 I'm really happy to be here with Erica O'Cain to talk about her progress, insights, learnings in her authentic business up to now, and what she's going to be committing to, so that we can celebrate that the next time we talk. So, Erica, thank you for doing this. Thanks, George. It's great to be here. Erica is in my group coaching program this year and the first thing, so, you know, like I said, you know, you're going to be sharing some insights into clarifying your, might we say your calling and your work, and how that's unifying your different parts of you. But first, let me just, well, give you a chance to intro where are you at right now with with with how you describe your business and your work. These days I describe what I do is caring about you and your Apple products. Every job I've ever had has been about caring for people, no matter what topic we're talking about. And I just happen to have a knack for Apple products have been the Apple person since the mid 90s. Yeah. And what kind of Apple products do you work on a lot. The operating system programs that people have questions like really. Yeah, just Mac iPhone iPad, all of that. Yeah, awesome. Very good. Yeah. And the difference. So say say more about this and I think we're kind of getting into how you're unifying the different parts of you. So, Apple tech support people probably understand. What makes how you do it unique or how are you bringing more of you into it. So, in 2020 I graduated Interfaith Seminary. And so I, I got the cosmic two by four over the head this is sweetie you're going to go become a minister I'm like are you kidding me. And so you know you make a deal with God you have to pay up. So I did. I think it informs how I care for people. You know it allows me to be more inclusive and more warm and more just attentive to what the needs of whoever I'm with what what those needs are. And so I can sit with them and, and kind of have a sense when they're starting to get agitated or over, you know, overstimulated. I mean, I've had sessions where I've been, you know, it seems like you're getting a little anxious about this. Let's take a minute. Let's just breathe for a second. And then we went on to do some trauma processing with her and then I said, okay, so now that that part's complete in a minute we're going to come back to the technical part I want to give you a heads up so that you're not getting whiplash and going topic to topic. It's a beautiful session just helping her get comfortable in the technology while solving the problems at the same time. Yeah, really nice. Yeah. And it's like, don't we all wish our tech support can have this kind of presence and value set and flexibility to kind of go into other areas that are related really I mean it's all it's all related and how we approach, like our technology. It's so interesting there is a lot of interesting relationship there between how we are using our tech and how we relate to ourselves and our, and how we relate to new things, how we relate to problems and getting stuck. It's like, it's so much to unwind there. There's so much there. Yeah, well, and people often think, oh, well, you know, I'm done because I can't do technology. It's like, no, this technology just happens to not be your expertise. Right. You're really smart. You're really competent. There's things that you know how to do that I have no idea about. Yeah. And yet, I have happened to know how to do Apple stuff. Yeah. Yeah, and I would say, you know, a lot of a lot of tech isn't designed with it. Good. It isn't designed well enough for the end user, truly in mind or in the end users experience right it's like, why is this thing so small to click on. Right. Why is it like that small. And why is it here instead of over there. You know, so how do I find this out of the other thing. Yeah, well, let's think about what the logic is behind it. Yeah, you know, yeah. And so I'm curious. And we haven't, we didn't talk about this before we started recording but I'm I think I'm curious to know what you would say about this. So how, how might you bring even more of your spiritual work into the work with the clients that need the tech support so I'm, for example, I'm like a man imagining. Like if you did some kind of a webinar or workshop, where you address the spiritual or. Yeah, you said trauma processing but it's sort of like, like I've never seen a workshop like that. And I feel like that would be really cool but yeah what do you think, tell us more about that. I mean, even on my website I talk about you know how do we do a session is, you know, we get together and maybe we say a prayer or two, or maybe we bring ourselves present to the moment. Because you know, everything divine is everywhere we just have to recognize it. That's my personal take on things. And so often when we tap into that, we tap into that greater knowledge. So instead of struggling through the technical stuff, it comes a little easier. Yeah, that's really, it's really good. Yeah, because I could see you bring. Yeah, there's so much in how we upgrade our relationship. It's like, I always say like work is a stage for spirit is really a stage for spiritual or personal growth, like the things we do at work. There's a lot of opportunities for personal growth and it's like you're making that more transparent and making that process more. Okay, so how did you get. So yeah, let's continue with the we're talking about sort of the insights from your progress like how it must be. It's not obvious for people for most people that they are that they're welcome to bring that. This is a great example, your softer side over to the hard skills of technology. What, what, what had to happen for you in order for you to be okay with integrating that publicly. I'm still working on it. Exactly. That's why we're doing these interviews. But tell us about it I mean up to now you already have been announcing these things you know. Yeah. It's very much felt like it's been two parts of me kind of the separate you know the right brain and left brain and you know, the technical and the hard, and I just realize that's all contained in this body. And if I try and shut one of those sides down. I'm not bringing my full self to the work. And if I don't bring my full self to the work, then it's not gonna go as well. If I'm trying to hide part of me, or actively tried to suppress part of me. People can smell that, and they're not going to trust me, and they're not going to feel cared for. And that's basically my, you know, primary directive. And so I have you're talking about the growth path of being in business, one of the biggest spiritual journeys I've had has been being in business. Because, I mean, there's not a lot of places to hide in that, you know, especially if you're, you know, like I used to be you know living on my own supporting myself with my business. My current business is a second, a third iteration of that. And so I'm bringing all of the information before but you know when you're doing this, the first time on your own. You got to do a lot really fast because there are bills to pay and things to do. Whereas now, it's easier to take it a little slower and bring all of the parts of me along that didn't want to come along the first couple of times. And, you know, some of that comes with age experience and some of that comes with the times are in and that some of that comes with just, you know, life be in life. And so it just, I've also learned the hard way through illness that I no longer have the luxury of ignoring parts of myself. I have to bring my full self pretty much everywhere, or my body goes, are you kidding me and starts to revolt and that's no fun. It's not worth the payment. It's so interesting that you say that I appreciate you because I think our, I think for a lot of us watching this, when we don't bring our authentic self into our business therefore authentic business. I think our bodies do try to speak up about that disconnect. And most many of us haven't learned how to listen to it. Haven't learned how to notice those signals. And so we work despite those objections from our body. And this is why there's so much burnout, you know, in at work, but particularly among entrepreneurs, business, you know, small businesses. And, yeah, this is really, I'm glad we're talking about this. So, so how would you. Speaking to the Erica of one, five, 10 years ago what however back far back you want to go. What advice would you give to that Erica about integrating and I don't know maybe Erica of five or 10 years ago wasn't ready, I don't know, maybe. But how would you what what kind of encouragement or advice might you give to help that person integrate more. Yeah, um, sweetie, there's going to be a bodily built pay if you do not bring it all because there's in my experience, there is a dissonance in the body, and I can feel it, and it just goes. No honey, you're not doing this and you better stop. And as soon as I stop, and as soon as I come back to resonance inside of myself. Things get a lot easier real fast. Yeah, really good. And speaking of the body stuff, you know, you're also learning, we mentioned we talked about this a bit before we started recording you're also learning. So this idea of stamina and how to care for your body's rhythms and energy. More, I guess wisely, as you do, as you work on your business because and it's so important because we don't typically learn enough about this in school and number one number two we look at other business owners around us and how other people work. And there's not a lot of modeling for this. So, yeah, share with us how you what what you're learning about that and what you do differently as a result. Well I'm certainly learning that I do not have George Cal level productivity. My body doesn't support that yet. You know, you talk about being a PhD program like no no George is postdoc. It's taken me many, many years of trial and error and breaking down sometimes. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and you know, it is that trial and error, and it is that attempting to do more than you can sometimes, and having that body go. Yeah, that was cute but no try again. You know, and when the body says you got a rest. You have to pay attention. I have to pay attention. I can't speak for anybody else I can speak for me. I have to pay attention when my body says, sweetie. Try again. And so sometimes that's hard because I really want to do more than I'm doing. I want to be more productive than I'm being. And yet, if I don't follow the rhythms of my body. It's going to come crashing down real fast. You know, there've been two or three times in my life where I really wasn't paying attention and I ended up in the hospital when I'm like, you know, I really would rather not do that again. I've checked that box plenty of times. Let's move on to being in resonance with what's in my body. And be able to function at a sustained a sustainable level. Yeah. And so, you know, one of the things that technology tends to do is it's it draws us in a success in. And it's easy to forget about the body I guess you might say, so how do you manage that for yourself to be able to focus so much tech and still pay attention, I guess. The short answer is my body doesn't let me not pay attention. I trial and error. I have had enough times where I could feel something happening in my, you know, in my body gone hey, you know, yellow light, you're about to get red light. And I've gotten to the point where I just I'm able to notice that sooner. Not that I always notice it in time, but that I notice it sooner. So that I don't go quite so far out of bounds with it. Yeah, excellent. Yeah, it is it is the noticing sooner is the practice that I think all of us need to work on for ourselves. What that means for us to notice it sooner. Okay, so this is good. Anything else you want to share before we move into the, the commitments for for going forward. Yeah, I just think that body care and brain care are just critically important. And it's so easy to bypass that. And what I would say is it's not optional to really do really have that thriving life and business that I think we want. It's just not optional. Because if we don't pay attention, eventually the body is going to be like, okay, you're done now. Why put ourselves through getting to that point of being done now. Why not take a break here and take a break there and say, okay, today I have this much capacity and I will, you know, fuel that capacity. And maybe tomorrow I have this much capacity, and I will do that. I'm still bringing 100% each day of whatever my capacity is. Yeah, I like that a lot. Yeah. Yeah, that's really good. So, going forward, and your commitment, we, when we started recording you were mentioning that you want to allow yourself to be more visible. So talk about that. What, because you've had other businesses, you know, talk about the previous business you had where you, you know, the visibility thing now let's let's talk about that. Yeah, this is not my first go around a business. It's, most of them have all been more tech focused than spiritually focused. And when I had this, this type of business in Seattle, I was the best kept secret in Seattle of, you know, of how to care for people and their Apple products. And, you know, it took me a while, and it was all word of mouth, but I got to the point where it was sustainable. So, I'm noticing in this iteration, I'm having some reservations about being visible. So, I'm kind of glad to be an ABC helper where I get to have this opportunity to be visible kind of by design. And for those who are watching we don't know what that means. The group coaching program this year is called ABC, and Erica is one of the program helpers, which part of the benefit is that we get to do these interviews. And so, yes, it's it's you are, you are, you are forced to become more visible. Yeah, that's not a bad thing. I mean, that's kind of the point, right. If nobody knows who you are, how do you have a business kind of it'll work very well. So it's nice to be in community, you know, in the program and in the helper role to be able to support me to be more visible. Instead of forcing myself to be visible. There is support around visibility. It's so important because if I try and force myself to do it it's, it's going to come out sideways and it's not going to be authentic. And what, what are you excited by in terms of visibility like what do you imagine, are there particular platforms or ways of being visible that you envision works well for you. I love sitting with my clients. I love connecting with people. That's, you know, one of my main drives is connection. So to be able to sit down with somebody and have them say, this isn't working in this way and I'm really frustrated about it. Okay, great. Let's take a second. Let's just breathe, you know, get ourselves to a good space and, you know, allow me to help fix the problem. I trust that, you know, my years of experience in Apple world will, you know, provide the information or if I don't have the answer I'll go find it. You know, yeah. And speaking of which, tell us a bit about and we'll start to wrap up here. Tell us about your offer like what is, what is the, yeah, what are you, how do people work with you. So I do sessions kind of as needed with people, because you know tech is sometimes working and sometimes it's not and sometimes it's going smoothly and sometimes you want to optimize it. And so I work with people as needed on an hourly basis. And, you know, we just sit down and I say, great, what's going on. How can we make this better for you. And how can we help you is if there are tax tasks that somebody is not going to have to do more than once like how about I help you with that and just take care of it for you. You're not, you don't need the mental to have that take up your mental space. But if it's a task they're going to have to do again and again. If I don't give you the muscle memory to or the notes to know how to do it. I haven't done my job. I mean, I want people to be able to be empowered to get more competent to do more with technology. Right. Well, yeah, I will put the link for your information below. And so, and looking forward to kind of catching back up in a couple of months and see how is it going with the progress of visibility. So, cool. Yeah, thank you. Thank you for doing this. Yeah, this has been a lot of fun. I really appreciate it. Thank you.