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What if failure isn’t the problem — but how leaders respond to failure is?

In this episode of Aspire for More with Erin, Erin sits down with Jacob Brown, former professional football player turned keynote speaker and author, to unpack what it really means to fail forward — and why fear-based leadership is quietly burning out capable leaders across industries.

This conversation goes far beyond motivation. It’s about identity, recovery, and leadership capacity.

Jacob shares his personal journey through professional sports, addiction, homelessness, and rebuilding his life — and how those experiences shaped his Fail Forward philosophy and his powerful concept of Avocado Leadership: leading from your core, not from fear.

Together, Erin and Jacob explore why:

• Protection keeps leaders stuck
• Failure is information, not a verdict
• Recovery speed matters more than perfection
• Leadership requires softness, strength, and grounded boundaries

If you’re a leader who cares deeply, feels the weight of responsibility, and knows you’re capable of more — this episode will meet you right where you are.

In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

• Why failing forward isn’t failing more — it’s recovering faster
• How fear-based leadership turns leaders into bottlenecks
• The hidden cost of over-functioning and self-protection
• Why shame only has power in silence
• How to separate your worth from outcomes
• What Avocado Leadership really means:
  • Soft enough to connect
  • Strong enough to hold the line
  • Grounded enough to stay true to your core
• How speaking goals out loud creates momentum and opportunity
• Why growth doesn’t come from pressure — it comes from capacity

Memorable Moments & Quotes:

• “Failure is information, not a verdict.”
• “Protection is what keeps leaders stuck.”
• “Shame only has power in silence.”
• “Failing forward isn’t failing more. It’s recovering faster.”
• “Growth doesn’t come from pressure. It comes from capacity.”

Why This Conversation Matters:

Too many leaders are exhausted — not because they don’t care, but because they care too much in fear-based systems.

This episode isn’t about hype or hustle.
 It’s about learning how to:

• Trust yourself again
• Lead without carrying everything alone
• Build leadership capacity that actually sustains results

This is the work Erin does every day with leaders through coaching, mentoring, and speaking — helping them stop protecting themselves long enough to grow.

Learn more about the 100% Leader here

New ED's Playbook to Creating and IMpactful Community Cultrue

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If you’ve ever felt the immediate urge to jump in, fix the problem, and make everything better — this episode is for you.

In senior living leadership, the instinct to rescue is common. When someone comes to you overwhelmed or stressed, your body reacts before your brain does. Your chest tightens. Your heart races. You feel the pressure to act fast.

That reaction isn’t leadership instinct — it’s anxiety.

In this follow-up episode to The Questions That Build Leaders, Erin explores the skill underneath asking better questions: learning how to breathe through the anxiety of fixing, rescuing, and over-functioning.

This is a mentoring-style episode that teaches leaders how to pause, regulate their nervous system, and stay present long enough to help others think, grow, and solve problems for themselves — without guilt, shame, or withdrawal of support.

As Erin shares throughout the episode:
 Every time you help someone solve their own problem, your influence grows.

🎧 In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

• Why the urge to fix feels urgent — and why it’s often anxiety, not leadership
• How rescuing creates short-term relief but long-term dependence
• The simple one-breath pause that interrupts over-functioning
• How to respond instead of react when problems come to you
• Why fixing soothes the leader but doesn’t build confidence in others
• How asking questions actually multiplies support instead of withholding it
• The connection between calm leadership, influence, and capacity
• How to stop being the bottleneck and start building leaders
• Why leadership requires awareness more than urgency

🌱 Key Takeaway

You don’t have to fix everything to be a great leader.

Sometimes the most powerful thing you can do is stay present in the discomfort long enough to let someone find their own answer. That pause — even one breath — is where confidence, ownership, and leadership capacity begin to grow.

📣 Resources & Next Steps

If this episode resonates with you, you may also enjoy:
 🎧 The Questions That Build Leaders (previous episode)

💡 Erin also teaches these skills inside the 100% Leader Program, where leaders learn how to build capacity, confidence, and influence without burning out.
Details and links are available in the show notes.

🤝 Let’s Keep the Conversation Going

If this episode helped you:

• Share it with a leader who carries too much
• Listen to the previous episode as a companion
• Send Erin a message with your biggest takeaway

As always, aspire for more for you , knowing you’re already enough.

Learn more about the 100% Leader here

New ED's Playbook to Creating and IMpactful Community Cultrue

Connect with me on LinkedIn


Follow me on Facebook where I educate, equip and empower family members how to proactively care for their elderly loved ones.

Follow me on Instagram where I educate, equip and empower family members how to proactively care for their elderly loved ones.

Join my email list where I will lift you up, and send tactile advice weekly to support you to grow your experience in your senior living career.

Send me your feedback on this episode!

Learn more about the 100% Leader here

New ED's Playbook to Creating and IMpactful Community Cultrue

Connect with me on LinkedIn


Follow me on Facebook where I educate, equip and empower family members how to proactively care for their elderly loved ones.

Follow me on Instagram where I educate, equip and empower family members how to proactively care for their elderly loved ones.

Join my email list where I will lift you up, and send tactile advice weekly to support you to grow your experience in your senior living career.

Send me your feedback on this episode!

In this powerful and deeply personal episode, Erin unpacks the hidden relationship between resentment, worthiness, emotional capacity, and gratitude. You’ll learn why hustling for validation keeps leaders stuck, why gratitude is NOT soft — it’s strategic — and how "stacking the evidence" can rewire your identity, rebuild your confidence, and protect you from burnout.

If you've ever struggled to feel proud of what you’ve accomplished… or if you've been waiting for someone else to notice your work… this episode will shift something inside you.

What You’ll Learn:

• Why gratitude is the antidote to resentment
• How leaders numb themselves without realizing it
• Why “hustling for worthiness” keeps you stuck
• The neuroscience behind gratitude and identity
• The “Stack the Evidence” tool that builds confidence
• How to grow emotional capacity in high-pressure roles
• Why gratitude makes you a leader people want to follow

Key Concepts & Takeaways:

• The opposite of gratitude is resentment — and resentment is unprocessed disappointment
• You can’t feel joy when you’re still clinging to anger
• Gratitude is not soft; it rewires your brain for clarity and confidence
• Your brain believes what you rehearse
• You can stack evidence of failure… or evidence of growth
• Gratitude creates expansion, capacity, and alignment
• Leadership influence grows when leaders notice the right things

Reflection Questions:

1. What resentment am I still carrying that is blocking gratitude?
2. What evidence have I ignored about my success or growth?
3. What am I grateful for today that I used to pray for?

Links & Next Steps:

• Join the January 100% Leader Cohort
• Book a December Clarity Call
• Subscribe to Erin’s Saturday Morning Email

Learn more about the 100% Leader here

New ED's Playbook to Creating and IMpactful Community Cultrue

Connect with me on LinkedIn


Follow me on Facebook where I educate, equip and empower family members how to proactively care for their elderly loved ones.

Follow me on Instagram where I educate, equip and empower family members how to proactively care for their elderly loved ones.

Join my email list where I will lift you up, and send tactile advice weekly to support you to grow your experience in your senior living career.

Send me your feedback on this episode!

Over 80% of state reportables in Alabama communities are due to falls—and they’re burning out your teams. In this powerful episode, Erin sits down with Joseph Ross of iWatch Live to uncover how their 24/7 live nurse monitoring system is revolutionizing resident safety without costing communities a dime.

You’ll learn:

• Why fall-related incidents are the #1 claim in senior living—and how to prevent them
• What makes leaders resist technology—and how to overcome it
• How this tech has extended resident length of stay by 3+ months
• What makes caregivers feel empowered and safer at work
• Why innovation isn’t about “more”—it’s about working smarter

Whether you're burned out or building a new community from scratch, this is the kind of tool and episode that might just change everything.

Learn more about the 100% Leader here

New ED's Playbook to Creating and IMpactful Community Cultrue

Connect with me on LinkedIn


Follow me on Facebook where I educate, equip and empower family members how to proactively care for their elderly loved ones.

Follow me on Instagram where I educate, equip and empower family members how to proactively care for their elderly loved ones.

Join my email list where I will lift you up, and send tactile advice weekly to support you to grow your experience in your senior living career.

Send me your feedback on this episode!

What if burnout isn’t failure—but feedback?

In this deeply moving and practical conversation, Dr. Kimber Del Valle, psychologist, author, and creator of The Fierce + Gentle Method, joins Erin to explore how our nervous system shapes every aspect of leadership, energy, and resilience.

Together, they unpack how chronic urgency, unhealed stress, and emotional triggers show up in our leadership—and how awareness, presence, and regulation can restore capacity and peace.

From real-world examples in senior living and healthcare to Dr. Kimber’s powerful personal story of loss and renewal, this episode will remind you that your body isn’t your enemy; it’s your greatest guide back to balance.

Key Takeaways

• 🔹 Burnout isn’t exhaustion—it’s a loss of capacity. Learn to recognize when your “gas pedal” and “brake” are out of sync.
• 🔹 Regulation is a leadership skill. Awareness of your nervous system directly affects your decision-making, empathy, and boundaries.
• 🔹 Emotional urgency is real. Especially in healthcare, leaders must learn to pause before reacting to triggers.
• 🔹 You matter. I matter. We matter. Dr. Kimber’s framework for empathy, boundaries, and collective healing.
• 🔹 The power of awe. How noticing beauty, nature, and small moments resets your nervous system and rebuilds capacity.

Follow Dr. Kimber Del Valle here

Website: Click here

Learn more about the 100% Leader here

New ED's Playbook to Creating and IMpactful Community Cultrue

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Follow me on Facebook where I educate, equip and empower family members how to proactively care for their elderly loved ones.

Follow me on Instagram where I educate, equip and empower family members how to proactively care for their elderly loved ones.

Join my email list where I will lift you up, and send tactile advice weekly to support you to grow your experience in your senior living career.

Send me your feedback on this episode!

Transitions are where leadership is most visible, and most vulnerable.

In this episode, Erin shares her most personal stories and leadership strategies for guiding families, residents, and teams through the emotional, unpredictable, and critical moments of change.

You’ll learn:

• The TRUE framework for leading transitions with compassion
• Why the last impression matters more than the first
• How unmet expectations—not clinical failures—drive most litigation
• What to say when you don’t have all the answers
• How to equip your team to respond with empathy, not avoidance

Whether it’s a move-out, a hospitalization, or a shift in care levels, this episode gives you the tools to lead through it with grace—and turn emotional moments into lasting loyalty.

Learn more about the 100% Leader here

New ED's Playbook to Creating and IMpactful Community Cultrue

Connect with me on LinkedIn


Follow me on Facebook where I educate, equip and empower family members how to proactively care for their elderly loved ones.

Follow me on Instagram where I educate, equip and empower family members how to proactively care for their elderly loved ones.

Join my email list where I will lift you up, and send tactile advice weekly to support you to grow your experience in your senior living career.

Send me your feedback on this episode!

In this deeply personal episode of Aspire for More with Erin, Erin shares a raw reflection on her upcoming keynote and the lessons that built it. She unpacks how trauma, avoidance, and over-functioning quietly shape leadership—and how facing our discomfort is the real path to growth.

You’ll hear:

• Why 34% of the senior living workforce carries trauma that impacts communication and performance.
• How avoidance and over-functioning masquerade as productivity.
• Why “100%” is not a metric—it’s a mindset.
• The choice every leader faces: react or respond.
• The hard truth that what we avoid will eventually control us.

This episode is a reminder that growth isn’t about perfection or hustle. It’s about awareness, reflection, and choosing to believe you are enough.

Learn more about the 100% Leader here

New ED's Playbook to Creating and IMpactful Community Cultrue

Connect with me on LinkedIn


Follow me on Facebook where I educate, equip and empower family members how to proactively care for their elderly loved ones.

Follow me on Instagram where I educate, equip and empower family members how to proactively care for their elderly loved ones.

Join my email list where I will lift you up, and send tactile advice weekly to support you to grow your experience in your senior living career.

Send me your feedback on this episode!

Speak Like a Visionary Leader: 5 Communication Shifts That Change Everything

Description:
Communication isn’t just how you talk—it’s how you lead, build trust, and influence every room you walk into. In this solo episode, Erin breaks down 5 powerful communication shifts that will help you speak like a visionary, not just a manager. Whether you're leading a morning stand-up or navigating a tough HR conversation, these tools will elevate your clarity, confidence, and leadership impact.

You’ll learn how to:

• Speak to lead, not manage
• Regulate emotions to keep your message clear
• Use fewer words with more weight
• Ask better questions to unlock team growth
• Stop oversharing and start inspiring

This is your roadmap to leading with your voice, and multiplying your influence.

Learn more about the 100% Leader here

New ED's Playbook to Creating and IMpactful Community Cultrue

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Follow me on Facebook where I educate, equip and empower family members how to proactively care for their elderly loved ones.

Follow me on Instagram where I educate, equip and empower family members how to proactively care for their elderly loved ones.

Join my email list where I will lift you up, and send tactile advice weekly to support you to grow your experience in your senior living career.

Send me your feedback on this episode!

Most leaders think they have a content problem. In reality, they have a communication problem.

In this episode of Aspire for More with Erin, I sit down with Eva Daniel — founder of The Speak Shop, former speechwriter for Dave Ramsey, and one of the Top 20 Communication Experts in the U.S. — to unpack the power of words, storytelling, and clarity in leadership.

Eva believes communication isn’t a “soft skill.” It’s the leadership skill that determines whether your team trusts you, your message lands, and your influence grows.

Together, we explore practical tools and habits that help leaders move from nervous or unclear to confident and compelling. Whether you’re leading a team meeting or standing on a stage, this episode will help you communicate in a way that people remember — and act on.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• Why clarity is confidence and how leaders can eliminate confusion in their messaging
• The 50-25-25 Rule that will change how you prepare for presentations
• Why every meeting is a stage — and how to show up with presence and impact
• The surprising power of pauses, grounding, and even potato chips for nervous speakers
• How to distill your message into a North Star sentence people will never forget
• Why leaders don’t have to be naturally charismatic — communication is a skill anyone can learn

Resources & Links:

• Connect with Eva Daniel and The Speak Shop → [click here]
• Join the conversation with me on LinkedIn → [click here]
• Subscribe to Aspire for More with Erin wherever you listen to podcasts

Learn more about the 100% Leader here

New ED's Playbook to Creating and IMpactful Community Cultrue

Connect with me on LinkedIn


Follow me on Facebook where I educate, equip and empower family members how to proactively care for their elderly loved ones.

Follow me on Instagram where I educate, equip and empower family members how to proactively care for their elderly loved ones.

Join my email list where I will lift you up, and send tactile advice weekly to support you to grow your experience in your senior living career.