Analiza: Welcome to the Women of Color Rise podcast. I'm Analiza Quiroz Wolf, proud Filipino-American executive leadership coach and former CEO of a nonprofit and Captain in the U.S. Air Force. I'm also the author of The Myth of Success: A Woman of Color's Guide to Leadership. It's based on the lessons learned by many women of color leaders, including those on this podcast. We talk with successful CEOs and C-suite women leaders of color and learn about their leadership journeys. I'm on a mission to support having more diverse leaders at the table. If you're a woman or a woman of color who wants to sit at that table, you're in the right place. Now let's get into today's show.

Everyone. I am thrilled to be talking with Erica Mosca today. She is proud to be the first person in her family to graduate from college. She's the former teacher and she's also the founder and executive director for her own nonprofit. Leaders in Training Today. Leaders in Training empowers over 200 students annually with a 100 Percent college acceptance rate and an 81% post-secondary persistence rate, and that's including 20 different institutions in eight states. A hundred percent of members in Erica's nonprofit are committed to using their education and success to empower. Their home community and talking about home. Erica is amazing. She currently serves in the Nevada state legislature as the first Filipino. That's right. We're both Filipinos to ever serve in the state, so congrats. Erica, I also wanna just start with your announcement you're running. Let's talk about that. Let's just kick it right off, Erica, go ahead.

Erica: Thank you so much for having me today. Yes, I'm really proud and excited though I wasn't sure, but I am gonna run again for Assembly District 14 here in Nevada. I am a state assembly member. I represent East Las Vegas where so many of my students and families live that I've worked for and with for so long. And it'll be my third term if I'm lucky enough to win the vote. And it's just, I think people don't realize it's really hard especially right now to be an elected official. It is not a job here in Nevada. It is truly public service. Get paid like $5,000 a year. So I have a job and a family. And when you serve in the Nevada State legislature, our capital is in Carson City, which is about an eight hour away drive from Las Vegas.So I have to move up to go to Nevada where I live for about five months. And so every other year we work on all policies that have to do with the state. The most important, I think, is the state budget. I'm just proud to make sure I bring East Las Vegas with me, which is a working class side of our town as well as a perspective of being a daughter of an immigrant, a first generation college graduate.And I like to say just be a normal person. And so I think if we have more of that in politics, I think we'll be able to connect with more of our community and just help them see the potential through policy.

Analiza: Erica your background is, you've got Teach for America, you went to Harvard and you have done, you could do so many things, right? And yet you chose to pursue a path that would you say, $5,000 a year, of which it's an eight hour drive away for five months of the year. I wanna talk about that path and I wanna talk about identity since you and I both share the Filipina connection. Can you talk about Erica, how has that identity shaped. This path, this decision. So walk us through. So you are, I know you and I also have a shared background of where we come from, but talk about that path and that identity and how it's guided you or not in, in making these decisions.

Erica: Yeah, it's so interesting. Identity I think is just so important. And people, I think they talk about identity politics. I think about it differently. Like identity is who you bring to the table, it's who you bring when you come up to the vote, or the policies or bills that you bring. And it's just so important for me. First of all, I was a teacher, which I'm very proud of. For me growing up, I never had a Filipino teacher. I never saw myself reflected in movies and Barbies and food. Obviously I'm an older millennial, very different nowadays, right? UBE on every corner. People know oh gosh, what is her name Is half Filipino. I feel like it's just. A thing now, and in Nevada the AA and HPI community is the fastest growing in all of the states. And the Filipino community is the largest so large that we are [00:05:00] getting our own designation of a Filipino town. Which is on the strip of Maryland Parkway, if you've ever been to Las Vegas, not too far from the airport, but that's where we have our seafood city, where we have a bunch of Filipino businesses, Filipino restaurants.So now there's gonna be a huge sign, and it's where people are gonna visit to say, Hey, we're in the historical Filipino town. And it was just important that I never really saw my representation and I really wanted other folks, whether it was from a low income background or from a Filipino background, to see that they could be in a position of power, they could follow their dreams and that they could actually make a difference.You don't have to be a nurse or a teacher, all great things, right? But that's what they stereotype us as. I think the more that we can see other people can do it, the more than people can follow their own desires. And the last thing I'll say is just so important. I moved around a lot. My dad was in the military.That's [00:06:00] what my grandpa was in the military. That's what brought us here to San Diego originally. That's where so many, I know Filipinos started their journey. Even if we are low income or moved around a lot both my mom is half Filipino, they just always said my goal or I, with what I was going to do through my success, I had to help other people.So I feel like that's also the Filipino mentality is like, take care of yourself, but take care of others because it's about the community and that's what I'm really proud about.

Analiza: That makes me so happy. You and I shared roots, Erica in San Diego, and both the daughters of a service person, someone in the military who has served.And I hear also this connection of. It's this debt, right? Thank you so much. Debt of gratitude. Here's debt from the inside and let's give back. And so much of what you shared resonates. I wanna talk about your choice to go into politics. You had mentioned to me that less than 1% elected are people of color.I believe it's something. Wild like that, or APIs. Okay, less than 1% elected our APIs. Our APIs. And I'm curious, Erica, when you talk about, you know, our, and I know we're gonna be general here, but let's bring like our culture and being out in front, right? You're having to get the votes, you're having to raise your name, you're having to do things that, for me at least, Erica, they were not things I was raised to do.Of being out there and just campaigning. That was not a skill that I learned as a child. Maybe you did, but can you talk about the values that yes, we wanna serve, but also to get elected and to stay elected? There's some political navigation that I'm not sure maybe you learned. It comes from values.Can you talk about that? Asian cultural values and how that plays out with getting elected and then staying in those seats?

Erica: I think it's such an important question, and I'll first say there are groups like New American leaders. As well as apex. These are all candidate training programs that I've done before that are for either new immigrants, first or second generation immigrants.

And then APEX is for our AA and HPI community members who are interested in running for office. So I could not have done it without actually going through a bunch of training programs. I also did emerge, which supports women candidates as well as leaders for educational equities, the support it originally used to be Teach for America's 5 0 1 C four, but they work with a lot of different organizations now.So for the first thing is, I was not brought up with the values of you're out front, you are the person. It's all about you. And so much of it also that is terrifying is raising money, right? You have to be raising money for yourself. And so I think it's a mindset. So first I got help, right?I knew that I didn't. I know all of this, but I would also say I went to those programs without even knowing I would run. I knew I was interested in helping my community and wanted to learn other ways that I can be an effective leader. So the first thing is you have to have values that you're helping the community.The best elected are those who did something before that actually was in touch with the community and helped the community. And then once I went to the programs, it helped my mindset shift off. Okay. I am not someone trying to be elected because I wanna see my name on a billboard, or I wanna have a website, or I wanna get invited to these fancy galas.Honestly, as a nonprofit founder, I was already in these circles, right? I didn't have to do this next thing. But there were really simple things, for instance. We worked with students in higher ed as the first generation college graduates, and I saw a lot of times if students wanted to transfer institutions, but if they owed a fee, they couldn't get their transcript and then they couldn't transfer.And at my nonprofit, we would just pay that fee no matter how much it cost because we wanted that student to go to college and finish. What about the rest of the state? So then it was like, okay, if I want every student to have this option, I'm gonna have to do things like run for office so I can make it a state law, which I did in my first session.So it was really about changing the mindset that it's not about me, it's not about I could lend the best. It's about. I know my community, I already organize my community through the work I do, and so this is just another way that we contribute. I will not be elected at some point, and that's okay. It's not my number one identity.It's not something that defines me. And so I'm okay that I'm gonna do all that I can right now to support my community, but that it's just one stop in my journey. And I think I see other electeds that maybe they don't have those values or that mindset, and sometimes that's how you can go off the rails, but. And then I would just add too, in 2016, we had our first ever NHI elected Assembly Member Miller and then a Senator Rochelle Wynn was appointed. And so think about that. That's not that long ago to not even have one A NHI voice at all in the entire state government making all the decisions for the state. So it's just also knowing sometimes. You are enough by just being you because you're bringing a perspective that doesn't exist and lots of people wanna support you because they know your values.

Analiza: I hear a few things here, Erica. First is you have to have the values that you want to help your community.That's gotta be number one. Before anything else. Number two is you're not going at it alone. There's a lot of resources and you named a bunch, including Leadership for Educational Equity, which is how you and I know each other, and it's not necessarily that you're ready to run, but you're just wanting to help.Third, I hear. Let's reframe this Asian value where you know you're not supposed to put the spotlight on yourself, right? It's not supposed to be about you, and actually it's not. It's about how do you bring more change, how do you get more help for the community that you wanna serve? And then I also hear.This piece that no matter what happens, you're enough. In fact, it's because of who you are, that you are already bringing so much because it's that unique perspective. And you finally, you mentioned this thing about money, and that's where I wanna take this money, Erica. That's like not a thing you talk about, at least in the culture I was raised in, we're not walking around talking about money, talking about salaries.Money's kind of a dirty topic. So talk about money, raising money. You have to go to money, talk about money, make the ass for money. This is what I spend most of my time on. And I would say I'm lucky that I had started and ran a nonprofit. 'cause that's also. It's the number one thing people think, okay, I'm gonna do a nonprofit because I [00:13:00] wanna help people, but people don't understand.

Erica: You have to have the organizational structure. You have to be able to pay yourself. So I tell anyone interested in running for office, go work in a nonprofit and understand what the executive director or the board, if you can't work in a nonprofit, be part of a board that raises money so that you have some practice.And for me, it took me a long time, right? It's everyone's journey. But there are really two mindset shifts. I think for me it was remembering. That we are never asked to be part of the large discussions with people in power. And so asking people to donate is actually giving them an invite that they've never had before and you don't move people to give you a thousand dollars.You could have a thousand people give you $14, and that's a lot of money. I represent Assembly District 14. It's very important for me that on my donation page and website, any event I have. The lowest one is 14 because there are folks that signal to people. I want everyone to come and pay for that. That's probably coffee. It used to be two coffees. Just one coffee now. And so it signals to folks like you're inclusive. And the other thing that's really important is I think about, for instance, a church, right? Like people passing around the basket, or I think about when the typhoon in the Philippines and all the aunties that cooked a lot of food, had an event.Everybody came and they gave a lot of money. And it wasn't about the money part, it was about the community part. It was about having something that you believe in. And then giving skin in the game. And so it's always about reframing, Hey, this is like the rich and the powerful work. So we're actually just giving you an opportunity to be part of it that you may have never had before.It's about second thinking differently about fundraising. Even though I want to help my community, we're gonna have a trunk or treat in October. Okay. That helps a lot. Kids have candy and it's fun, but something we're gonna do this year for fundraising, the last three years it's been very successful.So we're gonna tell businesses, if you want a car where you can give out the candy, but also give out your information. It's a hundred dollar donation. So it's just thinking differently about, and then people are like, yeah, I wanna do that. 'cause then that's free promotion. That's in the community that's helping people.And the third thing is just. It's the way it works. So like I wish it wasn't the way it works. Like I wish the structure was different, but I understand that the structure will never be different. If people like me, I always say play the game and change the game, right? So like I have to play by the certain rules to then change the rules someday, and it probably won't change in my lifetime. But I believe that's what I'm working towards and that's how I have a North star and I'm able to sleep at night.

Analiza: I would love to stamp a few things you said here. One is the money game. First, it's helpful to have nonprofit experience and fundraising. Second, stop thinking about it like, oh no, I've gotta ask. Beg people for money. Instead, it's an opportunity to have a voice where we often never have a voice at the table. Third, think about events about money. Less about, okay, I've gotta go. Get some more money too, this is a community event and actually people get to participate, even advertising. So it's a win-win for both.And the last one is you gotta play the game to change the game. So I love all that because they play the game to change the game. It's the political navigation that's required. I wanna talk about Erica, let's be real. I, oh, I watched House and Cards. Talk about playing the game that I'm sure you're not doing anything violent like that, but can you talk about what it means?

Erica: To play the game specifically with political navigation. We use that even when it's not politics. When I'm talking about leading an organization, I said one of the most important things is how to navigate, how to influence, and we call it political navigation, but you're actually a. Politically navigating.

Analiza: Erica, bring us in. And what does that actually mean? Talk to us. You're, this is hopefully your third term coming up. How have you been successful to politically navigate and then put some Asian lens to this? 'cause this is also not weird what we are taught to do.

Erica: Oh no. I have a tattoo on my arm. That's how I remember, right? This is, I have to have this, in my head, but a couple things. First, I would say what is in our identity, and to use it as an asset as we typically are, I am still the last person to talk in a full room, right? I'm gonna listen, I listen to everybody. I'm not the first to speak. I need to process. In some ways that has served me well in the political process because I'm not very, I wasn't forceful at first. I didn't come in. People really don't like politics. You have all these ideals and then you come in and you think you're gonna change it all. We know, whether it's a for-profit, nonprofit, political space, when you go to a new space, you have to learn it before you try to make change.And so I think people really respected that. I was willing to come in and learn before trying to make all those changes. Second, I think something I've learned from myself. Culture and perspective means you have to hear all the voices. We know that we have to hear from our ikas arm and nuns from the older generation.And you have to be open to feedback. And so part of why I think I'd been successful is I just knew to do some things. Like I knew I should meet with every single elected person before, after I won my race and before I started, I should try to meet with everyone, both parties, both houses, even though not everyone got back to me.At least I can say I tried and not. I don't know anyone that has done that. I represent the entire state. I know Southern Nevada very well. I knew that I better go learn the issues in the rules. In Northern Nevada. So I went to every single county before I started before I started serving. And I thought that I knew the importance of being able to say that on the record, like in the education committee, which I care a lot about.I was able to say, yes, I know what it's like in East Las Vegas in Clark County. And then I went and visited the 16 other counties and talked to all the superintendents and talked to students and families and got to hear their issues. That was, that, it's just this initial buy-in of the hard work which we know is ingrained in us.And then second, you have to show that you are doing that hard work. So in some ways, like to me, playing the game and changing the game is actually just working as hard as I normally am. But figuring out how to apply it in a way that is different. And so thinking just differently about how to do things.Even we have a holiday party every year where we collect toys and then we give it out to schools. And the district has been a way for me to, it's really campaigning, it's getting your name out, but it's really helping the community too in this real idea that a lot of folks, and I get it because it's part-time roles.You're only out there when it's election time, but we know that people get really annoyed with that. So for me it's like, how am I always present, even if it's helping others. I have a youth committee, so I have youth who are going to events or being surrogates, and then we're able to share about that.And so I think it's just again, about. Thinking about it differently, doing the hard work. And then once people trust you, then you can start to do things like suggest structural changes and figure out how committees can be different. But it takes time and you can't do it right away. And you do just have to be a trusted figure and resource.

Analiza: Yeah, they say that aid moves at the speed of trust. And that takes time. Yes. Sounds like that's what you enjoy. That's so much you. I love that so much. Erica, this has been such a beautiful conversation. Are you ready for lightning round questions?

Erica: Yes. All right.

Analiza: Here we go. Chocolate or vanilla?

Erica: Vanilla.

Analiza: Cooking or takeout?

Erica: Takeout.

Analiza: Climb a mountain or jump from a plane.

Erica: Ooh, probably jump from a plane.

Analiza: Have you ever worn socks with sandals? No. How would you rate your karaoke skills on a scale of one to 10? 10 being Mariah Carey?

Erica: Oh, no. Probably like four, but I do enjoy it.

Analiza: What's a recent book you've read or a favorite book? It could be a professional book or personal book.

Erica: Yeah. The one I'm reading right now is called Dignified Readership, so it's about how. Again, like we think a lot about the new tagline I am using, which I used in my event last night, which people really liked, which I'm happy about, was that I'm nice, I'm organized and I can outwork anyone. And I think we're moving into the stage of politics very top down. It is very based on time in, and I think a lot of orgs. Hopefully I'm moving towards this. You just gotta be a good, nice person and you could be a leader that way. And so the book is really affirming for me.

Analiza: What's your favorite way to practice self-care?

Erica: Probably walking my dog again. My steps in, let's go outside.

Analiza: What's a good professional development you've done?

Erica: Ooh, I, you mentioned Lee before. I feel like anything through Lee is always really helpful for me.

Analiza: What's your definition of a boss mama? A boss mama.

Erica: You can never balance it all, but you can be the same person in all situations.

Analiza: What advice would you give your younger self?

Erica: Oh, yes. There's no straight line of success, which I know people have heard a lot about, but if you ask me even 10 years ago, if this is what I would be doing, I would have no clue. So you just never know and you just gotta go with it.

Analiza: And then where can we find you?Like LinkedIn, anywhere else?

Erica: Yes. Yes. Find me on my website is just erica mosca.com. I'm very active on my Instagram. Erica Mosca 14. And then I answer every email I get. So if you email me, I will respond even if it takes me a while, but I will.

Analiza: Last question, Erica, do you have a final ask, recommendation or parting thoughts to share?

Erica: Yes. If anyone is interested in supporting my campaign and what is possible in Nevada, it's 14 dollars@ericamosca.com.

Analiza: Amazing. Erica, such a pleasure. I wish you all the best of luck. We need more leaders like you. You're so brave. And yeah, outwork 'em. Outwork 'em. Thank you so much.

Erica: Thank you. This was fun.

Analiza: Thank you so much for carving out time to hear today's podcast. 3 things before you go. First, if you found it helpful, please leave a five star review. Second, you can get a free chapter of my book, The Myth of Success: A Woman of Color's Guide to Leadership at analizawolf.com/freechapter. And lastly, if you're interested in executive coaching, please reach out to me at analiza@analizawolf.com. Thank you so very much