Latest / The Lawtino™ / Build Your Network Before You Need It

Transcript

Build Your Network Before You Need It · The Lawtino™

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Latino Podcast, where we amplify the voices of Latino professionals, entrepreneurs, and leaders coming together to educate, inspire, and connect across one of the most dynamic binational regions in the world.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Bicultural, premium, powerful.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, it's John Gomez with another episode of the La Tino Podcast.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_02: We're here during our special series at in Washington, D.C.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_02: at the Hispanic National Bar Association's annual conference.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_02: This uh episode, as always, is brought to you by your sponsor, Gomez Trial Attorneys.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_02: Gomez Trial Attorneys is a national uh consumer rights law firm.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_02: We are binational.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_02: We have offices both in the United States and Mexico.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_02: We are bicultural.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_02: Uh we deliver the very highest legal excellence in both the English and Spanish language with cultural sensitivity, and we are best in class.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_02: That is, we are the best lawyers of what we do.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_02: What do we do?
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_02: We represent consumers in cases involving personal injury, employment harms, mass torts, and civil rights violations, sometimes some class action work too.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_02: We are joined here by a very special guest.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_02: The great thing about this conference is we're getting to meet amazing people from all over the country.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_02: Normally we're kind of clustered in our little Southern California, California, Mexico, like Southwest area, but now we are expanding our friendships and connections all across the country as part of this great conference.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_02: So David Arreguin, originally a guest on this podcast.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_02: Now my co-host works with me at the law firm, runs our California, Mexico uh border or uh corridor practice.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_02: Please introduce our next guest.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, of course.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_03: So again, super excited to be here with the podcast.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_03: I feel like we had some pre-registered people for the podcast, but intentionally we left open slots.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_02: For just cool people that we met.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_03: And for example, like with Aida, our current guest, uh, we got in a conversation because of my cousin who was a guest this morning.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_03: And we were supposed to have a coaching session, but then I got busy with a podcast.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, as soon as I told her you want to be on the podcast, she just jumped on the opportunity.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_03: So we appreciate you being here.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_03: Um mainly we want to hear from you.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_03: I know you're from Miami, Florida.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, but tell us a little bit about your background, what you do, your firm.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_01: So, Aida Rodriguez, I own a legal recruiting and executive search firm, Ascension Global Staffing and Executive Search.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_01: I also own a school for legal professionals, Ascension Legal Studies Institute.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: The school is a skills-based school where we upskill legal professionals, attorneys.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_01: It's not a law school, Tana Power Legal School, but attorneys need like business development skills.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_01: I don't teach that in law school.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so we teach the skills that they need in order to, you know, become highly marketable.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then we try to place them.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_01: That's our job.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I also own a separate business more focused on high-level attorneys, group placement.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_01: That's called the Sense of Partners.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we're based out of Miami.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we mostly we work in the Miami, New York, Texas markets.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I am Gowana.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_01: My parents came from Cuba when they were very young, and um, I'm first gen.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_01: And very proud to be it.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um what else?
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a mom, I'm a grandma, I can recently grandma.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: So that's exciting.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_01: Congratulations.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_01: And um and I've been HMBA involved for about 18 years now.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_01: And um, it's the best professional organization I network for a living.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_01: So I know what it is to get out there with um, you know, with the hustle and meet people and build your network, and and um the HMBA is where you go not only to build yourself professionally, but where you build a true family.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_01: And it's proven that to me over and over again.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_01: I'm very involved in a national level.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_01: I sit on the VIA board, the vision and action board, and then I also um, you know, regionally, region eight is our is our region, and you know, we do great things for the community, um, develop professionally, AR members, and um just the programming is just remarkable.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_02: That's amazing.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_02: So so you are first generation, your your your parents came from Cuba, and like uh you grew up in Miami?
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_01: I did.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_02: Did you grow up in like little Havana?
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I don't know, like what is it like over there?
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_02: They have something like that.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_02: I went there one time, and I had they had a they had a dinner club.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_02: Do you ever know about this?
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's maybe well there are many dinner clubs in Miami, right?
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: Miami's special.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_02: So tell me about tell us how do I, you know, like Miami's cool, but I'm over there in the in the hotels.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so I my parents came, my care my parents went from Cuba um in the 60s.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_02: Oh wow.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_01: To Miami, and they were processed through the Freedom Tower.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_01: If you've been to Miami, you should go to the Freedom Tower.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um what's the Freedom Tower like uh where they all are?
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_01: It's kind of like the processing center.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, now it's a historical building.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_01: Oh it's beautiful.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um so anyway, so they were processed there, and then um, because they had family in Chicago, that's where they went.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_01: They were children, they they met in Chicago, got married, had me, and um, so but I was telling me raised in Miami.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: Miami's a very diverse town.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: People think Miami think the beaches, but I grew up in the Redlands, which is gumbo.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: Cows, the Amish, lots of strawberry fields, and that's where I grew up.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: It's a very it's a very rural area.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um yeah, so but I'm Miami homegrown, you know, went to all the Miami schools and and love much more.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_01: Still there and still here.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_02: So um, so like you were telling, I I think it's interesting that you give lawyers, you know, non-legal skills that they need to succeed uh out in the real world.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_02: And so what I see a lot, um, because we do a lot of stuff with like, you know, younger lawyers and law students, uh mainly, you know, where we live, mainly Mexican uh kids from Mexican, American or Mexican uh descent.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_02: And um you'll see them kind of, you know, and I I guess it's maybe the same with like, you know, white law students anymore.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_02: Like they they do their school, but then you know, you can't get them to talk to anybody.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_02: They they huddle then, they hide in the corner with their friends.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_02: But like I think what you do is very valuable because like I feel like law school or the study of law is such a small, tiny part of like being a successful in the field.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: 100%.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_02: Like, what do you see?
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_02: What are these kids coming out, or even not kids lack, you know, that they need to succeed?
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: Well, listen, and it's not only the kids coming out of school, you could be 20 years out and still listen to the school.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, do the same, exactly.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_01: So, but but that's where the coaching comes in, right?
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so for example, today I participated in a new coaching program that the HMBA rolled out, and I had attorneys at different levels of their career, but all in different needs.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: Some are starting out, some are mid, and some are actually 20-something years out that they're ready for a pivot, yeah, right, or need guidance on how to develop a book of business, right?
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_01: I develop a book, I develop business for a living, so it's very easy for me to talk about sales and all the good stuff that comes with it.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I think that one of the classes that I really love that we teach is emotional intelligence.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um it is it's at the core, right, of you know who we are as humans and and as professionals.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you can teach that.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I I used to think that you have to be born with it, right?
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: You have emotional time, but I think that I think it could be practiced.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: I think I think I think it's a stuff that can be definitely but you know, like everything, you have to practice it, right?
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_01: You gotta put in those reps.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_03: Um like being out here, right?
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_03: Because that's ultimately what you gotta do.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so that that's something one class that I that I think everybody, I don't care who you are, where you are in your career, should definitely take, and then executive presence, right?
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: Executive presence.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think that um younger people, it's not something that's taught how to show up, how to show up for your clients.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_01: Not only, you know, lawyers are smart, you went to law school, you do great things, but how are you showing up?
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_01: Are you showing up to your client's office in a hoodie?
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: Happens, nobody's talking to these, you know, to these young lawyers and telling them, listen, you need you need a three-piece suit or a two-piece suit, whatever.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: But you need to show up in a certain way, right?
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_01: Because this is a very conservative industry.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: Whether you're doing personal injury or you're doing capital markets, it's a conservative industry.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: There's a way to show up.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_01: So there's so so many nuances and so many factors that play into building an attorney, and that's what we try to do at the school.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_01: Man, that's the HMB.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_02: Very, very valuable because like let's go back to emotional intelligence.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_02: And I started my career at like a big law firm, Latham Watkins.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, like you would see, you know, you can you can handle a situation poorly, you know, act out, have some bad, you know, behavior because you're stressed or can't handle.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and that can ruin your career.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah, like just like that, you know, and so if if you don't have the ability to kind of regulate and modulate and you know uh react appropriately, yeah, you could be the smartest lawyer in the room, but you're you're out of the game.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_02: It follows you, it follows you a hundred percent.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_03: Especially if your community is a small legal legal community.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_01: And they usually are, usually are in Miami, as big as it is, the community is very small, everyone knows each other, generally speaking.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_01: I'm going to give you a prime example.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_01: We were working with a partner level candidate.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_01: He had a nine million dollar book of business.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: I said, Oh, this guy, anybody will take him.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: Guess what?
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: Nobody took him.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_01: Why?
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: Because he had the word on the street was that he was not kind, and nobody wants to work with kind.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_02: Ah, yeah.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: He was unkind.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so nobody wanted to work with him, and X, nobody wanted him.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_01: So I that to me was my first lesson.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_01: And it's not always about the money.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: It's first, do I want to work with you?
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_01: Are we going to get along?
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_01: Do we like each other enough to work together?
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_01: So that's always going to come first.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_03: So here's what one of the things that I see, like like when I started speaking with you about like business development and you know, attorneys and getting those skills.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I feel like especially the uh a lot of the younger lawyers that I meet, like we put up some uh some business development classes.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_03: No one shows up to those.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_03: I would make it.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_03: Mostly they show up to like this, they are the skill set.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: I would make it required.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_01: It's an obligation, sure.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, because I I do give a little a few talks on this on business development and how to bring business.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_03: And generally that they're the least attended uh webinars or the least attended uh uh events.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, well, how are you gonna like survive?
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_01: Give me five minutes with them.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_01: As a recruiter, if you are 10, 15 years out, the more senior you get in your career, and if you don't have a book of business or know how to or want to, which is probably the first thing, right?
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_01: I cannot sell you.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_01: You are not marketable.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_01: So I tell, you know, when I'm mentoring a young law school, even you know, as early as law school, start early, start building those relationships early.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_01: You don't want to be 10 years out and you know, not have a client or a book.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's I think everyone should at least make the attempt to build a book and you know, and to build relationships.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_01: It's gonna do well for you personally, it will reflect nicely on the firm, right?
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_01: To win-win.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_03: Relationships, you know, relationships getting me on the podcast, and then the podcast got me a job.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_03: Look at that.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's how it works.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, I love it.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean, like, we're in the the plane of space, so everything's about getting the case, and so you know, business development or marketing or asking for business or referral is very, very important to us.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I came from uh, like I said, uh a big firm.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_02: And I remember like right when I got there, um, this guy sat me down.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_02: He goes, You can either be a grinder, a minder, or a finder.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_02: And he said, like a grinder, like work your ass off, bill like I whoops, I cussed on a Latino podcast.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_02: You can you can bill like crazy, but you're never gonna make be a partner if you can't if you can't develop business.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_02: Because they can just find another one of you.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_02: And then he goes, or you can be like a mind, a minder, he called it.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_02: Like you can run a litigation, you can run a team, right?
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_02: You've got some skills, but you're probably gonna tap out of like income partner, right?
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_02: Like you'll never be an equity partner.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_02: The people that make it to the top, whether it's on my side of the street or the others, are the people that can bring in the business, right?
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_02: And so that's amazing.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_02: You teach them how to do it.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that is um, I think it's it's one of the most critical courses that we teach, 100%.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_01: And and they're taught by real rate makers, right?
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_01: All the classes are taught by judges, attorneys, um, and experts, right?
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so yeah.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_02: I love it to be taught.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm intrigued now.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_02: We have I'm gonna reach out.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_02: We have uh so we have um executive presence, uh, we have emotional intelligence and business development.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_02: Is that the third one?
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_01: That's business development.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_02: Is there some more?
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_02: Is there some more that these guys get?
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_01: Uh as far as courses?
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, for the lawyers.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, so uh let me see another class that would be relevant to a lawyer.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um, well, what's relevant now is all things AI.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_01: We're teaching how to prompt, how to use it as a tool.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, engineering.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_03: I love it.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and um, we're also informing, teaching people how to take their their current skills for especially for people like in data privacy that want to get into the AI space.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it I have so much.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_01: I could be here probably more than 15 minutes.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um, our industry is evolving so quickly, so quickly.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and it's just you gotta keep up with it.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_01: Gotta keep up with it.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, it's crazy.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_02: You know, like um, I don't know if if this touches upon what you teach and see, but now we have a lot of um private money coming into law.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_02: Like I'm getting approached by private equity people all the time.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I'm not an investment banker, I have no idea.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_02: Like, yeah, I listen, you know, I try to react, I try to be informed, but it's a brave new world.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_01: It is, it is, it is, and I love it.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_01: I love to hear all the things that are going on, the PEs that are coming into town and just scooping up um the back offices of these law firms and and doing some pretty amazing things.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_01: Amazing things, and you have all these firms that are just like merging, yes, you know, right and left.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_03: Um the CMOs, it's definitely evolving, it's definitely changing.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_03: But you know, with a definitely changing.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_02: Well, they think, yeah, they they believe they can do that better than us, and they can.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_02: So uh I agree.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, I'm a good lawyer.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_02: I have I have a good, I have some good branding, but you know, you're probably better at everything else.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_02: So um, like in terms of HMBA, you've been involved for a long time.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_02: Um, why why are you involved?
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_02: You know, what benefits does it offer people?
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: You know, what hooked me was that the HMBA is about building the pipeline of Latino lawyers, right?
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_01: So we are the most underrepresented of the groups.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_01: And the work that they do was so instrumental in building that pipeline, so many programs that are devoted to building the pipeline.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um, years ago, which is when I started, um, we would go into the high schools and say, okay, who wants to be a lawyer here?
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_01: And we would grab those those young adults or or adults to be and and put them through a program where they actually got to come to DC.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_01: They they went into the you know congressional hearings or they went in and they actually got to feel you know about and learn about the politics and learn about the law.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_01: We took them to the law schools and really immersed them in the in the in the whole experience of being a lawyer.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_01: And my favorite um story from that, I had a young lady who was um in a in a halfway house.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_01: We put her through the program and she's FBI today.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_01: She was like young, pregnant, drugs, like everything that you and like she checked off all the boxes that said she was not supposed to be there.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: And today she, you know, she went into the program and um FBI.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, a testimonial.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it was amazing.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_01: No, that was that's my favorite story.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and that was in my.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_03: Uh congratulations.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, then you mentioned the HMBA, well, the VA.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_03: Is it a VIA program?
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_03: What is that?
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_03: Because I see it on the You see it everywhere.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I see it everywhere.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_03: Can you tell us a little bit about that?
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_01: So the Vision and Action Fund is a non um nonprofit arm of the HMBA.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_01: So it used to be everything used to be under one umbrella, and um, somewhere along the line, someone got smart and said, hey, listen, we're a nonprofit organization.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: Let's really make use of this so that we can give the most to our to our membership.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_01: So it'sn't just a nonprofit arm, everything operates under that nonprofit arm.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, interesting.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we know about this.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_02: Super cool.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_02: And so um, you know, we we're kind of tapping up on our time here.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_02: So if you could share like one, you know, struggle, something that you've fought through to get to where you are today that maybe others could take some inspiration from.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_02: Like what is what is the struggle that you've had?
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_01: If listen, honestly, I've lived a very blessed life, and I haven't, you know, um if I had one challenge, I think that um years ago I went through a uh a spurt of a about of a bad time.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: But it was that bad time that grew me.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_01: It was being highly uncomfortable coming into the space that I'm in.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_01: I grew up in the law firm, and about 15 years ago I entered the recruiting industry at the same time that I was going through that very black moment, and I was so uncomfortable and my whole life was just like on its head, but I grew so much out of that.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, it's sometimes out of you know being uncomfortable that you really get to grow.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and you know, and come and great things come out of it.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_01: So um, yeah, I would say that that would be my my moment.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, and my experience is like as as dark as things seem, you know, the the sunlight's coming, it always passes.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_01: Never that bad, yeah, yeah.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_01: So I I do keep that mantra, you know, everything is temporary, everything is temporary, just you know, yes.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so all right, so final question.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you know, if you could write in the sky words for everyone to see, uh, what message would you provide to all of us forever?
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, I guess in line with where we are today and you know what we're all about here at the HMBA, I would write, we belong.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_01: Nice big white poofy letters.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_01: I like that.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_02: I think you're the second person that wrote that up there.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_02: So now it's we're definitely seeing it.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_02: I do feel like uh we belong, and you belong on our podcast.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_02: We're pleased that we got to meet you and thank you for spending your time.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much, guys.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_02: All right.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_02: So uh if you uh this concludes this episode of the Latino podcast.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_02: If you like us, thumb us up, share us, um, uh follow us.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_02: And where where can folks find you?
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_02: Like if people want to look you up.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um they can find me on LinkedIn, um, Ida Rodriguez, um, in Miami.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sure there's another Ida Rodriguez on LinkedIn.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_01: She's a comedian.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_02: No, I don't follow her.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_02: Not a comedian.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_02: Why is why is he hold on?
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_02: Why, okay, a career coach.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_02: Why, why, why is a comedian on LinkedIn?
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_02: Like, you're not like you're not looking for a comedian on LinkedIn.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_01: She's a professional.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_01: I guess a professional comedian.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_01: I guess.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_02: Come on.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, so you can definitely find me on LinkedIn or my my company website, which is ascensionsearch.com.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_02: Awesome.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you for spending the time.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_02: This concludes we're now signing off this episode of the Latino.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_02: Gracias.