Community Highlights: Meet Erin Baer of Beaten to Badass

Today we’d like to introduce you to Erin Baer.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
My life has been anything but a fairytale; raped, beaten, nearly killed, bullied, abandoned, abused, and broken. Most would think that’s where my story would end​ living a wretched life. Yet, here I am stronger than ever​, ​even showing myself that life can beat me down, and I will still get back up. People can be hurtful.

I had plenty of bad things said and thrown my way early ​on in life. I could have believed them and at times I did. Throughout all the pain​, I gained insight and resilience on a journey with the help of mentors, friends, parents, and coaches who all made a difference in my life. Without those who believed in me, stood by me, and cheered me on even if I was on my hands and knees crawling, I still kept moving forward because of all of them. They provided me with the ​additional strength I needed to ​have self-confidence to know I was worth fighting for.

As a child, my life was emotionally traumatic. However, I ​emerged from that young, abused life to become an accomplished golfer ​and a quality student in school. During my young adulthood,​my life took an even more painful turn as I endured a tipping point of ​relationship abuse and rape. After I escaped the terror of abuse, I thought the storms might start to clear from my past and my future would​once again look bright.​What I had not realized was that I had never fully escaped from the self-defeating, low self-esteem emotional perspective that I had developed as a child. I did have hope that I could change. However,​that hope was not only preparing me for what was to come. I continued on my journey in search of self-esteem which led me to find competitive bodybuilding.

It was amazing as I became a successful Figure Competitor here in Colorado, eventually making it to the National level. After experiencing a life-threatening heart condition for several years, bodybuilding gave me the healthy lifestyle that I would need to help heal me from a fluke accident that caused a traumatic brain injury. That took a huge toll on my self-esteem​requiring me to once again begin another recovery journey where I ​could begin to find​the positive me again. I thought after all that, surely my life would be much easier, yet it was only preparing me​emotionally for what was to come.

Once I retired from competing​, my husband and I wanted to start a family, which we thought would be smooth sailing. However, the waters have been everything but smooth and all the lessons I have learned up to this point have been guiding me through infertility.

I am still in the arena, fighting this battle of infertility and it is one that has tested all of me. I am not sure if we will succeed and have a child. Yet I do know there is a plan, I just don’t know what that is.

That is my story up to this point in my life. I don’t know how it will end, but I do know that I won’t regret a single thing I have had the opportunity to experience. It’s in those experiences that we get to feel life fully​and become the person each of us has the capacity to be.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
As I mentioned earlier, my life was anything but easy. I do believe I am where I am today because I kept speaking up and sharing my story​, making plans for change, improvement and keeping to those plans.​It has been essential to plow through the fear and kn​ow​that I didn’t go through the pain to stay silent. It’s ironic that elephants are my favorite animal, yet it’s the elephants in the room that I confront.

I knew that my silence would not only hurt me but others that were looking for someone to be their voice. It’s a great responsibility and I knew that if I wasn’t willing to speak up about abuse, then why should others? I share in my book, through my speaking, and coaching the lessons I have learned along the way that​have given me the tools I needed to survive ​and thrive through it all. Lessons include but are not limited to acceptance, strength, faith, integrity, growth, mindfulness, and persistence.

Nonetheless, I didn’t do it alone. I gained insight and resilience on my journey with the help of mentors, friends, family, and coaches who all made a difference in my life. Without them and the lessons, they taught me; I don’t think I would be who I am today. Though it’s been hard, I wouldn’t have it any other way. Life is a series of breaks within but that is how the light gets in.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Beaten to Badass?
Being a survivor of domestic violence and sexual assault, I began telling others my story of grace and grit on my own road to recovery. The sharing of my story became the basis for my book. “From Beaten to Badass.” Through my memoir, I give readers the strength, hope, and courage to keep going and become the BADASS women they were always meant to be.

I also founded the organization Beaten to Badass to empower and support those who have been beaten down in life. My life’s purpose is to confront the “elephants in the room” and enable women to find their strength within. By inspiring and motivating, I teach them to leverage all of what life throws their way to bring out the powerful women they truly are and how they can become their own heroes.

Through my coaching and speaking, “I encourage you to look within yourself where you will find the power to unleash the badass in you. You may feel defeated and feel life is unfair by the cards you were dealt. However, the only way you lose is if you don’t learn and you don’t get back up. You are a Badass.”

By sharing my story, I have created a movement surrounding the elephants in the room. My book has become a survival guide in giving others a complete picture of many different challenges that life can throw at one person, especially domestic violence. Domestic Violence is only part of my story, yet my book shows the complete story of the before, the during, and the after.

I am most proud of my Make an Impact Mission. The Make an Impact focuses on the sponsoring of my book: From Beaten to Badass and having them sent to shelters across the USA (and internationally) to help those impacted by Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault. When someone sponsors a book, they become the light in someone else’s darkness, showing them, they are not alone and most importantly giving them strength, hope, and courage to keep fighting for themselves.

Currently, we are in 618 shelters in the USA and two internationally. Alaska, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Dakota, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Wyoming, Washington DC, and Puerto Rico are all fully sponsored. This means that every domestic violence shelter in those states/areas has at least one copy of the book: from Beaten to Badass.

The feedback from the shelters has been incredible as most shelters see the book not only as a survival guide for their clients but a resource guide for the employees, volunteers, and advocates that help the victims and survivors navigate through the darkness of abuse.

How do you think about luck?
I don’t believe there has been any luck that played a role in my life. As I mentioned earlier, I ​believe it’s my resilience and desire to change that enabled me to get on the path of survival and becoming my own “hero”. Of course, none of this would have been possible without the people who have been in my life that taught me the most valuable lessons ​that allowed me to get where I am today. My father taught me the value of strength, while my mother taught me self-acceptance. ​As I grew older, others taught me passion, tenacity, and integrity.

My husband showed me to love unconditionally. Many of my mentors taught me patience, perspective, and determination. Through those lessons, I have been able to conquer the battles I have faced with grace and grit while still remembering I am never alone. It’s not about luck, it’s about how you rise above all your circumstances to become your own “Hero” while being a “Badass.”

Pricing:

• From Beaten to Badass book: $25 (in the USA)
• To sponsor the book: From Beaten to Badass to go to a shelter $25 (in the USA)
• Coaching prices vary depending on the program
• Speaking fees are dependent on the event
• More books available on website

Contact Info:

• Email: erin@beatentobadass.com
• Website: beatentobadass.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/coach_erinbaer
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/beatentobadass/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ErinBaer

Image Credits:
Sondra Lee and Ken Rochon