Innate Wisdom Podcast

What It's About:

Join Loren Sofia, Functional Fertility Coach and owner of Innate Fertility, and Ericka Auckland, an entrepreneur, mother and host of the Trust Issues Podcast, as they chat about healing hypothyroidism, trying to conceive, pregnancy, and maintaining sanity as an entrepreneur in the transition to motherhood.

Hear Loren & Erika discuss:

-Erika’s “rags to riches” story
-The formula for becoming an entrepreneur
-What it’s like working with your husband
-How Erika healed her hypothyroidism
-Overcoming crippling fear around eating food
-Erika’s trying to conceive & pregnancy journey
-Things that might be holding you back from becoming a mom
-How to balance owning your own business while being a mother
-The real cost of saying “yes”
-Going through the motions of what you think you’re “supposed” to be doing
-Tips for mothers wanting to start their own business & for maintaining balance if you already have one

Transcript:

Loren: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Innate Wisdom Podcast. I'm your host, Loren Sofia, Functional Fertility Coach and Owner of Innate Fertility, and I'm honored to guide you through each episode, where we'll cover not just fertility, but how to rediscover the innate wisdom of your body, restore your connection with your physiology, bioenergetics and metabolism, and get back in touch with Mother Nature and ancestral traditions.

Welcome to another episode of the Innate Wisdom Podcast. On today's show, I'm incredibly excited to invite entrepreneur, mother, and host of the Trust Issues podcast, Erica Auckland, to chat all about healing hypothyroidism, getting pregnant, and balancing motherhood while owning your own business. I'm so looking forward to sharing today's episode with you because, first and foremost, I think you're going to love hearing Erika's story.

[00:01:00] She's a self made woman, but she's also an amazing mother, and she's not only living proof that you can be both, but she's also helping other women fulfill their entrepreneurial aspirations while maintaining balance in motherhood too. In the episode, Erika also shares her journey with hypothyroidism, crippling fear around food, does that sound familiar?

And fertility issues. A lot of her story might resonate with you. She thought she was doing all the right things, eating healthy, taking all the right supplements. But it turns out these things were keeping her where she was, not where she wanted to be. And you'll learn how she was finally able to take control of her hypothyroidism, resolve her mysterious fertility issues, gain true food freedom, get pregnant on the first try, and have such an amazing pregnancy that she can't wait to be pregnant again.

And not only that, she shares her wisdom for how you can pursue your dreams without sacrificing your family too. Keep listening to hear Erica's incredible story and break down how she did it and continues to do it. Enjoy the show. Welcome back everyone to another episode of DNA Wisdom Podcast. Today I am honored to have and welcome Erica Auckland from the Trust Issues Podcast.

Welcome Erica. 

Erika: Thanks for having me, Loren. I'm so excited to be here. 

Loren: I'm so excited to be chatting with you. You know, we have our own relationship that has just been so fun and such a, a light part of my life. And I'm just super excited to help everyone to get to know you today. So, you know, as a matter of fact, can we start by having you share your story for those of the audience that aren't familiar?

Erika: Oh my gosh, thank you for having me and that's so sweet. And I feel the same about you. I'm like, you have had such a role in my own life, which I know we'll get to, but yeah, a little of my story. I'm just a girl who really grew up in a small town, actually in Pennsylvania. And from a young age, I always kind of knew I was different.

[00:03:00] Just didn't really fit in with the crowd and just had a lot of really big dreams. To get out of my small town to maybe build a brand or a business. I didn't really know what it looked like at the time to travel, to see the world, to really experience the fullness of life. And that kind of led me down a path of becoming an entrepreneur.

I've been an entrepreneur now for the last 14 years. And so I've done a variety of things. I've worked in e commerce, consulting, PR, coaching. Digital marketing and it's just my biggest passion to help women specifically and now that I'm a mom Mama's other mothers really be able to spend more time with their families create businesses that support being able to spend time and be present as moms as wives as you know, women in the home and, um, whatever that looks like for them.

Right. And, you know, I think for me, I spent so much of my time in previous years being so career focused. And then I had a surprise pregnancy in 2021, kind of surprise. We weren't like trying, trying, but we were playing with fire a little bit, we'll say, and found out I was pregnant. And it was really then, and then having my son that my whole world just changed, and my perspective on what was important, what my legacy was going to be, where I was spending my time and how I was showing up and how I was working, just everything in my life shifted and I think any mother who is listening to this could probably resonate with that. You know, everything changes.

When you become a mom in the best way, but also, you know, you look back to your old life and you know that that crossover from maiden to mother like you see what you have to leave behind and then like what you carry with you into the next chapter and you know today I just feel so grateful.

I feel so grateful for the ability to have resources like technology and social media that we can like literally create businesses and income streams while we're at home and while we're with our family.

[00:05:00] And like, I've got my sourdough starter downstairs. I'm waiting for it to rise so I can make a fresh loaf.

Like those are the things that I just feel so grateful for. So much gratitude for it. I know that's definitely a privilege to have, but it's definitely my passion to give other women the vision that that's possible for them, and that if they want that, then they can have that as well. And I know, you know, so much of your platform is around nourishing yourself as a woman and as a mother.

And you know, this whole journey of like really like honoring your femininity and, and it's like so funny because I look at the person I was then and how I am now and it's just. It's such a pivot and such a shift, which I know we'll get into, but it's just really cool to be able to say like, stand here today and be like, you know, I get to do this work and I get to work for myself and I get to also be that mom and I get to also be the wife and I get to also be the homemaker and I get to also make nourishing meals for my family.

And like. I don't believe that we should do it all, but I do think we can have it all in the way that we can have the things that are important to us if we prioritize well and if we really like figure out what our ideal life looks like. And that's just really what I've worked so hard and learned a lot along the way in creating over the last decade or so.

So just excited to be able to help more women with that. 

Loren: Yeah, thanks for sharing. I really appreciate that. And you know, your passion definitely shines through in both simultaneously being an entrepreneur, but also being the best mother you can be. And I love how you lead by example and you navigate with such grace.

And are really, truly an inspiration to so many women that maybe, you know, foresee themselves still having their career but also showing them that they can be a wonderful mother, a present mother. And it's just been awesome to watch your journey. 

Erika: Thank you. That means so much.

Loren: [00:07:00] Oh my gosh, absolutely. So, I'm wondering... 

Did you always know that you wanted to be a business owner or entrepreneur? I'm just really curious. 

Erika: So I went to school just like anyone else and went to university, went to college and, you know, I was actually studying to work in the fashion merchandising industry. I got a degree in fashion merchandising and I journal, I minored in journalism and.

And I always thought that I was going to, growing up outside of Philadelphia, I thought I was going to go to the big city. I thought I was going to go to New York City. I thought I was going to work for, you know, big fashion magazine or some type of fashion brand and I was going to be, you know, stilettos to the pavement.

And I was going to just like be this girl who just like rules the world in that way. And um, then I went to school and I was getting my degree and then I did an internship. I actually did an internship in Miami. It was my senior year and I went down to Miami for the summer and I interned for a fashion boutique down there, very high end, like the,

[00:08:00] the princess of Saudi Arabia came and like she came and shopped one day, supermodels, like all these celebrities.

There was always someone coming in that you were just like, we have to close down the shop because so and so is coming. Like you just. We just really saw some high profile people and that is what I imagined that I would be doing, right? And so I, I worked in the industry for a time in my internship. I mean, I didn't even officially like get a job.

They offered me a job, but I ended up getting so burnt out. And like, it was like my nervous system literally couldn't handle the pace at which people were working. And in the fashion industry, typically you see like really late nights, just like. Not a lot of nourishment happening to your bodies because everyone's wanting to be skinny and everyone wants to look good in their clothes.

And I just was like, at the time, I was like, riddled with acne. I was like, dealing with so much bloating. I was like, having a mental breakdown in the middle of like, one of the most beautiful cities in the country, like, in my, South Beach, Miami, you know?

[00:09:00] And I just, like, realized at that point, like, I just can't do this.

Like, I can't work for these people. I can't work in this industry. If this is what it's going to be, like, I'm not cut out for this. And it was a huge, like, piece of humble pie because, again, like, I'd gone through university and I'd gotten a degree and it was like, this is what I'm going to do with my life.

And I was so decided. And I remember texting my mom or calling my mom. And I was like, I'm packing up, I'm coming home. And I had packed up, like, my little VW Golf, um, hatchback car, and I packed it up with all my stuff, and I had my cat with me, and I drove back to school, and then packed up everything and went back to Pennsylvania.

And it was at that point that I actually realized, like, I want to be healthy. Like, I want to feel good. I want to, I want to build something that doesn't sacrifice my health and my well being. Like, I want to be creative still and be able to use all the creativity that I have and why I was so attracted to be in the fashion industry.

[00:10:00] But I want it to look different. Like this does not the way that it looks and the way that I experienced it is not what I want to experience. And it was at that moment that I really my eyes were open to What would it look like if I worked for myself and I had a little fashion blog on the side And so I was like fashion blogging.

This was like 2009 like before anyone was on instagram, there was no affiliate links like, you know, it was It was styleactivist. blogspot. com. It was very, like, nobody knew about it, right? But I was like, what if I could take this blog, or this idea of building a brand, and what if I could make it something?

And that just put me on this whole trajectory of trying new things, um, and like I shared earlier, just I've done a lot of different things. And it was in that moment, like, when I was driving. I'm driving on 95 up from South Florida, like, leaving the state, it's a long state to drive down from Miami. And I was like, I'm driving away from what I thought I wanted, and I don't know what's ahead of me, but I think, like, what I want is actually to work for myself,

[00:11:00] and I don't want a boss, and I want to be able to be, um, working on my own terms, and be able to have the freedom that I see other people having.

Like, if they can have it, maybe I can, too. So, um, yeah, that's really how it started for me. 

Loren: That's really cool, and it's It's funny how all those moments happen either in the car while you're driving or in the shower, right? But yeah, I think I resonate with your story to just having, you know, gone to college and like spent the majority of my twenties in New York City.

Um, just also. Hitting the pavement and in college, even in high school, I imagined myself also very similarly like a businesswoman hitting the pavement with my stilettos.

Erika: And it's like not to say that there's anything wrong with that, but I think when you find yourself in any place that you realize like this doesn't align with my soul, like this doesn't align with my nervous system.

Like, this doesn't align with how I want to feel, you know?

[00:12:00] I think that we constantly in our society, we do things because we think it's what we're supposed to do, but when we actually stop and ask ourselves, like, what feels right? What feels good? Which no one, you know, you don't grow up in college. No one's telling you, how do you feel?

Like, how do you want to feel? Pick a career that makes you feel good. Or that it's important at all. Yeah. Exactly. No, no, definitely. There's not even a mention of it, you know, and we have to kind of figure that out the hard way or, you know, on our own. So it's like, not to say there's anything wrong with that if you're listening and that's like what you want or that's what you currently do.

But I think like it's all about alignment. It's like, is it actually what you want? Is it actually what lights your soul on fire? Because if it's not like there's other ways, there's other ways to do life.

Loren: Yeah, I think that's really well said. So this question I did not write. I just thought of it. I was gonna ask you, have you always known that you wanted to become a mother?

And I don't. I know it could be potentially sensitive topic, so No, I just wanna make sure you're okay with that, . 

Erika: Yeah, totally. You can ask me anything and I'll be good with it.

Loren: [00:13:00] Okay. Well, you know, it sounds like you had this almost like epiphany after going through. It's kind of like almost a trauma almost, you know, in, in Miami, in this fashion industry role.

And similarly, I guess I question in the same vein, have you always known that you wanted to become a mother?

Erika: No, I haven't. And I'll tell you why. I always thought my career was going to be my biggest priority. And so when I was pivoting and I was realizing, well, that's not for me, the whole fashion industry world, I really threw myself into learning about business, learning about marketing, learning about.

social media, learning, you know, reading books, consuming. And at the time, honestly, there weren't a lot of female figures who were teaching this stuff. It was a lot of Gary Vee, you know, you had the Tony Robbins. You have a lot of those men, masculine men who are incredible and they're incredible in their own right.

[00:14:00] But those were the people that I was learning from. reading their books and listening to their YouTube videos and stuff like that. And so I didn't have a lot of examples of women who are having both families and careers in terms of the entrepreneurial space. I think it's so different today and I'm so grateful for how the industry has shifted.

But I, I look back and I think there was a couple things that, that influenced my fear perhaps of like not wanting to become a mom because I actually used to say I didn't want to be a mom. I used to say like motherhood's not for me. I'm not cut out for motherhood. And I think a couple reasons for that would be number one, I just didn't believe that I could.

Be that soft, nurturing person, as well as be this person who's like killing it in her business. Um, I also felt that it just wouldn't be possible with time. It wouldn't be possible with how much time it required to build my business and to maintain my business. And I think today there's just so many more simpler ways to run businesses that didn't exist back, you know, 10 years ago.

[00:15:00] And I also, I just didn't see it modeled a lot. I didn't see it modeled. It was either one or the other. And my mom's Latin, you know, I come from a 50 percent Colombian. I'm 50 percent Colombian. My mom's Colombian. And in the Latin culture, I think there's a lot of like, you know, big, big families. Women have a ton of children, you know, that's just like what.

Is more common in that culture and I saw that and I was like, I just like, is that what I want? Like, I, cause it, it didn't seem to me that I could have both things. I could have a successful business or a successful career as well as be a mom. It's like one or the other and one had to overtake everything.

I was a little bit of all or nothing in my 20s. Very like, you know, extreme. I was peddled to the metal for sure. So I didn't always think I was going to be a mom. I didn't want to be a mom. I actually said to my husband when we were getting married, like, I don't know if I ever want to be a mom. So just FYI.

And I ended up marrying my high school sweetheart. And we ended up later, like, warming up to the idea. And then I feel like just God shifted our hearts in so many ways.

[00:16:00] And then we just got pregnant. We'll talk about that story. But, um, But I look back and I'm like, wow, like I, I feel so sad for the person that I was who thought that it wasn't possible to have both things, you know, that she believed that lie.

Cause it's not true. And if you're listening to this and you think you can't have both, you can, I think it's balance is not real. Balance is a lie. You have to understand that like there's going to be seasons and there's waves, but if you open your heart to be able to do both, you really do. have the capacity to do so.

And I'm so grateful that I'm a mom now. Like, what was wrong with me? Like, I love being a mom. Being, motherhood is, is my greatest joy. And there's nothing that I could ever accomplish in my business that would overshadow just the little moments of being a mom and being present with my son. Like, never. So it's definitely my greatest fulfillment.

Loren: [00:17:00] Oh my gosh. I wanna cry. So bad. Oh, that was beautiful. And you know, I think your love for Dawson really is just shines through in every way that I see you. you the way you manifest yourself and walk through the world, you know, it's, it's so clear. And I think a lot of women can probably resonate with that too.

What you shared the original feelings. I know I certainly felt that way too, especially being in a place where my nervous system was so Frazzled. I could barely keep myself alive. And I was like, how am I, how am I supposed to have kids, but also on the flip side too. And this will just be like a side anecdote, not necessarily relevant to like entrepreneurship, but I also grew up in a, in a Latin family.

You know, my grandparents, all of them were like one of 12. Basically. Yep. And they grew up on farms and yeah, so many great uncles, granduncles, great aunts, grandaunts. But I think for me it was more so just growing up in a very dysfunctional household and not witnessing a healthy mother father relationship.

And I personally was like, Even more so than just the business side of things, like the career woman, maybe that's why I was pushed into thinking that too, but even earlier on, it was just like, I didn't have a healthy representation of what a mom and dad could be. And I was like, I don't know if I want this, if that's what it's supposed to be, you know, I don't want to raise kids around this type of, environment, this emotional fury, this dysfunction.

And so I think that probably influenced my decision to be so career focused. And then now, you know, I'm seven and a half months pregnant and I love my husband. And when I met my husband, I knew that You know, things really changed. I think also it could be partly your partner, I think, like finding the right person.

[00:19:00] Cause there's, yeah, there's so many women that will be with the wrong person. They'll tell themselves that they don't want kids and then they meet the right person. And they're like, this is what I want this. I could see myself, you know, doing this. This is the only thing that I want. So there's so many things, but I think.

I really appreciate you sharing your your story. 

Erika: I know I and I agree with you so much like I think I look at myself and my husband and we have we have a unique relationship and that we've been together for nearly 20 years and we met in high school eighth grade like we've been together forever but I look at how we've evolved and, like, the more he stepped into his own masculinity and the more I stepped into my own femininity is when it felt safe to just, like, surrender to that and surrender to, like, having a family and, like, letting my, my husband lead in so many ways and not having to be the person who was, like, constantly pulling my own self up by my bootstraps, like, letting my husband take reign in so many areas, and I think that that speaks volumes to What you need in order to get pregnant as well is just like the safety in your own body and your own situation.

[00:20:00] And I know that's not the case for everyone, but that really does create an optimal situation. And I look back and I think there was so many times where we were super dysfunctional and we were not well in our own relationship within each other. And we did a lot of work. And I think coming out of all of that is when we were able to really.

Feel safe doing that. I mean my husband lost his father when he was only 10 his father passed You know I kind of had some strained issues with my own mother and I think that totally impacted like our Just him seeing himself as a father and me seeing myself as a mother, you know It was just like if that what was our own experience, how could we possibly?

Be like, yeah, we've got this. You know, it's just, it's really hard when it's not really modeled. And I think that could probably speak to so many people listening and I resonate too. Yeah. 

Loren: Well, thank you for that. And you know, nothing is ever perfect. No one has a perfect life too. I do want to acknowledge that.

[00:21:00] Like there's dysfunction in every family. Right. 

Erika: There's, you know, Trust me, we still have dysfunction. We still got stuff. We 

Loren: all do. Yeah. But I think getting to a point. Where it allows you to be the best, closer to the best version of yourself or, you know, that grounded home for you is where things can really start to unfold in a really positive way.

So, you know, not all is lost if you also have experience. Any of these are going through through this.

Erika: We are all a work in progress. I'm still a work in progress. We all have work to do. The work never ends. You know, this is how you create the life you truly want. It's like you gotta face those things. And yeah, trust me, we've got, we've got crazies in our family too.

Like we're not, we're not perfect over here whatsoever. So I don't want anyone to think that. 

Loren: Yeah. Yeah. We Everyone's got something, but hopefully this is inspiring you to, you know, see if you haven't let yourself see that future for yourself because of these things that might be holding you back or blurring your vision.

Hopefully it gives you the, the momentary clarity to just even entertain the idea if it's something that, you know, you truly deep down want. Mm hmm. So good. Well, I know you work with your husband, Kyle. And. I'm just curious, you know, for those that are also probably curious. What is it like working with your husband?

Erika: Oh, dear. It's a trip. You know, I think that it's not for everyone, but my husband's my best friend. You know, I trust him more than anyone in the world. I You never get sick of him. I could hang, I would hang out with each other every single day, 7. And if he leaves to go to the grocery store, I'm like, I miss you.

Come home. So we have a unique relationship in that way. I don't think it's for everyone. I think that you have to be really brutally honest with each other and both be okay to be brutally honest because you're kind of wearing different hats, right? It's like we wear the parent hat and then we also wear the husband and wife hat.

[00:23:00] And then we also wear, you know, the entrepreneur business owner hat and it's just a lot of alternating roles and it's like shape shifting in a way. And I think for us, you know, one thing that really does work well is knowing when to turn off, like in, in the work aspect, you know, like you can't just be like plugged in 24 7.

And we've had our seasons where we have. week boundaries and we have seasons where we're like really on it, really disciplined. Overall, I think when it comes to us working together, we work best when we are not letting work like bleed into like our personal life or we come, we get into the like roommate phase, you know, you can just like so easily be in the roommate phase of like, Hey, like, okay, I got to go to, you got to take, put the trash out.

I got to go run this to the post office. I got to, you know, and it's just like, Hi, how are you husband? Like, uh, it's nice to see you. Like, I like what you're wearing. Like, it's very easy to forget about those things when you're in the work role. So we've worked together for several years, for the last, like, six years, actually.

[00:24:00] Coming up on six years, I want to say. Um, he's actually venturing into some new things. I have some new things as well that I'm working on and it's kind of nice because I'll be honest, I think that And, and I feel like in a, just a very traditional husband and wife role, like I feel the husband works best when he has his own unique purpose and when he has his own drive that is apart from just being a husband or being a father.

And I've seen this in my husband and I don't know, I was listening to a podcast and I'll have to find this for your listeners because it was so juicy and maybe you can, you, maybe you might even find it fascinating. But there was something around. A psychologist was talking about this rite of passage that men have when they have their firstborn son.

And we have a little boy and you know, this past year my husband becoming a father and you know, after the newborn phase, it's just a whole nother ballgame because now you have this like little boy and you're, you know, playing with your son and you're like creating these little bonding experiences.

[00:25:00] And my husband really went through that in the last year, he really went through this almost like, like this dark night of the soul. Like he really experienced just so many things that came up for him when he became a father to a little boy. And he really kind of assessed like, what is my purpose? Like what am I here to do? What kind of man do I want to be for my son?

How do I want to impact his, like his legacy, you know? And so, you know, having, I know this is like way more detailed than even the question you asked me, but I think like it was really just interesting to see like how our working relationship has shifted and Kim really finding deeper purpose in what he really wants to do because he's worked side by side with me for so many years, but it kind of like gave him reason to ask himself, like, is this really what I want to do?

Like, can I see myself doing this for the next like 10 years, 20 years or, you know, is there something else that I want to do that I haven't been allowing myself to do or I haven't been exploring?

[00:26:00] And you know, for him it's just been such a transformative experience and so now he's like, he's starting up, um, in real estate and he's just like, he's doing some investment stuff and he's just like thriving.

So it's just really cool to see your husband thrive. It's really cool to see them just step into a new season of ownership and just their own masculinity. And it's. It's, it's been a really cool ride, and so working together is a lot of fun, but also like I can say that we've just had a lot of change recently, and it's really cool.

It's really good.

Loren: That is very cool, and I appreciate, you know, the, the brutal honesty that the relationship would require, you know, I think if you are everything to each other, business partner, husband, wife, father, mother to a child, you know, it's easier said than done. I think, um, definitely, I think, you know, as you said, it's not for everybody, but, um, you guys seem to have made it work so well.

And I think part of that is just, Allowing each other to, very similarly to how you were describing the husband and wife role, but step into your own roles in your businesses. Mm-Hmm. . And allow, allow yourself that freedom to kind of like be in the space that you, you need to be.

Erika: Yeah. There's like so much dichotomy to it all because it's like you have this very, he will even say it sometimes I'll like get off a work call.

and I'm such in a more masculine energy when I'm getting off a meeting or a work call or something that's very business. And I like go into the living room where he's with Dawson or something or he's like, you know, we just like find each other in the house. And I just like my, I like shape shift back into like this, like just mushy, like female, like wife who's just like, love me, give me a hug, you know?

And I think you have to. You have to find that. I think you have to be able to find that dichotomy because if it all just kind of bleeds into each other, it's just really easy for the waters to get muddy and it's really easy to just kind of forget. What the main thing is, because at the end of the day, we always say to each other, you know, we've built businesses, we've made money, we've done all these really cool things, we've traveled, whatever.

But at the end of the day, like what really matters? Our family, period. End of story. Like if it all burned down tomorrow and if we had to go live in a hut and rebuild our life, we'd be happy because we'd be together and like we'd figure it out. And I think that really is the basis for our foundation for why things do work because we always remember at the end of the day, like we're on the same team and.

No matter what I have going on, or he has going on, or if we have a shitty day, or, you know, something just falls apart, or, you know, whatever, like, we're still on the same team, and I think that is everything. That's the only reason we've been able to make it work. Like, I look back, and like, there's almost no logical reason why we're still together, because we've been through every single challenge in our marriage, every single...

You know, we've had deaths in the family. We've had, we've lost money. We've like literally been through it all. And I think at the end of the day, why we still pursue each other is because like, we genuinely want to make our marriage work

[00:29:00] and make our relationship work. And we generally are like genuinely are on the same team in every way.

So like, if you're not that like yet, it's okay. You can build up to that, but don't work with your spouse then. Like, just like, I would say like create a boundary because it's like, keep the main thing, the main thing. Right. Like. You're married. So like if it's a, if you're working with your spouse and it's like that's more important than the marriage, like, Oh, I would say that could be really risky waters.

So I think that has what's made us work for sure. So trust me, we, we still have our problems. We still fight. Sometimes we were like yelling at each other in the kitchen the other day, like getting on each other's nerves five minutes later, we're totally fine, but we're human. But I think at the end of the day, like we can get over that stuff.

Cause we remember like, okay, same team. Okay. Ego down like let's not make it that big of a deal. Like we're okay. So yeah coming 

Loren: back to Home base. I love that. That's super important. Well, thanks for sharing that I think that hopefully, you know anyone considering working with their spouse or maybe if you are and it's not working out

[00:30:00] That can give you some sort of like an example of something to aspire to or you know something to like level set on reset on so I do want to ask you because I think what you're doing in lifting women up and empowering them to become entrepreneurs, while also still being mothers as well, you know, showing them that they can do both is really cool.

And I think for many reasons, including the cost of living, many women are pursuing entrepreneurship, you know, in addition to either Even, you know, their full time job or, you know, in addition to being a mother, a stay at home mom, or maybe all three. So, you know, I'm wondering if you have any advice for these women in terms of like how to navigate all of that, where to start, that kind of thing.

Erika: Yeah, I just want to like first acknowledge, you know, if you're in that position that you have to work because cost of living things are just, you know, if you just want to have,

[00:31:00] A good organic meal on the table. It's like, you know, and you want to, you know, buy supplements for your family like it, or it just, you know, I went the other day and I bought some new bedsheets and I wanted to get like organic cotton.

I was like, Oh my gosh, like it's literally just the price of everything. Is wild. And you know, that's coming from someone who, I do have a successful business but at the same time, I've come from very humble beginnings. Both of my parents were entrepreneurs. My mom's an immigrant. My dad was in the military.

Like I've seen them work really, really hard my whole life and so I have really great examples in what hard work can do. But I think like. In terms of what advice do I have, I would say really, you know, pinpoint what you want your life to look like in terms of the time you want to spend, what kind of income do you want to make, what kind of difference do you want to make in the world.

[00:32:00] Because ultimately if you're going to, if we kind of get into what becoming an entrepreneur is, it's ultimately you're needing to solve a problem for someone else. An example being, you know, what you do, you help women get pregnant, maybe some who had challenges prior or they're wanting to have a better experience.

You know, that's the solution that you're providing. That's the problem you're solving. So if you're wanting to get into entrepreneurship, you have to first think, what is the problem that I'm going to solve for other people? If you can solve a problem that is either in the health. Wealth or relationships category, you're going to the primal brain that every single human being walking this planet has is we all innately want better health, more wealth and better relationships.

That's always going to be the top in terms of the market. And so think about what you could solve for other people. And it doesn't have to be this crazy groundbreaking thing. It could literally be helping, you know, in the relationships category, it could be helping moms have better relationship with their toddler and you know, their toddlers are throwing tantrums like How, how can you help them not have a toddler that's throwing tantrums?

[00:33:00] Um, you know, maybe it's in the health category. You know, maybe it's helping people with pelvic floor, you know, postpartum stuff. Like it just would need to be really in, in, in specific in order for it to be. Um, and so I would just say if you're wanting to pursue entrepreneurship, think first, what problem can I solve for people?

Because if you can solve a problem, you can make something very successful of yourself. And I think one thing that I will say too, this is not necessarily advice, but. It's just more matter of fact. Today, building a business at the time of this recording, it's 2023 October. If you're listening to this right now, you are living in the best time to create something from the device that you are already on every single day.

Your phone. Um, if you have a laptop, great, but it's not even required anymore. You could literally build an empire from your phone. I know that I know that because I've done it myself and most of my businesses are primarily run from my phone. And so, I would just really remove any of the mental obstacles that you have.

[00:34:00] Really start working through whatever mental block is coming up for you because I find that that's like. Every single person's stopping point. It's like they're, they don't start because they think, well, I don't have enough followers, or I don't have enough impact, or I don't have enough influence, or I don't have enough money, or I don't have a pretty kitchen so I can't film in there, or I don't have pretty outfits so I don't want to be on camera.

Like, everyone has something, but if you could just flip that and see the gratitude in that, if you have a smartphone, You have a device that could actually build you something like, you know, it's just really doesn't require that much today. And I just am so grateful all the time because again, I started a business.

My first business I started virtually online was 2014 and the way that things have changed in the last decade. It is literally mind blowing what we have at our fingertips. Ways that you can automate, ways that you can serve people without you even having to deliver it yourself. Instagram.

[00:35:00] You can post a reel, and with one Instagram post, you can reach thousands of people.

It's truly crazy, and we just never had that before, you know? I, I think, look at my parents, and they had... Restaurants. They were in the restaurant industry. And, you know, how we marketed our restaurant at the time? They would put sombreros on me and my little brother, and it was Mexican restaurants. So, um, and we would put sombreros on, and me and my little brother would go in the parking lot and hand out flyers.

Like, here's a coupon for half off your appetizer. Like, you know, that's how we had to market. And then we would, like, encourage people to post about us on their Facebook. You know, back in the day when everyone was posting, like, I'm eating here, like, geotag the location, right? Like, it's just so much easier now.

So, I would say, number one, what's the problem that you would want to solve? What's the problem, maybe, that you solved for yourself that you could help other people with? And then, second, just, just don't allow yourself to get into the mental drama of It's not for me or I can't do it because if you want to be home with your babies or if you want to Be able to work [00:36:00] on your own terms or just make a little bit of extra cash just from your phone You know, maybe you don't want to leave your job and that's okay You can you totally can and there's never been a better time to do it.

Loren: Hey, it's Loren Are you trying to get pregnant but also struggling with thyroid issues like hypothyroidism or hashimoto's? What about hyperthyroidism or grapes? What about thyroid nodules? If this is you, I've got you. I've helped countless women finally taint their thyroid issues so that they can get pregnant and stay pregnant.

Many have been able to reduce medications or come off completely, too. And how you can do this is through Conscious Conception, my evidence based pregnancy prep e course and private student community that helps you get to the root cause of your thyroid issues. This is not generic pregnancy prep and fertility advice that you can find on Instagram.

It helps you get down to business on what the gaps are in your fertility, and helps you address them at the root, including clear steps and proven protocols.

[00:37:00] This is why only after two months of starting the course, I had a student just reach out the other day to say her TSH is finally normal, and her thyroid antibodies are coming down very quickly.

This is also why my 41 year old student with Hashimoto's Was able to get pregnant after seven years of trying to conceive, including failed fertility treatments. These are just a few of many examples. I would love to support you on your journey to motherhood for the first time, or again, learn more at innate fertility.org/get-pregnant.

And if you're loving the show, don't forget to leave a review now. Back to the episode.

Yeah, that's awesome advice. And you know, I think a lot of us have this habit of talking ourselves out of things. If they feel uncomfortable too. So I think it's also important to not just like listen to what Eric is saying, it is very much possible, but like she was also saying too, think about what are those blocking sort of talk tracks that you have in your head.

[00:38:00] And this is also an exercise I do for my fertility clients as well. My students. The mental side of things can be the number one reason it's holding you back from achieving what you want, whether it's a baby or, you know, making that extra cash or, you know, anything. But I think that working on the mental side of things, really working through why you have those limiting beliefs and just allowing yourself the freedom, you know, you're the only one holding yourself back at that point.

And so it's what you've said is really important. 

Erika: That's so good. It's so true. The mental piece, it's like, it's what will stop us. We will stop ourselves, you know, most times, obviously there's always outside things that we cannot control, but there are a lot of things that we can control. And I would rather have, you know, you as a listener focus on what you can control and just forget about all the things that you can't, that are outside of you, external issues or external circumstances, you know, because there are a lot of people who have faced.

Okay. really challenging things and they've overcome too. And I always get inspired by other people's stories. People that, you know, started later than me or started with less than me or started with more challenges than maybe I even had. And I always look to them and say, man, if they could do it, I can do it.

You know, and it's always an inspiration in my journey. 

Loren: That's so true. Look around you, get inspired. I think that's super important. Well, I would love to go back to motherhood. and specifically your pregnancy journey. You mentioned it a little bit, you shared a bit about it. I would love to hear more, if you wouldn't mind sharing, more about your experience starting a family and if you wouldn't mind sharing with the audience a little bit more about your conception and pregnancy journey.

Erika: I would love to share. And you have so much to do with that. So I'm excited to share this story.

[00:40:00] So it was 2020, spring of 2020. I was dealing with a ton of, at the time, adrenal fatigue. I was exhausted all the time, bloated all the time, just skin having a freak out. And that was always a telltale sign for me.

Whenever things are off, it always shows up on my skin. I was scrolling on Instagram, and I found some accounts talking about eating oysters for fertility. I was like, what? I saw beef liver. I was like, this is new for me. Because I actually, um, after I got out of the fashion industry, my very short stint that I had there, I came home to Pennsylvania and I actually got a certification from IIN, so the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, because I wanted to learn about how to take care of myself, and health, and wellness, and I learned a lot about Chinese medicine, and I learned about Ayurveda, and I learned all these different things, and.

I was also a CrossFitter, so I was like, you know, this CrossFit girl who was eating paleo and really just tanking my adrenals.

[00:41:00] And even though I knew all this stuff about health and wellness, it just felt like I just was never finding like a meeting point where all this information that I had and the experience that I was having was making sense.

Like, it wasn't lining up. I was, you know, I was healthy, but then I was still dealing with hormonal stuff. And you know, you could just tell that my body was not thriving. Let's just say that. And I had a couple experiences where I had seen, uh, naturopaths and I had seen some practitioners, nutritional practitioners, and a lot of them telling me like, you know, it, you might be PCOS.

It just felt like nobody could get a, uh, their finger on what I was dealing with. And it ended up that I was hypothyroid and that I was just like super estrogen dominant, all these things. And then. You know, the, the conversation around do you ever want to have children came up, you know, with some of these practitioners.

I'll never forget because I actually saw one acupuncturist and he put his hand on my womb and he was like, you have fertility issues.

[00:42:00] Like, he literally was like, you are not going to get pregnant if you don't fix something. And I just was like, what is happening? But honestly, as much as that might have been a little out of line, it was a good wake up call for me because it actually forced me to stop and think like, do I actually want to have kids one day?

I don't think I don't want to have kids. Like I don't think I want to end up, you know, 60 year old woman who just is a spinster with like nothing. Like I just was like, I want to have children. I think, I think I want to have a family. And that's what kind of sent me out down this line. And that's. What brought me to that day when I was just scrolling on Instagram and I'm seeing all these things about beef liver and whatever and I found your page and I found your page on Instagram and I'm literally stalking every one of your posts.

I'm reading every single thing. I'm like my mind is being blown I'm like, what's an adrenal cocktail eating fruit mind you at the time. I don't think I was eating fruit I don't think I ate real dairy for eight years. I was gluten free for probably 10 years at the time.  

[00:43:00] Um, maybe that's exaggerating. I want to back it up.

I was probably eight years because I, I remember being dairy free, gluten free, dairy free, gluten free for everything. I'm drinking almond milk. I'm like downing the nut cheese. I'm literally having like vegan pizzas and I'm just like sicker than ever. Right. So. You kind of broke my whole worldview because you're talking about these things eating dairy I mean, I hadn't had a cup of milk in almost a decade and That's when I was like I got to reach out to her because this was so Challenging to what my worldview was that I knew I had to pursue it I knew I needed to look into it because if something ever challenges your worldview so much I just encourage you to be open minded.

I encourage you to just look into it. If you look into it and you realize it's not for you, that's totally okay. But I think that when we live in an echo chamber and then we wonder why we're continuing to live the same experience over and over and over again and nothing changes, we kind of have to look at ourselves and say, where am I not being open?

[00:44:00] Where am I not, you know, pursuing something else? Where am I wrong perhaps? You know, I was available to be wrong at that point. point because I had just been so sick and tired of being sick and tired. And that's when I reached out to you. We started working together in 2020 and I had my first cup of raw milk when we were working together.

I remember literally sitting there, I poured it into the glass, I literally chugged the whole thing and I was like, my body was like, again, and I like poured myself another glass and I drank the whole thing. And I was like, Oh my gosh, this is life. I literally felt like I was like drinking the nectar of the gods.

It's like my life It's never going to be the same and That whole next almost a year I was just nourishing myself and I was like learning and I was like taking my temperature learning about my pulses I was healing My hypothyroid numbers completely like stabilized And and i'm not gonna get like gonna even sugarcoated, I gained some weight because I feel like I was just so starved of nutrients that I was just like, I didn't stop myself.

I was just like eating and eating and I was just like, this is so good. I was literally just finally nourishing myself for probably the first time in my life. And I gained a little weight, but I was like, I feel good. I have energy. Like my skin is glowing. My eyes look clearer. My hair is thicker. And that was another thing.

I was Thinning like major on like my temples and my whole world was blown. So that I feel like because I was nourishing myself, I feel like that also opened me up to being open to becoming a, becoming a mom. And I didn't start working with you because I said I wanted to be a mom, but I was like, but maybe like, I don't know.

I, I like maybe, and I feel like the more we worked together, the more I just became open to it and open to it and open to it. And then it was April of 2021. And that's when I got pregnant and my husband and I, we took a little trip and we were just feeling great. And I was like, I'm pretty sure I'm ovulating, like just letting you know, and we both kind of looked at each other like, well, we'll just see what happens.

[00:46:00] We're surely not going to get pregnant on the first try. Well, we got pregnant on the first try and I can look back and like I know exactly when that happened, exactly the moment of conception and, you know, found out I was pregnant. My whole world shifted and changed. But. I had the most magical pregnancy ever.

I literally felt so good. All that progesterone was just like pumping in my body and I was just like glowy. And, and I feel like pregnancy like healed me. It's so crazy because you even look at photos of myself before. And I still had some inflammation and I was still just healing, you know, healing takes a while and you have to be there for the process.

You have to be available to go through it because it's not linear and sometimes it takes longer than you want it to, but you have to think how much damage have I done? How many years have I like done a disservice to my body? You know, it's going to take a little of undoing.

[00:47:00] So. I look at my pregnancy then, and I look at the photos, and I just, you saw the inflammation, like, dissipate from my face, you saw, I hardly had any swelling, I hardly had any morning sickness whatsoever, I felt literally incredible, and I was doing everything you told me, I was following all of your recipes, and I had the best pregnancy to the point that I'm like, I can't wait to be pregnant again, like, I'm so excited to get pregnant again, um, but my little guy, he's, At the time of recording, he's 20 months, so almost 21 months, and, and yeah, just, I'm like, wow, what a journey.

It's just, I look back, I'm like, the person that I was before, and the person that I am today because of all of that, because I was available to heal, and I was available to like, go through that. It changed my whole life, and I'm so much better because of it.

Loren: Thank you so much for sharing that. I am so proud of you.

And it's been an honor to support you through everything, even though, you know, as you said, you didn't come to me initially looking to optimize your fertility necessarily, or like get pregnant necessarily, but you also put in the work too.

[00:48:00] And you know, I think that's important too. It's, I feel like it's, it's important to acknowledge, like it's definitely, you have to take ownership of the role and really become self aware.

And it's, it's a whole journey with yourself, honestly, but it's so worth it. And, you know, you have a beautiful boy as a result and you're also thriving and it's just beautiful to see. So thank you for sharing that.

Erika: Thank you. Yeah, and thank you. Like, thank you, because you, without you, I can't even imagine, you know, how you facilitated and how you supported me.

I can't even imagine, like, what a pregnancy would have looked like had I not done that work, you know, had I not had your guidance through it, like. Just, I don't even want to think about that. So if you're listening to this and you're like, I don't know, should I really be doing this? I'm telling you, it works.

[00:49:00] And from a girl who was downing kale smoothies, you know, I was eating Daiya frozen pizzas from the Whole Food Freezer section, what was I thinking? I was like. you know, I just, I didn't know. It's like, that's what I thought was healthy. It's gluten free. It's plant based. And I wasn't really nourishing myself and it changed my whole life.

And now it's like, I have so much freedom. And I think that's the other thing too, is I used to have so much fear around food, so much crippling fear, just, this is going to make me bloated. This is going to make me break out. This is going to make me fat. Like all these things, I just was crippled by what to put on my plate, what to buy at the grocery store.

And we also used to spend way more money. on all this boxed stuff, and now I'm like, have a piece of sourdough toast with a big slab of butter on it, and, you know, have plenty of protein, and it just, you feel so much better. And when you feel that good, like, you just can't argue that it's not real, that it's not truly the way, so.

I'll just be your little advocate over here. 

Loren: Thank you. Well, I was talking to one of my colleagues the other day and you know, we were talking about nutrition and all that stuff and it came up like the way that you nourish yourself.

[00:50:00] It's amazing once you feel because nourishment is one of Maslow's. If you're familiar with Maslow's hierarchy of needs, I think you learned it in elementary school or something.

But you know, food is one of the basic fundamental needs. And like, it's amazing how ill or terrible we can feel if we're not nourishing ourselves and how. Just by doing this one thing, how much it can flip so quickly. And then you can show up in like a different way, a better way, the best version of yourself.

You can show up for yourself, you can shop for your family and, you know, just allowing yourself that freedom to, like you said, I used to have crippling fear around food too. I went through a hole in my late teens, early twenties. Diet after diet after diet, and I had so much fear, anxiety around like, what's in this thing that I'm about to eat, or I have to eat again in this, in this amount of time, or I just ate this.

[00:51:00] I can't believe I did that. I'm gonna wait until like, you know, tomorrow to eat again. And it's just like, oh my gosh, just. Not healthy, just not healthy, even though you think your pursuit of this is healthy, like you're, you're trying to pursue health, but it's doing the exact opposite. So for anyone like going through it mentally right now, I think we've both been there, right?

But you know, there, there are other ways to be and to eat and to nourish and to just show up in a different way in the world. So true. That's so good. Yeah. Well, going back to your pregnancy, your son is almost two years old now. How has the transition been for you from being an entrepreneur to being a first time mom as well?

Erika: Um, I think it has been a lot of things. It's been beautiful. It's been challenging. It's been humbling.

[00:52:00] And it's been like the best experience of my life. But at the same time, it's grown me and stretched me more than anything I've ever done. You know, I'm no stranger to hard work or to challenging myself.

You know, I was a CrossFit athlete for like seven years. I built multiple businesses. I'm telling you, there is nothing that has challenged me more than being a mother and I wouldn't trade it for the world. So yeah, my little guy, he's almost two and he's very spirited. He's very, like, as they all are, as they should be.

He has so much energy and just... So much personality. And I think for me, the biggest transition was actually looking at how much I was working and how little your child has tolerance for that because all they need is you and all they want is you. And so, you know, when I became a mother as an entrepreneur, I took some time off.

I definitely took a little bit of time off and like in terms of. physically working. But mentally, it was really hard for me to turn it off. It was really hard for me to just be like, Erica, it's fine.

[00:53:00] Like, just let it go right now. Be in the season that you're in. Because I, all I knew was that, and all I knew was, also we, we, my husband and I both came from, Really a very I don't want to say rags to riches because I feel like that's so cheeseball But I feel like you know if you look at our story We were like in a hundred thousand dollars worth of debt when we first got married We you know We were evicted from one of our townhouses that we lived in when we were engaged like we really struggled financially and we turned our life around we built businesses and you know, we don't have those struggles anymore, but What happens sometimes is that when you're used to living in that survival or in that scarcity, so much of that is just, it's threaded into your DNA, it's threaded into how you operate, into your, your operating system.

And so when I became a mom and it was time for me to just sit back and just nourish myself and stay in bed and drink soups and sip bone broth and, you know, I was like, I'm doing that physically, but mentally I was just not there.

[00:54:00] Like I, I feel like I just had a really hard time slowing down, relaxing, chilling, taking a second.

It was near impossible for me to mentally do that, and that was a huge lesson for me just to really. Take inventory of where I was at and that was a that was a good good time frame for us It was probably about like six months that I really tried to chill with my business in terms of being involved But mentally it was just it was a struggle.

So I've learned a lot from that I've learned quite a bit, but I will say then also as a mother who is an entrepreneur is learning to ask for help You know, who can you get help from? And, and we don't live where we have a village in terms of family or, you know, mother in law who can come over and hold the baby.

And as I take a shower, like we didn't have that. Um, we did have some help that we ended up hiring, which I'm so grateful that we were able to do that. And then we had that capacity, but. You know, we didn't have people who were like, coming over and making us meals, or like, doing any of those things, and so, a lot of it was just us two.

[00:55:00] You know, they I had a home birth, it was a beautiful experience, and you know, the ho the midwife leaves and like, you know, bye, we'll see you in 24 hours, you know, after the birth happens, and you're just like, Oh my gosh, it's just us and the baby. Like, what are we doing? Like, can we even do this? And that experience grew us so much, but not having a village is something that, you know, if anyone's listening right now and if you're the one who has just done everything pretty much for your family and you don't really have a lot of help, I can resonate with you.

And it just feels like there's a lot on your plate all the time and it never ends. And even when you put your head down to go to rest at night, depending on what season you're at. Because, you know. If you've got a newborn, you may not be sleeping a whole ton at night, but we really had to outsource. Like, who could we ask for help?

Who could we call? Like, who could we, you know, or what can we take off of our plate? What can we say no to? And it was such a season of us saying no. And I'll be honest, too, we had a lot of relationships that fell apart,

[00:56:00] a lot of friendships that just didn't work out. didn't sustain through that time because we were not able to show up for those people.

We were like, we're just trying to survive over here, you know, and we're just trying to navigate becoming new parents and, and it's either the baby is first right now and then husband and wife were second, you know, that, that relationship had to take the back seat. So we lost a lot of people even in that season and that was really, really hard.

It was a very grieving season in terms of losing friendships, but you know, I look at. Everything that I went through and it's made me such a better business owner, such a better wife, such a better mother because I have no problem now with boundaries. I have no problem now saying, Nope, I will not be there and I will not be showing up and you can't even convince me.

You know, I have no problem with really protecting what my family needs first and foremost in the season that we're in. And that has also allowed me in my business to be like, what do I just need to take off my plate? Because anytime you're saying yes to something, you're saying no to something else.

[00:57:00] If I'm saying yes to a silly little 15 minute meeting, which we know is always gonna be longer than that, then I'm saying no to being with my son.

You know, I'm saying no to maybe like being present with him and missing a couple words that he says or whatever. And so it's, it's really this give or take that I've had to learn. And I'm still learning, you know, and I, I want to have more babies and I'm imagining how the chaos would just, you know, just double or multiply and I love it.

I love the, the just craziness of, of just having a little one running around the house and just being super vibrant and fun and, and I'm so grateful, but I also can say that. It's hard, you know? Being a mom's hard. It just, it forces you, I just look at my little one and it's like, he's my mirror, right? Like, anytime I'm being triggered by something, or I'm being, you know, my ego's coming, like, flaring up, it's like, it's not about him.

It's about me and the stuff that I still need to work on and I need to work through. And I think, I look at my little one and I'm like, you've been my biggest teacher. He's taught me so much just about myself and my self growth. So I know that's a little bit of a ramble, but I think that's kind of motherhood.

Motherhood's just kind of a jumble and it's just, it's crazy, but it's also just so beautiful. 

Loren: It is. It is. And you know, There's so much to unpack there. I think it's amazing how your son has become a big teacher for you. And I think that's also important too, because they have so much to share and offer.

And I think if you have the right priorities, they're going to influence the way that you navigate the world. So I think that's really beautiful. And I loved what you said to the, when you say yes to something, you say no to something else. And that's true. In business, that's true in your relationships, that's true in motherhood.

And so I think that's really good advice to keep a compass on. And on the flip side, everything you say no to, you say yes to something else too, or the opportunity for that.

[00:59:00] So even if you feel bad saying no, which, you know, and I say that because You may at first, especially if you're not used to setting boundaries, or you may come from a background of people pleasing, there's so many reasons why you may feel bad saying them.

You want, you may genuinely want to do these things, but... Just know that it's okay, because you're also energetically opening yourself up to something else. Whether that's time with your family or something in the future that you can't see yet. So that's such innate wisdom

Erika: Because it's like you, you, I hit the nail on the head, you know, I used to have such a hard time saying no and I had such a hard time with, because I, one of the things that I struggled with growing up was being very misunderstood and feeling like people didn't misunderstood my intentions or, you know, I can be a little intense.

So like people thinking, Oh, like she's just, and so I carried a lot of that into adulthood. And so that led to me having a hard time saying no to people because I didn't want them to not like me or not want to be my friend anymore or not want to invite me next time or not want to. And, and if that's true.

Like, if that's the case and it's, we have to really assess, like, and that person's really not your friend. And that person really doesn't understand, you know, now that I'm a mom, one of the things that I've experienced in terms of, we'll just say friendships, is the better my boundaries are, the more I realize who's really in my corner.

And the better my boundaries and the stronger my boundaries are, the more I I can't see other people who are, I actually have more people around me who are healthy, and those other people get it. You know, the person who is also the mother, who is in her season, where it's, she's mothering, and she's, it's, it's nonstop from, you know, maybe getting from, off of work, or finishing up work for the day, and then it's dinner, and it's bath time, and then it's bed time, and it's, you know, doing the dishes, and then it's sitting down finally to then go to bed and do it all over again, you know, that mama, Is not going to be mad at you if you don't text her back for four days because she gets it because she's in it too,

[01:01:00] you know, and I think when I really understood what my people pleasing was doing, it was just allowing me to just have be a leaky bucket of energy and give energy to all these other places that were not reciprocating and as much as I see this stage of motherhood that I had really the first year was so much shedding, shedding relationships, shedding habits, shedding things that just didn't serve me anymore.

When I look back, I'm like, oh, but that, that pruning allowed so much more to blossom, the right relationships to blossom, the right habits to blossom, my family to blossom. Like my family, I'm just like, oh, look at my little family. I'm like, I'm obsessed with you guys. Like, we're just like doing really well in this season and it's, you know, there's still hard days and stuff, but I think when you realize that your people pleasing actually does you more harm than good.

Take it from a girl who used to be a major people pleaser and very codependent, I'm like, you will just really fast start putting up some boundaries because you'll realize that actually serves you so much in the long run.

Loren: [01:02:00] Yeah that's really, really great insight. And Again, it, it not only applies in just sort of real life, personal life, but business too, just, you know, the more you can hone in your energy, the more directed things will flow to the areas that you want them to.

And the more you'll have to spend time on the things that are worth it. So I liked your leaky button, excuse me, bucket analogy, um, because it's just, it's so accurate in so many ways, in so many aspects. Yeah. So I loved chatting with you, Erica. I think that, you know, you're such an inspiration to so many women.

I love what you're doing both on the business side. You're an inspiration as an entrepreneur, but also at the same time being such a great mother. And I've had so much fun chatting with you, but also. It's been such an honor to be part of your journey as well and to support you and it's just been one of the most fun things as a practitioner and as a friend as well.

[01:03:00] Erika: Oh my gosh, I appreciate you so much and I think I've probably told you this a hundred times but the work you're doing is truly life changing and I think, you know, how you do one thing is how you do everything. You know, and how you treat your body during pregnancy is probably how you're gonna treat your body during postpartum, or how you're gonna like show up as a mother, or how you're gonna, it's like how you do one thing is how you do everything, and I feel like you've taught me that.

You've taught me to nourish myself, you've taught me to like really hold space for myself, like not feel guilty for that, and I also think how that's bled into how I show up as a mom, like. It's truly life changing. So just kudos to you and everything that you are doing. You, you are changing lives. And also I just love seeing you become a mama.

I'm so excited to see this little one, like, you know, come earth side, it's just going to be so special. And you're just really walking your talk. And I think that is so special because it's one thing to tell a bunch of other people what to do, but it's another thing to also live it. And you are truly doing that. So Thank you so much.

Loren: [01:04:00] That means the world and I just have no words to describe my gratitude. So thank you. But yeah, I, I've really loved our conversation and I think this would be a great way to kind of like put a period on the conversation. So you've already shared so much wisdom and You know, that said, this is the innate wisdom podcast.

So I would love to ask you, what is one thing that the audience could start doing today, you know, for the woman listening for the mother listening for even the, the, you know, father listening to unlock more of the innate wisdom of their bodies. 

Erika: Oh, that's so powerful. I feel that you have to tune out the noise in order to hear the messages that are already there for you.

At first the messages are just little whispers and then they get a little louder and then they get even louder and possibly scream at you, but I think in order to tap in.

[01:05:00] you really have to tune out the noise. And you need to figure out where the noise is coming from. Is it from social media? Is it from people in your life?

Is it from maybe a, a well meaning family member who just, you know, is really wanting to give you lots of input that maybe you didn't ask for? Is it, where is it coming from? Where is the noise? I think self awareness is everything. Self awareness is everything in terms of becoming the mother, the father. A parent you want to be, the individual you want to be, the wife, the spouse you want to be.

And so I would just ask yourself, in order to like tune in to the life I want to create, the way that I want to feel, the way that I want to show up as a parent, what is impacting that or what is influencing that that I want to remove or I no longer want present in my life? And it's not to say you need to cut people off or you need to like delete your Instagram tomorrow, but it's just implementing some boundaries or implementing some ways that you can just.

Tune out some of the noise.

[01:06:00] We live in a world, and I, and I had a, another friend that I actually interviewed on my podcast and she said this, she said, we have an abundance of information, but we have such a lack. We're so starving for wisdom. You know, there's so much information on Instagram. There's so many people telling you this is how you should parent.

This is how you should eat. This is how you should do this. This is how you do that. And that's what I think is so powerful about what you do is you really give people the tools to be able to tune in and listen. So, find the noise. Turn the volume all the way down as much as you can and, you know, maybe get outside, put your feet in the ground and start just asking yourself, like, what is my truth or what is the wisdom that I already know?

What is, what is my intuition telling me? Because oftentimes the answers are already there and it's so much simpler than we make them out to be. Oh, I love 

Loren: that. I love that. That just speaks volumes to also the innateness that everyone has, the innate wisdom that everyone has, the innate intelligence, the innate intuition, the ideas that are already there.

[01:07:00] It's just a matter of unleashing them, unlocking them. And, um, I think that that is so in line with everything that I, that I, um, really try to help women with and I couldn't agree more. So that was beautifully said. Thank you, Erica. Thank you. Amazing. And how can people find you? 

Erika: You guys can come over to Instagram.

the time. So at Erica Auckland, um, and I also have a podcast Lawrence episode at the time of this recording is coming out really soon. So probably when this is live, your episode will also be live on our show. Um, but the trust issues podcast, you can find that on. Itunes, Stitcher, Spotify, wherever you get your podcast.

And yeah, come say hi on Instagram. I'd love to say hi and meet you. 

Loren: Yes. Go give her a follow and go listen to the Trust Issues podcast. It's always really fun to tune in, especially the guests that you have, but also the banter between you and Kyle is just. It's great. It really is. 

[01:08:00] Erika: It's definitely a kind of varietal mix of what we have.

So we have a little bit of health. We have a little bit of business. We have a little bit of marriage, a little bit of parenting. So if you're kind of navigating this world of probably wanting to find some more innate wisdom and wanting to maybe step away from the status quo and kind of really figure out the way that you want to live your life, kind of walk to the beat of your own drum, then you'll probably like the podcast.

So come over. We'd love to have you. 

Loren: It's super fun and so valuable, so definitely go check it out. Thank you so much, Erika. I have really loved our conversation and we'll stay in touch.

Erika: I loved being on the show today. Thank you so much for having me and we'll chat soon.

Loren: Thank you so much for listening to the Innate Wisdom Podcast. If you enjoyed today's episode, please leave us a review and share the podcast with someone who you think might benefit. If you're new here, we can't recommend enough that you take advantage of my free resources, like the Get Pregnant Yesterday Checklist, Psycholiteracy Guide, Prenatal Primer, and Sperm Booster Manual.

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