We were lucky to catch up with Hilda Rodriguez recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hilda, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s jump to the end – what do you want to be remembered for?

I want my legacy to be one of empowerment, kindness, and resilience. I want people to understand the collective responsibility we have to uplift one another—through action, time, and sacrifice. I hope to be remembered as someone who inspired others to believe in themselves, someone whose presence sparked confidence—”She did that,” they’ll say, honoring my impact. “She helped me see that I can,” they’ll reflect, appreciative of my guidance and support. Beyond inspiration, my legacy is about joy and strength, about being the person who helped others smile through the hardest times. And that kind of impact lives on forever!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I grew up in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, NYC from immigrant parents. They immigrated here in the 1970s from the Dominican Republic where they instilled in my siblings and I the value of hard work and our responsibility to help those in need. My core values of community action are stemmed from my parents who helped their neighbors with groceries when needed, who provided childcare when extra work shifts were mandatory and provided a home when relatives required emergency shelter.

I grew up with all sorts of animals growing up from exotic fish to doves and parrots, but I was deadly allergic to cats as a child. In 2022, I learned I was no longer allergic to cats and fostered a special needs cat for 5 months and fell in love with caring for another creature I was not privy to doing as a child. I was very good at it, went above and beyond what was expected, I researched how I could earn an income by doing so and started using an app to book pet parents. Though business did not take off until 6 months later, I also quickly learned I was doing what most pet sitters were not, truly investing myself in the care of their pets. I started moving away from the app and networking to build my own clientele, which quickly motivated me to legitamize my business to Aunt Hilda’s Pet Care Services by 1/3/2024.

The name was inspired by a pet parent who’d refer to me as “Aunt Hilda” who also helped me realize the problems I was solving for pet parents was not just high quality pet care, it was the investment in getting to know each pet. I studied each pet and created a profile for each one to learn their soothing strategies, favorite foods, commands that needed reinforcing, their triggers, their fears, their furry best friends, the parent they favored, etc. In the peak of my business, spring 2024, I added the photography division to offer street pet photography to parents. That quickly taught me I could take amazing photos of foster dogs and cats to help them get adopted faster, which has been my biggest success. In the last year alone, I have volunteered for 7 different organizations to help dogs get adopted.

The 3rd division of the company is community events, that focuses on bringing people together. in a safe space with their pets, usually with the collaboration of a fellow small business owner, Our events have spanned from multiple pack walks throughout NYC to a pet fashion show in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness to our biggest event yet, The Pawsitive Impact Summit, where we’ll be hosting over 20 vendors from the East Coast in areas of pet fashion to pet nutrition. We’ll be erecting a community wall where every attendee will have the opportunity to contribute to the wall either by writing a love letter to their partners, adding paw prints of their pets, or simply expressing gratitude.

My proudest moments thus far have been collaborating with 40+ individuals to create the Pawsitive Impact Summit, that’ll showcase over 20 vendors, 4 visual artists, 4 performing artists, 10 volunteers and multiple activations that’ll keep the good vibes flowing. This event, along with the overal business has recently been featured in the NYC Department of Youth & Community Engagement for my community work and utilizing the resources available to legitimize my business.

I’m still able balance work and personal, holding down a full-time job with NYC Public schools, being a facilitator for NYC youths to help coach them on the pathway to entrepreneurship, being a mother of two amazing sons and managing my businesses.

I’m incredibly proud of staying with my core values of community and helping others in need despite multiple setbacks with the business and difficulties with past projects.

What’s worked best for me is the marketing of the community events, they’re unique and very out-of-the-box thinking when putting them together.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

The most effective strategy for growing my clientele was community engagement- people needed to know why I stood out from the competition in my immediate vicinity in particular. Striking up a conversation at the local dog park, offering to take candid photos to share with pet parents met in public, or simply putting together a pop-up event as a meet-and-greet for the public to learn about the brand. To date, two years later, this is still the most effective approach because individuals are speaking to a human and having a conversation that isn’t rushed, rehearsed or canned. An organic approach for an organic growth.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

The journey of entrepreneurship can be incredibly intimidating with small businesses and big corporations who have done similar work long before you or, simply have a bigger following. I’ve been turned down by big corporations and small businesses to partner up on projects, I’ve been blacklisted by companies for simply declining a request to do provide pro bono services knowing the means were available. What I’ve learned from each of those experiences is that my pathway is set to hold on to my core values and I’m not willing to sacrifice them. My pro bono work is tailored for specific causes, they serve a purpose greater than social media posts or “likes”. I received one rejection after another, multiple outreach ignored and rather than pout about it, I created something bigger and more impactful than the big box companies or small businesses with a larger audience and capital. A personal touch is priceless and usually gets lost or diluted the more a company grows, I haven’t lost that and will ensure it never gets lost because that’s the proof of my resiliency. I haven’t been broken, only made stronger to end up more influential.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.aunthilda.dog
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Aunt_Hilda_

Image Credits

Duane Lyken