Achieve epic clarity in your purpose and message not through endless analysis, but through the power of one single word. Author, speaker, and clarity coach Erin Weed details her surprisingly simple method for discovering your unique “one-word frequency” and “operating system” (10 words or less). Drawing on her experiences, including founding “Girls Fight Back” and speaker coaching for TEDx, Erin explains how authenticity is a skill and introduces her Head-Heart-Core® tool for expressing your full truth with kindness and confidence. She also shares why the most powerful leaders “go first” and discusses her upcoming book, Just One Word.
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Your One Word To Unleash Epic Clarity And Purpose With Erin Weed
My guest is Erin Weed, a sought-after Speaker, Author, and Clarity Coach who helps leaders uncover the truth of who they are and turn it into a message and movement that changes lives. She’s the Creator of The Dig, a powerful method that distills a person’s life purpose into just one word. Erin has dug over 1,000 leaders, from founders and TED speakers to executives and change makers, helping them communicate with radical authenticity.
Before The Dig, Erin founded Girls Fight Back, a global self-defense movement that reached over 1 million women worldwide, so inspiring. She’s also a longtime TEDx speaker and Speaker Coach, guiding thought leaders to share their truth on some of the biggest stages in the world. Her upcoming book is coming out in May 2026, Just One Word: The Surprisingly Simple Method to Discover Your Purpose and Unleash Your Power, brings this transformative process to readers everywhere.
Erin lives in Colorado, where she’s on a mission to help people and organizations align their purpose, message, and impact without losing their soul along the way. I am over the moon excited to have Erin on the show as she shows us a variety of tips that open the door to live and love your possible. Enjoy the show.
Epic Clarity Of Purpose In One Word
Erin, welcome to the show. It’s so nice to see you.
Nice to see you too, Darrin. Thank you.
Yeah, it’s been a while, but we were talking pre-show here. Time’s flying and I’ve got to tell you, you’re doing a lot of great work. I’m honored to have you on the show. On Linked-In you have this quote that says you’re helping leaders get epic clarity of their purpose and their message and doing that was just one word. I’m like, “How fun is that?”
I have the best job in the whole wide world. Pretty fair about that.
I imagine. What do you notice during those types of conversations and what are you noticing with your clients and yourself?
What I notice first and foremost is that so many of us, I would say even all of us, have these repeating themes in our lives. If we can just get clear on what those themes are that keep repeating over and over again, then that is our purpose and that is our message. I helped people to translate that from the unconscious into the conscious so that they can really own it.
How do you deal with one word?
The first thing I would like to say is this, it is one word, but I see the one word more as a frequency. It’s almost like a label for a feeling. If you think about the word freedom, for example, there’s almost like a feeling in it. If you really think about freedom, maybe you think of being on vacation or flying an airplane or something like that. Freedom just has a frequency to it.
Some people, their life purpose is to learn about and teach about freedom. There are different frequencies, obviously for every single word, but I find that once we can get a leader to understand really what is that one word frequency that is at most at play in their life, then they can just drop into that in any business or personal situation and be their most authentic self.
How long does it take for someone to notice that frequency?
The way I work with people is we do a three-hour session. It can be on Zoom, or people can come to my office or even my home in Colorado. I basically get their whole life story. We are picking out all of those one-word themes that keep showing up over and over again. Everybody has what I call an operating system. It’s how these most common words that show up in your life story repeat over and over again, and how they are in relationship with each other.
Everyone has an operating system — the most common words that show up in your life story, repeating over and over again. Share on XYour operating system is ten words or less. Once you know your operating system, it’s like you have the how-to manual for your own life. It is amazing. It’s also your core message. It’s the thing that you’re just going to want to talk about over and over again. When I say I help leaders get epic clarity of their purpose and message, it really is your purpose is your message, and your message is your purpose.
That’s clarity right there. You’ve mentioned the word authentic too. How does that translate from all this work?
First of all, I just want to name the fact that authenticity is just such a buzzword that I feel like most people hate at this point. That’s totally fair. I personally think that authenticity is a skill. I don’t think it’s a choice. I don’t think it’s a strategy. I think it’s a skill and it’s a skill that many people didn’t learn when we were growing up.
So many of us were born into either some culture, some family, some situation that basically, directly or indirectly, we got the message that it’s not safe. It’s not good to be fully who you are. I find that when I’m working with people, which is mostly adults, it’s almost like there’s a remembering that needs to happen of who that authentic self really is. I do that by sharing these tools to help people be authentic, really working on the premise that most people never learned it.
I’ve been in so many conversations about people saying, “I have to change,” or, “I have to do this,” or, “I have to become this,” or, “I have to become that.” When I hear you talking, when I listen to some of your work, it’s really about getting back to who we truly are or who we’re meant to be.
It’s about remembering. I think there is a lot of personal development out there that it’s fluffy and then maybe it’s a feel-good experience, but then you lead and you’re like, “What do I do with that?” I’m a very tactical application person. I like when we leave the touchy-feely experience, but also to have like a thing that you can start infusing into your life, into your work, into your message.
Connecting Your One-Word Frequency To Authenticity
Is it possible the one word, the theme and the rhythm is how I would define my authenticity? As you were saying, it’s like this is who I am, this is what’s showing up, and this is the way I’m going to really bring myself to the world.
Yeah, absolutely. That one word, that frequency, you’re going to be the most fulfilled when you’re playing in that. You’re going to feel the most excited. You also might be the most triggered in some cases. Sometimes when the word towards the end of The Dig and people’s one word is coming into view, they’re like, “I do not want that to be my word,” because they have a strange relationship with it.
To give you an example, I was working with this woman who owns a consultancy who’s basically working in DEI and just helping these Fortune 100 companies to treat their employees better and more equitably. It turned out that her one word was power, and she was really horrified by it. She happens to be a lesbian. She’s like, “I’ve spent my entire life fighting the power, if you will. My whole business is about helping to balance out the power.” I was like, “That’s exactly why it’s your word because that is the thing that is both sides of the coins,” both her struggle and her superpower.
I could understand that. There are some groups I’ll go in and they’ll say, “You can’t use that word. You can’t say power. You can’t say privilege. You can’t say certain words,” which I think is ironic because we get lost in some of the words that people translate. I could understand that. I could relate. I love how you’re putting out to the world, I think it’s every week maybe, your newsletter, like a word focus you put on a sticky and you tell a story.
A beautiful story you told recently about the word soul. It was a recent word. I love it. It slows me down to recognize let’s see what shows up with that word of the week that Erin’s putting out there. What is your intention by putting these out there every week? What are you looking for people to read, to notice and feel?
The intention is really to get people maybe more comfortable with this idea of that words carry a frequency and that we can choose them. I feel like for our one word for our life that I uncover in The Dig, I don’t feel like that’s really chosen. It feels to me a bit more of like a spiritual thing like, “This is just what you’re here to learn and teach about.”
For the word of the week, that was actually a practice that I’ve been doing for a really long time. Something just with my partner Dan, we would always just decide what our word should be this week? Finally, we’re like, “Maybe that’s the newsletter,” because we were thinking about different ways that we could connect with the community that would be helpful and positive because there’s such like a digital junkyard going on right now. I didn’t want to contribute to the landfill.
We’ve gotten really good feedback about it because I think it does invite people into that one-word frequency for a week. Also, it’s been a fun way for me just to share more about what’s on my mind, what I’m struggling with, what is lighting me up. It’s an authentic way to connect. My word, by the way, is authentic, for my life. It’s like I’m in the struggle and the shininess of this being a theme that’s ever present.
I was going to ask you what is your word, so I appreciate you sharing that. That’s great.
I do this annual thing and I think about it throughout the year. I set up a purpose word for the year. I’m sure you’ve seen that practice. Yours is a life message, lifelong frequency as we’re talking about. I love the weeklys because I do believe that the words we put in our head and there are 26 spots in our head that we can truly hold too. I like the ten or fewer, that’s even better because we have a better chance to ate those. It’s a level of connection. It’s like a friction. There’s an energy. You can just see it popping when you say authenticity. My word of the year is love. “What guy’s going to say love?” That’s what some people are thinking.
I think a couple of years ago I was really squishy and uncomfortable with the word. What does it mean? How far does it go? Love has so many different meanings. I actually brought it back this year to say I’m going to get more comfortable with it because I want to engage in the word. I want to draw it out more. I want to gift it more. I want it to be present. I feel like when we have these words, we actually notice it more. As you said, it’s something we embody. It’s something we could actually believe is there and we really connect to in a deep way.
It’s like you think about all the different situations in your life that you could just be doing in a more loving way. Personally, professionally, how can I infuse this with love? That’s exactly what I’m talking about when I say frequency because there’s so many different ways we can do things. If we infuse them with an intentional word, what’s possible?
The Origin Story: From Tragedy To Clarity Coaching
It’s a level of humanness that separated from us these days. How did you get to this place using this level of work, The Dig, one word to help people really get clarity on the purpose of the message? How did you get here? What brought you here and how did you figure out this method, this frequency that really is repeating success over and over?
A lot of it was just first and foremost just trying to unpack my own purpose and truth. I had my first company I started when I was 23. It was called Girls Fight Back. It was women’s safety and self-defense seminars at high schools and colleges across the world. Basically, me and my team of speakers would just go into these schools, give these like kick-ass assemblies and teaches young women how to protect themselves.
This company I started after one of my best friends was murdered in college. It was deeply personal, but it also had this highly educational component. That was a 13-year span where I was on the road 200 days a year, spoke to over 1 million people in that time. It was just nuts, but so impactful and so many good outcomes came out of it.
When I sold that company in 2013, I was trying to figure out what I was going to do next. It was like one of those moments where I was like, “I’m 36 now. What is my purpose here actually? What was that all about?” Obviously, it was connected to this life tragedy and everything, but I also was like, “There must be something more.” The more I unpacked that story, the more I realized that yes, I believe in empowerment. Yes, I believe that women all have the right to be safe.
There are so many different word frequencies at play here, but really, the biggest trigger for me after my friend Shannon was murdered was it was a violation that women couldn’t just go about their lives authentically and just be doing their thing. Shannon was just going to college at a university. I started to see after she was killed, all my sorority sisters started just making all these concessions out of fear.
“Maybe I shouldn’t travel the world. Maybe I shouldn’t backpack Europe. Maybe I shouldn’t live alone.” All from fear. I was like, “This sucks. We deserve to live our own authentic life.” This word authentic kept coming up where I was like, “I think this is driving everything.” Around the same time, I volunteered as a speaker coach at TEDxBoulder because I’d been living on a stage for the previous decade-plus. I was like, “Maybe I’ll just help some other people.”
I started my coaching process by getting full dump of all of the people’s information but I was really getting them down to that one word of what was true for them. People started going viral and I was like, “I’m sure I’m not the best speaker nor speaker coach.” I’m sure it’s not that. What I realized is that I, what I am really good at is helping people get epic clarity of their purpose and message and distill it down to simple words. That’s really how the whole thing started.
As you’re talking, I’m thinking epic clarity and then you said it. It was perfect. It’s helping people really hone in on that. Exactly. You put it right out there. It’s beautiful. People want to be seen. People want to be heard and why not be the word that really allows them to shine? I think you’re helping people truly reflect that versus what other people might be saying to them.
The beautiful thing about when you get that clarity, it naturally turns into confidence. When you get that confidence, it naturally turns into connection. I work with my speaker clients, it’s like, “Forget about the connection stuff, the presentation, how you move your body, the slides, whatever. Forget about it. Let’s get clarity because when you get clarity, you’re going to be so ridiculously confident that every person in the room is going to want to be connected to you because you’re so freaking authentic.”
The Uniqueness Of Your Purpose & Operating System
I imagine you’ve had some clients where it becomes deeply emotional. I imagine you’ve seen the gamut of that. Is there anything that stands out to you? Not to share a client in particular, but a moment or something that really sits with you?
My client base is so interesting because it’s all over. I work with the NFL, I work with motivational speakers. I work with corporations, activists, you name it. I think one of the things that stands out the most is, and this is for all your readers too, is just like, please take this to heart. As someone who has literally listened to the entire life story and found meaning in it of 1,000 people at this point.
Every single person’s operating system in purpose is completely different. There are no repeats. What people need to know about this is that you are so ridiculously special and unique and needed in this world. I don’t say that from like a fluffy perspective. I say that from data. There hasn’t been another you and there never will be with your unique set of stories and experiences. Every time I dig someone, I just fall in love with them because I see the struggle, I see the story, I see what’s come out of it. The human being there, they are constantly becoming. I get emotional talking about this because like people don’t actually know. That, for me, is problematic.
You’re carrying that emotion with you. People struggle with, “What is my purpose?” You just provided clarity. I never thought about it in the way you’re sharing, which is, it is unique to each of us. We don’t have to live the purpose of exactly someone else or to live that high level. I want to make a difference, sure. What part can you play? It doesn’t have to be something that’s absolutely out of reach. Start with something. Start with a word, start with something that could be locally impactful.
I like the word because I think sometimes in our culture, especially, we get too hung up on our profession being our purpose. “I should be a doctor,” or, “Maybe my purpose is to be a teacher or even a parent.” Can we just like let the roles go for a second and look at that one word? That one word actually you can lay over similar to how you’re laying love over all the different areas of your life this year. You can lay that one word over all the different areas of your life always. Just more doable.
Head-Heart-Core®: Your Tool For Living Your Truth
People don’t remember what title you had at a company or a role. They remember how you are at home or in the community. How you talk, how you love, how you care. It’s not about your title. You talk about truth earlier a little bit. I’m curious. I’ve heard you say about living in your truth and there’s truth inside all of us. I’m just curious if you could expand on that. What does that mean? How should we think about that?
Living in your truth. I think it’s a daily choice. To live in truth is just to be radically honest with yourself about is true for you. I think that the culmination of all those decisions determines if a person is living an authentic life. I don’t know that you can just choose authenticity as one choice. It’s just like this little truth. If it’s helpful to you, I can share a little tool on how you get to your truth.
Yeah, absolutely. Go for it.
I think most people want to be pretty authentic, at least to whatever degree that feels safe for that person. It’s like, how do you even start? One of the tools that I teach at a lot of businesses is called head, heart, core. This is basically based on the premise that we all have three truths that are existing at all times. We have a factual truth, so things that are just undisputedly true, where you live, what your birthday is, do you have a dog? You have your emotional truth that’s like, what do you feel right now? What is alive in you? That’s only for you to decide.
You have your gut here you have your core, your core-based truth. That’s your desire. That’s what you want. When you put together what you think, so factual truth with emotional truth, what you feel, with desire-based truth, what you want, it is a full expression of your truth so that you can then make decisions from that place and express yourself from that place. When you keep doing that over and over again and you’re checking in with yourself on a regular basis for those three truths, then you can start just weaving together an authentic life based on what results you got.
Essentially, it’s your identity as you’re walking through life. Another way to look at it is we think about how we’re seen in the world how we’re perceived and what’s truth or what’s myth, what’s right, what’s wrong. I always think about like, Erin, I’m looking at you, but you’ll never know how I look at you. You’ll never see you yourself like the way I’m seeing you. It’s the same thing. How you show up, how you bring yourself, the truth that you’re talking about will come alive. That’ll get me closer to how you bring yourself.
You are fun, you got great energy, you’re authentic. I think you would say anything that’s on your mind. You’re not going to hide things. It seems you’re pretty forthright about what, what’s going on. I love that. We have those truths. The heart one spoke to me the most. The core is interesting because it’s something that feels maybe spiritual. I don’t know if that’s how you think about it. I know it’s what you want, but maybe for where I’m at, maybe it’s a little bit more spiritual these at these days. I’m not sure.
It can be spiritual. Speaking from the core, almost sometimes people have a hard time with it because it sounds bossy. It’s like, “I want this and I want that. I want to go out on vacation. I want to travel the world. I want a tuna sandwich for lunch.” It’s was like that Willy Wonka character like, “I want it.”
Was that Verruca?
I think maybe. That sounds good. I personally have a very strong positive relationship with the core because when you want things, you give other people permission to want things too. The fun thing about the head, heart, core exercise is when you put all those three together, internally, now you have your whole truth about any given situation. Externally, this is also how you can deliver it to other people in a way that hits somebody in one of the areas that they are most comfortable with.
Some people are more factual people, data people, the tech people. The people who cry at commercials, they just are being led around the world by their heart. Some people are more visionaries and they’re more in the core. If you’re communicating with someone from the head, heart, and core on basically one paragraph, you’re going to connect with these people at least on 1 of those 3 areas.
To live in truth is to be radically honest with yourself about what is true for you. Share on XDo you try to connect those dots so you land in one spot, then you try to connect those elements to make it just a full experience or just so someone could actually feel that level of clarity with you?
Totally. When you put it all together, you’re pretty unstoppable. Do you want to play with it right now?
Sure.
Live Practice: Applying Head-Heart-Core® To Your Mission
Do you have a situation right now or a decision that you have to make or a thing that you’re wanting to pursue?
There are a lot of things. How big do we want to go? Are we talking about for the world? I have this thing related to this show in general. I just think I have this belief that people have so much possibility inside them that they don’t recognize. That’s what I would love to get that message out to people in a different way, just so they could stop to recognize what that is for them. Create that space.
Let’s do this around your show. Give me the factual truth of your show. We’re talking things like number of episodes, how long you’ve been doing it. Facts only. I don’t want to know how you feel about it, what you want for it.
We launched just a couple of years ago. This will be our 54th episode. We’ve had a great mix of leaders to friends, to people who have gone through different emotional traumas, to really transforming their lives and other people’s lives. We have a great mix of people who have taught me so much. I feel like I learn and grow each time I have a guest on.
I’m hoping that my audience is also taking some of these tidbits, one word or whatever it might be, that they can apply back to their life and really open up their lives a little bit differently so they could see life a little bit differently. I view this show as an avenue for people to really pause and see what’s there.
Let’s go into the second round. Just tell me pure feelings. How does this show make you feel? What does it bring up in you?
I light up every time I have a guest on, just the topics in watching people come to life with their story. I love it.
I can tell. What do you want? What do you want to have happen? Where’s this thing going? Get bossy.
What I would love is for the guests to really show their true self and to be authentic and honestly, be vulnerable. I ask the guest to come on and share something like, “What are some of the things that got you here? What are some of those moments as a child or are some of these moments that are showing up today that shaped you?” Some people are really sharing their full selves, their laundry, dirty or clean.
What I’m hoping, what I’m wishing for as well is for the audience, because every time I hear these stories, it makes me reflect, it makes me look at my story. It makes me think about how I can make an impact and I can continue to learn and continue to grow. I’m hoping on the audience as well, these stories for us to reflect on our own and figure out what we could do with it.
Some people turn some of these anguishes or events into new businesses or new approaches you did with what you created with the kicking ass seminars around the world. When I think about Live Your Possible, I want people to love it and lean into it and step in and see what they could do to impact the world around them.
Beautiful. That’s a full and complete message right there, facts, feeling, desires and everyone’s clear after that. I think especially in the business community, we’re almost trained to overuse words that mean nothing and feel empty.
The Power Of Going First: The Risky Road To Authenticity
I loved your TEDx that you did in Boulder and you talk about getting real related to all this and how you talk about how it’s risky. Tell me more about that and being first, going first.
In the TEDx Talk, you’re probably referencing the end of it where I shared the story about I had a different sorority sister from who I referenced earlier who was going through cancer a few years ago. She loved Wonder Woman. I thought it would be fun on the day that I was taking her to chemo to dress up as Wonder Woman and take her there. I just didn’t overthink the thing. As I was driving there, basically, I needed to stop and get coffee at Starbucks for her. I found myself basically fully dressed as Wonder Woman, and the only Starbucks near her house was at this corporate business park. It’s a Friday morning, I’m basically in full cosplay and all the bankers and lawyers are there and everything.
It was just one of those moments where you ask yourself how real do you want to be? This is strange. I realized, I was like, “All right, I’ll just got to go full on Linda Carter in this situation.” I did, I brought the energy and whatever. There was this woman at the end, the barista making the drinks and stuff. She was just like, “I have to know why you’re dressed like that.” It was one of those moments where like speaking, someone’s got to go first. Everything in me wanted to be like, “It’s Friday,” like, just play it off somehow.
I was like, “I want a more authentic world. I want a world where I can meet a stranger at a Starbucks and I can actually tell them what’s up with me.” Maybe that scares them away, but maybe it makes their day, and who knows, and who am I to say who that’s going to affect in that certain way? I just looked at her, I said, “I’ve got this friend, she’s going through chemo. She really loves Wonder Woman. It’s a really crappy situation, but I just wanted to bring her a little bit of joy.”
Notice a little head, heart, core in there. Covering all the bases in a short amount of time for ultimate connection. This woman just grabbed my hands. She was like, “You have no idea what you just did for me. That is exactly what I needed to hear today,” and she disappears. It’s just like, “Who knows? Who knows who she’s, or what she’s going through or why she needed to hear that, but I had to go first. It’s my hope that this becomes a ripple where this real kindness branches out to other people too.
Yeah, that’s beautiful. You’re real and you put it out there. We don’t know to this day what she did with that, do you? It doesn’t matter.
It doesn’t. It’s not like, “Who cares?” Maybe it’s none of my business and maybe our only job as human beings is just to put positive vibes to other people. I think the best way to do that is just to be who we are and speak with kindness.
Put yourself out there. I love the message be first and then I think at the end of the TED Talk you’re like, “Well, then there’s a second, then you got to be third.” I love it. Just getting people going. I think then it was a standing ovation after. We’ll put a link on that because it was very enjoyable. You did great. It was you. You were so light and fun, and it was really nice set of messages. Really cool.
I’m curious too about when leaders make mistakes. As we think about how we convey, try to communicate what we stand for as we define our meaning, I really appreciate what you just did with me. You went through the head, heart, and core, and I’m going to reflect on that some more and get rid of some of the words that were in there that probably didn’t need to be there. What are some of the mistakes leaders have when they try to communicate and try to convey what they stand for?
I think see it as less of a mistake and more as a fear. I think we make most of our mistakes when we’re acting from fear, because when we’re acting from fear, that’s when we’re more likely to be inauthentic. It’s when we’re more likely to take on someone else’s truth instead of our own or have a gut feeling, but to ignore it.
We make most of our mistakes when we're acting from fear. Share on XFor me, this authenticity stuff, again, I see it as being one of the least touchy feely things in business right now. I think it’s just the most tied to the best outcomes out of any other skill that I’ve seen in business. I know that’s bold to say, but I think it’s true. Mistakes are usually when you’ve sold yourself out somehow. Most people, when I coach leaders in those situations, in most cases, they’ll say, “I knew it.” They knew it when they did it, that they were selling themselves out.
In today’s day and age, we have to really think about this. How are we going to combat some of the technology battles that are ahead and we got to bring ourselves back the humanness about us and get comfortable. How do we get comfortable with that? How do we get comfortable to that state? Is it working with you? What would be a good place to start and to take that leap? What would you suggest?
I’m always open to working with people who follow this show because it just tells me a bit about their psyche and just living from what’s possible. I think authenticity in that are very closely aligned idea. I’m sure there are a lot of different ways that one could pursue this. I think just even tools head, heart, core, practice it tonight with your family over dinner. I had to have a conversation with my teenage son and I was just getting really attuned to the fact that he’d gotten a phone and he was on his phone all the time. This is every parent ever of just trying to guide our children and seeing the technology revolution that you were referencing.
I used that heart core where it’s just like, “The fact is you’re on your phone a lot of hours and I feel really disconnected, and I feel afraid that maybe this thing is brain rotting you. I also feel I’m spending too much time on my phone and like, here’s what I want. I want us to spend more connected time together. I want us to fly your drone together. I want us to go paddleboarding together. And I want to have more connection and less phone time. Does that work for you?” He was like, “Yeah,” because it was so non-confrontational. It was this full expression. I encourage just practicing going first, owning your full truth, communicating it with kindness and just seeing what happens.
Too often, we just jump in and start to call out, “You did this,” and that shuts everything down. It shuts the conversation down. You’re trying to have this two-way, and I love the transition, and I appreciate you doing this because getting to the what, how special what you just spelled out.
I also think when we’re quick to blame each other or just go right for the attack or even right for the core, there is a reason it’s head and heart first and it’s because the core can be a bit abrasive, but when you build up to it, it feels like a natural next step. I think when we just go straight to core or we just skip everything else and we just go into blame, we’re actually not owning our own truth in that as well. Owning our truth has to be step number one, because again, you’ve got to go first. If you want people to meet you there, match your energy, you’ve got to model it, and especially leaders.
Redefining Happiness: Finding Lightness From The Heaviness
How we show up, how we demonstrate it, that creates the space. One of my favorite words is happiness, as you probably know. How do you define happiness? What does that look for you?
For me, the word that just popped up when you said that was lightness. The hard themes that has been in my life, I’ve lost a lot of people. There are a lot of people at a young age, a lot of family members, a lot of close friends, and it’s uncanny, actually. It can make me heavy, just the stuff that I’ve lived through. For me, it almost feels work sometimes to find the playfulness and find the lightness. Maybe not as like this one-off momentary thing, but have a way of moving through the world that is just lighter than what some of the hard things I’ve been through would tell me is a more normal place to be.
I’m sorry you’ve gone through that heaviness and all the losses you’ve had, so I appreciate you sharing that. The lightness is really interesting. If you find yourself not feeling that way, what do you do? How do you get yourself back there? You can get back there, right?
Yeah, totally. For me, I start with just validating myself. I’m like, okay, “You’re heavy. It is okay, but you’ve been through a few things. You’re not alone. I am not the only person in the world that’s had a series of hard things going on. What would it look to shift this? What could it feel to shift this? Do you want to shift this?” I think most people have had the experience at some point where you just want to be in a crappy mood. I don’t know. Maybe that’s just me.
I don’t want to be in a crappy mood. It’s important to notice it. I was talking to some folks who were like, “Why are people this way?” We all get caught in their rut. Nobody’s perfect. It’s recognizing it and being able to pull through that and show up how you really want to show up.
I think it’s important to remember that we have choices. We can choose to morph our situation, our reaction to it, how our day is going to go.
If there’s something that you could do right now fixing the world or make a huge impact, what would it be?
I know I’ve said the word kindness a few times in this interview, but I feel like that is what is really lacking right now. What if we led from that place of maybe not always needing to agree with people, but just from a general place of human kindness and dignity? What does the world look when we make choices with that being the priority? I think it looks very different than the world we’re living in right now.
Have you posted that word in the newsletter?
We have not, but we will. Maybe I just got my inspiration for an upcoming newsletter.
You’ve said the word fear too. Have you ever displayed those type of words to just get comfortable with what it is and then how to work through it? Have you ever put those words out there? Is it more action-positive? How do you choose your words?
Honestly, the words just come up usually in conversation. It’s a frequency we’re playing with, or I usually choose words that allow for a bit more positive embodiment. Not to say I fear the negative things. I just see there’s going to be an a positive and negative to most words. I probably wouldn’t choose the word fear because I feel I’ve dealt with that enough already. I think the words that we choose, they’re aspirational. They’re like, “This is maybe a little dose of pixie dust that I could use in my life that would make it a little better if I actually had this in my life or I could master this or I could dance with this theme more.”
It’s interesting to your point about the words could have different meanings to different people, because even the word freedom that you started with, I had a guest who talked about freedom, and her life mission is to have that freedom. However, she doesn’t know if she’s allowed to share that freedom, just given what she’s up against.
As an African American female, she feels she can’t share or show or say there’s that level of freedom given the state of the world. That’s tough to hear that. It’s aspirational, yes. It’s really heavy. It’s interesting, to your point, the power of these words. A couple more questions because you probably got to run, and I could talk to you as all day because there’s a lot of words.
“Live your possible,” what does that mean to you when you hear that phrase? When you think about live your possible, what does that mean? I just love getting perspectives on that.
To me, live your possible brings up a ridiculously fun sense of curiosity of what is possible for me, of what’s coming next, of what I can keep living into and what keeps happening. I don’t know. When I think of myself as 88, I want to be doing graffiti and I want to be entering CrossFit competitions. I don’t know what’s possible, but it’s fun to be curious and to think about it.
New Book: Just One Word To Unleash Your Purpose And Power
Speaking of what’s next, you have something fun coming out in May 2026. Tell us what’s next for you.
Yeah, so my book is coming out, it’s called Just One Word: The Surprisingly Simple Method to Discover Your Purpose and Unleash Your Power. I’m super excited about. It’s all of my tools that I teach around authenticity in one book. It’s The Dig and head, heart, core. Also, there’s a whole bonus chapter on how to turn your core message into a speech as well. It’s going to be really fun.
Sign me up. I’m going to be at the bookstore the first day it comes out, but I guess we could probably pre-order out on Amazon, so I’m going to check that out too. I’m looking forward to that, Erin. I do hope to get out to Boulder. I’d love to experience the workshops and the work you’re doing, and I’m honored to have you on the show.
I call you a dear friend. I love and adore everything you’re doing impacting the spaces and the people that follow you. I love that you’re carrying the legacy on of the people that may have passed before us. I appreciate that. That means a lot. I hope that lands with you in a positive way. I just appreciate you so much and I look forward to connecting again real soon.
Thank you so much. I receive all that and sending all the good you do right back to you, Darrin.
Thank you.
Keep up the great work.
We’ll talk soon.
Important Links
- Erin Weed
- Just One Word: The Surprisingly Simple Method to Discover Your Purpose and Unleash Your Power
- Dare to be Authentic – Erin Weed – TEDxBoulder
- Just One Word: The Surprisingly Simple Method to Discover Your Purpose and Unleash Your Power on Amazon
- Erin Weed on YouTube
- Erin Weed on LinkedIn
- Erin Weed on Instagram
About Erin Weed
Erin Weed is a speaker, author, and coach who helps leaders uncover the truth of who they are and turn it into a message and movement that changes lives. She’s the creator of The Dig®, a proven method that distills a person’s life purpose into just one word.
Over the past two decades, Erin has “dug” more than a thousand leaders—including TED speakers, founders, and executives—to help them communicate with authenticity and purpose.
Before The Dig, Erin founded Girls Fight Back, a global self-defense movement that reached over one million women worldwide. A longtime TEDx speaker and coach, she now guides thought leaders in building platforms of influence that are both powerful and deeply human.
Her forthcoming book, Just One Word: The Surprisingly Simple Method to Discover Your Purpose and Unleash Your Power, will be published by Hachette in 2026.
