Julia Collins

yourself.

Oh my gosh.

So like how I'm showing up to you today in this like pink dress and shoes, that is like my authentic presentation.

That is like how I am in the world and how I'm meant to show up in the world.

But when I got to Silicon Valley, I was like wrapped in a DVF wrap dress with glam and I was such a fish out of water.

Immediately I grabbed the like hooded sweatshirt, you know, you zip it up three quarters, not all the way.

And it was like,

ridiculous.

It was so clear that I was a fish out of water.

It was like I was doing cosplay for founders.

And when I knew it wasn't working, first of all, I didn't feel as confident

My jokes weren't hitting.

My pitches weren't landing.

Because you tried to change yourself.

I was costuming myself.

I was really trying to pattern match so hard against a pattern that had nothing to do with me.

There's nothing I could ever do.

There's no costume I could ever wear that was going to maybe look like the next tech bro founder.

That's just not going to happen.

And so I think there was a crisis point where I just realized like it wasn't landing.