Today we’d like to introduce you to Jasmin Olvera Dena

Hi Jasmin, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.

How did I get to where I am today? It has been a journey and without the support of my family and community it would not have been possible. I have had many long nights of work, sleepless nights of course because sometimes my business brain just can’t stop thinking and trying to work. After high school, I went to school for Business Administration with an emphasis in accounting. I worked at a small local business while in school and shortly after decided I did not want to work for someone else for the rest of my career. I had a bit of a panic attack one day when I realized I could not see outside while working at this company. We were inside of a shopping mall, and we had no windows to the outside. I started to reflect on what it was that I wanted to do with my life and remember that when I was about 7yrs old my aunt had suggested for me to be a massage therapist. She had said I was really good at giving massages and that they make a lot of money. Since I had just gotten out of business school, that memory really inspired me to look into a massage career. I found a massage school 3 hours away and decided to take the program which really pushed me to grow and be where I am today. I had the support of my family and community to make this move and they helped make it sustainable so that I could focus on school and complete my program. I graduated in 2016 and opened my business full time in 2019. I kept working in accounting as I really needed to have that financial security but when the pandemic started the need for my work became too important to ignore. From 2017- 2019 I dove deep into learning and training in birth work. I was a doula volunteer at a local hospital, I took my doula training with the Birth Workers of Color Collective, attended numerous workshops and training with Mexican Traditional birth workers such as midwives, doulas, and bodyworkers both in the U.S and in Mexico. I continue to further my education in this work however when the pandemic hit, the need for families was very clear. I decided to leave my full time, income secure job in accounting and do birth and body work full time. I was supporting friends and family during this time and started my business shortly after, I created my social media platforms include business profile accounts on Google and Yelp, I reached out to other business that were similar or the same as mine and started to connect with other birth and body workers. Building a community within the industry was important to me to make sure I had support and resources as things developed. Although I heard a lot of crickets int he first 2/3 years of my work with other business owners, I was lucky enough to have clients who talked to their friends and kept me busy. After a few years, I decided to try again to connect with other birth and body workers and I created a meet up event which has now been hosted annually for 2 years. In the first gathering about 6 birth workers showed up, in the second about 8 and in the last event we had 20 birth workers gather. It has been so amazing to be able to connect with other birth workers and make this work even more enjoyable. I had sent emails, and social media messages, I showed up to their business just to introduce myself and hardly ever got a response. Now I have a network of support in the work, and I enjoy this work even more because I know if things get difficult, I have a community I can turn to.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?

Being a business owner has not been a smooth road. I have found many challenges not only being a woman in business but also being a woman of color in business. I do not come from generational wealth and trying to create a path for myself has been difficult when no one in my immediate family has done this specific form of business in the past. I am on a journey to reclaim ancestral practices and trying to make a business out of this has been very difficult because the current corporate systems do not support traditional work. In addition, the society we live in does not allow me to truly go back to our bartering system and be able to have a sustainable and profitable business. I still find these things challenging today, finding ways to stay affordable for the community and building a sustainable and profitable business. It has been important throughout this journey to meet and connect with people who are more knowledgeable on different topics to help me connect to my business and thrive. I have found myself needing to take some time to research local resources for woman and for communities of color in the topic of business to ensure my business is taken seriously and is covered properly with the right licensing and insurance.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Oxomohco Birth & Body Work?

Oxomohco is pronounced oh-sho-mo-ko which is a Nahuatl (Mexican Native Language) word, and it is a synonym for Mother Earth referring to the female energy needed to create life. Oxomohco Birth & Body Work is a maternity resource center where we specialize in body work and offer fertility massage, pregnancy massage, induction massage, and postpartum massage. We have trained and experience massage therapist who only work on people in this realm of life which drastically sets us apart in the massage industry. We know how to provide safe and effective massage to someone who is going to or just had a baby. We also provide personalized care and most importantly we are a resource center helping connecting families with other businesses in the community who offer more services that families may be looking for. At Oxomohco we also provide birth education, birth support and postpartum support up to the first year postpartum. The U,S has a maternal health crisis, where woman are dying from or during childbirth due to the lack of a supportive system and well-prepared medical staff in a hospital setting. At Oxomohco we support families in minimizing their chances of becoming another statistics especially for families of color. We offer birth education classes where we review families’ legal rights in a hospital setting, how to navigate bad customer service in a hospital, resource for malpractice situations, understand common medical vocabulary and interventions, and what to expect from the moment the baby is born to when they are discharged from the hospital. These classes really help families understand what to expect when birthing in the hospital and provides them the tools and resources to navigate difficult situations if they were to come up.
Lastly at Oxomohco we host yearly Maternity Fairs in Los Altos, CA. Here we invite local birth and body workers, and we invite the community to come and meet us and learn all about our services and put a face to the name. This is a free event for all and opportunity for expecting, planning, and growing families to learn about the services available. Many of us do not have our families nearby and when we are planning or awaiting to the arrival of a new baby, we could really use community. At the Oxomohco Maternity Fair you can come and build community and not feel like you have to navigate parenting alone. We strive to be a pillar in our community for supported and thriving families regardless of the outcome of their journey!

Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs or other resources you think our readers should check out?

One of my favorite tools to learn from to help build and sustain my business is Youtube. I follow many channels that talk about small business, finances, massage therapy practices, and so much mor. Some which include TK BARLOW and Caleb Hammer of Financial Audit.
In addition to the business side of things there are some amazing birth worker and organization that have truly inspired me and continue to motivate me in not giving up in my business. I have created a resource page on my website to help families connect with them and others but also for you all to check out who my inspirations are. Check them out at www.oxomohco.com/resources
I would like to take a moment to highlight the Birth Workers of Color Collective whom I took my doula training with but is also a collective to which I continue to support. Not only are they continuously doing activism work for our communities of color, but they are also uplifting, educating, and supporting the birth workers of color every single day. They put together amazing educational workshop to help us grown our businesses and better show up for ourselves and our clients.
Raeanne of Postpartum Healing Lodge, Panquetzani of Indigiemama who also just wrote a great book call Thriving Postpartum.
Lastly a local organization called Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center which has greatly supported my journey as business owner and a woman of color in Santa Clara County, CA.

Pricing:

• Free Consultations
• Free Maternity Resource Fair
• $3,200 full doula package with Oxomohco Birth & Body Worker
• $60 per hr one on one business consulting with Oxomohco

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.oxomohco.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oxomohco/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Oxomohco
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk57ow8aziXNj0eM793b80Q
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/oxomohco-birth-and-body-work-los-altos