Today we’d like to introduce you to Alejandro I. Sanoja.
Alejandro, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Latinpresarios was born in Houston, for Houston, and thanks to Houston.
We live in a city that is one of the largest and often categorized as the most diverse in the United States (and possibly the world) and we don’t often get the recognition that other big cities like New York or Los Angeles do. Houston is the city with most Fortune 500 companies, and it is also a city where the Latino population is becoming the new majority. We are a city that fuels the growth of our economy, through the Energy industry, and fuels the wellness of our humans, through the largest medical center in the world.
Over the years, I’ve developed a connection to the city in different ways. Venezuela, which is the country where I was born, has always had a valuable relationship with Houston. Mainly through Oil & Gas but also through sports. The first Venezuelan to ever play in the NBA, Carl Herrera, won a couple of rings as part of the Houston Rockets. Nowadays, José Altuve is carrying the torch of Venezuelan athletes giving value to our city. Also, part of my family has been living here for more than 17 years, which is why I decided to move to Houston to go to graduate school.
In 2015, I moved to Houston to attend the MBA Program at the C.T. Bauer College of Business within the University of Houston. The program and the city have helped me evolve as a professional and as a human being. The program helped me go from being an almost college dropout while I was pursuing my degree in Economics in Venezuela to graduating at the top of my MBA class, receiving the Outstanding MBA Student Award for Spring 2017.
As an individual, I am obsessed with competition and growth. I am passionate about facing challenges, solving problems, and creating the necessary habits to overcome any obstacle. For more than nine years, I have been helping businesses define and achieve success on their own terms. Latinpresarios was founded to channel this energy into helping businesses in Houston make investments in marketing with a clear return on investment (ROI) and a portfolio-based approach to minimize risk and achieve sustainable revenue growth.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
The majority of the people that know me might not know this, but I am actually an introvert. On top of that, English is not my native language. I still remember struggling with having a regular conversation when I initially moved to Houston. That got more complicated when attending Business School because most of my fundamental knowledge of math, and other topics, is in Spanish.
That meant that I had to quickly Google concepts, while in class, to better understand what was being said. Also, when I wanted to ask a question, I had to first rehearse in my head how I was going to phrase it to make sure I wasn’t making any grammatical errors (because as humans, we all have this ingrained limiting belief that sounding or looking inadequate in front of others is a bad thing). Most often, when I was ready to ask the question the class was already in another topic and my opportunity was lost.
Yet, I embraced this challenge and I have no doubt that it is because of facing all these obstacles that I have been able to grow. One of the actions I took, thanks to the recommendation of my now good friends José Garza and Charlie Becker, was to sign up for an Improv comedy class at Station Theater. I figured that if I could do improvised comedy in English, then any other conversation, presentation, or public speaking situation, would be much easier.
The language was definitely a challenge but I was able to put a plan in place and execute to overcome that obstacle.
Also, as any entrepreneur might know, you need a strong network to start and scale a business. And in 2015, I had a professional network of 0 people in Houston. Luckily for me, I had help from the school and from my peers in finding opportunities to make meaningful connections with other professionals and business owners.
Within that adventure, I met a like-minded entrepreneur in the MBA Program. Matt Avery was one year ahead of me in the program, and he basically paved the way for me to be able to grow as an entrepreneur. He was also a few years ahead of me within the entrepreneurship journey, as he started his company in 2015.
Don’t get me wrong, the road must be traveled, and I’ve had to overcome many obstacles along the road of building a business. But there is no doubt that having Matt as a mentor has been a blessing. Most of the processes, methodologies, and clients of Latinpresarios are directly related to my time working with Matt before starting my own company.
Latinpresarios – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
At Latinpresarios, we help business owners, CEOs, and CMOs, make marketing investments with a clear ROI and a portfolio-based approach to minimize risk and maximize revenue growth.
Because of my background in investment banking, business valuations, and finance in general, we are able to design and execute marketing strategies that have clear KPIs and can be correlated with revenue growth so that businesses can have better information when making decisions about how to invest their resources.
Our clients go from public companies generating yearly revenues of more than $1.9 billion, to mid-size B2B companies within the $10 million-$50 million range, and all the down way to entrepreneurs that are looking to create a source of $5,000-$10,000 of additional monthly income without having to quit their full-time jobs.
The range in industries is as wide as the range in size, but there is one thing that all our clients have in common:
We work with growth-minded and process-oriented leaders who believe in making ROI-driven marketing investments.
As a professional, I am is always looking for ways to give back and go the extra mile. I’ve done so by sharing my experience in different business podcasts, writing for several online publications, conducting ongoing guest lectures at the Bauer MBA Program, talking about “Positive Suffering” at the TEDx stage, and being a guest speaker at places like the Houston Interactive Marketing Association and The Texas Lyceum. I am always looking for new ways to create value for entrepreneurs and business owners.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
For me, success is being able to quiet the noise and voices that are trying to derail us from achieving our purpose and creating value for those around us.
Success is being able to have enough self-awareness so that we can be honest with ourselves and focus our time and energy in the areas where we can make the biggest impact. There is no point in trying to swim if we are a bird or trying to fly if we are a fish.
Success is deciding to do things out of courage and not fear. The lion runs because he’s hungry and wants to catch the gazelle. The gazelle only runs when it is being chased by the lion. We can decide, every day, to be a lion or a gazelle.
Success is accepting what we can’t change, taking action to change the things we can, and cultivating the wisdom to know the difference. We can complain about how much suffering there is in life and feel like a victim by asking why are things happening to us, or we can embrace every experience as a learning opportunity.
Success will, and should, look different for everyone. We should all be thinking, reflecting, and adjusting our definition of success and we go through life.
Success is flowing, like water.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.latinpresarios.com
- Email: asanoja@latinpresarios.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mindfulbusiness/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/latinpresarios/
- Other: https://www.instagram.com/latinpresarios/
Image Credit:
Nicki Evans Simpson
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