Latest / Mama Making Podcast / Renata Heringer | Grief, Immigration, and Açaí: The Story of Starting Over and Building Something Beautiful

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Renata Heringer | Grief, Immigration, and Açaí: The Story of Starting Over and Building Something Beautiful · Mama Making Podcast

• 0:10
  SPEAKER_01: Hello and welcome to the Mama Making podcast where we share stories of moms making impact in their own lives and in the world around them.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Jessica, and each week I sit down with women who are building businesses, leading communities, shaping culture, and redefining what success looks like inside of motherhood.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: Because motherhood does not have to stop your ambition.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_01: It can transform it.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_02: Now let's get into it.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_01: Hello everyone, and welcome to the Mama Making podcast.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: I'm your host, Jessica.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: If you're new, welcome.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: If you're not new, then welcome back.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: Today I am so excited to have Renata Heringer on the podcast.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_01: She is a mom of three, a former physician, and the founder of Tupi Asaibles, a business that she built from her home kitchen in Canada and grew into multiple storefronts in Alberta while raising her young children.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_01: After facing profound tragedy in 2021, Renata chose to move forward by building, leading, and creating community for others navigating the same impossible terrain of starting over in a new country.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: She now speaks about rebuilding identity after immigration, grief and resilience, and leading communities.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_01: She mentors and connects Brazilian entrepreneurs in Canada through markets, events, and sharing growth initiatives.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: Her story is rooted in faith, community, and conviction that tragedy does not have to define the ending of your story.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Ren, for being here.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: I'm so excited to chat with you.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, Jessica.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, everyone.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for having me, for having this opportunity of sharing my story, hopefully to inspire some moms, some other immigrants, and help them uh with their identity in this new phase of their lives.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, absolutely.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: I'm so excited to get into it.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: So tell us a little bit more about your story, who you are, where you're from, whatever you're comfortable sharing.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so I'm Renata.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: I am Brazilian, so I was born and raised in Brazil.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: My journey started back home as a daughter of a physician.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: My dad was also a pastor, and uh I grew up in a very uh nice and welcoming family in Brazil, in a city called Vila Velha, so it's a beautiful city by the ocean.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: I grew up surrounded by family, by uh my cousins, a very laid-back lifestyle, which was was amazing.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: It was a gift, and uh grew up, decided uh to follow my dad's steps.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I graduated as a physician when I was almost 23 years old.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: That's how my career started, and uh back in Brazil still.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: After I finished my medical school, I started my training as a family physician, and then I worked for five years.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: And then I had some personal changes in my life, uh, needed to start over, and also had a silent dream of moving abroad and experiencing a culture from different angles than the one that I was brought up with.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I applied for some master's degrees uh around Canada, hoping to have an experience of living abroad and doing something completely different for me.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: So I applied for some master's degrees in Canada, got accepted into schools, and chose to come to Alberta for the University of Alberta to do my master's in public health.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: And then landed in Canada in 2018, completely alone, all by myself, no family members, no friends still in Edmonton.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: I had no idea what Edmonton looked like or anything.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I didn't have more details about the city, but I said, you know what?
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: I I think I can do it.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be challenging, it's gonna be an incredible experience, I'm hoping so.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: So in 2018, I packed my luggage, came to Canada with two 23 kilos each piece of luggage, and landed here and started from scratch, and then uh started my my journey as a student in Canada.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and then two years later, the pandemic hit.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: At the same time, I also met my husband.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: We started dating, started getting to know each other, and then soon after I was pregnant with my first son, and then uh shortly after I became a mom for the first time, I suffered a big tragedy back home.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: My family suffered a big tragedy back home.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: I ended up losing my mom, my dad, my brother, and had to reinvent myself through this major loss and trauma, and while also learning to be a mom.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: And then after around one year after that happened, still dealing through grief and loss and learning my new identity as a mom, I decided to open a business.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, so that's when I opened uh 2P Asai Bowls.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: That was a business that really connected me to my roots and that would make me do something different, you know, challenge myself to do something completely different from my from everything I did before.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so I opened my my business initially as a home kitchen.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: So I opened 2P from my kitchen and then slowly grew the business into the four-store fronts while also welcoming two more babies in my family.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: And now we are a family of five.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: I have uh three little ones, I have a business with four storefronts.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: I have been working these past years to make a Brazilian culture known in Alberta, in Canada, and also supporting other Brazilian entrepreneurs who are starting over just like me, usually completely changing their careers, completely changing who they are and their identity in a new country as an immigrant and as a new professional or maybe new entrepreneurs.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: And uh it's been a journey, it's quite a journey, I must say, but uh I have lots of uh success to share as well.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it hasn't been marked just with pain, but with lots of joy, lots of faith steps, lots of uh community, lots of love and hope, and lots of hope for the future.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: So that's a little bit of my story.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you have such an incredible story.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_01: You've spoken a bit about the the grief side of things and growth kind of coexisting together.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_01: What did that look like for you in in real time?
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: Something I something uh I can say about grief is that uh I never lost anyone before that happening to me, not anyone close.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: So I was really challenged by what grief really looks like because uh we have this concept on our mind that grief is something that starts and has a time to end, that uh it's a period of our life that we go through and then we break through it, and then we keep our journey.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: And we did we think it more as a linear thing that is has a start and an end.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: But what I learned going through it, that that's not exactly how it happens.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: I had this from my medical background, I learned about grief at school as something that had seven phases, and then as I was going through it, I was thinking, okay, which phase am I now?
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: Which phase am I gonna be next week?
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: And when am I getting through the seven phases?
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: When am I gonna be out?
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: So that's kind of uh the the mindset that I had at the time, even being a medical professional, but um, I always thought of everything so in a technical way, and when I went through it, I learned through time that there's not like a there's not a beginning and an end.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's something that you walk through and actually walks with you through your whole life.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: So that was a learning curve for me.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: And something that also stood up for me through my experience is that there are many low, low, very low moments.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: Moments that you're down, moments that you need to really go through your feelings, you need to process everything that is going through, all the changes that you're going through uh internally and also externally from the consequences of loss, but that you also have moments where joy coexists with grief.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: That uh even if you're suffering, even if you're going through such a big loss in your life, such a big struggle in your life, you can still have moments of joy.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: You can still find uh find opportunities within grief so you can so you can learn more about yourself, so you can uh seek new opportunities, so you can uh really really learn and really find happiness in other aspects of your life.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: So that was a big learning for me, you know, because uh I I had I challenged everything that I knew about grief, and uh I had to to live to go through it and reinvent reinvent my life at the same time as grieving.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: So it's uh it's a it's a learning curve going through something that you are completely unfamiliar with, and then you still have to be there, you still have to show up, you you are mom.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: So you still have to find joy, you still need to you really shape the way your kids see grief, you really shape how your kids how how your kids are gonna look at you and how are they how are they gonna learn from you through this period of grief?
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: So for me, that was kind of my experience.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_01: How old was your baby when you experienced this this loss?
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: How old was my firstborn?
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: So Nico, he was he was just four months.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: So I gave birth in March and I got the news that my parents and my brother passed away was August.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: So he was just briefly four months.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think I would love to hear, if you're comfortable, I'd love to hear more about what it was like to become a new mom and become this new person while also having this transformational life event of loss kind of intersect together to me, someone who hasn't experienced either of those or those things together.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: I imagine it feels so daunting and heavy and would love to know what it looks like to walk through those two things simultaneously.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: So uh when I was four months postpartum, or I will even go back when I gave birth.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: So I was in a different country, so I gave birth in Canada.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: My parents were still in Brazil.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: We had plans to see, to meet, meet with them so they could meet my husband and they could meet the baby, let's say later in the year.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: But uh I gave birth, I was in a very vulnerable state where like everything you think is like, I wish my mom was here.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: I wish I had a familiar face, other than my husband, of course, but like I wish I had someone to take care of me and not only the baby.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: I had my in-laws, and they are amazing persons, super supportive.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: But I think when we are new moms, we deeply long for our mother.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: That's how I felt at the time.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: And she was she was far away.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: There was no way they could come for my birth because for Nico's birth because uh of all the pandemic still going on and still uh restrictions for traveling.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: So uh I gave birth, I was feeling super vulnerable, and then I had baby blues and all these up and downs that we go through with hormones right after we give birth, and then struggling with breastfeeding.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: And then the four months were going okay, but I I really missed them.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: I really missed having my mom by my side.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: And uh at the same time, we navigate through big identity change because after we become a mom, we have to take care of a human being that is that really depends on us, and everything changed for us, right?
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: We we don't we cannot shower whenever we want, we cannot eat whenever we want.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: Baby is the priority, especially in the beginning, because they they demand so much from us.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: So I was still in the middle of finding out who is the new Ren, who am I after giving birth to this baby, and how how much did my life have changed and how are things gonna be?
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: So I was starting to feel a bit more comfortable.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: I felt like my hormones was kind of stabilizing, and uh, I was feeling a little bit more myself, but still, still going through all the ups and downs.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: And then uh we went on a trip to Montreal.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: We wanted to, I loved traveling.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: Always my husband and I always loved traveling, and we didn't want to stop and we had the baby, so it was summer, and I we wanted to to go somewhere, so we said, okay, let's go within Canada.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's a four-hour flight.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: We do like a training trip with the baby to see how how it's gonna be one week.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: So we flew to Montreal, it was our first family trip as a family of three, and everything went well.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: And then when I was in Montreal for around three days, that's when I got the news of the tragedy that happened to my family, and that moment was shocking.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: It was it was like it was a huge shock finding out everything that happened, and then having to make so many decisions.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: The three of us, even far from home, because we lived in Edmonton, we were in Montreal.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know anyone in Montreal, I didn't know any hospitals, I didn't know any community there.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: I I had no idea like what resource I would have to navigate that moment, that that few first days, right?
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: Uh receiving the news.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: And the first one of my first reactions with my body is that my breast milk dried completely.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I was breastfeeding, I was doing like a combo feeding, a formula in breast milk, and then suddenly I see myself with my body in shock, and I don't have any more milk supply.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I also have to think about how we're gonna go back to Edmonton.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have passports here, I don't have any other family member here that could really go through this with me, except my husband, but we also have the baby.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: And then on the first day, two things I struggled with was the breast milk, and then uh also with the with the shock, I didn't have a headspace to think how to take care of the baby in that moment.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: And for me, that was devastating.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: I said, like, my baby needs me, he's crying for me, but I cannot, I cannot do anything for him right now.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have head space, I don't have I don't have any conditions even to hold him or to play with him or to keep pretending things are normal, like I couldn't.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: And that's when my husband he stepped in so well and he did such a great job.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: He's like honestly, he's like a rock because he took over the care for the baby and also for myself.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: But uh, we kind I I kinda asked him, like, okay, so take care of the baby.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna try to solve what I have to solve until we can figure out the situation and how everything we we're gonna have to do to make sure that we or go back to Brazil or arrange any everything from distance or make decisions regarding to loss, regarding to funerals, regarding to all the bureaucracy that you have to go through, especially because I was the only daughter left.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: I only had one brother, and uh it was a lot to handle, you know.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: It was a lot to handle, it was like literal, literally like shock.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, but I'm thankful that I have uh such a supportive husband, and later on I had so many important people from my community back in Brazil and in Canada as well that took over that to help me and to support me, even like packing, even making a phone call, even finding like a therapist to talk to me, or like just to call me and say, Okay, let's vent, let's let's talk about something, let's distract, let's so I had lots of people that stepped in to help me.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: That made such a big difference.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: That was like one of the best things that happened while I was going through such tremendous loss.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_01: It sounds like community was really it for you when it came to getting few through those first few weeks.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_01: What was it in the in the upcoming months after that that really helped you get back on your feet?
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, community is everything when you're going through through such a deep loss or any hardships in life.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: For me, it was like uh it's it's so it's so great to know that there are people really caring for you, they're offering help, they're really hands-on.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: Because uh lots of times when things like this happen, people show up, they they are not sure what to say.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: Some people just say, Oh, if you need something, call me, or like, oh, let me know how you're doing.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's very generic help, but uh when there are people who really step in and like they are kind of they take over things that you don't have to mentally split tasks, but people come and they jump in and they and they try to make a difference and they try to support you.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's a gift, you know.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: That's like that's such a blessing.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I have I I'm a person of faith, and uh that's that was one of the ways that I saw really God providing for me in that time was putting so many special people on my way.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: So I have a big community back in Brazil.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: We my dad was a pastor in a big church, so I had lots of people from the church in Brazil helping me solving small things, small tasks that sound so simple to do, but when you're facing so much grief, it it might it feels way harder than they really are.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: But I had people to come and do it with me and for me.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: And here in Canada, I had friends come into my house and say, you know, let me help you pack, let me help you think, let's make a list of what you need, or people connecting me with let's say uh someone from the consulate or someone else, okay, let's get your your your son his passport.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: Things that like when you're going through grief, you you can think clearly, and then having people to come and jump in and really help.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's everything.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: No, so uh I do I do feel like uh anything that we go through that is really hard, it gets better, gets easier when we have community around us, when we have people to share the load.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, that's that's very important.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'd love to jump back just briefly into your story about coming to a new country and kind of building community through being an immigrant.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_01: What did that look like for you and in those early days?
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_01: And why was it so important for you to create connection and as an immigrant to a new country?
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, one thing that that I that people only notice if they are when they are immigrants, there's something that is like we only uh figure how important it is is when we go through it, is coming to a country, a new country, new culture, and then uh you have to build everything from scratch, including your relationships most of the time.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: So it's uh it's different than like you just going to school and growing up with someone or having a neighbor by your side that you just connect with since you were a kid or at school or at work.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: When you come fresh to a country, you kind of have to build this community.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's not something that is granted, it's something that you need to put effort to achieve.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: So if you don't go to your neighbor's house and knock the knock on their door or introduce yourself or approach a mom at the playground and introduce yourself, or go to a Facebook group or to a WhatsApp group and really put yourself out there, uh, it's very hard for you to make new friends and to build this new family, this chosen family after you immigrate.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: So that's something that is uh it's hard, and not everyone feels having the courage to do so, right?
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: Like it takes a lot of vulnerability, it takes a lot of trying and uh prioritizing building this community in the first years.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: So for me, how it looked like is when I when I first moved, I started uh studying at the University of Alberta as an international student, and I was lucky to have such a great community of other international students starting over just like me.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: So that was easy to connect with.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: So we were all in the same setting, we were all in the same uh situation.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: We are we all needed to meet new people, we were all there open to make connections.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: But then two years later, I got pregnant and then I had a baby.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: And then it changed a lot too because when you become a mom, you kind of need a different type of community as well, because you need to meet people who know what you're going through, who who understands what you what you're sharing with.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: You can still have friends that don't have kids, or there were friends that you made while you were a teenager or in college or high school, but uh when it comes into when it comes to motherhood, it's such it's so important to have other moms who get what you're going through.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: So that's when I had to build a completely new community, right?
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and what helped me a lot is because uh we have a mom group, they're Brazilians, they're also going through the same thing.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: So not only go through the new phase of motherhood, but also going through being a mom while being in a new country, far away from your family and rebuilding your identity and rebuilding like your community.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: So that was wonderful.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's like a it's another blessing.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: Is having other moms who really get everything that you're going through, but also with this extra layer of also being immigrants and understanding your background and your culture.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: So that for me was one of the best things that happened was finding a group, making mom friends that are still from five years ago, they're still great friends that we talk and that we share and we vent and we and we just uh connect in a in a deeper level.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_01: That's amazing.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_01: I have to imagine this group of women who are from your home country are all kind of going through this motherhood and immigration experience into a new country.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_01: I would love to hear how this kind of helped you decide to launch your own business.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: So I think most of us, when we immigrate, we have to reinvent ourselves somehow.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, not everyone has the luck to be able to move to a new country and also continue on the same career that you left back home.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: So uh for me was was being a physician.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: So in Brazil, as I said, I graduated from medical school.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_00: I worked as a family physician for five years.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: When coming to Canada, uh, it's not as easy to transfer your degree from back home.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: There are so many steps that you have to take, so many tests.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's like it's a lot of money, it's a lot of time, uh, mentally.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: It is it is a big uh it is a big project, you know.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I was preparing to do that, so I start I I stopped everything I was doing to study, to focus on trying to transfer my degree to Canada.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: And then I I was pregnant, and then I had the first baby, and then everything changed completely for me, and I really needed some time to do something very different from what I was doing before, was kind of a way for me to also cope with loss and with all the changes that I was going through my life.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: But uh going uh going back to having a community of moms who also go through this, you see lots of stories of people who had a different career, and then when they moved here and then they became a mom, and they have to change completely what they do next.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: So, for example, I have lots of friends who were lawyers, who are engineers, who were nurses, or physicians, or even had a different business back home, and then when we move here, we need to reinvent ourselves and find a new career.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: And lots of us start business from home.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: First, because as a mom, it's hard to navigate the workload of a full-time job.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: You need lots of resources, you need a village to help you with the kids, to help you with your home duties and uh your marriage and everything that you have to hold together, all the plates that you have to hold.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: And then navigating a career, it gets hard.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's harder for mums, right?
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: And then uh so many of us choose to start a business from home or like a side, a side job or a side business, and uh also you need lots of resources to start a formal business where you open a storefront.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: So initially you say, Okay, let's test from home, and then uh you start small and then you go from there.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: So lots of moms do that, not only immigrants, but you see lots of moms transitioning their careers because it is just not doable sometimes going back to full-time jobs or finding childcare and uh and like having to make so many changes in your life and that impact your children's uh well-being as well.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: So I believe that lots of moms opt to start a business from home in this period or to change their careers completely.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: And then it's not different with immigrant communities as well.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: So I found like uh lots of moms that were going through the same challenge, and it's inspiring to hear other moms doing this and say, okay, I can do that too.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: So I think we just inspire each other, right?
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I think that the it's a common thread through this podcast for me as the host to see so many moms with so many different stories and so many different experiences, but we all have this common thread of having this life-altering change of becoming a mom.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_01: You're navigating new personhood and the the world that you're coming from, whether it is overseas or it's or it's a different career, just doesn't fit who you are anymore and what you need and what your family needs.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_01: And there's so many moms who are just starting their own thing.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_01: And I am so excited to be able to be on this side of it and see stories like yours of women who are making it work for what's best for them after motherhood.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_01: What I love is that sometimes we see each other as like, oh, she's in a different space or a different, she's doing a different thing.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_01: But it's like this whole community of moms that are operating in different areas, but are all having this common thread of doing the thing on their own.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: That's I I see it.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: As I said, it's not just on the community of immigrant moms.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: You see this everywhere because there are so many challenges on going back to work after maternity leave, or sometimes in Canada, we are still lucky because we have a longer maternity leave than in the US.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: We do have in Canada 12 months to 18 months of paid maternity leave.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's paid by the government, not by your employee employer, but uh it does help a lot.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: It is it is like super beneficial for us to be able to step step back from work and take this time to stay with the kids.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_00: But then it comes to an end, and then you have the challenge like, okay, I need to go back to a full-time or part-time job, or you work remotely, or you work from the office, and then your kids need child care, and then you you have a shortage of daycares, of day homes, and then you also need to pay a portion.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: The government helps with some subsidy here, but you still have to pay out of pocket some portion, and then sometimes you when you add up, you see like it's not worth it.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: Like uh, how many hours do I have to work to pay someone else to look after my child?
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_00: And and it comes to kind of like a life crisis sometimes.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what am I gonna do now?
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: Like, something has to change, and that's when many women they have to face the reality and they have to make some make some decisions that might involve opening a business and then working from home or changing their career completely.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I think it's a natural movement within the mom, within the mom's community, right?
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: Some have to do it because they have to, they have other needs, and some they just look back and they say, This life doesn't make sense for me.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: I need something new, I need to reinvent myself, including my career.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: So I see both happening, but it's something universal, right?
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: We all go through this as moms.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'd love to hear more about your decision to kind of launch yourself into entrepreneurship.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_01: What were your initial thoughts?
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_01: How did how did it all go from an idea in your kitchen to several storefronts?
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: So it all started.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I was on maternity leave.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: I was uh just over a year on maternity leave.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_00: I had 18 months' leave, and I still had around four months before going back to my full-time job at the time.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_00: And uh during this maternity leave, that's when I also suffered loss and I was grieving and uh approaching one year after the tragedy happened, I was starting to feel ready to do something different.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: I was starting to feel ready to work again, to be productive, to do something for myself.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_00: But I knew that the medical career, I was still not mentally prepared to go back to that.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: I knew that would require more than what I could handle at the moment, being a new mom and going through grief.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_00: I said, I don't think I can do that right now, but uh I definitely love business.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: I grew up, I always always had this entrepreneurial spirit.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_00: Although I went through medical school and not exactly like a business career, but I had within me that desire of opening a business one day.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_00: So uh one day I was talking to my husband and I was telling him how like I would like to start working again, but I didn't see myself doing anything related to health at that moment and the health field at that moment.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: And then he suggested, why don't you open a business?
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_00: Like maybe a franchise, like let's look for a franchise or something small that you can start from home, or something from Brazil that you really like it.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I started that kind of planted a seed on my mind, and I started thinking about it, thinking about it.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm a person that like when I like an idea, I'm kind of impulsive.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_00: I go and I do all the research and I go for it, and if I set my mind on something, I won't sleep until I until I make it happen.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_00: So I started studying about a little bit about business opportunities and thinking of like what is something that I really miss from my culture from back home that I cannot find here.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: And asay was the thing that came to my mind right away.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_00: I loved a I grew up eating acai, and uh my family loved acai, it was something that was kind of a a our home culture was to go out sometimes to have acai by the beach or to buy and bring home.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_00: My mom used to love acai, so it was something that we shared, that we had in common.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I couldn't find any good asay in Alberta.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: In Edmonton, the city that I am, I would go out and look for acai, nothing.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_00: Or sometimes some business would come and say, Oh, we have acai bowls, and then we say, Okay, let's I would go with some friends to try it out, and we would taste it like this is not acai, this doesn't feel like home.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_00: This is this is a smoothie, or this is it has some acai on it, but this is not an acai bowl.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so I said, Asaí, why not?
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_00: So I started studying about acai and I said, Is it possible for me to make it from home?
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_00: So I joined some courses.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I founded like a mentor from Brazil, and I decided to invest on learning about the business and how to make this idea into a real business.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_00: And uh initially I went to a Latin store and I bought all the acai pulpes they had.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_00: I would come home, I bought a blender and I started to make it at home until I found the the good recipe that I liked.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_00: And then right after I started posting online to the Brazilian community.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_00: I created like a simple website where people could order.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_00: So on weekends I would do deliveries, I would do like pickups so people could come to my house and pick up acai bowls and started getting popular.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_00: People liked it.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_00: People approved the recipe, people started coming to my house more often and asking, like, why are you not why do you don't do this other time, other days of the week?
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_00: Why just the weekend?
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, Yeah, like I think I like this.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_00: I I like I was thrilled.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_00: It I really liked it doing the bowls and cutting the fruits and making the the bowls look nice, and uh it grew on me, you know.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_00: So shortly after that, I found an opportunity at a local farmer's market where they had a kiosk that previously was a juice, like a juice shop kiosk, and the farmer's market only opened on the weekends.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I said, oh, it's it's a good idea for a mom.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_00: At least I have my husband is home during the weekends.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_00: I could come to the market, I could sell my asaibose, and I don't, it's not something I have to commit full-time yet.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_00: So I'll give it a I'll give it a try.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_00: So I signed up with this farmer's market, I opened through the weekends, but by that time I was pregnant with my second child.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_00: And then uh it was a bit challenging, but it was just weekends, I made it work, and then we opened the farmers market, and people started coming, and not only the Brazilian community, but I also the people from the Edmonton community started coming and trying Asaí, and uh, I heard lots of feedback, and then uh I got approached by uh another Brazilian who was living in Calgary, that is a city that is about three hours from Edmonton, and he reached out to me on Instagram and he said, I moved to, I just moved to Canada and I worked with Asaí back in Brazil.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_00: I had uh ASI shops in Brazil, gilato shops, and I moved to Canada because I wanna I wanna do something like that here.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_00: I saw that you were already doing it, and I wanted to propose that we partner and we do it together.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_00: So after lots of back and forth conversations, we met.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_00: I met with his family, our families met, and we saw it could be a possible good match.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_00: So we partnered up, we opened a corporation now, not only me and my farmer market booth, but uh we opened like a real company and started working into opening our first storefront.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_00: And then shortly after that, we had two storefronts to open almost at the same time, one in Calgary, one in Edmonton, in Sherwood Park.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, there's a uh a town close to Edmonton.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_00: And then in a let's say in less than six months, we opened two storefronts.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_00: And from that, now we are we opened our fourth store, and the company has been growing.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_00: It was a great addition having my business partner, his wife joining, and they bring so much expertise and they bring so many good ideas, and we are a great team now, and we've been working together for these past two years to grow the company and expand.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_00: And we have lots of people coming and approaching us.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, can I open a 2P?
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_00: When are you coming to Toronto?
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_00: When are you coming to Vancouver?
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_00: And we are we we want to get there.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_00: We're just a small team, we we don't have much investment, we do everything from our heart and and uh from our own work, but uh it's it's growing so much, you know, it's growing so much, and it's so amazing to hear the feedback of people saying, Wow, this is aí, I found acai, I found real açaí, you know, where uh and they're not just aí, but the smoothies, the gelatos.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_00: We have a full line of products that are uh inspired by our Brazilian roots, but that really make an impression on people and we we are very loved by our local communities, and that's amazing.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's just uh that's just uh it's it's another blessing in my life.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's so incredible to be able to, I think it's such a testament to just putting yourself out there and see what happens.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_01: I'm very big after experiencing it myself.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_01: Like putting the little bit of investment in something you're interested in, I feel like doors just open when you trust your gut and trust yourself.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_01: And you're you're just like a perfect story for that for thinking, hmm, maybe I'll give this a shot.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_01: And then it just kind of takes off because it's authentic and it's natural and it fits you and and brings a little bit of home from your home country to your new home.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_01: I love to see that you were able to collaborate, not just with your community, but then external people wound up finding you to be able to partner.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, I I I I always say that when people come to me with ideas or other immigrants or other moms come and say, Oh, I have this idea.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but like I don't know.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_00: I don't I don't know if I should invest on it.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know uh if this is gonna work or not.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_00: I said, we don't know.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_00: We don't know if it's gonna work or not.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_00: We don't know.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_00: I I I can't say if it's a great idea to invest or not, but you if you don't do anything, it's not gonna change, right?
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_00: You're not gonna see the results.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_00: You might do, you might still fail, but you learn from it.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_00: But uh if you don't take the initiative, you're not you're not gonna know.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_00: You're never gonna know if you don't take the first step, right?
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_01: So what does community look like now for you as a a mom of three with an established business?
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_01: What does community look like and mean to you now?
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_00: I I think my whole journey is is supported by having a community by my side.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_00: I would say that now with the business, um I do have a community that is our team.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_00: We have a great team, we have an amazing team, we have over 20 employees, and uh we try to give opportunity for people who come to Canada who don't have the chance to land their first job easily, or they're transitioning, or their students, and they're looking for a first-time work experience here in the country.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_00: So we try to open our doors for people who really want to work, but they are not, they're not, they haven't been seen as valuable yet at the workforce in a new country.
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_00: So we try to give these people opportunity.
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_00: We have an amazing team, we have so many great people that we wouldn't I wouldn't be here talking about Tupi if you were not the staff and the team members that we have with us.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_00: Also, we have a great community that supports us as customers.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_00: So it's it's so nice to see some customers that we already know their names, we already know their orders.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_00: And uh if we open in the north or the south, they're there.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_00: If we if it's rainy or snowing, or if it's minus 40 outside, or just plus 30, they are still there and they come and they show up for us.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_00: And uh not only the Brazilian community, because the the Brazilians they come a lot too.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_00: Like every time we do a store opening, if you see 90% of the people who are coming, they are Brazilians.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_00: But then after after uh the opening happens, and then after we are open every day, we see like the neighbors, the people who work nearby, people who are from other neighbor businesses, and they always come and support.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I would say that two P wouldn't be two P if there was not a community of team members, of uh supporters, of clients, of other businesses, collabs, partnerships.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_00: So it's everything.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's everything.
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_00: We were we were not meant to walk alone.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_00: I think in any areas of our lives, I think we go further.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_00: I think we we find more purpose if we do have uh people around us.
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_00: So that's something for me.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's like a life lesson for me.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's like I'm always trying to be surrounded by communities, by people who go through the same thing as you, sometimes completely different, but that you find something in common and then you walk together.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_00: Like you welcome people into your life, and then you you you just don't walk alone.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's very important.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_01: What is a piece of advice that you would give to a mom or a woman who is looking to kind of reinvent herself in in in any facet, who is kind of looking to reinvent herself in her life, but is a little afraid to make the leap?
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um two things.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um one of them is like what I learned from my experience is uh so first becoming a uh a physician and then completely changing my career direction to be an entrepreneur is that it is important what you do, but what it's more valuable who you are.
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_00: So it doesn't matter what you're doing at the moment.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_00: For example, if you just if you if you have a full-time career, if you're in a corporate corporate job, or if you are a business owner, or if you are a small business from home, or if you chose just to stay home with your with your children, I think uh it doesn't matter.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_00: There is value in who we are, and uh our identity is not defined by what we do.
• 42:30
  SPEAKER_00: So it doesn't matter what we do, and if we do different things at different phases of our life, we still keep our our essence, we still keep our values, our principles, we still keep our value as just being who we are, independently of what we do.
• 42:45
  SPEAKER_00: So that's a big lesson that I learned.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_00: Like I was a physician, I had some status, I have some privilege as being a physician, and then here I'm a mom who's starting over from home and then an entrepreneur.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_00: Now I have a business that is like is growing, but it doesn't matter, I'm still the same.
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'm still the same, and I still hold my values, I still hold my principles, and I'm still I still value to my community no matter what I do.
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_00: And then the second thing is is that uh there is risk, there is risk.
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_00: Any decisions you make, you have to wait the pros and cons.
• 43:24
  SPEAKER_00: So if you have a great idea, and then if you want to put your idea in practice, there are risks as anything we do.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_00: But not doing that, it's also a choice in itself and also has risks in itself, right?
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_00: None of the great companies that we see there, or the success story success stories that we see there would have happened if there was not like a risk to be taken, or if there was like not like a step to be to be taken, uh, or an action to be taken.
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_00: So things won't change if we don't if we don't try, if we don't take the first step.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_00: So what I would say is if you're scared, um, I'm not gonna say you just jump in and do anything.
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I would say study, think about it, uh, ask for advice, put all, put everything in perspective, test your idea before you invest too much, before you do a big jump.
• 44:19
  SPEAKER_00: Start small, start from home.
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_00: If it's a service or a small business or a product, just test with your neighbors, with your community, with other moms.
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, reach out to people that could test your product or your idea or your service, and then you see is it working?
• 44:36
  SPEAKER_00: Listen to people.
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_00: Feedback, see if it's making you happy.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_00: How is your life?
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_00: How is it fitting into your life?
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_00: Test in a small smaller scale.
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_00: If you see, if you feel it, if you have this feeling that things are working, you're seeing things progressing, just take the leap, take this, take the bigger step.
• 44:57
  SPEAKER_00: So it's worth it.
• 44:58
  SPEAKER_00: There are risks.
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_00: But uh, if you do things right, if you follow your gut, if you do things one thing at a time, there's more chance of you making the right decision.
• 45:10
  SPEAKER_00: But you you won't know if you don't try.
• 45:12
  SPEAKER_00: You won't know if you won't try.
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_00: And also if I I also at the same time that I opened Tupi, I also opened a small grocery, like a specialty Brazilian grocery from my basement.
• 45:25
  SPEAKER_00: And then I had like an online store, and then I would sell, I would have some suppliers that would bring Brazilian products like Brazilian food, and then I would sell from a website and do deliveries.
• 45:37
  SPEAKER_00: That didn't work.
• 45:38
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't make any money out of it.
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_00: I figured out like my basement is so much stuff, there's so many shelves, I don't think this business is going anywhere.
• 45:47
  SPEAKER_00: And then I made the decision of quitting that business and investing just in ASI.
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_00: So was it a failure?
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, but I also learned so many things.
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you also helped me to realize, like, no, this is not the type of business I wanted to do.
• 46:02
  SPEAKER_00: It was still worth it, you know, but I not everything works the way we think they will.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_00: And it's just part of it, it's just part of life.
• 46:11
  SPEAKER_00: But um, on the other hand, uh, ASI grew and went very well and is going very well.
• 46:19
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like uh we don't know what the future holds, but uh, I think if we do our homework, if we study, if we start small, if we take the step, take the first step, we have great chances of thinking of things working out for us.
• 46:34
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what I would what I would uh say to a mom if she would come from you for advice.
• 46:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 46:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think that's great advice.
• 46:43
  SPEAKER_01: I think there's so much to be learned from every experience, whether it was uh a technical fail, there's still so much to be learned from that experience as a whole.
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_01: So I think getting out there taking the first step is great advice.
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_01: Well, tell people where they can find you website, social media, and then anything that you might have coming up or want people to look out for.
• 47:08
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 47:08
  SPEAKER_00: So our our company, 2p Asai Bows, we have our Instagram, it's 2p Bow CA.
• 47:15
  SPEAKER_00: That's where we share our new products, that's where we share uh all the campaigns, all the all the posts from our customers, appreciation and everything from our business.
• 47:24
  SPEAKER_00: So 2p Bow CA is our Instagram.
• 47:27
  SPEAKER_00: I also have my personal uh where I share a little bit of my story.
• 47:30
  SPEAKER_00: I try to speak to moms who also uh go through big changes in their lives, who go after laws, who go after major changes in Korea, or just life in general, and it's is uh the Nomad thoughts.
• 47:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I share a little bit of my life with my three kids and our small adventures around town and some trips.
• 47:52
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much for being on.
• 47:53
  SPEAKER_01: This was so incredible.
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_01: I've loved being able to hear your story from top to bottom and how you've gotten through some of the hardest parts of your life and continue to be successful and build a life for yourself.
• 48:05
  SPEAKER_01: So thank you for sharing about it.
• 48:07
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for taking the time to hear my story.
• 48:09
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for inviting me and having me over at the podcast.
• 48:13
  SPEAKER_00: I really hope my story can inspire some moms, some other immigrants, or uh even someone who needs who needs some advice to start something from home or to make a big change in your life and your career.
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I really hope that uh you continue doing this project because it's so it's so good to have other moms giving voice to moms who have stories to share and who have learnings to share so we can help each other and become a big community because there's something that is a great community, it's moms together.
• 48:48
  SPEAKER_00: It makes such a great team having moms together supporting each other.
• 48:52
  SPEAKER_00: And uh it's it's just uh it's just a blessing when you find moms to support you and to grow with you and make a a community in your neighborhood, sometimes in online, sometimes even on Instagram.
• 49:04
  SPEAKER_00: You find other moms and you just support each other there and you just share some some messages, and that's so encouraging.
• 49:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's it makes such a big difference.
• 49:12
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you for doing this work and giving moms a space to share this story too.
• 49:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, this is a perfect way to end.
• 49:19
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much.
• 49:21
  SPEAKER_01: If this conversation resonated with you, I'd love for you to follow the podcast wherever you listen and share it with another mom building something meaningful.
• 49:29
  SPEAKER_01: If you want deeper behind the scenes reflections that I don't share anywhere else, join my email list at the Mama Making Podcast.com.
• 49:37
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for being here, and I'll see you next time.