Today we’d like to introduce you to Ahidee Romero.
Ahidee, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I’m a VERY free-spirited chick! I always knew college/a lengthy career wasn’t for me. Starting a family seemed a lot more attractive to me than going to college, I definitely feel like I was born in the wrong decade. 🙂 Unlike most, I enjoy and welcome change. Routine bores me and gets me in a funk. Growing up, I never had a favorite color, they were ALL my favorites! My style was never one given look, it was always evolving. I’ve always enjoyed learning about new things and teaching myself new skills. There’s a beauty in having no limitations as far as career is concerned, no limitations in life, like why should I just pick ONE thing I like and do THAT for the rest of my life? Now, don’t get me wrong, I feel like college and education are super important, I truly feel like you have to be passionate about it though in order for it to count. Many people don’t know this about me, but I’m actually a certified medical assistant, esthetician, cosmetologist, yoga and Pilates instructor, just to name a few. I couldn’t name it back then, like, quite put my finger on it, but as time went by, it started to become more apparent that I was born to be an entrepreneur.
I married at the tender age of 19 and my husband and I began our family at 21.
After having my first son, I did as most people do and went back to work when my maternity leave ended and life went on, but not as usual. I was always very uneasy about leaving my son with a baby sitter, even if she was my mother. I hated coming home from work and having to practically have to rip my son away from my mother because he didn’t want to come home with us. I hated missing all of his important milestones. After a year, it became very clear to my husband and me that being home with our littles was a common concern and desire, and so, I became a stay at home momma with my husband’s support and encouragement.
I became very independent from my parents at a very young age, so being home was a harder adjustment than I had anticipated. I LOVED being home with my son. Literally watching him grow day by day and being part of the remaining “firsts” was truly a blessing. Battling Post Partum Depression while adjusting to being a stay at home mom was definitely a struggle. I couldn’t figure out how to cope with feeling SO happy about being home with my son, but at the same time, SO sad that I felt I was losing a part of my independence, of myself. Little did I know, that that rocky start to motherhood would lead me into one of the most exciting journeys ever, entrepreneurship.
Soon after becoming a stay at home mom, I began dedicating myself fully into planning my son’s birthday parties and holiday celebrations. I picked up a lot of hobbies and did a lot of what made me happy, which was learning new things, new skills. It was definitely a great coping method for my PPD. I would spend months planning his second and third birthday parties and all of our holidays became and excuse for me to put to work my newfound passion, event styling. After the first two or three events, friends, family members, and acquaintances began asking me to help them plan THEIR events, I did so without hesitation and before I knew it, I was the proud owner of a children’s event planning and styling company; Which felt oh so good! Let me back up a bit so that you can understand my excitement about this new development a bit better.
My mother has always been very artsy and crafty, I definitely get the creative bug from her. I remember helping her craft and hand-make almost everything when I was a child! I find a lot of comfort in creating, in general, it’s almost like eating a warm plate of your favorite comfort soup for me. It just feels like home.
On my father’s side of the family, entrepreneurship was a way of life for decades. My grandfather owned a mop and broom factory in Mexico, while the rest of the family, my young father included, handled the sales and delivery side of things. I remember sitting by the sidewalk, watching my dad load up a truck full of brooms and mops. We’d go on these awesome road trips supplying local shops and stores throughout nearby cities and states. I LOVED that my father was always home for the most part, and when he wasn’t, my mom and I would be with him on these “work trips”. When I was a child, I always viewed work as something you love to do, because my dad loved his “job”, something that allows you the freedom to be home most days or work from anywhere you may just happen to be. I lived it with my parents and so that was my notion of it growing up. So, I feel very blessed to have inherited just the right qualities from both parents; My creativity from my mother and entrepreneur bug from my father.
Anyway, I grew my business from event styling to event planning and styling to an event productions company that also offered entertainment options for birthday parties and celebrations. It opened many doors and I got to meet amazing people along the way, as well as some local sports celebrities. 😉 It was truly a great experience, I learned SO much about business, social media, marketing, networking and about myself. I LOVED and was very passionate about my events company for many years. It was truly a blessing for my mental health, my family and because it offered me many opportunities to give back in many ways. I made sure my company was a blessing to families with limited resources who couldn’t afford a birthday party for their littles and for families stuck in a hospital with their children for months on end. I’d volunteer our services to host visitations with storybook characters and hand out “goodie bags” and bring a little cheer to their lives at the local hospitals.
All good things, however, come to an end for sure. I operated my company for over eight years before I was able to recognize that it was time to let it go and perhaps begin another adventure. I knew it was time because it grew to a point that no longer allowed me time with MY family to celebrate OUR milestones. I realized I wasn’t event planning birthdays for my own children anymore. We were booked up months and months in advance and I began missing Easters, birthdays and even some New Year’s eves. I was seeing financial reward and success but at what cost? I couldn’t even offer up charity events at the hospitals or when I came across a special family in special circumstances because I didn’t have date availability anymore. I will forever be grateful for the experience, but it’s important to set boundaries and to learn to recognize when a season in life has reached its purpose. For Houston Party Productions, this was it.
For a few years there, I was stagnant. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to pursue next, I felt confused, depressed and doubtful that I had made the wrong decision to end my event planning business. I continued learning and entering different seasons in the family life front. In 2017, my husband and I found ourselves making yet another hard decision, this time about homeschooling our two older boys. I decided to share the experience through an attempt at blogging. I didn’t have much support, I’m a first-generation Latina Homeschool Mom, I literally knew ZERO things on homeschooling. I kept up my homeschool Instagram page @thatgypsymom and blog as best I could; At the time, we were in a very transitional stage in life and so there wasn’t much stability, mentally or physically, and time was super limited, so my attempts at blogging were very sporadic. At the time, we were dividing our time between Texas and Tennessee for a good six months due to my husband’s job, we were transitioning from public school to homeschool, all while both of my husband’s parents were battling cancer… at the same time. The amount of stress, heartache, and worry was insurmountable for a couple of years almost. It was a rollercoaster of emotions and experiences; as much as I wanted to share everything, it wasn’t pretty most days, you know, Instagram worthy. It was hard to set up my environment for the right picture or to plan amazing content, so it was extremely difficult to grow that idea for my blog with literally no time to dedicate to it or time to attend networking events or anything like that. I was sure I’d be great at blogging, everyone said so, I was so crafty and everyone always talked about my DIY’s and encouraged me to start a blog… I just couldn’t figure out why it wasn’t going according to plan?
After both of my husband’s parents lost their battle with cancer, not even a year apart, it hit me like a ton of bricks, I finally understood why I was stagnant for what seemed like forever. My family was going to need me through this whole journey and then afterwards too, way after. I was very present for everyone involved, most of all my littles and I’m so grateful for that. God’s timing is NEVER wrong.
I never in a million years would have thought, much less plan, to become a restaurant owner. No way Jose!
The opportunity to invest in a restaurant was presented to us earlier this year. I’m a very intuitive person, so although it was a BIG risky move, I just knew that we should place our bets so to speak, all the while I had a belly full of butterflies. Unfortunately, our first “deal” fell through due to bad business management. I couldn’t explain how my intuition could have been so off, it just didn’t add up. By the grace of God, we renegotiated with the right partners and things are surely taking off quite well.
Every day that goes by, I fall more in love with our business. I’m all about family, it’s so important to my husband and I. The idea that families come to our place of business and create memories at our restaurant, laugh and bond over our food, that’s what it’s all about.
Has it been a smooth road?
Postpartum depression has been in and out of my life with every childbirth so that’s been a difficult thing to navigate while running my own business/businesses, but with the bad comes the good, and the good here is that I’ve learned to take care of myself along the way. I’ve learned to take time for ME.
It’s definitely been an adjustment to get back into a working routine, heck, it seemed impossible to squeeze one more thing into our already busy schedules, let alone a business venture, but I’ve managed to learn a lot more about time management and I’m like a pro at it now!
We’d love to hear more about your business.
La Sirena Seafood is a restaurant that offers authentic Mexican seafood recipes and then some. We offer a variety of food options and we’re sure you’ll find something you love even if seafood isn’t your thing. We are a family-owned and operated business and we are BIG on family, for this reason, we love to create a family-friendly atmosphere and family-friendly events. We love having fun, enjoying life and creating memories everywhere we go as a family, so we wanted to bring in some of our love of spending quality time together with our loved ones by offering fun and inviting specials almost every day.
Kids eat free with the purchase of one adult main dish (1 kid per adult) every Monday and Tuesday.
We offer happy hour drink specials all day Monday-Thursday and we’re also very supportive of our home sports teams, so you can always count on a special when our home teams are in season.
Every Friday night, we have Spanish bands playing live from 8pm-12am, usually Norteño, Cumbias and Banda,
Occasionally, on Sundays, we host live music as well from 3pm-7pm.
We stay quite busy! Make sure you follow us on social media for band info and upcoming specials and events.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
I feel like Houston is a very diverse city and it’s definitely the perfect place! Our side of town doesn’t have many restaurants with Live Music options yet, so knowing the need, we decided to add this to our list of services and it’s been very well received.
Contact Info:
- Address: 6830 East Sam Houston Pkwy N. Ste # 210
Houston, Texas 77049 - Phone: 8326178293
- Email: lasirenaseafood@gmail.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/lasirenamariscos
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/lasirenamariscos
- Other: Facebook.com/lasirenamariscos
Image Credit:
Alyssia Aguilar – The lofty Mom Art: Cartoon family image, Ahidee Romero – Food pictures & team member pictures
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