Monica Robles on Language Access, Building Trust, and Why Small Business Success Starts With Believing in Yourself

By Kekeletso Nkele, small.news Assistant

Q: How do you see your role within the Hispanic community?

A: I founded the nonprofit on October 25, 2018, and and this October we mark eight years. I’m very excited to be back.

I founded it because I saw that the Hispanic community needed to learn about business in their native language. I thought, how am I going to bring this for free? The program was born free, and I wanted to keep it that way. That’s how Asociación de Emprendedor@s came to be, and we’ve become a beacon of hope for the community. The program started to support women who had suffered domestic violence, and then the men came knocking: “What about us? We want to be part of this too.” So of course we opened the doors to everyone.

After so many years, we’re a beacon of hope for men and women who want to start a business but have no idea how, or who tried and were taken advantage of and are now skeptical. We’ve become known as a trustworthy pathway, supported by our nonprofit team, and my team supports everything we do. Now people know about our services by word of mouth, and about the transformation people go through in the Emprendedores program.

It stays with them because they don’t just start a business. They also improve their relationships with friends, family, spouses, and children. For them it’s an aha moment. In one case, in Corona, a participant told me her children said, “Mom, this is the first time you’ve said please when asking me to take out the garbage.” The whole dynamic changed. That’s the transformational process people go through with us.

Q: How did you build that trust with them?

A: At the beginning, people thought, okay, one more business program. They didn’t know what to expect. In the program, I don’t even talk about business at first. I talk about them as individuals.

We do a lot of exercises, including a SWOT for the individual: your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Then I ask, who are you? I tell them I don’t want your titles, like best mom, best dad, best uncle. I want to know who you are as a human being. What makes you a human being? They say, “That’s really profound,” and they shake a little, but then they answer, and they realize they’ve never asked themselves that. That’s awareness.

Knowing who you are, your strengths and your weaknesses, is what you need before you get into business, because having a business is amazing, but it’s challenging. When the challenge comes, they need to know which strength they’ll use to move forward. That’s where the trust is built, in the first two hours. When I finish the first module, people are blown away because in those two hours they’ve already increased their awareness. They say, “I learned so much. I can’t wait to see what’s next.”

Q: What are you most worried about for small businesses?

A: My biggest concern is people not being encouraged to move forward and start their business because they listen to the noise. That’s what I call it when people listen to others who say, “So-and-so wasn’t able to do it, who do you think you are to become a small business owner?”

I’m also concerned about what’s happening in our country, the intimidation that is spreading into different areas. People are getting frightened to do what they love and to go out. But we are very resilient. When I see obstacles, I teach my participants to see them as opportunities. When you see an obstacle, how are you going to get through it? What will you learn from it? How will you turn it into a new resource for yourself?

So I don’t talk about the madness in the world. I tell them to focus on themselves, on what they want to bring to the community as a business, and on how to increase revenue so they can create jobs. I stay on the positive side, in high vibration, which shifts their minds away from the noise so they can focus on what they’re passionate about.

Q: What do you see as an opportunity for small business owners?

A: The biggest opportunity is helping anyone starting a small business believe in themselves. That’s crucial, because when you believe in yourself, you can make things happen no matter your circumstances. I learned that from the John Maxwell team, and I’m the kind of person who likes to make things happen. I’ve been through ups and downs, a roller coaster and everything in between, and I always come forward.

That’s what I teach them. Don’t look at what’s happening around you. Look at what you can do, turn it into a positive, and keep bringing your services and products to the community, because somebody needs what you do. If you’re passionate about it, that’s the main ingredient.

Some people change path. They tell me, “Monica, I’d rather go back to university.” I say, fine. You are the leader of your own life. That’s what it’s all about.

Q: If you had a Magic Silver Wand and could make one thing true for small businesses right now, what would you use it for?

A: I’d spread the word further. In the community I serve, the underserved, underprivileged, Spanish-speaking community, people have hopes. I wish I could put belief in everyone’s mind and heart, so they start believing in themselves and thinking they can do what they set their minds to.

If we do that with everyone who has gone through our program or the silv=r™ program, they’ll see their own creation moving forward. It’s about believing and trusting yourself, and trusting the resources available, which will guide them on the right path without anyone taking advantage of them. I’d put that in everybody’s heart and head, so they can see themselves on the other side.

Q: How can our community support you?

A: Thank you for asking. I think we’re moving forward on the right path with the collaboration we’ve created. I keep telling my participants and graduates that silv=r™ is the Emprendedores program on steroids. You have to jump into silv=r™ so you don’t go back to the habits you had before this program.

What I’m asking Silver Lining to do for us is spread the word about the amazing platform you have and bring as many people as possible to join. I’d also ask you to help us spread the word across California, the United States, and maybe beyond, so we can bring our services to more underserved communities around the world.

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