Today we’d like to introduce you to Mayra Martinez.
Mayra, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I am the daughter of immigrants, so it was always expected of me to do great things. I mean, no one leaves their homeland to come to unknown territory, starts over, starts a family, and does mediocre things. I remember the long hours that my parents both worked to provide for me and that fueled a fire in me I cannot explain. In my household, it was always “when you go to college…”, NOT, ‘when/if you go to college…” Because I am an only child, I feel like I somewhat had to pave the way and figure things out on my own. My parents helped where they could but because of the language barrier, I took on most of the responsibility. I feel like most people would see that as a burden, especially at such a young age, but I didn’t. It was only a small part of the big picture that my parents put together. As I got older, I realized there weren’t many people that I could relate to as far as I could tell. I yearned for someone experiencing what I was experiencing so we could talk about it and figure it out together. I will say because I was an only child and it was just my parents and me, I quickly acclimated to being an introvert and keeping to myself, but that also allowed me to have a very strong bond with my parents. I will never be able to repay them for all they have done for me, but I strive to make them proud in everything that I do.
When it came down to going to college, I took a lot of detours because I genuinely did not know what I wanted to do with my life. I finally decided to pursue a Business Degree and graduated in December of 2018. While I was in school, I always knew I wanted to run a blog and connect with not only businesswomen but people in general that came from similar paths because I did not have that growing up. I wanted to be available as a resource in the community. The more I talked to my peers, the more I was told how relatable I was. I quickly realized that there was an audience out there for the content I could put out and they would actually be interested. My main concern with the “influencer” life was that everyone seemed to want to put you in a box. You were either a beauty, fitness, lifestyle or motivational influencer. But why? Why couldn’t I talk about all of those topics and more? So I did. That is when I launched A Daily Dose. The main focus of my blog is to motivate people to be extraordinary. I love that it has allowed me to connect with other women and motivate them to have confident businesswomen, mothers, daughters, etc. but, I can talk about it all because I have experienced it all during my journey to stereotype freedom.
Has it been a smooth road?
From the outside looking in, it looks easy when it really isn’t. There is a lot of work that goes into running a blog and I definitely underestimated it. But, my parents and my family have been my biggest support system in all of this. I honestly don’t know where I would be without them.
The main struggle I faced was that I lacked a lot of confidence in my work. I love my writing, but would others? I will never forget doing an interview with media here in Houston and getting bashed on social media because I happen to do an interview in English, rather than Spanish. How could a brown girl dare speak English on a Spanish network? The person interviewing me asked me what I was most comfortable speaking and I said English. She said perfect and told me to answer in English, so I did. Once that aired and the comments starting flowing in, I received a huge reality check: not everyone was raised like me. I thought that because I would never say those things about someone, that they would not be said about me, but they were. I stepped away for a bit after that situation and just evaluated what I wanted to do with my brand and I made a vow to myself. I promised myself that whatever content I would put out would be because I loved it and I was doing it for me. I was putting my work out there and that was it. Not everyone had to like it but if it helped at least one person, I accomplished my mission.
The one piece of advice I have for women/young women is to do everything because it makes YOU happy. At the end of the day, you are the one living your life. You have to wake up every day and live this amazing life you have worked so hard for, so why not enjoy it? We only get one, let’s make the best of it! You could be the juiciest peach available and there will still be someone who doesn’t like peaches.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into A Daily Dose story. Tell us more about the business.
I am a motivational blogger/influencer. When I launched A Daily Dose, it was a safe space for me to write out my thoughts on certain topics and share it with the world. In the beginning, my only audience was my colleagues from work. They gave me feedback as to what I could improve on and the more I shared, the more they seemed to enjoy it. It even allowed me the opportunity to launch a podcast with two dear friends called The Diverse Boss where we talk about finance, fashion, and life! I’d say what sets me apart from the others is that I don’t sugarcoat reality and that is what makes me so relatable. Social media has conditioned us to only show the best version of our lives which then leads to people having a false perception of us and when we are seen out in the real world, it is the complete opposite of what they saw on social media. That will then lead to disappointments and false expectations. Why not avoid all of that and just keep it real? Mom life is extremely hard, being married is stressful, and working in corporate American brought out the worst in me. It is what it is! I will lead you to deal with the messes so that the aftermath is a lesson about what to do and how to deal.
Do you have a lesson or advice you’d like to share with young women just starting out?
Stay focused on your end goal. In today’s world, it is so easy to compare ourselves to the next person and feel defeated when we see they have accomplished something we are working so hard towards – let them. We are always where we are supposed to be and everything we do has a purpose. We may not see the purpose of the pain, hard work, struggle, but there is one. With time, that will come to light and it will all make sense. Once you have your goal, make a plan on what steps you are going to take to accomplish it and you can even go one step further and set a timeline for each step. As you accomplish a step, cross it off and see your hard work come to life.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.adailydoseonline.com
- Email: adailydose@yahoo.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ADailyDoseOfML/
Image Credit:
Mayra Martinez
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