Stay Tranquilo - The Power of Hispanics in Sports and Media | NFL Draft Weekend Panel in Green Bay

Episode Date: April 28, 2025

During NFL Draft weekend in Green Bay, Andre from Stay Tranquilo was invited to speak on a special panel highlighting the growing influence of Hispanics in sports, media, and culture. Joined by Jennifer Lendell, Co-Founder & COO of Drafted, this conversation dives deep into how Latino entrepreneurs are breaking barriers, building authentic brands, and empowering the next generation.Together, they discuss the journey from corporate America to entrepreneurship, the importance of mental health in sports, how to authentically connect with Latino audiences, and why representation in sports media matters now more than ever.🎯 Topics Covered:Growing the Latino voice in sports and mediaEntrepreneurship and building mission-driven brandsMental health and the athlete experienceAuthentic marketing to Latino audiencesGiving back through community initiativesPreserving culture for future generations📍 Filmed live during NFL Draft Weekend in Green Bay.💬 Like, comment, and subscribe for more inspiring conversations that celebrate culture, community, and resilience.#NFLDraft #LatinosInSports #StayTranquilo #Drafted #HispanicHeritage #SportsMedia #GreenBay Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Let me get this great panel going. I know we are a pretty good for a month. So I'm going to be a little tired, but I come and this is a nice to be a great. As I'm going to say, Mr. Lattete, President and the Councilor, Lattelette de, I want to be honored to have two help who I saw many friends, nice to meet. And I think, you know, earlier, you know, I want to make sure that I give them their props, but I know I would not give them or just their files and the macro, but Jennifer is the founder and COO of Drafton,

a multimedia marketing and content organization that she founded with another young Latina, in 2003 book cards, is that kids and having a sense of career in corporate, and I want her to share what her journey has been and kind of explain a little bit of what And next to her, we have Andre, who is the founder and CEO of Takeda Hilo and for most of us.

That means to stay calm, right? Carry on. And so, Andre also has a background in marketing and has worked for many organizations and and 4500 companies, and so I'm happy to share the same with both of you. I'm just going to be the kind with. I'm going to learn from them. I'm going to be inspired by them, and I'm also to say, to you and to all of us for taking the leave of the same thing to all of us for taking the legal date to

lots of the ownership and the section and the sports and sports. So that's wondering, Jennifer, why don't you fill us in a little bit about your background and you are and Brett? Yes, absolutely. And thank you for having me and just accidentally match. I was like, do I think like a referee? So you're good. Now, I'm Jennifer Evans-Lindell, co-founder of Drafted.

We're a media company at Speak Sports through that email lens. So we're a social first brand, really catering to, Genzi and millennial female fans, right? So that's at the intersection of identity, culture, community, a legal deed that Latino are the most underappreciated asset in stores. So I'm so happy to hear your talk a little about that. Thank you. And Andre, stay stay tranquil. My name now is not even Andre anymore. It's the Tranquillo guy. No one calls me by my first name anymore. But yes, I'm the founder of Stay Tranquilo. I started it a few years ago. And when I started it, didn't really have much of an identity to it.

It was just, hey, I want to preach a mantra and stay tranquil. It was kind of this mantra that came to me as a reminder to keep people calm through the chaos, through, you know, the adversities of life. And through my experience in the media and marketing world, I realized an opportunity with my platform and stay tranquilo to be a voice for Latinos and being an opportunity to create content around. what do Latinos care about, but what also resonates with the message of state Tranquilo. So we curate content from podcasts to branded content, social content, all around sports, travel, wellness, and entertainment. So let's get into it, right? So I never mentioned it, right? Green Bay was Sandin, right? We're all here. The first day is to do is to show up, right? But I'm from West

Manzanum so anytime we can bring people to the Midwest, I'm always going to be excited, found out that Janiker is a Green Bay. No, Miami Dolphins, proud. Go back. I love it, but you know, let's talk a little bit about white sports. You've heard of Latino sports. There's a world though, you know, just our involvement and our contribution. So tell me a little bit about the journey that made you want to dive into this area.

I've been towards my entire life, so I've played competitive softball and volleyball and softball. And my dream job was sports broadcasting. So I had an undergrad in broadcast journalism and I've been a undergrad in broadcast journalism. master's degree in radio TV and film and if you would ask me to go to college what's your dream job I wanted to be on girls worth of Brian Bumble right I wanted to be on my purple couch telling these stories these sports stories that go beyond stats right beyond game with his shots and really get to that personal level so it's really amazing that my journey has kind of taken people circle to now but i mean i spent over a decade in corporate

America, working at the intersection of multivocal strategies, sports marketing, working with really big brands like ATTs, State Farm Free LA. How are we engaging U.S. Hispanics through the lens of sports? So, you know, always being in those rooms, always being the only, I'm sure you know as well, and always kind of looking into a singular men's lens. And it's like there's really a whole side of the population out of that conversation. So it's just really really really a whole side of the population. So it's just really of exciting to be here where we are now with traffic. Yeah, very similar story on my end, too. I played sports my whole life, played baseball and football

pretty much since the age of three up until college. So sports was a big part of my identity. And not only on the playing side and on the competitive side, but, you know, recreational. I mean, me and my friends every weekend, we were either on a basketball court, football field, or a baseball field. Like, sports was everything and everything that we did and everything that we consumed.

I mean, Sports Center was on in the morning when I was getting ready for school, and it's still a big part of my life. So, you know, from like the personal identity side, sports has always been extremely of a passion for me. But also realizing, like, as I was in marketing in the media world, realizing, okay, well, sports is where everyone's consuming a lot of their content, right? Whether it's basketball, football, baseball, golf now obviously has blown up since the post-pandemic world. and it was kind of connecting the dots of what am I passionate about, but also where is their opportunity? And I think sports is kind of such a multifaceted avenue, right, where you travel to games, right?

And when you travel to those games, you're immersing yourselves in the culture of those places, right? And you meet so many people, and I think sports is probably better than anything, brings people together, right? Like whether you're a rival team or the same fan, here we are in this stadium and we're all kind of in the same space with the same kind of passion behind it. Well, he's not only watching a lot of thing. You know, I play.

Don't support, right? Really sure. But I've always loved sports. And so, you know, I want to dive into how we all also got into it in the answer to your real estate. My background in wondering that it had been profit, government, corporate, and law. But I graduated for Marquette Law School, which I have the first sports law program. So sports has always been behind the scene, but, you know, kind of like my gypsy career kind of took me in different directions, but now to be looking out of passion and taking the legal way to really work for myself, believing in myself,

walk me through that journey for you both because I can tell you that, you know, it sounds great to say you're an entrepreneur, but it does come with a lot of heartaches, challenges, sacrifices. I don't just even being here away from your families in different times, all the different states. So, you know, what are some of the challenges that you can share that you face and also successful? Yeah, definitely. It's funny, right? I look back at, I guess, my journey into becoming an entrepreneur,

and there's always this moment in my life that I remember. I remember being in my front yard with my younger brother and collecting rocks from our backyard and selling them to our neighbors, right? And it was always something that, I don't know, for whatever reason, I always wanted to start something of my own. And my grandfather, my aloeo, always said something to me. He's like, never work for the man, you know? He was always a big believer in that.

When you hear that when you're young, you don't really think much of it. But as I got older, you know, I was always really stubborn, I guess you could say. And I was like, you know what? like what what do i want to do that's going to attach to to my passion and my purpose you know through you know a very young age i had to kind of put myself in an uncomfortable situation through family issues and things that happen but it helped me find my purpose i feel like in my life and i think stay tranquil really is that and a lot of soul searching but you know it comes with a lot of the challenges that that you mentioned and a lot of it is it's lonely at times right there's a lot of

confusion. Like, are you making the right decisions? Are you, yeah, is this even the right kind of way I should be going about this? But I think at the end of the day, if you keep your why very close to you, it's always going to allow you to push and persevere through those obstacles because there are a lot. And it's confusing and you surround yourself with all the right people. And I think that definitely helps. But I think at the end of the day, it's, it's really entrusting into yourself. Yeah, I mean, I think we're drafted, our biggest, challenge is also what sets apart. We are ahead of the curve. We are seeing value the Latino sports consumer way before anybody else. You know, while traditional media is scrambling to

stay relevant, we are building an entire sports ecosystem, you know, through these intersections, we heard Sarah talk about fashion, food, music, entertainment. It's just not this singular lens. You know, I will say this to like blue with the face. Llamans are the most undervalue. fastest growing segment. We are making, you talked about the GDP, but we're also making 80%, 86% of the purchasing decisions and social calendars in the moment. Why are you ignoring us? So I think that shows the biggest challenge is because we're the only one seeing that value. But it's good because, like, you know, it felt like lonely at the beginning, but now we're seeing that those early doctors are coming on. I mean, earlier this year we walked into the Super Bowl

with brand partners like Dun & Verizon. I mean, there's proof that those early adopters are there and will also see the ROI on this audience. And, I think, yeah. Super Bowl for the general is done and Verizon, which is also been a huge supporter of ours, and hopefully, you know, you and your family, they understand that the consumer is it.

Okay. And so in the world that we live in today, which is information at fingertips and how do you, you know, and then the world different marketing comes that you're going to engage audiences, right? Whether it's whatever social media platform, there are so many, I think you've cracked, podcasts, you know, kind of walk me through how you decide, how you share your information and what stories you can tell. Yeah, for us it's really authenticity, right?

I think everything and everything we create is with the intent of being as authentic and genuine, right? It's this is who we are. This is what we represent. And this is, if you like us, great. If you don't, then so be it, right? And we do pay attention to, you know, trends that are going on there, the format of how the content is created, what's working, what's not. And I think that's something that we monitor on an everyday basis. But at the end of the day, like, this is us in state tranquilo, right?

We're calm guys. We're chill guys. We like to have a good time. And our content is going to be representative of that. So I feel like if you try to mold too much to what you think people like, it takes away from the authenticity of who you are. So at the end of the day, it's really just being true to who we are as a brand and as people. For us, for platform agnostic, so as this story, what is happening in what format is the story that it comes to life and resonate with people the most? So whether that's social first, whether that's an experience, whether that's long form, if we just focus on

on the story and the narrative. And we have galvanized such a large audience and we're not only speaking to that, but we're building this content with her and we listen. So I think that's the biggest thing in terms of everything that we do. And of course, I'm showing my former strategist right now, but she's there.

Like, you never know about the end and he's not going to tell you exactly what she wants. When it comes to where is she and where is she going? Because you have to realize that the piaans and blackwood drawing culture in this country and so we just get to sit and listen and she's telling us where she's going whether through the world of team or sports so you know i want to go back a little bit to um the little more like the challenges or some of the things how you break down barriers in those

doors right as a lawyer right you can hire a lawyer at any time right people love us at the same time um but how do you set yourself in part when people have so many different options that who they want to partner with and also who you want to partner with. You know, I say I didn't get my clients as much as they get to like me and so it's a interview both ways. You know, while we do a little bit of, a little more about how you're breaking barriers and doors to get people don't want to. We take the exact same approach, right? We're not going to just work with it and worry. It's like partners I'm just trying to show up, you know, one month out of the year and it's

bad here. It's not very good and having an ongoing strategic conversation. And we've just been just amazing how much we have grown and how many partners we've had. last, you know, 18 months. And it's funny because if you look at some of the bigger brand partnerships that we've done, that brand manager had been a up in it. It's like, I don't even have to really explain the audience and the consumption and the influence that we have compared to a white table fan or a white male fan. She already gives it.

Like, I don't think he's just like period. And that's kind of a vast relationship. You know, I think when you have those conversations, we have to continue continuously upscale that executive on their office. But they're willing to listen when you're showing them the data and showing them the numbers You know before we came onto the sea when you're looking at that data didn't exist So that's something that we made sure that we put out into the ecosystem So last year we launched the Latifan report to say this is the money this is the consumer that you're leaving out

Can you imagine you just expanded your lens? What you could be able to bring into the fold. Yeah, I mean it's it's piggybacking up exactly that I think it's two sides, right? You bring up the fact that the brand managers are Latina, right? Like that's a huge opportunity where, you know, now there's a connection point. They understand. They represent the culture so they know how you should be speaking to them, right? But on the flip side, right, there are a lot of these executives that are not Latino or Latina, right?

And it's like you're speaking Chinese to them almost, right? And they're like, oh, yeah, I know they're a big population. I know they have purchasing power, but we could just run a general market campaign and it's going to work, right? and that's so far from the truth. And I think for us, it's like I'm on these calls and I'm on these discussions with them and I feel like I'm doing like this, you know, like having a seminar

educating them on the fact of this is actually the power, but not only are they powerful, but there's a culturally relevant strategy that needs to be in place to be able to speak to them the right way. I'll add to that the general market. It's like, okay, well, what market do you talk about? Because that general market

in Kansas City is going to look vastly different than L.A. L.A. your market is not in the market. I mean, right, I think what you're saying is true, right? So let's split the narrative a little bit, right? If you're telling stories, right, and you're telling content,

and you're working with brands, but you know, I'm gonna never talk a little bit about the other side of sports, right? And it's the human set as well, right? There would be no brands if there weren't, right? There would be no NFL in Latino, right? If we weren't, you know, building up the talent pool. And so when I looked at the word that I'm doing,

which I call it the non-sexy side of sports, right? And by that, I mean, it's like, yes, by law, right? We're looking at contracts and we're helping to navigate the new NIL world. But my organization also looks at how are organizations, and universities and athletic institutions really helping the athlete the entire person, right? You can't just treat them like we just start them,

and we draft them, and then if they get injured by the next person in the door. And so one of the things we were talking about is mental health, right? And the component of a firm believer, If your mental state is not all there, I don't know what you do with your body, how much training education we have,

we sometimes can't help? And so maybe talk, can we talk a little bit about how do you share those, maybe not so, I don't say a non-successful, but once I will touch someone differently than just showing someone getting a million-dollar contract. Absolutely. I think it comes down to the vulnerability, right,

and the transparency when you're having these conversations with people. I think we all have our own walks of life, right? and we all have our challenges, some bigger than others. But at the end of the day, the cards that we were dealt in our life were given to us for a reason, right? And I think the more transparent people are in speaking about the challenges that they had in their life, there's now a level of relationship that I can have with that person, right? You only see the glorious moments, right? When they win the Super Bowl, when they win the World Series, right?

And everyone's celebrating the confetti's coming down. But no one sees everything in between, the challenges, right? whether that's on the field, off the field, right? I think so many of these athletes are glorified for their success, but we don't see everything. I mean, look at them. Half of them, sometimes we're living in a household where they shared a bedroom with 10 of their siblings, right?

And no one's really talking about those type of stories, but that's how they became the person that they are today. So I think it's really showcasing the journey of a lot of these athletes, entrepreneurs, whoever it may be, because that's where you can connect with that person. And I think that's where the mental health stigma is going, where people now have a connection where you and I both had some sort of challenges that we faced. So now I feel more comfortable where I might not feel okay today, but neither did you. So now I understand that I'm actually okay.

Exactly. Well, I'm not going to be getting down there. The other, there's a future generation. You were a philanthropist, so I'd love to talk about how you're paving the way and also inspiring the next generation of Latin, Latinos, and just in general people. Yeah, I mean, you know, with our vision the drafted is really to change the narratives, the narratives of the commercial messaging

around Latinas and sports. I mean, before we existed, there was not anything. So how cool is it that I get to wake up every day and roll up my sleeves and build this foundation? And when we do that and get back, like you said, at the Papuana I mean, you're looking at, from the field to the front office to plan them,

we want Latvinas to be visible. And so we came up with the Maci-Danus program, that was more focused on. on the front office and then the sidelines, right? We have a group of E-Nos who want to be content creators, and there's not really a place for her to feel belonging, to feel like, okay, her who she represented. And so we launched the Capitana's program.

We have, whatever company got this here too. She's my sister out there. I'll forgive her from that because I'm a packer fan. But, you know, it's fantastic we're being able to pair them with mentors, pair them with programming, and to see them grow and to see them have these opportunities. It's like that's why I exist, you know, to give back. Yeah, for us too.

At the end of the day, it's all about giving back, in my opinion, right? Obviously, we have a business to run and things that are important on the day-to-day, but what is it really worth if you're not giving back at some capacity, right? For us, it's partnering with a variety of nonprofits. So two of the nonprofits that we work with are called Corazones de Servicio and Blue Mission. Both of them are doing projects in the Dominican Republic. Blue Missions provides clean water throughout the island and basically are building bathrooms,

building the infrastructure to access water. A lot of them are basically walking down the mountain, getting buckets of water and going back to their neighborhood to cook, drink water. So it's providing accessible water for the island. And the goal is globally in communities that need it. And Corazon is another organization that, that is building homes, football field, soccer fields, in these communities where there's a good

amount of poverty and they don't have access to capital to be able to build infrastructure, build the resources for these kids to have a life, right? I think that's something that, you know, I always thought about this idea even before Staten Gellon. It was called the next MVP, right? Next most valuable player, next most valuable purpose. And it's about providing resources for underprivileged kids to be able to have the opportunity to live the life that they deserve.

And obviously, a lot of us are privileged when you look at some of these communities, right, where they're living under palm trees and don't have access to books or microphones or whatever it might be, that they know they want to do something, but they don't have the resources. So being able to give to communities like that through the work that we're doing, I think,

is really what we try to do and partner with those type of initiatives that are the leaders and pioneers of those type of projects. that's a tough one. I mean, there's a lot that excites us, I would say. I think this, like, you know, seeing more of these type of initiatives really excites me, you know, organizations like H-C-3, Latinos and sports, right, being kind of senior level at their, at their role in their life, and seeing the opportunity and being advocates for people like ourselves and giving ourselves a platform to amplify Latinos, amplify Latinas, and be kind of the, the, the, the next

generation of it, right? We were kind of talking offline before and I have a 15-year-old brother and I know he's now that much more disconnected from his culture and his heritage as a Cuban, right? But I want to put it upon myself to be able to keep those traditions alive. Like we do the Kahachina for anyone that knows that. And like to me that's like my favorite Cuban tradition, right? I grew up around and my grandfather taught me how to cook a pig at a really young age, but as he passed away, no one was really going to take it, right? So I was like, you know what? I'm going to learn how to do it.

And I've been doing it now for 10 years by myself. And now we do it competitively. And I think it's something that's like, this is like cool, right? Like this is part of like who I am, how I grew up. And I want to be able for, you know, the next fifth, six, seven generation of Hispanic to be able to keep their culture close to them and really remember where they come from. You know, being here at the drought, what I'm really excited about is this you weigh with five of all. I mean, with LA-28 and the narratives,

and I just think I'm looking at the WBA and WSL, it took a couple decades for them to really grab up to some. Earlier, just as for a pro, I mean, this is going to happen so fast. People aren't sitting and advocating for nothing. And you're looking at the players. We have one here today. For me, being a mom and two little girls, like, I can't wait until I hear with my daughters

and see them get drafted for the pro, you know, like the quality. And if I could just be a platform to tell those stories or to help in any way. Like that's not to keep people for it's really busy to join. Andre, I think we forget that it takes sometimes a village and vision, put events like this together, and so I'm going to take it for,

thank you for more like to be.