Meet Trailblazer Susie Martin

Today we’d like to introduce you to Susie Martin.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Susie. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
All my life, I have struggled with anxiety. Even as a teenager, I remember the feeling of pure panic would just take over as often as daily. Never really understanding why. Also, not understanding why I didn’t seem as good as making friends as others around me. Bouts of depression would hit me, but a deep, clinical depression didn’t happen until about 3 years ago. It consumed my soul, stole my happy and any love of life I had. For a good 6-7 months, I was in a dark fog. I felt worthless, abandoned and simply like I didn’t matter. I barely had the energy or desire to get out of bed, much less anything else. My small business fell apart, I lost an unhealthy amount of wait in a short period of time, I withdrew from all my relationships and became dependent on Xanax just to keep the “mean girl” voices out of my head and to take a break from constant tears or nothingness. I had threatening thoughts that I never imagined I could have. Somehow though, I made myself crawl out of the darkness I was in. Day by day, it was a fighting effort. During the end of my time in the darkness, my big sis sent me an act of kindness video. I have always loved the RAK movement and always thought it would be so fun to do one. But in this particular video, there was a clip of a man making a phone call to someone he knew. You could hear him leaving a message that said, “I’m just calling to let you know that I love you, you are very important in my life and I need you.”

To my surprise, I didn’t feel sad because no one was calling, or my normal cynical thoughts. I vividly remember feeling so happy for the person receiving those incredible kind words. I knew the value of hearing words like his, but I also knew the loneliness of not feeling loved will do to you. From this is where “Kindness Reminders” and the “Not-So-Random-Acts-of-Kindness”™ movement inspiration came from. Along with creating awareness about depression and anxiety, this is the platform and foundation of Here’s Your Reminder Project. I have a wonderful loving family, but we never discussed anything like this. I didn’t really know what I was actually experiencing. I just thought something was very wrong with me, which made me shameful. My recovery and healing from daily anxiety and deep depression ultimately didn’t really begin until I heard someone talking about their struggle with depression. This allowed me to understand myself, which motivated me to begin talking about it and slowly made me stronger to handle my mental illness.

Once I embraced it, I became a better and happier me! Here’s Your Reminder Project first was just something I did on the side that was therapeutic for me. The more I focused on doing kindness reminders for those important to me, the stronger my relationships grew, which brought me joy that was healing to my heart and spirit. I also pushed myself to speak about my experience with depression and awkwardness with anxiety. By doing so, this made others comfortable to share (sometimes for the first time) or it prompted conversations with those in their lives. Eventually the need for this in our worlds was obvious and I officially began the charity.

In the beginning, it was a self-funded non-profit. Making yourself known in the community and receiving donations, sponsors and funding is very challenging. It takes a lot of passion for what you are doing to keep you going. Since I was bank rolling it myself, I should mention that bank roll was on the almost non-existence side, this didn’t allow us to do as much as I know we could do for the impact I wanted to see. I was constantly on the hunt for fundraising ideas. After seeing a goat yoga video on Facebook, I became very excited and knew I just had to take a goat yoga class! I’m a huge animal lover and have been obsessed with mini-goats forever! After a bit of research, I learned that at the time, the craze just hadn’t made it to Texas yet. Lightbulb moment: I’ll create a few classes as a fundraiser and get to participate in a goat yoga class. Win-win! After our first two classes sold out in 3 hours, we added two more. Those sold out in a day. We decided to keep offering the fun classes as long as people keep coming and leaving with bigger smiles than they arrived with. Our first class was on July 8th, 2017, here we are months later, still going strong! Not only has it allowed us to do so much good with our charity, but it has brought happy-vibes and joy to all those who attend.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
It depends on how far back you want me to go back with that question! But getting here, no it has not been smooth. I had always felt a yearning to have my own business. But never really knew what. I settled for jobs I never enjoyed. Did what I had to do to pay the bills. I never felt accomplished. I didn’t take that leap until my mid-thirties. I felt as if I was starting from scratch again (technically I was). When all my friends were pulling in nice pay checks and had bragging rights on their successful careers, it was very intimidating and at times, a bit depressing. But once I began my journey as an entrepreneur, I felt relieved. It was a struggle!

Starting out, you are stressed about making enough to pay the bills, learning things about business you never knew you needed to know and of course, the anxiety that manifests as self-doubt. But, I also remembered how miserable I felt with the thankless jobs and that was the push to make sure I kept going until I first felt successful. My biggest advice to those who wants something else in life, put it out there! Start telling people about it. Talk about your goals, your business and even the help you need to do so. Because, eventually those words will be heard.

The biggest surprise for me, with my charity, is how hard it is to have deserving people accept kindness from you. I’ll reach out to people and give them the opportunity to receive an act of kindness or be part of one for a person who matters to them and if they don’t flatly turn it down then they are very hesitant to accept. It’s sad at how we’ve become skeptical when kindness is offered or nervous to step-up to help a person in our life. I hope to change that.

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Here’s Your Reminder Project and Happy Goat Yoga-For Charity – what should we know?
We are mental health advocates focused on combating depression and strengthening relationships through awareness and intentional kindness. The basis of nearly everything we do is to make sure the people in our life are reminded daily and know that they matter. At every event or speaking engagement we do, we create Smile Signs. These are positive notes for an important person in our life. You’ll write words of encouragement, a thank-you or a reminder of why they’re awesome. Then, will text them a selfie of you holding the Smile Sign to the recipient. Sending them a smile! We also have a movement called Not-So-Random-Acts-of-Kindness™. With this, we ask the question “Who says kindness has to be random?” We encourage you to focus back on your everyday people because even though we may feel close to them, you never know if life is weighing them down or they are heading into their own darkness before it’s too late.

Our Happy Goat Yoga-For Charity is its own event. Not only are these supporting a charity, but we have lots and lots of friendly, sweet baby and mini-goats, not just a few. You are guaranteed lots of interaction with the cuties. They are also offered at different fun venues providing the atmosphere that appeals most to you: brewery, gardens, markets, coffee shops, fitness studios, etc. We say “You can’t be grumpy with a goat on your back”. When you join our classes, you will quickly understand why. They are a great way to unwind from a chaotic work week, spend quality time with your people or a memorable way to celebrate any occasion!

So much of the media coverage is focused on the challenges facing women today, but what about the opportunities? Do you feel there are any opportunities that women are particularly well positioned for?
I think we naturally make great cheerleaders and supporters. This may sound like a cliche or degrading answer, but this type of charisma is needed in all environments. Aren’t we all a little happier when we have someone cheering for us in our corner? The bumps and let downs in life, I feel, make us guard this part of ourselves as we get older. We are also taught to be competitive in our careers, and we may need to show more “toughness” and less femininity in order to compete with the boys. To me, this is sad. We should be encouraged to embrace who we are, even if that is a vulnerable woman in a competitive world. Because isn’t it when we embrace our true selves that our strength ultimately shines through and we become our best selves? Once I did exactly this is when my life became more fulfilled. I can say I’m the happiest I’ve ever been.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.HeresYourReminder.org
• Email: Susie@HeresYourReminder.org
• Instagram: instagram.com/heresyourreminder instagram.com/happygoatyoga.dfw instagram.com/susiesmiless
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/Heresyourreminder/ www.facebook.com/HappyVibesGoatYoga/

Image Credit:
Karissa Lee Photography, Deb Deb Designs, Luwan CamCamCrew

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