00:00
We are Multilingual people.
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Let's not forget, almost all professions have their language and being
00:07
on a board has a language.
00:08
It's the language of governance.
00:10
It's the language of the audit committee.
00:12
We already have learned two languages.
00:15
Let's embrace the language of our profession or of the career we
00:22
I'm Claudia Romo Edelman and I'm Cynthia Cleo Milner.
00:25
And this is a podcast,
00:26
a La Latina, the playbook to succeed being your authentic self
00:29
today, an incredible guest,
00:31
Adela Zepeda, general Partner of Angeles Ventures.
00:35
And here are the three key takeaways of this podcast.
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Number one, devote 10 to 20% of your time to learning
00:42
continuous learning is going to enable you to grow.
00:46
Number two, we are already Multilingual as Latinos.
00:49
So it's important to speak the language of the profession and places
00:52
you want to be involved in.
00:54
For example, if you're interested in getting on a board,
00:56
learn the board language and speaking of getting on a board,
00:59
she gave us a playbook for how we can get on a
01:02
board. And that starts with being an expert on your field
01:06
and getting visibility and exposure all of that.
01:08
And more here at a la Latina Cynthia.
01:18
You're the Chief Marketing Officer of Money Lion.
01:22
Money Lion is a finance app that was created to help everyone
01:26
make better financial decisions because the financial services industry has historically been
01:31
very focused on people that already have Money and Money Lion for
01:35
the last 10 years has been building products for the average American
01:39
products that will actually help you reach your financial dreams.
01:43
I'll give you the example of our raw money account,
01:45
which is our banking product that has all the features of premium
01:50
banking checking accounts, like no minimum balances,
01:53
no hidden fees, no ATM fees at over 55,000 locations.
01:57
The list goes on and on.
01:58
But we also build some very unique features for people like our
02:03
Latino community. We have something called round ups.
02:06
If you have spare change,
02:08
instead of just spending it on whatever you can invest it automatically
02:13
and start building wealth.
02:14
And for those moments when you paid hasn't arrived and you need
02:18
a little bit of cash.
02:19
We have a product called Inst Cash and you can get up
02:21
to $1000 in a cash advance.
02:23
We also have educational content that is really fun to watch but
02:27
actually helps you make financial decisions and a community of what we
02:31
call money lions like our Latinos who help each other out in
02:34
their journey to the American dream.
02:36
So how can Latinos and myself get on going with the Money
02:40
Lion download the app.
02:41
You can do that either on Money lion.com or in the App
02:44
Store or Google Store.
02:46
Today. Adela Zepeda.
02:48
Adela is a business leader with more than 40 years of experience
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in the finance field.
02:53
She has advised municipalities and corporations on the structuring and execution of
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capital market transactions exceeding $150 billion.
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She is a board member of Funds Mercer Funds BM Bank and
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a board chair of Pathways Funds Angeles Investors,
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which has a mission to find fund and grow the most promising
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Hispanic and Latinx Ventures.
03:17
On the non for profit side,
03:19
Adela is on the board of Teatro Vista,
03:21
a non for profit theater based company dedicated to multidisciplinary artists of
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color, the N A CD Chicago chapter and Rush University.
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So many things to have you,
03:34
Adela, you're a true Trailblazer.
03:36
Thank you. It's a true honor to have you with us
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today. And we would like to start this podcast a La
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Latina with Adela Zepeda asking you about our favorite subject,
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which is your, what is your background?
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who you are and what you do today?
03:50
Yeah, thanks. Thanks so much.
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I'm really excited to be here with the two of you and
03:55
with an audience that's interested in what Latinas are doing.
03:58
Listen, I'm totally a product of my background and my family
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my family immigrated to the United states in 1964.
04:09
And they brought me as a six year old with one mission
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which was repeated to us every single day.
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We left everything so that you could be well educated and become
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a professional. The education I understood it meant going to school
04:25
I thought to do well,
04:27
the being a professional,
04:29
not so clear exactly what my father would say.
04:31
I don't want you to work with your hands like I do
04:34
he did air conditioning and refrigeration and I want you to
04:39
be in an office like your mother.
04:41
I think occasionally they might have said,
04:43
you know, be a doctor,
04:44
but they weren't that specific but be a professional.
04:47
And it was so repeated and so much a part of what
04:53
drove them that, you know,
04:55
eventually it gets into you and that becomes your goal.
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So when did it stop being their dream and become my dream
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I can't tell you for sure.
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I knew I was competitive and wanted to be the best in
05:09
school. And then fortunately,
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my mom had some background in education and she thought it was
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a good thing to go to Harvard.
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My father thought it was better if I stayed and went to
05:23
school on Long Island where we were then residing.
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she needs to go to Harvard and that was that very easy
05:33
So she said you should go to Harvard and you just showed
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no, I had already gotten in but I had many
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choices everywhere I applied.
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I, I was accepted Harvard,
05:43
Yale, Princeton like that.
05:45
And then also I had asked for some schools in Long Island
05:50
because I didn't think I would get into those schools.
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But I did. And my mom said,
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can we just back up,
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like backtrack for a second?
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So you arrive from what country?
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what was the English level?
06:03
The understanding of the country?
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you know, how is it that they knew Harvard?
06:09
But also the Ivy Leagues?
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And,, how is it that you made it to
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apply to them and become,
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you know, like a student that everybody wanted?
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Yeah., they did not know English.
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My parents struggled with the language and my father always spoke it
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not. Well, they were well read.
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My mom had gone through high school.
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She had been trained to be a teacher.
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She had wanted to go into law,
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but it wasn't possible for her.
06:37
She didn't get a scholarship to go,
06:40
but she was very smart and she became a businesswoman in Colombia
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when women didn't, certainly,
06:47
when married women didn't.
06:49
And then when women with Children didn't,
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but she did. And my father in his business,
06:57
the refrigeration was very important.
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We're from the coast.
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So hospitals are, you know,
07:03
have good air conditioning systems.
07:08
Baptist Hospital and I think there must have been doctors that
07:13
came from the US to do be volunteers.
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I don't know. And when we were born and the,
07:19
and started school, it was very expensive because you have to
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go to private school in Colombia.
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And I think the doctors said,
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why don't you go to the US?
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Education is free. So they had that idea.
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I don't remember this because I came when I was six.
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But my mom says the first two years I cried almost every
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single day because I didn't understand the homework.
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And I was in like slow classes.
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I remember that because by third grade I was in a better
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they kept moving me up by fourth grade or yeah.
07:55
Third. My father thought I was,
07:59
it was slow for me and he went to tell the teacher
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she needs more and the teacher didn't like that and she took
08:07
a paperback copy of Bambi and threw it at me.
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I remember it just flew and she said read that and write
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so I did by fourth grade,
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I read honestly, maybe six times what everybody else did.
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At least, maybe much more.
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I just, the teacher was keeping track of what we read
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and every, you got a star if you read a book
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you know, I read 40 books and all the kids
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read five books. I don't know.
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that, that reading helped me get a bigger understanding,
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a better understanding of the English language.
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By sixth grade, I was a top student and by high
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I, I heard how you got into the college from other
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people. I heard you have to be well rounded and
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that meant you have to be in sports and you have to
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be in student government and you have to.
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Whoa, I wasn't good in sports.
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So I figured all those other things,
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I was in student government.
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I was, and I worked since I was 12,
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I worked every day after school.
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And you know, when I went for my interview for what
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you're going to do in college and you're in,
09:17
in 11th grade, they said Harvard Ale in Princeton.
09:21
no, I need a local school too.
09:26
when he heard that they were both there,
09:28
maybe he heard she doesn't want to go away.
09:31
Which was probably true.
09:32
So that when I did get accepted,
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we'll buy her a car and she can go here.
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But no, that was the incentive.
09:40
No. And also I was never a good driver.
09:42
So that wasn't, that wasn't,
09:45
I'm very curious about how you knew that you needed to be
09:50
well rounded because you were like,
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who was your network?
09:53
You didn't have uncles or like people that were giving you a
09:57
that's the, I told her,
09:58
I worked every, every day after school and also summer jobs
10:02
I was at a summer job at a social service agency
10:06
and a lady there had sons that were either in college or
10:11
applying. She had two or three of them and she said
10:14
it's not enough to have good grades.
10:16
That scared me because here I am the good grade girl.
10:19
And she said you have to be well rounded.
10:22
And I tried to understand what that meant and as soon as
10:26
I started ninth grade,
10:27
I joined student government,
10:29
the newspaper, things that I could do,
10:33
I could not be an athlete.
10:34
I already, you know,
10:36
I was the least popular person for,
10:40
So I knew that wasn't possible but then that,
10:43
that and good grades.
10:45
And I think that what I hear is an incredible amount of
10:49
ambition from your parents for you.
10:53
talent from your side,
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hard work from your side.
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But there was also the role that your mom played in.
10:59
What I think that a lot of Latinas do not have the
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privilege of having, which is breaking the root beliefs that some
11:06
parents have of attached and not letting the kids fly and go
11:09
as far as they go because they prefer to have them close
11:16
Your parents probably, like your father probably picked it up so
11:19
many times we have heard.
11:21
From young Latinas that their dreams are bigger than their wings and
11:27
they, and their parents basically anchor them into a place.
11:30
So I think that there's something to be taught for Latinas that
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are mo mothers right now of the role that you can play
11:38
in liberating your kids into,
11:41
you know, like allowing them to fly,
11:44
dream big but also have wings to fly.
11:46
Yeah, absolutely. You have to do that because these schools
11:52
in addition to the education,
11:54
the network that these schools offer and I re I interviewed
11:59
and helped recruit students for Harvard for many years,
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like 20 years. And sometimes with the Latino students,
12:06
that was a big problem,
12:07
the parents and I would talk to them,
12:11
you know, the loan and I would say,
12:13
well, if you get a car,
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don't you take a loan?
12:17
well, that, that car isn't gonna be any good after
12:19
10 years, but his education is gonna be forever.
12:22
I tried so many things,
12:24
I would say half of them turned it down to stay local
12:30
So I wanna go back to,
12:32
to the previous answer that you gave because in,
12:34
in the little time that I've known you,
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I can tell that you are a very good listener that when
12:40
somebody says something that resonates with you,
12:43
it can impact your life,
12:44
like you can actually make changes the two times that you said
12:47
it with me today are the first one.
12:49
Somebody said you should be well rounded and you like really go
12:54
And then the second one,
12:55
which I would love to talk about it was when you apply
12:58
to H BS. And the dean said women are not
13:02
great at the quantitative stuff.
13:05
Can you tell us about that experience and what you did with
13:07
that new information? Yes.
13:09
One of the questions that you had for me was,
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how did I get into finance?
13:13
You, you've interviewed other women but not in finance.
13:17
You know, finance is not historically a field for women.
13:21
Even recently, I'm reviewing some descriptive material of some leading firms
13:26
in finance and it's 30% women and that's not at the top
13:31
that's like maybe it's 40% at the lower level and at
13:38
So it's an issue and finance in particular.
13:43
Well, I went to Harvard and it took me a while
13:45
to figure out what I was going to do.
13:47
I did study economics though.
13:50
And then I wanted to go to Harvard Business School.
13:53
I was involved in Harvard student agencies,
13:55
which is the student business organization.
13:58
It's where you run a business.
14:00
I ran the travel agency for three years.
14:03
I was the manager of it.
14:05
I got it hired for a fabulous summer job in,
14:09
AT&T, it was like the leading management program.
14:14
I got that. I was ready to go to Harvard Business
14:17
School. I applied the first day the door opened to apply
14:21
I walked over there,
14:22
I delivered my application when I got back the acceptance.
14:27
It was not for right away.
14:30
They asked for a two year deferral while that is very common
14:34
today. It was not common then.
14:39
what am I going to do?
14:40
I didn't get in right away.
14:42
And the Dean of students of Harvard walked with me over to
14:47
the Business School to talk to them about it.
14:50
And the Dean of the Business School said,
14:52
yes, it's that we want students to have more business experience
14:56
I told him all my experiences.
14:58
I think it's good to go and get two years of experience
15:04
when am I gonna be able to establish a family that's gonna
15:08
take so long? He said,
15:10
listen, it's, it's this is the way it's gonna be
15:15
the women on H BS have more problems with the quantitative aspect
15:20
of the program. I said like what?
15:24
And he says Harvard Business School is not known for quantitative,
15:27
it's known for their case studies.
15:29
But he told me that I already had a job with AT&T
15:33
to go to their management program based on what he told me
15:38
because I wanted to excel at Harvard Business School.
15:41
I turned down that job and went to find a quantitative program
15:45
That's how I got into Smith Barney.
15:47
And then I wanted to excel and that took me 10 years
15:52
what a, what an incredible story.
15:54
But on Harvard and the Ivy Leagues you mentioned it is education
16:00
but the network as well and that many people turn it
16:03
down for whatever number of reasons.
16:06
But also many people do not even try because they have either
16:10
an imposter syndrome. They don't think that they can afford it
16:13
They don't think that they can do it.
16:15
And if I hear you or there's the head of the
16:18
Colombia Medical School that also is a Latina that went to Harvard
16:23
look, the only thing that I had was my hard work
16:27
and the opportunity to use my Latina credential to get a
16:30
scholarship and because, you know,
16:31
like they were needing more women and Latinas I got in so
16:35
being poor and being Latina helped me to try for the best
16:40
So I think that there's a message there about how women
16:43
particularly Latinas need to aim high or higher,
16:47
aim higher all the time because it's worth absolutely.
16:50
But listen, I had parents that were motivating me to aim
16:54
for the highest, like they said,
16:57
because when I raised well,
16:58
how, how are we gonna afford this?
17:01
My mom and my father both said,
17:03
whatever they would have to do they would do for me to
17:06
go, that I shouldn't be worried about that.
17:09
There was nothing that was gonna stop me from going there if
17:13
I had the opportunity and that's how they were.
17:18
I still worked all the way through college as many
17:21
as two jobs, even in the summer,
17:23
two jobs because I didn't want them.
17:25
I'm the oldest of five.
17:26
It was, it wasn't fair for me to get so much
17:29
of the resources. So I really paid other than the first
17:33
year I paid for myself.
17:34
But Harvard gave me a nice scholarship and I would say the
17:38
flip side, just like your friend at Colombia being a Latina
17:43
helped. I was told that year 1976 75 that Harvard was
17:49
looking for students of Latino background or Hispanic or whatever.
17:54
They didn't know exactly what it was.
17:57
And I can tell you on campus they didn't have any idea
18:00
what it was because they considered me on campus to be foreign
18:07
Whereas the Latino students that were Mexican American,
18:11
they were American Americanized and they were organizations for them
18:19
even when I went through the same because they used to tell
18:21
me, are you Latino in H BS,
18:24
there was a Latino association and I was like,
18:27
I Latino, I'm Mexican.
18:29
I, I'm, I'm an immigrant but now I feel very
18:31
Latina. But they had,
18:33
they had asked me people from Puerto Rican background,
18:38
Dominican. If there were any,
18:39
they weren't, they didn't consider it the same thing.
18:42
This has all changed.
18:43
Now, we have become more assertive about our identity.
18:48
And the fact that we come from Spanish speaking background is a
18:53
unifying force for Latinos that we need to embrace and not find
19:00
the differences between us.
19:02
But the similarities you talk to that.
19:07
So let's take a trip through memory lane.
19:09
You have a very successful career in corporate America before you started
19:14
your own firm. Can you talk to us about how,
19:17
how did you succeed in corporate America?
19:20
What was your playbook?
19:21
What do you think were the,
19:22
the, the decisions that you made or how did you show
19:26
up at work that made you so successful?
19:29
I worked harder than anybody.
19:31
There was a time I remember it was like six or seven
19:36
weeks that I worked every single day and even though we were
19:39
investment bankers, we were investment bankers in Chicago.
19:42
That's not like investment banking in New York where you start at
19:47
nine and work till 12.
19:49
No, everybody there left to go have dinner at six o'clock
19:54
I came a little bit later but I stayed much later
19:57
and if I had to be there on the weekend,
20:00
so that anybody that needed something to be made by an analyst
20:05
If they gave it to me,
20:06
they knew they were gonna get it.
20:09
I learned, I learned,
20:12
I wanted to understand the language of finance,
20:15
which was honestly like a foreign language.
20:18
Took me a long time.
20:20
I can't tell you that I was proficient in it for at
20:23
least five years. It was hard,
20:27
even after studying economics,
20:31
But I learned an incredible tool that I think is so
20:38
valuable to women and that is finance when you can open up
20:42
a financial statement and understand that company's position in the market,
20:48
in on and of itself,
20:49
does it need to sell debt?
20:50
Does it need more debt?
20:51
Does it need less debt?
20:53
What is it, what are the features that are making this
20:56
company great or not when you can do that?
21:00
Just on the numbers?
21:02
That's like such an amazing skill.
21:05
So working hard was one of the the superpowers that you brought
21:09
to the table to succeed in corporate America.
21:11
What else? Because I think that hearing that you pick up
21:14
from others, how did you learn to navigate?
21:17
like again as a first gen coming corporate America,
21:21
what else did you pick up from others that made you?
21:24
I Yeah, II I was the only woman for a while
21:29
professional woman, I learned how to market,
21:32
how to, how to sell,
21:34
how to, how did they position to get the business?
21:38
So I learned that I didn't have to use it so much
21:42
there. But when I had my own businesses,
21:44
I did. And why did you decide to leave corporate America
21:47
the business changed, you know,
21:49
Wall Street is very cyclical.
21:51
I was always in the capital markets.
21:54
So you go through like the last two years have been terrible
21:57
markets for initial public offerings.
21:59
That means in investment banking,
22:01
it's slow now. M and A is slow.
22:03
So those are times when,
22:05
and that was a moment when the firm changed and people left
22:10
and I and I had just had a third child.
22:14
I didn't want to be,
22:15
you know, running around the country,
22:17
taking clients to for institutional road shows to do an IP
22:22
O and there were no IP OS to be done.
22:24
And it was just seemed like a good moment with the third
22:28
child to stay home for a few years.
22:31
That's what I planned and was everything it seems to me like
22:35
you're such a superstar and you have such a value and resume
22:39
It was it everything sort of like,
22:41
did you have a plan?
22:42
Like for the next 30 years of my life,
22:45
Did you have a plan,
22:45
a strategy or did just happened to be that you had like
22:49
the most amazing career for the first chance few years in
22:54
investment banking. I had a plan.
22:56
That's how I would move up.
22:57
How much I would make all of that.
22:59
But then I took that break.
23:01
And so you did take a break when you had a few
23:04
months. But then somebody approached me about starting this new business
23:08
an investment management firm.
23:13
I didn't want to do it.
23:16
if we find somebody to financially back up so that we get
23:22
I'll do it and we found somebody to financially back us.
23:25
And so I had said I would do it under those circumstances
23:28
I did, I thought it would be,
23:30
I won't work so hard.
23:32
You don't work harder than you do for yourself.
23:35
I needed it to succeed.
23:37
Early in starting that.
23:39
I started that in May of 1991 in January of 1992 my
23:47
husband was diagnosed with a fatal cancer.
23:53
The girls were the youngest wasn't even two.
23:58
I needed that business to succeed because I felt if it
24:01
succeeded, he would feel better,
24:04
he would not feel pressure.
24:07
He was a, a major success and he was a lawyer
24:10
and a partner in a law firm.
24:12
I didn't want him to feel pressure.
24:15
And I thought if I made this business succeed,
24:17
that would help him.
24:18
What else could I do?
24:20
He died. And the business wasn't enough for what I
24:25
needed to do with three Children,
24:28
a certain lifestyle that I didn't want to deprive them of because
24:33
Children don't sign up,
24:36
they sign up for two parents.
24:37
Now, they were only gonna have one.
24:39
I wasn't gonna change my lifestyle.
24:41
I had this great education,
24:42
this great experience. I was going to succeed at that in
24:47
a way that they could at least live.
24:49
Well, that's when you sold your business.
24:52
No, I, I left my interest there.
24:55
I sold my little interest in the third and I started my
24:59
business advising governments. OK.
25:03
So suddenly I was a woman owned firm advising governments who were
25:08
supposedly wanting to do business with women.
25:12
Some of them Latinos maybe,
25:14
but mostly women. And I just took that as far as
25:17
I could. I had a lot of help.
25:19
Look. it being in Chicago was a big help.
25:23
My husband came from a political family.
25:27
Mayor Daley was great and supportive and all the other politicos in
25:33
Illinois were extremely helpful to me.
25:37
But then I won the New York City account on a Lark
25:42
just applied and, and,
25:45
and one to be the co advisor for New York City for
25:48
their major credits called the General Obligation Bonds for their specialized credits
25:54
Great experience. Had an office here,
25:57
still have my apartment here that took me to be the firm
26:02
that I started to be one of the top 10 in the
26:06
US for over 10 years in a row.
26:09
No other minority firm was in the top 10 every year.
26:15
which was right. It was 20 years old.
26:20
II, I took the course at L Ban about scaling and
26:25
I thought about growing it and I didn't have the energy to
26:30
go more national. I already had the state of Connecticut as
26:34
well. They're very supportive state for,
26:37
women and minority owned businesses.
26:42
let somebody else take it and I sold to the number
26:45
one in the industry.
26:46
They didn't take, you know,
26:47
they just, they assert it.
26:50
That's what they do.
26:51
I, I have to tell you how much of a degree
26:57
now for you understanding your loss and what you had to
27:01
go through and being a single mother with three kids and no
27:05
one would actually see the Rob,
27:07
Rob the Adela Zepeda,
27:09
you know, like having go through all of that.
27:11
So you just meit sombrero and thank you so much for
27:15
sharing this powerful story with us,
27:17
your powerful story.
27:20
I think that a lot of Latinos have to go through so
27:22
much struggles and we don't share that because we just have to
27:25
be strong and keep going.
27:26
And it is it is when you make it that maybe
27:30
you have the moment to be vulnerable and accept that and I
27:32
wanna be grateful for that.
27:34
Thank you. But I think that if we feel that we
27:40
Yeah. And you figure out what you have that can help
27:46
you what you don't have and then you get it with others
27:50
and building your, if it's,
27:51
you're building your business and if it's,
27:53
you're in a corporate career,
27:55
by the way, I'm a big supporter of people staying in
27:58
the corporate career, all the resources are there.
28:03
I, I did this because I kinda had to,
28:05
things kind of dissolved at Smith Barney at that moment in,
28:08
in Chicago. But I should have been an executive in a
28:15
large corporation. That is the path of an investment banker.
28:19
You do investment banking until you burn out because it's so time
28:23
consuming and exhausting and then you go in house just like a
28:27
law when you like law and you go in house as a
28:32
treasurer or assistant treasurer.
28:34
Well, I never got that opportunity.
28:36
It just no access to a network,
28:40
even though I went to Harvard to help me with that.
28:42
This is exactly why we launched a La Latina and why we
28:46
are very focused in corporate America because Latinas are having a really
28:51
hard time getting that first promotion because they don't have a network
28:55
they don't have sponsors or mentors or a playbook that tells
28:58
them this is actually how you get promoted besides working hard.
29:02
There are things that it's like a,
29:04
a secret to Latinas,
29:05
but everybody else knows that you need to get a mentor,
29:08
you need to volunteer for stuff.
29:09
Anyway., one more thing I've learned about you,
29:13
you somehow learn new things.
29:16
Like you, somehow you go from corporate to having your own
29:18
business and educate yourself and then educate yourself to be a board
29:23
member and educate yourself to be the chair.
29:25
How do you learn new things?
29:28
Well, that's a whole fabulous thing about doing things.
29:34
I mean, you don't want to be doing the same thing
29:35
over and over and over again.
29:37
You wanna learn, that's what keeps you interested and curious and
29:43
you have to have that.
29:45
Even if you have a business,
29:48
you have to see how it's changing and how you have to
29:50
change with it so that it continues to grow.
29:54
You have to, you have to read the tea leaves,
29:57
but I like what she's asking.
29:59
He's like, how do you do that?
30:00
Do you insert yourself on uncomfortable situations?
30:03
Like I don't know anything about planting,
30:05
but I'm going to come to the planting experts.
30:08
I'm going to start reading things that I don't know.
30:15
early on in 1992 I think I was invited to join a
30:21
board of a closed and mutual fund.
30:23
That's a specialized thing.
30:26
It was a, I was the first woman,
30:28
obviously only minority,
30:32
very young. You usually don't get these opportunities in your thirties
30:37
But because of building the woman owned investment management business.
30:42
It had received some publicity.
30:43
So people thought, oh,
30:45
she knows finance. So they invited me and then I knew
30:49
I had a lot to learn.
30:51
Well, I go back then there weren't,
30:54
you know, webcasts and things,
30:56
but I would go to seminars.
30:58
I would go, I am constantly in seminars about governing of
31:05
mutual funds. For example,
31:08
when I was on the board of Wyndham Hotels International,
31:14
you know, getting more expertise.
31:16
They sent me to Harvard Business School to do the course for
31:21
audit chairs. I'm always going to those programs for
31:26
board directors. So would you have to,
31:29
could you quantify the amount of time you devote yourself to being
31:33
learning? Is it 10% of your time?
31:35
5% of your time so that we can put it out there
31:37
Definitely 10 or 20.
31:39
There you go. That's one key message.
31:41
You literally have to say the way that you put,
31:44
you know, like 30% of your budget to rent 20 percent
31:47
of your time to learn somebody that you would think she already
31:50
knows everything. No,
31:52
no, because there's no rules,
31:54
there's new things happening and you have to go and learn it
31:59
and you and you're being paid to represent shareholders as a director
32:05
and you have to know when to accept the proposals that are
32:09
being made by your own advisor of,
32:11
of the investment advisor you have to have developed judgment.
32:16
Now, judgment, you know,
32:18
it's not, it's not something like some people have judgment and
32:21
some people don't. No judgment is based on your knowledge of
32:25
things. Then you're able to go through your brain and well
32:29
that might work because of what you know,
32:34
I happen to be a person with judgment.
32:36
No, you develop judgment because you,
32:39
you know, like another thing,
32:41
people talk a lot about the instinctive reaction or you know,
32:45
Latinas are instinctive and they just use their instincts.
32:49
Instinct. It's not a thing.
32:53
Instinct is the accumulation of everything,
32:55
you know, and suddenly something in your brain which is faster
33:01
than even you can articulate is telling you no,
33:04
no. Go this way is telling you go this way because
33:07
it's, it has assessed all the points and you have to
33:12
trust that you have those capabilities.
33:17
I have to quantify it.
33:19
I did that for too long.
33:22
No self confidence. Like there's nothing about Adela de Cepeda that
33:28
doesn't spell self confidence.
33:29
How easy was it for you to get mentors or sponsors?
33:33
Particularly when you're like strong enough.
33:35
And people don't think that you need a hand because you seem
33:39
to figure it out on your own.
33:41
And how, how did you navigate?
33:44
Like how was the role of someone a mental sponsor in your
33:48
life in navigating and learning and,
33:50
and, and, and guiding you to where you are.
33:52
Well, I didn't have a lot of mentors but I saw
33:56
what the men did to succeed.
33:59
So that showed me you have to have your book of business
34:04
you have to, I also saw what they did because I
34:08
knew what they knew.
34:09
I, I had prepared the materials.
34:12
So I saw how they responded when asked difficult questions that maybe
34:18
I had not addressed and they were being asked and they knew
34:22
how to answer in a way that the person thought they were
34:25
experts and you didn't have mentors because you didn't ask for one
34:30
There wasn't like who would you ask?
34:32
It was, it was like it wasn't like that.
34:34
It was, you worked for people and you know,
34:38
they wanted you to succeed because you would do more work for
34:43
you could bring more revenue,
34:45
you could all those kind of things.
34:48
not like you do today.
34:51
I've been a mentor to my Children,
34:53
my daughters, I have three daughters.
34:54
I mentor them a lot.
34:58
I didn't have something like that.
34:59
My husband, he was very smart and he knew where to
35:03
get me a resource if I needed.
35:05
That's why it was difficult for me to make the move after
35:09
he wasn't there anymore to connect.
35:11
You know, he would have said you need to connect this
35:16
I think that based on what I hear from the network of
35:19
the white man, the CEO,
35:21
if you want the fortune 500 the 1% is that if you
35:25
don't ask, you don't get,
35:26
and that many times strong women don't ask.
35:30
like, looking backwards?
35:31
Would you have changed and asked for,
35:34
for a mentor or not?
35:36
Yeah, I guess I would have,
35:37
I, I thought it was the job of the senior people
35:40
to mentor the younger people.
35:42
I thought that was their job and I thought they were doing
35:45
it. But I did ask somebody to help me get
35:49
on a board, I consider him a sponsor,
35:52
I just went directly.
35:54
I would like to be considered for a position in the bank
35:59
I'm already on the board of a smaller bank.
36:03
But if I were to be considered,
36:06
And he said, really,
36:08
I don't, I didn't think you had time.
36:11
no, I would make time.
36:13
I have my own business and I can and I can manage
36:15
my time. That was the big advantage that having my own
36:18
business gave me I could do that.
36:21
And then that's how I got on the board of the bank
36:24
that's a dream of every Latina that we interview is getting to
36:28
that stage. You are in a multiple boards.
36:30
You started way earlier than normally.
36:33
People start getting into boards.
36:35
What have you learned?
36:36
What advice do you give?
36:37
How do we get there?
36:39
Truly. I do think that,
36:42
there are many more tools today to help you get on a
36:47
we have Latino corporate directors so you could take advantage of that
36:52
network, figure out how to get involved there.
36:55
They have opportunities, they are women corporate directors,
36:59
but you can't be on the woman corporate director organization unless you're
37:04
But at least you could get other opportunities.
37:07
Once you are on one board,
37:10
you could go to some of the events of N
37:13
A CD National Association of corporate Directors and there's private directors association
37:20
is smaller and there are smaller private companies,
37:23
but they show you a lot of opportunities for getting on boards
37:27
And the, the language again,
37:30
we are Multilingual people where we,
37:33
we speak Spanish, we speak English.
37:35
Let's not forget that many,
37:37
almost all professions have their language and being on a board has
37:42
a language. It's the language of governance.
37:44
It's the language of the audit committee because almost all people on
37:48
a board do a rotation on audit committee,
37:51
whether or not they're auditors.
37:55
I'm just an expert on,
38:00
Yes, but it's after the courses and,
38:04
and you know, being around that and,
38:07
and talking with the auditors and you know,
38:11
so learning the language,
38:12
we already have learned two languages.
38:15
Let's embrace the language of our profession or of the career we
38:20
want to have. And then I do say look,
38:24
searching for a board in abstract,
38:26
that's not productive. You have to be a leader in your
38:30
field. So the most important thing is to love what you
38:33
do and distinguish yourself there.
38:36
So, the reason I got on that board at a young
38:39
age is because we had started that money management firm and got
38:44
So suddenly everybody knew we were in finance.
38:48
Wow, we were starting our own business.
38:50
Well, people were giving us millions of dollars to manage for
38:54
them. Yeah, it turned out not so much but to
38:58
the average person, millions is millions.
39:01
Never mind. The men were getting 50 times what we got
39:07
it was something to write about and talk about and,
39:09
you know, I find this as a Latina in particular,
39:14
you need the credentials,
39:15
the articles, you need all that because otherwise people,
39:18
like, don't believe like people would tell my father.
39:22
your daughter doesn't go to Harvard.
39:24
He started to carry the letter.
39:29
And I think they were open to him because he didn't speak
39:33
English well. And you know,
39:34
of course your daughter doesn't.
39:36
But I think they're also thinking that maybe when they see us
39:40
it doesn't matter to me.
39:42
I don't go around with the letter,
39:43
I don't go around with the credential,
39:45
but one thing I know what I have and I know what
39:49
I know and I know anybody wants to start a conversation about
39:53
finance about what their company strategy should be financially.
39:59
I can, I can carry that conversation.
40:02
I can find the holes in their strategy.
40:04
I can so invest in learning the board language.
40:09
Make sure, make sure that you are also seen and that
40:13
you have visibility and expertise in the area.
40:16
I think that those are really precious.
40:19
And talking of language learning,
40:21
the corporate language is one language.
40:23
Did you ever have to dial down like the Latina Latinidad in
40:28
order to talk that language to be in a corporation?
40:32
And I feel I have made tremendous concessions to be in the
40:38
roles that I am in today.
40:39
And the role that I was in,
40:42
in corporate finance, for example,
40:47
I mean, this is hair that I have done every week
40:52
and I didn't miss a week.
40:54
I didn't, I I never showed up with my natural hair
40:58
at work. That is the biggest concession I have made
41:02
The only one really I could make because the otherwise it's
41:06
this is I can't change me on the outside.
41:09
I never took my husband's name.
41:13
I I it was a contentious issue between us.
41:16
I wouldn't change it.
41:18
There's not much more I can do.
41:20
I, I hear about Latinas dress a certain way.
41:25
I, what I was selling was a very expensive service,
41:30
taking your company, public,
41:33
selling your company, buying your company.
41:36
I did not want to distract but I think I developed this
41:40
modesty., really as a married woman,
41:44
I just didn't wanna attract too much attention to me.
41:47
I would say more as a married woman than as a businesswoman
41:53
you do try to fit a certain mold and I did have
41:56
a plenty of navy suits and,
41:58
and all of that trying to fit that role.
42:02
Look when you're dealing with finance and large sums of money.
42:08
The, the, the the client is looking for a certain
42:13
I can't be everything but II I,
42:15
this is AAA Concession and I don't know,
42:20
I do think about it sometimes whether I should stop but
42:25
I like my hair like this.
42:26
So what about the opposite?
42:29
Is there anything any of your Latina cha characteristics that you actually
42:36
I, I guess you have told us many times that you
42:38
got an opportunity because you were Latina.
42:40
But anything from your Yeah.
42:42
Well, I saw how my parents worked that I mean,
42:45
and look we come from families where everybody works so hard
42:51
So I took that I mean,
42:54
there's nothing like if I had told my parents I can't go
42:59
home for Christmas because I'm working.
43:01
They wouldn't have said,
43:04
they would have said,
43:04
oh, no, I understand.
43:06
work, work, work first.
43:09
They would say that that comes first.
43:12
So I, I have tremendous habits that I think I'm not
43:18
alone in having they're part of our culture.
43:21
It's why we're invisible in America because we work so hard.
43:25
We're just working, working,
43:27
working and nobody sees what we bring to the table.
43:31
That's why I love that movie about a day without Mexicans in
43:36
California. Yes, exactly.
43:40
But we have to make sure that people know that these habits
43:46
can be brought to different tables,
43:49
it can be brought to the boardroom table,
43:51
it can be brought to the office and that we have tremendous
43:55
capabilities to be productive.
43:58
And right now we're sitting atop the demographic in America that is
44:03
creating the growth for this country,
44:06
not the most growth,
44:09
the growth, there would be no growth in American demographics today
44:13
were not for the Latino population.
44:16
We have to build on that.
44:19
We have to make sure that people recognize the value of that
44:24
And we have to close this tremendous capital gap where we
44:30
are growing so fast.
44:31
But financially we are lagging and I love the framing of the
44:38
language you speak Spanish,
44:40
you speak English, you speak corporate,
44:42
you speak board language and then you can use them the way
44:45
that you use some Spanish and English and some Spanglish and
44:49
like that you are able to accommodate,
44:51
it's not that you have to dial it down.
44:53
And in that respect,
44:54
when you said that we're not visible,
44:57
we wanna hear from you of what of the cultural nuances of
45:00
Latinos? You think that we should flip the script that are
45:03
natural to us, whether we should continue having them or not
45:08
And I think that you were speaking about modesty and how
45:10
humble we are and how do you think we should flip that
45:16
I was raised the same way.
45:17
I still get uncomfortable.
45:19
So many awards recognitions,
45:21
it makes me uncomfortable.
45:22
But what I try to do is how do I bring somebody
45:26
else to get visibility to take advantage of my network?
45:32
I want other people to make the connections.
45:35
I've always invested in connecting people in a way that they can
45:41
advance that they can reach their goals and in a way that
45:45
maybe other people don't do this for others,
45:48
you know, and I don't expect something back from someone that
45:54
I do this for someone has already helped me.
45:57
I do think that it is my responsibility to do it for
46:00
others and I want to,
46:02
and that is the whole point of Angeles investors and take someone
46:07
But you also said that humble and modesty should be not misunderstood
46:14
like a submissive but as loyal.
46:17
Yes, we're, we're just being modest.
46:20
Doesn't mean we don't know how to do it.
46:23
But I will say that one lesson for corporate success is raise
46:29
your hand. That doesn't mean that you're bragging because you say
46:34
yes, I can do that if they're looking for somebody to
46:37
do something that's a little different to work this weekend to go
46:41
out of town to take on a project.
46:43
Raise your hand because you wanna be noticed.
46:47
You want people to know that you are capable of doing it
46:52
But sometimes if you're,
46:53
you know, going like this,
46:55
because you don't wanna take it away from somebody else
46:59
no. Raise your hand.
47:00
Let them decide. But ma make yourself known.
47:03
Incredible. Let's take you back again.
47:05
Another trip through memory lane and I don't know.
47:07
where were you in your thirties?
47:10
I don't know if you already had your kids,
47:11
but what would you give yourself around in your thirties?
47:17
What advice, what advice from a,
47:18
from a career perspective.
47:19
Honestly, it, it's gone fine with me with my businesses
47:22
and everything. But I think I would have worked harder at
47:25
staying in the corporate sector.
47:27
I think I should have figured that out and gone to corporate
47:31
America as a treasurer.
47:34
I would have become a CFO eventually and it would be a
47:38
different path. It's never too late.
47:43
So who else should we have in this podcast?
47:46
You should have Esther Avi Aguilera.
47:48
She's done so much for so many women in the boardroom since
47:52
you seem to be very interested in the path to the boardroom
47:55
I have to say Adela Zepeda,
47:57
this podcast was incredibly insightful and it gave me so much respect
48:03
for you in your career.
48:05
I am really grateful that you were here with us today.
48:08
I think our audience will really enjoy learning from you and seeing
48:11
that your career path was is outstanding.
48:14
There's so many nuggets of insight and knowledge,
48:18
but also your willingness to share the ups and downs were great
48:21
Thank you. Thank you so much.
48:23
I'm excited Adela Zepeda with your knowledge and wisdom.
48:27
We're gonna be able to learn to lead and succeed.
Series