Discovering Growth in the Unplanned Moments

What happens when you let play guide your journey to success?

Join us as we sit with the inspiring Estrella, who shares how embracing spontaneity and joy can lead to profound personal and professional growth. With heartfelt stories, Estrella takes us through her experiences with the Go Abroad Foundation's impactful work in Zambia and the Philippines, and how a serendipitous opportunity helped her fulfill a personal dream. This episode is a testament to the magic of organic opportunities and the power of supporting grassroots initiatives that bring about meaningful change.

Estrella Quiroz

• Email: estrella@lastfarewells.com
• Website: http://www.lastfarewells.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/estrellaquiroz

How often do we let expectations cloud our happiness? Reflect on this and more as Estrella reveals how a transformative journey with a somatic coach taught her to embrace the process over the outcome, alleviating stress and nurturing joy. From asking whether current struggles will matter in five years to celebrating a sunrise birthday in pure tranquility, Estrella's insights offer a fresh perspective on decision-making. Discover the liberating concept that "you get to decide" and learn to cultivate a mindset of non-attachment—one that encourages living in the moment and making conscious choices amidst life's chaos.

Join us as we support The Goabroad Foundation this month!

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Chapters

• 0:03 Friends From Wild Places
• 7:00 Decisions and Non-Attachment Lessons

Transcript

Voiceover: 0:03

Tales from the wild, stories from the heart. A journey into the mind and soul of fired up business professionals, where they share their vision for the future and hear from a different non-profit organization every month as they create awareness of their goals and their needs. Dive into a world of untamed passion as we join our host, Shireen Botha, for this month's episode of Friends from Wild Places.

Estrella Quiroz: 0:38

It's that I'm sure. Tanya, you've done so much work with the program here in Miami-Dade and you've constantly navigated transitions. How are you? Are you making room for joy?

Tanya Scotece: 0:48

Oh, every day, every day, yes, yes, yes. So my verb is I would say I inspire, I aspire to inspire, and even on my LinkedIn post, it's always, like you know, chasing glitter, inspirational leadership. Those are my, those are my hub very close to me, where I stay very close in sparking joy and, you know, really trying to hone in on everyone's talents right, everyone has them, everyone has gifts and really trying to utilize the gifts to fuel what they want to do. So I think, when we go back to and I think you know it's funny as, as you know, we evolve in age and maturity any type of workshop professional workshop, women's workshop they always default to play. Right, that's the key thing to default to play. And I think we need to spend more time in play and really manifesting that magic yeah, I love it.

Estrella Quiroz: 1:45

Yeah, I'm tired. You know, like I say, like I I can, I can be independent. I've traveled the world alone but to be honest, I'm tired I just want to have fun, I want to be taken care of. I want, and in my personal life. But in professional life I want it to be too like. I want these opportunities to just come to me. I don't want to go out and ask in a cold email and ask that's a lot of energy.

Shireen Botha: 2:09

Yeah, I love that. Thank you so much, ladies, should we go into the nonprofit? Let's chat about our nonprofit we're going to support for the month. So, as you know, friends from all places, listeners, we absolutely love to support a nonprofit for the entire month, month of this series, which is a series of three episodes. Uh, so this month we're going to be doing go abroadorg. That's go abroadorg. Uh, the go abroad foundation was created to support grassroots organizations. I'm going. This is a organization that Estrella has brought to our attention. So please, estrella, share with us a little bit about what this nonprofit does and how we can help this nonprofit.

Estrella Quiroz: 2:58

Yeah, of course. So the Go Abroad Foundation is actually my co-founder is the owner of goabroadcom, but he also created a foundation called the Go Broad Foundation, which I used to do some work for a few years ago. But.

Estrella Quiroz: 3:12

I want to side note on who my co-founder is. He looks like Santa Claus. He's like this 59-year-old man, but the first time I ever had lunch with him, he was my CEO and I was an intern and he took me out to lunch. That's where I told him about my dad and I told him my dream was to go back to Nicaragua and get my dad a gravestone made, because when he died there was no name. You wouldn't know it was him. You didn't know this was where he was buried. And I told him that was my dream.

Estrella Quiroz: 3:49

He does like I said. He does things when he doesn't have to do things. The amount of people he's impacted around the world. He's truly one of the most incredible businessmen, but also like philanthropists in general. So he created the Go Abroad Foundation and so when I was kicking things off with Aspar Wells, we were using our Filipino developers.

Estrella Quiroz: 4:06

So I went to go live in the Philippines for the first summer and there I was able to also go in to see the work that the Go Abroad Foundation is doing with, with just the for water, for educating women, so that a lot of their programs I can't even put it into like it's one specific thing they're doing, but they create programs in places of need in Zambia, in a lot of places in Africa and especially in the Philippines, where I saw it firsthand on how they were helping with the families and I was with the kids and we were doing dances, and so, yeah, the Go Abroad Foundation I just think they like to fill the gaps where they see them and they do things, to do things not because they have to, because they want to make an impact.

Estrella Quiroz: 4:52

So it's always been a special place in my heart because it's one. It's tied to my own co-founder who completely changed my life with the opportunities he's given me to go back to my dad, but even to trust me with Last Farewells, which is he had this idea back in the 80s, back when he's like let's hold on to people's letters and keep it in a vault. This is something he's been wanting to see now for 40 years and he's entrusted me with it, with this legacy project. So, yeah, I would say the Go Broad Foundation is not just special because of the projects that they do, but because of the people who run it, and they run it with so much heart and yeah, that's all I have to say about it Amazing, amazing.

Shireen Botha: 5:34

How can we support them? Is there ways Can we donate, or is there other ways we can?

Estrella Quiroz: 5:40

help. Yeah, there's ways to donate on the button on goabroadorg slash projects, but honestly, I think even just following them on the Instagram account, I think it just helps so people can just be more aware of the projects that are being done. That way, they could potentially even be considered to, you know, make donations, like if you know someone who makes donations in the future. So they're GA underscore foundation on Instagram and, yeah, they, just like I said, they partner with a lot of small grassroots organizations around the world in the Philippines, zambia, uganda and I believe they're a 501c3 nonprofit.

Shireen Botha: 6:14

So yeah, Well, thank you very much, Estrella. We have come to almost the end of the podcast. We're going to do something a little bit more light-hearted just to end it off, uh. But thank you, ladies. You are both being such a wonderful light today and I appreciate both of you and australia for being our guest. But let's just, as I said, something lighthearted. Let's share what is one of the best advice that we've ever gotten. What is one of the best pieces of advice that we've ever gotten? Tanya, you want to start, sure, so?

Tanya Scotece: 7:00

I think one of the, the one that resonates the most is, whatever struggle we are facing, when you I've heard the phrase saying, will this matter to you in five years? Right, like as much as we're feeling emotion about that topic, maybe in the moment or today, or, you know, ruminating on it, you know like it's stressing us out, ruminating on it, you know like it's stressing us out, and if you just really ask yourself, you know, will this matter in five years? It was very powerful. So I think that, for me, is the most telltale yeah wow, how about you, estrella?

Estrella Quiroz: 7:37

um, mine is.

Estrella Quiroz: 7:38

I had a somatic coach therapist.

Estrella Quiroz: 7:40

She changed my life, but my biggest takeaway from her was practicing that we should practice non-attachment, which is hard for someone who feels attached to everything experiences, people, memories, photos on my phone but creating a state of mind where we don't cling on to anything.

Estrella Quiroz: 8:02

And I think that can be said in relationships and in jobs and in outcomes or desires, because when we stop clinging on, we're able to kind of enjoy that process more. And that has been so true in entrepreneurship millionaire or they could put me somewhere right, I don't cling onto that, uh, but I'm. It causes me more now to be more in the process of creating um and how in my day-to-day I can elicit more joy, um, through this non-attachment practice, but also like in my personal relationships as well, um, I think that's. That's definitely been something that is really hard to do, uh, but it's. It's a really good practice when you can start practicing it and, like I said, you just don't expect anything, which is like we should have standards though boundaries, not not the point, but like still, like it's just yeah, I think more things, more beautiful things can come out when we have our the least expectations.

Tanya Scotece: 8:59

I, you know, it's so funny history. I love the phrase where they say or I don't know, I heard it, or maybe I don't know, I don't think I made it up, but it's like expectation is the root of all evil. Right, expectation is the root of all evil. And it's true. Because we set our. We can set ourselves up for such disappointment if we have an attachment to an outcome or an expectation of what's supposed to happen, or a disappointment. So when it's conditional and I know there's a lot of different modalities out there the one that you're describing that you worked with, you know, with your person was it a specific method or was it something collective that this person had created?

Estrella Quiroz: 9:34

It was. It was collective. So, yeah, so somatic therapy in the sense of we just worked a lot on like the body's trauma and releasing and screaming. But non-attachment was just the theory that she wanted me to apply more and journal about and see the areas where I was, you know, very like, especially in relationships. I was very attached to one person and that really affected me everywhere else.

Estrella Quiroz: 9:54

But, yeah, yeah, last month I told you guys my sunrise birthday party. I literally said if I'm going to stress about this, it's canceled. There's a zero stress policy on my end and on my guest end. If people are going to come with not good energy because it's six in the morning, then please don't come. I even said it's a zero stress policy. If this is not for you, do not force it.

Estrella Quiroz: 10:13

And I came with the expectation that I don't care if it's just me dancing by myself, I'm going to have the most fun I've ever had. And from that 70, 70 people came 65 people, but no expectations. I was ready for just one person, which is me, and I knew I was going to have a good time and that that mindset shift and also like not trying to stress for other people and plan things for other people to have fun. I've always done that in birthdays and I made it very clear this year that I'm if it's, if it's stressful to plan this for other people, then it's not fun anymore. I can only create this if I'm having fun for myself, because then it defeats the purpose of trying to create a special moment, right, and then you're just worried about everybody else having fun. It doesn't make sense.

Tanya Scotece: 10:51

Yeah, it reminds me of like. One of my favorite books is the Body Keeps the Score. I don't know if any, if either of you heard of it. The Body Keeps the Score, where it's like lock trauma and it's just amazing. And then there's another method that I was recently introduced to, actually by Patricia Espinosa, which was the Sedona method, and the Sedona method is very, very powerful where it's having that non-attachment, and I don't, like Abraham Hicks other modalities do it, but I think that is the goal is not to have attachment to outcome, to to be able to live in the moment, create joy and not be affected of somebody's mood or how they're going to respond or you know what, what the, what the disappointment may look like. So, with no attachment, it's fabulous, you know. And how about you screen? What about you? You?

Shireen Botha: 11:38

know over over my entire life. I think there's been a couple of different, really good pieces of advice, but I think let's do the one most recent that is currently sticking in my head and what I'm living by right now. It's you get to decide. Right, shireen? What the hell? What does that mean? Right, you get to decide. So life is full of decisions, right, we all know it.

Shireen Botha: 12:04

Small decisions, big decisions, hard decisions, and I think when we are covered with all these decisions that we need to make wherever we turn, we get very, really, really overwhelmed and we reach out to different folk family members great on, tessie, um friends, best friends, pastors, our mentors. We reach out to me, ask for advice. What should I do? Where should I go? I have no clue what to you know what to decide in this decision, and I think that you get to decide is ultimately what you should be reverting back to.

Shireen Botha: 12:46

After you've heard all your pieces of advice from all your mentors, you come back and you actually have to ask yourself well, shireen, you get to decide. This is your life, this is your blank canvas. You can splash it with whatever color comes out of. You know the can of paints, and if you want to start painting with blue and change halfway into a shocking green, and then later purple and pink. And you, it's your life. You get to decide, and if later you change your mind and realize, no, actually I want to do this, rather Do that, then Change it.

Shireen Botha: 13:27

You didn't waste your time. There's no such thing as you've made the wrong choice. There's no such thing as you've wasted two years on a journey that you started and you'd realize, no, I'm actually not for this anymore. That's not a waste of two years. You've learned, you've grown, you've formed decisions about yourself, you've made um leaps and bounds and and now you move on to the next phase in life that will take you down a different uh road. So that's what that means to me is you get to decide right. Okay, cool, I like that shireen yeah, I guess.

Shireen Botha: 14:09

So I think. Ladies, unfortunately I'm so sorry to tell you, but we've come to the end of the podcast, so let's just take a few moments and share with the listeners where they can find you, if they were inspired by your story or they have any questions, uh, where they can actually reach out and get a hold of you.

Estrella Quiroz: 14:26

So we'll start with astrea yeah, so lastworldscom, if you want to try last four walls. But if you want to reach me personally, astrea, at last four wallscom. Um, I'm also, we're also on instagram. Um, I'm, I'm posting parts of the founder journey, parts of my personal life fun on Instagram, just to have a good mix up. But it's astrayq95 and then our Instagram for Last Farewells is lastfarewellsapp. So, yeah, reach out please. I would love to hear from y'all.

Shireen Botha: 14:57

Yes, Tanya where can we find?

Tanya Scotece: 15:00

you, yeah, so I live on LinkedIn. It's my house. You can find me on LinkedIn. I. I live on LinkedIn. It's my house. You can find me on LinkedIn. I'm always on LinkedIn. I love posting, sharing. You know most most people know me as the program coordinator for Miami Dade College mortuary program, so if anybody's interested in a career change, learning more about the program becoming a licensed funeral director in Balmer in Florida feel free to definitely reach out to me. So LinkedIn is my hub, love it, love it.

Shireen Botha: 15:30

Okay, so, shireen. Well, shireen, you can find me on Shireen Botha, on most social media handles and especially in the business side of things, it's LinkedIn. Shireen's bookkeeping services is also there. But you know, most importantly, friends from Wild Places does have their own website. It's friendsfromwildplaces. buzzsprout. com. Once again, it's only $5 a month subscription to hear all the extra bonus content, the juicy conversation that Tanya and I go into. So if you don't mind supporting us, we really enjoy what we're doing and we're not making any money on this. So it would be great. If you guys feel in your hearts that you would like to do that, then please go ahead and do that. If not, that's also okay, because here we are creating a safe space for entrepreneurs and business owners anyway. So leave a comment, subscribe, tell us what you think and remember. Thanks so much for listening and we'll see you next time. And you got this. Stay wild. Bye, guys.

Voiceover: 16:40

You've been listening to Friends from Wild Places with Shireen Botha. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast from the links to catch every episode and unleash your passion.