Breaking the Nursing Glass Ceiling with Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) and Entrepreneurship!

Thank you for joining me for another episode of the Nursing Strategies for Success podcast, brought to you by The Nurse Speak, a show where we rally some of our nation's greatest nurse leaders, educators, experts, and advocates to tackle some of the greatest challenges that the nursing profession faces. My name is Damion Jenkins, and I'm your host for the show. So sit back, relax, and get ready to learn that nurses can do anything. All right, Karen, thank you so much for being on the Nursing Strategies for Success podcast. Why don't you take a moment to introduce yourself to the listeners? Let them know a little bit about yourself, where you started in nursing and where you are today.

All right. Well, thank you so much, Damion, for having me on. I really appreciate it. So my name is Karen O'Donnell, and I started my nursing career with the thought that I wanted to be an oncology nurse. And I did oncology for about 3 years, and then I had the opportunity to go into the emergency room, which I had no intention of ever wanting to do, but I took the leap of faith and I became an ER nurse, and it was the best decision I ever made. Decision that I ever didn't know I needed to make. And so I went into ER nursing and truly loved, loved, loved, loved that department. But, you know, I always had the, the need to want to do my own thing, to, you know, expand my horizons. And I just had an entrepreneurial drive from the beginning, and I don't know where that came from. Mm-hmm. But I always had that thought that I wanted to do something else. And there were a few times in my nursing career when I would try to advance in the clinical ladders and, you know, you'd get to a certain point and you'd do all of the things, you'd be on all the committees and you just wanted to go even higher. But there was that glass ceiling that happened. So, you know, in my career, I felt very stuck and, you know, trying to advance and maybe go on to a managerial level. There were a couple of times when I would go for a specific job opportunity and they said I didn't have enough experience or I didn't have any management experience. And so I was, I was turned down for that. So I think that kind of created the spark for my drive to want to be a manager and to do my own business and to really thrive in that space versus just being a bedside nurse. And so that kind of started my drive and my push to do my nursing career on my own terms. So I worked many years as an ER nurse, but then in 2012, I started a staffing agency and that kind of was the spark that brought me to the entrepreneurial world as a nurse.

Amazing. So you've done quite a lot in your career, so kudos to you for that. Thank you. A track that a lot of us out here are kind of on our own journey figuring out how we can leverage our talent to further reach, make bigger impact, and that's sounds like what you were doing. And just to piggyback on what you said about the glass ceiling, it's pretty low in a lot of traditional nurse roles, and it's by design, right? We know it's by design because, you know, organizations need those frontline nurses desperately. So if the glass ceiling is too high, you know, they would lose those frontline nurses. But, you know, The reality of it is, is I think the organizations sometimes are short-sighted with that. And if they offered more opportunity for growth and diversification of their nurses' career paths within the organization, then they wouldn't lose them. Instead, they would have seasoned nurses to continue to train the newer nurses and give them the mentorship and coaching and support that they really need. Right. So amazing. So you've done a lot, you've seen a lot. And the purpose of this podcast really is to kind of identify a singular challenge, and it could be related to other areas as well, but a challenge that you kind of identified throughout your career that you then started to work on to create strategies for success, whether it was for yourself or for others, or probably it turned into both helping yourself and others. So why don't you take a moment and just kind of— let's talk about what was the biggest challenge for you throughout your career that you've been working on.

I think the biggest challenge was my self-limiting belief that I couldn't do it.

Yeah.

Um, I'm a nurse. I had many, many years of nursing experience. I felt very comfortable as a nurse, and my but I didn't know anything about business. And I thought, well, you need a business degree, you need to know this, you need to know that. So that was my biggest challenge, is that I wasn't sure that I could succeed in the business world. And I took it on as a challenge because I wanted to do it. I had the drive to do it. And I took my nursing experience as an ER nurse and I said, you know what, in the ER you can't know everything. You have to know where your resources are. You have to know how to find out things and to ask the right people the right questions. So I took that experience and I said, this is how I'm going to create my business model and I'm going to figure it out. And that, I think, is the best way to put the impetus for any nurse that is thinking that they want to do something, is that you need to stop that little voice in your head that says you can't do it because you've got through nursing school, you got through the experience that you have in nursing for a reason. You're smart and you, you, you you may not acknowledge that every day, but there are so many things that you do in your daily life, from critical thinking to the direct patient care that you do, from the, the resource management. All of those strategies that you use in your nursing career, you can now project into your business because that is what you do on a regular basis. You may not recognize it as being the critical thinking that needs to happen for a business. But that is absolutely the case. You can take your experience and just put it in a new model so that you can move forward with what you want to do outside of your bedside nursing.

Absolutely. So not only did you identify the challenge, but you also identified a lot of the strategies already that help nurses or, or anyone for that matter, start to believe in themselves identify those strengths, identify those transferable skills that they can then apply to other aspects of their life, right? So whether it's opening a business, whether it's solving a family issue, maybe it's a financial issue, maybe it's, uh, acquisition of, uh, um, legacy property for the family that you could pass something down in the future, whatever it might be. We have the ability when we harness our nursing skillset the nursing process, critical thinking, all of those skills that we've learned, prioritization, delegation, time management, all of these skills that we learn to help people overcome health adversities, save lives, improve systems, right? Whatever the case may be, all of that is transferable and applicable to other areas of our life. And so that's where you're right. A lot of us in nursing school and through our traditional trainings, we're not supported enough with this kind of mindset of we can overcome the challenges or the barriers that might be holding us up from achieving the next goal. And oftentimes, unfortunately, and it happens with your friends, it happens with your family, it happens with your coworkers. When you say you want to do something that's different than what they're used to. Sometimes it's a lot of negative naysayers and a lot of, oh, you're going to give up a steady paycheck. How are you going to make money? And then of course, if you are not really confident in your skill set, then you start to allow those intrusive thoughts to kind of eat away at your confidence and your game plan. You get frustrated and you might just say, you know what, it's safer just to come and collect a steady paycheck. Every, you know, 2 weeks, get my 401, get my insurance, and I'll just play it safe because I'm guaranteed that money. But you identified— it sounds like you identified that that wasn't what you wanted. That wasn't enough for you. You wanted to do more.

Yeah.

And so when you are going through that process of knowing you wanted to do more, I'm sure you ran into lots of roadblocks, lots of barriers to get yourself to the point where you're like, you know what, I can do this. And I'm gonna push through and do it. So what were some of the, you know, things that you just really had to buckle down and focus on so that way you can actually get to that other side?

Yeah, well, at the time that I was looking to do this, there— and that was 2012— there weren't a lot of opportunities for independent nurse jobs at that time. Truly, the mindset was you were working under a doctor's license, you were just gonna be in a hospital setting or whatever. So that was one of the biggest roadblocks for me is trying to just find a model of a business that I wanted to do, that I could do. So, you know, fast forward to now, there are so many opportunities that are out there for nurses, which is, you know, a great, great time to be a nurse entrepreneur because there are literally hundreds of different nurse jobs that you can do. Yeah. But I think the other roadblock was just trying to, like you said, figure out if I could start a company, maybe work a little part-time, you know, while doing that, while working full-time, and still having that security of being in a hospital setting so that you could, you know, finance your dream. And then once it gets launched and starts really having momentum and making money, to be able to cut those ties. But for me, just still being in the relationship building mode and networking while I still had my full-time job, and, you know, all of the, the people that were supporting me I think that really helped me. So that would be one of the things that I would advise for people who are looking to do their own businesses, to just find like-minded people who will support you and, you know, be part of organizations that are nurse entrepreneurial, be, you know, in the social groups, the networking groups, all of the, you know, LinkedIn profiles that you can find that would support you in your journey. But I think the roadblocks that we put up are not only just, you know, self-limiting, but some roadblocks that could be from other kind of institutional settings that, you know, it might not be in their best interest to let nurses have their own independent business, right?

Correct.

You may you may have a boss that's like, oh no, you can't do that. You shouldn't do that. You should just keep working and you'll be fine. So I think that the roadblocks can be self-limiting as well as kind of exterior to, um, to what we believe. So, so like you said, you know, you have to just know who to, who to listen to and who to help support you on your journey.

Yeah.

So you may have to kind of keep it close, close to, you know, your heart until you find the people that will support you.

Yeah. So, you know, there's a lot of nuances here in this kind of thought process and strategies for making sure that you can align with those people who have your best interests and want to support you versus those people who want to keep you exactly where you are, right? And so It is fundamentally important for everyone to know your bosses might love you, might want the best for you. And despite their good interest in you, you know, being successful, they want you there, right? They want to keep you there because you're valuable to them and their organization. You're, you're providing amazing results that help them do their job so they can get the recognition accolades that they deserve for their hard work. Plus, you might be delivering amazing patient care, developing incredible educational initiatives. Maybe you are saving the facility money, you're improving your reimbursement rate, whatever the case may be, whatever role you're in as a nurse, they're going to want you to stay there. So, and I would recommend, just as you said, sometimes you got to keep it close to your heart. I would keep it close to your heart until you know you're ready. Right? Once you know you're ready, and that is different for everyone, some people it is, you know, for instance, for myself, going back to work full-time after the pandemic when many of us were struggling, getting into a Director of Education Staff Development role, you know, majorly important for the organization. I just went in knowing I was going to do a killer job. I was going to rock that position, make everyone fall in love with me, which which turned out true. And then I was going to slowly work on rebuilding myself to a point to where I would be able to exit and exit on amazing terms and, and let everyone know, hey, because I am going back to my businesses, not a lateral transfer to another organization, I have the flexibility to offer you an exit strategy that no one else will. You know, stay on board, help you recruit and train the replacement, go part-time initially until that happens to continue to facilitate orientations and trainings and mandatory educations and plans of correction. Because I now have systems in place to— my, my work is much easier because I did the work up front when I joined the organization. So I can do that for them and still have time to continue to build my businesses back to a place to where I will be, you know, replacing my income and then some. So any good boss is not going to say no to that offer, right? So I waited until the time was appropriate for me to be able to offer that. Once I was able to offer that, I knew that they were going to be upset that I was leaving, but at the same time grateful for all of the work that I've done. And then of course, the very generous exit strategy that I'm offering them to allow them time to find the right person. For the position. And then again, again, support that new person with ongoing, you know, training to make sure that everything I've learned and I put into place, they get to now take over and have to help them do their job better. So, had I started sharing maybe the first year that that was my intention, it may not have worked out so good for me. Because again, maybe the bosses would've gotten scared and they would've been like, well, why is he here? Let's just go ahead and find a replacement now. You never know what the other side will be. Second to that, you mentioned networking and, and being with like-minded individuals. You're not going to find those people at your job. I'm just going to be very honest. We're going to find those people at your job. You would already be an entrepreneur, a business owner, because you have to rub elbows with business owners. And people who support business owners in order to become a business owner. Like, it's, it's, it sounds silly to think, but your mom or your best friend, if they're not in the space of owning a business or have the know-how to start a business because that's what they do as a living to help other people, then you need to be with those people. And so one of the organizations that I would assume you and I both, you know, endorse would be the National Nurses in Business Association, an amazing organization of nurse entrepreneurs and people who support nurse entrepreneurs, aspiring nurse entrepreneurs. There's so much information at these conferences and in their membership program. I always recommend that any nurse who's even slightly interested in maybe starting a business, whether it's a side hustle So you can make just a little extra money and diversify your workspace so that way you're not burned out by the same thing all the time. Or you want— really want to level up and become a millionaire entrepreneur. There's ways for you to achieve any of those goals through this organization. So I highly recommend anyone who's interested in networking, LinkedIn for sure, NNBA, both of those are no-brainers, but you'll get a lot more impact quickly through NNBA for sure, because it helped me tremendously when I joined back in 2016 and attended my first conference in 2017. So other than those resources available for people, Karen, what else resource would you recommend that people who are interested in maybe overcoming mindset, maybe, you know, working with business coaches or anything like that, do you know of any resources? Do you provide any resources that would be helpful to those individuals?

Actually, yes, I do provide some of those resources, um, specifically for starting a staffing agency. I'm going to be launching in a couple of weeks, um, an online program of, you know, basic steps from A to Z, what to do. Um, so I will be offering that. But a secondary thing that I have not talked about in how we kind of connected at NNBA this past couple weeks ago. Um, I have created a second company, uh, besides my staffing agency called I'm Perfect EFT, and it is a company to help people to overcome those limiting beliefs by using cognitive behavioral techniques. So I have a twofold way of showing people how to create a company for a staffing agency and then to help them with the limiting beliefs that they may have that they can't do it. So it's to be able to move forward. But aside from, you know, what I can provide, other resources that were helpful for me are basically, you know, your community, your local Chamber of Commerce, your Small Business Association, you know, all of those resources are absolutely you know, free. And there are so many other resources that you can reach out to. There are a lot of wellness nurses that I met at NNBA as well who could be business coaches. So it's literally finding the resources that are in your area and finding the people that have done it already.

Yeah.

And what I've realized in this space is that people give their knowledge to others freely. And it's not about, you know, making tons of money by helping somebody else do what you do. It's about creating that nursing support that we all know and love and have embraced in our career. So, you know, those are some resources that I have used, but I know that there are a lot of other resources out there. You just have to, you just have to go and search for them. Because nobody has done it on their own.

Absolutely. It takes a village, right?

So yeah, it takes a village. Absolutely.

You know, and I remind— I always remind everyone to just, no matter how far you get in your career, you always have to take a moment and reflect back on where you started, right? You started as a possibly anxious, eager, excited, and afraid nursing student. You got into the program, which was already a challenge. Then you struggle through the program to complete it with a team of people helping you along the way, whether it's your professors, your instructors, your peers, your family, whatever it might be. You never did any of this on your own, right?

Right.

Despite how you might feel sometimes, you are alone because you're in the thick of it. And you're putting forth so much effort while it seems like other people just have it easy, that's all perception, right? That's perception. Because the truth is, is those people have supported you the entire time, whether it's they make you your breakfast, whether it's they pack your bag for you, they drive you to school, they check in on you, how are you doing? They meet with you when you're upset because you failed an exam or you didn't, you know, get the— all the points you needed to move to the next pro— whatever the case may be. We all started somewhere. It's no different when you're a professional and licensed and you're trying to move throughout the career, or you're trying to start a business. It does take a team, and no one can do it by themselves. Yeah, the hardest part, I think, for many of us is just figuring out who is going to have the best symbiotic relationship with us. Who is our tribe, right? Where are the folks that want to be 100% in to support us? And sometimes that does mean getting into a financial exchange with those individuals because time is money and we should respect everyone's time. And it is an investment for you to pay someone professionally to help you along the way. You'll, you'll always get nuggets of really genius information when you hang with the right folks for for no additional charge. But when you really want to get in the thick of it and you want to know step by step, and it takes a lot of time to get that information and put those pieces in place, just understand you're going to have to pay for that, right? Just like you had to pay for school.

Yeah, it's true. And, you know, that's truly one of the things that a lot of people have come to me saying is that I feel guilty to charge, put a price on what I want to do for my business. You know, like, I do this because I love to do it. So why should I charge? That makes me feel icky that I don't know if I can do that. And, you know, it's—

if you find free rent, I mean, if you find free rent, free groceries, free utilities, um, free business expenses. I mean, sure, give it away for free. If we could survive in this world doing charity work only, amazing. But we know that's not the way it works. We need, we need to earn money in order to be able to do more good. You can't do good without money. You have to have it, right?

Right. And I think that that is also kind of what we were trained to do when we were going through nursing school, like, oh, you're just, you're doing it because you love it. And that is absolutely 100% true. But once you move into the mindset of having a business and having to put a price on things, sometimes that is one of those limited beliefs that we have to let go because it's true. Nobody can pay their rent with just hopes and dreams.

Correct. Thoughts and prayers, right? That only goes so far. All of the organizations and institutions that support our communities, our society, they all make money. Right? They have to. So we should also be very comfortable with the idea that we can earn a potential that far goes, goes way beyond what we would ever earn working for an employer. Nothing is wrong with earning an employer salary. However, again, if you want to extend your reach, have bigger impact, be able to utilize those resources to do good on a much larger scale, you have to have the funds and the resources to do so, right? So amazing. So it sounds like people could really benefit from your programs. You have two, you know, main tracks here. You can help people start up their staffing agencies, and in the meantime, you can also help them get over their limiting beliefs, help them deal with anxieties and frustrations and things like that, which is super important. Especially in today's industry where things are so fast-paced and so emotionally charged because everyone's kind of going through the struggles of the realities of, you know, keeping it going. Um, so amazing. So Karen, how can people get in touch with you if they wanted to connect and benefit from your services?

So I have, um, two websites. Um, one of them is Caring Nurse— my company is Caring Nurses Staffing Agency. So it's www.caringnursesa@gmail.com. And my other company, I'm Perfect EFT, is literally, I created that, you know, with the thought of going from feeling imperfect to I'm perfect. So that's www.imperfecteft.com. Anybody can reach out to me by my emails, which are the same. Caringnursessa@gmail.com or imperfecteft@gmail.com. So I would love to, you know, connect with anybody that would have any questions about how to start a staffing agency, and I would connect you with that network of education as well as ongoing support. And I do also have a YouTube channel for Imperfect EFT that has free EFT videos and literally there are 50 of them that talk about different issues that people have, from panic attacks to needle phobias to test-taking anxiety. And those videos really help people to, you know, kind of move past those limiting beliefs and those issues that we all have.

Amazing. And then you're also on LinkedIn, correct?

I am also on LinkedIn, yes. So it's Karen O'Donnell, and I have both the Caring Nurses and Imperfect EFT on LinkedIn. I also have a very large TikTok following and Instagram and Facebook.

Amazing. So I'll have all of those ways that people can connect with you in the show notes of the episode. And I want to thank you so much for coming on the Nursing Strategies for Success podcast. You're not too, too far away from me. Maybe we can meet up sometime and collaborate. And just further our reach, because that's what we're out here to do, is to help develop those strategies for success and help people thrive within their profession. Thanks so much for being on the show.

We'll be in touch soon. Thank you, Damion Jenkins Jenkins.

My pleasure. Take care.

Bye-bye.

And that concludes episode 4 of season 4 of the Nursing Strategies for Success podcast with this episode's guest, Karen O'Donnell. We hope that everything that we shared for you in this episode will help you to lead the charge, build the nursing career that you want and deserve, and raise the glass ceiling to heights that you never imagined before. All of the ways to get in touch with Karen will be in the show notes of this episode. And as always, if you have any questions about anything we shared, please visit thenursespeak.com and get in touch with me. I would love to have a conversation with you. So until next episode, take care, be well, and remember that nurses can do anything.