Why Workplace Woke?
Because you shouldn’t have to lose yourself to succeed—and I’ve spent my career proving that you don’t.
Erin Smith
Workplace Transformation Strategist | Faith-Based Mentor | Founder, Workplace Woke
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The Backstory
In 2015, I had a wake-up call.
I was coming off a President's Club win, managing a multimillion-dollar New York territory I'd built from scratch. I was one of three women on a male-dominated tech sales team where being "always on, always chasing" wasn't optional. It was expected.
When I hit a normal down season, my director suggested I schedule my lunch breaks at 9am PT to align with my East Coast clients. I tried it. It was bonkers. Lasted about a week. God bless my director, but my lunchtime wasn’t the problem.
The problem was that every single day, I had to choose: hit my number or actually help my customers. In sales, those two things rarely line up—but only one gets you paid.
So I made a choice: I blocked out the noise. Not just then, but over years of sales training. I leaned into patience, connection, intuition, and faith—my strengths as a woman, not just a sales rep.
At first, my numbers didn’t budge. I fell down the leaderboard. Colleagues made comments about what they'd do if they had my coveted territory.
But I didn't care. I trusted myself …and my history.
By 2016, deals started pouring in. So many that the contractors hired to assist the team were eventually assigned exclusively to me to handle the influx. By the time I left in 2017, I was #1 in the world for my position.
I didn't win because I hustled harder. I won because I stopped playing their game.
That confirmed it: I wasn’t broken—the system was. And it had been for years. It rewarded and perpetuated the wrong things. Performance over people. Politics over contribution. Conformity over authenticity. Hard skills over human ones. I started sharing what I'd discovered with colleagues around the world—philosophies, not tactics. Things began to change for them, too.
And then something else happened…
20 years in Silicon Valley Tech
Sales, Global Cyber Transformation, Customer Success, and Change Management. Basically, I’ve seen (and shifted) it all.
Credentials with character. Insight with integrity.
Brains, backbone, and a bias for doing right.
Systems-thinking. Strategic guts. Soul-led wisdom.
Workplace reform needs more than tactics—I bring the trifecta.
That same lesson popped up again when I transitioned from sales into change management and, ultimately, into leadership.
Shifting from individual contributor to management at a Fortune 100 company wasn’t the peak—it was the pivot.
It showed me how often high performers are promoted into systems that expect them to lead change, without giving them the clarity, language, or support to do it well.
That realization pulled me into the coaching, strategy, and transformation work I now lead, helping high-achievers build careers and cultures that reflect their values, not just their titles and metrics.
That's why Workplace Woke exists.
Too many talented people are stuck in systems that force them to compromise who they are to succeed. And I'm here to show them there's another way.
If you’ve ever felt pressure to mute your morals just to be taken seriously, this work is for you.
I help ambitious professionals lead with conviction, protect their peace, and succeed without adopting behaviors that don’t align with them.
Because impact shouldn’t cost your values.