Visibility? It’s Complicated.

How I fixed this situationship.

Our Substacker friend Hady Méndez. Photo credit: Dee Dee Thompson.

For a long time, I thought being good at my job was enough. That keeping my head down and working hard would lead to the outcomes I wanted, and that doing great work would get me the recognition I deserved.

Back then, visibility didn’t feel comfortable to me. The visible people I knew all felt like show-offs and brown-nosers. I prided myself on being humble, so how they were showing up didn’t fit who I was or how I wanted to be seen, and I struggled with that. There was a real disconnect between wanting to be visible and not quite knowing how to handle being seen. Bragging about my accomplishments felt icky, but not getting recognized sucked even more. That tension held me back from fully stepping into the leader I was becoming.

And that tension didn’t just live in my head; it showed up in moments that should have felt like wins but didn’t always land that way.

There was this one time I received an award at work. At first, I was happy and honored. The award wasn’t just about doing my job well, but about how I was contributing to the company’s culture. My manager told me it “wasn’t even close”. My work with the Latinx ERG had made me a shoo-in for it. Yet, after I got the award, many of my co-workers whispered that I only got it because of my Latinidad. They tried to erase my contributions as a customer success manager. Their comments made me feel like an imposter. Instead of representing something I should be proud of, the award filled me with self-doubt and resentment.

So yeah, visibility has always been complicated for me, and with good reason. As a Latina, I didn’t receive much of it in the workplace, and when I did, I didn’t know how to hold it. And when I finally started to get comfortable with the idea, my peers made me feel like I didn’t deserve it.

What finally made visibility click for me was community.

It took becoming part of a Latina community and being surrounded by a bunch of loving Latinas to believe that I was worthy of the respect and admiration that was being directed at me.

I trusted them. I believed them.

I let it land, and I decided to own it.

My leadership, my voice, my impact, my magic - all of it. I finally allowed myself to take it in.

And those small moments of being seen led to much bigger ones. Until I could finally take up the space I’d earned. I could talk about my impact with confidence and orgullo. And I could help other mujeres do the same.

As a content creator, author, and coach, I help women find their voice, own their story, and take up the space they’ve worked hard for. I’m good at it because I’ve been there and found my way to the other side.

My visibility lies in reaching the people who need to hear my message and are ready to act on it.

If I can leave you with anything, it would be this: visibility starts with proudly honoring the mujer you are and what you bring to the table, and with how you see yourself when no one else is looking.

Accept the award with grace.

Receive your flowers.

Say thank you without deflecting.

Talk about your work out loud.

To the mujer who has spent years, sometimes decades, working hard, making others look good, and who downplayed her contributions for fear of what being in the spotlight might feel like, I honor you, I celebrate you, and I invite you to take up all the space you’ve earned.

About the author

Hady Méndez is the award-winning author of Calladita No More, a proud Puerto Rican, and a leadership coach based in Madrid. As the founder of Boldly Speaking LLC, she helps underestimated professionals build confidence, advocate for themselves, and step into leadership. A LinkedIn Top Coaching & Mentoring Voice, her work has been featured in Business Insider, #WeAllGrow Latina, and with organizations such as Lean In Latinas and Ellevate Network.

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