Living the NursePreneur Life with Catie Harris
With the launch of NursePreneurs, Catie Harris created a mentorship program that empowers nurses to monetize their knowledge, develop business skills, and help healthcare delivery evolve. Join us today as Catie talks about her program and her journey to start it.
Catie talks about her exploratory approach she takes with clients, and the varieties of areas nurses have ideas for great business ventures. Her approach is to help them nurture those ideas and share them with the world as new businesses. She also talks about the importance of networking and how she helps. And of course there’s the challenge of asking for money, but she has ways to help there as well. Plus, she has some tips on what to look for when finding your own coach.
Learn more about supporting the Don’t Eat Your Young Podcast with a membership — visit Don’t Eat Your Young’s membership page!
Links
NursePreneurs website, the podcast, and the blog
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Intro/Outro:
Welcome to Don't Eat Your Young, a nursing podcast with your host, Beth Quaas. Before we get started, we have a few quick notes. Don't Eat Your Young is a listener-supported podcast. To learn more about becoming a member and the perks available to you for becoming a patron yourself, visit patreon.com/donteatyouryoung. You can learn more about the show, share your story to join Beth as a guest, or connect with our wonderful community in our Facebook group. You can find all those links and more at donteatyouryoung.com.
And now, on with the show.
Beth Quaas:
Hello and welcome to Don't Eat Your Young. I'm your host, Beth Quaas. Today, we have Catie Harris on the show. She is here to talk to us about starting your own business. She has a podcast called NursePreneurs, and she has a great following of people that she has helped start businesses, and nurses especially. We have a lot of ideas to start those businesses.
So, I hope you get a lot out of her conversation today with me, and you can find her information in the show notes. Welcome to the show, Catie. How are you?
Catie Harris:
Good. Thanks so much for having me.
Beth Quaas:
Thank you for coming on. Why don't you start off by telling us a little bit about yourself?
Catie Harris:
So, I'm a nurse, and I've been a nurse for 20-some years, starting to lose track. But yeah, I've always worked in the hospital for the majority of my career. I worked as an RN, specifically on the Neuro floor, which, when I first came out of nursing school, I swore the two things that I was not going to do, I was not going to work nights, and I was not going to work Neuro, so that's ... The universe said, "We'll see about that," and the [inaudible 00:02:04] Neuro floor at night.
But then once you become a neuro nurse, it's kind of like, it just lends itself to jobs, and the Neuro unit always seems to be short. So, I was able to do anything and go anywhere I wanted, just working in Neuro.
And then it just perpetuated itself. I went and got my Nurse Practitioner degree. And, of course, Neurosurgery needed NPs, so I got hired with them. And then when I did my PhD, my focus was in neuro because that was the extent of, really, my background, my brand, if you will. It was really just focused on neuro. So, it was good. It was a good run.
Beth Quaas:
And how long did you work in the hospital, throughout all of those years?
Catie Harris:
Let's see. So, I'm going to say 23 years, I was in the hospital.
Beth Quaas:
And do you work any clinical shifts now?
Catie Harris:
I don't, no. The last, I was doing OR, so I'm a first assist for Neurosurgery, and the last case I had was August, 2020. It was a big one. They called me at 11 o'clock at night to come in and do a cerebral aneurysm, and which is a 12-hour case. I was just like, "I can't do this anymore." In the middle of the pandemic, I'm like, "I'm done."
Beth Quaas:
Right, absolutely. Well, I'm glad you're doing what you're doing because you're offering a lot now. Let's talk a little bit about what you're doing now.
Catie Harris:
So, I'm running my business now, NursePreneurs, and we're helping nurses to get set up in their own businesses. Yeah, I mean, it's really taken on a life of its own. Well, I think when I first started that business, I was really just looking for a way out of the hospital system and trying to navigate, "Well, how can I do this?"
And just by asking questions, just kept adding pieces to the business. And still, to this day, I'm still asking questions like, "Well, how can I help the nurses more? How can I help them do this? They're stuck here." And just it keeps evolving. The business keeps evolving because of that.
Beth Quaas:
Have you seen an uptick in people reaching out to you since the pandemic?
Catie Harris:
Yeah. Definitely. I mean, there was interest before the pandemic but, especially after the pandemic, I think a lot of nurses are looking for something else. And I think a lot of them that come to us aren't sure what they want. I see a lot of myself in them because what I wanted was to get out of the hospital. I don't think necessarily all of them want to start a business. I think they're exploring options, and we're pretty easy to find at this point with our SEO.
But they come there, really just exploring ideas. Then, what else is there? Other sites too. Remote RN jobs has been very popular, and travel positions have always been popular, but that's just kind of moving you from hospital to hospital. But there's a lot of stuff that's out there now that's really exciting.
Beth Quaas:
Absolutely. People are coming up with some great ideas. So, what would you say to someone that reached out to you and said, "I want to do something different, but I don't know what it is."?
Catie Harris:
Yeah, I mean it really starts with that exploratory call because a lot of the nurses will have an idea of something that they want to do, but not ... They don't understand how to operationalize it or turn it into a business model.
And I was really the same way. When I first started the business, I was still working with Walmart. And my job there was to recruit nurse practitioners into the clinics down south. And I thought, "Well, how am I going to get a bunch of nurse practitioners to listen to me?" And I thought, "Well, I'll start a blog." Right? And then my thought was, "Well, people make money off a blog. How do I make money off this blog?"
It was so foreign to me, that you could write something, and money would just show up at your doorstep or something. I totally get it now. But back then, it was quite a mystery. But for me, it was, "How does this become a business model?"
And it's the same with the nurses. So, let's say you've worked for ... with oncology patients for 20 years, and you want to help them. How can you turn that into a business model?
And that's kind of our first step of, "Let's look at the problem. What is the problem that you see with cancer patients, and where are we letting them down, and is there something there that we can fix?"
So, those are the types of conversations that we have.
Beth Quaas:
There are so many nurses that have so much knowledge. And anyone out there listening, believe me, you know something that someone else wants to know. You just need to figure out how to get that word out there.
Catie Harris:
Yeah, absolutely. But I mean, it's a daunting task. Right? So, you might have the idea. But the problem that I struggled with, and I don't want to impose this on anybody, but it's the first couple of questions you have are, "Okay, well, somebody else is probably already doing this," or "Somebody smarter than me is going to figure out how to do this." Or really, kind of, "Who am I, and why should I do this type of thing?" And those are really powerful obstacles.
Beth Quaas:
Absolutely. What other obstacles do you see for people that are just starting to explore this?
Catie Harris:
It's way harder, especially with social media, because it's easy to go onto social media and see somebody putting up a bunch of posts that think, "Oh my gosh, well, they've probably already have it all figured out," or "They're so much further ahead."
And I think that was the one thing that I really learned from doing my own podcast and talking to nurses that were in business or even coaching nurses. And I would say to them, "You know what? You're so much further ahead than you realize." Right? They still are thinking themselves at step one. And I'm like, "Look, I got students who would kill to be at the step that you're at right now. They're looking at you, thinking that you're all that because you have a presence, and you have some consistency, and you've got a good idea."
So, I think it's hard to see success, and also, not just to see success. I think it's inspiring to see the success, but it's easy to minimize that success and think that person just put a couple things together, started posting, and that was successful. It dismisses everything that they have been through, to get to where they are.
Beth Quaas:
I completely agree with you. I started this podcast on a whim. I didn't know anything about it. But I knew, if I had stories to tell, so did a lot of other nurses, especially in the height of the pandemic.
And now, it's amazing to me, when I have guests on, and they say, "Well, I'm really interested in starting a podcast, but maybe you can help me." I'm like. "Me help you?" I never thought I'd get to a point where I'd have any answers. And I still have a lot to learn, but I do have a couple answers too.
Catie Harris:
Yeah. I mean, that's how they teach us in the hospital. Right? It's like, see one, do one, teach one.
Beth Quaas:
Absolutely. So, talk to us a little bit about your podcast.
Catie Harris:
So, the podcast really came out of, actually, one of my fears. Right? So, when I first started the business, everybody's like, "Oh you got to network and talk to people and let them know that you exist and stuff."
And I was like, "Well I don't want to bother people. I'm just a little old me. What do I say?" It felt like taking, like constantly taking it. And I didn't know how to put myself in front of the right people and give at some levels.
So, my solution to that was, "Well, what if I do give them something? What if I give them exposure?" And, of course, my first couple of podcasts, nobody clicked on them. So, those people didn't get much out of it, so thank you.
But anyway, that was really the motivation for me, was I wanted to have a repository of nurse entrepreneurs, that I could really kind of study, understand how did they get started in this?
Because a lot of that was really ... It was really foreign to me. So, I remember, from my Walmart days, meeting Diana Mason, who ran a talk radio show. And she's like, "Yeah, you just start the radio show." And I'm like, "You just glossed over that. If I knew how to just start a radio show, maybe I would do it."
She was one of my first guests, and we really kind of explored. And it was probably just me asking just the most mundane questions, because I'm like, "No, I need step-by-step. What did you do first?"
And that's kind of the approach that I started taking with all the nurses, really just trying to understand why they started it, what kind of resources did they have before they started it?
I've had one nurse on recently who was like, "I had no idea what I was doing. I just went on this site and started pairing up with people. And then lo and behold, now she's got this clothing line."
And I'm like, "No, no, no. We're going to get back. There's more to that."
Beth Quaas:
It doesn't just happen overnight.
Catie Harris:
Right. Right. And that's the thing too, that all of them talk about how they had a coach and how it took way longer than they expected. So, it's a stepwise process. And you can look at the money, and it looks like they were overnight success, but it was three to five years to get to that point where they are.
Beth Quaas:
Absolutely. And a lot of us have full-time jobs, and so you have to just find the time and keep plugging away at it. It can, of course, take up a lot of time, but don't give up. Just keep going.
Catie Harris:
Right. And that's one of the things that we tell the nurses too because most nurses have three or four jobs. I know I always had three or four jobs. And the question becomes, "When am I going to have time to do this business?"
What's amazing to me is that they want to do the business, despite the fact that they have three or four jobs. And they're like, "Oh, in my spare time on Saturday, at one, I'm going to start a business."
But one of the first things that we tell them is to start cutting back on some of these jobs because they need to make that investment in their business. And then, investment is time or money, or time and money. Right? Those are the two things that are going to launch you.
And both of them are really hard for nurses to really bring to the table. I mean, they make good salaries, and most of them are two-household income earners. But, at the same time, some of these rabbit holes that you can go down, trying to start the business, they're expensive. I've made 10, 20, I've made $50,000 mistakes, and early on. I'm paying for that for overtime. That hurts.
Beth Quaas:
Absolutely. When someone comes in and starts working with you, do you provide some networking as well?
Catie Harris:
Yeah. I mean, we have a fairly large group of nurses. We have a large Facebook group. And then we have, for the more defined, like IV hydration or concierge nursing, we have groups for them. And then, for our kind of more VIP clients, we have an elite group for them.
And then, we bring in guests all the time, so that they get to meet people. They get to meet each other. We do meetups around the country. I just had one, we were in Boston, and we're going to LA in January, so ...
Beth Quaas:
That's an okay to place to be in January. I'm in Minnesota, and we're in the middle of snow and sleet and freezing rain here, so that sounds fantastic. And what do you do when you're at your meetups?
Catie Harris:
We talk out. We hang out. I've structured them in the past differently. Sometimes, I'll meet up with my students in the morning, and in the afternoon, we bring in other nurse, either leaders or business owners, in the afternoon. And we just kind of sit around and talk. And it's amazing what comes out of just sitting around talking and having no agenda and no expectations.
Beth Quaas:
It's amazing, when you get a bunch of like-minded people, what you can learn, just by listening to a conversation.
Catie Harris:
Yep.
Beth Quaas:
Everybody's got something to teach, and we all need something different. So, it is good to get into those kind of groups, if you're serious about starting a business.
Catie Harris:
Yes, I agree.
Beth Quaas:
So, who do you follow? Who do you like to learn from?
Catie Harris:
Oh my gosh, I've got so many people. So, I'm a book nerd as well. So, I read a ton, and I might read 10 books a month. I constantly want to hear other people's opinions and get that kind of feedback.
I have at least two coaches, business coaches, right now. One of my favorite people to follow is Terry Marshall, who's actually looking to take an equity stake in our business. So, that was really exciting for me because he is this big guru, so his vision into what we can do and how we can expand is really exciting to me, so ...
Beth Quaas:
What do you think are some of the best business ideas for nurses now?
Catie Harris:
So, I like the business ideas that are a little bit more challenging, so that they're harder. So, things like med spa, IV hydration, concierge nursing, we can all wrap our mind around how that gets monetized.
But we've had nurses as well that came in and said, "I want to work with these oncology patients<" and then go and create their programs to empower, let's say, breast cancer patients. Right? So, in breast cancer patients in remission, they'll work with them and then create content, create courses, create ... It's almost kind of like it's a Facebook group that one of our nurse practitioner runs, and it's almost like she's the group clinician but, at the same time, you have to be careful about dispensing any kind of medical advice on Facebook.
But it's an empowerment group. And she started out with 50 or 60 clients, not clients, people, women, with ... that were in remission from breast cancer in that group. And they were literally begging her to do some sort of course, detox program. So, that's a leap of faith, when we say, "Go start a Facebook group and see what happens?"
But that's really a lot of what this comes down to, is really you have to listen to your audience's problem and then solve it, instead of trying to force a solution on people before you even talk to them.
Beth Quaas:
It is amazing to me, and those of us in healthcare can see it. Patients, really, it's hard to navigate healthcare. Just a hospital, when you walk in the door, it's hard to know where to go. So, people that are helping our patients by teaching them is incredible to me.
Catie Harris:
Yeah. Yeah. No, I agree. It is really powerful. There's so many other ideas. I'm always telling people, I'm like, "What about ... " Because I worked neuro, the brain injury patients, they have a new normal that they have to get used to. Right? And a lot of them get divorced. And I mean, there's opportunities there for networking with brain-injured patients, dating with brain-injured patients, meal-planning for cardiac patients. There's just so many things that could be done.
Beth Quaas:
Even that, people find the information, and why not supply it? We have it.
Catie Harris:
Yeah.
Beth Quaas:
And then why not capitalize off of it? We're just getting paid for what we're doing. We're not trying to take things from someone. Like you said, that's kind of the thing. We feel like we're taking something, but actually, we're giving a lot. And our time is worth something.
Catie Harris:
Yeah. I mean, I think we're pretty used to giving our time away for free, so it's not a natural thing for us to do. I mean, even working in the hospital, I would work 60, 70 hours, just trying to keep up with the residents. So, I have no idea why, in retrospect, why I was trying to work as hard as they were working. I felt like it somehow validated my commitment to the unit or something. But I mean, that was all free hours. So, I gave 20, 30 hours a week for free and never expected to be compensated. Never asked to be compensated for it.
So, when you come out and start a business, it's really hard to ask for money. You have to go through all kinds of psychological stuff.
Beth Quaas:
That is one of the things I hate the most, is asking for money. And, so, throughout your course in teaching nurses, do you teach them to kind of, how you get over that?
Catie Harris:
Yeah. No, we definitely talk about it. And I've had nurses who say that they get people on the phone, and then it feels like this bait-and-switch, where they started talking about it. And I always say, "Look, your website is designed to show that you understand a problem, and you have a solution."
You can have some sort of discovery call with that person and just be explicit about what this is. "We want to see if our program is a right fit for you. This is a no-obligation, no ... whatever, high-pressure sales call, but we do need to make sure that you're the right fit for their program."
Just FYI. Let's say your program started $10,000, or whatever. You can put that there. Just once you put that out there, people expect it. And then it's weird if you don't bring up money at some point. Right? It's very awkward for you to give something to somebody else and they not pay for it. It puts them in an awkward position, and they feel like they owe you something.
So, just kind of putting that out there, knowing that this is an equal exchange value for the money, and you just have to come to grips with it. I think after you've done it a couple of times, you start to get used to it.
Beth Quaas:
And there's kind of that thought that if you don't charge enough, people may not value what you're giving them. So, you really need to think about pricing and don't sell yourself short.
Catie Harris:
Right. Yeah, I mean, that's another big topic that we have. I have one nurse that does kind of business turnaround. She gets people these grants for their business, bringing a lot of money, and she saves them from going under. And she's like, "Yeah, I'm going to charge 497." And I'm like, "Yeah, no. That's not going to happen." I'm like, "First of all, nobody take you seriously." Like, "I don't believe that, for 497, you understand how to save my business. That doesn't make sense."
Beth Quaas:
And grant-writing is, I mean, it takes a lot of work. It's hard.
Catie Harris:
Yeah. Yeah. We're talking, it depends on how much money you're bringing in, because it's relative. Let's say the grant's a $100,000 grant. Well, I mean, 5,000, 10,000 is nothing, when you're talking about that kind of money.
Beth Quaas:
Right. You can get a lot of money through good grant writing.
Catie Harris:
Yes, absolutely.
Beth Quaas:
And knowing who to talk to, that can go out there and search for it.
Catie Harris:
Exactly. Yeah. We just put together a lead magnet for her, "50 grants that you're missing out on right now."
Beth Quaas:
Oh, that's fantastic.
Catie Harris:
Yeah, "for your small business."
Beth Quaas:
The ideas that I've heard, just talking to the people that I've met through this podcast, amazes me. And I say to myself, "Why didn't I think of that? That was a problem for me, but I didn't think of a solution."
Catie Harris:
No. I have the same problem with my own guests because they'll start talking about a business, and I get really excited about it. I'm like, "God, I want to start this business too." And I'm like, "All right, you need to simmer down. You can't start ... " I've done 200 podcasts, so it's like, that'd be a lot of businesses.
Beth Quaas:
Yeah, you're way farther ahead than I am. But I love talking to you because I think you figured it out, and I love that you're helping others do the same.
Catie Harris:
Yes.
Beth Quaas:
It's really hard to be in bedside nursing now. I don't want everyone to leave, but I want those that are passionate about solutions for others to get out there and do it well.
Catie Harris:
Yeah. I mean, I definitely feel the same way because, to be honest, we need nurses. There's a lot of nurses out there. I don't think that they all have to work in the hospital, and I don't think they need to leave the profession. There's other opportunities.
And really, the hospital system needs to keep shrinking from what it is. And, to be honest, I don't see a large role for nurses in the hospital in the future. For years, we've been talking about moving stuff into the community and to back home. I think the pandemic actually helped us move a lot of stuff into home, to have office visits on Zoom, that kind of stuff. And I don't think it negates the nurse. I think it enhances the nurse and makes us even more important.
Beth Quaas:
And I think a nursing education, you and I have been nurses about the same amount of time. It's not what it was 20, 30 years ago. It is incredibly difficult, incredibly stressful. We're having people that can't do it because of the stress that they're under. And, so, I think to have this other avenue is fantastic.
Catie Harris:
Yeah, absolutely.
Beth Quaas:
I would like to see more education on it in nursing, just so that nurses know that there is something that they can do and maybe start planning years ahead.
Catie Harris:
I've been thinking about that too, because they're still pushing the "Go work in Med-Surg for two years." And you're like, "Come on. This is 40 years of this." [inaudible 00:23:19]-
Beth Quaas:
Yes.
Catie Harris:
There's other things that nurses can start out doing.
Beth Quaas:
Yeah, and I think now, they're ... With all of this talk, I think the profession is starting to change now. I think people will realize that nursing is a ... Well, most of us already know how fantastic it is, but I hope it brings new people in, and we continue to have good numbers of nurses coming in and getting through the education.
Catie Harris:
Yeah. No, I always strongly recommend people. I actually talked to my au pair, because he was going to leave, I talked him into going to nursing school. So, he was able to get a student visa, and now he's in nursing. He just finished his first semester of nursing school, so ...
Beth Quaas:
And what does he say? How is he liking it?
Catie Harris:
He's liking it. Yeah. I mean, he had some really basic courses this semester, but he passed them all. It was a little shaky in the beginning, but he got through them, and so he'll be back for the next semester.
Beth Quaas:
So, what do you have planned now? What new things are you looking at doing?
Catie Harris:
Right now, we're really ... we're expanding into the primary care market. So, one of our big products or services is done-for-you clinics, done-for-you IV hydration, done-for-you med spa, kind of 60 days from start to finish. And then, doing that for primary care, and helping the nurses get up and running as quickly as possible, with kind of just the minimal.
There's so many moving pieces to it, and there's so many decisions that you constantly have to make, that we want to facilitate that for them, so that they really just have to think about, "All right, well, how am I going to bring patients in, and what do I do once they're in there? How am I going to evaluate them?"
Really focus on the service piece of it, as opposed to, "How do I set this EMR up, and how do I connect all these features in my email marketing?" and all that kind of stuff.
So, that's one of the big things that we do. And we feel that the faster we can get people up and running in these clinics, the better the general public will be served.
Beth Quaas:
Oh, I love that. Now, someone out looking for a business coach, there's a lot of people out there that say they're a coach, and they want to help. And when you look into it, they've only been doing it for two weeks. You're legit. You've been doing it for a while. What could you caution people maybe to look for?
Catie Harris:
Well, the one thing that I always tell people to look for is to find somebody who's doing what it is that you want to do and follow that person. Right? Because that's the legitimate person. So, we all started at some point. I was certainly doing this for two weeks at one point. But somebody has to give you a chance, and they have to believe that you're able to help them. Right?
And that's why I partnered with, when I first started, because I hadn't really coached people before, when I first started, I partnered with people that I met on my podcast and said, "Hey, this sounds like ... "
Cannabis was one of them. I had partnered with Lisa Hedin. She was a cannabis educator, and she helped nurses set up cannabis businesses. So, I said, "Let's partner together. We'll put together this cannabis course and teach the nurses how to set up this business." And she did all the coaching.
And then over the years, I've learned my own style of business coaching for sure. But a lot of it was kind of on-the-job learning, but I always had experts that knew that industry, helping and guiding the nurses.
Beth Quaas:
I appreciate it so much. I had someone that was just starting to teach people how to do podcasts. And she was a nurse, and she had a podcast. And she told me right out, "You're my first one. And I'm going to do a beta test with you, and I'm not going to charge you as much as I'm going to." And I love that. And she did a fabulous job.
But it was really nice of her to say, "Hey, let's work on this together. You give me feedback too," so that she could grow. But it was great to hear from that. And I love to give her the opportunity. I could learn something, I could give her feedback, and it worked out very well.
Catie Harris:
Yeah, that feedback is a gift. We don't always want to hear it, but it is so, so wonderful. And we still do a lot of paid beta programs. When we launch primary care, and it'll be a beta. And it won't cost nearly as much as it will on the beta program.
Beth Quaas:
Oh, that's fantastic. What would you like to share with nurses today? What tips, what inspiration, would you like to give nurses today?
Catie Harris:
For the nurses, I would say, if there's something, if there's a problem that you want to solve, and you're not getting the resources in the hospital, or you're kind of getting dismissed, or your ideas aren't being heard, there is another avenue. There are other places that you can go. There are other nurses that are doing something even remotely similar to what you want to do. And there's a model out there for it.
So, you need to look, network with people, certainly can join our Facebook, which is free, and ask people, and just feel the idea out. But ultimately, it comes down to who is your audience, and what is their problem, and can you solve that problem for them?
And once you have somebody that's telling you what they need, you have a business idea, and there's a way to do it. So, go for it.
Beth Quaas:
That is fantastic. I love that. Your information will be in the show notes, but where can people find you?
Catie Harris:
Nursepreneurs.com, and @nurse_preneur is our handle, pretty much for everything.
Beth Quaas:
Catie, I am so glad you came and shared some of your expertise today, and I know that you're going to help a lot more people in the future.
Catie Harris:
Thank you so much.
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Intro/Outro:
Don't Eat Your Young was produced in partnership with TruStory FM. Engineering by Andy Nelson. Music by the Light Hearts. Find the show, show notes and transcripts at donteatyouryoung.com. If your podcast app allows ratings and reviews, please consider doing that for our show. But the best thing you could do to support the show is to share it with a friend or colleague. Thank you for listening.
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