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Susie Jaramillo is an Emmy Nominated Director, illustrator, storyteller, and entrepreneur.
She serves as President and Chief Creative Officer of Encantos, an award-winning entertainment company for kids.
Encantos Original properties include the Emmy-nominated and 2x Kidscreen award-winning preschool brand Canticos, and Tiny Travelers, a brand designed to introduce children to the countries and cultures of the world.
Susie is the creative heart of Encantos, creating the vision and setting the bar for brilliant stories with captivating, diverse characters that will endure the test of time.
A fierce advocate for diversity and representation in media, she is a sought-after speaker. She has been featured in Deadline, Hollywood Reporter, NPR, NBC, AdWeek, Brandweek, Univision, Telemundo, and more.
But, this isn’t a conversation about Susie’s many accomplishments. It’s a conversation about the mindset she uses to break through barriers and keep moving forward when she faces obstacles.
Susie Jaramillo’s story reminds us that we all have a story to tell, and that success comes not when we do what the storybooks or our families tell us we should do, but when we have the freedom to pursue what genuinely interests us.
A natural rule breaker, Susie has always marched to her own drummer. In this episode, you’ll learn the powerful process she relies on to refine and narrow her focus to increase impact!
Here’s how to increase your impact in 6 steps:
Identify your talents and gifts and lean all the way into them
Accept that you will NEVER know everything you need to know in order to be ready. Trust that you already know what you need to get started and that you will keep learning. No amount of pondering is going to create action or change. Readiness is way overrated (and the most successful people don’t ever ask themselves if they’re ready).
As you embark on new adventures, notice what you really enjoy doing- the parts of the process that excite you and engage your curiosity. Find ways to do more of those (and less of the stuff that bums you out or drags your energy down).
Notice where you have an impact. Do people need more of your talents and gifts in a single area? That’s a good sign that you’re meeting a need. If you have narrowed your focus based on point two, you’re in a really excellent position to continue narrowing your focus and energy into something truly meaningful
Look for your people. Notice who gets what you’re trying to do, who challenges you to do more, and who offers support. These people are your champions. You need them, and they need you!
Stay curious! Keep learning, keep refining, and keep discovering new answers to all of the questions above.
A Messy Transcript of Our Conversation
aransas_savas:
Welcome to the Uplifters Podcast. I'm your host, Aransas Savas, and I am here with a true Uplifter, Susie Jaramillo. I met Susie through my friend Julie, who you just got to hear introducing Susie. And the thing that strikes me about Susie, and so many of our guests, is that they've done a lot of really impressive things. and those things that they've done have had a big impact on other people. But what's most interesting to me about Susie and what I'm most excited to explore with her today is how she does them. So let me start by telling you about some of the things Susie has done, but then let's spend the rest of our time talking about how she does them. So Susie Jaramillo is an Emmy-nominated director, illustrator, storyteller, and entrepreneur. She serves as the president and chief creative officer possibly admire more or be more grateful for. It's a company called Encantos, an award-winning entertainment company for kids. Encantos properties include many storytelling venues that you've heard of, the Emmy-nominated and 2x Kidscreen award-winning preschool brand Canticos, and Tiny Travelers, a brand designed to introduce children to the countries and cultures of the world. They produced Wally the Worried Walrus, a precious little storytelling journey that Susie and I got to embark on together to help kids learn mindfulness techniques when they're struggling with anxiety. She's also the creative heart of this beautiful brand. She has created the vision. She has set the bar for brilliant storytellers. The stories that they tell, I think are truly remarkable and just so important as a parent myself. I really, really, really appreciate them. And there were so many times when my kids were little that I felt like I was telling them the same story again and again, because we, I think, kind of got into a long history of "there is this one way to tell a story and there was this one sort of moral moment that comes from it". And it all ends up sounding the same and teaching us the same things. And Susie and her team have expanded that palette exponentially through the work that they've done. And as a result, they're helping kids learn more skills in ways that are truly entertaining and educational, using technology that makes it accessible for larger groups of children. Her sense of mission, her commitment to excellence for creators, for families, for the children themselves, and frankly for the whole category of children's edutainment is remarkable. Susie, I know you're crazy busy doing all these things and I just can't tell you how much I appreciate you being here today to help me learn from you and hopefully help all of the other Uplifters out there listening and watching this learn from you as well.
susie_jaramillo:
Oh, please, thank you, Aransas, for having me here today. And thank you for such a lovely intro and for being the mama to Wally the Worried Walrus, which is truly a beautiful expression of helping children learn mindful techniques and see that they are seen and that their worries are understood and sort of breathing life into that world. I'm thrilled to be here.
aransas_savas:
Thank you, thank you. And truly thank you for helping me tell that story. And I think that is certainly one of your gifts and one of the expressions of it is that you help others find their stories. I don't know your story though.
susie_jaramillo:
Ha ha. See that? Everybody has a story.
aransas_savas:
We do.
susie_jaramillo:
We do. Everybody has a story. My story is that it's a meandering path. You don't know who you are until you do the earnest work of getting to know yourself and that there's a trap. And the trap is falling into someone else's definition of success. I think that's the trap. Be a lawyer because that's what your family thinks you should be, or be an engineer because that's what your family thinks you should be, or make that ton of money. I feel like that's the biggest trap in the world. I think that in many ways, one of my greatest gifts was not having any expectations being made of me because I was the number four girl child of a family of five. And my parents separated when I was little and my mother had too much on her plate you know, and so I was given a lot of freedom to just pursue whatever I wanted to pursue. And when I expressed an interest in art, my mother always encouraged it. And she took me to some of the best museums in the world, and she and I would like spend, you know, really, you know, we would take our time, like all of my siblings would be bored. But we would take our time talking about the Greek mythology that inspired this painting, painting and I grew up with no TV because my mom was very classical and very anti-media in general even though she was a journalist for a while and so I read books, lots of them and you know my mother always understood that I was a little different she used to tell me that I marched from a different drummer notes home, it said, Susie doesn't follow instructions well. It's totally true. I've never been very good at following instructions. I was the kid that did the free play with the Legos. And when I expressed interest in art, she was like, well, if you're going to study art, you have to go to Pratt. It was not even. And I had no idea how we would pay for any of that. But again, she always encouraged me to dream big, even though she was, for most of her life, a stay-at-home mom, and didn't really start to work until she had to work after the divorce. And then I grew up between Florida and Venezuela. And so my father's family and everyone on my father's side of the family is Venezuelan, Spanish dominant. My father actually never learned English and never moved to this country. And so I was always very aware of the cultural differences States and what it means to live in Venezuela, because I did live there for my tweens, if you will, from 10 to 15.
aransas_savas:
story. I knew none of this and I'm so fascinated to hear about how you became you. And one of the things you were talking about, and I think this comes up a lot in the conversations I get to have, is our definitions of success.
susie_jaramillo:
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
aransas_savas:
And I think it's super interesting that you said you didn't have expectations placed on you because who had the energy when you're raising that many kids alone. What was your definition of success when you were little?
susie_jaramillo:
For me, I always had this, I knew I wasn't going to be, I just have a gut instinct that I wasn't going to be successful in the traditional notion of success. And that for me, once I decided that I wanted to be an artist, for me, being true to my gifts and being the best at whatever I would do, was a definition. And then that definition evolved. Because my definition of success at age 18 today, right? So today, I'm way more concerned about the impact I might have on society and on my community than I am on how pretty a picture might look or a particular skill thing, right? And where before, I valued myself mostly skills now I value myself based on sort of like what I can bring to life and what I can give to other people and the impact that my work can have. And so it's a completely different mechanism for evaluating yourself. And I've always thought, for me, the ultimate definition of success is truly using your gifts in a way that make you happy, serve other people, and hopefully is monetarily rewarding so that you can do more stuff. And I feel like I've gotten myself, by making a lot of hard choices and from walking away, I've also known from an early age that a specific path would make me miserable and I don't do well under miserable circumstances. So I was like, let's just take the other path. It'll be harder, but you'll be happier.
aransas_savas:
interesting that you had the clarity of judgment throughout your life to be able to come back to that center point. And I think probably for many of us when we were 18, we were more purpose led than we became in our 20s and 30s when kind of in 40s, maybe even beyond when the rubber starts to meet the road and the reality of like
susie_jaramillo:
Mm-hmm.
aransas_savas:
survival, right? You bring up the fact of like, following your gifts, making the world a better place, living a life of joy. And I feel like at 18, so many of us had a handle on that, and we were like, yes! And then as we started to face the realities of paying the rent, we were like, oh, forget all, like slowly we move away from that into the realities of paying the rent, having the kid, getting the
susie_jaramillo:
Mm-hmm.
aransas_savas:
traditional measures of success.
susie_jaramillo:
Yeah? No, it's true. It's so interesting. Because I have, I never expected to be super, super successful. I really didn't. I expected to be, all I wanted to be was a recognized artist and be respected for my skill. That's all I wanted. And I never expected to make a lot of money in Wall Street super powerful corporate executive. I knew that wasn't my path. And so I never really pursued money that way. And I always believed that if you can bring value to people, then you have value, right? And the best way for a creative person to create value for themselves that you serve more than yourself. That idea of the artists sort of exercising themselves, for me, didn't feel like something that would serve society much, unless everyone else is going through the same trauma.
aransas_savas:
Ha ha ha.
susie_jaramillo:
And so the idea of creating something with your talent that would be a gift to other people seemed like the way to go, because you're helping them live better lives and you're using your skill, and hey, there's probably a business opportunity there. And that was sort of like, so just a little bit of understanding of how I came to that conclusion. I went to art school. I graduated in painting illustration from Pratt, and immediately started working in production studios as an artist, as a storyboard artist, and in-betweener. And then kind of grew bored with that. And migrated over, did a stint in fashion illustration clothing, pattern design, plaid design, color, all that kind of stuff, which was fascinating because I learned how you curate collections, how you turn street trends into a design concept. And then from there, I actually, in a very odd way, I started an advertising agency. Again, you wouldn't expect this, but it was the 90s. And at the time, there was a lot of opportunity Latin space, and I was hanging out with a bunch of very seasoned advertising executives, and they were like, hey, we need a creative. Why don't you join us as our chief creative officer? And I got everything intuitively. And again, we're all in our 20s. We're all in our 20s. And I was one of the few people that spoke completely fluent Spanish, completely fluent culture and was coming at it from a completely fresh lens. And at the time, I think that there were a lot of creatives from Latin America that didn't understand the US Hispanic market. And I did. And that was perceived as something really powerful for the team. And the fact that I did understand production and I did know how to pull things together. experience in advertising, I started an advertising agency. Best school ever. Best school ever. I feel like it taught me so much. It was a dream in the sense that we pitched and landed clients and that's where I discovered, oh, I have front of the house skills. I pitched with passion. Clients find me refreshing because I'm earnest and I'm very sincere about the empathy for the people that we're gonna serve and I have a deep empathy for what they're trying to do in terms of the brands that they want to build and I'm able to convey a vision and a story and so I discovered that I was a good pitch woman right and again this I had no idea And so then, as we built teams, I discovered that I loved bringing out the best in people. Like I loved seeing things that people couldn't necessarily see in themselves and helping them work better and getting them unstuck and coaching and setting up processes because when you set up the process, the process takes care of the work. So casting, in other words, hiring the right talent for the right project and then setting and then convincing clients to invest appropriately so that you could really pull something beautiful together. All of that, I enjoyed that so much. And I realized that creativity had so much more value when it was solving a business problem. And if you solved a business problem and also uplifted people, like put a smile on their face, or you elevated a universal truth that people needed to be reminded of, that you were actually advertising making a difference. Now it got to the point where like you know We were doing a lot of really great work, and we were working for clients like Macy's, and for Iles and Morelos, and Bernard Ricard. And you're selling a lot of product to people. And at the same time, you're realizing that there's so much potential for this audience, which was very specifically the Latin market, which is where we competed. Because in the general market, we get outgunned every single day by the JWTs, and the Chai days, and the FCBs of the world. And so we worked with JWT. We worked with FCB and all of those other general market agencies. We were complimentary to their initiatives. And what I realized was, at the end of the day, I was more drawn to the stories that could be told in this market than I was to what could be created in the realms of advertising. I really wanted to build out, you know, brands and stories and content that I felt would make a difference in people's lives with whatever skill set I brought to the table. And so when YouTube came out, and I mean, when Apple came out with the iPad, I was like, oh my God, what a story platform. And when YouTube came out and anybody could put something online, I was like, okay, like for us to sort of like tell our stories. And I was at the time, I married my husband who was Colombian and we started having babies and I was gonna be bringing these little children into the world that I wanted them to be proud of their Latin culture and to be able to speak Spanish or at least as much as possible. And I realized that there were no tools. Where are my board books? Where are my apps? Where are my animation? There was nothing. 2012-13. So I decided to sell my company and get back to my roots of drawing and illustration and story and create the world that I wanted my kids to have and that I thought there would be so many other moms that would love to have, which is a world celebrating Latino nursery rhymes that was bilingual, that we would do everything two times, once in English and once in Spanish, so that kids would So why not capitalize on that repetition to teach them, you know, basic preschool concepts in English and Spanish with music and adorable characters? And I kind of put that out into the world, you know, I just, I worked on it, I put that out into the world, and then I started having lunch with people. And by the way, selling my company and starting from scratch was really hard when you start over. Because you're no one once again. budget or a media budget or a big title behind my name. I was just Susie, creative,
aransas_savas:
created with an idea.
susie_jaramillo:
creative, ex-entrepreneur, like entrepreneur. And I wasn't even sure I wanted to be an entrepreneur again, again. You know, it's funny how sometimes entrepreneurism finds you. You know, some people chase it. I don't think I chased it. Or maybe I did in the beginning. The second time for sure, it was the type of thing kind of came to me. I was in conversations with a publisher to do Glenticos the traditional way. I had an agent. I was being mentored by a really big, powerful guy from Nickelodeon. And I reached out to an old friend, and he basically saw what I was doing, and was like, oh my god, what are you doing? You have to do this with me. So literally, that's how I got my business partner, who was going through exactly the same thing that I was going through in terms of having babies and seeing that there was nothing really out there for them and understanding the business opportunity. So I think that that ability to understand the business opportunity around a problem that you're uniquely qualified to solve is powerful.
aransas_savas:
Hmm.
susie_jaramillo:
I think when you lean into your purpose and you lean into your gifts and you do what you're supposed to do Nick the universe and the angels like cooperate to like help you make it happen
aransas_savas:
It's such an amazing story. And I was trying to sort of track your process as I listened to you. And it's actually the same process I heard you follow in essence when you created your first company and even your decision to go to school and study art. And I would summarize it by saying that your first step in each process was to really pay attention to your talents and gifts. creative expression. It was sincerity. It was the ability to connect with people. It was an authentic breed of storytelling in a world where maybe authenticity was rare. And then from there it sounds as though in each instance you realized that you didn't need to know everything. And you took what I call a So, or a growth mindset and you said, okay, I don't have to have all the answers. I don't have to believe I'm an expert or the expert or the most qualified. And I always bring this up because I think so many women especially get stymied by a belief that they need to know everything to start,
susie_jaramillo:
Mm-hmm.
aransas_savas:
right? And we feel as though we're
susie_jaramillo:
Yeah.
aransas_savas:
not qualified, right?
susie_jaramillo:
Yeah, men don't do that.
aransas_savas:
No, no,
susie_jaramillo:
Yeah.
aransas_savas:
but we don't so many women delay getting his relationships, having children,
susie_jaramillo:
Yeah.
aransas_savas:
starting jobs, starting companies, going on trips
susie_jaramillo:
Mm-hmm.
aransas_savas:
because they don't feel ready or like the time is right, they have all the resources
susie_jaramillo:
So
aransas_savas:
or
susie_jaramillo:
can
aransas_savas:
knowledge.
susie_jaramillo:
I just jump in and
aransas_savas:
Yes.
susie_jaramillo:
say funny you should say that? Because when I was at the agency, I had a male partner, I had two male partners, one of them was the CEO and the other one was a design director. And my art design director truly aspired to be a film director. And I saw him completely unplug from our business at hand and just work on his films and pursued that. And like, he had no problem doing it. And I learned from him, I was like, oh my God, he's just doing it. And he doesn't, you know, because he just wants I need to do the same thing. I just need to do it. If I believe in myself and I want to make this happen, you don't find the time, you just make the time and you do it. But the only way to see your vision through is to take the first steps and start executing them.
aransas_savas:
Mm-hmm. And that takes courage
susie_jaramillo:
Yeah.
aransas_savas:
and it takes support. I'm sure the support of your husband when you sold your first company and decided to start a second one.
susie_jaramillo:
Can I say something that my husband
aransas_savas:
Yeah.
susie_jaramillo:
is, while he is incredibly supportive, he didn't really understand what I wanted to do. And so I joke that it's true love because he supported me even though he had no clue what I was
aransas_savas:
It's amazing.
susie_jaramillo:
trying to do. So it wasn't like he saw it and he understood it and he was like, yes, you can do this, go, go, go. It was more like, okay, are you sure you know what you're doing? It was a little bit more like that. because that means that the driving force has to come from you.
aransas_savas:
Mm-hmm. It does and and this keeps coming up with these pioneering women that I've been talking to is I wasn't even looking at the big picture because you didn't know the
susie_jaramillo:
Mm-mm.
aransas_savas:
answer to his Question wasn't no, you don't know what you're doing entirely
susie_jaramillo:
Thank you.
aransas_savas:
there's no way you could have because we can't predict the future and You were creating something that hadn't been made
susie_jaramillo:
Yeah, you know what I knew, Arancis? I knew that if I didn't try it, I would be a bitter old woman. That's the only thing I knew. And I knew that there was the greatest risk in life is to not take risks. That is the greatest risk. So I knew that I risked more in trying to be what I wasn't and not live up to my purpose than I ever risked trying build this thing from scratch and trying to make a global Latino nursery rhyme brand. Like, to me, there was no, like, it was win-win. So if I failed, I still won.
aransas_savas:
I'm so glad you brought that up too. We did some research in testing a couple of years ago to
susie_jaramillo:
Mm-hmm.
aransas_savas:
see what it took to get people to engage in healthy behaviors. And we had all these ideas about motivation and reward and pleasure. You wanna know the thing that got them to take action more than any other thing? Now it's not a long-term sustainable tactic, When we told them there was a chance they might miss out on money specifically, but I think it would work with anything
susie_jaramillo:
Yeah.
aransas_savas:
in this case. That was the reward we chose. We told them there was a chance they might win risk losing money
susie_jaramillo:
Mm-hmm.
aransas_savas:
were they not to engage in play, they acted.
susie_jaramillo:
Yeah.
aransas_savas:
Feeling a sense of joy, pleasure, satisfaction, self-confidence, none of that had the same immediate sense of reward. Actually, it's, as I said, not a sustainable solution.
susie_jaramillo:
Yeah.
aransas_savas:
And it won't create long-term engagement. But for helping us get started, I think it's a really freaking powerful question. How will you feel if you don't do this?
susie_jaramillo:
Yeah, yeah,
aransas_savas:
I don't
susie_jaramillo:
it's
aransas_savas:
wanna
susie_jaramillo:
like,
aransas_savas:
be
susie_jaramillo:
what kind of life do
aransas_savas:
a
susie_jaramillo:
you
aransas_savas:
bitter
susie_jaramillo:
want to
aransas_savas:
old
susie_jaramillo:
live?
aransas_savas:
woman.
susie_jaramillo:
Yeah, it was that simple. What kind of life do you want to live in? And I would kick myself if I hadn't tried it. And it's like, I had the skills. I knew I had the art chops. By now, I understood the branding. I knew the branding that went along with it. I understood the business opportunity. I knew how to get in front and present and present the whole opportunity. By now, I'm a seasoned creator director our way. I ran the agency for 12 years, worked you know, produced around the world, I felt like I was the right person to do this, as well as I happen to be a Latina mom. You know, so I can speak for the community, I can execute the way it needs to be done, and I can build a brand franchise in the way that, you know, few are qualified to do. And to have all of that in my skill set, I knew it made me a bit of a unicorn. I think it does. You need to be able to say that without humility and without any kind of false pretense. And I think it's just acknowledging that, wow, I'm here. I'm poised to launch a beautiful baby brand in 2016 when the world is changing. interview right after the presidential election, right? And where the landscape, if you're Latin in this country, has had completely changed.
aransas_savas:
Yeah.
susie_jaramillo:
And where all of a sudden like the home of the free and this land is your land, this land is my land, became a whole different thing. And what I was doing all of a sudden became so much more meaningful,
aransas_savas:
Okay.
susie_jaramillo:
you know, and it became meaningful not just because I was communities of Latinos that were here to share their culture with their kids and their language, also for moms like you, Aransas, so that you know and other moms so they could get to know this whole new beautiful world of nursery rhymes and expose their child to a second language, right?
aransas_savas:
Yes. Yes.
susie_jaramillo:
And we and build bridges because at the end of the day what I've discovered about myself is that I am an artist, storyteller that likes to build bridges of understanding between people because
aransas_savas:
Hmm.
susie_jaramillo:
back when I was like 19, I wrote something in my diary like that I want to be like the type of artist that shows in like the United Nations or something or that has something to do with like making the world a better place with their art. Like I knew I want I knew that's what I wanted to do but I didn't know that story would be as so important,
aransas_savas:
Okay, okay.
susie_jaramillo:
right? And telling stories that impacted people. And you know I like to say that the best stories are stories that made And they're educational, but you don't know they're educational.
aransas_savas:
Mm-hmm.
susie_jaramillo:
You know what I mean? It's like,
aransas_savas:
Mm-hmm.
susie_jaramillo:
oh, wow, that was an amazing story.
aransas_savas:
It's like healthy food that tastes good.
susie_jaramillo:
Exactly. It's like helping through the taste code. Sleady vegan. That's exactly what it's like.
aransas_savas:
Exactly.
susie_jaramillo:
I want to make slutty vegan stories.
aransas_savas:
Yes, please
susie_jaramillo:
Yeah.
aransas_savas:
do.
susie_jaramillo:
Yeah, no, I just, I feel like powerful storytelling is the best kind of education there is. I found all of it to be just, you know, rich and delicious and powerful and I want to make sure that I put out there just really cool, deep, beautifully told stories that move the needle on our humanity.
aransas_savas:
Well, and that again, and I mean, such an incredible mission. And if I go back to how you do this and how we can learn from you, again, I think this idea of acknowledging that you don't have to know everything, even in that story you just told about, well, I was uniquely positioned to do this. Yes. And you could have looked at that story a very different way. Well, I led my own company, but it wasn't a
susie_jaramillo:
Mm-hmm.
aransas_savas:
multinational global brand, right?
susie_jaramillo:
Mm-hmm.
aransas_savas:
Like,
susie_jaramillo:
Mm-hmm.
aransas_savas:
we can diminish
susie_jaramillo:
Of course.
aransas_savas:
anything.
susie_jaramillo:
Of course. It's true. No, you know, it's totally true. I think that trusting that you have a calling and you have a purpose, even though you don't know what it is, is
aransas_savas:
Mm-hmm.
susie_jaramillo:
super important. Trusting that there's a reason for things. And I think I did that intuitively.
aransas_savas:
Well, I think too, you were able to recognize that all of your past experience and all of your current experience and all of your needs had value.
susie_jaramillo:
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
aransas_savas:
Right, so it was everything from the way you grew up to the work that you had done, to the position you were in currently as a mom, to what you wanted in terms of impact. And you allowed all of that to be as valuable and as important as any other credential or any other experience. I think that's part of the work that we as women have to do so often is to say, yeah, all that stuff mattered.
susie_jaramillo:
Yeah.
aransas_savas:
And we have to let it matter and stop stopping it. The other thing I just heard you say that I think is really important that I want to just open up for a second is this idea of looking back for clues. So that, that little message you sent to yourself when you were 19, that, that was a, that was a clue about where you are going to feel a sense of impact and purpose.
susie_jaramillo:
Yeah, it's funny. When I was 19, I was, OK, so I was one of those really hardcore art students that I was accepted. And I think when I, when my, but I didn't go to art high school or anything like that. And so I was like up against students that had way more discipline than I do, and had way more experience, right? And I remember when I was accepted, one of my teachers was like, the professors actually never had him as a teacher. He was like, oh, this portfolio is like mediocre, or something like that. And I was like, OK, that's fine. And so
aransas_savas:
Hmm.
susie_jaramillo:
I was the type that would draw eight hours a day and then afterwards do four hour drawing classes on my own with peers, right? And I worked so hard and I had so much fun in art school and by the time I left, I was top of my class.
aransas_savas:
Eh.
susie_jaramillo:
I really was top of my class, not just academically, just even artistically. I was well known as, oh, you know, I had my own little reputation as someone the creative chops. And I always felt that I was a diamond in the rough and I had to figure out what to do with it. And it's funny because I always saw marriages like, oh my god, if I get married and have kids, that's the end of my life. Because I was taught by my mother
aransas_savas:
Yeah.
susie_jaramillo:
that, you know, when you get married, you dedicate yourself to your home and your children and then that's the end of the story. And that you see success from what your children and appealing even remotely to me. And when I did marry, I married a partner who, if anything, would help me with my goals and what I wanted to achieve. And had the same vision of me that you want to just be who you're supposed to be in this earth. And I think that that innate sense that I have something to give, I think that came pre-installed. and the And so I knew I had something, and I knew that I was bad at a lot of things. I'm not great at math. I'm dyslexic. I have no sense of direction. If I get nervous or discombobulated, I'll lose things. So I understand a lot of my shortcomings, which makes me deeply appreciative of other people who bring other skills to the table.
aransas_savas:
Yeah.
susie_jaramillo:
lean into your strengths, play to your strengths every single day, compliment
aransas_savas:
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
susie_jaramillo:
your weaknesses. If you play to your strengths and cover your weaknesses, you can execute faster and at a way greater scale.
aransas_savas:
Mm-hmm.
susie_jaramillo:
And so that's also something that you know I understood as an entrepreneur and it has taken me so so far and I've also realized that's what the great creative people do. They
aransas_savas:
Yeah.
susie_jaramillo:
know what they're They know what
aransas_savas:
And they
susie_jaramillo:
they're
aransas_savas:
do
susie_jaramillo:
not
aransas_savas:
it.
susie_jaramillo:
good at.
aransas_savas:
Yeah. Yeah. And I think, you know, I wrote down a really corny phrase as I was listening to you because we've all heard it and maybe not internalized what it sounds like. And I think you're reminding us what it sounds like, which is the phrase, do more of what you love.
susie_jaramillo:
Yeah, absolutely. Do more what you love. And
aransas_savas:
It's so corny that my 14-year-old
susie_jaramillo:
yeah,
aransas_savas:
wears a t-shirt that says it.
susie_jaramillo:
and no, and be so good they can't ignore you. It was one of my favorites, Steve Martin quotes. Be so good.
aransas_savas:
love that. And I think too, I hear in you a similar mindset that I've heard in a lot of women who are pioneers, which is, Oh, I'm not great at this thing right away, or I got feedback that maybe I wasn't already the best. What does it mean? Anything except that you're not the best at that right now.
susie_jaramillo:
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And you know what? It was fine. It was actually the best motivator to make me really focus and be hardworking and diligent. And the funny thing is, you realize, it's not like it was cultivated me as a child. It was just something I did because I was bored, and I didn't have TV. And you have all of these other kids that are coming in on merit scholarships I was not such a thing. I was in high school. My art teacher favored me. That's about it. You know? And but you know what I've come to realize, Aransas, is that I may have valued myself at that time because of my artistic talent. My professor always used to tell me, my mentor, the one who guided me the most, used to say, Susie, talent, that, and a nickel won't get you on the subway. And he was right. a lot of talented people out there. I just want the Bologna Book Fair. My god, are there talented people putting their work upon the walls? And so there's so much more beyond talent. There's a fair amount of empathy that you need to develop and an understanding of how to pull a vision together
aransas_savas:
Hmm.
susie_jaramillo:
and an understanding of the story you're going to tell in the context of today's society. All of those different things matter. and what are their needs, right? What problem are you solving for them? So I think that my corporate training as an advertising executive, as well as my sort of creative training, have given me a fair amount of empathy from a business perspective in terms of what we're doing, what we're building. And nowadays, I have to go in like lobbyist studio So it's a whole different ask. And so then it's like, well, why is this good for them? Why is building a new franchise interesting for somebody that already has five franchises, or somebody that's not in the franchise building business at all? And then I look at my community and I think, but wait a second, if you're a Latino, you don't have any underlying IP in this country. You don't have weird, your Snoopy, your Smurfs. She's got a TV show.
aransas_savas:
Ha
susie_jaramillo:
But
aransas_savas:
ha ha.
susie_jaramillo:
when you think about what your underlying IP is, and I mean intellectual property for those of you
aransas_savas:
Yeah.
susie_jaramillo:
that aren't fluent in the lingo,
aransas_savas:
thing go.
susie_jaramillo:
you'll note that if you're black or if you're Latino, there's not a ton of properties out there that have your DNA as underlying DNA. And there's not a lot of creators ethnicities that own their IP or that are able to execute their visions. It's way more common to see a Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale with a person of color slotted in. That's
aransas_savas:
Mm-hmm
susie_jaramillo:
way more common. Or maybe it's on Elisa on Broadway, except they're not all white. Something
aransas_savas:
night.
susie_jaramillo:
like that, to where you've kind of been slotted in
aransas_savas:
Mm-hmm
susie_jaramillo:
born of our culture, created by people of the culture. And I understand why that is, because honestly, these giant franchises need to keep on making money. And for them, it's just easier to lean into what they already do.
aransas_savas:
Yeah, it's easier for them to sell because they're selling it to somebody else, right?
susie_jaramillo:
But that's not really great for diverse audiences, And so we have to support each other, support diverse creators, look for the work of diverse creators, and really also stay true to our own stories. If we are, if you feel that you have a story inside of you that should be told, chances are it should be. Chances are it should be, and that you should put it out into the world in whatever form you can. If it only gets so far, it doesn't matter. You have no idea when it'll take off again. And something was put together and put out in the world. And I consider myself a gardener these days. I plant seeds. I plant seeds, and some of them bloom here and now. Canticos is one of them. Canticos is our very successful preschool brand. And others may take more time to get off the ground and truly broom. have been planted.
aransas_savas:
they're nourishing the soil.
susie_jaramillo:
Yes, and they're nourishing
aransas_savas:
Yeah.
susie_jaramillo:
the soil.
aransas_savas:
Yeah. What a beautiful message to all of us, no matter what our dreams are. And, and I will sort of add to it what I saw is the fourth step in Suzie's process, which was look for the impact and then lean in to that, find out where, where it's needed, your story, find out where it's having an impact. And when In fact, that is a call to keep going and to explore again. Right, so there is this highly exploratory approach that you take where you plant the seed, you see what grows, you plant more of the seeds that grow, and along the way, maybe you plant some experimental seeds that you have no idea what they'll reap, and witness what happens and learn. keep the analogy going in this learner mindset that you've cultivated throughout the course of not just your career but your life.
susie_jaramillo:
Yeah, I feel like so both of my parents are no longer with me. And we have one life to live. So you've got one life to live. You've been given a fair amount of gifts. And it might be privilege from the way you were born. It might be skills or talent. It might be a certain insight into something. We've all got our chips to play. are we uniquely qualified to solve? What can we bring to the world to make it a better place? Because I truly think that's all we're here for. And absolutely,
aransas_savas:
Yeah.
susie_jaramillo:
I want to live a comfortable life, for sure. But I know that I remember being 16 and seeing a model magazine cover and I looked at her face and she's beautiful right and I was like she's not happier than I am.
aransas_savas:
MBC 뉴스 김지경입니다.
susie_jaramillo:
And I just knew it. I was like, that model right there, not happier than I am. And so money might make you comfortable, but it won't make you happy. And so what I think I personally derive joy and happiness and satisfaction from the things that I create and from the impact that it has on people, right? And so I feel like if you live a life where you're truly, And that's something you can figure out along the way if you want to, right? Because some people really care about, you know, being true to what they're here put on this earth for. And some people aren't less concerned with such things. And all's fair, right? But if you want to concern yourself with it, I absolutely think that you can find your purpose and that you can absolutely achieve what you were set here for.
aransas_savas:
I think so too. And I think you've given us a really beautiful process for doing that. So to start to wrap things up, we like to do a little lightning round to close out each episode. So three quick questions for you. One, one quick way that you raise your own energy.
susie_jaramillo:
raise my own energy. Let's see. I like to play music. I
aransas_savas:
Mm.
susie_jaramillo:
love music. I like to sing. So if I want to raise my own energy, I will put some music on and I will sing and I will dance.
aransas_savas:
favorite genre.
susie_jaramillo:
Oh my god, well, say you can't go wrong with Sallia Cruz. But I'm a big Dua Lipa fan as well. And my sister, I'm sorry, my sister, my daughter. My daughter and I were recently with Megan Trainor, you know, all of this.
aransas_savas:
so fun. One easy way you boost other women.
susie_jaramillo:
I love pointing out how special and talented and beautiful and uniquely qualified they are. And just shining, showing a mirror that they should be looking at about all of their special qualities that need to be valued.
aransas_savas:
a recipient of that. I am
susie_jaramillo:
Thank
aransas_savas:
particularly
susie_jaramillo:
you.
aransas_savas:
grateful. One little way you elevate your community, the planet, or the world, and we've heard so many big ways.
susie_jaramillo:
So I like to think that I very much am focused on the Latino community here in the United States because it's a community I understand well and that I can serve. And I elevate them by celebrating our culture, celebrating our culture, celebrating our language, and again, putting a mirror up to them and showing them how wonderful and special they are.
aransas_savas:
So one of the things we are trying to do here at the Uplifters is discover one another
susie_jaramillo:
Bye.
aransas_savas:
and create a rich community and tapestry of uplifting women. And so who is a woman who inspires you, who you think might inspire us?
susie_jaramillo:
So I'm going to recommend a woman called Beatriz Acevedo. Beatriz is an entrepreneur and a constant source of strength and wisdom for a lot of the entrepreneurs who are really putting together visions and seeing them through. She started off as a producer in Mexico and developed an Emmy winning. Emmys to her name shows, from reality shows, cooking shows. And then when Tech took off and she saw how YouTube was, social media were engaging people, she developed a short form comedy platform called Mitu, which became, it was kind of like in living color for Latin people. And it was short form comedy. Even today, it's still super, super popular. It makes you laugh all day long on your various social channels. And she sold that, for God knows how much, right? And she went on to decide, you know what? I've been serving this, she moved to the United States, I've been serving this U.S. Hispanic community. What our community really needs is financial literacy. So she pivoted to develop a financial literacy brand, a financial literacy tech platform that would serve and inform our Latino communities. connector and she knows everybody and she's a philanthropist and she's constantly shining a light on other women as well and she's just a light. She's as an Uplifter she is the ultimate Uplifter so I can't wait until you bring Beatriz Acevedo on to the show.
aransas_savas:
I can't wait to talk to her. Thank you, what a beautiful description of what it means to be an Uplifter in the world. It is not something that happens in a single moment, but it is a lifetime. It is what we choose to do in each moment. And for the sake of everybody listening, I wanna try to do a quick recap of some of the skill sets that I heard you employ in your way of being definition of success. Some of the main things I heard as I said before is just being able to not just identify your own talents and gifts but to own them and to not dismiss them or disregard them or push them off as being unimportant or not enough but to say this this is what I've got and lead with that and then to trust that you didn't need to know everything or have all the answers or figured out to explore and play and jump in to new opportunities and ideas, while constantly coming back to your own gifts and your own contributions, allowing yourself to feel a sense of purpose and impact at every stage of the game. And then finding through that what you love and then narrowing maybe how you enjoy doing and enjoy making an impact with and enjoy leveraging your talents around because you could have taken all of your beautiful talents in a million different directions but the magic is that you use them for something that you got satisfaction and joy out of and then you noticed where the impact was happening and you planted more seeds there and there was a moment in some of So that, so part three kind of took a step back and you were like, turn, let's start this process again. What am I good at? Where am I needed? What do I love? And then replanted those seeds that had been growing out of the last garden planted in the new gardens for new audiences. to do this throughout the course of your life and that when I talk to you again in five or ten years, we're going to hear more stories that are in essence no difference than this one, but with new impact, new audiences, and an even greater sense of purpose and impact. I am so excited to hear what others hear from this conversation. So please come join us at where we will be continuing these conversations with Susie and others, where we'll be looking at the how, so that we can all find our garden.
susie_jaramillo:
Thank you.
aransas_savas:
And we can all plant our seeds and watch them grow in surprising and magnificent ways.
susie_jaramillo:
Somebody said, I forget, it's some actress, I saw on social, said, when you plant seeds for trees that you won't get to enjoy, that is truly sort of serving humanity and doing something larger than oneself. And I feel that way. I feel like, you know, it's not all about what I can achieve in this lifetime. I feel like it's what I can contribute at the end of the day.
aransas_savas:
That's it. We all have that opportunity. Sometimes we need a little reminder, though.
susie_jaramillo:
Yep.
aransas_savas:
And I think your story, Conserve, is a really powerful reminder to all of us. And I absolutely include myself in this
susie_jaramillo:
Yeah.
aransas_savas:
recipe of that potential, that limitless potential. So if you're listening to this and it inspires you, please know that uplifting is contagious goal here is for us to all catch a little of Susie's spirit and to tap into and share our own. So please do share these stories with your friends and sisters and co-workers and the the women who lift you up and the ones who you know could need to use a boost today. And then we'll see you over at theUplifterspodcast.com. Susie, thank you so much for being here.
susie_jaramillo:
Thank you, Aransas for inviting me.
aransas_savas:
Thank you for all you do.
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