IAM2781 – NursePreneur Mentor Empowers Nurses to Monetize Their Expertise

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Transcription:

Catie Harris 00:00
The, the most important book that I read for my mindset was actually Influenced by Robert Cialdini. And I know that's a real popular book in the business world, but it's, it's not so much in the nursing world, interestingly enough, but it really kind of connected the dots for me in really understanding the influential process.

Gresham Harkless 00:50
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 Katie Harris of Nursepreneurs. Katie, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Catie Harris 00:59
Great to be here. Thank you so much.

Gresham Harkless 01:01
No problem. Super excited to have you on. And what I wanted to do was just read a little bit more about Katie so you could hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. And Katie Harris, Dr. Katie Harris, MBA and registered nurse, is a nursepreneur mentor who has empowered hundreds of nurses to monetize their knowledge and skills in business while inspiring them to change the way healthcare is perceived and delivered. She strives to undo the perception that nursing care is limited to the hospital setting. Through her intensive mentorship program, Katie shows her— shows nurses how their nursing knowledge can transcend the hospital system into a profitable business. Katie is an international speaker who has been featured in ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox News, and the Huffington Post. She has also shared her innovative mentorship work on national and international podcasts and TV, including Be Efficient TV, Dubai One, Copy Chief with Kevin Rogers, Katie, are you ready to speak to the I Am CEO community?

Catie Harris 01:56
Absolutely.

Gresham Harkless 01:57
Awesome. Let's do it. So to kick everything off, I wanted to hear a little bit more about what I call your CEO story, what led you to get started with your business.

Catie Harris 02:04
Yeah. So I got started with this business because basically what you just read in my bio is that I was just frustrated being at the bedside and wanted more. I wanted to do more. So one of the first businesses that I started and actually kind of evolved into was concierge nurse business. Concierge Nurse Services, which is a service that helps patients after surgery. We pick them up, we take them home, we stay with them for a period of time. And I've helped coach other nurses in this arena for years. And, you know, I watch all these nurses go off and do great businesses, you know, after coaching them and stuff. And I thought, well, this is a business too. So yeah, so I started Nursepreneur as really one, to start a community, to have other nurses have a place to go so they could be inspired. ‘Cause I know when I first started, I thought, you know, I thought I was so novel, like I was the only nurse in business. But it was really 'cause there was no real community there. Now I see hundreds and hundreds of nurses out there with businesses and they're all inspiring and I love to bring them together. And then the second part is to bring nurses to a place where they can not only get inspired, but get the information they need to get their business up and running.

Gresham Harkless 03:16
Nice. That makes perfect sense. And do you find like, I guess that nurses have a certain skill that makes them or gives them, I don't know, maybe an edge or lack of a better term to help them to be a little bit more successful?

Catie Harris 03:28
Yeah, I always half joke and I'm half not joking in saying that entrepreneurs could learn a lot by just going to nursing school because there we learn to one, work with difficult people, 2, listen very, very, very well. 3, delegate activities that need to be delegated. And 4, we work off a shoestring budget. There's never any money to do anything, but somehow the nurses always find a way to get things done.

Gresham Harkless 03:56
Yeah, that's the definition of resourcefulness because a lot of times you have to do that in business is be able to do that. And I always saw nurses as people that were incredible givers just because, especially in a profession like that, you're giving so much of your energy, a lot of your probably emotional aspect of your, of yourself too, to be able to, to kind of support people. And I feel like a lot of times you have to be that way to be successful in business as well.

Catie Harris 04:16
Oh yeah, absolutely.

Gresham Harkless 04:18
Yeah. So I, I know you touched on a little bit. Could you take us through a little bit more about exactly like what you're doing? Like if a nurse, you know, hears about you or is listening to this, like how exactly do they work with you? What are the different ways that they can connect with you?

Catie Harris 04:31
Uh, so, you know, I usually bring people into my free Facebook group first or have them take some free stuff off of my website just to kind of get a feel for how I teach. And I basically teach nurses is how to find the problem and work with an audience that they like first and foremost. And then kind of check out the competition to see what else is out there. Because a lot of the nurses will come and say, you know, I want to do— I want to work with burned-out nurses. And, you know, I have to help them reframe that. It's not that you can't work with burned-out nurses. It's just that nobody really buys a course on how not to burn out, you know, just like anything. So reframing that concept around, okay, If you're a burned-out nurse, what would you want? You don't want a course on not burning out. You want a rope that, or light at the end of the tunnel. You want something to go towards. So helping them to reframe their programs and their ideas in a way that are marketable. And because that's the piece that's missing out of nursing education is how to market those ideas.

Gresham Harkless 05:31
Yeah, that makes sense. And I kind of feel like, and definitely correct me if I'm wrong, a lot of times people might have those skills, as we kind of touched on those characteristics that can help them be successful. They want to start a business, but may not necessarily know how or how best to kind of communicate that. So you kind of need that assistance, so to speak, so that you can kind of be successful or give you a higher likelihood of being successful. It kind of sounds like a lot of the programs you're doing supports that.

Catie Harris 05:57
Yeah. And to be honest, over the years I've sat with other nurses, and this certainly is not unique to nursing, but just sat around talking about really great ideas and Maybe I have a friend there and we're like mapping out the whole business and then you leave and the next day it's just kind of like, eh, you know, what are you gonna do? Because you don't know what to do next. And then you see somebody who that business comes up a year later and you're like, that was my idea.

Gresham Harkless 06:23
Yeah. And that's one of the worst feelings in the world is like when you had that opportunity. But I think you bring up a really good point because sometimes it's that, so I guess there's two different parts because a lot of times people kind of deal with that fear of not knowing when to, not wanting, not knowing what to do, but maybe be afraid to do it. There's also like a a really large amount of people that don't necessarily know what to do or what that next step is. And, and, you know, I'm glad you brought that up because you, you hear it, you, you have that idea, but you have no idea what to do after that.

Catie Harris 06:51
Right. And it's so overwhelming because, and that's the, the one email that I get all the time that nurses will write me and they say, well, I don't even know where to start. And one of the things that I'll say is, you know, we need to start by one, figuring out what your expertise is and then kind of branding you with that. And it's an area that nurses don't think of, you know, I'm not gonna brand myself, but I'm not a company, I'm not this, I'm not that, but you have to. So if you're an ICU nurse and you're specializing in, let's say cardiac surgery, and, and normally healthcare professionals look at this, but let's say you specialize in ECMO, which is a special procedure, you know, you wanna brand that even if you're not gonna start a business, you wanna be the ECMO nurse and put it on your LinkedIn and put it on, you know, talk about it on Twitter and, and do all these. Things, uh, just to, so people know what it is that you do and why they should come to you.

Gresham Harkless 07:39
Yeah, that makes perfect sense. And not having, and that was one of the things I wanted to ask you because it definitely sounds too like you don't necessarily have to be somebody that knows or has been to business school and they know all the ins and outs. A lot of times you have that idea, but you don't necessarily know how to navigate it. You don't necessarily need to have that business know-how, but because you can, you know, lean on experts like yourself in order to understand how to cross that bridge.

Catie Harris 08:05
Yeah, absolutely. And honestly, like I said, just having that ability to share your message with people and how to share it without being kind of salesy and spammy.

Gresham Harkless 08:15
Yeah. Nobody likes spam, that's for sure. And so now I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce. And you might've already touched on this, but this is for you or your organization, but what do you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?

Catie Harris 08:28
Well, I think, you know, really just focusing on the nurse because I have had students come to me and say they've been to non- non-nurse mentors. I hate to say non-nurse, you know, but, and they'll say that they just don't get it. And it's the kind of the question that I get all the time. Well, what can nurses do? What can nurses do? And they get that from their own coaches. So one, having that community of nurses that are actually doing stuff and showcasing what they do, I think is really important. And then just really working with them one-on-one or one-on-a group group. So I have a group of nursepreneurs that we all work very closely together and share our successes and help each other out. And we each bring different things to the table, but that aspect of your, that camaraderie is, is so important. And yeah, you have to have it. You have to be with a group that resonates with you.

Gresham Harkless 09:20
Yeah, that, that makes perfect sense. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

Catie Harris 09:32
Oh, wow. So a hack. Well, so I am a huge book reader, so I could give a list of books. One of the most important book that I read for my mindset was actually influenced by Robert Cialdini. And I know that's a real popular book in the business world, but it's not so much in the nursing world, interestingly enough. But it really kind of connected the dots for me in really understanding The Influential Process, because you always hear everybody say you got to do the know, like, trust factor, know, like, trust factor. But Robert Cialdini really breaks it down and it really resonated with me. And then all of a sudden, I just got it. I'm like, I understand now. And the second book on that would be The Key Person of Influence, which is another book. And I can't remember the first one. I know It's Danielle Priestley and somebody else, but I can't remember this name for the life of me. But, you know, and that's a lot of what I do with my nurses, whether they start a business or they don't start a business, is helping to become that key person of influence because that's so important.

Gresham Harkless 10:40
Nice. So now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. So this is a word of wisdom or a piece of advice, or if you could hop into a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?

Catie Harris 10:50
Just be persistent. I can't tell you how many times, like, I just, you know, ran into a roadblock and I'm like, ah, Oh well, I guess this business isn't gonna work. I've done that so many times. It just, and the only reason that one of my businesses did succeed was because my brother challenged me. He was just like, well, I wonder how long you're gonna run this business until you'd stop. And I'm like, that's rude. You know? So yeah, like I just, I had to show him up. And fortunately, you know, he did put that in front of me cuz it was something that I had to look back and say, yeah, you know, I, I always gave up too early. Mostly because I didn't have a coach or somebody that kept saying, you gotta keep going. You're at a point where you need to push harder and push further as opposed to this is it.

Gresham Harkless 11:34
Yeah, just know and just following them up. And I'm glad you brought that up because I always wonder that, you know, if also part of like being able to be successful is knowing yourself, because I feel like if you're aware of the process that it takes to run a business, just as you kind of spoke to that, sometimes you just gotta push harder. It's not necessarily you need to stop, it's sometimes you push harder, but it's also maybe even knowing yourself too, knowing that, and I don't know if your brother did know, but that's just assuming that he did know, know that challenged you. Now you know that that's gonna be your motivation. So anytime you try to do something new, it shouldn't be just doing it. It also should be like, I'm gonna challenge myself to do it and maybe you get a different outcome.

Catie Harris 12:11
Yeah. And you know, I also think there's those myths and misperceptions that, you know, your business should be set up and you should be making $20,000, million or whatever, like a week later. And when it doesn't happen, you're just like, oh, like this must not be a good idea. And it just, the fact of the matter is, and I get this a lot in my Facebook group, I'll say, how can I make $3,000 real fast? I'm like, I don't know, go do some overtime. But to actually put a business together, you're going to put out a lot more money and a lot of time first before it starts coming back.

Gresham Harkless 12:41
Yeah, that makes sense. Do you feel like that's one of the reasons that I guess it should be something that you are passionate about because it is a process, it does take the time and you want to make sure that you do actually care about it because you do have to put in that time and it does, it doesn't happen overnight.

Catie Harris 12:54
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you really have to love what you're doing because if it's something that's just, you can't bring yourself to do it every day, then it's just going to be a pain.

Gresham Harkless 13:04
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. And, um, so now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different quote unquote CEOs on the show. So Katie, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Catie Harris 13:16
I think being the CEO is just Being the servant leader, you know, I, I worked for corporate Walmart for a long time and, and their servant leadership was something that when I worked with them was, it really was real and it resonated and it's something that I wanna do as well. So I use my students as my success, right? So if I have successful students, then I consider myself a success and I use servant leadership in that way to show them what I, what they can do and then highlight what they're doing because that's I think that's true leadership is seeing successful students go on and even do better than what you're doing.

Gresham Harkless 13:55
Yeah, absolutely. Same goes, if you can help enough people get what they want, then it helps you get what you want. And a lot of times if you have that kind of servant leadership mentality, that mindset, it allows you to not only, you know, help out yourself, but you're also helping out others because it's kind of like this cycle that's going where once you help somebody else out, they're able to help out more and more people and just creates an overall tremendous, I guess, energy that goes out.

Catie Harris 14:20
Yeah, absolutely.

Gresham Harkless 14:21
Nice. Well, Katie, I truly appreciate your time. And what I wanted to do was pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you want to let our readers and listeners know. And then of course, how best they can get ahold of you and find out about all the awesome things you're working on.

Catie Harris 14:34
Yeah, yeah. I think we covered quite a bit. Just, you know, if you know a nurse and, you know, she's ready for something else, then she can go to my website at KatieHarris.com and I have free gifts and resources there. And they can join the free Facebook group as well, which they'll be able to find from the website.

Gresham Harkless 14:50
Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, we'll make sure to have those links in the show notes as well so that everybody can follow up with you and see all the awesome things that you're doing. Well, thank you so much for providing so much value. Thank you so much for all the things you're doing for the nurses that are looking for something to do, looking to try to pivot and try something new or have that burning idea that they have no idea what to do, what the next step is, how to get started. So I appreciate you.

Catie Harris 15:10
Come hang out with us.

Gresham Harkless 15:11
Exactly. Come and hang out in the Facebook group. So again, we will have those links and information in the show notes, but thank you so much, Katie, and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of that.