Dawn Damon: Hey, Braveheart, it's good to see you again. I got a great guest for us today. She's an author of the book, Awaken Your Purpose: 28 Days To Discover Your Life Purpose, Identify Your Dream Business, and Take Your First Steps To a Prosperous Life, and we all want that, don't we? She's an award-winning soul business success coach for women. She has her BS in Psychology, a master's in business management, and 12 years of international business leadership experience. Her work has been featured in so many venues: Forbes, New York Times, Inspired Coach Magazine, and many more. Please welcome Erica Carrico.

Hey Erica!

Erica Carrico: Hey, thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.

Dawn Damon: Thank you. We are just glad to have you on The BraveHearted Woman Podcast. I love something you said, Erica, and I'm gonna start with this. You say that it's never too late to bloom, and as a late bloomer in life, that is a mantra that I can get behind. Tell us, what do you mean, it's never too late to bloom?

Erica Carrico: Yeah. Well, I think, you know, so many of us have a very similar story where we start life out and we're free spirited and you know, we're loving life and we're doing whatever we might be doing. And I think as time goes on, society and societal expectations start to catch up to us. Right?

So, I just remember, after college, I wanted to travel and do all these things, and I wanted to work really fun jobs, and I wanted to work the ski season, and I wanted to do, you know, whatever. I wanted to just travel. And I think like most of us, reality started kicking in, and people are like, you can't just be doing this forever. When are you gonna get a real job? And when are you gonna get married? And when are you gonna have kids? And when are you gonna settle down?

I really, for about 10 years, was in this tug of war between my spirit and my heart, knowing that I was meant for a different life. And then also wanting that safety and that security of settling down of, of having a partner, of having a job and a steady paycheck. And really, really long story short, I was living that life, and I think for a lot of people it probably looked like I had a wonderful life from the outside looking in. I had a successful corporate career. I was married, I had two kids, and I guess most people know that I was incredibly anxious. I was completely depressed. I was miserable in my marriage. I was miserable in my job, and I was waking up every day feeling like my life had no meaning. Like, what was I even here for? And that was when I was diagnosed with kidney cancer at 36, while I was still breastfeeding a baby, and I had a toddler at home.

And you know, it was literally a moment for me in this life that I'm living and the way that I'm living it. It’s actually killing me, and if I don't make a change, it will be a sort of real spiritual journey for me. If I don't make a change, I'm not going to be here to do the work that I know that I'm here to do, right? And I knew that I was here for so much more than the life that I was living. And so that was a huge wake-up call for me. And I look now, and I'm like, wow. 36 was actually quite young. A lot of my clients are in their 50s or in their 60s. I mean, I have a 75-year-old woman in my course right now who's just now starting a business that's fully aligned with her purpose.

So I really think that no matter what age we are, it's never too late to start over. It's never too late to reconnect with yourself. It's never too late to wake up to figure out why you're here, and to actually start living in alignment with your purpose. And it's scary, but it's never too late.

Dawn Damon: That's great. And that's what we say too, Leon, sometimes we have to do things even while feeling afraid. You don't just stop. You don't just get paralyzed by your fear, but you have to somehow find those ways to take courageous steps of action, move forward, and share your story. Wow. Being diagnosed with kidney disease or kidney cancer, my goodness. Is that what inspired you to become a soul business success coach? And by the way, when we say soul, we mean S-O-U-L, the soul of us.

Erica Carrico: Oh yeah. The soul.

Yeah. Well, I started my business. I knew I had wanted to be a life coach. Well, I had been in corporate recruitment for many years, and so what it was, it was a natural transition for me to do career coaching, right? So I just started my business on the side as a career coach, and for me, it was like I wanted to be a heart-centered career coach. So I started helping other women and men, even to find a new career that was more aligned with what they loved. Right.

So I kind of started there. We all have to start somewhere, but as I got to really know myself and my own spiritual journey started to evolve, and I started to peel away my layers, I guess sort of the mask that I had put on. I was doing a lot of spiritual work, and for me, it was like I was seeing these people switch careers. It wasn't deep enough for me. Right? So it was like I really then wanted to help people figure out what their purpose was and how they then align that with their careers. And then it became one step deeper to me, and it's like, well, I think that we all have our own unique medicine to share with the world.

So I actually really wanna help people leave their careers and start businesses so that they can have the impact they wanna have. And it just kind of morphed over the last eight years. And now, yeah. I help women and men to leave their jobs to figure out what their purpose is, what their divine gifts are, what their medicine is that they're here to share with the world, and then turn that into a business so that they can really, truly earn a living doing what they love and have an impact at the same time. So we kind of cover all, all pieces of the puzzle.

Dawn Damon: And how do you do that? Is it through your courses, through your private coaching? I mean, for someone to discover what their medicine is or for someone to say, I feel so out of alignment. What's the process that you take someone through?

Erica Carrico: Well, it's not a long process, but there are a lot of steps. Yeah, you know, it's something that, it took me five years to refine and I took thousands of people through it as a private coaching package, and then thousands of people went through it as a group coaching program, and then it became an online course, and now it became the book, which I think you mentioned at the beginning of the show.

Yeah. So the whole process is in my book, but essentially, what it is, is the first half of the process is really getting clear on remembering who you are. What you really love to do, so many of us forget, and you'd be surprised at how many people can only name a couple of things that they really love to do, you know, and mm-hmm. So it's really tapping back into. What is the essence of your soul? What do you love to do? What are you naturally really good at?

And then the second half of the book is more of a career coaching piece, I have. You come up with different options. We get really clear on what are different combinations of potential businesses or careers are, and then I have you go through and actually evaluate them. And I have a hundred percent hit rate. I've never had anybody go through the process and not come out crystal clear on where they're going to start. Now it works.

Dawn Damon: Incredible. And so let's talk about your book because you not only help people get in touch, like you said, tap their essence and who they are, their true soul, and so they become aligned, but then you gear them up and get them prepared to start their own business.

And these are soul-aligned businesses, right? You have a proven roadmap for them to help them do that. Is that all in your book? I'm throwing a bunch of questions at you, but this is my juice. I get really inspired by all this, too. Let's start with your book. What inspired you? I think you already kind of told us, but to put this all in a book so that you can help more people do the same thing?

Erica Carrico: Yeah. Exactly. I wanted it to be more accessible. You know, I wanted it to be more accessible. Rather than paying a thousand dollars for a course, someone can now go grab it for, you know, whatever, $4.99 on Audible or whatever it is, or buy their hard copy on Amazon for like $9.99. It's not, you know, I wanted it to be accessible.

I think for me, what I realized through my cancer journey was that. My part of my purpose is to really awaken others to what theirs is and to really help them to live that. Right? And so for me, my mission is to impact 1 million people to really be living in alignment with their purpose. Because I mean, that's how we change humanity. That's how we raise the level of consciousness on our planet, right? That's how we have. So many more people out there are doing good things, and I think that's truly how we change the world. So for me, that's what's really important to me, is reaching as many people as possible and just helping them to really tap into why they came here.

Dawn Damon: Right. And so you're saying 28 days to discover your life purpose, so that's probably some intensity there. Yeah. But yet a short amount of time to identify your dream business. Yep. Take your first steps. Wow.

Erica Carrico: Yep. Yeah, for sure. Definitely. The reason why I call things like Soul Business, you know, Soul Business Accelerator, and so is because I really, I've seen thousands of people start businesses over the years, and truly, unless it's aligned with something greater, right?

Unless they feel like it's aligned with God's vision or God's purpose for them, or whatever it is, or you know, whatever it is, a higher power that they believe in, unless they feel like it's something greater coming through them. They'll just quit when things get hard. Yeah, right. It's like it has to be for the greater good, and it has a deeper spiritual why behind why you're starting your business.

And none of us are gonna, is gonna have a business that looks the same. It's going to be very different and unique to each of us because it's our soul, right? It's our soul, essentially expressed out into the world.

Dawn Damon: Yes. Beautiful. And I like what you're saying, and I was gonna ask you that. It's the spiritual why. Yeah. If we're not connected to that, we're gonna run out of energy. Yes. And motivation, whatever you wanna call it. Yeah. Because when times get tough and things aren't feeling fruitful, and yeah. In the press, we're gonna quit if we don't have ourselves connected to that spiritual why. Yeah. Really important. And so is that your methodology different than just basic, traditional business code?

Erica Carrico: Yeah, for sure. So, I don't, that's not this part. The actual building and growing your business isn't in the book, but there are courses on my website, and you can kind of read about them there. But yeah, I have a process that takes you from an idea or a concept of what you might wanna do to a six-figure business. And the reason why I chose six figures is that at that point, most people can leave their jobs. Once you're earning, you know, eight, ten, or $12,000 a month, most people can comfortably leave their job. So it's my focus to get people to that number first, and then we figure out where they wanna go from there. The sky's the limit.

Dawn Damon: Yeah. Incredible. So somebody gets your book, and it's 28 days. Are there some challenges that your clients are gonna face, and how do you help them overcome those?

Erica Carrico: Yeah, well, I mean, anytime we want to change our reality. We are gonna bump up against our old paradigm, right? Like our old thoughts, our limiting beliefs are, why I can't do that because of X, Y, Z, or, I don't have the time, or I don't have the money, or, that just feels too big. Or who am I to do that? Imposter syndrome, yeah. Mm-hmm. Fear. Fear of doing something different. I think most people are very comfortable in their lives. Most people, even though they're bored and they're numb and they're numbing themselves through alcohol or overeating or shopping or medication. They're afraid to change, you know?

So I think the biggest thing that I see when people are starting to take these new steps is fear. Steps in imposter syndrome, steps in, and somebody has to really want it in order to push through that. And that's really where that support can come in. You know, that's why I think the course is so great, and even the book is so great because it's gonna help you understand that those feelings are normal.

And just because you're feeling the fear doesn't mean it's not what you're supposed to do. It's like, allow the fear to be there, but do it anyway. You know? And I talk a lot about putting the fear in the backseat. Don't let it sit. Maybe even in the passenger seat, but not in the driver's seat. Yeah. So it's like what you said earlier, feel the fear and do it anyway. And so it's really. Showing people what you're going to be feeling and that it's normal, and that you still keep doing it any, keep walking the path and taking the steps anyway.

Dawn Damon: Right. Learn how to keep yourself encouraged, keep your eyes on the vision. Keep offering your best. Yes, every day to this dream and to this vision, because it is very, I can tell you as an entrepreneur and a woman that's in ministry and business. There are days when it becomes discouraging. Yes. And there are days, I don't know how you do it, but there are times where finding that balance between work and life and children. And for me, grandchildren, how do you maintain balance?

Erica Carrico: That is really hard. I'm a single mom of two kiddos, so for me it's like I'm doing, you know, all their all, I mean, they're still, they're 10 and 13, so it's like they're doing all their activities. I'm running this company now. I think for me, every time I hit a point in my business where I was working the hours that I was working in a full-time job, you know, or even, like I only work from nine to three 30 'cause that's when my kids are at school. So even if I got my business to the point where I was working nine to three 30, that was way too much for me. So I would hire, so I've been really good over the years at delegating. Right. So I grew my company to, I think we, there was a team of 16 at some point. I've since scaled back a little bit and just restructured and reorganized things on the backend, but I delegate, and I really make my family and my kids a priority.

You know, like they actually think I'm a stay-at-home mom. It's kind of wild. They know I have a business, but I'm there for everything. You know? Like I have worked on my business. It's a multimillion-dollar company, but it. Fits into my life, right? So that my business allows me to live the life that I want to live, and it doesn't force me to live a life that I don't wanna live, right? So it's prioritizing kids and family, setting boundaries around hours. I hire people in my home so that I can be the one to drive my kids to all their activities. So it's really getting clear on kind of like what you said, what is the vision you want for your life, and how can you start taking steps towards that?

What needs to come in? Who needs to come in place to help you? Yeah. And how can you just build from there?

Dawn Damon: Right. You have to delegate.

Yeah. In order for your capacity to be enlarged. You can't do everything. And you can't do everything. Well, no. And I tell my daughters, I have beautiful daughters like you, and I tell 'em, I said, you can do everything and anything you want, but you can't do it all in the same season. You know, you have to figure out what's this season of my life supposed to be about?

Erica Carrico: Right.

Dawn Damon: You know, Erica, I have a question for you, 'cause I'm looking at you, I'm seeing, you know, you're young, you're vivacious, you are energetic, and yet you're savvy in business, and you've done all these things. Many people will say, Well, you were probably born into the perfect family, probably had the perfect parents. I don't know the answer to this.

Erica Carrico: Wow.

Dawn Damon: Were you made for this, or did you choose?

Erica Carrico: Oh my gosh. You know, this is, it's so interesting that you asked me this question because literally just yesterday, just yesterday, it just dropped in like a ton of bricks, and it was like, this is my next book. This is my, I have Goosebumps. This is my next membership site. This is, I'm starting my own podcast. This is gonna be the name of my own podcast because people look at me and they think exactly that, I'm 45 years old. What I would call a fairly traumatic childhood. I don't talk too much about that yet. I'm still trying to navigate. How do I talk about that? How much do I share? I mean, I grew up with a single mom. We did not have money. Literally, my grandparents would send us grocery money in the mail. We did not come from money. I did not come from a perfect family. I mean, I've gone through everything from cancer to eating disorders to divorce to abusive relationships. Like I honestly have been through, I, you know, family members committing suicide. Like, there has not been a thing that I haven't been through, which is genuinely what I look at life. I mean, I can't even, and it's like I've turned all of this into my purpose, right? And I think part of why I'm here, and it all sort of connected to me yesterday, is like I can show that I have been, it is possible to go through all of this to be a complete and total mess and still be a success and have a completely different life, like actually have created everything in my life that I want. It's like I didn't just have one thing happen to me. I've had it all, like I've had it all.

Dawn Damon: Yeah, that's pretty significant. And I know you've said, you know, you've called on the name of God several times, and I know that God has to be a part of that, or he has to be all of that. But you've partnered with that. You didn't wait for, you know, like, oh, I'm just this massive magic door has to open for me. You got engaged with your life, you've made choices, and you said, you know, I can go down this path, you said it earlier, and I can sit here, and you know, or I can say, Hey, what do I really want to do in life, and get that vision. Everything starts with vision.

If I can see more, I can have more of it. If I can trust God that there's this big, beautiful picture and then engage and cooperate with God, and so, you know, we're just really excited to see what your life is and then that you're spending it on behalf of others that you see.

Erica Carrico: Yeah, absolutely.

Dawn Damon: I want it to matter, and I think about, I'm preaching a little bit, which is what I am, I am a pastor, but I love that.

But I'm thinking about how, you know, hey, God didn't redeem me just so that I could just do my thing forever and a day, but for that, I could pour out and see other people find theirs. You do have a little bit more of a passion and love for women?

Erica Carrico: Yes, I do. Yeah, I definitely do. I've worked with men. I don't even know where it came from. I think it's just that, as women, we go through so much. You know, like we really do go through a lot, and I think so much falls on our shoulders today. It's, you know, it's not, I mean, the world has evolved so much in the last hundred years, and we're still trying to find our place in the world. Right. And it's like, I mean, even the last. 400 years. It's like, look at what women have been through. And I think we're really starting to step into our power. I think we're really starting to see what we're actually capable of. And to me, it's just I wanna be part of that movement. I really wanna be part of that movement.

Dawn Damon: Yeah, that's well said. And you know, by the time we get it figured out, then we hit our fifties, and then we have to figure it out all over again. Yeah. I buckle up, baby.

Erica Carrico: I know. That's what I'm like, oh, I'm already doing the whole perimenopause thing, and it's like, Oh my gosh. It's just all over the place.

But you know what, actually, one of my mentors is a beautiful woman. She's in her 80s and she lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She was one of my speaking mentors, and she actually has done a lot of studies with history, like a lot of the deep soul history. And what she says is that a woman doesn't come into her full true medicine until she's in her 70s, right? So like she's gone through all of the things and she's experienced all of life and she has so much wisdom and she's so connected to, you know, God or source or a higher power or whatever it is that you wanna call it. And we're at our peak in our late 70s. So I just found that really fascinating that we have so much time still to get there, you know?

Dawn Damon: The good news is that what you just said? And so you know, my peak is still yet ahead of me. And yours is way ahead of you. The sobering news is that, and I'm on a little tangent here, but now we get one body. And I bet you have quite a regimen taking care of your body, so that's why it's important. I tell my midlifers and beyond, I tell my bravehearted women, you gotta keep moving your body. You gotta keep exercising. Move those legs, move those arms, and stay fully engaged because you get one body to carry around that vision.

Erica Carrico: Yes.

Dawn Damon: And your spirit and your soul. And if it breaks down. So, hey, keep taking care of yourselves, ladies, knowing that your best season is still yet ahead of you. Come on, somebody,

Erica Carrico: 100%. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Dawn Damon: The book is called Awaken Your Purpose: 28 Days to Discover Your Life Purpose, Identify Your Dream Business, and Take Your First Steps to a Prosperous Life.

We wanna get a copy of that book, my guest today. Thank you so very much, Erica Carrico. I hope we have you back again. Tell us how. I love that. We can find you.

Erica Carrico: If you go to ericacarrico.com or you just even Google search, I mean, everything pops up. But yeah, my website has everything on it, from my courses to my book to a bunch of free resources. I'm on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, I'm everywhere.

Dawn Damon: Hard not to.

Erica Carrico: Yeah.

Dawn Damon: We'd have to really try hard not to find you. That's good. Any closing words for our bravehearts?

Erica Carrico: Yeah. One thing that you had mentioned before that I wanted to share on was that you mentioned that creating a vision and having a vision and working towards that is so important, and like what this is all about. And I think I've really taken it one step further, whereas I think if we have that desire and we see that vision and we have that desire to create something or to be something, it's like that's really God expressing himself through us. Right. And I really think that if we can see it. That is something that we should really pay attention to, because I do think that that is God's vision for our lives.

If we have that desire that's so deep in our heart and it's our responsibility to follow through on that, it's our responsibility to step into that because if we don't, we're not only ourselves a disservice, but all those people out there that were meant to be impacted a disservice as well.

Dawn Damon: Yeah, I completely agree with that. And that takes faith to believe that what's percolating inside of you, what's rumbling around, is your God identity,y is your God ordained gift inside of you. And it came in the garden in the very beginning when God said, Take dominion and fill the earth. This is how you fill the earth. This is how you bring your creativity to fill the earth. What God put inside you has to be expressed.

Erica Carrico: I love that. I have full-body goosebumps.

Dawn Damon: I know. Full body. Me too. We've had a connection. That's so great.

Erica Carrico: I know. Yes, for sure.

Dawn Damon: So thank you so much for being on. We'll keep tracking your progress and hang in there with you, and look forward to reading your book and to all of you listening as well.

Join me at the braveheartedwoman.com. If you need help identifying your vision, you can also access the things that I talk about and write about on vision. My book, The Making of a BraveHearted Woman: Courage, Confidence, and Vision in Your Midlife. Get your copy today. Hey, Braveheart, I'll leave you like I always do. Is this your moment to find your brave and live your dreams!