Emily Erstad joins Craig Andrews for a candid conversation about the real heart of leadership—emotional intelligence. A former speech-language pathologist turned hospice leader, Emily shares how leading in high-stakes environments taught her the power of trust, vulnerability, and consistency.
She explains why leadership isn’t about commanding—it’s about partnering. Whether guiding patients through recovery or teams through chaos, Emily leans into emotional truth over cold logic. She emphasizes that great leaders don’t just give direction—they create safety, clarity, and alignment in moments of fear or uncertainty.
Drawing from her book It’s Not That Deep, Emily discusses how her own struggles and leadership pivots helped her shape a human-centric approach to influence and impact. She also reveals how building teams that thrive without her has become her quiet legacy.
Want to learn more about Emily Erstad’s work? Check out her website at https://eepublicationsllc.wixsite.com/ee-publications.
Connect with Emily Erstad on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/emily-erstad-m-a-ccc-slp-381346135/.
Key Points & Timestamps
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[00:01:31] Emotional Intelligence Is the Core of Leadership
Emily explains why leaders must move beyond understanding emotions to applying them to lead with impact. -
[00:03:00] Leadership Is Convincing, Not Controlling
She breaks down how leadership can border on manipulation—and how to navigate that with integrity. -
[00:04:54] What Speech Therapy Taught Her About Leadership
Helping people reclaim their lives taught her how to build trust, meet people where they are, and lead without taking control. -
[00:09:07] Trust-Building Through Hard Conversations
Emily shares her strategy for guiding people to see reality without crushing their spirit. -
[00:13:01] Leading in Hospice: Clarity Amid Chaos
She unpacks how consistent communication and strong boundaries are critical for managing high-emotion teams. -
[00:14:43] Delivering Hard Truths Without Losing Loyalty
Emily explains how she balances empathy with transparency—even when delivering tough news. -
[00:17:51] Removing the Fear from Hospice and Leadership
By leaning into vulnerability, she transforms taboo subjects into valuable leadership insights. -
[00:20:07] Building a Legacy of Empowered Teams
She shares her vision for community and why true leadership is about building something that outlives you.
Transcript
00;00;00;00 - 00;00;30;20
Craig Andrews
I was in a coma for six weeks while the doctors told my wife I was going to die. When I woke up, she told me the most fantastic story. My team kept running the business without me. Freelancers reached out to my team and said, we will do whatever it takes. As long as Craig's in the hospital. I consider that the greatest accomplishment in my career.
00;00;30;23 - 00;00;51;10
Craig Andrews
My name is Craig Andrews and this is the Leaders and Legacies podcast where we talk to leaders creating an impact beyond themselves. At the end of today's interview, I'll tell you how you can be the next leader featured on this show.
00;00;51;10 - 00;01;20;29
Craig Andrews
Today I will welcome Emily Erstad, and she is the author of It's Not That Deep. Emily explores the nuanced intersections of emotion, identity, growth, leadership, and human connection. With a master's degree in speech language pathology from the University of Illinois and a bachelor's degree from Northern Illinois University, Emily brings both clinical insight and human centric leadership to her work.
00;01;21;02 - 00;01;21;29
Craig Andrews
Emily and I,
00;01;21;29 - 00;01;31;06
Craig Andrews
we've chatted like a bunch without ever having recorded. It's shame we didn't hit record before, but we've covered so much ground.
00;01;31;06 - 00;01;44;25
Craig Andrews
If you're a leader, we're going to be focusing heavily on emotional intelligence today. And, you know, some leaders instinctively get it. I think you should listen to Emily, even if you feel like you're really good at emotional intelligence.
00;01;44;28 - 00;01;51;07
Craig Andrews
I think you're going to discover some really cool things in this discussion. So, Emily, welcome.
00;01;51;10 - 00;01;53;07
Emily Erstad
Thanks for having me. Glad to be here.
00;01;53;09 - 00;02;03;09
Craig Andrews
Yeah. So let's jump to, like, the end. Sure. And just quickly, why should people care about emotional intelligence?
00;02;03;12 - 00;02;12;20
Emily Erstad
Well, we're human and we all have emotion, right? I mean, I think it's just us. I think emotional intelligence is a discussion that's happening all the time. Right. We have what you talk about nonstop.
00;02;12;20 - 00;02;24;11
Emily Erstad
It can be a very advantageous tool though for professional growth, for relationship building, for personal growth. And I think we talk about emotional intelligence till we're blue in the face, but we don't talk about what to do with it.
00;02;24;13 - 00;02;25;07
Emily Erstad
And so
00;02;25;07 - 00;02;35;01
Emily Erstad
I, I felt like bringing my perspective was offering an opportunity to level up and maybe provide yourself some healing while also elevating other leaders.
00;02;35;04 - 00;02;57;16
Craig Andrews
Yeah. Okay. Cool. Yeah. And I think no, I just think. In the art of leadership, it is not what you can do, but what you can get other people to do. And I believe emotional intelligence is one of the keys that unlocked locks, that magic.
00;02;57;18 - 00;03;00;06
Emily Erstad
100%. And I think it's interesting.
00;03;00;06 - 00;03;16;10
Emily Erstad
Leadership development never stops, right? Like they always say, if you're not growing, you're dying. And I think that's so true. Right? And so I'm glad that we're having this discussion about emotional intelligence. It seems very trendy right now, as some would say, but I think there's so much more to it than just its existence.
00;03;16;17 - 00;03;19;24
Emily Erstad
And, you know, whether you want to say making, you know,
00;03;19;24 - 00;03;39;29
Emily Erstad
leadership is convincing people to follow you. At the end of the day, it's borderline manipulative, right. Which could which sounds kind of crazy to say out loud, but it's true. Like you're convincing people that this is a good idea, but how can you do that? Have confidence in what you're doing, and know that you're doing what's best for everyone included, and go home and not feel like you speak one thing and do another.
00;03;40;00 - 00;03;42;09
Emily Erstad
I think that's really what it's about.
00;03;42;12 - 00;03;51;06
Craig Andrews
Yeah. I like that. Well, let's let's kind of wind this back. Let's kind of go upon the thing. You know, so one of the things,
00;03;51;06 - 00;03;57;05
Craig Andrews
I mean, we've probably talked well, a couple hours at this point, you know, combined.
00;03;57;06 - 00;04;04;25
Emily Erstad
Yeah, that's kind of funny. We were just chatting. We know everything about each other at this point, but in a good way. And it's just been awesome.
00;04;04;28 - 00;04;25;14
Craig Andrews
Yeah. It's. Well, it's been awesome. You know, I was telling you, you know, for those that don't know, you know, so when I was in a rehab hospital, I had, you know, physical therapists and, like, personal therapists and had speech therapist. I think speech therapy. It's like one of the most leading misleading terms in health care.
00;04;25;14 - 00;04;27;05
Craig Andrews
You you would assume.
00;04;27;05 - 00;04;28;10
Craig Andrews
Hey, this is going to help me.
00;04;28;10 - 00;04;34;26
Craig Andrews
This is somebody who's gonna help me speak again. But it's so much more than that.
00;04;34;29 - 00;04;42;14
Emily Erstad
Yeah. It's I always say that that's my that's my tagline. You know I'm a speech therapist but I know you talk just fine. Right. It's not about how you talk. Right.
00;04;42;14 - 00;04;54;18
Emily Erstad
And then if they don't talk, well then it's obvious they don't have to kind of preface that, right. But it's a real gift in the sense that we get to partner with people and their harshest times of their life and give them back their life, right.
00;04;54;18 - 00;05;15;03
Emily Erstad
We get to partner with them. And I think that was also one of those pivotal lessons. And I think as a therapist, you you partner, you don't assume responsibility, right? You you take that patient as far as they'll let you take them. And so that was where I learned a lot about my leadership, but also a lot about who I wanted to be as a person.
00;05;15;10 - 00;05;19;12
Emily Erstad
And so it was a it's a great opportunity. And I loved it for what it was.
00;05;19;12 - 00;05;23;19
Emily Erstad
It just wasn't my forever job, you know? But it's something I'll always fall back on.
00;05;23;22 - 00;05;27;29
Craig Andrews
Okay. And for those who don't know, what are all the things a speech path
00;05;27;29 - 00;05;30;02
Craig Andrews
a speech therapist is responsible for.
00;05;30;07 - 00;05;32;01
Emily Erstad
Or some speech, obviously.
00;05;32;01 - 00;05;37;27
Emily Erstad
Language, cognition and comprehension. Writing, reading, swallowing, voice.
00;05;37;27 - 00;05;40;18
Emily Erstad
You know, AAC devices, anything, communication,
00;05;40;18 - 00;05;52;06
Emily Erstad
anything cognitively processing and anything that would help you communicate with others. And then if you can't eat, we're also there to. Yeah, it's a big hodgepodge.
00;05;52;09 - 00;06;15;15
Craig Andrews
Well, I think I told you the, you know, the first encounter I remember and probably one, the first, but one of the first encounters I had with the speech therapist was they were doing the swallow test. And at this point I hadn't eaten anything through my mouth for, you know, a month and a half or more and they gave me some pudding and I was like, you know, let me have the rest of it.
00;06;15;18 - 00;06;22;09
Craig Andrews
And of course some, you know, and they're, they're like, well it's full of barium. You don't want that.
00;06;22;12 - 00;06;37;18
Emily Erstad
Yeah. It's cool because we get to be there for a lot of firsts right. And have fun. But we also are the first one to tell you know that's not always fun. You know you can't have that. But if you give me five minutes you know. So yeah it's it's it's the craziest job.
00;06;37;18 - 00;06;41;08
Emily Erstad
You know I thought initially it was going to be a nurse and then I stumbled into speech therapy.
00;06;41;08 - 00;06;51;02
Emily Erstad
But, you know, now that I've kind of grown through my career and seeing how, how many lessons I learned through it, I totally see why I was meant to be there in that season of my life.
00;06;51;04 - 00;07;11;05
Craig Andrews
Well, and one of the challenges that I've faced, and I think this will tie into where we're going, is when I first woke up from my coma, I believe some pretty crazy things about the world. One of the things you told me in the hour or two, a couple of hours that we've already talked was you said there should be a speech therapist there to kind of like let me know that that was normal.
00;07;11;05 - 00;07;18;21
Craig Andrews
And I'm sitting there having to figure out what's real and what's not with around people that are confused why I'm saying weird things. Yeah.
00;07;18;23 - 00;07;19;02
Emily Erstad
Yeah.
00;07;19;02 - 00;07;33;17
Emily Erstad
I was kind of a surreal moment for me, too, because I realized that's who I was for those patients. And I was telling you, it's rare that I get to talk to someone that experienced what you did. This far on in life, right? And and seeing the impact that you got to have, but also what we could have and should have done for you.
00;07;33;17 - 00;07;41;12
Emily Erstad
Right. And so there's obviously a lot of movement that should happen in speech therapy of where we're placed. Maybe that's another calling in my life.
00;07;41;12 - 00;07;52;26
Emily Erstad
But but having that understanding that you should have had then has been one of those things that's really shaped how I approach patients, people, workers relationships in my life, because everybody wants to feel seen.
00;07;52;26 - 00;07;55;10
Emily Erstad
And those really difficult moments.
00;07;55;12 - 00;08;02;14
Craig Andrews
Well, I would imagine it's a tough job of persuasion. I mean, so, yeah, I was
00;08;02;14 - 00;08;15;25
Craig Andrews
I referred to the dumbest argument I ever have with my wife. You know, I told her, I said, hey, I want to go home. And she's like, you can't, you can't walk. I'm like, I can too. And I mean, we're sitting there arguing back and forth and literally I can't lift my arms or legs.
00;08;15;27 - 00;08;34;29
Craig Andrews
I'm actually tethered to by a big tube in my neck to a machine next to the bed. Yeah. And she can't convince me that I can't walk. Because I absolutely believe I can walk because I had been in my dreams for so. You're in that situation. You're trying. I mean, I would hope time by listening could relate to.
00;08;35;00 - 00;08;40;07
Craig Andrews
Hey, I had this dumbest argument with somebody. They were doing something wrong. I couldn't convince them they were wrong.
00;08;40;09 - 00;08;40;25
Emily Erstad
Right.
00;08;40;28 - 00;08;44;22
Craig Andrews
How did you. How would you convince people?
00;08;44;25 - 00;09;07;20
Emily Erstad
I don't convince them. I don't like I, I acknowledge that, I acknowledge like yeah you want to go home and I would love for you to go home like you deserve to go home. You've been here forever. I think it's, it's come accompanying a hard truth with the, with the facts of where we're at. It's a weird combination of really relating to that person and hearing them and also bringing those hard truths and like, I know you want to go home.
00;09;07;20 - 00;09;22;14
Emily Erstad
I want you to go home, but this is where we're at. Can you move your legs? Can you move your arms? No I can't. So how are we going to get you there? And I think it's always walking them through that reasoning with me of this isn't my idea. This is your idea. But this is not forever, right?
00;09;22;14 - 00;09;35;21
Emily Erstad
And we're together. We're going to get you there as far as you want to go. We'll get there. And that's typically the conversation I have with my patients is this is us together we're building trust. We're building a team together to get you where you want to go.
00;09;35;23 - 00;09;40;19
Craig Andrews
But when I think in terms of leading people, everybody wants to go somewhere. Yeah.
00;09;40;20 - 00;09;46;29
Emily Erstad
Foster. Usually home. Hate to come full circle, but. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
00;09;47;04 - 00;09;47;15
Craig Andrews
Yeah.
00;09;47;18 - 00;09;51;00
Emily Erstad
It's not that different, is it now.
00;09;51;00 - 00;09;54;21
Craig Andrews
And and that's the thing that thinks, you know
00;09;54;21 - 00;09;56;24
Craig Andrews
and and what happens
00;09;56;24 - 00;10;11;14
Craig Andrews
so many times is and I see that I, I used to do it more I still do it but I try not to. It's like well here, let me lay out the facts for you. And here, here are all the facts and the logical reasons why what you're blaming is all screwed up.
00;10;11;17 - 00;10;13;11
Craig Andrews
And it's never persuasive.
00;10;13;13 - 00;10;28;06
Emily Erstad
No. And you. But to do that you have to understand where they're coming from. If they don't understand where you're coming from, if you're dreaming this and you feel like that's real to you, we have to acknowledge that. Like that's the emotional intelligence of it, right? Like I have to get in the boat with you and say, gosh, you're right.
00;10;28;06 - 00;10;43;11
Emily Erstad
If I was dreaming that, I'd feel that way, too. And before this, you could do that. Like, if we're not acknowledging those facts, we're not meeting you where you're at. We're just puking information at you that you don't want to hear, and then you're just going to tell them to go away. I always tell my patients, nobody wants their intelligence questioned.
00;10;43;11 - 00;11;00;03
Emily Erstad
So let me tell you this. I think you're an intelligent person. My job is to pick you apart, to make you better. So can you trust me to do that? Usually it takes a bit of time, but I've, like. I've been well versed working with veterans for some time. Usually humor gets me very far too. If you're like, that's another strategy.
00;11;00;05 - 00;11;03;09
Emily Erstad
A horribly placed joke doesn't doesn't.
00;11;03;11 - 00;11;24;13
Craig Andrews
It does a good. Well, I would say that. I would say that probably in many ways, you know, working with veterans, I wonder if it's easier just because of the prep, you know, the mental and physical prep that they have going in, primarily the mental prep that they
00;11;24;13 - 00;11;27;25
Craig Andrews
they come from an environment where people present hard truths.
00;11;27;27 - 00;11;30;18
Emily Erstad
Can be their greatest strength and their greatest weakness. Right?
00;11;30;20 - 00;11;31;16
Craig Andrews
Well, that's and then
00;11;31;16 - 00;11;32;24
Craig Andrews
greatest weakness.
00;11;32;26 - 00;11;34;03
Emily Erstad
Yeah. Sometimes,
00;11;34;03 - 00;11;53;11
Emily Erstad
sometimes it's like they can't let you in because of that, you know, because everything's so hard. So they're just going to buckle down and do it themselves. And I'm like, that's great. But you need me. And so it's convincing them to have that trust in me. You know, people that are built to be self-sufficient and ask me how I know don't really rely on people's well.
00;11;53;14 - 00;12;03;00
Emily Erstad
Right. So it's like, how do I convince you to trust this person you don't know in the hardest time of your life that I'm bored in, and I'm going to do this with you right?
00;12;03;03 - 00;12;03;24
Craig Andrews
Yeah.
00;12;03;26 - 00;12;06;06
Emily Erstad
It's not fun. Sometimes it's really great.
00;12;06;06 - 00;12;10;24
Emily Erstad
I just recently stepped out of home health as a speech therapist. Just recently, like last week, and
00;12;10;24 - 00;12;23;25
Emily Erstad
it is a lot more emotional than I realized because I took pride in the relationships I built with. Like, I gave myself up for these patients, you know what I mean? Like, I was giving a part of myself to these people because I knew it was for the greater good.
00;12;23;27 - 00;12;36;10
Emily Erstad
It's a different season of life I'm moving into, and I'm thankful for the opportunity, but it's just as much a journey for me. Learning about myself and how to relate to you as is for the person going through it.
00;12;36;12 - 00;12;55;14
Craig Andrews
I mean, as I'm listening to this, you know, bringing patients out of comas and back to normal life, I mean the skills are not that different from leading people. I mean, is I mean, if you're leading strong willed people, which are your future leaders, these are the people you want promote up through organization. Yeah.
00;12;55;15 - 00;12;59;17
Emily Erstad
You want that grit. That's who you are.
00;12;59;20 - 00;13;01;14
Craig Andrews
But they can be hard to corral.
00;13;01;16 - 00;13;22;11
Emily Erstad
Oh yeah I mean I, I went to school to be a therapist to not manage people to then walk into managing a hospice, which is probably the hardest thing I've ever done, but is also the most satisfying thing I've ever done. But yeah, it's, it's a, it's a lot of getting people to buy in and having transparent and vulnerable conversation that people understand the direction you're going.
00;13;22;13 - 00;13;30;19
Emily Erstad
If people don't know where you're going, they're not going to follow you or they shouldn't. I wouldn't, you know, you don't want to follow like lead them off a cliff. That's not doing anybody any favors.
00;13;30;19 - 00;13;43;09
Emily Erstad
But I think being a radically strong leader, especially at the chaos of the world that we exist, and on top of the chaos that hospice naturally brings, that consistent, authentic leadership is essential.
00;13;43;11 - 00;13;56;05
Emily Erstad
And it really has to start with a pretty solid understanding of who you are and who you want to be. And I still, I'd like to think I have that figured out, but it changes because we change with age. Humans change, right? The only thing constant is change.
00;13;56;08 - 00;14;21;03
Craig Andrews
You know, you know, something just hit me as you were talking in. You know, if I look at my journey out of the hospital, it was I knew life would get better if I did the work. And if I kept my mind in the right place. But in hospice you're dealing with people where life is only going to get worse and you have to lead them through managing expectations.
00;14;21;03 - 00;14;43;05
Craig Andrews
And again, if I bring that back to the workplace, you have some people whose aspirations are beyond their abilities. You know, they they won't be, they wont rise to the position. It's just not in them. And so you have to be able to deliver bad news in a way where they still trust you and follow you. How do you do that in the hospice situation?
00;14;44;08 - 00;15;01;28
Emily Erstad
It's a lot of chaos management. It's a lot of consistency. It's a team effort. It's timing. Timing, the conversation. It's the it's the same approach. I take with my patients. You're getting in the boat with them and you're partnering with them for something that's life changing, right? It's still life changing. And when you meet these people, they've never died before.
00;15;02;01 - 00;15;23;08
Emily Erstad
You know, we witnessed people die three, 4 or 5 deaths a week. And we have a system that we follow as a leader. I have a consistent system. It's a very surreal experience to make death a business. I can tell you that much, you know, because I have to kind of remove myself. And that's where my time as a therapist wasn't helping me because I had to decontextualized to do what I needed to do to be the leader that my team needed them to be.
00;15;23;10 - 00;15;36;22
Emily Erstad
So if you're asking me what I do consistency over time with strong boundaries, even when they hate me, right? Because this is not your place and this is why we're doing what we're doing. That transparency makes hard conversations ten times easier.
00;15;36;22 - 00;15;43;26
Emily Erstad
For my nurses, they are such compassionate, loving people. I mean, I admire them so much I could not do what they do.
00;15;43;26 - 00;15;44;10
Emily Erstad
I
00;15;44;10 - 00;16;08;19
Emily Erstad
wonderful people, they're doing it for the families. They're doing it. There's a spiritual connection to this, whether you want to, you know, whether it is God, the universe, whatever, whoever you believe in, there is a seriousness to partnering with someone as they go through a hard time. It's quality over quantity, you know, and there is an acceptance that comes towards the end of life that just surpasses anything I could explain to you and I.
00;16;08;19 - 00;16;21;06
Emily Erstad
I've gotten to experience it firsthand, and it's the most grounding, beautiful thing. But you wouldn't believe it unless you lived it. You know, it's the funny thing about death.
00;16;21;08 - 00;16;40;28
Craig Andrews
Well, you know, it's funny and triggered another memory for me. My, you ever see those Hoveround commercials where someone is in that little scooter and they're like, I can go to the Grand Canyon? No, I told my wife for years. I said, you ever put me in one of those scooters? We are going to the Grand Canyon, and I'm driving over the edge.
00;16;41;00 - 00;16;58;07
Craig Andrews
And and so when I'm in the hospital and she's looking at me and the doctors told her, we're not sure how much of Craig's coming back, we're physically sure. And she was terrified. She remembered me saying, you put me in one of those scooters, I'm going the Grand Canyon. I'm going over the edge. It scared her. Oh, yeah?
00;16;58;09 - 00;17;15;14
Emily Erstad
Yeah. And I think that's interesting because hospice is just as much there for the family as it is. Once again, that whole picture and that emotional intelligence of understanding, we're there for the patient, but we're there for the whole picture. You know. And I think what I've been saying a lot lately is that fear when you start to feel fear because, you know, it's a simple equation.
00;17;15;14 - 00;17;34;11
Emily Erstad
You work hard, play hard, life works out when fear creeps in. That's when you start to really question where you're at. Because if you're leaning out of fear, look out. And I think that's something I've been watching lately, too, because when I am working hard and I like to keep myself busy to avoid fear, to be honest, that's my solution.
00;17;34;11 - 00;17;51;17
Emily Erstad
It's not a great solution, and it burns me out. But when you find yourself leading out of fear or having those fearful decisions, look to someone else. Look to a constant and and center yourself because you're doing the right things. And don't let that guilt sneak in, which it will. And that's what I think gets hard about hospice.
00;17;51;17 - 00;18;09;27
Emily Erstad
And I think that's one of my purposes in life, is to take the fear out of hospice. Right? Because we're so scared to talk about hospice, we're negating its value. And that's honestly the struggle of running a business in hospice. That is what you ask any executive director, that's what they'll tell you, is that people are so scared of the inevitable.
00;18;11;11 - 00;18;16;03
Emily Erstad
And we're not changing the diagnosis or the prognosis or any of it. We're just partnering.
00;18;16;05 - 00;18;19;29
Craig Andrews
Right. Yeah. Interesting.
00;18;20;01 - 00;18;22;28
Emily Erstad
I'll circle. Hey that was good.
00;18;23;00 - 00;18;30;29
Craig Andrews
Well let's, let's talk a little bit about your book, your book style. It's not that deep. So what's what's the book about.
00;18;31;02 - 00;18;31;26
Emily Erstad
Yeah. So,
00;18;31;26 - 00;18;40;01
Emily Erstad
it's a very cathartic, poetic approach to professional and personal development. I share a lot about myself and my journey.
00;18;40;01 - 00;18;50;16
Emily Erstad
Probably not as deeply as I should have now that I read it again, but enough that I was comfortable with at the time that helped develop some of these hard emotional intelligence skills that I have today.
00;18;50;18 - 00;19;05;05
Emily Erstad
It's funny, because I'm rereading it a year later and there's a lot of truth to it still, but I'm like, I should have changed this, or I should have done that. And I'm like, Emily, you did the best you could with what you have, and you're literally negating everything you're telling everybody in this book, right? But it talks about things as like perfectionist,
00;19;05;05 - 00;19;07;28
Emily Erstad
perfectionism diminishing you and timing is everything.
00;19;07;28 - 00;19;14;13
Emily Erstad
And knowing that sometimes the timing that comes along is the difference, right? And it's just knowing that it's something you can do or change.
00;19;14;13 - 00;19;27;10
Emily Erstad
But the oxymoron of the title is I'm a very deep person. So for me to say it's not that deep is hilarious because it is, right. We all know how deep emotions are, and that's why we talk about them so much, because we don't understand them.
00;19;27;10 - 00;19;32;00
Emily Erstad
And I'm not saying that this book is going to help you understand them. It may or may not.
00;19;32;00 - 00;19;47;03
Emily Erstad
I think what it does is offers perspective, and it offers strategies for you to figure it out for yourself. And I think there's a lot of value in gathering perspectives, not allowing it to change who you are at your core, but allowing it to build your foundation of who you want to be as a person.
00;19;47;03 - 00;19;50;23
Emily Erstad
And that's the connection I want to build with this book.
00;19;52;09 - 00;19;56;24
Emily Erstad
So it's not just emotional intelligence, you know, but it is at the end of the day.
00;19;56;26 - 00;20;07;13
Craig Andrews
When you told me something about building a community or building communities, What what what does that look like?
00;20;07;15 - 00;20;23;23
Emily Erstad
So figuring that out, you know, I've had a lot of I've been very blessed in the, in the previous leadership positions I've taken, where I've built strong teams that surpass me when I leave. And I've been called to new situations and left teams I've loved to build teams again, and that's definitely like, I'm an equalizer. I'm a builder, right?
00;20;23;23 - 00;20;36;00
Emily Erstad
And I love doing that. And I have a creative, visionary spirit that I think I need to feed. So what does that community look like long term? I think I have to connect with more people to figure out what the need is. I don't want to build something that people don't need.
00;20;36;00 - 00;20;42;27
Emily Erstad
Right now I'm blogging and newsletter ING and connecting with indie authors and people that have insight that they want to share.
00;20;42;27 - 00;21;01;05
Emily Erstad
I'm looking for networking opportunities. I want people to read this and tell me, hey, this is what my perspective opens this or this is what related to me. You know, my dream would be to create retreats and places where people feel like they're coming home and finding themselves and connecting and building something greater than me. Right? Like a momentum that is so bold.
00;21;01;07 - 00;21;30;09
Emily Erstad
But right now, that just means I'm publishing books and finding my community and who I want to connect with. So I did publish. It's not that deep self-published, but I'm revisiting it to republish it, hopefully with the publisher, because I'm manifesting that for myself right now and then because it is that deep. I wrote another book called Into Deep that's sitting there as a manuscript that I want to publish and continue writing and finding out what the story looks like, because I feel like I don't want to diminish myself with expectation.
00;21;30;09 - 00;21;38;03
Emily Erstad
I want this to come organically and create it custom to who I connect with, if that makes sense.
00;21;38;05 - 00;22;03;02
Craig Andrews
Yeah. Does you know it's it's really interesting. I mean the more I think about it from the road you've been on, you know as a speech therapist and just all the, all the leadership elements that come with that, that, that enable you that, that, that apply directly to business, it's, it's really fascinating. Let me ask you this.
00;22;03;02 - 00;22;03;12
Craig Andrews
The,
00;22;03;12 - 00;22;05;14
Craig Andrews
and
00;22;05;14 - 00;22;10;14
Craig Andrews
so how did you so you're, you're you're in Arizona right now, but you're not from Arizona.
00;22;10;16 - 00;22;12;05
Emily Erstad
No, I'm from the Midwest.
00;22;12;05 - 00;22;15;15
Emily Erstad
Went to school in Illinois, like you said. And I was in Indiana
00;22;15;15 - 00;22;31;09
Emily Erstad
and Covid hit and everything shut down. My outpatient that I was building shut down when I was creating, once again, creating in the wrong place, maybe not the wrong place, but the wrong time. Right? And moved across the country because I needed money and I was broke as a joke to Montana.
00;22;31;11 - 00;22;31;29
Emily Erstad
And,
00;22;31;29 - 00;22;50;24
Emily Erstad
I was going through a really hard season of my life. I had broken off a really toxic engagement like that stuff that, like, lost everything. My money, my house, everything. My relationships got to Montana. And I thought to myself, it's better to cry in Yellowstone than it is in a cornfield. So I'll just go do this in Montana.
00;22;50;24 - 00;22;52;22
Emily Erstad
And that's when I started writing,
00;22;52;22 - 00;23;06;05
Emily Erstad
a blog called Leaving Me speechless, if you're catching my drift. And then I left it. And in Montana, I just stopped and moved to Tucson, Arizona. Honestly, I picked a spot on a map with no freaking reasoning. I don't know why I ended up here.
00;23;06;05 - 00;23;09;15
Emily Erstad
But when I got here, that's when my leadership journey truly began.
00;23;09;18 - 00;23;25;14
Emily Erstad
And just leadership opportunity for leadership opportunity was falling in my lap. And it wasn't because I wasn't working hard. I was working hard. But it was wasn't what I was looking for. But it's what I needed. And then that's when I kind of started to have this understanding that leadership isn't just something you can go to work and leave at home, or vice versa.
00;23;25;14 - 00;23;46;20
Emily Erstad
It's a whole person journey. And I started to expedite my growth when I realized I can professionally and personally develop at the same time and accomplish all these crazy things that I never thought of. You know, I lived in the Midwest. I was a farm kid, rode horses. I never in my life did I think I'd be across the country running a hospice as a speech therapist.
00;23;46;21 - 00;23;51;25
Emily Erstad
Like this was not what I had planned. And it's not where my story ends.
00;23;51;27 - 00;23;56;17
Craig Andrews
Wow. Well, Emily, this has been amazing.
00;23;56;17 - 00;23;59;10
Craig Andrews
One, where can people get the book? It's not that deep.
00;23;59;12 - 00;24;11;24
Emily Erstad
Yeah, it's on Amazon, so you can search. It's not that deep. Or you can just go to my website e publications.com and my Instagram there, my LinkedIn's there, everything you need and a link to my book.
00;24;11;27 - 00;24;15;11
Craig Andrews
Oh actually. Well that was my next question is how can people get in contact with you?
00;24;15;17 - 00;24;16;11
Emily Erstad
Same place.
00;24;16;11 - 00;24;17;05
Emily Erstad
I'm on Instagram.
00;24;17;05 - 00;24;28;11
Emily Erstad
More than I am. Anything else? I need to work on? My presence on there, but you can direct message me there. My email is on my website. You can email me there. LinkedIn, anything. I'll be available.
00;24;28;13 - 00;24;34;21
Craig Andrews
Well, awesome. Well, thanks for coming on. Leaders and Legacies. Sure.
00;24;34;21 - 00;25;01;17
Craig Andrews
This is Craig Andrews. I want to thank you for listening to the Leaders and Legacies podcast. We're looking for leaders to share how they're making the impact beyond themselves. If that's you, please go to Ally's for me.com/guest and sign up there. If you got something out of this interview, we would love you to share this
00;25;01;17 - 00;25;03;12
Craig Andrews
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00;25;03;14 - 00;25;26;24
Craig Andrews
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00;25;26;26 - 00;25;35;01
Craig Andrews
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00;25;35;01 - 00;27;37;06
Craig Andrews
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