What if a breakdown could lead to your greatest breakthrough? 🌟 In this episode, Dr. Erica Elliott takes us on an extraordinary journey from the pressures of conventional medicine to the liberating path of holistic healing. After battling a profound identity crisis and a health crisis that almost ended her career, Dr. Elliott discovered a heart-led approach to patient care—one rooted in empathy, empowerment, and deep self-discovery. 💚Her story is not just about healing others but about embracing your true calling, no matter the obstacles.
🎧Tune in to hear how Dr. Elliott overcame personal struggles, found purpose, and transformed her practice to make a lasting impact on her patients’ lives. 🔥
Key Takeaways from this Episode
- The essence of a heart-led business
- Overcoming misconceptions and personal challenges
- The transformative power of self-discovery
- The journey from conventional medicine to holistic healing
- The importance of valuing your work and setting boundaries
- Environmental medicine and the impact of toxins
- Empowering patients through education and empathy
About the Guest
Dr. Erica Elliott is a family practice and environmental medicine doctor in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Known as “the Health Detective,” she has a diverse background, including teaching on the Navajo Reservation, serving in the Peace Corps, and being the first American woman to climb Aconcagua. Erica is the author of Medicine and Miracles in the High Desert and From Mountains to Medicine.
Additional Resources
- Website: www.ericaelliottmd.com
- Email: ericamelliott@gmail.com
- Blog: www.musingsmemoirandmedicine.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/ericaelliottmd
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/erica-elliott-9380aa16
- Book: From Mountains to Medicine: Scaling the Heights in Search of My Calling
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Explore the Dialogue’s Treasures: Unearth the insights within! Delve into the profound wisdom woven throughout our conversation.
Speaker 2: 0:01
Welcome to the Heart Led Business Show, where compassion meets commerce and leaders lead with love. Join your host, Tom Jackobs, as he delves into the insightful conversations with visionary business leaders who defy the status quo, putting humanity first and profit second. From heartfelt strategies to inspiring stories, this podcast is your compass in the world of conscious capitalism. So buckle up and let’s go. Let your heart guide your business journey.
Tom: 0:35
Ladies and gents, fasten your fun factors, we’re about to embark on an outrageously original odyssey. Our guest, the darling, diverse Dr. Erica Elliott. From high peaked hiking to bilingual enlightening, she’s made her mark from the Rockies to Co Housing Communal Corners of Santa Fe. Now she’s got the prescription for passion pioneering a heart-led health haven. So tune in as we dig into the heartbeat of her tremendous triumphs on the heart-led business show. Elliott, welcome to the show.
Erica Elliott: 1:04
Thank you. I’m so happy to be here.
Tom: 1:06
Awesome. I’m really excited to dive into this conversation with you today. And of course I like to kick it off with the first question, which is always, what’s your definition of a heart-led business?
Erica Elliott: 1:17
Well, I lead a heartfelt business, so I’m going to tell you what it means to me. And that is when you’re doing something that you’re really good at, and you love doing, and you’d almost even do it if you weren’t paid for it. And it’s in service to others. You know, you can’t beat that. And I finally found that. Even though I’m 76, there’s no way I’m going to retire because I love what I do. And so I am going to keep working until I drop dead. And one of my patients said, please don’t drop dead during one of our appointments because I couldn’t handle it.
Tom: 1:55
Oh my gosh. I can’t believe you’re 76 years old. You do not look 76.
Erica Elliott: 1:59
That’s because I’m doing what I love.
Tom: 2:00
Exactly. It’s all about the heart too. Yeah, that’s beautiful. Remind me a lot of my mother. She’s constant. She’s 84 now and just super vibrant and yeah, still learning. She’s going to get her doctorate degree. It’s crazy. Anyway tell us what inspired you to start heart-led business because it, you didn’t always have a heart-led business. So take us through your journey.
Erica Elliott: 2:22
Okay, so all my life, I knew I had a purpose and I had no idea what it was. And I had to overcome a lot of obstacles. In fact, people can read about it in this book, From Mountains to Medicine. And in order to figure out first who I was, and it wasn’t who I thought I was, at all. And in order to do that, I had to have a breakdown in college and be forced to see a psychiatrist who was extremely skilled. And that’s how I discovered that I was not who I thought I was. And that’s really when my world began. And that was, I became my authentic self. And that was so exciting. And then I was on this 10 year journey which was really thrilling trying to figure out why I’m here. And I learned so much along this 10 year journey. That was after college, after I graduated from college, then I went on a 10 year journey. I didn’t plan on a 10 year journey. It was just, it took 10 years for me to figure out what I’m really supposed to be doing. And I, actually, what I’m supposed to be doing was right in front of my nose and I didn’t see it because I come from a lineage of doctors in Switzerland. My grandfather, my uncle, and so my DNA was wired to be a doctor, but I never even considered that. And had a misconception. This misconception drove me during those 10 years. And I’m so glad I had the misconception because those 10 years were so valuable in contributing to me being the kind of physician I am today. And so I had this misconception because the only doctor I knew was my uncle, who is a medical doctor in Switzerland, and he was so far beyond what the mainstream medicine was doing in those days. He was like 50 years ahead of his time. And I went to learn about him and I realized he’s a genius. And I knew I wasn’t a genius. You know, I didn’t think I was a genius. And so I didn’t even, so I had this misconception that to be a doctor, you had to be a genius because he was the only doctor I knew. I was very healthy. I didn’t go to doctors and my mother was swiss. We ate totally healthy foods and stuff. I didn’t need a doctor. And so he was my only representative of what a doctor is. So I didn’t even consider that for myself. And then towards 10 years. I decided since my college in the 60s, I tested out of most of my science requirements, because I had a very excellent education in Germany. And so I didn’t have to take those courses, unfortunately. So 10 years later I decided to take a few advanced placement courses. And everybody in the class, of course, was 10 years younger than me. And I discovered I was the only, non pre-med student. And then I had an epiphany. These people in my class who are future doctors, were not geniuses. And they were really good at memorizing and really good at standardized tests. And I thought, my god, I can do this. This is nothing for me. I mean, this is a piece of cake. And so, but again, those ten years were not wasted, because I learned so much from teaching on the Navajo reservation. I learned that teaching, I adore teaching, but not just giving facts. Giving information that empowers the person, and that’s the kind of doctor I that empowers and is given with love. And that’s transformative for those children in the class who, up to then, were not interested in learning and they were treated badly by the white teachers who thought they were not very smart. It turned out they were incredibly smart. They just weren’t treated with kindness. And I learned the language too, which made a total difference. And then I went on to join the Peace Corps and taught nutrition to indigenous people at high altitude. And I, was the only woman in all male climbing club. I talked my way into it. They didn’t know what to think of me because I wasn’t like the women there. They accepted me into their club. And so I learned about overcoming fears. I learned about working in a team. I learned about going beyond what I thought I was capable of. So climbing mountains was all a big metaphor for me. I don’t think it was for the guys. The guys would thought about, you know, I made it to the summit. Well, that was important to me too, but as a symbol of overcoming fear and realizing I can do way more than what I ever thought.
Tom: 6:37
That’s really cool. Like that’s not the career trajectory that most doctors go through either, which I think is just fascinating that you created this whole life experience within 10 years. then you got your medical license.
Erica Elliott: 6:50
I went through medical school, but that’s a whole new, that’s a whole nother podcast because I thought, oh, I finally found my destiny. And then I realized first of all, well, I was very excited about what I was learning anatomy and physiology and all this stuff. But then when it entered into areas that were politicized, I knew something was wrong and I didn’t have the big picture. I didn’t know about the Rockefeller Pharmaceutical Liaison and how corrupt it was. I was innocent, but I knew something was wrong because I have a very good bullshit meter. I’ve developed that ever since I was a girl and I knew when something wasn’t true or a lie, I could feel it. And I started learning all these things and I didn’t know what to do because if I would ask about it. I would say like to the cardiology rotation, I’d say the cardiologist, well, doesn’t diet make a difference in how you eat and exercise? And he said, this was, you know, in late seventies, early eighties, he said, no, people aren’t willing to change and it’s just easier to give them pills. thought, that’s great. Awful. And that was just one example of the stuff that I was worried.
tom-jackobs_1_09-05-2024_000544: 8:02
Was he you this while he was smoking a cigarette at the same time?
Erica Elliott: 8:04
Yes. Yes. Smoking cigarettes. The whole thing. I think I thought I’m in an insane asylum because, and then here’s what happened to me. I’m very competitive, not in a bad way. I’m just competitive with myself and I wanted to be. So in order to do that, I did something very bad, which has a good. What I did that’s very bad, is I put my soul, that knew some of this stuff was wrong, I put it in a box, and tucked it away, and just went along with the program. And that took a terrible toll on me. I thought everything was fine. You know, oh yeah, I’ll go along with the whole thing. It’s terrible to sell your soul. You pay a horrible price for it. And it’s not really a heartfelt thing I was doing at all. And so, and then I worked when I graduated, I worked for at different places. And finally I worked with corporate. Medicine, because I was a single parent, had to have regular hours, had to have a decent salary, had to not deliver babies all night. I had to be able to go home at 5. So again, I made a deal with the devil because this is so not me. You’re like a robot. You’re like on a conveyor belt. You have 15 minutes to deal with somebody who’s really sick and you order a bunch of tests and you give pills for all the symptoms. And It was taking a terrible toll on me. Well, here’s what saved me. A disaster saved me completely. And that is, I became injured by the chemicals in the building. It was a new building, outgassing nasty chemicals. And they used nasty chemicals to disinfect. They sprayed pesticides once a month. It was disgusting. And everybody was affected, but I was affected more. I found out later when I studied environmental medicine that I can’t clear those petrochemically derived chemicals from my liver very well. So I was badly injured. It affected my brain terribly and the rest of my body. And so that was it. And I thought, oh, you know, my, my career’s over. I can’t go. I became one of those people that they make fun of that’s sensitive to everything, like a kind of person. I went through that phase and I thought, you know, I doom and gloom. That’s what I felt. There’s no hope for me. I can’t go into public buildings. They full of toxic chemicals. What am I going to do? Well, jumping ahead, these people started coming to my house! I remember the first person knocked on the door, I’d been crying on the couch thinking everything’s over, and I won’t even be able to pay my mortgage, I’m gonna be I was having extreme thoughts of being homeless and all that stuff and the knock on the door and by the way, my brain was very damaged I had almost like dementia from the pesticides and I opened the door and It was a former patient. She said can I have an appointment with you? I said, what? This is my house. You’re coming to my house. First of all, how did you find my house? She said, Oh, I just asked some people. And I said, well, I’m brain damaged. And she said, Oh, I know that. The nurse told all of your patients about what happened. I said, what do you mean you want an appointment? She said, please, I have the same thing you have. Please. Can you please, can I just, sit in your living room and have an appointment with you. I was so confused. And I said, okay, she walked in. Like she knew sat down on the couch. I sat down on the other couch. I could have not follow her very well. Cause I was so brain damaged. I couldn’t remember one sentence to the next, but I made total eye contact. I was totally listening to her. All of a sudden she says, Is our time up? Well, is it up for you? And she said, well it’s been an hour, how much do I you. I said, you don’t owe me anything! And she said, I want to tell you something that you don’t seem to understand. You’re the first doctor that’s ever believed me, and taken me seriously, and really listened to me. And here’s a hundred dollars. And so, that was my first patient. And I actually eventually got well, and in the process of getting well, I learned all the things that they don’t teach you in medical school. I learned a deep dive into nutrition, deep dive into supplements, deep dive into environmental medicine with talk education about toxins, mold exposure, Lyme disease, all the things you don’t learn in medical school, which are really happening big time in, our times we live in. And pretty soon, I had more patients than I could handle. And they were telling all their friends. And eventually, it was patients who just, who didn’t just have what I had. It was just people who needed a proper diagnosis. That’s why my fourth book is going to be called, the medical detective because I’m going to tell the reader how I figure out all these medical mysteries which is so easy and so it’s a real indirect indictment on mainstream medicine because you’d say well why can’t those 15 other doctors or specialists high class specialists, why couldn’t they figure out something that you’re figuring out in 10 minutes? And so, so it’s an expose without directly condemning modern medicine, mainstream medicine, anyway, I am so happy. I just love what I do. I love helping people feel better. And that is going to bring you to ask me about how this let’s see, I wrote it down. How did I figure out a way to oh, was it about payment?
Tom: 13:11
Yeah, the profit and all that, but I wanted to dive into something that you said a little bit earlier, you know, the mainstream medical my understanding is. Patient comes in with a symptoms. Oh, my shoulder hurts or whatever. We treat the shoulder, that’s it. And not look at the entire person, which, you know, that could be caused by maybe a foot problem or a hip problem or something else.
Erica Elliott: 13:32
Tom, you’re right on, you’re right on.
Tom: 13:34
And fun. Like, would you consider yourself like a functional medicine now or integrative medicine?
Erica Elliott: 13:39
Started, it didn’t have a name. This was when I started practicing like this. It was over 30 years ago. There was no name for what I did. So I called myself an alternative practitioner. And then people said, well then you’re a holistic doctor. Then they called it an integrative doctor. And then they called it functional. But I was all those things all the time. No matter what label you put on it. I was dealing with the whole person. And I was drawing on many different areas of healing. Many different area.
Tom: 14:09
That’s great. What a pioneer as well. And I’m sure you came across, the people that were talking about quackery and just like really putting down what you were doing and that’s such a shame, but what a testament for you to stick through it and continue practicing as well and helping so many people. So as you’re building this practice by happenstance, it sounds like it was just a divine intervention, if you will, how did you then turn it into a business that produced a profit and you were okay with now charging people what you’re worth for the services you provide?
Erica Elliott: 14:42
That’s a very good question you ask, and that’s something I struggle But many of the patients just bypassed that equivocation and just forced me to take money that they gave but I, that’s not sustainable. And so I did struggle. I went through many stages because I didn’t have anybody to guide me on this. I, this was new territory. And so many times people would tell me they were poor, so I didn’t charge anything. And those were the patients who didn’t do what I suggested, didn’t get well. Got nothing out of the appointment because they had no skin in the game, but it took me a while to figure that out. And so, finally, I figured that out. Addressing their quote, need, I’d say, well, I’ll do a trade. That was a huge failure too, because I ended up with things that I don’t want. I don’t need, I got six landscape plans. I got multiple, lots of artwork. And so that didn’t work.
Tom: 15:40
You get any animals, anybody, you know, give you a goat or a cow.
Erica Elliott: 15:45
Well they gave me the eggs.
Tom: 15:46
I mean, that’s good. Is still very active to this day, but you know, it’s not sustainable, it sounds like.
Erica Elliott: 15:52
Yeah, and it wasn’t you know, 12 eggs does not equal the cost of an appointment.
Tom: 15:57
The cost of eggs.
Erica Elliott: 15:58
Yeah, so here’s what I, well, then I did the sliding scale thing, and then I was really burned on that, like, one woman told me, you know, how poor she was and everything, so I just charged her a little bit, and then I ran into a friend of hers, and said, and she said, oh, have you seen Jane? And she looks great. And I said, I was puzzled. What? She looks great from what? And she said, oh she had a facelift. And I said, she had a facelift? How much did those cost? She said, oh, hers was 5,000 dollars. I thought that’s the end of sliding scale. So, but what I did was I did a sliding scale that nobody knew meaning I knew who was really having struggles. And so I made up my own silence sliding scale that they didn’t know. So they couldn’t tell everybody she’s doing a sliding scale, you know, so they can say how poor they are. And so that’s what I do now. And it works out perfectly.
Tom: 16:53
Well, I mean, it’s a great way to help the people that need help, but also make sure that they’re putting skin in the game as well. Like you said.
Erica Elliott: 17:00
Yeah. So what really turned things around for me. A patient was trying to, in the early days when I was figuring things out, she was trying to. Do what you’re doing, you know, like, helping me have the nerve to charge what I’m owed. And she explained that there was a true story about a business that was going out of business, it’s men’s clothing. And so as a last resort, the owner hired somebody to give him. Some financial help. And that person said, you know, it’s just one piece of advice. You need to double your prices and you will have a successful business. And that’s what happened. He was undercharging. So people didn’t value his work. And that’s what was happening to me in the early days is if you don’t have skin in the game, you’re not going to get much out of the appointment. And so I learned a lot from that story.
Tom: 17:50
Yeah. It’s a, well, it’s a two way street because it needs to be that energy exchange needs to be somewhat equal so that everybody is winning. Cause you know, even. from a consumer standpoint if I go and try to negotiate the price of a service so low, that practitioner takes it, like that’s not sustainable for the longterm because they’re going to go out of business. They’re not going to be able to help more people. And it’s a lose versus being okay with charging what you’re worth, you know, not being extravagant with it. Like. Charging way too much, but being reasonable so that you can have a life and live the life that you want. I think that’s absolutely reasonable for people to expect.
Erica Elliott: 18:27
So I came to that. Plus my son gave me these very stern lectures. He’s a businessman, very successful. He was very stern me. He said, mom, people will appreciate you more if you charge what you’re worth, mom. And he was so adamant about it. And so I keep inching up my rates. And now he says it’s acceptable. He’d like to see a dollar, but he said it’s acceptable.
Tom: 18:51
That’s awesome. So what is the specialty that you work on? And so if people have that issue, they can contact you.
Erica Elliott: 18:58
Well, I’m not taking new patients cause I have 1200 That’s just too much So, but I do a blog and on that blog. There’s a category called medicine. It also has other things. The website is called Musings with an S, Musings Memoir and Medicine. And, but they have, there’s a category. If you click under medicine, you’ll see all these medical posts, which I wrote them for all the people that I wasn’t able to see because I’m too full. They say, I have this problem. So I go write a blog about it. And so they get freaked out. And then it could be accessible to everybody like statins and cholesterol and the harm that’s being inflicted on us and mammograms. And, you know, and I am talking freely force. Fortunately, I haven’t been censored. I haven’t had my blog taken down, but during the pandemic, it was limited what I could say. But I wrote out during the pandemic, a very nice protocol that’s gone around the world. People have sent it to their friends all over the place. And so you’ll find information on that blog post with very common problems that people have. And they can’t find this kind of information. In mainstream media.
Tom: 20:09
Yeah.
Erica Elliott: 20:09
And then the third memoir that I’m working on now will be my trajectory and actually some of the story I’m telling you now and my fourth book will be very useful public because they’ll figure out, they’ll learn how to figure out their own problems and save themselves a lot of sweat and money. And it’s so simple and I, you know, I’d love to give an example of how simple it is because like, okay, so this guy from San Francisco is a businessman and he heard me, people hear me through the grapevine. I’ve never advertised one single time, it’s all word of mouth because people are so desperate. They can’t get the help they need. It’s so pathetic. And so somebody said there’s this woman in Santa Fe who really likes to figure out medical problems. This is when I was still taking new patients. So he made an appointment, flew in, and he said, In 10 minutes, I solved his problem. And he had been to, cause he’s wealthy. He went to all these famous specialists and nothing helped him. And so here’s what I did. I asked him to do a writeup before he came to save himself time and money. And I write, here’s one of my methods of figuring things out stood to do a timeline when were you feeling fine? And when weren’t you feeling fine? And what changed? And nobody asked those questions. I mean, I’m showing how simple it is to figure out these problems that all these specialists can’t figure out. And so he did that. He did the timeline and everything. And I said, okay, January 20, whatever. 21 or no, it was before the pandemic. Sorry. It was, I don’t remember 2018 or something. And he said he started going downhill and I said, what was different? And they all say the same thing at first. They say nothing. And so I said, okay, we’re going to sit here until we find out what was different. Did you travel abroad? No. Did you change your diet? No. Did you have emotional problems with girlfriends or money or something? Nope. Did you move somewhere? And he said, yeah, oh yeah, I did. I moved into this rental. In San Francisco. I bet you know the answer already. And so, I bet you do. And so five minutes had gone by so far. And so then, I said was the date on that? And I said, well that’s around the time you said you started gradually feeling worse and worse. And I said Do you feel better when you go camping? And he said, yeah, I do as a matter of fact. I said, do you have stains on your wall or buckling of the paint? Said yes, and I said was there a water leak? And he said oh, I don’t know and I said well staining and buckling means there’s a water leak you have mold toxicity. You need to get out of the house now and never go back And then we’ll start the long journey to wellness. You’ve got mycotoxin sickness illness and it’s a long journey out because you’ve been in that place for two years. At the end of a year, he was always getting better, but at the end of the year, he pronounced that this is the best he ever felt in his whole life because he had changed his diet. He had done all these things. And so in a way I said to him, I said, Wyatt, this disaster was the biggest blessing because people don’t want to change what they eat or what they do unless they have no choice. And you had no choice. You were stripped. You were a mess. You couldn’t do your job. You couldn’t run a company anymore. And so you were so desperate. You did everything I said. And if I told you to eat rocks, you would have rocks or frogs or whatever. And I said, regard this as a blessing. And here’s my motto. And you can apply it to yourself. Never waste a bad experience.
Tom: 23:37
Mm, absolutely. Yeah. that’s great advice, especially in business because every experience is a great learning experience, even though it might suck at the time that you go through it. So tell us a little bit about your book.
Erica Elliott: 23:48
Okay this book the first half It goes through my time at this very progressive college, and in Germany, I didn’t know about the ins and outs of the colleges. They all sounded the same to me, and so my advisor said, just go to where your parents went if you can’t make a choice. And I said, well, my mother graduated from the University of Zurich. I’m not going to go there and my father from Harvard and I don’t want to go there and so anyway, when back in the days when hitchhiking was okay for totally okay and safe and nobody got murdered or anything. I would hitchhike around in the summer in state youth hostels. And I remember a few times meeting these very unusual people who dress kind of in an unusual way. Because I didn’t know about hippies in the United States. I didn’t know anything about it. And so I thought, wow, they’re kind of unusual and they’re playing instruments. And when I talked to them, they were so knowledgeable about world politics. They knew I lived in Europe and they knew more about where I lived than I did. And they were so smart and eccentric. And so I told that the college counselor, the American college counselor, that I’d made up my mind I was going to go to this place where those people went, called Antioch College. And she gasped and she said, that’s no place for a nice, smart girl like you. And I said, why? And she said, because they demonstrate against the government, the war in Vietnam. And I said, what’s wrong with that. Well, they, and another thing, they have mixed dorms. Men and women in the same dorm. There’s no other college that does that. And I said, well, what’s wrong with that? My brothers live in the same house as I do. It’s not a problem. And then she said, well, the real problem. They smoke this thing called Meju. I said, what? And she, I said, what’s that? And she said, it’s a plant that makes you crazy. And so I said, well, it sounds interesting, but when I went there. It was a terrible culture because I didn’t know anything about how to talk like the hippie talk. I didn’t know their language. I didn’t dress like that. It was so shocking to me, but I had a little conversation with myself and I said, okay, you probably made a big mistake coming here, but we’re going to try and fit in. So I bought The kind clothes they wore. Got rid of my mini skirt and all that stuff and my little heels and stuff. And I learned to I’m linguistically oriented I moved around all my life. So I speak multiple languages. So I thought I can learn this language too. Like, When the driver and the van picked me up from the airport, one of his first questions is, have you ever dropped I dropped acid. I said, well, I don’t think so. Maybe in chemistry class. So, I couldn’t understand them at all. and things like that. Yeah, groovy. And I was trying so hard to fit in, because that’s how I survived moving around in Europe. I looked like the people I was with. I acted so I would fit in. And so I did the same. And I tried drugs. And I wasn’t cut out drugs at all. Pretty soon I became psychotic and my roommate had sex all night. So I was sleep deprived. And so I had a breakdown. I actually had a suicide and they forced me to see a psychiatrist. In those days, only psychotic people and schizophrenics saw psychiatrists or people in mental hospitals. So this, I was so ashamed.
Tom: 27:04
Wow.
Erica Elliott: 27:04
And And at first I wouldn’t speak to psychiatrists cause I would just cry and look at the floor cause I was so full of shame that I came to this to see a psychiatrist. So he talked a little bit about himself while I just sat there and cried. And he told me that he was the first black psychiatrist to graduate from. The University of Zurich in Switzerland where my mother graduated from. So, whoa, that got my attention. And then he kept asking me questions and I wouldn’t answer. So he went to the door and opened it and said, you can leave now because you’re not participating in your care. I’m forced to see you because otherwise they’re going to tell my parents and kick me out. And he said, well, you can work that out. And then I said, well, if I talk, can I stay? And he said, yes. And he came back and sat in the seat and man, did I talk. And that’s the first time in my life that I had been seen and heard and treated with the deepest respect. I mean, he saved my life. I mean, he helped me find out who I am and not by telling me what to do or giving me pills. He just held that sacred space for me and I could figure out my own problems. And the only time he spoke was to sort of set me free. When I was really off target, like he’d say, now tell me again, why do you think you’re stupid? And so I, then I’d say all these reasons. And he said, well, how come all your professors and teachers say you’re brilliant? And I’d say, Well, I fooled them. And he tried not to laugh and he’d say that’s quite a thing. You can fool these very educated people. I mean, he helped me understand all the false conceptions. I had my harsh upbringing, very harsh upbringing. And, but I reconciled with that. I was the first person in my family to say, I love you. That’s how our family was. We were, it was harsh. And so I broke free of that. I still love them, but I wasn’t going to participate in that kind of behavior. And that’s when I learned to really appreciate myself and realize I’m really a good person. I’m not the person I thought I was at all. And so it talks about that in the book and going through my early life. That’s the first half of the book. The second half is that 10 year journey. Which is very exciting to finding you know, my true purpose in life. And it’ll take the reader through all sorts of adventures. But the adventures were all symbolic. So some people, especially guys, I’m not stereotyping, but they say they love the book. Because of all the climbing and avalanche stories and getting, teaching for Outward Bound, but those, they, I’m not sure they got it, but these were lessons for me. This is what, it’s not, look at me, and you know, I’m doing this and that, and I’m the first American woman to climb the highest mountain in the Western Hemisphere, Aconcagua. It was all, I was learning life lessons. Those, it was profound life lessons.
Tom: 29:49
Amazing. And what way to kind of put it all together in a nice book as well and share that with the world and share your expertise as well. Our time, unfortunately, is up today. I could go on for hours, I think, talking with you. So fascinating your career and your life. And I’m just so glad that you’re here and helping so many people find out their problems that nobody else can kind of figure out. So thank you for that gift that you’re giving people and thank you for showing up today.
Erica Elliott: 30:16
Thank you very much. I appreciate it.
Tom: 30:18
Thank you. All right, listeners, thank you for joining in for today’s episode as well. I appreciate it. I know Dr. Elliott appreciates it as well. So please make sure that you are checking out everything that she’s doing. We’re going to put a link to her book in the show notes as well. So if you check that out, grab it over at Amazon. And and also if you could do me a favor and give us a rating and review on the podcast application of your choice, it really does help spread the word about the show and help other people get the help that they need building a heart-led business. So until next time lead with your heart. Awesome.
Speaker: 30:52
You’ve been listening to the heart-led Business Show, hosted by Tom Jackobs. Join us next time for another inspiring journey into the heart of business.
