My name is Srinath and this is an experience report that we did on a project which was actually following a traditional methodology and we applied some agile practices to that. So basically me and Balaji work with a group called the Agile Center of Excellence and we are acting as consultants to different projects and we work across different projects. So if they have issues, they would probably come to our group and based on our experience and learning, we will try and help them to resolve the issues or give them some more insights into what's happening. Typically about our organization, for example, we are from HCL Technologies and a lot of our projects are one through bidding, which means that right at the beginning of the project, there are some commitment made to the client in terms of maybe some free bees, maybe some over commitments in terms of what will the delivery team do. So that's one challenge. The second thing was that we are already carrying a lot of baggage in terms of the processes, in terms of CMMI, in terms of the way the teams are structured, the hierarchy, all that thing that should not be really agile. So we are carrying a lot of that baggage and we are still doing projects which are doing agile. And of course, a lot of change really happens when we get a jolt from the customer. So suddenly there's an escalation, everybody sends out mails, the top shot receives mails and then the delivery teams have to start working on fixing those issues. So that is the background and with that as a background, this is the specific to this project. So it was a project which was typically in the maintenance and enhancements phase, so it's already. So anyway, let me continue till the slide comes up. It was a project in the insurance domain, so the project or the software was actually collecting data from various sources and putting them, creating the indices for the project. Some technical problem. Data from various sources and create an index. So it's basically for using at the London Stock Exchange and various other, it's working out. So the indices used to be calculated as a part of the project. Any issues in the production used to have a lot of issues, I mean the fire used to be raised and there were a lot of issues with the project. And of course, from a team size perspective, we started off with a team size of 15 people, but due to issues in terms of contracts and downsizing by the customer, it came down to three in the beginning of 2012. They realized that there was some issue and the team could not function correctly and then they went up to nine, but the challenge was that a lot of knowledge was lost because they came down from 15 to three and the people who came in after ramping up was the people who had not worked on the project. So there was a lot of issues with the knowledge that was lost and subsequently after we started implementing the practices, the team size went on to 20. In terms of the other challenges, the typical challenges that we have, so on time delivery was the main issue. We used to go to the customers or the stakeholders, ask them questions, but we would never get the answers in time, but yet we were supposed to deliver it on time, so that was a challenge. And sometimes there were so many dependencies that we used to ask a certain question, they never used to get back to us with the correct answers. So one part of it was that they were never there, the other part was that we used to get the answer after a long time, so we never could get the right answer. They were ad hoc delivery requests, so special delivery requests, so suddenly there was an issue and we had to really plan for it and do the delivery. Multitasking was very common and as a result a lot of bugs were raised, the high severity bugs and the issue was that, I mean that was escalated. We reached a state where we were actually banging our head against the wall and all the time we were supposed to ensure that there is good customer satisfaction and the customers at the end of the, on the other side were quite happy with whatever we had delivered. So these are some of the challenges that we had when we went under the project and this is the typical way of working, so the business used to create the JIRA, they used to create the tickets, we used to discuss it with the business users. As a contractual obligation we had to do a high level estimation, the estimation was approved, then it used to go through the detailed analysis, estimation, coding, testing, et cetera and then sometimes we used to get feedback, so it used to go back to the business, let's say the estimate and they would come back to us saying that this is too high, you have to reduce it, so it would come back to the whole loop, go all over again and then we used to lose a lot of time in this process itself and at the same time we had to ensure that there were SLAs were being met and the contractual obligations were being met and we were also supposed to deliver a good quality software at the end of it. So that was the background to the project and then we got into it and I think Balaji will take over in terms of how we went in, what was the retrospections that we did and the challenges that we were able to resolve to some extent. Yeah, due to the customer satisfaction, depletion and a lot of escalation from the customer, they were trying to pull out the project from us and then this is where we, as a center of excellence, we got into the project and then as a part of doing a transformation to the project, we started with one of the agile practices called retrospections to understand what's happening in the project. So we found that the requirement changes were very frequent and any changes to the requirements needed to a scheduled deviation, but still we were all blamed for the scheduled deviation. So that was one issue and Gap in understanding the application and dependencies on the client dev team was one more bigger issue because we were working on the back end software and the dev team was working on the front end or a framework which computes the logic for calculating the indices and the team used to be stressed out, work late hours and then weekends to fulfill the commitments and there was the biggest problem in dealing, getting the response. So we thought, how can we solve this problem? So we, to start with, we thought that the principles and the practices from the lean and Kanban and to achieve a flow could help the project. So we started with the two small practices called visualization and the daily hurdles. So basically the team will gather around the visualization board and then they discussed the issues and the escalations and where they need the clarification and what kind of work has to come. So that was one thing. So initially what we did is like to understand what's happening in the project. We set up the board into four parts rather than one part of to understand what's happening. We wanted to know that what kind of requirements are coming and then since the contractual applications were there, we want to have a better control over this place so that we will take the work only after customer is signed off and acceptance criteria is defined. Then second was the delivery cadence. We want to have a full control over the delivery and since we had a very good knowledge on the application, we thought like we will have a good control and the whatever the tickets which were scheduled to happen were tracked separately and then waiting for clarification and these are the continuous improvement part. We wanted to reduce the pain points over a period of time slowly. So these are the first step we did it. So as a way of working change, we told that every CR should be tracked or the change request should be tracked from this board. We thought this we cannot take any other new requirement. To see where exactly what is happening, we also put this approval pending from the customer side to say that these are the tickets which are pending from your side for approval and we also attacked the variability. There were complex indexes which were broken into small and then we know that what is the complexity of the ticket. Then so this would address one of the retrospection points on the requirements changes frequently in gap and understanding. Until we have a full defined acceptance criteria, we are not going to take the work. That is the one rule which we have set and team didn't or the project manager didn't have any clarity on who is doing what. So we thought that we will have the delivery cadence to with the names assigned on the postage and to see what are all the impediments which the project team is having. So this would help in identifying what are all the CRs which are dependent on the client teams and to address the team stress. That's what it and the blockers. So wherever we are going to slip this schedule, the senior management got into it and then tried to solve the problem. So this is on the continuous improvement part which I will explain later. So what did we find out in the initially was like there were super heroes in the team. They were if a person takes a work, he will be running from one end to the other end of the full life cycle. Too many dependence with the client team, too much of context sitting because of the adopt requirements. And if you see most of the tickets were estimated but not scheduled for development. This was a waste for the customer. We almost found that our resource was spending estimation only two days in a week. So that was a biggest waste. So we try to attack it. So 50 percent of the work was not taken and so that's what one of the things and yeah. So after we understood what is happening in the project, so we wanted since we didn't have much control over this place. So we thought like we will set the improvement on the delivery cadence part. So after that we redesigned the board to have ready for development column so that based on the capacity available. We will push in the records here or this years here to get a clarity on with whom the tickets are pending. We created the client and the HCL and whichever is having a complex complex here. We broke down and then we had an integration column and then the review column and the UIT column the other person started working on it. And later we also realized that lot of work which we have completed was not consumed also. So this was also a waste and if the date misses on deployment date misses then it comes as a rework. So this is more on the solution. And then we also created the ways of working of definition of that. We wanted to establish a full mechanism so that we created at what situation the CRs can be pushed here. Then to measure how long it takes cycle time and lead time. So we measured we had this posted template. So when it started and to find when it ended. So this was the other small thing which we implemented and to identify the blockers and with whom it is lying with whether it is business technical or internally. So we classified the blockers and over a period of time we saw that there was a major improvement in the customer satisfaction also because customers were evaluating the project on these parameters. So initially when we went in escalation management was very bad and then quality of output also was very bad and delivered right first time and non-time delivery. After we had this practice implemented you can see within three months a course went up. Basically it is more of your transparency and then the transparency within the team and you see the throughput also was going up. We were able to finish lot of tickets and then we were able to initial measurement was my cycle time was 8 days and then lead time was 13 days. So that was our initial baseline value and this is the post implementation. If you see over a period of time we were with the project for a year and then we saw that we were able to give the or give the product to the customer 50% earlier than whatever we have to do. So for customer to see the project it was taking 21 days for this year. So now it takes only 12 days and we are able to finish from 13 days to 4.1 days. So that is a drastic improvement from our side and even the time to create the index so the knowledge got improved from 75 days to 15 days and this is the value stream which we did and saw that there was a significant improvement on this time. We managed to reduce this time and then here also we managed to reduce the time. So these are the significant improvements and after the success of this project we saw that this is a very useful method for even the traditional project and we are implemented these practices into a traditional project process so that we have now 9 platinum accounts plus 85 projects and 1400 team members who are having this board. So this was our mantra. So we told specifically the project not to start any work before finishing it. Even though it creates a slack it's okay. So we told that this is very important. So with this any questions we can go back. We tried it but see what happened was if you observe total team has 9 people but we are not able to fit into that total capacity. Means like the team was or the customer was giving more work we are not able to align into the number. So still it is there but customer started sensing it and then he also started using this board. So we're applying we've limit. We need to have what is an agreement from the customer also so that we can plan accordingly. So that's what the so that's what our experience. Provements that you have shown. Yeah it increased in truth. But there was no slack in the team in the beginning. Right? There was no slack in the team. They were slogging. But now if you see the retrospection. These are the retrospection after three months. So these are all the what went well and then we were able to see in the initially three months itself. So this was the achievement where exactly the customer started to see the change was basically the throughput and the these parameters. Monthly governance call where we will tell customer that this is the monthly performance from our team and we'll ask the customer to evaluate the team on this basis. So on this basis how are we doing? Tell me. So if you see there was seven out of seven was of this core. We were almost there. The biggest thing was like after few months people didn't have work here. We were able to finish more work and customer was struggling to give more work. So this this was a good thing in our organization with work well. We wanted to try to run green opera but we don't have that. So Excel only was used. Excel was used to calculate the cycle time. Calculate the cycle time. Even the CFP is also used to generate using the Excel and now they were extending the same Excel. So the people the onset team was in London and we were in India. So we used to give the status of the offshore in this status report and they will update and send it back. So they work late and then they share this. Spanning correct. The workers spending for five days to 20 days not more than that. Very complex was 20 days not more than that. Thank you.


From Soju's radio and television, this is The Army Now. The top chefs from Carol and Humphreys made their way to the final night of competition where they fought for the title of top chef at Camp Carol's Champions Cafe. The competition consisted of three elements, timeliness, presentation, and taste. Points are awarded at the end for the team who best matches the three elements of the top chef. Attendees finished the appetizers and took a quick tour of the kitchen for an up-close look at the chefs in action. Before trying the salad, entree, and dessert later on in the cook-off. I think that each team had its strengths. The team from Humphreys had some fantastic presentation as well as great tasting food. And some of the strengths for Camp Carol were the presentation and the ability to mix the different flavors. Camp Humphreys took the title of top chef, winning three out of the four possible courses. Specialist Jacob Blonic, Camp Carol, Korea. That's The Army Now.


This is Startup Storefront. According to the 2020 UCLA Hollywood Diversity Report, Latinos made up 18% of the population, yet received only 4.6% of movie roles in 2019. To put it simply, even though Latinos make up almost a fifth of the population, there's a massive gap in representation on the silver screen. There is, however, a growing movement within the industry to change that. Today we have the pleasure of talking to a leader of this movement, actress Justina Machado. You might recognize her from her roles in Jane the Virgin, Six Feet Under, or even Dancing with the Stars. In this episode, we discuss why she didn't call herself an actress until she moved to LA, why she didn't feel financially stable until she was 40, and the outrage the Latino community felt when James Franco was cast as Fidel Castro. And thank you to Cat Footwear for sponsoring this episode. They're a premier shoe company that empowers builders and doers to reframe the world to create something more meaningful. Right on set. We are rolling in three, two, one. Welcome to the podcast on Today Show. We're talking to Justina Machado. Thank you for joining. You're welcome. Thank you for having me. For the small amount of people who don't know who you are. Yeah. How do you introduce yourself? What do you do? I'm an actress. That's all I ever say. Yeah. That's a good way. Yeah. What made you want to first get into it? What made you want to get into the world of acting? I don't know. I just kind of fell into it, to be honest. I mean, I was in Chicago and I was, I'm born and raised in Chicago. And I was working at a bank. I had just graduated from high school.  My best friend's mother, who unfortunately just passed away a couple weeks ago, was an agent and called me. She was the first Latina agent in Chicago. It was called Salazar in Navas. And her name was Mirna Salazar. And she called me up one day and she said there's a play at Latino Chicago Theater. They're looking for a young Puerto Rican girl that's 16 years old. I know that you're not an actress, but I think you have great stage presence.  I went and I never stopped. What do you think she saw in you? Well, I was personality. I mean, for a lot of two minutes together. I see it. I was also a dancer. So she would see me dance back in the day. Yeah. So it was that. But then you do it. Then you did it. You did the role. I did it. I did the role. 16, you're having an existential, I was 18.  Come on. Don't we all, when you graduate from high school, you get, and then when your parents don't have money, like I didn't grow up with any money. So it's like there was no money to go to school. You know, they didn't know anything about loans, you know, like, like me growing up was literally working class and, you know, I'm first generation. My parents are from Puerto Rico.  They were obsessed with buying property. That's a good tip. That's a good tip, but they didn't care about school. You should care about school a little bit. It should go hand in hand. It should go hand in hand. It worked out for you. So I'm just saying, maybe not so much. Exactly, it worked out. Prior to that. So yeah, I was having a crisis. Absolutely. So then you do the role, you love it. You fall in love and then does she say, okay, cool, let's start casting you into all these things? Or maybe you don't love it. Well, the theater, the theater does that. So the theater, the artistic director, his name is Juan Ramirez, and he was like my mentor. How big is this community of Latinos in Chicago at this time? Oh my God, it was huge. In the acting theater. Oh, I don't know, because I kind of stayed in a bubble at the Latino Chicago Theater. And then I started to go out of the bubble, but he just kept inviting me to be in other plays. And I remember he would say, do you think you're an actress now? Because I thought it was so weird. I was like, you don't say you're an actor. I thought that was so out of corny, you know what I mean? Because in my world, nobody was an actor. And everybody would be like, oh yeah, right, you're an actor. I mean, I grew up in the inner city of Chicago. So it was like a joke. So I didn't start calling myself an actor until I left Chicago and I moved to New York. And did you do like trainings or workshops, acting sessions? I just did play after play after play at the Latino Chicago Theater. And you had it? You didn't have any fear? You were just like on it? I've never really had a lot of fear. Rehearsing lines, all that stuff, memorizing lines. I'm sweating just thinking about it. But I couldn't do what you do. See, that's the thing. What do I? Talk to people?  A real estate developer? Exactly. I mean, I couldn't do that. I'm pleased. I've been trying to buy a house forever.  Don't buy your home, buy your office, buy your studio. That's the move. See, look at that. See how you think like that? The best in property. You know? Exactly. Like this, this is our studio. So there you go. See, I don't think like that. All right, so then at some point, this becomes real to you and your friends and your family. And then you get, what's the first show? What's the thing? Do you move to LA? Are you still in Chicago? I moved to New York. I never came. I didn't come to LA. I went to New York first. And then I got a job from New York. And then I came to LA. So I was a pilot. You guys know what a pilot is, right? Of course, yeah. No, no, I don't know. I thought you said I was a pilot. And I was like, what? I lost something. It was a pilot. That's the first time I came to LA. So you didn't go to, so you went to New York then because of your theater background in New York? Because I wanted to be a Broadway star. That's what I wanted to do. I want, because I sing and I dance and I wanted to do that. Yeah. So I mean, of course I wanted to do film, but I never thought about television. I just thought New York. I'm from Chicago. The next thing is New York. Los Angeles I didn't like.  Nobody walked. It was crazy. I didn't know what was going on. People were crossing in the middle of the street. Like, you know, there's no public transportation. So I was, I was intimidated by Los Angeles. When you moved to New York, did you move with family? No, by myself. By yourself? Yeah. On the Lower East Side. Second, in 1994, on second between B and C. Oh my goodness. And it was bad back then. It was real bad. Yeah. So then what happened? You're in New York. So then I got- You do a pilot. It worked out? Yeah, I did a play in New York and then I did a bunch of jobs and commercials and then I got the pilot in LA and then I came out to LA and I never left. What was the move to LA like? Well, thank God, two of my best friends were already here from Chicago. So I lived with them on Lanewood, right by the Chinese theater. So you all lived together. Yeah. The three of us, we slept in one bed. Three girls. That's hilarious. Yeah, we had a one bedroom. I still do that, by the way. That's hilarious. Yes, yes. This is like every startup. So the first company I started was three guys in one bedroom. Really? Yeah. We had a big mattress in the living room. That was like our office. All the computers were there. And then I had the luxury, I had my own room. But it was just the mattress on the floor. I mean, it was bad. We shared the same car, too. And it smelled like dudes. It was like, nah, these guys weren't too clean. Right. Well, my girls were clean. Did you have to coordinate your auditions, then, if you're sharing the same car? It was my friend Laura's car. So we had to do whatever Laura wanted to do. So, you know, we had to wait an hour. We waited an hour for Laura to pick us up. But yeah, it was a stick shift. And it was a pain in LA. And it was like a pickup truck. And that was embarrassing when you're young. Are you still friends with them? Yeah, Laura and Margie, absolutely. Are they in where are they now? Well, Laura got, we were literally here five months and Laura got ER and was on ER for 15 years. Oh, wow. And Margie moved back to Chicago. Yeah. This game is hard, though, right? Yes, it is. OK. Let's talk about the hard parts of like auditioning or just the things that, right? Because it's a success story today. But in the moment, you're taking, you're going to New York. That must have been crazy. I loved it. Latino communities are tight.  Then you go to LA, right? Same thing, right? You're dealing with all these fears, anxieties. Or maybe not. Maybe you're just like, so you just had it. But they never go away, fear and anxiety, right? True. It doesn't go away. And also, you just, more than talent in this business, you just have to have perseverance and you have to really believe in yourself. And you have to. I always said, Hollywood can't do anything that wasn't happened, that didn't happen to me in the streets of Chicago. You know what I mean? I was pretty tough growing up in Chicago. So it's just, yeah, kind of. And I also went to six different schools by the time I was 10. So I was used to being the, you know, I'm sure I have a lot of PTSD about it. That perpetual change. I heard I have a lot of PTSD. Yeah, I kind of had school of the hard knocks, yeah. So what's your first role in LA? What was the thing that hit? My first was a show called, the pilot called Second Noah. And it was with James Marsden, actually. We played brother and sister. We were both adopted. But then the pilot got picked up and I got fired from the pilot. So I had never experienced anything like that. Does that happen? Yeah, oh yeah. Recast. You get, you get recast. That happened. So I got fired from when it went to series. I got fired and I remember I got recast. I guess I should say that. And that was super devastating, but I just kept going. I just kept going. That's a roller coaster.  I'm riding this wave. And then the next thing you know, you're not in, you're not on the cart. And you have to see it, you know what I mean? Because it stayed on the air for two years. And then after that, I was really stressed out, thinking the next thing after that was, I did a movie with Sean Penn called, She's So Lovely. What is that like? Well, that was, I was terrified I was going to get fired. Because after that, you're like, oh god, I'm going to get fired from everything. I was terrified. And it was like late at night. I don't mean to laugh. I just think it's funny. No, it's funny. I'd be crying otherwise. I do remember that. It was 19, like in the 95, I think. And it was shooting downtown. And I remember when I went there, this happened to me a lot when I first got here. Like they always thought I was a background artist. Back then they called them extras. So they never, they were always shocked that I actually had a speaking role. Why is that? Because I was Latina. So they were like, and even that day, when I went, there were all this, all these background artists. And I kept trying to talk to the AD and say, hi, where do I go? Where do, and she's like, sit there, sit there. And I'm like, wait, but I'm not. Shouldn't I have a trailer? And that happened to me a lot. Is it better now? I mean, because they know who I am. I mean, is it better? It's better. It's not as good as it should be. I mean, what Latino shows do you see on the air? You don't, what Latino families do you see on the air? Why do you think that is? Like when you, from your perspective, as someone in sort of in the game, why do you, I'm sure it's complicated, but just like... It's complicated. And I think that one of the things that people have to start, and not on this podcast, of course, because I'm here, but when people call me from certain news outlets and want to talk about it, they need to start asking the studios that question, not the actors that question. They just don't think we're viable. They just don't, they're not, they're not scared of us either because we don't make enough noise. And also... You mean like by viewership, by... Well, we buy the most tickets, Latinos, movie tickets. You know, we consume so much media. And yet we're not out there. Another thing that happens is that, and, you know, this can go deep about how, you know, as a Latino people were... I just did a special about this on MSNBC. I just did a special called The Culture of Latina. I've never heard of that. I just did the special with, and it was an amazing roundtable of all these women. And one of the things I said is that Latinos are not a monolith, you know? Yet there's something inherently Latino about every single one of us. And I think there's a lot of infighting, you know?  Like when I did One Day to Time, there were people, there were Cubans mad that I was playing, you know, some Cubans, not all. I got a lot of love, you know? But there were some that were upset.  It's like we're cutting each other off. And so I think that happens. And also, yeah, that's their excuse, the studios and the networks and all the good stuff. It's totally true. There's a perspective that I like about... So when I watch like Drink Champs or Puff Daddy or all these people, whenever they talk about what they own, they say we own it. And they're talking about we as a collective community. And you don't see this in the Latin community in any capacity. And it makes me sad. It makes me real sad, too. When I bring people to our breweries or the things we own, I'm like, this is ours. Like we own this. But even like I still see people's faces, like they don't really under... Like, what's he doing? Is he trying to trick me? Is he trying to make me feel some kind of way? And I'm like, no, like I just want people to just say like, by virtue of me looking like you, or by virtue of, like in your case, people can watch and see you. And so by virtue of the person watching and looking like you, it's an us thing, though. I agree. That's the thing I'll put out there. We don't, we gotta break that. We don't have it. No, we don't. But you know, I think a lot of us are trying to break it and talk about it and put it out there. It's just gonna take a minute, I guess. What's your thing with like... So James Franco gets all this heat for getting that lead role. Is that a huge issue? John Leguizamo goes out.  Why is James Franco playing Castro?  You know what I mean? Right, right. Like, not for me.   Look at what he did to his country. Look at that island. Look at these people. I mean, that man was a monster, you know? So it's not like, yeah, I want to play Castro. But at the same time, it's like, why James Franco? If there were even playing ground for all of us that we could do those things, then I'd be okay with it. But we can't. So not that we can't. They don't allow it to happen. So it's ridiculous that James Franco is playing Castro. It's ridiculous. He even said yes to that, you know? So I thought he was done after the whole, like, oh, that thing. I thought he was canceled. Yeah, yeah. Well, apparently not, because he's playing Castro. Yeah, right. I mean, he and Seth Rogen are splitting. I mean, they're. Yeah, I love that Seth Rogen. I'm going to work with him. But I just follow him. I think he's a great guy all around. Yeah, he does actually. Super smart, too. He is. He knows what he's doing.  But then I'm like, wow, he could bang her, bang her, bang her. His energy is on a different thing. Yeah, so I'm totally against that James Franco casting. I think it's sad. I think it's really sad. Who would you have wanted to see in that role? Oh, I don't even know. But I know that there's wonderful Latino actors. You know what I mean? I don't know who the right person is.  Yeah, he does look like him. But we don't know how to make somebody look like somebody. I didn't even know Jared Leto wasn't Batman. I was like, that was him? He played the penguin for like a second. I actually did not know that was called this moment. Yes, he did the new one. He was like the penguin. That was Colin Farrell. Oh, that's what I meant. Oh, shoot, sorry. Jared Leto was in House of Gucci. And I didn't recognize him. So, oh, that's right. He was so good in House of Gucci. I did not recognize him for half a minute. That was a great character. So don't tell me you can't do it, you know? It's just, so they're going to give you all these excuses because, you know, they're going to, they probably needed him to green light the movie. That's probably what happened. But that has to change already.  You're probably right. When you were on, just go back to Sean Penn. Sure. So I was watching the actor's guild, Tom Cruise is on there, and Tom has this thing where he learned it from some of the, somebody he played with early on, where it's like everyone on set just calls each other by their character name. Yeah. Is that a thing? Is that a real thing? That's so very fun. That's so funny that that's hilarious because Nick, Nick Cassavetes was the director of that. And I was, we were rehearsing, and Sean Penn didn't talk to me, but he came up to the, to the whatever, the ticket thing that where I was supposed to be selling him tickets. And he's like, what's your name? And I was like, Justina Machado. And then the director goes, no, Justina, not your real name, your characters. And I was like, well, I didn't know that. I didn't know he was improving. He didn't so, yes, so he started to improv. But it stayed in the movie. You know, so I just jumped on it and named myself because I always wanted to be named Carmen Rodriguez. I think that's such a beautiful name. It's a very Puerto Rican name. You know it. I grew up in Springfield. Most of the Latinos in Springfield, Massachusetts, were all Puerto Ricans. Oh my God, really? So I just grew up like, like my best friend is named Alan Rodriguez. Right, Rodriguez is such a Puerto Rican name. Yeah. And so I was immersed in that culture. People thought I was Puerto Rican. Because there's no, there's no other Latino in Massachusetts that I moved to L.A. Everyone's calling me Mexican. And I'm like, I'll be all of it. I don't know. I'll be all of it. I'm here for it. Yeah. If I'm in Portugal, people go, oh, he's Portuguese. I'm in Spain. I'm Spanish. I'm like, whatever. Right. Call me whatever you want. We'll go with it. After that movie, what was the next thing? Oh God, that was such a long time ago. I think it might have been NYPD Blue, like for two seconds, like a two second role. And are you comfortable in terms of like, from a money-making perspective? Or is it always like, you make it, then you're terrified and then like, with money? Just in terms of acting, like, do you ever feel stable? Or is it a constant game of? It's a constant. I feel a lot more stable now. Yeah. But I mean, I think I've been stable, but it took a long time to feel that way. How long? Also, oh my God, probably I didn't feel stable till I was like 40. That was a long time. And I started doing it when I was 18.  And I'm just, and I've just learned how to deal with money, you know, because when you don't grow up with it, you don't know what to do with it.  How did you go about navigating like? Well, I had a business manager that I actually got a lien put on me when I was with him. So I was like, that's not the right business manager. Right, right. I was gonna say, that's a lot of trust right there. And then I, you know, and then I have a great guy now that made me do a lot of stuff that I didn't know about, you know. So, and now I ask questions because I think I was just embarrassed. So I didn't ask the questions. And now I ask the questions. Yeah. So now you feel stable and now you're good. I do feel stable. Now I'm, I'm good.  Those phone calls, like, it's my money. And I get nervous about talking about it, you know, or with the guy that, that invests. I get nervous about it. And I still have that. So what do you invest in?  That's all I know. What's safe? What's safe in today's world? Oh my gosh, I don't want to talk about this. You're making me nervous. I'm busy. Cause like, what's safe in today's world? Index funds, COVID, COVID vaccines. Well, by the way, hello. Not dogecoin. What's that? You're not in crypto. Well, it's so funny because my girlfriend was trying to get us all to do that NFT. Is that still happening? Is that still popular? It's crypto winter. I would avoid that. It's okay. That's what I thought.  Sorry. It was like, I was like, what? That's a lot of money. What? 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He and his partners, they've designed my dress for the Critics Choice Award for my MSNBC special, three Latinos, and I think they're going to make something for me because Norman Lear's 100th birthday celebration is September 8th. How long did you live with Norman? For five years. So maybe you can answer a question for me that I've always had. When you wear a dress on like a red carpet and like, you know, people ask who you've always had this question. That should be enough for you to worry. I'm curious about like the bump because like you hear, you get the question like, who are you wearing?  My brother's got lined. And so like your brother can tell you like, Oh, we got X amount of business from this or like, so I was curious if you had delved into when I say it at this red carpet, it gets more recognition or publicity than when I say it at that red carpet. Oh, like, I mean, no, not really. Because I'm not, I don't even like, you don't follow it. I just have to have it because of what I do. You know what I mean? Right. I'm not very good at it because you should really post a lot to have people always. I think my last post was like a month ago, you know? And so no, I don't really follow that. I don't know how to do that.  No, because I'm from a different era, you know, like where it wasn't, it didn't matter how many followers you had. That's never affected me. Like I know it affects the younger actors. That's what I've heard, like the really, really young actors. But that's not my world, you know? So I don't even let it creep into my mind because it's like, that'll drive you crazy. Like I heard my daughter on one day at a time, she'd be like, oh my God, this, you know, this girl has a million followers. And it's like, have you ever seen Black Mirror? Did you see that episode of The Followers? Oh, it is now. Oh my God, you got to see that show. It's so great. It's a great show. It's a great show. I just, I don't care, man. There's too much to care about. I'll drive myself crazy. And the studios from your perspective, they don't care either based on you. Not for me. Because you have the talent. Right. I already know you. But they would, I think, for some people. For the younger generation, yeah. I think it's important for the younger generation. I mean, look at all the people that do the movies, but then I don't think the movies do that well. I got to be honest.  How was your time on that show? It was, it was a lot of work. Heather and I were talking about that. It was a lot of work. It seems like a boot camp. Like it seems like these people are working out a lot. I mean, they're getting injured. Yeah. I'm like, what is happening with these injured? How bad is this thing?  Every. That's too much. Yes, I know. I figured that out. I was like, this is crazy. Is it like the show making you? Or is it like your partner, the person you're paired with, just wants to get this so dialed in? It's the dancers. It's the dancers. Yeah. Because the show always says to you, this is what the show says. And by the way, I love Deena Katz. I love everybody over there. They were really wonderful during a time where the pandemic had just started. And, you know, I was super depressed.  Why? Because Hollywood stopped or what? Everything. I mean, it wasn't even so much work. It was like, what was going on? The one day I was on the talk, doing the talk, the next day I was like buying a Peloton. Like the rest of the world. That's funny. Yeah. That's funny. And so literally, I was like, what's happening? So when they asked me to do it, I said, yes, I'd rather be doing that every day than lying in my bed. And I was really depressed. And so, but the show says, you can dance as much as you want to dance, rehearse as you. But you know, you get in there and you want to win. So you say, yeah, yeah, yeah. And the dancers really want to win. So yeah, there was a lot of dancing.  How many hours a day do they put you guys through? Well, the good thing is that because it was the beginning of COVID, we couldn't just do anything. They had to like, we could only do three hours or four hours a day. Only three? Yeah. Oh my god, these dancers would do before COVID did like seven, eight. They could do however long they wanted. How old are these people? I know. By the way, Nellie and I were like the oldest ones. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Oh my god. Then we made it to the finale, myself and Nellie. He won, right? No, no. Bachelorette. Oh, OK. Caitlin Bristow, yeah, she won. And then the catfish guy was second. I forget his name. Ned? Yeah, yeah, yeah, he was great. He was a good guy. And then Nellie was third and then I was fourth. What did you notice career-wise after the show? That a lot of people watch it. A lot of people watch it. Yeah, yeah. It's a juggernaut. I had this one person tell me something which I thought, I don't know how to respond to this.  I'm like, OK, I don't know what to say. So is her racism cured? Did I change her? Yeah, right. Did I change the lady? I think you changed her. I think you solved racism by dancing with the stars. That's the answer, everyone. It actually, it does a lot for you, to be honest. It really does a lot for you. You wouldn't think it does, but you know. Especially if you make it deep. Yeah. Especially if you make it as far as I think. I mean, Mario Lopez, it seemed like he was resurrected. Oh, yeah. Now, complete. Complete. I love that guy. He's a great guy. He's a great guy. I loved him then. I love him more now. But it's like that show really took him to a place that he was everywhere all of a sudden. Everywhere. And that's what happened. And I think it's nice if you dance well. Yeah, and he was a great dancer, Mario. I think it's basically a show for Latinos, to be honest. He put a Latino in that show. They're going to do well. There's not that many Latinos. They need more Latinos. And you know what else they need. And I say this. They love doing the rumba, the salsa, cha-cha-cha. Where's the Latino dancer? Exactly. Where is your, like, you need to bring that in, you know? And I've said that before, because that's, they love the Latin dances. It looks good on TV. Yeah, exactly. It's sexy. So what happened after dancing with the stars? I don't know what happened after dancing with the stars. I can't remember. It doesn't it feel like it's been 10 years from 2020 to 2022? It does. It does, yeah. I don't know what happened. I just started working, and I did a couple movies. And then I did the pilot for the horror of Dolores Roach last year for Amazon and Blumhouse.  And then that's what I've just finished shooting it on Saturday. Give people a sneak peek. What is it? Oh, God. It's just I'm really bad at explaining it right now. But it's like a crime thriller. Well, it's funny. It's like a new genre.  Yeah, great show. So that's such a great show. So she's in jail for 16 years after selling weed. She gets set up by her boyfriend. And she comes out. Washington Heights is completely gentrified. She doesn't know anybody. She walks into this empanadas shop. And the same kid that had a crush on her when he was like 13 is running it.  And she starts killing people. And he starts making empanadas out of it. I'm making it. But you guys really fought. OK, now I'm getting the Sweeney Todd reference. That's what it is. So it's so funny. It's so funny. And it's dark. And it's crazy. Yeah. And it's like a stoner comedy also. Because I did. I read it right away. And I thought. I could kill people. No. I just thought that when have you seen a woman of color have that kind of role? It's always a white man. Not even a white woman. It's always like, you know. The serial killer is always like. Yeah, Walter.  I loved breaking bad. You know, Dexter. And I just thought how exciting to be that person. To have that opportunity. To do it. You know. Do you ever have a dream project? Maybe as a writer, producer yourself? Or a dream role maybe? It's funny. Because people ask me that. And I don't know. I don't think I have a dream role. I think that I've been really lucky, you know, 20. Well, I shouldn't say lucky. Because I worked hard. But like 20 years or more than 20 years ago, I got six feet under. And that was that revolutionized television. And then, you know, I got to play this fabulous character, Penelope Alvarez, on One Day to Time with Rita Moreno. And that was. And then this, I think, is going to be something. So I think that I think I've, you know, I've always been really picky about what I do, even when I didn't have any money. I didn't want to do stuff that was a stereotype. I didn't. Unless. Unless. Because stereotypes do exist sometimes. Unless it's layered. And unless the person is doing something, you know. I don't want to just be Lupe, you know. Right. Yeah. Lupe the housekeeper. You know it. Lupe the housekeeper. She cleans the house pretty well. She's saying you ought to go like, how'd you do it? You know, I didn't want to just do that. That's what I loved about I Love Lucy. Oh, God, I loved I Love Lucy. Because it was like a woman and a Cuban guy. Yeah. And like that, that to me at the time was like, imagine. Right? Right. Like people are like, I don't know. I think they miss it. I think they don't understand when they're watching it. You know, I think now today it's like, holy crap, how progressive was that. But that show was bananas. Have you seen the documentary? They have so many great documentaries on it on Amazon. They really do. And it talks, you know, the Desi Arnaz is the one that invented four cameras for the sitcom. That was Desi Arnaz. He also had the, what was it, the residuals. He more or less invented like residuals. Yeah. So Desi Arnaz. What does that mean? What does four cameras mean? Well, okay. So when you do a sitcom, they used to be film. It's not film anymore. They have four cameras because you're on, it's flat.  You know, you have the audience and then you're here. So in order for them to get every angle, they have four cameras. And Desi Arnaz is the one. So before that, nobody did that. So before that, nobody did that. It was his idea. See, we need eight cameras in the podcast, you know. We need to be the first one to have eight cameras. It was his idea. That's amazing. We're going to have every angle imaginable. Well, so, and with the residuals, Desi did it as a result of Lucy being pregnant. And so they couldn't go on the air anymore. And so he was like, reruns. That's what it was. Yeah, thank you, reruns. And so because she was pregnant and couldn't go on the air anymore, he was like, well, I have been sitting on this footage. I own it. Not the studio. They owned it. So what they did was like, they were like, well, let's replay it. And at the time, no one knew. That sounds like a bad idea. At the time, no one had done that before. Will people tune in for this? And it was such a hit. And so he kind of rewrote how the industry operated after that with the ability of rerunning IP that they had already invented. I love that show. I'll still watch that show. You used to watch that before. I went to bed every night. That was such a good show.  Because I think she plays all the stereotypes. But then it's the ultimate success story. It's the ultimate moving to America, single parent. I was watching Care Bears while she was cleaning a motel. And then how she got a job. And then at that time, the American Dream was like, your kids go to college. And then it's us graduating college and where we are today. But really, her fighting through all these hurdles, I want to make that movie. It's a great story, man. Those stories are always great. And they never... And there's plenty of that, for sure. The human condition. But it's awesome. Everybody loves to see that. You want to play my mom? Sure. Done. We inked it. We inked it. That was too easy. I got to get the marijuana accent. From your view in the world of Hollywood, what do you think Latinos need to either be successful, maybe get to get... Like, how do we change the thing? The thing that's a problem today? We just keep talking about it. We just keep getting people in positions that are more powerful, you know? We have... I mean, my old boss, she's one of the best. Gloria Calderonquelet.  Eva Longoria, America Ferrera. I can go on.  So we just keep doing that. And that's all I could really say. It's a constant fight. It's a constant fight. And I think what I like about the younger generation that's here now is that they're not scared, you know? Like, when I was working...  And now, because of social media, because of so many movements, that doesn't really happen. So I do like that everybody is really talking about it. And that's the way it changes, you know? But we also have to support. Like, I have so many friends that say... I feel like this is where it drops off.  And I said, let me ask you something. Wait, what show? What show? How come Latinos... Oh, I don't know what to say because all my friends have been... I mean, all my friends are on all the shows, you know, the Latino shows. And I... But the thing is, is that why can't we...  Why does ours have to be so incredible? Let's, you know, let's... Just make it basic. Let's start somewhere and build. But let's support it. And then there'll be another. And then there'll be another. And then, you know, like, one day at a time, that was brilliant. I mean, it was not just because I was on it. It was like a brilliant show, you know? Look at Goldita Chronicles. That got rave reviews and it got canceled. HBO decided that they weren't going to do family programming anymore. So, Goldita Chronicles just got canceled. Baker and the Beauty was... One season got canceled. You know, it's just... I mean, I'm glad that Rosalind's show is doing great. Fantasy Island. Fantasy Island, I've watched that one. Yeah, it's... I always loved Fantasy Island. You never saw the reruns of Fantasy Island with Ricardo Montalban? Montalban and... He's like, taboo. He's like, they're playing! They're playing! Yes. Old show. It's old. It's from the 70s and 80s, yeah. I used to watch that and the Love Boat and all like, it was like a lineup. Fantasy Island and the Love Boat. I think from my perspective, we had Avenida's productions in here and the thing they're doing, they're creating like this almost like an incubator where they're providing funds for scriptwriters. Yes, a lot of people are doing that. Yeah. And they also built out their own studio and so it's like they have a bodega and they have all the things in like a studio that... I don't know who they are. Avenida productions. They're pretty close. We had them on the podcast. We connect to you after this. I would love to know who they are, yeah. They're also starting this like, streaming service aimed at Latino shows and programming. I would love to know who they are. That's awesome. Yeah. And so we, you know, but it's like, okay, you have that part. But when we talked to them, the whole thing was like, we need people to tune in though. We need the Latinos to vote with their eyeballs. And that's the thing. That's not the only thing, but that's how they viewed it. But it is a big thing. They're right. But it's not the only thing, you know, because they also have to give shows an opportunity. Another thing that happens is that the studios don't put any money into marketing. They put no money into it. Right, they'll do all the rest of it. Yeah.  Well, of course it failed.  Or if it was an ABC show, then you'd be on whatever late night show was that show. They're not even doing that. Right. So then does it become prescient to use your social media platform? Yes, no, but that's true. But let's see, but me, it's not, that's not going to happen because I'm not going to do it. You know what I mean? So even though you know, like, is it because like, you just don't want to touch it? It's because I'm not good at it, man. Because I'm not good at it. Hire somebody. Just hire someone to do it. That's true. But then I'm a control freak, you know? Yeah. And I'll be like, I'll be a micro, you know, micromanaging stuff. So no, I think that, of course, yes, it comes down to us. But also I'm working for Blum House in Amazon and, you know, they're two powerhouses. So I'm sure that, you know, that they're going to do it. And I'll do my part, of course. Are there a lot of Latino executives, like in those leadership positions? No. No, that's probably problem one. Exactly. Yeah. It's all of those. Those are all the problems. Yeah. Well, listen, we heard it's your birthday coming up. Yes, it is. Yeah. September 6th. Yeah, you know it. We got you a little bit. Jake, come here. We had to do it to you. So happy birthday to you from the podcast, from our listeners, from Cat Footwear. Thank you. You're very welcome. Oh my goodness. Thank you for coming on the podcast. I'm going to make a wish, guys. Hold on. Please do. Please do. It's for the movie. We'll check in with you later to see if it came true. Yeah, I know, right? I hope it does. Thank you, Justina. Yeah, thank you so much for coming on the show. Thank you. Happy birthday. Thank you. If you made it this far, I bet you loved the episode. So, you should join our YouTube channel membership for only $2.99 a month. This gets you access to one, the whole unabridged conversation. Two, you get the episodes on Monday, one day earlier. Three, you get two additional entries to our giveaways. Check out our Instagram to see what we've given away. And four, you get access to seasons one through three. That's over 100 episodes of wisdom and life-changing advice. What are you waiting for? Join.