The Success Nuggets

Success Nuggets #41 - Navigating Data and Dreams: Insights from Alejandro Martinez

• David Abel • Season 2 • Episode 21

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Join us for an enlightening episode featuring Alejandro Martinez, a trailblazer in the data and AI industry. Alejandro takes us through his fascinating journey— one that began with a passion for numbers and has evolved into one of impactful leadership and entrepreneurial success. He shares critical insights about how understanding data isn’t just a skill, it's an essential part of modern business strategy. 

Throughout the episode, Alejandro opens up about the power of mentorship, highlighting how it has fueled personal growth while inspiring the next generation of leaders. He discusses his family-based initiative, Calm Capital, which reflects their shared values and vision for the future of investment in technology and real estate. 

Expect to take away gem insights about the importance of relationships in business, the necessity of adapting to change, and the value of seizing opportunities. 

Don't forget to subscribe and leave a review to help others find this transformative conversation.

Speaker 2:

Amazing, amazing wisdom, entrepreneurs, success, success around the world.

Speaker 1:

This is the Success Nuggets podcast. Have you ever wondered what you could learn and how inspired you'd be if you asked incredible people from around the world about the patterns that drive progress? Get ready to dive into a world of insights and inspiration, of insights and inspiration. This is the Success Nuggets podcast, with the founder of the Digital Lightbulb and your host.

Speaker 2:

David Abel, Welcome back to the Success Nuggets, the purpose-driven podcast where we explore journeys of incredible leaders and innovators shaping the future. Today, we are honored to have an extraordinary guest with us, Alejandro Martinez, a visionary leader in the data and AI industry, the CEO of Propel Inc Tech and an investor with Calm Capital. Hello, Alejandro. Thank you, Dave, for having me. What initially sparked your interest in data and then AI? How has that passion evolved for your career?

Speaker 3:

When I was in high school. I know mathematics being in like geometry, like the numbers and everything. So when it was the moment to choose my what was I going to do next a college I was sure that the only thing is I didn't want anything on the field, like I wanted to be on the business side. Then, by mixing both words, I started looking into business engineering, like more how you apply the engineering side, but what the engineers call the engineers like how you do the problem solving into business.

Speaker 3:

I started with that and then even growing on programming, working on Slack, and then when business intelligence started coming out, it came out from more like controlling, like finance, like reporting from the financial department. I started kind of being curious about numbers and business. So when I jumped into business intelligence data 20 years ago, it was difficult to explain to people what I do to make decisions by analyzing data here, because you say I work with data, with AI, and everyone understands what are you doing. But then I got passionate about that Through my journey. At college I studied business engineering, then I did major in business administration and then I did master's of engineering. So it was always kind of tying up the two words and for me the analytics was kind of filling the purpose of everything that I wanted, giving me everything that I dedicated, was taking a million on the analytics.

Speaker 2:

That's wonderful. I think analysis is so important for business as well, and it was great that you found your passion at school. I was always interested in maths and I remember leaving school at 16. And as soon as we got a pound sign in front of the numbers, it began to make more sense to me of the levers to press and pull me. When did you start to evolve into a business guy as well as a maths enthusiast?

Speaker 3:

That's a good thing, because one of the pieces that I've realised right now is at school, or even at high school, they don't teach you how to manage money and kind of the numbers with money. So when I was at high school or even when I was a kid, the reference or role models that people were putting to me were the topics, and like those are the ones appearing in media is not about the story of an entrepreneur that did something, that has a company or two, five, ten, nine, no, it's the person who is managing a multimedia company. So all my career I was trying to resemble to those top executives, like how you go through the corporate ladder. And another bit Last year is when I realized what I'm doing, why I'm doing this for someone else, like why I don't start doing this for me and instead of even looking more into what we will have as a PD, so managing money to start, more interest on how you put the money to work for you, what other things can you do?

Speaker 3:

And I would say that the 2034 for me was kind of the illumination year of let's build something on our own. Like, let me. We have come to this plane. We have gathered a lot of information, we have created a career, we have created connections, we met a lot of people, but now is the time to give back, is the time to create something new and not to be afraid of of building that on our own.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, giving and creation are really beautiful values and things to be able to do, and mentorship is a significant aspect of your work as well, if I'm right. Have you got any memorable experiences from your participation in the Orbition Mentorship?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, like let me. There, I do mentorship to accept a bit. I always say to them like, let me. There's kind of a data career mentorship, but to accept is a non-true pearl in their career on the data. And on the data they always say like hey, thank you for dedicating the time and I was like no, thank you, like Lemini, you don't know. They said something that someone was like saying to me a few weeks ago. They were saying the most selfish act is to get, because in reality I I didn't realize that it's not that you're giving, but in reality you're getting more than what the person is getting. It's hard to explain because everyone thinks like noise and flow is a car mice and they're needing no meaning.

Speaker 3:

When you dig, when you how, you feel more in power. It's like getting to a different rate so that you have conversations, you learn from the conversation. You're getting different, in which you you grow upon your artistic view, but also just by helping you feel more empowered, so your confidence grow up, you have more confidence to have a different conversation with other activities. So that's this kind of like a cycle and I like to learn. That's what I like. To travel, that's why I like to learn, that's the word. I like to travel, that's why I like the consulting, and then mentorship is kind of the journey of teaching and sharing. You get also insights on learning, yeah, you really do.

Speaker 2:

Mentorship is so crucial for everyone, and just someone saying thank you to you in your heart, you know you've done the right thing, and if they come back to you, you can be so proud of them. And that's when the real, genuine relationships begin as well, moving on into collaboration and very positive ethics. Tell me about Calm Capital.

Speaker 3:

So Calm is a really good thing, because the kids were playing around in the basement at home and they were playing with the words. And this was before everything. I mean, I was still the CEO in my previous company and they came to me saying hey, we're Carlota, alejandro, leonor and Maria, so we're the calm family. It's like, okay, we're in the calm family. So when the moment came to to do the jam and leave my position as a CEO and start creating something new, we were saying we're calm, like that's the name of our company, that's where we're going to create a whole thing. So the whole thing started because they were kind of even the kids like we want to be part of it. It's funny because I was having an invitation with them with kevlar and and to team and say I'm helping with the note. This is like okay. So we started designing the nobles calm and I don't see what quarter do you think we should have? And to say, well, like blue, my mom likes black, I like pink. They were like pink, oh my god. So then I ended up coming up and then the logo came with just one pink. I went okay, this is what Hannah's ever doing. It had the blue, the black, white and the pink side, and we embedded or embraced the logo for everything that we were doing.

Speaker 3:

At the end, carl started more on how we start creating our own vehicles that we need even on as a family. So we started with creating a vehicle to invest, then to create a bike street, to do mentorship, to help with global services from companies. And then, on the investment side, we were saying you invest for you one of the things you control. So we're saying you invest where you want the things you control. So we're saying I understand technology is bad and we understand real estate in terms of my background from my father. So let's go into those two backgrounds and that's how we start. We start with Cal and then we start to build Cal and real estate in order to look there. From there, we were saying well, I know, we create pound means fame and we open a subsidiary in URL and this is a piece of the money.

Speaker 3:

When you think money, it's just like the way for you to get money is salaries Maybe. Like you get a salary, so you need a salary in crude, and so instead of working with banks like, hey, you want to be my buyer, I need money. This is is my idea, and you need money as a person. No, I need the money as account. So I started seeding the implement from that. So I got letter of service as well in order to start investing in euro. I replicated that in in latin american colombia and then suddenly we were like, oh my, what we have created in one year. My wife even went from there like, okay, like now we need to create our own account to manage everything else that we're doing. So she started working this year on the family office and working and managing everything.

Speaker 3:

Kids last year it was summer Like for them I would say that I don't get the money Monday or anything. The oldest came in like, hey, I know how my key, I'm losing my source of revenue. It's like oh, create the business. Maybe you blinked. Did you have seen an image so clearly? What you need to do is just go and create a business. You have already come as a black for me. Go and do it. Okay, let's go and create a store.

Speaker 3:

And it was nice to see things that I would be shy or afraid to do it. They were like many days that had praying, comes forward selling soaps when the neighborhood then they started buying big amounts of produce and we sending that. And when we were traveling for something in hotels three the breakfast they were with their bags saying, hey, we have this, this, it's only one, two dollars, and they were getting like silks well, like something that we never did, like they didn't go and bother someone in a hotel to say, hey, you want to buy this? They were selling cdp like a family thing, like how, how we do this as a family?

Speaker 2:

that is incredible. I'm not even sure that's the most incredible story we had on the show. I think I'm going. That's so beautiful and the way they've built it up. The letter, and younger generations as well, do see it differently to how you all see it and you just got to let them run with it and then trust everything you're doing. The table must be like a hive of of energy in the evenings.

Speaker 3:

Like like Lenny knows, I talk with them. I always try to take the kids to school. So I say to them, like look, palm story is your thing, it is not mine. Like I'm not here to pray, like I'm dedicated to bring propel tech to the next level as a way of pass time, delivering value. So I say to them yes, we like the need in. Normally I get paid to advise companies on how they know their stuff and using data. You have me like the mini.

Speaker 3:

The best work on studying is telling what you want to do, how you want to do it and it help you prep those things when you need to own it. And seeing that is amazing. Like the meaning I always say you get experience work from both works, like by being having a job, but also you you're being allowed by kind of what we were saying before with the location of working with money, like seeing how hard is to make money. Like they were selling in may last year, 500 transactions and I was saying this is what you have. It's like, oh, that's so few as a margin. Like yeah, but like let me just be in, this is just the starting point and that's the piece that you don't realize when you're building something.

Speaker 3:

I've seen the first year, the second year those are the past few years like you have cash flow issues, even when you're having success At Propel Deck, for example, we're growing super fast, but then that means that as we're growing, we need to finance the cash flow because at the end, you're investing on all the future growth that you're doing. So you always need more cash flow, more cash flow. Those are the pieces that people don't realize on one day. But it goes as visibly as you need to be. You can do it.

Speaker 3:

I would say, like it's not that you go there as a donkey and and and go here in the end. This is my idea. And now you go with your idea. You get feedback, you correct the new event and then you start. But if you have the idea that that's the right thing and maybe if you made a mistake you need to correct for your credit, but that is the right that will make you go up over, on, on, on everything I look forward to reading your family's book one day about this story in this chapter, how it evolves over the next few years.

Speaker 2:

I'm sure it will. You're also a well-known kind of profile and personality yourself. You're featured in forks. You're a speaker of the World Economic Forum. You are now already in the process of writing a book, I believe co-authoring with Mr Joe Foster, the founder of Ebook in the third edition of Survive and Thrive. Yeah, Is there anything you can share on that book or the process so far? Well, the process was amazing.

Speaker 3:

Like Lenine, at the end, what you would do and with the golden nugget theme, I would say is you don't say it to realize on your own spot. And even I would say there are things that I haven't shared with my wife, not because I want it like the meaning we don't have any secrets, but because you don't go to reflect how you were as a kid, when you were five, thinking your soul and you're growing and what are the things you went through. That at the end, is creating you as a person. And I would say, just going through that process of writing the book was a little bit kind of really discovering myself, even getting aha moments of whoa. The meaning of what I have found in 2024 is similar to what I did in 2003. But basically, at the end of the day, I was already. I was working in Colombia and I grew up in a really conservative family. I had everything Like, basically I didn't have the need to reach, I was a spy. Next, I don't know, let's say it that way 2003 or 2002, I started up mine to get into P&D, what they were calling the prestige firm. One of the pieces or conditions through the process there was you need to know, you need to have page.

Speaker 3:

When I got the English on my own, my parents sent me when I was 16 to London. I didn't get anything going through MacGyver, melodyne, all the Macion pages. It took me also to be part of robbery, kidnap. I didn't get back and doing those things. I would say it. They made an opinion to change Rayquell and that something. So in 2002 I was saying okay, I will go to Londonondon. I tried to come in by parents to send me again. They say no, we did get opportunity now is on you. Oh, okay, I will sell my car and I will go on my own. I have money for my lawn and I will make it happen. So that is the year where I stopped being spoiled and where I started jumping into my new meme and it became more like I need to demonstrate that I'm not coming back. Everyone was betting that, oh my God, you're going to be there one month and you're coming back because you're going to run out of money. There's no one sending me money. So I managed to get into Harrow Cafe, verona's Cafe in Tamar Work and started working in the night and then I made sure the whole day and I was saying, okay, I love this thing. My my work opened. I was starting school in a college just in front of the museum, so my grades were in the British museum and very non-cultured everything that wasn't like exposed at all when I was a and I started more like, oh, I want more of this. So from there we went to Spain, we started growing and that's how I got into research, innovation and data analytics.

Speaker 3:

After I knew my career I say that one's living career. It resembles to a mid-barrier career. So you go through the rounds and for me that was kind of the communication like the completely big aspect that I had. I was like I want to go pretty quick through the ladder, but basically every six months I was just jumping from one position to the other. We were five years after I was a partner of the company and that made me through 2020 trip, where it's that kind of questioning other things like what is the purpose of life and why we're here? Should I continue living in this area?

Speaker 3:

And after I started with the calm approach and crave for pen and tear, they were uneven and I told people calm is, this is the opening for us, or the vehicle, but it represents more the change on everything that we're doing. Then we went through something we call living with conscience, like making decisions, avoiding the automatic way of making decisions and taking emotions out of that. That's a different example for people when we do things with calm. They don't understand that because at the end is we're not putting emotions, is they don't even approach like if an ambulance would help us and then we had the energy we'd go with those plans. And then we went through one hour planning, so we were more one hour so doing this thing, like how we think, how we're sleeping, how we're living, how we're breathing, how we're eating food, like what type of food we're eating, and we started the whole idea Like I didn't have a good shaping.

Speaker 3:

You know, I wasn't really doing any sports. I lost nearly 25 kilos in the last three months. I always say to people when I come and say what is the diet you're doing, it's like no, I changed my life. That's my diet. I changed completely my lifestyle and the energy I got from it is kind of the same that when you behave and you help, you get empowered. It's the same level of energy that I'm getting right now. And I mean as a family, I don't think I would be able to do that alone.

Speaker 2:

That's really powerful stuff, the power of habits. Just turning them one at a time and with your data background is a really beautiful story and proof that the things that seem impossible are actually only a couple of steps away. And, andrew, where can people find more on Calm and other ventures? You?

Speaker 3:

do come. We went without like, hey, let's don't get knowledge on where we're willing to do publicity or marketing or what we were doing, so we thought we were paying back and investing in other stocks and bills. Today, now that my wife is fully dedicated, we started let's create our own building market. Let's create like we create come the module that come as the way to go and build a whole portfolio. We're working on that as we speak, the first one that we created. And then this is the bit where we say I joke around with my little team.

Speaker 3:

Alejandro Martinez is like John Smith in Spanish, so I went through and Echo Martinez that is how my family was called. They just showed their name and that's the same name of a really well-known singer in Latin America. So he has the domain for a long time and that's here. In December I got an alert saying the domain is available. They wanted me to say oh yeah, I meant. So I go there. We created because in the infocom we were saying is call starts with your image, like at the end you're getting the contact one Then.

Speaker 3:

So we deal at evoMartinezcom as an admin page of our portfolio, where we have a column, we have a propelling deck. We have a liquid chip, all the different things where we're meeting in bulk in one way or the other, either because we're helping, like the tech leader and the creator liquid chip, or because we're investing and then cleaning up our work to that the company take all the solutions. But yeah, like right now, calm international would be the the go-to. We are building that as being one year, like basically in 10 days, for being my anniversary or leaving my job. Now it's being a short journey, but when we look back and we see what we have built in Cal like nearly we're pretty much in the middle of this, like right now is hitting the eight fevers it's like oh my God, like we never imagined we could do this. You know, I love it because we were really doing that on ourselves and it's the same like the more you get to know things, the more things come to you. It's been an adventure that we're all enjoying.

Speaker 2:

Alejandro, where's your one golden nugget before we go?

Speaker 3:

My one word of advice I always say more than one. I call it the recipe I believe upon you need to know your goals. You need to have your vision. Once you have that, you need to know where you're going as a person or as an organization Then you need to act quick, like, like the media need to go really fast in terms of those that were the media's goal, you just need to take it. If it of those opportunities go, you just need to take it. If it's something is correct, you correct quick. It's not even you know what. You're trying to act free on what you're doing.

Speaker 3:

And right now, one of the pieces that I see is noticing the basis to be a luxury right now is a promoted Like. The need is available for everyone. It's more how you access that knowledge where the questions you're asking. So the end is I like this from Joe Foster If you're the market person in the room, then you're in the wrong room and then let me. That's the point. You need to have a team that is empowering you as a person, as an organization, to help you spark pride in your life. Beautiful stuff.

Speaker 2:

Once again, it's only a short show, I'm afraid, so we're going to say thank you, ken, goodbye, thank you for having me and for our listeners. That could be the end of season two. Season three coming up is going to be about couples. Alejandro, I've not interviewed more than one person at a time, so we have five couples lined up, who some are married, which should be an interesting show, I'd imagine.

Speaker 3:

Oh yeah, like when you're at the end you don't realize. I always say I'm here where I am because of my wife, and some people say the best decision you can make in your life is beating your partner in arms. This is more like the bad moment that the person that is covering you in the good moments, that the person that is empowering you the good moments than the person that is empowering you. But what was it? Seeing this in the calm, as an adventure? We're here because, I mean, we understand each other. We, we don't need to say things. What was it like growing up in Columbia? Well, for me, I always say you get used to things, at least not that I wasn't. I never left Columbia because all things are created here for things. You really use it, the EU, you have your own life.

Speaker 3:

I realized from that when the terrorist attack happened in Madrid, on the trains, everyone was concerned on the number of people that died that day and I was like saying, oh, there's Jewish, not our people. I don't remember what. 51, not everyone. 150, but I was like that was the normal kill rate on every week on a Palm Beach, meta D1. Where you were having friends. That's the normal way I realized well, I'm not you, but it is the date that I'm normal and it was only normal for you to continue living. You were getting used to I don't know this way. A demand, okay, who is next? Something was. It's not common at all, but you make kind of your common thing. The authorities are violent and live in the identifier.

Speaker 2:

Yeah right, they could be really strong to live in those kinds of pressure environments.

Speaker 3:

Oh yeah, you don't realize until they're changing, repeating, changing the way how you go to school, things that not how you go to school, things that not many people don't do and you were doing as a part of your day to day going in blind, approved cars and stuff like that. Then you realize, oh, this is normal. Then this is the piece. I was okay, like it's not that I suffered something, like there is a personal force that that made me true, like I don't know, being in intense robberies with all the family members. We were in one where we were like 25 family members in a house with 20 people armed and we were locked out for nearly nine hours.

Speaker 3:

I didn't take naps and speaking from that, those things, of course you, those moments where you have a pressure and you need to react pretty quick. You have just one opportunity, and I always say to my kids is be lucky doesn't exist. You need to prepare yourself really hard and then you need to be in that quiet moment when things are happening. So there is a moment of being there when the opportunity is happening and that's when you need to react quick. But you need that preparation in order to be able to grab the opportunity.

Speaker 2:

The insights today have been world-class. My friend, we spoke about knowing yourself and four words to describe yourself. Did you ever get to find your four words?

Speaker 3:

I was like. So one goes to the ingenious side, like the creation, the innovation. Another one goes to the dangerous, like meaning. I want to try new things, and it's not just exploring the world but also learning from something, being more open to things that I wasn't really aware. And then the third one I would say will define me in the family being close, as a family member, and not just as a partner, but also as being a part of the family. And the fourth one would be helping in terms of community.

Speaker 3:

I can tell you every week I keep going up with the four words like how, which one really means, and then slowly, in that way, saying you have to choose four boundaries. Those are the boundaries that will define you, and it was honesty, happiness and stuff like that, and easily you need to be loyal to those boundaries. It doesn't mean you need to change, but when you're making a decision, if it's pulling at the end your honesty, then you know you should really do it. So I could be, as a process of finding myself, I'm say these are my, my first four, but I'm more kind of how I discover myself. And then, on every day, me, I call it this 20, putting poor rise.

Speaker 3:

That in 2024 is my in the mean ancient page, like the meaning being more conscious on everything that is happening, getting exposed to crypto, metaverse thing. That was like, oh no, the world is not like my antichrist, like I'll never touch him. It's giving me new ideas. It's giving me new connections, learning from new people. Something, for example, in the Dersot community that I learned is people normally come and say, oh, you're the first person you're trying to sell me something and you're making the connection. And I and say, oh, you're the first person you're trying to sell me something and you're making the connection. And I would say, yeah, I prefer to connect with you, learn what you have about how you are as a person, and then if we find a CD or a connection that something can grow from there, that's perfect. Otherwise, then me and we're just get into no, each other and the connection become more reopening rather than just hey, I have this blooper on my page here. I want to see you. No, it's different.

Speaker 2:

Do you get it, not just turn up and get it doesn't work like that. Anything else we should have talked about? And what patterns create progress?

Speaker 3:

The only piece that I would say that I have learned through this journey is I have learned a lot that people are afraid to change and in general, as humans, we see change as an enemy, like we're well known as an enemy. That is the piece that I call it and we have as a cleaning propellant tech like CB Young today. It could be a Merzen low, high, but if you don't try to see what is coming after, you will get spot on. Right now. One of the pieces there I must say is something is risky when you don't control it, when you don't know something worse, you find that risky. At the moment. It's been merited little by little and it's good. No point in creating it all day. It becomes your common sense. So I always say, joseph Spock, if you want to do something, just jump and do it. If you don't do it, nothing will change. If you keep doing the same things, nothing will change. But everyone knows that things need to change and that's the piece that I make people go and change Like try it Beautiful.

Speaker 2:

Keep following your heart. It's all going in the right direction and it feels like I'm looking at a thread moving through your life. Thanks for coming in.

Speaker 3:

Thank you, Dave, for having me Join David and his incredible guests.

Speaker 2:

next time on the Success Nuggets podcast and to find out more, visit OneGoldenNuggetcom. Thank you on the.

Speaker 1:

Success Nuggets podcast and to find out more, visit onegoldennuggetcom. Thank you for listening.