Fearless at Every Age: Suzy Prudden’s Blueprint for a Vibrant Third Act

Episode Transcript
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Suzy Prudden (00:01):
This is the EWN Podcast Network.

Cathy Worthington (00:14):
Welcome to late boomers, our podcast guide
to creating your third act withstyle, power, and impact. Hi.
I'm Kathy Worthington.

Merry Elkins (00:24):
And I'm Merry Elkins. Join us as we bring you
conversations with successfulentrepreneurs, entertainers, and
people with vision who aremaking a difference in the
world.

Everyone has a story, and we'll take you
along for the ride on eachinterview, recounting the
journey our guests have taken toget where they are, inspiring
you to create your own path tosuccess. Let's get started. This
is Kathy Worthington, andwelcome back to late boomers,

(00:56):
the podcast where we explore allthe possibilities of this stage
of life, how to keep dreamingbig and making things happen no
matter our ages.

Yes. And I'm Mary Elkins. Every week, we talk with
people who inspire us to keeplearning, creating, and
thriving. And today, Kathy and Iare so excited. We have someone
who embodies that spirit inevery way.

Absolutely. Our guest is the incomparable
Susie Pruden. Susie is not onlyan award winning speaker and
author, she's also the founderof the Itty Bitty Publishing
Company, which has helpedhundreds hundreds of authors
bring their big ideas to readersin delightfully itty bitty
books.

I love that name. It's just it's great. Itty
bitty. And what I love even moreis Susie herself. She is in her
eighties, still traveling,speaking on stages across the
country, and inspiring audienceswith her wisdom and energy.

And we were lucky enough to meet Susie in
person at the e women networkicon conference in Dallas where
she absolutely wowed the crowdwith her talk.

And we both walked away so inspired. Susie, your
presence on that stage wasunforgettable, and we knew right
then we looked at each other andwe said, she has to be on our
show.

Yeah. She really is a powerhouse. She's
been on Oprah. She's a New YorkTimes best selling author, and
she continues to reinventherself. Susie proves that the
creative life doesn't slow down.
With age, it can actually getricher.

And she's not just a writer even though being a
writer is a big thing. She's atrue mentor in the publishing
world. Through itty bitty, she'sgiven so many people the chance
to share their stories in a waythat's approachable and fun.

Exactly. And we know our listeners, many of
whom are also late boomers, aregoing to love hearing how Susie
built this thriving company andhow she keeps that spark alive
on the speaker circuit.

Boy, does she ever. And she she shared stages
with some incredible names, butwe will get to that. But first,
we wanna say how grateful we arethat she's here. Susie reminds
us all that passion and purposedon't come with an expiration
date.

Couldn't agree more. So pour yourself a
cup of coffee or maybe a niceglass of wine and settle in. We
think you'll finish thisconversation feeling inspired to
take your next big leap nomatter your age.

So let's all welcome Susie Pruden.

Thank you. It's nice to be here.

It's great to have you.

Thank you. And, Susie, we're thrilled to
have you here. Yes. Of course.For listeners who may be new to
your work, can you start bysharing a little bit about your
background and the journey thatled you to become an author,
speaker, and publisher?
How much time do we have? So Iknow.

I started out in 1965 when I was 22 years old in
New York City. I created abusiness. My mother was the
nation's foremost fitnessauthority, Bonnie Pruden. She
started the president's councilon physical fitness and sports.
Oh, wow.
And I knew how to teachexercise, and I was supporting
my family. I was married with anew baby, and I was supporting

(04:18):
the family. My husband went backto school at that time. I was,
yeah, 22 years old. And I didn'twanna work for somebody else, so
I started teaching exercise.
And then I started teachingtoddler exercise and it didn't
exist in the sixties. That'strue.

That's true.

And that people thought that I was crazy. You
know, I've started many newtypes of business and always
people thought I was crazybecause it wasn't done yet. And
yet every time I Right. Grewinto something that now is
normal. But it wasn't normal inthe beginning.
And and I did that year, youknow, career after career after

(04:58):
career. When I became a fitnessexpert, I became a very well
known fitness expert. And one ofthe that shows me on over with
one of my books that was thebook that was published by
Hayhouse on the body mind,that's where I moved from
fitness into body mind. And soI've been always I've always
been an innovator. I've alwaysstepped into something new.

(05:22):
If it's a good idea, I go, let'ssee if this works. And a lot of
it worked, some of it didn'twork. Mhmm. It's been a bumpy
road. You know, life is a bumpyroad.
Yeah. And when we're high, we'regreat. We think everything's
fabulous. I want this for therest of my life. And then we

(05:42):
have a low, we go, oh, I don'tlike this.
But that's when we learn. Yeah.Yeah.

I know. Because we've all been there. Yeah. But
you know what I love about whatyou just said is you had an idea
and you went for it. A lot ofpeople have great ideas, but
they don't do anything about it.

Yeah. I talk about that. And I and I you know, it
was like when I when when Iokay. So when I moved to I'm I'm
originally from New York City.And and that's where I had my
fitness schools.
And I had a summer camp. I mean,I was very blessed because I was
successful, but that takes work.And and it's interesting.

(06:24):
Staying successful takes morework than becoming successful.
Oh.
It's a whole different energy.But I moved to California and I
became very good friends withLouise Hay.

Oh. Mhmm.

And because I was doing body mind stuff, she was
doing body mind stuff, we werespeaking on the same circuit. We
became very close friends and welived very close to each other
in the Palisades. And she wouldcome over to my house every
couple of day couple of times aweek and we'd exercise together
because whereas I wasn't reallyteaching exercise anymore, I was

(06:56):
doing exercise and we wouldexercise together and one she's
so so funny. One day when Ithink about it now, she goes,
ow. And she hurt herself.
I mean, was her her hip hurts. Isaid, what's going on? She said,
my hip hurts. And I said, well,you're the expert. What does it
mean?
And she thought about it and shesaid, oh, it means such and
such. I don't remember what itmeant. Here's what you just

(07:17):
mentioned a moment ago. I had anidea. And you're right.
Most people don't speak theiridea when they have an idea
especially if they're talkingwith someone who's an icon. And
Louise Right. I said, Louise,why don't we do because she had
Hay House. I said, don't we do avideo together? I'll do the

(07:37):
exercises and you do theaffirmations.
And she thought about it and shesaid, let me take it to the
board. I'll I'll let you know.And she came back the next
Thursday and she said, yes, welike your idea. Let's do it. So
we did it and that's the that'sthe book that came out of it.
We did it. It's called MetaFitness, Your Thoughts Taking
Shape. It was published in 1989through Hay House. We did a

(08:01):
video, a book and two audios andthat's the book that got me on
the Oprah show. But it was, asyou said, it was an idea.
Mhmm. Let's do it. Same thingwith Itty Bitty. It was just an
idea. Mhmm.
And now it's another $15company. It's amazing.

And and you had someone to do it with, which
you'd push each other like Kathyand I do on the podcast.

Right. Yeah. So what happened, how we created it
my sister and I created thiscompany in '19 no. '19. I keep
going back to '19.
In 2014. And what happened, wehad written a book called but
let me go back. We went to aworkshop in Las Vegas with James

(08:47):
Balanchek and he's talking aboutwrite small books. Now my sister
and I have only written bigbooks together. So this was a
small book and I thought, asmall book, an itty bitty book.
And we're driving back from LasVegas and at that time, I had a
weight loss center in LosAngeles. I had five offices. We
did hypnosis helping people loseweight. So I was ensconced in

(09:09):
the business of weight loss. AndI said, okay.
I'll write Suzy Prudence ittybitty weight loss book. And she
said, great. And I'll write. Ican't remember the book that she
was gonna write. And we'redriving back, we got back, she
wrote the book because I wasbusy running the business and it
was Susie Prudin's itty bittyweight loss book.
We didn't know what we weredoing. We had no clue how

(09:31):
because I've always beenpublished by big houses. Now
we're on our own. We had noidea. We bought at that time,
you had to buy 2,000 books toget a good deal.
Wow. I got 1,800 left in mygarage.

Oh my goodness. But you're you

know? So that didn't work.

Wow. Yeah. But it

But in 02/2014, I said, why don't you to my
sister, make the book smaller,change the cover so it speaks to
weight loss, and let's be we weput it out again. So we were
talking together. We werevisiting at Christmas. She
showed me the book. I'm lookingat the book.

(10:13):
This isn't the book. This isjust something I have here. I'm
looking at the book. She took myname off the book. What?
Yes. I'm looking at it and itsays, your amazing itty bitty
weight loss book. I said to her,you wanna take my name off? Now
my name's been on everythingsince 1965. Books, television,

(10:38):
everything, summer camps,studios.
I'm looking at it and she said,I don't care. And as I'm looking
at it, was thinking, this is amultimillion dollar business.

Mhmm.

And we don't have to write the books. We were in
business literally three dayslater. We had our first signed
author two weeks later and ourfirst published book six weeks
later. From 2006 to 02/2014, mysister learned how to do the

(11:13):
back end of publishing. So I amthe outside I'm the I'm the
voice, the visual.
I'm the person who markets ittybitty, and my sister, she's now,
actually, she died recently. Butshe Oh. She was the, person
behind the scenes. And

that's What a

great team. Oh, it was perfect. Mhmm. It was
perfect. She retired about fouryears ago five years ago.
She's been very, very sick anddied recently, which is actually
a blessing. It's very sad, butit's a blessing because Mhmm.
She was ready to go. Mhmm. Butshe and I created itty bitty.

How lucky you are to have that.

I am blessed. Absolutely blessed.

Well, Susie, I I I'd love to know a little bit
more about your your wholecareer as in the stage too
because what drew you to thestage? Was there a moment when
you knew speaking lot to liveaudiences was going to be a
central part of your life?

I love speaking. Period. I love speaking. You
know, when you saw me at e women

And you were fabulous.

I had so much fun. I mean, what what what what was
interesting, what was fabulouswas the response from the
audience.

Mhmm.

We were playing off each other. Right. And I
mean, it was I mean, I had neversaid before, it's wonderful
being 81 years old because youcan tell people what to do. And
then and I and this was organic.This was not in my script.
And then I said, you were there.I said, telling what people and

(12:55):
sometimes where to go. I mean,that literally came I mean, it
was magic. That's

You gotta go with your impulse when you're
speaking. You have that.

So it started I mean, when you asked me, I I
studied theater.

Oh.

I mean, I I was a theater major in college. I went
to Carnegie Mellon, which is Youdid? Yeah. And I was I

was a theater major too.

Hello. UCLA.

A while. UCLA.

Then I went to into journalism at USC.

Uh-oh. Yeah. We got and that's when my mother
told me I couldn't date the boyI was dating, so I married him.

Oh, there you go.

Yeah. And and

He was forbidden.

Yeah. And you know what's so interesting? She knew
better. She really did. Don'tdon't tell Susie no about it.
And that's important becausewhen when people run up against
the no Mhmm. No isn't no. No isnot now. No is later. No is what

(14:08):
do I have to do to make a yes.

Yeah.

Is I agree. Well, when we met you at the
conference for e women network,the audience was so captivated.
And what really stands out inyour memory about the event and
how did it feel to connect withso many women entrepreneurs and
leaders?

That was a magical I've been to conference many
times. That was a truly magicalconference for me. That's when I
when I got a matchmaker of theyear, which I had no idea what
that meant. Had I had no idea. Imean, I

I Why don't you explain it

to all of us? Exactly.

So I send people to e women all the time. I
believe in the company. Ibelieve in what they do. I
believe in what they say. Ibelieve in the difference that
they're making in the world witheverything that they do for the
entrepreneur, for thebusinesswoman, and for all the
people who are out there doing Imean, the fact when they when
they gave that award to thepeople from the the architects

(15:19):
from Altadena who are helpingthe people of Altadena create
homes again, They're making itpossible for them because of all
the red tape and everything.

And she's talking about the aftermath of
of the fires

The fires.

In the Los Angeles area.

Yeah. Yeah. That is I mean, I love the
organization. I love what theydo. So I send people all the
time.
But you know, if I'm talking toa new author especially, ask
everybody, where do you market?Where do you where do you do you
go to get new business? BecauseI'm all about creating business.

(15:58):
And some of them tell me whatthey're doing, some of them I
don't know. So check out ewomen.
It's it's international. Andthey have they have chapters all
over The United States. And so Iit I send people I have I have
authors all over the world. Andso I tell them, well, find a
chapter that is near you ifthey're in The US. And then if

(16:22):
they don't have a chapter nearthem, I say, well, join my
chapter because you can be onthe Internet.
You don't have to show up. And II don't know how many people
I've sent, but over the I'vesent a lot of people. And I sent
them without knowing that I'mnot getting anything from this.

Yeah.

They are, which is not e women, but but the the
client or the I I sent somebodyrecently, he wasn't even a
client. They were talking aboutdoing a book. She's not ready to
do the book and she's buildingher business. I said, well,
where are you marketing? And shesaid, I'm not.
And I sent her to e women. Mhmm.And so I thought when I filled

(17:02):
out the form, all the peoplethat I've sent, that it was
numbers. And I learned later,it's not numbers. Yes.
Numbers you have to have acertain number of people to
enter into becoming matchmakerof the year, but the chapter
director has to get minimum fivetestimonials Oh. Of why the

(17:27):
members of that chapter want youto have that award.

Ah. When Vicky So it's really behind the
scenes. You don't know about it.Yeah.

When he told me that, I said, really? I had no
idea. Now, I'm known in mychapter for being a time Nazi.
Not a a not a time Nazi, but aspeaker not. In other words, if
someone is speaking and somebodyat a table is also speaking,

(17:59):
I'll say stop talking.
Mhmm. You're interrupted. Expectif they're talking when I'm
talking. Expect don't talk whenI'm talking. I call them out on
it.
So some people and I'm and I'mvery polarizing. You either
really like me or you reallydon't. So the fact that they got
five testimonials or more, Idon't know.

And people in the entire room, there had to be a
thousand people giving you astanding ovation. Yeah. So you
had a lot more testimonials.

It was so Mhmm. Honoring. Mean, it was really
it's like, woah. I had no idea.

Mhmm. So, Susie, how has the world of
professional speaking changedover the years? And how is it
still well, obviously, it'sstill exciting for you today.

I love speaking. I mean, give me an audience. I
I'll pay to speak.

Don't say that out loud too much.

Don't say it out loud too much?

No. Well, don't you get paid to speak?

This is the secret. Yes. I do. I make more
money when I pay to speak.

Oh, I see.

So here's the thing. When you are a paid
speaker, you get 5,000, 10,000,$20,000 and that's it. It's
like, you very much. I had awonderful time. Thank you for
this Mhmm.
Community. That's it. When youpay to speak or speak at no
cost, you get an opportunity tooffer something.

Uh-huh. So

when I speak and I've spoken on conference stages
for two minutes and made$35,000.

Yeah. Because of what happens after. Exactly.

Right? Yeah. So when I spoke at e women, I paid
to speak at e women. Uh-huh. Ipaid a lot of money to speak at
e women and it was worth everypenny.
And and I reckon okay. If if youreally want to make a difference
and there's a stage and you knowthat if you get on that stage,

(20:13):
two things are gonna happen.You're gonna make a difference
to the audience and they'regonna make a difference to you.
Mhmm. He's like, down, do it.
So I I I I and I was not allowedto say if you, you know, you can
get this from me for this muchmoney, etcetera. I'd say, if

(20:35):
you're interested in talking tome, please see me. Here's a form
to fill out, whatever. So I had94 people fill out the form.
Wow.
Now for the rest of theconference, I had a booth
upstairs at the expo. Mhmm. From09:30 in the morning till seven,
I spoke to a different personevery half hour. Oh. They all
wanted to do books.

That takes energy. Well, did they all have ideas
for books?

Some did and some didn't. And when somebody had an
idea at what happens to me isit's very dangerous because when
they say what they wanna do, I II'm a visionary. I can see
beyond of what they wanna do.And I say, you thought of this?
Have you thought of this?
Have you thought of this? I haveto be very careful because I can

(21:20):
overwhelm people with ideas. Nowa yes person.

Not a bad thing.

No. No. No. No. It's not a bad thing.
It's a little overwhelming. Somepeople didn't have an idea what
they wanted to do. Some peopledidn't have a business yet. They
were new. You know, at e women,you have all stages of business
which is what's so beautifulabout it because Mhmm.
Beginner has a platform, and theperson making millions of
dollars already has a platform.

And we should put in that men go to it too,
and men are And

a few good men.

Oh, a few good men.

I just

signed a new

I just signed a a an e woman man to do a fabulous
job. So exciting.

Great. Good. And we know oh, I'm sorry.

I lost it. Go ahead.

Oh, I was just gonna ask you something
else. You've shared this. You'veshared the spotlight with some
pretty remarkable people. Andcan you tell us about a time
when you looked around andthought, wow, I can't believe
I'm sharing a stage with thisperson? Tell us a few of those.

Okay. So this was I mean, oh god, the people I've
shared the stage with.

Uh-huh.

The first person was Tony Robbins.

Oh, wow.

And that was in 1984. Oh. Long time. He was just
starting. It was in New York andhe was it was one of his first
major conferences.
And the audience was restlessand he wasn't there yet. And you
saw what I did in the beginningof my my talk when I got the
whole rooming, the whole Mhmm.Room moving. So I went to his

(22:50):
program director and I said,would you like me to get this
audio this audience together Sothey're not at sixes and sevens
because he hadn't arrived yet.And they didn't know they had no
idea what I was gonna do.
And Mhmm. They happen to havethe the music that I use, which
I use I've been using that musicconsistently when I do that

(23:16):
particular piece of my talk.

Which music is that for this audience?

Oh, thank you. It's Jump for My Love by the
Pointer Sisters. Oh, I love.Yeah. Yeah.
1981.

Mhmm. So this is that I remember when it came
out. Yeah.

So now it's 1984, November, and I remember.
November 1984, and I said, doyou have music? Jump. They said,
yes. I said, so let me do mything.
And I did. Mhmm. And so that wasthe first shared stage, to
speak. Then I was blessed in theearly two thousands to have a

(24:00):
client who has a company calledhad a company called Sci
Seminars, which was in NorthernCalifornia. It was a seminar,
obviously, company.
And after people had gonethrough three very intense
seminars when they graduated,they were they were allowed to

(24:23):
come to a program that they hadcreated called Principia. Mhmm.
And Principia was a seven dayprogram where they had speakers,
phenomenal speakers come andspeak for a day. And I was
hired, which is such a funnystory, when when Jane first
asked me to do it, I thought,me? Speak at Principia?

(24:49):
I was so impressed with myself.And because I thought I was
gonna have a day. And I keptwriting to James saying, well,
what do you want me to do?Because I had all these
different things that I coulddo. Weight loss, relationships,
positive thinking.

(25:10):
Mean, that's what I did. Thattime in my life, I was doing
worships. And no nothing nothingnothing. Thursday, we're
starting Saturday. She calls meup and say, this is what I want
you to do.
And I was a hypotherapist at thetime. And she said, I want you
to listen all day to the speakerand then do a ten minute wrap up

(25:31):
in the evening of what theysaid.

Wow.

Well, this is what happened. My ego went, ten
minutes? You only want me to doten minutes? I mean, my ego was
like, okay, Susie, shut up.Breathe.

(25:55):
You got ten minutes every nightto six nights.

Yeah. Alright. You really have to pay
attention.

I had no idea how was gonna do this. I'd never
done it before. Yeah. So I sitthere all day. I mean, I had
notebooks like this of what theysaid.
And then I'd try and call it,bring it together, and finally
I'd think I can't bring ittogether. I'll just wing it. And
so that's what I did. Everynight, they would bring me on

(26:25):
stage after dinner and I woulddo well, in the beginning it was
twenty five minutes because Icouldn't bring it down to ten. I
finally got it down to tenminutes, but it took me actually
ten years.
What happened, which was sobrilliant, I mean, I got I mean,
Michael Beckwith, JohnDeMartini, AJ Abraham, oh my
god, the list is unbelievable.And I got to spend not only the

(26:50):
day listening to them, but thenwe would all have lunch together
and then we would all havedinner together and we all
stayed at the Casa, which wasthis extraordinary house on the
property. So I got to be with Imean, I I I was immersed in this
in in the the the backstagespeaker world. Mhmm. And Yeah.

(27:12):
What happened was most peoplewho go to who went to this
organization to speak up maybeonce or twice. I was there every
year for ten years. Oh. Yes.That's really a lot.
Unbelievable.

So They must have loved it.

The the the comments were yeah. They did.
They would mention my name and II wouldn't even be on stage. I'd
get a standing ovation. Right?
Because I'm I was really good atI'd never done it before. I made
it up. Mhmm. And that's anotherthing. It's like, okay.
So you've never done it. So doit. Mhmm. I mean, you can do

(27:54):
that.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'm you you've mentioned
both speakers and, obviously,writers, writers through itty
bitty publishing. So whatqualities do you notice or look
for in the people whosuccessfully bring a book to
life?

The willingness to go beyond where they've ever
been before.

Oh, that sounds like Star Trek.

It does.

I never thought of that. But it's like, okay. So
you've got this book. It'sfragile. It's a baby.

Yes.

It has no it has no ability by itself to do
anything. It's got all thepotential in the world. So what
are we going to do to make yourbook happen in the world?

Mhmm.

And that's that's when I mean, just got off I just
did a process with an authorlast week. We did a press
release. And this woman iswilling to go beyond. What do I
have to do next, Susie? What doI have to do next, Susie?
What do I have to do next,Susie? That book is gonna be
successful and from that book,so is she.

Yeah. Mhmm.

What do I have to do next?

What do I have to do next? It's it's it's your
life lesson. It's like in life.Mhmm. People can sit back and
say, okay, that's that's goodand watch television.

And if she didn't have you telling you her
what to do next, she'd have tocome up with the next step.
Right. At some point. So sheYeah. It's great to have a
mentor.

So what I what I tell people when I'm marketing
me, it's like I've done it. Youwanna talk to me. I've done it.
Mhmm. I know how to do this.
Let me give my life experienceto you so that you can take what
I've learned and move yourcareer, your book, your life

(29:58):
forward.

That's powerful.

That's where I come from.

Yeah. That's excellent. So you get a lot with
when you go to itty bittypublishing. It sounds like

Well, you know, I was talking to Kim Yancey, who
is the the basic the cofounderof of e women. Mhmm. I love him.
I love him. You do.
Me too. He's funny. He's Yeah.He was he said to me, what do
you do as a publisher? I said,everything that any other

(30:32):
publisher does.
And then I listened, you know,we do this, we do this, we do
you know, we do the editing, wedo the ISBN number, we do the
everything that a publisherdoes, we do. And I'm trying to
think, what's the difference?What's the difference? I guess
and I said to him, guess theonly difference is when you
become an itty bitty author, youget me. Mhmm.

(30:52):
And he's Uh-huh.

Yeah. Kim must have loved that because
he's always looking for like,what's special about this? Yeah.
And how do you stand out? Andhow do you reinvent yourself?
And how do you make your brandclear? And all of that. He's
about all of that. Andobviously, you know exactly how
to do that. Yeah.
Go ahead. Your career basicallyspans decades Yeah. And several

(31:21):
reinventions. Was there a timewhen you faced a major challenge
or pivot pivot? And how did youfind the courage to move forward
with that?

Well, in 1989, I did the Oprah show.

Mhmm.

And I didn't know I didn't have a team. I was all
by myself. I didn't know how tohandle it. And I made some
massive mistakes. And inFebruary 1990, I was sitting in
my beautiful little guesthousein Topanga Canyon in California

(31:58):
and got the mail and my rentcheck had bounced.

Oh.

Oops. Mhmm. And then I contacted the bank and I
had no money in my bank account.I thought, well, this is a
problem. And that same day, Iwas sitting in my kitchen and I
had a bunch of phone calls thatcame literally one after
another.
And every single call that Ireceived that day was a company

(32:27):
that I had scheduled and andbooked a program with, they
canceled. Every single job thatI had lined up for the year
called and canceled.

That is a bad day.

That was a very bad day, I knew it was not
accidental. You can remember.That happen without that being,
okay, Susie, we've got toregroup.

Mhmm.

And I looked up at the ceiling and I said, god, you
must really love me to give methis experience because it's
gonna change my life.

That's a great way to look at it.

It certainly is.

Well That was all that training with Louise
Hay and Tony Robbins.

All that all that years of training. But what was
what was stunning to me in themoment was I meant it. Mhmm. And
then I I so funny, I had to geta job. Now I had not worked for
anybody since 1965.

That's a long That's a lot of years between.

Yeah. But okay. So I'm talking to this is funny.
Talking to myself, you gotta geta job. And my ego comes up, you
can't get a job.
I said, excuse me? Obviously,this is all going on in my head.
I have to get a job. No. Youcan't get a job.
But I need a job. You can't geta job.

I said, why can't I get

a job? You're Susie Perkin. You don't work for
anybody else. I said, I need ajob. We don't we won't eat.
This conversation got louder andlouder and louder and louder
until the ego became was aPillsbury Doughboy in the
beginning and it became theJolly Green Giant. And it and I
said, what will your it says tome, what will your mother think?

(34:14):
I said, get down here. Itdoesn't matter what my mother
will think. And it was likesomebody hit the jolly green
giant with a pin and went and itbecame the it was very doughboy
again.
And I'm looking at my ego in mymind, and I'm going, you think I
don't love you, don't you? Andhe goes, aw. He said, I love
you. I need you, but you can'trun the show right now. I have

(34:40):
to run the show.
And so and it it was like it wasso sweet in my mind. This little
tiny Pillsbury book dope likeego thing. And then I went and
got a job. And I worked for afriend of mine because we we
were in the same shamanic groupat the time. And our teacher

(35:01):
said, Helene, you need help inyour office.
Susie, you need a job. So Icalled Helene and I said, I need
a job. She said, Susie, I can'thire you. I said, why not? She
said, you're Susie Pruden.
I said, so what? She said, well,I'm only gonna pay you $10 an
hour. And I said to her, that's$10 more than I'm making now.

Mhmm.

And, you know, I used to make $5,000 a day. So
this so is in the this is thenineties. She said, I'm gonna
ask you to get my cleaning. Isaid, I'll get it. I'm gonna ask
you to clean up my office.
I'll clean it. So we negotiatedand I started and I I was gonna
work Tuesday, Wednesday,Thursday from like ten until

(35:47):
four for $10 an hour. And Inegotiated with my landlady that
I would pay her weekly because Icouldn't pay the whole rent in
one shot until the lease was up,which was in May. And she didn't
wanna lose the money, and Ididn't wanna lose my home. And
my first day at the I mean, talkabout a oh my god.

(36:13):
I just gotta stop. My first daythere, the secretary who was
leaving said, do you know how toorganize? So my operative word
is yes. She's can you organizethis office? I said, yes.
So I became an office organizerinstead of an office helper by

(36:36):
noon. I said, organizers get $75an hour. Why don't I charge
charge Helene 25? So I got Iwent I I was hired at $10 an
hour and then two day two hourslater I was $25 an hour. So I
got a $15 an hour raise and Iworked for Helene January,

(36:57):
February, March, April untilApril until May.
And basically, she saved mylife.

That's a great story.

And you and you saved your office. And I
saved

your office. And we're still friends.

Oh, that's the best part.

And we're both old ladies now. We're both still
working.

That's great.

I love it.

I do too. Sissy, you mentioned about traveling
earlier, and traveling andspeaking take tons of energy.
People half your age areexhausted with it. So do you
have any favorite rituals ormust have items that you take
with you or that you do in orderwhen you're on the road to help

(37:42):
you stay together, to help youstay healthy?

That's a very good question. No. I

just told you. It's about your exercising?
Because you're you're in amazingshape.

Well, there's other people that could argue
with that like myself. Butanyway, I'm in I'm in better
shape than a lot of people myage and I Yeah. I I'm blessed.
First of all, I love travel.Secondly, I love speaking.

(38:16):
Thirdly, I love working withpeople. So I'm doing something
that I adore. Absolutely adore.Mhmm. After Icon, so Icon was
this is an example of what I do.
Icon was over Saturday nightlate. I left at six or seven
because I was toast. I didn't gofor the dance party. I was

(38:40):
toast. And I Mhmm.
I stayed with a friend for acouple of days in Dallas. So we
went, we stopped for dinner,think, for a light dinner on the
way back to her house. And thenext day, I didn't get out of my
bathrobe. That's a nice That'swhy do.

Yeah.

And then, I think we did get out at 03:00 and I
think we went for a manicurepedicure.

So you could just build in these little
breaks.

Yes. I have to build that in. Mhmm. So then
that was Sunday. Monday, Istayed an extra day.
We were gonna go get a massage,a salt bath and a massage. And
at 03:00 or 02:00 in theafternoon, I looked at we're
still in our bathrobes. We'rewatching stuff on movies on
television. Both of us, and shehelped me at my booth. We're

(39:29):
like kind of and I turned toher.
We're each on a different couch.We've had snacks and stuff.
We're just taking the day. And Iknew we had prepped, like, this
is so funny, planned to go get amassage. And I turned to her and
I said, don't think I wanna getdressed to get undressed to get

(39:49):
dressed again.

I understand.

Sunrise is one thing too many.

It was just I mean, just the thought of
putting on my clothes.

Yeah. And you would have

to drive over there. Driving up, put it gone
again. Yeah. I couldn't so wedidn't we didn't do that. We did
go out for dinner, which wasgreat.
I'm glad we did, but it wasreally just we just got dressed
to go to dinner and then cameback to went back to watching
movies. I mean, you when you putas much energy out as I do, you

(40:22):
have to create a time when youdon't do anything.

Right. I get it. Well, for our listeners who
dream of becoming speakersthemselves, what's one piece of
advice you'd give aboutconnecting with an audience,
especially later in life?

Love them. Oh, good. Love them. They're here to
you and be interesting. Beinteresting.
That's hard. And and and andreally understand your audience.
I I know the audience of e womenbecause I'm an e women member.

(41:03):
Mhmm. All entrepreneurs, we'reall business owners, we're all
searching and and learning andgrowing and we all want new and
we all need we all need to beseen.
Mhmm. And we need to set it upso that we are seen. My topic
was it's not who you know, it'swho knows you. And and really,
I've been blessed because peopleI mean, I'm I am my mother's

(41:26):
daughter. I did take her name.
It's not my birth name. I didask her permission if I could
become Susie Pruden. I did thaton purpose. Mhmm. Mhmm.
And and and be strategic.

Like a little rebirth.

Yeah. Be strategic. Think about what your
audience needs. What do theyneed? It's not about what you
need.
It's about what they need. Yeah.And my audience needs to be seen
just like I well, I need to beseen, but if I can teach people
how to be known so that when youthink their name, think when you

(42:06):
think their career, you thinktheir name. I mean, when people
think about publishing smallbooks, they don't just think
itty bitty, they think ittybitty Susie Prudin or they think
Susie Prudin itty bitty. Andwhen I was an icon in fitness,
people would think fitness, theywould think Suzy Pruden.
They think Suzy Pruden. It'slike the story I told where I

(42:28):
was at a conference in Orlandoin '9 in 02/2023, walking out of
a restaurant with my name badgeon because I was at conference
and a table of four women, oneof the women said, oh my god,
Susie Prudin. What? I have yourbooks. I hadn't written a book

(42:50):
on fitness since 1992.
No. 2023. Wow. I know. Yeah.
So you really that's that's whatI wanna teach people. And so as
a speaker, you have to think,what does my audience need? It's
not about me, it's about them.Mhmm. Then Is

it is it the same with publishing for people who
are thinking about publishing?Talk a little bit about that and
why the itty bitty book formatis so powerful compared to the
books you used to write, longerbooks.

Okay. So I'm gonna show you an itty bitty book.

Okay. And will you describe it for our listeners?

Oh, of course.

We're on YouTube as well.

But Okay. Yeah. I will. So an itty bitty book is
only 30 pages. Ah.
It's written in numberedsentences and paragraphs and
bullet points. It's like thecliff notes of Dummies. Dummies
books are 350 pages you have toread with a yellow highlighter.

(43:58):
Itty bitty books are the yellowhighlights. So you have a page
one of every itty bitty book iswritten with a little paragraph
and then a numbered sentence ora numbered paragraph.
And you have that's that's pageone. Page two is written with a

(44:19):
little paragraph and then bulletpoints. So it's very very very
little. It's a 150 words a page.Oh.
Literally, it's like the cliffnotes of dummies.

Yeah.

The interesting thing that we have come to
create as we've learned more tocreate itty bitty books is that
the author is not allowed to bein the book. So there's no
story. There's no I thought ofthis when I was 12. There's no
if you do my recommendation isuh-uh. It's all if you want to

(44:57):
learn this, you need to do suchand such.
You and your are the operative'swords in itty bitty. There's no
I, there's no we, there's no us,there's no they. There is only
you and your. The author isspeaking directly to the reader.
So when the reader reads thebook, it goes directly into the

(45:19):
heart.
Mhmm. So when it says on thecover, for example, your amazing
itty bitty whole healthy habitsbook, the reader subconsciously
thinks, my healthy habits? Sothere's Mhmm. The reader

(45:43):
connects with the authorimmediately.

Right. Just right on the front, right in the
title.

And then throughout the book. Mhmm. And
then I teach people how to takeeach chapter and turn it into a
seminar, a webinar, a program.It's a retreat. It's a weekend
getaway, and it's acertification program.

Oh, that's great.

So people can come become the Pilates of their
industry.

Uh-huh. Mhmm.

I love that.

Yeah. And,

you know, Susie, you radiate so much
energy and enthusiasm. What aresome of your personal habits or
daily practices that help youstay vibrant and ready to
inspire others?

I like to journal. I have a practice. I'm working
with a spiritual teacher. Youyou met her at the conference,
Felicia Searcy. I work she is mymy teacher, and we I have a
practice is every morning Iwrite gratitudes.
I am happy and grateful for. Andin the beginning when I did

(46:55):
gratitudes years ago, I used tothink that if I don't put
somebody in, they're not gonnaget something from they need to
be in. So my gratitudes would be10 pages. I was like, you gotta
stop this, Susie. I'm gratefulthat if I don't put you I'm
great.
And but now I don't do that. Dotwo or three. And I

think Two or three per day? Two or three per
Per morning.

Yep. They're different. Or the same. But I'm
happy and and I'll write I'mhappy and grateful to be happy
and grateful. I'm happy andgrateful that I'm doing this
podcast.
Mhmm. I'm happy and gratefulthat I had the opportunity to
speak at e women. I'm happy andgrateful that I have the most
scrumptious kitty that I livewith. I'm happy and grateful

(47:36):
that I treat my body right. Iguess one of the things you
asked and I just thought of itbecause it just comes naturally
to you, I eat really well.

I just was about to ask that.

Yeah. I eat really really well.

Can you talk a little bit about that?

Yeah. I for example, this morning this
morning I had cottage cheese andfruit. I like cottage cheese. I
like fruit. Put them together.
I liked breakfast.

Mhmm.

I had planned to have you're gonna love this. I
have some caviar in myrefrigerator and I'm like

Oh, baby.

I wanna do something with this. And
champagne is too early in themorning. So I said, I'll make
eggs and caviar.

Oh, yum.

That's good. I had this hard boiled egg in the
refrigerator and I it's beenthere a while. And so I cracked
it open and I went, no. We'renot doing this one. Threw it
out.
Oh. So then I boiled some eggs,so I'll have the caviar tomorrow
because they weren't ready.That's why I had the caviar
cheese.

Oh, okay. Good. Lot of protein. Yeah.

And I like protein. Yeah. I do that too.
And tonight, I'm gonna have anartichoke, and I cooked some
chicken last night. I haveleftover chicken, so I'm gonna
have an artichoke and somewhat's it called?
Air fried chicken tonight.

Oh, yeah.

And I and I don't eat a lot because I don't want a
lot. I know sometimes I do. AndI have to watch my weight
regardless.

And you're tiny.

I am tiny. I'm an itty bitty lady.

That's perfect. That's perfect.

So I'm really careful. I love salads. Love
protein. I'm very lucky that Ireally like vegetables and
protein. That's what I like.
And I honor myself by givingmyself that. Like wine, I will
drink wine. And what else? Howdo I else I'm not a snacker.

Dessert?

Rarely. I just it's not used to. When I go
through this is funny. When I gothrough periods of not drinking
any wine, will. I I likechocolate.
But when I'm when I'm goingthrough periods of of having a
glass or two of wine at dinner,then that's my sugar.

Mhmm.

Yeah. I'm I'm cognizant. I don't eat fast
food. Occasionally, really likeIn N Out protein burger without
the bun. Oh.
So I'll do that every couple ofmonths.

You know, I eat exactly the way you eat except
for the burger because Kathy andI, neither one of us eats any
beef. Yeah. Beef or lamb or anyof those. But I have to ask you,
looking ahead, what projects andideas are you most excited about
now? And are there any newstages or adventures on the

(50:43):
horizon?

Yeah. Definitely. I just started a new project as
of today. Oh, yes. Oh, good.
It's putting people in front ofthousands of radio hosts, TV
hosts. I'm I I want I I'm allabout you've got to be seen.

(51:06):
You've got to be seen. You'vegot to be heard. You've got to
get out there.
If you don't get out there,people can't can't learn from
you. I believe that everybody,most people have a gift and a
message. That's why we came. Andfor those of us who step into
that, you've got to create astage for yourself. It's not

(51:26):
gonna happen.
Well, it could, but it's notreally likely just because. And
yes, I believe that we create areality with the way we think.
Bottom line, if you wanna knowwhat you think, just look at
your life. Right. So what I'mdoing with a friend of mine is

(51:48):
we've created a whole program ofgetting people out there in
front of I'm I'm gonna beinterviewing them.
It's gonna be it's called SuzyPruden TV, and I'm gonna be
interviewing them and thenputting them in front of the
people that will hire them tospeak, to be on stages, to be on

(52:10):
shows, to be out there so thattheir audience can if they want
to contact them to work withit's like it's like me being
here with you. There will bepeople who are listening,
watching this who will say, Iwant to work with her. How do I

(52:31):
do it? So I am creating aspecific type of TV show that's
an interview show that will besent to a thousand radio hosts,
thousand TV hosts so that myclient will be in front of the
people they need to be front infront of. I'm really excited

(52:53):
about it.
So and do you use, like, YouTubeas a platform

to get it recorded?

My platforms. That's I'm Oh. That's one of my
platforms. I'm not the I don'tknow how to do that. I'm just a
talent.
You have to learn. Well, Ifigured out.

Actually, I who's taking AI will teach you.

Well, I was talking to my producer today,
and I said, well, what do wantme to do? And she goes, nothing.
Don't do anything. Don't hit anybutton.

Don't Just be you.

Show up. I said, okay. I can do that and talk
about it. I can do that. Shesaid, good.
That's all you're gonna do.She's she's been trying to get
me to do this for years, like,finding ways to but I really see
how because of where I am rightnow, when we evolve.

Mhmm. And you're ready for this next

Always.

Ready.

So I've got that, and that's my new project. The
other project is I'm gonna be Imy intention is to really start
speaking all over the world.

Ah, Europe

Europe calls. So there's a program that I just
signed up for a cruise

Oh.

In October. It's called a speakers cruise and
it's going to go through theMediterranean. Perfect. And and
and and and I don't know whatwe're doing, but I thought, I'd
like to go to the Mediterranean.I haven't

been there yet. Not like this. It's great
in October. I did it lastOctober on a cruise. For
speaking not for speaking, but,you know, for pleasure.
It was

wonderful. And Beautiful. Yeah. October must be
gorgeous. I mean, I've lived in

here. Absolutely.

It is.

Yeah. So I'm really looking now at, okay. So
how do I take myself and and andand find the stages and just,
you know, say, look. You know,people think it's it's not
difficult. You just have to takethe time to do it.
Yeah. Say, okay. So this groupis this this is happening. And

(54:54):
look for the the speaker formsand fill them out. Good

for you. Yeah.

And What cruise line are you going on?

Oh, it's not the best. Oh. We

won't we won't give it a plug then.

No. No. No. But But it doesn't matter. I'm not
going to that.

No. You'll get what you need from it.
Exactly right. Because you'regoing in with your your goals
and it'll happen. Yes.
And Susie, what would you likeour audience to have as a
takeaway from this conversationtoday?

Don't stop. Don't stop. Don't stop. You know,
there will become a stop day.And at eighty two, I have a
choice.
I can stop. I watched my sisterstop. Mhmm. And I'm not gonna do
that. I watched hersystematically shut down.

Mhmm.

And it was horrible to watch because my
sister was probably thesmartest, funniest person I've
ever known. Mhmm. Opinionatedand I mean, she was amazing.
Amazing person. And I watchedher stop And I watched her allow

(56:19):
herself to to turn not turn off,to dim her light.

Mhmm. Mhmm.

Now I'm 82. I have a choice. My compatriots, so to
speak, my age group, it wouldn'tbe unusual for me to dim my
light. Mhmm. Because a lot ofpeople my age dim their lights
and it's okay, but it's not okaywith me.

(56:51):
Most of my friends are in theirsixties and I have a few friends
that are in my that are my ageand some of them have stopped
and I go and I'll talk to them.I mean, was talking to a friend
of mine the other day that was apowerhouse in her business and
now she stopped. And I said, howare you? She said, bored. Yeah.

(57:14):
I said, are you doing? Nothing.What do you wanna do? Nothing.
Then she said, I miss you and Icouldn't say I miss you too
because I don't.
She stopped. There's nothing Imean, she does I'm surprised she
even knows who's president. Youknow, that's big stopping.

Yeah.

And so for people my age or, you know, from 60 up,
you're given permission to stop.Well, give yourself permission
to keep going.

And you are the epitome of someone that has kept
going and will keep on goingforever. And I love that advice.
It's so inspiring for mepersonally, and I know it will
be for our entire boomeraudience. Thank you, Susie, so
much. It's been such a joy toshare this time with you.

(58:12):
And to our late boomersaudience, if you'd like to learn
more about Susie, her speaking,and the Itty Bitty Publishing
Company, you can visit herwebsite at Itty Bitty, that's
spelled likeittybittypublishing.com. And you
can find details about her booksthere, upcoming events, how you

(58:33):
can work with her to bring yourown itty bitty idea to life and
make it bigger. And we'll alsoinclude the link to our in our
show notes so it's easy to findfor you.

And, Susie, thank you again for sharing your
wisdom and your incredibleenergy with us today. It's been
inspiring. And to our oh, you'revery welcome. It's our pleasure.

Yeah.

And to and to our listeners, don't forget to
subscribe to the late boomerspodcast on YouTube so you never
miss an episode. Thanks again,Susie. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you for joining us on late boomers, the
podcast that is your guide tocreating a third act with style,
power, and impact. Please visitour website and get in touch
with us at lateboomers.us. Ifyou would like to listen to or
download other episodes of LateBoomers, go to
ewnpodcastnetwork.com.

This podcast is also available on Spotify, Apple
Podcast, and most other majorpodcast sites. We hope you make
use of the wisdom you've gainedhere and that you enjoy a
successful third act with yourown style, power, and impact.

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