The show’s guest in this episode is Tricia Timm. She is is a first-generation Latina that has attained the triple achievement of reaching the C-suite, joining the boardroom and cracking the venture capital ceiling. She just wrote her first book, Embrace the Power of You, and 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.

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Embrace the Power of You with Tricia Timm

Hi, everybody, it’s Melanie Parish, and I’m so excited to be here with you live today. I’ve had a couple of I’ve had a few relationships that have ended recently, for various reasons. One was a death. But it’s a it’s a harsh ending, because, you know, we were mid friendship in life, and it ended. And then I had a business relationship end because the person I was in a business relationship with actually got too ill to continue the business relationship. And so that was a loss. And I had to think about how I navigated that. And in that case, I called, and I just said that she was important, and that she was welcome back. But that I would, I would look for a new person if that was her choice, because I had to honor her journey, as well. But I wanted her to know that she mattered to me. And then I had another business relationship that I think ended because the person just really didn’t like me. And, and she didn’t like me, because I was holding a standard was actually a coach that I was working with in a trade. And I think she didn’t like me, because she didn’t like that I was pretty clear about what I wanted for my own coaching. And I think she liked that, that I spoke up for what I wanted. And so I think I dodged a bullet in that case, but it’s sort of smarted. And so I’ve been thinking about that as well. And, and so I feel a little bit like, oh, that didn’t go well. But then maybe it went really well because I spoke up for myself. And then she ended the relationship. And I don’t end up having to be coached by someone who doesn’t want to meet my needs.

So I just have a question for you. And that is what relationships do you have ending? What relationships do you need to end? And how do you want to end relationships in your life? And what’s important? In coaching, we have a value of completing our coaching relationships in an intentional way, so in every coaching contract I have I complete with intentionality. So I asked them at the beginning of the relationship to complete to using our last session, for completion, to use the last session to have a conversation about how we want to complete what we want to acknowledge about the time that we spent together, and how they want to move forward when they end our coaching relationship. And I love that about coaching. I love that we end relationships intentionally. So I just that’s what I’ve been thinking about in my own life and leadership, intentional relationship, and intentional and unintentional completions, and what do we do with relationships when they end.

And I am super excited about my guest today. Her name is Tricia Montalvo Tim. And I am really excited about her new book and I think you will be too. She is a board director of venture investor. She’s a speaker and author. And she’s a first generation Latina that has attained the triple achievement of reaching the C suite, joining the boardroom and cracking the venture capital ceiling. She just wrote her first book embrace the power of you. And she hopes to inspire anyone who has ever felt like an other in the workplace, to embrace their true selves, their own identity, and achieve success and fulfillment in their life and career.

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Welcome to my show.

Hi, Melanie, thank you for having me. And what a great start to the discussion. I love the idea of intentionally ending relationships.

Yeah, it’s it’s, it’s interesting. I think it and it’s so rare, I think in our lives that, you know, usually there’s a reason that you’re ending a relationship so you don’t get the chance to say, Hey, I’m ending it because of this. Or, you know, we have a phrase in our house, usually born out of board game stomp off of rage. And I think relationships end up that way.

Yeah, they do. And then you don’t look back and there’s carnage. Yeah.

So you don’t want to do that and we are doing book club. And so it’s great to have you here and I know that you read chapter four, which is intense at all levels. I just would love to hear what you have. thought about, you know, that chapter on intense what you noticed about, you know, because you’ve been out in the world for a long time, doing all sorts of things would you notice?

You know, what I noticed was I really loved the focus on intent at all levels of the organization. You know, I think that you went through, looking at the organizational structure from the vision, the mission, the values, and then some of the tactical intents and being intentional about what you want to do in each of those stages. And I liked how you talked about, it’s not the how of the work to get the work done. But what will get done, and it’s intentionally undefined. Because I think we get too caught up. And I agree with you in your book that we get too caught up on the specifics. And that makes us very rigid and unable to pivot. And in any organization, you constantly have to pivot, you have to be ready. So I like that undefined and being nimble as an organization.

Yeah, thank you for that. I think so too. And I get a little muddy when I start to think of, you know, how do we thread that down? And when we think about like KPIs and things like that, I’m not sure where I fall on all of that, you know, it’s easier to sit, you know, on my podcast and say, Oh, well, freedom to move. I know that, you know, when you’re actually executing things, I think as long as they’re revised frequently to make sure they are organization’s goal, I’m okay with it. It’s when you’re dealing with a five year old, you know, strategic plan that things go bad, because whatever you needed five years ago, may not be what you need today. But I do I do like that sort of, you know, your point in the distance, and you think that’s what we want to have happen. And then somehow it happens, like somehow, but you don’t know. And it’s not because you’re loosey goosey. It’s not because you’re not paying attention. It’s it’s that a lot of things are happening. And a lot of things change over time. And, and holding the vision is actually the job of the leader, not micromanaging the details.

Yes. And I think, you know, having that true north of where the organization wants to go, always on the back of your mind, because like I said, and you said that things change. And so you have to be able to pivot. But as you’re pivoting, kind of re grounding yourself in, why is it not working? And what is that True North? What is that, you know, the mission or the values that we’re trying to achieve? And are we still achieving them? If we’re not we need to change. But I think if you start moving, you know, the True North and mission or the vision, then you’re all over the place. So it’s a balance between the two.

I thought I might read just a little bit out of Jeff, for the trouble with strategic plans. Organizations use key structures to make sense of their timelines. They use mission, vision and value statements for charting long term stability, and often attempt to implement these through strategic plans. While I believe mission, vision and value statements are effective, I’ve seen strategic plans fail time and time again. Why do they fail, they’re built in good faith upon what is believed to be a reasonable ability to map the future. So many times I’ve been in a boardroom witnessing executives talking about how their organization isn’t sticking to its strategic plan, disappointed in themselves for these invent inevitable deviations, they have begun to problem solve, compiling huge lists of tasks that feel like micromanagement at every layer of the organization. Anyway, very good. I bet you’ve been in those boardrooms as well.

Yeah. Yes, I have. You know, one of the things too, that I’ve seen work well are in addition to sort of having the mission and a vision is annual somatic goals, where you can have high level goal, very specific to that year, and then you build under it like your model, the tactical. But if you’ve got the entire company rowing in the same direction under an annual thematic goal, and over communicated and at all levels, stream down from C suite all the way to the manager. It actually moves the needle, you can actually make a move that you’re searching for in an organization and I’ve seen that to be quite successful.

Yeah, I think it’s It’s, I often think to and this is not necessarily in my book. It’s true. But I don’t know if I wrote about it. But every layer of the organization has one piece of the pie that only they can hold. So the SES we can they’re, they’re the keepers of the vision, the people who are tactical on the front line can’t wake up one day and think, yeah, we really need to change our strategic. Yeah, I wish they could sometimes. But that’s not the role they hold in the organization. On the other hand, the people in the C suite don’t necessarily, they don’t have the knowledge, or the, they’re looking at data on spreadsheets, they’re not hearing the voice of the customer, sometimes. So they need to hear that voice more clearly, and need to rely on the tactical level to adjust as to what they’re hearing, or, for example, with social media, when Facebook changed all their algorithms, the marketing team needs to be able to respond to that, at the tactical level, you don’t want the C suite suite saying, Well, this has worked for us. It’s always worked for us. And we should continue to do this till the end of time. Because they’re not actually getting the input. They’re not in it at that level. So and the operations level, I always think the operations level holds the budgets. They’re the they’re the place. Yeah, intense. The budget is the intent for how we spend to make the strategy happen and layer it down to the taxing tactics. And they’re the only place that can do that. You can’t, you know, you have to have that sort of operationalizing.

So, I’m curious to know, whether you as you talk to more executives lately, how has the remote hybrid environment impacted or changed this? Because, you know, it is so, so much of, you know, the collaboration happened in person around the table? And, you know, and I wonder whether there’s going to be a disconnect between the, you know, the C suite and the operational level? Have you seen that?

I think that’s a great question. And I think my intuition, it’s more intuitive and data driven. But my feeling is that things are not back to normal, like, there’s no normal see, you know, it’s, it’s, and I’m not, I’m not talking slowly, because I’m being careful. I’m actually talking slowly, because I’m like, running through organizations and like thinking about who’s but I feel like things are just kind of like, not quite, it’s like, nobody’s oiling the machine. So the the budgets are still happening, the work is still happening. But like, I have leaders saying, I don’t know if my staff all works all the time. Like, I don’t know, if they work from home for time, and they’re working, but maybe they don’t or, you know, like, it’s just like a little muddy. It’s like, yeah, it’s not sharp.

I don’t think alcohol can and I’m hearing Yeah, I’m hearing more and more lately, from managers, say, sort of asking, like, how do I manage the folks entering the workforce, like there’s a disconnect, you know, where, and because I was reading your book, and I was thinking about the tactical piece. And one of the thoughts I had was, well, it’s nice for it to be undefined if the person that’s doing the work has a baseline experience and background to make those decisions. But I feel like our young people really been robbed a little bit of that period of time, when you first begin a job when you’re learning. You hear conversations in the hallway, you’re in meetings and listen to, you know, can you run into somebody and talk to them? And so I think there’s, there’s a longer period of time for sort of that, that level, the doers that are still coming up to speed and ramping up. So I’m just in my own line questioning whether managers do need to be a little bit more involved in some of the mentoring and teaching because they’re not hearing by osmosis that how we used to back in the day.

You know, we have our Leadership Essentials Program, which is for new leaders. And I really advocate in the beginning when people are first leading, I advocate for short like 10 or 15 minute daily meetings with their, with the people they report to not long meetings once a week where they, you know, shoot the shit and, you know, hang out like I want like, the voice in the head every day about what they’re thinking about and running things by and, and that can be like I really want people to think about what do you need from their leader, like their manager, their, you know the person they report in to you and then you know, to get off the phone, like recover your time. So it’s not a time people are always like, I can’t be with my people every day. I’m like, oh, yeah, you can. If you get them for five minutes, you better believe you can or you have too many drugs. Because that voice in the in their head, and then you don’t have to do it forever. It might be a, you know, three months or something where you’re doing it most of the time or some of the time and then and then maybe not very much at all, because they’ve they’ve got you you know.

Yeah. Awesome. Yeah.

What you see, but in the beginning, they need the touchstones otherwise, they go too far, in different directions.

I love that tip. I I love that for a number of different reasons exactly what you said, which is learning and getting them, you know, understanding that organization, but also from a little bit about my book from an inclusion perspective, because part of it is creating psychological safety. Do people feel connected and free to ask questions and bring their whole selves. But that’s hard to do if you’re disconnected. So if you have that touch point, every day, you’re building a relationship and a track that allows people more freedom to maybe ask the tough questions or, or bring up a contrarian viewpoint that they might otherwise not feel comfortable doing if they’re only meeting somebody once a week.

Even from an equity perspective, if you’re meeting with all of your direct reports on a regular basis, you’re not choosing the ones that you think are going to be promotable, which are going to be the people that look like you. You’re, you know, you can make some really bad mistakes around, you know, equity and inclusion if you choose who you’re going to invest in. But if you’re meeting with everyone, then and you know, then you’re teaching your thinking to someone, and someone who’s coming from a more diverse background may not have super good role role models in our history to draw from, they may not have had a parent who worked at IBM who had leadership development at home. So I believe even from an equity perspective, we owe it to our staff to to spend time with them all equally. So that we can help each of them develop to be who they want to be in the in the work.

Embrace the Power of You: Owning Your Identity at Work

Yeah, they echo that for sure. I was a first generation professional and did not have any network anybody I can turn to within my own family or friends are. So I really relied on the people in the organizations that were more senior to me that taught me what I needed to know how to navigate the workplace, how to, you know, the importance of networking, all these intangibles that you don’t know, going in, so I agree.

Well, and I’ve been an entrepreneur my whole life. And I started working in organizations at some point because cuz I, you know, thought I wanted to, and I didn’t really understand, you know, corporate work in the beginning, I do now because I’ve been coaching in them for years. But I didn’t know how to learn those things. And, and their foreign worlds, like their names and wonderous planet, you know, their own set of environments and rules and, you know, much like on the Periodic Chart, they behave in similar ways.

Yes. Sometimes unpredictable.

And academic environments are, are another kind nonprofits are another kind of planet. So it’s, it’s, it’s interesting just to try so in any one of those environments, people need that sort of Investment and Development from the people that lead them not. And I think if people universally see development as their role as a leader, then workplaces improve because their skill level goes up as long as the leader is skilled. We have to skill up Yeah, but we could do that. So, yeah. Yeah. So how are you experimenting in your work in your life right now? I mean, I know you. And I’d like to talk about that. I read the first chapter, and I’m super excited about it. It’s fantastic.

Thank you. You know, I love the word experiment, because this has been a huge experiment. For me, I been a corporate lawyer for 25 years, I knew exactly what to do walk into a startup and get it ready to take it public or whatnot, I knew exactly what to do. You know, just when I finished my pivoted, I’ll say my career a couple of years ago into this new space as an author and speaker, and, you know, it’s a whole new world and completely out of my comfort zone, learning. The publishing industry has been a whole new world and realizing that marketing a book and launching it, it’s like a product launch and you’re the brand and you know, how do I do that? And what does marketing look like I have a huge amount of respect now are my marketing professionals that I worked with all these years. It’s definitely an art and science. And so I’m learning a lot and getting more comfortable being uncomfortable, I’ll say, too, I’m a perfectionist. And while in some ways that has brought me great success, in other ways, it’s been very stifling, because I’m constantly, you know, criticizing and trying to make things better, which slows things down. And this process has really gotten me more more comfortable with, you know, good is good enough. And we have to keep moving to get things out there. And I think that translates well to the business world I always admired are entrepreneurs, and founders, because they have this skill really well about moving fast. And so I’m practicing that skill right now.

Those are great skills to practice. And I don’t know if you find this, but I found this the entire time, I was launching my book, I launched my book in April of 2020, which was, I would say, an imperfect time to launch. And had to pivot in many, many ways. But I have found it to be one of the world’s greatest ironies that, as a middle aged woman, I have become the spokesperson for my brand. And so I used to have to grapple with that more. Now. I just find it completely ironic and humorous that, that that’s true. And so I think it’s, I think it’s almost delightful now that there’s, you know, that’s the time people write books, and so it’s, yeah, and if they write them when they’re 20, people laugh at them.

Like everything else, or for young people. But yeah, you know, it’s interesting when I was picking the cover for my book, because my publisher was saying, Well, how about, let’s put a picture of you on the book? And I thought, No way, like, I don’t want my face out there. I’m the behind the scenes person, like, you know, I just want to like, can I just put my words out there. And it has taken me quite a while with some prodding for people to say, you know, there are so few Latinas that have made it into leadership positions in the C suite, the boardroom venture capital offers, I mean, it’s less than, you know, two and 1% in all categories. And as a young, Latina, growing up, all I wished was to see someone like me, so I could strive for that. And so that helped me understand that me being out there is not about me, but it’s about showing and role modeling for others that are coming up behind me to see that they can succeed. And so, you know, it’s just sort of a mind shift change of, of being out there. I ended up not putting my photo on the book, but I’m getting more comfortable with putting my picture out there.

I think that’s so funny. And we were talking about this briefly before the show, but I I grew up in New Mexico, and New Mexico has a bilingual stay. And so all the government jobs in New Mexico usually go to people who speak Spanish so so it’s it’s always quite interesting, and there’s no ethnic majority in New Mexico. So between the Latino population and the Native American population, the white population and the tiny Asian and African American population, nobody has over 50% Which leads to a really interesting state. And so, I always I always thought things were really peaceful. When I was growing up, and I think they were, and I have many friends who are Latino. And but I went to a high school reunion, and we went to breakfast, and my husband was like, Melanie, why are all the white people sitting at one table and all the Latinos are sitting at another. And I was horrified, I was absolutely horrified, you know, to find at my 33 union that this was true. And we did not sit at the white people table. That was ridiculous. But, but I, I, it made me realize that I had many blind spots to the culture that I thought I knew. And I still don’t quite understand it. And I know it’s more complex than I understood.

Well, you know, and I think it’s unconscious bias, right. And I think the fact that you’re noticing it is, that’s the first step is really noticing it. And back to your chapter of your book of intent. A lot of the work I talk about is, is when you notice something, then it’s time to be intentional about things. And so, for example, noticing your social circles look the same, whether it’s by race, gender, religion, political beliefs, sexual orientation, you know, if you just take a look at your social circle, and if it’s all the same, you have a lot of blind spots. So how can you intentionally bring in people from different communities, so you can start learning we were, we’re a lot more the same than we are different. And if we start just really talking and learning and embracing other people into our circles, and we’ll expand that network and expand those are less than those blind spots. The workplace actually is a great place a lot of times, you know, that’s the first time people have met people from different identities. So that’s a really a great place to meet others. But, you know, again, even in your own social circle, how can you be intentional about, you know, putting in investing time and different friendships.

I think that’s, that’s really, I think it’s a great thing to look around your own social circle. It’s also, I think, good to look at what annoys you on social media. And then look at the identity of the person who annoys you, and decide whether you might be able to tolerate an alternate voice. Because there’s diversity there. I really try not to unfriend the people who have diversity of thought. Unless they I’m queer. And so I have a queer identities so I they actively want to campaign to illegal make my family illegal. I find it really difficult to stay friends with them. I just hate watching my friends, like, pile on or whatever or comment or even if they defend me, I It’s hard to be with in my downtime.

Yeah, no, it’s emotionally exhausting. Yeah.

Emotional exhaustion. That’s hard. So that was the one that I can’t do. But I can do a lot of other diverse thought. And I find it really interesting to to not disappear people from my social media, because I just agree with them. Even if I think their thoughts are not my thoughts strongly.

Well, and, and you just put words into what a lot of people feel is that it is emotionally exhausting being the one having to continuously defend whatever your particular identity might be, or having to be the one that’s interrupting bias when you see it. And that’s where I also try to work with leaders on ally ship. Because there are times where you just, you can’t do it anymore. You know, it’s not that you’re afraid to it’s just you’re just exhausted by the conversation, having to explain one more time, why this is hurtful to you. But if you’ve got people in your network or a sphere that can do it for you, it continues that conversation of why it matters to to to have challenging thoughts and perspectives.

So that’s really that’s I think that’s I think that’s really important in leadership. I think it’s it’s important. That ally ship applies to job interviews, the way that you frame questions the way that you think of looking at resumes the way like there’s so many ways that ally ship applies around so many issues dealing with diversity mine I have more skill, probably in the queer community. Although I have intentionally I intentionally work on race all the time. That’s really, really, really important to me and to us as a company. So I, I say that because I want to make sure we say it too, because it’s like, I don’t want to be invisible about that either. When? What else should people know about your book? Who should buy your books? Yeah,

So my reader for my book is anyone who’s ever felt like an other in the workplace, they’re the, maybe the first or the few are the only and feel the need to downplay or hide a piece of their identity, and may not realize that really bringing their whole authentic self to the workplace, will lead them to the success that they’re looking for. And the core message really is that belonging begins with self acceptance. And the book really takes the reader through that journey to self acceptance, giving tools and strategies to get on the other side of that fear, and to get to the place where they can live the life that they hope to live, and have the career they hope to have. But at the end, why say it’s for everyone is because while the book is for that reader who it feels like an other, it’s also for the manager or leader that is intentionally trying to create a workplace that is inclusive, and then has a sense of belonging, and doesn’t know where to start. And through the storytelling in the book, I hope to create empathy for why people might feel other or not have a sense of belonging, because oftentimes, I hear this and it’s perfectly okay. From someone from a dominant group asked the question, I don’t understand why you feel that way. I feel welcome here helped me understand. And so the storytelling helps provide a different perspective, my own as well as other executive stories of why people might feel like an other in the workplace. And then each chapter ends with tips and strategies of what you as a leader can do to create an inclusive workplace so that when someone does get the courage to show up authentically, they’re in an environment that supports it.

I thought that was really great. I loved that section. When I looked at your book, I thought it was absolutely fantastic. Where can people find your Tricia and where will they find your book? And when?

Yes, so my book is released on March 7, so it’s shortly you can find me at Tricia tim.com, that’s T R I C I A T I M M. And you can buy my book on Amazon, Barnes and Noble indiebound. Really, anywhere books are sold. And you can find me on Facebook and Instagram and on my main website, you can find all my socials.

It has been fantastic to have you on my show today. Thank you so much for being here.

Thank you. I love being here. Thanks, Melanie.

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It’s been great being here with you today. I love talking to Trisha about her book. And I’m a huge advocate for how we figure out how to be authentic and how to let others be authentic. So my challenge to you is what barriers do you need to remove for yourself to be more authentically you in the world this week? And what can you do to remove a barrier for someone else to be more authentically them? Go experiment!

Important Links: 

• Tricia Timm – LinkedIn
• Tricia Timm – Twitter
• Tricia Timm – Facebook
• Tricia Timm- Website

Tricia Timm

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.

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