The following blog wasn’t planned… It’s actually from an email I wrote to a successful author, podcaster, musician, and musician gig promotions trainer, Cathy Heller. I was listening to her book on Audible and heard her share about her struggle to finding her passion of doing music. She created her way to making a very large income through unforeseen circumstances. You should definitely order her book if you haven’t yet here. I posted about it on social and she wrote me asking me to share my story and my brother’s (he’s a big YouTube musician). So here is a brief version of our story below.
We grew up in a very musical family. Mom had a full ride vocal scholarship and offer for full ride MS at Carnegie Mellon but had to turn it down because of the distance and raising my eldest brother Jason. My middle bro Josh and I are closer in age and sang in high school together. I convinced him to join choir his junior year because I was having so much fun getting to dance and what not. So he auditioned for the top choirs and made it. That was a complete life shift for him…
He was the straight A, AP taking sibling that everyone hates 🤣. He could pick up any instrument and learn it immediately. He was good at pretty much everything. School seemed to come so easily to him. He got burned out though and started really enjoying the musical opportunities of us going on tour and missing class (about 40 days a year).
His senior year this music website became known to us called Tonos I believe. It was a platform you could put your demo up and music managers would listen and if they liked you, they’d reach out to connect with you to book you for events.
Josh had already been accepted to the local university on a close to full-ride scholarship playing trumpet and have good grades. Brandon from Tonos reached out to my brother and asked him if he’d be interested in auditioning for a boyband in Toronto (we grew up near Seattle). He’d have to miss an entire week of school for travels. He got our parent’s approval and finished his AP tests a week early so he could go.
The band thing fizzled out but Brandon became his manager for a few years. Josh moved across the US to open up more opportunities in NY then found his way to Nashville where he’s been for about 15 years.
He really got serious with his music started recording videos on YouTube.
He realized covers of other musicians was really popular and started doing those, and mashups, and also was writing originals but those never got the views (or paid out from ads) that were worth his time. He kept at it though and was getting Gibson guitar’s mailed to him to be featured in his videos and tons of free gear. He even had a song he wrote when the Japan tsunami hit organizing over 50+ YouTuber musicians audio/video called ” We Pray For You.” He was interviewed on national news for his contributions. He was really enjoying the growth and also the option to be the introvert he really is without having to do too many live shows.
He got married and they had my niece Violet. When she was almost 2 that’s when things in business went a little dormant. V was starting to walk and her mama noticed she was having trouble one day which was weird. They took her to get checked out and did test after test. They ended up having her at NICU for like 3 or 4 weeks not knowing if she’d survive. Josh stopped everything to make sure he was with her as much as possible.
He and my sis-in-law took shifts of being at home with his eldest step-daughter and being at the hospital. Finally they were able take V home and had a Pic line in her to put the medicine for quite some time. They still don’t know how she got sick and was losing her mobility, but she’s doing well now.
Josh started to do music again but it wasn’t at the same momentum because he didn’t want to miss any moments with V. He really is the best dad in the world. I say that because our dad was a provider but not present. Our dad was depressed working long hours, was in a sales job that didn’t pay well, and he also worked nights so he was tired when he wasn’t working. He gave his best which he thought was to be the financial provider. Josh chose to be different with his family ❤️. He chose to be there emotionally as well.
He started getting into Minecraft parodies and shooting videos with V to help get her confident in front of the camera. They started their own YouTube channel and some of her videos have over a million views (V&ME).
In 2016 we found out our father had cancer again and right around that time Josh and his wife weren’t doing too well. He flew home to dad’s funeral and chatted with me about it but said he wanted to work things out with her and try and keep his family together.
I think losing our father was a pivotal moment for both of us. Although I went a completely different route after high school, doing the college thing and became a health and fitness teacher (thinking I’d be teaching dance all day long 😂). When I realized that wasn’t happening and there were no jobs in my field, I went back and got my MS paid for (praise God) by teaching step aerobics at Oregon State University! I knew the job market was terrible so I decided to get a MS in psychology to open up opportunities for me…
The economy was still kinda sucky but I had a guaranteed job to come back to teaching health and fitness part time when I graduated. Except I got laid off again. I applied to over 500 jobs that summer and not one single interview or call for one or even an email saying thanks but no thanks. It wasn’t until 2 days before the school year started that I got a call from the school district that had laid me off saying they had a small budget and wanted to see if I wanted to teach even less part-time as before. I didn’t have any other options so I agreed. I then took a few other jobs to supplement my income needs (5 total).
I thought to myself this is nuts. 5 jobs? With a Masters degree? There has GOT to be something better than this. So I started praying…
The following January I was called by the United States Army Wellness Department to see if I’d be interested in interviewing for a Health Educator Position at the local military installation as a civilian. It would be a contractor position, 1 year, non continuing. It would be a research based position helping soldiers, their spouses and veterans incorporate the 5 pillars of health, lose weight, have improved body fat levels, better sleep, lower stress, and what not. I did not apply for this position. I think they found my information because I had gotten certified through the American College of Sports Medicine as a group fitness instructor (since that’s the fitness guidelines they wanted us to use). In any case, I was selected to be a part of the pilot program and now there are over 100 locations world wide at most army and air force bases and posts. Pretty neat opportunity.
When that opportunity ended, I looked into teaching again. My then fiance’ at the time and I had moved a few times and it screwed up my seniority for being hired. They were laying off teachers with 5 years or less experience and if you moved districts you were at 0 years experience regardless of your actual number of years. Kind of bonkers, but none the less, I substitute taught until I was hired as a late hire at a high school.
They had over crowded classes and I offered to help out half days. I also took a job coaching middle school cross country (I love to run and figured coaching couldn’t be that hard), then later track and volley ball middle school coaching at other schools. The high school job ended up being one of the most stressful jobs of my life with no support from leadership and helped me realize I am not meant to teach all grades 😂. At the end of the school year we parted ways. Coaching was great but they only hired teachers that worked in the district so that was out the door too darn it.
“What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”
Anonymous
I had been introduced that same year to the idea of getting into business. I started going to their trainings and making friends and thought I might have found a forever home. I started dreaming again. I couldn’t remember the last time I had dreamed. My fiance’ and I had just gotten married and he didn’t really support me getting into this venture. He didn’t ever really support me (since I worked 5 jobs with him standing by). His exact words to the lady on the phone that ran the business I was considering joining were, “we just don’t have the income to get started in this venture.” He got a check for $26k every year from mommy and daddy for breathing and I never asked for a penny of it. I commuted to and from Oregon and Washington every week to help him when he decided to co-parent 50/50 during my graduate school experience and never once asked for a penny of support.
I called the lady a few days later and said can you help me get started?
Within 5 weeks I earned my investment back, got a few promotions, and started the process of evaluating my life and happiness. I gathered the finances and confidence to walk away from a relationship that had been splitting for quite some time.
I used that year of the separation process to heal, and to figure out what I was going to do with my life. I watched a webinar on how to get a book written and self published and decided I was going to do that. I shared affirmations I had been writing and stories to inspire related to the affirmations.
I had a few odd jobs to cover bills and finally found my calling. I saw an ad for a job at the local psychiatric hospital as a recreation specialist. I’d be leading active treatment groups for patients and helping them work on transitioning back into society. The same time I interviewed for the job was the same time we found out dad’s cancer had returned after 19 years.
I was offered the job 7 weeks later. On my 3rd day on the floor with my patients my father passed away.
The patients and staff were the most compassionate people I had ever met. I hadn’t accrued time off since I was so new but my manager said if I needed to take time off to grieve I could. I didn’t take much time off because I really enjoyed being with the patients and staff.
My colleague encouraged me to share with the patients what had happened and one of the patients had lost his wife to cancer so he and I bonded. Word had spread around what had happened. The following weeks I’d received cards, drawings, and fist bumps from the patients asking me how I was doing and that they were thinking of me.
Their kindness compelled me to want to give back to them above and beyond the job requirements. So I started observing what groups were being offered to the patients and if I could provide something with the skills I had I was ready.
I found out there was a fitness group led by two ladies. They didn’t have a background in fitness but had occupational therapy tech backgrounds. They both were well intentioned but I think the years they spent working at the hospital burned them out. They played the same yoga dvd on Tuesdays and Thursdays and the same walking DVD on Mondays/Wednesdays/Fridays. So the patients had 2 workouts for 16 weeks. . . .
I don’t know about you, but if I had been a patient in that group, I would have complained of boredom. I didn’t want to step on anyone’s toes but I knew I could do better for the patients that were so kind to me.
So I checked with my manager, Sue, and let her know about my background and that I wanted to create a program for the patients that provided a variety of exercises for the whole body and an environment that helped encourage them to enjoy the experience (with the belief that if they have fun with it, they’ll want to be fit when they get discharged from the hospital).
Sue was very supportive and kind during this time with my dad’s recent passing and didn’t want to discourage me from doing something for the patients but she had been working there for 30 years and told me, “the patients just don’t like to exercise. I don’t mind if you want to create something for them, but don’t feel obligated because they probably won’t participate anyway. I don’t mean to be negative, I’ve just been around here a long time and have seen their lack of interest in exercise.”
I said, “with all due respect, the ladies leading the fitness group don’t have the 12 years of fitness teaching experience that I do, nor the experience working with the military that I do, nor the curriculum development that I was required to have because of a lack of budgets in the school system. I believe I can create something that the patients will not only enjoy, but will want to take with them when they leave the hospital.”
Sue said, “okay but we don’t have a budget for equipment. We have $100 a month to split between the staff.” (15 of us).
I responded, “no problem, I’ll create a program that combines a therapeutic component with minimal equipment fitness because they probably don’t have much of a budget when they get discharged either.”
So I went to work researching on what programs were available already online combining journaling, and group therapy with fitness. I could not find anything. I am really passionate about positive psychology and happiness being the precursor to success so I did research on that with the end goal in mind of moving the patients (and myself) towards happiness by the end of the 16 weeks.
I broke down the components of happiness into different weekly topics and provided the content to some of the staff that agreed to review my program. My colleague and licensed mental health therapist agreed to co-lead the group with me and provide her insights.
Before implementing the program some of the feedback from one of the head psychologists was, “how are you going to measure their happiness and fitness to know if your program worked?” This was great feedback so I looked online to see if there were any questionnaires I could use as ways to measure pre-mid-post results. All questionnaires available were either multiple pages that no one has time to fill out, or you had to pay to see what the questionnaire even looked like. We needed something simple so the patients didn’t feel like I was making them guinea pigs. So I created my own simple 1 page questionnaires for the happiness and 1 page for the fitness.
Sue said I had to name the group so the patients and staff could review it when it came time to select their groups for the next semester. I almost called it run happy, but I didn’t want them to think it was only about running. The whole purpose was to get them and myself moving more. So I decided to call it Move Happy.
Not only did we have the group full before the semester started, Sue had to move us to a larger room after we ran the group the first time because of the enjoyment of the first group of patients that experienced it. ❤️
We got to run it a total of 3 times and I got enough positive feedback and revision ideas to make it the best version by the time I had been offered a promotion within the hospital. I was training for the new job half days and running morning groups the other part of the day. I had to get the group covered for a few weeks during my training for my new job role.
The person that covered was one of the ladies that ran the fitness group when I first started at the hospital; the yoga/walking group.
She stopped me in the hall one day and said, “Erin I have to tell you, I love your group. The patients know exactly what to do, so and so writes the journal prompt number on the board to help the other patients find the page, they all are really engaged and it’s so easy to run. I really enjoy the workouts too because I’m too tired outside of work to find time to exercise. I’ll cover for you anyday.”
That told me it was duplicable …. but I still wasn’t convinced I needed to share it quite yet…
It wasn’t until one of my patients, the one that lost his wife to cancer, stopped me and said “Erin, I will see this on TV one day. You need to share this with others.” – He is a retired Marine and former high level executive in charge of like 200+ people. He didn’t have time for bs and knew I wouldn’t share it without enough convincing. He was in the program the 1st round and 3rd round and could see the progress of the program…
So I decided to package the program, get the brand trademarked and start sharing the story. I didn’t know how to market besides post on social media and started following marketing guru’s like Gary Vaynerchuck and listening to other people’s webinars and what not online.
The promotion at the hospital was taken away when the state lost funding (over 60 people lost their jobs that day). I was offered my role back in the department that was amazing during the passing of my father. However, the pay wasn’t enough to cover the expenses from my divorce legal fees. I also had gotten engaged that year (kinda cray 😜 I know) and the guy turned into being a violent person that I had to get away from. The patients were asking me everyday how the wedding plans were, but I was planning my escape and didn’t want to talk about it as it was embarrassing and extremely painful… So I had to find another job for emotional and financial reasons….
I took a job in sales and moved into my new place. My brother reached out and said they were getting divorced and moving to his own place. My manager was like a shark and threatened our team almost daily. He’s say things like, “if we didn’t meet our numbers corporate will just fire you.” He liked me because I was always doing above and beyond, but I couldn’t stand that kind of environment. So I told my brother if he needed support to let me know and I’d move.
We both needed fresh starts so I started packing. I looked for remote work so I could move without missing a day’s pay. I started working for this weight loss tech company as a health coach (like I did when I worked with the military). I got rid of a lot of my stuff and shipped the rest.
I connected with a power couple, Lynne and Victor Brick, whom started a mental health foundation to fund research in regards to people with mental illness and alternative health methods like meditation, exercise and what not. I emailed them from a flyer I found at one of their gyms in Washington, and told them my story of Move Happy.
Victor’s brother called me the next day as the head of their board. He said we’d love to meet you in person and see if there’s a way we can support one another’s passions. They were opening another location and were having a grand opening in Seattle. I met Victor and Lynne very briefly on a break from work and had about 15 seconds to chat with Victor as he had the Mayor of Seattle and other big important people there…
I was so nervous (he and his wife owned over 60 clubs at this point and he’s been a keynote speaker in over 25 countries and on the board of every fitness organization in the USA). I told him what I created for my patients and that I wanted to make something for them that didn’t cost them anything because they didn’t have any money and neither did the hospital. He said they’d support me and gave me his number to chat details later. 😱
Then I moved and started making the transition in the new city with the new remote job and figuring out how to grow the brand and my mission. I started posting daily content on social media, write a weekly blog, worked the day job, and spent time with my brother and my niece whenever she was in town. We’d do silly songs together, dance in the kitchen and enjoy board games like when we were kids. Josh encouraged me to get back into singing and we recorded a few songs between work and play.
I launched the podcast this last april or so and before I even aired my first episode had 6 months worth of completed interviews with amazing guests like celebrity stylists, body language experts, Chief Medical Officers, actors/models, military leaders, CEOs of billion dollar companies, and more. I even got it on iTunes a couple weeks ago! Just search “Move Happy Movement” and it’ll have this:
Right before I moved I had this vision. It was right around the time I quit the sales job and was in a very very dark place. I had just gotten out of this scary relationship, mega broke, but had this great program I created for my patients. I knew there was a reason for working at the hospital and how much positive change I had impacted there in such a short amount of time. I asked myself why was I placed there and why did I have to leave? Why did I have to experience so much joy yet not be able to stay because of the emotional and financial reasons?
It became so clear in that moment that I had to have that experience in order to see how much need there is for love and kindness to people with mental illness, especially those with depression world wide. Depression is the leading illness worldwide according to the World Health Organization. I had this vision that I could help those with depression feel loved and welcomed. I had this vision that I’d hold this event with musicians and speakers and lives would be transformed. It would be held in different places every year to connect the world. I reached out to a few musician friends that I thought might want to be a part of it back in 2017. I told them it would launch in 2020. It became clear that I had to leave the hospital in order to be able to impact even more lives than the ones that were there.
Today I just announced my first guest speaker, Gaia Ferriera who will be flying in from Ireland for the event 💜. It costs about $12k to rent the Ryman Auditorium here in Nashville for the evening. She said she’ll donate 30% of her 2 day coaching offer to help contribute to the event and 10% of anything else in her store. I’m absolutely blown away at her generosity. She has over 3500 hours of coaching experience including working with Tony Robbins Team. Oh and she also helped me enhance my book back when I was going through my divorce.
Book your tickets now before they sell out here for only $49 regular seating and $497 VIP and only $4,997 back stage access and 1 year VIP membership access to Move Happy exclusive offers. All proceeds go towards funding the event and mental health research through the John W Brick Foundation.
I am not where I want to be yet with the business but am really enjoying the journey! I quit the day job last month so I can be more selective with my time for the business, have space to be creative, and enjoy every minute of life. It was an overall great experience working in the tech space, but I believe I’ve been called for something greater than working for someone else’s dream.
If you’re on the fence about leaving your day job, I highly recommend doing some soul searching for what it is that truly makes you happy. For me it’s always been a combination of teaching, music, and bringing others together. Those are my genius zone skills. I don’t have to think about it, most of it comes naturally.
Find something that you enjoy so much that you lose track of time when you’re doing it. That my friends is what you are meant to be doing. If you’re still not sure, maybe you need to go out and explore different activities to find out what you enjoy. 😉
I’d love to hear from you if you have questions or want to set up a complimentary consult to help launch you in the direction of your dreams. Email me subject line “I want to quit my day job.”
Thanks for reading. If you found any value in this, I’d be honored if you’d share it with a friend or family member.
PS: Don’t forget to tell someone you love them today
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