We were lucky to catch up with Sue Ryan recently and have shared our conversation below.

Sue, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

Beginning in my twenties, and continuing for more than forty years, I navigated a variety of roles as a family caregiver. In parallel, I was building my professional career in technology sales. My early caregiving journeys were brutal – I didn’t know what I didn’t know, there wasn’t much information available, this was before the Internet, and people culturally didn’t talk about their private lives. I said I often felt like I was riding an emotional roller coaster blindfolded.
I did not self-identify at work because people who shared that information weren’t given opportunities and they were let go if they couldn’t keep up their pace. I learned a lot about being a family caregiver and about navigating my personal and professional roles. I have always accepted the family caregiving roles that came to me and feel they are a blessing in my life, calling each caregiving experience our journey of love.
I’m a passionate communicator. Through the years I am frequently sought to help others on their caregiving journeys. I also maintained a very positive attitude throughout my journeys – something people continuously reach out to learn how to do.
During the period when I was caregiving for both my Dad and my husband, Jack, I chose to leave the corporate world. I didn’t want to potentially be unavailable to my team at work when needed. I knew I wanted to help others learn faster and more easily than I did about how to navigate our caregiving journeys, so I wrote a book about my journey that became an international best-selling book, Our Journey of Love 5 Steps to Navigate Your Caregiving Journey. I then created a program called The Caregiver’s Journey (TM), created an award-winning online course, began speaking to groups about caregiving – both personally and how to support businesses and working family caregivers thriving together. I spread my messages when I had capacity. I celebrated my husband’s birthday back into heaven in July of 2023. He was a man of deep faith who didn’t see death as the end of life or fear death. I celebrated that if anyone was going straight to heaven, it was him. I now have capacity to more intentionally bring my messages forward. I recently went into partnership with Nancy Treaster, someone I worked with early in my career who is navigating her journey with her husband. We launched our podcast, The Caregiver’s Journey – Finally, Practical Tips and Candid Conversations for Dementia Family Caregivers, on August 14th.
With my deep experience both in my professional career and my caregiving career, the staggering increase in statistics about the number of people needing caregiving support, the burdens on working caregivers without support programs at work, the costs and impacts of the stress of caregiving on businesses and working team members, I am building my business to support businesses embracing family caregivers during this temporary season in their lives so the working caregiver, their teams, and the business thrive. While not uniquely qualified for this role, forty years experience makes me deeply qualified. Many businesses are not yet recognizing family caregivers. The impacts run throughout businesses. They are mostly hidden financial and talent thefts that can be addressed and the foundations for their solutions already exist in many businesses. The impacts are also significant to the caregiver and their family. When I first launched my business, I intentionally kept it mostly volunteer offerings and close to home, so I was available for my caregiving responsibilities. I now have capacity to reach out with my offerings. I’m structuring my business to speak, coach, write, deliver online courses, workshops, and record podcasts to support both family caregivers and the businesses they work for. There is a growing need for support in this area that I’m passionate about and positioned to provide.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I began my career in technology because I’m passionate about the science of numbers. I was on the accounting path to becoming a CPA, when I began designing software code. I shifted from designing to supporting to selling solutions. My tagline is ‘Helping people become their greatest leading themselves and others’. With my parallel journeys as a family caregiver and business professional, I have become a passionate coach for the family caregiving journey, leaders navigating becoming their best, and businesses thriving while supporting their valuable working family caregivers. I am most proud of living from massive acceptance and radical presence, and living with unquenchable curiosity. Accepting what is without judgment, I’m able to make the wisest choices in challenging moments, celebrate even the tiniest moments, stay present in the moment for what it has to offer, and continuously serve others while exploring what else is possible. Professionally, I achieved the highest success in my professional roles and am proud of that because through the efforts of my team and I, many people had better solutions for success in their businesses and their lives. I am happy, candid, honest, curious, and truly committed to living my tagline.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

The most effective strategy for growing my clientele is delivering on my word, being other directed to learn what’s important, being unquenchably curious about what else is possible, connecting everyone in the organization who will be impacted by my offerings to what the problem is they are solving in their area, why it matters, who it matters to, what the world will look like if it’s not solved, what the world will look like if it is solved. This connects people both to the problem and the solution – they become associated with it. Much of my business is referral based.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I am open, honest, candid, passionate about helping others. I am a happy person, honestly interested in what is best for my clients. I deliver more than the client requests, communicate frequently to make sure people feel heard, valued, seen, and understood. I show I’m committed to their success not just in my words, also in my actions.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sueryan.solutions/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecaregiversjourney/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheCaregiversJourneys
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/suearmstrongryan/
• Youtube: @thecaregiversjourney
• Other: https://thecaregiversjourney.com
  https://www.wcnuniversity.com/courses/the-caregivers-journey

Image Credits

headshot – Keri Zumpano