Discovering Your Sweet Spot: From ICU Nurse to Empowering Advocate

What Is Your Sweet Spot—and Have You Found It Yet?

For decades, I believed I would always be an ICU nurse. I thrived in the one-on-one, deeply personal care that came with it. Tending to just one or two patients at a time allowed me to meet not only their physical needs but often their emotional and even spiritual needs as well.

But everything changed with the Affordable Care Act.

Increased bureaucracy and pressure took away the ability to provide the kind of care I loved. Though I was still passionate about bedside nursing, after 30+ years in the ICU, I realized my real sweet spot wasn’t just in care—it was in coaching and mentoring.

Coaching and mentoring aren’t the same as precepting.

They’re about guiding, encouraging, and standing by someone when the going gets tough.

Once I began supporting less experienced nurses, something shifted in me. I came alive. Teaching, encouraging, and walking alongside them felt natural—and it lit me up.

From Passion to Purpose: Launching My Advocacy Business

In 2011, I launched my own patient advocacy company. At first, I focused on helping patients navigate the healthcare system. But over time, I noticed something else: healthcare professionals—nurses, doctors, social workers—were burnt out and looking for more. Many of them were desperate to get out of the system but didn’t know how.

So I started teaching.

My first course in patient advocacy began during the COVID-19 pandemic. I even got “accidentally” invited to teach a group of nurses working in worker’s comp—and it was incredibly fulfilling!

One of the first nurses I mentored launched and sold her advocacy company within a year.

That’s when it clicked:

“Maybe this is bigger than just me.”

Helping Others Find Their Sweet Spot

Here’s the truth:

We all have a unique skill, passion, or talent that others will gladly pay for. But most people have no idea how to find it—much less how to turn it into a thriving business.

That’s exactly what we do at Nurse Advocate Entrepreneur.

We help emerging advocates—especially nurses—launch businesses with confidence, understand how to package and market their skills, and build something sustainable. Because while nurses are natural advocates, most don’t know how to build a business around that passion.

What’s Your Sweet Spot?

If you’re a nurse or healthcare professional searching for more—more purpose, more freedom, more fulfillment—you might be standing right next to your sweet spot without realizing it.