Month: October 2022

Karen spent years in the corporate sector working in the music and medical industry. Her position required her to constantly travel from one part of the country to the next. It was in these quiet moments in traveling where she began to reflect on her path in life- but felt unfulfilled and off balance.

With no business ownership experience but full of ambition and motivation, she decided to start a business. In 2018, she went all in, left her career behind, and opened Sirius Day Spa. 

What started off as a scary endeavor turned into a successful business. Karen was well on her way to a better life balance and true happiness. 

But then everything changed in a short amount of time in 2020.

“We’re in the service business, you touch people and when covid happened, no one could have ever predicted what had occurred. So, we were forced to shut down. I was worried at the time- ‘was that the end of my dream?’ But it turned out to be just the beginning,” Karen said.

Instead of giving up and going back to a 9 to 5, Karen doubled- down on her business venture and started to acquire more equipment to add to her spa even though they could not fully operate under the covid restrictions. 

But by using her newfound business savvy and her gut instincts, she pushed on through. And the result was tremendous. 

“When we opened, it was literally floodgates. It was just wonderful. People couldn’t wait to be looking gorgeous again and feeling great,” Karen said. 

One of the reasons Karen fell in love with business ownership is because of her base clientele. A large majority of her clients are women. She relates to them because she understands their challenges. By running a spa, she is in a professional position to help women and loves seeing them do well and be happy. 

“I like that aspect of it. It’s less rigid and more giving. We are all about community,” Karen said. 

In addition to empowering and supporting her clients, she helps the local community as well. Karen and her organization belong to several philanthropic groups. She periodically hosts fundraising events and turns the money raised to support local non-profit organizations. 

“Some examples include Big Cat Habitat and the Circus Arts Conservatory. And we’re members of Sisterhood for Good that provides grants yearly to local non-profits,” Karen said. 

With her professional and personal experience in the corporate sector and now from business ownership, her message to women everywhere is that you can do it, too.

“There are resources there, you can do it, don’t give up. And there is support all around you. That’s another benefit of being a woman- there’s so many women in business support groups that people will lift you up,” Karen said. 

A very uplifting message.

To learn more about Karen and Sirius Day Spa go to https://www.siriusdayspas.com/

Who is Trudy Jacobson?

Trudy is an entrepreneur and leader. Her path to success and entrepreneurialism started in the trucking industry decades ago. She encountered numerous obstacles in the male-dominated industry- like discrimination. She was even conned out of a lot of money in a fraudulent scheme. Despite all that, Trudy always fought hard and pushed forward. Once she realized she was capable of anything, she went on to start her own company and excelled. Now she empowers other women to do the same and to learn from her experience. Trudy now highlights their stories for the world to see in the Great American Women Series. Trudy wants women everywhere to know they can achieve their goals.

Amy grew up with a childhood dream of one day becoming a veterinarian- just about every child wants that. But the difference was Amy actually followed through with her childhood dream and entered the veterinarian field. 

However, it wasn’t exactly what she expected, and she never developed a passion for it. 

That’s when she discovered something completely different that changed her life forever. 

“I ended up riding along with the fire department, loved it, and started in that career,” Amy said.  

It appeared Amy had a bug for public service all along. She grew up in a law enforcement family with both her parents and sister all in law enforcement. Unfortunately, her father was killed in the line of duty, which may be why she wanted to follow through in his footsteps of public service as a fire fighter. 

But she didn’t stop there. She was so passionate about the first responder profession, that her and her husband started a niche training company. 

She explains how it all started. “He did a lot of SWAT training and tactical medicine with the military, so I started training with him. We recognized there was a big gap between what was being provided for military members and what was being provided for law enforcement as far as medical care and training.”

Amy’s company provides very realistic training scenarios involving active-shooter and officer involved shooting incidents. They have a team of people who act as victims of an active shooter, blood make-up and all, and re-create a scene as detailed and as accurate as possible. 

“It’s dynamic and tactical. We believe a lot in practice like you play so everything is loud noises and scenario based to do a positive stress environment for the officers,” Amy said. 

Amy and her husband’s training program is well known among the military and law enforcement community. They have traveled as far as Japan to help train others and are willing to go anywhere so they can help people learn and improve their tactical skills. 

But it isn’t an easy journey. Amy still encounters judgment by virtue of her gender. But once she begins training and teaching others, all those judgments quickly go away. 

It’s that same strength that can help women everywhere. Her message to any woman considering starting a business is:

“Just do it. If you have a passion for something and you see there’s a gap in whatever that is, then you need to go for it.”

And Amy continues to go for it.

You can check out her training company by visiting www.floridatems.com

Who is Trudy Jacobson?

Trudy is an entrepreneur and leader. Her path to success and entrepreneurialism started in the trucking industry decades ago. She encountered numerous obstacles in the male-dominated industry- like discrimination. She was even conned out of a lot of money in a fraudulent scheme. Despite all that, Trudy always fought hard and pushed forward. Once she realized she was capable of anything, she went on to start her own company and excelled. Now she empowers other women to do the same and to learn from her experience. Trudy now highlights their stories for the world to see in the Great American Women Series. Trudy wants women everywhere to know they can achieve their goals. 

Very few people understand the challenges, difficulties and stress associated with the military and law enforcement profession. 

Trina is not one of them.

As a civilian training instructor for law enforcement, she understands the nature of those professions and the negative long-term effects it can have on the officer or servicemember.

Those in law enforcement are constantly vigilant. They routinely scan an environment to assess potential threats and are continuously on the lookout. This happens both on and off duty because the vigilance is not a switch that can be turned on and off at will.

This troubling dynamic is a large part of the reason Trina started a yoga business that is designed specifically for law enforcement, military and first responders. She also knows firsthand that many of organizations simply don’t have the resources to help their people.

Trina also understands what they go through, and she breaks down some of the science to this unhealthy balance. 

“We have our sympathetic nervous system which most people have heard of as fight, flight, or freeze. And then we have the parasympathetic nervous system, which is more of that rest, digest, restore. They’re [first responders] always in that sympathetic nervous division because of the nature of the job,” she said.

Trina offers yoga as an opportunity to counter the imbalance of what that line of work can do to a person. 

“Yoga and other mindfulness practices has been so instrumental for first responders because it taps into that parasympathetic nervous system,” Trina said.

Another part of her success with the first responder community is that she doesn’t participate with any agency directly. She wants to avoid any apprehension an officer may have from practicing yoga with their peers.

Trina runs a successful business because of her niche clientele and how beneficial her programs are. 

And she wants you to know you, too, can run a successful business and provides critical advice when choosing a business.  

“Know your why. The why can’t be ‘well because I want to make money’. It’s got to go deeper than that,” Trina said. 

Once you find your why, you’re well on your way. 

For more about Trina and her Yoga, visit www.zenwarrioryoga.com

Who is Trudy Jacobson?

Trudy is an entrepreneur and leader. Her path to success and entrepreneurialism started in the trucking industry decades ago. She encountered numerous obstacles in the male-dominated industry- like discrimination. She was even conned out of a lot of money in a fraudulent scheme. Despite all that, Trudy always fought hard and pushed forward. Once she realized she was capable of anything, she went on to start her own company and excelled. Now she empowers other women to do the same and to learn from her experience. Trudy now highlights their stories for the world to see in the Great American Women Series. Trudy wants women everywhere to know they can achieve their goals.