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Local entrepreneur awarded grant
A new Elginite and business owner received a potentially career-transforming grant this month to be put towards helping local couples and families.
Stephanie Puentes, a licensed counselor and coach, was recently awarded a $10,000 grant from the national Fast Break for Small Business program. Her new company, Speak Mija, offers professional coaching services primarily focused on relationships, and is born from personal experience.
“That’s my niche, a special niche on long distance relationships – and the reason I chose that background is because Speak Mija was born from my very own love story,” Puentes said in a recent interview with the Courier. “My passion is helping couples and individuals in their relationships. I mean, everything in this world, I believe is a relationship, the one that you have with yourself, the one that you have with others in the world around you.”
Puentes draws from her own experience navigating a long-distance relationship to help her clients. The owner and her partner were once childhood pen pals, now closing out their Visa process after many years spent waiting.
Speak Mija offers services to those that want to heal, work on their relationships, improve communication, reignite the passion and intimacy in their relationships and be able to navigate conflict with their partners, according to Puentes.
Puentes has also begun helping other couples separated by borders navigate their own K-1 Visa process. The 15-module course goes through the steps of bringing a partner stateside for marriage from start to finish, building up a community of people going through the same ordeal she’s now finishing with her own fiancé.
“It’s pretty lengthy, it’s pretty tough. It’s a very lonely road, and I didn’t have a lot of help, and I want to be able to create a community for folks that have their partners abroad,” Puentes added. “I want to be able to create a space where they don’t feel lost and frustrated, while also helping them nurture their relationship long-distance.”
Additionally, Speak Mija offers coaching services for those seeking personal, family or career growth.
A certified yoga instructor, Puentes stated she is working on incorporating movement into her classes – starting off every session with a grounded meditation, incorporating breath work and looking towards holistic and alternative practices in her coaching.
“It’s still, you know, it’s still a baby business right now. It’s growing and blooming,” she said. “I’m at the very, very early stages of what I want my business to look like. I would love to do couples retreats, incorporating yoga and breath work facilitation, as well as for singles and for families.”
The business owner first moved to Elgin in 2020 and filed for her LLC in 2023, hoping to positively impact local families and the community.
While Speak Mija does not have a brick and mortar location just yet, she has high hopes for an Elgin location once she is more settled with her fiancé.
“I really like the hometown feel that it has and how nice it’s been living here. We just saw that Elgin was a nice area... and that’s where we moved to,” Puentes said.
Puentes has already started putting her grant money to use, paying back some of her investments in courses, building her brand and marketing it.
More information and services can be found at https://www.speakmija. com.
Sponsored by LegalZoom, the Fast Break for Small Business program has another $1.5 million to award. Local businesses can apply at https://www.legalzoom. com/fastbreakforsmallbusiness.
