We were lucky to catch up with Dr. Brianna Oliva recently and have shared our conversation below.
Dr. Brianna , appreciate you joining us today. Let’s kick things off with talking about how you serve the underserved, because in our view this is one of the most important things the small business community does for society – by serving those who the giant corporations ignore, small business helps create a more inclusive and just world for all of us.
SERVING THE UNDERSERVED
The Story of Tesoro Project:
When I think about the concept of “treasure,” I imagine something of immense worth and significance—something truly exceptional. I believe that each of us harbors such treasure within, no matter our circumstances, though we may not always recognize its presence. Engaging in acts of service with the underserved, even momentarily, unveils the intrinsic value within each individual.
In 2014, a unique opportunity arose for me to truly understand this concept. Several of my physical therapy classmates, myself, and our professor embarked on a week-long service-learning trip to Guatemala City. Our role was to provide physical therapy services to a community living in extreme poverty who did not have access to many healthcare services. Arriving with few expectations, my primary aim was to make a meaningful impact on those in need and apply my skills to improve their well-being. However, I discovered that the experience profoundly transformed my own life in many unexpected ways.
The experience highlighted the stark contrasts between the resources available in the United States and those in the community we were serving. It also provided insight into the complexities of poverty and its generational nature.
Apart from treating people’s physical pain, specifically, what stood out to me as a healthcare provider, was poverty of affection. Often, less visible than financial poverty, this refers to lack of emotional support, love, and care in a person’s life. Story after Story revealed significant deficits in affection. This began to broaden my understanding of how pain can be influenced by factors beyond physical injury, including emotional, circumstantial, and psychological elements.
By taking the time to listen to our patient’s stories, their pain complaints, and physically make a change in how their bodies were feeling, I knew that we could make a true and lasting impact. We began to see changes in pain complaint, self-esteem, overall demeanor, and overall quality of life with the services we were able to provide. Emotional barriers began to lift in this community, forging the beginnings of a fruitful and trustworthy relationship.
As a Doctor of Physical Therapy, I now understood that my role was to uncover and nurture the inherent potential, the treasure within, every patient, aiding them in their healing and recovery process, even when they may not see it themselves.
This experience not only allowed me to contribute to the well-being of others but also offered valuable lessons that continue to shape my approach to physical therapy and life in general.
After a few years of serving our community twice a year and seeing the impact this was having, Tesoro Project was cofounded by myself and two of my physical therapy colleagues—”Tesoro” means “treasure” in Spanish.
We are a non-profit organization that partners with Potter’s House Association International in Guatemala City, Guatemala to offer weeklong interprofessional rehabilitation service projects to people without access to physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy.
Tesoro Project is on mission to empower healthcare leaders to heal and transform lives.
Our vision is an inspired global healthcare network that enhances the quality of life in underserved communities.
From the beginning, one of our primary goals and core pillars of the organization, was to ensure the sustainability of our services. We recognized that sporadic therapy sessions—once or twice a year—were insufficient for addressing the community’s needs. To truly make an impact, we needed a consistent presence, operating daily. This approach would allow us to build trust within the community and address health issues from a long-term perspective. Though it was challenging, we persisted.
Along the way we have been able to contribute to our community in other meaningful ways as well. We have built homes for community members, provided computers to children during the pandemic, donated rice, beans, and clean water during a natural disaster, provided proper shoe wear, rehabilitative equipment, and offered educational seminars on various health topics. We also conducted exercise classes for both children and the elderly. We have helped create a partnership with a local Guatemalan physical therapy school in which students complete some of their clinical work in our clinic.
As entrepreneurs and business owners, my husband and I, have been able to capture Tesoro Project’s story through our photography and videography company—utilizing the art of photography to capture moments in time and depict our community member’s stories. Also, through our entrepreneurial community and with the help of our mentors, we have been able to leverage our e-commerce platform to bless our community members with monetary donations and quality hygiene items.
I would like to share one story that stands out. This is the story of Rudy. While he was scavenging through trash in the local city landfill for recyclable items, a dump truck released a load of trash on him. His leg was severely injured and ultimately required amputation. This would be a devastating injury anyone, but especially for someone living in extreme poverty with limited resources, minimal family support, and no means of earning an income. Despite the immense challenges he faced, Rudy’s faith journey and reliance on God during his recovery were deeply inspiring. Tesoro Project was able to work with Rudy right after his amputation and then the year after again. We were able to provide him with a strengthening and stretching program that would eventually prepare him to be able to use his new prosthetic limb. Thanks to the support of several non-profit organizations, Rudy received a prosthetic limb and was eventually able to return to work.
In 2023, we finally achieved a key milestone for our organization: sustainability. We welcomed a full-time Guatemalan physical therapist to our team, allowing us to provide daily access to care in a newly established, and fully equipped clinic. This advancement underscores our commitment to delivering consistent and reliable services to our patients.
As Gandhi said, “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” This journey has deeply resonated with me and reinforced the importance of serving others to uncover and celebrate their hidden treasures.
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.
Hi! My name is Brianna Oliva. I am a Doctor of Physical Therapy, Co-Owner of Andrew Renae Photography with my husband, Co-Founder and President of Tesoro Project, a non-profit organization, and Co-Owner of Andrew Renae Shop, an e-commerce platform. I am from Lockhart, Tx. I am married to my husband, Michael and we have two young children.
My childhood revolved around sports in which I played pretty much everything. My favorite sport, however, was soccer and I eventually went on to play Division II soccer at St. Edward’s University in Austin, Tx. Being an athlete my whole life, created a vast interest in how the body worked, specifically in relation to injury and recovery. In my sophmore year of high school, I took a health science class that allowed us to gain observation hours in various healthcare facilities. When we spent the day at the physical therapy clinic, I knew I had found the profession for me. The rest is history! In 2015, I became licensed as a Doctor of Physical Therapy.
After a few years of working in the corporate healthcare industry, I began to realize that the reasons I chose this profession initially, were being overshadowed by productivity standards and profit margins because after all, healthcare is a business. This is when my husband and I began seeking options to diversify our income.
At this time Tesoro Project was in its infancy, but I knew that our two corporate incomes would never be sufficient enough to truly make an impact for our community members in Guatemala. We needed additional income to be able to pour into the non-profit organization. This is when we started our first business, Andrew Renae Photography. We have both always considered ourselves creatives but never truly pursued anything related due to the pursuit of our healthcare careers.
As self taught photographers, we didn’t know the first thing the industry, about being business owners, nor the vast differences among business types. But we knew our work ethic and that we had a common interest that we could do together. We started paving our own way, as photographers, creating additional income to allow us more options but we still needed more time. We were not content and knew we needed guidance in the entrepreneurial space if we wanted to truly pour into our non-profit organization not only financially but also with time.
Soon after, we were introduced to a couple of extremely successful entrepreneurs through a mutual connection. After getting to know more of their story and that our values aligned, we began to pursue a mentor/mentee relationship with them. Through their guidance and access to their entrepreneurial community, the way we think about our finances, see the value of our time, and make decisions about our future completely changed. We began to understand how to better leverage our time and money to have a larger impact.
One of the greatest blessings of our entrepreneurial journey has been the relationships and community we’ve built over time. Engaging with like-minded individuals has been an invaluable learning experience for us. We’ve developed a deep passion for fostering a community of individuals who share similar dreams and ambitions, recognizing the profound impact this can have on humanity. This collective energy is a powerful force, especially when our goal is to positively influence as many lives as possible. By keeping this principle at the heart of our business growth and development, along with a commitment to service, we believe we distinguish ourselves from others. We look forward to the opportunity to impact many more lives and leave a lasting impact for generations to come.
Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?
There are several books that I have read in the last five years that have truly impacted the way I think, how I make decisions, and how I create genuine relationships. The top 4 recommendations I have would be The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson, How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie, Bringing Out The Best in People by Aubrey Daniels and for my fierce female entrepreneurs, Lioness Arising by Lisa Bevere!
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
Tesoro Project gained momentum year after year since the first year we started providing services. In late 2019, we were able to raise enough funds to pay for the salary of a full time Guatemalan physical therapist so that our community members could begin receiving services daily. We began working on our job description so that we could immediately begin advertising. In early 2020, the world shut down due to the pandemic and any hopes of hiring a physical therapist or even seeing patients in person came to a sudden halt. We had worked so hard over the last 5 years to build this organization and I refused to let the word shutting down stop me from continuing to serve our community members in Guatemala.
During this time, through guidance from our mentors, I took advantage of building my network virtually and remained in connection with all of our partnerships. Every day I would connect with people online and share our story in hopes of finding a mutually beneficial connection that would propel Tesoro Project through the pandemic. This resilience led to several fruitful connections that did propel us through the pandemic! One connection, in particular, has blessed our community members immensely with much needed diabetes education and a new pilot program geared towards the prevention of diabetes.
Because of the caliber of association that my husband and I have had over the last several years in the entrepreneurial space, the amount of personal development we have done through reading, and leaning into mentorship, we have learned that obstacles are placed in your path to make you stronger, develop your resilience, and sharpen your iron sword for future battles. We have developed a no quit mentality. In 2023, our resilience paid off when we were able to hire our full time physical therapist!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.tesoroproject.org
- Instagram: @tesoroproject; @andrewrenaephoto
Image Credits
Denise Lipman