IAM2348 – CEO Empowers Individuals and Communities to Achieve Financial Independence and Economic Prosperity

Title: Transcript - Thu, 09 Jan 2025 20:31:04 GMT

Date: Thu, 09 Jan 2025 20:31:04 GMT, Duration: [00:16:56.68]

[00:00:00.24] - Sharlyn Martinez

I started consulting with my underserved communities. They were purchasing homes, but they didn't know the paperwork and they didn't know how to credit and they didn't know exactly how to answer these banks. So it was very important for me to do the translations and kind of just teach them. Teach them how to navigate from beginning to end.

[00:00:25.28] - Intro

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. GRESH values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I Am CEO Podcast.

[00:00:52.52] - Gresham Harkless

Hello, hello, hello, this is Gresh from the I Am CEO Podcast and I have an awesome guest on the show today. I have Charlene Martinez. Charlene, excited to have you on the show.

[00:01:00.75] - Sharlyn Martinez

Thank. Thank you so much. I'm excited to be here.

[00:01:03.22] - Gresham Harkless

Yes, I'm super excited to have you on as well too. And Charlene's doing so many awesome things. I'm super excited to have this great conversation and hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. But of course, before we do that, I want to read a little bit more about Charlene so you can hear about some of those awesome things and. Charlene is a Latina entrepreneur and financial literacy expert dedicated to transforming lives through education and entrepreneurship. With over a decade of experience, Charlene has founded three successful businesses, including one nonprofit. And with and through her programs for entrepreneurs, youth and reentry support, she equips individuals with skills to achieve financial independence and long term success. Her mission is to promote financial empowerment with entrepreneurial success for underserved communities. And she was recently honored with the 2024 Trailblazer and entrepreneurship Award for her exceptional achievements and inspirational leadership within the Rhode island community. And I love, love, love everything that she does in empowering underserved communities and really laying the playing field for small minority entrepreneurs and business owners. And she even has a program we were talking about a. Sure. We're going to touch on with dhs people that want to learn about financial leadership and education. So Charlene, excited to have you on the show. Are you ready to speak to the IMCO community?

[00:02:14.68] - Sharlyn Martinez

I am. And thank you so much for that introduction. It was actually amazing.

[00:02:18.86] - Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. You did all the hard work. I just read the word. So what I wanted to do before hearing about all the awesome things you're doing. Let's rewind the clock, hear a little bit More on how you got started, what I call your CEO story.

[00:02:28.56] - Sharlyn Martinez

Well, my CEO story as a Dominican American, I've witnessed the challenges of, you know, immigration and the immigrants and how they face and not knowing about financial independence or about credit or about, you know, home ownership. You understand they came to the United States with a big dream. And for me, you know, my mom actually is an immigrant that came through the boats, through Mexico and she didn't know any of this, so she wasn't equipped to teach us. And so for me, like I said, this is very passionate, this is very personal for me to understand and make sure that I educate my community and my new generation coming up.

[00:03:18.86] - Gresham Harkless

Yeah, that's so huge. And I loved how you said to equip, to kind of teach people because I think you don't know what you don't know. And I think I'd imagine, like you said so well, when you come over or you're in the world or whatever happens, you have sometimes these dreams, goals and aspirations, but we don't sometimes know exactly like the steps that we can take to get there or let alone some of the things that we may not fully understand that can kind of be an impediment to us getting to where we want to be. So I love that you're kind of educating people, leveling the playing field and kind of teaching them to be able to kind of reach those dreams.

[00:03:51.47] - Sharlyn Martinez

Absolutely. And just breaking those barriers, you know. And education is the biggest thing they've always taught us. You know, you can't take education away from you. Right. Knowledge is power. Correct. So for me, you know, just making sure that I, that I kind of pass that along, it's very important. I have a 17 year old and a 4 year old, so their education for me is everything. And understanding that financial actually runs the world. Right. And we have to understand every part of it and how to control it for our own well being. Yeah, it's really important.

[00:04:31.13] - Gresham Harkless

It's huge. And it's so funny. Like, I think one of the books I read when I was starting to learn a little bit more about it was like rich dad, poor dad. And it talked a lot around like, I don't care who writes the laws, I care more about who writes the checks. And it kind of spoke to that kind of financial literacy and how important that is and how impactful that is. And like knowing, you know, the things that happen related to money and building wealth and how exactly to do that and not to do that and what, you know, what can happen, like having an understanding of that seems to be like such a legacy up in terms of being successful.

[00:05:00.20] - Sharlyn Martinez

Oh, absolutely. And it's just not an entrepreneurship. Is that in your own personal life? Like, that's where it starts. If you have control of your own personal finances, you can then, you know, have control of bigger situations. Because as as far as me, I have a lot of government contracts, so. And that's another, you know, huge thing about entrepreneurship. And so if I couldn't make it, and this is what I try to teach my participants. If you have $200, how are you going to navigate $200? And if you can't do that, how will you navigate $200,000? So we have to start from the micro and then work our way up.

[00:05:48.13] - Gresham Harkless

Awesome, awesome, awesome. So I wanted to drill down a little bit more, hear a little bit more on how you're working with and serving your clients. Can you take us through a little bit more on, like, what that process looks like and how you're making an impact for the community?

[00:05:57.33] - Sharlyn Martinez

Well, yes, and just to let you know, I am an entrepreneur. So I do have three different businesses. My first business is Sincere Consulting, which started in 2017. And so for me, I started, you know, consulting with my underserved communities. They were purchasing homes, but they didn't know the paperwork and they didn't know how to, you know, credit, and they didn't know exactly how to answer these banks. So it was very important for me to do the transaction and kind of just teach them, teach them how to navigate from beginning to end. Because you have to have a savings. And this is all about, you know, it draws back to financial literacy and how I'm so passionate about it, because you have to know that you have to have a savings in order for you to want to purchase a home or purchase a vehicle or purchase a major purchase in your life. Right. Then I have the nonprofit organization that kind of stemmed from that. And it's sincere, multi service. And we teach everything about financial literacy education. So we teach you from everything about how to run a business, a successful business, how to make sure your registrations are correct. And it just doesn't stop at the state level. It goes to the federal level if you want to get federal contracts. So understanding the requirements of it. It's a whole nother situation. Right. A lot of people don't understand or don't want to do the paperwork, sort of. But at the end of the day, you have to do your homework. You have to educate yourself in order for you to succeed and kind of sustain your business. Then I have the transportation business. So with our transportation, we're non emergency medical transportation. And we were, you know, we take the elderlies to their appointments, which is very important in the state of Rhode island and everywhere in the world to kind of get them outside, to kind of get them to take care of their health and just get to those important, you know, medical appointments. And the best part of it all is that I run it with my entire family. So my husband is involved, my son is involved, my daughter is involved, you know, close friends and family. We, we kind of run this entire operation in this entire enterprise. As I say, we're a family owned business and we work together and we make it happen because each and every one of us is very passionate about what we do. So yes, I had the dream, but I have a whole dream team behind me.

[00:08:39.84] - Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. And that's such a huge thing. And, and I love, you know, I love that you mentioned that word translations because I imagine like you said so well, like sometimes the people that might be wanting to buy a house may not necessarily be able to kind of understand the language that on the papers that they're signing. And I love that you kind of bridge that gap. And I almost wonder if that's part of what I would consider to be like your secret sauce. It could be for yourself. The businesses are a combination of both. But is it your ability to kind of understand those foundational blocks from a very young age and how when you have those things in place or you're at least aware of what they are, it allows you to really propel yourself higher and higher and higher and reach those dreams and aspirations, goals. But you understanding that and of course being able to teach that, do you feel like that's part of your secret sauce?

[00:09:22.16] - Sharlyn Martinez

That's definitely part of my secret sauce. I like to involve the family. It's not just one person, especially in this economy, how we're doing at this moment, you have to work together. It's just like building your business. You're literally nothing without a team. In order for you to scale and build something larger, you have to have a team, a strong team behind you that can do the jobs that you can't do. I can't do it all. I can speak, I can maybe write a, you know, talk about my business. But there's a marketing person or there's somebody that's doing the books, or there's somebody that's doing something else. You always have to have that solid foundation and it comes from within, within Your family within the home. And it's just like a business, it's a family thing. Everybody has to understand their position and how they're going to help scale and level up.

[00:10:17.74] - Gresham Harkless

Yeah, that's such a huge thing to have that awareness and of course, be able to kind of teach, you know, specifically to that. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something you lean on that makes you more effective and efficient?

[00:10:34.46] - Sharlyn Martinez

Well, I'll tell you something, I love meditation. So for me, just being in a quiet space and just kind of just having that downtime to think and just journal and just think about my next moves or what do I need to. How do I need to pivot? Because I get a lot of feedback and I listen to my community, I listen to the challenges, I listen to the feedback, right? And this is what makes a difference. This is how I know what I need to do next. What is my community actually needing? So, yes, I am a. I definitely love, love, love to meditate.

[00:11:18.35] - Gresham Harkless

Yeah, I absolutely love that. Just because I think so many times when we see the success, we see checking off the box and doing all those things, but we don't necessarily see that quiet solitude of just kind of, you know, getting the clearing of things to get clarity on what to do next. And so what would you consider to be a little bit more of what I like to call a CEO nugget? So this could be a word of wisdom or piece of. I like to say it might be something you would tell your favorite client, something you might tell around financial education or something. If you were to hop into a time machine, you might tell your younger business self.

[00:11:48.08] - Sharlyn Martinez

For me is never, never stop advocating for yourself or for your community for something that you believe in. Always, always advocate for yourself. Because they're only going to believe what you believe. If you don't believe in yourself, nobody else is going to believe in your work. So advocate for yourself. Make sure that you have, you know, all your little nuggets, like I say, in place, right? And just talk to people. Always communicate, always talk to a different person all the time. You never know who's around you, right? Because you have to. Being in the right place at the right time, right, could change your life in an instant. You've been working on something for like two years and somebody hears and it's like, you never know if you have an investor next to you. If somebody just, you talk to somebody and they could kind of give you a little insight, Always have a mentor. Make sure that you have somebody that you can go back to and say, hey, I'm thinking about this, but what do you think about it? What's going on with this? Because they might have more knowledge and wisdom that you may have.

[00:12:55.35] - Gresham Harkless

Yeah, I love that nuggets and those nuggets. And so I wanted to ask you now my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And our goal is to have different, quote, unquote, CEOs on the show. So, Charlene, what does being a CEO mean to you?

[00:13:08.34] - Sharlyn Martinez

For me is definitely being a mentor, being a role model. You know, that that is my biggest, you know, advocate and in making sure that my community as well, making sure that I'm being heard, making sure that I'm advocating and, you know, leading them and guiding them in the right direction and making a difference in people's lives.

[00:13:29.88] - Gresham Harkless

Yeah, I love that. Just because so many times things don't become real until you sometimes see somebody doing it. And on top of that, see somebody advocating for you to do that as well too. It makes it so much realer, if that's even a word. But when you start to see that, it becomes a really powerful thing. And I think it starts to propel kind of like that rock or boulder that you throw into the lake. It starts to reverberate in so many different ways and it affects so many people because you see that it's real, you feel that it's real, and you're able to be empowered to do it yourself.

[00:13:58.45] - Sharlyn Martinez

I just had one of my inmates, they did a three year bid and it was hard for them, but they took my financial literacy class. They came out because we do teach at the Rhode Island Department of Corrections also. They came out and when I tell you within six months, he has not only one business, he says, two successful businesses. And that just goes to play for not just one person and that I'm just speaking about, but just many of them that I kind of give them the hope, like, listen, we can make something happen. It doesn't have to be this way. Let's change your mentality because. Right. We have to change how we think about things, how we think about money. What is money? It's just a piece of paper at the end of the day. But it's worth so much, right?

[00:14:47.30] - Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely.

[00:14:48.50] - Sharlyn Martinez

And it says it's just understanding it and how you make the money work for you. That is the biggest thing. Let's make money work for you.

[00:14:58.44] - Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. Charlene, truly appreciate that definition. Of course I appreciate your time even more. So what I wanted to do now is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know and of course, how best people can get on view, find about all the awesome things that you and your team are working on.

[00:15:15.32] - Sharlyn Martinez

I want to tell my people definitely, you know, stand strong, have reflection on your resilience and the power of education. Educate yourself, you know, become, you know, a professional in your craft. Make sure that you know your craft front and back and even if not that, you know, have a great team around you that could uplift you. But you can get in touch with us by going onto our website, sincere multiservice.com following us on all social media platforms at Sincere Multi Service or Charlene Martinez.

[00:15:53.00] - Gresham Harkless

Awesome, awesome, awesome. And of course, to make it even easier, we're gonna have the links and information in the show notes as well too, so that everybody can follow up with you. But Charlene, truly, truly, truly appreciate you for taking some of the time out. Of course I love everything that you're doing for the community and beyond. But one of the things that really stuck out to me is as much as we want to have that education, I love that you're providing that. But I think sometimes we just need that cheerleader, that person to say, hey, that you can do it and this is how you do it and give us that playbook and kind of cheer us on when we even doubt ourselves. So I appreciate you so much for doing that because that makes the world a better place. And I hope you have on the rest of the day.

[00:16:24.97] - Sharlyn Martinez

Thank you. Thank you for having me.

[00:16:27.12] - Intro

Thank you for listening to The I Am CEO podcast, powered by CB Nation and Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at IM CEO CO. IM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Don't forget to schedule your complimentary digital marketing consultation@blue16media.com this has been the I Am CEO podcast with Gresham Harkless JR. Thank you for listening.