This is a short interview from the SBA "Biz My Way" series (host Mike Muse) featuring entrepreneur Lance Rios of the brand Being Latino. Rios describes the mission and perspective of Being Latino, highlights misconceptions about U.S. Hispanics (especially multi‑generation U.S. Hispanics), and discusses barriers minority millennial entrepreneurs face (limited access to capital and networks). He also gives practical social‑media advice for aspiring influencers: decide whether it is a hobby or a job, create a vision and strategy, be consistent, and treat the platform as a brand-building daily commitment.
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What's happening, America? I'm Mike Muse, and I am the SBA's my brothers keeper, millennial entrepreneurial champion. And I am so excited to present to you this video series on millennial entrepreneurship. Millennials see entrepreneurship differently, and we want to give you the tools that you need to be successful. I am so excited to present to you six millennial entrepreneurs that come from a wide spectrum of industries, from fashion to digital to music to agencies. The list goes on, and through their stories, they' you how you can do biz your way, on your terms, on your agenda, on your platform. Welcome to Biz My Way. So, Lans Rios, I'm so excited to be sitting down with you with you today. You have an incredible story, incredible background, and you run an amazing company called Being Latino. And your name is around this country, literally from the east coast to the west coast, which is how I got in touch with you. Talk to me a little bit about what it is being Latino. And what does that mean for you personally as a businessman and as an entrepreneur, but more so, what does it mean for you as a brand?
Like, when I started the company, I didn't start the company per se. I started something that I was like, my parents had talked about, I've talked about with my friends. A lot of people have some misconceptions about Hispanics living in the United States, especially when it comes to Hispanics who are second, third, fourth, fifth generation. And there are a lot of sort of things that make us very unique and very different from our predecessors. What we see running rampant, especially when it comes to Hispanic media and media consumption, that usually the people behind the scenes producing it aren't the same people who are consuming it. Right. If even at the level, I'm not saying that, like, you know, it's somebody who's not even Hispanic, whatever. I'm saying like somebody who comes from Latin America, that produced television in Latin America for Latin America, comes to the United States and says, hey, I have this whole Rolodex of what I've done already, so let me do that here. That experience is totally different. And there are certain aspects of what we experience as Hispanics living in the United States that makes our lineage almost closer to other ethnic groups in the United States. African Americans, you know, Asian Americans. Other ethnic groups we have a closer bond with because the experience is very similar. At some point, somebody else came from another country here. And because of that, there are certain struggles that you do experience not being.
The majority in creating this video series and creating this initiative. I Always knew there was a challenge for millennial entrepreneurs. And really finding individuals who are successful in this area was a challenge. And me and my team, we began to think about and talk about why is it a challenge.
We're not necessarily coming from those really connected circles of money. So I think that, you know, for us, it's just about being like really educated about it and providing outlets that makes it easier for us as minorities to access that information so that we can feel a little more confident in the pursuit of these types of opportunities.
Millennials love social media, right? And a lot of us have tons of followers and we've always hear like these celebrities getting paid to tweet. We always hear about celebrities getting gifted things because they have this large amount of followings where millennials were celebrities on social media, right? So can you talk to us about how to understand your value on social media and how to get the attention of the landrios of the world and to get Lands Rios to pay attention, to connect these social influencers, particularly within Latino Hispanic community, to brands that need to communicate with that, to have that two way conversation.
Figuring that part out was definitely challenging. And telling that story of, you know, you can have a two way conversation because these people, this guy right here has 500,000 followers. And so we put it in perspective of like the celebrityism and the fact that these people still don't necessarily view themselves as celebrities where they talk and engage with their audiences and they do all these other things where people feel more connected to that type of celebrity. These people, these social influencers who we're working with.
So, Lance, man, what would be one piece of advice that you would give to an individual who wants to increase their social following or who wants to become a so called influencer?
You want to identify whether it's a hobby for you or a job for you. Try to do that as soon as possible because both of those outlets can create different opportunities. But you really have to be measured about what you're looking to get out of the experience. And then from that point, coming up with a vision, strategic plan, and maintain consistency. It's a really, it's an opportunity for you to basically establish your brand in a very strong way that in any other medium would cost you a lot of money to get there. But at the same time, it becomes something that until you're ready to stop, you have to be ready to do that every single day and allow it to consume you to a certain extent.
Lance Rios, I just want to thank you for your time.
Thank you.
I have thoroughly enjoyed the conversation and thank you for being the team. Thank you. This is great, man.
