Starting out at age 25, Tanya Alvarez self-funded her first New York ad agency, using credit cards, and achieved zero to 1 million in revenue in the first year.

Along the way, she traveled to 42 countries, completing the Boston and NYC Marathons and a Half Ironman, all while battling a rare brittle bone condition.

A classic underdog story, Tanya is on a mission to help you own your life, not just your business.

Through OwnersUP, Tanya aims to empower you to win at work without losing at home, utilizing facilitated accountability sprints to scale your business sanely and enable you to live your ideal life now.

Key Moments

[03:51] Traveled, booked trips, had team in places.

[07:55] Discussing experiences with marathon and Ironman races.

[11:32] Parenting an 11-year-old and entrepreneurship’s challenges.

[16:01] Reflect on activities, prioritize, delegate for improvement.

Find Tanya Online

https://grit.ownersup.com/RAP

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Transcript Provided By CastMagic.io

Seth [00:00:00]:
Entrepreneur’s Enigma is a podcast for the ups and downs of entrepreneurship, to the

Seth [00:00:04]:
wins and the fails that we all face being entrepreneurs, how we learn from adversity. Every week, I talk to a different entrepreneur with a story to tell. I’m Seth. Come with me on the journey. This is Entrepreneurs’ Enigma. Let’s get started. Hey, everybody. Welcome to another edition of the Entrepreneur’s Enigma podcast.

Seth [00:00:34]:
I am, as always, Your host, Seth. Today I have Tanya Alvarez. Right? I did that right? 1st try? Nice. Yes. She is the owner and chief bottle washer over at OwnersUp, and she her The game is to make sure that everyone can be self sufficient and really rock their business and their life. At 25, Tanya self funded her her New York City ad agency with credit cards. Sounds familiar. That’s what I do with my little agency.

Seth [00:01:08]:
Back in 2007, I was like, yeah. I have to do with credit cards. And she went from 0 to 1,000,000 in revenue in the 1st year, which is very impressive. And as you show, the 42 countries and then the Boston and New York marathon and half Ironman, while battering battling a brittle bone a rare a a rare brittle bone condition. It’s hard to say. So that’s impressive that you did all those things with a you know, with your bones being brittle. I mean, it’s that’s insane. But you did it, so rah rah rah.

Seth [00:01:38]:
It’s awesome. And she’s, like, you know, classic on her dog who’s, like, not gonna anything. You know, keep her down. Rah rah rah. And now she’s now she’s in Minnesota

Tanya [00:01:47]:
Love it.

Seth [00:01:48]:
And braving the Minnesota weather. So which I can’t really I can relate to right now because it’s snowing in Philadelphia. So but not like it doesn’t Minnesota. Not and it’s not negative something.

Tanya [00:01:57]:
So Yeah. I was thinking right now it is, negative five?

Seth [00:02:02]:
Oh my god. It’s, like, 25 here. It’s not bad. It’s just snowing. Negative 20 oh, negative 5. Oh, brr. So how’s it going, Tanya? How are you doing?

Tanya [00:02:10]:
Great. Thanks for having me here.

Seth [00:02:12]:
Always a pleasure. So how did this all get started? What made you wanna start an ad agency and do it with credit cards?

Tanya [00:02:19]:
Yeah. Who does that? Right?

Seth [00:02:21]:
I do. I do. That’s how I run my business. That’s how I run my business. Yeah. I run it that way. Oh, yeah.

Tanya [00:02:25]:
Right? You figure it out. It kinda puts you on the hook somehow.

Seth [00:02:28]:
Yeah.

Tanya [00:02:29]:
So when I graduated, you know, all of the start ups, there wasn’t as many start ups going on, so I found the few that were, and I worked Every position possible. And then at one point at 25, I was like, wow. I wanna start my own thing. I think I have enough kinda played in every role. So I asked my mother. I’m like, you know, you gotta get get get some sort of feedback from someone. And I was like, wait. Should I start my own thing? And she’s like, yeah.

Tanya [00:02:55]:
And I was like, what happens if I fail? And she goes, you’ll be exactly where you are now. I was like You

Seth [00:02:59]:
just go back and get a job. Yeah.

Tanya [00:03:00]:
Yeah. And then I go, well, what happens if a company doesn’t wanna hire me Because I failed. She’s like, you wouldn’t wanna work for a company like that. And it’s true. At 25, like, you have nothing to lose. So I went for it, and then we we weren’t one of those, like, well off. Like, if my mom wasn’t gonna save me, nobody in my family could It saved me financially, and that points out, that’s what I did, credit card and just worked my way

Seth [00:03:24]:
through. Yeah. It’s scary at times, but you know what? It’s worth at the end. I mean, you went from 0 to 1,000,000 in the 1st year. I didn’t do that. I still haven’t done that.

Tanya [00:03:34]:
It’s a it was hard. It’s a lot. And then The craziest thing I did, and that was because you’re 25, and this is before Instagram. It was, like, so cool to work from anywhere. I wanted to Travel. Because, like, growing up, I came from a low income household and was my single mom raising 4 kids.

Seth [00:03:50]:
Oh, jeez. God bless her.

Tanya [00:03:51]:
I never, like, got to travel or do anything. So I was like, I’m gonna travel. So I would go to places, book my birthdays on June 1st. I’d book somewhere right around Memorial Day begun for, like, a week, and then around Christmas to New Year’s, I booked something far away. So, like, think of Asia, Thailand, Vietnam, all those places for 2 weeks. So this is what really was a trick. So I had a team of people before it was, like, I had some people in the US and then Yeah. I had people in Colombia.

Seth [00:04:20]:
Oh, that is We’re gonna take a quick break here from our sponsors and get right back to the show.

Tanya [00:04:25]:
So that’s why I was able to leverage that. And so I was not micromanaging them. And if I wanted to go away at these places and, like, if I was going to go hike Machu Picchu, like, there’s no Internet connection. So Yeah.

Seth [00:04:37]:
It still isn’t.

Tanya [00:04:38]:
Things go yeah. If things go down, it’s gonna go down.

Seth [00:04:41]:
So first, we

Tanya [00:04:42]:
need to create Systems and processes that run without me and made me realize, like, if there’s an emergency that’s gonna happen, my team needs to, like, Step up and do it, and I can fix any

Seth [00:04:55]:
of the business that I have. Yeah. And know how to do it. Like, have a how would Tanya do it? You know? What would Tanya do?

Tanya [00:05:01]:
And that’s the thing with most businesses. Like, now most people say they wanna be away, but they’re terrified

Seth [00:05:07]:
Oh, yeah. It’s terrifying. Of anyway.

Tanya [00:05:08]:
Yeah.

Seth [00:05:09]:
Because the system’s in place, it helps. You know? And when I leave, I say, you know, watch x, y, and z for me. You know? And I put a system in place and they’re not they’re not permanent systems, which they should be, but, like, they’re at least, like, these are the ones that possibly will go down.

Tanya [00:05:22]:
Mhmm. Make

Seth [00:05:23]:
sure they don’t, essentially.

Tanya [00:05:26]:
Do I I have it because you never know what could happen. Like, these systems are in place no matter what.

Seth [00:05:32]:
Yeah. And then sometimes the systems don’t go well either, sometimes.

Tanya [00:05:36]:
And then there’s another thing I think most people forget that they don’t realize that they can hire somebody For $4 an hour, and so they wait until they make a certain amount of money to hire somebody. Well, you can actually hire right away. I think that most people, even if you’re making a grand a month, 2 grand, hire out as quick as possible.

Seth [00:05:56]:
Yeah. Yeah. Because, you know, contractors, that’s what we do. We have contractors and we use them. They are happy. They get their money and they’re thrilled. We actually don’t we don’t we don’t go off the continent. We don’t we still I mean, they’re still local to Maine.

Seth [00:06:09]:
I mean, the people I know.

Tanya [00:06:11]:
Oh, wow.

Seth [00:06:11]:
But still, it’s you know, I mean, I have this guy who is about 30 minutes north of May have and I have a a lady who’s in Brooklyn.

Tanya [00:06:19]:
That’s amazing.

Seth [00:06:20]:
Yeah. And then I have a guy who’s in south of May, you know, because It might be more expensive.

Tanya [00:06:24]:
So those people are gonna be a little more expensive when you’re starting off.

Seth [00:06:27]:
They’re not even they’re not even that bad when you think about it because they don’t have The

Tanya [00:06:30]:
scheme of things. Yeah.

Seth [00:06:32]:
They all have the the the benefits you have to worry about. They get their own stuff. You know, they could do their own jobs when they wanna do them. They work with me when they when I have something for them, and it’s it’s great. It’s able to make me lean and nimble and, you know, expand when I need to. So it’s great. So do you were these people full time with you when you were in your ad agency or or what

Tanya [00:06:50]:
was your point? In Columbia. So we I had in Columbia at that time. Wow. You know, their account managers, I might have, I think, paid, 500, then I I also had a CTO in Columbia too.

Seth [00:07:04]:
You need someone down there. Exactly. So

Tanya [00:07:07]:
So no. It was like I wanted to build technology at that point. I wanted to kinda build, like, this Call center software that, like, filters in all this information and, like, tracks things, like, all this

Seth [00:07:17]:
stuff that we just 5. That’s awesome.

Tanya [00:07:19]:
Yeah. Why not? So we started and it was cheap. And they and it was a win win because they were getting paid really well and

Seth [00:07:27]:
Yeah. Because down there, the $500, you know, is there’s a lot of money down there.

Tanya [00:07:33]:
So that’s my first advice. Hire abroad a place where, I don’t know, 500 or $600 does goes far. And they’re happy. Yeah. You’re happy, and then you can start expanding from there.

Seth [00:07:46]:
Exactly. Did you have anyone stateside too eventually, or was it all at Columbia?

Tanya [00:07:51]:
We did get some people. We had, like, account managers that were in person. Right?

Seth [00:07:55]:
Yes. So they considered they did go talk to people. Yeah. It makes more sense. He sometimes he face he put faces to the name and stuff like that. So Oh, that’s wild. And so you did that for a while, and then and then you ran the marathons and the half Ironman, which is insane to me. You know? And, like, what made you wanna do those? I mean, you have brittle bone condition.

Seth [00:08:15]:
What made you say, well, hell with this? I’m gonna go run the marathon.

Tanya [00:08:20]:
Well, my sister has, like, the very severe, and it’s called Osteogenesis Imperfecta. And I think, I think there’s a movie that what was it? Breakable? What’s the time?

Seth [00:08:30]:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Tanya [00:08:31]:
We had it. Right? So I have this level, but I didn’t know until I ran the 70.3 Ironman, And I didn’t know

Seth [00:08:40]:
to find out.

Tanya [00:08:41]:
Yeah. I had a stress fracture, and that’s when they found out I had it. And I was, like, literally walking on it for a month and not even realizing it. Until my employees were like, I’ve seen you do some crazy races you’ve never popped an Ibuprofen, and you’re popping it every morning. And they’re like, you gotta

Seth [00:08:59]:
go to the Yeah. Yeah.

Tanya [00:09:01]:
Because I was just, like, oh, maybe I’m just sore. This is the the half Ironman was brutal.

Seth [00:09:06]:
Yeah. I’m sure.

Tanya [00:09:07]:
The goal is to

Seth [00:09:08]:
do sounds brutal. Yeah.

Tanya [00:09:10]:
The goal is to do a full Ironman when science catches up too, because, like, my cartilage and my hip is 1 third gone.

Seth [00:09:15]:
So You don’t wanna you don’t wanna make the other 2 thirds go away. You wanna let’s let’s get it generating again first. Yeah. 100% Yeah. That’s So you did that. You did the New York marathon and the Boston marathon. So it’s, like, the 2 big, you know I mean, these are, like, top notch marathons. I mean, these aren’t just like I mean, I mean, Philadelphia is a marathon.

Seth [00:09:37]:
Great. Yeah. Like, I mean, I’m from Philly, so I’m proud of it. But, like

Tanya [00:09:40]:
Yeah. It’s

Seth [00:09:41]:
I mean, you’re here for the Boston Marathon. Here with the New York marathon. You know? It’s like, this is a big deal. So is that after the was that before or after the Iron Man?

Tanya [00:09:50]:
That was, before I did those. And I was like, oh, let’s go for the next challenge, and that’s what I did.

Seth [00:09:55]:
But And then you’re like, I gotta take a break. Yeah.

Tanya [00:09:57]:
It was interesting. During that process, That’s when the concept of OwnersUp came about. Because here I was training for the Boston Marathon, and even though I’ve done New York marathon, I was a collegiate Athlete like, cross country and everything.

Seth [00:10:10]:
Oh, so you’re a runner. So, oh, that that makes more sense. You’re a runner.

Tanya [00:10:14]:
I love that kind of clunkiness. Yeah. It’s in my wheelhouse. Right? That intensity.

Seth [00:10:20]:
Not for me. I’m a biker, but if even that, yeah.

Tanya [00:10:22]:
I’m gonna do this century ride this year. That’s my challenge. Yeah.

Seth [00:10:26]:
Well, that’s a little bit easier on the hips, though. That’s easier on the hips.

Tanya [00:10:28]:
Yeah. But on the butt, it’s gonna be a little different.

Seth [00:10:31]:
Yeah. Your butt’s gonna be sore for a while. I’ve been I’ve been a century, and it hurts. No. Everyday hurts. If you’re doing I I did a bro I broke one up. I’ve done a like, I did a century over a few days. And every and if you stop, don’t stop.

Seth [00:10:47]:
It’s pure century. Just get it done, pay the price, and you’ll be happy.

Tanya [00:10:51]:
Goal is August.

Seth [00:10:53]:
Oh, that’d be nice. And and Minnesota?

Tanya [00:10:56]:
Yep. They did.

Seth [00:10:57]:
That’d be gorgeous. That’s, like, the perfect time because it won’t be too high. Well, Minnesota who knows with Minnesota? But yeah. Well, then you get really good winners, but you also used to have really nice I know you used to have friends in Minnesota.

Tanya [00:11:09]:
Summers. Yeah. Then Oh, so

Seth [00:11:10]:
it’d be perfect for essentially ride. It’s perfect.

Tanya [00:11:12]:
It’s just getting the time in and with 2 toddlers, like, because you need to have, like

Seth [00:11:17]:
toddlers. Are they twins?

Tanya [00:11:19]:
No. I have a 2 to 4 year old. Well, they’re gonna turn 2 to 4.

Seth [00:11:22]:
Alright. So you have a toddler and a punk.

Tanya [00:11:24]:
And a punk. Yeah. I guess so.

Seth [00:11:26]:
If we’re they they the toddlers, you think the punks until they turn 4 and it’s it gets worse. It gets worse.

Tanya [00:11:31]:
Oh, no.

Seth [00:11:32]:
I have an 11 year old. Oh my god. It’s it’s it’s a it’s a it’s a ride. It’s a trip to say the least. So anyhow, so you’ve done a lot. You’ve done the corporate grind to 25, and then you did the crazy thing that Whitney and I did too, you know, So our business, what’s the best thing about being an entrepreneur in your mind?

Tanya [00:11:52]:
The so there’s a pros and cons to it. Right? It’s a freedom to

Seth [00:11:55]:
and the cons too. Yeah. Yeah.

Tanya [00:11:57]:
Yeah. It’s freedom to do anything, to just think of something kind of actually get to see it to fruition. Right? Because, like, sometimes when you work at company you really don’t know what’s going on. The con is shiny object syndrome. Right? It’s like, oh, I wanna do this. Oh, I wanna do that. And then you’re kind of, like,

Seth [00:12:14]:
All in

Tanya [00:12:14]:
one moment. Zagging everywhere and not having a big purpose, and it happens to entrepreneurs. I would say, late, it keeps on until they I don’t know. They they have a board that keeps them accountable. Right?

Seth [00:12:25]:
Even then, sometimes they’re like, yeah. No. No. I wanna do this. Right? No. No. No. No.

Seth [00:12:28]:
No. No. You can’t do that. Yeah. Yep. That’s wild. Then what keeps you up on on at night besides your kids?

Tanya [00:12:35]:
Yeah.

Seth [00:12:38]:
No.

Tanya [00:12:38]:
I’m actually a good sleeper. So what you’re saying is that Yeah. That’s a rare one. Right? I think that’s a entrepreneurs.

Seth [00:12:44]:
They always worry. Yeah.

Tanya [00:12:46]:
What am I worrying about? No. Recently, I haven’t been worrying, which is good.

Seth [00:12:51]:
Great. Just rocking and rolling. That’s what I like to hear. So here here’s the big question. What is the most important thing to carry with you all the time besides the set of running shoes? Was that like the

Tanya [00:13:04]:
phone. I never thought I was gonna be one of those people who pay with Apple Pay. I was like, who will never use that? And now I’m like, oh, you don’t carry Apple Pay? Oh, great. I don’t have a credit card on I mean, like, how am I gonna pay?

Seth [00:13:15]:
Yeah. I know. It’s it’s it’s insane. And then what about what about in the woo woo side? Like, you know, what what do you care internally, you know, with you all the time.

Tanya [00:13:23]:
Values and some. Yeah. The woo woo side.

Seth [00:13:27]:
Woo woo side. That’s a technical term.

Tanya [00:13:29]:
Yeah. I love it. So mine is more about looking to, like, values and then really seeing actually, it’s further. Now that I have kids once you have kids, Your legacy changes and how you think about life. Now you’re not, like, chasing this goal just to have it. Before, I think I was ego driven, and now I’m driven to make an Impact and the legacy. Like, who’s gonna remember me? And when I go, I thumbs up. Great.

Seth [00:13:53]:
Yeah. Exactly. Thank you, Macintosh. Exactly.

Tanya [00:13:57]:
Who’s gonna remember it? It’s the good it’s better to be the kids. That’s it. Everyone else after a while is just gonna be, like, gone. Look at look at Michael Jackson. We remember him, But 10, 24 years from now, I don’t know how many people are gonna remember. Who knows?

Seth [00:14:09]:
They remember they remember his music more than they remember him, which for for him is probably a good thing.

Tanya [00:14:14]:
It’s true.

Seth [00:14:16]:
Exactly. Well, I remember the music, never remember the guy because, you know, he he’s he was questionable. So This is awesome. So what so what’s going up with owners up lately? Like, what’s what’s the big push this this year? Because we’re the beginning of the year.

Tanya [00:14:29]:
Yeah. So one of the big things that and it comes back to hiring somebody abroad. I think people need to hire a VA. And what ends up happening Is they hire a virtual assistant, but they have them only doing admin work. Right? And they need to have them to do marketing work. Right? So getting yourself on podcast, going on LinkedIn, figuring out who you should be targeting and having those conversations and starting those conversations.

Seth [00:14:56]:
And they love doing that. If you’re a VA, you love doing that stuff. That’s what matters. And see, Apple agrees with me.

Tanya [00:15:04]:
Yes. So I know it’s just the funny little feature is Mac. But, yeah, I think Hey, Mac.

Seth [00:15:08]:
Let’s put a thumbs up when someone moves their hand. That’s great. That’s fantastic.

Tanya [00:15:12]:
No. Supposedly when you do a heart, it does this, like, heart thing too.

Seth [00:15:16]:
Oh, your hearts. Yay. Not not not this has made the podcast. Very awesome. That’s awesome. But, so where do people find you online? Where do you hang out the most, like, on where’s your watering hole online?

Tanya [00:15:28]:
I would say LinkedIn is my space. That’s where I’m posting most of my content and just engaging.

Seth [00:15:35]:
That’s awesome. And we’ll have them in the show notes along with your, the Rent owners, .owners up/r a p. What’s that? Is that your course?

Tanya [00:15:44]:
No. Just a thing to help me stay focused every single day. R is kind of like, what you end up doing today. So, like, actually, a review what you accomplished. Some days as an entrepreneur, you’re just like, Woah. This day was intense, and I don’t know what I accomplished.

Seth [00:15:58]:
Right? That’s the only year that happened. Yeah.

Tanya [00:16:01]:
And then so this is kind of like making you realize, like, Okay. I did a bunch of busy work, but is this gonna move the needle? So taking that time to review. A’s for assess, 1 through 5. How was it? Was it an awesome day? It was a 5. Now reverse engineer. Look at all your fives every month and be like, how can I make all my days awesome? And if they’re not, how can I delegate it?

Seth [00:16:23]:
And then you

Tanya [00:16:24]:
can prioritize 3 things, the top 3 things that you need to get done. So I like to do a cutoff. Like, what are the 3 things I need to get done by 12 o’clock? And that’s it. Because everything else gets hijacked. Right? Something Either

Seth [00:16:36]:
the kids come home or the kids walk in the door, mommy, mommy, mommy, you know, husband gets on a phone call.

Tanya [00:16:43]:
It’s true.

Seth [00:16:45]:
That’s fun. So, Tanya, thank you so much for coming on the show. This has been so much fun, and guess what? We’ll see everyone next time.

Tanya [00:16:53]:
Awesome. Thank you for having me.

Seth [00:16:56]:
That was a great show. If you’re enjoying Entrepreneur’s Enigma, please view us in the podcast directory of your choice. Every review helps other podcast listeners find our show. If you’re looking for other podcasts in the marketing space, with no further than the marketing podcast network@marketingpodcast.net. Goldstein hopes you have enjoyed this episode.