Episode 386: She Went From Receptionist to Senior Leadership Without a Degree | Jessica Rivera

Jessica Rivera became a mom at 19, never finished college, and still climbed from receptionist to senior leadership at Santander. On this episode of Yo Quiero Dinero, she and Jannese get into the psychology of corporate power, the identity work behind her BRAVE Method, and why she refuses to lower her standards for the people she keeps around her.

The Only One in the Room

Jessica spent most of her career as the only Latina at the table — sometimes the only woman, period. She watched her peers assimilate into what she calls the “corporate Becky” culture, and she never had any interest in joining them. She wanted to climb, but she wasn’t going to pretend to be someone she wasn’t to do it.

“I was typically the only Latina at the table… I really didn’t want to assimilate more. I cared about growing, climbing the corporate ladder. I didn’t care about being part of the in crowd.”

Her old-school mentality was simple: let the work speak for itself. It’s a mentality a lot of us grew up with. And as she puts it now, having decoded 20 years of corporate psychology since, it doesn’t actually work.

Learning to Play Corporate Chess

For years, Jessica told herself she’d never play the corporate game. It felt fake — and she grew up in Brooklyn, where you keep it real. But the more she studied the psychology behind promotions and power dynamics, the more she realized something: everyone is playing a game, whether they admit it or not. The difference is whether you’re playing it on your own terms.

“When you learn how to play the game your way, shit comes to you so much easier. I made the biggest bonuses of my life when I stopped trying to play their game and started decoding the psychology of it all.”

Jannese summed it up perfectly: it’s corporate chess. And once Jessica understood the board, everything moved differently — including her paycheck.

The Bonus, the Promotion, and the Sign From God

One of the most gutting parts of Jessica’s story: after years of being nitpicked by a difficult boss, the company offered her a $50,000 retention bonus — proof they knew exactly what she was going through and didn’t want to lose her. She cried in a bathroom. It was the first time in her life she’d been rewarded without having to out-work everyone around her for it.

Then, the same month a new boss told her a promotion was coming, the role went to someone else — no posting, no conversation, nothing. That was the sign. Jessica had already started doing deep internal work by then, and she took it as confirmation: this wasn’t her trajectory anymore.

“The more you climb, the more you realize the heavier the politics gets. It’s not about the people, it’s not even about production — it’s about egos. And I’m not very good at managing egos.”

Betting on Herself

Jessica had always been bit by the self-help bug — even her ex used to jab her about reading “another self-help book.” By the time she left corporate, she’d already been coaching people internally, almost without realizing it. She took on two beta clients, ran her first group coaching cohort in 2021, and was full-time by 2022.

Her reasoning was simple: if a company was paying her multiple six figures to run a $4 billion organization, they were betting on her. Why couldn’t she bet on herself? And if it didn’t work out, the worst case scenario was just going back to a regular job — the same life most people are already living.

The BRAVE Method: Break, Relate, Amplify, Express

Jessica’s BRAVE Method is built on one core idea: most people spend all their energy trying to understand everyone else, and none of it understanding themselves. She walks clients through it step by step:

Break — figuring out what part of your identity has to die to get new results. Usually it’s not a self-awareness problem; people already know what’s holding them back. They just don’t want to release it.

Relate — understanding the “drama triangle” (victim, persecutor, rescuer) and how we get stuck cycling through all three, especially those of us conditioned to be the rescuer.

Amplify — learning to speak positively about yourself instead of only being your own harshest critic.

Express — understanding what you believe about yourself first, before you can communicate that clearly to anyone else.

“We’re all playing a game, right? And so it could be the love game, the hate game, the jealousy game — whatever game it is, you really have to understand yourself first.”

Burnout Is Not a Badge of Honor

Jannese and Jessica both called out how normalized it’s become to wear busyness and burnout like an accomplishment. Jessica pushed back on the idea that this means hustle itself is the problem — she’s not anti-hustle. The issue is not knowing your own limits, and not making space to actually receive rest, support, or success.

“I’m about living a soft life, but my soft life is very different than what other people mean by it. I like working hard, I like serving people… and I want to be up at 6am at the gym. I want to do it all.”

Struggle Culture vs. Hustle Culture

Jannese brought up a viral post she’d written calling out crabs-in-a-barrel dynamics in the Latino community — the idea that pursuing success somehow makes you less connected to where you came from. Jessica named the real distinction: struggle culture and hustle culture are not the same thing, and confusing them keeps high achievers stuck feeling guilty for wanting more.

Her take: you don’t have to bring everyone with you, and some people will never meet you where you land. That’s okay. What matters is living proof that it’s possible, and giving people the space to get there in their own time — or not at all.

Protecting Her Peace

Jessica doesn’t take unsolicited judgment personally anymore — because she’s realized most of the fear of being judged actually comes from how we already judge ourselves. She walked through her own experience of walking into corporate rooms already believing she didn’t belong, before anyone else ever had the chance to think about it.

“I only have people around me that lift me up. And if you say some snide, stupid fucking remark, then in my head I’m like, okay, I know where you’re at. Love you, but you’re gonna be over there.”

Why Women’s Emotions Are a Leadership Superpower

Jessica flatly rejects the idea that being respected as a leader means being less warm or less human. She sees emotion — treating people with love and accountability at the same time — as a genuine competitive advantage, not a weakness the patriarchy has trained us to hide.

“I love you more when I tell you exactly what’s going on. I’m not leaving you guessing. I’m gonna give you the fucking play. I just need you to run the play.”

Chasing Who You’re Becoming, Not the Goal

Jessica’s biggest reframe: don’t chase the goal, the money, or the relationship. Chase who you’re becoming — because your current self already got you everything you currently have. If you want something different, you have to actually become someone different, not just set a new target.

“Here’s one guarantee. If you do nothing, everything is gonna stay the same. You’re either going back or you’re going forward. That’s it.”

She closed the episode with the standard she refuses to lower for herself right now: the standard for the people she keeps around her. Because at the end of the day, you get judged by the company you keep.

Key Takeaways

• Grit and hard work will get you far, but understanding the psychology of power and politics is what actually gets you promoted.
• Imposter syndrome doesn’t disappear once you hit the title or the money — it takes ongoing internal work to release.
• Struggle culture and hustle culture are not the same thing. Confusing them keeps high achievers stuck in guilt.
• You have to be willing to lose people who can’t handle your growth — that’s a boundary, not arrogance.
• Chase who you’re becoming, not the goal itself. The goal is just a byproduct of the identity shift.
• Women’s emotions are a leadership superpower, not something to suppress to be taken seriously.

Connect with Jessica:

• Website: jessicarivera.co 
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jessicarivera.co/ 
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicarivera/ 

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