From Pre-Med to Corporate Strategist to Entrepreneur with Andrea Sotomayor

Hi, this is Dr. Ossesla, I'll leave it with another episode of The Way to College podcast. And again, when I set out to create the podcast, I wanted to share stories, I wanted to share stories, particularly for my students who were lost and trying to find their way. But more importantly, I think felt like they had to have life figured out. And it always conflicted with my own ideas and what I knew about life. And of course, I have some perspective, but that very few of us have a straight line. And so I've loved to hear and collect all of these stories. And based on what I've collected and based on the stories I've heard, that's been true to form. Very few of us have a straight line. Today, I have a guest who has a very interesting story. I'm here to get into it. We've had one other conversation before this, but is doing phenomenal work, has a new venture, I'll say. And she'll talk about that with us and how that came to be. But again, a fascinating story that I'm eager to share with everyone. But as always, I always give my guests the honor of introducing themselves. So Andrea, would you mind introducing yourself to our listeners out there? Yes, thank you so much, Jose. And such an honor to be on your podcast. I really appreciate this. So my name is Andrea Sotomayor. And I reside in Southern California. And as Jose mentioned, we had a previous conversation where I basically shared a very high-level story of mine and how I ended up in college and on the current career path that I'm on. Definitely not a straight line at all. Great, Andrea, thank you so much for joining me. And with all of my guests, I always ask if you had to identify starting point or your own educational journey, what would that starting point be? Oh my gosh, middle school. And this is why. Middle school, like most people, I believe, was just such an odd, weird time where I was trying to fit in with the popular kids, but was really quirky and odd myself. But most importantly, I struggled in school and I did not get very good grades. So I grew up, I was born and raised in Northern California in Pleasanton. So both of my parents actually worked excruciatingly long hours. They were part of the dot-com bubble in Silicon Valley. So my mother was actually a VP of a computer hardware company. And my father worked in IT. So I barely saw them. And as a result, my father brought his incredible mother from Chile to come live with us. And she practically raised me. So in middle school, she and I became really close because I would come home, she was there. She gave me all this independence. And she didn't really know that I was struggling in school because she only spoke Spanish. At the time, I only spoke English. So I had to learn Spanish to communicate with her. And I was terrified of telling anyone what I was going through. And so, nonetheless, around eighth grade, my parents, after 20 years of working 18-hour days, they decided to move to Florida. And I was terrified of moving to Florida just because I knew, well, if I'm struggling here in the California public school system, how is it going to be in Florida? And I don't know anyone there and making friends. And I didn't look at it in a positive way. I was, what, 12 years old, 13 years old. I didn't want to leave California. So when we got to eighth grade, my first day, I remember the first week, actually, the teachers were, they were so impressive. Like, how do you know algebra already? How are you so far ahead in history? How do you, your essays, you write like you're in high school. And so I went from being a C.D. student in the California public school system to being an A student in the Florida public school system. Wow. So I can see how that would be such a critical point for you. You know, one thing that was really interesting, you mentioned, you said your grandmother comes up to be with you when you develop this strong relationship with your grandmother. But you also said, and I don't know why this stuck out, but you said you were terrified of telling anyone that you were struggling. Yeah. Why do you think that was, André? I think because I felt like there was no way out, meaning my parents, you know, they're amazing parents. My mom is my best friend, father is incredible. And they just were so consumed with work and busy that I just felt, I didn't want to burden them with a problem. And I just thought I could get through it on my own, like, oh, maybe this was, you know, a bad semester, or if I just try harder, or if I pay more attention in class, or if I just do something on my own, I've always been very independent. And almost like, I have to figure this out. And if I ask for help, if I don't get the right help, then I've wasted time, it just, that's how my brain was operating, I guess. Are you still fiercely independent? And do you have trouble asking for help? No, actually, now I've learned that that is not a great way to live life. The more I ask for help at any chance I can, just because I genuinely believe that when you open yourself up to the possibilities of, number one, your support system around you, your friends, your family, but also strangers, you'd be so surprised at how much people want to help. I think a lot of times we're afraid of asking for it because of rejection, that this is a natural human tendency to be scared of someone saying, no, no, no, no, I can't help you, or I don't have time. But it's actually been a very positive response later in life. It took many years to learn, for sure. Your parents, you said, as you describe, were both in tech, correct? Technology in the sense of, so back in the 90s, you know, I don't know if you remember all the floppy disks and the hard drives. I do, yeah. Yeah, so my mother was the VP of Operations for a company that manufactured those things and also locks, I guess, back then in companies, in order to ensure that the computers wouldn't get stolen, they would lock them physically to the desks. So they were part of manufacturing. It's just so crazy how far we've come from a tech standpoint, but those things insist, just like the VHS system. So Andrea, eight-year-old Andrea, what are you thinking about in terms of, you know, every week we always get asked, what do you want to be when you grow up? What did you want to be when you were in eighth grade, now you're in Florida, now you're having some academic success? What do you see for yourself on the horizon? So I actually found a yearbook from, I think it was like third grade or no, no, no, it was probably like fourth or fifth because I had written what I wanted to be when I grew up and I wanted to be an actress. That was what I guess back then I was really, really interested in being an actress. But as I got older and realized moving to Florida that academically, hey, I could be something. I could be something that's not saying actresses are, you know, not academic or anything. You cut that part out. But I really thought, I was like, hey, I'm really interested in the human body and I'm very much interested in the brain and how we as humans perform and what distinguishes our behavior from one another. And so I very much wanted to be a doctor and that was kind of the segue into everything that I started doing in high school to prepare myself for college. You, so college is definitely part of the future. Sure. You, where did you decide to go to college and what informed that decision? Do you think? So when I got to high school, I started really focusing on keeping, you know, straight A's. I joined, you know, the National Honor Society. I joined sports. I knew that I had to start working on my high school resume, if you will, pretty early on. I mean, nowadays, I feel like kids are having a work their resume in eighth grade. But back in, you know, the early 2000s, it wasn't as competitive. So I was very much interested in science and math. I excelled in both of those areas. And so that really wanted me to go pre-med. And I had decided that pre-med was, you know, kind of in a cliche way. It made my parents proud. It looked good on my college resume. It made me feel good. It just the excitement of knowing that I could become a doctor, you know, it was more about the accomplishment itself rather than really what lit me up deep down. And I learned that in a very difficult way in my freshman year of college. Tell me what, tell me what happened. So I got a, I received a academic scholarship to Florida State University. And I remember choosing my courses. I had, I was pre-med with a minor in biology. And all of the biology courses I loved. And organic chemistry was a class that I had to take. Yeah, I think it was my spring semester because my fall semester went pretty well. I was getting into the groove, you know, I'm here in college and it was very exciting, independent, all that good stuff. And then my spring semester, I had to take organic chemistry. And I remember sitting in that class, there was 300 kids. It was one of those, you know, stadium style classes. And the professor was literally, he opened the book and he was reading just out of the textbook. And he had a whiteboard. And he was moving so fast with these formulas and talking about just, I don't even remember, it literally sounded like Mandarin to me. I could not understand what he was saying. And I'm looking around just worried. And I'm seeing all these kids taking notes and they seem like they're understanding what he's talking about. And I remember a sinking feeling. It was that moment that I said to myself, if I can't even understand the first 20 minutes of organic chemistry in my freshman year of pre-med, there's no way I won't be able to do this. It's like, I knew it wasn't about giving up. It was about, I just didn't, it did not feel like it was the right path for me anymore. And I remember leaving the class in tears and back to that whole fear of having to tell my parents. And it was like, you know, middle school all over again. And I remember calling my parents and I said, I'm really sorry, you're probably going to be extremely disappointed. I sat in an organic chemistry class and I don't think I can do this. It's not something that lights me up. And to my surprise, my mom was like, what does light you up? And I said to her, I just really love the human mind. I love learning about why we do what we do. I love learning about human behavior, performance. How do we become the best version of ourselves? That's what really draws me in. And she said, okay, so do that. I was like, well, what is that? And I went to my advisor and they said, well, why don't you major in psychology? You can keep your biology as a minor. And you know, that's all the human behaviors of psychology. So I said, yeah, but I don't want to be a therapist or a clinician. And they said, oh, there's plenty of things that you could do with it. So I decided that I wanted to take psychology and just learn how to apply it in business. And that's where my straight path that I thought I was going to be on for the rest of my life started keeping and all these different ways. Andrea, thank you for that. And thank you for navigating us and taking us through that. One question that immediately jumps out. And this is more of giving advice. And because I see this all the time. So I still teach, I still work with a lot of first year students. And in fact, today, I had students were presenting about their paths and how they want to move forward. And one young man talked about how I think he was having this moment and he was having it like up in front of the class about this, what lights him up. And so a lot of students I see struggle with the fear of telling mom or dad and letting them down and disappointing them. You were a parent now, correct? It sounds like mom that your conversation with mom, that that was the best outcome that you could have hoped for, right? What do you tell? What advice do you want to give our listeners, our college students or any student out there who might find themselves in that position where whatever they're studying, it just doesn't feel right. It doesn't necessarily light them up. But they know maybe they should be doing something else, but are having a hard time telling their parents or telling anybody about it. I think the biggest thing we can all do is learn self-awareness. And I actually tell this to my son all the time is the more you understand about yourself and the more you really dig deep. I mean, because sometimes there's so many things that influence our behavior, our personalities, childhood dramas, experiences, lack of experiences, and those things drive us in certain directions. So as a first year college student, you know, high school is still, you're kind of like learning what you want to do. You have some direction, but it's still very childlike in my opinion. College is really the most formidable time, I believe, in anyone's life. And not for the sense of like academic speaking in any way. It's college is an experience. It's a right of passage into adulthood. And I truly believe that everyone should go to college not just for the education aspect, but for the experience of figuring out who you are and what you want to do. And the sooner I think you learn that and the sooner you accept that, the easier it'll be for you to kind of tune out the noise, even if that noise comes from people you love and people that care about you, and really follow what it is that wakes you up in the morning. Like, what is it that you want to accomplish in this world? And that could be anything. It could be art. It could be music. It could be wanting to be a neurologist. It could be anything, an actress. But my grandmother always used to say, if you're going to do anything in life, do it 100%. If you're going to clean the floors, do it 100%. You know, because it's figure out what is it that really truly brings you joy or what is it that you're always curious about? Curiosity is such a great thing to have and to grow and to strengthen because if you lose curiosity and if you lose your sense of self, oh man, I feel like it's a lot harder to get back than it is to find. So first year college students, definitely be very curious. Say yes to everything. Try to dig deep into who are you? What do you want? And when you figure it out, it's probably one of the best feelings in the world because everybody needs a purpose. That's what we're here for. We all have an intrinsic calling to find out why are we here? Why is Jose here? Why is Andrietta here? What is the one thing that we are supposed to accomplish, not for ourselves but for humanity? And that's what I think every college, first year college student should be asking themselves. I love that. Thank you. You said, so you find, you follow what lights you up, you decide you're going to follow this new path. Where does this path lead you? Post college. So what's the first step, I think, on your professional journey now? Oh man, that is when I would say, I feel like I've lived so many lifetimes, to be honest. You know, when you're a child and then high school and then college and then after college, my god. It was, talk about like winding road, climbing Mount Everest, going back down. Oh my gosh. Okay, so college, this is what ended up happening. So after college, I was pretty set on a path. I wanted to go into pharmaceutical sales and follow that, you know, whatever it is. I still wanted to be in the medical field, but on the business side of it, doing pharmaceutical sales. So I decided I had met my now husband, my senior year of college, and he was the complete opposite of me. So here I am, this, you know, studious, I have my plan, I have my path, I'm moving down to Miami, as soon as I graduate, I'm going to go work in pharmaceutical sales. I have it all just planned out, everything's good. And he is this free spirit, doesn't like to follow the rules, entrepreneurial. I think he started his first business at the age of 15, doing some kind of something with cars. And he opened up this whole world of entrepreneurship to me. And I liked that because, you know, I was on this trajectory of just, okay, I figured something out, I'm going to follow the steps. And then I'm going to do that. And then now what is the next road? You know, what are those steps? And then it was always just this very logical linear path for me, even though it, I pivoted. But I pivoted in ways where it was still structured. I didn't really go outside of my my norm too much. Yeah. Meeting Ryan, he said, well, my family is from Miami, I'm moving back to Miami also after college, and I'm going to start a medical practice. I said, why two, you're 21 years old, what are you talking about? And he said, yeah, just you'll see. So we, we moved back home. I moved in with my parents, he moves in with his. And lo and behold, he decides he wants to start a medical practice with his pediatrician. I guess he was very good friends with his pediatrician for many years. The doctor was a family friend. And the pediatrician is like, yeah, I'll be the medical director. And you run the business side. And so Ryan's like, you have to be my, my right hand person. You I can't do this alone. So I said, okay, sure. So I was basically his partner slash operating officer. And we had Dr. Becker as our medical director. And then Ryan was the CEO, you know, visionary marketing, all that. And we opened a medical practice in Miami, and had it for about three years. And lived the Miami lifestyle at 21. And we did really, really well. But as fast as it came, as fast as we kind of imploded, we grew too fast and scaled a little too quickly. And that was our first failure in business. And I wouldn't change anything about it. Because we learned so much. But my god, at 21 years old, opening up a practice in the most regulated industry, you know, that just goes to show you how when you're young, and you just feel like you can do anything. That was our, hey, let's do something crazy and see what happens. The that's fascinating, because I mean, on a number of levels, but what immediately jumps out to me is the number of students that I get every year that say they want to be their own boss, they want to start a business. None of them know what business they're going to start. But they know they want to be their own boss. They know that they want to they want to start their own business or stone own company. Of course, you know, one question that I always ask is, hey, what, are you working or do you have work experience? Have you ever been managed by somebody? Right? Have you ever had to take direction from somebody? And then I also remind them that be careful what you wish for. There's a lot of responsibility. So even though you said, you know, you wouldn't change anything because it was a terrific learning experience. What advice would you give that student, that young person who that that's what they want to do. I want to start a business. I want to be my own boss and have all the energy of the 21, 22 year old. What advice would you give them now? Well, it's actually interesting you mentioned that the whole thing about have you had a job? Have you been managed all of that? So when the business failed and we had to shut everything down and liquidate and, you know, that was a very painful process, mostly because it was one of the biggest failures that I had ever experienced. And my husband, Ryan, God, he's so resilient. For him, it was just, oh, let's, you know, we'll just move on to something else. It's all good. And here I am devastated. You know, oh, my gosh, this is horrible. What are we going to do? We've lost all this money. It's just it was very, it was traumatic for me. Yeah. And I quickly decided that I knew. So here's the first thing. I think people glamorize business ownership a little too much, especially, you know, becoming an entrepreneur and all that. Yes, we see it all over the media. We see it in social media. There's everyone starting businesses these days. They're creating their influencers. They're creating small websites on TikTok and selling things. Those are very different, you know, solopreneurs and having just a product or a service and you're not necessarily building a company. I think they're very different. So for those that actually want to set out and build an enterprise with hundreds or thousands of employees, my biggest advice is 100% figure out what it is that what industry at least narrow it down to the industry that you want to be offered in and go get a damn job in that industry and get a job at a company that's either doing it really, really, really well so that you can figure out what it is that you want to do differently or as a startup. Find another company that's just starting out because what you're going to learn is all the mistakes to avoid. And that's the biggest thing in business. In my opinion, Warren Buffett, he's one of my heroes, Warren Buffett, because he's just an incredible mind and everything that he has done has been very humble. He's built obviously one of the biggest financial accomplishments in the world, but he always said it's always best to learn from others' mistakes. And when you're in business, yes, everyone has their own way of doing things, but there is a very foundational, strong blueprint to starting a company. And I think a lot of people forget that. I think they think, oh, I'm just going to go do my own thing, and I'm going to figure it out as I go, and I'm going to do things differently. No, there is an absolute blueprint to building a foundation in business. You need to learn and understand that first because once you have, it's like building a home. Once you know how to put the foundation down and put up the walls and everything, then you can get creative and try to figure out how you're going to differentiate yourself in the market and your competitors and all that good stuff. But please, please go and learn about the business foundation as much as you possibly can. Thank you. I think that's important, and I'm sure my guests will appreciate that. So Adelaide, what came next for you? So I went to corporate America. I got deathly afraid of entrepreneurship, and I said, screw this, this is way too stressful. I clearly don't know what I'm doing yet. So I went to corporate America, and I decided to get a job for an energy company on the East Coast in upstate New York, actually helping small businesses and minority and women-owned businesses do business with the energy company I was working for. So my role was procurement strategy and supplier diversity. So I kind of still stayed in the realm of working with entrepreneurs and small business owners, but helping them learn how to navigate complex procurement systems and cut through the red tape to do business and scale their businesses. So I did that for about four years, and at the time, the company was going through a reorganization, and they were implementing SAP across all of their business units, both in the UK and in the US. So what that entailed is literally we had Ernst & Young, KPMG, Deloitte, WhipPro on the IT side, all working in our offices at the same time, meaning they were all competing against each other for meetings for who was going to figure out this solution, how are we going to solve this strategy, what are we going to do to reorganize this department in the best way possible. So I literally would beg to sit in all these different meetings because I was just soaking it up, and I wanted to learn about agile methodology and how to conduct meetings and how to create structure and how to be more efficient, learning how to synthesize data and create reports and all that. And so I learned from the best consulting companies at the time, how to really just operate and build and grow and scale, and then I translated that into another role where I started working for a nonprofit for the initiative for a competitive inner city, which was founded by Michael Porter, who's the king of strategy. He's a world-renowned Harvard Business School professor, and his ICIC, his foundation is centered around helping disadvantaged businesses in the inner city communities of the US grow and scale and access capital so they can create jobs and therefore uplift their communities and help their communities grow. And that's where I learned from a strategy standpoint and from an academic side how to grow businesses and scale. So it was interesting because graduating from college, going into the first business, completely failing at that, gave me the drive and the self-awareness to realize that I did not know what I was doing. And I knew that I wanted to be in business, but I knew that I had so much more to learn and that there was no way I was going to jump right into another business because I had already seen what I was, I don't want to say capable of, but at the time I knew that I needed more education but more experience. And that's what drove me to the complete opposite of corporate America, very safe, very stable, but very demanding. And then to nonprofit worlds that was more helping and assisting and guiding and educating. And then I went back and started my own business again. So full circle. Yeah. So, you know, and it sounds like what these experiences, what this worked in for you was, it was kind of like on the job training, but also like on the job business school. Yes. So rather than go to business school and go get the MBA, let me get in, let me go be in these rooms, let me take this job and let me be position myself so I have an opportunity to soak up all of this knowledge as you say. And then I'm going to transition into the nonprofit world and I'll see how that works. And so all the while, I imagine you're just like you said, soaking all of this up. And then you're ready to start this other business. And what is this other venture? So we decide to, so I, the whole, at a high level, born and raised in Northern California, parents moved me to Florida, go to Florida State, lived in Miami, go to upstate New York. Then I'm like, I want to go home back to California. So my husband and I decide we're going to move to Los Angeles. This was in 2016. And of course, he's like, yep, we're going to open up to pharmacies and we're going to do this all over again in LA. But here it is, you know, 10 years later, with much more experience, he has built a book of business and, you know, he stayed in the medical fields just doing pharmaceutical businesses and all that. So we come to California and it was literally like graduating college again. He's like, well, I'm opening up these two pharmacies. You have to be very embarrassed. I can't do this alone. And I said, oh my God, okay, fine. But if if it doesn't go well, this is it. We are never working together again. And, you know, this is, we love each other. That's it. And I'm not going to be a right-hand person anymore. So we opened up two pharmacies with some partners and I was the operations person. And it was then that I realized, okay, I am a strategy and operations person. That's what I've found my groove in because that's what I helped him do with the first business. And then when I went to corporate America, I was an analyst in procurement strategy. So that was, you know, I was experiencing or getting experience there in strategy. And then when I moved over to the nonprofit, same thing, it was all about strategy, growing, scaling. So all of those things that I had learned in those 10 years or so, I decided to apply it with the two pharmacies. And it was incredible. And we grew very quickly, but this time in a very controlled environment, very structured environment. And we did pretty well for about, I don't know, a year or two. And then we both decided it was just constant. It was like, pharmacy was number one, I'm not a pharmacist. So neither is my husband. And we had, we hired, you know, the people that were pharmacists and all that. But it was the same mundane stuff every day, which we both learned that we get bored very easily. Yeah. We have to be stimulated. And it has to be, there was no real purpose behind it, if that makes sense. There was a mission. You know, yes, we were helping the community get their medications, but we weren't changing anything. And there was no changing the system or, I don't know, it just, it didn't light us up back to the whole theme. There was no light of anything. So we decided that we don't want to do this anymore. And so we walked away from that business. The other partners took it on. And he decided he wanted to go into tech. And he decided he wanted to do a health care attack. And he decided he started building software platforms in health care. And I had told him the pharmacies was the last thing that I was going to help you with. So this is it. I am going to now move on. And at the time, this just kind of fell in our lap. There was a friend of ours who told us about a coffee brand that was at the time, I wouldn't say suffering, but they had, they had signed a lease on a third location in Newport Beach. And they, it was sitting there for about a year and a half, because the company had run out of money and they couldn't find new investors to come in and put the whatever couple hundred thousand it was to construct the coffee shop, get it up and running and all that. So I said, oh my God, a coffee shop that I've always, who doesn't want to own a coffee shop? It's like, who doesn't want to be a DJ in their life? It's good. Everyone has a deep rooted desire to be a DJ or own a coffee shop. I've learned that. So, so I said, well, let's do this and I'll take it over. And so Ryan's like, all right, cool. So we took everything over and I constructed the coffee shop from the ground up, fully built it out and got it up and running. And this is right before the pandemic. This was in 2019. We opened our doors and I grew the company from zero dollars in revenue to half a million in revenue and just about a year and a half. And it became one of the most successful coffee shops in the Coronado del Mar area. And that was another, I think inflection point for me that I said, wow, I finally, it clicked. I finally understood all these, all this stuff that I've been accumulating over the years from an experience standpoint, the failures, the the trauma, the having to pick myself back up and move forward even when there was no clear roadmap or path ahead. That was my first accomplishment where I felt like I started something from ground up. I got it up and running fully operational. It was the only profitable location that the coffee brand had at the time. And I went ahead and sold it and I flipped it and sold the business and it was my first exit. I know it was just probably one of my proudest moments of my career. Even though you've remained in business, the businesses have, you know, what you've been doing in business. And I think this is a great example of for young people, right, is you get into business and I mean, maybe this is the allure is you go into business and you might find yourself in any one of a number of sectors, right, where you can just build a business, establish yourself. If you want to exit that business, exit it, move into another sector as you've done. So congratulations, congratulations. It sounds like, okay, now you're hitting your stride, you've figured out what to do and or at least how to do this, how to navigate this business world. So what came next? And you're right. Yeah, this sounds like multiple lives. Like, you know, it's, which is why when you ask me what advice I can give to college students who want to start a business. Yeah. I am the perfect example of trying everything because I did not know what industry I wanted to operate in. I knew I was a strategic person. I knew that I loved business. I knew that I had the capability of building systems and and being operational. But I would have learned earlier in life where I wanted to be where where exactly wanted to apply that. So yeah, that I don't want to say it's a regret because it's not because the other I wouldn't have I wouldn't be where I am today with course crack, which is what where I'm currently with this new venture. I would not be where I am had I not gone through all of that. And you know, hindsight's 2020. It's we don't know where life brings us where it's going. You can only connect the dots looking backwards like Steve Jobs. My favorite quotes from Steve Jobs is you cannot connect the dots looking forward. You can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that somehow in the future, all those dots will connect. And that is it's all connecting for me now. I'm 40 years old. It's taking me, you know, 20 years to really figure out this is it. And this is I finally feel like I'm in the right industry. I'm in the right place. But to call his students out there, if you you may want to do the winding road and you may want to explore all different types of industries, that's perfectly fine. I mean, you're the point is is that you're going to get to your destination one way or another. It's just how do you want to get there? What is what's are you okay with the winding road? Are you okay with the storms? Are you okay with the hail, the snow, the sleep? Or you just want to coast, you know, along the desert and be on a straight path? It all depends on your personality, what your your resiliency, what you want to get out of life. So now, okay, so I left the part out where I went back to school. So here I am with coffee shop midway, the business is going great. It's finally operating without me in a way like I can show up when I want, I don't have to be there every day watching everything. And so I decide, okay, I've had all this experience in business, I have my undergrad degree, but it's in psychology, it's not in business. I need my masters, I will not feel fulfilled in this lifetime, if I don't get my master's degree in business. So I decide to go back to school at the age of 35 to get my master's degree. And my dream was to go to Harvard. That was my grandfather. His dream was to have one of his children go to Harvard. And so that didn't happen with his, he ended up having six kids. But for me, I said, well, maybe, you know, I can, I can do that. Yeah. But the thing is, is here I am living in California, I have a family, my husband, you know, in his businesses and everything. I'm a mom, I can't just go and move to Cambridge, you know, for two years. So I started looking into it. And I saw that Harvard Extension School has a master's program that's hybrid. So you go and spend a couple of weekends on campus, you can take a couple courses also on campus and then do most of the program online. So I said, oh my god, this is perfect. And so I got my master's degree in management, business management, because they can offer an MBA because that would take away obviously from Harvard Business School, which is a completely different degree and path. So I got my liberal arts master's degree in management. And at the, at the same time, if you strategically take certain courses, you can also get a certificate at this in the same way. So a certificate is just a lesser, it's not a full degree, as you know. So I remember saying, oh, well, I'm going to get my certificate in entrepreneurship, because I have the experience I want to learn from an academic side now that I never got. I want to learn about entrepreneurship from an academic standpoint. We'll also have my master's in management. Well, lo and behold, here I am going through all the courses and it's a full 12 course program. It's not, you know, you complete it in a year. It is a full master's degree program. I highly recommend Harvard Extension School to anyone who wants to get their master's degree and wants to do a hybrid. It is a phenomenal program. I am not getting paid to say this. I have Harvard Extension School, but it is just a wonderful experience. And I would do it all over again, a thousand times. I keep in contact with some of my professors who have been incredible. Highly recommend it. But as I was going through the program, I remember my final semester meeting with my advisor, and she's like, okay, so you have a certificate, but you, it looks like you were trying to get an entrepreneurship certificate, but you missed one of the courses. And I said, what? No, there's no way. I strategically planned everything. There's no way that I missed a course in order to satisfy the entrepreneurship certificate. And she goes, well, the good news is that you missed the entrepreneurial one, but you got the strategic management one. And I literally looked, I said, of course, strategy. And without realizing it, I had navigated towards courses that were about strategy. And it just, it was another full circle moment because I laughed at myself, even though I really wanted the entrepreneurial certificate in conjunction with the master's degree in management, I had received the strategy one on accident. So it just solidified that it's just it's innate in me. Strategy is my thing, I guess. And like you said, many lives, different experiences. I love this because this is exactly what I looked for. I, you know, definitely not a straight line. But Andrea, as we transition out, what last piece of advice would you like to leave for our listeners and viewers out there? I would say self-awareness is the key to really understanding and just being the best version of yourself. If, as I mentioned earlier in the podcast, if there's anything that you're feeling lost or it just, there, you just don't quite know the path that you're on. And whether it's the right path or the wrong path, there is no wrong path. There really isn't because you're always going to learn something. And whether it's a failure or a pivot or an accomplishment, they're all, it's all part of life. It's all part of the contrast. Because if you don't experience failure and suffering and loss, unfortunately, we as humans don't necessarily grow. We only grow when something is difficult or when we have to go past our comfort zone or really push ourselves to the edge where we think it's all going to fall apart. That's really, I think, where we find who we are and what we're made of. So focus on yourself, focus on doing the difficult things, figuring out what it is that really, really lights you up. Take away all the noise. Don't listen to it. Listen to your heart, your soul. And focus on that self-hornsness. And I promise you, life will be much easier. I love that. I love that. Andrea, thank you for your time today. Thank you, Jose. I really appreciate this. It's been an honor. This was so much fun. And I'm happy to be a guest at any time in the future. Just let me know. Thank you. This concludes another episode of the Way to College podcast. So to the Way to College podcast, thank you to my guests. Thank you to our listeners and viewers out there. And please remember to subscribe, rate, leave a review of the podcast. If you enjoyed the podcast and particularly this episode, it really hit home for you. Please leave a review. And then do me a favor and share the podcast with one other person. Andrea and I would both appreciate it. So thank you. We'll see you again soon. Bye-bye. Thank you, everyone.