Hey guys, and welcome to another episode of the doctor nurse
podcast. I'm your host, Sandra presenta,
and I am so happy that you decided to join me today.
Let's hear a word from a couple of our sponsors before we get
started with today's guests, before we dive into the podcast
episode, I have to tell you about one of our sponsors that
make the doctors podcast possible.
Pick Monica is a study tool for nurses and nurse practitioners
to commit to memory thousands of topics that we have to learn for
school. And for our final certification
exam by Using science backed picture my monix pick manik has
created a research proven Learning System filled with
memorable characters, Unforgettable, stories, and
built in quizzes. Pick Monica's better than all
flash cards. I walked around with while I Was
preparing for my exams they also have a comprehensive learning
review quiz study app system to help you review content and test
your knowledge. So check them out and use my
code doctor nurse for 20% off and stay tuned.
I One more sponsorship for you. Welcome to the doctor nurse
podcast with Christy Gil, Bray also known as the minstrel Maven
and she is a military veteran and a licensed registered.
Nurse who is passionate about women's health below the belt
health awareness, and health disparities.
So she started her career working in the military and the
US Navy and she has a background as a floor nurse, and she
decided after earning her MBA that she wanted to take her
clinical skill set and marry them.
With leadership training for the military, she went into the
corporate world, and then has now moved into her latest role,
which is Nurse entrepreneur. When she launched flow, where by
undies Loft, which is her company that makes underwear,
that absorbs periods, postpartum and Mild bladder leaks.
So, I am so happy to have you on.
Kristi, thank you for coming on. Thank you so much.
Sandra is the pleasure to be here.
I appreciate being here, but yeah.
All of those things that you shared about me are true.
I didn't pay Sandra, but but yes, absolutely.
I think the one of the best things about being a nurse is
the the wide options that we all have to be able to go into
different things. And for me nurse pregnant was
definitely a path that I saw for myself.
Just based on my my desire to have always been an
entrepreneur. But also marrying that with
supporting people educating people In a way that is
game-changing life-changing. When it comes to navigating the
Healthcare System, that's really great.
And I get I've described kind of what you do but how do you see
your career? Your job title.
Like what would you say? Like when you introduce yourself
to people? You're like, hi, I'm Christy and
I am, I am the what, like, how do you introduce yourself?
Yeah, absolutely. Such a great question.
I'm still working on getting used to saying, I am the
founder. CEO of flow of eyes locked, I am
and in, I find that as a nurse's.
It's so easy to lead with and I'm a nurse or I work at the
hospital or whatever it is. But no, I am the founder and CEO
of flow where and I put in a lot of Blood, Sweat, and Tears to be
able to call myself that as it relates to getting this business
off the ground and making a brand name that people recognize
yeah, that's fabulous. - so tell me a little bit about how you
got to this specific spot. I know you're a military veteran
right out of sounds like you were told me earlier before the
podcast right out of school, kind of work that career and
then moved into nursing and then yeah, Works into your MBA and
then the business. So again, just kind of briefly
walk me through that Journey that you went through, to get to
this spot that you are today. Yeah.
So, like it, I went to the military right out of school and
I served five years, active duty, and at the only Terry the
installation of its kind in the world for the United States
Navy. Go Navy, beat Army and I earned
my MBA at the time. So it was it was during my time
in earning my MBA that I realized for sure that I
definitely want to go into business for myself.
I grew up in a family where our manure ship was, was not unheard
of, and having that As a role model to be able to see my
grandfather, who was the first person of color on his his own,
I'm going to say brand name, but brand name, filling station in
town unheard of for me, that that was huge because my
grandfather was an orphan. And then my grandfather at that
time, the unheard of was an orphaned, what to college?
Graduated college started a business with a successful
businessman. And so, Having a legacy like
that to tap into and do things with him as it related to
teaching him, build this business and the administrative
part of it. I always thought, man, that's
that's so cute your Bachelor's in nursing and then your MBA all
while you were in the military. Yeah.
So I got it was in the military. I got my undergrad, I got an
undergrad in Healthcare Management as well.
So I've got some Healthcare Management BS and then I've got
the Then hand the NBA gotcha. And so yeah, yeah.
So it was after I got out of the military, I was told I would be
more competitive for program that I really wanted to get in
military wise if I had an MBA. So, I got out and pursued my
MBA. And then, as things kind of kept
going, I realized it's not bad being out here.
And so, going to expect Years and it was good but I think I
can hang out here in the civilian sector a little a
little while longer and so that's exactly what I did and
I've not looked back but along that path and doing that, I also
recognize there are things that innately I could never do in the
civilian sector. One of them is being a working
for someone else and being able to build a business that makes a
difference for other people. And so as it relates to play, Do
whereby undies Loft that really came out as a realization for me
as an epiphany. If you will as a result of my
own personal experience with my own below-the-belt.
Hell and I share on my website. My story about uterine fibroids
and detailing how one particular and has led to me saying, okay,
this is crazy, this is absolutely crazy.
I cannot go into a client's office.
And literally walk in. Okay?
And then stand up and have left a literally a CSI situation on
their brand new white leather chair.
And then have somebody pass me paper scrub over a public
bathroom stall so that I can walk out in the high heel shoes
to my vehicle in pouring rain, which is exactly what happened
and I just I remember feeling devastated and humiliated and
embarrassed. Fast and how can I ever show my
face to these people ever in life again?
And as I drove home, which was about an hour and 15 minutes and
pouring rain in between the tears and the Ring Road as well
from your eyes. Absolutely, I was absolutely, I
was and praying that I wasn't soaking through the provisions
that were provided to me by one of the office staff, who
recognized that I had an accident and thinking To myself.
I cannot this is this is not something mentally I can handle
on a regular basis and no one should have to experience what I
experienced ever. And so as a result that was the
impetus of flow where my undies law and use that, you said
something very poignant to me, which was it's very traumatic.
And it is, I always thought of it as gosh, that was a
hellacious experience, but it was, it was Traumatic out of
that trauma. As we have discussed out of
that, trauma was born when opportunity for me to serve
other people and provide a platform to educate other people
to still use those nursing skills to talk about
below-the-belt health to support people in advocating for their
Healthcare. And hope it hoping the narrow,
the Gap in the little bit of, in the smallest amount that I can
do be a, my Form narrow, the Gap.
As it relates to disparities as well.
Women people, born as female people with uteruses, often
times, we talk about our concerns below the belt and they
don't get heard. I recall the start of having
heavy menstrual periods, gosh, years prior to this incident.
And what I was told by my clinician for Vidor at that time
was oh, it happens as you get older, it's no worry, no worry,
and I knew better as a licensed registered nurse as a clinician
in my mind, I knew better, but there was also a part of me that
just didn't want to realize what other possibilities there.
Could be in one of those being uterine fibroids and I fit the
perfect framework of an individual who would be
diagnosed with uterine fibroids and sure enough.
I was, and I did not have the great experience having a
laparoscopic procedure. I was filleted open look
C-section without a baby type surgery.
Major surgery and woke up and was told hey we didn't get
everything. And oh by the way if you want it
to have a baby, it's possible but you may not be able to carry
the term and and oh yeah you're going to need a history.
To me at some point. So just so it's devastating to
hear that experiences. Oh gosh, 37 37.
And this is, we have been trying, my husband and I have
been trying to have a baby or years and that's what you get to
this point of where you're dealing with your below-the-belt
health and your you've got knowledge on your own, right?
Just just I the happenstance of being a clinician.
In your cell but there's a part of you that I think that's just
very human that we can all relate to that.
You hold out because you hold out hope for your own patients,
right? And why wouldn't you hold out?
Hope for yourself as it relates to something that you want like
so much. And but the reality set in that
okay, we have to make money. We got we got to make some
decisions. And so for me IVF was one of
those decision and IVF didn't help my issue with uterine
fibroids or The menstrual periods.
It just kind of added on another layer of complexity for, for me,
and for my husband. But at the end of the day that
that route didn't work for us, the IVF route did not work for
us but I'm a firm believer that everything is ordered anyway,
everything is ordered anyway so things are happening or happened
the way that they were supposed to happen and but it's brought
me. To the point now where I can
ensure that other people like myself, have the information to
a hate, know how, to Advocate know how to have conversations
that are not adversarial with their, with their provider.
And then, for those who have bio physiological, challenges below
the belt, like, heavy periods, postpartum bleeds.
And while bladder leaks to be able to provide a product that
supports that as well as It's just it's a blessing to be able
to have a platform to do all of that through this brand.
Yeah, you mentioned a lot of things that I wanted to touch
on, and I was actually kind of typing it in as you were talking
because I was thinking about, I know a lot of women that listen
to this podcast are African-American and they are
nurses, that are African-American.
I have them. They always write to me like hey
Sandra, what about this? What about that?
And I love it and hearing you talk about the uterine fibroids
made me think like, this is a population that needs someone
Advocating for them teaching them because a lot of women that
have fiber especially African Americans don't even know like
why is this happening? Because looking at just, they're
saying it's some evidence of diet, history of abuse.
Vitamin D deficiency, a genetic component.
So, and then they were saying and again, this is one of the
things that I don't talk about very often, but I find it very
interesting that we tend to be the number one consumer of hair
products, hair care products. And yet we are the number one
people to end up having our The rest is have all these issues.
And so again, I'm not saying I'm a conspiracy theorist that, I
believe all conspiracies, but I have put the stuff on my hair to
help moisturize girls. It needs it right now, but to
help moisturize it, and do all that stuff.
And I started going through my own personal health journey
through my own health issues. I have endometriosis.
And so, again, we're talking below the belt, you and I were
just going to talk about that here today.
So if you're a guy and you're uncomfortable, please, excuse
us. But yeah, I have endometriosis.
I have all these other autoimmune type things are
looking NG at an inn Demetrios has like it's an autoimmune
disease possibly and so what I find is that we put all these
products on our skin and out our hair and our scalp and they get
absorbed and where did those things go?
And we don't know and black women have not been educated on
these things and yet when you look up the ingredients that are
in these products that we put on our hair and again vitamin D
plays a role, your genetics play a role.
I'm not going to not look at only one thing, but we need to
wake up to what is it that we're putting on our body?
If we are the number one consumers of these things, how
is this? Affecting our health and I'm
going to be nappy for some days if that's what it looks like if
I need to. But I have to put this stuff on
my hair to make you comfortable with my hair.
I don't I'm not going to do it, we just need to be paying
attention. If you're going to put stuff in
your hair, you need to run it through the ingredients.
Make sure the stuff doesn't cause cancer because what I
found was stuff that I was putting on my hair and in
Europe, they link it to genetic defects in your children.
They link it to all these other things and I'm like, no idea.
I'm putting the stuff on my hair for 15 years.
I had no Clue. It could cause these types of
health issues and so yeah, I've had to come up with natural
regimens for my hair. I go I spend more money to
invest in companies that create products for your hair that do
not cause cancer and because we don't know and a lot of black
women just want their hair to look a certain way.
They want them to kind of fit in with Society, societal Norms.
But, let me tell you something. We are hurting ourselves, I
Believe by doing this to fit a You that is not meant for us.
And so again that's where I wear my hair natural.
I hope I do a good job on social media just to show that because
I bought into the lies to a certain extent and feeling like
my hair needed to look a certain way in order to be seen as
valuable as to be seen as oral. And I remember, I put in grades
one time I wanted to wear braids.
I put them in because I wanted to give myself a break from
having to do my hair all the time.
I put braids in and I'm going to tell you something, you get
looked at differently, all my life, I just looked at one way.
And then, once I put the braids in, and I came to work, one was
like, what is wrong with you? And we was wrong with me, I'm
African-American. Like I have braids in my hair,
like, I don't understand. And I actually kind of had to
build a fortitude up. And again, this is to you and me
just talking, I had to build a 42.
Got to just be like, my worth is not 25 by what's on top of
what's coming out of the follicles, on top of my scalp.
Yeah, and more African American women.
Need to embrace this concept because I was putting all this
product, brightening it Heating. Pouring it into our systems.
I believe that it is contributing to cancer,
especially not cancerous growth in the five uterine fibroids.
I mean, I can't see how it doesn't.
I don't know how you feel about that but that's my own soap II
was natural before. I mean, my hair is actually flat
iron. I got flat iron this weekend
because I need it to have it trim.
But I was natural before. Natural was a thing.
Yeah. Good for over 25 years house.
My birthday. Being out, somewhere visiting
visiting a client. And I had a curly Afro.
And I had a physician actually say this.
To me, he came out and he says, I hope you're enjoying the
episode. I wanted to take a second and
tell you what. I've got cooking at the doctor's
podcast, my business partner and I Jackie Cain created an Etsy
shop called success and P. The goal of our Etsy Shop is for
NPS @np moms to work smart, cherish the moments of life and
live beautifully. We It, it adorable, digital
downloads for new moms, moms that need to get organized and
we also just launched a brand new digital planner.
It's a nurse practitioner a themed planner with stickers to
help you customize and keep your life organized.
It has inspirational quotes for different nurse Specialties as
well as facts related to our job as a nurse practitioners.
So, for my listeners, if you go check out my Etsy Shop, which I
have Linked In the show notes, If you use the code doctor nurse
for the next two weeks, you will be able to get 20% off the
planners and be able to down them to an iPad, using the
goodnotes app. And you can immediately start
organizing and planning your life so that you can start a
side hustle. So yes, check it out.
Thanks for listening to the episode and thanks for
supporting our Etsy shop. If you do, stop by and let's get
back to the episode, oh my gosh. What happened to you?
You You put your finger in an electric socket, and I've heard
that, and I just remember the, my self-worth and value based on
his words alone, just went down right.
It just flatlined, and thank goodness for the crown act.
But I am an ingredient reader as well.
Polyethylene, glycol, glycol, sulfates, sulfates all of that
DPA someday the whole bed. I am a Firm firm, believer that
those things do contribute to increase it as health outcomes.
There's there's a part of you genetic wise genetic biomarkers
wise if you will. Will that is that you're already
predisposed for something right. There is a saying out there.
If you live long enough you'll probably have cancer because of
the biomarkers but it's the other things that you do to help
stabilize. That off just because you are
predisposed or have genetics, doesn't necessarily mean that
you are going to be this. There are things that all of us
can actively do to help minimize those risks.
So yeah, Hair Care is is Big, the food that we eat.
Like I'm a big proponent of Shop Around the perimeter of the
grocery store as soon as you go down the aisles.
Well, I mean, Not get it, I think I mess too, but for the
most part, if you're good to sell your body will return and
like horn, it will be good to you for you.
And so it's one of those things. A lot of the times you don't
know what you don't know but as soon as you do know, it's time
to do better. Yes.
Well, said. And that was again, leading me
to the second thing. I was thinking as you were
telling that part of your story and your journey is that Your
grandfather Broke Free from generational poverty.
And by setting the example for you, he sets his family and her
trajectory of success. And so again, as I was saying
earlier my grandfather, and my father, clearly African-American
on my dad's side and they began that process as well of just
kind of Breaking Free from the chains of poverty.
And by doing that setting his, the rest of the generations up
for Success later down the road. Road.
And so it can start with you. It doesn't have to be oh my
children will be the one to break me free.
Like let it start with you and then you can set the rest of
your family. Often a trajectory of success.
It just needs to start with one person.
Breaking free from the chains and then you now Inspire future
generations to go. So my grandfather was one of the
first African Americans to own a business and there is no excuse.
There is no reason why I should not cannot will not be just as
successful. And so, you've got to break the
chains, right? And I love that, I love that you
are bringing awareness to women of color, and women women
without color because women without color also issues in
health and in do, and PCOS and all these different health,
issues and bleeding problems, below the belt, how that they
need to have a dress. Women of color have things that
we need to have a dress that are like, Hey listen, our genetics
load this gun, so easy, but if you can work to not fire the
gun, you might be able to stabilize.
A level of this off, to save your fertility.
And then also again going back to your journey and hearing so
beautifully said like we can start breaking cycles of poverty
and lack of Education with us that then affects the rest.
And so just start with you, you can't change your parents, you
can't change your children, you can only add start with
yourself. So start here and then watch it
trickle down because it will, it has no choice.
It has to go somewhere. So you've got to do the Work.
And so one of the other questions I had I like to hear
this because nursing triplets so well into entrepreneurship.
And a lot of people don't understand that that are nursing
skills, really helped us to build businesses.
What has been one of the things that you found in your
background as a nurse that's helps you navigate business, a
little bit easier and then what's something that you think
this has been hard, because I didn't come from necessarily a
business background for say, thanks for the research
component. I remember being in nursing
school and I'm starting anyone who's advanced practice?
Can certainly relate to the, the, the times where you had to
do research? And it's not just reading
somebody's blog, right? Is like peer-reviewed research.
You need to know where to go to get this information.
And so for me starting starting my business and it not being not
like my product is not novel. There are other brands, Out
there that do what I do, but it would have been very much
short-sighted for me to just say, oh, well, I'm going to
start manufacturing these underwear because I have uterine
fibroids and bleed all over the place as opposed to stop.
Let's, let's do some research who are the key Market players
here in the US and Canada. Because those are the two places
where I want it to focus on for my business.
What are they bringing in annually?
What is their purpose? Whereas Revenue, where are they
getting their, their, their, their products from?
Where are they manufacturing? How are they manufacturing?
What products, what Fabrics are they actually using?
What are their customers saying? So it's all of this, this
reserved on top of the fact of detail being detail-oriented
the. One of the things I still
remember to this day is soon as you go into a patient's room and
you see the you see tubes and all of that the first You should
be doing is tracing the line. That's for the patient.
How can I trace? What the success with these
companies are having, how do I trace that line to see as the
most finite point or perspective of what they've done and how can
I Elevate that? So, that has played a huge role
for me as it relates to transferring.
Those skill sets of a nurse into business.
Yes, I would say that my mission in terms of needing more
knowledge and polishing. If you will, is really
understanding the international market, that's not something
that comes by easily. Even if you did go to business
school, even if you were around others who have businesses or
were entrepreneurs understanding international business, the guy
I'm doing business outside of your your country.
It's a completely different Beast.
Whether we're talking about importation and exportation.
Whether we're talking about sourcing products, or or
component of a product to make a widget, whatever it is that
you're making, that is something that is a deficit can be a
deficit for those, for sure. And it was a it was a pretty big
deficit for me. Me starting out but thankfully
there was the good old googler out there and then there's SBA
small business administration which is huge.
It's a vault of resources that for the most part primarily of
no cost. So I would encourage anybody
nurse or otherwise considering the business to look into this
small business administration as the launching pad for getting up
to speed. It.
Some of the things that you may not be aware of the gas, the
gaps in knowledge. Hopefully, yeah, I love that and
you're like the third person to recommend the small business
administration for nurses because it's just there like
it's free. I mean it's kind of like the
invention of the library. I mean like Michael my son goes
in there. Like there's a place we can go
to print books for free and like free baby.
He's like Spain's Gold Everywhere, Legend wisdom and
pick it up and so yeah, there's so again there's so many
Options. And I think, I love how you said
that your, as you were talking, I was hearing like the
assessment and implementation phases in nursing.
I mean, that's what we do, right?
We're trained to just assess, ask questions, figure out, trace
it back. Look at the full picture.
Look at the forest, through the trees, and to really go back and
try to piece all those parts together.
It's what we do every day with our patients, when they're like,
I haven't been taking my meds. And you're like, why I haven't
talked to you all the way back to the very well.
I've been you find out like their Is just the one that
they're sending it to is just too far or like that.
Matt is just too expensive and so we need to switch it up and
like we just find that that's what we do every day in our jobs
and that's the same process trillions so well into business
and we just need to embrace that like this is just what we're
able to do. Hey listen, you are not limited
to just jobs in the hospital, you can come up with ideas, you
can a change people's lives. You can not only raise your
knowledge and your understanding Standing of Health with a
product and then, you can pinpoint it at a group of people
that probably feel like they're not being there, not being
marketed to. Like, the stuff is not marketed
to us. And so, we don't really think
it's a big deal. But now I see an
African-American woman who is broken free from the chains of
feeling like I have to be a certain way or I have to do
anything else besides just be myself.
And I believe that this is what I've been called to do because
of what traumatic events that have led me up to them planning.
This Seed and growing this tree out of my manure out of my
really bad experience. I was able to build something
this beautiful tree out of this by planting those seeds.
I just think it's such an incredibly inspiring story and I
think that when you see what African Americans can do, people
of color could do. It's inspiring.
We are some of the most resilient incredible people, and
we just need to step in that. We need to move in that and that
is for everyone. People of color people.
Not of Color. I want anyone to see themselves
every nurse to see themselves, as I have so much cup
capability. I have so much potential in this
brain. And in these hands that I just
need to go after it. It's just have like, absolutely.
I will say, if I could add one additional things for anyone who
is especially for clinicians for nurses for bringing 12 looking
to get into business or anything at all, whatever.
Is business or or otherwise start with the end in mind, it?
Because that's another thing you learned in nursing.
As soon as that patient is admitted, what are you doing
you? It's gosh.
The, the term has literally escaped me but this charge
starts at it. Mission success starts at the
beginning and you have to start visualizing the success that
you're looking to have with your business, or Or whatever your
new career, you have to Envision that if you start from the front
and work or start at the end and work yourself backwards, you can
always almost figure out what your pit holes are going to be
what your gas are going to be. You get that patient that comes
in to the E. They've coded several times
while in the ad. Now, they're stable, they're
bringing them up to the floor and your task to get the room.
Ready, I worked in a 12-bed. Acute care hospital.
So was not giving. So it's kind of like you did a
little bit of everything, but you get that room together but
because that, that patient is already coded several times, but
there are certain things you need to have ready to go in
order to support that patient. It's the same thing when it
comes to business. If you're starting from the end,
you're starting to get discharged.
And what is discharged look like what is success look like and
work yourself back to the start you can Say okay I'm missing.
I'm missing the know-how for XYZ okay, I know I need to have this
in place because at some point I'm going to come across this
and there is no forgiveness in getting ready.
You don't get ready. You need to just be ready.
There's no time and so it's the same thing.
We don't get ready to save a patient, we need to just be
ready for your business. You have to have that same level
of Of mental fortitude, knowing that I need to do everything
that I need in terms of learning and and that can be overwhelming
for people. But the best way to eat, an
elephant is one bite at a time, so you learn one element the
day. You create a calendar for
yourself and you say, all right, I'm going to learn everything
that there is to know about my specific product that I am
importing. I'm going to now, two days
later, I'm going to learn everything that there is to
know. You know, about having the
thing, let's return process. When someone says that they want
to return a product and, and you work at that way, it's this.
I think can be overwhelming. Sometimes as a clinician because
we want everything to go, right? It's I don't think innately.
We don't want to see anything go wrong.
We want the best and that that bleeds into our personal lives,
and as it speaks for - it bleeds into that as well.
We want it to go, right? But you have to realize at some
point. It's going to go wrong, but it's
not the wrong, that's the issue. It's the not being prepared.
So yeah, discharge starts admission success starts with
the end in mind with your eats like Yeah because it allows you
to work back. A plan.
I've been in the operating room with surgeons and let me tell
you something, when I'm with a physician that is laser focused
doing his procedure, there is one thing they have all told me
repeatedly. Idli, I need the room ready.
I need to have my tools ready. I need to have my stitches,
ready? I need to have my everything has
to be prepared. He's like 90 percent of this
game. Sandra is getting this part,
right? Then the 10% is where I go and
do the thing that I'm going to do because I have gotten
prepared. I have that step, one staple
gun. I have that one thing that I
need that allows me to operate the orchestra seamlessly, right?
And so if you don't do that part, what you're describing
getting prepared doing the hard work on the front thinking
about, where am I shooting? Because where's my goal, where's
my trajectory? What am I aiming for?
Because if you don't know where you're aiming, you're going to
have, you're not going to hit anything.
But if you, if you've got to go, you've got some that you're hit,
you're trying to hit, even if you're off by a little bit,
you're still closer than you would be then if you had no plan
at all and no idea what you were doing.
Yeah. Wonderfully said I think that is
fantastic advice. Vice that the work that you do
the quiet work, the Deep work. It's the stuff that's not
glamorized. It's me at this thing.
It's mean. Missing going to the beach this
past weekend because I needed to do the little work of the
podcast. It's, this is the hard stuff,
nobody wants to talk about. Nobody wants to do we all just
want to go and have fun and, and, and make, and make this
stuff look glamorized on Instagram and all this stuff.
But yeah, really the stuff that builds and grows and I believe
it's for a reason. That it's like in the quiet in
the dark and spaces. Nobody sees that this stuff.
Grows people look and go, how'd you get here?
Oh, you got lucky. Oh, it was handed to you.
It's like, no, because I was reading about how this one
material is breathable more. So than this material is.
It's more absorbent, but it doesn't do as good of a job and
it doesn't suck. So as well.
And that's what I was doing, that's the work.
I was doing the quiet assessing That we do as nurses every day
in day out that make people look at a patient.
You go, he can't get a bed store because we got to get him to
discharge and he won't be discharged who's got a bed sore.
So not only do I know that he's not able to get up and move, but
now I got to make sure I'm turning him every two hours and
I got to be putting the spots and so you're thinking ahead,
you're prepared, you're us. What we do on a daily basis and
it is perfect for that same implementation phase assessment
implementation interventions. It's what we do and Dad Jobs,
it's just translates perfectly and you talked a little bit
about the small business administration.
We've got some help, it's anybody mentored you along the
way or has it just been just even a wolf pack of water.
Which I found everything started out as a pack of one for a very
long time. So interesting, Lee enough, this
is not my first business, this is not my first foray into
business probably 12 13 years ago.
I started in business and I had my own brand again, Aroma Chef
bath and body. All natural, handmade
handcrafted body care that was personalized which is as we were
talking earlier about ingredients.
Really got me to the point of realizing what's healthy and
what's not. But I had a lot of that that
ground that I was a lone wolf and as well that I had tapped
into to pull this this business. Well we're by and he's blocked
forward. However, as a Right?
I also have resources available to me and it wasn't until this
past spring want to stay march/april timeframe that I
partook in a woman's veteran. This event that was a 3-day
immersion if you will. And to business that literally
opened my eyes to what is available, not only through the
veterans division or supporting people in getting started with
this. Business.
But also through the SBA and as a result of that, I did link up
with a mentor. So I would say start with your
local SBA chapter it is, it's free.
It is free. And I had a mentor that I was
connected with and she and I had standing appointments every
Friday, she look at my books. She would look at the she would
look at everything. She would tell me.
Okay, this is what are you able to find this?
Shannon, who assist people in learning usable skills, like
sewing. And so we can look at China, get
your manufacturing done and we can employ some people who
didn't necessarily have options before.
And when you do that, there's actual money to that the
government provides because you're supporting the sector of
people who didn't necessarily have a skill set and so they
learn the skill set. Now you've employed them And
this is not portunity, this is another Avenue to get money,
working with her, I learned that when you have your business
operation in a particular place based on the SV a map, if it's I
forget the word that they use to coat it but if your place of
business it's within that map there's money or that there's
subsidies for that so you wouldn't know any of this.
I wouldn't know any of this had Had it not been for the SBA so I
highly, highly recommend that if someone is even considering
starting a business. So look into the SBA, the
government is the largest purchaser of goods and they have
tracks available for everything. Literally everything right down
underwear for prisons. Everything, right?
So you can get yourself a government, whether you Our
teaching, how to breastfeed to women in lower socioeconomic
areas as a licensed registered nurse or whether you're going
into schools and teaching health.
Because we all know that the school I come from my parents
are Educators. So I know all too well that the
schools don't have money, they certainly didn't have money.
When I was growing up, the teachers were operating very
lean and they're still operating very.
Elaine and it's terrible. So they're getting rid of a lot
of programs at the school level but as a clinician as an
advanced practice or licensed registered nurse, there's no
reason why you you people watching, can't take your
knowledge and your know how go to canva, okay?
I'm dropping gems at this point. So did not come.
Get you an account its free, put in the search.
I'm canva workbook. It'll pull up a It and you start
building your workbook to teach whether it is 6 to 10 year olds,
the basics of eating well or whether it is 11 to 14 year old,
the basics of help and whether it's 15 to 18 year olds at the
high school, level below the belt, help create workbooks, get
you, some business cards may go to go to.
I use a company, it's called gr print.
But this department is another one.
Geo-print. You actually have to have a
business so grr but this stuff print.com go there, get you some
business cards and then make a list of schools, and you start
going to these schools. And this is coming straight,
from my, my parents, both of whom were administrators in the
education. You don't call you need to show
up. You asked to speak with the
principal or the vice principal and you have your 60 seconds,
feel Down. Hello, I'm a licensed registered
nurse. I'm wanting to give back to the
community. I am aware that there is title.
I think it's Title One or don't quote me on the title.
I don't want. I understand that there's Title
One money to in order to for enrichment programs.
I'd like to provide an enrichment program or your
school to support your kids and understanding their health.
Get you a little 15-page workbook, have a contract ready
to go. Go and what that looks like.
And now you are serving the community because now, you are
informing and educating the next Generation on how to be healthy,
how to understand their body, how to Advocate, when within the
health system, all these things. That most people do not get
clinicians nurses, Advanced Graphics providers.
Most people don't understand that and you get paid for it.
You're welcome. Guys, thank you very much, guys.
That's literally at this is she just admitted right there on the
spot? Go do it tomorrow.
If you're like, I don't have anything to do.
I want to do this or that just again dark work in the dark
figure out what needs to get done.
You've got to build that canva booklet, right.
You've got to do that work that work and then let it work for
you again. It doesn't have to necessarily
be. This drudgery work of I don't
want to go to the hospital or I've got this in a Addition to
my work at the hospital, I'm doing both for a period of time,
and then whenever your educational booklet that you've
worked on, it's getting a little bit more traction, you've
improved it. You've worked a couple more
hours late Into the Night, a couple of nights out of the week
to make the booklet or, and you figured out what the people
need. You're actually able to now make
something that can work for you. And again it may not necessarily
bring in millions but even if it brings in a little bit over time
that money starts to add up and so it can allow you to do other
things. I just think that is such a
great tip and again, you just mentored everybody.
That was listening. No excuses, way like a champion.
And then, for the last question, the podcast, I like to ask.
If you could go back and give Christy one piece of advice, she
is just finishing up her military to time serving, she's
just becoming a nurse, she's starting to go about, she just
became a nurse. She's getting her MBA.
What would you go back and tell her that you wish you would have
known sooner based on what you today?
I told my then sell. It's okay to shine.
Yeah, being in the military,
which is such a male-dominated field.
This is Madison. I mean, I think nurses that's a
little carve out right, but generally speaking, as soon as
still a very male-dominated field.
And I was so fortunate in my military career to have strong
mentors who were actually women. My, my chief was female, my
commander was female. And there were times when I
would say, I don't want to do this and there would be a
conversation with both of them in front of me.
While we didn't ask you, what you wanted, you will be doing
this and thank God, thank God. But I felt so much pressure from
my peers at that time because I was doing so much more than they
were. I was being slotted to do things
that were not necessarily congruent with my rank was
probably, I was doing something that was a couple of ranks
higher than what I, what them what I was at the time.
And so I felt I felt some kind of way about it because I wanted
friends and I lost friends. And for sure, I would look back
and say, it's okay to shine. It was okay to shine in the
military. It's okay to lose friends
because if you're losing People based upon, you've been great,
guess what? It's all they weren't your
friends anyway and it's the same thing.
Even in a nursing career, you're going to have people who are
going to give you a hard time who are going to wonder.
Well, why are you, why aren't you satisfied with just being on
the floor? You're always talking about
business and nobody wants to hear your ideas.
This that the other, it's okay to shine like you if you want to
stay in your corner, that's cool.
Cool. But I'm going to go ahead and be
a beacon of light and just kind of opened my light up for
everything that I'm do. And I think more of us as women
need to recognize that it's okay for you to take up space.
Yes, I love that. I knew that's what you meant.
When you first said it's okay to shine because it's true.
There's this idea that you just want to blend in.
You just want to fit in, you don't want to be this awkward
thing, you just I kind of fit in here just like everybody else,
but that is not how you move into positions of leadership or
move into positions of Entrepreneurship by trying to be
like everybody else. Nobody else is broke, mr.
Galan burned out. Everybody else is broke
miserable and burned out. Please shine, please shine.
Please stand out. Please be different because it
sucks being normal. Normal sucks and we need more
people saying, Hey listen, I'm not going to be like like the
rest of y'all because this is not fun.
Yeah, and that's okay. If you I mean that's what we
need and I talk about all the time.
I podcast. There is no other Christie.
There's no other Sandra. Like, there's not like we're
never replicated, awful it. What was it?
Like often duplicated, never replicate every replicate,
something like that. Another saying, don't quote me
on the saying, but yeah, it's just kind of like what it seems
like you're an individual and like to do what is individually
for you. And if all of us were shining,
it doesn't take away from my shine when you shine it as Take
away from my shine. And so you've got to do you and
let me do me and we all could just do aren't because it sounds
kind of strange, but let's all just be ourselves and that's
really kind of what he's going to say.
We all need to do ourselves but I just hope that more and more
people hear that and I love what you've created and I think it is
fantastic that you are marrying, all these different things in
parts of your career together. So, for the last part of the
interview, I do rapid fire question.
Are you ready for your rapid fire questions?
Okay. Okay.
I think so, I love Family Feud, so it's going to be like, does
okay? What is your favorite food,
Mexican? Mexican.
What time of day are you? Most inspired, 10 p.m. 10 p.m.,
and what was your first job ever, Taco, Bell 5?
From there, I think that from Cracker Barrel, I love you, I
love it. Well, I can't give a Shameless
plug for your company if you had to give a 30-second pitch so
that people will buy your undies and what you offer, shoot it,
shoot it to my audience. Now I want to hear my shot
absolutely what Andy's Loft, you can find us at undies lock.com
our underwear or breathable made of bamboo.
They absorb menstrual periods postpartum in my bladder leaks,
definitely made for Comfort but you look fantastic wearing them.
And you can find me he's locked and at, hello, we're on
Instagram. If you have any questions and I
think that was less than 30 seconds but that's the fact of
it and it has been a true pleasure being here with you
Sandra ugly. I could do this all day.
Obviously, we're Kindred Spirits for sure.
So thank you for coming on and sharing your wisdom, and your
knowledge, and your experience and just being super vulnerable
with all your struggles in life. And again, trauma and taking the
trauma and creating Beautiful from it.
That is I think the the sign of a life truly well-lived is by
taking the things that happen to us that are hard and and using
those things to create things that are beautiful.
So thank you. Thank you, I appreciate it.
Alright guys, don't forget to enjoy the journey.
Thanks for listening to this week's episode.
So that's a wrap, be sure to subscribe to the show so you
don't miss an episode and leave me a review.
If you like the show, I would love to get 5 stars.
The doctors podcast is all in the world, wide web, YouTube
Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, patreon, and Tick-Tock subscribe
to my newsletter for updates on new podcast episodes and other
information to help you on your own nursing Journey.
You can always message me at the doctor nurse podcast at
gmail.com with any career. Is that you're interested in
hearing about and just a friendly.
Reminder, the information on this podcast is for educational
purposes only and the information should not be used
in substitute for Professional Care by a medical provider.
The information in this podcast does not represent medical or
professional advice or services. Jean mom back.