15. From Stroke Care to Storytelling with Rosa Hart

Welcome to The Bossy Nurse Podcast, a show about nurse creators, innovators, risk-takers, and the ideas that shape their success. 

In this episode, Marsha Battee speaks with Rosa Hart, BSN, RN, SCRN, about turning stroke care, podcasting, and a love of conversation into a nurse-led media platform that educates patients, spotlights healthcare voices, and helps nurses speak up.

Find the all the resources mentioned in the show and full details at The Bossy Nurse website.

Transcript

Welcome And Why Nurse Media Matters

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Believing in the person, helping them remember their purpose and helping them emotionally calm down and ground themselves in those moments and have those conversations because I'm over here authentically enjoying having conversations with people, and that's contagious.

Marsha 0:27

Welcome to the Boston Nurse Podcast, the show about nurse creators, innovators, risk takers, and the ideas that shape their success. I'm Marsha Batti, and on the show today, how Rosa Hart turned bedside stroke care and a love of conversation into a growing nurse-led media platform that educates patients, spotlights healthcare voices, and explores her community. For a long time, nurses were handed a narrow script: educate at the bedside, document in the chart, and maybe speak up at a staff meeting. But podcasting and digital media opened a wider door, where a nurses' ability to explain, connect, and comb people could reach far beyond the hospital walls. Rosa Hart grew up homeschooled. But anatomy, a family health scare, and a fascination with how the body heals eventually pulled her from vocal performance into nursing. That early pull toward performance never really left Rosa. It simply changed shape. From singing on stage to translating stroke education for patients and caregivers to helping other nurses and healthcare voices trust the power of their own conversation. The roots of that voice trace back to her hometown.

SPEAKER_00 1:49

I grew up in Clarksville, Tennessee, which is outside of Nashville. But I grew up in Cunningham, which is 30 minutes outside of that. And so we'd go into town to go to church on Sundays and things like that. I grew up on a farm, had five younger siblings, and we were all homeschooled. I'm the only one who went and got a college degree, but both my parents had that. And so education was really important to them. And so yeah, that's kind of where it came from. I'm the firstborn daughter, as a lot of nurses are, I think. That fit eventually, but I didn't think I wanted to grow up and be a nurse. I thought I wanted to be a ballerina for about five minutes and thought I wanted to be a missionary. And then I got my first bachelor's degree was in singing. And so I got to get some classical training at Austin P.

Growing Up Homeschooled On A Farm

SPEAKER_00 2:50

State University, which was also in Clarksville, Tennessee. And so that was really fun. But I didn't want to be a starving artist. So then I went to nursing school.

Marsha 2:59

Nursing school, yeah. So I'm curious about the homeschooling. So how did all of that come about and what was the decision? Do you remember how your parents made that decision? I'm curious because you went to, from what I understand, you did homeschooling from kindergarten all the way up to high school. Is that correct?

SPEAKER_00 3:18

Homeschooling became legal in Tennessee in 1988. That's the year that I was born. And they were in a Christian community that really valued religious instruction as part of your academic life. And they were concerned that if we went to public school, then we wouldn't get the biblical grounding that they wanted us to have. And so it was very much coming from that perspective. And we actually had a whole neighborhood of families that also were homeschooling. And so we would have corn huskins and we had a community garden at my grandparents' house, and we'd have quilting days. And I it was like growing up in another time. So sometimes I don't know. I feel like I've had a very strange life. It was not Amish, but it was very much not conventional.

Marsha 4:13

Did you feel sometimes with your or your siblings? Did you ever feel or remember feeling that you were missing something by not going into school? Or was it something you never thought about because you had all of these fun activities going on all the time?

SPEAKER_00 4:30

So I'm a very social person. So as long as I could talk to people, then I was happy. And I didn't always want it to be my siblings that I was talking to. So yes, I guess I felt like I was missing out on that. But there's also a lot of things that I saw. My friends were not excited to go to school. And I was like, hey, I get to sleep later than they do. It's like I just do my reading and my homework, and then I'm done, and they go to school and then they have more homework. So there were some things that I wish I could have done that now homeschoolers probably have more access to because they've established inroads for that. I live in Louisville, Kentucky, and it has a humongous homeschool community. I know I think Nashville, Tennessee has a huge homeschool community now where they do things like musical theater that I would have loved to do that I didn't get to participate in. Those things evolve over time and so things like that. And sometimes I do still blame my compulsive need to talk to people on, well, I was home for the first 18 years of my life, so I'm making up for lost time. Yeah. But there are other things that I think it really was good for me for like I have a really great relationship with my mom, which I guess a lot of people do, but quality time is my love language. So having lots of time with her was great. And also things like when I went to college, I didn't know that when you go into a class the first day and you sit in a chair, that's your chair now, and that you're expected to always sit in that same chair forever for the rest of the year. And so I would go into, I remember this, I would go in and just sit wherever I felt like that day, and the whole room would be like giving me the stink eye. And I was like, what's wrong with everybody? And like, can you just pick a place and sit there? And I'm like, why? We don't have assigned seats. I was those like all these unspoken little things that you don't know if you don't grow up in that. And of course, the first year of college was really fun. Like, where I would I was a voracious reader when I was growing up, but I didn't I didn't necessarily know what those words sounded like. And so I would go to college and use all my big words, and people were like, Do you mean you're saying this word? And it was a totally different way. I was like, Oh yeah, it just didn't sound that way in my head.

Marsha 7:04

I love that, but I can totally relate to the college and the chair situation. I always wanted to sit in different chairs, and I noticed that people had a tendency to keep their seats to themselves. And but yeah, I relate. So I'm curious. Well, the ballerina, I also can relate to that. It's always I always wanted to be a ballerino or an actress, one of the two. But of course, I'm not a ballerina or an actress, but I still had that dream that you had. But I'm curious about the singing. Did you always know that you were a singer, or did you grow up singing in church, or did this come a little bit later? Because I know you majored in music or singing.

SPEAKER_00 7:42

Yes. So my mom actually majored in music and got her bachelor's degree in music education. And so she taught me to sing, and church choir was very important to us. And my first solo was when I was in third grade in front of 300 people at our church. Wow. So it I always said the stage was my natural habitat.

Marsha 8:07

Yeah. So do

From Vocal Performance To Nursing

Marsha 8:10

you remember the song?

SPEAKER_00 8:11

Yes, it was I love you, Lord. Oh, he heard my cry that one. No, oh, it was I love you, Lord, and I lift my voice.

Marsha 8:26

Yeah, you know that one, yeah, beautiful. We might have to have you do a little rendition at the end of this at the end of the episode, but yeah, so so you moved into you were a music major or singing. Was it a singing major or music education? Okay, so you were singing.

SPEAKER_00 8:45

Yeah, I was thinking about doing vocal performance. Okay, but I got my I got my husband and I got married right after my freshman year of college, and then after my junior year of college, I got pregnant. And so I was having, I took what is it called? Anatomy and physiology for fun in the summer to learn more about my baby's body and my body as a mom. And I was getting better grades than the other nursing students, and I was like, maybe I should be a nurse. I don't know. And then also my grandfather had a heart attack, and that summer, and I was with my grandma when a cardiologist took us back to show us how they pulled the clot out of his heart and showed us the pictures, like before and after with the circulation being restored. And I was like, You can do that. And I was like, this anatomy thing got exciting real fast. Yeah. So I actually switched my major from more of a vocal performance to liberal music studies, which would allow you to have a minor. And I essentially I was two credits away from a history minor, actually. And I switched and did all the rest of my electives to be nursing prerequisites. Oh wow. Okay.

Marsha 10:00

So this was junior year and senior year doing your nursing prerequisites. And then do you go to a program where it was part of your undergrad program, like half undergrad and half nursing school, or did you graduate from your undergrad and then go back into nursing school?

unknown 10:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:17

So I have the music degree from Austin B. State University in Clarksville, Tennessee. Then we moved to Louisville, Kentucky, and I got an associate's degree, RN. And then I went to the Indiana University Southeast for my bachelor's in nursing.

Marsha 10:33

Yeah. Okay, great. So nursing. So when you've gone into nursing, where was your first experience? And I think from what I remember from hearing on other podcast episodes that you actually maybe had some

Stroke Care Roots And ICU Burnout

Marsha 10:45

early experiences before nursing, before you got your nursing degree within a hospital system, working maybe in stroke before you started as a nurse.

SPEAKER_00 10:55

Well, so I started nursing school and they encouraged us to get a job in one of the hospitals, kind of your foot in the door. So it was my first semester of nursing school, actually. So I did get a job as a nurse's aide, and it was on the neuro ICU units that I then stayed with. And so I started in the hospital. First experience was working with stroke patients and still working with stroke patients to this day.

Marsha 11:23

Yeah. And so working with stroke patients, I know that's been the breadth of your career in terms of nursing. You've done a lot of other things, which we'll talk about too, but the breadth of your career and in stroke and ICU. Did you at any point think that this was going to be what you've turned it into now in terms of the work that you do outside of that physical act of nursing, which is the podcasting, the speaking, the presentations, the just different media opportunities and the work that you've done doing. How did it turn into Rosa the nurse and then Rosa the media personality and consultant and things like that? How did that happen?

SPEAKER_00 12:16

Yeah, it has definitely been a journey that was a lot of saying yes to opportunities that I wasn't necessarily looking for. Of course, I'm aggressively looking for opportunities now because it's so much fun. But I did eight years in neuro ICU in a couple different places. And then for the last six years, I've been working with stroke patients on a more outpatient call basis. And as part of that transition, I was burned out from the ICU and needed to remember that not everybody has a stroke for one thing. And it just was really weighing on me pretty heavily. And so a friend of mine encouraged me to start a podcast with him. And we started exploring Louisville, Kentucky's food scene. And so it was a totally like diversion type activity, right? This is what I do when I'm not at work kind of situation. And we started interviewing local business owners and nonprofit leaders. And I wanted to do that every day. And then he got burnt out, and so now I do it by myself. But I love to meet people and what cool things that they are doing, especially in Louisville, where I live in 2020. It was when that was when we started, and that was the year that everybody knew Breonna Taylor was from Louisville, but they didn't really know about all the other great people that were having making a difference and making the world a better place. And so I really wanted to showcase the good news that there was to

Building The Lou Review And Local Good News

SPEAKER_00 13:55

share here locally and the great work that was being done. And so I became a foodie influencer in Louisville and the Lou Review podcast got a lot of traction. And because of that, I was invited by my workplace to make the Stronger After Stroke podcast for my stroke patients, to then interview experts as well as stroke survivors about what they what they recommended for a best quality of life after stroke and answered frequently asked questions that I dealt with every day. So that's kind of how it transitioned from my outside of work into trickling into my day job.

Marsha 14:36

Yeah, it's fascinating too. And I honestly thought for some reason I was thinking that the nursing-related podcast and the healthcare-related podcast actually came before your podcasting, your initial podcasting. And I haven't heard that story yet. But for those of you who are listening to this particular episode, make sure you check out Rosa's podcast, The Lou Review. And it's about life living in Louisville, Kentucky. It's really fascinating. I just recently heard an episode that you did with the private investigator and the work that you did. And I thought it was fascinating that I thought the show was all about just food and wine and lifestyle. But then you have these really great, engaging interviews with people who are not only in that sort of lifestyle arena, but you're also looking at the businesses in Louisville is such a fascinating concept. And I'm curious, what were your most, what were your favorite interviews with your the Lou Review? Such a good, it's such a good show, too.

SPEAKER_00 15:35

Hopefully they won't hear me say, let's see. Well, that was my most recent one, which was really fun with Amber Cassett talking about being a private investigator and what that is in your life and the difference that they're able to make. And that that as a career option, which who thinks about that as a career option would be Jessica Jones, right? Yes.

Marsha 15:55

Or Calinda from The Good Wife, which is why you mentioned that in the episode. And that was she's one of my favorite characters. I know that show isn't really on anymore, but just past episodes. But yeah, I remember Calinda. Yes, one of my favorite. Yeah. And then she turned bad. Well, did bad things.

SPEAKER_00 16:16

The whole time. Yeah. Like Damon from the vampire diaries. You just learn more bad things, and you're like, oh, they've been this person the whole time. Okay. Favorite episodes or people that I've interviewed from Louisville. Gosh, I've been doing that one for six years. Yeah. So I've been super honored to get to interview some incredible chefs, like James Beard nominees, some chopped winners like Dallas McGarrity. He worked chopped and he owns the Fat Lamb and is just opening a new restaurant that I have yet to go to called Cipellini. He shares his story and he's just such a great person. We have several layers of connections here locally. It's so funny. Everybody's related to somebody here. Oh, and Kevin Granger. He okay. He has several amazing, heavily themed restaurants here in town. You've got to just listen to that episode because I just can't even begin to tell you how great that story is.

Marsha 17:17

And I'll link that in the show notes for everybody to listen to those episodes as well.

SPEAKER_00 17:21

But we have great nonprofits that I like to showcase to about the work that they're doing here. And like Blessings in a Backpack is a national organization now that started in Louisville, Kentucky, packing backpacks of food for kids to take home with them after school on Friday so that they'll have food over the weekend. Because there are a lot of kids who are don't get to eat over the weekend. And that is meeting a huge need. And I love showcasing how good work starts in Louisville and then spreads. It doesn't just stay here. It's just Vegas. So and another great organization I wanted to mention, I found out about free volunteer clinics like the Hope Health Clinic in Kentucky. And that opened my eyes to this whole other range of things. So I'm I'm functioning as the Lou Review, which is a nonprofit podcast. I interview other nonprofits like Hope Health Clinic and then find out about this option for people who are underinsured or just they don't have copay or whatever. They can go get their primary care visits, the referrals that they need to be seen by specialists. They can get their medications filled there. And those medications oftentimes are supplied through things like Mark Cuban's cost plus drugs, which I didn't know about until I heard about it from the source. Like these are where people can benefit from it. And then I'm able to relay information like that in my day job. And so in my mind, it's all connected. And I so I just can't shut it off because it's I'm like, what would I miss if I only paid attention during work hours?

Marsha 19:05

Yeah. So you were so you're interviewing guest on your podcast, the Lou Review,

An Award-Winning Podcast For Stroke Survivors

Marsha 19:10

and your co-host got a little bit of burned out, and so you started doing it yourself. When did you make the transition to starting the healthcare podcast that you have? And you have a few, a couple.

SPEAKER_00 19:23

Yeah. So the first episodes of Stronger After Stroke came out in 2023.

Marsha 19:29

Okay. So about three years after, or two to three years.

SPEAKER_00 19:33

Yeah. Because we started working on it the October before, because when you're doing anything for a big health system, you know, yeah, things turned slow. And they were like, we're gonna do one episode a month. And I was like, Oh, I wanted to do one every day. So they're slow, they were slow in my role, but that's made for good quality and carried over well. And it won first place at the International Stroke Conference for the American Heart Association. Yes. And it's been really cool to see how it's inspired other nurses to do podcasts. Like you were already dabbling in the podcast space, but like when I presented it at the AJ conference, a nurse practitioner saw my presentation and she was like, She's not even a nurse practitioner. I bet I could do that. And so she started a podcast for nurse practitioners to showcase their expertise in the stroke space. And so the next year, when I came back, she was like, Let me show you what I made because this inspired me. And it's amazing. So I love to see when it's expanded in ways that I have no idea it's even happening.

Marsha 20:43

Yeah. And Stronger After Stroke is your podcast where you speak with survivors of stroke. And also you have guests, correct, that are medical professionals who are educating the community about stroke. And I know that you with this international award-winning podcast that you've been in a number of countries. It's already reached so many different countries. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:07

We were right at 90 and 9 countries. So I don't know when it's going to cross over into 100, but we had thousands of downloads in outlying US territories. Those places don't have comprehensive stroke centers. They don't have neuroscience institutes of experts. So, yes, I interview neuro experts that you could come see if you were here local. But if you never get a chance to be in a room with someone with that level of specificity and expertise, if they can give you the answers to frequently asked questions that are general, that do generally apply to people. Like in neuro, everything is very specific. And you want to say, well, a lot of things depend on this, that, or the other. But for the things that are general, like rules of thumb, just still really niche information. Able to disseminate that out. Yeah. You literally will never have the opportunity to learn it otherwise has made a huge difference.

Marsha 22:10

And I love that you say that because I was listening in in my research when I interview guests, I do go back and listen to any shows that they've been on or listen to their current shows or look at the work, the body of work that they've done in general. And I had the opportunity. Yeah. I hope you didn't worse too much sleep. No, I didn't, but I had the opportunity to listen to a couple of the episodes from your stronger after stroke. And I think there was one that was most recently with pediatric strokes. Now I'm a nurse and I never thought of the idea that there are pediatric patients, babies, and young toddlers and children are actually having strokes as well. And so it was a fascinating topic that, like you said, someone in some area that doesn't have access to care, now they know the signs to look for in their child who may have been sick when they were born and may have had a lot of care when they were born, but now they know the important signs to look for in pediatric strokes. And it's not only the BFAS, but there's some other qualifications that come along with that.

SPEAKER_00 23:15

Seizures can be connected to in children and can proceed or be afterwards. But stroke is in the top 10 causes of death for children. And so it's not something that we need to relegate to, oh, this is only an old people problem. Yeah. This can happen to anyone at any time, in any age. And so I think it's just crucially important that all nurses as well as the community at large know the signs to watch

Running Four Podcasts With Batch Recording

SPEAKER_00 23:45

for at any age.

Marsha 23:46

Yeah. And so, Rosa, you so when you started your the Lou Review podcast and then you moved into stronger after stroke podcasts, were you still working full time? Because I am you still are working full time. And what capacity? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:04

I work Monday through Friday, nine to five answering or calling and answering phone calls for stroke survivors and their caregivers and helping them with life after stroke. And so yeah.

Marsha 24:16

Yeah. And so how do you find the time? Because I know you have you do have another podcast, which is the one I know you from. You have two other podcasts. Sorry. Yes, you do have two other podcasts. So this is why I'm so fascinated because I'm like, okay, we all have the same 24 hours in a day, but you seem to do it with four podcasts and a full-time job.

unknown 24:38

Yeah.

Marsha 24:39

And so I know how I know about your work is through initially through News Nurse Rose's Insights podcast. That's how I know about your work initially. And then you have Aging Like a Pro is also a podcast as well. So you you've started with the other two podcasts, and where did the other two come in? And I'm wondering, after you tell us about how they came into being, how you navigate all of that time management. How do you do that?

SPEAKER_00 25:06

Through the Stronger After Stroke podcast, since it is heard in almost 100 countries and was getting a lot of visibility, I started having people come out of the woodwork saying, I want to be on your podcast. And for one thing, that one doesn't technically belong to me and it has certain specifications that need to be met in order to be on it. And so I would think to myself, yes, of course you want to be on the podcast, but you have nothing to do with stroke, for one thing. And if they did, it may not be the right fit for that audience, right? Because that audience is for stroke survivors and their caregivers. And so anything that's not for that audience doesn't belong on that podcast. So I created Nurse Rosa's Insights as a place to hold those conversations with any healthcare stakeholder, which could be any human person, that has an idea that needs to be put out about how we can build a better health care. And I ask each guest a question that keeps it focused. And so, and there are lots of people who reach out who aren't a good fit for that either, but it's a lot broader in topics that we can talk about and insights and innovations that we can explore. And I've learned so much like about AI and healthcare and different areas that are outside of neuro that I never would have known about otherwise. And just it's really opened the door for me to explore that creatively and go to conferences as media and interview CEOs and leaders of different companies that never would have come up if I was staying in the stroke bubble. And then through Stronger After Stroke, I met Dr. Tatiana Rundick from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, McKnight Brain Institute. And she invited me, she and her partner, Dr. Susan Fox Rothellini, invited me to come out to Miami and host the Aging Like a Pro podcast. And in that one, I interview their brain health researchers as well as other researchers from University of Miami about how to age like a pro, essentially preventing dementia, optimizing quality of life as you age. And so they'll fly me out to record two or three episodes in a day. And I'll do some back-end work occasionally, like to get that all situated over the months afterwards. But we batch that content as well. And when I record anything for stronger after stroke, that's within my the confines of my work hours and in connection with my day job. And so when I do Nurse Roses Insights or Delou Review, that's nights and weekends and time that I am at home. I'm not working for anybody but myself, and that's what I'm doing instead of scrolling my phone or whatever. That's how it works time-wise. And I think a lot of podcasters look at podcasting as this a more of a heavy lift. Whereas when I started the Lou Review with my friend, we started it on a phone where we just press the start button and go. And we didn't do any editing, we just put it out there. And so, and that's how it was for a couple of years. I kept on doing it that way. And so it wasn't a heavy lift as far as editing and time consuming in that way. I was the more time-consuming thing was exploring Louisville and going to all these different restaurants, which was super fun. And even still, when I post on social media, I feel like it's a creative outlet. Do you have some kind of activity you do? I don't know, coloring or painting or some kind of craftiness that you do.

Marsha 29:05

I I'm well, I don't know. I'm into sort of technology and reading and trying different tools, especially now that AI is out. We were talking before the show a little bit, and how I'm just using different AI tools to build things. So I've been playing around with that. So that's my creative outlet.

SPEAKER_00 29:23

It feels creative. So it doesn't feel like, oh, I'm gonna make myself sit down and spend this time only like sweating over something. I'll make an Instagram reel and it might not get a whole bunch of likes or whatever, but I'm like, man, I did such a good job putting that song to that reel. And I love that, I love that shrimp. That was so good. I can't wait to try the next place. And it's like a creative experience. It's not like it doesn't feel like work for you then. I'm not making any money off of it, essentially. So it needs to not feel like work. Yeah. So now I have learned a lot about business from interviewing these people, and there are different ways that I'm working on building these into different media consulting businesses. But I did kind of make an agreement with myself that if it felt like work, then I didn't want to keep doing it. Okay.

Marsha 30:19

So well, that's good because nothing so far feels like work, and you still you're still going with all four of the podcast and recording on the weekends like we're doing right now, and recording on your other podcasts that are in that's in collaboration with your other organizations, you're recording during those work hours. So a great way, I think, to manage your time. And I love the idea that the organization that you work with, one of your podcasts, that you're able to negotiate that time to actually do the work for the podcast and manage your time that way. So I actually appreciate those tips. I do all of my recordings on, well, usually on the weekends, but I also do recordings before work hours and after work hours. And so it can be a challenge sometimes when you have certain guests who see these hours and they're like, I don't know if I'm able to do that. But you got to do what you have to do. And that's all a part of building, especially what you're doing, building that media empire and the work that you're doing. So you mentioned a little bit about the media building that kind of platform. And I know from or I feel from what I read that you're you do help others with their media platforms

Coaching Others To Find Their Voice

Marsha 31:30

and some consulting work. Can you talk a little bit about the work that you do with that?

SPEAKER_00 31:35

Sure. So there are some individuals that I've helped to get started with their own podcast as far as showing them how things go. And I do feel like it's been more of a coaching role where they are not sure how much they need to do in order to get started. And it's that paralysis of analysis. And so sometimes I'll let them practice on me. They can practice interviewing me and I can talk them through if they have technical difficulties, just be like, that's okay. This is what happens, this is how you troubleshoot it, and things like that. And that's been really rewarding to be able to consult with individuals who they have a message they want to get out, and I want to empower them to do that. And then, like for Miami, having an official LLC with a liability insurance policy and as a vendor for a major organization and navigating those contracts for it being a more high-stakes flying out-of-town situation. I have to do more of that. And I do have a couple of things coming up where I'll be helping to consult with groups who are having more bespoke podcasts for events or for organizations who have a certain theme that they want to showcase their thought leadership on. That's something that I can help demystify the process on. It can be as fancy or as simple as you want it to be. It could be audio only recorded on your phone, or it could be lights and camera and special effects. But I think the biggest thing that I'm able to bring to it, because there are lots of people who can help with technology, is believing in the person, helping them remember their purpose and helping them emotionally calm down and ground themselves in those moments and have those conversations because I'm over here authentically enjoying having conversations with people, and that's contagious. Most people, when we get done with an interview, feel like I'm their new best friend because I just listened to them for 20 minutes. Yeah. So teaching people how to have conversations because they don't necessarily remember. And most of the time, people are not asking me questions like you're doing. So what at the end of this interview, I'm gonna feel like Marcia's my new best friend, for example, right? So it's teaching that relatability as well and helping people to be comfortable in that because people listen to podcasts because they want to feel connected to the host, or they want to almost as voyeurs mooch off of the connectivity between the host and the guest and feel that sense of connectedness. We live in a loneliness epidemic right now, all over the world. And so I think helping people remember that's what most listeners are going to want to come back for. They may select one episode for a topic, but they'll come back for how it makes them feel. And so it's gonna be very important that how you are coming across in that feeling is authentic and making people want to come back.

Marsha 35:02

And I think that's important too. The idea that people are listening to you and they're listening to your show either for the topic or the host, and they're coming back. And what's important, I think, in coming back is something I think we don't really talk about too much in podcasting is you're actually in an ear of someone, and whether it's their headset, airpods, or just listening to it on a speakerphone. But more likely, those people who are listening to you directly from a device in their ear, it just has this certain sort of closeness to it. And one thing I want to point out with that is if you are inspired by this particular episode to start a new podcast, because Rosa has four of them, if you are inspired to listen and listen to or start a podcast after this episode, how important it is for your audio to be clear. And I know you said when you first started the Lou review podcast, you were just doing it on their phone. And I haven't heard those earlier episodes, and I'm not sure if there is a really different big difference in the device that you were using, your phone device that you were using at the time.

SPEAKER_00 36:09

But it's an iPhone and the sound was impeccable. Oh, great. Yeah.

Marsha 36:14

So if you're yeah, so the devices now, the phones nowadays, you probably couldn't have used them 10 years ago to do as good as a podcast as now. But that's one thing just to keep in mind that when people are listening to your show, they're listening to it in the most intimate way, which is something attached to their ear in their body, and it's going directly into their minds. And yeah, just make sure that sound is key. And I've had some episodes where I've I couldn't fix certain sounds, but but yeah, the topic sometimes carries that, which is great. But yeah, so one thing I wanted to ask you about is how you come about with the collaborations, like how you were mentioning contracts and starting your LLC and the travel and things like that. What are some tips that you can provide for our listeners in terms of connecting with people that they may want to collaborate with and how to start those collaborations, how to start those relationships first? Can you talk a little bit about how your process was or was it no process and you figured it out as you went along?

SPEAKER_00 37:23

Well, it was definitely figuring it out as I went along. And girl, people want to be on podcasts. Yeah. It's more of a how do you stop people from being on your podcast, at least in my experience. I wouldn't, well, here's one of my favorite stories, and he knows already that I think this is hilarious. I was at a farmer's market taking pictures for social media, doing my foodie influencer thing, showcasing some local farmers. And this one farmer asked me, he was like, Why are you taking pictures of everything? And I told him, and he was like, Well, why'd they ask you to do that? And I was like, Well, it kind of goes with the podcast that I do, and he was like, Oh, can I be on your podcast? I was like, Would you want to be? He was like, Yeah, sure. And he was so quiet, and I told him this, so this isn't behind his back. He was so quiet, I was like, What in the world would he say? Is my phone gonna pick up his voice? I don't know. He was not spoken, and then we get him down here in my little basement recording, recording studio, and he sits down and I kind of moved the phone closer to him so that what sign comes on his voice. And girl, he started talking about how he had worked in Senegal with what is what was it called? Oh, what's it called? Not doctors without borders. I was gonna say doctors without borders. He was the agricultural major. He goes by farmer Rob, and but anyway, he was doing sustainable agriculture in Senegal, and then he was like going through his process, which was much more organized than my podcasting process for farming sustainably, and how he was bringing that to Kentucky and it was gonna make our whole ecosystem better. And I was like, I never would pursue interviewing this soft-spoken guy who was just selling his vegetables at the farmer's market. But people want to share what they are doing, and they just need an opportunity. This guy's never gonna be on TV and hire somebody to do PR or something like that. But I think talking on a podcast usually like now it's video for me, but back then it was just audio, and I feel like it's a lot lower barrier of entry for people because they don't feel like they have to look a certain way or get dressed up or whatever to get their story out and to be heard. And so, yeah, anything, and I'll tell you what, anybody who has CEO after their name wants to be on a podcast, I'll just so I don't think that is gonna be much of a challenge.

Marsha 40:17

Yeah, there's never a shortage of I think business owners who would love the opportunity to be on podcasts because of course, just like any business owner, they have a product or service to sell, and the more visibility they get, probably the better. So yeah, in terms of building, and as you were telling that story, and you were saying that he was soft-spoken at first, I'm wondering, did he turn on when you press record? Because I'm sure he sounds like a fascinating person. Yes. So I can only imagine he probably got excited once the record button was hit and you were like, maybe this is a new person.

SPEAKER_00 40:57

I kept him upstairs at first, and I was like giving him some water and introducing him to my husband so they can. I was like trying to get an idea of the volume, yeah, too. Because back then I wasn't editing either. So I was like, Am I gonna have to be really soft-spoken so that my voice isn't concerned too hard? Which now you can level out the sound button, so that's nice. I

Academics, Misinformation, And Going Where People Are

SPEAKER_00 41:20

you know what I did have a thought though, when we were talking about business people want to be on podcasts, academics are a lot more shy. Have you experienced that?

Marsha 41:31

Um, I have not. Usually I do approach when I approach people or guests to be on the podcast or nurses to be on the podcast, it's usually because I've seen them and posting something about their work and they're already posting or have some type of visibility already. And because I'm a lurker on social media. I have tried many times to do social media consistently. It's a challenge for me. It feels like work sometimes. And so I'm a lurk on social media. So I am one of those invisible audience members to a lot of work of nurses online, especially LinkedIn. That's where you see a breadth of different type of work that nurses do. So I follow a lot of people in their work. I read their articles, I listen to interviews that they've been on podcast. And that's how that's how I get podcast guests because they're already people out there. So yeah, so I've never gone to like a local establishment and just had farmer Bob just come up to me and me about what am I doing or something like that, and been surprised at the breadth, like you said, of what they could provide, engaging what can happen. So yeah, so I've often gone to people who are already visible in their own right and felt comfortable doing that because it's a lot easier to do it that way. So yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:58

But when I invite people whose experience with sharing what they know has only been in academic settings like academic conferences, I think it intimidates them so bad because their only preparation is I'm gonna be scrutinized by my peers. What if I say something wrong? Are they gonna sue me? And I think that as well as whatever stage fright they would have if they were in front of people. And people are more aware of podcasts now, but they also are more aware of longer form podcasts like Joe Rogan for three hours, and they're like, I can't do a three conversation. And so letting people like that know it'll be 20 minutes, it'll be a conversation. It can be longer if you feel like it's going well, no pressure, and just kind of demystify it for them and let them know you will not have to cite anything if you don't know something, just feel Like, I don't know, we don't have to talk about that and stuff. Only saying things you can cite three sources for or yeah. And so I think there's a lot of overthinkers in academia, which is not their fault. They that's what they're how they're prepared. Yeah.

Marsha 44:17

And it makes sense the scrutinization because if that's a word, is that a word? It makes sense because the work that they're doing, research-focused work sometimes, or they're who they work for, they may not have the freedom and sometimes may not know in the moment is this a question that I can answer that's okay in the moment, because I'm what I'm a podcast host that doesn't prepare questions ahead of time. What I do is I will just research the guest, look at the work that they've done in the past, and that's how I come about my interviews. I just never have a question bank and I just ask any question that I feel like I would personally want to know. And I ask beforehand, before we hit record, is there anything that you don't want to? Yeah, is there anything that we can we don't have to talk about? I can cut it out if we if I accidentally mention it or it was accidentally stated. I, as an editor too, I can edit that out. But no, it total totally makes sense about the academics, how they would really be a little bit nervous about the process and a hesitant about sharing a lot of the work that they do, especially if they don't probably get permission ahead of time to mention sort of the things that they do in their work every day. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:32

Oh, girl, they can have all the permission in the world. You still can't prevail upon them to do it. I don't think permission is even it. I think it just is such an intimidating thing for what it happened. And I do think that's also part of the reason why we have this huge distrust of academics as the source of health knowledge, which organizations like the AMA are really leaning into encouraging physicians to get their information out as influencers, because influencers are out or given fake medical information. So this is the way that you contradict misinformation is through overwhelmingly providing better information. And expecting people to get it from websites that they're never gonna go look at is it's it's what is the fallacy? There's like a logical fallacy there. Not a red herring, but what is that? I don't know. I didn't take enough philosophy classes. Yeah. But anyway, do what works, go where the people are. And so if people want to complain, oh they get all their information from Joe Rogan, I'm like, then you better get on my podcast.

Marsha 46:47

Correct the information. I was actually talking to another podcast guest about how we as healthcare professionals actually have the credentials to back what we're saying when we're on podcasts or blogs or writing because we have that credential, because there are a lot of people in our space who are maybe health and wellness experts, but they don't have the specific credentials of being actually trained in health and wellness topics. So we actually have those credentials. So yeah, so I would encourage anybody who wants to share their story. I'm sure people who are listening to the show today may have a story that they want to share. I know on my podcast, we share stories of creators, innovators, risk takers in nursing. And Nurse Rosa, her nurse Rosa's insights shares stories within helpcare and the work that we do. So feel free to reach

Speak Up, Start Now And Final Takeaways

Marsha 47:40

out to us. And I do have a question for you, Rosa. What's next? I know that you're doing a lot now.

SPEAKER_00 47:48

But what's next? It really goes with what you were saying, as far as every nurse has expertise. And I really want to encourage nurses to lean into their experience as being expertise. If you are a nurse, you may not have 20 letters of different certifications behind your name, even if you've been working with patient populations for the last 15 or 20 years, if you're just not a test-taking person, you still have that expertise from your experience. And nobody can take that away from you. And so anything that you can feel confident to educate people about that you know is legit information, and you would be educating them about it in your work, you can say that into a recording, and it's still valid. And this is a new thought for a lot of people. But I actually wrote a book about it. It's called Speak Up, Start Now. It's to encourage just that. Every chapter has reflection questions to think about what is that for you? What's your area? And what can you speak out about? What is your story?

Marsha 48:59

And imposter syndrome too, and yeah, all of that.

SPEAKER_00 49:02

Imposter syndrome where we think I don't have enough degrees, or I have to be invited to do this, that, or the other. Nobody invited me to make Nurse Rose's Insights podcast. Now, have been invited as that podcast to do a whole bunch of cool things, but taking that step, nobody made me write a book, but I'm being invited to share it with a whole lot of different people through different events, like symposiums that'll buy a copy for each of their attendees. And I'm not even going to be there. By the time you hear this, my book will have been in the swag bag of every attendee of Nurse Blake's nurse con at C Cruz. So that's 3,000 nurses. So hopefully they'll all be encouraged right in time for Nurses Week to step into their power of their expertise and maybe start a podcast. Maybe it'll be something else, right? Maybe they'll just speak up in a meeting or bring forward an idea that is a good process instead of a workaround that you do in secret. Use that creativity and lean into it and own it.

Marsha 50:12

Yeah. And 99% of the time, you don't need permission. You don't need permission. And if you do feel that you have to ask for permission to speak up or start a podcast or anything like that, just keep in mind there are opportunities to do the things that you want to do with within this space where you can do things like this on the weekends, or you can record before work or record after work. I actually had spoken to another guest on the show, the rapid response RN podcast with Sarah Lorenzini and how she's navigated that space on how to work on a podcast that talks about patient care specifically, like specific stories within the healthcare organization that she was in. But it was about asking for or not asking for permission, letting your organizations or any anybody that you're worried about aware that, hey, this is something that I'm going to be doing. I'm just telling you that, giving you a heads up, but it won't take a time away from what I'm doing. So I'll link that particular episode as also in the show notes for our listeners. So I have one final question that I would love to ask you. If you had to pick a word of these three, how would you describe yourself as a creator, innovator, or risk taker?

SPEAKER_00 51:34

Can I say tri effective?

Marsha 51:37

Sure can.

SPEAKER_00 51:39

And why is that? Well, we've been talking about how content creation is what lights me up, right? Whether it's healthcare related or food and travel related or just business entrepreneur exploration, uh, creating content that shares what I'm learning with other people. And then for innovation, the Stronger After Stroke podcast is a huge innovation in patient education and information dissemination. Because before we would always just hand out our written handouts, but what about people who couldn't read or their health literacy was really low and they don't know what these words mean? If they can listen to it and maybe even listen to it on repeat, that's an innovative approach to technology, using technology to level up the amount of the stroke education care that we're giving, and continuing to innovate in using that modality for other nurses and doctors and just other people to connect with others and get their message out. That's a form of innovation. And then what was the third one? Risk taker. Risk taker.

Marsha 52:49

Well, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 52:52

It's a risk. It probably feels like less of a risk to me than other people if I go up and introduce myself to somebody because I'm very aggressively friendly. But to most people, like public speaking is like the top fear. And so I'm out here taking a risk when I'm speaking. Sometimes I do get hate comments or hate mail sent to my house, and that doesn't feel good, but I do believe in what I'm doing and that it's important and making a difference in enough other people's lives that it's worth taking the risk of some people just not getting it.

Marsha 53:31

That was Rosa Hart, nurse, podcast host, and media consultant. Hey, thanks so much for listening to the show this week. Please make sure to rate and review this episode in your favorite podcast app. Then don't forget to click the follow button so you won't miss an episode. This episode was produced and edited by yours truly with administrative and research support from Liz Alexandri and Renan Silva. I'm Marcia Bhate, and you've been listening to the Bossy Nurses Podcast.