E14 Unveiling Authenticity: Navigating Workplace Identity with Embrace the Power of You

Tricia Montalvo-Tim, a Latina board director, venture investor, motivational speaker, and author, discusses her book "Embracing the Power of You, Owning Your Identity at Work." She shares her personal journey of suppressing her true self in the workplace and the impact it had on her success. Tricia offers strategies and tools for individuals to authentically show up in the workplace and managers to create inclusive environments. She emphasizes the importance of self-acceptance and belonging and aims to provide support for Latinx individuals who may feel alone in their experiences. Tricia also acknowledges the positive shift in organizations towards supporting diverse groups and creating spaces for camaraderie and support. Welcome to CoachingOm Presents Podcast, a part of the ECS Network. I'm your host, Laura Perez-Ehrhart. I'm the CEO of Epiphany Consulting Solutions, a senior management consultant and executive coach. My guest is Tricia Montalvo-Tim. Tricia is a pioneering Latina board director, venture investor, motivational speaker and now author. She's dedicated to motivating individuals who've experienced being, quote unquote, another in professional settings. In early 2023, Tricia wrote and published her book, Embracing the Power of You, Owning Your Identity at Work. If you've ever suppressed your true self in the quest for belonging, Embrace the Power of You is a compelling read. Tim's personal odyssey towards self-acceptance offers profound insight into the root causes of workplace alienation and invisibility. Having experienced the fear and shame associated with concealing one's identity, Tim guides readers through overcoming these emotions incrementally, drawing from her own narrative and the experiences of other accomplished executives. She presents potential strategies and practical tools throughout her book for anyone seeking to authentically show up in the workplace. So, Trish, I'm just going to dive right into this conversation. I'm really excited to hear about your book, Embrace the Power of You, Owning Your Identity at Work. Well, first of all, thank you, Laura, for having me on the podcast. I'm excited to be here and tell you a little bit about me, my journey and how this book got into the world. So professionally, you know, I've been working as a corporate lawyer in Silicon Valley for 25 years. If you look at my resume, there's lots of wonderful positions and it looks like it may have been an easy ride, but there's a lot of there were a lot of challenges and barriers that I faced along the way. But I've had a phenomenal career with my last role being as general counsel of a company called Looker, which we sold to Google for $2.6 billion and a really phenomenal exit. Currently, I'm a board director at a company called Falsify, an investor and now an author. But on the personal side, I'm a first generation Latina born in Los Angeles to two immigrant parents. My mother's from El Salvador and my father is from Ecuador, and they are typical immigrant parents. They wanted the American dream for their family, their daughters. And when I was turning around five years old, starting kindergarten, they knew that they needed to take me out of the city, we lived in L.A., into a place where I might have more opportunity, more educational opportunities. So we moved into an accompanying suburb that all of a sudden I found myself and our family as one of the few Latino families in a predominantly white community. And I went to Catholic school through elementary school and high school, and they wanted me to succeed. And they both had thick Spanish accents, they suffered from discrimination, and so they believed in that generation, many believed that assimilation was the path to success. And so they encouraged me to assimilate, blend in, not really talk about where we were from because we were such outsiders in the community we were in. And so I learned that message early on, sat in spaces where I heard derogatory comments about Latinos, especially being in California near the Mexican border. And so that was sort of kind of the foundation of sort of my thinking about what it meant to be Latino in this country. So I forged ahead and graduated high school, college, and eventually went to law school, really with that mindset of just that is a part of me that doesn't come to the workplace. Spent, you know, like I said, over two decades in the workplace, really downplaying my ethnicity and downplaying being a working mother, being in a, you know, only woman in the predominantly male space. And eventually that took its toll. I went on my own sort of, I would say, transformational journey in figuring out who I am, what my purpose is in this world, and came to the realization that I really needed to show up more authentically. And when I did that is when I really achieved great success. And so I decided that my story needed to be told, that there were so few Latinas that made it to leadership, that I also wanted to be that role model that I never saw coming up through the ranks. And so that kind of is how I decided to write the book. The book isn't just for Latina women, right? It's for anyone coming to terms with their personal identity. How does your book help individuals work through it? Yeah, no, you're exactly right. The book, the ideal reader for the book is anyone who feels like an other, so somebody who is downplaying any part of their identity, hiding pieces of who they are in order to fit in, but may not realize that really bringing their whole authentic self to the workplace is where they'll achieve the most success. And I use my story, the stories of others, data research to basically, like, I hold their hand through this journey where I believe that belonging begins with self-acceptance. And so it's the journey to self-acceptance. And there's lots of tools and strategies of how to manage things like negative self-talk and other things that might hinder us from really showing up authentically in the workplace. But a secondary reader for the book is a manager or a leader who wants to create an inclusive workplace, but doesn't, you know, maybe have the practical tools to do that. And so at the end of each chapter, I've got some strategies for those managers of how they can, you know, build empathy as they hear my story and other stories, what it feels like to be another. Because oftentimes if you're not another, you don't really get you don't understand why showing up authentically is hard, you know, because you're like, I've always done it. And so so it's the goal is to hopefully build empathy for those leaders so they can understand and create spaces that create psychological safety for those of us that feel othered to walk into those spaces authentically. Early on in our conversation, even before the show, you talked about and you just mentioned that showing up authentically, what does that mean? Early on, and many people still do this, I think we think of ourselves as two personas. There's the professional persona and the personal persona. And we separate those two, right? At work, we don't talk about our ethnicity, our religion, our learning difference, our grief. We we keep those things hidden, thinking we, you know, maybe it's not welcome in the workplace or maybe people will judge me or maybe I won't accelerate in my career. But what I've learned is that we are multidimensional people. That part of ourselves, those things that make us who we are, not only belong in the workplace, but those voices matter and those diverse perspectives matter. And so when I say show up authentically in the workplace, it's basically combining those two personas into a whole person and showing up as that true self in the workplace and not feeling like parts of who we are shouldn't be seen. It's a very fine line that most people, people of color, and I experienced this when I was early in my career as a Latina, is that it was I felt that there was a very blurred line, but fine line of what I felt safe enough to share. I'm not saying this is easy. It's really hard. And for two reasons, one is you have to evaluate your space. Is it a space that is going to be welcoming of differences and diversity? And, you know, some are and some aren't. And that's, you know, the journey that that we're all as leaders trying to influence and change. So one is just recognizing, is this a place that will be welcoming and how am I going to be perceived? And the second is identifying where you are in that journey, because the space may be welcoming, but you may not be ready for a number of different reasons. And the opposite is true. The space may not be welcoming, but you are completely, 100 percent grounded in who you are and feel confident and have the tools and community and willing to, you know, demystify things. You're 100 percent comfortable showing up authentically in those spaces. And so I think, you know, a part of this journey is understanding both those things. What does the space look like and what is it and how am I ready to enter that space? Yeah, good point. But besides what you just said, which covers quite a bit, what do you want our Latinx listeners to know? What's important for them to walk away with from this book? I think I want them to feel seen and not alone, you know, growing up or coming up through the ranks. I was the only I saw no Latino role models. There was no Latinos in leadership. I didn't know what it looked like to be a Latino in corporate America in any way. And so it felt very lonely. I didn't know. I didn't have a network, a coach, anybody to really normalize what some of the feelings may be as a immigrant, as a first generation, as someone that might not have organic networks to figure out the, you know, the rules of the game and all of these things. And so I want them to know that the feelings of loneliness or imposter syndrome are normal, but that there are communities and people out there that are really ready and interested in helping them ascend into those leadership positions and to go out and find them, because this journey is not one that you can do alone. That's that's so true. Well said. And I know as a executive coach and a consultant, you know, I'm exposed to many different organizations and it's really nice to see the support that most companies are investing. They have different groups that people, you know, if you're a Latino or, you know, you're anyone of color, there's different groups that you can join and, you know, get the support and build the camaraderie that you're looking for and that you're speaking about. So it's good to see how organizations are adapting, but making the shift. Is there room for improvement? Absolutely. Absolutely. We're just barely scratching the surface, but the support and the resources that they're providing employees. So it just makes for a better experience for employees, no matter what level they are. And there's a sense of comfort and belonging. And what I'm sorry. No, no, please. Yeah. One thing I do, what I have noticed in my conversations as I've gone around on the book tour and talked to many Latinos, is that there's two things I noticed. One is. There's a lack of confidence, right? So, you know, we need to really support Latinos in believing that they belong in this space, because I think there's whether it's media or other things that have happened systemically, there's a lack of confidence that they belong in the space. So that's one thing I've noticed. But the second thing I've noticed is, and I don't know if this is culturally, is that we're also like head down, work hard. You know, we have this belief system that that is enough and that someone will notice. And unfortunately, that's, you know, we need that. That's, you know, that's table stakes. You got to do well. Right. But you need more than that. And you need to understand the dynamics of, you know, how corporations work, how career development happens, the importance of networking, how to amplify your brand. All of these things are super important. And so I think we have to really encourage the Latino professionals to branch out of just the individualistic, like if I just work hard, that's enough. Access those employee resource groups and other things you just mentioned, because while they're there, if we're not taking advantage of them, it's not going to work. Yeah. So, you know, growing up Latina, my parents, they migrated from Mexico and their work ethic, their principles. And what I learned from my parents is you put in the time, you show up and you work hard. So that's that's how I started out until I started to develop my professional legs. I started to become more exposed to other areas of work, other people. And that's where I was able to latch on to a couple of different mentors. And one of them happened to be Latino. Like you said, that support, that network makes all the difference. But that's where I learned more about deep diving into other guiding principles of how we work, how we learn, how we see where we could lend our skills and talents in the workforce. That continuous development cycle is so huge. And, you know, you just hit all the buttons. So I hope that I know that listeners are really going to take to heart what you're saying because it is so true as we dive into our career, especially those early careerists, they're diving in and they're growing those professional legs. They're still trying to figure out where exactly they belong in the workplace. Something that you mentioned early on in our conversation about being Latina, you know, we come in different sizes, colors, just like any other culture. You mentioned that you decided to expose who you are and that I thought this was interesting. You said you no longer wanted to hide it. I definitely know what that's like. But what was it like for you to expose yourself? What surprised you the most when you did? Yeah, that was a journey. It actually took me probably a couple of years to get from the point of thinking, even noticing, honestly, that I was hiding my Latinidad. I was actually in therapy and talking to my therapist, and one of the things she asked me about, I was then company looker, she said, oh, well, do you talk about your ethnicity at work? And my answer was no. And she just sort of sat back on her seat and just said, what? I mean, it's such a beautiful part of who you are. Why are you not talking about this at work? And it was the first time I had this aha moment of like, wow, this is a beautiful part of my life. I don't know why I don't talk about it. And so I had to unpack that first. Like, why, you know, why am I not shouting from the hilltops where I came from? My immigrant parents, Spanish was my first language, all of these things, you know, I never saw them in the workplace. And so why was I not doing it? And so I had to start with unpacking that and get the courage to do it because because I had really downplayed and hid that piece of me. I had the belief system that I would be jeopardizing my the professional network I had built over 20 years. I had made it into the club. You know, I was friends with CEOs, CFOs, venture capitalists, board members. And I also knew that, you know, not everyone believes in DEI. And there was a lot of pressure around diversifying the boardroom. And so my fear was that that network where I saw no one that looked like me wouldn't accept me if I talked loudly about who I was and where I came from. And so that fear was something that I had to overcome. Absolutely. First of all, there's so much beauty in culture and you're right, Trish, it does take a lot of courage to feel that you're coming out from being who you truly are and to expose yourself to the world. We make ourselves vulnerable, right? That's vulnerability. But that's a big part of what it is to show up, allowing ourselves to be vulnerable, speaking our truth. But something else that you mentioned some time ago is that you had a sense of shame. Talk about why the shame and how did you confront it? I had two pieces of shame. You know, the first shame really that I had to unpack in order to show up authentically was almost unlearning the bias that exists around Latinos. You know, growing up in a predominantly white community, you know, the media, for example, media shows Latinos in service roles as the housekeeper, the nanny, the cook. So never seeing myself in a position of leadership. So unlearning that I belong in that space. When you're hiding, you're then subject to being in spaces with derogatory comments around the Latino community. So, you know, having to. So as a result, all of this, right, all those things, all the external messages that I was receiving that I am somehow lesser than, I had to unpack the shame of believing it. I had internalized that belief that I was lesser than. And so I had to unpack that and realize that, no, I am not lesser than. I am not only equal to, but I bring something beautiful to the table that is worth being there. So so I had to unpack that shame. The second shame for me was I mentioned earlier that I had fear around, you know, the network I had built up really not accepting me. But the other fear that I had in telling my story and writing the book was that this beautiful Latino community that exists, that is large, would not accept me either, that they would then look at me and say, you spent 20 years working in corporate America and you did not come and lift anybody up. You did not come and speak at our organizations. You did not show up when we needed you most. And I had a fear that I wouldn't be welcomed back in. There was almost this like place where I felt like I belonged nowhere. I was not white enough to be in the white spaces and then I wasn't brown enough to be in the brown spaces. And so I had to reclaim. And I'm still, frankly, in that process of fully reclaiming my Latino heritage and showing up and feeling 100 percent comfortable in Latino spaces. And so, you know, those two things were the fears that I had to get past in order to tell my story and write the book. But a question you asked earlier that I forgot to answer was what surprised me was how welcoming everybody was, you know, how embraced I was in both of those communities. But in the third community, I didn't recognize or even know, which was people like me, people who are on this journey, who are looking for, you know, role models and inspiration and are lost. And, you know, and so it just it was it has been a much greater level of acceptance that I could have ever imagined. I agree with you, it can be very intense and scary to expose ourselves, especially after years of people knowing us, kind of masking and not really just averting conversations just to not really expose ourselves. Right. Which I'd done for many years is just wearing a different mask and not giving much exposure to to who I really am. You're right. It's very liberating. This is interesting because to me, when I had this conversation years ago with other colleagues and started talking more about my heritage, it was accepted with open arms and they were very interested in my background. And I found that very surprising. Yeah. Our culture is a culture filled with so much color, diversity and beauty. We do need to unlearn the biases. Yes. Very, very important. I have the same experience as you did around when I started sharing who I was and I actually have a section of the book called People Are More Interested In You Than You Realize. You know, and I think they are I think they're genuinely interested in hearing our stories, hearing our parents journeys, our journeys, our culture, the food, the music, our, you know, celebrations. People genuinely love to hear about it. So that was a similar experience as you, Laura. Absolutely. You talk about being an only female and also being a woman of color. In a room filled with male executives, how did you manage that situation and manage to work through it? My early strategies, I don't recommend. Because I was really just like, you know, I was showing up in the workplace as a white male executive because that is the only way that I saw role modeled in leadership. These were the only people that I saw who made it. And so I didn't know or recognize what how else to show up. So, for example, when I was, you know, having my children, I have two children. My oldest is now turning 20. So 20 years ago when I was in the workplace, I remember, you know, being very scared about telling my manager that I was going to have a baby. And rightfully so. When I told him, his response was, how can you do this to me? I've seen this movie. I know how it ends. Wow. And yeah, and he didn't speak to me for a week. And so this was the place where I was about to be a karma working mother. I saw no working mothers. There was no nursing rooms. So I ended up when I came back to work after three months nursing my baby. My daughter wouldn't take the bottle for the first few months. She would only nurse. And so my husband at the time was a stay at home dad. And so he would bring my daughter to me at work every three hours and I would nurse her in the parking garage because I didn't know, I didn't see any other women that had to take breaks to nurse their babies. There were no nursing rooms. There was no flex time. There was no, you know, remote work. So how, you know, how was I going to show up and ask for this accommodation? The workplace has changed since then. We do now have nursing rooms. We've got women working, you know, parent, you know, ERGs and other things. But, you know, it's up and not everywhere. You know, I've been in conversations with women that are still experiencing places where they are struggling with showing up and talking loudly about, you know, the struggles of a, you know, a colic baby and all the things. Right. And so what my advice now for women is find people within your organization that you can align yourself with, that have shared values, that can provide you the support and give you guidance on how to work through, you know, the particulars within that organization, how you can find support, whether you're a working mom or whether it's male or female mentor. You know, all my mentors have been men and they've been fabulous mentors for me and opened doors for me. So finding those people that are not only going to give you advice, but open doors, sponsors is critically important. I'm certain our listeners can relate to your experience. And this is brilliant advice both men and women can embrace. So I want to shift gears here and talk about women sitting at the table on a board. But first, I want to share the latest statistics on gender balance and diversity on corporate boards. A leading nonprofit education and advocacy group called 50-50 W.O.B., which is Women on Boards, announced on June 30th of this year that women hold approximately 29 percent of the Russell 3000 company board seats, which is an overall increase of only one percent from 28 percent in Q2 of 2022 and the smallest gain over five years. However, with gender balance boards with three or more women on their boards increased by three percentage points from the previous year to 55 percent. So while we're seeing some positive growth and movement, there's still a lot of room at the corporate level to promote women in leadership positions, opening up seats for women at the board level. What was your experience like as you ascended to the boardroom? What setbacks or barriers did you experience at that time? It's interesting. So I'm a lawyer, a woman and a woman of color. And so those three things I was I entered into the board journey. I know the data shows that less than 2 percent of board members are Latinas. So I knew that I had some barriers. But what was interesting, actually, for me in particular, was being a lawyer was actually the hardest barrier because, yeah, yeah, because the boardroom right now, you know, they've got an outside counsel, they've got a general counsel. And so why do they need another lawyer on the boardroom? So I had to figure out how to describe my experience from an operational perspective. So that was, I think, one from a recruiting perspective, a challenge, because I do think that boards are trying to diversify. And so, you know, that there is some benefit, I think, in yourself being a diverse candidate in the terms of from a recruiting standpoint. Now, the challenges are most of the time these board seats are provided because of who you know. And, you know, when I've been in the boardroom 20 years, 25 years, and when you're looking for a new board member, the first question is you go to the boardroom and you look around the table and and you ask the question, who do you know who would be a great board member? Well, you know, it's the same network, right? The network is closed. It's the same people. The same people know the same people. And so if you are a woman or a woman of color that hasn't expanded your network and doesn't have the relationships, you're not going to be you're just not going to make the list. And so that's how it's sort of organically sort of become the same people getting the same roles. And so part of the board journey that is incredibly important is this network, what we call a network mapping exercise, which is really reaching out to every single person you know in your network, letting them know that you're looking for a board seat and finding how they can make a further connection for you to somebody that might be able to help you. And ultimately, the board seat that I got was exactly through that exercise. I I reached out to everybody I knew. They were gracious enough to then introduce me to board recruiters, introduce me to other board members and different boards, especially women. Finding another female board member is incredibly helpful because they often if once you're a board member, then things come to you organically. And so they may be overboarded and have opportunities they can then give to other women. So that's how I ultimately found my board seat through a board recruiter that I was introduced to, like three introductions later, who and that board recruiting firm was looking for a diverse candidate. And so that was helpful. Interesting. What a journey. So what diverse perspective do you feel that you bring as a woman of color that you bring to the board? I think I bring a wonderful perspective. It's different. You know, I first of all, I'm a good listener. I really listen. Like I said, probably the first year just listening and learning, learning about the company, learning about the people, learning about the goals. You know, during the meetings, I listen to what what is what is our you know, what is our strategic vision? What are we trying to do? And so as a result, I'm able to think about it critically and ask questions and give different opinions that others might not have been thinking about because I just come from a from a different lens. Here's one thing I've learned being in communities of executive women, every single executive woman that I know that has come up through the ranks over the last two decades has had to overcome over and over and over again. There is a resilience that we have that is common. You have you have not made it into the C-suite as a woman without having to overcome gender bias, microaggression, sexism, sexual harassment, all the things. Right. And so we are not fragile. We you know, we have so much resilience as a result, which also makes us empathetic. We are empathetic leaders. We have compassion. We know what it feels like. And so when we are making decisions that impact a large workforce, for example, say that you're downsizing. Well, you know, you may understand what that might mean for a family because you were the sole breadwinner or, you know, you know what that might feel like as a working mother. And so I think we bring a lens that, you know, frankly, you know, men that have, you know, their career has been a little bit easier may not have thought of. So I think we bring incredible perspective to the boardroom. We can be so diverse, but yet you are right. We are very resilient over the last couple of years. Resiliency has been the focal point. So, you know, when I'm coaching or presenting on leadership, resiliency is one of the main topics that comes up and that I'm asked to talk about because of what we've endured, what our families have endured. It does make us more resilient, but we're better and smarter because of that. I think so. I think that I like to always look, Trish, at both sides of the coin. And I like to see, you know, the positive side through the struggles, through, you know, seeing what other people have sacrificed, our ancestors, our parents before, you know, people before us. They've done so much for us and have helped to lift us up. A big part of that has made me the person that I am today, being compassionate, showing that empathy to others. And I don't give it a second thought to give other people, especially women, a hand up. I think that is so important. No matter what color the person, man or woman, there's no reason why we can't give someone a hand up. We do it because we can. Absolutely. You've given so much great insight to our listeners. What other advice can you share with our ambitious Latinas and Latinos listening to this podcast right now who are aspiring to build their career trajectory, become leaders or even those that want to sit on a board? Mm hmm. I think that first and foremost is showing up authentically, really, you know, loving who they are and what they bring to the table and believing, truly believing that it's an asset and not a liability in the workplace. And I think once you get to that space of that, who you are is an incredible benefit to an organization. And then it's going to trickle from there because then you're going to voice your opinion, you're going to inspire others and you're going to lift up others. And so I think that's the journey and that's the journey that I bring people along through my book. And then just to reiterate again, the power of community, being in community with others, a similar lived experience, it makes a difference more than you know. And I forget it myself, you know, I think in COVID, you know, we got so accustomed being home and doing remote work. And and while I appreciate the flexibility of remote work, as I shared in my story, I would have loved it when I was first having my children. I do believe that there is an importance around being with people, you know, forming those relationships. Every single opportunity that I got in my career was as a result of a relationship that I nurtured, whether it's someone senior to me, junior to me, on par with me, like all of those relationships just continue to grow your network. Nurturing them over time and being in community, people will really propel you. Yeah, good advice. You know, I think and this is something you alluded to earlier is being courageous, you know, having the courage to be yourself and being honest with yourself. We all have our moments of trepidation or fear, you know, but being able to push those thoughts, those negative thoughts or fear based thoughts back, you know, or just telling them to get out of the way because you're coming through. Well, it's funny you say that, because I just got this little pin from a friend and it says, brave enough to be bad at something new. Don't be afraid to get out and stretch. Try something new. You know, we get paralyzed by being trying to be perfect. You know, we're going to make mistakes. We're human. And, you know, so be brave enough to try. Yeah, make those mistakes. Fail, fail fast and just learn from them. Yep. You know, that's emotional intelligence. If you can tell me how you fail, what you learned from that failure, there you go. Yeah. Yeah. And to help normalize that, I remember talking to a VC who said that he prefers hiring or investing and the new founder who has failed several times because that founder has learned a lot. So, I mean, failing, I think we reframing what failure means is huge because I know I grew up with parents trying to make sure I was perfect at everything. And that's, you know, in one way, right, you achieve excellence. But another, it's that's where all the negative self-talk and imposter syndrome and all the things come up. And I love what you said, fail fast, like learn and fail fast. It's growth. It's actually a great thing. Yeah, absolutely. Never fear the failure. You know, it's just it's a part of the journey for sure. So, Trish, earlier on, you struck a chord with me. That leads to my next question. But talk about the importance of mentorship, getting a sponsor early on, which I really believe in. I'm also a mentor and have been mentoring for for many, many years. How important is it to have those resources as you as they're, you know, the individual growing her or his legs professionally? How important is it to have that support in a mentor or a coach? Oh, my gosh, it's so important, Laura. And it's it's more important than I realized. And I think all you have people. Well, I had a mentor. I've had a sponsor, but I haven't had really an executive coach. And now I'm learning what a disservice that was for me. I would have really benefited from an executive coach, especially as I was trying to transition from mid-career into, you know, executive leadership. And so I believe in all three, I think they all provide different, you know, benefits. I think a mentor, a mentor is somebody who is you can call upon and ask for specific subject matter advice. You know, it's somebody like for me, it was when I was aspiring to be a general counsel, it was a public company general counsel that I could call upon and say, I'm about to expand internationally. What are you know, how do I do that? I'm facing this challenge and, you know, in expanding my patent portfolio. What do you think? How should I? I'm doing it this way, you know, so it's very tactical. Like, how do I navigate and develop within my particular subject matter expertise? A sponsor is somebody who is behind the scenes, really looking out for new opportunities for you. It's somebody who in a meeting. When you are not there is saying, you know, who would be great for that project? It's Laura. She has proven herself to be phenomenal at X, Y and Z. She's ready. I think we should give it to her. And so that's the person that is looking out for you, either within your organization or outside of your organization. For example, there's somebody that I'm always sending opportunities to right now. When I get them, I say, you know, who's great for this? It's, you know, it's so and so. So that's a sponsor who's looking out for you behind the scenes. Yeah, they're chomping at you. Yes. And then at college, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, but I view a coach as somebody who can be that person that when you are facing a difficult situation in the workplace with a manager, you've been passed over, like, how do you navigate these tricky workplace scenarios so that you can elevate yourself in your career? Or you want to develop as a leader and you are suffering from imposter syndrome. How do you navigate these tricky things? Yeah, those are good points because those are very familiar to me because those do come up. And, you know, as a professional coach, there's a lot of psychology. I also have a background in organizational psychology. So it's very interesting when people are trying to navigate through different circumstances and are struggling. So you're spot on, Trish. And we all struggle. That's why I wish I would have had an executive coach, because I just I tried to figure it out and failed. And and so, yeah, incredibly important. Yeah, absolutely. So what's some of the biggest lessons that you've learned throughout your career? How did those lessons help to influence you or form your leadership style today? I would say a couple of different things. One is finding your purpose. I think that in our culture and the way things are set up, we are often told what we should do. You should become a lawyer. You should stay with a company three years. You shouldn't take the break to start a family. That looks bad on your resume. You know, there's so many shoulds that people like to tell you. I don't think we should navigate our careers by shoulds. I think that our jobs as humans in this world is to find out why we are here and what we are meant to be. And if you follow the shoulds instead of where your heart and soul guide you, you're not going to find that purpose and you're ultimately not going to find that place where you're really showing up as your greatest self. And so identifying early, you know, what are your skill sets? What are your strengths? What are you great at? What do you do all day that you spend all day and you don't even realize the time went by because you loved it so much? And what are you passionate about? What are the things in this world that you want to make better? Whether it's a subject topic like climate change or health care or, you know, what are the things that you want to make a difference in and combine those things. When you combine your strengths and your skills with what you're passionate about, that's your sweet spot. And if you can find your sweet spot earlier rather than later, that's a fulfilling career. And many of us just have the checklist. Right. And I did it. I did it for many, many years. Just follow the checklist. The checklist isn't going to find isn't going to guide you to your sweet spot. One hundred percent. What guided you to your sweet spot? You know, I will say my my journey to self-acceptance, my journey, I realized there was a moment. I'll say this. There was a moment at my last job at Looker where they asked me to speak at the National Hispanic Heritage Month. And they asked me to speak at the event and tell my story. It was the first time I was telling my story publicly. And at the end of the event, and I was scared for all the fears we talked about earlier. At the end of the event, there were tears. There were hugs. And so many employees came up to me, hugged me and said, this is the first time I've heard my story being told. That was so powerful. Yes. And I in that moment, I just I went home, I told my husband, something magical happened today. I don't know how or what it's going to mean, but something different happened to me. And I realized that those 20 years of all of the challenges, all the crucibles, all the things like nursing my baby in the garage, which, you know, 20 years later made me an advocate for gender equality and working mothers in the workplace and has now propelled me into this work where I am going into organizations and trying to tell my story and mentor and inspire others so that we can create a better workplace, so we can create authentic leaders. And so that, you know, I took all of the skills that I learned in all of those years. And now my passion is that and it's, you know, every day is fulfilling. There is something magical that does happen when we speak our truth, when we are in front of an audience and we're completely vulnerable and, you know, we expose who we are. And it's kind of like this whole facade just melts away. Yeah. And when other people are experiencing your exposure, it allows them allow themselves to become vulnerable. Yeah. And there's nothing more beautiful than for somebody to say, you know, you just told my story. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Trish, this what an amazing conversation. Thank you so much for making yourself available and for writing the book Embrace the Power of You. I highly recommend that everybody get this book. And I think that for the folks that are on listening to this right now is take the book, take it to work. Anyone in leadership, share it with your team. You have snippets in there where there's there's kind of like a workplace where they can pause. So I love that about your book, Trish. Very, very nicely done. So, yeah, there's so many elements to your book that anybody can take some good nuggets from it. Trish, thank you so much for your time, your expertise and just your heart. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. To order a copy of Trisha's book, Embracing the Power of You, or if you're interested in booking a speaking engagement with Trisha, you can get a hold of her on her website trishatim.com. That's T-R-I-C-I-A-T-I-M-M dot com. That's it for this episode of Coach Anonymous Presents. If you're interested in being a guest or your subject matter expert, please go to my website, www.epiphanyconsultingsolutions.com and submit your request on the left chat link. You can also find me on LinkedIn or my website, Epiphany Consulting Solutions. We hope the content and conversation will give sparks of inspiration. If you love and learn from the show, pay forward and share my podcast with your colleagues and friends. I'm Laura Perez Earhart. Until next time, stay safe and live well.