We were lucky to catch up with Veronica Hazley recently and have shared our conversation below.
Veronica, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?
The Hey Chica Movement Mission is driven by IMPACT and the community. We adopted the No Mean Girl Movement to establish a focal point around our three pillars: Advocacy, Self Care and Leadership. Don’t be mean to the community, thats advocacy. Don’t be mean to yourself, Thats Self Care and Don’t be mean to your future, Thats Leadership.
We believe the change chicas want to see starts with them. We add a little sisterhood to help and motivate along the way.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I have two big honors in my life. Building my own wellness business through corporate, community, and collaborative modalities. My Company is driven by Bringing Community and Wellbeing Back to Life. This is by design. Our fitness and wellness centers are disrupting traditional services by incorporating workforce training, self-care workshops, and holistic programming for the communities they are serving. It’s not a do-it-yourself kinda model- It’s a Let’s Build Together model that embraces diversity in all forms. We do this with programming and collaboration.
My Hey Chica Movement is about building stronger pipelines for chicas to learn, grow and celebrate progression and results to support their journey and liberation.
Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?
I decided that I would bet on myself and take money out of my 401K to open my Yoga Studio. I was fortunate to have mentors around me out of college that shared their secrets about wealth and building wealth through my retirement plan. This allowed me to buy my first and second home and open my first facility. I think a lot of people are afraid of money and have past trauma around saving or spending. There are so many avenues that can lead to the same outcome- but there is no bigger joy than investing in yourself and your dreams.
What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?
I had a full-time corporate job for about 17 1/2 years and opened my yoga studio while working there. It was very helpful because it allowed me to apply for loans with not much resistance. I had a salary that would allow me the cushion to invest in myself. I also had a network of colleagues that supported my yoga studio and would support my dream.
I also started my nonprofit during this time and created my first big summit while off work. I had the desire to create something for my community that had an impact and influence. I also found that my coworkers supported it and helped me grow from within.
I basically created a movement that developed a pipeline for women. It was organic and authentic and it drove many women to the summit to support and engage in it.
Having my corporate job gave me the confidence to take risks on myself and my business without fear and finally led me to do full-time.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.heychica.org
- Instagram: @heychicamovement @v12yoga
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/torresveronica/
- Twitter: @torresdallas
- Youtube: @healthylatinalifestyle @heychicamovement