To what extent have your cultural values shaped your professional career? Have you ever thought of turning the Latino values you grew up with into a catalyst for success in entrepreneurship?  

In this episode, I'm joined by Ivonne Feizy, an HR Specialist who chose to handle her shit differently and took the leap of faith into entrepreneurship with remarkable success. Born and raised in Mexico City, Ivonne came to the States in 2012, where she developed her passion for HR, and started IP Living HR Business Solutions to connect companies with the best talent available and ensure talent a place in the best companies.

Tune in to Episode 206 of Amiga, Handle Your Shit, and learn more about Ivonne's transition from the corporate world to entrepreneurship, her life-changing encounter with Grupo Bimbo's founder, and her unique talent to see opportunities where most of us see challenges. You'll also learn about the importance of self-belief and accepting things happen for a reason in life. Ivonne also shares her thoughts on the importance of networking, the best way to deal with life's challenges, and much more.

In This Episode, You Will Learn:

• About Ivonne's early life and education (3:40)
• Ivonne's career journey and her trip to America (7:00)
• How hard it is to transition from corporate to entrepreneurship (19:10)
• About the best ways to navigate a hybrid work environment (24:50)
• Ivonne shares tips to navigate life and career challenges (28:50)
• How amigas can handle their shit, Ivonne's style (31:00)

Connect with Ivonne Feizy:

• Website
• LinkedIn
• Twitter

Let's Connect!

• Website
• Facebook
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• Jackie Tapia Arbonne website

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There is a quiet kind of courage that comes with being the first. First to apply. First to navigate systems your parents never had access to. First to make decisions without a roadmap. This episode is about that courage, and the trust it takes to keep moving anyway.

In today’s episode of Amiga Handle Your Shit, Jackie Tapia sits down with Valerie Carrillo, a first-generation Latina navigating the college application process largely on her own. With parents who did not attend college, Valerie shares what it has meant to figure things out in real time, ask for help when she needed it, and learn how to advocate for herself in rooms she was never taught how to enter.

Valerie reflects on studying abroad at a young age, returning home with a broader sense of what is possible, and how that experience shaped her confidence and resilience. She opens up about the pressure many first-gen students carry, the fear of rejection, and the mindset shifts that helped her stay grounded while applying to competitive schools without guarantees.

The conversation also touches on faith, timing, and learning to trust that not getting what you want right away does not mean you are failing. Valerie reminds us that outcomes do not define worth and that sometimes the long way around still gets you exactly where you are meant to be.

Tune in to episode 270 of Amiga Handle Your Shit for a real and refreshing conversation on first-generation ambition, self-trust, and navigating the unknown without losing yourself.

Episode Takeaways:

• What it’s like to be first-gen with no blueprint for college (04:40)
• How studying abroad early built confidence and independence (11:50)
• Why asking for help became a turning point in her application process (24:30)
• The emotional side of applying to competitive universities (26:40)
• How faith and perspective helped her release fear around outcomes (34:10)
• Why rejection does not mean you are off track (34:50)

Connect with Valerie:

• Instagram

Let's Connect!

• Website
• Facebook
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• Jackie Tapia Arbonne's website
• Book: The AMIGA Way: Release Cultural Limiting Beliefs to Transform Your Life

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Have you ever felt like you were constantly trying to define yourself while moving between cultures, expectations, and identities?

This episode explores what it means to reclaim your voice and sense of self when you’ve spent years navigating spaces that were not built with you in mind. It’s a powerful conversation about identity, belonging, resilience, and the courage it takes to show up fully as yourself.

Urmi Hossain is a self-published author, speaker, blogger, and podcast host working in the financial services industry in Canada. She holds both the CFA and CAIA designations and is deeply passionate about empowering women through mentorship, education, and public speaking. Her book, Discovering Your Identity: A Rebirth from Inter-Racial Struggle, reflects her journey as a third culture kid and her path toward self-acceptance and authenticity.

Tune in to Episode 269 of Amiga, Handle Your Shit, as Jackie sits down with Urmi Hossain for an honest and deeply reflective conversation about growing up as a third culture kid, navigating inter-racial identity, and building confidence in spaces where representation is limited. Together, they unpack the emotional weight of identity struggles, the importance of mentorship, and how self-awareness can become a catalyst for empowerment and purpose.

Key Takeaways:

✨ Identity is shaped, not fixed

✨ Representation deeply impacts self-worth

✨ Mentorship creates pathways to belonging

✨ Confidence is built through self-awareness

✨ Cultural duality can become a strength

✨ Owning your story is empowering

Connect with Urmi Hossain:

• Instagram
• YouTube
• LinkedIn

Let's Connect!

• Website
• Facebook
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• Jackie Tapia Arbonne website
• Buy The Amiga Way's Book

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Healing does not always start in a textbook or a therapy room. Sometimes it begins in a family story, a breakup, a body that learned to survive too early, or a question we were never taught to ask ourselves. This episode is about what happens when a Latina decides to listen to those experiences instead of outrunning them.

In today’s episode of Amiga Handle Your Shit, Jackie Tapia sits down with licensed clinical social worker, somatic therapist, and holistic healer Norma Garcia, a proud first-generation Mexicana born and raised in Los Angeles. Together, they explore how personal history, cultural identity, and lived experience can be resignified into powerful tools for healing, not just for ourselves, but for our communities.

Norma reflects on growing up as the daughter of Mexican immigrants, carrying responsibility early and learning how to survive emotionally before she ever had language for it. She speaks to the invisible weight many first-generation Latinas carry, the pressure to succeed, to sacrifice, to keep going. That weight followed her into years of community mental health work, where burnout and broken systems forced her to ask a hard question: what does it cost to always be the strong one? Her shift into private practice was not about ambition, but about choosing care that felt honest, human, and whole.

She also shares how a personal breakup cracked something open, exposing patterns of people-pleasing and self-abandonment rooted in culture and survival. That moment reshaped her work, leading her to support Latinas in understanding how they love, how they attach, and how safety actually feels in the body. Through somatic healing, Norma reminds us that healing is not just thinking differently; it is learning to feel safe again. She closes with a simple grounding practice, a quiet invitation to come back home to yourself.

Tune in to episode 268 of Amiga Handle Your Shit for a deeply affirming conversation on Latinidad, self-trust, healing the body, and turning lived experience into a source of wisdom and service.

• How growing up first-gen shapes responsibility, identity, and emotional survival (04:00)
• Why mental health conversations often skip Latino households and how that impacts adulthood (06:40)
• What ten years in community mental health taught Norma about burnout and scarcity (14:30)
• Why entrepreneurship became an act of self-preservation, not ambition (16:00)
• How personal heartbreak revealed generational patterns around love and self-abandonment (20:00)
• What “love blueprints” are and how culture shapes how we attach and relate (21:30)
• Why healing requires addressing the nervous system, not just the mind (27:00)
• How somatic therapy reconnects the body, emotions, and sense of safety (28:30)
• A simple grounding practice to support yourself during emotional triggers (31:30)
• Why Latinas deserve healing that honors culture, body, and soul together (34:00)

Connect with Norma Garcia:

• Website
• LinkedIn
• Instagram

Let's Connect!

• Website
• Facebook
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• Jackie Tapia Arbonne's website
• Book: The AMIGA Way: Release Cultural Limiting Beliefs to Transform Your Life

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Have you ever found yourself in a season where everything feels quiet, unclear, and a little uninspired?

This episode is an honest reflection on the in-between moments of life. The seasons where you are still showing up, still carrying responsibility, but feel emotionally depleted and unsure of what’s next. It’s a reminder that not every chapter needs to be loud or polished to be meaningful.

Tune in to this new episode of Amiga, Handle Your Shit, as Jackie provides a heartfelt reflection on honoring the in-between season. From caring for aging parents and managing family responsibilities, to navigating motherhood, personal milestones, and moments of uncertainty, this solo episode speaks to the invisible weight many women carry quietly. Jackie shares why it’s okay to pause, to feel uninspired, and to trust that even when clarity hasn’t arrived yet, the path is still unfolding exactly as it should.

Key Takeaways:

✨ It’s okay to feel uninspired sometimes

✨ The in-between season still has purpose

✨ Rest is not failure

✨ Quiet progress still counts

✨ Leadership can feel lonely at times

✨ Trust builds even when clarity is missing

Let's Connect!

• Website
• Facebook
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• Jackie Tapia Arbonne website
• Buy The Amiga Way's Book

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A year has passed since the Palisades and Eaton fires tore through Los Angeles, but the real story is what came after. The rebuilding. The delays. And the systems that continue to fail the communities most impacted.

In today’s episode, Jackie sits down with real estate developer and community voice Marisela Arechiga for a raw conversation about what the one-year mark after the fires actually looks like on the ground, beyond headlines and talking points.

Marisela brings a builder’s perspective to the aftermath, explaining why rebuilding has stalled, how Los Angeles permitting and planning processes slow recovery, and why Latino families in places like Altadena have been especially affected. From insurance gaps to generational homes being lost, they unpack how real estate, policy, and bureaucracy quietly displace entire communities.

The conversation widens into national and international politics, touching on recent U.S. leadership decisions abroad and how aggressive power moves ripple culturally and economically. Jackie and Marisela question what these decisions mean for immigrant communities, trust in leadership, and the narratives pushed through media and protest movements.

They also explore issues many avoid saying out loud: private equity buying up land, homelessness as an industry, the role of AI in modernizing broken systems, and why everyday people are increasingly the ones exposing waste, fraud, and dysfunction.

Tune in to episode 266 of Amiga Handle Your Shit for a grounded, perspective-shifting conversation on rebuilding Los Angeles, questioning power, and why informed Latina voices matter now more than ever.

Episode Takeaways:

• What the one-year anniversary of the Palisades and Eaton fires really looks like on the ground (02:10)
• Why rebuilding in Los Angeles could take a decade, not years (03:30)
• How permitting delays and bureaucracy stall recovery efforts (04:40)
• The hidden impact on Latino families with generational real estate (07:20)
• Why many homeowners will never rebuild and are being forced to relocate (08:30)
• The role of private equity firms in buying up post-disaster real estate (09:00)
• How proposed federal action could shift real estate power back to homeowners (09:40)
• What international power plays reveal about leadership, optics, and consequences (15:00)
• Why protests, movements, and media narratives deserve deeper scrutiny (21:00)
• How everyday people using their voice are exposing fraud and influencing change (28:30)
• What homelessness, leadership, and city policy say about priorities in Los Angeles (34:00)
• Why this moment demands accountability, not silence (37:30)

Connect with Marisela Arechiga:

• LinkedIn
• Instagram
• New Generation Home Improvements Website
• New Generation Home Improvements Instagram

Let's Connect!

• Website
• Facebook
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• Jackie Tapia Arbonne's website
• Book: The AMIGA Way: Release Cultural Limiting Beliefs to Transform Your Life

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Have you ever felt ready to close a year with honesty instead of pretending everything was fine?

This episode is about telling the truth about what the year actually brought, the lessons it demanded, and the clarity that comes when you stop romanticizing struggle. It’s a conversation rooted in reflection, release, and the intentional decision to move forward differently.

Tune in to this new episode of Amiga, Handle Your Shit, as Jackie and Maricela sit down for an open and grounded New Year conversation about letting go of 2025 and setting the tone for what comes next. Together, they reflect on exhaustion, growth, and the emotional weight of the year, while naming what they are no longer carrying forward. This episode is not about resolutions or pressure, but about truth, discernment, and choosing alignment over survival as the new year begins.

Key Takeaways:

✨ Closure requires honesty, not perfection

✨ You don’t owe loyalty to hard years

✨ Reflection creates emotional clarity

✨ Rest is part of forward movement

✨ Intentional release makes space for alignment

✨ The new year begins with self-trust

Connect with Marisela Arechiga:

• Instagram
• New Generation Home Improvements Website
• New Generation Home Improvements Instagram

Let's Connect!

• Website
• Facebook
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• Jackie Tapia Arbonne website
• Buy The Amiga Way's Book

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tech is no longer the future. It is the present. And it is moving fast. Today’s theme, Latinas Leading the Tech Revolution, is a reminder that innovation is not reserved for a select few. It belongs to us too, and this moment demands that we stop standing on the sidelines and start shaping the world being built around us.

In today’s episode, we revisit three powerhouse conversations with four mujeres who are rewriting the narrative about who gets to lead, innovate, and take up space in tech. Their journeys are different, but they echo the same message: ownership. Ownership of their voice. Ownership of their path. Ownership of their right to stand in rooms where new ideas take shape.

We begin with Nikki Barua, interim CEO of Latinas in Tech, whose life is a masterclass in reinvention and bold vision. Nikki shows us that obstacles are not barriers; they are gateways, and when you move with intention, your path expands. Her approach to leadership encourages us to rethink what is possible when Latina women fully step into their ambitions.

Next, we revisit Christina Gallegos, leadership strategist and former Google leader. Christina gives us a behind-the-scenes understanding of what leadership looks like inside one of the world’s biggest tech ecosystems. Her message is simple and powerful: leadership without humanity is empty, and women lead differently because we care differently.

Finally, we return to a fire-filled conversation with Marisela Arechiga and Lizette Espinosa, entrepreneurs and AI educators dedicated to bringing accessible tech knowledge directly into our community. They remind us that our community cannot afford to be last in line for the tools shaping the world, especially AI.

Tune in and let these four mujeres show you what happens when Latinas stop waiting to be invited into the future and start building it.

Episode Takeaways:

Why Nikki believes obstacles are levels, not limits (2:20)

The childhood imprint that shaped her belief in possibility and impact (3:10)

How reinvention becomes a superpower when you choose curiosity over fear (4:55)

Christina’s path through top global companies and what prepared her for Google (7:50)

Why tech is “like water” and why every industry now depends on it (8:40)

Her role in expanding Google Maps to support users in crisis and emergency zones (10:00)

Why Latina representation in tech isn’t optional, it’s essential (12:50)

Marisela’s callout: our community cannot afford to be the last adopters of emerging tech (16:00)

The truth about AI tools, what they can and can’t replace, and why human connection stays central (22:40)

Connect with Nikki Barua:

X

LinkedIn

Connect with Christina D. Gallegos:

LinkedIn

Gradient Coast

Connect with Marisela Arechiga:

Instagram

New Generation Home Improvements Website

Connect with Lizette Espinosa:

Instagram

LinkedIn

Website

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Have you ever looked back at your life and realized you manifested it long before it happened?

This episode is a powerful reminder that intention, alignment, and belief are not abstract concepts but real forces that shape our reality. Through lived experience, this conversation explores how clarity of vision, authenticity, and deep inner trust can turn dreams into tangible success, even when the path feels uncertain.

Tune in to Episode 263 of Amiga, Handle Your Shit, as Alexia Melocchi unpacks how manifestation has guided her extraordinary journey. From immigrating to the U.S. as a teenager to building a million-dollar career in Hollywood, Alexia shares how intention, alignment, and information became her blueprint for success. Together, they discuss women in male-dominated industries, standing in your truth, navigating power with integrity, and why knowledge is one of the most underestimated tools for confidence and leadership.

Alexia Melocchi is a prolific film producer, marketing and distribution executive, journalist, and business consultant with a long-standing career in the international film and television industry. Fluent in five languages, she has worked across global markets acquiring and distributing film and television content worldwide. Alexia is also the author of The Heart of Show Business, a guide rooted in mindset, integrity, and insider wisdom for turning passion projects into viable, purpose-driven careers.

Key Takeaways:

✨ Intention is the foundation of manifestation

✨ Alignment creates sustainable success

✨ Knowledge builds confidence and authority

✨ Passion fuels long-term vision

✨ Women must claim space unapologetically

✨ Truth is the most powerful currency

Connect with Alexia Melocchi: 

• Instagram
• Facebook
• Website
• Alexia's Book: The Heart Of Show Business

Let's Connect!

• Website
• Facebook
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• Jackie Tapia Arbonne website
• Buy The Amiga Way's Book

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Some shifts feel like a choice. Others hit you like a jolt that forces you to look at your life and ask, "Who am I becoming?" This week's episode brings together two mujeres whose stories mirror a truth many of us avoid: sometimes life doesn't fall apart, it pulls you forward.

In this episode, we revisit two powerful interviews from 2025 that reveal what happens when a Latina stops moving on autopilot and starts moving with intention. These women's stories are different, yet they echo the same lesson: there comes a moment when you can no longer ignore what your spirit has been asking of you.

First, we hear from Brenda Palache, serial entrepreneur and owner of LVS Creations and Bartender Brenda LVS. Brenda traded a stable banking career for the chance to raise her daughter on her terms and build businesses rooted in creativity, family, and freedom. Her leap was not glamorous or convenient. It was necessary. And it reminds us that responsibility can be an anchor or a compass, depending on how we move with it.

Then we shift into the emotional and deeply resonant story of Monique Loza, interior designer and founder of Losa Space and Design. Monique didn't step into self-worth. She was pushed into it by betrayal that forced a radical internal shift. Her breaking point became her turning point, revealing a truth she had ignored for years: love that doesn't begin within will never feel like enough.

Together, these mujeres offer a message that lands with clarity. Your life expands the moment you stop negotiating with your own needs. Your identity is allowed to evolve. And choosing yourself is not selfish. It is structure. It is healing. It is movement.

Tune in to episode 262 and let these stories anchor you in the reminder that you have permission to change your mind, your path, and your life.

Episode Takeaways:

Why motherhood forced Brenda to rethink what success really meant for her (7:30)

The moment she realized that stability was costing her presence and freedom (9:00)

How leaving corporate life cracked open her creativity and entrepreneurial courage (10:00)

The cultural expectations that shaped Monique's choices and kept her in survival mode (13:50)

How betrayal became the mirror that revealed where she had abandoned herself (15:00)

The breaking point that led Monique to choose self-worth over staying small (18:40)

Why self-love is not a feeling but a practice that rebuilds your entire life (20:00)

Why your story is still unfolding and how to step into the version of you that is waiting (22:00)

Connect with Brenda Palache:

Instagram

IVS Creations Instagram

Connect with Monique Loza:

Instagram

Follow Loza Space + Design on Instagram

Let's Connect!

Website

Facebook

Instagram

Jackie Tapia Arbonne's website

Book: The AMIGA Way

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.