“I was overworked, uninspired, and stressed all the time,” she wrote on herwebsite.
So, at 37, Barros made a shift.
Now, she’s debt-free and on track to retire by age 45.
She began givingfinancial adviceonTikTokandInstagram.
She’s recently taken another big step by starting a finance podcast, “Diversifying,” with CNN.
Her experience starting her podcast
What’s it been like for you to start this podcast?
I’ve only been doing short-form social media with my posts on Instagram or TikTok or Reels.
This is a much deeper dive into different topics that I usually touch on in social media.
[These short posts are] so you have an idea that this topic exists.
Did she have any anxiety starting Diversifying?
Was there any intimidation when you first went into making that longer-form content or were you more excited?
I was definitely excited.
I was intimidated because it’s CNN.
It’s such a big name.
It’s such a big platform.
I’m like, “What does this mean?”
It’s been phenomenal.
I’ve gotten only positive feedback about the podcast.
People have really resonated with it.
It’s trending really well on all of these charts.
It’s one of the top business podcasts out there, and I’m super happy with it.
The reviews that have come in have been super positive.
Mostly, it was blending my style with CNN, but it’s been a pretty seamless transition.
Any fears that I had when I first started have been quashed since we’ve dove into the process.
Why do you feel like those groups are frequently left out of personal finance conversations?
Why is that important?
Because there is so much nuance to personal finance.
you’ve got the option to’t talk about money and not talk about discrimination.
Those things are all intertwined.
Coming into this podcast, that was something that I was very clear about.
We need to talk about these issues hand in hand.
Frankly, that’s what the personal finance community has been doing for ages.
That’s what the financial industry has been doing for ages, and people are tired of it.
They don’t see themselves in those stories.
They don’t connect.
And because of that, it’s hurting them financially.
I’m trying to bridge that gap by showing them, “Hey, I see you.
That’s what I make a run at lead with is empathy at all times.
How would somebody be feeling if they were on the other end of this?
People are really surprised in a good way that CNN has taken this project on.
It was very unexpected, bringing somebody from outside of CNN.
I’m not one of their reporters.
I’m not coming from inside the company.
They went outside the company.
They specifically wanted somebody of color to come and represent people.
It’s surprised people in a great way.
Like I said, people have been really reacting to the podcast in a positive way.
It’s almost like a little bit of an extended version of the stuff I post on my Instagram.
It gives people a little bit more meat to bite into, and it’s still fun.
That’s what’s important, too.
It’s still fun.
It’s not this dry, boring podcast.
We take a stab at make it fun.
We make a run at make it relevant to what’s going on in the news.
We really wanted to show why student loans have become such a huge problem.
Why are we in this situation?
What has led us here?
How has it impacted, again, women and people of color?
What would forgiveness mean for those people?
We dig deeper into the topics.
We’re going to talk about all the issues that led us to this moment.”
That’s one big topic.
A lot of this is connected to our psychology and things that we’ve experienced earlier in life.
I knew I couldn’t be the only one.
I’m not that unfortunate or that special that anything is just me.
You watch TikTok, and you’re like, “I have no unique experiences in life.”
Every TikTok I watch, I’m like, “Oh, that’s me too.”
I’m not alone."
I thought I was a loser.
I thought I was broken because I couldn’t figure this out."
I’m like, “No, it’s not just you.”
We’re all trying to navigate it the best way that we can.
On your show, you’ve already touched on that a little bit.
We’re still cave people.
We talk about therapy.
We talk about how therapy is incredibly important and how there’s a lot of stigma, still.
That episode, I’m super proud of, and it will make a huge impact.
I hate being so binary, but there are only two ways to get yourself out of that situation.
One is to cut your expenses, [and the other is to] increase your income.
This is much more doable for me.
You feel like you’re living to work.
You’re like, “I can’t spend on any of the things I love.
I can’t do any of the things I love.
Why do I have this job?
I can’t take a vacation, can’t do this, can’t do that.”
Then, you’re in fear of losing your job all the time.
You’re stuck in this cycle of scarcity.
you’re free to only cut so much before things get really dire.
There are challenges on that side, too.
Some industries have definitely been able to take advantage of this more than others.
you’re free to take a stab at negotiate your salary.
We also did an episode on negotiations, which is one of our most popular episodes.
People absolutely love that.
you’re free to literally side hustle your way to burnout.
[Not] everybody needs to side hustle their way.
Increasing your income
I like to show different options.
I’m like, “Hey, if you don’t want to side hustle, cool.
Let’s talk about increasing your salary.
Let’s talk about pivoting to a different industry.
Let’s keep the conversation going.”
Right now, how much are you bringing in?
How much is going out, and where do you want to pull the levers?
I can actually be doing X, Y, and Z to increase my income."
You’re going to be pulling those levers throughout your life at different rates.
That’s not the way to speak to people.
What is the goal here?
Money has a lot of parallels with the dieting industry.
What’s the intention behind your actions?
First of all, what is your why?
What’s the endpoint here?
Why do you want to save money?
Why do you want to invest?
Why do you want to pay off this debt?
Let’s get to the hardcore question of why.
What does your dream life look like?
What does your day look like?
When you get up, what do you do?
What are you spending money on?
What are the things that truly bring you joy?
I’ve been there.
It’s really getting to the why.
Once you start realizing, “This makes me happy, and that is why I want it.
Money will help me get closer to that.”
That’s going to help you create a much clearer plan that’s going to be true to you.
Is financial independence possible for everyone?
In theory, Yes.
Everyone can get to financial independence in theory, but we don’t live in theory.
We don’t live in hypotheticals.
We don’t live in formulas.
We don’t live in that world.
We live in the real world, and the real world has a lot of challenges.
That’s why we did this podcast because I want to talk about the challenges.
That’s not how the world works.
Everybody can achieve it, but many won’t because of those challenges.
I’m trying to help as many people as I can to overcome those challenges as possible.
Some challenges we’re able to overcome with knowledge and teaching things, and some not so much.
Some are much more complicated, but the math is there, and it can work.
I choose not to be pessimistic.
Otherwise, what would be the point of me doing this?
It’s why I teach people.
I know if I can at least help a percentage of people, that’s better than no people.
They’re like, “I’m never going to be financially independent.
I’m never going to be able to retire early, so what’s the point?”
I’m like, “Well, what if you could work less?
That’s pretty good.
That’s a good goal that’s worth working towards.”
Then they’re like, “I didn’t even think of that.”
They think it’s all or nothing.
It’s either financial independence or work until you die.
There’s a lot of gray area in between.
There are a lot of steps in between that you’re free to achieve.
There are levels to this.
That’s not helpful.
Especially, it’s very gendered towards women, I feel like.
Men don’t even call their businesses “side hustles.”
Have you ever heard a man use the term “side hustle”?
They call their businesses “empires.”
Out of the gate, they’re like, “I’m building an empire.”
There’s a lot of marketing at play here between men and women.
I’m trying to show people, yes, there’s value in budgeting.
Yes, there’s value in cutting back, but that’s not all you should be thinking about.
There’s only so much you could cut, but how much you could make is unlimited.
That’s much more expansive.
I want people to be thinking about both.
you should probably be thinking about both instead of just focusing on cost-cutting and couponing.
That is, again, a very scarcity mentality … What’s that been like for you?
We’re super collaborative, our team.
I have an amazing team of producers that I work with, and we have meetings once a month.
We are like, “Hey, this is a really fascinating topic.”
I get a ton of messages every day from my followers, and I see patterns.
Let’s talk about it."
I’ve brought people who, as I said, have an interesting, unique perspective.
it doesn’t necessarily mean this is going to be a huge, splashy celebrity on our podcast.
We’ve talked about everything from student loans to negotiating to marriage and divorce.
I like covering both sides of different topics.
We just released an episode on crypto, which is the one that always gets so much hype about.
I’m like, “How am I going to find somebody to talk about crypto?”
I specifically wanted a woman because, in this space, it’s very male-dominated.
You hardly ever see women talking about crypto.
I want to hear the pros and the cons.
The episode speaks to that.
We have the money trauma episode that’s coming up, which is going to be huge.
That’s going to be fun.
That was super fun.
We just did it, and … credit cards.
We’re going to do a series on credit cards because we’re gearing towards Gen Z as well.
We’re going to do a whole episode on that.
Those are some of the things that we have in the works.
You got to do a little song and dance and then teach people about their Roth IRAs.
I have brought that energy into the podcast.
It is a fun podcast.
It talks about real issues.
It talks about the human beings behind these concepts.
It’s going to feel like we’re having a conversation, you and me.
It’s going to feel very personal.
It’s cathartic to hear that other people are struggling the same way you are.
Sometimes, you feel so alone.
That’s what I’m hoping people will get out of it.
it’s possible for you to listen to Diversifying onCNN Audioor anywhere you listen to your podcasts.
New episodes drop each Monday.
