Girl Code: Unlocking the Secrets to Success, Sanity, and Happiness for the Female Entrepreneur

Tell us a bit about yourself.
This always feels like such a loaded question, but the highlights are: I’m a
short Puerto Rican girl raised in NYC who lost both her parents to AIDS at
a very young age. I struggled with depression, eating disorders, alcoholism
and severe low self-esteem. By all accounts, I could have and should have
ended up a statistic. Despite the trauma in my life, I knew I had been born
to do big things, to make a huge impact in this world and to transform the
lives of others. I’m not sure why I knew, but I just always felt it in my core.
In finding myself, I became a United States Marine, serving a tour in Iraq
during Operation Iraqi Freedom and serving for a decade. I’m a Penn State
University graduate with a degree in Business Management and am the best
selling author of the book, Successful People are full of C. R.A.P. (Courage,
Resilience, Authenticity, Perseverance): A Step by Step Guide to Getting it
Together and Achieving your Dreams. Because of my resilient spirit I have
become an internationally sought after speaker and have been featured in
national publications like Success, Latina and Huffington Post.
I’m currently working on launching The Confident Entrepreneur Academy,
which is an online course designed specifically to help create a more
profitable business by eliminating the blocks and fears associated with
decision making, owning your expertise, pricing, money, and follow
through. Basically, it’s the PHD of online programs.
What inspired you to start your coaching practice?
My first introduction to coaching was a television show called Starting
Over. Women were picked to live in a house and life coaches helped them
make life transitions. I was completely enamored. At the time, sitting
around with women, giving them advice and helping them totally change
their lives seemed like the coolest job on the planet. But I was only twenty-
three at the time and didn’t even know where to begin to pursue such a
course. This was before “Googling” was popular.

---

Several years later, while stationed in Germany I discovered that my so-
called boyfriend was actually quite happily married. Everything I thought
my life would be with this man came crashing down. It was a sobering
wake up call to get my life together. At this point, I was once again
overweight and had racked up for $40,000 of debt despite making nearly
$100,000 per year! Literally, I was a hot mess.
I hired a life coach and she completely changed my life. Early on in our
work together she said, “Rachel, have you ever considered becoming a life
coach? You have such an interesting story and despite so many challenges
you’ve become successful. I think you’d be a great coach.”
I had to do a double take at the phone and replied, “Are you crazy? I can’t
be a life coach to anyone. My life is a mess. There’s no way I can help
someone get themselves together when I don’t even have it together.”
She chuckled a bit and said, “Well, not now you can’t, but once you get it
together you can. And people will want to be led by you because you’ve
been through the ringer. They’ll trust you because you’re real and you know
what it’s like to go through the hard times to make a change.” And that was
it. I held tight to those words and I saw myself pulling myself out of the
mud and being an example of change for women everywhere. About a year
later, I pursued life coaching and got my certification and the rest is history.
Since this book is called Girl Code, I feel compelled to admit something I
haven’t admitted publicly before. During the next few years of me trying to
get myself together, I completely violated “girl code” and I went back to
that married boyfriend. I could make excuse after excuse but the honest
truth is that I was still a broken, insecure, selfish girl. I hadn’t yet learned
what it meant to be a confident, truly secure, selfless woman.
Today I have dedicated my life to supporting and empowering other women
and I hope that by sharing my truth – as hard as it is - you too will find your
voice and your truth. The fact is, we as women punish ourselves over and

---

over for the sins of our past. When what we should focus on is using our
mess to spread a positive message.