Sol Trujillo

International business executive Sol Trujillo emphasizes the necessity of "running with" one's own ideas to Gary Acosta as he recounts his road from just beginning in the telcom industry to co-founding L'ATTITUDE.

Transcript

00:00:04:05 - 00:00:20:21
Gary
Sol, thank you for being here today.

00:00:21:11 - 00:00:25:12
Sol
It's a pleasure. Always a pleasure. Coming to the headquarters of NAHREP

00:00:25:19 - 00:00:52:09
Gary
Thank you. There's not as many people here on a typical day because of COVID, but you can still feel the vibe. We've got a great vibe here. So? Sol as we were talking about a few minutes ago, I'm having a series of conversations with people and the trust behind the conversations is really advancing the Latino economic agenda, closing the Latino wealth gap in the United States.

00:00:52:20 - 00:01:13:12
Gary
I personally believe that it's going to take a lot of things, a combination of things. I think it's probably going to take some government policy. It's going to take a lot of capital. It's going to take more Latinos moving up the corporate ladder into the c-suites and boardrooms of America's largest corporations. And it's going to take some kick ass entrepreneurs, in my view.

00:01:14:06 - 00:01:40:01
Gary
And, you know, if people don't know who you are. Indulge me for a second as I share with you or with the audience, really your background. And, you know, I'll paraphrase a little bit, but you were the very first U.S. born Latino to be the CEO of a Fortune 200 company when you were the CEO of U.S. West Telecom at a pretty young age.

00:01:40:18 - 00:02:09:04
Gary
You came up through the AT&T ladder. You took control of one of the Baby Bells. You had a successful tenure. You guided the company through a successful merger, made a lot of money for your shareholders, and went on to do other things, start up a few other things, then led another comparable sized telecom corporation in Europe called Orange out of Paris.

00:02:10:00 - 00:02:35:08
Gary
And then after that led Telstra in Australia, the largest telecom in Australia, the largest employer in Australia outside of the Australian government. And you shared with me a lot of stories, a lot of war stories. But I mean, I think it's also fair to say that you were able to accomplish that with, you know, basically being a maverick, you know, forging your own way.

00:02:35:09 - 00:03:09:04
Gary
There was no LATTITUDE. And we're going to talk about LATTITUDE in a few minutes. There was no lcda, there was no LDC, there was none of these organizations or platforms that we have today that are all about advancing the Latino economic agenda. But you were able to do it anyways. So I first want to give you a chance to talk a little bit about your your ascension through the corporate world, and then we'll talk a little bit about what your thoughts are on how we can advance that agenda, how we can close wealth gaps and so forth.

00:03:09:09 - 00:03:13:00
Gary
And I want to finish by talking about LATTITUDE and why it's so important.

00:03:13:15 - 00:03:37:08
Sol
Okay. Well, in answering your question, there was no LATTITUDE LCDA, as you mentioned, But I did have really a virtual LATTITUDE, which was basically my parents. My father, his name was Trujillo, just like mine. And they gifted me the last name that I had. And I grew up in a place called Cheyenne, Wyoming.

00:03:37:08 - 00:03:37:20
Gary
Wow.

00:03:37:20 - 00:03:40:01
Sol
Which there weren't a lot of people like us.

00:03:41:09 - 00:03:49:07
Sol
But my father and my parents, they're rooted in the state of New Mexico. And our families have been around for 500 years.

00:03:49:20 - 00:03:50:05
Gary
Here.

00:03:50:13 - 00:04:09:22
Sol
In the United States, centered around that area of New Mexico. And I always like to joke that when the Spaniards came, they landed in San Juan. They didn't find any gold. They went over to Saint Augustine. They didn't find any gold. And they went inland. And they went to this area around the area of Santa Fe and took a few liberties there.

00:04:09:22 - 00:04:15:19
Sol
But that's really what happened. And they started colonizing a hundred years before the Mayflower.

00:04:16:06 - 00:04:17:19
Gary
100 years before the Mayflower.

00:04:17:22 - 00:04:43:03
Sol
Yes. So when those people like talking about, you know, what is the native. And who was first and whose country is it and all that. I always like to start off any conversation about welcome to my country, because in case anybody gets confused, this country is not named New Amsterdam to New London. New Germantown. It's named America.

00:04:43:08 - 00:05:06:11
Sol
And the founding fathers of this country, in terms of our Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the people that were doing all that. They adopted that name as the name of this country that now exists for, you know, hundreds of years. And we'll list live on for maybe a millennium or two, hopefully, in terms of that founding.

00:05:06:20 - 00:05:17:09
Sol
So my LATTITUDE was my parents were very proud and I grew up in a place that nobody was like me, but I was always a competitor. I loved sports and so

00:05:17:09 - 00:05:19:07
Gary
were your parents in the business world that they know.

00:05:19:22 - 00:05:30:18
Sol
No, my father never went to school. Well, my mother went to about 6/7 grade, maybe, but they had this dream for me.

00:05:31:09 - 00:05:35:01
Gary
So you're talking about values and work ethic and so forth?

00:05:35:01 - 00:05:55:16
Sol
And they struggle. I mean, they had tough jobs and they worked all the time and and all of that. So I got to see that. And as I was growing up, I always looked at the kids that had things like that, that had nice clothes, that had cars, that had ultimately stuff. And I did the correlation of who are the ones that have the stuff and who are the ones that don't.

00:05:55:19 - 00:06:17:17
Sol
I knew I didn't, but I mean, I had love and I had this this pride that I was brought up with. But basically that's what led me to go into business and get a degree in business because everybody that seemed to have stuff were people that were in business. So I majored in business, went to the University of Wyoming, not Stanford, not Harvard.

00:06:18:03 - 00:06:41:06
Sol
I didn't even know that they existed at that point in time. So I went there, got my degree, recruited, and started the experience of of, you know, what company am I going to work for? And I found out for the first time when I was being recruited from college, I was going to have my first airplane flight.

00:06:42:22 - 00:06:44:03
Gary
This is for a job interview.

00:06:44:03 - 00:06:58:01
Sol
For a job interview. Flying to Phenix, Arizona, leaving Laramie to go to Cheyenne, to go to Denver and then fly to Phenix. So I wasn't grow, you know, didn't grow up with a lot of perspective and.

00:06:58:16 - 00:07:01:19
Gary
No certifications in the Hamptons, nothing like that.

00:07:03:02 - 00:07:30:06
Sol
Or parents sitting at the dinner table talking about the deficit or the, you know, whether there's inflation or not or recession or whatever. So but but I knew that I wanted to go out there and compete. And so when I started my career, I took my first job. And it was basically a job in what they call the commercial department, knowing about customers, knowing about growth, figuring it out, forecasting it.

00:07:30:07 - 00:07:31:02
Gary
What company was this?

00:07:31:03 - 00:07:32:13
Sol
It was Mountain Bell Telephone.

00:07:32:22 - 00:07:33:15
Gary
Okay.

00:07:33:22 - 00:07:55:08
Sol
Part of the old Bell system. And basically, when I got into it, I started using stuff that I had learned in college that I used to sit there in class. Anyhow, and they would anybody ever use, you know, this calculus, doing differential equations and things like that. And lo and behold, in my first job, I started looking at the work that I was doing and thinking about how there was that.

00:07:55:11 - 00:07:58:23
Gary
That's good to hear. So University of Wyoming, it was a good school.

00:07:59:11 - 00:08:17:07
Sol
Well, it was. It gave me the basics of what I needed. So I always think about everybody should have the basic training of whatever it is that you do. And then you have to have, as somebody once said in a movie, the guy knows, you know, you have to have that desire to do that. So started my career.

00:08:17:12 - 00:08:38:06
Sol
My first job, I did it. I started revolutionizing what how the Bell System used to do it, and I started getting noticed and noticed by How did you think of that? Why did you, you know, like I shouldn't. And I was always sitting there saying, Why would you ask me that question? I got it, I figured.

00:08:38:12 - 00:08:41:17
Gary
you were making observations about the bigger picture of the business.

00:08:41:18 - 00:08:53:08
Sol
And that's really the key is, again, when you have ideas, you should always take your ideas and run with it and be proven wrong because you're going to make sure that it's proven right.

00:08:53:08 - 00:09:07:09
Gary
So that's the first, I would say, I don't know, idea recommendation that you're having for people coming up the corporate ladder is that you shouldn't be afraid to articulate your ideas and in certain that's how you get noticed essentially.

00:09:07:19 - 00:09:40:13
Sol
But I want to say one other thing that goes associated with okay. I did not know protocol. Okay. I mean, I had you know, my family knew nothing about business. And so when I'm sitting in a meeting, I didn't think that you're supposed to wait till your superior talks in his or her superior talks and all that. And the story I like to tell is I was in a meeting once upon a time, early in my career, my first year, and I was asked to present on some of the data work I was doing just informational for the senior executives of the company.

00:09:40:13 - 00:10:00:05
Sol
And I presented I think I did a good job. The there weren't many questions. They think me and the CEO asked me to sit in the back of the room in case there were any other questions later. So I'm sitting there and they go on to some other topics and issues. And what happened was there was a big challenge at that point in time.

00:10:00:05 - 00:10:06:07
Sol
It was during the high growth period with the energy boom and keeping up.

00:10:06:08 - 00:10:07:14
Gary
And what year is this?

00:10:07:20 - 00:10:32:18
Sol
This is this is 74. 75.And so basically they were talking about issues and coming up with solutions and the average age of that group at that point in time, I was 21, 22. The average age of the group was probably 60. So I had stood out in many different ways, but I'm watching. Them.

00:10:33:09 - 00:11:00:20
Sol
And when they came up with the conclusion and everybody agreed with it, I was sitting there shaking my head and the CEO looks over him and he says, Sol you're shaking your head. Does that mean you disagree with the decision that we just came to and there was this moment of silence in terms of my head and my heart and everything else.

00:11:00:20 - 00:11:31:19
Sol
And basically I said, you got to tell him. So I said, , I don't I don't think it makes sense to me. And I said, But all of you know a lot more than me. And about this time, all these people, they were basically all Anglo males and they were about 60. And those of us that are in that range, we all have reading glasses and they all had their reading glasses and I could see about 14 faces turned to me all at once, like in unison, just like in a comic book.

00:11:32:07 - 00:11:59:09
Sol
And so they looked at me like, What the hell are you doing? You're disagreeing with us? And I'm looking at their faces, and then I'm looking over at the CEO and I gave him my hand. He said, Well, obviously you don't agree. What would you do? And again, another decision point. Do I say what I think or do I start backing away because I saw all these other people looking at me, like with with veil in their eyes.

00:11:59:21 - 00:12:25:08
Sol
And so I said, you know, I recommended what I thought they should be doing. And he sat there and he started not in his head. So then I'm feeling a little bit of relief at that point and punch line, as he said to me. So thank you for your input. Thank you for the presentation. You're excused. And long story short, they went ahead with what I had recommended.

00:12:25:08 - 00:12:55:23
Sol
So and I got to I got a call from my boss, his boss boss after the meeting saying that, you know, the CEO, he really appreciated what I had to say because I had helped them move on to a different track. From there I was noticed, but I also learned one thing. When people ask you for your opinion, give your opinion, not what you think others opinions are or what you think consensus of everybody else is.

00:12:56:12 - 00:12:59:18
Sol
Have belief. Have faith in you. Now, I've always.

00:12:59:18 - 00:13:21:23
Gary
Thast’s interesting, and that's hard. That's hard for people. I mean, people I mean, we're all sort of trained to to finesse things and to say things in a way that's not confrontational or offensive to anybody. But you're saying that's fine, but you're not going to distinguish yourself as a potential leader if you're not willing to put yourself out there?

00:13:22:07 - 00:13:32:16
Sol
Exactly. The other thing is, is I never thought about myself as different in a sense because I was Latino, because everybody else didn't look like me. But I did.

00:13:32:16 - 00:13:36:07
Sol
How is that. Possible? How did you not notice that you were different?

00:13:36:07 - 00:13:55:15
Sol
Well, I did notice that most of the guys there had these buzz cuts and they they all were gray suits, you know, And with the blue tie and and all that sort of thing. But but it didn't stop me. I didn't feel like I had to bow and all that sort of thing to people in terms of their opinion.

00:13:56:03 - 00:13:56:14
Sol
But here's the.

00:13:56:16 - 00:14:00:23
Gary
Issue. You were different but not different in a way that would limit you.

00:14:01:09 - 00:14:06:19
Sol
Well, what it actually did, and I can only say this in retrospect, I wish I could see it. I knew it.

00:14:07:12 - 00:14:08:00
Gary
At that moment.

00:14:08:12 - 00:14:15:15
Sol
Is that I was as smart or as insightful as anybody in that room.

00:14:15:21 - 00:14:16:23
Gary
And you knew it at that age.

00:14:17:14 - 00:14:20:01
Sol
Well, and it was by luck. I mean.

00:14:20:09 - 00:14:23:04
Gary
Were you or was that just a state of mind that you had?

00:14:23:09 - 00:14:35:01
Sol
No, no, no. When the boss when I heard that the boss had changed the decision to what I had recommended, that, yes, I sat there saying, , I got a little bit of confidence there that.

00:14:35:15 - 00:14:38:15
Gary
But you obviously didn't have the experience and a lot of those guys had.

00:14:38:15 - 00:14:43:06
Sol
No, but I had been out. I'm a student. I'm a forever student. I still read.

00:14:43:07 - 00:14:44:15
Gary
I know that about you to this day.

00:14:44:18 - 00:15:05:00
Sol
I read a lot. I always wanted to be as more prepared than anybody. But the next thing that I did then, and this is the rest of the story about my career, is that I then went after my first year. I was brought in for an appraisal, which you do in corporations. You sit down with your boss and they fill out a chart on you and all that kind of. Stuff

00:15:05:00 - 00:15:06:10
Gary
360 review or whatever.

00:15:06:10 - 00:15:25:23
Sol
They said, Well, it's 360. You get bigger in the company. Okay, okay. But when you're starter or you know, a rookie, they don't make that kind of investment yet. But he was giving me feedback about all the things that I did well and all that kind of stuff. And he said so let's talk about how you think about your career now.

00:15:25:23 - 00:15:30:15
Sol
This is your one of my career. And I said, Well, I want to be CEO.

00:15:32:09 - 00:15:39:04
Gary
So you knew year one of your career that your goal was to be CEO? .

00:15:39:17 - 00:16:07:06
Sol
Because of that one meeting that I was in and I saw that I could think, given my level of experience as well as these other people. So it's the confianza you know, it's the confidence that you can have that you build for yourself. It's not because other people give you, you know, any kind of praise. It's you have to if you know that you can prepare and you can compete.

00:16:07:06 - 00:16:27:11
Sol
It's like sports, right? You know, when when Steph Curry was a little kid and he's dribbling the balls and practicing shooting, you know, his in his mind, he was already envisioning that he was going to be a pro player.And some people might say, well, he's saying that because his dad played well. Some of us we didn't have parents that played the game.

00:16:27:11 - 00:16:35:15
Sol
But I think we live through life and we see different examples and this is why role modeling is important. And maybe somebody and.

00:16:35:15 - 00:16:42:12
Gary
I was thinking that I was also thinking that that CEO must have been a pretty amazing guy.

00:16:42:15 - 00:16:52:11
Gary
First of all, to to let you in the room in the first place. And second of all, actually listen to what you had to say and act on it. I mean, that seems like something that doesn't happen a whole lot.

00:16:52:15 - 00:17:17:19
Sol
No, no, no. And that you're exactly right. That's why I said the meeting itself was luck. But then the question is, is okay, so when you're presented with that situation, do you step up or do you step back? You hesitate. Again, going back to sports, those who hesitate when they have the great passing opportunity or shot opportunity or whatever it might be, you know, you can't you can't wait.

00:17:17:19 - 00:17:28:14
Gary
So there are these moments where your decision at that moment can define the future that you have from a career standpoint or even from a personal standpoint.

00:17:28:19 - 00:17:50:11
Sol
And that's what I always like to the young people that I mentor and they ask me for advice is I always say, be true to yourself, respect yourself. If you don't respect yourself and your capabilities, how would anybody else? you take that. Then you start thinking in a in a career since there was nobody like me,

00:17:51:03 - 00:18:06:04
Sol
So I started thinking, gee, I want to be CEO one day, but I knew I had to do my own career path because I knew from the feedback I'd been getting and all that people were going to slap me in the ways that they thought I should go.

00:18:06:06 - 00:18:21:03
Gary
And you also told me at one point that you're heroes. During that time, weren't athletes entertainers. It was the Delia and the Welsh GE’s Jack Welch, famous generals and people like that.

00:18:21:11 - 00:18:29:11
Sol
I would say Iacocca, who has written a book and at that time, then Jack Welch and then Lou Gerstner.

00:18:29:11 - 00:18:29:18
Gary
IBM

00:18:30:02 - 00:18:59:03
Sol
Formed IBM. And so I literally started my career thinking about, so how am I going to develop myself? And I would pay out of my own pocket to go hear Jack Welch speak, to speak at things that he was doing. I'd pay out of my own pocket to go here. Lou Gerstner and others, because I was always saying, I'm going to study those who are great leaders and learn from them and embed what I feel makes sense.

00:18:59:15 - 00:19:03:07
Sol
And I'm also going to study the leaders that don't have great reviews.

00:19:03:07 - 00:19:05:00
Gary
Really interesting

00:19:05:00 - 00:19:11:02
Sol
because I want to learn from them. in terms of what turns people off or what keeps them from being successful.

00:19:11:08 - 00:19:22:00
Gary
You don't hear that very often. People recommending that. You also study people who failed.Or that were not great leaders to really try to extract what to avoid. .

00:19:22:08 - 00:19:32:05
Sol
And that's exactly right. And I've always done that with customers because everybody likes to get feedback from customers. And when it's good feedback, they want to hear it, they want more. And when there's bad feedback or no feedback.

00:19:32:19 - 00:19:33:23
Gary
Then they dismiss it.

00:19:34:00 - 00:19:40:05
Sol
I'm a guy that says I'm going to get better listening to the bad feedback than I am the good feedback.

00:19:40:14 - 00:19:50:06
Gary
And so that's tough, though. It's tough for people to have that disposition, that mindset and be willing to to reflect on yourself to that degree.

00:19:50:11 - 00:20:07:12
Sol
And the rest of the story from my career and I'll just stop on that is that I was as a competitor, I started seeing early in my career that people that were named Smith, Joan Steinberg, whatever they were rising faster than I was.

00:20:07:16 - 00:20:11:08
Gary
I mean, they should put it out there. So you're talking about Jewish business,

00:20:11:08 - 00:20:20:19
Gary
Anglo. You know, whatever, that they were getting promoted. Part of it was because they might have gone to Harvard or Stanford or

00:20:20:19 - 00:20:21:20
Gary
they. Had the pedigree for.

00:20:22:08 - 00:20:26:06
Sol
Or, you know, one of the British

00:20:26:06 - 00:20:27:20
Gary
Oxford's, Oxford and

00:20:27:20 - 00:20:28:08
Sol
all. That

00:20:28:08 - 00:20:29:14
Gary
London School of Economics.

00:20:30:01 - 00:21:09:01
Sol
and I found that, you know, maybe there's something here that I need to take control of, not be a victim of, but to take control of it. So when I would take a job, I would sit down with my boss, my new boss, and say, what's the best job that's ever been done in this job? And everybody quickly tells you about your work better or somebody that did a great job and then they quantify it in terms of the kind of results, and then I sit down with them and say, So what would you think if I took that set of results and doubled it?

00:21:09:01 - 00:21:21:01
Sol
And you and I would agree that those were my targets. They'd always say, first of all, are you sure? And then secondly, if you did that, you'd be, you know, you're going to be on the right.

00:21:21:02 - 00:21:24:09
Gary
So performance you delivered, you hit numbers and then some.

00:21:24:10 - 00:21:34:19
Sol
Well, it was more than that. I set targets that were way beyond anything that anybody thought would be the targets you should set. And I've done this my whole career, including as CEO

00:21:34:22 - 00:21:36:00
Gary
I've seen it firsthand.

00:21:36:05 - 00:22:02:03
Sol
And I wanted I, I wanted people to not have an excuse when you want to be the CEO, ultimately that they can't say, well, but you know, all that kind of stuff. And so you always outperform what anybody thought was possible. And then you have the conversation and then pretty soon you're there. that's how I was able to take on jobs.

00:22:02:03 - 00:22:28:08
Sol
I was able to get moved to go fix whatever was broken in the company that I worked at. And finally the company reached the point when I was a senior executive, the company really got in trouble and I was not the favorite person of my boss at the time. Every company has their succession planning and I was viewed as high potential, but I wasn't the favorite because I was a maverick.

00:22:28:21 - 00:22:47:01
Sol
I always questioned why we were doing things that I didn't think made sense and I'd go off and do things to get the kind of results and so you're labeled as a maverick. And I used to take that as a as a badge of honor, as opposed to, gee, he goes and plays golf every weekend with the boss.

00:22:47:01 - 00:23:06:14
Sol
He perches here in the side and he wears wingtips and, you know, all that kind of stuff, which was, you know, that was a my thing. I was going to I was going to get to the top doing it, you know, the old Frank Sinatra song, My Way. And I wasn't going to bow to politics. I wasn't going to bow to tradition.

00:23:07:01 - 00:23:34:22
Sol
I was going to bow to my customers, to the shareholders and others in terms of performance and the people that work for you. And so ultimately, I got picked not by my CEO when my CEO was asked to step down from his job because he recommended some other people. But I was picked by the board who had watched me through my career taking on different parts of the.

00:23:34:22 - 00:23:35:10
Gary
How old were you?

00:23:36:03 - 00:23:39:12
Sol
I was then 40, 41.

00:23:39:15 - 00:23:40:10
Gary
41 years old.

00:23:40:10 - 00:24:06:04
Sol
And became the CEO at 42. And this. So the reason why I like to point that out is, you know, sometimes if you're waiting for other people to make you known, if you're waiting for other people to bless you, if you're waiting for other people to sanction you, that's not the way to control yourself.

00:24:06:06 - 00:24:27:08
Gary
So that's a great opportunity to pivot a little bit here, which is my next question, which is why? Why aren't there more Latinos who've made it to the top of major corporations in this country who made it to the sweet seats c-suites of these companies, the boardrooms and so forth? Is it because they're waiting to be sort of ordained?

00:24:28:02 - 00:24:59:14
Gary
Is it because they don't perform the way you performed? Is it because they don't know the right people? Tell me because the numbers are shockingly poor. We don't have a single Latina CEO in America of a major corporation. We only have a handful of Latinos, and most of them are foreign born and not us born. We have what I don't know what the percentages, but it's what, less than 5% of the board seats in Fortune 500 companies.

00:25:00:06 - 00:25:09:01
Gary
So those are pretty distressing numbers. I mean, there's probably a lot of reasons why. Tell me why you think those numbers are what they are.

00:25:09:06 - 00:25:30:21
Sol
Well, I need to be fair to the people that come from Spain or Argentina or other places that are you know, they're Latinos, but they weren't they didn't grow up in the United States. They grew up in a country where the president of the country, the heads of every major, major company, looked like them, had the same last name, etc.,

00:25:30:21 - 00:25:33:12
Sol
So they grew up with the sense of.

00:25:34:01 - 00:25:34:18
Gary
They can do anything.

00:25:34:19 - 00:25:54:09
Sol
And there are no different in the United States. When you grow up as a Latino, there's always things you know, we see it, you know, discriminatory kinds of things. We see, you know, anything on TV is, oh, if you're Latino, you're always a a gangbanger or drug dealer. You know, you're not the person

00:25:54:09 - 00:25:55:02
Gary
talk about the media a lot.

00:25:55:02 - 00:26:26:13
Sol
But , that leads the way. And when they cover the news, you know, anybody can watch their evening news and see what they cover. So the perception of Latinos is already influenced for those who are making decisions and they're always looking for that one example, that one experience where they don't perform quite like everybody else, and therefore they get labeled, they get cast in in a, you know, in a certain way.

00:26:27:02 - 00:26:54:10
Sol
But that's not an excuse. My personal view is, no, you take control of your own brand. You think about your own brand. First of all, it's got to have this element of performance. And I mean, not just same as I mean, during my time as the only one, I had to be ten times better, not two times better, but I, I didn't take that as an excuse.

00:26:55:02 - 00:27:16:02
Sol
And I want people to understand, look, life is not fair. Sometimes these things happen and we can all argue that it shouldn't be that way, but make it that way so that you're front footed. When I lived in Australia, they always used the phrase, Are you on the front foot or are you in the back foot? Right? And I'm a believer of being front footed and that's what you.

00:27:16:02 - 00:27:22:04
Gary
Just keep being assertive and being proactive and not Reactive

00:27:22:04 - 00:27:46:18
Sol
you know, having a platform from which to be assertive, which is performance in every company, it's it should always be about performance. And then secondly, it's about how you prepare yourself. I've never been in to a meeting where I didn't want to be more well prepared than anybody there, and I didn't care who it was, what part of the world it was.

00:27:47:09 - 00:28:17:13
Sol
I didn't want to be cut short by anybody for anything, because then what happens is when people know not only are you a performer, but you're also always prepared. Your brand is built and communicated and talked about by others. And so in today's world, I mean, even now where I'm not running a big public company, I mean, you've seen the kind of influence you can have based upon your brand.

00:28:18:01 - 00:28:19:02
Gary
Your personal brand.

00:28:19:03 - 00:28:56:06
Sol
And everybody should think about their careers that way. So why not? we as a cohort now need to start thinking about how do I be front footed, how do I push my agenda, and how do I allow myself to be differentiated based upon what I'm doing, not because of a perception or you're not going to be accepted or you don't have the right pedigree or the right background, Because I can tell you in the time frame that I went through the AT&T Bell System era, they had assessment programs where they would bring people in what they thought were high potential people.

00:28:56:16 - 00:29:12:15
Sol
And ultimately there was one for, you know, people that could become officers. I went into that and there were people from all the names, schools around the world and we stood in a line and everybody had to introduce themselves. 20 people

00:29:12:15 - 00:29:16:02
Gary
sounds like a military, but it was droning in a similar way.

00:29:16:03 - 00:29:38:22
Sol
20 people in a room and you were there for a week to be assessed and you were given IQ tests, you're given in basket tests, you're given team tests. Who emerges as leaders, etc., etc.. And the first day this is where I noticed the pedigree mattered, at least for some, you stand in line and you're introducing yourself.

00:29:38:22 - 00:30:02:04
Sol
My| name is Trujillo, so I'm at the back end. So all the A's and then the b’s and the c’s and everybody there was, you know, from all the name schools around the world. And then when I came to me, I was the second to the last. And I still see the picture, that name. And when I said, you know, my name is Solomon to heal, I grew up in Wyoming.

00:30:02:04 - 00:30:08:02
Sol
I went to the University of Wyoming. Snickers last year.

00:30:08:12 - 00:30:34:17
Sol
LAUGHTER from these people that thought they had a pedigree that was better than me. And I said there, and I looked around the room and I paused. And I made everybody uncomfortable because of their snickering and things like that. And pretty soon people are looking at each other.

00:30:34:19 - 00:30:35:04
Gary
wow

00:30:35:10 - 00:31:01:04
Sol
And it set the tone for me for that week. And it wasn't because I planned it. It's because I reacted to it. And I was going to be front footed and I wasn't going to take a backseat to somebody. That thing thought that they had a better background than me and therefore would be assessed through a process. And as it turned out, you know, I was one of the two or three that went through.

00:31:01:04 - 00:31:31:03
Gary
what I hear you saying Sol is that some of it is on us, some of it is on us. There's no replacing performance, just like in sports, you got to be able to deliver on the court, on the field. You got to be able to deliver, you got to hit your numbers, you got to perform. Number one, the other thing is, you know, you mentioned a little bit about the people who traditionally made it up the ladder and still do to this day.

00:31:32:13 - 00:32:13:13
Gary
And I have a belief that, you know, people tend to hire people they know or people who they're comfortable with. Which is code for people who look like them and, you know, come from similar backgrounds. And not all of that is like overt racism. It's just human nature to a certain degree. I think that there are communities like the Jewish community that have been proactive in dropping the ladder and making and creating opportunities for folks from their community to have successful careers and to, you know, rise up the corporate ladder and to run big, you know, private equity firms and so forth.

00:32:14:20 - 00:32:21:21
Gary
We don't do that very well as Latinos. I mean, is that true? Is that a fair assessment?

00:32:21:21 - 00:32:33:06
Sol
I like your analogy because I often talk about the Jewish community and a lot of people sometimes say, well, Sol, you shouldn't be anti-Semitic or are you being anti-Semitic? And the answer, no.

00:32:33:06 - 00:32:33:14
Gary
I’m Not

00:32:33:20 - 00:32:53:07
Sol
no, because the Jew, the Jewish community, the Jews that came here, in the end, we're experiencing life here in the United States in the twenties and thirties. They had huge discrimination issues. They had all kinds of problems. So what did they do? Did they take out the violin and start playing the violin and saying, woe is us?

00:32:53:14 - 00:33:17:22
Sol
No, they they banded together. Yes. And they started building businesses. They started investing in each other. They started doing business with each other. And pretty soon they started blossoming in a very disproportionate way. But they stayed connected and intertwined in so many ways. The financial industry, the retail industry, the entertainment industry. And we can go on and on.

00:33:18:15 - 00:33:30:12
Sol
when I talk about it, I talk about it in a way that's very respectful. We have a second example, which is the Miami Cuban cohort, the first wave, the.

00:33:30:12 - 00:33:32:09
Gary
they are latino’s cohort But yes,

00:33:32:09 - 00:33:48:13
Sol
but the first generation that came over, they came over. They were in a foreign land. They left to escape from another land. There was their homeland and they banded together. And so when you go to Miami and you see the power of the Cuban cohort.

00:33:48:15 - 00:33:50:09
Gary
Right, the companies and so forth.

00:33:50:12 - 00:34:00:09
Sol
You see that effect of what happens when people do that. Now, in terms of your point, the Latino community now needs to do that in total.

00:34:00:12 - 00:34:05:12
Gary
Is this a new discipline? Is this how hard is it going to be to change those those disciplines?

00:34:05:13 - 00:34:07:17
Sol
Well, to me, it should be a natural act.

00:34:07:22 - 00:34:34:06
Gary
Because the way I like to explain it to people, whether you're Anglo or Latino or anybody else, is if you're a Garcia in Miami or a Garcia in New Jersey or in New York or a Garcia in Los Angeles or Garcia in San Antonio, guess what? Everybody thinks we're all the same. So don't think of yourself just as Cuban or just as Puerto Rican or just as Mexican, or just, you know, whatever.

00:34:35:02 - 00:34:51:05
Sol
We're all Latinos and we're Americans, those of us that are citizens here and all of that. And we own as much of this country as anybody else. And the opportunities to collaborate are huge because this is the growth of.

00:34:51:06 - 00:34:54:08
Gary
Latinos due to collaborate regardless of national origin.

00:34:54:17 - 00:34:55:07
Sol
I mean.

00:34:55:07 - 00:34:56:16
Gary
Those are artificial. Barriers.

00:34:56:16 - 00:35:27:21
Sol
To me, that's kind of silly. I mean, it's not relevant in today's world. And so we now have a unique responsibility. The way I look at it and the way we you and I have talked about creating LATTITUDE is that we have a unique responsibility to our country. We are the reason why the US economy will be able to compete for the next three or four decades because we're youthful, because we're entrepreneurial, because we're educated, because all the things that that are needed.

00:35:27:21 - 00:35:32:18
Sol
that were historic, They were part of our DNA as a country.

00:35:33:02 - 00:35:43:00
Gary
And this is why we should be front footed. This should give us a bounce in our step because we are the drivers of economic growth in this country now and for the foreseeable future.

00:35:43:05 - 00:36:29:07
Sol
Exactly. And so that's why, you know, when you look at our team of LATTITUDE Partners, you know, there's you and I who came together. We grew up differently. We came from different perspectives, different industries, etc., But we found an affinity. And then Emilio is different, who's Cuban? But, you know, he's a he was a Cuban immigrant. He saw the power of this in terms of saying this is the way we all should be thinking, you know, across the Latino cohort, but not just as separate Latinos, but to help Latinos, help others understand that they need to be joining into this catalyst cohort of, the United States of America.

00:36:29:19 - 00:36:33:11
Sol
You were in the room, I think, when. Steve Forbes ,

00:36:33:11 - 00:36:34:06
Gary
I was. Yep.

00:36:34:11 - 00:36:36:19
Sol
When he was talking about the Latino.

00:36:36:19 - 00:36:37:23
Gary
Culture that was in L.A..

00:36:37:23 - 00:36:58:04
Sol
He he and I had had two conversations about the data. He was very skeptical at the beginning, but he ultimately, when he saw the data. So he's a smart person that likes numbers. When he saw the data, you heard the quote which said, you know, everybody in this country should understand that Hispanics, he didn't use the term Latino.

00:36:58:17 - 00:37:23:01
Sol
Hispanics are like the Calvary already coming over the Hill to save our economy. And that's the way every American should be thinking. And underneath that, every Latino Latina should be thinking that and understanding We have a great responsibility. And I don't I don't look at it as as, gee, you need to understand these folks. No, no, no. We have a responsibility.

00:37:23:08 - 00:37:24:15
Sol
Because if we

00:37:24:15 - 00:37:26:02
Sol
We have to talk about that, you're saying.

00:37:26:05 - 00:37:32:17
Sol
Well, more than talk about it, we need to continue to build these businesses. We need to continue to build our career.

00:37:32:17 - 00:38:02:05
Gary
The Calvary, because we're growing faster than the overall population, both economically and in terms of population growth. Household formations. We're younger than the general population by a long shot. We have a really strong work ethic as a community. We're the largest. We have the highest workforce percentage rate of any other demographic. And as you and I know and have talked about many times, we're forming new businesses at a faster rate than the overall population by a long shot.

00:38:02:10 - 00:38:18:22
Gary
We're purchasing new homes at a faster rate than the overall population by a long shot. These are data points that people who should know, like Steve Forbes, like CEOs of major corporations, but for whatever reason, they don't know. , and we need to change that, obviously.

00:38:18:22 - 00:38:54:00
Sol
And that's why, you know, LATTITUDE, we periodically have CMO's come in. Chief Marketing Officer Chief Marketing officers come in to be our benchmarks because I'm a, I'm a zealot as a CEO. I'm a zealot about segmenting customer bases. And I've had to transform four different companies, three big publicly traded companies. And each time I look at segmenting my customer base, seeing who's growing, who's not growing, who's in decline, all that sort of thing.

00:38:54:07 - 00:39:20:13
Sol
And then I try to allocate resources to growth and where are my biggest bases. And then you maintain and every every other kind of cohort and this is just good business. So if you think about the economy in the same way, you know, you can look back at Ronald Reagan and Ronald Reagan was the one president that said, hey, we got a lot of people here that have been working.

00:39:21:00 - 00:39:25:08
Sol
They're good, hardworking people. We should allow them to become citizens, right?

00:39:25:16 - 00:39:25:23
Gary
Yep.

00:39:26:10 - 00:39:38:09
Sol
Now, some people like to negatively portrayed as well, that's amnesty. And why didn't. And the answer is because they were here working, creating productivity in our economic cycles, filling jobs, doing all

00:39:38:09 - 00:39:39:12
Gary
we needed them

00:39:39:12 - 00:39:54:18
Sol
Exactly. So we wouldn't have had it. And by the way, and you've seen this before, but I'd like to say continuously we have two presidents in modern era that that had the highest GDP growth rates.

00:39:54:18 - 00:40:21:18
Sol
Ronald Reagan for eight years, his average GDP was over 3%. Bill Clinton, who followed him, also had growth rates of GDP over that. And when you do the diagnosis, which I'm a data guy, you do the diagnosis, you see the one predictor free common variable that allows you to predict whether you're going to grow or not is a labor force growth rate.

00:40:23:08 - 00:40:30:19
Sol
And labor force rate, you can see during those 16 years was at the highest rates. We've we've had an

00:40:30:19 - 00:40:33:11
Gary
increase in the number of workers in our economy.

00:40:33:11 - 00:41:02:21
Sol
Yes. And also supplemented by immigrants that came in and helped us grow even more because our GDP is a function of number of workers, times output of goods and services, and then how much they consume and some of the productivity kind of variables. we were growing. So guess what we're at now we're at almost zero labor force growth rate.

00:41:02:21 - 00:41:06:17
Gary
Which is why we have, what, 10 million unfilled jobs.

00:41:06:18 - 00:41:20:09
Sol
Ten and a half million unfilled jobs, according to last month's data. It's probably growing, but have the comparables of countries that didn't allow for immigration. Japan, they've been in stagflation for 20 years now.

00:41:20:10 - 00:41:20:16
Gary
Yep.

00:41:21:00 - 00:41:49:05
Sol
Because they want it to be homogeneous. Mm We have Europe, which has now aged, and they years back didn't really favor a lot of immigration and they're stagnating. And so they have very low GDP growth rates and actually more recently negative GDP growth rates. And then you have India over there that's growing very fast. They have a youthful cohort.

00:41:49:18 - 00:42:24:19
Sol
They're growing their labor force every year and they're becoming more productive and they're able to start creating new businesses, investing in technologies, etc.. this is really the role that we play as Latinos in this country. We are the Calvary coming over the hill. We all need to be front footed in terms of thinking about the role I can play in my own career or starting my own business or taking on whatever my company is looking to do in in, you know, growing their business.

00:42:25:05 - 00:42:50:17
Sol
And that's where now I want to see and I'm working this personally with CEO Oz and some of the Latinos on boards and Latinos, But Latinos are the most underserved under Engage cohort we have in this country of all cohorts. And so we need to work on that. But that's where you think about front footedness, where you think about the strategies, where you think about what we can do.

00:42:50:17 - 00:42:52:16
Sol
And I think that's a good lead into.

00:42:53:12 - 00:43:26:09
Gary
Well, let's talk about a couple of things. Entrepreneurship, LATTITUDE Ventures, right? So I have this thesis that entrepreneurship might have the best ability to close wealth gaps to advance our economic agenda. And the reason I think so is that there's the opportunity for what I call multiplier effects. And my thought around that is that when a Latino led startup or company is successful and achieves scale, not successful in a modest way, but actually achieves scale, a number of things happen.

00:43:26:13 - 00:43:57:07
Gary
Number one, it's great for the founders and for the investors and for the employees of that company. And hopefully they they they make a little bit of wealth and they pass that on. But secondly, it also attracts more investment into the community because those companies, when they achieve scale, they start to, first of all, validate the market and in some cases take market share from other larger competitors who respond by, okay, this is no longer just a nice thing to do or something that we should do.

00:43:57:07 - 00:44:26:11
Gary
And I'm talking about hiring more Latinos and having a strategy to reach that market effectively. This is something that if we don't do, we're going to continue to lose market share and we're probably going to lose our jobs. Right? That's a whole different conversation that occurs. And I think only entrepreneurship can actually make that happen. You were very clear from the very beginning when we started at LATTITUDE that one of the primary components of the event itself needed to address the access to capital scenario that we were seeing.

00:44:26:11 - 00:44:42:04
Gary
Less than 1% of venture capital was going to Latino led startups. The last I heard, I mean, think about that, where 18% of the population, where 23% of the millennial population and we get 1% of the venture capital, I mean, that's astonishing.

00:44:42:06 - 00:44:44:08
Sol
Not only venture capital, private equity.

00:44:44:08 - 00:44:47:03
Gary
Private equity. Capital.

00:44:47:03 - 00:44:48:14
Sol
trillions of dollars.

00:44:48:14 - 00:44:51:05
Gary
And less than 1%.

00:44:51:05 - 00:44:53:04
Gary
Less than 1% the cohort.

00:44:53:11 - 00:45:13:06
Sol
your premise is right. That's why we've created LATTITUDE Ventures with the premise that says we know we can generate great returns, but we also want them to be creating jobs right? And we want them to be creating wealth not only for founders but for the people that are working in those founders.

00:45:13:06 - 00:45:36:23
Gary
So this is our opportunity to create new disciplines. We talk about dropping that ladder. We look at companies and we want to invest in companies that have a great prospect. Our prospective for growth and success. But we also look and see who do they hire, who are the owners of that company, who are the senior managers? And we invest in companies that align with our vision in that regard.

00:45:36:23 - 00:45:49:02
Gary
And I've seen you firsthand get an opportunity to mentor these leaders and tell them why these things are important. And maybe that's something that's never occurred before. But I think the upside is tremendous.

00:45:49:02 - 00:46:14:10
Sol
, And I think the other thing is just this notion that you touched on, which is the wealth the United States of America right now is just above Saudi Arabia in terms of the OECD, the Organization of Economic States, whatever the acronym is. But there's a study done every year about the concentration of wealth by country or the disbursement of wealth in countries.

00:46:14:22 - 00:46:30:21
Sol
And so we're just above Saudi Arabia now. We used to be in the top 20 or 30 countries. We've always had wealthy people, you know, the Rockefellers and, you know, all that sort of thing. But now we have really fallen behind Most countries think about this.

00:46:30:21 - 00:46:34:21
Gary
So most of the wealth is concentrated to a smaller population.

00:46:34:23 - 00:46:48:11
Sol
Depending upon who studies. You could argue that today 38 people in this country have about 93% of they control 93% of the assets in this country. Think about 38 people. That's now that's why we're standing over there.

00:46:48:16 - 00:46:51:19
Gary
And I would take I would give none of those 38 people are Latino.

00:46:53:04 - 00:47:25:17
Sol
No, no. But that's why we're standing over there by Saudi Arabia in these rankings, because, you know, they have a royalty system, right? It's a monarchy.And you would expect that. But here in the United States, we think about a capitalist system which everybody competes in if capital is available. And so what's happened is and this is the argument that I make, is that 21st century America is different than 20th century America.

00:47:26:17 - 00:47:59:08
Sol
And so we need to understand the new rules. So there's what I call the two D's. The digitization of everything has changed the old business rules and how things work and how we all consume and how we look and how we buy and how we do everything. The second D is demographics. And so if you look at pre depression back in the twenties, you would see that there was a concentration of wealth and some family name Rockefeller, some family name Carnegie, some family name Vanderbilts.

00:47:59:16 - 00:48:07:21
Sol
And they not only controlled well, they controlled the industries. And guess what happened? Ultimately, the economy toppled over because the masses weren't.

00:48:08:09 - 00:48:09:00
Gary
Participating.

00:48:09:00 - 00:48:22:10
Sol
Participating. And so now we have that same sort of issue where you look into the Dow, you're going to get the Standard and Poor's indices. Even Nasdaq, it's controlled basically by 8 to 12 companies.

00:48:22:10 - 00:48:22:20
Gary
That's it.

00:48:22:23 - 00:48:26:01
Sol
And there's really four or five that really make the biggest difference.

00:48:26:01 - 00:48:26:14
Gary
Of thing.

00:48:26:18 - 00:48:51:13
Sol
Companies. But but the point is, is that that can that is what it is. But it doesn't have to be what could be. And that's where LATTITUDE Ventures, you know, we came up with the idea and said we're going to invest in Latino Latinas who are the most prolific entrepreneurial cohort that we also understand. They're good at starting, they're good at growing.

00:48:51:13 - 00:49:20:14
Sol
But then when they need the capital to grow into being big, they can't get access to the capital that's needed and that's equity capital. Now, dead capital is important and everybody likes to talk about debt capital and the banks should be doing this or that. The real problem has been equity capital and you quoted the statistic less than 1% of all v c p e invested capital went to this cohort who's creating more companies than anybody else.

00:49:20:14 - 00:49:32:00
Gary
What you described once is one of the greatest mysteries in the history of capitalism. , because capital is supposed to flow where growth is. And if the growth is in this cohort, why is the capital flowing?

00:49:32:14 - 00:49:51:08
Sol
And that's why we have the session of LATTITUDE, because I like talking to CEOs, because one of the privileges I have is that I've run big companies and I've run big companies all over the world so nobody can look at me and say, So you don't understand. You've never run a big company. And you know, we have 100%.

00:49:51:11 - 00:50:02:14
Sol
And so I'm challenging people to start thinking about our country's future, to think about how are we going to compete if we're not flowing capital to where the growth is.

00:50:02:14 - 00:50:27:07
Gary
I'm just going to interject something here. Sol and I think it's important. And that is, you know, I've been part of the what I call the Latino advocacy community for 20 years now. And I've always felt myself to be a bit of a maverick in that space as well, because I don't come from the civil rights community. I don't think of things from a social policy standpoint for whatever reason.

00:50:27:07 - 00:50:46:22
Gary
I looked at it from an economic standpoint and that we have to make an economic case and it's an easy case to make, frankly. But nobody was really making it right. And I think that sometimes times the civil rights community that I give a lot of credit for doing so many things that opened doors for a lot of people also has an unintended consequence attached to it.

00:50:46:22 - 00:51:07:19
Gary
And that is when you are always talking about people with immigration problems, when you're always talking about people with economic problems and you're always talking about them as discrimination, you actually help create a perception that we are a community is rife with problems. It's not intentional. But if those are the primary spokespeople for a community, that's a perception that people get.

00:51:08:05 - 00:51:30:00
Gary
Why would anybody want to invest capital in a community that is rife with problems? We've never had a Sol Trujillo really being an advocate for the Latino agenda. The way you become that in the last few years and you take an entirely different approach. You have run big companies. So it gives you a different level of both access and credibility.

00:51:30:03 - 00:51:48:01
Gary
When you talk about certain things. This is a this is a tipping point, I think, for the Latino community. We owe a lot to you for that. Let me just say that first, you when you and I discuss creating LATTITUDE Ventures, you know, you said we're gonna raise $100 million. And I thought, okay, let's let's go for it.

00:51:48:08 - 00:52:06:00
Gary
And, you know, you pick up the phone and you call CEOs and you make that case and you say, Are you in for ten? Are you in for 15? Or do you really want to play? And you really get what this opportunity is really all about? And, you know, lo and behold, we were able to hit that goal of $100 million.

00:52:06:00 - 00:52:25:17
Gary
And that's only phase one, I think, in your opinion? In our opinion. first of all, I just want people to understand the context of that. I want them to understand that this this is something different that's happening right now. And, you know, I'm proud to say that part of the reason LATTITUDE Ventures exists is because LATTITUDE exists.

00:52:25:17 - 00:53:06:17
Gary
And that's, you know, a byproduct of a conversation that you and I started about six years ago, which is we needed a platform that did all the things that we've talked about here today, that made connections, that educated the resource allocators, as you put it, which are CEOs and people who set public policy and so forth. That creates a marketplace where those relationships can actually be, can actually be transitioned into actual deals and where businesses actually get their funding, where film projects get greenlit, and those platforms for whatever reason, have escaped us in the past.

00:53:07:01 - 00:53:16:02
Gary
So I want to end this conversation by talking about LATTITUDE. Why LATTITUDE so important and what the ultimate vision is for that?

00:53:17:04 - 00:53:44:20
Sol
Well, that's that's a great ending because it's really the beginning of the narrative in this country about the Latino cohort. I like to think about LATTITUDE when I have people that know nothing about it. I had somebody asked me this past week, so what does LATTITUDE? So I've heard about it, but tell me what it is. I said to him, It's a chance for you to see the Latino family photo.

00:53:44:20 - 00:54:17:23
Sol
He said, Family photo? And I said, , because you can come and see the Latino cohort in a very factual way, a very real way. But you're going to see the dynamism of the people that are there in the entertainment industry, in them, in the business, in the corporate world, in their entrepreneurial world and whatever. And you can feel the velocity of what's happening with the Latinos or Latinos in the Latino cohort that are playing in all sectors.

00:54:18:21 - 00:54:54:13
Sol
They're not over here in East L.A. or in South Miami. They're all over and they're creating $2.8 trillion of GDP, making it equivalent to France and the U.K. or not the UK, but to France. And when you come to LATTITUDE this year at the opening, everybody's going to a chance to see the new Latino Donor Collaborative GDP report, which is going to have, as they would say in Australia, some gobsmacking data.

00:54:55:10 - 00:55:25:21
Sol
But Gary, you know, for me, LATTITUDE when you and I came together was this is our opportunity to create this platform, this stage for everybody to see our family and how important it is to the rest of the community and the community being all Americans. Because we work together, we invest together. Sometimes we compete against each other and we serve in our military very patriotically at a very disproportionate rate.

00:55:25:21 - 00:56:05:14
Sol
we're we're creating jobs in a disproportionate fashion, creating companies in a disproportionate fashion, supplying 80% of all net new workers to this country's economy. And so there's so much there that people right before their eyes weren't able to see until we create the showcase, until we create the stage and until we create the opportunities for collaboration that you talked about, whether they be collaborating amongst groups, whether they be with companies or whether they be collaborating on deals and other things that can happen.

00:56:06:02 - 00:56:37:06
Sol
And that's the beauty of LATTITUDE. So it's American agenda, it's a Latino agenda, it's a business agenda, and it's also fun. Thanks to Gary Acosta, because he's always reminding me. Sol we got to have that element of fun here because we want people to and I'm speaking as Gary now. We got to have this element of our culture embedded and we woven because our culture is unique, we're very respectful.

00:56:38:01 - 00:57:12:05
Sol
We know how to enjoy our language or music and the faith elements and the family elements and all the elements that are really somewhat unique to the cohort but not threatening to other cohorts. It's one that creates comfort and that's the idea. Comfort the economy and the contributions, comfort around actually being givers instead of takers and comfort as neighbors, as coworkers, as co-investors, and maybe sometimes as competitors.

00:57:12:19 - 00:57:38:00
Gary
Well, I think that, you know, that sums it up pretty well. And I've said I'll just add that sort of picture. The phrase that you referred to and have coined for the very beginning, which is this is the new mainstream economy in this country. And when you talk about culture, we're not replacing anybody. This is an evolution of American culture, which has been evolving now for 250 years plus.

00:57:38:00 - 00:58:05:14
Gary
And so that's great. The LATTITUDE platform, the event is this September. We have a world class lineup. It's another can't miss event for anybody who is aspirational as we describe, whether it's somebody who wants to get all the way to the C-suite of their corporation or some ambitious young entrepreneur that has a great idea and is looking for contacts, capital and relationships and maybe mentors as well.

00:58:06:10 - 00:58:13:03
Gary
And, you know, it's going to be a lot of fun. thank you so much. Thank you for this conversation.

00:58:13:03 - 00:58:13:15
Sol
My pleasure.

00:58:13:15 - 00:58:16:10
Gary
Your friendship and for all you do, you know, for all of us.

00:58:16:10 - 00:58:18:06
Sol
Thank you. It's been great. Thank you. Thank you.

00:58:20:01 - 00:58:52:19



00:58:53:00 - 00:59:13:18
Gary
so first of all, Sol, thank you for being part of this podcast. It has kind of a, you know, a fun name associated with it. I try to be provocative. I try to be a little bit interesting, but it also, I think, embodies what I think is necessary for us to be able to close those wealth gaps and advance the Latino agenda.

00:59:14:02 - 00:59:43:10
Gary
So I call it I call it Govies, Plutes and Gangsters and roll out the clone. Our friend was happy to categorize himself as a gangster. I don't think you would describe yourself that way, but you're definitely somebody who is a capitalist, definitely somebody who believes in our system, definitely is somebody who believes in the power of capital when it comes to catalyzing ideas and corporations.

00:59:43:10 - 00:59:50:23
Gary
So thank you for being here today and look forward to our conversation.

00:59:51:18 - 01:00:04:18
Gary
So Sol, What's the big vision? what's the big vision for LATTITUDE? At the end of the day, you know, where do we see this in two years or five years or even ten years?

01:00:05:05 - 01:00:36:20
Sol
Well, first of all, I have to start with this year. Yes. You've already talked about this year. This year's going to be more than two x the last LATTITUDE of it's right. We're extending the topics. We're extending the focus on the sectors. We're extend in the depth of where we're going to explore some issues for Latinos in particular, but also the partnerships with other organizations where we're giving them a platform for broad access to media coverage, etc..

01:00:37:11 - 01:01:07:02
Sol
So each year it's it's this notion of the broader vision of the role that the Latino cohort plays in our economy and the kind of influence it could have and also the opportunities for businesses to make money and to capitalize on this as as a capitalist. And I think there's the core essence of it is is is not going to change because it's based upon a view.

01:01:07:21 - 01:01:24:13
Sol
And the view is, number one, we want you to see our family photo number two, there's a lot of money to be made if you can do that. And number three, we're going to facilitate how you can do deals, how you can do the kinds of connections that everybody thinks about because they don't know how to do it.

01:01:24:19 - 01:01:57:04
Sol
They don't know where to go, they don't know who to talk to. And again, this is this is a canvas for all of our community partners. And whether it's the LCD or Alpha or the Hispanic bar or the Hispanic Medical Association, the chambers, whatever, this is everybody's platform, including the non-Latino cohort. That's why the sponsors, you know, continue to grow their their canvas gets wider and also the people that will see on stage.

01:01:57:04 - 01:02:24:19
Sol
So every year it's going to get more exciting. Every year it's going to get more impactful. And every year every American should be saying, I want to be there. Because if you go to LATTITUDE this year, you're going to experience things, you're going to hear some things, you're going to see some people that when you go back home and you see your friends, you're going to be saying you should have been there.

01:02:24:19 - 01:02:32:23
Gary
Thanks, Sol