IAM005 – Serial Entrepreneur Helps Women Discover & Plan for Their Life’s Purpose

Susan Rose is a serial entrepreneur, having founded multiple businesses over the last 15 years. She is currently CEO of Gutsy Happiness, where she guides women on the empowering journey of discovering their life purpose and creating a plan to fulfill it. For many women, that means launching their own business–a journey she loves guiding them on.

• CEO Hack: The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level by Gay Hendricks PhD
• CEO Nugget: Don't Give Up
• CEO Defined: Freedom aka Lifestyle Entrepreneur

Schedule a call: http://gutsyhappiness.com/biz

Website: http://gutsyhappiness.com
instagram: http://instagram.com/gutsycoach
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gutsyhappiness
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GutsyHappiness
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susan-rose-002/
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvL8PAsBHp69QKKI5dRgrDA

Transcription:

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place, Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I am CEO podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:28

Hello, hello. Hello, this is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today I have Susan Rose, the CEO of Gutsy Happiness. Susan it's awesome to have you on the show today.

Susan Rose 0:38

Happy to be here.

Gresham Harkless 0:40

Awesome, awesome. Well, Susan Rose is a serial entrepreneur having founded multiple businesses over the last 15 years. She is currently the CEO of Gutsy Happiness, where she guides women on the empowering journey of discovering their life purpose in creating a plan to fulfill it. For many women.

That means launching their own business a journey she loves guiding them through. So Susan, thank you so much, again, for being on the show. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

Susan Rose 1:06

I am absolutely

Gresham Harkless 1:07

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So awesome. Awesome, awesome. Well, for the first question that I have is just if you can kind of introduce yourself to us kind of expound a little bit more upon your bio, and tell us exactly what your CEO story is.

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Susan Rose 1:12

Okay. Well, my CEO story, like I said, I am a serial entrepreneur. So I have been a CEO, if you will, for about 15 years and have launched at this point, I think six businesses, because as you know, most CEOs don't just do it once. There's, there's many rebirths and reiterations.

So I started back a while ago, I had a graphic design agency, that was my first business, together with my husband. We own one of the largest independently owned massage centers in Northern Virginia.

So we built that from the ground up. And then, you know, recently, last couple of years, I realized that the marketing communications work I had been doing wasn't really doing it for me anymore. And I wanted to click what my next iteration was. So I did the work that I now teach people to do, and all roads lead to coaching and helping other women like me find their bliss, I, I'm really passionate about this. I think as a woman in middle age, I think it's really important to figure out what's really making you happy. And that turns out for most women that is ditching corporate life, and doing their own thing. So I'm very happy to help people figure that one out.

Gresham Harkless 2:38

Awesome. Yeah, that makes perfect sense. I kind of have the opportunity to do that introspection and figure out like, what makes you happy? What's your bliss? What is your ultimate passion and reason you're here on this earth? So I guess, could you expound I guess a little bit more upon like the products, actual services that you provide in your coaching business?

Susan Rose 2:42

Well, I'm teaching people how to do work with a dog in their lap, which is my primary thing. I have, I have a series of coaching programs. So the women that come to me, they're at some sort of a transition, they're stuck in their lives, they they know that where they are right now it's making them happy, but they don't know what the next thing looks like.

So I've developed three coaching programs, depending on what the need is, which I find out when I talk to people. My core program is a business foundations starter course called The Gutsy Femapreneur. And it's for those women who know that the next step is starting a business, but they actually don't have any clue what that looks like. And I think that the entrepreneurs are a lot of people can kind of identify with that you just know, you have the bug, you know, that's what's gonna make you happy. And then what, you know, what is it? What do you do?

So I have a program that guides them through figuring out what is going to really resonate with their purpose and passion in life. And then also what's the right business based on where they are, because, you know, I'm working with women who are in middle age, and we have some realities in life that younger people don't have, you know, nearing retirement, having like maybe wanting to actually retire at some point, or at least, you know, go live at the beach a few months out of the year.

So I help them figure out what is the right business for what their long term goals are, not only in being an entrepreneur, but also in life? Because I think there's a huge balance. And I think, what's the point, at least at this stage, if you don't get it all, so I help them get it off?

Gresham Harkless 3:15

No, that makes perfect sense. And yeah, it's very, very important, especially you know, at that time and life to be able to find what is that good fit, not just something that you think that you want to do, but actually something that you enjoy doing, especially as you're, you know, later on in life and probably don't want to deal with some of the things you might have dealt with when you were younger. So it's it's great that you do that. So I raised me so my next question is like, what are some of the things that you feel that makes your your business and Gutsy Happiness unique?

Susan Rose 3:40

Well, you know, I was thinking a lot about that because at the end of the day, helping people launch a business is not a particularly unique model. I think there's two things for my particular demographic, which is women who are in middle age that make me different than a lot of other people. They first Listen, I've done I've had multiple businesses.

So you know, depending on what it looks like, you know, I'm not going to come in and say, Well, you have to have, you know, a massage center, because that's what I know how to do. You know, I know how to do a lot of things. I've had a personal personal services, I've had professional services, I've had employees, I've not had employees. So I can really help walk people through the realities, I know what it means to own each of those kinds of businesses from firsthand experience, not just from reading books about it or thinking about it.

The second thing that is really I think, helpful is that I went through this rebirth again, when I was 50. You know, I have been an entrepreneur for many years for a long time, but I came to the same crossroad that my clients are at. So you know, I've walked that exact path, but they're walking. And I think that that's really important for the stage and for this thing is like I was there as looking at we want to retire somewhere.

So what does that mean? If I go and launch this to business? Does that mean we get to go do it. So I think the fact that I walk the shoes is makes me very different than a lot of the other business consultants that people might come across.

Yeah, I mean, I love the fact that you know, you being a serial entrepreneur and have an opportunity to launch multiple businesses, you have a unique lens, and then often a lot of other consultants might have where they have only one business that they've run, or one industry that they work in, and they say, this is all that I know. So I think that you should do this. But you actually have different lenses that you can kind of look and say, okay, that doesn't look quite right. But this one looks perfect, because I'm listening to what you said, and also have some type of experience in terms of doing that.

Right. And I'm really practical, you know, it's, you know, we're gonna sit down, we're gonna figure out all the big pieces of of life to come up with the thing that makes sense. Because, like you said, not all things make sense to all people. And there's a lot of factors that go into it. So yeah, so it's a lot of fun to figure that out.

Awesome, awesome, awesome. And one of the awesome things that we get to do is ask, you know, different CEOs and entrepreneurs and business owners exactly like what a good SEO hack is. And this might be like a book or an app or something that you've used in your businesses, or maybe on a daily basis that you feel like this makes you more successful, and gives you an edge above maybe the competition.

Yeah, you know, in terms of like hacks really depends, I think on on your business and what you're doing what is most useful. So I want to recommend a book that was really transformational for me. And that was the big leap by Gay Hendricks. I don't know if you've heard of it or not. But that was recommended. One of my coaches recommended to me, and it digs into a lot of the kind of this glass ceiling you put on yourself in your own limits and what you believe and kind of when you get to that end point, and I never realized I did that. I think a lot of people don't realize they do that. And it was really eye opening for me. So, you know, I read that as I was launching this business, and it gave me a really huge perspective about the, the unintentional ways in which I limit myself and things I can be doing. Because, you know, I've got I have a big message, I want to impact a lot of people's lives. And you know, I have to do some shifting within myself. So I thought that that was just a book that is so well worth reading for any anybody really? It's great.

Yeah. And I actually have not heard about that book. So I'm definitely gonna add that to my list. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, yeah, no, no, sometimes you need people on the outside to kind of give you that perspective, or even books and opportunities to learn that, hey, you know, there is a ceiling that you put there. And we'll take that off, if you want to reach the goal that you want to reach.

Yeah, we all have our own limits to come from, you know, different factors in life. And you know, I'm a coach, I know that but you still, you know, hearing somebody else, say it and say it in a way that's maybe different than you've heard it before is really useful.

Gresham Harkless 8:46

Yeah, I have it on my list, for sure. And now, the next thing that I wanted to ask you was a CEO nugget, which might be like a word of wisdom, or a piece of advice that you can get for other entrepreneurs and business owners.

Susan Rose 9:07

I would say don't give up. I, you know, you hear the statistics about how many small businesses fail. And I think it's because it gets hard. I mean, this is a roller coaster ride. And it is not for the faint of heart, really, you know, it's very exciting, and there are huge rewards. But there are also huge dips and times where a lot of outside factors are going to be telling you not to do it anymore. And the real challenge of the real entrepreneur is that they push through it and they keep going and they adapt with the change. So so my nugget is know that you're in this for the long haul. Because day to day, it's gonna go up and down and up and down.

Gresham Harkless 9:45

Yeah, whether you want it to or not, but persistence is the key. Yeah. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So, you know, like I mentioned, one of the awesome things about this podcast is we get the opportunity to speak with different types of quote unquote CEOs. So these are people that might be running their business from their home. And they might have hundreds of employees. So the fact that you are a serial entrepreneur, I wanted to ask you what is being an entrepreneur? Or what does being a CEO specifically mean to you?

Susan Rose 10:12

You know, for me, it's all about the freedom I, you know, I initially became self employed because I don't fit in the corporate world at all, just as an employee, there's just it was too stifling. To me it, it was hard, it just doesn't fit with my personality.

So I am what's called a lifestyle entrepreneur, I do this, because I like the life that comes along with it. I like working from home, I like being able to go on vacation whenever I feel like it. And sometimes I take my laptop with me and I work, you know, but I get that I have that total freedom. And that is just huge for me. And, and that's why I feel so strongly about sharing that with other people. Because I actually think that that's probably true for others as well. And they just don't know it.

Gresham Harkless 11:00

Yeah, yeah, definitely. I feel like you're speaking my exact same language, I could definitely echo that as well, too. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So Susan, I truly appreciate you for taking some time out of your schedule. I just wanted to give you the floor or the mic one more time, just to see if there's anything additional, you wanted to kind of let us know whether that'd be words of wisdom, or just anything additional about your business that you didn't already kind of touch on?

Susan Rose 11:23

Well, just additional words of wisdom is that do it now. You know, I talked to a lot of people who are thinking about someday, someday when this circumstance or that circumstance or this holiday pastures or whatever, then I'll look into following my dream and doing what I want to do. And the the reality is this, today is the day to do it. You know, for anybody who's listening to this, who is not already an entrepreneur who's maybe just started and as facing some of those challenges that might make you want to quit, you know, reach out, ask for help. But get started do something right now. Because the dream is going to stay if you've got the bug, you've got the bug and tomorrow is not the right day to do it. You know, right to do it is right now right today. So I challenge anybody to go take that next step. You know, call a coach schedule, call with me if you want, go to the score office, you know, do something but just take a step and make the dream happen.

Gresham Harkless 12:18

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So anybody in the IMCO community, if you have that bug, make sure that you you definitely take advantage of it today. Not tomorrow, but definitely today. So Susan, if anybody's listening to this, what's the best way for them to get in touch with you or get a hold of you?

Susan Rose 12:31

You know, if they want to schedule a call, I would go to gutsyhappiness.com forward slash biz BIZ, and they can schedule a call with me. And we can talk through whatever questions they have.

Okay, perfect. And we'll have those that link in the show notes just in case anybody might be listening and wants to follow back up. But Susan, thank you so much for all the awesome stuff that you're doing. And I truly appreciate you for taking some time out of your schedule.

It's my pleasure. I always enjoy talking to you. You know, that's it.

Gresham Harkless 13:01

Awesom, awesome. You too you too.

Outro 13:04

Thank you for listening to the IMCO podcast powered by Blue 16 Media tune in next time and visit us at I am ceo.co I am CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE And leave us a five star rating grab CEO gear at WWW dot CEO gear.co This has been the I am CEO podcast with Gresham Harkless Thank you for listening

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