Award-Winning Narrative Strategist & Social Entrepreneur
Erica Williams Simon: Biography at a Glance
- Erica Williams Simon is an award-winning narrative strategist, author, creative, and social entrepreneur.
- Her work combines expertise from her career at the highest levels of media, social impact, and technology to surface essential wisdom for living and working in a new world.
- As the founder and former Head of Snapchat’s Creator’s Lab, Erica helps a diverse, digitally native generation harness the power of narrative to create change and tell new stories about “who we are and how we want to live.”
- From large audiences to intimate virtual sessions and workshops, Erica masterfully draws in and engages listeners and is equal parts inspiring and challenging. Whether at the White House, a Fortune 100 company, or a small community organization, Erica draws from the past to build the future and relies on a core lesson learned early in her life as a preacher’s daughter: authentic, culturally relevant storytelling paired with humble teaching can change lives.
- A self-described “professional question asker,” Erica is also an expert host and moderator and has interviewed and led conversations with everyone from celebrities to human rights activists and best-selling authors.
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Biography
Erica Williams Simon is an award-winning narrative strategist, author, creative, and social entrepreneur. Her work combines expertise from her career at the highest levels of media, social impact, and technology to surface essential wisdom for living and working in a new world. As the founder and former Head of Snapchat’s Creator’s Lab, Erica helps a diverse, digitally native generation harness the power of narrative to create change and tell new stories about “who we are and how we want to live.” From large audiences to intimate virtual sessions and workshops, Erica masterfully draws in and engages listeners and is equal parts inspiring and challenging. Whether at the White House, a Fortune 100 company, or a small community organization, Erica draws from the past to build the future and relies on a core lesson learned early in her life as a preacher’s daughter: authentic, culturally relevant storytelling paired with humble teaching can change lives. A self-described “professional question asker,” Erica is also an expert host and moderator and has interviewed and led conversations with everyone from celebrities to human rights activists and best-selling authors.
Through her company, Sage House, a strategic content, experience, and consulting firm Erica works with clients like Spotify, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and countless creative partners to use countercultural narratives and bring big ideas to life. She is also the host of the popular podcast The Call with Erica. Previously, Simon worked as Senior Editor and Creative Director of Upworthy.com and as a columnist for TIME.com.
Before moving to a career in media, Erica spent nearly a decade in Washington D.C. power circles at the nation’s premier progressive think tank, Center for American Progress, and the country’s oldest civil and human rights coalition, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. There she developed innovative Millennial engagement programs on crucial social issues. For her social impact work, Erica was named one of Politico’s Top 50 Politicos to Watch, an NAACP’s 40 under 40, a World Economic Forum Global Shaper, and an Aspen Institute Ideas Fellow.
Her first book, You Deserve the Truth, was published by Simon & Schuster in 2019 and puts the power of story back into the hands of the people, exploring how to engage with the dominant cultural narratives of our time to build an authentic life worth living. Erica received the O Magazine Women Rule Leadership Award and has been featured in Harvard Business Review, The Washington Post, Huffington Post, and ESSENCE magazine.
A self-proclaimed “armchair theologian” and preacher’s daughter for life, Erica serves on the board of ColorofChange.org and NPR’s Generation Listen.
Topics
The Power of Story and Narrative to Make Change Happen
The Pivot: Building Mission-driven and Value-centered Careers
Erica Williams Simon is the first to admit she used to be a workaholic, believing that “work was the key to building a big, beautiful, successful life.” But by her twenties, she was burnt out, broken, and hopeless, so she walked away from her job. Intent on unpacking how she reached this point, she scrutinized how the stories (what Erica calls “the walls of our society and our culture”) about work had shaped her.
She discovered that “job” and “work” are often used interchangeably. But the true meaning of “work” is efforts that we put towards something, hoping to achieve a particular purpose or outcome. When Erica thought of it from that perspective, she realized her job was not her work. And that made her wonder:
- What are the purposes of my life that are worth my effort beyond my career?
- Where should I be applying more work beyond my career?
- And ultimately, what would happen if I built my career from a place of wholeness? What if we all built our careers and businesses from a place of wholeness first?
In this session, Erica invites you to rewrite the story of your work and ask yourself tough questions to find your purpose and mission.
Authentic, Whole Leadership in a Changing World
The Future of Work: New Standards & Making Meaning in a New World