Today we’d like to introduce you to Diana Ariza.
Hi Diana, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
“Every market taught me something different. Miami taught me hustle. The Southeast taught me how to listen. DFW is teaching me how to scale.” I am originally from Bogotá, Colombia and came to USA to Fort Lauderdale area when I was 13. I have a duality as I have spent mroe thna half of my life in USA but kept my Colombian roots everywhere I have lived.
Miami, is where I grew up and went to College in Orlando. Lived in Maryland for a short period. In Greenville, South Carolina. and now the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. Having two teens are my main reason why I do what I do.
When I became a mom in living in Miami, I couldn’t continue working as a nurse so I volunteered in many organizations while taking care of two very active kids! Social media did not exist as a career, but I grew up with it, and with the help of great well known teachers in digital marketing & data, University certifications and government organizations I embarked into the entrepreneurial journey.
ASTA was designed by a designer and publicist who was an expert in many areas of marketing. Behind my brand was his support, his input and designs! I had no marketing background, but just the drive to make a difference and being the bridge between local business owners and non-profits. I saw the disconnect between both, and while I love to support non-profits, I understand the hesitation between business owners as we should be more proactive from side to side to give back – not transactionally but with a long term relationship and collaboration.
ASTA Business became my vehicle to grow locally and connect — it started as a marketing and business consultancy then became a multi-venture enterprise spanning PR services, digital marketing, publishing, eCommerce, and business development — it has taken roots and is growing.
I got here thanks to the help of many; many of the ones who worked alongside my belief that we could make a diffference, the different organizations who have helped me shape into a stronger leader and my family.
I come from a family who have been entrepreneurs and a business legacy of more than 40+ years of meat imports/exports in Bogotá. My grandfather has been my inspiration, my grandmother always had businesses, my dad and mom’s refrigerated truck business in Orlando has focused me to do more for the latin american community doing business in USA. My kids are the light who bring the strength, the vision to continue the work and strive for more. My daughter always emphasized how happy I look everytime I “do ASTA” so it’s a constant reminder of building something better for the future generations.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The road is never smooth; success always comes with strings attached
Any entrepreneur can tell you that the business world is NEVER a SMOOTH ROAD. Regardless of whether one achieves success or not, the road has its bumps, as well as accomplishments that require rerouting; unless you are an expert at falling, or you hit it off from the beginning. The road is bumpy because success comes with strings attached, losses, and the reality that you must embrace both the good and the not-so-good.
Between the idea and the deployment, there is a life. A real one. With cities and detours and pauses and comebacks. And that’s exactly the story behind the businesses that make up ASTA’s world today.
To make a long story short, although nothing about my journey has been short or smooth. What began in Miami traveled through Orlando, put down roots in Greenville, South Carolina, and has now found its footing in the DFW area — Dallas/Fort Worth. Ten years. Multiple cities. One throughline: the refusal to stop.
That kind of longevity doesn’t happen by accident. It happens because the person behind it learns to read a room, a market, and the moment, and then adjusts accordingly. New cities bring new cultures, new clients, and new versions of the same essential challenge: How do you make people trust something they haven’t seen work in their backyard yet?
The answer, learned and re-learned across every market: you show up consistently, you deliver, and you let the work speak louder than the pitch.
The one that holds the deepest history — the one that has truly seen it all — has been running for more than 12 years, born in Florida and never really stopping moving since.
This business has lived through growth spurts and slowdowns, new cities and new countries, mindset shifts and market shifts. It has welcomed expansion when expansion felt impossible and found ways to pause when pausing was the only honest option.
The COVID chapter was a reminder of something every experienced entrepreneur eventually learns: timing isn’t always planned. Sometimes you’re just built for the moment before you know it’s coming. New entrepreneurs flooded the market. People who had been sitting on ideas for years suddenly had the time, the motivation, and the need to make them official. This business met that wave head-on and rode it.
The Newest Chapter — Built From Pause, Inspired by a Daughter
After growing and thriving in Frisco, Texas, we paused as an agency, which left many of our leads and team without the ASTA family setting as a channel to communicate their vision and mission. That led our founder to take her time to build other businesses, but a conversation with her daughter is what took her from 0 to 100 again. Two founders, Brian Tutt and James Sendziak, both business owners who have supported our founder since the move to the DFW metroplex, are what pushed her to keep going with a brand that people recognize and love, but few really worked with, as we are selective with our clients as much as clients are selective of their internal team members.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
ASTA is a multi-venture Communications strategy and reputation growth firm offering strategy and business development, marketing, and PR services. Our goal is to turn ideas into impact and vision, build revenue through neuromarketing and strategy to help you execute your strategy.
The Agency is headquartered in Greenville, South Carolina, and the Dallas/Fort Worth area, with reach across Florida, the Southeast, and beyond. At ASTA, we believe reputation is not accidental — it is designed through strategy, consistency, and human-centered storytelling.
We help brands become:
– Visible
– Credible
– Memorable
From communication strategy and PR to marketing and reputation growth, our mission is simple:
ASTA builds more than brands.
ASTA builds impact.
ASTA Agency specializes in using multichannel ways to convey the message that business owners and companies need to attract their ideal clients, based on data from platforms, customer journeys, and business plans.
Our differentiator is our hands-on, accessible approach. We work closely with each client to understand the story that needs to be told and craft messages with the right words, strategy, and purpose. Backed by a reputable team and trusted partnerships, we combine passion, data, and thoughtful storytelling to create targeted content that reaches the right audience.
We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
Success is always under construction; it is not a fixed guideline, as it is highly individual. Personally, success is not about things, status, or accomplishments but rather a way of living that is genuinely different. By always growing and flourishing. Not loudly, not all at once — but in the way that things are built with intention: steadily, genuinely, and with the kind of foundation that doesn’t shake when the wind picks up.
Growth is defined on your own terms — not metrics, but becoming. The cities, the pivots, the pauses — all reframed as growth in motion.
Contact Info:
- Website:ASTAbusinessAgency.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/astabusiness
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ASTAbusiness/
- LinkedIn: https://tr.ee/97aRU4-RsB
- Twitter: https://x.com/astabusiness
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@astabusiness
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/asta-dallas?osq=asta+business
- Other: https://linktr.ee/ASTAbusiness
