The SNAP Method: A Revolutionary Approach to Overcome Limitations with Erica Rooney

Welcome to the Wisdom of Women show.

We are dedicated to amplifying the voice of women in business.

A new model of leadership is emerging and we are here to amplify the voices of women leading the way.

I am your host, Coco Zalman, five time founder, impact investor and creator of the Force for Good system.

Thank you for joining us today as we illuminate the path to unlocking opportunities and prosperity for women led enterprises by amplifying voice and wisdom of women.

Today we have a total lady rock star in the house.

Today we have Erica Rooney.

She has emerged as a powerful force for women in leadership, distinguished by her C suite experience and a robust commitment to fostering inclusive cultures, which we all love.

As the author of the best selling book Glass Ceilings and Sticky Floors right here, Erica has crafted a transformative guide for professionals navigating the complex terrain of career development amidst systemic biases.

Her signature SNAP method.

We're going to unpack that.

And it's a dynamic.

And her dynamic keynote speeches have equipped countless leaders to transcend limitations and amplify their influence.

We need that women in influence.

Yes.

Committed to the empowerment of women, Erica's leadership extends beyond the boardroom to impactful initiatives with organizations like Women in Tech Ergs and Dress for Success.

I love that.

So welcome.

Erika.

Coco.

Thank you.

I am so thrilled to be here to be sharing with your audience and just pouring into their cups because women are tired, you know, and we need that.

We need our cups refilled.

So thank you for the opportunity to be here.

This is so awesome.

Well, we're so happy to have you.

And as you know, I always like to start with the question of what is a book written by a woman that has significantly influenced your life?

Coco, this was such a hard question to answer.

Number one, because I read a ton.

Like, I read a ton and I'm that woman.

I've got two piles of books.

One is the pile of books that I've read.

Actually, I've got three piles.

One is the pile of books that I've read.

The other is the pile that I'm currently reading, which is like five or six books.

And then the third pile is a secret pile that my husband isn't aware of, but it is the books that I have bought on Amazon, but I haven't gotten to yet.

I don't want him to know about that secret pile because he's going to tell me not to buy another book.

One of the books that played.

I'm going to give you two.

The first one is called Change Enthusiasm by Cassandra Worthy.

And this book played such a pivotal role in my life because it's all about harnessing your emotions for change and recognizing, you know, those positive feel good emotions and also those like anxiety emotions, the negative emotions, the one we all shy away from.

Like, what is that also cluing you in on?

And the reason this book was so pivotal is because it is the only book I've ever gotten where I was like, man, this resonates.

I gotta talk to this author.

I actually reached out to her and she got on the phone with me.

That is actually what really kind of started this path of keynote speaking, my own authorship journey and everything else.

So absolutely that book number one.

And then the second favorite book is called Burnout, which is by Emily and Amelia Nagowski, which is all about the human giver syndrome and how we as women are always pouring into the cups of others to the detriment of ourselves.

But they really talk about how to break out of that cycle.

And that was what really locked all of this work in for me and was one of the very first research books.

I cite it a lot in my book Glass Ceilings and Sticky Floors, but those are the two that come to mind.

Amazing.

And I.

What a cool name.

Cassandra Worth, right?

Yeah, like, that's like a.

Either way, it's incredible.

You know, I think of self worth, I suppose it's also financial worth, but it's like, yeah, it's actually a wonderful self fulfilling prophecy for her.

I'm hoping so.

Change, Enthusiasm and Burnout.

These sound like wonderful books and it makes sense to me after having read your book, why these would have been pivotal for you.

We're gonna now really, you know, in a second get into the book.

But first I would really like to hear about your journey.

Erica, you talk about your journey in your book.

You talk about being a C suite executive.

And I would love for you to share your journey to the C suite and the pivotal moments that shaped your leadership philosophy and what led you to creating your current business coaching, leadership speaking.

Let's unpack the last 40 years.

Just turned 40 last week.

Happy birthday.

I'm so excited for this new era.

I'm just like, I remember back in the day when it felt so old, you know, you felt like 40 was like one foot in the grave, one foot in retirement.

And it's like no no, you're just getting started, right?

It's like getting started, and I'm gonna drop you right into the middle of it and work my way back.

I believe everybody has that turning point in their life, whether in their professional or personal career, that really separates time into the before.

And I think for some people, that moment in time comes from a big life event, right?

Like meeting your spouse or having a baby or landing a big promotion that you've always wanted.

But they also come in, like, smaller moments, such as maybe you just get an idea that sparks you to take action.

Like when I reached out to Cassandra Worthy, right?

That changed the trajectory of my life.

One of the biggest, pivotal moments about shifting into leadership actually came when I was sitting in my car with tears streaming down my face.

I was gripping the steering wheel so hard I had white knuckles.

I could just feel the panic rising up in my chest.

I was in my parking lot at work.

I had been working with this company that I absolutely loved and could see a long, happy relationship with.

I was super excited because I had this idea to really shake up the way we worked, and it completely changed the structure of our department.

If I played my cards right, it would elevate me into a very visible leadership position.

So I was super excited about this.

I talked to somebody who I really trusted and respected and admired.

But unfortunately, we all know things don't go the way we planned.

And the person I had pitched this idea to actually walked into an executive meeting and pitched the idea as his own.

So the role that I had envisioned for myself was given to someone else.

And my future, the way I saw it at that company, was cut off in an instant.

But I do what we always do, wiped my tears off my face, and I went back to work.

And then I got up every single day after that and went to the office.

I wasn't engaged.

I wasn't happy.

I quit taking walks with my teams, and instead, I would lock myself in my office and say, oh, I have a lot of work, or I'd head out to my car.

And it was one of those moments for me that really separates time because that was one of the very first moments that I felt like I was hitting kind of like the glass ceiling and dealing with the patriarchy and the system.

And that was the first time it had really impacted me.

And I think sometimes when you're starting out in your career, you don't see that.

Initially, I was really shocked and surprised by that, and it was this epiphany that I did not have to Wait for someone else to recognize the work I was putting in, to feel validated and to grow and be successful.

I realized that I didn't have to wait for the world to catch up to me, but that I could take charge of my own life, my own career, all of that.

That was the pivotal moment that changed everything for me because I realized I had so much more control.

And that's what took me from this life of, okay, I'm gonna follow the map that's set for me.

I have to take this step and this step and climb this rung of the ladder, which is really this life of limitations to a life of abundance and fulfillment and infinite possibilities.

When I look at just my past 40 years, I've seen the moves that I've made and the work that I've put in to make all that happen.

I recognize that I can do anything I want.

I can make any amount of money.

I can be anything that I want.

I just got to figure it out, and I got to do the work, and I got to trust in the universe.

I climbed my way to the C suite in another one of those moments that splits time into the before and after.

I recognize that my time in the C suite had kind of come to an end.

I decided to bet on me, and I decided to take that chance, and I left corporate and went all in on my own business.

I have not looked back since.

You're on mute.

You bet on you.

I love that.

I love it.

I love it.

I heard you say that you discovered you could have whatever you want and all the abundance, fulfillment, and infinite possibilities became available to you.

You talk about that at the beginning of your book.

I love this.

I wanted to read this section because it says, this book is for any woman who has ever been told you can't have it all.

The woman who feels overwhelmed and exhausted from striving to do everything for the woman who questions if she is enough, if she is pretty enough, qualified enough, thin enough.

Haven't we all had those doubts?

Haven't we all had those thoughts?

Oh, a thousand percent.

So we can totally relate to that.

Your book is about the glass ceiling and the sticky floors, as the title would.

So tell us about the concept of the glass ceiling and the sticky floor concept, because that was new to me.

And.

And what are these two concepts?

Where do they come from?

And how do these things systemically hold us back?

Yes, this.

So originally, because I'm a corporate girly, originally, that's what this was all about.

It was like, I'm gonn women into positions of power.

And I'm going to keep them there because it's not so much that we can't get into power, but it's that women are leaving in droves, right?

And we're leaving in droves to start our own business, which is what I did.

But there's a lot of reasons behind that, right?

And so talk about glass ceilings.

We are talking about the systemic issues that keep women in marginalized communities, you know, repressed and stuck, right?

We are talking about the patriarchy.

We are talking about the old outdated systems that we all still work in.

Okay, Those do exist.

But we are also talking about the ceilings that we put over our own heads, the ones that we are responsible for constructing, right?

Because those are the real problems, right?

I mean, yes, glass ceilings are a problem, right?

You've got 80% of or 75% of female executives who struggle with imposter syndrome, 80% of women who struggle with feelings of self worth, 73% of women who struggle with perfectionism.

So like that's everyone we know probably falls into one of those categories, right?

And then when you couple, if you have your own ceilings and the ceilings of the system, you've got a really big problem.

But the problem is the systems take decades and generations to change.

And that's where my work pivoted.

Because when I look at this pay gap, we have a pay gap that says if nothing changes, women will not be paid the same for 132 years.

So I don't know about you, but.

Slow, that's that with like a really.

Good longevity vitamin to take.

Like, I'm not going to be there for that.

And neither is my daughter old.

So I was like, there's absolutely no way, no shape, no form that I can let this happen.

I got to the C suite, so I know that it's possible to remove those limits.

But had I known all of this information earlier, mainly about the limits I was putting over myself, I would have been able to be more successful faster, I would have been happier faster, and I would have been fulfilled faster.

So if you follow the work in this book, you're going to get there faster.

We know about the glass ceiling, right?

What are sticky floors?

Y'all are probably like, this woman's got kids, she's already said it.

She talking about her kitchen floor.

What's going on here?

No, those floors are very sticky, y'all.

There's seven or, sorry, six and ten.

So there's food everywhere, right?

But sticky floors in my world are the Limiting beliefs and toxic behaviors that keep you stuck.

Right.

And so we've talked a little bit about perfectionism and imposter syndrome burnout, of course.

But I also talk about the behaviors that keep us stuck.

And one that I talk about a lot in the book, which was a personal struggle for me, is wine.

Alcohol is a very sticky floor.

So is staying in toxic relationships.

So is doom scrolling on TikTok for hours and hours because we're so exhausted.

But we do it right.

So it's breaking free from all of those things that are holding us back.

Brilliant.

I loved how you talk about neuroscience.

So you set us up.

And I think I wanted to talk about this before we go into your SNAP method, which is so simple and brilliant and at the same time, very nuanced.

And so help me understand, help explain to our listeners about the neuroscience and how we create our own sticky floors, our limiting beliefs or toxic behaviors, and share with us how our brains keep us stuck.

Well, here's the deal, right?

Your brain is a big ball of clay.

It's moldable, changeable, and you are not stuck.

You are never stuck.

Even though it might feel like that.

The biggest thing you need to know is that your neurons are firing all day long, all the time, millions of them, right?

And we are filtering the world through our lens.

Everyone has their own unique lens in which they see and experience the world.

And we take all of that in.

It goes into our brain, and we form these assumptions and judgments and opinions based on the world that we live in, Right?

Depending on where you grew up, what culture you were raised in, where in the world you were, what your socioeconomic status was, all of those things play a part in your thoughts, your beliefs, and your opinions, right?

And so they become really cemented in there.

And I tell everybody, like, these automatic and unconscious behaviors that we get, like a path through the woods, right?

If you have never done anything before, the path doesn't exist.

You gotta get out like a big old machete, and you gotta start hacking away.

It's hard work.

You're sweating.

It is intensive labor.

So that's why when you're forming a new habit or trying to change something, it feels really difficult.

But the more you walk that same path, the more worn it becomes, the easier your walk is.

Once you clear through all of that, you can rewire those neuropathways so that they are stronger in whatever habit formation you want.

So you have to choose wisely because you are the architect of your life, right?

Yes.

When we talk about brain science, I Talk about how my method helps by way of a bias towards action.

When we get into the SNAP method, we'll learn how the SNAP method reduces activation energy, which helps you get started with a bias towards action, which means you're going to start taking more action and responsibility.

We talk about how it builds your confidence and so you have this confidence competence loop that continues to build and how that is a skill.

It also is not something that you're just born with.

But I talk about all these things because when I made the decision to stop drinking, I wanted to know why I was having a hard time stopping drinking.

Because as someone who was successful in every other area of her life, why couldn't I stop drinking?

All I had to do was not do something.

But when I peeled back the onion and I learned about the brain and I learned about neuroplasticity and how as a child I learned that when you're sad, you drink.

When you're happy, you drink.

When you're celebrating, you drink.

I had seen that play out since I was born.

For me, having to clear that new neuro pathway of that's not what you do when you're happy.

That's not what you do when you're sad.

That's not what you do when you're celebrating takes a long time, you know, so that's, that's a bit of the brain science.

But I'm so glad you asked about that because I am a woo woo girl.

I love talking about that stuff.

But this is real fact based, researched studies and I think that is so important.

I do too.

The neurology of it and the psychology of it so that when you start to use the tools, you feel even stronger about their efficacy.

And so I, I think it's, I think it's great.

So, so snap.

All right, we're going to talk about snap.

I wanted to go to a page in your book.

In your book on page 35, it says snap is a method I developed to help me change my thought pattern.

And it can help distract you.

I love the word distract you from your sticky floors.

It demonstrates that you can have a different outcome, that your limiting beliefs do not have to be true.

You can use SNAP to change your future behaviors.

You can use it to stop playing small and start shining your light.

Oh, tell us about what SNAP is.

Yes.

Well, it is simple, but it's not easy.

But it works.

If you do the work, I'll give you a high level overview of what it stands for and then we'll dive into the steps I made it super easy, right?

Snap.

Because it is that easy just to snap out of it.

Again, simple, not easy.

It stands for stop and take note of the physical sensations in your body.

Name your sticky floor, ask an answer deep and personal questions, and then pivot to dive into that and peel back the onion.

On this, your mind has, I think I heard, somewhere like 60 or 70,000 thoughts a day, right?

And the majority of them are negative.

So we've already got that working against us.

But often these thoughts that we have are unconscious thoughts that just pop up into our brain.

It's not like we can control that right away.

It's not like somebody said, I wanted to wake up and talk smack about myself today, right?

And so often these thoughts are about to pop up into your brain.

Or if something is triggering you, you actually feel it in your body first, right?

So, for example, if you have to go in and tell your client that you had like a big oopsie and you're not going to hit a deadline, you probably have a lot of unconscious thoughts going on in the background about not being good enough.

Why didn't you tighten that up?

How did you miss this?

Or questioning all of our self worth.

And you're feeling the anxiety in your chest because you know you gotta talk to your client, right?

You're maybe like nervous, shaky hands, sweaty palms, racing heart.

Like all of those physical symptoms, it's manifesting and it's signaling to you that something isn't right.

The reason I say you have to stop and take note is because sometimes we're not always in a situation where we can really be like, I'm gonna examine why I feel like I'm not enough right now.

Right?

We might be in the middle of a big pitch, but it does give you a pattern interrupt.

So it stops that spiral of the negative loop.

If you're just like, whoa, okay, I'm feeling something right now.

And then the next step is to name that sticky floor.

Because when you name something, you take your power back over what that thing is.

And research shows that when you name an emotion, you are reducing the intensity in which you feel it.

So if I am really anxious about an upcoming presentation, just by saying out loud, coco, I'm feeling a lot of anxiety around this gig that I have tomorrow, it reduces the feelings of it.

Just that.

So if you can just get two parts in, you're already winning.

And then the third step, this is where the work really begins.

This is the ask an answer step.

I really recommend doing this with a journal, with A therapist with a trusted partner, because this is like talk therapy.

You got to get it out, right?

This is, why am I thinking the way I'm thinking?

What in my past has gotten me to this point that these are my automatic thoughts.

And the first two questions that I always tell everybody to go to, especially if you're limited in time, is, is this thought helpful?

And is this thought true?

Because 99.99% of the time, that thought is not helpful, and it's usually not very true.

And so the more you can dig deep into why you feel the way you do, why you think the way you do, you'll be able to uncover a lot of the why, which helps you recognize, oh, I know why I'm doing that.

It gives you more power back, which allows you to move to the pivot.

And the pivot is simply a reframe.

It is just changing the way you are viewing something.

And that's this mentality from I have to do something to I get do something.

And it's very powerful.

And I'll tell you, I have a good friend named Mallory, and when we were in our 30s, she was actually diagnosed with stage three breast cancer, which, when you're in your 30s and two young kids, like, that is scary.

And I remember she posted a lot about it on her social media.

And so I followed her journey.

I remember it was one day, 5am I did not want to get out of my bed to go do my workout.

I'm doom scrolling through Instagram and Facebook, you know, basically procrastinating on what I have to do, which is go work out, right?

And I get to Mallory's post where she's standing up and she is showing because she just had her double mastectomy that she can only raise her arms up to her shoulders.

In that video, she's like, it's not much, but it's a.

It's a lot for me.

She's like, but I cannot wait until I can work out again.

I read that, and I was sitting there, perfectly healthy, perfectly capable pivot, and I recognized that wasn't something I had to do, was something I get to do.

So now on every single one of those mornings where I don't want to get out of bed and I don't feel like it, I remind myself of Mallory and I pick my pivot.

That's awesome, right?

And we could find the Mallory of.

Your own life anyway, in anything, whatever.

It is that you have to do, right?

Somebody else would love to be able to do that.

Somebody else would be begging or be in a position to give that pitch or write that document, go to that board meeting or whatever it is.

I love that notion.

I want to tap in on real quick, Coco.

Cause I think this will be really beneficial for your listeners.

Is a lot of people, when they hear this sometimes and they hear infinite possibilities, it just sounds so big, you know, it sounds so.

Not for me.

Guess what?

That's your own ceiling.

You don't believe that anything out there is for you.

You're putting a ceiling on what you think is possible.

And so I say that because a lot of people listen and think I might not struggle with imposter syndrome or perfectionism.

But we all struggle with what we think we're capable of.

I use amazing people like Taylor Swift and Oprah as examples.

If you are a 30 year old woman out there trying to make it in country music and you're like, there's no way.

Well, how Taylor do it?

Taylor did it.

You know what I mean?

When she was 14 years.

When she was 14 years old, her mother drove her around in a station wagon in Nashville, Tennessee to hand out cassette tapes of her song.

Was it easy?

Absolutely not.

And we get stuck in these limitations because we think things aren't meant for us.

I think they're meant for other people.

And that's why I tell people, as soon as you can embrace this snap mentality and you start seeing it play out in little ways like in the workout, you can see how it could unfold in much bigger ways.

When I think about myself and my business, I tell people all the time, I want to be Mel Robbins when I grow up.

Right?

Well, guess what?

I actually don't want to be Mel Robbins.

I want to be me.

But like 16 times, making a bigger impact and doing more.

Those things are out there.

So dig deep, get personal with those questions, figure out what's limiting you and then go after that.

Well, and I think too what you were saying before about questioning your thoughts.

One of the things that came to me is I can't remember who said it.

Maybe it was Byron.

Katie, perhaps misery is believing your thoughts are true.

It's that idea that like whatever pops up in your head is accurate, that it's fact that it's forever rather than treating it what it is.

It's just this popping out of nowhere.

It's arbitrary and it's coming from this negative place of protection.

Right.

Because that's what the brain likes to do.

I love that you recognize it's not easy and it takes practice.

Right?

It takes practice, practice to learn how to break down those thoughts and realize that this thought about how hard it is to grow my business, for example, is a thought that can be different.

It could.

That's not an accurate fact.

Yes.

I want your people to have something tangible they can walk away with.

Some of the things that I do in my work when I'm feeling this way is like, every single day, I keep what I call a Heck yeah.

Journal, right?

It's literally just a notebook where I have a list of the things that I have done and accomplished.

I'm not even talking about, like, oh, my gosh, I got this huge book deal or I booked this big keynote at full fee.

I'm even saying the hard things for me, which are not always hard things.

One of the hard things that I did this year, and I was so proud of myself, was I had to have a garage door repair man come to the house because my garage door broke.

I had my clicker in my car, but I also had my rear view mirror where you're supposed to be able to press a button.

I couldn't get it to program.

Do you think I could ask garage repair man?

No.

I was way too like, no, I don't want to impose.

And then I finally put my big girl pants on, and I was like, erica, you need to step outside of your zone of discomfort, which is asking for help.

And guess what?

It took them five minutes.

So you start.

These things play out in little ways, and those little things add up to bigger and bigger things, right?

A lot of the women founders that I work with that are scaling and growing and taking their teams from 10 to 50 to 100 and beyond, it's there.

There comes a moment of letting go, right?

Letting other people have the space to try things.

Trusting other people to delegation is a huge thing.

And it's very hard for entrepreneurs and solopreneurs to do because it's their baby, you know?

And so that perfectionism, you talk about that in your book a lot.

That perfection gets in the way.

In your book, you talk about the human giver syndrome, and you also referenced the book Burnout about it.

And I found that to be really powerful.

I always have to have a CFO working with me because otherwise I.

I have a certain amount of, oh, I should keep giving, right?

And a good CFO keeps me in check.

And like, in my life, I've learned.

In my last company, I learned to have people in place that would manage most of that so that I had the space to not just give Everything away because it's not good for me and it's not good for the company, and it's actually not even good for the people that you're giving.

Right, right.

Let's talk a little bit more about how you use the snap method with things like perfectionism or imposter syndrome or the over giving thing, and even toxic relationships.

One of the things that I see happen a lot with founders is they hire people especially early on, and they're not perfect.

Nobody's perfect.

But you engage in this relationship that is, that needs to evolve over time and then it becomes toxic because you can't evolve it or you don't know how.

Give us some examples of how this snap method could help with perfectionism or toxic relationships.

Perfectionism is rampant.

And if you don't think you have.

Perfectionism, you probably have it in a facet of your life.

I say that because I never thought I struggled with perfectionism.

I don't feel like I have to have a perfectly clean house.

So it's like, that's not my vibe.

Until I was talking with another woman who started telling me about her story with perfectionism and how she had to have a 30 minute workout every day.

And if it wasn't 30 minutes, it wasn't worth it.

And it also had to be rigorous.

And as I'm listening to her, I'm going, me too.

Oh, no.

And it was like this slow realization.

My office in my house has my computer and my treadmill in the background, so I have easy access to it.

But I had this ingrained belief that if I couldn't have the perfect workout, it wasn't worth it.

Yeah, I'll just start tomorrow.

Well, guess what?

Life, be life.

And all day long.

And that's four days where I didn't work out.

I in my office and my husband would come up and he'd be like, oh, I only got 10 minutes, I gotta get this in.

And I'm looking at, you are an idiot.

Ten minutes, that's not gonna do anything.

But girl, you know, when you add that up at the end of the week, I have to remind myself that if I'm trying to save $100 and someone handed me 25, I wouldn't look at and throw it in the trash because it wasn't my full 100.

That's a personal example.

But it applies in our professional world, especially as entrepreneurs, because we attach our worth to our output.

Is this project perfect?

Is this keynote perfect?

Is this deliverable for this client perfect?

And we made ourselves up over it because number one, we hold high standards for ourselves.

But then number two, we so attach our worth to that that sometimes we don't put out work at all because it's not perfect, right?

Or we feel like we can't do that stretch project because we've never done it before.

How will we know if it's done right?

And so we hold ourselves back in those ways.

And when you think about toxic relationships, the stories I tell in the book are a lot about personal and, you know, some very physical.

There's some tough stories in there.

But toxic relationships also have to deal with your clients, with your employees, right?

All of those things.

Things.

If you don't have the right dynamics between you and whoever it is you're working with, whether employees or partners, it's going to be a tough road and it's going to keep you from possibility.

Stop and notice those sensations in your body.

If you feel like every time you're one on one with your employee comes up and you're just like, God, I gotta do that again.

That's a sticky floor.

It totally is.

You know, I had, I had an experience at my healthcare company where we were growing quickly and at the beginning you can't get the most experienced people when you're first starting out for the reasons of cost and because they just, they're not going to come work for somebody without a track record yet.

So I was in a situation where I had somebody who had a lot of responsibility.

She had a lot of wonderful traits and characteristics and at the same time she was not able to take the organization further.

She was for sure the bottleneck.

And I was terrified to lose her.

And at the same time I knew that I had to make a change.

It was affecting everybody's well being, including my own.

And that was like a sticky floor.

It took time to be able to.

And what I like about your SNAP program is, you name it.

So for me to be able to.

Say this person is not working is the bottleneck, right?

She's my bottleneck.

And I feel like I don't have a choice.

That's the issue, right?

It's like when you feel you don't have any choices and that's where the infinite possibilities are so powerful, right?

Because at the moment that I realized I had choices and that was when I started looking and interviewing and getting real with what it was going to cost me to do it and then be like, this is just a choice and it's not all easy and it's not all the way I Wanted it, but this is what I need to do.

And I'll have to take a few steps back in order to take a few steps forward, but I can do that.

And I found lots of options and it was great.

I mean, it wasn't easy, but it worked.

We have such tunnel vision with what we think is an actual possibility.

Like when we think, okay, I have this employee I need to get rid of, we tend to look at it in absolutes, like, well, I'm just gonna have to fire this person and then I'm gonna be stuck.

When I go through the SNAP method with people in situations like this and I get to the ask and answer questions, I start to say, what's the worst case scenario?

They usually give me one, like, I'm gonna fire her and there's gonna be nobody there to do the work.

And I say, is that the worst outcome or is the worst outcome that you do nothing and this person stays and it drives away your top performers, gonna impact your revenue, which is going to impact your client retention.

And I go down the whole litany of things, right?

And it's like, okay, what would you do then?

But we play out the best case scenarios, the worst case scenarios, and everything in between possibilities, right?

We just have to pick the one that is going to be the best outcome for you.

Most of the time, that choice has the big, ugly, hard thing that we don't want to address right at the front.

The problem is that sticky floor does not go away, y'all.

So either deal with it now or you're going to deal with it later.

Yeah, deal with it.

That is so true.

Because there's always, at any given time in a business and this, if you can look at any company, there's usually one big constraint, one thing that's really standing in the way.

And if you can address it and deal with that, everything else becomes infinitely easier.

I like the SNAP process because it allows us to use that.

I want to ask one more question about this and I want to ask you another question about scaling.

But first, how would you coach founders to use this tool with their teams and make it automatic and kind of a recipe or ritual for their ongoing success?

If you're using this with your teams, number one, you've got to explain the process to them and you've got to get their buy in that there is infinite possibilities.

And sometimes when you're working with your teams, the best way to do it is to start bringing the problems to the table.

Consulting with companies, I will tell them the pre work Is I want everybody to bring one thing that's not working right.

You'd be surprised what comes out of the woodworks with those things.

But then we workshop those, right?

So if somebody says, like, we have this big client, but there's no way we're going to get that project done on time, let's look at it right?

And we start breaking it down.

Obviously, if we already know the problem, we don't have to name it.

But sometimes we do go back to naming it because it's not that it's not possible, it's just that maybe we're not thinking big enough or we're not tapping into all of our resources.

And so there's a lot of different ways that open up the possibilities when you bring those problems to the table.

But when you start workshopping that ask an answer portion as a team, you get to the solutions a lot, lot faster.

It's kind of like that whole improv game where it's like the yes and okay, we could work the weekend.

Yes.

And we could hire one more contractor to help us get it there in time.

Perfect, problem solved.

It just depends.

But you can work on it that way.

It's really great.

In one on ones, when you are coaching or mentoring someone on your team, if you notice they struggle with executive presence or have great ideas but never share them in the meeting, you can talk about those things with them.

I had a woman on my team who I noticed every single meeting would apologize for something.

She was doing it to placate the other person.

She would say things like, I'm sorry if I wasn't clear.

It's like, no, girl, you were clear.

You have to stand in your power and take up your space, right?

And you have to own that as a leader, as an entrepreneur, when you see other people's sticky floors and real time action, it's your responsibility to help them through it.

Amazing.

I really do think this is something that leaders can use for themselves and obviously got to use it first for yourself or it's going to fall completely flat.

But what you just described to me is, is so powerful because you're really, when you say to your team, I want you all to find something that's not working, you're really asking them to square stop and take note, right?

And name it.

It's like the first two steps that you're bringing them together to do and you're putting it into place.

I think it's extremely powerful.

I'm very curious.

Erica.

You have been very successful scaling your business.

You Have a huge following and amazing endorsements.

You've got Mel Robbins on the front of your book.

It's amazing.

Congratulations.

And she's lucky.

She'll get you on her next book.

And so I, all founders were all always interested in, how did you do it?

What were the habits, the practices, the outside support, you know, what for you has been your formula for leading this kind of growth?

Well, it's leaning into the belief in infinite possibilities, number one.

Because how many people would stop themselves before they even reached out to Mel Robbins to get an endorsement?

Right, Exactly.

She's too busy.

So, number one, it's believing in those infinite possibilities.

And then the biggest life hack for me, because I know myself very well by now, is that I have to do things to set things in motion before I talk myself out of them, right?

And one of the very first instances of that was I have my own podcast called the Glass Ceiling and Sticky Floor Podcast.

I sat on that idea for, like, a whole two before I went live with it, because I had all those limiting beliefs.

What are people gonna think of me?

Who's gonna listen to me?

They're gonna question what I'm doing at work if I have this side hustle and all the beliefs you could imagine.

So one day I got the courage, and I said, okay, I know I need to do this.

It's been calling me for way too long.

So I sent my 10 closest girlfriends an email saying, I want to do this.

I'm struggling to get it started.

Please hold me accountable.

So I set that ball in motion, right?

I like to do things that cannot be undone.

My biggest revenue driver in business is my online digital community.

It's called her collective, and it's for women who are looking to grow, network, and connect.

The reason that I have been so successful with that wasn't because I waited, right?

I got the idea for that one month, started it that same month, built it out, and had $10,000 in revenue before.

Before it was even launched.

And it's because you know what I did?

I went out there and I bought the platform.

I paid for an entire year of the platform that I was going to host this collective in, because I knew if I did that, I was going to be held to it for a year.

Now I'm stuck in a good way with this big revenue driver project for the next year, but it's completely changing the way I do business.

You just gotta take action.

One of my core values is courage.

Whenever I feel myself sitting there hemming and hawing about a decision I ask myself, is this what a courageous person would do?

If the answer is yes, I'm all in.

If the answer is no, I'm all out.

Yeah, well, and I think this is such great advice, right?

Do things to set things in motion before you can get in your own way.

Tell us about her collective now.

Oh, my gosh, I'm so passionate about her collective.

It is this incredible group of women.

It's a digital community online, and we meet every week for group coaching and connection calls.

We have an Ask an offer session where all the women come together.

And if you have a need, we share it.

Whoever can help you jumps in and reciprocates.

Sometimes we see things like, I need a connection at Google or I'm looking for a client in this.

We talk about it, we do it, and we really harness the power of the collective group of women.

It is limited to women because that's my focus.

That's my happy place.

But we are there to cheer each other on and encourage each other.

We bring in the coolest people for these monthly master classes who just blow our minds.

It's.

It's incredible.

We've had an intuitive strategist on there.

We had Henna Pryor, who's the author of the book Good Awkward, which, if you haven't read, put it on your list.

It's a really cool online platform and you can access it anywhere from your phone.

So, hey, if you join, you know where to find me.

Exactly, Exactly.

I love that.

So, okay, so we've got her collective.

What else do you have going on?

How can listeners get involved?

I know you have a coaching program as well.

Is that tied to her collective?

How does the ecosystem of Erica Rooney work?

Work?

I'm start.

I'm gonna start you with the.

The low dollar items.

Okay.

Right.

So we've got the good old free stuff, the podcast that if you like Erica Rooney and you're live in with this girl, check out the Glass Ceiling and Sticky Floor podcast.

Everything is out there on Apple or wherever you get them.

Plus I put it all on the YouTube channel.

There's some other fun stuff on my YouTube channel, which it's just the Erica Anderson Rooney YouTube channel.

Check that out.

Hit me up on LinkedIn.

That's my other permanent address outside of my North Carolina address.

I am in LinkedIn all day long, posting a lot of great content and just ways to reimagine your leadership and how you lead and live your life.

LinkedIn podcast.

Next Level would be buy the book.

It's in print.

It's on Audible, you can find it on Amazon, wherever books are sold.

And then you start actually getting into her collective is that next tier item.

It's only $684 for the entire year.

That is 52 sessions of coaching and 12 master classes plus everything else inside for $684.

You can't beat that because the next tier package is if you want that one on one time with me.

And I do have one on one coaching for my clients who want that level, that high touch level.

But I also come into organizations and I do workshops and keynotes all on anything related to hr, anything related to leadership.

I actually do a lot of work with AI stuff now and helping organizations embrace that change.

So there's a lot of ways you can work with me if you want to find me.

LinkedIn is the best place to connect one on one.

But you can check out the website which is Erica andersonrooney.com or join her collective.com and you go get me and I'm gonna be there.

That is so great.

Oh, it's such a pleasure to be with you Erica.

What a fun conversation.

I've picked up so many great bits here and new books to read to.

I've written down to let's we've got to bet on ourselves ladies, right?

I'm going to bet on me, you're going to bet on you, we're going to bet on each other.

We have the opportunity for abundance, fulfillment and infinite possibilities.

Think about that for yourself.

Use the SNAP system, Stop, name it, ask an answer, pivot and allow that to be your pattern interrupt and your bias towards action in reducing activation and get that confidence competence loop spinning so that you can finally have the life that you have been hoping for and keep creating more and more of the good stuff.

And I'm just thrilled to have you and all of your wisdom and it is wonderful to hear the sound of a wise woman's voice here.

Oh, I love that.

Thank you Coco.

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Let's all go make the world better place.

Cheers.