Recently, I’ve met individuals who are doing some great things.  Most were unknown to me, but they are cut from the same cloth – they understand that they can have their cake and eat it too.

Please, help me meet more individuals in the Latino community who have something new going on, or have the confidence to take on something new and are looking to make something happen.  There’s a lot of opportunities around and the cake needs to be passed on.

So if this means you or you are reading this and know anyone please feel free to refer them to me.  You can either do it through the contact form, FB, comments, etc…

For instance, if you’re in the general market does it make sense to tout you’re Latino-ness?  I’ve met some prominent entrepreneurs who you wouldn’t think were Hispanic because they never talk about it.

However, if you are in the Hispanic market then it may be useful if you specify that you are Latino.

There are extremes to this as well.  How about the case for authoring a book? Do you keep your cultural identity as a moniker or adopt a non-Latino pen name?  Some authors want to sell books and be a successful author, not a successful “Latina author” per se.

It’s interesting how some individuals approach the problem, as well as their thoughts (or no thoughts) on the cultural ramifications.

Do you know any examples of the above?

I’m constantly fascinated by how logos and company names were coined.  Being the grammar freak that I am (I can sit down and enjoy a book on the subject), I looked up terms for the creative creation of names and terms.

Here’s some terms that I’ve learned:

A portmanteau or portmanteau word is a blend of two or more words or morphemes into one new word. Often the sound and meaning incorporates it’s parts.

Wikipedia is a good example of this, it takes “wiki” and combines it with “encyclopedia” (and also happens to be the source for much of this research). Some others are Linkedin, YouTube, Facebook.

A neologism is a newly coined term, word or phrase that may be in the process of being commonly used, but has not yet been accepted into the mainstream.  (Now, does when something gets “Googled…” fall in place here, or it is just bad grammar I’m not sure.)

I have not found out what the term is when a letter is substituted in place of another.  I’m thinking of Disqus here.  Then there’s Flickr; in this case they removed the “e” and didn’t replace it with anything.  And of course there’s Digg where another “g” is added to “dig” to make a new name for a company.

No worries, I’m not going too crazy here.  We can’t always come up with a term and box in the creative process.  After all, it’s not everyday someone coins a Häagen-Dazs.

Not writing on my blog, is like not being at home for an extended period of time.  It’s not like I have not been busy though.  Here’s what I’ve been occupied with:

Networking:  I hope many of you are not undervaluing meeting people in ‘real-life.’  I’ve been busy adding more influential people to my address book and have been going out and shaking their hands to solidify the relationship.

Planning: Success is a continuous cycle of striving to reach goals, constantly readjusting to meet those goals, and formulating new direction.  If you’re social media plan is the same as it was a month or two ago, then you need a serious re-evaluation in order to reach new heights – nothing remains static.

Entrepreneurship: With Phase I of my social media plan done (more on that later), I’ve been concentrating on developing more business related agendas.  On the plate is a new business product which I’m partnering with my wife (she’s such a creative soul) on.  Another area is the ongoing development of the business side of  social media (forgive me for being vague, but that’s best for now).

As you can see, I’ve been busy.  A promise to you, is that I’m recommitting myself to the blog with more updates on the market in general as well as what I’m up to…hope to see you around.

My eyes, ears and mouth were sealed shut.
It’s interesting to see how businesses and marketers are now paying attention to previously ignored niche networks.  By this I specifically mean low-income demographics and urban communities.

There is an entire “sub-culture” of bloggers / twitterers complete with celebrities and household names I had never heard of!

I’m sure this experience will reverberate as more marketers and brands familiarize themselves with these ‘sub-cultures’ (unfortunately termed).  As a matter of fact, there are huge personalities and networks that are prevalent, but sadly unknown because of the unbalance of media attention.

I profit, so therefore YOU are.
Let’s be honest, the only reason why Latinos and other ‘minorities,’ are beginning to see engagement is because of money.  If profit was not desired via the new Latino romance, businesses would not be interested.  It’s a numbers game.

Here’s the twist:  some of these networks are hardened or better…petrified toward the monetization of their efforts.  They are suspicious and bitter because of the lack of attention and throwback that they have unduly swallowed over the years.  This wall of resistance will be undoubtedly be perplexing to the naive marketer.

I would hope that this chip (boulder if you will), on their shoulder can easily be traded for a more valuable token.  Opportunity will be knocking at the door, and it would be smart not to shoo it away.

Best course of action: set sail for the sun.
The challenge here for underdeveloped communities is NOT to rush in and haphazardly connect with businesses, but learn how to elevate themselves on more stable platforms in order to better control these opportunities and leverage their deal making abilities.  It is tenfold more beneficial to become business owners rather than remain consumers. Then, and only then can Latinos participate in economic decision making processes.