The Latino Professionals Association Celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month: Community-Minded Entrepreneurship
Glorian Rangel was born in Jerécuaro in the state of Guanajuaro, Mexico.
By Jonathan Gramling
One could say that Glorian Rangel is about the business of helping to uplift the community. She comes from entrepreneurial roots in Jerécuaro in the state of Guanajuaro, Mexico. Her mother was an entrepreneur.
“In Mexico, my mom tried several paths,” Rangel said. “She went from selling Mexican sweet bread to selling clothes. What really made her grow was a flower shop. She had a flower shop in Mexico. My sister took it over. They work on making flowers for all sorts of occasions, from weddings to funerals to holidays. They have really made that work for them. They are very creative and they are very good with what they do.”
Rangel’s parents separated and her mother decided to move to Wautoma, Wisconsin, found a job and then came back for Rangel who had lived with her grandparents for two years.
“The reason my mom settled there is because she had some third cousins whom she knew who lived there,” Rangel said. “And because of the situation she had in Mexico, she contacted them. And they helped her get started here in Wautoma. I lived in Wautoma from when I was nine-years-old until I graduated from high school.”
While she started as a wage employee, eventually Rangel’s mom caught that entrepreneurial spirit.
“My mom worked at a local Mexican restaurant in Wautoma,” Rangel said. “She them got the opportunity to work for a Christmas tree company. She took part ownership and created Christmas wreaths. She partnered up with the person to start that, creating the Christmas wreaths and all of these other decorations made from the Christmas tree boughs. Later on, she ended up marrying that person who ended up being my step-dad. Together, they continue to grow their Christmas tree company.”
Rangel moved to Madison to attend Edgewood College for a year. And while she left Edgewood, she wanted to stay in Madison where she felt safe. She enrolled at Madison College and earned her liberal arts degree in business and economics.
Rangel worked for a Nissan dealership in their business development center and call center.
“There was a position available for sales and they needed someone who speaks Spanish,” Rangel said. “I was like, ‘Me.’ I didn’t want to be behind a computer. I wanted to be in front of people. And I wanted to be able to of some sort of help. That was the position for me. All of the managers at the time were like, ‘No, no Glorian, you are too nice for that. You should not be there. You need to be pushy and aggressive.’ I was like, ‘No, being nice is a good thing. There are so many times when people come with their guard up who are ready to buy, but feel the need to protect themselves. How about someone nice, gentle and understanding for a change?’ I had managers who would say, ‘No, I don’t want a girl on the sales floor. I don’t want any women. I don’t want her there.’ Somehow, I managed to get myself on the sales floor. And I’m not even kidding. Within two months, I was ready to take on another position and this same manager who once said, ‘I don’t want a girl on my sales floor,’ said, ‘I don’t want you to leave. What do you want? I want you here. You have a big impact here. What do you want?’ I was like, ‘Wow, you didn’t want me here two months ago.’”
Rangel had proven the conventional wisdom wrong.
“I was able to sell cars with my nice persona,” Rangel said. “It was such a big change for people, not only because I was gentle and not aggressive, but also because a lot of people who walked in were Spanish speakers. Knowing there was someone there who would speak their language and have a good personality, they didn’t have to go anywhere else. And they trusted me.”
While Rangel had an entrepreneurial spirit, she also had a natural born feel for customer service. And her personal goal was to help the Latino community.
Rangel landed a job in real estate at Mode Realty Network, a small mom and pop real estate firm that nonetheless had people on staff who could speak seven different languages between them. Rangel felt that her position would put her in a positikon to help the Latino community with wealth development.
“I always try to get the message out to people who are making money here and sending all of their money to their countries to one day move back to their country and have their house already built,” Rangel said. “My message to them is ‘Save your money. Make a downpayment. Buy a house here. Invest in yourself. Create some wealth. When you are actually ready to go back to your country, sell this house. Take all of the profit and go see your house being built on your own.’ That’s what I am doing right now. I’m in real estate and that is what I am trying to get people to do, change their mentality of, ‘I will never be a homeowner. My heart and my mind are set on my country.’ I want to change it to, ‘I am here right now. I going to take advantage of what I am doing here. And then when I am actually ready to go to my country, I will take all that I gained here and start fresh in my country.’”
Rangel plans to go to UW-Whitewater of UW-Madison to earn her undergraduate degree in marketing or business. Eventually, Rangel wants to own her own business, to pursue that entrepreneurial spirit. But she has a conundrum. While she truly loves the business world, she has the heart of a social service worker. She isn’t sure how she can reconcile the two.
“My biggest goal is to be an owner of a business,” Rangel said. “And every idea that I have is so hard to implement. I know my strengths. I know my weaknesses. And I know what value I can bring to the community. In the future, my biggest want is to be that one person whom people can come to for whatever they need, to look for a job, to look for employees, to market their business, to help them get set up for insurance or a car or a cell phone. When they come here from another country not knowing English and how everything works here, I would like to set something up where I could be that one person that they go to for any kind of help. I don’t know if that would be an actual business where I can implement it to make me money and make a living. But that is my biggest goal that I still have to figure out. My biggest goal is just to give back or help out the Latino community in whatever field they are in need of.”
Glorian Rangel wants to be in the business of helping others. With her entrepreneurial zeal and good nature, someday, she will achieve her dreams.
