We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ana Cruz Hollingsworth a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Ana Cruz thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.

As I look back, I realize there were many risks taken throughout my life. Some risks were taken out of necessity and with no other alternative, and others were taken because despite the fear, I knew it was the best decision at the time. The first big risk I took was at the age of 22, when I left my native country, Mexico, and came to the United States in search of my American dream. A very difficult, scary and risky decision, especially since I didn’t know everything that would happen in the next few years before I saw my dreams begin to take shape.

There were years of hard work, of learning, of many tears, of living in the shadows like many of my immigrant brothers and sisters, listening to people tell me “NO” over and over again, experiencing discrimination and even humiliation. But what was important for me was not losing hope and remembering every moment of why I came to this country. I worked very hard from picking up garbage, mowing lawns, painting houses and in restaurants; I surrounded myself with good people, tried to learn from everyone who crossed my path, continued studying and preparing myself. Of course maintaining hope is challenging when you face so many obstacles, but thankfully when I thought that everything was lost, when I found myself lonelier and more desperate, I read an ad in a local newspaper where a new Spanish-language radio station was coming to Dallas, and they were hiring. Scared again, but knowing that without taking a risk I’d never reach my dreams, I sent my resume and filled out the job application. This decision led me to start my media career in the United States and in the following decade that decisión would open the way for my many professional achievements.

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

Sure! My name is Ana Cruz, I was born and raised in a small town in Guanajuato, México. My mom took care of me and my two brothers on her own, my dad was always traveling to the USA and forgot about us several times, for many years. We lived in extreme poverty, but my mom always taught us to be thankful, to work hard, and to stick together as a family. We didn’t have much economically, but we were full of love and hope. We suffered domestic violence for around 20 years. I mention this because it has been one of my commitments, to spread the word and work hard to break the domestic violence cycle through information, help and resources in my platforms.

I graduated from the Universidad de Celaya in Mexico with a degree in Communications Science. I also studied International Media at Universitat de Barcelona in Spain.
Moving to how I started my own business. After more than 15 years working on radio and television, as a presenter, writer, producer, in marketing and public relationships, I discovered the power of social media before it was even a thing. In 2012, and while I was still working in radio, I created my blog www.rollosdemujeres.com. I started attending conferences and learning more about digital marketing. Soon I started getting sponsorships, paid blog articles and many other amazing things. I registered my business as Rollos de Mujeres Corporation, a multimedia platform offering original social media content, voice overs and video production, and 11 years later, it is my dream job and my passion.
At Rollos de Mujeres we create customized social media campaigns for different brands, locally and nation wide. I have worked with Toyota, Amazon, Coca-Cola and the White House among many others. Locally, I have clients with whom I have worked for more than five years such as El Rio Grande Latin Market, DART and Broadway Dallas, creating content that helps them getting feedback from users/clients, increasing website traffic, improving overall brand engagement and driving sales. All my work reflects the feelings, needs, questions, passions and dreams of Hispanic families. I keep my content positive and with a purpose, touching one life at a time.
I feel very proud of taking the risk of leaving a secure paycheck to pursue my next dream, being a business owner. I feel proud of all the relationships I have created with my clients whom I call family. I feel proud of all the programs we have put together or supported from campaigns against domestic violence in the Hispanic community, campaigns promoting the importance of education, breast cancer awareness to empowering Latina women to achieve their professional and personal dreams.

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

Yes, I was still working as a co-host of a morning radio show in Dallas in 2012, a good friend of mine gave me a domain to create my blog as my birthday present, and I started writing almost every day. Suddenly brands started reaching out to me, while I was also attending bloggers and content creators’ conferences. I got my first payed blog post writing about diapers for this huge brand. I was very happy not just because I was getting paid for it but also because I was a single mom and they sent me lots of free diapers  Then I started learning more and more about digital marketing and ways to monetize my content. I started a podcast under the same name Rollos de Mujeres, and little by little I noticed I was more busy with my side hustle. It took me a while to take the risk and dedicate my time and efforts fully to my business. But when I started making more than half of my regular job paycheck I made the transitions. I needed to fully focus on my business to keep growing.
First, I had to learn how to register a business in Texas, I didn’t even believe my work was a formal business, social media marketing was still on the make for everybody. Many people didn’t take my job seriously and they didn’t want to pay for it. Many times, I got offered free product or services and I got asked for a lot of work/content. I had to learn the value of my work, my time and my talent, but this took me years. Then I registered my brand name, it is important to get all the rights for many legal reasons. This was a hard, slow and expensive process too, and you need a specialized attorney’s help.
And finally, the challenge continues every day, because every day is an opportunity to learn, to grow and to improve. Today I have a more stable business, but the room for growing is still very big.
If I can share something with you is: find a need out there that you can solve with your talents, make a business plan, learn and go through all the legal steps to establish and protect your business, create a strong network, work hard, be smart and cautious with money, be prepared, learn from the mistakes, keep improving, be humble and have fun.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I learned that perfectionism was always on my way not allowing me to grow. I was so obsessed with doing everything “right” that I postponed my podcast launching for years, because I wanted to define colors, logo, even the name. But honestly, through the past 3 years I have changed all of that at least twice. The same thing happened with the entire business, I was always waiting for the right time, but we are the one in charge of creating those opportunities, and once I let my fear and perfectionism go, I was able to jump into it, learn, and keep improving over time.

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Contact Info:

• Website: www.rollosdemujeres.com
• Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/rollosdemujeres
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RollosDeMujeres/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/analiliacruz/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/RollosDeMujeres
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-GYU_e-BWjMC_Exj0qKTeA

Image Credits
I have the rights of all the photos.