The Story Behind TOMA
Built By Someone Who Needed It.
This is not a company story. It is a human one.
Juan Mejía
Founder & CEO, The Open Mind Academy
"In 2008, the mortgage bubble burst. I was managing a construction company in New Jersey — a good income, a clear future — and overnight it was gone. Like millions of others, I lost everything I had built.
I enrolled in a business degree to restart. But without steady income, tuition became impossible to sustain, and I had to drop out. With no job and no degree, I made a temporary decision: go to Lima, Peru, stay with my grandmother, wait for things in the US to recover, then return.
Temporary became permanent the moment I met her.
I fell in love. And suddenly Lima was no longer a waiting room — it was my life. But love does not pay rent. I was living in my grandmother's house, in a city I barely knew, with no local connections and no idea how to survive here. As much in love as I was, the reality was still hard.
So I locked myself in my room for two weeks and refused to come out until I found a way to earn online.
What followed was not pretty. I got scammed over and over by people who took my time and disappeared without paying. I earned $20 one week, then nothing. Then nothing again for weeks. I moved to $50. Then $100. Got scammed again. Started over again. Every time I got knocked down I went back to the screen, back to the search, back to trying.
The day I reached $200 a month consistently, I moved out of my grandmother's house. I stood on my own feet for the first time in years. And I did not stop.
One opportunity led to another. I learned that the world pays for someone reliable, hungry, and willing to learn — regardless of their address or their diploma. I became a top sales performer for an international education company. I built systems, processes, automations, and AI agents — not in a classroom, but through curiosity and the refusal to stay still.
I never finished my associate's degree.
Today I am married to the woman I stayed for. We live in one of Lima's most exclusive neighborhoods, in a large home with my own private office. Our children attend one of the best schools in Peru.
I built all of this — the career, the life, the home, the family — by teaching myself, one skill at a time, one screen at a time, starting from $20 a week and a grandmother's spare room.
The Open Mind Academy is the school I needed and could not find. It exists because I know something now that nobody told me then: the door was never locked. I just needed someone to show me where it was.
That is what I am here to do for you. — Juan Mejía"
I enrolled in a business degree to restart. But without steady income, tuition became impossible to sustain, and I had to drop out. With no job and no degree, I made a temporary decision: go to Lima, Peru, stay with my grandmother, wait for things in the US to recover, then return.
Temporary became permanent the moment I met her.
I fell in love. And suddenly Lima was no longer a waiting room — it was my life. But love does not pay rent. I was living in my grandmother's house, in a city I barely knew, with no local connections and no idea how to survive here. As much in love as I was, the reality was still hard.
So I locked myself in my room for two weeks and refused to come out until I found a way to earn online.
What followed was not pretty. I got scammed over and over by people who took my time and disappeared without paying. I earned $20 one week, then nothing. Then nothing again for weeks. I moved to $50. Then $100. Got scammed again. Started over again. Every time I got knocked down I went back to the screen, back to the search, back to trying.
The day I reached $200 a month consistently, I moved out of my grandmother's house. I stood on my own feet for the first time in years. And I did not stop.
One opportunity led to another. I learned that the world pays for someone reliable, hungry, and willing to learn — regardless of their address or their diploma. I became a top sales performer for an international education company. I built systems, processes, automations, and AI agents — not in a classroom, but through curiosity and the refusal to stay still.
I never finished my associate's degree.
Today I am married to the woman I stayed for. We live in one of Lima's most exclusive neighborhoods, in a large home with my own private office. Our children attend one of the best schools in Peru.
I built all of this — the career, the life, the home, the family — by teaching myself, one skill at a time, one screen at a time, starting from $20 a week and a grandmother's spare room.
The Open Mind Academy is the school I needed and could not find. It exists because I know something now that nobody told me then: the door was never locked. I just needed someone to show me where it was.
That is what I am here to do for you. — Juan Mejía"
Juan Mejía
Founder, The Open Mind Academy
Director of Admissions, recognized online university · Self-taught · Still asking — What's next?
Verify It's Really Me
LinkedIn: Juan Mejía Peru
Phone: +51 985 145 305 · Lima, Peru
Personal: juangmejia1@hotmail.com
Official: info@theopenmindacademy.com