Ximena Buffa - Variety and Challenging Yourself

Founder's Voyage · Mar 08, 2024

Transcript

I think the advice that I told, be yourself better, a better person and your company will be better. Our featured speaker today is the co -founder and director of growth at MTI Selling. She has over 11 years of experience in B2B marketing and digital personal brand consulting for senior executives and professionals. She's also a speaker and teacher. Thank you so much for making time for this today, Samina. We're so thrilled to have you as our guest and have you share your journey with us. Thanks, Nancy, and thanks to the community for the invitation, and thanks for being here and listening. Yes, actually, I am the co -founder of MPA Selling, that is a marketing B2B consultant for IT companies in Latin America, like 11 years, that's very grateful and very difficult Maybe you have heard that, you have heard that of the other founder, no, he's bad. I believe it. I was wondering if you could actually take us back before, in the before

entrepreneur times and tell us a little bit about some of your experiences growing up and maybe some of the early events or mentors you feel really influenced your personal and professional development. Okay, well, I never thought when I was very young or a student, I never thought to be an entrepreneur or start a business. My idea is to be an employer. I have the main, I wanted to be, to live in another country. I in ISX, that is an international organization to develop the leadership in young people. and I met a lot of foreign people who was being for a while in Uruguay and I wanted to do that. So when I finished my university I spent two years working here in Montevideo and then I went to Chile to have an internship and then I stayed there and started my company. My previous time to be an entrepreneur, I studied communication. I wanted to be like a journalist in the newspaper. I liked the press, the work in the press, in media, But when I started to work, I said, no, I don't like that, it's not like that I thought. I was very like, I don't know, it was not frustrating, but I was like, what am I going to do now? This is that I study and I don't like it. So I started to find an internship in another country and I'm going to find another way to do something that I like, maybe I have to know, I have to meet, I have to do more to find new experience in order to discover that I like. And when I was in Chile working in an IT company, I met my future partner that I think that she was my main mentor when I was in my 20s. She's from Chile, Andrea, she's still my partner now and actually she's having a baby right She, yes, the baby was, yesterday she went to the hospital and she guided me a lot, she was my boss in that time and some day she told me, well why, if we are working here doing sales and marketing in an IT company, why we don't create a company to do that in

for other IT companies. So the thing is I was fired and she was my mentor in that company and to start the business and to develop my relationship and my contacts in Chile. I was very young when I went to Chile, I was 24 years and I didn't know anything about the corporate world. I was working in the media here in Uruguay, I was very young. She was very like a teacher, a good mentor, an excellent mentor personally and for my first steps in the business world in Chile. Then I had others, but I think I don't have a formal way to have a mentor. I asked for two mentors, I had a talk, a conversation in a cafe twice a year. And they helped me a lot, but as I'm developing network or my conversation or how to create relationship in the enterprise world. I think the impact of a mentor on an entrepreneur can be so difficult to quantify, but it's so important. And I really appreciate you sharing that with us. Now, I believe you have a Master's in Educational Technology, and I hope I don't butcher the name here, at Tecnologico de Monterrey? Yes, in Mexico.

How did you decide to pursue a degree in communication? Well, it happened something similar to with the show. I didn't know. When I was 16 years, I wanted to be a lawyer. When I finished my bachelor, the last year of the high school, I say that no I don't like to be a lawyer because I didn't like the topics. So I just find a scholarship in a university in Montevideo and communication it seems something like very broad but I like the communication, I like to write, I like to talk, to relate to know people so say I'm going to study that and then I will find what I like. And then the master degree in the Tecnológico de Monterrey, I chose that because I really I the process of learning and teaching. Proceso de enseñanza -aprendizaje in Spanish was learning -teaching process. I really like that.

My parents are teachers, retired now, but I think they inherited that vocation. Actually, in company, the most that I like is to keep the relationship with my clients and to do consultants, and now I'm a teacher for that, I my master's degree, in order to learn how to optimise or maybe make better the process of learning and teaching in the companies. That's a great reason to start teaching. So how, was it selling that appeal to you, or how did you kind of like make that leap into your career after you knew that you didn't want to be a lawyer? And I mean, I'm grateful for your sake that you knew that in high school and not after some years at university. I think it's great to have that sort of self perception that, you know, at least you know

what you're not interested in. So, how did you find, how did you really find selling and communication as like, you know, not just an area that you went to school for, but like an area of focus that you wanted to focus your career on? Well, I didn't, I didn't think in that way, I just was exploring because I didn't want to do that, I want to be a lawyer then, I didn't want to keep in the path as a journalist, I started to work as a journalist in one of the main newspapers and say no, I don't like that. But what I like, I was discovering that I like to talk and meet new people, so I have try to find another way to keeping that with with just meeting new people that is what that I like I really like to write in the press but not with the hurry of you have to publish now at 6 pm no no no just write without hurry so I just to start to to find new ways I wanted to go to another country and then they find that I found a way like working in a company, doing marketing and communication, and say okay I will try with that. And then I like that, this is marketing to work in a company, I really like it, I enjoy much more and say I have to keep in that way. Learning by doing, I all my bad and not stopping or challenging or say I know I don't like that no no no another thing, try another thing, you are young, you are healthy, you don't have to worry

of care of my family, you know, just do your part and just do that. I think it's so important when you're young to spend that time experimenting, trying new things, trying out things that maybe you think, oh, I might hate this, but then you try and you're like, actually, there's this little part I love and this little part I hate. And somewhere in the middle, you can find like a combination. I think it's so powerful to be someone who has had that experience going through different businesses, different careers, different, you know, trying out everything. I think that is so smart of you and I really appreciate you talking us through that. Now, I do want to dig a little bit into the inspiration behind MTI and the original problem you and your founding team set out to solve. Would you mind taking us through that? Well, before to start with that question, you say something very important is try, if you are young, try, because I have heard that 78 or almost 70,

the show in the future are not invented now. So you have to explore and try, maybe you will work in something that now is not invented now. I think we have a lot of opportunities in the knowledge area. We are not in the industrial area, we are in the area, so we have a lot of opportunities. And the question was because actually I was working in a company as a marketing leader and I found that I was working, I worked in two IT companies in Chile in marketing and I appreciated that my boss, the general manager, they didn't know anything about marketing. They just hired sellers and they say, I don't know what you have to do but you have to, Okay, have you done some previous work? No, nothing. And I saw that in the IT industry, I'm talking about like 14 years ago, there wasn't a knowledge about marketing in the IT industry. and say here there is an opportunity. I really like the industry, I didn't think about the industry, but I really like the environment. It's an industry that you can't be bored. I really like that and I say I want to keep working for the IT industry. I discovered that in my first job in Chile. So here there is an opportunity, but I just keep working as a marketing assistant, a marketing assistant first and a second company as a marketing leader and then my company was the main leaders were fighting between them and then the general manager say okay I'm going to close the marketing area, I'm going to more smaller and inspire some self people and say okay I am in a foreign country, I am young but I have my parents, my family is in Uruguay, what I can do? I have to find a job very quickly or come back to Uruguay. I didn't want, I wanted to, I really like to, I wanted to live in Chile or maybe in another country but it wasn't the time to come back to my home so I started to

find a job and the first client came because I talked with an IT Uruguayan company who wanted to sell in Chile so I created a proposal because they said no we don't want to hire anybody, we want a service. Okay, I'm going to do a proposal as a service. I always find a way to say yes, I'm keeping my path or in order to say no, I'm just finding for another shop that was very valid for, no I say no okay I'm going to do a proposal six months it's okay while I will looking for a show okay and my my former boss in that that is my actual partner he told me if you sell that proposal as a consultant I give up to the company and we can start a company because we we see that there are an opportunity here some marketing or sell or doing something for the IT industry. Okay I just talk with the with the company in Uruguay and I sell the proposal okay I said six six months of contract of service. I have to do something I haven't done that as a service, I should always be employed but I create a proposal, I say Andrea I saw the proposal and she tells me what?

Okay and she actually gave up and that proposal with me This was the first client, we worked more than a year, we extended the proposal and then while we were working and trying the service with that client, we were creating a service like an offering but learning by doing with that client and so the inspiration was like a wish, yes this is a need here, I can see an opportunity in the market but when I was fired I said okay I'm going to do that and I started the company with that client. Actually I started the company like nine months later when we had the second client. Okay we have a second client and then a third client I would have to create some more format and start the company with. The first client was Uruguayan, the second one Chilean, the third was Colombian. And then we were growing like in that way with different countries in Latin America.

What an exciting and also kind of terrifying way to start a company. Like I love that it kicked off as an international company so quickly and you know that clearly you had a passion for this because you sold your product before you even were sure exactly what your product was going to look like. That's an incredible story. Yeah, yeah I think that I didn't know what I was doing. I okay just try and they are going to say no but if they say yes, just keep going and and just propose another thing, and that's brilliant. I know when we look at someone else's journey, it just always looks incredible.

I feel that way every week when we interview someone. But what do you feel like were some of the big wins, big victories, and then maybe was there a point that you weren't prepared for that you had to make a major pivot? Okay. Well, the main victories, it's easier, right, because always we are celebrating that. So for example, to start in Chile and just billing to another country. And it was very funny because Chile in that moment hasn't prepared to sell a service to another country. So, I was dealing with a bill of like similar to export wines, which fob taxes. So, I know, I wasn't prepared. Now, yes, every country has their bill of service. In those years, no.

I think one very good achievement was when we can sell in Mexico. a very difficult country to sell for us, a very small company in Chile with some clients in Colombia, Peru, Argentina, Uruguay, and then start to sell to clients, to bigger clients in Mexico. And another, like another milestone was when we start to sell to a big brand, like, we start to work with them for their channels or to their partners, for example, we started to work in the early stage, like the third year, with Microsoft directly, and then we started to work with Cisco, with their partners, Google, and their channels, and This is very, no, I didn't believe that. I just always say myself and actually my partner, Andrea, was very important in that way

because at the beginning I was very young when I started the company, 26 years, and I was just travelling to Colombia to sell a project and I didn't believe myself that. So, I can work with Google, it's 27 years, no, sell something to them, my say, sell, and then we are going to discover what we are going to do. So, in that, we do that. then, and the other stages, we did the same, and like some points, like difficult points, like thinking in the middle, because at the beginning it's very exciting, we were two people then, we were three and it's very controlled to find new, to find new sales, new projects to pay the rent for the people. It's easy, it's easier. But when you start to hire new people because we had a lot of projects and then you find to start to hire people. That is the in that in the middle in the early like growing stage like the after that the third year

start the problem. And so I found that I wasn't prepared to lead a company with the whole aspect because I was very good in communication, in marketing, but not in finance, in taxes, or in human source. So I realised after the third year that, oh no, lead a company is not to travel to sell and to live with clients, this is part of the show. You have to deal with a bigger board, with a lot of arts areas that you don't have an idea, you have an idea to live with finance, with taxes, with suppliers that we have an accountant understand that he, that she, she still, she robbed us. So, it's dealing with that thing was very like a point that I say with my partner, we have to think different on how to live with that, that is wrong. And that they are very difficult moments because people start, your employees notice that you don't know how to live with that. Yes, because you don't have experience so they start to give up with you and you have to work in a project and you need a person because you can do everything, and this is a very hard moment that you learn a lot. Absolutely. I think the realization from founders about the number of hats you have to wear can be quite a painful experience. Exciting, interesting, engaging, but also Like everything you have to deal with to run a business, especially when it's early and small, but starting to grow is such a complex question. And I think so many people struggle with that when they get to that point. And I really appreciate you taking us through that.

We've talked a bit about the past, things you've done historically and a little bit about where you are at the moment. What I'd love to hear a little bit about is, what do you see as the long -term vision for MTI? Five years from now, ten years from now, what do you think is what you'll be bringing and, you know, what's the game plan, so to speak? Yeah, actually, my vision is, well, actually, we are like 30 employees with the money in flooded us, and we have clients in 11 countries, and we have more than 160 clients now, so my vision is to keep growing, but not so much, I like the size, maybe a medium -sized company, no more. Maybe being a part of something bigger like a big consultant for example or working for the IT industry for a big company that we have a lot of knowledge in the industry and in the top industries in the IT industry and I think this is much more valuable. like for example e -commerce and SAP or I don't know, SAP or RPEF or customer retention or we have a lot of clients of cloud. We have some specialization in the IT industry. I think that we can be part of something bigger. Or if not, I would like that MTI has a keep the soul that has that is a company most of us are women and it's a place where women can work and have a family and study and some do their own things. We are like 70 % women 30 % men but it's very flexible and and most of us are in different countries and we live whenever we want. I live in Montevideo now but I have people that is living in Bucaramanga in Colombia or Brazil and we have a good environment like a group of friends that we take care of others, we take care of the client and And we have to work a lot, we are going every year, but we can combine with the personal life. I was a mom last year and I'm just leaving the company and it's possible, I think in the knowledge era it's possible. And this is my dream, just to have a place for women and men, but for women it's much more difficult to find a good job and be a mom and just to have a good income too.

I think it's possible. And to be a like, I really like to be a teacher, I just working now as a teacher too, to like to resume, to like to transmit that knowledge to the next generation, next generation of women, how to start a company, how to create process, how to sell better. Actually, I am writing a book about that. It's a method with a lot of stories. I'm a firm believer that the more we kind of expand and grow ourselves, we can help the community around us. So whether that's your group of employees or your family or a future generation of learners, I think that's amazing. So kudos to having, you know, a whole bevy of goals to work towards. And I look forward to hearing more about your book too, as you write it. The founders are dual people. We always have to be done something. So now it's the book, last year it's the baby, last year as a teacher too. Yeah, it's good.

It's that entrepreneurial itch, I think. I want to take the opportunity to just pass to another community member that had a specific question for you. So first of all, thank you very much for joining us today. I have some inspirations but I would love to give some more context to my question first that right now I'm working at a pharmacological company and we're launching an innovative medical products that would help patients with migraines. Well my challenge right now is that I came from IT, I was working eight years in an innovative IT company as a quality assurance engineer and now I'm project lead at a pharmacological company with a team that used to work with use mostly with drugs, medicines and they're used to the framework where they know everything about the field and right now we are working with medical devices it's which is slightly less different uh like different and uh on my past i as we work with a lot of uncertainties i met some resistance from the my colleagues from my team adopting to new changes. So my question is how do you successfully transform teams that are used to traditional methods and to agile approach especially in environments with innovations and uncertainties. The leadership of our company was very intuitive because the main, my partner and me, we didn't have a background of human source or leadership before. She came from the sales world and I came from the communication and marketing world. So, the thing, actually my inspiration for the leadership was my, It's very crazy, but what's my own country, like Uruguay, how do Uruguay can be a reference in Latin America, being a very small country, like 3 million, 3 .5 million, very, very small. but it's known and I say maybe we have to do the same. Uruguay is open to the world, if you want to be here and have a visa it's okay,

but you have to do the work, it's very difficult to find a place. So, I say, I do the same, I to say, we have to create like a very good environment here that people feel good and feel free. We don't like another company have to go to the office and you have to do the boss that tell you, So, no, maybe we can create the work and we can create the ways together, like very, very democratic. And I, we start to culture very, very democratic, not when the boss is a leader, but the decisions we take between the managers or between the team too. So, that creates a sense of like a pertinence, like a pertinence, I know how you say in English, like a, that you feel part of, I know how you it, like an autonomy. I don't know, Daniel Pink, I read some of the books and it says that in the book, okay,

autonomy is one of the main motivations because when you start a company you don't have the motivation of a good salary. So you have to find the people who can't work in another company or maybe is looking for some more flexible. You have to be coherent if you want to be much more strict, you have to pay more like as a big company okay and if you don't have the money to pay very good salary it's okay and maybe you can give more democratic a democratic environment or more autonomy or more that the people feels good and it's another public it's another people very different to an enterprise company or a multinational. So this was very intuitive and then reading some books of Goldman or Dunning Pink about human source that I didn't know anything. It's so important in your startup to spend the time to find the right ways to motivate and encourage people to learn those new skills, those necessary things. It's, especially sales, which is in some ways kind of like this king of entrepreneurship in regards to a skill. It's something that you really need to encourage people to learn those new skills and find the ways that motivates them to do so. And I think you've made a brilliant point about that very fact. The point there is you don't have so much time to motivate people so you have to work with very proactive people too, so for that it's very important the environment, a good environment so the people that is proactive can do the things and feel motivated because you can motivate it but you are not working as a human source just only for motivate people, you have to when you start a company the the main point is to have income you you you live in a daily is like like in a daily basis yeah then now we are 11 years now we have like a year ahead it's okay but at the beginning no we have to generate income for just for pay the salaries of that month. It's the reality of the starting companies, like bootstrapping companies, not with that funds, MDP, no, no, no. The majority of the companies, the most of the companies are bootstrapping companies. It's the reality. Yeah, absolutely. You have to generate enough money to pay the salaries you have to pay end of the month. That's exactly the point. Now just to take a little bit of a different tack, talk about something a bit more I think is sometimes underplayed in entrepreneurship. How do you go about balancing your work, your family life, your hobbies, your interests, your friends, all the different things that make up a life? How do you go about balancing that? Well, this is for, this is a non -end work, like it's very difficult to do if you are an entrepreneur. I think it's more difficult if you are a woman, because as a woman, naturally you have, but at least the society say that you have more obligation, not necessarily, but in Latin America,

at least this is more that sentence that you have to do more things. How I do a good balance is being a good partner is the main thing, the most important thing actually. A good partner in your company is like my husband, but it's a woman in my company, because you spend a lot of time with that person, with your partner, but we don't love, but you spend a lot of time. So, you have to, if you are a co -founder or you have another partner in your company, I think I the main thing is choose a good partner as with the same effort that you choose a good husband and choose a good husband too or a good wife especially for the woman or choose somebody very good person that you can handle both as a team or be single and if not if you don't do

that you you are overwhelmed you will be overwhelmed for the things you have to do in your house or in the computer. I think to do that thing and maybe organise very well your time, study and do some work or read some books about habits, about how to keep the house and company needs an ID but how to optimize the time because it's your main source, it's not the money, it's not the effort, it's the time, it's the main source. At the beginning it's very difficult when you are young, it's very difficult to think in that way because you have energy, you have a lot of time, but time is the most valuable source, so how to be more efficient and not to lose time. If you don't lose your time, you reflect that image to your clients and they don't lose the time with you and you have more balance. If you have good partners, you manage your time. And the third thing is cultivate yourself. If you cultivate yourself, if you read, if you do exercise, if you eat very good, feel healthy or make, I recommend to do yoga and meditation, you are going to be more more energetic and you're going to be more with mental clarity. So it has mental clarity and with the health you are going to be the balance. I really appreciate your your answer because you touched on a couple things that I don't think that we typically hear as a response to this question and the first one is kind of like choose a good team around you to help you have that balance. And then the second one is make sure that you're making time for your self -care, which is something I'm quite biased, but I push really hard on people because when we don't, we're not able to, I agree with you, obviously, I'm very biased.

We're not able to do things at the same speed, at the same rate, you know, even in the same headspace, when we don't do those things to care for ourselves. So thanks for pointing all of that out. And would like to add a bit more, but is very important. Sure. The company you co -found takes the identity of the main founders. It's like a child of you. The child takes your habits, your manners, your everything. And if you say no don't do that but my baby is just repeating what we are doing. The company is the same, it's incredible. I realised that after five years ago, five years after that I found it that I say no I have to order that mess because we have a lot of problems in the company, I'm very you were dismotivated, what happened? And then I started to do therapy and I just realised that the company was the same profile as me that was the main leader in that moment. My problem, my way of thinking is the way of thinking in the company, so my advice is take time for you and improve yourself, yourself, your mind, your health, your spirit, relationship, be a better person

in the whole sense of your company's going to be better. People do that, the manager do. Yeah, you're so right. That's such a powerful analogy because I call my business my baby and I know a lot of people do, you know. And that analogy definitely rings home for me because you're absolutely right. Like even just like the subtle communication cues and as someone that thinks about communication all the time, I'm sure you're in step with this. Like whole community of people that you work with through your business can kind of pick up on the fact that your balance is off and then you kind of shift the company culture just like you might with a child. That's a very profound point. I appreciate that. And I feel like we've pulled a lot of wisdom from you, but I actually wanted to ask you, you know, what words of wisdom might you want to leave us with today? And it could be a quote you like, or advice from someone else, or something again from your own journey, whatever you prefer.

I think the advice that I told, be yourself better, a better person, and your company will be better. But something, another point, I want to say something different about that. and everything can be done or you can do everything. I learned that in Argentina. I lived in Argentina and travelled a lot to Mexico, to Colombia. I have been in contact with a lot of different people. So, but in Argentina, I learned that there are a lot of troubles, you know, economic troubles, political troubles. they are in the biggest crisis that they haven't, they have passed through. So, but they, when I lived there, there were a lot of companies, there are a lot of companies, the entrepreneurial movement is very big, but it's like a highland, it's like in Argentina, are small companies, they build through Uruguay, through the United States, they have some people in every country. So, when I find, when I talk with founders in Argentina, my mind expands, I know everything can be done, I can do everything. They do a lot of things, they can have to solve a lot of things in a very complex context, and of they can grow and be happy, say no. The entrepreneur has to live some months in Argentina to learn that. I recommend that for an entrepreneurial vision, for them, of course. But you can do everything.

You can solve everything. I feel so motivated. Thank you so much. It was an absolute pleasure talking with you today. Thank you so much, Ximena. We appreciate your thoughts and everything you've shared with us and taught us today. It's a pleasure to share that moment with you and I'm very happy to, if you want to talk more. Ximena, I just want to say once again, it's been an absolute pleasure talking with you, learning about your journey and the many things you've dealt with so far, and frankly, I cannot wait to hear about the things you'll do in the future. Have a lovely day, morning, afternoon, evening, night, depending on where everyone is. I know we have people from everywhere around the world, but Sibena,

it's been an absolute pleasure. And thanks, and keep going, and we are in the best moment to start a business, so go ahead. Perfect. Thank you again. Have a lovely day. Bye. Same to you. Bye -bye. Thank you so much. Take care. You've just finished another episode of Founder's Voyage, the podcast for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs. The team at Founder's Voyage wants to thank you from the bottom of our hearts. We hope you enjoyed your time with us, and if so, please share this with someone else who might enjoy this podcast. You can also support us by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, and by donating to our Patreon. Outro music today is Something for Nothing by Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band.