Two letters. One syllable. Almost fifty years to figure out how to use it.

NO.

For most of my life, I’ve been the person who says yes. Yes, I’ll help. Yes, I’ll take care of it. Yes, of course I have time!

Spoiler alert: I didn’t always have the time.

From childhood expectations and questionable decisions to career ambitions, motherhood, and learning to let go of things I genuinely love, this episode is about my complicated relationship with a word I’ve spent most of my life avoiding.

And somewhere along the way, I discovered something unexpected: sometimes saying no isn’t about disappointing others. It’s about finally making room for yourself.

Am I an expert at saying no now? Hell no.

But I’m learning.

Welcome to Episode 18 of Unsolicited Advice from a Nobody. Real stories, questionable wisdom, and a little sarcasm along the way.

What happens when something you love doing quietly becomes a much bigger part of your life?

For me, it started long before Zumba. It started with a ten-year-old girl dancing alone in a dark living room, imagining a huge stage filled with people who somehow knew exactly the same choreography she did.

Years later, I walked into a Zumba class in the U.S., discovered Melissa, fought my way to the front row (as one does), and fell completely in love with it.

Then came years of classes, moving countries, having children, putting the idea of becoming an instructor aside, picking it back up at 45, surviving my first certification choreography disaster, teaching my first class, creating a slightly terrifying color-coded playlist spreadsheet, learning to actually listen to my students, and eventually finding a community I never really knew I was looking for.

This episode is about Zumba, yes. But it’s also about what can happen when something that simply makes you happy stays with you long enough.

And about discovering that maybe being a Nobody doesn’t mean you’re nobody to everyone.

Have you ever looked at your life and thought… wait, where the hell did I go?

I started writing this episode in the middle of the night in Corfu, surrounded by beautiful beaches, my children, friends and everything that should have made me happy — except I wasn’t.

Somewhere between moving countries, motherhood, family, responsibilities, aging, perimenopause (or, as I prefer to call her, peri meni) and simply living life, I realized I didn’t quite recognize the woman living mine anymore.

So this episode isn’t really advice. It’s personal. It’s messy. It’s about missing the woman I used to be, trying to understand the woman I am now, and realizing that maybe I don’t need to have all the answers yet.

For once, the Nobody doesn’t have the unsolicited advice.

Maybe you do.

What if rejection isn’t something to fear… but something to understand?

In this episode, I look back at the moments in my life that began with a simple “no.” A doll I never got as a little girl. Friends I thought didn’t want me around. Jobs I didn’t get. Relationships that didn’t work. Comments that shook my confidence.

For years, I saw these moments as setbacks. Looking back, I see something very different.

Every rejection quietly redirected me toward the person I was becoming.

This isn’t an episode about pretending rejection doesn’t hurt. It does. But perhaps our greatest opportunities begin with the doors that never opened.

Join me as I explore The Beautiful Art of Rejection and why, looking back, I honestly wouldn’t change a thing.

Do I believe in soulmates?

Not exactly.

In this deeply personal episode of Unsolicited Advice from a Nobody (UAFAN), I share my journey through first kisses, first love, heartbreak, betrayal, marriage, divorce, unforgettable dates, and everything in between.

This isn’t a list of relationships.

It’s a collection of lessons.

Looking back, I realized that every person who crossed my path taught me something different about love—and more importantly, something about myself.

Whether you’ve been happily married for decades, recently experienced heartbreak, or are still figuring out what love means, I hope this episode reminds you that our relationships shouldn’t only be measured by how long they last, but by how they shape us.

Because maybe…

The people we love don’t complete us.

They reveal us.

🎙️ New episode of Unsolicited Advice from a Nobody

Friendship means something different to everyone, but when I look back at my life, I realize I remember it through people more than anything else.

In this episode, I take you through the friendships that shaped different versions of me — from childhood memories in Ambato, Ecuador, to teenage years without social media, folded notes passed during class, the famous “Tontódromo,” modeling, moving to the United States, loneliness, cultural shifts, unforgettable nights, chosen family, and the people who quietly became part of my story.

This is not an episode about how many friends I’ve had.

It’s about the people who helped shape who I became.

The childhood friends.The crazy teenage friendships.The friends who opened my world.The ones I lost touch with.The ones I miss.The ones who stayed.And the ones who eventually became family.

Sometimes we don’t remember life by years.

We remember it through friendships.

Unsolicited Advice from a NobodyA podcast about life, identity, motherhood, reinvention, relationships, travel, chaos, growth, and the stories that quietly shape us.

This episode wasn’t planned. It was necessary.

In this deeply personal episode, I talk about the emotional cost of constantly trying to become “something” while balancing motherhood, ambition, dreams, responsibilities, creativity, exhaustion, and the invisible pressure to keep functioning no matter what.

Late at night, while everyone sleeps, I reflect on identity, self-doubt, childhood dreams, Zumba, art, motherhood, reinvention, and the quiet battle between the voice that pushes me forward… and the one that tells me I’m not enough.

This is not an episode about having life figured out.

It’s about learning that strength doesn’t cancel humanity.

Maybe some of us don’t need more motivation.

Maybe we just need permission to feel.

Topics:
Motherhood, identity, ambition, burnout, creativity, self-worth, emotional overwhelm, dreams, reinvention, middle-age, women’s emotional load, Zumba, art, personal growth, mental load, purpose, healing, vulnerability.

I’ve never told this story before.

Not to friends. Not publicly.

But today, someone used that moment against me… and I realized it was time to finally say it out loud.

This is the story of the night I went to jail.

Not the version people assume.Not the version that gets remembered.

But what it actually felt like… from the inside.

A normal Tuesday night.Two glasses of wine.
A moment that changed everything.

And what stayed with me after:– the fear– the shame– the women I met– and the realization that one moment can follow you for years… even when it doesn’t define you

If you’ve ever felt judged by one version of your story…this one might hit differently.