Over the years, as I’ve built a strong Latinx brand and cultivated a community of Latinx business owners, I’ve learned that businesses can only thrive with community. I started out attending conferences in Miami and LA as a young blogger and began to wonder how I could build a similar community in Houston to bring people together and to nurture connections with each other.
As I’ve grown the
Spoiled Latina Summit from 75 to over 350 women attending each year, I’ve seen a new Latinx brand community thrive in Houston.
Bringing people together culturally in this business has connected the dots and allowed us to make things happen together. In Houston, we have so many amazing Black, Latinx, and Hispanic women doing big things that should be elevated and recognized. I realized that elevating these businesses was a matter of connecting everyone and creating spaces for them and their brands to thrive. I also realized that I couldn’t do this alone.
Something like this takes community and networking. With the growing online presence of Latinx brands, making these community-driven spaces virtual is more important than ever. With the widespread use of Facebook as a space to promote businesses, Meta needed to create something that would elevate Latinx businesses and make them shine.
I use Facebook on the daily to raise awareness for blog posts, to share ideas, and even to vent—It’s been a place for me to connect with my community and my family. With all the resources that Meta has available, there was a need for an online Latinx brand community space.
With this growing need, Meta recently launched a new platform called
Meta Elevate. But what is Meta Elevate? At its core, it’s a platform that builds connections and accelerates the economic success of Black and Latinx communities.
Meta Elevate offers free marketing, education, and free one-on-one support. The best thing about Meta Elevate is that it takes what I was already doing with the community organically and levels it up to online spaces. Meta Elevate aims to elevate the next generation of innovators through impactful connections.
There’s also something called the
Meta Elevate Scholarship which awards scholarships to 100,000 Black learners working toward Meta Blueprint certifications: which include Community Manager and Digital Marketing Associate certifications. When I first started out in my career, I was based out of Houston, trying not only to build my own community of Latinx business owners but to find others around Houston who wanted to do the same. I was going to conferences, trying to learn about influencer marketing, and looking for opportunities to meet other brands and connect with them.
I not only wanted to make business connections, but I wanted to build a strong, cultural community. I knew that, if I wanted to do this, I had to travel outside of Houston because there wasn’t much available at the time. It was super early in my career; I was about three to four years into building my brand and I just wanted to learn more. So, I took a chance and I went to conferences in Miami and LA and I saw brands from all over the US. I thought to myself, “Why isn’t this in Houston? How can I bring this to my city?” I knew I wanted to bring this level of community back to my city, and I needed to do it myself. I noticed that there was a lack of representation in my market. After I was awarded my own day in the city of Houston, I got inspired and knew that I would use Spoiled Latina Day to make a change. I finally had the chance to bring Latinx brands to Houston and I took it as an opportunity to elevate my community and the people around me to achieve their own personal dreams.
Thinking about the opportunity, I also knew that I had to do it the right way. Early on, one of the key parts that I knew would be important is that this effort needed people to support each other. It needed to be driven by the community and it needed people to show up to make this happen—and to make it successful.
I took things one step at a time and slowly built this community going from 75 people and now to over 350 women who show up every year to attend the Spoiled Latina Summit.
I’ve grown to realize something so valuable. Brands that come out to the Spoiled Latina Summit aren’t just brands that happen to reach out to me. They’re brands that spent over a decade cultivating cultivated relationships with. Brand Managers, PR Professionals, and everyone in between had to see my growth to recognize and support me and I was going to use that to elevate others.
The Spoiled Latina Summit, is all about giving recognition and mentorship to amazing women in Houston and beyond who are in the Black and Latinx community I made a stage for these women to tell their stories and a way for them to create these spaces for more women.
I’m big on community but individual people have really helped me in so many ways. Through these spaces, I found people who believed in me and who helped me elevate my brand through partnerships. I’m still in awe of how many women come year after year to participate in the Summit and other events throughout the year.
At the end of the day, I just needed to believe in myself. I’ve learned that if you don’t believe in yourself, then nobody else will. I saw a need and I went for it and it’s been so rewarding. Through these spaces, other women have inspired me and have helped to shape who I am too. With community, we rise together.
This is why platforms like the
Meta Elevate hub are so important. Latinx and Black businesses needed a place online where we could connect the dots and help one another thrive. Meta Elevate is committed to supporting the Black and Latinx communities through their entrepreneurial journey through marketing education, courses, scholarships, and more.
Throughout my journey as a blogger, networking has been a major key to my success. Not only networking but cultivating relationships and nurturing friendships that turn into business relationships is so important in elevating a brand. So, when creating
Spoiled Latina Summit and beyond, I strived to create a hub where people could network and meet. I wanted to see my community connect, build, and exchange money with each other and for everyone to grow on their own so that, ultimately, everyone levels up and elevates. I wanted the brands who we all supported to support us and to provide a space for them to meet the consumer and connect with our culture.
Just as I saw the vital need for cultural spaces in Houston for Latinx, Black, and Hispanic communities to thrive, I saw the same need in the online space. Meta Elevate was the missing piece.For a platform this big to be introduced to the masses is super important and such a cool thing to be a part of. My business as a blogger started in the early days of Meta on Facebooks, and now Meta Elevate has only helped me continue to grow as a brand through the
Creator Studio where I can track the analytics of who looks at my pages, where they’re from, and more. There’s also an online store where I can put my merch! This has been vital to me building my brand into a nationally recognized Latinx brand.
But what’s most important is Meta Elevate’s mission. Meta Elevate believes in empowering Black and Latinx small business owners by giving them the tools and resources they need to level up to elevate the next. The resources they are providing shows their commitment to elevating our communities and I’m really proud to be a part of it.
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