Today we’d like to introduce you to Jorge De Los Ríos.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Jorge. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Born and raised in Puerto Rico, from a Colombian entrepreneurial father and a loving, creative mother, I started developing an interest in social media, specifically Facebook, when I was around 14 years old. At 23 years old, after a brief stint in Miami, I moved to Los Angeles searching for new opportunities in the entertainment and digital industries.
My first opportunity to start developing my digital sales skills was in the car business as an Internet Sales Manager. I consistently worked on my sales and marketing skills for over four years before having the courage to focus my time and energy on building my own online brand, which happened after each 12-hour workday and on my days off, which eventually resulted in a Digital Manager position at Lotus Corp, a communications company that owns over 40 radio stations, and a handful of T.V. stations across the United States. This position trusted me to develop their digital department from scratch, which I treated as my own business.
Unfortunately, COVID-19 happened, and they were forced to downsize, which led to my next opportunity as a co-host of my Spanish digital talk show called “Jorge y Abimael Conversan Hoy.” This show, with co-host, writer and social activist Abimael Acosta, invites community leaders, artists, entrepreneurs and politicians to talk about topics of social interest. This show created a momentum that quickly led to launching RiosRed Digital Agency (an idea I had had in my mind for years), which is a bilingual (English/Spanish) society of digital collaborators that helps businesses with their digital/social media advertisement needs.
RiosRed is composed of Laura Ramos in Puerto Rico, our Community Manager; Aram Arrazate, in Mexico, Administrative Manager; Abimael Acosta, in Los Angeles, Content Director; and our Independent Telemarketing Collaborator Ektor Gomez, in Puerto Rico. This initiative has already allowed me to help those who had reached out to me for help previously, which was impossible while I worked a full-time job, and to take on new clients from Los Angeles to Puerto Rico.
This pandemic has opened my eyes to new perspectives, which have allowed me to see opportunities I wouldn’t have been able to see before. I encourage all of your readers to reflect, during this time, on the things that are really important to them and take this chance to create their lives the way they’ve always wanted to live them.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
There’s a phrase in Stoic philosophy that says, “The obstacle is the way.” I’m sure every entrepreneur faces challenges and failures on their path. The most important part is always to keep a student mindset and learn from your failures in order to evolve to the next level.
All of my struggles were personal. I don’t perceive obstacles in terms of a business deal or a specific task, but rather as blind spots, lack of perspective, or dealing with the unknown.
For example, although I had the idea of RiosRed for years, the unknown was a wall in front of me and being vulnerable to take the leap paralyzed me. If the pandemic hadn’t forced me into that state of vulnerability, I probably wouldn’t have acted on it as quickly as I did, but I learned not to over-judge myself for not acting fast enough in the process.
I used to put more attention on other people’s success stories instead of my own inner voice, like how much money other entrepreneurs had to start their own business. This caused a lot of self-doubt. It’s very common that when you’re trying to develop a project, you search for guidance, and that could easily take you to the comparison trap. However, when I started to understand that I determine the rules of my own game, I began to actually love my own process without comparing it to anyone else’s.
A big struggle that I faced was choosing to leave four sales jobs at car dealerships & a gym within a year for ethical & financial reasons. I knew I didn’t want to stay in the car business. I wanted to be on my own path, and cars & gym membership sales was not it. It was a survival solution while I was developing what I really wanted to do. I worked very hard and long hours and performed well, but when I started being asked to do things I didn’t think fair for the customer, or in one case, wasn’t treated with respect, or wasn’t making enough to live after 60+ hours of work a week, and being one of the top performers, I knew it was time to move on. This presented a financial hardship each time, and my self-esteem took a beating. After all of that, and the dedicated effort to my passion of digital media, I landed a phenomenal job working for Lotus Corp, teaching me to just trust the process. It’s hard to see the whole path when you’re immersed in it, and sometimes we just need to step back to see the whole picture or trust that even though we can’t see the whole picture, we’re on the right path.
Please tell us about RiosRed.
RiosRed is a bilingual digital advertising and marketing agency in Los Angeles, CA.
We help people increase an online presence for their businesses, projects and personal brands through multiple digital media platforms.
We offer consulting, Facebook and Instagram advertisements, social media management, CRM platform management, email marketing, graphic design and promo videos.
We also create online engagement with new people, raise brand awareness, generate quality opportunities and help businesses achieve a higher return of investment.
Why?
In this digital era, where everyone is connected, it’s imperative to establish a powerful and genuine online recognition NOW, in order to be set up for the present and future.
Our clients are the most important part of our work. We listen carefully and recognize areas for growth while protecting and expanding your legacy.
What I’m most proud of is actually giving people a real chance to expand their business and sales online, at an absurdly affordable price, during a time when everyone’s attention is on the internet and social media.
I think that what sets us apart from other agencies, besides the affordable price, is that we take the approach of partnering with and educating our clients to focus on what’s most important to them and their business. We bring the expertise, and our clients bring their industry experience in order to create a phenomenal team.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I know this sounds like a cliche, but nothing. I don’t judge my story, I just go with it. I have learned that life itself is a teacher and we constantly need to be learning from it. I believe that at the end of the day, no student should be comparing their process to anyone else. We all have different backgrounds, different realities, and different perspectives. It’s important to always learn from your mistakes, and not view them as a scar, but instead as a stepping stone for the next thing.
Contact Info:
- Website: jorgedigital.net
- Phone: 3235406090
- Email: [email protected]
- Facebook: facebook.com/RiosRedAdvertising/
Image Credit:
Jason Perlman. Chris Wood
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