So anyway, I called my husband and he was like, What? And I'm like, Yeah, I was like, I called again and it said$1,000. I'm gonna go to Walmart and see if hopefully it actually scans and it worked. I'm like, I don't know. Let's see. And he asked me a very important question. And he goes, How did you do that? Can you do it again? And I was like, and it like just I was like, wait, I did something? What did I do? And he picked up on it because I was talking about it and all of a sudden it came into our life, and he's like, Wait, this is how easy it is to make money, Sarah.

SPEAKER_01: 26:25

Right, like what kind of rude stuff did you do?

SPEAKER_02: 26:29

He's like, think bigger, add a couple of more zeros, you know. But so I was like, oh my gosh, wait, what did I do? How do I do this again? And it's it just started this, I just started practicing with it, and it didn't happen right away because I was like, all right, I knew how it felt in my body like when I felt that thousand dollars. It felt so true and so real. It wasn't just like a thought, oh, it'd be nice to have a thousand dollars. I felt it in my body, and so I was like, all right, how do I do this again? What is this? And I started playing with it and I would get random things like that, random checks, random refunds. I've had things where it's like I've got a something broke in the house or something happened to the car and I've got to get a service. And then they're like, oh ma'am, we're gonna knock$500 off the dealer. We're gonna and I was like, why? And they're like, she's like, oh, we have this special, and it's like, oh, I didn't even know about that. So things like that. Exactly. And I just started being thankful for everything and the smallest things free coffee, the 50 cent refund checks that like are like, what's the point? You paid more to send the checks, then the check is even worse. But I just was so thankful for everything. And it took a couple of years, but it was about I think around 2020. So it took about whatever, almost 10 years to really get this to be consistent. But it would ever since then, it is like every single month, there is at least one check that comes in, if not more. Like I said, we went away that one week and got five checks, and it was sixteen thousand dollars worth of checks.

SPEAKER_00: 28:04

Wow.

SPEAKER_02: 28:05

And what I discovered and what I teach is like every time I go to the mailbox, it's not this feeling of oh, what bills are in there? It's like, oh, let's see what checks I received today. And if I didn't receive a check, that's fine too. It's like tomorrow, let's see what check I received today. And like I just show up with that kind of excitement and that anticipation and that certainty. There's gonna be money in that mailbox. I guarantee it. Let's just see what it is today, right? So yeah, it's playing with that kind of energy and that level of certainty and doing that same thing even in business. But that's just one of my favorite things because people are always mind blown. I've had people say all sorts of things to me. I've even done videos of the checks and like flipping through them. I'm like, they're actually here. This is not, I'm not saying that's so cool.

SPEAKER_01: 28:56

But it's just so cool. I celebrate the pennies and the nickels and the and when it's a quarter, I'm like, heck yeah. But yeah, that is so so amazing. You talk about scaling from sovereignty instead of sacrifice. Can you break down for us, especially for women who feel trapped in that hustle even after making it?

SPEAKER_02: 29:20

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, this happens a lot. And I have people come to me all the time that they could be multiple six figures, even seven figures, even multiple seven figures, and they're in this place of wanting to burn it all down. And it really boils down to like uh looking as you're building, as you're creating, even with your job, like this can apply to all aspects. You don't have to have a business to do this, but get out paper and pen that's always the best way to do this, and just start writing down what is your dream life? What does it look like from an every detail? Not, I don't want to see, oh, I want to go on vacation. Six times a year, what that's great. And yes, that matters. But more importantly, what time do you want to wake up? How do you want to feel when you wake up? Are you going to a job? Are you going downstairs to your office? What does that look like? What are the hours you're starting your business or your work or whatever it is? What kind of day are you having? So one of the things that I did, I found that I was in this place of my hours were dictated by my clients. Oh, you're gonna pay me? Yeah, sure. We can do a call at 8 p.m. No problem. I'll ignore my kids to make money, right? That was the kind of vibe. And now it's like, no, my business hours are 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Friday. And I have certain things, certain hours that are set for certain days that I like do podcasts or do outreach. Other hours are nope, those are my private client times, those are my telegram, getting back to my private client times. And what are your non-negotiables? Right. Honestly, I typically never do anything on a Saturday, but this podcast spoke to me. So I was like, nope, um, we're doing the podcast, right? So other people literally, I'm like, nope, Saturday is what you have available. I'm not interested. I'll move on, right? So it's like even just feeling into those smaller things might feel like minute details that don't really matter, but they make such a difference. And then how you want to show up in your business, it's the same thing. How do you want to show up with your family? What are the hours that you're putting aside every day to spend to be able to go spend intentional time with your family? That intentional piece was a really big thing for me because oftentimes I'd be like, Oh yeah, I'm spending time with my family, but I've got my laptop in front of me or I'm on my phone or whatever. I'm not actually there. And for me, one of the things that works, because I also a mom, wife, business owner, and I have ADHDs, I have got to put everything is on my calendar. My calendar looks ridiculous.

SPEAKER_01: 32:04

Mine too.

SPEAKER_02: 32:06

9 a.m. start work, right? I have to tell myself, oh, I have usually time in the morning. It depends. Right now, I'm in a season where it feels really good to sleep in later and not get up as early. But what I used to do when I was getting up earlier and really helping to send my kids off to school, it'd be like, all right, I get up at 6:30, kids are out the door by seven, seven to eight is my sauna time. And that was on my calendar. And what am I doing right now? I'm not gonna go distract myself and start cleaning or start going to do this. I'm gonna go do what I said I was gonna do. And same thing in my business, and especially around those money-making things that CEOs really need to be focusing on. I find a lot of times when clients are coming to me and they're really stressed out, it's because one, they're either overscheduled and not in a space of being scalable, and I'll explain what I mean in a minute. And the second is that they are doing things they really shouldn't be doing that are actually not moving the needle, that are actually not making the money. Everybody knows where we've all been employees. You can sit in front of a computer for eight hours and really get one hour of work done. It's not that hard to do, right? We're conditioned to actually do that. Yep. So the option distracted so much that it's like, oh, somebody texted me and let me go take a look at that before we know we're doom scrolling for 45 minutes. So it's being aware of the things that are pulling your time away and that are not efficient and bringing some more efficiency in. And when I do this, a lot of times I've had clients come to me that are working 16, 20, even 20 hour days, and they start working four to five hours a day and double, triple, quadruple their revenue because they're actually sitting down for those three, four hours, five hours, whatever it is, and they're actually working for those four or five hours instead of sitting in front of their computer saying they're working, meanwhile, they're doing all the other things. One of my favorite examples of this is I had a client that came to me. And when I say, I forget what I said earlier where I said I would come back to it, but basically, like the overgiving in your business. I had this client come to me. She was at about$300,000 a year. She had a full roster of clients, but they were all private clients. And she was working 12 hours a day. Uh, I think she was at like four, maybe five days a week. And her thing was her last relationship didn't work out because she couldn't spend time in that relationship. She was so focused on making money. She was now in this new relationship, newly engaged, and her fiance was complaining because he never got to spend time with her. And when he did get to spend time with her, he felt like she wasn't really there or whatever. It was a struggle. And she's like, I need help because I really want to get this to seven figures. And also, my this relationship is really important to me. What do I do? I'm like, well, first of all, and it was funny too, because when she came to me, she was like, I want to scale this. And the first thing I said to her was like, you don't have a scalable model. The first thing we have to do, you've got too much complexity in here. We've got to start ripping things, not tearing them down or whatever, but we've got to start scaling things back. We gotta, and what we did with her, she only had private clients. She did not have any group programs, and it was a little challenging because she did a lot of sensitive work with her clients. So it was brainstorming and working together and also getting feedback from her clients of like, all right, if I did a group program, she helped people through different kinds of trauma. So it was like that's not something you really want to share in a group setting necessarily, depending what level of healing you're at. And we were able to basically make a hybrid, they still got the private coaching aspect, but less than what it was before, but they felt more supportive because now they were more in a community setting. So when she changed that, and also we changed pricing because what she was charging for private coaching, I'm like, that is super low for private coaching. That's actually your group uh program pricing. And then she was for the people who wanted to continue that private support, she was able to offer them that next level. And that was at an investment that made sense because of her exchange for not her time exchange, but for the level of expert that she was, she needs to be compensated for that, right? So, with all these changes and not losing any of her clients that she was concerned to lose and all of that, she was able to create seven figures in just six months of us working together. Wow. And also went from working those 12-hour days to only working four to five days a week. And I think she was even at only three days a week working those hours as well. So her me listen fiance was extremely happy.

SPEAKER_01: 37:08

He's like, Thank you for your coaching.

SPEAKER_02: 37:11

Exactly. So there's things like that where it's like she scaled out of, I mean, she great heart, she scale, she didn't scale that chasing the money, she really did scale that chasing the passion.

SPEAKER_01: 37:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 37:25

But she kinda she got a point in her business where she was at a place where she boxed herself in. Well, yeah, of course we can scale, but you literally have no more time in the day to scale this model. We have to look at a whole different structure. So, yeah, that's where the sovereignty and time freedom just from instead of from sacrifice. Because also I find that it's not necessarily sacrifice from sacrificing our family. We're oftentimes sacrificing ourselves, and sometimes that really looks like we're coming from a good place, we're heart-centered entrepreneurs, we want a positive impact in the world. There's a way to do that and also get paid really well and not have to sacrifice your own health, your own relationships to be able to help others.

SPEAKER_01: 38:16

Yeah, it connected with me when you said you don't do anything on Saturdays and so forth. And so this is my third season of this podcast. And season one, it was like full-on passion project, like all hands on deck. If I didn't have interviews, I would do solo episodes. There was always something on my heart to be able to talk about. And then I remember it was record, edit, do all the things so that it would be up by that same week. And it takes a lot to put together. And I was working from home at the time, and I had the flexibility to be able to do it. I remember telling my boyfriend, I would really love to have a backlog just so that I'm not like on the spot making like doing this week of and have just a few episodes ahead. And he was like, Oh, yeah, that would be nice because you wouldn't be so stressed out about getting everything done. And I'm like, yeah. And so the for season two, I found this Facebook group and I posted in there and I didn't think it was gonna do anything. And I got had like over 40, 50 people sign up to do a podcast episode, and I'm like, oh my god. And I was coincidentally starting a new job outside of the house, and I hadn't worked outside of the house for years. It was like eight or nine years. So it it was gonna definitely take a different spin on things. So I was like, all right, I'm doing podcast recordings all the way through the end of July for that. This was last year, or like a year and a half ago. And I was like, all right, I got this, I'm doing all of these, I'm gonna edit them, blah, blah, blah, blah, whatever. I had recordings all the way through like uh probably May or June the following year, but I burned out. It got to a point where I was learning a new job and coming home after being on the computer all day long, coming home and editing, and I was just like, oh my god, I can't. I still have like 15 episodes from that 40 or 50 that I'm now coming back to to edit and release because I think that they were still very powerful. But then it felt more like a chore, and I was like, yeah, hold please. This came from my heart. I can't allow like my head to get in the middle of it. So I need a moment to step back and recalibrate myself. So I have a mindset coach that I've worked with for years, and I was he did a free group on Facebook, and he was like, all right, big action on a dream. And I'm like, oh, this feels right again. So I put a post up and I was like, but I'm also going to respect my time. I'm gonna respect that that I now take every Thursday night after work, I go hang out with my mom. Because after my dad died, we needed, she needs still have to have that contact. And so I go spend time with her for Thursday nights. So I was like, all right, I'm gonna only have recordings on Tuesday nights, because then that gives me time, and then on Saturdays for a few hours. And if it fills up, great. If it doesn't, it's all good. I still have this catalog of open and it's every Tuesday and every Saturday it's looked and I'm like, oh, okay, this feels right again. It feels good. You'll probably be my third or fourth episode for the new season. And I'm excited again and it feels good again. And I I also respected my time. It was not taking a ton of my time. I still have a job that I truly feel very passionate about. And so it just fit in a better place where I was physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, like it just connected in the right moment that I'm like, this feels good again. It doesn't feel like I'm leading with my head rather than my heart. So yeah, that's awesome. As you were saying that, I was like, oh yeah, that feels like what I'm doing now, even with the podcast. Just when I'm honoring my time and giving myself the space to truly continue to do what I love and what I feel passionate about, and also respect the time that I have with my family and all of that. So I felt very aligned when you said that. Awesome. So you've built multiple six and seven figure businesses. What's one habit, belief, or maybe shift that took you from surviving to thriving as a CEO and mother and wife and so forth?

SPEAKER_02: 43:35

Yeah, so one, I would say two things, but one is more that big thing between our ears is the biggest challenge. And again, I feel like a lot of the things we're talking about, everybody says this, but it's so true. And I think that people overlook it way too much because it's so oversed, which is unfortunate. But your mindset really, really, really matters and is gonna be the driving force for your healing with money and all of that comes with it and trauma and all of that. And so that's the number one thing from that perspective. But it really was from a little bit more practical, still on the Lulu side though, perspective. It was giving myself permission to be unapologetically neat, including what I actually wanted and to allow myself to be present with my family, and that somebody may DM me for a payment link, like they can wait. You know, it doesn't have to be answered in 30 seconds. And if I can answer it that quickly, fine, but it doesn't have to be right. I oftentimes sit with my phone facing down and it on silent. I do have my smartwatch, which isn't always the best thing. Yeah, but sometimes I gotta take that off too because I just need to be completely disconnected because I am the type of person, if I get a notification, I want to get it off my screen. So it's like let me just respond.

SPEAKER_01: 45:02

You and I, you and I, Sarah, are so like it's not even funny.

SPEAKER_02: 45:08

Yes, I was always that person, like when I worked with companies answering emails at 11 p.m., one o'clock in the morning while I'm laying in bed scrolling. If a notification comes, I'm just gonna answer it. I had to do a lot of work around it's okay to not answer the email until the morning. But yeah, I think that being present is the biggest gift that you can give yourself and your family. And so just giving yourself permission to do that for me that it it has not because of all of the things I went through. I used to say this more often than I really do now. And I remember telling my husband, I don't know how to be a mom. There was no example for me. Like my dad was the example in my life. My mom was unavailable for various different reasons. When my parents were together, she was very involved in the church and all that. Great, but not available for me. And then when my dad left her mental state, she was in and out of psych ward and all the again, unavailable. When it came to parenting, I'm like, I don't know how to do this. The only way that I know how to do this is to distract myself and like numb and work because my dad was there and he was the present one, but also he was working all the time. So yeah, so it was really like, what coming from this place of what did I want as a kid? And especially with my kids getting older, my daughter is now 15, she's in high school all the day. My favorite thing is that she comes home and it's like, Oh, what's the high school tea today? And I'm actually there and present and listening. And if you have a teenager, you probably know they're gonna call you out if you're not. She's like, Mom, you're not even listening to me. You're looking at your phone.

SPEAKER_00: 46:48

Very much so.

SPEAKER_02: 46:50

She only had to tell me that a key couple of times where I was like, okay. And I had to ask myself, like, is that the memory that I want to have? Is that the memory I want to give her? Or do I want to choose something different? And in the same token, it was the same thing where a few years ago my husband and I were both coaches, so makes it a little bit more complicated. But we both made the decision that we're gonna have a family first business. The family events go on our calendar first. And sometimes that's not always the easiest thing because schools like to send you the information three days beforehand. Drives me nuts. I know. Like you guys knew about this in the beginning of the year. Can we just get the whole thing? But anyway, as much as we can, it's like the kids' sporting events, all of these things, like they go on the calendar first, they're what matter. We make sure we're being present when we're there so we're not missing out. Because the last thing that I wanted to do, and I think that's this is what really hit me when my daughter was getting into that middle school age, is I'm like, wow, I only have now I only have three more years until she's gone. And I always tell my kids they could stay here as long as they want, but theoretically, I have three more years until you have that 18.

SPEAKER_01: 47:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 47:58

So is it gonna come the day where she's graduating um high school? I almost said college. Well, I guess that too, but graduating high school, and I'm like, oh, I wish I did this, I wish I did that, I wish I was more present, I wish I went to the events, I wish so just thinking about that. And again, coming back to what I was saying earlier of taking that paper to pen, when you're thinking about all of these things, like when your kids turn 18, when you're on your deathbed, when you're whatever, what are the things that you're gonna either be in that state and say, Oh, I'm so thankful I decided to do this, or what is gonna be your biggest regret where you're like, I wish I did more of this. Yeah. And really leading from that place to to create the life that you want so that you can put these changes into place and also giving yourself grace. You might have 10 things on that list you want to change. Doesn't mean you're gonna be able to change them tomorrow, but at least the trajectory of where you want to go and what you desire to change in your time.

SPEAKER_01: 48:57

So yeah, I love that. Yeah, one of my biggest things, and I had um amazing parents, but very Hispanic, very Catholic, very we don't talk about anything here kind of scenario. And that was actually what I needed when I was growing up. I needed to be able to feel like I trusted them enough to go to them when I was dealing with really difficult things uh in my teenage years, and I wasn't able to, and that led to a slew of different issues. I was 18 with cervical cancer, 19 again, then it kept spiraling from there. And so one of the biggest things that I wanted to make sure that I was for my kids was someone that they could always come and talk to. And I never hid anything. I was always very honest with my story, with what I went through, why I was so open, obviously always for their little ears, depending on their age level, but I was always super open with everything that I was going through so that they could see that they had the permission to do the same. And my son came out to me at, I think he was like 12, and he was like, Mom, I really, I don't know if I like girls, I really like boys. And I was like, awesome, I love you. I already knew that, but okay, I love you anyways. You always have a supporter in me and I will always go to bat for you. So when you say write down what you want, that was what I wanted to be that kind of parent. Did I do everything perfect? Nope, absolutely not. I will be the first to say, hey, sorry, that was my bad. I reacted with emotion rather than taking in deep breath and like reacting the way that I needed to. I always want to teach them there's no such thing as perfection, because that's the lowest standard you can have for yourself. And there's no thing that they can ever not come to me with. And are they like the perfect kids? Absolutely not. They drive me crazy. My oldest is 21, my son is 20, and my youngest daughter is 17. And so that whole teenage thing, I get it. And even if I'm at work on her way home from school, she'll FaceTime me. And I've already told people, hey, when my daughter calls, I'm just gonna walk with her on the phone while she gets home from school. And it's understood, but I've been made sure that's been the availability to them that I've had because yeah, I want you to know that I'm always here and I want to hear, and how was your day and all of that? I want to hear it all because I would rather be that parent than have them feel like they can't come to me for anything. So yeah, I totally feel that so much. So for the women listening who feel disconnected from business or her power or her purpose, what would you say to her right now?

SPEAKER_02: 52:11

I would say it anchors back into what I was saying earlier, like really giving yourself permission to show up, right? I remember one of the things I carried for a long time was this too muchness. I was always, I've always was made to feel like the problem. And not to say I'm not saying I'm perfect, I'm sure I was the problem in some things, right? But I heard this from an early age and it carried through a lot of things with me. And I just had to own that I'm not for everybody. My energy is not for everybody, and some people may take my passion as being whatever, too direct, whatever the case may be, you name it. It has been said to me, I'm sure it's been said to you and lots of people listening. But I just really came to this place of having this unapologetic leadership unapologetically, and that was born. I remember when the first time that unapologetic came to me. I remember my aunts and things feeling like people expected me to apologize for whatever, for literally just living. Just being not even right. And it's like, no, I'm not sorry. No, I'm not sorry. And even when I first started telling, I was telling my trauma story, that was my way to cope. People knew about it the moment it happened and the things that were going on. And then I started coming into the online space and talking about domestic violence and how hard it is to leave those relationships and like all sorts of things. And I remember I think a couple of my aunts were just sick of hearing it, and they're like, Oh gosh, Sarah, like that happened so long ago. She could just stop talking about it. And it's like, no, I'm sorry it bothers you. Don't be friends with me on Facebook then. I don't know what to tell you. Like you have the delete buttons right there. Yeah, exactly. Oh you have the option to not click on the live, not my problem, right? So it just it was birthed from that frustration of no, I'm done with saying sorry, I'm done with apologizing. I'm not sorry that you don't want to hear what happened to me or what has occurred in my life. That's a you thing, that's not a knee thing. And so just really showing up in that space, same thing like with the boardroom. I know we didn't really get to even touch on that, but it's like being a female and also a Latina female in the boardroom that usually consists of a bunch of old white men. It's like the second you speak up, you're always questioned. You're always like, oh, wait, why do you think that? Prove that. Like it's a prove it moment for everything that will ever come out of your mouth. Meanwhile, the other old white guy could say something where you're like, that's completely wrong. And everybody is, yeah, I totally agree, Bob. So that's another space where I was like, you know what? I'm gonna walk into this room differently. Because I mean, I was still in my 20s the first time I was ever in those kind of rooms, and it was intimidating. And it was like, Oh, everybody's so much older than me, everybody's so much richer than me, they know the answers. By the end of it, I'm like, nope. Me and my friend, she was somebody I connected with, she was another executive in one of the companies I was working with. And I remember we were having a conversation one time in my office where we were just like, Yeah, sometimes you just have to walk into the boardroom and throw your dick on the table and show everybody that yours is bigger. Yes, I love that. That's the kind of energy, and that could be a little like sometimes that's a little bit too much in the negative energy. But I was like, all right, I can walk in that way and still walk in as like presenting that powerful feminine leadership. I don't have to show up like a dude. I don't have to like whatever do all these things. That's not the vibe, but it's more so the vibe of walking into that room and being like, no, you don't know everything just because you have different genitals than I do or whatever. I'm not gonna entertain your questioning and all this, or I'm gonna answer the question because it would be rude not to in that kind of setting, but I'm gonna answer it in a way that just shuts you up and shuts you down. And it's just like you're gonna learn one way or another to just stop testing that water. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 56:22

Yeah, I love that. It's called the big dick energy, and it's awesome. I remember I used to work in the travel industry, and this was where I spent probably 11 years of my life. I was a single mom, I had to travel. Life was busy and hard, but I was making deals, I was more in the wholesale space. So I would go to hotels, contract with them so that we could sell their rooms to the wholesale travel market. So I was like their first line. And it was a very innovative company in terms of the travel industry. And so we had these contracts that we would call commitment contracts. We would pre-buy rooms. We would basically put our money where our mouth was. We would negotiate the best rates so that we could sell it to the wholesale travel market at the best rate. I feel like I grew up in this, right? I was, or maybe 22 when I first started there. So I was super young, but I started and got to know the industry and what I was in charge of was South Florida. I'm Puerto Rican. The Latina is all up in me. And so I made the best relationships with the clients that I dealt with. And I remember one of the he was like vice president at the time or something like that. He would hear me on the phones. The weeks that I was in the office not traveling, I would be on the phone and I'd be like, full hour conversations on the phone with these customers. And he would walk by and hear me, and I would just keep going with my conversation like nothing. And I remember in a meeting, he pointed out that Maria, you're too nice. And I'm like, uh granted, I had the third largest destination company wide for the whole world. So it's not like there was like a minimal amount of money that was on my shoulders. And I was like, but I'm getting it all done. I'm getting the promotions that we need, I'm getting the rates that we need. This has never looked better. And he's like, nah, you're too nice. His destination was New York City. So I remember that I was just like, well, that's fine. You come on a business trip with me. How about that? And he's like, Yeah, yeah, I'll do that. And we have some contracts to negotiate. And I'm like, great, awesome. And so we go down to Miami, and I had a full schedule that week with him. And in 50 minutes of the meeting, I would talk about kids, I would talk about what they were doing, how our house family, whatever. The last 10 minutes, I said, okay, this is what I need. And I've already done all the research. This is why I need it. This is the countries that are coming to your hotel. This is what I need. And he was dumbfounded, came back in the same kind of meeting, and he was like, nobody's got better relationships here than Maria. And I'm like, oh, okay. I I have clients that that still years later, it's been, I think, since 2017 that I've haven't worked there, years later, still c tell me, oh my gosh, it's never been the same. And so it like tracks with the going in there completely being underestimated. I know what I'm doing and I'm doing it right because I'm getting the results. So what are we what are we doing? I was like in charge of$44 million for that company. So it wasn't like a little chum changing.

SPEAKER_02: 1:00:13

Yes, exactly.

SPEAKER_01: 1:00:15

Yeah, but I love that you understand that you harnessed that energy and was like, no, I'm here to say what I need to say. And I love that so much.

SPEAKER_02: 1:00:26

Yeah, it's so funny. So there was this one time that I had at this one company I was head of HR and CFO and all that. Everything fell under me. And we had somebody coming, and I didn't know that somebody had new head started. We were still in startup phase. So everybody, this was like morning meetings, everybody would go to the back, usually except me or whoever else was admin, but any of the production people, which included the CEO, the director of sales. So everybody that was usually up at the office, I was the only one there. And this guy comes to the door, and I don't know who he is. So I'm like, hey, who are you? What are you here for? And he starts trying to push through me and not answer my questions. And I'm like, I'm gonna stand right in your this isn't happening. Who are you? Who are you here to see? Whatever. He finally answers. I'm like, oh, okay, well, welcome. This is your first day. They're having the meeting right now. I'll walk you back. So I walk back up to my desk after the meeting, 15 minutes, 30 minutes later, whatever it is, I hear the CEO walking down the hallway and talking. And he's like, Oh, let me introduce you to Sarah. She runs everything here. She's the one you're gonna get your paycheck from. And he said, if you can't get along with Sarah, you can't get along with anybody here. And he turns the corner into my office, and the dude looks at me, drops his head, and just shakes his head with a little smile on his face. I was like, Yeah, Mother Effer. Now you I was like, Oh, hey, come on in, sit down. And so anyway, after he left my office and we did his whole onboarding, then I went to the CEO's office. I was like, funny story, you want to know what happened this morning? And I tell him, and he's like, Sarah, you are the freaking CFO. Why, when that happened, why weren't you like, I'm the CFO, and like say something to him? And I said, I don't need to announce my title or presence. If you're not gonna respect me when you meet me without knowing my title, then that tells me everything I need to know. And I was like, also, that look on his face when he turned the corner and realized who this was perfect, is literally priceless, and that's everything I live for. So I don't need to say anything because he learned it without me saying one word to him. Yeah, and sure enough, that guy he didn't even last a month there because come to find out he just did not respect women and he had a whole altercation with one of the other women leaders there, and we're like, nope, this guy has got to go, not a good fit. But that lives with me because I think that also just speaks to the level of leadership. It's like when I say throw your dick on the table, whatever, it's not this like needing to yell and announce yourself to everybody. Like one way or another, people are gonna learn. Yeah. And absolutely there is a power to powerful silent leadership that is just you oozing who you are and you being in that energy of like unapologetically being yourself and letting that speak for it.

SPEAKER_01: 1:03:36

I love it so much. Oh, drop your mic. It's so good. I love this. Oh my gosh, Sarah, this is amazing. I'm gonna put all your socials and how to get in touch with you and everything in the show notes. So just so you know, listeners, go follow Sarah, connect with Sarah. She is awesome. I am here for this energy, and I'm so so excited for everyone to hear this because it was totally a conversation, just how I like it. I'm so excited that you took your time and just like graced us with your presence. I'm so excited for everybody.

SPEAKER_02: 1:04:15

Yeah, thank you so much. This was awesome. Thank you so much for your time.

SPEAKER_01: 1:04:19

All right, listeners, thank you so much for listening today. I hope you got as much from this episode as I did. And peace out, guys. Love your life. Have a wonderful day. Bye.