IAM1664 – Speaker and Author Inspires Anyone to Embrace their True Selves and Own their Identity

Tricia Montalvo Timm Teaer 00:00

Really being intentional about setting boundaries knowing that you're not gonna get it all done you know, 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 thing.

Intro 00:15

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 Harks values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I am CEO podcast.

Gresham Harkless 00:44

Hello, this is Gresh from the I am CEO podcast, and I appreciate you listening to this episode. And if you've been listening this year, we're doing something a little bit different where we're repurposing our favorite episodes under certain categories or topics that we think are gonna be extremely impactful for CEOs, entrepreneurs, and business owners.

This month is going to be about not forgetting about the human part of business. Often we forget about the human part of life. We often forget about the human part of business. So look forward, self-care tips, fitness, burnout, purpose, biz and personal, personal branding, motivation, drive success, understanding your why, and of course, how important customer service is.

But at the heart of. It's all about remembering the human part of business. So sit back and enjoy this special episode of the I am CEO podcast.

Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresh from the I am CEO podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today, I have Tricia Montalvo Timm of triciatimm.com. Tricia, it's great to have you on the show.

Tricia Montalvo Timm 01:42

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

Gresham Harkless 01:44

Yes, I'm excited to have you on as well too. And of course, before we jumped into the interview, I want to read a little bit more about Tricia so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's working on.

And Tricia is a board director, venture investor, speaker, and author. She's 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 board in cracking the venture capital ceiling. Tricia's, industry recognitions include the 2020 Women of Influence and le, the Latino Business Leadership Awards from Silicon Valley Business Journal and the title, a Diversity Champion from the SVBJ Corporate Counsel Awards.

With her new book, Embrace the Power of You, she helps to inspire anyone who has ever felt like another in the workplace to embrace their true selves, and their own identity, and achieves success and fulfillment in their life and career.

Tricia, 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?

Tricia Montalvo Timm 02:51

I am. Thank you.

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Gresham Harkless 02:53

Let's get it started then. So to kick everything off, I know I touched 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? What gets you started with all the awesome work you're doing?

Tricia Montalvo Timm 03:02

Yeah. So let me tell you a little bit about where I came from. So 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 was from Ecuador. Grew up down in Los Angeles. And I was born in Los Angeles. And they wanted the American dream for our family.

And they brought us out of LA into a predominantly white community where I was pretty much the only Latina in our school. And you know, from there, they also got a lot of discrimination and they really wanted me to have a better life. So they really encouraged me to assimilate and hide my identity a little bit.

And that's how I progressed through my life and career. And as you mentioned about my book, a lot of my book is talking about that journey of hiding who you are and what that toll might take on you as a person. And what a disservice that is to the 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 worked with lots of companies, from startups to large public companies. And most recently, right now I am what I call doing a portfolio career and have my hands on a lot of different things including board work, nonprofits, and venture capital.

Gresham Harkless 04:22

Nice, I truly appreciate you telling your story and then I love the word that you said that really resonated with me. You said you are doing a disservice. And, I think that's so powerful to understand and as I think. Businesses and organizations start to build better businesses.

I'm gonna 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 build up into, I think, building the stronger businesses. And I probably imagine you think the same thing as well too.

Tricia Montalvo Timm 04:50

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.

And it's difficult to get the courage to come up and show up authentically. But the disservice, 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.

And 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 gonna design and provide services to these communities.

Gresham Harkless 05:37

Yeah. If that culture for lack of a better term isn't really there, then it can prohibit that opportunity for the businesses to succeed today, but also succeed in the future.

Tricia Montalvo Timm 05:46

No, I agree. And I think smart businesses are doing exactly that. I saw a press release recently from Square which just translated I think 32 of their products in Spanish really tapping into the Latino market. And we have the Latino small businesses, one of the fastest-growing businesses in the country.

And so they're realizing the value of speaking about all different communities.

Gresham Harkless 06:09

Yeah. So I know you touched a little bit upon what we can find in your book, how you're working to serve your clients. Was there anything else you wanted to mention that we can find there? That of course, what you feel maybe is your secret sauce, the thing you feel sets you apart and makes you unique.

Tricia Montalvo Timm 06:22

Yeah. I think one of the great things about the book is, the book is for anyone who feels like another and it takes them through the journey of, you know, why do I feel like, validating the that, you know, the media and culture and the other aspects that may be contributed to feeling like another so you don't feel alone.

And 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 also 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.

And at the end of each chapter of management strategies help the manager think, okay, so now you have a sense of what someone is 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.

And I think that's a real benefit for corporations and organizations.

Gresham Harkless 07:19

Yeah, absolutely. And sounds like I'm gonna use the word holistic, and it sounds like the person that's going through that journey. And, 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 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 the feelings.

Have those human feelings, but to again, like feeling as if we're hand in hand. 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, 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 the manager piece is so huge because it not only provides that empathy that you talked about, but I imagine it provides greater awareness around the resources and things that managers, and leaders can provide so that they can create a great environment.

Tricia Montalvo Timm 08:11

Just hiring diverse employees and doing nothing to create the environment, but where they will succeed is going to fail over time.

And so 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 in how it's their responsibility also to do this work. It's not just on us, it is their journey and if I can help.

I really believe if I need to help one leader at a time start their journey and go through it, we're gonna see change. That journey takes a long time. So having these discussions is really important.

Gresham Harkless 08:50

Yeah, absolutely. And of course, the book that you've written and all the information you provided is so vital and important, for so many different aspects.

So I appreciate you for sharing your story and of course sharing your genius and experience as well too. So, 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, 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?

Tricia Montalvo Timm 09:16

So actually, one of the books that I read was a book by Tiffany Dufu called Drop the Ball. And 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.

And 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. And 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 we feel like we have to do on our own, but we refuse to get help for it.

And there are some things that we're just gonna choose and intentionally say we're not doing that anymore. And I think that for those that are, either balanced, trying to balance a number of different things at the same time, whether it's a 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 strategically prioritizing what does need to be done and spending the time on the right things.

Gresham Harkless 10:35

Yeah, absolutely. I appreciate you sharing that. I definitely have to check out that book. And so, 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.

Tricia Montalvo Timm 10:51

The value of building authentic relationships. When you're younger, you hear the word, you gotta 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. And actually, those networking events were quite stressful for me because I tend to be an introvert.

And so the social anxiety that comes up 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. And so the people that you run across no matter whether it's the CEO or the executive assistant and everyone in between matters and what you can do to build those relationships, 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 that are going to show up for you when you're building your business and trying to hire employees. Do whatever you're doing to try to amplify your own career.

If you spent years helping, nurturing, having lunch, and checking in with all these people along the way that is so important. And that's how you build a network.

Gresham Harkless 12:12

And I absolutely love that, kind of like, for lack of a better term, reframe related to understanding what network it is. And it can reduce a lot of anxiety by feeling like you have to go to a networking event and meet every single person, shake every hand and you talk with everybody, get their business card or so on and so forth.

But when you start to think of them, I think the organic nature by which you're able to 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 connected with you on LinkedIn, but not actually going a little bit deeper.

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

Tricia Montalvo Timm 12:58

Being a CEO is a huge responsibility. I think you're the person that sets the tone and the culture of the company. And that, especially right now, I think you mentioned earlier that we are in  a different time and time of transformation in the workplace. I see a lot of new technologies and research on what's called the future of work.

And that's the cause in post-pandemic. And Gen Z all are looking for different things in the workplace. They're looking for careers filled with purpose. And so I think if CEOs are not keeping culture at top of mind as they build their career and not serve as a role model to that culture I think businesses are gonna struggle and 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.

Gresham Harkless 14:00

Tricia, truly appreciate that definition and of course, I appreciate your time even more. So 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, and find about all the awesome things that you're working on.

Tricia Montalvo Timm 14:15

Thank you. This was such a great conversation. I love this topic. And I think, you know, I touched on the things that I care about, which is really for anyone that feels like another, that they're in the workplace that you are not alone.

And you know, my book speaks to those people and give you the tools that you need to get through your journey. My book is available on Amazon and, and all retailers where books are sold and you can find me triciatimm.com.

Gresham Harkless 14:42

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

Tricia Montalvo Timm 14:51

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

Outro 14:54

Thank you for listening to the I am CEO podcast powered by CB Nation and 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.

Get your driven CEO gear at ceogear.co. Don't forget to schedule your complimentary digital marketing consultation at blue16media.com. This has been the I am CEO podcast. With Gresham Harkless Jr. Thank you for listening.

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