Founder's Story - From Bounced Checks to Private Jets and the Mastery of Miracles | Ep. 19 with Hazel Ortega CEO of Ortega Counseling

Episode Date: May 8, 2020

Hazel says "When you know your value and acknowledge the bounty of miracles in your life, you create a legendary life!"She is living proof of this and knows what it is to settle for nothing less than pure possibility in your life.  Please visit Pix11 or Fox5 San Diego for more details. Our Sponsors:* Check out PrizePicks and use my code FOUNDERS for a great deal: www.prizepicks.com* Check out Rosetta Stone and use my code TODAY for a great deal: www.rosettastone.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Welcome to Inspired by Her, the podcast that will give you the inspiration, motivation and tips for success from some of the top executives, CEOs and influencers from around the globe. With your host, serial entrepreneur and named one of the most influential Filipina in the world, Kate Hancock. And we are live. Hi everyone, this is Kate and today it's Cinco de Mayo and I have here Hazel Ortega. Yes, hi, you're a happy Mexican friend. Happy Cinco de Mayo. Yes, I'm very excited for you to be here Hazel, so thank you. what's your best memory for Cinco de Mayo Hazel? Well you know you really don't remember anything after Cinco de Mayo because it's Cinco de Drinko so you're drinking a lot of tequila so I just know for sure that no matter what where you are in the world you're drinking and

celebrating independence. Yeah. Well, my, you know, my memory for Cinco de Mayo, there's always a big fight for boxing and a big fan of boxing. So I always watched the big fight for Cinco de Mayo. Oh, yes. Yes. Yes. So for anyone, Hazel is the CEO of Ortega Counseling. She's a serial entrepreneur. She's the author of the best-selling book, From Bounce Check to Private Jet. And she owns Savvy Socks as well. Hazel, you're doing so many things.

Please introduce yourself to the audience oh for sure well most importantly I'm a really good friend of yours Kate I'm from La Habra Heights is where I currently live but I was born and raised in downtown LA my parents are Mexican immigrants and I grew up in a big family I have um four sisters and two brothers and I have one daughter who's 22 years old wow now tell me what was the best part of your childhood and what was the worst oh my gosh the best is well I grew up in a 60 unit apartment building so there were a lot of kids in that building and so there are a lot of Latinos in there and we tend to have big families so each apartment had at least five kids that we could play with so I had a really great upbringing in the sense of like you know being

able to go outside and and finding 10-15 friends that I could play with and play we play tag, jump rope, tetherball, freeze, so many fun activities out there and my cousins lived in the building as well and so I would spend a lot of time in the apartments inside their houses and having a different experience uh sad what did you say what was the opposite of that worst the worst worst the worst the worst well uh my mom married and divorced a lot of times while I was young. And so I think the worst was every time that she broke up. So by the time I was born, my parents were already separated.

So my mom married when I was two years old to someone that was like my father until I was nine years old. So when he left, that was really devastating because my dad, my dad left, you know, it wasn't like my stepfather left. It was my dad left, you know, like kids aren't like, I'm going to measure how much I love you because you're not my real dad. I'm only going to love you this much. Kids just love. And so my mom and him were having some personal problems that, you know, we didn't have any knowledge of. And from one day to another, my mom went out to a bar, brought a man home, and he said he was our father now. And then my father came home and put the key into the door and it didn't work because my mom had changed all the locks and so he knocked and when he knocked the new father opened the door and told him you don't live here anymore and this is my family now so that was like something that

really sticks out for me in my memory of something not good from my childhood how did you feel at that time when you see this new man and you obviously develop a new love from I mean I mean that's your father right and then there's new person you know join in how that can you bring take me back that moment yeah I was it was like, what is happening here? Like life was just like upside down. And that man became my stepfather till I was about 15 years old. So the entire time I was an angry, angry child thinking that if he would leave, that my father would come back.

And so I did everything I could to make that guy's life impossible and it was really sad I always you know wanted my dad to come back and so my my mom had two kids with my stepdad that left when I was nine and when he would come around and visit my you know my sisters would get ready to go see him and my mom wouldn't let us go see him. And I couldn't understand, like, why I couldn't do it and why could they do it and I can't go and see my dad. And so it was just like a lot of really, like, I don't understand what's wrong, what's wrong with me. It was a lot of that confusion, like something's wrong with me, that my dad doesn't pick me up. Yeah. Wow. No, Hazel, I know I'm looking at you, you're in red lipsticks and looking pretty and so all together.

I know, I know you so well and your journey. Can you share everyone? What was your journey like to get where you are? All right Kate let me drink some water for you. Well it all started off in downtown LA where I was born and we grew up really poor. We grew up on welfare. And we grew up in a neighborhood that was very dangerous. There were drive-by shootings almost every night. And by the time I was 12 years old, one of my best friends was stabbed and killed by a gang, by gangs. We would take the bus to go to school, to junior high school, and like any other day, we were waiting at the bus stop, and the gangs came, and we all ran away, but the next day, we found out that my friend David had been stabbed with an ice pick, and so that kind of

was like the norm in my neighborhood, but that was one of the memories that sticks out the most because in retrospect, I can remember that nobody asked us how we were doing. There was no therapy for that. You know, it was just like another one's dead. It was just so common. And you just wonder, like, are you next, right? It was that kind of a neighborhood and uh also when I was 19 years old my cousin was killed in the drive-by shooting and then a little short time later my

other cousin was killed by the police in a case of mistaken identity so there was a lot of a lot of death around um you know friends and car accidents being chased by police, you know, crash and die. Those types of things were happening all around me. And then, of course, like I mentioned, my mom moving from place to place. So one of the things that was really that important for me was education. And so I didn't even graduate high school. I used to ditch school a lot. And I got a job right away when I was 18 years old. And I got a job working at a workers' compensation appeals board. I didn't value education. I didn't think it was for me. It was for other people, but not for me.

And my mom didn't ask me to go to college. It wasn't anything that she expected of me. Her highest aspiration for me was for me to get my high school diploma. That's what she really wanted. And I didn't get my high school diploma. And I was the first one in my family not to get my high school diploma but I couldn't focus on school I wanted to escape I wanted to have fun I didn't want to focus on anything at all that was serious and I did escape I would go to the beach I would go to my friends houses ditching parties and if I was at school, I was not in class. I was walking around and hanging out with other friends and being a really bad influence. So I used to hate education. And then I started to get mentors in my life that would guide me to go back to school and tell me that I was intelligent and that, you know, I should put all my enthusiasm and talent and go back to school and tell me that I was intelligent and that, you know, I should put

all my enthusiasm and talent and go back to school and do something. But I really didn't see that for myself. All I wanted to do was make a living. And so that whole entire time until I was 25 years old, I was surviving. I was surviving my neighborhood, surviving all the drama. I had a lot of drama in my life. I didn't know how to solve my problems. And when I was 25, I got married, I had a baby, and then I became an injured worker. And when I became an injured worker, I was working at a very busy law firm. And the doctor and the lawyer that I worked for told me that I couldn't do that job anymore.

And, you know, I had a vision of myself being at that job for the rest of my life. I was getting paid $15 an hour and I thought that that was as good as it gets for me. I remember thinking like this is where I'm going to be for the rest of my life until I retire. I was feeling pretty good about myself. And when the doctors told me I couldn't do my job anymore, I immediately went to, you know, doom and fear. Like, what is going to happen here? I'm going to go back on welfare. I'm going to go back to my old neighborhood.

And it's dangerous. And I have a baby now. And by this time, my mom had gone to prison. She had shot and killed her boyfriend. So she was running as a fugitive with two little kids. They were four and six years old. They were my little brothers. So when she went to prison, they came to live with me. So when I was injured, I had a two-year-old daughter and a four-year-old little boy and a six-year-old little boy. So a two, a four and a six-year-old. And when I couldn't do my, the thought that I couldn't do my job and I was going to lose income, I totally thought that

we were going to lose everything. And I was going to go back, you know, to just the ghetto and the dangerous neighborhood. And I didn't want any of that. So even though I didn't want to go to school, I did it anyway, because I couldn't see any other way to get my family from not going to, you know, to back to the ghetto. Yeah. So bring, take me back. So tell me about the injury. What happened? You hurt your back or why is it they said that you can't work anymore? I have carpal tunnel syndrome, which is a repetitive movement injury. And you injure your nerves. And I was sitting at a desk as a secretary for seven years.

And that desk was set up for somebody shorter than me. We had never had an ergonomic assessment until I reported the injury and having pain. So somebody came and sure enough, they had to lift my desk up and they had to get new equipment for me. But by the time you damage your nerves, it's irreversible. The only thing you can do is have surgery.

And at the same time, you have to stop doing what you were doing. Otherwise, even if you have surgery and it's the same time, you have to stop doing what you were doing. Otherwise, even if you have surgery and it's a successful surgery, you're going to have that injury come back. So I have a wrist and elbow and problems with my neck because of that. And once you're an injured worker, you're always an injured worker. You could re-injure yourself at any moment. Wow. Now, so you're at home, you have your baby, and you have two of your siblings. What was that the day-to-day?

And you lost your job. How did you get by? Luckily, I didn't lose my job. It was something that was in the future. So they accommodated my restrictions, which meant that I couldn't type all day long. So the attorney that I worked for, he was an angel and he learned how to use this dragon system. It's a software that you speak into the computer. So he learned to do that and he started to dictate all his own letters. And that gave me a big break because as a secretary, that's one of the big

things that you do is you write these letters, right? You you know, you type all day long. And so that took a big part of my job away. And he told me, you know, I'll allow you to work with restrictions as long as I can, but it's not going to last forever. You know, we're growing and you know, we need this. And so I was going to school and I knew I had a limited amount of time. So I would work from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. And then I would go to school after work from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. And on the weekends, I would go to school from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays. And on Sundays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. I went to weekend college and then I went during the week to

supplement and get more units so I can get done quicker. Yeah, it was intense time. Tell me what was one of your deepest motivation in life? I think my vision that I create is what motivates me the most. Like you have to have a reason to get up in the morning, right? Like jump out of bed and be like, ah, you know, like I can't wait for the day to get started. And I realized like my vision, even though it was a small vision of being a secretary for the rest of my

life, like that, I really liked that. My job, I really liked what I did, I liked how much I earned, and I was really happy about that, so that vision carried me there, but my vision evolves and grows, and so as soon as I reach where I, where my vision is, then it grows, and it changes into something bigger, and then something bigger, so I think my vision is really what pulls me, right? I was reading the day that Deepak Chopra says that your desires are what pulls you forward. And so it's really important for us to know what our desires are. And so what I do and I have done for years now is I create a vision for my life from the future. So like five years from now, where am I? What am I doing? Who are my friends? Who's around me? Where do I live? Where am I traveling? How much money am I

making? What am I celebrating? And I have a vision like that all the way till I'm 95 years old. And that really motivates me, right? So I already know what I'm going to look like when I'm 95, where I'm going to live, who's going to be around me, what the weather's going to be like, how much money I'm going to have in the bank. And so if I'm going to have that vision of like this really happy, healthy, dancing great grandma and my great granddaughter's wedding, I have to be a certain way today to ensure that I'm going to have that future. So that really motivates me. The vision that I'm gonna have that future so that really motivates me the vision that I create for my life motivates me Wow I love how you have your vision all the way to 95 I think I stick to 50 and 60

now Hazel can you tell me the very first day you opened your company. Oh, wow. I opened my company in 2006, my first one, which is the counseling center. So we are vocational counselors for injured workers. And I helped them by sharing my story. I help them also to dream of something for themselves that's different from what they were, right? So they were injured on the job, and a lot of people work at places for 15, 20, 25 years, and they plan to retire from there, just like myself. And then you have an injury, and then your whole life changes. Something, you know, so critical that you have to reinvent yourself, even kind of like what's

going on right now. Like life is not the same anymore. And it's scary and all of that, right? So I had already became a psychologist. So I remember I went back to school, I kept going, and I didn't stop. And I became an educational psychologist. And I started working with kids on school settings. And I became an expert in finding accommodations for people with disabilities. And then it was really easy for me to start a side hustle. The counseling center was a side hustle while I was working as a psychologist. And I had a business partner and the deal was that she would do all the work. And I knew all the attorneys. So all I had to do was reach out to

my attorneys and do marketing with them and tell them, Hey, send business my way. And then I was going to do my job and that did happen. But what happened was also that we blew up. We had a lot of business and my business partner couldn't handle all the work, but we didn't hire anybody. So I ended up having a leave of absence on my job as a psychologist. And I started working at home from my garage. I converted my garage.

We put drywall up and then we had, I didn't have any money. There was no budget for anything. And so I reached out to people that were in my industry and I said like, can you guys help me out? We need desks. We need computers and printers and we need stationary. We need paperwork like to incorporate. We didn't spend a dime starting our business we got support from all our friends and our community around us if you could imagine that it didn't cost anything right from my house and my kids were around and the dogs were around it was uh it was a really fun time well do you where was that place is that in Whittier or where is that house? It was in Whittier. And then from there, from being in the garage, my business partner told me, I can't handle your dog.

She's barking all the time. And I'm on the phone with clients and the dog barking in the background. So we ended up moving to one of those suites where you rent a room and then somebody answers the phone and greets people at the front, but you only have a little room. It was like 100 square feet. And we were both in there. And then from there, we grew and we went to like a 500 square foot and then 700. And then today, we have 11,000 square feet, our very own building. In the front of the building, it says Center for Injured Workers. It's really truly a dream come true. We're the number one workers' compensation vocational center for injured workers in California. And we started just so small, and it just blew up.

It's been great. I love your story when you asked all your your friends help that I don't have that because I saw you you're so good at doing like manifesting the world hey I knew this and then everyone was just giving you that like I remember when we were in the chat room in Facebook groups and I said hey I have this house I'm getting rid of stuff I have the sauna that I need to get rid of you're just like I'll take it like you're so good at it. Like fast, right? You know, yeah, I'm really good at asking for help. And I'm really good at receiving. And it wasn't always like that, you know, and I see a lot of people around me where you want to be nice to them and give them something and they're like, no no or they get stuck i i've been i've been getting massages from a friend who said who told me all about this this machine that gets rid of um

your um cellulite and that kardashians use it and it all is only 25 000 and if she could get this machine into her office that she could like triple how much money she can charge people and in my mind I was like ask me ask me and she all she needed to do was just like ask and she never asked and I was ready I was like I'll give her that 20 I'll invest and lend her the money that's $25,000 but I'm not going to give my stuff away either you know and so she didn't ask me but people don't ask people want to help don't ask. People want to help. They just don't know how to help you or you don't, you're not asking. Yeah. Yeah. I have a problem with that. I, I'm not really good at asking. I need to learn from you now. Um, Hazel, when,

do you remember that? I know you've reached a point where you guys are number one counseling center in California. When did you realize like, oh my God, you, we really have an amazing business here. Take me back to that moment. Yeah. Well, I, I had a business partner in the beginning and I had a vision, a vision of growing and conquering California like I had so much energy about that and my business partner said no no no I just want to be in Whittier you overwhelmed me and I couldn't believe it it's like you're married you it's like a marriage right and so you have to have a partner that has the same vision and we I, I didn't know this, so I didn't know about working on your vision for your business and then, and then sharing a vision. And if your potential partner matches that vision,

then it's fantastic. And if they don't, you really shouldn't go forward with them. And, um, what I ended up doing was telling her, okay, well, I want to, I already opened, uh, Oxnard location and San Diego, which were two additional locations. And if you want, I could run those by myself and we could just stay together in Whittier. And I promise that I won't, you know, I won't lose the focus and we'll always maintain the same numbers that we have right now. And I'll keep the other two the other two that I opened went off on fire like it's a really amazing how much business and support that I got I think because I'm an injured worker and then the services that we provide I think that's why people keep sending the love to us because

they know what we give these clients and so at that point I started seeing like oh my gosh I could really dominate California and I want to open 26 offices and so at that point, I started seeing, like, oh my gosh, I could really dominate California, and I want to open 26 offices, and so I opened 26 offices throughout California, everywhere where there's a workers' compensation appeals board, but first, I had to see it, and it was scary, and I said, oh no, I don't want to do that, because that costs a lot of money to have 26 offices open, but then I learned how to manifest, and not to worry about how much it costs. Just come up with the vision. And then it turns out one of my closest vendors that I work with has 50 locations in California. And he told me, you can have an office in every which one of our

locations that you want. And I chose 26 offices and it didn't even cost me a dime. That was to me, like it blew my mind that I could say I want 26 offices and then get scared and back off. And then it comes to me for free and easy. Wow. That's everything. Now, with your business partner that doesn't have the same vision as you,

tell me about an incident, of course, it's going to cause friction because you want to scale and he doesn't. Is there some incident where you guys are butting heads? Yes. We're two females and um she my business partner um some some of the checks that I was getting paid for the other location started the vendors the people that were our vendors were making they were sending the checks to my company and she was opening the mail but it wasn't you know checks for our company it was checks for my independent company when she saw that she just you know she started realizing how much money I was making

on the other businesses. And she was really upset. And she said that it was not okay. And then I said, you know, we already talked about this, you agree, you signed off on it. And she was not okay. And she started giving me the silent treatment. And yelling at me whenever I tried to talk to her and, you know, what I wanted, we could have brought it together. I was completely open and ready to share with her. But she told me that she was overwhelmed. But, yeah, she would shout at me in public. And in the end, she just went silent.

She would refuse to talk to me. Wow. So we ended up getting into litigation over it as well okay so when you scale you open these other offices now did you open a different LLC for each location is that what you did because a lot of people make a mistake of scaling and under the same umbrella of what you started and I learned that now that that's terrible thing to do did you create an LLC for each offices so that was the problem no I didn't no I did so she just agreed that the locations under the company name that we had uh that the the additional locations I was

going to run them and I was going to be completely responsible for them and benefit from them she agreed to that and then, and then when, like I said, when she saw the success happening, she was not happy with that. And I, you know, by this time, I had hired a business coach. And so and I was reading a lot. I read Tim Ferriss's book, The 4-Hour Workweek. And I learned so much about how to be efficient at the office that I was working about 20 hours a week, so it was even infuriating to her that I was golfing and traveling, and every, and I was able to manage these other companies and manage our company together, and the numbers I would, you know, whenever she would confront me, I would, you know, she would say, why, why am I working till

two in the morning, and you're golfing, and the, you know, you're golfing all day, and I say, well, I don't know, I told you, you know, let's consult with a business coach, so that you could see what you're doing, look at how you're doing your work, we both had different styles, but she refused, she refused to get coaching, and then to learn how to run your business better, how does, she refused, so she was doing everything the hard way, and she she refused so she was doing everything the hard way and she wouldn't she was not coachable you know the worst kind of person that there is is the people that don't want to be coached that don't want to learn and they're kind of stuck in their old ways of doing things yeah so what what made you change after reading a tempers which by

the way i met him on one of this ski trip in Utah I don't even know who he was we were having lunch and he's sitting next to us with his dog and I don't know who he was and then one of our friends like that's Tim Ferriss so we get a picture of him but I don't really know who oh my god tell me what did you learn what steps I mean what changes did you make well your business part you know business partners still doing the old ways how did you navigate that so you're able to live your life and still run a really healthy company well I got out of the mindset of that I had to do everything and so I knew how to delegate. And so I hired the first person, which she didn't want to hire the first person because

she thought we didn't have enough money to hire somebody. And I said, you know, I promise if we don't have enough money, I'll put it out of my own pocket. You know, I was like, we really need somebody else. And then that freed my time up. And so she would call that person would call the insurance company and, and, you know, get payment and all of that where my business partner, she was the one calling and requesting the payment. She would write reports and, and edit them herself and print them and make copies and put them in an envelope

when that's what this assistant in the office was for and she wouldn't do it she didn't trust that that person would do it right and so those are the types of things but also uh tim ferris in this book uh we waste a lot of time during the day by answering our telephones okay um like our personal telephone save that for like a weekend or another time, right? Before your free time. And then, or answer the phone and tell people like, when they ask you, are you busy? It's like, oh, I have a minute. If you do that, people are, oh, okay, they get to the point.

But if you don't say that, they stay on the phone for a long time. He also says that we waste a lot of time cooler talk, you know, like drinking water, talking to your neighbors, you know, you're in the hallway at the building and you're parking now you run into people so he talks about how to avoid all that time and then check your emails don't check them throughout the day check them in the morning right before lunch and at the end of the day that's it otherwise you're interrupted all day long so a lot of tips like that but one of the things that was a really big impact for me in that book Kate and I swear this is I love him for this he says that we don't make big goals because we think that we can't have them so like at the time I was making maybe $2,500 a month

and I never said to anyone that I wanted to live in a mansion or that I wanted to drive a Porsche or that I wanted to be a, I'm a golfer and I wanted to be a semi-professional golfer. And I wanted to travel first class. I never would say these things because I knew I didn't have the money for that. So those were not my goals or dreams or anything. So what he says in the book is that to write those big goals down and then break it down and find out how much do they cost monthly. And if you look at it monthly, then you could think like, oh my gosh, maybe I could afford it.

And so that's what I did. I said, I wanted to live in a mansion and a mansion, you know, at the low end, a million dollars. I don't have to have a million dollars because I could pay a monthly. And when I saw what the monthly payment was for a million dollar mansion, it started to seem more feasible. Like I could have it. And the Porsche, you know, it costs 60, $70,000. You don't have to have $70,000. You could finance it. And it costs you $700 a month. And say my professional golfer, mean every little thing you break it down

and then you figure out and then you see that oh you could have it that really was a game changer for me wow that's amazing I love all your mindset and the goal setting and you're so good at it and it's inspiring I just got into this master class I think I've discussed it to you his name is Roland Fraser and I'm in an eight week session and basically how you buy a company with zero dollars. And it's amazing how it opened my head. Like, Oh my God, a lot of opportunities that you could do like amazing. So I'm starting to change my mindset into like way bigger goals. So I'm very excited for that one.

You know, I want to shoot for the stars, not like for the middle side. Right. Nice. Now, Hazel, what is your favorite aspect of being an entrepreneur? Freedom and time. That to me, I mean, I've worked until I was uh 36 years old nine to five nine to five and um and having the freedom in your time like where my daughter which is the whole reason I became an entrepreneur I wanted to be there for my daughter I didn't want her to have a nanny I

didn't want her to have a babysitter I didn't I if she was sick I wanted to be daughter. I didn't want her to have a nanny. I didn't want her to have a babysitter. If she was sick, I wanted to be with her. I didn't want to have to pick her up and take her to a babysitter because I had to go to work, which was what was happening. And so when my daughter turned eight years old, from that point forward, I was always with her. None of the three kids had babysitters. I took them to school every day. I picked them up. If something happened at school in the middle of the day, which a lot of things happen, they get sick, they rip their pants, you know, they don't want to be at school. I would, I would be there right away. It gave me the freedom to do whatever I wanted with my time. And of course, now I travel and I, I do anything that I want because I'm the millionaire of time. I love that. And how do

you define success? That's interesting. I just got asked that question. And for me, success is measured by the quality of your relationships. So if I'm successful, but I have a shitty relationship with my sisters, I don't really feel successful. but I have a shitty relationship with my sisters. Uh, I don't really feel successful. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter how much money I have in the bank. If I'm not right with my mother, my father, or my brothers and sisters, or my daughter, those people that are the core, you know, of your, of your life, I'm not all right.

You know, it doesn't matter. Like all these accolades, all my education, the businesses, the house, the cars, nothing. I feel like a piece of shit if I am not having relationships at work. So my focus, my number one focus has been for a long time to work on my relationships, because even though I became a psychologist, you know, I learned, I went to school and I learned how to do a job. I learned how to be a psychologist. That didn't really transform my life. That didn't result in the life that I have right now. What resulted in this life was learning how to manage my relationships. And I'm still working on them. I think it the ticket to success. Because as soon as I started working on each relationship with my sisters and my mom and my dad, I started to have exponential growth and money and success and attracting all the right things to me. Where before, I didn't have that. It was like I was blocked.

And what is your greatest fear and how do you manage fear well well I you'd be surprised to know that people fear not having enough money poor people fear that as much as rich people feel fear that and so I would say that that is a fear of all people of not having money. And so what I do is I always, I'm always creating opportunities. So that does not happen. I'm ensuring that that does not happen. I'm always looking to better myself to secure my future. And, and having a really good business as thriving, that makes me tackle the fear, right? Because I know I'm up to really good things and I know my future looks good. And I know I have a lot of really good friends, especially right now.

I think that's really important. Like in our organization that you and I belong to, EO, Entrepreneur Organization, there's a lot of groups. And I get fed from these groups, right? The women of EO. you and i are in a specific group for your wedding uh there's all this support so whenever there's fear i just tap into these groups if they're negative talk i as soon as i come in i jump out i don't want to be in a negative talk group i want to be in a group of people that are thriving and figuring it out and being a part of the solution, not part of the problem.

That's one of the things I think has also been a really good success tool for me is the people that I surround myself with are really high vibration. stories growing up and you as a person now where do you get where do you get your strength to change your mindset to be this is now and let go of that experiences what helped you well you know my experience of mindset is that it evolves and grows, right? So right now I'm telling you the way I talk and I'm in the master of miracles and I'm the number one bestselling author and people, a lot of opportunities abound. This is the mindset I'm in right now, which is the mastery of miracles. But I didn't start off that way, right? Like you said, I was, I had a survival mindset and everything bad that you could think would happen

is what I expected to happen. And I was always protecting myself and I was always in drama. All of, all of that, um, happened. And so it, it just evolves. It changes, but you know, all of those challenging times, like, you know, having my friends killed, um, my cousins killed people so close to me. My cousin was like a brother to me. He lived right next door to me my entire life until he died. And then my mom killing somebody. Like, all of those things change you. It, like, kills your innocence.

And so what I do with my mindset, it's just evolving forward, just bettering myself, bettering myself. Like every day I want to be better than I was yesterday because I never want to go back to that place of who I was. I mean, Kate, I was fist fighting with my sisters at 36 years old. And if I found a purse at a restaurant or a nightclub or on the street I didn't think to look who did it belong to I thought that I came up that I was lucky and I would look through the purse and take what I could and wanted and then leave whatever else was there I didn't even mail back the ID like those kinds of things my life is completely different it's really remarkable I never want to go back to being that other person and I'll tell you something that you never lose that other person.

They're there. You just have better tools and better ways of living life. I didn't know there was better back then. And now I do know better and I'm doing better. Wow. Now, what have been the biggest challenges you've had to overcome? You went through a lot. What is the biggest challenge so far?

Well, of course, like my mom. That's the person that you make me teary-eyed. Losing my mom. Yeah. Not even that she went to jail or that she was a fugitive when your parent dies like that's the worst thing that could ever happen and she died and so and in the end when she died she was released from prison and she was deported to Mexico and that was a really hard time and I and she didn't know how to be and I didn't know

how to be with her and so we were not getting along and then all of a sudden she died so I always I have promised that anytime that I speak I'm gonna tell people you know let people live their life the way they want it. Because one day they're dying. And it's not gonna matter. You know, we were fighting over like where she was going to live. I didn't want her to live in a certain place. And she wanted to live there. And, you know, who am I to tell her where to live? And I didn't know that insight before. And now it's like, I wish she was here. And I wish she could live wherever the fuck she wants absolutely what do you think your mom feels looking at you now

oh she's she's proud and i feel her she's around i i feel her all the time her and my dad my dad also died my dad died a heroin addict and he died uh two years prior to my mom and so right now they're you know they're both my angels and I really feel like if they add to me kind of like the wind beneath your wings like that it's really remarkable yeah I think I saw one of your is that your parents or I mean their ashes in your house in the corner yes both my parents ashes and I know you have a really good relationship with your daughter your daughter is so beautiful I saw her at the spa at one point and um you know she's tall like you and tell me you know how were you so protected like raising your daughter um I had a lot of support I'm telling you i'm the queen of asking for help so

my mother-in-law was around her dad my sisters um just cousins and family we're really close especially mexican families where we tend to be really close so on weekends i'm with my sister at her house and and we're all raising each other's kids. So I had a lot of love and support. And I didn't – I was very lucky that by the time my daughter was born and raised, I really worked hard to live in a good neighborhood. I was able to leverage my real estate property from buying my first property at $140,000 in Whittier to buying the next property in a Blue Ribbon school district, which is like, you know, presidential

acknowledgement, high scores, right? So I changed the kids to that area. Even though I couldn't afford the house, I still lived in the first house and I bought the second house and I rented that house out and I used the address to send the kids to that other school, to the better neighborhood. That changed everything for me. So if the kids were in a good neighborhood and they had good friends, I never had a reason to protect them. I feel like in a lot of fear, not with my daughter, when the boys started growing, I started to feel like PTSD.

Like every time they left the house, I did feel like maybe they're going to die. Like maybe they're going to be in a car accident. Maybe they're going to get killed. Like it was unreasonable for sure. But I knew that that was my badness. You know, knowing your insanity is your way to sanity. So I wouldn't stop them from their happiness and joy hanging out with their friends. But I would tell myself, quit it. That's some PTSD going on. You know, just stop. Let them have fun.

And they did. And they had a really great childhood. Wow. Now, Hazel, what advice would you give to an aspiring entrepreneur? Get mentors. That makes a huge difference mentors can see something for you that you can't see for yourself get friends that are successful are that are doing the things that you want to do surround yourself with other entrepreneurs I know at EO we have the accelerator and if you're not

at that level there's many many other organizations I you know when I got started I learned as much as I could about running a business I even built my own website I learned how to do that I learned everything how to sell just showing up educating myself going to the small business administration to score those classes and just networking, you know, building your network and then have a vision, create your vision. What's the best case scenario for your business and then draw it out and hang it and look at it. So what are you doing right now with this coronavirus?

Are you pivoting in some of your businesses or tell me? Yes, we are pivoting in some of your businesses or tell me yes uh we are pivoting my counseling center used to be everybody used to work in a brick and mortar building and right now everybody's working from home and we're doing tele-rehab counseling we never have done that before where we're on the phone or we're on zoom like this and we're counseling people that's something completely new I never knew that we could survive something I never wanted my employees to work from home and and it looked like that was going to be the future but I wasn't ready for it but the future doesn't wait for you right the future is now and so they're all working from home we have about 20 people answering phones also from

all over the world I'm I'm hiring people in other countries and I'm hiring right now. We're actually thriving. So for us, this is a really good opportunity to help a lot of people because a lot of people are out of a job and that's exactly what we are focusing on. And in Savvy Socks, while we're pivoting, we're printing images of toilet paper, socks, and any kind of thing that's going on right now with COVID. So we're pivoting all over the place. Wow. Now, what do you see as your place or purpose in life? Oh, my gosh.

Well, my vision that I've created for myself includes making a difference in the world. Like, I want to the world. Like I want to end gender equality. I want to end violence against women, poverty, and empowering women as a way to do that. And so I see myself as being somebody out in the world making that and sharing my story. I think that's one of the ways that I can do that. And that's why I wrote the book. And that's why I keep coming on and putting myself out here and sharing and being vulnerable because I really feel that my story can make a difference in the world. Yeah.

Now, can you tell, can you name a person who has had a tremendous impact on you as a leader? well right now it sounds cliche but i really um lean in to god i lean in specifically to jesus and i ask myself what would jesus do what would be jesus's highest vision of me and that helps me i get stuck a lot and so i pray a lot and I meditate a lot and I get a lot of download. So that's one figure for sure. And then also I'll tell you like Oprah, watching Oprah and what she did and how she's helping the world, that motivates me. Like I want to do that. She could do it.

I could do it. I really feel that I could do so much in the world and help other people. And she's one of the biggest figures that I know that has opened my mind up to making a difference. And Hazel, how do you want to be remembered? I want to be remembered as somebody that made a difference in the world, and a great mom, and a loving partner and a loving sister that's what i would like to be remembered as hazel thank you so much this is the best syncope i have ever attended and so thank you for sharing your story thank you for being open i appreciate you sharing it you know i'm i've heard your story so many times,

but every time I get teared eyes, so I'm still not done. And so Hazel, where can they find you? I do have a website, hazelortega.com. I do also, I'm very active on Instagram. So Hazel Ortega official, and you could please follow me and see some of my videos

and some of my quotes and how I keep myself up. I actually share that with all of you when I come across quotes or aha moments, I share that. And I also want to give you a free download of my visioning process. I have that on my website.

It's the masteryofmiracles.com and you have to scroll down to join the club. And when you join it, you enter your email, you get the link to have yourself also create the vision for your life. That is going to change your life big time and like that. So please do that. Yeah. Well, everyone, thank you so much. If you really like what you're doing please don't forget to download our episode and tomorrow we have cara golden she's the hint ceo run a hundred million dollar business i can't wait to hear her story and i'm so excited to get some tips like hazel and so hazel thank you again and have a wonderful day all right we hope you enjoyed the show don't forget

to rate review and subscribe and visit katehancock.com so you don't miss out on the next episode