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

Speaker 0

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 critical 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 as 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 an, 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 and, and 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 From Adversity to Abundance, the go to podcast for real estate entrepreneurs seeking not just to thrive, but to conquer with resilience and mental sharpness. Each week, join us as we dive into the compelling world of real estate through the lens of mental fitness, where challenges transform into opportunities. Get ready to transform your mindset and expand your understanding of what it takes to succeed in real estate. Let's explore these stories of triumph and resilience together. 

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 to hear your story, Tanya. How are you doing today? 

Speaker 2

Doing 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 will 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, grew it over one million within the first year, sold it, invested in others, and I am actually doing OwnersUp. 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. And you want peers 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 it always up is about. Think of it as a cross fit for small businesses. 

Speaker 0

Okay. Awesome. So just before we jump into your backstory, 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 do this in this morning, do this. I'm like, no. My mornings are some sometimes they wake up before them, but, like, they're very quiet. I feel like they have bad ears. And if you could hear me and smell me, and so they wake up. So what I usually do is I wake up, and until they're out the door to go to daycare, my day doesn't fully start in the sense of my personal homework. 

Speaker 0

Sure. It's 

Speaker 2

all done. And then after that, I 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 Yes. Think, oh, well, I'm here. My business won't my kids won't notice. Yeah. There'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. And but I appreciate that, you know, you keeping it 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 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

It's a great question. And 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. Yep. 

Speaker 2

Right. Couldn't agree more. Pressure, diamonds. Right? So 

Speaker 0

Absolutely. 

Speaker 2

Anybody who says, oh, yeah. I have your ball taken care of. That means 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. That's a 

Speaker 0

great point. 

Speaker 2

Yeah. So, you know, I was raised by a single mom who immigrated to the US from Colombia. 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 I don't 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 live a healthy lifestyle, I'm very fortunate. 

Speaker 0

Mhmm. 

Speaker 2

So in that in the osteogenesis imperfecta, kind of like the worst is kid gets the the baby starts breaking bones in the womb, when the stomach, and then they're born and some die two days after. Wow. 

Speaker 0

And 

Speaker 2

then the next level could be, like, a level of my sister's where she's, you know, she's a wheelchair user, and she breaks a lot of bones. She's broken over two hundred bones. And I would say one of mine would be the one of, like mine is just like, I'm still I've broken, two bones, after a half iron. And the other one is I moved to Minnesota and brack I slipped on black ice and then Yeah. Fractured both my wrists when I had an eight month old. That was a whole thing of surrender. 

Speaker 0

So I love how you're yeah. Absolutely. 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 I have 

Speaker 2

been really good. And even when it fractured, 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 going well down the next day. And then my sister who has OI, she says, after your bones are healed, you're gonna be able to walk and do things. 

Speaker 0

Yeah. 

Speaker 2

And that goes like, boom. Got me out of it Yeah. In days. Yeah. And so 

Speaker 0

Yeah. I'll 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'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 musk, muscular conditions that or or they don't they're not actually able to learn to to speak ever. And he 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 his own, you know, genetics and things like that. But but, you know, I 

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

It's so true. Okay. So and now okay. At what what age did this really hit you or or this is a lifelong thing you're you're dealing with? Was there kind 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 isn't promised because of her. And then I had to make a really hard decision when having my own kids. I had kids through IVF, so I could eliminate that gene moving forward. 

Speaker 0

I see. The 

Speaker 2

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

Yeah. 

Speaker 2

So my first generations moving forward won't have it. That was a really hard one I had to sit with, and it it made me who I am too. Mhmm. So that's the whole story of the health thing. And then then I learned running wasn't my identity. I can always create something new and explore new 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 that set identity. Sometimes we Sure. At least for me, I associate, and that was, like, my identity. That's what people know me for. Oh my god. If I can't run, what's gonna happen? Even in entrepreneurship. Right? When you're kind of scaling and then you're like, oh, what happens if I make a wrong decision? You're like, I'm gonna be known as a failed entrepreneur or whatever it is in your head. 

Speaker 0

I think 

Speaker 2

it'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 do that. 

Speaker 0

Right? No. 

Speaker 2

Absolutely. Oprah becomes 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 on other episodes about 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 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 you started your first business at twenty five. 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 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 a Ivy League type is Yeah. 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, I'm my roommate is third generation Wellesley. I don't know what 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 excited to meet, this person, and they look around. They're like, we're 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 of that. And, of course, I'm excited not to have my children have it. That is a a story I'll remember. You know? So now that 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. Nobody there was no rich uncle, 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, worked crazy hours. Some people are like, how did you do annoying? I didn't. I worked crazy hours to make it happen. You know? Because there was no I couldn't fail. 

Speaker 0

Sure. 

Speaker 2

And then from during that whole journey, even when I was able to get to, entrepreneur organization, you have to be over a million to be in there. I would go in there. And at this time, this is back in, like, early two thousand, it was, like, full of 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 it 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 throw some numbers and out back there. But, so we approached 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 amount. 

Speaker 2

Ten dollar package. We were performing space, and that was great. We performed. And the biggest lesson I learned because I was naive. Right? I wanted to travel before Instagram was around. Remind you guys, I'm forty five. So before all of this, it was trendy. I was like, I wanna go to Peru. I wanna go to Machu Picchu. 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, is take a two week off to a country where you have no access to Internet. Mhmm. 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 Picchu, 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. Yeah. They were able to handle, 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. Relay 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 for a 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 said, 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 Oh, yeah. 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 that 

Speaker 2

you're looking for? Done both mistakes. 

Speaker 0

Got it. Got it. 

Speaker 2

So, one mistake I learned very quickly when we were, building out a site. It was just like, probably 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 then 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 attack. 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 were, 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. I'm sure maybe Well, yeah, we can 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 and 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 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. Why don't and all these other companies would come to me and say, hey. Would you wanna be part of my company? And 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 the strategy, and it was executed. So I was kinda 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 Mhmm. And raising money. 

Speaker 0

You were doing all the work? 

Speaker 2

And then they wanted me to be the CEO Got it. And raise the money. And here 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. 

Speaker 0

Mhmm. 

Speaker 2

That was a big, hardest decision. One of the hardest. Because it was not it was a one of the things where it's like, I always wanted to be, like, in your twenties, you know, especially from 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 then 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 who'll do everything to achieve it. And that's when it's to have a reality check. 

Speaker 0

Mhmm. 

Speaker 2

And what is it at all costs? It's kind of 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 life that I wasn't able to full 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 you have to know the cost to know what you're up. 

Speaker 0

I love that. It'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 you're spending your time and your focus 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 quite a way you most important, most people skip this is really identifying your values and 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'd be in relationships and somehow 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 people. You ever met somebody and you're like, everything's gray up, but you keep going because you see everything else is great. So for example, I was dating this guy who is who is 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 values, 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, we met each other and was like, that that wasn't my value, but I need to know that before I continue to invest in it. 

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. Yeah. Absolutely. Okay. So so so you 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 to be 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. Mhmm. I see. If you're the only one who can do your thing, then you don't have a business. 

Speaker 0

Sure. 

Speaker 2

Makes sense. 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 lead 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, AI 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. Yeah. 

Speaker 0

Yeah. 

Speaker 2

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

Speaker 0

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 

Speaker 2

already. What was your record on Loom? I've somehow got that top. 

Speaker 0

Would appreciate it. 

Speaker 2

Did you see? 

Speaker 0

Okay. Wow. I'll have to check that out. But it is free to an extent, and then it's not free anymore just like most of these the software, but couldn't agree more. It's like, think about the next you're gonna do this task again most likely. Right? Or someone's gonna have to do it. If if it's anything that's gonna be done again, record it. And if it's worthless in six months, delete the video. It's not it's not that big of a deal. Right? So, but that can absolutely help with, you know, workflow and and just delegating and automating things. So 

Speaker 2

Also, by the way, Zoom is definitely worth paying for. I don't know what I paid. The AI is phenomenal on that. It'll even make your job easier. 

Speaker 0

Absolutely. Okay. So you kinda prepared to have kids and got your team ready and, you know, but you knew there would be it well, it sounds like it it may 

Speaker 2

be I had my first kid, March twenty fifth twenty twenty in New York City. 

Speaker 0

Wow. 

Speaker 2

And my partner here I am. My partner was not allowed in the hospital. It was a week where in New York City 

Speaker 0

Everything was shut down. 

Speaker 2

To the hospital. He, like, literally dropped me off like he was dropping me off to the airport. 

Speaker 0

That is crazy. 

Speaker 2

I mean could prepare me for that one, by the way. 

Speaker 0

Yeah. No. No. That's yeah. Well and that's that's life and entrepreneurship certainly throw curveballs at us. Right? Yeah. I mean, I imagine that was a challenging, you know, say, first six months or so, first year, I I would presume. What what was that like that first year with with your first child? 

Speaker 2

So we went in a high rise, Manhattan building. And when remember during that time in COVID, in New York City, it was, like, the peak, and you didn't know if, like, you're still sanitizing your groceries. So imagine going down an elevator and trying to hold your breath for more than fifty floors and then covering your baby because you had no clue if Right. 

Speaker 0

The kid 

Speaker 2

that you've been trying to have, because I've been trying to have I had a seven percent chance of having, one kid. I have two. 

Speaker 0

Wow. 

Speaker 2

And now I've you're going through this pandemic, and you're like, oh my god. If I have this kid, like, hopefully, he doesn't die because of COVID 

Speaker 0

or something. Right. Right. 

Speaker 2

So getting past that, then we I've been I lived in New York City for twenty years, and then, I can run my company. I've made sure that any company I've always started up, I can run it from wherever. And, we my husband had a great opportunity in Minnesota. We had we we don't know have any family and friends here. And we moved here in August twenty twenty. 

Speaker 0

Okay. Wow. 

Speaker 2

And so we're here, and, we really we really love it, which is surprising for me because I never you know, New Yorkers, once you're there for a while, it's hard to leave. 

Speaker 0

Sure. Absolutely. 

Speaker 2

So that was a big change. 

Speaker 0

For sure. I I know one of the the, personal interview topics you've talked about before is how you built your advisory board to meet your husband. Can you touch on that briefly? 

Speaker 2

Yeah. So, part of it what, like, what I was saying is literally, like, writing down your values. And then I had to analyze, like, what do I do as a default? And then I found people who, this is a quick version of it, but found people who had happy marriages and people I respect. And then they had to hold me accountable on dates, and they were actually swiping for me on Tinder. Okay. Oh, wow. So I would have not swiped on my husband because of one picture. I was in this, you know, like, superann little, like, oh, boy. What is that picture? Did he, like he could have done a better picture. Where the other person's like, oh, look at everything they wrote. This is great. So anytime they had to swipe, I had to go on a date with the person, and then I had to go on a date more than one time. And instead of finding everything wrong with the person, I had to find great things about them. So it's just full accountability because I think we do a lot of mindset stuff, and mindset isolated doesn't work. Everyone always tells you. If you go to any personal development stuff, they always say, find others. Bring this to others. It doesn't work without it. It's like, if you Sure. I don't know. Health wise, in our house, like, I'm lucky. My husband is on the same page. We have really healthy food. There's nothing where I'm, like, kind of like, oh, no. Here's just Yeah. Attempted. There you go. Yeah. So you have to align yourself. It's really good to have other people. And that's Sure. Me doing it all myself that, having that accountability, finding somebody, I would have slipped into my old patterns, and I wanted to make that change. 

Speaker 0

Makes sense. And you it just sounds like you're very intentional about things, and and one of the ways you hold yourself accountable is to have other people hold you accountable and and have that community, which I know is works into your your business, world as well. That's critical. I mean, you talked right early on about getting that that group, to being a part of the the group for running and holding you accountable for running. You know? And people talk about, well, why why do you you know, why does that person need a coach? They're they're amazingly fit. And it's like, well, that's why they're fit because they have a coach and they have a a community, and that's you know, Tiger Woods needs a coach. Right? I mean, everybody who who excels at anything 

Speaker 2

has, like, a squad, and people don't realize that. This self myth is self made is total myth. 

Speaker 0

I I love that. And and, look, you you came from not much. Right? It's I mean, financially, and you've overcome quite a bit, but I couldn't agree more. There's I I hate the whole self made thing myself. It it's just it doesn't exist. You know, certainly, you have made decisions and are a big and your own personal mindset and behaviors are are big factors in in your success. No doubt. Right? But you couldn't have done it it alone. So I I love I love all that. So, let's By the way, we get on based on 

Speaker 2

that, what most people don't think is, like, they assume that successful people always have this amazing mindset determination. You do. There are times where you're gonna get slapped. Absolutely. Professional, everyone gets it, and you need people to kind of, like, remind you of who you are and why you're that. Because when you're down, like, I'm sure you've been through it where you're like, is my business gonna go down, or what's going on? They're like and you need that support to get you moving forward and get you back on track. 

Speaker 0

Hundred percent. Let's fire off I've got I'll fire off some rapid fire questions, and then then we'll talk more about, your business today and how you're helping people. What is one thing that people misunderstand about you, Tanya? 

Speaker 2

That's a great question. Such a great question. 

Speaker 0

I'm thinking about it. Rapid fire, and and that one usually stumps people. 

Speaker 2

Yeah. That's not a rapid fire. 

Speaker 0

It's not a rapid fire one. But 

Speaker 2

I think I actually got one, that when they see me, they they think that I had it all together, that I had this amazing upbringing that I must be lucky. Right? So they don't they don't realize, everything that I had and the community that that built me who I am. 

Speaker 0

Love that. What is one of your biggest failures or regrets? Something that you would love to be able to to do over. Even if you've learned from it and something good has come out of it, what would you classify as a as one of your biggest failures or regrets? 

Speaker 2

These are really these are not fast. I'm just trying to think of the biggest, 

Speaker 0

Do you make any mistakes in your first year in business that you could, you would do over would do differently? 

Speaker 2

It's fine because I I've already had the story in my head. Like, I I do a real good practice of journaling and saying, okay. This failed. Like, how do I frame it? What do I learn from it? 

Speaker 0

Sure. 

Speaker 2

Sure. Story's already in there that I don't even have the regret. It's so weird. 

Speaker 0

Well, that's good. That's good. 

Speaker 2

So maybe the regret could be, like, giving people more opportunities in relationships. Right? And and, because as I told you, I I would swipe for, like Yeah. Just wasn't committed as much. 

Speaker 0

Sure. Okay. 

Speaker 2

That was a weak one. No. Weak answer. I mean, 

Speaker 0

that's a pretty important one, I think. You know? But, yeah, if overall, if you could go back and give your eighteen year old self some advice, what would that be? 

Speaker 2

That to be vulnerable and to share themselves. Because I always had to come across, like, had everything together. Even that story of the whole suitcase and the masking tape. Yeah. Like, that took me a while to actually be like, yeah. That's I did that. You know? But instead, I was always trying to fit in. So growing up, you know, in a household where we didn't look like everybody else, It was we were so busy fitting in, and now I realized that the key is just to be different. And that took me a while. So it's almost telling that eighteen year old, embrace why you're different, and that's gonna be your strength going on. 

Speaker 0

Love it. If you could have coffee I don't know if you drink coffee, but if you could have coffee or a drink or tea or anything with any historical figure, who would you choose? They could still be alive today. 

Speaker 2

One I'm currently I would love to have is Sarah Blakely. Okay. The founder space. I really just she's one of the few that actually, raise their family and, you know, and build a business. 

Speaker 0

Awesome. That's we have not had that answer on the show. If you were given ten million dollars tomorrow, Tanya, just no strings attached, whatever you wanna do with it, what would you do with it? 

Speaker 2

I would invest back into a community and empower them and try to have it in a sense of, like, empowering them so that revenue continues to impact others. So Mhmm. Probably maybe through entrepreneurship even more or building a school or doing something along those lines. 

Speaker 0

Great answer. If you had to eat one meal for the rest of your life, just pick one meal that it that you'd eat every day for the rest of your life, what would that be? 

Speaker 2

Is I feel like I eat chicken almost every day. So I guess continue chicken. You get that. But, actually, have you ever heard that guy? I think his the author's name is Mark Manson or something like that, and he 

Speaker 0

Yeah. I think I know. 

Speaker 2

He's a great book, and he's like, when you think about entrepreneurship, think about, like, think about eating your favorite dessert or whatever it is and eating it every single day. And if you're not bored of that, then you should start that business. 

Speaker 0

That's great advice. I think it's, is he the one that wrote the subtle art of not giving 

Speaker 2

you an 

Speaker 0

f or is it okay. 

Speaker 2

Yeah. That's him. 

Speaker 0

We'll just keep it clean and say f, but you know? What's the struggle that you're facing in your business right now? 

Speaker 2

Right now, it is more in the sense of doing my own copywriting. I wanna start writing I'm gonna be writing a book soon, and, I also have dyslexia. So that's one of the big challenges. Like, I just knew I had to work harder on that. So getting, myself comfortable with writing and doing showing my stories. 

Speaker 0

Okay. Well, we had, fairly recently, Juliet Hahn on the show. She's, her own podcast talks about dyslexia and her how she overcame it, and she's really good at storytelling and helping others tell their story. So might have to 

Speaker 2

better go check her out. 

Speaker 0

That's great. Might have to connect you guys. You too. What's one piece of advice that you'd give someone starting out in their career? An entrepreneur who's starting, say, maybe an ad agency. What's one piece of advice that you'd give them right now? 

Speaker 2

To anybody who wants to be an entrepreneur and even an agency is first go to your network. Do a simple email and say, hey. I'm doing this. Do you know anybody who would benefit from this? Love to chat with them. Nobody leverages their network, and then they forget that their network might know other people. And then get your first five people. All it is is five. Even if you have to do free, get a case study, and then go all in. 

Speaker 0

Mhmm. That's fantastic advice. And and one of the themes in this this episode has been just people, right, and community and network and helping each other, which I love. Yeah. Absolutely. Instead of the whole build it and they will come thing, it's like, no. Play to your strengths. Who do you know that has done this before or can help help you do this? And and then go get five clients. I love that. That's great. If you could try any occupation other than what you've done before, something totally random, what would it be? You 

Speaker 2

tell the ones that the questions that stop me. Okay. Because entrepreneurship, I feel like, 

Speaker 0

you a lot of hats in entrepreneurship. There you've got you've checked a lot of boxes. 

Speaker 2

Right. So entrepreneurship, like, I remember the story of my mother. I wanted to be a trainer for, a killer whale trainer. I was obsessed with Orca. And then she said, instead of being, you know, as a parent, you're just like, she yeah. She's an immigrant. She wanted to kind of gear me towards something, I don't know, I guess, revenue making. She's like, imagine if you can own SeaWorld or Miami's aquarium, then you can be with train with them all the time. I was like, yeah. So in my head, I'm like, just get involved in the business somehow. 

Speaker 0

There you go. 

Speaker 2

Thought about it, what the next one is. Maybe it would be, if I was gonna do anything is focus on this big problem of education. Right? Now that I have kids, I'm starting to see, like, the loves of the education, what's going on, what is that future like. So maybe dive into that. 

Speaker 0

Yeah. I love that. Awesome. We'll talk about OwnersUp a little bit, before we wrap up. What what what is OwnersUp, and who is it for? Who do you work with? Who do you serve? 

Speaker 2

So, we work with b two b service based entrepreneurs who are in their six figures and wanna go into up to, I would say, three million. I think three million at that point is a a whole another level of leadership and training. But it's really about entrepreneurs who have a tendency to know that they're achievers. They work they're they work hard, but then now they have, like, a family. They wanna be very present, and they wanna know how to make that work life fusion. And not only the fusion, but living a life that empowers them. So for them, it's kind of running a company that's profitable. And maybe once it gets to the point where that they they it's like they only have to put five hours in, they invested in another one, and they they have a portfolio going on. But being really present so that their their kids know them as my my parents was always here. My my parent was always present. And how we go about that is, one of the things that I don't know. I experience this sometimes too when I don't have it is that sounding board. Even if I have employee user team, I need other peers to bounce ideas off of that know exactly how it feels like when the pressure's on you, all those salaries, all what is that? Yeah. And then helping me make strategic decisions. Right? And then holding me accountable because one thing is, as an entrepreneur, you come from, like, some sort of school, some sort of structure, and then you start your own business. And then you have to build your own structure. Mhmm. And then guess what? You can justify things and kind of play in your default. So I call it, kind of moving. No. That's not important. I'm gonna move this deadline here because you're the boss. 

Speaker 0

You're the boss. Sure. Yeah. You can do you can move it there. But like like we talked about earlier, there's there's a cost. Right? There's a consequence. So maybe you shouldn't be moving that deadline. But you're absolutely right. It's you are in charge, and so it's it's easy to kinda let things slide or move move different things. But, also, it can be entrepreneurship can be a lonely space. You know, even if you're busy and working hard and interacting with people, not everybody knows what that's like. And so I think having a community like you provide and that, that group based accountability structure, and it sounds like some coaching and things. I think that's huge. I think more than ever, people are really in need of this this kinda I think this is I I mean, just with the virtual world, which is great, you know, it has certain benefits for sure, but I think people are very hungry, especially entrepreneurs are hungry for community accountability, all the things you've you've talked about already so much. So what does it look like if if somebody signs up tomorrow? What what what does their next year look like? 

Speaker 2

Say that. I tried I've been struggling with the word community. I'm big on community, but the thing is I've been in communities 

Speaker 0

where it's 

Speaker 2

the same ten percent of people interacting. It's kind of like the people in the classroom where it's the people who are gonna raise their hand. Everyone else isn't participating. Right? So when it's so big, you can hide. Sure. 

Speaker 0

You could see this is a community. Yeah. So you keep it keep it small. Yep. Absolutely. 

Speaker 2

People that you can actually be okay with disclosing everything that's going on because I don't know why you have a hard time disclosing in a big community. I've never been one of those people who raised my hand. Mhmm. So that so that's what it is. So what it is is first thing we do once someone enrolls and we figure out that you have that growth mindset and you wanna make that change because we're not into people who just wanna hustle, we do an audit, and then we help you understand what your default is and where your your strengths are, like, where you should actually be. Because sometimes as an entrepreneur, we like to do what's natural to us, right, instead of what we need to do. And then from there, you have a weekly one hour call where you're held accountable to what it is that you decided. And we do it in a fun way where accountability is not by, having someone paying like, hey. If you don't do this, you have to do ten dollars. It's more what we found accountability works is you take on a challenge that's gonna move you, but then it's immediately. So if they miss a goal or something that they said, they have to sing a song in front of a group, and that works. So what ends up happening is your inner critic who usually would push off this whatever this task that you need to be held accountable to, you're like, I will not sing a song. I'll just do this task. 

Speaker 0

Yeah. Just do 

Speaker 2

it right. Over your perfectionism too. 

Speaker 0

Interesting. Yeah. This yeah. Because that's a huge part of entrepreneurship because I you know, I can be pretty analytical, but it's it's like, it's it has to be good enough or else it's just not gonna work. It's not gonna be done. So, yeah, you do have to get over that perfectionism. Yeah. I'm I'm in a mastermind group that's a little bit of a larger group, but then we we have smaller groups now that are where we we meet monthly, and it's kind of a similar not the exact same thing, but but a similar thing where I feel much more comfortable opening up as opposed to, you know, sharing in a larger group and occupying everyone's time. And we really get to know each other on a, you know, much just much better in in the smaller group. So, that's great. So what what's, what's the business look like as we wrap up here? What's your business look like in the next, in the next year? What's twenty twenty four have in store for you? 

Speaker 2

So twenty twenty four, I will have some part of my book done, and the journey of the book is to help people understand that, sometimes you have to build your squad that you need to achieve any monumental goal. And I think that I didn't realize this till later on that I was really lucky to have my family who was super supportive, but there's other people who have a family that might not be encouraging them and not because they don't believe in them. It's just that they're scared. Like, oh, we don't want like, if you do this and you fail Yeah. We want you to be sad or, you know, we want you to be financially successful. So sometimes you don't have the right support around you. And so how do you create that? 

Speaker 0

Mhmm. 

Speaker 2

And how do you find the people who are gonna move you forward? And Yeah. So I believe, that anybody, no matter where you're at, if you have the right squad, you can achieve any monumental goal. 

Speaker 0

Love it. There's that intentionality again. That's really good. So speaking of a book, I didn't ask you, do you have a a book or two that you could recommend for our listener? 

Speaker 2

You know, there was a book I just recommended. It was Dan Martell, buy back your time. Yeah. 

Speaker 0

That's right. 

Speaker 2

It's a really good one. 

Speaker 0

Yeah. Dan Martell, buy back your time. I think you you, recommended that one to me before we hit record, so that's really good. Awesome. And then, of course, your own book, I'm assuming you don't have a title yet for it. 

Speaker 2

Yeah. We thought I thought about Squad Up, but we're still playing around with it. 

Speaker 0

Got it. Awesome. That's great. Well, Tanya, I know you gotta run. I know you gotta get to your your workout. And we appreciate you, squeezing us in here. Where can our listeners find you online? 

Speaker 2

Yeah. They can find me out on my Instagram, tonya c alvarez, so the letter c, alvarez. And then DM me, and I'll send you any frameworks you guys want accountability or how to get there. 

Speaker 0

Fantastic. Last question. What is one question I have not asked you that you wish I had? Anything you wanna cover? 

Speaker 2

I think that a lot of I don't know. But a good one, I think that everyone always assumes it's about doing and achieving. But, in order to be your best self in anything, you gotta work on yourself. So personal, development is a huge one. Go and start investing in yourself. And even though you feel like you could get it from a book, I think someone told me this, and it's a little crude, I guess. But they said imagine reading a book about sex. Right? And then doing it. Right? There's sometimes you only have to do it. 

Speaker 0

And I 

Speaker 2

was like, that is hilarious. 

Speaker 0

So that's 

Speaker 2

personal development. So there's only so much that you actually have to do because a lot of people, like, I can read it. And it's like, there's a part of reading and then the action. So take the action, guys, and get yourself into whatever programs, personal development, whatever it is, or read a book and create a group around us so you guys can, like, practice and analyze and do it. 

Speaker 0

Fantastic. Tanya Alvarez, this has been a a great chat. We've covered a lot. I'm not gonna go through it all right now, but this has been fantastic. A lot of, lot of nuggets for sure that we're gonna be able to take away from this. And you've got a ton of experience with entrepreneurship, health challenges, motherhood in a in a challenging time for sure with COVID and the pandemic and everything. And, many things we haven't covered, but we really I just wanna thank you for your time. This has been been a blast. So thanks a lot, Tanya. 

Speaker 2

Thank you for having me. It was awesome. 

Speaker 0

And to the listener out there you're welcome, Tanya. And to the listener out there, thank you for spending your most valuable resource with us, and that is your time. Thanks, everyone. Take care. 

Speaker 1

Thank you for joining us on from adversity to abundance. We hope today's episode has equipped you with valuable insights and practical advice to elevate your real estate journey. For more inspiring stories and resources, visit us at w w w dot adversity to abundance dot com. If this episode has inspired you, please share it with a friend who could also benefit from our conversation. Together, let's turn adversity into abundance. Until next time, keep building your mental fitness and your real estate empire.