WGU Alumni Podcast

Building Bridges and Legacies: WGU Distinguished Graduate Juan Longoria's impact

• WGU Alumni Relations • Season 2 • Episode 10

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3-time WGU graduate Juan Longoria shares his inspiring journey of education and mentorship, illustrating that it’s never too late to pursue one's dreams. His dedication to helping others through his nonprofit, REVJLO Charities, and the new Lo Nuestro Collective embodies the spirit of lifelong learning and community upliftment.

On this episode you'll hear about: 

• Juan’s educational achievements and commitment to WGU 
• The vital role of mentorship in career advancement 
• Balancing personal life and professional ambitions 
• The importance of lifelong learning and community support 
• That it’s never too late to pursue your dreams

Speaker 1:

Hey everybody, welcome back to the WGU Alumni Podcast. I'm Jeff Burton from the WGU Alumni team and we're thrilled to have you tuning in once again. Our episodes continue to roll on. We are tackling the theme of it's never too late and we have another distinguished graduate joining the podcast today and super excited to have Juan join us. I think you're going to enjoy his message. He is a great ambassador of the university and just a great guy. And so a little bit of background about Juan. Juan Longoria has more than 20 years of leadership experience in customer service and other fields. He's passionate about diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as philanthropic efforts to help others succeed. He founded Rev J-Lo Charities in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas with a mission and a purpose to help remove obstacles to opportunity. Over the past decade, juan has earned three business degrees from WGU his bachelor's in business management, a master's in business administration and a master's in management and leadership. In 2022, he was also named a distinguished graduate of WGU. Juan, it's great to see you. Welcome to the podcast.

Speaker 2:

Thank you so much. It's great to be here. Love the school, love what you guys are doing.

Speaker 1:

Well, thank you for your kind words and super excited to catch up with you. You've done a lot of things that we want to dive in and hear about and give you a platform to be able to share that with our growing audience. But, as you know, Juan, we have students and graduates living across the country in all 50 states and one of the things we like to do is just hear what the best thing about your hometown is. So where in Texas do you, Helen? What's the best thing about living there?

Speaker 2:

I am from San Benito, Texas, but I live in Harlingen, Texas, which is right next door in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas. So way down at the bottom, close to the border with Mexico, so many great things. The people has to be the top answer, but if we're looking for something a little more fun, I would have to say you can't beat the Tex-Mex down here. The tacos street tacos are chef's kiss.

Speaker 1:

I love it, and are you native Texan?

Speaker 2:

I am. I was born and bred in Texas. I've lived here my entire life, except for a couple of years in Colorado and a couple of years in the Philippines.

Speaker 1:

Okay, that's awesome. I also want to ask you what is the most exciting thing that you are working on right now?

Speaker 2:

The most exciting thing I am working on right now at work, it's just the continued growth and all the good things we're doing at the company I work for. In my personal life, I do run a nonprofit in the nights and weekends and I'm working on a special project. You're the first to hear about it. I'm calling it the Lo Nuestro Collective, and it's basically putting together a group of successful individuals across many fields that want to give their time and their knowledge back to the communities that they came from, without necessarily making a profit or charging people for it. So truly free mentorship, guidance content that anyone can get, whether you're from here or not.

Speaker 1:

That's awesome. What led you to take on this new endeavor?

Speaker 2:

I've been really fortunate, through the guidance of my parents, to finish my education through school like WGU. That gave me a chance to finish my degrees while very busy in the corporate world and having great mentors along the way. I think everyone deserves that same opportunity. So now that I'm a little bit later in my career and I've experienced some success, I want to help people kind of get to where I'm at without the struggles that I had. One of the things I looked back to my grandfather that always taught me was, if you're going to do something, learn how to do it well and then make it easier for someone else to do the same. So that's the part of my life I'm in right now is hopefully finding a way to make it easier for others who are just starting their career journeys that want to get to the level where I'm at to get there faster.

Speaker 1:

That's great. Well, I want to dive into your journey, if that's okay, and I want to ask you what brought you to WGU? Why did you decide to go back to school in the first place?

Speaker 2:

I was at a part of my career where I had I've always been really good at the jobs that I've had. It's you call it work ethic, call it growing up Hispanic. You just got to go work hard, but meeting a right mentor that said, hey, you know, you should be my boss. I don't know why you're not at a higher level of this company than you currently are. It wasn't insulting, but it was this company than you currently are. It wasn't insulting, but it made me question was he right? And I started thinking about why am I not at a senior manager or a director or a VP at some point? And it really got me thinking about what I had to do to get there.

Speaker 2:

So obviously I had a subject matter expertise. At the company I was at at the time, I had a really great reputation. What I didn't have was a degree to solidify my expertise within the company and my tenure. That role had me traveling around the globe managing vendor relations with our BPOs from a customer service aspect. So a brick and mortar school didn't really work out for me.

Speaker 2:

I couldn't attend class and I couldn't even really commit to an online school that required a comment in a thread every Tuesday and a paper due every Friday, and I saw an ad for WGU and I just did some research, made a call, loved the program mentor I spoke to. It was flexible, it allowed me to leverage my experience in a way that allowed me to kind of fast track through certain parts of the degree process. It was just all around a win for me and it worked very well for me, and so much so that I got my bachelor's done, my MBA and very quickly went to get my other master's. Yeah, it was a great find and I'm happy to champion WGU everywhere I go.

Speaker 1:

Well, we appreciate that very much. You're, as I mentioned, a great ambassador, and one thing I wanted to highlight is WGU has a large bus and we call it the Sage Coach. Play on words here our mascot, the owl Sage, and help me remember this one. Your picture is featured on this bus, is it not?

Speaker 2:

It is on the back, right-hand side Really great picture. The artist did a great job of capturing not just my kind of the image I was trying to portray, but, I think, everybody else who was on the bus. It was a really great experience to be in New Orleans. To see that in person Definitely a super proud moment. Had a lot of questions about it. More than anything, it allows me to share my story in different ways with different people, about why I ended up there, how I ended up there. But let's me talk about my upbringing, working as a migrant worker in the fields with my older relatives to now being a leader in the corporate world, and how WGU was a good kind of bridge between those two.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, what a great story you have, and that's right. I want to say that was was it two years ago. I remember meeting you at that unveiling in New Orleans. I think there are six or seven individuals featured. Wgu has distinguished graduates that we actually kicked off in our 25th anniversary year, which was the year that we honored you and your story. And, yeah, I love to. Hopefully you love that too. I love to think that that bus is traveling through the country and that Juan is on the bus as, again, a great representation of what hard work and dedication can look like, recognizing it's never too late to go back to school and to make something happen, to really go after your dreams my degree journey at WGU was really going back to finish what I had started in my younger years at brick and mortar schools, and I was already a senior manager by the time.

Speaker 2:

I started to get motivated to kind of get my bachelor's to help me on my way to director. So it's never too late is absolutely correct. It's one of the things I talk to my employees all the time is if they haven't started, it is never too late to get started. The years are going to go by Might as well. People are just so busy that, unless you are in a very specific circumstance where you don't have to work, it's really hard to find a way to accomplish your educational goals without a school like Western Governors University.

Speaker 1:

Now Juan, how was the decision of going back to school at WGU? How would you say that was connected to a bigger dream that you had for your life?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean I was a senior manager. I had a really great director at the time who was pushing me to pursue my career goals. There's obviously a significant pay increase when you go from a senior manager to a director role, along with some additional benefits In addition to my passion to making a difference and giving back to my community. And I knew that when you start looking around the room even if I was one of the most respected senior managers within the company, I wasn't the only one and as you start looking around, like most people should right you do a SWOT analysis on your competition I noticed a degree is something that I didn't have, that others might. That would help solidify my journey to director.

Speaker 2:

In addition to that, I was always kind of exposed to conversations with VPs and our chief care officer and I never felt out of place. But there were conversations that happened that I felt like I didn't really have anything to into the grand scheme and how to talk about my contribution to EBITDA or how it even works into my strategy as a leader. So that gap isn't easily solved by taking a free course online or by talking to someone. Necessarily. That's where going through these degree programs at WGU really gave me the confidence where I didn't have it to stand up and be part of a conversation. That is a huge component of getting promoted or advancing your career. You can't have a seat at the table if you don't have something to contribute to that table.

Speaker 1:

Was there anything holding you back from doing it sooner?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, the fact that I was traveling the globe as part of my job. I just couldn't really attend a brick and mortar school online schools back then because I wasn't really looking. There was a couple of I would say maybe at the time bigger names in WGU. This was many years ago. That just didn't work for me with their structure. It wasn't to like you know, like I said, I stumbled across WGU online and I was like this is what I've been looking for for the past several years and I think within like two weeks I'd signed up and get ready to get started.

Speaker 1:

What would you say was the biggest unexpected surprise from going back to school?

Speaker 2:

How fun it was. Honestly, I think it was great for two reasons. One again, because of the way WGU formats your degree journey. There are some courses that may be easier, based off of your experience.

Speaker 2:

For me, anything that was organizational leadership associated or management it didn't seem like a challenge that much because it's stuff I did every day. But I did learn more of the formal kind of information to have a conversation with anybody versus what I perceived it to be in my own mind through my own experience. However, when you come to things like finance and accounting that were not my favorite subjects ever and still probably aren't, but going through them it was challenging, and being able to learn and walk away with that knowledge that turns into confidence felt really good and it was very motivating in itself to know that, yes, you have the mentors and you have your course instructors, but you're doing it on your own and I think for people like me, that alone makes you want to go faster and further, because it's almost like that instant gratification of something you're actually doing for yourself in a way that makes the most sense to you.

Speaker 1:

Now can you think of another time in your life when you decided it wasn't too late to go after a dream or a hobby and interest, something like that?

Speaker 2:

Absolutely Now. I think this month what I talked about earlier in starting this project of the Nuestro Collective. I'm still in my early 40s, so I've still got a few more years of work to do, but I'd like to, as I plan my exit strategy from corporate work place. My goal I would love to be some sort of consultant speaker where I kind of get to do things on my own time when I want to, and I'm kind of mapping my path of credibility to that place now. And one of the things is getting out and getting your brand, your personal brand, out there. And what is your niche? What do you want to talk about? What do you know? What have you done that allows you to be an authority in a certain field?

Speaker 2:

And I think, with all of my years of experience in customer service, customer success, that whole realm of providing great customer experiences and bringing people back to whatever it is that you're offering I've had a lot of success there, internally in the vendor management space. I've had a lot of success there, internally in the vendor management space. It's scary, but to get out there and do a podcast are influencers and doing the right thing. But it's never too late, right? I think there's a lot of great examples. Time, no matter how good you are at anything else, is going to require development and nurturing, but you can't get to being an expert in a space without first taking that first step and being a newbie to it. So I'm going through it right now. You know it's. It's never too late to get started on the things that you're passionate about. Hopefully I can be an example to others there too. Right, get started and see where it goes.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, no, that's great, and I'm smiling here as I'm listening to you because I think you are a wonderful example of this, and I think this is a great example maybe a life hack, if you will that you've learned, and I want to give you an opportunity to maybe share one or two additional life hacks or career gems that you've received in your career over the years, whether that's in the corporate world or the things that you've learned in the nonprofit space. So do you have any additional insights or things that have been helpful and motivating for you to lead you to the success that you've had?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, the biggest thing is find yourself a good mentor. I think too many people go a little bit later than I should. Have that held me back. I think I might be a level or two further along in my career had I gotten mentors earlier. I have plenty now. But if you're feeling stuck and you don't know what direction to take or what your next step should be on your career journey whether it's getting promoted or applying for a different job or even getting hired if you're just out of school find yourself a mentor. You may have to ask 15 people before one says yes, but the one that says yes is going to be truly committed to you and will be a huge help to you. You got to put yourself out there and understand that everyone deserves a mentor, and if you can't find one and if you're in the similar space as I am, I'm happy to be that person for somebody.

Speaker 1:

You're kind and I love one that you've. You've highlighted here the importance of mentorship, which those that have gone to WGU understand, the value of a mentor. Right, you're speaking maybe in a little bit in terms of you know a volunteer, not a professional. You know assistance through your coursework, but I love the work that you're doing and your exciting new endeavors that you're going to be helping others, like you're practicing what you're preaching and how important that is, which is super exciting to hear.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, like I said, I've been very fortunate through great opportunities mentorship and I think we should all learn to pat ourselves on the back. I'm in a spot where I can give back and that's what I really want to do. That's what excites me. If I could do that every day and pay the bills, I would start doing that today, but I'm on that path. And speaking of mentors, hopefully she's still at WGU, but, uh, I had one of the best, I think, throughout a long part of my journey. Her name was Molly Hoyle and uh, I still reach out to her every now and then just to shoot her an email and just say hey, just I haven't forgotten about your help, thank you for what you do.

Speaker 2:

And I think the mentors at WGU are often unappreciated. I think people often look at them as somebody to police your progress, of sorts, and kind of be on your case. But they know what they're doing. They understand how to read individuals and provide the best recommendations for them to be successful in their goals. And I'd say, if you're new to WGU or if you're not, give your mentor a little bit more love. They're out there doing what they can for you, whether you know it or not.

Speaker 1:

That's great. Yeah, thank you for sharing that. Shout out to Molly, to all the mentors that assist our students to help them be successful. Juan, I want to ask what you hope to accomplish over the next one to two years, outside of what you've already mentioned. You've mentioned a couple new initiatives that you're working on, but, either professionally or personally, is there something, a goal or things that you're focusing on to accomplish over the next couple of years?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, outside of what I've spoken to, I think it's just, you know, do all the things that I'm trying to do without sacrificing being a good dad. I've got kids that are seven and nine currently. It's a fun age, but they deserve and warrant a lot of time. So making sure that I'm there for them when they need me as a priority, while still getting all the other things I want to get done for myself and for them in a way, is super huge. But yeah, I think we live in a crazy place and there's a lot of reasons to either not want to engage with others or look to keep your circle very small, and there's no right or wrong way to do it in my eyes. But we could all benefit by leaning into each other and sharing a little bit more. So if I can make that difference for one person, then life is good.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's great. Well, juan, I know the team in Texas, specifically colleagues Nancy, linda, manny, others that think the world of you, and we just appreciate your engagement, your involvement. You've been great there in South Texas, which is a really important footprint for us. You know we have a lot of students, a lot of graduates, in Texas and I know that you're a leader there and we appreciate that. This has been a really good interview. It's been great to hear about the things that you're involved in and the goals that you're setting. I want to ask you first, if people want to connect with you, where's the best place that they can find you?

Speaker 2:

first of all, yeah, linkedin is probably the best place. As I've gotten older, my Facebook and everything else has gotten a little more private, but definitely LinkedIn is the way to go if you want to get a hold of me.

Speaker 1:

Okay, reach out on LinkedIn and then, as we conclude the interview, I'd love to really toss this to you, to give you the final word. So, anything, as we close this down, any parting words? I'd love to hear those from you.

Speaker 2:

No, I think what I said is hopefully everybody is feeling supported in their journeys, whatever part of their journey they're at. And those same words that my grandfather gave to me if you're going to do something, learn to do it extremely well and then make it easier for others to do the same.

Speaker 1:

I love that. Thanks so much, juan. Appreciate the time today Likewise. Thank you, all right, no-transcript.