Marcos Salazar

About Marcos Salazar

I love being an entrepreneur building businesses, nonprofits, and communities that transform industries and make a positive impact in the world. Over the past 15 years, I\'ve launched and scaled 8 companies, built a member community, and now as co-founder and CEO of the Adult Non-Alcoholic Beverage Association, am helping lead the growth of an entire category changing the way the world drinks.What I\'ve learned is that the most important skills in entrepreneurship aren\'t business skills. They\'re psychological ones.It took me years to fully understand that — and I now see it confirmed everywhere I look.The thing that stops founders isn\'t the strategy. It isn\'t the market. It isn\'t the funding.It\'s what\'s happening one level underneath.The founder who knows exactly what decision needs to be made — and keeps not making it. The one who can articulate the pivot perfectly to everyone else but can\'t pull the trigger on it themselves. The one who keeps hiring the wrong people, chasing the wrong opportunities, or building for an imaginary customer rather than a real one — not because they don\'t know better, but because something psychological is driving the bus.I\'ve lived versions of this myself. And I\'ve seen it play out hundreds of times coaching founders through Camelback Ventures, the American Express Leadership Academy, and the Obama Foundation.The block is almost never the strategy.Founders know what to do. They\'ve read the books, hired the consultants, built the decks.What stops them is almost always happening one level underneath — in how they think, how they decide, and how they see themselves as leaders.That\'s what separates founders who scale from those who stall.Not the business model. Not the tactics.The psychological skills to actually execute on what they already know.Today I bring that understanding directly to the founders I work with — helping them get clear on the decisions they\'ve been avoiding, identify the beliefs that have been driving the wrong behavior, and build the confidence to make the moves they already know they need to make.If you\'re a founder who knows what you should be doing but can\'t figure out why you\'re not doing it — you\'re in the right place.DM me if you\'re ready to grow — both your business and yourself.

Experience

1. Leadership Coach

   Obama Foundation

   Jan 2023 — Present

   Each year, I coach a cohort of Obama Foundation Fellows — emerging leaders selected for their potential to drive meaningful change across the world.→ I guide and support fellows in developing the career clarity, leadership skills, and the psychological resilience needed to build high-impact careers at the intersection of purpose and real-world constraint→ I support fellows in navigating the unique challenges of building careers at the intersection of leadership, purpose, and impact

Education

• Amherst College

  Bachelor of Science - BS, Psychology

  1996 — 2000

• The George Washington University

  Certificate, Leadership Coaching

  2005 — 2006

• The George Washington University

  MS, Organizational Management

  2004 — 2007

Skills

• Organizational Learning
• Leadership Development
• Strategic Technology Development
• Community Management
• Organizational Management
• Program Management
• Research
• Storytelling
• Logo Design
• Social Entrepreneurship
• Organizational Development
• Nonprofits
• Entrepreneurship
• Strategy
• Fundraising
• Program Development
• Leadership
• Social Networking
• Policy Analysis
• Program Evaluation
• Strategic Communications
• Spss
• Training
• Team Leadership
• Staff Development
• Strategic Planning
• Qualitative Research
• Marketing
• Public Speaking