Many people don’t know this about me.
But my first ‘living’ experience in Latin America was when I lived almost a year in Medellin, Colombia.
I was young, 23 years old in fact.
And I have to admit I was mainly focused on going out, partying and chasing women.
But in the breaks from that, I picked up an internship with the Medellin Chamber of Commerce, export division.
While there, as an advisor to Colombian export businesses, I couldn’t help but notice one thing.
There was MAJOR opportunity in Latin America for a ‘gringo’ like me.
You see, day after day I met folks with great products and great ideas, but they needed help penetrating the North American market.
They were clueless.
Heck, they needed a ‘link’. Someone that knew the culture and knew a bit about marketing to Americans.
No where can I illustrate better this fact than from a 4 minute movie clip from one of my favorite movies, Blow, when the main character (a gringo) meets Pablo Escobar, and goes into business with him. Watch it here.
No, I never met Escobar personally, but I did meet quite a few people who were fatherless because of him. Not good.
And of course, I don’t suggest getting into illegal businesses like the main character did, why when theres plenty of legal ways to make money? But the lesson is the same.
Which brings me to my point for today.
I’m actually a pretty average guy, average intelligence, was an average athlete, 5’6, soft-spoken, usually not a leader, chances are you’ll have trouble hearing me even when you are 3 feet away… in the USA I’d probably be someones ‘office b*tch’ aka ’employee’.
But I can attribute any successes I’ve had in Latin America to 3 superpowers.
By superpowers I mean things that set you apart from the pack.
1. “Being” a gringo. As mentioned above, many people in the business environment of Latin America will ‘listen’ to you just because you are from up north, many have a respect that is visible. You really do have an innate sense of how other gringos think, what they want, and what makes them tick. Knowledge that someone trying to sell something to them is certainly going to covet.
2. Speaking Spanish. Take a few months when you first arrive and learn that sh*t. Really, in order to get the most out of living here like the friendships and business opportunities you’ll need to learn it, without it you can’t be ‘the link’.
3. Knowing marketing, specifically Internet Marketing. This is undoubtably where the world is going, where the world is, its how businesses get clients, cheaply, and many Latin Americans are not as schooled on this topic as North Americans. That’s the key in literally anything you want to do down here, import, export, tourism, real estate, etc… Don’t believe me, just check out an Ecuador airlines’ website, (like Tame) even those multi-million dollar guys don’t get it. The good news is you can learn this skill, often by self-teaching yourself online like I did.
With those three powers you can do some serious damage down here!
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