Tell Your Story!

Tell your story!

I cannot emphasize this enough.

Let everyone know your wins and losses, what you’re passionate about or what goals you are working towards, both professional and personal. Make sure you post on social media, record or discuss with your manager, director, or whoever you report to.

If you don’t let others know who the real you is, then you allow any one the opportunity to paint a picture of you from their viewpoint. They will then share that viewpoint with others and those people will believe it.

This happens way more than you think. This happens to whole communities who are too humble or who have created a culture of “staying under the radar”. People will take advantage of this culture. They will use it against you. They will use it to keep you at a certain level. They will test you and in some cases they will find out.

Some people wonder why they can never catch a break, why they work so hard to do good, or to obtain credentials to elevate them and nothing seems to be gained from all that hard work. It’s because you’re not sharing those stories with anyone else but yourself. Even if you told your manager, they are not required to help you share that information.?

This happened to me. I had to learn the hard way that if you don’t tell your own story, someone else will do it for you. And in my case, they told it very badly. It hurt me both professionally and personally. I never got an apology out of it and I’m pretty sure they have never told people that they were wrong about what they said about me. Let the universe take care of that and be at peace with it. I know Karma got my back.

It took some deep reflection to realize what had happened to me was unjust and downright illegal. The only repercussion that came out of it was my inability to undo the chisme that this other person had created about me, thus creating a barrier which stopped me in my career tracks.

I have since accepted the situation and moved forward because while you can think they stopped me in my tracks, they only created a new and improved Angela. The Angela that can see a barrier and start chipping away at it or simply find a new way around it. I could have stayed where I was at and let her have the win, but this chingona ain’t about that life!

Now, I advocate for everyone to tell their story. The wins and the losses. Empower myself and others, in the hopes that they can continue to spread empowerment throughout our communities. We cannot continue to keep our heads down. We are capable of doing great and powerful moves to elevate ourselves, our families, our friends, and our colleagues.

Steps to take to empower yourself and others:

- Just show up.?

Even if you are an introvert, just showing up shows meaning, importance. Also helpful when starting your social capital. Keeping showing up and your support system will develop naturally.

- Document everything.?

Make a vision board, write down goals, take notes or ask for a follow up email on what was discussed. This is especially helpful to gauge how far you have gotten or when you need to reflect back on something.

- Start sharing.

Your story could help someone else going through the same situation or inspire. Be authentic and true. Stay humble but be strong and brave.

- Drink water.

Drinking tons of water can help you stay focused on yourself because you’ll always be too busy in the bathroom to pay attention to others. Haha

Be sure to follow Angela Salazar via LinkedIn for more content and networking opportunities within the Phoenix Metro area.