> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.svlatino.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Personal Branding From the Roots Up, Part 1 : Start With Your Values - URL: https://www.svlatino.com/blogs/raices/personal-branding-from-the-roots-up-part-1-start-with-your-values/ - Published: 2026-10-12T16:30:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-12T16:29:59.000Z - Description: SVL Executive Cultura Ambassador Nancy Marmolejo shows how your core values, from familia to comunidad, become the foundation of your personal brand. - Author: Nancy Marmolejo - Tags: Raíces — Our Story, Our Narrative, Cultura Ambassador Your browser does not support the audio element. ### *Publisher's Note:* *Not long ago, we welcomed Nancy Marmolejo as one of our newest SVL Executive Cultura Ambassadors and as a guest author. For me, it was a natural step. After several years of our teams working together with her at Lean In Latinas and discovering her many hidden talents, I have come to deeply appreciate her tenacity and her drive to always help her fellow human, including here at SVL.* *That commitment shows up on every page of her first piece for our comunidad. For decades, personal branding advice has told professionals to leave their culture at the door. Nancy built her career in resistance to that model, with the persistence to create something better in its place. Her approach, which she calls Deep Genius, asks a different question: what if our greatest professional strengths were never separate from where we come from, but rooted in it?* *In this first installment of her series, *Personal Branding From the Roots Up*, Nancy invites you to name the values that guide you, from familia to comunidad and beyond. It is practical, honest, and generous, just like she is.* *Please join us in welcoming Nancy to our pages. Start with your values. Everything else follows.* *#JuntosAdelante.* Sergio --- Many years ago, I sat in a personal branding workshop taught by a man who had climbed into upper management in corporate America. He was polished and completely sure of himself, perhaps holding the intention to replicate versions of himself through us. We practiced firm handshakes and unbroken eye contact, and we rehearsed talking points that were entirely about ourselves, delivered as if we were competing with everyone else in the room. His approached relied on power poses, cliche phrasing, and looking out for #1. In retrospect, it's clear that his confidence came from a path that had rewarded him at nearly every turn. I doubt he ever questioned whether his advice worked for people whose lived experiences or cultural backgrounds looked different from his. **A personal brand’s purpose is to help us convey who we are, what our strengths are, and what we want to be known for.** To be effective and sustainable, it must be grounded in truth. For many people, and for Latinos and other people of color in particular, the classic model zeroed in on individualism and skipped over how to claim our greatest cultural strengths that are reflected in how we work and lead together. ### **Culture and Values** Core values are our ethics and ideals that guide us. It's not uncommon for Latinos to identify *familia* and *comunidad* as core values, among other traits. It's instilled in us as children and in our extended communities. At work, those words reach well past blood relatives. They show up as the coworker who covers for you when your kid is sick, the manager who asks about your mom by name, and the team that celebrates a win together because everyone had a hand in it. *Familia* means having each other's backs. *Comunidad* means building a place where people feel supported enough to do their best work. These values shape how we collaborate, who we bring along, and how we define a job well done. These values can be misinterpreted as lacking ambition or not being enough of a "go-getter." A Latina founder I know found this out in a mastermind group, one where she was the only Latina, the only person of color. When she explained that she didn't want to sacrifice parenting while building her compnany, the group ridiculed her. "Get a nanny," they told her, as if the answer were obvious. That didn't sit well with her. She resented their "either/or" options and advocated for what was important to her. She wanted to raise her then toddler, be present as a parent, and build a business, all at the same time. The group treated those priorities as a problem to solve on the way to becoming a serious founder. She left the group. She eventually aligned with people who understood why *familia* sat at the top of her list, and she built her business alongside them. Fifteen years later, she's a successful strategist for small businesses, and her now grown child is at a top university. The mastermind group was sure she had to choose between the two, but she chose both, on her own terms, and it worked. For those of us raised in a culture that measures success by who you lift with you, her story is familiar. Mainstream branding advice often asks us to leave part of ourselves, and those we love, at the door. ### **You Have Deep Genius** Ultimately, I built my own approach to personal branding around something I call Deep Genius ®. It starts with the back story: how you got to where you are, what your journey taught you, the values you carry, and the strengths that were in you long before anyone paid you for them. I had seen too many people squeezed into the same spiel, the same power outfit, and the same tired phrases to describe themselves, as if they suddenly appeared on the scene with no previous history. I wanted to help professionals express strengths and lift up the path they took to get to where they were. I wanted them to celebrate and not hide their culture and their roots. Over the years, I've taken aerospace engineers, project managers, professional speakers, coaches, consultants, and executives through this process, helping them communicate their strengths without sacrificing who they are. ### **Start With What Matters Most** The starting point is articulating your core values, those non-negotiables and guiding principles that reflect what matters most to you. Without naming them specifically, it's hard to know what you stand for or why that's important. In my personal branding programs, people explore values in a way that lights them up and helps them realize their inner compass. For some it's community, family, and faith. For others it's pleasure, beauty, and creativity, and for others it might be integrity, honesty, and respect. If having people's backs and building a supportive team is part of how you lead, *familia* and *comunidad* will probably land on your list. I then ask people to tell a story to illustrate that they are indeed living each of their values. This is the litmus test. Choosing a value because it sounds nice, when it doesn't match how you live your life, isn't the goal. For every value you claim, you should be able to reflect a time from your life that shows what it looks like when that value is honored. And you should also have a story of a time when that value wasn't honored, causing you to react. An aerospace engineer in our program celebrated his strong work ethic as a core value. He then told the story of how he laid tile and did construction while earning his degree, often working double time both in school and work to achieve his goal. The more dedication he held as he worked, the more aligned and honest he felt with his values. It wasn't about him working himself to the bone, it was about knowing he was putting in the effort to reach the finish line. Asking him to take shortcuts, ignore quality, or to fake his way through something would be in direct opposition to his values. A DEI director shared stories of being raised with her extended Latino family and how she was taught to always make sure everyone was included. She shared story after story of how this shows up in her workplace, ensuring a feeling of welcoming and belonging at her company. It has shaped her career dedicated to diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging in work, public, and social spaces. ### **Your Turn** This starting point of identifying core values will give you a resting place to gauge everything else from. Most people want to circle 50 words from a list, but then when I ask them to narrow it to 10, or even five, the real self-reflection begins. secondary ones tend to nest inside the primary ones. For example, I have four core values that have followed me for decades: creativity, curiosity, lifelong-learning, and fun. Other things that are important to me can usually find a place under those. With everything I do, I get to ask: *How can we see this differently? What's something we've never tried but always wondered about? What can we learn from this? How can we make this fun?* It's how I guide my life, my work, my leadership and my community involvement. So how does this become a personal brand, you ask? Once you know what you stand for, everything else has to line up with it. Your values shape the words you choose to describe your expertise and strengths, your leadership style, your vision, and your mission. This one important foundational step will keep you on track and in your truth. **In Part 2 of this series, we’ll add the next layer. But for now, try this:** 1. Look over the list of values at the end of this article, or any list of common core values you find. Circle all that have significance for you. 2. Narrow those down to your top 10\. If you can, go deeper and narrow it to 5\. Find values that can nest under other ones to condense your list if you're having trouble making your list shorter 3. If you're stuck, think about the last time something made you mad. If you were lied to, honesty is probably one of your values. If you watched someone being treated with disrespect, respect likely sits high on your list. Anger often points to a value being dishonored. 4. For each of your final values, recall a story from your life that shows what it looks like when the value is honored and what it looks like when it isn't. This is the foundation of your personal brand and the first layer of your Deep Genius coming to life. **Your personal brand is your calling card to the world, and it tells people what to expect when you show up.** When it's built on your values, you can meet that expectation without having to perform. *For an excellent resource, check out El Puente Institute’s work on Latino Cultural Drivers* ### *About the Author:* Nancy Marmolejo works with diverse teams in tech, aerospace, nonprofits, government, and leadership organizations to uncover hidden potential and strengthen interpersonal skills. Her program, *Personal Branding From the Roots Up*, helps professionals build personal brands grounded in their values, their culture, and what she calls their Deep Genius. Her upcoming book, *Heard: Transforming Leadership Through the Power of Listening*, explores what gets in the way of being truly heard. As an SVL Executive Cultura Ambassador, Nancy shares her leadership insight with our readers in this series. Find Nancy at and ### **Starter List of Core Values** > familia, comunidad, belonging, connection, friendship, loyalty, trust, love, generosity, kindness, compassion, service, mentorship > honesty, integrity, respect, dignity, humility, gratitude, courage, accountability, fairness, perseverance, resilience, hard work > justice, equity, advocacy, stewardship, legacy, leadership, influence > achievement, ambition, excellence, recognition, growth, learning, education, curiosity, wisdom > freedom, independence, autonomy, authenticity, self-expression, creativity, adventure > joy, pleasure, beauty, humor, play, passion > wellness, health, rest, balance, peace, harmony, simplicity, stability, security, abundance > faith, spirituality, tradition, heritage, nature > wealth, prosperity, philanthropy --- **Stories like this don’t tell themselves.** SVL has spent over a decade making the invisible visible, celebrating Latino excellence, naming hard truths, and calling our community to action. Independent Latino journalism only survives when the community it serves decides it’s worth protecting. There are two ways to stand with us: Are you a Latino professional, entrepreneur, or leader ready to be celebrated? Become a Cultura Ambassador, SVL’s official community membership for Latino leaders who are ready to have their story told, their work amplified, and their excellence made visible. [**Become a Cultura Ambassador**](https://silicon.ghost.io/#/portal/signup/6a8db2d43e7c840008178b04/yearly) Want to support our mission? Become an Amigo de SVL. Your support keeps our journalism independent, our stories free, and our #CreoEnTi programs and community events alive. [**Become an Amigo de SVL**](https://silicon.ghost.io/#/portal/signup/6a8db2d43e7c840008178b04/yearly) ### Juntos Adelante. Because silence is complicity. And so is inaction. #JuntosAdelante #CreoEnTi #WeAreSVL #SVLVoices