An Immigrant's Tale of Perseverance and Building Generational Wealth w/ Maria Rodriguez

Write down everything that you suck at and then better those things and learn some skills. I admire people that have overcome everything despite the fact that they had all this stuff happen to them. Like we're still here and I'm going to show up and you say you're going to do it and you do it. I am going to be the first billionaire in my family, my kids are going to be billionaires and my grandkids are going to be trillionaires. We're going to look back and they're going to have a beautiful portrait of me and say that woman has a story.

The journey to wealth is a long walk and some may walk quicker than others, but what good is sprinting to the finish line if you pass out when you cross it? On Walk to Wealth, we enlighten and empower young adults to build wealthy, abundant lives. They say the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step and your first step starts right now. This is Walk to Wealth with your host, John Mendez hey everyone, welcome back to the Walk to Wealth podcast.

If you're tuning in on YouTube or any of the podcast directories, make sure to do yourself one teeny, tiny little favor and make sure to give us a follow, because I don't want you to miss out on any of the amazing guests I got coming on this year. Without further ado, let's get right into this one, maria, for anyone who hasn't had the opportunity, the pleasure to get to know you, to get to meet you yet, tell us your elevator pitch. Who are you and what do you do?

Well, have you ever had such a great business idea and you get so motivated and so riled up but when you realize all the work that it takes, you just kind of lose that motivation because it's extremely overwhelming. I have, and it's extremely disappointing to know that you have such a great idea and you just cannot take action. I coach people how to take action and have mental toughness so that they can achieve the life that they always wanted.

Amazing Maria, before you got into doing what you're doing now and all the investing in the businesses and everything. Take us back in the time machine. What was little Maria like growing up? I know you have quite the story. Take us all the way back in time.

All the way back Mexico. All the way back, okay, so my earliest memory was in Mexico City and we were very poor. I remember my feet used to hurt and I just didn't understand. I was like my feet hurt. I told my mom and she took me to buy some shoes and I remember walking around and new shoes and it was almost really exciting when you buy yourself something new. I was just very excited but I didn't really get that as often I remember. Later on I complained again. My shoes hurt and so my mom was like you're going to have to wait because I don't have money. She told me in Spanish no tengo dinero, te las nicas. But my feet hurt. For the longest time the concept of money was always like what do you mean? You don't have money. I need shoes. I don't care, I'm a kid. That early on idea of I don't have money was very perplexing to me. I started seeing the world differently. What else are we missing that we don't have money for? Providing? Now the life that my kids have now it's an abundance, because coming from Mexico and then moving to America in America is very different. People don't understand. It's a whole different world, like for Mexicans that live there. It's like. It's like the promised land for Christians, like the streets are made of gold and you know there's abundance. And you're like in Mexico, like dude, we didn't have food, we didn't have a refrigerator First of all, like that was not a thing and we didn't have running hot water, and like abundance. You just turn on the shower and like let it run. And in Mexico it's funny because you turn on the water and it runs for five minutes with high pressure. After that, good luck. Like it just it's not as as as I hear, like it's just so different and I remember like experiencing that in the back of my day and then here in America, it's just like the biggest difference, that a lot of times I just look back and I'm like I'm just so grateful to have central air, I'm like I am grateful to have a car, like I think that that's also why they say you know, gratitude is like the highest vibration. But when you really come from dirt like it's, it's just gratitude like. And I think that that's one of the reasons why I've been successful in a lot of the things that I do, if not all of them right, because I mean I fail like any other person, but I learn and but I think that my gratitude is like you know. I look at, I mean it. You look outside right now and it's like a beautiful day. There's no one, like you know, shooting people off. I'm not getting kidnapped, like I'm safe, I'm just grateful.

Yeah, no, that's amazing. It's one of the things to our realized. Like I Don't take up, I can't believe that, I don't believe that you could understand life unless you've been outside the country. Like, if all you know, like these 50 states, right, you don't really know the world. Like you don't really know what people got going on, like a lot of people complain and something I jokingly say, but also be low key, dead serious about that. Hey, you got first world problems like yeah. Like a lot of people got first world problems like, oh my goodness, like I don't know what to wear, bro, shut up, bro you have. Closet, walking closet. And I don't know how about to wear. It's like a lot of the things that people deal with. People don't really know struggle, you know understand. So they're kind of take us back a little bit to Mexico. So what age? Because you said you remember being really young and walking and your feet hurting. At what age Did you make the transition from Mexico to living in the States?

I believe it was 1999, if not year 2000 and and we moved when my dad went to pick me up, right, and it was just my dad, he lived here in the States and he was. He was always bringing us back like toys and stuff. And I remember this one time he didn't bring us anything and I was pretty upset. I was like where's my toy? And he was like I got something better. Like you know, you're gonna come with me when when I leave. And I didn't understand the concept of him living in another area. I just thought he went out, like he was out the door and that was it. And I remember that when I was leaving my mom was like you're gonna go visit your grandma. And I clearly remember picking up some flowers for her and and taking them in my pocket, thinking like I'm just gonna go across the street right, like I want to go see my grandma. And I remember like getting on a bus and like getting on a really long road trip and I was like we know you're gonna get there. I was antsy and my dad like he was cool. But then when we got to, like we started walking to this park and I was like, oh, we're gonna go play. And then we get to a river and I was like like what the hell's going on? And so he starts like it was him and my uncle and they start blowing up like this like thing, like this pool, bad, like mattress thing, and I they were like get on. Now it's like no, like I've never been in a body of water. And so I'm freaking out right and I can clearly remember like me just shaking and being very nervous and getting into this like real nasty, muddy, murky, green water and Like obviously I have to take your shoes off because your weight, your clothes wet, like it weighs you down. And so I'm sitting there with my feet across this like pool thing it's like a mattress and and and I'm shaking cuz like there's wind and I'm scared and like it's cold and my body's like trembling, but I'm trying not to tip over the like the pool thing. You and I'm just like oh my God, like if I fall into this water, I don't know how to swim right, and my dad goes under the water and I don't see his head and I'm like, oh my God, like I'm scared, I'm terrified, and I remember my mom used to pray a lot Like she would get on her knees very traditional woman and she would pray and in that woman I just remember like praying, like I started praying to God, I was like, oh my God, like you know, I hope you can hear me, I hope you can hear me, god, help me, please. Like I don't know what I'm going to do with my dad. I'm very scared, like I was freaking out and then he comes out and he starts like going across the river and I see, you know, we're like on the other side and it was like walking up this muddy hill and the feeling of that mud under my feet in the water, it's like it just it's unforgettable. I have the lasso phobia because of that. Like I cannot get in dark waters because of that.

Really, that's insane. Like this story, like it's something that I was talking to someone the other day. And so my grandpa, my grandpa, my dad he immigrated here by unconventional methods a while ago, right? We don't know if the feds are tapped in, right?

Unconventional methods right and so it wasn't my. I didn't try to come here. They brought me Okay, and so um my dad.

He came in um, I believe I'm not mistaken in sixth grade and I never asked for his story until, like someone brought it up literally like a couple weeks ago, because for me I don't like, you know, bringing up stuff that's underneath the rug, like if it's not, like out of nowhere, right, and so it's like I never really thought that like for me, my dad, we chop it up Now he was absent most of my life, but like we chop it up now we're boys, now I still I don't look at him as my dad, I just call him my dad, just because like it's easier, like I'm not going to call him by his government name, like dad is one syllable, but it's not like I see him as a bro yeah it's good, bro, and um, and so it's like for me, we just chop it up about business. Now he has a landscaping company, he's doing well for himself and, like we're talking about like um, you know, end of the year, taxes come around, and so, like we're talking about like some tax stuff and um, but that's normally what we talk about when we chop it up now, but, uh, I never, ever asked them for like his story of how we got here, because he got here, as I said, when he was in sixth grade and, uh, he came by himself, like, if I'm not mistaken, and so that's pretty much about it. So, thank you for sharing your story. I really do. Of course, I appreciate that, cause it's like it's something that doesn't really get talked about much like at all. There's not much awareness. Oh, you know, like people come here but like people don't know how bad and it really gets in, how many lives don't make it across.

Yeah, you know, one thing that I've I've seen um with the people that I meet now and I asked him, like you know cause I? Uh, one thing that I've been doing this year is sponsoring some families that come from other countries and they live, you know, and I get to know them and stuff and I help them and it's just like their stories. I mean, I know people that have crossed like the forest and from coming from Venezuela, from Honduras. It's scary, it definitely claims lives and people don't understand that when they say immigrants make the backbone of this country, like they kind of do they kind of do? any job, like they will pick up any job. Even you know people from all over the country, like all over the world Asia, india shout out to all my homies.

Yeah, like for me it's like we're called the melting pot for a reason Like yeah we're literally a bunch of cultures intertwined into one, like it wouldn't be what it is without all the intercom mingling of all these different people from all these different places and all their unique perspectives all coming together for, for the most part, one main common goal a better life, right, and so it's like it's kind of progressed with the story, right. So you ended up making it successfully, of course, because you're here today, right, you made it across.

Yeah, we made it.

We made it across in one piece, right. So from there, what was the transition like in new countries? I'm assuming you spoke only Spanish prior to like coming, so it's like what was that transition like? Getting acclimated to the States?

Well, coming to like a whole new country. It's like it's a whole game changer. Like John, I'm sure that a lot of people talk about like coming to another country and learning the language. You know yidiata and the success story, but they don't understand that when, like they put in simple terms, when I was in elementary I did not know the language at all, like the language was like Spanish and Spanish was it. In my household. We were not allowed to speak any English and I remember, like we're not allowed to cut our hair, we were not allowed to like dye, we were not allowed to like we're nail polish. It was very traditional old school, mexican Christian parents and I had to wear Sunday's best to school. So I stood out like a sore thumb and actually I just published a collaborative book and in the collaborative book I talk about how that impacted like my childhood, because it was like I cannot. I cannot blend in with these kids and I was bullied for that because it was like you, you don't look like the rest of us and you don't speak the same language and so when you don't speak the same language, they look at you funny, they call you names. You don't understand what they're saying it kind of pushed you aside because you're like you're the weird kid right, and so growing up with that kind of culture it's very hard and it's it's very detrimental to a child when they push them aside and even the teachers like they'll put you in a separate class because you don't speak the language. And so overcoming that barrier and feeling like inclusiveness with your community is like I think it's a big part and so I you know very glad that. I learned the language because if I didn't, I would I would definitely not have all these opportunities that I have.

So at what age did you learn? How long did it take for you to learn English, at least?

learn it enough to talk in school. It's funny enough because kids pick up the language a lot quicker than adults. Adults have, like this preconceived notion that it's like, it's like. It's basically like okay, I'm stuck in my ways, this is how it is, that's all there is. And kids like me, I picked it up like in the first grade. And like in the first grade I was like, okay, I get it. But then I think it was like the third grade that I really started to understand it and get fluent conversations and connect with my peers and I wasn't like ask, and then again I did stop wearing the long skirts. So I think that might have helped a lot.

That definitely probably helped you a ton in going to school. It's like man, like it's crazy, like how kids, like good kids, are at bullying and they'll isolate you very quickly. Kids have no heart at all whatsoever.

No, kids are ruthless. They don't care about anyone but themselves, and I've learned that. You know what. That's funny. Out of all the bullies that I had in school, most of them like add me on Facebook. They're like hey, what's up? I'm sorry for bullying you, I'm like really. Like on my Facebook. They're like. They're like hey, you know, like I remember you, I'm so sorry for being mean to you and I'm like you know it's a therapy for that, right, Like, I'm sorry, bully, you were a little you were just an ugly kid Like thanks, that makes it feel any better right that makes it feel so much better.

Dang, I'm a grown woman now so fast forward a bit right, you got acclimates to the country, right? You went through school here. Let me ask you like, because now you're in entrepreneurship? You just said you published a collaborative book. You, as I said, you had your cleaning company. You're coaching now like you're doing a lot, you're running your family like a boss, like what was like overcoming your mindset, growing up in a very traditional household, to getting into entrepreneurship Entrepreneurship, as you know, isn't? You know, I'm also Dominican and Guatemalan. Right, I'm Spanish too. That isn't preached as much, Just like get your degree and find a good job and you know and work and eventually like my grandfather. He said, like I always joke around him, like still to this day like I go to work as a donkey.

I used to work as a donkey to live as a gringo, or whatever.

A king. I used to say, and so like when I used to work at the restaurant, for anyone who doesn't speak Spanish, like I'm about to work like a donkey pretty much, and so every time before I used to go to my restaurant job to go clock in, I was like I look at him and joke. They say I'm going to go work like a donkey and because at the restaurant I'm food running, it's two floors, it's like right and doesn't one doesn't know. It's like two full flights of stairs. It's not like you know five steps, it's two completely flights of stairs that I have to run with trays of food, with, and when they got busy, I'm just flying around for like sometimes seven, eight hours straight, and so it's like that's all my grandparents knew, though. It's just like working till you die, type of thing, like that's the mentality. It's not about working smarter to try and get ahead, and just you show up, you do your job, that's it. You get paid and you keep on doing that.

You stay in your lay, you be quiet. You don't ask the questions.

Yeah, and so you literally can't anymore and you just tip over. So it's like, what was it like to fast forward a little bit with the upbringing that you had getting into entrepreneurship, and at what stage of life did that happen?

You know it's a good really it's a really good question. And then the fact that you understand that it's like it's even more remarkable job, because I feel like you know, we all know this like, okay, you're Latino, you're an immigrant, like I'm bringing my kids here for a better life, and the better life for them is like they get a job, they get as many jobs as they can, they work and then they send their kids to school because it's free in Mexico it's not free and then when they go to school, they graduate, they get their diploma, they go to college, they get in debt. If they don't get in debt, they apply for FAFSA. And if they apply for FAFSA, they can get like small little loans from the community. But it's not like a big, huge grant. Like when I was like in high school I wanted to be a nurse, I wanted to go live in Maryland and go to like the university and have like a university life, and then I went to the counselor and she was like I don't think that's going to work for you. You're an immigrant, your mom doesn't have a stable income, you don't have the requirements that they're going to need for FAFSA. Like you're just not going to make it that far and her nursing is very expensive. And so she put that like she took the blindfold off and I was like well, if I can't go to college or anything like that, then what am I doing in school? And I remember like my mom was like go to school, staying high school, and I dropped out of high school. I was like, girl, you don't understand, all I'm going to do is waste my time. And that's when I think that the time management came into my mind. Like the concept of time management was like okay, if I'm sitting here, then what is the point of actually getting a diploma if I cannot go to college, like I wanted to? And so I started working. And I remember working and getting into, like actually, restaurants, like you said like oh my God, that was. I remember working at a restaurant was very interesting. And she was like no, you need to go to school. So when I was in the restaurant industry, I learned that the owner had a better life than me and a better car. And I was like how did you get a restaurant? Like I want to get a restaurant too. And so he would always tell me like you know, I'm not going to go to college.