We recently had the chance to connect with Erica Rankin and have shared our conversation below.
Good morning Erica, it’s such a great way to kick off the day – I think our readers will love hearing your stories, experiences and about how you think about life and work. Let’s jump right in? What do the first 90 minutes of your day look like?
My days used to start the second my alarm went off – immediately opening my emails, and diving into my days work. Until one day I woke up to a cease a desist from a large company & it sent me into a spiral, not even 5 minutes after waking. I’m seven years into entrepreneurship, and instead of letting the day run me, I run the day. This is done by intentional mornings; not rushed ones. I usually get in an hour of movement, whether it be yoga, pilates, or a morning walk. Then I have breakfast right after (usually high in protein + fiber to keep me full & fuelled). I also don’t touch my phone notifications for the first hour after waking. I find that slower mornings where I prioritize my health, allow me to perform my best in my work day. It wasn’t always like this, and it took some time to get here – but this is what works for me. Is every day perfect? No. Absolutely not. I am a digital nomad with no ‘home’, so life can be pretty chaotic, throwing my routines off. But when I can, I prioritize intentional mornings, and I suggest every entrepreneur do something in the morning that isn’t work related, before diving into work.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Erica, and I am a serial entrepreneur who has failed more than succeeded. But there’s a lot more beneath the ‘failures’ that have shaped me into the person I am today. I am the co-founder of a tech startup called Doozi, which is the next Tiktok for travel. You will be able to discover, plan, and book your next adventure in one place, all through short form videos. Whether it be your next meal, your next holiday, or a cool coffee shop – you can find it on doozi. We’ve been working on this for the past year, and it’s set to launch in January. And why a travel app, you may ask? My co-founder Gillian (who has been my best friend for 5 years) have gone on countless trips; we love to travel. Travel is the one thing that has brought us closer. The one thing that has been frustrating for us is travel discovery & planning; we use Tiktok but it’s messy because it isn’t travel specific. We don’t want to see dog videos when we’re trying to find a local restaurant. So that’s why doozi was born; it’s not only a place for travellers to discover new spots, but an ecosystem for travel creators to build on.
Now I’ll take my business hat off and get out of pitch mode – because at the end of the day, every entrepreneur is a human. Before doozi, I had a protein cookie dough company called Bro Dough, and scaled it from my kitchen into hundreds of stores nationally. In 2024, everything came crashing down, and I had to file bankruptcy and shut down the company. Was it hard? Hardest thing I went through – mostly because I felt like I let people down. Myself, investors, my team, and myself.
Now switching gears here… before pursuing entrepreneurship, I fell into the sex work industry in my teens. I kept this a secret for over a decade, and last year I decided to publicly speak on my past. I also decided to share it with people close to me in my life.
My entire mission while I’m here, on this planet, is to show people that nothing – including your past – can eliminate or disqualify you from a life you want. You can start over at any time. You can face yourself (your whole self, not just the shiny parts) and accept all of you.
Everything mentioned here, I have documented publicly through social media in hopes of helping others on their self-discovery journey, because, let’s be honest – it’s messy, confusing, and can certainly feel isolating.
Yes I am an entrepreneur, but the businesses I build are vehicles to show others what is possible.
Great, so let’s dive into your journey a bit more. What’s a moment that really shaped how you see the world?
This is such an interesting question, because it’s travel related. In 2018, I was at rock bottom. I had just competed in my first bikini bodybuilding competition, and I was working a job I felt deeply unfulfilled in. On top of that, I had developed a severe eating disorder & fell into depression all while living at my parents, feeling totally lost.
I had never seen outside of my small town (of 25,000 people) but knew there was a world out there to explore, so I did what any early 20-something would do during an existential crisis; I booked a trip to Southeast Asia.
The moment where everything changed for me was on this trip; for some reason, God kept sending me entrepreneurs. Almost every person I was meeting, was an entrepreneur. Prior to this trip, I had never met one. To be frank, I didn’t know anyone could pursue entrepreneurship. For some reason, in my mind, I dismissed that as even a viable path I could take. I thought you needed parents who could open doors for you, or a business degree. But there I was, in Thailand, talking to a high school drop out who build a moving company and travels 6 months out of the year. And there I was in a mansion, built by a former lawyer, who had no real estate experience. I was shown over and over that it’s possible to do anything, in this lifetime (if you want it bad enough, that is). You don’t need credentials, or permission.
And the real pivotal moment for me; when I spoke to these entrepreneurs about what they did for a living, their faces would light up. I never saw anyone so happy about work. I realized that the Sunday scaries don’t have to exist.
What did suffering teach you that success never could?
We all want success, little do we know it’s the journey that actually shapes & builds you. If you want to experience 10/10 moments in your life, you are going to also have to experience the 1/10 moments, too. It’s inevitable. And those 1/10 moments can hit pretty hard.
But those moments also teach you the most about yourself, and what you’re capable of. Losing my first company in 2024 was one of the hardest things I’ve experienced. I put everything into it for over four years, didn’t pay myself a cent out of it, and tied my identity to it, heavily. The loss was transformational in more ways than one; it left me asking myself, “who is Erica, when everything is stripped away?”
When the business was doing well, I was doing well. When it wasn’t, you guess it… I was a WRECK. This is not a healthy or sustainable way to operate, and I think many entrepreneurs go through this (although, it’s hard to not tie yourself to your business).
Plant medicine, meditation, journalling, 12 hour walks, therapy… I tried everything to get through the loss. The loss taught me that I am more than my LinkedIn title, and the number in my bank account. I learned to not only separate myself from the work I do, but how to also reframe failure and setbacks. Failing doesn’t mean I am a failure. By definition, it is defined as ‘lack of success,’ whereas I define it as ‘courage to try.’ I understand that I cannot fail, unless I stop trying.
So that’s all to say, suffering has given me the ability to become stronger, more optimistic, and resilient.
Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. Where are smart people getting it totally wrong today?
This is something that I’ve actually been thinking about a lot lately… and this may actually be something you will disagree on (we’ll see).
I am still in the messy middle. I don’t have the big exit, or the business that has ‘made it.’
So, I perceive things a little differently than someone who has, let’s say, sold a company for 200M.
One of the most important things for me as a founder, is getting in the weeds of the business & actually talking to customers (or in my case, users) regularly. I think there is nothing more important than building a personable relationship with them & understanding their needs – it’s a not-so-secret hack. They are essentially giving you a blueprint for your business to succeed. Not only that, they are becoming cheerleaders for you/your company. If you take care of them, and show them you care, they’ll reciprocate. I also believe the founder should understand all aspects of their business. And to really know your business, you have to be the one in the weeds (not hiring a landscaping company, if you know what I mean)
Some founders choose to outsource/hire for the roles that they don’t want to do, right from the start. Which I think is a mistake. How do you be the best person to solve your customers problems, if you don’t talk to them? How do you hire someone, if you don’t know exactly what they should be doing, and how long it takes to do it?
Sure, if you have a ton of funding/capital to start a business, it can be helpful. But it can also delay, cost you more, and potentially destroy your business if everything is delegated too soon. My 2c.
Okay, so let’s keep going with one more question that means a lot to us: Have you ever gotten what you wanted, and found it did not satisfy you?
Going to dig up some old wounds for this question because it might be relatable (or may not be).
In my past, in my controversial line of work in my teens & early 20s, I was making the most money I ever have. I was getting attention, and my self-worth was heavily weighed on my appearance. Because of this, I had a ‘to fix list’ aka an itemized list of things I needed to change about how I looked.
Lose 30 pounds.
Get a nose job.
Get a breast lift & augmentation.
Get filler.
Get liposuction.
I thought after accomplishing all of these things, I would be happy. I would love what I saw in the mirror. But the truth is, more and more just kept getting added to that list – I was never happy.
Only in the past year did I learn to truly love who I am, and see the human I have grown into – and truly see her, to her core, not just the physical body I have tried so hard to change.
I guess what I’m trying to say here is; no amount of money, plastic surgeries, or weightloss can truly make you love and accept who you are. If you want all of those things to be more confident then hey – be my guest – but just look at where those desires are coming from.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://doozi.app
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ACCEPTINGERICA
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/acceptingerica/
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