Beyond Normal
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Beyond Normal
Language to Life: Monique Lewis' Journey and Impact in Construction
In this episode of the Beyond Normal Podcast, we sit down with Monique Lewis, founder and CEO of Next 2 Native Language Learning, to explore how she’s reshaping the construction industry through language-based workforce development. What started as a conversation class at a local community college has grown into a B2B solution that’s saving lives and changing how companies invest in their teams.
Monique shares how a tragic construction site accident tied to a language barrier led her to take a bold leap into entrepreneurship. We unpack her journey from part-time educator to business owner, the challenges of moving from B2C to B2B, and how she’s helping companies understand that language isn’t just about communication—it’s about safety, retention, and culture.
Whether you’re a workforce leader, DEI advocate, or builder looking to make your workplace safer and smarter, this episode offers real-world insight into what happens when mission meets opportunity.
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🔗 Learn more about Monique’s work at: https://www.next2native.com
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Welcome, welcome everybody to another great episode of The Beyond Normal Podcast. I'm your host, Kenny Groom. We have a very special guest for you today on this platform that you all know Every founder, story is a journey worth exploring. We have, Monique, Lewis, company Next 2 Native Language Learning is bridging the language barrier in construction so that every single worker goes home safely. Timely as we know that, the construction, just real estate in general here in the States is a, a, a hot industry. specifically I'm excited to have a B2B, business platform on with us today. So without further ado, let's bring Monique to the stage. How's it going today?
Monique:Doing great. How you doing?
Kenny:Cannot complain. I'm on this call with you. The lights are shining bright on me. but
Monique:Like a diamond.
Kenny:I'm, I'm, I'm excited to, dive into your story.
Monique:Yeah.
Kenny:without further ado, let's start, let's start out from the beginning. Before you started wearing the hat of CEO and Founder, what were you doing, in terms of bringing value to the world?
Monique:real talk. I was 43, wearing the hat of a mother and wife. at that time I was looking at 17 years of marriage. Two tiny people. Delicious growing. And I was working part-time at a local community college in our ESL department, and I was killing it. And it was, it was the one thing that wasn't moving. Everything else was moving, but that's really what I was doing before I embarked on this journey, which I never intended to take, if I'm being honest.
Kenny:Mm-hmm. There is nothing wrong with that. Right. you, you touched on a couple things there terms of, the little ones, being married. Like what, you know, what was, talk a little bit about what was going well. In those moments and what, you know, what were you looking for in terms of opportunities that led you to, know, wanting to wear that CEO hat?
Monique:Sure. the things that were going well, which I'm truly thankful for is my marriage and raising my tiny people. Those are two things that were constantly changing because any, you know, you have a family, I have a family. Anybody who's a parent, you know, you gotta get used to chaos and foolery because that's just what it is. You know, that's just craziness happening all the time. Um. What, and I loved my job actually. I really did love what I was doing. We were working with language learners. 90% of them were Hispanic. That is my second language. I speak Spanish fluently. so I enjoyed that a lot. What wasn't working was my finances, you know, this was a part-time job. I was getting part-time pennies, and even though I wasn't making a lot, I think what made me feel stable ish. Is that I knew if I worked my hours, they had to pay me money, they had to pay me a certain amount of money and, and out of all the things that were moving, that's one thing that wasn't so honestly, even though, it was an academic calendar. So every year they got breaks built in, you know, spring break, summer break. Every time we had a break, we would hurt financially every single time. So that's the thing that wasn't going right. But I didn't know, I wasn't thinking of how to fix that because I was thinking of my time. My time with my family and the only way to get more money was to give them more of my time, and I really didn't have that to give. So when it all hit the fan, I wasn't sure what to do.
Kenny:Hmm. Show me the money
Monique:Yeah.
Kenny:as you were, as you were, as you were talking there. And that's a real, like, that's a real answer. I appreciate you sharing that with us. the, the education industry, in general, right? We know that there's some shortcomings. You just spoke on it, right? When there's a summer break, when there's a break in the year.
Monique:Oh yeah.
Kenny:pay is the pay stops, right? Like you've
Monique:Gone.
Kenny:for your services and, and what you're offering to the world.
Monique:Yeah.
Kenny:then on the flip side of that, you
Monique:You know,
Kenny:teachers
Monique:teachers,
Kenny:they're the ones
Monique:the ones.
Kenny:the next generation of leaders, of business owners.
Monique:It's true.
Kenny:so that industry is just, even with the, the, the coming of the robots, right? Like that industry is one that I think is. It's definitely right for disruption because of that. The situations that
Monique:Situation.
Kenny:up like you, like you just explained,
Monique:Absolutely.
Kenny:so.
Monique:Absolutely. It. I will say it's, it's interesting because the impact, impact of our educators, is disproportionately paid. You know, when you look at what they're paid and their impact, they, they definitely don't match. you are laying the foundation for what people will do tomorrow, and that's the future of everybody.
Kenny:Mm.
Monique:don't, pay you like that. So it's not something that, you know, you're happy about, but you learn to accept and you move on with it.'cause most teachers, most educators are doing it because they love it. They're not doing it for the money or, or they wouldn't be doing it. So it is, it is definitely a concern.
Kenny:So Talk. a
Monique:Talk.
Kenny:I, I'm curious, were you able to, were you able to have some sort of a minimum viable product While you
Monique:While you were
Kenny:teaching?
Monique:still
Kenny:That allowed you to validate if this
Monique:this idea
Kenny:would be
Monique:something
Kenny:should
Monique:should,
Kenny:a gamble on yourself with and start a business around.
Monique:I didn't know it at the time, Kenny. That's, that's honest. I, when I was working at that community college. I was honestly, which, which is how I arrived to any task. I was giving it my all because I was doing what I thought was right. I learned my second language more than 20 years ago. So. Unbeknownst to me, like I hadn't planned on packaging this and putting it together, but having been through it, I just kind of had that experience sitting, sitting in my back pocket, if you will. I was noticing that our students at this community college were testing beautifully. Like they knew their grammar, they knew the vocabulary. You could tell they were diligence students, but if I stop them in the hall and say, Hey, how's it going? They would freeze like deers in the head, deer, what is this phrase? Deer in the headlights. So I was like, mm-hmm. They need, they need a conversation course. They need to be able to enter into, sustain and exit a conversation.'cause if you can't speak the language, it is not serving you. That's my opinion. I stand on it. So I talk, I talked to my boss, who is still amazing. I, we still keep in touch. I said to her, they're missing a conversation. Can I, you know, can we do a course? And she's like, you can essentially go live your life. So I was like, oh, you want me to do it? So long story short, I created a course. I didn't know exactly how I wanted it to look. I just knew how I wanted to, to perform. And as I was putting together that course, I was shocked by the, the result and the impact it had on our students. And I was shocked at, at how popular it became. It got so popular they were trying to get students from other departments into it. And if I can tell you one quick example, she always stands out to me, in her country. She was a pediatric cardiologist. I mean, she, she is smarter than most people. She meets definitely smarter than me, and she came to this conversation course not because she didn't know English, she, she was trying to refine it and like work out those cultural aspects so that she wasn't offending people. Long story short, I met her twice, and I say that because I met her when she first came into the class and she was. Not able to speak to what she knew. She, she had limited English. By the time she finished the class. I realized she was really sweet, had a nice personality. It's like I met her for real. When you don't have the language, how do I know you're funny? How do I know you know that you are really good at something?'cause you have all this knowledge, but you can't, you don't have the words to tell me what you know. So seeing her go through that transformation, I was like, no, I really got something here. I'm helping people to go from. Speaking only a few words and, and having to give a survival version of themselves to a version of themselves that is able to express what they think, feel worried about, advocate for themselves. That's a whole different ball game when you're talking about making a home here in the United States and living, living your life.
Kenny:I like that. that's. a
Monique:that's.
Kenny:story. You, you, I mean, you touched on it a couple times as you were, you know, telling us the full scope of, you know, language and why you care so much about it. But, know, like that language barrier, if there's a barrier there, a lot of things can get misunderstood or we don't
Monique:Yeah.
Kenny:the original context or, you know, why somebody was saying something a certain way.
Monique:Right.
Kenny:think that's powerful. I'm curious, as you were getting those results, you know, did you, were you able to do some things to start to prepare or like make Sure. it was your ip, like your, your product versus In a lot of cases, when we work for, institutions and when we work for companies, right? If we're doing something on the company dime.
Monique:Mm-hmm.
Kenny:theirs, quote unquote. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Monique:That was scary. I ain't gonna lie to you, because when I first started doing it, like I said, my boss was like. Go do it. So I'm, I'm writing curricul not being paid extra to write curriculum. I'm just on my hours, writing curriculum. She even came back and said, why don't you also do a writing course? So I'm writing all this curriculum when things kind of hit the fan, and I don't, I don't wanna preface that. Like it was some dramatic, it was just a thing that, that catapulted me into entrepreneurship before I really knew I could. Once that happened and I was like, wait a minute. I haven't shared this at all. My boss never asked me for it. She never asked me to dispense it anywhere. She never asked me to share it with anybody. I was like, wait a minute, this is mine. Physically mine, I gotta take it. I don't have a choice. I gotta take it with me. And I didn't know if there would be, you know, any repercussions or anything behind that. I had no idea had I created it all myself. Absolutely 110%. so that was a risk. And I think that. As you build your skills at your job, like in your nine to five, sometimes it's hard to parse that out. Now, legally, I'm sure they'd have, they'd have figured out a way to parse it out had they, you know, wanted to do a little something with that. But I think that's difficult. A lot of us build our skills at the job that we're at, but when you built something you, it's yours. When you built it, it's yours. So that's the frame, frame of mind that I took. I even told my boss because I continued working there for a year. Even as I was building my own company, and I told her, I said, I'm gonna continue working here, but I can no longer teach these two classes that I created. I'm taking'em with me and I, the silence sat heavy for a good 20 seconds and hey.
Kenny:it's, it is interesting. I've had that experience over a similar experience over the last, say, five to six years,
Monique:Mm-hmm.
Kenny:taking a gamble on myself, creating beyond normal media. I was like, when I, when it came time for me to tell my boss or the, you know, the people who had invested in me at the company, I was like, well. If you feel like you've done a good job in preparing me, it, it is only natural that I go out and do some of these things on my own. And so that, like that pause, that 22nd pause that you mentioned. I know exactly what you're talking about because they gave me that pause some of them, you know, that initial feedback is like, well, are you sure? You know, like, do you really want to leave us? Like, I think we got a good thing going.
Monique:Right, right, right.
Kenny:you have to respect somebody for saying, Hey, I'm gonna take a gamble all myself, right.
Monique:Yeah,
Kenny:start something on my own that I am solely responsible for. I want, I
Monique:absolutely.
Kenny:responsibility.
Monique:Absolutely. And more reward for the work that I'm doing
Kenny:Mm-hmm.
Monique:because the truth is, when it comes to, you know, there, there's a buzzword right now going around, building a wealth and, and, building wealth. it is very difficult to do that at a job, a nine to five because the only exchange you have is your time. And we are parents. My family does a lot of volunteer work with Jehovah's Witnesses, where we have two tiny people. They're 10 and 12, so they still need our attention a lot right now. That matters to me. All of that requires time. How can I give you 60, 70 hours a week? Because that means I'm taking it from them and that's the only way I can get more money. Like there's gotta be a better exchange for that. And the only way to step out of that is entrepreneurship. So if you're trying to build wealth for your today or your tomorrow, or to, or to make up for you yesterday, you, you know, the way to do that is to, I think either property or entrepreneurship. So. That makes it scary. But that is, that's the formula. That's what it is.
Kenny:That's a mic drop moment. I, that, that sounded amazing. I completely agree. So I, I'm just gonna move on. You said something at the end though, where you feel like, real estate, right. Owning
Monique:Mm-hmm.
Kenny:property and then.
Monique:Entrepreneurship.
Kenny:Like those are the ways you feel like you can get to the point where, you know, you, you kind of own your own destiny, right? Like that is timely or good segue for this conversation, right? Because you actually landed on construction
Monique:Yeah. Yeah.
Kenny:of that you're, that, that your, your end customer or your client.
Monique:Yeah.
Kenny:have taken your, your curriculum right. Maybe you could have continued going down the education path and dealing with students, kids, things like that. Like talk a little bit about why you decided to apply it to an industry like construction. What were you seeing?
Monique:Definitely. I started out B2C. I was teaching individuals. Yeah. because that's what I knew. That's what, um. That personal component, you know, work like for example with that pediatric cardiologist. So while working at the community college and opening this business, that's the way I started. Okay. The community college though, they can only a address students or help students within certain county. So given the relationships I had there, because relationships are number one, I think relationships are number one in life, but especially in business, they're number one. So given the relationship I had there, I said, well, hey, if you get a student, they got calls from all over the world. So I said, if you get a student that you can't help that's outside of our county, can you give them my number? And they said yes, because I wasn't trying to steal, wasn't trying to have a conflict of interest. I'm not trying to hurt nobody. So one of the calls they sent to me, I think it was the first one, Kenny, it was actually the education coordinator of of Carolina's a GC. That's a huge trade association. When she called me or when, when we connected rather,'cause I got her information. Um. I was asking her, you know, about the needs, why did she call, kind of doing a discovery, and she said the reason she was calling is that one of the companies under their umbrella had a fatality on their construction site. After OSHA got involved, did the whole investigation, it was determined as opposed to an, you know, a thought or, or, a guess. It was determined that it was due to the language barrier. In that moment, I switched from B2C to B2B. Because I, I, absolutely. Being bilingual, I understand all the places where you can apply language access. You know, there's hospitality, agriculture, food production, manufacturing, all those places, medical. But when she told me that it made an inextricable link in my mind, that language is connected with life. That people on these men and women,'cause actually women are growing in the construction industry. If you can't understand safety, if you can't understand procedures, if you can't report hazards because you don't have the language for it, it could literally mean your life. So I said, well, I need to switch. So in that moment when she told me that, she opened my eyes to something I really didn't know existed. and I thought about the benefits of going to B2B. Yeah, there's so many. There's so many. Especially when we're talking about building wealth and all of that. I said, yeah, I need to make the switch. So I made that switch probably February 20, 24.
Kenny:That's a, that's a definitely a gem that you just dropped right there. Monique, and I mean, that's powerful like language to life. Like that's something I think that would resonate with, the, the average person, right. not just an executive at a construction company.
Monique:Absolutely.
Kenny:something that me, you can relate to is just basic human beings,
Monique:Yeah.
Kenny:here, in the us. So I'm curious like. There obviously is going to be some differences in how you deliver that message, right?
Monique:Yeah.
Kenny:about, your, your audience going from B2C with students and parents
Monique:Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Kenny:to executives, right, or business owners in the
Monique:Yeah.
Kenny:industry. Talk a little bit about, what that transition was like for you. going from having some of those conversations B2C, we'll
Monique:Yeah.
Kenny:way, and then going to B2B, like what, what was it like?
Monique:It, it, man, I was just talking about this the other day. It's hard. I ain't even gonna lie to you because this work that I do, it is, it is hard work for me, you know? I've become acquainted not just with the language of, of Spanish, but also the culture and the people and, you know, it's, like, it's a part of my heart. Well, an executive don't care about that if we're being plain. They don't care that you're bleeding hard or they don't care that you just love, you know, this demographic of people. It just doesn't matter to them. So, let me say this, we offer it two ways. We offer bottom up where we are targeting the, what we call the workers, where they're trying to learn English. I can show my heart there because they are hurting physic, you know, they're actually hurting day to day, not being able to communicate the way that they want. However, top down is where it changes because there's some companies that. Want HR middle management, C-suite executives, they wanna know Spanish or they wanna, they want you to prove that this is worth the investment that they can see. The ROI. So when I talk to them, I don't mention, you know, it changes their life.'cause they may not care if we're being honest. I don't mention the impact, you know, outside of their jobs. I don't mention, any of that because that's not what they care about. So this is what I do mention. When you have a misunderstanding, two different languages, you have issues with rework because something wasn't communicated clearly. Four sounds like 14 sounds like 40. If it's not your language, it's, it's so minute. The differences in the words. So I cut it wrong. Now you gotta do it over. Who's eating that cost? The gc. If you are redoing work, then you're looking at cost overruns, and then you're also looking at delays. All of those cost you money. This demographic is also moving around a lot because of instability and because they're not clearly able to communicate to you what they can do. You can ask either because you don't have their language, so they're moving around a lot. Every time they move, you're having to repost that job, rehire for that job, and retrain for that job all costing you money. So when you invest in those employees, then you're getting them not only to be more efficient at their job, safer at their job, you're getting them to stick around. Because of what immigrant would leave a company that invested in them in that way, that spread to every aspect of their life. So when they can see the ROI, most companies, not that I agree with this way of thinking, but I'm not ignorant to it. They care about their bottom line and this satisfies both. It satisfies the bleeding heart and the executive who's only looking at the numbers. Either way, this makes sense.
Kenny:That's dope. Like, it, it is interesting hearing you explain it that way because you led right at the, be towards the beginning of the call. I felt like a lot of empathy with the way that you're approaching it
Monique:Mm-hmm.
Kenny:having like your education background. But then, like you said, you know, is business, dollars, you know,
Monique:Yep. They don't care.
Kenny:they don't
Monique:Not necessarily.
Kenny:Right?
Monique:Yeah.
Kenny:don't discriminate. They go to where, people who want to maximize them go, right? Like that's where. Where a
Monique:Yeah.
Kenny:dollar flow. And so to your point, but you know the pain points for your audience. And so you making that switch is like super powerful. And again, B2B people on our platform are probably tired of me talking about B2B, but,
Monique:Yeah,
Kenny:much opportunity in this
Monique:there is. Oh my goodness.
Kenny:it just
Monique:And I.
Kenny:switch like you just explained.
Monique:Let me add one other thing too. When it comes to construction companies, you know, oftentimes they're hiring subcontractors that are just with them for a project or whatever, and they'll, they may think, those aren't even my people. One thing they need to keep in mind is if that, if that individual who's not your people has an accident on your site, it goes to your name. So when you think about Baltimore Bridge collapse, for example, everybody knew about that worldwide, that company's name was dragged through the mud because they lost six lives. On their site, their watch, and on their name. So even companies when they're trying to show their record of either little to no incidents on site, all of that factors in when you have people on your site who don't speak the language and could be in danger because they don't understand safety procedures. So it's something to think about. and what any of us who are going to the B2B space, we have got to be able to. You know, we think of the term code switch in a different way, but I'm applying it here because you do need to code switch. You need to realize who you're speaking to and what they care about. It has nothing to do, I hate to say this because no entrepreneur's doing this just for money, but you have to recognize when to open your heart and show them that you have a bleeding heart and when to cover that thing up with a suit and get straight to your points. You have to know when to switch because if you don't. You are walking around sharing the right message with the wrong person, and that may affect your ability to make your business successful.
Kenny:Yeah, for sure. Yeah, that's a, that's a skill in of itself. I think to that point, like that protects you a little bit. Like that insulates the part of you where you want to go home and you want to sleep well at night. definitely it's okay to. To close off at times. Like people think the, know, there's always that idea that, you know, we hear people nowadays say, oh, we have like a open door policy, and it's like, well that's okay if depending on the audience, like you may not want to have a open door policy with everybody. I do
Monique:Correct.
Kenny:I'll be straight up with you, honey. I do Not wanna have an open door policy with
Monique:Not with everybody.
Kenny:Yeah, I'm certainly willing to have a conversation with you.
Monique:Mm-hmm.
Kenny:depending on the person, that first conversation may let me know, at least how far open to leave the door or even to leave the door unlocked. Sometimes the door needs to be locked
Monique:Absolutely.
Kenny:conversation, if you understand.
Monique:I mean, we only have a, a certain amount of bandwidth,
Kenny:Yeah.
Monique:especially as mates and parents. I'm trying to keep my marriage healthy.
Kenny:Mm-hmm.
Monique:So there's certain points I have to shut down my job so I can focus on who matters to me, who's building me, you know, who's pouring into me. this entrepreneurial thing ain't no joke. You know, you're wearing 50 11 hats and
Kenny:it.
Monique:when it comes to being a mom, oh, I don't, okay, let me look. I understand that you're a husband and a man, so I'm not trying to diminish what you do'cause y'all are extremely important to the family unit. So I, so I'm only speaking to respect to the role that I have. When I come home, you know, and I'm doing all these meetings, like the, the thing I just came from, I just came from the ENC conference. I got up at what I call the butt crack of dawn Monday morning. You know, you got the crack of dawn, you got the butt crack of dawn. So I got up mad early, drove to Pinehurst, went to this conference all day, stayed the night in the hotel, got back up, went back to the conference. I left around three, drove home, picked up my family, and went to a graduation of the CAGC business, academy. Yeah, this was 48 hours of full on crazy. And when it comes to when you come home, you have to take off all those business hats, make dinner, make sure that that there's food in the house, and go grocery shopping and do the laundry. You are wearing so many hats. You only have but so much bandwidth. So if you have your door open to everybody, what you've opened the door to is burnout even faster than you can imagine. And then you're not gonna be able to do anything for anybody.
Kenny:Mm-hmm.
Monique:So it has to be strategic. Who has your ear and your time and who does not? So there's certain things, certain events I'm invited to. I don't go to no rude, no rudeness, no shade. But I only have a certain amount of bandwidth. So if those rooms are not, if those rooms are not people that I need to talk to or could see a benefit in talking to, it's gonna drain my time and my energy. So just'cause you invited me doesn't mean I'm gonna come. And that doesn't, that's not meant to be mean. It is meant to be strategic.
Kenny:Yeah. I'm glad you that's, that, that's a key word. for sure. and I definitely think, you know, just with, in our community a lot, there's a lot more emphasis on like B2C, know, selling things to, to the masses and, and
Monique:Mm-hmm.
Kenny:and scaling and so that model, it is much more of like, I need to be everywhere. I understand that. But then in B2B, almost the exact opposite where you need to be really strategic.
Monique:Yeah.
Kenny:because your customers like, you know, there's that difference between somebody being a customer and then somebody being a client. And
Monique:Yeah,
Kenny:in B2B, to be treated at least like a client, right? And
Monique:yeah.
Kenny:that comes with
Monique:Yeah.
Kenny:of time, of commitment, to your point, like it's, there's only a certain amount of hours in a day. You can't be everywhere. Especially, I'm glad you touched on the family components, spouses and little ones,
Monique:Yeah.
Kenny:because they still, gonna be right there saying, Hey, like, I need time as well. That's valuable. So I'm curious, like, what do you do, what do you do to like, be efficient, like with your time? Like what is, what is
Monique:Um.
Kenny:are some of the ways that you. Minimize the amount of time you have to work on things to the the right amount of time you need to work on them.
Monique:I am not sure I have that balance down. I'm gonna tell you what I'm trying, because that is, even if you get it down like one week, you'd be like, Ooh, I was killing it with my time. You know, management next week you'd be like, what happened to me? Killing it with my time management. so I can tell you the things that I'm trying and, and you know, as this, as this podcast is, is put out into the world. I hope people will comment with, with, with their suggestions, because I know we're not the only ones doing this entrepreneurial thing. So, let me preface it with that. The first thing I do is one thing I just mentioned, I, I really have to be careful. There was, so I'll give you an example. I was invited to do a speaking event preparing for this, actually it's coming up soon. It's in, Raleigh, like, the women's, can't think of the name of it. Women's Convention early on, one of the ones on the board was like, you should do this. And I was thinking about it and thinking about it, and I was looking at who's gonna be in the room, who's been invited to the room, who is this curated for? And I was like, this is not, this would be fun, but this is not my tribe. Is this gonna be a revenue making activity? And I realized it wasn't. So I was like, as much as I wanna do that just for fun, you know, I love public speaking. I was like, this is not the best use of my time. So what I instead did. I applied for construction conferences on mental health. I speak about that, especially for this demographic, construction conferences on wellness, that in those rooms, those are curated to people who need what I do, who very well may want to work with me and don't know I exist. Those are the places I need to be applying to, and actually just heard from one of them yesterday. that I'll be, leading a breakout session at, this conference on wellness coming up and I'm looking at it now in Oregon, in September
Kenny:Exciting.
Monique:It's exciting and, and I, you know, as much further as I would've come to that other speaking thing, I'm bringing double to this because this is a curated room.
Kenny:Hmm.
Monique:I look for. Am I in front of the people I need to be in front of for revenue making? because at this point, I'm two years in, I'm a, you know, my company is young. And we got bills to pay, babe. You know, it's always tight when you got a new company. Cashflow is always something you gotta pay attention to. You're, we are bootstrapped, no, no debt on the business. I'd like to keep it that way. So when you're looking at that, you're like, I can't be everywhere. Everyone don't need what I do. What I do is very niched, but it's also extremely essential. It's very important. Again, language links to life. So when it comes to that, I don't need to be in front of everybody. Everybody don't need to hear from me. So I have to figure out who does. And then be there.
Kenny:I like that. I ain't mad at it. You, you know me. I, I think one thing that I definitely want to, shot you out on,'cause we connected, as a follow up from one of our events and then we connected some on LinkedIn,
Monique:Yeah.
Kenny:as well. And just your presence on LinkedIn, it seems like you're
Monique:Oh yeah.
Kenny:you're really deliberate in terms of. know, making sure you're connecting with your audience there. So I definitely
Monique:Very.
Kenny:out there. and you're not afraid to just hop on the camera, like hop in front of the camera and speak your mind.
Monique:You gotta be. I would tell, I mean, you didn't ask me this, but let me, let me throw this in here.
Kenny:Throw it in.
Monique:This is important. I feel like as entrepreneurs, we are so worried about how is this gonna live or what they gonna think about what I gotta say. You forget what they're gonna think. You need to focus on your messaging. That's what you need to get down. Stay figure out what your brand is, what your messaging is. Get it tightened concise and you need to get to a point where you can say it in your sleep because there are people who will see your post today. There are people who won't see your post until three weeks, a month, two months from now. You need to be saying the same thing every time so that they know who you are, what you represent, and what your brand is. and what better way to get on a podcast with somebody like you who puts it out there and it lives forever on the internet. It lives forever. So somebody could see this podcast two years from now Kenny and be like, I never heard of her. And now they on my LinkedIn, you know, profile. So when it comes to that, I feel like if they don't see you, how do they know you exist?
Kenny:Mm.
Monique:If you're not in the room, how do they know you exist? If you are amazing at what you do, how do I know if I've never seen you? So you're not gonna come to my house and see me?
Kenny:Mm-hmm.
Monique:to put myself out there in such a way that you could be, you know, like we always do. We, all of us be scrolling, you know, as you scrolling, living your life and you go, h that looks interesting. Oh, she said something intelligent, or whatever the case may be. And something I said made you want to go click on my profile and check me out. I'm gonna tell you something that exciting that happened that I hope will be like a big deal. this construction company reached out to me on LinkedIn. I hadn't connected with them. He was like, I saw you on LinkedIn. We need to talk.
Kenny:Hmm.
Monique:And I was just like, are you like, in my own mind, I was freaking out. I didn't say that, but I was like, oh my goodness. Because your goal on LinkedIn is to do a slow pull in. You're not pushing, you're reeling in so that the people who you need to see your stuff sees your stuff. You don't know if they see it or not, but you need to be, you know, saying the same message over and over again. So we had a meeting, I need to look at my calendar two weeks ago. Presented a proposal and I just talked to him today and he said, we wanna move forward. We'd wanna go ahead and schedule the demo,
Kenny:Hmm.
Monique:what that was, all from doing this on LinkedIn. So any B2B people get your your profile in order. Let it speak for you, make sure it says what you want it to say. That if they don't get to meet you yet, that they're meeting you on LinkedIn. So by the time they have an interaction with you like this, it's all on brand.
Kenny:Hmm.
Monique:But it needs to be, you know, a lot, I notice a lot of B2B people don't have their LinkedIn set up. It's just, you know, picture plain background. Your banner is your advertisement, beef it up and make it look like what you want it to look like. So yeah, I'm, I'm big on LinkedIn now. Do I spend my time on TikTok and all that? No, I ain't got time. All that. My people ain't over there, you know, like my people are on LinkedIn. So figure out where your people are and be there.
Kenny:Yeah. that's super powerful, super important. I mean, you touched on something, even a platform, a professional platform, like LinkedIn
Monique:Yeah.
Kenny:the, the, the scrolling motion now, and
Monique:Yeah.
Kenny:it's just everywhere. When you Google people now short reels pop up on Google it, I, I always remember this. There was a interview one time with LeBron James, and they were saying how cheap he is,
Monique:Hmm.
Kenny:he was like, well, I still, I have Spotify with ads. And so people were like, well, that's really cheap of you, Mr. Billionaire. Like you, why do you need ads?
Monique:Yeah.
Kenny:But I think, and kind of. A diabolical kind of way.
Monique:Mm-hmm.
Kenny:sense for somebody like him who was his brand, is on display, on these, on these platforms. don't want to, I don't want to go away. I don't want to have a Hulu or a Netflix without commercials. I want to see what my audience is seeing of me. and there's that, there's like this way you, you, you're always in the game, like keeping it kind of like a sports reference and you
Monique:Yeah.
Kenny:put in when you're putting out content, check it out, see what people are saying. Like it really is, you can make it a sport. And I always go back to that example with La John, LeBron James with people saying, oh, he's just being cheap. He does. He can go without the ads. And it's like, no, like the ads is the, the, the ads part of the business, how people see his content, that's more valuable to him being on the court, honestly. you gotta like, you gotta be connecting with people wherever
Monique:You do.
Kenny:is. I'm glad you said you ain't gotta be on TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, you name it. You don't have to be on all these platforms. Just pick your platform. And start posting, and you've done a great job of that. I just want to shout
Monique:Oh, thank you.
Kenny:I notice your stuff. I look for your stuff when I log into LinkedIn now.
Monique:That means a lot to me because you don't always know if it's hitting or not. You don't always know if it's getting where you want it to get. So yeah, you check engagement and all of that, and I don't think you should drown in it. It should not be your part-time job. but again, your messaging needs to be on brand and often. I never want, you know, people to get sick of seeing me. That can certainly happen. But for people who need what I do, they wouldn't get sick of hearing me. They, you, you like to get more of what you want to hear. Do you know what I mean? that's how they get you, that's how the algorithm gets you. It gives you more of what you've paused on. So if you pause on my content, I wanna, I wanna almost take it like a diamond. And turn it so you can see another facet every time you pause on me. so that I'm giving you value. And if you really need what I do, eventually you're gonna send me a message like the, like the gentleman did LA a couple weeks ago. And that's what, that's what's up. Like, that's what, who, who doesn't wanna call from a potential client? Like,
Kenny:Yeah, we all want that.
Monique:you know what I'm saying? So
Kenny:want that.
Monique:I think that makes sense. And, and honestly, I, if I may share one other tip. I, when I'm on LinkedIn and you know, you get those suggestions of people you can connect with. I remember the, in the beginning I'd be like, they don't even know me. Why would they accept my connection request? Well, baby, why wouldn't they
Kenny:just
Monique:try it,
Kenny:Hey,
Monique:send it. That has made it so, because if so-and-so, CEO of X, Y, Z gc, you know, general contractor connects with me. He might be friends with another one who sees, oh, he, my friends connected with her. Maybe I should be too. Now, even if I never call you, you're now you're seeing my content. What if it resonates with you again, it's this slow pull in.
Kenny:Yeah.
Monique:so I think that engaging on LinkedIn, for B2B is extremely important. I just think that if your LinkedIn is not set up in your B2B, get your life together. Now, this, this isn't important, for your business presence. People do check, they do look you up. Give them something to see.
Kenny:I love that. I love that. Well, you've dropped, when you dropped a couple. Heavy hitter gems for us. I appreciate it so
Monique:Sure,
Kenny:how can folks connect, like what's the easiest way for them to connect with you next to native language and just keep up with how you're building out the business?
Monique:definitely connect with me on LinkedIn. That is my home, like that's where I hang out. You wanna see my stuff? You wanna see me speaking Spanish? You wanna see what we have to offer? LinkedIn would be the first place to go. You see kind of a body of work, if you will. Our, our, visual resume. Or now they say capability statement. You see our visual capability statement in the things that we do. Our website, obviously a wonderful place to get a snapshot of us. Next to native, the word next, the number two, the word native.com, whereas we say to our Spanish ones. so yeah, those are the best two ways to get in touch with us. If you go to the website, there's a contact form at the bottom you can fill out to get to us directly. yeah, those are the best ways to get in touch with me. If you wanna just shoot me an email, old school monique@nexttonative.com. Again, native, the number two, the word, excuse me. Next, the word number two, the word native.com. Monique at the front. I'm happy to talk to anyone who wants to know more about what we do.
Kenny:Appreciate that. I checked the, I Googled next to native, you got that home screen on lock, so that's always a good thing to see. Easy
Monique:Happy to hear it.
Kenny:do that. Right?
Monique:Yeah.
Kenny:lasting thought. How do
Monique:Mm-hmm.
Kenny:you know, how do you want to close us out? What's that? What's that thought that our listeners should be taking away as the final thought as you've given them all these gems, throughout the conversation?
Monique:We talked a lot about entrepreneurship. Yeah.
Kenny:Mm-hmm.
Monique:Try all of us have a zone of genius. Figure out which zone is monetizable and try. Yeah, you just never know. The amount of things that I've learned in, in just two years has been nuts. if you'd asked me even three months before I did this, I would've told you, you crazy. I'm not opening a business. And here we are and I can't see myself going back. So you've got something, you've been, you know, nursing got it in your back pocket. what harm is there to try and see what could happen? What could happen? You're strong enough to fall and get back up. But what if you don't fall? What if you fly? So that would be my, parting thought. Obviously if you wanna work with me, hit me up, you know, obviously. But when it comes to that mindset, I think being an entrepreneur has a lot to do with your mindset. Try get on out there and see what happens. You might surprise, you will surprise yourself and those around you.
Kenny:Appreciate that, Monique, for those listening in, tuning in. Thank you for, sticking with us and listening to Monique dropped these gems today. Peace.
