In this episode of the Impostor Syndrome Files, we talk about the pressure that many of us, particularly women of color, feel to downplay our authentic selves in the workplace. My guest this week, Tricia Montalvo Timm, author of the book, Embrace the Power of You, Owning Your Identity at Work, shares her journey as a first-generation Latina and how her quest to assimilate led her to hide parts of her identity at work. We also talk about how we can embrace what makes us unique and what we can all do to create more inclusive workplaces.
About My Guest Tricia Montalvo Timm 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 publicly traded multinational companies to stepping on as one of the first leaders to help build and scale several high-growth start-ups.
Tricia currently serves on the board of Salsify, a top SaaS software company whose commerce experience management platform helps brand manufacturers, distributors and retailers collaborate to win on the digital shelf. In addition to board service, Tricia spends her time as a venture capital investor and is a limited partner in several venture capital funds and an angel investor in over a dozen companies.
Most recently, Tricia served as General Counsel and Executive Sponsor of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Looker. At Looker, Tricia oversaw the company’s legal, data privacy, equity and DEI functions. During the Looker/Google acquisition, Tricia also led the company’s global antitrust regulatory process, which included review and approval from the U.S. Department of Justice.
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Connect with Tricia:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ptimm/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pmontalvotimm/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/tricia_timm
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Transcript
Kim Meninger
Oh, welcome, Tricia, I know I said this to you before I hit record, but I'm gonna say it again to you. I'm so excited to meet you. And to have this conversation, I would love to start by inviting you to introduce yourself.
Tricia Montalvo Timm
Thank you, Kim. I'm so excited to be here and have this amazing conversation. So a little bit about me professionally. I have been working in Silicon Valley for over 25 years, working with mostly high-tech companies, from small startups to large global multinational companies. And I'm a corporate lawyer by training. And my last operational role was as general counsel and executive sponsor of diversity, equity, inclusion at Looker, which was a data analytics company that we sold to Google in 2020. And one of their largest transactions 2.6 billion, it was the fourth largest transaction. From there, I decided to pivot my career. And now I have a portfolio career. So I serve on a corporate board of directors of a company called Salsify. And I'm the chair of their comp committee member, their audit committee, their serve on a few nonprofit boards as well. And then I wrote this book, Embrace the Power of You, Owning Your Identity at Work, which we just published in March and speaking about that right now, and to organizations and, and companies. So that's a little bit about my professional background, if it's okay, I'd love to spend a minute or two on my personal background. So I think that gives a little context to all of this. I am a first-generation Latina, my father is from Ecuador. My mother is from El Salvador, they immigrated to this country, and met in LA, and I was born in Los Angeles, California. And we lived in Los Angeles until I was about six years old. And my parents asked for immigrants at the Spanish accent. And unfortunately, they were discriminated against them, like, you know, most immigrants. And they really wanted the American Dream for their family. And they wanted us to struggle less than they were struggling. So they moved us out of the city into an accompanying suburb, where I all of a sudden saw myself as the only Latina and a predominantly white community and out of love, they really thought it would be better if people didn't know where I was from. If I assimilated, if I just blended into the crowd, that I would have an easier path. And in some respects, they were right. You know, unfortunately, we do have a lot of bias in the workplace. So I think it helped me in some ways, but it takes an emotional toll after a while, really, you know, not showing up authentically as who you are downplaying your ethnicity. I also found I wasn't alone, as I was writing my book. 76% of Latinos downplay or hide their ethnicity at the workplace. So yeah, 76%. So it's a high number. So I'm not alone on this. And as I've been telling my stories, many have come to me and shared that they they're doing the same thing. So that's yeah, that's a little bit about my background.
Kim Meninger
Yeah, thank you so much for sharing that. And this is really, I think, an important conversation when you talk about hiding a part of yourself or downplaying a part of yourself that has to take a toll on you, right? Like, you feel like you're keeping this secret, and then you're not being able to be true to yourself. And so what is the effect of that?
Tricia Montalvo Timm
You know, it's interesting. So for me, I started doing it at a young age that I didn't, even intentionally, consciously No, I was doing that as an adult. It sort of became who I was. And so when, you know, when I was, it's, I was growing up outside of LA, and I, I tell the story in the book, and I think it explains a little bit of like, why I was hiding. I did a little bit of acting. We live near Hollywood. And so I had an agent and I was doing all the things and I got a photo, you know, a photo shoot and had the whole thing. And I, my original photo had my name, Patricia Montalvo. And when I was going out on auditions, they I was getting all the Spanish-speaking parts, or I was being asked to audition for Spanish-speaking parts, but not English-speaking part mainstream, mainstream parts. And so my agent said, you know, we have no problem you're not getting you know, asked to come to these auditions for the mainstream parts, which are the more you know, the better ones. And they said, Well, you need to change name in, your name needs to be more American. And so I was like, Well, what does I am American I was born here? I speak English, you know, go to school, like what is being more American mean? And so they changed my photo and I my changed my name and I became Trisha, Patricia McLean. And so my last name changed. And with that, I started learning that there's something wrong with being Latino, there was something that was going to harm me for being Latino that I wasn't American enough. And so I started at a such an early age that I will do better be better as a being more, you know, white-passing. And so, because I had done it for so long, I didn't even recognize. So, for me, it was a process of self-reflection. Because I had done it for 20 years, and really recognizing why I was doing this, why didn't I embrace my culture? Why wasn't I probably talking about it? Why was that? Sharing it with my children. And it's such, it becomes exhausting, and becomes physically exhausting, I straighten my hair. For decades, because I thought that was more professional looking than my curly hair, I sort of muted my voice I was I have a loud laugh, you know, you know, I'm just kind of a louder person. But I didn't want to be the loud Latina and the world in the room. So I just changed all these parts of myself, and which is very common for women of color, they change a lot of parts of themselves to fit in to the mainstream, or whatever the dominant culture is. And you know, when I'm in those spaces, particularly with women of color, they'll say to me, it's not until I get home that I can just like, like, I can finally be myself. And so imagine spending all day every day, like gearing up for the day and putting the change in the hair and the clothes and your mannerisms and your language. And not being able to bring your full ideas and innovation and creativity to the room because you're so bogged down by this other piece of, of you, it's a lot.
Kim Meninger
Absolutely, and especially if there's any amount of shame attached to your identity because it's, it's the energy that you're describing, to have to adopt this totally different persona that you think is more aligned with the cultural mainstream, and then to worry, like, I hope I don't slip up, right, or then people are gonna me out and I think a lot about us is sort of the connection to imposter syndrome. And this feeling of I'm not good enough people are going to find out. And so, yeah, it's so it makes so much sense that people who feel different from the dominant culture would be more likely to experience that, because what you're describing is essentially, and I know that this is just, this is reality, right? Is that there? Is this mindset societally, that there's a certain profile that we should all strive to fit? And that if you deviate from that in any way, it's not like, Oh, you have this unique differentiated identity, it's like, no, I need to contort myself in some way to fit this very limited profile. And if I don't feel like I do, that, I start to doubt myself, then I start to the parts of myself that would likely be an asset to other people share them.
Tricia Montalvo Timm
Yes. I mean, I'm glad you said that. Yes, I think that the parts that we're hiding from the workplace are assets. And that's really the message of my book at the end. It's like really coming to you know, belonging, and belonging begins with self-acceptance. And once you believe that what you bring to the world is valuable, and it's an asset, that's when you free yourself and really bring and contribute into the workplace. And another example of what how I sort of downplayed or hit parts of me was being a working mom. When I had my first daughter, I was in an all-male leadership team. It was not an inclusive environment. And there were no you know, this was 20 years ago, dating myself. But there were no ERGs there was no diversity equity inclusion program. There were not even any external women organizations. So me showing up, you know, pregnant, and the really unsupportive space was like, How do I do this? There was no playbook. How do I raising a family mattered to me I wanted to do that. But I also really deeply cared about my career and I was at right at that stage that many women have like right when you're about to get the next big job is kind of the time when you're starting up. Family and how do you reconcile the two? So when I announced that I was pregnant, my boss, his reaction was, how could you do this to me, I've seen this movie, I know how it ends. And I have the same reaction you had. But at the same time, I was the sole breadwinner, I wanted to prove that this movie would not end differently that I would come back. And I would prove that I deserved my position that I deserve the next promotion that I deserve all the things. And so I came back really hiding this part of my identity as well, and so much so that, you know, my daughter, when I went back to work, my daughter wouldn't take the bottle. So I had to nurse her for about a month, and my husband would follow me, you know, every meeting, I went to, you know, be in the garage, there were no nursing rooms, I would go to the parking garage, and nurse my baby in the car and do all of these things. Because I didn't want to, I want to show up the way everybody else is showing up, which was one way. And that was not with a baby nursing, you know, taking breaks pumping, like all of that made me different. And I had a lot of fear that I would be looked down upon. For that reason. And so the, the tragedy of that is that we have working moms in the workplace, we all contribute so much. And, you know, by, by them by not creating an inclusive environment for me, I really got disconnected, frustrated, angry, like it was a place where I eventually needed to leave. But you know, it's so important that we have that perspective in the workplace so that we can, can create better working environments for our working parents. Because, you know, we need to have those perspectives in the room.
Kim Meninger
You're so right. And I'm just oh, gosh, as I'm listening to you talk, I'm thinking about the horror of having to go through that experience. And if you can't hide being pregnant, right, like, it's one thing.
Tricia Montalvo Timm
I hid it as long as I can, I think, hold on, when I was like six and a half months pregnant. I thought…
Kim Meninger
And I just think about it to have like, obviously, this is not how people think like you're, you're breeding the next generation of the workplace, like somebody has to give birth to these people.
Tricia Montalvo Timm
Right? Who's gonna do this? Yeah, I know, that experiencing people are like a cat, you know, how horrible and it was, it was probably one of the hardest times of my career. But I, you know, everything happens for a reason. And, you know, I think going through that journey for me, as tough as it was 20 years later, or whenever it was 15 years later, when I was then a leader at Looker and part of the executive team. I remember walking into the office one day and seeing a woman pregnant. And she was one of the first women that was pregnant while working at looker. And I thought, this has to be different for her, she cannot go through the same experience that I went through. And it was the reason that I came forward and said, Look, we need to start with the AI program, because we need to create spaces for working moms here in this organization. And so, you know, I think that we need to role model what is, you know, what it's like to be, you know, I think role modeling authenticity allows and gives permission to others within the organization to show up as their authentic selves. And I think it's important that we support that.
Kim Meninger
That's such a great point because one of the things that we're talking about when we talk about the conformity, tendency or drive is that we end up perpetuating a system that doesn't work for most of us. And this individual experience that you're describing of just constant fear that you're going to do it wrong, that people are going to find you out. And so the, you know, the I think the, the ultimate hope is that as more women as more people of color as people who have different identities start to rise through the ranks, that they break that cycle of conformity so that they can create a new reality for the people who are coming up behind them. Right. And that's not an easy rule to place. Well, how do you how did you navigate? I mean, I guess I'm curious when you it sounds like you got a positive response to your, you know, the proposal that we need to have this initiative, but how did it feel to be a trailblazer in that way? Like, did it feel risky to you? Do you feel like it was something that was really uncomfortable?
Tricia Montalvo Timm
Yeah, so two things. So before that moment, I had already sort of started on my own healing and my own transformation. So for a couple of years prior to that moment, I was working on myself on packing all the, you know, baggage and harm and trauma that had happened over the couple of decades in my career. So I had, by that point, really done a lot of that work of healing and finding the tools and support that I need when I you know, face it now. So I was in a better spot to, you know, be able to sustain if the answer was no, or if there was pushback or challenges. And then I was, I would say, you know, a couple of years prior. But even with that being said, we started the DI program with an eye my impetus was, you know, to support working moms, because that was, was a place that I couldn't really hide too much. Like, what I had children at that point, they were teenagers, and you know, I was talking about them. So being a working mom, and at that point, being, you know, there was so much conversation about supporting our working moms, it felt less risky. But what happened was, you know, we created this di program, and of course, a number of different ERGs emerged, one of them being the Latinx. erg. And we also created a storyteller program. And if you wouldn't, you wouldn't believe it, they asked me to come tell my story during National Hispanic Heritage Month. And I remember when they tapped me for this, I thought, never told my story in the workplace. It was, that was risky for me because I have not done that. And so I had a lot of trepidation, trepidation going into that, a lot of fear. And it took me a lot of courage to go in, because I didn't know what the reaction would be. And all of my fears I've created over the years and, and they were real. I mean, I'd gotten rooms where people use all sorts of, you know, derogatory comments and whatnot. So I had real fears. So but I decided to do it. And so I went up, and I told my story for the first time front of my colleagues at Looker, and, and globally. And what I didn't realize was the impact that that story would have on others. I was so concerned about like, be getting over it, and getting through it and building up the courage and having all my beers. I didn't realize the value of the storytelling. And so when I finished the story, I had so many people come up to me just say, I didn't know you know, I opened my eyes. I didn't know this about you. I didn't know that other people are the struggle with this. I didn't, how beautiful you're, you know, your culture is, I like to learn more. And then the most rewarding was Latinos, young Latinos, especially say, I've never seen anyone that looks like me in leadership. The first time I've like literally seen it, or my mother also was from El Salvador. I've never met anybody whose mother's from El Salvador, I feel like I can do it. I feel seen your story is my story. And that moment for me, was all I needed to say, Okay, this sharing this part of me is not about me, it's about everyone else. It provides permission for others to show up. You know, one of the things I struggled with as a young Latina, 25 years ago was I saw nobody that looked like me. So I couldn't, I couldn't imagine myself being in these positions. They seem so foreign to me. And by me not showing up as a, as a Latina and proud what a disservice to this next generation, because they're so desperately looking for that. And Latinos. I mean, we're less than, you know, 2% in the C suite less than 1% in the boardroom, they really are very few of us. So So I just, I feel like an almost was a responsibility to be seen.
Kim Meninger
Oh, what a powerful sir. I had goosebumps while you were saying that about the reason. Yeah. Because you're right. And I think that it is so hard. I mean, it is really hard to share vulnerably and openly, especially a story you haven't told before and able to and I just think about this in terms of people listening who may be very guarded for, for very legitimate reasons, but to think about opportunities for vulnerability as not, you know, obviously, we're all going to have our own fears like you're talking about but to think of them as an act of service, right? Because I think that often we're willing to take that risk if we feel like we're doing it on a mission if we're doing it, yeah, benefit of us. There is and so everybody wins when you do that because I'm sure there's a certain amount of healing that came with that process, to, to and then to be able to provide that kind of support to others is so powerful.
Tricia Montalvo Timm
It has been the most rewarding part of writing the book and speaking to people, I, you know, I get emails and notes from, from folks just really grateful to be in conversation, or even around this topic, there is a lot of shame, if you've been hiding something about yourself, there's a lot of shame of revealing it. And so openly talking about that is, is really important. And so yeah, I've definitely been rewarding.
Kim Meninger
Do you have tips for I mean, obviously, it sounds like you had a very specific event that you were invited to in order to tell your story. Are there other ways in which you would recommend people think about sharing a little bit more of themselves in the workplace? And, you know, maybe taking baby steps? If it feels too daunting to do? Yeah, on the stage like,
Tricia Montalvo Timm
Yeah, on the stage like, wow, yeah. And, Kim, I think what, what you said just now is important part, part is baby steps. And one of the messages I have in my book is, is called Small Steps repeated often, and they are baby steps, they're small steps, you're not going to just go on a platform and tell your whole story for the first time. And that, that would be really hard. You know, and for me, I didn't start there, I started with baby steps, I started with sharing a little bit about myself to my friends, that really my friend, my friends didn't know my background, and talking about my, you know, family in Ecuador, and how you know, how many cousins I had, and that, you know, what the family trips were like there and what the country was like, and just in a really safe environment with people that I trusted, and then moved on from that to starting to slowly reveal myself on public spaces where I would maybe like on LinkedIn, I would add things about my, my heritage, being part of the Hispanic National Bar Association, adding Spanish as a language that I speak and just sort of revealing more of who I am in a public space. And also, even in like, social media, just talking, you know, making some comments in Spanish, or talking about my, you know, my relatives or things like that, just very subtly, just start talking about, you know, the things that are important to you, or that are part of you, that you may not have otherwise talked about. So, that's how I started it with little baby steps. And, you know, once you practice like a muscle, once you practice doing some of that, and you realize the world doesn't fall apart, and you know, you, you do it again, it becomes a little bit easier each time.
Kim Meninger
I think that's such a great way to think about it. I often say that to have like, your, your brain catches up once you do it and in the sky doesn't fall or it's like, not as dangerous or scary as I thought I was, I can do it more easily the next time. So yeah, yeah, that's great. And then in terms of this one's probably a little bit trickier. Because there's so much that depends on the culture of the organization that you belong to, but as sort of the, the next level of what we're talking about, do you have thoughts on how to influence change how to be a change-maker from the inside? You know, it's hard to, it's gotta be hard to propose something that doesn't exist today and worry what people are gonna think like, how do you? How do you apply a similar principle of baby steps, but to try to move the ball forward as it relates to what we're talking?
Tricia Montalvo Timm
Yeah, you know, I think if you are that person on that journey, I think just showing up as yourself as wholly and authentically as you are, is change maker, you are a change maker, right? Because you are already influencing everyone around you. And part of this conversation is really, you know, why I'm such a proponent of storytelling, of telling our stories to each other is that we all have those fears, or stories or unconscious biases that we've created, you know, start going by the wayside because you, you just get to know each other. So I think just really showing up authentically is, you know, a really big part of this. If you're a manager or leader, and if you do have a sense of belonging and you have influence. There are so many strategies that I've included in the book of how you can create change within your organization. And so like for example, If you, if you are holding a meeting, and oftentimes, you know, as organizations, we always are striving to have more diversity, right? The staff looked really good, you want them to look good. But then once somebody gets there, you don't do anything around creating a safe space for inclusion. And so you'll have a meeting and you'll say, I want diverse thought. But then you'll say, Well, why are you always, you know, saying the opposite thing? Or why are you You know, why can't you just go along with what we're all agreeing on. So if you're holding a meeting, instead of requiring that one person to be always raising their hand, with the maybe opposite opinion, you can challenge the group, if ever, if you see the conversation kind of landing with everyone that, you know, is coming around with one idea, challenge the group to say, hey, I want the group now to think opposite. What is the opposite of the situation here? What is something outside of the box? What is the different way to approach it? So now you're challenging the whole group to come up with a different idea, rather than singling out one person who may always have a, you know, a unique idea. So that doesn't bother them as much. So you know, that's a simple technique that managers can do just to create more inclusion and more diversity of thought into decision making.
Kim Meninger
I love that, because I think that there are a lot of well-intentioned leaders who would love to create more inclusive spaces, but there's a gap between the vision and the action, right? Like, what does that actually mean, especially if not to excuse, you know, bad behavior, but I think there are a lot of people who are just running 100 miles an hour trying to meet all of the deadlines and pressure points, and they just don't give themselves space to even think differently about how they're behaving. So much of it is habitual, and reflexive and you don't realize what they're doing or the impact it's having. So being able to not only, like, think about what would it look like, but to have very actionable steps they could take?
Tricia Montalvo Timm
Well, and the half inclusion has to be intentional, as you mentioned, like, we are all busy, and we're all there's going to be a million reasons why, you know, hiring Well, you know, the pipeline, it's hard to find diverse candidates or that you don't have budget for this. I mean, there's a million reasons of why you might not want to work on it. And it has to be intentional, it has to be intentional from the strategic level, at the manager level, people really have to make it something that they are working on. And the other piece of an inclusive leadership is getting comfortable being uncomfortable. These conversations are hard sometimes. And we all come to this conversation from a different lived experience. And it might make us uncomfortable, we don't want to get it wrong. You know, a lot of times people say nothing or do nothing because they don't want to make a mistake. And so you know, I think, you know, often, you know, the, the benefit of being able to be both white passing and a person of color. I'm in both spaces. And so I'm very, you know, when I'm in the space of women of color, I'll say, I'll hear that we're very used to being uncomfortable, we have had to learn how to be uncomfortable to survive in this life. So being uncomfortable is not a hard thing for us. But when we you know, when I'm in spaces, or when I challenge somebody who may not be used to being uncomfortable, that feeling of being uncomfortable, really is hard. And so you want to shut down, you don't want to talk about it, let's make it easy to make everything, you know, safe. And it's like well, it, let's talk about it. Let's talk about why we're feeling uncomfortable. Why, you know, we're not going to make a change unless we get comfortable with that.
Kim Meninger
I'm so glad you brought this up too because I was thinking about the, the responsibility of people. Let's face it, white men, white people, right to be part of this. It's not, we certainly shouldn't put the burden on people of color or you know, anybody who sort of feels different from the dominant culture. But you're absolutely right, that there's so many people and I've heard this from very brave white men who have said to me before, like, I don't know what support looks like, I'm so afraid of getting it wrong. I don't want to see the wrong thing. I don't want to do the wrong thing. And so in particular, as we talk about creating space for people to be their authentic selves to share their stories to talk about their own, you know, sort of family origin, heritage, all of these aspects of ourselves. Are there ways in which you think people could invite for others to share more of that, because you don't want to infringe on someone's privacy or make them feel different in some way, right? But also, sometimes if we don't create an opportunity for the conversation, nobody knows that it's okay to have it or nobody feels like it's safe to do. So. How do we model a safe place for people to be themselves? I know that's a big question, but just anything?
Tricia Montalvo Timm
Yeah, well, I think, you know, I really do believe in the power of vulnerability. So I think the leaders that are vulnerable about their lives, creates a space a safe, psychologically safe place for people to bring their whole life to work. So it doesn't have to be about race or gender, it could be, you know, I'm really struggling with anxiety, I or I'm having a hard time I'm ever l, you know, elderly family member that I'm caring for. My child is going through these hard times, like when people start sharing the hard things, what they're struggling with, then it creates a space where yeah, I'm also struggling with this, or this has been hard for me. So I think vulnerability, me, I think, we're not one-dimensional people, we're multi-dimensional people. And the more connection you can make on the human side, with people around you that work with you, the more they're going to bring their whole selves to work. So I think vulnerability is place to start.
Kim Meninger
That's a really good point, too, because I think about, I've been thinking a lot lately about expanding the definition of diversity, too. I think one of the unintended consequences of some of the DEI initiatives has been to create somewhat of an-us-versus-them type of dynamic. And I think sometimes, some people feel like they don't see themselves as diverse as if there's like, you know, one, one thing, and then everybody else is diverse right now. It's all right. And so I think, too, you know, one of the things that I will say is, even if we don't know what it feels like to be part of an underrepresented group, we all know what it feels like to feel left out. We all know what it's like to feel like an outsider in some way, right? And so I actually, this really, I was doing a group around like competence building. And there was this very senior-level white man who participated in the group. And he talked about the fact that he grew up in rural Idaho was the only one in his community to go to college, he moved to the East Coast. And now he has this very difficult time relating back to his community. And I just thought it was a perfect example of how we can see ourselves in this conversation, no matter what our background is. And so I think getting people to really think about, like, you're talking about sharing the hard stuff, we've all, we've all had unique experiences, but there's a lot of common themes.
Tricia Montalvo Timm
Yeah, yeah. Yes. And I try to emphasize that when I have this conversation, I mean, there's so many parts of ourselves. Yeah, economic use, as mentioned, economic. You know, background. neurodiversity is another one of my you know, I don't have dyslexia, a lot of people, like, don't talk about their dyslexia. And we need to talk about it, right? There's different learning styles. How do we, how do we bring the best out of people unless we talk about learning differences? There's, you know, there's so many different parts, being, you know, being raised by a foster parent, being homeless or part of your life, you know, there's getting a GED instead of a college degree. You know, there's just so many parts of ourselves that we say, oh, you know, it's not going to be good enough. So I'm going to not talk about it. But those we are all you know, we all have things in our background, that, that were maybe hard or challenging, but that is what society is, and how do we create products and services, that sort of all communities? Unless we're talking about those things?
Kim Meninger
Exactly. Exactly. And I you know, so I think there's, there's so many different reasons for doing what we're talking about. Any surprises for you as you were writing the book? Anything that like you weren't expecting to hear or not?
Tricia Montalvo Timm
That's a great question. I you know, the, the surprise for me was, how much marketing visibility. I needed to like when I am a lawyer, so the writing piece wasn't that hard and the center like I am used to writing I'm really used to editing so the editing process often it's hard for authors. Not hard for me, I redline everything all day long. So Oh, the writing even though I definitely hit points that were challenging of imposter syndrome, you know, thinking of myself as an author, but the visibility piece was really hard. I, you know, really struggled with creating a platform creating visibility around me, it felt very, very selfish or very, like, you know, a lot of ego involved in it. And I didn't like that piece of it. So for example, when I was trying to come up with a cover design, the publisher recommended that I put a picture of myself on the book. And my first thought was, the only the first book that came to my mind was Michelle Obama's becoming, and I was like, I have no Michelle Obama, like, why would I in the world when I put my picture on this book? Like how, like, you know, I just I could not, I couldn't even think about I mean, it was an automatic No, there's no way like, just the vulnerability of putting my picture on 1000s of books, just I could not get my head around it. And as you know, I didn't do it. But you know, what they were trying to say to me was, look, your whole message and mission is to inspire others to be visible for specially for Latina they haven't they don't see themselves in leadership. So by putting your face out there, it's not about you. It's about them. It's about how do you inspire them, people have to have a face to be inspired by. And so we compromised them a little tiny, little tiny picture right here. But, but I've become more comfortable with it. And I have made a website and you know, doing more social, and it matters, you know, it does matter. But that was a really hard. I struggled with it. I kind of said no, a million times, and I'm getting around to it now.
Kim Meninger
I am so grateful to you for sharing your story here for sharing your story in the book. Where can people find you if they want to learn more to get your book?
Tricia Montalvo Timm
Well, I have a website Trisha Timm.com. So T-r-i-c-i-a-Timm.com. You can join my newsletter there and you can find my book. Everywhere. It's on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, your indie bookstore. It's on audiobook Kindle, all the places you can find it.
Kim Meninger
Oh, that's wonderful. Thank you so much, Trisha. I'm so grateful to you for this Congress. Yeah.
Tricia Montalvo Timm
Thank you. Thank you for having conversations like this. There's so important so thank you for having me.