IAM2619 – Psychotherapist Teaches Organizations to Optimize Strengths of Employees

In this episode, we have Erica N. Reed, a psychotherapist, corporate trainer, and adjunct professor, uses her clinical expertise to help leaders and employees “lead from within.”

After leaving a toxic agency job and launching a private practice fifteen years ago, she eventually reframed herself as a CEO and began pairing individual wellness work with organizational training.

Her mission is to improve employee satisfaction and mental health, arguing that when people feel valued and emotionally safe, they become more productive and stay longer with the company.

She emphasizes that true leadership isn’t just about skills or credentials, but about emotional intelligence and the human element of business.

Website: www.ericanreed.com

Free Offer – managestressatwork

LinkedIn – ericanreedlcswc
Facebook Group – SelfCareforSuperwomen

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Erica N. Reed Teaser 00:00
My work is really about helping leaders specifically, but also the employees within the organization, how to lead from within, because you have to start with you.

So it's really about leading from within, understanding what it means to be a strong leader, not just because you had the skills to get the job, but you have the ability to lead people. And that's really the han element.

Intro 00:28
Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview?
If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 00:54
Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast. And I have a very special guest on the show today.

I have Erica N. Reed of Ericanreed.com. Erica, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Erica N. Reed 01:06
Thank you so much for having me.

Gresham Harkless 01:08
No problem. Super excited to have you on. And what I wanted to do was read a little bit more about Erica so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing.

And Erica N. Reed is a psychotherapist and corporate trainer and her focus is on leading from within to create success in all areas of life.

As a psychotherapist, Erika has worked with, works with her clients to help develop a healthy mindset and behaviors resulting in higher levels of confidence, loving relationships, and an overall feeling of personal fulfillment.

Since the workplace has a huge impact on our overall mental health, Erica also provides corporate training to teach organizations how to focus on the human side of business. Her training and keynote presentations focus on optimizing the personal and professional strengths of employees, resulting in high-performing and collaborative teams.

Taking her clinical and training experience to the classroom. Erica is an adjunct professor at Bowie State University and Catholic University of America. Erica, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

Erica N. Reed 02:08
Yes, I am.

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Gresham Harkless 02:09
Awesome, let's do it. So to kick everything off, I wanted to hear a little bit more about what I call your CEO story and what led you to start your business.

Erica N. Reed 02:17
Well, it's actually been a long journey. After graduating from graduate school, I started working with an agency as a therapist and really enjoyed the work. But it got to the point that the work environment was driving me crazy. It was not healthy.

There were a lot of policies and infighting issues. And it got to the point that every day as I turned the corner to pull into the parking lot of my office, I got this feeling in my stomach.

It was that discomfort feeling that let you know something's not right and you just can't keep going on like this. So after a while, I just, decided I couldn't do this anymore.

And like most therapists, when you leave corporate or you leave an agency, you start your private practice. So essentially, that's what I did about 15 years ago at this point. But interestingly enough, when I started my private practice, I don't think I really identified it as my business. I called it my practice.

If there was a checkbox on a form I had to fill out, it says self-employed, but I never really saw it as a business and identified myself as a CEO. And it worked for me. It was a lucrative practice. I got contracts.

I worked with the court. I worked in different agencies doing their corporate training for them. And it really wasn't until about five years ago that I had a shift.

I had a mindset shift that really changed my life and it's created this now business for myself to the point that I identify myself as a business owner, as a CEO.

And I'm excited to show others how to do that as well, but more so on the focus of you have to understand that your employees are important, you have to understand that how well they feel about themselves and their work will be directly impactful for the organization.

So the private practice continues working with clients on their wellness individually, but it's also a deliberate effort to work with organizations to increase their employee wellness as well.

Gresham Harkless 04:43
Nice. Well, I definitely appreciate you for doing that and appreciate you even more. I think there might be people even listening to this that have that same seeking, sinking feeling when they're driving into wherever they're doing or whatever they're doing.

You know, whether it be even, you know, their own business sometimes, but I, I appreciate the fact because you saw that and you didn't just say that and just, you know, stick with it.

Gresham Harkless 05:06
You actually decided to make a change. So that's just a great reminder for anybody that might be listening that you're able to do that. And I appreciate you for helping and reaching out to people to make their organizations better as a whole. And I know you touched on it a little bit.

Can you drill a little bit deeper? Tell us a little bit more about what you're doing with these organizations and how you're creating a better work environment.

Erica N. Reed 05:28
Definitely. So it's interesting because I've worked in corporate as far as conducting trainings for them throughout these past 15 years.

But more recently, my focus has been on teaching organizations and teaching the leaders in the organization how important their role is in the success of the organization, yes, as far as nbers. but as far as the employee's satisfaction.

You know, you get those employee satisfaction surveys and I don't really think they pay too much attention to them because it's very clear that employees need more.

They need to feel valued, they need to feel appreciated, and then maybe they'll be more productive and they will stay at the organization as opposed to being on LinkedIn looking for a new job.

So my work is really about helping leaders, specifically, but also the employees within the organization, how to lead from within, because you have to start with you. If you are, you know, an unhealthy person, if you don't know how to communicate.

If you avoid those difficult conversations, if you don't understand how to respect the differences of others in the workplace, that creates a toxic environment that no one does well in.

So it's really about leading from within, understanding what it means to be a strong leader, not just because you had the skills to get the job, but you have the ability to lead people.

And that's really the han element. It's not just because you have a skill set. That's more so the life experience, the graduate degree, the high IQ.

We're more on the emotional intelligence side of things where Hans matter, and that's really what my work focuses on, the leading from within piece.

Gresham Harkless 07:28
Nice. I definitely appreciate that. And, you know, it's funny because I always usually say that, you know, whenever you look at any, you know, business or organization, no matter how big or how small, a lot of times when you peel back the onion, you forget that they're made up of people and they're made up of people that, you know, have goals, aspirations, have good days, bad days, all those things.

And I think a lot of times we lose sight of that, you know, sometimes as leaders, but also as people who are, you know, supporting certain businesses or organizations.

I think we sometimes forget that these are not, you know, things that aren't han. They're made up of people that live and breathe just like we do.

Erica N. Reed 08:04
Definitely. No, no androids here yet. I mean, I know that AI is on the way, but as of right now, we're still hans.

Gresham Harkless 08:12
Exactly. Exactly. That makes perfect sense. And so now I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce, and this could be what you feel kind of distinguishes you or your organization, but what do you feel kind of sets you apart?

Erica N. Reed 08:24
And I love this question. I love this question because I had to dig deep into it. It's like, hey, what is my unique selling proposition? And after thinking about it, it came very quickly to me because I realized uniquely, I get to see both sides of the desk.

I see the clients that come into my office and people come to therapy for various reasons. But more often than not, we end up talking about work.

Either because work has created a problem in their life with the toxic environment, the unhealthy leadership styles, the workload stress. or the challenges the employee is facing that's sitting on my sofa in therapy is affecting them at work.

So I get that side of it, but I also get the leadership side of speaking with organizational leaders and owners and the C-suite. And I hear their frustrations with their employees because they're sitting on my sofa too.

You know, everyone is sitting on my sofa. So I get to hear these perspectives and these frustrations and these desires that are not actually being communicated in the workplace.

Everyone is holding it close to their chest and they don't know how to bring it together. So that's actually what makes what I'm able to offer so unique is the training programs and the coaching programs that I put together has that aspect of being able to identify not only what the organization's goals are, who they're hiring me, so they're very clear,

But actually, what is that HR professional feeling and thinking? What are their frustrations? What is that leader that is trying to figure out how to get their employees to show up on time? How are they feeling?

And how is that employee feeling who can't seem to get to work on time because of everything else going on in her life? So that's what makes me unique.
I get to see it all from both sides of the desk.

Gresham Harkless 10:35
Nice. I definitely appreciate that. And it's kind of like a whole holistic view of everything and what's happening. Cause I think sometimes and often, you know, we get so kind of drill down and look from our perspective.

We don't necessarily have or tap into that empathy where we're able to understand what somebody else is doing. So it's great.

You know, sometimes if we can't happen to that ourselves to be able to lean on somebody, you know, like yourself, to be able to, to see the other side of the coin, to see how somebody else might be looking at, you know, whatever situation, because. At the end of the day, you know, we're all a team.

We were trying to, you know, move forward towards a common goal. So to make sure that we're on the same page in terms of doing that.

Erica N. Reed 11:12
Definitely.

Gresham Harkless 11:13
Yeah, absolutely. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. And this might be an app, a book or a habit that you have, but it's something that makes you more effective and efficient.

Erica N. Reed 11:26
Well, this is one I was slow to accept and I was pushing back against for a while. But now that I've embraced it, I can't do business without it. And it's something really, really simple. And that's just to write everything down.

Gresham Harkless 11:42
Nice. I definitely appreciate, you know, that hack and especially the simplicity of it. I too was very resistant against that as well and try to remember everything in my head. And I think that now I kind of have this mentality that I'm going to, I'm going to forget everything.

Gresham Harkless 11:57
So because of that, I made sure to write everything down. So it kind of leaves or alleviates that burden. And it helps me to kind of focus on other things because you know, sometimes we forget that even if you think that it's something small that you have to remember, that takes up space where something else, you know, can't be in that particular space.

So it's important to kind of just write things down and it gets it off your plate and off your plate.

And so now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. And this is a word of wisdom or a piece of advice, or if you can hop into a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?

Erica N. Reed 12:30
Ooh, my younger business self would identify herself as a business self.

Gresham Harkless 12:36
Absolutely. I think it might be Martin Luther King, the quote says, you know, faith is being able to take the next step without seeing the entire staircase.

A lot of times getting out of your comfort zone, you have to be able to do that. And it's a great reminder. Now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question. I know we touched on this a little bit as well, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO.

And we're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on this show. So Erica, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Erica N. Reed 13:01
Being a CEO to me is really about creating impact. I know that you know so many of us are focused on the numbers. And yes, we have to live. We have to pay the bills.

We want to have a quality of life and we want to be profitable. I think that goes without saying, but to me, being a CEO is not only that aspect of it, but creating an impact in my life, feeling proud of what I'm doing, the difference that I'm making in the lives of others, knowing that I'm being true to my gifts and my abilities, and I'm not hiding them. the impact that it creates for my family, you know, there's a certain measure of flexibility that comes with being a CEO.

And with that flexibility, I've been able to be present for my children.

Gresham Harkless 13:53
Awesome. I definitely appreciate that definition. I appreciate you even more for the impact you had today, but in the impact you have in your business and everything that you're doing. I think sometimes we forget how much of an impact that we have just by telling our story and by going out and getting out of our own comfort zones that we empower others to kind of be able to do it in much of the same way.

So, Eric, I truly appreciate your time. I wanted to pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you can let our readers and listeners know, and then, of course, how best they can get ahold of you.

Erica N. Reed 14:25
Well, thank you so much for allowing me to be a part of this experience with you. It's truly been exciting and amazing. And I guess one final thought I would have for your listeners is to pause. As CEOs, as business owners, as entrepreneurs, as parallelpreneurs, you're busy.

You have a lot on your plate. Rather, it's because of your personal commitments or your professional commitments. And so often, we could just stay busy.

So I would encourage people to pause and to reflect on where they are right now, what they need, how they feel, and then making sure that they are setting time in their schedule to get those needs met.

So I would love for you to reach out to me. I am all over at LinkedIn, Facebook, and my website. My website is ericanreed.com and on Facebook and LinkedIn, it's ericanreed, L-C-S-W-C, and those are my handles for LinkedIn and Facebook.

Gresham Harkless 15:32
Nice. And we'll make sure to have those links in the show notes as well, just so that anybody can follow up with you, but definitely appreciate that. Remember that, that reminder to just pause.

Cause a lot of times we miss things, especially you and I are both in the DMV area as hot as it is and how many things are running around and happening.

Sometimes we have to just take that pause to hear those small voices that are pointing us into the right directions or listening to our calling and our gifts.

So I appreciate you for doing that. I appreciate you even more for reminding us to do that.
And I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Erica N. Reed 16:02
Thank you, same to you.

Outro 16:04
Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast, powered by CB Nation and Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co. I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Don't forget to schedule your complimentary digital marketing consultation at blue16media.com.

This has been the I AM CEO podcast with Gresham Harkless Jr. Thank you for listening. This has been the I AM CEO podcast with Gresham Harkless Jr. Thank you for listening.

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