Cristina Huizar, Sales Strategy Manager-Multicultural
Paychex
Born and raised in Los Angeles, CA I was brought up in a very traditional Mexican American home. Being the first generation in this country, I had all eyes on me to be the first to attend college and pursue a career. From a very young age, I saw the day to day struggles of immigrant entrepreneurship as my parents took that leap of faith and started their own business. From their struggles and successes grew my passion for helping Latino entrepreneurs.
Directly from high school, I started my undergraduate studies at the University of Southern California as a psychology major. Soon after graduating I worked as a youth case worker for a non profit in a predominantly underserved and underprivileged Hispanic community. After some work experience, the next step to my career was graduate school. I continued my studies at USC obtaining my Master’s in Human Behavior, with an emphasis in corporate communications.
As my job search began, I knew I wanted to take my career into a path that would allow me to help an underserved community, my very own Latino community. I was referred to a company, Paychex Inc. by our family accountant. I was hired on as a sales consultant in the greater Los Angeles metro.
In my time at Paychex, I have grown substantially as a professional. I was in the field sales role for five years and in that time ranked in the top 10% nationally four consecutive years. More than 50% of my selling success was done in Spanish to Latino small business owners. Several years into my trajectory in sales I was promoted to leadership as the District Sales Manager in the San Gabriel Valley. Two years of very fruitful years as a district lead, I was presented the opportunity for my current title of Multicultural Sales Strategy Manager. In this role I have had the opportunity to partner with many media conglomerates such as Univision, Uphoria and El Clasificado to broaden Paychex’s various services in the ever-growing Latino market. Through Paychex I have also partnered with national organizations such as Latino Tax Professional Association and The United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. I cannot stress enough how much this company has allowed me to help Latino entrepreneurs scale their businesses. This is my absolute passion. I feel extremely blessed to wake up and do what I do every single day.