Meet Tatiana Gomez, Nonprofit Account Manager at SalesForce | Leveraging your strengths

When being expressive means being emotional, assertive means bossy, introverted means weak, confident means conceited and friendly means flirtatious, juggling how others perceive you can be an ongoing battle at the workplace as a woman.  The ball that often gets dropped in this juggle is the opportunity for minority women to understand and leverage their unique strengths, amplifying their value and success. 

While stereotyping is still present in the workplace, there’s also been a powerful push towards prioritizing diversity, equity and inclusion. So when you get a seat at a table where no one else looks like you, how do you stay in alignment with who you are, take ownership of your career, leverage your status as a minority female and make Oprah proud?

As an early career nonprofit account manager at Salesforce and a first generation Latina, Tatiana Gomez shared with us her experience with the balancing act. 

The fear of not being valued for who you are at work can be crippling. For Gomez, like the rest of us, working through that fear meant shifting her idea of what it meant to be “enough.” 

“I love being an expert so I think that for me, I wanted to know the answers for my customers and I felt let down if I didn’t have an answer for them immediately,” Gomez said. 

“I think that one of the best things you can do is say to your customer, ‘I don’t know that but I will definitely get you the answer.’ You learn very quickly that people will trust you because you’re being honest and vulnerable with them.”

It’s tough to recognize the power of vulnerability but we’re lucky enough to live in a world where people like Brene Brown and Michelle Obama are there to help us understand. It’s important to acknowledge the strength that it takes to be vulnerable but also realize that your strength doesn’t just disappear when you are vulnerable. 

“There’s always some type of knowledge that you can bring to the table about your company, about you or about your experience that can serve as some type of educational experience for the customer,” Gomez said. 

It can be as simple as sharing a unique perspective from another customer or your experience leading an employee growth initiative at your previous company. You’re able to build credibility by going internal and using your unique experiences to provide value for your customers.  “We all have to know our self worth and know what we bring to the table… I think minority women offer perspective and empathy in certain ways. I think that we often overlook the kind of experience we have and what we have to offer.” 

Being a woman, you offer something unique. Being a minority, you offer something unique. By being who you are, you offer something unique.  

“The beauty of sales is that everybody approaches an opportunity and a deal in very different ways. And you really have to find your own identity and how you want to run your sales cycle,” Gomez said. 

Sure, if your idea of success is making a lot of money, you can definitely do that in sales even if you go with the unseasoned rice approach. But by choosing to get in alignment with yourself, leveraging your unique value and taking ownership over your career growth, you get long term fulfillment in your pocket and in your life—all while making Oprah proud.