Member Highlight: Carolina Vee
Growing up in an unstable household, Carolina found herself being the only person that she could rely on. Through having a job at a young age she learned about responsibility quickly. After a fight with her mom she was able to independently move out of her house at the age of 16.
Carolina then went on to graduate highschool while working several jobs to keep herself afloat. Leaving highschool she was anxious as to what she wanted to pursue. Her whole life she wanted to be a lawyer. Instead of jumping into things too quickly she took an administrative job. In the administrative position she was surrounded by academic professionals who advised her to go to university even though she had no idea what she wanted to do. She had felt this pressure from a young age. University seemed like her only path.
A bit unsure she applied for a general arts degree. She began to take law classes. Feeling unmotivated a year later she took a break for one year then went back. With lack of passion for her classes in her third year she decided to take an accounting class to try it out. To her surprise she ended up enjoying her class. Financial accounting was soon to become her major.
Keeping in mind that she worked several jobs during her undergraduate degree and continued to stay involved with the greek community and theatre company.
Right After graduating Carolina dove into a position at a financial firm. Her whole life she was scrabbling around to get a hold of her finances. Carolina was excited to help people tackle their finances for a change. Unfortunately the values of the firm did not align with Carolina’s so she left and took another leap of faith.
She then tried personal banking. Unfortunately she found it is more about filling quotas than about actually helping people, so she left. Then went to go work in corporate finance and in this position she did not feel like she was cheating anyone but something was still missing. She had done everything everyone had told her to do yet she still felt unfulfilled. She had given finance 3-4 years at this point. In other words she had given the industry time. The company treated their employees very well but she still did not feel satisfied. She approached her boss to tell her that she was ultimately unhappy in her position.
After speaking to a few friends she realized she needed to start her own business. She was no longer a scared teenager trying to survive.For many years her motivator was to stay a float and to survive. When your motivator is so negative it is ultimately not sustainable. Additionally working for others left her feeling very annoyed about her time and money exchange. In the average work environment more efficient people get penalized. Carolina would complete 10 more projects than their coworker and still get paid that same amount and have to stay the full 9 - 5. At first Caroline thought she was going to begin her own bookkeeping business but then realized she needed specific qualifications.
To set herself off in the right direction she signed up for Entrepreneurship Manitoba’s two day program. After she soon realized that she wanted out of the financial industry completely. When discussing with her friend, she realized she wanted to be a life coach. A lightbulb lit up in her brain and she went for it. She signed up for a coaching program she had found through facebook. The program had a focus on neurolinguistic studies that show how your brain functions based on language experiences. Many people carry a lot of beliefs that they are not even aware of based on different experiences
Becoming a life coach itself became an awakening for Carolina because she realized all the issues she had that she had buried deep down for a long time. For instance she found she had trouble receiving things because she spent most of her life giving. Everybody should always be working on themselves, Carolina advises. The moment you think you’re done working on yourself you’ve already lost the game.
Now Carolina is a successful Latina entrepreneur that shines light onto others. Her podcast has reached Canada's Top 25. She is soon to be launching a group program and is currently writing a book. She is working towards creating an online shop and doing more public speaking events. At TableSpace we are very excited to see what Carolina does next.