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Banking on KC – CiCi Rojas of Tico Productions

 

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Kelly Scanlon:

Welcome to Banking on KC. I'm your host, Kelly Scanlon. Thank you for joining us. With us on this episode is CiCi Rojas, the President and a co-founder of Tico Productions and Tico Sports, along with her husband, Oscar Monterroso. Welcome, CiCi.

CiCi Rojas:

Thank you, Kelly. I'm so happy to be here.

Kelly Scanlon:

I'm really eager to find out more about Tico Productions and Tico Sports. You're getting some fabulous clients, but let's just start with what you do. You're a full service marketing agency. How do you distinguish yourself from some of the other agencies? Because there's so many here in Kansas City.

CiCi Rojas:

Yeah, there are, and that's one of the cool things too about Kansas City, is there's so much talent and it's pretty deep. There's a lot of very successful agencies in town. Predominantly, one of the things that was very helpful to us in the beginning is we started out as a production company. We are predominantly still a multimedia production company, and because of that, we made the investment early on, my husband did, Oscar, in all things production, all the equipment, the cameras, lighting, video boards, microphones, everything that you would need to have a quality production. We made that investment really early on, and we keep making sure that we're adding to that and updating and upgrading our equipment on a regular basis.

So a lot of marketing companies, in my experience, they outsource a lot of that. They subcontract the camera work, the video, the editing. We do all of it in-house. So there's chicken or the egg, but we decided, we went with the production idea first. That was Oscar's core competency in his work in news, and it just seemed for us that was a good differentiator. And it continues to be because a lot of our core work is still video and video production.

Kelly Scanlon:

You talk about this foundation that you had in video production. A lot of it was with nonprofit organizations. And now you're full service. So tell us about that evolution.

CiCi Rojas:

A couple key things happened for us. One, obviously my husband, once he started focusing on the job, on the business, on building the business full-time, obviously that helped. He was doing it part-time, like a lot of entrepreneurs, bootstrapped it in our basement. I was working full-time. One of us had to work full-time and pay the bills. When we started the business, I had no interest in production. I was more marketing. I have a chamber and I have a trade association background. That was my forte. But because of that, I was also involved in many organizations in the city, serving on boards or what have you. So I told Oscar, "Because we don't have a marketing budget, this is our marketing budget. We're going to do pro bono video work for some of the larger events in the city, and we're going to make our way that way." And that's what we did.

Kelly Scanlon:

They have a lot of people who attend those events.

CiCi Rojas:

We started out with the American Cancer Society, with Hope House, and it was a diversity. I said, "We're not going to just do Latino events. We're going to do more general market." So, obviously we did the Hispanic Chamber as well, but we did that one, and then of course, a couple of other large scale events. So our logo started showing up. Of course, we had a presence at those events. But I think the real game changer, well, there was a couple, but I think the first one, after we ... You have to be in business a couple years before you can get your certifications, your MBE, your DBE, all of your minority, those types of certifications. And once we were eligible, we did.

And we only had the certification about a year, and we won a large contract with the Kansas City, Missouri Health Department. We had maybe a part-time person at the time, and then we were able to then hire another full-time person and really start a good growth trajectory.

Kelly Scanlon:

I suspect that the second game changer was the launch of Tico Sports.

CiCi Rojas:

Correct.

Kelly Scanlon:

All right. Tell us about that.

CiCi Rojas:

 We are already doing multimedia production. Oscar found himself, through my relationship at the time when I was at Truman Medical Center, we built a relationship with the Chiefs as a sponsor. And they came to me and asked, I knew of anybody who would be a good potential announcer for a Spanish broadcast that they were contemplating in. And I said, "Well, we do." So I talked to Oscar, because we have a lot of connections in Texas still, especially in sports. Then we both decided, I said, "Well, why don't you just throw your name in the hat? You've done sports before. You were a sports anchor." And he did, and they liked him and they selected him as one of the commentators.

A couple years later, they were working directly with the radio partner. I told Oscar, I said, "I think we could do a better job. I think we can wrap it with video, with social media. We can really make sure we provide a quality broadcast and provide a level of access to the Latino fan base that's never been there before." And to the Chiefs, I said, "Would you consider a third party partnership relationship? We would pretty much be turnkey for you," and they liked that idea. So they were our first partner, and that was in 2016. And in 2017 was when we really wanted to grow that part. I knew this market here. There's a complete market here. I need to devote myself full-time to it as well. So in 2017, I joined and we landed our second team, the Oakland Raiders.

Kelly Scanlon:

Talk about timing. 2016, 2017, you caught the Chiefs as they were making their ascent.

CiCi Rojas:

I know. Absolutely, yes.

Kelly Scanlon:

That's incredible-

CiCi Rojas:

It was.

Kelly Scanlon:

... that timing. Well, congratulations. Just recently, you announced a new joint venture with Walz Tetrick Advertising. Tell us about that and what it's going to do for your company.

CiCi Rojas:

Over the years, we have found ourselves being asked to do more in the multicultural marketing space, especially because all of our services are in English and Spanish. So that's why many of our general market clients have said, "Okay, this market is a market that we need to start investing in. We need to get ahead of." So they started bringing us in to do not just the multicultural marketing, but then that led to more DEI work, diversity, equity, and inclusion work. So I knew that we have an opportunity to maybe do things on a grander scale at a national scale, especially with the teamwork that we're doing in Philadelphia and Ravens and the other teams that we work with. There's a market there. But I really felt like I needed a good partner to help me.

So, Charlie and I had been talking. We'd actually done a couple of small things together, subcontracting us for some things. And as a lot of deals get done, we were having a drink. And then it was like, "Why don't we think about a more formal partnership?" So then we decided to create a joint venture that would focus just solely on multicultural marketing and the diversity, equity and inclusion practice that I had just set up for us internally at Tico.

Kelly Scanlon:

That's nationwide though. I mean, they do national work, so that won't just be Kansas City based. Yeah.

CiCi Rojas:

Right, right. Walz Tetrick, they have a large roster of national clients and they all are needing or wanting either multicultural marketing or diversity, equity and inclusion. It goes together very nicely if it's done correctly. One of the reasons why we wanted to start the diversity, equity and inclusion practice at Tico was because we knew we could deliver a full service practice. There are many great consultants out there, but at the end of the day, when you've done this work, and if you've done it well, you have to go and market it. It typically shows up in the form of recruitment, community engagement, of course, then the internal and the marketplace work. So just the general marketing in itself to tell your story of why you are a great place to work and why diversity, equity and inclusion has a place, and is a big piece of your business.

Kelly Scanlon:

Yeah. You make a great point there because so many companies, I've seen it time and time again, they hire a consultant, they hire someone, a third party to come in and help them figure out what their core values are or what their mission statement is or whatever it might be, and then it sits on a shelf or gets pushed in a drawer. They don't even market it internally. So you're offering them full package.

CiCi Rojas:

Right. And the way we're talking about it too, and practicing is very different. It's with the business focus first. At the end of the day, if you do this right, you're going to win. You can't win without a diversity or a multicultural marketing strategy, just the numbers are the numbers.

Kelly Scanlon:

These days, a lot of potential clients want to see that. They won't even consider your bid or your RFP or anything unless you can show that you have gone through this and you had that implemented. You recently handled the NFL draft here in Kansas City.

CiCi Rojas:

Yes.

Kelly Scanlon:

Congratulations. How exciting that must have been. You've been to the Super Bowl three times now. Like I said, your timing is just, you couldn't have asked for better. So you've been to the Super Bowl as the official Spanish language broadcaster, and I just have to ask you, what are those experiences like? Not just personally, but also as a company, to get your team prepped for that? I mean, you're going to be on the global stage with these events. So, a small company here in Kansas City, what is that like?

CiCi Rojas:

It's a little surreal in the beginning, when you're traveling and you're going to represent Kansas City and the Latino fan base and appeal to them. But this year was really interesting because two of our teams were in the Super Bowl. We also work with the Eagles. A little awkward, but a lot of fun nonetheless. And the interesting thing in sports, you have to constantly reset. After the game and you know you're going continue on in the journey for additional games, it's a flurry of activity. We've got to get ready, we've got to go. We've got to get travel arranged, credentials. I mean, all those things that have to happen.

We work with five NFL teams, and all five of them went to the playoffs this year. It was very chaotic because I wanted to try to have somebody from our team at each of those games so that we were there and the teams knew that we were there and we had a presence in addition to our broadcast team. This year was really pretty special though, because it was just the way the stadium, the proximity of our two teams, they were pretty close together. So we were able to, the folks that weren't doing the broadcasting, we were moving back and forth between the teams. It was a really cool experience. It's really nice when you win too. I mean, I love the Eagles. I mean, I have to say that. I do. They are a great team to work with, but I bleed red and gold, so it was really cool that they would come home with the Super Bowl.

Kelly Scanlon:

Absolutely. And then the draft, I mean, talk about being on the national stage, you were literally on the stage, if I recall. Yeah.

CiCi Rojas:

We were on stage, and that was very unexpected. They have a program at the NFL called Business Connect. It's to connect minority owned businesses, and assist them and provide some additional maybe opportunities to do business with the NFL for these large gala events like the Super Bowl and the draft. The difference for us is that we are already working with the teams, so our relationships are with the teams themselves, so directly with the teams. But we do work with the NFL too, especially during the championship games. But they asked us to go on stage and talk about our business on Saturday, and we were very unprepared for that. They put Oscar on the spot and asked him to do a touchdown call in Spanish, a call from Mahomes to Kelsey, a touchdown call. He did it, and it was really so exciting and lots of energy, and the fans really liked it.

Kelly Scanlon:

You mentioned your relationship with Walz Tetrick and the DEI, and that just dovetails really nicely into work that you're already doing for the HR divisions of several companies. You already had that platform. Why is Tico becoming the go-to agency for workforce development over and above your relationship with Walz Tetrick?

CiCi Rojas:

I think simply because of the cultural competency we have. The fact that we're able to reach markets that are desirable right now that, I mean, just to fill any number of jobs, but especially we work a lot in education, healthcare. They need to fill jobs, and they think that having a cultural competency in some of these spaces is going to be critical for them, in addition to the language competency. So a lot of our work is rooted in recruiting. We just finished a campaign with Kansas City, Missouri, for example, to recruit more bilingual associates across all the departments. We had a lot of fun shooting that actually. But we do a lot of that work. And for us, it's important work because we're helping people get connected to jobs. For us, it's a great service.

Kelly Scanlon:

I want to shift a little bit here. From the outside, looking in, small businesses often make it seem like it's really easy, and you and I both know that's not the case. What's been your biggest business challenge?

CiCi Rojas:

I would say, well, COVID was a big challenge for everyone. Thank goodness we had some diversification, but we weren't diversified enough. Because most of the work we were doing were live type of events, including sports, cancellations after cancellations for work.

Kelly Scanlon:

Wasn't that so surreal when you'd watch them, when they finally started playing again, you'd watch them in these empty stadiums with cardboard cutouts?

CiCi Rojas:

It was. You can't sell a broadcast. You can't sell around that. And then just all of our clients, they were not able to fulfill contracts because many of the events that we would do that we were planning, whether it was video work or production work, they were all canceled.

Kelly Scanlon:

Yeah, or they put them on Zoom. I'm thinking maybe your nonprofit galas and so forth.

CiCi Rojas:

And we did. We shifted. But it was several months before these organizations decided we just can't be sidelined-

Kelly Scanlon:

Exactly, right.

CiCi Rojas:

... for two years. We still have to raise money. We still have to create awareness for our mission. For us, because we're doing sports and a lot of that work is still done remotely, even though we have teams in the stadiums, we're doing backend work here. We already knew that world very well, so we were able to flip pretty quick to virtual events for many clients, large galas, you name it. And that saved us. But there were many months that were very, very difficult. Like a lot of small businesses, we had to cut down to the bare bones. And then slowly we started, we were able to pick up steam and create a new place.

Kelly Scanlon:

And now you're stronger than ever, it sounds like. As you've grown your company, what would you say has been the best resource? Kansas City's full of resources. What's been your best resource?

CiCi Rojas:

We have been the beneficiary of many great programs. Oscar, he's been through Fast Track. When I was the CEO of the Dallas Hispanic Chamber, I brought Fast Track to the Dallas Chamber. We started offering it in English and Spanish. So I've actually been through it many times, just even around it. There's no substitute either for having a good support system around you, people that have been through what you've been through. Maybe they did it a decade ago, but you have given me some really good advice and encouragement. I think partly we overlook the tools that are right in front of us. And I mean, those are people that you've just asked them, that personal board of directors or the informal boards that lots of people have done. I mean, I know that people have good advisory boards. I have a informal one, but I'm definitely going to formalize that. That's going to be my goal in 2024.

Kelly Scanlon:

What is the importance of formalizing? I'm curious there. If you already got one that is working, taking that extra step to formalize it, what will that do?

CiCi Rojas:

I think it'll force me and Oscar and even my senior leadership team to be more intentional about our conversations that we have. And they're amazing. I do have a handful of people I can call off the cuff and say, "Hey, look, I'm struggling with this." But I believe that if we were to do that on a regular basis and we were be very intentional about the three or four things that we could really use their deep help with, I think it would be a bit more beneficial.

Kelly Scanlon:

What's the best advice that you can give someone for overcoming a bad business decision and moving on?

CiCi Rojas:

That's a good question. First of all, you can't be afraid to fail. You can't be afraid of the risk. I think a lot of people still, even in their personal lives or in their careers, they're afraid of risk. And for that reason, then they're afraid to try something new. So I believe that if you really feel in your gut that this is a good decision and you go for it and it's not there, I think the best thing you can do is just pick up yourself and immediately document what you learned from it and not be afraid to try it again, but maybe just reset and try something different.

Kelly Scanlon:

I love the key thing you said there, document it, because so often time erases your memory or makes you think, oh, that wasn't so bad. But if you go back and you're like, "Oh my gosh, yes. I lost this much money," or this relationship was destroyed in the process, or whatever, the test of time has smoothed over. Yeah, that's very powerful advice to document that.

CiCi, you alluded to this earlier, but you have a long history of business and civic engagement in Kansas City and even beyond. I'm just going to rattle off some of them. I'm probably not going to get them all, but President and CEO of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Greater Kansas City. And then you left that post to serve as Vice President of the US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, which I don't think a lot of people realize was actually born in Kansas City.

CiCi Rojas:

It was.

Kelly Scanlon:

Right? Yeah.

CiCi Rojas:

Yes.

Kelly Scanlon:

And went on to become the US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. And then later you're the President and CEO of the Greater Dallas Hispanic Chamber. You came back to Kansas City, and you served as President of Community Engagement at Truman Medical Centers, which opened the door to the Chiefs and then as president and CEO of the Central Exchange. So as one might imagine, you've served on all these numerous local and national boards, and it's given you a broad perspective about Kansas City and about Kansas City's place in the country. So from where you sit, given all that experience and all those relationships, where do you see Kansas City's greatest opportunities now, immediately, and then over the next decade?

CiCi Rojas:

I believe that there's several, the World Cup and some of these other big things that are coming to our town. But what I see is because I do travel, I was just in DC yesterday, I think one of the biggest opportunities for us is to really market ourselves to those businesses that are not finding success on the coasts.

Kelly Scanlon:

I've never heard anybody say that before.

CiCi Rojas:

I have met many Latino businesses that have relocated from California. Just too expensive. They're able to come here, buy a nice home, and have enough seed capital to start a business. If we could figure out a way to capture that trend and really be, once again, the word intentional, be intentional about how we market to that, that is a tremendous opportunity for us. And they're going to bring different and fresh ideas from being on the coast. So I think that's one.

I do believe that minority businesses have a bigger role to play. And I know that there was some disappointment after the draft that it did not necessarily hit the mark for many of them. So what did we learn from that? How are we going to shift so that the World Cup and everything that's going to lead up to that ... It's not just World Cup. There's going to be a series of events that are going to happen before that. How are we setting up not just small minority businesses, but small businesses in general so they can be successful? I think that it's probably an early education way upfront, preparing them now.

I think that there's some things, and I know that the city's working on it and other organizations are working on it, but I really feel like there's an opportunity for more of Kansas City to feel like they're a part of it, like they own it. One of the things I do know about Kansas Citians, we have a lot of pride. So that being said, we have a lot of pride, then we want to see ourselves as part of the solution or as somebody that can contribute.

Kelly Scanlon:

Yeah, you're a business owner. You know if you're going to introduce change or something new into your company, you want your associates to feel ownership of that and feel like they're part of that change and solution. Same way for the city.

CiCi Rojas:

Right. I am so proud when I travel. Everybody says, "Where are you from?" "I'm from Kansas City." We do a lot of stuff across the country. No, I'm proudly rooted in Kansas City. We have a lot to offer. I talk all the time about the new airport, the art scene, the sports scene, of course, but there's so much to recommend. We're actively right now pursuing the US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Convention to come back here. But it'll be another big high profile event. It may not have quite the attendees of some of the other ones, but it's of national significance.

Kelly Scanlon:

Right. And it introduces people to Kansas City who may never have been here before and who may never have thought to come here. So CiCi, thank you very much for all that you, your company, Oscar are doing for Kansas City. Good luck with all of this expansion and growth that you're experiencing. It's just so fun to see a small business have those opportunities. Thank you so much. Appreciate you being here today.

CiCi Rojas:

Thank you, Kelly, for having me.

Joe Close:

This is Joe Close, President of Country Club Bank. Thank you to CiCi Rojas for being our guest on this episode of Banking on KC. Through her business, nonprofit and civic engagement, CC has played numerous roles in shaping communities across the country. Along with her husband, Oscar Monterroso, she has grown Tico Productions beyond a video production company into a full service multimedia, multicultural marketing agency that broadcasts live sports in Spanish globally, and has cemented itself in the DEI training space. Central to her actions is pride in her community, believing that Kansas Citians too feel great pride in our city. She says we can each leverage that to be part of any solution for carrying Kansas City forward.

Thanks for tuning in this week. We're banking on you, Kansas City. Country Club Bank, member FDIC.