Meet Nancy Marmolejo

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Nancy Marmolejo. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Nancy below.

Nancy, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?

I grew up in a family business which means, at some point in your childhood, you’re going to be put to work! As the youngest of six kids, my siblings say I was spoiled and had it easy because I didn’t start working until I was 13. The others started way before that. (Clearly child labor laws weren’t a thing back then!)

I worked every weekend, starting at 9am, rain or shine. Whether I stayed home Friday night or went to a party, I had to show up for work Saturday morning. Not having a choice forced the habit of suiting up and showing up no matter what. Knowing that I’d get in trouble at home later on if I did a poor job that day forced me to focus on excellence and doing a job well done. Also, seeing my siblings following the same work ethic reminded me that this was our family culture: work hard, do the job, show leadership.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I own a boutique consulting, training, and coaching firm on a mission to make workplaces more human. We do that by helping teams and organizations forge connections through empathy and emotional intelligence to understand each other’s lived experiences. We help to mitigate misunderstandings, miscommunications, and conflicts through our communication skills trainings. We also support marginalized people in the workplace by providing anti-bias trainings and DEIB so that every voice is heard, every experience valued.

I’m also the Director of Programming for Lean In Latinas, a 501(c)(3) organization committed to closing the Latina Pay Equity gap. In this role, I get to co-create our annual conference, plan engagement strategies, and amplify the voices of Latinas in the workplace.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

The three qualities that are most impactful are my top 3 core values and how they influence everything I do.

First is CURIOSITY. Without curiosity, you remain stagnant, miss out on alternative perspectives, and miss out on taking risks. With curiosity, you’re exploring and discovering, finding new ways of doing things, and new ways of being. Starting my business was a great example of following curiosity and I’m still going strong after 20 years!

Second is CREATIVITY. Guided by creativity, I allow myself to reinvent and reimagine everything I do. I’m also a Sagittarius and we’re famous for coloring outside the lines and being rebellious. I can see how something will be before it happens and it’s my job to communicate my vision to my team or my client, and then to embark on the journey to get there. Valuing creativity means allowing pivots to happen without freaking out, and to trust the process.

Third is LIFELONG LEARNING. When we learn something new, we’re creating new neural pathways in our brains, thus expanding our brain’s capacity to hold more knowledge. With curiosity and creativity guiding me so strongly, I’m always landing on something new and exciting! I’ve studied the Nahuatl language, brain science, meditation, biohacking, am always reading a book, and exploring what’s out there. The big plus side is I’m great at trivia and can hold a conversation with just about anyone.

What’s been one of your main areas of growth this year?

I take a very holistic approach to life and business. I know that if I do something for my health, it’s going to positively impact my business. Over the past 12 months I’ve refined my morning ritual. I used to get up, immediately make coffee, then sit and read something inspirational. After learning more about hormonal health and women’s wellness, I now get up and take a walk early in the morning (bonus points if I see the sunrise, the red sky is really good for our circadian rhythms so we sleep better!). After my walk, I come home and make tea (my acupuncturist told me coffee was too acidic), THEN I sit and do my inspirational time. It also created a nice segue into doing intermittent fasting, having my first meal a few hours after I get up. It’s really helped with my focus, productivity, fitness, and tone. My workday usually starts at 10am so I can spend those first few hours of the day focused on health and well being. It’s been a huge area of improvement for work, business, energy levels… absolutely amazing.

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