Fearless at Every Age: Suzy Prudden’s Blueprint for a Vibrant Third Act
This is the EWN Podcast Network.
Cathy Worthington:Welcome to late boomers, our podcast guide to creating your third act with style, power, and impact. Hi. I'm Kathy Worthington.
Merry Elkins:And I'm Merry Elkins. Join us as we bring you conversations with successful entrepreneurs, entertainers, and people with vision who are making a difference in the world.
Cathy Worthington:Everyone has a story, and we'll take you along for the ride on each interview, recounting the journey our guests have taken to get where they are, inspiring you to create your own path to success. Let's get started. This is Kathy Worthington, and welcome back to late boomers, the podcast where we explore all the possibilities of this stage of life, how to keep dreaming big and making things happen no matter our ages.
Merry Elkins:Yes. And I'm Mary Elkins. Every week, we talk with people who inspire us to keep learning, creating, and thriving. And today, Kathy and I are so excited. We have someone who embodies that spirit in every way.
Cathy Worthington:Absolutely. Our guest is the incomparable Susie Pruden. Susie is not only an award winning speaker and author, she's also the founder of the Itty Bitty Publishing Company, which has helped hundreds hundreds of authors bring their big ideas to readers in delightfully itty bitty books.
Merry Elkins:I love that name. It's just it's great. Itty bitty. And what I love even more is Susie herself. She is in her eighties, still traveling, speaking on stages across the country, and inspiring audiences with her wisdom and energy.
Cathy Worthington:And we were lucky enough to meet Susie in person at the e women network icon conference in Dallas where she absolutely wowed the crowd with her talk.
Merry Elkins:And we both walked away so inspired. Susie, your presence on that stage was unforgettable, and we knew right then we looked at each other and we said, she has to be on our show.
Cathy Worthington:Yeah. She really is a powerhouse. She's been on Oprah. She's a New York Times best selling author, and she continues to reinvent herself. Susie proves that the creative life doesn't slow down.
Cathy Worthington:With age, it can actually get richer.
Merry Elkins:And she's not just a writer even though being a writer is a big thing. She's a true mentor in the publishing world. Through itty bitty, she's given so many people the chance to share their stories in a way that's approachable and fun.
Cathy Worthington:Exactly. And we know our listeners, many of whom are also late boomers, are going to love hearing how Susie built this thriving company and how she keeps that spark alive on the speaker circuit.
Merry Elkins:Boy, does she ever. And she she shared stages with some incredible names, but we will get to that. But first, we wanna say how grateful we are that she's here. Susie reminds us all that passion and purpose don't come with an expiration date.
Cathy Worthington:Couldn't agree more. So pour yourself a cup of coffee or maybe a nice glass of wine and settle in. We think you'll finish this conversation feeling inspired to take your next big leap no matter your age.
Merry Elkins:So let's all welcome Susie Pruden.
Suzy Prudden:Thank you. It's nice to be here.
Merry Elkins:It's great to have you.
Cathy Worthington:Thank you. And, Susie, we're thrilled to have you here. Yes. Of course. For listeners who may be new to your work, can you start by sharing a little bit about your background and the journey that led you to become an author, speaker, and publisher?
Cathy Worthington:How much time do we have? So I know.
Suzy Prudden:I started out in 1965 when I was 22 years old in New York City. I created a business. My mother was the nation's foremost fitness authority, Bonnie Pruden. She started the president's council on physical fitness and sports. Oh, wow.
Suzy Prudden:And I knew how to teach exercise, and I was supporting my family. I was married with a new baby, and I was supporting the family. My husband went back to school at that time. I was, yeah, 22 years old. And I didn't wanna work for somebody else, so I started teaching exercise.
Suzy Prudden:And then I started teaching toddler exercise and it didn't exist in the sixties. That's true.
Merry Elkins:That's true.
Suzy Prudden:And that people thought that I was crazy. You know, I've started many new types of business and always people thought I was crazy because it wasn't done yet. And yet every time I Right. Grew into something that now is normal. But it wasn't normal in the beginning.
Suzy Prudden:And and I did that year, you know, career after career after career. When I became a fitness expert, I became a very well known fitness expert. And one of the that shows me on over with one of my books that was the book that was published by Hayhouse on the body mind, that's where I moved from fitness into body mind. And so I've been always I've always been an innovator. I've always stepped into something new.
Suzy Prudden:If it's a good idea, I go, let's see if this works. And a lot of it worked, some of it didn't work. Mhmm. It's been a bumpy road. You know, life is a bumpy road.
Suzy Prudden:Yeah. And when we're high, we're great. We think everything's fabulous. I want this for the rest of my life. And then we have a low, we go, oh, I don't like this.
Suzy Prudden:But that's when we learn. Yeah. Yeah.
Merry Elkins:I know. Because we've all been there. Yeah. But you know what I love about what you just said is you had an idea and you went for it. A lot of people have great ideas, but they don't do anything about it.
Suzy Prudden:Yeah. I talk about that. And I and I you know, it was like when I when when I okay. So when I moved to I'm I'm originally from New York City. And and that's where I had my fitness schools.
Suzy Prudden:And I had a summer camp. I mean, I was very blessed because I was successful, but that takes work. And and it's interesting. Staying successful takes more work than becoming successful. Oh.
Suzy Prudden:It's a whole different energy. But I moved to California and I became very good friends with Louise Hay.
Cathy Worthington:Oh. Mhmm.
Suzy Prudden:And because I was doing body mind stuff, she was doing body mind stuff, we were speaking on the same circuit. We became very close friends and we lived very close to each other in the Palisades. And she would come over to my house every couple of day couple of times a week and we'd exercise together because whereas I wasn't really teaching exercise anymore, I was doing exercise and we would exercise together and one she's so so funny. One day when I think about it now, she goes, ow. And she hurt herself.
Suzy Prudden:I mean, was her her hip hurts. I said, what's going on? She said, my hip hurts. And I said, well, you're the expert. What does it mean?
Suzy Prudden:And she thought about it and she said, oh, it means such and such. I don't remember what it meant. Here's what you just mentioned a moment ago. I had an idea. And you're right.
Suzy Prudden:Most people don't speak their idea when they have an idea especially if they're talking with someone who's an icon. And Louise Right. I said, Louise, why don't we do because she had Hay House. I said, don't we do a video together? I'll do the exercises and you do the affirmations.
Suzy Prudden:And she thought about it and she said, let me take it to the board. I'll I'll let you know. And she came back the next Thursday and she said, yes, we like your idea. Let's do it. So we did it and that's the that's the book that came out of it.
Suzy Prudden:We did it. It's called Meta Fitness, Your Thoughts Taking Shape. It was published in 1989 through Hay House. We did a video, a book and two audios and that's the book that got me on the Oprah show. But it was, as you said, it was an idea.
Suzy Prudden:Mhmm. Let's do it. Same thing with Itty Bitty. It was just an idea. Mhmm.
Suzy Prudden:And now it's another $15 company. It's amazing.
Merry Elkins:And and you had someone to do it with, which you'd push each other like Kathy and I do on the podcast.
Suzy Prudden:Right. Yeah. So what happened, how we created it my sister and I created this company in '19 no. '19. I keep going back to '19.
Suzy Prudden:In 2014. And what happened, we had written a book called but let me go back. We went to a workshop in Las Vegas with James Balanchek and he's talking about write small books. Now my sister and I have only written big books together. So this was a small book and I thought, a small book, an itty bitty book.
Suzy Prudden:And we're driving back from Las Vegas and at that time, I had a weight loss center in Los Angeles. I had five offices. We did hypnosis helping people lose weight. So I was ensconced in the business of weight loss. And I said, okay.
Suzy Prudden:I'll write Suzy Prudence itty bitty weight loss book. And she said, great. And I'll write. I can't remember the book that she was gonna write. And we're driving back, we got back, she wrote the book because I was busy running the business and it was Susie Prudin's itty bitty weight loss book.
Suzy Prudden:We didn't know what we were doing. We had no clue how because I've always been published by big houses. Now we're on our own. We had no idea. We bought at that time, you had to buy 2,000 books to get a good deal.
Suzy Prudden:Wow. I got 1,800 left in my garage.
Merry Elkins:Oh my goodness. But you're you
Suzy Prudden:know? So that didn't work.
Cathy Worthington:Wow. Yeah. But it
Suzy Prudden:But in 02/2014, I said, why don't you to my sister, make the book smaller, change the cover so it speaks to weight loss, and let's be we we put it out again. So we were talking together. We were visiting at Christmas. She showed me the book. I'm looking at the book.
Suzy Prudden:This isn't the book. This is just something I have here. I'm looking at the book. She took my name off the book. What?
Suzy Prudden:Yes. I'm looking at it and it says, your amazing itty bitty weight loss book. I said to her, you wanna take my name off? Now my name's been on everything since 1965. Books, television, everything, summer camps, studios.
Suzy Prudden:I'm looking at it and she said, I don't care. And as I'm looking at it, was thinking, this is a multimillion dollar business.
Cathy Worthington:Mhmm.
Suzy Prudden:And we don't have to write the books. We were in business literally three days later. We had our first signed author two weeks later and our first published book six weeks later. From 2006 to 02/2014, my sister learned how to do the back end of publishing. So I am the outside I'm the I'm the voice, the visual.
Suzy Prudden:I'm the person who markets itty bitty, and my sister, she's now, actually, she died recently. But she Oh. She was the, person behind the scenes. And
Cathy Worthington:that's What a
Suzy Prudden:great team. Oh, it was perfect. Mhmm. It was perfect. She retired about four years ago five years ago.
Suzy Prudden:She's been very, very sick and died recently, which is actually a blessing. It's very sad, but it's a blessing because Mhmm. She was ready to go. Mhmm. But she and I created itty bitty.
Merry Elkins:How lucky you are to have that.
Suzy Prudden:I am blessed. Absolutely blessed.
Merry Elkins:Well, Susie, I I I'd love to know a little bit more about your your whole career as in the stage too because what drew you to the stage? Was there a moment when you knew speaking lot to live audiences was going to be a central part of your life?
Suzy Prudden:I love speaking. Period. I love speaking. You know, when you saw me at e women
Merry Elkins:And you were fabulous.
Suzy Prudden:I had so much fun. I mean, what what what what was interesting, what was fabulous was the response from the audience.
Cathy Worthington:Mhmm.
Suzy Prudden:We were playing off each other. Right. And I mean, it was I mean, I had never said before, it's wonderful being 81 years old because you can tell people what to do. And then and I and this was organic. This was not in my script.
Suzy Prudden:And then I said, you were there. I said, telling what people and sometimes where to go. I mean, that literally came I mean, it was magic. That's
Cathy Worthington:You gotta go with your impulse when you're speaking. You have that.
Suzy Prudden:So it started I mean, when you asked me, I I studied theater.
Cathy Worthington:Oh.
Suzy Prudden:I mean, I I was a theater major in college. I went to Carnegie Mellon, which is You did? Yeah. And I was I
Cathy Worthington:was a theater major too.
Suzy Prudden:Hello. UCLA.
Cathy Worthington:A while. UCLA.
Merry Elkins:Then I went to into journalism at USC.
Suzy Prudden:Uh-oh. Yeah. We got and that's when my mother told me I couldn't date the boy I was dating, so I married him.
Cathy Worthington:Oh, there you go.
Suzy Prudden:Yeah. And and
Cathy Worthington:He was forbidden.
Suzy Prudden:Yeah. And you know what's so interesting? She knew better. She really did. Don't don't tell Susie no about it.
Suzy Prudden:And that's important because when when people run up against the no Mhmm. No isn't no. No is not now. No is later. No is what do I have to do to make a yes.
Merry Elkins:Yeah.
Cathy Worthington:Is I agree. Well, when we met you at the conference for e women network, the audience was so captivated. And what really stands out in your memory about the event and how did it feel to connect with so many women entrepreneurs and leaders?
Suzy Prudden:That was a magical I've been to conference many times. That was a truly magical conference for me. That's when I when I got a matchmaker of the year, which I had no idea what that meant. Had I had no idea. I mean, I
Cathy Worthington:I Why don't you explain it
Merry Elkins:to all of us? Exactly.
Suzy Prudden:So I send people to e women all the time. I believe in the company. I believe in what they do. I believe in what they say. I believe in the difference that they're making in the world with everything that they do for the entrepreneur, for the businesswoman, and for all the people who are out there doing I mean, the fact when they when they gave that award to the people from the the architects from Altadena who are helping the people of Altadena create homes again, They're making it possible for them because of all the red tape and everything.
Cathy Worthington:And she's talking about the aftermath of of the fires
Suzy Prudden:The fires.
Cathy Worthington:In the Los Angeles area.
Suzy Prudden:Yeah. Yeah. That is I mean, I love the organization. I love what they do. So I send people all the time.
Suzy Prudden:But you know, if I'm talking to a new author especially, ask everybody, where do you market? Where do you where do you do you go to get new business? Because I'm all about creating business. And some of them tell me what they're doing, some of them I don't know. So check out e women.
Suzy Prudden:It's it's international. And they have they have chapters all over The United States. And so I it I send people I have I have authors all over the world. And so I tell them, well, find a chapter that is near you if they're in The US. And then if they don't have a chapter near them, I say, well, join my chapter because you can be on the Internet.
Suzy Prudden:You don't have to show up. And I I don't know how many people I've sent, but over the I've sent a lot of people. And I sent them without knowing that I'm not getting anything from this.
Cathy Worthington:Yeah.
Suzy Prudden:They are, which is not e women, but but the the client or the I I sent somebody recently, he wasn't even a client. They were talking about doing a book. She's not ready to do the book and she's building her business. I said, well, where are you marketing? And she said, I'm not.
Suzy Prudden:And I sent her to e women. Mhmm. And so I thought when I filled out the form, all the people that I've sent, that it was numbers. And I learned later, it's not numbers. Yes.
Suzy Prudden:Numbers you have to have a certain number of people to enter into becoming matchmaker of the year, but the chapter director has to get minimum five testimonials Oh. Of why the members of that chapter want you to have that award.
Cathy Worthington:Ah. When Vicky So it's really behind the scenes. You don't know about it. Yeah.
Suzy Prudden:When he told me that, I said, really? I had no idea. Now, I'm known in my chapter for being a time Nazi. Not a a not a time Nazi, but a speaker not. In other words, if someone is speaking and somebody at a table is also speaking, I'll say stop talking.
Suzy Prudden:Mhmm. You're interrupted. Expect if they're talking when I'm talking. Expect don't talk when I'm talking. I call them out on it.
Suzy Prudden:So some people and I'm and I'm very polarizing. You either really like me or you really don't. So the fact that they got five testimonials or more, I don't know.
Merry Elkins:And people in the entire room, there had to be a thousand people giving you a standing ovation. Yeah. So you had a lot more testimonials.
Suzy Prudden:It was so Mhmm. Honoring. Mean, it was really it's like, woah. I had no idea.
Merry Elkins:Mhmm. So, Susie, how has the world of professional speaking changed over the years? And how is it still well, obviously, it's still exciting for you today.
Suzy Prudden:I love speaking. I mean, give me an audience. I I'll pay to speak.
Merry Elkins:Don't say that out loud too much.
Suzy Prudden:Don't say it out loud too much?
Merry Elkins:No. Well, don't you get paid to speak?
Suzy Prudden:This is the secret. Yes. I do. I make more money when I pay to speak.
Cathy Worthington:Oh, I see.
Suzy Prudden:So here's the thing. When you are a paid speaker, you get 5,000, 10,000, $20,000 and that's it. It's like, you very much. I had a wonderful time. Thank you for this Mhmm.
Suzy Prudden:Community. That's it. When you pay to speak or speak at no cost, you get an opportunity to offer something.
Cathy Worthington:Uh-huh. So
Suzy Prudden:when I speak and I've spoken on conference stages for two minutes and made $35,000.
Cathy Worthington:Yeah. Because of what happens after. Exactly.
Suzy Prudden:Right? Yeah. So when I spoke at e women, I paid to speak at e women. Uh-huh. I paid a lot of money to speak at e women and it was worth every penny.
Suzy Prudden:And and I reckon okay. If if you really want to make a difference and there's a stage and you know that if you get on that stage, two things are gonna happen. You're gonna make a difference to the audience and they're gonna make a difference to you. Mhmm. He's like, down, do it.
Suzy Prudden:So I I I I and I was not allowed to say if you, you know, you can get this from me for this much money, etcetera. I'd say, if you're interested in talking to me, please see me. Here's a form to fill out, whatever. So I had 94 people fill out the form. Wow.
Suzy Prudden:Now for the rest of the conference, I had a booth upstairs at the expo. Mhmm. From 09:30 in the morning till seven, I spoke to a different person every half hour. Oh. They all wanted to do books.
Merry Elkins:That takes energy. Well, did they all have ideas for books?
Suzy Prudden:Some did and some didn't. And when somebody had an idea at what happens to me is it's very dangerous because when they say what they wanna do, I I I'm a visionary. I can see beyond of what they wanna do. And I say, you thought of this? Have you thought of this?
Suzy Prudden:Have you thought of this? I have to be very careful because I can overwhelm people with ideas. Now a yes person.
Merry Elkins:Not a bad thing.
Suzy Prudden:No. No. No. No. It's not a bad thing.
Suzy Prudden:It's a little overwhelming. Some people didn't have an idea what they wanted to do. Some people didn't have a business yet. They were new. You know, at e women, you have all stages of business which is what's so beautiful about it because Mhmm.
Suzy Prudden:Beginner has a platform, and the person making millions of dollars already has a platform.
Cathy Worthington:And we should put in that men go to it too, and men are And
Suzy Prudden:a few good men.
Cathy Worthington:Oh, a few good men.
Suzy Prudden:I just
Cathy Worthington:signed a new
Suzy Prudden:I just signed a a an e woman man to do a fabulous job. So exciting.
Cathy Worthington:Great. Good. And we know oh, I'm sorry.
Suzy Prudden:I lost it. Go ahead.
Cathy Worthington:Oh, I was just gonna ask you something else. You've shared this. You've shared the spotlight with some pretty remarkable people. And can you tell us about a time when you looked around and thought, wow, I can't believe I'm sharing a stage with this person? Tell us a few of those.
Suzy Prudden:Okay. So this was I mean, oh god, the people I've shared the stage with.
Cathy Worthington:Uh-huh.
Suzy Prudden:The first person was Tony Robbins.
Cathy Worthington:Oh, wow.
Suzy Prudden:And that was in 1984. Oh. Long time. He was just starting. It was in New York and he was it was one of his first major conferences.
Suzy Prudden:And the audience was restless and he wasn't there yet. And you saw what I did in the beginning of my my talk when I got the whole rooming, the whole Mhmm. Room moving. So I went to his program director and I said, would you like me to get this audio this audience together So they're not at sixes and sevens because he hadn't arrived yet. And they didn't know they had no idea what I was gonna do.
Suzy Prudden:And Mhmm. They happen to have the the music that I use, which I use I've been using that music consistently when I do that particular piece of my talk.
Merry Elkins:Which music is that for this audience?
Suzy Prudden:Oh, thank you. It's Jump for My Love by the Pointer Sisters. Oh, I love. Yeah. Yeah.
Suzy Prudden:1981.
Cathy Worthington:Mhmm. So this is that I remember when it came out. Yeah.
Suzy Prudden:So now it's 1984, November, and I remember. November 1984, and I said, do you have music? Jump. They said, yes. I said, so let me do my thing.
Suzy Prudden:And I did. Mhmm. And so that was the first shared stage, to speak. Then I was blessed in the early two thousands to have a client who has a company called had a company called Sci Seminars, which was in Northern California. It was a seminar, obviously, company.
Suzy Prudden:And after people had gone through three very intense seminars when they graduated, they were they were allowed to come to a program that they had created called Principia. Mhmm. And Principia was a seven day program where they had speakers, phenomenal speakers come and speak for a day. And I was hired, which is such a funny story, when when Jane first asked me to do it, I thought, me? Speak at Principia?
Suzy Prudden:I was so impressed with myself. And because I thought I was gonna have a day. And I kept writing to James saying, well, what do you want me to do? Because I had all these different things that I could do. Weight loss, relationships, positive thinking.
Suzy Prudden:Mean, that's what I did. That time in my life, I was doing worships. And no nothing nothing nothing. Thursday, we're starting Saturday. She calls me up and say, this is what I want you to do.
Suzy Prudden:And I was a hypotherapist at the time. And she said, I want you to listen all day to the speaker and then do a ten minute wrap up in the evening of what they said.
Merry Elkins:Wow.
Suzy Prudden:Well, this is what happened. My ego went, ten minutes? You only want me to do ten minutes? I mean, my ego was like, okay, Susie, shut up. Breathe.
Suzy Prudden:You got ten minutes every night to six nights.
Cathy Worthington:Yeah. Alright. You really have to pay attention.
Suzy Prudden:I had no idea how was gonna do this. I'd never done it before. Yeah. So I sit there all day. I mean, I had notebooks like this of what they said.
Suzy Prudden:And then I'd try and call it, bring it together, and finally I'd think I can't bring it together. I'll just wing it. And so that's what I did. Every night, they would bring me on stage after dinner and I would do well, in the beginning it was twenty five minutes because I couldn't bring it down to ten. I finally got it down to ten minutes, but it took me actually ten years.
Suzy Prudden:What happened, which was so brilliant, I mean, I got I mean, Michael Beckwith, John DeMartini, AJ Abraham, oh my god, the list is unbelievable. And I got to spend not only the day listening to them, but then we would all have lunch together and then we would all have dinner together and we all stayed at the Casa, which was this extraordinary house on the property. So I got to be with I mean, I I I was immersed in this in in the the the backstage speaker world. Mhmm. And Yeah.
Suzy Prudden:What happened was most people who go to who went to this organization to speak up maybe once or twice. I was there every year for ten years. Oh. Yes. That's really a lot.
Suzy Prudden:Unbelievable.
Merry Elkins:So They must have loved it.
Suzy Prudden:The the the comments were yeah. They did. They would mention my name and I I wouldn't even be on stage. I'd get a standing ovation. Right?
Suzy Prudden:Because I'm I was really good at I'd never done it before. I made it up. Mhmm. And that's another thing. It's like, okay.
Suzy Prudden:So you've never done it. So do it. Mhmm. I mean, you can do that.
Merry Elkins:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'm you you've mentioned both speakers and, obviously, writers, writers through itty bitty publishing. So what qualities do you notice or look for in the people who successfully bring a book to life?
Suzy Prudden:The willingness to go beyond where they've ever been before.
Merry Elkins:Oh, that sounds like Star Trek.
Cathy Worthington:It does.
Suzy Prudden:I never thought of that. But it's like, okay. So you've got this book. It's fragile. It's a baby.
Merry Elkins:Yes.
Suzy Prudden:It has no it has no ability by itself to do anything. It's got all the potential in the world. So what are we going to do to make your book happen in the world?
Cathy Worthington:Mhmm.
Suzy Prudden:And that's that's when I mean, just got off I just did a process with an author last week. We did a press release. And this woman is willing to go beyond. What do I have to do next, Susie? What do I have to do next, Susie?
Suzy Prudden:What do I have to do next, Susie? That book is gonna be successful and from that book, so is she.
Cathy Worthington:Yeah. Mhmm.
Merry Elkins:What do I have to do next?
Suzy Prudden:What do I have to do next? It's it's it's your life lesson. It's like in life. Mhmm. People can sit back and say, okay, that's that's good and watch television.
Cathy Worthington:And if she didn't have you telling you her what to do next, she'd have to come up with the next step. Right. At some point. So she Yeah. It's great to have a mentor.
Suzy Prudden:So what I what I tell people when I'm marketing me, it's like I've done it. You wanna talk to me. I've done it. Mhmm. I know how to do this.
Suzy Prudden:Let me give my life experience to you so that you can take what I've learned and move your career, your book, your life forward.
Merry Elkins:That's powerful.
Suzy Prudden:That's where I come from.
Cathy Worthington:Yeah. That's excellent. So you get a lot with when you go to itty bitty publishing. It sounds like
Suzy Prudden:Well, you know, I was talking to Kim Yancey, who is the the basic the cofounder of of e women. Mhmm. I love him. I love him. You do.
Suzy Prudden:Me too. He's funny. He's Yeah. He was he said to me, what do you do as a publisher? I said, everything that any other publisher does.
Suzy Prudden:And then I listened, you know, we do this, we do this, we do you know, we do the editing, we do the ISBN number, we do the everything that a publisher does, we do. And I'm trying to think, what's the difference? What's the difference? I guess and I said to him, guess the only difference is when you become an itty bitty author, you get me. Mhmm.
Suzy Prudden:And he's Uh-huh.
Cathy Worthington:Yeah. Kim must have loved that because he's always looking for like, what's special about this? Yeah. And how do you stand out? And how do you reinvent yourself?
Cathy Worthington:And how do you make your brand clear? And all of that. He's about all of that. And obviously, you know exactly how to do that. Yeah.
Cathy Worthington:Go ahead. Your career basically spans decades Yeah. And several reinventions. Was there a time when you faced a major challenge or pivot pivot? And how did you find the courage to move forward with that?
Suzy Prudden:Well, in 1989, I did the Oprah show.
Cathy Worthington:Mhmm.
Suzy Prudden:And I didn't know I didn't have a team. I was all by myself. I didn't know how to handle it. And I made some massive mistakes. And in February 1990, I was sitting in my beautiful little guesthouse in Topanga Canyon in California and got the mail and my rent check had bounced.
Merry Elkins:Oh.
Suzy Prudden:Oops. Mhmm. And then I contacted the bank and I had no money in my bank account. I thought, well, this is a problem. And that same day, I was sitting in my kitchen and I had a bunch of phone calls that came literally one after another.
Suzy Prudden:And every single call that I received that day was a company that I had scheduled and and booked a program with, they canceled. Every single job that I had lined up for the year called and canceled.
Merry Elkins:That is a bad day.
Suzy Prudden:That was a very bad day, I knew it was not accidental. You can remember. That happen without that being, okay, Susie, we've got to regroup.
Cathy Worthington:Mhmm.
Suzy Prudden:And I looked up at the ceiling and I said, god, you must really love me to give me this experience because it's gonna change my life.
Cathy Worthington:That's a great way to look at it.
Merry Elkins:It certainly is.
Cathy Worthington:Well That was all that training with Louise Hay and Tony Robbins.
Suzy Prudden:All that all that years of training. But what was what was stunning to me in the moment was I meant it. Mhmm. And then I I so funny, I had to get a job. Now I had not worked for anybody since 1965.
Merry Elkins:That's a long That's a lot of years between.
Suzy Prudden:Yeah. But okay. So I'm talking to this is funny. Talking to myself, you gotta get a job. And my ego comes up, you can't get a job.
Suzy Prudden:I said, excuse me? Obviously, this is all going on in my head. I have to get a job. No. You can't get a job.
Suzy Prudden:But I need a job. You can't get a job.
Cathy Worthington:I said, why can't I get
Suzy Prudden:a job? You're Susie Perkin. You don't work for anybody else. I said, I need a job. We don't we won't eat.
Suzy Prudden:This conversation got louder and louder and louder and louder until the ego became was a Pillsbury Doughboy in the beginning and it became the Jolly Green Giant. And it and I said, what will your it says to me, what will your mother think? I said, get down here. It doesn't matter what my mother will think. And it was like somebody hit the jolly green giant with a pin and went and it became the it was very doughboy again.
Suzy Prudden:And I'm looking at my ego in my mind, and I'm going, you think I don't love you, don't you? And he goes, aw. He said, I love you. I need you, but you can't run the show right now. I have to run the show.
Suzy Prudden:And so and it it was like it was so sweet in my mind. This little tiny Pillsbury book dope like ego thing. And then I went and got a job. And I worked for a friend of mine because we we were in the same shamanic group at the time. And our teacher said, Helene, you need help in your office.
Suzy Prudden:Susie, you need a job. So I called Helene and I said, I need a job. She said, Susie, I can't hire you. I said, why not? She said, you're Susie Pruden.
Suzy Prudden:I said, so what? She said, well, I'm only gonna pay you $10 an hour. And I said to her, that's $10 more than I'm making now.
Cathy Worthington:Mhmm.
Suzy Prudden:And, you know, I used to make $5,000 a day. So this so is in the this is the nineties. She said, I'm gonna ask you to get my cleaning. I said, I'll get it. I'm gonna ask you to clean up my office.
Suzy Prudden:I'll clean it. So we negotiated and I started and I I was gonna work Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday from like ten until four for $10 an hour. And I negotiated with my landlady that I would pay her weekly because I couldn't pay the whole rent in one shot until the lease was up, which was in May. And she didn't wanna lose the money, and I didn't wanna lose my home. And my first day at the I mean, talk about a oh my god.
Suzy Prudden:I just gotta stop. My first day there, the secretary who was leaving said, do you know how to organize? So my operative word is yes. She's can you organize this office? I said, yes.
Suzy Prudden:So I became an office organizer instead of an office helper by noon. I said, organizers get $75 an hour. Why don't I charge charge Helene 25? So I got I went I I was hired at $10 an hour and then two day two hours later I was $25 an hour. So I got a $15 an hour raise and I worked for Helene January, February, March, April until April until May.
Suzy Prudden:And basically, she saved my life.
Merry Elkins:That's a great story.
Cathy Worthington:And you and you saved your office. And I saved
Suzy Prudden:your office. And we're still friends.
Cathy Worthington:Oh, that's the best part.
Suzy Prudden:And we're both old ladies now. We're both still working.
Merry Elkins:That's great.
Cathy Worthington:I love it.
Merry Elkins:I do too. Sissy, you mentioned about traveling earlier, and traveling and speaking take tons of energy. People half your age are exhausted with it. So do you have any favorite rituals or must have items that you take with you or that you do in order when you're on the road to help you stay together, to help you stay healthy?
Suzy Prudden:That's a very good question. No. I
Merry Elkins:just told you. It's about your exercising? Because you're you're in amazing shape.
Suzy Prudden:Well, there's other people that could argue with that like myself. But anyway, I'm in I'm in better shape than a lot of people my age and I Yeah. I I'm blessed. First of all, I love travel. Secondly, I love speaking.
Suzy Prudden:Thirdly, I love working with people. So I'm doing something that I adore. Absolutely adore. Mhmm. After Icon, so Icon was this is an example of what I do.
Suzy Prudden:Icon was over Saturday night late. I left at six or seven because I was toast. I didn't go for the dance party. I was toast. And I Mhmm.
Suzy Prudden:I stayed with a friend for a couple of days in Dallas. So we went, we stopped for dinner, think, for a light dinner on the way back to her house. And the next day, I didn't get out of my bathrobe. That's a nice That's why do.
Merry Elkins:Yeah.
Suzy Prudden:And then, I think we did get out at 03:00 and I think we went for a manicure pedicure.
Cathy Worthington:So you could just build in these little breaks.
Suzy Prudden:Yes. I have to build that in. Mhmm. So then that was Sunday. Monday, I stayed an extra day.
Suzy Prudden:We were gonna go get a massage, a salt bath and a massage. And at 03:00 or 02:00 in the afternoon, I looked at we're still in our bathrobes. We're watching stuff on movies on television. Both of us, and she helped me at my booth. We're like kind of and I turned to her.
Suzy Prudden:We're each on a different couch. We've had snacks and stuff. We're just taking the day. And I knew we had prepped, like, this is so funny, planned to go get a massage. And I turned to her and I said, don't think I wanna get dressed to get undressed to get dressed again.
Merry Elkins:I understand.
Cathy Worthington:Sunrise is one thing too many.
Suzy Prudden:It was just I mean, just the thought of putting on my clothes.
Cathy Worthington:Yeah. And you would have
Suzy Prudden:to drive over there. Driving up, put it gone again. Yeah. I couldn't so we didn't we didn't do that. We did go out for dinner, which was great.
Suzy Prudden:I'm glad we did, but it was really just we just got dressed to go to dinner and then came back to went back to watching movies. I mean, you when you put as much energy out as I do, you have to create a time when you don't do anything.
Cathy Worthington:Right. I get it. Well, for our listeners who dream of becoming speakers themselves, what's one piece of advice you'd give about connecting with an audience, especially later in life?
Suzy Prudden:Love them. Oh, good. Love them. They're here to you and be interesting. Be interesting.
Suzy Prudden:That's hard. And and and and really understand your audience. I I know the audience of e women because I'm an e women member. Mhmm. All entrepreneurs, we're all business owners, we're all searching and and learning and growing and we all want new and we all need we all need to be seen.
Suzy Prudden:Mhmm. And we need to set it up so that we are seen. My topic was it's not who you know, it's who knows you. And and really, I've been blessed because people I mean, I'm I am my mother's daughter. I did take her name.
Suzy Prudden:It's not my birth name. I did ask her permission if I could become Susie Pruden. I did that on purpose. Mhmm. Mhmm.
Suzy Prudden:And and and be strategic.
Cathy Worthington:Like a little rebirth.
Suzy Prudden:Yeah. Be strategic. Think about what your audience needs. What do they need? It's not about what you need.
Suzy Prudden:It's about what they need. Yeah. And my audience needs to be seen just like I well, I need to be seen, but if I can teach people how to be known so that when you think their name, think when you think their career, you think their name. I mean, when people think about publishing small books, they don't just think itty bitty, they think itty bitty Susie Prudin or they think Susie Prudin itty bitty. And when I was an icon in fitness, people would think fitness, they would think Suzy Pruden.
Suzy Prudden:They think Suzy Pruden. It's like the story I told where I was at a conference in Orlando in '9 in 02/2023, walking out of a restaurant with my name badge on because I was at conference and a table of four women, one of the women said, oh my god, Susie Prudin. What? I have your books. I hadn't written a book on fitness since 1992.
Suzy Prudden:No. 2023. Wow. I know. Yeah.
Suzy Prudden:So you really that's that's what I wanna teach people. And so as a speaker, you have to think, what does my audience need? It's not about me, it's about them. Mhmm. Then Is
Merry Elkins:it is it the same with publishing for people who are thinking about publishing? Talk a little bit about that and why the itty bitty book format is so powerful compared to the books you used to write, longer books.
Suzy Prudden:Okay. So I'm gonna show you an itty bitty book.
Merry Elkins:Okay. And will you describe it for our listeners?
Suzy Prudden:Oh, of course.
Merry Elkins:We're on YouTube as well.
Suzy Prudden:But Okay. Yeah. I will. So an itty bitty book is only 30 pages. Ah.
Suzy Prudden:It's written in numbered sentences and paragraphs and bullet points. It's like the cliff notes of Dummies. Dummies books are 350 pages you have to read with a yellow highlighter. Itty bitty books are the yellow highlights. So you have a page one of every itty bitty book is written with a little paragraph and then a numbered sentence or a numbered paragraph.
Suzy Prudden:And you have that's that's page one. Page two is written with a little paragraph and then bullet points. So it's very very very little. It's a 150 words a page. Oh.
Suzy Prudden:Literally, it's like the cliff notes of dummies.
Merry Elkins:Yeah.
Suzy Prudden:The interesting thing that we have come to create as we've learned more to create itty bitty books is that the author is not allowed to be in the book. So there's no story. There's no I thought of this when I was 12. There's no if you do my recommendation is uh-uh. It's all if you want to learn this, you need to do such and such.
Suzy Prudden:You and your are the operative's words in itty bitty. There's no I, there's no we, there's no us, there's no they. There is only you and your. The author is speaking directly to the reader. So when the reader reads the book, it goes directly into the heart.
Suzy Prudden:Mhmm. So when it says on the cover, for example, your amazing itty bitty whole healthy habits book, the reader subconsciously thinks, my healthy habits? So there's Mhmm. The reader connects with the author immediately.
Cathy Worthington:Right. Just right on the front, right in the title.
Suzy Prudden:And then throughout the book. Mhmm. And then I teach people how to take each chapter and turn it into a seminar, a webinar, a program. It's a retreat. It's a weekend getaway, and it's a certification program.
Merry Elkins:Oh, that's great.
Suzy Prudden:So people can come become the Pilates of their industry.
Merry Elkins:Uh-huh. Mhmm.
Cathy Worthington:I love that.
Merry Elkins:Yeah. And,
Cathy Worthington:you know, Susie, you radiate so much energy and enthusiasm. What are some of your personal habits or daily practices that help you stay vibrant and ready to inspire others?
Suzy Prudden:I like to journal. I have a practice. I'm working with a spiritual teacher. You you met her at the conference, Felicia Searcy. I work she is my my teacher, and we I have a practice is every morning I write gratitudes.
Suzy Prudden:I am happy and grateful for. And in the beginning when I did gratitudes years ago, I used to think that if I don't put somebody in, they're not gonna get something from they need to be in. So my gratitudes would be 10 pages. I was like, you gotta stop this, Susie. I'm grateful that if I don't put you I'm great.
Suzy Prudden:And but now I don't do that. Do two or three. And I
Cathy Worthington:think Two or three per day? Two or three per Per morning.
Suzy Prudden:Yep. They're different. Or the same. But I'm happy and and I'll write I'm happy and grateful to be happy and grateful. I'm happy and grateful that I'm doing this podcast.
Suzy Prudden:Mhmm. I'm happy and grateful that I had the opportunity to speak at e women. I'm happy and grateful that I have the most scrumptious kitty that I live with. I'm happy and grateful that I treat my body right. I guess one of the things you asked and I just thought of it because it just comes naturally to you, I eat really well.
Merry Elkins:I just was about to ask that.
Suzy Prudden:Yeah. I eat really really well.
Merry Elkins:Can you talk a little bit about that?
Suzy Prudden:Yeah. I for example, this morning this morning I had cottage cheese and fruit. I like cottage cheese. I like fruit. Put them together.
Suzy Prudden:I liked breakfast.
Merry Elkins:Mhmm.
Suzy Prudden:I had planned to have you're gonna love this. I have some caviar in my refrigerator and I'm like
Merry Elkins:Oh, baby.
Suzy Prudden:I wanna do something with this. And champagne is too early in the morning. So I said, I'll make eggs and caviar.
Cathy Worthington:Oh, yum.
Suzy Prudden:That's good. I had this hard boiled egg in the refrigerator and I it's been there a while. And so I cracked it open and I went, no. We're not doing this one. Threw it out.
Suzy Prudden:Oh. So then I boiled some eggs, so I'll have the caviar tomorrow because they weren't ready. That's why I had the caviar cheese.
Cathy Worthington:Oh, okay. Good. Lot of protein. Yeah.
Suzy Prudden:And I like protein. Yeah. I do that too. And tonight, I'm gonna have an artichoke, and I cooked some chicken last night. I have leftover chicken, so I'm gonna have an artichoke and some what's it called?
Suzy Prudden:Air fried chicken tonight.
Merry Elkins:Oh, yeah.
Suzy Prudden:And I and I don't eat a lot because I don't want a lot. I know sometimes I do. And I have to watch my weight regardless.
Merry Elkins:And you're tiny.
Suzy Prudden:I am tiny. I'm an itty bitty lady.
Merry Elkins:That's perfect. That's perfect.
Suzy Prudden:So I'm really careful. I love salads. Love protein. I'm very lucky that I really like vegetables and protein. That's what I like.
Suzy Prudden:And I honor myself by giving myself that. Like wine, I will drink wine. And what else? How do I else I'm not a snacker.
Cathy Worthington:Dessert?
Suzy Prudden:Rarely. I just it's not used to. When I go through this is funny. When I go through periods of not drinking any wine, will. I I like chocolate.
Suzy Prudden:But when I'm when I'm going through periods of of having a glass or two of wine at dinner, then that's my sugar.
Cathy Worthington:Mhmm.
Suzy Prudden:Yeah. I'm I'm cognizant. I don't eat fast food. Occasionally, really like In N Out protein burger without the bun. Oh.
Suzy Prudden:So I'll do that every couple of months.
Merry Elkins:You know, I eat exactly the way you eat except for the burger because Kathy and I, neither one of us eats any beef. Yeah. Beef or lamb or any of those. But I have to ask you, looking ahead, what projects and ideas are you most excited about now? And are there any new stages or adventures on the horizon?
Suzy Prudden:Yeah. Definitely. I just started a new project as of today. Oh, yes. Oh, good.
Suzy Prudden:It's putting people in front of thousands of radio hosts, TV hosts. I'm I I want I I'm all about you've got to be seen. You've got to be seen. You've got to be heard. You've got to get out there.
Suzy Prudden:If you don't get out there, people can't can't learn from you. I believe that everybody, most people have a gift and a message. That's why we came. And for those of us who step into that, you've got to create a stage for yourself. It's not gonna happen.
Suzy Prudden:Well, it could, but it's not really likely just because. And yes, I believe that we create a reality with the way we think. Bottom line, if you wanna know what you think, just look at your life. Right. So what I'm doing with a friend of mine is we've created a whole program of getting people out there in front of I'm I'm gonna be interviewing them.
Suzy Prudden:It's gonna be it's called Suzy Pruden TV, and I'm gonna be interviewing them and then putting them in front of the people that will hire them to speak, to be on stages, to be on shows, to be out there so that their audience can if they want to contact them to work with it's like it's like me being here with you. There will be people who are listening, watching this who will say, I want to work with her. How do I do it? So I am creating a specific type of TV show that's an interview show that will be sent to a thousand radio hosts, thousand TV hosts so that my client will be in front of the people they need to be front in front of. I'm really excited about it.
Suzy Prudden:So and do you use, like, YouTube as a platform
Cathy Worthington:to get it recorded?
Suzy Prudden:My platforms. That's I'm Oh. That's one of my platforms. I'm not the I don't know how to do that. I'm just a talent.
Suzy Prudden:You have to learn. Well, I figured out.
Cathy Worthington:Actually, I who's taking AI will teach you.
Suzy Prudden:Well, I was talking to my producer today, and I said, well, what do want me to do? And she goes, nothing. Don't do anything. Don't hit any button.
Merry Elkins:Don't Just be you.
Suzy Prudden:Show up. I said, okay. I can do that and talk about it. I can do that. She said, good.
Suzy Prudden:That's all you're gonna do. She's she's been trying to get me to do this for years, like, finding ways to but I really see how because of where I am right now, when we evolve.
Cathy Worthington:Mhmm. And you're ready for this next
Merry Elkins:Always.
Cathy Worthington:Ready.
Suzy Prudden:So I've got that, and that's my new project. The other project is I'm gonna be I my intention is to really start speaking all over the world.
Cathy Worthington:Ah, Europe
Suzy Prudden:Europe calls. So there's a program that I just signed up for a cruise
Merry Elkins:Oh.
Suzy Prudden:In October. It's called a speakers cruise and it's going to go through the Mediterranean. Perfect. And and and and and I don't know what we're doing, but I thought, I'd like to go to the Mediterranean. I haven't
Cathy Worthington:been there yet. Not like this. It's great in October. I did it last October on a cruise. For speaking not for speaking, but, you know, for pleasure.
Cathy Worthington:It was
Suzy Prudden:wonderful. And Beautiful. Yeah. October must be gorgeous. I mean, I've lived in
Merry Elkins:here. Absolutely.
Cathy Worthington:It is.
Suzy Prudden:Yeah. So I'm really looking now at, okay. So how do I take myself and and and and find the stages and just, you know, say, look. You know, people think it's it's not difficult. You just have to take the time to do it.
Suzy Prudden:Yeah. Say, okay. So this group is this this is happening. And look for the the speaker forms and fill them out. Good
Cathy Worthington:for you. Yeah.
Merry Elkins:And What cruise line are you going on?
Suzy Prudden:Oh, it's not the best. Oh. We
Merry Elkins:won't we won't give it a plug then.
Suzy Prudden:No. No. No. But But it doesn't matter. I'm not going to that.
Cathy Worthington:No. You'll get what you need from it. Exactly right. Because you're going in with your your goals and it'll happen. Yes.
Cathy Worthington:And Susie, what would you like our audience to have as a takeaway from this conversation today?
Suzy Prudden:Don't stop. Don't stop. Don't stop. You know, there will become a stop day. And at eighty two, I have a choice.
Suzy Prudden:I can stop. I watched my sister stop. Mhmm. And I'm not gonna do that. I watched her systematically shut down.
Cathy Worthington:Mhmm.
Suzy Prudden:And it was horrible to watch because my sister was probably the smartest, funniest person I've ever known. Mhmm. Opinionated and I mean, she was amazing. Amazing person. And I watched her stop And I watched her allow herself to to turn not turn off, to dim her light.
Merry Elkins:Mhmm. Mhmm.
Suzy Prudden:Now I'm 82. I have a choice. My compatriots, so to speak, my age group, it wouldn't be unusual for me to dim my light. Mhmm. Because a lot of people my age dim their lights and it's okay, but it's not okay with me.
Suzy Prudden:Most of my friends are in their sixties and I have a few friends that are in my that are my age and some of them have stopped and I go and I'll talk to them. I mean, was talking to a friend of mine the other day that was a powerhouse in her business and now she stopped. And I said, how are you? She said, bored. Yeah.
Suzy Prudden:I said, are you doing? Nothing. What do you wanna do? Nothing. Then she said, I miss you and I couldn't say I miss you too because I don't.
Suzy Prudden:She stopped. There's nothing I mean, she does I'm surprised she even knows who's president. You know, that's big stopping.
Merry Elkins:Yeah.
Suzy Prudden:And so for people my age or, you know, from 60 up, you're given permission to stop. Well, give yourself permission to keep going.
Merry Elkins:And you are the epitome of someone that has kept going and will keep on going forever. And I love that advice. It's so inspiring for me personally, and I know it will be for our entire boomer audience. Thank you, Susie, so much. It's been such a joy to share this time with you.
Merry Elkins:And to our late boomers audience, if you'd like to learn more about Susie, her speaking, and the Itty Bitty Publishing Company, you can visit her website at Itty Bitty, that's spelled like ittybittypublishing.com. And you can find details about her books there, upcoming events, how you can work with her to bring your own itty bitty idea to life and make it bigger. And we'll also include the link to our in our show notes so it's easy to find for you.
Cathy Worthington:And, Susie, thank you again for sharing your wisdom and your incredible energy with us today. It's been inspiring. And to our oh, you're very welcome. It's our pleasure.
Merry Elkins:Yeah.
Cathy Worthington:And to and to our listeners, don't forget to subscribe to the late boomers podcast on YouTube so you never miss an episode. Thanks again, Susie. Thank you.
Merry Elkins:Thank you.
Cathy Worthington:Thank you for joining us on late boomers, the podcast that is your guide to creating a third act with style, power, and impact. Please visit our website and get in touch with us at lateboomers.us. If you would like to listen to or download other episodes of Late Boomers, go to ewnpodcastnetwork.com.
Merry Elkins:This podcast is also available on Spotify, Apple Podcast, and most other major podcast sites. We hope you make use of the wisdom you've gained here and that you enjoy a successful third act with your own style, power, and impact.
