Hi and welcome to another episode of the doctor nurse
podcast. I am so happy.
You decided to join me today. My name is Sandra Penta, and I
am the host of the podcast. I'm a doctoral you prepared
nurse practitioner who wants to share stories of nurses and
nurse practitioners who are utilizing their degrees and
their certifications with a business mindset, after spending
from age 18, to 30 pursuing various levels of nursing
degrees. I wondered if there was
something more or I could do with my knowledge away from the
bedside and away from the hospital rat race.
This question that I was asking of myself, I knew it had to be
shared with other nurses and nurse practitioners.
So I sought to figure out, just what we could do with our
education and our certifications away from the bedside come,
listen, as I have conversations to help you grow your career
with a freedom, in an Endless Options mindset.
Thanks for hanging out with me on the podcast today and let's
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company, and be sure to sign up, dr.
Harris podcast Community. Welcome back to the show, Nina
heart. I'm so happy to have you on
today and talk about your business, you are The owner of
heart Health Care Solutions which helps in post-acute care.
Companies take back operational, health of their organization,
improve the efficiency, stop the Vicious Cycle of critical
Staffing, enhance survey outcomes and ultimately improve
patient care and kind of how you've launched another branch
of your business, which is helping nurses create their own
businesses, which is pretty cool Consulting businesses.
So guys, she's back on the podcast to share her latest
Endeavor, which I'm so So excited about we were talking
about prior to getting on first off.
Welcome, you know, so glad to have you and yes, I cannot wait
to dive into what you've been doing in this new kind of
pursuit. I'm really glad to be here and
tell me a little bit about kind of what you're doing with this
new role is what your nubes is kind of taking off.
So this kind of new branches, heart health care consultants
over the last year. As I was working my own
Consulting business, I started having a lot.
Of Interest. A lot of Facebook messages from
nurses, a lot of comments on my post about what I'm doing.
Like I want to do that too, I've always been interested in that.
How can I start? And so, from a personal level,
it's really hard to respond to all those in a way.
That's any helpful to nurses, there's limited help.
I can actually offer if you message me and say, how do I
start a Consulting business? I can't walk you through that
via messenger, it's impossible. So I felt like I'm kind of
letting Them down, not really being that help.
So I started putting together a course pieces of what I was
doing in the things that my coaches had taught me.
That was really helpful and then the things that kind of left out
that weren't so helpful or I didn't really connect her
aligned with because a lot of the people I'm connecting with
are a lot like me. So I'm like this is confusing or
I don't understand or I could not implement this part.
So I took kind of the best parts and started putting it together
into a course. And then I realized a lot.
People just can't do a course. I can't often just do a course.
So it morphed into this coaching program, this 12-week coaching
program of impact and income as your own boss and it's a
Consulting training program for nurses who want to launch a
Consulting business and don't know where to start, or how to
figure out what they would do, which seems to be the main
problems that I was getting asked about.
So, for my listener, that's like, okay wait, what is she
talking about? I didn't listen to that episode
of her first. Episode walk.
Walk me through that Journey. That last part of that Journey
that we talked about again, guys, I think the episode in the
show notes so you can take a look and listen to her career
Journey. But you had this traumatic
situation moving to Hawaii, super expensive, place to live
you with sole Breadwinner and you get fired from your job.
And yeah, you would, you know, sold everything back on the
mainland. You living in Hawaii and the
bottom falls out. And so I kind of caught you, as
you were starting your Consulting business, which you
told me how much money you made it.
Absolutely blew my mind, how much money you made from your
Consulting business over the last three years since we've
talked and that's what made people go.
How the heck are you doing this? How are you making so much
money? Teach me how to get started.
So kind of walk me through. Yeah, I was really stunned by
that whole, entire unfolding situation, to be honest.
So exactly what you said you hit every note.
We moved to Hawaii to take my dream job after I had Totally
fried myself trying to Define my own success in my job for the 12
to 15 years in healthcare leadership.
Everything I did was about being recognized by my employer
working harder than everybody else to get ahead to be noticed
to be promoted and it worked. My job was my success.
I was always successful at work. I had never had problems at
work, but then I take this dream job.
You just give away everything to make it work, right?
Get there over commit. Self and get fired five weeks
in. Without a good reason.
I mean, I just said it wasn't a good fit and they were right.
There are a lot of takeaways now reflecting it.
Still feels like yesterday. I'll be honest, it feels like
that happened yesterday. That was the most devastating
thing that ever happened to me. I know that sounds silly that
being fired was the most devastating thing that ever
happened to me, but when your job is everything you have, it
was crushing. So, through that situation, I
had been applying for jobs as I got fired and a physician called
me and said, Oh, hey, you applied for a regional quality
director position. And it's filled.
And I was like, oh well, thanks for letting me know, right?
And he's like, I saw on your resume that you worked for this.
Other competitor for five weeks, what happened there and I said,
well they fired me. You know, he already told me the
job is filled, right? I got nothing to lose.
Here, you they fired me and he's like, really.
And I said, yeah, I didn't work out and he's like, yeah, me too
Billy. That's why I started my company.
I was in that role that you are in and they fired me as well.
And I was like, Wow. And he's like, yes started my
own hospice. Yeah.
He's like I'm now the CEO of my own hospice here.
And I saw on your resume below being fired that you've done a
lot of accreditation and compliance stuff over your
career. It's like yeah led a very large
hospice achc survey in Tennessee for a single provider and really
had a great team and great results and he's like what would
you think about doing some Consulting and just helping me
do that? And I was like wow I've always
wanted to do Consulting I would love to do that right now.
I also have zero income and at 5,000 bucks for my career.
Right now. Yeah, my schedule is clear.
So he's like what did you make is CEO if you don't mind me
asking, I was like fuck kind of pans out to about 125 an hour.
It's the most I've ever made in my life he's like well do 150,
I'll do 150 an hour and I'm like, okay sold it right, like
didn't start out for me as this very clearly defined.
I am now a consultant and here are my rates and here are my
packages. Here's what I have to offer, and
I think sometimes is Nurses and our task brain mind.
We I want it to be very cut and dry and professional and clear
and it's not like that all the time.
Sometimes it's just seeing where something goes.
So during it out as you go along the way, I didn't have a program
for accreditation. When he called me, I had
nothing. I had no job.
I had no income. I had nothing.
So I started working with him, I worked with him for the rest of
the year. I worked an average of 15 to 25
hours a week, the rest of the year.
And and matched my CEO salary from that.
I also started developing out some stuff I had made as a
director of nursing in the past, put it in a little folder and
shared it in a Facebook group on the Friday.
Before Memorial Day weekend, and I was like, hey, I put these
forms together. I made as a director of nursing
to help with survey and they're in a little, in a download
folder. It's 27 bucks.
I hope it helps you out. Post it in a couple, d0n
Facebook groups and on Monday. When I woke up there was 2700
dollars in there in PayPal from that folder.
So 100 directors of Nursing in those Facebook groups bought
that download folder for $27. It's now $200 that's 15 years of
my experience. I put in those forms imagine how
good that saves them. Okay, wait a second.
Okay, hold up. That's crazy.
So you took your expertise from all your years of being
directors of Nursing and you created a document.
So what was valuable and there that people were like, gotta get
it. So as a director of nursing, I
had to do a lot of audits and there's a lot of things that
need done step by step that are hard to keep track of.
So it's hard to know as a new director of nursing.
What I'm supposed to be looking at.
I don't even know what to look at.
I don't know the regs as a new d0n to know what I should be
checking. And there's not always resources
for leaders in healthcare. There's a lot of pressure to be
the one, who knows everything but oftentimes is not the one
who knows everything, right? You just The one who took the
spa who took the keys, right? So yeah, I put forms that I had
created from different survey Audits and Regulatory
checklists. That's all it is.
I think about if you opened up, Microsoft Word right now and
literally made a bullet point sheet of everything you knew
about one very small topic, like all the mistakes you could make
or things you could oh look when you're doing this one thing.
I just put 20 of those in a folder and sold, it didn't
30,000 dollars in 2021. One, I'm sorry.
They did thirty thousand dollars in 2021 from May to December.
I started putting myself out there in ways that I had been
too afraid to, but I had been putting my knowledge of survey
and Regulatory into a course platform since 2020.
So we'll for over a year and never shared it with anyone.
I don't even think I told my husband about it for months,
once you get passed, this threshold of fear and we put
yourself out there with a very clear message.
Hey, this is what this is. This is what it's for.
This is the price, this is a problem is Of here it is.
If you want it, great, if you don't, I'm not a salesperson.
I'm not trying to push it on because it's just helpful
information, right? Let's talk about the role of a
DD 0 n because somebody's like okay, wait, I don't even know
what a deal when is. What was she doing?
I don't understand what that job title is so describe.
What a g0 n is again, for someone that didn't listen to
the original podcast that you did break all this down and then
talk kind of something that you mentioned is well, or we'll just
talk about kind of what a nurse consultant is.
It's a really great, great question because it is a a
question that I get more than any other question is, what is a
nurse consultant? What do they actually do?
I don't get it. So, a dof director of nursing is
in almost any setting that you can think of there's a clinical
manager, sometimes they're also called a clinical manager,
depending on the structure of the organization.
Usually, the d0n is above the clinical manager.
They are the end-all be-all of all clinical activities in the
facility. So in long-term care where I
came from, the d0n has all of nursing underneath them and
often even oversight over housekeeping and dietary and
Depends on the structure. I mean, they are the
end-all-be-all. If a nurse doesn't show up, it's
my phone, that's ringing. I am responsible for every
clinical thing that happens. I'm responsible for survey for
outcomes for Falls, for wounds, for discharges for therapy
outcomes for reimbursement for capturing documentation, all of
it. So there's a lot that goes into
that role that new leaders who haven't done this, just feel
very overwhelmed walking into this role.
That feels impossible sometimes. I think what you're describing
just really quick is and for those of you listening, you go
from managing maybe your department and managing just
your little thing, you get comfortable and then you get
promoted to this next level of leadership that you feel
unprepared for right? No, no.
Would you provided was that bridge for?
Let me help. Get you quicker to the point
where you're like okay we I know what I need to manage now and I
know how to manage it and what I need to keep my eyes on and how
to do that work my experience coming into that role.
It took Well over a year to feel like I understood my role as a
charge nurse you. Maybe you're lucky to get six
weeks of training, really lucky right to get six weeks of
training and then maybe after a couple months three months
you're like, I'm an expert. I know my schedule.
I know my expectations I know the policy on this.
It took me I would say a year and a half to start feeling like
I knew what I was doing as a director.
Wow. So in the long term, there are
models of Consultants that float around.
They have a A region of buildings.
And that was my ultimate goal at the time was to become a
consultant. Have this freedom to not be in
one. Building all day, could be a
resource for all the buildings. I thought that was what a
consultant is. And a lot of nurses think that
to a consultant is an internal employee who provides support or
resources to a region and that is true kind of looked at his
local nurse exactly. That is one before like a leader
in a float roll like a renal yes we'll be okay like you're real.
Oh wow. That is true.
That is a consultant. There's a lot of conflict of
interest there. You're still an employee, you
can't choose your hours. You can't choose your pay.
You can't choose your travel and you really have a conflict of
interest. If you want to bring something
up, that could put your job in Jeopardy.
You're not going to bring it up or I'm not go.
Give me an example of that. Well, if I failed to audit
correctly, my one building and they come in and find all these
mistakes and it was my job to do that audit.
And I failed to do it accurately.
Accurately or I found something and I'm like, should I bring
this up? If I bring this up, the director
in that building gets fired and I have to go sit in that
building and it's two hours for my house and I don't want to do
that. So I'm just going to try and
work it out so I don't have to go cover that bill.
That's a conflict of interest whereas an external consultant
who is a nurse expert in one area who partners with
organizations to provide specific guidance, on a solution
to a problem that they have that's costing them money or
staff. If I'm external I'm going to be
like, hey This has gone on right here.
I found this right here. Here's what you need to do to
fix it. I don't care what your employee
Dynamics are. I'm not involved in, it doesn't
affect me or my job if I call out the issues you're having.
So I think sometimes nurses who look at Consulting opportunities
as and please don't realize, you're still an employee of that
company. You don't have control over all
those things I mentioned. Then you're also still Bound by
your employment to them. I don't even thinking.
If you have to report It to you with d0n then if they're like,
Hey listen, this is a problem and they're like, no, it's not,
it's not a problem and you just need to deal.
So all the sudden like, even if you are bring that up.
So yeah, yeah, they don't want to hear it because it's like, I
have to deal with that. I don't want to deal with that
or it's going to take so much effort and time to reverse this
problem. So just ignore it.
It's not that big of a deal. So then now when it all falls
apart, you're standing there and they're like, well who brought
it up? Like I did.
Well, I did bring it up. So yeah, we're on the chopping
block. Right?
So it's just better to keep your mouth shut if you know that the
person you're working for isn't going to really make any
changes. You really can't be objective as
a consultant when you're an employee.
Now there's nothing wrong with that.
I want that was my ultimate career goal at one time so I'm
not dogging anyone in a Consulting role.
It's an amazing opportunity to impact and to really be an
expert in an area. And I'm just suggesting that you
can also do that independently without being an employee and
have a lot more control. Now, as a consultant for an
organization, they're going to say, I want you to go to
Lexington, Kentucky, and you need to stay there Monday
through Friday, 8:00 to 5:00 until that Bloody is stabilized.
And you're like, well, I live in Akron, Ohio, and I have kids and
I don't want to stay in Lexington, Kentucky 8 to 5
Monday through Friday, right? I don't want to have to do that
and working for yourself, you make those decisions.
I can be available to you, Monday afternoon all day
Tuesday, and half of Wednesday, and then I need to head on home.
Okay. Thanks.
And you set your own hours, your own rates and your own travel
availability. And really that's something for
me. That is super important to have
the clarity of control over my work life balance.
Now I go to the pie, don't even schedule myself for work on
Friday. My kids get off at noon, so
sometimes on Friday, while my kids are at school, I'll go to
the beach and then they get home at noon.
And then I spend the rest of the afternoon with them because I
can't try to pressure myself into working more hours.
And the beautiful thing about Consulting is you don't need to
work more hours now. I try not to schedule tracks
around hourly. I don't even guarantee hours
anymore. It's going to be twenty thousand
dollars to get. This one reason period, if that
takes me four hours because I'm an expert, and I've done this
for 15 years, then it takes me four hours, great.
If it takes me 40 hours to get that result, then it takes me 40
hours but you still get that result.
So there's a lot more. Yeah.
But sometimes I, Be scary to nurses to have that unchecked.
You know, it's a lot of you have to Define that for yourself.
You have to take control of that and, and make those choices.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, you're not worth
making them for you because you sound like someone who knows
their worth, you know what your schedule is going to be.
You've got your priorities straight and you're not
deviating from. These are my non-negotiables, so
it either works or it doesn't, but I didn't.
I was a corporate nurse, I literally almost lost my
marriage over not having clear boundaries between work and
home. I would work until 11:00 at
night because I thought that would give me recognition.
So after I got fired and someone didn't recognize my work, I
realized holy cow, I'm super burn out, I got fired because
probably a lot of it was my fault and I just didn't realize
it how fried I was and how engaged I really was.
And it finally started and it's been almost two years now since
that I got fired on January 6th of 2021.
So in 3 months, November December January, it'll be two
years and I am just peeling the layers of this onion of burnout
that I think is a very easy term to throw around but this is
deep-seated stuff over 15 years of me being a high performer and
trying to show my worth and not having boundaries, not giving my
family, any of the property, they deserve not giving my
marriage the priority. It deserved because I was so
worried about looking successful at work.
So for a nurse that's sitting there and she's hearing your
story, it's hitting her in her heart.
She's like, I'm there. I am in that same position.
I'm burned out. I'm tired.
How can someone get started with nurse Consulting?
Say, they aren't in long-term care.
They're in something else. What are you able to kind of see
that nurses are able to move into in this nurse Consulting
role. There are Consulting Specialties
for every single area in healthcare there.
Finance, there's business management sales.
So G infection control wound, care acute care, shared
governance magnet status, it privacy technology data
analytics edges. I could literally go on and on.
I actually have a list of 40 Specialties that a nurse should
consider there's legal nurse consulting, which is really hot
right now. That's not something.
I do the thought of being deposed makes me want to hide in
a hole in the ground, but a lot of nurses are interested in.
In forensic, nursing legal nurse Consulting, there is some, it
less areas that Consultants are currently needed and used and if
you Googled something, you are interested in and you already
found a nurse consulting company for that, instead of saying it's
taken, say yes. There's a market for this
because somebody else is doing it, successful.
Yes, that is a really good mindset.
And again, switching mindset is something that you and I were
talking about. Out repeatedly.
I think this is sometimes hard for nurses to break free from of
this employee mindset. There's a lot of security in an
employer having somebody there that's going to take care of you
and offer you benefits. And we've got your back until
they fire you and you're standing there.
Like I got fired as well. Like I'm losing my job to yes or
sorry. We don't have funding for you
next year. Good luck.
And now you're like, oh Mom, this isn't my mommy.
And my daddy, they are taking care of me.
I am on my own. And so that mindset shift is
something that can be given to you, because you've been quiet
and you're like, oh, okay, or it's something that you can
begin to cultivate. So, kind of, can you describe to
me what an employee mindset is versus kind of this breaking?
How to break free from that mentality and go.
I know my worth, I'm going to start kind of exercising this
muscle of nurse Consulting for myself, just an example.
Over 10 years ago, I was researching opening a CNA,
School. I've always wanted to work for
myself in some way. I've always been interested in
business. I went to the Chamber of
Commerce. I talked about getting business
grants, I talked about funding, I made a business plan, on
opening my CNA school, I even toward locations.
And you know what happened? I started asking what if what if
no one in rolls? What if I spend all this money
and get a loan on equipment and a Analyse and I can't pay it.
What if I can't pay myself? What if I don't make exactly the
amount? Mount then I need to make every
two weeks I realized I wouldn't be getting a paycheck.
There wouldn't be guaranteed money anymore and I quit, I let
it go. I never looked at it again.
I dropped it right there because I was the breadwinner and I knew
the what ifs might come true. I might not make enough money.
So for 10 years, I worried that I wouldn't make enough money to
replace my director of nursing salary, which my first director
of nursing salary was $25 an hour.
Okay, so my daughter is teen and makes almost that working in the
kitchen at the resort by our house.
Okay, so here is the dead serious.
So I thought gosh, I won't make enough money to replace my $25
an hour and we'll go under what will happen, will die will
shrivel up, will be honest, right?
So all that time, I would not let go of that guaranteed
paycheck, 10 years, right? So I'm forced, that is pride for
my hands on I'm fired. I am forced to let it go.
I'm forced to let go of my CEO salary of two hundred fifty
thousand dollars a year and I'm like I will never be able to
replace this with another job. Every job I looked at was
hundred thousand dollars, right? Which would have been great in
any other setting but for what I had just committed to for the
next 12 months and moved my entire family across the ocean.
It wasn't enough, it wouldn't even pay rent.
I mean so why are you so expensive right?
Always right right. Yeah.
Moral of this whole story is had I let go of my guaranteed
paycheck, 10 years ago, I could have been charging two hundred
fifty dollars, an hour like I did last year.
You know. So it's like these these these
things that we hold onto for security that employers
supporting us that quote, unquote guaranteed paycheck.
Hey guys, and thanks for listening to another episode
that Doctrine was podcast unscripted.
I would like to take this time to let you guys know about the
doctor nurse podcast website on this website.
Site, I have free resources for nurses that are looking to up
their career, maybe start a side hustle.
I also have my Etsy shop where I've created really cute digital
downloads for nurse practitioners in regards to
life, pregnancy planning, as well as portraits guys, check
out my resources, the doctors podcast.com and let's get back
to the episode. Yeah, I got guaranteed a
paycheck for five whole weeks and then they guaranteed me.
Not they gave me nothing. Yeah.
So it's like this guarantee that we think we got a paycheck.
I think the pandemic in some ways really opened a lot of eyes
with this, even the travel nurses, getting their pay
changed, right? Like oh sorry, the rest of your
contract is at a thousand dollars a week because we don't
have the five thousand dollars a week.
We guaranteed you. Oh, we don't have any more hours
for you because there is no Hazard pay or what were the
situation is. Like, it's at their convenience
and as a person who has a business, I realized that now to
I have to do what I have to do. So if I don't have hours I don't
have powers, right? So it's like when you are an
employee, you are completely subject to whatever makes that
business Thrive. So one thing I realized looking
back and I had a coach who challenged me to do this she
said what would you have been paid if you are a consultant for
a company that you did something amazing for?
Well for me I had six hundred and sixty thousand dollars in
six months of time and agency labor that I Emanated from a
hospital where I was the director of nursing, right?
Guess how much of that six hundred and sixty thousand
dollars I got for doing that guess how much they gave me for
doing that zero dollars and zero cents?
Guess how much of that I would have gotten as a consultant.
Let's be generous will say over six months, I charged ten
percent. Right.
Which is is high, I probably wouldn't charge 10% of an
outcome depending on how big the problem was.
That would have been 66 thousand dollars.
For six months, for one contract.
And I didn't even do anything extra above and beyond what I
knew how to do as a director, just my experience from knowing
like, hey this is the positions we have open.
Here's what I need to do, we got to get creative, we need to
limit our overtime, what's causing it drilling down into
the problem. So any problem you're solving
for your organization, you could be solving as a consultant and
actually getting the money for solving it.
Instead of doing the Work of an Envy because organizations no,
please cannot fix problems for the organization.
Wait and that again. So if you're an employee and you
go to work and you're doing, you're working, you're not
fixing problems. They know hiring another
director of nursing isn't going to fix the problem with turnover
for directors of nursing. So, if there is a company and
they're like, we've had 10 directors of nursing this year,
none of them have been able to reduce our wounds, none of them
have been Unable to fix our surveys, none of them have been
able to reduce our turnover. An outside person can come in
and do that because they're not your employee, they do not do
the day-to-day. They do not have a full workload
on their plate, all right, got that?
Yes, it's true. Because you're seeing patients,
you're doing whatever. You're taking care of people,
you have time to fix the problems because you just want
to survive them and go home. And what happens if you don't do
your tasks and see your patients you get in trouble.
So you're not going to Time away from what, you know, you're held
accountable for most people to go above and beyond and add
extra hours for nothing. Right.
Some of us have this natural thing that we can actually do as
part of our jobs. Like I was talking about with
reducing agency and over time, because I had done that before,
why? It was a natural part of what I
do, but I didn't have to do that.
No other deal. When before had done that, they
told me they hadn't been free of agency in 10 years before I was
there because he just wants to laughs, right?
I can remember at least 10 years that we've had full time
traveler. She said it could be longer than
that. So they had people covering
full-time roles from the mainland because Hawaii is
really challenged in labor and so you have to be really, really
intentional to find local staff. That's good and make sure
they're trained. Well, enough because there are a
lot of them are new grads or from other countries and if you
don't really give them the extra training they need and help them
get their licensure, they can't work here.
So yeah, so simply implementing a program where we added an
extra Four weeks of training. Got us three on island are ends
from the Philippines who were amazing nurses.
But they were afraid, they wouldn't get enough training.
They were afraid, they'd make a mistake, they were afraid.
They couldn't get their license. They didn't have contacts to
reach out to and a normal hiring manager is going to be like,
nope. See ya, right?
So we had to stop the process and make extra time for them to
say, hey, you can do this and we're going to support you.
And here's how, here's how we're going to support you and will
check in every three months. It's and make sure you still
feel comfortable. And we'll give you extra
orientation, shifts above and beyond to make sure you
understand will help you submit your license with a reference
letter. So that was something that a
normal employee did not take the time to do in the past, right?
So those are programs that I could take.
I could Implement that program for another organization right
now. Are you a remote?
Rural Healthcare System? Relying completely on agency as
a staffing consultant, I can help you.
Eliminate agency, and I'm and get all local staff on board.
How does that sound? We met we estimated.
I'll save you about 500,000 dollars every six months.
At least based on our parent. Yeah.
These are how that that is Consulting.
You scale this best slowly, right?
So I remember you telling me earlier as well for someone
that's like, okay? But I don't have any experience.
So how do I go in and say, oh I can be a nurse consultant.
Let me show you what I can do when I haven't done anything.
So how do I do that? But I remember Remember you
telling me we were talking before the podcast that you
started off, slow it or lower than what you were currently
charging. Now, it's your charging
astronomical amount but you had, you say, Hey, listen this
amount. I'm charging now is because I
want to show you that I can do it, and you kind of have to
start at a lower rate. And then once you're able to get
some momentum, you quickly scale up your value and your worth
through what you charge. Right.
Yes. So a little piece onto that
before I Dress. That is subcontracting is a
great way to start. So now I subcontract with
several other Consulting companies who you can make a
connection with then and say hey I'm interested in what you do,
I'd like to learn more that's it subcontracting for neurotic
conversation, so subcontracts pay 75 to maybe 150 an hour,
okay? And the lower range because it's
not your contract. You're you're on a team of
Consultants working on a very large crack and they need help,
right? They can't manage.
Get without other Consultants other experts on the team.
So sometimes, I'll be on a team of 10 or 20, Consultants all
working on, one big, implementation, one, big
contract. So they say you've got 40 hours.
However, you spend it, you work for yourself.
Here's what your piece of the contract is.
Here's what your audits or you're one of the subcontracts.
I did, I literally just called and got off.
The hospice was switching over their insurance providers and
got a new provider number And we just had 2,000 patients to get
insurance office on. They said you've got 60 hours,
it's $100 an hour, just call the insurance company.
I sat on, hold for about $500. Okay, so it's like they just
needed somebody to help get the odds and it's to learn patience,
right? The employees can't do that.
No employee can can spend their whole day getting off Sun, all
the new patients, so they don't lose their revenue.
They would have lost revenue for all those patients.
So there are projects out there that you can help with.
Without owning the contractor going to get it for yourself and
that's a great way to start. But also my first contract, he
told me what he was going to pay.
He said I'll pay you 150 an hour to help me get accredited.
I didn't say 350, it is, right? Like I charged 350 and that's my
bottom line because I woke not an established consultant.
I was exploring an opportunity and I was open to it.
Now, I know I can do it. I know what the outcome is, I
know what the result is, and I know how I'm going to do it so I
can go into that conversation. Much more.
I'm fairly but it wasn't always like that.
It's something to see what you enjoy and what you want to do
and what you have a strategy to do and what solution you can
offer and then kind of morph it into something that's a package.
That's a service that you can confidently.
Say I can help you with accreditation.
Six months $350 an hour or 25,000 dollars, whatever you
feel more comfortable with, right?
So evolution of yeah. Cheering how you?
In very clearly message, what your solution is.
That's it. Yeah, thing you have to know,
you can't be like, hey, I'm a consultant and I will help you
with anything you have for me to do.
That's an employment, your company.
You have to know what you provide to accompany, right?
And a lot of times, just looking back over what you've already
done is enough for a lot of people to see when I show up,
people always say XYZ or I always get complimented on On
ABC or one my priority when I walk into a new place, the first
thing I'm going to do it. Bam, maybe that's his specialty.
That is so good, man. So many nuggets.
You're dropping. What is the hardest part of
owning your own business? Launching?
This whole thing just branching off your heart of Health Care
Solutions, what has been the hardest part of owning your own
business and kind of being out into this new role has been, I
think kind of what you've alluded to already.
Eddie part of it is self-discipline.
It's really tough because I'm the boss of me.
And you know, this guy runs a real loose ship type of thing,
you know, right. I don't wake up in the morning,
I don't schedule calls early in the morning at all first call is
not before nine because I will not make a phone call.
Okay? Yeah, so figuring out like what
I need to be able to be productive and also creating
boundaries with more hours does not equal more success, or more
money. And that's a trick that Employee
trick. If you want to pick up an extra
shift, we're going to give you a hundred dollar bonus pay, and
we're going to give you $50 an hour and you're like, I'm going
to pick up that shift. It does not work like that in
business. Truly less is more, the more you
extend yourself and overextend yourself, the less you bring to
the table. So, for me, that's been a
mindset shift where I will find myself working and working.
My kids get off at 2:00, Monday through Thursday and really, I
know in my brain after two. I'm not going to get anything
done. I can't.
Have any calls. They're going to come in,
they're going to want my attention, they're gonna want a
snack. They're going to be bouncing off
the walls and doing handstands, so it's like for snacks.
Okay, good. Going to be on my work and I'm
not going to be productive. So right now, I work only while
my kids are at school so I work from 8:00 to 2:00 Monday through
Thursday, and I work from 8:00 to noon, sometimes on Friday,
depending on what's going on last Friday, I didn't work at
all. So yesterday, Yesterday was on
Friday but yeah. So I did not work.
So it really looks like does working until 7:00 to sitting
and staring off at my laptop with 42 tabs.
Open really look like productivity and really bring in
income. I've had to really focus My Mind
Set On what is an income-generating activity for
me. What is a Time?
Suck for me, right? I even had a Content calendar.
One time, they had a green Post-It, note, and anything you
were going to do that. Brought in money was a green
Post-It note. This is going to bring in money,
and if you've got a red Post-It note, that's like social media
covering up a green Post-It note, you better take that red
one off for that day, no more. So it's really focusing on what
is actually moving my business forward and what is actually
bringing me down. Where's my energy at, with what
I'm doing? That's been really hard for me
because I have been in this employee mindset.
This corporate leadership mindset for 15 years, where more
is more and right now more is just heavier from the hall.
That is so good. That's the part of got the quote
that part because it's more is heavier.
Oh yeah, totally aligned with that one of my coaches said,
only a fool ways value in pounds and so it's more is not more
more, is just heavier to carry sometimes.
So I've really been trying to scale back on what I expect of
myself. I expect too much.
So I've really had to do a lot of personal reflection on where
I find Value and where I'm just performing.
Well, Because I feel guilt it into it because I feel like I
have to, I should be doing this. I try not to show it on myself
anymore. That's really smart.
I don't know, either. You should be doing this.
You should be doing that. I know what I should be doing.
So I've had to have a lot of compassion for myself in that
way. Oh my gosh, this journey has
been so cool like that. I mean, ugly, that's the hardest
part of owning your own business is, don't shit on yourself.
Like I just again, more is not more like, finding the things.
That you know, are going to actually bring value.
And it was so funny because I just got offered another collab.
Hey Sandra, let's add on something and I went and again,
my next reaction was just yes, you know.
And I was like stop. Stop it.
And I mean, I just hugged it. Now you've got a lot and so I
had to say, no, I had to say no good for you, and so that was
hard. Yeah, yeah, but you just said
just reverberates with My Soul of like, she's right, like that.
That work is so hard to just go know if it doesn't move the
needle on my business. I don't need to do that.
But what's really important to recognize is that I did not come
to these conclusions alone. These were not things that I
just realized. One day I have paid for coaching
as I'm like. Okay, I need to invest in this
business being a real business. There is no plan B for me.
This is it, this is what I'm doing.
I've had to invest in that. I have skin in the game.
These coaches that I have paid Help me develop my business are
the ones who are telling me you seem like you're hustling for
this really hard. And is that the kind of business
you're trying to have where you hustle for the rest of your life
like you have for the last 15 years?
Like challenge account bright, call me out.
I had one of them say something they see it on your face like
even Zoom call you out and say, you seem like you're really
overwhelmed right now and really in a negative place like just
bam. Okay I am.
Yeah so I wasn't coming to all these golden nuggets along Alone
sometimes we cannot do that internally.
I was not in a place where I knew enough about business to do
that for myself. And I was also in a place of
deep recovery where I had been hurt and crushed and could not
even see the possibility. I did not see the possibility of
being fired turning into having my own business which I had
dreamed of for 15 years. So sometimes we need to realize
that we need help and I know a lot of the times nurses and just
people in general I like I'm not paying for that.
Well, then don't expect to get to where that person is because
they have paid for that. They have invested in those
things are the things that have given me, the ideas for the
things I'm talking about. So sometimes we can't generate
that alone without help from the outside man, that is so
poignant. That is so poignant and
beautifully said, and again, I think nurses need to hear that
the best money you can spend is not in stuff.
It's not in, Sometimes even investing in other things, it
can be like, oh, I bought a real estate property or I bought this
or that like sometimes that's not it.
Sometimes, the best thing you can do is just invest in
yourself. Filling up, your skills are
building up your mindset, or changing your mindset around
something because that other stuff comes down the road
because you've changed the way you look at things.
And yeah, I think that is so well, said not.
And again, for a nurse that's like, all right, I'm sold.
I want to know what she's doing. I want to get involved.
You need to help me. She's blowing my mind right now.
I want her to coach me. I want her to teach me how to do
something for myself starting. Small subcontract work,
whatever. Where can they find you?
How can your business help nurses?
Because that's one of the things that I like having coaches on.
But I really want them to explain specifically how they
can help the nurse that is listening to this podcast a
nurse practitioner, that's like, for the d0n.
That's like, I want to get involving Consulting, like I'm
sick of this. This everything I'm doing, I'm
doing from my own personal experience.
So I don't speak about things that I don't know about.
So anything that I'm sharing with any nurse and it has much
as I can provide that for free without over-committing myself,
I want to do that to help nurses.
I want nurses to see these Endless Possibilities that are
literally, all they have to do is let go.
So I had this control issue. So I have a Facebook group for
nurses that want to be self-employed and Entrepreneurs
and come in Impact as your own boss and I think it's self
employed nurses and coming impact as your own boss on
Facebook, I started the nurses Making Waves podcast which is an
experiment from me and thank you for all of your help and support
with that you're amazing. You are definitely some of the
inspiration behind that. So I have on their nurses to
talk about their own this, how they got started, what their
challenges are. And then I have the impact and
income coaching program that is essentially, if you're like, I'm
very serious about starting a business.
I need a strategy I Need a proven process that is going to
work if I implement it and that's a 12-week program.
So there's recorded content that you can access forever.
But again, I also realized that that doesn't work for everyone.
So we do have weekly calls where we talk about how to get through
those areas, where we get stuck and it helps me to.
And we hear each other stories where we're stuck, what we need
to do? Give each other inspiration and
encouragement. So that's really been amazing.
I also have the 40 Consulting specialty areas.
It's just literally, List. It's a Word document of over 40
different areas that you could consult in as a nurse.
And that is in that Facebook group that you can go and find
in the free resources section. Wow, that's fantastic.
It's one of those things that when you see that things are
being offered to you and you don't take advantage of them,
can't be mad. If things don't change for you,
I get people on my DMs or they'll send me messages.
Like, I don't know where to start and I don't know if I can,
you know, that seems easy for you to say and I'm like, Like
it's not easy for me to say, actually it's super hard for me
to say you don't realize what we've gone through you and I
differ from yours. But nurses to get to this point
where we're like no no we need to break free from this.
How do we get free? And it's only through the hard
crucibles of fire that we go through that, we become these
Phoenix rising. And I just want more nurses to
see. You don't have to have that
employee mindset that you can set yourself free and you don't
have to go who's is and quit your job.
Do this radical thing, but you can slowly build.
You can slowly grow and you can slowly pull yourself from that
superglue. Magnetism that employers have
over nurses and just so connection.
If you can't quit your job to start making connections with
people, you want to work with or companies.
You'd let you just start making connections with the right kind
of people connect with me connect with you.
Those are the kind of things that are really important.
Yeah, no 100% agreement. Like just went out and that's
not gonna that's fine, it'll come up on the you YouTube video
but you can still see me or my super shiny light just went out.
But anyway, yes, that is well said and I agree.
Just start your network is your net worth.
So the more people you are supposed to the more things that
you see on the more exposure that you have your just like
huh. Okay well then I don't have to
keep this sealer review. There's so many more things that
I've been exposed to the podcast is done that.
You have these conversations with nursing on your podcast and
so you're like, whoa, I didn't even know they were Mother nurse
that went through the same thing that came to the different
results or whatever. It's just really beautiful and
we all do that. So again, thank you for your
time today. Thanks for coming on the podcast
and sharing everything with me. I feel like we should do another
rapid fire because I did rapid fire with you before.
So let's do like a rapid-fire to close it out the worst at these.
All right. Go ahead.
If you could pick a character to play you on a TV show.
Who would it be? I already know who, I think you
should have play. You really just like I just
wanna like, see like what you say, play me on.
A TV show who's the one that's in the note with, with Ryan
Gosling. I like her.
Oh yeah, yeah, Rachel, no McAdams, Emma Stone.
Yes, you gonna do McAdams? Yes, okay, yeah, it'll go
totally. So, okay, I know, I'm just going
to say this, but you totally look.
Like, Ashley Graham. Have you seen her before?
Yeah. You look like her.
She's beautiful. Yeah, I'll take that.
Yeah. Like a supermodel, right?
Like, she's so beautiful. And every time I look at you I'm
like just like Ashley Graham like you totally Like her.
Let me tell you that and if you had to give someone a book you
read, which would it be Think and Grow Rich Napoleon Hill?
Oh, that's a solid Choice thinking for a change.
John Maxwell. Oh yeah to John Maxwell's.
Good. He's Solid 2 and 0 just for I
think I know this. I think I know this answer.
No, I don't think I know this answer.
I know a lot about your life, but I don't know about this.
What was your first job? Your very first Subway, baby
sandwich maker. What is their slogan, your way
out of fresh from me, by the way, that should have been a
sign. Guys, check her out.
I'll link all her stuff in the show notes again.
Thank you so much for your time, and your energy, and just your
outpouring of love for nurses. It just inspiring.
It's lifted, my wigs. You give me Wind Beneath My
Wings. Thank you.
I love that. She's so much.
All right, guys, enjoy the journey of your careers.
Gee Mom, Dad. I love you mama.
So that's a wrap. Be sure to subscribe to the show
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in substitute for Professional Care by a medical provider.
The information in this podcast does not represent medical or
professional advice or services. podcast at gmail.com with any
career professions 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.