A Nurse First

Audacity to believe

• Farah Laurent • Season 5 • Episode 1

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Starting a business can be daunting, but with the right mindset and belief in yourself, anything is possible. That's Farah Laurent's take, and one huge leap of faith later, she's helping nurses level up in their careers and find their dream jobs in less than 90 days with her very own coaching business.

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I really, I think from a young age, always thought, like, if there's a will, right, there's a way. It sounds cliche, but that's really how I go about believing things. Like, if you really want something and you really believe that it can happen, you will do it. Actually, my name, Farah, means happiness. So I think growing up, I was always positive, happy, and I always thought, like, I can do anything type thing. It's just pure joy to me because I'm constantly just like, what can I do next? What can I do? Welcome to A Nurse First. This is Farah Laurent, I never thought that I would start a business. One time I was on a podcast talking about it and I said, well, nobody in my family ever owned a business. And I was like, wait a minute. I was like, what am I talking about? My dad, right? He's had so many different businesses growing up. So he had like a t-shirt printing type business. He would get cars and resell them, like so many different little entrepreneur type things that he would do. So I think that's where I get a lot of my qualities from is from him and just trying different things. And then someone said to me, you should turn your you helping other people into a business. Because naturally, I always fell into a role of a coach or career guidance. People would come to me for interview questions. And I always had a passion, like if I've met a new nurse, I was like, oh, so like, what are you interested in? And we would go into this path of like me asking them about their career because I was so curious and interested. And because of my background, where my one faculty member told me what I couldn't do. My clinical instructor told me that I would never be an ER nurse. She asked me one day, Farah, what type of nurse do you want to be? And I said, I want to be an ER nurse. I want to be like those nurses, you know, life trauma in the ER. And she said, you'll never be one of those nurses. You're too unorganized. You should start in med-surg. And I was like, what? I was like, why would the educator ever say that, right? And of course, I didn't listen to her. And in my head, I was like, watch me, lady. I will get this ER job. I got hired as a nursing student before I even took my licensing exam. And it was rare to hire new grads into the ER. I was a level one trauma nurse. I absolutely love trauma. But I always had a passion for education. Anytime nursing students would come to the ER, I would say, let me have them, I'll take them. And people would like roll their eyes and say, I don't want the student. I'm like, I'll take all the students. So I always fell into this coach kind of mentor, protector of nursing students and new grads because I absolutely love them. To me, I felt if I wanted to advance in nursing in my profession, I had to be the best and get the best in terms of degrees, certifications, and credibility. So then I got my master's in education. And of course, I was like, well, next thing is I'm going to get my doctorate. I didn't want to get my doctorate in education, my EdD, because I thought I already had a master's in education. I didn't like research that much. So I was like, it's too much to do the PhD. I was like, so I think the DNP is a sweet in the middle thing for me, which focuses, you know, on leadership and also some nursing With her DNP in hand, Farah felt like she had hit her career stride. She was teaching at one of the biggest universities in New York and working with a large hospital system to provide education, training, and a preceptor program. But always looking to extend her reach, she kept her eyes open for new opportunities while spending all her free time I finally went into a director of education role at a hospital. Absolutely loved it. It was my dream job. And then one day, they called me into the office when I was in the middle of an education meeting, and I was just building up my education team. It was about 10 months into the job. And they're like, well, so we made some cutbacks. Pack up your stuff or we could do it for you. And just, you know, leave your badge before you leave. So I started walking down the hall and I was like, In my head, I'm like, I worked so hard to get to where I am. And I said, this is what it is. So a year prior to me getting laid off, I had started my side hustle as a nurse career coach. And I was so glad that I started that because it was not much income at the time because I had just started it. But it was at least a source of income. And then I promised myself that I would go all in on my business, starting this nurse career coach business. And again, it was to serve people like me when I was a new grad because I didn't have a nurse career coach when I started. I never heard of anything like that. Then I was like, well, how am I going to start this business? You know, all the technical aspects. I'm like, I don't know anything about business. So I just started reading books, business books. I started going on YouTube and learning about marketing, sales, how to start a business, how to start an LLC. And I literally just Googled it. And that's what I did. And I think it was mindset. I started with the mindset about the possibility. And I'm very methodical in the way that I attack issues and problems, especially being a triage nurse, obviously, in the ER and level one trauma. You know, you have to prioritize. And that's kind of how I attack a lot of the issues in even with positivity being one of your core mantras. Starting your own business requires a real leap of faith, and that can be daunting. Where did you find your strength? And for those also contemplating going out on their own to pursue what they are truly passionate about, how would I think in general, the number one thing is perspective and mindset. The mind and the brain is so powerful and really your belief system is really why I think people succeed in life. I want to share a quick video that I watched recently. I can't remember the guy, but it was an old video and he was in front of an audience and he was speaking and he said, I want to demonstrate to you guys the difference between winners in life and losers. So he took, I think it was like a $50 bill and he said, who would like this? And he puts it up in the air. And a lot of people just raised their hand. And there is this one lady who literally walked up and just grabbed the $50. And he said, there you go. He said, that's the example. He's like, winners in life are people who take action and who go after what they want. And that's kind of how I've always been in my career and just professionally and personally to just go for it. You know, because I think people get stuck in the planning phase and they just don't do anything. And I think taking action is really all about just small steps and just believing that you can do it. I did a presentation recently on entrepreneurship and really there's something I call CAT. C is circumstances, A is avoidance, and T is time. Most people will not start a business or even just do that thing, whatever that thing is, because of the CAT. So C, circumstances. They'll say, well, you know, I can't start my business because I'm working full time. I have kids. I have this and I have that. It's like you're creating all these excuses, right? But there will always be circumstances. And then A, avoidance. They're like, well, I'm going to do it tomorrow. They're just like constantly avoiding. And then T, they're like, well, I don't have enough time to do that. So that's why people don't do it. So to me, I was like, well, I'm just going to go for it. And literally, I did the LLC within like, I think four days, it was already established. Boom, it was done. But that's the easiest part of your business. It's truly the easiest part. Because yeah, you have an LLC like, okay, great. Nobody knows about it. So it's like, that's where the marketing part comes in and you being visible on not just social media, but just telling people about it. So you can establish a business. Yeah, great. But are you telling people about it? Do they know about you? What is your service or product? And what is your target audience? Are they going to want it? And then you got to think purchasing power, like, do they have the ability to pay for this? So for me, it was a little difficult because a lot of my target audience was nursing students and new grads. They don't have a lot of money. But I try to find some creative ways of how I can work with them so that I can get them to where they want to be. What I do is I help nurses level up in their career and find their dream job in less than 90 days so that they could live their best lives. time is so precious. You don't want to waste time being in areas that don't serve you and that you don't have purpose and fulfillment. Pursue what it is that you want and you're passionate about and don't listen to people telling you what to do or how to do it because there's no one linear or correct way to do it. Just do it how you feel best fits Thank you for listening to A Nurse First from Sigma. If you loved this episode, do us a favor and subscribe, rate, and leave us a review. It is very much appreciated. For more information about A Nurse First and Sigma, visit