From Selling Glasses to Fulfilling Dreams: Jose Meneses' Entrepreneurial Adventure

Brent Peterson (00:02.064)
Welcome, today we have Jose Meneses. Jose is in the EO community in Minnesota and has some exciting, has had an interesting journey. Jose, go ahead, introduce yourself, tell us your company name, your day-to-day role, and one of your passions in life.

Jose Meneses (00:20.49)
Thank you for having me Brent. I'm happy to join the community. We are in Minnesota. Yeah, and in the entrepreneur journey, I will say from, I was a kid, and originally from Venezuela, South American, and when I was between 10 and 11 years, I sell glasses and all the,

can to recycling companies and I get to save my money for the summertime. I spend some money and then I went to school, college and. Graduated, started my. 8 to 5 workday. And one day in 2020. I was in a clean room working.

I really can't see myself for the next 20 years and doing this in a room, wedding night, you know, all the things into the clean room. And I quit my job the next day and I started my journey in 2020. At that time I met one of my grad mentors in business and she said, you need to try.

to try, you need to try and it doesn't need to be perfect. Yes, go ahead. And I start offering consulting business, basically, trying to connect Latin American businesses, companies, connecting with the US and I ended up building a mobile apps, custom software.

and all the crazy things. And it's like all the up and down, the entrepreneur, you're in the house, some days I pay the developer guy more money than when I get. And I said, well, at least I was able to pay then. So that is a satisfaction. Nobody's looking for me, right? And that helped.

Jose Meneses (02:46.234)
Being on the down helps you to understand what is what you need to do in order to enjoy every day regardless of where you are. Being in the downside is one of the most helpful experiences in your life.

Jose Meneses (03:16.134)
I only count with myself. In the last EO Rally Minnesota, they have Alex Rodriguez and another speaker. I remember both of them saying, we need to be our self esteem, our self esteem. We need to promote ourselves. We need to believe in ourselves and we need to push ourselves. So, and.

By 2021, the first year rally, I went in Neapolis. I met a guy in the round table. I think both were like, what are we doing? What are we gonna do next? So we're changing numbers and someday we met in a coffee and talking. We ended up being partners. So right now.

I have a partnership with a guy I met in the EO rally. We joined for and he's doing the customer service itself and I'm more like doing the operations side of the business and offering fulfillment service in the Midwest. We are right now.

working with manufacturing, some manufactured companies in Minnesota and the Midwest, and we are doing keating, assembling, and fulfillment. Yeah, this is my story.

Brent Peterson (04:58.28)
That's awesome. I know that the Latin community has been growing in Minnesota. I think the Venezuelan community is probably pretty small, but have you been, have you had a good experience here in Minnesota as an immigrant, as a Latin American, as an Hispanic? Have you had challenges because of that?

Jose Meneses (05:22.966)
Yes.

Well, of course, like being an immigrant is always a challenge, but the challenging push you for the best every day. The language barrier, the new friends, the new economy system, everything is a challenge. And if you take the challenge, like the things that push you to the best, you get it. So and about Minnesota.

I fell in love with the Calhoun Lake for the first time. And I said, this is the place where I wanna be. Everybody's being welcomed. Everybody is giving me the best. And at the same time, I give them the best. So I don't count any particular details. You always wanna find any particular detail around the world. I just count the positive things.

Venezuela is being awesome country. It's an awesome land. Like an immigrant, I can say, yes, I'm happy here. And thank you, Venezuela.

Brent Peterson (06:41.172)
That's great. I can speak from experience. I've been to South America and we used to have an office in Bolivia. And the cultural differences between Bolivia and Venezuela and Minnesota and Mexico, I assumed that the culture was all the same across Latin America. Maybe Brazil was different, but I quickly learned like you mentioned eight to five, right? Your time.

In Mexico, a lot of times the expectations from a developer or from somebody that has to work is gonna be seven to seven or with maybe a siesta in the middle of the day. And we sent developers from Bolivia to Mexico to work and they don't wanna go back because they feel like they have to work too much. Do you see a similar, from a cultural standpoint, did you have to make a shift when moving?

Jose Meneses (07:25.727)
Yes.

Brent Peterson (07:34.376)
to the US or moving to Minnesota specifically and how you worked or do you think that being an entrepreneur you're working yourself and you don't really fit into some of those, some of those, I'll say stereotypes around culture and working and things like that.

Jose Meneses (07:55.799)
Oscars that are different.

That is what makes the immigrant and local great when you are able to be open to diversity. I can't imagine a world being the same. I can't imagine myself doing the same thing every day. So that diversity is what makes the countries great. And I would just say.

the best thing of every country, everything, even here in the US, with all the respect I have for this country, people in the Midwest have a different behavior than the East Coast and the West Coast, right? So same thing happened with us. Food, maybe it's different. We are maybe more loud. All the time it's a party.

But you need to understand we are in a different side of the world. And if you are able to respect where you are, you get in the same respect for who you are too, right? And I would say the main difference is the food. So for you, Lone Stein is a lot of small sandwiches for us. It's different. So I would say this is the main difference.

But other than that, we need to feed a family. We need to work for our community. And we need to work for our wife. Why is the reason I'm doing this? Why I'm in this world? What can I do to improve myself, my family, my circle, and my community? And if you are not doing that in any space in the world,

Jose Meneses (09:58.21)
You are not doing what you mean to be doing.

Brent Peterson (10:03.792)
Yeah, that's awesome. Tell me a little bit about how EO has helped you in your entrepreneurial self.

Jose Meneses (10:13.194)
Well, the first thing I will say, I used to be a shy person. I think I still being shy sometimes. But the fact I was able to meet other entrepreneurs having the same issue, the same thought, I have the same question I have that made a difference and say, hey, you are able to talk.

to speak with somebody and don't be shy. Nobody's gonna questioning who you are or why are you asking that? I would say getting out of the shy thought was one thing. Second thing, the importance of the networking. Networking is important when you are in the entrepreneurial journey. So connect with some people.

in your same field in a different field. That is gonna be one of the things I can say. The EO and you always learn from all the people on the tables, on the meeting, in every event the EO has. You always learn and learning is not only and the winning in the EO is not only making money is the possibility to

say I met and I have friends since your.

Brent Peterson (11:48.988)
Yeah, that's great. I think the other thing that for us, you know, we went on a retreat to Mexico City. We were able to connect with the Mexico City chapter of EO and we had tours and we had a wonderful lunch. And anywhere you go in the world, there's a community that is around EO, maybe not North Korea, but most places in the world.

Jose Meneses (12:18.123)
Mm-hmm.

Brent Peterson (12:19.148)
have an EO community that welcomes you as a member. And it's truly an inside track to allow you to glimpse the inside of somebody else's business in another part of the world. Have you had a chance to experience EO from outside of Minnesota?

Jose Meneses (12:34.542)
Mm-hmm.

Jose Meneses (12:41.678)
Oh, not directly, but I met a couple EO members from Canada and one of them from Mexico, Dominican Republic, great people too. And, but so far, just three places.

Brent Peterson (13:04.828)
Yeah, I wanna just say quickly about Dominican Republic. If you speak Spanish or if you try to speak Spanish, their Spanish is completely different than anywhere. It's Spanglish and they speak really, really fast. Especially if you're only used to Spanish from central Mexico. So if you could look back on your journey, what do you wish that you knew before you started?

Jose Meneses (13:17.627)
Yes.

Jose Meneses (13:22.378)
Yeah.

Brent Peterson (13:33.116)
or what advice would you give yourself even when you started your journey?

Jose Meneses (13:39.791)
Oh, read more books, learn more financial, and look for a mentor.

Brent Peterson (13:51.636)
That's great. So, look for a mentor. Kind of tell me a little bit more about that. Tell me about how, why that's important to find a mentor in whatever you're doing in terms of entrepreneurship.

Jose Meneses (14:06.446)
So, sometimes I have a quote when I say, tunnel vision, we only see sometimes the tree instead of the forest. And the mentor help you to see the forest. And they help you to.

Jose Meneses (14:28.214)
your fairs and they help you to technically be more efficient and look forward for what you want and again we are being sometimes in the downside they push you to get up and go up and up again and they help you to become a better better.

different.

Brent Peterson (15:00.6)
Excellent. From an industry standpoint, do you see your business, you're in 3PL, you're in fulfillment, right? Do you see that, do you see pressures against that right now in our economy or do you see your business in a sector that's just going to continue to grow?

Jose Meneses (15:18.01)
They continue to grow. Besides all the news and all the reality or not about economy, every day people are getting the e-commerce is growing exponentially, it's growing every day. People need more fulfillment, right? And there are companies needing more help.

and they are not able to do on their own.

Jose Meneses (15:52.286)
e-commerce or manufacturing need help. I see that business growing. And there is a lot of competition out on the market too, but there is no something I am afraid for. I think you, we are able to learn from our competitors too. And actually in the last year rally, one of the speaker, Meredith said,

our competitor are our biggest help. You can learn from that.

Brent Peterson (16:31.836)
Yeah, that's great advice, learning from your competitors. Last question, from a work-life balance standpoint in your family, how have you been able to remain sane and also be an entrepreneur? With work-life balance, how are you able to maintain a balance with your family and with your business? Number one, do you maintain a balance?

Jose Meneses (16:33.602)
Mm-hmm.

Jose Meneses (16:49.154)
That again, sorry.

Brent Peterson (17:01.644)
or do you put it all into work and leave something second?

Jose Meneses (17:06.562)
Um, um, I didn't in the past. I didn't, and I lose some.

Jose Meneses (17:16.75)
balance so and that helped me understand we need a balance we need to come home and see this might in our special one and this is a reset this is a recharge energy recharge like an electric car when you go to a charge station this is how I see fame and it needs to be both

In the, sometime in the past, I learned about that right now. So life is only about my perspective, with all respect. Somebody can be disagree on that, but we need a balance. So if we are just focusing on business, we are losing the human side.

and family, friends, and space alone is necessary too. And I remember exactly, sorry, melody powers and competition becomes collaboration. That's the quote I missed.

Brent Peterson (18:33.448)
Yeah, that's awesome. And I'll just add that in EO, as part of our monthly meetings, we discuss a balance between business, professional, and personal, or business, family, and personal, I should say. And that's emphasized just because of that balance. And in my forum, we don't. We.

we would encourage people to have that balance and to talk about things other than just business because everything in your life affects your business and certainly having poor family life or poor business life affects either way, right? If you're having a hard time at work, it does come home sometimes and it makes it hard at home. So having that balance and having everybody understand sometimes what you're going through is important.

Jose Meneses (19:26.483)
Yeah. I agree.

Brent Peterson (19:29.504)
Jose, at the end of the podcast, I give you a chance to promote or plug anything you'd like. What would you like to promote or plug today? And plug is something where you can just shamelessly tell and promote yourself or a charity or an organization. What would you like to...

Jose Meneses (19:47.954)
I would say three things. Thank you to the EO Rally organization for having me and letting me the opportunity to talk. And second thing to all people who are able to listen, don't be afraid to be an entrepreneur. It doesn't need to be perfect. You will have a lot of challenges.

difficult time. Don't be afraid. Yes. Move forward. You can.

stop, think, take a deep breath. No being where you want to be doesn't mean you are not in the right way. And the third thing, I will say, we are helping people to deliver their product to the final customer, doing fulfillment and manufacturing assembly. We are located in San Luis Park, Minnesota, plus one fulfillment.

our company and ready to help you grow and help you.

Brent Peterson (21:03.656)
Great, thank you Jose, muchas gracias. I will put all your contact information in our show notes for us today and I appreciate you being here. I'm also in St. Louis Park so we'll have to go for lunch sometime. What is your, in St. Louis Park, what is your favorite Latin restaurant?

Jose Meneses (21:07.143)
Oh, for nada.

Jose Meneses (21:25.67)
Oh, in San Luis Bar, there is a Mexican restaurant. And there are tacos, something like that. That's the one. Yeah. Exactly. Mm hmm. Sure. No, for now. Yeah. Thank you for having me and the best for you and all the people.

Brent Peterson (21:36.112)
Yeah, in Texotunca.

Okay, we'll go there. Muchas gracias. Mucho gusto, Jose.

Brent Peterson (21:49.044)
Ciao.