We recently connected with Carlos Sanchez and have shared our conversation below.

Carlos, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s kick things off with talking about how you serve the underserved, because in our view this is one of the most important things the small business community does for society – by serving those who the giant corporations ignore, small business helps create a more inclusive and just world for all of us.

At LEADeres, we support Latinx professionals in their leadership journey. We, unapologetically, serve the Latino population because there is no other program centered in developing our Latinx leaders in West Michigan.

There are, approximately, 500,000 Latinx in Michigan but you would not know that if you look at leadership positions in the corporate or government sectors. Latinx are over indexed in the non-profit sector where, usually, compensation is far less than in the corporate sector.

It is about generational wealth. The Latino community is one of the fastest growing communities in the State and, as such, is the community that is launching more businesses than any other community. But you would not know that because there are very few programs aimed at supporting these entrepreneurs.

Carlos, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

In 2013, when I was leading the West Michigan Hispanic Chamber, many Latinx professionals where asking me for mentorship and/or professional development opportunities and there were none centered in their live experiences. All leadership programs overlooked the bicultural experiences of these young professionals. It was as if they needed to leave that behind in order to succeed.

Some of us decided to change that by developing a program that would elevate the innate skills of the individual and add “mainstream” leadership training to equip them with the necessary skills to succeed. That’s when we launched LEADeres, formerly The Latino Talent Initiative.

The program is a 6-month commitment where participants begin to learn about themselves through a Cultural Intelligence assessment followed by a session on Design Thinking that will give them the tools to solve challenges in a different way. Four more sessions on Professional Development, Leadership and Civic Engagement complete the program. Throughout the program, participants develop SMART goals for each of the sessions that will live in their personal Leadership Plan.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I was born in Mexico and, from far away, we see people that look like us, in the U.S. as a monolith. We tend to believe that all Latinx in the U.S. like spicy food and listen to the music we hear in our country; that could not be more wrong.

The Latino population in the U.S. is so diverse, so complex and so rich that it is hard to comprehend from the outside. In the 25 years that I’ve been here, I have learned how different the migration experience is for each one of us, how beautiful our Latino community continues to diversify as mexicans are marrying puerto ricans, cubans are having babies with dominicans, etc., etc.

If we are to believe in the U.S. as the Great Experiment, the Latinx experiment lives inside it and no one else but us get to build that experiment the way we want.; in Spanish, Spanglish, hyphenated or not, mixed races, non-binary genders, etc.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

When I first arrived in the U.S., I attended Davenport to finish my undergrad studies looking to find a job in the corporate sector, more specifically in the international arena. Thirty-some years ago, the West Michigan landscape was a bit different, maybe not as globalized as it is today. Even with my fresh degree in hand, I could not land a job in the area I was looking for; International Business.

A job at the Grand Rapids Chamber, in the Diversity department came up and I took it. That changed the course of my entire life. From there on, I worked in Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) at the GR Chamber (four years) and Spectrum Health for four years more. Those jobs, opened the doors to lead the Hispanic Chamber.

Thanks to mentors and their counsel, I was able to identify were the opportunities were and prepare myself for them.     

Contact Info:

• Website: https://leaderes.org/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Carlos.Sanchez.GR
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carlossanchez/

Image Credits
All: Isabel Media Studios