The DaliTalks Podcast

When most people think of virtual assistants they tend to narrow it down to those in the United States considering how popular they are there. However virtual assistants exist around the world. In this episode, I speak to Joy, a virtual assistant from Uganda who has been juggling remote work for over 3 years now. We dive deeper into: How Joy started out as a virtual assistant The Education system...

A school principal's role in schools often involves functioning under good leadership and shaping a vision of success for students. However, in cases where obstacles like poor funding are in place, executing these roles becomes difficult. For Marti Angel , a former school principal, working through the lows as a principal ignited her entrepreneurial skills, enabling her to currently show up as...

In order to role model healthy, happy relationships to our children, we must start with how we treat ourselves and how we treat our partners and other relationships. But nurturing a relationship can be challenging, especially if we did have good role models growing up.  Thanks to Kim De Silva, a relationship mentor, you have someone to reach out to if you feel that you need help communicating and...

Fear-based parenting relies on using threats, intimidation, and punishment to control children's behavior, while positive reinforcement, understanding, and encouragement are not used.  Parenting and mindset coach Danyale Washington helps parents unlearn fear-based parenting to raise confident, strong, resilient, and emotionally strong children. She works with parents, caregivers, and childcare...

Advocating for your child at school is crucial as it can significantly impact their academic success and overall well-being. By advocating for your child, you ensure that their needs are being met and that their unique learning style, abilities, and challenges are being taken into consideration. However, many parents are unaware of their right to ask for resources or to question if certain resourc...

Like many people, I am concerned about the harmful toxins, chemicals, and pesticides found in our food, drinks, medicine, clothing, and other products. I became curious about Lizette Linares' supplements due to her story of growing up near the U.S.-Mexico border and learning indigenous traditions of using natural resources for health and healing.  While Western medicine may discredit the effec...

Puerto Rican people are known for their rich and diverse cultural heritage, which is a unique blend of Spanish, African, and indigenous Taino ancestry. From their language, music, food, religion, and art, the Puerto Rican culture is vibrant reflecting the island’s history of colonization, immigration and resistance. In this episode, I speak to Luz Nazario, an educator, and owner of NEDA’s Coquito...

Parenting is more than just instructing your children about how to act and behave. It also means listening to their thoughts on different experiences they have to live through, like the state of their school, what they think about their teachers and areas they want to see improvement on in order to live out their experiences with ease. In this episode I am joined by my first child, Nadia Rivera, w...

Bullying isn’t what it used to be. Just like everything else, it has evolved with technology and affects children a great deal today. However the laws in place are just a band aid and as parents it is important that you are aware of them. Staying up to date with laws pertaining to bullying will help you understand your children’s rights, become a better advocate for your children and be able to as...

Parenthood can be challenging even under the best of circumstances, and parenting a child with special needs presents unique challenges. Amy Joy, a special education teacher with 10+ years of classroom experience, an autistic parent of a neurodivergent child, and a parenting coach shares her personal experience and insights in this episode on how she has managed to raise her children as well as su...

What makes one Latino or Latina? I have been thinking about this after I replied to an Instagram post regarding Gina Rodriguez’s response after she was asked if she needs to speak the language in order to identify or be considered to be Latina. She responded by saying that she is not defined by anyone’s definition of Latina and that she walks in her world confidently. Just like her, I agree that t...

Forgiveness is a hard concept to come to terms with especially if someone has hurt you. As parents it is crucial to teach your kids about forgiveness especially when they have bullied. Forgiveness has a number of benefits, such as promoting emotional healing, reducing the likelihood of long-term resentment, revenge-seeking, encouraging empathy and compassion. Being able to forgive is also part of...

Parenting for men has changed over the years and fathers are more involved in areas of parenting that they were not used to navigating decades ago.  In this episode, I speak with my husband Henry Rivera, and Nick Dorste about their opinions and perspectives on how they have been able to raise children in a diverse society.   We discuss: ⚫ How Nick and Henry navigate parenting daughters&...

Everyone might find the internet to be a dangerous place, but kids and teenagers are particularly at risk. Online dangers can have serious, expensive, even catastrophic repercussions, from cyber predators. Kids might become exposed to inappropriate content online, but knowing what threats are present and how to protect against them is the first step in keeping kids safe online. In this episode, I...

Whether or not college is the right next step for a child can depend on a variety of factors, such as their interests, goals, and educational needs. For some students, college may be the best choice to pursue a certain career or to continue their education in a specific field. While others it  may not be the best fit and they prefer to enter the workforce or explore alternative educational op...

There are several benefits to doing an end-of-year review. It can help you reflect on your accomplishments and challenges from the past year, set goals for the coming year, and identify areas for improvement. An end-of-year review can also help you take stock of your personal and professional growth and development over the past year. Additionally, it can be a helpful tool for tracking progress to...

We all want to be the best parents we can be for our children, but there is often conflicting advice on how to raise a kid who is confident, kind and successful. Every aspect of being a parent has become more complicated and more fraught in this day and age with parents managing complex new assignments and anxious new decisions, all while handling the regular questions that come up in daily life w...

Society has come a long way since circus “freak shows” put little people on display. But little people still face a high level of stigma in society and most times a lack of reference to who they are and what they can or cannot do. However little people are more than just their height or disabilities, just like other human beings they are filled with passion and enthusiasm to go above and beyond to...

After teaching for several years, Jennifer “Jen” Rafferty realized how much the job that she loved was exhausting her. Thing is, she lacked resources to support her do her job better. Having always been interested in neuroscience, she dove into the research about how we learn through the lens of cognitive neuroscience which led her to pursue her Ph. D. in Education Psychology. Her insatiable curio...

Cairo Eubanks was in college when a peer began stalking and harassing her online. She didn’t personally know the guy. After months of his attacks, she decided to speak up about it online, and much to her surprise other victims spoke out. They all banded together and with a lot of work, they were able to put a stop to it. But it shouldn’t have taken over 30 women to stop one cyberstalker. That expe...

What is the first thing you think of when you hear the word, “grief”? I’m pretty sure that most people think of the loss of someone. But, there are many types of grief and there aren’t any rules on how long or how one should express their grief. Some people might even feel like they’re not allowed to grieve, but they want to. Teresa Phelps is a grief recovery method specialist who has been helping...

Teaching kids about bullying awareness can be tough, but this author does it in a very entertaining way that will get kids to read more about it! Let’s be honest, in order to teach kids about topics that can seem boring, we have to do it in an entertaining way. It’s exhausting for parents like me who don’t have the creativity to make dull topics fun. However, we have people like Antonio Lumley, an...

In this episode, I am joined by Anna Scoby , an award-winning speaker, communication coach, and the founder of Project Be You , a non-profit organization dedicated to youth. Anna explains how communication is a science and can be used as an expression for different emotions as well as an empowerment tool. We talked about: How children and parents can communicate to each other The importance of pub...

With a number of teens experiencing more and more anxiety and depression, life coaching for kids and teens helps build emotional resilience, build self-esteem and increase confidence. And this is a subject Nella Castro is well acquainted in, as a life coach and counselor for teen girls and young women. With over 13 years of experience as a School Counselor and mentor,  helping teens and young...

It can be scary to send your child across the country by themselves on a plane, but eventually, your kids will have to travel all by themselves. How would you prepare your child? Rain is a 14-years-old who traveled from Maryland to California by herself. Rain and I want to share some tips on how we prepared her to travel alone and what you can expect when it comes to unaccompanied minors traveling...