In this conversational interview, Dr. Caroline M. Garcia introduces herself through two lenses: a traditional Anglo credentialed identity (PhD in human behavior, ten years of corporate research) and an energetic "liberation coach" persona. She explains how her career evolved from leadership and executive coaching to a self‑crafted brand called "Queen Mindset Leadership Pioneer," a framework that unifies spirituality, mindset, performance, relationships, wealth, and creativity under the metaphor of a queen—symbolizing abundance and infinite potential. Central to her message is the claim that she "is the niche," rejecting conventional coaching categories that box people in. She argues that categories can be useful tools but become prisons when over‑identified, especially for women of color navigating Western‑centric expectations. The session opens with a guided breath‑work and embodiment practice designed to shift participants from their current state into a receptive space. Dr. Garcia also hints at deeper discussions about the mind’s tendency to create boxes, the role of AI, and her expertise in translating psychological research into accessible coaching methods.
Chapters
I usually don't do bio readings, um, because I feel like people's transmission of who they are and what they're doing in the world is more powerful than to hear a westernized and read script. So before I have— do you just want to say hi before we drop into like a 3-breath transition between where we're coming from and the space we're about to go into? A little bit.
Yeah, yeah. And if I may, may I introduce myself in the two ways that I've been introducing myself?
Absolutely.
Okay, so, and I just started doing this on, uh, Tuesday. There are two ways of introducing myself. There's the Anglo way, and the Anglo way is I'm Dr. Caroline M. Garcia. I have a doctorate in human behavior in psychology, and I spent 10 years working in corporate America studying prestigious organizations and seeing what the best of the best did at work. That is my Anglo, very credentialed introduction. And then there is my— I'm not even sure what else to call it. It's It's not because it's not like it's indigenous or anything, but I'll say my energetic introduction. And this just shifted literally like 20 minutes before I got on this call. So I am now branding myself as a liberation coach. And what that means is that because of my doctorate, because of my time working in corporate America and traveling the world, I have met what it's like for people to be caged in themselves. And I have done the work to free my mind, body, heart, and spirit. And that's what I do now. I help people to free those aspects of themselves so that they can live the life they actually want to live. And I have— I showcase that by doing that myself. So thank you for allowing me to say that.
Oh my gosh, thank you.
You're welcome.
All right, so we're gonna drop into I Am God practice to open the space. And for the returning, um, guesslessness, you know what's coming. We're going to close our eyes.
Wherever we are, if you have the capacity or the ability to feel your feet on the ground, notice what it feels like. Allow your feet to be held by the ground. If you're sitting, allow your glutes and your thighs to relax into the seat. Perhaps lean back and then take note of what it's like to be held by whatever the surface is. Notice where your shoulders are. If they're tight, a little up, Maybe just drop them by an inch, 2 inches, and then allow them to get heavy, move away from your ears. And then we're going to take the first big deep breath in through the nose, fill the belly all the way, and then we're going to exhale gently through the mouth. Allow yourself to relax a little deeper. We're going to take the second breath. This time, see if you can notice the breath going in through your nostrils, what it feels like going through the back of your throat. Into your shoulders, cradling your heart very gently, and then sort of softly landing in your belly for 3 seconds, for 2 seconds, one more, and then we're going to exhale completely as though you're blowing out a candle. And then on the last breath, we're going to take in the biggest breath you have all day. Envision your belly like a balloon and fill it all the way, fill it all the way. And just when you feel like you can't anymore, take a sharp inhale, squeeze your core, hold it for 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, and then exhale with a sigh. Notice your state of being, notice your mind. Begin to bring some movement into your body. You move your shoulders, you shimmy, move your hips. Allow yourself to come back into your body, to inhabit yourself. And when you feel ready, you may open your eyes and join us.
I feel like it's such a way to like move away from wherever we're coming from into the space.
Yeah.
So you told us a little bit about your Anglo version and your, I probably say your heritage, right? Like your, the line, the lineage. For those who are listening and have no idea who you are and what you do in the world. Could you please expand a little bit more?
Wow, how to introduce myself. I feel like because of the way that I've been building my brand, I have literally changed this like 15 to 20 times. When I first got my coaching certification in the program where I met you, I remember it wasn't a typical program in the sense that it was like, oh, you're going here to become an executive coach or a spiritual coach or a you know, happiness coach. It's like, these are ways of moving people. And I learned breathwork and somatic work, and I, I didn't even know that my body mattered until I took that program. And then there was this sense of like, these are all the different types of coaches that you can be. And I'm like, my mind was like, wait a minute, like, now I need a category, one or two? Like, and so I feel like what's happened since then, because I used to be a leadership coach, I did with leadership coaching for managers all the way to VPs and had intimate conversations with CEOs in the work that I did, presenting data to organizations about the state of their people, how they felt, what they were doing, what they wanted, what they needed, and having conversations and surveys and focus groups and interviews, just literally studying people at work. That was my job. And so by the time that I became a certified quote-unquote life coach, which was so broad, I decided to become every type of coach just to test it out. So I was a mindset coach because I'm really great at that, and then the performance coach because I love goal setting and I'm an expert at it. Then I was a spirituality coach and a happiness coach and a relationship coach and a friendship coach and a wealth coach and everything coach. And where I landed is these are all the different ways that it really takes for you to free yourself and realize that you can have and be everything, right? We do have. And so it's challenging to introduce myself because I don't fit in a box. I never have, never will. But the way that I have been— my first, uh, like, beta client through my— so I have a philosophy called Queen Mindset Leadership, right?
Yes, I want to hear all about that. I remember when you posted it, I was like, I was happening. I was like, yes!
And I'll get more into it, but I have gotten to the point where my brand is now Queen Mindset Leadership Pioneer. I just created my own bucket, and Queen Mindset Leadership is all of those buckets that I said of spirituality and happiness and mindset and relationships and friendships and creativity. All of those buckets exist in Queen Mindset Leadership because queen ultimately means abundant, it means infinite, and it takes after Mother Nature and its own infinity, you know. Mother Nature is the prototype, like, in a way. So Queen Mindset Leadership, like, I couldn't pick a category of coaching that I wanted to do because if I coach you on— I can coach you on money mindset and get you thinking that you deserve to have a 9-figure business, but if you're not spiritually aligned, it's not going to be rooted. I can teach you how to do the things every day that will bring happiness to your body. If you're not processing your trauma from when you were 8 years old, then that happiness is very superficial. And so I couldn't pick a category, so I chose all of them. I am the niche. The way that I live, the way that I create my life, and the way that I completely live outside all lines— that is a result of Queen Mindset Leadership. It's liberation.
Can you say that for those in the back?
I am the niche.
I am the niche.
And this was inspired by one of my mentors I just like casually follow, and she was talking about Tabitha, um, I can't remember her last name.
Yep.
Yes.
And she was saying like, Tabitha just has— she is the niche. And I'm like, that's bars right there. Yes. I think that too. I am the niche. Like, I just can't put myself in a box.
I just—
me, me. If you want me, you get me, right?
I say that I'm the movement. Like, the movement is me. In the coaching world or the consulting world or the transformational space, anything relating to people becoming better, I feel like it's more of like unlearning what we're not, more than learning what we want be, right, which is a difference in itself. But because of the way the mind works, we need a box to put people in so we can figure out how to deal with them, right? And when you are a woman, when you're a woman of color, when you have origins that are different from this westernized place, I feel like this— when you, when you wake up, right, when we talk about what waking up means, there's just something in you that refuses to go back. It's like, no, I will not cut myself into bite-sized pieces for you to be able to consume.
So if you can't swallow it, you know, you—
yeah. And I— if there is space, I would love to go into the mechanism of the mind that causes us to have these boxes, because that is one of my superpowers. And I, I can also talk about AI and how AI can— but I I have a degree. My doctorate is a literal Doctor of Philosophy in psychology. I was paid to study people and how we think. That's what I was trained in. I am an expert at understanding how the mind works, and then I have used that knowledge on myself, and then like trying to figure out how to— how do I translate everything that I know into something that other people can understand, you know? Um, but there is categories, like you're, you're starting to say, they, they serve a purpose, but it's important to be conscious of when to use a category and when to step out of it. And I think that's where people miss it. They create a category and like now they're— that is their prison, and it's never meant to be a prison.
It's just a tool, a guide, right?
Yeah, it's not, it's not meant to be a great master. It's a server, servant, right? Like if you if you build something that serves you, right, and you're not very clear about it. Um, and I'd love to hear the mechanism a little bit about it because I wager that for my listeners that are here who are either curious about what embodiment is, somatics, psychedelics, the conversation, all the non-traditional ways that they are trying to understand what beingness is without losing the doingness, I'm sure there are a lot of us who come from a place where our minds made lots of decisions out of protection, out of necessity, and we have to do it all by digging ourselves out of this like mind hole or like logic bullying to get to where we are. So I'd love to hear from like your train experience.
