Meet Alex Hernandez

We were lucky to catch up with Alex Hernandez recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alex, sincerely appreciate your selflessness in agreeing to discuss your mental health journey and how you overcame and persisted despite the challenges. Please share with our readers how you overcame. For readers, please note this is not medical advice, we are not doctors, you should always consult professionals for advice and that this is merely one person sharing their story and experience.

I come from a long line of generational trauma. Trauma that I have let define me throughout life. So much so that there are mental health issues that I work through, daily. The things that I saw, heard or experienced as a child lead me to have self doubts, believe that I’m not enough or important. Ive adapted these self limiting beliefs that have kept me stuck in some aspects of my life. But I have not let any of that define me. I’ve done ton of healing through relatable podcasts. It’s crazy how much of a wonderful tool podcasts have been in my life. Listening to other empowered women tell their story, listening to how they think and feel, really allowed me to open my heart and mind to a newer and freeing perspective. It has taught me grace for myself and others, its given me belief in myself because , ‘if they can or did then so can I”, listening to podcasts has helped me reflect and heal all the parts that I didn’t realize I needed healing. So when I start to feel like I am failing, I go out into nature and spend time with myself with a good podcast or self help book to remind me to give myself some grace, but to keep going.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I am a mom to three girls and I was very fortunate enough to be able to stay home with them and watch them closely, grow in their younger years. While I was a stay at home mom, I dabbled in multilevel marketing which is where I first learned about personal development and women empowerment. I was surrounded by women who were on fire and just crushing goals left in right. This lit something up in me. I began to want more for myself professionally and I honestly wanted to show my girls that they can do anything they put their mind to. So I went to esthetician school and opened my own salon suite as soon as I graduated. I took some marketing classes, honed in on specific products that I wanted to utilize in my treatment room and kept on with my education over the years. I am a founder in a networking group, Together She Rises. I am a huge believer in genuine connections and making new long time friendship or collaborations through networking. Together She Rises is all about powerful connections and collaborations, giving back to the community and empowering each other. We host quarterly events where we bring together other women owned businesses, where these women get to share their testimonies, highlight their business and raise funds together for our local charities. More recently, I have had another vision come to mind that I am extremely passionate about. so passionate that the vision is clear as day. This new venture is going to take most of the year 2025 to work on, while I endure new connections, raise the funding and start spreading the word of opening a cafe where entrepreneurs and creatives will be able to come together to learn, connect, express and be their one stop shop to fueling their mind and body! I hope to announce a grand opening in early 2026!

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

One quality that comes to mind immediately is learning yourself fully and honing in on that. This will allow you to trust what your gut is saying to you. If a place, person or experience doesn’t feel aligned to you, listen to that because it will save you a lot of time, it will allow you to be more confident in yourself and the decisions that you make along the way. This was very impactful for myself because confidence is something that you create, its not something that you are born with. Being open minded is another quality that I believe is important in our personal and professional journey in life. Being able to be open to others perspective will give you endless possibilities, it will give you room to make errors and correct them, it will allow you to embrace failure and use it as a lesson rather than just a failure. Lastly, connecting with others. Connection is a vital part of being a person and an entrepreneur. It fuels us as beings and your business. Without being able to connect with others in my field, im not sure how far I would have gotten. Being able to express myself and ask the questions I needed to , allowed me to realize I am not alone and my thoughts or feelings were not for no reason. When you’re genuine and not in it for something, and you allow the connections to just flow. People will see that and they’ll embrace that and they’ll think of you when someone is looking for your services.

Any advice for folks feeling overwhelmed?

When I am feeling overwhelmed, which as a mom, wife, founder in a networking group, ceo in two busy businesses, plus a house and animals to tend, being overwhelmed is inevitable. I take a few hours, 1 to 2 hours a week, and do what I want to do. Whether thats sitting at the beach to watch the sunset, watch an episode of a show im watching, sitting in my children’s tree house and just listening to music. I do the simplest of things that make me happy and that allow me to take a minute to just pause and be! I also workout daily and eat healthy. Those two things allow me to feel good about myself, have a clearer mind and energy, plus it makes me feel accomplished. My advice would be, to take some time out for yourself to fill your cup up.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @ajh_misscruz
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alex.cruz.10/
• Other: This is my family company AJH Grading

  https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100070830354957

  Together She Rises Networking group

  https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1BJgqboDBo/

Image Credits

Robyn Barkley took the photo in the chair