You are listening to My Freedom Grove podcast with Gretchen Hernandez, episode 178.

Welcome to My Freedom Grove Podcast, your calm space for practical help to get your dream business up and running while being authentically you and taking care of your mental health. I'm your host, Gretchen Hernandez. I'm so glad you're here!

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Hi My Strong Friends. 

 

Hey, we are smack dab in the middle of October. Are you getting ready for Halloween? 

 

I was listening to a song this morning inspired by a little pumpkin with a hat. I was listening to Barry Manilow, Copacabana. It's probably been at least a decade since I listened to it. But this little pumpkin with the shiny hat I gave to my mom. And she just said, I'm going to call her Lola. And I was like, Ooh, Lola she was a showgirl. Wait, it made me start thinking about what if I was a show girl for Halloween. I don't know if that's going to be the case. 

 

But October usually gets me really excited because this is the quarter when we start planning for the next year of business. And in corporate we typically would do a five year vision and then start to break it all down into all of the details. With entrepreneurs, I tend to just do one year at a time, just because there's so much going on. But what if you could actually get yourself even more inspired? 

 

Now you know that I get inspiration from the redwood trees for business. Redwood trees go on and live forever? What if your business could go on and live forever, or at least one hundred years?

 

I know many of you are solopreneurs. Or you've just started small businesses. And you might not be thinking about your company being separate from you. Because especially as a solopreneur, that's our brand identity. It's us. And then there's a company, right. But if you start thinking of one hundred years from now, could the company you are working on right now, could this still be around 100 years from now, and thriving? 

 

My guest today is going to take us through a wonderful magical journey, talking about all of this great inspiration. Roberto Candelaria he's one of my favorite new humans that I have met this year. We became like instant best friends. 

 

Roberto is a Master-Certified Business and Life Coach. He's been in business for fourteen years. And he's worked with thousands of business owners to help them move into the multiple six and seven figures. We're talking some big businesses at that point, right? He's going to come and share some of those tips on how you can create this hundred-year business vision. And what are some of those strategies to help you get into it? 

 

Roberto likes to focus on platform, partnerships and profit. And he and I share something in common. We like to do events. And so he is also a specialist in getting corporate sponsorship for events. 

 

I can't wait for you to meet Roberto Candelaria. 

 

Roberto, it is so exciting. I have been waiting for this moment to finally get to interview you on my podcast. 

 

Welcome. Welcome. 

 

Can you introduce yourself, please?

 

MEET ROBERTO CANDELARIA

 

Roberto Candelaria  

Hey, I'm Roberto. And, gosh, I am an uncle. I'm a dreamer. I'm a Disney kid. I love to do all the things that are fun and foodie and fabulous. And outside of all of that I'm a Business Coach. 

 

Roberto Candelaria 

And what I tell people I do is I help people find the money gaps in their business and fix them. And whether you are at like zero revenue and a napkin idea, you're making one dollar, or I have a friend who is like made over fifty million one year. And when I told her I was like, this is the new messaging. 

 

Roberto Candelaria 

I find the money gaps in your business and we fix them. She's like, I have many gaps. I'm like, Girl, you make fifty million. She's like, No, I still have gaps. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

Yeah. Yeah. And how long have you been in business?

 

Roberto Candelaria  

Oh my gosh. So there's a whole situation with that. So I started in business in 2009. And, you know, in so many ways, I'm like the accidental entrepreneur. I don't think that I ever had the ambition to be an entrepreneur. I don't think that I was ever like, I'm gonna go work for myself because like, you know, my entire family for the most part had, especially my dad's side of the family, you know, they've worked for the federal government. 

 

Roberto Candelaria 

So, you know, we had you know, my grandfather retired from the army air corp, and people, my aunt, you know, my aunt retired from the Social Security Administration. And my other uncle retired from the Marines. And so it was one of those things where it's like you grow up, you go. But I think what a lot of people of color here, and a lot of marginalized communities, like, you go get a job that's going to have a good retirement, you go work for the government. 

 

Roberto Candelaria 

And this is obviously, the government has changed their pensions and stuff since then. But back then it was like, you know, you start when you're 18, your retired by the time you're 38, and you have a check for life. And I didn't take that path, I went into corporate and then I got sick. 

 

Roberto Candelaria 

And, you know, to this day, we don't know exactly what it was, it was a lot of autoimmune stuff. There was a lot of surgeries, a lot of, you know, I still have, like iron deficiency and anemia to this day, but I went under anesthesia eleven times in eighteen months. And wow, like, you can't, I mean, now, you probably could, but in 2009, like 2008 2009, you couldn't really hold the job then. A, the skill set that I had at that time, so there's one thing. The skill set that I had. 

 

Roberto Candelaria 

But, to remote work as we know it today, like the whole remote work, the gig economy, all of these things that we have today. Hell, even things like Uber and Lyft weren't around 2009. So it was like, Well, I can't keep this job. And maybe, well I should say they told me I couldn't keep the job. Like you don't have a job. I like to live indoors and eat.

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

How dare you, you want to live indoors and eat.

 

Roberto Candelaria  

And have hot water and electricity. And so I, you know, through all this medical stuff, been under anesthesia eleven times in eighteen months, ended up, you know. Even the social workers being like, you should apply for Social Security disability, you should apply for food stamps, you shouldn't. And in my head, there was so much judgment of, Now I can't because, you don't understand, I can't be a stereotype. So many people of color already like, Oh yeah, of course, they're on food stamps, like look at that. 

 

Roberto Candelaria 

And it's, you know, what I realized now was it was so much more like self judgment versus like the judgment of society. And I ended up going through this stuff and ended up on an eight hundred thirty-two dollars a month Social Security disability check. And one hundred four dollars a month in food stamps. And I, neither were enough to pay the bills. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

Yeah, no kidding. 

 

Roberto Candelaria 

And it's like, if this is what this is, if this is what like, the medical stuff is like, how am I eating? How am I living? And, you know, coaching wasn't even the first business per se. You know, I love to cook, I was cooking. I was baking pies. I was babysitting. I was baking cookies. What are the things that I know how to do? That I can make a little bit of extra money, so that I can live indoors. 

 

Roberto Candelaria 

And I think that that's so key when I share that now, because I think that so many people, especially coaches, and new coaches get into business and be like, how do I make my first hundred k? And I tell people, like my first goal was how do I pay rent? 

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

Yeah. 

Roberto Candelaria 

The next goal was like, How do I pay rent and be able to eat out? And then how do I then, you know, eventually, it was like, Oh, I made six figures. But there was never a need to make 100k as a status thing . My first goal is how do I pay my bills? I think that sometimes, you know, in the coaching space, like, it's not okay to say that. And I think that it needs to be more okay for people to be like, my first goal is to pay my bills.

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

Yeah, yeah, I talked about having three different money goals. And one of them is, the very first one is, what's your minimum math number? Like, keep a roof over your head and the lights on? And what's your breakeven number? And sometimes it might be the same. And then, okay, now, what's your sustainable goal? And then we could talk about both goals. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

And I mean, I never assign the number to anybody. They get to decide it for themselves. What is going to give them the best quality of life and work for what they have going on in their life? Because some of us have challenges. And some of us have things that we'd prefer to do other than work all the time.

 

Roberto Candelaria  

Me. I love to travel. I like to go to Disney. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

I noticed that. I noticed that. I love that you've blended that into your business too. 

 

Roberto Candelaria  

A hundred percent.

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

Can you tell our listeners what I mean by that? 

 

CREATING A RIPPLE EFFECT WITHIN YOUR BUSINESS

 

Roberto Candelaria  

Oh, yes. So yeah, so y'all I love me some Disney. And you know what's fascinating about that even too is like people think that it's about the parks. And while I love to go to the parks, what's really so fascinating for Disney especially, as of the time of the recording of this episode is like, you know, we have this human, who much like us, had his own flaws. Had his own beliefs that people didn't agree with. Did things that people were like, Oh, my God, how could he do that? 

 

Roberto Candelaria  

And while we can see that now, some of them were, I'm not excusing them, were culturally appropriate at the time. And the company has evolved, the world has evolved, but you have like this man who literally had a dream and a vision. And it was like that dream. And that vision as of today, when we're recording, you have this company that's lasted one hundred years because of one man's vision.

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

That’s amazing. And I see his picture there behind you.

 

Roberto Candelaria  

Yes. So pictures behind me. Yeah, a friend actually had that commissioned for me. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

Wow.

 

Roberto Candelaria  

It's actually dusted with Swarovski crystal, but somebody knew the man's impression on my life, and gave that to me. Above the desk, what you can't see is I have three pictures that say. It's like the empty land with a silhouette of Walt Disney and Walt Disney's Castle it just says Vision. 

 

Roberto Candelaria 

The middle picture right above my desk says, Heritage, and it's actually a picture of Walt Disney drawing Mickey Mouse at his animation desk. 

 

Roberto Candelaria 

And then the third one is Magic, and it's the castle today as it is. 

 

Roberto Candelaria 

And so literally every day, as I'm working, and I'm creating, I see the empty land with a silhouette of Walt Disney that just says Vision. I get to see Heritage, that where it all started, the Disney company today where it is with this mouse. And then I get to see Magic present day Cinderella's castle, near the Grand Floridian, all of that. 

 

SKILLSET VS. BUSINESS

 

Roberto Candelaria 

And it's so much of my business. Because I think that when it comes to coaching, people confuse the skill set of coaching with the business of coaching. In that, we can have a dream and a vision for our coaching business and the change that will come through that business versus that role, or the job of coach that is within that business. 

 

Roberto Candelaria 

And so like, for example, personally, one of my goals for our company is that we will help ten thousand women and people of color create their first million in business. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez

Wow. 

 

Roberto Candelaria 

I don't know that I'll live to get to see that.

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

Yeah, I don't know. 

 

Roberto Candelaria  

And, yeah, right, because the vision of the company is that. So that, again, I'm not the one that personally has to be responsible for the one hundred percent of the transformation of every single person that our work touches. It could be our book, it could be a podcast, it could be in our membership, somebody's doing a group call, it could be a guest training. 

 

Roberto Candelaria 

But as long as we're all unified in this vision, that we will help ten thousand women and people of color create their first million in business. And notice, we don't even say the first million in one year. We're not even saying a million dollars a year. It may be that they made their first ten dollars, to then all the way one year they made one hundred fifty, and cumulatively over time they got to that million. 

 

Roberto Candelaria 

I'm not attached to everybody making a million dollars in a year because I also believe that some people, A. their nervous system doesn't have the capacity for it. And that be some people just like, don't want to do that work. And that's okay. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

Yeah. 

 

Roberto Candelaria 

Like not everybody has to have a six figure business. Not everybody has to have a seven figure business. Why create business if it also doesn't serve you as the business owner, where you're at? And yes, coaches, even when I say business owner, that's you. Because, like I said, I think that we sometimes confuse the skill set of coaching with a coaching business and that our business is a business. 

 

Roberto Candelaria

And the way that we serve is through coaching or through our online courses or through our memberships or through our masterminds and then when we, at least for me, and the leaders that I love to work with when our missions and our visions are so much bigger than us. 

 

Roberto Candelaria

We know that we can't affect that level of change alone, that we cannot be responsible for one hundred percent of the transformation of ten thousand women and people of color making their first million in business. I know that you're a part of that change. Gretchen. I know that other coaches are. I know that other community members are, and that I get to hold the vision and create the spaces where that happens. 

 

Roberto Candelaria

But that I won't physically or my voice may not actually touch all ten thousand of those people. There'll be other people in our sphere as well. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

Absolutely.

 

Roberto Candelaria

That was a whole thing that I didn't know, we were gonna say, because we started talking about Disney. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

And that's okay. Because it is it's that huge ripple effect. That was part of why I thought I wanted to go in and do this privately as an entrepreneur as opposed to in corporation. Because when I was a coach in corporation, I had the impact through the walls of that business. Those were the people and of course, the customers that were taking our cancer medicine to save their lives, improve their lives and everything. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

But the ripple effect that I wanted to have was mainly on mental health and financial self sufficiency. And I knew that as one person, and I have a certain amount that I can reach. But if I'm helping other people that also have that same mission, that it amplifies, it's this huge ripple effect. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

And yeah, I love that you've chosen to go into entrepreneurship, too, because not only did it fit your life and your needs, but also the impact that you're making. And you're carrying on that extra magic that Walt Disney had too, because you're like, Yes, I created this dream. And we see how this unfolds, and it lives on beyond you.

 

Roberto Candelaria  

Absolutely. And, you know, I think one last example. I mean, who knows Disney will probably come up again, that fits with this is like, you know, one of the things that we do. Occasionally we offer in our business, like we literally do a Disney retreat, where we do a day of hot seats and coaching all of that. And then the next day, we go to Disneyland, and we do the VIP tour. And it's just, we hire a VIP tour host and it's so much fun. 

 

Roberto Candelaria  

And like this last time, you know, again, back to the one hundred year anniversary of Disney, like the one hundred year anniversary of this man saying I have this vision. And you know the mission statement. A lot of people don't know this, like, obviously Disney didn't start with the parks. 

 

YOUR VISION CAN BE SIMPLE

 

Roberto Candelaria  

But the mission statement of this company is only three words: Make People Happy. 

 

Roberto Candelaria  

And as coaches I think sometimes we're just like, we need, like you're reading the next Harry Potter novel about your effective change, what your mission as a coach is. You feel you have to go write this novel. And it really can be that simple. To the point that these three words Make People Happy. 

 

Roberto Candelaria  

Some of you will know Judith Catan. Judith and I were sitting at Disney. Judith was one of the LCS coaches that came, Judith, Sara Mueller, Ashley Jangro. And the rest of our coaches that came were not LCS coaches. And I also say that to say that like, I love that because we have this vision we find to create belonging from different communities in different spaces. And as we create our own spaces, everybody doesn't have to be from the same world that we unite and we create belonging from similar beliefs. 

 

Roberto Candelaria  

And so we're sitting there on these benches, getting ready to watch Wondrous Journeys, which is the new firework show right now. And it starts and it's going and you know, Disney fireworks I cry every time especially if I'm with people that haven't seen them before because watching Disney through the eyes of someone else is so special to me. Very much like as coaches, when we see that transformation in our clients, it's like for me like it never gets old, like oh my god, they're doing it. 

 

Roberto Candelaria  

And about halfway through Wonderous Journeys that hit me. And I just started like, ugly crying at Disney. And Judith is like, Oh my god, are you okay? And my good friend, she's also a client, Liz Wilcox is behind me on a bench and she grabs my shoulder. She's like, I know, right? And she said what it was because it was the first time in one hundred years’ history of a company. 

 

Roberto Candelaria  

And I'm saying this on purpose, that I keep bringing up the one hundred years y'all. Where everybody in our group, Japanese Americans, people from backgrounds of Indigenous People, you know, people that are black and white, and Native American and Polynesian, all the people that all the diverse identities that were in our groups got to see themselves on a Disney Castle and a firework presentation. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez

Oh, I have chills. 

 

Roberto Candelaria  

Like, I'm almost tearing up share this with you again, 

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

Oh, it brings tears to my eyes.

 

Roberto Candelaria  

Because it was like, wow. They did it, Make People Happy. Everybody here, in our group of ten got to see one of their identities or multiple of their identities on that castle, and it took one hundred years. 

 

GIVE YOURSELF TIME TO BE SUCCESSFUL

 

Roberto Candelaria  

So then why, as a coach, if we're not where we want to be in our business at three months, or six months, or one year or five years, myself, going this year, fourteen years in business. Why do we beat ourselves up when it took one hundred years for a company to show inclusivity and representation. The body of work took one hundred years. 

 

Roberto Candelaria  

And it just further solidified for me like this vision of ten thousand women and people of color to get their first million in business. And that, you know, Watl, he said It's kind of fun to do the impossible. He also said, We can create, dream, and build the most wonderful place in the world, but it takes people to make the dream a reality. And it did take people and he didn't even get to live to see it. 

 

Roberto Candelaria  

And I just think that like as coaches if if we could start to look at our businesses and the communities we build and the spaces of belonging that we built, like how does this carry on even if I'm not involved, that we even take some of the pressure off of our nervous systems to believe that we have to be that transformation for people who thought this podcast interview was gonna go there.

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

I believe that it goes exactly where it needs to go. 

 

Roberto Candelaria  

Absolutely 

 

Gretchen Hernandez

It’s a beautiful thing, an absolutely beautiful thing. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez

Yeah, to have to be that person. If we have that thought that we have to be the everything for someone. And it gets exhausting. And I know that when all too well. And the movie Encanto really helped me to see. Oh, gosh we are a huge Disney family. We're watching the movies all the time. My son is actually going through animation school right now so that he can be an animator for Disney-Pixar and help to make his impact on the world too and evolve our culture to where we all want it to be. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez

And in Encanto, they went through all of the different personality types, too. And it was, oh my gosh, it was gold for all of us coaches, because we're watching it. And it's like, oh, yeah, that's that client. Oh, yeah, that's that client. And that's that client. And we've studied it enough that we know what are those pains behind it that lead to those things. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez

And so the Louisa character, the one who's putting everybody's donkeys on top of her, that's me, that's been working on it, where it's like, giving yourself permission that yeah, you can just lay in the hammock and it goes so against my grain to allow myself to just lay in the hammock. And now I feel like I need to be grabbing everybody's donkeys and just going.

 

Roberto Candelaria  

Yeah, and it's so funny that that's actually the song that you, or the movie that you picked, because as like I was watching Wondrous Journeys, it was like going, it's going and going and then if y'all haven't seen it yet, and if you don't know if you're gonna go to Disneyland, and I under like y'all, I even understand, like, the privilege in me saying, like, I just get to go to Disneyland. So like, if that's not a space where you're at right now, like, oh my god, go to YouTube and watch Wondrous Journeys. Like you can watch the show on YouTube, you don't actually have to go to the park. 

 

BELIEVE IN WHAT’S POSSIBLE

 

Roberto Candelaria  

And, like, again, like I acknowledge the privilege and saying that our biggest year we spent eighty-three days at Disney, and it's something that we're working towards it didn't happen day one like another one of my personal goals is that we want to build a business. And this is like one of our personal goals, like we can spend one hundred days in one year at Disney, the most we’ve ever done is eighty-three. And so like I'm still working to that, and so, yes, I understand the privilege in saying that. And it's something I'm working to, right. And so you can choose these things. 

 

Roberto Candelaria  

And so as we're watching this thing, it's like it's going, it's going and then like Baymax, like Baymax flies in the show, y'all. And I'm just watching these cultures. And then, literally, it was when the The Family Madrigal  song from Encanto came out. That's what I was like. They did it. Like, he did it. 

 

Roberto Candelaria  

And so, yeah, I think that we all have those moments in our coaching businesses to where we may not be able to see that big vision. Because maybe as a new coach, you're thinking like, you know, my big vision right now is to get my first client. Awesome. Awesome. Because like I told you about my first goal was, How do I pay my rent? Like, that was the big vision. 

 

Roberto Candelaria  

I couldn't think to, How do I spend one hundred days at Disney? I couldn't think to, How do I help ten thousand people make money? Because literally, my big, hairy, audacious goal at the time was, how do I pay my rent on time? And it's okay, if that's where you're starting.

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

Yeah, yeah. And sometimes those rewards for those milestone moments in your business, aren't necessarily walking across the stage. This year, I was actually kind of inspired by you with a Disney trip, I wanted to go on it. But I knew that my husband really wanted to go to Disneyland, too. And he would be devastated if I went on yet another business trip this year, and I didn't take him. So I decided, okay, I'll have to pause, I'll have to catch up with you on another year for one of those. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez

Instead, this was a milestone year, four years into my business, or almost four years at that point, I took my family on a Disneyland vacation from the profits of my business. And that felt amazing, because when I left corporate, I had a really great salary. And I was able to take my family on vacations all the time. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez

And then making that choice that yes, I'm gonna let go of all of this and go to zero revenue for a while and learn how to do all of this from scratch. And to have it less than four years later, where yeah, I'm able to cover the bills and take my family on a vacation. It was, yeah, it was, it was amazing. It was really amazing

 

Roberto Candelaria  

And I think like what you said is so key is I think that, you know, as coaches we as a whole, and when I say coaches, you I don't even just mean life coaches, I mean, the coaching industry, as a whole, you know, set out to believe what is possible for so many other people, but then forgets to sometimes stop and say what's possible for me, like, what is possible for me as a direct result, or as a effect, or, you know, like, you know, we would attribute causation, you know, because I helped people do get this result in their life. Or because I did this for the business, I can now have this for my life. And I think that, you know, people forget that.

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

Yeah, and that it's okay to be rewarded for all of the hard work that you put in. Yes, it doesn't make you a bad person, that you go and you're doing, you know, these nice things like a vacation, that now you deserve the reward, you worked really hard for it. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez

So I wanted to ask you a couple other questions. You mentioned before we even got to start a podcast or anything that during that 14 years of your entrepreneurship that you did corporate sponsorship, and I am so curious to learn more about what exactly is corporate sponsorship? And how does it work? And how do you do that in a business? 

 

THE WHAT OF CORPORATE SPONSORSHIP

 

Roberto Candelaria  

Yeah, so you know, and as we talk about this, y'all like if you, Google me, and understand why I'm telling you to do this, this is not about ego. This is not about go to Roberto's site, what this is, is, you know, as coaches, when we become known for something, one of the things that people do, or as they're looking you up as they're gonna go, Google you. 

 

Roberto Candelaria 

And so like right now, a lot of my SEO was all around corporate sponsorship, because that was something that we did for so long in the business before. Like I was doing business coaching, but business coaching was like the thing that was happening in the background, while corporate sponsorship was going on. 

 

Roberto Candelaria 

And now we're making that shift where business coaching is really where we lead and corporate sponsorship is. We still have a couple products of it online, and so I'm sure that first to say that coaches, is it okay to evolve? Absolutely. 

 

Roberto Candelaria 

So, to me, corporate sponsorship is when a brand or a company works with us to gain some sort of access, in exchange for a result in their business or their brand. And I keep it so simple, because some of it is cash. Some of it is product. Sometimes I give it a media sponsorship. 

 

Roberto Candelaria 

It's literally all like, there are brands like Entrepreneur Magazine, and Forbes, that will give you as a media sponsorship for different types of events and such a full page ad in that publication. They're not going to pay you for the sponsorship, but they give you advertising that most entrepreneurs couldn't afford a twenty thousand dollar full page ad in Entrepreneur. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez 

Wow. 

 

Roberto Candelaria 

And so, you know, sponsorship is just that it is when we partner with a brand and give them access to our event to whatever it is, and give them benefits in exchange for that support. Like it's a business transaction. And so like, to be clear, this is where people get mad at me. And that's okay. I'm used to it, y'all. I've been doing it a long time. 

 

Roberto Candelaria

Somebody just giving you a gift card and being like, Oh, here's a twenty five dollar gift card. Now that's not a sponsorship, it's a donation. Somebody's going to give into your Indiegogo campaign or your Kickstarter campaign, and being like, Oh my god, sponsor my campaign for twenty five dollars. And then you get the board game when it comes out. Is that a sponsorship? That's called crowdfunding. It's like they're pre-ordering something. 

 

Roberto Candelaria

And oh, my gosh, the one that gets me in the most trouble with podcasters y'all. When somebody tells you that they will quote unquote, sponsor your podcast for X dollars. Based on the amount of downloads you have, that isn’t a sponsorship. Y'all that's called a media buy. 

 

Roberto Candelaria

I say these things because when we use proper terminology and something then we can get the true result of that. And so like a media buy, as you all know, whether it be a podcast or a TV or radio, they're telling you the price of that based on their reach. versus saying I'm sponsoring I'm doing this much based on exposure and benefits. As soon as it's attached to there's this many downloads, it's a media buy and not a sponsorship. 

 

Roberto Candelaria

Some examples, and a past client who used to teach media and she created in her membership, a thing called the experts corner and she would interview other coaches had the experts corner but at that time Capital One was really working on trying to increase its like small business accounts and like their Spark credit card. So they sponsored her membership. And it became the ‘Capital One Experts Corner’. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez

Wow. 

 

Roberto Candelaria

So then all of those videos had the little Capital One logo and it was a man shouldn't say little but ya know what I mean? 

 

Gretchen Hernandez

Yeah. 

 

Roberto Candelaria

And it was the ‘Capital One Experts Corner’. 

 

Roberto Candelaria

We have other people that have had event sponsored and had a VIP suite sponsored, had speaking fees sponsored. We've had our own events, brands that do scholarship tickets, they will scholarship for X many of tickets in exchange for us being able to tell people so and so brand sponsor to this, we've had panels sponsored. 

 

Roberto Candelaria

You know, like, gosh, what else have we had sponsored, we had booked tours sponsored. We've had one day seminar tours sponsored. Really, we've had just about everything at some point another, sponsored. 

 

CORPORATE SPONSORSHIPS ARE ONE WAY TO FIND MONEY

 

Roberto Candelaria

And what I find is that many people like looking at sponsorship because they think it's easy or free money. And like, why will we still personally do it when it comes to our live events, I have shifted away from it personally, and a lot of the other aspects of our business because what I see people doing is oftentimes like Oh my god, I want sponsors, what they're really saying is I need money.

 

Roberto Candelaria

And there are so many simpler and easier ways to bring in money and profit into your company when you price your products and programs and services appropriately. Then sponsorship, they don't have the lead time. Meaning like you could go pitch a sponsor today. Let's say I don't know you offer three thousand, five thousand, ten thousand dollars. Pick your number. 

 

Roberto Candelaria

But they're gonna have to go talk to somebody, they're gonna need to get it approved. Then you're usually going to send an invoice and it's usually going to be net-thirty. Where if y'all would go have I don't know a webinar, then you could go sell three annual memberships I get paid today, right? Forty-five, ninety days later, now you’ll be waiting for that money. 

 

Roberto Candelaria

And so usually what I find is most people and like I said, the reason we moved away from it is, what we saw so many of our people doing the same, really needing money. And I think it's free money and that it's fast. And there was so many other ways for people to bring revenue into their business faster. 

 

Roberto Candelaria

So they could have money today versus three months, six months, nine months down the road, right?

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

Oh, wow. That's, I love that insight. I really do.

 

Roberto Candelaria  

But we still do it for our events. Because we have that lead time on our events.

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

Yes, yes. Oh, my gosh. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

So now as you're helping people to find those profit gaps, do you still also teach them a little bit of the corporate sponsorship in your programs?

 

Roberto Candelaria  

So yes, and no. Okay. And again, another quick teaching moment for people is, we used to have probably ten-plus sponsorship products. Between a book, between templates, a course for podcast sponsorship, of course, for event sponsorship, an overall sponsorship, sponsorship for authors. We have all these things. 

 

Roberto Candelaria

And as we were making the shift, we pulled down all of the sponsorship offers, except for a ten dollar ebook. If y'all are curious, literally go to sponsorshipforinfluencers.com  you'll see literally the PDF ebooks there. And we decided recently that we're going to keep that ebook up. And we're going to keep the core sponsorship for events up. 

 

P.C.A. MEMBERSHIP

 

Roberto Candelaria

Any other teachings we do on sponsorship, we're going to be inside our membership. And so what we're doing as an organization is stepping away from selling one-off courses. And now any courses or workshops like that would be extended workshops that we're teaching, primarily teaching them inside of the membership. 

 

Roberto Candelaria

And the reason that we have decided to make that shift is we would see people go by sponsorship for events. For example, some people getting amazing results, but then being like, But are there Q&As as well? No, there's not it's a course. Right. But what if we need support? Well, like We don't have coaching calls for that. Well, Can I do one-on-one coaching with you? Well I, personally, I don't do a lot of one-on-one coaching, I take maybe one or two clients a year, which also tells you what the price point is, just being real. 

 

Roberto Candelaria

And so if it's that type of question, like, you don't need to be paying me that. And so while we will have sponsorship for events up, we're moving almost everything inside the membership, so that with a monthly business Q&A, with the monthly community Q&A, with some of the other calls that we provide in the Facebook group, as we bring our courses and moving more to like this all-access business model. That when you join the membership, you get all of the courses and trainings that we're putting into it. 

 

Roberto Candelaria

We felt it allowed us to better support people, and to be there for those questions and support the coach and the business owner through their journey. Because I say, they're starting with one-on-one coaching. But then one day they decide to do an event. It's not in there right now. But one of the courses that's coming in the future, the membership is planning profitable events. And we teach our event roadmap that has made us multiple, seven figures over the years on how to build a profitable event. 

 

Roberto Candelaria

So then when they go through that course, they're probably going to have questions, but then they'll also have access to the course sponsorship for events. And so we're really looking at like, how do we support the coach, the business owner as they build their community, and build their business and the work slowly coming out? Because the membership is new for us too. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

Yeah, I love this. And I'm so excited that you're gonna have that course in there. Because I think you already know, I love to put on events, I just put on my first really big event. And people don't realize how expensive it is to put on some of these events.

 

Roberto Candelaria  

I remember my first three day event, we lost almost forty thousand dollars on it, and it should have put us bankrupt. Which is why I'd help people. And you know, when I'm mentoring people like this, My first thing is going to be a three day event and I'm gonna have three hundred people and I'm like, From where? And we just get really curious but like, you know, that's what got me so interested in figuring out this event and figuring out this puzzle. 

 

Roberto Candelaria

You know, been in business now for fourteen years. We've done one day events. We've done three day events. We've done virtual events. We've done hybrid events. We've done group coaching and Masterminds. Pretty much any revenue model you can think of in the coaching space, we've done it over the fourteen years. 

 

Roberto Candelaria

Some we did amazingly well some we were like oh crap that really sucked whenever doing that again. And some we’ve done, and we're like, you know, that served the business, it served our community for a season. And now we're in a different place. 

 

Roberto Candelaria

And so yeah, like, I'll tell y'all like on an average three day event where you have the stage and the lights, and the projectors and the camera and you're recording your AV bill, just to give you an example, if you don't use hotel AV still about twenty grand. And then there's the hotel internet, which we negotiate in our contract. But I mean, I don't mean the free Wi Fi, I mean the hardwire, so you can get that amazing streaming connection. But depending on the hotel, I mean, the most expensive we paid was three grand a day just for wired internet. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez 

Wow.

 

Roberto Candelaria

And that's where for us the sponsorship really comes into events, because then we don't have to charge five thousand dollars for every event.

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

Yeah. And that's, that's the thing, right? Because we want to make sure that we price it in a way that people can, can fit that into their budgets, and they can come without freaking out that they cann’t now feed their family.

 

Roberto Candelaria  

And that you can still feed your family. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

Exactly. And that's the other thing. Because when I first started talking about creating some retreats, the community I was serving a few years ago, they were like, Oh, well, can you make it free? And it's like, I think people have this perception that business owners have these huge deep pockets. It's like, we're just like you, you know, it's like you're going out and you're having a job, you get paid every hour. We don't get paid every hour, we have products and services that we sell. And that is what helps fund all of the rest of it. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

So yeah, it's but I want to have you tell people the name of your membership and how they can find out more about it. 

 

CONNECT WITH ROBERTO

 

Roberto Candelaria  

Yeah, so the name of our membership? Well, the acronym that we use is PCA, and PCA stands for Profitable Community Academy. And, you know, I'm just going to tell you, flat out, what we love about PCA is that we're a little bit different than people. And so PCA for us is we're not saying like, Oh, it's the all in one business membership. 

 

Roberto Candelaria  

We teach business there. But we also teach community because we believe that what we do is our membership is a space where coaches come for support, for knowledge and for mentorship to grow as a leader, leader, as a business leader, as a coach, and as a community leader as well, because I think that as coaches, especially like coaches live in the silos, and I say that from personal experience in the past y'all. 

 

Roberto Candelaria  

And we want community for everybody else. But then we wonder why building an authentic community and a business that feels good to us feels so lonely. And so we say we are a network and training organization. While there is the business training. We really want coaches to come together and be like, here's what's working, here's what's not working, could work better so that people learn from our successes and our failures as well. 

 

Roberto Candelaria  

And it is not just like, Everything's good. Everybody, think a good thought. And heck, y'all some of y'all LCS coaches, I'm just gonna flat out say this, like I don't even talk about the model at all. But again, the reason for that is that right now in our membership, and in our business as a whole inside the. 

 

Roberto Candelaria  

Listen, y'all, I hope this free somebody, less than five percent of our revenue comes from LCS coaches. We work with coaches, whether they are life coaches, or business coaches, or decluttering coaches, or y'all we work with attorneys that also coach. 

 

Roberto Candelaria  

And so one hundred percent of our revenue isn't based on coaches from an organization where I got certified from, we serve coaches from all over the space. And I believe that it is our connection, in desire that all of us are literally purpose driven leaders that also want to make a lot of money, but we realize we need the profits to do our purpose work. 

 

Roberto Candelaria  

But that's what brings us together regardless of where people were certified or not certified from because also if you're listening, y'all you don't have to be certified to coach people. And I think that that's also what's so cool is that it's almost like a potluck, right? It's like you got people that are LCS certified coaches and people that were certified through DICE and people that have been John Maxwell and people that have never been certified. People like myself, that while certified, you know, I got a GED. 

 

Roberto Candelaria  

And I tell people all the time, I'm the GED that coaches the PhDs and like, that's what's so fun about what we do. And as we build this, it's like it's people just get to show up as people where you are, be accepted, where you're at for who you are. Knowing that We all want to grow together. 

 

Roberto Candelaria  

So yeah, it's Profitable Community Academy. That's the website too profitablecommunityacademy.com. Or I think Warren built a vanity link. And I say vanity link, because that's one of the first things we teach people to have a vanity link for your community. And I think that one is joinpcanow.com. It just tells people what to do.

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

I love it. I love it. And you've mentioned before that you're an action line coach, too

 

Roberto Candelaria  

Oh, yes, I am just like, y'all. I think that we love our feelings. I think that we love our thoughts. And I will also say that sometimes for whether it be for you or for your clients, right, like, I also love the A line and being action based as a great way to figure out what somebody's really feeling, versus like, if you look at that whole feeling to have people be like, Oh, I just feel stuck. I just feel stuck, I feel stuck. 

 

Roberto Candelaria 

But if we go into the A line, especially like, what they're not doing oftentimes will face like, that stuck isn't the feeling. It's actually embarrassed. They don't want to feel embarrassed. And so that's why they're not taking the action. Because if it didn't work out, and so like, what is the model behind the model behind the model? Versus like, what am I feeling? 

 

Roberto Candelaria 

It's like, no, what were you feeling three models ago. And usually there is like, I don't want to be embarrassed, I don't want to feel shame. And so they're taking action from a place of, I don't want to be that which then actually, although it's not the feeling of stuck, it leads to the action of stuck. But that's a whole nother conversation. Like if you want to have a model purist conversation, oh, my god.

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

I love it. I love it. I think I'm gonna have to have you come back again on my podcast, because there's so much more that we could, we could talk for hours. But I want to thank you so much for coming on today. I've really appreciated the conversation. There's so many gems in there. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

And I can't wait to come and personally be a member of PCA and several other people join, they'll get to be there with me too. I want to learn so much from you. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

So thank you so much, Roberto, what's one final piece of advice that you would have for someone who, let's say has been in business for about two years and is thinking, Oh, this isn't going how I wanted, maybe I should just give up and go get an employee job.

 

Roberto Candelaria  

Y'all listen, I think about getting a job about every other week, just you know. 

 

Roberto Candelaria  

I would say this is like, remember why you're doing what you're doing, even when it feels like it's not working out or reaching out where you're not where you want to be. Because I will offer from experience that. Even when you get where you think you want to be, you're going to realize that that wasn't even where you really wanted to be. It was just for so many of us the stretch that our brain could offer us at that moment. 

 

Roberto Candelaria  

And so, you know, I can tell you like I have got this goal of being able to go to Disney one hundred days a year, we could say we've done eighty three. And I still want to do it just because they don't want to do it. But I can already tell you that getting that close one hundred days at Disney isn't even what I really wanted. 

 

Roberto Candelaria  

What I really was trying to express that I didn't have the words for at the time, was that I wanted time freedom. And so when my father got ill, I was able to and beginning of 2018 spent forty eight days in San Antonio, Texas. Me and my husband were, you know, between doctor's appointments in acute rehab and skilled nursing and literally running webinars from a hospital room. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez 

Wow. 

 

Roberto Candelaria  

And what I was really saying that I didn't have the words for when I made the goal for one hundred days at Disney was, I want the freedom to do what I want to do. And so sometimes you'll get to a goal and realize that wasn't really the goal. I was really saying these other things. I didn't have the word at the time. 

 

Roberto Candelaria

So I would just say, just keep going if you believe in it, and also give yourself permission to change the dream.

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

is so good. Just so good. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Oh my gosh. Thank you so much, Roberto.

 

Roberto Candelaria  

I really appreciate you coming soon.

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

All right. Sounds good. Thank you. 

Wasn’t Roberto great? Doesn't he have this great disposition like how he talks like he just pulls you in. And it just, it feels great. 

 

Anyway, I want to highly encourage you to go and check out the Profitable Community Academy. 

And also, we didn't really get a chance to mention that Roberto is the host of the podcast. It's called Relationships Make Money, so you'll want to go and check that out too. 

 

He is all about how you can form relationships with other businesses so that you can do those partnerships. But it's more than just a connection. It's a deep relationship, meaningful, all of the good things. 

 

So, go and check out all of his links. You'll find them in the show notes for this episode. This is at myfreedromgrove.com/podcast-178. 

 

All right, next week, we're going to talk about yearly planning. This is going to be like an audio workshop. So make sure that you grab all of your planning stuff so that we can hit the ground running. 

 

Have a great week, and I'll see you soon. 

 

Bye. Bye.

 

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