103 Transcript: Everything You Ever Wanted Is On the Other Side of Fear (with Erica Mandy)

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J: You're listening to the Vibrant Happy Women podcast, episode number 103.

Intro: Welcome to the Vibrant Happy Women podcast, stories of vibrant women living happy lives. And now, your host, Jen Riday.

J: Hey, welcome back to Vibrant Happy Women. I'm Dr. Jen Riday and I'm here to help you get inspired and shift away from that place of burnout and overwhelm and find a vibrant and happy life again; find you again. So welcome back. Last week, I spoke with Lauren Zander all about personal integrity; being committed to your goals. I love that one and I've been really committed this week. In fact, I have a sign on my wall now, I found it in National Geographic. Right on the back cover, it's this lion with the words, “I am relentless.” That's my mantra I want to share it so maybe you can steal it. Draw a lion on your whiteboard and put the words, “I am relentless,” beside it. Be relentless in your commitment to achieving your goals. And whenever I want to falter, I picture that lion, “I am relentless,” and then I won't give up. I have been receiving so many great emails from so many amazing women like Katie and Chrissy and Susan and Ashley and so many more, and I wanted to give you a shout out and thank you for writing in, telling me how much you like the podcast; it means a ton, so thank you. Also, I wanted to thank all of you who have left reviews for Vibrant Happy Women on iTunes. I wanted to read our review of the week from Liz. She said, “Hi, Jen, I just wanted to thank you so much for providing this podcast for us. Seriously, I talk about my podcasts all the time. Your series has inspired me, helped me and challenged me to grow; that's the part I'm most excited about. I love how I've changed for the better and I think I'm affecting others in a more positive way too. I'll keep working and just want to thank you for all of your work- sincerely, Liz.” Thank you so much for leaving that review, Liz. I love reading those and I read every single review. We have over 250 reviews now and I would love for you to add yours. Again, you can do that at jenriday.com/review and I might just read yours on the air next week. Today's guest is Erica Mandy and she talks all about overcoming fear. And I want to go ahead and dive right in to this amazing interview.

My guest today is Erica Mandy and she's an award-winning broadcast journalist, former TV news reporter and founder and host of The NewsWorthy. She combines more than a decade of journalism experience with her own style to make it easier faster and more fun to stay updated with the day's news, all in less than 10 minutes. Erica is passionate about providing a credible, unbiased and fun option for those who wish to stay informed, but are short on time and find traditional media too depressing. She grew up in a suburb of Kansas City and currently lives in a beach town near LA with her husband. She loves learning new things, playing beach volleyball, taking exercise classes, and traveling. Welcome to the show Erica.

E: Thank you so much for having me, Jen.

J: I'm excited. I've been listening to The NewsWorthy and I love it. It reminds me of the news from the 80s and 90s when… you know, it's like a breath of fresh air, “Oh, this is what impartial news sounds like.”

E: (Laughs)

J: “I forgot what that is.” So…

E: That is so good to hear because that is definitely one of my goals and something that I think people have been looking for. So thank you for that.

J: Yeah, that's great and. I can't wait to dive into your story of becoming a journalist. I mean, that's crazy, not very many people get to do that, but then transitioning into having a news podcast, a daily news podcast which is really, really unique, so love that. Well, let's start off the show with your favorite quote and then we'll talk about your story.

E: Sure. So the quote I've chosen is, “Everything you ever wanted is on the other side of fear.” And I don't know who said it but that really resonates with me because, every time I've made a big life change, I feel like I'm closer to living the life that I want.

J: Mmm, mm-hmm. Well, so before we started recording, you were telling me, you know, where you got started in Missouri. Let's just start there because, you know, I'm sure you had to face fear and go to the other side of fear every step of the way. So we'll just kind of tie that into your story and hear where that goes.

E: Yeah. So after school, I studied journalism and everybody else was taking jobs; they had them all scheduled out. And I ended up taking one more unpaid internship which led me to my first job which was just a part-time reporter job in a small town in Missouri. And you better believe I was scared about that because I was making little pay, other people, my friends, were going to these big cities. But I knew that I loved broadcast journalism, I loved telling stories and I wanted to see where this career could go. So started there and eventually worked my way up to Portland Oregon and then eventually Los Angeles, and I was working for CBS Los Angeles in LA. But every step of the way, I had to kind of move to a new city where I didn't know anybody, start over basically at a new TV news station, and try to prove myself all over again just in a slightly bigger city that time. So every time I moved, it was scary. And there were a lot of times I… I wanted to quit along the way, but I'm so glad, looking back, that I pushed through that fear and took each step to reach the goal that I had for me in that career path. And then when I reached the end of that career path, it was, “Okay, my goals are changing. I've changed a lot over the last decade and that's okay. Now, I can see what else I want to do.” But I'm so glad that I had that opportunity to have all of those experiences in the different cities even though it was a little scary all along the way.

J: Ah, that makes sense. And so first time in, you know, you're like choosing broadcast journalism, which already sounds so gutsy.

[Laughter]

J: Tell us about the first time you were on the air. Oh my gosh, it makes me so nervous for you. (Laughs)

[Laughter]

J: You know, what did it feel like?

E: I was very nervous.

J: Yeah.

E: Yeah, because when I was in school, we would do, you know, like weekly broadcasts and they would never be really live; like maybe they were on the student, you know, college air. But when I first had to go, even though it's a small town in Missouri, it was intense because you're doing one every single day. You go from doing like a story a week to a story a day, at least. And so I do remember going live, and it went okay. I was a little breathless, a little bit nervous, but there was one time that I will never forget that I was sent… I was doing all my own camera work at the time too because, when you start out, you just do it all yourself.

J: Mm-hmm.

E: And I was sent to the capital city in Missouri and I was lugging all this camera equipment all around the capital building. And they called me they're like, “We need you to get back. The live truck can't get to you.” So I'm driving myself back to the newsroom. They basically throw me in front of a camera that has no teleprompter and I was not experienced enough to really just speak, you know, from my mind; like from my memory. And so I literally just said, “Um, um, back to you.”

J: (Gasps)

E: (Laughs)

J: (Gasps) Oh no! (Laughs)

E: I’m so glad YouTube didn't exist then because I'm sure it would have made the rounds. But… so I was obviously mortified and I was crying and I went home thinking I was just never going to be able to do this career. But somehow, you know, I kept showing up the next day and I got a little bit better each time, thankfully it wasn't that bad again, but I still had other mistakes, and just kept going. And so…

J: Kept showing up.

E: Even though at that moment, I thought, “No way am I going to be able to ever make it to a big city,” I ended up making it to LA like 7 years later.

J: Yeah, that's crazy! Well, so tell us more about… I heard from one of my relatives who's kind of in the, whatever… the… the biz of entertainment industry, and I didn't realize that there are actually markets and various… so Madison, Wisconsin is one of the smallest of the news… I'm not using the right lingo, but…

E: Yeah.

J: And there are bigger ones. How does that work and which are the biggest ones?

E: Sure. So it is markets, it’s designated Market area; DMA. And so there's basically two hundred or so and I was in 1/35 to start. So to give you an idea, New York is number 1, Los Angeles is number 2, and I started out in 135.

J: Ah.

E: And you kind of have to start out small because it's kind of like the grad school; it's kind of where you are supposed to make your mistakes and learn and get better before you go on to the big city. And so I am so thankful that, even though it was a little rough at times while I was there, that I have that experience; because if I would have been thrown into a big city that was a lot less accepting of mistakes, it would have been an issue. So I had to make my mistakes there so that I was ready for the next step. And so then I went to Portland Oregon. So I made a pretty big jump to market 22 and then I was there for a few years.

J: Wow.

E: And then I jumped to LA, which is 2.

J: Okay, so do you happen to know the number for Madison, Wisconsin? I'm just curious. (Laughs)

E: I can find it.

J: Oh yeah.

E: You can kind of Google it, but I think it's mid-market; I think it’s…

J: In the mid.

E: … 80.

J: Oh, really! Higher than I thought.

E: Yeah.

J: Okay!

E: I'm pretty sure it's about 80, and it depends. You know, it's not just the city, it's the viewing area. So anybody that can watch that channel is counted in that viewing market.

J: So it's based on the number of viewers.

E: Yes.

J: Oh, that's so interesting. And Des Moines must be one of the higher ones then; Des Moines, Iowa, which is close to where I'm from. (Laughs)

E: Yeah, it's probably mid.

J: Oh really?

E: Because you’ve got… yeah, like Denver and Dallas, those are some of the bigger ones when you're talking about bigger, bigger states.

J: Oh, gotcha, gotcha.

E: Yeah.

J: Okay, okay, good to know. Well, so a lot of our listeners think about doing something new. Many of them might have been a stay-at-home mom or they're stuck in a 9-to-5 job they don't love. What tips would you give for facing fear and just trusting in the great things that are on the other side?

E: Absolutely. So I always like to talk about some of the smaller quote-unquote ‘risks’ that you can take and kind of prove to yourself that something good happens when you take a little risk. And so one example that happened to me recently was, I had met someone, a business contact through a mutual friend, and I really admired her and what she was doing. And I wanted to follow up with her, but I was kind of waiting for the perfect time to follow up with her. And so I kept putting off that second phone call or trying to reconnect with her; I kept putting it off over and over again. Until one day, I just said, “You know what? Enough. Like, I'm just going to call her now or never.” So I picked up the phone, I left her a message, and a few minutes later, she called me back and she said, “I'm so glad you called. I'm going to be in Los Angeles. I have one more ticket to the scholar that I'm going to and I'm also doing a mastermind with 12 other women that afternoon. So do you want to take the last ticket?”

J: Ooh, nice.

E: And so… so that was such proof to me that, here I was putting it off, putting it off, and I finally just made up my mind that, “Nothing can go wrong, just leave a voicemail. Like, what's the worst that could happen?”

J: Yeah.

E: And it ended up being this great experience that I was involved with this charity gala, but also… (and all for free, by the way) but also, I got to meet these 12 other women, have a mastermind group with them and now I'm staying in touch with them, we're collaborating and I have all these new entrepreneur contacts. And so it was just that one phone call on one random day that led to that.

J: Yeah. Ooh, that's a good one. And just…

E: Yeah.

J: … constantly, that's kind of how I do it. So when I'm faced with 2 decisions, I will often now, (because of that exact thing you talked about; finding the good things through fear) I will choose the one that feels scarier.

E: Right.

J: And I'm finding that, in entrepreneurship or any of those things out there that people do that might be scary, the most successful ones are choosing the path of fear mingled with excitement. Would you find that to be true for you as well?

E: Yeah. I mean, you know, people say, “High-risk, high-reward; low-risk, low reward.” So you can't get to that side of, “Wow, high reward, this is really the life that I want to live,” without taking some risks and putting yourself out there and being vulnerable and understanding… you know, what helps me is trusting that I'm going to be able to handle it if it doesn't go right.

J: Yeah.

E: So if I quit my job and start The NewsWorthy and it fails, I'm going to be embarrassed, but I trust myself that I'm going to be able to get another job.

J: Right.

E: And it's not ideal, but I'll be able to handle it. And so that always helps is, think about the worst-case scenario and realize that you can probably live through it and it's going to be okay.

J: Yeah.

E: And then you can think about the best case scenario and you go, “Wow, I… that's worth it to try.”

J: Yeah! That's true. And what you said reminds me of something I heard Tim Ferriss say; he calls it I think ‘fearcasting’.

E: Hmm!

J: So instead of forecasting, he takes whatever he's afraid of and he imagines it all the way to the worst-case scenario. He's like, “could I do that?” and then he realizes, “Oh, I could do that, ” and then suddenly, it removes all the fear from that choice. So I kind of think that's a cool idea. So currently, one of the things is, he knew he was afraid of what people thought of him (his appearance), so he grew this really ugly goatee.

[Laughter]

J: Which he still has. And he's proving to himself that he can survive with that thing he's afraid of. It's a really interesting concept. So…

E: I like that too and I also have heard him say, talking about scheduling.

J: Mm-hmm.

E: Overcoming fear and not just and… even being… scheduling being uncomfortable so that, when it happens when it's not scheduled, you're more prepared for it. So I thought that was interesting too.

J: Yeah! So I wonder, how would you do that in your life? How do you schedule being uncomfortable, so I can think of it practically? I'm wondering.

E: I mean, I think that, for me, it's those phone calls, it's those, “Who am I going to talk to you today that can…”

J: (Laughs)

E: “…help me reach a goal?”

J: Yeah.

E: And not just trying to do it all on my own because I was scared to put myself out there.

J: Exactly. You know, I thought of one… that's why I giggled in the middle. But…

E: (Laughs)

J: I'm…. you know, everyone's a little afraid of public speaking. I think people say that's the worst fear.

E: Right.

J: So it's amazing what you do. But I want to speak at a few events this year including a TEDx and a conference. And so I am practicing, I guess, because I scheduled a speaking engagement at my local library in April; so I'm excited.

E: (unclear) [13:58]

J: Anyone was staying from Madison, I guess you can find the flyer on the website.

[Laughter]

E: I love that!

J: So fun.

E: And it's prepping you to feel even more confident and ready for the TEDx or the bigger one.

J: It's true. And once you finish it, you're like, “I am unstoppable!” you know?

E: Yes.

J: Because you've went through the fear. Exactly.

E: And the other thing for me is that, if I feel really fearful to the point where I can't take action, I figure out what smaller action I can take to help me figure out that option. So, for example, before I quit my job to start The NewsWorthy, I had this idea, I got really excited about it, but I didn't quite feel the courage yet to leave. And so what I did was, I ran some surveys and asked people, “What do you think of this 2-minute example of what I'm doing?” And when I heard from strangers that they really liked it, that was a little confidence boost for me to say, “Okay, they're really liking it. Maybe this can work.” I talked to people about it. I kind of put it out there before I actually took the step to quit, to give me that confidence that I can do it and that people do want this.

J: Well, so you're in LA and I kind of want to… you're in the best market in the world, practically, (almost, second best) and then you decide, you know, you want to do this podcast sharing the news. What helped you to decide that?

E: Yeah. So when I reached that goal, that was a goal for me in my TV news career. And so, for one, I had reached that goal and it made me stop and think, “Okay, what is my next goal?”

J: Yeah.

E: And, for me, I always just… you know, I can stop and be proud of what I've accomplished, but I also want to keep going and I… “How can I continue to contribute in my life?” And so I stopped and I said, “Well, the next obvious goal is to go to Network News and go national.” And I realized that that no longer was what I really wanted; and even more so, that wasn't what I was hearing other people wanted for their news. People were telling me they weren't watching because they thought it was too depressing or too biased or too… you know, whatever; they're getting it on their phones or other places, and even that they're not that happy with it.

J: Yeah.

E: And so when I kind of coupled the, “Well, I don't know if I even want to go there and I don't think that's where other people want to get their news. Then, let me reevaluate here.” And then, that led me to coming up with the idea for The NewsWorthy and saying, “Well, I know I would love this,” talking to people realizing they would love it, and then realizing, “It's now or never, let's do this!” Because I didn't want to take the next step in that other path.

J: Yeah, right, right. Well, I think that's great. And then you did the surveys and realized it was viable and then you took the leap and now you're 4 months in, right?

E: Yes. I launched about 4 months ago and it's been so rewarding; more rewarding than any other job when I hear… and I'm sure you can relate to this, Jen, when you hear feedback that it's really helping people, that people are really appreciating, like you said, that it's unbiased or that it's just easier to listen while they're doing stuff with their kids and they don't have to try to feel like they either don't know what's going on or sacrifice time and energy into the news. And so when I hear that feedback, when I get an email or a review on iTunes, that is what motivates me 100%, and it makes me go, “Okay, this is going to work because people are actually finding value in this.”

J:Oh, it's working. I'll tell you my experience. So when I check my news on my phone, it clicks through, you know, and then I'm lost in a feed or somewhere for like 30 minutes and I don't want to waste the time. And then when I realized your news thing is on a podcast, it's the best thing. Because every time I'm driving my daughter to childcare, I just push play, and by the time we arrive, I know the day's news. And it's not depressing; finally, I'm loving it. Seriously, thank you for what you're doing.

E: Thank you for that; that means a lot. Again, that is really what motivates me; to hear that people are enjoying it. And it's why I did; I took a huge leap and quit my job because I knew that that could be possible. And here's… and more proof for somebody who's wondering if they should take a risk, that when you do, you get a lot of reward out of it.

J: Yeah, yeah. Well, so… so The NewsWorthy comes out at 4:00 AM Eastern. How do you…? Do you like stay up or do you have to get really early to get that done? How do you manage that?

E: (Laughs). So I'm on the west coast, so that helps. So I basically just stay up late and make sure it publishes by 1:00 in the morning my time, and then I just go to bed later than the average person. But I can also sleep in a little bit and then just wake up, you know, about 8:00 AM or so.

J: So how do you decide which stories to stick in for a 10 minute news podcast?

E: So that's where my background in journalism really comes into play and where, why I'm so thankful for the last 10 years doing what I did and my training in school and all of that, because I can take that knowledge and apply it to what I'm doing. I don't think this would have been a smart risk for me to take right out of school because I didn't have that credibility and that knowledge and that traditional news training. So now, I can look at the news and just kind of… it's almost an instinct of what I feel is worth it. But I would say, on a conscious level, it is some of the stuff, you know, people are going to be talking about that you need to know that might impact, how you vote or, you know, a political policy that's going to be something in your life. So I make sure there's always a few of those stories, the politics, the things in law that could impact you. But I also don't want it to just be that. I think too often, you know, it's breaking news about what President Trump said all the time. And whether you like him or not, you kind of want other stuff in your life, right?

J: Yeah.

E: So I always make sure, like I think tech is really interesting because so much of it impacts us.

J: Yeah.

E: “What's happening with smart-speakers? What's happening with Amazon? How am I going to get something delivered to me in the future?”

J: Yeah.

E: So all of those things impact our lives and our kids’ lives. And so I make sure that when stuff… something about that comes out, that's also making it in; or how businesses are interacting with each other because that affects us, the consumers. And then also the fun stuff, the entertainment. You know, there's a word show coming up tonight so that you can sit and watch with your teenage daughter or whatever it is.

J: Oh yeah.

E: One of the other things that I always hear from people is that it's a nice variety. And so that's always my goal, is to make sure that you're being well, rounded by listening in just 10 minutes.

J: Ah, yeah. Well, so tell us more about why the news has become… I mean, if you can dissect is it even possible, why is the news so partial now? I mean, everyone knows there's Fox News and then there's CNN on the other side. And so what's going on and how did that develop? I mean, because you were probably around before that was really so bad like it is.

E: Sure. Well, I think part of it at least is that there are algorithms out there online that pay attention to the things that we like and that we click on. So they give us more of what we like and what we click on so that we'll continue to like and click on it; and it's this cycle of giving us only what we want to see.

J: Ooh.

E: So you start not paying attention to the other side because the algorithm isn't giving you that other side, whereas before, you pick up the newspaper, you have to read the whole thing. You're not saying whether or not you agree with it or not.

J: Yes.

E: But Internet can tell if you liked it or if you hate it.

J: So you think the Facebook algorithm builds in which way people are clicking politically?

E: I think that's part of it. And not just Facebook; Google, I mean…

J: Really?

E: A lot of people have like a Yahoo page that shows them… you know, it changes what they see on their Yahoo homepage.

J: Really? I didn’t know that.

E: Yeah. You know, like the Yahoo news page, a lot of people have that as their homepage/.

J: Yeah.

E: And it will change according to the types of headlines that you click. On the other side of that is the organization's want you to click on what they are putting out.

J: Wow.

E: So they are, in some ways… and don't get me wrong, this wasn't… you know, when I was a journalist, we always strived to be fair; it was never like a top to down thing saying, “Oh, lean one way or the other,” absolutely not. But I think when people are coming up with headlines and stuff like that, they do have to be conscious of the internet now. And so I think just over time, those 2 things have created a more polarized society.

J: Wow, that's so scary. I don't even know how to think that through what that means in the future, but what if education became that way? (Laughs). Oh, no! Like they're feeding you exactly what you want to learn but only that.

E: Right.

J: Oh!

E: And I think… you know, I do think there will be a time… even for me, it was like, “Okay, people obviously aren't liking this, so let's do something differently. I'll make sure… let's go back to being unbiased.” So I do think, you know, it will swing back the other way and it won't always be like that. But I just think, for us as news consumers, and especially for me as a journalist, is to be conscious of it and make sure that… for me, I really try to be transparent. So I linked to all the stories that I'm referencing in each episode on my website, so if you ever question anything, you can go and read the article for yourself and you can see that I'm looking at Fox News and CNN and New York Times and another one for the same story.

J: Yeah, I can see that too. And so now I'm dreaming of actually a new network that balances it. I'm… actually, I'm dreaming of a third political party too. But…

[Laughter]

J: But maybe you can start it, you know?

E: Yeah.

J: After The NewsWorthy gets really big then you can like pass that off and have a whole new network on TV. That would be fantastic. (Laughs)

E: I definitely want to be a multimedia at some point and even partner… you know, we want stuff on demand now. And so while there's a time and a place for breaking news, when you really need to know something right now, I do think there's an opportunity to partner with some of those Amazon, Hulu, Netflix type places to provide news clips as well.

J: Yeah, that's true. Ooh, wow! What would that look like exactly?

E: For right now, I see it as my podcast, but in video form.

J: Ooh!

E: And then it becoming available it, you know, 4:00 AM Eastern Time and throughout the day.

J: On… oh, I love that.

E: On like a Netflix or Hulu or wherever.

J: Yeah!

E: And you can kind of watch it. So whether you're just listening and letting it play in the background or you want to watch it on your new, you know, amazon show, you can do that. And then throughout the day, as I get big enough, we can even be updating it throughout the day. So it is on TuneIn, if anybody listens; I think you can set your app to play. However, she gets a little confused with news; I think that technology is still getting better and better. I am working on an Alexa skill and I'm working to get it more readily accessible on smart speakers, because I do think that's also the future.

J: Yes.

E: So that is in progress right now and hopefully soon, you should be able to tell her to play The NewsWorthy and it'll work perfectly.

J: Oh! You know, what I want Alexa to do? To wake me up and then just have this sequence of events… (I don't know, someone create this) but she'll say, “Jump on your rebounder. Now, here's your news. And now, go brush your teeth.” I just want someone like a drill sergeant, to time it all out and speak it to me. Wouldn’t that be amazing? (Laughs)

E: So have you looked in Alexa skills? Have you heard of that?

J: No.

E: So… and I need to look a little bit more into it, but I'm working to get one developed. And basically you can set your Alexis skills to be these flash briefs basically in your morning.

J: Really?

E: So it's really of like that.

J: (Gasps)

E: Yeah.

J: Ooh.

E: So I'm working on an Alexa skill for The NewsWorthy so you can tell, “Alexa, I want this skill,” so every morning it says like, “Play me my flash brief,” and then it will go into The NewsWorthy and whatever else you set in your flash brief.

J: Yes. Oh, that's good. Everyone and listening who needs a better morning routine, this is brilliant; Alexa skills. Okay, and make sure you put The NewsWorthy as one of them. (Laughs)

E: Yes, as soon as it’s available. (Laughs)

J: Yes. Okay, cool.

E: So if anyone's listening, I will put it on thenewsworthy.com as soon as that becomes available. But for now, you can still listen on all the other podcast apps.

J: Well, let's take a quick break for our sponsor and then we'll come back and talk about a few of your favorite things.

(Advertisement) [25:22]
(Interview resumes) [26:34]

J: Alright, welcome back. So you're up until 1:00 in the morning doing The NewsWorthy and then you go to bed, but what does your morning routine look like when you do get up?

E: Yes. So this is something because my schedule has changed quite a bit when I left regular TV news and I had a commute and all of that stuff. So this is something I'm really focusing on trying to make sure that I do at each morning. So I've noticed a big difference when I do just spend 10 minutes meditating. I use an app called Insight Timer; it's free.

J: Mmm.

E: And they offer guided meditations. Because, before I started my own business, I didn't really meditate, and I realized that I just had too many things going on in my mind that I needed to start that practice. And so it makes a huge difference for me to just feel good and start my day off on the right foot. So I also like to have either a green juice or some other hydrating drink; again, like Dao Labs is one that I've been using lately, that is kind of like Chinese herbs, it's supposed to be for immunity support. So just something that makes me feel like I'm putting something good into my body to start the day. And I do a little bit of stretching, and then I will jump on and try to do some work and then make sure that I also get a workout before a noon. So that's kind of the main things, you know, working out meditating and hydrating in the morning are my main things. One of the things that, again, going back to the social media distractions, is making sure that I don't pick up the phone in the first 20 minutes or so.

J: Mmm.

E: Because for a while I was doing that and I… I would realize that throughout the day, I kept going back to my phone. So if I can start the day doing something else, it's a reminder not to constantly be on my phone, even though, you know, I need you to somewhat for business. But you don't want that to take over your productivity.

J: Right, right. And that episode you're referring to is the one with Ellen Leanse on technology, right? Is that the one you're talking about?

E: Yeah. She talks about that as well, that… and I totally agree. And there's one of the tricks that I started doing to make sure that I would grab for something else was grab for a book that was motivating.

J: Ooh.

E: So if I felt like I wanted to look at something before I got out of bed, I would grab for a book and just read one chapter or even a few pages. And a lot of times, I would use like a business book so it was getting me hyped up to really kill it in my business.

J: Oh, that's cool. Well, yeah, if anyone hasn't listened to that one yet, it's at jenriday.com/95; yeah, it's a good one. But, yeah, I'm trying as well. It's hard not to touch the phone when you first wake up.

E: Yeah. And I think, you know, some days you are better at it. For me, I'm better at it than others.

J: Right.

E: But I know right makes me feel good, and so when I can follow that as many times as possible, then I know that that's what's going to set me up to succeed that day. But, yeah, I loved that episode; she was great.

J: Yeah, she is. Well, so you mentioned reading. What are your favorite books?

E: So I've gotten really into the business books because I know that journalism aspect, but it's been a lot of fun learning kind of the business side of things and, you know, entrepreneurial type things. So I've been really into those types of books. So it's listening to, as you mentioned, the Tim Ferriss podcast and some of his books. His ‘Tribe of Mentors’ is his new one that I haven't gotten yet, but I'm going to go blink at the other one.

J: Yeah.

E: The really big one. (Laughs). But I haven't started it yet; it's really big.

J: We'll link to that in our show notes.

E: Yeah, yeah.

J: Tim Ferriss, all of his books actually are really great.

E: And his podcast; it's one of the first…

J: Yes.

E: … that inspired me, for sure. But one of… the 2 that I'm reading is… like now, I just finished ‘10X’ by Grant Cardone. So it's kind of that motivation in the morning that I like to have, because he's all about doing everything, you know, 10 times what you think it's going to take; so it's just…

J: Yeah.

E: It's kind of that, “You can do it. Go for it. Take it to the next level,” type of thing. And then another one that a friend gave me is ‘You Are a Badass at Making Money’. And…

J: Ooh, yeah! Jen Sincero, right?

E: Yes, yes. And so that one is also motivating because it's that same idea of, “You’ve got to get over the fear. You've got to, you know, believe that you can make money and you got to take the action to get to where you want to and change your belief system about money,” and that sort of thing. So all of those types of books have been what I've been into. And then there's another one called ‘E-myth’ that was about, you know, really making a plan. So I'm all about the business books right now. (Laughs)

J: Cool, cool; ‘E-myth’, I have that one. Well, so tell us what's the best advice you've ever received?

E: Well, my dad always said two things which was, “Trust your instincts,” and, “Attitude is everything.” And so I always tried to listen to that and trust my gut when it was that time to take a risk. And I think that having that saying in my life, probably helped me believe that I can do it because something in my gut was telling me that I should, and then taking that little bit of action to kind of confirm it.

J: Oh yeah.

E: Yeah. And then ‘attitude is everything’ was another piece of advice he's always told me, which I think, no matter what you're doing, whether I was in a small town or in the second largest news market in the country, that I've got to have the right attitude, that I've got to try my best. So I love those two pieces of advice.

J: Well, I want to hear about what it means for you to be a vibrate happy woman. But first, everyone, you can find links to everything Erica’s has been talking about on our show notes page at jenriday.com/97. And you'll find the links to The NewsWorthy, her podcast, and the books and everything else. And now, Erica, what does it mean for you to be a vibrant happy woman?

E: I think for me it's listening to that voice that tells me what I know I want to do. You know how too often we are at a place where we're on the couch, let's say, and we know that it would be really nice to go for a walk, but for whatever reason, we just don't do it and we stay on the couch? So I think when I'm my most vibrant and my happiest, it's when I listen to that little voice and not let myself think about it and I just do what I know that I… I know deep down is going to make me happy.

J: So how do you most easily connect to that little voice; that intuition?

E: I think it's being conscious of it. You know, too often we… we think about, “Yeah…” and just so, “Oh…” like even just this moment of going, “Oh yeah, I know what she's talking about,” that voice. Maybe some of you have never even thought about it; it's just kind of that thing that happens. And so now that you can think about it and say, “Next time that little voice talks to me, I want to be conscious of it and I'm going to just do it.” And don't even think about it, just, “Okay, I'm going for a walk. Let's go.”

J: You know, that voice is so critical. You know, just thinking about that intuitive voice, that's why I became a life coach, it's why I started a podcast.

E: Mmm.

J: Every single step. And still, even though you know it's the right thing, there's still that process of jumping through the fear. You're like… that little voice is trying to push you through something scary and there's something great on the other side. So that's really cool that's your tip. So… well, let's have a challenge from you to our listeners and then we'll say goodbye.

E: Well, I would challenge… and it's kind of been the theme of what we've talked about. I would challenge someone to do something right now that scares you a little bit. So whether it's writing an email, making a phone call, saying some to someone that you know, that you know you should do but you've been procrastinating for whatever reason, probably fear, I would challenge you to just do it.

J: Just do it. Cool, I love that. Well, thank you so much for being on the show, Erica. Thanks for braving all those things you've done and starting The NewsWorthy; it's amazing and inspiring. So wish you the best of luck with that.

E: Thank you so much for having me; this is a pleasure.

J: Take care.

Erica brought up such a good point that I've been thinking about lately, and that is, “All good things really are on the other side of fear.” Each of us, sometime in our life, wants to try something new; whether that's making new friends or inviting the new neighbor to dinner or starting a new hobby, writing a book, maybe it's even starting a business. But whatever it is for you, I know that there's a bit of fear there; fear that holds you back. Probably a little voice saying, “Well, you know, you're not really good enough, because compared to so-and-so, who are you to be an expert of this?” or, “Who are you to try something new?” Well, guess what? Every single entrepreneur I've met, every single author I've met, has fear. We have fear that we're not good enough, fear that no one's going to accept what we say, fear that we are frauds that, “Who are we to speak up on a topic?” And I've been through the same thing, and I want you to know that's normal. And I want to help you overcome your fears because you have great things to contribute to this earth; whether it's being a friend, being a listener, sharing your gifts and talents, creating amazing food. I don't know what your talent is; only you know. But you've got to get it out there, because when you do you start to shine from the inside out; you're living your purpose, and that feels amazing. So to help you out with this, I've created a free guide ‘30 ways to overcome fear’. These are 30 strategies I use regularly to help me overcome fear when I get stuck; when that little voice starts to scream, “Who are you to be doing a podcast, Jen?” or, “Who are you to say you're writing a book?” I use these strategies to push myself forward, forward, forward, and to tap into my purpose. They include things like fear setting from Tim Ferriss, EFT tapping, how to schedule time to do scary things like Erica talked about, meditation strategies, visualization strategies, and so much more. You really can take control of your psyche and push fear into the back seat and start doing what you were born to do. So grab your free guide at jenriday.com/fear. Remember, all good things are on the other side of fear. Again, that's jenriday.com/fear.

Now, I want to end with a quote from Marianne Williamson all about truly shining and being your best self. I've shared it before, you've heard it before, but I want you to listen again and let this one sink in. “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us, it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” Thank you so much for listening and don't forget to grab that free guide, ‘30 ways to overcome fear’, so you can shine. You can grab your copy for free at jenriday.com/fear. Thank you so much for joining us today and I will see you on Thursday with a happy bit. Until then, make it a phenomenal, fearless week. Take care.

Outro: Thanks for listening to the Vibrant Happy Women podcast at www.jenriday.com.