Entrepreneurship As A Trauma Survivor | Your Trauma-Wise Career Guide Ep 22

Think leaving your corporate job will solve your workplace trauma triggers? Think again. Your trauma doesn't stay behind when you become an entrepreneur – and that's exactly what we need to talk about.

🚨 REAL TALK ALERT: This episode didn't go as planned, and we're sharing it anyway.

In this raw, unfiltered conversation, trauma-informed career coach Cyndi Bennett gets interviewed by Holly Dillon about the harsh realities of entrepreneurship as a trauma survivor. What was supposed to be a vulnerable deep-dive turned into something completely different when Cyndi's protective parts showed up to the recording.

Here's what you'll learn:

✅ The 3 biggest challenges trauma survivors face as entrepreneurs:

* Visibility struggles (why we hide in our own businesses)
* Capacity management (why we burn out faster)
* Isolation tendencies (why we think we can do it all alone)

✅ Why your trauma follows you into entrepreneurship (and why that's actually normal)
✅ The real cost of therapy on your business capacity (something no one talks about)
✅ How attachment wounds make us believe we can "do it ourselves"
✅ Why trauma survivors need a "board of directors" more than anyone

🎯 Perfect for you if:

* You're a trauma survivor considering entrepreneurship
* You're already an entrepreneur struggling with capacity, visibility, or isolation
* You want to understand how trauma shows up in business ownership
* You're tired of generic business advice that doesn't account for your healing journey

💡 Key Timestamps:
7:00 - Cyndi's turning point story
13:30 - The terror of being visible online
22:00 - Early entrepreneurship challenges
25:00 - Why trauma survivors think they can do it alone
31:00 - What makes it all worth it

🔗 Connect with Cyndi:

Cyndi Bennett Consulting: https://www.cyndibennettconsulting.com
Instagram: @resilient_career_academy
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cyndi-bennett-mba-m-ed-ctrc-bab95817/

🎧 Subscribe for more trauma-informed career content that actually gets it.
📌 Related Videos:

* How Trauma Affects Your Career (Even When You Don't Realize It)
* Setting Boundaries at Work as a Trauma Survivor
* Why Traditional Career Advice Fails Trauma Survivors

💭 Discussion Question: What's one entrepreneurship challenge you've faced that you now realize might be connected to your trauma history? Share in the comments – let's normalize these conversations.

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

Entrepreneurship As A Trauma Survivor

Cyndi: [00:00:00] Hi everyone. Cyndi Bennett here. I am the host of Your Trauma-Wise Career guide, and the episode that we are going to release today is a little bit different than we normally do, and I wanted to give you some insight into what happened behind the scenes when we were recording this podcast.

It was really interesting and fascinating to me, so I hope it will be interesting and fascinating to you as trauma survivors. Holly and I have been talking recently about what it's like to have a trauma-informed workplace and what it's like to be a trauma-informed leader. And we wanted to talk about the challenges of what it was like to be an entrepreneur as a trauma survivor.

And the goal was to help [00:01:00] people understand that even though they make the decision to go into entrepreneurship, their trauma still follows them, and really we wanted to be able to share the reality of that so that they're not surprised when that happens. And it's okay that their trauma follows them, as long as they're aware of it and know that they need to work through things in order to be successful as an entrepreneur.

I have experienced a lot of having to work through things that were unexpected to me, and I did not want that to happen to you. So the goal when we talked about doing this podcast with Holly and myself was that Holly was going to interview me and I was going to allow myself to be vulnerable and share with you some of the struggles that I've had as an entrepreneur, as a trauma survivor.

[00:02:00] That did not happen because I had a part that showed up to the recording that would not allow me to be vulnerable, and so we came out with a very different, output than what we had originally intended. We are going to go ahead with it so that you can see what happened, but also we're going to have a part two where hopefully I can get that part on board and allow us to really have the candid, vulnerable conversation about what entrepreneurship looks like from a trauma survivor's perspective, what you can expect and what are some of the things that you might struggle with or that you might have to work through as a trauma survivor.

I wanted to give this little pre-recording to you to help you understand what you're going to be seeing next, and what's coming ahead, as well. So thanks so [00:03:00] much for tuning into Your Trauma-Wise Career Guide. This is Cyndi Bennett, and I hope you enjoy the rest of the podcast.

 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 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.

Hi everyone, and welcome back to Your Trauma-Wise Career Guide. This is Cyndi Bennett, your host, and today I have with me Holly Dillon And, Holly and I have been engaged in a series of [00:04:00] conversations around leadership, as a trauma survivor in the workplace and a trauma-informed workplace, and those kind of topics.

Today we're going to do something a little bit different. We want to talk about how trauma impacts us when we're trauma survivors and we are going into entrepreneurship. And so I think a lot of us, we think if we don't have these bosses, we don't have these colleagues, we don't have this company, that we won't have the problems that we have and we won't have the triggers that we have, but what we don't realize is that we take that trauma with us.

And so we're going to turn the tables around and Holly's going to interview me today and talk about, what it has been like for me to become an entrepreneur and the things that I've struggled with as a trauma survivor, because I'm sure that I am not the only one.

So, [00:05:00] it's going to be a little bit different today. It's going to be very transparent and I'm not going to pull any punches, so we will just go from there. So, all right, Holly, I'm going to turn it over to you.

Holly: So Cyndi, brace yourself for being on the other end of this, now you know how I feel. No, I'm just teasing you. So I think this is going to be a great way to showcase actually the work you've been doing as well that's even led us to this podcast. You and I are both entrepreneurs. I left a big company, big tech company, to become an entrepreneur.

I think it's important that people know that you're actually doing two roles right now. You are still in your original job and you work at least 40 plus hours in that job, as far as I can tell. And you're doing this job, and I think that's really important for people to realize you're doing both, which as amazes me every day, so we're setting expectations.

[00:06:00] I left my tech job and went back to university, so I took a different approach for a few years and became a student and then started my entrepreneurship and it's got its own challenges as well. So I think we'll be able to have a great conversation about what it's like to start this. So are you ready for the first question? 

Cyndi: I'm so ready. Hit me.

Holly: Okay, great. All right, so I guess the first one is what was the turning point for you that made you decide it is time to really look and start your own company? 

Cyndi: That's a great question. I talk about this a lot when I talk about how did I get started as a trauma recovery coach, and a trauma-informed career coach. I was 52 years old when the zip file of repressed memories from my childhood opened up at work and left me moving from a super high achiever to not being able to function at [00:07:00] all in the workplace.

And I didn't know what was going on. I didn't know anything about trauma. I didn't know what was happening. I had a startle reflex that was to the ceiling. People would come into my cube unannounced, and I would hit the ceiling. I cried all the time. I didn't know what was happening. It just overwhelmed my nervous system so bad that I couldn't function.

And thankfully, I had a friend who had gotten some trauma therapy and gave me a referral and I got trauma treatment. This all happened during Christmas holiday, so I was leading a large project across multiple lines of business, and I was in charge, and then I could not function, so that was pretty scary.

This was my go-to space, work was my sweet spot. This is where I got all the, kudos and how I felt good about myself was in the workplace. And so when I couldn't function, it was really scary to me. And I thought, man, I'm not going to make it. And so I went to my [00:08:00] manager at the time and I said to her, look, this is what happened over the holidays, and I will understand if you need to hire somebody else to do this job, because I cannot function.

And she said, no. I'm sure, I'm absolutely sure, that I hired the exact right person for this job. How can I help? And those words really were a turning point in my career. And as I got a little bit more settled and got a little bit more healing under my belt, I realized that I was not the only one, because I felt totally isolated in the workplace. I didn't know anybody that had trauma, and nobody talked about it. Nobody talked about the struggles that they had in the workplace. So I felt really isolated and alone. I didn't know what to do. I didn't know how to handle it.

And so as I got more healing under my belt, as I started to learn how to manage my capacity I started to learn how to do the techniques that kept me grounded in the workplace and helped me [00:09:00] to deal and manage with the triggers, I realized that there were other people. My eyes started to open up and I could see the trauma in other people, like I could see it in myself, and I was like, oh, I'm not the only one. And there are a lot of people who are struggling.

And listen, I did, like every other trauma survivor did a deep dive on the internet and wanted to like, fix it fast because that's what we all do. We just want to fix it fast because we don't want to be in agony for a really long time. And so I did all that. I did all that. But what I didn't discover is that, how do I handle this in the workplace. They were talking about trauma. They were talking about the impacts of trauma. They were talking about trauma research. They're talking about trauma treatment and the different modalities of trauma treatment. But nobody was talking about how do we handle trauma in the workplace? And we spend over 90,000 hours on average in the workplace. We go to [00:10:00] therapy one time, a week if we're lucky, 

So why is nobody talking about it? And so that became my passion, that became my passion project, and that's what turned me on and really initiated this whole thing of I have to talk about it , we have to talk about it. We have to acknowledge it. We have to shed some light on it. We have to bring heat and light so people understand they're not alone and there's a reason why we're struggling in these ways. And also there's an answer. There's hope, and that's what people need. That's what drives me, is really helping other people go through and learn how to come out the other end.

That's why I started the Resilient Career Academy, because we are, by function of being trauma survivors, resilient. We've survived horrendous things in our past and we're still alive and walking. And so if we can do those hard things with very limited skills, imagine what we can do in our [00:11:00] careers when we have the skills to really be able to manage what happened to us in the past. I hope you see that there's a passion there.

Holly: I definitely can feel it and I'm sure our listeners and those who are viewing it can as well. Okay, so as you started to create this company, how did your own experiences then shape your mission? Even though we both do stuff for work, mine looks a little different and who I focus on. So how did you narrow down, what was your mission statement and what were some of the values you had created around this company as you started it? 

Cyndi: Yeah, that's a great question. It took me a while. It really took me a long while. I started out as a trauma recovery coach and was really focused on helping trauma survivors recover from trauma. However, my passion was still around career development. It was still in my mind about the career, and so I was like, no, this is not what I want.

A lot of it [00:12:00] is tuning into your nervous system, right? It's turning into what feels right for you and our nervous system has been. tuned and trained by trauma, and so it'll tell us this aligns to who we are, this doesn't align to who we are. It'll feel comfortable or it won't feel comfortable.

And so a lot of it was intuitive and listening to my nervous system to say, this is not exactly right. This is not exactly what I want to do. I really want to focus here in the workplace with career development. And so I rebranded myself as a trauma-informed career coach.

Getting to that part was a struggle, right? Everything that we do is learning. And I love what Dr. Becky Kennedy says about the learning space. It's that distance between something we don't know and something we do know and it's uncomfortable. And the longer we can sit in the discomfort of that, the more we learn. And so that is so powerful to me.

I [00:13:00] bring it up a lot because it's so powerful to me and it makes so much sense. And so as we continue to drive this and to have one thing after another, it was like spits and starts and spits and starts and three steps forward and five steps backwards. And just trying to figure out what was right for me.

And then, I had to overcome a lot of my own trauma. So, for me, one of the starting points was actually creating my blog because I had been told by several people, including my therapist, you have no idea what a great writer you are. But I had no confidence in myself, not one bit. And to really put yourself out there and to put your words on paper, virtually, electronically so that other people can hear and see and read what your thoughts are, was terrifying. It was absolutely terrifying. I had no confidence [00:14:00] whatsoever in putting stuff out there. And so I hired a coach. I hired a writing coach someone who has been an editor who's done blogging before, until I felt like, okay, I got this. Until I could master and feel comfortable, I just needed somebody to walk alongside me until I got comfortable. So I hired a coach. And so that was my first foray into, making myself present and making myself visible. 

One of the things that we struggle with as a trauma survivor in entrepreneurship is making ourselves visible, is being seen, and we have to do that in order to grow our business. You can't hide.

Holly: So is that one of your values then towards this, getting back to the values and mission statement, what is one of your values is that you will continue for yourself to show up and not hide? 

Cyndi: Yeah, my top core values is authenticity, and what I realized about that [00:15:00] is that people who have had trauma in their childhood, we don't go through a normal development cycle where we develop our identity. We usually develop identity in that young years, right?

But we're so busy trying to be safe, that's our biological priority is being safe. It has nothing to do with trying out different things and finding out who we are and what we're good at, and what our strengths are and what we believe, all the things, we don't do that. That's why it's one of the core tenants of my program.

Is really that self-exploration, and I had to do that for myself. I had to understand what were my core values. Authenticity is one. I didn't want to be the person who said, as I heard so often during my childhood, "do as I say, not as I do." I didn't want to be that person. I wanted to be the person that [00:16:00] said, look, I'm struggling too, i'm with you in the struggle, but I'm struggling too, and we're going to work on this together and to show up, absolutely imperfect. 

Sometimes I show up like crying and teary eyed and you know what? I'm going to show up. That's the point. The point is all of that is included in this journey.

Holly: Yeah. Okay. What's another value then? I hear safety. Is that show up as one of your values in one way or the other? 

Cyndi: Yeah. Safety is definitely one of the core foundational tenets of what we do in this program. If you don't have safety, you can't learn. You can't do anything because the biological priority is always safety. And so that's one of the things that I've had to learn as an entrepreneur is how do I create that safety for myself, as a trauma survivor, in entrepreneurship? How do I create a [00:17:00] sense of safety when I have to do social media, and there's trolls, 

there's all these kind of things. When you put yourself out there and you expose yourself and you allow yourself to be vulnerable, the trolls will come. 

Holly: I think your social media is a good one, and I remember when you weren't ready to go on video, right? So is one of the values, setting yourself up so you can feel safe, so you can actually do the work. And it may mean you don't go on video for a while. It may mean you don't post certain things because you know that the outcome will not feel safe to you, but because you need to feel safe in order to run this company. Would that, does that make sense? That falls into the safety value. 

Cyndi: Yeah. I think that's true. And as a matter of fact, I think we experienced that last time, right? So I sometimes when you're an entrepreneur, a bad day. You might wake up that way and [00:18:00] there are certain things that you have scheduled to do, Holly and I scheduled to do it before I went on vacation and I was having a bad morning. I woke up that way and I was like, I don't think it is a good idea to do that today. 

Holly: Yeah, which is what brought us to this particular podcast today was we actually flopped what we were going to talk about to talk about, that's okay. Totally acceptable for everyone. Yeah. 

So your values, when you come to making decision has to be around safety. 

So one thing I'd like to go back, we didn't start with this, but I'm thinking we might need to. Can you just quickly tell what the core tenants of your company are? You've got training. Why training? So why did you decide to put a training together versus just coaching? Just maybe what are your key components of your company? Yeah, 

Cyndi: So, there are a couple of them. One is like we're all in [00:19:00] this journey together, right? And as part of this healing journey, we are at different stages of the healing journey. And I call that the resilient career advancement journey, right? So that's my success path. In the beginning of our journey, there are certain things that we're trying to learn, and that is around how do you do grounding techniques, how do you manage triggers in the workplace? Because we are in a survival mode the beginning in the workplace, we're white knuckling it to get through the day. We're triggered all the time, maybe. We have bad interactions with people. So those are some of the struggles that we have in that part of our journey.

We don't really have the capacity to learn as much. That's what we need to learn. We need to learn grounding techniques, we need to learn presencing practices. We need to learn and we need to practice those things. We need to be able to manage our triggers in the workplace before we have that and to really have a sense [00:20:00] of safety. And so that's what we focus on in the beginning is just that, that grounding, right? So I have a course that was around that in the workplace, right? So I developed that first and then I realized we're learning as we go.

As we continue in that journey, then we have a little bit more capacity to grow and to learn different things. And so I have found it so helpful to have coaches walking alongside and helping me to understand and to grow in my knowledge and connection with other people who are also experiencing that. That's why I created the Resilient Career Academy, so that not only can you learn the things that you need to learn, but also that you're learning in community. And when you have relational trauma, you heal in community. You heal in relationships, and that's how it works best. We need to know that we're [00:21:00] not alone in this, that we're together, that we all experience a similar things in the workplace, and that we can gain strength in comfort from one help from one another.

And then there's the other part as we continue in our journey is what's the legacy you want to leave behind? What do you want to be known for? What do you want to invest, reinvest in other people, right? What you have done and left your mark on this world. What does that look like? So that's soup to nuts into the journey of what happens in my program.

Holly: Okay, great, thank you. Most listeners probably know that, but I wanted to make sure as we have new listeners as well, that they know.

Can you give me one or two of your earliest challenges you had when starting the company? We already identified you're working two jobs, so that alone is a big ask and taking on a lot. Like I said, I've seen you do this and you're a master at it, what is two examples of some [00:22:00] challenges right from the beginning.

Cyndi: Yeah. One I already talked about, right? It was being seen, that was a really big thing, finding my voice. A lot of times we squash our voice, especially as children, because that's safer. But then coming off of mute and really being able to stand up, speak up, and to draw attention to something that's really important.

I didn't do it for me. I wasn't doing it for me, because if I did it for me, I wouldn't do it right. I would just zip my lip and be quiet about it. But I was doing it for other people because I wanted them to know that they weren't alone. That I saw them and that they weren't alone. So that was like definitely the first and the hardest step in this process.

But also to balance my capacity, and I still struggle with that today and you know that because I call you up. When I am over capacity, I call you up and I was like, " I have taken on way too many things and what happens is I just have [00:23:00] meltdown. And there have been times early on in my coaching membership program where I had to step away for three weeks just to get back to regulated because I was so over capacity. I was on the verge of burnout and I had to get you and Alinda to step in and take over my groups for me for three weeks. And I did nothing. I just zoned out. I walked, I hiked, I had to do all the intensive self-care, because I was burning out because I was trying to do too much. And so learning how to balance when things get busy at work. Now there's going to be busy seasons, when you do technology and you do project work, there are going to be really busy seasons, and so you have to learn how to balance that with what you have going on your plate. And maybe you cancel something or maybe you don't do it at this moment of time. And that's where the flexibility of the entrepreneurship [00:24:00] comes in, that you need to take advantage of, but also, learning to not put pressure on yourself to get all those things done. 

Holly: Yeah, and asking for help, which he just explained. But I think also there's times and you can agree or disagree with me that you don't know you're over capacity and someone might need to suggest it kindly to you. So surrounding yourself with people you trust is key. When I ran my company, I had a few people that were my, ride or die for the company, and they absolutely stepped in when I couldn't, for whatever reason, whatever, I couldn't do it. They were right there.

And I do think that's important to have someone who can also tell you, girl, it is time for a break. And what your manager said on the first time is, how can I support you? How can I help? Going at this alone, I think is really difficult. So if you're out there and you're about to start a company, have some, have a board of [00:25:00] directors, we call 'em our board of directors. It might not be an official board of directors, but those people, to go to when you need to cry, someone you know who's going to take over for you and make decisions, whatever that looks like. Would you agree with that?

Cyndi: A hundred percent. We think, as trauma survivors, we can do it alone, because we have attachment wounds, and we grew up knowing that. When you have a disorganized attachment style, you like, I could do it myself. That's what grew up saying, right? I don't have to deal with anybody else. I can just do it myself. I don't have to depend on anybody. I don't have to trust anybody. I can just do it myself.

Holly: Which is why we left companies. Like to your point when you first opened up, why we sometimes leave organizations is because we can do it ourself better, and I have to deal with all the nonsense. 

Cyndi: A hundred percent. But also that's not true. We need people. We need to learn how to trust other people. And so even if it's a friend, just one friend. Holly and I went through coaching training together and we coached each other. And [00:26:00] so that became a natural fit for us that I can just really lean into that trust that we had developed by going through something similar together.

And her being an entrepreneur from a major corporation also bound us together because we had similar experiences. And so that is so helpful. If you are going into business, you need to have other business people that you can talk to, who knows what it's like, and knows the struggles that it's like and can encourage you and can help you during those times and maybe help you navigate a little bit differently. Because you can't see it all. We think we can see it all, but we can't.

Holly: You can't see it all. And I hate to say this, but it's true, we don't know it all. Even if you come out of an organization, a big organization did all the things, you think that you can run a company. There's always things, right? Whether you have to outsource lawyers, you have to outsource [00:27:00] accounting, taxes, maybe it's people stuff, there's going to be something that is not your strongest point.

And I think a good start is to do a skills analysis, an honest skills analysis. And also what you love, because Cyndi and I have had these conversations. What do you love doing? What do you think you have to do? And making sure you choose the things you love to do and outsource the things you don't love to do. 

We talk a lot about that and then giving it up, with your scratching down the car as it drives away. But it's okay to outsource things you don't love to do because as trauma survivors, we should do the things we love. We've suffered enough. 

Cyndi: Definitely. That makes sense too, right? We're doing this because we want to do it, because it's something that we enjoy doing, and we love to do, and we're passionate about it, right? But there are always things in business that have to get done. They just have to [00:28:00] get done, and you have to determine whether or not that's where you want to invest your capacity. Because we all only have a hundred percent capacity. How are you going to use it? Also, when you're in therapy, guess what? That burns some capacity, 

Holly: Before and after, not just the hour. 

Cyndi: Before and after, 100%, it burns capacity because you're thinking about what you're going to say and what you're going to talk about, and you get all this nerves about what, what's going to happen. And then you have the one hour session that blows up into a couple days afterwards processing. That is how you have to work through and work around and work with your capacity of your nervous system, because that's going to take the priority because it's part of your safety.

Holly: Has that been one of your biggest challenges? When you look at the whole company all this time, has that probably been your biggest challenge, [00:29:00] learning how to manage your capacity? 

Cyndi: It's been a big part, but learning is a challenge, and we're continuing to learn and reminding myself that I'm learning, even though I have an MBA, I've never been an entrepreneur before. I am learning. I know a lot of business things, and now I'm putting them into practice, but also I am learning.

And so not to beat myself up, not to " should" myself to death, which we do often. I should have known better or I should have done that, or blah. It's to really go with not being perfect, accepting that it might not be perfect. It's better to get it going than it is to get it perfect. And sometimes you just have to just make a first step, make a really ugly draft, and continue to iterate.

Holly: Self-compassion. If you struggle with self-compassion and you're just [00:30:00] starting, I highly, I cannot say this enough, get a coach, do some self work. Kristen Neff has beautiful books about self-compassion because we struggle with that at the base level.

And now, I remember at the beginning you said, we love our jobs, right, and that's what defines us. And if you're leaving a job that defines you, this is a hard transition as it is to go from people loving you, even though they might frustrate you. You know you're being paid money from someone to do a job, and now you might be forking out the money to do a job.

And the only one you have to blame when it doesn't go is you. And so it's really important that you have strong self-compassion, which again, that board of directors is key for that to help you go on the difficult days. 

Yeah, thanks for bringing that up. Okay let's see. Okay, so let me ask this question.

So we talked about the [00:31:00] difficulties of the work and starting a company. Let's go to what's making it worth it, right? Can you share a moment when you're like, oh Yeah. this is working, where you saw some impact that is keeping you going. 'cause you know it's working.

Cyndi: Yeah. That makes me smile so much when I think about that because that's really what keeps me going. That's really the pay is beyond the pay. For me, that's really the reward of it all is when I see someone who joins my membership program that has a history of running. When I say running, it means like no stability in their career because as soon as trouble hits, they're gone, they leave. And they have no work history because they go from job to job without any stability. There's a financial impact there, and there's self impact there. because they stop believing in themselves and they start thinking what's wrong with me, and all the things, right? [00:32:00] And so when I see them come in and participate in the program and find their voice and find regulation on a consistent basis, and learn to practice the skills of how do I have a difficult conversation with my manager? How do I repair a rupture in the workplace?

And then when I see them saying, this is really hard, but also I'm good. Like I can have these hard conversations now without running and I can see them be there for a year and handle hard, difficult conversations without bolting and taking responsibility for when they're triggered, and healing those relationships. When I see that and I can see the growth that happens, and sometimes I have to remind them because they don't see it.

When I say, you're not like, you were before when you came to me, this is the way that you were. And now look at you here they go, oh, and the lights come on, and I could just feel the chill bumps, right? And they're like, [00:33:00] yeah, that's right, I used to be like that and I'm not like that anymore. And to see that and to see them have confidence that they can tackle whatever comes up, to me, that is so rewarding. I wish I could give that to every trauma survivor in the whole world.

Holly: It's a part of coaching that people don't realize they get this with coaching, is being a witness to their growth and their healing. 

Cyndi: Yeah. 

Holly: It's a beautiful part of coaching, I think is when we get to remind them that, hey, we remember three months ago you couldn't, get outta bed. And now you're going to work, you're back at work, maybe after being on sick leave, whatever that looks like. Yeah. All right. 

Okay. So this is the last question, and you don't have to whisper, but if you could whisper one piece of advice to yourself back when you started, from what you know now, what would it [00:34:00] be? 

Cyndi: If I had to whisper one thing to myself, I would remind myself, who am I doing this for, to stick to the mission, and learning is gradual. It's going to be a slow process to grow. It always is a slow process to grow and we have to keep it slow as trauma survivors, because of the capacity of our nervous system, we have to operate at the speed of our nervous system.

And so, if I was giving myself that kind of advice in the beginning to say, pay attention to your nervous system and do what seems right for you to do. Listen to yourself. Listen to the intuition that you've earned as a result of being a trauma survivor, [00:35:00] because your system is going to keep you safe.

They will keep you safe. And if I could give that advice back to say, just go slow. It's okay to go slow. It's okay to go slow. It's okay to stumble. It's okay to fall down, but it's just part of the learning process. You haven't failed, you're not failing, you're going to continue to move forward. That's what I would say.

Holly: All right. Very good. Thank you for letting us turn the tables today and sharing just what you've been through so far. And you are just at the tip of the iceberg of this company, I feel, and you've done so much already. So I'm, very excited to be working with you as we continue to grow your company. 

Cyndi: I'm very excited too, and I'm very thankful for your friendship and your partnership and your collaboration over the years and your coaching, as well. You are part of my board of directors for sure, and you keep me on the straight and narrow, so I'm thankful for that. I'm also, thankful for all my [00:36:00] members and my clients that I have, and for being able to have the opportunity to hold hope for them, until they can believe in themselves.

So it's a privilege to be able to hold that for them as they're finding their hope in themselves. So I'm really grateful to have that and have this time today. So thank you so much. Appreciate it.

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.