DNP Ep. 71: How to Ditch the Bedside and Level Up Your Nursing Career with Dr. Aisha Allen

Sandra Pagenta: Hi, Dr. Nurse Podcast. Welcome to another episode. And today we have on Aisha Allen. She is a CRNA and DNP doctor,  and she started with her B S N in 2013, started her nursing career in the step down unit in Virginia Beach. And then six months later jumped into the cardiac surgery I C U, where she started her journey to become a nurse anesthesiologist or a nurse anesthetist. No wait nurse anesthetist, right?

Aisha Allen: You had it right though. The new term is anesthesiologist, so you Go ahead. You.

Sandra Pagenta: Oh excuse me, Excuse me. Nurse. I didn’t wanna be, oh my goodness. You guys are getting called nurse an anesthesiologist. Oh my gosh, that is so ba. That is so ba now, but like we can, that’s another conversation.

Aisha Allen: Yes.

Sandra Pagenta: I thought I read it wrong. I was like, I read it wrong. No, that I love Okay, so she originally took to social media to encourage nurses to pursue advanced practice degrees and has started to get kind of metamorph as her platform into get wealth, step away from the bedside, come back to the bedside as a nurse that’s not burned out or broke or tired because you have been able to kind of generate your own revenue side hustles.

We’ve been wanting to talk and I’m so glad to talk to her. Thanks for coming on today. Of course.

Aisha Allen: Oh my, I’m really good at this. I just have to say like, you’re freaking good at this. I love it. I love it.

Sandra Pagenta: Girl. I’m pregnant. Don’t make me cry.

Aisha Allen: gosh.

Sandra Pagenta: So again, I’ve introduced you, but tell my listeners Yeah. Again, how you kind of see your role mm-hmm. and how you view what you do on a day-to-day basis.

Aisha Allen: So by trade nurse, anesthesiologist, my role is to meet a patient and in five minutes, gain their trust enough for them to let me put them to sleep, feel comfortable.

Of course you’re gonna have anxiety and to trust me enough to watch every single heartbeat, every breath that they take, every bat of their eyelash and wake them up and send them home to their family. And yes, and I can, that’s not a small deal. It’s not a small deal. Mm-hmm , a lot of people get, they see my platform, just the bedside and I make money as a CNA and they forget what I actually do for that income.

And if I only cared about the money, I would not be good at my job. So I just wanna say that. So that’s how I look at my job. I love it. It’s an investment. Becoming a cna three years of not working unless you build income. And that’s kind of where I learned, I felt that shift of like, oh wait, they really wanted me to go to school without any income.

Which some people do. Cuz it, you know, you get loans and it’s an investment, you can pay it back. But yeah, as a nurse, anesthesiologist just like nurses, we are the crux of healthcare. Surgeries do not start without the anesthesia. So, you know, they hear all these blame anesthesia, this blame anesthesia that, you know, we kind of just laugh, ha ha ha cuz like, You wouldn’t be cutting into this patient if they’re not comfortable.

You know, who do you call when your patient’s in pacu In, in a lot of pain you call pain doctors. And so I love my job that way and I have now found even a renewed passion cause I just left the military. So spent the last three years I earned a scholarship to the Air Force. If anyone doesn’t know me, I am all about strategy.

I will make a move to bust a move. And so I joined the h I got an H P S P scholarship to pay for my tuition, my, my nurse anesthesia tuition. And So you owe back Yeah. You owe back active duty time. Three years, but like, and three years. I’m, I blinked it, it was done. And so I served three years, traveled the world, lived in Japan, just got back here in October, I put myself in a position to be where I am right now, which is, I’m not working until 2020 3rd of March after my birthday.

And when I go back, I’m working two days a week. I posted a picture about that, you know, an email that I got. They’re like, Hey, how many days are you gonna be working full-time or part-time? Part-time, ma’am? two days a week and I’ll be working with kids. We were talking about that briefly. I’ll be working at pediatric dental and yeah.

And so my nursing career kind of mis morphed into this experience where I’m at now, being like, oh no, I’m gonna work two days a week because, I make good money. Yes. I love what I do. Yes. I’ll be working with Medicare, Medicaid patients, so I’m not getting paid very well. If you ask us the RNA about my salary, they’d be like, girl, what are you doing?

Yeah. Like that’s nothing. Yeah. But it’s because of the short-term rentals, the real estate, all the other things that I have dabbled in where I’m like, oh, I got income coming other places. I don’t have to sell my soul and sell my time for to the highest bidder if I don’t want to. So that’s where I am right now.

Sandra Pagenta: I love that. I love that because what you’re describing is working out of overflow and out of passion instead of working out of necessity and working out of a sense of obligation to the bills or the things that you’ve got to pay for, right? So you’ve got all these liabilities pulling your money away.

You’re like, no, I’ve invested in assets, which has now given me my time back. Right? Mm-hmm. That is the currency. You can’t pay.

Aisha Allen: You can’t buy that. You can’t. This is the piece that you can’t ask. Yeah. Like, yeah. I investing like I invested in number one though in the greatest asset that I know is me. Yes.

Like, and so everyone listening to this podcast, most. Of us are probably nurses or going to become a nurse. You have done that already. You have invested in your greatest asset yourself, and so now you have a very stable job. I know my platform’s all about ditch the bedside, but I wouldn’t be here without nursing.

Like I need to set that straight, like yes, nursing changed my life and if ish hit the fan today, I would go back and be a bedside nurse and I would hit the floor if I needed to. I have no qualms about it. It’s a crazy skill set to have bedside office. Amazon’s probably about to hire, you know, bedside nurses soon.

True. This is a skill and a trade that you can’t touch. True. Yeah. And so I’m like this podcast where we’re talking about like stepping outside of bedside. To me it’s like, it’s deeper and I know, like I mentioned, I just came from Japan. There’s this term called ishigaki. What’s it mean? I know. So it means life’s work.

And I talk about this in my coaching courses. We have been brought up in a capitalistic system, and I will not sit here and be like, Ooh, capitalism’s bad. Like, we need money to live. I, I can have a conversation the other day. But we have conditioned ourselves and been brought into a system where our life’s work is nursing.

It’s an accountant, it’s being an analyst. It’s all the things that we go to work to create and generate income for somebody else. And the term and about Ishi Gki is what is your life’s mission? Actually, that is your life’s work. So for me, it’s building wealth. Within our communities, not to be rich and flashy and get a Bentley and a Rose Royce, but to build enough wealth so that we can actually pursue life’s work in all of ours are different.

So what your life’s work may be to just be the best mom that you can and stay home and to go to work two days a week and care for the world. And that’s your life’s work and you get to spend more time doing that. For me, it’s showing people what life can be. That’s my life’s work, but if I am stuck in necessity and stuck in needing to bring income home to my family then there’s this chart, I’ll send it to you.

Maybe you can post it somewhere. There’s this chart that shows yeah, so. There’s a chart where it has the work that the world needs, the work that you love, the life’s work that you love. Something that brings you income. And there’s four quadrants. I can’t remember off the top of my head what the fourth one is.

And a lot of us stay in the quadrant where it’s what makes us money. Now, when, when you move towards the center of this chart, you’re at the center of what makes you money, what the world needs, what you love doing and what’s, you know, good for the world. Yeah. But nurses, and this is why I love working with nurses.

We already, every day we wa wake up and go to work. We are doing what the world needs. But we’re so far over and, and doing what makes us money. So we’re on one half of the chart. Yeah. I wanna try to get us to the center of it and where we are doing a lot of the things that we love and that can generate us income and what the world needs.

But nurses, we already have two of, two of four checked out. Yeah. We don’t, there’s people who wish and strive and wake up and say, I don’t feel fulfilled cause I’m not doing anything for the world. Cause humans are fulfilled by service. Yes. And so we have that already. And so I wanna move us to the life’s work.

What sets us on fire? What do we love doing? What would not feel like work? And we briefly talked about this before. I think the closer we get to that You would have nurses being happy to skip into work because they’re fulfilled outside of it. Imagine going to work and everyone’s, everyone’s working two days, three days a week with smiles on their faces. It would be lit. Yes. I think everyone, it would be amazing. Obviously you gotta get the for-profit hospital systems in order, but yeah, so just that’s where I’m at on this mission. Aside from building businesses and things and real estate.

Sandra Pagenta: This is so cool. I love that whole diatribe that you just shared, but basically saying, Hey, listen, like I want us to be in the middle of unders of, of knowing what we love doing.

What brings joy. Bring brings a service to the world. What we’re passionate about. I want it to help us bring money because it’s, it’s unrealistic to say that we, we don’t need money or people don’t need to work for profit. I think there’s something about greed that I have found as I’ve gotten older that I’m just like, well, that’s just greedy.

Like, you know, when somebody comes and takes like, you know, when I went sugar treating with my kid, he took one piece of candy from everybody’s, it was so precious. One piece. And I was like, they were like, no, no, no, take more. And he was like, Nope, I’m okay. I’m content with just the one.

Aisha Allen: And where did he get that from?

Sandra Pagenta: I don’t know where he got, I think it’s my husband. He’s so chill. He’s, my husband is so like content.

Aisha Allen: So like it’s parenting though.

Sandra Pagenta: I think it is. It’s the parenting, right. And so I was so proud of him. My little mama was so full because I was noticing he wasn’t that kid that was like, oh, they’re taking it and just, you know, he wasn’t being greedy.

And so I think you can get what you need. And other people have different levels of need. Right. Some people want certain things or they, they need, need certain things. That’s huge and okay, fine. I think that’s okay. Get what you feel like you need. But I think to a certain degree the greed is what’s turning people off to certain concepts of capitalism where it’s like, okay, that is just greedy.

Like, come on man. You’re just taking advantage of people’s vulnerabilities. Those types of things bother me about it, but I do look and go. It’s unrealistic to say that we don’t need these things to be able to live and to provide, to live your families, especially where we live.

Aisha Allen:  So right, Yes. Keep it real.

We live in the United States. Yeah. Most of us. I mean, I’m sure you have listeners all over the world, but it do, it’s crazy. If you know what you know about the United States, you step out your house, it’s expensive.

Sandra Pagenta: Yes. And it’s only getting more expensive with inflation. And I mean, I went and saw a carton eggs, the same eggs I bought like not even six months ago.

They’ve gone up $2. I was like, this is crazy.

Aisha Allen: Like disturbing, which is why I have chickens.

Sandra Pagenta: That’s, that’s a whole nother podcast for another day, girl.

Aisha Allen: I know, I know. That’s so great. Oh my gosh. That’s for me. I refuse. If there’s a person that refuses to get like, Beat up over the head by a capitalistic society is me and sometimes in my detriment.

But like we have chickens back here in the city of Durham, North Carolina and you. I’m not paying those prices, honey.

Sandra Pagenta: I don’t blame you. No, they’re probably cleaner eggs too, man. Get the chickens out there in the sun living their best life. Scavenging and their eggs are free.

Aisha Allen: I mean, they like the sun. They’re animals. They’re free rage. I’ll say that. They fly over the fences. Free rage, cage free. They’re all the free.

Sandra Pagenta: They really are.

Aisha Allen: You’re not even, your chickens are free girl. Even your chickens are free. You’re like, everybody’s free. Even my chickens are free. free at last.

They’re free. My chickens are free. Okay. And I wish that on everybody. That is so funny.

Sandra Pagenta: So tell me a little bit about what you were doing on the side to be able to go two days a week. Because I know there’s a nurse out there that’s like, . Okay. Wait a minute. What did you do? Because I’m having it just four days and I want two, or I’m having to do five. How do I get down to where you are? Take me through your process. Yeah, and how you started investing in yourself with your D N P, and then just kind of moved into, all right, I wanna set myself free from the grind and do the stuff that I’m passionate about. What’d you say the term was in

Aisha Allen: japanese.

Ishigaki Ishigaki. I wanna get that. Oh, sorry. Wow. My brain. So I, I’m gonna say this, I just got over Covid, y’all. I’m like, oh, it’s okay. What did you, yeah, what do you, is it different? It’s icky guy. Icky guy. Icky, okay. Icky guy. Ishigaki is my favorite island of Japan. Y’all. . . It’s called Icky Guy. There’s a book.

Icky guy. Okay. Yeah, I k i Icky

guy. So life’s work. Okay. Violin off in Japan.

Sandra Pagenta: So I’m just impressed with You’re Japanese,

Aisha Allen: so don’t worry. You’re good. Oh girl, do not, I know like the, I know how to order food and I know how to say hello and goodnight. I mean, I think those are pretty good life skills

Sandra Pagenta: able to order

Aisha Allen: to buy.

So I think quick background, story. You mentioned that I was a B I C U nurse. I had applied for nursing school literally the day before the deadline because it was 2008. And I’m looking around at everyone in 2008, like the job market.

Just hearing like I am, have a vision, I’m a visionary. Like I look way ahead and I sat in my room on Christmas break around this time actually, and I’m like, what do I want my life to be? I’m 18, but when I finished college, what’s what’s there for me? Yeah. And I was a graphic design major at the time and I loved that and probably would’ve went to advertising and had been fine.

I’m very confident in my abilities to do well, but I was like, I don’t wanna do that. I was an athletic trainer there in high school for four years and I was like, oh, let’s try nursing. So I applied. I knew I would get in cuz I had, I was a D one athlete at the time at the school.

My grades were great. Oh, wow. And I was like, oh, this application looks great. . So got my recs in. I applied. And at the same time I was looking at that application, I said, well, where do I go after that? Because I am the first daughter of two Caribbean parents and education. Yeah my mom’s from Ruben, my dad from Jamaica.

My mom speaks Spanish, Portuguese, , all the deals. Oh, that’s so cool. didn’t teach us a word. Love you mom, . And so I was like, I knew I had to go back to school. I just knew. So I was like, what’s it nursing? What it grad school is nursing. And back then the only two things that came up were nurse practitioner and C R N A.

And I was looking at nurse practitioner. I was like, just for off what I knew, don’t anyone come from me? I was like, I do not wanna be working at the hospital anymore like that. Like I saw them at the bedside and I was like, nah, . Like, that’s not what I wanna do. Yeah. And so I saw CRNA and I looked at the salaries and I said, oh yeah, I could figures I could do that after I’d graduate school.

Yeah. So from then I said, that’s what I want to do, because I knew that making that amount of money, I would be secure. Hmm. Call it what you want. I knew that’s what I needed to do. Now, me being young and naive, I didn’t really know what that entailed, but I just had said it in my mind and I was gonna do it.

So fast forward, went to V I C U, step down immediately found a C V I C U job. I couldn’t get it initially and so I just started working. Like I didn’t wanna wait around just to get an ICU U job. And so eight months after that I applied got in like I worked at a very good ICU u and started that journey of the Air Force, like I mentioned.

And when I started school. Because you

Sandra Pagenta: knew you wanted the military

Aisha Allen: to pay for your dm. I knew that dmv, I was looking at that when I was like, how do I pay for this expensive school? Yeah, yeah. Like I looked at that, that too. And I found some, some other scholarships, veterans Affairs scholarship, but they had closed that funding down.

It was time for me to go and so I was like, oh, okay. Pivot. I guess it’s military. And so when I started school in 2016 I stopped working. I was getting a stipend and from the military, so they paid about 1200, $1,200 twice a month. And I was looking at my classmates and they were struggling. Like we went to expensive school.

I went to Duke, like there’s no, by the time you leave there, it’s $250,000 after everything. And I chose Duke on purpose, but. I was looking at people struggling. They made it obviously and they could pay it back cause of the skillset. But even I was feeling like a little tight in my finances and I was like, well, I know I’m not going back bedside cuz I couldn’t stand it.

Mainly the people like, I’m not gonna sit here and trash bedside nursing it was mainly the people and the scheduling and Yeah. That I didn’t like and I said I need, and I was starting to figure out how the hospitals were working. We were talking about that briefly and how personalities are just, they’re contagious one, and when people are upset and jealous and just gross, they can turn a whole tide of nurses against you.

And I was like, I don’t ever wanna be in a position where I’m like, dreading going to work. I don’t. Being dependent on the military to send me money, even though I know they’re supposed to. Yes. Waiting around for a check. This $1,200 check, like, oh, did it come in? Because it was, yeah, it was a check. The mail could, I don’t know, it could be snowing.

And the mail doesn’t come and I still don’t have a check. And I was like, oh, wow. Yeah, no, this is like, that’s where it clicked for me, like that instance. And I started like researching what do people do? And it didn’t take me long because in nurse anesthesia school, you are exposed, your circles immediately different.

You are now in operating rooms with millionaires, surgeons, other CRNAs, come on, girl. The people who help surgeons select the right screws that’s a whole different class of people. Ooh, so we were in the operating room, I’m learning anesthesia. But then the CNA relief would come in and be like, oh, did you see the stocks?

Oh, what did you do this weekend? Weekend? Oh, I took the boat out with the girls. It was great. And I’m over here like , the boat. The boat, the

Sandra Pagenta: boat. We come, we come from the boat to America. We talking about

Aisha Allen: and you have a boat. And if you don’t look like me a boat, I’m training in Wilmington, North Carolina.

I’m like, oh, this is different. And so we’d be talking about anesthesia and then I’d be like, can you tell me about what do you mean? What? What about that? Oh, well, we all have real estate. We all own apartment buildings. We all invested together in an apartment building. Wow. . Wow. So that like the circle, when I say the network makes your net worth mm-hmm.

immediately I was like, oh, true. So half the time I would be getting pimped about questions of anesthesia. Half the time I’m pimping them about Oh, so what do you mean about a p y and after repair value a r v. So I had a two full education systems in C school. Yeah. You had

Sandra Pagenta: two clinicals going. You had the clinical of life and the clinical of

Aisha Allen: CNA school

Right. So I went to fi. Okay. And so I, halfway through c RNA school, I bought a home. Everyone’s telling me, don’t do that. You just, just finished school. Don’t, don’t buy a home. I have a home here in downtown Durham, bought it for $157,000. It’s now worth 3 57 because I said, and I’m listening to the people who’ve done it before around me.

Yeah. And now I have a, you know, a renter in there and at that time I didn’t know, I didn’t get it. But then I moved to Las Vegas to start my career in the Air Force and you know, you have a choice of where to go. And I was like, well where’s the real estate the best out of these places? It was Las Vegas.

Yeah. They were about to build a, you know, you look at city plans, they’re about to build a Raider stadium and they’re getting all these new things in the city of Las Vegas. So I went and I found a home for $200,000 now worth 3 89. And that I just have renters in. And I put, I started short term rentals with that.

I bought that for So how much did you start

Sandra Pagenta: with paying down? Like, cuz I mean you’re, is it, wait, you’re still, you’re you’re done with school. Yeah. You started making money. So did you put down like 10%? Did you put down like full

Aisha Allen: 20%. So for the house in Durham, they have down payment assistance. A lot of cities have down payment assistance.

And I found this house specifically because I wasn’t making income. technically that money, that stipend is not counted as income and for the H P S P scholarship. And so that house had like a deed on it that required it to be, this is how they stopped or delayed gentrification. The per people having to move into that house have to have an income below a certain amount.

It was a beautiful house. And so I was like, oh, that’s me. I don’t make any money technically. And so I moved into that house and I just lived there and this is what I coach people on in my network. And the hive, buy where you live, everybody, if you’re living there, someone else has to mo lay their head there.

Yeah, it’s the easiest thing ever. If you’re a nursing school somewhere. Buy and we could talk about rapid fire or whatever, but yeah, so nothing with that one. This next one, which is also why I joined the military. No payment down now. No down payment. Cuz I was the va The VA loan. So VA loan. Right. Okay.

But like I said, there’s down payment assistance for everything’s, just gotta find it. There’s programs where you can buy a home F HHA 2 0 3 and they give you funds to renovate it. And I’m just gonna plug this in right now. If I knew what I knew now as a nursing student, I would’ve gotten a little CNA job.

Not little. Excuse me. I was young at the time, so I’m calling myself little. Yeah. I would’ve gotten a part-time something that gives me a w2. Yeah. And I would’ve taken that W2 and taken it to a lender and bought a fourplex or a triplex or something that would allow me to live in one. Live in one and rent out the other.

Yeah. With other nurses. Something I would’ve done that if I knew what I knew now. And after a year or after however many years of nursing school, I would’ve left and just. hired a property management team and left and had an property of four doors. So,

Sandra Pagenta: wow. Many. So how many, many, how do you know how many?

So after Las Vegas, so as you’re getting mm-hmm. repositioned for the military, you’re picking up property in these different spots that you’re being stationed at. Is that what I’m mm-hmm.

Aisha Allen: gathering? Mm-hmm. . Okay. Pick up here. Little pick up there. And so, yeah. You know, three years came, very, came and went very quickly.

I spent the last few years in Japan enjoying the heck out of it. I really, really loved everything.

Sandra Pagenta: Oh, people like Japan, they say it’s really neat. Oh, it’s, the

Aisha Allen: culture’s super neat, and I was there when the borders were closed. Oh, COVID. Yeah. So I just got to skip around that place, like no one there. It was the most peaceful thing I’ve ever experienced.

I couldn’t understand people, so I was just like on the train, do you order food? You could order food. Order food. I could order food. one, one person with me, . And so then right before I left Japan, I was like, well, I haven’t bought in a while. I started coaching and doing all these things and so then I just bought my most recent property in August in Puerto Rico.

I saw that. Puerto Rico.

Sandra Pagenta: So I was very

Aisha Allen: impressed. Oh yeah. Yeah. So I’m moving, so I’m gonna be living there halftime, actually. I know. Wow. I know. Wow. You’re gonna be on the island. I’m Caribbean girl. I’m a Caribbean girl. I need the water. I need the ocean. And there’s strategy behind that. There’s tax benefits to moving over there.

Yeah. So that’s one thing. And then I just started my next endeavor, which is actually raising private money to, cause this is what I learned. This is what actually people do, is they raise money, either their friends or their whatever to buy the bigger buildings, the bigger apartments syndications. Yeah. So I have now put together my first syndication yeah.

Called Ancest Capital. And I am now bringing in nurses and bedside nurses at very, very low, like very low barrier to entry. Like usually it’s like 50 K Yes. To start getting into syndications. Yeah. I’m like, like more than, I don’t know the word. It’s way less than that. Yeah. Like overtime shift less that you can get in for these types of things.

And so I spent a lot like just listening to everyone, paying coaches, understanding the game, and now that’s what I’m doing is bringing the syndications to people operating the projects. I have this big one coming up here in North Carolina. And so that’s where I’m trying to take people is me being you putting your money in.

I’m also teaching people as I go around, cuz I can’t just take your money, that’s just about how I’m wired. Yeah, yeah. So taking their, you know, investing it, giving them interest back but also filming them behind the scenes and coaching people through what is actually happening on the job sites. And so you’re paying and you’re getting, you’re investing, getting an interest and you’re also learning.

So that’s my mission is to like, teach people what I’m doing. Maybe you don’t wanna do this and operate a whole project yourself. Maybe you just wanna invest and make passive income, truly passive income. And so I’m helping nurses also do that. So

Sandra Pagenta: how are you gonna do part-time, cna and then live half the year in Puerto Rico?

Are you gonna be working as a CNA in Puerto Rico?

Aisha Allen: No. No, no, no. So you’re gonna be

Sandra Pagenta: working part-time six months outta the year and not

Aisha Allen: working maybe six months. So it’s amazing. . It’s amazing. Yeah. So from North Carolina, it’s a three hour flight to Puerto Rico. Mm-hmm. . And so I’m thinking I’m working a hundred.

Just make

Sandra Pagenta: sure you clap when the plane lands. All Puerto Ricans clap when the plane lands. Really? We all clap? Oh, a hundred percent. We’re just thankful God got us on the ground. Are you kidding me? We all clap. We all clap? Okay,

Aisha Allen: I’ll, I’ll . Just to let you know, the culture of the plane ate. Everybody’s like where?

Ball . Okay. Ill I think it’s gonna be a quarterly thing. Like, okay. A few, like at least four months out of the every month, or excuse me, one month out of the quarter, I’ll be living over there just as a nice little r and r type deal. That is so cool. That is so cool. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And so I’m moving some of my businesses there.

So there’s just a different ways. There’s Act 20 and Act 22, look it up. If you’re trying to shield your money from taxes, it’s legal. Shielding. Like tax production is legal. Yeah. Like oh

Sandra Pagenta: yeah, taxes. You’re the worst Cause you don’t pay them. But I’m really

Aisha Allen: smart cuz I don’t pay them. I just read, I know how to read and so does my accountant.

my cpa. I tell people in my networks, like put together a team of people like put together your, together, your board of advisors. The world, especially the United States runs off of treating you like a business, but we don’t treat ourselves that way. Oh, that is so good. We operate within businesses. We are paws in someone else’s business scheme.

Take hospital example.

Sandra Pagenta: Girl. I am legitimately gonna quote that. Keep going. Keep going Cause I

Aisha Allen: love that. Yeah. So much what you just said. So like, I have a course on this. It’s called Treat Yourself like a Business. We, people are like, oh, I don’t know what to start an llc. Just start an LLC with, you could be a, your marketer, you could be marketing for your services.

Like you could be an advertising agency that pitches yourself out if you’re a travel nurse. And you market yourself. And that’s an llc, that’s a business. You start a YouTube channel it doesn’t matter if anybody watches your stuff you’re a business, does show up. Hi to Five Minute video is business.

It doesn’t matter how successful your business is, just letting people know that. Yeah. And when you operate that way and you charge whatever, and I can’t, you know, I’m not gonna, I’m not, this is not financial advice. So I’ll leave it there. I’ll park it there. Yeah. As an LLC, you can write things off.

You have a home office. It’s a written off your cell phone, a write off, your insurance, a write off. So you start operating that way and all of a sudden your life is written. And you have now reduced your tax liability, your taxable income, and me, you know, keeping it real. I, my business on its own, not see anesthesia made $180,000 without me trying.

And I was like, oh, I gotta get, this is a lot of money. That is. And you’re talking like tax

Sandra Pagenta: aside from your real estate, this is aside from your income, your CNA income. Yes. So aside from like the money you get from your rentals, aside from your cna,

Aisha Allen: your businesses through like course creation U u Yes.

Keep going. Tell me all other stuff. Yep. UV Shop, UVA as a, a Blue Light Glasses Company. I’ll put that on right now. These right here shop uva. Oops. Yeah. Shop uva dot com. It’s Blue Light Glasses. And I, I started this while I was in CNA school because we were gonna be on the computer a lot and I was like,

I went on Amazon and I saw I didn’t like them. I was like, this is not cute. So I found the suppliers and I started marketing to healthcare providers and that generated a cool, like I would say two K a month. I, after all expenses and oh, that’s when I really, it really clicked for me what, cuz I did that while I was in school cause I wanted some extra income.

Yeah. And that was like my first, I kind of forget about it cuz it’s kinda on autopilot now. Like I don’t do anything for it. I’ve hired, you know, shippers and people who do the marketing and all of that. You’re incredible. You’re incredible girl.

Sandra Pagenta: So you’ve got the eyeglasses and then your courses.

Mm-hmm , social media. I’m sure you’ve got social media, sponsorships,

Aisha Allen: things coming in. You so funny. I do. So I’m the worst. I tell I’m the worst influencer in the world. Like I have an entire email inbox of people who are like, we’ll pay you three grand to post this, whatever. And. I look at it, I’m like, well, one, I wouldn’t use it.

And I, I’m proud of myself for that. Like I don’t just take the next Yeah, exactly. It’s just not me. It’s not in my character. And this is no shade, no tea. It’s to, in the influencers getting out, like, get your money, honey. That’s just not that’s just not my cup of tea. I’m here to do something else with social media.

That’s not to say I’m leaving a lot of money on the table. So I think in 2023 I’m about to like really become an influencer. Yeah. But like, yeah. I have some like affiliate codes. Like affiliate links, yeah. Links, chef’s, kiss of things that you actually use just for anyone here. Anybody can like become an affiliate.

Anybody can like, make user-generated content. Like everybody could be making money online right now. Easily. So yes, that generated about $180,000 and that is insane. But to me that’s scary. I don’t like that money just sitting there because now you’re at tax liability. Right. and who’s gonna take it?

Uncle Sam. All of half of it. Yes. So I was like, when it started to put everything together, like it all started clicking in my brain why people are throwing holiday parties at the end of the year because they would rather

Sandra Pagenta: give it to their employees than to give it to

Aisha Allen: the government to tax write off.

Why not to tax write

Sandra Pagenta: off treat, treat yourself

Aisha Allen: to your employees. Treat yourself. I’m like, and so yeah, then give, give it to the government. No, give it then to give it to the government. Yeah. Yeah. The government does it. The military. Military does it. They buy all these at the end of the fiscal year, computer, this tv, that it’s all money.

So back in the spirit of treating yourself like a business. Interesting. If we understood that

Thanks for listening to the episode. I hope you’re enjoying the conversation. I wanted to take this time and remind you to check out the success. NP Etsy shop. It’s a shop that I design with my best girlfriend, cute nurse practitioner gear hats. Bags, anything you could think of as well as adorable digital products.

Mom life stuff. So resources for nurses to come. We’re just excited about our shop. It’s another way to support the podcast and to get really cool gear. Check it out and be sure to tell your friends about the podcast as well as the se shop if you’d like and what i’m building here, any promotion any sharing helps build my audience and i greatly appreciate it now let’s get back to the episode

Aisha Allen: at the end of the year, everything that you have made, if you didn’t invest it in your 401k, in your 4 0 3 in your t s p, in an ir, in, in a reit, if you didn’t invest it, it’s now taxable income. , unless you’re a business.

Unless you’re a business. But when you get it off your books Yeah, off the books and you invest it, yeah. You have reduced your tax liability they’re not gonna say, oh, we’re gonna tax that. Why? Cuz it’s gone. It’s invested. And a lot of the billionaires and millionaires choose real estate because real, just becoming a real estate investor is a huge, they’ll, they send you a check.

Mm-hmm. , they’ll send you a check for being a real estate investor. This is crazy. And so you could do it passively. I have a link on my Instagram through Fundrise. It’s you’re investing in people. Go and find these apartment buildings in all these great cities and other people are doing the work.

You put your little money in there. I was investing $500 a month when I wasn’t operating the syndicate just right off my phone. And it’s just, You are now a real estate investor and you can print a tax document from these places, these automated ones, and give it to your ta. Turbo Tax, whoever does your taxes and dust your hands of it.

You’re now a real estate investor. Wow.

Sandra Pagenta: Right. Oh guys, she has dropped so many nuggets. Like if you’re thinking, how do I create passive income? She’s just given you five to six ideas of things to do right there, right now that you can start figuring out and investing in

Aisha Allen: your self.

Sandra Pagenta: And she has turned he side hustles.

Into making her job. Now, one of the side hustles, the job has gone from the maid hustle to now another one of the side hustles. It’s almost like you turn all your pawns, or maybe you had like one pawns, but now you have like a king, a queen a rook. You’re playing chess and you’re no longer playing with little tiny pawns moving one step at a time.

Now you’re dashing across the chess

Aisha Allen: board. You’re playing a different

Sandra Pagenta: game. You’re playing a different game. No, this is, this is huge. And one of the things I always ask all these business owners that I talk to is, what is one of the most challenging aspects that you had to overcome in creating the business?

And then one way that your nursing degree helped you have an edge. So how did you have an edge Because of your background as a nurse, and then what’s one thing that you’re like, this is a grind because I didn’t have a background as a business. Yeah. Tell me, tell me that if you

Aisha Allen: don’t mind.

So I don’t mind at all. Such a good question, by the way. Thank you. One thing that is different in our education as nurses is there’s no financial classes. Doctors have a course and at least of an elective on how to manage their money. We don’t have that, and so we should change that. Oh, that’s, anyway, that’s, I’m on a mission.

That’s a, that’s a, that’s a whole nother thought for another day. But I’m not a mission like No, that’s smart. Some type of elective for something. Yes, but, and so I, I would teach it as a nurse. Mean like any of us. Come on, let’s go. I mean, right. Go ahead. As a nurse, I was not taught, we were, we were taught to take orders, like we were brought up to wait until somebody tells us to do something or someone puts a script in so that we can do something.

That mindset is hindering. . I’m grateful, and I always like to say this on every podcast, everything, I’m very privileged. I know my privilege. I know where I came from to have two parents in the, in the home who pushed education for me, who taught me how to speak for myself and stand up for myself. That is not for that.

Everyone doesn’t have that. So having that privilege and understanding and knowing when something doesn’t feel right and something is off is something that was innate for me. But coming in, to answer your question as a nurse, that nursing gut gives me a leg up that, that knowledge of like, oh, something is off.

Something’s about to pop off. That patient is looking a little, Hmm, yes. Put that outside the room. Put like that. I can tell we have an innate, like emotional intelligence is huge. And we could talk to someone and be like, oh, you’re a schemer. I’m not doing business with you. . Yes. Like you’re shady.

You’re shady boots. Yeah. And so like as a nurse, I think that’s something that is un unstoppable. But yeah. Something I didn’t have is that knowledge, but, but I went and I You found it for yourself?

Sandra Pagenta: For it? Yes. Yes. So I, I And a

Aisha Allen: sponge.

Sandra Pagenta: Yes. No, and that was one of the things I was thinking about as you were talking.

I was like, so one of the things I love is that you call yourself privileged Bec p privileged, because all of us have a leg up in one way or another, and one of us may or may not all of us have something that brings us to all of us.

Aisha Allen: All of us. All of us. So like we live in the United States, A lot of us live in the United States.

We walk outside without a bomb dropping on our head. Privilege. Did we not see what happened in in Afghanistan? Women can’t go to school now. Privilege. I don’t wanna hear a damn thing about we have internet .

Sandra Pagenta: We are on the same page. Because that was one of the things that really bothered me was that there’s this rhetoric.

And that’s one thing, that’s why I bring it up. What did you have to overcome? Because we’re all overcoming something regardless of our color, of our skin, regardless of our age, our background, wherever we came from, we’re having to overcome something. All of us. All of us. And so I have a I, I look at my, they’re like, oh, you, I had a friend.

She’d said, oh, you’re not privileged cuz your dad is black. I said, are you kidding me? I am so privileged because my father is African

Aisha Allen: American. I don’t play into that game either. I don’t play into it either,

Sandra Pagenta: because I look at it and I’m like, have you met my dad? Like until

Aisha Allen: you meet him, like, have you met my mom?

Have you met my mom? School board baby? Like, mm-hmm.

Sandra Pagenta: I’m, I’m with you on that. It is not a matter of skin color that allows privilege or no privilege. It is a matter of looking and seeing, Hey man,

Aisha Allen: what it is,

Sandra Pagenta: what it is? What did I have that gives me a leg up in life, the leg up,

Aisha Allen: because

Sandra Pagenta: we’re all dealing with things we

Aisha Allen: have to overcome.

There are things I have to overcome. People hate when I say this, but I, that’s what, I don’t say it publicly often, but I felt really comfortable saying it here. Like we have us, especially people living, listening to this podcast right now. We are top earners more than, more often than not. The people who are listening to this.

We are top earners in the world. Yes. I don’t have time to hear you talk about nothing. No. You’re a

Sandra Pagenta: hundred percent correct. Yes. Get after it. You’ve got no excuse. And wherever you’ve come from,

Aisha Allen: we all dealing with stuff. We acknowledge it. We acknowledge it. We acknowledge

Sandra Pagenta: it. We say, Hey listen, these are things that are hard because I had immigrant parents.

These are things that were easy because I had immigrant parents. I had immigrant parents that were like education always. And I also had immigrant parents that I was like, okay, so I don’t really understand the English that well or I understand it, but I’m saying words wrong and there’s things that I’m struggling with that was

Aisha Allen: yes.

Sandra Pagenta: And so I would write, you know, Mira, you say underpin. And I was like, my dad was like, what’s underpin? And I was like, you know, the pit under your arm And my dad. It’s called armpit. What are you teaching our kids? You know? It was just, that was life for me. Right. And it was a beautiful part of it, but it’s also one of those things that’s like, well, I mean, that was a little difficult, like going to school and finding out like I was calling things the wrong day because my mom’s Puerto Rican.

Aisha Allen: It’s so funny. That was me. Yes. You’re no, but you’re so right. And it’s like, I also do wanna say, I can sit here and be like, I never wanted for food. I never had to think twice about dinner being on the table. Yeah. It might not have been good, but it was there . Right. And I will not sit here and also say that, you know, there was days where my mom would be like, we don’t have money for McDonald.

Like, we don’t have money for that. But I do wanna acknowledge like there are people who come from some very rough circumstances. Yeah. That things that I don’t even like, I can’t even imagine are happening. Mm-hmm. to them. Yeah. And I want, and, and so in terms of privilege when I say that word, that’s what I mean.

I have never had to wonder about food, shelter, water, anything. Yes. And so I can’t even speak to those experiences of people who have, and so when we come on these podcasts and we talk about these things and why I preach and say all the, as much as I can, it’s for those types of people who don’t have, who aren’t in the networks that I’m in, who aren’t in the rooms that I’m in.

So I’m gonna come out here and just say in hopes that we all can reach those points and pinnacles of life where we’re not having to scrap and fight. All the time for everything. Yes. Because that’s, and that’s what a lot of people’s real world experiences are.

Sandra Pagenta: Yes and again, I think what you’re saying is so poignant because it is true.

There are people that have struggles that we have no idea what they’re going through. And when I hear about my mom and when she was raised in Puerto Rico and the things that she endured to get to the United States and how she is so scrappy and such a hard worker because of what she came from and realizing I’m one generation separated from that, just one, it’s humbling.

But it also makes me realize like I’ve got no excuses because my mom literally had to go get water from a well and bring it to the house. Like we don’t understand what it was to go up. We have no understanding of that. None and. Again, and my mom doesn’t act privileged. She’s one of the hardest working people.

My dad literally says, she will work you under the table. You can’t outwork her.

Aisha Allen: Right.

Sandra Pagenta: She’s in her sixties, you know? So it’s that mentality of just yeah, walking through it. And again, it was tough, but at the same time, she doesn’t focus and

Aisha Allen: fixate on it. And she, and that’s our example, like our examples Yeah.

Are work, work your ass off. Yeah. Like, yeah. And I hate that, that there’s like a love hate, like you need hard work for the, it’s 2022, about to be 2023. And unfortunately hard work is the currency right now my goal is for hard work, hard beating, like struggle not to be the currency of my children.

I don’t want that to have to be what they exchange in the world to be seen as valuable, to be seen as a person, to be treated the same. and like a lot of us right now, we are changing that for our future generations. Come on. Because right now hard work is our currency. Yeah. You have to work hard. Yeah.

So

Sandra Pagenta: and so by working hard and working smart, which is what you’re doing right now. Mm-hmm. , you allow the generation behind you. To work creatively, to work out of a sense of overflow, to not be stressed and think, if I don’t, I’m not gonna be able to pursue that. I’m not gonna be able to work in the itchy

Aisha Allen: guy, itchy guy, itchy guy.

I won’t be able to work in that

Sandra Pagenta: spot. It would be so great if you were able to be launched into the world working in that zone. Yeah. In the icky guy that you can just go like, this is where I started. And to have such a fulfilling career from the beginning and by doing this work for ourselves, we can then put that next generation onto the map in a different way, which I think is really, really cool.

So what is one thing, if you could go back to yourself and say,

Aisha Allen: Aisha, sure you’re brand

Sandra Pagenta: new. What is one thing you would’ve told her to hold onto? Piece of advice, you know, going forth, marching forward, and thinking about all these ideas. And one thing you would tell her when you hear this, this is garbage.

Throw it away. Yeah. So what is one thing to hold onto one piece? Throw it away.

Aisha Allen: It’s crap. One, I’m sorry. It’s two. Two things I would hold onto is one, people meet you as deeply as they have met themselves. So when you have that snotty nose, Karen, nurse on the unit who you just can’t understand why she’s so mean to you, why she won’t help you, that is truly her insides coming out.

And maybe no one helped her. Maybe her husband cheated on her last week and still no excuse. But that has nothing to do with you. You are not a bad nurse. You are not a bad woman. You’re not a bad man. They, whatever you identify as, you are so worthy of someone treating you appropriately. So that’s something that I would keep.

Second thing I would keep is do not listen to a soul who has not done what you’re trying to do. What comes outta their mouth does not freaking matter. I love that. Yes. If someone’s criticiz, the amount of times I heard doing less than you if,

Sandra Pagenta: if someone’s criticizing you, that’s gonna less than you did. I hear something.

Don’t spend any time on that. Don’t spend on time. Don’t spend any time on at all.

Aisha Allen: Yes. Laugh inside yourself. Chuckle and move on. The amount of times I heard people who were not on C B I C U, oh, they’re gonna eat you up alive there. You’re with me on the step down. I don’t, what do you know about that? Oh, CRNA school’s so hard.

You’re never gonna get in. They tried three times to get in. . Well, I got it on my first try. That’s cute. . Yeah, like that stuff was noise to me all. Let it be noise, noise. Call it stubborn, whatever I like. It was laughable. So those two things I would hold onto something that I would throw away.

Or advice, anything that had fear. So good in it. So good. Anything with, I’m scared to do that. Wouldn’t you be ner like anything that is not, and I mean this, anything that does not sound like, oh, that’s a great idea. Do you need help? Or, oh, have you met with so-and-so they can maybe help you with this?

They’ve done something similar. If it doesn’t sound like that I have no ears for it. Friends. I love that family cousin. I don’t need to hear it if you are not supporting me. And it could be the dumbest idea, whatever, that I don’t even wanna say dumb. You could be like, I wanna like tie people’s shoes for a living.

You better support me. . Oh, what’s the business? At least what’s the business plan? Yes. At least ask the business plan . Seriously. But like it, and you know, that might be a good question. Whatever, . That might be a good question. What’s your business plan? What’s your business plan? But that’s what I’m saying.

That’s that’s constructive. Yeah. That’s helpful. Yeah. That’s constructive too. Oh well, yeah. That business plan doesn’t sound too good. . Help me that way. Yes. But the fear-based conversation, I have no room for it. Like, ooh, it’s a recession then, ask millionaires. I don’t take advice from people who are not millionaires.

Is it? Nope. I’m serious. It hasn’t. And it’s not even on like the amount of money, but like, no, I love it.

Sandra Pagenta: Go to the people that are doing it.

Aisha Allen: Yeah. You still work five times a week with overtime to maintain your bills. No shade and ot. But you are not like, I can’t take advice from you. It’s like if you’re married and there’s your friend who has not had a long relationship longer than a year trying to tell you how to be in your marriage.

Red flag. Yeah. Red flag. Red flag. Yeah. So that’s kind of like what I, that’s life advice. You’re not where I am. That’s so good. I’m not taking your advice.

Sandra Pagenta: I love that guys. That is, again, put that in your piggy bank store that because that is a piece of solid, solid money making advice operating outside of fear. I have, there’s this girl I follow on Instagram. Her name is Fearless Miranda. She’s the c e o owner of Street Parking, which is this CrossFit designed workout that she does. She comes, she comes up with it every week. She sends you the workout. It’s a great program. I love it. I do it. I’ve done it my whole pregnancy.

She’s got mama support, so if you’re in pregnancy mode, she’ll like send you special little workouts, but her Instagram handle is fearless. Miranda and I like, love that there’s something about her Instagram handle that just inspires me because every time she opens up Instagram, she’s got Fearless Miranda at the top of it.

It’s a constant reminder to stay away from living in fear

Aisha Allen: because it holds you back from things. It’s crippling. It constricts you, it

Sandra Pagenta: paralyzes you, it does nothing to grow you. It only does. everything to break you small. And so I literally have on my vision board right here, live without fear.

I have it written right in front of me because I love that advice so much. And if we lived without fear, if we moved into the areas that we are afraid, I talk about this all the time on my podcast. Mm. You’re living like, right? You move into areas where you’re like, I’m afraid you never feel more alive.

Aisha Allen: You’re just, cause you’re doing it, you’re still operating, you’re doing it, you’re moving there. Yeah. No, yes. That’s such a, that’s such good advice. And the moment I understood like what fear was and how it manifested and showed up at other people. Yeah. And how it is almost, it’s their mantra what you are saying is your mantra.

So if you’re over here always, I’m scared too. , you’re gonna be scared to do it and you’re not. Yeah. Yeah. So what are we saying? You know, we spell words out like it’s a spell. We are putting casting spells when we speak. We are, yes. Talking. Yeah. And so the laws of attract, I would be, yeah. Laws of attraction.

Like, I’m terrified. I hate public speaking. I hate going up in front of a podium in front of a room. But I’ve been given the opportunity so many times to do it. I’m like, well, clearly I must be supposed to do it. And so I’m shaking like my voice quivers, but I will do it anyways. Do it serious every single time.

Yeah. And I think that’s also why I’m able to hop on the podcast now and no deal. That’s the question. Cool. Yeah. We’ll, we’ll get there. Yeah. And so anyone listening that acknowledge the fear, just not to say that fear isn’t a a thing cuz it is. . And there’s, there’s good fear, right?

Sandra Pagenta: Like there’s good healthy fear jumping off, you know?

Yeah. There’s healthy fear. There’s things that like, we should acknowledge, like, you should be afraid to jump off a bridge without, you know, wanna this on and, you know, just jump off. Like, that’s probably not a good idea, but right. At the same time, like, think it through. Like, why do you wanna jump off the bridge?

Well, it’s, it’s on my bucket list. Okay, well maybe we should get a bungee cord. Maybe we should do the things that are gonna help you combat safety. Right?

Aisha Allen: Don’t jump off the bridge just means, right. Hold on, let’s just, let’s do it. And so my fears around like making the moves and the risk and people say, oh, it’s risky, and all this other stuff.

Nursing to me is that bungee cord, it’s that harness. It’s, oh, oh, that’s my safety net. Come on girl. The safety. I said, I mentioned earlier, that’s exactly what it’s hit the fan. I will go pick up an extra 10 shifts like that and I made the money back. There was a point I lost $11,000 two years ago.

I invested it into this bus thing that was I was gonna put on outdoorsy rent a bus. Yeah. And, you know, learned about contracts. The person, you know, we made a verbal con contract and he didn’t abide by it. And I invested $11,000. And he’s like, well, you know, that’s your down payment and the contract says blah, blah, blah.

And I was like, oh, this is how y’all work. And there was a point where I was like, either I can hold onto this money, this 11,000, or I can release it and say it’s gonna come back to. It’s a lot of money to me at the time. No, it’s a lot of money. $11,000. It’s a lot of money. Yeah, it’s a lot of money. Yeah.

And I, there was one, and I just sat there and I said, I’m gonna release it. That money, that $11,000 is gonna come back around. And I think six months later I paid $15,000 to get into a coaching course, put it on my credit cards, and I opened up my first course like a line hive and made $50,000, like coaching people.

And I just remember being like, okay, I have to like, let things go. I have to let fear go. It was like such a lesson and what you hold onto and grip so tight you can suck the life out of it. Mm-hmm. . And so releasing, acknowledging the fear. Cause I was afraid I would never make any money. I was afraid.

Like that was one of my worst fears is losing money. Yeah. I’m gonna make a bad investment. I’m gonna lose money. Yeah, like money is so cyclical. It’s like a relation, I I, I, I could talk to all, there’s all,

Sandra Pagenta: yeah, I was gonna say there’s like a lot of trauma on, money

Aisha Allen: that people go through.

I talked about this. Yeah. I talked about money traumas and like what we were growing up here like, well, we don’t have money for that. You know, your mom would say, we don’t have, we can’t afford that right now. Yeah. So your grandma, grandpa would stash money under their bed. Yeah. Money. Grant Cardone talks about it too.

Sandra Pagenta: I’ve heard him talk about like, money, trauma, grant Cardone. He’s just like, I don’t raise my kids with this idea of they can’t have stuff or we’re, you know, he’s like you can figure this out. We can get it. Yeah. It’s a different mindset than like, we can’t afford that than to go like, no, we can’t.

It’s just, we’re gonna have

Aisha Allen: to do this. Let’s so do something for it. Yes. That’s me right now. Fundraising for this this syndicate. Yeah. Like there’s been times where they’re like, oh no, we can’t, we can’t fund that. And it’s like, okay, we gotta, like, we’re gonna find a way to do this. Yes. And it’s just, I’ve

Sandra Pagenta: heard say that it’s really inspiring.

Aisha Allen: He raises his daughter’s. . Ooh. I need to, I need to listen cuz that’s that’s my mindset. That’s how I operate. Like I don’t believe in a no, I don’t believe in can’t. Like it’s gonna work. Yeah. Some way. Somehow I’m gonna figure it out. Yes. And so I know there are a lot of people who listen to these podcasts and they’re like, they’re really fearful.

And I wanna acknowledge that I get that a lot of this is so scary. It’s scary when it’s new. But I challenge people to think if and ask themselves, would you be okay in a year if you were still in the same place doing the same exact thing? That is one of the scariest things to me Yeah. Is exactly 365 days to go by and I’m just doing the same thing.

Sandra Pagenta: That’s really good. That’s really good because I mean, again, nature loves. Running Brooks moving trees. Everything is in some type of changing flux and Yep. I’ve talked to so many nurse practitioner entrepreneurs that say that life is like a heartbeat. The reading on a heart rate, the tracing of an ekg, that there’s ups and there’s downs and there’s highs and there’s lows, and there’s just these moments.

And that’s what your heart does every single time. It pumps. And that that rhythm that you see on an EKG

Aisha Allen: is essentially moving pressures. And so I can take that far with physiology. That’s beautiful. Isn’t that Pressures here in the, take a deep breath everywhere.

Sandra Pagenta: everywhere. It’s, it’s a theme. That’s awesome. It’s a theme in life.

And so when you look at that theme, you have to also realize that that is in business. That that is in every moment, every facet. There’s gonna be high, there’s gonna be lows, there’s gonna be moments that you’re just afraid. There’s you, you do it anyway. And then there’s okay. And then it’s not okay.

Aisha Allen: And then it’s Right.

And then that’s the journey of it.

Sandra Pagenta: Yeah. And it’s the tea wave and it’s, I mean it’s all there. It’s so beautiful When you see that, that’s beautiful. These themes reverberate in different areas of our lives. It’s just, I could literally talk to you all day, cuz I feel like you and I are just so alive. No, we gotta chat.

Hour. It’s been an hour. But what I wanted was our rapid fire. I know, I know. Let’s do an hour we’ve had like, so we’ve talked so deep. It’s been so incredible. I love it. So let’s go ahead and do rapid fire and like my poor guest, so I want them to hear some funny things about you. So here we go. You ready?

Aisha Allen: Okay.

Sandra Pagenta: Okay. What are you most grateful for in the whole world?

Aisha Allen: Mm. Take a deep breath on that. I think I am most grateful for my health. It keeps me clear, it keeps me able to see vision follow my senses, follow my gut. Because when I’m healthy and that’s just not, you know, when I’m healthy, I’m able to just fully take in all that is around me to make the decisions, to be, to experience seasons, life, everything.

So I would say most grateful for my health. . Love that answer. Yeah.

Sandra Pagenta: If you had to give a book to someone to read, which book would it be?

Aisha Allen: Hmm. Icky Guy. This is Light Blue Book. The Japanese book. You type it. I k I g a I. Yeah. I go get the name cuz it’s such a good book and send it to me and I’ll, I’ll put in the show notes.

Okay. And then what

Sandra Pagenta: do you find is the best age to be

Aisha Allen: Ooh, the best age? This is gonna sound how it’s gonna sound, but I would say the age you are right now. Really accepting where you are, not wishing you were younger, not wishing you were older and really relishing the fact that you get to be. Two 10 toes down, like waking up every day.

So whatever age you are right now. Yeah. That’s beautiful. Stop taking that for granted. . That’s so beautiful. Well said. Oh my gosh. It’s been

Sandra Pagenta: such, again, like I tear up because it’s so beautiful. It’s true. It’s wherever you are right now, that’s all you have is today.

Aisha Allen: All you have today.

Sandra Pagenta: Start looking into that real estate. You know, how do I get funding for that? How do I mm-hmm. , start doing that work today. Plant the seed today so that you can be a different person 365 years from now. Yes, you can be that person that is like, Hey, listen, I literally went from working five days at the bedside, burned out, tired, exhausted to now I do three days and I have way more bandwidth and I’m able to do this other thing part-time.

And I’ve come up with a glasses line and I’ve come up

Aisha Allen: with whatever it is.

Sandra Pagenta: And then where can people find you? Because what if they’re like, okay, I need help finding my icky guy. I need help understanding how to get started. Where do they find you? How can you help them? I want you to just share like a shameless plug.

Aisha Allen: Yeah. Okay. So if you, I would first start on. The ditch the bedside network. I know the name is jarring or whatever it is. But that is how I’m helping people create distance from the bedside, distance from really whatever healthcare job that you have and creating enough space to find the life’s work, find your life’s mission.

So ditch the bedside network that’s on Mighty Networks. But to get there, you can just go to aisha allen.com, A i s h a A l l e n.com. And I would definitely follow myself on Instagram. Aisha underscore c r n a that’s a I S H a underscore c r n a. Hit me up on messaging there. Now, you know, most of my dms, I answer on the network.

I’ve taken a little bit of a step back on ig. I’m really pouring into the network aspect of things. I’m in there monthly for a monthly session. This 2023 theme is real estate and putting together your board of advisors and like creating that path. And one quick thing I wanna say to people is like, you don’t have to, this lifetime is not meant for you to figure it all out.

If you just passed on the lessons to the next generation, you have done more than enough. Don’t feel like you have to build all of this right now and do all of the things and leave your kid a Rolls Royce and a Range Rover pass on the lessons and you have Yeah. The knowledge changed the next generation.

Sandra Pagenta: And, and it’s funny cuz as you pass on the le the lessons, you’re gonna find yourself feeling a level of what I call false integrity. That as you talk about it and you share. With your children, what it needs to look like. And then you do something opposite. You’re gonna find yourself realizing I’m not being honest with my kid.

Right. And, and it’s gonna actually cause you to be accountable is what it’s gonna do. It cause you to do and to do it. And so I love that. Just yeah. Just by just even talking about it and saying like, oh, you gotta believe in, and then you go off and do something different. You’re gonna be like, I’m a hypocrite.

And you’re gonna notice the hypocrisy in yourself and it’s gonna cause you to have to either stop talking about it or go.

Aisha Allen: That sounds like parenting, man, having kids.

Sandra Pagenta: It’s so good for you, man. It’s so good for you. Make you a better person. It can, some people are worse. They just, they just stay there.

Right. But if you are, you know, someone that desires to be better and you want to show better, and if you have that heart in you as you talk about it, it, it’ll just transform you because that’s how it is, right. As you talk about, and again, you’re talking to yourself you’re manifesting, you’re, what you call it manifesting, but what you meditate on, what you focus on, what you fixate on

Aisha Allen: Every people wanna call it, it’s all the same.

Sandra Pagenta: It’s that same concept of just focusing fixating prayer. Yeah. It’s it’s the dreaming. It’s dreaming big. It’s mm-hmm. , all the things. I love it. I have so enjoyed this conversation with you today. It was easy. It was easy. It was chill. It was like so organic.

I’m so, for your time, you’re amazing.

Aisha Allen: Thank. Oh, thank you. Yeah, mama. To be again.

Sandra Pagenta: Oh, I’m so excited. I cannot wait. Oh, so tired, but so excited.

Aisha Allen: So thank you. You’re, you’re wrapping this up too, right? You’re wrapping, you’re calling it quits on this for a little bit.

Sandra Pagenta: So I was going to, but I don’t, I don’t know.

I like you’re having a good time. That’s the thing. This is actually a, a joyful thing for me. I enjoy meeting nurses. I enjoy having these conversations. I enjoy producing the content and I enjoy getting people to come back to me and say, that was super helpful. Like that, like those messages for me, keep me going.

And so, Ooh, I love that. Yeah. If I, if I end up needing to have and a major abdominal surgery to have a baby again, then I will give myself time to heal. Good. And I think that space is needed. I don’t know what that’s gonna look like. And again, because I’ve been so driven, working part-time Mommying and doing this Side Hustle podcast and the other stuff, I find that I, I have a feeling it’s gonna be hard for me to turn it off Uhhuh.

Cause it’s one of those things you just grind and you just keep grinding. Yeah. So when the grind stops, you. I’m wasting so much time. . Yeah. Like I, you like that, but then I don’t know how it’s gonna be with a baby.

Aisha Allen: It’s so, I don’t know. Oh, it’s a mental thing, man. That has been so hard for me. I’ve come home and I tell my partner, I’m like, I don’t feel like I did anything today.

And he is like, my husband, you did this. You did this. Yes. My therapist sat me down one day and was like, girl, you’re nuts. But not like that. But yes,

Sandra Pagenta: no, it’s true. Like she knows that like, yeah, it’s too much. And that’s, and that’s the thing that I think. Because of, I, I think also my way I was raised, it was just like,

Aisha Allen: you just grind, just grind.

Go, go, go. Yeah. Girls have a whole nother, we might need to have another podcast that’s like, maybe I’m one of mine one day.

Sandra Pagenta: I would love that. Invite me anytime. Yeah. Like, I would love that. You want gonna come on and chat? We can just chat and just be chill and love that.

Aisha Allen: Yeah. Let me know. I’m trying, we need work this.

Yes. We need more of these conversations.

Sandra Pagenta: And I think especially, and again, this is not even gonna be on the podcast, it’s just for me and you to talk, but like, yeah. Especially with like being African-American and being others, you know, Afro-Latino and having these conversations. I’m so sick of hearing that I’m, I’m underprivileged and all these different things.