✨Grow, baby, grow.✨

Ana Flores (she/her) and Vanessa Santos (she/her) are co-CEOs of #WeAllGrow Latina, a digital and IRL lifestyle community dedicated to uplifting Latina women.

Below, they share how the universe brought them together, how to tell when it’s time to ask for help, and why some failures are actually blessings in disguise.

So, how did you guys meet?
VANESSA: On LinkedIn! Ana and I are both very passionate about women empowerment. We believe that until Latinas have equal pay, there’s no such thing as equal pay. I posted something about that and she responded to it. That’s how we first connected. I finally met her at the 2019 We All Grow Summit, which is an annual event we host, and we stayed in touch and supported each other from a distance until the universe worked its magic to make us partners.

How did you know you wanted to work with each other?
ANA: I call myself an intuitive entrepreneur, because when I finally allowed myself to follow my intuition, things really shifted in my career. It was after 2020—when we had to completely pivot the company thanks to the pandemic—that I realized there was no way I could continue on this growth path without support. I needed to bring in somebody that shared my vision and could take it to the next level, and Vanessa’s name started coming to me. I sent her a text, and it was exactly what she’d been praying for.
VANESSA: More like manifesting! I absolutely journaled Ana into my life. Being in corporate America, and especially the higher that you climb, you don’t often don’t find anybody that looks like you. This loneliness led me to attend the 2019 We All Grow Summit, which was this beautiful environment unlike anything I’d experienced. So I started journaling about it like, “One day, I’m going to partner with We All Grow Latina and connect more with Ana.” Eventually, I got the call from her.

When do you know it’s the right time to ask for help?
ANA: When that first voice comes to you. It’s very easy to self-sabotage and make excuses like, “I don’t wanna bother anyone,” but you have to allow yourself to be a receiver. We forget that the moment we don’t ask for help, we’re not allowing the other person to be the giver. Also, remove any expectation from the request you’re making. Once you remove the fear of getting denied, you can ask for help without feeling ashamed or disappointed.
VANESSA: Also, when your body tells you to. For me, my need for help manifested in having anxiety attacks, panic attacks, and migraines all the time. It wasn’t until I finally took a pause and prioritized myself that it all went away.

What exactly is We All Grow Latina?
ANA: It’s a community of sisterhood and support. It’s a place of solace, where you can find where you belong. We’ve created a sanctuary of trust; of being able to show up authentically as ourselves.

When did you realize you wanted to dedicate your life to women empowerment?
ANA: It’s been a lifetime in the making. It comes from always feeling like I didn’t belong because I was raised bilingual and bicultural. But it’s not that we empower you, because that implies you don’t already have power. We want to help you recognize your power, honor it, grow it, and celebrate it within this space.
VANESSA: One time, I found myself being the only female executive on a team, and when I finished giving a presentation, the receptionist stopped me and said, “I have never seen a woman in that room. Please don’t stop.”