Last week, we had a chance to head on down to Oceanside to participate on a panel at Mira Costa College. This event was a gift!
The event was generously hosted by the Latina Leadership Network, which is an on campus group or woke students and their brilliant and powerful advisors. (Thank you Dr. Vanessa Bustamonte!) And thank you to all the students, faculty and staff that showed up from both Mira Costa and Palomar.
The questions were on point. All of the panelist addressed the questions from various perspectives, and each one had had to navigate the systems they grew up in.
Part of the discussion focused on the work we currently do to serve the community. This is an are we area particularly proud of. Angel mentioned her passion for food justice, homelessness and mental health awareness. She also mentioned her passion for seeing a more representation in technology and using her influence to promote one of her favorite nonprofit organizations, PepUp Tech. If you are in a career transition or interested in finding a way into the tech field, check out PepUp Tech! If you don’t know about that amazing organization, you can watch the interview we did with PepUp Tech Founder, Selina Suarez below.
One of the things Angel forgot to mention was the mission of Living Firme to promote other small businesses. For us, it isn’t enough to do well if we are not also doing what we can to bring others along. When we do events, we do them with the intention to stimulate the local economy. It’s not just about one group making money, it’s about collaborating so that as many people can make money as possible. This is the ABUNDANCE MINDSET at work. We are about wellness in body mind and spirit and financial wellness is part of that too. In addition to all the collaborations we do, we do a weekly online video broadcast to share the work of other businesses with our growing online community.
We think that it’s important to mention that different people move at different paces and it sometimes happens that when you grow, some people may not be ready to grow with you. But it ALSO happens that when you grow, you meet amazing people who ARE also growing. Case in point is the lovely artist, Anna Alvarado. When we first met Anna, her work was already being sold out at shows but she needed more connections to get to the next level in her business. We knew she was a gem and although we barely new her, we started working with her. We also knew her story was too good not to share so we interviewed her as well.
Anna has since, quit her job to be a FULL TIME artist, embraced her story and shared it to inspire others, done several media appearances including one for MiTu and taken the opportunity to share her art with others whenever possible. She has also turned us onto some incredible opportunities. We brought Anna to Mira Costa with us. She was asked to introduce herself and she did. Everyone loved her.
Whether you are a chola reading this or not, you can do something amazing to elevate your life and the lives of those in your community. Plant the seeds of positivity in your mind and in the minds of others and see how that garden grows. We have seen it time and time again.
Al rato.
