Ferran Poca: "I'm so happy that I don't think about the pay"

Born in Juneda, in Les Garrigues, Ferran Poca, now a businessman and LGBTQ+ rights activist, spent 35 years exactly what people expected him to be: "I worked at La Caixa bank and became a regional manager with many employees under my supervision and a salary higher than I've ever had." But his life took an unexpected turn: "I heard an inner voice telling me that this wasn't what I was meant to do."

"As a young man, I hid my sexual orientation," he explains. In fact, he faced discrimination as a teenager: "The little macho men The people from the village wouldn't let me go during the parties because I was fagot"And he decided to get involved in festival committees.

So, after a very happy period at the bank, he decided to pursue his passion. Poca is the founder of Locamente, the leading promoter of events for the LGBTQ+ community in Spain: "I've come here to create spaces so that no one else has to go through what I went through, being excluded for being effeminate or for dressing a certain way."

"When I told my father I was leaving the bank, he told me to see a psychologist, that I had a cognitive dysfunction problem, and we didn't speak for a year, in a very tense situation," he confesses. And his grandmother, who has been like a mother to him, still tells him he was fine where he was working before, but he's adamant: "I wouldn't change what I do for anything in the world." Poca made the decision after going through a complicated illness: "When I recovered, I rethought what life was: what am I doing here?"

With over 300 events under his belt, Poca owns a company with 25 employees that employs more than 250 people: "We give work to people from the LGBTQ+ community. There are people who wouldn't have found work elsewhere, trans people, people who have dedicated themselves to other professions, or to other jobs."

Furthermore, Poca is the president of the Pride Barcelona organizing committee: "It's not a paid position; on the contrary, I rely on my people, because bringing together half a million people once a year requires an effort that a small organization like Pride can't undertake." Furthermore, the president is thrilled that Barcelona is a candidate city to host World Pride 2030.

"When I worked at the bank, I used to check my paycheck every month, but not anymore. And it's not because I have a huge salary, but because I'm so happy I don't think about pay." In fact, he says he's working harder than ever: "I sleep more than 200 nights a year away from home," traveling for work.

Difficulties during the pandemic

He also suffered financially, especially during the pandemic: "We had made investments, launched new products, taken on a lot of debt, and suddenly, we went from billing X to billing zero." With little money in the account, he acted as guarantor for the company: "It was very hard, I cried a lot and had a lot of anxiety. I felt very responsible," especially for the employees. "141 euros was all I had left to get through the month, and I remember my father giving me money because he knew I needed it," he adds, something Poca appreciated. To solve the problem, the company took out loans: "There are only four or five installments left on the last loan."

In this sense, he maintains that the company must be viewed as a whole: "There are verticals that are doing very well and generating high returns, and others that aren't giving us the return we expect. But we think one thing compensates for the other." In this case, he refers to the Gran Hotel de las Reinas tour: "It's crazy to take 40 people from tour "Throughout Spain, extremely expensive." But he insists he doesn't mind: "It was very unprofitable in its three editions. But we've made history: it's the first tour entirely organized by trans people." drag queensEven the technicians. We're leading the movement. drag "In theaters."

As for housing, he only owns one apartment in Barcelona, which he bought while working at the bank because of the easy financing options: "I'm still paying the mortgage. I won't pay it off early; for me, living has a cost, and I understand that. I won't buy another apartment to rent out; I don't think we should be speculating with housing." "No matter how much money I've made, I've never bought a second home, nor will I. I would put it into the social economy, into growing another company, or I would use it as I always have at Locamente, where we haven't distributed any profits in its eleven-year history. All the money has been reinvested," he concludes.