Career Pivots & Entrepreneurship with Dr. Adrian Fletcher | Your Trauma-Wise Career Guide Ep 10

Career Pivots & Entrepreneurship with Dr. Adrian Fletcher | Your Trauma-Wise Career Guide

What happens when the career path you've mastered no longer serves your highest purpose? How do you pivot from healing others one-on-one to creating systems that transform thousands of lives?

In this inspiring episode, I sit down with Dr. Adrian Fletcher—licensed psychologist, keynote speaker, and author with a master's from Columbia University. As a survivor of familial child trafficking with lived experience of dissociation and complex trauma, Dr. Fletcher transformed her deepest wounds into a mission extending far beyond traditional therapy.

After years providing trauma and PTSD care for veterans, Dr. Fletcher made a pivotal 2023 decision: she stopped seeing patients and created entrepreneurial ventures to scale her impact. Now with multiple businesses in speaking, consulting, continuing education, and a forthcoming institute, she's redefining healing through entrepreneurship.

Key insights:

• Navigating major career pivots while honoring trauma histories
• Why entrepreneurial paths aren't always linear—and that's okay
• Managing emotional capacity during multiple life changes
• Setting boundaries and fees as a trauma survivor entrepreneur
• Creating exit strategies from toxic work environments
• Building wealth as a tool for freedom and giving back

Dr. Fletcher shares her authentic journey—including the messy parts—from community mental health to a successful Scottsdale practice, to ultimately closing it for speaking and education ventures.

🔗 Dr. Adrian Fletcher: https://www.drfletch.com/ 🌟 FREE consultation: https://calendly.com/cyndibennettconsulting/30min 📱 Resilient Career Academy: https://www.cyndibennettconsulting.com/rcalearningcommunity

 #TraumaWiseCareer #CareerPivots #Entrepreneurship #TraumaSurvivors #DrAdrianFletcher 

When you're ready, here are 3 ways I can help you grow your career journey:

1. Free trauma-informed career development resources from my website! Visit https://www.cyndibennettconsulting.com for always up-to-date tips.
2. Ready to build a fulfilling career with trauma-informed support? Join The Resilient Career Academy Learning Community, where trauma survivors support each other, share resources, and develop career resilience in a safe, understanding environment
3. Ready for personalized trauma-informed career coaching? Explore my range of virtual coaching packages designed for different stages of your career journey. Visit my website to find the right support for where you are now. [Visit my website: https://www.cyndibennettconsulting.com/1-on-1-coaching]

DISCLOSURE: Some links I share might contain resources that you might find helpful. Whenever possible I use referral links, which means if you click any of the links in this video or description and make a purchase we may receive a small commission or other compensation at no cost to you.

Transcript

Career Pivots & Entrepreneurship with Dr. Adrian Fletcher | Your Trauma-Wise Career Guide Ep 10

Cyndi Bennett: [00:00:00] The desire for freedom and impact lives within all of us. But what happens when the career path you've mastered no longer serves your highest purpose? How do you pivot from healing others one-on-one to creating systems that transform thousands of lives at once?

Dr. Adrian Fletcher has walked this remarkable journey, a licensed psychologist, keynote speaker, and author with multiple advanced degrees, including a master's degree from Columbia University. She spent years providing direct mental health care, specializing in trauma and PTSD for veterans and complex cases.

But beneath her impressive clinical accomplishments lies an even more extraordinary story of resilience. A survivor of familial child trafficking, with lived experience of dissociation and complex trauma, Dr. Fletcher transformed her deepest wounds into a mission that extends far beyond traditional [00:01:00] therapy.

In 2023, after building a successful private practice in Scottsdale, she made a pivotal decision to stop seeing patients and instead create entrepreneurial ventures that could scale her impact. Now with multiple businesses focused on speaking, consulting, continuing education, and a forthcoming institute, she's redefining what it means to heal both herself and others through entrepreneurship.

I was delighted to sit down with Adrian to talk about how we can successfully navigate major career pivots while honoring our trauma histories, and why sometimes the most healing path forward isn't the one we initially imagined.

This is Your Trauma-Wise Career Guide.

Did you know that trauma impacts how we navigate our careers? But most career advice ignores this reality. Imagine feeling confident and safe at work while honoring your healing [00:02:00] journey.

Welcome to Your Trauma-Wise Career Guide, the podcast that reimagines, career development for trauma survivors. I'm your host, Cyndi Bennett, a trauma survivor, turned trauma-informed career coach and founder of the Resilient Career Academy. If you're navigating your career, while honoring your healing journey, you are in the right place.

It is an honor to have Dr. Adrian Fletcher on today's episode of Your Trauma Wise Career Guide. I first heard Adrian speak on Healing my Parts podcast, so shout out to them, which led me to binging on her podcast Braving the Way with Dr. Fletch. She has been a strong voice for those with childhood trauma and dissociation for many years.

And one thing I respect and admire about Adrian is her authenticity. She keeps it real. She is not afraid to show up messy. I can go on and on all day about the [00:03:00] amazing accomplishments she's had within the field of mental health, but today I want to talk to her about a career pivot from mental health to entrepreneurship.

So welcome Adrian.

Adrian Fletcher: Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here.

Cyndi Bennett: I'm so glad that you could join us today. Let's just start with an easy question. 

Adrian Fletcher: Alright. 

Cyndi Bennett: Let's just, I'm got to give you a little softball lob. Okay. What would you like my listeners to know about Dr. Adrian Fletcher, Adrienne and Co, or just Adrian, the entrepreneur. 

Adrian Fletcher: What do I want listeners to know? I don't know that anything is possible and I've been through a lot in my life and I'm still going through a lot, but I still think that it's important to have dreams and goals and to be patient with the journey, but to just always keep pushing forward. And that's something that I've always learned to do is just keep pushing forward no matter what. 

Cyndi Bennett: That's awesome. Thank you for sharing that. Now, you [00:04:00] started your career as a therapist, working for a multimillion dollar practice, treating trauma and sex addiction, but it wasn't very long after that when you decided to venture out into entrepreneurship, by starting your own private practice. So stepping into entrepreneurship for the first time can be both liberating and frightening. Can you share what motivated you to make this change? 

Adrian Fletcher: Yeah I want to backtrack a little bit and say I worked in community mental health in my twenties and then sought out to get my doctoral degree because I knew I wanted to take it a step further. A professor of mine recommended. Before I wanted to get a doctorate to spend some time in the field to get a sense of what were the different things I might want to work with or treat.

So I got a master's degree at Columbia University and then worked in community mental health for two years and then moved to Arizona to get a doctorate.

And during my doctoral training, I really focused on understanding PTSD and working [00:05:00] with veterans. And then I matched with a VA medical center in West Virginia. It was my first choice internship, and then I was there, but then I was going to remain a VA employee and seek out a P-T-S-D psychologist position, but I wanted to come back to Arizona and private practice seemed like a good place to start.

But I did not get the practice that I thought I was got to get, and it was rather devastating. And I think it's important to share this piece because I think many of us can start out with a plan, but things don't go according to plan, like the universe has other plans for you. So I thought I was got to be with this one private practice and it was like the dream practice I had built up in my mind. And I thought I had it secured. I did all the interviews and then it like fell through and I got referred to another practice. And I remember being like, no, in my mind, I had this all planned out. I knew exactly who I was got to work with and what I was got to learn.

[00:06:00] And I was devastated, because I had moved back to Arizona, we had rented out our house for the year while I was on internship, and I was like, I have no plan. And I was freaking out. I had no job lined up, no postdoc opportunity, and I was like, what am I got to do? And I had gotten referred by the person who declined me, referred me to this other practice, which became the catalyst to everything, my healing, my career.

Like what a beautiful place to land. But I had no idea. So I do the interview and he was like I do want to tell you that part of what we treat here on occasion, because sex addiction is different than sex offending. He said on occasion you may have to work with a sex offender. Will that be okay with you? And like looking back, if I was put in that same position now, I would say, no, absolutely not. That's not okay with me, and I'm not doing it, so this isn't the place for me. But I didn't have all the awareness that I have now. So I was like, that's fine.

So anyway, I start working at this group practice [00:07:00] as a postdoc, but really as a postdoc, you were like kind of bottom of the barrel, like it felt like I was back to being a practicum student again, or an intern. You had to really earn your rank in this practice.

And it was an incredible practice for a lot of reasons. It really showed you work ethic, dedication, but autonomy. And he was the first supervisor to ever say to me, "Adrian, you are going to make mistakes and that's okay, but I want to know about them and we want to correct them, take accountability, whatever it is."

The first supervisor ever to say to me, you're got to make mistakes, and it's okay. And what a gift that really was. But I learned everything I possibly could there, not just about treating trauma, but about business, and responsibility, no shows, late cancellations, how to build a practice. Because you were working for the practice for their intensive program, but you were also able to build your own outpatient practice, and [00:08:00] because you're in a group practice with 26 therapists, you all refer to each other, we build connections in the community.

But the work was very hard. It was back to back patients. But that's where I started my EMDR training, my equine training. I started as a postdoc there in 2012, and I left there in 2016. I still remained connected to them, would run groups or help out, do Milan reviews or case consultations, stuff like that.

And I decided I needed to start my own practice because now it was time for me to make my own rules. Because you don't, when you work for somebody else, especially in a private practice, you don't really have a choice of who or who you don't see. And in trauma informed care, I'm a firm believer that it has to be the right client-therapist match, and that you can't just take every client that calls.

It has to be a sacred connection of trust and safety built from the beginning. And I'm a trafficking survivor, so I like to say who, where and when. For anything I do in life. I do [00:09:00] not like anyone to have power and control over me. I just don't do well with authority. So I was like I guess I'm got to be my own boss.

And there were some things happening. Lots of times at group practices, there will be like an upheaval where it's like the people that have worked there for a long time are now ready to move on. And I would say some of the most successful therapists in Arizona have come out of this practice. Most of them have worked for the intensive program for a while, and then they learn all the things they need to learn about starting a business, and then they go out there and they start their own practices.

It's really quite amazing. The supervisor that I had has had over 100 mentees in the state of Arizona. He has received several awards for being like an amazing mentor in the state. And he is a good friend of mine and a colleague, and I'll tell you, it was working for him and learning all the behind the scenes of business that inspired me to give me the strength to say, I can do this, but I'm got to have to ask for help along the way.

Cyndi Bennett: Awesome. I love that. 

Adrian Fletcher: So that was a long answer. That was a long answer to your question. I tend to be for both. [00:10:00] 

Cyndi Bennett: No, I loved it. It's it talks about the journey, right? And we don't just automatically start out and we have everything we have to like, learn as we go. I'm a very big believer that the work develops the worker.

So like that whole part, what was it like to really, as a trauma survivor, a lot of times we struggle with asking for help. So what was that coming to the situation where you're stepping into something that's going to stretch you and yet, I'm not really quite sure, but I know I'm got to need some help. What was that like for you? 

Adrian Fletcher: I think, if I'm honest, I want to say that I came out of there with a little bit of arrogance, with " I got this, like whatever, I can do it better." And then you get in there and you start going through all the things you got to do from a business standpoint to get a business set up.

And then you got to check the ethics with psychology and you've got to match the business with the ethics and all the things.

Cyndi Bennett: So before we were so brilliantly [00:11:00] interrupted by power going out, you were telling me about all the things that you had to learn in the background when you were like first starting out as a business owner and having to learn all the backend business things. 

Adrian Fletcher: Yeah, and I'm still learning every day. There's so much to learn about business. I have a little bit of an obsession with it which is good.

Cyndi Bennett: A hundred percent. Yeah, it's the things you don't know what you don't know when you first start out, right? No. Was there anything that surprised you? 

Adrian Fletcher: Yeah I would say, I think so many people start out with thinking they have to know everything, but business is one of those things where you really don't know until you get in there, and you've really got to be okay with making mistakes, and getting confused and asking for help. And if you talk to most business owners, most people will say, "I don't really know what the fuck I'm doing, but I just keep showing up every day anyway, and asking for help or running it by a colleague or somebody with a similar business." It's all like baptism [00:12:00] by fire. 

Cyndi Bennett: A hundred percent. Yes, a hundred percent. And I know for, sometimes we get into that perfectionism where we're afraid to mess up, and we have to do it perfectly, and so it like, holds us back and it just keeps us stuck. 

Adrian Fletcher: For many of us who have survived extreme trauma there ha there was no room for mistakes or tears or anything like that. So, to make a mistake anywhere, can be paralyzing for some of us, and perfectionism is a real quality of those of us who have survived extreme trauma.

Attention to detail scanning, hypervigilance, so there's some of it that has really served me well in business, and then other traits, not so much, a lot of barriers to break through.

Cyndi Bennett: A Hundred percent. Yeah. As a recovering perfectionist, myself, I can speak to that. And even just doing this podcast. For a long time, I just swirled and swirled and I'm like, okay, " done is better than perfect. We've got to move on. And we'll just iterate from there. We have a, minimum viable product, and then we just [00:13:00] continue to move on. "

Adrian Fletcher: Yep. That's all we can really do. Yep. Always room for improvement,

Cyndi Bennett: Were there any surprises about you being your own boss? 

Adrian Fletcher: I could never go back to not being my own boss, which is a terrifying thing. So, I really. I just do better when I can seek out the guidance that I'm looking for versus having somebody over me or micromanage me. I do not handle it well. I really need full control. And, control is something, I think that comes from trauma and living in a chaotic environment, but I just have to be in control of me.

Cyndi Bennett: Yeah.

Adrian Fletcher: That it was really freeing but also scary because I'm responsible for me and now I'm remarried and I have a wife who's unwell and I'm responsible for her in terms of taking care of her financially. And, i'm good with that. I knew that, and she's my why, and also I won't fuck up [00:14:00] because she means so much to me.

So, I've always done this dance where I put an extreme amount of pressure on myself in some way, and I always end up in situations that it's like I am in a pressure cooker. 

Cyndi Bennett: That's normal. 

Adrian Fletcher: Yeah. And I was thinking the other day, I was like. Am I an adrenaline junkie? What is going on? Because I have to be fueled by things and my wife always says I'm an instant gratification person. And I love her, for her directness because no one else could tell me that I would defend that all day long. I'd come up for every reason why that is not true.

But I really thought about it the other day and I'm like, I really truly am. And sometimes that gets in my way when I'm trying to grow my next thing, because I just want it tomorrow. And my wife will say, "I get that you want these things like tomorrow and you're got to get there. It's just maybe might not happen as quick as you want it to."

Cyndi Bennett: Yeah. It's just like us when we go to therapy for the first time, right? Let's just get it all done really quick. The faster we go, the better it'll be, we can get it [00:15:00] over with right away. And it just never works out that way because it just ends up overwhelming our nervous system and then we were stopped. Yeah, totally.

Adrian Fletcher: Admittedly, I can't push as much as I used to. I had one part in my DID system of parts, that was primarily in the front for a really long time, who was very obsessive compulsive, perfectionistic, like a Martha Stewart could do all the house chores and run a business and push, push, push.

She was eventually got to kill me, just by doing that. And so now my life looks a lot different since that fusion. I'm a lot slower, and I'm more patient, and if that part hadn't fused, I don't really know. It's just been a really challenging journey to navigate business, and life with DID, and the passing of my mom, a divorce, a remarriage, and all of that impacts your business.

Anything you go through, but it also can be very expansive. When you get out of something that's not serving you, while being in that depressed state, knowing something's not serving you, is going to have a direct [00:16:00] impact on your business too. 

Cyndi Bennett: How do you manage the capacity related to all those things? You have a lot of change, and change is really difficult for trauma survivors overall, in general, but how do you manage your emotional capacity to handle all those things all at one time? 

Adrian Fletcher: Yeah, I just want to be forthcoming and honest and say it gets really fucking messy, and there are times I spiral out and I have, an episode of rage or a different part come forward. And, it doesn't always look real pretty. It's not like I just go cry, sit down and cry and get out some tears and get back to it. Like sometimes I'm spinning out for a couple of days with whatever's going on with my parts, because there's just a lot of emotions to hold space for. 

And not easy emotions. It's just not like a lot of joy and peace. Right now. It's finding ways to get more of that joy and peace while I navigate all of these different changes and routine. But I think, despite the fact that I do spin out [00:17:00] and spin out pretty bad, but it was a lot worse while I was going through my divorce.

And Mabel can really speak to that more. And I hope she does share her voice, because she really witnessed me like really unraveling. Even though I was the one who wanted a divorce, it was really bad for me, really hard for all of my parts. And I don't have a lot of memory of it.

So Mabel, was able to witness the pain that I was going through in terms of navigating the rug being pulled out from under me, regarding my home. So it's just been a lot.

When you're a business owner, you're holding space for your business and everything that comes with your business. And then when you're a survivor of trauma, you're holding space for yourself, and then whatever else you have going on, a loved one, kids, whatever you're navigating, and it all has a direct impact.

And I would say, to keep myself pretty grounded and regulated, I got to do the things. I call it, "doing the things," to make me less crazy, which are, I got to move my body, I've got to breathe, I've got to do my energy healing. I really have to keep up on [00:18:00] those things or I tank very fast. 

Cyndi Bennett: Yeah. 

Adrian Fletcher: And Mabel and I make jokes about it. What are we got to do today to be less crazy? And when we say crazy, we, we believe all the best people are crazy. But it's just, you have so much to manage, you've got to make space to do those regulating things or else everything just feels like it's on fire. 

Cyndi Bennett: So, I also dance in the entrepreneurial space on the side, but I do have a corporate gig, but it's so interesting to me that from a corporate perspective, they think, oh, we've got these wonderful benefits, we're got to send them to therapy. And they just launch you to therapy and they think everybody's got to be great, but they don't take into consideration the work involved in going to therapy and the post-therapy fallout, if you will. Like all the things that, it sucks your energy in doing all of those things. So like, how do you manage work, family, [00:19:00] therapy, entrepreneur on the side, like all of the things, major changes, right? 

Adrian Fletcher: Yeah. It's so much and everybody's got a different way of navigating all of those things. And entrepreneurship comes with a great deal of risk.

​And I'm a risk taker, which is why it's the perfect endeavor for me, but not everybody can take those risks or wants to. And entrepreneurship can happen for anybody. I think people have a vision of oh, if they're got to go into entrepreneurship, they've got to leave their nine to five, or whatever it is.

But there's so many cool ways to start being an entrepreneur without you having a massive business. It takes time to grow that business. It took me took three to three to five years to grow my private practice and I had it for seven and I still have the LLC because now we're turning that into something else.

And so I just think it's about, I really, truly believe when there's a will, there's a way. If you can ask for help and find the right resources. [00:20:00] There's a lot of free resources out there that people aren't aware of, and it's just about asking questions. If you're willing to ask questions, if you're willing to fail, if you're willing to make mistakes, then, I really believe anything is possible.

Entrepreneurship, I have to make work because I do not ever see me working for anyone else again. I can do contract work with people, where I make the rules and we agree to the terms and conditions. But like even after I got divorced, I was like, maybe I should like, bunker down for a while and like I sometimes fantasize about working at the grocery store or like a dispensary or something and just having a set routine and a schedule.

And one of my mentors is like, "Adrian, no. You stick with your entrepreneurship. You can't go work for anybody, you've got to do you, and just take your time. Take your time.

Cyndi Bennett: That's a hard part, right?

Adrian Fletcher: Yeah. You have to be patient.

Cyndi Bennett: Yeah, for sure. I'm in my third year, and I've given myself four years to make a go as I'm trying to transition out of corporate into entrepreneurship, my [00:21:00] retirement gig. But it's slow. And especially when you work with trauma survivors, it's even slower, because they have to also operate at the speed of their nervous system, and the whole people trusting you, takes a long time and a lot of effort on the front end. 

Adrian Fletcher: I have a mentor in recovery who always says Larry Rule, who always says slower is faster. And it's true. You can't fast track trauma, and you can't fast track business.

Sometimes businesses will take off and then people aren't prepared, because they don't have the structure. It's just learning about doing it at your own pace. I think in today's culture there's so much comparison, with Instagram and influencers and blah blah blah. I always say, I'm not here to influence anyone, I'd like to inspire people, and I'm just got to do me. And my Instagram may, might look pretty sometimes, it might look messy other times, my parts might take stuff down, they might throw stuff up. I don't really care. I'm not trying to be anybody but all of me. 

Cyndi Bennett: Yeah, I love that. 

Adrian Fletcher: I think too often people are like, "oh, I got to have what this person has, or I got to do that." I [00:22:00] grew up on the east coast where everything was a freaking image. It was like, who's got what house and who's driving what car. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, organized crime is happening and nobody is paying attention.

So I come at a different view of the world too. There's a lot of really messed up things that happen behind the scenes, and so a lot of those smoke and mirror images, you have to be mindful, that people aren't always putting out the truth.

Cyndi Bennett: We, as trauma survivors, we can sniff that out a mile away, right? I've gone through multiple trainings, gone through trainings on how to set up membership, how to do launches, how to do online courses and such, and I've discovered that, a lot of that stuff doesn't work for me as a trauma survivor. It doesn't feel authentic to who I am. And so, not doing those things and deciding, to not do the things that they tell you about because it doesn't fit into who I am and my nervous system, right? And that may slow down the growth, but it [00:23:00] also represents more authentically who I am.

Adrian Fletcher: One would argue, is it really slowing down the growth or is it just taking the time to find the people who are more aligned for the path? 

Cyndi Bennett: I think that's really good point. Really good point. Yeah.

Adrian Fletcher: Because if you push for the wrong things and you do things that are out of alignment, you're got to attract consumers or people that are not aligned with your actual soul and value.

And so that's where I'm like. You know what I mean? I had this struggle where I recently completed a public speaking coaching program. Really intense. Really intense. want to I don't know the industry of public speaking I do now, because I just invested quite a bit of my time, energy, and money into this program. And then, I've signed up for additional ones and it's been life changing.

Because I believe if you invest in yourself, whether that's courses, podcasts, books, getting to know mentors, connecting with community resources, if you invest in yourself, you're expanding yourself and your window of opportunity.

And I remember saying to Mabel, "I don't know if I want to invest in this right now." I do better [00:24:00] when I can learn what I don't know, because I struggle when I don't know something. So I have this vision of what I'm supposed to be out there doing, but I'm like, but I don't know the in between.

I don't know what I'm supposed to do, or who I'm supposed to talk to between here and here. And so we broke it down, like why it would make sense for me to do this. And she was like super supportive of it, and she's like, "every time you go to a workshop, every time you go to a class, every time you meet with your coach, like you come back like really energized, inspired, and that creativity is there and you know what your next steps are.

The other thing about entrepreneurship or even work in general is you've got to have somebody in your life that's a cheerleader for you. Whether that's a partner or a good friend. Having Mabel in my life has been life changing, because if you're in the wrong partnership or you're in the wrong community of people who are not supportive or encouraging of you, you're got to sink.

And it doesn't mean that they always have to affirm you, because what I love and respect about my wife is that she can tell me the constructive [00:25:00] feedback that I need to be better out in the world. 

So I tend to have a lot of very aggressive, masculine energy. That doesn't really make people feel safe, but who's the first person to lovingly tell me, in a loving way, " you might want to tone that down a little bit." Like I can hear that from Mabel, because she means everything to me, and I respect her, and I would do anything for her, but also like her honesty has changed my life.

Now, it doesn't always sit well. I have to like, filter through all that and have all their defensive reactions and want to defend it, and then we're like, "she's right."

But in terms of having a healthy business, if you're in partnership, your partnership really needs to be healthy in order for your business to thrive. I believe that. I'm seeing monumental changes in growth in me by being with a partner who is supportive, loving, but also can call me out on my shit, and also wants me to be healthy.

She doesn't want me up until one o'clock in the morning working on a business. And most entrepreneurs would say you got to put in all the things. I believe you have [00:26:00] to put in a certain amount of hours, yes. And you need to be diligent and consistent with the time that you're putting in.

But I have a new perspective now around health and business. And like that funny Instagram reel with one of the wives who's my wife's making me take vitamins and drink water and shit. That's my relationship now, is like I'm getting on the health track. And that's only got to further help my business and my mindset because the mission that I'm setting out to do now is huge, and I need to be able to have the energy and the stamina to withstand that. And right now, I'm 43 and I need to make some health changes so that I can keep thriving. 

Cyndi Bennett: Yeah. I want to hear all about what you have going on now want to you just got me curious.

Adrian Fletcher: Yeah it's been a journey. I did the private practice thing and then I had that massive parts fusion. And people are like, "oh my God, you can't like, stop seeing patients," and blah, blah, blah. Okay I took time to wind down my practice and I stopped seeing patients in December of 23, and I will never sit with another patient again.

It is not what I want to do with my [00:27:00] life anymore. I have spent 23 years working in mental health. I have helped so many people. It has been an honor, it has been a journey, and I'm tired. I am tired of holding space for the dark. I want to inspire other people to make those career pivots too.

So then, I stepped out into the advocacy space of just doing articles and my mentorship program, which I absolutely love, and doing the poetry thing. And I wanted to do merchandise, but I had a vendor thing fall through, and then I blew up my life, as Taylor Swift would say, "I'd rather burn my whole life down than spend one more second listening to all this bitching and moaning." That's where I was, and I was like, I'm burning it all down and I'm starting anew.

Advocacy was really tough. Being on the front lines of calling people out, and the researchers and the stigma, and Hollywood and this and that. I like helping other people with dissociative identity disorder. I feel like I'm good at that from a mentorship perspective and doing my art stuff and my writing stuff.

That's not the crux of where I want to take a business, that's [00:28:00] more like a hobby for me. I love coaching other people with DID and helping in that way and like writing articles from time to time, but I also didn't want to keep exposing myself and being on the front lines of letting my parts show up.

My parts have given so much to the community over the last few years, and it's taken a toll on me, and it just wasn't serving my soul. So the parts and I had a meeting, and I needed all that in the beginning, the online community, connecting with others, sharing my story, that was really healing for me, it was helpful to others.

And then I was like, "okay, it's getting overwhelming now, it's triggering, it's not really in my best highest good to expose myself in this way anymore. I can do private interviews. I can contribute to articles, if I feel like they have the right agenda. I can maybe help television and film with some mental health expert stuff, but in terms of where I'm going for me and my business, I'm like, okay, I wasn't sure where I was got to go. And in fact, last year when I stopped seeing patients, I said to Mabel, " I don't really know what I'm got to do. Like I don't want to work with patients anymore, because [00:29:00] the part that was in the front was the primo, amazing, awesome therapist, practice manager, incredible, not me, so can't do that.

And I know it sounds weird to people. People are like, oh, you had a part fuse, she's still in you. Nope. Sorry to let you all know she's not, and I couldn't be that part if I wanted to anymore. She was a fabulous therapist, can't do it.

So, I was like, what am I got to do? And I've always felt the call to speak and it comes up into all my healing things. I also love to teach. I love consulting. I love helping practices, individual cases, group cases. Okay? And I also hate the word case, so I don't even know why I'm using it. But human helping therapists help their human clients navigate stuff. But I was still lost sitting with, what am I got to do? 

Cyndi Bennett: Because you have so many things you can do, you're so talented. 

Adrian Fletcher: I appreciate that. And I'm glad that other people can see that. Mabel says that too, because I always doubt myself. And she says, " do you know who you are?" And I'm like, not really. Like I don't see what other people can see in [00:30:00] me.

And one of my professors in graduate schools said to me, "Adrian, my biggest wish for you is that you come to see yourself, how everyone else sees you."

But lately, I don't know how everybody else sees me. I blew up my life, I left a man, I married a woman, I closed a practice. It looks like my life is falling apart when really it's coming together. 

Cyndi Bennett: Yeah. Not unusual though, right? One of the stages of my whole program is around getting to know yourself. Because as trauma survivors, safety is the priority. So we don't go through the normal development cycle of, our identity formation, right?

And so we have to have a safe space where we can get to know each other. And then when you have DID, it's even more complicated because your identity is split however many ways, right? 

Adrian Fletcher: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I have parts that want to do like a mental health clothing line, and I'm like, can we get to that? That's not the priority right now.

So I was sitting with what am I got to do? Blah, blah, blah. And then I remembered somebody wanted to connect me with somebody else and I was like, ah, it's been about a year and a half, I [00:31:00] guess I'll reach out and bridge that connection. This person also speaks, and they referred me to my now coach.

I met with this person, joined her program, but now everything has clicked. Like I've practiced my messaging. I'm like going on a business trip next month for a four and a half day speaking thing.

But then every time I try to move away from anything DID related, and it's not because I don't want to help, it's just because I'm like, when is my time up there? Like how much impact do I make or what am I supposed to do?

And I am a big believer of honoring the call, and listening to the call, and I know it sounds so woo to some people, but it's just like I feel like sometimes I'm not even in control of my own journey, and I'm just being guided to who I'm supposed to help or what I'm supposed to do.

And it's Adrian, you're supposed to also teach, like you're not just supposed to help the community, but now you're supposed to help the therapist. Okay, what am I got to do to help the therapist? You need to teach and educate from your lived and your professional experience, you need to go out and educate.

Okay, how am I got to do that? [00:32:00] And so I just listen to the downloads and it's oh, you're supposed to actually do continuing education stuff. Alright, so I'll do that. Okay. Stepping into that. Now I'm supposed to speak, but I'm supposed to share my story, not just about DID, but all the things I've ever been through and how that relates to trauma and business and money and your sense of worth and all that.

You're got to start talking to people about money and business. Great. How do I do that? I have no idea. So I'm like, so now what I'm doing, is I'm formulating my very own institute that will provide education, and that's one piece, and then the other piece is growing the public speaking career, but serving so many different communities, entrepreneurs, women in business, mental health, and so I'm got to combine the two, so I'll basically have three businesses. So I'll have the institute, I'll have my speaking and consulting, and then I'm got to launch a third business with my wife when she's well enough, that is separate from all of that, and it has to do with women, loving [00:33:00] women. And I hope to be a serial entrepreneur by the time I'm 55, that's my goal.

Cyndi Bennett: That's awesome. That's awesome.

Adrian Fletcher: To grow all three and have them be profitable and successful and I think that's a good, that's a good timeline. And then somewhere in there I want to get more serious about investing and property ownership. So, I have so many big dreams and I never know exactly what next step to take, but I just listen, and I do a lot of mindfulness and a lot of breath work.

And again, I want to talk about risk management. I'm a risk taker. So I have student loans, I don't have shame about that, that's how I got myself an education and I carry credit card debt from time to time and that's how I've learned to live. And it's not always the smartest way to do things, but, in order to make money, you got to spend money and you've got to invest in different things. So whether that's business loans, carrying a balance to move the needle here. I'm a risk taker. My family was into all kinds of crazy shit, and so I'm sure it, to me, the risk doesn't seem [00:34:00] as risky as to some people. 

Cyndi Bennett: That's, for you, that's normal, right? So that's your normal, right? That's your definition of normal, right? So hundred percent.

Adrian Fletcher: But I just like to be transparent want to I don't want to put off the image of things are perfect and I have no student loans and this and that. No. I'm constantly, pulling this to pull here and building the new and never knowing where it's. But trusting that if I've figured out the 43 years before me, then I'll figure out the 43 years I got left. 

Cyndi Bennett: Yeah, I love that. I love that. Can I get a go back card to the part you're talking about being your own boss, and I have a lot of people, that are my followers who are, who struggle so much in the workplace, struggle in corporate, and want to do their own thing or cannot function in the workplace, right, want to start their own business, they don't know what they want to do or how they're got to do it. [00:35:00] Can you give them some kind of nugget of wisdom on what they should do to take care of them and to make that first start, that first step. 

Adrian Fletcher: Yeah. You're actually bringing me back to, somebody that I helped work through a career issue. There are so many toxic work environments and most of the time people who have survived trauma, end up in work environments that mirror their family of origin. And it's horrific. Because you just feel constantly triggered, beaten down. You got transference reactions happening, where maybe your boss is speaking to you in a way that your mom or dad did, and it's a mess. But I understand that not everybody can just up and quit their job.

You need a plan. And you almost have to think about it like a domestic violence plan, really. If you know you're in a toxic work environment, then you need to be making some preparation to keep yourself emotionally safe and maybe have an exit strategy or plan. 

Because there's always going to [00:36:00] be a conflict between staying and going and only you are the one who can figure that out, like when it makes sense. Because there are all different things, right, benefits, and when people have children, and healthcare, and you can't just always just up and quit a job.

But what you can do is start with basic self-care practices at home, utilizing your paid time off for mental health days, making sure your boundaries are as tight as they can be with you don't give more or less. Sometimes trauma survivors have a tendency to overgive and now they're over giving in a toxic environment, so sometimes you have to pull that back and just do what you're asked to do and stop going above and beyond, if you're not being compensated for it, respected for it, appreciated for it, right?

You don't want to drag yourself down. The company might already be dragging you down, you don't need to contribute to it, so you got to get clear on your boundaries, get some help if there's EAP available or some type of therapy, scheduling [00:37:00] vacation, even if it's a one day, you take a Friday or a Monday to extend your weekend.

Yeah, it's got to be boundaries and consistency in the self-care at home that can keep people afloat, and having support because people get real depressed. People get real suicidal sometimes with their toxic work environments, and nothing is worth that.

I remember I was with somebody who was really getting verbally abused and, I said, I understand that you are scared to walk away without something lined up, but if you have the resources to do it, then it's probably in your best interest to quit and carry the angst, and that person chose to do that to take care of themselves and it worked out okay. 

Especially if you've got a good work history and there's stuff available on the market. But again, everybody's situation is different, so I'm not just suggesting up and leave your job, but if you have some resources and you don't have kids to worry about and stuff like that, sometimes you got to take the risk.

Cyndi Bennett: Also, the best time to find a job is when you have a job, right? Because you [00:38:00] can be doing that. How can you, to your point, make those plans in process at the same time that you're tolerating.

Adrian Fletcher: You can also do 30, 60, 90 day, like most trauma survivors need some kind of escape or exit strategy. So even if you're like, okay, I feel this way right now, I'm got to check in and see how I feel in 30 days, in 60 days and 90 days, and if in 90 days I'm still feeling the same, maybe it's now time to start looking at what opportunities are out there. Maybe it's putting feelers out there and sending a couple applications, doing interviews and I think there's steps to take before just up and exiting.

Unfortunately, if you don't take any steps knowing you're in a toxic environment, then you will get sick and likely be out of work anyway, so you have to figure out that balance. 

Cyndi Bennett: So I work for a rather large global corporation and I found myself in a group that, let me just say they weren't my people, okay. But not every part of [00:39:00] where I work is like that, so like even changing or shifting your roles to a different group within the same company could be different, could be challenge or could suit you better. Like keeping your mind open to opportunities that might be outside of what your present experience is. 

Adrian Fletcher: Yeah, always being open to opportunities. Even taking like little career assessments online and never putting yourself in just one box because there's so many different things out there.

Like even with psychology. It's just, I don't have to just do patient care. If I wanted to go back to a regular nine to five, there's a bunch of different things I could do, under some umbrella of psychology. But the other thing I want to encourage people to do is if you're interested in starting a business, I just went to a workshop for women in business and it was basically some attorneys there to help with like different startup and setup type things. But what they were saying is, there's no perfect time to start a business. Never. And you sometimes just got to do it. And you can go through the small [00:40:00] business administration to learn like the foundations of starting a business.

And I would tell people like that are in the nine to five corporate world already, but have an idea, just play around with the idea. Get the LLC set up, get a business bank account, start looking at what you might want to do, be creative, have fun, do trial and error. It doesn't have to be like this massive company the minute you're out of the gate. If you would've asked me five years ago what I would be doing now, I wouldn't have given you the same.

It's constantly changing and you've got to be willing to let yourself, change and ebb and flow. And sometimes small businesses can start out as hobbies and then turn into huge companies. 

Cyndi Bennett: Yeah, a hundred percent. So I'm curious, I know for myself, as a fledgling entrepreneur, there have been some things related to my trauma that I've had to work through related to building the business.

For example just even starting a blog and having a voice was a challenge, right? And [00:41:00] then to show up on social media and be seen, didn't feel safe for me at first. And there's a lot, there are a lot of trolls out there, so then it just ratchets up, that safety piece for you.

So what kind of things especially as a trafficking survivor, what kind of things have you struggled with from a business perspective of maybe even charging people for your services or understanding the value that you bring to people?

Adrian Fletcher: Yeah. I think somewhere along the lines, I learned that if you don't respect yourself, then you can't expect anybody else to. And somebody used a great analogy with if you need to hire an attorney, do you think that attorney is really, thinking about every pen?

It's no, these are the set fees, here's the hourly fee, here's the retainer. If you want to hire me, this is what I can do. It is no different if you are a therapist, if you are a coach, it whatever business you are running, you establish your fee. And you hold to it, you can always make exceptions, like having [00:42:00] sliding scale options. At any one time, I'd have three sliding scale options in my practice, meaning I would see three sliding scale clients at a time, and I would discount veterans, because I had that specialty and a lot of veterans won't seek outpatient care. So you can always find a way to work within your value system and no one gets to decide for you what you choose to offer. You have to be firm in your fees and you should hold your no-show and your late cancellation policies because that's just doing good business.

And actually there's a lot of research that shows a no-show in the cancellation boundary and policy, if as long as it is delivered in a clear and compassionate way from the beginning. It helps create safety for your clients. Your clients know what to expect. I had the same practice boundaries and policy and procedures for all clients that I saw, because you don't treat somebody different than the other.

And I think I learned that early on working for a big practice. And when you're an entrepreneur and you're on your own, if you do not get paid, then you do not take care of yourself. So it is what it is. Your fees are your [00:43:00] fees. A lot of people like to talk crap about entrepreneurs and the fees that they set, those are their fees.

If you don't like their fees, you don't have to work with them and you can find somebody within your fee structure. This one is a hard line in the sand for me, especially with, I've been approached with opportunities that wanted all my intellectual property, and they wanted me to build them this fabulous thing and then they weren't got to pay me unless it something this happened. I was like, no. My attorney and I were like, no, these are Dr. Fletcher's fees, you either agree to the terms and conditions of her fees or she will not work with you, and that was for a bigger television thing or whatever.

But when it would come to my practice, you start out market rate. They usually tell you whatever field or industry you're in if you're just starting out, you set your fee at about the market rate and you can go 10% lower because you're new and you're getting started, and then you can move your way up. You should always stay within the market rate of your industry.

And then if you're exceptional, then you can charge more for your time. And as my coach always says, [00:44:00] want to we, there's many doctors of us in a cohort for speaking, she was like, all of you have sacrificed your time, energy, and money into your education, you deserve to be paid what you're worth with what you set your fees to be. And then she teaches us how to structure our fees and public speaking, and how to scale the business. Because having a business is one thing, having a scalable business is another. 

So the money piece in terms of being, setting the fee, I didn't really have an issue with, because I had already worked for a business and that was just the standard. And you're just clear, and kind, and compassionate in the beginning and transparent about what your fees are.

And I also worked in a different area. I have worked with the underserved, to the very wealthy, to celebrity, high profile clients. All humans have the same issues, regardless of their numbers of dollars. Okay. They all come in with similar presenting issues no matter where they are on that socioeconomic scale.

But in terms of a business and a cash pay practice, I was in Scottsdale, which makes that easier to do because Scottsdale has the wealth and the [00:45:00] clientele to support the small businesses who charge those fees. The market rate in Scottsdale is got to be different than the market rate in a rural community.

As long as you're within your, whatever that is, socioeconomic area you'd set your business fees accordingly, to where that is. Yeah. But you should always set your fee for you. You're always got to have people judging you for it, and unless people are entrepreneurs, they don't really get it. 

Cyndi Bennett: Yeah. And I know in my work, my peers are coaches, and it's awesome because they have this heart to help people, and I love that about them, but also the worker's worthy of their hire, right? And you have to be able to like, make a living if you're going to do that, right?

And so you got to be able to know the value. It's not, it's the value that you bring to people, right? They're paying for [00:46:00] that value, the transformation. 

Adrian Fletcher: Yes. Yeah. And the research actually shows that when people have to contribute to paying something, that they are more motivated for the change that they're seeking. So whether that's coaching or therapy, and I'm a firm believer that you help where you can.

My current coach is a big believer that you build wealth and then you give back. So she's developed centers for survivors and things like that out of the money that she's made, she's now being able to give back to the community in a bigger way. Wealth is freedom. Most people don't get that. Yeah. You need money to take care of yourself. You need money to go to therapy. And unfortunately, I get it, some people are disabled and they don't have the opportunity that some other people have, but hopefully the people that are building their enterprises are giving back in some way. I certainly know that's my goal.

I was telling my aunt, that one day I want to own a laundromat, because there known to be awesome businesses to own. You wouldn't think so, but they'd make a lot of money and that [00:47:00] I wanted to do some kind of scholarship thing for single parents raising kids to go to college, because every time I go to the laundromat to wash like a huge blanket or something that I can't do at home, I always look around and just pay attention to the people and listen to their stories. I just told my aunt that I felt like inspired, like I feel like single parents really struggling and want to put their children through college could benefit from some kind of scholarship fund. So I'm always thinking about, yes, what is the wealth I want to build for my wife and I, so that we can have a really good life and take care of ourselves, because two people with DID require a lot of care, and we will for the remainder of our life. How do I build enough wealth to sustain the two of us, but then go even bigger and be able to give back in a more global way financially. Right now I serve with my voice, but I'd like to be able to give back in a bigger way financially.

Cyndi Bennett: Yeah. I love that. Have you had any challenges with networking and connecting with people. For [00:48:00] me, in particular, I have very limited capacity for like external. And I know I need to do it, it's not that I don't know I need to do it. I know all the things I should be doing, but I don't always do those because I don't have the emotional energy to do them.

Adrian Fletcher: Yeah. That's a good, let me think about that for a second. I wanted to backtrack too, to the money thing, and just say, as a survivor of trafficking, where I get stuck with the money stuff and the blockages I'm still working through are that it's okay for me to make a lot of money, and want to make a lot of money to help my wife and I. And nobody's got to make me feel guilty about that. So I'm still working on those money blocks and my own energy healing, the deserving piece. And I want to show my wife that she's deserving as well. As two trauma survivors, we both struggle with that. So that's the money piece. I think trauma survivors need to be working on their relationship with money. Because money is just money, it's a tool. It's a vehicle. 

That's all it is, but it's everything tied to money that we've been [00:49:00] told or not told, or with our trauma histories that need to be addressed in therapy. So I'll put that in the box over there.

In terms of networking, it is my favorite thing to do to talk to people. I love to talk to people one-on-one. Where I'm not so great is maintaining the existing relationships that I have in my life from a personal perspective. I'm going through a lot right now, and I get real guarded and real defensive around where me and my wife are right now, and protecting that energetic space, because there's a lot of judgment about me blowing up my whole life and, but for the better. There's so much judgment around me right now that I have every wall up in my personal life.

Unless people are on board with, I'm cheering Adrian and Mabel on, they don't get a seat at my table right now. That's how protective I am, because Mabel is really unwell, and I'm building, this whole next chapter. And sometimes when you're doing that, you need to cocoon in, and you don't have a lot of capacity for anything else.

But in terms of networking, I [00:50:00] love meeting people one-on-one, and I'll meet with them for 20 or 30 minutes. I always think, I want to do this next thing, who do I know in my existing network that can help me do this? 

Or I set a challenge for myself, every time I go to an event my coach is hosting, or if we have a business meeting, I'm looking at who's in that circle that inspires me, that I can reach out to and have a meeting with. And I try to connect with one or two people a week, and I talk about what I'm doing in my next chapter, that I want to consult, that I'm building an institute, that I want to speak, and here's what I want to speak on. And we all help each other, and encourage each other. So that's how I do my networking. I think the biggest compliment my former mentor ever gave me was like, " you have such incredible connections and relationships with people because you're genuine. You don't fluff them, they don't fluff you. You're just genuine, and you've learned to weed out, so to speak, the negative energy. I've gotten involved with circles that I look back on now and I'm like, Really? I didn't see it? And I have a [00:51:00] good friend from graduate school who was like, I want to know what parts of you fell for this, because no adult part of you would've fallen for that. And I was like, I could see it all, what were you doing hanging out with those people, and you need good friends like that in your life too.

But when you don't have a lot of capacity, you just think about what you do have capacity for. There are some weeks I schedule no meetings want to I'm like, you know what, it's a healing week for me. I need to do my body work, my breath work, and like maybe do some writing, but like I don't want to connect with any people this week. 

I'm also never afraid to reschedule a meeting. And so life lately, with getting Mabel to medical appointments, and dealing with my own struggles in the morning, if I wake up and I have an important meeting that day, and I'm like, I can't give this a hundred percent today. Then I, lovingly, reach out and say, I need to reschedule, which I would've never done 10 years ago. I'd be like, I got to push through, I got to do it. And now I'm like no, I want my best self to show up. So sometimes [00:52:00] I have to reschedule a meeting, and sometimes I'm late. And I used to be 15 minutes early all the time, but life is just life right now. And so I lovingly apologize, I'm running late or like I said to you, we're got to record this morning, but I need a coffee, so I got to do that.

Cyndi Bennett: Totally support the coffee thing. 

Adrian Fletcher: You just learn what is got to make me feel all right to step into my day? What's my intention for the day? And being with Mabel, I know I bring her up a lot, she's like my rock, I've really learned to slow down, to be more patient and not to rush. She was like you think you're multitasking, but you're really not like. It's fruitless effort when you're like in a constant ah, state of frenzy. 

Cyndi Bennett: Yeah, that happens to me a lot where busyness is absolutely one of my top coping strategies. So I, especially, got lots of parts that are really busy, and I can outwork all my friends, because I got a lot of cooperation going on. It is really just slowing [00:53:00] down, creating an order, prioritizing where am I got to spend the capacity, because we only all have a hundred percent of capacity. How are we going to use it? But the slowing down can sometimes seem torturous.

Adrian Fletcher: Oh, it's, it can be unbearable.

Cyndi Bennett: Oh my goodness. So slow. And it's hard when you're used to just going 800 miles an hour, to slow it down and go.

Adrian Fletcher: What I really realized was slowing down had me sit with feelings, and I don't do very well with feelings. So in this chapter, I've been really like trying to honor and make space for all of my feelings, whether that's sadness or grief or frustration or anger, and finding healthy outlets for it, because if I don't, then I just lose it. Who wouldn't? Everyone unravels. It's just that nobody talks about, 

Cyndi Bennett: If you wouldn't mind me going back, having another go back [00:54:00] card, because I've heard you mention multiple times about having mentors, and it sounds like you've may have had multiple mentors in your journey.

So I'm curious, can you talk a little bit about having a trauma-informed mentors and how important that is to your journey, your career journey in particular, in helping you move through where you want to go. 

Adrian Fletcher: Yeah. My whole life, like my parents really weren't safe. My mom really modeled like work ethic and the importance of working to take care of yourself, and never allow yourself to be dependent on anyone. Some people disagree with that. It is what it is.

But I always looked to others, like I looked up to my sister for a while, and then I looked up to a teacher and I asked questions. And then, you know I have former supervisors that I've built really good connections with, or people at networking events, and it depends who I'm feeling inspired by.

And it's usually people who have been through some serious shit and then created something amazing [00:55:00] out of that. Those are the people I like to spend time with. How did you get to where you are, after healing all of this stuff?

And the mentor that I have that I speak about often, his name is Marcus, Dr. Marcus Earl, out of PCS in Scottsdale. He's been on my journey since 2012, and we've butted heads. I see him for consultation, i'll just pop on his calendar. Sometimes I talk about what's going on personally, and how that's impacting me, and sometimes I'm talking business strategy. And he's great. He's been a wise advisor on my journey and I've had to work through lots of attachment shit. There's no daddy issues there.

Sometimes people think when women have a male mentor, it's like daddy stuff. I can talk to him about stuff that happened to me with my dad, and the parts recently wrote a poem about him that's going in the next poetry book, but people who inspire me, who are willing to take accountability, and be real raw, and honest with me, those are the people that I respect.

And I've had some not so good mentors who, alluded to like being like fluff out in the world, and not being able to hold their [00:56:00] integrity. They would talk a lot of talk but not hold the integrity behind the scenes. And I lose respect for those people very quickly, but that doesn't mean that I didn't learn something from that person at the time that they served me as a mentor. 

Cyndi Bennett: I love that. I love that. 

Adrian Fletcher: And it's not always former bosses or coaches that have been my mentor. I called a cousin when I was getting divorced and I was like, I want to run this financial thing by you. And he was like, "oh yeah, you're doing fine. You're on the right track. Why are you second guessing yourself? You're good." Just other people in my world that I look up to that I can run certain things by, sometimes it's a business thing, sometimes if it's a life thing, sometimes it's a financial thing, but I always come back to center in what does Adrian need to do for Adrian? 

And now, being married to Mabel, like I talk to Mabel before I make a big decision and just say, I'm thinking about this, what do you feel about that, which I never would've done in my last relationship. Adrian was out for Adrian. But it's such a sacred relationship and partnership. Like we're one. And some people might call that codependent, I call that like we are two [00:57:00] people who have been through the extremist of traumas, and we want to be able to really love and respect each other and have our voices and opinions heard.

We're looking at a new place to live, want to we need to get her out of the altitude for her health, and the first place I liked, but I could tell, I said, "if you are not excited, and you don't feel well, then we're not doing it, because we've both got to feel really supported, loved and safe." And so learning how to navigate that with a partner.

She's going to take my business to new heights, she's not even aware of, but just by being in my life, and being my person, I really feel like I am capable to do just about anything, and that's the kind of people you need in your life, whether that's a mentor or a partner.

Cyndi Bennett: I love that. I love that kind of support. I know for a lot of my folks, I know for me, I didn't have really a mentor, because I didn't really let anybody in, right? So being able to open up and to say, okay, that person's safe enough, I would be happy to talk to them, or to your point, you [00:58:00] said to someone who has had that lived experience and can understand where I'm coming from, because where I'm headed, the barriers will probably be related to my past trauma.

Adrian Fletcher: And working through the barriers and being aware of them is the first step, just the awareness, and then the commitment to work them through. So yeah, I think mentors can sometimes be people hosting podcasts and things. It's not always it's not always people right away. 

Cyndi Bennett: Alright, we have gotten to our time together and I know you've got somewhere that you need to go, that's super, super important. So is there anything else that you'd like to say, something maybe we missed, or that you think would be helpful for our folks when it talks about career pivots?

Adrian Fletcher: No, I think it's just that, just know that you got to do you, and there's always a risk involved, no matter what. Whether you stay in a job, leave a job, start a business, close a business, there's always risk involved. But with some risk comes great reward, but you got to be willing to be persistent and [00:59:00] consistent and stick with it and tune out all the negative noise from friends, family, other people. You, at your core, have to believe in yourself and stick with those who believe in you, and I truly believe that anything is possible, you just have to be willing to do the work. 

Cyndi Bennett: Awesome. Thank you so much for your time. I appreciate you so much, and I wish you the best.

Adrian Fletcher: Thanks so much for having me. I appreciate it. 

Cyndi Bennett: All right. Take care now.

You're not walking this path alone. Every step you take toward a trauma wise career is an act of courage, and I'm here cheering you on. If today's episode resonated with you, share it with another survivor who needs to hear this message. Together we're rewriting the rules of career success. Keep rising, keep healing, keep building.