House of JerMar

Small Steps, Big Wins

• Jeanne Collins • Season 1 • Episode 31

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Join us as we sit down with the extraordinary Sue Saller, whose journey from math teacher and financial advisor to successful entrepreneur, podcast host of Small Steps, Big Wins, and author of a book with the same title, "Small Steps, Big Wins" is nothing short of inspiring. Sue shares personal stories of growth, resilience, and the transformative power of pursuing one's dreams. Her insights into wellness, storytelling, the power of a good coach, and intentional environment design will leave you reflecting on your own journey and the steps you can take toward personal empowerment.

Sue shares her future bucket list aspirations, including her exciting plans to open a yarn shop and foster a community of crafters and entrepreneurs. Her vision reflects her belief in the power of community and intentional spaces to inspire and nurture personal growth. We invite you to listen and be inspired to embrace change, follow your dreams, and engage with a community dedicated to wellness and empowerment.

Don't forget to connect with us on Instagram and share your thoughts, as we strive to create impactful conversations and reach our goal of empowering 1 million women to live fully.

Sue's book recommendations by Michael Singer:
The Surrender Experiment
The Untethered Soul
Living Untethered

Sue's Book: Small Steps, Big WIns

More About Sue:
Susan Saller is a writer, speaker, small business operator, coach, and host of the Small Steps, Big Wins Podcast. Her journey from a life of control to one of self-love and acceptance was inspired by her own struggles and the guidance of her coach, Austin Linney. Now, she empowers others to embrace transformation and take bold steps toward personal growth. With a diverse background ranging from teaching to financial advising to small business operations, Susan is dedicated to inspiring and supporting others on their own paths to success. She resides in Davenport, Iowa.

www.suesaller.com
https://www.facebook.com/susan.k.saller/
Small Steps, Big Wins Podcast
Find My Personal Coach

Receive a free kindle version of my book, "TWO FEET IN: LESSONS FROM AN ALL-IN LIFE" when you rate and review the show. Simply rate and review the show, take a screen shot of your review and send it to podcast@houseofjermar.com. Then I will send you a link to download your free Kindle Version of my book. Thank you for joining our house!

House of JerMar:
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Read Jeanne's Book: Two Feet In: Lessons From and All-In Life

WELCOME TO OUR HOUSE!

Speaker 1:

The message I want out there is that if you think you are nominal, or you think you're not special or you think you can't change, you can, Because I lived most of my life quiet behind the scenes and I didn't think I was anything special and everybody, everybody has something special about them and everybody has the power to change their circumstance or situation. Even if you think you can't, there's somebody out there to help you who can.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to the House of Jermar podcast, where wellness starts within. The House of Jermar is a lifestyle brand, empowering women to live all in through interior design and personal wellness. We are a destination for women ready to reimagine what is possible in their homes and lives and then create it. We are honored to have you join us on our mission to empower 1 million women to live all in. I am your host, jean Collins, and I invite you to become inspired.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to the House of Jormar podcast, where wellness starts within. I'm your host, jean Collins, and today's guest is someone that I have had the pleasure of being a guest on her show. I've had the pleasure of talking to her. She's written a book. Sue Saller is so incredible everybody and I am so excited to share her with you. She is a writer, she's a coach, she's an entrepreneur, she has an incredible story and she has a podcast called Small Steps, big Wins, and I was a guest on it, and now she has a book also by the same title Small Steps, big Wins and we have so much in common, so we're going to work really hard to keep this under an hour. So, sue, welcome to the House of Jormar podcast.

Speaker 1:

Wow, thank you, jeannie. What a kind and warm introduction. I am so excited to be here, so I can't wait.

Speaker 2:

Me too. I'm so excited to have you. So I have read your book. I read the entire thing in one sitting, I will say so. I was really captivated by it. And as I started to read your book, I remember when I first met you, I had sent you my book and we had had a call about being an author and writing a book and you had read some of my book and you were in the beginning part of it. You said I can really relate to your childhood and I was like, oh, that's so great, Thank you so much.

Speaker 2:

And then I started to read your book. I'm like, oh, my goodness, I can really relate to your childhood. Yeah, and that's one of the beautiful things about writing a book is that people can connect with your story. So there's so much to talk about here. Why don't we first touch? Because I love to share a little bit about people's careers and sort of their career path and how they've gotten to be where they are and how you got to be an author and how you got to be a podcast host. So, if you could, just at a really high level, because I definitely want to make sure we talk about book and we're also going to talk about environment, because you and I had a huge conversation about the importance of your environment and your design.

Speaker 2:

So I want to touch on that, because you've recently moved and put into action some of the things I talked about, so let's talk, at high level, a little bit about your career background.

Speaker 1:

Well, high level. Okay, it's really hard. It's really a hard question to condense in like 30 seconds, because when you and I and I say the same thing, I mean when you pass the half century mark in age, it's like, okay, let me see if I can condense it. And I'm the type of person I've lived a life almost like a chameleon. I've done so many different things. I haven't been in the same profession and done the same thing for 30 years like other people. So the high level is I got married at 20. I had my first kid at 23, 24. I have three beautiful children, homeschooled them for a long period of time and then I also was a math teacher at the time, went back into teaching, taught it five or six years, didn't really find my groove there and became a financial advisor and did that job for three years and then, through a series of events, I wound up with the job as a director of operations, administration, hr and personnel for a small company out in the Midwest, and that's kind of where I've landed at the moment and all that stuff.

Speaker 1:

In between I decided to start a podcast and out of my podcast I didn't think it was going to go anywhere. To be honest with you and I'm now almost two years in. It'll be two years in January 2025. I now can't imagine life without a podcast. I love talking to people, I love connecting people. I love connecting people with other people and having fantastic conversations like this and meeting people like you, jeannie, and every guest that I talked to changed my life in some either small or large, capacity. So I had the podcast.

Speaker 1:

About a year and a half ago, I hired a personal coach because I had a series of things that happened in my life that actually what the book kind of came out of. That Hired a coach and out of that coaching experience, one day he was like I think maybe you ought to write a book. Like, really, I don't think, so I don't know. And so in January this year January 2024, I started writing my book and the first round was done, I would say by the end of round was done, I would say by the end of I think it was the end of February, and it just flowed. I mean, it was. It was incredible. I just sat at the computer and I started writing and the next thing I knew I was 200 pages later and found a publisher. And here we are, and it was released in October. So sometimes I still walk around going like I can't believe I'm an author. I look at it, oh I am. So I'm like, yeah, I am, that's my name. So yeah, that's the high level.

Speaker 2:

That's your name and that's your story too, yeah, yes, which is a big one, and you've done a lot of things, which I think it's a huge testament to your personality and the way that you. You talk in your book about how you do everything with urgency and I was like, oh yeah, I know that person, I'm that same person. It's like you got to do everything, you want to do everything now and as an entrepreneur, we have so many different ideas, and so I loved your honesty and your vulnerability in your book.

Speaker 2:

So, let's talk about coaching for a little while. So Austin is your coach. He's mentioned in the book. He does the beginning opening of the book. He's mentioned in the book quite a bit. I feel like I need to meet Austin Now. I feel like I kind of know him and I want to meet him, and maybe on my show because he seems very cool. So what was going on in your life that made you decide you wanted a coach and wanted to find somebody?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's a great question. Probably about, I would say, maybe 10 months prior I joined a mastermind group and I had no idea what a mastermind group was. But I got, I started changing my friend group for just to simplify it, and then I started hanging out with people who were entrepreneurs or entrepreneur wannabes, people transitioning, leaving their W-2s and going on to something else in life. And when you start hanging out with different people who think differently than you, then you start questioning wait a minute, this is the life I have right now, but I like what they have. Can I make the transition? Is there, you know? Can I do something? So out of that group, actually, the podcast was born.

Speaker 1:

But then, through a series of events in I described them in the book, I would call them post-traumatic events I had a couple of personal, um, really traumatic events to me happen, but I had no way of dealing with them. I didn't know to. At this point in my life, before I hired Austin as my coach, I had no idea what a personal coach was, mindset coach, this whole coaching world all of it was new to me, no clue at all. World, all of it was new to me, no clue at all, and I just you know, like I said, I had a series of events. They were traumatic to me. I didn't know how to deal with them and I met Austin through a phone call. He was supposed to come on my podcast and so I talked to him and an hour and a half later I hired him as my coach.

Speaker 1:

I realized yeah, when you know, you know, and I realized my life was going in a direction I didn't want it to. I didn't have a framework for dealing with the problems that were happening at that time and so it led me to say okay and I asked him the question well, before I say that he has a podcast called Construct your Life and I asked him on that phone call, that first phone call, I said can you help me deconstruct the bad parts of my life, that or the negative things that I see in myself, and help me reconstruct it back into a better version of myself? Can you help me do that? He's like, yes, and there was something about that. Yes, I went okay, all right, I, I, I actually do believe what you're saying to me. All right, deconstruct me Right.

Speaker 2:

And so that, that, how long, how long did you work with him? I mean, coaching is like an ongoing forever thing, but it was.

Speaker 1:

I mean, at first I thought it was 12 weeks, and then the 12 weeks went into 24 and then they went into 36. Let me see we did three rounds. That would have taken well. I started in August 2023. We coached consistently just about every week until, I have to think, April 2024. This year we took a two month break and then went back into it again for another 12 weeks.

Speaker 2:

That's so great. Yeah, that is so special. So your book is so interesting because you're super vulnerable, you share your past, you share your childhood, you share, you talk about these post-traumatic events and you share those in the book, which really helps the reader relate to where you are and we might not have had all the same things happen. But you talk about a lot of things that I think are actually very common for people. And it's not when you talk about your childhood. I could totally relate. It's not that you were physically abused, right. It's not that you have these crazy traumatic incidences, but what you have is a lack of love and a lack of feeling seen and a lack of connection with your parents and with other people. And you talk about, you know, being bullied at school and I was like, oh my goodness, like here, I can totally relate to all of that. And you talk about how that softens your voice and it makes it so that you then no longer want to speak.

Speaker 2:

And one of the things I think that was so powerful in your book is when Austin really encouraged you to say I love myself, really encouraged you to say I love myself, I am seen and I see myself. And you explain the challenge of actually saying that and I was like I can hear you feel you. It was so impactful. So share a little bit about how did you overcome that to really become comfortable, because so many of us can't look in the mirror and say I love myself. We can't do that and we have a hard time even looking at ourselves in the mirror, let alone internalizing and feeling those feelings that you do love yourself. So how did you do that? Because it's one thing for someone to tell you to do it, but to actually do it is a whole nother thing.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I can still remember actually real vividly, that point in time, um and um, um I'm not going to sugarcoat it it wasn't easy. It probably took me weeks, if not months, to actually get to the point where I believed it, because I had to keep going back to Austin. I'm like, I don't feel seen, I don't feel loved. And he had to remind me again and again. He actually recorded a podcast that, um, he does these um Friday rants and it was you are seen, and he sent it. He sent it to me, um, he sent me the raw file before it was released and I watched it. I was undone cause I knew he was talking to me. He won't, he sees, like he doesn't do podcasts for his like, directed at his clients. But he was inspired and, like I looked at that, I had to watch that. I'll tell you, Jeannie, I probably watched it. If I watched it once, I probably watched it 30, 40, 50 times. Wow, and one of the ways that I eventually came to realize that you know I am loved, I do love myself, I'm, I am right where I am was through repetition. It's the only way. It wasn't a one and done. Right, it wasn't a one and done because I heard him say it. But then sometimes we just had to go back to it again and he's like and what he would do is that a situation like, for example, a situation would occur. He'd come back to the situation. He goes well, what's deep, what's the deeper meaning on why you reacted the way you reacted? Well, what's the deeper meaning on why you reacted the way you reacted? And sometimes he would just pull out, or I would pull out, or realize, oh, I wasn't seen or heard. That's why I did X, y and Z. So it wasn't easy, it did take time.

Speaker 1:

And then another thing that I talk about also in the book, is belief. You know I had to. I lived a life where I would take other people's beliefs in me and what I could do. And the accolades you know we get those from out, like the outside, affirmations like oh, you did a great job in that, oh, you're fantastic, you know you're great. And that feeds our ego. Fantastic, you know you're great. And that feeds our ego.

Speaker 1:

And what happened in my life is that I would have to go back to my friends again and I would. I wanted to hear how quote unquote great I was, or how. You know how. I did that thing really well and what I realized was that I was taking their belief and having to go back again and again. When you take something, it's like, okay, I'm taking this, but I'm going to look for it again. What I should have done, and what I now do, is borrow the belief and then make the belief my own. Interesting there's a different borrowing people's beliefs. I would just take more and more and more I keep going back to it but but borrow the belief to the point where, okay, I have to actually embody this belief and then let that person just be that person, you know, rather than having to develop some kind of codependent relationship or, you know, having to go back to them. It wore, it wore my friends out, to be honest. I'm sure it did.

Speaker 2:

I'm sure it did. I didn't realize it. Yeah, it's a big, it's an insecurity.

Speaker 1:

Sure, absolutely, absolutely so.

Speaker 2:

So can we talk about story work? I was fascinated by this because I am a huge proponent of journaling. I write all the time and I find a lot of my podcast guests journal as well, which I've found so interesting to connect with. I had a guest on who told me she has 500 journals from her traumatic, you know, trying to work through her traumatic past, and so you talk about journaling in even just a whole different level. Austin, how'd you do this thing called story work? So talk to me about what story work is, because I had never heard of it and I thought it was very, very interesting.

Speaker 1:

Well, I'll give Mark England credit for it. He has a program called Enlifted or like a coaching program called that. So that's where it comes from, is from him and Austin trained, you know, and did the work through that program. So he takes that and he uses that. So so what story work is is you? You're not just journaling, you take your journaling to the next level. It's a four step process, like we said. So the first one is that you title out your story. So I'll take, I'll walk through an example.

Speaker 1:

I think it's easier to understand what story work was. So I would explain something to Austin and he would be like, okay, some events. He'd say, okay, what's bothering you, or something like that. So he'd say, okay, title out. First thing we do is we title the story, so whatever the title was. And he's like, get as raw as you want with the title, like whatever, just title it first. That's the first.

Speaker 1:

The second step is just to actually just write the story Raw. Write the story as if you are back there in that moment. Write it, that's it. Just keep writing until you can't write anymore. Just keep writing until you can't write anymore. And so I would do that. You write that second step and you're like okay, wait a minute, I got the title, I'm writing. Okay, how does this become powerful? The third and fourth step is where it becomes powerful. The second step is you write it and then you read it out loud to yourself. There is something powerful about speaking words verbally so that they can be heard, versus reading something and just leaving it in the brain, right? So that second step you write it out and then you just read it out loud, normal, like you and I are having a conversation.

Speaker 1:

The third step is to take that story and you're going to incorporate breath work into it. So you read the story at 80% speed, meaning almost like you're leaving the driveway and you forgot to take the parking brake off. It's like you're still, you're going kind of slow. You just read each word and at the end of the periods you just breathe Every and the. But every once in a while you take a deep breath in and breathe out.

Speaker 1:

The last step is to breathe at just about every point as you work through the story. At any point that you would get very upset. So every three or four words you would be like, oh, okay, you know, just breathe, breathe through that, and so that's the story work process. But what happens is that in that breath work it calms down your nervous system. So for me in particular, when I would title a story a relatively traumatic story traumatic to me, it was like the first time I'd read it through I'd be crying hysterically, but by the third or fourth time, when I was breathing in between, it neutralizes the story in your mind. It doesn't make it as there's just something about it that it just doesn't make it as powerful or hold as much power over you as when you started. So that's story work in a nutshell, and I love that.

Speaker 2:

And I can relate, because people who follow me on Instagram know I'm doing a 12-week breathwork class, a one-on-one session, and I have found breathwork transformational.

Speaker 2:

So have I and part of that journey is understanding where we attach emotion to and how our body responds to emotion, and I just went through a session that talked about what's your relationship with fear and using breath, work to change your relationship with fear and recognize that your relationship with fear is just like your relationship with people, and so your story work session reminded me of that, because it's what's your relationship to the story, and releasing the relationship that you have to the story and releasing your body's relationship emotionally to the story and not giving it the power that it has had in the past in your life.

Speaker 1:

Right, right, yes, absolutely, and that's what I learned through story work. That's what I learned through story work. I mean some of these you know I talk about in the book, some of these traumatic events that happened in my childhood. I carried that stuff with me for almost 50 years. Sure, when I took them through the story where process, it's like they don't. They don't have that power over me anymore. And at first, when Austin had me do that work through things with, with using the storyboard process, I didn't believe it. I really didn't. I didn't think it was going to work and it did. So now I don't storyboard as much stuff anymore as I used to, but because I have a different framework for dealing with difficult and challenging situations that come my way. I still journal, you know, I still read them over and stuff, but I don't, um, I'm just in a different point in my life where I don't engage it as much as I did before.

Speaker 2:

Right, but it's a great tool to get you to where you, where you want to go.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, oh, yeah, yeah, which is so important.

Speaker 2:

So let's talk about your change in friends, because I find this happens a lot just with entrepreneurs in general or people who are interested in self-help and improvement and growing and changing One of those processes and you talked about how your circle of friends started to change and I have found from my guests and from my own personal life, the more you get into some of this coaching, woo-woo, mindset, spirituality stuff, the more sometimes you have to change your circle of friends.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, sometimes you have to change your marriage. Yeah, exactly, so talk about.

Speaker 2:

how did you because that's really hard to do so how did you come up with the courage to kind of create new friends and new spouses?

Speaker 1:

too? Well, not yet, but it came out of the fact that when you realize you need to change something, you can't keep doing the same thing over and over again and expect a different result. And so when I realized, okay, the people I'm hanging around with weren't really building me up, they weren't thinking, you know like I knew there was a different way to think about things and they just weren't meeting that Now, in full disclosure, I didn't. I don't have a real big circle of friends, so it was more or less the people I would see at church or I had a few friends from Pennsylvania. Quick background I moved from Pennsylvania to South Carolina a couple of years ago, so proximity to people changed. So I didn't really have a big friend group where I had relocated to, but there were people that I knew, so, fast forward a little bit.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I had to change my friend group, but I think the biggest change came in my relationship. The relationship with my second husband, jack, actually is, and it's still transforming. We're really good friends, but we realized that my trajectory in life and his trajectory in life are two different trajectories. We're not the same person when we met and even though couples can stay together, not being the same person when they met. Sometimes you just diverge so much that you can't find common ground anymore, and so that's kind of where we're at, not, you know, we don't really have that common ground anymore. I'm on this entrepreneurial path and he's on a different path, and we both came to the realization, like it's okay.

Speaker 2:

You know what? That's? Just such acknowledgement right Like you're you, I'm me. This is the path I want. This is the growth path I want. This is your growth path, and respecting that person.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and leaving while you're still friends Like I've had a friend of mine say that to me like, instead of staying married and to the point where you despise the person you're married to, we realized that, okay, if we do stay married, it might get to that point where you despise the person that you're at, and that was kind of my first marriage. That's what happened there. So we both recognize that. Okay, you know what, it's better off to part as friends rather than trying to make something work that's not going to work anymore. So, yeah, it's yeah and it's still a process. I mean, it's still working its way out. But it was interesting.

Speaker 1:

You had a guest on I don't remember. I listened to it last month and she was basically saying the same thing that a lot of women in their mid fifties who start to find themselves again and start to step out and become and walk into who they really want to be, not who society told them or if they were in a relationship and it put them into a box. She and she was mentioning that a lot of those women, like they're all getting divorced. It's very common, you know, it is very common. Yes.

Speaker 2:

But I also like because you talk about it in your book. But what I also like and you portray Jack, your second husband, so kindly in the book, I will say and because you talk about him being supportive of you, being on this journey to try to get better, and him recognizing that he needed to give you the space that you needed to work on you. And I think that is such an important message and something that I would love the listeners to just hear, because sometimes and you didn't, I don't know that you asked for the space. It sounded like he recognized you needed the space to work on you, and sometimes we need to be strong as women and ask for the space and ask for the grace and you don't know what the outcome is going to be. But give someone space.

Speaker 1:

If they're working on this heavy growth work, just give them some space, I think, jack witnessed a radical transforming in me once I started coaching with Austin, cause I hit this low point in my life. I realized I'm like, if I don't change something or like I don't do something different, I'm on this path where I don't want to live anymore. And Jack watched me transform in front of his eyes, you know, and and I was just so excited and so impressed and so transformed by what I was learning each week with Austin, by what we were working through. I couldn't help but share that with him. And as I was doing all this story work, working through my, my traumas, I was working through, you know, I would talk to Jack and I would say look, you know, this is what I'm going through, this is what I experienced, this is why I chose to do something this way seven years ago. This is why I chose to do something this way and and that, realizing that that those choices that I made weren't the best ones for me, they were made in in circumstances that I didn't you know that I didn't think I had control over, but I really did.

Speaker 1:

And there was a lot of crying, there was a lot of and we did. We fought a lot too. We argued a lot Talk about my friend groups, my belief system, his belief system, people. We were hanging out with things we were doing. I mean, there was tension there too, but he did give me the space. He did read some of the books that I read and he was like wow, and he got transformed as well, indirectly, from me being coached by Austin, which was cool.

Speaker 1:

There were quite a few instances where I could see Jack going on his own transformational journey as I was going on my end. So while he was going through his, indirectly, I was going through mine very directly. He was able to empathize and he's just, he's just an empathetic guy to begin with, you know. So he was able to allow me the space that I needed and there was a point where he felt like, if he didn't give me that space, I'm just. I mean, I was at such a low in my life he felt that I would do something drastic if I didn't have that space, and I never conveyed that to him. That was just his thought, his belief, and I appreciated it.

Speaker 2:

And his take on it. Yeah, and you are very vulnerable. In the book you talk about suicide and you talk about the thoughts that you had about suicide, and so I can appreciate that vulnerability. But what I appreciated even more was your realization, and I would love to you to just talk really quickly about how you got to this realization your realization that it wasn't that you didn't want to live anymore. You didn't want to live your life, the life that you were in you didn't want anymore, but it wasn't that you didn't want to live. How did you come to that realization, to be able to separate that?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I have got to give my good friend, mark, picard credit for that. Uh, he and I had a conversation. Oh, I can't remember credit for that. He and I had a conversation. I can't remember.

Speaker 1:

I think it was sometime last year and it was Mark that kind of brought the awareness to me. But also reading some of the books I was reading as well. But really what it was was realizing that I'm viewing life through a lens and I used to look at life like I'm in life, like life is happening to me, not for me, and that I lived most of my life not feeling empowered, that I could change my circumstance Through a conversation, pretty much with Mark, but I would say, austin, there's other things too. I realized that when I look at myself, I can actually there's, there's myself inside me, but then there's also the circumstance going on around me. So if anybody's watching this, it's like I have my fist out and then I have my hand over my fist.

Speaker 1:

You pull yourself back and you kind of look at your life from a floating above the things that are happening. Okay, so I know it's a little woo there, but you're floating above and you're seeing. So when I realized that wait a minute. It wasn't me. It wasn't me myself I needed to die to. It was the life that I had created. And then understanding that I can change that life, that was kind of the turning point for me when I realized, okay, I can, you know, I can change the life that I have. I don't need to take my life to change my life Very powerful.

Speaker 2:

It was, and you can find and create a new Sue and a new life which is really really powerful, so important, and I'm sure your children are very grateful that you came to that realization yes, as are many other people. So so much of what you do and you talk about this in the book so much of what you do is really about helping others. So your podcast comes from having a desire to help others. You're coaching, you're connecting of people. You're always great about oh, I know so-and-so let me connect you the work that you do with church. It's all about connecting people and helping others, and I find this fascinating. You started a website called personalcoachfindercom and I think that's really helpful for people. So can we talk about that website and what that is and how you started that?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, sure. So the website gosh. That started actually I think before the podcast, I can't quite remember, but yeah, I was so changed and transformed by my work with Austin and through the podcast he brought me other connections with other coaches. So I started talking to other coaches and I'm like, hey, you know how do your clients find you? Just casual conversation. They're like, well, we don't have a place to be or whatever.

Speaker 1:

So when I started talking to more of them, I realized, oh wait, what if I started a website that just featured people who are on my podcast that I knew, and just put them in a place where other people can go find other coaches and be able to experience that? So it was just, yeah, it was just born out of a desire to help other people find a coach, because I know what it's like to not have the right coach and then I know what the magic happens when you find the right coach and there's so many out there. So I just created the website and asked coaches if they wanted to be on it. So it's currently just sitting there.

Speaker 2:

But it's such a great resource. I've been onto it and it is. It's just a really great resource, and I think that's one of the powers that we have of having a podcast and having this public platform is that we can try to help people, find the right people to help them with whatever their issue is or whatever they want to learn. That is one of the benefits of being a podcaster, and so I love that you've taken it to the next level by offering that for coaches, because there are a lot of coaches out there, but finding the one that you connect with is really important. So, as a coach, I thank you for having that service. It's great. I think it's awesome. All right, so let's switch gears really quickly and let's talk about environment, because you and I had a great conversation about environment and how your environment impacts how you feel and how you feel about yourself.

Speaker 2:

um, because you spent a long time not loving yourself, and um, so we had a conversation about how your environment can help fuel the positivity for yourself. So talk about the changes that you've made to your physical environment now that you have learned to see yourself and to have this new version of Sue out in the world.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I loved that conversation. I actually listened to that a couple of months ago our podcast and I was like, wow, yes, it reminded me that not only do you need to cultivate inner, you need to cultivate inner wellness to feel your best, but that where you reside and how you design your space also affects your wellbeing. So as I relocated to the Midwest, I started designing my home in a way that makes me feel comfortable but is visually pleasing to me. You know, it works for me. It might not work for somebody else, but it works for me. It's simple, it's clean, it flows.

Speaker 1:

And just talking to you made me realize, okay, wait a minute, I have a thought behind why I choose to put something in that place. You know, do I need that there? What's the color scheme? It just, it just heightened the awareness rather than just slapping together a room. I thought about it. Everything has meaning or it has significance, and you know it flows. So, yeah, I started. And then each room, I went room by room. You know, like my bedroom is simple and clean. There's like the bed and the nightstand, and the nightstand has a simple light on it and that's all that I want, because when I go to bed. I don't want complexity, I want simplicity, so my bedroom is simple. You know, my office is what you see here and my office to me is warm and inviting and I've got warm lights around and I love coming into this room and hanging out here. So, yeah, I didn't realize how important space was until I started paying attention to my space.

Speaker 2:

And that is so important. That speaks to my soul. I'm so happy you did that and you mentioned something that's so important that I always say to people it's not about what's right or wrong from a design perspective, it's what feels right for you. And I had a podcast guest on and we were talking about her environment.

Speaker 2:

She has crazy wild artwork and red things and she loves color everywhere and she was talking about how important color is and color in her bedroom and I said that's so interesting because to you that's what you want. And I said to me my bedroom is black and white, like I want the clean, I want the calm. I'm just like you, right White rug, white, like it's very clean and calm and yet has artwork in it that inspires me and wallpaper on the ceiling that inspires me. But that, for me, is the environment that energizes and makes me feel good, is the calm and that makes me feel secure because of the calm. Where for her, the white and the starkness to her feels cold and she has a traumatic past as well and she specializes in traumatic relationships from your past and traumatic parents, and so to her, the white is like it makes her anxious and like this, and so it's just so interesting to to have a conversation with someone who's in tune with how they feel and in tune with their environment and can communicate how designing an environment that fuels them and makes them feel good, and how they've been able to accomplish that. So I am so proud of you because your space.

Speaker 2:

You moved away from the camera for a minute and I was like, oh my goodness, look at you. You included elements. You've got metal, you've got stone, you've got wood, you have artwork, you have the blues and the blacks to represent water, you have round to represent water, round furniture. And I was like, look at you, you have this whole like feng shui environment going on and you might not even know it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's just what you say. I didn't even think about the rounds and the water and stuff.

Speaker 2:

I just kind of went more comfortable and honestly I have to say it was accidental, because some of the furniture, like I'm like but you picked what felt good to you and, ironically, what feels good to you happens to be something that has really good flow and really good energy, which flow is.

Speaker 1:

For me, flow is important, but I also have a life and the way I operate. Flow is extremely important in what I did in my jobs and how I run my life or even a podcast or writing a book, flow, moving from one idea to the next, moving from one room to another, moving from one podcast to another, transitioning all of it is about flow and when you don't feel in flow with what it is that you're doing, then you get this to me, you get a disconnect or you get the anxiety comes in here. So I like flow, I do flow very well and I like my room or my environments to flow, no obstructions or anything. It's just naturally going from one to the other. Good job.

Speaker 2:

Feng Shui perfectly. Let's talk about what's on your bucket list for the future. What are some things that you'd like to do professionally and personally?

Speaker 1:

Well, right now I'm a little in transition in life and trying to to trying to land on my next best iteration of who I am, you know. So I'm just. I know another book is in the works so I will start writing that in January. Austin actually encouraged me. He's like oh, I think you ought to write this next book, which I already have titled out, and a good portion of it is already done. So there is another book coming out.

Speaker 1:

I'm ramping up the podcast, so we're going into that. My podcast producer and I have had some conversations on the side to see how we can support one another and expand his business and expand my reach. So that is exciting. I'm kind of looking to see where that's going to go. We're not sure yet, but we'll let that go the way the direction it's going to go. We're not sure yet, but we'll let that go the way the direction is going to go.

Speaker 1:

As far as personally bucket lists, I want to try and travel some more next year and do that and just really take the upcoming year to continue to be comfortable in who I am, be comfortable in who I am, solidify who I am deep down and not be afraid to be who I am, you know, and press into that and just take this quote, unquote new person that I've become and even get more comfortable with who she is. So that's you know. That's kind of what I'm looking at. And then down the road I do, I'm not going to talk too much about it, but I do want to start a business and I'm looking at properties in town and trying to figure out how I can make my business start to become a reality. So I guess I can say, yeah, I want to open a yarn shop.

Speaker 2:

Nice Good for you, yeah.

Speaker 1:

So we started. I started looking at some, getting ideas, looking at property, talking to some small business owners in town, and it's always been a dream of mine. So, yeah, I guess I could say that's on my bucket list and it's a dream, but I don't know. I could see if I can make that one a reality. I think it'd be great, see, and you put it out there, I did. I have you know, you just put it out there.

Speaker 2:

I have a friend who was like I always wanted to own a bookstore and I was like, are you crazy? She's like no, I always wanted to own a bookstore and she's opening a bookstore this month. Yeah, I've always wanted. Happened in like a month. It was just-. Oh my gosh, well, that's pretty fast, but I frequent a coffee shop.

Speaker 1:

I know I frequent a coffee shop and, out of just not even really looking for it, having conversations with the knitters and crocheters that show up in the coffee shop, and I'm like, hey, do you guys have a spot where everybody can go and convene? Oh no, there's nothing around here.

Speaker 2:

I'm like, uh, where do you go buy your stuff? Um, hobby Lobby, ooh, okay, and I know growing up there was a shop in my little town and when I was growing up there was, and we I learned how to knit Like it's a dying art. But the people I know who knit I have some friends, um, who are a little bit older than me and they knit and they say it is so therapeutic, it's therapy.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it is. I knit, I knit, I knit, I weave as well, oh you do Not weave, I spin.

Speaker 1:

I spin my own yarn and so I have that background and I know the good things that can come out of it. And you know, a lot of times people who are crafters are really entrepreneurs at heart. So I could see this thing even going bigger and being a resource in a place where crafters can gather. But if they're entrepreneurs they can find a lot of times they don't have that confidence within to go and follow their dream to do something else with their, what they see as a hobby but could actually be a real legitimate business.

Speaker 2:

So I could see that getting bigger You're connecting people. I can totally see this happening for you.

Speaker 1:

I could too. I'm excited when I talk about it and I'm like can I pull this off? So I think I can.

Speaker 2:

I know I can, I know I can, I know I can.

Speaker 1:

It's just. It's just a matter of when. So, yeah, matter of time, matter of when, and just leaping a little bit. And I have a background in in running. I got a really nice background in running a small business, so I have an idea what I'm getting myself into.

Speaker 2:

You have a good finance background, which is helpful in running a business. Yes, I have that too.

Speaker 1:

Many of us don't. I got the numbers, got the numbers, got the people side, got everything. I think I got everything I need. So, yes, now it's out there and the universe seems to be connecting me with people here and there, so we'll see what 2025 has in store. Maybe I'll come back on the end of the year and I would have already next year and already have had that shop open. That would be fun, of course.

Speaker 2:

Oh, I guarantee you you will. You will have written your second book and you'll have your shop open. I can't wait. Yeah, yeah, I think so. All right, so I've used so much of your time. So, before we run out of time, I love to ask every guest to recommend a book that has impacted them personally or professionally, and I will say you recommend a lot of books in your book, which is really helpful, but what book would you like to recommend to people? Because you do have a lot of books recommended in your book as well.

Speaker 1:

I do, I do. Well, I'm going to recommend a trilogy, but if you only read the first one, that's fine too. Michael Singer is the author and he wrote three books and my suggestion would be to read them in order. It is the Surrender Experiment, the Untethered Soul and Living Untethered, and if you only read one of them, it would be the Surrender Experiment. But that book alone was one of the major game-changing, life-changing catalysts for me. When I read that book, there's just something about it where I finally made the shift in understanding that if I allow life to just flow rather than trying to control it all the time, things go so much easier.

Speaker 2:

I mean, there's things you talk about that in your book. Stop trying to control everything.

Speaker 1:

Stop trying to control everything. I mean that's when I really embrace it and I'm a control freak. I mean I have a type A personality. I mean I will try and micromanage everything down to the T and in some respects it's a really good quality to have. I mean, if you're doing operations, if you need processes in place, if you need to, you know, think through something in order for it to occur, it's a great quality. The problem is that I applied it to everywhere in life the problem is that I applied it to everywhere in life.

Speaker 2:

Hey, unlike you, I'm totally type.

Speaker 1:

A control mania.

Speaker 2:

So you were speaking to me in the book. You definitely were talking to me.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it doesn't quite so. Once I realized, wait a minute, if I let some of these things go, life is going to flow a little bit easier for me, and it did. And that also was a process, certainly not an overnight thing. I went back to that book several times. But when I read the Surrender Experiment, then I read the Untethered Soul, then I read Living Untethered, and I don't even think he wrote them in that order. I think one, I think the Untethered Soul, came out first. I don't remember, but when I read all of them, I read them in that order and I'm like, oh, they make so much more sense if you read them in order. But yeah, that's my big book recommendation.

Speaker 2:

Okay, I've read the Untethered Soul. I haven't read the Surrender One, so I'm going to have to buy that. Thank you so much. Before we go, one quick thing how do people find you? And is there anything I didn't ask you about your book from a message perspective that you would like to get out there?

Speaker 1:

Okay, let me answer the second question. First, the message I want out there is that if you think you are nominal, or you think you're not special, or you think you can't change, you can, because I lived most of my life quiet, behind the scenes, and I didn't think I was anything special and everybody, everybody has something special about them and everybody has the power to change their circumstance or situation. Even if you think you can't, there's somebody out there to help you who can. So that's the message I want to get across, because we think we have to do big things, we think we have to be amazing at something, we think we have to. Just there has to be something grandiose to happen in order for change to occur, and it's just not true. So anybody can do that. So that's what I would say.

Speaker 1:

The other to find me, let's see, I have a website, susallercom. You can reach out to me through there. There's an intake, there's a question form. That way, I am on LinkedIn, susan K Saller. I am on Facebook, susan Saller. Susan K Saller. Yeah, there's not too many.

Speaker 2:

Susan Sallers, I'll link everything, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, they're all linked there LinkedIn, facebook, instagram.

Speaker 2:

And Amazon for your book. Oh, and Amazon for the book.

Speaker 1:

As an author.

Speaker 2:

People buy the book, rate and review the book. It's how we get awareness for our book. So I will link your book as well, because I really enjoyed reading your book. It's an easy read. You have really actionable steps at the end of every chapter of things people can think about for their own lives to apply the things that you've learned.

Speaker 2:

So, thank you for writing your book. Thank you for being so vulnerable in your book so that people can connect and learn and grow. That takes a lot of courage and thank you for being a guest on the show. It was so good to see you again.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for having me.

Speaker 2:

This has been incredible I love talking to you, jeannie, and we'll talk again soon. Have a great day. Thank you for joining us for another episode of the House of Germar podcast, where wellness starts within. We appreciate you being a part of our community and hope you felt inspired and motivated by our guest. If you enjoyed this episode, please write us a review and share it with friends. Building our reach on YouTube and Apple podcasts will help us get closer to our mission to empower 1 million women to live all in. You can also follow us on Instagram at House of Jermar and sign up to be a part of our monthly inspiration newsletter through our website, houseofjermarcom. If you or someone you know would be a good guest on the show, please reach out to us at podcast at houseofjermarcom. This has been a House of Germar production with your host, jean Collins. Thank you for joining our house.