Today we’d like to introduce you to Joseph Gutierrez & Karen Velasquez.
Hi Joseph & Karen, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I started loving baseball 36 years ago when I first step on the field, I perform as little leaguer, did not make any pro-level max level I’ve played was one tournament with my hometown University then I turned 360 degrees my baseball point of view when I became a Full-time Baseball coach, that important role I played in little kids’ life I would never forget. I had that responsibility to teach them as an adult at the same time I celebrated and enjoyed like a kid, Years later, adult time came, and I found a different way to stay attached to baseball. when I started resale baseball sporting goods. I did this for around 20+ years until covid-19 hit us, I spend more time than usual with my lovely wife so we approach time at home studying and preparing professionally, spend some time reading more books and receiving mentoring from different coaches then we decided to be more involved each other inbuilt up the family future, we felt ready to create our own brand thinking in what we love and something we can do together full time, so we got pregnant for the 3rd time, we started small thinking big something more than a brand we create a movement where we want all baseball lovers participate at 100% professionals and no professionals Baseballhood as a bond that came from the relationship we create from this amazing sport on and off the field, we promote many intangibles for baseball and Our very first tangible product is the baseball glove, we started as many projects in our big warehouse located back in our 2 car home garage.
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?
Although it has been an amazing journey, we have had some challenges, ***Learning process*** One of them is that we have been working extra hours to grow our Dream, learning from 0 about everything like design, marketing, photography, selling, trademark, events, funding, negotiations, manufacturing, custom, QuickBooks laws, Business management, and much more. ***Time Balance Planner. *** we have had to balance our full-time job and have time to dedicate to grow our community in baseball, spend time with our kids, time as couple, help kids with homework, little league practice, games, social activities. ***Funding***We decided to grow this project with no red numbers upfront so our lender has been the overtime bank, we spend several extra hours to start up, is very hard while is a worry-free strategy have peace of mind having no debt before even having a product on the market, I remember some visits to plasma donation center to accelerate get extra funds to make our very first bulk order ***Innovation*** We wanted to impact our baseball community with something fresh, targeting both sides in this sport intangibles and tangibles we consider is the best way to make a positive impact.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
We are former professionals, Karen is a former pediatric cancer nurse and joseph former Childs/family Law graduated in Venezuela, we were forced to move to America 9 years ago were we started again, we started with basic English, unable to valid our diplomas here, we learned a new carrier, beside the fact we love baseball, I personally owe so much to it, most of the money I spend on my graduation I earned from coaching youth baseball, I did litigation defending children’s rights in court for a while so combining those 2 experiences in our life we found our relevant impact in our society trying to support in many ways the society base children’s and teens. One of the things people know about us is never giving up if a reset or new start is need it, we go for it, check what we missed or did its wrong make adjustments, and keep going I think we found each other with the conviction of pursuit happiness, enjoy the process with faith we really believe in that nobody can see but you know is there and that’s something to always be grateful in God.
Simplicity and creativity I think it describes Karen and me, we compete just in different way giving 100% of us every time in all the things we do in baseball
Can you share something surprising about yourself?
I would say the breaking point, after an amazing marriage we discuss many times how our future will look like, some ups and downs trying to find the melting spot, the halfway between husband and wife, where both look in the same direction, after several meetings, discussions, and arguments we decided to pursuit the dream of freedom, get rid of the traditional method husband go to work bringing food to family table and wife stay home taking care and growing children’s, is nothing wrong with it, but honestly we enjoyed better walking, thinking dreaming projecting to the same direction, we have not reach the best yet but definitely we found a way to enjoy every single part of this process and the most important, together.
Contact Info:
- Email: wearebaseballhood@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wearebaseballhood/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wearebaseballhood-100378441729564/
- Other: https://sidelineswap.com/Baseballhood
Image Credits
Oscar Echeverria
Norberto Rivas
Richard Tuhoro
Freddys Ayalas
Yhonson Rojas
Andy
Bernadette Kim
Josman Robles
Abril Leon
Jonathan Martinez
Leo Kavaneiro
Lore Aular
Daniel Palma
Miriam Gomez
Ronald Hernandez
Frank Rivero
Sandy Suarez
Anayma Acta
Lonie Murray
Luis Ravelo
Lenin Silva
