My Story

My name is Viviana Hurtado and this is my blog.

I’m a business woman and solopreneur who is obsessed with how AI tools can help monetize as many revenue streams as possible to achieve financial and time freedom. I currently own the home fragrance brand Viviana Luxury: spa-like candle scents celebrating Latin American casa & cultura. I believe in social entrepreneurship because all businesses need to work in service of customers and our community. But first, there’s starting your business and each business tool you need to succeed. That means scaling fast by using machine learning to nail the business processes needed to succeed, faster. I’m committed to teaching you everything I learn about AI tools for my ecommerce business so that along with me, you never have to be beholden to a crazy manager. It’s easier than ever with all the AI tools for business available on our phones. I want us to provide for ourselves and our families with plenty extra to relish our life.

VivianaHurtado.com is quickly becoming one of the world’s top review sites for the best AI tools for business–simply put, we’re decoding the machine learning necessary for your business to start and grow, fast. As a serial entrepreneur, my team and I have used virtually every business software and AI tool on the planet. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Instead, use the best AI tools for business, let artificial intelligence free up your precious time to grow your business to achieve time freedom and servant leadership.

I cut my teeth in ultra competitive newsrooms, as a reporter and global news anchor, most recently anchoring at Bloomberg in New York City. Along the way, I won an Emmy and an Edward R. Murrow along the way. And this comes after earning a doctorate in literature from Yale University, plus a masters from Stanford and my BA from U.C. Berkeley.

And yet, despite all the accolades and my book smarts, I’ve never understood the “secret handshake” of success. I found myself frustrated, passed up, burned out, always beholden to economic shocks or worse, crazy insecure managers. I had zero control over my life, my time, and in television journalism, even my looks.

Then my dad almost died. I needed to be by his side and help him and my mom who was being crushed by solo caretaking. I was always told to ask for help. But when I did, silence.

I asked to be moved to other teams where I could excel.

Nope.

I asked to change roles with flexibility to work from home, so I could help with caretaking.

No.

I asked to relocate home after my dad was released from the hospital, weakened, having to learn how to do all the basics we take for granted.

You guessed it. No.

That’s when I decided, no one is going to save me.

Except me.

Everyone likes the sanitized success story. You know the one: she always was on a quest. He professionally played cello and was on the way to curing cancer by age 7.

In my case, my road was the most epic zig zag. Let me rewind even further so you can understand where I am today, who I really am, and what drives me.

This is actually Blog 3.0. In 2008, I started a wildly successful blog that stood out from competitor sites: The Wise Latina Club, in many ways my first stab at an online business with community at the core: The Wise Latina Club was educating and empowering Latinas to step into their power with political and civic engagement, plus economic empowerment.

Back then, AI tools were probably in labs and universities. I also didn’t understand Google search or for that matter anything about search engines. So I spent a lot of time doing everything, including posting and duplicating those social media posts on social media platforms. I didn’t use or know about an AI marketing tool to help outline market trends and execute on a marketing strategy on multiple platforms, suggest keywords, and ad campaigns. So many repetitive tasks, no shortcuts, and very inefficient business processes!

I was on the news as an expert: NPR, MSNBC, Fox, CNN, Univision. I was quoted in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Time Magazine, The Washington Post, and moderated or delivered keynote speeches at top U.S. universities, and the White House.

I was a business woman. But a bad one since I wasn’t able to monetize it. Let’s face it: awards and invites don’t pay the bills.

Then I started another wildly successful venture: the first online summer reading program for Latinx kids and their parents and even secured six figure seed money from Google. Tech-enabled, back then, we didn’t have AI powered tools that could speed up our product innovation, enhance student learning, or the AI powered marketing software to send email marketing campaigns to engage users and potential customers. How we could have benefited from AI tools focused on customer data and analyzing collected data and customer interactions to improve our marketing strategy,our product, and customer experience! My co-founder and I had different thoughts on the future and how to get there. That startup eventually died, as did my second attempt at a company and executing on business operations.

In 2020 during the pandemic restrictions, along with the rest of the world, I had a lot of time on my hands. The entrepreneurial bug bit, again. I started a retail tech company for ecommerce companies which enables users to deepen relationships and customer service. We got some traction. Although AI tools were on the market, I was working on old-fashioned and manual customer acquisition and technology. While I was learning valuable customer insights in real life interviews, even using one AI tool would have streamlined my startup. Machine learning could have provided data analysis on customer data to help improve our customer experience. An AI marketing tool could have helped me with marketing strategies that could cut down on repetitive tasks, yet still send better email marketing campaigns. Customer relationship management software could have helped me engage deeper, with more consistent follow up.

Not understanding my customer’s needs led to shutting down the business. If the target audience was hard, investors needed for capital-intensive company, would be even more elusive. As a business woman, I was failing.

That’s when I became my retail tech company’s “customer” and started Viviana Luxury: an ecommerce business, specifically spa-like candles celebrating Latin American casa & cultura.

In this whole process, I’ve endured starting up, petering out, plus crashing and burning.

I’ve gone down so many rabbit holes and dead end streets. Perfectionism and self-doubt rears their ugly heads.

Starting a business and an ecommerce business is easy. So is calling yourself a business woman. But the clearer path to revenue and scaling? Not so much.

Searching for knowledge, I’ve signed up for countless bootcamps, SBDC webinars (thank you!!), watched hours of YouTube, and listened to every podcast on entrepreneurship and small businesses under the sun. I got golden nuggets. I never received the actionable, step-by-step advice to grow from day 1, especially from someone who is closer to the start, than the finish line.

Thing is, with AI tools, the business growth that eludes so many small businesses, is closer than ever.

I want to change that. I started by learning everything I can about AI tools that would make me go faster and save me time so I can spend it on better serving my customers. This includes AI marketing tools for my newsletters and social media and an AI powered writing assistant to, you guessed it, write content (first pass, of course). An AI tool is key if you don’t have the budget to hire marketing teams to manage marketing campaigns, digital marketing, and social media platforms.

If you’re a solopreneur, task management software can help you stay on top of the daily, so you can focus on the big picture. Each AI business tool can provide valuable actionable insights, plus for lean times during lean times, cost savings.

Simply put, AI tools have been game changing and I want to share that with you. If I can cut your time from start to growth through the best AI tools for business, I’ll feel like that pain for me was worth it.

Finally, I love the connections I’ve made, the websites to which I’ve contributed, elevating other small businesses by sharing how an AI tool enables businesses to sell, grow, and scale. I also do client work and I’m so excited about the fast results I’m achieving for my clients using AI tools.

In my heart, I’m a teacher. I don’t plan to set up my passive income machine then go peace out on a beach somewhere (although I’ll love the freedom to be able to choose to skip for a few days if I want).

I have a lot to give back: more to write about AI technology for small businesses. I also have more owners to help their businesses, their families, and their lives by not ignoring or turning away, but rather embracing AI technology for their business processes.

That’s the thrill.

My ultimate goal is to help get you “there” faster, through the best AI tools for business, no matter your dreams. Life’s about living, and it’s too short not to die trying.

If You’re Still Reading, Thank You

…for sticking it out, for being here. I treasure every relationship I make from this blog.

I’m here for you as both a blogging guide for artificial intelligence in business, and as a friend. I try to respond to every email and want to hear your story, the good, the bad, and the fugly about biz and AI tools.

At the core, we’re in the same boat: trying our darnedest to do right by our families, leave the next generation better off, and have the time and money freedom to enjoy life.

Let’s join together, elevate each other up, and cheer on each other. There’s plenty to go around.

Let’s win.

I hope that the story of your life brings you joy, freedom, and tranquility.

In gratitude and con amor,

Viviana Hurtado