Member Spotlight: Meet Erica Lasan
I launched my first workshop with The JOYrney To Purpose™ in the Fall of 2019, but it’s really a compilation of things that I’ve been doing as a multi-passionate creative for over 20 years. I graduated from Fairleigh Dickinson University w/ a Bachelors in International Business/Spanish but when I graduated from College, no one was hiring. At that period of my life, I didn’t know it, but I was pretty depressed. I was literally crying every single day and multiple times throughout the day. And because I graduated during the recession and no one was hiring (and I wasn’t hearing back from the jobs I was applying to), I felt a deep sense of rejection. This rejection ultimately led to me feeling unfulfilled, and undervalued, and really impacted my self-worth.
One day I was speaking with my then-boyfriend (who’s now my husband), and he asked me a simple question: “Well Erica, what do you want to do?” That question inspired me to look at my situation differently. It was a reminder, that I get to create the life that I want to live. If no one was going to give me the opportunities, I could create them for myself! From there I quit the internship that I was working (which was my part-time job at the time), and I left to work at an Independent boutique in Manhattan. From there, I took on a mentality of considering “would this happen if I were to focus primarily on pursuing JOY first?” This question led to opportunities beyond my wildest dreams! I started making jewelry again (and re-launched a business I’d started when I was a kid), and started selling my designs in boutiques across the East Coast.
Then at one point, I decided that I wanted to work in media – which led to opportunities to work with EBONY Magazine, conducting celebrity interviews, Covering New York Fashion Week, and landing cool gigs in my dream role (at the time as an on-air host) among many other surprises. After seven years of pursuing a career in media as an on air-host and content creator, I had a big opportunity to work with NBC Universal that I thought would lead to my “big break”. A week later I learned that I was pregnant. This transition in life and identity really caused me to get serious about how I utilized my time, the projects I would take on, boundaries with friends/families, and most of all – prioritizing my own personal well-being and JOY.
As I was on this personal journey of self-rediscovery in my new role as a mom, I started a blog called “Adventures Of A Live Rich Mommy.” Other women would read the posts and ask how I was able to balance my life as a creative, build business opportunities, and remain a “happy” mom. As they asked I would share tips, tricks, life hacks, and strategies that I’d developed along the way. I hadn’t realized it at the time, but I’d developed an entire system to prioritize JOY in my life as a creative woman and entrepreneurial mom. At some point, I realized that I could monetize this developed skill set and leverage all of my experience in the various industries in which I’d worked. So I eventually put together a step-by-step guide and curriculum. That program is now called The JOY Quest, and it’s part of the 1st Step in the JOYrney To Purpose: REDISCOVERY as you JOYrney To JOY!
The Co-Co has been wonderful for building relationships with like-minded women in various stages of life. I really appreciate that I can seamlessly engage in conversations around careers, discussing opportunities to collaborate, sharing expertise, and even exchanging quick-tips and life hacks about how we’re all managing general life and motherhood. The Co-Co community has enriched my entrepreneurship journey in every aspect of life!
