The Blow Your Mind Podcast

Erika Sinner
  • 5.0 (55)
  • Self-Improvement
  • Updated Weekly

Who are you becoming? And do you actually trust yourself to get there? Erika Sinner grew up on food stamps, rewrote every story she was handed, and went on to build a multi-eight-figure company as a CEO, bestselling author, and philanthropist. This is where real conversations happen about identity, self-trust, and the decisions that separate who you've been from who you're deciding to be. Every episode brings a real story, a mind blown moment, and a challenge to prove something to yourself. If you're in the middle of figuring it out, you're exactly who this is for.

  1. 5d ago

    How Cindy Dodd Rebuilt a Business That Collapsed on Her Honeymoon

    Cindy Dodd was given a second chance at five years old, after chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant, and she has spent every day since refusing to shrink. In this episode of The Blow Your Mind Podcast, the co-founder and COO of PEMA.io sits down with Erika to talk about the belief work underneath visibility, self worth as the foundation of everything that follows, and why so many capable people disqualify themselves from the rooms they want to be in. She opens up about the week her business quietly collapsed during her honeymoon, how she and her husband rebuilt it into an Inc. 5000 company by leaning into complementary strengths, and what it means to be the only Black woman in a male-dominated industry. Along the way she shares the daily habits that anchor her belief, the flow blocks that protect her sharpest hours, and a reframe that turns nerves into fuel. It is a conversation about resilience, self trust, and the quiet decision to bet on yourself before you feel ready. Cindy’s Website: www.cindydodd.com Follow Cindy on Instagram: @thecindydodd Follow Cindy on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/cindymdodd Cindy’s YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/@thecindydodd Check out PEMA.io Follow Erika on Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/erika_sinner/⁠⁠⁠ Check out her website: ⁠⁠⁠https://erikasinner.org/⁠⁠⁠ Buy her book, Pets Are Family: ⁠⁠⁠https://erikasinner.org/book⁠⁠⁠ Check out TinySuperheroes: ⁠⁠⁠https://tinysuperheroes.com/⁠⁠ 00:20 Meet Cindy Dodd 02:18 The story we tell ourselves about why we do not belong 03:42 Relabeling nervousness as the feeling before something big 05:22 Why staying small online costs more than you think 07:19 A second chance at five: sickle cell, chemo, and a transplant 09:55 Self worth as the foundation of getting seen 13:07 The honeymoon that revealed a collapsing business 16:57 Believing it was figureoutable, and rebuilding together 19:36 Flow blocks and the corporate athlete 25:58 Mind Blown Moment: walking past NYU during Tech Week

  2. Aug 13

    The Lie I Told That Changed My Life

    In this solo episode, Erika goes back to the beeping switchboard of her receptionist days at a pharmaceutical company, when she was working full time, paying her own bills, and putting herself through night school to earn the degree she knew she needed. She tells the story of how she stopped waiting to be noticed and built her own opening instead, inventing a fake marketing project and talking her way into feedback from the VP of marketing. What started as a bluff turned into a page of red-pen notes, a real skill she could prove, and eventually a seat on the marketing team. It is a story about creating your own opportunities, doing the work to back up your ask, and the truth that no one is coming to save you, so you get to change your life yourself. Follow Erika on Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/erika_sinner/⁠⁠⁠ Check out her website: ⁠⁠⁠https://erikasinner.org/⁠⁠⁠ Buy her book, Pets Are Family: ⁠⁠⁠https://erikasinner.org/book⁠⁠⁠ Check out TinySuperheroes: ⁠⁠⁠https://tinysuperheroes.com/⁠⁠ 00:00 The sound that haunted her, life at the switchboard 02:20 From hotels to knowing she needed a degree 05:29 Taking the stepping stone job to fund night school 08:28 Refusing to just be the receptionist, building a reputation 11:04 Inventing a fake marketing project to get noticed 13:25 The lie she told the VP of marketing 15:19 A page of red-pen feedback and what she learned from it 17:31 Two weeks later, an opening on the marketing team 19:35 The fight to get her hired without a degree 25:40 Luck is where opportunity meets preparation

  3. Aug 6

    Nobody Cares About Your Career More Than You Do with Cate Luzio

    Cate Luzio spent 20 years leading multi-billion dollar businesses at HSBC and JP Morgan before she walked away in 2018 to self-fund a company nobody had asked her to build. In this episode she makes the case that nobody will ever care about your career or your business more than you do, and that betting on yourself starts long before anyone hands you proof it will work. Cate and Erika get into the two months Cate spent depressed on her bathroom floor after handing in her notice, the partner who told her to write it down when she thought she was only venting, the mentor feedback early in her finance career that knocked her back ten pegs, the breast cancer diagnosis that turned reading fiction into a non-negotiable, and why she still asks herself seven years later whether she made the right decision. She closes with her go-to tool for anyone waiting on permission to move, a personal SWOT analysis, and a challenge to start with your weaknesses first. Check out Cate’s website: cateluzio.com Follow Cate on Instagram: instagram.com/cateluzio/ or instagram.com/weareluminary/ Follow Cate on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cluzio/ Follow Erika on Instagram: ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/erika_sinner/⁠⁠ Check out her website: ⁠⁠https://erikasinner.org/⁠⁠ Buy her book, Pets Are Family: ⁠⁠https://erikasinner.org/book⁠⁠ Check out TinySuperheroes: ⁠⁠https://tinysuperheroes.com/⁠ 0:00 — "Did I make the right decision?" 3:39 — Confidence isn't a feeling, it's built by getting back up 6:05 — The "power middle" and the story people carry before they say it out loud 11:30 — Holding your own in rooms where you weren't sure you belonged 15:21 — The mentor who told her she was "too emotional" 17:33 — Handing in her notice, and the two months on the bathroom floor 19:30 — "Write it down," and the business plan that followed 26:52 — Non-negotiables, breast cancer, and reading fiction at night 34:06 — Mind blown moment: making it through the pandemic with her team 38:39 — The challenge: a personal SWOT, weaknesses first

  4. Jul 30

    We Met in Night School, Married to Other People

    What do you do when the person you are meant to be with is sitting across the classroom, and you are both married to someone else? Erika and Chris met in night school, two divorces and a lot of growing up before they became each other's person. In this duo episode they get honest about the marriage lessons nobody handed them: how to tell growing apart from growing up, why Chris gave himself a full year of saying yes to everything, and what happened the day he told Erika she did not seem very maternal. It is a conversation about becoming someone new without losing the people who love you, and how much a marriage can actually hold once you say the hard thing out loud. Follow Erika on Instagram: ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/erika_sinner/⁠⁠Check out her website: ⁠⁠https://erikasinner.org/⁠⁠Buy her book, Pets Are Family: ⁠⁠https://erikasinner.org/book⁠⁠Check out TinySuperheroes: ⁠⁠https://tinysuperheroes.com/⁠ 00:00 Welcome back 01:11 How they actually met at night school 02:22 Chris's "I'm going to make a friend" phase 05:33 Both marriages end, and growing apart versus growing together 07:20 The Facebook poll and the half marathon 08:48 Chris's hot takes on tanning, the ocean, and drinking 13:20 "You don't seem very maternal" and rethinking kids 16:22 Welcoming a partner's growth instead of fearing it 19:24 The advice they ignored, including "happy wife, happy life" 26:15 Mind blown moment and the challenge question for new couples

  5. Jul 23

    Fritz Zaegel on Service, Standards, and 20 Years of Trust

    In this episode of The Blow Your Mind Podcast, Erika sits down with Fritz Zaegel, President of Repco Solutions and a partner she has worked alongside for more than twenty years. They trace a friendship that began when Erika was a 21-year-old receptionist at a pharmaceutical company and Fritz was the vendor who always picked up the phone, and they revisit the moments that defined it: the commissioned driftwood sculpture that lost a wing, the demos she forgot on the way to a career-defining conference, and the Sunday he read his own credit card number to a courier so her materials would make it out of storage in Mexico. Underneath the stories is a conversation about what it takes to build a company people trust, why empowering a team to fix problems before assigning fault becomes a reputation, and how Fritz held the line through a 75 percent revenue drop in 2020 without laying off a single person. It is a masterclass in service, coachability, and the standards that separate a partner from an order taker. Check out Repco Solutions: RepcoSolutions.com Follow Erika on Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/erika_sinner/⁠ Check out her website: ⁠https://erikasinner.org/⁠ Buy her book, Pets Are Family: ⁠https://erikasinner.org/book⁠ Check out TinySuperheroes: ⁠https://tinysuperheroes.com/ 00:00 Welcome back 01:40 Meet Fritz 02:30 The broken bird: a driftwood sculpture gone wrong 06:00 What Repco does, and why service is the difference 08:00 From manufacturer to total-solution partner 12:00 The demos she forgot, and the employee he put on a plane 21:35 Empowering the team to fix first, assign fault later 24:00 Leading through COVID without a single layoff 28:20 Tiny Superheroes, the "25 boxes," and giving back 33:30 Mind Blown Moment and the challenge to close

  6. Jul 16

    Love Does Not Equal Unlimited Access

    Access is not the same as love, and holding a standard is not the same as losing connection. In this solo episode, Erika reframes what most people call boundaries as sacred lines, the rules of an arena she gets to build on purpose. She makes the case that ownership almost always costs you something before it pays you back, and that every yes you give is automatically a no to something else, whether that is rest, creativity, your marriage, or your own priorities. She walks through the actual rules of her arena, from keeping her calendar sacred and ending the endless "pick your brain" coffees, to Chris teaching her that "no, that doesn't sound fun to me" is a complete sentence, to cutting off advice that never gets acted on, refusing to let other people's urgency become her emergency, and never shrinking her ambitions to keep someone else comfortable. She closes with the hidden math behind every yes, the mind blown truth that standards do not cost you connection but abandoning them costs you yourself, and a challenge to spend one week asking, before you agree to anything, what you are quietly saying no to. Follow Erika on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/erika_sinner/ Check out her website: https://erikasinner.org/ Buy her book, Pets Are Family: https://erikasinner.org/book Check out TinySuperheroes: https://tinysuperheroes.com/ 00:00 Welcome to the Blow Your Mind podcast 00:43 When people want access that no longer fits your life 01:19 What building your arena actually means, ownership over confidence 01:53 Sacred lines instead of boundaries 04:20 Every yes costs you something 05:52 The rules of Erika's arena and why the calendar is sacred 10:07 Chris and the art of just saying no 11:32 The five minute "pick your brain" trap 15:04 Draining, guilting, destabilizing, and the yearly audit 20:01 Mind blown moment and the one week challenge

  7. Jul 9

    Katie Love on Confidence, Content, and Walking Away from TV News

    When Katie Love was a young NBC News reporter, she covered a house fire that killed an entire family on Christmas. She came back to the newsroom, and instead of asking how she was holding up, her director asked her "where was your Katie Love smile today?" That was the day she walked out and never looked back. In this episode, Erika sits down with Katie, now founder and CEO of Love Social Media, a multi seven figure woman led agency, to talk about what it actually takes to show up online as yourself. They get into the mindset shift from "I have to post" to "I get to tell this story," why messy and real outperforms polished and perfect, how to build a thicker skin for the 10 percent while serving the 90 percent who are cheering you on, and the truth that when you try to be liked by everyone you end up loved by no one. Katie also shares the weight no one warns founders about, and the moment a team member told her, "This is the house that Love Social Media built." Follow Katie on Instagram: instagram.com/katielovesocial/ Follow Erika on Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/erika_sinner/⁠ Check out her website: ⁠https://erikasinner.org/⁠ Buy her book, Pets Are Family: ⁠https://erikasinner.org/book⁠ Check out TinySuperheroes: ⁠https://tinysuperheroes.com/ 00:00 Welcome back! 01:25 Meet Katie Love 02:18 The story we tell ourselves about being seen online 03:50 Instagram versus reality, and showing up in the mess 06:37 Why TV scrutiny was harder than social media 09:05 Liked by everyone, loved by no one 11:25 Confidence is built through reps, starting with B roll 12:51 Go sit in your car 16:23 The Christmas morning that changed everything 22:35 The house that Love Social Media built 24:39 The seven day challenge

  8. Jul 2

    The Trophy Husband: What Happens to Your Identity When You Leave the Job

    Erika sits down with her husband Chris to unpack what it actually takes to be a trophy husband, the version nobody posts about. She makes the case that walking away from a job you were proud of is less about the schedule and more about identity, and that the hardest part is finding your worth when no boss, performance review, or paycheck is there to hand it to you. Across the conversation they get specific: the ego hit of losing a title overnight, Chris's almost enviable habit of validating his own work, an early role-reversal moment at the kitchen sink, what a real week looks like with five dogs, a newly opened pool, two vet visits, and two allergic reactions, the Sunday planning ritual and shared calendar that keep their home running like a profession, the physical toll of being on your feet for four hours straight, and the two-year-old stain on the bedroom ceiling that taught them more about budgets, priorities, and communication than any argument could. She closes with Chris's mind blown moment about giving yourself patience in a new role, and a challenge to look hard at your own routines and ask whether they are still actually working for you. Follow Erika on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/erika_sinner/ Check out her website: https://erikasinner.org/ Buy her book, Pets Are Family: https://erikasinner.org/book Check out TinySuperheroes: https://tinysuperheroes.com/ 0:45 — The slow slide into depression after leaving work 2:06 — Welcome: what being a trophy husband really means 3:33 — Losing the professional identity and the hit to the ego 6:08 — The dishes and an early role-reversal moment 11:03 — What a real week actually looks like 15:42 — Systems, Sunday planning, and treating home like a profession 17:00 — The physical toll nobody sees 21:31 — The ceiling stain, the budget, and how they prioritize 29:55 — Mind Blown Moment: have patience with yourself 31:03 — Challenge: audit your routines and ask if they still fit

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5
out of 5
55 Ratings

About

Who are you becoming? And do you actually trust yourself to get there? Erika Sinner grew up on food stamps, rewrote every story she was handed, and went on to build a multi-eight-figure company as a CEO, bestselling author, and philanthropist. This is where real conversations happen about identity, self-trust, and the decisions that separate who you've been from who you're deciding to be. Every episode brings a real story, a mind blown moment, and a challenge to prove something to yourself. If you're in the middle of figuring it out, you're exactly who this is for.

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