Alisha Ochoa

“Everything started about 4 years ago. I feel like my life was in complete chaos. There were numerous health issues family members and myself had, ended a 9-year relationship, and graduated college but because of my health issues I couldn’t pursue the graduate programs I accepted at the time. It was all a mess. Since then it felt like those years following really affected me negatively and I needed to figure out what it was that could make me happier.I know that I have potential to live such a joyous and happy life but I’m not exactly sure I to get there. And I remember thinking to myself ‘what the fuck am I going to do?’It seemed like I had two options at the time – 1. To go to therapy or 2. I could do yoga. Therapy hasn’t worked in the past for me, and with yoga I’ve developed a sense of serenity. I was in such a stagnant spot and I wanted to take control of my life so I took a yoga training program about a year ago and it was phenomenal! It was life changing and immediately after, I moved to Leucadia. And everything started falling into place.Things have been so bad for so long that I kept asking myself why is this working? I don’t get it. It took me a while to accept that, but I started to just roll with it. I started my blog – alishaochoa.com and the main reason why I did that, was because my good friend told me I just needed to sell my artwork. It was so personal to me, and at the time the things that would make me happy were yoga, art, and spending time alone. I promised myself to dedicate at least 5 minutes of yoga a day and a doodle a day, and sometimes it would turn into 2 hours of drawing or thinking the piece I was working on looked like shit. But I dedicated that time each day.I never realized how much I liked writing until I started writing. And it’s one of those things where you don’t know until you try it. And at the same time you realize sometimes you don’t like things until you try it. It’s sometimes easier to find something you don’t like until you find something you do. For about a year, I’ve been maintaining my blog sharing my yoga and selling my art. Art is such a subjective medium that it was really hard to find a middle ground with everything. But through all of that, one of the most important things I’ve learned was cultivating community and building a network. There’s always been something my sister taught me called the Shine Theory – and it’s if you don’t shine, I don’t shine. So it’s encouraging others to shine as bright as they can to reach their potential and their goals, while simultaneously doing the same for yourself because if you don’t do that, how do you expect them to?Earlier this year, I had applied for a job that I didn’t end up getting, but one of the requirements was to build out an event they could possibly host. And I’ve always had the idea for Boss Babes Brunch Club so I wanted to share that on the application. It gave me that layout and the push that I needed, because I felt so passionately about connecting women who were so rad and I just needed to do it. So we had the launch in June and had our first official event in August. It’s been going really well and the idea behind BBBC, was that I loved the idea of community and the people I’ve been meeting. But at the same time, there wasn’t a connectedness that I had the opportunity to develop with people automatically in a low pressure setting. And on top of that I’ve always been a hardcore feminist and I love connecting with people, so the thing missing for me was a network of women. And I’ve realized I know so many great women that I was wondering why they weren’t working together. And as a duty, I felt like I needed to connect those women and build a larger network but more importantly a support system for ourselves and for each other. Especially because when we’re trying to create something from scratch, we need that support system.I had someone message me sharing how they didn’t like their job and had wanted to start their own thing, but she was very intimidated by connecting with women. So to see her purchase a ticket to the BBBC, and having her share that she felt everything fit her to the T, it was so great to have this platform to see her explore that.I don’t know where this will take me, but I’m excited."

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_masonry_media_grid element_width="12" grid_id="vc_gid:1472632065839-8d3414ad-c012-2" include="2215"][/vc_column][/vc_row]We had the pleasure of sitting down with Alisha after we spotted her artwork in Ironsmith and we are so excited to follow her journey with yoga, art, and Boss Babes Brunch Club! Though her Thursday event is sold out, check it out and follow her for upcoming events she has lined up because you won't want to miss it!