Erica: Now I'm gonna need all y'all who are listening to get ready to meet a transformation expert who is proving that having it all doesn't have to mean doing it all until you break. Today's guest is a seasoned corporate leader turned holistic health and life coach who helps high achieving women reclaim their vitality without walking away from their ambitions. And y'all, I'm thrilled about this because so often so many people have told me to be less stressed, I should be less ambitious, and y'all, that does not work here.

Erica: But we are bringing Elizabeth Webb, who is the founder of Positively Elizabeth, to the show, where she blends her background in high stakes corporate environments with deep expertise in nutrition and mindset. So, y'all, she's just bringing all the things that I love together. But she's proof that you can lead a multibillion dollar impact while keeping your nervous system in check and your joy intact. And y'all, she's also an author. Her book Made for Magic hit the shelves in October, and it is nothing short of incredible.

Erica: Elizabeth, how are you today?

Elizabeth: I'm doing wonderful, and I'm happy to be here.

Erica: Oh my gosh, so much fun. We've got a ton of stuff to dive into, but I would love to kick it off just with a little bit of background, because you started your career in corporate, and you spent a lot of time navigating all of the corporate politics and this, that, and the other. But what was that internal spark that led you away from the traditional executive path into this world of holistic coaching?

Elizabeth: Oh, thanks for asking. So I was never an executive myself. What I was doing was helping in the inner workings of corporate. And what I realized, like so many of us realize when we're in that world, is the money's good, the safety's good, that feels good. That's hard to give up. And it's really hard to live a soul led life and make soul led decisions when you are not the decision maker within corporate. So there's usually politics, let's just call it suppression politics. And I decided, I still work within corporate, and I still advise leaders, but now I only work with the decision makers, and I only work with the top leader in the company. Because if I'm affecting change with people who are below that on the food chain, what happens ultimately is they'll affect some change there that makes things healthier, that makes things better for the employees, but ultimately their wings are clipped, and they end up leaving. So I'd rather work with the person who is the main decision maker and really affect change from the top down.

Elizabeth: And thank God they want to work with me. These are people who could work with anyone, so I always feel honored that they choose to have me by their side. And to your point, yeah, I'm woo woo, so boardroom and the woo, we're combining both. And what I'm noticing with these high level decision makers is they actually want the woo if they feel like it works. So they'll sit in the Ayahuasca circle, they'll do the EMDR therapy, they'll do all of these things that are kind of fringe in that world if they see a result and if they really trust the person that's advising it. Not that I'm advising Ayahuasca, honestly. I've never done it, I was just using an extreme example.

Erica: Okay, so many things we can unpack here, but I was a chief people officer for so long, and I would see the struggles that the people who were not in the executive team would feel and that they would face, and I would often have to advise them. They're like, look, you're either on the boat or you're off the boat, but you ain't driving the boat. And I know sometimes that can be hard to hear. And yes, you have to consider the money and you have to consider safety, we all work for dollars. But when it's pulling you away from your own core values, that's what I really advise to people. Like, I would hear people complain all the time about corporate this and corporate that, and it's like, look, you will hit a breaking point wherever you are if the value conflict is so different, and that's because your soul is so aligned to those core values. And it's exactly why I ended up leaving corporate, because the company I had worked for, their core values had completely shifted away, and even as a chief people officer, I didn't have the ability to change it. Because we all report to somebody, and if somebody had their own ideas about where they wanted the ship to go, I decided, I gotta get off this boat.

Elizabeth: Totally. It's a very specific personality type that can last in that environment long term without feeling like they're selling their soul. Some people can do it for the rest of their life, and I've noticed there's a certain personality type that can compartmentalize and really just see it for what it is. It's almost like being in a marriage where you're like, does this light my soul on fire? Do I really feel seen, heard, and understood? Not really, but I also don't wanna be alone, and it works for me in these ways. So it's a very practical, pragmatic personality type that I see, and I'm like, more power to you if it's meeting your needs, stay. If it's not, but a lot of us have this itch, this spark, this fire within us that's just, at a certain point, it's gonna feel like you're rattling a cage, and you'll either, god forbid, create some sort of illness where you have to leave, or you'll choose to leave on your own terms, healthy and whole.

Erica: The woo in me really does say that if you're called to do something, the universe really will make it impossible for you to not do the thing, meantime if you're not just kinda rolling with it. But Elizabeth, I would love to ask, do you have a moment that you could share where you realized that your soul was not being fed and that you were sacrificing it for corporate?

Elizabeth: I know, so many moments that have been like that throughout my life. One of them, I'm recalling a moment where I was in San Francisco. Now I live in Austin, Texas, but at the time I was in San Francisco, and I always maintained my private practice. I was seeing private clients, but I was also in this position of having the honor of being the first female employee at an all male self development company. And I was thrilled at that glass ceiling that was being broken, that it had only been men, and then they were like, you know what, she's the one that we can bring in, and this will be our first woman. So I was so delighted from breaking through a glass ceiling, but also my own excitement was like, okay, I am the one. I can help bring consciousness to this company. I can help bring communication skills.

Elizabeth: And I got in there, and they were just nothing of what I was hoping. And I was not able to affect the change in the way that I had dreamed of affecting the change. And everything that you could think could be toxic at a company, it was there. From the sexual harassment to the feeling really unsafe, to having a meeting to hear my thoughts and the male leadership team literally talking the whole entire time of the meeting that was supposed to be my thoughts. They're talking over each other. So I had this moment, I think I was with them for a year and a half, and I realized pretty early on this is going to be much harder than I thought it was going to be. I almost left multiple times. I affected as much change as I could, and then I really had to sit with myself and say, and I invite the listener to ask, who am I trying to prove something to? Because it's not me anymore.

Elizabeth: If you're trying to prove something to yourself, that's one thing, if you're hitting going beyond your own personal glass ceiling and going, okay, I'm not gonna leave because I feel uncomfortable, I'm not gonna leave and let that guy win, I'm gonna stay because I'm proving this to myself, and this is between me and me. That's a different thing. I had gone through my personal boundaries, I had gone through and overwritten some of my personal boundaries, but I'd also broken through my upper limits, and my work there was done. And it was that meeting where they were like, okay, we need to hear Elizabeth's thoughts. Elizabeth got the microphone never in that meeting. And at the end of it, they kind of looked at each other and they were like, oh yeah, she didn't talk, oh well, time's up, we all have places to go. And the boardroom dissipated, and I was like, what are we doing here?

Elizabeth: And I think that everything that I was proving on principle to myself, my work was complete, and now I was proving beyond, I was proving something culturally. I was proving that a woman could make it, but not to me, not to God, not to my soul. So the staying on principle, it had expired, and I put in my notice, and I've never felt so free as when I put in my notice. The part of me that felt like I had to on principle, I really let that go, and that's something that I continue to release at different moments of my life, especially when I realize I'm mostly doing it for other people. I have a blind spot around this because I think, I'm doing the right thing. And then I'll check myself somewhere along the way when I'm feeling exhausted or martyred, and go, who am I really doing this for? Who is this serving? This righteousness that I feel, that's not the highest part of myself, so I'm bleeding my energy to something that's not actually mine, which means I'm out of alignment.

Erica: We need to correct this, Elizabeth. I love talking about this idea of being the only. And I gotta give a plug for my girl, Angela Chi, who wrote a book called The Power of the Only. I think there is a lot of great power in being the only in many instances, but also in situations, especially like yours, it can be really frustrating. I know that we have people who are listening who are like, I am the only, you fill in the blank. Executive on the team, the woman in the PM group.

Elizabeth: Woman of color.

Erica: Right, woman of color, LGBTQ plus. There are so many because we live in such a diverse world, but in corporate world it doesn't look like that. So I guess what I wanna ask you is if you're not in that position to leave yet, and you're not staying on principle, you're there to make ends meet, fill the gaps, serve the purpose, what kind of advice would you give for those onlys to not just survive it, but be able to stay positive and focused and not feel like the responsibility is all on them to change the whole thing?

Elizabeth: That's a beautiful question. So there's part of this that's more practical than I want it to be. If you want to leave but you can't yet, there's multiple things to do. First one is there must be some compartmentalizing that happens in your system, like the marriage that you can't leave yet. Women stay in all kinds of bad marriages because they feel that they can't leave yet financially or because of the kids. So the first thing I would say is put an end date in your calendar, so that your soul and your subconscious knows this isn't forever. When you experience the injustice or the whatever it is that's toxic constantly, your subconscious is not going, this is forever, it's like, no, it's not forever, it's for the next nine months, or the next six months or year and a half. I would say mark it and put it actually in your calendar. Even if something were to happen with the date where you had to extend a bit, having that will calm a piece of you that's like, I can't handle this forever.

Elizabeth: Also, really concentrating on the safety that you're getting and amplifying that for yourself as much as possible, utilizing the tools that you're being provided, whether it's the insurance, the perks, the gym, the everything that's cushy about that, really using those things. And also, whatever part of you that's not being fed, so it could be your purpose on the planet, it could be your mission, make sure you're feeding that in another way. Take that fire to change the world or advocate for the only, and use it in another way. Maybe mentor a young girl who's the only in her situation and funnel that need so it's getting met.

Erica: That's good advice because I know so many women who do feel stuck, and they're biding their time, but it's just so stressful when you're in that situation.

Elizabeth: A lot of toleration, and I would say toxic toleration, and that's why it's so important to put the end date in that you can handle without, you know, losing your shit, getting sick, punching a wall, going off on somebody. And for everyone, that number's gonna be different, and it needs to be realistic for your financial situation. I'm not one of these irresponsible coaches that's like, just burn their dreams. I've seen a lot of people do that and put themselves in really bad situations. So create a bridge for yourself.

Erica: Well, we're gonna take a left turn away from surviving toxic workplaces and talk about joy, because this is what your book, Made for Magic, is all about. I think the tagline is a practical guide from survival mode to soul satisfying joy. And I gotta be honest with you, girl, that sounds fantastic. I don't know that I know that many women who really feel like they have this soul satisfying joy. It feels so aspirational. So I need the download from you. How do we get it? What kind of things can we start to put into place so that we can bring more joy into our lives?

Elizabeth: Sure. So the first thing that needs to get addressed when I talk about soul satisfying joy is the epidemic of exhaustion. What that creates for women is they think they don't have time or bandwidth to create soul satisfying joy, because in their off time they're just either resting or what I call blobbing. It's the doom scroll, it's binging a show two seasons and calling that rest, that's blobbing, that's checking out, that's numbing after you just worked your ass off for somebody else's vision all day long. So in order to talk about soul satisfying joy, we need to address that. I'm not gonna tell you you need to quit your job in order to create soul satisfying joy. You don't. However, you do need more spaciousness and bandwidth. Schedule things that make you feel alive, put them in your calendar. You may need an accountability partner to get there depending on your personality type. If I'm exhausted and I'm burning the candle at both ends, I'm not going to miss that improv class or that dance class if I have a friend meeting me there. But if I don't have a friend meeting me there, the chances of me canceling on myself are high. So know thyself and set yourself up for success around that.

Elizabeth: Put in your calendar things that bring you alive, and if you don't know what they are, take this on as a research project. Fast forward to the end of our life, that version of you is gonna wish that you've done this all along. It needs to be held as sacred as a client meeting, that doctor's appointment that took months to get, it needs to be held with that level of sacredness. And as a culture, burned out women, we're not going, I'm gonna put this in my calendar and hold this sacred that lights my soul on fire and replenishes me, because we always think it's for another day. And I'm going to propose to you that it's not for another day, and that over time it will replenish you and give you life back. But at first it's counterintuitive, because you think you're too exhausted to start.

Erica: I think where we really struggle with this, Elizabeth, is number one, we live in a capitalistic society, so we always want more, more, more, and faster, faster, faster. And I think women especially need to be realistic about their bandwidth. One of the things that I've been coaching the women who are in HER Collective, which is my private coaching community, is that we always plan and optimize for our best day when everything goes according to plan. And then what happens is we get a shitty night of sleep, we have hot flashes, so we miss our morning workout, and then a kid gets sick, so you have to go pick them up from daycare. So I'm trying to, I hate to say have people lower the bar and lower their expectations, but it's about being realistic. One other thing I love that you said is I do think we're at this turning point for a lot of women in our generation where they are recognizing that they are totally burnt out and that all the things they do, they're tying to some sort of productivity measurement. One of the women in HER Collective, she got the best New Year's resolution vibe from her seven year old daughter, who when she asked her daughter what her resolution should be, said, I think I wanna have more fun in 2026. And that woman was like, that is going to be my goal, and I'm not going to tie it to productivity measures.

Elizabeth: Sure, so fun is almost a lost art for high achieving women, and I would love to follow the leadership of this seven year old daughter and her mom, and look to the children who are doing things because they like it. They're not doing it strategically, they're singing out loud because they like it, they're dancing in the kitchen because they like it, they're playing with their friend because they like that friend, not because it's strategic networking. Let's bring back this idea of the luxury of doing things because they're enjoyable. And I want to put in a little note for our high achieving babes, watch this, if you start having fun, watch you and yourself try to turn it into something that's productive. Don't lose fun for the sake of pleasure, joy for the sake of joy, and just allowing it to be that, letting that be righteous and beautiful as a part of your reality.

Erica: Oh, that is so beautiful. And Elizabeth, I know you have a freebie that goes along with your book, do you wanna tell us about it right now?

Elizabeth: Yes, sure. So I wrote the book that I needed, and I wrote the book that my clients needed. In this book there's a whole chapter about joy. I also navigate all of the ways that women give away our power and how we call that back in practical step by step ways. If you want to go to madeformagicbook.com, we will send you the first chapter for free, and you can see if it's your cup of tea. Even if you just read the first chapter, which is all about how to reclaim and reignite hope in areas where hope and dreaming have been lost, that will change your life. The audiobook is also out now, the audiobook just dropped last week.

Erica: Elizabeth, thank you so much for coming, for sharing your joy and your magic and everything that you have done for this book and for all the women that you work with. Now y'all, if today's conversation lit a fire under you, don't keep it to yourself. Share this episode with a friend, drop a review, let's keep the conversation going. Remember, your potential is limitless, and the only thing standing in your way are those sticky floors, but you have the power to break through them. So go out there, take up some damn space, and let's shatter some ceilings together.