6. How Heather Wilson Built a Private Pay Foot Care Business

Episode Transcript
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Heather (00:03):
And so one night I was working and being the assertive
charge nurse that I am, I said,Why does it take six consults
for you to come over here toprovide that service?
And the podiatrist said to me,Because I make no money on this.
I was like, I'm sorry, what?
I make no money on this.

Marsha (00:20):
Welcome to the Blossomurse Podcast, a show
about nurse creators,innovators, risk takers, and the
ideas that shape their success.
I'm Marcia Batti, and on theshow today, how Heather Wilson
turned a massive gap in patientfoot care into a private paid
nursing business and a nationaltraining institute that helps

(00:43):
nurses reclaim autonomy andimpact.
As health care became morespecialized, routine foot care
quietly slipped out of focus.
As podiatry shifted towardsadvanced procedures and surgery,
basic nail and foot maintenancelost its place, despite being

(01:04):
essential for mobility, fallprevention, and infection
control.
The need never disappeared, butaccess did, forcing families to
fill the gaps as preventablecomplications rose.
Heather Wilson encountered theproblem on the floor.
As a cardiovascular chargenurse, she watched patients wait

(01:27):
days for something as basic asfoot care or be told it wasn't
coming at all, realizing thatwhat the system no longer made
room for was creating real risksfor the people she cared for
most.
But before Heather Wilson everwent to nursing school and
encountered those challenges onthe floor, she imagined a very

(01:48):
different future.

Heather (01:50):
I actually wanted to be a fashion buyer in New York
City.
Like, yeah, it's that's what Iwanted.
I love fashion.
I got all the like back in theday, you'd get the magazines in
the mail, I'd get the vogues andthe L and all those magazines.
Um, and my cousin was a nurseand was successful.

(02:10):
And my mother was working inthe hospital and she's like, you
should go for nursing.
And it ended up kind of justhappening over time.
Uh my grandfather had a stroke,and I saw nursing from that
perspective of working with him.
So it kind of was like the seedwas planted at a young age, but
then you go through those, youknow, high school years where

(02:32):
you're like, I want to do this,and you know, and then you kind
of get real with what is gonnawork out and such.
It's interesting.
Um, over the years, I took I'vetaken care of many patients,
and I did take care of a patientat the hospital who was a
fashion buyer and lived in NewYork City.
And it was really interestingbecause she was in her 30s, and
so was I at the time, and shewas looking for a job and she
was telling me how they age youout of that industry.

(02:55):
And so it was interestingbecause it's something I never
even yeah, and so I was like, Imade the right choice with
nursing, sort of like devilwears data kind of thing.
Yes, it really was.
Oh my god, because I told her Iwas like, I wanted to go, and
she was like, Yeah, she goesaround 30, they start to age you
out and you have to find adifferent path.
And so I it was reallyinteresting to learn that.

Marsha (03:16):
So, where did the fashion buyer come in?

Heather (03:19):
Because it's interesting because back in
those days, we had one of thefirst reality shows that was out
was on MTV and it was calledThe Real World.
And so you got to see all thesepeople living together and they
were living in New York City,and there was someone that was
on there that was in fashion andthey were part of that.
And so I was like, okay, andthen at the same time,
Stubenville is close toPittsburgh.

(03:40):
So we had the art institutethat was also talking about all
these different avenues that youcould go into, and fashion
buying was one of them.
And so that's kind of how Ikind of came up with that idea.
But I go to New York often, butI definitely am definitely
grateful that the path that youknow I took and God knew he knew

(04:00):
what I needed to do.
Yeah, I just am like he knewbetter than me.
As I can say, he's known betterthan me over the years of
business development andeverything.
I'm like, yeah, you know, andit's been interesting.
But yeah, I definitely lovenursing and I'm glad I uh took
this career path.

Marsha (04:16):
Yeah, and and we're gonna talk about all of the
nursing uh that you've beendoing over the over the years,
including business.
So I'm excited to talk aboutthat.
Um, I do want to ask you onemore question because I'm so
curious about this about thefashion.
Um and I know you had a lot ofmedical professionals in your
family that sort of gave youthat insight of what being in
the medical field would be.

(04:38):
Was there at one point whereyou just made that shift and
said, you know what, I'm goingto do something that's more
aligned with family values, hardwork, things like that, instead
of the glamour of New YorkCity?

Heather (04:51):
I think what it was was it was just a combination of
things.
I actually was dating a guywhose mother was a nurse and she
was a charge nurse and at ourlocal hospital, and I rounded
with her.
And it was interesting becauseshe said, Come on with me, we're
gonna go round.
Now, this is way back in theday when you could do stuff like
this.
Yeah.
And we rounded with the doctor.
And I watched how she would gointo these rooms with these

(05:15):
doctors and talk about patientsand basically was negotiating.
I didn't know it at the time,but she was negotiating the care
for these patients and what wasbest for the patient, and would
sometimes be challenged by thephysician.
And I was just like, oh, that'suh that's definitely a level of

(05:36):
like nursing I didn't know waseven possible.
And so it was really aneye-opening experience to see
how she really could guide and,you know, shift the perspective
of what these patients needed,oftentimes much more than what
the doctor themselves need knew,um, because you know, they were
young, or you know, back thenwe were just in the beginning of

(05:57):
starting to have the in theinterns, the residents, and all
that kind of stuff.
And so it was interesting tosee how she um took that in that
unit and really drove that andcared for these patients
collectively.
And I was, I that was kind ofthe moment that I was like, I
think I could do this.
And it was really interesting.
And so um, she she's she was awonderful nurse and it she

(06:19):
definitely kind of guided thethe light of what I ended up
doing.
And even though I didn't end upmarrying her husband her son or
anything like that, we brokeup, but it's not who I ended up
marrying.
But um, you know, it was it wasdefinitely interesting um to
see how she guided through thatprocess and such.
And I wanted to be a part ofthat, and I thought I could do
this, and so it was really good.

Marsha (06:40):
Okay, great.
So when you first went intocollege, did you already know
nursing at that time was thatexperience right before college
or going into college or incollege?
Okay, so you already knew goinginto college, nursing was your
thing.
How was nursing school for you?

Heather (06:56):
Hard, it was so hard.
Oh, if you're listening to thisand you're a nursing school and
you were like, you know, you'relooking at everybody else who's
getting A's and B's, and you'relike, geez, just please give me
a C and pass me.
It's okay.
I am here to tell you it'sfine.
The other thing that I willstand on and tell is my truth.

(07:17):
And my truth is nursing schoolitself did not come easy to me.
I just didn't have a desire forthat.
That was not never my thingever.
In high school, high school wassocial to me.
College, you know, was I reallydid, you know, study and focus,
and it was still hard for me.
And, you know, I think that wesee so many people who are

(07:38):
finished with a finished result.
We see all these people thatfinished with their nursing
degree, and we think toourselves, oh, it must be so
easy for them.
It's not.
And there are a lot of nurseswho fail out, you go back.
So if you're listening to thisand you have failed out and this
is what you want to do, youwait the whatever the time frame
is, go back.
If you failed your N CLEX, yougo back.

(08:00):
Do not let the failures crateryou.
Um, that is one of the thingsthat I think that, you know, I
speak about.
I failed out of nursing school.
I don't care.
I'll tell you, I failed out.
And it was actually a um, whatrotation was it?
It was maternity.
It was the maternity rotation Icouldn't understand.
And I just had no desire in it.
I was like, I'm yeah, I'm not,this wasn't what I'm gonna do.
I knew it and it was justwhatever.

(08:21):
And then I went back likewhatever, six months later, and
I got an A in it.
So it made no sense, butwhatever.
So it doesn't, I don'tunderstand.
But there's probably thingsgoing on in life that, you know,
when you're going throughcollege and such that shift your
priorities probably gotdistracted.
And so a lot of that stuff canhappen.
But I went back and Ibasically, you know, graduated
and such.

(08:42):
But I think that we really seeend results out here, especially
on social media.
And we see all these people whoare nurses who did it, and we
think, but why is it so hard forme?
It's so hard for you because itis it's just the value of what
it's gonna bring to you is somuch.
And you're gonna remember thatmoment when you pass.
And I tell people I see onsocial media, they're like, I
passed, and they're excited.

(09:02):
I'm like, hold on to thatmoment because that moment is
gonna carry you through the dayswhen they're dog days.
There's gonna be dog days inthis profession.
And those that moment is what Iwant people to remember.
Um, you know, that moment ofpassing and just having that
freedom and being like, I didit.
Um, but don't give up on this,especially.
Or if somebody's telling youthat you can't do it, uh, you

(09:23):
know, a teacher, a dean.
I mean, I remember when I foundout a dean was like, maybe this
isn't for you.
Tell me I can't do somethingbecause that's gonna get that's
gonna drive you more, right?
And and that happens, ithappens so much, so much.
And what the full circle momentto that is that dean ended up
starting a business in Columbusand it did not do very well.

(09:46):
But I remember thinking,interesting, and I was in
business at the same time, and Ithought, you're the dean that
told me to quit.
And so it's it's funny how fullcircle things become, and I'm
just like, interesting, butyeah, don't let anybody's you
know, what people's beliefsaround you are, don't let that
determine who you are.

(10:06):
Their beliefs are not yourdistractions.

Marsha (10:09):
Oh, I love that.
And I think it's so importantfor us to continue to share
those stories of what we willlabel as failures, but stepping
stones to where we need to be.
And sometimes taking a break isnecessary.
Curious about the break thatyou took when you had to go
back.
How much of a time period wasthat for you when you said,
okay, I gotta regroup myself andthen go back into nursing

(10:31):
school?

Heather (10:33):
It was one year.
And that's time I was livingwith a boyfriend and we broke
up.
That was part of the failure.
Um, yeah.
I we ended up, we broke up andand I went back and everything
was fine after that.
But even so, then I took myinquec.
I failed it the first timebecause I had mono, and I'm not
blaming that by because I justI'm not a good tester anyway.
I hated school.

(10:53):
I don't like tests, I didn'tlike any of that stuff.
But I had mono and I paid, andobviously you just can't cancel.
So I was like, I'm just gonnago and see what it's like.
And I didn't.
I told him, I was like, I gotmono.
I was like, just so you know,they put me in a little room by
myself with a camera over top ofme, and I was like, I'll just
do it.
And yeah, that that and thenyou can go back and take that,
you know, whatever, a few weekslater and such.
And then I pass after that.

(11:13):
But I I bring that up becauseso many people are on these
platforms crying because theyfailed the NCLEX.
And one of the things that, youknow, there's been studies that
have shown that people who arenot the studious types, who are
not, you know, into school ortests or learning, people who
really had to work hard for thatand had the struggles at the

(11:36):
academia sector of things, mostlikely excel in
entrepreneurship.
If you watch any of the contentwith like um Gary Vanderchuk,
he talks openly about this.
And he's like, I graduated withwhatever, you know, a one point
something, his GPA is reallylow.
And I'm like, Yeah, probablywas looking at him now.
Yeah.
Yeah.
He's like, yeah.
And he's like, it's theentrepreneurs who are willing to

(11:58):
look outside of the box of whatyou're being, you know, told
and sold.
And those are the people thattypically don't have the
interest in school.
And I had no interest inschool.
So that's kind of that's how Iended up here because I was
like, I need don't I they wantedme to go back for my
bachelor's, and I was like, no,I'm not going back for my
bachelor's.
I don't want the bachelor's.
It's gonna earn me 25 centsmore an hour.

(12:21):
I can make more money intoyeah, I can make more money
independently, and it's gonnaput me in a debt because I have
to pay for the college.
And or they tell you, I'll payfor it, but you have to stay so
many years here.
You're I that was a deal that Iwould didn't want to make.
And so it's like, no, I don'twant to do that.
And that's kind of how I endedup leaving the hospital system

(12:41):
and starting a business.
But yeah, there's just so manychoices that you have out here,
but you have to keep going.
You have to have the innerdiscipline and you know, keep
pushing yourself, um, even whenyou don't want to.

Marsha (12:52):
Yes.
Even when you don't want to, oryou're tired, or you're sick.
Not to say that we shouldn't,of course, partake in self-care,
of course, and make sure.
But yeah, if you had an ENCLEXscheduled, you might as well
take it if you wanted to takeit.
Yeah.
So I I do want to talk aboutnursing.
So when you, when you, youknow, went back in, you got your
nursing degree, you passed yourthe NCLEX, did you know what

(13:16):
specialty you wanted to go infirst?
Or did you start off in medsurge and then move into
cardiovascular?
I know you ended up incardiovascular.
How did that all came up comeabout?

Heather (13:27):
So I knew that I was most likely back then you had to
go into medsurge.
That was just the known thing.
And I was applying to work at alarge hospital system that one
of our teachers had said um shehad worked there and she worked
in cardiac.
And I remember her saying, youknow, it's really hard to get
into this hospital system.
Everybody wants to work there.
And when I applied, what I didwas I had professional services

(13:51):
done that created my resume forme.
And my resume was delivered ina beautiful folder.
Um, this is marketing.
That's all this was.
Yeah.
And, you know, somebody told meto do this, and I was like,
okay, go buy a fancy folder.
And it was like, you know, itwas nice, fancy little folder.
It had little cutout appliqueson the front of it.
And it's Did you get the prettypaper, the linen paper?

(14:14):
I bought the expensive stuff.
And so I had somebody who builtmy resume professionally for
me, and I ended up getting aninterview at that hospital.
And um, I was the only one frommy nursing class that got the
interview.
And it was interesting becauseyeah, and my my car broke down
on the way to the interview.
I had three interviews that dayat the hospital.
My car broke down.

(14:35):
This is like it's wild howimportant how things happen.
Everything happens.
Everything happens for reasons.
Car broke down, and I had toget a tow truck, and they towed
me to a dealership and they gaveme a little geo metro to drive
to.
And this is we're in Columbus,Ohio.

Marsha (14:50):
I didn't do they even make geos anymore, geo metros
anymore.
I don't think so, right?

Heather (14:55):
It was like sort of old.

Marsha (14:56):
That dates us a little bit.

Heather (14:57):
We're both the same age, so it was so tiny, it was
so small, and it was pouringdown rain.
Yeah, I had a white shirt on,white button down, and I was all
dressed up and everything.
And I remember I had to takethis geometro.
They were like, that's all wehave that you.
I was like, I have to get tothis interview.
You don't have to have threeinterviews.
I will not get this job if Idon't get there.
And so they gave me this littlegeometro to drive in, you know,

(15:18):
Columbus, Ohio, the city ofColumbus.
Here I am driving this geometroin these interstates, and I'm
I'm wet and whatever.
I get to the interview, and thefirst interview I have is with
a manager.
Um, and she was amazing.
She was absolutely amazing.
I'm wet and I'm trying to blowoff like myself and I'm looking
like crazy.
And she's she walked in andshe's like, What happened to

(15:42):
you?
And I was like, Like, I'macting like nothing happened.
I'm fine.
I'm fine, everything's fine.
And I said, I had a flat tire,I said, and I had to get a tow,
and then did and sometimes thiswhole story, and she's like,
Where did you drive from?
And I told her where I drovefrom, and I said, I I had to
drive from, you know, Mansivot,Ohio.
And she's like, I live inMansivot, Ohio.
Oh, I said, really?

(16:03):
And I said, Well, had you seenme on the side of the road, you
could have picked me up.
And we just started laughingand and we connected and and I
just we fell in love with justthe process of like our our
personality and just the processof nursing.
We're talking about things, andit was fantastic.
And so she was my firstinterview that I had at that

(16:24):
hospital, and I knew right inthat moment, I was like, this is
where I belong.
And that was the uh that wasthe cardiovascular thoracic
surgical unit.
And she said, I normally don'thire new grads on this unit.
She's like, but you're gonna bemy little test.
And she said, You're so green,you're open to learning, you're
eager to learn.
I think you can do it.

(16:46):
And within six months, I wasthe charge nurse of that unit.
So wow.
Oh wow.
Yeah.

Marsha (16:52):
One thing, one little point I want to go back and say
the connection that you madewith her in that one little
moment, which resulted inlaughter and a job, of course.
I do want to point out tonurses who are listening or
applying for different jobs ornew nurses going into the field.
There's a tip that you can dowhen it comes to applying for
jobs and trying to make animpression.

(17:12):
One thing I used to do on myresume is I would put at the
very bottom culturalexperiences.
And so at the very bottom, thatwas its own header.
And I would put all thecountries that I had traveled
to.
And so it never failed.
When I went into an interview,the first thing they wanted to
ask me was about travel.
And it just gave me a rapportwith them.

(17:35):
And we would talk 15, 20minutes on my travel experiences
and where they wanted to go andwhere they've been.
And oh, you got to go here.
And so it just sort of likeeases that tension.
So if there's a way that youcan put something on your resume
that sort of catches their eye,or even like a funny quip that
you just did, just in themoment, um, just to make that

(17:57):
connection, it actually will notonly ease your attention, the
tension that you feel going intoan interview, but it will
instantly give them a connectionto you, even if it's something
as personal as travel or, youknow, personal as, you know,
your favorite, I don't know,restaurants or something like
that, something at the verybottom, or if you can find a way
to work it into your executivesummary at the top.

(18:18):
It never fails when I do that.
It's it's always a good way tosort of break the ice and I get
all my jobs.
I get all of the jobs.
So um just a quick tip.
Yeah.

Heather (18:28):
That is fantastic.
Yeah.
Because it gives them insightinto the person that you are,
yeah.
Beyond, you know, role ofnursing, you know.
So I love that.
That's a great idea.
Yeah.

Marsha (18:38):
Yeah.
So you're on the cardiovascularunit, and how did you become a
charge nurse within six months?
Well, I know some of us we getput into those jobs sometimes
because the unit is short.
And oh, you've been here sixmonths.
Well, the new nurses have onlybeen here two months, so now
you're the charge nurse.
But just curious about yourexperience and how that

(19:01):
happened.

Heather (19:02):
I think that it happened because by default,
somebody called off that day.
Um, there were other nursesthere that were there longer.
And I think that my manager,you know, I think that was
probably the plan.
And, you know, the call-offhappened and she made she just

(19:22):
was like, she's in charge.
And um, my unit clerk at thetime, you know, uh was wonderful
and she guided me through theprocess because I was like, I
gotta do one.
And she's like, yep, putnumbers in bed management, do
this, do that.
And so she guided me through itall and stuff.
Um, and it was a fantasticprocess and you know,
everything.
But it was interesting becauseI had I was good at
communicating with doctors and Iwasn't afraid to ask the hard

(19:47):
questions.
I wasn't afraid to speak upabout things that I felt
passionate about for patientcare.
I was that girl.
And I was never one that wasreally shy about saying, you
know, I think we should do.
X, Y, and Z.
And so I was already doingthat.
I had become, I had wonderfulpreceptors.
Um, and I think that that wasone of the things that really

(20:07):
helped me was the preceptorsthat I had leading up to that
six months.
That, you know, I think it waslike three months of precepting.
Wonderful preceptors.
I was a sponge at that point.
I soaked everything up.
I could learn on the job.
It's school, no, but on thejob, yes, I can get it, I can do
it.
And I wasn't afraid tochallenge things that I saw.

(20:29):
I wasn't afraid to ask for whatneeded to be done for patients.
Um, as well as I was justsomebody that spoke up because
oftentimes patients, you know,would be like, I'm fine,
everything's fine.
I'm like, no, it's not fine.
You said earlier, you know, andI could do that, but I could,
you know, do that appropriatelybased on which physician I was
working with.
I knew that there was differentcommunication tactics that

(20:51):
needed to be done.
You couldn't be the same nursewith all of them.
You had to kind of um, youknow, get on the level of where
they were and utilize that.
So I understood how to do thatreally well.
I think that's what it was.
And so I wasn't afraid tochallenge that type of stuff.
But it was just something thatgrew.
And I was, that's what I didfor the bulk of my career was I
was the charge nurse on thatunit and learned a lot about

(21:15):
nursing and healthcare andeverything.
And so it was a wonderfulexperience.

Marsha (21:19):
I have to say, too, assertiveness is a skill.
Assertiveness is a skill, beingable to go into a room, command
a room, and actually challengeproviders, challenge the care
that's being provided.
I still struggle with it on thefloor in the unit when I was
working on a unit.
I struggled with assertivenessand just wanted to make

(21:39):
everybody happy.
That was a people pleaser inme.
But assertiveness is a skill.
So I don't discount that atall.
I think it's wonderful that youwere able to within six months
take, take a charge role andcontinue through that career on
that unit.
And it's something, it's amuscle that you have to, it's a
muscle you have to flex, it's amuscle you have to learn.

(22:00):
It's not something that comesnaturally for everybody.
And I know that there arenurses who have been nurses for
years and still don't have thatassertiveness.
So with assertiveness being askill, I imagine, because we're
going to get into your business,I imagine that there were areas
where you saw that there weregaps in care.
And this goes to why you cameabout starting your business.

(22:23):
And we're going to get to theFoot and Nail Institute and talk
about that in a little bit aswell.
But you started a business,Everyday Divinity.
And I just kind of want to goback to what was the impetus
that drove you to say somethingneeds to be done here, and I see
a gap in care.
What was that sparked for you?

Heather (22:45):
Well, what happened was I guess around 2008, things
started to change in thehealthcare system.
One of those things was that werolled out EMRs on the rolling
computers.
I can't call them what theywere because people it was.

Marsha (22:59):
Yeah, now they're wilds.
Now they're wilds.

Heather (23:01):
Yeah.
The OGs of nursing rememberwhat they were called, but yeah.
So they had these rollingcomputers that you would roll
into the room.
And it felt like a wall went upbetween the nurse and the
patient with that computer.
And I felt that.
I felt that disconnect becausenow there's a wall.
And I think nursing, a lot ofwhat we love about nursing is

(23:21):
that connectivity that we havewith our patients.
And so when that happened, Iwas like, oh, I don't have that
now because now I have a screenbetween myself and the patient.
And the patients noted it.
They they realized it because alot of the patients on my unit
were frequent flyers that camein a lot.
And they could see, like, oh,we don't have those talks
anymore.
Well, no, because now I have todo all this computer work and I

(23:43):
have to put check all theseboxes and I'm being overworked
and I don't have time to talk toyou.
I just have time to appease thecomputer system.
That's what I have to do.
And so that started to happen.
Um, and so as well as the otherchanges that started happening
was, you know, we had thecorporate bias that took place
in the hospitals.
We had, you know, it was a big,it was a big business, is what

(24:05):
it became.
And, you know, this was ahospital that was very family
oriented within the units,within the the patient
population.
And that had shifted and I feltthat shift.
And I at that point startedlooking around and thinking, can
I do this until I retire?
And I was in my 30s at thatpoint, questioning everything.

(24:25):
I worked so hard for thisnursing license.
And I don't want to give it up,but what can I do with it?
And so one of the things thatkept coming up was that patients
on our unit would ask, cansomebody trim my toenails while
I'm here?
And at that time, we wouldconsult podiatry.
They come over, perform theservice.
That was the end of it.

(24:45):
What had happened waspodiatrists were no longer
inside of the building.
They were actually outside ofthe system, outside of our
hospital system in offices oftheir own.
So they had to drive over,park, come to up to the unit.
And this was mostly taken placeafter hours.
So it sometimes would takeseveral consults before they
would show up.
And so one night I was workingand being the assertive charge

(25:08):
nurse that I am, I said, Whydoes it take six consults for
you to come over here to providethat service?
And the podiatrist said to me,Because I make no money on this.
I was like, I'm sorry, what?
I make no money on this.
He goes, I honestly, Heather,he goes, unless they are, you
know, they have to have allthese diagnoses, they have to
be, you know, neuropathy, theyhave to have peripheral vascular

(25:30):
disease, or they have to bediabetic.
And sometimes they have to haveseveral.
They have to have two or threeof those diagnoses in the coding
for me to get a reimbursementon this.
He goes, because right now, hegoes, the way it is, I'm not
getting reimbursed for this.
I may make $10 on this service,and I have to fight for that
$10.
You're kidding.
Yes.
And it's still the same waytoday.

(25:51):
I mean, this was back in youfigure 2000.
This is at probably 2009, 2010,this conversation took place.
And he said, um, and I said,Who do you owe me to call?
I said, Who are we supposed tocall?
If it's not you guys, he said,Is there another group I can
call?
He goes, No, it's the sameacross the board.
We all feel this way.
We make money on surgeries, wedon't make money cutting
toenails.
And we didn't go to school tocut toenails.

(26:12):
And I said, Well, okay.
Solution that I I lovesolutions.
So I started asking, Well, whodo I send them to?
And he said, Send them to aSaban.
That's what we tell them whenthey call the office.
Well, I'm on a vascular unit.
So I've already seen the influxof the lower extremity
infections that are taking placethat are coming in from these
outlying hospital systems.
And I was like, You want to gotalk to the lady in room eight?

(26:34):
Because she is here from goingon a cruise ship, had a pedicure
with her daughter and hergranddaughter, and she's gonna
lose her foot because she's gotosteomelitis.
You want to go tell her to goto a salon?
Wow.
Heather, I don't know what theanswer is, but he goes, it's
it's out of control.
So I come home and I'm looking,I'm researching what where can
I send these patients to?

(26:55):
Still not clicking in my headthat I'm the solution.
Nursing, that's the solution.
Yeah.
I'm struggling to find thesolution.
I can't find it.
But what I found was that therewas this whole industry called
foot care nursing in Canada.
And I thought, wait, what?
Foot care nursing?
Where is that at?
So I start looking into howtheir system was working.
And they were basically doingit under the socialized umbrella
of their healthcare system.

(27:15):
So the nurses would provide thecare and then the government
would reimburse them for thecare.
I thought, why not just cutthat out?
Yeah.
Yes.
And like, why not cut that out?
Let's cut out the middle man ofthe pay.
Yeah.
Let's make it private pay.
Um, because I already knew thathere podiatry wasn't being
reimbursed.
And I knew that, you know, evenif we did have the umbrella of

(27:37):
the socialized medicine typething, that probably would not
work.
And now, interesting enough, weare seeing the shift in Canada,
where they now are alsofighting for repayment up there
with that type of healthcaresystem.
So now they are now doing cashin private pay systems with
their businesses as well as footcare nurses.
So it's really been interestingand fascinating to see how this

(27:58):
process has taken place overthe last 15 years.
But what I decided to do was Iwas like, I'll create a business
providing the service as aprivate pay business model.
And of course, everybody toldme it would not work because
back then we didn't have primarycare.
I mean, it was really unheardof if you were doing something
and not using insurance.
They were like, you can't dothat.
You're a medical, you have touse the insurance.

(28:20):
And at that point, I was like,who says?
It's up to the patient.
Right.
So I started doing my ownmarket research at the bedside
and I would talk to patientsabout it and say, who cuts your
toness?
Who does this?
Who does?
I start asking questions.
And all of the patients, oh,it's so hard.
It's such a struggle.
I can't find anybody.
There used to be a podiatrist,he retired.

(28:41):
I have nobody now.
Now I rely on my mom or I relyon my daughter, or now I rely
on, you know, my husband.
They were relying on familymembers to provide the service
for themselves.
And what was happening is asyou age out, you can't reach
your feet.
It's as simple as that.
We don't realize that this is aproblem until it happens to us.
And you get older, your visionchanges, you can't see what

(29:02):
you're doing, you have a loss ofa dexterity thanks to arthritis
and your hands, your hips, yourknees, your back, all of these
things prohibit you the abilityto reach your feet, to cut your
toenails.
It was that simple.
And so I did the marketresearch at the bedside.
I was asking patients, youknow, what do you think about
this?
All of them.

(29:22):
Oh, please do it.
Please do it.
We need somebody out herehelping us.
And so I launched EverydayDivinity in 2011, despite
everyone telling me why it wouldnot work.
And it just, I prayed on it andI thought, you know what, this
is, I'm gonna try this.
And it really took off quickly.

(29:42):
And it was one of those thingsthat was just the best decision
in my nursing career.
I do not regret at all whatI've decided to do to do with
this.
And so um, yeah, that's how Icame to be the foot care nurse.

Marsha (29:55):
Yeah.
So before you actually launchedthe business and you were doing
your market research, tell ushow you started.
Was it like a basic kit thatyou would get from the typical
what we get from medicalsupplies or something like that?
How did you actually start withyour first, I guess, patient?

Heather (30:11):
You, I spent probably a good year, almost two years,
like I say a year to launch, buta good two years, two to three
years of really figuring outwhat worked and what didn't
work.
It's a lot of trial and errorin the beginning.
And so this was one of thosethings that it was like I didn't
know what to do.
I had to piece things togetherfor myself of what would work

(30:33):
and what wouldn't work.
And so I, you know, reached outto a foot care nurse that I
knew of.
Um, and she was, you know, inCalifornia and we had a lovely
discussion about it.
And she said, you know, this iswhat I did for my business.
And she was, you know, doingin-home treatments and such.
And so we talked a little bitand such, and we still talk to

(30:55):
this day um about things becauseshe's like, I can't believe
you've done this.
And I'm like, I cannot either.
But it was just it's funnybecause she's like all from that
conversation.
She goes, and she was startingtelling, and I just started
building on that type of stuffthat I learned.
And so I had to learn how tomarket, I had to learn how to
create my own charting forms, Ihad to learn how to build the
kits, you know.

(31:15):
I built how I built my footcare kit to go into a facility
versus how I build a kit, youknow, to go into an in-home
session.
I created that type of stuffthrough trial and error.
And so that's how you learn.
And it's just that, you know,and I think as nurses, we're so
scared to do these types ofthings in the beginning because
we feel like everybody's lookingat us.
We're not, no one's looking atno one cares.

(31:37):
I just heard a quote recentlythat was like, no billionaire is
judging you for wanting tolaunch a business.
Right.
So no one doing better than youis judging you.
So just understand that.
And so it's one of those thingsthat you know, you really just
that's part of the fear that yougot to get over when you start
launching into the creation of abusiness, any type of business.
You have to get over thosefears.

(31:59):
And that's what holds us back.
And as nurses, we have beentaught we go to nursing school,
we go work for, you know, amedical system, and we continue
to go back and get degree afterdegree after degree.
And I knew that wasn't the paththat I wanted to take.
Now, if there's anything wrongwith that, the people who are
much smarter than me, they cando that, have at it.

(32:20):
That was not going to be mypath.
And I knew that.
So I knew that I was gonna haveto find a path that fed my soul
while, you know, aligning withI need an income.
I need to have, you know, thistype of lifestyle.
By that point, we had had myson and my husband traveled a
lot for work.
I wanted to be home.
Um, I wanted holidays off.
You know, I have not worked twoweeks in December.

(32:43):
I take off every year.
I don't work those last twoweeks of December.
I get Christmas and New Year'soff because I've created this
lifestyle that I'm not gonnawork those holidays.
I don't need to pick and chooseif I'm gonna be off on Friday,
Black Friday, or Thanksgiving.
I have to pick one or theother.
I don't work any of that.
And that's the flex that youget in nurse entrepreneurship.

(33:05):
It's a different lifestyle.
And I think people are reallyhung up a lot on, well, how much
money can I make doing X, Y, Z?
Yeah.
As I've gotten older, Irealized that, you know, foot
care nursing was wonderfulbecause it is continual revenue,
because it's not something thatis, I provide a service, you
know, let's say it's a post-opservice and now you're done and

(33:27):
you no longer need me.
Foot care was something that itwas like, okay, they needed
this continual.
And it was proven during thepandemic shutdown because these
patients were continuing to callme.
I need you, I can't walk.
So that was pandemic proofbecause I was like, okay, I'm
gonna continue to do the work.
And so I did, and my businessgrew exponentially during that
time because they needed it.

(33:48):
It really um, when you can'twalk because you're in pain,
because your toenails are toolong, or because you have corns
and calluses, that's a problem.
And so that then goes intoother problems that we have in
health, you know, with our ownhealth itself, the mobility, the
fall risk, all of these things,you know, were perpetuating
these patients into needing theservice.

(34:09):
This was a business that wasgoing to deliver ongoing revenue
for me.
Um, and typically, you know,our patients don't leave.
Uh, we have a 92% reoccurrencein this business because they
typically either move away to beclose to family or they pass
away.
And that is how they end up.

(34:30):
Yeah, yeah, that is how it endsup, you know.
Yeah.
And so it was something thatwas like, I didn't have to do a
lot of market for it because itsold itself.

Marsha (34:38):
Right.
And it's a it's a servicethat's continual, like you said.
Stepping back a little bit whenyou, and I love the idea that
you were talking about fear andI believe fear and do it anyway.
If you're not ready, you do itanyway and and just go with it
because no one cares about themistakes that you're making,
even if you're making them inpublic.
No one who's more successful,like you said, than you is

(34:58):
really judging you on whatyou're doing.
Um, but I'm kind of curious onyour start and when you were
making those mistakes, do youhave, um, just so we can sort of
get an idea of what a mistakefeels like or or the challenges
feel like, do you have someanecdotal stories of where you
were challenged and when youwere starting up, things didn't

(35:22):
work out and things fell apart,and then you had to start again
and do it again.
Any stories like that thatcould help probably the next
person?

Heather (35:30):
There's tons of them.
Um, you know, I I could write abook on all the mistakes, but I
think one of the things thatwhen we start to look at
building a business, we starttelling everybody about the
business that we want to build.
And then what that does is thatopens us up for other people's
opinions and judgments.

(35:51):
And I tell people, be quiet inthe beginning process.
Don't tell everybody your storyof what you want to do.
We want the we want everybodyto buy in, is what we want.
And we don't need anybody'sbuy-in.
Um, you just need to understandthat their buy-in a lot of
times is going not going to looklike your buy-in because when
you start to question exitingor, you know, I want to build a

(36:13):
business, it causes people tolook inward at their own
situation and they're like,well, who does she think she is?
And that starts to eat away atour brains as nurses because it
is a community setting.
We're on these units, we'reworking with these nurses.
They become closer to us thanfamily because we spend so much
time with them.
And so we want their support.
We want them to, you know,agree with this idea.

(36:34):
And a lot of times they're notgoing to because they themselves
have a limited belief systemaround what we can and can't do
as nurses.
One of the things that manypeople would tell me when those
early days is they would say,Well, the board of nursing won't
allow this.
The board of nursing, they willnot, they're gonna shut you
down.
Um, you know, and that was oneof the things that it was
interesting because the board ofnursing, they don't give you

(36:54):
permission to start or stop abusiness.
They they basically, you haveto work within your scope of
practice and understand whatyour licensure is.
And so I thought, you knowwhat?
I reached out to the board ofnursing.
I didn't get any feedback fromthem.
And, you know, at that point Ithought I'm just gonna go with
the premise of they're I they'renot gonna give me permission.
So if they do come for melater, I'll seek forgiveness and

(37:18):
see what they have to say.
And they eventually did comeinto, you know, questioning, you
know, we just want to know whatyou're doing, all of this
stuff.
And it was because a podiatristreported me, which at the time
felt like, oh my gosh.
And as nurses, yeah, the boardsending you a letter is like
gutting.
And it's just like, oh my gosh.

(37:38):
And of course, you get theletter, it's Friday at 4 p.m.
They're closed now.
So you have to deal with thisall the way till all the
weekend.

Marsha (37:45):
Oh my goodness.

Heather (37:46):
And so I know, and so I called on Monday and I talked
to the investigator.
There's an investigator andsuch, and I was very open about
it.
And I said, you know what?
I said, I know what this isabout because I knew this bad I
just was mad about me.
So I was open about it.
I said, I know what it is.
I said, he's upset that I'vecome to his little rule town and
now everybody's coming to meand not him.

(38:06):
Um, and so it was interestingbecause that experience, as
heart-wrenching andgut-wrenching as it was at the
time, was one of the best thingsthat could happen to me.
So even when you think it's amiss like a mistake, whether on
your end or anybody else's end,there are so many lessons
because what happened with thatwas that they came in, they
looked at everything I wasdoing.

(38:26):
I still didn't have theconfidence back then to think
that I would launch a nationalprogram to teach nurses.
I could do it in my littlestate of Ohio and be confident
that I'm doing okay because Ihadn't been sued.
I'm okay.
I think I'm gonna be okay withthis.
I had that confidence, but toput it on a national level and
say, okay, I'm confident enoughin this that I can teach others

(38:49):
to do it.
I was still kind of like, yeah,maybe, maybe not.
This was the one single piecethat I needed because when they
came in and saw everything I wasdoing, they actually
congratulated me.
They said, congratulations, youfilled a gap in the healthcare
system.
Oh, wow.
This is wonderful.
Yes.
And so it was amazing.
So I want nurses, I tell thatstory because I want nurses to

(39:10):
understand we fear the boardbecause that is what it's been
put into us in school.
Be afraid of the board, they'regonna come for you, they're
gonna come for you.
The board is just normal peoplelike everybody else.
They they just want to knowthat you're okay.
Their job is to protect thecommunity.
That's it.
As long as you're doingeverything appropriately,
they're gonna be okay.
But if you run and you're like,I am not gonna talk to them,
I'm gonna avoid, I'm gonna run,or you're practicing beyond your

(39:33):
scope as a license, then you'reprobably gonna have to, you
know, you have to have thoseconversations.
Don't run from them.
Um, understand what it is theywanna know about and talk about
and such.
But those types of things arethe things that happen.
Mistakes that I made over theyears with basically things that
cost me time and money figuringit out, marketing.
Oh, yeah.
Um, things like that.

(39:55):
Those are the types of mistakesthat I was like, I yeah, I
probably shouldn't have donethat.
Those are the things, andthat's why I try to save nurses
from those mistakes.
Thinking that you know enoughto, you know, go out and do all
these things.
And I've had people reach outto me that, you know, over the
years that are like, I Ilaunched this business and then
I wanted to teach others how todo this, and now they're mad at

(40:16):
me because of this, that, andthe other.
And it's there's so many layersto teaching other people how to
do what it is that you do.
It's one thing to do ityourself because it's just you.
But I think that the mistakesthat we make, they're lessons,
and that is necessary for you tolearn these lessons so that you
can go out and help others whenthey do encounter those same

(40:39):
mistakes.
Um, you know, I did thisinstead of, you know, this.
And that's the type of stuffthat we have to understand and
learn.

Marsha (40:46):
I remember being a nurse on the floor first year or
second year, being told, wedon't do nails.
We can't do nails.
It's in our policy or somethinglike that.
And and patients would ask usthese things, ask us to have
this service.
So do you ever come acrossnurses who may are who may be
interested in doing this type ofcare and they're coming from a

(41:09):
perspective of, okay, we're toldwe're not supposed to do this,
or I've never done this on aunit, I've never done this in my
work.
How am I going to learn thisnow?

Heather (41:21):
Yes, most of that is institutional policy.
A lot of the boards of nursingdon't have any regulations
written up about foot care.
They're starting to here andthere, and they're trying to
put, you know, piecemeal ittogether and such and call it
different levels, um, level one,level two, level three, and all
that.
And one of the things that Ifound was when I started to do

(41:41):
my research into it, I foundthat it was institutional policy
that nurses don't do foot care.
And that was something that wascreated per the hospitals.
The reason I think that was,honestly, was because back then
podiatrists did do it.
And so we weren't going toinfringe on that business of the
podiatrist doing it.
However, what has sincehappened over the years is we

(42:02):
had, you know, ortho, orthopedicphysicians and surgeons were
out there, and ortho was justortho back in the day.
We started creating all thesedifferent orthos.
And what we had was foot andankle surgeons came out.
So when that happened, we hadthem in the hospital system and
we started to phase the podiatryindustry out of the hospitals

(42:22):
because the orthopedic foot andfoot and ankle surgeons were
there.
So over the years, we've hadkind of had this squeeze on the
podiatry industry.
And so in the hospital system,these patients were falling
through the cracks.
I was seeing the result of thisbecause of that.
When I started to look into myboard of nursing, there was
nothing written up about footcare and nursing.
It was considered an ADL.

(42:44):
So we as nurses understandADLs, activities of daily
living.

Marsha (42:49):
Yeah.

Heather (42:49):
Yeah.
Right.
And so it was like, why aren'twe doing that?
And my hope and dream for thefuture is that we can have the
conversation and help establishregulations around foot care.
But until it becomes a largeenough problem, um, because a
lot of things in medical and ingovernmental is going to be,
it's going to be reactive.

(43:10):
We're not proactive.
Um, and so one of the thingsthat we see is when something
bad happens or something becomesbad enough of a problem, then
we want to institute policiesaround things.
And so I hope that, you know,we live to the point where I get
to see that there is somemovement and we do help create,
you know, regulations aroundfoot care nursing.
I see that that is happeningnow in the doula space.

(43:32):
Um, that's starting to takeplace.
And so I see that happening.
So there is hope for foot carenursing, but it usually is an
institutional policy and a lotof boards of nursing do not have
written up um regulationsaround this.
And even if they do, and andI'm not going to say anything
about which state, but even ifthey do, you know, it's
interesting because there was acase that took place in a state

(43:55):
and they challenged theregulations that were written
because they were saying, well,you need to have, you know, this
type of national certificationto do it.
But they were also allowingLPNs to do it.
And in order to sit for acertification for that national
certification through the WOCN,you had to have a bachelor's
degree to sit for that test.

(44:16):
So in one sentence, you'resaying LPNs can do this, but
then in the next sentence,you're saying, but you have to
have a certification.
But then when you do the deepdive into this, you realize, oh,
LPNs can't sit for thatcertification because they don't
have a bachelor's.
This was the kind of stuff thatdrove me crazy when I was doing
my business and they just, youknow, changed that kind of stuff
and such.
That's the conversation thatneeds to happen.

(44:38):
But people aren't doing thecollective, you know,
discussions around it.
They're just like, oh, justthrow that there and throw that,
and we'll be okay, and that'llbe good enough.
And so that's where thedisconnect is happening on these
levels with different thingsthat people think that they need
to have and they don'tunderstand how to interpret
this.
Interpretation gets mucky, andit's just, it's, it's a lot.

(44:59):
And I've been doing it for 15years.
I've seen the changes that havetaken place and such.
And I try to be as transparentas I can so people can have as
much information about this sothat they can make the right
decision about it.
But yeah, it usually is, itusually is institutional policy.
Um, usually as an RN, you canprovide the service.
And what that looks like is,you know, up to you and your
business and how you develop itout.

Marsha (45:20):
So when you are finding a way to collaborate with either
patients or their providers orhealth systems, how is it that
you do that?
Are you going directly to thepatients?
And I say this from theperspective of a nurse who's on
a unit right now, who may hearthis podcast episode and they're

(45:41):
curious about how they canactually get started doing
something like this.
And of course, we'll tell themabout the course that you have
and the materials that wouldhelp them do that.
But curious about the process.
Like, okay, I'm a nurse, I'mworking on the unit, I want to
try something inentrepreneurship.
This sounds very interesting tome.
How am I getting patients?
Am I working with the patientsthrough my hospital or am I

(46:03):
collaborating with the physicianor well, probably not a
podiatrist, but am Icollaborating with the physician
to get patients?
How does that process work?

Heather (46:13):
It's interesting.
I, whether you want to do footcare or whatever, begin with
finding a gap or a problem inthe healthcare system.
Be a solution.
Be a solution to something thatyou are witnessing right now on
your unit.
If you're seeing something,you're like, you know what, why
don't we have this in place forthese patients?
Start researching if thatexists.

(46:36):
And that literally meansresearching online.
Look and see what you can find.
If there is something out therethat already exists similar to
what you're thinking of.
See if somebody has done that.
Um, it's you don't reinvent thewheel if you don't have to.
If somebody's done it and youcan do the course and stuff,
obviously that's obviously aneasier path.
But if not, if you're like,there's nothing out there and I

(46:57):
have this idea and this is whatI want to do, start looking into
how to develop that businessmodel.
One of the things that I didwas I just did research and I
got to a point where I was like,okay.
And then I would challengeevery decision I had to make.
I had to challenge what was thepro and the con of this.
Okay, do I want to provide footcare in my hospital under the

(47:20):
hospital umbrella?
Most likely not, because what Iwanted to do personally for
myself was I wanted to get outof the hospital.
I didn't want them havingcontrol over my schedule, my
income, all of that.
So I wanted to get away fromthat.
And we've had foot care nurseswho have done foot care in the
hospital systems.
And in some people have foundsuccess with that and others

(47:40):
have not.
It just depends on the hospitalsystem that you're working
under.
But one of the things that Iwanted to do was I wanted to
define my own path.
And the only way I was going tobe able to do that was to get
out of that umbrella of thehealthcare system.
And so when I started to buildout, then I was like, well, how
will I find patients?
You know, in this day and agewith social media, it's pretty
easy.

(48:01):
We are so blessed with socialmedia.
And I don't think that we are,you know, putting what we really
should be into this because Idid organic marketing for the
bulk of my career when I startedfoot care nursing.
And what I mean by that is Icreated, you know, just simple
things, Facebook posts, or Iwould go to networking events.

(48:22):
I would go to health fairs.
I did things out out there inthe community.
People knew I was the foot carenurse.
Um, I had a look.
I was wearing a cap.
You know, I it was branding, iswhat I was doing.
I didn't know it at the time,but it was branding.
Personal branding is asimportant as professional
branding.
And that is something that, youknow, you learn to incorporate

(48:43):
into your business and such.
Um, but I would go out and Iwould talk to, you know,
directors of facilities.
And I, you know, and of courseyou have things that they're,
oh, we have a podiatrist thatdoes this and such.
There's ways around that to getaround that conversation
because that is their quickanswer to you.
But I teach in the course,there's ask this question and

(49:03):
follow up with this.
And, you know, there'sdifferent ways to get the ball
rolling on the conversation.
Once they feel comfortable withyou, then they're they become
more vulnerable.
And they're like, well,actually, you know what?
And they start to realize theholes and the flaws in that
system.
And they're like, but you'regonna show up.
And I'm like, I'm showing up.
I'm coming in, I'm gonna do it.
Um, and or I would say, youknow, give the give your

(49:24):
residents the choice whoprovides the care, you know,
because a lot of times nurses,you know, have that.
What they loved about mybusiness model was I had that
capacity to have theconversation.
It was about connection.
And with our seniors, we arenot meeting the connection um
fulfillment in these placesbecause they're in these
facilities.
Oftentimes their family livesfar away.

(49:46):
So we are now the connection,we're the bridge between that.
And so that was something thatI was like, I could be that
piece, that missing piece inhealthcare.
And that was wonderful.
And it felt, you know, itfilled my soul as well as it did
the patient's soul.
Um, but one of those thingsthat I did was I just basically
went through all the questionsthat I would have and keep a
notebook with you.
Keep a notebook in your bag,keep it in your car, write down

(50:08):
questions as you're driving andthinking things, just brain dump
into that book.
Whatever, how ridiculous itsounds, just brain dump into it
what it is that you want to doand what questions you have
around it.
Start researching into that andstart really starting to pull
those answers for yourself.
What works best?
How would I market?
What would that look like?
Marketing, we're petrified asnurses.

(50:30):
We are petrified of marketing.
And I tell people, we aremarketing ourselves every day.
You don't realize it, butyou're doing it.
You're just doing it in thecomfort of your unit, whether
it's comfortable or not.
You know, it's like you'realready doing it.
You're already talking tophysicians, you're talking to
all these ancillary groups,you're talking to patients,
families.
You're already doing it.
You just feel that you'reafraid of it because it's a new

(50:50):
path for you in a business arenathat you're like, but I never
took a business course.
That's okay.
I did not take one singlebusiness course at all.
And, you know, you can learnthis stuff because if we can
learn nursing, we can learnbusiness.
We can learn, yeah, so muchmore difficult learning nursing.
So just, you know, start towrite those things down, start
to come up with answers.

(51:12):
Look at who is successfulonline.
You know, how did they do it?
There's so much free contentonline, especially on, you know,
I'm on TikTok a lot, butthere's so many nurses that are
on there talking about theirbusinesses.
They're talking about theirfailures, they're talking about
what works, they're talkingabout what doesn't work, you
know, they're talking about, youknow, those types of things and
decide what works best for youand build the business around

(51:33):
it.
Don't get hung up on, you know,how much money I'm gonna make.
I've had nurses reach out tome, they're like, I have to
make, you know, six figures, sixfigures.
Don't build a business around anumber because as soon as you
start to You're not gonna lovethe work.
You're not gonna love it.
Yeah.
You're it's you're yeah.
And that's the thing.
It's like, you have to findwhat you're passionate about
because when you're building abusiness, there's nobody to tell

(51:54):
you to go in and you know workon your business.
There's nobody to say, go sitdown at the computer and spend
eight hours today build itbuilding your business.
There's nobody to say that toyou.
You have to come from a placeof what it is that you love, and
that place is your passion andyour why, because that is what's
gonna drive you throughbusiness development on the days
that you don't want to do it.
And there's a lot of your timeinvested in the beginning of

(52:18):
building that business thatyou're not gonna get paid for
it.
No one's paying you.
Yeah, it's it's free.
You're working for free in thebeginning, but if you can put
the time and effort into that,the rewards on the other side
are so like wonderful.
It's more than the bond, it'smore than the money, it's a
lifestyle.
It is, you know, honoring whoyou are supposed to be here on
this earth.

(52:38):
And it's not just, you know,somebody who is tired out and
burned out and crispy.
I was there, I remember it, Iknow it.
But there is other things thatwe can do if, you know, the the
possibilities align for you.
Um, and it's not right foreveryone.
And so there's a lot that isdiscovered in this process, not
only in professionaldevelopment, but as well as

(53:01):
personal development.
And so I created actually abusiness called Heather Wilson
RN that I talked to that becauseI was doing coaching with
people that were like, Istruggle with this.
And I'm like, that's a lot ofwhat I struggled with, you know.
And that was the type of stuffthat I was like, oh, this is
because it's challenging who weare and you know, our ego and
our failures.

(53:21):
And it's going to challenge us,but we have to push through
that.
And if you can push throughthat, that is where the
resilience lives.

Marsha (53:29):
I'm so glad you mentioned having a passion for
whatever that problem is,because if you're so focused on
the money versus what theproblem that you're solving is,
you may not enjoy it.
It may not be something that'sgoing to be long-term for you.
And I say that as an examplefor myself.
I remember there was a point acouple of years ago, not even

(53:51):
too long ago, where I was like,okay, I don't want to do
anything else with nursing.
I just don't want to doanything else with nursing at
all.
I'm burned out.
I don't want to do it.
And so I started eventplanning.
And I had done event planningin the past.
And I said, I'm going to goback into that because I love
the feeling of going to events.
And I still love planningevents on my own, planning
events for myself.

(54:11):
But soon into it, I started torealize this isn't fun when I'm
planning for other people asmuch as it is for planning for
myself.
I'm not, you know, passionateabout the problem for other
people.
I was passionate about my ownevents and my own problems with
starting events, virtual events,in-person events.
And so we were just talkingbefore we started recording too

(54:35):
about how this year I said, whatdo I really like?
I've already rested from theburnout with nursing a little
bit.
And I'm not at the bedsideanymore.
I'm doing consulting work.
And so I said, you know, whatis it that I really loved?
And it goes back to the blogthat I started years ago.
It was a passion.
I wanted to write aboutnursing, lifestyle design, all

(54:58):
of that.
And then a couple of monthsago, I said, I want to do that
again because that was somethingthat lit me up.
It was really fun talking aboutnursing issues, what nurses are
doing, nurses in business.
And so I said, why not just goback into it?
And because it was a passion,it's something that I feel like
it's something that will lastfor a very long time.

(55:18):
So I think it's very importantwhat you said.
You have to really solve aproblem and you have to be
passionate about that problem.
It can't be just about the beabout the money because for the
longest period of time, you'renot probably going to make any
money unless you get lucky.
We have a lucky story on here.
I can't wait to share that aswell.
But unless you get reallylucky, it may be a few years

(55:39):
before you even start to see thefruits of the labor that you're
putting into it.
So make sure it's justsomething that you really enjoy,
that's something that'spassionate for you.
And you would do it despite nothaving the money.
So I do want to talk about theFoot and Nail Institute.
And I know you teach nurses howto actually start, how is that
program set up for nurses tosucceed?
And how long is the program?

(56:00):
How does that work?

Heather (56:02):
So the way the Foot and Nail Institute happened was it
was kind of a byproduct of mybusiness, Everyday Divinity.
It's interesting because when Ilaunched Everyday Divinity, my
goal was to basically, Iremember thinking, okay, I am
making, you know, I was making,I think, $33 an hour at the time
at the bedside.

(56:22):
And I thought, okay, so how canI make that outside of the
hospital system?
And that's why I built thebusiness around, you know, what
I did.
And I ended up tripling thatincome.
Um, you can double or triplewhatever, you know, based on
your market and such and howmuch money you're making as a
private pay business and such.
And the money was the byproductof the service that I love to

(56:46):
provide.
And so that for me was thesuccess.
And that for me was the win.
And so one of the things thatstarted to happen was I started
to, I was covering, I believe,24 counties out of 88 counties
in Ohio.
And I was getting so many callsfrom all these other
facilities, you know, andpatients across Ohio.

(57:07):
Can you come here?
Can you come there?
And I was driving up to an hourand a half, two hours away.
I was like, this is crazy.
I can't keep doing this.

Marsha (57:13):
But that's the work, right?
That's the work that's keepingyou going.
You have to enjoy, you have toknow that there's a purpose or a
passion behind it.
That's what you're doing.
Yeah.

Heather (57:21):
There it is.
Yes.
And so one of the things thatwe actually did, this was a big
failure moment, was we actuallybuilt this out everyday
divinity.
We were going to franchise it.
So we thought, let's franchisethis business model and we'll
take it into different states.
And so we did it.
My husband and I worked on itfor two years.
We built this out, and it'ssitting on a shelf in my office

(57:42):
still.
But we built it because afranchise company had written
had contacted me on LinkedIn.
They're like, let's talk aboutyour business.
We're gonna have this, youknow, we franchise it, did this,
that, and the other.
And what ended up happening wasthe pandemic happened.
And so we had just boxedeverything up, sent it to legal
for approval.
And I went on a cruise with mygirlfriend.

(58:03):
I'd never been on a cruise.
She's like, You're coming withme on this cruise.
She gets free cruises.
She's a big cruiser.
Um, and so I went on a cruisewith her and the world shut
down.
I was on a boat on uh I got offthat boat on March 8th, and the
world shut down on March 13th.
Wow.
Yeah, yeah.
Yes.
And so while I was on the boat,I met a guy um who was in
business development.
And every morning we would gowalk, and we would, he was an

(58:25):
older gentleman, and he said,You need to, you need to do that
online.
You gotta do this this online.
This is gotta go online.
And I was like, Way.
I was like, Kristen, don'tlearn online.
What are you talking about?
And I wish I could find thatman again and just be like, you
are not gonna believe this.
So I get home, the world shutsdown, and I'm just watching and
I'm just observing.
I'm not reacting, I'm not doinganything, I'm just watching the

(58:47):
world and how things are going.
And I'm brushing my teeth oneday, and my husband's at his
sink, and now I'm at my sink,and I look over at him and I
said, Do not kill me in mysleep.
But that franchise that we justbuilt, you got to get it back.
We got to dismantle it andcreate an online training
program.
And he was like, Okay, now myhusband is wonderful.

(59:09):
He he knows my antics, he willgo with me.
He'll until it's like to thepoint where he's like, no.
But I mean, this moment he waslike, Okay, what's that gonna
look like?
I said, I don't know, but I'mgoing to figure it out.
And so this was a pivotal shiftfor me because now I can look
back and see this would not haveworked as a franchise because
every time you go into a stateand you franchise, you then have

(59:30):
to pay into each state's umlegal infrastructure to develop
a franchise model.
So I was like, oh my gosh.
At the same time, I'm gettingcalls from nurses and I was
spending two hours a night onthe phone with these nurses.
How'd you build it?
How'd you do this?
I was trying to do the phonecalls with them, and it just got
to a point where it's like,it's too much.
And my husband stopped spendingtwo hours on the phones with

(59:50):
these nurses.
You can't do this.

Marsha (59:52):
Were you getting paid for that?
I hope, Heather.
No?
Were you getting paid at thetime?
You were doing it all for free.

Heather (59:59):
But There's so much to building a business.
Yeah.
Like, yeah.
Now I can look back and belike, I don't know how many of
those really built theirbusiness or not, because there
was a lot of there was a lot.
And you know, it's and I'velearned over the years, it's
like it does take a lot tobuild.
Even if you purchase a course,you really there's so many
unknowns that you don't knowuntil you get to those
crossroads.
You're like, what do I do now?
And that's the kind of stuffthat you have to go through the

(01:00:21):
experience, and that's where alot of mistakes are made and
failures are made, and that'swhere you've learned the
lessons.
But one of the things that wedid was we launched the Foot and
Nail Institute in 2021.
And so we basically built out abusiness portion of it that
taught the business of how tobuild the foundations of your
business because as nurses, wedon't have those foundations.
We don't know how to build abusiness.
So we basically streamlinedthat from a nurse's perspective.

(01:00:44):
Um, I then also created the,you know, practice of foot care
and what that looks like.
And then I created a membershipcommunity because as a nurse,
um, you know, a lot of times we,as nurses, we are either people
pleasers or perfectionists.
Seems to be the lane that wefall into.
I'm a perfectionist.
I'm the type A girl.
My that was never gonna bedone.
I was continually like addingthings to it.

(01:01:06):
I gotta add this now.
I gotta do this.
And I, what about this?
And I was waking up at three inthe morning coming up with
ideas of things that I needed tocontinually add to the course.
And my husband's like, it'snever gonna be done.
You're always gonna be addingto it.
It's okay, this is how we'regonna do it.
And so it was wonderful how webuilt it out because I can't add
to things as things come up.
You know, questions that nurseswill have.

(01:01:27):
I was just asked to be a gueston a podcast.
What do I do?
I teach that inside of thecourse.
Um, I was asked to give apresentation.
How do I do that?
I have the presentation builtout for you to use.
I provide you all of thatstuff.
I provide you the templates forthe charting, the education
materials for the patients.
I provide all of that stuff,the marking stuff.

(01:01:47):
You can just use it or you cancreate your own, whatever you
want to do.
But those were the types ofquestions that they were getting
hung up on.
Um, how do I combat fear whenI, you know, go into a facility
and this is what they say to me?
How do I navigate through that?
You know, the nose is part ofthe business development
process.
And so I wanted to make thateasier.
And the way to do that was tocreate the membership program

(01:02:09):
where we have a community ofnurses who are now all helping
one another, you know, and it'sour own private community.
It's not on Facebook oranything like that.
I didn't want to have mybusiness in Facebook because if
anything happened with it, I waslike, I'm not losing it all to
that.
So I really was, you know, Iback to the pros and cons.
What is the pros and cons ofhaving a community in Facebook

(01:02:31):
and off of Facebook?
Those are the types of thingsthat I had to look at.
And so when I realized that, Irealized that, you know, what I
was building was a culture ofnurses that were going to
support one another.
And so we celebrate the wins.
Often we have a lot of nurseshere are celebrating that they
just went part-time, you know,or they've left the bedside
completely.
Their business is successfuland that this is the, you know,

(01:02:52):
the path that they're walking onnow.
And so that was part of thecommunity process and walking
them down that.
And so that's how the FootnoteInstitute came about, was
basically to meet the needs ofthe nurses that wanted to
develop a business, but it wasalso a need for the patients
because I was receiving callsfrom patients across the nation
that had heard about foot carenursing.

(01:03:13):
And so they were like, I heardabout the foot care nurse in
Ohio and I'm in Ohio.
So all my snowbird patientswere flying to Arizona and to
Florida, and they were marketingmy services for me.
And then I was getting callsfrom all these people that were
from, you know, Boston and, youknow, different states.
I'm looking for somebody.
Can you find somebody here inmy area?
And so that's kind of how I waslike, there's a need beyond

(01:03:34):
Ohio, and I can meet this needwith an online training program.
And that's how we developed theFoot and O Institute.
And it's been wonderful.
And we've helped launch nursesnationwide now, ever since then.
I think we're in 48, 49 statesnow.
So it's been fantastic.
Wow.

Marsha (01:03:49):
Awesome.
And to just go back briefly towhat you said about the
franchise idea that you weregetting ready to start.
It's okay to start over becauseyou you said you worked on it
for what two years and decidedto pivot to something completely
different, an online course.
So sometimes it happens thatway.
Sometimes you have to just tossit and start over.

Heather (01:04:13):
You do, you do.
There was a learning processwith that.
And what actually has happenedis I've actually consulted with
people who wanted to dofranchises.
And so it's kind of like I kindof know what to do.
Um, and so it was kind ofinteresting because there's so
many lessons.
And that was the lessons that Iwas like, I don't know what
this was about.
Maybe it was just, you know, tochallenge my husband and I's
marriage because it was aprocess to build a franchise.

(01:04:35):
Building a business was easy,but building a franchise model
was like, oh my gosh, becauseI'm a nurse, he's more
business-minded, and so we wouldbutt heads on things.
And so you want to get to knowyour partner and strengthen your
relationship, real build abusiness with them because it's
something that really willcontest your views of things
versus their views.
And, you know, no, you can't dolike these are nurses, I know

(01:04:56):
nurses, you know, and that's howit was funny.
We would have these discussionsand such, but it was a
wonderful process um that wewent through.
And it actually did strengthenus together because we really
have built on that and such.
So there's no, there was noloss to that.
I don't look it back at thosetwo years and think, you know,
we shouldn't have done thatbecause it was something that
is, you know, is helped othersum in the process over the

(01:05:17):
years.
So it was definitely a lessonto learn.
And I've utilized that lessonto leverage that to help others
in that process as well.
So just understandingsomething.

Marsha (01:05:27):
Yeah, new skills that you learn probably during that
whole process.
And I know that with helpingnurses with Foot and Nail
Institute, and then probably allthe skills and tools and
resources you learned aboutduring that franchise process,
you decided to go ahead and doheatherwilsonrn.com, which is
another business that you'vestarted.
And tell us a little bit aboutthat.

(01:05:48):
From what I understand, it'swhere you actually help
businesses who may notnecessarily want to do foot and
nail care, right?

Heather (01:05:56):
One of the things that I learned from the Foot and Nail
Institute and helping nurseswas we really had to get
personal.
Um, when you're building abusiness, you have to look
inward.
And so one of the things that Iwould see with nurses that
would come into the program wasthat these nurses would, you
know, I would have nurses thatwould come in and they were
like, I'm gonna do this.
I'm this is the goal.

(01:06:16):
And they would do it six monthsa year.
They were out of the bedside,they loved it.
Then I had the other side ofnurses who were struggling and
they were like, I just don'tknow what it is.
And they had the struggles wereall the same.
It was around mindset, it wasaround their own fears of being
seen.
It was all of the messy stuffthat we go through when we build

(01:06:37):
a business.
And when those messy thingscome up and they challenge us,
those are the times where wetypically quit and we're like,
this isn't for me.
And I had my own belief systemsthat I had to challenge and I
had to do the inner work ofunderstanding who I was, how I
was going to get over thosemountains.
Because as soon as you reachone mountain, you're just

(01:06:58):
basically looking at anothermountain behind it, and you have
to keep going and crawling upthese mountains.
And this is the thought, thethought process that I was
having was how can we help helpnurses understand and you know,
understand that this is alimited belief that we've
carried from childhood.
It can be from our culture, itcan be from, you know, the the

(01:07:19):
work environment that we'rearound.
Um, a lot of the beliefs thatwe're carrying, we don't even
know they're not ours.
They're other people's.
Challenge that.
Understand who you are and whatthat's gonna bring and deliver
to you.
Because one of the things thatI've seen out here is a lot of
nurses go and they get, youknow, the bachelor's or the NP
or the master's, and then theyfind there's still something's

(01:07:41):
missing.
I want people to get to thatpoint.
I want you to understand whatis missing.
And you're like, oh no, I justI am gonna continue to go in
this path.
Get to that point, get to whoyou are supposed to be and who
you are.
And one of the things that Ireally love is helping nurses
get over that um idea of whatthey thought they wanted and

(01:08:01):
challenging that.
It's okay to change your mind.
So Heather Wilsonrn.com cameabout organically, and I
thought, how do I teach to getover these blocks?
Even success, you can havesuccess in business.
And then what ends up happeningis you can create your own
success because you sabotageyourself because you're not

(01:08:22):
ready to receive the success.
And that's part of getting toknow you and understanding who
you are as a person.
And that is one of the thingsthat I love teaching to.
And when you're out here in abusiness and you, because now
businesses, we've we now havebecome the face of businesses
because of, you know, socialmedia.
You have to have a face withthe business.

(01:08:42):
And that's really a hard pillfor people to sell swallow
because they're just like, Idon't want to be seen.
I don't want to be seen.
That's what's going to convertwith people is that connection.
I had a patient who would comeand utilize my services um
regularly.
And I remember it was probablymaybe the third or fourth month

(01:09:03):
I was there.
And he stood up and he said, Iwant to thank you for your
services.
And um he goes, It's wonderful.
He goes, I just really want tothank you.
And he got like kind ofemotional.
And I'm like, I'm an empath.
So if you're gonna cry, I'mcrying with you, buddy.
So, like, well, we don't bedoing this today.
I'll do it.
What is what's the hurt?
Where is it at?
Let's work through it.
Um, and so it was interestingbecause he said, you know, we've

(01:09:26):
had people come here before andoffer services, doctors and
such.
And he goes, and they wouldleave here because they they
forgot about us.
You didn't forget about us.
And it really resonated with mebecause I thought, I said, no,
I'm coming back every month.
I'll be here.
And you know, what and he waslike, I am just really impressed

(01:09:47):
by that because it's not fancyhere.
We're not fancy, because I wascoming from Columbus, going to
this really small town.
And he goes, and so sometimeswhen you you come from those
those towns, you guys, you youwant that, you want that money,
you want that, and you know, andit really resonated with me
because I was like, this is muchbigger than foot care.
And so that was this the momentthat I was like, that was the

(01:10:08):
connection that I had with thesepatients, and I just love that.
And I said, no, I said, youknow, I will forever, you know,
hold this story near and dear tomy heart because I don't want
to be, I don't want to forgetthe the patient.
Let's not forget why we wentinto this, and it was to care
for patients.
And caring for patients is whatfills my soul as a nurse.

(01:10:29):
So, regardless of whatever itis that you want to go into,
find something that resonateswith you and be a provider to
these patients and you know,fill your soul and love this
profession again because thatit's there, you can find it.
Um, but yeah, I just that wasmy story.
And I always remembered thatbecause it's like on the outside
looking in, you know, you drivethrough the town, you'd be
like, no one's gonna probablypay me for these services.

(01:10:51):
That was my first thought whenI went through that town.
I thought they probably won'tpay me for this, but it was one
of my most successful clinics,actually.
And it was because of thatconnection and resonating with
these patients.
So that was my story.

Marsha (01:11:04):
That was Heather Wilson, founder of Everyday Divinity
and the Foot and Nail Institute.
And here's something that Ilearned about Heather.

Heather (01:11:13):
We have something in common.
I am a huge, actually, I'm ahuge Bon Jovi fan.
I love John Bon Jovi.
I, since the age of 12, I haveloved Bon Jovi.
My office used to be Bon Jovi.
And so I actually did a tour ofNew Jersey a few years ago.
I went to outside of his houseand it's all gated, and I stood

(01:11:36):
there at the black John BonJovi's house.
And I remember I plucked a um Iplucked a uh hydrangea fire off
of the bush.
I reached through and myhusband's like, get in the car.
It's a two-lane road.
Get in the car, get in the car,they're gonna get, they're
gonna kick us, they're gonnacall the police, they're gonna
just I cut this.
I paid for this, I paid forthis bush.
All these concerts I've beento, all these just I still have

(01:11:57):
it to this day.
But I am obsessed.
I went to his soul kitchen,I've traveled to see his
concerts.
I love him.
That was um, and his music,believe it or not, if he ever
hears this episode or ever hearsthis, his music actually is
what gave me that grit frombeing from a small town and
steel.
That gave me the grit because Ihad a chip on my shoulder, just

(01:12:19):
like, you know, Jersey.
And I was like, I'll do it.
Tell me I'm not gonna be ableto do it.
I'm gonna show you and I willdo it, and I'm gonna prove you
wrong.
And that was the grit in thatmusic that, you know, helped me
develop my businesses.
I could write a book about BonJerry and songs that actually
led to decision making inside ofmy businesses because that was
the grit that I needed.

Marsha (01:12:42):
Okay, thanks so much for listening to the show this
week.
Please make sure to rate andreview this episode in your
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an episode.
This episode was produced andedited by yours truly with
administrative and researchsupport from Liz Alexandry and
Renan Silva.

(01:13:03):
I'm Marcia Batti, and you'vebeen listening to the Bossy
Nurse Podcast.

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