Café with Monica

Met up with the ladies of the Modern Day Mujeres podcast and absolutely fell in love with their personalities and drive for personal growth. These ladies have created a podcast that touch on so many topics but also interview other women who wish to share their stores or shine light on their business. In this episode, we chat about their individual personal development journeys and what it means to be Latina.

Guest Contact:

• Follow Melanie & Liz on Instagram, check out their podcast to listen to my episode with them. .
• Join the Modern Day Mujeres Facebook Group

You all asked for it and I am delivering it. Here is the much-anticipated episode on comparison and why it kills creativity. In this short episode, I am riding solo talking about the psychology behind comparing, how do we create comparison, benefits of comparing for Entrepreneurs and High Achievers, why comparison kills creativity, helpful tips to stop comparing, and my words of wisdom.

We are all in our own personal development journeys.

Calling all broke Millennials! In this week's episode, I have Erin Lowery, creator of BrokeMillennial.com and author of the Broke Millennial: Stop Scraping By and Get Your Financial Life Together. Erin will share practical tips to start applying to get your finances on track. Erin shares some additional insights from her book on how to get financially naked with your significant other and how to handle the "B" word aka budgeting. This episode is jam-packed with awesome advice.

More about my guest:

Erin Lowery is the author of Broke Millennial: Stop Scraping By and Get Your Financial Life Together and Broke Millennial Takes On Investing: A Beginner's Guide to Leveling Up Your Money. Her first book was named by MarketWatch as one of the best money books of 2017 and her style is often described as refreshing and conversational. Erin's appeared on CBS Sunday Morning, CNBC and Fox & Friends. She has written for Fast Company, Cosmopolitan Magazine, and Refinery29 and regularly speaks at universities and conferences around the country. Erin spent most of her childhood living in Asia but now settled in New York City with her husband.

Guest Contact:

• Follow Erin on Instagram, Twitter and check out her website.
• Books:
• Broke Millennial
• Broke Millennial Takes On Investing

In this episode, Jessica Milanes and I have an honest conversation about infertility. We talk about her infertility journey, how she works with other women who are going through this, and so much more. This episode is about shedding light on an important topic that not many talk about. We dive deep into the emotional impact of being infertile and having miscarriages and how you can support someone experiencing infertility.

Jessica Millanes is the host of the Real Talk: Women's Health and Fertility Podcast. Jess is a corporate boss lady, who manages a group of kick-ass women in technology. She's a dog mom and wife. What inspired me about jess is her openness to share with her audience by documenting her infertility journey, Jess wants to create a change in the way we talk about women's health.

Go show Jess some love by following her on Instagram @jessmilanes and listening to her Podcast.

Guest Contact:

Follow Jessica on Instagram, listen to her podcast, and check out her website.

For this episodes show notes click here.

In this episode, Jessica Milanes and I have an honest conversation about infertility. We talk about her infertility journey, how she works with other women who are going through this, and so much more. This episode is about shedding light on an important topic that not many talk about.  We dive deep into the emotional impact of being infertile and having miscarriages and how you can support someone experiencing infertility.

Imposter syndrome is a persistent feeling of self-doubt, incompetence, and inadequacy. It sounds like this "I don't deserve this job. I just got lucky, "Who am I to do this? What do I know?", "I managed to pull it off today. But sooner or later, they will find out that I am just faking it". Imposter syndrome is a whole new level of self-doubt it's like self-doubt on steroids. It makes you feel as if you don't deserve any of your accomplishments and like you are not enough. In this episode, I invited Jillian Parekh, an imposter syndrome expert, to gives us insights on how we can tackle are inner imposter or who she likes to call "Rhonda"! Jillian is a certified life coach who helps women in business overcome debilitating imposter syndrome so they can scale their business with confidence, charge what their services are worth, and finish projects that will up-level their business without fear, hesitation, or procrastination. Jillina has 10 years of education in organizational, cognitive, and social psychology, career experience in conflict & risk management, as well as leadership consulting and mediation.

• Recommendations to solve your inner self doubt.

Guest Contact:

• Follow Jillian on Instagram and check out her podcast.
• Interested in hiring Jillian as your coach but not sure yet, Jillian offers a free discovery call to make sure you both are the right fit for each other. Check out Jillian's website here.
• Jillian has created the ultimate planner.
• • The Lazy Entrepreneur's Morning Routine
  • This planner is undated daily planner/journal combination. It includes curated journal prompts, while also leaving blank days for your own creativity to manifest.

Imposter Syndrome can sometimes be a symptom of overwhelming anxiety. If you feel like therapy may be a better option for you to tackle your symptoms of anxiety. Talking to a therapist can be helpful. If you are interested in Therapy with Monica Click Here.

In this episode, I have Andrea Hoyos share her story about being in an abusive relationship. We talk about the emotional abuse she endured as we often don't talk about this when we refer to abusive relationships. Emotional abuse can include insulting, blaming, belittling, withholding affection, criticizing, threatening, gaslighting, humiliating or stonewalling to gain and maintain power and control in the relationship. It can be challenging and scary to fully embrace the truth about being in a relationship with an abusive partner and I am glad that Andrea provides insight to listeners. While we talk about the hard stuff we also talk about her life after being in an abusive relationship. Andrea discovers more about herself and comes back stronger. She shares lighthearted stories about her dating life and shares some thoughtful advice.

Andrea is an interior designer turned people leader. She is the founder of ICMTSU (I can't make this shit up), a blog where she shares life lessons, dating advice, and a lot of laughable moments she has experienced in the dating scene. Andrea plans to launch her own podcast where she will discuss things like dating stories, relationship advice, online dating, being single in a digital era and all things in between.

Guest Contact:

• Follow Andrea on Instagram and check out her blog here.

Are you currently in an emotionally abusive relationship? Do you feel you constantly attract men who are no good for you? Talking to a therapist can be helpful. If you are interested in Therapy with Monica Click Here.

So excited for this episode, I have Elizabeth Fischer, founder of ZerModus. I was honored to get to share Elizabeth's story and journey creating her planners. We chat about all things mental health, parental expectations, entrepreneurship, and EMDR therapy. You get to hear first hand what inspired her creating Zermodus. Elizabeth also shares the newest addition to her business the Everyday Human Planner, a wellness and recovery planner designed for everyday growth. This planner is all about waking up setting intentions, meditating, and checking in with yourself as a part of your daily cognitive self-care routine. The Everyday Human planner was created to capture tangible moments of personal growth. This recovery planner is relevant to any kind of recovery process whether it be recovering from a divorce, a major surgery/injury, depression, addiction, anxiety, or eating disorder.

If you want to get your hands on this, Elizabeth has given all my podcast listeners 20% off using the code: CAFEWITHMONICA . This is a great Christmas gift for yourself or for a loved one.

For all my therapist out there who follow me contact Elizabeth at @Zermodus if your interested in purchasing a batch to use with your clients. I've already been sharing this with my clients and they love it!!!!! More about the guest: Elizabeth is a second generation entrepreneur with a passion for empowering others and promoting mental health awareness. Her designs have been featured in HuffPost, D Magazine, PopSci, Mashable, as well as other notable publications. Her first venture ZerModus, is an e-commerce startup that helps transform people's daily routines through the use of uniquely designed daily planners like the Everyday Visionary (for goal-oriented people) and the Everyday Human (for everyday personal growth). After releasing the Everyday Human planner, a wellness and recovery planner, she realized she wanted to do more in the wellness space so she launched her second startup, H2Hx. H2Hx is a wellness patient advocacy and creative agency focused on human-to-human experience design for mental health professionals and organizations. The mission with H2Hx is to remove the stigma around mental health by redesigning the therapeutic experience to be more attractive to consumers. This involves working with therapists, hospitals and nonprofit organizations to make mental health services more beautiful, more educational, more structured and more sharable. As an equestrian and mental health advocate, Elizabeth also sits on the Board of Directors for Equest and is the 2020 Equest Gala Chair. Equest is one of the largest equine therapy center's in the country, focusing on improving the quality of life for children, adults and veterans with diverse needs in the Dallas Fort Worth area.

She is a member of the Female Founder Collective and a supporter of the Arts, Women's Rights and Mental Health Awareness. Elizabeth is an SMU Graduate and received a Mini MBA in Digital Marketing from Rutgers's Executive School of Education. She resides in Dallas, Texas with her German Shorthaired Pointer, JoJo.

*****For Shownotes and Resources Mentioned Click Here

*****Interested in Therapy with Monica Click Here

I really enjoyed recording this episode. Melissa Bridges gives listeners her insight into her world of growing up as a CODA. For those who don't know what CODA stands for a child of a deaf adult. In this episode, we chat about Melissa's experience growing up as a child of a deaf adult which is not as uncommon as you think. We discuss Deaf Culture, misconceptions, and how to interact with individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing. Melissa Bridges is a certified ASL Interpreter. Melissa is currently pursuing her degree in Rehabilitation Counseling. She has previously worked as a Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor for the State of Texas where she primarily works with hard of hearing and clients who are deaf.

Interested in Therapy Click Here Sign Up for Free 15 min Consult Here

For Shownotes Click Here

Navigating your finances can be difficult especially if you grew up in a household where maybe talking about money was taboo. Maybe in your culture it was customary for the men in the family to handle the finances or vice versa. Irregardless, it is important that we understand the services that are available to us that can help us reach our financial goals. In this episode, I invited Andee Sloot a financial advisor who shares helpful tips and resources all about financial advising and how to choose the right financial advisor. Andee Sloot graduated from Texas A&M University and spent several years in the insurance industry before pursuing a career as a full time Financial Advisor. Her background in insurance laid the foundation to understanding her client's comprehensive financial well-being. Andee specializes in meeting the financial needs of women and their businesses. — She is experienced in helping women and their families in all stages of life plan for their financial futures. No matter what your goals are, you want to make sure all your efforts pay off…today and tomorrow, so you have the flexibility to do what matters most to you. She can help by working with you to build a financial plan tailored to your life. Andee asks purposeful questions and listens closely to your answers to understand you and your priorities to provide you with proactive, goal-oriented advice. Andee is passionate about helping her clients live the full and rich life they have worked towards and is committed to helping them be brilliant. Guest Contact:

• Interested in Financial Advising Contact Andee Sloot Here. Andee provides a free meeting consultant to make sure she is the right fit for you.

For Shownotes and Resources given in this episode click here.