Erica McBeth began her writing career in 2011 with the novel, “Her Blind Ambition” and short stories like “The Secrets We Keep” and “Anger Moves”, but 2017 is the year when her vision began to shift.
As a someone who periodically experienced bouts of depression throughout her life, Erica struggled with feelings of loneliness in 2017. A friend of hers lost a brother to suicide that year and Erica suggested they attend a suicide prevention walk she had heard about that was put on by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. It was meant to be a healing event.
As Erica stood in the crowd of two thousand people that day, it hit her that every person there had been touched by depression or suicide in some way. People had left this world because they had felt lonely…just as she was feeling at that moment. Suddenly, Erica had a purpose. She decided if there were so many lonely people in the world, they should be talking to one another. That would be the cure for their loneliness! So, in 2018, she set out on a mission to sit down with one stranger each week for a full year. Her journey through this project is chronicled in the book, “52 New Friends”. The experiment changed her life.
Erica McBeth now sits on the Arizona Chapter Board of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. She teaches businesses how to increase employee engagement, diversity and inclusion. She teaches people how to make new friends and overcome loneliness through her courses, her writing and her speaking engagements.
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