We recently connected with Jamie Torres and Tia Beliso and have shared our conversation below.

Jamie Torres, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Being a business owner can be really hard sometimes. It’s rewarding, but most business owners we’ve spoken sometimes think about what it would have been like to have had a regular job instead. Have you ever wondered that yourself? Maybe you can talk to us about a time when you felt this way?

We are so happy being business owners. Some days more than others but the good always outweighs the harder days.

Recently, we had reached a peak where we felt like we were just stuck and not growing the way we started. When we started the business during pandemic, there was so much opportunity in the online space. We hit it at the right time and were scaling quickly. But as the world got used a “new normal” the enthusiasm for online services slowly tapered and we realized that we were doing everything, including things we didn’t like doing, and the market had gotten oversaturated. We were left feeling stagnant and with major imposter syndrome. On top of feeling the business stress, we were each going through a lot in our personal lives, financially, health, family, and all that fun life stuff. Anxiety hit with all the thoughts of how we were going to make it all work- could we support ourselves financially, the guilt of starting a business and not feeling like we could contribute to our families financially, the panic of should I go back to the 9-5 for stability even though we were miserable before, was our initial success just a fluke?

We as individuals are not risk-takers. We carefully plan, weigh the pros and cons, and overthink everything. It’s both our gift in helping our clients see their business holistically and plan and make careful decisions, but also is our downfall in letting the “what ifs” be the loudest voice when it comes to us. But then we realized, we already took the biggest risk of all – starting a business. We had already done the hardest part. And once we fully grasped that fact, we felt so free. We encourage our clients to take risks all the time because we can foresee how it will transform their business and we believe in them. We just needed to see ourselves the same way. So we treated ourselves like a client, we took some big risks and it paid off.

Once we had made it out of the anxiety tunnel, we could reflect that even though it had been a tough road, we were still able to pay our bills, go on a dream trip, have the capacity to deal with all of the stuff in our personal life that needed our undivided attention and work on ourselves as individuals in therapy. None of those things would have been able to be possible if we didn’t work for ourselves and create opportunities for us to work on ourselves as people. All of these things helped us move past the mindset block and change our perspective on what “work stability” means and now be in a place where we are steadily growing, working with our dream clients and helping them build their dream businesses. So even on the hardest days, that part is the most rewarding.

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

We are Jamie and Tia, a.k.a. The Wonder Brew—Online Business Managers. We empower women entrepreneurs with client-based businesses by taking the back-end hustle off their plates. While we’ve been real-life friends since our preteen days, we got our start working together in the coffee industry when we were making an industry change from working in corporate human resources and real estate administration. We found that we made the best team, especially when it came to systems and processes, and led large teams together. When the pandemic hit our future in the industry was uncertain, we took what we had learned in our former careers and our amazing teamwork and took it online to support other women-owned businesses with a focus on client experience.

We can do it all as women, but that doesn’t mean we should have to do it all, especially in our businesses. We take a strategic approach by helping entrepreneurs look at their operations holistically and see how we can use systems, automation, processes, and project management to run the back end of the business like a well-oiled machine so they can focus on the parts of their work they love and also can grow and pursue new opportunities and have space for their self-care. We build trust with our clients so that can feel secure in knowing their business operations are in good collaborative hands. We focus on client experience, refining the process, and managing tasks and teams to make sure the quality of work always matches their quality reputation.

We love working with value-driven women, who make it a point to spread kindness and support to others. We have worked with so many amazing entrepreneurs from creatives, marketing specialists, non-profits, and more, and we love to see how with support they can truly flourish!

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Transparency and communication have always been things we highly value. From our first introduction to our whole journey working together, it’s our goal to always be truthful and real with our clients. That can take on so many forms, from being honest about moving deadlines to being straightforward and tactful when our client is the roadblock to something being accomplished to making a mistake. We have built our business on having good relationships and transparency and honest communication have always been the throughline, even when it’s been difficult. We have clients from day 1 of our business and have become friends with many of them who have referred us to so many other amazing people, built on a reputation of trust.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

Coming from a background in human resources, morale always starts from the top. The attitude of the business owner, CEO, founder, etc has always had a trickle-down effect, no matter what industry you’re in. But that doesn’t mean putting on a fake smile and always being positive. People can see right through that and it will come off phony. But being transparent, always communicating, even being vulnerable, sharing, or getting to know your team on a more personal level, will always pay off. In a world where social media allows us to be whatever persona we want, or A.I. offers us the ability to create anything from nothing, we are now lacking in authenticity. Creating a safe space to express, think critically, and lead by example of work-life balance, will create a united team.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://thewonderbrew.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thewonderbrew/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheWonderBrew/?_rdr
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-wonder-brew/

Image Credits

PHOTOS BY SAHARA COLEMAN PHOTOGRAPHY