Meet Angie Hawkins | Author and Speaker of Running in Slippers

We had the good fortune of connecting with Angie Hawkins and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Angie, every day, we about how much execution matters, but we think ideas matter as well. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
Initially, it was intuitive. I wanted to write a book, but I didn’t know why, and I didn’t know what it would be about. My intuition wanted me to write a memoir. I wanted to hide because I was afraid of allowing myself to be seen.

In early 2017, as I was going through a breakup, my dad passed away. This was the earnest beginning of my healing journey. I say earnest because in hindsight what I thought was healing before this was reading self-help books and practicing yoga. This was also the beginning of a three-and-a-half-year stretch of even more difficult events.

After the breakup and my dad dying, I moved to Hawaii from Chicago on my own, while keeping my job and working remotely. But there were a lot of management changes in my company, and I lived in constant fear of getting laid off. This was during a time when working remotely was not the trendy thing to do and getting another job in Hawaii that would pay as well as my Chicago job was extremely unlikely. Also, I bought a condo a month and a half after moving, and about a month and a half after that, my entire condo flooded because a shared pipe in my building backflowed into my unit when I wasn’t home. Then, I had an extremely hard time making friends in Hawaii and a few of the friends that I did end up making were too unhealthy, and I had to make the difficult decision to not continue those friendships. Then, I developed a periphery autoimmune disorder (I already had Hashimoto’s) where my tongue became red and swollen, and with medical care in Hawaii not being the greatest, it took many doctor appointments to try to figure it out only to end up Googling the solution myself because I wasn’t getting the help I needed. Then, my grandma died. Then, there were a handful of situations where people treated me with disrespect and to make things worse, I didn’t stick up for myself because I thought I deserved it. Then, I had a partner for a book project where I was ghostwriting for him, and it was a very toxic partnership, but again I didn’t stick up for myself because I was so desperate to hide behind someone else. Then, COVID happened, and the isolation was unbearable because it reminded me of the emotional disconnect between my family and me in childhood. This entire time, I was struggling with extremely low self-worth and looking for validation everywhere except within myself.

Then, there was hope. I fell in love during COVID with someone who was not only the first person who made me feel truly seen, heard, emotionally safe, and unconditionally loved within those previous three years, but arguably the only person to do that in my entire life. Then, he betrayed me and cut me off. This was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I consider myself an emotionally strong person, but after life handing me my own ass for over three years straight in addition to the toxic long-term relationship I had been in before the breakup and toxic family dysfunction I had endured my entire life, I couldn’t take any more hardships. I took an entire bottle of my anxiety medication, a controlled and potent nervous system suppressant, to end my life.

I was unconscious in my shower for a day and a half and then a friend took me to the hospital where I stayed for about another day and a half. When I got out of the hospital, I was talking to a friend on the phone, and I told her what happened and how I couldn’t believe that I was still alive. She responded, “It’s not your time.” It gave me chills. In that moment, I knew I had a purpose, and I was determined to figure it out. That led to writing Running in Slippers, which is a memoir that covers my life from the time of the breakup and my dad passing away through shortly after attempting to end my life. I wrote the book because what we see on social media is profoundly filtered and edited. Even in real life, we put on our happy faces and pretend everything is fine- which was exactly what I was doing throughout the entire series of events that led up to the overdose. The truth is that we all go through the same shitty things, but we aren’t talking about it. I had never wanted to talk about my struggles before writing the book because I wanted to seem like I had it all together and I didn’t want anybody to see my mistakes or flaws. But we don’t connect by being perfect. We connect by being real. My entire goal of Running in Slippers is to encourage connection through vulnerability.

In conjunction with the book, I have been hosting local events where I talk about themes of the book such as limiting beliefs or grief. I also do what is now my signature exercise for the event which is real-life Instagram vs. Reality. Everybody takes a turn showing a picture that we have posted on Instagram, or somehow publicly displayed, where we are seemingly happy and then tell the real backstory behind it. This is where the true connection through vulnerability happens. It’s so amazing to do it in person with so many brave people willing to be authentic in front of people they don’t even know.

There is so much hate and negativity in the world and if we are connecting through vulnerability, that is based in love. My mission is to create a loving community where it’s safe to be open and authentic. My long-term goal is to travel to other locations and find virtual ways to set up these emotionally safe tribes to connect even further.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Running in Slippers is not for everybody. I set out to write it as vulnerable as possible no matter how scary that was for me, as long as it allowed others to feel less alone in their struggles. And believe me, it was terrifying to be that vulnerable. Not everybody is comfortable with vulnerability, and that’s okay. For this reason, it’s not a mainstream book and has proven difficult to promote. What I find most difficult to convey is that even though it is my story, the point of the story is not about me. It’s about how we all go through the same life experiences as human beings, even though the specifics may be different. Overall, the message is that it’s okay to not be okay.

The biggest lesson that I have learned is that vulnerability works the opposite way that we think it does. When we expose our flaws and mistakes, it’s relatable. I was terrified to allow myself to be seen in such a raw way through Running and Slippers and at my events. I thought I was going to be judged and criticized. But the opposite has happened. So many people have told me stories of how relatable my story was to them. They didn’t know that other people felt the same way or had the same experiences. The less-than-positive reviews I have received are basically about how the book wasn’t for them. Nobody has criticized me for my mistakes.

I tried to end my life because I was surrounded by unloving and unsupportive people. They treated me like I was not important, therefore I became that belief and spiraled down a rabbit hole of self-destruction and self-hate. It took hitting rock bottom to realize that I was not the problem. I want the world to know that hurt people hurt people but healed people heal people. When you are authentically you, you shine from the inside, and you light up others and contribute to raising the vibration of the planet. I hope to inspire others so that they never have to feel the depths of rock bottom and that they can pay it forward and continue the chain of healing and inspiration.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Well, I don’t live in LA so I don’t know all of the hot spots. I live in Hawaii so the possibilities are endless! Definitely surfing and hiking. I would plan a day to go to the North Shore. We would take the scenic drive along the coast. Depending on the time of year, we would either watch the big wave surfers or jump off of Waimea Bay rock. I would also take them to Pearl Harbor, which is a must see for any first time Oahu tourist. Depending on the guest, I might also plan to go to a luau or lei making event. I’m always up for an adventure so maybe even skydiving or swimming with the sharks.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
My biggest shoutout goes to my personal coach Pablo Rosario, who has literally changed my life through his coaching. For many years, I was surrounded by unloving and unsupportive people and because I sought external validation, I absorbed the negative things there were projecting onto me, which sent me into a spiral of anxiety and self-hate. Through his coaching, I have learned to love myself and understand how I deserve to be treated. Achieving this level of confidence and self-love has dramatically increased my mental health and has totally changed the way I live my life.

I am also extremely appreciative of Oak + Pine a female entrepreneur society that I belong to in Honolulu. I have met so many amazing, supportive women. As I mentioned above, I spent a lot of my life being surrounded by unsupportive people so having a genuine support system has been a game changer for me. Plus, it’s nice to specifically be connected to entrepreneurs so we can bounce ideas and questions off of each other.

Website: runninginslippers.com

Instagram: angiehawkins808

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angiehawkins1/

Youtube: @angiehawkins808

Image Credits
Photographer- Oshi Simpson