Phoebe Suina, Monica Jojola, and Gina Euell

[00:03] MONICA JOJOLA: Hello, everyone. My name is Monica Jojola. I'm 53 years old. I am from Albuquerque, New Mexico. Today is April 12, 2023, and headquartered in New Mexico. Like I mentioned, my conversation partners are Gina Euell and Phoebe Suina On over to Gina, please.

[00:26] GINA EUELL: Good afternoon, this is Gina Euell I am 56 years old. It is April 12, 2023. We are calling in from Albuquerque, New Mexico, and my fellow conversation partners, Monica Jojola, as well as Phoebe Swena. Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Phoebe Suina I'm 46 years old, and today's date is April 12, 2023. I'm at the pueblo of Cochiti, headquartered at Cochiti. And my conversation partners are Monica Jojola and Gina Euell And we are all fellow native women, indigenous women entrepreneurs.

[01:20] MONICA JOJOLA: Excellent. Thank you, Phoebe and Gina. This is great to talk to you all this afternoon in New Mexico, where we have beautiful skies today. If I'm not mistaken, we've got 83 degrees in this lovely weather in the southwest. So nothing makes me more happy in my heart than to talk to other women native entrepreneurs, especially for profit companies. With that being said, why don't we go around the room? I know several of us would love to do an introduction. I'm going to hand it over to my great partner, Gina Euell to talk about your company and an intro.

[01:51] GINA EUELL: Well, thank you, Monica. I am so glad to be here with you and to share our stories and reflection. But just in a nutshell, my company name is exhibit Solutions of New Mexico, and we started in 1999. And what we offer are trade show displays, exhibits, graphics, portable modular systems to make you look good at a trade show. So it could be anything from wayfinding signage to retractable banner stands, table covers. And we do have a large format graphics department, so I'm really proud of my team and they make me look good. And of course, we make everyone look good at a show, and that's very important. But in a snapshot, that's my company.

[02:52] MONICA JOJOLA: Phoebe, what about your company? Why don't you tell us about your wonderful company here in New Mexico?

[02:57] GINA EUELL: Thank you. Monica and I so honored and appreciative to be on this platform and partners with Gina and Monica. My company is called High Watermark LLC. We started in Cochiti Pueblo in the need to support for our indigenous communities here in New Mexico after major disasters such as flooding, forest fires. Since 2013, we've grown to also incorporate general environmental consulting as well as engineering aspects regarding any projects, infrastructure projects from water, wastewater, roads, but also working with our tribal nations here in New Mexico to navigate the federal and state policies, laws, regulations and rules here in New Mexico and how they overlap or don't dovetail well in tribal government realms. And so I've been honored to serve a number of communities. I also work in non tribal communities here in New Mexico. Currently I'm working in Mora and San Miguel and down in Lincoln county and the Gila to help communities again manage post wildfire impacts and issues. And so with that, I want to also kick it over to Monica and would you share with us your company background and so forth?

[04:30] MONICA JOJOLA: Yes, absolutely. Thank you, Phoebe. I really appreciate the introduction from you and Gina. My name is Monica Jojola Like I shared with our listeners today, I am the president and owner of Montec Incorporated. Montec is headquartered here in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I myself is a member from AM a member from the Pueblo of New Mexico, of his little pueblo. So if you've been to the great state of New Mexico, you know that islet of Pueblo is 15, 16 miles south of Albuquerque. Had to make it close to home. As far as my headquarters are concerned, I thought it was important for me to be nearby my Pueblo people and to start my company nearby. Started the company in 2011. So if you're wondering what Montec Incorporated is, is we are a federal government contractor. We have a nationwide platform right now. I'm really pleased to hear that. Some of our major clients are the US Department of Defense, Department of Energy, Department of Interior, Department of Agriculture, Department of Commerce. And the list just goes on and on. And I'm really happy about the talent, the contracts that we've been awarded, the long term contracts and our nationwide footprint across the US as far as scientific and program management and technical support solutions. So, you know, we certainly enjoy and welcome a half a year type of contract. But for the most part, I would say 90% or if not more of our contracts are a base in core option years. Our personnel are headquartered in New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, California, Missouri, Wisconsin, South Dakota. And because of Doen NNSA, which represents the National Nuclear Security Administration, that is what gained us our nationwide footprint. I'm pleased and honored that we have wonderful, talented people that have joined the team of Montec. With that we are. We've got a biweekly payroll that consists of 100 and a little bit over 100 full time employees and approximately 15 to 20 ad hoc consultants that work with the Montec team. These are all the great things about Montec and certainly listening to my colleagues. But I'm very interested because we're talking to Gina and Phoebe, who are so well experienced. I want to know from Gina, what made you start your business? How did you get started?

[07:08] GINA EUELL: Well, I actually worked for another company for almost twelve years that was a graphic design company, and they had an arm of their company which was trade show displays, exhibits, graphics. I basically started as a receptionist for the company and I absolutely loved what I did for that company and the work encompassing different graphics for Sandia National Labs, Los Alamos National Labs. And it was a wonderful position. Like I said, they're almost there for twelve years. And then I decided, you know, what would it be like to start my own company? Boy, I'd run it a little differently, I would do things a little differently. And, you know, that spark was in me. And I decided to start my business in April of 1999. Basically, spare bedroom had a telephone, a computer, and that was about it. So, as they say, dialing for dollars, that's what I did. I contacted many of my wonderful clients and said, hey, I struck out on my own. If you'd like to follow me, that's great. If not, I completely understand, but I just want to let you know where I'm at. So being a home based business was a little challenging. But I tell you, it was a very scary time. But it was also a very exciting time. Failure was not an option. I knew I could succeed. I had the passion, I had the drive, I had the backing from my friends and family that basically said, you can do it, you put your mind to it, you can do it. And that's when we basically started. My husband joined me about almost a year later, and we started off in a very small showroom and had just a couple of tabletop displays and maybe a full size display. But I tell you, those were exciting times back then. It really was. And I wanted to get involved in different chambers of commerce and get my foot out the door and really start knocking on doors. And that's how I started my company. It's like a fairy tale, starting off with basically zero. And we also developed a very small website, very, very small, to the point, e commerce. We started actually doing business with companies outside of Albuquerque, New Mexico. And one of my first jobs was with the Jane Goodall Institute. They bought a small tabletop from a woman owned, native owned company thousands of miles away. But I tell you, that that was so exciting to start my business that way. So thank you.

[10:26] MONICA JOJOLA: Good, that's great to hear. I love that story. Phoebe, what about you? When did you start your business and how did you start.

[10:34] GINA EUELL: Thank you, Monica. Yeah, I started my business in 2013. At the time, I was actually focused a lot on one of your current clients work, which is the department of Energy, NNSA Em as well. Up at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, I was doing a lot of consulting regarding environmental remediation and cleanup. My background, my formal education background is I have a bachelor's in engineering with the environmental engineering focus focused on water and hydraulics. And so when I came out of my graduate program where I got a master's from Dartmouth, I ended up working up at the Department of Energy Los Alamos area campus and really had jumped in the deep end with the post wildfire issues. After the Cerro Grande fire, which occurred in 2000, I finished my degree in zero one. But I really learned a lot about project management, learned a lot about navigating the federal system, about budgeting the project. I ended up in about a year and a half, taking over project management for close to $150 million and coming out of grad school. That was a lot for me to handle, but a lot. Great opportunity to learn well going forward. I ended up finishing out that project in compliance, environmentally, procurement, funding, all of those compliance activities, health and safety. I had to navigate all of that across the entire laboratory campus, across over ten different watersheds that were being impacted by post wildfire flooding. I learned a lot just hydraulically and the hydrology of post wildfire issues, which kind of dovetails into how I started the business. So then I went into environmental remediation, cleaning up and looking at the compliance issues related to the legacy contaminated areas up at the laboratory related to the Manhattan project. Still work on those issues today. In 2013 and 2011, there was a lost, conscious fire, and that fire impacted the backyard of my pueblo. One of my pueblos called Cochiti pueblo. I'm from, my father's from Cochiti Pueblo. My mom is from San Felipe Pueblo. Knowing the impact of post wildfire flooding, I knew that Cochiti was in the bullseye. So in 2011, I was trying to juggle the work that I had up at the laboratory while doing contracting through a small consulting firm out of northern New Mexico to help coach Dipue. At the time in 20, 1112, and then in 13, my company, I had helped them earn $150 million master task order agreement, multi year task order agreement, much like you described earlier, Monica. And they wanted me to run point on that task order agreement for our company. Well, at the time we were preparing for monsoon season at Cochle Pueblo. And again, with my background, knowing Cochidi was in dire straits because of the post wildfire flooding. As one of our former governors says, is there any help out there for an endangered species, meaning Cochiti pueblo people, because we were in danger of flooding down the Rio Grande. Well, long story short, it was difficult because I had to really choose between running point on a major contract and helping my people out. And so it was a very. My business partner at the time, Mister Ryan Weiss, jumped off the cliff with me. I did not think I was going to ever start my own business, but really, it was a need to help my people out, my community out. We started high watermark, literally looking around as a hydrologist, we deal with high water marks. So ordinary high water marks. And so his wife said, why don't you just call yourself high water mark? And we said, so that's what we did. We stood it up in a week. In a week. And much like your story, Gina, our client at Cochle Pueblo, we didn't want to, you know, have any conflict of interest. We basically, like, you know, submitted our resignation, went to the leadership, and said, oh, by the way, we're leaving. You don't have to follow us, but if you need to, we'll be. Contact us in two weeks. So our two week notice. And then I just so happened that week, the whole middle real granddaddy area flooded in 2013 and July of 2013, causing disaster. 4148 here in New Mexico. And no other set of individuals knew how to navigate FEMA knew how to navigate our Pueblo communities and governments and the state government and federal government in this realm. And that's really what started high water mark. We were 100% billable the day we opened the doors. And since then, as I shared earlier, we've grown to include engineering, project management, and other aspects regarding our portfolio of services. But it was really out of a need to help our community. And I think, as we all are indigenous entrepreneurs and women here in New Mexico, we're all pueblo women to navigate that landscape here in New Mexico, we are very unique. We are, you know, unique individuals navigating new, unique tightropes in our communities. And so there are tough times. And what gets me through some of those tough times is the start of my business. What I was doing, what I started, high watermark. And that was a need to help my community. So with that, I would love to hear your, how your business started, Monica, and everything about what you want to share about your birth origin story for your business.

[17:08] MONICA JOJOLA: Sure. Thank you. You know, I'm appreciating what you, Phoebe, and Gina have shared. I'm going to tell you, Gina mentioned she started at the infancy level of another company and hearing all the great ideas and the grand ideas by another business owner. And here's Phoebe, who's in the national laboratory, hearing the need and hearing the opportunities that certainly could rise from challenges out there in our native communities or our New Mexico area. I feel the same way. I also have a footprint. Working with a large corporation, and it's actually a tribal corporation from the lower 48, I was able to visualize the opportunities for women owned small business. You know, back in 28, 29, you all probably remember our country going through this turmoil. When it came to the economy, people were upside down in their residential, their loans with their homes, and the country was really upset what was going on with the country's economy. And at the same time, the federal government is moving toward women owned small business. And I kept hearing this and hearing this. Working with a tribal corporation after 14 years, every decade in my life, I try to, you know, make a milestone. And I say, you know, and I'm sure you girls are the same way. Like, in the next five years, I want to do this. In the next ten years, I want to ensure I do this. Even this year alone, by the end of the year, I want to make sure we're this, you know, we're very highly achieving individuals. I know that because I know you both, and I know you succeed extremely well. When I made that milestone in my own personal, professional lifeline, I wanted to be a business owner. And I heard the federal government leading toward women owned small business, I didn't want that opportunity to run past, away from me. I wanted to be part of that. At that point, after 14 years of working with one of the most successful tribal corporations, the lower 48, you learn to master pricing and technicals and writing proposals, meeting customers, earning clients, being responsive all the intricacies of being a very well put together company. And with that, I took that education. I am professionally educated, obviously from the University of New Mexico. But I took the day to day operations of working with a tribal corporation. Ran off, put him in my back pocket like Phoebe, ended on a Friday, started my company the following Monday. And that's just the way it works. And I believe in what you both said. Gina said this extremely well. She loved to succeed, not to fail. And I feel the same way. I had my contacts in the back pocket. I knew who I can rely on. I knew who I wanted to call in today's technology driven community with a laptop, with a computer, and a cell phone in our hand, we can call across the country and have a deal working, and we haven't sat down at the same coffee table or the same coffee shop. That is what I wanted to do, and it's the greatest gift that I can possibly have given myself. And I think you all probably feel the same way because of being a business owner. We work hard. We work hard and we work hard, but we have a responsibility to our communities as well, you know, whether it's our native communities or the city of Albuquerque or the state of New Mexico. However, with that, it allows me to walk away at 03:00 in the afternoon to go help the university with something they've got going on, and they need our help. Or like Phoebe, she could be a board member for this local school, and she's able to walk away to a board meeting at 04:00 or in Gina's case, the community colleges. I know we all play hard in all those different programs, and that is a luxury as a business owner that we have. As long as we know our businesses are settled and things are moving forward, we get to go off and help the others. They say America's small business is really, truly running these economies, and we're giving back more than ever before. And I know these three or these two gals on today's listening session that we are all players in that area, and I love that about us. Which kind of leads me to something that you both have said. I know you all are influenced by others. Tina, can you please share with us who has been the biggest influence in your life, and what do you believe that person or people have taught you?

[21:53] GINA EUELL: Hands down, it would be my mother, my mom, my guiding light, my. A cheerleader, my. My everything. My mother, Eva, is from coach T Pueblo. She grew up on the reservation, and we. She actually, with her husband Doug, raised three girls in the city. So I'm city girl. Everything is real fast paced out here in Albuquerque. But when we would go back to coach t and watch the dances and sit down with my ta'u and have a wonderful meal at feast time and such, she would bring up these wonderful stories. But I always looked at my mom as a role model, as a mentor, as a guidance counselor, you name it, she was always there for me. She still is to this day. She's a wonderful, talented artist, and I think a little bit of that rubbed off on me. But she always taught us to be respectful of our elders. She was always there to help guide us with decisions, whether it be with school or relationships. Or just making, you know, large, I would say, decisions in life. I bought my own house when I was 26 years old, and that was a big deal for me because, you know, I. She was the one who said, you know, you can do it. Starting my own company. She said, if you don't try it, you will never know. You will have, you will never know. And just everything that she's taught me about respect, about empathy, about just sharing and caring about other people, I tell you, it's instilled and in me. And I try to live by her words, her guidance, every day. Every day. And, yeah, so it definitely is my mom. How about you, Monica?

[24:13] MONICA JOJOLA: Okay, well, I can tell you that, hands down, it's got to be mom and grandma. I mean, you know, I can hear just in Gina's voice the compelling upbringing of her family and her mother, Eva. It's got to be my mother, Gloria, and my grandmother Dora. My grandmother Dora, you know, she lived to be 102 years old from the Pueblo Vizlera. She, you know, and even to 102 years old, I remember with my grandmother, she. She said, you know, I want to be like my mother one day. So when I pass, you know, I want to just go to sleep and have a pleasant departure. And that's exactly the way she wanted to leave our earth. And I was so happy for that that it happened exactly the way she wanted it to. My grandmother taught me how to speak the native language in the Pueblo Veslera. And because of that, I'm fluent in our language. She taught me the culture, the traditions. She taught my mother and my mother's sisters and brothers and cousins and aunties. And so we come from a very long tradition and lifeline of our Pueblo people and my family members in Asletta who have that tradition. I was very happy that I hosted my mother's sisters and brothers and my cousins and nephews and nieces this past Friday on Good Friday. And there was easily 40, 45 of us trying to have lunch at the same time, which is a Lenten luncheon for Good Friday, Friday. But that is my upbringing, and that's probably the best part of me. You know, we get the luxuries of introducing and welcoming and sharing the good word of Montec. But it's my upbringing from the pueblo that really does resonate in me. That probably makes me a really smart business partner and player and a fair and honest, compassionate business owner because of that. My grandmother was a Pueblo potter. She's Dora Jojola from Isleta Pueblo. And she was an entrepreneur long before I even thought about being a business owner. They were living the hard life, you know, if you think about that, they weren't buying thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars of pottery. You know, our Pueblo people had those times where they were selling pottery for what they could get. And I remember being with my grandmother and my grandfather. And this is the best part of it all, is when they would go and do their summer trading, I would go with them. And my grandfather thought, as long as we end the day at best western and a swimming pool, we got it made. And he would do that. He would do that for me. And so think about it. Back then, you know, I mean, I shared with you all how old I am. Best western was probably, what, $25 back then, I don't even know. But as long as we had a swimming pool at the end of the business day, we were happy. Hands down, it's got to be grandmother and mother. My mother, Gloria, who instilled in me champion cheerleader. And I'm very curious to hear Phoebe's story as well. What about you, Phoebe?

[27:09] GINA EUELL: Thank you, Monica and Gina, for sharing that. And, you know, again, hands down, I'm. It's my. It's my grandmother. My. My SATA Osevia. And, you know, every day, you know, you were very lucky, Monica. You had your grandmother, you know, physically with you and present, you know, till she lived to 102 years old. My grandmother's story, I think, continues to resonate with me also is one of the driving purposes behind the work that I do. And unfortunately, in 1990, she died of ovarian cancer. And so I lost her when I was about 13 or 14 years old. I will share, you know, even today, you know, over 30 years later, I still get frogs in my throat and it still brings tears to my eyes. That day, I had to say goodbye to her. But it was that ovarian cancer. And just. Even though she died in her seventies, I think at a relatively young age for my family, I have grandma, her sisters and her brothers, and on my grandpa's side, his brothers and sisters that have lived into their mid nineties and 100 years old and haven't had the honor and the blessing to just go to sleep and pass on to the next world in their sleep. I think for me, my grandmother, who I always said was the grandmother of the grandmothers, your family, Gina probably knows my SATA Osevia because she was so welcoming. She was so graceful. She was so loving. She's, of course, the best tortilla maker that I can remember. Best bread maker in my memory. But I think, for me, I carry her with me and everything I do in the work and how I relate to people, how I relate to the world, how I live our way of life, even in my business, to be respectful to everybody, to treat everybody with respect, to also welcome their gifts, and even some of those, maybe what some people might not say are gifts, but even mistakes that we see along the line. And as I shared, you know, her battle with ovarian cancer, to the day when I remember, the last day I physically saw her, she. She tried to give me a bracelet that her husband, my grandpa, made for her. And I knew what it meant. I knew this was like. And I kept trying to give it back to her. No, no, no. Next time, Tao. Next time she's like, no, you gotta have it. We were, like, doing that little give it back tug of war with the bracelet. And. And I think, you know, her, her battle with Ovarian, which not, you know, now as I want to, you know, share as the work that I do with working with Coach di Pueblo on assessing the impacts of the department of Energy, Los Alamos National Laboratory, on our water, our natural resources. My grandpa had graves disease. Every single family that I can think of with the surnames, you know, like the pecoses, the swenas, the Montoyas, the Corderos, the Herreras, we all have cancer in our family, at least one, if not more. And so that drives, you know, the passion that I have for trying to figure out going, as you shared, Monica, it's a labor of love at times. For me, the work that I do is to help our communities, but also help those future generations navigate these complexities of impact to our communities, our way of life. It's about also, as you shared, language and our survival. The footprint of the department of Energy complex up at Los Alamos is the footprint of our indigenous lands and our cultural and ancestral areas that need to be steward. It's in our blood. It's in our bones. It's our responsibility for our time here on earth. And it's not for me. And I would say even not just for my kids, but the other future generations to come. And so that. That legacy that my grandmother, my thought instilled in me, that's what helps me, and that's one of my biggest influences as I go forward. And I hope I can carry just a little bit of the grace that she taught me and the love she taught me, the compassion she taught me so that I can share it with the world, sharing my kids and share it with the greater community. As I said, it's difficult, challenging to be a Pueblo woman. And as I watched her, you know, live her life, and even as she passed away, she had done it with such grace. And I just hope that I can just emulate that just a little bit. And if I can, that's success for me as well as in my own business. I try to carry that forward. So with that, I think that just dovetails really well into our next question. I think I want to share with maybe Gina what lessons, or do you want to share any additional lessons or other aspects of those influencers in your life? Well, I was thinking about past relationships and the relatives that have gone on and have passed and how lucky I am to have had such strong, wonderful, powerful relatives in my life. And just hearing Phoebe, your story, and Monica, your story, it's just heartwarming. My heart is full. These stories that we share are just. I tell you, it makes me so happy to know that, you know, we've had hardships, yes. But looking forward and just reflecting and remembering those that have shaped us, I tell you that the lessons learned is invaluable. I just absolutely am so blessed to have so many people that have surrounded me growing up, and I wouldn't give that up for the. For any. Anything. Just being able to share my. My story with you. But I. We could just go on and on and on for hours talking about our family. But just the love and the support that they have given me, I think is just going to carry through. And thank you for sharing. I really enjoyed your stories. Okay, so onward to Monica.

[35:24] MONICA JOJOLA: You know, I'll put a few nuggets out there for anyone wanting to become an entrepreneur or a business owner. And I'm thinking and being very compassionate of our native, our native women who are thinking of one day becoming a business owner. The women that I'm speaking with today, Gina and Phoebe, and even myself, always know that good people are always going to open the door for you and take the time and meet with you with a cup of coffee. Extend in olive branch. Extend an invitation to those CEO's, those business owners that you tend to feel are absolutely contributing that would accept your invitation. Go meet with them and go ask them questions. Good people will always respond with, yes, come on in and let's sit down and talk a little bit. They are willing to mentor you with any of those. I think the most important part that I want to share with any female of color regarding entrepreneurship is that there are wonderful free resources out there in North America, don't go hire a $10,000 consultant to go off and get you registered in the eight a program. It's not necessary. There are, like Gina mentioned earlier, chambers of commerces in your states. There is the small business development centers. There is the procurement technical centers. There's the national center of American Indians. And for heaven's sake, we have the US SBA in our good country of us. So go off and seek the US Small business Administration. And if they don't have the answer for you, they're going to recommend the small business development centers. They're all free. As taxpayers, we're paying for those type of services anyway. So let's go off and use them. But again, tap into your resources around you. You know, if you see Gina happen to be running down the street and she's at a conference, take the time and meet with her for five minutes. And Phoebe as well, or please call my desk. That was, that's the most important thing I want to offer, is seek those contacts. Seek. People have been doing exactly what you want to do. Believe me, there is plenty of work out there for all of us. And so we shouldn't feel like we've got to hold on to a master plan. There is no master plan. There's a lot of work out there, and there's a lot of work for all of us. So please meet with one another and engage in one another and don't be afraid about it. Don't let me discourage you from ever becoming an entrepreneur. I want to know about Phoebe, and maybe perhaps this can help us to lead into our conclusion.

[38:00] GINA EUELL: Phoebe, thank you so much, Monica. And I agree with you. There's so much assistance out there. I feel so strongly, too, that again, if you follow your passion, if you follow what makes you know your heart, sing those blessings, those guidance, those good angels, they will come and shine a light on how to walk forward and how to navigate the muddy waters at times, flood waters that come down. That I know I'm navigating out there on some of the work that I do. And so I just, again, just want to encourage to those young ladies, young women, indigenous women. It's not an easy path. I know for my fellow colleagues here, it's not an easy path, but it's one, as they've all shared, is ripe with such blessings and such opportunities and such flexibilities to not only do good work, but also help our, your communities and do what you, you know, aside from work, what makes your heart sink. And so I just one want to thank Monica and Gina just, again, just so honored and blessed to be on the story corps with you all and this interview and discussion. And I'll popcorn it over to Gina. Okay. I did want to make a note that, you know, building relationships and collaborating with other women entrepreneurs, it doesn't matter what shade of color you are, what background you come from. Just encourage each other. I also have that, you know, share your knowledge, your ideas, empower one another and just be there for your sisters. And that is a little nugget that I wanted to just throw out there because we're all here together. We all want to lift each other up. We want to see each other succeeded and just being in the same space with Phoebe and Monica, like I said, my heart is full. So thank you so much.

[40:32] MONICA JOJOLA: Thank you, Gina. Thank you, Phoebe. You all were excellent. I really appreciate your time, guys. Have a great day. Thank you.

[40:40] GINA EUELL: Thank you.