By: Maribel Rodriguez, LMHC, CEO, Transformational Speaker And Executive Coach
Maribel Rodriguez’s Leadership Platform Launches on the LET Stage
ORLANDO, FL – This August, the Leadership Experience Tour will welcome a speaker whose credentials span the battlefield, the boardroom, and the therapy office. Maribel Rodriguez, a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and retired U.S. Air Force combat veteran, will step onto the LET stage on August 6–8, 2026, to introduce Growth & Leadership Experiences, the leadership development arm of Maribel Sharing Hope and the Next Level Academy. It’s the first time she has presented the work in front of a global audience of this size, and organizers are billing it as a launch moment for a message she has spent decades refining.
Maribel’s subject sits at the center of a conversation that has grown louder across corporate America over the past several years. The question is what happens to the emotional health of the people running the show. Burnout, chronic stress, and quiet exhaustion have become familiar words in leadership circles, and Maribel argues that too many executives are absorbing that strain in private. “Emotional health is not a soft skill. It is an essential leadership skill,” she said. “A leader who ignores it does not automatically become stronger. My goal is to give leaders a healthier way to carry responsibility, and to make asking for support feel normal rather than shameful.”
Growth & Leadership Experiences was designed to close that gap. Maribel built the platform by blending emotional intelligence research, DBT-informed clinical tools, and traditional leadership development, translating all of it into skills leaders can put to use in an ordinary workday. Rather than a quick-fix seminar, she frames the program as a longer commitment to sustainable change, one intended to move leaders from simply surviving success toward leading with clarity, resilience, and purpose.
At the heart of that approach is her signature framework, the 4 Pillars of Resilient Leadership: Clarity & Presence, Emotional Mastery, Resilience Under Pressure, and Communication & Boundaries. “Effective, impactful leadership, regardless of title, starts by leading yourself,” Maribel says. The framework grew out of a simple observation. Most organizations pour resources into physical wellness and professional training while treating mental fitness as optional. She wants emotional regulation, resilience, and healthy relationships held to that same standard of investment for people at all levels of leadership.
That perspective didn’t come from a single career track. Over more than three decades, Rodriguez has worked as a military leader, supervised and trained clinicians, run corporate teams, counseled individuals and families, and built her own businesses. Moving between those worlds, she says, led her to one consistent conclusion: leadership doesn’t start with a title. “You don’t have to be the CEO of a company to become the leader of your life,” she said. “No matter the setting, a boardroom, a counseling office, or a military unit, people are still people. They want to be seen, understood, and equipped to thrive. My hope is that leaders leave knowing they are not alone in what they carry.”
The Leadership Experience Tour draws speakers and attendees from business, education, the military, and community organizations, giving Maribel a wider platform than the private practice she’s built her career on. She’s clear that the goal isn’t polish or perfection, but steady, purposeful growth, helping leaders treat emotional wellness as part of the job, and treat seeking support as a mark of strength rather than a liability.
“We were not created just to survive,” Maribel said. “We were created to heal, grow, lead, and thrive from overflow.”
About Maribel Rodriguez
Maribel Rodriguez is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor, retired U.S. Air Force combat veteran, and the founder of Maribel Sharing Hope and the Next Level Academy. Through Growth & Leadership Experiences, she works with leaders and organizations to build emotional resilience as a core leadership discipline.
