Today we’d like to introduce you to Diego Jaime.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Begin with the end in mind, Stephen Covey the author of one of my favorite books to read as a teen (7 Habits for Highly Effective People) kicked off my start in personal development and entrepreneurship from an early age. I was always the type of kid who dreamed big and was always reading books on self-help in middle and high school. While others were partying and doing other normal teenage kid things. As the son of Mexican immigrants to the US and the oldest sibling of two, I was on a mission to make the most out of my existence on earth as a first-generation Mexican American.
A lesson I learned from an early age watching my parents, is how debt can negatively affect a household, It left such an impact on me that the notion of wanting to be debt-free always stuck. And I took it to the extreme and looked for ways to rid myself of the idea that school debt was necessary for success. So I looked for other paths toward my goals of breaking out of the restraints my parents dealt with. And in 2011 straight out of high school I joined the United States Navy.
I enlisted as a United States Navy Hospital Corpsman to further fuel my passion to help people since I had been a lifeguard for four summers in a row and loved the medical field. During that time and multiple deployments later I choose to get stationed in Corpus Christi TX where the slower tempo allowed for my entrepreneurial side to come out and help the people and businesses around me. I started my first LLC /DBA called Social Proof Business Media in 2018 as my first creative outlet to help local veteran-owned businesses with their online and social media marketing. I even started to sell acai on the side as well to test the local markets and help the local Hispanic community learn about healthy alternatives to what we usually eat and snack on in our culture. I then started to show symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress, my sleep started to deteriorate, and my resiliency was starting to be greatly affected since returning from my deployments. I got help and that’s where things started to change, I started to be okay with the idea of my command at the time recommending me to a medical board for potential medical separation. And, after a gruesome year of Dr’s appointment and so on I grew a passion for martial arts again and meshed my entrepreneur interests with that amazing community.
This led to my continued love for helping my local veteran community with what I had learned while getting help for what I was going through putting on large fundraisers for veteran jiu-jitsu nonprofits and the dream of someday owning a Tiny/Small home village for veterans. These dreams were soon challenged as I approached the end of my 9-year military career towards the end of 2019/ beginning of 2020. Where talks about a new virus were being shown all across the world. Luckily for me, this unfortunate blending of life-changing events was what I had gone through so much therapy for. Where I tested my newly built resiliency for life while factoring in getting out of the Navy at the very start of the unknown COVID pandemic.
All of the plans I had for my transition out were put on hold. And I couldn’t go home to my parent’s house as I initially planned due to the fear of this new virus. Luckily, however, my sister had a small house in a neighborhood on the South East side of Houston where she was living with her two daughters for me to share. I was blessed to be able to sleep on a mattress in the dining room of my sister’s house while I got accustomed to this new way of life. Ironically I was broken down again from who I was when I first joined to who I was getting out of the service. I got a job taking temperatures for a great company, it wasn’t the fanciest but it got the bills paid. I stuck with it, working through the elements outside of a plant in Channelview taking temperatures from 2 am to 11 am, Monday through Saturday. I finally caught my break when what I was making a week taking temperatures started to hit my bank account. At the time I was listening to Dave Ramsey through my significant other’s wireless headphones I’d borrow for work. And ended up becoming completely debt-free as I paid off my car, my credit card, and loans. Fulfilling for the first time my childhood goal of not having to pay for college, and being debt-free. Soon my savings grew greatly and coupled with the money I had saved up prior to getting out I was able to start looking for a house. That’s where my significant other and I saw these new Bungalow small homes in the Oak Forest community pop up in Realtor.com. We missed out on the first build but we got lucky and made friends with the builder who was building another work of art the next street over. That new build is what is known now as Casa Tequilana. I lived there for a year with my dog Kona and my now fiance Jennie. Using what I learned from Stephen Covey, I knew that I would turn this into my first Airbnb/event rental in the end. And set a new goal for myself, which was to save up some money in a year and move out no matter what. I accomplished that goal in the fall of 2021 after being there for almost exactly a year and put a down payment on the house we live in now so that my new business can take flight in hopes of making many visitors happy with their stay in Houston. My mission is still to help people. But I can now focus on new endeavors and new businesses/other Bungalow/Tiny home experiences for people to enjoy!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It hasn’t, I’ve struggled with what many immigrant families deal with. Financial stress, low income. Then personally I dealt with a lot from my deployments overseas and from medically retired from the Navy during the start of the COVID pandemic. Something I had no guidance to reference point to learn from or mirror.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I got a couple of promotions from the days for taking temperatures and now I work with Total Safety in the Health and Safety industry to further fund my goals and entrepreneurial spirit. What I’m most proud of is my tenacious resiliency to not give up and to continue to give back to the people I meet with the things that I build/create.
Alright, so to wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to share with us?
I believe it is our duty as human beings to strive for becoming the best version of ourselves. No matter how small or grand the accomplishment or end result. To simply be happy isn’t enough, fulfillment is the true goal in my life now.
Contact Info:
- Email: casatequilanahtx@yahoo.com
- Website: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/54378971?preview_for_ml
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/casa.tequilana/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/casatequilanahtx/
