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A Dose of Spiritual Guidance with SOULpreneur Melissa Ruiz

A Dose of Spiritual Guidance with SOULpreneur Melissa Ruiz

Melissa-Ruiz

If you are looking to dive deep into personal development and spirituality, then you may want to take a few tips from Melissa Ruiz. A former MTV and VH1 television producer and WNBA cheerleader, Ruiz left everything behind to pursue her passion and purpose for helping others. After a successful 13-year career, she quit her job, gave up her six-figure salary, filed for divorce, sold her home, and radically changed her life by cutting out toxic food, people and situations.

Now, Ruiz is a registered yoga teacher/meditation teacher, mindset expert, and online SOULpreneur business coach who believes in living a simple life inspired by health, wellness, and positivity. Trust us, she has zero regrets. The drive to help others is what led Ruiz to growing a business to six figures in just seven months. She believes in giving back to the planet and her clients. OUT FRONT had the pleasure of chatting more with Ruiz about her passion, her business, and what we can do to better our own lives. 

Hi, Melissa! Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me more about your personal journey.
Oh my God, I am so excited! When I got the email, I was like, ‘Yes! Please make this happen as soon as possible.’

Definitely! Now, you are a former MTV and VH1 producer and WNBA cheerleader who left behind a six-figure salary, sold your home, and radically changed your life to pursue a passion for helping others. How did you figure out this was your passion, and what made you decide to pursue it and leave everything else behind?
This is a really good question. So, very interestingly enough, my journey first started with healing. I think that is what most people kind of forget. They do think like, ‘Oh my God, how did you leave six figures on the table to create this entrepreneur business?’ but it really didn’t happen like that. It actually happened in a couple of steps, and the first one was through yoga and meditation.

I originally left because I was very stressed out. I found myself in a career after 10 to 11 years of just busting my butt and doing all the things, and I just wasn’t happy. I remember vividly when one day where my boss brought me into the office and I ended up getting a promotion, and with the promotion, I realized, like, holy shit, more responsibilities and more stress. More of all this stuff that I don’t want.

Like, I do not want this in my life, so it literally came from that, the middle of a divorce, sold my house, went to Morocco for 30 days, did a yoga teacher training, and radically changed my life and never went back to that office, or that job. Healing myself started little by little. As I was healing myself, other people started coming to me for advice, for coaching, and the business started growing. It ended up being this mini-empire that it is now. To be honest, it was never my intention. 

Do you miss or regret giving up any of the luxuries that you had?
Oh my God, no. Absolutely not because I can tell you that in scaling back and selling a home that was 2,400 sq. ft. to now living in a tiny home that is 500 sq. ft., I actually have more. Growth and success is defined by you. Like, what does that mean to us? For me, wealth and success meant more space, more abundance, and more liberty to be free. So, how can I be free when I am attached to all these things? The less I have, and the less I have now, the more space I have, the more freedom I have, and the more ability I have to just be myself. That is ultimately what makes me happy. 

For those who are having trouble with finding their passion, how should they dig deep to discover it? What can they do?
This is such a beautiful question because there is no catalyst. There is no specific roadmap, but what I can tell you is, you can find the answers to this individually in stillness. So, in the space of potentially a practice of yoga, and practice of meditation, journaling, taking a walk in nature, hiking, swimming, doing something where there are no attachments to the outcome. Where you are doing something just to be playful, just to be fun. It is in that space that you can start rewiring the mind and start tapping into what makes you happy. I feel like that is the place that I always start with everybody. Tap into yourself; tap into your own intelligence, your own wisdom. Be still. Be quiet. It is in that space you will find them. 

What advice would you give to someone who is looking to downsize and move into a tiny home? They seem to be all the rage nowadays.
I would say, pick something that feels really in line with your values. When I wanted to have a tiny home, I just asked myself, where do I envision this? I envisioned water; I envisioned a lot of greenery. I envisioned a community where I live in tiny homes where I am the resident yoga teacher and we have, like, a resident chef. It’s kind of quirky and kind of corny, but there is a real community there.

There’s a farmer who lives onsite who creates and gardens all of our vegetables. So, I think it is important for somebody to ask themselves, if you want to go small, why? What are some of the things that you need? Going small does not mean that you are poor. Going small does not mean that you don’t have the luxury. I actually live on a water front and I have a huge pool. My space is small, but the outside is so big. Just make sure that you have non-negotiables for things that you want.  You want to be next to the beach in a tiny home? Make sure you do that. Want to live by the water? Make sure you do that as well. 

You are now a SOULpreneur who scaled a business to six figures in seven months. Can you tell us more about that?
It happened so fast, but I have a very crazy and interesting story where I started my business. I was teaching yoga meditation and attending retreats, and on the third one, I realized that I, myself needed a coach. I, myself wanted to, you know, expand the business, and I didn’t know certain things. So, I invested $20,000 when I had $2,000 in the bank.

Looking back, I would not suggest that, but I’m happy that I did. I think it takes a lot of balls, and it gives you a lot of courage, and in business, you have to swing hard, and you have to take big chances. So, it was a chance that I was willing to take. I did it, and 30 days later, I made $30,000. I was able to pay back my investment, but more importantly, I was able to figure out the blueprint and the strategy and how to actually scale a business. It just kept going.

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What exactly is a SOULpreneur?
A SOULpreneur is somebody who is an entrepreneur, but they do stuff with their entire soul. It can be a business that has to do with yoga. It can be a business that has to do with meditation, spiritual entrepreneurs, conscious brands. People who are really tapped into their spirituality and making that their business. Whether they are taking essential oils and making candles or whatever it is, their gift is their business.

I wouldn’t take on a client that is trying to sell laptops, but I would take on a client that is a Reiki healer. They read energy, and they want to turn this into a business. Like, that’s my tribe. Those are my people. The people who have spiritual gifts that come here, and they want to heal and help the world because that is ultimately how I started. I was in a yoga studio with a teacher that was guiding me. 

What does being a business owner mean to you?
There are so many things to business, it’s so beautiful. However, the biggest reward is that I get to serve and help more people, specifically women. I help a lot of spiritual women, I help a lot of people in the LGBTQ community’ I help a lot of Latinas in the Hispanic community. When I ended up being in this business, the intention and the mission was always to help more people. As a Latina, growing up, like, there was nobody meditating. In fact, that is looked down upon as, like, witchcraft. Nobody does that, at least not in my family. My mom is the oldest of eight, born in Ecuador, and came to this country when she was a teenager. My dad was a political refugee from Cuba and escaped Cuba in the late 60s and ended up being in the military here.

So, the culture was really different for them. It was a lot of culture shock, but they never heard of yoga or meditation. These are things that just weren’t in their culture. So, when I first started tapping into these modalities, and I started realizing how freaking healing it was, not only for me, but for my own family, I wanted to be that voice. So, being a business owner means that I get to be a voice for all these people that they don’t see themselves in. They don’t see themselves in potentially a blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl that’s doing yoga. I personally couldn’t connect to that person, but my yoga teacher ended up being this Brazilian girl, and I connected with her because I saw myself in her. It is so important that we do that for our tribe and for our community. People need to see themselves in you. 

What is the number one reason why one should give yoga and meditation a try?
It is honestly proven to lower your anxiety, lower cholesterol. There are so many benefits to this, and in fact, I actually get a lot of doctor recommendations in my classes. I often times ask people, ‘Why are you here?’ and they say their doctor told them to come here. It’s almost like doctors and medicine are only able to help people to a certain point.

After that, what happens to the person that continuously has anxiety where it’s not a physical problem but a mental one? It is because this person needs to change the pattern of their mind. This person needs to stop buying into that they’re shit and the whole world is shit. Yoga helps reframe, retrain, and rewire every single cell that has to do with that. It has to do with limiting beliefs, bringing yourself back to present, and allowing yourself to be free in your own body. We all have trouble with that sometimes. No matter what walk of life we are in.

What are some of your favorite yoga poses?
[Laughs] Oh my God. So, I love to do a beautiful headstand. I love to get into inversions. As you know, I was a former WNBA cheerleader, gymnast, dancer. I was very active. So, I like to be upside down, so headstand is the go.

Eating healthy is also key to a better lifestyle. So, what are some of the best foods you would recommend, and what foods do you consider toxic that we should stay away from?
This is a great question because I’m a vegan [laughs]. I have been vegan for about three years now, and I always recommend a plant-based diet. However, I do know that veganism does have kind of a bad rap because sometimes I find myself hanging out with my friends and they’re like, there’s diseases. I by no means want to push my ideologies on anybody else, but I do feel that anything that grows from the earth and gets synthesized by the sun is good for you. And that is mainly plant-based foods. Stuff that grows from the dirt. So, anything like kale, anything like super foods, blueberries, fruits, oranges. All that stuff plays into our system in our body.

I can tell you that when I wasn’t plant-based, there was this cloud over my mind. It was like I was kind of in robot mode where I was doing all the things, but I wasn’t figuring out what I wanted to do. Doing yoga, doing meditation, retraining my mind, eating plant-based food, that cloud lifted. It’s like you get this freaking clarity over your life, over what’s in front of you and over where you want to go. To list some of the suggestions that I have when people talk about food, really just lean into plant-based foods, but also know that if you want to eat a little piece of meat, that’s fine too. If you want to eat a little fish, eat a little fish.

There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to food. I think a lot of people are very confused about what to eat. Like, do I do this diet, or do I do that diet? Tap into your own intuition and eat what makes you feel good. Start from there, and I can tell you that eating plant-based will make you feel better than eating a bunch of chips.

 May 6, 2020 :: Self-Expression and Mental Health issue 

Out of everything you teach, what lessons do you hope people will listen to the most?
There are three things that I teach, and that is how to get rid of toxins. I feel like that has completely transformed my life, and it has transformed my clients’ lives radically. The number-one thing I always tell people is to get rid of toxic thoughts. Plain and simple, but it’s hard. It is difficult for people to understand that. What is a toxic thought? It’s every time you are talking bad about yourself, every time you are talking bad about somebody else, every time you believe that you are not enough, every time you believe that you can’t get the thing you actually want. Those are all toxic thoughts. Get rid of them. Do not entertain these thoughts because when you do, you start spiraling down into what we call stress, and stress gets into what we call anxiety. That is how people honestly have panic attacks. So, remove the toxic thoughts.

The second thing is, remove toxic people. I get people that are like, well, the toxic person is the person I’m with, or the toxic person is my parent. Well, create more space between you and that person. If you want to start a better life, then you have to start with yourself. People will only treat you the way you treat yourself, and if you allow somebody to step all over you, if you allow toxic people to be constantly around your circle, what happens? I believe in energy; everything is energy. We have energy all around us. I mean, just think about when you walk into a room and the energy is like thick, or somebody’s pissed at you. We are energetically always communicating.

I am really protective over the people that I am around, the people that I allow into my circle. I suggest that everybody does the same. Be protective over the people that you are around, and cut out any toxic people. I don’t care if it’s your best friend from 1995, cut them off. Create more space.

The last thing I believe in and really talk more about is, cut out toxic products. Everything from food to the stuff that you put on your skin. The skin is the largest organ,=. It affects you. We are now moving into a conscious realm that we should be paying attention to the things that you ingest and use. Make sure that you are using stuff that is toxic free. Stay away from fragrance and all these things that we know that are not good for us. Honestly, it’s saving lives. 

As a female, you have clearly achieved a lot throughout this process and journey. Why should the achievements of women be celebrated?
Beautiful question! When I was a TV producer, I was one of the only female Latinas that worked right across the street from Wall Street. I worked with lot of male figures, predominately Caucasian, and I always felt that I needed to voice my opinion. I always felt like I always had to overwork, and a part of that could be a little ego, but mainly, it was based on truth. It was based on what needed to be done in order for my voice and my opinions and my work to be heard.

I feel like now, being a female entrepreneur, I am just so over the moon to hold space for more and more women to speak up, for more and more women to showcase their business. For more and more women to say we’re here, and we have ideas, and it doesn’t also need to be executed by a males. Even though that is fine, but we are stepping into the CEO role. We are stepping into the role of being a boss, I just love it. I think it is so beautiful, and I am blessed to be here. I am blessed to be holding this container and space for so many other women to come through. 

What does being Latina and LGBTQ mean to you?
It almost is equal to being a female entrepreneur. It’s beautiful, and it’s the beginning of a lot of change and a lot of movement. I came out where I was 14 years old. Again, my family, my parents, nobody gay, nobody bisexual, nothing. They never even heard of these terms. They were small-time people in their own country, so for me now, looking back, I created a lot of change. It is important, and it is a part of my business and part of the community and the people that I help. I am stoked and happy to be here to just showcase what I have and to hold more space for people.

You also have a podcast called Waking Up with Melissa Ruiz. Can you tell us more about that?
Yes! My podcast came to be a couple months ago when people continuously asked me for more and more advice. They wanted me to speak a lot more on business and spirituality, so I created a podcast where I do both. I love to talk about masculine and feminine energy, and it doesn’t mean girl and boy. That means we both all have these energies. I feel like you have masculine and feminine energies, and so do I.

In business, we move through a lot of masculine energy, meaning we can feel like go, go, go. It can feel like we are going nonstop, and using that energy to get ahead will only get you so far. So, a lot of the teachings that I teach is really tapping into feminine energy. Like, you’re going with the current of the flow versus against that, and you are going to get further along using that energy, but you need both energies to really move forward, and that is really what Waking Up with Melissa Ruiz is about. It’s about, how we can embrace the duality of Yin and Yang, of feminine and masculine energy, of building a business with no shame of being who you are, without anybody else telling us we can’t. If you identify as LGBTQ, great, that is not something you should hide. It’s all the duality of being spiritual and working with that feminine, soft energy and building a business which is that very masculine energy that it takes. 

What more would you like to achieve with your platform?
So much more. I hope to double and triple the business. We are getting a lot of trademark done for the business, and we have already served about 138 women. That number is going to continuously go up, and we hope to have more in-person events. Think people thrive with connection, and it’s great and beautiful. I do a lot of stuff online, like coaching and yoga and meditation, but nothing makes me happier than seeing people together in a space and doing this. 

For more information and to stay in the know, visit iammelissaruiz.com or follow her on Instagram @iammelissaruiz. 

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