Eric: Hey everybody. This is Eric Y. Chen of the Y Factor Podcast and today I am super excited to have our guests star Yamaris Diaz here. And she’s all the way from Miami. So I love to have you introduce yourself and we can get this episode started. 

Yamaris: Okay, great. I’m really happy to be here. Thank you so much for inviting me on so like you said, my name is Yamaris Diaz. I am in Miami, Florida. Sunny, Florida.

I’m a CPA. I have my own virtual CPA practice that I just started very recently. It’s very fresh. Actually, last week was my first week as a full-time entrepreneur. So that’s what I do now. 

Eric: Awesome. It’s super wonderful, especially catching you basically at the point of juncture within your own career and your own path. like making that leap in just starting off full time. So I’m pretty sure it’s pretty scary for you, but also very liberating as well. I mean, how do you how do you feel so far? 

Yamaris: Yeah, all of the above. It’s so scary anybody out there that have started their own company and has been working as an employee for a long time.

I’ve basically been in accounting for 10-plus years. I’ve been an employee for 10 plus years, so making that leap and just saying I am going to voice. 

I’m not going to get an income anymore. I’m not going to get a paycheck and I’m going to start into this on my own especially because I have two little kids. It’s quite scary, but I am confident that it was the best decision. I’m not looking back at all. I’m just going forward from here. 

Eric: That is awesome. you and I we had just recently connected over pretty much an Amazon group on Facebook and the topic really was about you know, this person who was afraid to make the leap this person had posted an extensive comment about him, you know always having this entrepreneurial bug and but he just never felt the right time or had the right things in place in order for him to make the leap and was looking for words of encouragement and people within that it who basically done it themselves.  I had commented on it and then  you commented later that afternoon. So when I when I read your post it actually connected with me because you had a car accident not too long ago. I think it was it a year and a half or so?

Yamaris: Yeah, June of last year 

Eric: June of last year, right? And so I had my car accident in 2016.

So it’s been about three years now and it’s definitely, influenced my life and put me on a trajectory of Entrepreneurship as well so, when I saw your post  I really, connected with it and that you made the leap because you had this moment in your life that is pushing you through and  it seemed because it was a year and a half you did take the necessary steps to make sure you are in a position to be able to do so, so I’d love to hear more about what you did in terms of preparing yourself actually before that  if you want to share a little bit more about the accident 

Yamaris: Well just so you know a little bit about me. I’ve always had a phobia of car accidents every time I get in my car I picture myself crashing or I see other people in accidents and it scares me to the core.

So I always knew that that was a possibility for me just because the chances are so high whenever you get in your car but I couldn’t believe it happened to me and it actually happened right after I had dropped off my toddler at her preschool. 

Eric: Yeah

Yamaris: at the first light heading out of the preschool a Volkswagen just hit me out of nowhere at the light and I was just thankful to God that I had just dropped off my daughter and she wasn’t in the car with me, but what was scary was that I was pregnant with my second kid. I mean I was 35 weeks pregnant when it happened. I was crushed between the car and the light poles and they hit me right on the driver side, so I thank God that I had a great car, a big car.

I have an Acura RDX and I think that car saved my life. I would have had any other car any smaller car I just don’t even want to think about the possibility of that happening and my baby was okay. I mean I went to the hospital and thankfully, you know, we heard the heartbeat and everything was good, but that did shake me up a little bit. 

I was on maternity leave, well obviously the three months of unpaid leave. I don’t get any benefits here in Florida, we don’t have any paid leave at all, which is a whole other story, but basically when I was getting ready to go back to work and talking to my boss and all of that. I  just decided I didn’t want to go back. I talked to my husband, I remember it was our anniversary lunch November 7th, and we talked and he was like, you know what? I think it’s time. Like don’t go back to work. That’s it. He goes, “let’s let’s just do the CPA business full time” and I was like “really we’re going to do this?” And we just decided right then and there that I was going to do it.

So, I called the next day and I quit and they actually convinced me to go back part time. 

Eric: Yeah. 

Yamaris: Well I did that I was like, you know, it’s kind of logical. Let me go back part time still have some money coming in while I start growing this thing and I did that for like two months and then I was like, you know, I’m getting leads. I’m getting a lot of leads.

I’m getting people that want me to do their bookkeeping now. It’s tax season people want me to do their taxes. There is no way I can juggle everything. I can have my job. I can grow this business. I can take care of my two little kids still take care of my household. 

Eric: Yeah. 

Yamaris: It’s a lot of things, so I just decided to quit and go at this full-time.

Eric: Yeah, especially because the business, ramped up a lot sooner, right the clients were coming in sooner than you had thought right because the idea would be okay let me work part-time with a little bit more flexible schedule and then just get a few clients and see how things go, right?

Yamaris: Yeah, honestly, I just had two monthly clients and that was it, but now it’s basically when people start looking for accountants the  of the year and I do have a Facebook group and I was having people joining my group and asking me questions and I was started to feel overwhelmed and I was like if I want to do this right and actually focus on growing the processes for my business, which is something that I want to do, I don’t want to just work in my business years down the line.

I want to work on my business and I want to have a scalable business. So in order to do that, I decided it was important like from now from this moment on to start growing processes so that I can hire people to help me and I wasn’t going to be able to focus on that if I didn’t have time.

Eric: Perfect. Yeah. I mean it’s so awesome to hear the opportunity that’s coming around and I know you and I chatted before about the online communities as well and especially with you know, Amazon and e-commerce being such a big thing nowadays you’re able to get connected to people and essentially potential clients to be able to come through and be able to help out.

Are you able to help out online sellers just in Florida or out-of-state folks as well?

Yamaris: Out-of-state as well. I am a virtual. So everything is online and I can help people that live outside of Florida most of the people that reach out to me and most of the people that are in my group are in Florida just because of the community down here and people that I’ve connected with but I do have other people from other states.

So yeah. 

Eric: Awesome. Yeah, and this has allowed you to and I believe what’s most important to you and why you even started this journey is definitely to spend time with your kids to help fix that entrepreneurship bug that you had and then also take care of your kids. Flexibility is a big thing. I was lucky that at my old job, I did have flexibility and they allowed me to work from home sometimes, a couple times a week. 

I did have that opportunity which you don’t always have in accounting or in other bigger firms so I did have that but to me it’s golden.

if I was working at my other firm during busy season, I would have had to stay working later and I wouldn’t have been able to pick up my daughter from school. Now  I pick up my daughter from school every day. she’s in preschool now, she’s three years old and I can do that.

I can be home. I can prepare dinner, I can spend time with them. I have a five-month-old as well. I do have help because honestly in order to grow this business, I do have to focus and spend the majority of the day working on the business. 

Eric: Yeah, so how do you juggle that? How do you juggle that schedule like with having the kids and then even though you have the flexibility to work from home now?

It’s still a lot of work to do because everyone considers being a mom is a full-time job in itself, right? And so, how do you juggle that? 

Yamaris: Right now it’s hard because I don’t have my income coming in and it may change in the near future, but right now the way I’m working through it is I have a nanny helping me from Monday to Friday and I   prioritize that time during my day that I do have  childcare to work on the business and then once I put them to bed at night, I’m still working. I’m not going to lie to you. I’m still working at sometimes at 2:00 3:00 in the morning 

Eric: Yup.  

Yamaris: This is the time to hustle. I just started, so that’s that’s what I’m doing I’ve tried to take advantage of all the hours available in my day, and I do enjoy the fact that I’m not working for anybody else. So I take advantage and try to spend time with my kids when I do have the time to spend with them cause that’s the whole goal of this. 

I want to be able to spend time with my family, spend time with them during the weekend spend time with them when I have them here at home with me and eventually my goal is to work part-time on my business and to work less and less hours so that I can be with them more during the day. If I don’t want to take them to school one day and just go to the beach, you know.

Eric: Yeah, I think you brought up a really good point about really dedicating that time and it’s so important right now for you to hustle and build this up and just because I think a lot of people or even people who want to go and work from home and they think like once they have that flexibility then they can kind of just relax and chill but they don’t have like a very set structure or rigid schedule. So essentially you’ve you’re keeping like your work schedule almost like a like a 9 to 5, but that 9 to 5 is for yourself, right and your face and your you’re sticking to the structure in order to keep growing the business, right? Is that something that you learned or this is just something you innately like knew yourself or had had someone like a mentor or someone tell you to do that or how did you even decide?

Yamaris: Honestly one of my biggest inspirations is my husband.

He started his Amazon business five years ago. That’s how I first was introduced to this industry.

Eric: Yeah. 

Yamaris: Okay do the accounting for his business and he is so committed to growing his business and so he would go to his office and he’s there and 9-5 and doesn’t sacrifice that time. He’s like if there’s something going on, he’s like no, I’m done at five o’clock or no I can’t leave earlier. And it’s like but you have a business. What’s the point of having your own business if you’re not flexible and you can do it. Laughter.

Honestly, he has been able to grow this so fast and you know, everyone around him is so proud of him and I’m so proud of him, but I think the main reason why he’s been able to do this is because he was strict with his time and he just didn’t give excuses and he prioritized that and he had a schedule and he stuck to it.

Eric: Yeah I’m sure you see a lot of people nowadays just because they’re influenced by social media. The Amazon business is or online e-commerce is the way to go if you want to work, you know on the beach or have a flexible schedule or only need to work two hours a day right on this business and then you’re good to go.

Right you’re going to be a six, seven figure business owner by working two hours a day, you know at your own leisure, but I’m sure you know watching your husband grow out his online business and you working with your clients right now. Like that’s probably not the case, right? 

Yamaris: Honestly, that’s the end goal. Yeah, once you’ve grown your business and you have scaled your business and you have other people working your business and doing taking care of the day-to-day operations, and you’re just, CEO of your business and you can do that because you’ve been smart and that’s your goal.

That’s not everybody’s goal. Some people like to still work in the day-to-day operations of their business, but for me personally, that’s my goal and I know that’s my husband’s goal as well. Eventually, yeah, you will be able to work from the beach and just answer a few emails and just put out fires when you need to, but when you’re growing out this thing and you’re growing your business in the first few years, that’s obviously not the case and I just think the the more time you commit right now in the early stages and the more structure that you have, the higher chances you have of actually reaching that goal down the line. 

Eric: So what would you say? I mean based on your experience your based on seeing your husband’s business, you know starting out from 5 years ago you talk about setting up that structure and putting the time now early on in order to build out this infrastructure to support the lifestyle that you want. 

How long do you think that should take or how long do you think it would take and especially for people who are right now in the grind of things, but still not seeing the end of the tunnel and they’re just still struggling like how it’s like this is not happening as soon as I want or as fast as I thought it would what would you say to that?

Yamaris: I mean it just it depends so much on the type of business that you have and even the way that you are operating your business. Like when it comes to Amazon, there’s different types of business models, right which I’m sure you’re familiar. There’s a you know, people that have private label that they’re selling their own branded products.

There’s people that are doing Retail Arbitrage that the only way they make money is they go physically they have to go to a store buy products and sell them on Amazon at a mark up, so just depends on how you’re going to scale your business to see how long it’s going to take you. A lot of Amazon sellers just want to sell their business, in a few years what I have seen is that it’s at least three to five years, I would say. 

Eric: Yeah

Yamaris: My goal is three to five years that I’ve definitely grown this business more where I have a lot more flexibility with my time, but we’ll have to catch up

Eric: I plan to, be able to revisit a lot of the guest speakers I’ve had early on and kind of see where they are in terms of their journey and and seeing that progress. I mean, I don’t know if you watch Shark Tank or not?

Yamaris: Yes I love Shark Tank.

Eric: I love that show and this this season their 10-year season, they go back and talk about the people the guests who’ve come on Iike 10 years ago and they always do the look back and it’s always crazy to see like, how much they’ve grown ever since and how these sharks have been able to help grow their businesses.

Yamaris: I want to see that. Yeah, there’s some people that have major drive and they grow their business in a year. They’re making a million dollars in a year.

Eric: Yeah.

Yamaris: Just depends on their drive and the resources that they have and how fast they can grow it. 

Eric: Yeah, what would you say is your driver?

Yamaris: I mean definitely my kids. Now that I have two kids like your priorities definitely change.  Do you have kids?

Eric: No, I am very very solo bachelor type thing.

Eric: Yeah, lifestyle’s a little different. 

Yamaris: Yeah. No, I mean definitely when they say that when you have kids your priorities change and your life changes it cannot be further from the truth. I had one one. I had my daughter and it was it was life-changing and it was challenging, but it was just one.

Now, I have two and things are just double the fun so they’re definitely my driver being able to spend time with them now when they’re little and later down the line when they’re in school and I see other parents struggling with their time when they have their 9 to 5 and having to have that sit down to help them with their homework or maybe not have enough money to go on vacation 

so to me, I’m just thinking about the future and the kind of life that I want to provide for them because my parents were not able to provide that for us. Like we didn’t go on a lot family vacations growing up. We are an immigrant Family actually. I’m Cuban and my parents just like on a whim brought us here.

They were able to bring us here and they worked like three jobs at a time in order to make ends meet and my mom when she had the opportunity to become an entrepreneur she did it and she worked on her business and I had that inspiration from her and I’ve also have that inspiration from my husband and his family.

They are a family of Entrepreneurship as well. Always had their own businesses, so I’ve always had that kind of bug in me. I’ve always seen that and I’ve always said, you know, I don’t know if I want to do that for me but once I started working at a job and realizing that I didn’t have the flexibility with my hours and then after having my kids I realized that that was the way to go for me.

Eric: And you actually worked at corporate before all of this too one of the big four accounting firms to do auditing right?

Yamaris: Yeah, I started in a big four firm. I worked at Deloitte for a couple of years right out of college and I only lasted a couple years. I was a newlywed and I was realizing that I wasn’t spending any time with my new husband (laughter) I didn’t have time to spend time with my family.

I was also studying for my CPA at the time, so my time was limited and after a couple years through busy season like I would get home at 11:00 at night. I’m like, this is not the life for me. I realized it very quickly at the end of the day they tell you when you’re in a big four like what’s your end goal?

You know, you have to stay here and make it to manager. If you want to be like a CFO of a big company or like what do you want to do? So you have to do a lot of self analyzing at that point where you don’t even know what your career is going to look like and you have to decide where do I see myself 5 years from now 10 years from now and I told myself I see myself doing my own thing or I definitely do not see myself being a CFO of a big company or working for a private company.

Because I won’t have a life then either they still have closing, they still have to work late. There’s a lot of people that don’t see their families. I just decided that’s not for me. So let me quit now. I went to a smaller firm for a couple more years. I still didn’t have the flexibility there.

I finally went to an even smaller firm the smaller you go   in  accounting firm the more flexibility you have 

Eric: you would assume you’d be putting a lot more hours into smaller firms and you kind of coast by in a larger larger firm, but that wasn’t the case at least, you know within your experience.

Yamaris: That was definitely not the case and you talk to anybody that has worked for a big 4 firm, it’s a lot of hours and you learn a lot. I’m very grateful for that time that I had there because I learned a lot and it’s a great firm there and they’re a great company and it’s a great way to start your career. For sure. 

Eric: Yeah, I… 

Yamaris: Really a big time commitment.

Eric: Yeah. I have a lot of friends that went to the big four after college and then I pretty sure all of them have left.

I can’t think of anyone who’s stuck with it right now and they’ve but they’ve all have gone to great corporate companies stuff and a few of them are also, doing side hustles and basically advising for  a few small startups and in terms of the finance realm,

yeah, it is a good experience.  I wish I worked for one of the big four hours or at least in the Consulting role at one point in time too and I have some family who still does that as their full-time job. it’s very interesting because you know my background it’s very weird because I think half of my family is entrepreneurial and the other half is not.

A lot of people have gone through very strict corporate route and they loved it. And that’s like that’s the idea like that’s the dream and they’re so happy doing it and this is coming from my family or my parents. They immigrated over from Asia and they all started a restaurant here in the Bay Area, right and so to me. It’s like oh that’s kind of entrepreneurial but then all of their kids like no no go to corporate go get a job go get a degree right engineering or become a doctor and then no one’s ever really encouraged any of their kids is become an entrepreneur, right? 

They eventually sold the restaurant and all the aunts and uncles they either they retired or they do. I don’t even know what they do, but to me, I’ve always had this entrepreneurial Spirit, but then it’s like it wasn’t from my surroundings, right and you talked about like your parents, your family, and your friends that you’ve put yourself with like they were the ones who show you this is a different opportunity, right? would you say this is like something that you should do if people are interested in entrepreneurship that they have to put themselves with other like-minded individuals or for them to be exposed to that versus like if you stay in corporate, you’re only going to know corporate right? 

Yamaris: I mean, I think a hundred percent and I think that there are some people that are in corporate and like you said, that’s what they love like I have people in my life like that and they’re perfectly happy doing that even though they’re surrounded with people that are entrepreneurs and you know living their dream that way but I’ve been blessed that I’ve been surrounded by people and that has actually affected me and influenced me and it made me realize that that’s the life that I want.

I want to be able to control my hours in my day. I want to be able to just have control over my life. When you work for somebody else and when you work for a bigger company, you don’t have a lot of control. You don’t have control over your ˜hours. You just don’t  I want to live my life. I don’t want to live to work.

you should definitely surround yourself with other people. I have friends that are entrepreneurs that that have influenced me, my family and it’s been a big driver for me and if you don’t have that in your life and you don’t have family members or friends that are entrepreneurs go online.

I mean that there are so many communities online like Facebook groups for entrepreneurs it’s very motivating, podcasts like this one. I listen to a lot of podcasts. Now since I was introduced to the world of podcasts it completely changed my mindset too because I would listen to stories from people that I could relate to.

I was like oh look she’s a mom, oh look she did it. It’s not that hard she can grow a business online and still be at home with her kids. It’s so possible like in 2019 to grow an online business and be successful and just have it all like it really is. It’s just how much drive you put into it.

Eric: Yeah, no that is very motivating. I mean I hundred percent relate to that and it’s just the amount of drive that you have going into it. And how much you you really want it and I think for you. I mean, just correct me if I’m wrong like at the point of you going from corporate right like you wanted  your own Financial Freedom, you wanted that more than getting a steady paycheck that’s just going to get you by from you know, a corporate or working for someone else. 

So I definitely relate. Yeah, definitely definitely relate because…

Yamaris: You mentioned Shark Tank and there’s a quote that Mark Cuban once said on the show that has always stuck with me that it was I rather work 80 hours on my own thing that work 40 hours for somebody else.

Or it’s something like I rather work 80 hours and make zero money that work 40 hours and make a hundred thousand dollars. I think that was more in line with the quote. That stuck with me I was like, you know what, that is so true. That is so true. 

Eric: Yeah. Well, I mean every smart business owner will at least be making some some Revenue not just zero for on 80 hours.

Both: talking

Yamaris: You know Mark Cuban, he was exaggerating but it’s because he has that mindset.

He has that mindset that he will not work for anybody else. 

Eric: Yeah, ever since I took the leap, I don’t even really keep track of the hours that I dedicate to my business because it’s just, I enjoy what I do, right and even for me, it’s like I don’t go out to party or go out to clubs anymore and it’s just like I would rather be in the office because I thoroughly enjoy it right now and building it out and if I am out with friends forgive me friends for those who are listening like half the time if I’m spacing out is because I’m thinking about working on the business or what’s what’s there to do next and then pretty much try to limit my alcohol consumption and then not be hungover the next day in order to you know, work on what I was thinking of but you know, it’s super awesome to hear your story and understand what took you to get there and be able to have an infrastructure right? 

I think a lot of people they get motivated a lot by you know, all of these influencers on social media say like take the leap or like, you know buy my course or like quit your job and you can do it all but you took a step into doing it right from smartly transitioning from the part-time role and then having your first two clients and then getting you in transition as you brought on more people, I mean I kind of took the leap, but I knew I had enough savings for me to be able to do it instead of needing to just have a job and been able to invest my money smartly in terms of sustaining myself too as I built up the business, but everyone has to figure out their own, financial situation and whether they can take the leap or what sacrifices they have to make in order to continue chasing their dream and I think you’re an inspiration to do so one, knowing what your priorities are and then knowing how bad you’re going to work towards it and basically dedicate the time to do so and I think  as you mentioned you have like such a great support, you know with your family, your friends your husband, as well as entrepreneurs, so it’s such a such a great journey so far. 

Yamaris: Yeah, I would add to that, that it definitely is the risk that you’re willing to take. Definitely do it in a Smart Way definitely have something so we’ll help you at least chug along with a few first few couple months depending on the type of business that you’re trying to grow.

What I would say is the most important thing is to not let fear stop you and as cliche as it sounds and people say fear is fear itself and that’s what was stopping me for a few years just fear of not having that study that steady paycheck.

So I would just say don’t let fear stop you. It was such a huge and scary decision for me. I even cried the day that I quit, I cried to my husband I was like I can’t believe I just quit my job. But you know what? Just let the fear fuel you. 

Eric:  this is this is a question that you and I can relate to and this is the conversations I have or mentioned to a lot of people is that, would you say your car accident you really propelled you to to chase this or do you think it’s just like timing because for me the way I looked at it is my accident wasn’t a huge catalyst to start this. It ended up being a huge series of events that led me to finally quit, so after I got into my car accident I actually I went back to work because I was bedridden for a while. 

It’s like I just want to go back to a normal life. Go work in my normal job go hang out with my friends and stuff. But then, it took me about six months for me to really think, really assess my surroundings.

What was happening with like my work my career, what my future is going to look like. So it wasn’t immediate for me to be like, oh I got into a life, altering, like accident, I’m gonna quit my job the next day and just go for it. It took me a long time to get there. would you say like the accident was that Catalyst for you or that that was like a huge driver to make that leap that essentially the fear that you have  knowing one day that you are gonna die and you didn’t live the life that you want or you didn’t get to provide your kids the life that you wanted for them

what what does that look like? 

Yamaris: Yeah, I think I think it was a big a big driver for sure after you have a life-threatening accident or you just go through any life-threatening experience. You do have those moments where you think like, what’s the purpose of my life? What am I leaving behind?  Am I ready to go now if I leave now, what’s going to be my legacy?

Are my kids going to be taken care of uh? So all questions do come to mind and it’s so funny that you mentioned six months because it’s been six months since my accident pretty much and now that I’m starting my business and I think it was a big driver. I think it makes you question a lot of things and think about the future and yeah.

Eric: Would you say would you say people have to get into a life-changing event in order to have that Catalyst or do you think they can get themselves motivated  enough to take the leap?

Yamaris: I hope not everybody has to get into our car accident to to get moving first.

I think that there’s other ways to get motivated. You have to think about how do you envision your life Five Years down the line 10 years down the line. What do you see for yourself? And where you are right now is your current path going to take you there? If your current path is not going to take you there, then you have to decide what you’re going to do to change it. 

Eric: Yeah 

Yamaris: It’s up to you to change it. 

Eric: that is a good point and I’m mentoring someone who just graduated from college last year and they haven’t really been taught to look that far ahead or really paint that future given that they still figure out like, you know, what is corporate look like what is their career trajectory?

But just being able to plan ahead, I think a lot of people nowadays only, you know, they look to the day-to-day and they just don’t really look that far and even see where they’re going.  So that’s a really good point that you brought up is you really have to take a look and really be serious about looking five years from now.

I mean that whole cliché interview questions, like where do you see yourself in five years? I think that is a great question that shouldn’t be asked by the interviewer, but that’s the question that you should be asking yourself and really take that seriously. 

Yamaris: And look at the people around you in your life and see who you want to emulate.

Eric: Mhm, yeah, well  is there anything else you would like to finish off with with the the audience here? 

Yamaris:  Back to my point about not letting fear stop you from going after you want, and I also was reading a book recently.

I don’t remember the name right now, but one of the biggest takeaways was how the author measures wealth and wealth is not measured by money for him. It’s measured by the time that you have the time that you can spend with your family health, your time and just how happy you are. I think those were the three drivers of how he measures wealth. Wealth is not money. So it’s about how to achieve that wealth in your life? Yeah, you know what, I’m going to give it a try ha-ha.

Eric: If you remember the name of the book. I can put it up on the website for the listeners out there to check out as well

Yamaris: Yeah, I will.

Eric:  Thank you so much Yamaris for taking the time to speak with me on this podcast.

And for those of you that are online sellers that are on Amazon doing e-commerce definitely check out her business. Over at e-comm al.com and she can help provide you a free consultation to assess your business and see how she can help out, with a business and the great thing is that she is remote to as she’s able to help out, people all over the country as well, so definitely check her out, but thank you so much Yamaris for coming on to the show. 

Yamaris: Thank you so much. It was really fun. Thank you. 

Eric: Awesome. Alright you take care, and we’ll talk to you soon. 

Yamaris: You too. Bye. Bye. 

Eric: All right. Bye.