One of my first internships in the U.S. was with an importer and distributor of Spanish gourmet foods. The boss saw me managing administrative tasks very well, so he approached me to see if I was interested in helping improve sales with some of the retail accounts. 

I did not know where to start, so I started with data. I retrieved information about past sales to understand buying patterns for the 110+ accounts that were assigned to me. After getting familiar with them, I came up with a sales plan.

In the first quarter, there was a growth in sales by almost 68% and a refined list of focus accounts that yielded higher profits. I was able to further build on the results by introducing products to other retailers as well as restaurants.

Due to my strong sales performance, I was chosen to go with a distributor and a producer of BioTerraneo Tomato Juice to Austin, Texas to secure new retail accounts.

I transitioned to another company a couple of months after the trip, so I could not see the final results of the contract negotiations. But it was a step forward to developing Catalan Gourmet presence in the new market.

I thrive in a fast-paced environment as it gives me space to be intellectually curious, hardworking, and passionate about doing work that matters alongside my teammates.

At the age of twenty-three, I am straddling work and graduate school, and deem to be successful at it. 

At work, I oversee the Marketing and Sales operations along with an internship program for Marketing Interns. My team works on scaling brand storytelling across social media channels and thought leadership platforms. Under my supervision, we expanded the reach of our marketing trends reports and increased the visibility of our event series to engage senior brand executives.

At school, I’ve secured leadership positions in student-led organizations – Zicklin Graduate Student Ambassador and Recruitment Chair at the MBA Club – to promote an inclusive environment and facilitate peer-to-peer connections at Baruch. I also joined a team of Research Assistants to explore the topic of Feminine Leadership.

At the age of twelve, I realized I had to have some pocket money.

But there was a catch: I did not want them for free – I wanted to earn them.

I approached my father and asked if there were ways I could contribute to the family business of wholesale meat. We discussed challenges the business was facing at that time and came up with an idea of starting a delivery service to households who could buy large quantities of meat at a discounted price.

I set up a business page on the local marketplace site and posted our product offers. When I received calls from interested buyers, I provided them with the necessary information about products so that they could feel comfortable placing their orders with us. Based on the customers’ feedback and ad performance, I optimized the offer pages to increase conversions.

Fast forward the clock, in less than a year, I was able to work with my parents’ business development team and scale the business model to profitability, increase loyalty among customers, and secure business contracts with some of the restaurants in the city.

I did it while studying at school without jeopardizing my solid academic performance. I am extremely grateful to my parents for trusting me with leading this small, but impactful project.