E-Roll | Erin Anderson

Adventure + Conquering Challenges

Erin Anderson is EPIC’s Vice President of Project Management, as well as a world traveler. Hear a bit about her adventures, and how her travel experiences inform her work at EPIC.

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Transcript
I love travel so much for so many different reasons, and one of the main reasons is that it does get you out of your comfort zone. My name is Erin Anderson. I’m the Vice President of Project Management, and I have been at EPIC for seven years.

I supervise a team of nine people. Every single project that comes through the agency touches our team of project managers. So everything that runs through video or web or social media, public relations, design, copy—all of it—we are making sure that stuff is moving and getting done.

I find that you need that time away from work, but you need time away to travel and go somewhere and experience something different and relax and refresh, and then you come back to work better. One of my most memorable experiences? In 2016, my sister and I hiked the Inca Trail in Peru. So there were those moments where it was, “How did I get here? Why did I decide to do this?” I can’t believe I paid for the privilege to suffer but, in the end—being able to hike those last few steps and overlook Machu Picchu, and just know that I put in all the legwork to get there—it was one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done. It’s also the hardest thing that I’ve ever done.

I definitely think that work and travel meet. The more you travel and the more that you have to navigate challenges along the way, the more you build your resiliency. And then you can apply that as problems and hurdles and roadblocks come up at work.

My best advice for travelers would be to leave space for the unknown. We know in the advertising agency, things change and there are always different shifting priorities and deadlines and things that need to be taken care of. So similarly to travel, it’s that embracing of the unknown. Honestly, what goes through my head more often than it probably should is, “What’s the worst that could happen? Let’s just try it.” Sure, we’ll figure it out. Nothing is insurmountable. Nothing is impossible. I mean, yes, things are … but for the most part, we can figure out a way.