In today's episode of The Keys to The Office Podcast, Tatiana Chamorro shares her story of moving to the United States and becoming a successful entrepreneur, providing listeners with tips on how to pursue their own career goals.
In this episode, you will learn:
1. How Tatiana Chamorro decided to study graphic design, and the impact that decision had on her life
2. The importance of planning and strategizing when pursuing an educational or career goal
3. The importance of having a positive mindset when pursuing an educational or career goal
In today's episode, Tatiana Chamorro shares her story of moving to the US and becoming a successful entrepreneur, providing listeners with tips on how to pursue their own career goals.
"The most important part of it is it's happening."
Tatiana Chamorro is an entrepreneur and marketing professional who immigrated to the United States from Nicaragua in 2015. She has a passion for helping others reach their career goals and is a strong advocate for women in business.
This is her story...
Tatiana is a Latina entrepreneur who didn't initially see herself in the marketing field. She moved to the US in 2015 with her husband and young son. While her husband pursued his master's degree, Tatiana stayed home with her son and began volunteering. She eventually went back to school and discovered her passion for graphic design. Today, she is an entrepreneur who works in the marketing field and loves sharing her story with others.
In this episode, you will learn the following:
1. How Tatiana Chamorro decided to study graphic design, and the impact that decision had on her life
2. The importance of having a positive mindset, planning ,and strategizing when pursuing an educational or career goal
[01:09] Guest Intro
Tatiana is a Latina born in Costa Rica. Her family moved to Texas for her husband to complete a masters program. It is there that she began her entrepreneurial journey in digital marketing.
[02:40] Making Career Decisions
[10:41] Balancing Motherhood and Pursuing Passions
As a parent, your decisions are not only yours–they also impact your family. Fixing your mindset to understand the difference between “the right now” versus “the end goal” makes the in between moments that are hard and inconvenient a little bit more bearable.
[13:17] What are your five year goals?
When deciding on a career and making a life plan, plan for the big things just as much as the small ones.
[18:02] International Student
Identify your potential hurdles as an international student early. This gives you time to fit these action items in your timeline for achieving your goal. Do your research of opportunities, resources, and people associated with your school and/ or career. This sets the tone for your time in school and how you can make big moves for your career.
[22:05] Mentorship
There is formal and informal mentorship that plays a role in your future. A mentor is someone to guide you through your path and encourage you along the way. They don’t have to be super successful all around, but they do have to take being “on your team” as seriously as you do.
[28:17] What is Tatiana doing now?
[34:45] One Major Key
Don’t just focus on right now, plan for the next five years. The end goal for the next five years will tell you what your road map needs to look like. Exercise goal planning in a dynamic way to know where you’re going and help keep the momentum.
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Announcer: 0:32
Hey, future black and Latinx leaders. You are listening to the keys to the office podcast, where we interview amazing professionals who share their individual career paths to set you up for success. We're giving you the keys to the office and all you need to do is show up, ready to unlock the door. Let's jump into today's episode.
Kristina Butler: 1:03
Good morning. Good afternoon. Good evening, Keith family. I am excited about our guests today. We've had a conversation or two at this point, and I think you all are in for a treat. My hope is that you have your notepads ready because you're about to walk away with some amazing tips. When I talk about keys coming. This is it. So welcome Tatiana. That's our guest today, a Latina LA entrepreneur. She moved from Nicaragua back in, I think 2014. I, I have that. Right. With your family that has since grown an international student at Texas a and M with a story to tell who is now an amazing entrepreneur works in the marketing space and has so, so, so much to share with us. Welcome Tatiana. Thank you. I am extremely excited to be here. Yeah. Yeah. I, I think there's a lot of benefit in, in what's about to unfold. So let's dive in. I guess first I kind of like touched on, you know, you a little bit, but tell the people who you are tell our community what you.
Tatiana Chamorro: 2:13
Yeah. So I am a Latina born in Costa Rica. I call myself an international, you know, like, where am I from? I I'm a little bit from everywhere. So I was born in Costa Rica, grew up in Nicaragua. I come from, my mom is Mexican. My dad is from Nicaragua. So, you know, just a little bit of everything. Yeah. I got married to an Nicaragua. And in 2015, after having our son in 2012, we decided to come to Texas in pursuing my husband's master's degree. And since then the rest is history. We have been in Texas now eight years. And there's a lot of things that change through that path, especially coming in. From you know, I had been to the us before, but never had I been with a two year old son, you know, right. Two So there's, you know, just a lot of things that happened until I am where I got today as an entrepreneur.
Kristina Butler: 3:08
Awesome. Awesome. And yes, I imagine it's very different when you have a toddler and you're starting a new in a new country. But that just means you have so much more to share, right? Like so many more nuggets and gyms to talk about how you deal with that sort of transition. We talked about marketing and you being an entrepreneur at this point, is that the path you saw yourself taking when you were younger? Like sort of, what did you wanna be when you grew up?
Tatiana Chamorro: 3:34
Yeah, I absolutely did not see my in fact, I don't think digital marketing was a thing when I was younger. so I had always been a creative soul. I love painting. I love art. Actually high school was very challenging for me because I was never the best student. Okay. And I think a big part of that was that my way of learning is very different. Mm-hmm um, I am a creative learner and I like working and doing things. And then I learned through that. And as you know Schools are taught in a very traditional way that don't consider different types of learners. Correct. And so for me, that transition until college was actually very interesting. I did not see myself as a digital marketer, but I always saw myself as a business owner. Okay. No idea what that was gonna be, but I knew I wanted to be a business owner. Yeah. That, so.
Kristina Butler: 4:27
Did you grow up around business owners? Because you know, when I was younger, I saw my parents work a nine to five and I thought, well, that's the path for me? Right. They didn't own businesses. We never even talked about entrepreneurship or anything like that. So did you grow up in that space where others own businesses and you thought that's what I wanna do?
Tatiana Chamorro: 4:46
Yeah, I actually did. I come from A family of business owners. My dad owned his own business. All my uncles owned their own businesses. My grandfather owned his own business, so it was definitely part of the conversation. And there was a point in my life where I actually doubted if becoming a business owner was something I wanted or just something that was instilled in my, you know, in my, in my thought process. But I also come from. You know, a very sexist environment, not, not necessarily me particularly, but just the Hispanic, you know, culture in, in itself or in general. Yeah. And so it was very weird for me to see myself as a business owner, because I also was I was also raised in this mentality of becoming a housewife. Right. So it was kinda like a paradox as I was growing up.
Kristina Butler: 5:32
Yeah. Yeah. I hear you on that. You touched on something and I wanna dive deeper into that because I think about my, both of my children who are creatives, very, very creative and they're unique struggles. One is now an adult. 24 years old. The other one is she'll be 16 in a couple of weeks. And I think about her unique struggles with school and sort of being in this box with this structure and not being able to learn in the way that works best for her. But you then went on to Texas a and M and essentially killed it. I don't, I don't know another way of putting it right. So. Talk to me about your educational journey. You know, I get the roadblocks initially because you weren't free to think in the way you wanted, but once you hit college, like what did that journey look like for you?
Tatiana Chamorro: 6:28
That's a great question. I think it was It was definitely a journey in which I found what I loved mm-hmm So I remember my mom always saying, you know, study what you love doing. And I don't think that we mentioned that enough. Even in high school when kids are choosing their careers. Yeah. I mean, going into selecting a career, which is gonna determine what your, you know, eight to five looks like for the rest of your life, even if you're a business owner, you know? Yeah. And so, and, and that's not mentioned enough, so. I, I love mentoring students that are making those decisions, because one of the things I ask is when you close your eyes, how do you look your, like, what do you see that you are doing in the future? Whatever that looks like, are you in front of a computer? And based on that, Look then for a career that allows you to get there. Right? Mm-hmm so for me, my journey was a little different because I realized I saw myself in high school building all of these. I remember doing like group projects and I would be the person that would design the billboard, let's say. Right. Okay. Or these things. Now it wasn't something where I wish a teacher would've come to me and said, Hey, you know, there's a career called graphic design where you can combine the way that information is being communicated to audiences by colors and this and that. For me, it was like, oh, I just, I like drawing. I, I like colors and I, I didn't even realize this was typography and using font, you know? Yes. I love it. So then I decided to go to college and and I started off with the careers in communication because I remember I told my mom, I wanted to study graphic design and she was like, oh no, that's art. What are you gonna do with an art degree? Mm-hmm and even though that's a big misconception graphic decision, kinda like the. Of like the, the artistic communication form of business, you know, like it's, it's so criminal to, to business communications. And so in my career in communications, there was one graphic design class and I enrolled and it was the first time in my whole life that I won an award. They had selected my logo. To be used for a whole campaign in the university. And I clearly remember sitting there and they were gonna announce the winner and I was completely not paying attention cuz I did not expect my name to be called. And then they called my name and I am like, oh my gosh, I am good at this. Yes. This is the first time that I'm I'm good. And that's when I realized this is what I wanna do. Now, obviously things started to change. I, then I got married. I had a, I had my son, I had yet not graduated from my undergrad. And so now I had, I was in a point where I was like, you know, I, if I'm gonna complete my undergrad, I need to do something that I love. Cause if I don't love it selecting, you know, staying up at until 1:00 AM doing my homework over, taking some rest so that then I can take of my son is gonna be completely a nightmare or impossible, you know? Yeah. So I decided to study graphic design and that's, that's when everything started to like all the pieces came together. And I think the biggest, you know, the biggest a moment there was that I just chose to study what I loved doing. Because at that point I was like, I'm just gonna do what I love.
Kristina Butler: 9:36
Yeah. I, I, this is exciting. So a couple of things you mentioned, and I, and like I said, I hope everyone's taking notes. A couple of things. So I, I think about my own daughter who loves to write, and right now she's kind of restricted with what she can write and confined in that space, but she doesn't even fully realize the different career paths that passion for writing can take. Right. Sort of, you know, like you mentioned, you think about this art degree and sort of, how are you gonna make money, you know, doing art. Well, there's so many different avenues to take that we just don't talk about. And that was, you know, In my mind when I created this podcast, because I'm thinking there are so many different career paths for students, and we're just not talking enough about it. So you loved this artistic side, you loved drawing and coloring and you then channel that into this lucrative entrepreneurship journey where you're able to create. Right. And you actually had someone. This is amazing. And you said, okay, you know what, maybe this is it like, maybe this is it. I feel good doing it. Someone else likes it, maybe this is it. And I can support my family doing it. You also touched on something else. And I think about those of us who are moms who have balanced school and families because that was me at one point even, you know, through grad school. So. The importance of loving what you do or else it will impact your studies. It will also impact your family like the key to striking that balance. Talk to us a little bit more about that, because I imagine there are other moms out there, other women. Who are either students now or thinking about going to school, right. Or going back to school to finish that degree, how did you make it work? Right. What are the obstacles we need to be mindful of?
Tatiana Chamorro: 11:40
Yeah. I think the, you know, there, there's a lot of important things that you mentioned. I sat down. First of all I was married, so my decisions no longer were only mine and I was a mom. So they needed to be dependent on a growth strategy that was unified with my husband. So one thing that my husband and I do is we will sit down and plan for the next five years. And those plans include what I wanna accomplish, what he wants to accomplish and what we wanna accomplish to make sure that when we're putting our. Through that we're doing it in a way that I know this is not my forever. This is just so that we get to that goal, right? Yeah. So mindset mindset was huge because the, the moment we decided for him to do his masters and move to Texas, I was in the middle of finishing my career and And that was a huge pivot in, in my day to day. Cuz at that moment I'm coming into the United States. My husband is a, you know, visa student mm-hmm I'm coming in into what's called a dependent, the dependent status doesn't allow you to work or study. So I stayed home and I would cook clean, do all of that stuff. Now, if you know me, I can't just stay home, cook and clean. So I started volunteering in places, you know, that's the one thing you're allowed to do. So I would volunteer on my son's daycare and, and do things like that. But I knew that wasn't me forever. I knew I had a goal that I wanted to graduate. We just prioritized my husbands first mm-hmm knowing that that was gonna be a year. So we both like mentally prepared for that to last a year. And it did. And right after he graduated he was able to get a, a job offer. By Texas a and M in commerce, and we were able to change our status. So I now went in and I changed it to a visa student and I went back to school. So I think that a big part of it is. Sitting and planning, like where do you wanna go? And people usually plan for like next week. Yeah. Or they plan what they're gonna do today. Yeah. I would say plan for like five years, like think big and, and think I wanna own a university. Like that sounds crazy to some people. Right. But what do you need to do to get there? And so similar to when you're selecting your career, instead of thinking, oh, I wanna study you know, biology instead of that, think about. Okay. I wanna be a doctor. Well, what type of doctor? Mm-hmm okay, so now, okay. Where do I wanna work? Do I wanna work in mass general? You know, in Boston? Or like, what do, what am I aiming for? So that then yeah, the decisions I make can actually help me get there. But most importantly, the mindset, because that's gonna be huge. You need to be very strong through those decisions are gonna allow you to stay strong because you're gonna know that even though, okay, I'm a housewife right now, I'm cleaning doing laundry and it feels like a task I'm doing every day. I know that's not gonna be me forever. It's me forever. Yeah. Right. So you have to be very strong on that mindset. And then another thing that I would say is definitely because you're able to sit down and plan and strategize mm-hmm, one of the things that was huge for me was planning my day, like actually sitting, like I use post-it notes. I have them everywhere with all the little things I need to, you know, happen. I. I went into a self journey of the self discovery journey, where I realized I love color coding. Mm-hmm and I love organizing. If it's not in my list, it won't happen today. If it's not in my calendar where you won, not it won't happen. Yes. But I had to get there to discover that that was part of who I was and what I needed to do to get things to happen. Mm-hmm and so I would plan. So like right now, even my calendar has a time slot that says mom time, because I want it there. I don't want anyone scheduling meetings at that time. That is the time that I'm gonna be spent. Now that doesn't mean that's the only time I'm a mom, right? Mm-hmm right. It just means I get to plan, play dates at that time, I get to plan piano lessons if I want to at that time. And I'm mentally block myself so that I'm not thinking about those meetings because since I love what I do, yeah. I'm always thinking about it. Right.
Kristina Butler: 15:32
This is so good. I knew this was gonna be a great conversation. And even when we talked yesterday, I was like, man, like there's so much more I wanna dig into. So we talked about planning and organizing two things. I absolutely love, right. I have I've I've spent so much ridiculously amounts of of money on On planner stuff, right. Paper planning. And then I realized, okay, I, I need something a little more streamlined. So I went to a digital planner in my iPad, but you are saying you just grab a sticky note. And write stuff down or put it in the calendar, right? Like we don't have to overthink what the planning process looks like. We just need to sit down and do it and not just plan for tomorrow, but be strategic and think through our five year goals.
Tatiana Chamorro: 16:22
Yeah. And I think you mentioned something very important I'm and I think a lot of us as moms those that are moms mm-hmm or just in general, we overthink things. Right. Well, what is ha oh my gosh. Did I did this with my son? And now what is he gonna do when he grows up? Is he gonna remember this? So a big part of what I do, like a mantra that I have is just do it. Right. And I love it. I made that up by the way. I'm just kidding. it as your own. No, one's gonna But a big part of it is just doing it because at the end of the day, and it feels, and sounds very cliche, but if we overthink it, it won't happen. And the most important part of it is it happening. Right. So it's more important for me to get out there. And either contact you know, whatever that looks like for my goals, then for me to sit down and plan, if planning is taking away a month for you, you're not, you're over, you're procrastinating. You're not planning.
Kristina Butler: 17:21
Like I needed this conversation for me, selfishly. As I think through the next five years and this self discovery journey I'm on after recently leaving corporate for the first time. 30 some odd years. Right? So all of this is so good. And I, I'm just thinking about the audience and how timely this information is. Goodness. There's so much I could dig into. So we're talking about strategy, we're talking about goal planning. Let's dive a little bit deeper into the fact that you were an international student doing all of this. You just got to America. What? 2014? 2015. So what unique obstacles did you face? What hurdles, what challenges did you face as an international student? With a family, right? Pursuing your education.
Tatiana Chamorro: 18:13
Yeah. I'm gonna divide that into two buckets. Yeah. Myself as a, as an international student and myself as a mother mm-hmm because those were two different challenges, but intertwined as an international student, I knew I wanted, first of all, you are, we have to pay out-of-state tuition. Right. So I needed to overcome. I did some research. I, my husband and I found out that when you have a scholarship in Texas of a thousand dollars or more, you're instantly allowed to have in-state tuition. So that was my first. Oh, wow. And that goes to anyone it's not only for international students, but international students to apply. Now during the first year that I was just staying at home, I started to volunteering at volunteer at a lot of events, right. So I started meeting deans. I started talking to. Different people involved within the higher ed university, where my dad, my husband was doing his, his masters mm-hmm And so that allowed me to also start identifying opportunities now, because I sat down and planned. I knew that I wanted to then enroll. And so I knew when I was doing all of that, what I needed to look out for, what type of resources would help me get there, even though I was a year away from it. Yeah. I was still aware of where I wanted to go. So I was still. You know, intentionally having conversations that would allow me to be prepared for when I needed to take that step. Yes. So the first step I took was I think the hardest hurdle was I was coming in with about 60 credit hours. Mm-hmm and about 40 credit hours of those were from an international institution. So I had studied for two years in central America. There's a whole process to certifying your transcripts mm-hmm so I had to go through all of that. Now, the good thing is that because I did. Because I planned, I did it with time and so I knew what I needed to do. And then what, you know, when it needed to be accomplished I also had to go back to my country to get my visa, so then I could come back. So there was a whole kind of like transition between identifying the immigration process and then also the application process within the university. Right. OK. So it had to, it had to be very methodical. Apart from that as a mother, you know, expenses were gonna be a big part of it. So what I did is I became president of the student board of directors for the cafeteria which allowed me to cover my meal expenses and my sons. And so that way now I had meal covered because I sat down and I said, okay, I. I'm gonna need scholarships. What am I gonna do with food? What am I gonna cook? And by the way, I was coming from a country where I had never cooked. Like I had no idea how to, I didn't know how to do laundry. Wait a, is that possible? There there's a lot of help in Gawa. So I grew up with, you know, people that would do it. Gotcha. Gotcha. I, I came very. Very lack of knowledge on basic things that I, you know, that people here already know about. So I had, yeah, I had never done our laundry. There was always someone that was helping us with that. And so I had to, I had to figure out the basic stuff and then also the, the other type of things.
Kristina Butler: 21:20
Wow. That. I mean, this story just has me like repeatedly, like, wow, wow. The whole piece about covering meals, right? For you and your son, right? You, you figure it out, right. You do the research, you plan accordingly and you figure it out. So talk to me about. What mentorship has looked like for you along the way? I, I see you as a mentor, but I imagine along the way, you've also had mentors that have just really poured into you and encouraged you because as you speak, I don't hear someone who knows limits, right? Like if there's something I wanna do, I can absolutely do it. Right. Where does that come from? And talk to me about the mentorship piece.
Tatiana Chamorro: 22:04
Yeah, that's such a great question because I think students and people in general, they don't take advantage of the concept of mentorship enough. Yeah. I will say that a big part of how I found these opportunities because during my undergrad, every university has a scholarship portal. I went into the scholarship portal. I think that from the a hundred scholarships, let's say a hundred percent, maybe like 20% international students can apply to. So it's a very small percentage. Wow. They have limitations. So in that 20% I applied and I received seven scholarships, which. Absolutely covered the cost of tuition. So if I, as an international student was able to find those resources, how, you know, like it's there, we just need to look for them. Even the, the cafeteria it's about showing up, but a big part of it was mentorship. And, and I think, you know, for me, mentorship started since young, my mom and my dad had always been, they've been great mentors even as in my marriage, you know, they became our mentors in my marriage as well. Yeah. But actually listening. To what people are telling you and picking what is the right path for you? Right? So like I remember asking for advice and being very confused to like, but that's not really what I wanna do, but there's something there mm-hmm, there's something there mm-hmm I listened to now. I, I feel very blessed to the university where I want to, because that university is fully focused on mentorship. So if you know, Before going there, I would consider my parents, my mentors, and after going there, every Dean that I met. Would become a mentor to me. Wow. And I, I think that that's not common in a lot of universities. I actually started off going to Pennsylvania for my undergrad before I got married and I never met the president. I don't remember what I don't think I ever met the Dean. And yet then I went to Texas a and M in commerce and I hadn't met all the presidents that were there when I was there. I was invited to, you know, these dinners that were. International students were invited to. And so it was all about just putting, being comfortable with getting out there. Mm-hmm and just asking questions. Mm-hmm and having people that are interested in that growth in others. So like a big mentor for us or her name is Dr. Mary Hendrix. And she allowed us to really think in a different way. She gave us all, all of. She opened the doors to understanding all these resources that are there, not only for us, but for, you know, minority students for students in general mothers. And so for me, that's a big part of who I want to be today, because if, if we're not there sharing all this information that we know, then people find it out. Right. And then even in business, now I have, you know, my business partner, JC Hite is one of my mentors. In terms of also thinking big identifying the next steps. I think that mentorship is something that should always be there. No matter the, the path that you're in or, or how big you feel you are, you know,
Kristina Butler: 25:07
mm-hmm, mm-hmm, formal and informal mentorship, I imagine. Right. Like spoken and unspoken. I think sometimes we overthink what that, that looks like and it's like, it, it doesn't have to be a formal agreement, right? Like. Mentorship is so broad and so needed. And sometimes all it takes is for you to put yourself in the right space and open your mouth and talk to someone about what you wanna do, right. Talk to them about your goals and kind of how you see your career or your education progressing. And even if you don't have that vision yet, Right. That's what a mentor is for right. To say, this is what I enjoy. I am love. I love coloring. I love drawing. Right? What could that be? Someone somewhere is gonna say, you know what? Topography, right? Like there's a whole market for someone to, you know, create fonts and graphics and all of this amazing stuff. And again, that's why, you know, this, this podcast exists to have those conversations because someone somewhere is listening and say, you know what? My college student really likes drawing and can't quite, you know, get into history science and all this other stuff that, you know, he's required to take. So what does that look like? Like, I, I love this. This is exciting,
Tatiana Chamorro: 26:28
you know, I, I think it's important to add here that the concept of mentorship. It it's so vague because people usually consider a mentor, someone who's very successful in business. Like you think of a mentor and you think about, you know, one of the guys in shark tank, the reality is that a mentor is somebody who can guide you through the different paths and help you make those decisions. Like, if I look back. Through my whole journey for me, I've been very blessed for my, you know, the main mentor mentor in my life has been my husband mm-hmm and I, I feel blessed that it's been him, but it, for other people, it could be their friend. But it really has to be someone who propels you to achieve that. You know, who really tells you, no, you got this, you can do it because if you're not, if you don't believe in yourself and you don't surround yourself with, with people that believe in you, then there's no way you're gonna be able to. You know, achieving those smaller goals to get to the bigger ones are gonna feel crazy.
Kristina Butler: 27:18
That's good. That's good right there. Like if you don't see it in yourself, surround yourself with people who see it in you. Because that's, I think one of the keys to success for sure. Gosh, this is so good. I could keep going, right? Like. This, this is exciting and it makes me think there's part two. There's part three. So what do you do now? You know, you focus on marketing, you talk about, you talked about one of your, your business partners. What does that look like in your day to day now? And how has your education. Lent itself to, to being successful in your current space?
Tatiana Chamorro: 27:55
Yeah, so I in 2017, I looked at my path educational path. I had yet 2017. I had yet not graduated from my undergrad, but I was studying graphic design, geographic design as a five year career. It's actually a year longer than traditional undergraduate careers. Visual communications and I realized. I wanna have another, you know, another kid, like I need to sit down and think if this is what I wanna do, where is this taking me? Yeah. And is that where I wanna go? So I did some research. I had 90, I think, about 80 credit hours and I changed my career into liberal studies. So I could graduate faster. Liberal studies is a little bit more of a interdisciplinary career where you get to choose different approaches. And initially I had toyed with that idea, but I was like, no, if I wanna be a successful graphic designer, I need to graduate with a BFA. Well, it turns out that that's not true. Good to know, you're saving someone money right. And time, right? Yeah. No. And it's more about strategy. So like I sat down, I was like, what do I wanna do? Like, do I wanna be in New York working for a big, you know, graphic design firm or, and even though that was interesting to me, I also wanted to have a balance with my life, with my being a mom, a wife. So I decided to graduate and I realized by the time I graduated with my undergrad in. Liberal studies. I am and do my masters and have a kid. I would still yet be completing my undergrad in communications. Wow. So I planned, and I do think that, you know, you planning got laughs and it is true, but at least you gotta have some, you know, directions. So yes. I changed my career. And six months later I graduated and then I had my daughter, I stayed with her for six months. So by that time it's been a year and a half. Right. And then I went on to do my master's and in 2020, I had my master's in marketing and my undergrad in liberal studies with about four years of graphic design, because I had transferred so many times mm-hmm And so then I started to realize when I was doing my master's in marketing, that I believe there has to be more of an obvious synergy between the industry of digital marketing and the industry of graphic design. Nowadays marketing is done in a, in a less traditional way. Mm-hmm and it's so much more dynamic and it's something that really needs to catch the attention of the user. Right. So, In essence, it should be completely intertwined with graphic design, but it's not. So we're creating all of these digital marketers who have no knowledge and graphic design. And we're creating all of these graphic designers who sometimes are not entirely aware of functionalities and things for tracking and things like that. Right. So I started my business which combined those two. And today we March with height. I am the owner of height, digital Dallas. We launched a franchise model. We opened 22 locations in the us. And alongside my business partner, JC height, I co-founded our creative department, which initially was a company on its own height, creative, and now it has merged into height. So. In there. We have scaled from, you know, three employees to 22 in the last year. Wow. Over our 200 projects in itself over the last six months. And so it it's been an interesting journey, but I think the most interesting side of it has been that I realized that even though I do love graphic design and I love the career path, I've chosen. Mm-hmm, what I love the most. Is the people I work with, like that really nurtures my soul. The idea of helping other moms in high creative, for example all of our managers are female. That was not intentional, but it happened. And I love it 80%, our mothers, and we get to have these conversations where, you know, I, it just feels my soul. When they tell me I had never been in a job where I feel treated like a human and it's crazy. That should not be a thing, but. That's what my, my journey looks like today. And to think that it started with me moving to Texas eight years ago. It's, it's just crazy.
Kristina Butler: 32:09
It, it's not crazy. It's according to plan, right? This is, this was the plan and you executed on that. And I'm, I, I am encouraged and I think that's something that We often miss, right? Once you hit a point in, in this journey of success or work or career, you can, you you'd be surprised how many people you encounter. Just if you have a conversation who encourage you, right. To just like, find your purpose, right. Discover what you really enjoy doing, discover what brings you joy and pursue it. Right? Like this conversation has been so. Energizing for me there I go thinking about me again. But I'm serious. Right. People look at me and think, oh, she's successful, but I'm still looking to others sometimes for that energy and that like, yes, Christina stay the course. Right. And you just delivered that. I, I, I am beyond appreciative. And I know this will impact our communities, right? Because we are aligned when I think about our missions the impact to the community from this conversation is so great. I, I can't thank you enough. I, I truly can. And I mean that genuinely, because it was much needed, so thank you.
Tatiana Chamorro: 33:30
Thank you so much. It has, you know, like for me, there's no purpose behind doing anything that I do if I can't share it.
Kristina Butler: 33:38
Yeah. Yeah. So considering the fact that we call this show the keys to the office tell me one major key you could share with our community today that would sort of put them on the right path to success.
Tatiana Chamorro: 33:57
I would say that instead of focusing on the right now, mm-hmm, focus on the five years from now. And by the way, that needs to be a dynamic exercise because once five years come by. You're gonna have to do it again. Yeah. And, and that was eyeopening to me because I had this plan of graduating with my undergrad. I did it. So then I went into my master's. I did it. So then I opened my business. I did it. And then I was like, okay, so what's next? Yeah, I'm 20 now I'm 30. I was 29 and I was like, what's what are my goals now? Well, That exercise needs to continuously be happening, even though those goals keep getting crazier and crazier. Yeah. That just keeps the excitement rolling. But one thing that we tend to forget is when we're living in the right now, we feel like we're never going to be moving towards our goals. And we forget that those little things we're doing are helping us get there. So I would just say. Definitely the sit down and think about where you wanna go and then ask yourself is what I'm doing now, helping me get there. And that could be, I mean, if you wanna save for a car, you know, what are you doing right now to be able to save for that car? Right. Just the small things that really help you get there that sometimes our so small and so annoying because they become part of the day to. That we get lost in them, you know, like yeah. Cooking and cleaning for that whole year. I remember being like, this is eternal, you know,
Kristina Butler: 35:27
for that whole year. I love it. I love it. How can we find you? How can we support you? How can we make sure we stay connected and sort of feed off of your energy?
Tatiana Chamorro: 35:41
I am very active on Instagram. I share a lot of advice between my personal journey and my professional journey. Mm-hmm so there, you can find me on Instagram. I also have my LinkedIn and then I also love to mentor students. So if there's availability, I have a calendar where they can book me for 15 minutes and I can guide them through any decision. It's, it's part of who I want to be. So I make time for it.
Kristina Butler: 36:09
I love it. Thank you again, Tatiana. This has been amazing. Like I'm gonna wipe his smile off eventually. But, but for now, I'll keep it. This has been phenomenal and, and I'll certainly have to have you back even even to talk about, I guess in more detail that five year planning. Ooh, that's exciting. And, and the details of that, like now I wanna know more but you all certainly follow at Tatiana, make sure you stay connected. She's truly impacting our community. So thank you. And this is, this has been great. I appreciate it.
Tatiana Chamorro: 36:40
Thank you. I can't thank you enough for having me here and, and doing this for all the students and mothers and anyone who is, you know, interested in learning more. There's so many opportunities for minority students, so many opportunities for Any type of person that is wanting to go back to school that is wanting to start their own business, that we don't, we don't necessarily know it's out there. And so it's all about finding people like you and I, who are involved in the community who have been there before to just share it. Yeah. Share the resources, you know?
Kristina Butler: 37:10
Yeah. Yeah. Thank you, dear. Have a fantastic rest of your day.
Tatiana Chamorro: 37:15
You too.
Kristina Butler: 37:16
Bye.
Announcer: 37:19
If you are hearing this message, you have listened to the entire episode. And for that, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. We hope you enjoyed it. And if you did, please, don't forget to subscribe. Leave us a review and check out our website at www.thekeystotheoffice.com. We look forward to connecting with you in a future episode until then go be amazing.
Co-Founder of Hite Corporate & VP of Hite Creative
I'm Tatiana, a Latina mompreneur settled in Dallas. I'm originally from Nicaragua, a small yet gorgeous country in Central America. Moved to the U.S. with my two-year-old and my husband in 2014. In the following years, I went on to graduate summa cum laude from A&M-Commerce. My passion is in marketing and design, in 2020, I started my digital marketing agency in Dallas called Hite Digital mid-pandemic, just after receiving my US residency. Currently, I'm the VP of Hite's creative team. From my perspective, we could come up with a fantastic episode for the students in which we could cover the basics of digital marketing, the dos and don’ts in the process of becoming an entrepreneur and pieces of advice on how to stay focused when plans are falling apart.
I am also committed to supporting women and minorities in business; previously mentoring students through Texas A&M-Commerce’s Venture College. I am also an ambassador for the Rockwall Chamber of Commerce, and a chair member at the Women Empowerment group of the neighboring Chamber of Commerce in Royse City. Most recently I was awarded “Young Professional of The Year 2021” by the American Advertising Federation of Dallas.