DNP Ep. 69: How to Create Passive Income with Your Nursing Knowledge with Dr. Lauren Duroy, DNP

Dr. Pagenta: Hi, Dr. Nurse Podcast family. Welcome to another episode of the Dr. Nurse Podcast. Today I have on Lauren Dau. Did I say That Right? Dro Close Dro. Dro. And she is the owner CEO lady in charge of nurse pr, that she started in 2021 after hitting rock bottom and nursing, and she was a full-time nurse practitioner.

She’s got a bunch of really cool courses for people to check out. Time Hack Warrior, energy Rockstar. She’s got a lot of things that I know she can help people become more efficient at managing their practice. And helping you create side hustles as well. And I’m just really happy to have her on today to talk about. Building courses, evergreen platforms, things of that nature because it guides. This podcast, I really wanna start focusing in on helping you guys develop that stuff for yourselves. And so trying to get on people on the podcast to talk about these things are a priority.

So first off, welcome Lauren. I can’t wait to hear about everything you’re involved in and share everything that you’ve got going. Welcome.

Dr. Duroy:  Thank you, sister. I’m so excited to be here. I just love you so much. This is really fun. We always have fun together.

Dr. Pagenta: I’ve kind of told a little bit about some of the stuff that you’ve been involved in and what you’ve created. I think it’d be cool if you just described how you see your role and what it is that you do day to day.

Dr. Duroy: Right. Great. Well, so my story started out probably, it really started when I was in nursing school, and I’ve shared this before, but I kind of, I was, or not nursing school, but nurse practitioners and I was an ICU nurse and I really felt I kind of had it all figured out and I was excited about becoming a.

Doc np and I was an ICU nurse and really proud of that. And I had like the swanky Cadillac co car and I thought I’m gonna quit listening to music. I’m more of a sophisticated person now, , so I’m gonna start listening to people like, like Robert Kiyosaki is that kind stuff. And figure out where you gonna put all this money.

Cause I’m just so you know, so athlete. Yeah. Yeah, and it hit me like a ton of bricks when he explained that being tied to all those school loans and being tied to an hourly job really limits you. And I just thought, oh my gosh, it’s so right. So I. First of all, quit living that way. I downsized

Right after I got, I had a really beautiful house and then I actually downsized. It was funny cuz the banks are even like, are you going through a bankruptcy because this house is worthless. Nobody goes down to a smaller house for no reason. Like no, it’s because I want to be more conservative

and got into a more practical vehicle and I changed the way that I did those things, but I knew that something else had happened. But once I ran into becoming, I took over a practice and I ran this family practice. It was owned by a hospital, but I was literally the only provider in office. Right out the door. First day it was 18, 20 patients a day and they wanted me to grow the practice from there. I was pregnant with my baby boy, my first baby boy gage. And I realized real quick that I went into nurse practitioners was I had this illusion that it was going to be more of a balance in life than a physician, than an m d do.

O And I realized really quickly that was not the case. And I was stressed. I honestly felt I had been taken advantage of in some way because I went into this higher degree so I could have a better quality of life, and I found out really fast I missed being a nurse in the ICU and whenever.

Added in the time that I was working over what I did as a nurse. It wasn’t more pay making less, so I got kinda bitter over. Yeah, you’re less, yeah, I, yeah, I hit burnout really fast and I legitimately thought, I never would. I remember like, you know, following docs who are really burnt out and kind of bitter even towards their patient and thought, oh, they just went into it for the money.

And that’s why, and I’m not in this for the money. I’m in it to take care of people. So I’m not gonna burn out. And whenever you sacrifice everything with your family and my son, I hardly saw him. And then fast forward to Covid, it got really bad I was already working 50 hours a week, and then with Covid I was working like 60 hours a week, and I literally just broke down, had a near breakdown.

I remember just tears coming down my face. My husband and I went on a vacation. I know we probably shouldn’t have done it, but I knew everything was starting to probably shut down. I was like, we’ve gotta go somewhere. So literally that next week we went to Cabo . I was like, I just need to get away.

And I had tears just dreaming down my face because I knew what I was coming back to. And fast forward. I had my son at home. And he was older and he already didn’t see me. And I knew that things were about to get so much worse. And there was this little girl with these red pigtails and she was looking at me and pointing to her mom.

Like she’s crying, she’s crying, you know? And I remember just thinking I looked like a crazy person. We were going back to the airport from the hotel and I was just crying. I totally broke down. My marriage was in near shambles. We went through a. Very near divorce, literally days away from standing in front of the judge.

And I hardly saw my son, and I just decided that instead of completely breaking down, which I did, I did for a little bit, instead of just completely decomposing, I decided to decompress, figure out how can I make this better? How can I make my. More manageable because running this clinic by myself, I was just losing it and I figured out how to, and I just started thinking about it and I was like, you know what?

There are people who are billionaires who run huge, huge companies, and they do way more than I do. I need to start thinking the adage goes smarter, not harder. And that’s whenever all my time hacking came into place. And that’s whenever I started to memory optimize. And that was kinda the beginning of things in the back of my head.

I knew that I wanted to build things that were evergreen. I knew that that was a thing for whenever I heard Robert Kiyosaki say you could build passive income, make it while you’re not there. Yeah. You don’t have to be in office to make money. Cause like we’re trading money in office Yeah, with our time.

Exactly. Yeah. But I didn’t know how to even get to where I could start doing that cuz life just went crazy as soon as I graduated from my dmp. So I decided it’s time. It’s literally now or never. I’m just going to give up everything or I’m going to just figure this out.

So I started figuring out how to learn faster, how to read faster, how to memorize things, how to be able to get through charts faster, change my conversations where I could talk to somebody and like pivot that conversation in a way they felt heard so I could kinda get to the next person.

I learned how to be more in tune with myself. A lot of what I teach is not just time hacks, it’s also cause this is what I learned. It’s also staying in tune with yourself and the different. , even just like brainwaves that we can go into and meditation and kind of staying in a different state so you can help with anxiety.

The less your anxiety is, the better you can think, the more you’re gonna get done. And it just, yeah it’s not just a one thing that can fix everything. So I did that and I started to get home on time. And my colleagues and I, we can all see well used to, I don’t work there anymore, but you could see who had how many patients and that kinda stuff.

And we’d talk and say how late we’re saying work, stuff like that. And. I started to get home on time, even after Covid, which went up, you know, during that time, right before I decided time back, I was working 60 hours a week and the caseload got bigger because we were doing the office, but then we were also doing, they’re floating us to the icu.

So after all of that my colleagues started noticing, they were asking, what are you doing? And I was like, okay. So I started sharing and then that’s kind of how my Healer to home program got broad. And then people wanted to know, okay, so cuz then I was like, okay, cool. I started doing that and I started turning into Evergreen Passive income and then if you wanted to know, how do you do that?

So then I started building that out for them and teaching them. And that’s really how it kind of grew. And then I started Nurse Practi and coaching other women and getting time hacked, but then also one of the best ways that you can time hack is to hire out for the things that doesn’t pay you back.

So I started hiring for laundry and dishes and that type of thing, so, I started helping my people with that, like teaching them how to build side incomes like that, that are passive evergreen systems. And then I was just having a meeting with my girls one time and I was telling ’em how I was like, well, I’m treating this patient, you know, I was still working and the in primary practice.

And I said, well, this one patient that I’m treating, you know functional because I don’t, they don’t like medicine at all. They’re like, you do functional medicine? I’m like, yeah, I’ve done it forever. Like for. Majority of the time that I’ve practiced, I was really surprised that people in rural Oklahoma actually wanted it.

So I’m like, yeah I’ve done tons of courses throughout so then that’s how my functional medicine course came back. So they like, well teach jazz. And I’m like, okay, I will. So everything that I’ve, you know, built has just been. Because other people were saying we need this, we want it.

So that’s just how it all Yeah. In a very short nutshell, how all kind of transpired. So .

Dr. Pagenta: That’s really, really cool. Like you said, one of the things that I see reverberating in all these entrepreneurs and nurse entrepreneurs is that they are creating the solutions for other people’s problems.

And so as people are coming to you and just saying, Hey this is a niche, this is a hole, this is a gap, this is something that needs to be filled, you stepping in and filling. App creates passive income for you, especially if you are able to develop courses and these types of things that then you can go ahead and let that just continue to make money on its own, which is one of the things that I’ve really wanted with the podcast is to provide opportunities to give nurses a business mindset, to give us the mindset of how can I create something from what I know already.

Help adjunct and support my nursing salary so that I can then determine how I wanna live my life, right? Because yes, we are only given one life and to spend all of your life, which is something that all my listeners are like, here she goes again, because it’s true to spend your whole life and to miss it so that you can work.

That is not living, that is just called existing. That’s called surviving. That’s not thriving, and that’s not what I want for nurses. I want nurses to hear if you’re in that spot where you’re on the brink of divorce, you haven’t seen your children, you are just Sitting in Cabo, which is beautiful, and you’re sobbing we have the, there is an option for you and so that’s really what I wanna bring light onto today. So what would you say is kind of the hardest part of owning your own business? And what would you say that, I know that you recently stepped away from your, your nurse practitioner job to stay home and be more present with your children.

Cause again, I think you just kinda learned. That was really not okay to not be there for the first one. I can’t do that again. So you made a change and I was watching all of your Instagram stories as you were walking through that process. It was really cool to see you do. That was really inspiring.

So what has been the hardest part of owning your business and, and when did you decide, again, you know, you said back in 2028, sounds like that whole pandemic kind of brought about this business. When did you decide, okay, it’s time to launch out on my own and really give my full heart to this?

Dr. Duroy: I think probably whenever, so let’s see. Our first question, the hardest thing about being a entrepreneur is really just holding the belief. I had a lot of self. Everyone does though. Every single person that I work with, every single person I’ve now worked with, some of the literally some famous business coaches and even them, they will tell you that.

You’ll literally look back and feel like that imposter syndrome or I don’t know, like there’s no way I can do this. Like I can’t do this. Losing faith can be kind of, and it’s, it’s a never ending thing. It’s never ending body. You always have to kind of reinvent yourself and reinvent your mind and know that you can, which that’s biblical, right?

The Lord always wants us to be doing that. So that’s not something that we should be shocked by, but just remain your mind that you could always do this because it doesn’t ever go away that you feel like I can’t do it. Like you’ll be really prompt, really amped and exciting.

Like, I can do this. Like go for it. And then literally, like you could have, I remember like the first time I hit my first 10 K day, the next day I was like, wait a minute, I don’t know if I can do this. I don’t know if I can do this. I was in the process of considering to leaving my job as a practitioner and I’m like, I don’t know if I can do this.

And my husband’s looking at me. Do you see what you’re doing right now, ? Yeah, but I don’t know. I don’t know. Like I don’t know that I can, so I think that’s the hardest thing. Just really ensure the, the mindset. Yeah. I say that very transparently because, not because I don’t have faith in my systems, not that I don’t have belief in what I do, but I see that across the board.

I see everybody feel that way, and especially when if you’re hitting milestones, it’s really, really easy to back down and be like, no, no, no, no, I can’t do this. I can’t do this. I’m not the right person. This is the fluke. This is totally a fluke type of thing. Yeah. Like, yeah. I think that’s the, that’s the hardest part.

Whenever I decided to fully go all in, it was probably after I had, so I didn’t just do this, I didn’t just learn everything a hundred percent alone. I actually, I invested in a coach. And now I share how much it was for the longest time, I didn’t even tell my husband.

It’s really funny because I, he found out, because he was like, oh my gosh, we’ve made, like whenever I first started my business we’ve made a lot of money, we’re gonna be hit by taxes. You know, not a lot. Not a lot, but we, you know, we make good money. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I was like, I was like, I think we’re gonna be okay though.

I think we’re okay. I think that I’ve spent enough to write off and he is like what did you do? And I tell him yet how much I spent on my business coach. Cause it was like $18,000 and yes, but that’s why I was to feel so fast because I learned legitimate. Tactics. Yeah. And that’s why like within three months I was hitting the 10 K and then six it was 20 and all that.

It happened because I invested. That was for sure though. I went all in in yourself Whenever I was, yeah, yeah. All myself. Yeah. And I had to because then I had this huge, it was like bigger than my mortgage payment to pay back, cause it’s not put over in a 30, 30 year note. I had to pay it off.

And I joke with my coach all the time. I would say I had the money to pay you that first month. But then after that I was like, I don’t know what I’m gonna do. Cause I signed this contract and I’m like, I dunno, I dunno that I can pay it. So it put my back up against a wall. And I was like, all right, Lauren.

Every single morning I woke up. Cause I was like, I can’t do this to my family. I can’t Rob my family of this, I’ve got to do the lessons, I’ve got to implement the things. And that was whenever I went all in for sure. Because I was terrified and I thought, there’s no way I remember talking to.

Can you just get me to match my NP income? Cause I can be free at that time. And she was like, yes. And I was like, don’t know that I believe you, but I’m gonna give you this money anyhow because otherwise I will back up. And I was like, will you take my card right now? She’s like, yeah. I was like the easiest sale ever for her, you know?

Cause I was just, I was just like, okay, just do it right now. Cause I will not do it. If we get off this call, I will not do it. I knew that I. And I did. And then I literally instant regret cuz I was like, this is a huge investment. We did not have the money. You know what I mean? Mm-hmm. , it was like literally, I didn’t know how I was gonna pay it the next month because I didn’t have, it was a $1,500 payment a month and I was like, I don’t, wow.

Like I don’t just have that sitting around. I didn’t at that time so that was for sure me going all in that moment right there.

Dr. Pagenta: Yeah that’s an all in moment. That’s really cool. And again, what I love about that story is that you just placed the bet on yourself. And I think so many more nurses are afraid to bet on themselves.

It’s so easy. To just go for the sure thing and to just pay your penance and row the boat and I’m just gonna keep rowing and it’s fine. And even though you’re getting tired and you’re exhausted and you don’t wanna row the boat anymore, you’re sick of the boat it’s easier than, I’m just gonna take a bet on myself and give it a shot.

I think it’s good to hear those stories because when people hear she was scared and she did it anyway. Me too. And that’s how you know you’re living because you’re scared and you’re doing it any a hundred percent.

Dr. Duroy: Yes, a hundred percent. But if I can say it’s not the easier thing to stay, I can tell you my life is a lot easier now.

It is the familiar thing. And just like you are saying yes, that’s not the living thing. Familiar doesn’t mean living familiar does not mean good. It doesn’t mean that you are living in your purpose. Because I mean, even if we look. Like look at, like Moses, lovely. He was terrified, right? He was terrified when God was like, no, do this.

And he said, no, but I can’t, I can’t, I don’t speak good. I’m not intelligent. I’m not this, I’m not that. And the Lord literally got mad at him. It said like, he burns with anger at Moses. He’s like, man, I’m working through you. Like, no, like quit. Stop this, stop this. Negative self talk. And it’s, and that is a repetitive thing in the Bible.

If you look there’s tons of stories with that same kind of thing. And it’s because we as humans do that and nurses have such an advantage. Like we are one of the most respected professions for really good reason. I have yet to meet a nurse who didn’t go into it for the heart and for the passion and wanting to do it, like, you know, going into a care for people as a physician.

But that’s not why you’re doing it, like you’re doing it for being able to help people and change their lives and, yeah.

Dr. Pagenta: And to make more of an impact, right? Like you could write prescriptions, at least for me. Yeah, correct. You make a bigger impact when you’re able to write a prescription and you’re able to go.

Go pick this up. Or you’re able to just you that power of that pen. Right. That’s really what I was, yes. I was after, was just being able to go, no, I don’t have to check. You know, I don’t have to ask a physician, can you gimme an order for that? Like, I would just go like, I know what we need to do here. Like we need, and here’s, so that power and that ability to affect people and change them is what I was after.

I was like, I can actually make an impact here. And not saying that nurses don’t make impacts because we all know that. Nurses are vital to the healthcare system. But I was looking for that next level. I was like, how do I level up? You know?

Dr. Duroy: Yeah, yeah. And you know, we just, we undervalue what it is that we bring to the table we talked about we think about the job, that job as being like a sure thing, but you can’t live in your purpose if you feel like you’re suffocating, you can only fake it for so long. And if you’re drowning in what you’re doing that whole reason why you went into the profession is not going to be there.

You’re not gonna be able to serve those people that you want to serve because if you’re suffocating, if you’re working extremely long hours, you’re seeing way too many patients than you think you should and you’re not seeing your family. I’m a firm, firm believer that we’re not supposed to work 40 hours a week.

I’m a firm believer of it, and the reason why is one of the biggest things the Lord tells us to do is to spend time with him. Mm. Is whenever I was working full time, I mean, I would get in, I would get in 10 to 20 minutes most mornings, I’m not even tell you every morning. That’s not enough.

That’s not enough time, in my opinion, am I? I’m not trying to push that on anybody else, but we’re built to be spiritual beings, not robots. We’re built to be empathetic. We’re built to be with family. We’re built to be interactional, not just reaction. And yeah, that 40 hours a week minimum forces us into that.

And I don’t believe that that’s natural. I don’t believe that it’s natural to go running for one thing. I cannot tell you how much. Gosh, my stress is so much better now. I’m not running out the door. I have to be there at eight, have to be, you know, back by one o’clock for lunch.

Have to leave by five so I can pick up the kid and then go back. I’m just even though like

Dr. Pagenta: I had my, oh, and then breastfeeding, and then you were breastfeeding too, so please, please put that in there. Cause you were doing that is, I think when they broke down the hours for a full-time breastfeeding mom, it’s equivalent to about a 40 hour work week.

So just to keep a baby fed from your breast is actually a 40 hour work week. And then just add on working. add on the other child that needs time and attention. Mm-hmm. .

Dr. Duroy: Yeah. The people, the night hours

Dr. Pagenta: Yeah. No it’s insane. And it’s because we were built for community work is not bad.

Work is actually vital to the human soul and the human experience. However, we were really truly built for community and when you are in that drudge of working, focusing on that, you can barely focus in on your patients, right? You’re doing a terrible job at focusing in on your patients cuz you’re worried about your kid.

You gotta go do all those other little things and then, You go home and you’re like, okay, wait, when do I connect with girlfriends? When do I connect with my husband? When do I connect because of that connection? And when do I connect with the Lord? When do I connect with God is what we were meant to do.

We were meant to be in connection. We’re meant to be in community, and as we fill up our lives with this quote unquote busyness that is supposed to, mm-hmm. . Create this life that we want, we end up actually sacrificing this stuff that is pivotal and huge to your development as a human and feeling fulfilled at the end of your life, which is, was I connecting with those around me?

Mm-hmm. . And so I really believe what you just said is absolutely the most pivotal thing because we do end up neglecting relationships. Mm-hmm. for. This life that we end up looking back and going, I wish I had more time with the people that I loved. And so when you keep that at the forefront of your mind and you say, Hey, listen, I’m not going to sacrifice.

You know the time and I’m going to see what I can do on my own. I think that you begin to set yourself free to dream. You set yourself free to go. Well, what would it look like if I could spend more time with my kids? What would it look like if when my husband came home I could be super present and I could be a wife that was connecting with him and working on our marriage?

Cause it’s. Connection. It’s all about the work that we do in connecting with people. And then when you go to work and you have a patient that’s sitting in front of you, you connect with them so much differently when you do not feel empty on every single plane of your life. Yes, you do look at them in your eyes and you go like, how are you?

And I have patients tell me that today. They’re like I haven’t had a doctor or a nurse practitioner talk to me the way that you do. And I’m like I literally tell them if I didn’t like what I did with my time in clinical practice, I would not be here. I enjoy this time with the people that I take care of, and it comes out, it oozes out of me.

Yes. And I’m like, okay, I can be fully present in both spaces and that I really feel like even if I only did two days a week and my lifestyle looked different. Between you and me, Lauren, I feel like that is more filled than having all the other stuff that would be with full time and be missing out on all the connection piece.

And that’s what I really want people to hear is that I think that’s what fills your soul up is the connection, is the community not. So much the consumerism stuff that we are made to believe we need in order to be happy. Yeah, I just got on a really long soapbox, but I just wanted to say that

Dr. Duroy: No, no, totally true. Like mic drop because it’s completely true. And the catch 22 on it is that here’s this weird, especially as females in medicine, not trying to just cut out males but females, ma, we. Horrible catch 22 of, but now I feel guilty because I’m supposed to be this provider. I’m supposed to bring home this income.

We get this catch 22 of, oh, you’re not with your children all the time, but at the same time, oh, so you’re not working now, they’re not a certain age or whatever it is. And we have this guilt and we have this identity. I had this huge, it was an identity trip letting go of the clinic. I still say letting go of the clinic I just felt I had so much of identity wrapped up in that and I thought, but I’m a provider. I’m this tales provider and I still like yesterday I went to go vote and they’re like, We miss you. And I’m like, oh,

Dr. Pagenta: I feel so bad . You know what I mean?

Dr. Duroy: Like, I just still like, I miss y’all too. I was like, that baby is just so addicted.

And they’re like, oh, we know, we know, we understand. You know, it’s three women and they totally like, they love me and I love them, and they understand, you know, but I still feel guilty because like I was the first provider they’ve had that’s been like here and like ingrained in the community and everything.

And, and it was my dream and it was my identity and I loved every bit of it, but it’s. Credible. Whenever you start living in a purpose, you have an identity that you don’t even know exists until you fully decide to step out into it. Yeah, and we were talking about that you’re like, .

Dr. Pagenta: And I think for the listener that’s like, okay, so wait, what are we talking about identity?

Hey guys. And thanks for listening to another episode that doctrinaires podcast unscripted. I would like to take this time to let you guys know about the doctor nurse podcast website. On this website. I have free resources for nurses that are looking to up their career. Maybe start a side hustle. I also have my Etsy shop where I’ve created really cute digital downloads for nurse practitioners. In regards to life. Pregnancy. Planning. As well as portraits guys check out my resources@thedoctorspodcast.com and let’s get back Episode.

Dr. Pagenta: And what I’m thinking about is that that identity looks different for everyone That can be full-time work for you, if that’s what it is. Oh, for sure. Or it can be for the mom that’s like, listen, I don’t like this feeling of guilt, of constantly feeling like I’m not, I’m running. Some women love that they get off on that.

They’re, that’s their thing. They’re like, I love being absolutely amped. I love being crazy. That’s what I like. Okay, good for you. I. Through quiet reflection that this was not good for my soul. It was not good for my heart, and so my purpose in my life looks different it doesn’t look like me pursuing that with my full energy.

It just doesn’t. And so that purpose is different for everyone based on your capacities, based on your convictions, based on your principles and your values, and you get to make those decisions for yourself because then at the end of your life, you can look back and go, I moved in these things at all times.

And whatever came of this, I chose it. And it was not something that I just robotically moved through in life. I want that for the listener that’s like, okay, what are we talking about purpose? How do I find my purpose? That’s the stuff you have to sit down. What are my values? What are my convictions?

What are the things that fire me up? What are the things that I want to look back on my life and I’ll say, I’ll never regret that I did that. I will never regret that I did this. That’s what I want people to hear.

Dr. Duroy: I love that you, that you shared that. Cause I No way, I mean, I say that all the time to the mom who wants to work full time.

I do not believe that there’s anything wrong with that. Believe me, I’ve sat in that before and , that was me for a while and now it’s not me. And it’s not that I’m like, oh, rejecting that, that, that was bad. A hundred percent. It’s whatever sits right with your heart.

And if you feel that you are just burning both ends, then it’s. Go for life. Don’t go for, just go. I promise you jumping off and taking a bet on yourself. Whether it’s entrepreneur life or not. I know not everybody wants to do entrepreneur life. Not everyone wants that and that’s totally fine.

But you are the safe bet. And it’s so funny cause like we say, oh, I’m gonna walk in faith. I’m gonna walk in faith. But then do we really are you living a life Lauren,

Dr. Pagenta: Come on, girl. I said come on. Appreciate.

Dr. Duroy: Yes, it is. The things unseen so, no, I didn’t absolutely know when we took that leap, but you have to know he is not going to pull your heart in a certain direction and then just let you fall off the cliff.

Dr. Pagenta: Oh, that is so good. I love that line. Because I mean, it says that, right? Mm-hmm. in scripture. I’m thinking about the delight yourself in the Lord for he will give you the desires of your heart. So it’s just delighting. What does that look like? It looks like. Connecting with the Lord it looks like in relationship with him.

And then being able to go, all right, what is my heart pulling me towards? And just know that like God’s gonna fulfill those desires, you’re gonna be okay. And again, going back to the story of Moses that you were describing, where he talks about he was not very eloquent what speaker and God was just like, I’m gonna use you. And he’s like, you use me. I’m a mess. I am not the guy for the job. You can definitely give somebody else. Yeah. And that’s that imposter syndrome. Right? And so what did he do? He provided Aaron for him to help him. So it’s like, and he brought him a helper, he didn’t just, Leave him there and just go like, yeah, you’re not so great at this, but it’s fine.

He’s like, no, and I’m gonna provide a way to help you get there. So you have to just have that faith that you’re talking about of alright, you brought me here. Now you gotta bring me through. And that is something that I love to do, is just remind God of his promises because it’s just like you made this promise.

If you make the promise. Then you gotta fulfill it, and so, exactly. And that’s just resting in those pro those promises and resting on that faith. I think that is so encouraging for the, for the Christian that’s in this space and just thinking, well, I have faith.

And it’s like, okay, well then. Prove it. You gotta do it. If God is calling you to this, you’ve gotta move because he’s gonna provide for you. He, he’s promised to do so, so you can rest on those promises, which I think is

Dr. Duroy: exactly really, really, but that Matthew 6 26, remember sparrows? Yeah. He feeds as sparrows.

Yeah. So is he not gonna feed?

Dr. Pagenta: Yeah. First, don’t just fall from the. Yeah. That’s so good, man. That’s, that’s some, that’s some Bible right there for someone who’s wanting it. I love that. I love dropping little nuggets like that cuz it’s truth. Yes. And you just, you have to, at least for my life, that’s the truth that I lean on.

So what would you say is, I know you’ve talked a lot about Evergreen, and that’s one of the things I wanted to touch on a little bit today. Okay. As well. As we were talking in this conversation about one of the things that in your business, if you could keep that going. You know, I know you talk all the time about Evergreen products and how that’s been a huge proponent of your business.

Could you kind of describe to my listener that’s like, okay, what is that? Kind of what that is, how to develop it and how to grow it.

Dr. Duroy: Sure thing. So evergreen pretty much means that you. Nothing is, people will say this to you. It’s not a hundred percent to you said it and forget it. Right. They’ve probably heard that.

I mean, it’s true to a large degree. Right? It’s you said it and then I always say like you said it and then you like semi forget about, but you kind of tweak it. So that makes it every these like courses. I have courses, I have books. It could be, you could, you could be doing affiliates. Like you don’t even have to be, it doesn’t have to be your own courses or you’re building your own stuff.

It could be affiliate work. What I always tell people is, you know, finding those blue waters, even if it’s redwater. So again, let’s explain that a little bit more because that’s, that’s lingo, right? Yeah. Blue Water means that it’s not very competi. It is. There’s not a whole bunch of, like, everyone, like, I mean, I’m not trying to put anything down.

I used to be a, I used to be an online wellness coach for a big business. I probably won’t say the name just because I don’t wanna be rude to anybody. Cause I, I do still love all the products and stuff, but I don’t, I don’t do that world anymore. Oh, I, I lost myself. Thinking about, you’re talking about Blue

Dr. Pagenta: Waters.

Dr. Duroy: Blue Waters. No. Blue Waters. So that’s like a, That’s on. I mean, I don’t want to just, that’s a pretty red water, you know what I mean? You can get to a place where you can identify, okay, that person sells this. Oh, that person sells this. And it’s like instant , kinda like breaks on it. They’re, they’re gonna span me.

Yeah. You know, and I, I’m not trying to, I don’t want. I don’t wanna, it can be done the right way. I’m not trying to put anyone down, but that’s kinda a red water. Like we see that, you know what I’m saying? Like, we see somebody who’s selling those products, like that’s kinda a red water. You already kinda see it going on a blue water is, it’s something that’s, that’s not saturated.

It’s something that people need. There’s a high need for it, but there aren’t every one of their dogs selling it. You know what I’m saying? Gotcha. So you can have those blue waters, but you can find a blue water niche even in red waters. What I mean by that is like red waters. This really high competition and there’s a lot of people doing it.

Therefore, it’s kind of, you know, cutthroat like what I think where the analogy comes from in red Waters and it’s, it’s, you know, harder to like you have more people to compete against, even if there’s a high demand. But if you niche yourself out, if you in the right way, people say nicheing in the wrong way all the time.

It’s not just, oh, I’m a dog mom, or I’m a boy mom. That’s not nicheing. Nicheing is what is the specific problem that needs to be solved? That is not being addressed, and that’s where we think that, you know, we have this illusion and I. I’m not gonna go down a conspiracy road on you or anything, but I feel like there’s this illusion that having a job is like the secure thing when it’s really not.

You’re betting on that ceo, whoever you work for, knows how to run their business, whether it’s a hospital or not. Yeah, and the thing about it is, if you’re always finding, you can find, you have, everyone here has a worldwide web. You can do your research, find out where that need is, that it’s not provided.

You will never go broke. Like you can always find something. And then by evergreen we mean that, you know, it’s set up like you don’t have to ever message them. Like back when I was in MLM world, I would message somebody and I would tell ’em about my product and I would do the whole thing and the whole skit and everything.

And I’d have to, you know, I really did it because I had a huge passion for, well, health, wellness. I, honest to goodness did, I really wanted, that was my, my dissertation was over this. Helping people make changes and healthy, like that was my passion. There was no doubt that I was passionate about what I was doing, and I loved what I did, and I a hundred percent believed in changing lives.

And I, my girls that I’d helped that time are still on their health journey because of that. But I’d have to message them. And it took a lot of time. It took time away from my family. It took, you know, me being stuck in my phone looking down at my phone the whole time. And Evergreen means that somebody can, you know, get help from you in a course, or they can do whatever just by they search, they find it, and.

They, they enroll themselves, but the enrollment part is where, you know, we could also have a whole nother conversation because it’s, you know, getting that conversion is, is sometimes not just as easy as setting it up and just, you know, just happening like magic. Did I describe that well, or did I get way too many different parts?

Dr. Pagenta: No, no, you did. No, no, no. You’re good. No, you did. And so I’ll, I’ll just summarize because I, I think maybe for someone those like, okay, wait, so what’s going on? So basically, evergreen is creating products that people can find and purchase. And you don’t necessarily have to go, here’s my stuff. Let me try to coach you through it.

Let me try. , but there might be a level of consultation. You might have to have someone like get on, hop on a call with you to talk and if they wanna ask questions about, again, depending on how The price. The price of the product.

Dr. Duroy: Correct. Yeah. It usually depends on the price point. Yeah. Yeah. I see. So you got a

Dr. Pagenta: $20 course out there.

I was gonna say, if you have a $20 course out there, you’re not hopping on calls, you just buy the course 20 bucks, or you don’t. But if you’re asking someone to pay you $3,000 for a course, then you might wanna go ahead and hop on a call because people are gonna be a little more apprehensive to hand over that amount of money.

So again, evergreen is just creating. Things that courses, books, things that don’t necessarily require you to promote that people can find, and that you can easily sell with a click of a button and then all of a sudden now you’ve got, you know, income. And so another thing that I was thinking while you were talking was like an Etsy shop, right?

Creating digital products. It’s something that my girlfriend and I have been getting into recently, because again, we don’t necessarily want to. Make a ton of stuff. We don’t wanna spend a ton of time outside of our families. And so we were like, what can we create? And it’s digital product so people can just click and download and that’s just kind of that same process.

Dr. Duroy: No, and it’s, it, well, it gives you that freedom because I remember the first time we were on like a little mini vacation in the city, like just, it wasn’t vacation at all. We, we, like, we live in a small town, we went into the city and like stayed in a hotel. It wasn’t a vacation at all, but we were just kind of out like just getting outta town for a little bit, I guess I should say.

And I woke up and the first time I had $300 deposited in my bank account, I was like, what? I didn’t do anything like what? You know, and I did, like I set it up, right, but then it repeats. That’s amazing. But then it repeats, you know, so it’s like, it’s, it’s a, it’s, it’s a front end work of, however, like that specific, that specific product took me about two weeks to build out.

And then, but then after that, it’s, it’s evergreen, right? Like it’s out there and people can purchase it and, and they can just, they can enroll themselves and that’s where, you know, like you can. The passive income, and that’s why you can, it’s, it’s just, we’re, it’s, it’s, there’s so much out there and the medical minds, every single medical mind listening to this, your medical mind is a gold mind.

You have things that people want, even if you’re like sitting there like Moses saying no, I can’t do this. I can’t do this. Yes you can. Yes, you can. As a matter of fact, the Lord uses, he loves to use the underdog, like that’s his things. If you feel like an underdog, awesome, you have another edge and, and talk on top of being a nurse or a practitioner, and it’s literally just, you can just.

You can go anywhere with it that you want and you can, you can literally live out a passion in helping people. And like you’re saying, like sometimes, you know, sometimes you might jump on a call, but even if you jump on a call with somebody, it’s just like a little bit of your time. And usually that’s like the 2,500.

If we wanna get down to, yeah, it’s usually the 2,500 up mark, somewhere in that range. Then you’ll, you, you might jump on a call or something like that, but then even then your courses can still be evergreen. They can still just be. You know people, some people will just purchase it. Yeah, yeah. You don’t have to sit there and like rete every single week.

Dr. Pagenta: Yeah absolutely. Yeah. That’s really, really cool. And I think one of the things about those different arenas is just making sure that you’re known, right? So that’s really where the marketing and the other aspects of business, I think become a little bit more cumbersome for the nerves. Cause we just don’t have.

That experience in our training, we don’t get trained on how to market ourselves or how to sell business and things like that. And so if you could give one hack to a nurse that’s like, okay, so what if I create something? So how do I market it? How do I get my name out there? How do I tell people about my business?

What would be something that you would say? This marketing hack works every time? Excuse me. This marketing hack works every time and I would never give it.

Dr. Duroy: I don’t, let’s see a marketing hack that works every time. You mean like copy or?

Dr. Pagenta: So I’m talking like in order for people to know that you’re out there, because not every, no one knows that Sandra Pryor’s out here doing this with a podcast until I create a reel and I spit it out and I put out reels and people are like, oh, I didn’t know this was a podcast.

What is this like that part of having people find your. Product to find your course, you’ve had to market to a certain extent. Right. Advertise, get people to see that. I gotcha. What is something that you’ve done throughout your business that you’ve noticed is really helpful and like, this one, this one works, this hack works.

Dr. Duroy: Okay. So I was like, cuz not every copy works for every sales page. I was like, oh, sure, sure, sure. Sure. The number one thing is to first do your research. So I always tell my people, pick three things that you’re really passionate about. Like three things. Most of us are. Most of us have multi passion, right?

If you only have one thing that you’ve been called to do, we’ll then go for that, right? And figure out how to angle it right? But pick three things you’re passionate about. Do your research. Do your research. It’s not always about. As far as, yes, there are miracles that just people have, like nothing I built was because I’m just so incredible and I just have this like amazing, you know, whatever about me.

No, it’s because I did my research first and I found out people wanted this and they needed it. Granted, the first time I did my research was on accident. People just literally like told me , you know? It was just like, you know, reporting. I need this, help me with this too, you know? But that was, that was my first a.

Like if you find, if you find out how to solve problems for people, you will never go broke because you people want their problems solved. They want that, that is a value to them. So do your research. This is prob, see I’m trying to, I don’t wanna be too technical. I don’t wanna scare people away cause it’s really simple.

But it can be. So a is one way, like you can do your own research. I’ll, maybe, I’ll give a few ways so you can kinda do your own research. One is a rfs, so that’s an online that shows like, what are people searching for? And where’s the competition there? And it gives you those numbers. Yeah. Now there’s a little bit more to it, but that is an awesome starting point for anybody.

And then you can say, okay, I’m really passionate. These are the three things I really wanna change lives with. And I know that I’m called to help with. Most of us have more than more than one. Most of us have a hard time narrowing down to three. So, but which one of those doesn’t have a lot of competition?

And then you can get traction going. Once you get traction, stay in that lane. Don’t back down. Don’t do it one time and then say, Ugh, I tried it didn’t work. Don’t do that because that’s what that is. Why if you, if you’re the person that just stays with it, You’ll be successful. Yeah. Because most people do.

Most people, and fortunately most people try it for a little bit, they’re like, I did it and didn’t work. I’m like, you’ve literally made one post and nobody answered anything that’s not trying it. You’ve gotta stick with it for a minute. Right. But you find out what are people searching for and there’s not a lot of, there’s not a lot of things there.

And then find the platform that you want to work on. I’m actually not, I do Instagram now. I don’t know. It keeps me motivated, staying connected with that community and I, I kind of have grown to like it. I, honest to goodness, did not like social media at all when I first started. I only started because I heard that that’s how you need to start a business.

I don’t even recommend social media or reels anymore. That’s a flash in the pan and it’s gone. You know, there are podcasts are actually fantastic. YouTube’s fantastic. Google and YouTube are the biggest search engines out there. You can build that information, give quality of information to people, share to them what they need to know and what they’re like, the the things that they’re needing.

Give them something that is a quick win for. And nurture the credit outta your people. Like just nurture the credit out of your people. Overdeliver always over deliver.

Dr. Pagenta: Yeah, those are all really, really good hacks. Thank you for sharing that, Lauren. Those are awesome. So for the last question of the interview is for a nurse that’s starting of thinking her own business, what would I was thinking about starting his or her own own business.

What would you want them to know before they start that this is something that you need to hold on to? As you’re about to embark in this endeavor,

Dr. Duroy: keep the long term vision intact. It’s so easy. Like I said, we all have those, like those moments of I can do this, I’m gonna do this, I’m so excited. And then it doesn’t work out exactly right the first time.

So we just kinda lose faith. Keep the long term vision, every little thing that you do. I like keeping a mindset that every time I build something, that’s why I switch to Evergreen. Another part of that is cuz in the MLM world, I’m like constantly doing Facebook posts and Instagram posts and keeping up, like I hardly ever post on those platforms anymore because it, it’s just, it’s gone, it’s there and it’s gone.

And I love building things that, like, I built this one thing out, you know, like a, a video or something that’s a quality. People can search for it and find it, and I keep on consistently getting traffic. You build it and then you build another one, and then you build another one. It’s going to get stronger with time, even if you don’t see like the full thing going.

Like you don’t see tons of traction right off the bat. Keep your faith and just keep on walking, keep on walking. Okay, so that brings me to another thing, honestly, that I, I would probably say is that difference on am I forcing something or am I being called to do this? If you still have that passion, if it still feels like this is hard, but I know that I’m in a right place, stay with it.

If it feels like you’re chasing your tail and it feels like, it feels like it’s not, Like I’m forcing something, like somehow I’m forcing this, this doesn’t feel right. Then, you know, adjust a little bit. I’m, I’m not a fan of, you know, some people, and that’s why I left them. My world. I saw a lot of people being stuck in that and being encouraged to stay stuck there because it was better for somebody else and yeah.

That’s sick. Yeah. That’s not cool. It is. It really is. And I, you know, I, I hate, you know, I say I don’t wanna dog anybody or anything, but. That I saw that. So, you know, know that, have that internal knowing that we can, we talked about, you know, we talked about a lot on this, on this podcast, and if you feel that.

Then yeah. You know that that wheels spinning, stuck thing. Then it’s, you need to adjust, you need to get traction somehow. You need to, to readjust, but don’t give up and just know that like every single thing that you grow and you do is going to make you stronger for the next. It absolutely, even though like in the MLM world, I squash that business, I said, I have nothing to do with this anymore.

I had like pretty good amount of residual income from that and I squashed it. I was like, this is wrecking my life. I threw it away and. But I still learned a lot from that, even though like that didn’t, you know what I’m saying? Like I learned a lot of value from that and it allowed me to go forward and the next thing even, even stronger.

So look at the long term picture, even if it feels like it’s really hard right now. You are making progress way more. Than what it feels like in the moment. Don’t live in the moment. That’s emotional reasoning. So one of the things that help people with cognitive therapy, that’s emotional reasoning. You know, you have to step back and look at, look at the big picture.

And that’s, we all have lots of, that’s, yeah.

Dr. Pagenta: That’s really good. Lauren, for the last part of the podcast, it’s the rapid fire questions where I just ask you like, are you ready? Just, just fly by, see your pants. Are you ready? I am ready, . All right. Let’s do it. If I like this, I don’t know why I love this question.

I’m totally hitting it hard these days. What if you could pick a character to play you on television or an actress to play you on tv? What would you, who would you choose?

Dr. Duroy: I. Probably Sandra Bulls. That’s the only name I can think of. I

Dr. Pagenta: love her. Oh my gosh. Yeah, she’s so great. She’s really awesome.

Dr. Duroy: I’m not a big movie buff to be totally like I’m totally that loser.

Everyone’s like telling jokes about this, you know. I can talk to you about about like Anchorman, but that’s one of the only videos.

Dr. Pagenta: that’s a

Dr. Duroy: really funny, I used to be a huge standard bullet fan, so back when I did watch tv, so yes. Yeah, probably not.

Dr. Pagenta: That’s so funny. Yeah. Yeah, she is. Awesome. And then what would you, what do you say when you answer the phone? Like, what’s your like thing, you’re like, pick up the phone, what do you. I just

Dr. Duroy: say this is Lauren, or this is Lauren.

If it’s a number that I don’t know and I think it might be a marketer. Hello. .

Dr. Pagenta: Do not say my name

Dr. Duroy: because that gives them their straight little in. I get tons. That’s so good. I get tons of numbers. People call me and I dunno who they,

Dr. Pagenta: it’s the so real and I say give. Yeah. This is Lauren. So, and if you could give one book to someone to read, which would it?

Oh, I’m

Dr. Duroy: like one book. I could totally put a plug in and say my book, and I’m kidding. I’m not gonna . What the bible? 100%. I can’t even believe. I had to like, stop and think about that for a second. 100. I know. I thought it was gonna

Dr. Pagenta: come out like that. Yeah. I was like, oh,

Dr. Duroy: I,

Dr. Pagenta: I

Dr. Duroy: think it’s like the pressure of me, I was like, well, and I didn’t even see my Bible.

The Bible, duh. That is hundred percent the most life changing thing. In my life. I mean, it took me, it was my first step in being like completely eaten alive with anxiety. And if you follow the Bible, okay, we don’t have enough time. We do not have any time left. So I’m not gonna go into this very everything, everything that we teach that is like good information, knowledge, it’s already been said in the Bible.

Amen. It already, like it already has, and it’s hard for us, for our human minds sometimes to see the multi-dimension of the Bible and the Lord’s. The Lord has multi-dimensional vision, like he sees every angle. We only see the three dimensions in front of us. There is so much more to even the life that you have in the present where you’re sitting right now, that you cannot see, but the Lord can see it.

He has seen it and he’s given it to us in that, in that book.

Dr. Pagenta: Yeah. Yeah. I love.

Dr. Duroy: I, yeah, I could go on. Yeah,

Dr. Pagenta: no, I love it. I love what you’re saying right there. And again, one of the things I was gonna say was there are 31 chapters in Proverbs and it is a book on wisdom. And so what I love so much about that is that there are 31. Days in most months. And so Jesus literally put 31 days of wisdom that even I just read sometimes, just a proverb a day and I just pick the day.

So it’s the 14th of November. I just read Proverbs 14 and I’ll just read through that wisdom and it’s always something that I walk away with and I’m like, I’ve read this a hundred times and today I just, this part stood out to me. And so again, I agree is the most, yeah, it. The best gift you can give someone is the truth of the Bible and the truth of God’s word.

And yeah, yeah, it’s, people repackage it, repackage his words and sell them, and they like to make it sound novel and it’s just not. He’s just been, he’s been a pretty steady message from the beginning, so I a hundred percent agree. Very good. Well, Lauren, where can people find you if they’re looking, Hey, I know, I wanna see what she’s offering.

I wanna see her functional medicine course that’s accredited. And people can get CES from it. Correct. 48 hours of cme. Yeah.

Dr. Duroy: You get contact hours, you know, launching the functional Functional, yeah. That I’m aware of. Yeah. That you can get contact hours through it. Yeah. Yeah. Actually, you tell people where they can find you.

Yeah, so if you want to reach out and chat with me, it is me. It is not, you know, some other like random person that I’ve hired on Instagram. It’s me. You can always reach out to me@dr.lauren.dnp. And you can also like in that link, but also you can go to, oh, what is actually, it’s a Bitly link.

Dr. Pagenta: Yes. I’ll put it in the show notes. You gave it to me.

Dr. Duroy: I think it’s Bit Lee Live, the Free Life Freebies. I think that’s what it is. But yeah, we can add to the show notes and then they can get, they can get tons of free stuff and I don’t ever spam anybody, one of my biggest pet peeves in life is getting tons of emails I hate.

I hate, I don’t like using that word. I very strongly dislike tons of emails, so I never span me or anything like that. Yeah. But. Yep. Yeah. Bit dot l y slash live, the Free Life Freebies. And that should get, that should also get ’em there as well.

Dr. Pagenta: Mm-hmm. . Perfect. I’ll link that, like I said, and thank you, Lauren, for your time today.

Thank you for your energy, for your truth, for, yeah, just sharing where you are and what you’re a part of.

Dr. Duroy: Thank you. Thank you for having me.

Dr. Pagenta: Guys, and thanks for listening to the Dr. Nurse podcast today. Guys. Enjoy the journey of your careers.