Martha Nino: Fighting for the American Dream

Guy Kawasaki:
I'm Guy Kawasaki, and this is Remarkable People. This episode's remarkable guest is Martha Nino.
It's unlikely that you've heard of her but someday you will. She currently works at Adobe in a marketing position. How she came to be a guest here is a good story.
Ten years ago, she saw me give a keynote speech. I guess I impressed her.
A year ago, Adobe held a diversity conference and invited employees to submit stories. Hers was one of eight selected. Let's just say that, typically, one doesn't seek opportunities to talk about an illegal alien past in front of your company, so that took courage.
A few months ago, she happened upon one of my LinkedIn live chats and reached out to me. I usually ignore LinkedIn messages because most are requests to be best friends for life from people I don't know, but I read hers.
It pointed me to a video of that speech and I liked it so much that I sent it to Jacob Martinez, the Executive Director of Digital NEST, an organization in Watsonville, California that helps young people gain digital skills. I asked him if her message was suitable for this podcast. He loved her talk and told me to go for it. So I reached out to her and asked her to be a guest.
How she achieved success is remarkable because she was born in a grass shack in Central Mexico. Her parents were laborers on cotton farms there. Seeking a better life, her parents paid Coyotes to smuggle the family across the border. She made the trip separately as another woman's baby.
She grew up in Fremont, California in a multiple family, one bedroom house. She began working at ten as a newspaper girl. While in school, she worked for a manufacturer. For fifteen years, she and her parents were illegal aliens.
Her path was rocky, but she worked hard and achieved a college education. She entered the tech field in a facilities capacity and now she's working at Adobe. She's living the American dream of starting with nothing and achieving happiness with her husband and two daughters. America is lucky to have her.
I'm Guy Kawasaki, and this is Remarkable People. And now, here's Martha Nino.
Martha Nino:
I was born in Zacatecas, Mexico, which is a center state of Mexico. My mother, she was sixteen when she got married. She was twenty when she had me, and my dad, no education. I mean, mom went to school until sixth grade and dad third. Nothing, right?
We were pretty poor. They picked cotton for a living and they went from farm, to farm, to farm, to farm picking cotton, trying to make a living and trying to take care of myself and it wasn't enough and they had to make a decision and figure out what they were going to do to get money, right?
Guy Kawasaki:
Now when you say picking cotton, you mean picking cotton in Mexico or they would come across to the United States to pick cotton?
Martha Nino:
Oh, no. This is picking cotton in Mexico. So you can just imagine, if picking cotton in the U.S. pays you nothing, there's a lot of export in cotton material in Mexico. A lot of things get outsourced and they were one of those farmers that did that.
So yeah, they went from Mexico state to Mexico state, picking the cotton and that was their job, and it wasn't paying them anything and they needed to make a decision and figure out how they were going to raise me, and they decided they're going to hire somebody to come over the border. So it was the easiest thing and it sucks, because I think, had we were well off, we would've stayed in Mexico, but that situation is bad there and they had to take that risk.
Guy Kawasaki:
Who did they hire? How did it work?
Martha Nino:
The transaction? Well, they hired these people. They're called Coyotes, really. I don't know if that’s their formal title, right? But they hire people that are very familiar with the borders and can get them across, and it's very dangerous, and different Coyotes have different routes I guess you can say.
Some come through the desert, some come from the beaches. You've seen some movies, some came through tunnels, whatever it is, but this is a very, very dangerous trip and I was a tiny little baby at the time and basically they said, "You can't bring her along." And my mom and dad had to make a decision, "How are we going to get this kid over?" And it was tough. My mom tells me she cried.
They came along the border hills and beaches in Mexico through San Diego area and I came through the border in a car. I passed as somebody's daughter, actually, and that's how I came across.
While I was doing that, my parents were coming through the beaches and I go, "What was the green light that you were going to be okay and that you had made it over the border?" And she says, "Well, it's dark and if you saw a flashing light that flashed twice, that meant run up to the car and then they take you over to L.A." And that was it. Two flashing lights, they go up and to them it meant freedom.
Guy Kawasaki:
So let me get this straight. Now, the Coyotes are helping your parents get across and they're helping you pose as a baby for somebody else, but both of these transactions are Coyotes doing this?
Martha Nino:
Yes, Guy. Yes.
Guy Kawasaki:
And how much did it cost?
Martha Nino:
I don't know how much it cost. My mom said she had to work a couple months after they got established to pay back, because they had to borrow the money. They didn't have any money to pay back, and that was the first thing, right? Pay back what you owe or they know where you live, essentially, right? So they did that, they paid it off.
According to my mom, the Coyote were very reputable. I don't know what that means but yeah, they had to pay them off first and then once that transaction was cleared off the books, then you're free to see how it's going to go in the United States.
Guy Kawasaki:
Wait, now your father and mother were together when they get in this car with the two flashing lights?
Martha Nino:
Yes, they came in together. Yes. They had one little bag with one change of clothes. That's all they allowed them to bring. Actually, that's all they had.
Guy Kawasaki:
So now they get in this car and they go to L.A. and where are you when this is happening?
Martha Nino:
I'm in a car somewhere with some lady.
Guy Kawasaki:
Yeah..?
Martha Nino:
And the idea was to meet up in L.A. Long Beach, actually, an aunt's house, and yeah, then meet up. And my mom says it was no more than a couple hours and we were both together at the same time.
Guy Kawasaki:
And then what? So now you're in a new country. You basically have no money. Then what?
Martha Nino:
Yeah, we're in a new country. We're at my aunt's house.
I had a grandfather living here in Northern California, and he actually has eight other kids-- my mom's brothers and sisters-- and he was living here as a janitor sending back money to Mexico to his kids. So he had told my mother to come to Northern California, a.k.a. the Silicon Valley before it was anything like that, and come live down this way, and within a couple of days, he had helped and situated us in a one-bedroom home.
I don't know why I remember this, Guy, but I was little. I mean, I wasn't even two years old. I remember black graffiti all over this house and we lived there for fourteen, fifteen years.
So we ended up living in Fremont, California, which is on the outskirts of the Silicon Valley, and yeah, my parents, basically, took whatever work came their way. Anything-- Pour cement, gladiola fields. There was a lot of cherry orchards here in the past, apricots fields. So anybody who lives here remembers those days but yeah, they did all of that.
Guy Kawasaki:
Did you have to show a visa, show a green card? How did it work back then?
Martha Nino:
You're so funny. Yeah, what visa? What green card, right? That was the whole thing. You don't have any documentation of yourself. So there's a lot of people out there that were, before Photoshop, that can get you green cards and licenses and all of that. So they worked with, unfortunately, fake documents until they hired a lawyer a few years after to help them out with this whole thing.
Guy Kawasaki:
And now, are they still in the United States?
Martha Nino:
My mom lives in Hayward, California, and she's here. After fourteen or fifteen years, she— fourteen or fifteen years, by the way, is the penalty that we got for coming to this country illegally. We had to prove to the government that we were worth giving a visa and citizenship. So there's a whole process there, and I honestly remember checking in with immigration every year, that they're making sure that we were not criminals, making sure that we're good people, all that good stuff, that we were contributing, but yeah.
So my mom lives in Hayward. My dad, he passed away when I was a teenager and died earning seven dollars and seventy-five cents an hour, and he did it honestly, and to him, that was success.
Guy Kawasaki:
What's the fifteen years again? How did that work?
Martha Nino:
When you come to this country, back then, there was a law put in place, and I don't know the name of the law, but if you came in here you had to prove-- first of all, you have to admit that you came here illegally. Second of all, you have to then basically sign a contract that says you're going to do everything right in this country, pay taxes, not ask for government help, put in your hours and check in with us and make sure you're good and you'll have to do this for, for us, it was fourteen, fifteen years, before we can actually consider you for being a permanent resident here.
Guy Kawasaki:
And this is before Trump?
Martha Nino:
Oh, yeah. This is way before-
Guy Kawasaki:
So this is when it was good.
Martha Nino:
Yeah, this is good, but it's interesting, when I was a kid growing up in Fremont in a tiny one bedroom, I only remember three or four different nationalities in this country.
Back then, and everybody started coming after that in the eighties, but I remember green trucks coming to our neighborhood and picking up anybody who wasn't, essentially, white and questioning them and I remember hiding from these trucks, and it's immigration, basically, stereotyping everybody and sending you back.
Guy Kawasaki:
So you and your mother, you were never sent back, anything like that?
Martha Nino:
We were never sent back. My mom did everything possible to keep things straight, to keep us in school. As far as I remember, I don't ever remember a time where she wasn't working if she could. Same thing with my dad. Never. Never.
Guy Kawasaki:
So now you're in the public school system of where? Fremont?
Martha Nino:
Yeah. I started bilingual school. I didn't know any English. I went to Vallejo Mill School in Fremont in Niles. A little town, by the way. They're known for Charlie Chaplin. Very popular nowadays, which was kind of interesting, but that's kind of their claim to fame.
But yeah, I went to school, it was a bilingual school, and a bunch of other kids were there, similar to me, so there was some likeness there. But yeah, that started my whole education in the public school setting.
My dad poured cement and my mom sewed for people a lot of the years, and I didn't really have any examples of anybody being in colleges, going to school. As a matter of fact, the number one priority for my parents, and people like my parents, was to work. So there was a lot of push on working.
If you had a job, you better take care of that job. You better not talk back to your boss, you better do everything that they say because that's the golden ticket was working.
So I was ten years old, I was going to this public school. This boy comes to my house down the street and he says, "Have this paper route." My parents didn't know what a paper route was, but they offered me thirty, forty bucks a month to deliver papers every day and every night of the month and I didn't have money so I was like, "You know what? I want it."
I asked my dad if I can have that paper route and he said –and I'm very, very persistent, Guy-- my dad, I must've asked him a 100 times and he said, "Fine. Go. Just do it,” and he didn't realize that it was all boys working. This was an all-boys field, I guess, and there was Martha with her pigtails delivering newspaper every morning, every evening after school.
I didn't do any sports, but I worked. I sold subscriptions before subscriptions were a thing, door-to-door, with newspapers and I was taught the value of good customer service because you deliver that paper on the porch, you get tips and people are nicer and they'll recommend you.
I learned that skill so early and it served me for so many things. I could only do that route up until I was fourteen and then I went to work with my mother at a manufacturing plant and I really sucked at the manufacturing plant, Guy. I really did.
The boss was an American lady and she wore the pearls and she had the blonde hair and a very, very sophisticated lady and she looked at me and was like, "Why don't you come with me to the front of the office to answer phones and do that kind of thing?" And yeah, I would do anything to get out of the back. And I said, "Yes, I'll do it."
So I had a mentor very, very early on that saw a thing or two in me that nobody else had seen, and my parents didn't even know I could even work in an office, and at fourteen, my mom thought I had made it. She's not in a warehouse anymore, she's not getting her hands dirty, she's in an office.
I could've probably stopped at fourteen, Guy, for my family, yeah. That's very interesting to me and I am glad I did it because from there it started a lot of other opportunities for me. I worked at that company, God, six or seven years, every day after school too, and I got kicked out of school so that was-
Guy Kawasaki:
Why?
Martha Nino:
Yeah, so by this time, I'm fourteen, fifteen, sixteen years old and I'm in high school and I'm working a lot, but school never was a focus in my family. It was about work, so I did that, and then my father developed cancer and I had to help out the family, and that's the thing about certain families, that you just do whatever it takes to help out, and I did that.
So school took a backseat and grades took a hit, and the first day of my senior year, the principal sat me down and says, "Oh, what are you doing here? Didn't you receive all those letters?" And my mom doesn't know English so she dismissed all those letters and it turns out I wasn't allowed to go to that school anymore and I was sent to continuation school and I don’t…
Guy Kawasaki:
Because of your grades?
Martha Nino:
Yeah, because of my grades. I had been late because I had been working late the night before. There was all of that, and he didn't even ask me why I was struggling.
To this day, the asking why something is happening is so critical for me, because I was a young kid and had that person asked me why, I think he would've reconsidered his decision. Yeah, I was sent off and within a couple days I was at a school where there was a lot of gangs, pregnancies, you name it. People with very high hair back then and a lot of scary people.
But it's interesting, all these kids were there because they were also-- they were not bad, we just didn't have the right upbringing or the right mentorship and examples.
Guy Kawasaki:
How did you get out of there?
Martha Nino:
I had a counselor and he was checking in as part of a standard and he sat me down and he asked me, “How are things going? And honestly, I was a little bit shocked about where I was and I didn't want to be there, although half my cousins were there. That was interesting. So I have a lot of really good backup, Guy.
But no, he asked me how things were going and I said “Fine,” and he was really trying to get to the bottom of it, and he was just one of these people, just like my boss, that just took the time to ask questions and see something, and he said, "What are you doing here?" And I said, "I just have bad grades." And he's like, "No, why are you here." And he really-- I must've talked to him for an hour and finally he realized that my father had cancer, my parents needed my money to help support and keep the family going.
He says, "You know what? We’ve got to get you out of here." And I said, "How are we going to do that?" And he came up with a plan and he says, "Well, you're behind about a year, so you'll have to quit working." And to me that was like, "What? Quit working? Are you kidding me?" But yeah, I talked to my boss and she's like, "Why don't you work double on the weekends and maybe you could take care of our house when we travel."
I basically did whatever, and for the first time, I did not have a real job Monday through Friday. I focused on school, and I went to night schools and I took on extra credits and I basically made up a whole year's worth of time in just a few months and then I was back in high school within a few months and I graduated with my class, on time, actually.
Guy Kawasaki:
And then what happened?
Martha Nino:
I went back to working in that company, the manufacturing company, and I didn't really know about colleges because nobody had ever talked to me about colleges. As a matter of fact, my mom didn't even know high school had four years. They hadn't even taught her that—ever, and actually, that's something that I kind of get annoyed about because I think, had somebody, whoever was giving us these visas and citizenships had said, "You're going to need to memorize the educational process in the United States," I think they would've done it because that's their number one goal is to try to be here legally.
So I feel like it could start at the top, but anyway, she didn't even know that, so nobody had ever talked to me about colleges or anything like that, so I went right to working and I was happy, because I was working full-time now.
Guy Kawasaki:
This is back at the factory?
Martha Nino:
This is back at the factory, yeah, and then I worked there for a couple years and then-- it was a manufacturing company and it was back in the days where people were looking for other places to manufacture from and let the products be cheaper, so my company decided they were going to go to Mexico and manufacture. They call it a maquiladora program where you manufacture out of Mexico and you live on the U.S. side so they asked me to go with them and I said, “No,” because my dad had just died. He was struggling with cancer and I couldn't-- I couldn't leave my mom. I couldn't leave my mom, and so I stayed.
It was time for me to venture out and see what else was out there. I had made so many good friends at that manufacturing plant. That's the beautiful thing about networking, right? If you're good, people will talk to you and they'll recommend you.
One of the guys that was working with me, he recommended me to work at an office furniture company and I was an administrative assistant and, eventually, moved my way up to the main buyer and I had a couple people working under me, and we ordered everything to make up an office cubicle and that started my whole career in Silicon Valley. It was actually making cubicles for these great companies in the Silicon Valley that were up-and-coming. Eventually, I ended up in one of those seats.
Guy Kawasaki:
Wait. When you say making cubicles, do you mean configuring the Herman-Miller stall?
Martha Nino:
Yes!
Guy Kawasaki:
What do you mean, “making cubicles”?
Martha Nino:
Let's say there was a computer company that had 300 employees and they needed places to sit their employees, we took their space-- and this is how I got really good at math-- we took their space and there was a six-by-six cubicle that needed to be built.
We determined how much wood was involved in this and we needed to order from whoever the-- I think it was Wirehouse or whatever-- lumber company at the time, and then how many screws it would take to put together the side panels of a cubicle; how much fabric we needed to put around that.
That was our job is to take whatever orders that were coming in from the Silicon Valley and determine how we were going to put these new up-and-comers in seats in the Valley. Yeah.
Guy Kawasaki:
At this time— now, you were born in Mexico-- so what is your legal status as you're configuring cubicles in Silicon Valley?
Martha Nino:
It was only a couple years that I had my permanent residency. Before that, we were still in the suspended state, right? So I was legal at this time, but I was definitely illegal for about fourteen or fifteen years and that was scary. I didn't even know what that meant back then and now looking back I was like, "Well, no wonder my parents were scared to do a lot of things."
Guy Kawasaki:
You were literally illegal or you were in this fourteen or fifteen-year suspended state?
Martha Nino:
I was in the fourteen, fifteen-year suspended state, yeah.
Guy Kawasaki:
So it wasn't illegal.
Martha Nino:
No. But had I done anything wrong, or my parents had done anything wrong, it was no questions asked. You're going back to Mexico.
Guy Kawasaki:
Now then what? So now you're making cubicles. How did you get to Adobe?
Martha Nino:
Yes. I'm making cubicles and I ended up working at another cubicle place. Eventually that paid me a little bit more money-- by the way, worst mistake of my life because I went for few thousand dollars more instead of staying with the people that I actually liked, but you're young, you do stupid stuff like that.
At that company, the other office furniture company that I went to though, was not the best move for me. It wasn't the right fit for me and eventually I left that company and I was stuck without a job, and I knew I needed to get a job and I went and applied at one of these temp agencies and said, "I'll take whatever comes your way” and one of those companies was called Creative Labs and they made Sound.
Guy Kawasaki:
Oh, yeah.
Martha Nino:
I don't know if you remember that, but-
Guy Kawasaki:
Weren't they from Singapore?
Martha Nino:
They were from Singapore. Exactly.
Guy Kawasaki:
Okay, so now you're an employee of Creative Labs?
Martha Nino:
I'm a temp at this company, and it's interesting because just like in everything I was taught, you do whatever you're told, you work really hard, and I worked really hard at that company, but I have to tell you something, Guy.
When I got that interview, it was a little bit of a phone interview to go to that sound company, I actually heard beach sand. My landline was really bad because we didn't have that good of line, and I thought, "Oh, I guess I'm going to be in some kind of a big equipment company or something like that." I thought I was going to go to some company like that. And when I get there, it was actually sound. I'm like, "Oh, it's not sand, it's sound. Okay, got it."
I went to that company as a temp and I started basically in the channel marketing department which was people who sold to retail stores. Back then it was Fry's Electronics and Best Buy stores and a lot of brick and mortar industry leaders, and I started helping whoever needed help there.
One of my first projects there was building kits, like, literally, physical kits that you would send at the time of launching a product. I was assembling kits in this room and you're sending data sheets and discs and real old-school stuff there, but I did that.
Eventually, somebody from that company sat me down and said, "You know what? Do you really want to do this for the rest of your life and just help out people? Maybe there's an opportunity for you to move into this other route." And that's where getting into mainstream marketing came my way. Somebody actually saw it in me.
Guy Kawasaki:
And what happened?
Martha Nino:
I kept doing it. I'm still doing it. I-
Guy Kawasaki:
No, but you're at Creative Labs. How did you get to Adobe?
Martha Nino:
Yeah, so I'm at Creative Labs. I did that for four years and then, honestly, I didn't have my degree, remember? We never focused on studying, right?
Guy Kawasaki:
Yeah.
Martha Nino:
So I'm still at Creative Labs and I'm noticing people are getting promoted left and right and I don't know if was the reason, but I was trying to analyze, “Why is everybody-- looks like they're getting promoted and such, and I'm not?” And I said, "You know what? I got to get my degree. I don't know how I'm going to do it, but I have to do it."
So I actually quit Creative Labs and I just got married and my husband's like, "You did what?" And he's like, "We only have six months' worth of money." And then I'm like, "Oh, crap."
So within six months, I got my degree within six months because I had been dabbling in college here and there but not really focused. I basically finished off my degree in six months, business and marketing, and one of my mentors at Creative Labs referred me over to another company called Handspring, and they were the smartphone-y before there were smartphones out there.
I went to go work with that company for a couple years and then, obviously, they went under and Apple-- you know that, Guy-- Apple took it on and it went from there and I was left without a job, and I was five months pregnant too. And I'm like, "Crap. What do I do?"
One of my managers at that job was at Adobe. So now we're getting to that point. Taking a long time, right? Was at Adobe and she's like, "What? Do you need a job?" And I'm like, "Yeah, actually my unemployment is going to run out. I just had this kid. Yes, I'll do whatever." And I went to Adobe and I've been there for about fifteen, sixteen years now.
Guy Kawasaki:
And what do you do at Adobe now?
Martha Nino:
I'm a partner marketing manager and I help out sales make their number, essentially, and I've been doing that for a while. I like it. It's all about partnerships and figuring out how we're going to make our numbers and things like that, and coming up with some cool programs and ways to get attention.
Guy Kawasaki:
Now when you say this, are you saying that you are putting together proposals for the Enterprise version of PDF or is it Photoshop, or what are you selling and to who?
Martha Nino:
All of it. So we have Acrobat which makes PDF, and again, a bunch of other things. But yeah, different businesses need different products for different things.
My part of the business right now is selling to medium to small businesses. So anybody who has a need for Acrobat or Creative, our creative products, which includes Photoshop, we're selling to businesses which will sell it to other businesses. That makes sense?
Guy Kawasaki:
Yeah.
Martha Nino:
So the CDWs of the world, SHIs of the world. Those types of folks.
Guy Kawasaki:
Is it analog, face-to-face, or is it all digital and processing leads and that kind of stuff?
Martha Nino:
It's a combination. This is why I wanted to meet with you in person, Guy, because I believe in in-person relationships, right? And then I also think that it's just so much nicer.
Yeah, there's a lot of in-person stuff and we're having negotiations and business conversations, then we go back to our offices and we execute, and as you know, nowadays everything seems to be digital so a lot of our programs are digital, their websites, emails, that kind of thing, so we do a lot of that.
And yes, every once in a while, there's events where there's in-person things going on and it's just part of the lever that moves the needle for us.
Guy Kawasaki:
Did you ever get a college degree?
Martha Nino:
Yeah, I ended up getting my college degree. I have a Bachelor of Science in Business and a minor in Marketing. I got that at twenty-six. I was twenty-six years old and I'm so glad I got that because it's never been an issue anywhere, but I felt like it was an issue before, and it was just one less check mark that I had to worry about or explain. And once I got that, it was such a relief for me. But yeah, it's been great.
Guy Kawasaki:
But how did you get the degree? Did you just continue part-time and you eventually got enough credits or did you ever quit or take a sabbatical or something and go full-time?
Martha Nino:
I ended up, after high school, dabbling in colleges here and there. Honestly, I didn't know what I was doing, Guy, because nobody had explained that to me.
So I was taking a class here, a class here. I took classes to be a real estate agent, I'm a certified massage therapist. I did everything and then eventually somebody actually sat me down and says, "Look, if you want to do something, you’ve got to focus." And then I started focusing on the business side and dabbled in that.
Then while I was in Creative Labs, I knew that it would take me forever if I didn't put a 100% effort into my school so that's when I left Creative Labs for those six months that my husband was so angry with me about, and I want to say I did forty or fifty units in six months. That's crazy! I was not sleeping at all!
Guy Kawasaki:
Really?
Martha Nino:
Yeah, that's how I ended up doing it.
Guy Kawasaki:
What college is this?
Martha Nino:
University of Phoenix, and it was just one of these for worker-type universities and it's never been an issue. I just got it. Check mark.
I actually think that's one of the things I like to tell people who talk to me and I have a lot of students who ask me about these things. It's like, you know what? Sometimes we just have to look at the whole person versus that name on a piece of paper too, and I think that's one thing that people have done with me my whole life is looked at the whole story, the whole picture, and not to get discouraged by things like that and there's good people out there that are willing to do that and I've been very fortunate to be around all those people.
Guy Kawasaki:
How many kids do you have now?
Martha Nino:
I have two girls. They're teenagers. Oh my god, they’re teenagers.
Guy Kawasaki:
How old are they?
Martha Nino:
I have a seventeen-year-old who's actually looking at colleges right now and I have a thirteen-year-old, so a very interesting time of their lives, but they're amazing.
I have been talking to them about colleges since they were in kindergarten. It's a continuation of whatever school they're going to go to, right? It's just part of who they're going to be, but it had to become part of my dialogue because I learned that if it's not then it's not going to be.
So we were visiting some schools over in L.A. a couple months ago and I just sat there in the orientations going, "Wow. These kids actually have options." Sorry, I get a little choked up because I did not. I used people as that and they gave me that, but I have the opportunity to make them a little bit farther ahead in the process and that makes me feel pretty good.
Guy Kawasaki:
That's very good. What schools did you visit in L.A?
Martha Nino:
We went to USD, we went to San Diego State. She has her eye on Chapman.
Guy Kawasaki:
Wouldn't your mother be proud? Or isn't your mother proud?
Martha Nino:
Oh, my mom. She's so happy. When I did that talk that I sent over to you, Guy, one of my good friends said, "You got to make sure your mom is there." And I didn't realize how meaningful this whole talk was going to be. Not only for me, but for my mom. I'm standing there talking about the story and everything and Shantanu, who's the CEO of Adobe is front row, and then my mom-
Guy Kawasaki:
Oh, really?
Martha Nino:
Yes, yes, and my mom is right behind him and I didn't even pay attention to Shantanu. Sorry, Shantanu, we love you, but my mom was right behind him and I remember getting out there and she immediately started crying. Immediately. And my two daughters were also there. That was another thing.
I also wanted them to see that, “Hey, we have these opportunities, just like I did to talk about this.” You need to take it sometimes and just run with it because you never know what might happen, and yeah, out of 660-something stories, mine was one of the top eight.
My mother was crying and I remember asking her after the talk. I said, "Mom, what did you think about this whole thing?" Gloria Estefan was there, Guy. She was talking to her.
Guy Kawasaki:
Really?
Martha Nino:
Yes. She stopped me backstage and she's like, "I can't believe that wasn't your first talk." And I was like, "Oh my God. Can I get a selfie?" I turned into such a fan-girl, and she said, "Yeah. Come and just come find me afterwards."
It was really cool because her people didn't want to let anybody near her but she let me and my mom and my kids near her and talk to her. That was pretty neat. So she was star-struck, my mother. And I asked my mom, "What did you think about this whole thing?" She like, "Mija, everything was great." She says, "I was so scared for you."
I dug into that a little bit and I go, "Why were you so scared for me?" She says, "Well, I know you and I know who you are but all of these people," there was 1,200 people, "... don't know anything about you." And she's like, "And for the first time, I couldn't protect you." And that was like, “Wow, that was pretty deep.” And yeah, she's very proud and I'm very proud of her actually, because I don't think I'd be anywhere without her taking risks.
Guy Kawasaki:
What would your life be if you had never left Mexico?
Martha Nino:
I would probably be a grandparent right now or something like that. Living in some farm somewhere. Yeah. I went back to Mexico when I was fifteen or sixteen years old after we got our papers because that was the other thing. When my parents got here, they couldn't visit their family. My mom couldn't see her mother for years, or her siblings and you basically give up your whole life and start fresh.
So when I went back there with them for the first time, first I was really glad to have hot water. Like little things like that.
Guy Kawasaki:
Wait, what do you mean? You were glad to have hot water in Mexico, because what?
Martha Nino:
No, here, because in Mexico you didn't even have that.
Guy Kawasaki:
Oh, you appreciate it.
Martha Nino:
Yeah. And honestly, everything that I was seeing, I was like, "Ah, that's why they came to the United States. Ah, that's why they took a risk."
Especially the family that my father came from because he was orphaned at eight years old and he was from this farm that had nothing. No running water, no electricity, none of that. And this is like, I don't know, the eighties, early nineties, and my hair requires a lot of hairspray and I'm like, "How am I going to do that here?" We improvised. The curling iron went into the fire and I heated it up that way.
I had never been so happy to be in a different country and I don't think people understand that. Mexico, it's so close to the United States that it's the easiest thing for us to run to, and we're running because we're going to die of starvation if we stay there and, basically, live in poverty our whole lives, and this is our only chance, and my dad earning seven dollars and seventy-five cents an hour, that was a good thing. He was doing good. But yeah, just risking your life for seven dollars and seventy-five cents an hour, I can't even imagine.
Guy Kawasaki:
Well, we can go down a really deep hole right now but a lot of times you hear people say that, “If these families try to sneak into the United States and they get caught and we separate the kids from the parents, it's the parents' fault for taking a risk. They knew this was going to happen. It's their fault,” but in my humble opinion, they never stop and think, “So the parents know this could happen. They know they could be stuck in cages and they still do it. Doesn't that tell you that things are so desperate there that even that worst case outcome is better than what they're leaving? You cannot see it that way?” I don't understand these people.
Martha Nino:
I am one of those kids, Guy. My mom literally gave me to somebody else and something could've happened to me.
Guy Kawasaki:
Sure.
Martha Nino:
That could've easily happened and I think about that a lot actually and I don't think people understand. The situation is so bad that you're willing to risk it because there is a chance, and if there is one little chance that things are going to go right for that kid, you're going to take it, and that's what my mother did. She knew that there was a chance that we'd be okay. She also knew there was a chance I might not be okay.
I ended up okay. I ended up on that beautiful stage at Adobe. I'm talking to you now. I'm in Silicon Valley right now in a really nice home. She did that for a reason, so that things could be better and they're better for me.
Guy Kawasaki:
What is your opinion of what's happening now?
Martha Nino:
Well, it's all really bad. I mean, which part of it? It's all bad, right?
Guy Kawasaki:
Well, I mean the wall. I mean everything.
Martha Nino:
Oh, God. Yeah, all of that. Well, it's bad. I wish that more people-- It's interesting times, Guy. Right now we're going through the whole COVID, and I'm seeing so many people just have a little bit more humanity with each other and I think there's some silver lining around this to be honest and I hope that people can start seeing people as people.
There's reasons why the walls and all of that good stuff, why people say these things, but the bottom line is if people are trying to do better, I think you should allow them to. Yeah, granted there's some criteria in place that needs to be put in there, but maybe ask yourself, “Why are people, first of all, trying to get away from your country?” And I'm not a politician or anything like. I don't know anything like that, “But why are people trying to get away from their country?”
Guy Kawasaki:
Is it, you're saying, fix Mexico so people don't want to get away?
Martha Nino:
Yeah. I mean if people who have money and have education in places like that, don't come here. It's just It’s true! I've gone to friends' houses in Mexico and I'm like, “They have maids!” They have all kinds of help and I'm like, "Why would you even want to come here?" It's the other people that are coming here, right?
Guy Kawasaki:
Yeah.
Martha Nino:
And that's why there's such a big problem and it's, like, there's too much of that. Fix some of that so we don't have the problem here.
Guy Kawasaki:
Mm-hmm.
Martha Nino:
And now, I did a little research and it looks like, I don't know, thirty-something, almost forty percent of kids are of immigrant families here in the Silicon Valley and they don't even believe they can do good things because they don't have the right examples, they don't have the right people telling them what to do. They don't have the right upbringing. They don't even have money, and so it's hard. It's hard.
So I do think that you have to start at the root level sometimes. You kind of look at it that way.
Guy Kawasaki:
As you look back, what are the lessons of your life? But wait, before you answer that, I'll tell you something.
Martha Nino:
Sure.
Guy Kawasaki:
The reason why you're on this podcast-
Martha Nino:
Yeah, why I am I here, Guy?
Guy Kawasaki:
The reason why you're here is because I want my listeners to understand from not an academic, intellectual perspective about immigration and why people would risk their family and swim across rivers and all that.
Martha Nino:
Yeah.
Guy Kawasaki:
I want them from a first-person's perspective to understand what you and your family went through and why. Now before you answer that, I'll tell you.
I'm third generation Japanese-American. My grandfather came to Hawaii, on both sides, and if they were successful in Hiroshima, let's just say that they probably would not have moved.
Martha Nino:
Yeah. Exactly.
Guy Kawasaki:
You could make that case about anybody in America. You only move when you have to not because, "Oh yeah. Let's just throw everything away and start all over. That seems like a cool thing to do, and be in suspense for fifteen years." So anyways, so what's the lessons of your life?
Martha Nino:
Oh, wow. So many lessons. I feel like I'm in a unique position because I'm a zero generation immigrant and I can talk that talk and be there. So I think that people need to understand where we're coming from and I think one of the lessons that I've learned, or one of the things that I'd love for people to know, is that what is our story? Why are we getting away? Why are we even here? Why can't we get that education? It's because we just don't know.
Situations are bad. We just don't know what the systems are and things like that.
I work with many, many smart people who have very good educations. Oh, very good educations. I'm so lucky to be there, but they don't know anything of my story. They don't know anything about Mexican immigrants and their struggles and they surpass them sometimes in jobs because they're missing this, and this, and that not realizing that they're probably working right before they go to that job, or they're working before they go to school.
It's a much tougher upbringing, right? So I think it's very important to let our story out and not be scared in telling it.
I think that's one of the reasons why we're only three or four percent of the tech business is also because of all those things. We're here in Silicon Valley, but we don't believe we can be here, we don't have the right examples, we don't have the right educations. We don't even have the right tools or upbringings to be there. I think we just need to talk about that it could be possible, and other people need to hear us out.
Guy Kawasaki:
So if I'm a zero-generation immigrant of any race, what do I learn from you?
Martha Nino:
To keep learning. To not be scared to ask for help. To not just let the color of our skins be telling of who to get guidance from. Everybody that I've received mentorship from looks nothing like me. I would say most of them don’t, and that's okay. I'd take help from anybody. You could be purple!
I would say just be open to learning and being taught and guided because if you want to be at that certain level, look who's at that level and what are they doing? Who are they talking to? Talk to them. Don't be afraid to reach out.
You'd be surprised. A lot of people are nicer than we think, and don't be afraid to learn. Don't be afraid to keep learning.
I'm not twenty-seven years old, I'm not thirty-seven years old. I'm still learning. I'm still learning. I learned all about that talking thing last year and I learned so much. I learned so much and I'm just going to continue that.
So as a zero-generation person, I would say do not be afraid. Ask for help, be open to being helped. Do not let the color of your skin dictate who's going to help you either, and others, look at the whole story. Look at the whole pictures and you'd be surprised what you might find.
Guy Kawasaki:
So you just talked about all the good stuff but then have you had bad experiences? Do you have advice about how to deal with racism? How do deal with those kind of things as a zero-generation?
Martha Nino:
Yeah, so growing up there was a lot of that going on because we stuck out like a sore thumb here in Silicon Valley. There was three or four different races going on so nobody ever stood up and said anything.
I think that's one of the things that people in different countries that come to this country are taught to not say anything and just focus on your jobs and just keep saying, "Yes, yes, yes." And honestly, I think that that's a mistake. I mean, yes, do a good job, but do not be afraid to put your opinion out there and to be open to all of that.
I remember some really bad names being called at me in high school, and in the end, sometimes you believe those things. I don't even want to say those things on here but the more you hear bad things, you sometimes start to believe it and ignore those bad comments and focus on the good. Focus on the good. Eventually I was like, "I'm not bad. What are they talking about? I'm definitely not that." But sometimes when you hear a lot, you start to believe it.
Guy Kawasaki:
And what about to your daughters' generation?
Martha Nino:
Oh, God. Our kids are going to surprise us. I feel like my generation had a lot of excess. I was in tech and I had a lot of excess. I had a lot of equipment, I have a lot of extra things and I feel like their generations focus more on some of these things that we lost along the way like humanity and environment and eating healthy.
I remember that first job as a paper girl. The first thing I did was buy five ice cream sandwiches because I never ate sugar in my whole life. So because I didn't know anything else. They know about health.
I would say to that generation just keep pushing and keep pushing the envelope. Keep pushing the envelope and prove my generation wrong. I think it's going to be good. I think it's going to be good.
Guy Kawasaki:
What do you mean prove your generation wrong?
Martha Nino:
Well, that excess, right? That excess that I had in the Silicon Valley.
Guy Kawasaki:
Do your daughters see themselves as Americans, Mexican-Americans or Mexicans?
Martha Nino:
I'm married to a Colombian. We have the whole Mexican-Columbian thing and-
Guy Kawasaki:
That's a whole other thing, yeah.
Martha Nino:
But he came here when he was twenty-one, and yeah, with no word of English. So he has a totally different perspective on all of this.
So my kids have seen my side. Like I talk about my story, right? And he'll talk about his story and how he came and didn't know any English and he ended up working at NVidia for seventeen years. Don't tell me that we can't do it just because we're here a zero-generation. You just have to ally yourself with good people, you need to do the hard work, you need to put in the time and not be afraid to challenges on.
Guy Kawasaki:
What did he do as a former soldier from Colombia working for NVidia?
Martha Nino:
He didn't do it just right away, okay?
Guy Kawasaki:
Oh, yeah.
Martha Nino:
He worked at Burger King which, by the way, he says that was one of the worst tortures to anybody with an accent because he worked the drive-thru and he had to memorize the menu in order to get by this job, and he says people didn't understand him half the time and he cried every day, he said.
Eventually he went to night school also and learned English and ended up working at one of these warehouse in the Silicon Valley shipping products and learned that route, and he made it into the office of one of these companies. I think he was working at SVG and then ended up at NVidia for seventeen years. He's now semi-retired. He manufactures Maserati parts out of the garage right now.
Guy Kawasaki:
He makes Maserati parts?
Martha Nino:
Yes, he does.
Guy Kawasaki:
Okay, so let me repeat what I just heard. You were an illegal immigrant into America-
Martha Nino:
Yes.
Guy Kawasaki:
... who has married a Columbian soldier.
Martha Nino:
Yes.
Guy Kawasaki:
You live in Silicon Valley and he worked at NVidia and you work at Adobe-
Martha Nino:
Yes.
Guy Kawasaki:
And he's semi-retired making Maserati parts.
Martha Nino:
Yes.
Guy Kawasaki:
Is that a good summation?
Martha Nino:
That's a pretty good summation.
Guy Kawasaki:
I ask you a non-theoretical question: Where else could that happen but in America?
Martha Nino:
Absolutely. Absolutely, yeah.
You know, friends had told me in the past before when I was getting a little nervous about telling my story in my company, and I'm very vocal about it now, but they are saying, "You're living the American life. This is the American dream." And I'm like, "No, it's not. This is the way everybody does." And they're like, "No, you don't understand." And I really didn't even see it as being amazing until I started talking to people and I started hearing all of these things and I'm like, "I guess it is pretty cool, right?" It can happen and…
Guy Kawasaki:
Martha, that's why you're on the podcast! If this wasn't cool, you know? It's you and Jane Goodall, Martha. I mean what more do you want from my life? My God.
Martha Nino:
I listened to all your podcasts. I'm like, "I don't know why he wants me on here. It's so weird. But I'm going to do it." And I haven't been able to sleep all week because I've been so excited. But yeah, no. This is amazing. And my husband drives an R8. It's so surreal…
Guy Kawasaki:
Your husband drives an R8?!
Martha Nino:
Yes.
Guy Kawasaki:
An Audi R8?
Martha Nino:
Yes, he does. It's a bright orange one. I'll send you a picture later. But if that's not-
Guy Kawasaki:
WTF, man! I mean, like, what?!
Martha Nino:
I mean, I-
Guy Kawasaki:
Okay, so now your husband, ex-Columbian army comes here, works in a warehouse, goes to work for NVidia, making Maserati parts in his garage, semi-retires and drives an Audi R8. Is that an accurate summation?
Martha Nino:
That's accurate. Which blows my mind because I lived in a one bedroom house with nine other people and we had no money and this is crazy! We couldn't be here without good people. We couldn't be here without good people helping us.
Guy Kawasaki:
So if I see an orange R8, because there aren't that many R8’s so there's certainly not that many orange R8’s, I'm going to stop that car and say, "I know your story."
Martha Nino:
I know your story. Oh, God. I wish you could talk to him. But yeah, no. He actually invents after-market Maserati parts.
Guy Kawasaki:
Oh my God.
Martha Nino:
That's kind of like his dream now and he started his own little company. It's called URUTÚ which, I think, is one of his battle names or something like that, and he has a pretty good following.
Yeah, but I don't know how this happened. The other day there was One of these young social media stars mentioned his product and my kids were like, "Is that so and so talking about dad? Is that cool or something?" But only in America.
This is the reason why people come here, because there's hope and there's opportunities and we're very lucky. We're very lucky.
Guy Kawasaki:
Truly, you have a really great story. Someday I'm going to come to Washington D.C. and you're going to be a senator and you're going to take me through the Senate, okay?
Martha Nino:
We'll take you in the R8. How's that?
Guy Kawasaki:
Okay, that works for me!

I hope you found Martha's story inspiring. She taught me several lessons. First, I was lucky that I'm a third generation American. Second, you've got to love parents for what they are willing to do and risk to give their kids a better life. Third, it doesn't matter where you start; What matters is where you end. Fourth, never underestimate the kindness of strangers. Even strangers who don't look like you.
America is lucky to have her and the millions of immigrants like her who made America Great. Their presence is as good for America as it is for them. Duh.
I'm adding a new feature. I'm going to start reading comments about this podcast because I love reading comments. So if you want your comment read, first you have to make it. So go to the Apple Podcast app, find Remarkable People and comment away.
So here's one. It's entitled, "Building Bridges," by SJWSCLN. And I am not clever enough to figure out how to pronounce that. Anyway, here goes. "A while ago, I suggested for Guy to speak to Tim Keller. Got Shane Claiborne instead and was very impressed and inspired with their conversation. Could not have asked for more. It reminded me of a very touching TED Talk Billy Graham gave in Monterey in February 1998, addressing an audience presumably having very little interest in Christianity. Well done building a bridge between religion and the world out there. Love the fact that he has such diverse guests. Inspiring to listen to them even though I may not know of them or their work." Thank you for that comment, SJWSCLN.
Here's another one. Bob, Singapore. "While social distancing, I've been listening to Remarkable People and eating dinner. Brings a big smile to my face hearing Guy asking questions from such great guests. I need more podcasts from him. I especially enjoyed the chat with Cialdini. I wish he was running for president and he could influence us in positive ways. Thanks, Guy. I'm sure you would write me a review too if I ever did something as well as this podcast." Bob, I probably would. Thank you for your comment.
Here's one from Dariasaur, as in Daria and dinosaur, I think… "Guy brings such humanity and insight to these conversations. His genuine warmth, curiosity are so refreshing in a vast ocean of bland, basic, interview podcasts. Guy gives us something fresh, fun, and totally engaging here. Thank you." Thank you for saying that.
Again, please go to the Apple Podcast app, search for Remarkable People and click to rate. Leave a review. I love to read comments. Thank you very much. Send those comments in!

I'm Guy Kawasaki and this is Remarkable People. My thanks to Jeff Sieh and Peg Fitzpatrick for their work to make this podcast great again, and again, and again.
Be healthy, be safe, wash your hands, keep far away from people. Until next time, mahalo and aloha.

This is Remarkable People.