My Story – The Long Road to Now, ‘Forced’ Entrepreneurship

Hi, I am Erin Davis. This is my story.

Erin with her husband Chad, and children Paige, Payton, Kailtin, and Cullan – and their wild yet sweet jack russell terrier puppies Packer and Rider

The Overview

I grew up on the central coast of California with my two brothers, one older and one younger, and my mom. My younger (technically, half-) sister lived with my dad in southern California. The four-hour distance between us was long when I was a kid. My mom worked hard, most of the time she had two jobs or worked the amount of hours to equal two jobs. 

My dad is wonderful and supportive, but three kids cost a lot. Needless to say, all of us kids had jobs as early as we could work and pitched in to help around the house or with needs of the family whenever possible. I had a wonderful childhood. We were poor, at least by my friends’ standards, but we had lots of love. 

The Background

I come from a very big extended Irish family. I have 16 first cousins on my mom’s side and they are all my best friends. Now they all have families of their own and we all make it a priority to celebrate St. Paddy’s Day together every year – a tradition our parents and grandparents began many years before. We have even celebrated in Ireland a time or two. 

While my family is far from perfect, I adore them and all their quirks only make them better. My grandparents, Grammy and Papa we called them, both died too young. When my grandma went to the hospital with pneumonia, all us cousins got two weeks off school to hunker down at one family’s house to play and pray together. Grandma passed away while we were together that final week. I think this is how she loved us best – together. I was 14. 

Adolescence Years

High school was pretty good for me. I focused on my dancing – ballet, jazz, and lyrical – performing companies and hours and hours of classes. As I mentioned we did not have a lot of money to spare so I would help clean the studio to cover my classes, babysit, and work at a daycare. I also was very committed to the youth group at our church. Weekly meetings and camps throughout the year. I loved it. 

With a mother who worked non-stop to support us, my responsibilities at home were significant – or so it seemed to me. As high school was nearing its end, I was tired and the thought of college was not appealing. I happened to be sharing this sentiment with my aunt who I would soon be seeing for a family holiday. She told me to bring my college application papers with me on the trip, ‘just in case’. 

The power of another trustworthy adult in a kid’s life is invaluable – she helped me to finish that application over the holiday and get it in the mail by the postmark date (back when applications were done by hand, no internet). I applied to Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo because it was close to home and with being so focused on the present and on my responsibilities I had not taken time to dream of what I wanted to do or where I’d want to study. I applied for the major with the least amount of math and science – my only real criteria at the time – so Social Science it was. 

To my surprise, I got in! 

While I had not thought much of my future until then, my mom always encouraged me to give myself options. So good grades and good behavior were part of my life recipe. So the next fall off to Cal Poly I went. 

Erin and her family celebrate St. Patrick’s Day at her family’s cabin in Idyllwild, CA 

On to College

I LOVED college. I truly love to learn and would be a perpetual student if that made any money. In year three I took a summer job with an agricultural education company in Texas, owned by family friends. I came from a rural town but knew little about livestock or farming. They gave me a crash course in all these things and I worked all summer teaching the public about my new expertise at state fairs and stock shows all over the country. 

I was hooked. 

I came back to school in the fall and changed my major to Agricultural Science, with a minor in Animal Science. I started my senior year in college with a new major, so I had to hustle to graduate in a reasonable amount of time. The coursework was so enjoyable to me that while it was hard, it was good – so I kept going. 

I even learned to breed cows, yes the full arm glove, up close and personal – I was pretty good at it too. After completing my undergraduate degree, I decided to stick around Cal Poly to get my Masters in Agricultural Communications with an emphasis in Animal Science. 

Partway through my master’s course work I was offered an internship in Montana at a cattle breed association. My role was to help with their marketing and work with their cooperator herds. I got to travel all over Montana, and work with their magazine, their board, and their membership. I loved the people, the work, and Montana. Upon returning to California to finish my master’s the breed association offered me a job when I completed school. Without thinking too deeply, I said “Yes!”

Off to Montana

I completed my coursework, began my thesis preparation with my professors, and packed up everything to leave for Montana. The plan was to finish my thesis while working and because many of my new coworkers were also in academia they encouraged me to complete my thesis on the job. Long story short, I did finish my thesis, got my first round of edits from my professors, and even went home to defend it. 

However, I cannot recall all the reasons, something with emergency changes to schedules and edits I did not make to my paper, and I did not defend on that trip to California. In my mind, I had done my work and I was loving my new job in Montana so I never rescheduled to defend all that work I had done – therefore  I never actually completed my Master’s. 

I did all the work to the end but didn’t put the cherry on top (defending my thesis) so my professors could bless me with my Master’s Degree. I could lament about this, but now, it’s so long ago, I let it flow like water under the bridge and it feels ok. 

Montana is my spirit animal’s home (it is also the birthplace of Matchbox Women, read the origin story). I love its seasons, its landscape, and the culture. I camped by myself in my truck throughout the national park, learned to mountain bike, ski, and hiked every chance I got, made wonderful friends, and traveled the nearby states in the summer to breed cows for the association’s herds. It was so good. 

But Montana without my family became very lonely. My employer had me traveling a fair amount and so I would see people from the ag industry all over the country enabling me to maintain my network. 

One day, I got a call with a job offer to go back to California. I had not considered leaving Montana, but this new job would send me to Sacramento and I had a number of cousins right there. Again, without too much thought I said “Yes!” It was hard to leave my new life in Montana, I loved the land and the people dearly, but it felt good to be going home. 

Workin’ for a Livin’

Over the next six years, I would work for two different employers. Both were in the cattle industry and worked to protect cattle ranchers’ rights or conserve the open rangelands of California – where most of the cattle live. My work was always in the communications side of things and telling their story. The work was meaningful and made an impact, though none of it felt especially connected to me, I did believe in what I worked for and that kept me going. 

Then in 2005, I met him. 

The Beginning of Forever

My husband and I met on the phone during business hours! He was a member of the association I worked for and he called the office because he had a question, apparently, only I could answer. 

See, I knew his brother and he told my future husband he should get to know me and so he called… the rest is history. We called and emailed for a few months before we met in person. After meeting we married two years later. 

I gained a new home (about 3 hours south of Sacramento), two darling bonus daughters, and the man of my dreams.  My employer was open to me working remotely and coming to the office several times a month to do meetings and have face-time. But once I got pregnant, things began to change. My travel slowed and then just before my daughter was born I was “invited” to move from a full-time employee to a sub-contractor. I wasn’t exactly being fired, I still worked there, but under very different parameters. 

At first, it seemed like a curse, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I never had dreams of becoming an entrepreneur, so I was forced into this at the beginning… but I wouldn’t change a thing. God bless hindsight!

Erin with her siblings: older brother Danny and younger siblings Timmy and Karie.

Entrepreneurial road

Fifteen years later, I’ve enjoyed a business that’s supported my family and given me free time with my kids, but had also secretly been sucking the life out of me. For the first decade, my clients came easily. My niche was narrow and word travels fast. I would work with several clients and I would meet others while doing that work and so on. 

As my kids grew, so did their needs. Plus, I was growing weary of just taking whatever clients reached out to me. My only goal and business plan was to earn X amount of money and to earn it by doing exceptional service. That’s it.

All my clients generally asked me to do brand, marketing or communications work for them – but that can include a lot of varied activities. Kids and clients kept me at home or at my computer more and more as time went by. The less I was out meeting with clients, the fewer clients I had seeking me out. My only tactic to get clients at that point was to be in front of them by happenstance. 

Fear 

I began to work motivated by fear. So when clients asked me to do things I wasn’t good at or would take me twice as long to do than someone else I said YES because I didn’t want to lose them. Needless to say, this was draining, defeating, and unsustainable. 

Finally, I was down to two clients. Then, one of them sold their business right after we signed our renewal contract. On one hand, I was the one that helped them create a business that was profitable and desirable. So much so, that someone else wanted to buy it. On the other hand, I had worked myself out of a job. The new owner came with their own marketing lead and my services were no longer needed. 

Now I was down to one client and at a loss. I wanted to grow my business, the stirring to do something more or different had been building inside of me over the years, but I was too busy with my family’s and client’s needs – to notice any of my own. 

After some reflection, I could see that my business had become a reflection of my fears and doubts and not my hopes and dreams. I realized everything I did so well for my clients I had never applied to myself or my own business. 

Somewhere inside myself, I had attached to the idea that everyone else deserved my best except me. But the only place this mindset had brought me to was empty. I had reached the end of my capacity. I had 15+ years of skills and results in exactly the areas I needed to change, but couldn’t seem to help myself. 

A Change is in Order

So, I got help. I needed help to get direction, support, accountability, feedback, and care for my weary and insecure heart. I hired my friend and mentor, an executive business coach, Laurel Emory, to lead me to my next best step. She guided me with tenderness and experience to uncover my limiting beliefs, redesign old habits, and create a new framework for my business. 

My work with Laurel led me to commit to a 12-month program with another mentor of mine, Kate Kordsmeir. Here I continued the work to rebuild my mindset and my business. 

Rather than doing whatever was asked of me by whoever would pay, I began to uncover where my heart was leading me to use what I knew and what I was growing into. I knew rebuilding my foundation through building a strong and compelling business brand was where my heart was calling. I also came to the conclusion that helping women realize and achieve the clarity and confidence I was coming into was something I could not keep to myself. 

Dreams can come true

Today, I am able to bring over two decades of communications, marketing, and brand strategy work into alignment with 18 months (and counting) of deep self-work to provide my clients with services and tools that can bring them results much faster! 

Matchbox Women is the home of a growing community of women who want to grow in life and business while staying true to themselves. 

It is also home to my TrueYouBrand method – Leading women entrepreneurs to build authentic brands so they can grow their business with clarity and confidence. 

I like to say it’s where brand strategy meets authenticity.

The biggest lesson I have learned in life and business is that humans are better together. Matchbox Women was created as one such place to be together. 

My promise is to help you find community and build a brand that gives you focus and flow, so you can build a business that makes your heart sing and makes money.