The Books That Shaped Me

Rafael Pimentel Pinto

0:00 – Intro & Welcome: Angie kicks off Episode 3 and introduces her guest Rafael, a fellow IT-world connector she met through Texas state agency networking events. 2:32 – Meet Rafael: Rafael shares what drives him — a lifelong restlessness, a hunger to learn, and a refusal to stay in one lane that started all the way back in school. 6:03 – Never Fitting One Box: Rafael unpacks what it felt like to float between the athletes, the musicians, and the techies growing up, and why that actually became his superpower. 8:04 – Career Transitions & Trusting Your Gut: Most of Rafael's career moves came from other people calling him because organizations needed transformation — not because he was out hunting for something new. 12:12 – The Unexpected CIO Offer at 29: He shows up to what he thinks is a casual lunch, and leaves with a C-suite role and a pile of high-stakes government problems nobody warned him about. 15:02 – Landing at the Mexican Space Agency: Rafael applied 15-20 times before a Christmas Eve phone call opened a side door — what started as a system admin gig turned into him running the whole agency. 18:44 – Forbes Mexico Digital Transformation Genius Cover: A photo shoot he tried to escape turned into a Forbes Mexico cover feature. He still can't believe it happened. 23:17 – 📚 Book Mentioned: Spartan Up by Joe De Sena — Rafael introduces the book that brought it all together, written by the founder of Spartan Race, and why he picked it up in the first place. 27:38 – What Spartan Races Teach About Life: The book flips your whole perspective on obstacles — they aren't punishment, they're preparation, and discomfort is the actual curriculum. 28:22 – The Resilience Jar Tool: Write down every hard thing you overcome and how you did it, drop it in a jar, and pull from it when life gets heavy. It's a proven record that you can do hard things. 29:11 – The Possibility List Tool: When something bad happens, make a list of what's now possible because of it. Rafael calls this the reframe that changed how he processes setbacks. 30:51 – Angie's Triathlon Story & Mindset Shift: Angie gets real about what she discovered training for her first triathlon — it wasn't her legs that gave out, it was her mind, and then she found out she could override it. 34:12 – Finding Comfort in Discomfort: Calm in the middle of chaos is the actual skill. Your brain literally cannot make good decisions when you're panicked, stressed, or angry. 35:10 – Spartan Race Austin Challenge + Wrap Up: Rafael throws down a challenge, Angie accepts, and they make a public one-year pact to run a Spartan Race together in Austin next May. Deal sealed.

Featuring Theresa Pore

Theresa Pore is a Business Coach, Motivational Speaker and Entrepreneur. Theresa’s passion in business is to help individuals become the best version of themselves while teaching them how to bring their authentic self, their personal strengths and gifts towards becoming independently wealthy in business and in life. The life that they design. Activator by Dr. Jason Jones

Launch featuring Gina Dodd

Introduction discussion with podcast host Angie Smith and long-time bestie Gina Dodd. Together the vision for the podcast is set along with the guiding concepts for further conversations. Books are like teachers, showing up at the right time to aide us on our journey of life.