Rita-Soledad Fernández Paulino is a Queer Mexican-American, former math teacher turned money & self-care coach. After years of dealing with various autoimmune health issues, PTSD, and ADHD, Soledad learned to use money as a tool to support their wellness and is now committed to teaching other progressive BIPOC, women, and LGBTQ+ folk how to do the same.
A blog written by creative director Jasmine Haitalani where she shares how she approaches each part of brand building in her business and for industry leading clients. Indulge in each post and get inspired to take action that allow you to set the standard, improve your brand and make revenue.
Soledad Paulino Fernandez is a Money and Self-Care coach that works with Black, Indigenous People of Color, Women and LGBTQ+ folks who want to create a financial plan to retire early. She passionately believes there are many ways to build wealth. But building wealth without engaging in diverse self care (her acronym for the seven self care) is always disappointing.
So if you care about working your way to becoming “work optional,”, while engaging in deep levels of self-care, connect with her.
Soledad really locked down her signature framework and became loud and proud about it post-rebrand. In 2020, she started her business Instagram with the help of Canva, as many do. From the Canva app, she was creating basic meme posts sharing her journey to building financial security at 32 with two kids. She felt like she was late to the game, even though she didn’t know many other people in her age bracket doing this work.
She created a logo on Canva from the generic templates they provide. She picked the font based on the name (for good luck) and the colors based on her personal affinity for the color blue. From there, eventually she got speaking engagements, strangers contacting her to want to do their financial education, and more.
Then, in 2021, she started her coaching business. It was a super exciting time, and she didn’t get worked up over her branding at this stage. She was landing important media features and sending selfies from her phone because photoshoots gave her anxiety.
Yet, in 2023, she had a big brand reach out to her with the opportunity to fund people working with her. And suddenly, the idea of having an influx of people sent to her website from this huge brand filled her with embarrassment. The DIY website built on WIX just wasn’t conveying the message she wanted to get across properly.
For eight months before she took the leap, she had her eyes on Highflier Powerhouse as the agency she wanted to work with for her rebrand. She had been listening to the podcast, subscribed to emails, and more. Funnily enough, she knew she needed to work with us, but she was actually intimidated.
That I’ve embraced the “mean girl” energy and I sign off my emails with Miranda Priestly was challenging for her. But I think this is actually the perfect example of why staying true to yourself will ultimately never turn off the right people. Soledad was tentative. But she ultimately took the leap because she knew that Yin/Yang energy was exactly what she needed to level up her brand.
She says, “I’m not afraid of being roasted…I know she will not bullshit me. And when you’re paying thousands of dollars for a rebrand, you want somebody who’s going to keep it a hundred, right?”
Soledad tells everyone who’s considering working with me, “get ready to level up. You’re going to find new parts of your identity. You’re going to have to be seen in ways that you have never shown to people before. And that can be an exquisite process, but it can also be a scary process.”
The questions she was faced with like “who are you? Who do you want to be? Who are the people she’s serving?” we’re initially overwhelming. But her desire to tap into herself was stronger than her desire to go back to old patterns.
During the rebrand process, she became hyper aware of one aspect of her work that she wasn’t showcasing very much in her marketing. That aspect? Self-care. She felt like nobody wants to hear about self care. Nobody wants to engage in self care. She worried about how she could throw self care into the mix when people are already so resistant to investing in the stock market.
A lot of her clients told her she’s more than just a money coach. She was helping people get their life together, improve their marriage, their relationship to family, and so much more. But she didn’t feel at liberty to share that.
When I asked her, “what makes you different?” as we went through the rebrand process, she realized she’s a financial healer. And when she realized she needed clarity for her audience to understand what that meant, she integrated “Self-care Coach” into her title.
So she ditched the phrase “Basic to a Billion” that she had felt onto for so long at the beginning of her business. And this led her to commit to big choices instead of playing small. From wearing curly hair for the first time in her photoshoot to ignoring her mom’s remarks about looking like a man wearing pants instead of a dress, she reached beyond her prior limits. She wanted to see how authentic she might show up through this rebrand.
When she began the rebrand process, she had no clarity about visuals that she would enjoy. So the intake process really helped her go step by step and analyze where her head was at. She’s a minimalist that doesn’t spend her time shopping, so brand imagery just wasn’t something she had been exposed to previously. So she felt very limited in terms of inspiration. But in the end, the process that Highflier Powerhouse walked her through helped her come out on the other side of the rebrand with complete clarity.
She was thinking herself in circles about creating copy for the website. Living with ADHD, it’s hard to set and keep deadlines for herself. So having the team behind her to keep her on track with organized project management and set deadlines meant she was able to overcome the anxiety she had around copy. She actually ended up putting the copywriting guide that we provide to clients and plugging it into ChatGPT to reach her copywriting deadline.
Ultimately, she received an inquiry from someone through her website that said, “Your website brought tears to my eyes and lots of, I’m so proud of you to my heart. I know it was so weird because I don’t even know you, but that was my sincere response to all of it. The colors, your logo and pictures. Thank you in advance for this work and the services you provide.”
For Soledad, she needed to really understand and trust who she wanted to work with. She likened it to having a child with someone. Are you ever fully ready to be a parent? No. But at a certain point, when you meet the right team, you know that you’re okay stepping into the unknown.
And she brought these unknowns to the sales call! All of her questions were addressed because she asked them. My brand is so entirely different from hers. So she knew she was attracted, knew she felt like we could help her solve this problem, but she wasn’t shy about asking all of the questions that were making her apprehensive. This is what I encourage all prospective clients to do!
Before, designing a simple thumbnail would take her hours. And a presentation? Even longer! But with specific brand guidelines, she’s able to show up with so much more time efficiency and way less mind drama. Now, when she gets an idea, she can act on it immediately. She can share value as quickly as possible.
She wanted to make sure that her branding was easily spotted. And she didn’t want her team sitting in the design process for a disproportionate amount of time. And that’s exactly what we accomplished! Her rebrand ultimately helped her step into her authority as a Self-Care coach, not just a Money Coach. Now, she wanted to make sure that everyone understands what the seven self-care are and that mission really did start with her rebrand.
Soledad’s website: www.wealthparatodos.com
Soledad’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wealthparatodos/
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Highflier Powerhouse is an immigrant-founded agency based in the United States that offers design and creative services to service-based entrepreneurs across the globe.
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