Making Connections: Turning a Chance to Make Friends into a Networking Group
Photo Credit: David + Meivys of MSP Branding
Happy day, friends! 👋🏾👋🏼👋 Today's newsletter shows how, even if you're not intentionally trying to create a business, you may stumble upon something that lends itself to just that. And it may not be the kind of business you'd normally expect.
Annia Zavala just wanted to make friends. In the process, she ended up starting a networking group. Today, you'll learn the following:
🌴How to get through a discouraging start
🌴How fear can lead you to focus on the wrong things and people
🌴Zavala's recommended audiobook for productivity
🌴But, first, don't forget to subscribe, if you haven't already to the Generation Si! newsletter. It's free.
🌴Now, get to know Annia Zavala and how she formed her own networking group, TheLatinaPro®.
IF IT DOESN'T EXIST, CREATE IT
When Annia Zavala moved to Miami from Texas, she didn’t know anyone. She wanted to go to events to meet people, but she was always on the road with her corporate job, a job she loved and still does.
“So I said, ‘Well, if I cannot go to them [events], let me just create something small where people can join.’”
Zavala figured there had to be other women in the area who also wanted to benefit by sharing their experiences and info with others.
Founder & President of TheLatinaPro® - Annia Zavala (Photo Credit: MSP Branding)
THE TIP JAR (Tips provided courtesy of Annia Zavala)
STARTING OUT: “Be fearless. Learn everything. Go to other people that are already doing it. Everybody wants to share their story. So be fearless and ask.”
STEEPED IN SKILLS (mid-career): “It’s truly reminding yourself of why you started and celebrating your gains.”
Zavala says she’s listening to an audiobook right now that she recommends. It's called “The Gap and the Gain: The High Achievers’ Guide to Happiness, Confidence, and Success” by Dan Sullivan with Dr. Benjamin Hardy.
She likes the book because it taught her to concentrate her efforts on a limited number of goals.
"Just focus on three gains for today… Do it every night. And focus on three gains for tomorrow. Because it’s very easy… to get distracted into what everybody else is doing.”
STARTING OVER: “I feel like that’s such a great opportunity to go within yourself and say, 'What do I want to do? What do I want to focus on?'”
“Get yourself [financially] stable first because [your] economy’s going to make or break your business. So, really get yourself something that’s going to give you that income while you start this other thing. Because I’ve seen the opposite, as well.”
I’LL NEVER DO THAT AGAIN: “Know your value, and be careful who you listen to. Listen to the right people. And you’ll know who the right people are, by the way.”
BEST ADVICE FROM “LA CASA”/BEST “HOUSE” ADVICE: Zavala says she lives by her mom’s words of advice: “De todas las opciones que tienes en la vida, siempre escoge ser feliz.”
TRANSLATION: “Out of all the options you have in life, always choose to be happy.”
Zavala says her mom’s advice stays with her, especially because her mother died at the age of 49 from breast cancer.
Note: Her mom is the inspiration behind TheLatinaPro® event, Vestidito Rosa (Little Pink Dress). That’s why Zavala includes her mom’s message about happiness in every bag for the VIP attendees of the event.
Annia with her late mom - Annia still tries to live by her mom's words
YOU CAN FIND LIKE-MINDED PEOPLE
“There’s a saying in Spanish… ‘Dime con quién andas, te diré quién eres.’ Tell me who you hang out with, and I’ll tell you who you are. And my mom used to tell me that all the time.”
Zavala figured, “There [are] people that also want to grow their careers. So I started with that purpose: to surround myself with other women that… would give me good advice in… a bad or good situation… We just wanted to elevate ourselves.”
She called the group she formed TheLatinaPro®.
DON'T BE DISCOURAGED - EVEN IF IT'S A SLOW START
“The first event, five people showed up… Sometimes, no one showed up.”
Even the bartender at the venue for one of her events felt sorry for Zavala. Zavala had her sign set up and, after an hour, when only one person showed up, he told her drinks were on him.
RE-FRAME YOUR THINKING
But Zavala didn’t feel sorry for herself. That’s because she thought of this little group she started as a hobby of sorts.
“This happens to brand-new entrepreneurs all the time where you open your store and no one buys [anything].”
EVERYONE HAS AN OPINION, IT DOESN'T MEAN YOU TAKE THE ADVICE
People offered their advice, solicited and unsolicited, to her.
“Everybody wants to give you opinions. So many people told me, ‘Oh, if you charge, I’m not coming.’”
She would also hear, “Did you see this other organization is doing this, this and that? And, as an entrepreneur, even though I didn’t know I was an entrepreneur, I’m thinking, oh my God, there’s so much to do. It’s never enough. And you start getting disappointed.”
At first, she didn’t know what to think or whose advice to take.
That confusion taught her a couple of valuable lessons.
NO TWO PATHS ARE THE SAME - SO STOP COMPARING
The first was to not allow herself to become disappointed by comparing her path to others. No one's path is the same.
"You have to go at your own rhythm.”
Zavala wishes she would’ve told herself that more often.
LOOK AT THE "WHY"
She also says pay attention to who you listen to and “why” you gravitate toward listening to the wrong people.
“You’d rather listen to the ones that are criticizing you because fear gets you. Fear is a very, very real emotion. So it’s very real to think, oh my God… Some of my friends [aren’t] coming because I’m going to charge. I have to lower [the price] $10, because they won’t come.”
AS MR. ROGERS SAID, "LOOK FOR THE HELPERS"
Zavala soon realized, “No, that shouldn’t be a problem. Your real friends will come and support [you].
She’s grateful she relied on friends, like Camila Toro, to help her get through the really tough moments – moments where she was tempted to just quit. She admits that it almost happened just a few months after she started TheLatinaPro®.
BREAK DOWN BIG JOBS INTO BITE-SIZED PORTIONS
Annia w/ Camila Toro, whom she calls "unofficial" co-founder (Photo credit: MSP Branding)
“I’m looking at the board. And I’m looking at the projections. And I’m looking at everything I need to do. I’m like, when? How? Like how is this ever going to be possible?”
But Toro, who has her own business, helped her look at the tasks in a manageable form.
“I feel like what she did was started boxing them and kind of like saying, ‘Look, not all of it has to be done today. It could be [done] within the next few years. Let’s start with a website.' She opened our website.”
Zavala also used her to-do list as an opportunity to share what she was learning with the women in the group.
AN OPPORTUNITY FOR ONE CAN TURN INTO AN OPPORTUNITY FOR MANY
“I knew a friend of mine knew how to do Facebook pages."
So she asked her, "Can you come and teach me and nine other people?"
And Zavala ended up turning the lesson into an event so others could learn, too.
Over time, word spread about TheLatinaPro®.
More people showed up to the group's events. The organization became international.
“We have people coming to our events from Ecuador, from Colombia, from many countries now.”
Remember, the whole reason why Zavala started her group in the first place was because she wanted to make friends in her new hometown, Miami.
BREAKING AWAY CAN LEAD TO YOUR BREAKTHROUGH
When I ask her about her purpose, she says, “I’m sure you’ve heard the song, 'Break Away,' from Kelly Clarkson."
Every time she listens to that song, she remembers how she felt as a little girl growing up in a small town in Mexico, hoping to live in a big city, someday.
Five years after starting TheLatinaPro® , Zavala feels settled in Miami. She kept her corporate job, while still expanding TheLatinaPro®.
ONE FRIENDSHIP CAN LEAD TO MANY FRIENDSHIPS
And she now has more friends than she ever imagined she'd have.
She counts more than 2,600 women as friends, just from the group she started.
In Part Two, find out the professionals Zavala reached out to who helped turn her group into a professional organization.
Women helping women (Photo credit: Eddy Lara Fotógrafo)
INDUSTRY: Her corporate job (Insurance), TheLatinaPro® (Networking)
STARTED BUSINESS: February 2017
LATINO CONNECTION: Parents were born in Mexico
EDUCATION: University of Texas - Pan American (now called University of Texas Rio Grande Valley)
DREAM JOB AS A KID: “To do what I’m doing right now - Corporate VP for a Fortune 100 company - empowering women.”
BIGGEST GOAL YET: Zavala says she wants to build TheLatinaPro® to be completely digital and to merge the online and IRL (in real life) communities.
"How can I connect everybody and make sure they're all getting to know each other? That's our goal."
NO NEED TO GO IT ALONE
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INSPIRATION FOR THIS ISSUE:
Frequently, we’re told that, to start a business, you should be thinking of it as providing a solution to a specific problem. I can’t say the search for friends in a new city would spring to mind as the catalyst for founding a business.
But that’s what sparked Annia Zavala’s business idea. The friendships she formed and the way she leaned into them for not only support, but also in sharing what she learned as she was getting her business going, is a reminder that support is out there. We just have to ask for it.
Too often, we’re hesitant, embarrassed or just too shy to ask for help. But people are willing to provide their know-how, shortcuts, advice or connections. People want to feel needed and trusted.
Of course, despite well-meaning people, you still need to figure out whose advice you should and should not follow.
Come up with a list of various groups, formal and informal, that you belong to and try to strengthen your relationships within those groups.
The peace of mind of knowing you have go-to people you can turn to for major, or even minor, decisions is invaluable.
Doing something to build or strengthen those relationships pays off.
As we’ve heard before, asking for help is not a sign of weakness. It’s a sign of strength and, in my opinion, is just plain smart.
The more you ask, the more you learn. And, someday, you can, hopefully, pay it forward by helping someone who asks you for help.
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Bringing women together (Photo credit: MSP Branding)