A conversation with Ana Barreto, author, teacher, coach and founder of the Body, Mind & Wisdom School for Women. For over 30 years, Ana has been working with women, empowerment, and mindfulness.
Ana Barreto is a Brazilian-American author, transformational teacher, coach, Feng Shui consultant and speaker. Her mission is to help women find their inner-compass to live a great life through inspirational self-help books, classes, coaching, energy management modalities, feng shui and mentoring programs. She believes that, by helping women, all those around them will find their lives improved.
Ana shares her journey from experiencing financial instability in Brazil, involving parental eviction and personal sacrifices, to her transformation into a leader in women's empowerment and financial independence. We discussed Ana's bold move from Brazil to New York, her climb up the corporate ladder, and her transition to a mission-driven focus on uplifting women.
Our conversation underscores the significance of women building confidence and taking action for personal and professional growth. Anna's work, through her Mind, Body, and Wisdom School for Women, aims to empower women through mindfulness, confidence building, and financial awareness. Ana's message resonates deeply with the idea that financial success is more than just numbers in a bank account; it's about living a life that echoes our deepest values and intentions.
“Nothing happens without women, and it's time for us to change the way we think, because it has been ingrained in us from generations. We can say, "oh, it's the man's fault, it's the man's fault," but a lot of the things are coming from ourselves. My boss or my coworkers never sabotage me, I sabotage myself. So it's time for us to change that and get this word out that: women, you can do more. You can be yourself. You don't have to adjust the way you lead to get what you are. There is a way, but there's two pieces that are missing. The confidence is one, and the other one is the action, taking the steps, because by sitting and complaining and worrying and being complacent where you are, nothing's going to happen. So that is what I really, really want to do.” - Ana Barreto
Key takeaways:
- Recognize the mission that is calling to you. Ana grew up in a very patriarchal society in Brazil. She shared that in her own family, her mother did not make any decisions without her father, including the color of the curtains and what dress to wear to church on Sunday. When Ana announced that she had been offered a well paid job at a hotel, she had to move out of her parents house in order to accept it, because her father forbade her to work there. As a result of this upbringing, Ana felt called to work on gender equality and women’s empowerment in the workplace.
- Confidence is a skill you can learn. Ana was instrumental in starting a program at her company that identified women leaders for promotion. The program began by helping women build their confidence; lack of confidence was often the #1 thing getting in the way of them getting ahead. The program helped the women build their interpersonal skills, since first impressions are so important, and then their confidence to make big decisions.
- Mindfulness is the secret ingredient missing in everything we do. Ana believes that mindfulness can help with time management, with leadership, basically with dealing with the many stressors in our lives. Scientific studies have shown that meditating just eight minutes a day can help us feel calmer and sense more congruence between our actions and feelings.
- Pay attention to your money. Ana shared that there was a time in her life when she ignored her money. She didn’t open her bills for months - she even found a check for over $5,000 that she had totally forgotten about!! She recommends knowing your net worth, the sum of your assets minus your liabilities, have a number in mind that you’re working towards, and know where your money is going.
About the guest:
Ana Barreto is a Brazilian-American author, transformational teacher, coach, feng shui consultant, and speaker dedicated to empowering women to find balance and fulfillment through mindfulness. She brings 35+ years of business experience with a bachelor's degree in business and an MBA.
After overcoming burnout and self-sabotage in her corporate career, Ana discovered her passion for guiding others towards greater purpose and joy. She is the founder of the Mind, Body & Wisdom School for Women, and her writing, motivational talks, meditations, and courses have been featured at Insight Time, Mind Bliss, Best Self, and others.
With over 20 years of studying Transformational Leadership and a dedicated focus on Women, Empowerment, and Mindfulness, Ana Barreto has published six books on personal growth topics for women, including her latest book Embrace Your Success: 8 Tool to Improve the Quality of Your Life.
"Embrace Your Success” is a powerful yet concise book that empowers women to unlock their full potential and release common behaviors holding them back. In this transformative work, Ana Barreto seamlessly blends timeless spiritual wisdom with modern psychology and practical strategies, delivering eight potent tools to revolutionize the way you think, feel, and act.
Website: www.ana-barreto.com
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ana-chaves-barreto-mba-92b7533/
Instagram: Instagram.com/ana1barreto
Facebook: Facebook.com/ana1barreto
Free resources: Find Clarity workbook
Free class: Bring Your Best Self Forward
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Disclaimer: Please remember that the information shared on this podcast does not constitute accounting, legal, tax, investment or financial advice. It’s for informational purposes only. You should seek appropriate professional advice for your specific information.
Ana Barreto
So nothing happens without a woman and it's time for us to change the way we think because has been ingrained in us from generations. And we can say, oh, it's the man's fault, it's the man's fault. But a lot of the things are coming from ourselves. I mean, my boss or my coworkers never sabotage me, I sabotage myself.
So it's time for us to change that and get this word out that women You can do more. You can be yourself. You don't have to adjust the way you lead to get what you are. There is a way, but there's 2 pieces that missing. The confidence is 1 and the other 1 is the action taking the steps because. By sitting and complaining and worrying and, and being complacent where you are, nothing's going to happen.
So that, that is what I really, really want to do.
Narrator
Welcome to Making Change With Your Money, a podcast that highlights the stories and strategies of women who experienced a big life transition and overcame challenges as they redefined financial success for themselves. Now here's your host, Certified financial planner, Laura Rotter.
Laura Rotter
I am so excited to have as my guest today, Ana Barreto. Ana is a Brazilian American author, transformational teacher, coach, feng shui consultant, and speaker dedicated to empowering women to find balance and fulfillment through mindfulness. After overcoming burnout and self sabotage in her corporate career, Anna discovered her passion for guiding others towards greater purpose and joy.
She's the founder of the Mind, Body, and Wisdom School for Women and is the author of six books on personal growth topics for women, including her latest book, Embrace Your Success. Eight tools to improve the quality of your life. So welcome, Ana, to the Making Change with Your Money podcast.
Ana Barreto
Thank you, Laura.I'm very happy to be here.
Laura Rotter
I'm looking forward to our conversation, Ana. My first question, as always, is, um, what was money like in your family growing up?
Ana Barreto
In my house, we never talk about money. We don't ask questions about money. And I didn't know we were poor. And too much later in life, when my dad was a sole provider, my mom stayed home, there were six kids in a house.
Yeah, and I heard about their beginnings being tough, and then for a period of time, probably from when I was a year old to maybe 10 or 11, things were good. I didn't see anything, but then things got really, really bad. My parents got evicted from their house, you know, I was in my teen years. And I was already working, giving guitar lessons just to get my spending money because I couldn't really ask my parents for money.
And, uh, many times my money was used to pay bills and pay the electric bill because there was turn off or buy food. So things were tough.
Laura Rotter
Wow. That really must've had an impact. on you and your siblings?
Ana Barreto
Oh, absolutely. I think probably until very recently, I did not know how that had impacted me because it drove me to be more ambitious.
And, you know, all of the little things that my mother would say, and still in the back of your mind, and you don't treat money the way we supposed to treat money, we supposed to talk about, and, and I think until probably 15 years ago, I, I didn't really had a great relationship with money. I got into debt.
Uh, I, I was work, work hard. I always made the money, but I didn't know how to keep the money and invest the money. And, um, but I was very lucky that things have come around my life that showed me I get great mentors and teachers and, and either a money doula who helped me clear the fear of money and which I see, I see in a lot of women these days.
Many women do not know how to relate with money. If you came from money, you have a completely different relationship. If money was on and off or no money at all. And I believe that we probably learn by osmosis from our house growing up.
Laura Rotter
Yes. And I guess I did hear you say something to the effect of we're supposed to talk about money.
I was at a party Saturday night and a therapist said to me, something that I've heard often, which is people are. more likely to talk with her about their sex life than they are to talk about how much they earn. So I would in that statement just say that most people do not hear about money in homes they grow up.
It's really more what you see your parents do, or maybe the little asides that your parents make, but actually talking about how much things cost, how much people earn, It just never happens. We're supposed to somehow just grow into adulthood and know it. And then though I didn't grow up in poverty, there was definitely a financial tension in the family I grew up in.
And I think there is a way in which, and I'm curious if you had that experience as you've been dealing with this over the last 15 years, that you don't even realize that unconsciously you don't want to do better. Then you don't want to insult your parents by doing better than them. And sometimes people actually sabotage themselves without even realizing that it's sort of a way of not showing up their parents.
It's an interesting thing I've heard several people say. I,
Ana Barreto
I do believe you're right. I do believe it, but it's an unconscious behavior, totally unconscious behavior. I, I didn't, I didn't want to out gain my parents because when I left my house, which in, uh, in Brazil, we don't do, you don't leave your house until you're married.
So I lived right before my 18th birthday and my mom didn't talk to me for, you know, six months. My dad didn't talk to me for about, you know, nine, nine months to a year. And when my mom talked to me, she told me that my father said to her, Oh, don't worry. She's coming back. So, Because I heard that, I always felt that going back was never an option and I'm going to do so everything I did was always to prove to them, even after my dad had passed, I was still behaving like I had to prove to them that I was worthy, that, you know, it was a good decision, me leaving the house, that I can do it on my own.
What was the decision to leave the house at 18? What did you leave the house to do? How were you able to do that without the support of your parents?
Ana Barreto
So, in my house, it was very patriarchal. Women have no decisions. My mother had no decisions. You know, I talk about in my books that my mother didn't pick the color of the curtains in the living room, my father did everything, her, the dress that she went to church every Sunday, he's the one who bought, he, he came home with a dress and that's what she wore. And I felt that something wasn't quite right. And my father was very abusive, even though he built, he, before he died, he, he didn't believe he was, but, uh, I, I knew there was something was off, but the biggest point was I finished high school and.
In Brazil, you can only go to public universities. There is private universities, but it's so expensive, unaffordable. And the public universities are the best. So I didn't get in the first year. So I had to kind of find a job and I learned to play guitar. So I start teaching music in elementary school, preschool, actually.
And I was making, you know, working three, four days, a couple of hours making, you know, spending money. And then there was an opportunity for me to work at a hotel. I spoke some English enough to be hired at a four star hotel in Rio, which is, you know, basically tourism. And that job for six hours, five days, will pay me four times what I made teaching in two schools.
So I told my mom that I would, and my mom talked to my dad, because everything had to be approved by my dad. And my father said, absolutely not. He said that women who work in hotels are prostitutes and his daughter wasn't. So you can see the mentality. So that is, I made a decision to, I went to my friend's house and I never went back.
Actually, I just went back maybe a week just to pick up some of my things and I started the job. And from there I was on my own. I stayed with the friends for, for a month until I got my paycheck. And then I moved in with a, one of my best friends. We were roommates for for a few years until I moved back to New York.
Not moved back, until I made a decision to move to New York.
Laura Rotter
I have to say, Ana, it's very impressive as you describe the family system you grew up in to have the confidence in yourself, which couldn't have been easy to move forward without the approval of your parents. I mean, for any of us, You know, let alone household that is dominated by one parent.
That's a very hard thing to do. What's your sense of where that came from?
Ana Barreto
I, it's funny because after being in America for a few years, I had share with a friend of mine. That in, when I lived in Brazil, I was very confident for some reason. I think it's an innate, I, I always had that role of leadership.
Everything. Every time there was a group, I was always the one leading, making the decisions in school, you know, those kinds of groups and projects. I always took the leadership. So it was that, then I came to America. I totally lost my confidence. Uh, I don't know what, when, and, and I believe that is, Now, I understand what was there is the self talk is that what you say to yourself after someone stopped talking.
And because my father was very patriarchal, he was, you know, you do good, you know, I was great in my, in school. I always had the highest grades. I did sports. It's sports. Another thing that I believe. It's so important for women to do if they love it because after I lost a volleyball game or a handball game and I will be crying home and my parents never went to any of my events or anything else and you just, like, Swallow your cry.
That's what my, my mother would say. My father would say swallow your cry. So you learn to be a little bit more tough. And even though sometimes when I lost a game, and I think that being in sports gave me a lot of my courage, a lot of my perseverance. I remember When I was 15, I told my mother that I was when I was 18, I'm going to leave home because I could not live in that kind of environment.
Something was deeply wrong. You cannot put the finger what it is, you know, because you don't defy your parents. You don't complain to others about your parents. So all of those things, I think. drove me to. I believe at one point because here, you know, I'm in America, I think was destiny. I had to be here.
And that was just the path that was carved for me by, you know, a higher power, I believe.
Laura Rotter
I love that you just shared that belief with us. I'm always interested if there's a sense that there's something guiding One in one's journey, I do want to explore when you came to the States and what that was. I just it's been in my head.
You have four brothers. Were they supportive of you as you made your decisions? Or were they more identified with your father? And that kind of
Ana Barreto
So my old brother at the time had already left. The house, when our parents got evicted, he just went on his own. He was still in high school, but he was able to stay, went to one of his friends house and, and do well from there.
He actually was supportive, you know, and, but he stayed with that mentality. Don't do anything stupid. You know, all my other brothers were younger. I have always been the. Peacemaker of the family since early on. So I, I got, I kind of got my older brother and sister to kind of be nicer to my younger brothers and sister, my brothers.
So they were supportive, but most of all is once I left and I start making good money, I was helping my younger brothers. So they, they always have been supportive of me.
Laura Rotter
Very nice. So how did you decide to leave for the States? When did that happen?
Ana Barreto
So talk about, talk about the higher power. So by, by then I was already meditating and I, uh, learned meditation and as a teenager, I learned Christian meditation.
And then when I was Probably 18, I learned about all kinds of meditations and alpha meditations and I just did that not because I was a meditator, but because it felt good, you know, and and one day I was I got up. I had to go to work. I was meditating and I had a vision. And I don't know if that vision was more of, I wasn't, I wasn't dreaming Laura and I was not awake, but I could see myself in this place.
And in this situation, I was talking to other people that I did not know. And I was spoken to them in English. Me in Rio did not know what I was saying, but the people in New York, I knew was New York for some reason, even though I never been in New York, knew what I was talking. When I came out, I said, Oh my God, I'm going, I'm going to New York.
And the funny thing is,
Laura Rotter
How old were you? Sorry to interrupt…
Ana Barreto
No, no, I was 20, I was 20 years old. And up to then I had sturdy British English, the private school that I took classes was British. So I always thought I was going to London. I was going to Europe. And. Everything kind of was so fast because it was hard to get a visa to come into the country.
But I work in a five star hotel at that point. I had a, I had a good job. So I came, I had two friends that were coming as well, but she was, they were coming for visiting to explore. And I had friends all over the world. And I had a friend who lived here. Actually many friends who live in America by then, because in the hotel you make these connections.
So that was in February, on March 28th, I arrived in New York and two days later, we were walking around the neighborhood and my vision was in Mimarinac, New York. So you probably know exactly where it is. So we were walking and that's exactly where it was. There was a motel, there was a seafood restaurant across the street, and that's where it was there.
So, I knew that there was something, something, something bigger for me to do. I always kind of knew we had the sense. I didn't know what it was, but my plan was to come, you know, six months, learn some, learn some English, improve my English, make some money and then go back. And I was very, very lucky that my friend got me a job in Rye.
I was the housekeeper, the dog walker, and the woman I worked for, also the same name as you are, Laura, she, she hired me and she got me a tutor at the Rye library. And, uh, so I, this Ms. Salamina, love her to death. She has passed since, but she knew I had potential. And she, Got me to go to college, West Chester Community College is, you know, from there, I, I kind of loved business and marketing.
Once I realized I wanted to do marketing, they told me that I need to go to my four year degree and that's when I, you know, they told me I didn't have any money, many classes I had to, many semesters I had to take two classes because I didn't have enough money to pay. They told me find a way, and I did. I went to Marymount College.
They gave me a 50 percent scholarship because I had really good grades. And I was able to continue to work and go to school until I graduated. So, uh, it was, that was the beginning of my mission because going to an all girls school was not easy. I learned the rights of women. So everything that I knew was wrong growing up now was opening up to me because I was reading about women history.
I was reading literature. I was being educated in what needs to be ethics. Um, and that was the seed that began because I start learning about How, how women have been treated, you know, I would read books and I'll cry from reading the books about the stories of people that we thought was great thought of thinkers of the, of the ages and the opinions about women.
And so that, for me, kind of hit a core and there was a beginning that. I decided that I really need to do something about it, but never knew how that's going to be at that point.
Laura Rotter
So you did not stay with the hotel chain. You came on, on your own, assuming you were going to stay for a couple of months and go back home.
Is that correct?
Ana Barreto
Yes, correct.
Laura Rotter
And how did you end up in Westchester? People you knew from the hotel lived in Westchester?
Ana Barreto
Yes, yes. So if you travel, especially in the 70s, in Brazil wasn't a really great safe place for tourists. And there was a lot of people, the taxi driver, the bus driver, everybody tried to take advantage of the tourists because Americans had dollars, which was probably, you know, 12 times, 10, 12 times more worth the money in Brazil.
And I, because Who I am, I, and I would tell people, don't do that, this is how much you need to pay, go this place, avoid this, and with that, I made friends, and, um, all over the world, and, and one of the friends said to me, why don't you come to New York, you know, come to New York for a few months, and he's actually dating one of my friends.
And, uh, and that's was the connection in my marionette New York, you know, he connect me to my first job, my first baby city, my first dog walk. So that was the thing, you know, it's, it's just not, it wasn't a miracle that, you know, everything kind of lined up my place. Those are connections that I had made earlier that they saw, okay, this girl is going to do okay, let's just help her this way or that way.
And I didn't even drive when I got here.
Laura Rotter
Right, and in Westchester, that's, that's tough. In the city, frankly, my sister, I grew up. in, in the city. And my sister still doesn't drive. She lives in Brooklyn. So, but if you're in Westchester, it's very hard to get around. So Ana, you were clearly very, very driven woman.
So how did the story evolve? You graduated, you were working in marketing. Is that correct?
Ana Barreto
Yes. Yeah. I was working in sales and marketing. Yeah.
Laura Rotter
And always driven to keep women's empowerment in mind, I'm assuming.
Ana Barreto
Yes. So I was, I worked for hotels here too. And, um, And I was going to school, and this is what I love about people who work and go to school at the same time, because whatever you're learning, especially if you're studying the same thing, whatever you're learning in the classroom, you are using in your work, and I was so Because, Excited to learn, you know, I love, you know, learning new things and, and management and women, and every time I see something wrong, I would say, I'm going to write a book about it.
And, and I have like, if I look at my old files, I have maybe, I don't know, 10, 15 books that I started about something that had to do with men or had to do with, um, management and leadership and all of those things. And I, once I made it, because once I became a sales manager and then I became a senior sales manager, then a direct of sales, then a direct of sales and marketing.
Many of my meetings, I was, there was, there were more men in the room than me, than women. And I was, especially when I became a director of operations, I was the only woman in the room for most of the time. And, and I always complained. I was, Why, why can't we hire more women? What's going on? Why can't we hire so so?
And I seen situations where women had been passed for promotion because they just got engaged and the big boss said, she, oh, she got engaged. Her head is going to be in a cloud. We can't promote her or because somebody got pregnant, you know, we don't know if she's going to come back. You know? So there was.
Yeah. And I, because I was in the director level and I was part of the, that conversation and I used to, you know, that doesn't mean that. And I was always outvoted. I think the worst thing was when we had a, uh, hired, my company had hire a woman, she left and a guy came behind and all the women that she had on a pipeline for promotion.
Got caught up cut out and that particular day, I just said, that's enough, that's absolutely enough. We need to do something and that's when I created a program in the company. I went to my boss and said, look, we need to promote more women. He agreed. I was teamed up with the HR. Manager, and, uh, I put the program together because I knew I work with women in all different levels.
This is what they missing. This is what is going to get them promoted. And we, we came up with this program, which was, uh, we were able to get 20, I want to say 28 people to be invited to the program that we met every month. We started with the biggest thing that women have the least. Confidence. So we talked about the, the big piece was in the beginning interpersonal skills, because we know that we, your first impression is everything.
And then we need to have confidence to make the decisions. So the program went for nine, 10 months and at the end we're able to promote 65 percent of them and one of the women got promoted to director. So at that, so that was I think 2017 and so on. Yeah. Okay. By then I already had written two books, one about, you know, paying attention to what we do and the second one about burnout because women like me who are always trying to be The best, you know, working twice as hard than the guys and having half of the recognition.
So if you keep doing this thing, you get burnout. And in my book, I came up with a solution for it, but that's a whole different story. The first one I tell you, because. It was about my mother and things that happened there. I wrote in Portuguese and then I translated in English because I just don't have the words in Portuguese anymore.
I've been in New York now for 35 years and I lived 20 years in Brazil, so I can do the math. I'm only 29.
So I, um, English is, um, English is, it's home. It's I, I feel many times when I'm, I'm home talking to my siblings, I ask them, you know, what does it mean? Or what is the word for this? I don't know. And they are helping you.
They're correcting me because I come up with words that doesn't exist in Portuguese, but I, I'm happy the way things are. I'm really, I am. I really am. So going back to my, um. My moment of deciding that this we need more women and I saw that the project really got attention from other people. Other divisions wanted to do it.
And one thing also had happened is that the some of the women that went through the to the training highly recommend it. high potential, they turned the job down, they turned the promotion down, and I would be on the phone with them, or the other, the other manager, try to convince them to take the job.
And we knew that they would be absolutely successful, they had it, and, and that's what I saw, right? Then, uh, September 11, uh, September 11, COVID happened. I had a trip with, um, was a war trip that I won in Italy. And I, I was there, that's supposed to happen in 2020, but it ended up happening in 2023. So I went to the trip and there I met about 12, 13 women.
Was about, so if, if they had 12 to 13 women, they have maybe 16, 18 guys because The company was still, they still have more men than women. And, and that is not, you know, fault of the fault of the company on. So I, I stayed the first week I talked to everybody and I felt the same thing. The lack of confidence, the lack of not.
I know being so successful, but not knowing how successful they were and one after the other, and I was talking to them and some of them I mentored into today. Then at the end of that week, this, the director was coming behind me, couldn't come. So, I got to stay another week in Italy for me, you know, beautiful trip.
And there was a whole different group of women, about seven or eight, the same situations. They didn't, they didn't feel that they, some felt overlooked. Some didn't want to even put their head on her name on a hat for a promotion. Others had no confidence. And for you to be in this trip, you have to be the top of your game.
So just by being there, you are incredible. Successful under the company eyes, but they didn't feel and even though some some people, the way they talk about themselves, the kind of sabotage. Thank God they're talking to me, not to other people. So at the end of that trip, I realized that my talents were being wasted.
At my job, even though I made incredible money, had incredible benefits, the company is fantastic. I had made a decision that I was going to leave that job and work full time on my mission, which is to serve women and help them more have the confidence, the support, the direction that they need. The same way I was.
I had a vision in Brazil coming to New York back in 2020, I was working with a coach and telling her about my dream. And I said, you know, I still have to pay for my kid's college. I still have to save for my retirement, all of those things. And then she asked me, you know, when do you think it's going to be?
And we kind of did a little meditation and he said, 2023. So I knew that in 2023. Something's going to happen. I didn't know how it's going to be, but I know so many things happened that my company had changed the way people retired. So I was able to take an early retirement and not leave all the money that I had made behind.
And, and now I am, you know, I, I fully, I had already started the body mind wisdom school for women, but I really never promoted. I never did anything. I was just giving people that I need, that I was coaching on a side, take this class, listen to this. take this meditation, that kind of stuff. And, uh, now I, I know I'm a full force, you know, getting my word out because it, this is not just about my work.
It's about getting the word out that women are amazing. Nothing happened without us. Nothing. Nothing happens. You could not be here if it wasn't for your mother. I couldn't be here if it wasn't for my mother. Right? So nothing happens without a women. And it's time for us to change the way we think because has been ingrained in us from generations and we can say always the man's fault is the man's fault.
But a lot of the things are coming from ourselves. I mean, My boss or my coworkers never sabotage me. I sabotage myself. So it's time for us to change that and get this word out that women, you can do more, you can be yourself. You don't have to adjust the way you lead to get what you are. There is a way, but there's two pieces that missing the confidence is one.
And the other one is the action, taking the steps because. By sitting and complaining and, you know, worrying and, and being complacent where you are, nothing's going to happen. So that, that is what I really, really want to do.
Laura Rotter
I have to agree, Ana, that I think so many women, it's not only women, but a lot of women really do suffer from imposter syndrome and, and holding ourselves back from taking risks.
And I'm not even really being clear what exactly the dream is that we want to take a risk towards. It's not, it's not always so obvious. You, on the other hand, do seem to be a woman who in 2020, you already knew that you wanted to go on your own. Is that correct? Is that what you?
Ana Barreto
Yes, yes, I, I always knew I wanted to do on my own and, and I actually, I tried in 2004, I was at my dream job in New York City, living the dream, taking the commute from Rye to New York City, walking a couple blocks and being to the office, you know, going for dinner later on, you know, that I had all that, but I was not Happy.
I wasn't happy and I had an opportunity to figure out what it is that I wanted to do and it wasn't too clear. I knew that I wanted to be on my own and and back then I had this idea that I was going to open a tea shop after seeing a tea shop because I'm a tea avid. I don't know if you see here, but I drink tea all day.
I love tea, love mixing tea and all the fun stuff. So I, um, yeah. One day I walk into my office and they decided, they decided just, they had sold my, uh, the company that I work for, but I, the unit, and I could go to Chicago or Boston, either to be the number one and one, number two, and the other. I had an agreement with my ex husband that I would not take the kids so many miles away.
So that was not an option. I said, okay, okay. So let me just take the summer off. And then I figured out what I wanted to do. They gave me a good package and I really didn't have to take the summer off because the next day an opportunity came about and I didn't, I couldn't really say no. So I become, I became a consultant overnight doing exactly what I did before, which I'm, you know, I, I love business and I was going in and for them to asking me to come in and kind of fix some of the hotels that I was going around.
Was amazing. I love it. And I was, I was traveling, which I love. And then if I was on traveling, it was home with my kids. So everything was done going fine until 2007. We have the crisis that nobody was hiring anybody. That's when I almost went bankrupt and I used all my, my, my credit cards and max out everything and almost lost my house.
And I was able to, you know, get out of that mess, you know, I sold my house. And then I went back to. Get another job back in the hotels. That was a wake up call for me because I had, when you were, when you do your master's degree and they talk about business, you've learned that a lot of business fails in the first, you know, first year, second year, and I was just looking around to see what's going on.
Cause I had moved what's going on in this town. Let me just see what's going on. And the business we're going out of business every, every other. So I I'm not sure if it was because of the economy or because the rents were too high and people, there was really didn't have enough movement to make the, to make the business profitable.
I learned that. I can think and I can ask for help. So a lot of the things that needed to happen, I wrote on the, on my, this last book was a, that came through a meditation anyway, some of the things to embrace success, because by all means, being a Brazilian who came here with, you know, 500, less than 500 and didn't speak good English, you know, finished You know, at, you know, at a long time, got a scholarship and did all that, I wasn't, I wasn't a failure.
I wasn't a failure. So, I didn't have anybody else to prove anymore. It was just about me. If I had opened a tea shop at the time that I wanted to, it would fail because I didn't have all the pieces and back then, I didn't know how to ask for help. I didn't know how to ask for a mentorship. I didn't know how to reach out to a stranger and say, what do you think about that?
Even though I had a mentor, it was a man, by the way, that, um, I could ask and bounce questions out of him and he would tell me, I, I didn't have the acumen and the confidence I did and the. The ambition and the desire and the full vision of my mission, because that's what drives, you know, I, yes, I, I'm on my own.
I come to the third floor of my, my house from my office. I could sleep into 10 o'clock if I wanted to, but at seven o'clock, I'm already in my office. Why my passion is the one that is driving. And back then in 2007, that wasn't clear. It wasn't really clear that I, I need to serve women because. There are so much more that they can do.
I don't have to do this together. If I help a bunch of them, they all will lift as well. And so that was pretty much it for me.
Laura Rotter
So when did you start your current business? And, and can you describe to our listeners who it is you work with and what it is that you do?
Ana Barreto
So I have six books. My main means of communication is through my books.
You know, I have the Women, Rice and Beans, Self Trust is about burnout. There is a higher power within, there is a meditation. The Nine Powers of Women, that is about women Understanding that what people think is weakness in women, it is also a power. It's a major form of strength. And so I have the, my first book in Portuguese and Spanish, and then my last book, The Embrace of Success.
So, with that, I created the School for Women, which is body, mind, and wisdom. I, I, I write for women, I, my materials for women, even though some of them can be translated to men. And I heard that over and over, but I'm, I'm following my passion. And in the class, in the school, I have classes, some free, some paid.
I also have meditations. Some meditations are free and others are also paid. I have audio classes. It's just to have the conversation for women so they can. Understand that they can do more. So I use the mindful approach, you know, I always, um, I have coach clients and that would start about their space because your space is either.
Supporting you or depleting one of the things that I'm offering women is this free class that they can have three morning actions that can bring their best self for no matter what, because some days we are happy. Some days we are not. Some days we had a fight with the kids that a fight with a spouse and you know, and that input impacts our emotions.
So if you do this three little things, yeah. Every day, you're going to be your best every day. Now, the majority of my meditations and talks are on insight timer because they have a broader reach and that's why usually a lot of my customers are coming from, they are business people, they are therapists, they are teachers, they are lawyers that, um, they want to, they want to find the mindfulness, the clarity for their career.
They always wanted to do something else, but what? they are not happy where they are. And I, I do help women find the clarity through my books or my meditation or through my coaching, because it's just. For many years, we have been thinking out of here, out of our heads, and we need to bring this down to our heart.
Women are not being foolish by just, you know, ignoring things. It's not that it's just, we are called now to live more on purpose. And even if you're not living on purpose. That means your work is supporting your purpose or mission. All these years that I worked for this great companies. I mean, I have nothing bad to say about the companies I work for.
I'm not one of those stories that said, Oh my God, my company was horrible. I had to leave and do this. I didn't have none of that. If we, if we reframe our mindset, we will know that this company is helping us to create what we want to. Another thing that is very important is a lot of women are time poor.
You know, I talk about timefulness, you know, which is the time management with a mindful spin. That's why I, I, I believe that in all leadership, in all this business and not everything, the mindfulness is the secret ingredient that's missing in everything that we do.
Laura Rotter
And I'm curious, Ana, how, what are the practices that you have integrated into your own life to keep you centered in your purpose?
Ana Barreto
I meditate every day. I, no matter what. So even if I didn't sleep well last night and, uh, I snooze my alarm two or three times. I will meditate, even if it has to do in the shower. But the three practices that I tell you that it's so important, not only for women, is the body mind code. It's, so it's science, by the way, because there's science behind where you meditate.
Before you start your meditation, you lean against something solid, like at the chair or your headboard, and, and you breathe, you take three deep breaths, and you say to yourself, I am safe, because the body will betray to you if you don't groom them in a way, then you, you, you sit, you feel your butt in a chair, and, uh, and you say to yourself, I am supported.
Because you need to feel supported because all the decisions, it builds your confidence, your hormones get improved. And the third one is your heart, where you focus on your heart. And you know, you say to yourself three times that you are infinite being. Why? Because you know that all the knowledge, everything that is available for you to make decisions, it's there.
It's not outside, it's inside. And by. Hopping in and to inside at that moment, you, I mean, you have access to incredible wisdom, incredible intuition, and you can follow. I say to everybody that meditation is just not a new thing, you know, has been in practice for ages and it's a new thing. And if for anything, you know, people think that they cannot meditate, but a meditation makes you quiet enough to hear and you're strong enough to act.
You can get a lot out of meditation, not only physical, but I think for women is more in their mindset, the way they feel, because we work a lot out of our right brain. And the meditation. Allows you to be congruent, you know, do what you really think feeling and doing are all one in the same.
Laura Rotter
Thank you. As a, as a meditator myself, I, it does make me more in touch with what it is that I truly want and just sort of a calmer core.
As we get to the end of our conversation, Ana, I do always like to explore with my guests how your definition of success and perhaps financial success may have shifted over these years. Yes, yes.
Ana Barreto
So, For me, financial success. I do have a number. Let me tell you that I have a number, uh, because I'm still support my mother.
So, and yes, yes. My mom is in a home in Brazil. She has the mansion and I am better off than most of my siblings. So I put the bigger part, the bigger part of the bill there. Happily, my mother was an incredible woman. I'm very, very grateful. And for me, success is that I am congruent, that what I'm thinking, what I want to do and what I, and the way I feel is aligned.
It's one purpose. The financial success, I do have a number and I know that that number is going to come. I, I no longer ignore money like I did. I, I know I didn't tell you that earlier, but, uh, There were, there were, there were, when I was going through crisis, I didn't open bills for months. And I remember when I moved, I found a check for over 5, 000 that I totally forgot about it.
You know, so I, and it's not that the money wasn't around. I made the money. I didn't pay attention to money. So my financial success is I do pay attention to money. I have the number and I see getting closer to that number. Over and over, even though it's scary that I walk away from a great job and benefits without having that particular number, but I know in my heart that because I am congruent and I'm following that higher power, that intuition that everything is going to work out and that I will be able to provide for myself so my children won't have to do for me what I am doing for my mother.
Laura Rotter
And I see how much family is important to you, both from how you needed to get away when you were in your formative years, but yet you clearly have, you know, still quite a close relationship and, and a, and a strong feeling of responsibility towards your family.
And I just want to reach that and that's clear. One of your values. Thank you so much for this conversation. Is there anything else you'd like to be sure that our listeners hear from you before we go? And I will, of course, include your free resources, the show notes.
Ana Barreto
No, thank you. So if they, if anyone wants to have a free conversation with me, they can go to my website and.
And find me and schedule, no questions asked if they want to, if they feel that we are not supposed to, if I can not improve the quality of their lives, but, uh, check me out because I do give a lot of freebies to women in particular that they can help them improve the quality of their lives.
Laura Rotter
Thank you so much, Anna. This was such a nice conversation.
I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Ana Barreto, founder of the Body, Mind and Wisdom School for Women, and some of my takeaways. Recognize the mission that is calling to you. Ana grew up in a very patriarchal society in Brazil. She shared that in her own family, Her mother did not make any decisions without her father, including the color of the curtains and what dress to wear to church on Sunday.
When Ana announced that she had been offered a well paid job at a hotel, she had to move out of her parents house in order to accept it because her father forbade her to work there. As a result of her upbringing, Ana felt called to work on gender equality and women's empowerment in the workplace. My second takeaway, okay.
Confidence is a skill you can learn. Ana was instrumental in starting a program at our company that identified women leaders for promotion. The program began by helping women build their confidence. Lack of confidence was often the number one thing getting in the way of them getting ahead. The program helped the women build their interpersonal skills since first impressions are so important and then their confidence to make big decisions.
My third takeaway, mindfulness is the secret ingredient missing in everything we do. Ana believes that mindfulness can help with time management, with leadership, basically with dealing with the many stressors in our lives. Scientific studies have shown that meditating just eight minutes a day can help us feel calmer and sense more congruence between our actions and our feelings.
And finally, Pay attention to your money. Ana shared that there was a time in her life when she ignored her money. She didn't open her bills for months. She even found a check for over 5, 000 that she had totally forgotten about. She recommends knowing your net worth. Which is the sum of your assets minus your liabilities and have a number in mind that you're working towards and know where your money is going.
If this has struck a chord with you, please don't hesitate to schedule a conversation with me. And if you're enjoying this podcast, please don't forget to subscribe so you won't miss next week's episode. And if you're enjoying the show, leaving a rating and review will help other people just like you to find it.
Thank you so much.
Narrator
Thanks for listening to making change with your money. Certified financial planner, Laura Rotter, specializes in helping people just like you, organized, clarify, and invest their money in order to support a life of purpose and meaning. Go to www. trueabundanceadvisors. com forward slash workbook For a free resource to help you on your journey.
Disclaimer, please remember that the information shared by this podcast does not constitute accounting, legal, tax, investment, or financial advice. It's for information purposes only. You should seek appropriate professional advice for your specific information.