G.R.O.W: Unidos - Brotherhood Across Borders

In partnership with

In partnership with

Keep This Stock Ticker on Your Watchlist

They’re a private company, but Pacaso just reserved the Nasdaq ticker “$PCSO.”

No surprise the same firms that backed Uber, eBay, and Venmo already invested in Pacaso. What is unique is Pacaso is giving the same opportunity to everyday investors. And 10,000+ people have already joined them.

Created a former Zillow exec who sold his first venture for $120M, Pacaso brings co-ownership to the $1.3T vacation home industry.

They’ve generated $1B+ worth of luxury home transactions across 2,000+ owners. That’s good for more than $110M in gross profit since inception, including 41% YoY growth last year alone.

And you can join them today for just $2.90/share. But don’t wait too long. Invest in Pacaso before the opportunity ends September 18.

Invest While You Still Can

_{Paid advertisement for Pacaso’s Regulation A offering. Read the offering circular at invest.pacaso.com. Reserving a ticker symbol is not a guarantee that the company will go public. Listing on the NASDAQ is subject to approvals.}

Issue #102 - September 16, 2025

Welcome Back, G-Tribe!

Hispanic Heritage Month officially began yesterday (September 15th) and runs through October 15th, and I can't think of a better time to dig into something that hits at the heart of what we do at A Few Good MENtors: the power of brotherhood that transcends every line we think divides us.

This year's theme is "Collective Heritage: Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future." This theme highlights the rich history and contributions of Hispanic and Latino American communities, while emphasizing how these influences shape and inspire progress for future generations.

That phrase - collective heritage - captures something essential about mentoring young men. We don't build the future by ignoring where we came from. We build it by understanding how our diverse histories connect us and strengthen us for what's ahead.

But here's what I've learned after mentoring young men from every background imaginable: the strongest mentoring relationships happen when we honor each person's individual heritage while building our collective strength together. We stop seeing cultural differences as barriers and start seeing them as the foundation for unstoppable unity.

This week, we're exploring how cultural unity creates better mentors, why cross-cultural communication is leadership gold, and how Afro-Latino leaders are showing us what intercultural impact really looks like.

When we honor the past and inspire the future together, we become unstoppable. Let's build some bridges, G-Tribe.

🌱 Growth Spotlight: Shared Struggles, Shared Strength - Cultural Unity in Mentorship

Here's what I've observed in mentoring relationships across the country: when young men from different cultural backgrounds connect with mentors who don't share their heritage, something remarkable often happens.

Let me share a fictional scenario that illustrates this principle perfectly. Picture a 17-year-old from El Salvador struggling with his college application essay about overcoming challenges. He feels like his story isn't "special enough" compared to what he imagines admissions officers want to hear.

Now imagine his mentor is an African American professional who grew up in inner-city Baltimore. Different countries, different languages, but the same core experience: feelings of not being enough. The same questions arise about whether their background is a liability or an asset.

When that mentor shares his own journey - how he learned to see his challenges as character-building rather than character-limiting - something clicks. The young man finds his voice not because the mentor gave him the "right" answers, but because he saw his own struggle reflected in someone who looked different but understood exactly what he was going through.

The Universal Language of Struggle

Young men from every cultural background face remarkably similar challenges:

• Pressure to prove their worth

• Questions about belonging

• The weight of family expectations

• Navigating identity in a complex world

• The search for purpose beyond survival

What changes isn't the struggle - it's the specific context and the cultural tools they have available to handle it.

Carlos learned resilience from watching his mother work three jobs to send money back to the family in El Salvador. Marcus learned it from watching his grandmother raise four grandchildren on a grocery store clerk's salary.

Different stories. Same strength. Same lessons about what it means to persevere when the odds are stacked against you.

Why Cultural Diversity Strengthens Mentoring

When young men see mentors from different backgrounds sharing similar struggles, something powerful happens. They realize their challenges aren't unique character flaws or cultural deficits - they're universal parts of becoming a man in a complicated world.

A Puerto Rican mentor can teach a white teenager from rural Virginia about family loyalty. A Korean American mentor can show a Mexican American young man how academic pressure and family expectations can be channeled into motivation rather than anxiety.

The specific cultural context changes, but the underlying human experiences connect across every line we draw between communities.

The Bridge-Builder's Advantage

Mentors who understand multiple cultural perspectives become bridge-builders. They can translate struggles and solutions across cultural boundaries, helping young men see that strength comes in many forms.

They recognize that respect for elders shows up differently in Vietnamese and Irish families, yet the underlying value remains the same. They understand that expressions of masculinity vary across cultures, but the search for purpose and respect is universal.

Practical Steps for Cultural Unity in Mentoring

Listen for Universal Themes: When a young man shares his story, listen for the human experiences underneath the cultural specifics. Fear, hope, pride, disappointment, determination - these emotions cross every cultural boundary.

Share Cross-Cultural Insights: Help young men see how different cultures approach similar challenges. This expands their toolkit for handling difficulties and shows them that there isn't just one "right" way to solve problems.

Celebrate Cultural Strengths: Every culture has specific strengths and wisdom traditions. Help young men identify the positive aspects of their cultural background and see how these can be assets in their personal development.

Address Cultural Conflicts: Sometimes, young men feel caught between their family's cultural expectations and American culture. Help them find ways to honor both rather than choosing sides.

Build Cultural Competence: The best mentors continuously learn about different cultural backgrounds, not to become experts, but to become better listeners and more effective supporters.

The Unity Effect

When mentoring relationships model cultural unity, they create something larger than individual growth. They demonstrate that differences in background don't have to create barriers in relationships.

Young men who experience this kind of mentoring carry that lesson into their schools, workplaces, and communities. They become bridge-builders themselves, seeing diversity as a source of strength rather than division.

Carlos graduated from our program and went on to college. But more importantly, he started a cross-cultural mentoring group at his high school. Marcus's lesson about shared strength had become Carlos's mission to help other young men find their voices.

That's how cultural unity creates a compound impact, one mentoring relationship at a time.

💼 Professional Growth Gateway: Cross-Cultural Communication as a Leadership Skill

In today's interconnected world, the ability to communicate effectively across cultural boundaries isn't just nice to have - it's leadership essential. Young men who master cross-cultural communication early in their careers unlock opportunities that remain closed to their peers.

Why Cross-Cultural Communication Matters More Than Ever

The workplace of 2025 is more diverse than ever before. Hispanic Heritage Month 2025 celebrates the theme "Collective Heritage: Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future," reminding us that our communities and workplaces reflect an increasingly multicultural reality where diverse perspectives drive innovation and success.

According to recent demographic data, Latinos now represent the largest minority group in the United States, and that diversity shows up in every industry. Leaders who can navigate cultural differences effectively become invaluable to organizations trying to serve diverse markets and manage multicultural teams.

The Four Pillars of Cross-Cultural Leadership

Cultural Intelligence (CQ): This goes beyond knowing facts about different cultures. It's the ability to adapt your behavior based on the cultural context you're operating in. High-CQ leaders ask better questions and consider different communication styles before making assumptions.

Adaptive Communication: Effective cross-cultural leaders adjust their communication style based on their audience while maintaining their authenticity. They understand that directness, hierarchy, and decision-making approaches vary across cultures.

Conflict Navigation: Cultural differences often create misunderstandings that escalate into conflicts. Leaders skilled in cross-cultural communication can identify when cultural factors are contributing to workplace tension and address root causes.

Inclusive Leadership: This means creating environments where people from different cultural backgrounds can contribute their best work without abandoning their cultural identity. Inclusive leaders understand that diversity of thought often comes from diversity of experience.

Building Your Cross-Cultural Skills

Practice Cultural Curiosity: Approach every interaction with genuine curiosity about other people's perspectives and backgrounds. Ask questions that help you understand not just what people think, but why they think it.

Study Communication Patterns: Different cultures have different approaches to direct versus indirect communication, hierarchy, and group decision-making. Understanding these patterns helps you interpret messages more accurately.

Seek Diverse Experiences: Actively put yourself in situations where you're the cultural minority. This builds empathy and teaches you how to adapt when you're outside your comfort zone.

The Leadership Advantage

Leaders with strong cross-cultural communication skills create more innovative teams, serve customers more effectively, and navigate global markets more successfully. They become the people organizations turn to when cultural challenges arise.

For young men beginning their careers, investing time in developing cross-cultural communication skills positions them for leadership roles in organizations that value global thinking and inclusive leadership. The future belongs to leaders who can build bridges across cultural boundaries.

🌟 Success Spotlight: Afro-Latino Leaders Making an Intercultural Impact

The intersection of Black and Latino identities creates a unique perspective that's producing some of the most innovative and impactful leaders in America today. According to UCLA's Latino Policy and Politics Institute, the Afro-Latino population increased 121% from 2000 to 2019, and this growing community is producing leaders who bring powerful intercultural insights to every field they enter.

Breaking Barriers Across Industries

Carla Vernón made history as the first Afro-Latina CEO of a publicly traded company when she took the helm at The Honest Company. Under her leadership, the company has seen record-breaking revenues, proving that diverse leadership drives real business results.

In politics, New York Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado became the state's first Afro-Latino elected lieutenant governor. His journey from the music industry to law to politics demonstrates the diverse paths Afro-Latino leaders take to create impact, focusing on healthcare access, criminal justice reform, and economic development.

José Tavarez serves as New York City president of Bank of America and vice chair of the Private Bank, where his 27-year career includes dedicated advocacy for diversity and inclusion, showing how successful leaders use their platforms to create opportunities for others.

The Intercultural Leadership Advantage

What makes these Afro-Latino leaders so effective is their ability to navigate and bridge multiple cultural worlds. They bring cultural flexibility from growing up navigating both Black and Latino communities, inclusive perspectives from understanding marginalization from multiple angles, and authentic relationship-building skills that help them connect with diverse groups.

Young men from all backgrounds can learn from their success strategies: embrace the complexity of your identity as a leadership asset, build cultural competence to navigate different contexts effectively, and use your platform to create opportunities for others.

These leaders prove that in an interconnected world, the ability to bridge differences creates the most impact.

🔥 Michael's Hot Take: Brotherhood Has No Borders

I'm writing this on the same day that communities across the country are starting Hispanic Heritage Month celebrations, and I can't stop thinking about something that's been bothering me about the current state of American politics.

Here's the thing that absolutely baffles me: we have two communities - Hispanic Americans (62.1 million strong) and African Americans (48.3 million strong) - that together represent about one-third of this country's population. That's roughly 110 million people who share remarkably similar challenges when it comes to education gaps, financial inequality, and healthcare access disparities.

And yet, somehow, we're still acting like we're on different teams.

The Numbers Don't Lie (Even When Politicians Do)

Let's talk facts for a minute. According to the latest Census data, both communities face strikingly similar obstacles:

Hispanic Americans have a median household income of around $58,000 compared to $83,000 for white households. African Americans? $54,000. Both communities experience poverty rates nearly three times higher than those of white Americans. Both struggle with educational attainment gaps and healthcare access issues that have persisted for decades.

Oh, and here's a fun fact: both communities make up the majority of new HIV infections (70% combined), primarily due to those same systemic barriers around healthcare access and economic opportunity.

So please, someone, explain to me why we're not working together more intentionally.

When Leaders Get It Right

Now, I'm not one to get too deep into politics in this newsletter, but I have to give credit where it's due. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been doing something interesting that more leaders should pay attention to.

She's been advocating for policies that recognize how systemic issues affect both Black and Brown communities simultaneously. When she talks about police reform, she's pointing out that both communities deserve the same investment in youth programs, health services, and housing that affluent white neighborhoods take for granted.

When she addresses Black maternal health disparities, she's connecting them to the broader patterns of healthcare inequality that affect Latino families too. During COVID-19, she called for "coronavirus reparations" for minority communities, recognizing that both Black and Brown families were dying at disproportionate rates due to the same underlying inequalities.

Whether you agree with her politics or not, she's demonstrating something crucial: the issues affecting one community often mirror the issues affecting the other.

The Mentoring Connection

Here's where this connects to what we do at AFGM and why it matters for every mentor reading this newsletter.

When I'm working with a young Hispanic man who's worried about college affordability, and his concerns sound identical to those of some young African American men that I have met, I'm seeing coalition-building in action. These young men don't need to compete for resources or sympathy; instead, they should recognize their shared interests and work together.

The Hispanic teenager struggling with college prep because his school lacks AP courses? He has more in common with the Black teenager facing the same educational gaps than he does with the differences that divide them. The young Latino man worried about job prospects in a changing economy. His concerns mirror those of young Black men in the same community.

The Unity Opportunity

Both Hispanic and African American communities are growing faster than the overall population. Both are becoming more politically engaged. Both are producing young leaders who understand that their futures are interconnected.

What if, and stick with me here because this might sound radical, what if these communities started acting like the political and economic force they actually represent? What if 110 million Americans with shared challenges decided to work together on solutions instead of competing for scraps?

I'm not suggesting anyone abandon their cultural identity or unique community concerns. I'm suggesting that when it comes to education funding, healthcare access, economic opportunity, and criminal justice reform, these communities have more reasons to collaborate than to compete.

The Next Generation Gets It

The young men I work with don't seem to have the same hang-ups about cross-cultural collaboration that some older generations carry. They see opportunity where others see division. They build friendships and partnerships across cultural lines without overthinking it.

They're showing us that brotherhood really doesn't have borders - and that the future belongs to leaders who can build bridges instead of walls.

Maybe it's time the rest of us caught up with what they already know.