doozi

Building the next biggest social media app for travel. Think TikTok meets Tripadvisor.

Co-Founder

You're Not a Bad Person Podcast

Podcast host for You're Not a Bad Person podcast. A self-help podcast dedicated to helping you step into the most authentic version of yourself. 

Your past does not define you, discredit you, or disqualify you. New episodes every Wednesday.

Podcast Host

Bro Dough

Snacks that allow you to relive your childhood through your tastebuds in a healthier way. Fun, functional, nostalgic. Find our new cookie dough bites in select Canadian retail locations! 🍪

Founder & CEO

➕ Follow along while I build a business in an industry I’m brand new to — and share the unfiltered reality of what that actually looks like.

I’m Erica — a creator, entrepreneur, and storyteller helping people break the rules they were taught to follow… and build lives that actually feel like theirs.

Over the past 4 years, I’ve created raw, real, and radically honest content that’s generated nearly 1 billion impressions, built a community of over 300,000, and sparked conversations around self-worth, shame, failure, and freedom.

📍 I went from perfectionism and plastic surgery…
➡️ to healing and self-love.
📍 From launching a cookie dough brand into hundreds of stores…
➡️ to filing for bankruptcy and starting over with nothing.
📍 From hiding my past as a s*x worker and “failed founder”…
➡️ to owning my story — and helping others do the same.

In 2020, I met my now co-founder Gillian Gallant on Bumble BFF (true story). Our friendship & love for travel took us all over the world.

We both lost our businesses last year, and this brought us closer. We bonded over loss, reinvention, and the fire to build something better. 

Now we’re building doozi — the next big social media app for travellers and creators. 👀

We’re building in public. Sharing the messy middle. And showing up every day to create something that gives people — especially creators — the power, opportunity, and visibility they’ve earned.

This isn’t just a business. It’s a movement.

If you’ve ever felt like you needed permission to post, speak up, or live your life differently — I’m here to say: you don’t.

💌 My content is about starting before you’re ready, rewriting your story, and being the proof that it’s never too late to do it your way.

…and giving the trolls a front-row seat to your glow-up.

Keep showing up, unapologetically.

✨
With love,
Erica

📬 Sponsorships + collabs: hello@ericarankin.com
➕ Follow me everywhere @acceptingerica

Erica Rankin

I’m not a multi-millionaire.
I don’t have an exit.
I’m not on any fancy 30 under 30 list.

But I am someone who recognizes that those things aren’t indicators of success.

Success is literally defined as “the accomplishment of an aim or purpose.” 

Success, for me, has looked more like:

→ Reinventing myself when my life fell apart (hello bankruptcy & business failures)
→ Building again when I didn’t know how 
→ Choosing growth over comfort
→ Taking risks people told me not to take

Don’t get caught up in the shiny stuff you see on here (or anywhere, for that matter).

You need to find the definition of success on your own.  

Or rather, your aim or purpose.

What does success mean to you?

🫶

Disrupting the creator economy. | Content Creator | Co-Founder of Doozi & Doozi Marketing ✈️📱

No alternative text description for this image

I’m Canadian, but I love America, and my American friends. 🇺🇸

Wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving.

Whether you’re celebrating with family, friends, or on your own - I hope you can take some time to find gratitude.

Sending love to those who need it today - I know the holidays aren’t fun for everyone.

And thank you for the Thanksgiving wishes, it’s always nice to hear twice a year (don’t ask me why we celebrate in October lol). 🇨🇦

Send me some pumpkin pie will ya? 🥧

I just tried ordering something from a very popular brand.

…and they lost me as a customer, here’s why:

(I won’t tag them but it’s an athleisure brand many people know) 🙃

I couldn’t get an answer to a question I had about a product.

Their customer service is AWFUL.
So they lost me to their competitor.

Which makes me think how many other e-commerce brands are missing out on sales??

Customers want real-time communication.
… and if they don’t get it, they click away (like moi). 

Here’s a tool that I think every e-commerce store should have:

LiveChat, powered by Text. 

It lets you:
→ Chat with visitors in real time
→ Handle way more conversations using automation + AI
→ Set up targeted holiday campaigns without needing a dev

This is a no-brainer to me not only as a customer, but as a former e-commerce founder.

It’s not complicated and by communicating quicker with customers, you’ll have higher conversions. 

Stop making it so hard for people to get answers and use tools that get you more sales - especially around the holidays.

Holiday shopping is already stressful enough. 😅

Try LiveChat for free here & get 10% off with this link: https://bit.ly/3Kd6VpI  (They also have ready-to-use holiday campaign templates on their landing page) 👀

#LiveChatPartner

The reality is, most founders SHOULD NOT be founders.

The goal isn't to simply BE a founder...

The goal is to be the BEST PERSON to solve the PROBLEM.

Heard this during a League of Innovators Accelerator call this week with Vivek Sodera, founder of Superhuman.  

The best founders are solving problems they have experienced, first-hand, and they know exactly how to solve it.

And because they've experienced it, they're determined to create the solution.

...and it couldn't be more true.

doozi was created because Gillian and I are not only people who travel frequently, but we're content creators ourselves.

We are building a travel platform for creators, while travelling.
While creating content.
While talking to creators. 

Every. Single. Day.

This post is just a reminder to FOCUS on the people you are trying to help.

Help them better than anyone else can.

If you do that, then you're winning.

🫡

I’m giving away my biggest marketing hacks for scrappy startups.

This got me hundreds of millions of impressions & recognition in my industry:

→ Brand yourself like a product - this might feel weird, but what’s something you could wear, or do, to make you, YOU? For example, we wear pink jumpsuits & bucket hats with airplanes on it now at every industry event & in our content. This one thing has made us memorable & we’ve gotten meetings that might have been more challenging to get otherwise. 

→ Be messy - share stuff online that most would NEVER share. It’s more relatable and actually builds trust with your audience. What are you struggling with? What have you learned? People admire success but connect with vulnerability. 

→ Be a giver in your industry - set some time aside to connect with other founders, and mentor, when you can. I am a big believer that when you contribute, it comes back to you (but that’s not the only reason why you should do it). It also opens doors to collaboration & expanding your network for future opportunities. Plus it feels good to help.

Let me know if you like this & I can share more.

I haven’t ever really spent money on marketing (and neither has my co-founder) & we’ve collectively built communities surpassing 2M+.

We’re going to be doing some wacky, scrappy campaigns for doozi soon (we’re coming for you Bumble Inc.) ;) 

So stay tuned on more scrappy secrets!!!

Caption this photo:

We’ll buy coffee for the 3 funniest/most clever.

Bonus points if your caption is something HR department wouldn’t approve of. 😏

doozi
Gillian Gallant

PS this is a real photo from a video we took, not AI. 😂

If email marketing feels overwhelming, this video is for you!!!

You know what used to take me hours?

Building campaigns.
Sending follow-ups.
Tracking who opened what.

Now? I can do marketing in minutes.

This is what happens when you stop doing everything manually and start letting AI and automation work for you.

Tools like ActiveCampaign have become a core part of my workflow.

Their autonomous marketing platform doesn’t just automate tasks, it uses Active Intelligence to better understand your audience.

It also:
→ Creates email sequences for you with a single prompt 
→ Scores your leads, tracks every interaction, and updates your customer journeys in real time.
→ Builds full workflows with drag-and-drop (this is my fav feature).

It’s like having a marketing system that runs in the background 24/7,

…while you focus on doing things that really matter (and the things that are A LOT more fun). 😉

Come join the party where marketing is fun & isn’t time consuming.

Try ActiveCampaign for free - and tell me how you like it! 👉 link here: https://lnkd.in/esE_n9Xt

#ActiveCampaignPartner

Vogel Cyber Leadership & Coaching

I bring my nearly 20 years of experience in the cybersecurity field and mix that with my authentic, genuine, and pragmatic approach to provide cyber security leadership and coaching to my clients!!!! 

I am a self-professed positive troll and I believe in the power of uplifting others through my coaching practice and encouraging my coaching clients to explore their hidden dimensions and unleash their inner awesomeness!!!

Let's have an EPIC friendship building convo today!!!

President

Cyber.sc

Providing practical people and process oriented cyber security advisory services to startups, investors, and small/midsize businesses. Cyber.SC specializes in providing cyber security management and expertise to financial service companies and law firms. Cyber.SC provides "on-demand" cyber security services that augment an organization's current capabilities in a way that is less costly and more effective than "traditional" advisory companies. We seek to create trust and not dependency among our clients.

Services include:

• Performing cyber security maturity assessments
• Completing security questionnaires on behalf of clients  
• Conducting security gap analysis
• Developing security remediation and strategic roadmaps
• Providing security leadership in the form of "CISO-as-a-service"

Founder & Chief Strategist

TEC Canada

Joining as part of TEC Canada’s speakers' group sharing cyber security and leadership expertise with executives across Canada.

Cyber Security Speaker Resource

Provincial Health Services Authority

• Developing legacy healthcare system (WinXP) containment strategy and architecture data roadmap
• Developing business case (and mitigation strategy) for protecting HealthCare applications and systems
• Supported a clear strategic and cost savings roadmap of over 2.5M / Annum 
• Performing risk assessments (STRAs) for the following projects:
          • Systems deployed during Children/Women's Hospital upgrade
          • Cerner platform upgrade

Senior Security Consultant (Contract)

Netcoins Inc.

• Provide insight and expert advice relating to cyber security and online operations. 
• Netcoins turns any device into a Bitcoin ATM for retail stores
• Netcoins does all the heavy lifting; stores don't need to maintain any cash or Bitcoin inventory

Internet Security & Operations

CU Training

Cyber security subject matter expert. Providing content and appearing in various security training mechanisms: 

• Webinars
• E-learning modules
• Videos

Cyber Security Evangelist

TELUS (BC Hydro)

Overall Responsibilities
• Chairing security assessment group informing stakeholders of pertinent vulnerabilities and threats  
• Developing threat intelligence strategy  
• Developing comprehensive vulnerability management program   
• Creating web security reports and providing actionable advice based on expert analysis
• Security operation centre (SOC) duties 

Strategic Initiatives
• Providing actionable security advice to BC Hydro stakeholders

Accomplishments
• Reducing average vulnerability remediation time by 20%
• Reducing average number of unpatched systems by over 35%

Senior Security Contractor - Vulnerability Management

First West Credit Union

Overall Responsibilities
• Leading and developing the strategic and tactical information security plans  
• Providing security thought leadership to CIO 
• Managing staff resources in security projects 
• Developing performance indicators relating to PCI & ISO 27001
• Delivering timely reports and metrics to executive management
• Serving as representative on Credit Unions of Canada Security Group

Strategic Initiatives
• Forging key business relationships as IT security business partner
• Creating and overseeing security incident response framework
• Delivering integrated SIEM solution 

Accomplishments
• Forming a positive organizational security culture
• Serving as a brand ambassador within the community
• Appearing as “rising star” in 2014 annual company report  
• Reducing staff phishing click rate from 40% to 3% resulting in $25,000 in indirect yearly savings

Information Security Business Leader

Grant Thornton LLP

Overall Responsibilities
• Performing compliance audits and gap assessments for clients
• Providing proactive mitigation recommendation reports
• Perform risk and threat assessment using industrial leading standards and frameworks

Strategic Initiatives
• Providing actionable advice to clients pertaining to data privacy practices, frameworks such as NIST, COBIT, ITIL, and ISO and compliance requirements like PCI, SOX, PIPEDA, SB-1386
• Conducting business impact assessments

Accomplishments
• Security audit lead on major provincial security program review

Senior Associate, Business Risk Services

Overall Responsibilities
• Performing risk assessments on new business initiatives
• Scouring the landscape for new threats to information security
• Reporting on security metrics and quarterly information risks
• Updating and maintaining documentation for all security controls and processes
• Developing policies, processes, and procedures as it relates to IT security 
• Performing regular audits to ensure security controls operating as intended

Strategic Initiatives
• Performing vulnerability assessments reducing risk exposure
• Developing information risk assessment framework for all business projects 
• Recommending controls to security infrastructure to address threat landscape 
• Establishing mechanism for detecting and investigating breaches in security 
• Establishing effective security awareness program for employees and members

Accomplishments
• Transforming IT security function into trusted advisor role
• Speaking throughout the community and engaging the public by raising security awareness

Security Analyst

Cyber Risk Advisor | Speaker | Coach | #CyberSecurityMatters Podcast Host | Positive Troll | Board Director

Who I am: Father, husband, and supportive friend. I'm a self-labeled positive troll making the world kinder one alliterative filled comment at a time. I post about positive life lessons. 

Who I am: I offer friendship and kindness. I want to be the positive energy in your life!!!!! I want to be your professional hype man!!!!

What I do: I provide actionable, pragmatic and strategic cyber risk management for small and midsize organizations.

What I do: I develop connected human leaders in the disconnected AI era through high ENERGY coaching 

What I do: Perform engaging, highly entertaining and inspiring talks on life, cyber security, and the power of leading with kindness!!! 

If you are still reading this and it resonates deep in the inner fibres of your soul then let's schedule an EPIC friendship building convo!!!! ➡️https://meet-with-dom-vogel.appointlet.com

Random fact: I am the 328x winner of the LinkedIn comment of the day!!!!!!!!

Dominic Vogel

Eight years ago today, my family's world changed forever. 


After years of hoping, praying, and eventually letting go, life surprised us in the most beautiful way. 


The month we finally released our grip on what we thought we needed, our son decided it was his time to join me, my wife and our daughter


Being his dad (alongside his sister) has been the greatest privilege of my life. 


I get to witness, every single day, this incredible little person becoming more himself


funnier, kinder, more thoughtful than I could have imagined. 


His laugh can turn around my whole day. 


His questions make me see the world fresh. 


His heart, already so big at eight years old, reminds me what matters most.


The waiting was hard. 


But watching him grow, seeing the person he's becoming...curious, compassionate, with a sense of humor that catches me off guard and makes me burst out laughing


I understand now that some gifts arrive EXACTLY when they're meant to.


Happy 8th birthday James, my unexpected joy, my daily reminder that the best things in life can't be forced


They simply arrive when the time is right. 


You arrived when your family needed YOU the most


And we LOVE YOU ALWAYS 💚

I Help Manufacturing & B2B Avoid Million-Dollar Cybersecurity Losses | Fractional CISO | 20+ Years Protecting Revenue, Not Networks | No Jargon, No Kickbacks | Proud Dad & Beard Grower

What's Your Care Bear Energy? 💫🧸🧸🌈🌈


Remember Care Bears? Those little warriors who literally shot beams of pure intention from their chests into the world?


That wasn't just a cartoon. 


That was a MASTERCLASS in conscious living!!!!


Every single day, you're broadcasting. 


Your energy, your words, your presence


it's all radiating outward, touching everything in its path!!


The question isn't WHETHER you're putting energy into the world.


The question is WHAT KIND!!!


Are you shooting out cynicism or curiosity?


Judgment or generosity?


Scarcity or abundance?


Fear or possibility?


The world doesn't need more people playing small.


 It doesn't need more hedged bets, more "professional distance," more carefully curated neutrality.


It needs YOUR specific frequency. 


Your laugh. 


Your weird ideas. 


Your unreasonable optimism. 


Your willingness to believe in people before they believe in themselves.


You think that's soft? That's POWER!!!


The Care Bears had it right all along. 


The bravest thing you can do is stand in the center of a cynical world and shoot light from your chest anyway.

So I'm asking you today: What's YOUR beam made of?


Because whatever it is, someone out there needs EXACTLY that ENERGY to keep going!!!


Radiate intentionally. 🌟

Life is a beautiful interwoven tapestry, filled with magically colored threads of love, connection, and kindness. 


This gorgeous tapestry reminds us that everything meaningful in life is about others 💚💚 


It's about the family who supports us unconditionally. 


The friends who laugh and cry with us, and build us up!!! 


The colleagues who collaborate with us, challenge us, and help us grow as humans and as professionals!! 


The strangers who become friends, and the friends who become family. 🤗🤗🤗 


It's about the moments we share The memories we create 


The love we emanate It's about lifting each other up, rather than tearing each other down. It's about empathy, kindness, and compassion. 💖💖💖💖💖 


If you TRULY want to be happy make your life about others 


Create a world that's more loving, more caring, and more meaningful. 🤗🤗🤗


LOVE and APPRECIATE YOU ALWAYS ❤️❤️❤️


Dom

Every December, I pull out the same box of Christmas lights


And every December, they're a TANGLED MESS!!


You know the feeling. 


That overwhelming knot of wires that seems impossible to solve. 


You can't even tell where one strand begins and another ends.


Here's what hit me this year while untangling them:


This is EXACTLY what living without purpose feels like!!


When we're unclear on our "why," our days become like those lights...all tangled up. 


We're busy, we're moving, we're GLOWING even... but we're tied up in knots. 


Work bleeds into personal time. 


Priorities overlap and choke each other out. 


Every commitment wraps around three others until we can't see what actually matters.


But here's the powerful part:


The lights aren't BROKEN. 


They're just entangled.


And the solution? You don't yank harder. You don't force it. 


You find ONE END and follow it with patience.


That's purpose.


Purpose is the end of the strand you follow backward through all the chaos. 


It's asking: "Does this meeting serve my mission? Does this project light up my values? Does this commitment connect to where I'm actually trying to go?"


One deliberate untangling at a time.


And when you finally plug in those lights after the work of clarity? 


They SHINE exactly as they were designed to. 


Every bulb has space. Every strand has direction. The whole thing illuminates something beautiful.


Your life is the same way.


You're not broken. You're not failing. 


You might just be entangled.


So here's my challenge as we close out this year: Find your ONE END. That core purpose. That non-negotiable value. That mission that makes your eyes light up when you talk about it.


Then follow it backward through the tangle.


 Say no to what doesn't connect. Create space between what does. 


Be patient with the process.


Because a purposeful life doesn't mean doing MORE!!!


It means UNTANGLING what matters from what doesn't and letting your unique light shine exactly where it's meant to!!!


What's YOUR "one end"the purpose you're following into 2026? 


Drop it below. Let's light each other up. 🎄✨

While everyone's hunting for deals this week, I'm thinking about the BIGGEST deal most businesses are missing!!!


PROTECTING what they've already built!!


I recently sat down with the INCREDIBLE Ashley Smith for her Canada Now podcast and let me tell you this conversation hit DIFFERENT!!!


Here's the hard truth no business owner wants to hear:


"We're too small to be a target" is THE most dangerous lie in business right now.



The threat landscape heading into 2026? It's not what it was even 6 months ago.


AI-driven attacks are getting SMARTER.


Supply chain vulnerabilities are EVERYWHERE.


And most organizations? Still operating in 2005 assumptions.


In this awesome convo with my super friend Ashley, I break down:


✅ The REAL cyber risks every leader needs on their radar for 2026


✅ The leadership blind spots that turn small issues into catastrophic breaches


✅ Simple, actionable steps YOUR BUSINESS can implement THIS WEEK (not next quarter, not next year — THIS WEEK)


Whether you're a founder grinding it out, an executive steering the ship, a board member asking tough questions, or a nonprofit leader protecting your mission — this conversation is FOR YOU!!!


Here's the uncomfortable reality: Cybersecurity stopped being just an IT problem a LONG time ago.


It's now a strategy issue. A leadership issue. 


A SURVIVAL issue!!!!


Massive THANK YOU to the supremely AMAZING Ashley for the platform and the phenomenal questions! 🙌


👉 Ready to stop playing defense with outdated playbooks?


🎧 Listen now: https://lnkd.in/gm9vyHuq


Let's make 2026 the year we get PROACTIVE, not reactive!!!


Drop a 💡 if this resonates — and tag someone who needs to hear this message!

The single most powerful life accelerant I've discovered has nothing to do with strategy, networking tactics, or personal branding.


It's this: Treat every single person you meet like they're the most important person in the world.


Not because of their title. 


Not because of what they can do for you. 


But authentically. Genuinely. From a place of real curiosity and respect.


When you're in that meeting with the intern, BE THERE. 


When you're talking to the barista, SEE THEM.


 When you're emailing a colleague, HONOR their time and perspective.


Here's what happens when you make this your operating system:


Trust compounds. 


Doors open that you didn't even know existed.


 Opportunities find you. 


People remember how you made them feel. 


Your reputation becomes your greatest asset.


But here's the thing! 


people can FEEL the difference between transactional attention and authentic presence.


 They know when you're performing respect versus actually giving it.


The secret isn't acting like everyone is important.


 It's recognizing that they ACTUALLY are.


This isn't soft skills. 


This is power skills. 


This is how real influence is built.


Try it this week. 


Watch what shifts.


Treat EVERYONE like they're the most important person in the world ❤️

The greatest spiritual practice isn't escape


We often think enlightenment means rising above the mess of being human. 


That wisdom requires distance. 


That peace demands detachment.


But what if the opposite is true?


What if the real work isn't to transcend our humanity, but to fully embrace it?


The greatest challenge of love and perhaps of living isn't to become deeply spiritual by removing ourselves from experience. 


It's to become deeply human by immersing ourselves in it.


To stay present when things fall apart. 


To remain open when it would be easier to close.


 To meet another person's pain without turning away. 


To show up fully, even when it's uncomfortable.


This is where transformation actually happens


not on the mountaintop, but in the valley. 


Not in isolation, but in connection. 


Not in perfection, but in our willingness to be messy, vulnerable, and real.


The people who've touched my life most deeply weren't the ones who had it all figured out. 


They were the ones who stayed. Who listened. Who let themselves feel. 


Who chose presence over polish.


That's the kind of human I want to be.


Not transcendent. 


Just here. Fully and courageously here. 💚💚💚

taplio

The Battle

Erica Rankin

Dominic Vogel

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreErica Rankin's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreDominic Vogel's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Erica Rankin

Dominic Vogel

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Erica Rankin's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreDominic Vogel's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreErica Rankin's LinkedIn Performance