In this rapid‑fire interview, Professor Pete Alexander hosts Angel Ribo, a self‑described "connector of the unconnected" and conduit for others' greatness. Ribo shares what makes him smile—people’s ignorance of the consequences of their actions—and emphasizes the importance of humility, likening it to a metaphorical Chapter 13 that most avoid reading. His core mantra for leaders is "take perfect action now," urging immediate, authentic product exposure to test and improve offerings. Ribo recommends business thought‑leader Neville Joffe and his unpublished compilation, The Baker’s Dozen: Rules of Highly Successful Business Operators, noting its collective C‑level insights. He recounts his first job at a Spanish fish farm, boxing rainbow trout as a twelve‑year‑old, illustrating early work ethic and hands‑on experience. The episode concludes with Ribo’s contact details (angel@angelrebo.com) for listeners to connect.
Chapters
This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast, where business leaders share their insights. It is 6 questions in 7 minutes because successful business leaders are busy and rarely have more time to spare. So let's get to it. Question number 1: In a few sentences, please tell me who you are and what you do.
Well, I consider myself to be the connector of the unconnected and to be also the conduit of everybody else's greatness. That's the real answer to your question. What says the— or what you can read on LinkedIn is a little bit different, but it's much more boring.
Well, and Angel, it is an absolute pleasure to have you on the show. Question number 2, and this one's going to be right up your alley. What is something that makes you smile and/or laugh about working in your industry?
Uh, definitely when people are not aware of the consequences of what they do. That's definitely something that makes me smile all the time. I try to be extremely hard on myself, so that's why I try to laugh and smile as much as I can.
I love it. I love it. Question number 3: I have a fictitious book with all the answers for business. What chapter would you think most companies should read?
Well, it would probably be chapter number 13 because it's the, you know, it's that, you know, it's that level in the hotels, you know, excuse me, I had the lapsus right now. So what I'm trying to say is that there's always a chapter that nobody wants to read. You know, when you're trying to go to a specific floor and the hotels don't have floor number 13. It will be definitely number 13. And the one, that one is definitely the one that talks about being humble enough to be the right leader for your team.
I like that a lot. And it's the way that you position that as the chapter that people don't want to read. It really is because there's a reason that they don't. Maybe there's fear or whatever it happens to be. And, you know, and so you really raise a great point there. Thank you for that.
Absolutely.
Question number 4, other than the generic work harder, have a great attitude, and care for customers, what advice or insight would you give to other business leaders?
Well, that's my mantra, so it's going to be an easy one. It's taking perfect action now. Taking perfect action now. I think that we are actually raised, we grow up being too hard on ourselves, as I said before, and we have to take too many precautions in order to do something and to show this to the world. I think that to be successful, you have to start literally showing your product your services, who you really are on a very blunt, genuine way to the world. And that's the best way to actually proof test who you are and proof test your products and services. That's definitely the piece of advice I would give everybody.
I think that's really wise. And especially, you know, it really makes a big difference there. And, you know, I just, I think I'm glad that you shared that with the audience. Thank you for that. Question number 5, what other business leader like yourself would you like to acknowledge and invite to be on my podcast?
Well, I would definitely like to invite or to suggest you that you bring Mr. Neville Joffe. Neville Joffe. He has a wonderful book. Actually, I have it here. I didn't think of this, so I have it here. It's called The Baker's Dozen: Rules of Highly Successful Business Operators. This is a book that has not been published. It has been actually made in a very specific way with contributions of hundreds of C-level executives. So it's a very interesting book. And it's basically the legacy of Mr. Neville Jaffe, who has trained more than 20,000 C-level executives and business operators in large corporations in the world for the last 25 years. That's definitely my choice.
Wow, thank you for that. That's a— I'm looking forward to actually reading that book because especially if it's got contributions from all these different business leaders, it's— you're getting a plethora of ideas, I assume, from that book.
Absolutely. Great, great guest. You'll see.
Oh, wonderful. Well, thank you for that referral. I appreciate it.
Absolutely.
And our final question, question number 6: please tell me about your first job.
Well, my first job ever was when I was a kid. My father was the CEO. I was literally like, what, 12, 12 years old. My father was the CEO of a group of companies, companies in Spain. I'm originally from near Barcelona in Spain, and one of those companies was a fish farm. So every single afternoon, my father would drive 1.5 hours to go to the fish farm from the headquarters of the company. And I would go with him every single afternoon in order to put, literally, to put trouts, rainbow trouts inside boxes. And I would get, you know, at that time we didn't have pesos, we had pesetas, you know, in Spain. So I would literally get a specific amount of money. I actually was 5 pesetas for every single box. That I would, you know, put trouts on every single day. That was my first job ever. Was I not so happy with that money that summer? Oh my God.
And I'm trying to picture this because the rainbow trout— and, and when you— by putting the, the trout in there, so were you using like— how were you— were you just picking them up with your hands?
So basically there would be this big container, you know, dumping all those trouts, already dead trouts, onto this big massive, you know, um, uh, stainless steel table. And then there will be many, many people around the table with these, you know, white boxes that, you know, they keep— that they isolate the, the, the temperature, right? So we would put the trouts, you know, sideways, sideways, uh, so that— I think it was like 22, 23 trouts per box. Again, I boxed so many trouts, right? And then, you know, I would take them to a place, they would weigh them, and then they would put additional trouts or they would take out trouts out of them. It would be 5 kilos per box. Oh my God. I think it's the first time ever I explained this story to anybody. Well, I love it. Obviously.
And the visual is so great as well. So thank you for sharing that. And Angel, thank you so much for being on the show. How can people find you?
Oh, thank you very much. Very easy. Obviously you can go to these boring places as in LinkedIn and everywhere, everywhere else. But I would say send me an email. I have either myself or my team, we always have time to respond. It's very easy. It's Angel, spelled like is like in Angel from Heaven, and then @angelrebo.com. Rebo is my last name. It's spelled like R-I-B as in boy, O. So it's angel@angelrebo.com.
Perfect. This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast. Thanks for listening.
