Marvin Mondragon

 Marvin Mondragon is the Supervising Manager/Quality Control Manager at The Vena Agency.  The Vena Agency is a financial service company contracted with over 40,000 different Unions, Associations and groups across the country. Marvin’s role is to train and develop Benefit Representatives to deliver and explain the benefits to the union members. Marvin went to Oakton Community College to pursue a degree in Sociology.  However, he wanted to always be a pilot.  Since he was late at selecting courses that filled quickly, he decided to continue with Sociology classes instead.  He ended up realizing he had a passion for Sociology.  He likes to learn how different groups communicate and how they cohabitate with each other.  He found there was a need to help the gap between different groups come together and help people grow.

 Marvin leads a team of 12 members.  He enjoys watching his team members grow and is always there for them for guidance.  He explained that it is like watching your kids grow up.  He’s become close to them and treats them like his family.  As he puts it, it is a very fulfilling position.  However, you need to be very disciplined for the position.  Some areas he struggled with were controlling his mind and overcoming his fear/limitation of stepping into new endeavors with others relying on me.  He was used to working by himself and growing with a team was an exciting new venture.  He soon realized that an individual could go fast, but with a team you can go far and fast. 

 His mother is an entrepreneur.  She is a single mother who raised 5 boys.  Seeing her struggle and the obstacles she had to overcome made him motivated to succeed with his career.  Dolores is his #1 mentor.  He learned that being caring and open with his clients work best.  A lesson he learned from her.  Some benefits in his field are that he is able to control his income, work from home, and help a lot of families.  He stated that the opportunities to advance within the company and control your income are unlimited.  He can lead his team and help develop others in over 46 different states across the country.  However, there are a couple set back in his field.  Such as sacrificing time with family/friends.  You can at times lose time with your loved ones due to the bid goals, workload and deadlines.  As he put it, short term comfort for exchange of long-term success.  If you are able to overcome a couple of hurtles for a couple of years you will succeed in the long run. 

 Marvin’s advice is, figure out what your passion is, what wakes you up in the morning, find a way to make it profitable and go all in.  Most people change not because they see the light but because they feel the heat, don’t wait for the heat.  Fight your flame and go all in. Learn as much as you can and implement your knowledge into your daily habits. Know your worth and believe in yourself.  Always dream big and expected greatness and you will accomplish it.  Work hard and put in your time and you will see your success has a direct correlation to your efforts.

 Being organized and effective with time management has helped him balance his work and personal life.  He will mark on his calendar what is important and prioritize everything else from there.  Sometimes work wins and something his personal life will win.  It’s a routine you learn to control with habits and scheduling will help keep you on track of goals/deadlines and what needs to get done.