Imagine growing up in a world where you're encouraged to assimilate, to downplay your heritage, and to hide your identity. This was the reality for our guest, Tricia Montalvo-Tim, a successful corporate attorney and board director who spent two decades battling the emotional toll of feeling like an outsider in her own community and workplace.
In her conversation with Lisa Mulligan, Tricia shares her journey, to balance motherhood, a demanding career, and her authentic self in a corporate environment that didn’t always understand her unique background.
We also explore the continuous pressure women of color face in proving their worth in their careers. Tricia's perspective as a board director offers valuable insights into the importance of diversity in these leadership roles.
She emphasizes the importance of authenticity as the path to success and believes that anyone who ever felt like an outsider could benefit from her experiences. She has written the book Embrace the Power of You: Owning Your Identity at Work to share her wisdome and experience.
Get in touch with Tricia here
The Culture Ministry exists to create inclusive, accessible environments so that people and businesses can thrive.
Combining a big picture, balanced approach with real-world experience, we help organisations understand their diversity and inclusion shortcomings – and identify practical, measurable actions to move them forward.
Go to https://www.thecultureministry.com/ to learn more
If you enjoyed this episode and maybe learnt something please share with your friends on social media, give a 5 star rating on Apple podcasts and leave a comment. This makes it easier for others to find A Dog Called Diversity.
A Dog Called Diversity is proud to be featured on Feedspot's 20 Best Diversity And Inclusion Podcasts
Thanks for listening. Follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.
Imagine growing up in a world where you're encouraged to assimilate, to downplay your heritage, and to hide your identity. This was the reality for our guest, Tricia Montalvo-Tim, a successful corporate attorney and board director who spent two decades battling the emotional toll of feeling like an outsider in her own community and workplace.
In her conversation with Lisa Mulligan, Tricia shares her journey, to balance motherhood, a demanding career, and her authentic self in a corporate environment that didn’t always understand her unique background.
We also explore the continuous pressure women of color face in proving their worth in their careers. Tricia's perspective as a board director offers valuable insights into the importance of diversity in these leadership roles.
She emphasizes the importance of authenticity as the path to success and believes that anyone who ever felt like an outsider could benefit from her experiences. She has written the book Embrace the Power of You: Owning Your Identity at Work to share her wisdome and experience.
Get in touch with Tricia here
The Culture Ministry exists to create inclusive, accessible environments so that people and businesses can thrive.
Combining a big picture, balanced approach with real-world experience, we help organisations understand their diversity and inclusion shortcomings – and identify practical, measurable actions to move them forward.
Go to https://www.thecultureministry.com/ to learn more
If you enjoyed this episode and maybe learnt something please share with your friends on social media, give a 5 star rating on Apple podcasts and leave a comment. This makes it easier for others to find A Dog Called Diversity.
A Dog Called Diversity is proud to be featured on Feedspot's 20 Best Diversity And Inclusion Podcasts
Thanks for listening. Follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.
Welcome to a dog called diversity, and this week I have such a lovely guest and someone who has achieved so much, and I'm so looking forward to sharing her story with you. Welcome to the podcast, trisha. Now let me say your full name. So it's Trisha Montalvo-Tim. Welcome. How are you today?
Speaker 2:Oh, thank you, I'm doing very well. Thanks for having me on the podcast, elisa.
Speaker 1:No problem. So I am based in Auckland, New Zealand. Where are you joining from today?
Speaker 2:I am from the Bay area of California, so near Santa Cruz, california, so slightly on the coast, nice, that's such a beautiful part of the world. It is. I love it. We're kind of nestled here in the redwoods by the coast, so can't get too much better. That's nice.
Speaker 1:Well, as with all of my guests, I usually ask you to start by telling us a little bit about yourself, and maybe a bit about you know where you grew up and some of the influences you had on your life growing up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, happy to. So I grew up in Los Angeles, california, down in Southern California, to two immigrants. My mother is from El Salvador and my father is from Ecuador and they raised us in LA until I was around six years old and they moved us out of LA, actually into a suburb about 30 miles away, because they wanted a better life and a better education for us. So they wanted us out of the city into something that they thought was a little bit, with a little bit more resources and stability. But I all of a sudden found myself as one of the few Latinas in a predominantly white community and as I look back and reflect on sort of my life and career, I think that was a pivotal moment because I all of a sudden started noticing the differences between my family and everyone else around me.
Speaker 2:You know, I spoke Spanish at home. Everybody else spoke English. We would have home cooked meals of arroz con pollo, frijoles, tamales. My friends would have pizza and hamburgers and, you know, celebrated different celebrations. I celebrate my quinceanera. In the US we celebrate sweet 16.
Speaker 2:So you know, it was very, you know, just, it became very apparent to me that I was different. And my parents? They suffered from discrimination themselves at thick Spanish accents, and they didn't want me to go through the same experience. So they encouraged me, like many of their generation, to assimilate, blend in, speak English, you know, don't rock the boat. That was.
Speaker 2:You know, work hard head down. And that's a very common story for many immigrants in this country and in the workplace and very familiar to Latinos and Latinas in the workplace. So, yeah, you know. So I grew up there, went to you know, through school, high school and college and law school and and blended in and try you know, assimilated as much as I could. I had a fantastic career, but I would say that throughout my career I kept downplaying kind of where I was from, from my ethnicity, being a working mother, and I learned eventually over. It took me a while, lisa. It took me two decades to figure out that that was not the road to success, that while it can work in the short term, it really takes an emotional toll on someone's sense of well-being. Continuing to do that day in and day out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what were some of the things that you, you did to assimilate?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so for my ethnicity, some things I did was you know, my hair can get very curly and I didn't. You know, for me my thought of a professional corporate attorney was straight hair. So I would blow dry and straighten my hair every morning, took me an hour to do that. I thought wearing hoop earrings wasn't professional. It's a very common jewelry piece in our culture. So I stopped wearing my hoop earrings.
Speaker 2:I didn't speak Spanish anywhere in the workplace with you know, if I saw the janitor, I wouldn't you know you speak Spanish. I wouldn't talk about my relatives and I had like 60 relatives and cousins in Ecuador. I didn't speak of them. So I just I just kept that part of my life and identity sort of separate. And as a working mother, you know I were.
Speaker 2:When I had my, my two daughters, that particular company was male dominated, pretty toxic, to be honest, and they didn't really embrace or provide support for working mothers. When, for example, when I told my boss I was, I knew would not be well received and but when I told my boss I couldn't hide anymore. You know I'm pregnant. His response to me was how could you do this to me? I've seen this movie, I know how it ends and he walked away. Yes, yes.
Speaker 2:So you know, coming back from that, after three months of maternity leave, which is what we get in the US, I was very scared to bring that part of my life into the workplace. And my daughter, she was. I was nursing her and she wouldn't take the bottle. So I didn't know what to do because I had to be in the office all day, every day, and you know, it was before Zoom and part-time and all the flexibility we might have now. And so I would secretly go down to the parking garage where my husband would bring my baby every three hours to nurse her, because I didn't know another way to, you know, to survive and to do it.
Speaker 2:And so you know, there's so many stories like that of just sort of hiding and downplaying. And you know, parenting, especially newborns and toddlers, is incredibly challenging, and to pretend that that isn't happening in your life is, you know, it's, it's, it doesn't provide the connection that people need or want in a workplace. So you know, that's why I encourage others now to. You know, we all go through life events, whether it's, you know, having a child, taking care of a family member, grieving a lost one, infertility, miscarriages, all there's so many things that we go through in life and, you know, keeping that part of ourselves hidden is really, really difficult.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Look, I've. I so resonate with your story about being a working mom and needing to breastfeed or needing to express milk. I used to do that and there were just no facilities. Like I had to be in a storeroom with no lock on the door and no, like, just no facilities that were appropriate. And so, yeah, as you were talking, I was like mm-hmm, mm-hmm, been there. Yeah, and like it's not that long ago.
Speaker 2:No, it's not. It's not that long ago we yeah, I didn't have a nursing room in my office either, so yeah.
Speaker 1:No, your parents must have been so proud of you going to law school and achieving some of the things that you've achieved Like. What does that mean for them coming as immigrants?
Speaker 2:Oh they are. They are very proud of me, you know. I think it's, it's their legacy. You know, I think they come from humble beginnings and my father was born in a tiny little remote town called Rio Bomba in Ecuador and to go from that to, you know, a corporate executive and board director in the US, I mean it's like unimaginable. So yeah, they're. They're quite proud that their sacrifices and their hard work mattered, you know, and that I was able to take that and and take their work ethic. I needed, believe me, I needed the, the work ethic and the resilience that I saw in them to make it, because it was incredibly challenging. It hit a lot of roadblocks and, and I think that resilience muscle really got me through- yeah, I wanted to ask you about like was.
Speaker 1:Was there a moment that you said I'm not going to assimilate anymore, I'm going to be who I am, I'm going to have my hair curly and I'm going to wear the earrings that I want to wear, right, and Look, I know how important those things are. It was like. I guess the question is was there a moment, or has it been a gradual change throughout your career, that you realized I want to show up as me and represent my culture?
Speaker 2:It's been a gradual change. I think part of the reason is there are so many external messages that came my way, that come to in other people's ways, people who are different, that say that you don't belong here, you don't belong in the room, you're different, you're weird, you're you know. Whatever those messages might be, you don't see yourself in media, you don't see yourself represented as a CEO or as a leader. You see your representative as a nanny or a housekeeper, and so you create these fears around potential backlash or not being accepted.
Speaker 2:And so all of those external messages that come in, you start believing them, you start internalizing them, and so to really unpack decades and decades of you know whether it's media or comments or microaggressions, all of these things, it takes a lot of time, depending on how much you know armory you put up, how much you know so much of the strategies you've used to survive. To let go of that requires a lot of vulnerability and a lot of courage, and that doesn't happen overnight. For me it took years. You know small little steps at a time of really being more vulnerable and honest in situations or in places that I felt safe, whether it was with friends or family or colleagues, and that built up more courage to sort of show up more and more myself.
Speaker 1:Oh, I've got two questions. I'm not sure which one to ask first. I'll go with this one. There's a documentary on Netflix about Jessica Lopez not Jessica Jennifer Lopez performing at the Super Bowl, which is obviously a massive, massive deal and it was a massive deal because she was the first Latino to do that. But I remember in the documentary her being frustrated that she wasn't allowed to headline the Super Bowl that year alone. We had to have Shakira as well, so we had two Latino women and I thought that was such an interesting observation that we have these incredible role models for Latino women. And please, am I saying that correctly, because I know Latino Latina. There's different meanings, so what would be the correct word to use?
Speaker 2:That's a great question. Thank you for asking, because it's different for everybody. So for women, latina is what I use, but it you know, latino historically has been used to apply it both to all genders. But it's changed in the recent times where there are some that want to make it more gender neutral, and so that's where Latinx has come in or Latina has come in. So there, I just say there is no right answer. It really depends on what the person feels most comfortable with, and for me, latina is feels comfortable to me, and also Latina, when you reference the whole community, feels comfortable to me. But recognize and acknowledge that it's not the same for everyone. Great, thank you. Sorry, it's a complicated answer?
Speaker 1:No, it is, and I and I knew it was a bit complicated because I'd worked on a project in the US where we were measuring within our company, the different race and ethnicities, and during that project, the external consultant I was working with had started to change the language, and so I just wanted to ask. So I guess the question is you know there are some high profile Latina women, particularly in the US, who are doing incredible things. So you do have some role models, you know you do have a bit of that. You know I can see, so I can be. I guess there's some actresses as well who've been very successful. But you also have this tension around. Well, we, we can't promote them too much, we can't headline them just one at the Super Bowl. So I wondered how that sits with you. Is the role model? Is that a good thing? But then there's still some discrimination, I guess, in how role models are used in the media.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, you know, I think we still we do have definitely some role models with big stars like Jennifer Lopez and Shakira. There's still, you know there is that bias of the sexy Latina. So you know, we have to sort of try to dispel that a bit in the workplace, which is a challenge. But I did watch that documentary. I thought it was fantastic and you know I wasn't surprised to hear that. You know she was asked to co-headline, you know, the Super Bowl. I mean that is, I think, indicative of how women and women of color have to continuously prove themselves. Usually men are rewarded for their vision and for their potential, where women have to prove and earn their spot and that creates so many. You know different challenges for women as they progress. You know all aspects of their careers.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So then the second question I wanted to ask about and I know you're on a number of boards, which is such an important place to be and an important for organizations to have diversity on their boards. One of the things you know, when I've looked at companies I want to work with or, you know, be employed by, and the recruiter comes to you and says, oh, they're really committed to diversity, lisa and I go look at their board makeup and I go look at their executive team and you know, when they're 80% white men, I'm like or one I looked at, the whole board was white men I'm like no, you're not serious. Um, what have you noticed that you bring to boards? That that really adds to what the organization is trying to achieve?
Speaker 2:Oh, I think I add a lot. I just have a different perspective on a number of different things, and so in my particular board seats, I bring the perspective as a woman and you know thinking about workplace policies like flex time and parental leave and childcare and other policies that may impact women in different ways that they impact men, and so bringing that voice I remember even before the board seat, but when I was at my last company looker was when the pandemic hit and being able to voice that people are not doing okay at home right now they kids are at home and how can they you know they're struggling, trying to work and you know, teach their kids, and that voice mattered as we thought about having some empathy for our employees going through a really difficult time. I bring a perspective as a Latina and the huge economic opportunity that is being missed out, particularly in the US where, you know, one in five or Latino. In California, 40% of the population is Latino and yet you know we're less than 2% on the board and leadership and we're missing out on, you know, real economic opportunity, you know from that marketplace.
Speaker 2:So how can we, you know, think about potential market opportunities in, you know, from a company and board perspective. You know, and just like, I think, also being what I call an other, somebody who you know never, you know, struggled belonging, struggled with fitting in, and I think because of it I have empathy for others that struggle and have a hard time fitting in, and and so I bring, I think, empathy when we talk about challenging, you know, when we think about the strategy and how we want to look at things like how is that going to impact the workplace, how I truly believe we are at a pivotal moment in time with organizations. I think post pandemic people are rethinking what they want out of their life, they want purpose and they're unwilling to kind of go back to the way things were. And we have a next generation and my daughter's 20.
Speaker 2:So I can see it first hand yeah, a next generation that wants to show up in life and in the workplace differently. And I think, as leaders, if we don't pivot and come and show up as empathetic leaders, we're not going to create the type of engagement and retention that companies will need to succeed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I couldn't agree more and I think about the challenges organizations are having at the moment, particularly finding talent. So you know, I think it was McKinsey who predicted the war for talent many, many years ago. Yeah, and in some ways I think we're there and there's a sense of where will the people gone? Like we had employees and they left us during the pandemic, but they're not rejoining. They're not necessarily rejoining the corporate world, they're not necessarily joining these big organisations because of all the things you spoke about, that where you don't have empathetic leaders and you're not thinking about what people need, and so they're going and doing other things Like and, yeah, I find it extraordinary that organisations some are not saying that. I think it's very hard.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's taking them some time and I think you know, as they continue to struggle to attract and retain talent, the ones that all succeed are the ones that'll be able to pivot.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you've had such a successful career, including being part of a team who sold a business, so that was the looker. Yes, but, yeah, which is so incredible to be part of something like that. I mean, those experiences don't happen all the time. What are you doing now? What's your work now? What's your passion now?
Speaker 2:Well, yes, I loved my time at Looker and that acquisition was a wonderful transaction and experience. So from there, you know, we hit COVID and in the midst of COVID I had someone reach out to me about the idea of getting a group of 10 women together to support each other in writing books. She was a CEO of Hotwire and noticed the lack of the female voice in media. So that's where I started my journey as an author and recently published my first book, embrace the Power of you Owning your Identity at Work, which I released in March.
Speaker 2:I said, as you mentioned, I sit on corporate boards and the other area that I also am spending time in is really supporting female entrepreneurs, and particularly entrepreneurs of color, and so I've done. I'm part of a limited partner and a couple of venture funds, as well as an angel investor, and do mentoring and advising and trying to support them with the amazing technologies and ideas that are bringing into the world that and they're just so sadly, funded less than 2%. I get less. 2% seems to be the number. Less than 2% of women get funding as and it's even worse for women of color- yeah, yeah, wow.
Speaker 1:Tell me more about your book, because a book firstly, people who write books I think are super cool. I, you know, I look up to you. I'd love to write a book one day. How did the idea of the book came? Because it's one thing to have someone come to you and say we want more diverse voices, we want more women voices. It's a whole nother thing to finish a book. So you know, how did all of that come about?
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, thank you. Yes, a book is incredibly hard to do and finish. You know the idea well, I will say the seeds were planted while I was still at Looker they. We had started the DEI program there and as part of the program we had some program called the Story to Teller program where from time to time we would just tell our stories to each other and learn from each other.
Speaker 2:And it was Hispanic Heritage Month and the Latinx ERG asked if I would tell my story to our employees and that was the first time I hadn't even realized. Honestly, it was the first time someone had asked me to, you know, stand in front of my entire company peers, employees, you know, managers, everybody and tell my story and be vulnerable. And I remember having a lot of fear going into that moment. But but I did it anyways and it was the impact of telling that story that I didn't anticipate and people not only were supportive, but particularly women of color and Latinas just came up to me and just said Thank you for telling your story. I've never seen anyone that looks like me in leadership. Your experiences are like my experiences and I never heard them in. You know the corporate space. I now think I can, you know, be the leader I want to be, because I've heard your story and so I just was like taken back, because I I remember as a young person starting my career how lonely it was to be able not to see anybody that looked like me, not to have any role model, not to not to know or believe that I can do it, and what a disservice it was that now, you know, 25 years later, I wasn't a visible role model to those, the next generation.
Speaker 2:I was the leader that I wish I saw. So that's when I decided. I remember coming home that night telling my husband like something happened to me today. That moment was so incredible. I don't know what it's going to be, but something changed today, and you know, two, it was two years later, where you know, they finished the acquisition. I was transitioning out of Looker and I got this email from, from this woman that asked if I wanted to write a book, and so I was like it literally felt like the universe, because I just got an email out of nowhere.
Speaker 2:Lisa, that just says want to write a book and I was in COVID so I thought Sure, I can write a book universe. And so that's you know, and I found an editor and I didn't know what I was going to write about, but as I kept writing, you know she was so fantastic of developing my story and like pulling out the things that were. You know some of them were hard to sort of unpack, but we're where really the I think, the gift of the story is.
Speaker 1:So yeah, stories are the best, yeah, the best. So what was, what was the purpose of your book then? What were you trying to achieve with it? Why should people read it?
Speaker 2:I guess, yeah, you know the book is for anybody who feels like an other, who wants to belong, trying to fit in, and is hiding or downplaying or changing a part of themselves to try to meet the mold and but doesn't realize that really just accepting who they are, believing when the value that they bring to the organization and that's the real path to success, that owning your identity and showing up as your authentic self is actually what the needs right now. And it tells my story. It tells you know my whole sort of journey through that because I think, as I mentioned before, it wasn't you know one aha moment. It took you know many moments to get to the other side of fears and struggles. But my purpose was to help the reader feel seen, give them strategies and tips along the way and to get on the other side and have a new vision for themselves and their life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, nice. It's so interesting because I have a lot of people on my podcast who who may have gone through a similar journey in trying to assimilate rather than showing up as as who they are and who they want to be. And when I talk to them and say, you know, now that you are, you know showing up as who you are, who you truly are, you know how has life been and, without a doubt, everyone says it's so much better opportunities came to me because of who I am and who I'm you know showing to the world and I think you know that's been the biggest takeaway for me from this podcast is just what you said like you've got to show up as who you are. You've got to show the world who you actually are and be authentic. Yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:And it's easy to say. I think I write in my book like it's, it's. It's easy to say, oh, just snap my fingers and I'll just going to show up authentic, you know.
Speaker 2:And yeah it's hard to do if you again, if all of these messages and belief systems are so ingrained in you, so I think. But when you get on the other side of it and you show up and you're accepted, I mean it's almost like you step into the, your next power, like where you really can make a difference, and it's so. That's what my hope is for for everyone.
Speaker 1:Where can people find your book and getting contact with you if they'd like to work with you? I guess?
Speaker 2:So you can find me on my website, trisha Timcom. T R I C I a T I Mcom. I'm also on LinkedIn, facebook, instagram. But yeah, and my book is sold on Amazon borns and noble and literally every everywhere books are sold you'll you'll be able to find my book as well.
Speaker 1:And I'll put all those links in the show notes so that people can find you, I guess. One last question what are you optimistic about now, with either the work you're doing or just generally in the world?
Speaker 2:I'm super optimistic about our youth, you know, seeing how more inclusive and open minded they are. You know they've gone through some hard times with the pandemic and they've built a resilient muscle that you know I think many of us, you know, didn't have and and they are welcoming and purposeful and care about the world in some amazing ways. So I'm really optimistic about them. I think that they we can learn, learn a lot from them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I so agree. Thank you so much for sharing your story, trisha. It's been an absolute pleasure having you on the podcast.
Speaker 2:Thank you, lisa. Thank you for having me and for doing this work and amplifying people like me and these messages. Thank you.