ERIN ROLLENHAGEN // Author of Soul Uprising
ERIN ROLLENHAGEN
Author of Soul Uprising + Founder & CEO of Entrepreneurial Technologies
What was the aha moment you had to inspire you to launch your business?
You know, it felt like a very dark moment at the time. I was 27 and working for an established tech company that I had planned to spend my entire career with. I had a series of ugly public confrontations with a higher up, who I had once admired, and it gradually became clear that I had no future at that company. I would never be allowed to fly. I was crushed and felt like I’d never care about anything again. During that same time, I did a side project for a local law firm and found it incredibly rewarding to help a small business and see the impact that could have. Gradually, my mentality began to shift and I began to see that maybe there was another opportunity for me.
Did you know that this was the right path for you?
At first, I was still grieving the loss of my old path and dream. The mind can be stubborn and It took some time for me to release the past so I could fully step into my new venture. At the same time, I started my business in 2007 which was on the cusp of a terrible recession. Looking back, I wouldn’t have it any other way. Business is a complex thing and we all like to see those growth curves that go steadily upward. But every real business owner I know has gone through cycles of preparation and learning and cycles of reaping those rewards. It wasn’t instantaneous. I got beat up for a while and there were times where my emotion and passion did not serve me, because I worked with those who couldn’t receive it. But there were also times of enormous satisfaction when I knew that I was using the combination of my hard skills and my values to have a real impact. That’s when things really started to flow. It took getting to that first reward cycle to think “yes, I really am meant to do this.”
What kind of confirmation did you receive to make it feel in alignment?
I think sometimes we are looking for the skies to part and to receive this massive sign, but I that’s something I receive every day in subtle ways. It can be a moment working with a client where I know that I’m giving them exactly what they need. When it came to writing Soul Uprising, I had no idea how that would be received--it certainly isn’t the kind of thing the business experts around here are saying. But I had to write it. I wasn’t going to be able to do anything else until I got those words onto the page. And the response has been incredible. When someone contacts me and says “I felt like you were writing this specifically for me. It’s exactly what I needed to hear”, that’s an incredible feeling and I know I’m fulfilling my purpose. In the end, that’s what we all want--to know that we can work hard at something challenging and make a difference. Every tiny acknowledgment of that impact, from a shoutout on social media to a review to an email, is powerful confirmation.
What 3 action steps can you share with women that are looking to follow their passion in business?
Understand that passion is personal. You are making a choice that it’s not just business, it’s about sharing who you are with the world. That means not everyone will agree with you. This is good! The most popular card in our deck is one that says “Attracting haters means you’re making waves. Keep paddling.” People love it because everyone who has put themselves out there with the things they are passionate about has experienced criticism or backlash at some point. It can feel like the end of the world, but it is actually a sign that you’re on the right track. People get angry when you are living a life that they haven’t given themselves permission to chase yet. Your barometer for success has to live inside of you rather than in something outside.
Do the core work that someone living your passion would do, even if you only do it for 15 minutes a day. If you want to be a writer, write. If you want to be a healer, heal. If you want to be a real estate agent, research the market. Do it now, do it daily, and do it in a way that feels soulful to you. If you are emotional like me, wear your heart on your sleeve. Start living as that person in every moment you can. We tend to put things off until some mythical time in the future when everything will be perfect. It will never be perfect. If you’re going to follow your passion, you’re going to have to figure out how to do it under imperfect circumstances and you may as well start now. Bonus: this feels GREAT. You will start to see yourself as that person, and build momentum toward your future.
Take ownership of your financial situation. The most common reason I see people give up on their passion is that they feel they can’t make a good living that way, and that belief often comes from an underlying guilt that making money for your passion isn’t soulful. That couldn’t be further from the truth. We are meant to be rewarded for the value we bring to the world. But we have to believe in it first and start charging our worth, and setting up practices that protect our ability to do business in a way that feels good today and in the future. Managing money in a sustainable, aligned way is so important that I wrote a whole chapter of practical tips on it in Soul Uprising, and it continues to be the chapter that the most people comment to me about.
What was a moment you seemed to have failed but you now recognize it was a blessing?
I know we’re all supposed to celebrate failure now. I hate failure. I’m a very achievement-oriented person and in my younger days I would do about anything--including working 80 hour weeks for someone else’s profit-- to avoid the stamp of failure on anything I worked on.
Even 12 years into owning my own business (which comes with a lot of mini-failures), I still can’t stand that feeling. But I’ve come to recognize that there’s a current to our lives and most often when I fail, it’s because I’m pushing for a path that is different from where the current wants to take me. I’m refusing to listen to the signs. This often comes, I’ve found, from an urge to skip over something we need in order to grow. For a long time, I told myself a story that I had to please everyone in order to be a good person. This led to me bending too far to attempt to win people over on many occasions.
We had a client who was flat-out unreasonable. They expected round-the-clock support but didn’t want to pay for it. They constantly beat us up on price, then expected me to take calls on vacation, drop everything on a dime when they wanted something, and were frequently rude and even tried to withhold payment as leverage to get their way. I knew I needed to fire them, but they were a referral and I hated the idea of them badmouthing us to the client who referred us. After 5 years, they found someone who charged a bit less than us and fired us. I was livid. How dare THEY fire US! After all we’d done for them!
And then I took a breath and realized that they did us a favor. I’d refused to level up and do what I needed to do, so the universe taught me a lesson. I was never going to get that client’s approval and all of the energy spent trying to earn it would have been better spent on the 99% of our clients who are a joy to work with.
What does business for your soul mean to you? Do you incorporate gratitude with your work? Share kindness with clients?
The best way I can explain it is that it means starting with your soul and folding in the business, rather than the other way around. I want our clients and our team to feel the caring every day when they walk through our doors. The desire to help people is where it all starts. That can be as simple as taking the time to reassure someone in an email, or as big as talking someone out of a project that isn’t likely to make them money. It’s about recognizing that each of our team members needs to feel fulfilled within their own soul as well, and finding ways to make sure that happens for each person.
How can FEMS find you and follow your journey?
I love connecting with other FEMS! I’m the most active on Instagram and my handle is @erollenhagen. You can also find me on Facebook at Erin Rollenhagen, Author, on LinkedIn and on my website, erinrollenhagen.com. And if you want my book or inspirational card decks, you can find those on my website as well, or the book is on Amazon.com
ABOUT ERIN: When you start out on any new venture, you have a vision. You’re excited about your mission. You’re not worried about what other people think or what could go wrong. You just want to get in there and make a difference. Then reality sets in. The world can be a cold, hard place. Little by little, your focus turns from chasing your dreams to survival. At some point you find yourself asking, Am I cut out for this? Why are life and business so hard?
Erin knows this journey well. As a programmer and tech entrepreneur, she is accustomed to navigating a world where everything about her—from her appearance to her management style—is not the norm. But Erin believes that business doesn’t have to be cutthroat and heartless, and your authenticity is one of your greatest assets.
Erin is the author of Soul Uprising and the founder and CEO of Entrepreneurial Technologies, a custom app and software development firm.