DNP Ep. 30: The Journey of Medicine Mountain Scrubs Company

Sandra Pagenta: [00:00:00] Hi guys, welcome to the doctor nurse podcast. Today, we have a super special guest Oriana Turley is a mother and adventurer or a registered nurse and a founder of medicine, mountain scrub company. Her clothing line is based on three principles, sustainably sourced, ethically manufactured and mounted inspired.

She’s recently transitioned from a bedside nursing position. To a 100% remote position as an environmental stewardship data analyst and program coordinator for a large national health care organization in this role she’s been advocating for and is part of a team pursuing carbon neutral health care delivery, which is pretty cool.

She lives in the bitter roots valley of Montana and Baja. Califia. Sir Mexico with her two-year-old daughter Amara and her blacksmith has been Charlie, which that just sounds super rugged blacksmith. When not working at the hospital, she could be found [00:01:00] wandering wild places with her family. Her business is centered around reducing supply chain impact on the planet on ethically manufacturing and encouraging healthcare workers to increase their contact with wild spaces to heal. She truly believes mountains are medical. And the lessons learned in the outdoors can be directly applied to the medical workplace.

Medical mountain scrubs are made from recycled material and are designed by nurses focused on full coverage function and made it Hughes of the Alpine. You can almost palpate what it feels like and what it looks like.

Just by the way that I just described it, it really is a very beautiful colored line from what I’ve been looking at. So. Oh, 

Oriana Turley: thank you. I’m happy to be here. 

Sandra Pagenta: Tell my listeners kind of what your current job, that the data analyst program coordinator job that you’re a part of right now.

And what, what kind of life that’s created for. 

Oriana Turley: For the past seven years, I’ve been a bedside nurse, a foot [00:02:00] soldier, as I like to say, and really enjoyed my job until he did it. Right. I reached a point where I was really looking to work remotely so we could have more flexibility in our lifestyle as a family.

We really. I like to travel and live places outside of the United States, Baja, California, Sur in particular. I really started to pursue looking at remote work. I’m very interested in environmental stewardship as a concept, but also in healthcare, of course, as a center central value of our company medicine, mountain scrub company.

This job popped up as an environmental stewardship analyst and program coordinator for the corporation that I was already working for as a nurse. And I jumped on it, I wasn’t sure I was qualified, but I went through a long interview process and, kind of faked it until I made it so to speak.

Was really honest about the things that I needed to learn and that my deficits of knowledge for the job and was able to land the position, which is a hundred percent remote. And essentially the first part of my job, it will be [00:03:00] evolving. It’s a new position. I think these positions are coming about in healthcare, especially moving forward in the years to come.

Especially because carbon neutral. By 2030 by 2040, these are big goals that health care corporations are starting to announce for themselves. Being a nurse prepares you for pretty much anything as many of your listeners know. I basically help collect data and set up the systems to pave the way for carbon neutrality.

How do we collect data? How do we track that? And then how do we systematically reduce our carbon output and also save money at the same time? Of course we have to make that business proposition. Right. Just in my second month of that position and currently living in Baja, California, and yeah, I’m just 

Sandra Pagenta: going, yeah.

Manifesting your dreams. So what we were talking about earlier before the podcast was that you wanted to create a life for yourself, with your family where you spent some of the years, someplace, and some of the year doing other things that you [00:04:00] enjoy and someplace else.

And so this remote positions allowed you to do this, but then in the meantime, somehow between mothering and , manifesting your dreams, you decide to start a clothing company. And so tell us a little bit about that. What that’s been like, kind of from the business aspect. . 

Oriana Turley: So medicine, mountains, grubs has been a very wild ride.

I became interested in learning about business a couple of years ago. I’m just curious about it. And instead of going back to school, I decided to just jump right in and start a business and see what it entailed. I’m like, well, I could spend the money on a master’s degree or I could spend the money on giving it a go and seeing what I can make happen.

I had a lot to learn. I still have a lot to learn. I still feel like I’m making it up every single day. I’m with a clothing company, because I had an idea about these full coverage, functional medical work wear for athletic bodied women and just myself being really tired of being next and, you know, bending over and bathrooms and small spaces and helping [00:05:00] patients and exposing your body in, you know, an uncomfortable way. Really focusing on full coverage function crew neck line. So when you bend over, you don’t expose. Boobs, so to speak and high-waisted yoga waistbands. So when you bend over the other way, you’re not exposing your backside, stretchy, lightweight material. Being able to basically keep your body covered in every position.

Because, you know, as we all know, working at the bedside, we are in a. Small spaces and a lot of different positions. Additionally, I really wanted to make sure that we were doing business the right way. And if I was going to build a business, I wanted to make sure that I was reducing our impact on the planet as much as possible.

And also just ensuring that we only partnered with manufacturers, both for our fabric and our cutting, so that provided healthy work environments that we’re paying people appropriately. And we could check. We really, really followed the outdoor industry. So one of the things I like to say is we want to be the Patagonia of the medical workplace, right?

Because the outdoor [00:06:00] industry has really set up international guidelines as far as like chemical use and water filtration, and just making sure that they have certifications in place to verify their factories. And so we have set up a supply chain kind of on the coattails of the outdoor industry. And so the quality.

Of our scrubs and the ethics and sustainability around them are really at that high level that you would find in high tech. 

Sandra Pagenta: That is so cool guys. I’m just going to ask a question and it’s not on the list and I did not let you prepare for this, but I was just wondering, how are you different than the regular traditional scrub sets that are out there right now?

And they has a four-letter word and it’s super, super popular, outside of the things that you just said, that you really feel like sets you up. 

Oriana Turley: I think our brand is really centered around kind of the grit and the grace and the beauty of doing the dirty work.

Instead of glamorizing a position that’s really hard, like working in healthcare is really hard [00:07:00] and really messy. And I think just highlighting. That spirit of like, we do hard things on purpose and we take the time to take care of ourselves. And we are all about getting outside to heal your soul and contact with nature.

There’s tons of studies that prove, being in natural places really heal your nervous system. we know that it’s hard and we want to acknowledge that. We want you to know that showing up to work every day takes an incredible amount of grit.

And like, we are. The person behind you in that. I like that.

Sandra Pagenta: Take me back to when you decided to become a nurse, because you didn’t wake up one day and have a clothing company and have this great remote job that allows you to live in two places at once. And like all this stuff.

Show up on your doorstep. You thought for these things, you worked for these things. And one of the things that I really am wanting my podcast listeners to believe and feel is that they are in complete control of their lives and that they can create and dream up these things.

[00:08:00] And they could be real. Like you can have them, they are. Available to you. So walk me through when you decided to become a nurse and then take me through that journey, because I think the journey is really important. We always see like the end. We’re like, oh, look what they have. We’re never get there. But like, there was a journey to that spot.

Oriana Turley: I love that. First of all, because everything does take a long time and I have this thing here. I don’t know if you can see, it says our greatest accomplishments require persistence.

And I take this with me everywhere I go, because for me in particular things take a long time sometimes. And I always joke that I’m a chipper awayer and I will make a goal that I know. Might take me 10 years to arrive at some sort of destination. But as soon as I get into that mentality and chip away at it, I know that I’ll be able to accomplish that goal.

I got into nursing cause I was working in the outdoor industry. I was a whitewater kayak instructor raft guide. I worked in restaurants like most people have, and I really wanted to cross the threshold. I wanted to have a [00:09:00] family. I wanted to have flexibility. I wanted a well-paid job where I could provide health insurance for my family, all of like the elements of adulthood.

And so I went to nursing school and it was really transformative. It was so hard. We all. Who have become nurses know how demanding nursing school is of your time and of your soul. And even if the schoolwork isn’t always particularly difficult, there’s just so demanding of your time. And I had a really tough time.

I questioned a lot whether or not I wanted to follow through with it. But I’m also very stubborn. So I did and, and was able to get a job in a hospital in Missoula, Montana. And it did provide for me all the things that I was looking for. Right. Stability and flexibility. Two primary ones. Yeah. I really did enjoy being a nurse.

I enjoy helping people. I enjoyed helping my coworkers the most. I love creating that kind of team, team nursing spirit, where you’re all in it together and you’re shoulder to shoulder and you’re always there to help other people and they’re always there to help you. Right up until the end really appreciated the teamwork [00:10:00] aspect of nursing.

But then I just started to dream, right? My dreams started to evolve and push the envelope and my husband and I had a lot of conversations about wanting to live outside the United States and live in Baja and be able to learn how to kite surf and engage in some of these new activities that we were interested in. Probably three or four years ago, I started to write down in my books and manifest, like, what are my goals? I want to make this much money. I want to work remotely a hundred percent remotely, want to live in Baja. Part-time in Montana. Part-time and it took me at least three years to get here.

And honestly, the last year had last couple of years with COVID and everything else have been really challenging. So many of us, but in my business, we had a first manufacturing run that was bad. Those scrubs were unsellable. So that was a huge obstacle, right? Felt like I fell flat on my face. Totally deflated after just like gaining so much momentum, a successful Kickstarter.

We were like so excited to get our scrubs and get them [00:11:00] out to everybody and kind of get rolling and startup business. And they. Unsellable. And so we had to start over and we had to completely rebuild our supply chain during COVID, which is just more challenging anyway. And then also, while working, on a COVID unit for a majority of that time and, and just feeling kind of worn down, like, man, I am trying so hard and all these areas of life, and it really felt like for a solid year, like nothing was working out and, and that was really hard.

And I had to dig deep and I had to rely on. The people around me who are so supportive and encouraging, and just had such incredible faith in me and like my ideas to just continue down my path and put my head down and get through it and just like do the work. Right. And it was not an enjoyable period of time.

And really just about two months ago, when we finally received our new scrubs and they were amazing with our new supply chain who. Extremely [00:12:00] professional to work with. It was the quality we were looking for. It was just like everything we’d set out to do finally, but it was over a year later, right. From when we launched our Kickstarter campaign.

 We had to overcome a lot, but it almost made it that much sweeter. And I think that anytime in life, you know, you have challenges where you really feel like maybe this is like the universe telling me I should give. And then you forged through and you have a certain measure of success.

It just like was so it felt so good, you know? Cause I felt like, okay, like we stuck with it and we got it done. To a degree of quality that exceeded our expectations. And then literally, like my scrubs came in, I got my new job. I mean it all happened in a two week period of time. And then a few weeks later, we kind of pulled the trigger and decided to move down into Mexico.

So we packed up our house and then subsequently have rented out our house for this [00:13:00] period of time in Montana. It was like kind of zero to hero. I felt like I was just struggling so hard and my mental health was really poor. And I was just like really trying, hi, I was going to therapy.

I was just really doing the work. Right. And I was just like trying to work through it. And then. Suddenly like the clouds parted and all the things that I had been manifesting. So specifically for so long and just was starting to feel like maybe it’s just not going to happen. I mean, it all worked out into best case scenario of each thing.

And like, my faith in the universe was instantly restored. Now it’s just like so crazy. And I was so worn down and now I just feel like. Pretty revived, like, okay, let’s do this. Like, wow. How 

Sandra Pagenta: inspiring? It’s through the crucible, through the fire and the heat that you create, isn’t that how you make diamonds. I don’t know the math of the science or whatever.[00:14:00] 

It’s through those moments that you really see what you’re about, and it’s always darkest right before the Dawn. 

So Once the Kickstarter gets finished, then now do you fill the orders? So the people that ordered, they all get the scrubs at that point is that. 

Oriana Turley: Yeah.

 Last September, October, we launched our Kickstarter, which is a crowdfunding campaign, essentially. It’s pre-orders right. And so we pre-sold for 30 days we raised over $42,000 increasing. Which was amazing. And so it was able to fund our first manufacturing run. We opened up our website after that and continued to pre-sell scrubs.

Well, essentially for the last year, that was not our original plan. And people waited patiently and supported us. We only probably had five or six people request refunds when they realized it was going to take a long time. And that we were coming across a lot of opposites. Yeah, but by and large people were super supportive.

And so we finally fulfilled those Kickstarter orders this just [00:15:00] like two months ago. And what are 

Sandra Pagenta: people saying? And people, I looked at some of their reviews, but what is the feedback? 

Oriana Turley: Super positive reviews. People love the fit. You know, we tried to design, so they would fit a variety of bodies, which is just really tough.

We’re all unique and beautiful, and we just wear things differently. But we really wanted to try and capture like as many bodies as we could and cover them in a comfortable way that was flattering and we’re getting amazing reviews and, and just people writing this full page, email letters just about how.

Inspire. They are by our journey and how we stuck with it and how the product is amazing. And they’re so glad that we did. That really kept us going. I can’t stress enough how much other people’s support really kept us going, because there are many points in this journey with the scrub company in particular, where we were just like, are we going to be able to get this done?

Wow. To the level of ethics and quality that we thought was necessary. Yeah. 

Sandra Pagenta: And then I had one [00:16:00] other question about your journey. It was an interesting thing that you shared about applying to a job that you weren’t qualified fully, which, you know, that’s all speculative, but yes, you didn’t feel as qualified for.

And so how did you overcome that feeling? What were some of the things that you told yourself to even apply for the job? Because there could be a nurse sitting out there right now and she’s like, well, like the only jobs I can see are like, Qualified for. So like, I’m going to be stuck here forever are miserable where like, you’re like, no, I just applied for it.

Like what made you do that? 

Oriana Turley: I was applying for a lot of jobs, a lot of different remote work, right? Utilization review, like all kinds of chart, review jobs. And this one just popped up. I was already in that mode of just like I was going for it. I was getting rejected a lot. I was interviewing a lot, was redoing my resume and cover letter and not even getting interviews.

And it was like quantity, a high quantity and. This one came about, and [00:17:00] I just realized that it was so values aligned for me that this was the one that I needed to put extra effort into and just really sell it. I just picked four or five points starting with my, I had six interviews for this job, including a skills assessment, which was really challenging for me.

Cause I, I didn’t have a lot of the skills that were required for the job. But I. Just pick my points and I stuck to them and being a nurse, just making sure that you can perform on a dime and make decisions and be able to defend your decisions and just really handle whatever comes your way with a good attitude and hardworking show up every day, have a lot of grit.

And I, I picked my points. I stuck to them. I repeated them over and over and over every single interview. And. These questions, I was like, what are you looking for in this position? And then I just kind of. Made sure that I was consistently evolving my language and to, the type of person, a human that they [00:18:00] wanted.

Sandra Pagenta: That’s a really good thing to drive home, being the human that they would want on your team. Anyone can learn anything. Right. Like, you can learn it like the concepts, we’re we went to nursing school. Like clearly, if you pass the coursework, you’ve got an average level of intelligence, like maybe a little above average.

And so you can learn the part is being the person that they want on their team and getting that point across. Even if you’re not qualified for the job, what I’ve heard from all these nurses that I’ve been interviewing and having these conversations with nurses has been, I just let them see who I was and they wanted me on their team.

And so just doing a really good job at presenting yourself. So maybe not so much focused in on, let me show you that I know these skills and these things that you’re asking for. Let me just show you are. And just being really consistent in that. And most people are like, well, you know, what, should we not know the job?

But she’ll eventually learn the work. So as long as she’s the person, her character, her demeanor, her behavior [00:19:00] is the stuff that we want on our team. They’ll take the deficits right. To, 

Oriana Turley: you know what I’m saying? And that’s the feedback that I ultimately got and why I was told that I ultimately got the position, is like, I understood the assignment in the interviews, and it really was, it wasn’t about being a yes person.

It was about asking very specific questions about what they were looking for and then taking that feedback and coming back in the next interview and like presenting. I was a good fit and those ways. I think as a nurse, like you have this incredible wealth of qualities that you have learned through nursing school and through your jobs, that you can pretty much pick any skill out of that toolbox.

Right? I mean, we have done a lot to accomplish just becoming a nurse and then working as a nurse. And so as long as you frame it in the right way and, and just be [00:20:00] simple, like I said, pick your points, drive them home again and again, and just really sell it and make sure that there are things that are priorities to the hiring team.

Sandra Pagenta: Yeah. That’s really good advice. So you’ve talked about one of the biggest hurdles you’ve overcome, but would you give me out of all the things that you’ve been involved in really what’s been the high of your career or just this process that you’ve been going through? 

Oriana Turley: Oh man. Yeah, that’s a tough one.

Cause it’s such an evolution. Right? And I’m, I have had a lot of extreme lows and extreme highs like over the past seven years, especially. And one of my proudest. Things is definitely working side by side at the bedside with a really strong team who is supportive of each other. And I am really proud to say that on our unit, we did not eat our young.

We supported them and we watched them blossom and we watched them become more confident as time went on. And it’s because they knew that they could call anyone of us in any situation. [00:21:00] To bounce something off of to support them, to help them with the skillset and that we would be there with a good attitude and a joke and a smile.

And it really made a unit that not a lot of people wanted to work on because of the intensity and the variety, the patient population. It really attracted amazing people to that unit because of the teamwork. And we were known for in our hospital. I’m just like still to this day. So proud to have been a part of that team.

Sandra Pagenta: Oh, that’s neat. That was a good one. Any mentors along the way, did anybody mentor you? Cause I know one of the things that I love about what you said was that you were like, I could go back and get an MBA or I could just invest the money and start a business. I was actually enrolled to get my MBA.

And I was thinking about doing it. And then I was found out I was pregnant and I was like, that’s just too much. I can’t be pregnant at work. Let’s go to MBA and get my MBA. But I kind of had a similar thought. It was like, well, why do I have to go get my MBA to learn these things? Why don’t I just go teach myself something and [00:22:00] learn about business?

And that’s part of, one of the elements of what my podcast is about is getting people to see their careers with a business mindset. Right? So we’re working in the healthcare business. Yet. Nurses are only taught. Portion of like giving out meds and taking care of people yet. There’s this other part of it.

That’s so big and so huge. I really want to showcase that people taking their careers by the reins and really manifesting what they want with their careers in their lives. Did anybody along the way help you in this journey? Cause I just feel like it’s just a lot of stuff that you’re learning all by yourself.

Oriana Turley: I am so myself from every direction and I am like a seeker of people. Right. So I had this idea. I immediately reached out to the local, like entrepreneurship programs through university. In the town near where I lived Blackstone launchpad for one, it’s a national organization that typically has entrepreneurial support through university systems and towns all over the United States.

And so I really plugged in to them and was just like, who’s here that I can talk [00:23:00] to that can give me tips on how to get started. I did take a, a course on how to launch a sustainable fashion brand. Cause I needed a checklist. Right. I needed somewhere to start. I’d never designed clothes before.

And just let you like cast your net wide and then you see who responds. And you’re like, oh, like this person that I knew from my river guiding days, she is actually an outdoor apparel fashion designer. And she was willing to have a conversation with like, what are the basics of what I need and manufacturing.

And I actually ended up hiring her in the end to look through my tech packs and just like, make sure everything looked right, because I had no way of telling, cause I’d never done. And I was using that template and just like find your people in every bucket, right? Like a marketing person. There’s Michelle Huey who owns VIM and vigor is a compression sock company based out of Missoula, Montana.

She met with me and had coffee and just gave me an overview of how she started her business, and now all of my scrubs are fulfilled through her warehouse. Which is pretty cool full circle. [00:24:00] I moved everything into her fulfillment center and she’s a filling of Oliver scrubs for us while I’m in Mexico.

So you just build your network. I think that’s part of like, kind of I don’t know, saying cutting your teeth and entrepreneurship is like finding your team and your mentors. And I just have been really fortunate to find a lot of women owned businesses specifically. All game to help me out and answer the questions and look over contracts and give me advice.

And every time I came upon something where I was like, I don’t even know what this is or what they’re talking about. And it’s like the next step of my process. Like, can you help me? And we’re always willing to talk. And give me advice. So that’s 

Sandra Pagenta: incredible. That’s so good to hear that is really positive and uplifting that people are willing to help.

And it also encourages other people out there to not be afraid to ask these people, to speak into your life, to take a look at something, to find these resources. Cause I didn’t even know about that. That’s really cool. [00:25:00] Yeah, that’s really 

Oriana Turley: neat. Well, and just the other day, like a woman owned mountain apparel company out of Colorado, I just like found her on Instagram and messaged her and she got back to me and then we had a phone conversation because I’m starting to like, figure out how to market and what do I need to hire out?

And like, what am I going to do now to sell the scrubs? Right? Like it’s a whole new chapter in my business. And she was awesome. She’s just like really laid out what she did and what her strong points were and what her weaknesses were. Who she contracted and, gave me numbers, which is so helpful and something that I like always would do for others too, because I think that like understanding what other people have spent to get to where they are really helps in your own journey, because sometimes you just don’t know what’s normal and you don’t know how hard to push or like how much to invest, you know how to find funding or any of that sort of stuff.

And then people have answers and like they’re willing to share those details with. 

Sandra Pagenta: That’s very good to know. So for the last question of the [00:26:00] podcast, I like to ask if you could get one piece of advice to a new nurse starting off in her career, if you could give her one piece of advice to hold on to, and one piece of advice to toss, this is garbage.

Don’t listen to it. This is great. Keep this close to your heart and don’t feel. What do you think 

Oriana Turley: advice? I would say ask questions and trust yourself. Right? So anytime anything gives you pause, ask the question, nobody’s going to think you’re dumb and to Tosh. I always go back to like people who you’re like, oh, I’m going to go to nursing school and they’re really negative.

Or like, oh, I’m going to try and do this with my life. And they’re really negative about it. I was just say totally black out the naysayers of the world, because anything is possible. If you set a specific goal and you manifest it day by day. So don’t listen to anybody who tells you that things are not possible [00:27:00] because I brought up.

Yeah, 

Sandra Pagenta: I love, I love all those things. Where can people find your scrubs and I’ll link everything in the show notes, but just to give a shameless plug for your scrubs 

Oriana Turley: Our scrubs can be found on our website, which is www dot medicine, mountain scrubs.com.

All spelled out. We are most active on Instagram at medicine, mountain scrubs MTN it’s abbreviated. Over onto Facebook as well, but really Instagram is our bread and butter. It’s a platform I feel most comfortable on. And so you can kind of follow along our story. You’ll see me, you’ll see my sister golden, who is my co-founder and just kind of get to know us and our journey, and watch us figure it out day by day.

Sandra Pagenta: I love that. That’s awesome. That’s how I found you. And you were so open to talk to me. So thank you so much for coming on and talking to all the nurses that listen and the people that are trying to build their brands and their businesses and thinking, [00:28:00] oh, I’m never going to get there and you just encouraging them with your story.

I know is inspirational. So. Yes. And for the last part of the conversation, it is the rapid fire questions. All right. What was your first job 

Oriana Turley: nursing John? Nope, I was job ever. I freaked out ever. Was that a taco shop? I rolled burritos. 

Sandra Pagenta: You wrote Fritos. You had a really cool job in there where you were a river 

Oriana Turley: guide.

Courses and classes for whitewater kayaking and raft guiding on whitewater chips and stuff like that. Yeah, that sounds so cool. It was a good time. 

Sandra Pagenta: And if you could be a character in a show, which character would it be? And like what show. 

Oriana Turley: This is kind of funny, but we watched this YouTube sailing show called SV Delos and it’s sailing Fidelis.

And so the mom, [00:29:00] they have a child and they live in a sailboat and they sell around the world. So I would be Casa from SB Dallas. She’s a real person, she’s not a character, but kind of my role model her 

Sandra Pagenta: life. Okay. Very cool. And if you were to give a book to someone to read, which book would it be? 

Oriana Turley: The first one that pops into my mind is a book called reviving Ophelia, and it’s saving the lives of our adolescent girls.

And it’s kind of a heavy book, but it’s through a pretty traumatic early part of my life. I think that book saved my life. And so I would recommend that to anybody, especially a young woman who is experiencing death or difficulties in her life. 

Sandra Pagenta: That I’m going to have to check that out. Well, thank you so much for your time today and, and chatting with my audience. 

Oriana Turley: So thank you. 

Sandra Pagenta: yeah, Be sure to subscribe to the doctor nurse podcast. We’re all everywhere. Everywhere you get your podcasts and we’re now on YouTube. Creating teasers for our podcast episodes. And guys, [00:30:00] don’t forget to enjoy the journey.