Have you ever heard of the saying, honesty is the best policy? Where did it come from? I just did a quick Internet search and found a few people that coined the term in the last few hundred years in my native language. The first one that popped up was Benjamin Franklin, however someone that was born prior to him said this: “Honesty is the best policy” is a proverb of Edwin Sandys (died 1629), while the quote “Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom” is attributed to Thomas Jefferson, as used in a letter to Nathaniel Macon. April 30 is national Honesty Day in the United States” (Sourced from asking search bar “where did the saying honesty is the best policy first originate” and Wikipedia said this). There are probably 1000s of more great leaders from all Nationalities and Centuries dating back many many years that emphasize the importance of honesty within their homes, neighborhoods, cities/counties, countries, and continents that history does not even have ways of keeping records of other than through storytelling from the older generation to the younger ones. The following blog is all about the importance of honesty, the different levels of honesty, and some top recommendations from thought leaders in a variety of domains. If you read all the way to the end (or skim to the end if you’re super busy 😉), you’ll see something special from my family to yours.
#1 Reason Honesty Is The Best Policy: Leaders Depend On Follow Through From Teammates, Subordinates, Children, Students, Citizens
We had the honor of hearing from Lieutenant Colonel Oakland McCulloch last year (2021) on the Move Happy Movement Podcast©️ and learned about his origin story and a bit of his family background. There were so many aligned symmetries within our upbringings and the maternal side of my upbringing (mid-west raised 🙌). We learned about his passion and growth abilities in the military as well as his ability to grow teams in the nonprofit sector for food banks from his book: Your Leadership Legacy Becoming The Leader You Were Meant To Be.
In 2022 we were in the process of expanding our nonprofit arm’s (Erin Nicole Ministries) reach and finding a bridge to connect Move Happy®️’s pillars (Mindset-Community-Fitness) to help improve the treatment of people and patients with depression through a newly developed alternative therapy (in process) for those that lean towards the entertainment space as their mode of healing. This was divinely inspired and called Real Entertainment Therapy Experience®️ respectively. Our population goal to help improve treatment of was for our Veterans and First Responders as they are the most sensitive population in the world in regards to depression and suicidal ideations.
In the United States, the literature continues to demonstrate Veterans and First Responders are 10x more likely to contemplate or complete the deed of suicide compared to average American Citizens because of a variety of factors including chronic stress and legal barriers that prevent them from openly speaking about their mental health struggles. Some states have better mental health support services than others. For more info on the research feel free to pop on over to our nonprofit arm here or check out any internet search results for ‘what career industry is most ask risk for suicidal ideation/PTSD?’
We were looking for a variety of leaders this year to be considered “Edutainers” either speaking and/or performing through educational entertainment using their own creation of information and the arts in an online recorded experience. Our intention was shared publicly earlier this year and we had successfully hosted the first version in February with a variety of leaders. Unfortunately we experienced some cyber attacks from professional hackers as soon as I began sharing publicly about the experience. It was to be expected as my husband had advised me this would happen if I continued the desire to make a global impact on such a sensitive subject. However what does not kill us makes us stronger.
Initially we were planning to have 4 Real Entertainment Therapy Experience®️ (RETE®️ for short) live events this year but one of our Edutainers either was reached out to and stepped back because of coercion or was remotely hacked into and never received our message. Either way it made the experience even better aligned with the 3 pillars of Move Happy®️ with 2 done and 1 to go later this year (pending political parties play nice and learn to work together like your parents, grandparents, teachers, and other influencer leaders have raised you to be – its up to us all daily to decide whether we’re going to play nice or keep our mouth shut (I’m also speaking to myself as I’ve got a lot to learn in regards to mission-driven business purpose and execution 😉 and balancing emotions as I am a woman with a BIG HEART)).
We’re grateful LTC Oakland McCulloch stepped up to the plate for our RETE®️ 2.0 version in August with the focus of “Community” and did excellent research on a topic that wasn’t in his comfort zone, moved his work schedule around, and adjusted his time with his family to be able to be included as one of our Edutainers. He spoke about the statistics regarding suicidal awareness for first responders and veterans and even added some bonus materials from the medical perspective from his wife’s career background. If you haven’t had a chance to listen to his Edutainment (just made up that word 😂) check it out here (YouTube Video (his speech begins at: 49:06 with my intro of him, or its also available on iTunes, podbean, listen notes, iheartradio, maybe more people in the background are helping me with tech as its not my forte❤️.)
I cut out the extra part at the beginning of the podcast recording that was ‘behind the scenes’ as we were waiting in the greenroom on zoom together and some weird things happened that weren’t relevant at the time to load up on the Move Happy Movement Podcast©️ platform. My spidey senses were off about something but in the middle of a live entertainment performance the old adage is true, the show must go on. However after experiencing remote digital attack a few hours later where our nonprofit email account had been locked up, our podcast website was locked up, and we weren’t able to reach out to some top level leaders in National Security that have been paid to be on National News many times through Twitter and Linkedin, we decided to release an uncut version on the YouTube channel that has zero edits from us.
We cannot guarantee that some evil tech people don’t go in and change people’s speeches around through technically advanced software in the future but as of last week, the author of this blog and Founder of Move Happy®️, Erin Nicole Ministries, and Erin Nicole Media®️ reviewed it with her own ears to inspect it as too many weird technical felonies had been committed against her on-going since 2020 and she (meaning me 😉 has received enough of them and heightened awareness of what to lookout for to now report them more frequently as they occur. Additionally she’s keep copious handwritten notes as a lot of government entities were hacked into in 2020 in the United States and Globally and sending those notes to various parties as copies incase she disappears off the grid or off the planet. Hey anything can happen but at least we’re trying to take a stand for something we believe in our heart is the right thing to do for society as a whole within our powers.
My family (my husband and I) desire to help protect our businesses as best as possible despite having to move 4x this year alone due to a variety of reasons outside of our choices or control as we believe political leaders okayed professional hackers remotely to personify as my husband and myself to cause confusion and National Security Concerns. Additionally we have reason to believe one of our Board Members was coerced to find our whereabouts otherwise her Active Duty Status would be revoked. We have been forced to live separately, I was forced to get a remote job then was bullied in that workplace and chose to change career paths to try HVAC sales and was sexually harassed and discriminated in the workplace for sharing about my mental health depression diagnosis to help build bridges. Instead of helping support me as a female employee in a male dominated space, I was forced on a mental health administrative leave and threatened by the day job’s HR person that she was going to get a Lawyer for our meeting when I never wanted to even bring up any issues of sexual harassment in the first place. A man that I worked with encouraged me to speak up because he said he’d kill anyone that did that to his wife (metaphorically) to encourage me to raise my standards in the workplace and sadly I listened to him and it went terribly wrong for me. However, I have recordings of all of the HR calls and copies of the emails should they choose to say anything bad about my name or my brand in the future. My husband and I choose to live in harmony as best as possible wherever our lives take us.
My husband and I never would have had to deal with any of this if top government leaders would work together and not try and destroy our businesses and personal lives. To say it’s been a tough year, would be an understatement. Nonetheless, resiliency coaches as yours truly claims to be, are challenged at the highest level to see how much they can take the heat and keep moving through the storm.
My husband and I are looking forward to meeting at some point with top level leaders and the person that took the payment to destroy my life initially and hear him apologize and demonstrate to him true forgiveness from The Creator. Even though he was continually paid out to steal from me prior to getting married and has chosen to continue the payouts to steal from my intellectual properties remotely (which is a Felony and Prison Sentence for anyone in the United States of America), and caused my husband and myself to be separated during our 1st year of marriage, we desire to create peace and move forward. We look forward to publicly displaying forgiveness to him for his choices in exchange for a public apology in the presence of our top level leaders of the United States from both political parties. We desire to bring peace and love to all faith systems, all genders, ages, and various humans that live in the USA and beyond. Additionally we desire to add streams of revenue that will help all humans living in the United States that desire to work be able to through our HOPE Act.
Leaders depend on follow through both from the bottom top and top to bottom in business, family, military, medical, and recreational settings. They all intersect because we’re all connected as humans. Thanks LTC Oakland McCulloch for being an outstanding example of servant leadership!
#2 Reason Honesty Is The Best Policy: It Uplevels Your Business Opportunities And Expands Your Reach As A Leader
Another one of our Edutainers from August 18th’s RETE®️ 2.0 was a Move Happy Movement Podcast©️ guest in the early timeframe of the launch of the show. Lee Cockerell, recently retired Head of Disney Hotels showed up and gave a spectacular speech tying in all the other edutainers points and actually stayed the entire time until his speech concluded towards the end right before my original music set.
As a woman with diagnosed depression that’s learning how to grow a brand, a 1st grader when it comes to smart technologies, and only been sharing about Move Happy®️ and depression – mental health advocacy – seriously since 2018, this blew me away. I literally jumped a foot in my work vehicle in the air when I took one of my only 10-min breaks in the 60 ish days I worked in HVAC sales this year.
I had experienced remote hacking so bad during my move from my roommates home to a temporary address while I waited for housing availability. I had to get a new phone and log into all the accounts again and change all the passwords and take a few trips to the tech stores to get help as the cloud technologies weren’t uploading my information and whatnot while also trying to not take time off of the day job to be respectful of the company’s time. I had emailed, DM’d, and texted Lee but hadn’t heard back and wasn’t sure if his tech was being remotely blocked from me or if he was just busy. When I left him the voicemail of the ivy league professor that’s interested in supporting our white paper research and planning to be a part at some point with our RETE®️ experiences, he called me within minutes of leaving the voicemail!! Its the truth and even if people coerce professors and tell lies about me, I’ll go to the grave knowing the truth that a recently Retired Chief in the Military sent the professor’s connection to me last year during the beginning launch phase of the ENM momentum and I followed up with this professor to invite her to be an audience member as I had not seen her show up yet and love bringing people together. She not only wrote me back but she SENT ME A COPY OF HER RESILIENCY BOOK FOR VETERANS ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️.
Don’t let anyone tell you you can’t make things happen if The Creator of The Universe Desires For Your Path To Be So. Keep it humble and what I’ve learned through these ‘professional hackings ‘ from top level government leaders technical teams is to not post about it until after its happened. Which is sad because how does a low income entrepreneur that’s trying to make it in business and change the world 🌎 market her events and create momentum if every time she shares any good news, people remotely hack in and steal her information or reach out to her network and lie about her reputation to get them to be disinterested? That’s where my husband comes in and his family don’t like it when his wife is being disrespected. Play nice, keep it inclusive, and keep The Creator at the forefront of every decision both in the home and out of the home.
We expected 1% of the invitation list to show up but sadly the people that said they would send the emails didn’t follow through or the powers that be blocked their supportive decisions. The amount of time I had to orchestrate this RETE®️2.0 experience was around a few hours and $25 donated. Although I am proud of my accomplishments in the parameters, I desired for a larger audience size and for more support from people that supposedly care about Veterans and First Responders and Mental Health to follow through.
What I learned is that people like Lee Cockerell and the other attendees do follow through with their word, and will forever receive edification and promotions of their brands and interests for as long as they remain in mission alignment. If you’re reading this and you’re looking for an opportunity to work with any hotel chain or any entertainment brand I strongly recommend you reach out to Lee Cockerell’s team and send his family your budget, goals and intentions. He donated his time for this history making experience and my family would like to make sure he knows we’ll never forget his kindness. You can check out his speech beginning with my intro here (1 hour 18 min 07 sec).
#3 Reason Honesty Is The Best Policy: It Allows For Your Heart To Heal Through Radical Transparency Opening Up Greater Love, Greater Revenue, Greater Relationships, and Greater Resilience
It takes guts to be honest. It takes courage to speak from your heart and stand up for yourself or admit you’ve made a mistake. I first learned about radical transparency back in 2016 when I was nearing the end of my divorce process to my first husband. One of my mentors in a direct sales business texted me a link to Tony Robbin’s YouTube video. I never shared it with her publicly but I was internally moved by her authentic speech at a training that the public was invited to where she spoke about the challenging time in the economy and how it forced her into immobility and she felt like she was breathing through a straw. She spoke on the power of verbalizing affirmations and even gave us a handout of affirmations to speak aloud the first time I heard her speak. I started showing up weekly to those meetings because I had experienced working 5 part-time jobs simultaneously a few years before that after getting my masters degree but there were no full-time jobs available. When she spoke I began to heal within my spirit and leaned into her teachings. Less than a year later she texted me on an extremely tough day for me a link to one of his popular videos on taking action to help move you to the direction you desire for your life. I began absorbing his content on my commute to work a few months later when I began working at the psychiatric hospital where Move Happy®️ was first birthed.
Tony and many other thought leaders became my Drive Time University during my 40-ish minute commute to the hospital and in between Lyft/Uber customers after work hours as I had to wait 30 days for my first paycheck from the state to kick in 🤪. At the time I had an unlimited Framily plan from my friend I met through the same direct sales company that was and is full time Army. The service was spotty in certain areas and didn’t work hardly at all in the cement walls of the hospital during our ‘workout time’ but the patients were understanding that I was broke and provided the best possible customized music to their liking to create a fun experience for them. Shoutout to Sprint for providing me unlimited data without any hidden fees ❤️❤️❤️. I tried to tag them but apparently they got bought out by T-Mobile so shoutout to whoever owns who in 2022 LOL.
One day during Drive Time University I heard one of Tony’s videos about radical transparency and his major emphasis to us to apologize to anyone in our lives that we need to apologize to, reach out to people to offer them an opportunity for closure, and either let go of some relationships that aren’t serving us or rekindle friendships that we miss. It was extremely cathartic and I believe we all should do it on an annual basis to allow our hearts to remain open and allow for deeper level of healing to take place. I’d caution you not to put any of these radical transparency plans in email format at your day job though because unfortunately I tried it at the most recent one with my direct supervisor as I was experiencing major PTSD because of the technical glitches of all of the technology required for the job and the GPS features at times would not work at all because of various reasons including too high of heat and my mind was going back to 2020 when I was off the grid because of a hit put on my life. I did send it in email and CC’d his boss so he knew I was planning to work with him and give him some honest background about what I had gone though to help make it a more cohesive relationship at work. Unfortunately they used that information during the sexual harassment investigation to cover up the harassment and try and change the truth that I was experiencing mental health problems instead of fix the problem at hand. Nonetheless, I would not change anything that I did on my end other than have a short 1-2 sentence email requesting a meeting and verbalizing it in person. My hope for you is that you can learn from my horrible experience in the workplace and continue to work towards opening your heart to people but not ALL people ❤️😉.
Life works for our good, both the good and the otherwise. As soon as I listened to The Creator and let the job go, I began receiving opportunities in paid branding (in process) and am in conversations with joining forces with a mentor I highly respect that I believe The Creator sent to me intentionally aligned with the purpose of helping to empower people with depression globally to find happiness from within. I’m also honored that in only 4 short years of sharing Move Happy®️ outside of the confines of the psychiatric hospital and out in the ‘real world,’ I’ve gotten connected to many people that have worked directly with Tony as coaches and staff members that he’d consider his friends. I haven’t met Tony yet but if I ever get the chance to meet him and Sage I think I’d pee my 👖 😂. It was a vision back in 2020 when I was in safe housing that I would meet him at a round table conversation but we’ll see what The Creator has in store for my future. I’d love to attend his Date With Destiny and Business Mastery experiences one day.
I had applied in 2020 to work for his team when I got stuck in another state unplanned during the pandemic. I didn’t get an interview but he’s got millions of fans all over the world. So I wasn’t mad about it. I don’t really get mad about anything except when my family is being disrespected. I did make a friend that told me he’ll reach out to his rich friends and host a fundraiser to help me because I shared my heart with him about all the things that happened in 2020 and surviving it. He’s been pretty sick lately and has a lot of requests from people I imagine so I told him I’m open to a fair exchange of services because its hard for me to accept gifts without desiring to give something back in return. My dad had me working 2 jobs at 9 years old (paper route and a mouse business). No body gave me handouts growing up so I am learning to unlearn sometimes that its okay to receive gifts but make sure its from money sources that aren’t tied to laundering or felonies things like that. I don’t know all the answers to that stuff I just keep praying that The Creator guides my steps and my husband was helping me a lot when we first got married earlier this year. His family looks after me while he’s on assignment. As for Tony’s friend’s fundraising offer, we’re waiting on a response from him on that and continuing to keep moving forward in the direction The Creator desires for our family.
When you learn to listen to that still small voice in your heart, you learn to have many options and opportunities and ask your deity ‘what direction do you desire for us to go and whom shall we pay more deep attention to today?’ Also another great meditation phrase that I ask my deity when praying solo is ‘what is it that you desire for me to focus on right now?’ when I am getting too focused in the 10,000 foot view of life as a visionary to help me get more mindfully focused in the present and helps me make swifter actions. I’m definitely a work in progress when it comes to praying for BIG Dreams but I’m learning more through various thought leaders like my Pastor, Joel Osteen of Lakewood Church. I haven’t gotten to meet he and Victoria yet but that’s another couple one of my patients encouraged me I’d be speaking on stage alongside when I worked at the psychiatric hospital where Move Happy®️ was first birthed (2016-2017).
#4 Reason Honesty Is The Best Policy: It Keeps It Easy To Remember The Story You Share With Others, It’s Less Stressful On Your Mind, and Protects Your Spiritual Health
Another thought leader I began listening to back when I worked at the psychiatric hospital where Move Happy®️ was first birthed is Joel Osteen. YouTube has this cool AI thing that works when you like a video, it’ll send you similar videos that are somehow related. I don’t get exactly how it works but that’s how I had been first introduced to him during my Drive Time University. I had various touch points of hearing him speak in the YouTube videos and was also subscribed to The Success Magazine as part of The Edge Subscription from the direct sales company I had been a part of that year and the year prior to. I was still considered a toddler when it came to smart technologies at this point so keep that in mind.
My father died my 3rd day with patients. Through the workplace culture of varied ages, races, belief systems, spiritual protection of a lot of people, and a workplace that allowed me to take it a bit easy the first few months as I was being onboarded as a new Active Treatment Recreational Specialist 3 Employee for the State, I was able to create 5 alternative therapy programs (3 group therapy billable to The State) 2 1:1 customized alternative therapies under the direction of Dr. Bryan Hill, and helped the hospital get awarded as the first in the world psychiatric hospital to be included in the International Day of Happiness Happy Wall Event and got featured in The State’s PR emailed out to approximately 119,000 state employees with my face as the leader at about 7 months of employment in this particular role. Additionally, I was invited to interview for a promotion that my boss told me in 30 years no one was ever even interviewed for without a state license in therapy because that’s how they liked to do things there and I not only got interviewed, I got the job.
Towards the end of my 12 months working there, I had built rapport with one of the original patients of the 1st and 3rd round of the 16 week Move Happy Group Therapy Active Treatment co-facilitated with a Licensed Mental Health Therapist. One of those patients is a US Marine Veteran and High Level Executive of Corporate America that worked in the Securities Industry. The 3rd group therapy program I developed was for him to help him transition out back into society mentally because I could see that active treatment group could use an upgrade and my colleague that facilitated it began working towards a promotion in another area and was open to some supportive coverage.
I believe we ended up calling the group “Life Transitions” and utilized my magazine subscription I paid for and I reached out to the President of the Direct Sales Organization that I was associated with because it was their affiliated nonprofit that launched the International Day of Happiness that all calendars in the world acknowledge. I knew the CEO/Founder at the time wasn’t as responsive on his social media because he was running a large organization but his President and respected female colleague had a team of supportive staff that worked in harmony on her social media profile. Her team member Laura helped me get books donated from The Slight Edge to help customize the class without any additional cost to the hospital except photocopies of 3 extra books (with the author’s permission) because they shipped the books before we knew the exact numbers of the group therapy active treatment sign up. Patients had the option to switch out of groups they did not believe were beneficial to their treatment in the first week ish or so (check with the state hospital on exact timeframes as rules change frequently) and they were eager to get us the books to help add value to the hospital. The Slight Edge had been used to coach Realtors, Baseball players, and various industry leaders so I figured it would help adult patients in a psychiatric hospital that desired to work in various fields and/or improve in their mindset to prepare for life back in society. There is even a youth version that they donate and send to schools that request it.
One of the magazine covers from The Success magazine that year was Joel Osteen. I brought it in and we switched every other day reading from the magazine and/or reading from The Slight Edge and having real life transition discussions that the patients desired to discuss to help prepare them for life back in society. I remember vividly my US Marine Veteran patient did NOT like Joel at all at the start 😂. He was very vocal about it in front of everyone and I thought for certain he’d be supportive since he was so kind in the other group.
However, I learned something about myself is that sometimes people say things to challenge you but then they realize their mood was impacted by someone else and said something unkind to you in the moment not really meaning what they said. I responded to him with saying some validating words like they trained us our first week in orientation prior to working with patients. Then I asked his permission to help me look for the nuggets and learn from him and leave out any bad stuff he might not agree with. Some days were easier for him than others as the hospital really wanted to push him back into society but he was waiting on some VA benefits he knew were supposed to be there but weren’t yet. He was smart about waiting to sign paperwork and we grew closer together as respected professionals.
I saw him like a healthy uncle or kind masculine leader even though he was a patient. He walked confidently in the halls and made sure all the women were treated respectfully. He kept a watch out for anyone that wasn’t acting safe from his professional background. During that year I regretfully rushed into love too quickly and when I earned the promotion and worked it for a week and went on vacation, I came back to find out my promotion had been completely halted by state legislators. They decided to vote against mental health and 60 people lost their jobs that day, our high risk hall was closed down and I had to move back to regain teaching my group that I had just said goodbye to.
I wasn’t the same person though because my relationship was not good at all outside of work and our engagement had actually ended. It was a humiliating and painful time in my life. My US Marine Veteran patient could see that I was suffering one day when I apologized to him for trying to pressure him to sign his paperwork. He told me he noticed I wasn’t wearing my ring and asked if I was doing okay? I wasn’t at all. I was trying to maintain the Move Happy Girl brand that had spread so swiftly across the entire campus and helped me earn this promotion that my boss told me wouldn’t ever happen, then I lost it 2 weeks later because of someone outside of the hospital deciding to spend money elsewhere. I wasn’t doing well because it wasn’t safe in my home and we were trying our best to do a 6 month trial separation initially but my fiancé’ at the time decided to change his mind via text message and I couldn’t afford to move out so I was stuck living there with him because I rushed into it for financial reasons in the first place. A lot of the decisions that placed me in the position I was in were my choices but a lot of them also weren’t and I didn’t have the ability to keep an authentic smile anymore. I began showing up late to work, doing lunches in my office by myself and not really eating much anyway, going to 1:1 therapy and couples therapy until the breakup happened and I was honestly depressed.
I decided after a conversation with my brother and lots of deep prayer that it was time to put in my 2 weeks notice at the hospital and look for a job that would pay me more so I could afford to get my own place. It was during this time that my US Marine Veteran patient stopped me between Active Treatment groups and encouraged me. He spoke life into me in that moment and that moment stayed a few years later and has helped me to keep going on really tough days when darkness in the world tries to stop me from my Destined Purpose. He said to me, “Erin I will see you speaking on stage one day alongside Joel Osteen, Tony Robbins, Oprah Winfrey, Ellen Degeneres, all of them. You’re just as capable as them. Don’t you dare give up on this Move Happy®️ program. This is BIGGER than this hospital. I’ll be cheering you on from wherever I end up living.”
He said things like that in different ways a few more times before my last day working at the hospital to encourage me and keep my spirits up. I’m grateful for his kindness and hope to be able to tell him one day. I imagine he sees Move Happy®️ online and is a part of a big surprise one day with Ellen and lots of tears and dancing 💃 and my husband being there too. A girl can dream right? ❤️
That’s been my absolute favorite place to work ever and I didn’t want to leave but I had to for financial and emotional reasons 😩.
I’m happy looking back although I’m crying as I write this out because its real pain and its me being extremely vulnerable with my life choices but as Tony Robbins said, a life full of radical transparency is much more exciting than any robotic life that you make and allow others to live for you. I am trying my best to be intentional with how I live my life in every facet of my being. I am NOT perfect and I’ve got a LOT to learn about every category in life.
Being honest with my story since I left the psychiatric hospital in 2017 has accelerated the growth in an extremely short timeframe since I launched my ‘life coaching business’ originally as “Affirm Queen” in 2017 then switched business names/intentions and focus in 2018. We got the brand logo trademarked, we created social media profiles beyond Facebook on social media, learned social media through working my tail off, learned how to write blogs, learned how to create and host podcast interviews, learned how to have successful in person networking meetings, learned how to have successful online networking meetings, created and executed some business offerings that created sales opportunities for our customers the 1st time we charged for an event, and developed 16 alternative therapies so far since graduate school in 2012. Its been an incredibly fulfilling and challenging decade and we do not intend to stop momentum only shifting our effectiveness to create stronger foundations as a family unit as all of my businesses are our businesses (my husband and I and any future business offerings that may come through The Creator of the Universe). We fully intend to get all of the alternative therapies accredited through The Joint Commission (which is the gold standard for all white paper research in the world), white papered with clinical trials and everything, licensed and available in all Text Books taught in all Universities around the world if The Creator of The Universe desires for it to be so. Its a lifetime legacy mission to help end global suicide that will continue on long after my husband and I are gone. We shoot for the stars with our dreams and vision (I’m the visionary of the family) because if you set small goals, you get small results. If you ask The Creator to help you make more impact in the world, watch what doors will open for you.
My heart isn’t focused on money but I do recognize that it costs money to get things accredited and whatnot. I have been mission driven since I was 14 years old and first read about the 7 habits of highly effective teens. I spent time around grownups and was a paid performer performing for large audiences in high school. I had opportunities to perform for audience sizes in the thousands as early as 5 years old not because my parents forced me to, but because my neighbor down the street asked me if I wanted to sing for the talent show at church. I didn’t now what I was saying yes to and just went for it because I LOVED and STILL LOVE to sing 🎶. I believe I was destined to do something great but do not desire it unless The Creator desires it and my creations will be used to help people with depression globally (not steal from them or use them in weird science experiments). I’ve been facilitating groups since I was 11 years old (25 years) and am at the point where I don’t just desire to sing and perform like I’m a rockstar, I desire to help inspire young people as a role model and create safe spaces for all ages to be entertained, or to entertain others as a means for healing. That’s not all I was designed to do though because when you’re creative, you’re open to multiple avenues to release your creativity. That’s where my husband’s role comes into help keep me focused when my creative side gets me plugged info hours on something and I forgot to eat a meal 😂. You know what I’m talking about if you do what your passionate about.
As a woman with depression, I speak for people like me, but I cannot speak for all people with depression because we’re all human beings and collectively those of us diagnosed with it in the world are approximately 280 million people and many people don’t get the diagnosis in other countries outside of the United States because they do not have the resources in their areas to think about mental health when they have other priorities like clean water to think about and bombs going off. Imagine all the people that have never been diagnosed because their families do not want them to be diagnosed because of stigma. I imagine there are 1 billion people in the world that have some form of a tough season or should be diagnosed with depression/PTSD but maybe haven’t had the proper resources available or are afraid of what people might think. My husband and I believe deeply that there is a Calling on my life and he is teaching me to slow down my rabbit spirit since experiencing professional digital attack in 2020 and prepare a proper foundation for growth.
I cannot wait to be reunited with him. Maybe Joel and Tony can help make that happen. For now, I’m going to continue leaning into the purpose The Creator intends for this year and do my best to be a responsible citizen of the United States and use my areas of strength to help other businesses grow through my super connector skills. I also intend to stay focused on the purpose The Creator intends for me to choose to be kind to every person that I interact with because we don’t know what people are going through and perhaps that’s the last day they plan to walk this earth and because of our kind act, they changed their mind. How impactful would that be for your mood if you knew a person didn’t give up their hope because of what you spoke to them or a kind act you did for them? The world is so isolated right now because of wars and the pandemic. We encourage you to do something, anything positive to be kind to others during this tough time in the world.
#5 Reason Honesty Is The Best Policy: It Creates Super Fans of Your Brand Long After You’ve Passed On
What are some positive experiences from the male leaders in your life that first come to mind right now? One of the male leaders in my life that I learned by example (not so much his words) was from my father. He was pretty depressed most of my childhood and into adulthood. He didn’t verbalize it but I could witness it being a woman with depression. We can see things in our family members and through educational opportunities that help us grow and improve and we desire to help those closest to us that we love.
Our father worked hard to provide for the family and sacrificed his sleep to make sure he was at every concert and gig and sporting event he could make it to. By the time I was 11 he switched jobs to be at home everyday but he worked the night shift in the grocery industry as a vendor for a bread and sweet treats company. I didn’t know how hard he worked until he died. There are 2 specific examples of others helping me to gain perspective on his ability to create super fans for his personal brand for life. The first example was at his funeral in 2016.
People were handed the microphone to say nice things about dad to help us remember the good things on such a difficult day for our family. One family we’ve known since I was born used to tour around Europe as a family of musicians. Their parents were my parent’s parents age and hadn’t spoken to one of their siblings for 20-30 years. During my dad’s last few days on earth he asked them to talk it out and get united as a family again. They spoke at the funeral about how my father helped to bring their family together through his most difficult week on earth (his last week)! I made a decision at his funeral (that was full of people and their stories of how he truly cared about their families) that the rest of my life was going to be intentional so that there would be a large auditorium size of people saying how I helped them in my lifetime be a better human being. Sometimes it takes difficult things in life to snap us back into reality of what’s most important.
The second example of creating super fans for your brand for life came from a regional manager I worked for briefly when I left the psychiatric hospital. During my brief time in this sales role before moving across the country the onboarding interview process was like a month long process. I had interviewed with the regional manager after interviewing with who I thought would be my direct manager and then interviewing with the general manager as my direct manager they decided would be a seasoned manager that was moving back in a few weeks. During the interview time with the regional, he asked me about my father and mother’s work history. He saw my resume and saw how I worked 5 part time jobs simultaneously after graduate school and how I worked at the psych hospital and was promoted but had to leave for personal reasons. When he asked about what dad did he said, I worked that role too before coming to this industry. In fact, he worked for the same company #ThereAreNoCoinsidences . He further explained and edified my father by saying, “Wow I’m impressed he worked 19 years in that role! The average turnover is 2 years for that position because of the wear and tear on the body. You must have an extremely high work ethic if you’re anything like your father.” and he was right! I do have an extremely high obsessively high work ethic and I am learning now in my mid 30s to be more effective with my work ethic and learning to raise my standards of value. That direct boss that ended up moving back to their original area was not the kind of leader that I thrive under and at that same time my family member needed help so I chose to take a $10k/salary+ pay cut and get a remote job, pack up my belongings, get some help from my mom and moved on a Saturday so I wouldn’t miss any work to help my family member transition in life. That regional though told me, “Erin no matter how long you stay with us, keep focused on this mission, I lost 2 brothers to suicide and I believe in what you’re doing.” People just like this have encouraged me so much through the years to keep going because I believe a lot of people have been dealing with it silently and I was called to be the one to get people to start talking more about it and talk about ways to help prevent it from getting that bad in the first place. I’m not the only one, but I certainly was called by The Creator in 2018 and I haven’t stopped going even when they tried to take me out of this world, my husband (whom wasn’t even a boyfriend at this point, kept me safe off the grid and no body knew where I was at. I couldn’t access my technologies and created 8 songs out of nothing 2 of them with him to heal and keep me busy because music brings me joy). The Creator made my life mission clear. What is your life mission?
Know your values and if a company does not allow you to keep your values in the workplace, have conversations to see if you can fix it, and if not, “make like a tree and leaf” as my dad use to always say to us #RealTalk. Keep in mind though that if you tend to go from job to job often and you’re not building bridges in your relationships there or outside of your work hours there are consequences that might look bad and make it more difficult for you to become hirable. If that is the case, the HOPE Act might be something that could help you with as an entrepreneur or aspiring entrepreneur.
The HOPE Act is something that my husband and I have developed and intend to speak to top level leaders about in regards to helping to elevate the revenue in the United States, help with the homeless population situation by creating jobs for all able and willing, and works in cohesion with the Global Mental Health Ambassadorship Nomination. For more details, stay tuned until after that meeting may or may not take place. The Creator is in charge of it all.
If I died tomorrow, not that I’m wishing that on myself or anyone else, but if I did, I believe a lot of people would say I helped them become better people by being kinder to those with depression or going through tough seasons. I think also that there are some people that won’t be sad if I died and I’m okay with that because when you take a stand for something you believe in, not everyone is supposed to like you. We’re all Created for a Purpose and not all of our Purposes are in Cohesion when darkness is present. Darkness and Light are present in us all and its up to us daily to be radically transparent, learn from our mistakes, and celebrate our successes along the journey to remind ourselves on tough days how far we’ve come and to also be examples to the children that are looking up to us as role models whether we desire them to or not.
So there you have it folks. Honesty is the Best Policy. Take it or leave it. And if you decide to be extra honest with me about your opinions, please choose to do so kindly as I’ve been through enough that I don’t need any haterade. The purpose of feedback is to help improve as a human being. If all you say is negative, you’re just releasing trash in the air and where do we put trash? In the garbage where it belongs. Feedback well received that will help me make positive actionable changes in my business and behaviors is from the feedback sandwich (positive-constructive-positive) that I learned from my undergraduate professor Dr. Colleen Hacker. She used to be the USA Women’s Sport Psychologist for the Soccer Team That Took #1st Place in The WORLD and has also worked with the US Para Olympics team members so when she advises, you’d be a fool not to listen 😉 #JustSayin. Btw, I didn’t earn an A in her class because her standards were SO high and my commitments were so BIG being on a vocal scholarship and working part-time but I learned her principles for LIFE.
Perhaps you might get to meet her at one of our events in the future because I’ve focused on edifying her and honoring her for the work she instilled in my time studying at PLU. No promises yet as none of us are guaranteed tomorrow. Just know this, you can take a girl out the hood, but you can’t take the hood out the girl and think she isn’t going to use every possible resource and connection in her entire being to help her reach her Destiny when The Creator of the Universe leads her path. Go ahead and try and block my emails from going through and erase my DMs from social media competitors. You can’t erase 18+ years of relationships I’ve developed and nurtured and you’re certainly preventing your own growth opportunities by concentrating on stealing from me. The Creator of the Universe uses All things (the good and the bad) to help us reach our desired futures. As Oprah Winfrey often has said, you get back what you put out in the world. If you’re stealing, you’ll be stolen from 😉. Give Credit, Where Credit Is Due and pay out royalties to the movie coming out soon (jk speaking that one into existence 😆).
What are you waiting for in your life destiny?? We at Move Happy®️ encourage you to take 1 small action step that will help you move towards the life of your dreams 🇺🇸 ♥️. If this post added any value to you today, do us a favor and please share it on social media and reach out to the top leaders listed and thank them for their contributions. We love you, we’re cheering for you, and we hope to see you in December for our final 2022 Real Entertainment Therapy Experience®️ with “Fitness” as our umbrella focus! It might even be featured at your University with a Live Audience 🙌 That’s our intention #DREAMBIGGER 💃💃💃💃💃
PS: Don’t forget to tell someone you love them today
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