Guerrero Anónimo

We are highlighting a previous episode of the ¿Quién Tú Eres? podcast, where we explore the conflict we often face between "professionalism" & being our authentic selves.

This episode is unlike any other we've had before. In this episode, we have a guest who we have called Guerrero Anónimo to honor his request to remain anonymous.  That. said, Guerrero Anónimo is the proud product of diligent immigrant parents from Latin America. He is a world traveler and a disruptor who wants to break cultural barriers in corporate America and drive this change within Fortune 100 companies.

For this episode, he decided to remain anonymous because he is going through a pivotal moment in his career, but he tells us that he will reveal his identity one day. For now, he shares what he has learned with his experiences with micro-aggressions and what led him to begin showing up as his authentic self.

These are some of the episode highlights:

“I'm gonna have to fake it if I want to be successful here. I'm gonna have to act like something that I'm truly not.” -Guerrero Anónimo

In college and in the early years of his career, Guerrero Anónimo was confident. And part of that confidence came from beliefs he picked up from his culture and society, such as being a tough man and not letting anybody see when he was struggling.

The reality was that he was going through certain emotions because he felt like he didn't belong. And this led to him adopting the mindset of “fake it until you make it” and scaling back his way of expressing so that he could ensure future opportunities.

“I'm doing great, but I'm only giving like 20-30% capacity... because 50% of me is all acting.” -Guerrero Anónimo

So much energy goes into acting like somebody that we are not. It requires a lot of thinking to watch what we say and do while simultaneously being concerned about how we are perceived... It is exhausting work. And Guerrero Anónimo began to feel this way after some time.

He realized that a lot of his potential and ideas were lost when consuming his time on figuring out how to act more Latino or White so both groups would welcome him and what he had to offer.

Eventually, Guerrero Anónimo grew tired of this and decided to be who he was and give his 100% as his authentic self.

“They need to see that our people can achieve... can get to the top... and also be themselves while doing it.” -Guerrero Anónimo

Seeing success in our community has fueled Guerrero Anónimo to show up as his authentic self. This representation reminded him not to hold himself back by hiding who he is and everything he has already accomplished thus far. And he tells us that this inspiration and empowerment he now carries were also ignited by the stories shared in this podcast.

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Guerrero Anónimo encourages us to think about the many things we can accomplish if we stop faking it and show up as our authentic selves.

Listen to this episode to learn more about his journey: Spotify & Apple Podcasts

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