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

Hi AJ, thanks for joining us today. Day to day the world can seem like a tough place, but there’s also so much kindness in the world and we think talking about that kindness helps spread it and make the world a nicer, kinder place. Can you share a story of a time when someone did something really kind for you?

There are multiple parts and multiple people to this part of the story. Last year in November I got very sick with Covid and ended up in a coma for about a month and a half. After waking up, I had to relearn how to use my whole body and go through extensive rehab. During that time, many of my customers who had placed orders were waiting on the completion of their orders, while My Wife was updating them on the status of my health. Many of those customers actually told me to go ahead and not refund them the money and just be able to get with them whenever I was feeling better. That was a huge kindness to me because I had to relearn how to do my whole life while rebuilding my business from scratch again .

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.

As a woman business, I pride myself on creating unique one-of-a-kind works of functional art from Wood and Steel . It’s taking me over 10 years to build this up from working with all discarded pallets to building beautiful tables and entertainment centers, etc. i’ve spent many years learning this discipline, and have evolved to being able to create ideas that turned into physical realities. The one thing I’m very proud of his, that I am able to dictate my life and work schedule based on the amount of money, I want to earn and enjoy. But I’ve learned most of all is that we live in a society where the “Karen“ attitude has permeated our culture, and those that may be applicable in a lot of situations. I am free from that debt because I don’t have to entertain the nasty attitudes of customers I don’t wanna work with. This is one of the most valuable lessons that I have learned running my own business.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

As far as resilience, I’ll refer back to my situation during my Covid coma. During that time, my wife had the wherewithal to keep my business floating because that is our main source of income even though I was unable to do any work, and was in dire straits according to my health. My heart stopped twice and the doctors had told My Wife to prepare for my passing because he didn’t look like I would make it. When I finally did wake up, it was a long and very difficult road to learn how to do all the simple things that people take for granted every day like eating walking, using my arms, etc. etc. Given that my business is a very physical and demanding it took extra time to be able to Fight back to a point where I was able to do my job once again. Mentally, it was very draining and emotionally. It was even worse but I knew I could get back to normal and I just had to fight through all the difficulties. it wasn’t easy hell it still isn’t easy but I’m still here every day working .

Let’s move on to buying businesses – can you talk to us about your experience with business acquisitions?

Yes, I actually bought a consignment store while living in California. It was in a small town and it was a cute little store, called the blue poppy, which My Wife ran. It was a simple transaction of me paying a certain amount of money to the lady who ran the store, and then I basically took over, but from a business standpoint, it wasn’t a good decision. There wasn’t that much traffic and having to pay all the different creators in the store left very little in the way of profits for ourselves. I ended up selling the store and basically broke even with a Lesson learned. Was that as a serial entrepreneur, it’s important to stretch out and try new things to see if they would work or not.

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.allstarwoodwerx.com
• Instagram: @allstarwoodwerx