Thanks for tuning in and welcome back to episode #57 with Erica Vernet Knowles. Erica is a Miami native, an international traveler, and a culture enthusiast. With over 20 years of climbing America’s corporate ladder, Erica found her niche in the media industry serving as an executive director, publisher, and editor-in-chief.

But to get where she is today, she didn’t follow a straight path: Erica started with studying architecture & design, followed by studying political science, working in the pharmaceutical, political, banking and event planning sector up to being an English teacher. And today, Erica is the creator and producer of Collective Drift.

Throughout her career, Erica was told that with the diverse transitions and overlaps in her CV she won’t find a job. In this interview, she shares why this diversified journey, which actually made her work for various companies in different lines of business, like e.g. Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer or the MIA Media Group, was a key factor of success.

Hear how she dealt with doubt in terms of sticking to a decision and how she managed to handle her hardest decision: taking a step back and taking a job again.

We talk about Erica’s biggest challenge and learning when living abroad, how she makes her decisions and how analyzing the origin of fear helped her. She also explains that trial and error isn’t a bad thing for her and that happiness is worth more than a six-figure salary.

Why building relationships is so important and how everything aligned once she started going on her path - this and much more Erica talks about in this episode.

• Erica's Collective Drift Website