We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Diamond Garcia. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Diamond below.

Diamond, appreciate you joining us today. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?

Success is a feeling and a state of mind, not a destination. For a long time, I chased the version of success that was sold to me: the American dream. A big house in the suburbs, a steady income, married with 2.5 kids… or at least something that looked like that. I remember when I visited someone I used to know. They had bought a beautiful house in the suburbs and I found myself thinking, maybe that’s what I should want too.

But then I paused and asked myself: Is that what I actually want? A bigger mortgage? More rooms to fill up with stuff and to clean? Would that really make me feel more successful or cause stress?

I redefined success on my own terms. For me, success is autonomy over my time, financial peace of mind, and doing work I enjoy with people I care about. It’s taking midweek field trips with my son. It’s having the space to dream and create, not just produce. It’s living in alignment with my values, not someone else’s blueprint.

I think being successful requires deep honesty with yourself. It means tuning out the noise of what society or your family says you should want, and instead asking: What feels meaningful to me? It takes audacity to be selfish in a healthy way and to bet on yourself, especially when the path ahead doesn’t look like anyone else’s.

As a business owner and a mother, I’ve had to unlearn the idea that success comes from sacrifice alone. Sometimes, it’s the small, consistent wins, the joyful chaos of being a mom, the moments when I see my clients gain clarity and reminds me: This is it. This is what success feels like for me.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m an Operations Strategist, community builder, entrepreneur, and mom with a heart for helping people reclaim their time and energy. I work with entrepreneurs, businesses, and organizations to help them create structure, clarity, and flow so they can grow with purpose instead of pressure.

My work centers on operations, but it’s really about liberation. Through 1:1 consulting, my group membership The Ops Glow Up, and high-impact VIP days called Clarity Day, I help business owners get unstuck by aligning their systems, offers, and strategies with how they actually want to live and lead.

My ability to simplify chaos and connect vision to execution has always been a part of who I am, but it’s also something I’ve cultivated. Over the past 10 years, through leadership roles, entrepreneurship, and a lot of trial and error, I’ve come to realize that what I do naturally is operations. I see the big picture clearly in my mind and instinctively know how to translate that into scalable systems, automations, and workflows. What once felt like a scattered set of skills eventually clicked into a calling: helping businesses grow through strategy, structure, and systems that actually make sense.

What sets me apart is the way I blend strategy with soul. I don’t come in with a plug-and-play framework. I take time to get to know you; your values, your lifestyle, your vision and then help you design systems that support all of that. I bring charisma and energy to even the most mundane or repetitive processes, and I genuinely care about your business as if it were my own.

Looking ahead, I’m building toward something even bigger. I plan to launch a podcast, write a book, and expand my nonprofit work with the same mission: helping people, especially women and communities of color, reclaim their time, voice, and vision. Everything I do is rooted in the belief that freedom isn’t something we wait for; it’s something we build. And I’m here to help you build yours.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

My entrepreneurial journey has been deeply intertwined with my journey as a mother. I started with eCommerce on Etsy when my son was an infant. I didn’t want to trade time away from him just to make money, so I ventured into a side hustle that would allow me to stay present while still contributing financially. Over time, my business evolved from an Etsy store into event planning and then wedding planning. Each transformation taught me something about what kind of lifestyle I truly wanted and what I didn’t. One big lesson was that I didn’t want to work nights and weekends.

I found myself stuck in a full-time job that I had grown to resent. I was miserable. My sixth year at that job, I sat in a cubicle, covering my walls with motivational quotes. One in particular stayed with me: “Don’t fear failure. Fear being in the exact same place next year as you are today.” That quote motivated me every day. because I was determined to get unstuck. It took a full year for me to game-plan my exit from the 9-to-5 grind, creating an exit strategy to jump into business full-time.

When I leaped, my first attempt at going full-time didn’t look like what I had envisioned, but that didn’t mean I failed. Failure for me was going back to my 9-to-5, and that wasn’t an option in my mind. So I pivoted over and over again, trying new ideas and approaches, learning from each misstep. Then, I hit my rock bottom. I was driving for Uber and behind on my mortgage, not sleeping or eating well, constantly stressed, and couldn’t catch a break. Then I remembered I had all the tools and the power I needed to make the change I desired. I started with what I could control, eating well, sleeping, and drinking enough water; creating a clear mind so I could think and focus on the next step. Once I decided, the universe aligned and connected me with leads that turned into clients.

The journey was long and often uncomfortable; there were days when I felt like I was barely holding on. But when I look back, I realize that every pivot, every failure, and every moment of doubt was a step I had to take. They were the lessons I couldn’t learn any other way, shaping me into the woman I am today. My story is a testament to resilience. It’s proof that even in the darkest moments, when it feels like everything is falling apart, that’s often when you’re closest to your breakthrough.

Now, I’m building a business that not only allows me to be the entrepreneur I’ve always dreamed of, but also the mother I’ve always wanted to be. And I want others to know that even if your path doesn’t look how you imagined it, there is power in trusting yourself and staying committed to your vision. Taking the leap, even when it’s scary, can lead you to a life that’s uniquely your own and built on your terms, your way.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

One of the most important lessons I had to unlearn was the belief that I had to live my life according to the boxes society placed me in. As a woman, a Latina, a young mom, and a “dropout”, I was constantly fed messages about what I should be, what I should have achieved by certain ages, and what my future would look like. There was guilt around not graduating college in four years, not getting married before 30, and the idea that I wasn’t providing my son with a “nuclear family.” The weight of these labels and milestones, often tied to race, age, and motherhood, was heavy.

The hardest part was the internal pressure, mentally and emotionally processing that these limitations weren’t truths, but expectations. Expectations built on outdated norms that I didn’t need to follow. Once I realized that these societal standards were man-made and often irrelevant to my journey, I began to give myself permission to question them.

The real work came in owning my power to say no to those limitations. I had to stop comparing myself to a narrative that didn’t fit my life. It was ok to go against the grain. It was ok to carve my path. Over time, I began to embrace my story instead of resenting it, unlearning the guilt, the shame, and the “shoulds” that had been imposed on me.

Now, I’m proud of the path I’ve taken, one that’s uniquely mine. And it’s been freeing to let go of the expectations that never really served me. The lesson I learned was simple: the world will always try to put you in a box. But you have the power to break out of it and design a life that aligns with who you really are, not who others think you should be.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sparklebydiamond
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@sparklebydiamond

Image Credits

Monica Montes
Brand Club Media