Episode 001: For When You Dare to Begin

In our first episode, Kat takes you through her story, from growing up in Washington Heights to stepping into entrepreneurship. She shares how her parents' entrepreneurial spirit influenced her path and how, even at a young age, she was exposed to the hard work and determination that would shape her future.

Kat opens up about the struggles she faced in her early ventures, including her first failed business, and how those challenges became invaluable lessons. She talks about the messiness of starting something new and why taking that first step, no matter how uncertain is always worth it.

Through it all, Kat emphasizes how failure is part of the process and how it is often the only way to figure out who you truly are and what you are capable of.

Full Transcript

0:00  

You're listening to for the trailblazers. I'm your host. Kat Araujo, the other day, I was having a conversation with one of my neighbors who's getting ready to launch a new business, and she asked me, how were you able to overcome so much and stay on an entrepreneurial path this long? What is it that has kept you going to be honest. Her question caught me off guard. I gave her a quick response in the moment, but it gave me a lot to think about when people hear my story, where I come from, what I do, and how I got here, it often seems to make them curious, because I started my first business in my mid 20s, and I've never worked a corporate job before. So for this first episode, let's just start from the beginning.

1:25  

I am a first generation Dominican American born in Harlem and raised in Washington Heights. We have to start there, because this is such a central part of my identity. My parents came to the states in the 70s and 80s, and they settled in Washington Heights a couple years before I was born. Both of my parents are very entrepreneurial people.

My mom worked at a factory for 40 years, but The pay wasn't enough, so that meant that she was always selling something on the side. She sold jewelry, sunglasses and clothes. She also built a thriving baking business on the weekends, and she baked Dominican cakes for all the neighborhood celebrations every Saturday, I would always wake up to sticky kitchen floors and the loud rumbling of her industrial sized cake mixer. There were always delicate flowers made of fondant drying by like a fan, and the scent of freshly baked cake always filled our apartment.

My childhood home was essentially her baking studio, and there was always something sweet to snack on and some sort of elaborate creation in progress. My mom left school after the fourth grade and started helping my grandfather run his businesses in Santo Domingo until she came to the States in 1981 after coming here, she never learned English, and being unable to navigate the world on her own always made her feel a little less confident. As a kid, having to be her eyes and ears meant that I didn't always appreciate how creative she was until much later.

Before coming to the States, my dad lived in Los Minas, this very vibrant working-class neighborhood in Santo Domingo. He started working at the age of six because he wanted to always have money in his pocket. He shined shoes, sold newspapers and he sold candles at the cemetery on Dia de los Muertos, when my father was 12, he came to the States with his older brother to reunite with their mom, who had been living here for 10 years after leaving them when they were toddlers to build a better life. My dad learned English really quickly and was an incredibly gifted student.

By 16, he had taught himself how to do taxes and started a side hustle to make extra cash for movie nights with his friends. He went to City College after high school and studied pre law and Spanish lit. And when he graduated, he worked a couple jobs, but eventually started working for himself.

My dad is the OG consultant who started working from home before was a thing and eventually opened an office in Uptown Manhattan on 181 st and Broadway in his 30s. My favorite thing about my dad's business is how he recognized the needs of our community of mostly Dominican immigrants that were. Were navigating life in a new country, and he built the company that served them. His firm handled everything from immigration and taxes, divorces, bankruptcy and translation services.

Every day, I would go to his office after school to do homework. Once I was old enough, I would help by answering phones, filing and organizing.

It was one of those afternoons after school that I was recycling old Cadillacs that I noticed that the Jelly Roll pens that my classmates were obsessed with were being sold in bulk. They were much cheaper than they were at Hobby land, our favorite novelty store down the block from my dad's office. So I convinced my dad to buy me a batch, and I started selling them on the playground during recess for a little less than hobby land, and it wasn't before long, I was turning a profit.

Being in my dad's office every day after school taught me that immigrants are the ultimate visionaries, the way they leave everything behind. Come here with little resources, start a new life, build a new community. That sheer determination and vision is truly remarkable. I don't know if I would be here without my mom and dad's choice to come here and start a new life. I think that choice modeled for me what going for it looks like the highs, the lows, the I'm here. I'm gonna make this work. I feel like that's been really influential for me on my entrepreneurial path.

I'm here because they made that leap with no road map, and they've modeled trailblazing for me since I was young. I'm an only child, and my parents poured everything into my education. Because my dad worked for himself. He was very involved in my schooling, and because my mom and grandma didn't speak English, I was an ESL kid who learned English in elementary school, learning the language was a challenge. I still think about being made fun of for my thick accent in first grade.

Just the other day, I was at a private members club in West Hollywood, and after speaking one sentence, someone asked me, wait a minute, where are you from? And it immediately took me back to being six on the playground.

My dad had high academic expectations for me. I was a shy day dreamer that he shaped into a focused achiever. He just had a vision for my life that involved me leaving the hood, going to a top tier college and starting a great career.

By the time I started high school, I had my sights set on a top 10 University. I threw myself into Student Government, serving as junior and senior class president. I participated in Columbia University's Upward Bound program and engaged in many extracurriculars.

I was drawn to science, and I wanted a career that could open doors to a completely different life. So I decided to pursue medicine. Then one day, I came across this CosmoGirl article. I have to find this article because they interviewed a pediatrician who had gone to Johns Hopkins, and that's when I decided I would attend Hopkins for undergrad.

So I focused on getting good grades, and eventually, I applied and got in going to Hopkins was a major league for me. I got most of my tuition covered by scholarships and grants, but it was just such a push for me to leave the heights and move to Baltimore away from my family. I'll never forget taking a greyhound with my mom from like from New York to Baltimore, with all my belongings in tow.

Adjusting was hard, and my classmates had entirely different backgrounds. I had never been around that level of wealth and privilege before, but I found my people, and that really helped me get through it. Slowly. I started making friends with other women who were like me, first gen, women of color and those. Friendships were my saving grace. They were my study buddies, the people I let loose and party with, and they made me feel less alone.

I also made friends outside of college who were like artists and creatives living in Baltimore, who exposed me to the Baltimore art and culture scene.

In my second year, I realized I wanted to pursue a different path. I wasn't really sure what it would look like, but I knew I needed to draw a pre med. I started registering for classes that I liked, and after a semester, I realized I enjoyed political science and art history the most, so I switched my major with the intention of going to law school. At some point after the switch, I also took some courses at Micah, the Maryland Institute College of Art, and discovered my love for design and storytelling. By the time I graduated in 2009 the job market was tough due to the recession,

11:04  

I knew I wanted to do something meaningful, and during my junior and senior years, I spent time mentoring high school students. That experience led me to apply to the Baltimore teaching residency and Teach for America, and I got into both. I went with TFA because I got placed in Hawaii, and that felt like an exciting new adventure. So five days after graduation, I jumped on a plane to Hawaii with two suitcases and headed to my peach for America orientation. That same week, I got hired on a spot by a school on the school field army base in Oahu.

The best way to sum up my time in Hawaii is this thing my friend Eva told me many years ago during that orientation, and that is that this was not the Hawaii of my travel guide, there was a lot to adjust to, and I was naive about what I was stepping into. And yeah, I'm just so grateful for the spirit of aloha and how much the island welcomed me. Being in the classroom for three years gave me something I was missing. I was surrounded by brilliant women. My co teacher, Theresa, was incredibly innovative, and she took me under her wing, both personally and professionally. The support I got from Theresa was another level, and there's no way I would have succeeded through that experience without her. My principal, Jan was my first and only boss, really, and she modeled for me what it meant to be a woman who leads being a principal isn't too different from being a CEO, and I watched her make tough decisions and execute her vision even when others didn't really see it yet. That stuck with me. Years later, when I was building my own business, I realized that real leadership means staying committed to the vision even when no one else quite gets it yet. I caught the entrepreneurial bug when I was 26 after being in the classroom for three years. So I had finished my commitment with Teach for America, and I stayed an extra year. I didn't really know what I wanted to do or how I was going to do it, but I sensed that I needed to leave the classroom so I could have the space to find myself and figure it out. So in the spring of 2013 I walked away from the classroom with no clear game plan. I remember telling my dad that I had quit my job, and his response was, what are you gonna do now? Honestly, I didn't know. A month after I left the classroom, I started interning for a small business in Honolulu, and three months after that, I was piecing together any freelance work I could in marketing, content creation and event production. The year after I left the classroom was a roller coaster. I moved into a house with like, six roommates, and I was in hustle mode. After a year, I met my first business partner, and together, we launched taco Kat, a farm to Taco pop up. Honestly, I was hesitant from the start, even before we launched, because I knew that I wanted to move to Southern California and eventually start a branding studio. That year of freelancing showed me that I had a natural knack for a. Branding and storytelling, and I wanted to lean into that, but we moved forward with a lot of heart, pushing through all the obstacles and really wanting to make it happen. Unfortunately, taco Kat didn't last long. There were many reasons for its failures, but at its core, taco Kat was like a logistics heavy business that didn't really honor my strengths as someone who's both like creative and strategic. I realized that I had no business running a business like that, but I didn't really understand that until I was already deep in it as a high achiever who often excelled at everything that I tried taco Kat felt like a stain on my record. I sank into a deep depression, and I felt so much shame now that it's been 12 years since I first left my job and made the leap. I know that entrepreneurship is a skill, and that your first business will probably fail, and that failure is just feedback.

16:20  

My ego took a beating, but I learned not to be too precious about executing my ideas. I discovered that I thrive when I'm collaborating with other women, and I learned to listen to my gut instincts, and I realized that sometimes you have to fail to find your way back to yourself. Still, it wasn't until I left Hawaii and returned to NYC in 2016 that I truly forgave myself for Taco Kat I just betrayed my instincts by starting a business that didn't align with my zone of genius, or the vision that I had for my life.

Looking back, I'm incredibly grateful that taco Kat blew up in my face at the time. I was still figuring out the full scope of what I was capable of. I had no idea that I go on to launch another business that aligned with my passions and my purpose.

Never, in my wildest dream that I think that I would end up running an Emmy-nominated brand consultancy helping other Trailblazers bring their ideas to life.

Also, I was 26 when I decided to work for myself, and I now have a mentee, Aisha, who's about that age, and she's skipping a corporate path and starting her first business. And that relationship has been incredibly healing for me, because it reminds me that at her age, I needed grace, I needed room to try some things on and to make some mistakes.

A lot of founder stories follow the same formula: I graduated, I climbed the ladder at x company. I helped them accomplish this big thing, and then I decided I would go start my own business, but skipping that whole corporate experience step was radical.

In my case, I've never had a toxic manager, never had to navigate the pressures of being a woman of color in the corporate world, and I've never even had a male boss.

I've always been surrounded by powerful women building something bigger than themselves, and I know that's a huge part of what I've been able to do the same.

Real talk for a minute, though, I let that first failure really define me, but looking back, I wouldn't be where I am now if I hadn't taken that first step. My first business wasn't the right business for me, but I only really figured that out after giving it a try, and once I was in motion, I got clear about who I am and what my strengths are.

If you feel the pull to try something new, but you're stuck in your head about it, I have to tell you that the risk is probably the only way forward. Things may not work out exactly the way you want, but you're only really gonna figure things out once you're in motion. I had to make so many pivots and changes, and I even had to start fresh when I moved to New York. But I think going down the wrong path is better than staying still and not giving yourself the chance.

Starting is always messy. I think that first step isn't about getting it right. It's about giving yourself the permission to begin.

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Thank you for listening to this first episode. I will be back next Monday, but until then, let's stay connected on Instagram. You can find us  @forthetrailblazers. If you want to visit our website, that's afternoonculture.com/podcast, and remember, if you're here, you are a trailblazer.