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The High Achiever’s First Superpower: Outwork Everyone and Succeed Through Work Ethic - with Erica Willie (part 1)
47 Plays8 days ago
In Part 1 of this two-part conversation, Leanna is joined by Erica Willie, a lifelong high achiever whose path spans tech strategy, corporate sales at firms like IBM and HubSpot, and nonprofit leadership, all while raising three children. With degrees in computer science and instructional design, Erica reflects on how her identity as a competitive student and driven professional shaped her early success, and how motherhood challenged her to reconsider her pace, purpose, and definition of achievement. This candid conversation explores the tension many ambitious women face when their career trajectory intersects with parenthood, and how they can sustain high performance while embracing personal transformation.
Don’t miss Part 2, available July 31, where Erica reveals how she reframed motherhood as a superpower and began building a legacy aligned with her evolving purpose.
Connect with Erica on LinkedIn, and find out more about her nonprofit, The ScienceSIS Foundation, on Instagram and Facebook.
Full transcript available here.
Connect with Leanna here.
If you're ready for deeper transformation, check out The Executive Mom Reset; Leanna’s six-month coaching program designed to help ambitious moms stop merely surviving and start thriving. Book a consult now!
Don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and review the show to help more women find these empowering stories!
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Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast and Hosts
00:00:04
Speaker
Welcome to the Executive Coach for Moms podcast, where we support women who are attempting to find balance and joy while simultaneously leading people at work and at home.
00:00:15
Speaker
I'm your host, Leanna Lasky-McGrath, former tech exec turned full-time mom, recovering perfectionist and workaholic, and certified executive coach.
00:00:27
Speaker
Hi, everyone. and Welcome back to the show. Thank you so much for joining me today. i am so excited to announce today's guest and introduce
Guest Introduction: Erica Willey
00:00:36
Speaker
her. Her name is Erica Willey and we go way back. who We've known each other for 20 plus years and i'm going to tell you a little bit about her.
00:00:47
Speaker
Erica is a former NFL cheerleader turned tech strategist, nonprofit founder, and mom of three. With a background in computer science and a master's in instructional design, she blends technical know-how with heart-led leadership.
Balancing Ambition, Motherhood, and Purpose
00:01:02
Speaker
She founded the ScienceSys Foundation to empower girls of color in STEM and leads CRM enablement at Paxco Tech, helping small businesses and nonprofits grow.
00:01:13
Speaker
Erica's career spans top sales roles at HubSpot, AT&T, IBM, and Cisco, and she's on a mission to prove that ambition, motherhood, and purpose can all thrive together.
00:01:23
Speaker
Yes, I love it. We share that mission, Erica. Welcome to the show. Thank you, Leanna. I'm so happy to be here. I feel honored to be here. I'm so happy to have you. i feel honored that you agreed to come on and talk to me.
00:01:36
Speaker
So I think you have the most interesting background. And I think about when we crossed paths back at San Jose State in 2006, and you were getting your master's degree at the time. and You just have such an interesting different things that you're interested in. Like you're running this nonprofit and you're also doing tech stuff and you're a cheerleader. and what was not in your bio is that you were a competitive salsa dancer ah back in those days.
00:02:07
Speaker
It all intertwines. It goes together, honestly. i think the one common denominator of it all is I'm just a very curious person. And i always push myself to the levels that may have never seen before because I just feel like following my passion, following um an idea or a goal, i always try to crush it or accomplish it.
00:02:28
Speaker
Yeah. Tell us more kind of your path, why you've taken it, what led you along these different stops along the way. Tell us more in your words.
Erica's Journey into Science and Technology
00:02:39
Speaker
Yeah. So I can even go before that. So I remember being in high school, always being a tinkerer, always trying to solve something or undo a pen and put it back together. I was always that little girl.
00:02:53
Speaker
And I got interested in science at an early age. I went to a math, science and technology middle school and high school. and I remember being very involved in tech at an early age, and i won the science fair for my school. and i got into technology, and I remember one of the teachers telling me that I could never be an engineer if I was not good at math.
00:03:15
Speaker
I'm like, wow, I love math, but I'm just like not making straight A's. It's not easy for me. And so I took that as a challenge. And so from there, that's my personality. i take a challenge and I go full throttle.
00:03:28
Speaker
And so I studied computer science in college. And while I was in college, I was very involved in marching band and in all the arts. And I became a dance girl there. went to a HBCU where you look at movies like Drumline and you see that band is a huge...
00:03:42
Speaker
deal for HBCUs and I was in the band. ah marched in the band. I played the bass clarinet and symphonic band and concert band. I was Miss Senior. I was just involved in all the things in art. I was in the gospel choir, but I still was a computer science major. I remember sleeping in McNair Hall and sleeping in the labs to try to finish and compile a program.
00:04:05
Speaker
I've always had this life of art, dance, and technology. So that's kind of how it kept going my entire life. Yeah, that's so interesting. I think it's so cool, you know, because I studied math and psychology and everyone was always like, what? I don't understand. Like, how does that work together? And I think that Sometimes whenever you hear people doing things that usually attract like different types of personalities, I guess, sometimes it's like, oh, that's so interesting that all of that exists within one person.
00:04:36
Speaker
And it's funny you say that, Leanna, because I was umm talking to with with another friend and we're talking about math and she was great in math, but she didn't follow math as her occupation and career.
00:04:47
Speaker
But she was just so good at all the things that I remember. And I'll get to our story
Career Beginnings with IBM
00:04:50
Speaker
of how we met. But I remember working with you and how you were so organized with your to do list. And now it makes sense because you have a math brain and that critical thinking is so important. and It plays in so many different roles. But yeah, that makes sense to me that you were a study math. So.
00:05:06
Speaker
h Yeah. So you went to college and you studied computer science and you did all the things outside the classroom. And then what? So I interned. I always had an internship while I was in college and I interned with IBM and And I interned IBM while I was in college. When I graduated, i accepted a role in California. So i went to college in North Carolina, And t and then when I graduated, i moved all the way to the West Coast California. And that's where I met you, Leanna. So I started at IBM and IBM had a program where
00:05:40
Speaker
they paid for your college. So if you want to go back school, they would pay for it. And i started going to San Jose State for instructional design. And then my now husband was also at Georgia, University of Georgia.
00:05:55
Speaker
And he was a resident assistant there and he had the most fabulous life. And, you know, his college was paid for and everything else was paid for. and I remember thinking about like, wow, San Jose State is kind of a transient campus, but they started building new residence halls there. And i remember applying for a job and you responded right away. I'm like, is this a real person?
00:06:18
Speaker
And then I met you in San Jose State working for you. just learned so much. I loved it, just grew as a person. and so that's where the instructional design kicked in. And back then, instructional design was fairly new.
00:06:31
Speaker
Just an umbrella of how people learn with technology is kind of like what I was learning there. I started going to San Jose State full time for my master's.
Authenticity in Cheerleading
00:06:42
Speaker
And then I think at the end of that, I started to cheer for the 49ers. I started as a salsa dancer at Gold's Gym with my friends. We're like, let's just take salsa dancing.
00:06:52
Speaker
Of course, I had to take it to the next level. and join a troupe. And we performed every single night, every night and all throughout the Bay Area. So I would get home at like maybe 1 a.m. and would practice all day. And then part of that practice was cross training for ballet because they wanted you tod be better in ballet. And so I met some cheerleaders.
00:07:14
Speaker
I'm like, oh, I want do that because if I'm a cheerleader, then i can get a lot of free dance classes. Yeah. I tried out and I got cut. and tried it out, I got cut and I'm like, wow.
00:07:27
Speaker
I was trying to be a cheerleader that I thought in my head what a cheerleader was. So like right now you can see me have curly hair. Normally I have like a big curly afro and, but I never saw cheerleaders with curly afros back then.
00:07:39
Speaker
So what I did, i tried to what I thought what it was a cheerleader. So i we, for the very first time, i remember trying to play up, trying to downplay me being a computer scientist or being smart, just like generalizing what I thought a cheerleader was. And I got cut.
00:07:54
Speaker
And I remember the next year i tried out again. I'm like, whatever, I'm just going to be myself, wear my curly afro and just talk about like why I like to do what I like to do and just be my 1000% authentic self.
00:08:09
Speaker
And then I made it. And so I use story all the time in my personal life. So I made cheer based off of me just being myself, just being myself in that room. And so I cheered and I cheered for maybe three more years while I was still working.
00:08:25
Speaker
At this point, I graduated from San Jose State and my husband moved to Jacksonville. He's very big in education. And I got into sales.
Adapting Through Various Sales Roles
00:08:35
Speaker
And I always wanted to be in sales. I thought sales was, you know, you had to be pushy and you had to get people to do what you wanted to do. And I learned about consultative sales and the skills that go into the science and the art behind sales. And i really enjoyed that.
00:08:51
Speaker
And I did that in Florida. And so my last year of cheer, I flew back and forth to Florida because I tried out. and maybe 500 girls tried out for 40 spots. And I, you know, I felt very responsible for, you know, my role on the team. didn't want to take someone else's spot and just not show up anymore. So I flew back and forth and started and sales in sales in Florida. And that's how I got into sales and started with AT&T.
00:09:17
Speaker
And then Cisco and then ADP and HubSpot and Paxco Tech. So that's kind of how that journey started. Wow. It's just so cool. Like you're like computer scientist by day at IBM and all these other big companies and then cheerleader.
00:09:32
Speaker
Yeah. salsa dancer. It's like you're an embodiment of STEAM, right? Of the sciences and technology and the arts and, you know, with dancing. And and I love that your motivation was to get free dance classes.
00:09:49
Speaker
Yeah. Even salsa dancing, I want to go dancing, but i want to get better it. And lot of people don't realize when you are a cheerleader, you're an ambassador, and you may spend 30% of your time on the field cheering, but the majority of your time you're out and you're representing the brand, the franchise.
00:10:09
Speaker
Even still to this day, i am still involved with 49ers, I go and I do certain events and I get to help out be involved just because of me being an ambassador and being able to speak and you know connect with so many different types of people.
00:10:26
Speaker
That's so interesting. So one of the things that is very prevalent throughout your adventures and your story is that kind of drive that you have to like you said, take a challenge and go full throttle is the wording that you used. And you know, kind of just like taking everything to the next level. It's like, you aren't just like doing it.
00:10:49
Speaker
You're like, if I'm going to go in, like I'm going to go in all the way and maximize it, which I know so many of our listeners can relate to as fellow high achievers. So I'm curious, like, how does that orientation for you both serve you and help you?
The Value of Resilience and Learning from Failure
00:11:07
Speaker
what are the positives and negatives, I guess, is what I'm curious about for you. Yeah, I think it helps me because i have so many stories of when I've tried something, failed, tried again, failed, and then kept trying and And so sometimes when it feels impossible, I can dig deep and say, hey, you did it before, um you can do it again. or you know, surrounding myself with a lot of different friends and women who are risk takers and they try I'm like, okay, if this person,
00:11:38
Speaker
If they can do it, then I can do it. They're not Superman. They have the same amount of hours of the day that I have. So I think just that resilience, just understanding that it takes hard work. It's not instant. I've done it before.
00:11:51
Speaker
I can dig back and then do it again. i think that has helped me. i think the drive, sometimes you can take on too much. Yeah. And you can be really hard on yourself. I know we do that as moms and as women.
00:12:05
Speaker
And we can do it all, but sometimes it doesn't show up right away. Maybe i can use an easy example. Like just say weight gain, like, you know, back in the day, you can say, oh, I can exercise for 20, 30 days and I can be back, you know, I was before.
00:12:21
Speaker
And sometimes you dig deep and say, all right, I did this, then this should happen, you know, based off of what I used to do. And sometimes it doesn't happen that way all the time. And sometimes you have to do a little bit more.
00:12:32
Speaker
and so it can be a little discouraging when you're very ambitious and it doesn't work out in like how it used to or how it used to be easier to um to reach a certain goal. So that comes with, you know, yeah your life is a little different. You know, you have you have less time, you have more things pulling at you as a mom. So That can be a little challenging. Mm-hmm.
00:12:54
Speaker
Yeah, so I'm hearing you say kind of like the resilience, like it's really helped you with resilience and just to like not give up and just know that failure is part of the journey of and you keep going. And how do you do that? Like, how do you keep going? Like you gave the example of you see other people doing it. And I think that that's so important, like surrounding yourself with people who are doing big things or people who you. know who inspire you But any other ways that you have found to be able to keep going and not get discouraged? And because I think sometimes, you know, we experience failure, especially as high achievers.
00:13:32
Speaker
It's like we experience failure and we're like crushed by it. And feel like we can't keep going. And so how do you keep going? Like, how do you pick yourself back up and try again? In my experience, one of my good friends, her name is Esther Ayurande. I love her. She used to be a cheerleader as well.
00:13:48
Speaker
She's in tech. But I remember her telling me that it's a muscle. So even trying hard as a muscle, if you don't use it, it's weak.
00:13:58
Speaker
So you have to keep trying and keep trying and get better and get stronger at that thing. and then you'll get better at it. So and think i am more terrified at not trying something. And like 20 years later, I said, oh, my gosh, I should have, could have, would have.
00:14:13
Speaker
I think that terrifies me more than failing. And also failing to me is not as scary. i think failing to me is more of never starting. So like, try and it may not work out. But to me, that's not failing.
00:14:26
Speaker
Trying and trying and trying, that is considered getting better and stronger, working like out at something. So um I think that's how I push through that, thinking about if you don't do it, then that's failing. But if you try to do it and you're getting better at something. so Yeah, I love that because it's like you're redefining failure. We talk so much about redefining success, but you're talking about redefining failure, which I think is so important. You know, it's like, no, actually, if I don't succeed at that thing, that's not failure. Like a bigger failure would be if I didn't try it in the first place.
00:15:03
Speaker
I agree. yes Yeah, yeah. I love that perspective and kind of rethinking that. And then you talked about how a challenge can be that you might take on a little bit too much. So how does that show up? Tell me more about that.
00:15:16
Speaker
ah you know, like the the octopus mom arms, you're like, I can take all these groceries in. I can take it all in. I wouldn't take it everything and then a bag drops and everything all the eggs break. ah um But that can show up for me personally if I have like five things on my to-do list. And i I can tell you how I'm getting better at that.
00:15:38
Speaker
But
Managing Personal Goals and Time
00:15:39
Speaker
I'll have like five things I need to do. Probably cannot really be done realistically in a day. But I think I can do it. I want to do it because they have to get done then they don't get done. And then you're you're so mad at yourself and you're upset at yourself. And I get really down on myself for not completing something.
00:15:55
Speaker
and have been trying to do, i follow ah another podcast. It's like bright. I mean, it's not her original idea, but calendar everything, block everything out. To give me a real give me a realistic view of the day, like Erica, really?
00:16:08
Speaker
This takes you five hours to do. How do you expect to do this in 15 minutes? You know, just being realistic with myself and putting stuff on my calendar versus a to-do list, that has helped me out. But I get really down on myself and I know probably share that, like we want to do it all and in one day.
00:16:27
Speaker
So that is something that I am, you know, i'm trying to work on every single day. Yeah, I've heard that reframed as optimistic. Like that. That we can be very optimistic about how fast we can do something when a task that just takes a human five hours to do.
00:16:48
Speaker
we like, yeah, 15 minutes, no problem. And then the other thing I heard you talk about is how our bodies are changing as we age. I guess it's kind of like what I'm hearing you say about, you know, i used to be able to work out for 28 days and be at whatever weight that I would up would want.
00:17:06
Speaker
And that it doesn't work that way anymore your Fantastic.
00:17:12
Speaker
after three kids however many kids we have, right? And so tell me more about that or your thoughts on that. My thoughts on weight or working out or my thoughts on just, you know, being able to do things you used to do.
00:17:26
Speaker
Well, I think to me, when I think about this, it's kind of like there are some physical limitations. And then I think sometimes like we have thoughts about that.
00:17:39
Speaker
And, you know, we can have thoughts of like acceptance or resistance or anywhere along that spectrum, right? Of like, no, if I could do this 28 days, 10 years ago or 20 years ago, I should still be able to do it.
00:17:52
Speaker
Or like, okay, used to take me that long. Now it's gonna take me this long. Or okay, like what was possible in the past? Like the end result that was possible in the past. I need to re-examine what that looks like now because like maybe that's not possible. So I guess I'm just curious, like your experience with it or what that looks like.
00:18:11
Speaker
Is it really hard or is it like, yeah, this is just part of life? Yeah. Huh. That's a good question.
Adapting During Pregnancy
00:18:19
Speaker
i can give you a really good example, a story of how it really showed up the very first time. So I got pregnant, my my first child, and I moved to Jacksonville, like I said, in sales.
00:18:32
Speaker
I started in sales in Jacksonville. I did not start out in tech sales. In order to get in tech sales, it really doesn't matter if you have a background in engineering. It really matters if you have background in sales.
00:18:42
Speaker
you You know that you worked in the tech space. I didn't have any background in and sales at all. So I started with AT&T. And then i got a position with another company, a tech company. And I remember me wanting to prove myself so much and I was pregnant. And before I had issues, husband and I were trying and it didn't happen right away. So we kind of sought out some virtual fertility things and it didn't work. And anyway, we were just minding our business and got pregnant. So I was like a little nervous, my first child. And you don't have to tell your anyone, especially in your first trimester, right? You're a little nervous.
00:19:19
Speaker
I got a job during that time. And I'm like, you know, I was grappling with, should I tell them I'm pregnant? um But I don't really know if I am going to be successful. So I didn't say anything because I got a lot of advice to say. you Don't say anything right now.
00:19:34
Speaker
um was really early. And then so i joined a team, all corporate bros. And I wanted to compete so bad. i wanted to be the first one in the office and the last one to leave. I was pregnant.
00:19:46
Speaker
And i started fainting. remember going into the office. I was in the elevator by myself early because I want to be the first one. And I found myself on the ground. And I'm like, oh my gosh, how did I? I'm fainting.
00:19:57
Speaker
And then it kept happening. I was maybe six months pregnant at this time. And my doctor was like, all right, Erica, this is unsafe. You cannot drive because you can drive and faint. pushing myself a real, you know, too hard normally how I can normally push myself, especially in sales. You want to you want to kill it. And it was just I was pushing myself beyond my boundaries, physically could not do it.
00:20:18
Speaker
And so that was my first sign to like stop and say, hey, Erica, you are not in the space and same body that you were before. And that same lesson, that was an early lesson for me to say, all right, be thankful for where you are now. you are where you're supposed to be.
00:20:34
Speaker
need to take care of this body of yours. and So I use that same mantra. Like we kind of talked about having, you know, kids and being able to snap back. I hate that word. I hate saying snap back. But just being thankful in the space, like, oh, my gosh, I'm a mom. I get to be a mom. Like that is nothing I take for granted.
00:20:53
Speaker
So just circling back and realizing like the gifts that you get to live with and being thankful for that versus being where you used to be. There's a new blessing in the now with the gifts that you got. Like this is what you asked for.
00:21:08
Speaker
This is what you asked for. like And I have what i what i asked for, what I prayed for. So i think just being thankful in the moment kind of helps me not be so hard on myself when I can't push myself like I used to or what I used to be able to do. Because now I'm in a place that I asked to be and I, i you know, dreamt of. And so that doesn't come with, you know, if I'm going to be where I used to be, maybe I wouldn't have three daughters.
00:21:33
Speaker
Just trying to be thankful in the space that I am, that is very helpful to me. Yeah. You know, what I love about that is I think that so often when we ask for, dream for pray for things We expect that it's an and, like that that we get to keep everything that we have right now and then add this.
00:21:57
Speaker
And I think that we often don't realize that there are just trade-offs for everything. Like when we ask for hope for, dream four pray for a long life,
00:22:10
Speaker
we don't think about what that means, right? Like we don't think about that another decade means like another decade of wear and tear on our bodies, you know, our bodies evolving and kind of us losing muscle mass bone density or things like that. Right. But it's like, we just only look at the good parts of it. Like, and that's what we want.
00:22:34
Speaker
Yeah. And we don't think about the other side of it. Yeah, I totally agree with that. Yeah. It makes me think of working motherhood because it's very much like we think it should be both and all the time, right? Like we should be able to show up to your point. Like we used to be able to.
00:22:52
Speaker
We should be able to be the first in the office and last out. and also grow another human with our bodies. Right. Right. All at the same time, we hold ourselves to those standards. And I don't mean that to say that that's like a personal failing. That's like a societal thing, right? Like we are expected to work like we don't have children and to raise children like we
Embracing Motherhood in Career
00:23:14
Speaker
don't work. And so it's so important for us to acknowledge both individually and societally important Right? That like there's trade-offs.
00:23:25
Speaker
We just can't physically be, but it is, it's hard to accept that I can't do what I used to do any more Yeah, no, that's, I feel like with working and thinking about working like you don't have children and that pressure, I remember, and feel like the hardest part of my career. So we, you know, talk about like right now, DEI is super in the forefront for all working workspaces.
00:23:53
Speaker
And I remember being in tech And I don't remember feeling any type of overt um discrimination as far as me being young or me being Black or me being a woman. I didn't feel that.
00:24:06
Speaker
But when I became a mom, I felt that. And I recently I'm getting over that little insecurity about being a mom in the tech space and sales and surprise sales. You know how like intense that is and how much you have to be on and available. And and sometimes that that doesn't pair well. And, you know, I remember not being able to wanting to share that because I felt like that was a hindrance me.
00:24:35
Speaker
because, oh, she has to show up for her kids. And so when I fainted, that was an insecurity that I started having. um i was trying, I was kind of hiding motherhood a little bit from, you know, my peers. And so that's something that I kind of had to get over and really dig dig deep and and realize that it's actually my superpower.
00:24:58
Speaker
It made me bolder once I let people know, like, I'm mom. I lightened up. People can see the light in me when I talk about my kids. And it made me more efficient and more empathetic.
00:25:10
Speaker
And that's kind like everything I've built, like my business, my nonprofit, my brand, it all has roots in the lessons that I have learned from being a mom. That is... the root of it all. And so now I'll look at it as my superpower. But like, to your point, it was kind of stressful, you know, when I first became a mom, and that was like a little insecurity to me that I've never had, like, I've always been very overly confident in all the things.
00:25:35
Speaker
But that was one insecurity that i had to push through and dig deep. Yeah. Well, i love this because I think that so many of us high achievers, it's like, we believe our superpower is being able to outwork anybody else.
00:25:50
Speaker
Like we trust ourselves that we know that we can put in whatever we need to do to excel, to get to the top, right? It's like, yeah, I can transition from being a tech role into a sales role and i'm not going to have a problem with it because I know myself, I know, right? Like,
00:26:10
Speaker
you know that you're going to do whatever it takes to make sure that you succeed. And that, I think a lot of times, is like what we believe our superpower is. And so i want to pause here and talk more next week and hear more from you about...
00:26:27
Speaker
how you shifted to embracing motherhood as your superpower.
Episode Wrap-up and Future Preview
00:26:32
Speaker
And I want to learn all about what you're doing now and the nonprofits that you're building. And thank you so much, Erica. This has been so fun. And I can't wait to talk to you next week and hear more about where you're at now. And I hope everybody who's listening will join us next week.
00:26:47
Speaker
Thank you, Leanna. Talk to you soon. All right. Thanks. everyone have a good week bye-bye
00:26:57
Speaker
If you're loving what you're learning on this podcast, I'd love to invite you to check out the Executive Mom Reset. It's my six month coaching program for ambitious, success driven, career focused women who are ready to stop surviving and start thriving.
00:27:12
Speaker
Together, we'll tackle the stress, guilt and overwhelm that come with being a high achieving executive mom. You'll learn how to set boundaries, prioritize what truly matters and build the confidence to show up powerfully at work, at home and for yourself.
00:27:26
Speaker
Head on over to coachleana.com right now to schedule a free discovery call. We'll spend an hour talking about where you are now, what you want to create, and how I can help you get there. Because every woman deserves to live the life of her dreams.
00:27:40
Speaker
Let's create yours together.