Uncolonized Power: Healing Mindsets, Embracing Purpose, and Rising Together with Valeria Aloe

Professional Summary

Valeria Aloe is an award-winning author, speaker, and high-performance business coach who founded the Rising Together movement to help professionals unlearn limiting mindsets and build the clarity, confidence, and behaviors needed to reach their next level. Her signature work combines mindset transformation with applied behavior change to accelerate individual and team performance. valeriaaloe.com

Born in Argentina, Valeria was the first in her family to graduate from college. She holds undergraduate degrees in Finance and Business Administration and later pursued graduate studies in the U.S., building a global career across corporate, nonprofit, and startup environments. Her corporate experience spans major organizations including Procter & Gamble, Citibank, Reckitt Benckiser, PwC and TIAA, and she has more than two decades of experience helping leaders and teams perform at scale.

Episode Summary:

In this deeply moving and insightful episode, Shannon Huffman Polson speaks with Valeria Aloe—author, spiritual scientist, and founder of the Rising Together Movement—about the invisible ancestral mindsets that shape our lives, leadership, and wellbeing. From her childhood in rural Argentina to Ivy League classrooms and corporate America, Valeria shares her powerful journey through burnout, healing, and spiritual awakening. Together, they explore how trauma is inherited, how to reverse internalized limitations, and why true leadership starts with self-awareness and micro-steps. This conversation is a must-listen for anyone seeking to live more fully, lead more authentically, and rise with others—especially first-generation professionals and allies.

Episode Highlights:

• From Rural Argentina to Ivy League: Valeria’s journey from a dusty town to Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business—and how she overcame fear, culture shock, and the pressure of being first-generation.
  
  

• The Burnout That Sparked a Movement: What led Valeria to collapse emotionally and physically in 2016, and how that turning point inspired her to reexamine everything she believed about success.
  
  

• Unpacking Ancestral Mindsets: How culturally inherited beliefs—about authority, sacrifice, success, and identity—impact professionals, especially in Latino communities, and how to begin healing them.
  
  

• From Trauma to Triumph: Why healing inherited trauma is essential, how colonization affects modern mindsets, and the science behind generational pain and potential.
  
  

• Mentorship vs. Sponsorship: The key difference—and how to overcome the inner voice that says “Don’t bother them.”
  
  

• Spiritual Science in Leadership: Valeria’s journey into spiritual studies and how embracing the identity of a soul having a human experience changed everything.
  
  

• Micro-Steps, Major Shifts: Why transformation doesn't require giant leaps—and how simple breathing exercises and mindset shifts can rewire your professional and personal life.

• Building Bridges: How to create unity in a polarized world, celebrate shared humanity, and foster meaningful connections across diverse identities.
  

 Resources & Mentions:

• Valeria Aloe’s Book: Unbeatable Latinas

• Rising Together Movement: www.valeriaaloe.com — Valeria's platform for empowering first-generation professionals and allies.

• The Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey – Where Valeria led entrepreneurship programs.