Empowering Latino Businesses: Lili Gil Valletta in Conversation

Speaker 1:

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Jen :

Hi, I'm Jen Guidi, head of U.S. Commercial Bank Diversified Industries Group of BMO. Today, I have the privilege of introducing our episode with Jorge Ferraez, publisher of Latino Leaders Magazine, and Lili Gil-Valetta, co-founder and CEO at CULTURE+ GROUP. The two gathered at our recent Index 500 event in Dallas to discuss the skills needed to run a successful company, the opportunities for Hispanic business owners and much more. If you haven't already, be sure to listen to part one, two and three of our series where we take a deeper dive into how the Index 500 was born, highlight the remarkable achievements of Latino-owned businesses and discuss the success and entrepreneurial spirit of the Latino community. Enjoy.

Lili :

[Spanish 00:01:19]. Congratulations to everyone that is here because you inspired me to keep doing all the crazy things I keep doing every day because it's not easy. It looks easy when you get the award Jorge, but there's a lot of work, a lot of heart [Spanish 00:01:35]. So here we are to keep the conversation. Thank you for having me.

Jorge:

And Lili, welcome, welcome. And thank you for accepting this invitation. You are a real role model here in Dallas and many other parts of the country. And we all know that Latino, Latina-owned businesses are brewing and are thriving through the country and you are one of those examples. Let me start by asking you a little bit about your origin, your family. What values do they gave you so you later in life were able to create what you have created?

Lili :

Yeah, thank you. So I love that we're getting personal because everybody gets to read what's on LinkedIn and what's in a bio, what school you went to, and sometimes we minimize who we are as leaders to our titles or our credentials. But I think the one thing that is really powerful with the Hispanic community, and this is not just my opinion, with our firm we scraped the World Wide Web and millions of data points to see when Latinos talked about their culture what is it, and it's actually a set of values. And overwhelmingly the comments online unsolicited when Latinos speak of Latino pride, it was two times more likely to speak of resilience, hard work, and honoring those before us. So I think that is that preservation of the hard work and responsibility that we feel towards those that were behind us that keeps giving us the force to pave the way for those that will be paving the way forward.

Jorge:

How did you start your business?

Lili :

Yeah, so I was a corporate executive. I used to say that I wanted to be in the C-suite before 40, like [Spanish 00:03:21], seriously, just determined, "I'm going to do that." And I was certainly on a path to do that at Johnson & Johnson where I did become the youngest highest-ranking executive at that time in global marketing. And I realized that there was an opportunity to tap into the shifting demographics of our markets and left my corporate job, took a big risk in 2010 with my business partner who also left his corporate job. And here we are 13 years later serving some of the world's largest corporations all focused on activating the power of culture and shifting demographics to accelerate growth, to drive not just ESG, but EPS and growth and really disrupt the way we understand markets to create new paths to inclusion that also create new paths to good shareholder values.

Now we are three years in a row in the Inc. 5000 as one of America's fastest-growing privately-owned companies. I don't even know how many on the list are Latina owned, but hey, I'll take it. I'm sure we're one of the few. But it's because of that desire to follow the evidence in numbers and do a really good job at it.

Jorge:

I have devoted most of my live interviewing leaders like you and trying to learn from their experiences. And when you see these stories, you see the good part, you see the success, the happy ending, or the happy present, if you will. But seldom do we see the difficulties and the challenges. In your story Lili, what have been those moments and how and where did you get the strength and the vision to come out?

Lili :

Yeah, so that survivorship is really low because it's hard. If it was easy, everybody would do it. So that's why all of you in this list are [Spanish 00:05:22], the role models to follow. Absolutely incredible because it takes a lot of gut, preparation and resilience.

So what is it that gives you the power to keep on going? I mean, in the 13 years in business, I've had of course the months when we wonder how are we going to cover payroll? So where do I find the strength? In my case is playing for something bigger than myself. When things get dark, whether it is in life or in business, if the only thing you're pursuing is title, recognition or money, you will always fall short from that because there will always be more to get, there's never enough and it's going to leave us empty. So I feel like the pursuit of that is a recipe for always being disappointed because it's never enough.

However, if you believe, and I love the words of some of you that accepted your awards, you're honoring your employees, you're honoring the legacy of your parents. When you do that and you have to show up at 5:00 a.m. for whatever reason, you're doing that because you're honoring the people that depend on this business to continue to be successful because you know what your parents have gone through and that is bigger than the paycheck of that day or the numbers you'll make in sales that week. That is what keeps you going.

When things have gotten really hard for me, I remember that I have hundreds of families who are able to pay the mortgage, who have a dream to keep growing their careers, from young students to seasoned professionals that have a platform where they feel they can grow and contribute and in the case of what we do, influence some of the most powerful corporations to change the way they see the market. And that is bigger than our mission statement.

So what's your purpose that will carry us through when things are dark? Anchor on something bigger than you as a source of inspiration, whatever that is for you, and ultimately that belief is what's going to carry you through in the hard times. And surround yourself with people smarter than you. I think all the leaders here know that if you're the smartest one in the room, that's pretty dumb. So change that script.

Jorge:

You talked about waking up at 5:00 a.m to do something.

Lili :

Yeah.

Jorge:

And that is something that starts the difference or painting that line that divides leaders from the people who are not leaders. Tell us more about the disciplines that you have every day that make you a good leader for your company and a role model for others.

Lili :

Yeah, I go with the perfect trilogy that makes us complete human beings, like mind, body and spirit. So I need to be able to feed or nurture my mind, my body and my spirit every single day. Otherwise, it's incomplete. So what does that look like for me? Mine, I'm always either reading something new, subscribing to the right things that hit me. The body. So I love running and that's my thing. It's my escape. And spirit, spirit of gratitude, meditate, prayer. I am outside.

Jorge:

I think that everybody here and many people today have spoken about the momentum that the Latino community and the Hispanic economy is growing and is coming. From your perspective, do you think that that is something that is really going to happen for once and for all? What's your vision about that? What should we do as Latino and especially business owners?

Lili :

We have the third-fastest growing economy in the world. So if the numbers are there in the critical mass that they represent, why is it that it doesn't feel as big or as powerful? Could it be that we're still thinking small or maybe it's our own colonized minds, I don't know, that you feel like I need to protect so much my little part that I have big or small instead of assuming and realizing that there's abundance and the pie is really big and we all have a room to play in that big pie. So I really feel that, and I want to commend you for that, that the Index 500 and this as a community, not just as a list is where that progress will really happen.

Jorge:

What do you think are the big challenges combined with what you had as an experience that Latino-owned businesses have today?

Lili :

I don't care if you are a one-million up-and-growing shop or a one-billion Latino-owned company, access to capital, that is it. So there is something on whether we're not in the right rooms or we don't know how to pitch or, and I'll point to myself in this one, my entire family's in Colombia. I came to this country by myself with a suitcase without speaking English, so I had to figure it out on my own. Nobody told me by the age of 25 that I was supposed to be working on building my credit. I have an MBA from the University of Colorado, I went to Harvard Kennedy School, and guess what? I've made those mistakes.

So there is something with financial, and I don't even call it literacy, because when you say financial literacy it sounds like you don't know how to balance your checkbook. No, it's financial sophistication that we have yet to democratize amongst our own people, speaking the language of capital and money in a way that we get to access it. Not as 10,000, $100,000 here, but $100 million. That's what we're missing.

Jorge:

What advice would you give to a younger Lili that wants to start her own business?

Lili :

As I said earlier, surround myself with people smarter than me sooner. I did eventually, and I always have had mentors. But you think you're being so smart by hiring, I don't know, your cousin's friend as your bookkeeper, and then you realize year four that everything in your GL is wrong and your P&L is off. Seriously, it's stupid stuff. So it's [Spanish 00:11:54]. Yeah, I would definitely not shortcut. And yes, I will also tell the younger Lili to have a little bit more fun. Yes, it's cool to be intense and yes I wake up at 5:30 and do all my crazy stuff, but there is times and there is days where it's okay to sleep in and be kind and gracious with yourself. So maybe I would've smelled the roses a little bit more.

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