(bright upbeat music) - [Announcer 1] Funding for this episode of "Que Pasa NJ with Carlos Medina" has been provided by Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

- [Announcer 2] The New Jersey Economic Development Authority.

- [Announcer 1] Hackensack Meridian Health.

The Engineers Labor-Employer Cooperative 825.

- [Announcer 2] NJM Insurance Group.

- [Announcer 1] ROI-NJ Business Magazine.

- Welcome back, it's September, and I hope you had a fun time at the Jersey Shore and got the kids ready for school.

Today, we have an inspiring group of guests, Citi Medina, CEO of Equal Space, who empowers underserved entrepreneurs and leads high profile marketing campaigns.

Andres Acebo, interim president of New Jersey City University, who champions equity in education.

And Alvin Romero, CEO of Excel Facility Services, who turn challenges into success with the health of the Statewide Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

You're not gonna wanna miss these.

(bright orchestral music) Our first guest, Citi Medina, is the creative strategist and co-founder and CEO of Equal Space, a leading incubator in Newark that supports founders of color, LGBTQ plus-LED startups, and woman-led ventures.

Citi also works closely with the New Jersey Statewide Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and the Pride Chamber of Commerce.

Welcome to "Que Pasa," Citi.

- Thanks for having me, brother.

Thanks for having me, I'm excited.

- Tell me a little bit about your family's journey from Puerto Rico.

- So, my grandparents came here, you know, seeking opportunity as many of our people did.

They established themselves in Brooklyn.

It's so funny because same journey from my father's side of the family, my mom and dad all grew up on the same block in Downtown Brooklyn, except my mom wouldn't associate with my dad.

But both families really set their first roots up on the same block on Warren Street in Brooklyn, New York.

And they grew up and went to circulating schools, and then my parents came together and those two families came together.

So, it's been a journey within one square block of my life.

- Amazing.

And now fast forward, you're Mr. Newark, New Jersey!

- Listen, look, I always say I'm born in Brooklyn, made in Newark, that, you know, I never forget my Brooklyn roots, but yeah, I've been in Newark 13 plus years now, man.

- I remember a panel maybe 12 years ago that you and I were on with Reverend... - Jackson?

- Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah.

- That's correct.

- Just came to me, me and you on the panel, that was a while ago.

- That that was super dope.

- Yeah.

- And we were talking about diversity, and we were talking about inclusion, and the same things we're doing now.

- So, what made you fall in love with the city of Newark?

- So, for me, Newark was the opportunity to contribute to a city, and also to counter what I had experienced in Brooklyn.

So, I was in Brooklyn when I, you know, graduated and so forth.

And it was really experiencing gentrification in a hard way.

I was seeing, you know, abuelas kicked out of their apartments that had been there for generations.

I had just seen a shifting of our city and a taking over of it, of that downtown corridor I grew up in, which was heavily Latin, A, heavily black.

And Newark, for me, when it was presented to me by the administration and by Cory Booker to come in and do digital strategy, I was like, wow, we can really create economic tools and really dig in on providing opportunity to Newarkers to stay in the city they love, rebuild in the city, and then welcoming new companies in an intentional way that allow them to understand that they weren't gonna come and take, they had to be able to give.

So, like even, you know, the 20 to 30% set aside for residential, the corporate citizenry that Audible has brought to Newark, there's such an intentional way these companies know they have to come into the city.

I think it had to start with administration, I think it had to start with Cory and then into Ras.

You know, Mayor Barack is also very community-driven, and I think that was what really attracted and lured me in.

'Cause I took a two-hour tour, I moved 20 days later, I moved my life and my agency, and now have started my second business, and now I just recently moved into my legacy house.

So, I'm in Newark, this is it for me.

- But I know you received some funding.

So, tell me about the future, the expansion plans at 550 Broad, I believe?

- That is the location.

So, that was one of my highlights, was having you and the entire familia come to 550 Broad Street.

So, we've partnered with Audible, and we've received a part of the Startup Attraction Program.

So, the Startup Attraction Program gives its recipients $250,000 in non-dilutive capital, and also the mentorship and ambassadorship of Audible.

And I call Audible a waymaker because that led us to being able to partner with Wells Fargo.

Wells Fargo endowed us half a million dollars, and that they understood the vision of creating an innovation hub.

And so, 550 Broad Street is our tech and innovation campus, but it's going to allow us to really kind of triple down on what we do in Newark.

So, we're gonna be 50,000 square feet with an event space inside, breakout rooms, convening conference spaces, board rooms, a production studio and podcast studios.

It's really going to be a honeycomb of services and spaces that people can take advantage of to grow their businesses or to convene in Newark.

So, it's really how do we bring more people into the city to see what we're doing.

We were also very fortunate to receive a $2 million grant from the NJEDA.

And we're very grateful to, you know, Tim Sullivan and Ty Cooper, who see what is needed in Newark and believe in our nine years of work in doing this to help us expand.

When you're trying to do something of scale and you're a person of color, a founder of color, you really need the partners at the table who believe in the vision, but also can see the opportunity to do the work.

It's been over two years of pushing and making it happen.

And so, the full facility opens up next year and we've opened our first floor in January of this year.

- How are you reacting to the media and just the sentiment in this country against DEI programs, especially in light of the fact that you're in Equal Space, open to diverse, women, LGBTQ, you're really trying to help people of color, all diverse folks, and you have this society pushing back on these very programs that you're trying to start and support.

- So, you know, I love to differentiate.

I think we're in a very politically tense time in America, not that it's new to us.

I believe old regimes are pushing back over the progress we have made over the last, you know, five years of really making things move forward.

And I believe DEI is just an excuse to disarm, you know, talent-rich and oftentimes those who aren't given opportunity.

For me, what Equal Space represents is a balancing of opportunity, and that's why we call ourselves space, because it's not just taking an office, you're also given a community to rally behind you regardless of where you come from.

I think everyone wants community and everyone wants to feel seen and heard.

So, the attacks recently, for me, have made us actually catapult our messaging forward.

We have to double down in these moments.

We can't lose ground, and we can't allow those who have prejudice to overcome what makes this country great, which is the diversity of voices and backgrounds and countries that we come from.

- You've given a lot of good advice, but give us one last piece of advice.

- So, for me, it always comes down to, you are worth more than the price you put.

And you have to give yourself those affirmations every day of what you know you're worth, because you're gonna go outside of your family, you're gonna go outside of your academic circles and you may get no's, and I believe those no's are there for the moment, but the yes is right around the corner.

It really is a tough terrain no matter what we choose.

You just have to make sure that you've got your inner self locked in your inner space.

And so, that's what I tell all of our members.

That's what I want to tell everybody going into this entrepreneurship game.

- Great.

Thank you for joining "Que Pasa!"

- Oh, thank you for having me.

(bright orchestral music) - Our next guest is Andy Acebo.

He's a Cuban American Hudson County native, who grew up in Union City and studied at Brown University and Rutgers Law School.

Today, he's the interim president at New Jersey City University.

Welcome to "Que Pasa!"

Welcome back to "Que Pasa!"

- Thank you for having me.

Thank you.

- Law school.

- [Andres] Yes.

- Practicing attorney, you make super lawyer list, rising star list, every list you could come up with, right?

And then you make the switch to academia.

Tell me about how and why.

- Yeah, I think it's not unlike the story that is very common and prevalent in our community.

Journeys and life journeys at that are not linear.

Being able to really take advantage with intention about the opportunities that I've been afforded, that only a generation ago was denied to my family is something that has moved me.

And so, when a unique opportunity emerges to be of service and lightning striking the way it does, that you can be of service to the very community that shaped you and raised you, it's really hard to not feel like that's an assignment that you have to do right by.

Every single day on our campus, there are students whose life stories are not that dissimilar of mine.

Many of them are doing something incredibly noble, which is chasing what my mom calls, (speaking in a foreign language), a piece of paper, for opportunity, that is a game changer.

Right?

It's generational changing.

And that's something that, you know, a title will never do service to, or fully honor.

But the responsibility is one that is, I'll spend the rest of my life trying to be worthy of.

- Tell me about your family or Cuban exiles, how that journey and just their stories, right?

The Cuban people, they love to sit, have food and tell stories, and oftentimes commiserate about the tough journey.

So, tell me about that tough journey, how that has hardened your resolve and equipped you to have this position in Hudson County, an institution that's an anchor in Hudson County.

- I will say that I've, I'm the beneficiary of a lot of love and a lot of reward from other people's sacrifice and struggle.

That's been my inheritance in real time and in real life.

Both my parents' journey in that of my abuelos has been one that I feel like I've had an obligation to honor.

Just a couple of weeks ago, marked 60 years since my dad came on a raft to this country.

I have the compass that he used to come to this country in my office.

You know, my mom separated from her older sisters and the freedom flights that ultimately reuniting here in the United States in South Florida.

All that, those stories of quiet indignities that have to be endured, the Snickers that are pronounced accent sometimes in bites, and people's promise being denied to them, that hardens you.

It made me an advocate from an earlier age.

My mom teases me that I wanted to be a lawyer before I even knew what that meant.

She says that it's because I'd like to (speaking in a foreign language), right?

And so, I've been the beneficiary of that quiet struggle and sacrifice, and it's been grounded and really affirmed within this beautiful community that is Hudson County in northern New Jersey.

Nearly half of the population is foreign-born.

So, that dynamism, that vibrancy, that immigrants bring into our community, that ideology (speaking in a foreign language), you'll find a way out of no way, sometimes is incredibly radical.

There's no limit to what you can accomplish.

- Latin American head of state had never visited NJCU.

- [Andres] That's correct.

- And you had the president of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa.

Tell me about that.

How did you land that?

How was the experience?

I know the Ecuadorian community is a vibrant community in Hudson County.

So, tell me about the visit, and tell me a little bit about the Ecuadorian community and how NJCU embraces them and how, that, you know, they're bringing life into, you know, the classroom?

- So, I think, look, the Ecuadorian community, like many communities in this area, is incredibly vibrant, it's a beautiful community.

One that has been plagued by kind of the upheaval, right?

Of uncertainty in their country.

And they bring with them that, what I talked about earlier, that ideologies, (speaking in a foreign language) you're gonna make something better out of yourself.

And they contribute to our, not just our economy, but our culture in really vibrant ways.

That relationship came about because of intention of partnering with about 17 Latin American consulates.

And JCU is one of the state's oldest Hispanic-serving institutions.

Over 50% of our students identify as Latino, Latina, Latinx.

That dynamism, again, bottling that, but being tethered to community, was incredibly important.

And so, how does that translate?

How does that kind of get realized in real time?

Well, you do so by opening the schoolhouse gates, right?

To the community.

And it also just worked out nice when you can host the youngest democratically elected foreign leader.

And for at least a day, no one was talking about how I was the youngest.

- ROI-NJ, which is a partner of the show, they had a higher education list, then you were number one.

Tom Berger on the publisher, one of the reasons he gave was the financial stability that you're bringing to the university.

So, tell me how it feels to be number one, and tell me the struggle of bringing, you know, policies and procedures in place to write the, fix the house that you inherited.

- I think, well, it's humbling, to be very, very candid.

I certainly did a double take when I looked at that list and I was like, they're talking about me.

But recognizing that it was more of a reflection of the community that I'm privileged to be at the helm of, and the people that are rowing, who don't get the privilege, Carlos, of being in "Que Pasa" with you here today, who are really doing the hard work of really emulating the resiliency of our community and our students to being shepherds of that community, that was validated in that recognition.

I'm very, very proud of how we've led, of bringing distinct factions on our campus and in our community together to really talk and center our students and our community in very profound and deliberate ways, has been beautiful.

And so, it was a validator of the work, at midst, crises, right?

Characters revealed.

And the character of our community has been centered in every way imaginable.

It hasn't just been about the outcomes, it's been about the process.

Making sure that people feel seen and heard and valued, has been incredibly important to me.

Everyone from the housekeeping staff member to the janitor, to the tenured faculty member, plays an incredibly important role in manifesting in real time these beautiful stories of resilience.

That was the ultimate validator.

And to center that has been the honor of a lifetime.

- I have a controversial question to ask you now.

I know you've traveled the entire United States, and as a proud Cuban American, where has the best Cuban sandwich been that you've tasted?

- [Andres] La Pola!

- [Carlos] It was recently voted the best Cuban sandwich in the United States.

- [Andres] It was, right?

- [Carlos] That's in Union City, La Pola?

- In West New York, I believe.

- [Carlos] West New York?

- Yeah.

- Sorry, (speaking in a foreign language).

West New York, New Jersey, La Pola.

- Yeah, the center of the universe, right?

So, great Cuban sandwiches, but nothing beats abuela's (speaking in a foreign language) with those sliced, thinly sliced bananas.

That's comfort food.

- I love it, I love it.

Thank you for joining us.

Thanks for sharing your story and your- - Thank you so much, Carlos.

(bright orchestral music) - In our final segment, we spotlight Alvin Romeo, a successful business owner.

Alvin's the president and CEO of Excel Facility Services Group, and a member of the Statewide Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey.

This is a special small business segment brought to you by Wells Fargo Bank.

Thank you to Wells Fargo.

Welcome, Alvin.

Thank you for joining us.

- Thank you for having me, Carlos.

- Tell me a little bit about your family's journey from Puerto Rico to the Tri-State area.

- My family originally is from Puerto Rico, (indistinct).

Puerto Rico, San Sebastian.

I was born and raised in Passaic, New Jersey.

- [Carlos] Okay.

- My family then transitioned over to Connecticut, and then we moved back into New Jersey in the New Brunswick area when I was 10 years old.

And that's where I did my grow up.

- So, Excel Cleaning Services, tell me what got you into that business?

- My parents opened or established the Excel Facility Services in 2001.

We were specifically in the medical facility industry.

They were just servicing medical sites.

They only had about 20 employees at the time.

I was that kid that would go with their parents and clean sometimes and change toilet rolls, and do a little scrubbing and buffing here and there.

But in 2007, they got an opportunity to be able to service a national retail store.

One, which was at the time, well, still is, IKEA stores.

- Mm-hmm.

- They got a very good opportunity to pick up a dish room contract at the store.

So, if you're familiar with IKEA, IKEA, they have a restaurant, so they actually staffed a dish room with dishwashers, right?

So, that's an outside company, that's an outsource service.

So, they got an opportunity to do that service and I got involved.

But when I got involved, I noticed I was working two to three full-time jobs, because now I'm running this dish room from 8:00 AM to 10:00 PM at night, and working full-time at Madison New Jersey for a company out there.

It was interesting for me because I started liking working with people, managing folks, creating opportunities for the folks, which is part of my passion.

So, I said, hey, if we could do this here, we could do this at IKEA, Elizabeth.

So, I did a call to IKEA, Elizabeth, and four or five months later we were at IKEA, Elizabeth, doing the same service.

I decided to make, put in a 30-day notice at the company that I was working for, which was an amazing company.

And since 2007, this is what I've been doing.

I've partnered up with different national companies.

We started off about 40 employees.

We're up to about 350 W-2 employees, and a network of about a hundred different subcontractors throughout the country.

We service 21 states at the present moment.

And our current and latest state that we started providing services is in the state of Wyoming and Montana.

- Tell me a little bit about the Statewide Hispanic Chamber.

I know they've had webinars, training, entrepreneurship training series, some sponsored by Wells Fargo.

How have that benefited?

How has a chamber, specifically the Hispanic Chamber, benefited your organization?

- Yeah, and by the way, thank you for everything that the Chamber does, Carlos, and yourself for the community and for the businesses that are members to the Chamber.

I wanna say that I came across a Chamber of Commerce, Statewide Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in about 2017, we became members, participated with different programs that the Chamber has to offer for different entrepreneurs and different trades.

And we've benefited just by engaging with the community, engaging with different companies and different business owners and entrepreneurs.

One of the benefits that we did get in one of the events that we sponsored, we were introduced to one of our good clients here in the state of New Jersey, which is PSE&G.

And currently, we actually service every PSE&G building in the state of New Jersey.

- That's great, that's great.

- So, we provide the services for them.

We have a very good partnership with them and a very good relationship with them.

We've been servicing them for about four-and-a-half years right now.

But that's, it's a great benefit just partnering up with the Statewide Chamber of Commerce, being in the events, and the different programs that you have to offer.

- I know you're very religious and you're also very much believe in commitment, you know, care for your employees, you treat them like family, is one of the phrases I've heard in the past.

You know, 350 employees is a lot of attitude, there's a lot of different characters, personalities.

How do you balance that, and how do you have your team mirror your passion, your commitment, your trustworthiness?

How do you embolden those 350 employees to follow your lead?

- It's really what our company, the core values of our company, how we have it in our website and in our social media's trust, care, commitment.

I was sharing with someone earlier, it doesn't matter who it is, your significant other, you can't have a successful relationship if there's not trust, care, and commitment, right?

So, we like to invest into our team, we like to do these conferences and these trainings, provide them with the equipment and process and tools and education to understand that, you know, we're here for you, creating job opportunities.

It's part of my passion.

When my biological father passed away when I was six, my mother had three cleaning jobs at the time in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

So, cleaning is personal for me.

Take it serious, but I also look at it, we're servicing a number of enterprise companies, a number of essential firms throughout the country.

It's personal for me.

My mom would work it to make, I don't know, five, 600 bucks a week at the time, which probably was a lot of money at the time.

But that was three jobs.

So, it's personal for me.

And when I think about what we do as far as treating our team as family, I go back to those days.

How many people use this type of industry and this type of job as a stepstone job.

How many people use to just get by school or to supplement income?

So, it's all about attitude, how you treat your people is the positive result you're gonna have for your customers.

- That's amazing.

One thing I respect about you, Alvin, is, I remember you at the Chamber starting out, looking for capital to expand your business at the time, but you've always paid it back and paid it forward.

So, now that you're doing very well, you're sponsoring events which enable younger members and entrepreneurs to benefit from free programming.

So, I'll publicly thank you for paying it forward, it's important.

Some folks will take the classes, will benefit and we'll never hear from them again at the Chamber.

But folks like you are making sure that you appreciate what you did and you wanna make sure you multiply that by paying it forward to other young entrepreneurs that are starting out.

So, thank you for that.

And what words of advice would you give to some of our entrepreneurial viewers that are nervous, they just don't know what they wanna do.

They maybe want to quit their job and start their journey.

Seeing you that you did and you were successful.

But what else would you tell them to guide them on their path?

- Absolutely.

Persistence, and identify your passion.

Identify what really gives you your drive to wake up every day and do what you do.

I love what I do, Carlos.

I'm passionate about what I do.

But it's about the passion that you have about being able to know we're providing families, opportunities, food.

Identify your passion.

Don't let just money be your passion.

(Alvin chuckling) Stay persistent, find yourself a business mentor.

Educate yourself on what you're doing because business is a fun journey, but it's also, you don't want to build temporary, you wanna build permanently.

- Thank you for coming and telling your story.

It's very inspirational, Alvin.

- Thank you for having me, Carlos.

- Thanks again to Wells Fargo, who is the sponsor for our small business segment.

We're now gonna show a short clip from the Statewide Hispanic Chamber of Commerce's Ferias de Negocios.

An event that had a thousand folks visit in the Pines Manor in Edison, New Jersey.

Check it out.

- Welcome to the Hispanic Business Expo.

(bright upbeat music) This is always a great, always one of my favorite events.

It's always good to be at the Pines Manor.

Up to a thousand people are gonna be here today.

(bright upbeat music) - That was a really great afternoon, and I wanna thank the members of the Latino Caucus, who showed up to support the event.

And thank you for joining us again for another great episode.

And remember to check us out on social media, and we air the second Saturday of the month.

Check us out.

- [Announcer 1] Funding for this episode of "Que Pasa NJ with Carlos Medina" has been provided by Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

- [Announcer 2] The New Jersey Economic Development Authority.

- [Announcer 1] Hackensack Meridian Health.

Engineers Labor-Employer Cooperative 825.

- [Announcer 2] NJM Insurance Group.

- [Announcer 1] ROI-NJ Business Magazine.

Thanks to the Statewide Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey.

- [Announcer 2] Find out more about our familia at shccnj.org.

- [Announcer 1] This has been a production of the Modesto Educational Foundation.

(bright orchestral music) (bright upbeat music)