Latinas From The Block To The Boardroom Theresa E. Gonzales

In this episode, we discuss the power of healing the belief systems that we have grown up with as Latinas to help us pursue our dreams without guilt. Denise Soler Cox, a first generation talking to a third generation, Theresa E. Gonzales, who both grew up in the United States, discuss the guilt and shame that is often tied to our cultural norms if we don't speak fluent Spanish or we want bigger career opportunities to leave our home and cities. Our identities to our Latinidad culture is everything to us, but to our families and to our culture, being selfish in wanting more is sometimes seen as "whiteness" or betrayal, not greatness. We discuss how our power is tied to our culture and the opportunities we are provided here in the US, and as Latina women, we are stronger together when we can heal from the past by sharing our stories. For more information on Project Eñye, you can follow on IG and please subscribe to the Latinasb2b.com newsletter and follow us on Latinasb2b on IG and Facebook. Thank you Robert Lopez for audio engineering. 

Noelle Silver has been in the tech ecosystem for over 20 years and an AI executive at IBM. We discuss how technology companies are reaching new AI based product designs but still not being inclusive of communities that make up a third of the population that uses all technology products. How do you build for the future when the door is not open wide enough for community members to be on the product teams or when the C-Suite layers of leadership are not diverse to be considered inclusionary on product design.  It's time for accountability and to be inclusionary in product design and the create a pathway of ethics for the new AI technology. Gracias Noelle Silver and her website talking all things AI, Theresa E. Gonzales of 5-E Leadership & Marketing and Robert Lopez of Latinasb2b.com. Sign up for our Newsletter at Latinasb2b.com and Follow us Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter @Latinasb2b.

Gael and I connected at Podcast Movement Evolutions in Los Angeles, March 2022,  and talked about how podcasting has been making an impact into our communities.  I wanted to learn more about his podcast, Teenager Therapy and the collaboration began. Gael Aitor, host of Teenager Therapy started his podcast before Covid-19 at the age of 15, with his friends, because he saw the power of social media technology at a very young age to leverage connection for teenagers who needed to talk about what they were experiencing and what they like talking about in their social circles. Gael and his co-hosts created a talking space for teenagers to not feel alone, to laugh, to connect while being at home for months during Covid-19!  Gael, now 18 years of age, and I also discuss how Generation Z is the going to be the latest generation to up-end all things that we know today in marketing, technology and health. Gael tells us that this journey is not a one time thing for him and his Teenager Therapy co-hosts, who are continuing the conversations post Covid-19. Gracias Gael, you are truly making an impact to future generations from The Block To The Boardrooms! Special thanks for audio engineering, Robert Lopez of Latinas From The Block To the Boardroom Podcast @ Latinasb2b.com and Producer and Host, Theresa E. Gonzales of Latinasb2b.marketing. Follow us on IG @Latinasb2b and Twitter @LatinasB2B and stay informed from our Newsletter by signing up here. 

Latinas From The Block To The Boardroom podcast is very excited to share this Small Business Week 2022 collaboration podcast, with Proactive Network Consulting. As a Latina from New York City, Michelle Londoño, wife, mother of 3 children and principal of Proactive Network Consulting services of San Francisco, shares with us how her entrepreneurial journey started by her grandmother immigrating from Colombia. She tell us the unexpected journey of transferring her nursing skills that she acquired through USF, here in the Bay Area, into a skill set to help her husband, Lawrence Flores, start and keep an IT services company growing for the next 25 years. How she managed to support her family and business clients through some of the most disruptive times, and for any small business, relied on the family values that she grew up with through her grandmother, her strong partnership with her husband and her nursing education. As we discussed in this podcast with Michelle, and in previous podcasts with Latinas who are building and or working in technology companies, the skill level for technology knowledge is absolutely a new requirement in any job market or small business. Today, many small businesses struggle to keep up their knowledge of new technology applications or platforms that can help support their small business and it can be overwhelming. This is where a small IT services firm, such as Proactive Network Consulting can help and they offer technology assessment services. As we are in the month of May for Small Business Week, it's also graduation time. Now is a great time for any college grad to look into a small business IT services firm as an entry way to start a new profession. Muchas Gracias to Robert Lopez for Audio Engineering and 5-E Leadership & Marketing for Small Business Week Collaboration. Sign up for our newsletter at Latinasb2b.com and follow us on LinkedIn and IG *(Correction from the podcast) The IT services industry is expected to grow up to 354 billion dollars in revenue by 2026, due to all the new businesses that are starting out of the pandemic, adoption of cloud technology solutions and the need for data security.

Monica Ramirez, Activist Organizer, Founder of Justice For Migrant Women, and Co-Founder of Poderistas, The Latinx House and Alianza Nacional de Campesinas, talks to us through her journey that inspired her to ask questions at a very young age to her migrant farm working parents, “why are farm workers not celebrated when it's time to work in the fields, but fisherman in our town are welcomed back with celebration?” She pursued that question to become  “ The Voice of The People” in her hometown newspaper at the age of 14 when someone gave her that shot to write a column that would give visibility to the farm workers who came every year. What started as her curiosity and passion for writing, led her to her life’s purpose as the daughter of migrant parents to be a social justice attorney for migrant farm workers and her projects, “The Humans That Feed Us” and her 15 year anniversary of “The Bandana Project”. Monica has also created pathways for change to the way Latinx is seen within the larger media lens, through The Latinx House and Poderistas, which has created a powerful advocacy circle of Latinas in Hollywood, such as America Ferrera, Eva Longoria, and Alexandria-Martinez Kondrake. As April is known as Sexual Assualt Awareness Month, (SAAM), she tells us of her protest letter for Time’s Up Movement, which was later published in Time Magazine as “Dear Sisters” that became the reached into Hollywood's  storytelling foundations, such as Sundance and Netflix, that will be creating more open door opportunities for the Latinx community to be the writers and producers of our own stories. We need to tell our own stories, and now is our time. Monica is listed on Time’s 100 list for 2021 and she is bringing us all with her. Muchas Gracias to Monica Ramirez and her teams for making this podcast possible for Latinas From The Block To The Boardroom and our audio engineer, Robert Lopez of Latinasb2b.com to content editing and audio. -Theresa 

We are moving into more tech job opportunities for 2022 as the online experience of purchasing goods and services has exploded during Covid-19. Liliana Aide Monge, CEO and Co-Founder of Sabio.la says, "We can't go back to how we were engaging online before the pandemic." It's true, we are now using more technology to manage our lives, our education, delivery systems and how we want to stream content. Many companies today need more tech workers to support their internal systems due to the increased usage of online services and products. There is a New Collar labor force that is emerging and they are trading in low wage hourly jobs for new technology skills that don't require a college degree. Enterprise companies to small businesses won't be sustainable without this new collar work force. Special thanks to Robert Lopez for Co-Production and audio creation at Latinasb2b.com and Theresa E. Gonzales CEO and Founder of Latinasb2b.marketing.