The Power of Teamwork: Overcoming Health, Motherhood, Entrepreneurship Challenges with Tanya Alvarez

Transcript

This episode is fantastic. We chat with Tanya Alvarez, who, at age twenty five, started a a New York ad agency using credit cards. And went from zero to one million in revenue in the first year. She's overcome a whole lot in her life. She's forty five now, And we we chat a good bit about health struggles that she's been through. Although perspective is criti

cal with regard to that and how frankly, her sister has, much more severe health struggles and so how Tanya sees this, her own challenges as is truly a blessing in comparison. We talk about how to scale your business with purpose. Talk a lot about accountability and, group accountability. She runs a company now called OwnersUp, and they provide and, accountability groups for entrepreneurs. And so that's really one of the main themes through this this episode is is intentionality, but specifically with regard to creating accountability in your life and holding yourself accountable through community and small groups. And again, particularly targeted for entrepreneurs. We talk a good bit about cost and prioritization, how everything has a cost. There's almost always an opportunity cost or some other cost when you're making a choice in life. And how if you get your principles and your values down, you know, that that really helps with kind of the day to day micro decisions, along the way. We talk about how Tanya became a mother in, March of twenty twenty, which if you recall, there was a a pandemic all of a sudden in, in She was in New York City, and now she has two, children and and, how she we we chat a little bit about how she created an advisory board to for her to meet her husband as well. So very intentional along the way. She is a, an endurance athlete, And, but has been able to figure out how to balance, being a mother and a successful entrepreneur, which is obviously not easy. She's a a world traveler, came from almost nothing. Has just is super successful and quite an inspiration, and I I know she will be to you as well.

Speaker 1

Welcome to the from adversity to abundance podcast. Are you an entrepreneur or aspiring entrepreneur, then this show is for you. Each week, we bring you in packed stories of real people who have overcome painful human adversity to create a life of abundance. You are not alone in your struggle. Join us, and you will experience the power of true stories and gain practical knowledge from founders who have turned poverty into prosperity and weakness into wealth. This podcast will encourage you through your health relationship, and financial challenges so you can become the hero in your quest for freedom. Take ownership of the life you are destined to live. Turn your adversity into abundance.

Speaker 0

Welcome everybody to another episode of the from adversity to abundance podcast. I am your host, Jamie bateman, and I'm thrilled today to have with us Tanya Alvarez of owners Up. She is the founder, and she has a lot of other a lot of other things going on we're gonna get into. I'm excited to hear your story, Tanya. How are you doing today?

Speaker 2

Good. Great. Thank you for having me.

Speaker 0

Absolutely. This is gonna be a fun one for sure. I haven't recorded in a little bit, so you're gonna have to keep me keep me on my toes. This'll be fun. So for the listener who's unfamiliar with you, who are you and what are you up to today?

Speaker 2

Yeah. So right now, I started my first business at twenty five, but grew it over one million within the first year, sold it invested in others, and I am actually doing owners up. It's something I wish I had on my journey of entrepreneurship. And what ends up happening is here I was training for Boston marathon. And even though I was a collegiate distance athlete, I still, still joined a team of people even though I knew exactly what to do and what to train for because just like business running a marathon, you sign up, you're excited, and it's a long journey. Absolutely. And you want years to encourage you coaches, a coach just feel your see your blind spots and kind of course correct you. And I realized that when I was growing my business really quickly, I didn't have anybody, and I wanted that constant feedback, that constant accountability that system to move me fur forward and not be let's be honest. A workaholic. There's so many workaholics. So that's what owners up is on values. Think of it as a crossfit for small businesses.

Speaker 0

Okay. Awesome. So just before we jump into your back store, So for you personally, what does a a day in your life look like? You know, what's a typical day look like for you?

Speaker 2

It's still different. Now I have two kids. I have a one and a half year old and a three and a half year old. So, you know what, how everybody always talks about to this in this morning, do this. I'm like, no. My mornings are Sometimes they wake up before them, but, like, be very quiet. I feel like they have bad years. And if you could hear me and smell me, and so that you got. So what I usually do is I wake up until they're out the door to go to daycare, my day doesn't fully start in the sense of my personal work.

Speaker 0

Sure.

Speaker 2

It's all done. Then after that, and make sure I have a ritual of really closing up my day and being present with my kid.

Speaker 0

Love that.

Speaker 2

And that's a hard one. I would say for most entrepreneurs, because even though, like, you can be with your kids, but you're still mentally thinking about your business. And you think, oh, well, I'm here. My business will my kids won't notice. Yeah. It's a certain energy. They can notice.

Speaker 0

That's true. Kids are very insightful for sure. And and I know you're you have some some great processes for goal setting and frameworks and things like that, where we can get into in a bit. But I appreciate that, you know, you keeping keeping it real. Right? It's like people love to put out that their their morning routine of twenty five, you know, this cold plunge and whatever else. And that's cool and that can work, and that's great. But the reality is it's not always it's not always life is messy, especially as an entrepreneur, and you've gotta be able to react and pivot and still kinda keep your eyes on the the long term prize, if you will. So let's jump into your backstory. I know you've dealt with adversity. You know, and again, the the show, we're here to inspire entrepreneurs, encourage people, keep it real, though, and let them know that you're gonna go through hard times. You've you know, we've all been through hard times. We're gonna continue to go through hard times. It doesn't mean Tanya doesn't have any more adversity in her life. But I know you've been through some some financial struggles in starting your business, and I know you've been through some health challenges as well. Where would you like to start with your backstory, Tanya?

Speaker 2

The great question. Before I start on that one, it's I feel like if you're not being challenged, you're not growing.

Speaker 0

I love that. Yeah.

Speaker 2

Right. From the green one. So pressure diamonds. Right? So

Speaker 0

Absolutely.

Speaker 2

Anybody who says, oh, yeah. I have your wallet taken care of is you're just not growing? Maybe that's a season that you just don't wanna grow. It's totally okay. Everything's in seasons. Yeah. So, you know, I was raised by a single mom who immigrated to the US from Columbia. She had, she has, me included four kids. And my, my oldest sister has a rare disease called osteogenesis imperfecta, which is brittle bones. And that means that she can have, like, her bones are, like, pencils, and she can break them very easily. So I found out that I had this after I ran half Ironman. And I fractured my hip. So my severity isn't as bad, but right now I'm at the age of forty five, and I probably have know. I haven't got my bones scanned, but they're not as strong as most other people, so I could fracture. But because I work out, I'm and with a healthy lifestyle, I'm very fortunate. So in that in the ostrichen Genesis in Perfecta, kind of like the worst is kick its the the baby starts breaking bones in the womb when the stomach, and then they're born and some die two days after. Wow. And then the next level could be like a level of my sisters where she's, you know, she's a wheelchair user, and she breaks a lot of bones. Broken over two hundred bones. And I would say one of mine would be one of, like, mine is just like I'm still I've broken two bones. After half Ironman, the other one is I moved to Minnesota and Black I've slipped on black ice and then Yeah. Actually, both my wrist when I had a eight month old. That was a old thing of surrender.

Speaker 0

Well, I love how you're yeah. Absolutely. Really. I can't I can't imagine that. It's interesting you say that about about you kind of alluded to the fact that it's really all about your perspective, because, you know, you could very easily be bitter and say that why did why me and why did I get this this health condition and most people don't have this brittle bone, condition. Right? And so you know, it's not fair. Right? But compared to most people who have the condition, you have it pretty good. It sounds like, and I don't wanna put words in your mouth. I just,

Speaker 2

Really good. And even when I factored, I will say when I found out, running was my identity. And when I found out that if I continued running, I would have a hip replacement. I was a little down the next day. And then my sister who has a y, she says, after your bones are healed, you're gonna be able to walk and do things.

Speaker 0

Yeah.

Speaker 2

And that all goes like, boom. Coming out of it. Yeah. In days. Yeah. And so Yeah.

Speaker 0

Just chime in just briefly. We and I won't go too far into this, but we actually just found out about, so my son is is a teenager, and it's taken us fourteen years to find out that he does have a genetic condition that's really rare. And and again, I I'll save this for another episode. But I shared with him the other day that when we just found this out, we shared this information with him as well. And so he's had some some real challenges associated with this for for his whole life. You know, but again, it's, like, compared to most kids or people who have this genetic condition that they call it a kind of a misspelling. He's really, really doing well. I mean, a lot of these kids have serious heart conditions and bone conditions and mus muscular conditions that or or they don't they're not actually able to learn to to speak ever. And he's certainly had struggles and we've had a hard year, to be honest with you. But I'd simply say that you know, it it's all about your perspective. And I think, you know, we're seeing this as we're really blessed, and he's really blessed that it it could have been a lot worse. And, actually, I told him that, it's so rare that the the hospital wants to study him. And so they, you know, that he's he's pretty excited now to learn more about own, you know, genetics and things like that. But but, you know, it's a

Speaker 2

great story. That's what my sister always told me. She goes, You are gonna be so resilient and your story is gonna inspire others, and and you get to create that. A lot of people haven't gone through that.

Speaker 0

So true. Okay. So now okay. At what what age did this really hit you or or this is a lifelong thing you're you're dealing with

Speaker 2

was there a kind

Speaker 0

of an inflection point in that part of your story at all?

Speaker 2

Well, it was one of those things where my sister I've always lived, like, tomorrow is unpromised because of her. And then I had to make a really hard decision when be my own kids. I had kids through IVF, so I could eliminate that gene moving forward.

Speaker 0

I see.

Speaker 2

The hardest part about that is my sister was such a big impact in my life. And here I am removing the gene. Right?

Speaker 0

Yes.

Speaker 2

So my first generation's moving forward won't have it. That was a really hard one I had to sit with, and it it may be who I am too. So that's the whole story of the health thing and and then it learns. Running wasn't my identity. I can always create something new and sporting things. I went into cycling. I do a bunch of things, and I'm like, oh, I'm just creating myself every time. It wasn't at said identity. Sometimes we, at least for me, I associate and that was like my identity. That's what people know me for. Oh my god. I can't run what's gonna happen, even in entrepreneurship. Yeah. For sure. When you're kind of scaling and then you're like, what happens if I make a wrong decision? You're like, I'm gonna be known as the failed entrepreneur or whatever it is that you had. Sure. Yeah. That's just part of the story. And when you start thinking about, like, Nobody listens to the person who has a perfect life. Nobody wants to hear that. Right? No. Absolutely. I hope her become successful because she shared everything. And then you hear that, then so that's what makes, gives your life more texture, more meaning.

Speaker 0

I love that. Yeah. And we have had, we've talked another episodes about the we had a professional baseball player who had a very short lived career because he he got injured and his whole identity that was that, and it's over. Who are you now? And and, he's very successful now. He's a very successful business owner, and is crushing it and and and, you know, we keep in touch and he's an inspiration, but it's it's just it doesn't It's all it's more impressive, actually, if you can pivot and and and, you know, continue down a different path and still have ups and downs, but find success and and work your way through adversity and get to abundance. So Let's talk about, so you've definitely dealt with health health issues for sure. And and we're we're not trying to check all the boxes. We we know that everyone has dealt with health, relationship, financial challenges, you know, spiritual challenges. There are all kinds of plenty of challenges out there. You've definitely checked the box with regard to the health side of things. I think starting out, you started your first business at twenty Is that right? Let's let's talk about that a little bit.

Speaker 2

Yeah. So, you know, here, my immigrant mom, who's raising four kids on her own single. And I got into, you know, from my background, low income, all of it, the chances of me getting into a really good school, like, I believe type is very rare. Right? And I got into wellesley. And I was wellesley College, and I was really fortunate, and it was an exciting time, and I remember walking in. Here on my roommate is third generation wellesley. I don't know if if people know what that means, but it's pretty impressive. That means their their life is pretty stacked. And I came in with my suitcase and masking tape around it. Because that's all my family could put together. And then they were looking around, you know, they had their their generations. They were so excited to meet, this person and they look around and they're like, with your parents. And I was like, oh, I got dropped off and took a bus, and they're like, oh, you know, and that was my first experience. That, of course, I'm excited not to have my children have that. That is a story I will remember, you know. So now, so we do that. The reason why I bring up my mother is Here I am working for startups, and then I was like, I wanna do my own thing. And she's like, do it. And I was like, well, what happens if I fail? And she goes, you'll be exactly where you are. Working for somebody. And I was like, okay. And then I go, well, what happens if nobody wants to hire me? And she's like, you wouldn't wanna work for a company like that. And then I went all in. When nobody there was no rechunkle. Anybody helping me? It was basically I had credit cards and shoot. A lot of determination and I went for it. And so I got I went all in. More crazy hours. Some people are like, how did you do annoying? I did. I worked crazy hours to make it happen, you know, because there was no I couldn't fail. And then from during that whole journey, even when I was able to get to, entrepreneurial organization, you have to be over a million to be there. I would go in there And at this time, this is back in, like, the early two thousand, it was, like, full of brick and mortar companies. And here I was this young Latina talking about, like, you know, marketing, performance based marketing, they're like, what? They had no clue. And That's that's when I realized, wow, I don't have any support. I'm gonna have to figure this out all on my own.

Speaker 0

Wow. Yeah. The one thing I wanna point out, I I do point this out a good bit on the show, but you were bringing to to your your mother the what ifs, what if this happens? What if this happens? And she was actually presenting to you the even ifs. So even if you fail at this business, you're gonna be back where you are any anyway. So Yeah. Who cares? And then you're you would say, well, what if this happens? Well, even if that happens, you know, and I think just and you know, I I don't know her story or anything, but just that wisdom and and, that perspective that kind of big picture and long term perspective, I think can really help people in decision making. And that's not to say everyone should jump into starting a business, but having that even if perspective can give you you know, confidence and and, stability within in the chaos, if you will. But okay. So you start at twenty five, you have no money. You start a New York ad agency. How did you, like, just just how did you fund it? How did How how did things go for that first year?

Speaker 2

Got some clients immediately, and then just proved it. And back then, This was in the Wild Wild West of Internet when there was an affiliate marketing, and it just I could go through some numbers and out back there. But, So we approach it differently. We would go to a website and we would figure out, when someone purchased kind of what's called a funnel, we would go through, like, the pages. And then we say, hey, if we generate this leads or this, generate this, sales, we want a percentage and we would handle everything. So it wasn't us presenting to the client like hire us for this you know,

Speaker 0

set them out.

Speaker 2

Another package, we were performing space. And that was great. We performed. Yes. And the biggest lesson I learned because I was naive Right? I wanted to travel before Instagram was around reminds you guys. I'm forty five. So before all of this, it was trendy. I was like, I wanna go to peru. I haven't gotten much pizza. I wanna travel all these places. How the heck can we pull that off? Well, the only way to pull it off And I tell people to do this now. It's take a two week off to a country where you have no access to internet. You'll realize if your business can survive without you. And so that also helped me understand, like, I was I remember heading to, to hike Machu And there at that time, there's no internet connection. So before that, I need to make sure that my team could handle any emergency, anything, what to do, all of it. I create systems I didn't even know I should do.

Speaker 0

Sure.

Speaker 2

Yeah. And, yeah, they were able to handle it and I was able to create leaders from there. And then take on more and more vacations.

Speaker 0

I love that. And you say, I guess necessity is the mother of all invention or something like that. Right? So you you were you kinda had no choice if you wanted to take this two week trip Yeah. To create these systems and rely on right rely on others. Yeah. It's much easier said than done. It's easy for us to sit here and talk about this on a podcast. Oh, I just, you know, left for two weeks and most it doesn't sound that crazy. I'm going on a trip per week after Christmas, and I'm pretty sure I'll be working, to be honest with you. You know, and and, so much easier said than done to peel yourself away. That's when you really learn if you have a true business or or not or just a a job where you work for yourself

Speaker 2

I wonder if you could just, I don't know, work for an hour or the belief I put in myself, I say no matter what my team does, there's nothing that I can't do that can clean up their mess.

Speaker 0

That's that's and again, that's that even if I love that. It I told my team that before too. Like, hey, you can you can break stuff, but we can fix whatever you break. I mean, it's, you know, not saying just be, throw caution to the wind entirely, but it's okay. We can fix it. Whatever it is. Okay. So that so you got to from zero to one million in revenue in the first year. I mean, that's incredible. One of the other things I took away that when you're when you were talking was that, that you got clients first. So one of the mistakes I've made in business, and every industry is different, but is the whole thought process of build it and they will come? You know?

Speaker 2

Oh, yeah.

Speaker 0

And versus get some clients and then kinda build your business as you serve those clients. Can you speak to that at all? That kind of mindset By

Speaker 2

the way, I have some both mistakes.

Speaker 0

Got it. Got it.

Speaker 2

So, one mistake I learned very quickly when we're, building out a site. It was just like product you say all this cool analytics and we're like this feature is gonna be great. We didn't wanna release it until that feature happened. And I didn't guess what we released the feature. Crickets. Nobody freaking used it. And I that was the biggest lesson I learned because there was so much money we invested in that tech. Just everything and then so you always test it. I always tell people test it. Minimum viable product, test it. If you wanna sell something a product before you jump, make that jump. Sure. Even if you're working for somebody, go sell it or get a case study and see if they like, really amazed by it. Now real estate's a little different. I don't know how you can test it, but

Speaker 0

Yeah.

Speaker 2

I'm sure maybe.

Speaker 0

Well, yeah.

Speaker 2

We can

Speaker 0

get into we'll save that for another episode. But but certainly, I mean, this is the point of the podcast to share mistakes we've made and lessons we've learned so that other people other entrepreneurs in the listener doesn't don't have to, make those same mistakes. So okay. So this was twenty years ago. Walk us through kind of, I mean, this is gonna be a very broad brush, but your entrepreneurial journey, since then.

Speaker 2

So because, all those crazy trips I did, I realized, wow, my team doesn't need me as much. This is pretty cool. And then I was like, I built a pretty cool team. When and all these other companies would come to me and say, hey, would you wanna be part of my company. I was like, sure. I'll take a percentage. Let me be your CMO. And then the thing is my team could just come in. I did this draft and it was executed. So I was I'm involved in a bunch of businesses, which was really cool. But then there was one time where I had three other partners. I was the only one who was single and had no kids and raising money.

Speaker 0

You were doing all the work?

Speaker 2

And then they wanted me to be the CEO and raise the money. And here where I finally got somebody. We're about to sign the papers. And then I said, no. And I pulled, and then the the investor pulled. They weren't happy, but I'm friends with one of the partners still. Mhmm. That was a big hardest decision, one of the hardest because it was not it was a one of the things where it's I always wanted to be, like, in your twenties, you know, especially for my background. I wanted to there was a little chip on my shoulder that I wanted to prove be that entrepreneur, right?

Speaker 0

Sure.

Speaker 2

And then And there was this chance, but then I was like, wait, what about if I work myself? I never have family. I never have kids because I know myself of one of those people who'll do everything to achieve it. And that's when it has to have a reality check. And what is it at all costs? It's kinda like running. Right? I wanted to run-in high school to run again to, like, division one, ended up by division three, even though I got full scholarships to division one, because of the education. And then I had to think, do I wanna be a professional runner? Well, luckily, I I didn't because I would have figured out later on in my that I wasn't able to pull on. But the whole point is what's the cost that you're willing to do? And I don't think people understand that. They see, like, these, like, these happy reels of like entrepreneurship, but Yeah. You have to know the cost. So know what

Speaker 0

I love that. That's very real. We try to keep it real on this on on the show. And, again, it's, yes, I couldn't agree more. It's everything has a cost. Everything has pros and cons. Right? Everything you're spending your time and you're focused somewhere, there's an opportunity cost. And so it's not to say you shouldn't do whatever it is, but but just know there's a cost to it. That that's a great point. So you

Speaker 2

And I think by the way, most important most people skip this is really identifying your values. At analyzing what it is. And this is like a a random story, but, I didn't get married until later on in life. And I would be one of those people who would be in relationships and somehow someone was like, oh, I didn't wanna commit. Then finally I was like, oh, I need to be in a relationship. And when I analyze my values and then rank them, I was no longer in that gray area of meeting. Have you ever met somebody and you're like, everything's gray up? You keep going because you see everything else is great. So for example, I was dating this guy who is, who was in series B, entrepreneur, family oriented, But guess what? When we would get together, it was almost like if I fit in his schedule. And that's not what I wanted. Even though my child used, like, So I had to rank my values to see what it was important. So if I wanted to be one of those people who was kind of like we were a power couple or whatever you call it. And, like, if any other was like that, that wasn't my value, but I need to know that before I continue to invest in.

Speaker 0

Sure. You you didn't wanna be just waving in the hallway and

Speaker 2

Yeah. And and and some people, like, you know, commit to that.

Speaker 0

Right. Absolutely. Okay. So so you've had tons of ups and downs with the on the business side of things, I guess walk us through kind of the last five years. I know you've had two kids how has that affected, you know, for the mothers out there who or, you know, I guess, you know, females who might become mothers, right, and are thinking about starting a business, and, maybe wanna do it all or, you know, how how what advice do you have for someone that's thinking about, running a business, starting a family, What are some takeaways?

Speaker 2

I'm just trying to think of the biggest takeaway. It's almost like running your business and going on vacation. You need able to delegate. I think, I know that I I coach and mentor a bunch of entrepreneurs that still feel that they're the only ones who can do it.

Speaker 0

I see.

Speaker 2

And if you're the only one who can do your thing, then you don't have a business.

Speaker 0

Sure. Makes sense.

Speaker 2

And it's a hard one to kind of swallow. Right? And it's not saying that, like, You always wanna have some of your skills replaced, taught, replaced taught, or else you're gonna be a prisoner to your own company. And I think there's steps. It's not like a one thing that's right away. So in this case, before I even had kids, I wanted to make sure, like, what we do is We have, entrepreneurs in groups of five and we have a coach. So I needed to know that when I was on returning leave that these coaches can handle everything and move forward. And that was a lot of training, a lot of upfront things. The cool thing about where we are in this world right now. A is nominal. Like, here's a quick tip for anybody. Anytime you hear yourself saying, oh, this task is just it's one minute. I can do it faster than teaching. Don't put yourself in that mindset. I want you to go find Loom. I think Loom is free.

Speaker 0

Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2

And record the thing and think it out like as you're doing stuff, like, let's say Simple as writing an email. Go to your inbox. I'm writing this email. I'm gonna write this message, like, and that is a plus Now

Speaker 0

you're speaking my language. My my team is, they're probably tired of me talking about Loom. I mean, I've I think I've done three or four Loom videos this morning already.

Speaker 2

The Power of Teamwork: Overcoming Health, Motherhood, Entrepreneurship Challenges with Tanya Alvarez

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