00:00
Hola. I'm Claudia Romo Edelman and I'm Cynthia Kleinbaum Milner.
00:03
And this is a podcast,
00:04
a La Latina, the playbook to succeed being your authentic self
00:07
today. Teresa Lopez,
00:09
general manager, Pur Mitzi and l'oreal Technique.
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And here are the three key takeaways.
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Number one, she describes a sponsor as someone who will fight
00:19
for you even when it gets hard for them.
00:22
She gave an example of her first sponsor who literally prevented her
00:27
from getting promoted because she wasn't ready,
00:30
but then helped her get there.
00:31
Number two, get to know your competitors even better than they
00:35
do know themselves as a competitive advantage.
00:38
And number three, she shared how she handles micro aggressions at
00:41
work when to face them and when to let them go.
00:44
All of that and more here at a La Latina stick around
00:55
We've been discussing how important it is for Latinas to generate
00:59
wealth, particularly because we understand that only 33% of Latinas have
01:03
retirement income from savings or other assets.
01:06
So how can your company help in this equation?
01:09
Well, we have several options for saving and investing accounts.
01:13
The one for beginners,
01:14
if you are a beginner is our fully managed investing product.
01:18
This is perfect for those who want to set it and forget
01:21
it. You can select the risk level and even choose the
01:24
type of companies you can invest in.
01:26
That's amazing. So what is the minimum needed to open an
01:29
account? $1? You just need $1 no excuses.
01:34
The earlier you begin to invest,
01:36
the sooner you will start seeing returns for your investment.
01:38
So how can people get started?
01:40
Simply download the Money Lion app and open a managed investment account
01:45
It's quick. It takes just a few minutes.
01:47
Perfect. Let's do it today.
01:49
Teresa Lopez. Teresa is a general manager for Pur Miani and
01:54
l'oreal Technique. She's also on the Board of Beauty Changes Lives
01:59
Thank you so much for being with us.
02:00
Thank you. It's nice to be here and I'm so excited
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because you told us that you listen to this podcast.
02:05
So you're the first listener who now gets to share your story
02:09
Thank you for being here.
02:10
I started your journey and I would love for us to start
02:14
when you were a little girl because what I understand is that
02:16
your parents exiled Cuba,
02:19
moved to the US and you grew up with parents that were
02:23
immigrants that came through very difficult situations.
02:26
So can you tell us about those early years growing up in
02:29
a country where maybe you didn't have your,
02:32
your family, your community.
02:34
How was your upbringing like?
02:36
So interesting. Both my parents exiled Cuba in 1960.
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They didn't know each other.
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So they were very young.
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My mother came to New York by way of Spain,
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my father went directly to New York.
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They met, they were married,
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they created a home,
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of course, with family,
02:59
with community for me.
03:01
When you cross the threshold of our home,
03:06
So it was a perfectly bilingual home Spanish led first.
03:15
It was a house filled with much music.
03:19
My mother was a professor.
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She studied to be a professor.
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It was not her first choice career professor.
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So she wanted to be a doctor originally when she was in
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Cuba. So with emigrating,
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she became a professor instead.
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And no, not in medicine.
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Actually, she made another choice.
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So it was in humanities and languages.
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So she specialized in something completely different as life took her and
03:46
made different decisions and our home,
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everyone was a student all the time and it was all about
03:56
the subtleties of culture and history and it was our culture and
04:01
history, the culture of our cohort,
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other cultures. It was always very present in our home,
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the things that unite us,
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the things that sometimes set us apart.
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It was a very rich upbringing here in New York City,
04:16
here in New York City.
04:16
And I was very fortunate,
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can I ask you about being Cuban exile and your connection to
04:27
the idea of a country when you said Cuba was home.
04:30
But my understanding is when you excel,
04:33
Cuba, you don't want to do anything with Cuba.
04:36
But nevertheless, you're Cuban in values or what's the connection like
04:40
What's like, what's a relationship?
04:41
Is it a love and hate?
04:42
You take some parts and not others or so it's all love
04:46
actually because the realization or in the home was our country no
04:53
longer exists. So the country we left behind will always be
05:00
But the country that exists now,
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I don't know, I don't recognize,
05:05
I don't identify with.
05:07
That's how it was presented.
05:09
That's how it was like a death.
05:13
Exactly. Right. Exactly.
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Right. And the majority of our family extended family left as
05:21
well. So there was only one cousin who remained with his
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immediate family, but everyone else left.
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So I had my entire family around me between New York,
05:37
You know, we didn't have a sense of loss of family
05:40
We had a sense of loss of country and who was
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here in New York with your parents.
05:44
Almost everybody, grandparents,
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cousins, uncles, my grandmother was one of 11 Children.
05:54
So 10 of the 11 Children and their families were all
05:58
here. My mother was one of two and my father funny
06:02
enough was an only child and I'm an only child.
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And then what did your dad do professionally?
06:08
He was an accountant.
06:09
So there was a lot of focus on education and,
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and what did you decide to study?
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Why, where did you go?
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So interesting that my track was a dual major.
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So it was international relations and comparative literature.
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Two very different tracks.
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And that's a bit of a theme in my education,
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very balanced and it was exactly what I needed it to
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be. I was getting right side,
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left side of the brain if you will.
06:44
And when I graduated,
06:47
interestingly enough, you know,
06:49
I was going to go to law school.
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That was my, that was my choice.
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That's where I was going.
06:56
And the summer in between undergrad and going to law school,
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it was the month of July,
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I'll never forget. And I said,
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I'm not going why I it was,
07:09
it was a cathartic moment of this is not my path.
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My father cried for days.
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so now I support you,
07:23
I support you, but you have a month to get a
07:26
job. But how did you figure that?
07:28
It just felt I talked to no one.
07:32
I just woke up one day and I imagined what my life
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was going to be for the next three years and two hours
07:41
I was coming off a four years,
07:44
I was coming off of four years of study and it just
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didn't feel right. And it was hard for me to follow
07:53
such a big decision on feeling and not thought.
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like, why, who was your network or your,
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did you have mentors or people that you could talk to about
08:08
these decisions? So,
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yes, certainly I had,
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you know, a very supportive network of friends and family around
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me and I could talk to my mother about anything,
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you know, and certainly regarding education.
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but she established in me a very strong sense of
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and she wanted me to have a strong voice and to trust
08:32
that voice and sometimes it made mistakes and it was ok to
08:38
learn from them. And she was very supportive in my decision
08:43
but she just didn't want me to languish in that decision
08:47
and I had to find a different path.
08:50
And so can you connect to any of your current superpowers to
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the values that you were installed by your family and community?
08:59
Yes, absolutely. One of my superpowers is connecting with people
09:04
So when I was even very young,
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it was instilled in me so early about connecting with the total
09:15
individual. So not just what excites them,
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what motivates them, what their family is like,
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what their priorities are maybe outside of work.
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And it allows for me as a leader now of teams to
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lead the individual, not lead the team right there,
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there's this, you know,
09:38
push and pull of the accelerator and the gas,
09:41
the brake and the accelerator that you take where there are decisions
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you take on behalf of the collective and there are decisions that
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you take on behalf of the person and you have to meet
09:51
the person where they are.
09:53
And I truly believe that that is something that comes from your
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culture, from your sense of self,
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who you are, how you've been raised,
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that allows you to do that and to do it naturally and
10:06
authentically in a way that connects with them.
10:09
It's so interesting. I just read a book about military leadership
10:13
and how it's exactly the opposite.
10:16
You never think of the individual,
10:17
you never meet people where they are.
10:19
You think of the collective and you take decisions that are the
10:21
bigger like the best decisions for the group.
10:24
So I guess that's why our leadership style is never going to
10:27
be authoritarian. Yeah,
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it's funny when you said connecting with people is your superpower,
10:32
Claudia. And I looked at each other because we just interviewed
10:35
a lawyer who said that that's her superpower.
10:37
So I guess that's a very Latina superpower that you can use
10:41
Maybe I could have been a lawyer,
10:43
maybe, maybe. So you started basically your career in marketing
10:49
Well, almost my first job was in banking.
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It was in finance because I was so scared not going straight
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to school. I needed a job that was going to pay
11:00
me and ok, my father was the accountant and you know
11:05
I had a little bit of that in my background.
11:08
And almost four years I worked for Merrill Lynch,
11:11
emerging markets, trading and sales.
11:13
I started on the trading side.
11:15
I moved to the sales side for our first job that I
11:21
know. I have a lot of friends that had like banking
11:24
jobs before business school and then in business school they did something
11:26
else. So it is a good job after college.
11:30
I mean, I started at the very bottom and I had
11:33
no idea what I was getting into,
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but it was an interesting product and it was an interesting cultural
11:38
team and a good job,
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a really good first job.
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I learned a lot and out of that job,
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I decided to go to business school and get my MB A
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And then during my MBA,
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I said I need an internship and I'm going to see what
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there is. And there was this job posting for Maybelline at
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l'oreal. And I said,
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OK, this sounds interesting.
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And I talked to my team at Merrill Lynch and I said
12:09
I think I really want to test this.
12:11
So I went for my interview and I had no idea what
12:16
By the time I got home on my then answering machine,
12:21
I had the offer waiting for me to come back.
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I went to my family,
12:25
my parents, I still my good days of answering machines.
12:29
I mean, I just thought about when I got my internship
12:32
call, the emotion you feel like,
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yeah, I remember when I got my call for my internship
12:40
during my MB A and it was amazing.
12:43
I mean, come on cosmetics,
12:45
it's fun. So I told my family and they were like
12:49
oh, finally this is perfect.
12:53
And I said, what do you mean?
12:54
Why do you think it's so perfect?
12:57
You know, and they said,
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no, this is perfect.
13:01
my mother quickly told me a story of when I was young
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and she said, oh my God,
13:05
Teresa, you were obsessed with going to Paris,
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obsessed as a child every time.
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And we traveled a lot and for every trip,
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we're going. And I said to Paris,
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you know, and it would be somewhere else.
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and finally, when I was 10 years old,
13:24
it was Paris and it was the most magical thing ever.
13:30
I still romanticize it in my mind.
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I have the passport from the metro still,
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you know, and it was in a way predestined for me
13:43
I think about it that way.
13:45
And today my younger son asks me,
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I wonder whether we can have a segue and just thinking you
13:58
and I on the things that you start seeing your Children and
14:02
how does that transform into later?
14:05
We heard from someone that really like Anna Corrales saying that you
14:10
really start seeing what really you are and what the things you
14:14
do really early on the things that you're good at as a
14:16
kid, the things that give you energy.
14:18
My daughter, I remember when she was actually potty training,
14:23
she would take the magazines and start kissing the advertisement of the
14:28
So I wonder what does it say?
14:33
Yeah, start saving money and ok,
14:36
so you joined Maybelline after your MB A,
14:38
you take the full time job at Maybelline.
14:41
And then what is it?
14:43
2020 how many years?
14:45
24 years of climbing the ladder getting promoted?
14:51
Because I'm sure a lot of people have spent 20 years at
14:55
l'oreal and are not at the position where you are.
14:57
So, what do you think was your framework or playbook?
15:02
Look, I would love to say that it's something magically unique
15:07
I don't think that it is.
15:09
I think that I've always come to the table with a tremendous
15:14
amount of curiosity about everything.
15:17
It's always about the,
15:19
why, why like a five year old,
15:23
you know, and it's about doing the work and not being
15:29
afraid to do the work and taking the time for what's
15:34
really required and going that extra mile.
15:39
Of course, it's about building your network,
15:43
you know, finding your community within the company of,
15:48
you know, peers and team members and,
15:51
you know, bosses along the way.
15:53
I've had a really fortunate experience in my 24 years of
16:00
having been influenced, grown nurtured by an incredible group of leaders
16:09
that are so differentiated from each other.
16:13
And they've each given me something unique that I've taken away from
16:20
it. So the mentorship that comes with that of course,
16:24
is a huge, but the truth is that the magic comes
16:30
in the sponsorship. You know,
16:32
that is the part that you cannot plan for you.
16:40
that has to come authentically,
16:42
it has to come organically.
16:44
You have to connect you with that person or those people along
16:50
the way, they have to be the ones who see you
16:55
and see your accomplishments,
16:57
see the quality of your work and who are willing to fight
17:01
for you in the rooms that you're not in.
17:06
that's hard because even the ones that are willing to fight for
17:10
you, they have to fight for you when it gets hard
17:16
when it's easy, when it's straightforward,
17:18
ok, there's lots of people that are willing to do that
17:21
but the ones that are willing to do that when it's not
17:24
popular to. Exactly.
17:28
Exactly. And I know it because I've been a sponsor for
17:33
people where I've taken the hit personally.
17:37
But it's meant so much to me to give them voices in
17:43
room that they're not in and I've stuck to it,
17:48
you know, not for everybody,
17:50
for the select few that I think are really worth it and
17:54
that are really contributing at a different level.
17:57
You know. So that's really the crux of the magic is
18:03
finding who that person is that you connect with and that you
18:07
believe sees you those layers of you and your work.
18:13
Can we talk about one of them?
18:14
Sure. How did the relationship evolve,
18:18
what that person did for you?
18:20
So it's funny, I'll give you the example actually of my
18:23
very first sponsor because I think that sometimes is your most impactful
18:28
when you're seeing it happen and unfold for the very first time
18:32
She, she was an English woman who was in
18:37
the US on assignment.
18:39
She was the general manager of Maybelline at the time and I
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was being discussed in one of those rooms,
18:47
you know, for a potential promotion and a move to another
18:52
part of the business.
18:54
And and she actually told them that I wasn't ready your
19:01
sponsor. Yes. And she came to that.
19:08
There's a, we actually love her,
19:11
we love her, we love her and she came to my
19:16
office directly after the meeting and she was so transparent with me
19:22
Teresa, I want you to know what just happened.
19:24
She told me about the meeting,
19:26
she told me everything that was discussed.
19:27
She told me exactly the exchange.
19:30
She told me exactly the job that was being,
19:32
I had no idea about any of this,
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by the way, none of it.
19:35
Right. I couldn't even imagine that my name would be uttered
19:40
in connection to this job.
19:42
Right. And she said,
19:44
but I told them that you weren't ready and this is my
19:46
my, my firm belief that you are doing so well
19:51
that you are 9 to 12 months too early for this job
19:57
that if you go into this job now knowing how you approach
20:01
your work, this will burn you out and take you to
20:05
a different place. And it was the hardest thing for me
20:08
to do to not fight for you in the positive.
20:13
And I'm so glad I was in the room to discuss it
20:18
because if I hadn't,
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they would, they would have given it to you,
20:22
they would have sent you on your way.
20:24
And I really truly don't believe it would have been the best
20:27
thing for you at the moment.
20:30
Sorry? I actually felt ok because I trusted her implicitly and
20:39
I appreciated the transparency so much and it wasn't something that I
20:45
was vying for or that I was hopeful or nothing,
20:49
you know. So it's not like she was shooting me down
20:53
from an expectation. She was actually telling me,
20:57
Teresa, your name is being discussed for things at this level
21:01
Like that's the important takeaway here that you're already in the
21:09
that was the most important message in that exchange and it made
21:15
me then sensitive, going forward to the considerations regarding career progression
21:22
I wanna ask something because we had people sitting right there
21:27
I think all of them that have made it to the
21:29
top that had a sponsor that more or less did something like
21:34
that. And our names are discussed in rooms whether we know
21:39
it or not. And most of the times without our control
21:42
or without us being proactive.
21:45
If someone sponsors you,
21:47
is there any way to change it and to be proactive and
21:51
so that be a sponsor?
21:53
Now, how could Latinas learn to call on sponsors,
21:58
be good sponsors and make sure that we are more in control
22:04
That's a tough question.
22:05
That's a tough question because I think that part of it is
22:11
applying in a way for positions for consideration and then there's the
22:16
subtlety of being considered for positions that you're not necessarily applying for
22:24
right? And they're not always one and the same and
22:28
they sometimes can happen concurrently.
22:32
So that's where it becomes difficult in that you have to trust
22:36
in the sponsor or in the process.
22:39
But how do you get a sponsor to start with?
22:41
How do you not leave it to lock?
22:45
So I think there's the authentic and organic and then there's the
22:49
planning, right? So in the authentic and organic,
22:54
creating those network opportunities.
22:57
It's seeing someone on a panel loving what they're saying,
23:00
planning for that coffee,
23:02
you know, making those moments that matter for yourself to find
23:08
points of connection, right?
23:10
Showing what you've done,
23:11
sending them an email,
23:13
sending them a memo,
23:15
showing them your past project,
23:17
giving them exposure to your work when they normally wouldn't be necessarily
23:21
maybe they're on another brand,
23:24
they're, they're managing a different team.
23:26
That's a way you can control your profile exposure,
23:30
you know, and then there's also,
23:32
I worked with them in another brand.
23:34
They're here now, you know.
23:38
And because I knew them before or worked near them before
23:42
you know, now they're in a different capacity,
23:44
they've been promoted, you know,
23:46
and I can make the connection in that way.
23:48
Maybe this is push back.
23:51
we'll see. But can you really get a sponsor without working
23:57
because you said in the beginning,
23:58
a sponsor, like for,
24:00
for a sponsor to be really good for you,
24:03
they have to be willing to defend you when things get hard
24:07
Yes. Can somebody really defend you if you have coffee
24:10
and show them your work or it's like,
24:13
it doesn't have to be your manager or your manager's manager if
24:15
you volunteer for work and get through work exposure to other teams
24:20
Like I, I have found people that asked me to
24:23
be their sponsor and like,
24:25
maybe you're asking me to be your mentor,
24:27
not your sponsor because you can be great at having coffee and
24:31
great at speaking for yourself.
24:33
But am I gonna put my name on the line for you
24:35
Only if I really know your work?
24:37
So have you seen sponsorship happening more?
24:41
Like let's have coffee or what should we tell our girls go
24:45
and work with people?
24:46
So more people see your work.
24:48
I think it's easier.
24:50
I think it's more straightforward.
24:51
You know, I think you don't have to work for the
24:55
person to have them be your sponsor.
24:57
I think you can work near them.
25:01
they can be in another function.
25:03
You know, they can have a different scope of responsibility.
25:08
but if you're showing the work and setting up the
25:12
coffee and if they're hearing of you in another line,
25:17
there's more work involved,
25:21
And then the other thing I wanted to ask you is every
25:25
company and you've worked with like many companies within your company.
25:29
So maybe there's different styles or decision,
25:33
how decisions are made.
25:35
I learned later in my career that it,
25:39
it's important to know how promotions are discussed,
25:44
What are the type of conversations that they have?
25:47
How can somebody get an understanding of how if you join a
25:53
new company or even if you're in,
25:54
in a company? You're like,
25:55
I wanna get promoted?
25:56
How can you understand what is the process in your organization?
26:01
Ask, ask your manager hr ask,
26:07
how do you promote and frankly if you're entering a company and
26:13
you're new to a company,
26:14
it should be one of your questions in an interview.
26:18
You should know what career progression looks like in a company that
26:22
you're considering to be a part of.
26:25
You should know what's available to you in future.
26:27
It doesn't have to be the mechanics,
26:29
but you should know what the possibilities are.
26:33
I think it's super important and the way I've had people asking
26:38
it's two ways. One which I think is the wrong way
26:42
which is the right way.
26:43
Some people ask you about a promotion almost like they just wanna
26:47
get promoted quickly. So they're like,
26:49
ok, I'm gonna take this job,
26:50
but how do I get promoted to the next one?
26:52
That is the wrong way to ask the question,
26:55
the right way is what does career progression look like?
26:58
And I think it's good to know if your company has a
27:03
perspective on how promotions happen,
27:05
right? If it's not by chance,
27:07
if it's things like you have to be operating at the new
27:10
level for a year before you are considered to be like,
27:14
because people think the promotion happens and then you become that,
27:18
you know, like I'm a manager.
27:19
Once you make me a director,
27:21
I'm going to be operating at the director level.
27:24
And in my experience,
27:25
it's the exact opposite.
27:26
You operate at the director level.
27:27
So when the conversation is happening and they're like,
27:30
oh, we should promote Cynthia.
27:32
The feedback from the room is she's a director.
27:37
Exactly. But it's like age,
27:39
you're 21 so you're suddenly adult.
27:41
Exactly. So how did you get promoted so much?
27:45
And how could Latinas use their Latinidad to get promoted particularly
27:51
in an industry like yours?
27:53
That is probably eager to attract Latinas as consumers.
27:57
Therefore, being a Latina manager and director is a pro because
28:01
you're going to be able to understand the market and attract it
28:05
I mean, they have to do the work.
28:08
It doesn't matter who you are,
28:10
you have to do the work,
28:11
you have to show the curiosity,
28:13
you have to put in the time,
28:17
you have to be prepared,
28:20
you have to anticipate,
28:23
you have to anticipate what you don't know.
28:28
Right. So, read a lot,
28:30
learn a lot. That's being curious,
28:33
right? And when you're studying competitors,
28:36
for instance, know more about the competitor than they know about
28:39
themselves. That was a piece of advice that was given to
28:42
me very, very early that I took to heart and was
28:49
said to me, I'm like Teresa,
28:50
you know more about PNG than PNG knows about itself.
28:53
Did you realize that,
28:55
you know, I can hands down,
28:57
tell you that that's a reality and I didn't know that I
29:01
was approaching it that way,
29:02
but it was so meticulous in every little detail.
29:07
It's it's something that has to be very present and deliberate
29:12
in the approach. And now there's so many dynamic levels to
29:17
it that it goes way beyond anything that I was doing at
29:21
the same level. So there's an excitement to that.
29:26
So of course, there's that,
29:28
that drives results clearly,
29:30
but there's also network,
29:31
you know, there's community that comes in peer,
29:35
peer groups and teams and other teams that are near you.
29:42
support teams, transversal teams,
29:45
opportunities for leadership when you don't manage people,
29:49
but you manage those around you that are subject matter experts that
29:53
add to the work that you do.
29:56
There's lots of ways to demonstrate influence and that's an opportunity
30:03
to stand out and the industry of beauty,
30:06
it is increasingly driven by communities like ours like Latinas.
30:12
have you seen the change within your company towards more Latinidad,
30:17
more understanding more data,
30:18
more like again, you know,
30:20
like and and how do you describe what you trying to
30:24
do? Oh, this is an amazing topic for me.
30:31
So when I joined 24 years ago,
30:37
they come with market research and they show and it's the same
30:41
thing, it's the Hispanic consumer as one cohort one augment in
30:48
the study. And I didn't know what that meant,
30:50
you know, and I would be sitting in rooms where we
30:54
were discussed as a collective.
30:56
I mean, look at the three of us,
30:57
we couldn't be more different,
30:58
right? So different hair types,
31:00
different skin types. So how do you diagnose as someone creating
31:06
beauty products? What is?
31:07
Right. So it was maybe three years ago that I was
31:13
exposed to a study that finally for the first time actually hit
31:19
on that exact insight was OK.
31:21
But there's all of these layers.
31:24
And the same way you do sub segmentation from every which way
31:29
from Sunday. For your regular consumer research,
31:33
you have to do it for this cohort because otherwise you're not
31:37
going to understand, you're not going to develop the right products
31:40
with the right insights with the right opportunities.
31:43
And I celebrated, I celebrated because I finally had the thought
31:49
that it was going to be something that was relevant to not
31:56
just to the company,
31:57
of course, and the way forward,
31:59
but that was going to give the brands within the umbrella of
32:03
l'oreal, the chance to action it in the way that was
32:07
right for them because that's the whole point of having a portfolio
32:11
is that so you can attract different consumers at different places for
32:15
different reasons. Not everybody should be using the same strategy
32:22
And that's the way that we had been reading the data all
32:26
this time. So I was so elated,
32:30
you know, when I saw that as this is the way
32:34
we're marching forward, you know?
32:38
So I'm, I'm very proud of that and that's only
32:41
three years ago. Only three,
32:42
I mean, like we're celebrating.
32:44
But nevertheless, there was a wake up call that probably you
32:47
put in there 10 years ago.
32:49
So, being Latina for you,
32:53
did you have to ever dial down?
32:55
Was it helpful in your career progression?
32:58
What do you see as the industry changing and within your company
33:02
How is it for our community?
33:04
So thankfully, I'm blessed.
33:09
I have never dialed down never once.
33:13
And I believe that it goes back to how I was raised
33:19
Always with a very strong sense of self,
33:22
always with knowing exactly how much and what I contribute.
33:26
I know that I was taught that I belong in every room
33:31
that I'm in. It didn't matter if I was five years
33:34
old and I was at a dinner table,
33:36
you know, in a restaurant.
33:38
It didn't matter if I was in a boardroom.
33:40
If I was in that room,
33:44
So no imposter syndrome.
33:45
Absolutely not. Never.
33:47
We need to get your mom to be part of our foundation
33:50
so that we can get everybody that we know to have a
33:53
self sense, understand what we bring to the table and then
33:56
know that you have a value.
33:58
She should write a book about parenting too.
34:00
I'm very fortunate about that.
34:02
And sometimes I check myself because I'm like,
34:05
really should you feel guilty?
34:07
Should you feel the imposter syndrome?
34:12
But I don't, and I'm not,
34:13
you know, it's just who I am and I'm very,
34:17
very clear about the things I do.
34:20
very clear about the things I don't do well,
34:22
and I'm equally confident about being clear about the things I don't
34:28
do. Well, did you always feel that way because she
34:33
So there's no flipping the script for her.
34:35
She was born with a right script,
34:37
the whole fake it till you make thing like,
34:39
didn't exist for me.
34:40
And you've never encountered people that see you differently,
34:45
that you have to be,
34:45
like showing them that they're wrong.
34:48
It's very funny that you ask it that way because for me
34:53
it's always been their,
34:57
shortcoming. Yeah. Yeah.
34:59
Yeah. Right. So I have been in situations certainly in
35:04
my life, I've had micros and,
35:07
you know, people have said things that are not,
35:10
what I would like them to be.
35:12
And I've been asked,
35:17
what was that like for you?
35:19
You know, and I said it's just exhausting,
35:23
you know, because they don't have the education of knowing exactly
35:27
where I am and where I'm from and,
35:29
you know, so it's their shortcoming,
35:31
not mine. But do you correct them?
35:33
Do you just ignore them?
35:34
You know what it depends on the situation?
35:37
Sometimes it merits a correction because they're coming from a place of
35:43
unknown ignorance and they would want to,
35:46
you know, it's coming from a person who would want to
35:48
be corrected, but sometimes not,
35:52
and it's not worth it.
35:54
So I'm not there to teach them,
35:57
they can learn somewhere else,
35:58
but I'm not there to teach them.
35:59
Do you have any methods for our young audiences or our Latina
36:06
audiences about things that,
36:09
you know, they should know about the beauty industry,
36:11
about you, about your about your company.
36:14
I would say about my company.
36:16
The reason I'm there 24 years and successfully there 24 years is
36:22
that it is a place where it celebrates asking the why it
36:30
celebrates the individual. It encourages us to forge our own journey
36:38
we push back and we've pushed back historically all this time about
36:41
no job description because you make the job,
36:44
you know, there's no job description.
36:46
We're getting a little better about it,
36:51
the trend is no job description because jobs change so much that
36:54
you like hire people that are curious and hard working and nimble
36:59
We're leading the trend like things like many things.
37:06
I love that I've been able to forge different paths and be
37:09
given long leashes until,
37:11
you know, I fall down and like,
37:13
OK, that, that didn't work,
37:15
you know, and I can fail and I can learn from
37:17
that and I can take risks and try again.
37:21
And I love being in an environment that supports that,
37:26
and lets me move forward.
37:27
So I do want to ask you because you,
37:31
you seem to be very in control.
37:33
Everything has gone well when it hasn't gone well,
37:36
it still has gone well.
37:37
So do you have any advice for your 30 year old self
37:41
Stay focused is what I would say to my younger self
37:46
because there's always bright shiny is kind of in the periphery but
37:51
stay focused and it will serve you well.
37:54
So you were not always focused like you were trying to do
37:56
too many things at once.
37:58
I think there's always,
38:01
there's always the other possible lane here,
38:04
the always possible lane there,
38:06
the greener pasture, there was law school and then there wasn't
38:12
So I think it's safe focused.
38:14
But but follow this your heart but you,
38:20
I did it. I think so.
38:24
what's your biggest flaw in a job interview?
38:27
And you say I work too hard.
38:31
What's your advice? Follow your heart.
38:33
Yeah, I follow your heart.
38:35
But in an interview,
38:36
I would say, you know,
38:38
be authentic, always,
38:41
you know, don't be afraid to celebrate your accomplishments and know
38:47
that as you sit there,
38:48
you are blessed because there are people that have come before you
38:52
in your community. That have been through a lot more.
38:57
And the fact that you're sitting at that table being considered for
38:59
a position is a wonderful place to be.
39:02
And I know there's a lot of Latinas in,
39:04
in l'oreal, but there's also Latinas that you probably know in
39:07
your network. Who else should we bring to the podcast?
39:11
Emily Perez, she is the founder and president of Latin and
39:16
Beauty. A very needed and wonderful association.
39:25
We are so happy to have had you here today.
39:29
It's amazing. Thank you for the invitation.
39:32
Absolutely. Thank you so much.
39:33
And with your wisdom and tips and tricks,
39:36
we're going to be able to lead and succeed.
Series