Speaker 1: Gang Gang, Gang Gang. Welcome, welcome to my show, your
Speaker 1: show exactly a Mada. This is your girl, Amada la
Speaker 1: Negra and this is the production of iHeart. Today, I
Speaker 1: have a special guest, she's been with me a thousand times,
Speaker 1: and this is my producer and friend Charlie. Today, I
Speaker 1: want to talk about overcoming small business challenges as an entrepreneur,
Speaker 1: as a businesswoman myself, I have had to you know,
Speaker 1: start zero two one thousand. Everybody knows that I'm a
Speaker 1: very ambitious person. I'm a go getter. I'm always looking
Speaker 1: for the next big thing to do, how to become
Speaker 1: greater and better in life overall, whether it is through
Speaker 1: my personal challenges, but also in business. And I definitely
Speaker 1: have overcome a lot of business challenges, especially with real estate.
Speaker 1: Have you ever looked into real estate or any other
Speaker 1: business like that you felt that you've had to overcome,
Speaker 1: you know, challenges.
Speaker 2: I mean, I've never had a quote unquote a small business.
Speaker 2: I've always been very curious about it. My parents had
Speaker 2: a small business when I was growing up, and so
Speaker 2: I saw how difficult and challenging it was for them.
Speaker 2: So I know that it takes a lot of work.
Speaker 2: Especially if you're juggling a family or you're taking care
Speaker 2: of family members as a woman, as a Latina, it's
Speaker 2: even more challenging because you know, you walk into a
Speaker 2: bank to get a loan, or you tell someone, hey,
Speaker 2: I want to do this, and they're already you know,
Speaker 2: looking looking.
Speaker 1: At you like you're mad.
Speaker 2: So it's very it's it's always been scary for me.
Speaker 2: But I will tell you this, that idea of being
Speaker 2: independent and having your own income, that's very appealing to
Speaker 2: me because working for others has its challenges for sure.
Speaker 1: For sure. For example, in twenty twenty, life change for
Speaker 1: everyone due to the pandemic. A lot of people saw
Speaker 1: their finances disappear because of their jobs closed down and
Speaker 1: you know a lot of people got fired. It was
Speaker 1: a really hard moment for a lot of families. God
Speaker 1: send Me is perfect because even those huge hits and
Speaker 1: a lot of small businesses had to go through made
Speaker 1: them become even more innovative and creative on how to
Speaker 1: financially stay afloat. People had to figure out, you know,
Speaker 1: home businesses to do in order to financially survive. Right,
Speaker 1: we saw people that were innovative and creative and took
Speaker 1: advantage of the opportunity when, for example, when COVID came,
Speaker 1: you saw a hope unto people selling face mask, right,
Speaker 1: we saw people being creative and selling hand sanitizers. And
Speaker 1: that's part of being a small business owner is being
Speaker 1: creative and not letting your business fall. You can always
Speaker 1: stick to the strategy of this is exactly how my
Speaker 1: business is going to work, this is exactly how I'm
Speaker 1: going to go about it, because the word exact doesn't
Speaker 1: exist when you have a small business. Sometimes you have
Speaker 1: to be able to be open minded enough to you know,
Speaker 1: work your way around the society you know, and society's needs.
Speaker 1: In many occasions where out here selling things or doing
Speaker 1: things that we personally love, which you should be passionate
Speaker 1: about whatever your personal business may be. But at the
Speaker 1: same time, we have to think about what is the
Speaker 1: demand in the market. What can I provide for you
Speaker 1: that you may need, right, and in many occasions is
Speaker 1: you may just want it, and that is not necessarily
Speaker 1: a necessity, but they make it to the point that
Speaker 1: it becomes a standard in society and it basically levels
Speaker 1: you out into what place you belong financially in society,
Speaker 1: and it makes you want to purchase these five six
Speaker 1: twenty thousand dollars back in bands and all these crazy things.
Speaker 2: It's interesting that you say that, because during the pandemic
Speaker 2: I saw more.
Speaker 1: Women, no offense men.
Speaker 2: More women in my life be creative with how they
Speaker 2: were going to survive. I had a friend who started
Speaker 2: her own da mail business. She started selling tamales. She's
Speaker 2: a young woman. Her business is blown up and now
Speaker 2: she gets orders all across the country. Another person that
Speaker 2: I knew started her own pie business. She was baking
Speaker 2: and cooking and doing all these things. And so I
Speaker 2: will tell you that women have this entrepreneur We talked.
Speaker 2: We've talked about this before because we're the head of
Speaker 2: the household, because we know how to juggle multiple things.
Speaker 2: We have that innate instinct within us to come up
Speaker 2: with these creative, innovative things because it's already happening in
Speaker 2: our homes. We just don't have the support system at
Speaker 2: times to get out there. And the pandemic forced people
Speaker 2: to really get creative so that they could survive.
Speaker 1: We are natural multitaskers, right, You can do that. You
Speaker 1: can give the same amount of jobs. So man in
Speaker 1: many occasions they don't know how to manage all the
Speaker 1: things at the same time. But women naturally are multitaskers
Speaker 1: and know how to be creative in many occasions, like,
Speaker 1: for example, during the pandemic. Here's another one. The pandemic
Speaker 1: really put a lot of things in perspect there for us.
Speaker 1: But there was a shortage of milk and a lot
Speaker 1: of us, you know, when it came to like you know,
Speaker 1: baby formula and having children, right there was there was
Speaker 1: a shortage, and I was panicking. I didn't know what
Speaker 1: to do. I took flights to the Dominican Republic to
Speaker 1: bring milk. I did all types of things. But for
Speaker 1: those women who financially couldn't do all the things that
Speaker 1: I was able to do. When you're put in a
Speaker 1: corner with no other option, your brain automatically tries to
Speaker 1: figure out a way of survival mode. I saw women
Speaker 1: doing almond milk. I saw we've been doing rice milk.
Speaker 1: I saw women doing all types of stuff. And I'm
Speaker 1: just saying that to say that when you're put in
Speaker 1: a corner, you figure out ways to survive because of necessity,
Speaker 1: and those things, in many occasions are the best things
Speaker 1: that could ever happen. To you get creative when it
Speaker 1: comes to your social media platform, talk to your friends
Speaker 1: and family to promote things for you. There's many things
Speaker 1: that you could do. And in many occasions, because of
Speaker 1: our own fears, our own insecurities, we become insecure about
Speaker 1: our own business. However, you want other people to believe
Speaker 1: in your in your business and your project, but your
Speaker 1: self doubt it. You have to have so much confidence
Speaker 1: in what you do. And I'm saying that to say
Speaker 1: that unfortunately, not everyone can be a boss. You can,
Speaker 1: but it's maybe not meant not everyone is willing to
Speaker 1: take the responsibility of being the leader of that hard role. Right.
Speaker 1: It's a hard role because now not only do you
Speaker 1: have your own business, eventually your own business may need
Speaker 1: other employees. You have to guide that ship. You may
Speaker 1: have to be the one to make those big decisions
Speaker 1: financially and the direction that your business is going to go.
Speaker 1: And that can go even from having to go to
Speaker 1: the bank and ask for a loan. In many occasions,
Speaker 1: you don't want to get yourself in debt because you
Speaker 1: don't want to have to ask for a loan, because
Speaker 1: you don't want the responsibility of knowing that you owe
Speaker 1: somebody money. But if you believe in your project and
Speaker 1: you know what you're doing, and even if you don't
Speaker 1: know what you're doing, but you have faith and you
Speaker 1: know the potential your business has, you have to be
Speaker 1: able to make that big decision and say, you know what,
Speaker 1: if I don't go ask for this loan right now,
Speaker 1: everything I built can literally fall apart. Right So being
Speaker 1: able to also have the right team when you have
Speaker 1: a small business is important. And I'll say small business
Speaker 1: people and I'm only i only keep saying small business
Speaker 1: because it's it's it's a start. How you start up, right,
Speaker 1: it's how you start. You need to have an accountant.
Speaker 1: You should have an accountant. Get yourself an accountant. An
Speaker 1: accountant can run every single thing financially for you, even
Speaker 1: including your taxes. A lot of people get stuck afterwards
Speaker 1: in those taxes because you didn't know how to do
Speaker 1: your taxes properly, pay for things properly. Get yourself an accountant.
Speaker 1: Things that I learn and I wish, I wish it
Speaker 1: I would have gotten accountant way earlier on.
Speaker 2: You know that, that's one of the things people have
Speaker 2: talked about this before. The education system here in the
Speaker 2: United states. It's like you, you're teaching us all these
Speaker 2: different things, but you don't even teach us how to
Speaker 2: like invest our money you want. You graduate high school,
Speaker 2: you graduate college, you're workforce, and you have no idea
Speaker 2: how to even balance your checkbook.
Speaker 1: I messed up a lot when I was starting to
Speaker 1: invest in real estate a lot, and I've learned so
Speaker 1: much and I'm always willing to teach and help people
Speaker 1: about it. And like me, there's people that have even
Speaker 1: more experience that are willing to do it. Whether you
Speaker 1: have a clothing line, whether you want to start a
Speaker 1: car rental, whether you want to start a restaurant, whatever
Speaker 1: it is, there are people out there that have failed
Speaker 1: so many times and got it right that are willing
Speaker 1: to share that experience with you. Are you willing to
Speaker 1: actually do the research to find out? So that's why
Speaker 1: I say, Mauss, get with it. If you really want
Speaker 1: to do something in life, you'll figure out a way
Speaker 1: to make it happen. And then that's it. Right, There's
Speaker 1: a lot of free marketing. There's a lot of things
Speaker 1: you can do. And here's something else I also want
Speaker 1: to talk about. Don't feel For example, we know that
Speaker 1: social media is a really big platform when you're trying
Speaker 1: to promote your business, whatever it may be. And if
Speaker 1: you start your Instagram page, your TikTok page, your snap chat,
Speaker 1: whatever it may be, and you only have zero followers
Speaker 1: or five followers, and only those five followers are the
Speaker 1: ones paying attention to the content that you're posting. Please
Speaker 1: don't think that I got to almost three million followers
Speaker 1: from one day to the other. It took every day,
Speaker 1: me being persistent, me being content, me always pushing my work,
Speaker 1: my brand, who I am, what I'm promoting, what I'm pushing,
Speaker 1: who I am, what I believe in, me pushing it,
Speaker 1: and little by little people start to add up. Don't
Speaker 1: compare yourself to the people that have millions of followers
Speaker 1: and are selling millions of products because they didn't start
Speaker 1: off that way. Understand the journey, Understand the process. It
Speaker 1: takes time to build a brand. It takes time to
Speaker 1: make these sales. It doesn't matter if you're only making
Speaker 1: one or two cells. At least you're making them. You're
Speaker 1: starting off somewhere, and the closest that you can start
Speaker 1: off with is your friends and family. If your friends
Speaker 1: and family aren't supporting that alone, should let you know
Speaker 1: where they stand in your life.
Speaker 2: That's an important point that you make, and I think
Speaker 2: it's it's crucial that we talk about this. If you
Speaker 2: want to start a small business, you have to be
Speaker 2: able to ask for help, and you have to be
Speaker 2: able to talk to your family and friends first. That's
Speaker 2: where I don't have that bone in me. I don't
Speaker 2: know how to ask for help. I don't know how
Speaker 2: to go to somebody and say, Hey, I'm starting a
Speaker 2: new business.
Speaker 1: Can you check out my page? Can you be the
Speaker 1: first to buy my thing?
Speaker 2: I remember my mom telling me one time that when
Speaker 2: she was a kid, my grandma used to send my
Speaker 2: mom to lestiends to ask for like a layway to
Speaker 2: like get a milk or whatever. And she's like, yeah,
Speaker 2: I would always go to the store and ask for
Speaker 2: like free milk that grandma and grandpa would would pay later.
Speaker 1: And I never was embarrassed.
Speaker 2: I was like, oh my god, Mom, like I'm embarrassed
Speaker 2: to ask for help.
Speaker 1: Like I don't have that bone in me. Okay, now
Speaker 1: let's talk about why are we embarrassed to ask for help?
Speaker 1: What causes us to feel embarrassed?
Speaker 2: Well, I'm embarrassed because what if I get rejected. What
Speaker 2: if they tell me I have a stupid idea, or
Speaker 2: that they have other that they can't spend their time
Speaker 2: with my I don't know with my silly concept.
Speaker 1: Do you think this? Sometimes we're too much into our
Speaker 1: own heads. We're already in our minds, We're already assuming
Speaker 1: what someone may say without us even giving them the
Speaker 1: opportunity to listen. And it's happened to me in the past,
Speaker 1: and that's why I'm saying it. There's no worse feeling
Speaker 1: than regretting not having done so. Therefore you do. I'd
Speaker 1: rather you to tell me it was a stupid idea
Speaker 1: and I don't want to do it. But you never know.
Speaker 1: If you actually open your mouth, it might be like, oh,
Speaker 1: you know what, that's cool as hell. Let me support you.
Speaker 1: I got you. What do you need me to do?
Speaker 1: You need me to post, you need me to promot?
Speaker 1: How much is it is? Fifteen dollars, twenty dollars, one
Speaker 1: hundred dollars? I can do it. You never know. But
Speaker 1: sometimes we're so caught up in our own head of
Speaker 1: what we think people are gonna think of us. And
Speaker 1: I think that also, society has put a lot of
Speaker 1: pressure on us. Social media has put a lot of
Speaker 1: pressure on us. The lack of support of our own
Speaker 1: family makes us doubt ourselves. You know, I'm not just
Speaker 1: gonna blame us for feeling that way. Sometimes it's just
Speaker 1: your circle, and that's important too. If your circle is
Speaker 1: not supportive, then you need new friends. And that's another
Speaker 1: reason why my circle is really small. When you are
Speaker 1: a small business and you're trying to start something, you
Speaker 1: don't need any type of negativity. If you have your
Speaker 1: little boyfriend that calls you dumb or stupid, or you're
Speaker 1: wasting your time, get rid of him. That's the first
Speaker 1: reason why you won't succeed. If you have your family
Speaker 1: members complaining about what you're doing, You're spending too much money,
Speaker 1: Why are you doing that? Get away from them, don't
Speaker 1: share with them anything. Change your circle. If you want
Speaker 1: to succeed in life, you have to change your circle.
Speaker 1: You have to be in the same frequency your friends
Speaker 1: and you have to be in the same frequency. We
Speaker 1: all want to succeed. We're all supporting each other. I
Speaker 1: think that what you're doing is great. I love what
Speaker 1: you're doing. You know what, if you don't want to
Speaker 1: go to the club today, or you can't go out
Speaker 1: because you're working in your business. I respect that. I
Speaker 1: understand that go for it. If you have people that're
Speaker 1: like hessamiena lead that you could do it tomorrow, do
Speaker 1: it later, don't do it now. Wrong person to be
Speaker 1: around with. If you look at people like the creators
Speaker 1: of Amazon and Facebook and all these big business McDonald's
Speaker 1: and all these big blasins, they had to sacrifice their
Speaker 1: time in order to make their brand succeed. And that's
Speaker 1: another thing. I mean, we could talk about this for days.
Speaker 1: There's so many layers into becoming a successful brand or
Speaker 1: becoming a successful business. You have to learn how to sacrifice.
Speaker 1: You can't always go out. You can't always buy yourself
Speaker 1: the nice thing that you want to do. You can't
Speaker 1: always go out to dinners, you can't always do the
Speaker 1: things that you wanted to do because you have to
Speaker 1: think about the bigger picture. The bigger picture is you
Speaker 1: want your business to succeed, and if that means you
Speaker 1: can go out with your little stupid friends that add
Speaker 1: no value to the purpose that you see for yourself
Speaker 1: in your future, then you have to go ahead and
Speaker 1: do that. Every single person is born with twenty four hours,
Speaker 1: It is up to you to know what you're gonna
Speaker 1: do with your twenty four hours. We have people that
Speaker 1: are only sleep four hours. And I'm not saying sleep
Speaker 1: four hours. You do whatever you think is best for you.
Speaker 1: But there's people that sleep four hours because they feel
Speaker 1: that the rest of that day they have to invest
Speaker 1: it in their business in order for it to succeed.
Speaker 1: But if you want to be sleeping eight hours ten hours,
Speaker 1: and out of that, you have to take another hour
Speaker 1: to shower, another hour to eat, another hour to hang out,
Speaker 1: another hour to take a nap, another hour or two
Speaker 1: for four per Instagram and social media, and then you
Speaker 1: want to complain because your business is not succeeding. Whole's fault,
Speaker 1: is it?
Speaker 2: It's like you mentioned, it's a lot of work. And
Speaker 2: most people see a successful person or a successful business
Speaker 2: and they're like, ah, that's easy, and then they get
Speaker 2: down to the new gritty and they realize how much
Speaker 2: time and effort it takes to actually make a business successful.
Speaker 1: It really requires you to have stamina and long term, like.
Speaker 2: You this discipline, you have to be able to be
Speaker 2: planning ahead of the game, long term, have goals, have deadlines.
Speaker 1: It's very stressful.
Speaker 2: So if you want, if you really want that, you
Speaker 2: know dream, if you have a dream of opening up
Speaker 2: a small business and that really is your dream, it
Speaker 2: is going to require work. No sta facin. That's that's
Speaker 2: expression right. The biggest challenges are the best in the
Speaker 2: long term. So in that sense, that's part of the
Speaker 2: deal that you need to make with yourself. Okay, I'm
Speaker 2: going to open this small business, but I have to
Speaker 2: acknowledge that is going to take a lot of work.
Speaker 1: I'm passionate about these conversations. I'm going to tell you why.
Speaker 1: Because I come from an immigrant mother. You know, I
Speaker 1: come from an immigrant mother that crossed the Mexican border
Speaker 1: to get here so that one day when she had me,
Speaker 1: I could have a good future. And I refuse to
Speaker 1: let her down. I refuse for her to see me
Speaker 1: like go exact fiso that I had to go through
Speaker 1: for this girl and she's doing nothing with her life.
Speaker 1: I refuse to be that. I want to be a
Speaker 1: success story, not only because of my mother where we
Speaker 1: come from, but for my daughters, for the next generation
Speaker 1: to come. I want to be a success story, and
Speaker 1: I know that requires me to put in the work
Speaker 1: and I have and I've proven it. And not only that,
Speaker 1: but now as a single mother, I do my podcast.
Speaker 1: Thanks to you guys for supporting me. I do love
Speaker 1: and hip hop. I'm filming whenever they require for hours
Speaker 1: on a day, I'm doing another reality show. I just
Speaker 1: finished doing another one. I also take care of my daughters.
Speaker 1: I put in the work like I don't sleep at night,
Speaker 1: not only because I'm exhausted and I put in all
Speaker 1: the extra hours of work, but because I also have
Speaker 1: two babies that are one years old and I'm still
Speaker 1: putting in the work. And even though I do have
Speaker 1: my days like yesterday, yesterday was one of the toughest days,
Speaker 1: because you know, it's hard also when you see on
Speaker 1: social media. And I'm gonna go a little bit off topic,
Speaker 1: but I know that in many occasions, when you have
Speaker 1: a small business, you also have your own personal life
Speaker 1: to live, and your personal feelings can get involved in
Speaker 1: your business, which can make you lack right. I'll go
Speaker 1: to the shower, I'll cry myself off till my eyes
Speaker 1: are coming out of my face. I shake it up
Speaker 1: and I get right back to it. Because we all
Speaker 1: have moments, but you can't stop like nothing can allow
Speaker 1: you to stop. And I was just having a moment
Speaker 1: because it's hard to be a mom in the process
Speaker 1: of this. It was already hard enough to do it
Speaker 1: when I didn't have children and I was still pushing,
Speaker 1: but then now to also be a good mother in
Speaker 1: the process of this and not, you know, miss out
Speaker 1: on important moments for my daughters and do all those things.
Speaker 1: It's a lot of work. Shout out to all those
Speaker 1: single mothers, to all those single fathers, because there's others
Speaker 1: out there too that put in the work. Shout out
Speaker 1: to you. If you're out here being the best you
Speaker 1: can be and you're also being a good parent, I
Speaker 1: give you all the credit in the world because it's
Speaker 1: a really tough job and it's a lot, but you're
Speaker 1: doing it, you're accomplishing it, and I just want to
Speaker 1: take a moment to let you know you are amazing.
Speaker 1: You are doing such a great job. You deserve it all.
Speaker 1: And I know that it's hard, and I know that
Speaker 1: it's tough, and this is almost what you can take
Speaker 1: home with you. But be disciplined, be focused, be determined,
Speaker 1: don't allow anything to stop you from accomplishing your goal,
Speaker 1: keep your eye on the goal, on the vision, on
Speaker 1: the purpose right, become educated, never stop asking questions, any
Speaker 1: opportunity that you have. When you feel that you're bored,
Speaker 1: go on YouTube and watch a documentary. Go on Netflix,
Speaker 1: watch documentaries. Watch things that are going to educate you,
Speaker 1: that are going to inform you. You know, learn that
Speaker 1: in order to succeed, you must sacrifice. Sacrifice your time,
Speaker 1: sacrifice party, sacrif financially, it's a sacrifice in order to succeed.
Speaker 1: There's just so many layers to this, and I'm so
Speaker 1: passionate because I love to see people succeed. I love
Speaker 1: to see people put in that hard work and then
Speaker 1: zero to one thousand make a name in a brand
Speaker 1: for themselves. Because you're also doing this to support your family.
Speaker 1: You are breaking you know, generational curses by becoming successful.
Speaker 1: And I know everybody wants it, but not everybody gets it.
Speaker 1: So when you do get it, because you will get it,
Speaker 1: you're gonna know that you did it because you put
Speaker 1: in the work. And that is so important. Put in
Speaker 1: the work. Cry it off, jog it off, work it out,
Speaker 1: do whatever it is that you have to do, and
Speaker 1: get back to it. You know, have your job and
Speaker 1: on the side, also invest time for your own business
Speaker 1: and your own goals and your own dream. Don't let
Speaker 1: your paycheck stop you from achieving your own personal goals.
Speaker 1: That's very important. Arlene. Thank you so much for joining
Speaker 1: in today. I am so grateful for you as usual.
Speaker 1: Thank you guys so much for being part of exactly
Speaker 1: a Mada. Thank you for subscribing. Thank you for giving
Speaker 1: me those five stars. Thank you for being always in
Speaker 1: tune and hitting me up on Instagram at amaraa Ale
Speaker 1: and making sure that you follow me and tell me
Speaker 1: all the great things that you love about the show.
Speaker 1: Catch my show by searching for MICRODDA podcasts on YouTube
Speaker 1: and clicking exactly Amata and remember that this is a
Speaker 1: production of Ihearts Microturda podcast network. For more podcasts from iHeart,
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Speaker 1: to your favorite show. This has been exactly a maa.
Speaker 1: Bye amadaa