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

Emily , appreciate you joining us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

I think when you choose to do anything creative with your life you are taking a risk. What do I mean by that? Well, whether you are a painter, a playwright, an actor, a podcaster, whatever, you are never more vulnerable then when you are creating your art. You are literally sharing a part of yourself that maybe no one has ever seen before, so in that is a big risk. Will people like what they see? Will they connect to it? Will they understand what you are trying to do?
I took a big risk in 2020. I was, and still am, a professional actor, in the touring company of a show called Old Jews Telling Jokes. I was on contract in California for 8 weeks when the pandemic started. We were luckily just a few shows away from finishing our run, so we closed the show early, and got to fly home to our loved ones. That same week, the Children’s Theater I had worked for two years decided to close their doors. So in one week I lost two jobs. For a while, like many of us, we thought the world would open back up, but a few weeks turned into a few months, and I knew I needed to start doing something and moving my life forward.
I had some great friends who worked at the Children’s Theater with me and one day we were texting and one of them said “I have my period, but I don’t want to go to Publix, I wish there was a service that would bring me chocolate when I have my period.” And from that moment on we decided we were going to start a subscription box service that featured products from women owned businesses only, and that we also wanted the box to be educational, so we decided to start a podcast. The business unfortunately never really took off, and about 1 1/2 years later we decided to shut her down.
But the podcast side of the business had turned into something we hadn’t expected. So, here we are 4 years later 100 plus episodes out and no plans of stopping anytime soon.
Sometimes it is worth it to take that big risk because you never know how it is going to turn out.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I really consider myself to have two jobs. I am a college professor and a podcast host and while those may seem like they are on totally opposite sides of the spectrum, they share a common mission, education. I have been a podcaster and a professor for about the same amount of time so I think as I grow in one field, it actually helps me to grow in the other. The beautiful thing about the podcast space I have created with my business partner and best friend, Stephanie LoVerde, is that we bring on leading female experts in their fields to help share their knowledge and spread factual information to our listeners. We live in a scary world where false information is being spread from every corner and our hope is to try and combat that with knowledge. As a teacher my job is basically doing the same thing, most of the students in my classroom are from the generation of being TikTok educated and so most of what I try and do is share the facts and let them know how important it is to check their sources.
But lets focus on the podcast for a bit, I think the thing that sets us apart is that we are an educational self-development podcast. It is always crazy to me how many people hear that and automatically don’t want to listen because somehow we have been told that education and school is boring. But education can and should be fun and it is certainly something we try and do with our platform. One of the missions at The Cycle Chats Network is to create accessible educational content, and also try to break this narrative that women are in competition with one another. We conquer “taboo topics” such as menstruation, abortion, career changes, Imposter Syndrome, and so many other societal pressures women have to combat on a daily basis.
Before the podcast I was an introverted, quietly judgmental girl, who didn’t feel comfortable sharing her thoughts and opinions. Through podcasting I found my voice and the value in sharing my opinions out loud so that connection can be created between people. I found that this new found confidence made its way into the classroom with me, and as the tattoo on my arm says “what she tackles, she conquers.” I am so proud to be where I am in my journey and credit so much of it to the careers and creative outlets I have in my life.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Oh goodness, there are so many lessons I have had to unlearn as an adult. I think the biggest one that stands out to me is that my curly hair is beautiful. See you thought I was gonna go in one direction and I swerved. I grew up a little white Jewish girl on Long Island with wild hair. I never saw anyone who looked like me in my school, in my family, or in movies. I mean, I love The Princess Diaries, but that movie did some serious damage to my self esteem. It was the first time I saw a white woman who had hair like mine and the messaging that I took away was curly hair is ugly and it must be straightened to be beautiful. So, I straightened my hair for almost 20 years of my life because I honestly believed my curls weren’t beautiful. Now as a 32 year old woman and proud curly girl, I can’t believe I ever believed that. I have been on my curly girl journey for 10+ years now and I have never looked back. I now have two amazing nieces, with that same wild hair, that I want to set an example for and make sure they know that they are beautiful even with their curls. And because this was such a big lesson I had to unlearn, I decided to start a podcast called Curly and Confident where curly haired humans can tune in and listen to our stories and learn they are not alone.

Other than training/knowledge, what do you think is most helpful for succeeding in your field?

Other than training and knowledge, I think the most helpful tip for succeeding in this field, or really any field, is knowing that it’s okay to say “I don’t know.” We have this fear of people finding out that maybe we don’t have an answer, but I take pride when I have to say “I don’t know, lets look it up.” I actually think that admitting that is one of the most powerful things someone can do because it breaks the illusion of perfection. Growing up as a millennial, I think we were told by media, culture, and our parents that we should have everything figured out by the time that we are 30. And I think that messaging did so much damage to our generation because it left us in a place of feeling like we couldn’t veer off course, change directions, or even make a mistake. When I actually think making a mistake or failing at something is where we can learn our biggest lessons. So, stop feeling like you have to know everything or be perfect, just be yourself, learn to love being a forever student, and realize no one knows everything, we are all living our life for the first time every second of every day.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.cyclechats.com
• Instagram: @cyclechatsnetwork @curly.and.confident
• Youtube: @cyclechatschicks
• Other: TikTok: @cyclechatschicks @curlyquirkyandconfident