Yovana Rosales

I would have to say it's my community, and it's letting them know what my goals are and what my intentions are for our community. They've been very open with connecting me to those stakeholders and shareholders and the folks that make decisions to be able to educate on a wider platform. I live in a very communal world, I think just from my heritage and my culture, and being able to implement that and create a successful business by relying on one another and not knowing that you have to do it alone has been so important. Community is always going to be an important value for me.

The best career advice I've ever received is to be patient with yourself. As business owners, we have so many ideas and are ready to show off our talents and our expertise to the world, and sometimes spaces don't work as fast as our brains do. There's rules, regulations, stipulations, red tape - there's always just red tape. So just being patient, knowing that it'll come, it's just sometimes not on the timeline that you would like. That's been really important for me to remember.

I would say create your support system, as you will need it very frequently. There is a lot of rejection - rejections on your proposals, rejections on your ideas. Having that support system, those key folks that you know are only a phone call away, is crucial. When you start doubting yourself and wondering if you actually belong in those spaces and places, you can give them a call and they will remind you why you are doing what you are doing and why it's so impactful. The short version of it would be: do not take rejection personally. I think it's easy and common to get in that space, but remember that this is nothing personal. Sometimes their vision is not your vision, and that is okay. Acknowledge it and keep moving forward.

For me, the biggest challenge is being Latina and only having less than 2% representation in the AI field itself. AI is known for Silicon Valley and having a lot of tech bros with that type of lingo of 'use AI to create more, produce more, generate more.' In contrast, I come from a wellness space, and so I say use AI to reclaim your time so you can actually have those pockets of joy in your day-to-day life. My approach is different - do not produce more, do not create more. Just have AI be your assistant so you can actually walk your dog, have lunch with that friend that you said you were going to have lunch with, or maybe take that nap. I feel like we're always tired, so why aren't we allowed to take that 20-minute nap? That's the challenge and opportunity I see - bringing a different perspective to the field.

For me, it's always going to be community. I live in a very communal world, I think just from my heritage and my culture, and being able to implement that and create a successful business by relying on one another and not knowing that you have to do it alone is so important. Another key value is compassion. At AI Latina, we lead with care, always. A lot of the folks that I meet and teach still don't even really know how to open up a ChatGPT call or a Google Gemini, and so this is a judgment-free zone. We are learning from the beginning, we are learning lingo together, we are doing real-time examples in real time, and it's just creating that safe space to be able to open up. I think it's very insightful for folks to know that I am self-taught and self-made, and so if I'm self-taught and self-made, that means anyone can be self-taught and self-made.