I remember sitting in my little cubby in the ICU and getting a phone call from daycare asking me if someone could come pick up my daughter because she had a fever. The unit was short that day and we had tripled a few nurses. I knew I couldn’t ask to leave, even though every fiber of my being wanted to just run out the door to my sick kid and take care of her. The next step was to go into scramble mode and figure out if anyone could grab her. I kept thinking how terrible she must feel and knowing I couldn’t help. The Mom guilt was guilty that day. How do you take care of these extremely sick people when all you can think about is your sick baby?
This is just one of the situations that pushed me to realize that bedside nursing wasn’t aligning with my life and that I would eventually need to make a change. I want to share with you today how I pivoted from bedside nursing into a business coach. If you are feeling this misalignment and would like to get curious about launching a digital product-based business. Download my digital product builder cheatsheet and start working on the steps. Send me a DM if you have any questions. I am more than willing to help you pivot.
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Hello again, My name is Kate Avery. I have been a Nurse since 2015, I’m a mother of 3, I’m an entrepreneur coach, and so much more.
Over the last few years, I started to notice how nursing was not fitting the needs of my growing family. So I decided enough was enough and I embarked on this journey to find a better way. This has included countless self-help books, multiple courses, and a deep dive into figuring out what the heck I wanted.
Now, I started this podcast to inspire and motivate you, if you also feel the burnout of nursing while supporting a growing family. Then you’re in the right place. Let’s build our dream life together.
Every week I share my adventures and the hard lessons I have learned along the way.
Make sure you follow the podcast and download the episodes every Friday on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube.
Plus, head over to Instagram and hit follow at Inspirern.
Interested in learning how to make passive income while still enjoying your life? Download the Free Digital Product Cheat sheet and get started today. Check out last week’s episode and I’ll show you how to turn your passions into passive income.
The Why of Leaving Bedside
So this is just one of the many stories that I look back on and am thankful that I made a change. Now, when I get a call from the school, it’s so much less stressful. I am still working but I make my own schedule now and I have the flexibility to be there for my family. Instead of figuring out who will pick my babies up from school. I worry about how fast I can get here, which is like 10 minutes. It seems like such a silly problem now.
I’ll tell you that this change was not easy and at the time it felt risky in my mind but I wouldn’t change this journey at all. I have learned so much, actually I have had to learn a whole brand new career essentially. I have learned a lot about myself and I want to encourage you to at least get curious and look outside of the box.
For me way back then, outside the box was getting a job in PACU or a 9-5 nursing gig. Maybe going back to school and becoming an NP. Which, I did do, and during clinical, it was very clear to me that life as an NP was going to be very boring and not very fulfilling as a family practice NP for me. None of it was feeling fulfilling and I just knew deep down that I had to get creative on what my idea of outside the box was in order to change my life.
Learn to Think Outside The Box
Can I tell you a little story about where “outside the box” came from?
A few years ago my husband and I were in couples therapy and after discussing how hard we both worked while growing our family. Our therapist mentioned to us that we might want to look outside the box because what we were doing wasn’t working. She hinted heavily that our views on the traditional roles and careers, were not aligned with what we wanted and that we should look at getting creative.
For both of us, we needed to find that fulfillment and flexibility. All too often, you can fall into the daily tasks and lose the connection with each other, and becoming a business coach has given me the opportunity to grow and create the career I want to see. The fulfillment I had been craving for so long.
Living Outside of My Story
My first pivot, was when I learned to live outside of my story.
I am guilty of working hard for what I want. I don’t think anyone could say otherwise but I am also a big believer and I will continue to work towards something even when it is not working anymore. Struggling to make bedside nursing work for my family when it very clearly was not. I let a lot of my story push me too far.
This story of I am a high achiever, I am the one to make it all happen and look easy. This was a great story to operate under in the beginning but when things are not working, their not working.
I would look around the unit and see the moms who worked midnights so they could take care of the kids in the daytime and my gut would just scream absolutely not. Yet, I would have coworkers working 4 12-hour shifts, going to school, taking care of the kids and their world just seemed so perfect. So instead of thinking what isn’t working here for me I looked at myself and said why can’t I do that and I pushed myself harder. Over and over again I kept going until I was so burnt out that I had to walk away.
Learning to pivot was challenging for me to accept but once I realized that failures are just lesions on the path, I have been more accepting of pivoting and refocusing on the bigger picture.
The Journey From Bedside to Business Coach
In short, my journey has included adventuring into nurse writing, copywriting, travel blogging, and now business coaching. This is been years in the making.
I had to realize that I needed to change and focus on what lit me up and not what everyone else was doing. I’ll be honest, I don’t know if it was bedside nursing that did me in or if it was that I am old now and I care less about what others think but I had to essentially say fuck em and do what made me happy.
If you can see yourself in this story and resonate with the process. I want you to know that I have been there and I understand how hard it is. I also want you to know that it’s worth it. That dream that you can’t stop thinking about. The business that seems too good to be true. That life that you wish you lived. It can all be yours when you decide to think outside the box. Bet on yourself and allow yourself to be creative.
Your Worthy of More
You’re so smart, look at where you have gotten in life. How far you have come. That doesn’t stop. So, let the others do what they want and start doing what is right for you.
If you are looking to start that digital product business, Download my resource and DM me, I will help through it all. I want to see you win.
Want to learn why you should launch a digital product, Check out last week’s episode here.