The Everyday Mystic

Beyond the Feed: The Hidden Inner Game of a Global Influencer w/ Sue B. Zimmerman

• Corissa Saint Laurent • Episode 81

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To the online world, Sue B. Zimmerman is the high-energy "Instagram Expert," a serial entrepreneur who has built 18 businesses and taught thousands how to dominate the digital landscape. But behind the hashtags and the strategy lies a deeply intuitive operator who doesn't use spreadsheets to predict the future…she uses inner knowing.

In this episode, Sue B. pulls back the curtain on the spiritual engine driving her business. She opens up about the valley of a toxic business partnership that taught her to audit her energy, and why she refuses to accept the term midlife, preferring to live in her prime. She shares the visceral stories of surrender that defined her resilience…from jumping out of a plane in New Zealand to undergoing risky eye surgery to see her audience more clearly.

Corissa and Sue B. explore the intersection of Hustle and Flow. They discuss why Sue B. doesn't need vision boards, how she uses travel as a spiritual awakening, and why the most luxurious thing you can buy isn't a bag, but a plane ticket to the unknown.

In this episode, we cover:

  • The Manifestation Protocol: How Sue B. declared her career to a camera propped in a tree years before it happened, and why she trusts visualizing over vision boards.
  • The Partnership Audit: The painful lesson of a 60/40 business split that taught Sue B. to value her own worth and ruthlessly edit her relationships.
  • Surrender as a Skill: How skydiving and lens replacement surgery became profound lessons in trusting the process and letting go of control.
  • The Luxury of Awe: Why travel (from Iceland to Patagonia) is the ultimate tool for waking up a deadened spirit.
  • Digital Boundaries: How Sue B.’s twin daughters taught her to put down the phone and honor the cadence of nature.

Notable Quotes:

  • "I don't do vision boards... I just can visualize an opportunity from what I know to be true." — Sue B. Zimmerman
  • "When you really can let go of perfection... your life has so much more meaning and you just surrender more." — Sue B. Zimmerman
  • "I didn't plan on being the Instagram expert. It all just happened organically... [but] I envisioned this." — Sue B. Zimmerman

Resources & Links:

Connect with Corissa:

If this conversation awoke or inspired something in you, please consider leaving us a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review to help us reach more people. 

Thanks for tuning in!

Corissa Saint Laurent

Hey beautiful souls, thank you for joining me today on the Everyday Mystic, where we demystify the mystical and transform your everyday life into one of greater meaning, higher purpose, and true joy. I'm so overjoyed to have people from my past come back into my life via this channel, via the everyday mystic. I've had several of prior work colleagues and people I just know from my business life come through and say, Hey, I have a spiritual side. I want to share my spiritual side. Most of the conversations you have when you meet people in business environments is not about spirituality. I mean, it's the farthest thing from spiritual or mystical, unless you're in that business and you're going to spiritual business conferences or mystical fairs or festivals, and that's the type of business that you have. I wasn't in that type of business, at least for most of my career, although it was always running in the background, right? The spiritual is not something that we all bring to our jobs and to our workplaces. But if you are a spiritual person, it's who you are. And it is not something you necessarily need to do for your work. And it's not necessarily something that you talk about all the time. So for this guest, we met in my gosh, probably 15-ish years ago, when I worked for constant contact and I was speaking at a conference, and she and I met at this event, and then we saw each other at a variety of events. So when I lived in New England, she was always at these events, and um I was often there or speaking, and we got to know each other and stayed in touch, of course, through the power of social media. And that's Sue B. Zimmerman's world. She is known as the Instagram expert. She's been an entrepreneur her entire life, but specifically a digital marketing or online marketing educator for the last 15 years, pretty much since digital tools and the internet have been used for marketing. Sue B has been there as an educator, as an advocate, and as a cheerleader for this space because she saw early on the power that it had for small businesses like hers. She was a small business owner, and that's how she came into this all. So we have some parallels in how we both came into marketing, coming from owning small businesses and having to learn how to do and wanting to reach our audiences and figuring it out on our own, how to do it. She has more than figured it out. She's become a globally recognized influencer in the online marketing space. She speaks at all of the big conferences, and she is a no BS business coach, and she comes through on this conversation both with her business savvy and her spiritual side. So you'll hear about her spiritual path and the ways that she intersects those things within her life and the way that that's informed how she approaches her life, her business, her parenting, and everything in between. So sit back and relax and enjoy this episode with Sue B. Zimmerman on The Everyday Mystic. Welcome, Sue, to The Everyday Mystic. This is fun for us to get to talk in this kind of space about these kinds of things. We met in a completely different realm of our lives. So I'm so excited to dive in and talk with you about your world, your perspective on spirituality and on what we'll call mysticism, this direct connection with uh divine knowledge. Your world. So just a little background for listeners, Sue and I met at a business marketing event. So this was, we can't really remember which exact event it was. Uh we both used to be in the New England area. Sue is still in the New England area, and we met at some business event and uh hit it off. We would see each other at events all the time, but this was all completely with our business gear on. We were like in the hustling grind doing our thing. Like we weren't talking about spirituality, right? Right, definitely not. Yeah. So Sue and I reconnected on LinkedIn and she wanted to come on the podcast because she has, and and this is what I found. It's been so interesting getting back on LinkedIn because I got rid of all of my social media accounts, Sue. When COVID hit, we decided to go off grid and like get a homestead and just have a completely, I wanted to make cheese. I just like didn't want to be connected to marketing, to digital marketing, to really the business world in the way that I had been. And so I cut the cord hard and I deleted all of my social media accounts. But what I found in getting back on, I've uh created new LinkedIn and a new Instagram. What I found by getting back onto Instagram and talking as me now, not just my like me with the business hat on. I'm connecting to all these people that are like, oh, I also have this spiritual side and oh yeah, this is great. And so it's been so fun to have people come out of the woodwork, come out of the spiritual closet.

Sue B. Zimmerman

Yeah. Well, how long has it been that you were off social? Like, how long was it?

Corissa Saint Laurent

It was almost three years. Wow, that's a long hiatus. Well, especially in the social world, as you know, right? And how quickly things changed. And so when I got back on, LinkedIn hadn't changed all that much, but Instagram certainly had. And you're an Instagram expert. It's something that you've been doing before Instagram was a thing. Right? Yeah. 12 years. Yeah. So throughout this conversation, I want you to help me fall back in love with social media because I know there's good there. I know there's soul there. I know that there's amazing connections that can happen there, but I just lost so much love for it. And um, and now that I'm back, I'm trying to kind of get back in a groove with it.

Sue B. Zimmerman

Yeah, well, thanks for sharing that. I appreciate the context, as I'm sure your listeners do as well. And I have to be honest with you, I very rarely post on LinkedIn. And the reason I post it is because I'm speaking at a conference in Portland, Maine for the third time. It's been a hot second since I've been on stages. And from that, I mean, this is the power of social media. From that, you saw it or you commented, or there was some something there that, and then when I tapped into you, I saw that you did this podcast. And so, of course, being from Boston and all and being bold, I'm like, I think I could add value to your podcast. And so here we are. So that in and of itself is a testament to the power of showing up in a place where you want to connect with people with similar values.

Corissa Saint Laurent

Yeah, it's so true. And every time, I mean, even from the very early, early stages of social media when we first got involved way back when, there was incredible value and just the reconnection with old contacts that you would have probably, unless you ran into each other in your hometown in a grocery store or something, yeah, you probably never hear from them, see them again. And here we are getting to see each other's lives, connect back in. The thing about social media, when I used to teach about it, it isn't powerful unless you use it socially, right? Unless you actually socialize there. If you're just pushing out content and posting all your beautiful things and all of your the stuff that you think people want to see, but you're not actually interacting. I I'm not sure how much you get out of that.

Sue B. Zimmerman

Right. It's just you because it's your agenda and not coming from a place of serving and helping others uh in some beautiful way. And I've always showed up as someone who is curious at about connecting with one person every day and making that life change in some way because the amplification of that one person is so great if it's done well. And, you know, you build community and credibility and opportunity from making people feel good about something that they desire or want.

Corissa Saint Laurent

So tell us a little bit about how you got into social media in the first place. What was your invitation in?

Sue B. Zimmerman

Yeah, I love that question. So I my brain is wired and always has been wired for social media. Way back when my daughters were little, I learned about, you know, Facebook out of the gate so that I could kind of track what they were doing on their computers. And in their groups that they thought were being private from their parents, I was able to like figure out the back, the back end of these conversations that these middle schoolers and high school schoolers were having, so I can just be more uh connected to things that were important. And so that plus, I've always had my own businesses. I've always I've had 18.

Corissa Saint Laurent

Wow.

Sue B. Zimmerman

And I've always loved marketing and marketing with the right messaging for whatever it was that I was selling. And so whether it was posters or hanging things at coffee shops with pull tabs, I was marketing and can and trying to connect to the audience. And then when my family and I, like my family was on a uh vacation in Belize, and my twins at the time they were in, I think, high school, were scrolling on their phone, and I had no idea what that was. I was really curious. They weren't talking or texting, they were scrolling. And when I asked what they were doing, they said, Mom, we're on Instagram. Don't you dare get on it. So it was kind of like, of course, of course, you get on the platforms that your teenagers are on and you get curious about what they're doing. And I saw a huge value in Instagram, my brain being very visually on fire daily. Like I see things before, I read things and connect things. And I had a store here on Cape Codden, Massachusetts. It was a seasonal seaside boutique, and I was looking to market strategically. And Instagram was perfect for that because of the power of the hashtags at the time, which are not nearly the same now, and because of the geolocation where I could easily point people to get to my store, which was on a in a golf community and kind of hard to get to. So it was great that maps would open up and people could find very easily the anchor bracelet that they they wanted to buy, or the beach bags I was selling. And it blew my mind how many people were walking into the store and saying, I want to buy this, you know, and then showing me on, you know, showing me on their phone like this thing that you just posted on Instagram. And I was like, what just happened? That's crazy. And so I really embraced the platform and then had the opportunity to attend a conference in California that was all about online marketing. Remember, this is 12 years ago, and and and creating a business online. And I came back from that conference, put my phone in the tree, and this YouTube video, we can link it in the show notes, is there where I declare that I was going to be the leading Instagram educator and teach other business owners how to have success on Instagram. And I'm I'm big into manifesting whatever I want and getting it. Like that's been my life. And I always have had a vision of what I wanted the business to become, and it did. So whether I wanted to be on stage at QBC, which I had, or speak on stages for you know, creative live or be a keynote or like whatever I wanted, I just leaned into getting it and not stopping until I did. And so there's this nice kind of energy around what you are here for in this pack podcast, because I'm living proof.

Corissa Saint Laurent

Yes. So let's talk a little bit about manifestation and the way that you do it. Because you mentioned that you're highly visual. Yes. And you see things before you see them in your mind's eye or your third eye, let's say, before you see them in the world. So is that how your manifestation process works? You'll see it in kind of its form and you know, and then you step into it, or tell us a little bit about that.

Sue B. Zimmerman

So it that's a great question. And I'm not a person who does visual boards, vision boards. You know, I've just I've never really done vision boards. I just can visualize this, and you haven't needed to. Yeah. And so it's a gift because I don't like to waste time or money doing something that doesn't make sense. And to me, you know, get buying the magazines, cutting the magazines, and finding a space to put that is a whole nother thing that you have to do, versus I can just kind of visualize an opportunity from what I know to be true from the life experiences I've had being an entrepreneur my whole existence, pretty much from 13 on. And so I just can tell if something has a market, has the market ability to sell or to grow a community. And that literally, with this, you know, being an Instagram educator, everything I imagine to be true has happened. And so to answer your question, a lot of it's based on experience, knowledge, and wisdom. Okay. So if you're right out of college or you're listening to this and you're a teenager or in your 20s, like just know that you need life experiences to make decisions that are gonna serve you so that you know what to lean in and say yes to and you know what to say no to. And so I'm really good at knowing what serves me based on the energy around that decision. Now, I will tell you that I am an avid audible listener, more so than books, because I just can one and a half times listen to things faster than reading. And the book that I want to reference, which you probably know about, is Atomic Habits by James Clear. And I just love this habit stacking mentality around living each day to its fullest and just feeling all the emotions of what ensues from doing that. And I think a lot of people don't feel or acknowledge feelings, they just do. And so I'm always thinking about how does this make me feel? You know, my past decade plus of working and doing this work, I've never felt better. I've never felt more um impactful in leaving a legacy that has profound reach, global reach from social media and community and speaking on on stages all over the world. And it's just that impact has felt and meant so much more to me than the income that's made. And I truly believe that income follows and is so much easier when you make impact of meaning.

Corissa Saint Laurent

Yeah, it's a different kind of currency. You know, we often think of currency as just, you know, the dollars coming in, but we are fed a currency or there's energy, a current that comes from so many different things. It could be the that impact, it could be the feeling that you have when you just serve your community. And oh man, it's it's beautiful.

Sue B. Zimmerman

Yeah, yeah. And I, you know, I'll tell you, as someone who has primarily sold physical products my whole life, I never had those feelings. I mean, I love selling, I love making money, I love what money gives me to make choices to travel and and and be philanthropic and help other people and buy the things that I want. But when you are changing someone's life, it's a whole different level. That I didn't so you don't know what you don't know until you experience it. And I want everyone to hear that because I didn't even know that these feelings could exist until I helped other people understand how to use Instagram to grow their business, their brand, their you know, their movement, their foundation, whatever it is that they sell their book. I didn't know until I did it. And I didn't plan on being the Instagram expert. It was all just happened organically, as you heard.

Corissa Saint Laurent

Yes. And I will add though that you vision envisioned this. Yeah, so I did. You set it into motion to to become.

Sue B. Zimmerman

Yeah, I did. I really it it's when you watch the video, you'll see, you know, it it was kind of the assignment from the conference. And I, you know, I take all assignments seriously that help me get to the next step. Or I am definitely that person that's in momentum always and not complacent or settling. I always want to level up and learn and grow. Because, you know, when you're an entrepreneur, it's there's no destination. You're on a journey.

Corissa Saint Laurent

Yeah, it's so true. And I mean, and all of our lives are that way. I think that if anybody doesn't feel into their life that way, they're most likely stuck in a program that told them that they're this and they have to do these things to get to there, and then you know, you're on some sort of mountain, but that mountain is an illusion, you know, that there is no there, well, I guess there's many peaks, and then there's also many valleys, right? In this whole, this whole journey. So tell us about a valley of yours. Have you dropped into a place of maybe a dark night of the soul or like a deeper valley where you were like, shit, how am I gonna get out of here?

Sue B. Zimmerman

Yeah, I mean, not so much in this business, although there have certainly been challenges and from expansion and team dynamics and and that. But if I would reflect back to a valley, it really was when I had this business with a partner who convinced me that she should have 60% of the business. Don't I mean that would never happen today. If you're gonna be a partnership with someone, you're in partnership 50-50. But she convinced me that her marketing degree from BC was worth more than my nutrition degree from Simmons because I was just an entrepreneur. So I I kind of let I just rolled with it. This was a craft business. We were on QVC with it. We created double sided tape for the scrapbooking industry and beads, and we And Michaels and AC Moore, we did and we did well, but but we didn't have a patent. So we weren't able to really scale the way we wanted. And we were in debt. And when it came time to dissolve the business, she had to pay since 60% of the debt. But but the valley was I didn't like the way I felt around her energy of feeling like her value was more than me. And I just succumbed to her too often. Like I didn't like the way I felt, and I didn't like the way she made me feel. Or I took that energy and just it made me feel lesser. And yeah, I'm it was a place that didn't feel good. In fact, you know, we were we were in this business for four years and our kids grew up as childhood friends, and I'm not in touch with her anymore because this is where you take an audit of your relationships in your life and you decide, am I getting anything from this or is this constantly making me feel a way that doesn't serve me? And I realized like life is too short, and I didn't want to put my energy into this relationship. I wanted to leave space and expansion for new relationships that felt more mutually beneficial.

Corissa Saint Laurent

Speaking of leveling up, I mean, that's what happens, right? As you level up, some of your relationships drop away because they are reflections of that level down you or that, you know, that other version of you. So I feel like, you know, you were talking about experience, and obviously now being on the other side of 50 can relate to that more than I ever have of the value of experience because when you haven't gone through all of the ringer of life, really, you know you haven't gone through those experiences of a partner betraying you, those the experience of a close loved one dying, the experience of et cetera, et cetera, you know, that that just comes with the time ticking, you know, and and yes, you can have some of those experiences early on and and all of that, but there's also the added benefit of when as your wisdom is growing, you also handle those situations differently too as you age, right?

Sue B. Zimmerman

Yeah, and because most of our clients that we work with are in their prime, I like to say in their prime more than midlife.

Corissa Saint Laurent

Love it.

Sue B. Zimmerman

Yeah, it's so good. A lot of them just don't have the confidence to show up as their full self because of the fear, the judgment, the lack of confidence, and all that work I have are I had already done. And I think that when you really can let go of perfection and how you look and focus more on impact and change and value, your life has so much more meaning and you just surrender more.

Corissa Saint Laurent

That's a beautiful concept and a practice, isn't it? Surrendering.

Sue B. Zimmerman

Yeah, it's one of my favorite words.

Corissa Saint Laurent

Oh, it's so good. And it's it's a daily practice for me is surrendering to the energy of what's here rather than trying to force something that I want to happen. It's surrendering to, it's like, oh, I can visualize and and put things in the vortex, if you will, right? I can have, like we talked about earlier, those powerful visualizations. However, I feel like those visualizations, and I don't know if you agree, they come from somewhere else. It's not like I'm like, okay, I want this and I picture it. It's like it drops in from somewhere, and I'm just like, where'd that come from? What I receive it, and then it's a it's a surrender to allowing it rather than this forced practice of, okay, I want to picture this life of, you know, me in paradise, somewhere with this beautiful man, and blah, blah, blah. I feel like those kinds of manifestations don't work because they haven't really dropped in from divine source. It's not necessarily meant for you. And opening up yourself up to actually what's meant for you, then the magic happens.

Sue B. Zimmerman

Oh, for sure. Yeah. And I, you know, back to the word surrender. I just want to share like three things that I think would be helpful for people here. So when my husband and I traveled around the southern hemisphere for 73 days, which was a trip of a lifetime, when we were in New Zealand, I jumped out of an airplane and he had no interest in that. And he's like, Well, how did you just like get your mindset in the place of jumping? And it's like, well, first of all, you're on a plane with nine people and we are going 45 seconds after each other. But before you get on that plane, you have to surrender to the expert who is tandem with you, who has done 900 jumps. And you have to say that you are being cared for by someone out, you know, not just yourself, but by the equipment and this person. And I didn't, I was not nervous. I was excited to have this experience full on and jump 15,000 feet. It was pretty amazing and the most beautiful place in the world. And I just loved that I was able to do that. So that was one time. Another time is when I got my lenses replaced, my I have I couldn't do LASIK and I had really bad vision. I was a dependent on glasses or contacts as soon as I woke up. And I was so sick and tired of juggling my prescription sunglasses and my glasses and finding them and losing them and keeping track of them. And oh my God, the glass, it's just a thing as you get older. And I'm like, I I decided to get my lenses replaced. And it was a six-minute procedure for each eye. And my husband was like, I could never do that because what if, what if, what if? And I'm like, this guy has done thousands and thousands. This is what he does for his life. He's the expert at it. And you know, the next day I take the patch off. I have 20-20 vision. I have 20-20 vision in both of my eyes. So my goal was I wanted to stand on stage so I could see the reaction to everyone in the audience and just feel that. And so now I can just read any sign from anywhere all day. So that was really cool. So that's number two. And then the third one is most recent, and I want to share this because I think this is so poignant for everyone that's thinking about this. Yesterday, and now I've done cold plunges in the ocean and I do cold showers, and I did a cold plunge in Patagonia, but it was seconds. Yesterday I did a real tub cold plunge, and my goal was two minutes, and it was so freaking cold. The first plunge I could only stay in for 30 seconds, but then you alternate with the sauna, which is like next level everything, like hot to cold and back and forth. And I wanted to get to two minutes, and it took me to the fourth plunge to do it because I had to really set an intention. I had to say things like, You're gonna live. It's only two minutes. You can do this. You've done this, this, this, and this. This is something that you can do. It was so hard. Your body gets so numb. It feels so good when you're done, but it's it was hard, and it was like a workout, like a hard workout. I came home exhausted and slept really good last night, and I'm like, I am so doing that again. But you don't know that you can do it until you try. And you've gotta surrender to what's on the other side of the thing that you did, and that's what gets me there always. I don't know about you, but those are three examples.

Corissa Saint Laurent

Yeah, it is it is that combination of faith in the universe or faith in God that I'm protected and that what's exactly meant to be and to happen is happening and and will happen. The more I surrender, the more is allowed to come in. So it's absolutely that. And it is what you're speaking of the courage to do the thing that you don't yet see, right? And living a spiritual life is you know, so many of my guests talk about this. It's the it's the breadcrumb trail. It is, oh, well, I go here because I see a breadcrumb or a glimmer or a whisper, whatever you want to call it. And and that calls me to this thing. I don't know yet what's on the other side of that thing. I don't know yet what that next step is, but I know that it's that little step that's next and meant for me. And then just going life in this way. But we're taught to have the five-year plan, the 10-year plan, and know what your life is gonna look like. And we're also fed this bill of goods that, like, oh, this is what your life should look like. This is a successful life, and and once you're there, you're gonna feel amazing. That's that top of the mountain thing, and that's all budget bullshit too, right? Because so many of us have gotten there, we achieve that, and then we're like, oh, wait a minute, is this all it there is? Like, is that really what life is? No, I don't think so.

Sue B. Zimmerman

Yeah, agree. And I love the unknown. I think that's just my entrepreneurial spirit. I love not knowing what's on the other side, and I feel like that's living life full on when you can conquer your fears and do it anyway.

Corissa Saint Laurent

Yeah, so many entrepreneurs. I mean, that is the common trait of an entrepreneur, right? And so it wouldn't surprise me that many entrepreneurs would also be spiritual in this way because there's so much trust that is put into whether you're putting it completely in yourself or you're putting it in yourself and connected to the whole of all that is, whatever it is, there's a deep amount of trust that you have to have as an entrepreneur to keep going, right?

Sue B. Zimmerman

To just oh, for sure, 100%.

Corissa Saint Laurent

Yeah. So you've had 18 businesses, incredible amount of experience has been gathered and gleaned from that, right? And now how do you see business fitting into your overall life? Like, how does business feed your life? And what what how do you see that as a piece or part of your whole?

Sue B. Zimmerman

Yeah, I mean, it it is an extension of who I am. I I feel like it's intertwined and interconnected because I can't imagine retiring. I can't imagine not doing something that is purposeful and meaningful. I have a lot of hobbies. Let me tell you, I do a lot of great things. Uh cooking, travel, different exercises, uh, routines. I do all the things I want to do. I don't feel like I never say when I'm done working, I'll do that, or like when I work less, I'll be able to do that. I fit that into my life just like I fit my business into my life. And that's for me the beautiful dance of being an entrepreneur and not being a part of this hustle culture where I truly do feel like I have this beautiful work-life balance that I've worked hard at. Balancing, because it's so easy to fall into the I just need to do one more thing. You know, when I get this thing done, I'll be able to do this thing. I I I'm not that person. I do all the things, like always.

Corissa Saint Laurent

So you're balancing all the things at once. And through that balance, it sounds like you're feeding all aspects of you that you get to feed the business, but you also get to feed your body, you feed your soul that way.

Sue B. Zimmerman

Yeah, I love that you said body and soul. Uh, you know, over the past year and a half, I have been much more cognizant of all aspects of health, listening to great podcasts and learning from experts, scientists, understanding what's happening at the cellular level when you do things a certain way, being so much more conscious about quality of water and quality of food and time-restrictive eating and what that does for you from a healthy longevity standpoint. Um, I think this happens again when you are in your prime and you you realize that half of your life has been lived. And how do you live, at least for me, a long, healthy life, not just a long life, but a healthy life. And so all of that comes into play throughout my day, for sure.

Corissa Saint Laurent

I just had this discussion with somebody. We were talking about how spirituality and a lot of the systems of spirituality and a lot of people who practice certain things are are always trying to leave their body. They're they're trying to ascend, right? And and and they they want to, you know, go out into the outer realms and spend all this time there that that's the goal. And I look at spirituality very different. For me, it is understanding that that's who we are, that we are this multidimensional being and that we are connected to all these different realms, but we are squarely living from this place, this body on this earth. And if you don't take care of that vessel, then you are gonna probably go back to the spiritual realm quicker because you know, this we're here. We're here in this body.

Sue B. Zimmerman

Yeah, you know, I want to share like my twins who live in Nevada City, California are wholeheartedly like embrace this space that you're alluding to and talking about. And I've learned so much from them about cadence of day, slowing down, pausing more, being in nature more. I mean, they literally are change makers that that just embody every aspect of the spirit and and value their temple more than anything, knowing that it's you know, this infinite time that we are here and a lot of what I a lot of how I've grown is through them, I have to share. Because anyone that's listening that's a parent, um, you know, uh my twins have very unconventional livelihoods compared to my oldest daughter. And I view them, as I said, as change makers because they really have found a way to show up as their true spirit every day.

Corissa Saint Laurent

That's beautiful. And our kids teach us so much. They are here to show us. I love that they are the ones that introduce you to your current vocation and the work that you do that you've become an expert in. It's like they they were the ones that led you down that path.

Sue B. Zimmerman

Yeah, and now they're they both have a very strong Instagram presence. And you know, we can, if if you want, we can list them here because I think people would really enjoy watching how they share on social from a place of true authenticity of self and spirit. But they asked me like nuanced things about wait, mom, in the DM, there's an order form. Are you kidding me? Like, I can check somebody out on the I'm like, yeah, and there's a video.

Corissa Saint Laurent

And so you keep them up to date on the all of the updates and the the business uses of it.

Sue B. Zimmerman

Yeah, they totally remind me of just being so present and specifically being in nature. Yeah.

Corissa Saint Laurent

Yes, beautiful, beautiful nature. It is such a gift for us to recognize that that's who we are too, that we're nature. And I think that's why nature being in it feels so good because it is us.

Sue B. Zimmerman

Oh man, yeah. So so true. I'm so blessed that I live so close to the woods here where I go regularly with my dog. And yeah, just touching, hearing, smelling, being.

Corissa Saint Laurent

Uh it's and you're on the Cape, so the water just surrounding you too.

Sue B. Zimmerman

Yeah, we the the ocean is is right up the street. And I did a cold plunge in December that was pretty wild. Polar polar plunge. You can see Martha's Vineyard from where I am on Cape Cod, which is really special too. Yeah, so I think, yeah, I'm definitely, you know, this the source of this, the sun too is such a powerful, the sun and the moon is such a are both so powerful to be so cognizant of every day and understand where they are and the energy from them. And that's been relatively new for me too. Like, you know, you just look up at the sky and you see the stars and you feel the sun, but it's like if you really feel that morning sun, first thing before any devices.

Corissa Saint Laurent

Yes, like that's the first thing you do is let it hit your face.

Sue B. Zimmerman

Yeah.

Corissa Saint Laurent

Oh, it's such an incredible simple practice, isn't it?

Sue B. Zimmerman

Oh, it is, it's the best.

Corissa Saint Laurent

Yeah. The eclipse, the last uh full solar eclipse that we had, I experienced it in its totality because I live in Arkansas now, and the path came through here. And I had never experienced being in the totality during a solar eclipse. And holy wow, talking about tapping into and understanding what this celestial body is, you still don't understand it, but it's like yeah, knowing it in that way to by you know having this happen in front in front of you, and then you're just in the midst of and in a witness of what it's like a miracle. When I open my eyes, because of course, you know, you can't look at it directly, so I had the glasses on to look at it, and as soon as it's fully occluded, you can take your glasses off. Yeah, and when I took them off, I just burst into tears. I didn't know. I mean, I I was excited for it, but I had no idea I was gonna have that reaction.

Sue B. Zimmerman

It just burst into tears, couldn't believe what I was seeing and experiencing and and and with and just can we just talk more about bursting into tears and how so many people like you know, the emotional intelligence of you know, crying just being an emotion, and it's it's not something you always need to comfort it, but just feel, and and that's so poignant because it had such an emotional charge in you. It sounds like something similar when I was in Iceland and we got to see the whole sky light up.

Corissa Saint Laurent

Oh, yeah.

Sue B. Zimmerman

It's beautiful. If you haven't been to Iceland, that's a definite bucket list item. It's beautiful there.

Corissa Saint Laurent

It is wild there, just like being on another planet, isn't it?

Sue B. Zimmerman

So true, so true, especially when you're walking on the ice. Yeah, you felt yeah, it was it was great. I would definitely go back there too. So special, Icelandic community. I spoke at a conference there, and be I instead of getting paid, I just said, Can you just give me like a private tour? They hooked me up for a whole day with my husband, and that was like next level because it was literally a private tour from the best group, and I'm like, this is perfect.

Corissa Saint Laurent

Being in these kinds of places, you have this appreciation, even a more deeper appreciation for the planet, the earth, the nature that we are part of when you get to see it and experience it, right? And I talk about travel a lot because if you stay in your one place where you've always been, and that's all you see, yes, you can go into depth in seeing in your space around you. You can go deep in that, and there's beauty in that. But being able to see the Aurora Borealis, like you're talking about, being able to go if you had to travel to go see the totality of the eclipse or to go see these glaciers and waterfalls and all of what exists here, it's awe-inspiring. It awakens that spirit within you to be like, holy crap, look look at what we're part of.

Sue B. Zimmerman

Yeah. And that's why to me, travel is the luxury of all luxuries. And we are constantly planning a trip. We go somewhere at least once a month and plan big trips one or two times a year. Because I I agree with you 100%. It's like when you can see things that your brain has never seen and experience food and people and culture and so much of life. To me, that is the biggest luxury in life is to travel the world.

Corissa Saint Laurent

Yeah. And it awakens that latent spirit. I think that can become deadened by people's routines and people's bubbles that they live in. It's like when you open up in that way, you open up within too. Not everybody. I mean, I, you know, certainly some people could probably travel around and never really go within and kind of drop into themselves. But I think it's hard not to when you're appreciating it so much and you're intentionally going to places to see and to experience. It's it's just it naturally happens. What is so you were in? Yeah. Go ahead. Oh, go ahead.

Sue B. Zimmerman

No, I was gonna ask you, where's your where's the place that you've been in this world that is most awe inspiring to you?

Corissa Saint Laurent

Oh my gosh. You know, you mentioned New Zealand earlier, and that was the first place I ever went by myself. I spent a year there, and wow it in North and South New Zealand?

Sue B. Zimmerman

What part?

Corissa Saint Laurent

Yeah, all over the country. I I was studying abroad there, so I was quote unquote studying. I had a very limited amount of exposure to my university, and it was all really mostly travel. I traveled that whole country and it changed my life, completely changed my world. I had my not my first very first, but of probably the most profound spiritual experience I've ever had on that island or on in that country. And so it naturally the natural beauty of New Zealand is is enough to visit there. And then you add in, I think, at least when I was there, the limited amount of people because you get to actually like move through the space and have your own experiences rather than being in these places where it's just like, ah, people everywhere. I was there a long time ago, so maybe you know that's changed now. And I know New Zealand's become more popular, but uh it just blew my blew my doors open.

Sue B. Zimmerman

Yeah, I would agree with everything that you said. You know, there's more, there's more sheep and cows and people. And what I remember most about New Zealand is there's no billboards, there's no wires above ground, and there's no cement. So the beauty is literally you're as if you're looking at paintings all day. Beautiful paintings, yeah, and yeah, we had two beautiful weeks there, north and south. I mean, it's not enough. My husband and I definitely want to go back. It's far away.

Corissa Saint Laurent

It is, it is so far, yeah. And and and when you have so many other places on your list, right? It can be a challenge too. I do want to go back there, take my husband and son and experience it with them and experience it again uh after so many years. What about you? Do you have a place that knocked your socks off?

Sue B. Zimmerman

You know, people ask us all the time. So I would definitely put New Zealand at the top of the list. But when we did this 73-day trip around the world, which was planned by an elite travel agent, and she just really hooked us up in the most amazing spots that we stayed at. We started in Bora Bora, which is absolutely beautiful as well. From there, we went to Thailand, and that was fascinating, but so crowded. Like I liked what you said. It's like so many people so crowded, but just so much to see. I really like Phuket a lot in Shang Mai. We we did travel all over two weeks there, and then we went to Nepal, we went to Masamai, you know, we did a safari. It was my second time on a safari and my husband's first. And if you have never done a safari, it's like that's a whole nother spiritual awakening for sure, because you are literally in the middle of watching life unfold and animals die, and sometimes lucky enough to watch some birth. And yeah, I mean, it was just nature on steroids when you're out there on a safari. But a place that we loved and we're going back is Patagonia, because we didn't spend enough time there.

Corissa Saint Laurent

Oh yeah. Yeah.

Sue B. Zimmerman

And that is beautiful. I mean, it it it it's so spectacular. Again, back to the spiritual. I I think it's such a the thing about hiking is other than taking photos on your phone, because that's what I did, if you're just feeling it and there and looking and you know, walking, you know, hiking for the day, half a day. We didn't we weren't able to do full day hikes because we didn't pack the right clothes on that trip for for what you need. Uh and I didn't want to really buy more clothes than we had for that 73-day trip. So that's why we're going back with three of our three daughters because I want them to experience it with us. Amazing. Are you doing that? So I know I said a lot, I said a lot.

Corissa Saint Laurent

Yeah. It's well, those are all incredible places that you know, I I agree with you that luxury is or that travel is the greatest luxury, but that luxury is not necessarily unattainable.

Sue B. Zimmerman

Um, and when we say luxury, it's it's something that you can do youth hostels and experience. I mean, I have friends that have. I mean, you can make it be whatever is in your budget. There's always ways, especially with all these points that you can get on your credit cards now.

Corissa Saint Laurent

Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. We were just in Europe for July and August. And, you know, a lot of that was points and using the right kind of credit card, honestly.

Sue B. Zimmerman

So yeah, there's a whole nother, that's a whole nother podcast.

unknown

Yeah.

Corissa Saint Laurent

It is. This has been so delightful. I'm really happy that we got to reconnect and that I got to learn about this other side of you and these other aspects of you. I'm so excited for our paths to cross more. Where can people find you? Uh elsewhere.

Sue B. Zimmerman

Yeah, well, first I want to acknowledge you and thank you for pulling all this out of me because I haven't had the opportunity to speak this candidly about this part of who I am at the core. So on the gram, the Instagram expert is our business account, but I'm gonna be bringing back Subie Zimmerman, my personal account, for the next chapter of what I'm gonna be moving into, which is gonna be exciting. And um, I'm gonna be speaking on multiple stages. So agents of change is great, and then I'm heading to in February got asked to keynote at a dentist conference. I mean, come on, guys, every industry needs to understand Instagram. So that's gonna be cool. That's in Chicago. But I um, if anyone's listening and you're curious, come into my DM and just say hi. Let me know what really resonated for you. And I do meetups whenever I travel. I get together with community members and take the time to do the in-person part of social, as we said, social media, which I think is special because you can talk about it on social and then have the opportunity to really embrace and be present with those that you want to keep nurturing and connecting with.

Corissa Saint Laurent

It's the most fun, isn't it? When you get to meet somebody that you've only like messaged with online or or had that online exchange with, and you get to meet them in person. It's super fun. Yes. Amazing. Well, I'm so happy that we've gotten to meet in person, have uh now get to stay in touch more. And I hope I get to see you, IRL, soon again. Sue, thank you so much again for joining us.

Sue B. Zimmerman

Oh, you're so welcome. It was a complete pleasure.

Corissa Saint Laurent

And thank you, beautiful listeners, for tuning in today. Before you leave, head on over to the everydaymystic.org website and check out the experiences that we have to deepen your practices, to connect you more fully to your higher self and to source consciousness, to enliven and activate your soul in your life so that you can live a life with greater meaning, higher purpose, and true joy. Theeverydaymystic.org is here for you. Go check it out. And if you enjoyed this episode and enjoy this podcast, please like, comment, and share with anybody that you think would enjoy it as well. We'll see you next time.