We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Gabriela Ramirez-Arellano a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Gabriela, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?

When I got divorced after being a stay-at-home mom for 20 years, to say that I was scared to venture out to find my first job is an understatement. Although I had an MBA and gained lots of skills through volunteering with the girls through Girl Scouts and Jack and Jill, finding a job that would put food on the table for the 4 of us was nowhere to be found.

I found myself at the MIWorks office applying for food and cash assistance and talking to my case worker about the two skills I felt comfortable with – Being a Girl Scout volunteer for 12 years and speaking Spanish. It was a vulnerable time, having to ask for help and admitting that I needed it, but I had spoken it into the universe and shortly after, I was interviewing for a job with Girl Scouts of Southeastern Michigan. That first job had me driving to SW Detroit every day from the suburbs in a little Dodge junker I had saved months for -even though it had no AC, I made the hour drive. I got to know the community in SW Detroit and I definitely leveraged using Spanish. It was one of the first times I felt at home in the US and working with Latina moms and Girls inspired me to make a difference.

It was at one of the community meetings that I heard about a new entrepreneurship training program, ProsperUSDetroit and I decided to apply. Maybe I could start my own business. After a few weeks I got the call, not to welcome me to the program, but to ask if I was interested in developing the curriculum and being the instructor and coach. I couldn’t believe it and I said yes! There began my love for entrepreneurship and understanding the power of economic development one small business at a time. We spent months developing the bilingual and culturally appropriate curriculum for Spanish-speaking entrepreneurs and then the big day came to teach the first cohort of small business owners. I loved being able to share in the dreams of each participant and watching their personal and business growth – and there started my career as a business owner!

More importantly, I realized the power of a holistic and human-centered approach to economic and community development that then helped me get another contract with Wayne State University’s TechTown Detroit that also leveraged my ability to speak Spanish and understand the barriers and challenges other cultures and especially immigrants face to start a business and reach their entrepreneurial dreams.

So when I moved to St. Louis several years later with my husband so that he could follow his dream of opening a restaurant, I was worried about giving up a network and community I had built trust and relationships with. Even though my mom was in St Louis, I didn’t know anyone and worried about being able to replicate my current business model. Little did I know that in St. Louis I would find a supportive community that quickly welcomed me and my skill-sets to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, to various boards and opportunities that not only allowed me to grow as a professional, but to serve St. Louis’ Hispanic and small business community in ways I never imagined.

Time after time, taking risks has paid off. Not without struggle and doubt but always with vulnerability and lessons learned that further propel me to serve and make a difference in the region.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Not having had people that look like me, or mentors growing up, it’s really important for me to now be a resource for my community. It’s important for me to empower others, to highlight and mentor young professionals, and to support others because I did not have that growing up.

So whether it’s through the small business support work I do now at Cortex, through volunteering at the BALSA Foundation also supporting small businesses, through elevating the voices of Latin@s through my podcast Auténtico, being an author and now convening authors in a new anthology to share their stories, I want to be an example and a resource for others and I am proud to be able to do that in so many ways. I feel it’s a responsibility to do so and challenge all of us to do the same. “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked”

It’s not that I have all of the answers, but I believe that in sharing my story and lessons learned, others can see what is possible. That life is hard, but it can also be rewarding. Working with small business owners is as much about empowering them and cheering them on as well as giving them the business education, skills, and know-how that they need to be successful. In that respect, I am grateful to work at an organization like Cortex, that encourages me to bring all of me to the workplace and empowers me to push back, find creative solutions and to make a difference in so many different ways.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

As a business owner (consultant, speaker, co-restaurant owner) having a social media presence is very important. In the beginning, I struggled with analysis paralysis and trying to be different people based on my role (volunteer, restaurant owner, employee, community member, etc).

Then I started working with a coach and she helped me see that all of those things were me and that showing up as my authentic self made more sense (and is easier) than trying to be different people for all of the different hats I wear. So although I manage several different accounts and the social media posts may be a little different, the voice behind the account continues to be me. Someone who cares about others, who likes to celebrate the wins of the community and elevates people and organizations so that they can do great things.

In the third year of owning a restaurant, we did hire an outside firm but it wasn’t a good fit, and had to let them go after a couple of months because they didn’t understand Mexican culture (it was a Mexican restaurant) or our goal of elevating the culture and people and not just selling food. So that was when I started to research scheduling tools and learn more about how to best automate the various social media accounts so that now I spend Sundays once a month, working on campaigns for the various pages I manage including my own, on the various platforms.

Being clear on who your ideal audience is AND your own voice, does help maintain consistency. Automating just made it a lot less stressful.

Another thing that has helped me build an audience is the resharing and in essence, highlighting other people and businesses. Everyone appreciates it and they tend to reciprocate as well. This has helped me build a tribe that supports my work and my businesses and also trust in the business community.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I have had to unlearn the story I was telling myself that I did not like networking – or people for that matter.

I think of myself as an introvert and in my first marriage, my ex was very social. When I didn’t meet his expectations to be social, he would make fun of me for being a lump on a log. Since I didn’t work, and it was only uncomfortable when I was out with him, I just got worse. However, all of my work now, for the most part, requires me to be visible and in the community so those first years after I moved to St. Louis, I definitely felt out of place. At the Business After Hours that we hosted at the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, I would often station myself behind the registration table – I thought I was hiding but in essence, being there to greet people when they arrived forced me to start conversations, introduce myself and connect with the members of the chamber.

It was actually during the pandemic when I was doing some leadership development and for the second time I learned about the ‘turn arounds’ – a practice that Byron Katie  teaches where you essentially take a belief that you have – I don’t like people – and you turn it around to – People don’t like me –

Maybe because it was my second time revisiting that story with the turnarounds or everything that was happening around me in 2020, but it suddenly clicked! Was I afraid people wouldn’t like me and that’s why I chose to dislike being around people first? It was eye-opening that that could even be a possibility so I try to look at networking differently now and I am still working to unlearn the shame and negative stories I was telling myself.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.autenticopodcast.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thegabyramirez/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gramirezdarris
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabrielaramirezarellano/
• Other: https://www.cortexstl.org/sq1/ https://www.balsafoundation.org/

Image Credits
Jennifer Korman Photography