Today we’d like to introduce you to Genesis Gutierrez.
Hi Genesis, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was born in Caracas, Venezuela and my parents immigrated to the US when I was seven years old.
Growing up in Florida, I knew that the place I was living in wasn’t serving me and I wanted more out of my career so I graduated high school a year early and moved to Los Angeles by myself.
I graduated undocumented and without a clear idea of what I wanted because I was never the best academically, so I didn’t have much plans other than I wanted to work and get my real estate license while taking a gap year
I took a job at Jamba Juice while studying for my test and my first internship was for a broker in Beverly Hills.
Once I got my real estate license, I worked for a small family-owned company while deciding to go back to school, so I enrolled in my local community college.
While I was in community college, I learned about the power of community and support and ended up getting into every school I applied too and went to UCLA for undergrad.
While I was at UCLA, I realized how incredibly lonely it was being a first gen Latina, especially an undocumented one. Because of my immigration status, I didn’t qualify for any loans and had to pay my entire tuition out of pocket and my real estate license came in handy.
However, while I was working full time and going to school full time, I realized I hated real estate and I wanted to talk about the experiences I was having.
I started a blog writing those experiences and thoughts around the topics of mental health and burnout while in college which was how I came across Harness and ended up taking the project completely.
After I graduated from UCLA, I took a job as Marketing and Public Relations Coordinator at a community college – I had many job offers, but I went with the one that was most meaningful with all the support I had gotten.
I worked full-time while growing Harness, Harness Magazine is an online publication of women that share their real, raw and authentic stories – and this past year I’ve grown it alone from 5,000-40,000 monthly readers.
However, my job ended up replacing me after being the interim for a year because they didn’t think I wasn’t qualified enough and although I was sad at first, it forced me to take Harness full-time and grow my coaching business.
Within two weeks after I left my job at the college, I won my immigration hearing after being in deportation proceedings for four years and within three months, I replaced my income at the college for my coaching.
Within Harness, I coach women on how to have courage – how to do the things they’re too scared to do and how to take action when nothing seems to go right.
And it’s been growing ever since.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
My immigration status has been the biggest blockage I had in everything, paying my tuition in full because I had no other choice forced me to think outside the box, constantly worried if my work permit would get here on time and being in removal proceedings after being denied asylum knowing there was always a possibily of deportation.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’m the CEO of Harness Magazine, we’re an online publication of women that share their real, raw and authentic stories. Within the platform – I coach women on how to have courage and do the thing that scares them the most. Whether it’s dating, showing up online, starting your business, switch careers or starting a podcast.
What sets me apart from others is having a community where women get to share their voice, their story and passions with thousands of other women. Harness has hit over 40,000 monthly readers and over 7,000 writers that have contributed to their story.
At Harness, your background, you story and anything you’ve gone through in life only empowers you to move forward and live the life you’re meant to live authentically and unapologetically.
Contact Info:
- Website: harnessmagazine.com
- Instagram: harnesscommunity
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bygenesisgutierrez/
