Meet Erica Rankin

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Erica Rankin a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Erica, so appreciative of you coming on today to talk with us about a topic that is important but rarely talked about – overcoming bankruptcy. Can you talk to us about your story and how you overcame bankruptcy and managed to build a happy, fulfilling and thriving life and career after bankruptcy?

The hardest part about bankruptcy isn’t necessarily how to ‘bounce-back’ financially from it, but rather the heaviness and shame you feel before, and during the bankruptcy period. It has such a stigma attached to it and I personally was trying to do everything to avoid it – even though it was the best solution for me. Long story short, I started a cookie dough business in 2019 and took on a significant amount of debt through several creditors, I also raised money from investors. This year, 2024, for a variety of reasons, I had to shut down the company and file bankruptcy.

Before I made the decision to file (right around April fools day – and at the time I wish it was a joke), I redefined the word bankruptcy. My bankruptcy meant that I took big swings, I tried my best, and unfortunately there were things out of my control that led to this outcome – not at all my fault. I took some time to research more about famous entrepreneurs that have also done the same thing (Walt Disney, 50 Cent, Milton Hershey, Donald Trump, the list goes on), and it really shifted my perspective. ”

Rather than keeping it a secret and holding shame around it, I share it publicly through my social media and on my podcast ‘You’re Not a Bad Person’ which is all around self-acceptance & personal growth. Since I announced my bankruptcy I’ve been able to help other people going through the exact same thing.

So in summary, I overcame bankruptcy by using it as a means to help others.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

Throughout my 4 years of building my cookie dough business Bro Dough, that I shut down in April, I learned a lot about myself. It was my first shot at being an entrepreneur, and I had no idea what I was getting myself into. One particular aspect of my business I fell in love with; marketing. I was able to build a community of nearly 300k people organically simply by sharing my story authentically online – and not just the highlights. We’re talking meltdowns in the commercial kitchen at 4AM and packaging screw-ups, mental health struggles… I wanted to make others feel less alone in their journey (because it’s really, really, hard). Social media often times paints an unrealistic picture of what entrepreneurship is like. I’m five years in and still drive a 2014 beat-up Jeep Cherokee (god bless Henry, he’s been through it all).

I recently started doing personal branding consulting (which sounds boring) but I believe I was put here on this earth to help people grow into the most authentic versions of themselves. So essentially, I teach people how to do that through my company MAGNITUDE, and just recently launched a personal branding course. It gives people all of the tools to build an authentic brand online.

But what I LOVE to do & what has been a huge passion project for me, is my podcast You’re Not a Bad Person, which I just launched this past summer. It’s all about owning your story and embracing ALL parts of you, even the parts that you may struggle to accept. I felt like for so long I was a bad person because of my controversial past – I was in the sex work industry on and off for several years in my early 20s (nobody knew) and I’ve struggled with many areas of my life. I want to be the person that I needed when I was going through all of those hard things.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Resilience is definitely the leading quality that I had through my entire journey of entrepreneurship. There were more difficult days, than good days, and you have to show up no matter what. I’ve always been a solopreneur & never had someone to push me on the hard days, other than myself. The days when you REALLY don’t want to show up, are the days that can make all the difference. Implement non-negotiables into your day so you can keep somewhat of a routine.

Curiosity is the next one; you need to ask questions and get curious about anything & everything related to what you’re doing. My advice would be to put yourself out there and show up in environments where you can learn the most – this could be on LinkedIn; I started building on there in 2021 and was messaging CEO’s/founders of 9 figure companies, and some of them ended up being mentors to me. Don’t worry about rejection – so what if they ignore you or say no. Next. Set zero expectations and just press send.

Delegation is the last one, that I really struggled with. If there are small tasks that are taking time away from you that you can easily delegate, do it. People get stuck because they try to do everything. And if you can’t delegate it to a person, look at tools or systems that can automate it. A great exercise to do is create a chart with 3 columns and start populating each one; Automate, Eliminate, and Delegate.

Before we go, any advice you can share with people who are feeling overwhelmed?

If I’m feeling overwhelmed, I do the opposite of what I used to do; I completely unplug for an entire day. I call them ‘inward’ days. I’ve been having a lot of these lately, and I think more people should invest more time into themselves, simply by being alone – just you, and your thoughts. We live in a society that is highly stimulated; music, podcasts, tv/netlix, computers, work, etc. How often do we really go inward?

My inward days consist of moderate exercise; like yoga, or a walk (with no music or podcasts) and a lot of journalling. Overwhelm comes from our thoughts, and the key is to untangle them and prevent them from stacking and becoming this monster we’re afraid to look at. Putting pen to paper helps me make sense of a lot of things in my life, and I’m also a huge therapy advocate.

Also, if I’m feeling anxious or overwhelmed, I ask myself: “when was the last time you touched grass?” and if I can’t remember, I go outside. We need to reconnect with mother nature & ourselves more often than we think.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.ericarankin.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/acceptingerica/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/acceptingerica/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@yourenotabadperson
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@acceptingerica