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

Alright, Ariana thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.

I build tech and operations solutions for agencies. Most people in my industry focus on selling and building one, maybe two tech applications. I am, what I like to call, tech agnostic. I don’t believe in specializing or focusing on just one app or two apps. I truly believe in the necessity to have freedom when selecting applications and tech for clients.

What does that look like? I look at the companies, the CEOs business holistically. And I’m able to make recommendations that actually support the business and help it scale sustainably versus trying to shove them into a system or a tech piece a tech app that is not going to actually serve them and it will only be a temporary band-aid.

By doing this, I am able to create systems that really truly support the entrepreneur and help them grow and scale sustainably.

Ariana, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a systems strategist that helps BIPOC women who are creative entrepreneurs find ease in their businesses via automations and tech solutions.

Being a parent of 2 rambunctious toddlers, while working full-time naturally led me to discover my skills of finding efficiencies in systems. For years I was also a tech project manager in a large hospital organization, and realized my superpower was able to translate operational needs into streamlined tech solutions.

So in 2021 when I felt like I was lacking something professionally I began offering services that aligned with my skillset to online entrepreneurs.

During the pandemic, so many people leveraged social media to build very successful online businesses, usually with very little internal infrastructure. OR entrepreneurs experience exponential growth and grew out of the few processes they had in place, now finding themselves in a cycle of overwhelm.

As women of color, who are the largest demographic creating businesses, we are conditioned to think we need to do everything on our own AND not given the resources to do so! I’m here to show them that there are easier ways to run their businesses

I am able to come in, audit their back ends, and offer strategic solutions to allow them to clear up their headspace. to help them build systems, implement tech so they can scale their businesses with lean teams and without burning out. I help them find E.A.S.E.,

**Elevate** your client experience

create **Automations** that alleviate burdens

build **Systems** that create Space

to *increase **Energy** so the can focus on the things they love*

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

During the pandemic, I started my business as a way to make additional money to pay off some debt. I was working in corporate at the time, as a full-time project manager, and I started offering virtual assistant services online. The business owners that I worked with, for the most part, it was their first time hiring a virtual assistant and moving from a solopreneur to having a freelancer on their team. So I wound up doing a lot more than your traditional virtual assistant would do.

Most of my tasks involved setting up operations, setting up tech, putting processes in place. And I took to it very quickly because I was a project manager in my full-time job.

I very quickly grew from one client to six clients and grew from making about $700 a month to $4,000 a month. At this point I was still working full-time so I hired a subcontractor to help offload some work, and ease my days.

I also took a course by Jannesse Torres from the Yo Quiero Dinero Podcast about building and scaling a side hustle. I saw that this could be something more and wanted to invest in myself to grow this business sustainably. The best piece of advice I took from that course was to transition from selling your hours to selling your brain I took that advice and ran with it.

So I started shifting, thinking about how I could sell my expertise, my project management skills, my operation skills, and my strategy brain instead of just selling my hours. And that’s when I pivoted. I pivoted a couple of times I pivoted to sell project management services, to being an operations manager, and then eventually realized that my passion was really in setting up the tech and operations doing that project work versus being in people’s businesses full time.

The pivots were a little bit of a self-discovery journey, learning about what lit me up and what I enjoyed, while also making sure that the service was something that people still needed.

I had been working from home with my 9-5 this entire time and then in March of 2022 the company said that I needed to come back to the office full time. My 9-5 job was a 2 hour commute each way, so I knew if I continued working there, I would have to let go of my business. At this point my business was making about $5,000 or $6,000 a month and after some conversations with my husband, we decided that I was going to quit. I was going to leave my job and put my all into the business to see how I could scale this. Let’s see where this can take me since I was already doing so well while working full-time and without marketing myself. I had grown my business with no marketing whatsoever. I knew once I start marketing myself it was just going to continue to grow.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

The best source of new clients for me has been networking online. I like finding communities where I feel welcomed, finding communities where I could talk to other business owners, and then making connections. I want to say at least 50% of my business has been networking and forming connections with people and then them coming and buying from me. This kind of marketing is a long game, but this is for me the most sustainable way I’ve been able to grow.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://arianarodriguez.co
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arianarodriguez.co/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arianarod/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm_c30HvmENozNkSkf-FNvA
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@arianarodriguez.co

Image Credits
Jatnna Garcia Photography