Community has been at the center of my business since I started it. That’s why I’m so glad this week’s guest is the person who inspired me to invest in my community in the first place. This week’s we’re speaking to the amazing, Ana Flores! 

A community builder and soul-centered entrepreneur, Ana Flores is living her passion as the founder of #WeAllGrow Latina, a 100% Latina-owned and operated community-driven media and events ecosystem founded in 2010 with a mission of connecting and fueling the entrepreneurial spirit of Latinas. Born in Houston, Texas, raised in El Salvador, Ana is now settled in Los Angeles, where she lives with her daughter and lives every day by the now infamous phrase she coined 13 years ago: “When one grows, we all grow.”

In this week’s episode, Ana talks about the importance of following your soul whisper and how it listens when it speaks to you. Following her soul whisper was the push she needed to create #WeAllGrow Latina and start this incredible journey of democratizing our voices. Listen to hear all about how she became a founder, how she stuck with her passions even when it was hard, and what inspired her to create a deck of conversation cards. 

Connect with Ana:

Instagram @‌anaflores_me
Instagram @‌weallgrowlatina

TikTok @‌weallgrowlatina

Website: http://weallgrowlatina.com

Website:
www.theerikacruz.com

Follow Erika on:
Instagram @‌theerikacruz
TikTok @‌theerikacruz
LinkedIn

How to work with Erika:
Join the waitlist for Courage Driven Latina here.

Podcast production for this episode was provided by CCST.

Episode Transcript :

Erika: Hola, hola, and welcome to another episode of Ch*ngona revolution podcast. On today’s episode, I have a very special guest and recording this podcast episode is a very full circle moment for me, which I’ll discuss a little bit during the podcast episode, but this individual has really Been a trailblazer for our community and I would not be here if it wasn’t for this person.

So this individual is none other than Ana Flores. Ana is a community builder, a soul-centered entrepreneur. She is living her passion as the founder of We All Grow Latina. If you’re not following We All Grow, please follow We All Grow. If you haven’t heard of the events that We All Grow has, please check them out.

That is literally how I got my start. So We All Grow is a 100 percent Latina-owned and operated community-driven media and events ecosystem that was founded in 2010. By Ana Flores with a mission of connecting and fueling the entrepreneurial spirit of Latinas. Ana was born in Houston, Texas, raised in El Salvador, and she is now settled in Los Angeles where she lives with her daughter and everyday lives by the now infamous phrase that she coined 13 years ago, when one grows, we all grow.

Ana and I have a beautiful conversation all about what’s going on with We All Grow. And one of the big things that’s happening right now is that they just launched their first product, which is the Amigas Circle Conversation Cards. So it is a deck of cards. There’s three different categories, which is Heal, Commune, and Grow, that allow you to not just have valuable conversations with like your friends and with, you know, people around you, but also intergenerational because the cards are written fully in English and in Spanish.

And one of the things that I was informed of is that all of the Chingona Revolution listeners actually get a discount if you purchase these conversation cards.

Chingona Revolution listeners receive 10 percent off by using the code CHINGONA at checkout and it is effective from today, which is the day the episode airs, until the 31st. So you want to get these conversation cards before the end of the year so that you can get that discount. I love these cards.

I’ve already used them with friends. I’ve already asked my mom some of the cards and they are So beautifully curated that I wanted to ensure that you all know that you do get that special discount code if that’s something that you’re interested in. And with that being said, let’s get into the interview.

Ana, welcome to Ch*ngona Revolution podcast. I’ve got to say it is, like unreal that I’m having you on my podcast because I found you and we all grow through a podcast where you were a guest and I was like, who is this woman? And I went to go search. We all grow. And I know that you know this story, but I don’t think my followers know this story or my listeners know this.

story. So I looked up, we all grow. And I was like, what is this? This is like what I’ve been looking for my entire life. At the moment I was in my twenties working in tech at a startup where I was one of two women, the only Latina in the company. And I was listening to you on a podcast and it felt like you were just speaking to my soul.

And when I went to the, we all grow website. The conference was unfortunately sold out, but somehow I snuck in as a volunteer last minute because somebody forwarded an email to me. And in 2019 I attended my first summit in Long Beach, California. And I started following you and I sent you a DM on Instagram and I said, I’m a volunteer this year and I just want to thank you for creating this conference.

I had no idea what I was walking into. But Ana, you have completely changed my life with the community that you’ve created and with We All Grow because this podcast would not exist without it. My business would not exist without it. And I don’t think that I would be on the path that I’m on without it.

So thank you so much. And 

Ana Flores: welcome to the show. 

Erika: What 

Ana Flores: a beautiful way to start. I mean, you’re just going all in. You want this to be the Chiona podcast? Oh man. That’s so good. Thank you for having me on. And thank you for sharing that story because it also is a reflection, you know, I want to reflect that back in that story to thank you for following.

What I call that soul whisper, right? Because so many other women could have heard that podcast, but didn’t probably just didn’t have or felt that, but didn’t take action and you taking action, right? Has led you to where you are right now and build in this beautiful community and this beautiful movement, really based out of you following your intuition, your gut, your desires, and your wants.

So, I mean, I want to applaud you for that. And thanks for having me. Yes, and thank 

Erika: you for saying that. I’ve heard you talk about the Soul Whisperer, and I didn’t have a word for this until I heard you speak about this, so I actually want to take it back to when you created We All Grow, because you were following a Soul Whisperer, and a lot of people 

Ana Flores: who 

Erika: were follow this podcast or a lot of people who are my clients, they have a desire to do something and they maybe stop themselves because of the fear of what their family may think about them, the fear of failure, because other people don’t understand what they’re looking to do.

So would you mind sharing with us what, how you started We All Grow, why you started it, and maybe some of the initial 

Ana Flores: challenges that came with it? Yeah. I mean, it was very different times. It was 13 years ago and 13 years, you see, it doesn’t sound a lot. But it’s a lifetime. It’s a lifetime. So many things have changed, especially in the digital landscape.

So I can’t tell you that I, I knew where we all grow was going to end. It was really following those soul whispers a step at a time. I was, 13 years ago, 2010. I was a mom blogger. I was one of the few Latina mom bloggers and actually one of the most well known at the time I had a blog called Spanglish Baby, which had really launched out of necessity.

I was, a stay at home mom. I had quit my job. The recession hit. My husband now ex husband, lost all his clients. We were really facing one of the worst, most difficult financial situations we have ever been in and living in Los Angeles. We had only been here for two years, had no support system, whether that friends that didn’t have kids.

That work in the TV industry, like we did. So you can imagine like that was nothing. We didn’t really have a village. So I think it’s those moments that it’s called. So, a lot of these businesses that are built at a necessity are mostly businesses built by BIPOC women. We build them when there’s like that, something that pushes us that it’s like, okay, you’re going for this now.

Right. and maybe it’s because it feels so daunting because we don’t have those open opportunities and those, those. Funding checks or, you know, different, different doors that open up for us that make it easy to just say like, Oh, I want to follow my dream. Sometimes it has to be on, and that’s what it was for me.

But once I had Spanglish baby going on, it was very early on in the blogging days, 2009, we were a few mom bloggers and we were making money by working with brands. And I realized that I started to unlock that code and we already had a small group on Facebook called Blog Hermanas because back then it was a Facebook groups and it was Blog Hermanas and we were helping each other out and figuring, figuring out how to like land, land, opportunities.

And once I landed my first brand opportunity, I went to Blog Hermanas, this group that I had founded too, and was like, Hey, I got this. 40 deal, right? For this pitch. and I, I showed them how I did it and two of them, I had also got the pitch and they were able to also get 40, which sounded like so much for us back then.

And then I realized that the next step would be to figure out how I could unlock this path into brand work, brand partnerships, and bring it to the community of blogger minus that we had. So I launched what was then Latina bloggers connect. Which is what has transformed into we all grow. when I launched that in 2010, it was a blog that I did on my own and a Google form that said, if you’re a blogger, you identify as Latina and you want to work with brands, sign up and I will find us the work.

And I did. That’s really what it was. our first brand campaign was sprint and then. You know, all these brands, Neutrogena, et cetera, they just started, it just started falling apart. So that was the beginning. That’s what now is known as influencer marketing. We were the very first ones doing this for Latina bloggers in the space, but it has evolved our mottos and stay.

One was when one grows, we all grow. So for our first summit in 2015, it was really catered to the blogger community, because it was very specific needs at the time and. We decided to not call it Latina bloggers connect because I had that gut feeling that whisper that this was going to eventually be bigger and beyond bloggers and beyond creators and, and it was so, and we launched We All Grow Summit in 2015 and that, Within a year, we rebranded the whole company until we all grow.

It just fit better to where we were going and we’ve been able to just bring in the community, regardless if you were a blogger, a creator, an influencer, just a Latina woman in the digital space, wanting to connect with other women. And I think we really have. You know, now in the last few years with the Amiga hood, which is now the extension, the community, which is a free app, we have almost 27, 000 women and the majority of them join because they feel lonely, right?

We’re living in an epidemic of loneliness. The US Surgeon General declared it this year, and we want to be the antidote to that. We, we know that us coming together, us reflecting and marrying each other and us just telling each other. Yes, you can. It’s possible. Your dreams are valid. That crazy idea that you want to do, and you’re probably the first one in your family and your community and your circle of friends to want to do in Nadia, then again, that nobody gets it.

We get it. And even if we don’t, we get you and we want to see you succeed. And that’s really all that we feel that it takes to really, to really shift and transform and bring out all these limitless possibilities of what we know that we can do as, as women, as Latina women, especially when we’re supporting each other.

So beautiful. 

Erika: Oh man, there’s so many things that you mentioned that I want to come back to. I think the first thing I’ll say is I’ve thought about the question. If I could go back in time and just change one thing, what would it be? And it always is community. Like I, if I could go back and just change one thing, it wouldn’t be knowing something different.

It wouldn’t be having an inheritance. It would be to be surrounded by the right people who support you and cheer you on. And that’s exactly what you’ve done with this community, right? This is exactly what you’ve done. Another thing that you mentioned is just you’ve allowed yourself to pivot and change and.

I mean, we all know that change is the only constant and while change can be really uncomfortable, it’s necessary because if you don’t allow yourself to change, that is, I mean, most businesses don’t survive past five years, the first five years. And just, you know, from where you started to where it is now, it’s evolved so beautifully.

And, I wrote down scrappy first draft because I always tell my clients, the first version of things just has to be scrappy. It has to be. The easiest way, the lowest lift. And I love that you mentioned it was just a Google form and people submitted it. And that was fine, right? You didn’t go create this elaborate website specifically for this, with all of these integrations.

And while at some point, I’m sure that that’s what did happen. What was the first version of it was just the Google forms. And sometimes when we think about our goal, we think about it as this massive done. Perfect project where the first versions have to be just the easiest first versions because it’s going to change 

Ana Flores: inevitably It’s I like to call it the accumulation of baby steps.

I am a huge proponent of baby steps up of Dissecting things one by one because when we look at the big picture, it can feel daunting And again, we might feel like I don’t have that. I don’t have that skill set. I don’t have that knowledge I don’t have that wisdom But it’s through those baby steps that you acquire those tools, that you acquire that knowledge, you acquire that wisdom.

And a lot of time it’s going to come through like failed baby steps, right? It’s like, I took this baby step. It didn’t work, but it. It’s okay. I’ll take it this way now and let me test it over there. And that’s what resiliency is about, right? And it definitely comes with having a lot of courage, but courage comes from trusting, trusting in yourself.

So I think if I would change anything, would have trusted more and those soul whispers and that, and that intuition, if I would have relied on it a lot more. From the beginning. Yeah. Can you 

Erika: maybe tell us about a time when, like, you don’t have to give us the details or anything, but maybe when somebody around you didn’t understand what you were doing and you still had to 

Ana Flores: follow and trust yourself?

Girl, . I mean, come on. I, I created something that didn’t exist. Yeah. So we didn’t even have a name for it. It was like we’re a blogger network. Right. There was a few other blogger networks. We were the only one in the Latina space. So imagine, first of all, when I was telling. My ex coworkers and MTV and Mundo’s and all these like big media spaces because I come from I was a TV producer for many years So I come from these really big media spaces and I was like, oh now I’m a mom blogger Oh, I’m mommy blogger get cute, right?

It was really hard, but Really hard to get anybody’s validation and attention. It was just like, Oh, she’s just doing this right now because she’s a stay at home mom, but I saw something bigger. I saw the democratization of our voices as a content producer existing with these massive media companies. Or my voice was like way down there here, it was like any of us had the opportunity to open a blog now to open, you know, a tech talk, whatever it may be for you, a medium account, anything for you to express yourself for your voice to be put out there.

This was again, the early days. So it was not understood. I had all the naysayers in the world. I’ve sat in a lot of conference rooms with white men that saw that there was something there. Pretended as if they didn’t understood because what they wanted was the ownership of what we were creating. And those are the rooms where it’s been the most difficult to exist, especially with at the beginning where I thought that I needed that validation and that I needed that funding.

and thankfully now, 13 years later, we are still self funded. We have not gone that path because I quickly learned that if I had to sit there and convince people of our worth, convince people of our vision, then that was not an alignment and it was not going to be a good partnership and it was better to continue being in alignment and allowing that to magnetize and to attract the right partners, the right opportunities, the right doors for us to cross over.

Erika: Yes, and I mean I can talk about one of the most aligned partnerships that I’ve seen in just the, I do brand partnerships as well when I create content and being a part of We All Grow Storytellers where Pure Leaf was the sponsor, it was such an aligned Partnership. So I can attest to just the alignment that exists within the brand.

And I think that that’s beautiful. You also talked about like, yeah, people don’t understand because you create something new. I think for everyone out there who wants to go start something and people don’t get it, like, what if that’s a really good sign? What if you’re paving a new path because people don’t get what you’re 

Ana Flores: doing?

Yeah, I mean, definitely. I think if it’s something that’s so in you that you really feel it, that you really believe it, that you can see a bigger picture and you’re here trying to convince people to see something that’s within you. I mean, it’s hard. It’s hard to, it’s hard to be the receiver on the other end.

Sometimes you’re like, yeah. That sounds great, but I don’t see it. And that’s okay. So if you are that person that is, that really is just, it’s just vibrating in your whole body and your whole soul and you need to do it, give yourself the chance. Give yourself the chance to reach that vision, to step into that vision and see if it’s possible.

And it doesn’t matter if you fail because you learned, you learned, you always learn along the way. And a version of success is how you adapt those learnings. How do you continue adapting everything that you learn into your next baby step and into your next baby step that to me is success because Eventually you’re gonna get there, right?

But there’s just not one linear way as we’re thought like you’re supposed to go this way and it’s supposed to work out But work out to whose measure of success Which metric? Maybe it’s successful just because you tried. Exactly. And you 

Erika: learned.  Yes. That’s beautiful. So on the topic of pivoting and things like that, as a business owner, you also have to say no to something.

So when have you had to say no to something that you really wanted to work on for maybe, maybe you just didn’t have all the time for it, right? Or maybe it was putting you into too many different directions. Have you? Yeah. So when have you had to say no to something that you really wanted to do? 

Ana Flores: Yeah. Oh, we’ve had to say no, a lot, a lot, especially a lot lately, you know, we’re, we’re, I can’t think of a very specific anecdote or situation right now.

We have been incorporating a lot of no’s, especially now with Vanessa Santos, who I know is already on your on your show. She’s my partner as of two years ago. and my co CEO and we’ve we’ve been having to say no to a lot of things that even we we had on our road map for the year. That we really wanted to incorporate and we like really believed in, but then as the year progresses, as, as the day, the days progress, we realized that, you know, maybe we don’t have the right bandwidth, that the timing just doesn’t feel right.

That, you know, we’re, we’re, you’re like something is just not flowing with ease. Yeah. That is a sure sign that. We don’t need to, you know, just force it to happen. Yes. And there’s been a few things that we wanted to launch this year that we just weren’t able to launch and we had to say no to ourselves, which I think is even harder to be like, okay, set that one aside.

Set that idea aside so that you still believe in it, but you know what? The perfect timing is going to come. Yes, 

Erika: exactly. And just trusting that. To your point, that time will come, right, because being able to, I feel like saying no to things is just as important as being able to take action, and that’s where the intuition really comes through.

But one of the things that you did say yes to and recently came out was the Conversations 

Ana Flores: Cards. I did. It took a year and a half, like, there was a lot of no’s before we could finally, finally be like, okay, these are out now. 

Erika: Well, these cards are beautiful. I’m obsessed with cards. I’m obsessed with conversation cards, tarot cards.

My podcast knows this. So I figured it would be very fitting to maybe pull a card and ask you. All right, let’s do this. Okay. So, I’m pulling one from Grow and then I have more questions for you, but I have this here. 

Ana Flores: okay. So they have three. Our three pillars of the company are Heal, Commune, and Grow.

So we created these, these cards with their 99 bilingual prompts and they’re divided into three decks of 33 cards each and, and following our pillars of Heal, Commune, and Grow. 

Erika: And they are beautiful. Cards, the quality is incredible. And I love that there’s the Spanish and the English 

Ana Flores: because you can even play this with 

Erika: your, your mom.

You could, I mean, it’s just, I feel like the fact that it’s in both languages, because I’ve tried to play some of these games with my mom and I have to translate them as I’m reading them in English, but just having them there, it’s just so inclusive and 

Ana Flores: I love it. I love it. I think they even connect with it more, of course, because they, they know that it was written for them.

They’re definitely meant to be intergenerational. Exactly. 

Erika: Okay, so the card that popped out when I just pulled one is, Name one thing that hurt you but did not break 

Ana Flores: you. Ooh, name one thing that hurt me but did not break me. I’m always surprised, like we wrote these and I’m still surprised every time one comes up.

I’m like, Oh my God, that one’s deep. That one’s hard. Like I should have an answer for all of them at this point, but I don’t. Name one thing that hurt me but did not break me. You know, the first I’m going to go with the first thing that popped up, but it, you know, any marriage that ends hurts totally, even though it was me that was ready for it.

And I had been ready for a long time, until I realized, you know, I was ready to take the step when I was done lying to myself, showing up as, you know, I just felt like I was not showing up in alignment. I was not showing up in congruency because I knew I was living a lie. When I was still with somebody when things seemed fine, but they just weren’t for me inside.

Right? Nothing was wrong. I mean, nothing happened. It was just. It was just not it anymore. so it, it hurt having to, to do that to a, to a good man and a good father and we’re great co parents. but it definitely did not break me. It set me free to, to recalibrate and reassess my journey based on the person, the woman and the person that I had become and was at that moment.

Erika: Yes, that’s beautiful. And I mean, as you know, based on my story from storytellers, I called off an engagement and I was also the initiator. And I think a lot of times people have this assumption with like, oh, if you’re the one who wanted that, like, it shouldn’t hurt you. But I don’t think people realize how much pressure comes with the you.

Decision of like, Oh, I’m not living in alignment and I can’t hurt this person anymore. And there’s so much healing that also needs to happen from the side of the initiator as well, right? Because to your point, especially when nothing happened and you can’t point the finger at anything, it’s just simply that you desire something else.

And I think sometimes as Latinas or as women and women of color, we, we’re, like, desire gets such a bad rep, but everything we want is on the other side of our desires. 

Ana Flores: Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. The heart and our womb are never wrong. 

Erika: Exactly. Exactly. Okay, another question that popped into my head, not from the conversation cards, just popped into my head, is, tell 

Ana Flores: me, 

Erika: obviously your, daughter has grown with 

Ana Flores: We All Grow.

Oh, yes. Right. So, 

Erika: I’m just curious as to how has she been an influence, in this journey of being a business owner, and also working with. I mean, she’s now the ideal client, right? She’s now, I mean, I feel like she’s just part of the community. but how has she influenced you in the way that you show up inside of We All 

Ana Flores: Grow?

Well, if you ask her, she’ll take full credit. She’s like, it’s all thanks to her. But actually it is, you know, it all started with Spanglish Baby. It was a blog for parents raising bilingual cultural kids. And I was just with my, partner, Roxanna at the time for the blog, It was our motivation was what we were experiencing as moms wanting to raise these bicultural children and how difficult it was, et cetera.

So that she was the motivation from the beginning. There is something, um, I had success in my career, like as a TV producer, I started with the new BCL and in Miami in the early, in the late nineties. I had always like quit my jobs and kind of was a freelancer. I think I was always an entrepreneur.

There was just not the word for that at the time. and, but there was always like something that would push me, but I lacked like full motivation. And it was having this baby at home again with no village and in a very difficult financial situation. In a moment when in LA, there was a writer’s strike back then to the recession.

I mean, nothing was opening up. Nothing was opening up. It was horrible. it was that deep motivation of what am I going to do? I’m a mom now, you know, I can’t just pick up and go. I can’t just, you know, figure, I have to figure this one out. And, but for me, the figuring it out. with the spiritual aspect of it.

So I actually, like I’m deviating a little bit, but I actually went into, Kabbalah one many years ago. I’m no, I’m no longer in Kabbalah, but those teachings that the, was what motivated to, like, I needed to find that connection within my soul again. and, and that’s what motivated me into starting the company.

This, this sire just amplifies when you know that you’re doing it, not only for you, but for this extension, for this person that you brought to the world that you’re now responsible for. And now when she’s 16, it’s just seeing how this girl has been raised by all of us. Is fascinating and that’s why I wanted her to be the surprise speaker at the summit last year when we opened.

It was a really important moment for me because she has been to every single summit. She went to the 1st 1 when she was, I think, 6. She went to she didn’t go to the whole thing. She went to storytellers and storytellers. I mean, you’ve been a storyteller that is raw. Like, women are revealing. painful, vulnerable moments in their life, funny moments, everything, but it’s very raw.

She’s been hearing these stories from all of us every time. And ever since then, she sat down at every, all the summits at all the main stage sessions and listen to everything. So imagine, like, I think of, of Ana, little Ana grow growing up in El Salvador. Like not ever, you know, being surrounded by women, but not by women that were so in tune and in touch with themselves and, and so empowered, right.

And, and so in sisterhood, which is what she has had her whole life. So she’s almost like, I said, like this experiment, like what happens. When children are raised this way, 

Erika: that is so beautiful. And so from your perspective, what has happened? What have 

Ana Flores: you seen as she’s grown up? She’s incredibly mature, like she’s more ready.

She, she prefers being with me and my friends than with teenagers. So that’s a little bit difficult because she’s like, oh, you know, she’s just very, she’s just very mature. She’s very in tune and she knows what she wants. It’s funny because she doesn’t want to be an entrepreneur. She’s like, mom, that’s too hard.

Erika: She knows enough. She knows what 

Ana Flores: goes on behind the scenes. I don’t want to do that. I’m like, okay. She’s like, yeah, I see you struggle a lot. I’m like, I know. I know. 

Erika: Amazing. So tell 

Ana Flores: us 

Erika: a little bit about. Yeah. a weekend fest which is coming up and I also attended the last weekend fest. That’s where Vanessa and I first met and I can’t wait for it.

I’m going to be there, but what can people expect and who should join? 

Ana Flores: Yeah, so weekend fest is actually it’s the first time that we’re doing this concept is we’re bringing together two of our most loved one day events into one umbrella. We’re calling it Weekend Fest. So day one is March 8th, and it is Last Founders for Women with an Entrepreneurial Spirit.

And the theme of the day is Thrive with Ease. The March 7th, yes, Friday, March 7th and Saturday, March 8th is wellness day. And this is our third year doing wellness day. The theme of that day is this year is connecting with your innermost self. So Las Founders. started last year, that’s where you were at and it was, it was a crazy idea.

Like, well, it was like, oh, we got the crazy idea and it came, you know, we were like, we put it out there. We got a sponsor. we got a few sponsors and we’re like, okay, let’s, let’s, let’s test it. Let’s see what people, how people resonate and feel, because we wanted to create something that was more catered and more niche where we could really, bring in more specific topics and women and people would know, Feel better about what they know that they’re going to be getting from it.

Summit had become so big and become so, so big, so many women, from different identities, from career professionals, to bloggers, to entrepreneurs, et cetera, that it was a little bit hard. to cater to everybody. So we’re like, okay, let’s niche it down. And that’s what last founder says. So less founders, if you’re an entrepreneur or have that dream to one day open your business, and you’re just getting that little soul whisper, that’s like, what if I go for it?

Come and check it out, come and be with other women that went for it. And he listened to their stories, learn from them, ask them questions, just be in that community. And then wellness day, door. And I’m so happy we’re bringing it back. So well, the first wellness day. It was in 2018, the second one in 2019, and this is our third one.

So it be, it, it was really another massive, this was like a soul scream that was coming through me. In 2017, we almost had to file for bankruptcy, actually started the filing for bankruptcy. And then a lot of. Like really miraculous things happened that allowed me to continue, to keep the company I had already had to fire everybody.

It was a really tough year. but I leaned strong into all my spiritual tools, my spiritual toolbox that I had kind of abandoned in the early years of the company when I was in massive hustle mode and. With a toddler, and in one of the like breath work is one of my massive tools. And I kept hearing like, you’re going to do the summit again.

I was like, yeah, right. Like with what money? Like this is summit is massive, massive mess. I’m like, like, how the hell is this going to happen? They’re like, no, not only are you going to do summit, but you’re also going to do wellness day. Because if for me at that moment, the transformation, the shift and being able to come back and rescue the company.

I accredited it to. This spiritual path that I was on that I had, that I had a really bit on, I had left and I came back to, so I was like, as an entrepreneur, we’re going to have so many moments when we fail, we’re going to have so many moments when we have to start all over. So many moments when we feel like we’re carrying this container ship and we need to slowly, like safely put it back on shore.

and what we need for that is to rely on. Us, right? And that inner strength and what does that look like for each one? It’s going to be different meditation, breath, work, yoga, healing. I mean, coaching so many, so many things. So it felt like it was important that we also created a space for all these women that saw.

That felt that they had something else to give that was not in the norm of what was expected of them, but maybe they wanted to, you know, create a business as an astrologer or as a wellness coach or as a breath work facilitator, but they didn’t have that community or that acknowledgement. To say this is possible, right?

What is this path? What does that look like? So we wanted to create that stage where we could bring those that were already creating in that space like Christine Gutierrez, you know, Cosmic Diocese, she had been part of the community and part of the summit for many years, right? And she had already transitioned into more of the healing and soul work.

So why not give her space? Nikki Novo. I mean, So many that were just kind of starting out. What happened was they became that reflection for the women that were sitting in the audience and being like, Oh my goodness, I can do this too. I can do this too. So that’s that was the beginning of wellness day. It has really grown and we’re bringing it back this year.

We had incorporated into the summit, but it ended up being a little bit too much for people to choose. Like everybody wanted to do everything. So it was overwhelming. So now we’re dividing them in two days. and long beach hotel Maya, which is, which was originally where we hosted, for summits. And it just really has become our home, beautiful waterfront space.

incredible California skyline. so we still have tickets. I would love to see people there. We still have tickets because we had to move the date. we had to postpone the date due to a labor union strike going on with hotels in California. But it is now back on in March. and a few tickets opened up.

So we do have tickets. 

Erika: Incredible. I really do believe that magic happens at We All Grow events. And it’s like, I mean, we’re hearing from your perspective, right? But imagine all of the little connections, the conversations that happen just by attendees speaking to one another. I mean, that’s where I met.

Ana Lilia, that’s where I met Jasmine Esoteric Essa, that’s where I met, I mean, just so many people who are still a close part of my circle. So I will be there. My friends will be there. We’re so excited to go and we will be sure to put all of the links for both the conversation cards as well as the weekend fest in the show notes.

But there’s also another way that people can get involved, right? So would 

Ana Flores: it be the amiga hood? Yes. Amiga hood is our free community and app. And like I mentioned, we have almost 27, 000 members there. Latinas from all over the world. And really the magic that happens there is in finding each other and connecting.

We have a free. Every Monday we have free coaching sessions with Wendy Amara that have been going on for three years now. We call them holding hands. On Tuesdays, you have access to us, to the leadership team. Every other Tuesday, we host what’s called office hours. On Wednesdays, you have free meditations with Alex Lera Purple, who also helped us write, the Amiga Circle, conversation card questions and prompts.

And there’s, and we always have a monthly Amiga’s session where it could be. Again, like a breathwork session with Annalilia, which she’s had a few or like a learning to follow your intuition session or etc. and Amigas Mentor, which are a little bit more based on entrepreneurship and career professionals.

Those are just what we have every month along with our book club called Latinas y Libros, which is. Super loved and we have amazing authors, Latina authors are all the time. There’s always other events that we’re putting up, but the beauty of it is our circles. So we have circles based by location where you will be able to find other Latinas that are that are in your hopefully in your vicinity.

These are all led by members, members proposed to lead them and they do it. Basically volunteer work and then we have circles by interest. There’s almost 70 interest circles and there’s incredible. You’ll find like Latinas in higher education, Latinas in beauty, Latinas in like everything in wellness. And there’s one that’s a writing community.

Another one that does like co working sessions together. you know, online and just. Absolutely. It’s you’ll find something that that makes you feel that you’re at home and that you’re definitely in a safe space. I do want to say that those 27, 000 members have been, you know, over the last, we launched this in 2018 at the end of 2018, and we’ve never paid for advertising or marketing.

So we do it purposefully because we want everybody that’s joined to be attracted to it. And that for us helps create, create a safe space. So we’re not about quantity. We’re all about We are about quality and making sure and guaranteeing that this is always going to remain a safe space. So everybody that’s accepted, everybody that comes are people that honestly were attracted for one reason or another and find this hopefully as their home.

And 

Erika: it is a very, very safe space. I did a live a couple of weeks ago with Vanessa on there and it was, it’s just such an easy platform to use. And I love the circle concept. Is there anything that I did not ask 

Ana Flores: you that you’d like to share with the listeners? I, I, I don’t know. I don’t know. no, I think we covered, I mean, I think we covered it all.

I’m an, I’m an open book, anything else, anything else that you want to know. But it’s just, yeah, I think we, we, we, I, I don’t feel anything in my heart or my soul right now that I’m like, Oh, I need to, I need to talk about this right now. 

Erika: Yeah. I feel like we covered so much in such a short amount of time.

Ana Flores: Amazing. So where 

Erika: can people find you? And then obviously we will tag everything down below. So we’ll, include all of the, we all grow pages, but if people want to follow you and follow the 

Ana Flores: pages, where should they go? Yeah. So I am Anna Flores underscore me on almost all platforms, but where I’m most active is Instagram.

And obviously on the Amiga hood, there is a place there for DMS and chat. So you can find me there and. And WeAllGrowLatina is at WeAllGrowLatina across platforms and the Amigahood app. Just look it and look for it in your app store under Amigahood. Perfect. And 

Erika: I guess there’s one last question that I’ll ask you.

What’s next for you? 

Ana Flores: For me? So it’s been 13 years building this beautiful company and 16 years in motherhood now. And I had to say that I, this year I reached, a place of exhaustion of recognizing In my body after getting COVID for the first time, I got COVID for the first time a few months ago, the summer, really recognizing how much I had been carrying exhaustion in my core and so much that I had befriended it.

And I had allowed it and it felt normal. I had normalized it, but once I was able to see it and stare at it in the eyes and talk to it, I mean, like, I don’t want you, I don’t need you in my body anymore. So I am working on stepping back. you’ll love stepping back. I have an amazing team. I have an amazing partner and allowing and giving myself some time to see what it is that.

I need to continue putting out. I’m still in. We all grow. I’m still here. It’s just stepping back a little bit and and also allowing the freshness and the newness of we all go because we all grow as its own entity. We all grow at this point. It’s not me. It’s not been inside. It’s not. It’s not. It’s all of us.

It’s always been. I just steward. I just listen to it. I just put my ear close to the ground. I’m like, what is the community needing right now? And we kind of steward it that way. That’s why I have Made the decisions that I have made of not bringing in investors, not bringing in certain partners, et cetera, to allow us to continue being free to, to pivot to where we need to pivot for the community.

But I also need to allow to do that for myself. 

Erika: Definitely. That’s beautiful. We’re celebrating you and we’re also just thanking you for creating this. And you’re right. It’s, it doesn’t require the handholding anymore. Like, it’s, you’ve definitely created, this beautiful machine that’s community driven and it doesn’t require.

A hundred and ten percent of, of your effort. So, celebrating you for that. Thank you so much, Anna, for coming on the show. This has been just a very, like, heartwarming and fulfilling conversation for me. As I saw you on the other side of the screen, I was like, Oh my gosh, we’re actually doing this! Like, 2019 Erika knew that this was gonna happen.

She’d Freak out. 

Ana Flores: Aye, that’s hilarious. You were such a great volunteer, by the way. Oh, good. I’m glad. 

Erika: I’m so glad. I, I mean, you’re, you’re stuck with me. I’m going to keep attending. Yes. 

Ana Flores: We want to have any time. Like, you know, you just need to say, I want to be there and you’ll, you’ll be there. 

Erika: I appreciate it.

I appreciate everything that you do for the community and everything that you’ve created. And really, thank you, Ana, from the bottom of my heart. And the community thanks you as well for everything that you’ve done. 

Ana Flores: Thank you. I appreciate it. I receive it with so much love. And carry it.