Business owners form international partnership

But what she has brought to each is her heritage. Growing up in Ecuador, her family came to America in 1995, first to Florida and then Wayne County.

One thing she has discovered along the way is that the language barrier is not the only challenge faced by Latinos and other nationalities. It’s also about cultural intelligence.

“Once you understand other cultures and behaviors, it doesn’t mean you have to change your values or behaviors,” she said. “You’re able to then retain, recruit employees and provide them a safe space. It’s a win-win.”

So these days, one could say she’s in the bridge-building business.

She is often called upon to speak to groups and does trainings for businesses which have a multi-cultural group of employees. Her message has centered around inspiring younger leaders to see themselves in larger positions in the future.

“For awhile it had been that I’d been talking to organizations,” she explained. “On Governor (Roy) Cooper’s Council on Latino Affairs, I’m an adviser to the council. I have been able to contribute ideas.

“I thought, it’s time to start a business that would allow me to do this and expand.”

This past year she launched her own consulting firm, Viva Cultura Consulting, which translated means celebration of culture. Further networking proved beneficial.

“Through LinkedIn a couple of us connected. There aren’t a lot of cultural intelligence companies out there,” she said, recalling the relationships that quickly formed.

“Marcelo Pazos had a strong background in diplomacy and policy. Then Eduardo Herrera (managing director of H2H Latin America) an academic with an international business background, but also had been a representative to South Korea, joined in the dialogue.”

There was a commonality between them, as well as Galo Polo, founder of OneX, which provides more widespread access to bank services.

“We all wanted to have solutions,” Freile said. “I introduced myself as someone who wanted to bridge the gap between cultures and in their own way, each of the others was also bridging a gap.

“We began meeting and it just started flowing so beautifully.”

The conversations led to an in-person meeting, in Mexico, which segued into formalizing a plan in writing. The teamwork resulted in the creation of PowerBridge.

“We developed a process together in Mexico that’s unique and innovative and then we all agreed,” she said, forging what Freile called a “game-changing alliance” between the four members representing Mexico, Ecuador, South Korea and the U.S.

“We signed the alliance and we immediately held a training for global international leaders,” Freile said. “We made a presentation with all these CEOs and asked for honest feedback and they were, they didn’t even bother so much (about) the feedback, it was like, we need the solutions now.”

It all goes back to the need for cultural intelligence, she reiterated, because culture goes beyond traveling from one country to another. It can also be within a company and be related to other differences, such as age.

“Culture is not just different ethnic groups,” she said. “It’s not so much about speaking the language. It’s about having a body language that makes people feel a sense of belonging.

“I feel that the training was very successful. In that training we also, what we mainly did was non-verbal communication across cultures.”

In a globalized world, and with more and more remote working opportunities, connection and communication is more within reach, she said.

“The win-win here is that the startups and the small- to medium-sized businesses in technology in Latin America are very well-prepared,” she said. “They just have had difficulty mobilizing because of the culturalization.

“Small and medium-size businesses here couldn’t necessarily afford the super expensive tools that are offered. The idea of this is that we will be able to connect this, let’s say IT solutions that is much more cost effective to our small business here. So we’re helping all of America. We’re empowering small businesses, getting a sense of America as a whole.”

The concept, she continued, is new and innovative, but it’s also the wave of the future.

“Because, really, nothing is as local any more,” she said. “No products are as local any more. We might grow a product in Goldsboro but as far as the workforce, it might be from Central America and the bosses who are leading it might be from different parts of the U.S. and the product is being exported to other continents.

“And it’s just going to continue to get more global. So I hope to support local businesses with these solutions and that would allow businesses to stay open.”