Glass Ceilings and Sticky Floors with Erica Anderson Rooney

In a world where women are told to have it all, do it all, and be it all, the reality they face while actually trying to do these things is far more complex.

The pay gap looms large – over the span of a career, it takes 132 years to close – while the confidence gap, the leadership gap, and the broken rung in the corporate ladder persist.

Erica Anderson Rooney has faced all these challenges intimately, personally, and head-on as she’s climbed the ranks to the C-suite while raising a family. But wait – there’s more.

Erica grew up as the daughter of parents who divorced when she was very young. Both were loving parents, and they lived close to each other so that she could spend half the week with her dad and half the week with her mom.

Having to live in two different households, each with different expectations, rules, and ways of doing things, led Erica to become a chameleon and put other people first in order to get by as smoothly as possible and avoid conflict and friction.

Three of her values were learned from her mom. Go to school and get good grades so you can have a good-paying job and financial independence was the first. This led to the second, which was to never be in a situation where you have to depend on a man – a fitting lesson given the circumstances. The third was to be a good person, be kind, be generous, and always show up and do the right thing.

These values carried Erica through childhood and college, into her first career, and into her marriage. Everything seemed fine, because of a fourth lesson she had learned – but that was the problem, as Fine is a 4-Letter Word.

See, the fourth lesson was that alcohol solves a lot of problems, whether it makes you feel happier, helps you forget why you’re sad, or loosens your inhibitions. Or helps you “ease up” when trying to be a chameleon has you grinding against your authentic self.

By dulling the edge, Erica missed that she wasn’t in touch with her authenticity. She’d go to a concert and say “this is great” in order to please whomever invited her, even if she hated the music. But sometimes, she would have a glass of wine to cope with houseguests she didn’t want to deal with. A glass would turn into two, then three – then a whole bottle. She’d wake up not knowing what happened or what she said, or sensing tension with her husband and not even knowing what they had fought about the night before.

In a moment, when you meet Erica, you’ll hear about the path to claiming her power to allow her authenticity to come through.

Erica’s hype song is "Owl City" by Verge ft. Aloe Blacc.

Resources:

• Erica Anderson Rooney’s website: https://www.ericaandersonrooney.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericarooney/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/fromnowtonextribe
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ericaandersonrooney/

Invitation from Lori: 

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