Embracing Change and Redefining Success with Eric Nehrlich

In this transformative episode, Eric Nehrlich, a certified coach and former Google Chief of Staff, shares his unique journey from engineering to executive coaching. With a passion for helping leaders become more conscious and purposeful, Eric offers invaluable insights on navigating career inflection points and redefining success on your own terms. Get ready to be inspired and equipped with practical strategies to embrace change and step into your power.

Guest Bio:

Eric Nehrlich began his career as an Engineer and Product Manager in the tech industry before joining Google, where he excelled as Chief of Staff, helping Google leaders drive greater performance. Driven by his passion for empowering leaders to become more conscious and purposeful, Eric became a certified coach and founded his own executive coaching business, Too Many Trees. He now works with clients worldwide, guiding leaders to step into their power. Eric is also the author of "You Have a Choice: Beyond Hard Work to Meaningful Impact," where he shares the strategies that have proven most effective for himself and his executive clients.

Content Sample:

In this episode, Eric shares his profound "relax" approach to career growth, emphasizing that it's okay to take a different path and lean into your unique superpowers. With his engaging storytelling style, he recounts a pivotal moment in his early career that led him to focus on leadership and business, ultimately shaping his journey as an executive coach. Eric also delves into the transformative power of creating collective ownership of a vision, a key attribute of great leaders.

Key Takeaways:

[02:49] Embrace a "relax" approach to career growth and lean into your unique superpowers

[06:11] Experiment and try new strategies when old ones no longer work

[12:04] The golden thread of great leadership: creating collective ownership of a vision

[20:42] Recognize that you always have a choice, even if it means accepting the consequences

[25:58] Develop the superpower of translating experiences to effectively communicate with diverse teams

Memorable Quotes:

"It's okay to take a different path. There's no one right thing; you're not behind. But figure out what's going to lean into your superpowers, what makes you great, what makes you different. And that's going to be what eventually separates you."

Suggestions:

Subscribe to the Career Wanderlust podcast for more inspiring stories and practical advice from industry leaders. Follow Eric Nehrlich on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/nehrlich/ and check out his coaching services at Too Many Trees http://toomanytrees.com. 

This session was hosted by Jolie Downs with Paradigm, for more insights into career evolution and growth, connect with Jolie here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joliedowns/

If you enjoy learning from others, please give us a like, subscribe, and share with a friend. If you are looking to add talent to your public relations, marketing, communications, sales, or business development team with the best talent, and quickly, check us out at paradigmstaffing.com.

Ending Note:

As we wrap up this thought-provoking conversation with Eric Nehrlich, take a moment to reflect on your own career journey. What inflection points have you faced, and how can you embrace change to redefine success on your own terms? Share your experiences and insights in the comments below, and let us know what topics you'd like to explore in future episodes. Remember, you have a choice in shaping your career path. What will you choose?

Transcript

Eric Nehrlich transcript

[00:00:00] Jolie Downs: Welcome to the Career Wanderlust podcast, your compass for new career horizons. Today, we are talking with Eric Nehrlich. Eric started his career as an Engineer and Product Manager in the tech industry before joining Google, where he became Chief of Staff and excelled at helping Google leaders drive greater performance.

[00:00:22] Eric's passion for helping leaders become more conscious and purposeful led him to become a certified coach and start his own executive coaching business, Too Many Trees. He now works with clients all over the world, helping leaders step into their power. Eric also wrote the book, You Have a Choice Beyond Hard Work to Meaningful Impact, where he shares what has worked for him best for his executive clients, and I'm really excited to learn more. Eric, thank you for joining us on the Career Wanderlust Podcast. 

[00:00:54] Eric Nehrlich: Thanks, Jolie. I'm really excited to be here. Career Wanderlust is a great way to describe my history. 

[00:01:01] Jolie Downs: I love the different aspect that you have undertaken in your career. I mean you've had some nice variety and you've gotten to experience a lot of different things. I'm curious if there's any piece of advice or belief that has served you the best as you've moved through your career.

[00:01:21] Eric Nehrlich: Yeah. I think, I don't know if it's a specific piece of advice, but looking back at my career now, I think my main advice to people is relax. Careers are long. Your life is long. And if you are falling behind and you're like three years into your career, that's okay. So, just to give some context here, I went to MIT and I actually majored in Physics, which turns out to be not at all what I've done with my life.

[00:01:53] My classmates launched into the tech industry. They're getting promoted. They became VPs by age 30. And I was still like a Software Engineer, individual contributor, zero progress on the career ladder. And I'm like, what am I doing wrong with my life? I'm so far behind. And then because I'd taken this kind of more broad wandering path that set me up to do some more interesting things in the second decade of my career. Like becoming Chief of Staff, which mixed; engineering, product management, business strategy, finance, operations. There were very few other people that had the kind of breadth of experience I had because they'd picked one lane and stuck to it.

[00:02:30] And now as an executive coach, I'm even more broader. And so I think the advice I have is it's okay to take a different path. There's no one right thing you're not behind, but figure out what's going to lean into your superpowers, what makes you great, what makes you different. And that's going to be what eventually separates you.

[00:02:49] Jolie Downs: I love this piece of advice so much because it is so true. And we're all on our own path, right? We all have, when we start comparing ourselves to other people, that's when pain starts coming in, that's where then happiness comes from. Because really, like you said, our paths are meant for us and they're happening for certain reasons and certain needs that are only going to become clear to us with time if you will.

[00:03:14] I love this. Run your own race. Don't stress about where you're at. Just keep looking for what makes sense to you. And I'm curious because you have advice that's worked for you, but being someone that has been giving advice to all of these leaders, also, through Google as an executive coach. I would imagine because I find that when I talk to people, there's these golden threads that you can start to see through people's stories, right? That start to collect. And I'm wondering if through these coachings that you go through if there is something that keeps popping up for these executives over and over. That you just find yourself saying over and over to different people, but the same thing over and over. Is there a message that is like that, that maybe the audience should hear too?

[00:04:01] Eric Nehrlich: Yeah. I guess the most common thing would be the Marshall Rosenberg book. "What got you here won't get you there." Or I often phrase this like change means letting go. Let go of things that have worked for you, that have done well for you in the past in order to get to the next level, in order to embrace the new things you have to learn.

[00:04:22] That's really scary because these things work for us. These tactics, these behaviors, these mindsets, these habits, they worked really well; until they don't. And that's a lot of times when my clients come to me. They're like, "I'm doing more and more of the thing that works and it's not working." Yeah, cause it's the wrong thing.

[00:04:40] Just a very standard example that I work with is I work with a lot of engineers cause I work in the tech industry and these are people that have been the smartest in the class. They're the expert. They know all the details. They solve all the problems themselves. That is what has made them special in school, as an engineer, even as a manager.

[00:04:59] And they're trying to run an org of 50 or a hundred people. And they're like, how do I stay on top of all the details? How do I know everything that's happening in my work? I tell them you don't. They're like, That doesn't sound right.

[00:05:12] Cause it's not what's worked for them in the past, but there's this inflection point where that's actually the wrong approach, it's the wrong strategy. It is easy to say that. And it's really hard to break the habits of what's worked for you. And that's where it takes, having a coach that's going to really hold you accountable to the new behaviors can really help.

[00:05:33] Jolie Downs: How do you help them find the right strategy? Like when, cause this could be applied to any type of situation really, where something, no longer is working. And you need to find new stuff. How do you help them find the new strategy? Is there any advice that you give along those lines?

[00:05:49] Eric Nehrlich: Yeah. I the advice is experiment. 

[00:05:56] Jolie Downs: Try new things. 

[00:05:57] Eric Nehrlich: Try things. I guess first decide what success means. This is actually an often skipped step of what does success mean here? And people are like, I just want to get to the next level. what does that mean for you? What would look different?

[00:06:11] I'm always asking them, cause you can't control everything else, but you could control your own behavior. So it's like, how would you show up differently? If we are successful here, what would look different when you walk in the room, when you act, talk in a meeting, what would be different? And they're like, Ooh, I want to have more executive presence.

[00:06:27] I want a second, don't want to second guess myself, whatever it is. And I was like, okay, what does that mean? What does that look like? And if they have trouble, I'm like, okay, think of somebody you respect who has that quality, gravitas, whatever it is you're looking for. What do they do differently that you don't do? And they can observe it. And they're like, Oh, they do this. Great. Maybe you should try that. 

[00:06:52] Jolie Downs: Yeah. Really great advice. And this is applicable in your career and in your life. It's, figuring out your definition of success is the first and most vital step. And I agree with you that most people skip that step. they're following the definitions of success that they've been giving or, and just been swallowing. And I think it's really important that everyone take that moment to figure out what is my personal definition?

[00:07:15] What does that look like? So whether that be in your personal life or your career, in your job, building your company, Figuring that out. And then once you do, you're able to, like you said, once you know what that looks like, then you can work backwards, right? You can figure out what are the steps I need to do to get there.

[00:07:30] And if you're not sure, then you look at the people who are doing it and successful, what did they do to get there? And you can figure out those steps. It's a very actionable plan to apply to anything. So thank you. Really fantastic advice. 

[00:07:44] Eric Nehrlich: Yeah. And I'll add one more twist here, which is like, what makes it hard for people is they're trying to do 10 things at once.

[00:07:51] They're trying to optimize along 10 different of dimensions and they're trying to do it all. And they're like, why can't I do it all? Cause I see that person doing that and that person doing that and that person doing that. And you're like, yeah, but there's no one person doing all three of them. And that's the thing that people really don't like hearing that.

[00:08:09] Like I can do it all. I can be great at my career. I can be a great parent. I'm going to be a great partner. I'm going to do triathlons in my free time. Like I'm going to do it all. It's yeah, but there's a limited amount of time and day and the week. And so what are you going to do less of to be good at, to be great at one thing?

[00:08:27] If you don't try it, if you don't prioritize, you don't, Pick that one thing you're going to focus on, you're going to be pulled in many directions and average to mediocre at everything. 

[00:08:37] Jolie Downs: Yeah, life picks for you. And 

[00:08:38] Eric Nehrlich: that's okay. Yeah. But be honest that's what you're doing.

[00:08:42] Jolie Downs: Yeah. Yes. No, this is very true. I found this in my own self when I have a variety of projects that I'm working on. It's, very. bink, bink, type of a thing, but if I focus in, I'm like, okay, this is the priority. This is what we're gonna work on, and then, and you just shoot forward.

[00:08:59] So it is very interesting, and, it's actually very simple advice that we forget. 

[00:09:07] Eric Nehrlich: Cause it's hard to do. It's hard to say no to all the other stuff. 

[00:09:13] Jolie Downs: Absolutely. So now tell me, you've been through a lot of different changes in your own career. I'm curious if there is a personal story, something that you've experienced that you've gone through that you learned something significantly from that could be helpful for the people to hear.

[00:09:31] Eric Nehrlich: I have so many, I'll start with, what will I start with? I guess I'll start with one of the early experiences in my career. So my second job out of school, I was an engineer at a biotech startup, had a great tech team. I loved working with the other people. We were doing amazing stuff, like literally stuff.

[00:09:52] nobody else in the world was doing. And. I was like, this is amazing. We're going to go take over the world. It's going to be great. I'm going to go make my millions of dollars. It was the. com era. So everybody expected this was going to be happening to them. And the company raised 40 million.

[00:10:08] I'm like, yeah, we are like on the rocket ship. We got this going on. And then the company went bankrupt a year later. I'm like, I'm missing something. The engineers delivered on what they said they would deliver. And somehow we went bankrupt. It turns out there's this whole thing called business that I didn't understand and leadership.

[00:10:29] and the part that was the learning from it was as an engineer, as somebody who has very analytical, I could see what was happening. I could see the bad decisions being made by our leadership team. And I'm like, These are bad decisions, you should stop doing that. It turns out, this is going to be mind blowing for you, that if you stand up at an all hands meeting, and you call the CEO an idiot, He doesn't like it.

[00:10:55] It's not effective. I was right to be clear.

[00:11:02] Jolie Downs: Not effective in the communication application. 

[00:11:06] Eric Nehrlich: I could see the, iceberg coming, but yelling at the CEO and telling me he was an idiot did not help him change the direction. And so the learning for me for that, that ended up being the pivot point for a lot of the rest of my careers.

[00:11:21] It's it doesn't matter how good of an engineer I am. If the leadership is terrible. And so that's why I started pivoting to focus on business, focus on leadership, because I'm like, that's the multiplier. If a great leader can take. A group of people and turn their, and give them 10 X the impact and a terrible leader can take it to zero.

[00:11:41] And I want to help make great leaders. And that's what I do now as an executive coach. 

[00:11:46] Jolie Downs: What do you think is the top attributes that make a great leader? 

[00:11:53] Eric Nehrlich: Ooh, I think there's so many different ways to do it because people have different personalities. There's different situations. There's different contexts.

[00:12:03] But I think 

[00:12:04] Is there a golden thread, would you say? 

[00:12:06] I like that phrase, golden thread. I think the golden thread is creating ownership, collective ownership of the dream of the vision. And what I mean by that is everything, every company starts with a vision of this is what we could do, this is the change we could have, this is the impact we could have and a great leader includes you in the vision and you become committed to it yourself and you want to be part of it.

[00:12:35] And. As part of that, they trust you to be part of the vision, to do stuff. They can delegate to you. They give you ownership and autonomy and, , mastery, autonomy and purpose are the components of motivation according to Daniel Pink's book drive.

[00:12:50] And that's part of leadership. Also, if you motivate people by giving them an opportunity to excel. Mastery, if you give them autonomy, the ownership to do what they want, and they give them a purpose to drive towards, you're going to be a pretty good leader because then you have motivated people who are working towards a common purpose.

[00:13:05] Jolie Downs: That's a great formula. I love that. Now, you started your own company, Too Many Trees. Tell us a little bit about it. What do you, what are you doing? What do you do well for your clients? who are the type of people who would want to come work with you? 

[00:13:20] Eric Nehrlich: Yeah. I'm not sure I'd call it a company.

[00:13:22] I'm self employed. There's, I'm the only employee, so it's a solopreneurship, not a, not trying to grow beyond that. but yeah. Yeah. The clients I typically work with often in the tech industry are these people at these inflection points where what's worked for them before is no longer working for them.

[00:13:38] And typically for me, that means these people going from kind of manager to executive is the transition. So that can be C level leaders at startups. So CMO, CTOs, CEOs, or like directors and VPs at bigger tech companies. but really it's about this inflection point of my job is becoming less about delivering the work myself.

[00:14:02] And more about coordinating with others to make the work, to make sure the work happens and making the trade offs among all the different things we could do all the possibilities we have and be able to decide we're going to do this, and this it's prioritizing and coordinating. More than it is doing the work yourself.

[00:14:21] Jolie Downs: Yeah. Do you talk about that in your book? 

[00:14:23] Eric Nehrlich: I do. 

[00:14:24] Jolie Downs: I do. actually, 

[00:14:25] Eric Nehrlich: the book, is less, I should say, talk a little bit about that. The book is less about that and more about fundamentally building an agency mindset of saying I'm in control of my life. I'm taking responsibility for the choices I make.

[00:14:39] And one of the questions I ask throughout the book is how am I part of the problem? 

[00:14:46] Jolie Downs: Ooh, I love that question. Where do you go from that? So how am I part of the problem? And then what are the next questions you ask yourself after that? 

[00:14:55] Eric Nehrlich: it's, really just acknowledging that I am contributing to the situation.

[00:14:58] So to go, back to my example at the startup with the terrible CEO, I, in that situation, I was blaming the CEO. He's an idiot for not listening to me. He should be listening to me. I'm right. He's not listening. It wasn't until many years later that I reflected on like, how was I communicating in a way that did not contribute to him listening?

[00:15:17] What was I contributing to the interaction, which was arrogance. It was an unwillingness to see what he's confronting and the complexities he was dealing with. And therefore I was not effective at communicating in the way we talked about. 

[00:15:32] Jolie Downs: Based on what you've learned, I'm really curious, how would you address it now?

[00:15:36] What would you do? 

[00:15:38] Eric Nehrlich: I would start with curiosity. This is what I tell all my clients. Let's start with curiosity. Hey, what's going on here? Help me understand. What am I missing? These are the catchphrases I often give to my clients. help me understand. based on what I understand. This is what I would do, but you're doing this.

[00:15:55] So I'm missing something. What am I missing? Help me understand. And you may still agree that they're not making the right choice, but then you could bring in, what do you see that they don't? Oh, they're looking at this. here's some information you don't have, or here's an experience I had that might change your mind.

[00:16:13] And being much more respectful and collaborative rather than I'm right, you're wrong. That turns out not to, create dialogue. 

[00:16:24] Jolie Downs: Yeah. It doesn't work quite as well. Oh, I like that. I think that's, those are great. just that was really great advice. It's just two simple questions to ask, to get that dialogue flowing and get into the conversation you need to get into in a much more comfortable way.

[00:16:41] I think that's incredibly helpful. I imagine, do you apply this yourself a lot now in life? 

[00:16:48] Eric Nehrlich: I do. this is because my clients Are coming from all different industries and all different positions, all different backgrounds. Like I, I tell them in the very first chat, I'm going to say what seems right to me and you should push back if it doesn't feel right for you.

[00:17:03] Like I have answers, but they're my answers and your answers are, might be different, and this is something I have to be particularly aware of. Cause I'm a white passing man in America where I got away with stuff in my career that, let's say a black woman would not get away with. And if I just say, this is the way you should do it.

[00:17:22] That's both going to be insensitive and ineffective. And that is not what I want as a coach. So I've got to be very conscious of the different contexts in which my clients are playing. And I want to really understand them before I'm like saying, do this or do that. Perfect. And that's also where the experiment framework is really valuable.

[00:17:40] Jolie Downs: Yes. 

[00:17:41] Eric Nehrlich: Try this 

[00:17:42] Jolie Downs: and 

[00:17:44] Eric Nehrlich: let's see what happens. Ooh, you got a lot of pushback on that. Okay. We're not going that direction. 

[00:17:50] Jolie Downs: I'm curious, your book, you have a choice. Is there, what's one of the big takeaways would you say from the big, one of the big impactful lessons that you find in your book? 

[00:18:01] Eric Nehrlich: it's in the title.

[00:18:02] You have a choice. I chose that title for a reason. no, but more seriously, like the thing we often get trapped is believing we don't have a choice. And so I start off the book with my own story, which is another, Life lesson for my career where I burned myself out badly at Google trying to earn a promotion.

[00:18:27] My manager was like, this is what it takes to earn a promotion. So I was working 8am to midnight every day, including weekends. I did that for most of a year, actually for most of three years. And eventually my body gave out. It just completely just was in bed for a week. Cause it's you have, I had nothing left to give.

[00:18:45] I had completely destroyed my body. And my mental health for that matter. and I was like, but what can I do? I have to earn the promotion. I have to do what my manager says. But, for some reason, lying in bed when I was sick, I was like, do I have to do those things? What if I didn't go after the promotion?

[00:19:07] What if I said no to my manager. And for some reason I was in a low enough point that I'd listened to that voice in my head and it took action on it. I went into my manager's office after the, after I came back and said, I am not going to work that hard anymore. They're like, what do you mean? It's I'm not going to work that hard anymore.

[00:19:27] if you can't handle the work, I'm going to find somebody that can like you do what you have to do. 

[00:19:32] Jolie Downs: And you 

[00:19:33] Eric Nehrlich: definitely are not going to, meet expectations. You're not going to get that promotion. I'm like, I understand. And so they took away half my team. There were consequences. 

[00:19:42] Jolie Downs: My 

[00:19:42] Eric Nehrlich: performance rating did get slashed and I was happier because I was working 40 hours a week.

[00:19:49] Yeah, so for me, I didn't think I had a choice, but I did have a choice if I was willing to accept the consequences. And that was the thing that I was just a big epiphany for me. there is a choice if you can accept and handle the consequences in this case, the consequences where I didn't get the potion and I lost half my team.

[00:20:22] That was a consequence. I was willing to make that choice, and I ended up being happier, which I tell people every day. every day you show up at work, that's a choice. You could not show up to work. Yeah. You'd lose the job and you wouldn't get the money. 

[00:20:40] Jolie Downs: Yeah. 

[00:20:40] Eric Nehrlich: Sometimes that's the right choice.

[00:20:42] Jolie Downs: Yeah. Yeah. No, we all make choices based on who we believe ourselves to be, who we want ourselves to be. And sometimes it's a matter of like also getting in touch with that. is this really who I want to be? No, just for the promotion. Do I, want to be that person in that promotion where no, and you can make different choices, 

[00:21:02] Eric Nehrlich: but it's so hard to do that when you're like trapped in a particular mindset and you're in a certain culture and you have everyone around you says, how could you not want that?

[00:21:10] You have the chance to be promoted at Google. It's the most prestigious company in the world. How could you walk away from that? I definitely heard a lot of that when I left Google to become a coach and. By that point, I was much clearer on what was important to me. Much clearer on what my definition of success was.

[00:21:23] Exactly. I gonna say that was no longer, it goes 

[00:21:25] Jolie Downs: right back to that Yeah. . 

[00:21:27] Eric Nehrlich: Yeah. That it was like very easy to make the choice. 

[00:21:30] Jolie Downs: Exactly, It's, it, feels right. you're, being on your authentic self, like you are living your definition of success at that point, and that is when people.

[00:21:39] are actually thriving. You can be the most senior person in Google and not be thriving. That is absolutely a possibility. 

[00:21:51] Eric Nehrlich: It's it is surprisingly common, especially in Silicon Valley. 

[00:21:55] Jolie Downs: Yeah, because we have all 

[00:21:56] Eric Nehrlich: these high achievers who have spent their whole life going after the next promotion, the next milestone, the next big thing, and they don't know how to relax.

[00:22:05] And. It's I once heard Silicon Valley described as an engine for harnessing anxiety disorders for productivity. And I was like, Ooh, that kind of hurts,

[00:22:20] but it hurts because it there's a little bit of truth.

[00:22:25] Jolie Downs: Yeah. I'm very passionate about this message as well. So thank you for spreading it. I really appreciate it. so besides your book, cause I love talking about books or. things that you've watched, listened to, what have you. I just like to feed the mind proactively. Is there anything else that you, perhaps have found great benefit for yourself or maybe you suggest to your clients that has, brings benefit to your life?

[00:22:48] Is there like a book or could be something you've watched or listened to? 

[00:22:54] Eric Nehrlich: what comes to mind is there's a podcast interview, the Farnam street podcast, the knowledge project podcast, I guess it's called with a guy named Jim Detmer, who is the leader of the conscious leadership group, coaching firm.

[00:23:07] And he talks about the four pillars. Of living with integrity. And he defines integrity as energetic wholeness, as in we have all of our energy. So anything that drains our energy, anything that steals our energy is drawing away from our integrity. apparently this came from, I'm going to forget the name, Kate Hendricks, Katie Hendricks, who's the wife of gay Hendricks.

[00:23:38] Anyway, it doesn't, I just want to give everybody credit. but so in the podcast, he described the four pillars and, I'm going to, and I'm going to hope I get them right, but if I don't, I'll follow up. But, radical responsibility is one own your choices, make your commitments. if you, hold to your commitments, if you say you're going to do something, follow through on it.

[00:23:59] If you're not going to make, be able to follow through on it, own that, communicate it and talk about what you're going to do differently, feel your feelings and don't let them, don't let your feelings ruin your life. feel them, honor them, and then make your decisions accordingly. Okay. And then say what you mean, say what you need to say.

[00:24:20] So don't hold things back. Don't gossip. Don't, if you're going to say something about somebody or think something about somebody, tell it to them and have the direct conversation because if you're holding it back, that's energetic trade. 

[00:24:34] And so all of these are energetic drains. If you don't, if you have unmet agreements, if you have things you're thinking about saying, if you are not taking ownership of your choices and if you're feeling feelings or you're not feeling your feelings or repressing or suppressing, they're all create tension in your body, tension in your mind.

[00:24:50] And those are energetic drains. And for some reason, this is a couple of years ago, I listened to that podcast. I'm like, This is genius. Like this is like such a wonderful framework to run your life. Cause I believe very strongly these days that like, when you can put your energy towards the causes you care about, you have more impact back to the priorities thing.

[00:25:13] And if you can find ways to live with your integrity so that you're not being, having an energy drain, you're going to put more energy towards the things you care about. And so it's just, you're more effective. when you live this way. It's not about touchy feelings, not about hippie stuff. It's this is just more effective because it's more energy available for the causes you care about.

[00:25:33] Jolie Downs: A hundred percent. And I can absolutely say that I've learned these from studying the stories of the most successful. These four pillars are vital. So thank you for sharing that. That was fantastic. And this has been a really great conversation, Eric, before you go, I would love to know, is there a personal superpower that you have developed over time that has been a great benefit to your life?

[00:25:58] And how has it benefited you? 

[00:26:01] Eric Nehrlich: Yeah. One of the advantages of having had a wide ranging set of experiences is that I'm a great translator of experiences. I can understand what the other person is thinking. And early in my career, that wasn't helpful. Cause as an engineer, I was expected to talk to engineers.

[00:26:19] But as my career continued, like in my chief of staff role, I was working with the finance team, with the sales team, with the engineer team, with the product team, with the, this and that, and the leadership team. The comms team and like that set of experience. I'd been in all of those roles at some point in my career.

[00:26:35] So it was like, I could understand and say, Oh, that person saying that what they mean for you is this and translated into the words they understood. And this is something that's critical for me as a coach now, because I put things, the lessons into terms my clients are going to understand based on their experience.

[00:26:52] So I might describe the same concept five different ways for five different clients because I know their history. I know their domain I'm like this is what it means for you And that's what it means if you're marketing for yourselves phrase it differently and if you're an engineer I'll phrase it differently because I'm going to use the concepts that are helpful to them.

[00:27:10] So this is an example where early in my career, I had no idea this was a valuable thing. And now like my whole expertise is built on it. So 

[00:27:18] Jolie Downs: great superpower. It's how you make impact. that superpower allows you to create impact in this world. So fantastic. 

[00:27:26] Eric Nehrlich: and it goes back to the example from the CEO early in my career where I wasn't able to empathize.

[00:27:32] I didn't understand his perspective and I wasn't effective. So effective communication depends on this kind of empathy. And that's what I believe is my superpower now. 

[00:27:41] Jolie Downs: Yeah. Wonderful. Eric, thank you so much for joining us on the Career Wanderlust podcast. It's been a fantastic talk. 

[00:27:48] Eric Nehrlich: Thank you, Julie. I've really enjoyed it.

[00:27:50] I love what you're doing here. I want more people to feel confident that they can take detours, follow their own path, and it'll all be okay. So I love what you're doing. Keep up the great work. 

[00:28:01] Jolie Downs: Thank you. 

[00:28:02] Thank you for joining us on the Career Wanderlust Podcast. If you find value in learning from others, give us a like and subscribe. If you're looking to grow your communications, marketing, public relations, or sales and biz dev team with the best talent and quickly, check us out at ParadigmStaffing. com and submit a request.

[00:28:26] We are wishing you a most successful and fulfilling career. Until next time.