From East Baltimore to the Boardroom, Same Heartbeat
Host Lauren Cardillo sits down with UMGC alumna and HR leader, Erika Lane to trace the path from East Baltimore beginnings to guiding people strategy at a major airline. Erika explains how she refused labels, chose the grind over complaints, and turned early customer service work into leadership by practicing empathy and composure.
She shares the mentors and sponsors who opened doors, why she runs her life like a project manager, and how inclusive leadership starts with relatability and service. Along the way she breaks down her ‘stay ready’ system, updated materials, active networking, and the family legacy that keeps her anchored as the goals move forward. Listen for lessons on resilience, ownership, and building community that apply in any industry.
Episode Information
Erika Lane:
The only sailing you create is the one that you create for yourself. Tear out the hammer and bust that baby oath. There's thousands, tens of thousands of other people that's out there grinding while you're waiting for it to knock. They're taking it sailing. We're not doing it. No sailing. We're not doing it.
Narrator:
Welcome to the UMGC podcast Unstoppable Stories with your host, Lauren Cardillo.
Lauren Cardillo:
Today I'm joined by Erika Lane, Baltimore native, Texas transplant who's worked for some pretty large corporations in the US in human resources. Welcome today, Erika.
Erika Lane:
Thank you. How are you today, Lauren?
Lauren Cardillo:
I am good. You know, ready to go, ready to chat with you. I love talking with you at grad Walk when you graduated. So looking forward to this.
Erika Lane:
Thank you.
Lauren Cardillo:
So your resume may include some, like, big players like, you know, Wawa, American Airlines that sort of thing. If a 15 year old, you saw that today, what would she think? I mean, that's a, you know, huge leap.
Erika Lane:
Oh, wow. So 15 year old me, I was actually a mom at 15. So, she would be very proud, very excited. And maybe, a little bit of a little shock, you know, like, we finally did it. We made it. We we got past a lot of things that people didn't think we were going to get. Pass.
Erika Lane:
So ultimately she be proud for sure.
Lauren Cardillo:
What were some of those things that that people might think you couldn't have gotten past?
Erika Lane:
Well, like I said, I was a mom at 15, so I have seven children total, but I was a mom at 15. I left high school, was living in East Baltimore, which was not the best place to live at the time. And I wasn't raised by my parents. I was raised by my grandparents. So I think now, you know, in a less P.C. society, that would be called a disadvantage.
Erika Lane:
Background. So all of the hurdles that come with, you know, being what what folks would call being disadvantaged, but I'm not big on labels, so I didn't not allow myself to be labeled. And I also didn't allow myself to fall into, you know, what, what those labels meant and how they were defined. So being a teen mom instantly meant, you know, you're going to be on welfare forever.
Erika Lane:
You're never going to make it out of the city. You're not going to be much more than what you are right now. And there was just something that was innately in me that decided very early on that that was not going to be the Erica O'Brien, in spite of everything else, that took place in my life. So, yeah.
Lauren Cardillo:
How did your grandparents help that along? You know, because they could have they could have labeled you, right? They didn't have.
Erika Lane:
Solutely. Absolutely. If you knew anything about the Venable family, you would know, Lucille Venable did not play. So, not only did you have to show up, you had to look good while doing it. So there was not, you know, any room whatsoever for not being perseverant or playing the victim. It just literally was not an option.
Erika Lane:
And some of the things that I remember about, you know, just the the Lucille isms, as I like to call them, is, you know, you can spend that energy complaining and talking about what you can't do, or you can spend that energy grind and getting your hustle on and figuring out how you can do it. And that's still, you know, resonates with me today.
Erika Lane:
Even when I had my moments like, you know, I'm about to just throw in the towel, move to another country, retire early. My grandmother's voice is there like, you know, get it together, put the big girl pants on and figure out how you're going to navigate this. And those lessons I've given to my children. And even now, like my oldest grandson, I hear him saying some of that stuff, too.
Erika Lane:
So I think that's going to be a part of the family legacy at this point.
Lauren Cardillo:
It's a great family legacy. Oh, you know, so you get your GED at 17? Yep. And then you get your first your first job. I believe in insurance. Right.
Erika Lane:
It was for a third party administrator. So I'll never forget, the gentleman who hired me, who was the CEO? His name was Lou Berger. And he took a chance on me. I did not have any experience. I never worked, like, you know how most teenagers work in McDonald's? Work at Burger King? Whatever. I never had a job in retail or a fast food restaurant, so this was literally my first gig.
Erika Lane:
So I started, in customer service. Really listening to customer issues, doing customer resolution. So it kind of taught me a little bit of emotional intelligence early on because I was younger, somebody yelling at me, I want to yell back. Obviously that's not what you could do in that space. So I gained some really good mentorship early on around self-awareness and, you know, just kind of have a situational awareness and not respond.
Erika Lane:
And, and you can't always match energy in certain situations. So that was my first job. And by the age of 20, I was actually promoted into a team lead position. So I had direct reports not knowing what I'm doing. Lauren. Like, not by a long shot. But again, he took this chance on me, mentored me along the way, became a sponsor for me in a lot of ways.
Erika Lane:
And it taught me leadership skills that transferred into my home life as well as into my career development. So I will never, never forget the opportunity that he created for me, because it definitely was what spearheaded me into my HR career and like, expanded my portfolio. Super, super grateful for that experience.
Lauren Cardillo:
What do you think he saw in you? You know.
Erika Lane:
I'd like to think he saw, the the perseverance that's there, like, problem solving and a lot of empathy, like quick to help, quick to help people navigate, you know, their own barriers and kind of tear those down. I believe that he saw that, saw all of those things in me. And that's what, you know, afforded him the opportunity to take a chance on me.
Erika Lane:
I'll share with you a really funny story. So at one point, his competitor, which was a much larger company, actually poached me, and I was like, I'm not going anywhere. I'm staying here with Lou and the rest of the gang. Like, this is this is it for me. And he let me go. And at the time I was like, in my feelings, like, as much as I've done for this company, you know, you're going to push me out the door.
Erika Lane:
And it wasn't until a lot later in life that I was like, oh my God, I know what he was doing now. He was allowing me to spread my wings. He knew that I outgrew being with his organization, which was much smaller, limited growth. There probably wasn't much more. He was going to be able to teach me and allow me to get fostered and cultivated and a much larger company learn how to navigate the boardroom, the corporate politics.
Erika Lane:
So my gratefulness is not just for him letting me in, but it's also for pushing me out.
Lauren Cardillo:
How much of what you do today with your employees, because there's a lot of them, you know, was inspired by him, how the way he treated you?
Erika Lane:
I would say a good deal of it. Like if I could throw percentage is probably 85%. Part of what I do in leadership, I always tell people, I'm here to have you stay on my job for me. And if that's not something that you want, then we need to figure out how to develop you across. We're definitely not going down.
Erika Lane:
The target is upward mobility. But if you're not interested in taking this job, then we need to figure out what we're developing you for. But I'm super, super passionate about helping people tap into their battery cells to find the courage to be a little bit better than what they were yesterday. While I'm doing that, I am like 100% certain that it's making me better as well.
Erika Lane:
And a lot of that came through Lou's mentorship, so I'm forever grateful for that.
Lauren Cardillo:
So following that up, how much how much is mentorship like key to what you do now? Because there is a lot of that.
Erika Lane:
Oh yeah. Yeah, definitely. So I have mentees of my own. It keeps me strong. It makes me a better person. Because I have to continually educate myself. So to be an inclusive mentor, there is no one size fits all approach. I have to get to know my mentees. I have to understand what makes them tick. So in order to do that, I have to constantly be in a space of learning and being a better person, you know, for them.
Erika Lane:
And as well as for myself, I've not found a mentor here at American Airlines, but I do have a sponsor. His name is Captain Allen Johnson. He was ra ra on me on for today. And he he's he was a pilot, but now he is the senior vice president of our flight administration. So he has the line of sight and oversight over our pilots.
Erika Lane:
And he's just an amazing servant leader. I am getting some mentorship from him informally, obviously, but he's more of an executive sponsor for me. So he's like the Eric, a cheerleader, kind of putting my name out there in rooms that I'm not in. And, like, helping build my, my credibility and get my street cred, with American Airlines.
Erika Lane:
But I am a huge advocate and proponent of mentorship and being allowing yourself to be vulnerable and letting someone teach you, letting someone help you navigate, you know, life is life and right now is not easy. And nobody told us it was going to be easy. And we're in a culture of hyper independence. Oh, I don't need anybody for anything.
Erika Lane:
I can do this myself. And I, we were not designed to be that way. Or what did you stop with Adam? So we do need each other. So being social is healthy and we need to be okay with being vulnerable and seeking out, support. Like, everybody has unique skills. There's something that makes Erika different from Lauren and vice versa.
Erika Lane:
And it makes us stronger when we tap into that versus only Lauren. You know, I got this. Yeah. So that's the importance of of mentorship to me saying.
Lauren Cardillo:
Yeah I love I love the vulnerability part. If you volunteer for that. Or is that actually a program at America?
Erika Lane:
So it's not a program. What happened was there was a little bit of a baptism by fire. So when I started with America, it was such an interesting journey. They offered me a role that was different from the one that I took on. But when they offered me this role overseeing like air flight attendants, I was like, listen, I'm an HR practitioner.
Erika Lane:
You throw me in the ring and I'm going to come out, fight, and so let's do this. Well, one of my counterparts ended up leaving shortly after I got here. So then they needed someone to oversee both flight attendants, pilots, premium guest services and catering. So my team, did all of the air support for those unit. And in that taken place, ended up developing this relationship with Captain Johnson.
Erika Lane:
And after he got a new air business partner, we we remain connected. So this is this is like the perfect example. We are always placed where we need to be, regardless of what your beliefs are. The universe has a way of playing chess with us, and we end up where we're supposed to be to gain, you know, insights or make better choices or whatever.
Erika Lane:
You know, that thing is for you. You're naturally place where you need to be. You just got to make the choice, like, are you going to go left or are you going to go right there?
Lauren Cardillo:
And then also, place up on one of the other things you said about always being ready?
Erika Lane:
Oh, yeah. Oh yeah. You got to be ready. Like, just stay ready. There's no getting ready. You just stay ready. Somebody just asked me. I'm sure you saw the headlines. You know, American Airlines, like, so many organizations that we're going through our right sizing. And my best friend was like, oh, darn, you just got to Texas. Are you worried?
Erika Lane:
Blah, blah, blah. And I said, listen, I don't do worry because I'm not trying to look beyond my age. It's so I don't do worry. It's a little bit of vanity in me. But if you remain ready at all times, there's no need to get ready. My CV is always updated, my LinkedIn page is always updated. I have virtual coffees, chats with headhunters all the time, and I take conversations for organizations who are looking to poach me like every 3 or 4 months.
Erika Lane:
Part of it, Lauren, is for career development because HR is a very, you know, evolutionary industry. I need to make sure I'm not getting stale. So it gives me that practice keeps my tool sharp in that space. But I'm also building relationships. So if American Airlines, you know, I put in this conversation, they have me on the list and say, hey, Erika, you got to go.
Erika Lane:
There are several conversations I'm prepared to have so that I will not be unemployed for long. So I don't worry about those things. If the journey was meant to just be eight months or nine months, it was still a good journey and I'll move on. There's I'm not worried about that this year.
Lauren Cardillo:
You have to stay agile and ready. Yeah. How many, how many people then are you working with? Like 100,000. I mean, you know what I mean. The H.R. You're responsible. Like, what's the number?
Erika Lane:
There are 24,000 flight attendants. And then in the corporate, administration. So those who are responsible for strategy administration in corporate, for the flight attendants, there's a little over 2000. So about 30,000, team members total. That's within my span of care from an HR support perspective, I'm hugely honored that I'm tapped in quite a bit for enterprise wide support.
Erika Lane:
So initiatives that will apply to the entire organization. And, I'm, I feel like, you know, that's a privilege to me because I've only been here for eight months now. And for me to have gotten enough street cred to be tapped into, to roll out, you know, projects and initiatives that will apply to all 150,000 of us. I deem that a huge honor.
Erika Lane:
So, yeah.
Lauren Cardillo:
So how do you balance that with seven kids? Would you say nine grandchildren or grandchildren? Okay. I mean, obviously that's now and they're older. Right. But as you're, you know, coming up in your career, you have to find a way to balance all that.
Erika Lane:
Oh, yeah. Absolutely, absolutely. So I've worked for, Ikea, Aon Wawa now American Airlines. One thing that I will say, Lauren, is that I have been fortunate. I've worked for organizations that were hugely flexible before pandemic. And, you know, we really had to be hybrid or virtual. I've worked for organizations where work life balance or integration because you really can't balance work, and life balance would indicate that the scales are even.
Erika Lane:
That ain't happening. So you have to be okay with knowing that you have to integrate it somehow, whatever that looks like for you. So part of it has been being fortunate to work for organizations that have that level of, of, flexibility. And then the other part is like really running my life like a project manager. So the chore rotation amongst my children when they were younger, I was married, I'm divorced now, but who's going to have football this week?
Erika Lane:
Who's going to have science club? Teaching my kids how to be self-sufficient so they all know how to cook. Some of them do it very well, some of them not so much, but they can nourish themselves. And they, they, you know, had a lot of strong, lessons from me. So much so they used to call me the warden when they were coming up.
Erika Lane:
I think they still call me that every now and then. That level of structure. I hate to compare it to a prison, that prisons are structure. But that level of structure allowed me to have that integration with my personal life as well as my work life. And then I have three best friends, two of which I grew up with.
Erika Lane:
And they are solid, I mean, solid. So if anything had ever happened to me in this life while my children were still younger there, you know, I wouldn't be worried anyway because obviously I wouldn't be here. But, you know, things would be in order. That's not something that I would ever, you know, worry about. So having a strong connection with folks and a great collection of folks as well, because not everybody is meant to be, you know, not everybody needs to be in your universe for whatever reason.
Erika Lane:
So just having a solid network and then, like I said, really run in my household like a project manager. So the skills from word overlap to my personal life in a lot of ways.
Lauren Cardillo:
So when we met at Grad Walk, I asked you about a fabulous tattoo that you had. Yeah. Which was following up our last conversation. It's all about family. Oh, yeah. So do you want to show folks your amazing tattoo? Absolutely. So, yeah, having this talk family, we need to. We need to know about it. Just.
Erika Lane:
Sorry. I was.
Lauren Cardillo:
Striking.
Erika Lane:
Quite tatted up. But this is one of my main pieces, so it is, a music bar. This is the first bar of Purple Haze by Jimi Hendrix, which was to honor my father, who died about 20 years ago. And then the three flowers are for my three daughters. They're four stars for my four sons, each in their favorite colors.
Erika Lane:
And then the butterfly really touches my heart because this is memorializing my auntie. She helped raise me. She was my mother's baby sister, but she helped my grandparents raise me. And then, she passed away 20. I'll never forget. It was actually 22 years ago, the same day I found out I was pregnant with the twins. She passed away.
Erika Lane:
She had a diabetic stroke. And I'll never forget this day because she called me. Well, I called her. I was like, I thought I had fibroid tumors. They told me that I'm having twins. What am I supposed to do? And she said, you're going to do you and you're going to be just fine. And you have been, and you still will.
Erika Lane:
And that was our last conversation. So I'll never forget that. I'll never forget her. She plays such an instrumental part in my life. And, I had to I'll probably memorialize her a little bit more at some point, but I at least had to do something for. So.
Lauren Cardillo:
Yeah, I love the strong family, you know, concept with being a really successful person. Those are sometimes don't always work. So yay. Oh yeah. So a couple of years ago you decided though, to do something else, which was to go back and get a college degree because, like, you didn't have great jobs already. But what was that about?
Lauren Cardillo:
What inspired you?
Erika Lane:
Oh, yeah. So there was a little bit of like, vision board stuff happen in there. I was trying to, you know, find my my zen and my spiritual self. And to your point, I felt really proud of the career that I had kickstarted and where I've gotten so far without that education. But I had to remind myself that I had a goal to to get educated.
Erika Lane:
And regardless of how far I've gotten in my career, it was meant for me to still attain that goal. University of Maryland has an amazing program, super, super flexible for the adult learner, and it caters to the like. The curriculum caters to the adult learner in my opinion. I had some ups and downs. So if you look at my my track with the gym with I was there steady stop for long while came back.
Erika Lane:
But then the last couple of years I just pep talk myself like all this time to stop playing and you're going to get this degree. I think I share it with you like my Chinese zodiac is the dragon in 2024 was the year the dragon. So I said, this is the year we got to kick started and just keep going.
Erika Lane:
So that was part of it to a little bit of my like astrology beliefs and stuff. But it was really around not allowing myself to think that I hit a goal post like, oh, you have this amazing career. We hit the goal. You never really hit the goal. At least I don't. So as long as the goalpost keeps moving, there's something else that I need to do.
Erika Lane:
Like even now I'm thinking of what's next. Is it going to be lost or is it going to be a master's degree in air or organizational psychology? I don't know, it's going to be something we haven't decided what, but we know it's going to be something.
Lauren Cardillo:
So you well, you could you could start small with like a certificate. Oh yeah.
Erika Lane:
Yeah. So I have my sherm certification, which is the society of HR managed HR management. I got that a couple of years ago as well. I'm also certified as a life coach and a spiritual coach and an executive coach. I'm going to get board certified in a couple of months. So I'm super, super excited about that.
Erika Lane:
And then I'm like an ordained minister from the Universal Life Church. And so and that was spearheaded, because, you know, it was kind of like a moneymaking thing, like I'll always find a hustle and something. And when we were in a tough political environment and people weren't supporting gay marriage, I was like, well, let me go get ordained.
Erika Lane:
I'll marry people like, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm all inclusive here. So, so yeah. So there's not much that I won't do or try to do. Like that's just who I am. So yeah.
Lauren Cardillo:
Once again, you're listening to Erika Lane on Unstoppable Stories. If you want to hear me hear more stories like Erika’s don't forget to like or subscribe. So following that up, like, tell me about where this all came from. I mean, you grew up in Baltimore, like you said, not not a fabulous neighborhood. What was growing up in Baltimore like?
Erika Lane:
Oh, my. What are your childhood memories?
Lauren Cardillo:
You know.
Erika Lane:
So, when I, when I lived with my grandparents, we actually live closer to Morgan State University, like, right off of Hill and Road. So very close to the county line, but still the city. So my neighborhood, I would say was, you know, a really great neighborhood, like old school, play until the streetlights. Come on, hide and go seek with your friends.
Erika Lane:
Your neighbors could discipline you if you showed off, like just your typical neighborhood. And like I said, I still have lifelong friends from that experience. Like, everybody was your mom. Everybody was your dad. So you can learn so much like the culture that we're in now with the everybody's minding their business. In some ways, I guess that's cool.
Erika Lane:
In other ways, I would argue it's why we face some of the problems that we face in society. So this is definitely like the lemonade stand, snowball stand neighborhood. And I love it. Like I still go back. You know, sometimes because I still have folks in the neighborhood that I visit. But then I moved to East Baltimore, which was a very different experience.
Erika Lane:
I, Preston and Milton and the best way I can tee it up, because people in Texas who've never been there say they relate everything to The Wire. The show from HBO. Like, so was it really like that? And I'm like, it actually is like it literally is. And I still rewatch that show quite a bit and it brings back memories like, oh my gosh, that's the Chinese food place I used to go to.
Erika Lane:
But there's a certain sadness to it, Lauren, because, it breaks my heart that The Wire was filmed 20 years ago and the last time I was in the inner city, it doesn't look very different. So somebody has some work to do, to take care of our city. So, yeah. So there was a polarizing difference between growing up in northeast and then living in East Baltimore.
Erika Lane:
There was some things that I had to learn, and even my oldest children, they are street savvy because they had to be living in East Baltimore, my youngest three children. My career has skyrocketed. We lived in overly close to white Marsh, so they are green as a pool table. When it comes to street smarts. They just don't have it.
Erika Lane:
But it's, it's a polarizing city, and it made, you know, my childhood, my early adulthood, had polarizing experiences. But that's Baltimore, you know, it's just annexed a certain way. You go three blocks over, you know, people are jogging and having a good time, and then another three blocks is like, let me hurry up and get what I need to get and keep going.
Erika Lane:
So it's unfortunate, you know, we make light of it. It's still a beautiful city. It will always have my heart. I don't know if I'll be going back any time soon because Texas got me for now, but you know it. It's quite an experience. Baltimore is an experience and the city itself is an experience.
Lauren Cardillo:
It's what made you so that, you know, the fact that you understand all those cultures.
Erika Lane:
Absolutely, absolutely. And it played that experience has played into my leadership as well. I have an ability to lead inclusively because of the relatability. So I can sit in the boardroom, but I can also mentor someone who dropped out from school, who grew up in the project, who's not been exposed to a corporate position ever. And now, and they're trying to assimilate into this environment.
Erika Lane:
So being able to give them a relatable mentor, an experience and help them understand how to navigate corporate, how to break, you know, ceilings and things like that, that puts people in positions that they did not think they would be in. They did not think they would come from certain areas, low socioeconomic environments, and be able to sit at the table with the CEO and have a conversation and speak, you know, very eloquently about whatever topics they are bringing up.
Erika Lane:
So that relatability is something that I would not take back. I love my Baltimore experience. I love my whole example. I wouldn't change it if I could go back in like Marty McFly myself in the Delorean. I was still come up through Baltimore.
Lauren Cardillo:
I love that. But going back to what you said, people tend to self limit, oh, you know, they go, hey, this is this is my ceiling. Yep. You know, and you need those people who go, no, that's not yours.
Erika Lane:
Absolutely, absolutely. And we all don't get that in this life. Like some of it is obviously what's innate. What's genetically, you know, a part of who you are. But going back to what I said earlier, Laura, we need people surrounding us that's going to cheerlead us on to tell us that there is no such thing as a ceiling.
Erika Lane:
It doesn't matter. You know what you look like. You know who you are as a woman. If you're, you know who you worship. Whatever. The only sailing you create is the one that you create for yourself. Like, tear out the hammer and bust that baby open. And so and it's not going to be easy. That's the thing.
Erika Lane:
Like, I think I think of something else. My grandma, I think my grandfather might have said, like opportunity is is disguised as hard work. That's why some people don't, you know, take advantage of it. Like it's not really going to knock on the door. I know people say opportunity knocks. No it doesn't. You have to go out and get it, and you got to put it in a chokehold and just, you know, can keep going.
Erika Lane:
So you're waiting for like golden opportunities to find you. And that's not how life works. There's thousands, tens of thousands of other people that's out there grinding while you're waiting for it to not they're taking it. So yeah, so I don't it's ceiling. We're not doing that. Like there's no ceilings. We're not.
Lauren Cardillo:
Doing it. No ceiling. No. So. So how did you end up, you know, you get off the plane or you drove to Texas. First impressions. Because it's not Baltimore.
Erika Lane:
Oh, yeah. No, it's it's very different. So, my grandparents are from the South, so I have a familiarity with southern hospitality, and it's like nobody's business down here. So when you're from the city, you actually have to negotiate your trust need are a little bit. So when you're in the store, somebody is trying to help you. Like when you talk to my staff for like what?
Erika Lane:
What you don't. But that's the southern charm. So there's a part of me that I have to assimilate to the culture here because, you know, coming from the city is like somebody touching your stuff. That's that's not a thing. We don't do that. But here's like, oh, no, I saw that the bags were heavy and you're by yourself.
Erika Lane:
I want to make sure you're okay. So that southern charm is a real thing. I have to navigate my trust issues and open myself up to embracing a little bit more of that. The music, the food, the people. I mean, this is the Bible belt. It's the Sun belt. So depending on your beliefs, you actually have to negotiate how you come across in conversation.
Erika Lane:
But I always tell people I'm always middle ground in the sense that I value people's opinions, even when they're not my own. And I'm not about to spend time going back and forth with anybody. I strongly believe that, you know, it's okay for us to think differently with respect, but we spend too much time trying to change other people.
Erika Lane:
That's where the bickering and the divisiveness comes in. And I'm not doing that.
Lauren Cardillo:
And you have your cowboy boots, right?
Erika Lane:
Oh, yeah. Listen, I think I was born with cowboy boots on, Lawrence already. We're done. And then before I got down here, it's, it's just much more variety since I've been here, so. Yeah, and wearing them in the office is a norm, so that's a corporate thing I had to get used to. Like, for me, cowboy boots was like, okay, that's business casual day.
Erika Lane:
But here's, like, people have on a full suit that looks tailor made with the cowboy boots. So I said, I can get with this at this. So and it's a cowboy culture. I learned that, too. But there's certain respect that you have to put on the cowboy hat. Like it can't be, placed a certain way. People shouldn't touch somebody else's.
Erika Lane:
Hey, it's a whole thing. I'm still learning. Yeah.
Lauren Cardillo:
That's interesting. Don't touch. Don't touch my.
Erika Lane:
Modest cowboy hat.
Lauren Cardillo:
You. You've achieved so many things. What? What's next or what? What's the ceiling? You know, where are you going?
Erika Lane:
So I did, take the Lsat, about six weeks ago, I think. Might have been a little bit longer than that. I had a score in my mind that I wanted, and I did not achieve that score. However, I achieved higher than average. But that's not good enough to me. So I'm going to take it again in February, so that I can aim for my score.
Erika Lane:
And honestly, Lauren, I may or may not go to law school after that, but I know that that's the first step. So in order for me to at least start entertaining the idea of law school, I need to take that first step. So that is one thing that's on the table. The other thing is maybe getting my master's in, organizational psychology.
Erika Lane:
But, you know, we'll see. I'm not going to limit myself to anything. The law school journey that, you know, that step is already in motion because I've registered to take the exam again. But we'll see. You know what happens. What I can guarantee is that I won't stop. What next will look like, that's up for grabs, you know, we'll see what the economy is looking like next year and, what resources are available and you know how I plan that out and that that out.
Erika Lane:
Because I'm also not going to stretch myself so thin that I can't travel, that I can't do my self-care routines. All of that has to be a part of the plan. And, I, you know, nothing is worth given, not my peace of mind. So we'll have to map it out based on how do I still have that integration we talked about earlier, while still staying curious and known as continuous learning journey?
Lauren Cardillo:
Obviously though, is your thing something that you've done for 30 years, 2728 of what is it that appeals to you? You know what? Why have you been doing it this long? What do you wake up like every morning going, yes. Yeah.
Erika Lane:
You know, wait, so that's going to sound like super corny in a way, but I truly do. And I would not do it if I did not have that feeling. So when you think about the work that you do in this life, no matter what we have, we all have 24 hours in a day. That's the one thing we all have.
Erika Lane:
No matter what, what else we believe in or disagree about. That's what we all have. And when you look at it mathematically, because I love math. You can try to break your life up into thirds. Your job is always winning. So when I look at a third of my life for me, a third of my life, for my family, it's really not thirds because I'm spending at least 8 to 10 hours at work plus my drive time.
Erika Lane:
So my job is always winning and getting more of the pie no matter how we look at it. So because of that, I have to absolutely love it at least 85% of the time. And if I ever see that number declining, then we need to start revisiting. Like maybe there's something else I need to consider doing, or I need to consider another organization.
Erika Lane:
But because our jobs naturally take so much from us and it's just the design of it, you need to love it, or you need to love great portions of it, and figure out, you know what? That what that needs to be for you. Like, each of each one of us need to do that. I wanted to be a lawyer when I was a little girl, and air has a natural tie to lawyering.
Erika Lane:
But what I tell people when I coach them is when you think back to what you want it to be, when, you know, like, what did I want to be when I grow up, I'm still growing up. Think about what that job does to serve, because even though I'm not a lawyer, I still serve people in the same capacity.
Erika Lane:
I'm helping them solve problems. I'm helping them navigate through very personal situations and moments that matter for them. And I look at it a little bit more deeply than that. I think a lot of HR practitioners do. You're not just Erica, but I'm helping not just Lauren, but Lauren's children. If she has an aging parent at home or she's caretaking for a family member or someone with a disability.
Erika Lane:
So Lauren is showing up to work and I'm helping her navigate that. But I am indirectly supporting everything that is in her span of care. So if you don't look at H.R. Like that, you probably should look at a different profession. It's not easy because people never is. But, you know, I have an innate love for because it's not just about the art of human resources.
Erika Lane:
Oh, I should say the science of human resources. There is an art to it as well, which is all about people and engagement and.
Lauren Cardillo:
Sociability and obviously you are very good at it. I mean, even from the minister point of view, I totally get it. I but I have to imagine at some point you walked in to some rooms where you were the only person of color. Oh, the only woman of color. I mean, how did you sort of navigate that.
Lauren Cardillo:
And you know, what would you give this advice to someone else also in whatever minority coming into.
Erika Lane:
Absolutely, absolutely. What I will tell people is there are multiple definitions of ignorance. So we can walk away thinking that a person's ignorance is because, you know, their beliefs are so, you know, divided or are so, deeply rooted on a certain side of the fence that they just don't want to understand you. And I'm a part I personally believe that almost all of us have the greatest of intentions.
Erika Lane:
Ignorance is also a lack of understanding. And when you get in that room and you're the only one who looks like you opened yourself up to allowing people to understand, because there may have limited experiences with a woman of color, so they are actually feeling a little antsy about me sitting in the room. So I opened myself up to people.
Erika Lane:
I allowed them to ask me questions. I learned more about them as well, and allow our differences to make us stronger and not divide us. So it takes, you know, you know, a little bit of that burden has to be on on me sometimes to open myself up to be transparent, to be okay with the questions, even though sometimes they are very wacky.
Erika Lane:
Like, where did you dream this stuff up? But I have to acknowledge that based on where your journey looked like because I didn't walk your journey, that question makes a lot of sense to you, because perhaps you have never surrounded yourself or had the opportunity to surround yourself with people who are uniquely different. And it's okay, I'm going to I'm an open book, so you can ask me anything and I'm going to give you the truth.
Erika Lane:
As long as you're ready to hear it and you can handle it. So yeah.
Lauren Cardillo:
I love that you were the first of your kids to graduate. You were the first in your family to graduate. Yes. Yeah. Okay. How did that feel? I mean, you know, and. And what message were you sending?
Erika Lane:
Oh, yeah. So first of all, the Great Wall was a whole vibe for me because with me getting my G.E.D., I never walked across the stage. So that was just like everything. That's why I, like you joke about the white jumpsuit and all that. I said, I, I got to step out here fierce like I got to represent, so I just can't let go.
Erika Lane:
Like what? The grand walk, moment meant for me. I'm gonna send you a picture. I actually blew my degree up the to, like, wall side because I was so excited about it, so I'll send you a picture of it. But the gray wall part of it was just, like, a big, big deal. My grandparents did not go to college.
Erika Lane:
My pay, neither of my parents, my cousins, you know, that just wasn't our wall. We were like a blue collar family. So because of that, it was super, super exciting. It was even more meaningful because I'm super competitive and my kids, who are kind of off and on in college as well. I finished before three of them. So we kind of had like a little bit of a healthy competition about that.
Erika Lane:
So there was there was that as well. But I think the biggest thing that I would I would say to anyone, you know, in a very similar space is you have to decide what is for you. That's first. And foremost, maybe colleges and for everybody. I don't know. I'm not about to sit here and make that that judgment call.
Erika Lane:
But whatever that path is that you need to make for yourself, you have to decide what that's going to be, and you have to own it. You can't say, oh, my parents abandoned me, so I can't do this. Oh, I was raised by my grandparents, so I can't do this. I was a teen mother and then I dropped out, so I can't do this.
Erika Lane:
Everything in life is a choice. And when you get to the crossroads, you can either go left or you could go right. But you have to own the choice and you have to own the consequences of that choice. So when you think about what's next for you, whether it's college, whether it's, you know, a certification or trade, whatever those things are, it's a career move, whatever.
Erika Lane:
When you decide what your brand is going to be and how you're going to represent the commercial, that is you, you have to decide what those choices are going to be and think about the consequences of each of those actions, bad or good. So we got to get away from it's because of no, you have to do it in spite of and just keep going.
Erika Lane:
There's no no time to focus on what happened back then.
Lauren Cardillo:
So yeah, that's a great end. And your commercial would be fascinating to make. Yeah. Yeah. So Erika, thank you for joining us today. We loved having you share your story with us because it's fabulous. And for anybody listening or watching, please remember to like and subscribe. If you want to see more unstoppable stories, you can even catch up on some of our past season or episodes this year on your preferred podcast channel.
Lauren Cardillo:
Thanks again.
Erika Lane:
Erika. Thank you fabulous.
Lauren Cardillo:
And see everyone next time.