On today’s episode, Apollo sits down with Alfred Fraijo, founder and partner of the Somos Group, an entirely BIPOC-led multidisciplinary group, committed to broadening equity goals and advancing the value and expertise of people and communities that have been historically underserved and undervalued.
On today’s episode, Apollo sits down with Alfred Fraijo, founder and partner of the Somos Group, an entirely BIPOC-led multidisciplinary group, committed to broadening equity goals and advancing the value and expertise of people and communities that have been historically underserved and undervalued.
Alfred’s Prioritize score sits at 60%, with Leverage and Execute sharing the other 40%. Alfred recounts his early days as a lawyer and how he’s grown his Leverage skills over the years.
He praises the mentors who have guided him along the way (including Apollo!) and offers sage advice for those looking to be a change-maker in the professional world. From curing imposter syndrome, to being authentic, to translating desires for humankind into action, Apollo and Alfred get to the roots of why they works hard to foster the communities around them.
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Guest Bio
Alfred Fraijo Jr. is a distinguished figure in the realm of land-use transactions, boasting a wealth of expertise garnered from his work with public, private, and nonprofit developers, as well as multi-national corporations, both domestically and internationally. Alfred has notably contributed his adept counsel to a diverse array of complex housing and mixed-use development initiatives spanning across California. His advisory prowess extends to pioneering urban renewal projects within inner-city environments and nascent markets, exemplifying his commitment to social equity. Alfred's mastery encompasses the intricate domains of project permitting, financing strategies for affordable housing ventures, and the orchestration of mixed-income housing developments.
His depth of knowledge extends to a myriad of legislative frameworks, including the Subdivision Map Act, California Community Redevelopment Law, the California Environmental Quality Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, CERCLA, RCRA, California Superfund Law, and the Polanco Redevelopment Act. Alfred's collaborative approach shines through in his work, as he collaborates closely with clients and consultants alike to conduct meticulous due diligence reviews of land-use matters. Armed with a bachelor’s degree from the prestigious Harvard University and a J.D. from Loyola Law School, Alfred Fraijo Jr. stands as an exemplar in the dynamic intersection of real estate, land-use, and environmental law.
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Guest PLE Score
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Guest Quote
“My work is about building better communities, building more resilient communities. My work is about unlocking the potential of under-resourced, under-invested communities, the kind of communities that I grew up in.
I grew up poor in Boyle Heights. I grew up outside of the margins of opportunity and wealth and power. And so as a professional, my mission in life has been to undo that. It is both a system change process, and it's also a process for creating new strategies and new tools, right?
You can't break down the master's house with the master's tools. You've gotta come up with new ones. And so for me, it was really important to be able to build a team, build an organization that was oriented towards systemic change.” - Alfred Fraijo
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Time Stamps
*(3:00) Intro
*(4:45) Alfred’s Achievement Index
*(8:08) How to grow a prioritize mindset
*(18:18) Working the system from the inside
*(24:05) All of Alfred’s “Firsts”
*(25:56) What everyone can do to help the fuuture
*(34:49) Parting advice for others wanting to launch their ideas
*(48:08) Apollo’s Takeaways
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Links
[00:00:00] Apollo Emeka: Improving your leadership skills will help you in every area of your life. But it's tough to know where to get started, and that's why we created the Achievement Index Assessment. You can take the assessment@theachievementindex.com. It takes about five minutes, and it's gonna generate a personalized report that breaks down how you prioritize, leverage and execute.
Go to the achievement index.com or find the link in the show notes.
[00:00:26] Alfred Fraijo: You can't do this alone. You need a village. You need a tribe. You need people to support it, and so I relish the opportunity to be that bridge. It requires code switching. It requires using different kinds of language. I. It requires translating your ideas in ways that people will understand it based on their lived experience.
'cause ultimately, we're human beings trying to make a difference in the world. Honestly, I feel like fundamentally we're all doing or trying to do the same thing, which is to make the world a better place.
[00:00:55] Apollo Emeka: Welcome to the Achievement Index. A podcast designed to help you understand and accelerate the ways you perform.
I'm Dr. Apollo Ekka. I created the Achievement Index based on my experience in the F B I US Army Special Forces and Business. According to the Achievement Index, vibrant success is the result of doing well in three. Areas, or as we like to call them, orientations, prioritize, leverage, and execute. On this podcast, I'll be getting inside the minds of noteworthy leaders to explore how their unique orientations inform the successes and challenges they've navigated throughout their lives and careers.
On the show today, I'll be speaking with Alfred Reho, founder and partner at the Somos Group, and entirely Bipo led. Multidisciplinary group committed to broadening equity goals and advancing the value and expertise of people and communities that have been historically underserved and undervalued.
Alfred secures and negotiates land use entitlements for complex housing infrastructure. Mixed use development projects throughout California. He provides legal advice to clients pursuing innovative urban renewal projects in the inner city and other sectors with emerging markets. Alfred launched the Somos group earlier this year and it consists of two branches, law practice, which provides attorneys and law clerks for clients and advocacy with non-legal professionals serving real estate clientele on various initiatives.
Whew. I cannot wait to explore this firm with you today. Alfred, how are you doing? I'm doing great.
[00:02:43] Alfred Fraijo: I'm happy to be with you Apollo. Thanks for the opportunity to talk about my new platform and to be with you, especially given our work history. I'm delighted and
[00:02:51] Apollo Emeka: honored. I mean, this is a moment in history that I'm glad has captured on this podcast because it's been a long road.
I know it's been a long road for you, but it feels like a long road for me too. Just in the last four or five years that we've known each other and been working together. So this is, this is an awesome moment in time.
[00:03:07] Alfred Fraijo: Well, I, I say that a big part of why I'm doing what I'm doing is because of you and I mean that sincerely.
So I'm excited that you're part of this journey for me,
[00:03:16] Apollo Emeka: Alfred. Don't make me cry at the beginning of the show, man. Don't make me do, Hey, I'm think of the show through tears.
Awesome. Well, okay, so before we get to the meat of you know, what it is that you're doing and how you do it, I want to dive into your achievement index. Score. So it looks like you came back as 60% Prioritize. And prioritize is basically knowing what must be done. If we think about this kind of mountain climbing analogy, it's being able to sit back and look at the mountaintops and choose which mountain that you want to climb.
You're 24% leverage and leveraging is all about building that base camp that's gonna make climbing those mountains easy. So it's. You know, answering the question of how do we work smarter, not harder, and you are 16% execute. So, you know, execute is all about building that path up the mountain, using, you know, the tools and the, and the folks in your base camp to climb that mountain and, and actually make it to the top.
So 60% prioritize, 24% leverage, and 16% execute. How does this strike you?
[00:04:26] Alfred Fraijo: Very much in alignment with, I would say, both my strengths and my weaknesses. Right? My strengths about being able to identify the highest and most important goals, being able to articulate those, having a vision. Mm-hmm. Being able to inspire people to get there, and then the leverage is something that's so critical that you and I have spoken about.
You emphasize is a key to scaling, which is what's something I want to talk about today. So very much in alignment with what I think are my, my biggest strengths and also opportunities for growth on the execution piece. I'm actually surprised, right? I'm a lawyer by training, so my job has always been to get things done and.
Do the work, right? Yeah. Yeah. I I sometimes default to having that sense of like, if you want it done, and I think one of the questions led to this, if you want it done, you gotta do it yourself. And so that's a piece that I think is, is a little surprising. 'cause I would've thought that would've been a greater emphasis of my evaluation.
[00:05:24] Apollo Emeka: Yeah. That's so interesting. This is a pretty prototypical. Executive mindset here that you're displaying because as the person who has the vision that you have, you know, you can't afford to have your head kind of head down and just right foot, left foot up the mountain, right? Because you have a whole team.
And you have other mountains that you also want to kind of climb and conquer as well. So it makes a lot of sense. I think the thing that's always the fun question to ask folks who come on the show, because actually your, your execute is a little higher, so maybe that is your attorney side when we have, you know, people, fund managers and whatnot.
I think Danielle shoots who you met and who you know now, uh, was I think 4%. Execute. So you're right, you're four times more, more execute than Danielle is. So it may seem low, but as an executive, you know, you're supposed to be looking at those mountaintops and pointing them out to the rest of the team.
But when you think about that 16% is still definitely lower than 60% or even 24% on leverage. So how is it that you have been able to, first of all, build this massive career? Big law, right? Like you built this renowned career in big law and you have a reputation for land use in Los Angeles for sure. And more broadly in California.
You've done a lot of stuff. So I guess rather than asking you how have you been able to get stuff done with just a 16% execute mindset, it's like how were you able to transition to grow such a prioritized mindset? You know, because you, you have been executing and you built your reputation off of solid execution.
So how did that prioritized mindset grow and flourish
[00:06:59] Alfred Fraijo: for you? It's a great question. You know, I, I would say that part of my professional journey has been about evolving into a professional that is comfortable prioritizing and leveraging. Um, and I would say that it was a bit of an imperative Apollo because the more I expanded my reach into the real estate and development world in, in the introduction you made, I have been working with.
Large institutions. I have been working on very complex projects, and I knew that in order for me to be effective, I needed to know how to build teams. I needed to understand how to create a group of professionals that satisfied the challenges or met the challenges, and also were able to ca keep up with our clients who were also increasingly diverse, increasingly having complex challenges that they were bringing to me to solve.
So that was one piece, right? How to be most effective with our clients. The other was the ability to scale. I wanted to tackle multiple big projects throughout California. I wanted to be in San Francisco. I wanted to be in San Diego. I wanted to handle and tackle by national cross-border issues. I wanted to do, um, work in the urban core and also do some greenfield development in suburban areas.
And for me to be able to do that. I needed to build out a team and be able to prioritize, delegate, and not execute all of my, you know, on my own. So it was a bit of wanting to have a broader impact and understanding where my clients, you know, what my client
[00:08:30] Apollo Emeka: needs were. I love it. I'm gonna pull on this thread a little bit more because I.
Simply the, the desire to grow a big thing that handles complex problems, that's not enough for everybody to shift, to say like, you know what? I need to think more about leveraging, I need to think more about prioritizing. A lot of folks will like, oh, I want to do this big thing, so I actually need to execute harder.
I probably need to bury my head and just like left foot, right foot, I need to execute my way to being able to handle these big problems. Like did you have a phase of your career where maybe that was the case where you were like, oh, I'm gonna execute my way out of this, and then, and then you hit a wall?
Or did, did it feel like kind of a natural transition as you grew? So
[00:09:13] Alfred Fraijo: I would say one of my mantras is there's no substitute for hard work. The other is you have to be technically proficient, right? You have to know how to execute well and be a subject matter expert. And so for me, part of, you know, my, my early part of my career particularly was in perfecting my craft, being a really good lawyer.
And I still enjoy that. I still enjoy learning new issues, understanding new laws, right? 'cause laws are constantly evolving and they're constantly creating opportunities or constraints for our clients. So being an expert requires that you also do the work and you have the capacity really to talk to your clients in a very granular way.
One. Two is that for me to be able to train and understand how difficult some of those assignments are, I need to know what it takes to do to complete them. So part of it is understanding that and doing a good chunk of my work, maybe 14, maybe 20, depending on the day, is an important part of my development as a leader as well.
But it has been, it has been an evolution, Apollo, I will say, right? It is a little bit of operating on fate that you can scale up and do other kinds of work and be able to build a team and trust that, that the team is gonna get it right, it's gonna get
[00:10:29] Apollo Emeka: it done. That's awesome. I love it. That's such an articulate way of talking through that transition from, you know, kind of entry level and that execute mindset to how do you, how do you grow out of that?
Um, I think one of the things that, because I know you personally and I have so much experience with your professional vision, like I think that it's, it's a really strong magnet. For pulling you up out of the weeds. Can you talk a little bit about, you know, you, you're, you're talking about these projects that you were on, that you were like, oh shoot, these are really big and complex, and also, you know, like, I wanna be able to help in a bigger and different way.
Can you talk maybe about like, you know, how that happened either generally, or specifically Is there like a key project or a trend that was like, oh man, I, I need to be able to take a bigger bite out of this? How did that vision play in.
[00:11:16] Alfred Fraijo: I would ground it in, in a very specific, I would say, work that I'm doing right as you, per the introduction you made.
My work is about building better communities, building more resilient communities. My work is about unlocking the potential of under-resourced, under-invested communities, the kind of communities that I grew up in. I grew up poor in Boyle Heights. I grew up outside of the margins of opportunity and wealth and power.
And so as a professional, my mission in life has been to undo that. And it is both a systems change process, but also it's a process for creating new strategies and new tools, right? You can't break down the master's house with the master's tools. You gotta come up with new ones. And so for me it was really important to be able to build a team, build an organization that was oriented towards systemic change Apollo.
And so that was really my biggest and highest priority. Right. And then what happens after that? After you created North Star, you create a template of what you wanna do to change the world. Then you start finding projects that are gonna test and stretch and, you know, stress test some of those assumptions that you're making on how to do the work.
What ideas stick? Um, so for me it was really important to find those projects that were going to move the dial on some of the equity and sustainability goals that I have. Some of the economic development goals that I have. And so far, often, and even to this day and the kind of work that we're doing, clients come to me with challenges, with problems, and for me, Really the beauty of what I do and the joy in what I do is aligning the problem solving with the world, changing goals that I have.
That's really the great opportunity that I have, and frankly, I think the result is a better result for our clients and it has a double benefit. I think we are driving the agenda on social equity and economic opportunity and solving our client's challenges at the same time, and that alignment of values and work has been really my kind of secret formula
[00:13:29] Apollo Emeka: when it comes to prioritizing, leveraging, and executing.
Alfred is on some Jedi level prioritizing right here. He is ensuring that his client priorities align with his business priorities, align with his personal priorities and how he envisions the world. It's next level people, and it's not like he's. Operating completely off the grid. He's got an activist mindset, but it's not like he wants to burn it all down.
He is committed to operating within the system. I. I mean, we were at his launch party for his company a couple of weeks ago, and it was amazing. The current mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass was there and spoke the current insurance commissioner for the state of California and the current attorney general for the state of California, and the Deputy Secretary for the US Department of Commerce.
Were all there. So again, it's not like he's operating off the grid. You know, so many people feel like they have to choose between doing well financially or doing good in the world, and Alfred has rejected that choice and has somehow managed to fuse these things together.
[00:14:46] Alfred Fraijo: I'd made a deliberate choice early on to work within the system. So that for me was understanding and having an appreciation that you can be a change maker and still work within that system. That doesn't mean, as I said earlier, that you gotta come up with new strategies that move the dial. But certainly for me, my mission has been building momentum and building change within, and that's been important to me because I really relish the opportunity to be a change agent within the seat of power to be at the table.
That's really important to me. And also, oftentimes, I'm the only person of color. I'm the only gay person, L G B T person. I'm the youngest person, et cetera. Uh, so it's for me, understanding the ability, my, my special role in that, in that space. And also understanding and appreciating that people are hungry for difference, for change, for a new way of thinking.
[00:15:44] Apollo Emeka: I wanna pull on this thread a little bit more because I have not met anyone. I think that navigates what you just talked about with the skill that you do, you know, of being able to be in the system and still be a change agent. And I think that, you know, one of the biggest challenges that I see is that people, They delay the change.
Like I, I'm gonna get kicked out of here if I try to make the change that I wanna see right now. So I'll wait until I have a little bit more power. You know? I will wait until I have a little bit more cred or a little bit more political capital or a little bit more title, whatever it is, right? And so they're like, yeah, I wanna make change, but just not yet.
Not yet. Do you feel like there was a time in your career where you struggled with that? And if not, like what was in place of that?
[00:16:32] Alfred Fraijo: So I would say I struggled with it today. I'm constantly struggling with that. I'm constantly thinking about how hard to push, you know, how many people can I alienate and still achieve the agenda that I have?
How many, how, how uncomfortable can I make folks? Right? Because you gotta, you gotta be uncomfortable to be open to, to. Different ways of doing things or different ways of thinking. So I, I operate in that space, in that gray area, in that stretch area. So I'm always doing that. For me, it's a daily calculus of how much to push, but I also feel like you can't do this alone.
You need a village. You need a tribe. You need people to support it. And so I relish the opportunity to be that bridge. It requires code switching. It requires using different kinds of language. It requires translating your ideas in ways that people will understand it based on their lived experience.
'cause ultimately, we're human beings trying to make a difference in the world. Honestly, I feel like fundamentally we're all doing or trying to do the same thing, Apollo, which is to make the the world a better place. And so it's a matter of finding that common ground and bringing people along. And I also would say Apollo, that I grew up in that space, not in the seats of power, but translated for my parents who were monolingual.
I. Right navigating worlds going from living in poverty in east l a to attending Harvard, and it required a level of adaptability Apollo. That is this kind of skill that I still bring to the work that I do today. I. It just happens to be different, but it's the same type of skill and I grew up being kind of ashamed of that, right?
That I had to do those things or feeling like those were a things that I had to overcome, and I. I finally understood that, that that's my greatest strength. Having that ability to be conversant in different spaces, to have the facility, to be able to code switch, to be able to work, you know, with a, a group of folks that have certain types of experiences and then work with an entirely different group of folks and continue to be myself and continue to drive my own agenda, whatever that might be.
So it's definitely a strength. How does
[00:18:45] Apollo Emeka: authenticity factor into
[00:18:47] Alfred Fraijo: this for you? That is such a, an important thread in, in my life, being authentic, right? Being openly gay, being a product of immigrant parents, being Latino, bringing my identity into spaces where I was, like I mentioned earlier, I was the only person of color, right?
Being a lawyer in big law means that you're oftentimes, one of all, you're the only one. You struggle with that, to your point, there were times in my career where I felt like the police were gonna come into my office and revoke my, my car in some way. Right? Like the, the, you know, the bar or somebody's like, he's not really, he doesn't really belong here.
Yeah. You know, he's not really a partner. I. Yeah. Um, he doesn't really deserve to be in this corner office in the high rise in downtown la so having that imposter syndrome, uh, is related to authenticity, at least for me. I've had great mentors. I've had trailblazers that have come before me and have taught me two important lessons.
Number one is being inauthentic is obvious to most people. It kind of shows. Faking it. People get it. They don't wanna be around fake people and they may not know exactly or pinpoint the fact that you're being, you're trying to be something else, but they're gonna understand that they're not gonna be associated with you.
They're not gonna wanna do that. Right. So that's one aspect of it. The other aspect that I learned from one of my, my mentors, Antonio Hernandez, who is now the c e o of a major foundation here, she's like, You know what? They're never gonna accept you. Mm. They're not gonna think of you as a part of them. Be yourself.
Be who you are, and show up as your authentic self, because that's all you got. Mm-hmm. You don't wanna be like them.
[00:20:39] Apollo Emeka: It's a tail chasing endeavor, right? Yes. Like it's just exactly.
[00:20:44] Alfred Fraijo: There's plenty of them. You don't need to be another one of them. Mm-hmm. You can be yourself.
[00:20:49] Apollo Emeka: Yeah. Man, that's beautiful. And people who don't know, maybe your professional career, give us the picture of, so youngest partner, this managing partner at, at a, at a big firm, like situate us in.
So we, we heard about, you know, like growing up poor and boy heads. It's like, now give us that contrast.
[00:21:08] Alfred Fraijo: Yeah, I grew up in big law, so to speak. I was an associate at a big firm in San Francisco after finishing law school and then moved to LA in 2006 and started my career here in big law as well. I, um, lateral to Shepherd Mullen, which is a local firm founded in LA and had the extraordinary privilege of, of growing up at Shepherd, both as in as associated, and then becoming a partner.
And I was the youngest partner, the first openly gay. Associate to be elevated partner and then also became the youngest equity partner. Uh, I got the privilege of serving on the executive committee. I was the first Mexican American in the history of a hundred year old firm to serve on the executive committee, uh, and the youngest member of the executive committee as well.
And that came by being authentic. I. Apollo that came from being myself, that came from being able to achieve the kind of success that I had with my clients, with building a business within big law. And that would, they recognized, you know, they want, they wanted to see more Alfreds out in the world, and they knew that by keeping me in the room and keeping me engaged and giving me a role to influence the way that the organization was growing, gave them a better chance.
Of diversifying the firm and that was a smart decision on their part. Now I used that and leveraged that, uh, in a way to, you know, to force 'em. We talked about operating in this sort of stretch area, making people think differently, and I think I did that. I think I achieved that.
[00:22:41] Apollo Emeka: Oh, absolutely. What are some of the things that you think we as a society, as you know, folks who can.
Or maybe just observers, but especially the folks who can make decisions about these things. In what ways do we need to reframe our thinking and how we make space and make places?
[00:22:58] Alfred Fraijo: I think that for me at least what's top of mind recently is how polarized our discussions are around the topic. That, for me, is a huge challenge, and what I mean by that is oftentimes the government sees the private sector as the enemy.
I. And I think there's valid data to support that. Certainly, um, the issues of, of giving workers a living wage, the issues of providing the kinds of health benefits that we think the workforce needs. The fact that, you know, large institutions haven't been as responsible about climate adaptation and protecting the environment.
So there's plenty of data to support that animosity. But I think that in terms of. Creating change with the challenges that you mentioned and the work that I do. I think being that connector, finding a balance between getting the private sector to own up to, and be accountable and be responsible, and having elected officials willing to sit down and recognize that the public interest includes private players.
It includes small business, it includes large business, it includes entrepreneurs, right? We're all part of that economy and it's not monolithic, et cetera. So I, for me, it has, that's been, I think, a recent point of interest in finding opportunities to align those, those values, what the government sees at their highest priority, whether it's solving homelessness or solving issues of affordability and giving the.
Private players, right? Business owners, folks that are in private markets, an opportunity to help solve those problems because that's ultimately where I think the permanent solutions are gonna be at. Take for example, the issue of affordable housing. I often say that we can't publicly finance our way out of.
The housing crisis in California, we need the private sector to come to the table and offer up their own solutions and opportunities for catalyzing and increasing production. And that includes all kinds of housing. It doesn't just include affordable housing. We need to build housing for our workforce, for the middle class, et cetera.
And the private sector is doing that. The question is, can we help them do it quicker, cheaper, in a way that's more sustainable?
[00:25:09] Apollo Emeka: So many great leaders and great companies overlook the power of leveraging relationships. Hearing Alfred talk, I'm reminded of my time in special forces where rapport building is our most important skill.
Sure. It's important to be. Technically and tactically proficient. You gotta know how to jump out of a plane. You gotta know how to do all the cool special forces stuff, but it's all worthless if you cannot bring different people from different cultures and different perspectives together under one roof and get them to agree to move in the same direction.
And it's so fascinating to hear Alfred talk about how he deploys this skill across his business. Let's listen in a little more.
[00:26:00] Alfred Fraijo: I would say, you know, we start from the fundamentals. It's trust building. Honestly, Apollo, before we get to sort of the agenda, there's a pre agenda. There's an a priority discussion around our commonalities that transcend whatever topic you're dealing with.
I think that's really critical and that's oftentimes where I start in many conversations with both parties. Is to create that level of awareness and understanding that we're all trying to solve for the same problems perhaps in different ways. And I think that's number one. Number two is that we all have our own day-to-day obligations.
If you're the deputy mayor of a major city, you have a boss, right? When I meet with the deputy mayor, I have to understand how they're gonna, you know, be successful in their role. And it has nothing to do with the specific issue I bring to the table, but maybe I can find a way right of creating a win for them and creating a win for my client.
That comes from a level of empathy and a level of understanding that transcends a particular topic. Right? And you have to know that you have to have emotional intelligence. Apollo meet people at that level. I. I think oftentimes we overlook that it's possible because there might be power differences, right?
That person's a lot more powerful at that moment than I am coming to the table. They're more powerful to my client because they happen to be the regulator. They happen to be the decision maker They could make or break a business deal or their budget for that year, and so there's a power imbalance that creates that level of insecurity and distrust that you have to overcome.
For us to have a working relationship. Now, I don't want to, you know, be overly optimistic, but I think that it is, for me, the thing that most stimulates my work is to sort of solve those, those challenges, solve those puzzles for my clients.
[00:27:57] Apollo Emeka: I love that you talk about the coming together. And building trust.
And really it's using empathy to identify what is really important to people, right? Because it feels like a lot of these conversations, they get broken down to some highly kind of technically specific line item on a budget, and so it feels like we can get. S hung up on these in the weeds issues. So I love that you're, that you're talking about this kind of, Hey, let's zoom out and let's get on the same page and let's see each other as humans.
And also like what are the mechanics of your organization? Like what do we need to feed your organization in order for it to like this deal? Right?
[00:28:32] Alfred Fraijo: Yes, and I have to say though, Apollo, that oftentimes that is communicated in different ways. It's not, Hmm. Tell me about it. Sometimes that obvious, right? Tell me about it.
Because people don't feel comfortable. I feel like, again, to that issue of code switching and being an effective communicator is oftentimes, particularly with players that are new to the table so to speak, is that you get to that point by anticipating those kinds of concerns and trying to deliver. When before you make an ask, so to speak, right?
So that requires research. That requires, you know, investigating exactly who that person is, what their mandate is. It requires talking to other folks. You know, most of what makes these meetings successful. It's what happens before and after the meeting. For me, that's really important. That's
[00:29:25] Apollo Emeka: huge. I love that.
You know, deliver a win before you make an ask. Yeah. You know, if we fast forward 10 years from now, what's Somos look like? What's the impact that Somos is, is making?
[00:29:38] Alfred Fraijo: I. We have been in such a growth mode at the moment. Apollo, I feel like we are operating on Lightspeed, which has been super energizing and electric.
Uh, that's been such a great thing to experience. I would say in 10 years, we are the go-to shop for any organization that's interested in making a difference in the world using real estate. We wanna touch any issue that touches dirt. Anything to do with real estate, and that is from, you know, helping our clients expand their footprint and helping them acquire and manage property to building large institutions.
Focused on development. The other piece that is really important to us, as you mentioned previously, is tackling climate change and climate adaptation in a way that's sustainable and equitable is a huge challenge. We wanna provide the answers to those challenges, but that means having a large team, it means having a presence in in centers of innovation.
Whether it's in California or outside of California, we're opening an office in San Francisco. We have a presence in Mexico. We wanna be an international organization because we understand that countries are leapfrogging to technology and innovation in ways that the US can really learn from that. And so we wanna be in those spaces to bring back great ideas and have an exchange of ideas.
I mentioned previously that we are a. Organization that's bicultural, bilingual. We operate in different spaces and we're conversant in those spaces, and that makes us stronger. And so the more I would say, you know, platforms, uh, diverse platforms that we're in. I think it makes us a stronger organization and better able to serve our clients.
So I wanna be a large organization. I have several companies that will remain unnamed that are providing at least a model Apollo, but we're also cognizant of the fact that we're creating something entirely different. Yeah, that's the piece. And we're not gonna grow for growth's sake. We're gonna grow to be strategic, to make sure that we're meeting our client's needs.
I think there's plenty opportunity for growth Apollo. You see it in the amount of, as you mentioned, interests that we're getting from our partners. The interests that I'm hearing from young professionals that are trying to figure out how they make a difference in the world and what organizations will provide them that opportunity will make, you know, we'll give them that platform.
[00:32:09] Apollo Emeka: Isn't it amazing? What a clear vision Alfred has. It's obvious where his 60% prioritized mindset came back in his achievement index score. And by the way, if you want to know your score, you can take the achievement index assessment at www.theachievementindex.com and you're gonna get your own personalized report.
But you know the way that Alfred is prioritizing, it's clear that he understands the value of diversity. When so many companies that have made commitments in recent years, those commitments have either faded or remained stagnant, and I asked Alfred, Hey, what is the risk and losing sight of those commitments to diverse perspectives, to learning from and harnessing diverse
[00:33:02] Alfred Fraijo: perspectives?
I would say that the risk is, Not finding the right solutions to your challenges, right? If you are experiencing risk, trying to manage risk experiencing threats in your business, right? That means that the current perspectives that you have, 'cause certainly you've been smart about. Addressing them are not adequate.
So if you pursue an organization that looks like you and think like you, then you're not likely to find the right solutions to your challenges. And I think that that's what we represent. We represent a divergence of the status quo in ways that are beneficial and additive to organizations. Our clients in the development space that are often before elected bodies or appointed bodies, particularly cities and counties, the seats of government.
Reflect the communities, the diverse communities of, you know, in that particular jurisdiction. And so it behooves our clients to. An organization that is gonna reflect back that diversity that happens to have the same level of skillset and happens to look and have a lived experience. That is an addition to the expertise that we bring to the table, and that has been for us, an important distinguishing sort of marketing strategy compared to our competitors Apollo.
That I think is really critical. The other piece is we are building a team that's diverse and we're showing that you can do that and still be profitable. So in addition to serving our clients, we're also having conversations with our clients about how you do recruitment. How do you create a meaningful workplace?
How do you bring people back to the office, right? If we're really gonna be. Partners for our clients, we're gonna be thought partners. So there is an exchange of ideas that transcends that specific assignment or engagement that we have with our clients. And we find that really valuable in what we're doing with our clients is we're having an exchange of business ideas that I think is really great.
[00:35:06] Apollo Emeka: I love it. Hearing Alfred talk, if you, if you don't know Alfred, it sounds like he's been in business for years. We're talking six months people, and he is talking about multi-city multinational. So when he says Lightspeed, he is not exaggerating. I think the last question that I would love to ask you is, you know, for as long as I've known you, you've had a vision of making an impact in the world, right?
And making change in the world and. Your launch has created a lot of energy with the people that we know. You know, our, our shared connections are like, oh my goodness. Look at Alfred. And a lot of these folks are people of color who are. In large organizations kind of grinding it out and they're saying, oh my goodness, look at what Alfred is doing, and you're serving as kind of a model and like a, Hey, am I supposed to be at Somos?
Now? You're six months in, right? Six months ago you had the comfort and security of a steady paycheck and a big name behind you, and now you are out on your own doing the thing. What advice or perspective would you provide? These folks who are looking at you and who are saying, man, should I go out and do my own thing, is now the time for me to go out and launch?
What would you say to them?
[00:36:22] Alfred Fraijo: So first of all, thank you Apollo. I really appreciate you. I appreciate your friendship and your advice and your counsel. To anyone listening, find ways to connect with Apollo. Uh, it'll change your life. Ah, and if you have any itch to be an entrepreneur and build a team and build a successful company.
Reach out to Apollo please. Uh, it's certainly changed my life. The other is for me, when people ask, so when did you decide to launch, you know, Apollo, for me, it was several years ago. It wasn't in March when we formally announced, uh, the creation of Somos Group. And so it took a lot of work. You know, you don't start from scratch.
You build a career and a brand, and that's what I've done. And I also build a network, a constellation of really loyal. Partners, whether they're clients, whether they're thought partners like you that are willing to support me and guide me and, and give me the support that I need, the intellectual support to figure this out, or my personal friends, right, my family and my husband.
Understanding that this was gonna be a real risk for us. So it is a lot of work that you have to cultivate and get that soil ready before you can start planting. And then once you're planting, then you're starting to cultivate. And once you're cultivating, then you have enough stored away to be able to fuel the launch of your company.
And so for me, specifically Apollo, it was making sure that I had conversations with my clients. And talking to them about why this new platform was not gonna only be a continuation of the great work, but it was gonna be additive. We're gonna do things differently and better, and that was really important.
The other was making sure that I had my colleagues on board. I. I spoke to the founding partner, Kira Conland, who is with me today. She was one of the first people I spoke to, right. It was really important for me to have the kind of team that I thought was essential to make sure that we were not starting from the ground, that we were gonna start big and think big.
I often say, you know, we're a startup, but we have a big company mentality. We have to 'cause we have to attract the best talent and so on Apollo. So those are the initial thoughts. You know, the other thing I could. Uh, yeah, so I could go on and on, but that's really, oh,
[00:38:33] Apollo Emeka: no, no, you were about to say something.
Go ahead. Drop that knowledge
[00:38:35] Alfred Fraijo: Alfred. It's to, to have, you know, to operate in faith versus fear. And for me that was really important is to realize that I have been living without a safety net from the very beginning Apollo. So I have to be comfortable in that space. You know, I've been my own safety net, so what the hell?
I could do this. I can't
[00:38:55] Apollo Emeka: believe you almost didn't share that with us Alfred.
Thank you so much for this awesome conversation. Alfred, I appreciate you. This
[00:39:05] Alfred Fraijo: has been such a joy and thank you for allowing me to talk a little bit about Somos and I hope that other people listening have the same ideas. And like I said, I tell my friends, I hope that there's many Somos out there in a few years.
Apollo, I love it. There's enough for
[00:39:18] Apollo Emeka: all of us. I love it. Yeah, and we'll definitely have to invite you back when you open that, that office on the moon. There we go. There we go. Okay. Thank you so much, Alfred. Thank you
[00:39:29] Alfred Fraijo: Apollo.
[00:39:31] Apollo Emeka: Thank you so much, Alfred Rejo. I always enjoy our conversations and now it's time for Dun, the Takeaway.
All right, so from a prioritized perspective, Alfred says To create a strong vision that is rooted in your own authenticity. And kind of along those lines to align the problems that you wanna solve with your vision and the kind of business that you want to create. Also, from a prioritized perspective, Alfred made the decision really early on that he was going to work within the system, which is so important for folks who are interested in making change because.
So often we kind of defer that decision and we'll say, eh, I'll make change when I'm in a better position. But he said he is constantly navigating to this day that question of how can I make a difference from where I am within the system right now? From a leverage perspective, he says to build a team and an organization that believes in your mission, believes in your vision, and your North Star.
He also believes in surrounding yourself with great people and an ecosystem of supporters and sounding boards. He talked about lessons that he learned from his mentors on authenticity is that it's pretty obvious when you're not being authentic and that, hey, he. Not everyone is gonna accept you anyways, so you might as well just go for it.
Leverage your own personality, your own perspective, and your own authenticity. And finally, from an execute perspective, he said master a skill. In the beginning of his career, it was legal work. He had to be an amazing lawyer in order to deliver, but then he had to shift to a more prioritized and leverage focus to build his team and to build his business.
This is such an awesome tip right here that is on the execute front. He said, deliver a win before you make an ask. And he said, it's hard. It takes hard work, it takes research, but deliver a win before you make an ask. And you're going to be winning. And then finally, from an execute perspective is as you become an executive, it's still important for you to understand enough of how the sausage is made to be able to train broadly on it and facilitate that process.
Man, whew. That was such an amazing conversation, and I thank Alfred for joining me, and I thank you all for listening. We'll see you all on the mountain. Remember, you can find out what your achievement index is by going to www.theachievementindex.com. Take the assessment, takes about 15, 20 minutes. Make sure you're in a nice.
Calm state of mind in a quiet place, and you can find out your own achievement index and figure out how you match up against our guests. I'm Dr. Apollo Omeka. If you like the podcast, please rate us on whatever platform you're listening and remember to share it with your friends. Thanks. See you next time.