This Nurse Started a Million Dollar Test Prep Business-Ep. 4
Ever wonder if you could turn your passion into a lucrative business? That's exactly what Latrina Walden of Walden Exam Solutions did. Passionate about teaching, Latrina was able to fill a much need void in the test preparation space. By arming nurse practitioners with the tools to pass their certification exams, Latrina has been able to generate seven figures in her first year of business.
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To read the full show notes, visit www.financiallyintentional.com/nof/4
TRANSCRIPT:
Naseema McElroy: 00:03:05 Oh my God, you guys. I have the honor and pleasure of interviewing Latrina Walden. Now, Latrina and I go back way, way, way far. So, we went to undergrad together. We went through grad school together and then ultimately both became nurses after all of that and are now both nurse practitioners. So super excited to have Latrina of Walden Exam Solutions join us on the podcast because she has been doing some amazing things with her nursing career and she has a lot to give for y'all. So, Latrina, I'll go ahead and let you introduce yourself.
Latrina Walden: 00:04:04 Yay! Hey Naseema. So, hi everybody out there. But again, like she said, we go way back. Back to the college days when we didn't have anything. We weren't even thinking about finances or nursing, but have both kind of progressed. But what I'm, what I call myself now... So, I am a practicing nurse practitioner. I do see patients twice a week. I work for a free clinic. So that's fun! It is also very difficult because there is no one to refer my patients to. I have to call in favors when I do that so I really am my patient's last stop. So you know, if I see something that looks sketchy, it is where writing a whole report and begging basically a system to take the patient. So there's that. I also do teach. I am a professor at Clayton State. I've been doing that for about five years, been doing that full time as well. I ve teaching, which is kind of how I married this business. Then, started Walden Exam Solutions after becoming a nurse practitioner. So, it's all been quite a world when these last couple of years.
Naseema McElroy: 00:05:23 So do you teach NP students?
Latrina Walden: 00:05:26 I don't. I actually teach the non-clinical side because prior to me being a nurse, I was a nursing home administrator, so I did that for, you know, 10 years. So my comfort is running a business. That is where I'm comfortable, which is not normal for a lot of nurses. I am comfortable in the numbers with a budget and in that space and basically telling people what to do. So that's where that comes in. Me being who I am, I had to know the nursing piece to feel like I could come full circle. That's why I went that way.
Naseema McElroy: 00:06:12 Yeah. So I told people, yeah, that of course, we went to grad school together, but I failed to mention that we both have a master’s in healthcare administration. Before, I was a nurse as well. I worked in administration for a large hospital entity, which included a hospital health plan and medical group. Latrina went onto the nursing home side to be an administrator. So, that's what our careers were before being nurses. Before we went into nursing school and then got another second masters in nursing. So, Latrina where are you at right now as far as where you're taking your business? Where and what are you, where are you financially, personally?
Latrina Walden: 00:07:04 Okay. So personally, I just want to be very clear that I still have a lot of debt and we are actively working on it. I think that me and my husband just got into space where everyone's finally out of school, everyone's settled. We moved into a home where our child has started, our oldest has started school and we just feel really stable at this point. We felt like we could tackle it for some reason prior to us really going after the debt. That was just always something. It was frustrating to be honest. You know, cars getting stolen. It was always something. When we moved and what we call this and now our forever home. It's not expensive, so I don't want anybody to think that, but it's just, you know, a good school in a good district and a nice solid house. We finally felt like, okay, we can tackle this. So even before starting the business, we started slashing everything, cutting out everything where we could go. Because, the bulk of our debt is our school loans and being honest, my school loans are from undergrad and grad school. So, my nursing, I paid for out of pocket. All of it. When I went to get my master's in nursing, I did that for free because I am a full time professor at a university.
Naseema McElroy: 00:08:52 Yes, you can get a master's for free if you're an employee at the university. As nurses, we can go back and be and do professorships or just work as an adjunct professor and get our tuition paid for.
Latrina Walden: 00:09:21 Absolutely. It's important to know, that every move I made was a strategic move because I knew that I could not take on any loan and I had the wherewithal to realize, we can't go into any more debt. Let's just be real. Everything that I do is going to be strategic from this point on. So, I went to ADM and got my nursing degree paid for that out of pocket. I was working full time. It was absolutely insane and I do not recommend it, but I did it.
Naseema McElroy: 00:09:53 You got your ADM even after your had a master's degree? Isn't that like...?
Latrina Walden: 00:10:00 Just start from the beginning, the nursing. Yeah.
Naseema McElroy: 00:10:05 I'm just saying a lot of people would be like, why would I do that? Because, it's not the common way to do it.
Latrina Walden: 00:10:13 Exactly. I knew I could pay it because I was an administrator. So, I did that. I worked full time. I took a leave of absence the last probably three to four months of school and finished my schooling. I had a very supportive boss at the time, which we know is rare, but she was very supportive and I had peers who were very supportive and looked after my buildings and all of that good stuff while I just finished up that last three and four months and I paid for it out of pocket. Then, of course, I went the RN to BSN route online. Again, paid out of pocket. And then, I took a break for a year just to get my bearings right and get back into the work swing and then went to get my masters and I'm doing that for free.
Naseema McElroy: 00:11:19 Wow. Did you just go back to working as a nursing home administrator?
Latrina Walden: 00:11:26 By the time I finished my RN, I was working in dialysis as Dialysis Administrator. I did go back as an administrator, but that didn't last long because you and I both know when people find out you have an RN, they want you to work. So, they threw me on the floor and I learned very quickly and then decided probably about four or five months. I knew that if I was going to learn fast and I wanted to learn in the ER at a top-level hospital and that's just how I wanted it to be. I wanted to learn and I wanted to learn fast. I don't really typically do slow. I applied to the trauma center in our city, which is high-level teaching hospital and got the job and that's where I was for eight years before going to get my masters. I learned a lot and it was very beneficial for me to be in the ER at a trauma center.
Naseema McElroy: 00:12:46 The stuff that you see and how fast you pick things up, like those skills are priceless.
Latrina Walden: 00:12:55 Exactly. It was helpful because going to clinical and having to acquire your own clinical for MP school and all that good stuff. I got a lot of jobs because of that hospital. Whenever people saw that hospital on my reputation, I got a lot of clinical because of that hospital that I had worked at. They were automatically like you can do this. Meanwhile, I am absolutely still not going into any debt. So, it's great. We just have our old debt. I'm like okay, at some point I just need to address this. [Naseema Asks "How much debt you have?"] It's me and my husband, which costs around $135,000, USC from Undergrad. That's just from USC. No other school. That's for me and of course, my husband has his hundred and some other thousand as well. He went to FSU, Florida State University and another university. That's basically the bulk of where we sit.
Naseema McElroy: 00:14:21 Let's talk about what you're doing currently in your business right now. Tell me a little bit about Walden Exam Solutions. What services do you provide?
Latrina Walden: 00:14:33 Walden Exam Solutions was a marriage of the two things that I love, which is nursing and teaching. I always say that I love to teach and I am good at it. It is one of the things that I own and that I am very aware of. Like, I am a good teacher and I enjoy it. I think that comes through, which is very helpful for everyone. What I did was I realized that a lot of tutors were floating around on Facebook and basically tutoring people to help pass boards. I decided that I could do that and could probably do it better and decided to just dive in it, full force. That's basically what I did. I don't just tutor I teach. I teach the material because I want you to know it. What's happening right now is we are turning out nurse practitioners at a very quick rate and a lot of nurse practitioners graduated and feel like they don't know the material. That is not a dig. It is not a jab or anything like that. It's hard and sometimes you don't have lectures to go along with your teachings. It's just a fact. It's just how the schools operate. A lot of them are starting to give you the lectures, which is great and it's helpful. But, especially, you know, several years ago it's just starting and they didn't. So, here I come basically putting the pieces together for you and in a fun, lighthearted way because I'm also not that professor who feels like you need to be stuffy and you can't have fun in nursing or while you're in the learning period. So, I created some videos and that's basically what I sell. It's like an online university just geared towards passing boards. It was just really something that I did for fun in my spare time. I would put a little post up in a Facebook group and I'd say, hey guys, I'm a professor and I'm just looking to help people pass. If you want some one on one time, contact me.That's literally how it started.
Naseema McElroy: 00:17:43 Where is it at right now? Where has it grown to?
Latrina Walden: 00:17:47 I started the group, the actual Facebook group last year and just had a few hundred people in it. You know, here and there and now it is 12,000 strong growing very quickly. It's very overwhelming sometimes. I have done at this point over 400,000 in sales and I launched the website last November and I'm coming out with new things this month. It is just, I cannot keep up from the things that people ask me for, because people want to understand. They, the students want to understand. And that's what I love. They want to feel like they know the material and they're asking me to create things that are well within my realm of creating. I'm just slowly putting things together because of course, it takes time. I'm still a nurse practitioner and a mom and it weighs all those good. It comes to the point where I just came back from vacation and my husband and I literally talked and said, we're gonna have to make some decisions. If you really want to do this, which is absolutely possible, you're going to have to let something go.
Naseema McElroy: 00:19:23 I mean, totally [inaudible] $400,000 as a nurse practitioner?
Latrina Walden: 00:19:35 I've had schools reach out to me, which has been phenomenal and amazing. I am gearing up possibly for my first live speaking event as my first basic live session in person with students. At the beginning of next year at a university, they reached out to me and asked to come and help their students. It's becoming a real entity, a real thing! So again, decisions will have to be made sooner rather than later. [Naseema Asks "What are you projected to do this year in sales?"] This year, after launching everything, it's probably gonna be about 1.5.
Naseema McElroy: 00:20:24 That's what I'm talking about, Latrina. Side hustle to $1.5 million business in a year. Come on, y'all.
Latrina Walden: 00:20:36 It's crazy when you think about it. You know, the nursing world can sometimes be very funny about numbers and people telling things like this, butit's just, it is what it is. I didn't do it for the money. That's first and foremost. I did not start, it was, I wasn't trying to make some money. A lot of tutors out there "do". They started because they realize these students are desperate and they are trying to make some money and that's just for me, that's just completely inappropriate. It goes against every one of my teaching principles.
Naseema McElroy: 00:21:18 Well, I love your mind because you knew that the demand was there. This is what you love to do. You came straight from a place of service and you respond to what people tell you they need and you effectively get this stuff out there. That's why you are seeing the growth in the sales that you're seeing because you are meeting a demand and you are actually serving people. So, this is amazing and I love that it's just marrying your passion so perfectly and that's how things happen. It's not about, oh, you just had like this big idea overnight. It was that you love to do and it made sense and you're able to deliver on it and you have done an exceptional job.
Latrina Walden: 00:22:04 I appreciate it. I will say that my videos and it is very informal. It is very fun.
Naseema McElroy: 00:22:13 But it doesn't have to be. People think it has to like have everything all professionally done. Done is better than perfect and look at where you're at and you can always go back and remake those videos.
Latrina Walden: 00:22:28 Exactly. I mean, that's absolutely the plan, but right now, like my business coach says "functional, not fancy". So, I'm getting the information out there to folks because a lot of people, especially when we graduate as nurse practitioner at school, there's so much hanging on the balance of passing the board.
Naseema McElroy: 00:22:55 Yes, because our license is dictated by us having that certification. I mean, you can't practice unless you have that certification.
Latrina Walden: 00:23:08 A lot of us like you said I know we're talking finances but a lot of us went into debt for it. And, we're working a reduced schedule now. Our families are basically relying on us to pass these boards and quite frankly, we have so many patients that we need to be taken care of. I am not helping anyone who couldn't pass school, so everyone I'm helping is smart enough to at least graduate. So I'm just helping get the providers out there so that we can help take care of these patients. Because you and I both know that healthcare is struggling right now with providers and a lot of other things. So that's just where I'm coming in at.
Naseema McElroy: 00:23:57 I think it's amazing that you've been able to pivot into this realm because healthcare is changing, so does primary care is changing as well and it's amazing that you both have your foot in the door in primary care, but then, you are also expanding this world of education and even just the educational system as a whole is changing. I think you're a pioneer in that regard, especially for nursing education. Nursing education, let's face it, it's pretty archaic. It's just kind of like the medical model. It's archaic and so exciting to be at this point where you are transitioning the way that people learn. That's why schools are reaching out to you, because not only is it more cost-effective, but it's actually more beneficial educationally for your students. I mean, you're seeing results probably better than the results that people were seeing in actual nursing school, nurse practitioner school.
Latrina Walden: 00:24:59 I am, it's really exciting because a lot of students as well are using the material to help them pass their quizzes, pass their exams.
Naseema McElroy: 00:25:16 Yeah. It bridges all of the gaps that's there. I went to UCSF. I'm gonna just put y'all on blast, you know, it has the reputation, it has that name recognition, but the teaching was not adequate to really go out there and practice being an effective practitioner. Taking a board, it did bridge a lot of gaps and a lot of that was self-taught. So, I wish when I was taking my board, I had this service available to me and that's why you're getting the sales. That's why people are reaching out to you because there is such a demand. So yeah. Thank you for doing that Latrina and I know it was hard work.
Latrina Walden: 00:26:01 It is. I looked at my husband the other day and had him laughing because I mean I had my materials out because of course, I'm researching, pulling up things from journal articles, trying to make sure I'm staying on top of everything. And I said, "who does this? Who wants like to just sit here and learn all day, every day? I was like, no worries, it'll be me." I'm literally reading a big ginormous book of diabetes because I feel like I need to know the ins and outs. I need to know the why's, you know? It's like, oh my gosh, normal people don't do this. [both laugh]
Naseema McElroy: 00:26:48 So, I just want to pivot a little bit. I'm going to bring it back a little bit to finances. I know that you guys have 200 plus in student loan debt in your family, but, I also know that you're pretty active in the personal finance space as far as just like being involved in groups and learning about personal finance information. Also, sharing your experiences but also applying the information that you've learned. Can you talk about your evolution kind of in the personal finance space? Like, how you started out, what was the breaking point to even get you interested in learning about personal finance and where it's led you today?
Latrina Walden: 00:27:32 I kind of started back with being a nurse and kind of my first awareness was making all this money, but not having any assets. [Naseema Says "I make too much damn money to be this broke."] Exactly. It was just like, whoa. I had some very good older nurses guide me and introduced me to things. One of those things being Dave Ramsey. So, I was very aware, very early. Like I don't have to be in debt. Do you know what I mean? It was just like I don't have to carry this debt my entire life because that's all I knew. So, I was like, okay. So I periodically would clean up my debt. I would pay everything off and then I would do bad habits again would get me and I'd fall back into debt. But, I think once my kids came along, once my daughter came along and I realized how much we wanted to do for them, I was like, I gotta get out of this, you know? It became very apparent. We really started working on things. I know that we haven't done a whole lot, but we have paid off things here and there, which for us was milestones. You know, it may not have been the biggest shovel, but it was a little shovel. For us, that was still a win. Then recently I was introduced to the FIRE community and was introduced by, of course, you. So, I started looking at that and thought this was more my speed. This is kind of where I agree. This felt more right. So, I really started just gobbling up all the knowledge, like really just reading everything that kind of came across because I'm very novice at it. I don't know a lot. I know the basics, invest your 401K, do this, do that, the things that you should know. But I really started reading and diving into it and talking to like-minded people, like yourself about what are we doing? I think that's the beauty of our relationship is you don't have to agree on everything, but the end goal is still the same to get out of debt. We've chatted and I'm like, okay, I'm going to do this and I'll see you doing it and I'll see folks in your group doing it. I'm like, I gotta get on this. I don't want to be left behind. So really, it's been the last year or two. I would actually say that the last two years we've really kind of put the pedal to the metal and just said okay we're doing this. Probably one of the things that we're very proud of is we paid off the IRS. You know, being from California, I had big IRS debt because again, making all this money, no assets. So I had literally carried it with me into marriage when I moved into Georgia and had just been slowly paying it off. The last year and a half, we looked at each other and was like, this is ridiculous! We paid off about $18,000 to the IRS just from salary I made way back when in California.
Naseema McElroy: 00:31:18 Hey, the IRS, I don't know if you know my IRS story, but when I was going through my divorce, because of the way that I had to file my taxes, I had like a $30,000 IRS from 2016 and I cannot let the IRS in my business. It was like in the middle of me paying off my debt and all that stuff. So I called my credit union and I was like I need some help with this. Like what is the lowest interest rate loan I can get to cover this amount of money? At that time they were having deals on auto refinance because my car was paid off and I was like, let me check. Let me pay y'all and not the IRS, so I don't deal with the IRS. So I feel you. Just like you, wanting them to get out of your life.
Latrina Walden: 00:32:06 Yes. It was just like, again, we've always made good money. Me and my husband know how to work. It's not an income issue. We can go out tomorrow and make plenty of money. But it was just, we weren't being good stewards of our resources. Once we became focused, it was like, let's get this done.
Naseema McElroy: 00:32:30 I think it's awesome that in the FIRE space, especially this is not so much in that Dave Ramsey community, but in the FIRE space, there's all this information about tax optimization that I learned. I was like why aren't you paying? Why aren't you taking advantage of your 401Ks? As nurses, we have 457. We have all these amazing tools that we can use so that you know, we are paying ourselves and we're paying for, to fund our future instead of paying the IRS. I know it's important to support roads and schools and infrastructures, but, if it's making sure that I can retire earlier and spend more time, I am going to choose the latter.
Latrina Walden: 00:33:22 I think when you put me in that group and again introduced me to the FIRE community. I think one of the first things I did was go to the university and increase my retirement. Of all these people saying, you know, they were retiring early and I was like, I want that to be. I remember going within like two weeks, taking my little self right on over to HR and filling out the paperwork and that lady looking at me like, are you sure you wanna do this? And I was like, yes, you know, but it's also part of the reason why I won't leave teaching. I love teaching, but I also have a pension. I will get you choose retirement. It is a great job for me. You know, I obviously enjoy it. I go, I teach my classes, I serve on my committees and I go home. It's really a good fit for me and it doesn't interfere too much with my lifestyle. So again, I'm like, yes, I'm going to stay. I'm invested. Like I enjoy it. I enjoy my peers that I work with. Why would I leave?
Naseema McElroy: 00:34:40 Also, there's benefits in teaching where your kids can go to school free. It is these things like it's cool to aim to retire early because it's more about making work optional. It's more about making sure that you have the option and it is about buying your time back. You can do whatever you want, but the thing is is that when you go to work because you want to and not because you have to work it becomes something different. I think when people hear FIRE and they're like, oh, you guys just don't want to work, you want to step away. No, it's not about that. It's about having options. It's about what we get to do, not what we have to do. I'll probably be a nurse and work on the floor forever because I like what I do but I can go in there and make my little 200 something thousand dollars a year, worked in a couple of days a week and come home and enjoy my family. I don't have to take my work home with me, but after thinking in the back end, I got this money working for me so that I can do whatever I want. My kids are always set, you know, like have all these things in place to make sure that money is not a barrier for anything for me anymore. And that's what this community is about.
Latrina Walden: 00:35:59 I think that's an important lesson to embrace. You know, it's just really important for me, what you said hit on it for me was making sure my kids are okay. I have never before felt so strongly about something before. You know, a lot of people ask me why I go so hard, why I work so hard. Because I have to make sure that when my kids get older, I am not a burden on them. I have my stuff together because it's not very common in our community that people aren't taking care of and that people have done what they're supposed to do as far as you know gone to work and saved their money and retired appropriately and have funds to take care of them while they're in retirement.
Naseema McElroy: 00:36:53 Yeah. We don't have to keep on starting over from zero and we need to break that cycle because the wealth gap is not narrowing. It's only getting bigger and bigger. We have to stop doing that to our future generations. We have to ensure that we are setting them up for financial success. It's not about spoiling them. It's making sure that they're coming to a level playing field.
Latrina Walden: 00:37:19 Exactly. I just refuse to be careless with my children. I absolutely refused. That means that me and my husband who also has a pension are going to probably stay doing this even while we build these things and have passive income and build this company. We're probably still gonna stay for a little bit until we make sure that we are on track. And that if anything happens and we don't have another dime to put into our retirement avenues that we will survive.
Naseema McElroy: 00:37:55 As you said the first thing that you did when you joined this community was to increase your retirement contributions, but what are some other things you've been able to implement just as being part of the community?
Latrina Walden: 00:38:08 I definitely found a financial advisor that we trusted to help us 'cause again novice. Finding someone that we trust to kind of at least start us on the pathway. Also, I really stuck to my budget. I'm super proud of myself about that. I was in a love-hate relationship with my budget, I would do it for a period of time and then just lose it and come back to it. I would go back and forth with it. But it's been a good solid, probably close to a year where I've just been like every other day, I'm not in it as often as I used to be. Because you kind of get the hang of things, but I'm definitely balancing and reconciling it. Yes. I like YNAB. It works for me. As we say, find what works for you and just do it. That's some of the things that we've done. I will tell you one thing that I am working on, my husband and I, we are working on saying no to family and friends, reach out and save a need. It is difficult because we do come up from a place of service and so we do want to give. It is our natural state. We just want to give, but we can't do that to the detriment of ourselves. So we have to work at saying no. It's uncomfortable. Especially, when you become that person in your family that people look to. If we do it, it's out of pure love knowing that we're not going to get it back.
Naseema McElroy: 00:40:12 Really, that's the philosophy I had to take. I would put a category in my budget that's just straight up giving and if the request does not fit into that, I don't let people borrow money because that just brings too much tension to your relationships. If I can't give it to you, it means I don't have it. So that was the main thing. Like I just put it as a line item which is in my budget. If it doesn't fall within these parameters, I can't give it. That's what shifted for me because I like to give to, I like to help people, too. But then, I also know that I can't give from an empty cup. So I have, so I've got to make sure I have so that if you really need it I can help you out.
Latrina Walden: 00:41:01 Exactly. And I have the same as you. I have a line item, it's called gifts. It's literally for everyone. It is where if you ask for something or if it's a birthday present, if it does not fit, then it's a no. It's still difficult because we want to help and you know, my nature and his nature especially, we will just give it to you if we have it. I've had to become very rigid about no. It's not there. We don't have it because you know I can't do it as the detriment of myself or my children.
Naseema McElroy: 00:41:41 I think that's great. A lot of people will say, you're going to have all this money in your business next year. How come you just don't just pay off all your debt?
Latrina Walden: 00:41:56 Because you have to have strategy, that's first and foremost. I need to make sure that I'm doing it right. Because there's these little things called taxes that will come every so often and I have to make sure I have the money to pay for that. We're just kind of sitting on things.
Naseema McElroy: 00:42:34 I would also recommend that you reach out to Travis at Student Loan Planner because he and his team will help you exactly what are revenue goals are for this year. He's an expert to tax code that's what he does as a hobby. Doing on business in and out, plus the tax codes. I think he charges maybe like $300 for a consult for $200,000 student loans. He can help you strategize exactly how you could pay it off. I read with him and I shared with all of my numbers and how I paid off my student loans. If you guys don't remember, I had $180,000 in student loans. I shared with him how I paid it off and the way that he would have had me set up, set up everything and pay off my student loans, I could have saved $80,000.
Latrina Walden: 00:43:38 Oh Wow. Okay. Yes.
Naseema McElroy: 00:43:45 The episode where I talked to Travis about my student loan payoff story. If you want to go back and listen to that because that was a big one for me. I don't regret paying off my student loans, but now that you guys know. If you have student loan debt, make sure you reach out to Travis at the Student Loan Planner to hook you up. He is a master at the student loan game. He's a master at policies and laws and tax code around it. If you definitely want to benefit from all his nerding out and that's like a done-for-you service. Like he'll sit down, talk with him or somebody from his team will sit down with you and look at everything from your school loans and they will map out your plan to pay it off. So, it's an amazing service.
Latrina Walden: 00:44:43 Yeah, I like that idea. Just tell me what to do.
Naseema McElroy: 00:44:45 I'd tell you earlier is that I've shared this information with a lot of people and what I respect most about you is that you actually take action and I feel like it's paid off. It's paid huge huge dividends for you. I'm super proud of you for that.
Latrina Walden: 00:45:04 Thanks. It's been rough. But you know, I think that a lot of people move into these realms where they don't want to pay people for their services. I'm still experiencing, I experienced it with my business as well. People don't want to pay for things. I'm like, girl, I know you're a nurse. Like I know you're working. I don't make these things expensive but people still want the discount and there's nothing wrong with that. So, I don't want people to think there's something wrong with that. But sometimes, you have to pay for the service in order to get you where you need to go.
Naseema McElroy: 00:45:43 Yeah. Google is an amazing resource and you can probably figure out how to do just about anything by Googling and searching around things. But most of the time, it's going to take you a lot longer and you'll probably make mistakes along the way. So, your best bet is often to just go ahead and invest in the program because ultimately it's an investment in yourself and I thinksome people don't like to pay because they don't understand that concept. When you're learning something like this or when you're using the tool, like you have to pass your exam, it's an investment in yourself. Imagine if you don't pass that exam the first time and just spending all that time searching around and digging where you have this already a built-in solution, you already have the results right in front of you. Why wouldn't you invest in it? I know the penny-pinch in mindset and I know there's also a grab. Everybody is trying to sell you something, but this is a service that can ultimately benefit you. I think people struggle to invest in themselves and that's the most important thing that you can ever do in life in multiple ways. You have to invest in yourself.
Latrina Walden: 00:47:00 I agree. I think that is probably a big lesson that I've learned along this journey is that you don't know what you don't know. So if I don't know it, I'm very much like I will seek it out. One of the fun things that go along with what you said is people pay for the service. I had a student who talked to me, who messaged me and said, not only did you help me pass my boards, but when I went for an interview, they quizzed me on my interview. I knew the answers because I listened to the material. So, it's not just I'm helping just to pass the boards, but I may also help you get a job because I'm presenting the material to you in a way that you remember. Exactly. That's that whole professional development and quite frankly, I don't have the time anymore. I don't want to be on Google for 20 hours trying to figure it out myself. That's just the reality of it because again, wife, mom, business owner, nurse practitioner, professor and I don't have the time, just tell me what I need to do and let's do it.
Naseema McElroy: 00:48:18 So let's talk about ultimately where you want to be? Where do you see this company going?
Latrina Walden: 00:48:27 I am hoping I'm not hoping, I know that in the next two years that we will be completely debt-free, including the house. I'm just giving myself some leeway as well. We all know that I'm a blatant overachiever, so I may actually just kind of boom get that down immediately. But I'm just giving myself two years. So we want to be, completely out of debt, including the house with the business. Then, in the next five years or so, I want to be running a multimillion-dollar company. Like, I have taught students in Guam. I have taught students in Canada. [Naseema Says "These are for people who are trying to pass the US boards. Correct?"] The fun fact is that Canada has now adopted the same boards that we take in the US. So, I will have students from Canada taking my material and passing their boards. I've got one student I'm working with right now who is down in Puerto Rico and struggling. I'm working with that student. Yeah. I'm already international. I absolutely want to be a multimillion-dollar company running this. I've built basically $1 million company and I am likely going to do some more professional development and work on getting it to five to $6 million. I really want to flip the nursing industry on its head in how we teach. That is my main goal in how we teach and how we take care of one another. Because that's my other piece that I talk a lot about is that we are always out there. It's every man for themselves. We know, as nurses you cannot be a nurse by yourself. [Naseema Says " No. We have to help each other out. Each are young and the new people."] Exactly. I am not here for it. I am not at all. When you became a nurse practitioner, it's even worse. You cannot treat patients by yourself. So all of that, I don't want to talk to anyone or I'm going to be nasty to my peer. No, ma'am! I'm not here for it. So, I am all about changing the nursing game and my students know that because I talk a lot about it and we don't do things like soft skills and just the way in which we approach one another with love. It doesn't have to be as hard as we make it. So, I'm really here to just change the nursing game. That's where I plan to be and where I will be. I want to do a speaking tour and do all those kinds of things because there's other things besides teaching that I want to talk about within nursing.
Naseema McElroy: 00:51:44 I'm here for it and I love everything that you're doing. We did skip a big step and I think that people would really want to know how are you so successful in your business? We talked a lot about coaching. Can you talk to them about the things that you have invested in to make sure that your business is successful?
Latrina Walden: 00:52:07 Oh sure. So first and foremost, I have a very good support system, let's start there. I realized that it doesn't always happen. I know I've mentioned my husband before, but, I mean you have to be kind of crazy to marry a woman who's like, "I'm going to build this in the basement" and he just supports me on it. He is amazing and I love him more and more every day, but he supports me in doing these big dreaming that I always do. My mother supports me and my entire family. I have cousins who helped me do things in the business and just keeping myself together and making sure that I can go and have a break. Like, I have people making sure that I keep me together. But I also invested in a business coach because again, I don't know how to half do anything. So, I decided that if I was going to do this, I was really gonna do this and I wasn't gonna just do something for a little bit, do little things. No. If I'm going to build a business, I'm going to make it a multimillion-dollar business and I need to model it or get coaching. I got a business coach and actually have a big meeting with her at the end of the month and she's basically gonna dig through this business like no one's business and I'm a little nervous. But it's all good. That's what I did you have to invest in, did I pay a lot of money for it? Not at first, but eventually I did. Because again, if you want to be like something, you have to act like it.
Naseema McElroy: 00:54:05 Let's talk about that. Because a lot of times people feel like they can't invest in things until they're making x, y, and z amount of money or have this available. But that's not how you operate, if you want to be successful in life, you have to be that million dollar business owner first and then make the decisions like you're that person in order to have it. So it's be, do, have and not have, do, be, meaning that you have to do it first and then you're going to act like that. No. So when you like to operate from a place of be, do, have and that's how you succeed in life, in anything that you're doing.
Latrina Walden: 00:54:45 Right. And I invested, reinvested a lot of the money that the business made right back into the company. The materials that are used, you can tell time was taken. That's why it takes so long because one, I'm a one-woman show with some help. Now I have help. I did not before. Now, I have a full time employee who helps me get things out faster. It takes time and you can tell that I'm really not rushing to just throw anything out there. One, you can't rush with nursing, we're evidence-based, I got to verify and make sure and triple check all that good stuff. Like you said, I have to come, I have to operate at a space where if I want to be a five, $6 million company, then that's how I have to operate.
Naseema McElroy: 00:55:38 It's an excellent place to wrap it up because you have given so much incredible information and so much value and I just know that there are people out there floored by the success that you've had and I know they're going to want to get in contact with you. Can you help people in getting in contact with you?
Latrina Walden: 00:56:05 Sure. You can get in contact with me. You can go to my website, which is waldenexamsolutions.com. There is an email at the bottom of the page where you can just email me. It will get to me, no worries there. Later this month, probably the 1st of August, I will be launching latrinawalden.com. That will be me getting in contact with me for speaking things or just questionsWe do receive an insane amount of support generally for nursing students and people in general. Because again, supporting one another is what we do. Do we have the capacity to do it? No, we come from a place of service and we get to each one as we can and we support each other in that aspect. That's how you can get in contact with me. I will say that I do have a lot of questions of whether or not I am going to branch into clinics and help those nurses. The answer is yes. I was about to say no. It's a huge move! It is on our radar. So, yes, we absolutely plan to do so. But I am not going to give dates that will cause people to hold me to it, but it is absolutely on our radar.
Naseema McElroy: 00:57:40 Well, Trina, I just wanted to thank you and I know you are a very private person. It just that like you're giving it all to us today and people might think that this is her personality but she's super duper private. I am super honored that you even consider sharing with us in this community because I know that that was a big stretch for you. So, I really wanted to acknowledge that.
Latrina Walden: 00:58:19 I appreciate that. You know what I am and this is something that I'm also pulling my husband along with me because of the same reason, privacy. We don't know unless someone teaches us. So, if we want people to learn from us and learn from people who are still in the trenches with them, like we still have the debt, know that you're not alone, even though all of this greatness is happening.We are still right there with you. Like I have to sit down after we're done and go into YNAB and balance from vacation like we're still right there with you. I think moving out of my comfortable place is starting to speak about where we are.
Naseema McElroy: 00:59:08 Just know that you have impacted so many people and I know you have the potential to impact millions and that might seem a little bit intimidating but I think that it's super valuable and it's super amazing what you've accomplished and what you're willing to share and give back to other people who could potentially benefit knowing this information. Again, I just want to thank you and just know that I appreciate you and everything that you're doing. I'll always look up to you and I'm cheering for you like I'm your biggest cheerleader. Whenever you're going to be doing, I'm going to be in the background.
Latrina Walden: 01:00:01 It's so funny. 'Cause It's vice versa. I'm like that's my friend. The feeling is absolutely mutual.
Naseema McElroy: 01:00:15 We gotta support each other. A lot of times people are like, "oh you guys are doing the same thing. Like they are kind of competition going on" and this is not about that!
Latrina Walden: 01:00:28 Okay. There's out here for everyone. As long as your intentions are good, we don't have problems with that.
Naseema McElroy: 01:00:41 Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that I am always cheering for you and I cannot wait to see where you are going to take Latrina. You have the potential to turn the world of nursing education on its head and I am here for it. So Latrina, thank you so very much for everything that you do. You know, girl, biggest cheerleader.
Latrina Walden: 01:01:15 I know, in this phase it's definitely easy to talk to someone that you know.
Naseema McElroy: 01:01:27 So there we conclude. Again, thank you. If you want to reach out to Latrina, make sure you head over to.
Latrina Walden: 01:01:45 Waldenexamsolutions.Com.
Naseema McElroy: 01:01:45 There you have it.
