How Do You Say Success in Spanglish?
The path to success isn’t paved for people of color. Join me as I sit down with individuals who share their stories as we learn how to say Success in Spanglish.
How Do You Say Success in Spanglish?
The MindShift System: Reprogramming Your Thoughts for a Meaningful Life - Rocio Perez
What happens when the external markers of success leave you feeling empty inside? Rocio Perez's powerful story reveals the profound difference between surviving and truly thriving.
At just 15, Rocio found herself raising a child alone while escaping an abusive relationship and extreme poverty. Determined to create a better future, she emancipated herself from her parents and fought her way into university – making four-hour round trips daily while working multiple jobs to support her son. Her remarkable resilience propelled her toward what appeared to be an extraordinary success story: homeownership, business ventures, academic achievements, and material comfort.
Yet beneath this impressive exterior, Rocio was operating in what she calls "high thriving survival mode" – disconnected from her humanity, driven solely by proving herself worthy. Everything changed when a brain tumor diagnosis at 34 forced her to confront her mortality and question what truly mattered. "I didn't know how to create from love," she reveals, recognizing how trauma had shaped her pursuit of achievement.
This awakening led Rocio to develop the MindShift System, the world's first self-coaching system designed to help people transform their thinking patterns and reconnect with their authentic selves. Through intentional affirmations, journaling practices, and a structured approach to self-regulation, her work guides others from survival-based living toward genuine fulfillment.
The most powerful insight Rocio shares is how our words – especially those we say to ourselves – literally program our reality. When we understand that "our thoughts tell our body what to feel, and our body tells our mind what to think," we can break this cycle by consciously choosing empowering thoughts. Her work now spans books, a university program, and a television show, all focused on helping people achieve their version of a happy, healthy, and meaningful life.
Ready to transform your own thinking patterns? Discover the MindShift Game and connect with Rocio's work at themindshiftgame.com, or reach out directly at 303-587-8367 to learn how intentional living can revolutionize your experience of success.
See more at www.successinspanglish.com
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Intro Song: Regaeton Pop - Denbow Ambiance
This is Raul Lopez, and you're listening to how Do you Save Success in Spanglish. The path to success isn't easy For minorities and people of color. Many attempt this journey with little to no guidance. Join me as I sit down with individuals who share their stories of perseverance so that together, we can learn how to say success in Spanglish what's good, mi gente, welcome back. It's your boy, raul. This is how Do you Say Success in Spanglish, and today my guest is Rocio Perez. Rocio, how's it going?
Speaker 2:It's going fantastic. Thank you for having me on your show today.
Speaker 1:Definitely. I appreciate you taking the time, especially early morning, for you over there to kind of go on here and talk with me, and I'm really looking forward for you to be able to share your journey, your story. You have a very inspirational journey that you're going to tell us about, and so I'm really excited to kind of learn and kind of get some more info about the things you offer. So just to start off, a little background about you.
Speaker 1:Rocio is the creator of the first self-coaching system in the world the MindShift System, the MindShift Game and the MindShift Game TV show. She is a global leader and sought-after life-changing speaker, leadership trainer and author who has helped transform people around the world. Rocio's unique transformational approach meets people where they are and guides them to expand their awareness and boost their confidence so they can intentionally create their version of a happy, healthy and meaningful life. Rocio, that's pretty awesome. It's great having someone that looks to improve people's life and it's amazing how many people I find that are always looking to help others, so I'm really glad to have you on the show.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for having me here today. I'm excited to connect with the audience and share the journey to touch, move and inspire people to achieve their version of a happy, healthy and meaningful life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think that's the goal for a lot of us. So I guess, to start off, let's learn a little bit about you. Who is Rocio Perez?
Speaker 2:Well, rocio Perez, icio Perez, I'm an author speaker, leadership trainer, but I want to talk about my journey. Is that where we want to go? Yeah, yeah journey of a little girl. When I was growing up, I was that little girl that was so excited. I'm like someday I'm gonna grow up and I'm gonna become a teacher and I would run around with my tattered books and I would tell, like my Tio Sergio.
Speaker 2:Tio Sergio someday I'm gonna grow up to become a teacher. And I would tell like my tío Sergio, tío, sergio, someday I'm going to grow up to be a teacher. And I felt like I spoke for hours and hours, but that was my main focus. I was that rare kid that would cry because I wanted to go to school. School was like the place that I wanted to be. I would speak with my older brother and say, hey brother, what's your vision for the future? This is what I'm going to be. So always excited on the ABC, one, two, three, whatever. I was always involved in things and very excited to be so.
Speaker 2:Yet the reality was very far-fetched. I grew up in extreme poverty and abuse. I contemplated suicide at the age of five. I ran away from home at 12, got pregnant at 14. And by the time I was 15 years old, I, instead of having a quinceañera, I had a baby, and at that moment, knowing that I was Latina, uneducated menial labor my parents didn't care. I was in an abusive relationship with somebody. Eight years my senior, I knew that my son didn't stand a chance. So I went on and knocked onto the community college of Denver's doors so I can get into university. And I couldn't get in. You know they had told me like okay, you're 15 years old, you can't come to university. Subsequently make a long story short I went ahead and emancipated myself from my parents. I can go on to university. Okay, a battle uphill both ways, yeah. Yeah, I can imagine.
Speaker 1:And it university. Okay, a battle uphill both ways yeah yeah, I can imagine and it seems like and first, thank you so much for sharing, and I know we'll get into a little more about your journey. But, like you said, a battle both ways going up. And so I guess, to kind of start off, there's a lot to unpack with a lot of what you've talked about. And so you said early on you had to emancipate. Um, was that before, after you were you, you've had your, was your son?
Speaker 1:my son yeah, so was that before. After you had to, you had your son after I had my son okay, so you had to. Was the driving force for emancipation to get to school, or was it also just a combination of everything? I had to? Kind of I had to get myself out of everything and move, and only way to move forward was to get emancipated?
Speaker 2:All of the above. And then I knew school was the only way out. Education, that power to keep moving forward.
Speaker 1:So it was education something you always want. I know you said you always wanted to be a teacher, and was that a driving factor that you had internally, or was there some sort of external factor? You talked about a Theo. Was there somebody in your life that kind of said college is the way to go, or did you just kind of always knew?
Speaker 2:I always knew. It was always inside of me. I wanted to make sure that I went on to university. I never felt like I belonged in the grades that I was in. Okay, I was held back. That's one reason the other reason.
Speaker 2:It was like I just didn't see it and I would do my uncle's homework and he was in. I was in the seventh grade and he was in the 12th grade. I I didn't see it as a point for me at that time to go through high school and I wanted to make sure that I moved on as quickly as possible.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean I also stayed back in. I stayed back in first grade. So I'm very used to the idea of you know, I kind of felt like for me it was kind of a way to help me in the long run, because I think I've succeeded a lot better with that stay back than anything else. And so you said you that you felt that you needed the education and that education was an important factor of your life.
Speaker 1:But obviously you ran through all these different challenges, especially having a kid at an early age, did that change your trajectory or did you feel like it helped give you that motivation to get emancipated and go to college?
Speaker 2:it definitely helped me because I knew my son didn't stand a chance in the world and I needed to go out and create that for us, for both of us, to make sure that he had a better future, that he didn't have to live what I lived through as a child, and so I grew up in abuse, domestic violence, alcoholism, you just name it. It was not a good place to be.
Speaker 1:No, definitely, definitely and so when you said you became, you went after you emancipated, you tried to go into college. You were 15. What was that path like to get into college at that point? Did you have to go get a GED and then try to get into school, or you know how did that work?
Speaker 2:That was an interesting journey. Thank you for asking that. I actually had to wait until I was accepted, and I wouldn't be accepted until I was 16. Started university at 17 and I didn't even have a GED back then. Remember, this is literally exactly 30 years ago that this happened 33, forget 30,. It was 33 years old, my son's now 33. And so it's fascinating to see that along the way. But yes, that's what I did. I went ahead and went on to university. I did well, and there was a point in time where they were asking me it's like okay, you can't go any further unless you get your GED, and that at the age of 19,. That's what I did.
Speaker 1:And you're doing all this while being a teenage mom, dealing with all this, what was going through your mind at this point? Well, you know, I know you talk about mind shift and you know what was the mindset of a teenager at this point having to deal with what most adults would find difficult.
Speaker 2:Well, for me there was only one path forward, and that was education. I looked at it as there's something in front of me that's pulling me towards it. I knew that I had to do it, so much so that I'd go to bed at 3 o'clock in the morning sometimes, or get up at 3, depending where it was at. Sometimes I'd sleep very little two, three hours a night. Get up at three, depending where it was at. Sometimes I'd sleep very little two, three hours a night. Get up the next morning by four o'clock. I'm walking down the street with a two-year-old in my arms, diaper bag and a backpack to make a four-hour round trip just to get to school in the morning. Just to school in the morning. Okay, forget about like school time. That was simply it was was an eight hour trip a day.
Speaker 1:Oh wow, you said the school was. The school wasn't very far from you then.
Speaker 2:It wasn't very far.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I only afford to pay $10 a day for somebody to take care of myself. Oh, okay, so you had to deal with all that I had to deal with like make the sacrifice of time and energy to be able to make it happen, and so I had to go from literally, the school was 20 minutes walking distance from where I lived.
Speaker 2:Yet I had to go to another study so my son could be taken care of and then make it to university and if I had time I would eat my cold burrito that made it three o'clock in the morning. Walking across campus, it's like, okay, I didn't have many choices. What I did see is many opportunities.
Speaker 2:And that's what kept me moving forward. It's like I knew I was in the classroom. I knew I was at a disadvantage because they would say things and I'm like I don't know what they're saying. But I did invest my time into the library and figuring out things that they were talking about and I excelled in school. That's the great thing. I did excel in school. I did catch on relatively quickly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's awesome. I know there's a relative resourcefulness with Latinos and Latinas when it comes to being able to do things and not only do them but do them cheap and within your budget and figure out a way, and I know that's something you probably had to learn early on in life and like and what were some of the things that you had to like, really, that you found really difficult during that phase of your life?
Speaker 2:You know, I think that the most difficult time was where my family didn't believe in me. I remember having a cousin who would always tell me she's like well, you think you're all good just because you're going to university, but like welfare would pay for mine if I want to go. So there was that competition from her end and, you know, the rest of the family like it is increíble. You think you're better than us, and even my own mother at the time. It was like heartbreaking, incredible. You think you're better than us, and even my own mother at the time. It was like heartbreaking, because my mother would say, like you should be home taking care of your son.
Speaker 2:You're gonna fail, you should be with your husband, and probably I had left my abusive partner and I just wanted to keep moving forward. I think one of the major things that it kept me moving forward was my thoughts. It's like like you've got this Rocio, you've got this Rocio and I remember even teaching that to my son as well Like you can move forward. A little engine that could only tell a little cute story. I remember one day I think I was almost 20 years old and I was exhausted.
Speaker 2:I was working two jobs and going to university full time, Didn't even have a car. I was cleaning homes a couple of days a week and mentoring students to get into through university and then going to school myself. And so I come home in the middle of the day and I need to take him to the doctor and I'm exhausted and he's like mom, carry me, and we're going up this hill and I'm like I can't carry him. And I also knew at that age that it wasn't his fault what we were going through. He was not to blame by any stretch of the imagination and that.
Speaker 2:I had to find a way to communicate with him that would be subtle enough to move him forward and for it to be a pleasant experience. I started telling him, like son, there was this little engine and a little engine that could, and it's going off. And so I'm telling him this, this journey, and then we get all the way up the hill. No need to discuss anything.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Simply a fun, engaging experience where both of our needs got met. He got up the hill and I got up the hill too, being exhausted, and still made it through nice, yeah, that it's.
Speaker 1:as someone who's a parent, uh, right now, um, with my 11 year old, uh, I'm always contemplating and thinking about the life lessons I'm teaching her, um, and the life lessons that were different from what was taught to me, and not even just what, but how they were taught to me. You know and I think you made a great point of saying that he was not to blame where lots of times parents in difficult situations find a scapegoat for it and sometimes all that pressure puts on the kids. So you know, and so when you were raising your son, especially being so young and dealing with all this stuff, how did you try to find that balance of being able to raise and teach those life lessons while still dealing with your own set of youth lessons that you were dealing with?
Speaker 2:That's a very great question. I just did it. I made a conscious choice to do it as a very young person and years prior I remember being 13 years old and looking at the situations in my family and I'm like I can see the things, I can connect the dots and see what the outcomes are. And so I made a very intentional decision, way before I had children, when I was probably nine or 10, said if I ever have kids, I want to make sure that my children are happy, right, that they're loved and respected. Like I know these things, and so being very intentional was the key. It's like I wanted.
Speaker 2:I didn't raise a child and, being very specific, I nurtured a man. I nurtured the man that I wanted him to be. I knew that what I said did didn't do would impact him in the long run, and so I wanted to mold a happy, healthy, nurturing, empathetic individual who valued women and family. Here we go, that's who I raised, that's who I molded into be that man that he became that's awesome and was a lot of that motivation.
Speaker 2:Just I don't want the cycle to be repeated right, and because I knew inside him and I believe that we all know this inside of ourselves that it is something, that it's intrinsic within all of us. We may lose touch with it. I think it's common for all humanity that we know that there's something better and that we can create it.
Speaker 2:Sometimes, we lose track of it because of poverty, abuse, pressure, stress, whatever that is. For me, it's like a moment to self-regulate. Just think about it, take, take a breath, figure it out. Children are not to blame. Let's move forward. Why? Because I was blamed my whole life as a child how did it impact me?
Speaker 2:well, I didn't even think. You know, my mother used to say you're the ugliest person ever. You know, I'm doing a dumpster, like all those things that impacted me. Was it stress? Yes, did she hate her life? Yes, you know, she wanted more for herself and all of a sudden, you know, she finds herself fast forward, stuck with five children that she didn't even want to begin with. Nobody asked her right, nobody checked in with her, and I feel like when we sacrifice ourselves for that which we don't even desire, we end up resenting that as well. Even if we desire a family, we get caught up in the thick of thin things where we're not even conscious that our words or actions or physiology or connection or lack thereof, impacts for children.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, kids are a sponge. Every word matters, every action matters and sometimes we don't think about that because as adults, we can interpret things and they just absorb them. So it's being really intentional, I think for me has been always really important, like how I say things and what I say. For all of that and you know, obviously we're here now. You made it through, I made it, you made it through.
Speaker 2:Myself made it, I made it, we both made it yeah exactly, and so you moved on from what was that? The community college, and then yes, where you I went on to.
Speaker 1:Sorry.
Speaker 2:Went on to University of Colorado Denver and I was actually mentoring students to get into on our campus there's a community college, community college Denver mental state, and then we also had the University of Colorado Denver. I was actually taking classes and encouraging my students to take classes in the four-year institutions at the community college level in price, and so by the time I went on to the university I only had a few courses to go and to get through it. You know what I think sometimes the things that we don't talk about impact us los sacrificios, the sacrifices that we do for our family. I literally almost lost my entire education based on wanting to support and committing to support my younger siblings and getting them out of trouble and figuring out to make sure that they didn't fall in those footsteps that other family members had fallen.
Speaker 2:And literally this is the first time I actually started publicly here on an interview, and that was that I almost got kicked out of school. It publicly here on an interview, and that was that I almost got kicked out of school. I literally had like a 1.7. I don't even remember what it was. And between working a full-time job, working, you know, trying to save teenagers and put them on the right path, keep them out of prison let's just be honest right Out there and then raising a child as a single mother, it's not any easy task for a 22 year old to handle. And and I made a decision at that time I was working I stepped out and said, hey, let me focus. Like this has been my dream.
Speaker 2:Yes, it's been difficult, yes, and whatever, and yes, it's worth it, it's my dream, I must bring it to fruition, and that's when I ended up quitting my job. I resigned from my job and took out loans and went on and finished my schooling. I was semesters away. I couldn't throw it away.
Speaker 1:No, and it's a very mature move. That is really difficult and I think most people don't understand. When they think college, they think, oh, it's easy, you just go to class and do nothing else all day, when really no matter what level not even including the additional stuff you're dealing with as a single parent trying to make ends meet um, you know college is difficult. College is a lot of stress. There's a lot of time commitment. There's a lot of time commitment. There's a lot of things that go on.
Speaker 1:I mean myself, another one that's also had to deal with a shitty GPA and almost getting kicked out of school, having a whole bunch of loans to get out. But there's the difference between a short-term goal and a long-term goal, and lots of times people focus and say, hey, you're wasting your time. You could be working right now, when you're like, oh, I know this is going to drive me to the future. So you know, it's great to hear that, despite all of that, you know you focused on that long-term goal. And how did you always have a long-term goal mindset? Or is that something that you slowly had to build?
Speaker 2:You know, that's something that I've always had. Even as a little child, I knew that I could live a better life, that parents are supposed to love and care for their children. Even as a little girl, I knew that education was the way out and the way forward. I've always had this vision that continues to pull me forward. You know, call it God's source, call it universe, call it what you will, and it's like may yama. It continues to call me towards it and it's something that's inside of me that wakes me up in the middle of the night.
Speaker 2:It's when, I have my greatest downloads. Okay, rocio, take out the phone or take out the piece of paper, start writing. You know, there's so much it's like and here we go there's. There's something inside of my soul that pulls me towards the betterment of humanity.
Speaker 1:Nice, nice, yeah, and you talk about the betterment of humanity. It's like you're dealing with all this stuff in your life, all these challenges, all these obstacles. You're struggling, you're barely making it through and you still decided, hey, I'm going to try to encourage other people to improve their lives. Did you always have that feeling, or is that always a driving factor to not just improve your life, but improve other people's lives?
Speaker 2:It was always a factor. As a matter of fact, in my mid-teens, my family would call me Grandma, would call me Aunts and uncles would call me to get advice from me. Okay, mind you, I was 15, 16, 17 years old and they're calling me for advice. It was something that's always been inside of me, that desire to help people. By the time I was 19, I was mentoring students to get into, through university and so forth, so it's something that's always been in my heart. It's something that I love watching people thrive.
Speaker 2:I love watching people have what they want out of life. Some people come to me. They may be in their twenties and they just want to get through university or get that job or raise a family. But also people come to me I work with people that are from zero. I work with children very young, from zero to 80 years of age. The oldest student I graduated was 80 years old.
Speaker 2:So you can only imagine how people come up and I think we all have regrets, and that's one of the things. It doesn't matter how old we are, it doesn't matter what background we come from. It doesn't matter if we had a loving family or not a loving family. We all have something that holds us back from wherever it is that we desire to be, and for me, it's like I just want to stop that pain for people. I want them to live their version of a happy, healthy, wealthy life and to live from a place of joy, to have that peace that I didn't have because I was in survival mode. I was what I call in high thriving survival mode. Yes, you, I was on tv. Yes, I was doing all these things. Yes, I was educated and I was still in survival mode and what is that like?
Speaker 1:thriving survival, survival, and how does that affect how people act and react?
Speaker 2:right, okay, well, for the way that it showed up for me. I think that's a good way. I'd invite people to reflect on what it is that I say and then reflect on their life to see, like for me, it was like okay, I gotta go to school because my son needs to be educated. Right, he needs to have opportunities. I need to go to work because we it's important for us to have a great place to live, a stable place.
Speaker 2:I didn't come from a stable background. My father would come in some days and say, hey, we're moving, and it wasn't like the movers are coming or anything, it's like we're leaving. Yeah, okay, get in the car, we're leaving, that's it. You're not taking anything with you. So for me it was important, and so that survival mode led me to excel in university. Right, although I almost got kicked out. Yes, my GPAs were like 3.8 before all the stuff that was falling apart before my eyes. It led me to get additional education. It led me, it pulled me forward where other people around me in my environment, even other educated individuals, weren't doing the same thing. What that looks like for some of us for me it was Rocio is only focused on the goal. That's it. We're focused on the goal. The family. That's it. There's nothing else. There was not much of entertainment or friends or whatever it there's nothing else. There was not much of entertainment or friends or whatever. And it's almost like that driving force. Although it's great to be accomplishing things, I was missing out of my humanity and I'm going to share one pivotal moment in my life that everything just shifted. I was 33 years old. I was on top of the world. I had the house, the car, the kid, the everything. My son was graduated from high school. I had graduated from university. We had built a home from the ground up. I had built a business, two businesses, and I was an inventor and I was like, enjoying the process.
Speaker 2:And then I realized at one point I'm like, I feel unfulfilled. My son left home and I'm like, what again? This for Right? What was all this struggle for? What was all the sacrifice for to build this? And he's no longer at home. So I felt like empty. There was an emptiness inside of me, literally, as I turned 34, it's like the universe knocked on my door and said OK, rocio, are you ready? Are you ready to wake up? You've been numbing yourself. I had numbed myself and I didn't even know it At that point.
Speaker 2:I had been diagnosed with a brain tumor 13 days after my 34th birthday. I was in the ER the eve of my birthday and to understand, and it's like, okay, how does my life shift? And I remember the next morning waking up and I was like a driver Okay, son, you're going to go, you're going to do your PhD. We lived in a college university city because I wanted him to go to university, all these things. And then that next morning I lived in Boulder, colorado, on the North side of it morning. I lived in Boulder, colorado, on the north side of it.
Speaker 2:I looked over my home, looked over the flat irons, and I'm looking over this beautiful rocks and I'm like para que, para que I haven't lived. You know, my son was sleeping in the living room and I'm like there's no need to stress him out. It's like just let him be, like let him in his humanity. He doesn't have to go out and do things to be happy, he can just be happy. And I remember walking up the stairs and again I'm looking over the flat irons and saying, okay, this is the first day of my life, this is the day that I get to live by intention and with intention it's no longer it's like, hey, all these goals I need to accomplish.
Speaker 2:And yes, there's a major point in that. What I would love people to understand is that trauma leads us to numbing Part of success and part of driving so hard in that high thriving survival mode is numbing ourselves. See, when my son left, I had nothing. I found myself in the middle of the night crying in the parking lot next to my office because I was just alone.
Speaker 2:And then, when fast forward to go heal myself, I left to San Diego and in that time I'm like I didn't know how to create from love, although I had made that commitment on October 20th of 2009,. I didn't know how to create from love. It was just like okay, it was almost like proving the world, proving my family wrong, proving everything wrong, and it wasn't until that point. It's like I don't know how to create from love. I don't know how to create from being in a place of not surviving, and, and so that was the hardest shift, the hardest mind shift that I had to do and to transform the way that I was thinking, because it was no longer my son driving me, it was no longer poverty driving me, it was no longer education driving me, it was no longer business driving me. Now I had to drive from. I have a place, I have a choice. How do I start to build from that? That was the hardest journey.
Speaker 1:Thank you for sharing all that.
Speaker 1:And I have to say I mean, um, we talked before, but you know, I've had my own health issues that, I think, hit me in a similar fashion, where it's like you spend all your time and it's kind of what helped me drive with this show where you're driving for this unknown goal of what I think success is, and you get there and it's not enough and you go, move forward and you keep moving those goalposts and you keep moving those goalposts and you're never happy and you're always chasing, and then something knocks you on your ass and you have to reflect and what's become more important?
Speaker 1:And when I was in college I struggled with a lot of stuff, with a lot of stuff, and they came a point where I started doing a much better in college. And that was when I stopped giving a shit, like I stopped worrying and I stopped caring, where you know, oh, I'm going to hand this paper in late, cause if I hand it in today I'm going to fail. And then my a minus goes down to a B plus. Well, I would have got a D if I didn't, if I handed it on time. But I stopped giving a shit and slowly I stopped stressing and I stopped in my mindset change. Like you said, the mind shift of what helped me get better was not continually doing the same thing over again and wondering why and so and so uh so you know, I'm just sorry, I just
Speaker 1:uh, not, not really a question, it was just more reflection on what you were. I'm just sorry, I just uh, not really a question, it was just more reflection on what you were telling me. It's just like, yeah, I, I felt that way and now that I'm here and I had to question how many more years I have in this world I keep talking about I'm trying to squeeze out as many extra years as I can, and what is the meaning that I'll be leaving behind when I move forward? So you know, I just have to reflect on what you were saying, because it hits me, hits me hard, the words you're saying, because I'm I'm dealing with that right now as well.
Speaker 2:You know, it's fascinating when we come across that point again, 34 years old that day, the next day, 14 days after my birthday, and thinking this is the first day of my life. First of all, the doctor told me on the 19th, same day that I was MRI'd, same day that I was talked with. I demanded to speak with the doctor and I started to see all the things that were important. Number one the doctor said you could have a stroke and die any moment. And I'm like wow, like what am I gonna do? What am I gonna dedicate my life to? How do I? How do I live with intention?
Speaker 2:and I remember my best friend was there that morning when the doctors called me and said, hey, you, you have a rare brain tumor and, uh, you can die any moment. And I'm like, okay, um, thank you, uh, let's, let's deal with it as a business transaction.
Speaker 2:That's survival yeah survival to the core. That's that's disconnecting from our humanity. I disconnected from my humanity, I disconnected from my feelings and I remember going, uh, immediately to my friend. I'm like, okay, like all the things that I was putting off, that I didn't think they were that important, like I had reconnected with the brother, I had just found out that I had nieces, and it's like I want to go get me a plane ticket, I want to leave, I want to go see my brother, I want to go meet my nieces for the first time. I want to do this. That the other, like all the things that were important were now at the forefront. Why did I have to wait until being faced with death to be able to do that? That was the hardest thing.
Speaker 2:And then fast forwarding coming back to San Diego on June 16th 2011,. I'm there in San Diego and I'm like okay you know, what do I do do now?
Speaker 2:what do I do with my life? And then people are calling me like Rocio, I need your energy, and like they want me to coach them. And I'm like, oh my gosh, how can these people that I help mold have a better life than I do? And I wasn't talking about the time, the energy, the money, the resources, the education, the accolades of the achievement. What I wanted was my mother's love. I literally would have packed everything and put it in a box and said here you go, you can have it all, as long as you can give me my mother's love. And that was the beginning of my journey.
Speaker 2:That was the beginning of my journey of learning, of healing, of understanding that it wasn't her love that I wanted. It was my love. I didn't love myself and I didn't even know it. From the outside it looked perfect. Rosia lived like a princess. The clothes, the, whatever, the band-aids let's just put them that's what they are. It's band-aids to cover everything. Put them like that's what they are. It's band-aids to cover everything up. And I was so numb that at that point, when I started to realize I put myself into my own coaching system, I had realized nobody's ever coached me. You know, I've been coaching and helping people, like, get me out. Nobody's helped me. Like, how do I continue to move forward and help myself in a way that is productive for me? That's where this whole mind shift journey began for me in a very different way.
Speaker 1:Nice. And so, jessica, quick backtrack Health-wise your tumor did everything turn out okay with that. Or are you still dealing with it.
Speaker 2:It's a great question the tumors and remission. I had a high dose of radiation, only able to have once and that was it, and from that point forward, it's whatever it is. The only thing that I know is that I get to live my life the way that I choose to live my life and, um, I've choose to live my life and I've been asked that question many times, like Rocio, like what are you doing on the stage? And if you don't know what's happening, does it really matter? Does it really matter? It's like it's not how I died that mattered, it's how I lived matters, and I live.
Speaker 1:I choose to live full out and so and so what came next? After you starting your life over day one, you're moving forward. What's next?
Speaker 2:day one. Here I am again in San Diego and I was like, when I made that realization, nobody's ever coached me and I decided to turn coaching onto myself. I started learning from a lot of different people. I went to many different world-renowned experts and learning here, there, and then I recognized that nobody had the secret answer. I knew that if I didn't resolve whatever was inside of me and it had nothing to do with health although there was a brain tumor that could have killed me it didn't have to do anything with health. It's like that. It had to do with whatever was unresolved. And oh boy, let me tell you like life peaked its ugly head in ways that I could have never imagined, where I was seeing the trauma, and it's like I had to. I had to dance with my trauma. I had to see my. I didn't even see them like prior to that.
Speaker 2:I was like, oh, my parents did the best that they could with what they had. No, I was scared. They did the worst they could with what they had and in the way that really impacted me as a human being and really could have let me um an enigma, I could have been dead, way you know, in my teens because of that. Really, looking at it, I put myself into this personal development arena. I discovered that nobody had the answer, that the answer was within me, all of the answers were within me. And then I started coaching myself.
Speaker 2:I would walk around and I'm like I'm telling my clients you have a problem, your father didn't show love to you. How about you show it to yourself? What didn't you hear? And I'm like, what about you, rocio? And so I started looking, literally, I started looking in the mirror and I'm like, hey, rocio, by the way, I'm like I love you, little girl, like all the things I never heard from my family, from my mother or father. Like hey, little girl, you're amazing. Hey, little girl, we're so proud of you. And I'm like, hasta que me la creí Until I started to affirm as I affirmed, I confirmed, and when it was confirmed, then this whole new being emerged and it took what it took. It took what it took and I was like. I was like the pit bull that grabs on so hard that it's not going to let go until it gets what it wants.
Speaker 2:That was me. There was no way in the world that I was not going to see my son ever again, because I knew it would kill me. I'm not sure if you know the statistics right now.
Speaker 2:They've discovered that the vast majority of diseases have to do with unresolved trauma and emotions. They're stuck in the body. They just manifest as disease. And so I went through this amazing transformation. I started journaling like I had never journaled before. I started doing my affirmations, I started doing physical exercises to retrain my mind and my body, and then I started teaching that to others.
Speaker 1:It's at the Affirmation Prize it's. We talked about kids and how they're. Sponges and words and everything matter, but as adults they still matter. And sometimes just saying simple things, like as adults they still matter. And sometimes just saying simple things like you said I love myself, I love you. You know what I mean. Or you're doing great.
Speaker 1:Those little affirmations. Eventually you start to believe them, and so it's a great thing, and I guess this kind of goes into what we're. What we'll go into next, I guess, is with your mind shift system. And how did that evolve from what you were doing?
Speaker 2:Well. So, because the system was so successful and I was teaching it to people and my commitment on October 20th 2009 was to serve humanity in a different way it was at that moment is that I owned my guess although I had been coaching, I never had seen it as a job, or I never had seen it as a career for myself. I was like something that I do. It's like I'm naturally competent at it. Doesn't everybody know this? And then when I embraced it, I said, wow, I helped myself. I was helping clients. I was watching people transcend their limitations and post-perceived limitations Because we also have perceived limitations and I immersed myself into studying. You know, when they said 10,000 hours, well, I would have probably multiplied that by 10 itself, and I was like studying and listening to audio and reading books and taking conferences, and that's one of the things that helped me. So I said, okay, now you're helping yourself, you're helping others, but what happens to the people that cannot afford it? What if the people? If they don't have time, they may have money. If they don't, if they have money, they don't have time to wait, or you know, whether it's time or money or energy or whatever, like? It shouldn't be the case that only the people who could afford it or have the time that can do it and coach themselves, and it's like, oh.
Speaker 2:So again, turning coaching onto ourselves, I created the MindShift game. It's part of the MindShift system and part of the MindShift system helps people do the very things that I have been doing, naturally, as a little child. That's how I survive, telling myself that I could. So it's about taking courageous actions. Courageous actions lead into boosting your confidence. Boosting your confidence leads into discovering your vision, your mission. Not mother, father, teacher, preacher's vision. Not because I'm a first gen, does that mean that I get to follow somebody else's dream. I have a dream and then into that is like really stepping into our power and having those conversations, doing the things that are important, and then stepping into our energy, owning it as the life and the world depends on it, because it does. Our life depends on it, and so all of these are affirmation cards where and I'm going to read a couple of them I take charge of every moment, in every area of my life. How powerful is that? As people read it over and over, just like I did, these are very, very intentional and.
Speaker 2:I share very intentional, because I spent months with an entire team working on every single word that we put on here. As a matter of fact, last night I was at a in an organizational event and someone told me wow, you know, I'm doing my affirmations as well and they're great. And they started sharing their affirmations and I've heard this many, many times and expecting something positively, and they thought, because simply they were doing affirmations that they were perfect. Well, we start to affirm, affirm, affirm. Something that's negative, like if I keep on saying hey, I'm never going to steal, I'm never going to steal or I'm never going to hurt somebody. Just repeat after me, say that phrase without the word no.
Speaker 1:You said I'm never goodness. It was replaced with with no, I'm going to steal that's exactly what we're saying, right.
Speaker 2:We cannot not think of something right. And when people like I'm never going to give up on my dreams, it's like you're programming. I'm going to give up on my dreams because the mere fact that you're actually saying that is actually programming you. And for me, I'm very, very intentional on what I hear. It's like it's almost like somebody says something negative. It screeches in my soul and my ears. It's like like chalk on the chalkboard and so we created this entire deck of cards so that people can go ahead and program themselves. It's like, because we do every single day, we're already programming ourselves.
Speaker 2:Why not be intentional about it? Why not program ourselves? Why not play a game that's fun and easy and exciting? And then you start to see yourself shift and your energy shift, and people around you're like hey, what happened to you? Marcos, maria, you know, paco, what's going on with you? You know you look great. I always hear people like you're glowing. I'm like life is great. So that the game comes with a guide that teaches people like start wherever you want to start. You get to choose where you want to start, and then it has a journal and the journal walks you through an entire process every day, starting with gratitude, self-efficacy we're one of the only, if not the only, people in the world that talk about self-efficacy and that's helping people self-regulate, it's getting out of that survival mode. Human being, we can throw ourselves into survival mode simply by thought alone. We could even do it by breathing, can do it by physiology. Simple, you know, I can show you somebody you know. Show me right here, right now, what does a person look like when they're depressed?
Speaker 2:physiology yeah, I don't know and most of the time it's like and this is as fast, because I do this on a global scale. I'm like show me physiologically what a person looks like when they go into depression. It's that fast. So, if I understand that depression can also be and, mind you, there are people who do need some support in different ways but sometimes it's also our physiology that takes us into depression. How we hold our body, how we're breathing, the thoughts that we're thinking. Our thoughts tell our body what to feel.
Speaker 2:Our body tells our mind what to think. And this is this vicious circle, and so my goal in life is to help people take control of their life, take charge of their life, to live the life that they came here to live, which is to be happy to enjoy it, to be in peace and harmony. Yes, there's stress. Stress only means that there's growth. When there's prolonged stress, that's where disease comes from.
Speaker 1:That's survival mode, even if you're high, thriving yeah, yeah, I really like the, especially the aspect you're talking about, like the removing the negative connotations and stuff, cause it's, you know, every parent is a lead, a coach to their kid, kind of deal. You know you're constantly trying to teach them lessons and show them, hopefully, things to improve their lives, and one of the things I like to do with my daughter is make sure she doesn't trying to teach them lessons and show them, hopefully, things to improve their lives, and one of the things I like to do with my daughter is make sure she doesn't fear challenges and failures.
Speaker 2:So that you know.
Speaker 1:So for her it's like she tells me I can't do this. I'm like it's not that you can't do this, it's just you don't have enough experience to make it easy for you. But if you keep, working at it you'll get there, you know.
Speaker 1:So it's so. It's constantly like saying telling her, hey, these are just challenges that are going to improve your life, they're not something you can't do. And uh, she's gotten better. Like, she's big on soccer. She's like, oh, maybe I should try out for the select team because it'll be more of a challenge and I think I'll get better doing this harder level stuff, and so I see it slowly building up on her and so I can, like you know, like you said, it's like these little things that build up to these big changes, that your game, I think, hopefully gives people that opportunity to to slowly incorporate these tasks, that eventually they might not need the game anymore because they're doing it on their own.
Speaker 2:And they start to do it on their own. And here's something that's magical about the game it's played in eight week rounds, played every day, three times a day, every day, three times a day. You're developing a pattern that you're right in time and the perfect time for you, because it also depends on your intensity, right and your commitment and what you get to do in the perfect time for you, based on what you're, the effort that you're putting into it, that you'll be there. It's like automatic. It's automatic, it's automatic. It's like I get to do this. I want to share a quick story because I think it's fun.
Speaker 2:You talked about fear and that was one of the things that I, when I was molding my son, I wanted to make sure that he was solid. And now, with my grandchildren, I remember my grandson was about 18 months old and I put him up in the air and he's like I could feel him shake and I'm like not under my, not under my watch, okay, because I know the impact of what's going to happen, and I remember, as he was growing up, I would teach him. He's like I want to go on the monkey bars and I'm like you got this. Repeat after me. I've got this, I got this, I got this.
Speaker 2:And there was a point in time when, right pre-COVID literally pre-COVID, it was that February he was four years old, going on five, and I'm like catch. You know, we're playing catch and he couldn't catch. And he's like catching like this. I'm like it's not a beach ball, right, so he's not going to catch. And by the end of that visit he's catching like this. Next time I come around I'm like let's go play catch. And he's like no, I can't get it. And I'm like nope.
Speaker 2:Those are like let me share with you a little child. I'm like, okay, I see that I get to change that in him, I get to mold something in him. And I'm like, okay, repeat after me. And he was always he was used to repeating after me. And I'm like I've got this. And so he's standing and I have video of this. He's standing up there and he's like I've got this, I've got this, I've got this. And I saw him get into the peak state and I got I threw over the little hacky sack and he caught it for the first time. And I'm like recording him and he's like let me see, let me see, let me see. And he caught almost every single time after. Why? Because he got into a peak state of mind. He went from the I can't, which are the most dangerous words that I consider in the world, to I can't and I got this yeah, it's, it's.
Speaker 1:It's funny. I love talking to you today, by the way, because you keep telling these stories, and it hits me with something that I've dealt with too, where it's like you know, sometimes you read something at the right time and it kind of changes your perspective.
Speaker 1:Everything. And like early, like after my daughter was born, I just happened to see an article that talked about teaching kids to take risks at an early age, even on a monkey bar, where they're afraid to climb up to the highest bar. And teaching them to take that risk and move forward builds the stepping stones that will lead to more successful adults. Because they're not afraid of taking risks. As adults, they're not afraid to start that company or apply for that job or go to those classes or learn something new. Because at an early age they've learned to deal with the idea that risk could bring reward and they're not scared of it. And that whole concept, like you say with with your grandson, where it's like I can't, I can't, I can't.
Speaker 1:I mean, I'm the same way and it's like you're solely teaching them, encouraging them to say there's no such thing as you can't. I tell the time. There's no such thing as you can't, it's just you haven't gotten enough experience to make it easy. Yet you know what I mean and you're getting there. So I love and, like I said, it's been great today talking to you, because you keep hitting me over the head with stuff that I'm like, yes, yes, I feel that I love that. So so it's obviously you have your game and then you also have you have, for the Mindshift system, a university. You're starting a university.
Speaker 2:We have a university and it launches today.
Speaker 1:Nice.
Speaker 2:It's launching today and it's beautiful. It's like we have it both in English and Spanish. It's about how to be confident with you. How do we overcome fear? How do we embrace our actually even embracing? Even our own imposter syndrome can help us. There's a time to use it, there's a time to not. There's a time to be aware. There's a time not to be aware of things and there's a time to embrace things. So what we're doing is helping people being more confident in and achieving what they want to achieve. So we have the MindShift University buses on psychological safety, change management, confident being you, seeing your blind spots, figuring out where you've been and how you move forward, and then we also have our books of a book series. This is unstoppable. This is a workbook that helps people achieve what they want to achieve. You can go through this book a million times, and a million times you will find something new because you're constantly involving.
Speaker 2:And we have that one in spanish, and then you know this is one of our books, the hispanic journey. And then this is our latest book right here, which is these are stories from mind and soul, from that strength that we draw. These are 22 co-authors, including myself, across the nation that have made a commitment to helping our youth, to helping people see the resilience of our gente. How do we move forward? So everything that we do is to help people achieve the life that they desire, whether it's through our books, through our games, through our keynotes, through our coaching, through any of our products and services. We also have a TV show called the Mind Shift Game TV show.
Speaker 1:Nice. And what is that TV show? Is it like people playing the game, or is it like it's actually people listening to the coaching aspect get coaching.
Speaker 2:It's on one of the an amazing platform called expand itv. It's like the netflix coaching world oh nice so, which is really neat. So I share thoughts and insights on how people can continue to move forward. You know, anytime that you can do work one-on-one with us or as a group, it's always very, very beneficial. And then you know as you see it right, it's like watching something on YouTube.
Speaker 2:Is it the same thing. Oh, it's great. And the in-person. I want to be in the concert, I want to listen to the conversation, I want to feel the music and the vibes, and that changes.
Speaker 1:Nice and so, with everything that you guys are doing and that you know all the help you're providing people, you know what's, what's some of the biggest takeaway that you want people to realize that come for these. You know mind shift game and the mind shift system and your leadership and your, your coaching. You know what's one of the biggest things you guys like to emphasize.
Speaker 2:That you can do this, that any one of us can transform our lives at any given point in time. Our minds are malleable. Our minds can shift over and over again. The earlier we do it, the younger we do it. It's going to be easier. It's easier for me to coach somebody that's 10 years old versus somebody that's 30 or 40 years old. It's there's a difference, right, I think, about it being as concrete the older we are. You know, there's a layer of concrete, layer of concrete, layer of concrete, and in time, that layer of concrete's going to look like this thick, right? You know, is it this thick or is it this thick, right?
Speaker 2:so it's going to be the major difference in what level of commitment that we can transform our lives, that it is in our hands, that it is by instinct that we were born perfect, whole and complete as human beings and that everything that we have lived is what we have learned Okay, automatically. We have learned more from the ages of zero to seven than what we will for the rest of our lives. Although we think we get PhDs, mds, one, two, threes, whatever the learning that goes into the individuals is far greater. So I have a huge place in my heart for children and I would love for parents to invest in their children. The earlier that we can do that, the more that we're changing our children's, children's children's lives. You know, for the south generation that impact, and also for those of us who are teens or adults, hey, you know, take it into your own hands.
Speaker 2:Your don't wait for somebody, like a lot of people, like, well, my boss isn't invested in it, so I'm not going to do it. It's like, okay, okay, you know. And also that your greatest investment is always going to be in your mind always get in your mind.
Speaker 2:You buy this brush, that brush is only going to serve you, but it doesn't give you anything more. Rather than you use it to apply the powder on your face, and when you invest in your mind over and over and you shed that layer and shed that layer and shed that layer, you reconnect with your intuitive wisdom that allows you to create things even faster. See, after my trauma healing, I was able to to not only heal also. I was able to get to not only heal also. I was able to move forward faster. The thoughts, ideas, the things that were before me that I hadn't seen, that now I see have helped me move forward. I want people to live as a happy life as they are willing to put the effort into Nice and I love the fact that you know it's what you guys do for children too.
Speaker 1:And do you guys do like anything like on the parent side, like how can I be a better parent with the stuff that I do?
Speaker 2:Yes, most definitely. We have a coaching system that helps parents. I do guide people through that. I've been teaching parenting classes for the last 22 years, over 22 years, and help them mold, because one of the things that I see is I go all the way to my oldest clients and see how life impacted them. I have a client that's 83 years old. Let me tell you how it impacted that individual. They're still suffering. They're 83, right, uh, 60, you name it psychologists, doctors, investors, people, they, they've all been impacted.
Speaker 2:And it didn't matter if they came from poverty, it didn't matter if they came from wealth, it didn't matter that. The human experience is the human experience. As a matter of fact, some people who came from more actually are suffering even more because they had a lack of attachment. You know, sometimes when we think about here's the mind shift that I would like people to do is when we think about adversity and poverty it's not always a bad thing, right, like adversity. Actually, imagine if you think about it like hey, you know, we have $10 for dinner, what are we going to do, and let's work together as a team, and they're like there's that attachment, there's that bonding, there's that collaboration, all of that as opposed to hey, you're going to be sent away for school somewhere.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's a difference. Yeah, I mean we talked about the resourcefulness of our people. I think from poverty we're able to squeeze out as much as we can make big foods and from the cheapest meats and eat great, you know. So it's like yeah sometimes you need if you garden. You know some plants that grow on the ground. Without hard ground they don't grow big, you know. So, if the ground is too soft you get little. You know, like potatoes and stuff like that, they won't grow without that pressure.
Speaker 1:So you know, sometimes it's like that, so that's awesome. And one other question I have is have you talked to your son about everything in your life and your journey with him and had reflections on? You know what are the life lessons and what can you and I do to do a better job with the grandkids moving forward?
Speaker 2:You know, we haven't had conversations like that. We have had like vision, bigger vision conversations. Um, I feel like he's taken his own lessons and taught him in the way that's important for him to teach him to his son, next generation, different ways of molding, because there's always something that we get to shed right and um and mold within ourselves.
Speaker 2:I know I recently shared a vision that I had shared with him when he was 16 years old. He's 33 now, like son, you know, remember I said I would build this thing and like how cool would it be to build a program that's going to help people and families? And so I'm like son, I built it. I built it and like I didn't even know, I was just like pedal to the metal focus, focus, focus, focus. And then now, when we look at it, this provides wellbeing.
Speaker 2:This provides self-regulation. This provides people a better, happier, healthier relationship, marriage, whatever, job, life experience, because now we're even more aware of how we've been creating our world and we get to intentionally mold that experience for ourselves. So that's something that I know he's very proud of. He's always talked about me. You know, when kids talk about their parents behind their back, mine talked in a very positive way.
Speaker 2:I go to school and people and the teachers would say you know, like Victor, like let me show you what he wrote about you, like he's so proud of you. Or parents, parents, friends, parents would say the same thing and I'm like, okay, that's great. And I remember him being 11 years old and he's like running down the stairs. He's like mom, how come you're different? And I'm like what are you talking about, son? How come you're different? He goes why, you know, like my uncles, they're drinking and driving and yelling at their kids and you're doing different things. And all I can say is that this is what I choose for us, right that I get to choose. Like life is a choice. The way, what it is that we're living outside of us came from inside of us, and if we change the inside of us, our mind, our body, the way that we processed emotions or the way emotions are stuck in our bodies. Then we can move forward and we can free ourselves and see things that we hadn't seen because now we're free.
Speaker 1:Yep, yep, that's awesome, that's awesome. Well, so usually around the time, I like to ask a couple of questions at the end of our interview. But if you could go back in time especially since you deal with kids now, but with what you know now and go back to your younger version of yourself and coach yourself and give yourself some advice, what's something you would have told yourself?
Speaker 2:I would have said I love you. I would have said I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you. I can't tell you how many times I see people like when I coach them. They break down. They literally break down. They're sobbing, they can't do it. They can't even see themselves in the eyes. I couldn't see myself. I would tell myself that I have the power to transform my life and that I'm the only one, like I've always knew that I was the only one. I would definitely encourage myself. That's what I would say I love you, I love you, I love you. You're amazing.
Speaker 1:And you're worth it. Yeah, thank you, that's awesome. That's really amazing and like you said words matter, and so I'm glad that's something amazing. And, like you said, words matter, and so I'm glad. I'm glad that's something that you would go back. You never know what people are going to say. You know, sometimes I'm always, I'm always shocked by this answer too. So it's always great. And then, finally, you know how do you say success in Spanglish. You know what does success mean to you?
Speaker 2:Success to me. When you said that I'm like like exit, though, and like what success means to me is whatever I want to live, whatever I choose to live, whatever makes my heart sing, um, what success means to me is that it is. It's about love, it's about being in peace and in harmony with myself. It's about constantly growing and understanding that if I say something, when I say something to, to individuals, I say it because it's from a place of love where sometimes we get like, oh my gosh, like she really said that. And it's like I say it because I love you.
Speaker 2:I say it because I want something for you. I say it because I'm willing to be uncomfortable in that, to see whatever comes out for your own good, to know that there's a ripple effect. So success means to me a lot of things. It means living a happy life. It means enjoying a moment yeah, it means enjoying a moment with people.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Yeah, we talked a little bit earlier about the goalposts constantly shifting sometimes, when what our definition of success is, and until you just do what you want and you're not worried about you're not keeping up with the Joneses, you're going to be much happier. So, thank you so much. I really appreciate you taking the time to jump on here with me and share your story. It's been great. Like I said, I've you've hit me over the head a few times and made me go.
Speaker 1:Yes, you know, so I hope others will listen in as well and get the same feeling that I had during this interview. But uh, if you want, you tell me you have. Plug anything you want your websites or whatever things you're doing.
Speaker 2:Thank you, the Mindshift Game. Look at it. Look us up. It's the mindshiftgamecom. You can also look me up on LinkedIn. We're on Facebook, instagram. Check it out. Call us, give us a call, send us a message 303-587-8367, 303-587-8367,. And take actions. Live your life on your terms, create the life that you'd love and desire, and it is possible for you to have what you desire.
Speaker 1:Nice, awesome. Well, thank you so much, rocio. I really appreciate you taking the time today and I look forward to see what you have next.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much.
Speaker 1:And for everyone else listening. Once again, thank you so much for joining me, and I hope you join me again next time, as we continue to learn how to see success in Spanish.
