Susan Caso, MA, LPC, helps people find the feeling of connectedness that creates heartfelt interactions. She is the author of, The Parent-Teen Connection: How to Build Lifelong Family Relationships, endorsed by Children’s Hospital Colorado and Crisis Text Line. She is a therapist and speaker with over twenty years in clinical practice. Susan helps parents, teens, couples, and families create emotional safety to build stronger relationships. As a mom of three amazing humans, she knows it’s all about being connected. Susan dedicates herself to eliminating the stigma around mental health.
She is a Board Member and the Mental Health Director of The Liv Project.
Susan consulted as Technical and Strategic Advisor on the film My Sister Liv, created by a Grammy-Award- winning director and producer team. Susan contributed as a Board Member of Rise Against Suicide for over three years.
Susan imagines new tools, models, and resources to help people engage in open-hearted conversations. Susan’s work has been featured in media outlets such as Mother.ly, Wait Until 8th, and The Hollywood Reporter. Before opening Boulder Family Counseling in 2008, Susan counseled at-risk teens and adults at Catholic Charities Home-Based and Outpatient Counseling Departments and worked at a crisis and stabilization center for adolescent girls. Susan holds a Master’s Degree in Counseling Psychology and Counselor Education from the University of Colorado and undergraduate degrees in Psychology and Human Development from the University of Kansas.
She studied Dr. Bruce Perry’s PhD. Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics and is trained in Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), developed by Dr. Sue Johnson and Les Greenberg. Susan specializes in adolescent issues, relationship issues (including communication and family conflict), anxiety, depression, suicidality, and bipolar disorder. Susan helps people create more meaningful connections in an often disconnected world. Learn more at SusanCaso.com.
Key Moments
06:49 Creating teen safety and connection through sessions.
07:16 Books and podcasts effectively reach audiences worldwide.
11:22 Have you always been an independent entrepreneur?
15:49 Flexible work arrangements depend on understanding bosses.
17:56 Good kid with 700 YouTube subscribers, Roblox.
20:59 Discussing life’s end shouldn’t be taboo.
25:08 Nostalgia for easier toddler years, challenging teenagers.
26:45 Anxiety affects self-esteem and speaking confidence.
Find Susan Online
If you’re enjoying Entrepreneur’s Enigma, please give us a review on the podcast directory of your choice. We’re on all of them and these reviews really help others find the show.
GoodPods: https://gmwd.us/goodpods
iTunes: https://gmwd.us/itunes Podchaser: https://gmwd.us/podchaser
Also, if you’re getting value from the show and want to buy me a coffee, go to the show notes to get the link to get me a coffee to keep me awake, while I work on bringing you more great episodes to your ears. → https://gmwd.us/buy-me-a-coffee
Follow Seth Online:
Seth | Digital Marketer (@s3th.me) • Instagram: Instagram.com/s3th.me
Seth Goldstein | LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/sethmgoldstein
Seth On Mastodon: https://socl.bz/@seth
Seth’s Marketing Junto Newsletter: https://MarketingJunto.com
Transcript Provided By CastMagic.io
Seth [00:00:00]:
Hey, guys. I want to introduce you to rocket.net. They are a super fast WordPress managed hosting provider who I use for my business and all my clients. In fact, Entrepreneur’s Enigma’s website runs on Rocket. Rocket is not only one of the fastest hosts out there for WordPress websites, they are extremely reliable, knowledgeable, and there for you when you need them. I’ve been in the WordPress web design world for more than 15 years. I’ve used a bunch of hosting providers in the past, but none have generally been as good as Rocket, nor have they been reliable enough. I wouldn’t trust my website to anyone else.
Seth [00:00:36]:
We all know stuff happens online. Rocket has always had my back when I get stuck on something. And something would happens with an update or something gets hacked. Rocket support is fast, and the reps are beyond fluent in the WordPress CMS so they can solve the most complex issues quickly and effectively. So go check them out. Give them a shot. Go to gmedia.sh/rocket. That’s gmedia.sh/rocket.
Seth [00:01:06]:
Use the code enigma. That’s the enigma, e n I g m a, at checkout, and you get 50% off the 1st 3 months of hosting. That’s enigma, e n I g m a, and you get 50% off the 1st 3 months of hosting. Trust me. You’ll be glad you moved to Rocket. I sure am.
Intro Voice Guy [00:01:40]:
You’re listening to Entrepreneur’s Enigma, a podcast about the ups and downs of the entrepreneurial journey. Every week, your host, Seth Goldstein, interviews entrepreneurs from all walks of life about their entrepreneurial journeys. From store owners to fortune 500 CEOs, we all have stories to tell. So sit back and join us for the next 20 or so minutes while we explore the entrepreneurial world.
Seth [00:02:15]:
Hey, everybody. Welcome to another edition of the Entrepreneur’s Enigma podcast. As always I’m Seth. Email me by now. It’s a 250 episodes. So go figure. You should know who I am by now. If you’re not.
Seth [00:02:26]:
Hi, I’m Seth. Nice to meet you. Anyhow, today I have Susan Caso. I said, right?
Susan [00:02:33]:
Yep.
Seth [00:02:34]:
Good. She is the author of this fabulous book. So this play right here, the Vanna White kind of thing. If you’re watching the video, the parenting connection, how to build lifelong family relationships, a parent’s guide. So she’s even got a sub title, a sub subtitle because the parents guide is at the 2 levels down. I digress. I digressed. And she’s also got on the wall behind her, so I can lay mine down at this point.
Seth [00:03:01]:
So, and so Susan helps people find the feeling of connection that creates heartfelt relation interactions. She’s very big on family relationships. And we all know if you have kids, how much, how hard that is to keep that going. I have an 11 year old and oh my God is
Intro Voice Guy [00:03:20]:
Look at me, Joe.
Seth [00:03:20]:
During a time to kind of keep the positive relationship going when they are hormonal beyond belief and they know that the, the top and the bottom half the time. And it’s, it’s just, it’s the same. But, she is a board member and mental health director at the live project, which is a great organization to help prevent teen suicides. And help literally help kids kind of cope. Because I mean, you think being an adulting is tough. It is. I’m not gonna lie being an adult sucks sometimes. But being a kid.
Seth [00:04:00]:
Not really knowing what the hell is going on. With the world and your body and why your parents are telling you to do something. And not wanting to agree with, you know, being a teenager sucks. It does. I mean, there’s some fond memories I have of being a teenager and there’s a lot of like, oh my God. I was a snot. That’s all I gotta know. That’s all I remember.
Seth [00:04:21]:
So, yeah. Susan, how are you doing that? You have kids of your own. Right? You don’t you have like an 11 year old. Don’t you have to remember?
Susan [00:04:29]:
I do. I have 25, 21, and 11.
Seth [00:04:33]:
So you weren’t so you’re you’re a glime for punishment pretty much is what it is.
Susan [00:04:37]:
Yeah. I I I pushed the reset.
Seth [00:04:38]:
And they’re
Intro Voice Guy [00:04:39]:
all girls.
Seth [00:04:39]:
Right? And I remember from pre previous conversation, they’re all girls. Right?
Susan [00:04:43]:
The middle one, the 21 year old’s a boy.
Seth [00:04:46]:
Oh, so obviously
Susan [00:04:47]:
Or a man, really. Right?
Seth [00:04:48]:
Oh, men. Now there’s always I’m I’m a 43 year old boy. Men men don’t males don’t become men. We’re just big kids.
Susan [00:04:58]:
Yeah. What age do you think that happens? When’s the transition to a man?
Seth [00:05:03]:
I don’t know. I’m still a kid. I’m still a kid. Kid or heart. That’s what I gotta say. So but yeah. So how how’s this all get started? I mean, You, I mean, clearly you, you know, you wrote the book on the parenting connection. I mean, clearly, you know, you and you have experience in the parenting connection.
Seth [00:05:20]:
Like how, how does all how does all begin? Like, how did you get interested in all this?
Susan [00:05:25]:
Well, I’ve been a therapist for over 20 years working with teens and young adults. That’s brave. Yeah. No. I love my job. I think teens are amazing. I think they’re interesting. I think I think we need to really embrace, brace that that age group as a they’re calling them rebellious.
Seth [00:05:44]:
The rebellious being a fun way. My kid, like, he’s rebellious, but then you kinda look at them like, sometimes they’re smarter because they’re less hindered by society’s norms. It’s like when they become 21 and 25, like your older kids. I feel like that’s when it it gets more I guess I just need to say that the rebellious, but they’re less boring as teenagers. There’s nothing boring about a teenager.
Susan [00:06:10]:
No. They’re they’re really interesting.
Intro Voice Guy [00:06:13]:
Yeah. Yeah.
Susan [00:06:14]:
Yeah. I think they get a bad rap still, you know?
Intro Voice Guy [00:06:18]:
I sometimes Deserved. Sometimes. Sometimes
Seth [00:06:22]:
it’s deserved at times. Other times it’s like, you know, this kid’s kind of cool.
Susan [00:06:27]:
Yeah. I think we just have to really lean into it.
Seth [00:06:31]:
I like that. You gotta lean into their teenagehood. And we’ve we’ve all been through it. You know, you can’t get to adulthood if you haven’t been a teen first. So that’s kinda wild.
Susan [00:06:41]:
This is true.
Seth [00:06:42]:
So you wrote what made you write this book? I mean, I mean, obviously, 20 years in the in the space and you clearly know a thing or 2.
Susan [00:06:49]:
Yeah. I was looking at what I do in session to create safety at home to, you know, there’s a lot of disconnection that happens during the teen years because there’s this fight. Like, teens want autonomy. They want some freedom, and parents are trying to keep them safe. So I really looked at what I’m doing in session with teens to create that positive connection at home and put it in a book so I could reach more people.
Seth [00:07:16]:
I love that. Because I mean, a lot of people don’t realize that books are the best way to kinda get out in front of people. I mean, no part I I lie because podcasts are also a pretty good medium to get in front of people as well. But when you think about it, you know, you can, the you’re in Colorado, for example. I mean, now zoom is not as true as much anymore, but like it used to be hard. I would never, I couldn’t have a session with you because you’re in Colorado. I’m in Philadelphia. Now with zoom, it kind of works out.
Seth [00:07:45]:
You can kind of bend that, that, that the, wormhole a little bit for lack of a better work or, but still, I mean, having a book is great because you can go to a conference that hands your book out, say, Hey, here’s my book. I, I know what you’re gonna do. My knowledge is in this book and your kids can also say, my mom wrote a book, which is kinda cool.
Susan [00:08:08]:
Yeah. Yeah. My my son put posted one of my, little social media posts and go mom on it. I was just like, oh, thanks, Jack.
Seth [00:08:19]:
That’s sweet. That’s the artist. Maybe maybe he’s adulting a little bit more now. That’s pretty cool. Proud, proud son.
Susan [00:08:26]:
Yeah. He’s a senior at Ole Miss right now.
Seth [00:08:29]:
Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah. He’s still a case. He’s adult lighting. I call that, you know, when you’re, when you’re in college, it’s adult light. You can get in trouble with that as bad in college. I feel like you can, like, you can figure yourself out.
Seth [00:08:42]:
And my son is 11. I’m talking to him and he’s like, I don’t wanna go to college. I I’m, I’m gonna be done after high school. I’m like, if he wants to fine, we’ll figure that out when we get to that point. But I went to the university of Delaware to grow up. Like I went to the Delaware and that’s where I grew up. I didn’t grow up in high school. I grew up on my own figuring out, oh, no.
Seth [00:09:02]:
I have to go to the grocery store at to feed myself. Like this like, yeah, academics are great, but college is great for learning how to actually keep yourself alive and responsibly.
Susan [00:09:14]:
You definitely losing
Seth [00:09:15]:
and without losing a job, that kind of thing. So it it’s wild. Yeah. So you so you so you’re also the board member and mental health director over the LIV project. Let’s talk about that a little bit. What what is a LIV project?
Susan [00:09:28]:
Our mission is to turn the tide of youth suicide. And we have a film. We have a game. We do panel discussions. We do private screenings with the film, and then we do a panel discussion afterwards. And it’s a it’s amazing what hotbeds to people. They just start turning to each other and started talking about their own mental health. Parents, when they attend with their kids, they start talking to them like, hey.
Susan [00:09:55]:
Have you ever had thoughts of self harm or suicide? And, it just really opens
Seth [00:10:00]:
up Yeah.
Susan [00:10:01]:
It’s amazing.
Seth [00:10:02]:
It’s amazing how I I feel like that’s it’s a big topic now because a lot of people don’t realize overdone. I don’t think they don’t realize it. And they’ll remember what it’s like to be a teenager. I mean, I’m 43. I own, I remember some of the angst. I don’t remember all the angst. It’s, you know, I’m, I am not even gonna try and do the math. I’m terrible at math.
Seth [00:10:23]:
I’m like, more than 30 years past being a teenager. Give or take a year or 2. And I don’t remember. They did nitty gritty of things. I don’t know the nitty gritty of anything past like 3 years ago, let alone pre college. So it’s like that kind of thing. So, you know, but then my son’s going through my kid’s 11 and you know, it’s just starting the teenage years. And it’s amazing because you can look at your kid and think everything’s everything’s okay.
Seth [00:10:53]:
But is it?
Susan [00:10:54]:
Yeah. You gotta ask them.
Intro Voice Guy [00:10:56]:
Yeah.
Seth [00:10:56]:
You ask them everything okay?
Susan [00:10:58]:
It’s really hard being a teenager. It’s not like when we were teenagers. Although I’m like It was hard.
Seth [00:11:04]:
It’s also was hard when we were but it was hard when we were teenagers too. It’s different. It’s different. It’s more like, they’re out there more than we were. Like, we just we drank from the water hose. We got lead poisoning. We explains a lot. But other than that, like, it’s not like like the world’s different than it was back then.
Seth [00:11:22]:
It was different back then when our parents were kids and so on and so forth. That kind of thing. So it’s wild. So have you been an entrepreneur this whole time or have you been in, like, in, like, other settings? Like, I mean, the live project, you’re the mental health director, but you’re also doing your own counseling practice and all that. You’re an author, all that stuff. But like, were you ever, like, in a clinic before? Like or have you always been on your own?
Susan [00:11:49]:
No. Long time ago, I worked for Catholic Charities for 6 years in in Denver.
Seth [00:11:54]:
Oh, wow.
Susan [00:11:55]:
And, you know, after that I did start my private practice and, and that wasn’t too hard actually, because you can rent like an office space. You don’t have to have about a there’s a little, little risk. Right. You know? Yeah. Pay per month. But I do have to say the book was probably, you know, it’s a big risk, and I’m not a risk taker.
Seth [00:12:19]:
Oh, really?
Susan [00:12:19]:
Yeah. Because it does cost money. And so my has luckily, my husband’s a risk taker. So he’s the one who’s like, we’re we’re doing this. You do this. And I was like, okay. You know? Because I I was a bit nervous, you know, to spend the money and the time and
Seth [00:12:34]:
Is this self published or is this, like, published by a publishing house?
Susan [00:12:38]:
Radius Book Group.
Seth [00:12:40]:
Oh, there you go. So you had you had some support along the way, which is nice.
Susan [00:12:46]:
Yeah. I actually didn’t start writing until the end of March of 2023. So this happened super fast. I was on a mission to get this done.
Seth [00:12:56]:
How about hyper focus?
Susan [00:12:59]:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Seth [00:13:00]:
Sit down, bang it out. Then I I mean, writing is only half the half of the the process. Writing is like the first part, but then editing is the most painful part I find. Like, I’m sure the book was a lot thicker than it is now because it’s like everything went into it. And you’re like, well, I only have of this. And you’re like, but that’s half of my thoughts.
Susan [00:13:24]:
That was hard. I I wrote the first draft in 5 months. And then Wow. We edited for months and over and over. And I’m not a perfectionist by any means, but at one point I I asked the publisher. I said, is this what it feels like to be a perfectionist? He goes, it is hard because it’s like every sentence. Like, it could be better or, you know, it was hard to just say.
Seth [00:13:45]:
Or change this one word. And it’s like,
Susan [00:13:49]:
Yeah. Yeah.
Seth [00:13:49]:
My god. One word. What’s it matter? And I’m like, well, one word matters sometimes. You know?
Susan [00:13:56]:
Yeah. It’s true. So but at some point, I just had to back off and go, okay. It’s gotta be good enough. I can’t do anymore.
Seth [00:14:02]:
Yeah. Eventually, it’s like, okay. And you put it out there and you just hope that no one emails you saying you missed the comma somewhere. And I see that I mean, I re I I I find I read books all the time. As you can see, I read all these tech books and stuff like that. And then I’m all, I always find, oh no, they missed a word or they, they there’s a spacing issue here. And I’m like, I’m not telling them they are done. Keep it quiet.
Seth [00:14:29]:
That kind of thing. Exactly. But so you see, you’ve been on your own for a while. You said 20 years in prior practice. What is the best thing about doing your own thing versus, I guess, working for a bigger organization?
Susan [00:14:46]:
Well, you know, I do have more flexibility because I’m a mom of 3, even though I only have one home now, but Yeah.
Seth [00:14:54]:
You’re still mom of 3. You’re a mom of 3 until you, until you push up daisies. And then you’re still a mom of 3. Like you’re always, I mean, especially 21. Yeah. He’s still a kid. He don’t tell him that, but he’s not, he’s not an adult yet. You’re friend of Medula doesn’t fully formant dudes until I think 25 or something like that.
Susan [00:15:13]:
Oh, yes. Very true.
Seth [00:15:15]:
So you’re a mom of 3, my friend. You’re a mom of 3.
Susan [00:15:18]:
Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, there’s more flexibility. I can schedule just my clinical hours and then go home, do paperwork, or whatever I need to do and have more time with the family. You do hockey,
Seth [00:15:31]:
sledding, all that fun stuff.
Susan [00:15:34]:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don’t know how families do it where both parents work full time. I think one person in, you know, has to have some sort of flexibility to pick them up from school or take them to practices, make dinner.
Seth [00:15:49]:
Or if they were or if they were full time, they have to have an understanding of boss that is like, alright. This is my reality. I need to get off to get to the bus stop so that I can get the kid home. I, but nowadays we were talking about this before with the whole zoom thing is that even if you work in office, because there’s a big room, return the office phenomenon going on here. You can still say I need to leave by 3, but I’ll I’ll tune back in. I’ll get back on the work at 7 and work for another hour to cover that hour. I had to take off. And I feel like people are more open to that somewhat because there’s some flexibility to be had and some bosses aren’t, and then you’re not in the right position.
Seth [00:16:31]:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It’s tough, especially the teenage years. You have to be around in some way, shape, or form. And, you know, we were I know we were I remember we were talking in the pre call a few days, a few weeks ago about how my 11 year old is very much into Roblox and he’s into Minecraft. Thankfully, I have not figured out why his fortnight is broken. And that literally, it’s not a dad saying I don’t wanna it’s broken in quotes.
Seth [00:16:58]:
No, it’s literally broken. He’s getting error code all the time. It’s it’s dad saying he doesn’t want saying, I don’t know what’s wrong with it when I could possibly figure out why it’s wrong. This is one last thing he needs to be playing. That kind of thing.
Susan [00:17:10]:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Screen hopping. That’s what the kids do for sure.
Seth [00:17:15]:
It’s called screen hopping. We used
Susan [00:17:16]:
to channel we used
Seth [00:17:17]:
to channel surf. We used to channel surf and they did screen hopping. I like that. I like that. That’s a good turn.
Susan [00:17:22]:
Yeah. My daughter will be done watching TV and then she’ll grab my phone because she doesn’t have a phone.
Seth [00:17:28]:
And we’re like, oh, wow.
Susan [00:17:29]:
Screen hopping. Let’s We’re
Seth [00:17:31]:
gonna take a quick break, hear from our sponsors, and get right back to the show. Do you still grab the phone, my son? We finally got him a phone. He’s had a phone for a while, but it’s always been like on wifi phone. So we finally got my phone yesterday. I found out how handy it is because we were late to get to the bus stop and I wrote home. I’m like, just hang tight. We’re coming. And the benefits of having a phone is good, but we have a rule.
Seth [00:17:56]:
Number 1 is on airplane mode at school. And you can use it on the bus because, you know, he gets annoyed by other kids sometimes the school zone out on the bus. So don’t miss your stop kind of thing. And don’t lose your phone. But I ultimately, you know, he’s, he’s a, he’s a, he’s a good kid. Yeah. And I don’t, and I don’t let him on social media other than YouTube where apparently the kid has 700 subscribers to his little, Roblox dance videos. He doesn’t show his face, but he has these Roblox guys doing little emojis and his 700 subscribers watch this stuff.
Seth [00:18:30]:
I don’t get it.
Susan [00:18:31]:
I don’t
Seth [00:18:31]:
get it. I’m an old fuddy daddy. I don’t get how I have 50 on my podcast stream, you know, on YouTube, subscribe and like, and subscribe people, everyone. But he says 700 for doing little dances on Roblox, not even TikTok. I’ve been doing it. It’s his character doing it it. And he puts popular music on it and, you know, for a minute, which is under the threshold of a DMCA. And he knows it’s under the threshold of DMCA.
Seth [00:18:55]:
You know, the digital Millennium copy react. But he knows all this stuff. And I’m like, how all this stuff. Kids are amazing.
Susan [00:19:03]:
Maybe you need to hire him to get more followers.
Seth [00:19:06]:
I might actually. Seriously. He’s gonna have maybe do dances and stuff. I don’t wanna do that. But that’s wild. So then, so when did you join up with, the Lyft project? When did that happen?
Susan [00:19:19]:
It’s coming up on 6 years.
Seth [00:19:22]:
Oh, wow.
Susan [00:19:23]:
Yeah. What happened was is the producer, Paula Pessmann Dupre, she’s produced, gosh, Harry Potter movies.
Seth [00:19:31]:
Oh, wow.
Susan [00:19:33]:
I mean, she’s big time. She’s a Grammy award winning.
Seth [00:19:36]:
Yeah.
Susan [00:19:37]:
She reached out to me and said, you know, I wanna do a film on suicide, and I need some help because I wanna do it in the safest way possible.
Intro Voice Guy [00:19:47]:
Yeah. I
Susan [00:19:48]:
had actually had a dream many years prior and sent her an email saying, would you ever consider doing a documentary on suicide? And she never respond. So when she sent me this email asking me to help her, I sent her that email back that I’d sent her years ago. And I said, of course, I would. I had a dream and asked you if you would do a documentary.
Seth [00:20:14]:
You almost like you manifested it.
Susan [00:20:16]:
Isn’t that crazy?
Seth [00:20:17]:
On on a delayed reaction, though. I mean, usually manifestation, you want it to happen sooner. But I also feel years have passed, whatever. That’s wild. That’s incredible.
Susan [00:20:27]:
Yeah. Yeah. And so I mean,
Seth [00:20:28]:
how did you how did you find how did you find the live project through that?
Susan [00:20:32]:
So basically, the family who lost their daughter, their sister, to suicide, the film is about her. The older sister tells the story. It’s it’s absolutely beautiful and so powerful. And then they decided to start the LIV project.
Seth [00:20:49]:
Yeah. And that’s how I’m that’s how I met you is through Amanda Solar, who was Right. Doing marketing for the live project.
Susan [00:20:56]:
Right. Right. She’s the director of our mission.
Seth [00:20:59]:
Yeah. That’s it’s great. I mean, it it I haven’t seen the movie yet. I’m gonna try and get a point where I can go see it, but, you know, it is a needed topic to talk about. And I’m working I’m talking to I’m working with a startup that talks about, you know, end of life, death, and how it shouldn’t be a taboo. You know, talking about this stuff shouldn’t be a taboo either. It should be something that, you know, is open conversation with your kids and with your parents and with everybody. Because, I mean, I was just listening to the latest Lincoln Park album.
Seth [00:21:28]:
You know, the sister Chester Benningfield committed suicide in 2017. They went on hiatus for a while because they did. They’re like, they lost the lead. They all were devastated. And now they came back with it. And we all know her last name. And then I was talking about how, wow, she really does, you know, him justice and stuff, but it’s like, it doesn’t suicide affects so many people and it needs to be discussed.
Susan [00:21:50]:
It’s a ripple effect. Yeah. And, you know, when we struggle, we tend to hide and isolate, and that means we disconnect from those around us. But
Intro Voice Guy [00:21:58]:
what
Seth [00:21:58]:
we need you’re not supposed to do.
Susan [00:22:00]:
What we need most is connection. And so we have to talk to our kids. Like, hey. You know, if this ever happens to you, if you ever have thoughts of self harm or suicide, please come talk to me about it.
Seth [00:22:12]:
Yeah.
Susan [00:22:12]:
If I can’t help you, well, I’ll go with you to get help. You know, that we have to be talking to our kids about how they shield
Seth [00:22:19]:
And it’s tough.
Susan [00:22:21]:
Struggling with.
Seth [00:22:22]:
It’s tougher than those. It’s tougher than the birds and the bees. And that was painful.
Susan [00:22:26]:
Yeah. Because it’s kind of a constant thing. You know, you have to continually talk to your kids about
Intro Voice Guy [00:22:32]:
Yeah. The
Seth [00:22:32]:
birds and bees, you you suffer from maybe 30 minutes and it’s done. And hopefully, they’ve remembered it, and they and all that. But this would this this this is constant, like you said.
Susan [00:22:42]:
Right. Like, it’s it’s But that that’s really the the purpose of the book is so parents can learn how to create safe spaces at home. You know, have a deep sense of belonging and healthy communication and, and connection and emotional connection where it’s just kind of easy. This is what we do at home. We talk about how we feel if we’re struggling. Yeah.
Seth [00:23:03]:
It’s tough in America too. Because people don’t like to talk about them about how they feel and it’s a wrong way about going about it. So.
Susan [00:23:10]:
Right. Right. Right.
Seth [00:23:12]:
So we are discussing what the best thing is about being an entrepreneur. What keeps you up at night as an entrepreneur? I mean, obviously your kids and making sure that they’re, you know, doing well and are talking to you and all that, but what keeps you up at night as business wise?
Susan [00:23:30]:
Well, right now the book and, you know
Seth [00:23:33]:
Your other your other baby your other baby. Yeah.
Susan [00:23:36]:
Is keeping me up at night. You know? Like, how how do I get the book into hands of families right now?
Seth [00:23:42]:
Yeah.
Susan [00:23:43]:
Right? Because I know it makes a difference. You know, I I even had a woman read the book and 10 days later, she’s like, I’ve been implementing, you know, what you’re talking about in the book. My stepson actually asked me to go to breakfast with him on Sunday. He’s like, it works. Oh my gosh. And then her spouse was right there tearing up. Like, we have less conflict now because really we were just arguing about our teenager.
Intro Voice Guy [00:24:11]:
Oh, Yeah.
Seth [00:24:12]:
And it’s usually the cause for most parents isn’t is arguing. It’s not money or finances. I mean, that is one of the reasons. It’s the damn kid. And, like, why is he or she or they or them or any of those verbs?
Susan [00:24:27]:
Right.
Seth [00:24:28]:
Verbs, adjectives, whatever nouns, pro pron the pronouns. I was gonna I was gonna get to it eventually. Jeez. Like I said earlier, talking is hard today, but, like, literally, like, getting through to your kids and how and then having especially when, like, you’re an adult parent household conflicting on, like, why you should’ve done this. I’m like, well, I didn’t think that was the right way and having discussions as parents and how to parent the kid is can be a source of, you know, frustration.
Susan [00:24:56]:
Right. Right. Right. It’s true. It’s like one of the biggest things is parenting.
Seth [00:25:01]:
Are you married? Tough.
Susan [00:25:03]:
It is
Seth [00:25:03]:
very Parent people think that toddlers are tough.
Intro Voice Guy [00:25:07]:
Uh-uh. I tell
Seth [00:25:08]:
us get into everything. I mean, yeah. And they poop and it’s, I mean, I would love to go back to my kid being a toddler again, just for a day, because him being a teenager. I think it’s, I think one of the hardest things because they’re growing up. And you don’t have as much control over that. You blink. The next day you walk downstairs and they’re another 2 inches taller. And you’re like, what happened there? How are you tall? Why is your voice why why do you why does your voice sound like a frog now? I mean, my kid always sounded like he smokes 12 packs a day since he was a toddler.
Seth [00:25:49]:
He always had had a very raspy voice, But it’s getting deeper and I’m like, stop growing up. You used to be cute. Now you smell.
Susan [00:25:59]:
One day I was, my son was reaching in the pantry and he was bending over and I said, oh, you got something on the back of your leg. You’ve got some dirt there. And he’s like, what is it? And it was hair. Like,
Intro Voice Guy [00:26:12]:
I just like, go,
Susan [00:26:14]:
wait a second. You have hair in your leg now.
Seth [00:26:17]:
Oh, no. Exactly. So here’s here’s the question of the ages here. The pocket, not the ages, but question of the for the podcast here. What is the most important thing to care with you all the time? Besides your book? Besides your book?
Susan [00:26:34]:
A sense of purpose.
Seth [00:26:36]:
Love it.
Susan [00:26:37]:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because I, you know, I get in my head a lot. I get anxious. I get I get the worries.
Seth [00:26:43]:
So you have this as a therapist too.
Susan [00:26:45]:
Oh my gosh. I can show up so differently when my anxiety’s running and I get word solid and my, you know, self esteem can just plummet, you know? And so I do kinda keep what’s my sense of purpose, especially around this book because I can tend to get really nervous when I public speak because I’m Yeah. I, you know, have every blessed 1.
Seth [00:27:05]:
You’re just a 1 on 1 in a room talking to
Susan [00:27:09]:
him. Yep. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I have to keep that kind of my north star with my purpose. Yeah.
Seth [00:27:16]:
That’s fantastic. So so, Susan, where can people hang out with you online? Are you on LinkedIn a lot, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, all that well, hopefully not Twitter as much.
Susan [00:27:26]:
I’m on LinkedIn. I’m on Instagram, susan.caso, c a s o. My website susancasso.com. You can get
Intro Voice Guy [00:27:35]:
the book
Seth [00:27:35]:
very nicely. There we go.
Susan [00:27:37]:
Thank you. You can get the book wherever books are sold, Amazon, Barnes and Noble. Yeah.
Seth [00:27:42]:
Love it. Love it. Pick up this book, everybody. Susan, this has been so much fun.
Susan [00:27:47]:
Thank you so much for having me on your show.
Seth [00:27:50]:
Oh, it was my pleasure. And we’ll see everyone next time.
Intro Voice Guy [00:27:53]:
That was a great show. If you’re enjoying Entrepreneur’s Enigma, please consider giving us a review in the podcast directory of your choice. Every review helps us reach new listeners. If you like Entrepreneur’s Enigma, consider the other shows on the marketing podcast network at marketing podcast dot net.
Seth [00:28:27]:
Goldstein Media hopes you’ve enjoyed this episode.