Today we’d like to introduce you to Jennifer Herrera
Hi Jennifer, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I have been a seeker since my teens. I started there because the quest for greater understanding directed my nonlinear and unconventional path. As a mixed-race Latina, growing up in the San Fernando Valley raised by a single mother, I recall vividly having thoughts and questions about life, humans, and why we are here. I sought answers to the hurts and suffering I felt and saw around me. This focus at such a young age kept me a bit separate, and hiding parts of myself became my coping mechanism. Fast forward a few decades and I can make sense of a lot more of the story, how it formed me, and how my atypical calling was being revealed quite early. Whether it was being teased as a “self-help guru” in high school or being labeled as “woo” in my thirties, my sense of self was attempting to stand in a world that didn’t yet value – my unique superpowers.
I did my undergrad studies at UC Santa Barbara and after discerning law school was out of my confidence depth and pocketbook, I moved overseas and lived in Japan to teach English with the JET Program. All along I was seeking. With a budding career in fashion retail leadership, I came upon a Master’s Program in Spiritual Psychology. It was here that things began to make sense. This education which I later added a year to focus on Consciousness, Health, and Healing, provided me with a skillset and a technology for understanding human behavior, and the practice of inner mastery. Learning about human evolution through a spiritual lens was the “understanding” I had been searching for all those earlier years.
From that point on, around 2000, my life’s trajectory was supercharged, and took on a new dimension of seeing myself and the world through soul-centered eyes. Seeing your human experience through this lens is a practice and one I continue to hone with all of my life experiences.
I went on to have an inspired and fulfilling career in fashion retail and other disciplines through successive leadership roles. It was in 2009 when I knew I was hitting my own ceiling or upper limit. I explored coaching at that time but no program could touch the education I had already received. In 2012 I returned to Los Angeles after living in San Franciso, New York City, and San Diego, and audited the second year of the Master’s Program I had done over a decade prior, now with more life experience. It was transformative once again, and my professional roles started to inhabit more of the organizational development, change management, and leadership development focus. I also started a side hustle executive coaching and facilitating leadership training. This slowly grew to performance consulting and assisting entrepreneurs and C-level executives to greater levels of personal growth, strategic vision execution, and conscious leadership.
Most recently, I led the organizational development of a private non-profit healthcare system in South Los Angeles, joining three months before the pandemic. Given the state we were all in, my role became focused on serving and supporting the mental health and well-being of 2200 healthcare workers. It was an extraordinary opportunity to be of service using my education, my dynamic professional experience, and my spiritual fortitude to guide frontline workers and healthcare executives through the most challenging times of their lives. This role was significant in preparing me for the business I have and continue to build today.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has not and I also feel very grateful and blessed for the many opportunities I have had and for the life I have created. I share some of my challenges in the last question. What is most significant to note were the financial struggles that cradled by coming of age and how my lack of connection to my Mexican culture and heritage fostered a lot of internal shame. I can see now that what made up my sense of self was feeling inferior to all the people that surrounded me in high school and beyond. I also felt shame that I didn’t speak Spanish which led to me feeling like I didn’t quite belong anywhere.
We all have a story to grow and heal from and this informed some of the most challenging parts of mine. It also ignited a fire in me to create a life without financial struggle. This supported me in having wonderful career opportunities and much success in business and leadership. I captured a lot of firsts in my family, and I am grateful I had enough ambition and confidence to rise up.
What’s also important to note is when you come from financial lack you tend to carry the mindset and behaviors into your own life until you heal the pattern. After being in significant undergrad and then grad-level debt, and of course, those darn credit cards they hit you up with on campus, I live a financially solvent life. It was not easy and I did a lot of training and education around it, and I want to help as many women as I can find the freedom I have. It is unlike anything I have ever known.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
As a native Angeleno and an OG “valley girl,” I am a true product of this big little city and the diversity of experiences it so generously offers. My journey of self-discovery started early, and growing up in Los Angeles deeply influenced my approach to personal and professional growth, which I now share through Self-Mastery with Jennifer.
My mission is to guide individuals along their path of healing and to help them discover their soul’s highest expression. I believe fervently that each of us has a unique call on our lives—what Aristotle termed “entelechy,” or the realization of potential. Our work is to pay attention to ourselves: what draws us in, what ignites our energy, what lights us up. These are all clues. Getting to know yourself is your ultimate work, and it’s where you create the life you truly love.
Often, the challenges that seem to follow us are actually portals to where we’re meant to serve. Our job is to be students of this unfolding, allowing us to expand into our highest expression while serving the world. This philosophy was reinforced during the pandemic when I provided leadership coaching and mental health support to healthcare leaders and their teams—a role that blended my education in spiritual psychology and organizational development along with my devotion to nurturing human potential.
Through Self-Mastery with Jennifer, I offer a blend of leadership development, performance mindset techniques, and radiant wellbeing practices rooted in spiritual psychology. My focus is on empowering high-achieving women over 40—empaths, introverts, and leaders—who are looking to reconnect with their inner strength and innate gifts. The SuperPower Your Life by Becoming More You: Your Authentic Blueprint course and the Your Secret SuperPower Quiz are designed to help you cultivate your inner mastery.
I’m particularly proud of the authenticity that permeates my brand. Every piece of content, from my weekly Instagram live sessions to my upcoming podcast, Heal Your Part, is crafted to educate, inspire, and uplift. We explore themes like belief systems, vulnerability, conscious leadership, and making high self-worth choices, always with a mix of depth and lightness.
To my fellow Angelenos reading Voyage LA, Self Mastery with Jennifer represents a movement toward embracing the power of self-mastery and inner peace. If what I’ve shared resonates with you, I invite you to explore further. Whether it’s through my upcoming book, “The Beauty of Our Soul,” my courses, or my podcast, my goal is to be a guide on your journey to a life that’s as fulfilling as it is transformative. Remember, you are more powerful than you know, and the path to that power begins with choosing yourself.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
The online digital space is in a powerful upswing and the global e-learning market is estimated to exceed 500 billion by 2027. (Source: Thinkific.com) As well, executive coaching continues to build and is estimated to reach 25 billion by 2031. (Source: Growthspace.com) Personal development trends are also positive with people seeking support for career development, entrepreneurial business coaching, mindset and wellbeing, and the list goes on. It is a very powerful time to be in the personal growth space.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.jenniferherrera.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/selfmasterywithjennifer/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/selfmasterywithjennifer/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@iamjenniferherrera
Image Credits
Jennifer Herrera
Lucia Doynel
Bella Tallarino
