Transcript

Intro: Hispanics themselves, those 59 million people, have not realized their potential. They have no clue that we are 18%  of the population, they  have no clue that we are making $45,000 income in general, they have no clue that we generate 12% of the GDP that we are you know like 40% of the new workers. Understand that the power we have is real, it is not potential. We just have to exercise it. We have to unite. We can be that community that will be the main motor of the middle class of America moving forward and the perception will change from criminal, waiter, or pizza deliverer to, oh my god please come and work here in my company. Provide platforms for Hispanics to be able to speak and say ‘Look at me, I was a success story, I was able to start a fashion company and this is what I’m doing. Or look at me, I am in sports and I won a medal. Just try and shine as a Hispanic and let other people see them. Our young generations deserve to be guided and there’s a lot of people that can be a role model, they just need to speak up and we just need to provide them with the right platforms.

Edie Lush: 00:01 This is the Global GoalsCast

Claudia Romo Edelman: 00:03 The podcast that explores if we can change the world.

Edie Lush: 00:06 So today I’m delighted to see you here in London, Claudia, thanks for coming.

Claudia Romo Edelman: 00:11 This is amazing. And, and with such a great opportunity to be talking about something that is very dear to my heart.

Edie Lush: 00:17 Let’s go back five years. You moved to the US five years ago. What’s happened in that five years that’s bringing us to this point right now?

Claudia Romo Edelman: 00:26 Well, it’s actually less than five years. It’s four years and a half, which you would actually think it’s, it’s no difference, but a lot happened. America changed administration and I think that for 55 million people that live in America, coming from Hispanic origins, all of a sudden it’s a new era, a new time, and we’ve never been stronger, but we also have never had this incredible opportunity to change our destiny and our future forever.

Edie Lush: 00:55 So stuff has changed for you as well because you’re on a sabbatical right now. Right?

Claudia Romo Edelman: 00:59 Right. The numbers have reached a maturity level that actually had pushed me to say like, you know what? I’m going to take a year off from the United Nations to act if you want as the CMO, chief marketing officer of the Hispanic community. No one asked me, hey, no one asked me, but hey, someone has to do it.

Edie Lush: 01:59  Okay. So who is the product here? If you’re the chief marketing officer?

Claudia Romo Edelman: 02:03 The Hispanic community. So these 26 nations composed by Venezuelans Mexicans, Cubans that don’t see themselves as one. So it’s, it’s almost like a fragmented product of beautiful pieces that if united they would constitute one of the most important pillars of the middle class of America, and yet we’re not seeing anywhere. So if you allow me Edie.

Edie Lush: 02:27  Talk me through it.

Claudia Romo Edelman: 02:28 What I’ve learned, what I’ve learned, and even before taking my sabbatical, what I’ve learned is that the Hispanic community is potentially powerful and beautiful. So more than 40 percent of Hispanics are under 25 years old. We pay taxes, we exercise the voting rights. It’s highly educated. Before it used to only be a working and not education, but now second and third generation of people have been highly educated. We’re finishing secondary school, going into graduation. We’re 12 percent of the GDP of America. If you would actually put the GDP of Hispanics alone as a standalone economy we’d the seventh of the world equally to Italy. And you don’t realize that because you know, like in America it’s been, it’s been very often the case that Hispanics have been misperceived or unseen. So let me tell you about the areas where Hispanics are visible. Hispanics are visible when it comes to hard work, when it comes to understanding that there’s a community that will actually be there and be resilient and work. We’re very optimistic. Eight out of 10 Hispanics would say that their future is brighter for them than what their parents had. Forty five percent of Hispanics have actually made the transition between low class to middle class we made…

Edie Lush: 03:50 And what does that mean?

Claudia Romo Edelman: 03:52 It means that there’s an upward mobility that is very important. So this community has realized that hard work and connections would allow them to move forward. And for example, Roberto, so I was in Sun Valley this summer and Robert started washing dishes for this restaurant and be paid $5 an hour. Now he owns the restaurant after three years. Now he’s employing not only his nephew and his niece, but also five people from his community. That’s the Hispanic that we have to see in this country. In America, you have more tortillas, Hold on than bread and more salsa sold than ketchup.

Edie Lush: 04:27 That makes me happy that I liked both tortillas and salsa. I wish we have more of both of those in London.

Claudia Romo Edelman: 04:34 And yet you need to realize that when it comes to the perception of Hispanics in America so far, it has been mostly related to three main things. First one is criminals, so Hispanics overall in the media, according to the studies of 2016, 2017, the number one association is criminal. Number two is waiter, and the number three is pizza deliverer, and as a community that is working very hard, this is a misperception that has to change. So the question Edie is, I realized there’s a huge potential in this community. There’s an incredible wallet out there. There’s something incredible vote out there in Hispanics in America, young, ready, working hard. Yet they are underrepresented in media, in politics or anywhere and they are misperceived as well and the question was why? What the Hell is going on? The numbers are so wonderful, are so beautiful. There’s no potential growth in any company that wants to tap into American market without the Hispanic community, there’s no possible other way for a brand to be able to grow in America if they don’t tap to minorities, particularly to the Hispanic community and yet it’s not moving.

Edie Lush: 05:48 So why is that do you think?

Claudia Romo Edelman:  05:48 Exactly. So one of the main reasons why I started my sabbatical is to understand what the hell? what’s going on? How is it that this community is so beautiful and yet is perceived so ugly/ Why is it so big and yet acts so small? Why is it so potential and so fragmented and not exercising that potential? And so today I’m delighted to actually release in our Global GoalsCast some of the first findings of a survey that we did with Zeno group, about 2,500 Hispanics in America to try to understand what the hell.

Edie Lush: 05:48 Okay, so what the hell?

Claudia Romo Edelman: 05:48  The main finding Edie, which is probably not surprising to you, is that Hispanics themselves, those 59 million people have not realized their potential. They have no clue that we are 18 percent of the population. They have no clue that we’re making $45,000 income in general. They have no clue that we generate 12 percent of the GDP that we’re, you know, like 40 percent of the new workers. No clue. And therefore they feel weak as opposed to strong. The number two finding is that there is no sense of community. Hispanics don’t feel community and that is so key for me to say because you have a community that wants to be a community but doesn’t have one. Hispanics have an incredible sense of duty, but also an incredible sense of belonging and yet we’re not unified. So the message number two from these key finding is we’re not 26 nations living in America. We’re not Venezuelans, Colombians, Mexicans, Cubans, and we can’t focus on that. We have to actually act as one and acting as one would be sort of like learning from the other communities that have so much to teach us from what they have done before. For example, Asians, for example, African American or Jewish. The Asians, Do you really think that the Chinese and the Japanese get along? Historically they couldn’t have had more differences and and yet they act together when it comes to lobby for scholarships and yet they act together when it comes to finding jobs and senior positions for Asian women and men. So what we need to do at the Hispanic community is one, understand that the power that we have is real, its not potential. We just have to exercise it and the way to do it is to unite and stop our small differences and focus on the big, you know, like unification areas that we have so that we can be that community that will be the main motor of the middle class of America moving forward and the perception will change from criminal, waiter or pizza deliverer to oh my God, please being come and work here in my company because you have an incredible ethic, you work hard and you have a family fade that would actually be representing all the faces of America that right now are not represented.

Edie Lush: 09:01 So it’s an incredible study that you’re talking about.

Claudia Romo Edelman: 09:04 Yes.

Edie Lush: 09:04 Some of the other things that I’ve noticed about is what you’re saying about the lack of role models and leaders. Talk me through that, what you found there.

Claudia Romo Edelman: 09:13  One of the action points that I’m taking from this study is three quarters of Hispanics overall feel not represented, feel not defended, feel that no one is out there for us. So who you’re gonna call, there’s no ghost buster, there’s no Hispanic ghost buster to come and save us and there are 74 percent of Hispanics overall cannot name a single leader. They cannot say anyone else beyond the entertainment community that represent them. So we do have a great deal of artists and celebrities like Jennifer Lopez and others, and nevertheless there is a very invisible set of role models. And we do have an incredible set of people that work astronauts, academics, you know, like people in tech, people in healthcare, CEOs, CMOs. We have an incredible array of people, but they don’t come out as speakers. They don’t show their Hispanic card. First of all, if I would say what we need to do after reading these findings is create an army of spokespeople, an army of role models. And provide platforms for Hispanics to be able to speak and say like, look at me. I am a success story. I was able to start a fashion company and this is what I’m doing, or look at me, I am in sports and I won a medal. Just trying to shine as a Hispanic and just let other people see them. Our young generations deserve to be guided and there’s a lot of people that can be a role model. They just need to speak up and we just need to provide them with the right platforms.

Claudia Romo Edelman: 10:51  Now having said that, I am very hopeful because I just know that people don’t know. That’s a key message of all of this. If you knew that by speaking up, you would really influence your community. Would you speak up?

Edie Lush: 11:07  Yeah, of course.

Claudia Romo Edelman:  11:08  There we go. So the road is out there. It’s just a matter of actually repeating a message of unification and speaking up overall for this Hispanic community to be able to have a quick turnaround that is, comes from pride and understanding that together we’re better.

Edie Lush: 11:25 So I’m interested in some of the hurdles that it’s going to take to get there and one seems to be from this study a trust crash. So talk me through that. What does that mean?

Claudia Romo Edelman: 11:36  So the Edelman trust barometer the door during 2016 and during 2017, um, you know, like a quick turnaround study of what was happening in trust after the election. And the group that was most affected were Hispanics in America. That meant that if you had an overall collapse in institutions all around Americans from government to religion and so on, Hispanics had the hardest hit and that was the one group that also had a very distinctive differentiation of trust on government and representatives after the election. That meant the Hispanic community felt betrayed and felt bruised after the election. And this is a community that consumed 75 percent more media than other groups, but they don’t do it through news sources. That’s actually one really, really strong, um, you know, like fall on trust about Hispanics that they don’t feel represented in the media/ And the consequences of not having trust in individuals, in institutions or in media is that you reclude yourself.

Edie Lush: 13:09 Okay. So what are you calling on companies to do?

Claudia Romo Edelman: 13:12 Brands have to commit to showing their love in a differentiated way. I had a conversation last night with someone from Unilever and he was like, Oh, total marketing, and they’re like, oh no baby, don’t give me total marketing. Give me something distinctive for the Hispanic community where you are making an effort. We’re behind. Hispanics make the least of the dollar for any other community. So an American like you will make $1 per dollar. African Americans would do probably like 70 cents of a dollar. Asians, 80 percent of a dollar, Hispanics is fifty cents of a dollar. So we have the highest catch up to be made. And so we need companies to recognize not only our potential, but also our challenges and help us by providing training, help us by providing education, help us by providing us with encouragement, with platforms, with role models, with true love, recognizing the Hispanic workforce that you have, recognizing the Hispanic potential consumer that is out there, it’s just quite simple, its just a matter of getting it done and the time has never been better.

Edie Lush: 15:11  I want to ask you one more question about voting because it seems like this is an incredible opportunity for politicians as well.

Claudia Romo Edelman: 15:20  There is a lack of hope on the power of vote to be heard for the Hispanic community. And yet there is an incredible high degree of trust in the American dream and an America getting better and an America that is inclusive and can allow people to thrive. So I think that if you turn it around and say, this is not about the vote, this about the future of the country, you will get by far more people incentivized. Now politicians really need to pay attention because this is a group that they cannot have left out than not caring to come and vote.

Claudia Romo Edelman: 16:05  Middle term elections will be very important for Hispanics to demonstrate whether they have understood their voice and their power. I think that in overall what I would say Edie is having worked and as a marketer for my entire life and having worked on projects or products that needed to be packaged in a way to be sent out to the world to be understood, normally the product is really hard, right? Like poverty, let’s transform aids into something cool. That’s hard. That’s a hard thing. And yet we did it. Product Red. Um, you know, like trying to get the global Fund to be really interesting and appealing, um trying to get globalization through the World Economic Forum to be something that is inclusive and that can attract young people to be aspirational, young global leaders and so on. This is the first time in my life in which the equation is inverse, this community’s powerful, it’s shines, it has everything that it needs and yet the packaging is so negative, is so appalling, is so downwards.

Claudia Romo Edelman: 17:13   So I think the issue is less of an issue. I think that we can get this done in a couple of years. I don’t think that we’re going to see the results right now in this election. But I, I would love to be sitting down here next to you by May 2019 and see the progress and then you know, like by the end of 2020 say like, Hey, do you remember those days where Hispanics were not seen. It’s almost like the Asians and now it’s like holy cow, they’re eating our lunch by far in everything, in technology, in software engineers in development, in innovation, in design. And I want that transformation to be done. And I don’t think that it’s going take that long.

Edie Lush: 17:50  All right, well we’re going to see you back here while I’m going to see you before then, but we’re going to talk about it in May 2019.

Claudia Romo Edelman: 17:55  And then how about this conversation in Spanish?

Edie Lush: 18:00 Muy Bien!

Claudia Romo Edelman: 18:00 That was Edie lush.

Edie Lush: 18:01 And that was Claudia Romo Edelman.

Claudia Romo Edelman: 18:04 And it’s exciting to actually be releasing the results of the Hispanics study here at the Global GoalsCast.