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Episode Summary

“Knowing the history of my family, knowing what my grandparents decided to do, changed my life.” On this episode of The Sydcast, a story of Hispanic culture in America and how Marcela Gómez connected the dots in a way that others seldom did. Her journey, from Bogota, Colombia to Miami, Atlanta, Nashville, and New York City.

Sydney Finkelstein 

Syd Finkelstein is the Steven Roth Professor of Management at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. He holds a Master’s degree from the London School of Economics and a Ph.D. from Columbia University. Professor Finkelstein has published 25 books and 90 articles, including the bestsellers Why Smart Executives Fail and Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent, which LinkedIn Chairman Reid Hoffman calls the “leadership guide for the Networked Age.” He is also a Fellow of the Academy of Management, a consultant and speaker to leading companies around the world, and a top 25 on the Global Thinkers 50 list of top management gurus. Professor Finkelstein’s research and consulting work often relies on in-depth and personal interviews with hundreds of people, an experience that led him to create and host his own podcast, The Sydcast, to uncover and share the stories of all sorts of fascinating people in business, sports, entertainment, politics, academia, and everyday life.

Marcela Gómez

A native of Bogotá, Colombia, Marcela graduated from high school in Charlotte, North Carolina, and earned a bachelor’s degree in advertising from Universidad Jorge Tadeo Lozano in Bogotá. Following graduation, Marcela moved to Miami, Florida to work as an advertising coordinator with Editorial Unilit and as a member of Expolit’s (Spanish-language Christian literature trade show) leadership team. In 1996 she joined Thomas Nelson Publisher’s Spanish language division in Nashville, Tennessee as a sales representative and later was promoted to marketing director.

Her life as an entrepreneur started in 2002 with Hispanic Marketing Group; in 2017, she became a founding partner of the Culture Shift Team. Marcela has also been a partner and investor in other entrepreneurship ventures, most recently with Mi Tribu, an import and retail business of arts and crafts handmade by disenfranchised women in Latin American countries.

Miss Gómez specializes in connecting effectively with the diverse and continuously changing Multicultural markets, helping Culture Shift Team clients understand the diversity of the U.S. consumer. Marcela has worked with packaged goods companies, universities, public utilities, consumer, corporate, nonprofit, and business-to-business clients in wireless, sports, transportation, education, government, banking and finance, food, healthcare, and the arts. She plays a key role in developing multicultural and multilingual marketing, communications, and grassroots campaigns, from conception and brand development to production.

In early 2021 she relocated to New York City, where she continues to lead the multicultural marketing, advertising, and public relations division of the Culture Shift Team. 

She enjoys traveling, films, theater, ballet, opera, and symphony. She is a member of the National Speakers Association New York City Chapter, the Statewide Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey, the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce, the NYC Hispanic Chamber, and PRSA New York City. Marcela has a 31-year-old son, Esteban Pedraza, an award-winning film director and musician residing in New York City.

Insights from this episode: 

• Marcela Gómez’s life growing up
• How her grandmother has shaped her view of life
• How her life experiences influenced her career
• Marcela moving back to the U.S from Bogota
• Why she moved to Nashville
• How the Hispanic marketing group came to be
• Overcoming imposter syndrome
• The importance of diversity in board members
• What led Marcela to the cultural shift

Quotes from the show:

• “My mother was actually fully bilingual. My mother had had the chance to go to high school in Atlanta, Georgia, so we grew up fully bilingual, not only because my mother would speak to us in English at home but because we were going to fully bilingual schools in Bogota” –Marcela Gómez [6:18]
• “We asked nanny [Marcela’s grandmother] why did she say yes to come to the U.S, and she said because of education. Education for women and the abundance that this country had” –Marcela Gómez [7:27]
• “Knowing the history of my family, knowing what my grandparents decided to do changed my life” –Marcela Gómez [12:25]
• “High school is challenging for everyone and I guess when you are different in any way, it’s even more challenging ” –Syd Finkelstein [16:12]
• “I realized that part of what I do in advertising, public relations and marketing is through the lens of culture, and that’s where it starts” –Marcela Gómez [18:53]
• “If you did not grow up here, if you do not know about the U.S culture, why do I call 911? I immediately realized there is a need for my services from a cultural perspective, marketing perspective and not only from a language perspective, and that’s when I decided to launch Hispanic marketing group” –Marcela Gomez [31:17]
• “I had proven myself to be a good person in marketing, but no one opened the door. So, that’s when you know that’s not where you are supposed to go” –Marcela Gomez [33:35]
• “You bring something very different to the table than everybody else does. Your experience is not the same not even as your siblings” –Marcela Gomez [43:03]
• “The reason why I like history, the reason why I would like to know where I come from is because I would also like to remember who I am and what I have accomplished in life” –Marcela Gomez [44:40]
• “The entire company is based on the platinum rule that says treat others the way they want to be treated, and in order for me to do that, I need to know who they are and what they like, and how they want to be treated” –Marcela Gomez [1:00:46]

Stay connected:

Sydney Finkelstein

Website: http://thesydcast.com

LinkedIn: Sydney Finkelstein

Twitter: @sydfinkelstein

Facebook: The Sydcast

Instagram: The Sydcast

Marcela Gomez

LinkedIn: Marcela Gómez 

Personal Website: Marcela Gómez 

Twitter: Marcela Gómez 

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This episode was produced and managed by Podcast Laundry.