Pivoting Your Brand and Business into Thought Leadership with Marisol Erlacher: Podcast Ep. 235

235-SYB-Marisol-Erlacher.mp3: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

235-SYB-Marisol-Erlacher.mp3: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Carol Cox:
What does it feel like to pivot your brand and your business into thought leadership? Listen in to this conversation with Diane Diaz and Marisol Erlacher on this episode of the Speaking Your Brand podcast. More and more women are making an impact by starting businesses, running for office and speaking up for what matters. With my background as a TV political analyst, entrepreneur and speaker, I interview and coach purpose driven women to shape their brands, grow their companies, and become recognized as influencers in their field. This is speaking your brand, your place to learn how to persuasively communicate your message to your audience. Hi there and welcome to the Speaking Your Brand podcast. I’m your host, Carol Cox. Have you been getting the feeling that you’re ready to go bigger with your ideas and your message, that you want to have a bigger impact and reach more people? This is exactly what our guest today, therapist Marisol Erlacher, started feeling last year, especially as she took part in conversations with other Bipoc women who were recognizing the role that trauma has played in their leadership development and how it has shown up in their professional lives. Marisol is a therapist and a group practice owner, and over the past year, year and a half, she’s realized that she wants to step more into her thought leadership. And as part of this, it’s a shift of identity from being a therapist and a business owner into a thought leader.

Carol Cox:
Marisol is currently in our Thought Leader Academy and has been working one on one with our lead speaking coach, Diane Diaz, on her thought leadership platform and signature talk. So I thought I’d be perfect for Diane and Marisol to have this conversation about Marisol stepping into her thought leadership, how listening to cues can guide you, and identifying your thought leadership message, the scary and exciting aspects Marisol is experiencing as she’s shifting her identity into thought leadership. And I love what she says towards the end of their conversation about her evolution as a thought leader, Marisol says, it’s not about how other people see me. It’s about how I’m seeing myself. Our Thought Leader Academy will be open for enrollment again at this September. Get on the interest list by going to speaking your Brand.com slash Academy again, that’s speaking your brand.com/academy. All of the women in the program get both one on one coaching and the weekly zoom group calls so that you can work on your thought leadership message and platform, your lead generation signature talk, your story driven Ted style talk, as well as your visibility plan and how to generate revenue from speaking. Again, get on the interest list by going to speaking your brand.com/academy. Now let’s get on with the show.

Diane Diaz:
Welcome to the Speaking Your Brand podcast. Marisol.

Marisol Erlacher:
Hi. Thanks for having me, Diane.

Diane Diaz:
Oh, I’m so excited that you’re here. I love working with you. So I’m really excited for everybody to hear your story and talk about this idea of thought leadership and how you’re using it to kind of pivot your brand. So why don’t you take a second first, though, and tell our audience a little bit about yourself and what you do in your business? Sure.

Marisol Erlacher:
So Marisol Solano Erlacher, and I would say primarily at this point in my business, I am a therapist, a psychotherapist, and I work primarily with adults, high functioning adults who have developmental trauma. So that’s been the core of my practice. I’m also an eMDR therapist and do a lot of consultation related to eMDR therapy. And I also, uh, am moving into and shifting into different parts of my practice. And I also have a group practice, uh, connected with my individual practice. And so I have therapists that work with me and with whom I collaborate.

Diane Diaz:
And how long have you been doing this type of work, Marisol?

Marisol Erlacher:
A long time. So clinically. I’ve been working since 2004. I actually graduated in 2004, got my first clinical, full time clinical position right before I graduated. I have been in private practice since 2007, about 2006 2007. Okay.

Diane Diaz:
And I’m curious to I don’t know if we’ve ever talked about this like what was it that brought you to this, the area of work and specifically in developmental trauma. What did you have something or was there something that you were interested in or something that kind of called you to that sort of segment of the work?

Marisol Erlacher:
I never thought that I would be a trauma therapist, to be quite honest. Um, I’ll say that my first understanding of what trauma was was in my internship. And so I worked in a, um, medical facility that did work with or provided services for people who were the, uh, were uninsured. And so, um, at that time, they brought me in as a Spanish speaking therapist and, uh, primarily to work with people who presented with depression. And when I started. Good to do that work. I recognize that the primary issue wasn’t depression or anxiety or whatever the symptoms that were, uh, clients were expressing. It was really trauma and really rooted in some form of early trauma. And so that piqued my interest. And then as I continued to do that work, I realized that, uh, that was really what I wanted to focus on. And so my first job, clinical job, was working at a local rape crisis center, and I knew that that was going to be the the best training ground for me to become a trauma therapist. And that’s really where I fell in love with the work.

Diane Diaz:
That is so interesting. Yeah, I can imagine that. That would be very rewarding. I mean, obviously challenging, but also really rewarding from the standpoint of how you’re helping people.

Marisol Erlacher:
Yeah. You know, I’ve come to realize, like my giftedness in this work is really my ability and capacity to conceptualize what’s happening for people and to be able to communicate that and to know what the path forward is. And so I feel like that’s my gift in this work. And then I probably would say, Diane, to be really honest, that probably my childhood plays a part in it, uh, in unconscious ways.

Diane Diaz:
As it does with most people.

Marisol Erlacher:
I think there was probably a way that my own childhood trauma moved me in that direction. Right. The ways that I could maybe understand a client’s experience and be able to have a lens of of that was broader or, uh, maybe more, uh, maybe deeper than my own clinical experience. So I think that that’s always an unfolding for most therapists in the course of their own personal work and then their own clinical work. And so I think, you know, there was a part where I, I knew I had a gift and I loved it. And then a part that probably my own childhood played in, in being both good and attuned to that type of work.

Diane Diaz:
And that’s so interesting and so telling, I think, and probably what makes you really good at what you do to a level of empathy. Yeah.

Marisol Erlacher:
And I think for most therapists, what I always encourage therapists that I’ve worked with, um, to do is to really do their own personal work.

Diane Diaz:
Well, and I know that, Marisol, when we’ve been talking, um, in some of our thought leader Academy, you brought up this idea of working with Bipoc and professional trauma. So can you give me? Because I know, and we’ll talk a little bit more in a moment about how your thought leadership message is kind of going in that direction, but give me an idea of what spurred the interest in that and how that came up for you as an idea of maybe being something a bigger sort of platform that you can stand on and a bigger message for you.

Marisol Erlacher:
I think that what how this evolved for me really started from my own personal experience. So I in gosh, I think it was probably 2018. I had an experience that really propelled me to start to think about my own personal professional experience and how that would inform some of the things that I want to do in the future. And so, um, I’m not sure I’ve told this story, and this is actually a very personal story. And I, um, on my own podcast, I have gone back and forth about how I share this, and I haven’t shared the details of it, but, uh, I was in a meeting and it was a team meeting. So it was with the therapists that work with me and some of my administrative staff. And, um, we were talking about ways that we wanted to transition the practice forward, which is really interesting. Now that I’m in that place right now and in a different iteration of that, that whole experience. But we were in the meeting and I had gotten a text message from my sister and or, I’m sorry, my sister had called me, and my sister never calls. Like, you know, we’re usually text messaged, we’re a text messaging kind of, uh, family. And so I declined the call. And then she texted me and said, I need you to call me right away because mom is in jail.

Marisol Erlacher:
And I stepped away from the meeting. And luckily, as a therapist, it’s really easy to say, hey, I have to take a call. I’ll be right back. No one asks any questions. I took that call. I came back, finished up the meeting and decided, you know, I have to deal with this when I get home. That was a really interesting. I mean, it’s an interesting experience for lots of different reasons, right? But what was so striking for me in that moment was how I shared that experience with other people professionally, and how I started to show up in that moment that there was such a distinct dichotomy in terms of what was happening in my personal life and what was happening in my professional life. And I recognized that. I think this is an experience that a lot of Bipoc women and I speak, you know, in terms of my own personal experience, have in terms of this dichotomy between our developmental experiences, our relationship to our communities, our relationship to our families, and how we have to navigate that in light of our professional lives and where we are. And so that propelled me to start a podcast specifically about that, like how Bipoc, professional Bipoc women have are experiencing experienced trauma and have overcome and become resilient.

Marisol Erlacher:
And I’ve started to also, I think the thread that has run through that is how Bipoc women are particularly are having that experience, right? Personally, whatever capacity that’s happening for them or the ways that they’re trying to understand and unravel their own developmental experience, and also battling against the systemic forces that are not in our favor. Right. And so, um, I think that I those all of those things have come together for me, and it’s something that I think about a lot, and I think that I feel very blessed. Um, my sister is going to laugh because we talk about this a lot. Hashtag blessed. Shout out to my sister. I feel very blessed because I have a lot of, um, Bipoc women that I’m in in close relationship with that I can have these conversations with. But I don’t think that’s the experience for a lot of Bipoc women who are in, you know, different levels of leadership are really trying to navigate different professional spaces in ways that our white counterparts don’t have to do. So. Um, it’s something that I think has been, again, brewing from my own personal professional experience, and that I get I’m privy to a lot of conversations about this with my personal circles.

Diane Diaz:
So it almost sounds like this idea of of thinking about professional trauma specifically for Bipoc people is not just what might be happening in the workplace, but what’s also happening at home or in their personal lives that then the workplace doesn’t allow them to deal with. So it’s it’s almost as if they’re being traumatized twice. Yeah.

Marisol Erlacher:
I think that there’s this this way that I think we have to navigate space differently. Um, in terms of our relationship to our families, our relationship to our communities, our relationship to or this responsibility that we we have. And again, this is a generalization, right? But I was just having a conversation with a friend about this. Um, I think, I think I was interviewing them for the podcast, and we were talking about this idea and this, this theme has come up a lot that I think, particularly for Bipoc women who are in leadership positions or, you know, in professional spaces where you either are the only one at the table, you are someone who has not inhabited that space before. There’s a lot of responsibility to your family, to your community, to people that you don’t even know that has a different level of, uh, heaviness or weightiness. And not that that heaviness is a bad thing, but it’s a different experience where I think that. Having to hold that space, as well as try to navigate just regular challenges that come up in our professional lives is very different. I think it’s complex, and I think that there’s not a I think there are ways that we talk about microaggressions, racism, you know, in the workplace that is general. But I think that there’s a way that Bipoc women specifically have experiences that are more nuanced and more difficult to articulate.

Diane Diaz:
That’s I’m glad that you explained that. And and to give me and our audience an understanding of what that experience might be like. And so with that in mind, then what was it that sort of called you to feel pulled to do work specifically in that space then? Is was it feeling like, because you do experience that yourself, or you have experienced that yourself and you have this understanding is that you could bring then your therapy background, your knowledge and understanding to it. Or I want to share with the listeners kind of what brought you to this idea of, I have a bigger message to share about this. I have a thought leadership message to share about this.

Marisol Erlacher:
That’s such a good question. I wish it was so like much more ordered or like I had this, like grand vision.

Diane Diaz:
It never is.

Marisol Erlacher:
It never is. I feel like so much of my professional life is so, like, serendipitous or like it just happens. But I think that part of for part of it, for me was I felt like through the podcast and really the podcast that I, um, it’s the Resilience and Resistance podcast and, uh, was really just a platform. It felt like a passion project, like, wow, I get to like, do this thing and like, see what happens and just have conversations with people that I know and care about. I always joke that it’s a podcast where I get to talk to my friends, but part of it was like in those conversations I started to recognize like, oh wait, there’s something more here. There’s some a message that people or something that is, uh, people are connecting to. And I think for me, I talk about this in my, my work as a trauma therapist. And I think this is part of, like, what I’m starting to understand or unravel in terms of thought leadership is I really believe that part of what happens in trauma fundamentally, is that people do not see when they perpetrate trauma onto other humans, they don’t see their humanity.

Marisol Erlacher:
And the victim or survivor of that trauma loses contact with their own humanity. And I think that there’s this way that I’m able to bring the human experience forward in a way that is helpful and understandable. And, and I think that that’s what connects us all is our humanity. Right, ultimately. And so I think that that’s kind of where I have started to like evolve in terms of thought leadership is thinking about the conversations that I get to have with the people that I’m connected to and people and professional spaces, and then thinking about how do I bring the human experience to that? Because I think also in some ways, professionally, I think Bipoc individuals, I think Bipoc women, we tend to get tokenized and people lose contact with our own humanity and experience and what that means. And so I think all of that propels me into a space of wanting to, like, create more and more space for a dialogue and and an awareness and a reckoning of that.

Diane Diaz:
Oh, Marisol, I think that’s such a great observation that you made is that Bipoc women tend to be tokenized, and we kind of lose the idea of the humanness of Bipoc women, Bipoc people, but women in particular, as we’re talking about it. So I think that’s a really great just an example or idea or concept to our audience of listeners is that when you’re thinking of your thought leadership message for you, this is something so personal, but also your experience as a therapist and your knowledge and expertise that you’ve built up over the years. And like you said, you have this podcast where you’re actually having these conversations. It’s kind of brought you this awareness of the ability to bring the human element back to it. Right. And so I think, you know, I think that that’s such a great piece of insight, of part of what it means to be a thought leader is that you’re you’re bringing that human connection to this, whatever the concept is that you’re talking about. Right. And so, and particularly this particular concept was so important to bring the human element to because it involves people who’ve been marginalized. It you know, you as the thought leader can have such a great impact in that way.

Marisol Erlacher:
Yeah. And I have to say like I think in this like if thinking about the evolution of this. For me. I have struggled with this idea of what it means to be my identity as a therapist. The evolution of my identity in this area that I would not say is like there was never a time when I think I intentionally was like, me as a trauma therapist, have a lot to bring to this conversation. As you know. I wish I could say I was much more aware and intentional about that. Sure, I still think that I’m trying to come to terms with that, with, uh, how my experience, my expertise can inform what I want to put out into the world. I think that that is still a challenge. Yeah.

Diane Diaz:
And I think that’s normal going into thought leadership and or looking at yourself as a thought leader is an evolution, and you’re in the process of the evolution. And so it’s not always 100% clear. But you must have had some some, some idea when you reached out to speak in your brand. And we chatted initially way back when, was there some instance or some idea that came to mind, or was there something specific that happened that said that pushed you to think, oh, I have a bigger message. What was what was that like? What did it look like?

Marisol Erlacher:
Yeah, that’s a great question. I think that, um, to be quite honest, I think that for many years I kind of put my head down and did the work of of a therapist. There are lots of ways that I thought of myself as like a little bit of an exception as a therapist, because I feel like I, I try to engage in different ways in the community. You know, um, I think of myself as a small business owner. I think of myself as someone who has something to contribute civically. I think that service to my community has always been really important. And so I think that I was I had this idea of what my work looked like and the way that it needed to go. And I just put my head down, and I had a vision of what I wanted to do professionally. And so I that was disrupted a little bit in 2020, even though my workload increased significantly. Right, because the need was so great and continues to be great. Um, what I started to notice was people were reaching out to me and asking me to talk to their staff or talk to their employees, um, about what is the impact of trauma right now? How can people start to work with the anxiety that they were experiencing? What is the impact? How do people start to understand that? And a lot of it was just a lot of these requests were from friends who are, you know, heads of nonprofits or different organizations. And I started to recognize that. And this is like, again, uh, for all the listeners, so much of my professional life is so like, people are like, how does she not know that before? It’s really my own process. Um, things have to be.

Diane Diaz:
Just unfolds.

Marisol Erlacher:
Happen to me. And I’m like, oh, actually, that’s that could be helpful. That’s useful to people. So as we’re as we were, as I was doing some of this work, I realized, like, people really benefit from understanding the impact of trauma just in their normal lives. Right? Like how our nervous system functions, how how that impacts our work, our relationships, our ability to show up, like how being at home can be challenging and why it’s challenging. And and so I think that that was the impetus for me kind of expanding like kind of. Getting out of, like putting my head down and just, you know, being a therapist and realizing, like, I could have a bigger impact, you know? Impact. I say, you know, like, I could have I could do something different here. And I think I’m ready. I think I’m ready to do something different. And so that was the somewhat of the impetus. Like as I’m starting to think through this, what what could be my bigger message? What could be the thing that feels important for me in this moment?

Diane Diaz:
Yeah, I love that. And you, you know, that’s I think that’s a really great point. This idea of, you know, being out in the community, you obviously listened to your quote unquote audience. Right? So anybody reaching out to you saying, hey, could you come and talk to us about trauma or what’s going on or what people are dealing with mental health wise? I think when you listen to your audience, they are sort of telling you, maybe this is an area that you could be a thought leader in, you know, obviously not in those words. But if you listen closely, it’s almost like market research, right? To help you understand where you might take your brand, how you might pivot it. Mhm. Mhm.

Marisol Erlacher:
And again I think you and I had this conversation when I was kind of thinking through some of this and it was very interesting because I think we had a call and then I went to a um, a dinner that was hosted for a friend who had like just received like 30 under 30. And we’re all around a table talking. And someone had said something about, you know, we can’t women of color can’t get to the level that we’re at without some form of trauma. Oh my.

Diane Diaz:
Gosh. Yes.

Marisol Erlacher:
And so we were having this conversation about it. And wow, this is so interesting because this is just what I was talking about this morning. And, and a lot of things have happened since then. I think that we’re getting more, more and more insight about how women of color professionally have these challenges that are, um, very unique. And we tend to look at the, the, the things that are happening in the present. Right. And we don’t see the nuances in terms of the impact. And so I think that that all of that has really been much more attuned to it. I’ve been thinking through it and I’ve been thinking, you know, how to have more of those conversations and really put the put the pieces together for myself. So yeah, definitely let all of my friends. I’m all for any friend that’s going to listen to this. You all are my my subjects, my research. Uh, you know, uh, panels, they give me a lot of information.

Diane Diaz:
That’s great though. And you’re I mean, you’re listening to to what people are telling you and take it doesn’t mean you have to act on everything. But I think looking for those cues because, as you said, it’s not it’s not a straight line. The work that you do isn’t a straight line in your career from here to there in the next place. It kind of just unfolds. And I mean, the reality is that’s true for I think most people, once you start looking back on it, you’re like, oh, no, just kind of like like you said, it’s very much serendipitous. And but if you can pay attention, you can see those cues, which is what you did. You paid attention and said, oh, this is this is an area that looks like it has a bigger need or for a, for a message and for learning and for someone to talk about it. And that’s where you come in because you’re the trained person with this, you know, with this subject matter. So I love that you that you paid attention to that and saw sort of a place to kind of move into a place to shift into with your brand, which is good. I mean, you have to seize those moments, right? So, so with that in mind, then, Marisol, when you think about that and you think about those conversations you’ve been having and you think about shifting your brand, what what does thought leadership look like to you? So if you’re a thought leader in a in that space, what does it kind of look like? What are you doing? Who are you talking to? Give us an idea of what you feel like that looks like, and there’s no right or wrong answer, but just what are what are your thoughts? I that’s a big question.

Marisol Erlacher:
No, no, this is an appropriate question. It’s something that I’m trying to to really figure out. And it’s interesting as I’m starting to make this transition out of clinical work, which again, I never thought I would do. And clients have asked me like, well, what are you going to do? And I was like, that’s a great question. Um, I’m going to do something. Something’s going to happen. Yeah. Again, I think that what I’ve come to and tried to understand in terms of my own strengths, like how does how do my gifts as a therapist show up in a different space, right. Like as I think about transitioning my brand, I think about what is useful, right, about who I am as a therapist and what I bring in the clinical work. How is that useful in this? You know, a different format. I again, I think I come back to this idea of, I think I have an ability to conceptualize and, and, and make understandable concepts. Set are difficult and help people understand that and give a frame of and context for it. That’s different. So I think that I see myself speaking more, even though it terrifies me. I see myself doing more workshops and trainings with organizations, companies with whomever wants to listen. You know, I’m trying to think about, I feel like, and this has been true for me for a long time. I feel like there’s something about my story that is important to put out into the world.

Diane Diaz:
I agree, and.

Marisol Erlacher:
You know, I have lots I have lots of parts of my story that feel big. I think I’m sitting with this idea of of how writing. So I’m trying to put together the idea for writing a book. My husband is an author. He’s a poet and author. I know lots of writers, so I always feel very humbled by this idea of being a writer because authors, novels, fiction, nonfiction became such a part of my own healing journey as a child. So I’m thinking about, like, how my story interacts with my ideas of thought leadership and what that’s going to look like. So there are lots of lots of things that I’m, I’m looking to do and kind of refining them. So but I think that the thing that scares me the most is, um, you know, as a therapist, it’s one on one and it’s like the perfect outlet or the perfect profession for an introvert.

Diane Diaz:
Yes, yes. And so good.

Marisol Erlacher:
Point. Putting myself out there has always been very fraught for me. Sure, it feels very vulnerable and it feels very risky in a lot of ways. So, um, so that’s those are my ideas. The next phase is how do I, how do I how do I build on what I know are my talents and my strengths and really, um, shift those to, you know, be used differently in the world? Yeah.

Diane Diaz:
And that’s those are really great points. And I think you make a good observation about it feeling risky, and especially if you’re an introvert, which I also am. So I completely understand the idea that putting yourself out there more than just one on one feels very risky and very vulnerable. And, um, but the good news is you’ve already you already have a little bit of an audience. So you said you’ve been speaking with different friends, and they’re the ones who kind of share these stories that every Bipoc woman has had trauma, right? That they couldn’t have gotten to where they were without that. Um, and you have an audience on your podcast, so you know that you have, uh, a warm and friendly group of people who already connect with what you share. So that is going to be helpful to getting your message out there to, you know, build your thought leadership and kind of shift how people see you and build a bigger message around what your thought leadership platform is. So and so, speaking of your podcast, then, and maybe this is this is a kind of like a two part question, I guess. So you have the podcast, what is your tell us a little bit about this idea about your thought leadership message and doing this podcast series that we had talked about. You talked about maybe doing a podcast series about this topic. So tell us a little bit about that.

Marisol Erlacher:
Yeah. So the podcast, the capsule podcast series, I don’t even know if that’s the right time, but yes. Yes is uh, called work. Trauma is real. Yes. And so it’s just for, for interviews that I did with a different women who I know personally have talked about their own work trauma. And it’s funny because I think that I’ve heard so many them share different stories, or some of them share different stories. And then, you know, when we we did the interviews, we kind of talked about these like bigger and broader concepts, you know, not necessarily the things that happened, um, which I think was really also very illuminating for me because I was like, tell this. I wanted to be like, tell the story about the time when remember when your boss. Yeah, I’ll tell the story about the time that, um, but, you know, I think they evolved into, like, these bigger conversations around, like, you know, those experiences were informative in a lot of ways. And, and I think that that’s true for myself is, you know, when I think about the work trauma that I’ve experienced, I think specifically what comes to mind is there’s so many different, um, things that are coming to mind. You know, I think even starting in graduate school, in this profession where, you know, I people of color are severely underrepresented in this profession.

Marisol Erlacher:
And, you know, I think that has changed since I graduated. But, you know, just being in a program, um, where I really felt like there were so many ways and challenges that came up because of my identity. And, you know, and that continued to be so in terms of my professional life, even though I was pretty isolated. But I started to, like, understand those experiences and use them to be able to propel me forward. And so I think that’s. So what really came out of those conversations is this idea of like how those were always informative and useful and not that that is like dismissive or accepting of those traumatic experiences or how they continue to show up. But I think it was like this understanding of how that informed who they were as leaders. Yeah. So I’m excited. I’m excited about putting that out because I think that it really helped me. And again, to your point, like, those conversations really helped me think more about some things that I hadn’t really been tuning my mind into. Like I said, I was like, ooh, let’s talk about that thing. You know, that that juicy thing. And and that really was not what evolved. It was something really different.

Diane Diaz:
That’s so good. And I think it just goes to show you that just doing the thing. So you had this, you know, when we talked, you had this idea for this sort of capsule, this this little series of four interviews. You did them. So just just like ripping the Band-Aid off and just doing the thing then informs the next level of understanding of what your thought leadership message is, right? So it’s so important to take action on the thing.

Marisol Erlacher:
Yeah, I mean, I truly I’m a true believer in that. Um, someone had told me, I think a coach that I worked with previously said this. And really and truly, this is probably one of the things that I was like, oh, this is my takeaway from my whole year with this person. Um, there were other things, but I’m just saying, this is the thing that I come back to quite often is like this idea that imperfect action is better than perfect inaction. Yes. And, you know, so much of this, you know, as I’m stepping into this new brand, this new way that I’ll be professionally, I think I think about I constantly when I get in this mode of panic and, you know, like, I don’t know how to do this and I don’t know what I’m I’m terrified. I just think, you know, maybe just taking action is better than not doing anything. And I’m 100% going to fail on this in this process, and I’m okay with that. And I think that, you know, the other thing that really propels me forward is this idea of I have a conflicted relationship with this I a concept, but this idea of representation, um, is really important to me. And in a lot of ways that is, in my experience, something that drives me forward as well. Like, I have a voice, I have a way that I can use it. Now I’m doing things that other, um, women who have carry my identity may not have done previous to me, and that’s important to me. And so I’m always thinking about that when I think about like, ah, I shouldn’t do it. Or I’m like, you know, it’s I just have to.

Diane Diaz:
Yeah. I think, who was it that said, if not you, then who? If not now, then when. Right. Mhm. Putting it out there I think putting it out there in an imperfect way has so much more of an impact, of course, than just not putting it out there. So whatever that looks like and, and the, the information you get back that you can then iterate on is so valuable. And I think to your point, you know, you do have a voice and you do have a platform. And so using it in that way is so meaningful to, to you and to the people that are listening to your podcast. So, so tell us when does that series air?

Marisol Erlacher:
That’s a great question, Diane. No, it’s going to air this month to.

Diane Diaz:
Put you on the spot.

Marisol Erlacher:
Okay, good. Um, I’m hoping we’re in.

Diane Diaz:
July right now.

Marisol Erlacher:
So I’m hoping that like, before the end of the month, I can launch the series and it’ll come out weekly. So I’m gonna I’m shooting for, uh, next week. I’m shooting for next week. There were there were some, um. Okay.

Diane Diaz:
That wasn’t to pressure you that.

Marisol Erlacher:
No, no, no, they were just there were little things that I knew would be niggly. Things like, we need different music. I need to think about this for a capsule podcast, you know, whereas, you know, the other podcast is a little bit more streamlined enough, but. So I’m working on it. But I’m excited. Yeah. So this July and we’re hoping to put it out. We’re also trying to put out the new season of my of the, uh, Resilience and Resistance podcast. And so both things are trying to happen at the same time. So with that.

Diane Diaz:
In mind, then if this is sort of we’ll say this is like the first exposure that people will have to your sort of your thought leadership message in this kind of shift that you’re making, as far as kind of what you talk about, who is the audience that you really want to reach with that, and what is it that you what is it that you imagine for them as far as a shift that they’ll make in their thinking, or maybe how they view themselves or how they look at trauma?

Marisol Erlacher:
I think that my audience I, I’ve always envisioned that it would be either women like me, right. Like Bipoc women who are in their professional careers at this stage, who are curious about how their experience, you know, informs their professional life. I also think about women who are. Earlier in their careers. Who I think that listening, um, I’m going to use this firm in the way that I think is appropriate is elders. Um, you know, I think that people who are elders in our community have a lot to say to us. And I feel like there are things that women, um, who were mentors to me early on in my career, told me things and said things to me that changed the course of my life. So I, I feel like I feel like both. Right? So I feel like women like myself and then also women who are earlier who need to hear, you know, or need to hear some wisdom, uh, or have insight or see themselves mirrored in our conversations.

Diane Diaz:
Um, that’s so good. I think that’s so important. And you touched on this a little bit, but what is it, Marisol? That I would say. What scares you the most about this shift into this new area of thought leadership? And then what excites you the most about it? So two sides of the coin.

Marisol Erlacher:
But so the most terrifying part is that I feel like I’ve worked so hard to get here and my professional career as a therapist, I feel like I had this vision about where I would be or what I would, what I would consider success. And so I’ve built this thing that I feel like I could probably ride this wave for a really long time very easily, you know? And so that piece to think about leaving that and building something new is absolutely terrifying to me.

Diane Diaz:
Sure.

Marisol Erlacher:
For so many reasons. So it’s like, what am I doing? Why don’t I just do this thing? Because I’ve worked so hard at it. Why am I going to do this other thing? This is not smart. So that’s the most terrifying part, is abandoning that side. And I never thought I would. Um, I thought I would be a therapist until I retired doing the clinical work. Like, I, I imagine myself until old age doing this work. Um, sure. So I’m shifting my whole identity with my or my even my relationship to my own identity. And then I think the piece that excites me the most is that when I first started my practice, I remember I was like, I don’t know what I’m doing. I have no idea how to be a business person. I don’t even know the first step. But I knew so deeply inside of me that this was going to be the thing that would I would grow from. I knew just taking the step, I knew that I would. I was going to learn and I was going to grow, even though it was going to be one of the most challenging things that I ever did and scariest things that I ever did. So I think I, I, I feel excited about who I’m going to become. More than anything. I feel excited about, you know, my future self, that all of the ways that I think I’m going to be or probably radically different than who I will evolve into and I feel excited about that.

Diane Diaz:
It’s almost as if, Marisol, that you’re thinking about how you’ve evolved and looking at how you’ve evolved has propelled you to the evolving. And even early on, even early on, you had to do so much work to get to where you were as a as a therapist, doing the day to day. And that was an evolution. But that’s actually what excites you now about doing this evolution. So it’s like super meta, right? Yeah. And so I would say too that you, you know, if you pictured yourself, you said, you know, you picture yourself being a therapist, the hands on day to day seeing clients, therapist, you know, doing that work until you just retire. But I would imagine that it’s because, you know, you of course, you’re very good at it. And also the impact you can make on people. But imagine the impact you can make if your thought leadership message is that much bigger, even if it’s not the 1 to 1, it’s more of a one to many. So your impact is going to be even greater if that means anything, which I think I know it’s scary, but it’s.

Marisol Erlacher:
That it means something. It does. I think that, um.

Diane Diaz:
It is scary, though. I understand that.

Marisol Erlacher:
It’s so scary. It’s so scary. And I think that part of it, you know, I think of like 2007, 2004, Marisol and my vision for my life. And, um, you know, the person that I was then is, oh, my gosh, it’s so different. And I still love that version. Like, I sure, I still, like, have so much fondness for like, so many, all those parts of myself. But, um, I wonder, you know, like in five years when I like, look back at, like 20, 21, Marisol, like, I’m going to be like, wow, all of those things that terrified me. You know, in that moment. Now there are different things that terrify me. And now I’ve, you know, I see myself in a different light and I’ve, um, kind of shed some old things that needed to be shed.

Diane Diaz:
Oh, that’s so good. I think when we when we’re stepping into thought leadership, I think it’s so important to have that awareness that you just said is the shedding some things, because the Marisol of 2007 has allowed you to evolve to the Marisol of today, and both of those marisol’s are going to allow you to to evolve into the Marisol of the future that’s going to have this bigger message. And so you do have to shed some things. And, and but that doesn’t mean that they go away completely. They’re still in there. You know, it’s just a different view of who you are in a different sort of way of presenting yourself to the world.

Marisol Erlacher:
Yeah. And owning it for myself, I think that’s been my biggest takeaway of thought. Leadership development is like, it’s not even about how people perceive me. It’s really about my perception of myself.

Diane Diaz:
Oh my gosh, Marisol, let’s repeat repeat that one more time for everybody. It’s so.

Marisol Erlacher:
Important. Yeah, I mean, I think it truly, really, really and truly this evolution of this process and like understanding my own thought leadership is not about how other people perceive me. It’s about how I perceive myself. Yes, yes. And that has been my number one piece of work. Personal work that I’ve, I’ve really been been sitting with is my own. Perception of who I am in this world.

Diane Diaz:
So then let’s bring it to present day then, and tell me a little bit about your experience in the Thought Leader Academy. What has that been like? What have been your biggest benefits that you’ve experienced while being in the Thought Leader Academy? How has it impacted the work you do, or even your goals in this way that you’re kind of looking at yourself now in a little bit of a different light?

Marisol Erlacher:
Yeah, I mean, I think that in so many ways it’s been so extremely helpful. You know, I, I did not there were a couple of things that came up in the course of, of our time together where I was asked to do a speech and I was like, Diane, I don’t know how to do a speech, please help me. And so just like that, practical, like just serious, like, you know, I would wake up early every morning and watch, you know, the, the webinars, um, that you all provide and, um, you know, and really, I think what has been helpful for me is it doesn’t feel as ambiguous, you know, like, I think that the having more concrete like, here’s what you have to do, here’s what you need, here’s how you do it has been super helpful for me. Um, because, you know, again, so much of what I do is like, based on like, most of the time is based on this, like, oh, let me try that, you know, or like, let’s, let’s, you know, again, it’s all been very serendipitous. Like, I want to do this thing and I don’t know how. And I feel like that has been so tremendously helpful to me. And then just like there are times when even just my my last hot seat, I was like, I don’t really have anything. And then someone, someone gave me feedback and I was like, my mind was blown. I like, took that note and I was like, yeah, like the smallest thing, you know? And I think this is true. Whenever you do a mastermind or whenever you do coaching, for me, it’s always like, there’s this one thing that I’m like, I never would have had that insight. Um, so it’s been it’s been super helpful for me in that way, as both, you know, just like insight that I didn’t think I would gain. And then just the very practical help that you have given me, um, has been invaluable. Like, I could have never have gotten through that speech without you. Really and truly.

Diane Diaz:
Well, I’m so glad Marisol has been. I’ve so enjoyed working with you. And I know also that the women, the other women in the Thought Leader Academy get so much from your being there as well. You know, in the in the sessions I’ll, you know, every time and sharing thoughts. And I think there’s so much to community and everybody sort of collectively sharing thoughts and ideas and supporting one another. So I think that’s, you know, I know that everybody gets so much out of your, your expertise and your knowledge and what you share as well. So thank you for being a part of the Thought Leader Academy. We truly enjoy you being there.

Marisol Erlacher:
I’m so glad that I made that call. Listen to the podcast on the plane. And that’s how it happened. I don’t even know where I was going.

Diane Diaz:
Serendipity. That’s what I’m saying.

Marisol Erlacher:
If you take away anything from this podcast, your professional life is just serendipity. Really and truly.

Diane Diaz:
It’s all serendipity. Yes. All right. Well, thank you so much for being on the podcast, Marisol. I have truly enjoyed talking to you. So share with the listeners where they can connect with you and reach out to you.

Marisol Erlacher:
Yeah. So if you come to my website, that’s my therapy website. You can always contact me there. Marisol urlacher.com. You can also listen to the Resilience and Resistance podcast. And we have an Instagram account. I think it’s Resistance and Resilience podcast. I think there’s underscores the Resilience and Resistance podcast. Um, but I’m sure it’s a unique name. And you can find it.

Diane Diaz:
Yes. And we’ll put all those things in the show notes as links. So no worries. We will get it all in there. Awesome. All right. Well, thank you again, Marisol, for taking the time to chat with everybody and share your story. Thanks so much. Yeah, thanks.

Marisol Erlacher:
So much for having me.

Carol Cox:
Thanks so much to Marisol for coming on the podcast. And thanks so much to Diane for an excellent interview. I really enjoyed listening to their conversation. Marisol’s podcast is called Resilience and Resistance, and the capsule podcast series that she and Diane mentioned in this episode is live now, so you can go see that on her podcast feed. There’s a link in the show notes to Marisol’s podcast and website, and to connect with us on social media. Don’t forget to get on the interest list for our Thought Leader Academy. Enrollment will be opening soon. You can do so by going to speaking your brand Comm Slash Academy. Until next time, thanks for listening.

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