April 16, 2025 • 26 mins
This week’s “How She Finds Purpose” insight comes from Sheila Buswell. She says –
“I spent all my time and talent working toward a goal that I know is helping people, and that gives me purpose every single day.”
Sheila Buswell is the CEO and co-founder of Buswell Biomedical. She’s a U.S. Army veteran and author of the book Is This Seat for Me? Overcoming Imposter Syndrome in Everyday Life in Business. Her book shares the stories of accomplished people who struggled with self-doubt and how they moved past it. Sheila developed the concept for the Upward Mobility device to improve quality of life in rehab centers by promoting independence and dignity through innovative technology.
Here are 3 reasons why you should listen to this episode:
-
You’ll hear how one woman turned a very personal challenge into a breakthrough biomedical solution that’s already changing lives.
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You’ll learn why imposter syndrome shows up in surprising places - and how to push past it using your own experiences.
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You’ll be reminded that it’s okay to not have all the answers, and why trusting your gut might be the most powerful step you can take.
Connect with Sheila at: http://www.isthisseatforme.com/
Would you prefer to watch or listen to the podcast on YouTube?
Head on over to https://www.youtube.com/@leadershippurposepodcast
Want to connect? Connect with Dr. Robin on
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robinlowensphd/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/robinlowensphd
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/robinlowensphd/
Email: Robin@LeadershipPurposePodcast.com
Thank you for listening! Rate, review, & follow on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast player. Talk to you soon!
This episode was produced by Lynda, Podcast Manager for GenX Creative Entrepreneurs at https://www.ljscreativeservices.co.nz
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Welcome to the Leadership Purpose with Dr. Robin podcast.
I'm your host, Robin L Owens, PhD. I'm a college
professor. And when I'm not doing that, I am teaching others
how to find and stay in alignment with their true purpose.
And this is where we talk with women who've made bold career
transitions in search for more meaning and purpose in
(00:24):
their work. So if you're feeling that pull toward more meaning and purpose in
your work or just curious about what's possible when you
pursue purpose over position, then these
conversations are here to encourage, inspire,
and guide you. Okay. Let's get started.
Hi, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Leadership
(00:47):
Purpose with Dr. Robin podcast. I'm so glad you're
here and you've listened into the podcast. I really appreciate it. I
say it all the time. I'll continue to say it. I appreciate you for
listening in. And because you've been such faithful listeners, you helped
us get ranked in the top 5% of all
podcasts globally according to listen notes. So thank you for
(01:09):
doing that. And continue to help us out. Rate,
review, subscribe to the podcast. I know we hear that all the
time, but it really does help and it it matters to us. So if there's
something in particular that you like, share that in a
review. It'll help others to be encouraged and inspired by the
podcast. Okay. Alright. Now today,
(01:31):
I'm talking with Sheila Buswell. Now let me tell you a
little bit about Sheila. She is the CEO and
cofounder of Buswell Biomedical, and she's a
veteran of the US army and author of the book, Is This
Seat for Me? Overcoming Imposter Syndrome in
Everyday Life in Business. Her book share stories of
(01:53):
a diverse group of accomplished individuals who struggled with
self doubt and found ways to overcome it.
Sheila developed the concept for the upward
mobility to improve the quality of life for people
at rehabilitation centers. And she promotes
physical mobility through technology. I'm
(02:15):
so excited. Can't wait to hear more about this. Welcome, Sheila
Buswell. Thank you, Robin. Thank you for having me. I'm so glad you're
here. Alright. So now you heard me kinda give your official introduction,
but why don't you start off by telling us whatever you like to tell
us about so people get a sense of you before we get into the longer
story, a sense of who you are and what you do.
(02:37):
I don't know. My story's gonna encapsulate all of me, but we'll try.
Well, give us a snapshot for what we could do today.
So when I was I joined the military
because I, you know, had a departmental scholarship that was tied to a high
GPA, and I lost that scholarship. So I was, like, wanted to pay for school,
so I joined the army. I ended up getting injured, and I got I was
(02:58):
in a rehab hospital. But it was a UN rehab hospital. I
had tons of people at my service to take care of me, all the health
care workers in the world. And then I I was
injured. I get a medical discharge. Complete my education at that
time, and I ended up with a MS in engineering, and I worked for a
lot of great companies. But twenty years after my injury, my mom
(03:20):
falls in Arizona, and she's in a rehab hospital
in Arizona where she didn't have the dedicated staff.
Like, my issue was I just didn't like to have an entourage with me
for everything I did, but I was in the military, and I thought, oh, that's
life then. You know? I signed up for this. My mom definitely did not.
(03:40):
And my mom, she's a woman who got married in the
fifties. So she doesn't have the same like, I was like,
okay. I didn't care if it was a man or if it was it was
all women for me, but I wouldn't care. Right? I didn't have the same but
my mom had to take she had to wait for hours for somebody to help
her and for any of the activities of daily living, but specifically toileting.
(04:00):
Right? You have to have somebody with you at all times.
And a lot of health care workers are male, which
good. But it leads
a task like, when you go to the airport, you have you
have to lift your luggage is limited to 50 pounds. Well, a person
doesn't weigh 50 pounds. Even my tiny little mama weighs a hundred pounds. So that's
(04:23):
two health care workers. And there's a lot of
accidents at fault because people don't wanna wait, and they just take themselves. So
there's, like, a hundred and $80,000,000,000 every year of lawsuits filed.
And I was in a situation where for the
majority, I had could empathize with my mom, and I was frustrated because
it had been twenty years and no changes. But, also, I had worked as an
(04:46):
engineer. I have a mechanical engineering degree and a biomedical engineering degree.
And for the most amount of my time, I did r and d and automation,
like, all of it. So although my first impulse when I
went to visit my mom in that rehab hospital was to burn it down, But
it was like, no. Those people are well intentioned. There's just not enough of them,
and there's not equipment, and they don't have the right tool for the job or
(05:07):
whatever. And so at the time, I
think you talk about finding a reason for living or,
like, purpose. And I was just gonna
keep my head down and finish my engineering degree out and work there. So my
plan was to just go work for who's ever developing a product like the upward
mobility. Well, what I've learned was that there was
(05:30):
nobody developing a product like the upward mobility. They solved the
problem in other ways. Like, instead of a fall, they would call it an unplanned
descent to the floor, to the chair, whatever with or without injury.
And they weren't solving or attacking the problem. They were just masking
it or calling it something else. So that
initial desire to just solve this
(05:52):
problem and go work for whoever was
solving this problem became my issue. Right? Like, I ended up getting a
patent and starting a business and doing this whole thing to develop a
product, which a lot of people in the entrepreneurial space are
serial entrepreneurs. They I did not have that in my plan for
myself, but I do realize now that the purpose that I'm given
(06:14):
every day doing what I do, is meaningful.
Right? I can provide more dignity through
the work that I do than you know, I'm helping a lot of people.
Whereas before, you know, I worked for great companies doing great things,
but I personally didn't feel fulfilled.
And the money was nice. It was nice to have a vacation, paid
(06:37):
vacation. It was nice to have a four zero one k, but it's
much more palatable to live every day knowing that
you're doing something that matters. Yes. Yes.
I mean, it does sound like really important work. So tell
for people who, you know, might be new to this understanding
(06:58):
of mobility, what is the upward mobility? The
upward mobility is a combination of a it's a mechanical, like, gantry type
system that fits through a hospital door and around the toilet.
And it's got artificial intelligence, machine learning, and sensors that
control the device so that any patient would have a
personalized situation where the device
(07:20):
would know their movement and what's normal for them
and society as a whole or whoever else has got this
machine learning algorithm. So in real time,
motion is analyzed and compared with your previous
motion and all the other peoples who are in this library.
And it allows people to conduct the activities of daily living, like
(07:42):
toileting, completely safe, but
independently. Like so instead of calling a health care
worker, you would call this device and it would come to you similar in a
similar way to a Roomba. You would connect your
personal harness that knows your motion and put it
on like a jacket and then go do your activities of daily living. And
(08:05):
the thing would know by a technology called radio frequency identification that
this person is in the upward mobility, and this is where it's located
and it has a speaker. If you need more help, if something happens and you
need help, a health care worker knows your location and where to send the help
that you need. So Wow. That's amazing.
That's amazing. So it lifts them. It lifts
(08:26):
them and helps them move in ways. Well, they move under their own
power, but it does lift them. If they need if they need help, like a
toddler. Right? Like, when they're learning how to walk, they stumble. You just pick them
up. I don't have any kids, but that's I have nieces
and nephews. I I know that well, and it would do that. It would allow
like, if somebody stumbles, it wouldn't they wouldn't be hanging there like a
(08:49):
pinata. They would just be off weighted enough where they could get their
feet under them. That's amazing, Sheila. That's
absolutely amazing. And you developed this?
This idea came to you from out of your mother's experience and
your experience, and you created a solution out of
a problem that you saw firsthand. I think that's absolutely incredible.
(09:13):
Thank you for saying that. When I wrote the book, is the seat
for me, it was all about imposter syndrome. Right? Because when I was pitching the
business to try and get money or, like, and educate myself
in business and machine learning and artificial intelligence in every
possible way. But when I asked questions, I was pathologized
with imposter syndrome, and I didn't know what that meant. I had never heard that
(09:34):
term before. And so I that's where the book came from. The
more I talked about this symptom, a lot of people have it, if
not everybody. And it was just kind of interesting to say, okay. Yeah. I
don't have it about machine learning or about business acumen, but I do have
it in other areas of my life, and I wouldn't have identified that previously. Yeah.
That's amazing. I mean, I know for you, it's
(09:57):
like you've done this a while ago, but I'm I'm very struck by
this and how it could help so many people, especially
in ways that they could not have been helped before. Absolutely
amazing. Alright. So which came first, the upward
mobility or the book? The upward mobility. Like, I had this
patent or I had filed for the patent, and I was taking business class,
(10:19):
business accelerators, things like that. And I started asking questions, and that's
when I learned about imposter syndrome. And then that's when I started talking. I've been
doing the upward mobility. My mom fell in 2018. Since then but
the book, I think, was published in 2023. So
it still took a couple years to write, and then I ended up rewriting it
again when I found out, oh, this is a problem a lot of people have,
(10:40):
but just not talked about. So
it all took a lot of time, but I again, the purpose. Right?
I thought, oh, is I talk about,
in the book, this is an issue that I have. But it's like, if you
don't look like what society expects, that can hinder their impression of
you. And I think, the society's impression of you can make
(11:02):
yourself question whether you belong where you are. And I
didn't have that question about, like yeah. I had no doubt I could learn
business or anything I needed to learn about machine learning artificial intelligence,
but it freaks me out if I'm in a room full of women or I
have to get a mask. Like, I just learned what an eyelash curler was. That
was my monster, my troll under that speaks to me or
(11:24):
goblin. It's like, oh, whispers in my ear. Yeah.
Yeah. So you're you're, let's see if I have this clear. You're
making the point that we have some things that we don't
like, we can be really confident and short of. And other
areas or things in our life where we're like, I don't know. I'm not is
this am I good enough in this particular area? And everybody has at
(11:46):
least one area. Yeah. Yes. Alright. So you said
you have yours with the the you know, use the
curling lashes example. Were you able to
overcome it, or do you just so, like, what do you teach in a book
to help people overcome it, sit with it, or what's
the what's the solution to the problem? In the book, I give five
(12:08):
personal solutions and two cultural solutions. But the my first and my
heaviest hitter is just remember your past experiences. And this
ties into the I didn't have any past experiences with an
eyelash curler, but I'm like, I figured out a concrete countertop and how to make
it. So I can figure this out. So I did it like
everybody. It just gave me the confidence to move on. Yeah. Okay. I
(12:30):
don't know what this is. It's a I mean, I don't know if you have
this, Robin, if you have this same
inner talk, but I don't like to not be an expert. I didn't wanna go
up to a makeup counter and be like, what is you know what I mean?
Because I just makes me feel some kind of way to
acknowledge that I don't know everything even though I know that I don't know
everything. But if you have imposter syndrome, like I do, I was like,
(12:53):
I didn't even wanna ask questions. I just wanted to pretend I knew it all.
And which is different. Like, if I had a machine learning question or a a
business question, I had no problem asking asking it. But all of a sudden,
I don't know what color makeup do I wear, what color
mascara, eye color, what is this thing? I'm I wouldn't ask that
question. I understand that. And I think it's common in my
(13:15):
experience because here in the podcast in general in my life and world,
I, work with, talk to what I call high achieving women. High
achieving women and men, all high achievers, basically. And what
I noticed, I particularly pay attention to women because this is the podcast,
high achievers, we have a tendency of
knowing lots of things and being good at some
(13:38):
things. So it's a challenge when we don't know
something or, like in your case, you don't wanna ask for help
because we're used to knowing it. And in my experience with talking
with so many women over the over the four years of the podcast so
far, a lot of it stems from
being young, getting good grades, getting
(13:59):
the star, getting the a's. And so when there's something that's
off from that because we were, celebrated for doing that.
And so if you don't have that moment of, I know I'm this is
a thing that I'll get an a in or get the star for, so to
speak. Then it's just not we don't have the experience, the training to even
manage what that's like.
(14:21):
So this is this is a pattern I see across the the women
I've talked to over the last four years. I don't know. It it comes up
in different areas of my life. Like, video game, I'm not
on level one anymore like I was in my twenties. I'm progressed.
So just recently, a book had come out. I had done all the stuff,
considered an expert in imposter syndrome. I was pitching my business, and part of my
(14:44):
business story is my deployment and my time in the military.
And I got a medical discharge. Right? A generator. But a generator fell on
my foot. I didn't serve in Iraq. I didn't go to Afghanistan. So it was
like I had imposter syndrome about that, and it manifested in a weird way.
Like, I would record myself on the TV and my
hand would fly up. Or I just speak fast even though I would
(15:06):
concentrate on slowing down. And I think and that's
one of my five things too is when you compare your service to somebody else's
or you compare yourself. I mean, it's ridiculous because you
don't know the other person's path. You don't know how they got there.
But I'd never want somebody to be more injured. The
idea is ridiculous. I don't want some to go to war. I don't wanna send
(15:28):
people to war. I don't wanna, you know, have that. But I was worried about
that, like, comparing it's legitimate, what happened to
me, but it's not the most thank goodness. It wasn't the worst
possible thing that could happen to me. Yeah. And, you know, I
I love both of those, and it's let me go back to the last one
because I wanted to highlight what you said about your
(15:49):
past experience. Like, that does give you confidence. If you know
you've done all these other things and you can do well, like in your
case, you said you can do all these mechanical things, certainly, you can figure this
out or be taught this one, this this makeup thing. And so I think
that's a nugget. I wanted to to highlight that for people who are listening because
that's something they can do right now. Like, if they're struggling with something, they could
(16:11):
remember the past success or the past success that they have,
all the other things they're able to do. And somehow, before they
were able to do those things, they didn't know. Let's take driving,
for example. Those of us who drive, there was a point where we
didn't know how to drive, and there was a point where we weren't that good
at it. I'm laughing because I'm imagining
(16:34):
myself as 16 year old 16 year old. You should oh, it was it was
it was an event watching me drive. Anyway It's funny how you say
that because I say the same thing. On ramp to the I felt like I
was going so fast, and I was going 45. And now I'm, like, the person
who would be lose my patience, somebody going 45 on an on
ramp. It's an acceleration lane. Go ahead. Sorry. We don't even think about
(16:55):
it. Right? Driving, we don't even notice that we're making the movements or doing
the things. It's just unconscious. So you and I are on the same
wavelength in terms of helping person think about
something you've done before. You figured it out. You learned. You became good at
it. So I think that's a good a good bit of wisdom for people
to take away. And speaking of wisdom, alright. So
(17:18):
now we mentioned but before before we give them wisdom,
let me hear more about do you feel like your life or and or
work has meaning and purpose now? Yes.
Yes. I do. What do you think attributes to it? I think
I spend a lot of I know it's because I spent my
time and my talent and all my energy in achieving a goal that I
(17:40):
totally think is worthwhile and will help a lot of people. And that brings
me back to that moment that you kinda lost
over, but I think it's very significant. Do you
remember when you decided you were gonna try to develop
Upward Mobility even if you didn't have the name? Was there a
moment when you said, I'm gonna do something about this?
(18:03):
I think it was a small evolution. It wasn't like I had an
moment. At first, I was, like, figuring out how to solve a problem. I saw
my mom struggling because she was waiting sometimes
hours, not because my mom's huge, but because they're short staffed. And they're even
more short they were short staffed in 2018. In 2025, after several
years of pandemic, they're even more short staffed, so the longer
(18:24):
wait times. And it frustrated me because I knew there was a better way. So
in my mind, I was solving this problem, but I thought other people would have
solved the problem, and I would just go work for who's ever doing this. And
I was thinking in my mind that was probably like, all I've
worked biomedical. That's my advanced degree is biomedical
engineering. Right? So I thought I'll have no problem. I
(18:46):
worked for Harley Davidson. I worked for Anheuser Busch. I worked for
Bausch and Lomb. Like, I didn't think I would have an issue going to work
for whoever, but it never occurred to me
that nobody was developing or trying to solve such a problem.
It's better to just not acknowledge that that problem's going on, and that
didn't make sense to me. So it wasn't like I
(19:09):
had this idea, but I was like, there was a
point at in that continuum, I think it was about a year,
where I was like, if not it it's not being worked on. It hasn't
been worked on in the last twenty years. If not me, then who? If not
now, then when? And I do think that was a pep talk that I gave
myself. I've heard this so many times that a
(19:32):
ship is perfectly safe in the harbor, but that's not what a ship
is built for. And I thought, you know, I was prepared in
so many ways for exactly the situation. Just need
to tackle it. I need to step through that open door. And it's that's a
hard thing to do. Right? Like, following your own intuition and being
like, I need to I've taught engineering. I've
(19:54):
taught biomedical physics. I need to actually do
it. And it wasn't a moment where I was
like, I'll do this. That wasn't something ten years ago that I thought I would
do, but it's definitely something I'm glad I did. Glad
you did too, and I'm glad you're sharing your story right now. I feel like
it's inspiring somebody in this exact moment. I feel
(20:16):
that to be true. Okay. Speaking of inspiring someone, alright. We mentioned
we talked about this a little bit before we started recording. Let me say a
little more. The podcast is to inspire
women. I mentioned high achievers. So let me describe my
definition of a high achiever. A woman who is ambitious
in a positive way, responsible, sort of the
(20:38):
responsible one all around. People come to her in her
professional life. Oh, let me let me get your advice on this or let me,
you know, hear what you have to say about this. In her personal life, whether
it's the family, community, neighbor, they ask her for
advice, whether it's anything she knows about or not.
They just kinda come to her. She's that person, or she's any one of
(21:01):
these things, the characteristics that I'm I'm naming to you. And she's good
at a few things, and she's she's okay with
people coming to her. She's that person. But I thought,
well, if she's that person, maybe the podcast could be a
place where achievers come together and kind of support
each other while we're supporting everyone else in that way.
(21:23):
Then as time went on, I realized she's also
looking for more meaning and purpose in her work. She has the
success, and now there's something missing.
So that's who we're talking to right now. So from any area
of your life and or work, what's one thing
you could say to encourage her or inspire her or
(21:45):
advice you wanna give to her? I think so often, women
especially, they look for other people's advice. And I think
following your own intuition more often I'm not saying
disregard all advice you're given because that's silly.
But listen to yourself more, and you know what doors to walk through. You're
inside your gut or whatever knows. But, you know, when I
(22:07):
left Anheuser Busch, everyone thought that was insane. I live in Saint
Louis. That's the place to work. People worked there for thirty
years. But then I left there because this
wasn't growing. There was nothing else to teach me, and I didn't it's not like
I was motivated in a certain way. I took a huge pay cut. But
six months later, they went from 400 corporate engineers to 12.
(22:30):
So there was a lot of
just the the market here was flooded because Saint Louis is a huge
city. But I I already had a job. I was already doing the things.
And I didn't it's not like I knew to
listen to those people. It's not like I was married at that time, and I
didn't have a safety net. But I was like, I just feel that's the right
(22:51):
thing to do. And I think I was told that multiple
times by powerful women that, you know, you just gotta follow what you think is
right. But that's not something I think most people
most women, especially if your parents are working class.
You know? Quitting a good job is not something, you know, to to move to
a lesser impressive job, not one that makes sense. But maybe
(23:14):
that's what you we need to tell people. Because, ultimately,
it happened to me. I wasn't fulfilled with what I was doing even though I
was making tons of money. I was motivated by that, but it was very superficial.
Now I don't make money, but I feel motivated
every day to work. Yeah. I love that. I love that. And I'll
say the people who are listening, I'm guessing that's very helpful what you just
(23:37):
said. And it's not the only thing to your
point. You could have both. You don't have to have either or. You could
have both. There's lots of ways of doing this. But, yeah, I think your
story is absolutely amazing. I think what you've what you've
developed is a gift to the world, and that you're sharing the
story is an additional gift upon the gift. And I
(23:58):
feel fortunate that we had this opportunity today to talk about
it and hear your story. So thank you for being here. Thank
you. Thank you, doctor Robin, for saying that because I feel this is a great
conversation, and your work is so important too as well as you know. Oh,
people wanna hear from you. How can they reach you? What's your website? So
the book is called Is This Seat For Me. I have the website that goes
(24:20):
with that www.isthisseatforme.com.
And if you go to that web address, you can get a free
chapter of the audiobook or ebook, whatever your flavor is. My
sister calls it the dead tree option. That's not available, obviously,
but every other option is. And then start an email conversation. I won't
spam you, but we can talk then. That's the best way. Okay.
(24:43):
Is this seat for me? Wonderful. Sheila, thank you so
much for taking time out of your busy day and sharing your your
wisdom here with us today. I've been inspired by it. Appreciate
you. Thanks. Okay, everyone. I'd love to hear from
you. And is your response to the podcast
episode today? Anything that really stuck out for you today, any
(25:05):
questions that you have, head on over to the podcast
website, leadershippurposepodcast.com,
leadership purpose podcast Com, and let me know what
you think. Or if you rather, just go on social media, follow me on
any of the channels, but I spend most of my time on LinkedIn at
Robin L Owens PhD, at Robin L Owens PhD.
(25:28):
So just send me a connection request and a message, and I'll be happy to
get back to you. And in the meantime,
this is Dr Robin. Thank you for tuning
into this episode of the Leadership Purpose with Dr Robin
podcast. If you enjoyed it, head on over and
rate and subscribe so you never miss an episode.
(25:50):
New episodes drop every week and I can't wait to hang
out with you again soon. Meanwhile,
this is Dr. Robin signing off.
See you next time.
Welcome to the Leadership Purpose with Dr. Robin podcast.
I'm your host, Robin L Owens, PhD. I'm a college
professor. And when I'm not doing that, I am teaching others
how to find and stay in alignment with their true purpose.
And this is where we talk with women who've made bold career
transitions in search for more meaning and purpose in
(00:24):
their work. So if you're feeling that pull toward more meaning and purpose in
your work or just curious about what's possible when you
pursue purpose over position, then these
conversations are here to encourage, inspire,
and guide you. Okay. Let's get started.
Hi, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Leadership
(00:47):
Purpose with Dr. Robin podcast. I'm so glad you're
here and you've listened into the podcast. I really appreciate it. I
say it all the time. I'll continue to say it. I appreciate you for
listening in. And because you've been such faithful listeners, you helped
us get ranked in the top 5% of all
podcasts globally according to listen notes. So thank you for
(01:09):
doing that. And continue to help us out. Rate,
review, subscribe to the podcast. I know we hear that all the
time, but it really does help and it it matters to us. So if there's
something in particular that you like, share that in a
review. It'll help others to be encouraged and inspired by the
podcast. Okay. Alright. Now today,
(01:31):
I'm talking with Sheila Buswell. Now let me tell you a
little bit about Sheila. She is the CEO and
cofounder of Buswell Biomedical, and she's a
veteran of the US army and author of the book, Is This
Seat for Me? Overcoming Imposter Syndrome in
Everyday Life in Business. Her book share stories of
(01:53):
a diverse group of accomplished individuals who struggled with
self doubt and found ways to overcome it.
Sheila developed the concept for the upward
mobility to improve the quality of life for people
at rehabilitation centers. And she promotes
physical mobility through technology. I'm
(02:15):
so excited. Can't wait to hear more about this. Welcome, Sheila
Buswell. Thank you, Robin. Thank you for having me. I'm so glad you're
here. Alright. So now you heard me kinda give your official introduction,
but why don't you start off by telling us whatever you like to tell
us about so people get a sense of you before we get into the longer
story, a sense of who you are and what you do.
(02:37):
I don't know. My story's gonna encapsulate all of me, but we'll try.
Well, give us a snapshot for what we could do today.
So when I was I joined the military
because I, you know, had a departmental scholarship that was tied to a high
GPA, and I lost that scholarship. So I was, like, wanted to pay for school,
so I joined the army. I ended up getting injured, and I got I was
(02:58):
in a rehab hospital. But it was a UN rehab hospital. I
had tons of people at my service to take care of me, all the health
care workers in the world. And then I I was
injured. I get a medical discharge. Complete my education at that
time, and I ended up with a MS in engineering, and I worked for a
lot of great companies. But twenty years after my injury, my mom
(03:20):
falls in Arizona, and she's in a rehab hospital
in Arizona where she didn't have the dedicated staff.
Like, my issue was I just didn't like to have an entourage with me
for everything I did, but I was in the military, and I thought, oh, that's
life then. You know? I signed up for this. My mom definitely did not.
(03:40):
And my mom, she's a woman who got married in the
fifties. So she doesn't have the same like, I was like,
okay. I didn't care if it was a man or if it was it was
all women for me, but I wouldn't care. Right? I didn't have the same but
my mom had to take she had to wait for hours for somebody to help
her and for any of the activities of daily living, but specifically toileting.
(04:00):
Right? You have to have somebody with you at all times.
And a lot of health care workers are male, which
good. But it leads
a task like, when you go to the airport, you have you
have to lift your luggage is limited to 50 pounds. Well, a person
doesn't weigh 50 pounds. Even my tiny little mama weighs a hundred pounds. So that's
(04:23):
two health care workers. And there's a lot of
accidents at fault because people don't wanna wait, and they just take themselves. So
there's, like, a hundred and $80,000,000,000 every year of lawsuits filed.
And I was in a situation where for the
majority, I had could empathize with my mom, and I was frustrated because
it had been twenty years and no changes. But, also, I had worked as an
(04:46):
engineer. I have a mechanical engineering degree and a biomedical engineering degree.
And for the most amount of my time, I did r and d and automation,
like, all of it. So although my first impulse when I
went to visit my mom in that rehab hospital was to burn it down, But
it was like, no. Those people are well intentioned. There's just not enough of them,
and there's not equipment, and they don't have the right tool for the job or
(05:07):
whatever. And so at the time, I
think you talk about finding a reason for living or,
like, purpose. And I was just gonna
keep my head down and finish my engineering degree out and work there. So my
plan was to just go work for who's ever developing a product like the upward
mobility. Well, what I've learned was that there was
(05:30):
nobody developing a product like the upward mobility. They solved the
problem in other ways. Like, instead of a fall, they would call it an unplanned
descent to the floor, to the chair, whatever with or without injury.
And they weren't solving or attacking the problem. They were just masking
it or calling it something else. So that
initial desire to just solve this
(05:52):
problem and go work for whoever was
solving this problem became my issue. Right? Like, I ended up getting a
patent and starting a business and doing this whole thing to develop a
product, which a lot of people in the entrepreneurial space are
serial entrepreneurs. They I did not have that in my plan for
myself, but I do realize now that the purpose that I'm given
(06:14):
every day doing what I do, is meaningful.
Right? I can provide more dignity through
the work that I do than you know, I'm helping a lot of people.
Whereas before, you know, I worked for great companies doing great things,
but I personally didn't feel fulfilled.
And the money was nice. It was nice to have a vacation, paid
(06:37):
vacation. It was nice to have a four zero one k, but it's
much more palatable to live every day knowing that
you're doing something that matters. Yes. Yes.
I mean, it does sound like really important work. So tell
for people who, you know, might be new to this understanding
(06:58):
of mobility, what is the upward mobility? The
upward mobility is a combination of a it's a mechanical, like, gantry type
system that fits through a hospital door and around the toilet.
And it's got artificial intelligence, machine learning, and sensors that
control the device so that any patient would have a
personalized situation where the device
(07:20):
would know their movement and what's normal for them
and society as a whole or whoever else has got this
machine learning algorithm. So in real time,
motion is analyzed and compared with your previous
motion and all the other peoples who are in this library.
And it allows people to conduct the activities of daily living, like
(07:42):
toileting, completely safe, but
independently. Like so instead of calling a health care
worker, you would call this device and it would come to you similar in a
similar way to a Roomba. You would connect your
personal harness that knows your motion and put it
on like a jacket and then go do your activities of daily living. And
(08:05):
the thing would know by a technology called radio frequency identification that
this person is in the upward mobility, and this is where it's located
and it has a speaker. If you need more help, if something happens and you
need help, a health care worker knows your location and where to send the help
that you need. So Wow. That's amazing.
That's amazing. So it lifts them. It lifts
(08:26):
them and helps them move in ways. Well, they move under their own
power, but it does lift them. If they need if they need help, like a
toddler. Right? Like, when they're learning how to walk, they stumble. You just pick them
up. I don't have any kids, but that's I have nieces
and nephews. I I know that well, and it would do that. It would allow
like, if somebody stumbles, it wouldn't they wouldn't be hanging there like a
(08:49):
pinata. They would just be off weighted enough where they could get their
feet under them. That's amazing, Sheila. That's
absolutely amazing. And you developed this?
This idea came to you from out of your mother's experience and
your experience, and you created a solution out of
a problem that you saw firsthand. I think that's absolutely incredible.
(09:13):
Thank you for saying that. When I wrote the book, is the seat
for me, it was all about imposter syndrome. Right? Because when I was pitching the
business to try and get money or, like, and educate myself
in business and machine learning and artificial intelligence in every
possible way. But when I asked questions, I was pathologized
with imposter syndrome, and I didn't know what that meant. I had never heard that
(09:34):
term before. And so I that's where the book came from. The
more I talked about this symptom, a lot of people have it, if
not everybody. And it was just kind of interesting to say, okay. Yeah. I
don't have it about machine learning or about business acumen, but I do have
it in other areas of my life, and I wouldn't have identified that previously. Yeah.
That's amazing. I mean, I know for you, it's
(09:57):
like you've done this a while ago, but I'm I'm very struck by
this and how it could help so many people, especially
in ways that they could not have been helped before. Absolutely
amazing. Alright. So which came first, the upward
mobility or the book? The upward mobility. Like, I had this
patent or I had filed for the patent, and I was taking business class,
(10:19):
business accelerators, things like that. And I started asking questions, and that's
when I learned about imposter syndrome. And then that's when I started talking. I've been
doing the upward mobility. My mom fell in 2018. Since then but
the book, I think, was published in 2023. So
it still took a couple years to write, and then I ended up rewriting it
again when I found out, oh, this is a problem a lot of people have,
(10:40):
but just not talked about. So
it all took a lot of time, but I again, the purpose. Right?
I thought, oh, is I talk about,
in the book, this is an issue that I have. But it's like, if you
don't look like what society expects, that can hinder their impression of
you. And I think, the society's impression of you can make
(11:02):
yourself question whether you belong where you are. And I
didn't have that question about, like yeah. I had no doubt I could learn
business or anything I needed to learn about machine learning artificial intelligence,
but it freaks me out if I'm in a room full of women or I
have to get a mask. Like, I just learned what an eyelash curler was. That
was my monster, my troll under that speaks to me or
(11:24):
goblin. It's like, oh, whispers in my ear. Yeah.
Yeah. So you're you're, let's see if I have this clear. You're
making the point that we have some things that we don't
like, we can be really confident and short of. And other
areas or things in our life where we're like, I don't know. I'm not is
this am I good enough in this particular area? And everybody has at
(11:46):
least one area. Yeah. Yes. Alright. So you said
you have yours with the the you know, use the
curling lashes example. Were you able to
overcome it, or do you just so, like, what do you teach in a book
to help people overcome it, sit with it, or what's
the what's the solution to the problem? In the book, I give five
(12:08):
personal solutions and two cultural solutions. But the my first and my
heaviest hitter is just remember your past experiences. And this
ties into the I didn't have any past experiences with an
eyelash curler, but I'm like, I figured out a concrete countertop and how to make
it. So I can figure this out. So I did it like
everybody. It just gave me the confidence to move on. Yeah. Okay. I
(12:30):
don't know what this is. It's a I mean, I don't know if you have
this, Robin, if you have this same
inner talk, but I don't like to not be an expert. I didn't wanna go
up to a makeup counter and be like, what is you know what I mean?
Because I just makes me feel some kind of way to
acknowledge that I don't know everything even though I know that I don't know
everything. But if you have imposter syndrome, like I do, I was like,
(12:53):
I didn't even wanna ask questions. I just wanted to pretend I knew it all.
And which is different. Like, if I had a machine learning question or a a
business question, I had no problem asking asking it. But all of a sudden,
I don't know what color makeup do I wear, what color
mascara, eye color, what is this thing? I'm I wouldn't ask that
question. I understand that. And I think it's common in my
(13:15):
experience because here in the podcast in general in my life and world,
I, work with, talk to what I call high achieving women. High
achieving women and men, all high achievers, basically. And what
I noticed, I particularly pay attention to women because this is the podcast,
high achievers, we have a tendency of
knowing lots of things and being good at some
(13:38):
things. So it's a challenge when we don't know
something or, like in your case, you don't wanna ask for help
because we're used to knowing it. And in my experience with talking
with so many women over the over the four years of the podcast so
far, a lot of it stems from
being young, getting good grades, getting
(13:59):
the star, getting the a's. And so when there's something that's
off from that because we were, celebrated for doing that.
And so if you don't have that moment of, I know I'm this is
a thing that I'll get an a in or get the star for, so to
speak. Then it's just not we don't have the experience, the training to even
manage what that's like.
(14:21):
So this is this is a pattern I see across the the women
I've talked to over the last four years. I don't know. It it comes up
in different areas of my life. Like, video game, I'm not
on level one anymore like I was in my twenties. I'm progressed.
So just recently, a book had come out. I had done all the stuff,
considered an expert in imposter syndrome. I was pitching my business, and part of my
(14:44):
business story is my deployment and my time in the military.
And I got a medical discharge. Right? A generator. But a generator fell on
my foot. I didn't serve in Iraq. I didn't go to Afghanistan. So it was
like I had imposter syndrome about that, and it manifested in a weird way.
Like, I would record myself on the TV and my
hand would fly up. Or I just speak fast even though I would
(15:06):
concentrate on slowing down. And I think and that's
one of my five things too is when you compare your service to somebody else's
or you compare yourself. I mean, it's ridiculous because you
don't know the other person's path. You don't know how they got there.
But I'd never want somebody to be more injured. The
idea is ridiculous. I don't want some to go to war. I don't wanna send
(15:28):
people to war. I don't wanna, you know, have that. But I was worried about
that, like, comparing it's legitimate, what happened to
me, but it's not the most thank goodness. It wasn't the worst
possible thing that could happen to me. Yeah. And, you know, I
I love both of those, and it's let me go back to the last one
because I wanted to highlight what you said about your
(15:49):
past experience. Like, that does give you confidence. If you know
you've done all these other things and you can do well, like in your
case, you said you can do all these mechanical things, certainly, you can figure this
out or be taught this one, this this makeup thing. And so I think
that's a nugget. I wanted to to highlight that for people who are listening because
that's something they can do right now. Like, if they're struggling with something, they could
(16:11):
remember the past success or the past success that they have,
all the other things they're able to do. And somehow, before they
were able to do those things, they didn't know. Let's take driving,
for example. Those of us who drive, there was a point where we
didn't know how to drive, and there was a point where we weren't that good
at it. I'm laughing because I'm imagining
(16:34):
myself as 16 year old 16 year old. You should oh, it was it was
it was an event watching me drive. Anyway It's funny how you say
that because I say the same thing. On ramp to the I felt like I
was going so fast, and I was going 45. And now I'm, like, the person
who would be lose my patience, somebody going 45 on an on
ramp. It's an acceleration lane. Go ahead. Sorry. We don't even think about
(16:55):
it. Right? Driving, we don't even notice that we're making the movements or doing
the things. It's just unconscious. So you and I are on the same
wavelength in terms of helping person think about
something you've done before. You figured it out. You learned. You became good at
it. So I think that's a good a good bit of wisdom for people
to take away. And speaking of wisdom, alright. So
(17:18):
now we mentioned but before before we give them wisdom,
let me hear more about do you feel like your life or and or
work has meaning and purpose now? Yes.
Yes. I do. What do you think attributes to it? I think
I spend a lot of I know it's because I spent my
time and my talent and all my energy in achieving a goal that I
(17:40):
totally think is worthwhile and will help a lot of people. And that brings
me back to that moment that you kinda lost
over, but I think it's very significant. Do you
remember when you decided you were gonna try to develop
Upward Mobility even if you didn't have the name? Was there a
moment when you said, I'm gonna do something about this?
(18:03):
I think it was a small evolution. It wasn't like I had an
moment. At first, I was, like, figuring out how to solve a problem. I saw
my mom struggling because she was waiting sometimes
hours, not because my mom's huge, but because they're short staffed. And they're even
more short they were short staffed in 2018. In 2025, after several
years of pandemic, they're even more short staffed, so the longer
(18:24):
wait times. And it frustrated me because I knew there was a better way. So
in my mind, I was solving this problem, but I thought other people would have
solved the problem, and I would just go work for who's ever doing this. And
I was thinking in my mind that was probably like, all I've
worked biomedical. That's my advanced degree is biomedical
engineering. Right? So I thought I'll have no problem. I
(18:46):
worked for Harley Davidson. I worked for Anheuser Busch. I worked for
Bausch and Lomb. Like, I didn't think I would have an issue going to work
for whoever, but it never occurred to me
that nobody was developing or trying to solve such a problem.
It's better to just not acknowledge that that problem's going on, and that
didn't make sense to me. So it wasn't like I
(19:09):
had this idea, but I was like, there was a
point at in that continuum, I think it was about a year,
where I was like, if not it it's not being worked on. It hasn't
been worked on in the last twenty years. If not me, then who? If not
now, then when? And I do think that was a pep talk that I gave
myself. I've heard this so many times that a
(19:32):
ship is perfectly safe in the harbor, but that's not what a ship
is built for. And I thought, you know, I was prepared in
so many ways for exactly the situation. Just need
to tackle it. I need to step through that open door. And it's that's a
hard thing to do. Right? Like, following your own intuition and being
like, I need to I've taught engineering. I've
(19:54):
taught biomedical physics. I need to actually do
it. And it wasn't a moment where I was
like, I'll do this. That wasn't something ten years ago that I thought I would
do, but it's definitely something I'm glad I did. Glad
you did too, and I'm glad you're sharing your story right now. I feel like
it's inspiring somebody in this exact moment. I feel
(20:16):
that to be true. Okay. Speaking of inspiring someone, alright. We mentioned
we talked about this a little bit before we started recording. Let me say a
little more. The podcast is to inspire
women. I mentioned high achievers. So let me describe my
definition of a high achiever. A woman who is ambitious
in a positive way, responsible, sort of the
(20:38):
responsible one all around. People come to her in her
professional life. Oh, let me let me get your advice on this or let me,
you know, hear what you have to say about this. In her personal life, whether
it's the family, community, neighbor, they ask her for
advice, whether it's anything she knows about or not.
They just kinda come to her. She's that person, or she's any one of
(21:01):
these things, the characteristics that I'm I'm naming to you. And she's good
at a few things, and she's she's okay with
people coming to her. She's that person. But I thought,
well, if she's that person, maybe the podcast could be a
place where achievers come together and kind of support
each other while we're supporting everyone else in that way.
(21:23):
Then as time went on, I realized she's also
looking for more meaning and purpose in her work. She has the
success, and now there's something missing.
So that's who we're talking to right now. So from any area
of your life and or work, what's one thing
you could say to encourage her or inspire her or
(21:45):
advice you wanna give to her? I think so often, women
especially, they look for other people's advice. And I think
following your own intuition more often I'm not saying
disregard all advice you're given because that's silly.
But listen to yourself more, and you know what doors to walk through. You're
inside your gut or whatever knows. But, you know, when I
(22:07):
left Anheuser Busch, everyone thought that was insane. I live in Saint
Louis. That's the place to work. People worked there for thirty
years. But then I left there because this
wasn't growing. There was nothing else to teach me, and I didn't it's not like
I was motivated in a certain way. I took a huge pay cut. But
six months later, they went from 400 corporate engineers to 12.
(22:30):
So there was a lot of
just the the market here was flooded because Saint Louis is a huge
city. But I I already had a job. I was already doing the things.
And I didn't it's not like I knew to
listen to those people. It's not like I was married at that time, and I
didn't have a safety net. But I was like, I just feel that's the right
(22:51):
thing to do. And I think I was told that multiple
times by powerful women that, you know, you just gotta follow what you think is
right. But that's not something I think most people
most women, especially if your parents are working class.
You know? Quitting a good job is not something, you know, to to move to
a lesser impressive job, not one that makes sense. But maybe
(23:14):
that's what you we need to tell people. Because, ultimately,
it happened to me. I wasn't fulfilled with what I was doing even though I
was making tons of money. I was motivated by that, but it was very superficial.
Now I don't make money, but I feel motivated
every day to work. Yeah. I love that. I love that. And I'll
say the people who are listening, I'm guessing that's very helpful what you just
(23:37):
said. And it's not the only thing to your
point. You could have both. You don't have to have either or. You could
have both. There's lots of ways of doing this. But, yeah, I think your
story is absolutely amazing. I think what you've what you've
developed is a gift to the world, and that you're sharing the
story is an additional gift upon the gift. And I
(23:58):
feel fortunate that we had this opportunity today to talk about
it and hear your story. So thank you for being here. Thank
you. Thank you, doctor Robin, for saying that because I feel this is a great
conversation, and your work is so important too as well as you know. Oh,
people wanna hear from you. How can they reach you? What's your website? So
the book is called Is This Seat For Me. I have the website that goes
(24:20):
with that www.isthisseatforme.com.
And if you go to that web address, you can get a free
chapter of the audiobook or ebook, whatever your flavor is. My
sister calls it the dead tree option. That's not available, obviously,
but every other option is. And then start an email conversation. I won't
spam you, but we can talk then. That's the best way. Okay.
(24:43):
Is this seat for me? Wonderful. Sheila, thank you so
much for taking time out of your busy day and sharing your your
wisdom here with us today. I've been inspired by it. Appreciate
you. Thanks. Okay, everyone. I'd love to hear from
you. And is your response to the podcast
episode today? Anything that really stuck out for you today, any
(25:05):
questions that you have, head on over to the podcast
website, leadershippurposepodcast.com,
leadership purpose podcast Com, and let me know what
you think. Or if you rather, just go on social media, follow me on
any of the channels, but I spend most of my time on LinkedIn at
Robin L Owens PhD, at Robin L Owens PhD.
(25:28):
So just send me a connection request and a message, and I'll be happy to
get back to you. And in the meantime,
this is Dr Robin. Thank you for tuning
into this episode of the Leadership Purpose with Dr Robin
podcast. If you enjoyed it, head on over and
rate and subscribe so you never miss an episode.
(25:50):
New episodes drop every week and I can't wait to hang
out with you again soon. Meanwhile,
this is Dr. Robin signing off.
See you next time.
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