Erica’s mission is to help people live happier & healthier lives
The Journey to Today
Erica Derrickson is a seeker who shows up and shines in the world through her commitment to inner discovery and outer growth.
She shares her journey as an inspiration to her large online audience and encourages and inspires her followers to become their happiest, healthiest, most authentic versions of themselves.
Erica had an atypical, international upbringing as her parents’ foreign service jobs led her family to move all over the world. From a young age, she lived in India, Paris, and Singapore, and over the years in the US she moved between Maryland, Washington DC, New York City, Los Angeles, and Boston. While this was a fortunate and fantastic way to grow up, she often felt yanked from schools and friends just as she’d begun to grow roots.
Erica’s youth was characterized by an undercurrent of restlessness and a search for belonging. She struggled with low self-esteem, anxiety, depression, and carried around an unshakable sense that she was missing something her heart longed for.
She searched for “home” in all the wrong places—in a career, in a partner, in substances—not knowing then that "home" is a place we feel in our hearts when we settle into full acceptance of who we are and commit to embark on a journey of self-discovery/recovery/uncovery.
Through her 20s, Erica hid her inner struggles behind hard-fought outer successes. She moved to New York City to attend a prestigious art school but ended up following her heart to Los Angeles to realize her dream of becoming an actress. While she did gain some wins in LA, like her first acting role in “Rafi Baby” screening at Cannes Film Festival, ultimately it didn’t work out the way she’d hoped.
With a suitcase full of disappointments she moved to Boston and ended up in a 9-5 job she hated. After some time, this daily grind left her feeling drained and depressed, so she dared to take another leap of faith. With no backup plan, she quit her job to become an actress and photographer in the local film scene of Boston, known as “Hollywood East.”
Over the next few years, she became an award-winning professional photographer and well-known indie actress in Boston. You can see her acting work in “The Heat” with Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy, “The Witching Hour” with William Forsythe, Michael Madsen, Tony Todd, and plenty of other productions (her IMDB and her acting reel). Her professional photography portfolio can be seen at www.ericaseye.com.
Erica on set of “The Heat” with Melissa McCarthy, Tony Hale, and director Paul Feig
In the brightest moments of her acting career, she had a successful photography studio in Boston specializing in headshots for actors, she had become a figurehead for the local independent acting scene through her grassroots community organization and networking group “Hollywood East Actors Group”, she was a co-founder of an acting studio where she trained in the Meisner method, she was signed with an agent, the biggest casting directors in the city were calling her in personally for auditions, and in her last role she acted alongside Denzel Washington in Equalizer 2 (though this scene was cut from the final film).
Having “made it” in the way many dream of, she left it all behind at the height of her career to yet again follow the call of her heart. This time, the beckoning voice within called her to fulfill a lifelong dream to travel, and she dared to listen. So she took yet another leap of faith and embarked on a quest of self-recovery/discovery/uncovery that would change the course of her life irrevocably. She left for her fateful 6-month journey to India in 2014, and from there everything changed and she could not go back to living her life the way it was before.
From then on, she made travel her priority and formed her life around making it happen again and again, working hard during the summer months doing headshots for actors, saving her money while reducing her expenses wherever possible. Then, as the air began to chill in Boston, she was boarding the plane for her next adventure. Subsequent trips over the following years lead her to Thailand, Iceland, Bali, Egypt, the Philippines (where she attended the Philippine Mermaid Swimming Academy), and Guatemala - where she finally found her home.
Her travels were not tourist trips, rather they were journeys of her heart’s calling, asking her to face her deepest fears and learn to love and believe in herself amidst all odds. Ultimately, her greatest achievement over these journeys was that she learned how to listen to and trust the compass of her heart’s inner knowing and dare to follow it into the unlikely places it may lead.
Erica’s spiritual awakening was not one of a flash of light, but a slow progression moving through tides of light and dark. It involved taking an honest look at herself and doing her shadow work. She embarked on unlikely studies learning about energy, intuition, and developing her psychic abilities, meeting teachers in unexpected forms in unexpected places that gave her the lessons her soul needed at each unique moment on her path. She faced her demons and addictions with courage and a willingness to change from within.
This quest for her own personal truth was set against a background of the Himalaya mountains in Kashmir, picturesque rice fields in Bali, tropic coastlines in Thailand, hot sand dunes in India, hidden chambers of the pyramids in Egypt, and more. There were dogs, cats, tigers, alligators, bears, camels, oh my. . .
Many of these lessons and stories are outlined in her book “Leaving America with Erica'' which rose to #1 in Budget Travel on Amazon after its release and are also documented in her earliest vlogs on Youtube, which she began in 2014 shortly before leaving for her travels.
The Journey From Today
Today, Erica’s journey has pivoted from setting out to settling in, growing deep roots in her new home in Hummingbird Valley, Guatemala. She’s recently purchased her heart’s own piece of raw land in the mountains and is on the path towards realizing her ultimate dream of finally having her own home - that special and safe place to belong and always come back to - no matter where the next adventures may lead.
Today, she’s still making videos and telling her story online, each day sharing her heart's journey with honesty, humor, and a realness her audience finds refreshing. After so many years of making content online, she has finally earned the eyes and hearts of such a large following that she’s actually able to make this her career, reaching and inspiring millions of people all over the world. She guides workshops to “Show Up and Shine: How to Make Videos Online” to teach and empower others to make videos and grow their own audience online, and she also leads adventure retreats to Hummingbird Valley in Guatemala where she opens the doors to share her magical life, community, and journey with other seekers and strivers on their spiritual paths.
Having moved through her darkness and healing journey, she loves to teach, inspire, and encourage others on their own journey about how to face their fears and follow their heart, so they too can claim their own adventure and the treasure that awaits anyone brave enough to seek. Her followers come from all backgrounds, all ages, skin colors, all orientations - and while there are many differences and diversity within her community, what unites them is a desire to rise, to love, to learn, and ultimately to live a happier, more authentic life.
“She taught me to just be my true self without apology,” writes one of her followers.
“She’s better than any antidepressant for me!” writes another.
Erica doesn’t claim to have all the answers, but she continues asking the right questions. And she’s committed to bringing her followers intimately along on her journey with fearless honesty, hoping to show others what could be possible when we learn how to face our fears and follow the gentle compass of our hearts.
When love and faith are on your side, what is there to fear?
Written by Author Luke Maguire Armstrong
“Erica is my inner self. She is the person I want to be. To be able to pack up and leave America behind to catch the inner peace of being yourself, not caring what others think, and watching the beautiful things of other places. I live an imaginary peaceful life when I see her videos. Oh, how I wish I was brave enough to just walk away from things like her.”
~ Nina H
“Erica has a great capacity as a storyteller - a storyteller of truths. She is flexible in her journeying, inquisitive, and willing to share her process in the glory and the mess with a steady undercurrent of self-acceptance; even with the moments of non-acceptance!”
~ Gee S
“Erica is a very brave, down-to-earth, adventurous, and emotionally mature woman with an "old" soul. She has a unique talent for capturing attention and keeps the conversation very engaging with her charm and beauty. When Erica is in front of the camera she makes the rest of the world disappear and makes you feel like you’re the only person in the world that matters. She is very loving, positive, and productive, always making the day interesting with life lessons, anxiety coaching, life hacks, and health tips... Every time I watch her I’m glued and I always learn something in this journey of the soul we are on. Love you, Erica!”
~ Peter T
You’ll come to know her as:
Honest, positive, heart-centered, open-minded, caring, relatable, adventurous, motivational, loving, creative, original, determined, innovative, captivating, inquisitive, articulate, inspirational, authentic, smart, brave, bright, happy, and free.
Videos
I started my career as an actress, but then I realized that I would prefer to be in my own movie. So I started making daily videos that are raw, real, and document this crazy adventure of my life.
I’ve got years’ worth of videos. You can check out my older stuff on Youtube or jump right into my latest videos here.
the adventure continues…
Friends, I have so much I want to share with you. Take a look at the different offers I have for you to get to know me and my message to the world.