How Do You Say Success in Spanglish?
The path to success isn’t paved for people of color. Join me as I sit down with individuals who share their stories as we learn how to say Success in Spanglish.
How Do You Say Success in Spanglish?
Shaping the Future of Latino Leadership in Tech - Jose Avalos
Jose Avalos, Cofounder & CEO of TECH23, a media and entertainment company for the advancement of Latinos in Tech. With over 10 years of creating events and designing programs for first-generation college students, small-business owners, and Latinos in tech, y cultivando una comunidad para Latinos in Tech con ganas de aprender, crecer, y divertirse!
www.tech23.us
Summary:
From a shy youngster in Houston to a leading voice in the Latino tech community, Jose Avalos, co-founder and CEO of Tech23, joins me to unravel the fabric of personal and professional growth that many can relate to. Our conversation isn't just about the triumphs; it's an honest look at the struggles that shape us - from the daunting transition to a predominantly white institution to the pivotal moments that redefine our career paths. Jose's story is a beacon for first-generation students and budding professionals, highlighting the profound impact education and mentorship have on our lives.
Navigating the intricate landscape of higher education and career building can feel like a labyrinth, but with the right strategies and relationships, you can find your way to success. Our dialogue takes you through the trenches of academic probation and the awakening of a passion for business, illustrating the significance of utilizing faculty connections, strategic thinking, and the power of resilience. This episode is a treasure trove of insights for anyone looking to transform their academic struggles into stepping stones for achievement.
Lastly, we address the elephant in the room - the need to significantly increase Latino representation in the tech industry. Jose shares Tech23's vision and the actionable strides they're making to break the glass ceiling. Our discussion is laced with the nuances of building a community through a podcast that celebrates Latino culture and professionals in tech, all while providing mentorship and relatable narratives. Join us to explore the journey of redefining success and paving the way for a more inclusive future in technology.
See more at www.successinspanglish.com
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Intro Song: Regaeton Pop - Denbow Ambiance
This is Raul Lopez, and you're listening to. How Do you Say Success in Spanglish? The path to success isn't easy For minorities and people of color. Many attempt to journey with little to no guidance. Join me as I sit down with individuals who share their stories of perseverance so that together we can learn how to say success in spanglish. What's good me Hente? Welcome back and thanks for joining me. It's your boy, Raul. On today's episode I have Jose Avalos. How's it going, Jose?
Jose Avalos:I'm going good. Yeah, I'm excited to talk to you.
Raul Lopez:Yeah, man, thanks so much for being here. Just to give a little background, jose Avalos is the co-founder and CEO of Tech23, a media and entertainment company for the advancement of Latinos in Tech, with over 10 years of creating events and designing programs for first generation college students, small business owners and Latino Tech and, as your profile puts it, cultivando una comunidad para Latinos en Tech con ganas de aprender, crecer y divertirse. Jose, thank you for being here today.
Jose Avalos:Thank you. Thank you, I'm excited. This is awesome.
Raul Lopez:Yeah, I'll start off with a bat and say Jose is also a coquito enthusiast, so he my wife makes coquitos and he's the. He's the bison officer every year. So you know, I'm sure he misses my coquito, but but thank you so much for being here. You know you, you grew up in Houston where obviously we met and that's kind of where you started at. So I kind of like us to start off there and tell me a little bit about how life was growing up in.
Jose Avalos:Houston for you, absolutely. And then we just finished hopefully finished the hottest summer I've ever experienced in Houston, ever Legitimately got an email from our energy providers saying that the reason why our bill was so expensive this month was because it was the hottest July and the hottest August on record.
Raul Lopez:Yeah, yeah, I've heard it's been crazy yeah.
Jose Avalos:So this year wasn't that fun growing up in Houston but because I didn't get to do too much outdoors. That's just pretty unbearable, honestly, to be outside but born and raised actually in Baytown, texas, about an hour east of Houston but the greater Houston area. Born to Mexican parents, I'm first generation. My parents are from a little tiny town outside of Hara, jalisco, which is land of Tequila and Mariachi, so I'm very proud of my culture. But my parents didn't really have more than a junior, high or high school education. However, they knew the importance of getting educated and they really pushed me as far as that as they could.
Jose Avalos:That looked like in third or fourth grade when I switched from bilingual classes to all English classes that was when they were they stopped being able to help me in schoolwork because you know it was in English. And then after that it was pretty cool journey and I just kind of figured things out on my own. But I was. I was blessed to have both parents in my house plus to have come from a warm, loving home. But the school part, it was just kind of me faring out and I'm really grateful with God that I had the right people, right teachers, right mentors throughout the whole process to make sure that, even though I didn't have anybody holding my hand, I was able to be guided in the right directions.
Jose Avalos:That's not to say that there weren't challenges along the way, most of them self self inflicted for my own choices. But you know, as I got older and more mature, you know I learned better but grew up, graduated high school there. The story I like to share a lot is that I was a student, didn't really have to study too hard to get those grades, it was pretty easy. However, I was always extremely shy, very, very shy. My parents never put me in any sports programs or after school things or they didn't know anything like that. And you know, in Mexico there's not a doesn't really exist.
Raul Lopez:There's no PTA meetings or anything. Yeah, the only sports you play with outside soccer with your, with the neighbors, exactly, yeah.
Jose Avalos:And if that my dad is like no, you go to school for a little bit and then you got like literal cows and horses. You got to take care of them Everything.
Raul Lopez:It's just funny when you say something like that because it reminds my dad where it's. Like I would go play soccer. I mean I'd go up my face, I go do football and I do things and then come home and like I want to go hang out with my friends. Like what do you mean? You would hang out with your friends all day. You know, just the idea of going to school was that's your social life. What are you talking about?
Jose Avalos:Yeah, exactly, and yeah. So I grew up really shy and I always told myself like this grade, you know, you're going to sixth grade and you spent at the new school, you're going to junior high and I'd be like all right, new school, new environment, new people.
Jose Avalos:I'm going to be outgoing, I'm going to be like kid that raises his hand and you know I'm just going to be more out there because I used to just kind of like hide in the back and be pretty shy and and I couldn't break that. I was like I was like I'm going to be out of the sixth grade, came to school and I couldn't break it. I was back to my normal like shy self. Then high school came and I was like, all right, new school, new everything, I'm finally going to do it. I didn't do it. I was still shy.
Jose Avalos:And then when I went to college, I went to Baylor University. So totally out of my element. You know where I grew up. It was like majority Latino. So I get to Baylor and it's like a predominantly white school. I still remember my biology 1301 class on Monday morning, first class in college, and I walk in and I think I was me and this other girl were the only like non white people there and I was just like, oh, this is totally different.
Jose Avalos:And that was the initial transition to trying to be a little bit more outspoken, just because it you have to be like there was no other choice.
Jose Avalos:Everything's different. But it was until I like we can get into this later I failed out of Baylor that I had to go to University of Houston and that's really you know. I saw that as my last opportunity to finally do everything I ever said I was going to do and and I was outgoing Like when I graduated high school I was so jealous of some of the valedictorians that they were like decked out in their stoles and ribbons and everything and I was like, all right, they didn't do it for high school. But when I graduated college I'm gonna be like decked out and everything and I'm proud of myself because I was like I had. I was in student organizations and did a million different things that really taught me about leadership and sent me up the rest of my life pretty much to have to learn how to serve and serve others behind me that you know, need the same resources, the same mentorship that I've received growing up.
Raul Lopez:Yeah, you bring a couple good points and all that, but you know, one of the things I picked up early on too was about you were taking bilingual, so you were doing ESL when you, when you first started- you know, yeah.
Jose Avalos:So it's funny. Traditionally you that's for students coming like from Latin America that you come in and to be immersed in English. I mean, I was born and raised here, but for some reason they kind of put the Hispanic kids to ESL like by default, and then, once the teacher was able to see, all right, you have a pretty good mastery of English, we'll put you now in all English. I clearly remember this. A lot of my fellow students got moved in third grade and I miss Garza, and this Garza moved the other kids in third grade and I was always like, and I didn't get moved.
Jose Avalos:Keep in mind me and my fellow friend, my art. We were the two smartest kids in our grade. So I was like I remember telling this Garza hey, why am I not getting switched? Like I know how to speak perfect English. And then she told me something. She said I know you do. She's like I don't want you to forget your Spanish, so I'm going to put you a whole nother year in ESL so that we continue to practice your Spanish. And I was really mad about that at that point. But today I'm so grateful because you know, I still know how to speak it, I know how to write it, but not the grammar part.
Jose Avalos:I totally forgot you know, the accents and you know all that, all that correct grammar, but reading it, writing it and speaking it Like I still know, I'm very comfortable being able to do that and I know a part of that is thanks to Ms Garza holding me back in ESL.
Raul Lopez:And that's really funny because it's it's as a parent, as a parent, and now my daughter, no-transcript the challenge of teaching her to speak Spanish.
Jose Avalos:You know me and my wife don't speak Spanish for each other. We speak English to each other.
Raul Lopez:I speak Spanish with my mom and my parents, and so when she's with grandma, grandpa, she understands.
Jose Avalos:She understands enough Spanish she pretends like she doesn't, but she understands.
Raul Lopez:You know she'll spend a week with my mom and completely communicate. She spent her whole summer last summer in Peru. You know so, she, you know so she was able to get along well, you know, but it's such a challenge and that whole idea is ESL. I have another friend of mine, mauricio. I think you might have met him before. He did the same thing with his son when he started school. He's like he knows English, he knows whatever. But I'm starting him in.
Jose Avalos:ESL just like he learned Spanish.
Raul Lopez:So yeah, it's funny to think that way, and so obviously English was not a major barrier for you, but you did say your shyness was kind of a barrier to you. And for when you're applying for colleges a lot of the times. They want to see extracurricular, they want to see things like that and you know, do you think that your shyness kind of hapered you in some way when moving to our high school?
Jose Avalos:Oh for sure I mean I'm grateful for how everything turned out, you know, in the end for the experiences, but no, absolutely. I mean I look at once I became like mega active in college, like any opportunity, student opportunity for leadership or networking that was available I took full advantage of. I realized how much I lost in Baytown, like where I grew up, in my high school, because I didn't do any of that. My focus was just passing your class and playing basketball with my friends after school. That's literally what I did until I got a job working as a cashier at HB. And then once I got my first job, you know, I stayed kind of pretty much working. After that I wasn't playing basketball after school as often but yeah, it definitely hindered me. I don't know what opportunities I lost on right, because I never asked, I never seeped them out, I don't know what, like trips that I missed out on or scholarships I missed out on. I don't even know, because I wasn't even. They weren't even on my radar at that point.
Raul Lopez:So you mentioned about being shy and some of the effects I can have in school. You know, I remember I'm not a shy person to say, but I used to be really shy early on in my life and then when I got to like high school I kind of came out of my shell. And then when I went to college I still was very social and not shy around people I was comfortable with. You know, like if I'm comfortable, you'd never think I was shy, but in classes I was very shy.
Raul Lopez:You know, I've never, like you said, I've never raised my hand, I've never answered questions. I never wanted to be. I felt small at that point, you know, when I got to college, because I wasn't as smart not as smart as I thought I was, but everything was easy that I didn't feel as smart as I was, you know, and when things are a challenge, now you don't want to be vocal anymore because you're afraid of saying your voice. And then, as I got more comfortable with myself and it's a funny story, it was like my junior year, I think, and there was this kid in the class who was just super vocal, every question, all the time, always answering questions to the president. He's one of my.
Raul Lopez:I was taking a grad level class and he hit me up. When they said, hey, yo, let's, let's study for the exam. I'm like, all right, let's go. And then I got to start. I was like I'm gonna start it before he comes over.
Raul Lopez:He hit me up so I don't sound like an idiot when we're studying together.
Raul Lopez:And, bro, he hit me up and I ignored him because I felt like I was not prepared as well.
Raul Lopez:I didn't want to deal with talking to someone he's so stupid and we took our exams, he got a D and I got like an A minus or whatever and I was like holy crap, the dude that's always talkative just seemed like he was smarter and I was actually doing a lot better. And there was a couple of times that I like we had at one point the same project and I was like yo, I beat him on that as well. But no, I like I wasn't challenging him, but it was just like you know, but you come off as that, you know what I mean. And because when you go into college you don't feel as comfortable sometimes that he kind of puts you back in your shell and kind of makes things harder for you to feel confident, and that confidence kind of builds up. So when you started going to Baylor, do you think that that shyness also affected some of what was going on there, or was there other factors that were causing you to have difficulties in Baylor?
Jose Avalos:Yeah, there was a couple I think I was trying to. So I mentioned earlier that I was like an AB student, without really trying, because that played a part in getting into college. The curriculum was a lot more demanding, way more than I was used to. I realized I don't know how to study because I've never really had to besides like flipping a couple of pages and memorizing a couple of things, and that got me through K through 12. When I get to college I was doing pre-med and pre-business. I had no idea what the hell I wanted to do.
Jose Avalos:I just thought that seemed like the right thing to do.
Raul Lopez:We're on the same track, this seems. I was pre-med too.
Jose Avalos:Yeah, so I'm taking biology and I'm just trying my best to pay attention, but there's three grades in the class for the entire semester. So if you mess up on one test, forget ever getting an A. Now you're just at the mercy of passing the class.
Raul Lopez:And if you mess up on the if you don't get a perfect score in the next two exams like that's it right, you fail the class.
Jose Avalos:And I think the shyness though at that point I didn't really have mentors or anything like guiding me and I think at that point I was also too scared to ask, to feel embarrassed or to feel like I don't know what I'm doing or just to sound dumb. I think that's what you said earlier same thing you don't want to sound dumb, you're protecting yourself because you think people are gonna make fun of you, but in reality there's a bunch of people asking for help. I never one step foot into an office hour for a professor and that's one of my biggest regrets, because now that I know professors and I actually teach a little bit myself to small business owners it's in those one to ones where you really understand the concept.
Raul Lopez:And.
Jose Avalos:I know now a lot of those office hours go empty because nobody ever like comes in except a couple of people, and those are the ones that end up getting A's, because when they don't understand in class, just like you, they actually go and ask and they're not scared to like no, sit. You're gonna sit with me for 30 minutes and you're gonna explain to me exactly, because I don't get it and you're the teacher and I'm paying you to like teach me. I didn't realize that that's what I was supposed to be doing and I paid for it, eventually getting back grades to the point where it took about me on academic probation.
Raul Lopez:Yeah, I think for me too. I think the only time I started visiting professors for office hours was because I was on academic probation.
Jose Avalos:That was part of my probation.
Raul Lopez:Like you have to go to office hours. It's like okay, okay, but yeah, it's true. Like you don't realize how much help they can be. It's one thing to sit in front, especially when you go to big schools, big classes, especially probably biology and chemistry they're just big you're a big group, You're one of a small person when you're used to small schools and you used to be in a strong one it's intimidating and those teachers take the time and, like you said, a lot of the time it's empty and they don't do any of that stuff, and so you're going through what was pre-med and pre-business.
Jose Avalos:I think you said yeah, cause in my head I was gonna be a radiologist, but have my own practice and did both I had, and again no idea what the hell I was saying.
Raul Lopez:And so well, obviously I mean I did pre-med, so I know you screw up early. It's kind of a big hole to dig yourself out. So obviously it seems like you dug yourself into a pretty big hole.
Jose Avalos:Oh yeah, big hole.
Raul Lopez:And so what happened to you after that hole that you dug yourself?
Jose Avalos:Yeah. So I get on academic probation, second semester and I'm no. Yeah, I was in Waco. Let me be clear. I was living in Waco, where Baylor University is, for two years. I was enrolled at Baylor University for three semesters. My last semester I didn't have the grades to like. Once you get on academic probation, where your probation is that you hit a certain grade level to come, you know, to get off of it or you're out of the school.
Jose Avalos:So I didn't hit it. I tried. I'm not going to say I tried my best. I'm not going to lie. I can admit that today, looking back, 10 years from now, I had different priorities. What a 21-year-old college kid might have when he's living four or five hours away from home and getting great grades was in one of them. I hadn't really got punched in the face by life yet, which would be coming very fairly soon from that. And then I did a semester at the local community college. And then that's when I was like what the hell am I doing? I can't be doing this.
Jose Avalos:And once I realized I couldn't go back to Baylor or that it was going to be really expensive and I didn't want to do pre-med anymore, I went back to university. Sorry, I came back to Houston and I'm not going to lie, I came back on a high horse thinking I was just at this private college. Right, like man, I have to go to University of Houston. I thought of it below me. And then when I tried to get into U of H, the counselor tells me I can't get in because my grades are too low. And I was like what do you mean? And she's like, yeah, go try community college or something.
Jose Avalos:And that was the slap in the face that I needed. I desperately needed it and I realized when I walking out that room I was like I put myself in this situation, I can get myself out, I'm only in this situation. That's really shitty right now because of my own decisions. And I went a semester to Houston Community College where I now teach, which is so funny, and I got all AIDS and everything because I wanted to get like. I was like, no, I'm better. Nothing against community colleges they're really awesome and everything. But I wanted a degree from a university, from a four-year college, and I knew that I could get it. And walking out of that counselor's office that day when she said, I don't know, go try community college or something, that was a turning point for my life. Honestly, after that, the shyness. I never saw that shy Jose ever again and I still haven't seen him and I'm very grateful for that.
Raul Lopez:Nice, yeah, and I think it's funny where you put it. Sometimes you have this little high horse, like you say, because you go into a higher school than other things.
Raul Lopez:And you're like, oh, yeah, whatever. And then when it's like, oh, I could really, I really wish I could go to this school at this point, because I was like starting over, and it's, yeah, you know it sucks, but it's funny because you know, what's interesting is actually that you know when, when you talk about the academic probation that people sometimes don't understand, so you can actually get expelled from a school, just the way you can get expelled from high school, like I didn't know that going into college until they told me, if you don't pass this semester, you're going to be expelled. And I'm like, holy shit, I can't get expelled. And yet you know, and you're still trying to figure out, you're probably trying to change, you probably change your major like four or five times, trying to figure out what am I going to do, yeah, what am I going to be good at it?
Raul Lopez:And until and if you're lucky, you'll hit one that works for you early enough that your grades kind of are able to keep you floating enough to keep going, or you don't. And at that age, what the hell do you know?
Jose Avalos:You know, you don't know Of course, and you know what you said right now you may hit that one class. You actually do like I realized my thing was in business because in the middle of you know again, I was pre-med, pre-business. In the business class I actually did really well, but I knew well I have to go to med school. I had to focus more on my energy, on the pre-med stuff chemistry and all that and I dude, I hated that so much. I wasn't learning anything, it was just memorization. It was in a like a vibrant, educated environment for me and I and I want to stress that that like how I hated having to read from those textbooks and it was not exciting, it was not fun, it did not activate my brain at all, it was just like a chore to have to, to have to do this.
Jose Avalos:Those late nights were like agonizing, trying to memorize a thousand different words. And what does this mean? And what does that?
Raul Lopez:mean, and we're going to, we're going to test you on 25 of those you know you have to. Yeah, exactly yeah.
Jose Avalos:And then I and I say like I stress that because I absolutely love learning today, love it. I know that if I went back to school today with with this like hunger that I have for knowledge now that I carry every single day of my life, I would rock it. I would be valid Victorian class like of the school and everything. But you know, god had a different plan of how everything happens and you know, I didn't realize till after I graduated college that I actually love to read.
Raul Lopez:I love to learn.
Jose Avalos:And what they were forcing me to read wasn't. I wasn't interested in that, in that, you know, was interested in other things. So it's.
Raul Lopez:it's interesting because one of the things someone told me you know, when I got to college happy through they were like you don't go to college to learn, you go to college to learn how to teach yourself. You know what I mean and sometimes you need to learn how you learn and the whole, like you said, high school everything was easy. You didn't.
Raul Lopez:you didn't know how you learned because you just came, and then when you have to hit those struggles, when you're like okay, I need to figure out exactly how things work. I mean, when I was in high school, I hated writing. If you asked me to write three pages, I would like die in agony of writing three pages or anything long. I hated writing. And then I'll get to like my junior year and I'm banging out like 25 pages in one night.
Jose Avalos:You know what I mean.
Raul Lopez:Like I was still procrastinating till like the last day to do it. But you know I was. I would bang out 25 pages and get like a B plus or an A minus on it and I'm like where the hell did that come from? You know, what I mean. No, I totally get it, man. And so you end up going to the university of Houston.
Jose Avalos:What did you study there? So a cool story. That happened there too. So what? I took a semester at Houston Community College and took some pre-business courses there, some things that I needed. So you have age told me you can't. You have to go to community college and then those higher grades will average you out so that you can come into our campus. And at U of H, the hardest school to come into as a transfer student is the business school, because the business school there is actually. It's pretty legit. It's at the number one sales program in the country, which I later became a part of, and they have the number one entrepreneurship program in the country and all the other programs are like very high caliber.
Jose Avalos:So, they have a high threshold. You know you have to pass to get in. So I couldn't get in. After, even after having all these at Houston Community College, I couldn't get into the business school because my GPA still wasn't high enough. They needed like a I don't know, like a 3.5 or something to transfer in and I was nowhere near that. So, with shy little Jose being dead now and this new person that's like ambitious and it's like nothing's going to get in the way of what I need because I have to do this. There's no more opportunities. There's not another school. This is the last one and I have to make it happen.
Jose Avalos:I went straight to the, to the business college, and I realized, okay, the counselor, if I go talk to a counselor, they have to ask for a million permissions for what I need. I need to get access to get into all these classes without actually being in the business school. Who are they asking permission from? And then I was like they're asking permission from the Dean or the assistant Dean. So I was like so, that's how I need to talk to. So I'm proud to say that I went straight to Dean.
Jose Avalos:Frank Kelly is still. He's an awesome dude. And I was like hey, I need to have a meeting with you. And then I have the meeting with him. And I was completely honest with him. I told him exactly what happened. I brought myself to the situation. I told him this is how I will graduate as one of as a role model student for this college, and I was like I just need some help. I need to be able to get into these classes. He believed in me. He signed me up for all of them, didn't have to ever talk to a counselor my entire time there, because after that I would just go to him. He gave me the opportunity and I ended up graduating as a role model student from the Bauer College of Business, which I'm very, very grateful for.
Raul Lopez:And just like you mentioned earlier with office hours, people don't use those. Like people don't use their deans. You know what I mean. Like go make a connection with your Dean. Like I was really close with the Dean of Students at my school when I was the chapter president of our fraternity and when we I would go and meet with him like once a month. I was like I'm scheduling a meeting with you once a month and we're talking about what we want to accomplish on campus and he would let us get away with so much more. Find us funding for events. You know we were one of the only Greek fraternities on campus. There was a lot to throw parties on campus, like official parties, and there was a time that they let us go past. You know they usually were done by 12. They would let us go to one. You know there was one night.
Raul Lopez:we had it till, I think what's it called. They like savings games, so we were there till I go, almost three in the morning, 40. And they I mean meeting all the people at the Student Union, meeting your things, like all of them will have your back. And when you leave college, getting a recommendation from a teacher for something is great. Getting a recommendation from the dean of something is even better. You know what I mean. And they just like professor, they have office hours, they're accepting people to go in there and I think that we don't know the resources we can sometimes yeah.
Raul Lopez:Was there other resources that you used that helped you out while you were at university? Houston?
Jose Avalos:No, dude people was the biggest resources, for sure. What you just said about the dean that was top three power move that I did as a student Is as I built my relationship with the assistant dean I was running for president of this organization called the Hispanic Business Student Association. I had a whole thing planned. I thought I was a shoe in for the role, for sure. I was wondering what the universe like, why it didn't happen when I didn't get the position, because I had so much I wanted to give the organization that gave me so much, this HBSA. I wanna give them a shout out because they were instrumental in my development and leadership, emotional intelligence, personal development, public speaking and all these soft skills that I still use till I was staying 10 years later after graduating. I would practice them at least once a week with this organization.
Jose Avalos:But when I didn't win the presidential title for this organization, which was the largest student organization on the entire University of Houston, so it was a big deal so I didn't get it and at first I was bummed about it but then, because of my faith, I quickly realized all right, god, you didn't want me to do that.
Jose Avalos:So what do you want me to do Because this is really really good information that I wanna pass on to other people and resources that I now have access to that I wanna share with other people and connections that I have access to from U of H. And then I ended up starting my own nonprofit and leadership program, which ended up being so much better than what I wanted to do, because now I was able not just to serve these students at this one student organization within this one college, but the entire campus and I realized the bigger picture later turns on to a nonprofit that we're serving all the colleges and community colleges and universities from the greater Houston area and we're partnering up with, like Macy's in the Galleria to give these students a brand new tailored suit and like all this other stuff.
Jose Avalos:So, I'm grateful for those failures as well, because it was a pivot into something bigger, and I'm grateful I didn't at that point didn't bum about it too much. I've got to work like the next day and I'm like all right, where does this information need to go then? But the Dean she's not the Dean anymore. That college was a new Dean, which I'm cool with as well. But one day when I didn't get that, the president rolled for the student organization. I was okay, well, now I have a lot of free time for my last semester here, so I had it all planned out. My last semester I'm gonna be president and do that.
Jose Avalos:I was like I've never met the Dean before and my student, like my tuition, pays for her salary. So I asked my assistant Dean I was like, hey, what is a meeting that she's never had before with the student? Like what's something she really likes? And because that made him have a good relationship, she really likes milk and cookies. And I was like done, I was like I wanna have milk and cookies with the Dean. And I had milk and cookies with the Dean and from that there was this like prestigious, like little student video that they would do like a student spotlight and it's on YouTube that they do. Like the whole college is the whole like 30 minute highlight on a student. And now I always thought those were the coolest things ever and I was like, before I graduate, I wanna get one of those. I share my story with the Dean, tell her about my family, my mess ups and everything and how I got to here and how I'm a role model student. And she's like we need to do a video spotlight on you and then I have that connection right after that.
Jose Avalos:So making friends with not just staff but faculty, like everybody, is a huge power move that not enough people take advantage of. Because to us, I think, as students in early in the year, early in the year 20s, you're like that's just another professor, it's another adult, right, like you know whatever, like they're just clocking in their hours, but they have a lot of power and a lot of access to resources that you desperately need. And that's always my biggest recommendation to students. It's to like go meet the Dean. Do you know who they are yet? And you're like no, I was like I think I've seen them once or twice. So I was like okay, stop everything you're doing and then focus 100% on lending and meeting with this person, because that's gonna just accelerate anything you were gonna do alone. Him or her are gonna accelerate you tremendously on anything you were gonna do about yourself.
Raul Lopez:And they can help you get out of pickles as well. And you know, and it's, you don't wanna meet your Dean, you wanna cultivate a relationship with faculty, you know? And then another thing I always recommend to one of the things I did somebody told me this one that the get go is as a freshman, when you'd have, if you have what's it called a work, study, go apply for a job at financial aid office.
Raul Lopez:You know what I mean. Get to know everybody at financial aid. That way, when you get screwed and you need some extra money, these guys will help you push you.
Jose Avalos:Oh, we know.
Raul Lopez:Raul Hedis. Okay you know, when I had issues with financial aid, I call him like, okay, we can't do this, we can't do this, but we can do this and we can get you this. And they'll tell you exactly. You don't have to wait in line or wait three days per call. They know you. You know what I mean. So it's about trying to use your resources there. You know I didn't use it enough All my resources in college, so all crop ton of money from student loans, which you know I'm guessing when you left Baylor, you probably left a lot of student loans too.
Jose Avalos:Oh yeah, I took a really nice souvenir with me.
Raul Lopez:Yeah, yeah, yeah, thank you for failing out here. Here's a whole lot of money. That's something that a lot of people don't realize either. College is expensive, especially if you leave with nothing in return. Yeah, you know if you quit halfway through or after two, three years, you still gotta pay for those two, three years.
Jose Avalos:Yeah.
Raul Lopez:And I mean we can have a whole discussion outside on a different topic, just on how to challenge and try to get past that or whatever. But you know yeah, you get out of college, you graduate it, you became a model student, to the point that you're having cookies and milk with the D, and they started a whole new thing for you. And now the real work starts the real work starts. You know what I mean. Tell me about that journey.
Jose Avalos:Yeah, you know, I had a very unique experience where it was like up trajectory, up, up, up, up, up up, like I graduate, decked out in everything. I told myself I was gonna be decked out in, also the honor that when I'm graduating, I'm graduating. I met my wife at the University of Houston and that was like the biggest bonus ever and she's all decked out too and everything. We're both actually role models.
Jose Avalos:Students were both there was like this circle of students on campus that we would all receive each other at all the leadership events and everything, and she was one of them and that's kind of how we met. But I, as many of the mentors that I had, I ended up going into really bad first job. I picked it because of the title that they were gonna offer me and because of the travel opportunities. It was low pay but I was there for I think like a year and a half. In my first job it was.
Jose Avalos:I was a global marketing director for a company here which I was not a director level, like I was doing coordinator stuff. But I've got to pick my type. They didn't have a marketing department, so essentially got a chance to do whatever the hell I wanted. So I picked my title, I picked my position and they gave me an office and it was cool. And then when they said you're gonna get to travel, that was the big highlight for me and I did. I am grateful I got to go for the first time to Atlanta, america.
Jose Avalos:I went to Kuroboata, I went to Sao Paulo, I went to Germany went to really cool stuff and I was putting on the trade shows and everything like for them as a marketing director. However, all my other friends were at bigger corporations, maybe not big fancy title, but they were doing these rotational programs where they were learning a little bit of everything and then the company would see like all right, what do you like? And then we'll give you resources to follow that. Because, just like when you graduate, when you enter college for the first time, there was a lot of stuff I didn't even. I didn't know what marketing was and I ended up graduating with a marketing degree I didn't know. I would actually love that Same thing once you go into the real world. There's still so much you have no idea.
Jose Avalos:Things you don't even know exist. And in my role that I got, I was kind of just put in a corner and was like told do marketing, Just whatever you think is best, just do that. There was no mentorship there. There was no real like what does the future look like here? I wasn't asking different questions. That's actually one of my big regrets that I have.
Jose Avalos:I didn't run the jobs and stuff through some mentors that I think would have gave me very good, sound advice to say I don't think this is the best role, Just keep waiting.
Jose Avalos:Even though because for some reason it took me for like a couple of months to get a job after graduation, I didn't have something lined up right away and I think it was just hard for marketing at that point and at that point I had a few interests in many things, so I needed a little bit more mentoring and structure. So it was a cool job for the travel, but it did me bad. It did me a lot of bad because everybody that was working there had been working in the same exact role for like 10 plus years. So I realized that the reason why I did so well at U of H these couple of years before because I was surrounded by other like extremely ambitious people, students, there was new, there's an innovation every day, new opportunities, new things to go after, and then I get put in an environment where there was all that was taken away and I totally assimilated to the environment and it was really, really bad for me.
Raul Lopez:Well, the good thing is, you didn't stick there long enough to get super stuff.
Raul Lopez:And so after and it's. I think there's things that you mentioned. Rotational program I think all people don't even know rotation program exists, but there are companies that are hiring people straight out of college and if you go to your career center on campus, they're usually are we able to tell you okay, these are rotational programs that are coming around and you can get to try things, cause just like when you're in college, you think you know, but you don't know until you start trying different classes and you say this is what I like and that's where I'm going to go with painting, with a career. You know, there's so many people I know who are like oh, I did Spanish major and now I do marketing. You know what I mean.
Raul Lopez:I was in China as a relation, but I work IT. You know what I mean? It's like no, not everybody goes right to. I went to college, I did this, I did this and now I'm going to do this. You know we kind of branch out and learn through experience. And the same thing with your job. You know, sometimes you go into a job and it might it's not the right fit for you, just because of the culture you know, and the culture is different and you do feel a little competitive with other people, you know you know, it's like oh sure.
Raul Lopez:We graduated the same week. We struggled the same my GP a little behind the end. How come?
Jose Avalos:he's making more money than me.
Raul Lopez:You know what I mean, and there's a lot of soft skills that all of us don't have, sometimes to kind of pick up on that. And so, after that job, what came next?
Jose Avalos:Yeah, so I leave, you know, I, that whole comparing yourself to other people. I, you know, I'm 33 now. I barely stopped doing that, like I want to say, a couple of years ago Because, yes, the whole decade after graduating I was continuously comparing myself to other people my age or graduated at the same time, but they're like skyrocketing in their career, which I'm so grateful and happy for him, and I was wondering, like, what about me? Like where's, where's mine? It wasn't until a couple years ago they had this whole realization that, you know, I'm on my own path and it's going to be very different because the things I want are very different and things other people want and I leave that job and they were, they were kind enough to you know, I told them, you know what's up once I realized
Jose Avalos:like I asked. I think I asked like what are the next like three and five years look like for me here? I didn't like the answer. It was kind of essentially like well the same, like you're going to do what your job is, and I was like that's not really what I want. I was transparent with them and that was my first job at a college man and do I know I didn't do everything perfect. I could communicate, communicate the things better and what my needs were. And you know, honestly, looking back, I wouldn't have taken the role because I didn't really ask too many questions about what I was going to be doing. I they gave me like three months before you know, like to go find a new job in the meantime while I was still employed by them.
Jose Avalos:So that was nice of them and I ended up working for Baker Hughes. I get a contract from them at a really cool project that was doing intrapreneurship, different from entrepreneurship, that this is innovation within the company. So Baker Hughes had a project called digital wildcatters where they signed a digital. It was called wildcatters where they said hey engineers, hey scientists, create something, build something, innovate something, invent something new and, if it's good enough, will turn it into a spin off and when you can become a CEO and you know it'll be a whole another corporation. The problem is that the scientists and engineers are. They're mega smart in in like stem soft skills. They're not that good.
Jose Avalos:And that's why itself. So I got hired on to help them develop pitch decks and other marketing collateral to the message that they're trying to say, so that your average person could understand, like you know what these people were talking about, like what is actually the invention, and you know why you care. And I was being coached by people in the startup world. That was my introduction to entrepreneurship and I freaking loved it. I loved it so much. I love the pitching, the startup community, everything. And that was my like first bite of entrepreneurship and and I've been doing it, you know, ever, ever since the oil market crashed, these people got let go, but I, you know I was already hooked on it. So I said you know what's a cheap startup business that I can start? That's high ROI. And I don't know if you know those bubble soccer things where you kind of go into a plastic bubble and you bump into people.
Jose Avalos:Oh, yeah yeah, yeah, not as popular anymore, but you know, a couple years ago there's like the biggest hit.
Jose Avalos:So I was a second company to bring it to Houston and it was really cool experience. I bought inventory from China and arrived. I built a company, I did a website, branding and marketing, started promotions and different corporations and events and it gave me a lot of really cool experience. And I realized that you know my my business degree from university is cool and all, but I forgot a lot of the stuff that we learn. I still know, remember every single lesson that I learned from owning my own business. I never forget every. I know exactly why I lost every penny, exactly why you know some contract like feel through. I know all the lessons and I will always carry with them.
Jose Avalos:So I realized I learned best from experience. I need to actually get my hands dirty on things and that's how I, that's how I get excited about stuff. So I did that for like a year and a half. And then what? What killed my business is that a lot of pretty much all my events were after a work hours. So you know, from five to seven around this time right now, you get a good amount of hours of sunlight. Well, in like what, is it November or October, the time changes and it's five o'clock and it's pitch black outside All my afternoon.
Jose Avalos:Business like I completely and I started looking for a job because, you know, I had events on the weekends but that wasn't enough anymore. I needed to just find another job. I decided to go to the recruiting agency to see, you know, if they could help me out, like as an additional resource. I ended up getting hired by the recruiting agency to work in sales and that's when I got introduced to tech, because, as it was a creative staffing agency and we sold to, like marketing, communications directors, it directors, services like you are UX, design and back, and then full sector developers and front and then back in and all this other stuff, I really know what that was.
Jose Avalos:At that point I had to study like what does you I mean? What is you X mean? What is the information architect mean, like I had. That's when I got introduced and I love that. It was so cool to me. I could see that it was a feature and I was at that company for about three years and then I later it's when I started my own. I left there and then I started building my own marketing agency because I really I've always really like the graphic design, branding and social media things and because I'm bilingual, I've always been able to do it in both like languages and cultures. So I did that for a while and then I started still was building community. So, speaking about mess ups, I built a community called if I can curse on your podcast it's called fuck up nights.
Raul Lopez:You can. You can fuck it for you can.
Jose Avalos:It was a global organization that we found during a Mexico City trip. It's a monthly hanging out where you bring three to four entrepreneurs to talk about their professional failures. Every event, as you know, is this is how it became successful. This event was all like this is how I fucked up and stuff that happened around it. We built a really cool community in Houston and when the pandemic happens, we shut that down. I still wanted to build a community and build a business out of it, and that's where we decided to build tech 23, which is what you introduced me as the co founder and CEO of tech 23, 23, a media and entertainment company for the advancement of Latinos and tech.
Raul Lopez:It's really funny the way that you mentioned that you learned a lot more from how you fucked up in your stuff than you did in school, and it's always like that. For me, I always a mentality is like you'll learn a lot more from, from burning your hand on the pan and then you will from, from nursery. You know, you know just you'll, you have to get in there and you have to learn and you have to fail them, I think, fuck up in their failures. You know I always keep coming back to Batman because Batman, you know that only you know why do we fall as we learn to pick ourselves back up? You know. You know, you know every time you fail, it's going to. It's just a new lesson to be taught. And teach you. Okay, I have to. How do I avoid that failure again? And so I'm guess you know, with your new company, the tech plenty, there's an I'm sorry, I said tech 23,. You didn't tell me.
Jose Avalos:You didn't tell me, man, I didn't know.
Raul Lopez:Okay, so no, but tech, tech, and so obviously you're out there trying to support the Latino community and help out, and you know. So what are some of the obstacles that you've seen that you're trying to trying to overcome with your company?
Jose Avalos:Yeah. So a little bit on the purpose of why it is. The problem we're solving is that, even though there's an astronomical amount of Latinos that use tech products every day I mean, we're on zoom right now there's YouTube, google, amazon, facebook, you know all these different tech apps and tech hardware that Latinos use every day Latinos actually only make up 8% of the tech industry, so we're huge consumers. We're not on the, we're not on the creators or leaders or owner side. We're very, very low considering the demographics of our country. I in asking myself, like well, if you were to ask the Latino community, hey, do you want higher paying jobs? Do you want more like remote opportunities, less physical intensive work? I think the answer is that hell yeah. And if you're in the tech industry, hey, would you like, like your, you know, better built products, because your end user is a part of the process? Would you like a more diverse workforce? I believe the answer is also yes. So then I was like well, what's going on? Why is it? Why is the percentage so low?
Jose Avalos:I believe that it's a communication problem. The way that the tech industry and the rest of them speaks to Latino is very boring, so we don't pay attention or it's not culturally relevant. So we don't really ever like associate ourselves with the industry or see ourselves in the industry. Those are the things that we're solving with our company. So the challenge with what that we're facing right now is actually that there isn't too much investment into the Latino community. That's why this problem is happening. So we're building something that hasn't ever been done before.
Jose Avalos:So the challenges with being trailblazers is that there isn't a path laid out for us to follow. There's not somebody out there that I can follow their journey step by step. We're doing something brand new and a lot of the stuff that we're going to do is going to fail, and a lot of this stuff that we can do is hopefully going to work out well. But now you know I'm old enough, mature enough, seasoned enough that I'm cool with taking the punches that are going to come. I know to expect them and I know that, like hey, just get through the nose, because they're going to teach you something and that something is going to be the key to that, something that is going to work.
Jose Avalos:So I'm very excited for the journey. I'm very excited to for us to be able to look in a couple of years and see that we raise that percentage, you know, from 8% to 20, 25% more, that we're able to be recognized in the tech industry, that you know Tech 23 is a voice by Latinos for Latinos, and that they're authentic and that's why we put it in the core of our name. Tech 23 represents 22 Latin American flags plus one, the United States flags, and we focus on the Latino within the United States and we actually have patent pending the 23rd Latino, because that's kind of what we're branding ourselves as this 20,.
Jose Avalos:You know it's very different across the United States.
Raul Lopez:Nice. That's awesome and as someone who is a Latino and tech, I completely understand. You know the like.
Raul Lopez:I mean it's a continuum. You know one of the reasons I did the podcast we're kind of trailblazers in our own path and and eventually you know in your industry and what you're doing. You know it's hard to go along and get, get successful without having someone that might have done it before. Give you guys, you know, mentorship. That's a hard for a lot of us. You know you've had you. You know you talk about oh, I didn't have a mentor for when I was looking at job?
Raul Lopez:Yeah, a lot of us don't and we just take the first job because we're we're used to saying you got to get paid, yeah, diet student loans going to start kicking in and you're going to start working.
Raul Lopez:And we don't know what to do. We don't know where to go with that career. You know I my first job with was with a company doing CRM. You know I was on Sierra Madam and and I don't know where to go with that. You know what I mean. And this I got. I got laid off when they switched to sales for it, so I didn't even get to learn sales post the biggest one out there, you know. Then from there I kind of work different jobs. I was able to get another job where I was a Sierra Madman essentially. And then you know, I had to take a leap and say I'm going to do consulting. I consulted with a Sierra company but I learned other things there and I took that risk and that helped me get my job that I have now.
Raul Lopez:Each one was a much progressive jump in the last few years financially but you know, nobody told me hey, try this, try that, go this way go that way, you know you're applying for kind of everything because you're like maybe this job will help me or this job, and so I'm really it's really good to see that you know you're working on helping set those situations and so, like, what are some of the programs that you guys are currently running in Houston?
Jose Avalos:Yeah, so in this phase of the business we have our. You know the first part was developing our podcast. It was. If the problem is we don't see ourselves in an entertaining way or culturally relevant way, then I need to show you those people that do exist small percentage, but they are there. So we've been interviewing Latinos that work in tech and then also showcase their culture. So we go to restaurants, to bars, to cafes that are, like you know, cuban places or Venezuelan places, and we use that opportunity to showcase the culture, because another thing we're doing is that Latinos ourselves don't know all other Latinos. You know we're focused on our own, you know bubble.
Jose Avalos:So I've learned so much from interviewing people from Chile, from Venezuela, from Guatemala, honduras, because you know, we sat down, we had an intentional conversation, we were open minded, open hearted to be like, all right, what's it like being a Guatemalan in the US? Like, tell me about it. And they tell me they're sliver of the whole pie, of feeling that way. Right, because we recognize now, you know, I'm a Mexican descent. But Mexicans in Florida, in California, new York, chicago, probably have a totally different experience than I do here in Houston, and it's beautiful to, you know, get to know ourselves a little bit more.
Jose Avalos:So we're running our podcast.
Jose Avalos:Pretty soon we're going to be opening up our in person events.
Jose Avalos:The goal is to have a traveling event where we go to large Latin American this, you know, latino majority cities and, you know, have a big party for their, for their tech community, the Latinos and tech.
Jose Avalos:Get everybody to know each other, that everybody exists in a really fun environment and then be the bridge with these tech companies that they invest with us so that we can bring, you know, bring both worlds together, but like in an authentic way. And then, once we become this, you know, pretty authority voice in the tech community, we see a branch of kind of consulting as well, where, when our, when companies want to release new products or new services or they need help with recruitment, that they that they see tech 23 as a, as a valuable partner in in like, hey, come, help us. Make sure that our message to the people is it's in the right way, that it's in an authentic way and that we're speaking to them in an exciting way so that they can want to, you know, want to work for a company or or are engaged with our products and services.
Raul Lopez:Nice. Yeah, that's really awesome. It's it's nice to see you know it's like I said, has a Latino and tech. You. You don't really meet too many of us, I think I went to, I worked at a law firm and so they have what's it called I forget the name of the other day, but it was like a technology legal for legal professionals program that the you automatically get signed up for Ilta, international technical technology for legal association like that.
Raul Lopez:And so we'd go to events and I would go to the events in Houston for free booze and food. You know, just because I would go and you go there and it's all these you know upper level CIOs, mostly white guys, and I'm just kind of in the background so I'll introduce myself trying to say hi, my CEO would come and say oh, you showed up and like yeah, and then you know we'd go there and just kind of eat food and drink beer and you know, try to hang out. I wasn't not really good with networking and yeah, and I think in the few years I worked at company seven years I've been to quite a few days.
Raul Lopez:I just like to go for Christmas because you get gifts and stuff If you ever go to another thing, and they have something during Christmas you might leave with a gift and those corporate Christmas parties are legit. They're always very good items, yeah, so I think I left with a nice ball of my wet one year, so it was. But it was funny because I'm doing all this and of all my years doing that, I met one other Latino in there and we kind of went right to each other and then we started having kind of our monthly lunches. We'll just go, we'll go meet us have lunch. How things are going?
Raul Lopez:what's going on with your career just to kind of, you know, lean on each other and talk about each other. Like you said, there wasn't many of us, so it's you know. I wish you the best of luck on that man and I hope to see a lot of success in it, because I think it's it's important, you know. And so, with everything that you're seeing and everything that you've been through, you know I know we've talked a lot about different ideas and technology, but, like for Latinos in technology, you know what's probably one of the biggest obstacles currently they have to deal with to get into technology.
Jose Avalos:I want to say imposter syndrome, that you don't feel like that you belong and you don't see people in those roles that are Latino. So then you're just kind of like, oh man, am I going to step foot into another industry where it's just a bunch of people that don't look like me, don't understand me that, that I may not be prepped enough for yet, and now I can confidently say that bullshit, because what you carry, this, this being bilingual, being bi-cultural, understanding the Latino market, which is the largest purchasing power that's coming into the United States, like if the Latinos, the purchasing power between Latinos in the US alone, was the country we have the fifth largest GDP in the world.
Jose Avalos:We are a MFN powerhouse that is coming and every single Fortune 500 company now has their eyes set on the Latino community.
Jose Avalos:What is happening is that they want their products and services to you know to, to be connected to the Latino community, because this is, this is the new, the new America that's coming, and I and I say that because they have to go and hire like agencies, consulting companies, to set up the way, the best way possible to talk to the Latino community, because it's not authentic If they're CEO and their executive board that looks nothing like the Latino community talks to them. It's not authentic, it's going to come off fake and everything. My Mark Zuckerberg can't go talk to the Latino community. But you know, if you're Latino in tech today or if you're wanting to go into the industry, you have that as a part of your DNA already what these companies are paying big money for to be able to connect with your family and your friends. You do that effortlessly.
Jose Avalos:You just need to learn the skill set. That's the easy part. They're spending a lot of money trying to connect.
Jose Avalos:I mean the biggest example, the Super Bowl that just happened. The most important commercial in the Super Bowl is the first one that plays right after the halftime show, and that commercial this time was a little Mexican girl from the NFL flag football team, from Mexico, and like she goes and runs and does a bunch of different people. So this billion dollar NFL company fully understands their market and who's going to be watching NFL in the future, and they're not once proctor and gamble. I pay a lot of attention to the YouTube commercials that I get, or ads, and you know five, 10 years ago they sucked. They were just translating direct translation and they suck. They're getting really good now.
Jose Avalos:Yeah, a lot of them are showing some very genuinely authentic Latino stuff and if you want to go into tech, they desperately need that. So get over the fact that you're like well, I don't really know this, and that you honestly don't even need a four year degree anymore. A lot of these companies are putting out their own like certificates where you take the six day, eight months are typical and you're good. That's what they need you to know. You don't need to know history and all this other stuff, they just need you to know this and might be up that you're authentic self.
Jose Avalos:That is now a superpower for these tech companies. They're desperately looking for this talent. There is a huge skills gap right now in across the world, but in the United States especially, there are talent pool does not have the right skill set to fill up all these thousands and thousands of open jobs in tech. But Latinos can be part of those. You know those jobs. We just need to upskill ourselves. So that little idea that's like oh, I don't know if I'm good enough for that that just total BS, because that it's actually that your Latini.
Jose Avalos:That is actually the reason one of the main, like assets you're going to be able to bring to the company.
Raul Lopez:Yeah, and it's you grow up your whole life saying, oh, you speak two languages. That's going to be so helpful for you in your career, and it's like hardly ever was. And it's like now it's like, oh, you're Latino, okay, maybe we can figure out something for you. You know, especially with creativity and the way socials are, I mean, that's awesome, bro, and so I, once again, I really appreciate you being here. Do you want to plug your podcast? How to get to it?
Jose Avalos:Sure On all social media platforms and everything we're at 23 us or tech 23 us. That's our website. Tech 23 scom, our podcast. You'll find it by typing in tech 23 us. Social media handles are all tech 23 us.
Raul Lopez:Nice, Awesome man. Well, thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate it. I think this was really informative. I think there's a lot of, a lot of stuff that you know. Hopefully people can take away from this. So, and then for everyone else's thing. Once again, thank you guys all for joining me and the support and all the positive feedback I've been getting, and hopefully you'll join me again next time as we continue to learn how to say success in Spanish.
