In Business Blast Podcast #60, host Tyler Wagner interviews Carrie Severson, a storytelling consultant for women and former nonprofit CEO. Carrie shares a pivotal personal story about founding a bullying‑solutions nonprofit in 2011, which taught her that neglecting personal boundaries leads to burnout and hampers both personal and business success. She explains her 20‑year journalism background and argues that every entrepreneur can write personal essays—"slices of life"—to secure media placements in outlets like Forbes, Huffington Post, and Women’s Health. Carrie outlines a simple breath‑based meditation practice for busy founders and emphasizes the importance of self‑care to enhance business performance. When asked for advice to her younger self, she urges "trust the journey," highlighting the value of non‑linear career paths and entrepreneurial reinvention. She identifies daily reinvention as the key to happiness, recommends Louise Hay’s You Can Heal Your Life for developing a healthier relationship with one’s body, and shares a favorite 19th‑century quote about learning to sail through storms. Finally, she directs listeners to her website keriSeaborn.com for resources and community groups.
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Alright everyone, welcome back to the Business Blast Podcast. This is your host Tyler Wagner, and today I have Carrie Seaverson with us. She's a story consultant for women, and welcome to the podcast, Carrie.
Thank you very much.
Of course. So we'll dive right in. The first question that I have for you is, what's the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
Good one. So before I was a storytelling consultant, I was a CEO of a nonprofit. I created it from scratch and launched it in 2011 at the time that bullying was an international hot topic. And I just happened to launch a bullying solutions organization. And so we caught on fire pretty much overnight. And for 5 years, my life was completely evaporated into this business. I completely lost my identity in the business. And when I sort of took a little bit of my life back and I could breathe again and I put me first again, my business started to improve and my life started to improve. And so the The underlining valuable message that I took away from that experience is that even though I can, I can give my everything to them, to the business, if I don't put myself before it, neither one of us succeed. And so to this day, I'm very aware of burnout and my own personal boundaries. It proved to be an incredible, valuable lesson for me.
And what's the most valuable piece of information that we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
So, um, I'm a storyteller. I've been in the journalism business for 20 years. Um, personal essay writing is something that anyone can do. Every entrepreneur can go out and get published in a media outlet today because they're looking for your personal lessons. And so the real big movement is figuring out a way to be personal in your professional lessons. And that's, that's an incredible opportunity for you from a marketing perspective, from a leadership perspective. Every magazine, media outlet, from Entrepreneur to Women's Magazine, Women's Health Magazine, is looking for your personal stories.
So, and just to dive deeper in that, so are you saying like, in a sense, If people are trying to get featured in these big outlets like Huffington Post, Inc., Forbes, just to name a few, you would recommend to not just focus on like value, but actually focus on like your personal story that separates you from the crowd and that will dramatically enhance your chance of getting featured in those?
Yeah, absolutely. So they're looking for— I call them slices of life. So if you take one lesson that you've learned in the last 6 months and you break that down into 1,000 words, you have one core lesson, one core emotion, a theme, and a positive, powerful point of view. That is exactly what they're looking for.
Mm, okay. That is very good to know. Thank you. Um, the next question I have is, what's your best piece of overall business advice? So not necessarily industry specific.
Mm-hmm. Well, based on my experience with burnout, I believe that creating some space between you and the business is actually really healthy. And I didn't have that my first go-round. So I believe when you're, when you've got a really strong like meditation practice or really strong personal self-care practice, your business is actually enhanced.
And what do you have any specific like meditate, do you do a guided meditation or like, just I've been doing it for 12 years.
Oh, nice. So I am— I don't need guided meditations anymore, but the people that I've surrounded myself with who are also entrepreneurs, if I have trouble, I will tap into them and ask them to guide me. But really quick, if you don't— if you've never done it before, sitting with your feet firm on the ground, inhaling with— in through your nose for 3 beats and holding it for a beat and exhaling out through your mouth. If you can do that 5 times in a row, you will kind of move your body into a meditative state. And just that a couple times a day will help.
Awesome. I will have to try that because I always have a hard time doing it without any guide. I use this 15-minute Alan Watts guided meditation on YouTube that I found. And it's very good. And, you know, I don't know if it's technically meditation if you fall asleep at the end of it, but I tend to fall asleep by the end. So So the next one is, if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
Trust the journey.
And do you want to— so I know what you mean, but do you want to elaborate on meaning like through all the ups and downs?
Like, yeah, absolutely. So, you know, like, I am a born entrepreneur. I don't fit into corporate America. I've tried. And but when you're in college, you know, you aren't really told it's okay to be your own entrepreneur. So trusting that all these lessons in a way don't have to be linear. You know, you can go out and you can get all these different jobs and pull all these different lessons and skills into your tool belt. You don't have to climb a corporate ladder. You can create your own thing and just trust your, trust your heart and trust your gut that you're going in the right direction.
Yes, agreed. And in your opinion, what's the key to happiness?
In my experience, it's been reinvention. So every day I wake up and I'm like, what do I— who do I want to be today and how can I go be that? And every day I live my life from a place of joy. And yeah, I don't follow rules, just go make them.
And what's the best book you've read? And what was the number one thing you learned from it?
I love Louise Hay's You Can Heal Your Life. And it's like sitting on my couch right now. So it's one of those things that It's a beautiful book in teaching you how to have a better relationship with your body. And when we get stressed out as entrepreneurs, it's so, we feel like it's counterproductive to actually lean back and listen to what's happening in our body. But we're the first ones where, you know, our shoulders get up into our ears or our blood pressure will start to increase or something. And when you have a relationship with your body, you understand yourself in a very different way. And that's what it really taught me is how to have a relationship with my body.
And what's your favorite quote and why?
So I'm a writer, and when I was in college, I took this 19th century literature course, and there was this quote, "I'm not afraid of the storm, for I'm learning how to sail my ship." And it sort of encompasses my philosophy in life that like, I, I don't know how to follow people. I just go off into the field and figure it out on my own. And that's okay. So that's what that means to me.
Yeah, no, that's a very— I've never heard that quote, but I like it a lot. And thank you so much for coming on. Last question I have is, where's the best place for people to find you online?
So my website's keri seaberson.com. And you can Find me there, join a group I have there, download a couple of free things I have there, send me an email.
Perfect. That's easy enough. Thank you so much again for coming on, Carrie.
Thank you.
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