Shaping the Future of Latino Leadership in Tech - Jose Avalos - How Do You Say Success in Spanglish?

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Raul Lopez (00:04):
This is Raul Lopez, and you're listening to.
How Do you Say Success inSpanglish?
The path to success isn't easyFor minorities and people of
color.
Many attempt to journey withlittle to no guidance.
Join me as I sit down withindividuals who share their
stories of perseverance so thattogether we can learn how to say
success in spanglish.
What's good me Hente?

(00:30):
Welcome back and thanks forjoining me.
It's your boy, Raul.
On today's episode I have JoseAvalos.
How's it going, Jose?

Jose Avalos (00:41):
I'm going good.
Yeah, I'm excited to talk toyou.

Raul Lopez (00:43):
Yeah, man, thanks so much for being here.
Just to give a littlebackground, jose Avalos is the
co-founder and CEO of Tech23, amedia and entertainment company
for the advancement of Latinosin Tech, with over 10 years of
creating events and designingprograms for first generation
college students, small businessowners and Latino Tech and, as
your profile puts it, cultivandouna comunidad para Latinos en

(01:05):
Tech con ganas de aprender,crecer y divertirse.
Jose, thank you for being heretoday.

Thank you.
Thank you, I'm excited.
This is awesome.

Raul Lopez (01:13):
Yeah, I'll start off with a bat and say Jose is also
a coquito enthusiast, so he mywife makes coquitos and he's the
.
He's the bison officer everyyear.
So you know, I'm sure he missesmy coquito, but but thank you
so much for being here.
You know you, you grew up inHouston where obviously we met

(01:36):
and that's kind of where youstarted at.
So I kind of like us to startoff there and tell me a little
bit about how life was growingup in.

Houston for you, absolutely.
And then we just finishedhopefully finished the hottest
summer I've ever experienced inHouston, ever Legitimately got
an email from our energyproviders saying that the reason
why our bill was so expensivethis month was because it was
the hottest July and the hottestAugust on record.

Raul Lopez (02:00):
Yeah, yeah, I've heard it's been crazy yeah.

So this year wasn't that fun growing up in Houston
but because I didn't get to dotoo much outdoors.
That's just pretty unbearable,honestly, to be outside but born
and raised actually in Baytown,texas, about an hour east of
Houston but the greater Houstonarea.
Born to Mexican parents, I'mfirst generation.
My parents are from a littletiny town outside of Hara,

(02:27):
jalisco, which is land ofTequila and Mariachi, so I'm
very proud of my culture.
But my parents didn't reallyhave more than a junior, high or
high school education.
However, they knew theimportance of getting educated
and they really pushed me as faras that as they could.
That looked like in third orfourth grade when I switched

(02:50):
from bilingual classes to allEnglish classes that was when
they were they stopped beingable to help me in schoolwork
because you know it was inEnglish.
And then after that it waspretty cool journey and I just
kind of figured things out on myown.
But I was.
I was blessed to have bothparents in my house plus to have
come from a warm, loving home.
But the school part, it wasjust kind of me faring out and

(03:14):
I'm really grateful with Godthat I had the right people,
right teachers, right mentorsthroughout the whole process to
make sure that, even though Ididn't have anybody holding my
hand, I was able to be guided inthe right directions.
That's not to say that thereweren't challenges along the way
, most of them self selfinflicted for my own choices.

(03:36):
But you know, as I got olderand more mature, you know I
learned better but grew up,graduated high school there.
The story I like to share a lotis that I was a student, didn't
really have to study too hardto get those grades, it was
pretty easy.
However, I was always extremelyshy, very, very shy.

(04:00):
My parents never put me in anysports programs or after school
things or they didn't knowanything like that.
And you know, in Mexico there'snot a doesn't really exist.

Raul Lopez (04:08):
There's no PTA meetings or anything.
Yeah, the only sports you playwith outside soccer with your,
with the neighbors, exactly,yeah.

And if that my dad is like no, you go to school for
a little bit and then you gotlike literal cows and horses.
You got to take care of themEverything.

Raul Lopez (04:23):
It's just funny when you say something like that
because it reminds my dad whereit's.
Like I would go play soccer.
I mean I'd go up my face, I godo football and I do things and
then come home and like I wantto go hang out with my friends.
Like what do you mean?
You would hang out with yourfriends all day.
You know, just the idea ofgoing to school was that's your
social life.
What are you talking about?

Yeah, exactly, and yeah.
So I grew up really shy and Ialways told myself like this
grade, you know, you're going tosixth grade and you spent at
the new school, you're going tojunior high and I'd be like all
right, new school, newenvironment, new people.
I'm going to be outgoing, I'mgoing to be like kid that raises
his hand and you know I'm justgoing to be more out there
because I used to just kind oflike hide in the back and be

(04:59):
pretty shy and and I couldn'tbreak that.
I was like I was like I'm goingto be out of the sixth grade,
came to school and I couldn'tbreak it.
I was back to my normal likeshy self.
Then high school came and I waslike, all right, new school,
new everything, I'm finallygoing to do it.
I didn't do it.
I was still shy.
And then when I went to college,I went to Baylor University.
So totally out of my element.

(05:20):
You know where I grew up.
It was like majority Latino.
So I get to Baylor and it'slike a predominantly white
school.
I still remember my biology1301 class on Monday morning,
first class in college, and Iwalk in and I think I was me and
this other girl were the onlylike non white people there and
I was just like, oh, this istotally different.

(05:44):
And that was the initialtransition to trying to be a
little bit more outspoken, justbecause it you have to be like
there was no other choice.
Everything's different.
But it was until I like we canget into this later I failed out
of Baylor that I had to go toUniversity of Houston and that's
really you know.
I saw that as my lastopportunity to finally do

(06:04):
everything I ever said I wasgoing to do and and I was
outgoing Like when I graduatedhigh school I was so jealous of
some of the valedictorians thatthey were like decked out in
their stoles and ribbons andeverything and I was like, all
right, they didn't do it forhigh school.
But when I graduated collegeI'm gonna be like decked out and
everything and I'm proud ofmyself because I was like I had.

(06:25):
I was in student organizationsand did a million different
things that really taught meabout leadership and sent me up
the rest of my life pretty muchto have to learn how to serve
and serve others behind me thatyou know, need the same
resources, the same mentorshipthat I've received growing up.

Raul Lopez (06:44):
Yeah, you bring a couple good points and all that,
but you know, one of the thingsI picked up early on too was
about you were taking bilingual,so you were doing ESL when you,
when you first started- youknow, yeah.

So it's funny.
Traditionally you that's forstudents coming like from Latin
America that you come in and tobe immersed in English.
I mean, I was born and raisedhere, but for some reason they
kind of put the Hispanic kids toESL like by default, and then,

(07:15):
once the teacher was able to see, all right, you have a pretty
good mastery of English, we'llput you now in all English.
I clearly remember this.
A lot of my fellow students gotmoved in third grade and I miss
Garza, and this Garza moved theother kids in third grade and I

(07:36):
was always like, and I didn'tget moved.
Keep in mind me and my fellowfriend, my art.
We were the two smartest kidsin our grade.
So I was like I remembertelling this Garza hey, why am I
not getting switched?
Like I know how to speakperfect English.
And then she told me something.
She said I know you do.
She's like I don't want you toforget your Spanish, so I'm
going to put you a whole notheryear in ESL so that we continue

(07:59):
to practice your Spanish.
And I was really mad about thatat that point.
But today I'm so gratefulbecause you know, I still know
how to speak it, I know how towrite it, but not the grammar
part.
I totally forgot you know, theaccents and you know all that,
all that correct grammar, butreading it, writing it and
speaking it Like I still know,I'm very comfortable being able

(08:21):
to do that and I know a part ofthat is thanks to Ms Garza
holding me back in ESL.

Raul Lopez (08:27):
And that's really funny because it's it's as a
parent, as a parent, and now mydaughter, no-transcript the
challenge of teaching her tospeak Spanish.

You know me and my wife don't speak Spanish for
each other.
We speak English to each other.

Raul Lopez (08:40):
I speak Spanish with my mom and my parents, and so
when she's with grandma, grandpa, she understands.

She understands enough Spanish she pretends like
she doesn't, but sheunderstands.

Raul Lopez (08:48):
You know she'll spend a week with my mom and
completely communicate.
She spent her whole summer lastsummer in Peru.
You know so, she, you know soshe was able to get along well,
you know, but it's such achallenge and that whole idea is
ESL.
I have another friend of mine,mauricio.
I think you might have met himbefore.
He did the same thing with hisson when he started school.
He's like he knows English, heknows whatever.

(09:10):
But I'm starting him in.

ESL just like he learned Spanish.

Raul Lopez (09:13):
So yeah, it's funny to think that way, and so
obviously English was not amajor barrier for you, but you
did say your shyness was kind ofa barrier to you.
And for when you're applyingfor colleges a lot of the times.
They want to seeextracurricular, they want to
see things like that and youknow, do you think that your

(09:33):
shyness kind of hapered you insome way when moving to our high
school?

Oh for sure I mean I'm grateful for how everything
turned out, you know, in the endfor the experiences, but no,
absolutely.
I mean I look at once I becamelike mega active in college,
like any opportunity, studentopportunity for leadership or
networking that was available Itook full advantage of.
I realized how much I lost inBaytown, like where I grew up,

(09:59):
in my high school, because Ididn't do any of that.
My focus was just passing yourclass and playing basketball
with my friends after school.
That's literally what I diduntil I got a job working as a
cashier at HB.
And then once I got my firstjob, you know, I stayed kind of
pretty much working.
After that I wasn't playingbasketball after school as often

(10:21):
but yeah, it definitelyhindered me.
I don't know what opportunitiesI lost on right, because I
never asked, I never seeped themout, I don't know what, like
trips that I missed out on orscholarships I missed out on.
I don't even know, because Iwasn't even.
They weren't even on my radarat that point.

Raul Lopez (10:41):
So you mentioned about being shy and some of the
effects I can have in school.
You know, I remember I'm not ashy person to say, but I used to
be really shy early on in mylife and then when I got to like
high school I kind of came outof my shell.
And then when I went to collegeI still was very social and not
shy around people I wascomfortable with.

(11:03):
You know, like if I'mcomfortable, you'd never think I
was shy, but in classes I wasvery shy.
You know, I've never, like yousaid, I've never raised my hand,
I've never answered questions.
I never wanted to be.
I felt small at that point, youknow, when I got to college,
because I wasn't as smart not assmart as I thought I was, but

(11:23):
everything was easy that Ididn't feel as smart as I was,
you know, and when things are achallenge, now you don't want to
be vocal anymore because you'reafraid of saying your voice.
And then, as I got morecomfortable with myself and it's
a funny story, it was like myjunior year, I think, and there
was this kid in the class whowas just super vocal, every
question, all the time, alwaysanswering questions to the

(11:44):
president.
He's one of my.
I was taking a grad level classand he hit me up.
When they said, hey, yo, let's,let's study for the exam.
I'm like, all right, let's go.
And then I got to start.
I was like I'm gonna start itbefore he comes over.
He hit me up so I don't soundlike an idiot when we're
studying together.
And, bro, he hit me up and Iignored him because I felt like

(12:05):
I was not prepared as well.
I didn't want to deal withtalking to someone he's so
stupid and we took our exams, hegot a D and I got like an A
minus or whatever and I was likeholy crap, the dude that's
always talkative just seemedlike he was smarter and I was
actually doing a lot better.
And there was a couple of timesthat I like we had at one point
the same project and I was likeyo, I beat him on that as well.

(12:27):
But no, I like I wasn'tchallenging him, but it was just
like you know, but you come offas that, you know what I mean.
And because when you go intocollege you don't feel as
comfortable sometimes that hekind of puts you back in your
shell and kind of makes thingsharder for you to feel confident
, and that confidence kind ofbuilds up.
So when you started going toBaylor, do you think that that
shyness also affected some ofwhat was going on there, or was

(12:50):
there other factors that werecausing you to have difficulties
in Baylor?

Yeah, there was a couple I think I was trying to.
So I mentioned earlier that Iwas like an AB student, without
really trying, because thatplayed a part in getting into
college.
The curriculum was a lot moredemanding, way more than I was

(13:14):
used to.
I realized I don't know how tostudy because I've never really
had to besides like flipping acouple of pages and memorizing a
couple of things, and that gotme through K through 12.
When I get to college I wasdoing pre-med and pre-business.
I had no idea what the hell Iwanted to do.

(13:36):
I just thought that seemed likethe right thing to do.

Raul Lopez (13:40):
We're on the same track, this seems.
I was pre-med too.

Yeah, so I'm taking biology and I'm just trying my
best to pay attention, butthere's three grades in the
class for the entire semester.
So if you mess up on one test,forget ever getting an A.
Now you're just at the mercy ofpassing the class.

Raul Lopez (14:01):
And if you mess up on the if you don't get a
perfect score in the next twoexams like that's it right, you
fail the class.

And I think the shyness though at that point I
didn't really have mentors oranything like guiding me and I
think at that point I was alsotoo scared to ask, to feel
embarrassed or to feel like Idon't know what I'm doing or
just to sound dumb.
I think that's what you saidearlier same thing you don't
want to sound dumb, you'reprotecting yourself because you

(14:28):
think people are gonna make funof you, but in reality there's a
bunch of people asking for help.
I never one step foot into anoffice hour for a professor and
that's one of my biggest regrets, because now that I know
professors and I actually teacha little bit myself to small
business owners it's in thoseone to ones where you really

(14:49):
understand the concept.

Raul Lopez (14:50):
And.

I know now a lot of those office hours go empty
because nobody ever like comesin except a couple of people,
and those are the ones that endup getting A's, because when
they don't understand in class,just like you, they actually go
and ask and they're not scaredto like no, sit.
You're gonna sit with me for 30minutes and you're gonna
explain to me exactly, because Idon't get it and you're the
teacher and I'm paying you tolike teach me.

(15:11):
I didn't realize that that'swhat I was supposed to be doing
and I paid for it, eventuallygetting back grades to the point
where it took about me onacademic probation.

Raul Lopez (15:22):
Yeah, I think for me too.
I think the only time I startedvisiting professors for office
hours was because I was onacademic probation.

That was part of my probation.

Raul Lopez (15:30):
Like you have to go to office hours.
It's like okay, okay, but yeah,it's true.
Like you don't realize how muchhelp they can be.
It's one thing to sit in front,especially when you go to big
schools, big classes, especiallyprobably biology and chemistry
they're just big you're a biggroup, You're one of a small

(15:50):
person when you're used to smallschools and you used to be in a
strong one it's intimidatingand those teachers take the time
and, like you said, a lot ofthe time it's empty and they
don't do any of that stuff, andso you're going through what was
pre-med and pre-business.

I think you said yeah, cause in my head I was
gonna be a radiologist, but havemy own practice and did both I
had, and again no idea what thehell I was saying.

Raul Lopez (16:16):
And so well, obviously I mean I did pre-med,
so I know you screw up early.
It's kind of a big hole to digyourself out.
So obviously it seems like youdug yourself into a pretty big
hole.

Oh yeah, big hole.

Raul Lopez (16:31):
And so what happened to you after that hole that you
dug yourself?

Yeah.
So I get on academic probation,second semester and I'm no.
Yeah, I was in Waco.
Let me be clear.
I was living in Waco, whereBaylor University is, for two
years.
I was enrolled at BaylorUniversity for three semesters.

(16:56):
My last semester I didn't havethe grades to like.
Once you get on academicprobation, where your probation
is that you hit a certain gradelevel to come, you know, to get
off of it or you're out of theschool.
So I didn't hit it.
I tried.
I'm not going to say I tried mybest.
I'm not going to lie.

(17:17):
I can admit that today, lookingback, 10 years from now, I had
different priorities.
What a 21-year-old college kidmight have when he's living four
or five hours away from homeand getting great grades was in
one of them.
I hadn't really got punched inthe face by life yet, which
would be coming very fairly soonfrom that.

(17:40):
And then I did a semester atthe local community college.
And then that's when I was likewhat the hell am I doing?
I can't be doing this.
And once I realized I couldn'tgo back to Baylor or that it was
going to be really expensiveand I didn't want to do pre-med
anymore, I went back touniversity.
Sorry, I came back to Houstonand I'm not going to lie, I came

(18:00):
back on a high horse thinking Iwas just at this private
college.
Right, like man, I have to goto University of Houston.
I thought of it below me.
And then when I tried to getinto U of H, the counselor tells
me I can't get in because mygrades are too low.
And I was like what do you mean?
And she's like, yeah, go trycommunity college or something.

(18:23):
And that was the slap in theface that I needed.
I desperately needed it and Irealized when I walking out that
room I was like I put myself inthis situation, I can get
myself out, I'm only in thissituation.
That's really shitty right nowbecause of my own decisions.
And I went a semester toHouston Community College where

(18:46):
I now teach, which is so funny,and I got all AIDS and
everything because I wanted toget like.
I was like, no, I'm better.
Nothing against communitycolleges they're really awesome
and everything.
But I wanted a degree from auniversity, from a four-year
college, and I knew that I couldget it.
And walking out of thatcounselor's office that day when
she said, I don't know, go trycommunity college or something,

(19:08):
that was a turning point for mylife.
Honestly, after that, theshyness.
I never saw that shy Jose everagain and I still haven't seen
him and I'm very grateful forthat.

Raul Lopez (19:19):
Nice, yeah, and I think it's funny where you put
it.
Sometimes you have this littlehigh horse, like you say,
because you go into a higherschool than other things.
And you're like, oh, yeah,whatever.
And then when it's like, oh, Icould really, I really wish I
could go to this school at thispoint, because I was like
starting over, and it's, yeah,you know it sucks, but it's

(19:39):
funny because you know, what'sinteresting is actually that you
know when, when you talk aboutthe academic probation that
people sometimes don'tunderstand, so you can actually
get expelled from a school, justthe way you can get expelled
from high school, like I didn'tknow that going into college
until they told me, if you don'tpass this semester, you're
going to be expelled.
And I'm like, holy shit, Ican't get expelled.

(20:01):
And yet you know, and you'restill trying to figure out,
you're probably trying to change, you probably change your major
like four or five times, tryingto figure out what am I going
to do, yeah, what am I going tobe good at it?
And until and if you're lucky,you'll hit one that works for
you early enough that yourgrades kind of are able to keep
you floating enough to keepgoing, or you don't.

(20:22):
And at that age, what the helldo you know?

You know, you don't know Of course, and you know
what you said right now you mayhit that one class.
You actually do like I realizedmy thing was in business
because in the middle of youknow again, I was pre-med,
pre-business.
In the business class Iactually did really well, but I
knew well I have to go to medschool.
I had to focus more on myenergy, on the pre-med stuff

(20:46):
chemistry and all that and Idude, I hated that so much.
I wasn't learning anything, itwas just memorization.
It was in a like a vibrant,educated environment for me and
I and I want to stress that thatlike how I hated having to read
from those textbooks and it wasnot exciting, it was not fun,
it did not activate my brain atall, it was just like a chore to

(21:09):
have to, to have to do this.
Those late nights were likeagonizing, trying to memorize a
thousand different words.
And what does this mean?
And what does that?

Raul Lopez (21:18):
mean, and we're going to, we're going to test
you on 25 of those you know youhave to.
Yeah, exactly yeah.

And then I and I say like I stress that because I
absolutely love learning today,love it.
I know that if I went back toschool today with with this like
hunger that I have forknowledge now that I carry every
single day of my life, I wouldrock it.
I would be valid Victorianclass like of the school and
everything.
But you know, god had adifferent plan of how everything

(21:44):
happens and you know, I didn'trealize till after I graduated
college that I actually love toread.

Raul Lopez (21:50):
I love to learn.

And what they were forcing me to read wasn't.
I wasn't interested in that, inthat, you know, was interested
in other things.
So it's.

Raul Lopez (22:00):
it's interesting because one of the things
someone told me you know, when Igot to college happy through
they were like you don't go tocollege to learn, you go to
college to learn how to teachyourself.
You know what I mean andsometimes you need to learn how
you learn and the whole, likeyou said, high school everything
was easy.
You didn't.
you didn't know how you learnedbecause you just came, and then

(22:22):
when you have to hit thosestruggles, when you're like okay
, I need to figure out exactlyhow things work.
I mean, when I was in highschool, I hated writing.
If you asked me to write threepages, I would like die in agony
of writing three pages oranything long.
I hated writing.
And then I'll get to like myjunior year and I'm banging out
like 25 pages in one night.

You know what I mean.

Raul Lopez (22:42):
Like I was still procrastinating till like the
last day to do it.
But you know I was.
I would bang out 25 pages andget like a B plus or an A minus
on it and I'm like where thehell did that come from?
You know, what I mean.
No, I totally get it, man.
And so you end up going to theuniversity of Houston.

What did you study there?
So a cool story.
That happened there too.
So what?
I took a semester at HoustonCommunity College and took some
pre-business courses there, somethings that I needed.
So you have age told me youcan't.
You have to go to communitycollege and then those higher
grades will average you out sothat you can come into our
campus.

(23:17):
And at U of H, the hardestschool to come into as a
transfer student is the businessschool, because the business
school there is actually.
It's pretty legit.
It's at the number one salesprogram in the country, which I
later became a part of, and theyhave the number one
entrepreneurship program in thecountry and all the other
programs are like very highcaliber.
So, they have a high threshold.

(23:39):
You know you have to pass toget in.
So I couldn't get in.
After, even after having allthese at Houston Community
College, I couldn't get into thebusiness school because my GPA
still wasn't high enough.
They needed like a I don't know, like a 3.5 or something to
transfer in and I was nowherenear that.
So, with shy little Jose beingdead now and this new person

(24:02):
that's like ambitious and it'slike nothing's going to get in
the way of what I need because Ihave to do this.
There's no more opportunities.
There's not another school.
This is the last one and I haveto make it happen.
I went straight to the, to thebusiness college, and I realized
, okay, the counselor, if I gotalk to a counselor, they have
to ask for a million permissionsfor what I need.
I need to get access to getinto all these classes without

(24:25):
actually being in the businessschool.
Who are they asking permissionfrom?
And then I was like they'reasking permission from the Dean
or the assistant Dean.
So I was like so, that's how Ineed to talk to.
So I'm proud to say that I wentstraight to Dean.
Frank Kelly is still.
He's an awesome dude.
And I was like hey, I need tohave a meeting with you.
And then I have the meetingwith him.

(24:46):
And I was completely honestwith him.
I told him exactly whathappened.
I brought myself to thesituation.
I told him this is how I willgraduate as one of as a role
model student for this college,and I was like I just need some
help.
I need to be able to get intothese classes.
He believed in me.
He signed me up for all of them, didn't have to ever talk to a
counselor my entire time there,because after that I would just

(25:06):
go to him.
He gave me the opportunity andI ended up graduating as a role
model student from the BauerCollege of Business, which I'm
very, very grateful for.

Raul Lopez (25:16):
And just like you mentioned earlier with office
hours, people don't use those.
Like people don't use theirdeans.
Like go make a connection withyour Dean.
Like I was really close withthe Dean of Students at my
school when I was the chapterpresident of our fraternity and
when we I would go and meet withhim like once a month.

(25:40):
I was like I'm scheduling ameeting with you once a month
and we're talking about what wewant to accomplish on campus and
he would let us get away withso much more.
Find us funding for events.
You know we were one of theonly Greek fraternities on
campus.
There was a lot to throwparties on campus, like official
parties, and there was a timethat they let us go past.

(26:01):
You know they usually were doneby 12.
They would let us go to one.
You know there was one night.
we had it till, I think what'sit called.
They like savings games, so wewere there till I go, almost
three in the morning, 40.
And they I mean meeting all thepeople at the Student Union,
meeting your things, like all ofthem will have your back.
And when you leave college,getting a recommendation from a

(26:25):
teacher for something is great.
Getting a recommendation fromthe dean of something is even
better.
And they just like professor,they have office hours, they're
accepting people to go in thereand I think that we don't know
the resources we can sometimesyeah.
Was there other resources thatyou used that helped you out

(26:46):
while you were at university?
Houston?

No, dude people was the biggest resources, for sure
.
What you just said about thedean that was top three power
move that I did as a student Isas I built my relationship with
the assistant dean I was runningfor president of this
organization called the HispanicBusiness Student Association.
I had a whole thing planned.
I thought I was a shoe in forthe role, for sure.

(27:12):
I was wondering what theuniverse like, why it didn't
happen when I didn't get theposition, because I had so much
I wanted to give theorganization that gave me so
much, this HBSA.
I wanna give them a shout outbecause they were instrumental
in my development and leadership, emotional intelligence,
personal development, publicspeaking and all these soft

(27:35):
skills that I still use till Iwas staying 10 years later after
graduating.
I would practice them at leastonce a week with this
organization.
But when I didn't win thepresidential title for this
organization, which was thelargest student organization on
the entire University of Houston, so it was a big deal so I
didn't get it and at first I wasbummed about it but then,

(28:00):
because of my faith, I quicklyrealized all right, god, you
didn't want me to do that.
So what do you want me to doBecause this is really really
good information that I wannapass on to other people and
resources that I now have accessto that I wanna share with
other people and connectionsthat I have access to from U of
H.
And then I ended up starting myown nonprofit and leadership
program, which ended up being somuch better than what I wanted

(28:21):
to do, because now I was ablenot just to serve these students
at this one studentorganization within this one
college, but the entire campusand I realized the bigger
picture later turns on to anonprofit that we're serving all
the colleges and communitycolleges and universities from
the greater Houston area andwe're partnering up with, like
Macy's in the Galleria to givethese students a brand new

(28:44):
tailored suit and like all thisother stuff.
So, I'm grateful for thosefailures as well, because it was
a pivot into something bigger,and I'm grateful I didn't at
that point didn't bum about ittoo much.
I've got to work like the nextday and I'm like all right,
where does this information needto go then?
But the Dean she's not the Deananymore.

(29:04):
That college was a new Dean,which I'm cool with as well.
But one day when I didn't getthat, the president rolled for
the student organization.
I was okay, well, now I have alot of free time for my last
semester here, so I had it allplanned out.
My last semester I'm gonna bepresident and do that.
I was like I've never met theDean before and my student, like
my tuition, pays for her salary.

(29:27):
So I asked my assistant Dean Iwas like, hey, what is a meeting
that she's never had beforewith the student?
Like what's something shereally likes?
And because that made him havea good relationship, she really
likes milk and cookies.
And I was like done, I was likeI wanna have milk and cookies
with the Dean.
And I had milk and cookies withthe Dean and from that there
was this like prestigious, likelittle student video that they

(29:51):
would do like a studentspotlight and it's on YouTube
that they do.
Like the whole college is thewhole like 30 minute highlight
on a student.
And now I always thought thosewere the coolest things ever and
I was like, before I graduate,I wanna get one of those.
I share my story with the Dean,tell her about my family, my
mess ups and everything and howI got to here and how I'm a role
model student.
And she's like we need to do avideo spotlight on you and then

(30:13):
I have that connection rightafter that.
So making friends with not juststaff but faculty, like
everybody, is a huge power movethat not enough people take
advantage of.
Because to us, I think, asstudents in early in the year,
early in the year 20s, you'relike that's just another
professor, it's another adult,right, like you know whatever,
like they're just clocking intheir hours, but they have a lot

(30:34):
of power and a lot of access toresources that you desperately
need.
And that's always my biggestrecommendation to students.
It's to like go meet the Dean.
Do you know who they are yet?
And you're like no, I was likeI think I've seen them once or
twice.
So I was like okay, stopeverything you're doing and then
focus 100% on lending andmeeting with this person,
because that's gonna justaccelerate anything you were

(30:55):
gonna do alone.
Him or her are gonna accelerateyou tremendously on anything
you were gonna do about yourself.

Raul Lopez (31:02):
And they can help you get out of pickles as well.
And you know, and it's, youdon't wanna meet your Dean, you
wanna cultivate a relationshipwith faculty, you know?
And then another thing I alwaysrecommend to one of the things
I did somebody told me this onethat the get go is as a freshman
, when you'd have, if you havewhat's it called a work, study,

(31:23):
go apply for a job at financialaid office.
Get to know everybody atfinancial aid.
That way, when you get screwedand you need some extra money,
these guys will help you pushyou.

Oh, we know.

Raul Lopez (31:33):
Raul Hedis.
Okay you know, when I hadissues with financial aid, I
call him like, okay, we can't dothis, we can't do this, but we
can do this and we can get youthis.
And they'll tell you exactly.
You don't have to wait in lineor wait three days per call.
They know you.
So it's about trying to useyour resources there.
You know I didn't use it enoughAll my resources in college, so
all crop ton of money fromstudent loans, which you know

(31:56):
I'm guessing when you leftBaylor, you probably left a lot
of student loans too.

Oh yeah, I took a really nice souvenir with me.

Raul Lopez (32:02):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, thank you for failing out here.
Here's a whole lot of money.
That's something that a lot ofpeople don't realize either.
College is expensive,especially if you leave with
nothing in return.
Yeah, you know if you quithalfway through or after two,
three years, you still gotta payfor those two, three years.

Yeah.

Raul Lopez (32:20):
And I mean we can have a whole discussion outside
on a different topic, just onhow to challenge and try to get
past that or whatever.
But you know yeah, you get outof college, you graduate it, you
became a model student, to thepoint that you're having cookies
and milk with the D, and theystarted a whole new thing for

(32:40):
you.
And now the real work startsthe real work starts.
Tell me about that journey.

Yeah, you know, I had a very unique experience
where it was like up trajectory,up, up, up, up, up up, like I
graduate, decked out ineverything.
I told myself I was gonna bedecked out in, also the honor
that when I'm graduating, I'mgraduating.
I met my wife at the Universityof Houston and that was like

(33:07):
the biggest bonus ever and she'sall decked out too and
everything.
We're both actually role models.
Students were both there waslike this circle of students on
campus that we would all receiveeach other at all the
leadership events and everything, and she was one of them and
that's kind of how we met.
But I, as many of the mentorsthat I had, I ended up going

(33:32):
into really bad first job.
I picked it because of thetitle that they were gonna offer
me and because of the travelopportunities.
It was low pay but I was therefor I think like a year and a
half.
In my first job it was.
I was a global marketingdirector for a company here

(33:54):
which I was not a director level, like I was doing coordinator
stuff.
But I've got to pick my type.
They didn't have a marketingdepartment, so essentially got a
chance to do whatever the hellI wanted.
So I picked my title, I pickedmy position and they gave me an
office and it was cool.
And then when they said you'regonna get to travel, that was
the big highlight for me and Idid.
I am grateful I got to go forthe first time to Atlanta,

(34:17):
america.
I went to Kuroboata, I went toSao Paulo, I went to Germany
went to really cool stuff and Iwas putting on the trade shows
and everything like for them asa marketing director.
However, all my other friendswere at bigger corporations,
maybe not big fancy title, butthey were doing these rotational
programs where they werelearning a little bit of

(34:37):
everything and then the companywould see like all right, what
do you like?
And then we'll give youresources to follow that.
Because, just like when yougraduate, when you enter college
for the first time, there was alot of stuff I didn't even.
I didn't know what marketingwas and I ended up graduating
with a marketing degree I didn'tknow.
I would actually love that Samething once you go into the real
world.
There's still so much you haveno idea.

(34:58):
Things you don't even know exist.
And in my role that I got, Iwas kind of just put in a corner
and was like told do marketing,Just whatever you think is best
, just do that.
There was no mentorship there.
There was no real like whatdoes the future look like here?
I wasn't asking differentquestions.
That's actually one of my bigregrets that I have.

(35:23):
I didn't run the jobs and stuffthrough some mentors that I
think would have gave me verygood, sound advice to say I
don't think this is the bestrole, Just keep waiting.
Even though because for somereason it took me for like a
couple of months to get a jobafter graduation, I didn't have
something lined up right awayand I think it was just hard for

(35:43):
marketing at that point and atthat point I had a few interests
in many things, so I needed alittle bit more mentoring and
structure.
So it was a cool job for thetravel, but it did me bad.
It did me a lot of bad becauseeverybody that was working there
had been working in the sameexact role for like 10 plus

(36:04):
years.
So I realized that the reasonwhy I did so well at U of H
these couple of years beforebecause I was surrounded by
other like extremely ambitiouspeople, students, there was new,
there's an innovation every day, new opportunities, new things
to go after, and then I get putin an environment where there
was all that was taken away andI totally assimilated to the

(36:26):
environment and it was really,really bad for me.

Raul Lopez (36:30):
Well, the good thing is, you didn't stick there long
enough to get super stuff.
And so after and it's.
I think there's things that youmentioned.
Rotational program I think allpeople don't even know rotation
program exists, but there arecompanies that are hiring people
straight out of college and ifyou go to your career center on

(36:51):
campus, they're usually are weable to tell you okay, these are
rotational programs that arecoming around and you can get to
try things, cause just likewhen you're in college, you
think you know, but you don'tknow until you start trying
different classes and you saythis is what I like and that's
where I'm going to go withpainting, with a career.
You know, there's so manypeople I know who are like oh, I
did Spanish major and now I domarketing.

(37:11):
I was in China as a relation,but I work IT.
You know what I mean?
It's like no, not everybodygoes right to.
I went to college, I did this,I did this and now I'm going to
do this.
You know we kind of branch outand learn through experience.
And the same thing with yourjob.
You know, sometimes you go intoa job and it might it's not the

(37:34):
right fit for you, just becauseof the culture you know, and
the culture is different and youdo feel a little competitive
with other people, you know youknow, it's like oh sure.
We graduated the same week.
We struggled the same my GP alittle behind the end.
How come?

he's making more money than me.

Raul Lopez (37:47):
You know what I mean , and there's a lot of soft
skills that all of us don't have, sometimes to kind of pick up
on that.
And so, after that job, whatcame next?

Yeah, so I leave, you know, I, that whole
comparing yourself to otherpeople.
I, you know, I'm 33 now.
I barely stopped doing that,like I want to say, a couple of
years ago Because, yes, thewhole decade after graduating I
was continuously comparingmyself to other people my age or
graduated at the same time, butthey're like skyrocketing in

(38:20):
their career, which I'm sograteful and happy for him, and
I was wondering, like, whatabout me?
Like where's, where's mine?
It wasn't until a couple yearsago they had this whole
realization that, you know, I'mon my own path and it's going to
be very different because thethings I want are very different
and things other people wantand I leave that job and they
were, they were kind enough toyou know, I told them, you know

(38:41):
what's up once I realizedlike I asked.
I think I asked like what arethe next like three and five
years look like for me here?
I didn't like the answer.
It was kind of essentially likewell the same, like you're
going to do what your job is,and I was like that's not really
what I want.
I was transparent with them andthat was my first job at a
college man and do I know Ididn't do everything perfect.
I could communicate,communicate the things better

(39:02):
and what my needs were.
And you know, honestly, lookingback, I wouldn't have taken the
role because I didn't reallyask too many questions about
what I was going to be doing.
I they gave me like threemonths before you know, like to
go find a new job in themeantime while I was still
employed by them.
So that was nice of them and Iended up working for Baker
Hughes.
I get a contract from them at areally cool project that was

(39:24):
doing intrapreneurship,different from entrepreneurship,
that this is innovation withinthe company.
So Baker Hughes had a projectcalled digital wildcatters where
they signed a digital.
It was called wildcatters wherethey said hey engineers, hey
scientists, create something,build something, innovate
something, invent something newand, if it's good enough, will
turn it into a spin off and whenyou can become a CEO and you

(39:48):
know it'll be a whole anothercorporation.
The problem is that thescientists and engineers are.
They're mega smart in in likestem soft skills.
They're not that good.
And that's why itself.
So I got hired on to help themdevelop pitch decks and other
marketing collateral to themessage that they're trying to

(40:09):
say, so that your average personcould understand, like you know
what these people were talkingabout, like what is actually the
invention, and you know why youcare.
And I was being coached bypeople in the startup world.
That was my introduction toentrepreneurship and I freaking
loved it.
I loved it so much.
I love the pitching, thestartup community, everything.

(40:31):
And that was my like first biteof entrepreneurship and and
I've been doing it, you know,ever, ever since the oil market
crashed, these people got let go, but I, you know I was already
hooked on it.
So I said you know what's acheap startup business that I
can start?
That's high ROI.

(40:51):
And I don't know if you knowthose bubble soccer things where
you kind of go into a plasticbubble and you bump into people.
Oh, yeah yeah, yeah, not aspopular anymore, but you know, a
couple years ago there's likethe biggest hit.
So I was a second company tobring it to Houston and it was
really cool experience.
I bought inventory from Chinaand arrived.
I built a company, I did awebsite, branding and marketing,

(41:12):
started promotions anddifferent corporations and
events and it gave me a lot ofreally cool experience.
And I realized that you know mymy business degree from
university is cool and all, butI forgot a lot of the stuff that
we learn.
I still know, remember everysingle lesson that I learned
from owning my own business.
I never forget every.
I know exactly why I lost everypenny, exactly why you know

(41:35):
some contract like feel through.
I know all the lessons and Iwill always carry with them.
So I realized I learned bestfrom experience.
I need to actually get my handsdirty on things and that's how
I, that's how I get excitedabout stuff.
So I did that for like a yearand a half.
And then what?
What killed my business is thata lot of pretty much all my
events were after a work hours.

(41:57):
So you know, from five to sevenaround this time right now, you
get a good amount of hours ofsunlight.
Well, in like what, is itNovember or October, the time
changes and it's five o'clockand it's pitch black outside All
my afternoon.
Business like I completely and Istarted looking for a job
because, you know, I had eventson the weekends but that wasn't

(42:19):
enough anymore.
I needed to just find anotherjob.
I decided to go to therecruiting agency to see, you
know, if they could help me out,like as an additional resource.
I ended up getting hired by therecruiting agency to work in
sales and that's when I gotintroduced to tech, because, as
it was a creative staffingagency and we sold to, like

(42:40):
marketing, communicationsdirectors, it directors,
services like you are UX, designand back, and then full sector
developers and front and thenback in and all this other stuff
, I really know what that was.
At that point I had to studylike what does you I mean?
What is you X mean?
What is the informationarchitect mean, like I had.
That's when I got introducedand I love that.

(43:01):
It was so cool to me.
I could see that it was afeature and I was at that
company for about three yearsand then I later it's when I
started my own.
I left there and then I startedbuilding my own marketing
agency because I really I'vealways really like the graphic
design, branding and socialmedia things and because I'm

(43:24):
bilingual, I've always been ableto do it in both like languages
and cultures.
So I did that for a while andthen I started still was
building community.
So, speaking about mess ups, Ibuilt a community called if I
can curse on your podcast it'scalled fuck up nights.

Raul Lopez (43:45):
You can.
You can fuck it for you can.

It was a global organization that we found
during a Mexico City trip.
It's a monthly hanging outwhere you bring three to four
entrepreneurs to talk abouttheir professional failures.
Every event, as you know, isthis is how it became successful
.
This event was all like this ishow I fucked up and stuff that
happened around it.
We built a really coolcommunity in Houston and when

(44:11):
the pandemic happens, we shutthat down.
I still wanted to build acommunity and build a business
out of it, and that's where wedecided to build tech 23, which
is what you introduced me as theco founder and CEO of tech 23,
23, a media and entertainmentcompany for the advancement of
Latinos and tech.

Raul Lopez (44:28):
It's really funny the way that you mentioned that
you learned a lot more from howyou fucked up in your stuff than
you did in school, and it'salways like that.
For me, I always a mentality islike you'll learn a lot more
from, from burning your hand onthe pan and then you will from,
from nursery.
You know, you know just you'll,you have to get in there and

(44:49):
you have to learn and you haveto fail them, I think, fuck up
in their failures.
You know I always keep comingback to Batman because Batman,
you know that only you know whydo we fall as we learn to pick
ourselves back up?
You know.
You know, you know every timeyou fail, it's going to.
It's just a new lesson to betaught.
And teach you.
Okay, I have to.
How do I avoid that failureagain?
And so I'm guess you know, withyour new company, the tech

(45:12):
plenty, there's an I'm sorry, Isaid tech 23,.
You didn't tell me.

You didn't tell me, man, I didn't know.

Raul Lopez (45:19):
Okay, so no, but tech, tech, and so obviously
you're out there trying tosupport the Latino community and
help out, and you know.
So what are some of theobstacles that you've seen that
you're trying to trying toovercome with your company?

Yeah.
So a little bit on the purposeof why it is.
The problem we're solving isthat, even though there's an
astronomical amount of Latinosthat use tech products every day
I mean, we're on zoom right nowthere's YouTube, google, amazon
, facebook, you know all thesedifferent tech apps and tech
hardware that Latinos use everyday Latinos actually only make

(45:58):
up 8% of the tech industry, sowe're huge consumers.
We're not on the, we're not onthe creators or leaders or owner
side.
We're very, very lowconsidering the demographics of
our country.
I in asking myself, like well,if you were to ask the Latino
community, hey, do you wanthigher paying jobs?
Do you want more like remoteopportunities, less physical

(46:19):
intensive work?
I think the answer is that hellyeah.
And if you're in the techindustry, hey, would you like,
like your, you know, betterbuilt products, because your end
user is a part of the process?
Would you like a more diverseworkforce?
I believe the answer is alsoyes.
So then I was like well, what'sgoing on?
Why is it?
Why is the percentage so low?
I believe that it's acommunication problem.

(46:39):
The way that the tech industryand the rest of them speaks to
Latino is very boring, so wedon't pay attention or it's not
culturally relevant.
So we don't really ever likeassociate ourselves with the
industry or see ourselves in theindustry.
Those are the things that we'resolving with our company.
So the challenge with what thatwe're facing right now is
actually that there isn't toomuch investment into the Latino

(47:02):
community.
That's why this problem ishappening.
So we're building somethingthat hasn't ever been done
before.
So the challenges with beingtrailblazers is that there isn't
a path laid out for us tofollow.
There's not somebody out therethat I can follow their journey
step by step.
We're doing something brand newand a lot of the stuff that

(47:24):
we're going to do is going tofail, and a lot of this stuff
that we can do is hopefullygoing to work out well.
But now you know I'm old enough, mature enough, seasoned enough
that I'm cool with taking thepunches that are going to come.
I know to expect them and Iknow that, like hey, just get
through the nose, becausethey're going to teach you
something and that something isgoing to be the key to that,

(47:45):
something that is going to work.
So I'm very excited for thejourney.
I'm very excited to for us tobe able to look in a couple of
years and see that we raise thatpercentage, you know, from 8%
to 20, 25% more, that we're ableto be recognized in the tech
industry, that you know Tech 23is a voice by Latinos for

(48:06):
Latinos, and that they'reauthentic and that's why we put
it in the core of our name.
Tech 23 represents 22 LatinAmerican flags plus one, the
United States flags, and wefocus on the Latino within the
United States and we actuallyhave patent pending the 23rd
Latino, because that's kind ofwhat we're branding ourselves as

(48:27):
this 20,.
You know it's very differentacross the United States.

Raul Lopez (48:32):
Nice.
That's awesome and as someonewho is a Latino and tech, I
completely understand.
You know the like.
I mean it's a continuum.
You know one of the reasons Idid the podcast we're kind of
trailblazers in our own path andand eventually you know in your
industry and what you're doing.
You know it's hard to go alongand get, get successful without

(48:54):
having someone that might havedone it before.
Give you guys, you know,mentorship.
That's a hard for a lot of us.
You know you've had you.
You know you talk about oh, Ididn't have a mentor for when I
was looking at job?
Yeah, a lot of us don't and wejust take the first job because
we're we're used to saying yougot to get paid, yeah, diet
student loans going to startkicking in and you're going to
start working.
And we don't know what to do.

(49:14):
We don't know where to go withthat career.
You know I my first job withwas with a company doing CRM.
You know I was on Sierra Madamand and I don't know where to go
with that.
And this I got.
I got laid off when theyswitched to sales for it, so I
didn't even get to learn salespost the biggest one out there,
you know.
Then from there I kind of workdifferent jobs.

(49:37):
I was able to get another jobwhere I was a Sierra Madman
essentially.
And then you know, I had totake a leap and say I'm going to
do consulting.
I consulted with a Sierracompany but I learned other
things there and I took thatrisk and that helped me get my
job that I have now.
Each one was a much progressivejump in the last few years
financially but you know, nobodytold me hey, try this, try that

(49:58):
, go this way go that way, youknow you're applying for kind of
everything because you're likemaybe this job will help me or
this job, and so I'm really it'sreally good to see that you
know you're working on helpingset those situations and so,
like, what are some of theprograms that you guys are
currently running in Houston?

Yeah, so in this phase of the business we have
our.
You know the first part wasdeveloping our podcast.
It was.
If the problem is we don't seeourselves in an entertaining way
or culturally relevant way,then I need to show you those
people that do exist smallpercentage, but they are there.
So we've been interviewingLatinos that work in tech and
then also showcase their culture.

(50:37):
So we go to restaurants, tobars, to cafes that are, like
you know, cuban places orVenezuelan places, and we use
that opportunity to showcase theculture, because another thing
we're doing is that Latinosourselves don't know all other
Latinos.
You know we're focused on ourown, you know bubble.

(50:58):
So I've learned so much frominterviewing people from Chile,
from Venezuela, from Guatemala,honduras, because you know, we
sat down, we had an intentionalconversation, we were open
minded, open hearted to be like,all right, what's it like being
a Guatemalan in the US?
Like, tell me about it.
And they tell me they're sliverof the whole pie, of feeling
that way.
Right, because we recognize now, you know, I'm a Mexican

(51:20):
descent.
But Mexicans in Florida, inCalifornia, new York, chicago,
probably have a totallydifferent experience than I do
here in Houston, and it'sbeautiful to, you know, get to
know ourselves a little bit more.
So we're running our podcast.
Pretty soon we're going to beopening up our in person events.
The goal is to have a travelingevent where we go to large Latin

(51:44):
American this, you know, latinomajority cities and, you know,
have a big party for their, fortheir tech community, the
Latinos and tech.
Get everybody to know each other, that everybody exists in a
really fun environment and thenbe the bridge with these tech
companies that they invest withus so that we can bring, you
know, bring both worlds together, but like in an authentic way.

(52:05):
And then, once we become this,you know, pretty authority voice
in the tech community, we see abranch of kind of consulting as
well, where, when our, whencompanies want to release new
products or new services or theyneed help with recruitment,
that they that they see tech 23as a, as a valuable partner in

(52:30):
in like, hey, come, help us.
Make sure that our message tothe people is it's in the right
way, that it's in an authenticway and that we're speaking to
them in an exciting way so thatthey can want to, you know, want
to work for a company or or areengaged with our products and
services.

Raul Lopez (52:46):
Nice.
Yeah, that's really awesome.
It's it's nice to see you knowit's like I said, has a Latino
and tech.
You.
You don't really meet too manyof us, I think I went to, I
worked at a law firm and so theyhave what's it called I forget

(53:06):
the name of the other day, butit was like a technology legal
for legal professionals programthat the you automatically get
signed up for Ilta,international technical
technology for legal associationlike that.
And so we'd go to events and Iwould go to the events in
Houston for free booze and food.

(53:27):
You know, just because I wouldgo and you go there and it's all
these you know upper level CIOs, mostly white guys, and I'm
just kind of in the backgroundso I'll introduce myself trying
to say hi, my CEO would come andsay oh, you showed up and like
yeah, and then you know we'd gothere and just kind of eat food
and drink beer and you know, tryto hang out.
I wasn't not really good withnetworking and yeah, and I think

(53:49):
in the few years I worked atcompany seven years I've been to
quite a few days.
I just like to go for Christmasbecause you get gifts and stuff
If you ever go to another thing,and they have something during
Christmas you might leave with agift and those corporate
Christmas parties are legit.
They're always very good items,yeah, so I think I left with a
nice ball of my wet one year, soit was.
But it was funny because I'mdoing all this and of all my

(54:11):
years doing that, I met oneother Latino in there and we
kind of went right to each otherand then we started having kind
of our monthly lunches.
We'll just go, we'll go meet ushave lunch.
How things are going?
what's going on with your careerjust to kind of, you know, lean
on each other and talk abouteach other.
Like you said, there wasn'tmany of us, so it's you know.
I wish you the best of luck onthat man and I hope to see a lot

(54:37):
of success in it, because Ithink it's it's important, you
know.
And so, with everything thatyou're seeing and everything
that you've been through, youknow I know we've talked a lot
about different ideas andtechnology, but, like for
Latinos in technology, you knowwhat's probably one of the
biggest obstacles currently theyhave to deal with to get into

(55:00):
technology.

I want to say imposter syndrome, that you
don't feel like that you belongand you don't see people in
those roles that are Latino.
So then you're just kind oflike, oh man, am I going to step
foot into another industrywhere it's just a bunch of
people that don't look like me,don't understand me that, that I
may not be prepped enough foryet, and now I can confidently

(55:26):
say that bullshit, because whatyou carry, this, this being
bilingual, being bi-cultural,understanding the Latino market,
which is the largest purchasingpower that's coming into the
United States, like if theLatinos, the purchasing power
between Latinos in the US alone,was the country we have the
fifth largest GDP in the world.

(55:48):
We are a MFN powerhouse that iscoming and every single Fortune
500 company now has their eyesset on the Latino community.
What is happening is that theywant their products and services
to you know to, to be connectedto the Latino community,
because this is, this is the new, the new America that's coming,

(56:09):
and I and I say that becausethey have to go and hire like
agencies, consulting companies,to set up the way, the best way
possible to talk to the Latinocommunity, because it's not
authentic If they're CEO andtheir executive board that looks
nothing like the Latinocommunity talks to them.
It's not authentic, it's goingto come off fake and everything.

(56:30):
My Mark Zuckerberg can't gotalk to the Latino community.
But you know, if you're Latinoin tech today or if you're
wanting to go into the industry,you have that as a part of your
DNA already what thesecompanies are paying big money
for to be able to connect withyour family and your friends.
You do that effortlessly.

(56:51):
You just need to learn the skillset.
That's the easy part.
They're spending a lot of moneytrying to connect.
I mean the biggest example, theSuper Bowl that just happened.
The most important commercialin the Super Bowl is the first
one that plays right after thehalftime show, and that
commercial this time was alittle Mexican girl from the NFL

(57:11):
flag football team, from Mexico, and like she goes and runs and
does a bunch of differentpeople.
So this billion dollar NFLcompany fully understands their
market and who's going to bewatching NFL in the future, and
they're not once proctor andgamble.
I pay a lot of attention to theYouTube commercials that I get,

(57:32):
or ads, and you know five, 10years ago they sucked.
They were just translatingdirect translation and they suck
.
They're getting really good now.
Yeah, a lot of them are showingsome very genuinely authentic
Latino stuff and if you want togo into tech, they desperately
need that.
So get over the fact thatyou're like well, I don't really
know this, and that youhonestly don't even need a four

(57:53):
year degree anymore.
A lot of these companies areputting out their own like
certificates where you take thesix day, eight months are
typical and you're good.
That's what they need you toknow.
You don't need to know historyand all this other stuff, they
just need you to know this andmight be up that you're
authentic self.
That is now a superpower forthese tech companies.
They're desperately looking forthis talent.

(58:14):
There is a huge skills gapright now in across the world,
but in the United Statesespecially, there are talent
pool does not have the rightskill set to fill up all these
thousands and thousands of openjobs in tech.
But Latinos can be part ofthose.
You know those jobs.
We just need to upskillourselves.
So that little idea that's likeoh, I don't know if I'm good

(58:35):
enough for that that just totalBS, because that it's actually
that your Latini.
That is actually the reason oneof the main, like assets you're
going to be able to bring to thecompany.

Raul Lopez (58:45):
Yeah, and it's you grow up your whole life saying,
oh, you speak two languages.
That's going to be so helpfulfor you in your career, and it's
like hardly ever was.
And it's like now it's like, oh, you're Latino, okay, maybe we
can figure out something for you.
You know, especially withcreativity and the way socials
are, I mean, that's awesome, bro, and so I, once again, I really
appreciate you being here.
Do you want to plug yourpodcast?

(59:05):
How to get to it?

Sure On all social media platforms and everything
we're at 23 us or tech 23 us.
That's our website.
Tech 23 scom, our podcast.
You'll find it by typing intech 23 us.
Social media handles are alltech 23 us.

Raul Lopez (59:23):
Nice, Awesome man.
Well, thank you so much forbeing here.
I really appreciate it.
I think this was reallyinformative.
I think there's a lot of, a lotof stuff that you know.
Hopefully people can take awayfrom this.
So, and then for everyoneelse's thing.
Once again, thank you guys allfor joining me and the support
and all the positive feedbackI've been getting, and hopefully
you'll join me again next timeas we continue to learn how to

(59:44):
say success in Spanish.

All Episodes

Shaping the Future of Latino Leadership in Tech - Jose Avalos

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Crime Junkie

24/7 News: The Latest

Stuff You Should Know

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Shaping the Future of Latino Leadership in Tech - Jose Avalos