Today I am talking with Carolina Acosta and Aralis Mejia, from Tragos Games. They share their inspiring journey of creating Tragos, a cultural drinking game that celebrates Latino heritage.

The duo also reveals how they successfully broke into major retailers like Walmart and Target, emphasizing the significance of community and cultural identity in their business.

In this conversation, Aralis Mejia and Carolina Acosta discuss the intricacies of running a business, emphasizing the importance of third-party logistics (3PL) in maintaining operations and the challenges of sustaining growth after initial success.

They share insights on the entrepreneurial journey, including the process of writing a book that connects with Latino culture and the significance of collaboration over competition in business. The discussion highlights the need for long-term vision and continuous effort in both business and personal growth.

Aralis Mejia is the Head of Marketing at Tragos Games and the founder of Solara Marketing, a firm specializing in strategic marketing for product-based businesses. Her expertise in blending cultural insights with modern marketing strategies has driven impactful campaigns and growth for both Tragos and her clients.

Learn more about Aralis:

• Instagram and TikTok: @silarainc (Business)
• Instagram: @Silara (Personal)

Carolina Acosta is the founder and CEO of Tragos Games, a company dedicated to creating party games that celebrate Latino culture, with over 250,000 games sold in major retailers like Target and Walmart. Her background in graphic and product design fuels her mission to empower the Latino community through authentic, impactful experiences.

Learn more about Carolina:

• Instagram and TikTok @tragosgame
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tragos-games-llc/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/company/tragos-games-llc/

---

Learn more about Show Up Real, my Content Marketing Group Program.

Want to work with Cat 1:1? Apply here.

Follow @catdelcarmen and @showuprealpodcast on Instagram.

Learn more at catdelcarmen.com.

Transcript:

Cat Del Carmen (00:02.578)
All right, y’all, I have Carolina and Aralis here. Let me start by saying something I just told you both. I don’t have a lot of women on the show that I don’t know personally. I get a ton of pitches from amazing people, but I’m protective of who I bring on. That being said, when I got this email from their team about the incredible business they’ve built and their personalities shining through their work, I knew I needed them on the show. So welcome to the Show Up Real podcast, Carolina and Aralis! Welcome!

Aralis Mejia (00:59.885)
Hi! Thank you for having us!

Carolina Acosta (01:09.532)
Yes, thank you!

Cat Del Carmen (01:10.266)
I’m so excited. Let’s dive in because I have a ton of questions. Can you both share a little bit about your background and how you got to where you are now?

Carolina Acosta (01:51.05)
Sure! So, I think Aralis was one of the first people I ever met—she was there the day I was born. (laughs) We’re cousins, our moms are sisters. She’s been my cousin, my babysitter, and now my business partner and co-author. Our lives have intertwined since we were kids. We both had different journeys in our careers, but somehow they led us to where we are now.

Cat Del Carmen (02:37.022)
Where did you both grow up?

Aralis Mejia (02:40.25)
We’re from Jackson Heights, Queens—right in the middle of Little Colombia since our moms are Colombian.

Cat Del Carmen (02:56.735)
That’s so cool! So, what led you to start your business, Tragos?

Aralis Mejia (03:07.211)
I come from a hospitality background, so I was caught up in the restaurant industry. I climbed the ranks from waitress to corporate, doing marketing. Meanwhile, Carolina was on her own journey, and one day we hear that she’s starting a Latino drinking game, of all things! She brought me in and encouraged me, saying I had what it took, and I thought, “Let’s see where this goes.” And here we are now! Carolina can tell you more about the origin of Tragos.

Carolina Acosta (04:20.596)
Yeah, like Aralis mentioned, she was in hospitality, and I was in graphic design. I went to Parsons in the city and worked in design agencies. Tragos came from my childhood. I was the ‘gringa’ in the family—light-skinned, sticking to English, reading books, and kind of shying away from Spanish. I didn’t feel confident speaking Spanish, and Aralis had perfect Spanish. Fast forward to adulthood, and Aralis invited me to Colombia with her mom and my aunt. I was hesitant, feeling too American, but I went, and it was incredible! It made me realize how connected I was to my culture, which I had pushed aside growing up.

Cat Del Carmen (05:10.004)
Wow, that’s amazing!

Carolina Acosta (05:31.85)
Yeah, it really sparked something in me. I convinced my job at the time to let me work remotely so I could travel. This was before remote work was trendy. I lived in Latin America for four months, and that’s when my Latinidad came back, along with my Spanish. When I came back to the U.S., I was doing freelance design, and one day I was talking with a friend about how we love drinking games, but there wasn’t a cultural one that represented us as Latinos. That’s when the idea for Tragos was born.

Cat Del Carmen (06:42.598)
That’s so fun!

Carolina Acosta (07:22.006)
Yeah, it started as an idea for a game that celebrated Latino culture. I brought Aralis in to help brainstorm and create cards. After a few months, I told her we had a big event, Hispanicize, and needed to go to LA. I convinced her to take time off work to help me with networking since she was great in the hospitality space, and I’m more behind-the-scenes.

Aralis Mejia (08:12.61)
I was hesitant because I thought my job would fall apart without me, but Carolina convinced me. We went to Hispanicize, and it was eye-opening. Growing up Latina in Queens, everything was very segregated, but the West Coast welcomed us with open arms. It felt like this was our chance to bring Latinos together through Tragos. That’s where the journey really started.

Cat Del Carmen (09:25.728)
That’s beautiful. I was just at a We All Grow event, and I met the creator of Millennial Lotería. He said something that stuck with me: “I’m not just selling games; I’m selling representation.” That hit me because that’s exactly what Tragos and similar games are doing—bringing representation to the table.

Carolina Acosta (10:05.264)
Exactly!

Cat Del Carmen (10:24.634)
For the longest time, there was no representation in mainstream stores like Target or Walmart. Now, you’ve created something that not only represents our culture but is also available in those stores. Where can people find Tragos?

Aralis Mejia (11:39.356)
Tragos is available online and in stores nationwide at both Target and Walmart.

Cat Del Carmen (12:06.794)
That’s amazing! Okay, so how did you manage to get into Walmart and Target? Everyone listening to this wants to know how you did it!

Carolina Acosta (15:06.86)
It definitely didn’t happen overnight. We started by building a website and pre-selling the game. With my background in graphic design, I mocked up the game before we even had a prototype, and we skipped the Kickstarter phase, which most games go through. We pre-sold on Shopify, and the money from those sales helped us fund our first inventory.

Aralis Mejia (18:22.529)
Then COVID hit, and people were looking for fun things to do at home, so our sales grew rapidly. By the time Target found us online, we had a solid sales history, which helped convince them to carry the game.

Carolina Acosta (19:59.655)
It wasn’t easy, though. Target has people vetting products, and we were lucky enough that one of their cultural shoppers saw one of our ads. She reached out, but she let us know that we weren’t quite ready for retail. She helped us understand what we needed, like partnering with a 3PL company for distribution, and gave us a step-by-step guide to prepare for big-box stores.

Aralis Mejia (22:42.176)
Yeah, the process took two years from when we first spoke to them to actually getting on the shelves. We also had to raise money from friends and family to fund the inventory for Target’s order.

Cat Del Carmen (23:59.36)
What happened after you found out that you weren’t really ready? What was the next step to get ready? And how did you fund that?

Aralis Mejia (24:35.295)
First, we did research. We knew we needed a distributor because we had a successful business on paper, but we did need help. We started by connecting with distributors, which was like interviewing them. You have to trust your 3PL partner because they handle the logistics—packing, shipping, labeling—and if anything is late or incorrect, you get fined. Our guy has been amazing.

Carolina Acosta (25:39.882)
Before that, we were handling everything ourselves. I was working with manufacturers in China, making sure pallets were delivered to a storage unit I rented, and then shipping them out myself. It was very manual. But once you’re working with a big retailer, you need a distributor to handle all those things.

Aralis Mejia (26:07.072)
Your 3PL company is crucial. They manage the orders and projections. You need transparency and trust with them. It’s not getting into stores that’s difficult—it’s staying there. Getting those repeat orders is key.

Cat Del Carmen (27:39.542)
100%. Even though I don’t have a product-based business, I tell my clients the same thing. It’s great to have a six-figure year, but you have to sustain it. You have to keep improving and showing up.

Aralis Mejia (28:38.623)
Exactly! It’s like, “We made a great video for TikTok, and now I have to make another one tomorrow.” It’s part of the hustle and continuing to be creative.

Cat Del Carmen (29:12.446)
Do you both still work your nine-to-fives?

Carolina Acosta (29:21.879)
The business has fluctuated. At one point, I was doing Tragos full-time. Now we’re in a royalty-based model, which means it’s less profitable but allows us to scale faster. So, I’m reinvesting everything into the business and doing freelance graphic design on the

side.

Cat Del Carmen (29:58.218)
That’s business, right? Building something big takes time and planning for life as well. For me, I have kids and a partner, so I have to balance that.

Aralis Mejia (30:37.597)
It’s the same for me. I have clients for my marketing business, and I also work with Tragos and now the book. It’s about finding that balance.

Cat Del Carmen (31:15.51)
This has been such a great conversation. I love hearing how you both are balancing everything and growing your businesses.

Carolina Acosta (31:19.914)
Thank you! It’s all about that long-term vision.

Aralis Mejia (32:00.347)
Yes, and being able to pivot when necessary.

Cat Del Carmen (34:15.252)
Let’s talk about the book, Mama Didn’t Raise a Pendeja. How did the book come about from this? I love the book. I didn’t speak Spanish at home, but I’ve heard these phrases, and it made me feel connected to my roots. Every Latino household should have this book.

Aralis Mejia (35:09.307)
The book came from our grandma’s sayings. She had all these phrases that we still repeat today. Originally, we thought of doing an anti-affirmation deck, but when we transitioned to a book format, it allowed us to elaborate more and provide even more value.

Carolina Acosta (37:17.834)
Yes! We started out thinking it would just be sassy, anti-affirmations, but it evolved. We wrote it in a short period of time, and as we wrote, we realized how much advice was in those sayings. It was a reflective process.

Aralis Mejia (38:40.95)
Writing the book reconnected me to the younger version of myself who loved to write. It reminded me of things I had forgotten about myself. Writing this book changed how I speak to people and what I accept from others. It was a really important moment for me as a woman.

Carolina Acosta (39:02.512)
Same here! The process made me reflect on so many things.

Cat Del Carmen (39:07.535)
How did you find the publisher?

Carolina Acosta (39:44.97)
Mike Alfaro from Millennial Lotería connected us with Blue Star Press. They were amazing. They mostly work with self-help books and cookbooks but were trying to get into the game space. They’re affiliated with Penguin Random House, and they’ve been so supportive and easy to work with.

Aralis Mejia (41:02.338)
The real lesson here is not to be afraid to reach out to people in your network, even those you might see as competitors. Mike wasn’t worried about competition—he saw that we could do both. Collaboration over competition.

Cat Del Carmen (42:01.332)
I totally agree. Collaboration is so much more powerful than competition, especially when it comes to representation. Latinos have so much buying power, and we need to continue collaborating and supporting each other.

Carolina Acosta (42:38.654)
Yes, exactly.

Aralis Mejia (42:45.082)
Absolutely!

Cat Del Carmen (42:55.83)
This conversation has been amazing. Where can people find you and follow your journey?

Aralis Mejia (45:07.829)
You can find Tragos in Target and Walmart nationwide or on tragosgame.com and Amazon. You can also follow us on Instagram and TikTok @tragosgame. My marketing company is Solara Marketing at Solara Inc.

Carolina Acosta (45:47.438)
Yes, follow @tragosgame, and you’ll find me there!

Cat Del Carmen (45:55.254)
Thank you both so much for sharing your journey! Everyone, go check out Tragos Games and support these amazing Latinas.