Erin Slutsky of Northern Suburbs on Life, Lessons & Legacy

We recently had the chance to connect with Erin Slutsky and have shared our conversation below.

Good morning Erin, we’re so happy to have you here with us and we’d love to explore your story and how you think about life and legacy and so much more. So let’s start with a question we often ask: Are you walking a path—or wandering?
After spending much of my life chasing the “right” path—the best way to live, achieve, and succeed—I expected fulfillment would be waiting for me at the end. Instead, I found myself exhausted, striving, and trying to control every outcome, only to feel miserable.
Midlife has shifted everything. I’ve chosen to step off the rigid path and allow myself to wander instead. I’m learning to trust my gut, release the pressure, and let life come to me rather than forcing it. My word of the year is Effortless, and embracing it has given me something I never found in all that striving: peace, joy, and genuine satisfaction.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m Erin Slutsky, a life coach with 25 years of experience helping women step into the lives they were truly meant to live. My work focuses on women in midlife—especially those navigating perimenopause, shifting family roles, and career transitions—who are ready to move from striving and burnout into fulfillment and freedom.
What makes my approach unique is how I blend practical tools with deep self-awareness, using the Enneagram as a framework for personal growth and self-advocacy. I don’t believe in quick fixes or cookie-cutter advice. Instead, I help women design a life that feels effortless, aligned, and deeply satisfying.
Right now, I’m especially passionate about teaching women how to advocate for themselves—at home, at work, and in their communities—so they can confidently ask for what they want and need. My newest program, Midlife by Design, is all about guiding women to live free, fulfilled, and fully themselves.

Great, so let’s dive into your journey a bit more. What breaks the bonds between people—and what restores them?
In my own life, I’ve noticed that what breaks bonds isn’t usually one big moment, but the small things that go unspoken—unmet expectations, assumptions, and the pressure to keep up an image instead of being real. I’ve been there myself, striving to “hold it all together” and realizing later that the distance came from not letting others see the truth of what I was feeling.
What restores connection is almost always honesty, presence, and grace. Bonds grow stronger when we have hard conversations and allow ourselves to be vulnerable and let people see who we really are—and when we extend the same compassion back. For me, the turning point in relationships has been shifting from striving and controlling to trusting and listening. That’s where peace and closeness are rebuilt.

If you could say one kind thing to your younger self, what would it be?
I would tell my younger self: “You don’t have to earn your worth by always achieving or holding it all together. You are already enough, just as you are. Let yourself be messy, let yourself rest, and trust that joy doesn’t come from perfection—it comes from being fully present in your own life.”

Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. What would your closest friends say really matters to you?
My closest friends would probably say what really matters to me is authenticity—living in a way that feels true rather than forced. They’d say I care deeply about meaningful connection, not surface-level chatter, and that I light up when women discover their voice and start advocating for themselves. They’d also tell you that peace, joy, and freedom matter more to me now than achievement or perfection ever did.

Thank you so much for all of your openness so far. Maybe we can close with a future oriented question. What do you think people will most misunderstand about your legacy?
What people may misunderstand about my legacy is thinking it’s about what I accomplished or achieved. For much of my life, I believed that too—that success and striving would define me. But what I really want to leave behind isn’t a list of accomplishments. It’s the impact of helping women see their own worth, trust themselves, and live free and fulfilled. My legacy isn’t about what I did—it’s about who I helped others become.

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