A Game Boy, a Dream, and the Work She Was Born to Do

In this episode of Do Happy Work, I sit down with Viri Ponce — Latina financial advisor, mother, and passionate advocate for helping Latinas build financial independence beyond the limits of culture and traditional expectations.

Viri's story begins with a simple but telling childhood goal: earning enough money to buy herself a Game Boy — without asking her parents for a single penny. What started as a curious love of numbers and problem-solving grew into something much deeper, rooted in the realities of immigrant working families and the financial insecurity she witnessed firsthand growing up.

Today, she channels those early lessons into a mission — helping other Latinas create security, confidence, and freedom entirely on their own terms.

Together, we explore childhood dreams, the power of lived experience, and what it truly means to turn what comes naturally to you into work that is meaningful, personal, and genuinely valuable to others.

Get in touch with Viri: www.vpconsultingsf.com

Follow on Linkedin: Olivier Egli 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

I'm your host, Olivier, and this is the Do Happy Work Podcast, where we look at work in a different, more natural, and more peaceful way. Welcome back to another episode of the Do Happy Work Podcast. You know that sometimes I invite guests onto my show, but not very often. And there's a very clear reason for that. I only want to bring value to this podcast, meaning I want to show what it takes to do happier, better work. So I will only talk about the things that allow us to break the paradigm of old sad work that we have learned from the world. So when I invite someone, it's because this person has a story or a take on value or on work that really benefits us and helps to underline what I talk about. And today I have one such guest with me. Let me introduce to you Viri from VP Consulting.

SPEAKER_00 0:55

Hola, really happy to be here with you.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

So Viri is, of course, a very special person, has something very special to offer and has a very unique story. Viri, who are you as a person?

SPEAKER_00 1:09

Oh, deep question. And it's not the usual, like, what do you do for business? So thank you for that challenge right off the bat. So I am, I want to say I'm a Latina mommy with so much ambition and just so much energy that I have to bring to the world and my daughter and my clients.

SPEAKER_01 1:35

I think we can all already hear uh that that's definitely the case. How do you spread your energy in the work that you do?

SPEAKER_00 1:44

Yeah, so I'm a business consultant and a financial coach. And oftentimes that is such a like confusing, overwhelming like topic and area, um, especially in a country that may not be the country that you were born in. And so for me, the way that I spread, I think, my positive energy and the way that I try to support other people is by breaking down finances and making it really approachable, making it really easy so that women can actually make decisions based on that. And so oftentimes, like when I am teaching or when I'm in like one-on-one consultations, like we keep it really real. I keep it really simple. And I'm always trying to challenge myself like, how do I explain this to an adult, someone who does this already, like who already runs a business? And but they might not be thinking about the financial part. And so for me, it's like all about breaking it down, making it really accessible, like making it accessible to someone whose first language isn't English, nor is it finances.

SPEAKER_01 2:55

I love this for two reasons. It will be very easy to just talk about, you know, financial advisory and consulting, whatever. I'm not interested in that. However, you are doing it, and you're doing it in a very specific way. So you're talking to very specific people about very specific applications, but you're offering them through financial services something very specific. There's a reason why V is doing this, right? And not XYZ. Can you let us in on this a little bit?

SPEAKER_00 3:30

Yeah, I mean, it's like we're gonna take it back 40 plus years, right? So I'm originally from Mexico, and when my family immigrated from Mexico to the US, they had a small business. And so it all started from like childhood and growing up in a small business household and just seeing all the wonderful things about having like your own business, but then all of the challenges and just seeing like my family just constantly overwork. And where that was the message, it's like if you work hard, then like then you will achieve success. But it's like, where was the success? Like, where was that money? And it's we got this message of like we work hard, we work hard. I always equated success with working really hard. Um, and that's not what I want to do. Like, yes, I'm a hard worker, but I don't want to see like like I did with my family, like see us overwork, where I overworked as well, like the first couple of years in my career. And so it's not only about like just overworking and for pennies, but it was like working really smart so that we can enjoy the money, and so we can't see the results of all that hard work.

SPEAKER_01 4:47

This is a very important part because you just explained to us what experiences shaped your path. So, first off, we have the provenance, the Mexican provenance, right? Your origins, your family's story, uh, the small business. What kind of business was it that you like kind of Plumbing Plumbing? Plumbing, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:09

Plumbing.

SPEAKER_01 5:10

So you experienced that first hand, but you also like you experienced the emotional reality of being overworked, of wanting to create a life for yourself of independence, which is probably what you're now trying to achieve or what you're trying to inspire in people. But I want to take it back even further. Yeah, I want to understand Viri. I want to understand who is this person that got shaped by these things? Because to be in finance and to help people find freedom through these numbers and through financial decisions, you already have to be a certain kind of person. Who were you growing up? What is that thing that you still have in you that made you the right person to do that?

SPEAKER_00 5:56

I'm a nerd. I'm a nerd, I'm a square in so many different aspects of my life. Um and I've always had this like desire to help people. So, for example, like I started my first business, maybe around seven or eight years old, making jewelry um because I really wanted a Game Boy. Like I really wanted one and I didn't want my parents to buy it for me. It was really young because I wanted to do it. Like I really wanted to do it. So it's kind of crazy, but I did set up my budget, like I did know how much the Game Boy cost. And I was like, okay, I am going to like make jewelry because I I love jewelry. And so I would make these pieces and we would go to a lot of family parties. And I remember I would like tell the girls, I was like, go tell your parents that you really want this, right? And then they would be like, You come tell, you come tell them. And so I would go and I would try and be as cute and as charming as possible and show them all of like the little bracelets and necklaces, and then sell it to them. And my mom would take me everywhere, which I loved because they were like letting me do my own thing. Like they never said, like, nope, we'll get the Game Boy for you. They were just like, okay. So they like just pushed me along until I got my Game Boy, and then I got two games because I sold, I sold enough. And so I think that it's always been this like innate weird desire where I was like, I want to do it myself. And then I've always loved numbers, like that part of like having a budget. And it's always, it's almost like a puzzle for me. I love like, I love the spreadsheets till this day. And I didn't have one at that age, but it was just like constantly trying to figure it out how I would get there.

SPEAKER_01 7:53

You exemplify this really how we never truly change. Like we are at heart still that curious child that has a certain outlook on life and it has a truth that it wants to share with the world. But when you're little, you don't really have the independence to move freely around the world. This is why we have to then you know acquire tools. But then experiences happen that shape in which way we can bring this superpower into the world, which is the experiences that you have through your family, the move and and everything. So for you to kind of combine those two things now in the optimal way is like that seven-year-old kid presenting her bracelets that have now become you know, these consulting services that what you needed for yourself, that independence to move to the next step, you are now empowering others to have for themselves as well. You know, I I just always love how when people do their happy work, which is the work that is self-inspired by their story and their truth, they actually give people what they need for themselves as well.

SPEAKER_00 9:05

I don't think I had ever thought about that. Like, it's thank you so much for bringing that up because for me, I was like, that is where I've always seen it as like this is where my love of numbers comes from. But I never thought about like it was for that search of independence. I love that because it it is always like peeling these layers and understanding ourselves so much better, and it's such a beautiful thing to be able to do it.

SPEAKER_01 9:31

It's amazing. Yeah, it also puts you above or outside the bubble of financial advisors. We never want to be, you know, I don't want to be called a business guide or a business coach because it diminishes what I do. I don't stand for that. I I stand also for independence and empowering people to actually use their unique story to turn it into a business. So when we reconnect to such a deep reason that we have, we break the mold. Now, being a financial advisor in your case is just how you execute. This is why at the beginning I didn't ask you what do you do. I asked you, who are you?

SPEAKER_00 10:11

Yeah. And I was already ready to give you my other answer because I'm so used to approaching it that way. And so it's so refreshing for us to be like, wait a minute, I am my I am BD first.

SPEAKER_01 10:24

The way I see it, you also help people to step out of, you know, the paradigm of what it means to be of Mexican origin because we instantly think, like, oh, okay, so you are like this, or you can only do that, which is not true. We're all able to do what we're meant to do, but to remove the labels requires people like you to show people that you are more than your label. I gotta ask you, this Game Boy that you worked towards, what did it mean to you?

SPEAKER_00 10:55

Well, let me tell you what game I got, and then you're gonna be like, that totally makes sense. Can you guess what game I got? I don't know if you remember Game Boys, but I do, of course. Okay, I ended up getting the game Tetris. Of course. That's the game because it's like putting things together, like make it's a whole it's a whole puzzle. And so for me, it was like it was reaching a goal, right? And it was like me getting to that end goal, and it was me like saving and me like it and now you got me thinking about how much it's the same, the same thing, like of what I do. It's about like wow. It it's yeah, it's it's really about me showing myself that I could do it with my skills, right? And because that's the same thing that I think about right now, like what a beautiful and powerful thing that I get to help other Latina women like grow and make money and build wealth from what I have here, right? Like from experience, from expertise, from my education, and it comes from here. And I think that is such a beautiful thing, like to know that you could do it with what you have, with what you know, with your skills. I was really proud of myself. Like it is the way that that I feel pride in myself. Like, my business is a reflection of that. I think my Game Boy was a reflection of that pride that I could do it.

SPEAKER_01 12:27

Kids that are so in tune with themselves and with their curiosity, like you were obviously at the age of seven, they have a tendency of knowing what they need in order to bring their light out to educate themselves. So, you telling me that the Game Boy was actually just a vehicle for you to get to Tetris, Tetris is an educational tool. It sharpens your mind, it sharpens your understanding and view on how things mesh together. So you were really just teaching yourself. You were making an educated guess on what you needed in order to step forward to actually, you know, be the Viri you can be. What makes a goal important is more important than the goal itself. But seven-year-old Viri somehow knew and needs this thing. You might not really know why, but then it unlocks something. And I like you said the next step. I would almost say, like in the game analogy, the next level.

unknown 13:29

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 13:30

You unlock the next level. And probably in the end, it's also what you do with your clients, right? You on you help them unlock something. It's not just about like more money, more money, more money. Like make more money, turn yourself into money. It's more about like you have something to give. You need money for that, right? You need you need money in order to do the thing that you must do.

SPEAKER_00 13:54

It is really deep and it is really powerful, and it is a really important part of my story. And it's that I love remembering that, right? Like reminiscing on that. It's such a beautiful thing.

SPEAKER_01 14:07

Well, thank you so much for sharing this with us. And I really hope that this resonates with a lot of listeners who maybe will take the time and look at their own story, look at their own childhood memories, where curiosity pushed them and where maybe there's a nugget of truth that they have been ignoring in their current life situation that they could apply professionally.

SPEAKER_00 14:31

And what you're you're making me think about as well is how like my story did go full circle because that's where I started. Like my origin story is you know, growing up in a small business household as an immigrant and me, you know, really working towards what I really want. And then how I tried like those in-between points, right? Like how then I tried so many other things. And sometimes I joke that I was like Goldilocks trying out different things to see what really worked. And so I tried the corporate, like the corporate route was not for me. I tried like nonprofit route. It was not for me. What did I return to? Entrepreneurship. A return to like my home is what I did. Returning back to that origin, returning back to like what really fulfilled me, what made me happy as a child and as an adult.

SPEAKER_01 15:24

This is amazing because yet again, there's so much to it. First off, um, we have to have our heart broken before we even know what love is, right? When we're young, we're wild, and we want to do things, want to conquer the world and dominate, and you know, like grow, grow, grow. And then at some point, and this is the hope, we gain consciousness over what really matters, and then we go back. The hero at the end of the story always returns back home with new knowledge, but as the same person, but now it's clear what we must do. The corporate route is for many people one such chapter where we get pushed around and where our old ideals get broken. But it's important that we wake up and realize wait, what does my heart need? Like, who am I? Who is this seven-year-old that still lives in me and now has all these tools?

SPEAKER_00 16:20

I would do it all over again the same way, even though, like you said, it was like heartbreak and it was hard, and it was not for me, but you don't have to.

SPEAKER_01 16:27

You didn't already exactly I would I absolutely would not. Thank you so much, Veri. That was really, really enlightening and beautiful. Before um, we talk about where people can reach you and you know what you have out there that people can tap into. Just a quick reminder uh the Lola Principle, the book that my wife and I published at the beginning of this year. This is my father's book. He wrote this more than 30 years ago, and it was sold more than one and a half million times in Europe, and now it's finally available in the US. You can head over to uh uh thalola principle.com or Amazon or what have you and go check it out. So now, Viri, where can people find you if they want to find more about you, about your services, what have you?

SPEAKER_00 17:12

Yeah, they can find me at vpconsulting sf.com or on social media vpconsulting sf. So would love to connect through there and yeah, support people through their financial or their their business journey.

SPEAKER_01 17:27

Thank you so so much again, Viri, for this beautiful conversation and for the light that you bring into the world.