98. On Embracing the Power of You with Tricia Montalvo Timm

Overview

Tricia Montalvo Timm is a board director, venture investor, speaker, and author. She is also a first-generation Latina and one of the few to have attained the triple achievement of reaching the C-suite, joining the boardroom, and cracking the venture capital ceiling.

Today we discuss her new book, “Embrace the Power of You,” which is for those who are code-switching or struggling to belong in the corporate landscape and for those of us who want to support creating inclusive environments. Tricia shares her own journey of self-acceptance to show others how they can do the same. The book offers tools and knowledge needed to get to the other side of the fear people can have that can keep them from fully stepping into their authentic selves. it also offers guidance for business leaders.

In this conversation, Tricia shares why people feel like they need to hide parts of their identity, gives us guidance on how we can all support creating inclusive environments, and affirms that you are enough and your differences are beautiful and valuable.

Tricia - Your book is powerful. Thank you for sharing your story and encouraging others to do the same and step into their authentic selves.

More About Our Guest

Tricia Montalvo Timm is a board director, venture investor, speaker and author. She is a first-generation Latina who rose through the ranks of Silicon Valley advising high-tech companies big and small, culminating in the sale of data analytics software company Looker to Google for $2.6 billion. Tricia is one of the few Latinas to have attained the triple achievement of reaching the C-suite, joining the boardroom and cracking the venture capital ceiling.

Her career has spanned from working with some of the largest and most well-known publicly traded multinational companies in the world to stepping on as the first lawyer at several high-growth start-ups. Tricia currently serves on the board at Salsify, a top enterprise SaaS software company. She is also an advocate for women and girls and serves as a mentor, advisor and investor in female-founded companies.

Tricia’s industry recognitions include the 2020 Women of Influence and Latino Business Leadership awards from Silicon Valley Business Journal and the title of Diversity Champion from the SVBJ Corporate Counsel Awards.

With her new book, Embrace the Power of You, she hopes to inspire anyone who has ever felt like an “other” in the workplace to embrace their true selves, own their identity and achieve success and fulfillment in their life and career.

Topics Covered

  • For those who often feel like “the other” at work, hiding parts of their identity can feel necessary, yet over time takes a toll. Many of us might not realize how much energy it takes to hide parts of ourselves.

  • Tricia’s thesis is that eventually you get to a point where “the benefits outweigh the risks” because the only way she believes “to be truly successful and fulfilled is showing up authentically.”

  • Each of us has an opportunity to help create a more inclusive environment, from how we participate in one-on-one conversations to how we lead and invite all voices into the room. We can have the courage to enter conversations knowing we might get it wrong at times but still embrace the learning process.

  • Leaders can role model to give others permission to also show up as themselves. Tricia shares how powerful it has been for her to show up as herself and the impact that has had for other Latina people who can now see a leader who is like them.

  • Companies have a lot of work to do to be more supportive of employees with families. Employees have more choice today, so companies need to be more progressive on this front than they’ve been in the past.

  • Tricia shares counsel to help people step into their authentic selves. First, she affirms: know you are enough, that your differences are a beautiful part of you, and that by sharing them you add tremendous value to organizations. And she encourages finding people and community to support you on your own journey of fully embracing you.

  • I encourage individuals and leaders to pick up the book and to consider reading it as a team to learn together on this journey we are all on to create a more inclusive work environment that benefits us all.

Resources Mentioned

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98. On Embracing the Power of You with Tricia Montalvo Timm

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