Join us this Saturday on The Influencers' Connection Corner as we close out Hispanic Heritage Month with none other than Refugio A. Atilano; a trailblazer in the world of cultural leadership!

Ref is an award-winning DEI leader and author of "𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐨 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤". He’s spent his career making waves in business by connecting communities and empowering under-served populations. Recognized by world-class organizations, Ref is known for using culture as a key driver of business impact. His unique approach to leadership development has transformed companies and elevated their performance across the board.

With his entrepreneurial mindset and a talent for building high-performing teams, Ref's vision has led organizations through major transformations. His impact extends beyond business, reaching into the hearts of those striving for representation and inclusion.

✨This finale event is the perfect opportunity to gain insights from one of the top Latino leaders of our time, someone who’s not only pushing the needle but lifting others as he rises.

𝐑𝐚𝐪𝐢💙💋

A Brilliant Beam Media Production

#HispanicHeritageMonth #latinos #leadership #livestream #event #leaders

No, it's a happy, happy Saturday, yay, happy Saturday.

You know?

And yes, I had my voice.

I love an old fashioned last night.

Or is it this morning?

Whatevs?

I said I was not going to repeat it.

So you put yourself out there, lady.

Young lady.

I am putting myself out there, people.

Apparently I did last night.

I want you a comedy club with

our good friend, Ari.

We ended up there after so many great happy hours.

Hi everybody.

How rose?

Hello, happy Saturday.

Yay!

It's such a beautiful day.

I'm so excited.

No, what I was saying is, you know,

it's so funny how things happen in the back.

And just in backstage, it's just like,

let's go, let's go, let's go.

And anyways, I just love seeing ref just made my morning.

So I'm super excited to happen here today.

And for everyone to get to know if you don't know ref,

well, you've been seriously.

Were you been?

But anyhow, guys,

thank you, thank you for being here and joining us.

Welcome to this last edition of the Hispanic Heritage Month

celebration.

So we're closing it out with a bang.

Woo!

Where's my applause producer?

No, I was going to do it.

And then I was a little, I'm a little slow.

Okay, here we go.

Oh, she did the long ones.

She's like, well, there you go.

There you have it.

But yes, this is the last one.

Great month of celebration, amazing guests you've had.

And ref is going to be amazing to close it out with.

So really, I asked for more.

And I absolutely, you, I think you nailed it right there.

I couldn't ask for more.

And I absolutely, you, I think you nailed it right there.

I couldn't ask for more.

And I absolutely, you, I think you nailed it right there.

I couldn't ask for more.

And I absolutely, you, I think you nailed it right there.

I couldn't ask for more.

And I absolutely, you, I think you nailed it right there.

I couldn't ask for a better guest to close out what's been one of the best literally Hispanic celebrations that we've had in many years from what I remember.

All the different leaders who came out just big, bold and beautiful.

This is what I call it that because it's just been amazing to see so many inspirational Latino leaders, you know, women and men come across telling us what they're working on their communities and the respect the communities.

And then they're all over the world.

So I am so proud.

I am going to say it loud.

[Speaking Spanish]

Yeah, I'm so excited too, because this is my birthday, my birthday is almost here.

So I get to celebrate.

I, I can't believe that it's, we're going to party like it's your birthday.

We're going to party.

I don't know how to say it.

We're not going to do a CS style though, like last time, but we're going to party.

We sure though.

We're going to, we're going to, we're going to make you celebrate your birthday girl.

If we have to come down to Houston, we'll do it.

I know, I know.

There's so many different things to do here.

That would be amazing.

I think I would love to have you here in Houston.

Yeah.

So maybe, maybe we'll put something together.

I know, ref was here not too long ago.

So we'll definitely going to talk about that.

But before diving into that, I really just, I was very inspired by, by this quote that we can talk about.

You know, Roberto Clemente, he said,

if you have an opportunity to make things better and you don't,

then you are wasting your time on earth.

It sounds so harsh, however though, isn't that at the end of the, at the day that we all seek for that purpose?

And so these are purpose in making a difference in this earth.

And so I know we spent the majority of our lives trying to achieve or find and then achieve what that purpose is.

And so I believe that, you know,

if you're not on the journey to actually know what that is for you or what that looks like for you, you will get there.

Sometimes the journey is, is the appetizer.

That's what I always say.

Sometimes the appetizer is better than the dinner.

Let's be honest, man.

I can't tell you any time.

It's those small stories, those small moments, become the most memorable moments.

It's like, you know, just reaching out and just touching someone's hand in that moment of need, right?

Or it's, you know, laughing together with a smile or just giving it,

simple gestures can make a world of difference for so many.

Why wouldn't we be intentional about it?

So I love that saying and you know me, I'm like, you know, fly bird.

So I get it tough love, but also tough, but tough love, but also love tough.

You know what I mean?

Like love.

Fight for the love.

I'm almost almost want to quote the key on.

No worries.

Did you hear me?

Yeah.

I'm not a lover.

I'm not a fighter.

I'm a lover you have.

Was so good.

Oh my gosh.

Yeah, the whole, the whole spill that he did.

Yes.

Oh yeah.

You're a little, a little too late here and there, but I still can see you.

Okay.

But anyhow, let's go ahead and get this started and, you know, bring them on.

So let's run the intro and the stands.

Let's dance.

Let's jump.

Welcome to the influences.

And dance.

And dance.

Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.

It's my birthday almost next week.

Hey.

Oh my gosh.

Oh my gosh.

Oh my gosh.

I am super excited.

I'm just over.

I'm just over this year though.

This birthday has been for me, especially this year has been very meaningful.

So my, I'm not going to say my, hey, I'm going to say my 41st birthday is going to be amazing.

My brother, my hermano, Steven Eng, Hailey from New York.

Thank you so much for joining us and everyone in the comments.

Thank you.

Thank you for the love for the constant.

Just support that you guys give.

Hola, tool.

Let us know what you're tuning in from always like to give you a shout out.

You know, highlight those beautiful souls who always support and show up for one another.

It's amazing.

Hello, Mr. Sincera, Helene from Orlando, Florida.

Thank you so much for being here.

Mother of being here.

I know.

I know.

I know.

I know.

Oh my gosh.

Are artists horses?

I'm not sure would that mean.

I don't know who that is.

I don't know either.

Oh, but.

Oh, but.

Partner crime from last night.

Hold on.

Why is it not clicking?

Oh.

Adi.

Besito para ti, Mirreina Ramosa.

Thank you so much for showing up this morning.

It's a beautiful Saturday morning.

I've missed.

We need to catch up.

Grab Mr. Chatton with you this last week.

But anyhow, talk about fourth quarter.

Oh my goodness.

Has it been really, really busy?

Has it been?

It's like.

I can't believe.

The years almost all ready.

Like I'm like, oh my god.

What would happen?

Like.

Yes.

My taxes are like what?

Yeah.

Oh my gosh.

Yeah.

Yeah.

For me, it's been.

It's been like in the blink of an eye.

We're already about to celebrate 2025.

And let me tell you, I am super excited for next year.

But you know, we'll talk about all the goals and things in plans.

And the next few shows that we're going to do.

But anyhow, guys, I again, I'm so excited.

My Aggies play against LSU today.

So if you see, I'm all decked out in Aggie gear.

So a whoop.

Yay, Gagamags.

I love you.

I'm a crazy Aggie, Gunho, Aggie.

And nobody can take that away from me.

That's my power.

But anyhow, talking about Aggies, talking about Aggie land.

I know my guest today.

He recently was here and visited my alma mater as a feature speaker.

As an honorary, I am just so elated to guys to get to know this amazing individual.

So without further ado, let's go ahead and have enjoyed the conversation.

I am just unfri-

Refugio Adilano.

Otherwise known as Reff, please welcome to the Influences Connection Encourner stage.

And here we go.

Welcome to the chaotic love here.

I'm so unimpro-

I love the talkies.

I'm sitting behind stage just laughing my booty off.

I swear to God, this phenomenal.

And I think she is a tier-point.

The appetizer is better than the dinner.

I like the dessert, too.

The dessert is always better as well.

And Rocky, happy upcoming birthday as well.

Thank you so much.

What a better way to celebrate than having you here talk about one of the things that it speaks to my heart,

which is our Latino roots and how we are using our leadership in order to inspire in the world globally.

So please welcome and let the audience know your little introduction.

If they don't already know where you guys been, come on now.

Yeah, so Reff at Tolano.

I'm in Chicago, second generation in Mexican, a corporate guy, I wrote the Latino leadership playbook.

I think we've launched it last year and I think we spoke right around this time last year.

But yeah, just really excited.

It's been a great year, getting the book out there.

I've still have my full-time job.

I still work in corporate, I'm a senior leader, working in a global company.

But now I've kind of transitioned to bringing the book to life, bringing development to life.

And one of the big elements I'm drawing kind of ties back to Texas A&M is I have development programs now.

I based on the book.

So we're both professionals as well as for the students.

I want to make sure that their workplace is ready.

And it was interesting when I went to Aggie Land, the provost there Tim Scott was saying,

you know, they do really, it's really important to place them into industry all the students.

And I remember, you know, it made me think I was like, well, my focus is more on, you know,

once they hit industry to accelerate them.

So not just place, but accelerate, right?

And so, so that's really my focus is accelerating the development of everybody

so we can close representation gaps at the top.

That's really what it comes on to.

And that's one good thing.

Oh, my goodness.

You said so much.

And that just minute introduction.

So we're going to take that to kind of unravel what that would be.

What that looks like and how it came about.

So just tell us a little bit about, you know, since this is closing out the Hispanic Heritage Month,

your Hispanic background, your Latino background, family, I know you mentioned Mexican heritage.

But what does that look like for you and what has it done for you?

You know, at the career?

Yeah, you know, the Latino culture, you know, it's, it's, it's very tight in it.

You know, we're, you know, families a big part of who we are, you know, being respectful is a big part of who we are.

We are faith is big for us.

You know, all these elements.

And it's helped shape me throughout my life.

You know, for instance, you know, because of, we're group oriented, even in the world,

you know, I think, see, and we talked about this last year.

You know, in the workplace, we're really great servant leaders.

We're really great collaborators, right?

And, you know, you talked about a little while ago, Rocky, the global perspective.

And that's really key too, as Latinos, because, you know, there's so many ethnicities within the Latino community.

And it's natural for us to engage until it's just to be, not even to be curious, we just welcome everybody.

And, and, and that can also be translated to the workplace, especially for a global company.

So for instance, I work with different communities around the world and right away my initial go to is let's connect culturally.

Let's connect personally first and then businesses later.

Right? So, so it helps, it helps you get to places quicker than others can get, right?

So it's a superpower.

And it's so things like that.

And just one more superpower we have is our passion, right?

Our natural energy, passion, Rocky, you, you have it all day and every day.

Right? In the workplace, it's really powerful if you strategically, right?

If you have a new idea, if you're leading a team or an event, bring that passionate energy,

but again, at those right moments, you don't want to be like it all the time because you'll be known as a crazy person, which you don't want to be.

But if you use that strategically, it can get, you know, it can get teams and organizations energized.

So those are ways that I bring my culture to the workplace.

I love that, I love that the fact that, you know, you call it a superpower.

I see the same way.

And it's an asset.

Our latinownness, it's for me, it's always been kind of a,

it's a distinct factor that sets me apart.

I stand out, but I'm still, you know, respected because I am able to infuse who I am,

my authenticity and bring it to the table to be an addition, as opposed to subtraction,

to whatever landscape, work landscape I'm in.

And so I really, really appreciate that you say that because most of us sometimes try a shy away from,

from being unique and from the latino aspect.

And I'm like, no, I sell it.

I sell it right it, for rated.

Absolutely.

You know, in some port too, because as latinos, we don't like to stand out.

And in the workplace, if you want to accelerate, you have to stand out, right?

Because our competition is standing out.

They're, they're pushing hard, right?

They're networking hard, or developing hard, as I do, right?

And, but all of us need to be that way.

You know, we need to literally show up beast mode in the workplace, like to say.

And it's doing all the things. It's, it's, it's the energy, it's the ideas, it's, it's being bold and confident,

operating on the things that matter to the organization, right?

There's some, don't, don't just do busy work, do high impact work.

And, and work with others to identify those things.

Those are things that are going to need them, need them moving for us.

Absolutely.

Now, how does that look for you whenever you get to work with teams and empower them, right?

And, you know, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're culture.

How do you, how are you able to help them make quit with those tools?

Yeah. So, um, um, I have my literature programs.

I do mentoring, I do coaching, I like, I, um, I show Latinos the, the natural superpowers we have.

I'm like, okay, so if I pull them in on an initiative, you know, I put them on front as an example, right?

Because I know we tend to stay behind, like, nope, this one, you're going to be on front, right?

And, you know, almost every time, you know, um, we figured out and they push a little bit on comfortable at first,

but then they figured out, they're like, oh, I can do this or I can do that.

Or I can talk to these senior leaders, right?

And all of a sudden, the confidence grows.

And once you kind of get the confidence going, you get a couple of wins and it's came out from there.

It's just, just, just rinse and repeat and now you have a strong leader.

And I do my best to, um, to activate the leadership in everybody I touch.

You know, for me, I can, I can be out front all day because of my position, but it's not about meeting more.

It's about everybody else and putting them out there and helping them blast through the barriers and, and show up big.

Oh my goodness.

Um, in the comments right now, I'm seeing Felipe Cofinho.

So shout out to you, get a man on my brother, oh my god, I love him.

And he was in, in one of our past, you know, shows, but in another key individual, who is the Latino leader, you know, leading in his, in his own field.

And the industry, how do you come together with other powerhouses such as Felipe?

You know, I can think of a really good shout out to you, my friend.

So many wonderful individuals, especially here on LinkedIn, how do we all come together to make, you know, continue pushing our people, not only our people, right?

But teams in industries.

Yeah, one of the, you're just like, you rocky.

I don't think I'm as great as you are, but I'm a strong networker.

Um, you know, and I'm very, I'm very strategic on, on my networking.

Um, so, you know, and the weekend and others, you know, just to tell everybody about my book, the Latino leadership playbook when I wrote it last year, you know, last year.

Um, I wanted to, you know, first thing is people ask me, is why should we listen to you?

I got that like across the nation, right? And I'm like, well, so I got 59 of them, most influential business leaders in the world, literally Latinos.

None Latinos, right?

Latinos.

And so two point of rock, I was, I had to reach out and create these networks.

So now I'm connected to really the most influential, mostly I think I have to get with Felipe now.

Please, you know, send me a, send me an O Felipe, let's connect.

But really the most influential, you know, some of the most influential business powerhouses in the nation that contributed.

And during this journey, now I'm getting to know almost, you know, just a lot of people.

I work for a global company, I lead a global ERG, so I get a lot of connections that way as well.

But to your point, Rocky, my whole thing is about unity, Latino unity and company.

Oh, Nick Yather, right?

Okay.

I'm sorry, I'm back.

I just give it.

Okay.

Good, we're good.

Yeah.

Just give a talk on Latino unity is past Monday.

So if you go to my LinkedIn, you'll see, you'll see that thing.

It's really about bringing our entire community together.

You know, it's interesting is I would use a now, do you, Rocky, we talk about love sports, right?

I love business too.

I've never seen a winning team business sports win something big, a championship or other, get a big result without being united.

I've never seen it, right?

And that's the same thing with the Latino community and other communities, right?

It's not just Latino folks, but all, all communities, but for, I'll lead with Latinos.

We cannot close representation gaps.

We cannot, you know, influence it's crazy, buying power we have, unless we come together, right?

We are a team whether we like it or not.

And as soon as we understand it and drive towards the lining, that's when things are going to happen.

So, so my focus is on bringing the Latino population together.

I, and again, for us, I think that is one of the distinct factors that sets us apart as a community is that unity.

We really, really, very powerful when it comes to that.

And we believe a lot in it.

And then obviously our passion, we're very driven.

And when we come together, boy, y'all better get ready.

I'm saying what I say, whatever we touch in unison, my goodness, it just expands and, and just creates this ripple of positive effect all across the globe.

Or whichever industry where, you know, we're focusing on, but in this case leadership leadership is just so big.

What are some of the trends that you're seeing right now with special with our Latino sisters and brothers who are in leadership positions?

What are some of the things that they're facing challenges with?

Or just anything that is going on in that spectrum?

Yeah.

I will talk more about the people who aren't in leadership because the ones in leadership, they, they're, you know, they're on the right track.

And, by the way, there's not many of us.

So if you, if you think about the corporate, it disapplies to all studies, but I just give you the corporate.

You have early career manager, kind of like the senior middle management and then, and then you have the executive piece.

What's happening today is, everybody's getting stuck in middle management.

And so you, you know, beyond middle management, you're having, you know, five to six percent representation.

There's nobody, right?

I go at my level, I go into the workplace, you know, there's only four or five of us at my level and everybody else is, you know, not, not us.

And so, and so I did some research on this and plus just natural observation, but it came to me, it came not to one, you know, at least a big thing.

I saw in Harvard Business Review and it was, it was such a true fact.

They said, you know, up to middle management, it's very hard skill focus.

So if you're a marketer, you know, marketing, you're going to be great marketer. And let the others are good at this. We know our craft.

We're very strong and we're very intelligent when it comes to it.

To make it be on middle management, to director, like my own, or senior director, VP.

We lost again.

You need, I just, I just, I'm, good.

It froze you with your hand in the air though. So I'm going to say if you're going to get frozen, at least you're like singing.

Yeah, yes.

Yes, we're good.

Sorry, I'm not sure what's going on.

Okay.

So like you said, after middle management, it's 85% leadership and solve skills and only 15% hard skills.

So as Latinos, we haven't, you know, we're so focused on hard skills.

We haven't made that adjustment right. We don't even know to make that adjustment. And that's a big piece holding us back.

So in my book, I cover that and you know, my book, it's a, it's more that leadership focus at 85% because what you start operating in that 85% piece, it's game on from there.

So so I recommend your question.

What I'm seeing out there is Latinos, we really need to focus on that development of the 85% piece that lead to true leadership capability and start, you know, getting beyond our craft.

Right. And always it's craft's going to be there, but we got to really develop in new ways.

And I know, see you, you know, your massive experience in in the corporate world.

You know, what are some of the things that you could pretty much say to what he's saying up to what breath is saying.

You just have so much.

Yeah, you know, so I'm a big, I'm a big fan.

The larger the company, the more opportunity is to really listen on perspectives of your game because it gets very critical, right?

Because the larger the company, everyone has a role to play and it's a machinery.

Good bad, a little different. We are part of, you know, we're a cog in the wheel, right? We are part of the thing that keeps things turning.

And so when you can blend in your cultural perspective in a way that, you know,

how should I put this there?

Leaders rise in times of difficult, like the challenges, right? And you rise to that level and having multiple perspectives.

And I'm not knocking us Americans don't get me wrong, everybody. Americans, it's a great country.

You live in, but if you are part of another culture as well, you can pull in another perspective to kind of help address certain challenges in a way that may not be seen from, you know,

wherever you're from, right? So I'm just trying to say very gently, but also I think it's a superpower to have that multicultural perspective because we just have another lens we can look at, right?

Especially when times are tough when we have to make those tough calls. We can go back to, you know, at least for me being Asian, right?

Really listening to the wisdom of people who have, you know, lived earth before you, right? Your elders respect them. Yeah, there might be boomers and, you know, whatever, whether some some ideas are antiquated, but look, people humans have existed for 30,000,000,000,000,000,000 years.

Oh, oh, yes.

I don't know, depending on whatever your philosophy is.

But what did we have?

So that's my yeah, no, I can tell my, I didn't say anything. I did say anything. So you frozen such a pretty pose. So is everybody

What's going on?

I think we're bringing the ice because this is such a such an amazing show.

That's what that's why it's like can't handle it, right? But I just I just, I just, I want to build on what would see it was saying because it's so critical.

You know, it's interesting about six months ago, a little over six months ago, my organization, again, a world class club organization created a new position director of cultural competency.

And because of all the work I do, especially with the Latino community as, you know, to, they said you're, you're going to be doing this them.

Final off, phenomenal opportunity in my, my, really, my remit is to connect our experiences, our assets, right, our materials with the various communities.

You know, so we're starting with the Latino community is obviously because of what I'm doing, but the goal is to really be for all communities around the world, not just Latino community.

But see it to your point. I provide that lens, right? And that just the lens. I provide the connection. I can reach out to the community and they're going to trust me because I know the community. I'm from the community, right?

Yeah. And that's very powerful to gain that trust, especially in healthcare, especially where on clinical trials and things like that.

Extremely important. And it has me thinking to as I go to the black communities or agent communities, I'm definitely going to help lead, but I'm going to pull in representation, right?

I want to make sure we're connecting in meaningful ways. You know, I'm not going to sit here pretend I know the agent community or I know a lot of my black brown relatives and sisters.

And I'm going to be there side by side, but I will really want to drive what representation that's just going to drive me to the outcome. So great point.

Oh, oh my goodness. You both are just giving just phenomenal insight in that. And and to me, that is very important, right?

Because sometimes we don't see it from the outside looking in. We may not understand it. And that's an IE thing, by the way, from the inside looking out, we can explain it.

We have that's an agusane and and you know, sometimes those things may come on across as misconceptions and it's very important to be able to have a seat at the table.

I shout out at IE. I know and she said a lot that phrase during our month long, having a seat at the table. How does that look for us? How do we get there? It's like, we're resilient.

That's another aspect that I love about ourselves. It's an asset and attribute that we're very resilient as a community and as individuals, let the innocent.

And it goes, I think it goes back to being, but they know, right? And our stories. But how do we show up for ourselves? How do we advocate for ourselves?

And I know that this is one of the big components that you definitely teach within your community and talk about in your book. So please, if you can, elaborate on that.

Absolutely. And there's a couple of things I'll unpack there. First of all, the table that I'll talk about advocating for yourself.

Thank you.

I would. Yes.

Go like that.

Yeah.

Okay.

Oh, no.

Are we good?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The last thing we heard.

Okay.

All right. Let's talk about seeing that the table would be for advocate for yourself.

So, you know, I hear all the time, hey, we need, by far, we need to create a set of, so I'll hit a couple of things.

But I'm more in a space of, you know, create your own table. That's where I am. That's how I operate.

Right. I'm coming with new ideas. I'm inviting, to be honest, I'm inviting the non-letters, you know, someone by white counter parts to my table now.

Right. Because I'm coming up, now I'm driving. Right.

That's where we need to be.

Because there's such, we have such big ideas that that a table is a big idea. Right.

And you can invite others and then you can drive business. Right.

So, say, now that's where I want everybody to think about operating instead of joining someone else's table.

However, if you enjoyed someone else's table, one of the biggest pet peeves I have in the history of the world is be prepared.

And I know see what we talked about is last year with mentors.

The number one thing you should be doing is studying the industry, studying the business, studying the problem, studying who's going to be in that meeting.

You have to study your ass off, sorry for swearing. Right.

I'll study everybody. So by the time you get to that table, you are showing up big. You're coming with questions.

Your ideas are well-bedded and thought out. Right. That's powerful. Right.

But if you just show up and hoping to get a word and that's not going to cut it, that's the last time you'll see that table.

So that's the difference between showing up big and just kind of being a warm body. Right. That's where you don't want to be.

So, you know, Rocky, that's kind of my feed record.

So make your create your own table. That's the mindset. That's the mentality.

Absolutely. Yeah. And it's ideal, but you're going to have both situations.

I see I go, I'm a food. I'm a food. I'm a foodie person.

And the idea of bringing people together, like just visually speaking my head is when you invite people to the table, you're inviting them to a meal.

And there's no way to bond more with people than taking time. Listen. Listen, listen, listen.

And break bread together. Right. Now, if you want to break bread, literally, I can be fed people, but also mentally. Right.

You can feed each other with your stories, where your experiences. I mean, there's nothing more than, you know, warm to the soul than making an authentic connection.

And if you culture that is all about authenticity and warmth and feeding you until you gain a lot of weight, I mean, what's not to love about it.

I love that idea of making the table because it's a party. It's your own party. Right. So.

Oh, and I'm hungry. People see I can be bribed with food. Okay. So get it to do whatever you always can be bribed with.

Oh, my God.

I know. Go ahead. Go ahead. Well, okay. First up, I can be bribed with food. And I love all the food that Hispanic and Latino culture can bring.

So if anyone wants to come and send me some stuff here in Dallas, I will never say no.

I do want to ask this one question from SinSat down if you guys don't mind.

Because it's just coming up to mind right here. I don't want to lose it. And you got so many comments coming in.

I'm having a hard time keeping up. But since I asked, what does powerful leadership look like?

So what have you seen, ref? And maybe I'll tell as well, you see what a powerful leader looks like.

Yeah. It's such a big question. And there's so many elements to leadership. Leadership is not just one thing.

But if I had to break it down, like for me, when I see when I see a strong, when I think of a strong leader, I think of somebody who's definitely well put together.

Definitely someone with great vision, right? Great presence, very poised.

Somebody who's very influential that people listen to, right? Somebody who gets results and loves going above and beyond and leading by example, right?

Telling people but really leading and pulling people with somebody is very, very articulate and communicates well, right?

But with care at the same time. So you could see there's a lot of different pieces to leadership.

And I cover a lot of these in my book, but when I'm just taking a step back and thinking when I see a great leader, those are the things that stand out to me, right?

The warmth of a person. Yeah, all those things. It's just it's a beautiful thing to see once you see an action.

Yeah, I think being that perception of how approachable a leader can be, how accessible a leader can be or is, it's very important to me that I've always, you know, if I'm intimidated or anything.

If I can, if I feel that I cannot approach that person, then I'm like, eh, you know, it just being able to resonate across the table or relate in all the levels that you can't think.

Obviously, we're not going to be everyone's cup of tea. And it took me all this, all these years to actually realize that and re-internally realize it.

And I'm okay with that now, you know, that track to repel is a huge thing.

Vibrations, frequency, all of that exists, but people sometimes we don't think about it.

But for me, I think humility being able to always be willing to learn and know that you don't have all the answers as a leader, but people do look up at you, not too you saying, oh my gosh, he's cheered, he must have the answer.

No, no, no, I'm also walking this journey of learning alongside with you.

There are some things that I don't, there's some things that I've learned because of experience and there's some things that I've, you know, theoretically learned.

But being accessible, approachable and remaining humble, I think those are for me kind of like the biggest and strongest signs of a leader.

Well, one more thing I want to throw in there too is really big for me is a big and problem-solver.

You know, once you get into, you know, that's how you create confidence.

You can get into any situation and a problem solved regardless of what it is in business, right? Like I'm supremely, unless it's like tech or anything like that, I'm supremely confident I can put any business setting and solve a problem.

I'll figure it out, come up with options, I'll drive it to, you know, align the team and then drive a team towards results.

I can make that happen or I'll, you know, I'll find a way to make it happen.

And that's one of the best attributes anybody can have in your professional career.

And the better you problem solving, the problem solving needs solutions and to create solutions need to be thoughtful and come up with ideas, right? You need to be innovative.

And then you need to be a leader and actually drive teams to realize outcomes.

If you can do that over and over, that's the sign of great leadership. And again, those are things that will help your career.

Oh, goodness. Absolutely.

Can't agree more. I mean, so I just have to see angels here.

I feel like healing, healing, lean in with faith and family, right? Yes.

Look, I'm not the most religious point, but I do believe if you have something that helps anchor you and center you and you lean into it, there's, there's power in trusting in yourself and having faith in yourself as well as faith in whatever belief system you have.

Because I think it helps keep you that humility as you're saying, Raquel, and I, and listen, right? Like if you are living life in humility, you're intentionally listening more often than not.

And problem solving, we know we're always going to have problems.

And if some of them are going to be dozees, right? But if you can actually address it in a way that you admit to your team or your family to say, hey, this done messed up situation.

But let's look at it together, right? And a good leader. I may listen to the team. Right? The leader may listen to the team, but a great leader will also say, I've taken the input.

Here's where I think our decision should go and trust themselves to say, I'm going to make this decision ultimately.

And now I'm not saying ignore your team, but take the input in those great leaders are the ones that take it in and then distill it to where it's going to solve that business problem or family problem, whatever.

I think a leadership is like your relationships you have with your family too, right?

You, whatever role you have in your family, because we all know there's roles that we all play.

You still could be a leader in situations with your own family as well.

So I'm seeing so many great comments here you guys and I'm trying to keep up. Sorry guys.

It's OK. And let me be honest at home, I am not the leader of my wife is the leader. So I'm just going to just going to call that out.

And then all right. So there's a different role in the whole.

Yes. And then Rocky separately, I'm hell who was just on, provide a quote, connect with them. He's a phenomenal human being.

OK, I'm hit. We'll get it. Please connect.

Yes. OK, that's why you were going to say OK, awesome.

You know, we were mentioned so many aspects and elements that are very important and just conducive to be a successful leader or to help teams successfully be led or and lead.

What drove you to design, come up right? You know, the Latino leadership playbook. I mean, I just think that it's just a phenomenal tool. Oh my gosh. I don't even want to dive into it just yet. But please.

Yeah. I mean, came down to my leadership journey. I was about six, seven, eight years ago, I was losing track, now, years.

I was I was frustrated with my career. I was I was a project manager. I was getting the best projects in the organization, right?

But I was I wasn't getting promoted and seemed like people around me were going to promote it.

And I remember Latina tell me she goes, I need to work on my communication, my presence, get involved throughout the organization, like an employee resource groups.

All this, all these things that we're talking about communication and I'm like, I had no idea what all that was, right?

So that changed my life, that one discussion. And I'm a very driven person. So I looked up all these things. I started applying them, learning, failing, right?

But but really driving hard and creating a great network, a strong network, especially at the senior leader level.

I was always able to connect with the senior leaders. It's just an ad that's a superpower of mine personally.

And I leveraged that to to my career advantage. And and then I saw, you know, now my career is is in a really good spot.

But I because of a conversation, I bless those barriers. And then I I've learned more stuff because of that, right? I've taken it, I've made it my own.

And and so when I see Latino stuck in middle management and they come to me say, hey, what are you doing that doing?

I'm literally repeating what the same person told me six, seven years ago to the same people need to do this, this and this.

And and once they do, you start seeing the confidence grow, you start seeing mobility in their careers and magic was happening. And I was having these individual mentoring sessions.

It was always I was always repeating myself. Now I'm like, you know, I should just write a book on this, right? Just make it available to everybody the masses.

And before did that, I think I read every Latino leadership book in in the world just to make sure it didn't exist. And it didn't to the point that you said it rocky.

This is not a book. It's a tool, right? It's a Harvard business review for Latinos. That's basically what it is.

I dropped that. Yeah, absolutely. So, um, so yeah. And that's what inspired me. It was just such a.

An opportunity for a community to develop. I keep going to developing, right? It's such an opportunity for us. And there's a tool, not just a book, but the program also, which is 500 bucks for the program for five months, by the way, to.

Hopefully an easy one. But these are things are going to move the needle for a community.

Oh my goodness. We definitely want to be able to give the audience the opportunity to get the book.

So I think we do have a QR code audience that we definitely want you to start.

It is an amazing tool. I am telling you, I think, Raf, you just did a phenomenal job with this playbook.

Again, it's just not, it's not just the book. It is a tool that guys. So please, please definitely let us know a little bit more about it.

How it has been received just, steadily.

You know, it's interesting. I always get the comment from older folks, you know, season folks. I wish I had this 20 years ago.

What is still, yes, but it still applies to your career today. It will help you accelerate. So please keep you, you know, regardless of where you are in your journey.

Disbook applies to the college level all the way through season. There's nuggets in there that will be applicable to you.

So please take advantage of it. But what I am hearing is, is it's a phenomenal book resource. I hear resourceful time. That's so much book, but a tool.

And there's been nothing short of that. And that's the way I built it. It was very intentional.

And when I wrote it, I remember just feeling like it was just, I felt like I was a vessel and this information was just flowing through me, right.

And so I'm sure there's, my faith is strong. There's bigger things are happening that allow me to provide this resource for our community.

And so that's, that's all I feel about.

I mean, I love the fact that you said you're a vessel, you know, and you are generally, hey, you are definitely living out your purpose and you're honoring yourself in that regard.

It's because you have been such a stellar leader. You recognize all those qualities within yourself. And you're like, you know what?

I am repeating myself over and over again. How can I come, you know, compile a, it's like a database.

The, the, the, also, this is how I look at it, of resources for my Latino folks, but obviously Latinos and beyond as well, because a lot of that, a lot of the knowledge that an expertise in, in wisdom that you imparted, it, it's uniform, right.

All across the board as well.

But to me, it's just very important to, to be able to let people know, hey, this is what is out there for you.

This is the type of information that you can get to better yourself, even if it's just inching your way each and every day, but get better and improve, right.

That's right. That's right. That's right. You know, I, and this is a, a bold symbol of real statement. If you buy this book and I don't hear self books, I'm actually here to sell programs, but if you buy this book,

it will be the best 35 bucks that you will ever spend in your life. I guarantee it. That's, that's a big statement, but I, I stand by it. And if you know anybody in our burger college student, anybody, give them this thing, right.

It's, it's really going to make an impact. So I just wanted to just a level set without.

Yeah. I know. And I mean, again, this was last year, but it's made such an impact. I don't know the community.

People who've gotten it, but now let's definitely talk a little bit about where the community, the program and how, you know, how that correlates and how it relates and what it does for, for the person.

Absolutely. You know, understanding that, you know, because it's a bigger book, you know, just really quickly when I, when I first wrote the book, I was just hoping to fill 40 pages.

I was going to do a book of Doos and Downs because I'm a very direct person. If you can't tell already, you know, it's like just tell me what you need to know and do and not do, right.

And I remember talking to my pulpit, I was like, how many pages is the bare minimum? And she was like, typically 200, 225, my college crap was like, how am I going to get there.

Well, the book is full 100, seven pages. So it's a bigger book, right. But yeah.

But understanding that and understanding that everybody, you know, is is is a reader and all this stuff. And, and again, it's meant to bounce in and out of chapter.

So you don't have to read the whole book at once. But I want to provide a solution that help people grow outside of the book.

So you need the book to be in a program, but an easier path or different path.

Let's just say easier. So I created the Latino Leadership Club, which is a five month program, right. We meet once a month for a couple of hours.

And I go deep on topics and I provide real examples step by step, literally how to sell your idea to a senior executive.

How to advocate for yourself in meaningful ways. And people think advocating for yourself is bragging by yourself.

And that's probably 10% of it. The best way to advocate for yourself is how you show up, right. It's, it's how you operate.

It's the is the presence you have. It's the projects you get involved in. It's the people who are on your network.

The first thing, you know, you know, you know, we can do a meeting great and you can tell me you're a besting slice bread, whatever that is.

I'm not going to believe you until I see you in action. And, and so that's advocating for yourself is how you operate in a lot of people to see that.

Because they'll, they'll make up their, their minds about you.

But anyhow, so I go deep on, on different topics, mentors, sponsors, right.

Being a strong communicator, developing your executive presence, thinking strategically.

And, and I do this over months because I want to see that development, right.

I'm very, results focused on very, I hold you to account.

So I'll ask you just point blank when you show up. So how do you go with your manager, you know, because I say, make sure you're, you're discussing with your manager.

I'll just put you on a spot. How do you go, right.

So it's impossible for you to show up. I guess you can show up on prepare for you. You're going to be in a bad position.

So I want to make sure we get results. We're showing progress. And at the end of it, I want to see that confidence way up.

What I have seen in my program is a 100% transformation of confidence to be a leader in a workplace.

Both at the professional level, as well as the college level. And actually going to A&M, Rocky really quickly.

And I gave just talk to the, to a lot of the group there. And Tim Scott is a pro, he's a vice provost. He's a white guy.

And he came and he observed. And Texas A&M, I think initially was going to put, you know, you know, a, a, an amount of people through my cohort.

So I don't know what the number was, but it was going to be a given amount after the discussion. Tim Scott says he believes in so much. He wants to send everybody through it.

Right. So that's the power of this thing. It develops confidence. It develops awareness for us all to be very strong leaders and accelerates in the workplace.

Oh my goodness. You know, I'm just so happy. I, well, I missed my chance to meet you in person when you were here last week.

I was like, oh my bad, why? You know, but, but things happen for a reason and I know our time is going to come soon, especially, but it's just phenomenal and num-soul prowl to, to hear that, you know, my mom, I'm not, I was embracing this concept embracing all that you have to offer because it is powerful.

It is like changing transforming lives and impacting the world and I cannot wait to see where it leads where the vision goes and, but yeah, I'm so proud, so proud.

Yeah, I want to make a couple of call outs too because you have, you know, Elsa Gonzalez is a, she's a visionary who took a, took a chance and she's at Texas A&M.

She's the new, I think she leads external engagements in the provost office. You have Carmen Youngsted, who's, I don't know if you know where she's in Houston.

These are visionaries. These are people who are leading the way for entire community. This Texas A&M thing is a big deal because it's going to set the tone for the entire nation.

So Elsa, Carmen, Tim and others, right, they are, they are pioneers and along with our, to collaboration with me, it's going to change the future.

So I just want to call out to the, to the team over there.

Amazing brilliant people. Yes, I've had the pleasure of meeting Carmen and oh my god, tell you just powerful such a super powerful woman and I just, I love her.

So shout out to you, Elsa and also what Tim provost, right, anything related to you and I'm, you know, I'm crazy about it.

Just because I love it. I am brainwashed. I know, but it's okay that I bleed my room. That's what I say.

But I just, I love it, Rev. I cannot wait to see where it leads and obviously you have my full blown support when it comes to that and all my family here.

And a quick shout out to Adriana Rosales. I know you know her too. You know how what an amazing Latina she was on the show not to long ago.

And just how she shows up to allow us to write, put our, you know, our words in ink and legacy and perpetuity.

And I love that because you done just that. So it, to me, it's just so important.

But we have what we had another question, right? I just want to make sure we have time in order to address it because I do Mr. Steven Aink. He is our author whisperer out of New York.

Yes.

Yes. All right. He asks, how often do you reflect and reassess your definition of great leadership?

All the time, at least the ones a quarter, you know, I reassess myself. I look at my brand and what I'm trying to achieve and how I've done, how my progress has been, you know, for the past few months, all the time.

It's part of, it's part of all of us of how we do that. Stand top of your brand. You know, it's something is very important.

If you do not know your brand, reach out, I would say reach out to at least five to seven people you trust. And you don't have to be friends, but people who see operate and you trust their, their, you know, their feedback.

But ask them for your top five strengths and ask them for two words that describe yourself. That, that's your brand. When it comes back, it'll be a bunch of stuff. But then you know, theme it,

you know, put them buckets and then that will be your brand. And first of all, you're going to like your thing here because it's all your strengths and describe your rights. I was not going to be good stuff.

But is it going to be what you want to be known as social, for instance, in my, I remember one of my cohorts everybody, we all did this right. Everybody is really happy. You know, all they said, I'm an authentic leader and I'm all, you know, I work hard. I'm like, cool, right.

But I was like, think of executive leaders. What do you, what comes out in strategic thinker, business acumen executive presence, right. These were the big things that popped out. And I'm saying, okay, now look at your brand. And where are you compared to that, right.

So, so you can see that there's a gap right away. And it was like a big aha moment. It was like, okay.

So once you level set it as, okay, now what you can do to start, you know, you know, working towards these really these executive leadership qualities. And that's a very powerful experience. So, so you know, level set, if I know where you got to start aiming and developing a plan to get to where you want to be or need to be.

Oh, you know, it's fun. I got to get my job. Oh my god, that's that I just created that short in my head. Boop. You know, you, you, it's always be learning, right. And I got to tell you guys early on in my career, I wish I had really listened. I had access to some amazing mentors, people who volunteered their time to say, see a, let's, let's have a conversation. And I just didn't have the maturity at that moment in time to really understand the value.

What I was receiving. And now as we are reflective of our life and experiences, it's like you still need that board from all different ranges, even get the opinions from people who are starting out in their careers because their perspective is another perspective to help you remain humble, right.

But also remember that there are different, you know, perspectives and agendas and needs. So always be learning because you're, it's just like life people always be learning any way. Stay curious.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And to your point, see, I even take a step further, it's learning and then applying, right.

And then applying is really what makes it real. And I'm, I'm, I'm a very inclusive leader. You know, I go, I go elders, I go young, I want perspectives that I do not have.

You know, I go, for instance, a lot of my, my mentors are white, right. Cause they're different perspectives that I don't naturally have. And so all that's very intentional.

And so, um, but yeah, learn and apply being inclusive, get as many perspectives on Hello, who's on here.

I use him as a sounding board all the time. He has a great healthcare lens, which, you know, and I'm learning more in that space.

Um, but just, yeah, align yourself with people who are going to add help add value. And you add, add value in return, right.

It's not a one way street and figure out ways to plug in to make a connection to give a free talk like, you know, you know, I do these things to give back as well.

But whatever it is, find a way to add value.

I love that, you know, if we are going through life, just taking, taking, taking, taking, then what are we really doing it? It's that, you know, I find the biggest joy and giving back as much as I can pour into someone.

And the best way we can do it is I use in our voice, right, by using being able to tell our story and share what we've learned so far in our life.

Uh, for the person who might be just a few step behind us, it's all about sharing the community and the unity come unity. I usually like to say that as well.

But for, you know, thank you so much for asking that question.

Just because it's so, you know, you can take it so many different ways.

But I definitely, I know we're coming to the end of the show and I, I don't want to want to end, but I definitely want to give people an opportunity to find out how they can reach out to you, how they can connect with you.

And yeah, go from there.

Yeah, a couple of ways. One is obviously linked. Then you can message me.

In other ways, my website, uh, refugio at telano.com or if we ought to learn.

I'm my next, I have a cohort going on right now with my leadership program. I have 50 people and mostly Latina, so yes, like dining percent of movies.

Um, so we just started our five month program last month. But if you're interested, what I teach applies to everybody. If you're first generation, second, it doesn't matter if you, if you want to accelerate your career, I don't care what background you, your, your, your city.

This will help you accelerate 100% and, um, sitting on my next cohort starting early next year. So if you're interested, ping me, right through my website through LinkedIn, find me through Rocky.

But I'll, I'll make sure to help you in you. And I think we got, we got about 40 slots left. I do 50 and so far we got right away.

I had to eat 10 people jump in. But yeah, let me know. I'm here to help.

And this is for 2025, right? Yes. Is your time to thrive? That's what I say. 2025. You can thrive. Okay. Yeah. No, ignore that.

That one hurt. That hurt.

You know what? I do more coffee. That's what it is. No, I was looking at my cup and shot out to my mug to my daughter. She just came back from camp calling not to far from here and internally Texas.

I don't know. So yeah, baby, thank you so much for my little gift. She's like, I'm gonna take mommy. Yes. And showing it. So, but yes, you know, it's important. Like I said, to be able to into some humor through our lives and just be kind. Help, help somebody.

I have one last question before we close out. What advice would you give your the 20 year old version of you? Looking back. What advice would you give the 20 year?

And I'm specifically saying 20 because 20s to that year 20 was rough for me. So I'm thinking of it from a mentorship standpoint.

You know, be very thoughtful and take advantage of mentors. It's specifically, you know, I would definitely advise myself to go as high up as you can when you're for mentors, not just, you know, I said, not just, but get senior leaders because those senior leaders, they have that broad perspective. They have broad networks and industry perspective and they have great ideas.

And those things can go a long way to help you open your eyes and to create your perspective, right? It'll give you, it'll give you a different lens, a powerful lens.

And so that would be my number one is is identifying, connect with senior leaders in meaningful ways and cultivate those relationships, right?

Even my mentors and sponsors from from when I was 20s, I still have a lot of those, those people in my life today as friends. So, I'm so grateful for that.

Oh, that is so I know see what you mentioned sometime like a few weeks ago that one of your mentors when you were going to incorporate you touch base with them, right? And how did that feel?

I got to tell you it's such a nice feeling to stay connected really. I mean, all said and done.

It's about humanity and again, helping one another and rising to the occasion and doing in a way where everyone else rise with you, right?

And so just maintaining that connection is so critical. And I love this conversation. I don't know why I don't hang out with you more often, my friend.

I might see you in Chicago in December. So, I'm gonna hit you up.

Yeah. And just for you.

I'm also, yeah, if anybody's in New York in December, I'm speaking at the Hispanic Leadership Summit this year in December. So, first I think we can just have. So let me help you in come.

Oh, my gosh. So, I've been dying to go to New York.

Great. I've been saying this. Leslie, I saw you in the comments earlier. Queen, I love you. Thank you so much. I will make this happen soon. I know I've been wanting to go to New York so bad.

I've never been to Chicago either. So that's also in my little check mark that I have to get done. But when are you coming to Texas again, Raf?

I'm sure sometimes soon, especially with the work I'm doing with the Aggies and I've made some connections in Dallas. Let's see if maybe we can we can hook up a lot of Dallas.

I'll probably make it one trip. But either I'm guessing sometime later this year or probably early next year. I'll be I'll be coming through.

I am so, so looking forward to that just because I know that there's just so many plans in the works and a lot of visions. And as we add more of the years to these big visions, just gonna get even better.

So Raf, thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for the opportunity to try to talk with you. But before we leave, we definitely want to pay homage to our sponsor. Please see us.

Let's see. Let's do it.

Oh, I don't know why it's not playing hold, please. Because they wanted to see.

Following the sleep with your head in the wrong position is a pain in the back. You deserve Towsie comfort for head back and back support. Go to Towsiebrands.com and get your comfort on.

Can I tell you how much I love Janice, Shokran and my Towsie? I love love love Towsie and just the amazing comfort that it brings in so many levels.

So yeah, I love it. Well, it's funny. I was normally I show off my Towsie and basically if you're not familiar with what Towsie is, it's a pillowcase that has this unique U shape that gives you that lumbar support or the next support you need if you're in a sitting or laying position.

And it's funny. I don't have my Towsie right now because I spilt on it and it's currently getting it's trying. So it's washable people's. It's all I'm saying.

It's amazing. Well, thank you. Thank you so much. Towsie again, Towsie Brands. If you don't know much about them, please please check out my links and I'll be sharing with you more as we go to.

But anyhow, guys, it has been a wonderful time. I respect everyone's time and I know Raf, you just came back from a conference. So we definitely want to be able to have you enjoy the rest of the day.

Guys, thank you in the comments for tuning in again and we'll be back in a few weeks with another stellar guest. So stay tuned for that.

Stay blessed guys. Be safe and assaleuago. The next time.

Bye.

Thank you for joining. If you enjoyed today's show, please subscribe and follow us for the next episode.

[BLANK_AUDIO]