Starting a Business as Healing: Medical Professional Suzy Wraines Turned Trauma into Purpose | #202

Is starting a business part of your healing journey? For Suzy Wraines, it absolutely was. In this powerful episode of the Second Act Success Career Podcast, Suzy shares her inspiring story of how she went from a military medic and veterinary technician to a trauma-informed business coach for medical professionals.

Host Shannon Russell talks with Suzy about the emotional toll of transitioning out of healthcare, how unresolved trauma can resurface in entrepreneurship, and why your nervous system plays a surprising role in business success. Suzy also shares how she now empowers nurses, PAs, and therapists to pivot into consulting, coaching, and service-based businesses of their own.

Whether you’re a healthcare provider, military veteran, or creative professional feeling the call for something new, this episode is a must-listen.

Key Takeaways:

• How trauma can silently affect your ability to grow a business
• Why entrepreneurship can trigger subconscious fears—and how to work through them
• Tips for transitioning from healthcare to heart-centered business
• What foundational steps to take when starting a business from scratch
• How Suzy runs her business and podcast while living full-time in an RV

SHOW NOTES:

https://secondactsuccess.co/202

Connect with Suzy Wraines:

https://www.startingabusinesssimplified.com/podcast
startingabusinesssimplified.com

--------------------------------------------------

You are listening to the Top 2% globally ranked podcast Second Act Success!

READ Shannon's Book - Start Your Second Act: How to Change Careers, Launch a Business, and Create Your Best Life at https://startyoursecondact.com.

Book a FREE Strategy Call with host and business coach Shannon Russell - https://www.calendly.com/second-act-success/coaching-strategy

FREE Resources
https://secondactsuccess.co/resources

LISTEN to the How To Quit Your Job and Start A Business Podcast!
https://secondactsuccess.co/listen

LET’S CONNECT!
Instagram - https://instagram.com/secondactsuccess
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/secondactsuccess.co
TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@secondactsuccess
FREE Resources - https://secondactsuccess.co/resources

REVIEW & SUBSCRIBE THE PODCAST!

Transcript

Second Act Success Career Podcast

Season 1 - Starting a Business as Healing: Medical Professional Suzy Wraines Turned Trauma into Purpose | #202

Episode - #202

Host: Shannon Russell

Guest: Suzy Wraines

Transcription (*created by Descript and may not be perfectly accurate)

Suzy Wraines: [00:00:00] starting your own business Is your own healing personal journey. Had a fear of speaking up. That started when I was little. Then when I was in Iraq. I now was trained that if you make a mistake, someone could die, someone could get hurt. So you combine that and you compound all of that. My nervous system was afraid to speak up and afraid to help people because if I didn't do it right, or if I didn't say the right thing, I would either be made fun of or they were gonna die.

Are you ready to quit your nine to five job and start a business of your own? Well, you're in the right place, my friend. Welcome to the second Act Success Career podcast. I am your host Shannon Russell. I am a former television producer, turned business owner, career transition coach, and boy mom. My mission is to help you produce your best life.

This podcast will teach you how to get from where you are now to where you want to be, and how to build a business that fits your life and lights you up. Let's get [00:01:00] started.

Shannon Russell: we are back for a new episode of the second Act Success Career podcast. I am your host Shannon Russell.

Before we dive into the episode, I just wanna take time to thank you again for the amazing comments and reviews that you are leaving over on Apple Podcasts. I really appreciate you taking the time. The one I'm going to read today is by Gianna Grace 65.

It reads love this show. I appreciate that. The episodes are not too long and they're packed with the perfect combination of practical tips and inspiration and cheerleading.

Great for anyone contemplating their next act. Thank you so much for taking the time to leave that review. If you have been a long time listener or if you're new to the show and enjoying what you are hearing, please make sure to subscribe to the podcast and head over to Apple Podcasts or even Spotify and leave your thoughts and a review for me there.

It really does mean so much. Okay, let's get to it. Let's get to [00:02:00] today's guest for the podcast. I am bringing you Suzy Wraines. Suzy decided to pivot away from her longtime career in the healthcare field to become a healing centered business coach.

She is known for guiding medical professionals as they navigate the transition from clinical roles to soul aligned entrepreneurship,

suzy and I talk about her pivoting away from really being hands-on with patients to being hands-on with her clients. She now gets to empower nurses, physician assistants, and therapists to start a coaching and consulting business of their own. Here we go. Let's get started. This is Suzy Wraines. This is Suzy Wraines and her second act success story.

Shannon Russell: Suzy Wraines. Welcome to Second Act Success. I'm so happy to have you here. 

Suzy Wraines: Thanks Shannon for having me. I'm excited to be here. Oh, so 

Shannon Russell: we were just chatting before we hit record and we have very similar businesses and lots to talk about, but I wanna dive into where [00:03:00] your career began.

Suzy Wraines: Yeah, and you and I talked briefly about this. My career has had some ins and outs, ups and downs, and learning curves. So a lot of stuff has happened. But I will go from working in corporate. Publishing was the industry that I worked in, supporting sales and marketing with forecasting, budgeting.

A lot of numbers. So that was my strength area and I have a business degree in business administration. With all of that being said, I did join the Army when I was older. I was 29 when I joined the Army, I wanted to do veterinary medicine. That was what I wanted to do in the Army, but they didn't have a class starting for a whole year.

So I would've had to wait a whole year. And I thought to myself, well, I'm 29, I'm gonna be 30. That's a little bit pushing it for basic training and all the things. So I was like, well, what do you have in the medical field that I could do now and actually get started? They're like, well, you can be a medic, which is human medicine and it's emergency response .

And I was [00:04:00] like, okay, I'll do that. I went through basic training, was deployed to Iraq for a year. Worked in a hospital as well. So I got the understanding of the workings of, recovery room, hospital, er, and field medicine, being in a war zone, being on the, in the field doing emergency work. And when I got home, I realized that I had some neck and back injuries that happened when I was in Iraq.

Was having a hard time physically doing. Soldier work, so just being a soldier in the army. I was medically discharged and then was like, well, I still wanna do veterinary medicine. Like I didn't wanna let go, , I'd always wanted to do veterinary medicine, so I went back to school and became a veterinary technician.

It was actually easier because I'd already done human medicine, so it was just transitioning it to, in veterinary medicine. You get to do more stuff. Like I got to run anesthesia and surgery and I did x-rays and I did, you know, we did all the typical [00:05:00] stuff, blood draws, IVs, all that for animals, but it was just fun to be able to do more and also, be in a clinical setting and be with the humans who have their animals.

And so that was really great. What I did realize during that time is that I brought home some PTSD. From my time in Iraq didn't realize until I was having issues at work, when I was working with, um, in surgeries, when I was with even owners, when they would come in, , if their pet was really injured or or sick, they would get a look on their face that I remembered from being in a war zone.

And it would trigger me and I would just be like, I can't. I can't. Mm-hmm. So that got me to thinking, okay, this is really challenging for me. , It was 10 years after I'd been home, and I was like, I need something that I can control the environment so I can pick. If I'm having a bad day, I can regulate myself.

I can be in a good space. I don't have to think [00:06:00] about what this is doing, , how I'm reacting to it. I can just do the thing. I ended up getting my health coaching certification thinking I could just do my own business. I'll just do it from home. I can take breaks when I want to. I love this conversation because the, when I tell my story, I'm like, oh, that's, that makes sense now.

, I worked in corporate. I have a business degree. I understand how business works. Why was it so challenging for me to start my own? Hmm. I hit a roadblock. I was like, whoa, I know what I'm doing. And this is hard. 

Shannon Russell: That's, 

Suzy Wraines: there's something different when it's 

Shannon Russell: your own baby, right? It's your own thing. 

Suzy Wraines: And working in an already established corporation is different than, oh, here's your computer.

Make a business. 

Shannon Russell: Right? You have a whole team too. And here it's you solo by yourself. 

Suzy Wraines: Yeah. To compare. When I worked in corporate, I supported the sales and marketing teams. So we'd have meetings and we'd have [00:07:00] meetings with like 20 people in them. Oh, okay, well sales and marketing's gonna do this, and I'm gonna do this and I'm gonna process that and I'm gonna run these reports and that.

So had all these people doing all these different things. Now I'm sitting at my desk going, oh, I have to do all of it. Where do I start? Like what's the first thing that you need to do and what's the second thing I need to do? And then how do I, so that was my aha moment of I wanna use my business experience and my medical experience and combine the two.

'cause if I'm struggling with this, then somebody who's leaving the medical system. Is way struggling because they don't even have, most of them don't even have the business background or even an experience of being in a business that's already established to be thinking, oh, all these departments do these different things.

So now I have to do these different things in a different way. And that's really what brought me to business simplified, is I was like, oh, okay. I need to figure this out for myself, first of all. So I wrote a [00:08:00] workbook and I, I outlined step by step. Do this first, and it was my own guide of how I was gonna do it.

So I did that and sold it on Amazon and realized when I did market research and I had people fill it out, every single one of them said to me, I love your workbook. I cannot do this by myself. I need you to walk me through the workbook. I went from health coaching to, okay, now I'm gonna coach people through these steps.

Right, because as you know, that's what happens is we have these steps we have to do, but if we don't have help or someone to bounce ideas off of or have a conversation, then we just, we get overwhelmed. There's like so much to do. You think of all these other ideas and they end up in journals and papers and whatever, but nothing ever comes of it because it's just so much information.

So here I am three years, three years into it, and, and I finally found. The components that are required at the beginning, it's not the same as [00:09:00] once you have been in business for five plus years and you're scaling and you have, you're hiring people to help you.

There's this place of building the foundation that you have certain things you need to do and certain obstacles you have to overcome. And what I did is I lived it and then I wrote how to coach it. Because I had to live it first. So a lot of what I do in my business now is my own personal healing Journey. All of those things that that creep up all my experience from being in. Corporate and then in, in medicine, and then veterinary, like all of these pieces, and you and I have talked about this before, the podcast, all of our experience, it has all these components that work great. As an entrepreneur, it's just how do you translate that?

 Now, business simplified. I really, really hone in on that beginning stage. What are those foundational things and where are you hitting roadblocks? Why are they coming up? And let's work through those so you can keep moving forward. 

Shannon Russell: [00:10:00] I love this so much, and I love that you're so honest about your own situation and what you've gone through.

How was it when you set out to start your business, were you feeling kind of those, those trauma responses that you felt in veterinary medicine? Because now you're here trying to build a business and you're feeling lost and scared. Were you having similar kind of emotional responses to the work of building a business or was it just better because it was on your own and not.

People facing or animal facing. 

Suzy Wraines: I wanna say that the emotional responses to starting a business, and I, I really feel confidently that you're gonna agree with me on this starting your own business Is your own healing personal journey. And until I faced it, so the first nine months of my business, I ignored it.

I was like, I'm just gonna do the work. I'm gonna follow my workbook. I'm gonna do step-by-step, I'm gonna do all the things that need to be done without having any emotion. Letting the emotion [00:11:00] happen. Yeah. And nothing happened in my business. I was not successful. I was not showing up. Fully, I was showing up just doing the things.

And I think that's what happens is people are like, I wanna start a business. Tell me how to do it. Okay, I'm gonna tell you. You have to put yourself into it. Mm-hmm. And until you are open to, to letting yourself be in the business and identifying, my biggest struggle was that I had a fear of speaking up, which is so funny because I have my own podcast.

I'm on your podcast. Yeah. I talk all the time. What was happening is my trauma had a fear of speaking up. That started when I was little. My brother made fun of me, and so my nervous system it basically recorded, okay, if you speak up, you're gonna be made fun of. And so I just carried that subconsciously.

Well, then when I was in Iraq. I now was trained that if you make a mistake, someone could die, someone could get hurt. [00:12:00] So you combine that and you compound all of that. My nervous system was afraid to speak up and afraid to help people because if I didn't do it right, or if I didn't say the right thing, I would either be made fun of or they were gonna die.

Mm-hmm. And so about nine months into my business, I found. A coaching school. So energetics, they do trauma, energetics coaching. It's a combination of the physiology of our nervous system and energy. So it's taking that we're all energy beings. You, you actually shock people back to life when their heart stops.

Mm-hmm. Our nervous system is electrical impulses. Like that's how it communicates. And so it combined the, the physiology part that I understood it from medicine with the energy piece. So what was happening is my nervous system when I had to get on a call with a client. I would have physical symptoms, my heart would start to beat a little faster.

[00:13:00] I'd get sweaty, I'd get nervous. I wouldn't wanna get on the call, and I'm like, wait a minute. I'm confident in what I do. I'm very confident in what I do. I know I can help these people. Why am I having this nervous system response? I worked with my trauma coach and through the process of talking through.

What is happening and bringing that to the surface, we uncovered that. Subconsciously my nervous system was protecting me thinking, if you don't help this person the way they need the help, they could die. I had to reprogram that to say it's safe. Yeah. So our nervous system is only, the only thing it's worried about is safety.

Right? That is it. So when we get into that fight, flight or freeze, and guess what? Being an entrepreneur, I. That brings it up to the surface so much quicker because what is it we need to make money. If we don't have money, we don't have a home. If we don't have a home, we don't have shelter. If [00:14:00] we don't have shelter, what ultimately could happen?

We could die. Right? If we don't have food, we could die. So like that's what the nervous system, it's made that way so that we're safe so that we can have shelter and love and all the things that we need, survival things. But as an entrepreneur, we're not surviving in that way. access to resources.

We have people helping us. We have all these things helping us move forward so it doesn't make sense to act like we're surviving. Mm-hmm. We're not. We're safe, so we can step out and be safe. 

Shannon Russell: That is so interesting, and I do relate to that. I relate to that feeling , and you wonder really where it comes from.

And you're right, it's probably something subconscious that is just stirring in us. And it's also that I think pressure that we put on ourselves because as a solopreneur especially, it all rests on us. So it's how we interact with that client. It's how we show up online. It's not life or death, but it is that what if this potential new client doesn't book with me, you [00:15:00] know?

And you get that worry and then therefore. All of those feelings come to the surface. so that's amazing that you were able to work with someone and really learn how to regulate that and how to say no, I am confident I can help them. I'm sure that put you back into a place of peace knowing that you're not dealing with other people in a medical field anymore. You're really just helping them grow a business and get it off the ground. 

Suzy Wraines: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And it, it's so interesting how, once I identified, oh, my nervous system thinks I need to save somebody.

And then we can let it go, because then consciously we're like, oh, well my clients are safe. Nothing's wrong with them. It's a zoom call. I'm good. They're good. Everybody's good. So then I can step into my confidence, let that go, and then it doesn't come back. What was happening is I was in a loop because I didn't know it was there, right?

Shannon Russell: So two questions. So first, I love that you can [00:16:00] now help your clients with that if these issues come up. , If you and I are feeling this way back when we started our businesses other, soon to be entrepreneurs, we're gonna have similar responses and you are equipped to help them.

So that's incredible. I wanna know how after those nine months, those first nine months of your business, how did you. Move on from there, once you realized what you were doing and how to correct it. 

Suzy Wraines: Yes. So I like to tell people this is, and and your listeners, this is just like when you are a new business owner, it takes practice.

You try things and you keep doing the things that work and you let go of the things that don't. So it was a daily practice. Of checking in with myself and I had a coach, so I had a trauma energetics coach that I worked with specifically for my trauma responses. So it was working on my nervous system. So then when things would come up in my business as I was [00:17:00] working on it, I could start to learn, 'cause we can learn how to do this for ourselves.

What is my body saying to me? In what way? What shows up? And then questioning that and if I can't correct it myself through my own process, which I learned by being with my coach for a period of time. If you stay in the loop, I'm never able to close a sale like that just stays in a loop and you're like, I just can't ask for money.

I just can't. I get, my stomach starts to get upset. I get a lump in my throat, I get sweaty. I can't ask somebody for money. Like whatever that is that's happening for you. Yeah. Then you go to your coach with that in mind, you're like, okay. I know when I go to ask somebody for money, my throat starts to get closed up.

I get sweaty, my stomach hurt, you know? Have a session around that thing, and that's what I did. Every time I had something in my business that came up, I would go to my coach with it if I couldn't release it myself, and we would sit together and I would [00:18:00] process it. I would figure it out. And I say I, because as a coach, they don't tell you anything in this type of coaching.

They just sit with you. They guide you through asking where you're, what you're noticing, what are you noticing, where are you feeling it, what's coming up? And by the end of it you're like, huh, okay, yeah, I can move on now. 

Shannon Russell: How funny. Yeah. That's amazing. So you really saw yourself get more confident and you were able to really grow your business after that.

Suzy Wraines: Yeah. So a great example of this is my podcast. When I started my podcast, I'm like, well, I'll just give them, you know, advice about business. 'cause that's what I know. Like I'm just gonna share that. Once I started my healing process, I was like, oh my gosh, people need to hear my healing story.

People need to hear how this is connected to being a business owner and what it is that I'm going through. And I did research, I was watching some different YouTube people on podcasts, how to Grow a [00:19:00] podcast. We're always learning as business owners, and one of the things that he said. If you wanna uplevel your podcast, two things go on video. And, and I hadn't not done video at that time. And so I got a lump in my throat, started feeling this way. I was like, okay, well now I need to process this.

So that was one thing. And then he said, show people what you're doing. That one hit home and I was like, I need to talk about my process. And not in a, a way that's like I'm un revealing everything that's happening with me. Like I'm not gonna tell 'em all the inner, inner dark secrets, but, but actually sharing myself.

The world in a way that's empowering and uplifting and inspiring, which I wasn't doing before. I did my own healing because my nervous system was keeping me safe, and it was like, you're afraid to speak up. So my podcast was very how to do this, this, and this in your business. Then when I started my healing [00:20:00] journey.

It started to morph into, here's what I'm doing. Here are things that show up for me. Here's where I see it in other people. Here's what I'm noticing. And it, it turned, it. Now is more of a sharing who I am, but also how that plays into being a business owner and getting started and what my clients are doing.

So I like to compare it to. Charlie Brown's teacher, the Charlie Brown cartoons, where she's like, w wa wa wa. And you never know what she's saying. 

Shannon Russell: Right. 

Suzy Wraines: To actually saying things that people who that are listening go, that was really helpful. 

Shannon Russell: Right. 

Suzy Wraines: Yeah. I resonate with that versus, oh, this is just another checklist, another thing to do.

Shannon Russell: Mm-hmm. 

Suzy Wraines: So it's, it's just two different, two different ways of being. 

Shannon Russell: I love your journey to get here and also the fact that you really merged all of your worlds into this business. So let's talk about how you [00:21:00] decided to really. Work with medical professionals, healthcare professionals that were looking to start their own business and really niche down into that kind of a space for your business.

And also, I'd love to know, what kind of businesses are these healthcare professionals trying to start themselves after leaving these corporate and, you know, hospital kind of ventures? 

Suzy Wraines: Great questions. Okay. So the first part, when I first started, and I know this happens with. A lot of new business owners.

I don't know the percentage, but I'm gonna say probably 90% of them, I'm just gonna talk to everybody. Here was my niche women entrepreneurs. Mm-hmm. That's who I'm talking to. Yeah. There's billions of them, probably at least millions of them on the planet. But in my mind I was like, well, I didn't really know at that time who I wanted to talk to.

So I was like, that's a good starting point. Once I realized, I looked at my story, I. [00:22:00] I was like, oh, I was combining my business knowledge in the hospital when I was in the army, saving them man hours for the hospital staff. And I was like, that's a pretty powerful value to bring people. And then I looked at my coaching and I was like, and now I know how to be a coach.

Mm-hmm. Let's put those two together. Now, let me think about what would've been helpful for me. Starting my own business and this was right at the time that I was learning about my own trauma. Mm-hmm. And I was like, okay, if I'm having a trauma response and I have the knowledge of business, and I have the knowledge of medical and I'm still struggling, then I'm gonna say if any of those components are missing for somebody, they're struggling too.

So it helped me narrow down. I understand. When you're in a medical system, what it is that you're used to, and I understand how uncomfortable it is when you step out of that to do something that has no structure, and I understand the [00:23:00] trauma component because I've been there. If you're working in a medical clinical setting, nine times outta 10, you've seen trauma, you've experienced it, you've watched it, you've helped people do, so you under, so there, so I kind of narrowed it down to I understand these people, but I'm gonna tell you and your listeners that happened.

I, I decided on that Little after the first year I started my business and I was like, yay, I'm talking to medical professional. But I still didn't, I said I did, and it was on my website kind of, and I shared my story kind of. I was going through my own healing process at that time. So until this year, I actually really have stepped in and now that's my messaging.

And I know I shared with you before the podcast that I have a coach. That's the part that I struggled with and that's the part that needed to emerge is unapologetically. I work with medical professionals who wanna leave the healthcare system. I can say that now. [00:24:00] And all the things that I talk about and the way that I talk is supported in that way.

Yes. But if you go back and you listen to episodes and you do stuff, listen, follow what it I've done for the last two years. It didn't sound that clear. It was in my head because we make a decision, but then the way that I was presenting it to the world didn't match what I was thinking. So I hired a coach, and I say this because I always promote this on my podcast.

I know you do too. This is what we do. We are coaches for this. We wanna help you take that idea that you have and turn it into a business. Be able to follow through. So I have a coach. I've always had coaches. I always recommend getting a coach. Mm-hmm. 

Shannon Russell: Yep. I have a coach and it's, I've always had a coach since I started my business.

I think it's very valuable. 

Suzy Wraines: Yeah. So hiring a coach for me and hiring ones at different levels of my business. Mm-hmm. So depending on where you are. For example, I coach on building a foundation, so I'm not necessarily someone you would [00:25:00] hire to scale like. I'm not teaching scaling, I'm teaching. You're at the beginning, first five years, right?

You know, and you have all these ups and downs. So there, there may be shifting, changing, maybe brand spanking new and you don't know what you're doing at all. But I'm in that five year window. So really thinking about that, , that was my process, was like hiring the right people at the right time and then implementing what I was doing while I was doing it.

So now I absolutely know who I'm talking to. I know what I wanna say. It's getting clearer, but I, I do wanna encourage people who are listening. It doesn't happen overnight. I'm in my third year of business. 

Shannon Russell: And it's scary to make that niche. It's scary to. Lessen your audience that you're going after.

But it does help. If you try to serve everyone, you actually serve no one. So I think that was a brilliant move that you made. And now you know how to help your clients really. Get all of that at the very beginning of their business, you're teaching them how to make sure their niche down clear on their messaging and [00:26:00] how do you feel as a business owner and a podcaster Doing it all out of your rv. We have to talk about that because I love the fact that you have lived out of your RV for quite some time now. So tell us about that freedom. You're not in a corporate setting. You're not in a medical office, you are in your home.

Suzy Wraines: we've been in our RV for the last three years and we planned for it. So my husband and I, we've been together almost 10 years and it's, it's so funny. We talk about when we first met, we bonded over wanting to live in an rv. That's amazing. Our first date, we're like, oh, I've always wanted to live in a me too, you know?

And like it, it was a thing. So we planned for the first five years we were together before we even did it. So I like to tell people again, it's kind of like having a business. You don't just jump in like, okay, it's successful. Like we thought about it. What type of RV do we wanna live in?

Where do we wanna go? How do we wanna travel? And we budgeted again. Just like a [00:27:00] business owner, gotta have a budget, gotta know how much you're spending, what you're spending it on. Is it working, is it not? So all these things, and so really me having my business started around the same time we were traveling.

So my husband did work the first year, so we parked our RV in a place that he could work and we just lived in the rv, which was nice 'cause we were able to get used to it. Smaller space, how does everything work? And it was nice to be secure and just have a, a place with good internet. We knew everything worked.

, And then we started traveling and. I like the best of both worlds. I do like to travel, but I also like to stay stationary. Traveling's fun and exciting, but you have a lot more stressors involved. And where are you gonna go and how are you gonna do things and having your own business. Internet's always a thing.

We're using starlink now. Back when we first started RVing, they didn't have it yet, so it was always. Checking, where are we going? Where are we gonna be able to get internet, cell service, whatever we need. , We are [00:28:00] planning to transition out of the rv.

We're moving to Alaska , we're gonna move into a home stationary, not be traveling, full-time anymore, and. It's so interesting 'cause it's just a different way of thinking. I'm not gonna have to worry about an address.

That's different. Yeah. 

Shannon Russell: But building your business and being able to take it on the road is so freeing. I'm sure. And I had Julie Noonan, who is another RV business owner on my podcast recently. And She did make a great point, which I'd be curious. I'm sure you would agree that she said it's still hustling because even if you are.

Traveling. It's not all fun and roses. You have to still hustle to get the clients and make sure that you're working and not just sightseeing, that you're, you're building this life, this business so that you can have this life on the road. , And that's really inspiring too, you have to be dedicated.

Suzy Wraines: Yeah, it's true. It does take a little bit more, discipline. Okay. Yeah. It's, [00:29:00] it's because. My husband, he, we, we mapped our travel plans around when he left his job. We were stationary while he was working and we're like, okay, when the business gets to a certain amount of revenue, he could leave his job.

Well, now he does all my podcast production and everything, so he's working in the business. And that was like a milestone. It was like we planned for it and then we, we moved our RV to a place that, that we could both work. Yeah. Still in the rv. And then it's also, I love that you said that. It's mapping out when we do travel, because his workspace is in the dining room.

I'm in our garage. We both have full computer monitors, like everything. So when we travel, we have a system. How do we pack everything up? How and how quickly can we get it back up again so we can go back to work? I'm recording podcasts, then he's producing them, editing them, doing all that stuff. So there's this, this.

Dance that you have to do, but also enjoy traveling like Calendar management is, is the key [00:30:00] because making sure here's a travel day, but then here's a fun day. Like, okay, we just traveled to this amazing place, now we wanna go ride our bikes. Yeah, okay. We need to make time for that and not just be travel park work travel, park work.

So there's it's, it's a lot of planning, but I would say. Calendar management for anybody who's thinking that they want to do this type of lifestyle. So they might be, I'm gonna have a business so I can just travel. That's beautiful. I'm gonna tell you

map out your calendar a year in advance. Block off those dates ahead of time so that they're just already blocked. So as you're doing things, you don't even have to worry about it.

Shannon Russell: And I love that you've built your business around that, that you have that flexibility and that's amazing. I'm gonna ask you as we start to wrap up here. What advice do you have for someone who's thinking about starting a second act and transitioning into something different?

Suzy Wraines: Sit down 'cause I did this. Look at your experience. So sit down with a piece of paper and [00:31:00] a pen. I'm gonna tell you to do this non electronically. Mm-hmm.

Because your brain operates different if you need to. And I had to do this. I went back and I pulled out recommendations. , When I was in the Army, I got awards, certifications, things like that. I pulled out all that stuff and I, I read through it and I wrote down all the things that I know how to do. Not related to a job, not related to my career.

Just the things I know how to do. I know how to manage a calendar. I know how to, I. Send and read emails, like, I mean, just all of the basic stuff. And then once you're done with that, you can see the areas that are skills that you might need to learn, the open things that you're like, I wouldn't know how to do that.

Somebody where I work did that for me. I have a client right now and, she had an assistant. Mm-hmm. She's like, I don't have an assistant. And I'm like, yeah, there's a lot of things that are gonna be on that list that you're gonna need to take [00:32:00] on. And so list out the things you already know and then list out the things where you see, you know what?

I probably need to learn how to do this thing right, that I don't haven't done for myself. I think that's a great place to start because then, if you don't have a skill, but you're trying to start a business that requires that skill, learn the skill first. 

Shannon Russell: Yes, and learn those things. Do this exercise while you're still working.

If you can, while you're earning that paycheck. I always say there's lots you can do while you're still working. You can build that business and put those foundational pieces together as you start. That's really excellent advice. Suzy, where can my audience connect with you? I want you to tell us about your podcast, too, and the name of it.

Suzy Wraines: Yes. So it's really easy 'cause everything is starting a business simplified. That's my website, startingabusinesssimplified.com. , my podcast is starting a business simplified, if you Google that the URL, it will come up.. I do wanna say with my podcast, I have a [00:33:00] podcast listener, insider subscription.

It's just an email. You give me your email, and then you get episodes before they're live. So I give you early access to the episodes and you also get to. Share information of what you wanna hear on the podcast, so you're able to communicate with me and say, Hey, this would be really helpful. Can we do an episode about that?

And just give me feedback. So the listeners are really involved in how the podcast is developed. So that's something I offered there too. 

Shannon Russell: Fantastic idea. I love that. And I loved this conversation. I love hearing about all of your different transitions and thank you for your service in the army and for, all you did then and for all you're doing for your clients now and teaching them how to build a business and make that pivot.

It's really, really inspirational and I just wanna thank you for being here to share your journey with us. 

Suzy Wraines: Thank you so much, Shannon, for having me and letting me share my story.

Thank you for joining us. I hope you found some gems of inspiration and some [00:34:00] takeaways to help you on your path to second act, success. To view show notes from this episode, visit second act success.co. Before you go, don't forget to subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss a single episode. Reviews only take a few moments and they really do mean so much.

Thank you again for listening. I'm Shannon Russell. And this is second act success.