Addressing Blind Spots with Insightful Jorge Enriquez

Welcome to a riveting episode of Spark and Hustle, where we embark on an illuminating exploration of the powerful practice of addressing blind spots. Join your host, Karina, on a thought-provoking journey as she engages in a captivating conversation with the insightful Jorge Enriquez. Together, they delve deep into the complexities of recognizing and confronting hidden obstacles that may hinder personal and professional growth.

In this insightful discussion, Jorge shares invaluable insights from his experiences, offering practical strategies and wisdom to help listeners navigate their paths with clarity and purpose. From unraveling the intricacies of self-awareness to understanding the subtle nuances of unconscious biases, this episode serves as a beacon of guidance for anyone seeking to unlock their full potential.

Through candid anecdotes, thought-provoking reflections, and actionable advice, Karina and Jorge illuminate the transformative power of addressing blind spots. Whether you're embarking on a journey of self-discovery or seeking to enhance your leadership capabilities, this episode offers a wealth of knowledge and inspiration to propel you forward.

Join us on Spark and Hustle as we uncover the hidden truths beneath the surface, empowering you to embrace growth, overcome challenges, and embark on a path of lifelong learning. Tune in now to embark on a journey of personal and professional transformation.

Transcript

Greetings, sparking hustle enthusiasts. I'm Karina, your host, and I'm beyond excited to present to you today's episode, which is the very first interview episode of our podcast series. I'm so honored to have the privilege to interview a dear colleague, friend, and mentor who has been a critical part of my professional and personal growth. Hello! Welcome to Spark and Hustle, the podcast that ignites your inspiration and fuels your hustle in the dynamic worlds of career and entrepreneurship. I'm your host, Karina and Marketing Junkie on our journey of exploration, conversation, and empowerment. In each episode, we dive deep into the stories of professionals, entrepreneurs, and thought leaders, discover the spark that ignites their attorneys and their hustle to propel them to success. Whether you're navigating the corporate ladder or building your empire, follow Sparking Hustle for inspiration, practical advice and why not occasionally embark? Get ready to spike your ambitious and elevate your hustle game. We believe in the power of connection. Join our community on Spotify, iTunes, and Instagram to share your experiences. Learn from others and become part of a supportive network of dreamers and doers. Today, we'll deep dive into the corporate landscape with the insightful Jorge Enriquez. We'll explore the significance of recognizing the and addressing blind spots on their journey to professional success. Join us for a conversation that sheds light on the often overlooked areas that can impact our career trajectories. Welcome, George. Thank you. Carrie. To begin with, can you share a little bit about you, about your background, your journey through the different corporate areas you've been through? Where did you start? How did you get to where you are now? My name is George Henriquez and I'm originally from Ecuador. I now live in Texas. I am married to a wonderful lady called Eunice, and we've been married for almost 20 years, and together for almost 21. And I have two children. I have a daughter named Natalia, who's 17, and a son named Ian, who is 15, and we live here in Texas with our dog is about called Frida, a cat named Zeigler, and a couple of lizards, a Charizard and Joe. So we are a full, full house. Um, professionally, you know, besides starting six businesses and failing in four of them, my corporate saga began not in a galaxy far, far away, but in Virginia in a call center in 2002. Picture a younger mead and really, really excited about the idea of working with beavers. That's how old I am. That stint was very short lived. I really didn't like the job, and I discovered my aversion to beepers outweighed my fascination. After that, I started in the hospitality, and I found myself at the front desk of a Best Western in Virginia Beach, Virginia. And then I moved to Arizona, where I continued in hospitality, working for a Hilton hotel. And there I moved from being a front desk agent all the way to be an assistant director of front office operations. And then I was offered a position to be director from the office operations of a new hotel that we had bought in Tucson, Arizona. So I did that for a while, and then I moved to enterprise Rent-A-Car and an enterprise. I started in their management training program, and I worked at the rental location but didn't really like that. So I transferred to the car sales division. That experience was crucial. I had to juggle sales targets. I was paid mostly in commission and also customer satisfaction. And when I was there, a very close friend of mine invited me to play at Fedex for an inside sales role. And here's where things kind of got serious in terms of like, my corporate career. I started managing a territory in California. I was based in Arizona then, and it was all done via the phone. I was responsible for about $2 million a year. Then I moved to Miami, Florida to be an outside sales rep, and I had the dream territory. I had downtown Miami, a South Beach, Coral Gables, Brickell Avenue, all the really nice spots of Miami. I was very successful. I became an award winning salesman, and they made it to the Ambassadors Club in Phoenix, which is like a very, very high honor. And I achieved 14 consecutive quarters of growth in that territory, and I manage about $8 million a year. And I moved to Houston, Texas, with Fedex as a strategic sales executive. And I was managing a few key relationships with global accounts based in Houston. And I was responsible for about $20 million a year. That role really expanded my worldview. I was literally dealing with global operations and very intricate supply chains. It was very, very interesting learning experience. But I wanted to go back to travel. And that's when I found Collinson and I dived into the world of customer loyalty and airport experiences. I started as a business development manager for Latin America. Then managed our relationship with our largest global client at a time in the Americas. That's American Express, and it managed them from Canada to Argentina. That period of time is probably the one that I'm the most proud of professionally in. We grew that client from about $45 million a year to about $130 million a year in just a couple of years. With that, I earned an opportunity to lead the product strategy for the travel experiences business of Collinson in the Americas. And that was a book of business of about half $1 billion a year. And we managed through Covid. And, you know, I actually co-created the initial response strategy for Covid globally. And that delivered a couple of key solutions like, you know, touchless check in at the lounges and also the QR for food ordering in lounges. And in the region here in the Americas, we enabled over a million users to move into our digital only product. So it was very productive time. 1s Yeah, yeah, it was a good time. And then finally I my last role was that Carrot fertility manages fertility benefits that employers offer to employees. And that's basically where I was able to tied a lot of my previous experiences together. So all the product management, account management and global strategy stuff that I had learned in my past experiences really came into hand. And I started there by establishing all the infrastructure for carat to operate in ten Latin American countries. Also, I establish a provider partnerships strategy, and that landed carrots first provider in Latin America. 1s Then I was tasked to help establish a global partnership, and we establish significant relationships with partners globally. Finally, I moved back to the product area in the UX team, the user experience team in a content UX design role. There, we revamped a bunch of core functionalities of our product to make our members and our client experiences better. So things like, you know, internal configuration tools and systems are contact as feature is called Talk to Carrot or our provider finder features. So a very proud of of the work we did there. And and here I am now making it in the big leagues talking with you. 2s That's when you know you've made it. No, I'm joking, but wow, that's an incredible trajectory. Your numerous accomplishments and successes. I'm sure they've truly shaped your journey. And I'm so thankful that you're here to share these accomplishments with us. Congratulations. That's quite a journey from the hospitality industry to the car industry. Back to travel and then making a significant impact in the fertility industry. How did you market yourself to secure these roles? Have you always possessed a salesperson spirit? So before going to an enterprise, when I was in hotels, I was in a very operational role and I never wanted to do sales. I said I saw that sales, I it was scary to me when I went to enterprise. To the credit, a lot of what they teach you is sales, so they do a lot of training and things on sales. That is very helpful, of course. But you know, the secret to being a salesperson has nothing to do with what you say. The secret of being a good salesperson is to listen. 2s If you're good at listening and you're good at asking questions, you're going to be a great salesperson. So it's not so much about the pitch is listen. Because if you listen intently and you use good questions to uncover the real needs that the prospect has, 1s a it becomes very easy for you to propose this, to propose the solutions. Basically, the client does the job for you. So that that's kind of like the secret of great salespeople is listening more than talking. 2s The best part is that you don't you don't even have to figure it out. They tell you. 3s So that's that's the beauty of it is not if you're really good at listening, because when you listen intently, then you can ask really good questions. 1s So if you listen and you ask the right questions, they'll tell you what they need. You don't even have to go and figure it out. It's really interesting. 1s Wow. Now that is really interesting. It's definitely something that I'm going to try to be more conscious about, to know how to listen and ask the right questions. I do appreciate those moments when we become so entrenched in routine that we fail to truly observe, to listen like you're mentioning. It's essential to cultivate a mindfulness and awareness in our thoughts and actions, especially through listening. Thank you so, so much for sharing that with us. Moving to the topic of market expansion. How did you expand into a new market like Latam? Could you briefly let us know how you did it? Maybe in a nutshell. Was it through building connections or leveraging existing networks? What I learned when I was in Fedex on dealing with, you know, global markets in general, but specific into Latin America and the importance of building relationships and being there, being in the market became important. So I think it's a combination of, yeah, if you know people, that's better. But I don't think that's necessarily something that you must do. But you have to respect the cultural nuance and the cultural habits and ways of the people that you're going to go try to do business with, regardless of where you are in the world. For Latin America specifically. You know, I the way I tried to explain it is think about this. You're never going to be able to just build a relationship with people in Latin America over the phone. You and I are from Latin America. We know that. You know, we value connection. We value being there and seeing you. And you know that that's important in our culture. And moreover, I would explain that, you know, when I was having, for example, an important dinner with an important client and that dinner would be an hour and a half long, the first hour and 15 minutes of that was talking about family, talking about sports, talking about the weather, talking about the region and, you know, the landscape and talking about everything, that business. And that's how you build those relationships and you build trust with people. And then at the end, the last ten, 15 minutes, it was a quick chat about, okay, here's what we need to do business wise. You know, we need to do this. I need to do this. I need your help with this, whatever it was. So. A it's understanding that cultural nuance. I think that's important. And then if you go to even a more macro level, there's cultural nuance that is different from country to country. So building that awareness that certain things in Mexico are not the same as in Argentina, uh, are also important to understand, found success in that because I have a deep appreciation of those cultural nuances. Uh, and I mean appreciation, essentially learning about that and adapting my approach to whatever local market we are working with. Um, and that, I think goes a long way. Have you ever had to develop a relationship or build rapport with a relationship with Latin America? Because from virtually. Yes. No. Absolutely. Yeah. That that happens all the time. Uh, the more ideal way I have this this framework that I use, I call it the three S's, and it's show up is the first thing. So showing up and better. The other one is show value. So demonstrate why having a relationship is valuable to both parties. And then show commitment. Just, you know, do what you said you were going to do. Um. And showing up can be in a lot of different ways. Ideally in Latin America would be in person, because that's the comfort level and the cultural nuance that that region requires. That being said, and to your point, sometimes that's not possible, but you have to adapt to the right methods to do it, and you have to have the sensitivity. And a great example of that would be a lot of my relationships in Latin America are managed through WhatsApp versus email versus zoom versus text message. A lot of my dear and important contacts in America are handled through WhatsApp, and it goes from a a receptionist somewhere to the CEO of a company. It's really funny how everyone uses WhatsApp in Latin America, and that's just an example of, you know, even if you have to manage things virtually, which you have to a you have to still adapt to some of that cultural nuance. In this case, using WhatsApp as an example. The behavior is just so different. And and I can definitely hear how you like to stay connected with people from, from that market in a specific. So talking about your experience and what you shared with us, which I already know, I'm gonna remember this framework forever. Thank you so much for sharing. And I, I, I, I really agree with with your three s focusing more a little bit in the, in the blind spots and. You know, through our professional journey, we might not be fully aware of them or this is something that I just started being a little bit more conscious than I would like to start bringing awareness into my own blind spots, or how do I even identifying or not only for me, but also those blind spots in a project that we're working on? Um, not necessarily within the individuals, but also within the work that we're doing. I believe that they also have some blind spot. So how would you define and emphasize the importance of understanding and addressing these blind spots within the organization that you're working with? I think blind spots are, you know, aspects of our work or personality that might be invisible to us but can significantly impact our decision making or our relationships or even our performance. And I define these blind spots as areas where our lack of awareness or understanding leads to gaps in our skills, behaviors, or strategic thinking. And examples of that would be overusing the strengths leading to blind spots. And what I mean by that is, you know, we have to recognize that every strength has a mirror blind spot. Right? So you're really good at something that means that you're not that great at the opposite of that, right? So for example, if you're highly tasked, focused. That may lead to overlooking creative solutions or strategic thinking. Understanding that balancing those strengths can prevent them from turning into blind spots. If you're really, really good at something, kind of pay attention. What's the opposite of that? And just be aware you're probably not great at that. So if you're super detail oriented, you're probably not a strategic enough. If you're very strategic and high level, you might not be very detail oriented. So, you know, just having that awareness is important. The other is a shifting from tactical to strategic thinking. I think we should aim to incorporate high level objectives and not just focus on immediate tasks. When we are very tactical and reactive, that could leave things on the table that, you know, if you elevate your your view a little bit and see it from a little bit higher, you might see how some of those dots connect better. So contributed those unique thoughts and perspective in this in discussions, those really demonstrate rate your ability to think strategically. And that's like a crucial aspect of leadership, right. If you are aspiring to go into some leadership type role, another one that I've seen, you know, you have to recognize the pace of the people you work with. So if you work at a really high pace, if you're super quick and fast into doing things, it's important to ensure that you don't expect the same from everyone else. So you know, you have to be mindful of your team's capacity and set reasonable deadlines. So that way you promote better cooperation productivity to the other. 1s Um, another one. And this one I've been very guilty of is, you know, don't fall for the being a devil's advocate trap all the time. So what I mean by that is, if you're consistently pointing out risks and problems, you can be kind of perceived as not cooperative. It's important that, you know, to balance those, you know, when you have to critique with support and always try to look for those win win solutions, uh, to foster a more collaborative and, uh, innovative work environment. The last one 1s that I want to mention is things like failing to ask for help, or avoiding conflict, or not taking accountability for failures or too much resistance to new ideas. You know? So there's a lot of things that could be considered blind spots. The reason that this matter is, if you understand and you start to address these blind spots, particularly in a corporate environment, you're going to be able to resolve a lot of things like, you know, decision making is going to become easier and enhanced because you can make more informed and holistic decisions, and you can improve your team dynamics, you know, and address. Blind spots can lead to miscommunication and misunderstanding. So if you recognize and work on those areas, you're going to have better collaboration. 1s Um, even your personal, personal professional growth. Right. So it really challenges us to look beyond our comfort zones and grow in areas where we may have previously not even thought about. Um, and then at a higher level, you know, 1s at the organizational level, when leaders and employees work on identifying and addressing their blind spots, it really creates a culture of continuous improvement. And that helps individual performance, but also it collectively drives the organization towards greater innovation and adaptability, which is really, really important. And I think at a very high level, when that's really important is risk mitigation. Uh, you know, if you look at companies that have failed, a lot of it can be traced back to collective blind spots, right? The action of actually being aware of them can really preemptively mitigate a lot of risks that can lead to, you know, large issues in the future. I think understanding and addressing blind spots is not just about self-improvement, but it's also kind of like a strategic necessity for the health and success of any organization. And it does require a commitment to continuous learning, openness to receiving feedback, and also the humility to recognize that we have room to grow. I love that I, I resonate 100% with what you're saying. I think that it involves a combination of self-awareness, feedback seeking, and just all the proactive measures that most of them you mentioned. It takes a lot of self-reflection and especially seeking feedback. Seeking feedback is the one that I'm constantly trying to look for within my different colleagues, my friends, my partner. In doing an overall 360 assessment. 1s It's something that I, I believe it. It definitely helps. Now kind of touching on accountability. How do you promote an approach, a cultural environment that falls above the line and not below the line? In an environment, there has to be clarity about what each person is responsible for, because that's what breeds accountability. And I know that, you know, one of the biggest problems in a corporate in the corporate world is there's a lot of great, great areas in in a lot of these areas of responsibility. So I would also say the best way to foster an environment of accountability is one lead by example. So when you. Act with accountability, with integrity. And if there's something where, you know, you hold yourself to a certain stand there and it's not mad, and you acknowledge that and recognize that, or, you know, you make a mistake, mistakes are going to happen. We all make them. But you own up to it and you don't look for excuses. You don't try to shift the blame, but you actually own things. So lead by example on that. And then the second is um, try to create an environment where there's a as much clarity as possible around who is doing what and how. That way, when something requires accountability, there's little risk of. Shifting the blame for one and the other. It just creates a safer environment for people to feel comfortable owning their little piece of the puzzle that they have. And you know both sides of it, the accomplishments and the 1s issues and be fully accountable for those. So the key is to create an environment where people feel a clarity and understanding about what their little piece of the puzzle that they own and are responsible for. In both cases, when you know it's very successful, but as well, when there's with those issues and you just touched on somewhat related to my next question was going to be because this has to do a lot with the open communication that you mentioned. It involves collaboration. So my next question was going to be, how have you fostered an environment that encourages teams to identify as these areas collectively? You know, you can consider some like a bunch of different strategies, like, I think the more important one is promoting open dialogue, 1s because when you encourage team members to share their ideas and perspectives freely, it cultivates innovation and problem solving through diverse thoughts. Right? And you can create an inclusive environment where everyone feels comfortable expressing their opinions and feedback. As long as it's delivered constructively. For example, at carat, we had something called content time every Friday afternoon, and it was a one hour meeting where we just met to chat and openly talk about things. 1s Another part is your one on one conversations, and you don't have to be a manager or in leadership to have one on ones. You can have one on one with anyone. And I would always recommend having one on one with the people you work most closely with in a regular cadence, because that encourages transparency and it allows people to voice their concerns. The other is, you know, you have to foster a culture of respect. And so if you establish a workplace that values diverse opinions and encourages open dialogue without fear or judgment for retribution, it helps people to extract themselves more freely and really create a very collaborative environment. You know, you could identify problems early and then find solutions in a collaborative manner, and there should always be space in your one on ones to have this type of conversation. The other part is we talked a little bit about it when we were talking about selling. But you know, encourage active listening and empathy. So train yourself to actively listen to others and understand their their perspectives. And that way they feel heard. But also it really demonstrates empathy and care for the people you're working with. And I think the last one that I would mention is, you know, there's tools and technology. So, you know, you can use like, you know, project management software like Jira or intranets or messenger platforms like Teams or Slack to facilitate communication by implementing any of these things. You can create a more collaborative and open environment where people can feel comfortable discussing their blindspots, and with that, lead to more cohesion and better problem solving. Thank you so much for sharing that. I'm definitely going to keep it in mind for this new role that I'm going to go in and try to keep those one on ones with everyone, especially not only because I'm starting, but also for long term having those reoccurrence meetings. Um, it's it's definitely something that I probably would have want to practice more in the past. I highly value my one owns a. 1s Some people would say had 2s too many one on one. So my calendar. But I always found them very valuable. And yeah, I'm a fan of having those conversations. I think I have probably like two more questions just looking at that time. But there is one that if you could share a personal or professional experience where addressing the blind spots had a significant impact in your career. Yeah, of course, when I was at Collinson and I started managing a relationship with American Express because of how big that account was in terms of the number of markets, the number of contacts, and then the specific needs that each market had, I really had to elevate my thinking. So earlier I talked about one of the blind spots being, you know, the ability to shift from tactical to strategic thinking. And when I started managing this account, I found myself thinking in a very tactical manner. So I was focusing on immediate, very reactive tasks. I talked to a couple of mentors about that, and their answer was basically the same. They say, hey, stop looking at things from 5000ft. Look at things from 50,000ft. Once I did that, my whole perspective and approach changed. I was able to create a framework with high level objectives that was based on commonalities across all markets, and that allowed me to move into a more proactive and strategic conversations with my contacts in all of these markets. And with that, I gained a better understanding of their needs and I was able to advocate for those needs internally within Collinson. And the way it did that was matching those to our own growth and business objectives. For example, across the board, American Express was using at least three different systems to manage their benefits in different markets, including priority paths, which is what we were selling them. System integration and automation became my high level objective for Amex in all the Americas. So that was a high level objective that I arrived. And then I work proactively with each market and in coordination with our global team to find better ways to integrate with each market. And I was articulating mutual benefits. For example, if we integrate using X platform Amex Argentina, you will save $50,000 in postage every year. And because we can and that was because we could enable the digital product for their Cardmembers a Amex global, you will get less calls from Argentina about delays of their priority pass cards into the market. And for us in Collinson, the win was a lot of operational efficiency and huge savings in shipping, plus a much happier client and a lot of happier members that could use their benefit faster. So using that strategic thinking and applying it across the board allowed me to articulate the needs of over ten different markets. Saving cash over 2 million members and addressing those needs fueled the growth that we saw. Where we grew that account from 40 million to $130 million in just a couple of years. That success is what opened the opportunity for me to move into leading product strategy for the region. That's an example of. Becoming aware of my little blind spot, of thinking very tactically and then applying more strategic thinking and really, really been beneficial. Wow, I'm really enjoying you sharing all of these valuable insights. I think I often find myself getting caught up in the day to day prioritizing immediate task over long term planning. Speaking from a personal experience, of course. Fortunately, I have someone like you 1s who once advised me that the time for planning would come. Over the past years, I've embraced a more strategic approach and I believe it's been critical, very instrumental in propelling my career forward. I am grateful for you to share the knowledge that you once received from a mentor, and enlightening others along the way with that knowledge, so I really appreciate you for also always mentoring me and having sessions and being open to to have conversations like this. Thank you so, so much. And I so I'm so grateful that you've joined the the podcast and the show and that you've allowed me to put this out there because like you say, I mean, it is putting yourself out there. But I do appreciate you even considering sharing this with others, and I'm really excited that people will be able to learn from you because I've learned significantly. So I really appreciate and I'm really grateful for you and Gary. I do it with, uh, with a lot of, uh, appreciation and respect for you. And I'm very proud of you. Very, very proud of you. Thank you. And I hope you, you you can come back. There's so many topics that I would love to keep discussing with you. And we can continue to, to do this if if you are okay with that, hopefully you'll be able to join again soon. 1s Whenever you want me, I'll be there. I know our time is coming to an end. And before we split ways, for now, I would like to ask one last question that I'm gonna ask most of the people that will come in the show, and this is can you tell us of a trade secret of yours to say this? This might be counter to the topic we're talking about, but I want to advise you and everyone to lean into your strengths more than trying to, quote unquote, fix your weaknesses. Awareness about weaknesses or blind spots is crucial, and how to navigate them is important, but I recommend that you always focus on what you bring to the table and the things that you're excellent at, and lean into those heavily and consistently, because that's where the magic happens. Thank you. Thank you so much for opening my eyes on that. And I really need to have it more present and being conscious about it, because it's so easy to sometimes focus on, oh, the weakness. So how can I make my weakness better? But you're right, I should be focusing on how how I can use my strengths with you should lean into those more than trying to fix the stuff there is of opportunity. 1s Thank you so much for leaving that we are here again. So, so much for your time. You'll definitely get another request here soon in your email because I really enjoyed talking to you and same and I'm curious, 1s but thank you and I really hope this can spark some motivation and inspiration for you at 12. Yes, I can't wait to to listen to it. Of course. And thank you again, George, for being part of the first interview with Spark and Hustle and sparking as a community. Thank you so much for listening to the first interview podcast episode. There you have it. A thought provocative exploration of the importance of acknowledging and addressing blindspots in a corporate world. A special thank you to George Henriquez for sharing his insights. If you found value in this episode, be sure to subscribe for more enlightening conversation. Until next time on Spark and Hustle, where we continue and revealing the complexity of so career, entrepreneurship and personal growth. Thank you for being part of our journey. Also, one more thing. Apologies for the difference levels of audio. I'm still working on. Investing in some new tools, but for now this will do. So thank you for bearing with us and I hope you see the evolution of this podcast eventually. If you did listen to this, feel free to share any feedback, any comments about the show up at the episodes. Anything is highly appreciated and you can share via Instagram. Text me. Call me. Until next time.