Miriam Simon is on a mission to make more women “unstoppable.” An LGBTQ+ Latina who became a mother while young, Simon returned to college as a nontraditional student, reentered the workforce as a top earner and learned to trust herself with guidance from an executive coach. She now helps others reach their goals.
Gems from that journey run through her recently published book, “Tattoos and Pearls,” and a business, Mi Sí Coaching & Consulting LLC.
“I wanted to give the gift that was given to me to others,” Simon said. “This safe space that you could be whoever you are, wherever you are and you don’t need to be code-switching. You don’t need to be thinking about who’s on the other side, am I going to be accepted, am I going to be approved.”
Big planes and small steps
Simon grew up in a large, tight-knit Mexican American family in which keeping private struggles private was a mandate. That included multiple forms of abuse and relatives’ struggles with alcohol. It also involved being in a constant state of survival mode as immigrants. She learned to rely on herself — graduating at the top of her class — and a few relatives.
One of them was an aunt, who took a young Simon with her while she worked at Newark Liberty International Airport. Simon gawked at the planes taking off near her aunt’s office. Compared with these grand departures, her own career started with a single small step: At 18, her aunt helped her line up an interview for a new customer service program at the airport.
Over 15 years in the aviation industry, Simon learned to read people and systems. She applied those skills in management and training roles, creating development programs that were later adopted company-wide.
From mentee to executive mentor
Along the way, a mentor opened doors, encouraging Simon to “step into the ring” and raise her visibility. She began bringing more of herself into work and life, including her LGBTQ+ identity — even though her mother would never accept that part of her.
But when her mentor retired, Simon felt adrift. She had raised her children young, putting college on hold to support them, and now they were grown. She had gone back to school to study business administration and stepped into leadership roles in professional development circles. And she was earning more than she had once thought possible. Yet she felt unmoored.
“I had reached the peak of my career and was thinking, ‘What am I going to do now?’” Simon’s answer was to become an executive coach, launching Mi Sí Coaching & Consulting in 2023. She turned her insights and skills as an expert in human behavior into a business helping women step out of self-doubt and into a leadership style where they can be more themselves.
She also wrote “Tattoos and Pearls.” Published in 2025, it’s part memoir, part leadership guide and an extension of her coaching. The title is a nod to her trademark pearl bracelet and tattoo. Writing it helped her heal from intergenerational trauma with support from a therapist (and from Bad Bunny tunes). So did her podcast, “Latina Mic Drop,” which is now 67 episodes strong. She sees the value of learning from brokenness, sometimes literally, like being her grandmother’s right hand when her abuela broke her wrist sledding.
“We’re always going to be new to something, we’re going to fall down,” she said. “That brokenness helps us to be resilient, to see things in a different way. Because the people that don’t go through difficult times, they can’t see what they can’t see until they see it.”
Lessons for other entrepreneurs
1. “Get out of the 9-to-5 mindset and go into an entrepreneur mindset.” Simon had long focused on growing inside her organization instead of in her own business.
2. Step outside your comfort zone: “Putting myself out there … reaching out to new people … going outside to speak to other people — I wasn’t doing any of that.”
3. Be patient: “You can’t just expect people to show up. They don’t know you exist.”
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Email: info@miriamsimon.online.
Follow on Instagram at @iammiriamsimon.
Listen to her “Latina Mic Drop” podcast.
