Strategic Transparency: Why This First-Gen Latina Solopreneur Is Sharing Her Business Roadmap
In a world built on hustle culture and extractive business models, crafting a strategic plan rooted in liberation, embodied leadership, and accessibility represents a revolutionary paradigm shift.
I recently completed a three-year strategic plan for my new coaching and organizational consulting practice, Thriving Human, LLC.
I'm sharing this plan openly as part of my commitment [and Manifestor strategy] to inform and connect—offering insights into my planning process while inviting dialogue and connection with others on similar journeys.
As well as, to show other first-gen Latines that we can do it, too. This space often feels inaccessible, and I want to change that.
Why This Feels Terrifying
As a first-generation Latina solopreneur, I've internalized societal messaging that:
Strategic plans are confidential business documents
Goals should be kept private (especially financial ones)
Admitting uncertainty compromises perceived competence
Transparency creates vulnerability which equals weakness in traditional leadership frameworks (and Latin culture).
The anxious voice says: What if people judge my numbers as too ambitious or not ambitious enough? What if I fail publicly? What if people appropriate my methodologies?
But the liberationist and embodied leader in me recognizes: Knowledge shouldn't be gatekept. Transparency disrupts power dynamics. Your process might help someone else feel less alone.
So here I am. Demonstrating praxis—the integration of theory and practice through reflection and action.
The Strategic Plan Was Born from Burnout
Let me provide context. Last July, I departed from my leadership position in the nonprofit sector. After 10+ years navigating organizational hierarchies, I experienced burnout—a state of chronic workplace stress characterized by exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced professional efficacy.
The sociologist in me recognized the anomie—that profound disconnection from self, purpose, and fulfillment caused by the commodification of labor and the exploitation of humanity within capitalist frameworks.
My sociology and organizational leadership background provided an intellectual understanding of these systemic patterns. But emotionally? I was experiencing profound disconnection.
It got dark.
I reached a pivotal moment: to withdraw from a world that felt soulfully overwhelming or to step forward and embrace the challenge of somehow driving meaningful change. I understand how daunting that choice can be.
Around almost every corner, there was doubt. From family, because how could I quit a job that provides the security of a '“living”? How could I develop something so nebulous that I'm struggling to explain?
Entrepreneurship isn’t straightforward. Innovation does not always make sense at first. It strained my partnership because this could negatively impact our finances. I've never known entrepreneurs. I'm a first-generation child of an immigrant single mom who grew up in poverty.
There has been so much unlearning—so much insecurity and fear. But goddamnit, I haven't worked this hard, learned, and studied my ass off to live by outside expectations, least of all the capitalist modern U.S. slave expectations.
Why I call it modern U.S. slavery
Consider how jobs are utilized here in the United States: severe income inequality, systemic racism, discrimination, and inequities are woven into the very fabric of our labor system. The minimum wage remains stagnant while corporate profits soar. We live paycheck to paycheck, indoctrinated to be labor machines, working until we retire [if we don’t die first]—our worth measured only by our productivity, our dreams crushed beneath the weight of a system designed to extract maximum value with minimal compensation.
Our very survival is held hostage by this system. Healthcare and basic benefits are ruthlessly tethered to employment, creating a profound lack of freedom. If you're lucky, you might scrape together two to four weeks of paid time off [for sick time and vacation] contingently approved, of course—a pittance compared to the endless hours we sacrifice.
And then there's the commute—a special kind of hell, especially in Los Angeles. With millions packed into this sprawling metropolis, an 8-hour shift becomes a 10+ hour ordeal when you factor in transportation. We're hemorrhaging our lives away in traffic, crawling through congested streets, stolen hours we'll never get back. [What in the actual fuck!!!] After this soul-crushing journey, we're left with barely 6 hours a day to live, dream, and exist— before we have to sleep, wake up, and do it all over again.
This capitalist, industrialized working world is not designed for humans. It is meticulously engineered to exploit workers for corporate profits, stripping away our humanity, our dignity, and our soul’s potential. The statistics are stark: wage labor inequity has reached unprecedented levels. We are not workers; we are commodities—bought, sold, and discarded when no longer deemed useful. This is not freedom. This is not opportunity. This is a carefully constructed illusion of choice, masked by the promise of security that keeps us chained to a system that does not serve us.
Needless to say, I chose transformation, and Thriving Human, LLC emerged—a coaching and consultancy practice dedicated to empowering first-generation professionals and underrepresented leaders to liberate themselves from limiting narratives and construct fulfilling lives through embodied leadership practices.
I'm a one-woman show with a big vision. My ‘Humans At Work’ initiative is an underdeveloped arm that will flourish over the next year—I hope. After all, I did pursue a Master's in Organizational Leadership—we can't let that be a giant waste of money. But, as you can tell, I am deeply passionate about this intersection. I want to help people. I need to help organizations become better places for humans. That is my mission.
What's Inside My First-Gen Latina Business Strategic Plan
This document delineates how we'll actualize this vision over the next three years (2025-2028). It encompasses:
Executive Summary & Organizational Foundation
The "why" behind Thriving Human's mission to redefine success through systems thinking
A brief look at my journey as a first-gen Latina leader navigating systems not designed for collective liberation
Our core values:
Liberation & Empowerment
Authenticity & Humanity
Growth & Adaptability
Joy & Fulfillment
Integrity & Ethical Leadership
Our Approach & Philosophy
Organizational commitments to operationalizing business differently
Anti-capitalist values and economic justice principles—challenging traditional profit-centered models that extractively prioritize shareholders over stakeholders
How we center first-gen professionals and underrepresented leaders through intentional design
Strategic Roadmap
Five key strategic priorities guiding our growth through 2028
Our theory of change rooted in liberation work and sociological understanding—the causal mechanisms we believe will create transformation
Key performance indicators (KPIs)—measurable values that demonstrate effectiveness in achieving objectives
Tangible milestones for each phase of developmental implementation
Core Offerings
Coaching for personalized transformation through co-active methodology
Community spaces for collective wisdom generation and growth
Humans At Work organizational consulting for systemic change—utilizing appreciative inquiry, human-centered design principles, and DEIB frameworks
Market products to support sustainable success through embodied practice
Unlike traditional business plans fixated solely on profit maximization and shareholder value, this strategy integrates accessibility, economic justice, and sustainable growth within a stakeholder reciprocal model. It acknowledges that first-gen professionals and leaders from marginalized communities require different support systems that honor their intersectional experiences.
The Methodological Approach: Embodied Leadership
At the heart of this strategic plan lies the concept of embodied leadership—the practice of leading from a place of somatic awareness, authentically integrating mind, body, and purpose. This approach recognizes that effective leadership isn't just about intellectual understanding but about bringing our full humanity to our work.
The Journey of Embodiment: From Theory to Practice
My path to embodied leadership wasn't straightforward. For years, I existed primarily in my head—analyzing systems, understanding theories, and intellectualizing the problems I witnessed in organizations. My academic training reinforced this cerebral approach. I could articulate the issues brilliantly, but something was missing. The disconnect between what I knew and how I lived grew wider.
The breaking point came during what should have been a celebrated milestone in my career. I had just been promoted to a leadership position I'd worked toward for years, but instead of feeling fulfilled, I felt hollow. My body told me what my mind refused to acknowledge: I was living someone else's definition of success.
The physical symptoms couldn't be ignored—chronic tension, disrupted sleep, skin issues, a constant sense of being on edge. My body was speaking a language I hadn't been taught to understand.
This is where my exploration of somatic practices began—not as a wellness hobby but as a survival mechanism. Learning to reconnect with my body's wisdom became the foundation for a new way of leading and being.
The transformation wasn't overnight. It involved unlearning decades of conditioning that told me my worth was tied to productivity, that my mind should overrule my body's signals, and that vulnerability was weakness.
Embodied leadership became my practice ground for integration—bringing together the sociological understanding of systems with the lived experience in my body. I learned that authentic leadership emerges from this integration, from showing up fully human in spaces designed to fragment us.
The Implementation Challenge: Manifestor in Motion
As a manifestor in Human Design (solar plexus, 2-4 hermit/opportunist), I've discovered that my operational strategy is to inform rather than seek permission. This has been profoundly validating after years of feeling like something was wrong with how I moved through professional spaces.
Yes, I'm an introvert by nature, but my drive to help people and change the world has always pushed me to connect despite the energy required. The challenge isn't that I don't want to collaborate—it's finding the right rhythm of connection that honors both my vision and my energy patterns.
Learning about my Human Design has provided crucial context for understanding my professional journey. What I once viewed as personal drawbacks—job-hopping, quickly outgrowing roles, becoming restless in positions—I now recognize as my manifestor energy seeking expression.
As a millennial who entered the workforce during economic uncertainty, I was told job-hopping was unprofessional and demonstrated a lack of commitment. But those transitions were how I grew into leadership. I mastered roles quickly, became bored easily, and constantly sought new challenges where I could have greater impact. My pattern wasn't a flaw—it was my way of following energy and initiating change.
This manifestor 2/4 profile explains so much about how I navigate spaces. I'm designed to initiate projects, to see possibilities others don't yet recognize, and to create waves of transformation. I'm not meant to maintain systems—I'm here to disrupt them, improve them, and then move on to the next challenge that calls me.
The hardest part has been finding kindred spirits on similar journeys and building a supportive community. One person in my extended network started her therapy practice focused on imposter syndrome—work that beautifully complements my own. But even with this connection, our paths rarely cross, and the potential collaboration remains mostly aspirational rather than practical.
This work can be profoundly lonely. When you're intentionally creating something that challenges existing paradigms, finding others who understand both the vision and the struggle is rare. This Substack represents my intentional effort to bridge that gap—to create a space where connections might form organically around shared values and visions, where fellow first-gen professionals building liberation-centered work can find each other. I'm actively seeking people to collaborate and grow with, believing that while our individual efforts are powerful, our collective impact could be transformative.
Creating Waves While Honoring Rhythms
The complexity of being a change-maker with hermit tendencies requires intentional practice. I'm learning to structure my work in ways that maximize my impact while honoring my need for deep reflection and restoration.
I've discovered that my introversion isn't a barrier but a source of strength—it gives me the capacity for deep listening, pattern recognition, and transformative thinking that fuels this work. The quiet contemplation allows me to develop frameworks and methodologies that others can then implement and expand upon.
Rather than forcing myself into networking models designed for extroverts, I'm creating connection points aligned with my energy—this Substack, strategic collaborations, and focused community-building that feels purposeful rather than depleting.
I'm designing my business to reflect this understanding—creating offerings that leverage my ability to initiate change and empower others to carry it forward. My coaching practice allows for the deep one-on-one connections that energize rather than drain me, while my organizational consulting work channels my vision for systemic transformation.
The strategic plan itself emerged during one of my hermit phases—three weeks dedicated to visioning and integration. What crystallized was far more aligned and powerful than anything I could have created in fragmented pieces between meetings and social obligations.
Breaking Generational Patterns Through Entrepreneurship
Growing up as the daughter of an immigrant single mother, entrepreneurship wasn't presented as an option. The message was clear: secure employment is the goal; stability trumps fulfillment; risk is a privilege we can't afford.
When I left my leadership position to start Thriving Human, the weight of generations of economic insecurity sat heavily on my shoulders. The voices of doubt weren't just internal—they were ancestral, asking: "Who do you think you are to choose purpose over paycheck?" I think about my late grandfather, the most hard-working man I've ever known, who worked for dimes an hour. His spirit lives within me, his work ethic embedded in my DNA.
Yet my education at Berkeley and deeper learning about my Mexican roots have transformed how I understand his experience—what I once saw only as admirable sacrifice, I now recognize as exploitation. It's fucked up when you think about it: generations of my family breaking their bodies in underpaid labor, their worth reduced to their productivity, their humanity secondary to what they could produce. The system my grandfather worked within wasn't designed for his thriving—it was designed to extract maximum value while providing minimal compensation.
Breaking this cycle feels both terrifying and necessary.
Yet the same first-gen experience that breeds caution also fuels determination. The resilience required to navigate systems not designed for us becomes the foundation for creating new ones. The ability to code-switch becomes a strength in bridging different worlds and perspectives.
I'm discovering that my lived experience as a first-gen Latina provides exactly the perspective needed to reimagine how organizations can function. My intimate understanding of systemic barriers informs how I design solutions. My experience of marginalization fuels my commitment to creating truly inclusive spaces.
This journey isn't just about building a successful business—it's about breaking generational patterns of limited possibility. It's about showing other first-gen professionals that we can define success on our own terms and that our cultural wealth and unique perspectives are assets rather than obstacles.
Building this practice feels like creating an alternate reality—one where prosperity doesn't require exploitation, where leadership doesn't demand disconnection from self, where success is measured by impact and fulfillment rather than extraction and accumulation.
I'm a Virgo/Pisces/Capricorn—an intricate blend that both helps and challenges me in this work. My Virgo meticulousness always wants every detail to be perfect; my Pisces heart feels every struggle and triumph of the communities I serve with sometimes overwhelming intensity; my Capricorn determination keeps me climbing even when the summit seems impossible.
Some days, this combination is magical—my empathetic Pisces nature allows me to deeply connect with others' experiences, while my Capricorn resilience helps transform that emotional understanding into practical, structured support. Other days, it's a battleground—the inner critic is deafening, my emotional boundaries dissolve as I absorb others' pain, and my stubborn persistence keeps me working well past healthy limits.
What I'm learning to embrace is that this complexity isn't a contradiction—it's precisely what makes my approach unique. My emotional sensitivity isn't separate from my strategic thinking; they inform each other. My ability to both dream expansively and build methodically is not a divided self but an integrated one. Some days I navigate the messiness of creation better than others. Still, I’ve reached the point where continuing in systems that diminish any aspect of my humanity is no longer an option.
Onward with risk, dreaming, determined persistence, and creating a better world—bringing my whole self to this work, contradictions and all.
From Ripple to Wave: The Power of Shared Vision
Every transformation begins with a single act— a choice to move against prevailing currents, to disrupt patterns that seem permanent, and to believe that different is possible.
What starts as personal liberation gains momentum through connection, as individual ripples combine into waves of collective change.
This is why I'm sharing my strategic plan publicly—not just as a business document but as an invitation to co-create. By opening my process to dialogue, I'm hoping to connect with others who see similar possibilities for reimagining work, leadership, and organizational culture.
This approach embodies the reflexive methodology I believe in—continuously examining my position, assumptions, and impact through engagement with diverse perspectives. No plan is ever complete; it evolves through implementation, iteration, and collective wisdom.
While this entrepreneurial journey involves significant personal risk, it also generates unprecedented fulfillment. Each challenge becomes an opportunity for growth—each barrier an invitation to innovate. In this iteration of my professional life, I'm building structures aligned with my authentic values rather than contorting myself to fit existing ones.
Join Me on This Journey
This strategic plan represents not just a business roadmap but a declaration of possibility—a statement that different ways of working, leading, and creating value are not just theoretical but implementable.
Does any of this resonate with you? Are you:
A first-gen professional trying to reconcile family expectations with personal fulfillment?
A leader questioning whether organizations must replicate systems of extraction and burnout?
A fellow solopreneur seeking to build a practice aligned with liberatory values?
Someone curious about what embodied leadership might look like in practice?
I created Thriving Human because I couldn't find the resources I needed as a first-gen professional navigating these questions. Now I'm building the support system I wish had existed when I was struggling to reconcile my cultural background, professional ambitions, and deepest values.
Let's Connect and Co-Create
This work isn't meant to happen in isolation. My hermit tendencies notwithstanding, I believe deeply in the power of community knowledge and collective wisdom.
I'd love to hear from you if something in this post sparked recognition, curiosity, or even healthy skepticism—your perspective matters. Your questions might unlock insights for yourself and others on similar journeys.
Here's how we can continue this conversation:
Download the complete strategic plan and engage with its frameworks
Share your own experiences navigating these tensions
Pose questions that might deepen our collective understanding
Connect directly for collaborative exploration
Over the coming weeks, I'll be unpacking different elements of this strategic plan on Substack—examining our theory of change, exploring embodied leadership practices, and detailing how anti-capitalist values can be operationalized in business structures. Subscribe to join this ongoing dialogue.
To Embody the Pebble
Every great movement begins with a single stone—
a pebble dropped into the still waters of possibility.
Its ripples are not just waves
but vibrations of potential
spreading outward with invisible power
transforming the entire surface of what seems unchangeable.
In that moment of impact
energy radiates beyond the point of origin
touching distant shores with a whisper of transformation
that grows stronger with each expanding ring.Remember: Your worth is not measured by your productivity, your output does not determine your value, and your humanity is not contingent on your usefulness to systems of extraction. You were born to thrive, not merely survive.