Early in her career at Google, Eliana Murillo learned she had “rookie smarts.” When she first heard this from a manager, she was perplexed. Was this a compliment? Less so?
Little did she know this flexible and hungry mindset was an absolute asset and that it would set her up for success in her 10 years at the company. Rookie smarts, a term written up by leadership expert Liz Wiseman, explores how being new and naive can be a benefit when it comes staying ahead in the workplace.
“Sometimes when you’re a rookie you don’t even understand what failure means or don’t even know all the rules, so you just go for it,” Murillo said in a recent episode of Moneda Moves.
As it turns out, this kind of smarts was embedded in Murillo’s approach for quite some time. Prior to her first corporate job, she’d taken on a variety of ideas from impromptu business at garage sales as a child to selling chocolate- covered strawberries in college. At Google, she started the first Latinx employee resource group, HOLA. Since then, Murillo founded more formal companies from the national network, Latinas Who Brunch, and her family business based out of Mexico, Tequila Alquimia.
A champion of Latina bosses, we sat down to talk with serial entrepreneur and former Forbes 30 Under 30 recipient Murillo about what it is exactly that fuels her work and why she’s decided to now start a company of her own, Eliment and Company.
This episode is done in partnership with The Mujerista, the digital-media publication and network dedicated to empowering and celebrating the next generation of Latinas making an impact on la cultura. Check them out across platforms at @TheMujerista.