IAM1596 – Speaker and Author Inspires Anyone to Embrace their True Selves and Own their Identity

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. 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, owns their identity, and achieve success and fulfillment in their life and career.

• CEO Story: Tricia’s parents were both immigrants in the United States, born and grew up in Los Angeles. Her parents wanted the American dream for their family. Despite the discrimination in school as the only Latina, she assimilates and hides herself, and that's how she progressed. That journey was written in her book Hiding who you are. Tricia has a phenomenal career. Recently doing a portfolio career, helping board work, non-profit and venture capital.
• Business Service: Her book was for any manager or a leader in an organization, so they can see like Tricia, and create that empathy for that experience. And how to create a strategy or culture that might serve them.
• Secret Sauce: Help one leader at a time, start their journey, and go through it we’re going to see change.
• CEO Hack: Book mentions: Drop the ball by Tiffany Dufu – demonstrated everything you do in a day and decide whether it is necessary or outsource it or whether you can drop it. Intentional about setting boundaries, and prioritizing what needs to be done.
• CEO Nugget: Networking is building and nurturing genuine relationships over time.
• CEO Defined: Huge responsibility, sets the tone and the culture of the company. Sets employees first and culture first.

Website: triciatimm.com , embrace-the-power-of-you

LinkedIn: ptimm

Twitter: tricia_timm

Instagram: pmontalvotimm

Facebook: triciamontalvotimm

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Transcription

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00:19 – Intro

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkness values your time and is ready to share precisely the information you're searching for. This is the I Am CEO podcast.

00:46 – Gresham Harkless

Hello, this is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Tricia Montalvo, Tim of trishatim.com. Tricia, it's great to have you on the show.

00:58 – Tricia Montalvo Timm

Thank you, Gresham. I'm so happy to be here.

01:01 – Gresham Harkless

Yes, I'm excited to have you on as well too. Of course, before we jump into the interview, I want to read a little bit more about Tricia so I can hear about all the awesome things that she's working on. Tricia 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. Trisha is 1 of the few Latinas to obtain the triple achievement of reaching the C-suite, joining the board, and cracking the venture capital ceiling.

Trisha's industry recognitions include the 2020 Women of Influence and the Latino Business Leadership Awards from Silicon Valley Business Journal and the title of Diversity Champion from the SVBJ Corporate Council Awards with her new book, Embrace the Power of You. She hopes to inspire anyone who has ever felt like another in the workplace to embrace their true selves, and their own identity, and achieve success and fulfillment in their life and career. Trisha, super excited to have you on the show, and even more excited about all the awesome things you're doing. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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02:08 – Tricia Montalvo Timm

I am, thank you.

02:10 – Gresham Harkless

Let's get it started then. So to kind of kick everything off, I know I touched on it a little bit when I read your bio. Could you take us through what I like to call your story here a little bit more and get you started with all the awesome work you're doing?

02:20 – Tricia Montalvo Timm

Yeah, so let me tell you a little bit about where I came from, I think it provides a lot of color to my story. So my parents were both immigrants to this country. My mom is from El Salvador, my father is from Ecuador, grew up down in Los Angeles, and I was born in Los Angeles, and they wanted the American dream for our family. They brought us out of LA into a predominantly white community where I was pretty much the only Latina in our school. From there they also got a lot of discrimination.

They really wanted me to have a better life. So they really encouraged me to assimilate and high my identity a little bit. That's how I sort of progressed through my life and career. As you mentioned about my book, a lot of my book is talking about that journey of hiding who you are, what that toll might take on you as a person, and what a disservice that is to our corporations and organizations that we're part of.

I was really blessed to have a phenomenal career, which you mentioned in my bio, I was a corporate securities lawyer working in Silicon Valley, working with lots of companies from startups to large public companies. Most recently right now, I am what I call doing a portfolio career and have my hands in a lot of different things including board work nonprofits, and venture capital.

03:56 – Gresham Harkless

Nice, I truly appreciate you telling your story, and then I love the words that you said that really resonated with me. You said you doing a disservice and I think that's so powerful to kind of understand. As I think businesses and organizations start to build better businesses, I'm going to say. Is it so important to have those different perspectives, that different lives that have been lived, the different journeys, the story, all those things kind of build up into, I think, building a stronger business?  I probably imagine you think the same thing as well too.

04:29 – Tricia Montalvo Timm

I do and It's a challenge because oftentimes, and that's why I say the book is for anyone who's felt like another, because when you are another, it's really hard to show up authentically because either the mainstream culture or media or the people around you are all valuing something different than who you are. It's difficult to get the courage to come up and show up authentically. But the service, what that is, is that we have these communities of so many different underrepresented identities across the country and that we as businesses and CEOs and leaders, There's a huge business opportunity there to market and serve these communities. If we're not allowing or creating a culture that allows people to show up authentically and bring their ideas to the table, We're not going to design and provide services to these communities.

05:21 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. I feel like we're in and going into more of a day where people do get to choose and select businesses that support their dollars a lot of times, and they have more choices and more opportunities a lot of times than they did before. So if that culture, for lack of a better term, isn't really there, then it can't prohibit that opportunity for the businesses to succeed today, but also succeed in the future.

05:45 – Tricia Montalvo Timm

No, I agree and I think the smart businesses are doing exactly that. I saw a press release recently from Square, who just translated I think 32 of their products in Spanish really tap into the Latino market and we have the Latino small business is 1 of the fastest growing businesses in the country. So they're realizing the value of thinking about all different communities.

06:11 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely, which is why it's so powerful, you obviously have that experience, but sharing this in the book helps out yourself, I imagine, but as many other people as well. So I know you touched a little bit upon like what we can find in your book, how you're working with and serving your clients. Was there anything else you wanted to mention that we can find there? Then of course what you feel may be your secret sauce, the thing you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique.

06:35 – Tricia Montalvo Timm

Yeah, I think one of the great things about the book is that book is for anyone who feels like others and it takes them through the journey of, you know, why do I feel like this? Validating the media and culture and the other aspects that may contribute to feeling like another, so you don't feel alone. It takes you through the journey with the tools that I just mentioned and to the other side. But I also made sure that the book was for any manager or leader in an organization so they can see what someone like me or others like me might be going through and might create empathy for that experience.

At the end of each chapter, I've managed the strategies that help the manager think, okay, so now you kind of have a sense of what someone might be feeling. What can you do as a manager or leader to create a culture that might serve them and that might provide the environment by which they will show up authentically? I think that's a real benefit for corporations and organizations.

07:39 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. It kind of sounds like, I'm going to use the word holistic, and it kind of sounds like of course the person that's going through that journey. I think, first of all, validating is such a huge thing because I think when we go through or we feel that other feeling, we can sometimes feel that it's not justified, it's not real, it's not, it shouldn't be something that we should feel.

So validating is so huge in and of itself, because I think it lets us know that it's okay to have feelings, have those human feelings, but to again, like feel as if we're kind of, hand in hand going through that journey and understanding the resources, the things that we need to get to that other side. But I say holistic because it's not just a, I'm gonna work on this myself.

It's also like an environmental thing as well too that leaders can do. So I think that manager piece is so huge because it not only provides that empathy that you talked about, but I imagine provides greater awareness around the resources and the things that managers and leaders can provide so that they can create a great environment.

08:33 – Tricia Montalvo Timm

Just hiring diverse employees and doing nothing to create an environment, but where they will succeed is going to fail over time. Part of my purpose in the book is to try to give and start having the discussion about how environments and why they're important for managers to be very intentional and how it's their responsibility also to do this work. It's not just on us. It is their journey. If I can help I believe that I need to have 1 leader at a time start their journey and go through it. We're going to see change that journey takes a long time. So, having this discussion is really important.

09:15 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. The book that you've written and all the information you provided is so vital and important, for so many different aspects. I appreciate you for sharing your story, of course. Sharing your genius and your experience as well, too. I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app or book or a habit that you have or potentially something from your book, but what is something that you feel makes you more effective and efficient?

09:42 – Tricia Montalvo Tim

So actually, one of the books that I read was a book by Tiffany Dabou called Drop the Ball. This book I read when I was a working mother, working as a general counsel of a company that was scaling, very busy, and couldn't find enough time in the day to do what I needed to get done. What I loved about this book was that it demonstrated how you can take everything that you do in a day and decide whether it's necessary, whether you can outsource it, or whether you can drop it.

I think looking at everything that we do during the day, there's so much that we've just brought into our lives that is either unnecessary or that We feel like we have to do on our own, but we refuse to get help for it. There are some things that we're just going to choose and intentionally say we're not doing that anymore. I think that for those who are trying to balance a number of different things at the same time, whether it's the family or taking care of an elderly parent or a number of different things that might be happening.

Really being intentional about setting boundaries, knowing that you're not gonna get it all done that you have on your list, and being okay with that is really a key to, you know, strategically prioritizing what does need to be done and spending the time on the right things.

11:11 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. I appreciate you sharing that. I definitely have to check out that book. What would you consider to be what I like to call more of a CEO nugget? This is a little bit more word of wisdom or a piece of advice. Again, it might be something from your book, but it might be something you would tell your younger business self, your favorite client if you were to hop into a time machine.

11:29 – Tricia Montalvo Timm

The value of building authentic relationships. When you're younger, you hear the word, you have a network. And so when I heard the word network, when I was a young person, I thought, okay, I will go to these happy hours, back in the day, give out your business card, and call it a day. Actually, those networking events were quite stressful for me because I tend to be an introvert. So the social anxiety that comes with having to meet new people was tough. But that's not what networking is, Gresham. Networking is building and nurturing genuine relationships over time.

The people that you run across, No matter whether it's the CEO or the executive assistant, and everyone in between matters. What you can do to build those relationships, and help and support these people throughout your career. When you look at your career, 5, 10, 20 years down the line, that's where your network is. Those are the people who are going to show up for you when you're building your business, trying to hire employees, doing whatever you're doing to try to amplify your own career, if you spent years helping, nurturing, having lunch, checking in to all these people along the way, that is so important. That's how you build a network.

13:02 – Gresham Harkless

I absolutely love that kind of like, for lack of a better term, reframe, related to kind of understanding like what network it is. It can be very, you can produce a lot of anxiety by feeling like you have to go to a networking event and meet every single person, you know, shake every hand and talk with everybody, get their business card, and so on and so forth. But when you start to think of them, I think the organic nature by which you're able to kind of build those relationships, those connections, it sounds a lot more stable, and it builds for a long time versus somebody just having your business card and maybe calling you, maybe connecting with you on LinkedIn, but not actually going a little bit deeper.

Absolutely. I appreciate that. So now I want to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. I think you mentioned being a portfolio career. I think I think he said that she has. So from your perspective, what does being a CEO mean to you?

13:51 – Tricia Montalvo Timm

Being a CEO is a huge responsibility. I think you're the person that sets the tone and the culture of the company. That especially right now, I think, and I think you mentioned earlier, that we're in a, I think a different time, a time of transformation in the workplace. I see a lot of new technologies and research around what's called the future of work. That's because in post-pandemic, and Gen Z, all are looking for different things in the workplace, and they are looking for careers filled with purpose.

I think if CEOs are not keeping culture at the top of their minds as they build their career and do not serve as role models to that culture, I think businesses are going to struggle. I think it's incredibly important for the CEO to really live that and not just speak it. So to me, I think the best CEO and the best leader is somebody who puts employees first and culture first.

15:00 – Gresham Harkless

Trisha, truly appreciate that definition. Of course, I appreciate your time even more. What I want to do now is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know and of course, how best people can get hold of you, get a copy of your book, find about all the awesome things that you're working on.

15:16 – Tricia Montalvo Timm

Thank you. This is such a great conversation. I love this topic and I think I touched on the things that I care about which is really for anyone that ever feels like another that they're in the workplace that you are not alone and you know my book is really to speak to those people and give you the tools that you need to get through your journey. My book is available on Amazon and all retailers where books are sold and you can find me at TrishaTim.com.

15:48 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome and to make it even easier, we'll have the links and information that she'll know too so that everybody can follow up with you. Of course, get a copy of the book as well too. I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

15:57 – Tricia Montalvo Timm

Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here. Thank you so much.

16:00 – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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