There’s many new (over 450!) and old faces here, so I figured now would be a good time to officially introduce myself.

My name is Kaina, and I’ve always known I’ve wanted a big life.

I’ve been hustling for as long as I can remember in the pursuit of that vision. It’s led me to be the first in my family to go to college, getting more than $250,000 in scholarships to go to a private university 1,500 miles away from my hometown of Miami, Florida. It motivated me to work three jobs and start businesses in order to make something of myself in an environment that was very far from what I grew up in.

It started paying off when I began to receive opportunities at some of the biggest companies in the world and it all culminated in me getting a full-time job opportunity that changed the trajectory of my life forever.

Creating something out of nothing. That’s been the theme of my life so far. Finding the side door, figuring out how to make something happen even though I didn’t have any idea where to even begin. Just a faith in a vision that has been guiding my steps for as long as I can remember.

A big life.

The definition of what that means has morphed and shifted over the years. For a long time, I thought it was money. Lots of it. I’m a Taurus so I love the finer things in life and I spend accordingly. This led me to optimize everything for money and define my success by how much I was making. I love my life, and every day I am in awe of what I’ve built with no roadmap, no connections, and no safety net. But over the years, it just continued to feel….off. I had a desire for something more I couldn’t quite articulate. I aspired to this life for so long, and once I got there, I kept returning to the same question.

Was this it?

I journaled and went to therapy and racked my brain trying to figure out what the feeling was. I had everything I thought I wanted, why did I feel like this? Did I need to work on my capacity for gratitude? Had I slipped back into a depression and not realized it? I moved teams and roles and cities thinking it was just a mismatch in the work I was doing.

I felt like even thinking that maybe this life wasn’t what I wanted, what I thought it would be, would be like turning my back on the 19 year old me who was working three jobs and sleeping four hours a day to make this happen. Who was I to give up what so many were trying to attain? Who was I to turn my back on what could only be described as the epitome of success for an immigrant household? Stability. Security. Money. Prestige.

After uprooting my life and moving to San Francisco earlier this year for a new role at the same company I’ve been at for more than four years now, I find myself in the same place. It was fine for a while, until it wasn’t. And what I’m realizing is that I’ve just been putting a band-aid on a chronic problem.

I’m realizing that I’m yearning for something that goes much deeper and matters a lot more—alignment.

Welcome to Self Made Heiress

Self Made Heiress was born from my exploration to figure out what alignment could look like. I started posting on TikTok and Substack in May, sharing my travels, my thoughts, my experience with spirituality, my mindset, my process of building a life I love as an embodied woman who is the first in my family in many ways.

Self made = becoming rich by one’s own efforts.

Heiress = a woman who will inherit money or property. Usually socialites/ladies with fabulous lives.

I am an heiress to a great fortune (my own). I feel like the name Self Made Heiress is such a fun contradiction. It speaks to a big part of my journey, being self made and paving my own path with no blueprint, and nods to the long term aspiration, to build my own inheritance—wealth in finances but also in mindset, influence, taste, fulfillment, joy, and so much more—as well as my enjoyment of the bougie things in life.

And by sharing my journey as I explore these topics, I’ve been able to connect with so many other ambitious and self-driven women who are redefining wealth, success, and influence on their own terms. That’s my north star.

As I read through the hundreds of submissions to the interest form I shared, a few things became very clear.

This community is made up of women who are already accomplished—marketers, operators, founders, creatives, educators—many of you are first-generation who have done “everything right” on paper, but feel a quiet knowing that there is more.

Most of you aren’t starting from zero. You’re standing at a threshold. Outgrowing old definitions of success. You’re looking for community, for rooms that feel intentional. Conversations that go deeper.

Your submissions resonated so deeply with me and it made me realize that I’m not alone at all. And that, in my opinion, is really powerful. If this could make me feel like that, how could I build something that could be that for others? That question has been guiding how I think about what I’m building here ever since.

Creating content and putting my thoughts out there has been equally as delightful as it has been terrifying. Despite the fear, it’s been so fun. I love working on anything related to SMH and the prospect of what this could grow into, and what it has already been, fills me with so much joy.

And so as I reflect on 2025 and think about what I want this new year to look like, I’ve decided that I am no longer making decisions based on what “looks good on paper” or what I think I should do, but rather what I desire to do. What lights me up, what gets me excited, what brings me joy. My hypothesis is that the inner conflict I’ve had for the last few years has been my body—my intuition—persistently telling me that there’s a better path for me.

The question I’ve been too afraid to ask for years is top of mind for me at the moment: could there be more? The thought alone makes me squirm because my brain automatically jumps to what it would require to make that leap, what I would need to release (a very comfortable life) and what I would have to embrace (extreme uncertainty).

Despite the fear that makes me grit my teeth, yes I think there could be.

A big life by my own definition. No one else’s. A life I love where I do what I want, go where I want, when I want that I have deep ownership over. A life that is so aligned that I go to sleep every day excited for everything that waits for me the next morning.

I’m not sure what the steps to get there look like exactly, but I’m excited to share the journey with you and to build this blossoming community.

Six Figure Latinas

Only 3% of Latinas in the US make six figures. I made a video about the statistic and my own experience getting to six figures. 48k views and 400 comments from Latinas who had also accomplished it made me pause.”

Where are my six figure making Latinas at? 105k views and 3000 comments where incredible women were sharing their journeys and giving advice to each other made me realize I was onto something.

I am starting a club for six figure Latinas and ambitious women. 69k views and 888 comments from fabulous women offering advice and wisdom confirmed this was something I had to pour time and care into.

What was overwhelmingly obvious to me as I read the comments on these videos on top of the 450+ submissions to the interest form was that a space like this is needed.

What stood out most wasn’t just the income numbers (nothing brings me more joy than hearing about women who have successfully obtained the bag) it was what those numbers represented.

Women were talking about wanting choice. Stability. The ability to say no. To invest. To rest. To build something that couldn’t be taken away. Many shared that they were the first in their families to earn at this level, and that with that came both pride and a quiet loneliness.

Over and over, I saw the same desires come up: intentional connection with other ambitious women, guidance during periods of transition, and spaces that didn’t feel transactional or performative. Rooms where ambition doesn’t have to be explained or softened. Where cultural identity and desire for a beautiful, expansive life can coexist.

That’s when I realized this wasn’t just about six figures. It was about self-trust, proximity, and building a new inheritance—together.

Building community + events

IRL community feels like the most natural next expression of this work. My vision: dinner parties, salons, intimate conversations, wisdom and knowledge sharing. I don’t want this to be a mass community or a hustle network. My intention is to build something intimate, thoughtful, and curated. Spaces where real conversations can happen and where being in the room feels as valuable as the programming itself.

I’m more interested in depth than scale, and in quality over speed. This will evolve as I listen, experiment, and learn, but the north star is creating rooms I would want to be in myself.

My hope is to curate spaces for ambitious women who are serious about expanding and growing alongside others on a similar path.

I’ll admit, I’ve been sitting on this for a few months since my videos first gained traction. Ideating and putting it off until I figured out the perfect plan. The lesson I’ve had this year is that if I let my inner Type A perfectionist dictate things around here, my ideas and everything I want to do will stay in the imaginary vault and never see the light of day, so here’s the plan:

January: virtual event, SF meetup

February: LA meetup

March: SF meetup

I am also eyeing New York and Miami. More details coming soon.

Next steps

I’ll continue posting on my TikTok, Instagram, and Substack on a weekly basis in 2026. I also created a private WhatsApp group to help us all connect. Feedback, thoughts, and ideas are always welcome.

Additionally, if you have a cool journey you would like to share, I would love to hear from you. I’ll be starting a Six Figure Latinas series here in January where I interview Latinas who are making six figures and how they got there.

If you’ve read this far, thank you. I’m so happy you’re here. I believe everything happens for a reason, and I don’t think it’s an accident that we found each other here.

I hope you have a fabulous New Year and that 2026 brings you everything you hope for and desire. May this year bring us all the opportunities, people, and moments that help us build our big lives—on our own terms.

Con amor,

Kaina

For months, I walked past as it transformed from dust to velvet chairs and glowing lights. When it finally opened, I kept deferring: next weekend, when I have a good moment at work, when I finish writing five chapters of my book, when I hit my next financial milestone, when I have the perfect outfit.

But then it hit me—I’ve lived my whole life this way.

I’ve dangled joy on the other side of achievement. I’ve spent a long time deferring my own desires.

I subconsciously deemed I wasn’t worthy of celebration until I hit the goal. I prided myself on delayed gratification, only to find the satisfaction fleeting, quickly replaced by another finish line, setting the process in motion all over again.

Recently, I’ve been getting TikToks about the Camino de Santiago (on my bucket list). In one of them, a woman said she expected to feel something monumental when she reached the final cathedral, but instead realized the meaning was in the walking itself.

That resonated. I’ve been measuring my life by destinations, not by the act of moving toward them. The pursuit itself is the point.

Which made me wonder: if I shifted my measure of success from the achievement itself to the courage to try, what might that look like?

What if joy wasn’t something I had to earn but something I could choose whenever I wanted?

Because right now, I’m doing it. I am the type of person who goes after the things they want, even if a little afraid, and I honor myself by doing so. That in itself is worthy of celebration.

My life, in many ways, has felt like a video game. Different levels require new versions of me to unlock, and I’ve risen to the occasion every time with joy.

So on a random Sunday afternoon, I walked into that steakhouse by myself. No specific milestone. No particular achievement. Simply me, in all my fullness—living and breathing and being. Doing the work every day to keep flourishing, evolving, and to bring all my desires to life.

Because the special occasion isn’t the promotion or the perfect moment.

It’s me. It’s always been me.

Con amor y celebración,

K

A few years ago, I got my “dream job.” It looked perfect on paper, but somewhere along the way, it started quietly draining me.

I kept trying to make it work. I told myself I should be grateful. That discomfort was normal. That maybe I just needed to push through.

Still, a quiet thought kept returning:

“Could there be more?”

I ignored it for a while. I told myself I was lucky. That I was living the life I used to dream about. But underneath the surface, something felt off. I couldn’t figure out how I could have so many of the things I wanted—and still feel like something was missing.

Then I went on a trip, and everything shifted. I was pulled out of my routine just long enough to see things clearly. I didn’t want to keep living a life I had to mentally justify. I didn’t want to keep overriding my intuition for the sake of stability.

So I came back and decided to take matters into my own hands.

I applied to a new role, got the job, and moved to a new city.

My family thought I was crazy. They asked if I was sure I wanted to take that kind of risk. But deep down, I knew staying would’ve been an act of self-betrayal.

The role I have now is better. More aligned. It feels like a step in the right direction. But if I’m being honest… I still feel like there’s more. And that’s what I’m building now.

I’ve come to believe that before you receive everything you truly desire, life often sends a version that’s close. It checks most of the boxes, but deep down, something’s off. It’s good... but not quite it.

In recent years, it’s felt like this quiet loop: good before great. Close before clear. Almost before aligned.

But here’s the part I remind myself: this isn’t a test you can fail. You make the rules of your life, of this game. Sometimes we stay with the “almost” version for a while—and that’s okay. There are things we’re learning there. Sometimes we need safety. Sometimes we need softness. Sometimes we need space before we’re ready for the big thing.

You’re not failing for staying. You’re not crazy for wanting more. You’re not ungrateful for wondering if there is something better—you’re just finally listening.

Personally, I believe that when we do the inner work to get honest with ourselves, choose new behaviors, and remove all the noise, it’s like excavating a garden. And what’s left is a direct line to our intuition. Subtle nudges from the version of ourselves that already has what we want. Guiding us forward.

Gratitude and discontentment can coexist. You can have a good thing, and still know there’s something better. If a desire was planted in your heart, I believe there’s a version of your life where you receive it in full. But old patterns won’t open new doors.

I’ve found myself in an uncomfortable season of “in-between” for a while now. I can sense something big is coming. But in my physical reality? It’s still slowly taking shape. I can only see glimmers of it.

This is when the fear creeps in. When old behaviors flare up. I’ve had patterns of self-sabotage I thought I overcame return dressed up as comfort. My theory? It’s my subconscious craving familiarity. Because the new thing—the fully aligned thing—feels unknown. And unknown can feel unsafe.

When I took this new job, it came at the perfect time and it was everything I wanted. I didn’t like what I was doing and couldn’t wait to leave. Yet still, I almost fell into the trap of clinging to something I didn’t even want. It was alarming to watch myself go through this process even though I knew in the end I would take the new opportunity. I was terrified.

The scarcity mindset crept in:

What if this is the best I’ll ever get?

What if I let go and it’s worse?

What if I’m abandoning something more stable—even if I don’t want it?

Resist.

These are the moments where it’s most important to stay aware. To observe. To course-correct. To come back to yourself. The shifts we make in these moments compound. You don’t need to be perfect. You just need to keep following your inner nudges, even when no one else understands them yet.

Ask yourself: 

What am I clinging to out of fear? 

What am I tolerating out of habit? 

What version of me must I shed to welcome what’s next?

Here’s what I know now:

I dreamed of the life I have now. It’s good, it’s wonderful, and it’s everything I wanted for myself at 18. But it was originally conceived from a place of survival. I only dreamed so far because I didn’t know how great it could actually get. And the truth is, what’s meant for me is so much better than I’ve ever imagined.

Doubt is normal. Fear is human. The urge to cling to comfort, even when it’s misaligned, is real. This is the moment most people settle.

Don’t.

Make space. Even if it feels scary. Even if it feels like a risk. Even if it only makes sense to you.

If you’re in your own good before great season, you’re not alone. The in-between is uncomfortable and slightly terrifying, but it means something better is forming. It means you’re choosing alignment over attachment.

Resist the temptation to settle for a knockoff version of what you want.

In this game, bravery is rewarded.

Con coraje,
K

Action > Marinate. That’s been my guiding motto for 2025.

I love to marinate. I love to reflect, unpack, take my time. I’m the queen of a good brainstorm and a slow morning. But sometimes, the pauses turn into detours. I wait. I delay. I push things off—not out of laziness, but fear.

So this year, I’ve been rewiring. When in doubt, take action. Not a perfect plan. Not a crystal-clear vision. Just… action.

Last month, I spent my birthday solo in Hawaii. I’ve been wanting to go for years, but the timing never aligned with anyone else’s schedule. So I stopped waiting. I gave myself the trip as a gift.

I started solo traveling last year (Costa Rica was my first) and it has quickly become a ritual of self-trust. A way to hear myself more clearly, choose myself more boldly, and reflect on the life I’m building.

This trip marked a shift. A reflection on who I’ve become, and what’s possible now that I’m living the life I used to dream about.

The kind of woman who gives herself everything she desires. She doesn’t wait for her dream life to happen, she creates it.

Here’s to 26. To being loving, brave, and vulnerable.

Below are some reflections from my journal:

I came on this trip thick in confusion—about my career, my relationships, my desires. I was hoping for a breakthrough. A ten-step (ten-year?) plan wrapped neatly in a bow. But that didn’t happen.

Instead, I got quiet nudges. Insights that didn’t make much sense in the moment but started to come together afterward.

I realized that confusion is the prelude to clarity. And while I didn’t update my ten year plan, I walked away with something deeper: a knowing.

There is a deep knowing within me, a wisdom I often try to rationalize away, reaching for logic where there is none. When I uprooted my life earlier this year, moved cities, and switched jobs, I blindly followed the inkling of that feeling. And I was so right that everything behind me literally unraveled, confirming what I tried to talk myself out of—three times over.

Will I continue to trust that knowing?

When everything looks good on paper, but the feeling says otherwise, what do I trust?

Trust in the knowing, trust in the feeling.

I think before I’ve stayed in situations where I wasn’t fully aligned because of ego. Because I was being chosen—by people, by jobs, by companies. It validated something I believed about myself but wanted someone else to voice.

But I don’t need to be chosen to be worthy. I already am.

That clarity shifted how I saw everything, not just what I wanted, but why I thought I had to earn it.

This trip was also one of the first times I wondered if maybe things could be better when shared. That maybe I have worn independence like a shield. I’ve proven to myself I can do it all alone. But maybe I don’t always have to.

Desires evolve. What we want shifts. Sometimes we cling to people or paths simply because they were what we once wanted for ourselves. To let go can feel like betrayal to the sacrifice it took to get there. But it’s not.

It’s okay to accomplish things, experience them, and then decide you want something else.

It was never just about the thing, it was about who I became in the pursuit of it.

In so many ways, I have arrived. It’s strange to conceptualize what’s next when the life I’m living is the one I once prayed for.

To realize I am the vision, the woman who once lived only in my mind, is surreal.

I am the one I have been waiting for.

I’m living my ancestors' wildest dreams. To be educated. To create a life with limitless possibility. To see the world. To be financially independent. Abundant. Healing. Breaking patterns. To do it all on my terms. No husband. No kids. Just me. That freedom is a privilege.

And I owe it to them, and to myself, to bring all my desires to life. To invite joy into everything I do. To do that, action is required, fear must be abandoned.

Places are portals. For me travel and specific cities have helped me access a version of myself I’m trying to embody. Hawaii, surprisingly, felt like another day—in the best way. Like, of course I’m in Hawaii on a random Thursday at a five star hotel doing everything my heart desires.

This isn’t something future-me does. It’s what I do.

Just another Thursday. Business as usual.

I have already arrived. I just didn’t notice.

But through it all, the most consistent thread was gratitude. Sometimes I’d giggle out loud, overwhelmed by how good life is. That I built this. That I did it.

And the wildest part? I know it’s only going to get better.

I am living in so many of my answered prayers.

Gratitude, I’ve learned, is not just a feeling, it’s proof. Proof that I’ve made it, that I’m here. That the life I once prayed for is already unfolding.

Con corazón,

K

In January, I changed my life—new job, new city, new season. What’s funny is that I predicted last year that something big was coming. I couldn’t explain how I knew, but I felt it in my bones. As I’ve gone deeper into my spiritual work, I’ve started sensing how my life is going to unfold more and more often. Not logical. Not strategic. Just a knowing.

Still, even when the signs are clear, even when the path appears, choosing change is never easy.

Leaving a job I didn’t love—and truthfully, that was draining me—should’ve been simple. But it wasn’t. It forced me to face fear, discomfort, and the part of me that clung to the familiar, even when I knew I’d outgrown it.

I was offered the perfect opportunity and still hesitated. I mulled it over, doubted, delayed. It revealed to me how tightly I was holding on to things that no longer served me, what was comfortable.

And even after I said yes to the new job, I knew it wasn’t just about the role. It was the start of a bigger unraveling. A shedding of old stories, old patterns, old versions of myself.

Lately, those old patterns have crept back in—numbing out with scrolling, binge-eating, ignoring my body, chasing quick dopamine hits. It’s not the first time. This same behavior showed up last year when I started applying to new jobs, when change was on the horizon but not yet tangible.

Evolve or repeat.

What you don’t heal will keep showing up in new forms until you finally choose differently.

That was the truth that landed loud and clear during a spectacular hot yoga class this week. By the end, in Savasana, I found myself emotional—as I often do when I finally slow down enough to feel.

I saw myself at 23, standing across from me at 25. She looked at me in awe at how far I’ve come. I’ve released weight in the last two years—physically, mentally, emotionally—and these external shifts mirrored the internal ones. Sometimes, when I pause and look around, it feels like I quantum-jumped timelines without realizing. I am everything I hoped I could be and more.

I also saw myself at 21, taking baby steps toward who I am now—going to therapy, working towards embracing vulnerability, moving my body more, changing my style, prioritizing self-care. Small choices rooted in a bigger vision of the woman I wanted to become.

I love all versions of myself, but these in particular held thoughts and behaviors that once served me and kept me safe, but no longer do. It’s time to let them go (with love, of course).

I saw us standing by a river. There was a small boat. I hugged each of these past selves—the 23-year-old, the 21-year-old, even a version of me around 5 years old. She was the hardest to send off, but she smiled proudly and kept waving her tiny hand. The others were more hesitant—sad, almost disappointed, with a trace of fear.

I pushed the boat away, sending them off to an island where all the other versions of myself live. Behind me stood who I think is the next version of me—maybe 35-year-old me. And my grandmotherly, wise, future self who often appears to me during these moments—warm but tough, reminding me that I already know what to do.

I’ve been clinging to old behaviors because I’ve been clinging to an old version of myself. An old reality. The comfort of what I’ve known. But I can feel it — I’m delaying what’s meant for me out of fear. The unknown is scary—even when it holds everything I’ve ever dreamed of.

Am I brave enough to take it?

As I lay on my mat, processing a flurry of emotions I can’t quite describe, the message was clear:

Become the woman you were meant to be.

Everything I want is waiting on the other side of fear, on the other side of trusting in the divine architecture of my life. I just have to reach out and take it.

It reminds me of The Creation of Adam— where two fingers are about to touch, but haven’t yet. That’s what this season of life feels like. The life I want, the woman I want to be, right there, waiting. I just have to close the gap.

After class, one of my best friends sent me a photo—without knowing what I had just experienced. It was her old Prius parked next to her new convertible. Two versions of her, side by side.

I remembered our conversation when she was debating the upgrade. We talked about how joy doesn’t always need to be delayed. That sometimes, choosing beauty, choosing something bold—like a new car—can be more than a purchase. It can be a portal.

Sometimes, changing your surroundings changes your reality. It helps you embody a new energy that pulls you forward. Beautiful things, when chosen intentionally, can uplevel your life in quiet but powerful ways.

The photo felt like the universe winking at me. A reminder that we become who we want to be not just by dreaming about her—but by choosing her. By taking action that makes a new reality real.

Let go of what was to let in what could be.

Con mucho amor,

K