Erika Cramer, aka The Queen of Confidence, is an award-winning international confidence coach and host of The Confidence Chronicles podcast. She is also the author of the new book, Confidence Feels Like Sh!t!.
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1) To kick things off, could you tell us a little about your career background and current role?
I’m a confidence coach who helps women reclaim their self-confidence by letting go of the opinion of others and comparison so they can stand as their fully expressed selves. My background is a funny one.
I was a US Army soldier (spent 10 years doing that) who studied cosmetology (hair dressing) and was a bikini model, all at the same time! I then became a fashion stylist when I moved to Australia and started helping women with their outer confidence, being the way they dressed. It was all about their external image.
Until I noticed that their feeling confident wasn’t about the clothing, hair or makeup. My clients would look in the mirror and still have the “I am not good enough” thoughts. I decided I would help them not with culling their wardrobes, but instead culling all the thoughts that didn’t serve them.
I fell in love with helping them be truly confident from within. I’ve also recently released my first book, Confidence Feels Like Sh*t!, which is going incredibly well.
2) What does a day in the life look like for you? Can you take us through a recent workday?
After the pandemic hit my daily schedule has slowed down dramatically and for that I am extremely grateful. A typical day starts with us getting up around 7:30 and getting my two boys ready for school.
I’ll head out of the house before 9am to do one of the two drop offs (hubby takes the other). If it’s a work day I’ll head into my office (I currently work three days a week) where I’ll have a meeting with my team and organise the week.
I’ll jump on zoom calls, podcast interviews, sign books, create agendas for our live events, coaching my business mastermind ladies, record a podcast or three and of course speak to my beautiful clients and community on social media.
I’ll typically head back home around 3-4pm and pick up kids. The other three days are for me to do my yoga, reading or content creating, and Sundays are strictly for my family.
3) Does your current role allow for flexible or remote working? If so, how does that fit into your life and routine?
It’s flexible and thankfully I can work anywhere. I do a ton of live events so we plan for these a year in advance. After the pandemic I realised how even more remote we could run our company. My entire team works from home and they are all mothers with families so the flexibility is great for us all!
4) What does work-life balance mean to you and how do you work to achieve that goal?
I don’t believe in work life balance. I believe the word integration works best for me. I integrate my work and tons of live events with our lifestyle. My kids are involved in everything we do and we break rules – like after a Sunday event my team and I will all take Monday off.
Balance feels like something we will strive forever to get and never fully feel. Thankfully, I am married to a very calm meditation practitioner so he definitely brings the yin to my yang!
5) In the past 12 months, have you started or stopped any routines or habits to change your life?
Yes! After a major burnout in 2020 trying to serve the world, I forgot to serve myself. I found out I had a fatty liver and had gained weight and was extremely inflamed. I went to see a naturopath and made the following changes:
Went Alkaline for 8 weeks – This was massive! My body was so acidic (coffee, alcohol, meat, fruit etc.) I went on this cleanse and was instantly detoxed. Weeks later my liver was brand new and I had lost 9 kilos.
Sleeping more – I wasn’t getting enough sleep as I wrote my first book in lockdown which was extremely stressful. I started going to bed at 10:30pm (at the latest) so I could get some real quality sleep.
Running – I recently started running and it has been so liberating. Not just good for my heart but my mind as well. The feeling of moving my body in this way allows me to let go of the stress or emotions and it’s so freeing.
Yoga – again another game changer. This is just for me, a mat and the ground. This helps me not only with my fitness but also mind body soul connection. I find myself connecting to my breath and really giving myself the time to within.
Boundaries with personal life – I have made my circle of influence much smaller. I am really respecting what I need and my rest and mental capacity instead of giving with no end. I have started saying no more and really honouring my boundaries of time.
6) Do you have any favourite books, podcasts or newsletters that you’d like to recommend?
Byron Katie’s Loving What Is – this book absolutely changed my life. I am a big fan of Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert, Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now, Dr Wayne Dyer Happiness is the way and Dr Joe Dispenza’s Breaking The Habit of being Yourself.
Podcast favourites are The Life Coach School by Brooke Castillo and The Tony Robbins Podcast.
7) Are there any products, gadgets or apps that you can’t live without?
I love tracking my sleep with the Sleep timer app! Instagram! I love the gram so much and of course I wouldn’t know what to do next if I didn’t check my iCalendar! I am a big fan of face oils as my skin can get dry and every night I cleanse with an oil balm that is the jam!
8) If you could read an interview about work-life balance by anyone, who would that be?
Gary Vaynerchuk, that man is incredible and he doesn’t seem to share much about how he deals with being a father or husband and I think it’d be interesting to hear his take.
9) Do you have any last thoughts on work, life or balance that you’d like to share with our readers?
I would say, give yourself a break. You don’t necessarily need to aim to feel balanced in the traditional sense of the word. Do what works for you as an individual and find out what’s right for you. And that may take you time and experimenting.
This requires you to take risks and break the rules so you can find your flow. No one can tell you how to find balance as I believe it is a very personal journey that is constantly evolving and changing as our lives evolve and change.
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