Welcome back to the Healthpreneur Podcast! Today we have a great episode—as we always do—with Cynthia Thurlow. We’re going to dive into her fascinating journey and I’ll just give you a few highlights here before the episode.

So, Cynthia started out as a western-trained nurse practitioner—she grew up in the classic medical setting. But she later realized that she wanted to go do her own thing, and ended up starting her own functional nutrition practice. She now works with clients all around the world and supports women with various hormone issues.

The really cool thing about Cynthia is that she’s been able to bridge that gap between traditional western medicine and the holistic side of things. There’s tons of great stuff in this episode—we’re going to talk all about what I mentioned above as well as outsourcing, the entrepreneurial spirit, and transitioning from a 9-5 job to owning your own business. And I’ll even bring my love of flying into the mix.

In this episode Cynthia and I discuss:

  • How Cynthia incorporates both the western and holistic sides of medicine into her practice.
  • The entrepreneurial spirit—is it in your DNA, or not?
  • The long climb to the top.
  • Being an introverted entrepreneur.
  • What a real emergency is.
  • Losing the “security” of a 9-5 job.

 

4:00 – 10:00 – Cynthia’s journey and the niche she created.

10:00 – 16:00 – “Becoming” an entreprenuer.

16:00 – 22:00 – Why Cynthia is always calm, cool and collected.

22:00 – 28:00 – Trusting in the process.

28:00 – 32:00 – The Rapid-five questions.


Transcription

Healthpreneurs, what’s up? Yuri here. Welcome back to another episode of the Healthpreneur Podcast.

I’m pumped. Why am I pumped? Well, I’m pumped because it’s another day to help people. It’s another day to get out there and share your awesomeness, just really live life on your terms. And that’s what I get to do when I interview awesome entrepreneurs like I get to do on the show.

Today, I am speaking with a really cool person. Her name is Cynthia Thurlow, and she’s had a really interesting journey because she’s actually a western-trained nurse practitioner. So she grew up, in her professional career, working in hospitals in that kind of medical setting.

And then she realized that she didn’t want to do that anymore and ventured out onto her own to start up a functional nutrition practice. She’s now working with clients all around the world, as well as locally, where she lives. She supports women with a lot of the hormone issues that they’re working through.

So, in this interview you’re going to discover some really cool things. We’ve got some really cool conversations about the entrepreneurial journey, entrepreneurial DNA, how you really kind of discover your path—whether it’s really right for you.

If you’re transitioning out of a corporation job where you’re working nine to five … How to know it’s right. And, if it’s not right, to kind of venture off and do your own thing. And we’ll talk about the number one skill or trait that Cynthia has really honed in on, which has allowed her to flourish even in the craziness of what she was doing before in the hospital setting.

So, I’m excited to speak with Cynthia. She’s doing some really cool things, helping a lot of cool people, and I think you’ll really enjoy this conversation. Just to give you a little bit more about her—she has actually been kind of a go-to expert on ABC morning shows in her local area. And she has kind of become the go-to person for a lot of women who are struggling with hormone issues.

She has brought her background in the medical space with her passion for nutrition together, and she really bridges the gap between the holistic area and the medical profession—she merges it all together beautifully.

So, without any further ado, let’s bring Cynthia Thurlow on to the show. And let’s get into it.

Yuri:                Hey Cynthia. Welcome to the Healthpreneur Podcast. How’s it going?

Cynthia:         I’m doing great. Thank you so much for having me this afternoon.

Yuri:                Yes, I am excited to chat because it’s always awesome to chat with other amazing people doing some cool things in our space. Let’s jump right into it.

So, for our listeners, tell them a little bit about what your business looks like. What is the business model? How do you serve people? Just give our listeners a bit of context there.

Cynthia’s journey and the niche she created

Cynthia:         Yeah. So, I am a Western-medicine-trained nurse practitioner and also a functional nutritionist. And my main niche that I created for myself is helping to support female hormones. That includes adrenals and thyroid and sex hormones.

And I do that in a variety of ways. I always explain that I work well with others. So, I get a lot of referrals from my Western-medicine peers.

I work very savily with nutrition and/or food supplements and then targeted testing. So, looking at saliva-based testing modalities, dried urine, serum labs as well—and the thing that I love is that I get to use my Western-medicine training. My whole background was in cardiology and ER medicine, and I get to apply it in a very different way.

I find it incredibly gratifying to be able to enact some really incredible change in my female clients lives, and in many ways, filling in gaps that are in the conventional Western medicine model.

Yuri:                That’s awesome. So, you kind of bridge the gap between the Western side and maybe more the holistic side?

 Cynthia:         Yes. Absolutely. And I’ve really been humbled. When I started out in this whole medical community process 20 years ago, I was the person that loved writing scripts. And we used to spout off research constantly with my patients. I’m sure they probably grew tired of it.

And I felt I was validated in every decision. I didn’t look at people necessarily as individuals, per se.

Then, through my own family and health journeys, I kind of evolved. And I always say, “It’s good to evolve. It’s good to learn new things.” And, certainly filling a void that I saw was really becoming more pronounced as Western medicine is starting to lose some footwork in chronic and preventive management of health and wellness.

Yuri:                Yeah. So, was there a pivotal moment where you said like, “This model is broken. I no longer want to take part in this”? What did that moment look like for you to say, “This is what I want to do.”

 Cynthia:         Yeah. I think it was a couple things. I think I’ve always been a really healthy individual. Certainly working with the sickest of the sick in Western medicine ensured that I ate well and took care of myself. And same with my husband.

But my oldest child, at four months of age, developed pretty significant eczema, and I was the kind of mom that avoided a lot of foods while I was pregnant, while I was breastfeeding.

And the more digging I did … The conventional western medicine model of dealing with eczema is to prescribe steroid creams, and they don’t really look at what may be causing the eczema to develop. And so, the long and short of it was, after a while I really pushed to have some allergy testing and what I came to realize was that my son had some severe, life-threatening food allergies.

And the more I started to learn about the impact of food in our environment, on our children—this whole generation growing up with much higher rates of food allergies and vaccine injuries and things like that, I think I grew tired of writing prescriptions.

I think it was multifaceted. I think it was my son’s health issues and combined with just the fatigue—I felt like every time I turned on the TV, there was a pharmaceutical company that was telling my patients they needed to be asking for X drug for X symptoms.

And that’s really the focus of what western medicine has become. We look at every patient as a symptom, “I’ve got to give you a pill to treat this symptom.” And I just wanted to know more.

I had a desire and a hunger to better understand, because I thought that there was more to it than that. And so, part of it became my own intellectual journey to learn more and to do better by our patients.

Because I felt in many ways, in both the preventive and chronic disease states we were really missing the boat. We do a great job in western medicine with emergencies and surgeries, and I think we’re missing the boat in the other areas.

So, that’s where it started and then it kind of evolved as I got more vested in it.

Yuri:                That’s cool. I definitely agree with that. With the patients or clients you see now, are you finding people are more receptive to the alternatives and understand that maybe the pharmaceuticals are not the be-all and end-all?

 Cynthia:         It’s funny. I think people usually end up in my lap, if you will, because they’ve grown frustrated with current western medicine’s answers to their health concerns.

Some people are tepid, meaning that they’re receptive but they haven’t 100% bought in, but then I have a large majority of clients who are really open to doing just about anything to feel better.

I’ll give you one example …

There’s a really lovely woman that is a new client of mine. I’ve worked with her for the past month and every time she ends an email she says, “I’ve been waiting for you for 15 years. I’ve been doing this journey mostly on my own, but I’ve been waiting to meet you for 15 years.”

And what a, kind of, profound statement. It wasn’t something that was solicited.

But she keeps saying, “More people need the kind of services that you provide and I know there are other people in your tribe but, we just need to be aware that there are more of you. That having your unique perspectives in training and can offer more than just the center management perspective.”

Yuri:                That’s great. How does it make you feel?

“Becoming” an entreprenuer

Cynthia:         Oh. I mean, I’m a softy. It really hits at my core. It makes me feel validated.

My decision to completely derail—walking away from western medicine 18 months ago … You have moments as an entrepreneur where you second guess yourself, and you have a bad month or you have a month that’s disappointing. And in moments like that, it makes you feel really grateful that you took that leap of faith because, that’s really what it is.

When you become an entrepreneur, you’re following your passion and trying to put into place other mechanisms that can make you as successful as possible, as successful as you know you can be.

Yuri:                Yeah. Totally. So, you said “become an entrepreneur,” do you believe that you become an entrepreneur, or do you believe you’ve always had that inside your DNA?

 Cynthia:         Oh. That’s a loaded question. I think it’s two-fold.

I think I matured into believing I was an entrepreneur. I think that for many years, I was very much on the path of enjoying being an employee, because I didn’t have to think as much as I did if I were on my own. I think my emotional maturity, my growth, my own health struggles that I’ve had over the last three years definitely pushed me.

Dream big, that’s kind of the mantra I live my life by. Dream big because I don’t want to look back on my life and perceive or feel that I didn’t push myself enough, that I didn’t grow enough as a person.

I want my children and my husband to be able to look at me and see that I’m an example of a successful female entrepreneur.

I want to continue to develop a tribe of people that feel similarly. So, I think there are people, honestly, that are born entrepreneurs—they really think differently than the rest of us—and I think there are other people that grow into that role.

I think that it can be two-fold. It’s not one or the other. I think you can go from being an employee mindset to becoming an entrepreneur with maturity.

Yuri:                Yes. Good perspective there, for sure. What would you say if you’re sitting down with a friend of yours who was in the employee space or in the medical space for … And they’ve had enough of the system or they’ve had enough of their job, they’re thinking about doing their own thing—what would you tell them?

 Cynthia:         I would tell them to really spend time thinking about what they want, because for many people, the reason why they enjoy being an employee is that there’s a lot of security. Some people might like the concept of a side job, where they’re an entrepreneur really in name but not in spirit.

I think that you have to be willing to take some degree of risk. I think that you have to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. I’ll give you an example. The skill set that I’ve had for 20 plus years is a very different skill set than what I operate under now.

If you want to be an entrepreneur or if you want to be your own boss, you have to be willing to get uncomfortable—and some people lack the ability to do that. They don’t have the fail-set mechanism of just pushing forth and trusting in the process and understanding that it’s a heck of a lot of work.

If anyone thinks leaving your eight to five, Monday through Friday job is hard—becoming an entrepreneur is 10 times harder. You put in more hours, more effort, more blood, sweat and tears.

My children actually said this to me the other day; “Mommy, you used to work part-time as an NP, now you work more.” And I said, “Your right.”

Because ultimately, you’re the only person—everything falls on you, ultimately.

So, to get back to your original question, I think that they have to understand there’s a certain amount of risk, they have to feel comfortable with feeling uncomfortable, and they have to understand that there may be many years where you’re not necessarily making a big profit.

You may be breaking even, but you may not be making huge profits from day one. So, if you think you’re going to replace income off the mark, that’s probably less common then it taking several years.

Even our financial planner told us that it’s going to take several years before I’m going to replace the income I was at before.

So, I think people have to be aware of that. If they take a leap without thinking, then that could be detrimental on many levels.

Yuri:                That’s great advice and I think it’s very valid to you. I think a lot of people who think of starting an online business—or even a business in general—they’re looking at what other people are posting on social and they’re like, “Oh my God. That’s what I’ve got to be doing. I need to be making $1,000,000 by tomorrow. Here’s a product I have, why isn’t it selling?”

It’s a journey. It does not happen overnight and part of the reason for this podcast is to remind people that it takes time. And sure, there are business models that can earn profit more quickly than others—but either way, you have to come into this being realistic about what’s in store for you.

It’s like having kids. You don’t know what it’s going to be like until you have them.

Cynthia:         That’s so true.

 Yuri:                With the kids, you can’t give them back. With a business, you could always full chop and do something else. Yeah. It’s a good reminder, so thank you for bringing that up.

Cynthia:         Yeah. It’s interesting. I’m married to an engineer—so you can imagine the engineer mentality when I woke up one day and said, “Today is the day I’m leaving my NP job.”

He was like, “What?” We had talked about it—but for him, he likes security. He likes knowing that he’s going to get a paycheck every two weeks, he prefers that.

And also, he’s the main breadwinner. So, that could have had something to do with it. But he would never do what I’m doing. He’s like, “I couldn’t just do that. That would cut against the grain of my internal introvert.”

Yuri:                Well, having said that, there are a handful of people I know that are good friends that are massively successful. I’m talking about eight figure businesses online, and they are engineers. So, it’s interesting to see how they’ve built their business with that type of mindset, versus others who are more creative or whatever.

I think part of it is just really understanding who you are and then kind of figuring out what business model you want and what is best for you. But that’s a good point to bring out for sure.

As you’ve built your business, what would you say is one of the biggest challenges that you’ve had to face as you ventured out on your own?

Why Cynthia is always calm, cool and collected

Cynthia:         Oh gosh. Well, here’s the deal—a lot of people in the medical field are introverts. If you were to meet me at a social event, I don’t think you would think I was an introvert per se, but for me, I think my greatest challenge is that I got to hide in a lab coat for years and I would see patients in the hospital or in my office. And I got to call the shots in terms of how much interaction and face to face I wanted to have.

But when I had to switch gears and I became an entrepreneur, going to events, as an introvert—sometimes networking events—they drain me. That stresses me out, to have to work a room.

So, for me personally, I’ve had to really recognize that I’ve got to step up. I’ve got to push myself out of my comfort zone in a very safe way, but the only way to get myself out there and for people to connect with me, is to meet me.

And so, that’s probably been my greatest challenge, just personally. My internal drive is generally to be the extroverted introvert, but really I’m more of an introvert than extrovert.

So, pushing myself to do things that make me a little uncomfortable every day, are things that I’ve had to kind of learn some new behavioral patterns, to make sure that I’m  doing that in a way that I can be successful and moist, calm, cool, and collected. If you ask anybody, that’s the one thing you need me, I’m calm, cool, and collected always. So, I keep that in check.

 Yuri:                Honestly, I’ve worked with a lot of people in my years, and that’s a good trait to have because—especially if you’re running operations or running your business—you don’t want to be going crazy when crap hits the fan.

And it’s also really good for people I work with. Because if you’re emotional and erratic, it’s not good for others around you. So that’s a good trait.

Cynthia:         For me, those traits are probably intrinsic to who I am anyway, but if you work in ER medicine or cardiology and at the moment there’s an emergency, if you’re not calm, cool, and collected—the entire team is not going to be calm, cool, and collected, including the patient.

So, those things are really reinforced with me consistently over time.

Yuri:                Yeah. Totally. I remember when I was getting my pilot’s license, I realized that you actually spend all of your time training for emergencies. Right?

Cynthia:         It’s true.

Yuri:                It’s just because if they were to happen in real life, you have to be like, “Okay, cool. I’ve done this 1,000 times. It’s all good. So, I need to fly up to 5,000 feet and just turn the plane off. Okay. Now what we do?”

But the cool thing is that, once you understand how to do that, it’s really actually pretty cool. It’s actually fun.

But if you don’t practice that, then people would panic and honestly, would rather jump out of the plane I think. It’s nice to be exposed to different situations. It obviously helps if you have a predisposition of being cool and collected, because you can manage yourself a lot more effectively.

 Cynthia:         Exactly. Well, and the other piece is, at least in my line of work, there is nothing that is going to happen that is going to be an emergency—really.

So, that’s the one thing I always stress to clients—there is nothing that is going to happen that is going to be an emergency because, I’ve dealt with real emergencies. I’m always like, “Okay. Let’s walk back through this. Everyone, be calm, cool, and collected.”

And much like you were saying about the things that you prepare for, on so many levels it gives me great perspective. People are freaking out and I’m like, “Okay.” In my mind I’m thinking, “This is not a real emergency. Let’s just calm down, let’s get focused. Everything will fall into place.”

But I can tell you that I’m glad there are people like yourselves that enjoy flying, because that’s not my favorite thing to do.

Yuri:                Would you say you know you’re in really good hands when you have a pilot who’s flown 10, 20000 hours because, they’re pretty amazing at what they do.

Cynthia:         Yes. Exactly.

Yuri:                But you talked about perspective and I think that’s a really good word because, two people experience the same situation, they give a completely different meaning to it, and they respond to it very differently based on how they see that situation.

So, if you’re coming from a background where there are emergencies and people’s lives are at stake—that’s a great reference point, to understand that everything else is really not that bad in comparison.

Cynthia:         Right. Although it’s funny, I teach at one of the local universities—that’s how I kind of give back. I think it’s important to give back in my profession.

So, I was with a nursing student and we’re dealing with really low level emergency kinds of things, and I looked at her and said, “The only thing you need to focus on right now is what’s going to blow you off the planet. What’s going to blow that patient off the planet. Everything else doesn’t matter right now.”

She was like, “Oh. That makes sense.”

I said, “Don’t worry about anything else. Don’t worry about the ingrown toenail. That isn’t important, focus on the big picture.” So, that’s much like the entrepreneurial spirit. There’s one thing that all my medical training prepares me well for—I can get laser focused and be like, “What do I need to worry about right now? Everything else doesn’t matter.”

So, I was trying to get her to focus on that one thing, so she could get through this task. But it’s no different in my business. There are days where—I’m sure you and any other entrepreneur experience this—the shit’s hitting the fan, the day’s crazy and I’m like, “What’s the one thing you have to focus on? Everything else doesn’t matter right now.”

Yuri:                That’s awesome. So, one of the biggest challenges for entrepreneurs is that we’re excessively creative—to the point where medical professionals would probably diagnosis us all with ADHD.

Do you feel that you’re more focused? That you’re not distracted by a lot of those shiny objects or other things? That your super focused on what you want to do, and kind of go after it?

Cynthia:         If you ask my business coach, she might tell you I have a little bit of ADD. But no. I think that I’m great with focusing on what needs to be done. I’m learning that I need to create funnels for things that I can task to someone who’s better at it.

That’s the one thing that I really realize. There are things I’m much better at than others.

But I definitely think that in the beginning, it was very hard to make sense of what I needed my focus to be on. It just felt like there was so much that needed to be done, I was almost paralyzed.

Having a really great business coach and having people to help support my business has been a great investment and I fully acknowledge that, even those that teach others need teaching themselves. So, recognizing you need resources in place so that you stay focused on what you need to worry about.

Yuri:                Sure. That’s great advice. When you’re starting a business, what is most important? With all the stuff going on for you, what was the most important thing for you to focus on?

Trusting in the process

Cynthia:         I think if I were to look back retrospectively, I would say, have trust in the process. And it is a process. It’s not as if you go from being an employee to being an entrepreneur and everything is clear.

So, recognizing that you’re going to make mistakes, that you need to have mechanisms in place for support—and for me, it was acknowledging that as a teacher, I needed a teacher myself.

Putting things into place that can help me stay focused on moving forward. I think being open-minded and flexible is important. I think acknowledging that it doesn’t all fall into place all at once, it’s not all pretty and tied in a bow.

I think it’s funny when you come from being an employee—where you show up and someone from HR takes care of the paperwork and your admin takes care of this extraneous task, and then you’ve got a nurse that’s supporting you…

You don’t have that support system as an entrepreneur, so you start to figure out for yourself how to fill in the gaps.

I think flexibility is another big thing. You can’t be rigid. If you’re rigid, it’s just not the right thing for you to be doing, because you’ll end up being grumpy.

Yuri:                Hah, a curmudgeon—that’s always fun to be around.

 Cynthia:         Yeah. Grumpy old man.

 Yuri:                Not at all. So, what do you think has been the number one key to your success? Whatever success means to you really?

Cynthia:         I think trusting intrinsically in the process—that I have something unique, I’ve got a gift that no one else does better, to connect with people and provide great value.

I’m sure that’s a general blanket statement a lot of people could make, but there’s something unique about me and my background, that I can leverage and provide a service to many people who are looking for a missing link or are looking for answers that they can’t find or support that isn’t available to them.

Very objectively, because of my background, I can look and I can say, “Okay. These are things that this part of medicine does really well. These are things that functional medicine does really well—and in between, there is this nebulous area that isn’t being met.” I know—because I have friends in both spheres—I can look at that objectively.

So, I think that would probably be my answer.

Yuri:                It’s always cool to see what people say. Not that there’s a right or wrong answer, but it’s cool to see the different perspectives and stuff, which is awesome.

If you could outsource one task that you’re doing right now that you can’t stand, what would that be?

 Cynthia:         Oh God. In a heartbeat, all the social media stuff—because it’s hard to keep up with it. In fact, I was texting with my VA right before we got on, and I gave her a couple of other things to do.

I was like, “Okay. I need you to handle three things because I don’t even want to learn how to use that app.” For me personally, that’s just not the stuff I enjoy as much.

The technical, behind the scenes stuff for social media … I just don’t love. I like interacting with people on social media, but I don’t want to get stuck with the back-end things that take me far longer than they need to.

 Yuri:                I totally agree. And if there is only one activity that you could do, what would that one thing be?

 Cynthia:         I really feel like my gift is teaching. So, having a larger network of people to teach and instruct on. For example, there’s a program that I created because I felt like women were coming to me with the same symptoms and complaints over and over and over again.

And so, having an opportunity to share that information with a larger group of people, I think that’s what I would enjoy most. If I didn’t have to do anything else, that probably would by my greatest joy.

The Rapid-five questions 

Yuri:                Awesome. Cool. Are you ready for the rapid five?

 Cynthia:         Yes.

Yuri:                Alright. So, if you’ve been listening, you guys know that all my guests have no idea what these questions are ahead of time. I know what they are, you guys might know what they are, but I don’t think Cynthia does.

Alright, here we go. What is your biggest weakness?

Cynthia:         Oh. I’m really hard on myself, like ridiculously hard on myself. 

Yuri:                Okay. That’s actually one of the reasons I stopped playing soccer.

Cynthia:         Really? 

Yuri:                Because I would keep this journal and I would rate myself after every game, and I was always focusing on the gap. It’s a very tough way to live.

Cynthia:         It is. And to be fair, it’s one of the things that I’ve had to work on the most because it’s easy an an entrepreneur to take things personally. So, I’ve had to learn to think more like a guy, and to not take things so personally. I’m like, “Just keep moving forward.”

Yuri:                Cool. I don’t know if you want to think like a guy. I don’t know if we really think that uh…

Cynthia:         I meant more like, when I talk to male entrepreneurs, they seem not to worry. They don’t take things quite as—I don’t want to use the word personally, because I’m not particularly emotional, but I’m very hard on myself. So, I’ve just had to learn to kind of just let it go.

Yuri:                Cool. What is your biggest strength?

Cynthia:         It is one of two things; I’m incredibly compassionate, but I’m so intellectually curious. I want to understand it. So, I always explain to clients that I’m going to get that answer and going to figure out what it is—I’m your biggest detective, I’m going to figure it out.

Yuri:                That’s cool. Number three, what’s one skill you’ve become dangerously good at in order to grow your business?

Cynthia:         I think probably that laser focus. The ability to shut everything out and just focus on what I need to be doing right then.

Yuri:                Nice. Number four, what do you do first thing in the morning?

Cynthia:         Exercise.

Yuri:                Cardio, strength training, yoga?

Cynthia:         Depends. I do hiit two day a week or tabata, and I lift two days a week—and then I try to take two days off, I either do yoga or bar class. For me, it just gets me in the right frame of mind and it’s the only time that’s really my own. So, it’s my selfish time.

Yuri:                Yeah. Sure. That’s awesome. And finally, complete this sentence, I know I’m being successful when _____.

Cynthia:         It’s a great question. I know I’m been successful when my calendar stays booked with all the things I enjoy doing. That includes client work, but consistently booked.

Yuri:                Cool. I like that. I haven’t heard that one yet. That’s cool.

Cynthia:         Well, I’m sure you get a lot of when I make X number of dollars or when I have X number of clients. I think my perspective on success will be when it’s consistently booked week after week.

Yuri:                Sure. Nice. Well Cynthia, thank you so much for taking the time to join us today. What is the best place for people to follow you online? Or you don’t do social? No, I’m just kidding.

Cynthia:         So, my website is www.chtwellness.com and you can reach out to me there. You can send me messages or link up for a consultation. And then I’m also on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, I’m all over the place.

Yuri:                Cool. Cynthia, thank you so much again for taking the time and for doing all the awesome work you’re doing. Helping women just kind of get back to life with their hormones, it really makes a difference. So, thank you.

Cynthia:         Thank you. Have a great afternoon.

Yuri:                You too.

******************************************************

Yuri’s take

Hey guys, Yuri back with you. One of the things I really enjoyed about this interview was just the reality of … Maybe being an entrepreneur and doing your own thing is not right for you.

Cynthia shared some of her perspectives on that, which I completely agree with—because listen, not everyone is cut out to have their own business. You are going to go through some serious stuff and if you can’t deal with that, well, as the saying goes “if you can’t deal with the fire, get out of the kitchen,” right?

So, it’s just a reality check and it’s always important to remind yourself or for me to remind you that this isn’t cut out for everyone. Just like the Navy SEALs aren’t right for all people in the military.

Being an entrepreneur, it’s a special opportunity, it’s a gift, it’s a responsibility, and it requires you to be the best version of yourself—and the best version of yourself can only be achieved by becoming a better version of who you are today.

Sadly, that doesn’t really happen as much in an employee-based world, because there’s “security.” But I don’t really believe being an employee is more secure, and the reason for that is because I have had to let people go in my company.

And I know what those conversations look like, it’s me sitting down and making a decision to be like, “I don’t think this person should be in our company anymore.” That doesn’t really feel like secure to me if you’re the employee. You know what I’m saying?

So, if you’re working for a company, believe me, there will be people higher up in the chain who are having these conversations. And they’re going to be looking at, “Well, we need to save some money here, we need to cut costs. Who do we let go?”

I guarantee you those conversations are happening, and if those conversations are happening, that does not equate to security for you as an employee.

Ultimate security is when you control your own fate. Now, as an entrepreneur, do you have the stability or the predictability of a steady paycheck week in and week out? Maybe not right off the bat, but I’ll tell you this; I love knowing that if I want something, if I want to experience something or buy something or do anything, I know that I can make that happen.

Whereas if I’m getting a steady paycheck week in and week out, for me that’s the worst.

I’m like, “That’s the ceiling. I know what the ceiling is. I can only make that much money.” But if I want to make more money, and experience more things in life, I just think to myself, “How can I create more value? How can I create more value for the people that I serve?” And as a by product, I will receive more monetary value—money in the sense of compensation.

And that’s the beautiful thing about being an entrepreneur—you take ideas out of the ether and you turn them into things that help people. We have ideas, we turn them into creations. It’s an absolute blessing to have that ability.

So, I believe being an entrepreneur is the best—as you probably have heard. If you’ve been listening to me you already probably know that.

It’s a gift. It’s responsibility. It’s really, truly special. So, with that said, I hope you’ve enjoyed this episode and I hope you’ve enjoyed other episodes that we’ve been sharing with you for the past couple of months—and if you’ve enjoyed this, then be sure to subscribe on iTunes if you haven’t already.

If you haven’t left a review already, that’d be awesome if you could because that means a lot to us, right? It helps our podcast grow, it helps more people learn about it, and we can keep inspiring more health entrepreneurs to get to their next level.

Finally, if you haven’t yet grabbed the book Health Profits Secrets, you can do so today over at healthpreneurbook.com and I’m going to hook you up for free—just cover a couple dollars for shipping, and I’ll send it off to your front door.

So, that’s all for today. I want to thank you so much for joining me and Cynthia in this inspiring conversation. I hope it’s found you well. I hope it has opened your eyes to some truths about running your own business, if you happen to recognize those already.

And as always, go out there, serve more people, be great, do great, and I will see you in our next episode.

 ***********************************************************

Follow Cynthia Thurlow At:

https://chtwellness.com/

Facebook

Instagram

LinkedIn

Twitter

***********************************************************

Free Healthpreneur Health Profits Secret Book

Subscribe

If you enjoyed this episode, head on over to iTunes and subscribe to Healthpreneur Podcast if you haven’t done so already.

While you’re there, leave a rating and review.  It really helps us out to reach more people because that is what we’re here to do.

What You Missed

The  previous episode was a solo round of the Healthpreneur Podcast where I talked about about the most important aspect of your business.

Forget branding, content, marketing, all that stuff…. I’m talking about income.

What I’m talking about is building income before building influence.

In this episode I share with you some tips on how to not only generate income for your business, but to get yourself in that mindset of putting income above everything else.

You can catch the episode right here:  Building Income Before Influence