Arianna Huffington, Guest Speaker at The 6th Annual Emerge Fundraiser

San Francisco, CA 06/17/10 - The 6th Annual Emerge Fundraiser was a big success. The event took place at the beautiful Merchants Exchange Building. The room was full of great women -and men- and everybody walked out with inspiring and empowering messages.

Arianna Huffington, Author, Columnist & Founder of the Huffington Post was the guest speaker. Her humor and wisdom enlighten us all. Christine Pelosi, daughter of current Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, Speaker pro Tempore Assemblywoman Fiona Ma and 2010 Woman of the Year Andrea Dew Steele, Founder & President of Emerge America were among the attendees.

Emerge is a political leadership training program for Democratic women, inspiring them to run for office and honoring their skills to win. Their goal is to increase the number of Democratic women in public office.

I was delighted to attend the event as a guest of Fiona Ma. The evening was definitely one to remember.

Photos - top right: Arianna Huffington, top left: Christine Pelosi and her daughter, bottom right: Fiona Ma.

Latina Entrepreneur Mrs.Sofia Echeverria Keck scheduled to be a Panelist at The 12th annual LATINA Style Business Series

LATINA Style - A National Magazine for the Contemporary Hispanic Woman
Dear Ms. Echeverría Keck,

We are delighted to share with you that on May 13, 2010 LATINA Style will host the 12th annual LATINA Style Business Series in San Francisco, CA. We would like to extend an invitation for you to speak at our upcoming conference, and more specifically, that you participate as a panelist.

The LATINA Style Business Series (LSBS) is the most successful ongoing business development program for Latina business owners in the nation. Over 27,000 Latina entrepreneurs and professionals have benefited from participating in this exciting and informative one-day business program since it first launched in 1998. It is a natural progression of the extensive work the magazine performs to provide resources to Latinas for personal and professional development.

The event, which will be covered in LATINA Style Magazine, typically attracts 250 to 300 Latina business owners seeking to grow their business and Latina professionals interested in starting a business as well as key business, community and government leaders.

We are delighted to announce our co-chairs for this event, the Honorable Aida Alvarez, chair of the Latino Community Foundation (LCF). Also, Ms. Isabel Valdés, Principal of Isabel Valdés Consulting (IVC), and, we are pleased to confirm our Keynote Speaker, Ms. Barbara Kasoff, President and CEO, and Co-Founder, of Women Impacting Public Policy, Inc.

We respectfully request the honor of your presence on the following workshop:

Role: Panelist: - Lessons Learned: Latina Entrepreneurs’ Financial Survival Guide

(11:50 am – 12:30 pm)

Date: Thursday, May 13, 2010

Location: Grand Hyatt San Francisco on Union Square

(345 Stockton Street, San Francisco, CA 94108)

Workshop focus: Successful Latina entrepreneurs at different stages of business maturity discuss lessons learned, insight gained through their experiences, challenges encountered, and ways to overcome these. The current economic state has caught many ill-equipped. These women will share ways to be ready for growth and new opportunities.

Ms. Echeverría Keck, we would be honored to have you participate in this prestigious panel.

Sincerely,

Robert E. Bard

President & CEO

LATINA Style Magazine

www.latinastyle.com



"A National Magazine for the Professional Hispanic Woman"

Latino professionals Learn From The Winemaker by Adrian Perez

Dressed casually, as if going to a fall wine tasting event, Alex Sotelo walked around politely, introducing himself and listening to ways the 25 Hispanic professionals introduced themselves to him as they enjoyed a cup of coffee and exchanged business cards. The monthly meet-up event held by the Hispanics Mean Business group in San Francisco, California, was featuring Sotelo as the guest speaker to share experiences and tips for improving business. With the majority of attendees dressed professionally, Sotelo was not hard to miss. But it was his message that made him the star of the day.

"Good morning," he told the group once everyone was seated. "My name is Alex Sotelo, I am a winemaker that happens to be Hispanic."

His introduction left some in the room chuckling while others looked a bit puzzled.

"How you introduce yourself is very important," he told the now attentive group. "Many of you told me your name and didn't tell me what you do until after I asked. This is a missed opportunity."

For the next 20-odd minutes, Sotelo shared a variety of tidbits that not only made sense on making a sale, but explained how he got his wine to be served at the White House.

"Many people ask me, how did you get the White House to serve your wine? And, I tell them like I am going to tell you, they look for you," he says. "They get lots of wine sent to them, and they throw it away."

Instead, Sotelo says, he has allowed for people and his product do all the promotion for him. He does not have a wine tasting cellar, but does attend many events where he pours his wine and where key people have learned of his products.

"The key for me is having a good product and having the infrastructure ready to handle the load," Sotelo told the group. "But I did not release my product to Latinos first. Instead I sold it to a small network of people who enjoyed wine and I knew could help me grow. Today, Latinos make up 45 percent of my business."

Sotelo's initial strategy worked, getting him on the cover of the New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle, eventually leading to some members of President Barack Obama's staff contacting him to be one of a few vintners whose products would be featured at the White House.

"Mr. Sotelo is a humble man and a good dancer," says Mayra Bautista, member of the Marin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and HMB. "I met him at an event and we danced. I introduced him to some friends as a great dancer when he told us he was actually a winemaker."

The Mexican-born Sotelo became a winemaker at age 25 after working in the industry since his teenage years. As he explains it, education is a very important foundation to have, but becoming a professional at what you do is more important. Providing a good product and service is good, but becoming unique is what helps promote any product or service.

The Hispanics Mean Business is led by Sofia Keck and meets monthly. For more information, visit www.meetup.com/Hispanics/.

For more information about Sotelo Wines, visit www.alexsotelocellars.com.

About the author - Adrian Perez is a writer and publisher of the only online publication dedicated to public policy and government from a Latino perspective, The Latino Journal. Adrian currently manages four daily updated blogs: The Latino Journal; The Latino Business Review; Vida de Oro/Life of Gold; and the Latino Med Journal, and publishes The Latino Journal E-News every week, reaching millions of readers in the U.S. and beyond.

"Latinos A Morir" (LAM) Means Business by Giovanni Gonzalez

The concept of Latinos A Morir started out as a gathering of friends at a house in Berkeley in 2001. Although the initial group of friends had different majors, ethnicity, and nationality, we all had a key values in common: ambition, care for our community, love of life and Latin American culture.

Now, LAM consists of 2,700+ members and we all come from very diverse backgrounds: country of birth, industry, age, hobbies, etc. However, we all share the same values from that initial group of friends back in 2001.

For this reason, LAM is adding opportunities for our members to interact at a more personal and professional level than just dancing. [Don't worry, that will never change!]

Latinos A Morir has partnered with Hispanics Mean Business to provide intimate events for those interested on personal growth, community improvement, and professional success.

"Hispanics Mean Business" on Meetup.com

Networking and Latino Business Owners

A few weeks ago I wrote about "Hispanics Mean Business - Professional Group." HMB was featured in today's E-News of the Latino Journal Magazine.

July 27, 2009 Issue No. 49

Latinos and the Economy

Networking helps Latino business owners stay afloat, grow
By Adrian Peréz

"With double-digit unemployment and businesses closing their doors throughout the nation, Hispanic business owners are learning the power of "teaming" and "networking" to create opportunities for one another and establish strong referral services to ensure continued prosperity. This isn't new for numerous Hispanic chambers of commerce that conduct business mixers and business matching services to their members. But, not all Hispanic business owners are members of chambers of commerce, allowing an opportunity for other groups to create networking opportunities. Such is the case for a small, but growing group out of San Francisco, California called "Hispanics Mean Business" (HMB).

Launched by Sofia Keck, a principal of Sell It In Spanish.com, HMB has grown legs among the many professionals and business owners seeking ways of staying in business. The organization meets, informally, on a regular basis and each member is encouraged to conduct a 20 minute discussion about their business or expertise and sharing what has and has not worked for them with those in attendance. The discussion leads to additional ideas and options that the presenter may not had thought of, including teaming with like businesses where mutual growth is promoted.

"The economy is pushing us to look for ways to remain successful," says Sofia. "Through referrals, teaming and self-promotion, we will find an effective way so you can implement your product or service continuously, and that is our goal."

HMB has become an exclusive resource for Hispanic professionals around Northern California to build connections and receive event invitations, receive presentations from experts in different industries and create opportunities to generate more business.

HMB members are leaders, business owners, entrepreneurs and influencers who are proactive in achieving personal growth, community improvement and business success.

The informal sessions allow the members to:

Promote themselves or products as needed, discussing "Why people should afford to work with you right now?"
Promote themselves or products as a solution, focusing on "Right now people need to survive and want to see fast results so they might not be thinking about long term investments."
Promote themselves or products as a support, understanding that having new ideas is great but right now people may not have the time and budget to "explore" those ideas, making it necessary to maximize time and effort invested.

"When you network you get a chance to shake hands with potential clients, potential partners and potential friends. To me, this sounds like a good investment," adds Sofia.

For more information, contact Sofia Keck by visiting www.sellitinspanish.com."

Don’t make the same mistake others have, Sell it in Spanish!

"After marketing its Chevy Nova to the Spanish-speaking population, General Motors learned “Nova” literally translated into “It does not go.” Would you want to market an automobile as the car that “does not go”?

Hoping to highlight the elegance of flying with American Airlines, the company initially advertised its newly designed leather seats by asking Mexicans to “Fly in Leather.” Though the company delivered its message accurately to most people in Latin America, its “Vuela en Cuero” catch phrase had a different meaning in Mexico. In this country, American Airlines did not ask Mexicans to fly in leather, it asked them to “Fly naked.”

More recently, the California Milk Processing Board aired its catchy “Got Milk?” commercials to Spanish-speakers before realizing this phrase translated into, “are you lactating?” Most important, it learned that the dramatic skits that often accompanied its “Got Milk?” phrase were simply not funny for Spanish-speakers and that they considered comedy associated with the idea of running out of milk of poor taste. To reverse this message and to put a positive spin on its publicity, the California Milk Processor Board switched to a publicity campaign that revolved around “family, love, and milk.”

To avoid these types of mistakes in your publicity, contact Sell it in Spanish."

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ABOUT THE GUEST BLOGGER Julio Moreno, PhD., is an associate professor and Co-Director of the Center for Latino Studies in the Americas at the University of San Francisco. Dr. Moreno is the recipient of awards like the Fellowship for the Study of Advertising and World Culture from the Library of Congress where he received a position as a visiting scholar in 2003-3004. He is also the recipient of the 2009-2010 visiting scholar fellowship for the study of globalization at the Institute for Historical Studies at the University of Texas in Austin.

Dr. Moreno is author of articles and books, including Yankee Don’t Go Home!, a book on the impact of Mexican nationalism and American business culture in Mexico. He is currently writing two books: One looks at the fascinating history of Coca-Cola in Latin America and the other deciphers the nature of American business and diplomacy in Latin America during the Cold War.

Dr. Moreno is a noted presenter of topics related to Latin America, U.S. business and diplomacy in the region, and the Latino community in the United States. He has granted numerous interviews to various television and radio stations that include CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, Univisión, and Telemundo. Dr. Moreno has also offered many interviews to U.S. and Latin American newspapers and news agencies like the Associated Press. Additionally, Dr. Moreno has worked as a business consultant in marketing for Harcourt Publishers and has served as a subject matter expert for the Coca-Cola Company.