Business

The Financial Crisis and Hardship Could Not Hold Her Back: How Entrepreneur Monika Tapia Overcame All Odds

Published

6 years ago

August 13, 2020

If you have not yet to heard of Ivan and Monika Tapia, you are in for one inspirational story. The two entrepreneurs are a classic encapsulation of the American dream, and a continually driven power couple to boot. It is rare to hear of a “started from the bottom” story these days, but that is what makes them so powerful. The inspirational essence of their tale is not lost on Ivan and Monika, and they reflect on the roots of their success every day as they strive to achieve their main goal: helping the less fortunate achieve the position they have worked so hard to obtain.

The words that Monika Tapia lives her life by are these: “Success is not a destiny or a place you arrive, it is a way of life.” Upon realizing the trials and hardships that she and her husband faced, this wisdom rings all the more true. Monika stood by her husband as he struggled to navigate the torturous waves set forth by the 2008 financial crisis. Ivan lost his career at an engineering firm the week before the couple was to celebrate their first wedding anniversary. With fierce competition in his field and a countrywide economic downturn to contend with, he soon could not afford their debts, and the two had no choice but to move back to his hometown of Tijuana, Mexico. Soon after, Monika discovered that she was pregnant. It was a bittersweet moment that highlighted their life’s theme of beauty among struggle. Through all the turbulent times, they remained vigilant and stood by one another, a true testament to success as a way of life. For Monika, it’s not how hard you fall, it’s how many times you get back up.

“There will be many obstacles in your growth such as lack of clarity, not knowing where to start, lack of discipline. It costs a lot of money, loneliness and lack of support, but to move forward you need to want to win.” She declares. Upon finally obtaining employment, Ivan worked tirelessly to hold down a steady job while developing his own multi-level marketing business. In spite of family members questioning Monika’s involvement with a man who could barely afford their small house in Tijuana, even encouraging her to leave him at times, she saw his true potential. Over the course of a few years of incredibly hard work and long hours, Ivan turned his business into a multi-million dollar generating endeavor, with Monika as his partner in both love and lucrative business endeavors.

Monika and Ivan decided to take their hard-won status and turn it into a platform to give back to others who seek to invert their low status in life. Never forgetting the months she spent pregnant and depressed on a mattress in a house with no furniture, Monika vowed to enrich the lives of others with the knowledge necessary to navigate a tumultuous and unpredictable economy. The couple has already educated thousands of students in the ways of entrepreneurship, assisting over 300 people earn incomes of over $10,000 monthly, and even producing a few millionaires.

Monika also has a major presence in media. She is a columnist for multiple digital magazines and newspapers, and has even written a best-selling book that is currently being translated to English. She is responsible for the creation of her daughter’s brand Rich & Mind Kids, and manages her daughter’s social media status as an influencer. With further endeavors in the fields of fashion and her own social media presence, she is prepared for any economic hiccups through her multifaceted streams of income. “We currently have more than 30 different sources of income. We know the importance of not depending on one.” She explains.

After living the lowest of lows and building up an enviable life for themselves, this power-couple is ready to take on anything. As young as Monika is, through her trying times she has developed the wisdom of an elder, and yet still has so much more time to cultivate knowledge. She eloquently illuminates the barrier between oneself and success as such: “Life happens very fast, many things you postpone and others you simply cancel. What you desire stops being important because you consider that you are not of the right age, that the condition you are in does not allow for those desires, or that you do not have the resources. These are all excuses that in the end will leave you with remorse.” It is unfathomable to imagine what Ivan and Monika have yet to achieve, when they are so inherently successful, and have discovered the secret to their true potential already.

Instagram : https://instagram.com/monikatapiaoficial

Business

Why Victorious PR is the Leading PR Agency for AI Companies

Published

7 hours ago

April 24, 2026

Matthew Wiles

Key Takeaways

Victorious PR helps AI companies turn complex, technical products into clear, compelling narratives that earn coverage in top-tier outlets like Forbes, VentureBeat, and TechCrunch.
Through campaigns for companies like Olas and Cluely, Victorious PR has consistently transformed emerging AI startups into recognized voices with strong media presence and industry credibility.
Victorious PR operates on a weekly placement model that builds compounding visibility rather than relying on isolated press releases that fade quickly.

An AI founder builds technology that could transform how entire industries operate. The product works. The team is strong. However, when investors search for the company name, they find nothing. When enterprise buyers evaluate vendors, the startup gets filtered out because nobody on the committee recognizes it. The engineers the founder wants to recruit are joining competitors with inferior products and louder profiles.

This visibility gap kills promising AI companies every year. According to Statista, the global AI market is projected to reach $347 billion in 2026, with 37 percent annual growth expected through 2031. Thousands of startups are competing for the same investors, talent, and customers. Strong technology is no longer enough to stand out.

Victorious PR has built its reputation by closing that gap for founders who refuse to let great products die in obscurity. The agency blends deep understanding of emerging technologies with established relationships across the publications that influence how innovation is covered.

An Agency Built During Uncertainty

Victoria Kennedy founded Victorious PR in 2020, launching at the height of the pandemic when most businesses were scaling back. The agency reached seven-figure revenue within its first year. Victoria’s background differs from most PR founders. She is a Wall Street Journal bestselling author, TEDx speaker, and member of both the Rolling Stone Culture Council and the Fast Company Executive Board.

Before starting the agency, Victoria built a career as a classical opera singer, touring Europe and performing alongside artists like Andrea Bocelli. That experience in performance and personal branding shaped how she approaches client work today.

The agency operates on a press-every-week model. Clients do not wait months between placements, hoping something lands. They move through a steady stream of podcast appearances, thought-leadership articles, and features in respected publications. This consistency compounds over time, building brand recognition that shapes investor decisions and strengthens customer trust.

Victoria describes her philosophy directly. “I built this company with one goal in mind,” she says. “To lead with integrity and help impactful leaders and businesses be seen and heard to have a greater influence on the world.”

Campaigns That Produced Measurable Results

David Minarsch, CEO of Olas, faced a difficult challenge. Olas builds user-owned AI agents on blockchain infrastructure, positioning itself against centralized players like OpenAI. Despite raising $13.8 million, the company struggled to gain visibility outside technical circles. The technology worked, but the broader audience that needed to hear about it was not paying attention.

Victorious PR positioned David as a thought leader through ghostwritten op-eds and expert commentary that connected Olas to larger shifts in AI development. Coverage landed in VentureBeat, CoinDesk, Mashable, Forbes, Fast Company, and USA Today. The campaign generated placements in more than 100 publications, helping Olas reach the mainstream tech audience it needed.

Roy Lee, co-founder and CEO of Cluely, faced a different version of the same problem. Cluely had built an AI meeting assistant that worked well, but Lee needed visibility to attract serious investor attention. Victorious PR launched a campaign that secured coverage in TechCrunch, Business Insider, Bloomberg, Fast Company, Benzinga, Hackernoon, and MSN.

The press exposure put Cluely on the radar of major investors, resulting in a $20 million raise that included $15 million from Marc Andreessen at a16z. The coverage accomplished what cold outreach could not. It brought the right people to Lee’s door.

Why AI Companies Need Strategic PR Now

AI technology is often complex and misunderstood. Investors hesitate to fund projects they cannot explain to their partners. Enterprise buyers need confidence that a vendor will still be in business in two years. Generic PR approaches fail because they do not address these specific challenges.

Effective AI PR requires translating technical innovation into narratives that resonate beyond technical audiences. This means connecting product capabilities to business outcomes that journalists, investors, and customers actually care about. It means identifying angles that make a company newsworthy within the context of trends editors are already tracking.

The Victorious PR team focuses on finding the most compelling aspects of each client’s story and framing them within larger industry conversations. For AI companies, this often means linking technical work to discussions around autonomous agents, enterprise automation, and the intersection of AI with other emerging technologies. The approach has enabled the agency to build relationships with editors at publications including Forbes, Bloomberg, and Wired.

Their client roster includes partnerships with NVIDIA, Solana, and Olas. Placements span Forbes, VentureBeat, Fast Company, CoinDesk, and more than a hundred other outlets that influence how tech decision-makers think about innovation.

The companies that win in AI will not always be those with the best technology. They will be those who can explain why their technology matters and build brand recognition that influences decisions before the first pitch meeting.

About Victorious PR

Victorious PR is an award-winning full-service PR agency that helps businesses get featured in industry-specific media, local press, podcasts, and top publications to be seen as industry leaders in their fields. They have won numerous awards, such as the Global 100 Award for Best Public Relations & Communications Business of 2026, and are members of both the Rolling Stone Culture Council and the Fast Company Executive Board. To book a call to become the #1 Authority in your niche, click here: victoriouspr.com.