Who Are You Outside of Your Work? w/ Yai Vargas
Founder of The Latinista &
VP of Strategic Engagements at The Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility
“What you do full time is not everything you are. You have to remember to make space for your volunteer initiatives, give back to the community, & pour what you learn into helping others”
CONNECTING TO THE RIGHT PEOPLE ON LINKEDIN
Even though I work for an organization, the posts I create are not for them but for my personal brand. Each time I share an article, it serves as a resource for the people in my network. I have a lot of engagement because I'm connected to the right people - Latina professionals who, like me, are invested in their career and leadership development.
HOW TO CULTIVATE A PERSONAL BRAND ON LINKEDIN
Think about the people you want to surround yourself with. If your goal is to become a Chief Marketing Officer or a Chief Technology Officer, start by finding those individuals online and connecting with them. That way, you can see everything they post and every conference they attend, and begin adding it to your vision board. For example, if you see they were featured on a podcast, attended a conference, or traveled to an event, write it down so you can aspire to do the same.
If you want to be like that person, you should aim to be in the same rooms and attend the same conferences.
Identify Your Area of Expertise
The second question to consider is: What do you want to teach people? When someone mentions your name, you want to be known as a subject matter expert in something. This way, people know what to come to you for. You need to identify your areas of expertise - what you're really good at and what you want to be known for. Once you know these things, you can start creating content about them. That way, every time someone searches for your subject, your name will be the one that pops up.
Use Strategic Words to Shape Your Brand
To shape people's perception of you, you need to be specific. Identify the key words that describe how you want to be perceived, and use them intentionally in your posts. For example, if you create mentorship resources for high schoolers and college students, remind people of that in your posts so they know what you do and what you're good at. That way, when someone needs help in that area, they'll think of you first. You want to make sure that people associate your name with your area of expertise.
WHY YOU MAY EXPERIENCE IMPOSTER SYNDROME
At any point in your career and almost every single individual on this earth experiences impostor syndrome, I still experience it and I know many CEOs that do. What's very interesting about it is that it’s twofold. First, it's self-inflicted because you may have limiting beliefs and perhaps you believe that you don't have enough experience to be known as a subject matter expert. You may say to yourself, ‘ I'm not a PhD, or I don't have four degrees like this person.’
Second, it's also influenced by the people around you. If the people around you don't represent a diverse perspective, you may feel uncomfortable and like you don't belong. You may only see success as being like John Smith at a very white-male dominated company, and think to yourself, 'If I don't look like them, I'm never going to be successful.' Unfortunately, the spaces you're surrounded by can contribute to feeling like an impostor.
My advice is to be intentional about changing the culture or get out of there.
Finally, there may be beliefs that hold you back, like thinking you need a certain number of degrees or complete understanding of a topic before you can consider yourself a subject matter expert.
And How To Overcome It…
What you have to remember is that you should only be sharing your subject matter expertise at the current stage of learning that you're in. So I always say to people, 'I'm a millennial, I'm a Latina, I speak a second language, I immigrated to this country, I grew up in corporate America, and I've been working in that space for 17 years. This is my perspective, and at this given moment, I'm still evolving but this is what I have learned.'
Imposter Syndrome comes into play when you're comparing yourself with someone else. You might think thoughts like, 'I'm never going to be able to contribute to this conversation. I'm standing next to a CEO. I can't possibly know what this person knows. This person is an economist and has been doing this for 20 years. Oh my goodness, I'm so out of my element.' But you're not. You should only be speaking from your current perspective.
Imposter syndrome, I don't think, ever goes away. It always creeps up on you when you have thoughts like 'What can I possibly contribute?' But you have to pause and remind yourself of the reason why they're asking you a question or why they invited you into a space - it's because you're different from them and they're different from each other. You're there to talk about your perspective and experience, and they expect nothing else.
THE VISION YAI HAS FOR HERSELF
I've done a lot of work when it comes to the lack of representation among Latinos and women of color. Unfortunately, less than 1% of corporate board members are Latinos. A corporate board typically consists of anywhere between 10 and 12 individuals in the Fortune 500. With 500 companies having at least 10 people on their boards, there are 5000 potential board seats. However, only 59 of those paid corporate board seats are held by Latinas.
Latinas and women of color often lack access to the resources, knowledge, and information necessary to obtain a paid corporate board seat. In my career trajectory, I'm trying to learn as much as possible and align myself with the right people, resources, and knowledge to serve on a local community board seat. This will help me move towards obtaining a paid corporate board seat.
There's a lot that needs to happen between where I am now and obtaining that paid corporate board seat. I'm gathering connections with accomplished individuals, seeking advice and information, and building a checklist of what I need to know and do in order to be visible to those looking for a Latina or person of color to serve on their board. I'm preparing myself for that position in 2023 by understanding what needs to be done and gathering the necessary resources.
