Episode 452: From Financial Burnout to Financial Healing & Balancing Ambition with Alignment w/ Alejandra Rojas

Alejandra Rojas 0:03

I started to do a financial plan to pay my credit card debt, but I also did an emotional plan. So I literally had a journal of, okay, I cannot go out to all of this. How am I going to respond to so and so like, what activities am I going to do in replacement of that t minus 10 seconds?

Intro 0:26

Welcome to the journey to launch podcast with your host Jamila Souffrant as a money expert who walks her talk she helps brave journeyers like you get out of debt, save, invest and build real wealth. Join her on the journey to launch to financial freedom in 54321,

Jamila Souffrant 0:53

if you want the episode show notes for this episode, go to journey to launch.com or click the description of wherever you're listening to this episode in the show notes, you'll get the transcribed version of the conversation, the links that we mentioned, and so much more also, whether you are an OG journeyer or brand new to the podcast, I've created a free jumpstart guide to help you on your financial freedom journey. It includes the top episodes to listen to stages to go through to reach financial freedom, resources and so much more you can go to journey to launch.com/jumpstart to get your guide right now. Okay, let's hop into the episode. Hey, hey, hey, journeyers, welcome to the journey to launch podcast today. I have Alejandra Rojas. She's an entrepreneur Forbes, contributor, writer and founder of brown way to money, a financial mentoring platform that helps women overcome financial trauma and improve their relationship with money. She's also the host of the brown way to money podcast, and Alejandra provides a unique blend of financial expertise and trauma informed coaching. And we're gonna dive into alejandra's history. And I hear it's a fascinating one, where she's just gonna share her journey, her financial journey, and then some tips, as we all will benefit from learning from her. So welcome to the podcast, Alejandra. Thank you so happy to be here with you. Yes. So Alejandra, please tell me more about your origin story. You are originally from Colombia, right? You lived in the US for a little bit, and then now you're in Europe. Yeah, yeah. I want to go back. I want to go back, because I always just find it fascinating that for someone who only lived in the US or born in Jamaica, my beautiful home island of Jamaica, but didn't stay there long, and then only has lived in the US. I always love hearing from people who have traveled, left their countries that you know they've known for their lives and did something else. So let's take it back to Colombia and tell me about

Alejandra Rojas 2:55

that. Wow, yeah. So back in Colombia, I left home when I was 19 years old, I won a scholarship. I come from a family of accountants where I talked about money, but my family didn't have the means to put me through university. So because from very early, like I would say, 12 years old. I was already into bookkeeping. I used to help my parents with their bookkeeping. I had an advanced kind of like, bachelor's no bachelor's a high school degree, and that allowed me to apply for a scholarship in that, you know, pay for half of my university and at the end of my university, I was like, I really want to, you know, know more than this, like I hear, because a lot of the things that I do is because of my great grandpa. He really installed me this passion for traveling, for knowing the world. I had family all around the world, and I was there almost getting my degree. I was like, this is everything that I'm gonna know. No, like, no, let's, let's do something. So I started to research all the type of scholarships, because that was the only way that I would have able to do this. And I, you know, funny enough, I got a scholarship to finish my university, my finance degree, over in Madrid in Spain, and I lived there for a bit until I graduated. And then on my way to from from Madrid to Colombia. I have a very good connection with the universe, I need to say. And then I was sitting on the plane, and I really thought, I said, God, just please don't let this be the end of my trips. And when I was at the air. Airport, I saw an opening and a US company I apply. When I arrived to my house in Colombia, back from Madrid, I received an email like, hey, we would like to interview you. I pass all of the interviews, and in less than a month, I was already traveling to the US to start my life there.

Jamila Souffrant 5:23

Oh my gosh, okay, I just think that's such a powerful story of following. I call it in my book, Your journey to financial freedom, clicking the hyperlinks in your life, and then also, just like you said, whatever your faith is, you know, believe in God, a higher power, the universe, that there are signs all around us. And you know, if you think that God is working in your favor, the universe is trying to give you signs, or God is trying to give you signs, then things are there for you to take advantage of or to utilize. And so that's pretty amazing. How did you did you like, just Google, and they do remember, like, what you put in, or you were looking,

Alejandra Rojas 6:04

yes, I was Googling, like, since I knew that I had to go back, I was just applying for different jobs. But there was that specific one when I, you know, when you have to wait for a plane to go right. And that waiting time I somebody had forward me that, actually somebody had forward me that. And she said, You should apply TVs. And I look at it, and I said, I can do that. I can do this. So that was my my like, you have to apply it, or you just let it go. And in the last minutes before I boarded that lane, I submit my application. I say, Yeah, I can do this. I can do that. And then that was it like, what? What do you have to lose? Just, just submit the thing, right? And I did.

Jamila Souffrant 6:51

And then even you saying that you wanted to explore, and you started to look up scholarships that just shows such a like a such a self starter and a curious mind that what they were that can lead you. So hopefully that's inspiring to anyone listening that you know to just nothing is really out of reach. I mean, some things are harder than others to achieve, but there's so much out there for us, if we just believe we can also achieve it. I tell

Alejandra Rojas 7:19

you that most of my trips have been because I had won a scholarship. So that was the first one. Then I live in the US. I got money burned out. That was when I started what I currently do with financial education, focusing on financial trauma because of my own money burned out and my lack of relationship with money and and we can dive into that later, but to the point of a scholarship is that I knew I wanted to do more, and I started to look for more scholarships to, you know, to continue traveling, because that is what I really love to do. And I applied at that moment, like, two years later, I applied for another scholarship, and I got it, and then I went to live in New Zealand for two years.

Jamila Souffrant 8:08

Okay, what scholarship? I mean? Can you share maybe, what some of those scholarships are like, what they're based on, and is there like a site or just a resource for people who are also looking into

Alejandra Rojas 8:17

this? Yes, so for the Colombian one is a popular one in Europe, is the Erasmus scholarship, and that is between institutions. So you you have to go through your university or your college community colleges, I think they also apply, and they have these in like internal scholarships with other universities here in Europe, for the New Zealand one, that was the university Oakland University's scholarship. So that was that one, and that was joined with another country initiative. So you have to be looking for these things to be timely, because sometimes the countries say we want students to come and the government will back up those scholarships. And that just happened that I was in the right moment

Jamila Souffrant 9:13

there. And did it matter what degree you had like were they some? Are some of them specific to degrees, or it's general?

Alejandra Rojas 9:20

Yes, and it mattered in terms of what you wanted to continue studying. So, because I wanted to continue studying, I did my business innovation postgraduate in New Zealand. So it mattered what my Bachelor's was. Yeah, I think it depends. So if you, if you want to go on and be a doctor. You cannot come with an admin bachelors. But yeah,

Jamila Souffrant 9:45

yeah, I'm gonna. So you'll share those sites with me if you can, and I'll put them in the episode show notes and more, so people can just check that out if it applies to them, just because I just think it's interesting. Yeah, that you know there are so many like resources and ways to do things out there. You just need to know. Sometimes where to start. So thank you, absolutely. The other thing is, when you were on scholarship in the different countries, so in Spain and then in Europe, well, in New Zealand, how were you supporting yourself outside of the scholarship? Or did it? Did it pay for everything?

Alejandra Rojas 10:18

Yes, that one paid only to be there. So the first scholarship in Europe, I think, was the hardest, because I wasn't working. I was full time student, and I had my parents took a loan to help me out, and I had to survive with 250 euro per month. So I was in a very lean student budget, but we made it work. So what happened is that with me, yeah, another six students from my university, we all came as a group to Europe, and we were all in the same situation, no more than 300 euro to spend per month. And we will cook everything together, and we will do everything together to, you know, like we have to make this work. And Madrid, at that time, it was such a nice city for when you were, like 20s, because you could go out and people would just give you things, like give you drinks or or come here, enjoy, sit down, take a tap out, whatever. Sometimes we just went out to a plaza, like to a square, and have the best time of our lives, and didn't spend any money. So to me, was a good experience. How did I make it happen? Being very lean, like I literally just spent on what I had to spend, and then being very creative with my friends, with my group of friends, on what you do. And that was it like, there was no other option. You had to make it work.

Jamila Souffrant 11:59

I love that. I love that. Going back to when you're working, do you mind sharing, kind of, like, what kind of job that was? You said you got burnt out, so kind of taking you back there?

Alejandra Rojas 12:08

Yes. So I got a finance job. I got hired in Washington, DC, doing finances. And you know, it was an entry job. But for somebody that have never had like, I was just graduated from my university, right? I was, like, a recent grad. I came from a country where things were very much like, you knew what you were getting into, and I had all of this freedom and all of these things. And people were looking at me like, wow, she's very successful. So when I got this finance job international organization in DC, I was like, well, I need to start having the experiences that they are telling me I have to have, because now I'm at this level, right, and the sea is an environment that can suck you in, into the professional DC life. So every happy hour I was there, every I don't know, apartment, visit, whatever it was I was there even though that they meant absolutely nothing to me. So there were two things on my burned out that made me rethink what I was doing. The first one is that I just buried myself on credit card debt, consumer debt, and to my mind, that is very financial mind that was like, you know you're doing something wrong, but you are not I don't even want to look at it like I don't care, like I know this is wrong, but I don't care. I just need to get out of this apartment because it feels very lonely, and I will call my friends. Let's go for for a drink or something. And the other part was, how do you become somebody on this environment? And that was a whole mix of things, because the not knowing myself with money and not knowing myself with that, quote, unquote success took me to a place that, yeah, it my health was compromised. So I was riding the bus from the Pentagon to my my work, and I just fainted. I never fainted before. I never fainted after that. It was just that moment and I knew my body was like giving up like this cannot happen anymore. You cannot continue like this. And that was the moment that I understood, okay, we have to stop. What are we doing? And I didn't want to, you know, change careers. I didn't want to change jobs, because I really love what I was doing. And that got me curious to okay, why is this happening? Why? If I know. Know, since I'm like, 12 years old, how to But why, like, how come, if I survive with 250 euro in Europe per month, I'm not going to be able to make it here when I'm earning way more, like, like, 20 times more than that, how come I'm still doing like, less, enjoying less, and having this huge amount of credit card debt. Like, why is this happening? So that's when I started to research and found my way into what relationship with money was that? Like, why didn't see this in my five years of university, or my parents talked about that. Nobody told me anything about that. Well. So

Jamila Souffrant 15:48

what did you learn? I think it's fascinating. You just highlighting that when you were making less or having less, you were able to survive, when things were simpler, and now that you're making more money. I mean, you'll probably reveal this as we go, but is this also like the an American thing, like the pressure, or it's bigger than that. It's more deeper for you as what you reveal?

Alejandra Rojas 16:10

Yeah, I think it's bigger than that. I think it definitely gets an amplification in the US, because you are surrounded by people that is not looking into their relationship to money. Let's, let's take the example of New Zealand. New Zealanders have a relationship to nature that really puts in perspective what they are doing with money. So their relationship to money is not direct. It's not like, oh yeah, they talk about money all the time, or they're being intentional with money all the time. But their relationship to nature pushes them to walk away from being only the consumer, to be like, Okay, what are we doing with our lives? And that kind of has a domino effect with the money part in the US, what I felt and what I live, is that in the US, we are so focused on getting the next thing and the next experience and the latest thing, because otherwise, who are we if we, if we don't do that right, we don't Have any anchor, any nature, any kind of like life after work or life after buying the thing that pushes us to look into our relationship to money. But I think it definitely happens, or to meet an individual cases in my experience in like, in my case, what I've noticed is that I just didn't have any relationship with myself. I was going by what everybody told me. It was the experiences that I should have. It was the kind of like the things that you should have. So if you live in DC, you need to rent an apartment, either in Virginia, Alexandria, Virginia, one of the higher places to live, or you are, you know, in DC itself. And are you going to rent an apartment? Because having roommates is not like to your level, or like, what are you gonna do? And then you have to buy these, and you buy that, and think about the car. It's all these things that kind of like pushes you away from asking you, but what do you want? And What? What? How does it impact your life? And what does it matter for you to have that or to experience that? And that was definitely my case. I didn't know myself. I truly don't have anybody else to kind of blame or anything. I just never have been taught how to look in words, really,

Jamila Souffrant 18:53

right? And also, it's also like great task yourself, like, what do you want? And then also, after that answer, why do you want it? Because even if you might say, I mean, I've gone through this myself, where it's like, okay, you might want this thing, but why do you want it? So if the answer also is superficial, like, oh, I want this because I know that it will make me look better. I will feel better in it, because the perception of others will think I'm cooler for it. Like, that's a valid reason for wanting it, but I think to be able to be honest with yourself on that, and then if you dig deeper to well, if, if that's the reason, can I actually afford this? What's the opportunity cost in getting this thing? Because if I really can't afford it, and I'm just doing it because of how I think it will make me feel, that's how I dig deeper into this hole that I'm in. So I love where you're going with this. So what did you discover, or what was that switch for you? What did that look like? Or did that's when you applied and left?

Alejandra Rojas 19:50

Yeah, that's when I applied and left. Like I said, I didn't want to leave my job. So when I had the scholarship come in and I said, I need to get out of this. Because I don't know how to handle it. This is a monster that is going to eat me. Clearly, I haven't handled it very well. I want to honor my grandpa's promise of keep traveling the wall. And then I started to look for scholarships. I got the scholarship in New Zealand, and as soon as I arrived to New Zealand, it was like, Girl, those things here are not going to happen. Like, it's not gonna fly with people in New Zealand. Like, it doesn't matter the job that you have, it doesn't matter the amount of money. Like, can you take time after 3pm because it's not even five after 3pm and we can go and walk at the beach, because if you cannot do that, then you have to go and rethink what you're doing with your life. So it was like a clear example to me, like, wow, people can live differently. People can actually close the laptop, leave their phones, and go and have fun watching a wave calm, like, literally, right? And I I knew this, because where I come from, we don't have much, right? You are kind of, like, happy with what you have, and you really enjoy what you have, even though there is not too much. But the difference was that once you try the other life, you're like, oh, but that's good. Like being able to order Amazon and be here next day, like, I want that is that kind of like dopamine that hits you and it's it's difficult. It's just like when you are addicted to sugar, it's difficult to leave it. So what I learned on that period was to know myself, to know the what you said, the reasons why I was doing, the things that I was doing, and beyond that, I got to know the side of money that nobody was talking about, and it was that emotional side I got very good at asking myself questions and feeling and becoming self aware of the reactions that I was having. One of those examples is that that every time I will, you know, try to pay for somebody else's coffee or whatever, and that person will say, why are you doing that? I will feel so bad, because I feel like it was a rejection. Instead of judging that, that was my coping mechanism in the US, like, Let's pay and we can still hang out and whatever, instead of judging that, I started to become curious and like, Oh, wow. I feel like they're rejecting me if I don't pay why is that? And then I started to observe, and my dad does the same. So my dad is the provided, and maybe he never hug us or tell tell us, I love you during a whole year, but at the end of the year, in December, you bet that he will pay everything for us. Like, wow, how. How mind blowing is that. And and, you know, I got into this rabbit hole of human behavior with money, and that was literally what I learned from that experience on, knowing myself, knowing that I do like to be alone. I do like to be sitting at home with a good meditation, nobody bothering me, and that's okay, and yeah, that had a ripple effect with my financial life, but with everything else in my life.

Jamila Souffrant 23:46

Hey, journeyers, if you are loving this podcast, then you will love my book, Your journey to financial freedom, a step by step guide to achieving wealth and happiness. I wrote this book for you. This book is for you. If you want a clear and enjoyable path to having more money, options and a rich life. This book is for you if you hate your commute and the fact that you need to seek approval or permission from a boss. I hated that when I worked. This book is for you. If you weren't born into wealth, you didn't marry rich or won the lottery, but you still want freedom. This book is for you. If you're at a crossroads, a major decision or event is imminent, maybe a career change, marriage, starting a family, pressures are reaching a tipping point, and the discomfort and the desire for more can no longer be ignored, and this book is for you. If you find yourself zoned out at meetings, looking out the window or daydreaming about the life you truly want. So go pick up your journey to financial freedom.com. So I can show you how to map out how to get from where you are today to where you ultimately want to be. And enjoy the journey while you're on the path, head over to your journey to financial freedom.com. To see where you can pick. The book up. It's available on Amazon, bookshop.org, Barnes and Noble, your local bookstore everywhere go to your journey to financial freedom.com. To get the book now, to go back a bit. I thought it was really almost poetic when you just said you, you know, born in a like, a place where things were maybe less resources around you, but simple and beautiful and probably were more connected because you had less, right. And then you kind of want to search, you know, search for more and see the world. And you did that, you ended up in the US where there was a lot more, but also burnt out because of that, and then went to a simpler place, like, or not necessarily simple, but less, I would say, consumer focus. Consumer focus, like going to New Zealand and, like, almost, it's almost like a full circle, like you went back to where you originated from, but almost like you couldn't, probably appreciate it as much without going through the experience, right? Sometimes it's just like our the answer or the thing we want we already have, but unless we can recognize it and have the experience, which is why, if you are going through something or having a negative what you deem to be a negative experience and lesson, it's like you need to appreciate or have those lessons that friction in your life is is meant so that it can help you appreciate when you don't have the friction. You know, I think anyone who wants like a frictionless, frictionless life or no problems, will become very bored. That's part of the human experience.

Alejandra Rojas 26:34

Yeah, yeah, and I agree with you. It's like that is a cage saying that you don't know that you are seeing like light, if you don't see the darkness like how do you know that that's light and it's surely like that? And I think the bigger picture of having the friction is that it really puts your mind to work and to understand whether you want that or not. Because I know other people that even though that they had similar experiences, they still in the US. That's what they want, that's one, that's how they want to live their lives, and as long as you're okay with it, that's fine. I just didn't want to I knew my life was too precious, and I didn't say this, but when I was growing up at six years old, doctors told my parents that I probably wouldn't live beyond 12 years old because I had a blood condition. So I knew my life was precious, and then seeing there that I was literally trading my health for what I turned around and I literally thought, why am I doing this for like I am here at 2223 years old, having the success, but I'm still not appreciating the gift that life has given me. It's like it's 18 years more than the doctor said that you were going to do, and that's how you're going to spend it. And that really put things in perspective for the choices that I wanted to make.

Jamila Souffrant 28:08

That's, like, powerful to think about. Because, I mean, we're recording this at the end of October, and just now, you know, like the hurricane, yeah, you know, it just finished devastating Jamaica. And as I sit in my comfy like home in New York, Brooklyn, but knowing if I'd ever left Jamaica, that, you know, I could be there, it's like, and realizing how quickly the material things we have in our life can be taken from us at any time, and it like it ultimately does not matter. I mean, even the money that we talk about, even the investments, all this stuff, like it could all can be taken away with the drop of the market or crisis. And it's not to, like, scare or tell you not to then think about your future and not to have the things you want. But it's just that life like, there are breath, our relationships, our community, our family, our friends, like, you know, those relationships, things that are more intangible, like our spirit, like that is what's important. And so, yeah, sometimes, you know, it takes the a tragedy or you realizing how grateful you should be about things that you realize, like, listen, that none of this actually matters. And so how do you live a life that you are honoring to the best of your abilities. The other thing you said too, that I think happens for a lot of people is you may say you don't want something, or you're fed up, which I get. And there's a lot of things why people can't quit or can't travel, right, or do something different, right? Because they need the job, they have bills, they have a mortgage. But I do feel like there's always a side, not quest, but a side road. There's always there is an off ramp, and it's going to take until you are ready to be creative and courageous to take it. But it is. I do think it's available for everyone, no matter what position in life they're in. And it might be hidden because you're not ready to see it, but there is a path. Way for you to live the life you want. You just have to ready, be ready to want to do it

Alejandra Rojas 30:04

absolutely. And that leads me to the first step of the brown framework, which is, I told you, it's the framework. Brown is how I look at a financial independence. And then starts with the big vision, and just to the point that you said, and to me, this is really what starts the whole domino effect. You may not be able to move to where you want to be right now, but you are 100% able to say, what do I want? What is my big vision? Not only what do I want in terms of materialistic things or in terms of next year, 2026, and no, what do I want for my life? If I know that everything that I want has a possibility to become, what would I choose like for my life and for those around me, and that's where kind of, like this journey has taken me to really understand how powerful that intention and that vision is. Because I didn't have always the option to say, You know what? I know that I'm going to get the scholarship. I didn't know that. I didn't know that things were going to work out the way that they did, but what I did know was that I had a different vision for where I wanted to be, and I hold that vision so tight that it made me reevaluate the relationships that I was having, it made me reevaluate how I interacted with my parents, because that's the second step on the brown framework. The R stands for removing financial trauma once you get understanding that your big vision may go against what your family is about what your community is about. Once you get very honest with yourself, you gotta start understanding that you have to remove that financial trauma, that you have to cut relationships, that you have to cut the way that you do things, and that triggers the nervous system, so to the point of you may not be able to do something now, what you are going to do is to kind of like, listen to that big vision. And every time that you think about it and you say, well, I cannot do this because of blah, blah, blah, that's your financial trauma and start working on that. So let's say an example in my case, when I said, Well, I want to go and continue traveling, that was my vision back then. The immediate thought was like, but how are you going to tell your parents that you're leaving that job in the US, that you're super successful. And that took me months to understand that that was my vision and my decision. And at the end, I told my parents, and I literally closed my eyes and I was like, Listen, I am quitting, and I'm going to New Zealand. I already had this color I already had the tickets to New Zealand, and I wasn't able to tell my parents until the last minute. But that was my own triggering. So if you cannot do anything in terms of money, moving or materialistic things right now, what you can do, and it will be super powerful, is to dive into what is that vision and how you're going to move when those triggers happen,

Jamila Souffrant 33:48

right? And just, I know you're going to finish the framework. But I think even when you say, oh, I want to do this, or you create, you know, you have the vision in your head. And I even brought up some earlier when I said, Oh, somebody, you might say, Oh, I can't do that because I have kids or because I have this mortgage. And then you should probably ask yourself, Why, though can't maybe you can still right like and explore that, because your first reaction is going to be the response you typically would always give yourself, and maybe the people around you would give you, depending on you know, if you have people who are not as ambitious or optimistic as you would like to be in your life. And so continue to explore the reasons why you're saying you can't do something, more than likely, maybe there is a way to work around that.

Alejandra Rojas 34:31

So exactly you're following, you know, it's natural, because it's really how we move from that, right? So the O for Brown, it stands for owning your voice. So owning your voice means I am going to do this no matter what, and that for us, especially as a black girl, as a Latina, it's so difficult to sit with it and understand that it's okay that you have that voice. Choice. It's one of the hardest things that I have done just to like, this is my my thing. I'm gonna do it. And then naturally, like you said, instead of saying, Well, I cannot do it, I want you to think, How can you do it? Who do you need to talk with how other people are doing it, regardless if you think it is possible or not at that point, instead of closing the idea is, I need to ask questions about this. And what are the questions that I need to ask so that it puts me one step forward. And it naturally happens. Once you have a big vision that you're so in love with that you, you know, it's, it's bigger than you can imagine, you are going to naturally become curious about how to make it happen. But if, if the limitations are so hard that sometimes they are because there are no limitations, there are actually financial trauma, the being trigger your nervous system. If that happens, then you gotta be intentional about asking your brain questions, not It's not everybody else's that needs the questions. It's just your brain that needs the question to open up and say, kind of like a baby. I have a 20 months old, and every time now that I put a mandarin, she's throwing a tantrum. But if I put a mandarin, she's like, Oh, the Mandarin, it's like, the brain just completely shifts. That's kind of like what you have to do. And that's part of what is going to, you know, keep you on that, on that financial independence path through the ground where, and then the last word is normalize, normalizing being there. And for our culture, that's huge. We don't have many references, and that's why I love that you share a lot of stories. That's why I love to share my story, because that becomes the reference that becomes example. And I believe it's our duty, it's my duty, as a black woman, as a woman and as a Latina, speaking up about finances to normalize living a successful life in the way that you want to live it. And that is kind of like how I solidify my my own financial freedom path. If I want to be completely free, I'm going to show not only my daughter, but my community, my neighbor, everybody that this is normal, that I can aspire

Jamila Souffrant 37:45

to, that I love, that can you share where you are today, like currently, like located and you're now because you're doing this work, you know, you're entrepreneur now, and living your life like what that currently looks like?

Alejandra Rojas 38:00

Yeah, so currently it looks like a lot of motherhood. Yes, a lot of motherhood. We are based now in the Netherlands. We moved to the Netherlands to two years ago, so she's 20 months, yeah, two, two and a half years ago. And one of the reasons why is because I wanted to have kids, and I, the thought of having kids in the US really didn't make it to me. It brought up a lot of anxiety. So now we live here and how life looks like, it's a lot on my vision what I wanted. I spent a lot of time with my daughter. I really want to see her growing. I spend a lot of time with my community or speaking or, you know, sharing the message, and I spend a lot of time doing nothing. I really want to tell you I absolutely appreciate and I'm grateful for the time that I have to be with myself now. It's so important. It's like it's part of my calendar, and that's, that's what we do. It's a slow life. It's very in comparison to the US is a very slow life, and sometimes feels like quite you know, far away from family, because you want your your family like for holidays. It's always harder, but now it's up to me to make her holidays feel like clothes like once my parents did. So we are building that,

Jamila Souffrant 39:35

you know I want, just quickly to go back to because you talked about accumulating credit card debt, and so how did you navigate paying that off and that? Yeah, so

Alejandra Rojas 39:46

the moment I realized that this was a problem. So before leaving to New Zealand, the moment I realized that and I started to understand the psychology of money, a book that. Everybody should read as well. I started to do a financial plan to pay my credit card debt, but I also did an emotional plan. So I literally had a journal of, okay, I cannot go out to all of this. In fact, I didn't go out to anything after that for like, three months or four How am I going to respond to so and so, like, what activities am I going to do in replacement of that? I had a gym on my complex. I had a gym down downstairs, so, okay, instead of going out, we are just going to put a podcast and be at the gym. Who can I trust to open up with this? I had my best friend at the time living there. I just told her, nobody else knew about anything. I just told her, Hey, I'm not going to be doing this. This is my plan. If I tell you no, to go out to do these things, just know that this is what I'm going through. Please don't take it personal. And she was so supportive. And we did a lot of things at home, like either her apartment or my apartment. I really prepare emotionally for what was coming. And at the same time, I started to I didn't focus on I need to pay that credit card debt. That wasn't my focus. My focus was always my big vision. I am going to New Zealand, and I'm going to be really doing this and that. So I had magazines of New Zealand, because I never heard of New Zealand before the scholarship. I was like, where is that? And so I got a lot of magazines, a lot of movies, The Hobbit and that was my focus. I knew that to get there, that was, like the step I had to do. And every time that it felt tied, because, you know, once you have credit card that that's that's really how it feels, I started to use that motivation, and I use the snowball effect. I'm sure the audience of this podcast is, but I just needed that dopamine hit of, okay, this is done, and let's go continue doing that. And that was it, like I arrived to New Zealand, and the month after that, credit card debt was gone, and I it took me, like, about six months to make that happen, right?

Jamila Souffrant 42:18

I love that you shared about writing down the emotional part in the journal and sharing with a friend. And just for anyone who is new, the snowball method to paying off your debt is paying off the lowest balance debt first that you have. So you know, you line up, or you write down all your debt and organize it by lowest balance, the highest balance, and then you work you pay all the minimum debt payments on all of them, but you work on paying off the smallest debt, first the balance, and then you move on. Alejandra this, I mean, you've dropped so many amazing tips and inspiration here, and actual practical things people can ask themselves and do. So thank you so much. Please let everyone know where they can listen to your podcast and find out more about you and follow your journey. Yes, so

Alejandra Rojas 43:03

you can listen to the brown white humanI, and where you're listening to this podcast. Now, just look for brown white humanI. We are there having money conversations for women of color entrepreneurs. And you can also get into the newsletter. So I have my big vision for this, 2025 2026 is to have 100,000 women of color talking about money and becoming an author. You have been an inspiration for that, by the way, becoming an author for for my next book. So jump into the newsletter. Subscribe, share it with everybody. Share as well the podcast that will help us a lot with the work that we are doing.

Jamila Souffrant 43:45

Do you have a link to join to the website to join the newsletter? Yes, brown way to money.com/newsletter. Got it. Okay. We will link all that in the episode. Show Notes. Thank you so much. Aleja, this was amazing. Thank you. Don't forget, you can get the episode show notes for this episode by going to journey to launch.com or click the description of wherever you're listening to this and you can still grab your jumpstart guide for free to help you on your journey to financial freedom by going to journey to launch.com/jumpstart

Jamila Souffrant 44:20

if you Want to support me and the podcast and love the free content and information that you get here, here are four ways that you can support me in the show. One, make sure you're subscribed to the podcast wherever you listen, whether that's Apple podcasts, that purple app on your phone, your Android device, YouTube, Spotify, wherever it is that you happen to listen, just subscribe so you are not missing an episode, and if you're happening to listen to this in Apple podcasts, rate review and subscribe there. I appreciate and read every single review. Number two, follow me on my social media accounts. I'm at journey to launch on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. And I love, love, love interacting with journeyers. There three, so. Support and check out the sponsors of this show. If you hear something that interests you, sponsors are the main ways we keep the podcast lights on here, so show them some love for supporting your girl four and last but not least, share this episode, this podcast, with a friend or family member or co worker so that we can spread the message of Journey to launch. All right, that's it until next week. Keep on journeying. Journeyers. You.

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