Collective Awakening: Queen Mindset Leadership 👑 in Service of Community

“A change of direction can happen only when there is a collective awakening.”
— Thich Nhat Hanh

In part 4 of this blog series, I’m taking you on a journey through the pivotal shift that turned Queen Mindset Leadership 👑 from a personal development approach into a path toward collective awakening.

But first, let me take you back a few steps to show how my own connection to community evolved — a necessary journey that ultimately reshaped Queen Mindset Leadership 👑 for the community.

[In case you missed it: Catch up on part 1, part 2 , and part 3 of this blog series on Queen Mindset Leadership 👑.]

My Evolution of Community 

When I moved to Dallas in 2015, I was fresh from a year of soul-crushing unemployment following my first post-doctorate job. I was more than ready for a vibrant, new community.

Although I had friendships all over the country, I still struggled with a sense of loneliness, something that haunted me from when I first left for college at 17.

I craved the best friendships I grew up seeing on TV and in movies, but thought I'd missed the boat on life-long friendships since my immigration experience meant I didn't have friends I'd known my whole life.

Back then, though, I didn’t know how to anchor a community around clear values, so I focused on practical criteria: finding women around my age, also new to the city, who wanted to explore and have fun.

However, my sense of community shifted when I began working for Deloitte, where my job required me to travel 80% of the time with little choice in the matter.

My weekends became a scramble of errands and catch-up sessions with my current friends, leaving me feeling increasingly disconnected — not just from my city and friends but from myself.

I didn't meet many Latinas at work, nor did I have time to make new friends, so I kept friendships out of the fear of being alone instead of because of deep values alignment. I didn't even know what my values were.

The Pandemic’s Revelation of Values 

My understanding of community transformed even more profoundly during the pandemic.

My biggest fear wasn’t contracting COVID-19; it was unknowingly passing it on to someone vulnerable.

So, I followed quarantine rules closely, but as the isolation dragged on, I came face-to-face with some harsh truths about my friends and how we differed in our values on the well-being of the collective.

I also noticed how little we had in common besides the activities we shared together. My friends didn’t understand the layers of my identity: the language, the diversity of my Afro-Latina roots, the complexities of being an immigrant, and the reasoning behind my opting out of patriarchal traditions.

It felt like I was living in an abyss, holding back parts of myself that didn’t fit easily into my existing friendships, keeping my voice quiet so as to not be disruptive.

As my healing elevated and my spirituality deepened in the pandemic, for the first time, I fantasized about what it was like to have a sisterhood of women who centered enlightenment too.

Building Community for the First Time

As I started speaking publicly on Queen Mindset Leadership 👑, I began building relationships in the community with mujeres who taught me what it meant to create in service of their communities.

I began learning how to build friendships at this big age of my 30s, and through much trial and error, began refining my own sense of Self as well as who I desired around me in order to thrive.

I began incorporating social wellness as a core concept of Queen Mindset Leadership 👑, in particular, how intentionally auditing and rebuilding an inner circle contributed to leadership success.

One particular speech brought this home for me. It was my largest paid speaking engagement, and the audience consisted of mental health providers and leaders serving BIPOC populations in mountain towns.

My task? To show them how embodying visionary leadership could end burnout and foster equity within communities. I presented a simple but profound thesis: If we want to imagine a future without burnout, we must examine ourselves and how our traumas and healing ripple into the communities we serve.

For the first time, I saw that Queen Mindset Leadership 👑 could be a beacon for others, guiding them to examine not only their own growth but also the impact of their actions (or inaction) on others.

In this moment, I dared to redefine leadership as a paradigm of healing where the focus on the Self was indeed reflective of creating a more consciousness relationship with and to the community at large.

Adding a Decolonizing Flavor to It

I had heard the word Decolonization long before I knew what it actually meant. As I continued to explore healing practices like reiki, meditation, and retreats in community with other mujeres, I started growing in my audacity to incorporate Indigenous concepts like living in accordance with Nature into my talks.

Decolonization highlighted how so many of us carry internalized beliefs rooted in colonial systems — beliefs that tell us to achieve at all costs, to separate ourselves from our roots, to prioritize productivity over people.

I knew now that Queen Mindset Leadership 👑 needed to go beyond the Self and become a tool for collective liberation. It was time to show leaders how to invest in themselves in a way that allowed for a deeper reconnection with their communities and cultural heritage — as a way of leading.

To further explore this collective model, I began hosting group facilitations outside of corporate gigs.

My inaugural event was “Jefas Healing Juntas,” which I co-hosted with Vanessa Luna from DFW Latina Society. It was a space for ambitious mujeres of color—the description I'd created to bridge the gap between Black and Brown mujeres—to connect deeply with themselves in community.

I had just met Vanessa the prior year as I started rebuilding my Latina community for the first time, and less than a year later, we were working on our second event. The way that we used our respective brilliance and communities to create this experience spoke to the power of centering collaboration over competition.

The event was a hit, and the sense of healing and unity was palpable. It helped me see that Queen Mindset Leadership 👑 could be applied to a group setting with amazing results.

The Collective Expands Our Leadership

In psychology, we talk about how others serve as mirrors, reflecting our strengths, wounds, and growth edges back to us. When approached with intention and safety, our relationships with others become opportunities to refine and rediscover who we are, as humans and as leaders

If we want to cultivate coexistence, we must lean into curiosity—acknowledging that others see life through different lenses shaped by their unique experiences. These differences are invitations to learn, not to judge.

When you’ve taken the time to define your purpose, values, and desires for community, you’re one step closer to creating a sisterhood that mirrors back not just the best in you but also the parts you’re still discovering. Lifelong sisterhood is possible—even if you’re just beginning in your 30s or 40s!

Take a look at this free guide here to get started on refining your values for community. 

Up Next: In the next installment, I’ll share how I drew on community, AI, and my own practices to build the confidence to create something entirely new. This journey of self-discovery and community leadership has been transformative, and I’m thrilled to have you alongside me.