We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Erika Collins. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Erika below.

Alright, Erika thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

Deciding to start an Executive Protection company was something that was really inspired by my husband. As a former U.S. Marine and protection agent, Jason was already working in the field for over 15 years when we got married. Seeing the level of professionalism, respect, and notoriety that he had within his field, I asked him if he ever considered putting a business together so he could be his own boss. A simple yes led us down a path of business creation, a career and education pivot for me, and a move across the country. With his yes, I was in the middle of my bachelors program for International business management. I was working in manufacturing at the time and volunteered security at our church. Ready for a change, I took a leap and applied to an executive protection agency – and this is when everything went into high gear. I was hired and offered a position in Miami, Florida. It was in our plans to move to Florida within the next few years anyway so it was a simple yes – an opportunity opened. So we packed up, put our house on the market and we were in Florida in 4 weeks. Upon moving here, we got a call from a colleague of ours who had heard my husband speak at a security conference. He said he was wanting to open a branch of his company in Miami, and since we were now living here – would we be interested in running a branch. After thoughtful consideration, another yes came from our lips. In the meantime, I started with the company we moved down here for, and was finishing my bachelors within a few months after.. and then Covid. I was laid off – so I put my energy into growing our brand new opportunity with our very own Executive Protection firm here in Florida. I graduated with my bachelors and was inspired to go on to my Masters at Florida International University to explore the opportunity of real estate development and investing.
By the time Covid was over, I had obtained two degrees in international business and started a company. It has truly been a welcomed opportunity to take on branch ownership. What would have taken us over two years to establish was eliminated down to two months thanks to partnering with others in the industry.
We quickly started growing in Miami, with many other colleagues reaching out to us for support. Our year over year growth has been positive and we proudly serve UHNW clients all over Florida.
Now we’re looking to the future and have begun hiring additional agents to help with the management portion as my real estate opportunities have increased. Serving international clients and people relocating is one of my favorites – especially because I am not a Florida native, but I absolutely love where I live.
We continue to study business methods and scaling so we can continue a healthy growth. I used to think success meant that your product would catch on quickly, but we have found the best method has been more organic, word of mouth reputation based growth.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

As far as the executive protection portion, learning the background operations of a security company and understanding what helps them thrive was the entry level for where we are today. Our agents are mostly military veterans who have a passion for what they do, and protect people in all types of situations, whether it be Celebrities, CEO’s, residential security or events. We create safe spaces for people to do their work efficiently without the fear of harm.
I would say i’m most proud of the reputation we have grown. Our agents enjoy working with us, and our clients and their continued use of our service and their recommendations to others keeps us growing and serving in a capacity that makes our veterans feel proud of what they’re doing.
The real estate side of my business really stems from my passion for people. I believe everone everywhere should be able to have safe housing, combining that with my business side, I eventually want to provide opportunities with real estate development – which naturally creates job growth so that it can help people in poverty to not only have safe housing but also business opportunities, and to learn how to create and operate their own business for success and generational change in their family.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

We met our colleague and partner at a security conference. My husband and I are very involved in anti human trafficking organizations. At the conference my husband was speaking to the crowd on his experiences with rescuing and about the organization. Our founder was in the crowd and made the highest donation for a raffle we were having for a fundraiser. The relationship started at that moment, and within a year later we moved to Miami and connected again and began our company.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

I would absolutely attribute my management style to my bachelors in international business management from Oral Roberts University. Having experienced some terrible management, I wanted to be different, and the ethics and wholeness training that ORU provided gave me a really solid understanding of how to create a healthy work environment.
Beyond that I am a big fan of Brene Brown – learning management isn’t always about learning business, rather personal growth.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://erikacollins.net
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stories/erika_collins_realtor/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erikacollins247
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@LoveWhereYouLivewithErik-ks1px