Hard Seasons in Business: What a Tough Stretch Taught Me [Ep. 19]

Sometimes entrepreneurship feels exciting and aligned… and sometimes it feels heavy.

In this episode, I’m sharing a more personal and honest conversation about a challenging week in business, what it brought up for me, and how I’m learning to slow down instead of reacting from fear.

After a difficult conversation with a client, I found myself reflecting on areas where I knew I could have been more proactive, especially around planning, diversification, and asking for support before things feel urgent.

This episode is for the entrepreneur who feels overwhelmed, uncertain, or stuck in a season of reflection. If you’ve been questioning your direction, carrying stress quietly, or trying to hold everything together on your own, I want you to know you’re not alone.

In this episode, we talk about:

• Why slowing down is sometimes the most productive thing you can do
• The importance of reflection and self-awareness in business
• The emotional weight entrepreneurs carry behind the scenes
• Learning to reconnect with your “why” and your North Star

This conversation is a reminder that hard seasons happen to all of us, even when we know better. What matters is how we respond, how we reset, and how we keep moving forward with intention.

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Hasta luego, amigas. Bendiciones. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hola amigas, this podcast is for Latina entrepreneurs building businesses while navigating faith, culture, and yes, motherhood. We unpack how your story shapes your leadership and build real life systems that help you grow without burning out. This is where Kujura meets strategy. So let's go.

SPEAKER_01 0:20

Well, hello everyone, and welcome to the Latina Entrepreneur Podcast. I'm your host, Anya Mercado, and today I really wanted to do things a little bit different. I honestly didn't even have like what to talk about this week. I've been interviewing back to back the last couple of weeks. I have another interview coming up, and I was like, okay, I need to take a break and then just come up here and let you all know what's going on in my life. This week, specially, has been one of those moments that I've experienced, and I haven't had one of these moments in a while. So, which is why I was like, it's perfect timing, you know, when when you think things are going great and you're just cruising by, all of a sudden you have like this rock that looks like a mountain, and you try to figure out, okay, there's there's two ways I can handle this. I can either react and get stressed out and think the world's gonna end, or do I take a pause and reassess myself and reassess the situation and be like, what do I need to do? What has been working? And what haven't I been doing? I feel like sometimes, you know, things happen and it and it's totally normal when things happen when it's really unexpected. But there's times that I realize where things happen that could have been prevented. And those are the moments that I'm like a little bit more harder on myself. I'm not gonna sugarcoat that. I'm not gonna be like trying to be like, oh, you know, I I talk to myself and it's okay. No, it's not okay. I do, you know, push myself a little bit more. And um, I do scold myself because I'm like, you know, better. You talk to your clients about this, you tell your kids, but why aren't you doing it for yourself? Being proactive, being a little bit more of, you know, and aside of being organized and none of that, but we allow life to take over uh versus us controlling it. So this week I had uh a conversation with one of my clients that could shift a little bit things around. I always tell my clients, don't ever have concentrations, like diversified, you know, into different clients. And here I am, you know, I've been working with this company for a while, and you know, it's one of the one of my biggest clients, but at the end of the day, they're a concentration. And I've never, you know, after preaching so many times, like don't have concentrations, and here I am having a concentration, it doesn't sit well with me because I know, and we all know that something can happen, and that company, you know, or that client can end services right away. And then what happens with everything that you've had, especially if you have overhead, if you have employees, you know, it can be a catastrophe if you're not prepared. And most of the time, most entrepreneurs, when they get money coming in, you know, just like we do sometimes, even as a in our personal lives, you know, we get money, especially when I was working in corporate, is like I was making so much money yet I still had nothing to show for. Like, why had I show? I mean, thank God I had my house. Thank God I had some, you know, certain assets and I had a 401k and I had some investments. But outside of that, you know, why was I spending more when I was making more? And so that all of this to say that this week was a week that I actually been taking time to do a little bit more reflection, take a little bit more reflection and slow down, slowing down and think, Anya, what is going on? Why are we in this situation? What can we do so that we don't end up in this place anymore? Where do I need help? Can I get help? Do I need help? You know, what has been working well? Where am I like excited about every single day? What excites me? You know, have I lost track of my North Star? And I did a lot of journaling and I just started writing and breaking everything apart and just going and going because I needed to get a lot of my emotions out of my brain, out of my body, and really reflect on what's going on in my life right now and see where I want to go. We're getting close to the middle of the year, it's just around the corner. And for the first time, I haven't had really a plan in place of what the next few months are gonna look like, especially as we come close to the end of the year. And that's that was scary. That was really scary for me because over the years, in the past years, I can say that my busiest times have always been right after summer, going into the end of the year. Those are my busiest months where I'm the most active. And so during this season that I'm in right now, like I said, I needed to choose. Am I gonna be reactive? What is that gonna do for me? It's just gonna be hating life, be hard on myself. It's not the end of the world, you know. I will be taken out of my family, probably, my husband more than anything. My kids, I'm I'm better with my kids, but with my husband, you know, be like upset all the time because I don't try to talk about my problems and all the things that are happening in the business. I try to keep things to myself a lot, um, because I want to keep our family and my relationship with my husband the best that I can, but bringing my worries and bringing my misplanning or not planning like thereof, it's not something I wanted to talk to him about. And that's why I sometimes, you know, just talk to my business besties or a coach, right? Because I'm like, okay, I'm stuck. I know I made a mistake or I'm feeling this, like I need to get out of it, and I recognize it. And that's one of those things. Like, you have to learn how to recognize those points in life, in yourself more than anything, and where to ask for help because it's okay to ask for help. So if you're in this situation, in this journey, kind of like where I'm I'm at, or you feel me, you've been here before. Uh, if you've been here before, please share with me what got you out of it, what helped you. If you're going through it, my friend, we will get through it. We're gonna be fine. Uh, but it's being aware and having a plan in place and taking care of ourselves, making sure, like, okay, you know, let's make sure we're healthy, we're sure we eat, we take our walks, they're gonna refresh our minds, gonna refresh our brains because they're two different things, if you didn't know, and our bodies get refreshed as well. Business is hard, life is hard, and this is not an easy thing we're in, but I I can tell you that I wouldn't have it any other way, any other way. I get so much out of being an entrepreneur, self-employed, if you want to call it, that I couldn't get anywhere else. And so I am blessed, and so I have to remember that I am blessed to be here, I am blessed to work and serve my amazing clients and their teams, and sometimes we just get lost in the busyness, and it's okay, it happens. Take a breather, we're in this together. I just wanted to chit-chat today, tell you about what's going on in my life. Yes, life is hard, I know, but I just wanted to share this with you. I am so thankful for you know, everybody that's listening. You know, I know I'm just starting this podcast, and it has been such a exciting time for me to just come and sit here and talk about things I've learned, things that have been helpful to others, bringing those amazing Latina entrepreneurs, sharing their stories and just getting excited about their life. Everybody's going through struggles. They've gone through struggles, you know. But you know, we're here all together, and more than anything, I'm excited to cheer everybody up, support each other where we can, and we get better and faster when we do that than when we try to be by our by ourselves and try to do everything alone. It makes the path so much harder to get through. And it you don't have to, you don't have to, but you do have to surround yourself with people that have the same passion that as you do, you know, to help other Latina entrepreneurs, to help other women in the business, you know, to support each other because we are freaking smart, we are freaking amazing at what we do. I mean, we have superpowers. I believe so.

SPEAKER_00 9:33

Like we have superpowers.

SPEAKER_01 9:35

Like, I sometimes I'm so amazed to see and talk to other, you know, women that are taking care of their home and doing their business or just being a mom's or being whatever they are doing, they're doing it with so much heart, so much passion. And and it just is just amazing to see them just thrive. So thank you all for listening in. I love that you know, I get some of those reviews in there. Uh, they tell me how you feel about it and how the podcast, and and really it helps me to keep going. And that's why I love bringing Latina entrepreneurs to share their story because we're all in this together, as I mentioned, and we don't have to do this alone. And I'm here for you as well, so don't hesitate to send me a DM, message me. I read everything, I reply to all the emails myself, and I'm just so blessed to be here in today. And yeah, thank you for for listening in. It really means a lot to me. You have no idea. It does. Well, until next time, thank you, everyone. And if this resonated with you, please share it. And thank you, amigas. Hasta luego, bendiciones.