We were lucky to catch up with Sofia Martinez recently and have shared our conversation below.
Sofia , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?
Oh Hell Yeah I AM was born as a declaration, the declaration I made when I started learning to love myself and I declared: “Oh hell yeah I am beautiful!” It was the response I had to someone posting on FB about how they were not feeling beautiful. I felt compelled to say something because this topic hits close to home. I thought that maybe I could say something that would change the way someone thinks about themselves. I needed to express what I felt about this.
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
So, I embraced myself as I am, and I want to help others do the same.
My purpose is to inspire and coach others, providing them with the framework, strategies and tools to grow, to get clarity, gain awareness and to unlock their power and confidence to shine through.
I believe that when we consciously choose to become our best selves, we can positively impact the world around us and create a better future.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
One big lesson for me when I started this business and decided to go public with what I do in social media was to stop caring about what others would say. I’ve always been very worried about what others would say and about not making others uncomfortable. I am what you would call a peacemaker and a helper.
I always want to keep the peace even if it means keeping myself small and quiet.
And I always want to help others, even if it means put my needs last.
So when I decided to make this business public to others, I was afraid that others would think I am not qualified, I don’t know what I am doing…I was afraid about what others (specially my family) would say about it.
I had to make the decision to stop tinkering and doubting myself and taking my “side thing” as a serious business, not a hobby.
The things I had to get over to do this:
I had to get over my perfectionist (aka procrastinator) tendencies.
I had to commit to do something in my business every day and make it work with my 9-5 job.
I had to get over my “allergy” to sell myself.
I had to convince myself that I have value to offer and that people will pay for it.
These are just a few of the running scripts over in my head.
BUT, what I learned so far is amazing to me:
I learned that I can experiment and put things out there and is not the end of the world.
I can make it better with future iterations, and done is better than perfect.
I learned that is ok for me to be multi-passionate. I was always afraid of sharing what I do out of my 9-5 because somehow I thought it would be taken as if I don’t care for my 9-5. And this is not true. I have my 9-5 job in which I am very good at, AND, I have a side business which I am trying to grow. They are not exclusive and there is nothing wrong with me having a business outside of my job.
I learned that I need to be way more active sharing what I do with the world.
I am slowing letting go off this fear and I keep reminding myself daily that I am able to do this!
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
There are several personal stories in my life that show my resilience. I am an immigrant in this country. I came to USA to do my Ph.D. and I had to immerse myself in a new culture, language, and a tough study program without any family or friends to support me in the journey. Then in the middle of the Ph.D. program I lost everything during hurricane Katrina. I had to leave New Orleans and move to Houston without anything and restart again in the new city. Those two alone were big life experiences that took a lot of resilience to overcome. But the one that made me shift my whole lifestyle was when I was diagnosed with my second autoimmune disease and I decided to take charge of my health. I didn’t just take the diagnosis from the doctor and accepted my fate. I started learning and researching and looking for alternative options to “just taking a pill” and I found a world of possibilities that took me to ultimately start my coaching business. And now, eight years later, I have negative antibodies for my autoimmune disease and I am not taking any medications, so my resilience looking for other options and experimenting with food and lifestyle changes is paying off so far!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.ohyiam.com
- Instagram: @iamsofiamv
- Facebook: Oh Hell Yeah I Am
Image Credits
Ricky Guinhawa