Hi, this is Dr. B. Welcome to season two of the Dr. B show. I am your host, Dr. B. I'm here with my great friend, Sandra Naomi Therese. How are you? I am doing good. Thanks for having me not thank you.
I appreciate it. That you miss, uh, this cold weather up here. Sometimes I do. I get, I hear you. I hear you. Let's get right to it. So, so tell everyone about yourself for those. I know you. For those who are listening for the first time, you don't know, you tell them who you are. Thank you. Um, yes, I, um, my name is Sandra Torres.
I, uh, grew up in Jersey I'm now in Florida. Uh, so I bought Equa, um, and I'm a marketing strategist. I've been in business operations and marketing for the last 20 plus years. Um, I love working with organizations and companies. Um, I also host a podcast called cafe leadership. Um, I'm also the founder and president of an organization called United Latinas where, uh, created that really to gather and galvanize Latina women and teach them skills that are going to elevate them, uh, in their business, uh, endeavors and, uh, Yeah.
And I, you know, here in Florida, I'm the mom of a 24-year-old and, uh, just loving life and taking it day by day, especially with this pandemic, you know, you gotta be safe, you gotta be safe. So tell me about the cafe called leadership. How did that start? Tell me about a little bit about the Genesis of that and how did that start and what was, what's the purpose?
Yeah. So, um, over the past, well, over the past 20 years, but I, I would say, um, since I even started United Latinas, my heart has always been to really bring the voices of Latino leadership to, um, to the underserved community. Um, I know when I was in my early twenties, You know, being in, in a corporate environment, the first thing I did was who [00:03:56] can I reach out to as a mentor who can guide me, who came that there is an, um, show path for someone like me, a Latina woman that has fire and passion and wants to do big things.
And I wanted to see somebody. Carved the path before me that could help lend a hand. And I didn't find a lot of that. Um, I didn't find any of that. You know, it was really just, I had to be a self seeker and kind of, you know, be a self-learner and, and, um, just look things up myself and, and learn myself. Um, so leadership really evolved to, because I wanted to bring those voices to.
To the market, you know, and, and really pick voices that I knew would be influential and telling stories that are impactful and can resonate with an audience and can motivate an audience to feel, Hey, that was me too. Or, um, that's something like that happened to me as well. And there is hope there. Room for you.
And there is a purpose for you. And, um, just to instill motivation and galvanize people to say, I have it within me as well. This is not a one person reaches the top. It's all. How do all of us get there? Uh, so I just want to have these conversations. Um, and I, and I wanted to have it where the conversations were about the issues that are going on.
On now and the obstacles that people face and the cultural baggage, you know, what is preventing us from really going like a freight train and going forward, you know, what is, what is stopping us? And there's a lot of cultural baggage. There's a lot of mindset shifts shifting that needs to happen. And there's a lot of business education that lacks.
So there's a lot of these things. Um, and I just wanted to, uh, start bringing those conversations to the table because I think the more that they're had even systemic racism, even a diversity. Like even those conversations, our voting power, our ability, you know, these conversations aren't had so readily.
So people feel isolated when they're thinking them. But if we put them on a table and we start having them out loud, we can contribute to that conversation and grow from it. And that was really my mission and purpose with that. I love it. I love it. I love that. I love the answer. I appreciate it. So you, uh, touched on a great point that I was thinking about for my, for another interview.
I'm going to bring it to this forefront. So as far as the whole issue with, um, diversity, equity and inclusion, so w when did that conversation. Start, is it, you know, from, uh, should it be spearheaded by like the BRGs surgeries? Is it from upper management down centralized de-centralized is all around. Like, what is your opinion on that?
As far as for diversity, equity and inclusion, I think it's all around. It has to be, um, it has to be from the upper level, but it also has to be from our level. You know, we have to voice that. Um, if we are not. Feeling included or that their [00:06:53] environment is not diverse and we're going to walk anyway. You know, that individual is going to walk.
So, uh, organizations have to understand that they have to include, you know, this diverse opinion. Plus it, it only makes sense for the organization. Organizations cannot thrive really successfully without understanding that you're no longer, you're not marketing to one person. We are such a, you know, Just, uh, you know, just the Marietta rainbow of people.
So you have to have those opinions. On the C-level suite, as well as you know, on, on, uh, you know, on just within your whole office and infrastructure altogether. Um, and people are not feeling wholly inclusive. So, um, and I think that's just conversations that need to be had, uh, organizations sometimes think that they can get away.
Okay. He lists, I have a couple, you know, you know, we're a little diverse I'm covering my, my, you know, but they're not including, you know, everyone, so, but it's also up to you to make sure that you are voicing your opinion, make sure that you are, uh, advocating self-advocating and group advocating. Um, so I think it's all around.
We have to get everyone involved in that. I love it. I love the answer. I appreciate it. Thank you. That was. But I love it. You handled it very well. I appreciate it. So tell me about your company. Let's let's shift gears a little bit. Tell me about a plan. You're a company plan from company, correct? Uh, what, tell me about your origins.
Yeah. So we are a marketing agency. I, uh, started my first ad agency about 13 years ago. Um, and I was doing consulting then, um, then eventually went back to corporate America and then about five years ago, I started again, you know, just doing more consulting and, uh, Uh, you know, entrepreneurial work. Um, and we do, we handle all aspects of marketing programs.
We do email campaigns, we do graphics, we do copy. We do websites. We do SEO, um, digital marketing. Um, I also, because of those things, I've, I also do a lot of speaking engagements, uh, because of that, I teach a lot of classes on digital marketing on LinkedIn, on content creation, on different things. Help an entrepreneur, get the tools to go ahead and create that stuff themselves, or decided they're looking to hire somebody else to take care of that, but to at least have that those access and that, you know, those things that they need to do.
Um, so yeah, we work with entrepreneurs, small business owners and get them ready and spearheaded to go out there and brand themselves and, and. Create something that is meaningful, create a message that resonates with their target audience and something that they feel proud of. And, um, And helps them grow, you know, and helps put themselves out there, overcome those fears of, uh, especially when it comes to digital marketing, right.
People are hesitant to put content out there. It's not good enough yet. So, um, I kind of like, you know, we're going to do this, you know, I, I work alongside [00:09:50] someone, you know, especially when people are so afraid of that. So I do a lot of that work too. I appreciate it. So I'm going to ask a follow up question.
So why do, why do entrepreneurs struggle with digital marketing? Lack of, I don't know, lack of knowledge is a lack of providing content. Um, why do you, why do you think a lot of entrepreneurs struggle with, with digital marketing? I think it's so broad, you know, and everyone has, um, uh, They're at a different place when it comes to where there are, where they are in their business, but it's so, it's so broad, you know, it's where do I go?
What platform do I use? How do I put content out there? And there are so many nuances to putting out the content on there that are often overlooked. Um, so there's just. Um, little nuances and things take time, right. Especially when we're creating a lot of video content out there and video contents, what you need to be creating.
And it's also, how do you name the file? You know, it's like you, you create a video and it's like, you want to just put it out there and let it. That's it. Um, I'm going to put it out there and they're going to come, you know, but there are these little things and there was so much competition there's um, you know, the, how the algorithms work and all of that stuff.
There's so many little things that come into play that, um, you can struggle if you don't know exactly what you're doing, you're, you know, you're creating something and just putting it out there and slapping it up against the one, hoping that it's going to drive traffic. But there's so many elements that come into place.
Like I mentioned, the copy, the graphics, the, you know, how you name your file the time of day you post your videos, you know, um, all of that happens and everybody's at a different stage. It's doable. I agree. I agree. A hundred percent. No. So as a, as an entrepreneur, um, is there a one stat that should, once you worry about more about the other, like I teach digital marketing ironically, right.
And I talk about CPC and the conversion rates, like is there as an entrepreneur, what should be the most important stat that I should worry about? Or we should worry. Yep. Um, it really depends what your call to action is and what you're looking to drive. Right? So if you're creating a call to action that says, Hey, I'm looking for you to subscribe, or I'm looking for you to buy this thing.
Um, if the, the stat is okay, you know, 500 people looked at this piece and a lot of that, those stats are readily available and only one person clicked. Well, let me consider it. Well, let me try something new, you know, so you, you have to start kind of experimenting with that piece. You know, maybe the headline needs to change.
Maybe the thumbnail needs to change. Maybe something needs to change. Um, but. As far as stats. I, the, I mean, there, I look at every stat, I'm a numbers person. I look, I look at it, I look at every side, but I, I value the how, uh, how it's doing, you know, that, that helps me to gauge how I'm going to create my next piece and how I'm going to word my next piece.
And, and. It really is. Um, you really want to know how many people hit my site or looked at my piece and how many people clicked on it, or how many people bought something from it. Um, those are really the, at the end of the day in layman's terms, what you need to look at, what am I converting? Are people actually liking the content?
Are people reading the content? You know, are they reading? Are they skipping through, are they reading just headlines or are there really. Is it really resonating and what is my goal? Do I want people to resonate with that content? Maybe I need to rewrite it this way, or you, you really comes down to what are the goals of your piece of content and you know, how are people reacting to that goal?
Are they responding to that goal? You know, Not that. Thank you. Great answer. So just to confirm, so the call, it all depends on the call to action, right? So if you're trying to sell, like, for example, apart from what I do here, like I'm trying to sell a course. So the call to action could be to purchase a course or purchase a book.
But if it's something lead gen, if you, if, if the, if the goal is lead gen or set up appointments, it's, it's a different game plan, correct? Correct. Yep. Do you want to promote your product or services to your target audience, but don't know how. Do you struggle with social media, marketing and management? Do you have challenges of lead generation for your business online?
Well, look, no further. Get more clicks. Media helps with SMS MMS and email marketing. Also social media marketing and management video marketing lead generation brand recognition, S E O e-commerce and website development. For more information, please visit. Get more clicks media.com. That's get more clicks media.com.
So when it comes to lead gen and you're looking for people to just enter information and lots of people are going to enter information. And so a percentage of those people are actually serious people interested in actually doing business with you, but the majority are just people who want to get that information.
Um, and when it comes to a call to action, I want them to buy my course then. Yeah, it's a little bit more nuanced. You have to put a little bit more to it, you know, into the copy and into your messaging and into what you know, what that program is in order for them. To click on it and find like, that's exactly what the problem that I'm looking for.
And it really boils down to that, right? Like you want to deliver the solution to the problem that you think most people have, or people in your market have like go right to it. You know, most people approach things like, okay, this is what I'm selling, but they don't realize it's almost like, well, this is the solution that I'm solving for these people.
And if you fit in there, I give them, you know, let's connect because. Most I'm confident that I'm going to, I'm the one that can deliver that solution because that's what I do, you know? And I think people need to own that. Right. You know, some people just like try to get away with like, here's a mat and I put it up and, you know, I think the results are exactly, exactly.
See if it snakes right now. I love it. I love it. So. What advice would you give? Like, let's say you're an entrepreneur, you know, I have a brick and mortar by one exp or I have I'll have an e-commerce. I want to, uh, expand my digital footprint. What should be their first steps? So first. Um, for, if you're an e-commerce store, there's a lot of different things I would, um, say, uh, first have the foundation set, especially within your store, um, you know, SEO, have it, have all your descriptions, have the site really strong on the backend.
Um, it makes sure that you have a Google my business set up, you know, things like that have to, should be set up. Um, and then when it comes to expanding your platform, you can do. You can do advertising, you know, you can be on different platforms. Um, if it's a startup entrepreneur, because there are people I'll stand, I don't have money for ads.
You know, I don't have money to do all that stuff. Well, you are the ad. Now you have to be the advocate. You have to create content that showcases what is on that retail store, you know, and why, why would somebody buy it? You know? Um, but there are a myriad of channels that you can. Share who you are, what you are without selling it, you know, in a salesy way, but you can showcase what you do.
Um, and sometimes they're outside the typical platforms of Facebook or LinkedIn or Instagram kind of thing. You know, there's so many other places that you can be a resource for people that will lead back and lend back to your website. Love it. I love it. You gave me some great gems today, by the way before.
I appreciate it. Hey, so I want to shift gears, uh, cause I, I wanna, you know, it's very rare that I get to sit down with you. One-on-one I to come at you at all angles. Right? So, so the Hispanic for business leaders, I know you're on the steering committee. You kind of co-founded that. So what was the goal? Um, is it to help out individuals in the south Florida area?
Isn't like, you know, I was, I was part of it, uh, a couple of months back, I was here from Jersey be able to, you know, give back my expertise in networking. So what was the overall Genesis of that? And how did that start? And what's the goal of that? Yeah. Yeah. So one of my members in, uh, United Latinas, because I'm always talking about, we need to collaborate.
I'm always looking for groups to collaborate and she's like, Sandra, you know, I have someone. Started something about a year ago, it's like laying dormant. And, but, you know, we're, we want to put this event together and the idea is to bring organizations together. And that was just like, yes. You know, anybody that's looking to collaborate and create bigger and better things for the community, like resonates.
We're not, we are. Physically located in south Florida. And our event was called the state of Hispanics in south Florida, but we went back and forth on that because it's really the state of Hispanics nationwide, you know, and overall, and, and of speakers that we had were from all over, you know? Um, and it really was.
The idea of bringing disparate organizations. I have United Latinos. There was some , um, you know, there are different organizations that already cater to that audience that already run events for their own groups. And the idea was let's come together and put on a bigger event together. And, um, That was music to my ears.
So, um, yeah, I I'm, uh, because I believe in the mission of teaching that we can work together, not just talking about it, but showing it in my action that I could take an organization and say it can be part of something else, because I believe in the bigger mission. And I believe that. In teaching this idea that we shouldn't have be working in our own silos, we should find organizations to collaborate with and partner with because we can make a bigger impact, you know, that, that we're looking for.
So, um, so yeah, it's a collaborative group, a collaborative network, and we're putting on more events. I love it. I love it. So, so, so just for those who weren't on it, cause I was on it. So basically every week, their Hispanic heritage heritage month, you had different themes, right? Different tracks. So one, one week was business one week was financial.
Can you kind of elaborate on that a little bit? Yeah. So we took the whole month of, we wanted to not just do one event. We wanted to kind of do events throughout the whole month of Hispanic heritage month. So we started September 15th. We did an inaugural event that really kicked off and really set the foundation.
Uh, um, showcasing to people, our power, our, our Latine that our voting power, our buying power. So we had speakers come in that talked about those subjects, especially since this was an election year. You know, we talked a little bit about the stats. That's so critical. Um, the Latinos show up in polls is typically not as great as we are in power.
So it was important for us to emphasize that. Um, you guys, we need, we all need to know what our numbers are. We all need to know our power up because for too long, for far too long, we looked at ourselves as a minority. You know, we, even that term minority has been shunned a little bit. We are less than, it's a psychological thing, you know, we're less than, um, so I wanted to really showcase our power and, and, and not only that we wanted to empower the Latinos that were there.
Business education tools with networking tools. How do we engage others? How do we learn how we can work with the government? You know, how, and what questions do we have there, um, with education, what are resources that we can tap into as entrepreneurs? Um, what are personal development things? You know, how can we, uh, start to heal ourselves or what are tools that we have.
Proposal. So we, uh, we did a personal development track and then a financial literacy track where, um, gained some really great, valuable information on how do we, um, do things for our business as well as their own personal finances. And how does that work together? Um, so we wanted to offer, um, the community just as a broad idea of different avenues that are all critical components to having and living a healthy, vibrant, strong life.
Love it love it. So 20, 21. So let's say pandemic or not. Do you still are still going to do a virtual or are you going to do it on site or what are the, what's the future of that? Um, I don't know. I know in March we would probably do our virtual one. Um, for next September 15th, I'm thinking it may be, I don't know, considering we're going into.
Yeah. So it's really hard to tell. I don't think people would feel as comfortable. I don't think we'll probably get out of this for a couple months. So I don't know. Um, so it probably be virtual. We are crossing our fingers that we could do it in person. That would be great. Um, but, uh, but I think virtual. I think I like it.
You get a broader reach right now. I think so. Yeah. So you had on your phone effect on leadership, right? Catholic leadership is called, right. I didn't push the name, so I just make it. So you had Frank out of our house. He was on my season one as well. So, and he, he emphasizes, you know, Latino 365, right? What, basically what that means is, um, you know, instead of just.
Highlighting folks, September 15th to October 15th for his time, Hispanic heritage month to expand that process, uh, 365. Do you agree, or what do you think we should do to kind of like have, have our corporations or companies involved in that and not just wait for September 15th and not just wait until.
Taco Tuesday. Oh, they're Hispanic heritage month. Right. So how do you think we could educate the masses when it comes to Latinos, whether it's in leadership, whether it's, or their impact to society. I know it's a big question, but hopefully you understood it. Yeah. Um, I think what Frank's doing is absolutely excellent.
You know, I think that we don't see that enough of highlighting and it really takes one person to start that. You know, effect, but I think highlighting, um, the success of Latinos on a day-to-day basis throughout the year versus one month is important for us to do, you know, in however way we could all do it in our own way.
Um, I don't know within organizations, I I'd have to like, think about how they can do it without seeming any weird way, you know? Yeah. 32 by us. Right. They didn't want to go down that road. Right.
I got it. I got it. But I think that what Frank is doing. Is how to start, you know, and that in showcasing that we are more than we don't, we have more than just one month's worth of people. Great answer. Great answer. So, uh, we're winding down, well, almost half an hour already. Wow. I'm finally having fun. So, so where can people find you?
Where can they contact you?Yes. Um, I'm you could either shoot me a text. You know, I, I, I think text messaging is great. Um, 9 5 4 6 7, 6 40 46 is my text. Um, so you I can actually send you events and event updates. Uh, have you texted me through that? Um, you can find me on LinkedIn, linkedin.com forward slash in Sandra Torres.
My full name. I've you Google me Sandra Noemi Torres. You'll find something of me on there. Cause it's SEO. You could shoot me an email sandra@planyourcompany.com. Very easy to get to love it. Um, I was gonna say, Hey, you know what, I'm gonna throw it out there and I'll edit it or not edit it. Is there offer, is there like a free consultation? Is there a PDF, is there an offer I'm trying to help you with your business?
So, yeah. Um, yeah, I could absolutely do, you know, uh, consultation. If somebody reaches out to me, I can do a half-hour consultation, you know, and we can kind of go from there. If much more as needed. Um, but yeah, I'll offer that. Um, and you could, if you shoot me a text and put our consultation on there.
Absolutely. Okay. Thank you. I appreciate it.
Hey, Sandra, it's been a pleasure having you on, so this was great. We went from conversation regarding, you know, Hispanic heritage, his mom to digital marketing, to DNI, or D E I D E N I. So I appreciate the conversation. So thank you so much for coming on. Has the pandemic changed the way you prospect. Do you struggle prospecting for new leads for your business?
Do you have challenges and don't have a process when networking. And an event either virtually or online we'll look no further Bora consulting groups transforming your way to success. The online course is a solution. And this eight-week intensive course, you will go from networking novice to networking guru as a bonus bonus bonus two coaching sessions with Dr. himself are now included in the. Don't miss this amazing opportunity to transform your pipeline increased quality leads, close more deals, and transform your way to success. For more information, please visit our website www.borderconsultinggroup.com.
Hello friends. I hope you enjoyed. Today's episode of the Dr. B show sponsored by one 11 spa and aesthetics. Get more clicks media and Bora consulting groups. Transforming your way to success online course. Remember to transform your pipeline. Increase quality leads and go from networking novice to networking guru move 400 consulting groups.
Transforming your way to success online course, please visit our website at www.borjaconsultinggroup.com. Take care.
