253: How Leading Lady Ambassadors Support You in All Aspects of Being a Woman and Business Owner with Elizabeth Harris, Erin Harrigan, and Susan Mahaffee

Hi there. You’re listening to the Leading Lady podcast. I’m your host, AliceAnne Loftus, and I’m a certified professional coach specializing in leadership and work-life balance. I work with clients to shift their limiting beliefs, insecurities, and self-doubt. This podcast will be filled with tools and strategies to help high-achieving women like you feel connected, empowered, and in the lead of your life, both personally and professionally. Let’s transform your life starting now. Lead yourself, the rest will follow.

AliceAnne: Hi there, leading ladies, and welcome to today’s episode. I am so excited to be joined by three of our 2025 Leading Lady ambassadors. And today we’re just gonna be chatting with you about what to expect from them as Leading Lady ambassadors, specifically as they support the Leading Lady community as a whole, and in the Leading Lady Business Hub.

So today I’m joined by Elizabeth Harris, Erin Harrigan, and Susan Mahaffee. Ladies, thank you so much for joining me today, and I’m just excited to jump right into our conversation.

Elizabeth: Thanks for having us.

Susan: Hey, thanks.

AliceAnne: Yeah. So can we just quickly go through a round of introductions? I’ll start with Elizabeth.

Elizabeth: Sure. Hi, I am Elizabeth Harris. I’m a registered dietitian. I help people primarily heal their relationship with food and their body image, and better their nutrition and health without dieting.

AliceAnne: Love having you here. Thank you, Elizabeth. Erin?

Erin: Hey, everybody. I’m Erin Harrigan. I am a Christian business coach, author, podcast host, and speaker. And I help high-achieving believers, so those who believe in Jesus and follow him, integrate their faith in business so that they can walk out their assignment with better clarity, serenity, and fulfillment.

AliceAnne: Thank you, Erin. And Susan.

Susan: Hi, AliceAnne. So I’m Susan Mahaffee and I own People Rise. We are an HR consultancy focusing on supporting small business owners as well as entrepreneurs and family-owned businesses with all of their HR needs, so that we can help you focus more on your business and why you built it, and also feel more confident as you lead your people to help your business achieve.

AliceAnne: Love it. Love it. Love it. As you’re doing your intros, I’m like, wow, this is kind of a diverse group. You’re covering such a different industry of niches, needs, supports. And for our listeners, I do want to share that I work with every one of our ambassadors.

Elizabeth changed my life. I literally will open my pantry and stand there and be like, “Who says I can’t eat that?” Rocked my world, and pulled me out of the depths of diet culture. So thankful for you, Elizabeth.

Erin is my business coach, and I’ve worked with her for the last couple years, and she has helped me align my faith with my business, and just really helped me step into the best version of me. Erin, I don’t know where I would be or where my business would be without you, so thank you.

And Susan, I mean, I know you’re about to knock my socks off as you’re going into one of my other businesses and really helping us with some pretty big stuff when it comes to working with employees and managing pay and managing expectations of pay and all of that. I don’t wanna call it yucky stuff, but it’s definitely sticky stuff.

Susan: Yeah, that it is.

The Strategic Wheel: Treating Ourselves as Whole People

AliceAnne: So I’m looking at the three of you and I’m thinking, okay, so our listeners might be like, “What could the three of these ladies possibly have to share that makes any sense together?” And that’s kind of the whole point of it. So when I developed my Strategic Wheel for really assessing who we are as women leaders and business owners, we have to treat ourselves as whole people, right?

We can’t compartmentalize it. As much as women try, we cannot compartmentalize who we are as a whole person and how we show up in our business and other areas of life. And so the wheel is broken down into our business operations, our financial hygiene, our customer experience and product, our marketing and visibility, but also our personal and professional development, which includes spirituality, right? Who we are, what we’re tethered to, where we’re rooted, to use Erin’s word.

Our health and wellness, so how we feel in and about our bodies and our wellbeing, and also our relationships, both social and intimate. We have to look at each piece of those. So each of our ambassadors, they kind of step into one or more of those areas and offer support to the greater Leading Lady community.

And because I work with each of you, I know firsthand how that support plays into who I am as a business owner. So I’m gonna start with you, Elizabeth, and just share how you feel you step in and support the ladies in the community.

Elizabeth on Health, Wellness, and Ditching Diet Culture

Elizabeth: Yeah. Thank you. So obviously, I fit into the wellness aspect of the wheel. I’m very, very passionate about health promotion, but really doing it in a way that supports people’s physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing. And I think a lot of times when we get so deep into the depths of diet culture, one or more of those areas suffer.

So I really try to work in a very holistic way, help people focus and prioritize their eating, health, and wellbeing, but without feeling obsessive or body shaming or all of the things. I wanna help people feel their best and celebrate who they are and step into themselves confidently so that they can show up for all the other areas of their life and their business.

And so I work with people individually, but I also do corporate wellness, which really mirrors my passion for health promotion. I love going into organizations and just helping people minimize stress and focus on their own health and their own wellbeing in a way that’s positive, and it not only helps all of the individuals, but the business as a whole.

So I see my role in the Leading Lady community and the Hub to be an advocate for that, to be an advocate for us prioritizing ourselves, for reminding people that self-care isn’t selfish, that it actually matters. You can’t pour from an empty cup, and how we eat and take care of our bodies, it’s important. It sets the tone for everything. And you can’t be your best in business if you’re not showing up for yourself first.

AliceAnne: Yeah. And I’ve worked with you both as an individual and I’ve also had you come into my business for corporate wellness, and again, I can say firsthand, I know that you are an expert and you are the resource for this specific piece of the wheel and so much more. It touches every other part of the wheel. That’s why it’s a wheel. You’re not a line item on who we are as a whole person. It’s all connected.

And I know the amount of energy that I have spent on “health,” and I’m putting that in air quotes, because for so long I tied health to the size of my body. And it was very distracting, the amount of time, energy, and just mental load that it took from me to devote to that.

And then bringing you into the business and working with my staff, how that trickled. I am in childcare, the childcare industry, and so helping support my employees in their health, it trickled to the children, to the families, to the community as a whole. It was just really powerful.

I’ll give Susan and Erin an opportunity to chime in how they have gotten to know you, and how they’ve worked with you, and how they’ve seen you step into that expertise.

Erin: Yeah, I’ll just chime in that Elizabeth, what you teach has completely reframed the way I look at food. It’s fascinating to hear my daughter say, “There are no bad foods, Mom.” She already kind of knows that.

And it has also changed how I look at my body. It’s changed my appreciation of what this body God has given me has done, and I’m no longer obsessed, which is the best word for me, with I have to be a certain size or I have to look a certain way or all of those things. And it is, like AliceAnne said, every person you work with then impacts someone else. It’s a ripple effect. So it really is legacy and life-changing.

Susan: Yeah, I was just thinking similar about life-changing. So Elizabeth, you and I have had the opportunity to work both personally and professionally. You were the first person I thought of when my own mom was diagnosed with a gluten allergy in her senior years, and was just totally heartbroken about, “I don’t know what this means for me at this stage of life.” And I said, “Oh my gosh, I know the right person.” And I reached out to you, and we had this call together, you, my mom, and I.

And what a difference it made. It still touches me in this way, where I also think that’s the essence of Leading Lady that we can’t forget about, is that we are all strong women who not only are leading a business, but we have these families and people who rely on us, and we are problem-solvers.

And we have a community here where, just like when I reached out to you, I knew my mom and I were gonna be in great hands with you, and you really helped her understand what this means for her. So not only in some side of your work, like Erin mentioned, and even AliceAnne, but then even in the case where someone is faced with something that they don’t know how to navigate. And you bring, I think, also a beautiful style to relating to people from all walks of life.

And I think that also relates to the other opportunity. You and I have worked with two of my corporate clients to bring corporate wellness to their businesses, and what a huge thing that is, because we’re talking about how employees today, it’s not just about supporting them with their work, it’s supporting them with who they are.

People show up with their whole selves. Eating, stress, all of these things impact people, and we know in the world we’re living in right now, we need to focus on the whole person. And I’ve just had an opportunity to see you in action in so many ways, and I’m so grateful that we met together at Leading Lady. And I can bring your specialty to my clients in an area I don’t focus in, so it’s just been an amazing experience.

Elizabeth: Oh my gosh. Well, I love that. Thank you both. It just makes my heart so happy to hear. I’m so grateful for every single person that I have the opportunity to work with, in so many different ways. And I agree with you completely, Susan, that that’s what I love the most about the Leading Lady community and what drew me to AliceAnne in the first place, is that it really is about you as a whole person.

And you can’t separate business from your family, from your own self, and it’s just such a beautiful integration of it all. So that’s what I love about the community and the resources and getting to know all of you. I’ve met so many amazing people through Leading Lady.

AliceAnne: Something you said early on when we were working together, Elizabeth, specifically with Leading Ladies, is like, gosh, all of these women are out there doing amazing things, amazing things. Building businesses. They are bosses. They should have the confidence of… I almost said something like a powerful white male or something like that. I don’t wanna match that, but we should have the confidence in the things that we’re doing, and yet what we feel about our bodies completely holds us back from showing up strong and confident and just really showing up.

And I know that it held me back for years. Now, having worked with you, I do show up, and I’m not like, “Oh my gosh, somehow because my pant size isn’t the size that I want it to be, I guess I’m not as qualified as I ought to be to deliver this information about businesses.” And you said something like, “These powerful women, it’s absolutely frustrating and almost boring that all we wanna focus on is how we look.”

Elizabeth: It keeps us small. Nothing makes me sadder than when I see anyone, really, just feeling so badly in or about their body that it becomes all-consuming, and it’s distracting, right? Life gets really, really small when so much of it is consumed with shrinking yourself to the smallest possible version of yourself.

And what I love about the work I do is that it creates freedom, and life itself gets so much bigger when you can put your incredible powers to other things, right? The things that really matter, your passions, your purpose, your family, all of those things. And so I just really believe it. Yes, I can teach people how to improve the food on their plate, but it’s not really about the food on your plate. It’s about how you show up in life and in the world.

AliceAnne: Yeah, and how you’re taking care of yourself.

Elizabeth: Yeah.

AliceAnne: Really nourishing yourself, because if we’re not nourished, you can’t show up. You can’t show up in all the other areas. So thank you, Elizabeth.

Susan on Supporting Business Owners with HR

Susan, to switch gears a little bit, every conversation I have with you, I leave going, “Gosh, where was she 20 years ago when I was starting my business?” I think anyone with employees, anyone that is building a business with employees or outsourcing, even if your team are 1099, there are so many things that can go wrong.

Susan: They will, yeah.

AliceAnne: And what I’ve known about being in business over 20 years with employees is that the employee handbook is a living, breathing document. Because every time you think you have thought of everything, you have not. Something is gonna come up, and you’re gonna be like, “Whoa, didn’t realize I need to put that in an employee handbook.” But working with people is complicated, so how do you step in and support your clients and the Leading Lady community?

Susan: Yeah, there’s so much to it, and I think that probably encompasses how it also, I think, feels. Whenever I encounter a Leading Lady or anyone else these days, they’re like, “Susan, how do I use you? I feel there’s a heaviness in my business.” And first I think it’s just listening, right? It’s understanding what is going on in your business, what stage you’re at.

I think one thing that’s important to mention as well is that if you are a business owner of any size, you do need to think about the fact that there’s a human element to things. And some people will very much wanna stay an individual kind of owner/operator where they do the work and they’re solo, and that’s totally fine.

But most of the people that I’m encountering, and Leading Ladies, they have an extension of their business or something else where they wanna grow it, and that does obviously at some point include hiring others. You brought it up as well, 1099s, first employees, that’s a conversation in itself, right? What makes the most sense, I can help you understand that.

There were some really big things that changed in the laws last year, and it’s about being informed, right? And you know your business best. What I try to do is ask you the right questions and help you understand what makes the most sense for you. And then from there, it’s really about trying to understand what would also free you up, not only from a kind of, I call it rinse and repeat, which sometimes can feel a little bit like, oh, been there, done that, it’s not a big deal. And actually, standardization and trying to be more efficient when you hire people, or how you actually do that, is really important.

So what I really work with clients on is just trying to understand first where you’re headed, what that looks like, where you need the most support today. And that can look like everything from, I have my own kind of support hub, if you will, AliceAnne, called Mineral, where you can get some compliance help, and that’s a great solution and very cost-effective for small business owners.

And then there are some things where you do need a handbook, and I’m working with you on a tool that also helps you do that with the support of technology, so that you don’t have to feel a huge heaviness every year when the clock turns over and it’s the new year and you feel like, “Oh my gosh, it’s a new year. There’s new things out there and I need to update it.”

And one quick thing I see about employee handbooks is you need something. Everybody needs something. The one approach that I have to employee handbooks is it does not and need not be all-encompassing, for many different reasons. You wanna have enough of a framework that it can live on, and then there are gonna be things that you might need to address separately or have a kind of separate one-pager for, which you and I have been talking about, for certain other things.

And so I think what I’d want leading ladies to take away from this is that not everything is one size fits all, and you do wanna think about your people at the start. You don’t wanna get too far along. So many times I encounter business owners who are saying what you’re saying, which is, “I wish I would’ve thought about this before,” because a lot of times they think they can take it on, and that’s great. Like, “Oh, it’s just one person helping me out here and there.”

AliceAnne: It’s just one person.

Susan: Yeah, it’s just one person, and I hear that. I appreciate that. But I’m like your phone-a-friend for all things HR. You have a question, there’s something you’re thinking about, you’re using me just like you would your accountant, your lawyer, your insurance professional. I’m that other phone-a-friend when you wanna understand and be informed, and that’s the way you can also build a very strong business, because it’s gonna be from the inside out.

AliceAnne: Yeah. I love this so much, and like I said, just having you in my circle these past couple years and learning about what you do, I feel like I’m able to look at my businesses and just show up better. And also, coaching other businesses, when I see them start, “Well, I’m just gonna take on one person to help me,” I’m like, “Stop. Call Susan,” because you wanna make sure that this person is onboarded, that the job description matches, that you’re informed on what this is gonna do for you and what it’s gonna look like in your business, and how to stay in compliance with everything.

AD

Thank you for tuning in to the Leading Lady podcast. My name is Gala McCray, owner of Two Arrows, and I am a Leading Lady ambassador. Two Arrows is a bookkeeping firm focused on helping you be more consistent, comfortable, and confident with your business finances. My goal is to partner with you and provide an elevated experience to empower you to take your business to the next level. Connect with me online at twoarrows.co.

Your People Are an Extension of Your Brand

AliceAnne: So I wanna open it up to Elizabeth and Erin, comments that you have about the work that you know Susan does, and what she brings to the community.

Elizabeth: Yeah, I’ll be happy to jump in there. I am a solopreneur, so it’s not that I’ve had to bring Susan into my business per se, but I have had the opportunity to collaborate with her and work with her and see her in action with her clients, and it’s just really impressive.

Every time I’m in a room with you, Susan, I learn something that often I go home and share with my husband, to be honest, because he’s also a business owner with a lot of employees. I’m like, “You really need to talk to her.” You are a fountain of knowledge, and you’re so compassionate, and I just respect how you look at everything so holistically with both the business owner and the employees in mind. You’re kinda like the people whisperer.

Susan: I love that. I love it. I’m gonna have to use that sometime. Thank you.

Erin: Yeah, I also would say I haven’t had the opportunity to work with Susan yet, but it is so needed. With some of my corporate clients, I see the challenges that they deal with, and some of the individual business owners that I work with who have teams, and the questions that they ask. And not everybody is in a place where they’re gonna have a giant HR department, you know? And so I love that you provide this service to small and growing businesses, because it’s so needed. It’s so needed.

AliceAnne: Yeah. So Susan, I would say that you fit into kind of the operations part of the wheel.

Susan: Yes.

AliceAnne: Right? But I think you also, again, that’s why it’s a wheel and not a line, it’s all connected. Because when we have a happy team within our business, that’s going to directly impact our customer experience.

Susan: Yes.

AliceAnne: It helps keep things efficient and moving smoothly when you have the right people in the right jobs, and I’m looking at Erin right now because as my coach, she knows all the things. And so when we have the right people in the right jobs doing the things that they are good at doing and they feel good at doing them, your business just runs better, and your customers are gonna experience that.

And it’s all connected. I think that’s the takeaway I want everyone to have. At the end of this episode, write down the episode number, I think this is 252, maybe 253, 253, it’s all connected.

Susan: It is. And one thing I would just wanna also share is, when I did the wheel with you, I took away so much from it in my own way, and I think it’s just a little plug too, to say to anybody listening to this podcast, if you’ve not done this wheel, you are missing out big time. This is a tool you need in your life.

And I think the operational one, as all business owners know, it needs to be like a good wheel. It needs to be going all together and holistically. And Elizabeth, when you said that about being a people whisperer, I think that’s the other piece. I like to help the business owner understand that your employees are an extension of you, and they are showing up and representing your business.

And so we cannot forget that how we treat them is also about our brand. It’s also about what they say about you externally and internally. I worked for a very large organization for 10 years, one of my big stints before I started my business, and we were very conscientious of the fact that people consume our brands every single day, and sometimes they don’t even know it.

And so no matter what, we wanted to make sure that every time you interview somebody, every time you interact with them, when they hear your business, they know who you are. Don’t forget that that is a very lasting shadow. And so the one thing I’d wanna say to you is don’t underestimate the importance of your impact on people, including those that may be prospective employees or those who work for you or move on or whatever. It’s a huge element in how you treat them and how you show up and how it comes out.

Don’t Google Your Employment Problems

AliceAnne: Yeah. Susan, one last thing before we move to Erin. I’m in a forum with other childcare owners and directors, and this woman posted, or I guess I’m assuming, it might not have been a woman, but this member posted anonymously that she had an employee that was badmouthing her, reporting her to licensing on false complaints and things like that. The whole group was like, “Cut her loose. Let her go. You do not want that.” And she responds, “I can’t let her go because she’s good at her job.”

Susan: Well, that’s the pickle, AliceAnne. That also could be retaliatory. I think that’s a great example of, you’re gonna have the emotional response, then you’re gonna have to have the logical response, and then you’ve gotta untangle a very complex situation. Because that can also be an opportunity as a business owner to learn something and understand what’s underneath that.

And oftentimes I find that when people are behaving that way, there’s probably something underneath with them. And that’s where we go back to what we were talking about earlier, right? The whole person. Sometimes people are not being seen in other ways, and you as their boss or leader, their employer, you’re getting the essence of people. They’re spending the majority of their time with you. And so you’re gonna see all sorts of stuff come out. We know, right? It’s a relationship.

AliceAnne: Well, I will drop your link in that forum and say, “Hey, you might wanna reach out to this lady.”

Susan: Thank you.

Elizabeth: I was just gonna say, isn’t that such a great demonstration of why people need Susan, so that you don’t have to turn to the Facebook group? But you can go directly to the expert who’s able to understand the emotional and the objective and the business and be your consultant.

AliceAnne: So the plug there is don’t go to Facebook. Go to the Leading Lady Hub, and you will get the right resources.

Susan: Yes, or Google. Gosh. And please don’t Google your employment problems or ChatGPT it, please, please, please, please, please.

Elizabeth: Yeah, or your nutrition needs. I would plug that, too.

Susan: Yes. Spot on.

Erin on Integrating Faith and Business

AliceAnne: Last but definitely not least, Erin. Because you’re a business coach who focuses on faith-based women, you touch so many areas. You touch the operations. I think that we all could say, well, I’ll just go back to it, it’s all connected. And our spirituality, and I’m not saying you have to be a Christian, but our spirituality and what we are rooted in is the foundation of how we show up.

Erin: Absolutely.

AliceAnne: And so you bring kind of a unique twist to that. So tell us more.

Erin: Yeah, so I’ve been a business owner since 2010. I had a very successful multi-level marketing business. And for me, when I hit a wall in 2014 as the driver, striver, achievement chaser that I had been my whole life, I didn’t know where to go, and I reached out to a mentor, and she said two things to me. I call her the velvet hammer, because she’s Katharine Hepburn, but she delivers it. And she said, “You don’t know who you are or whose you are.”

In other words, you don’t know where you’re tethered. You are tethered to yourself. You are tethered to the world’s definitions of success and achievement and all the things. And so then you’re keeping this pace that is dependent on, let’s hope the world never moves the goalpost. And we all know that the world moves.

And so when we’ve wrapped our identity there, when we’ve tethered ourselves to that, we are always subject to the shifting sands. And therefore, one day we’re very successful, and the next day we feel like a complete failure because we’re not living up to what the next goal is. And so that happened for me at age 46, in 2014.

And for me, I looked up from being face down on the Berber carpet, literally, and I found Jesus. And what that did is it really shifted how I view and do business, because I began to understand, very much like the Strategic Wheel, that A, it was not about me, and B, he had made me ambitious, but I didn’t have to buy into the way the world hustles and the way the world does things.

And so the way this all connects from my perspective to the Strategic Wheel is then I had to take a look at, how am I taking care of myself? How am I operationally? How are my systems and processes in place? Where am I running around like a chicken with my head cut off to get everything done? And whose standards am I living up to?

And so as a result of the shifting, and what I call the pruning that went on after that conversation in 2014, in 2018 I started to have conversations with women who had established high five, six, seven-figure businesses, but they felt very empty and unfulfilled, and they couldn’t put their finger on it.

And these were women of faith. These are women who went to church. These are women who believed in God. But they separated their faith from their business. Because their faith community doesn’t understand business, right? We know. We’re entrepreneurs. Not everybody understands, not everybody gets what we do. And then their business community sort of looked at them sideways when they were talking about, “Well, I prayed about this,” or, “I feel like God is saying for me to go this way.”

So this is where he placed me, and I started coaching these women. And what I wish I had had at the time when I started my business originally was something like the Hub. Where can I find all of the resources and all of the people, instead of Google searching all over the place? How do I find a great coach, or how do I find someone that can help me, if this were the case, with HR challenges? Or where is my mental health community, or all of these things? Which is why the Hub, I think, is so needed.

And the fact that you have worked personally, AliceAnne, with every one of us experts is such a testament to what you’re bringing forward to women everywhere in business. So what I bring to this is this lens of, if you are a woman of faith, how are you sort of wringing yourself out to keep up, to go to the next level, to never enjoy the fruits of your labor because you hit the goal and you’re immediately like, “Okay, what’s next?”

I wanna help you slow down, and so I help you do that through a process of redefining hustle. And what I mean by that is, listen, we’re achievers. The hustle adrenalizes us. I love to be in motion. However, we can do this in a way that emulates Jesus’s model, which is to work with intention and to work with purpose, to work with a sense of timing, but to always seek our Father first.

That includes how you are fueling your body. That includes how you are resting and working from a place of rest. Because the truth is, we were not made for anxious toil. Whatever you believe, you were not put on this earth to run yourself ragged. But you have a specific mission in the marketplace, and so where are you tethered as you’re walking out that mission?

So I do touch on, what does your strategy look like? How are you serving your clients? Who is your client? Are you in a period of refining or growing or maintaining? The world doesn’t wanna talk about, “Oh, this year I’m focused on maintaining my business.” Oh, no, no. The world wants you running at a pace that you can’t keep up with to grow, grow, grow. But what if this is a year that you just need to buckle down and maintain, right?

And so these are all the ways that I serve my clients, and I know from my clients that I provide them a safe space where they can talk about their faith, they can talk about business. Sometimes there’s tissues, sometimes there’s not. And a lot of times I deliver truth with grace, and it’s not always comfortable, but like a good coach, that’s what we do, right? Any of you, there’s information and there’s feedback that you give to your clients, and it’s not always beautiful, but this is part of the journey.

So I guess I do kind of fit around all of the areas of the Strategic Wheel. I like to say my gift is really helping you take the information out of your head and synthesize it, and allow Holy Spirit to have his lens on that, which sometimes means you create that big idea, and then you have to lay it down and surrender it, and that can be really hard. So that’s what I do.

Rooted in What You Believe

AliceAnne: I know when you and I first met, we kinda talked around it, and I wasn’t ready. I knew that we were supposed to work together, but I think I had this wall or this block up because I was very private about my faith, and I didn’t see how my faith had anything to do with my business. People don’t need to know what I believe in to connect with me. That’s what I thought.

But I remember coming to you and saying, “I’m doing the things. I’ve built businesses. I’m doing all the things, but there just is something missing. I feel untethered. I don’t feel connected to anything. Why am I doing this?” And for me, it was my faith. It was pulling it together.

I recognize that that’s not for everyone, and I so appreciate, Erin, that as an ambassador, you recognize you’re not for everyone either. There are very specific women that are looking to merge their faith and their business together, and you do that beautifully.

As you were talking, I was thinking about one of the greatest employees I ever had. She came to work for me right after 9/11, and she was a Muslim woman, and she had gone to many childcare centers and nobody would hire her because of her faith. And she came to my little town outside of Minneapolis, my little teeny preschool, and I offered her the job, and she’s like, “You’re offering me the job? Do you see me? Do you see my head wrap? Do you see all of these things?”

And I just looked at her, and because I could see that she was so rooted in her faith and the beauty of it, the beauty of her faith and who she really was living to be, I could just see she was a grounded, rooted person. And so what pulled at me is that it doesn’t matter what you believe in, but if you believe in something, it has to be part of who you are in everything that you show up in.

Erin: Yeah. And I think one of the challenges that people run into is maybe they aren’t serving a faith community. I mean, here’s the deal, not all of my clients work only with Christians, right? But how can you show up? If you’re a copywriter, you’re not gonna change your client’s words to put Jesus in there, but that’s not the point. The point is how do you show up and reflect that with calm, with peace, where you can step into your client’s tornado and you get to be the calming force that helps them see through that fog or whatever.

You don’t have to be faith forward in your business to work with me. I mean, you’d have to be Christian, ‘cause I’m clear on that. That’s what God gave me. But my point is, you don’t have to hide your faith and think that you have to only serve people who believe what you do. No. This is what’s wrong with the world today, ‘cause we just need everybody to believe only what we believe, right? But no, you don’t have to do that, and I love that you saw beyond that, because that’s what we are to do, right?

AliceAnne: Yeah. As a Christian woman, we know those Christians that are like, “Oh, she’s different than me. There’s no way.” But I think what my faith has taught me is to be rooted in who I am and what my values are and what I believe, and to show up as the best version of that, and to be a testament of that, of who I am.

Erin: Yeah.

AliceAnne: And I respect how you show up, too, Erin. Unapologetically flying your Jesus flag and not pressuring anyone else, but just saying, “Hey, if you believe too, and you want that connection, here I am.” I’ll open it up to Susan and Elizabeth. You both know Erin well, so I’d love your thoughts.

What We Admire in Each Other

Susan: Yeah, so if I could start, one of the things, Erin, I happen to be a blog stalker of yours, just so you know. So if you didn’t know that, here I am outing myself. This is a great opportunity, I’m telling you now so you can hear it. I had taken a screenshot of it, so I was looking for it on my phone.

So one of the things that you wrote, what is this called? This is talking about the blog for high-achieving women, right? The five transformative business strategies for Christian entrepreneurs. Well, one of the things that was really important for me when I started my business is something that you wrote in the third piece, right? It was just talking about the integrity that basically paves the way, and one of my words for this year is around faith.

And one of the things I’ve realized in my life, Erin, is that whenever things got really tough, I knew I needed to remember that I needed to rely on my faith. That was gonna help me get through things, and that is so evident in my business, especially as I’ve been trying to grow this. And as AliceAnne told me the other day, it’s the messy middle a lot of times, right? There’s not always gonna be an answer, but if you remember that element of your faith, it is what gets me through the hardest stuff.

And so I know when you speak your messages, they’re like food. A different type of food, Elizabeth, right? A different type of food for me that feels nourishing. And the thing that relates specifically for me about this piece on integrity and what you were talking about in there is that when we were doing business with other people, too, I know when I started my business, I said to myself, “There are things about how I charge, how I do business, the type of people that I want to be my clients.” The whole idea of rising is about being better. It’s about, you have another opportunity, when you know better, to do better.

And so I think that a lot of the things that I read and hear from you talk about exactly those value systems. You talk about being transparent with your employees and customers about your values. I know for me, if I’m talking to you and you’re not aligned with doing the right thing by your people, we’re not gonna be a fit, bottom line.

And so I think your message really helps me remember that there’s no way you can do business with someone like myself if these things aren’t in place, and I think we need that message to remind us sometimes, ‘cause we will get off-kilter. Sometimes we’ll lose our way. That is what happens, right? I know you’ll say sometimes, “Satan’s coming for me, and he wants to take me off, and I need to get right back on there.”

And so I just find a lot of power in your words. I’m more of a reader, and so I like to look through those things. And so for me, every time I hear you talk, every time we interact, it feels like you’re there for a moment that I needed, and I feel like that also is the spirit talking to me in other moments. So I just wanted you to know that.

Erin: Thank you so much. I’m glad that that blesses you, for sure.

Susan: It does.

Elizabeth: I love that you outed yourself as the blog stalker. Still chuckling about that.

Erin: I love that I have a blog stalker.

Elizabeth: We should all have a blog stalker. I agree. You said it, Erin’s kind of like nourishment for the soul. I just have such tremendous respect for you, Erin, as a person, and as a leader, and as a strategic thinker. And every time I’m with you, you just have an energy that reminds me, I see you as the roots in the storm. You’re always reminding me to come back inward and to sort of be strong and stand tall, and the things are gonna swirl around you, but this is the core and the center.

I’ve had the opportunity to go to at least a few of your retreats. I think that they are deeply reflective experiences, and I so admire the way that you lead a room and provide opportunity for people to reflect, and go deep, and sort of probe inward. You and I have had many conversations at sort of the strategic business level, and I kind of see you as marrying it all, and it really is a gift for anyone who aligns with that. It’s just an opportunity, I think, to be in the space with you.

Erin: Thank you. I love that.

Elizabeth: And actually, if I might say, AliceAnne, you were talking about how we’re all so different, but I’m so honored to be here with all three of you today, because I admire what all of you do so deeply, and it’s just an honor to be alongside you guys, honestly.

AliceAnne: Yeah. I feel the same way.

Susan: Likewise. I feel the same way.

AliceAnne: Yeah. I mean, Elizabeth, you are our… What did I call you? The first year we worked together, you were an unintentional warrior. You know? It’s hard to go against diet culture. It’s hard to step up and say, “Actually, that’s a whole industry that makes billions of dollars off women feeling bad about themselves.”

And it’s hard, Erin, to step up and say, “I’m a believer.” You wouldn’t think it’s hard, but it’s hard. I was afraid I would lose business. Why I thought that, I have no idea. Stand up and say, “Hey, I believe in something. I stand for something.” I think if anything, even if people aren’t Christian, they look at me and just respect me more that I stand in that.

And Susan, you force us to have hard conversations. You do. Necessary conversations. Compliance is such a bland word, but it keeps us focused on doing the right thing and removing the emotion from it so that everyone wins.

Susan: Yes.

AliceAnne: So I’ll just echo that, Elizabeth. I’m honored, I’m humbled, and I’m so thrilled to have created a tool that gives women access to all of you, because you have profoundly changed my life, and I know that you will do that for the members of our community.

Erin: Absolutely.

The Leading Lady Business Hub (or Hug)

AliceAnne: Any closing words before we wrap it up today? Thank you so much for joining me.

Susan: One of the things I would just say about this Hub, AliceAnne, is I remember you sharing about your vision for it. When you start your business, right, you’re trying to figure out where to go, who you can trust, you’re trying to be the sponge. I remember, same for me. I started my business on LegalZoom, and then I’m like, “What now? I don’t know.”

And so I think the thing about the Leading Lady Hub is you can go to a trusted source with vetted people. I remember, AliceAnne, you don’t just let anybody in, right? These are people who you have worked with, that you trust. Your word is everything. That’s really how we all come together, right? That’s how we’re leaning on each other.

I think the Hub, to me, is almost like another element of nourishment, in that you can go to a place where even if you feel lost or you’re unsure, you can just go there, not even knowing what you’re looking for, and you can just look around and do your own version of some quiet stalking, and you’re gonna get information and you’re gonna be empowered.

‘Cause I think that’s the other thing with this Hub, is sometimes women are afraid to say to another woman that they’re seeing who’s doing well, “Hey, can I talk to you about this?” And it’s like, “No, we are here for you.” But I think the Hub gives a little bit of an introduction, a warm intro to come and hear. Let us share with you our gifts, and we invite you to be part of our community. You’re here for a reason, and we wanna support you.

And I think that this Hub allows kind of a hug, right? It allows you to be surrounded by this information. It’s being brought to you in a way that is here to support you, and I think that it’s a great way to bring that to anybody. I think nobody can lose from being part of this. This is a must-have.

AliceAnne: Yeah. And we’re going on record now. It’s no longer called the Leading Lady Business Hub. It’s called the Leading Lady Business Hug.

Susan: Yes. Yes, yes, yes. Who doesn’t need a hug anyway, right? We wanna be surrounded. And we have to be. We have to be surrounded. It takes everything, all-encompassing, to make success, right? Your people, your faith, your everything. Everything you put in, that comes out. It’s all kind of there together. It all works together in the wheel.

AliceAnne: Yeah. So good. In the wheel. It all comes back to it.

Erin: In the wheel.

AliceAnne: It’s the wheel. All right, Erin, close us out.

Erin: I’m gonna close you out. So listen, as a woman in business, we often think we have to copy what other people have done, and there are certainly ways that you can admire what someone has done and learn from them and implement things into your business.

But sometimes you feel like you’re all alone, and that you have to be like everybody else, and that you can’t really do it your way because that might be the wrong way. Whatever you believe, God made you ambitious. He gave you this business, but he didn’t make you to follow like a lemming. He didn’t make you to do business as usual. The Hub is a place where you can interact with people who believe that, who know that being a business owner, being an entrepreneur, it can be a lot.

AliceAnne: It’s a lot.

Erin: But you’re not alone, and in the Hub are women and resources who value integrity, honesty, truth, excellence, quality, et cetera, et cetera.

Elizabeth: And also people who get it. Whatever struggle you’re having, some version of all of us have had that same struggle, and that’s why there’s so many great resources in there.

AliceAnne: Yeah. And it is loaded with resources, and I say all the time that the women in the Hub, specifically the ambassadors, the experts in there, they have gone through, are going through, or will go through what you’re going through. We’re all in it together and continuing to learn. Even as ambassadors, we’re continuing to learn from each other right alongside you. So, all right. Until next time, take the lead.

Thanks for tuning in for another episode of the Leading Lady podcast. You can find all of the links and information mentioned in this episode at www.leadinglady-coaching.com. If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to follow the show so you don’t miss any future episodes. And while you’re there, it would mean the world to me if you would take a few seconds and leave me an honest review. This will allow me to be able to help other high-achieving women find inspiration, connection, and develop strategies to live and lead with purpose and intention. See you here next week.