In this concise interview, Professor Pete Alexander hosts Jeremy Villalobos, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Gold Data, a telecommunications provider in Latin America. Jeremy highlights telecommunications as the often‑overlooked backbone enabling modern technologies, emphasizing the critical infrastructure behind everyday communication. He recommends two "chapters" for businesses: learning from failure and the satisfaction that follows success, arguing that personal experience teaches lessons no textbook can. Jeremy stresses a people‑first leadership approach, urging leaders to love their work and lead by example to set the right tone. He acknowledges mentors such as John Luongo (co‑founder of Oracle), Ramón Tizaire, and Justo Valladares. Jeremy recounts his first job—cold‑calling door‑to‑door sales of T1 lines in Miami’s heat—illustrating how early rejection and perseverance built resilience and sales skills that underpin his current role. The episode concludes with Jeremy’s invitation to connect via LinkedIn.
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.
Hey, Professor Pete, how you doing? My name is Jeremy Villalobos. I'm the Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Gold Data. We're a telecommunication provider in Latin America.
Jeremy, it's great to have you on the show. Question number 2: What's the best thing about working in your industry?
I mean, telecommunication is, I will say, is a little underrated, but it's an amazing industry. It's actually the backbone of all the the great technologies that we see out there. So believe it or not, they all depend on telecommunication to interact with their customers and to take their services to different regions.
Yeah, it's as we were talking about before starting to record, the telecommunications is the backbone and a lot of people don't even realize it.
Yeah, yeah, no, I agree with you. And it is amazing, you know, the whole technology behind it, you know, the whole subsea cable system interconnecting the different continents. It's just amazing the level of detail and infrastructure behind all the technologies that we use on a day-by-day, you know, you and I talking on this platform. There is a whole infrastructure behind that people doesn't realize that exists and is a very interesting one.
I couldn't agree more. Question number 3: I have a book with all the answers for business. What chapter would you think most companies should read?
I will, I will go with Failures and Satisfaction. Why those two? Because I think what we learn through failure is, is the biggest knowledge that we, that we take through our life, you know. And each person is different, you know, each person takes a different learning experience from those. And actually, you don't see those in any book, you don't see those in any master's in the university, or any professor can explain that to you, because only once you go through it and, and you fail and you go back and it hurts so much, really deep inside of you, and you see exactly all the mistakes and how you, you could have done it differently, I think that knowledge and that experience is just amazing, you know. And the second chapter that I will choose is satisfaction, because it's the take of all the knowledge that you took from that failure and you made it a success, you know, because Obviously, from big failure comes big success, and from big success comes an amazing satisfaction, which I believe is just an amazing feeling because obviously that hurt that you had at the beginning, you know, from that experience, it becomes the opposite, you know, the satisfaction, the greatness, you know. So I think those will be amazing chapters to read. And I think everybody has a different chapter in their life.
I couldn't agree with you more. Those are two great chapters to suggest. 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?
I think the human part, you know, I think work is about people and it's very important First, that you love what you do. You have to love what you do on a daily basis. When you love what you do, you lead by example. If you lead by example, you're setting the right tone for your organization. So when you— it's not the same to tell someone what to do than to show them how to do it. So it's a completely different message. And it's actually leading. You know, and I think that makes a huge impact on any organization that you're working for. If you're always setting the tone and leading, you know, the group, the results is just amazing.
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. And it's interesting how I can hear that passion actually as you describe that. It's wonderful. Question number 5. What other business leader like yourself would you like to acknowledge and invite to be on my podcast?
Wow, I think John Luongo, he's a co-founder of Oracle. He's been a great mentor in my life. Ramón Tizaire, he's an Spanish investor. Justo Valladares, he's the president of Goldata, also a person that I follow through and I mean, I can go on and on, and there are many great people that can give you great advice and different point of view, which I think is where the value is.
Yes, absolutely. Well, I will follow up with those two. Thank you so much. And our final question, question number 6: Please tell me about your first job.
My first job. All right. So it's actually my first job in telecommunications. It was an entry-level sales position. And I had to cold call every day. Cold calling, knocking on doors, every door in a specific area in Miami, you know, 100 Fahrenheit, suit and tie, never remove my jacket, never remove my tie, hot like crazy, you know, and knocking on every door selling T1s. That's like an old technology connectivity solution, you know, but what made it amazing is that I went through different emotional experiences, you know, rejection, you know, people welcome you very friendly and then the next door is a completely different experience, and to keep up the momentum through 50 doors throughout the day 5 days a week, you know, I did it for probably 3 years. I did it for 2 years as a sales rep. I got promoted to sales manager, then I was doing it with my sales reps. So to be able to go through all that time doing this job, I think it created something in my skin, you know, to overcome any objection as a salesperson, and it teaches you the different reactions that you can get from people and actually how to overcome and believe in yourself and believe in what you're selling. And that makes— I think it made a— it clicked something in my life, you know, that gave me the tools to grow and be where I am today, which I'm grateful. It wasn't easy, but I'm super grateful for that.
Oh, what a great story. And I can just have the visual of that 100-degree temperature in the suit. Oh my goodness. Great story. Jeremy, thank you so much for being on the show. How can people find you?
I'm on LinkedIn. I mean, you can find a lot of activity from, from Goldata. I promote a lot of the company that I work for. Uh, so yeah, I'm on LinkedIn and I will be happy to interact with anybody, any advice, anything.
Wonderful. This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast. For more insights and ideas, please go to LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, or iTunes and search for the Winning at Business and Life podcast. Thanks for listening.
