Killer Quotes from Jenna Fabrizio

"Life intervened as it does. And I personally believe that if life had not intervened, I would not have ended up in the South. I would have stayed in New York. I would have stayed in my career. I probably honestly would have stayed in the hospital system until I was ready to retire."

"Say yes to things. Give yourself a period of time to experiment, to try things out, to go to different networking events, to have one-on-ones with people. Just say yes to trying different things. I think at the bottom line, that's really what I did is I just said yes to a lot of things."

"The more that you're able to say no to the things and really like honor yourself, like honor how you feel, right? All the times that I was going to these things or saying yes to people or buying into people's programs. In my heart of hearts and my gut, my gut was saying no."

"My definition of success is also to have a life. My definition of success is to have balance, is to not feel like I'm chained to my desk. It's to not feel like I have to be out doing all the time."

"Anything that I'm using with you guys, I have done for myself. I have tried myself. I have been a client doing these things. And I bring it now to my clients because I truly believe in it because it has helped me."

Key Insights and Takeaways

• Embracing Life's Interventions: Sometimes the biggest career shifts come from life circumstances rather than planned moves. Jenna's unexpected relocation due to family needs opened new opportunities she might never have pursued otherwise.

• Balancing Hustle with Well-being: After experiencing New York's intense work culture, Jenna found greater happiness by prioritizing balance over constant productivity. Success can be redefined to include personal well-being, not just career achievements.

• Say Yes, Then Learn to Say No: Jenna's entrepreneurial journey evolved from saying yes to opportunities to learn and grow, then learning to say no to protect her energy and maintain alignment with her values.

• Trust Your Gut: Intuition plays a crucial role in business decisions. Jenna emphasizes listening to your gut when choosing collaborators, pursuing opportunities, or making business investments.

• Finding Your Community: Building a supportive network of like-minded professionals who genuinely want to see each other succeed is invaluable, especially for solo entrepreneurs.

• Integrating Holistic Approaches: Combining traditional therapeutic methods with alternative modalities like using collagen supplements, or CBD supplements can create more personalized and effective healing experiences for clients.

• Authenticity in Practice: Jenna only offers healing modalities she has personally experienced and benefited from, creating authenticity in her professional practice.

• Evolving Definitions of Success: As life circumstances and personal growth occur, it's natural and healthy for your definition of success to transform accordingly.

• The Power of Networking: Word-of-mouth referrals, leveraging marketing events (like renting a photobooth) and connections remain powerful business builders, especially in service-based industries.

• Entrepreneurship as Self-Discovery: Building a business from scratch involves not just learning practical skills but also uncovering your true values, boundaries, and vision for life.

Introduction and Background

Erika Taylor-Beck: "Jenna, hello, welcome, and please tell us about yourself."

Jenna Fabrizio: "Hi, thank you so much for having me. My name is Jenna. I am a licensed clinical social worker, so licensed mental health counselor. And I have a virtual private practice. I'm located here in Charleston, South Carolina, and I see clients located in the full state of South Carolina. I'm also licensed in New York and in Florida. So I touch on three states where I'm able to see people within my practice."

Erika Taylor-Beck: "That's awesome. How did you get into being a social worker?"

Jenna Fabrizio: "My answer to this is always, don't know. I just literally just stumbled upon it. I knew I wanted to get into a helping profession and I knew I wanted to not limit myself and social work felt like the way to not limit myself. So that's kind of the first step to get me into just going to grad school and becoming a social worker in general. And then while I was in school, we have multiple internships, multiple people that we're talking to. And I was able to try out a lot of different fields, school social work, hospital social work, all the things, and was able to get a little bit more of a sense of like, I really enjoyed this. At the time, it was hospital social work. And that kind of jump started my career into hospital work, which I ended up doing for about seven years before my practice opened."

Hospital Social Work Experience

Erika Taylor-Beck: "Now that's great. And it takes a lot of emotional strength to do any kind of social work just because of the things that you're seeing. But for folks that are not familiar, I love that you said you got to kind of practice a little bit of different things to see what flavor you really liked and you ended up at hospital social work. What is hospital social work for those who aren't familiar?"

Jenna Fabrizio: "Sure. Well, so I originally started in MedSurg, so medical surgical unit. So if you're ever in the hospital, you have a surgery, you have just sort of like any medical something going on. Social Work Care is always on staff. We collaborate with the whole medical team just to see if you need any aftercare really. So if like you need to go to skilled nursing, if you need to get like a wheelchair before you go home, we need case management services, there's issues with insurance. That's kind of where we step in.

I've been transferred over to psychiatric hospital social work and that became much more of intensive mental health support on the inpatient level for clients that were just unsafe to themselves or others in the community."

Working in New York

Erika Taylor-Beck: "That makes sense. And so you said this was in New York, that this happened. Okay, so can tell us a little bit about that? Were you from New York? Is that where you started or did you move to New York?"

Jenna Fabrizio: "Yeah, I'm from New York, born and raised, and went to grad school right in the heart of New York City. So a lot of my training and internships were also there. So moving into hospital social work in the New York City area was just natural. That's where I was located. And I actually really enjoyed that because at the time I was young and vibrant and energetic. So I wanted to be really more in the everything, you know, it's a big metropolitan area. And then moving into the hospital setting, was again, it was just like one of those experiences where you got a taste of everything and you, I personally feel I got the most amount of training that I probably ever could have gotten being in such an intensive setting."

Erika Taylor-Beck: "I can imagine. I can't even fathom the types of things that you have seen in your tenure there. You said you were there for a while, but hospital in New York and then psychiatric and everything else. I'm sure you've seen the gamut of things. Obviously with keeping HIPAA and everything in mind, is there any kind of, I don't want say craziest story, but just like the most like, wow, that you can share."

Jenna Fabrizio: "I've had quite a few wow moments and everything you're probably imagining I've experienced. I have had, you know, I worked inpatient psych and over the course of the seven years that I was in New York working, I also worked outpatient psych. I worked something called mobile crisis, which is basically like a psychiatric EMS services. So we actually were dispatched to a person's home if they were in psychiatric distress.

And I will say some of my craziest stories came from that role. I have definitely entered a client's home before where there was a machete in the bedroom. So there's that. Yes. There's been definitely a lot of those moments. They sound scary when I talk about them, I'm sure. Personally, I mean, I have been trained really extensively to handle situations like that. So yeah, it's a little scary at the moment, but I also really learned how to move in those situations.

[...] just being able to, clients come in and they're scared. Especially if they've never been in a setting like this, you're stripped of everything you own, you can't have your phone, you can't have your clothing. If you're a risk, you can't have jewelry, anything around your neck. It's scary, especially if you've never experienced this. Some of my favorite stories are when I've been able to kind of see a client from the beginning coming into the setting of hospital and then working with them all the way through to the point of getting them supportive housing, actually bringing them on these housing interviews in the middle of New York City and seeing that they could now be on their own again and show them their new environment."

Transition to the South

Erika Taylor-Beck: "So you mentioned that you are now in Charleston, but what happened to get you from, obviously it sounds like you really loved what you were doing in New York and you were in a really great position that you loved, but how did you transition to the South?"

Jenna Fabrizio: "Life intervened as it does. And I personally believe that if life had not intervened, I would not have ended up in the South. I would have stayed in New York. I would have stayed in my career. I probably honestly would have stayed in the hospital system until I was ready to retire. It was one of those kinds of jobs. Life intervened and I needed to be closer to my family. My dad got sick and it was really important that I was here. They had also transitioned down to the South a couple of years prior.

At the time, it was very much a divine intervention where I, when you become a social worker, you get two different licenses over the course of several years. So I had just received my clinical or what they call independent licensure a couple of months prior before I made the decision to move. And that was huge because that allowed me to practice individually. I didn't have to practice under another person. I didn't have to practice under a hospital setting. I could go out onto my own.

And that happens four five months before I made the decision to move. So that allowed me to then dive into opening up my practice, working for myself. I started with just taking on a couple of clients in the evenings after work, just to see how it was, because it's not something I ever did before. And it was also not something I was taught. They don't teach you how to run a business or practice in social work school. It's not on the curriculum."

Building a Business from Nothing

Erika Taylor-Beck: "There's a challenge. Now you're an entrepreneur. So not only are you a social worker and doing what you're doing, but now you have to create a business from nothing. What does that look like for you?"

Jenna Fabrizio: "It looks like chaos. It looked like really, I will say, if you ask any of my friends, they will label me as a hustler. And I think that's just from living in a big city. So when I came down here, it looked like I had no idea what I was doing, but I literally soaked in any information I could get. Thankfully, there are a lot of like online community groups for therapists, for private practice owners, you know, all of the little freebies on how to run your business and all the things like I really just took on whatever I could to just at least get the basics going so that my business can run and I knew I was doing it ethically and the right way.

Over the next three years, it, I say it looked like chaos because I had to, I was like a toddler again. I had to learn all of these new things about running a business, how I want to run the business, who I want to align myself with. I had several situations where I had to learn that, you know, not everyone is your friend in business. Not everybody wants to help you. I had to learn about all the financials of doing my own, you know, retirement savings and all of these things that were always built in my own health insurance. It was a very big game of figure it out.

And honestly, if I look back on it now, I have no idea how I did it. I feel like it blacked it out. But in the moment, it was just like, there was no other option. I just had to do it."

Advice for New Entrepreneurs

Erika Taylor-Beck: "That's typically how it works. I don't know how I got it done, but you don't really have a choice. You just have to get it done and you figure it out. But then you look back and you think, wow, good job me for doing that. Because if you were to ask me to do it today, I don't know how to start, but you just one piece after another. If you had advice for somebody who is starting a business or kind of situation like you, maybe not exactly, but starting over essentially, what guidance or advice would you suggest to somebody to help make that process maybe a little less overwhelming? If you can, maybe it's just going to be overwhelming, but if you could, what would you suggest?"

Jenna Fabrizio: "I mean, this might be overwhelming for some, but I usually say yes to things. Give yourself a period of time to experiment, to try things out, to go to different networking events, to have one-on-ones with people. Just say yes to trying different things. I think at the bottom line, that's really what I did is I just said yes to a lot of things. And then along the way, it kind of like I came down into really what I wanted myself, my life, my business to look like. So obviously say yes within reason, but allow yourself to go out there and just like a big part of starting your business is people knowing who you are. Word of mouth is huge, networking is huge. You never know who knows somebody who knows somebody. And quite honestly, that's also how my business has grown so much. So getting out there, meeting people, saying yes, and just like being open to talking to people and having conversation."

Building Trust in Business Relationships

Erika Taylor-Beck: "So you mentioned to you don't really know, you can't really trust everybody. And I think that's a fair statement for a lot of things. But definitely as an entrepreneur, if wanna share a little bit more about kind of what you meant by that."

Jenna Fabrizio: "Sure, yeah, and it's not necessarily all bad or harmful. It's just that not everybody has the same goals as you or not everybody has the same values as you. So for me, was just a lot of, was probably a little bit naive in the beginning of just trusting everybody and thinking everybody was a kind person and wanting to help. And for the most part, that was true. I'm not gonna say it wasn't, but there were definitely situations where people were not as aligned in collaborating or interested in collaborating, you know, especially in business, especially in small business. You do come across people that are more competitive, that really are out for themselves.

And for me, I learned very quickly that that personally did not feel good for me. I am, you know, I am a helper at heart. So anything that's going to be negative or just, you know, not supportive, that's not for me. So learned very quickly about that. And being able to kind of set boundaries with those people or those communities or those groups, it took me some time to learn it, but I think I'm learning it.

So in the same way that I would tell somebody to like say yes to business and to getting out there, I would also probably say no to the things that just don't feel good. You know, for me, anybody that is going to be competitive or is, you know, kind of like comparing themselves to you or what you've done to them, I don't really need to be around you. I am very, very, very, very grateful in the fact that I have found some really beautiful colleagues and friendships that, you know, we just want to see each other win. And one of my friends calls it like being the best type girl ever. And quite honestly, she is the best hype girl ever because it, you need that, especially in solo entrepreneurship."

Changing Definition of Success

Erika Taylor-Beck: "Do you feel like your definition of success has changed?"

Jenna Fabrizio: "Mm-hmm. Many times over. Yeah, for sure. If you would have talked to me when I was a hospital social worker, I would have told you my definition of success was to do my, what do they call it? 30, 50. So do your 30 years, retire by 55. And that would have been my definition of success. I would have had my pension. I would have had all of my things set up. But I don't think I would have been actually truly happy.

And I don't think that truly was a definition of success. I was again, like on the hamster wheel. And now even in the last couple of years, I think my definition of success has changed where when I first started my business again, I was kind of like looking at everybody else around me and thinking that I had to do five things at once right now. I had to do all these events and be a practice owner and coach and do all these things because everyone else was.

And that was my definition of success. And today, my definition of success is, I still have a lot of interest. There's still a lot of things I want to do. I want to keep my practice going. I want to keep doing some of the other healing, holistic work in and out of the practice room. I love to coach wellness practitioners with the mindset that I have around how to be a business owner, especially because practitioners like myself don't really have a lot of business training. I love to do all that stuff.

But my definition of success is also to have a life. My definition of success is to have balance, is to not feel like I'm chained to my desk. It's to not feel like I have to be out doing all the time. If I have one big event of the month even, or one big like, you know, networking experience or whatever it is, that's amazing. And that's enough for me. I really, my definition of success truly is finding the balance and not feeling like I'm running around like a chicken without a head all the time."

Future Plans in the South

Erika Taylor-Beck: "Are you planning on staying in South Carolina? Do you have any aspirations to go back to New York or are you like, this is where I'm at?"

Jenna Fabrizio: "Well, New York will always be home. There are things, you know, New York is a very special place. It will always be a very special place in my heart. My extended family is still there. I love New York for the culture, for the food, for all that it is. I love to go and visit and I do that frequently. I think it would have to be something, I do think about going back just cause it is such a, like that warm place in my heart.

But honestly, I enjoy what the South has, I can't believe I'm saying this, enjoy what the South has given me, which is just kind of what you're saying, like a little bit of a different lifestyle. I love that it's warm. I love that it's sunny. I love, one of the things I love to do, and especially in the middle of my day to break up the day is I go, I take my dog on a walk or I go sit in the backyard. I love the sun. I can't help it. So I love to, you know, do a little sun tanning in the backyard. I like those things and New York is not gonna give me that, you know, 10 months out of the year, the way Carolinas do.

So I think New York will always just be, you know, a beautiful chapter in my life. I am definitely, for the moment, staying down in the Carolinas. Now does that mean I'm staying in Charleston? Maybe not, to be continued. There are definitely a couple of other bigger cities in the Carolina area that I have my eye on just because I do miss a little bit of just like the energy of of city life and Metro life, but I think for now Being down here feels good for me."

Reflections on Returning to New York

Erika Taylor-Beck: "But two, if you were, say if you did go back to New York, do you feel like you enjoy it the way you did? Because now that you've changed, do you feel like, I know there's still parts of it that you like, like the food and some of the culture and different pieces, but if you were to move there, do you feel like you would fit in the way that you did before now that you have adapted to this new way of thinking and doing."

Jenna Fabrizio: "I would fit in. I think it would probably, I almost in a way would worry that I would kind of go backwards. That, you know, I would be around people that are still in that like, you know, hustle world. I have clients that live in New York and I hear about their lifestyle and I'm just like, Whoa, that's a lot of things. Right? I think I would enjoy it because there was a big part of me that loves that lifestyle. But I do worry about the fact that it would, I think I would go backwards and I don't wanna do that.

I think about, trust me, I think about that a lot. And one of the biggest things that keeps me from going back is the fear of kind of undoing all of the things that I've done for myself. I'm okay with the moment for it being a place I can visit and kind of enjoy the things that I enjoy and then kind of come back to what I now call home."

Building Community

Erika Taylor-Beck: "So you also mentioned building a community. And I know that's something that you said that you had been kind of building a community around you, not just like personally, but an actual community. Do you want to talk a little bit about what you're doing there?"

Jenna Fabrizio: "I would love to. So I have a bunch of communities and I think a lot of them are personal slash professional, especially in my world. We're all helpers and healers and so we're also looking for friends and personal community too. Since I moved to Charleston, one of the biggest things I started doing was hosting mini day retreats for women. So I have hosted, I think four in the Charleston area, I actually did host one in Raleigh last fall. I wish I could have told you, I know. I know, I have a friend up there, so we hosted it have did that together. But I hosted about, I think it was four over the course of the last year and a half. And I had several return attendees and those events are always more for just women that are looking for healing, community, a break from the daily life.

And we offer sound and Reiki and women's circles and lunch and self care. And it's just like a really beautiful experience. I've done those quite a number of times. They're always just fun. And I love them because these are not necessarily other practitioners. Sometimes they are because they want a break too. But I love that it's just a way to kind of like meet the community and also support the community.

I've, alongside two of my most dear friends and now colleagues, we created something called the Carolina Wellness Entrepreneur Collective. It's a mouthful. But it is a collective of wellness practitioners across the Carolinas that are looking for support, for community, for collaboration. And we have hosted multiple events throughout Charleston, Charlotte, and the Wilmington area for networking and kind of a combination of networking, self-care, and some business coaching and support. So we've hosted several of those events. Our last one actually was in Charleston in January.

And those are always really fun because it's a way to network and build your professional network and community, but also pour back into each other with self-care. We always do a sound bath. We call ourselves a band because I do the sound bowls and then my two partners do the chimes, the wave drum. We just kind of bring it all together and it's a beautiful experience. So I'm really, really proud of that community because it's something that we all, the three of us grew together over a very similar need to have supportive collaborative community."

Human Design and Holistic Approaches

Jenna Fabrizio: "I've actually, if we dive into human design, we'll never end. It was one of the things on my healing journey too, and honestly has become something I help my clients with one-on-one now. And I have started actually hosting Intro to Human Design workshops. I just did one two weeks ago for one of my local women in business communities here in Charleston. So I love human design.

[...]

I call myself either a holistic therapist or an integrative therapist because I integrate so many different things into the therapeutic room. And I often find that when I bring in more of the holistic tools, whether it's human design, I'm also trained in brain spotting, which is a somatic treatment modality for trauma, for just healing past situations, healing anything that maybe you're like stuck with. It's very somatic and body-based. I find when I bring in those tools, more woo tools, the clients actually lean into it more because for whatever reason, it's just more validating.

I will bring in an Oracle card into a therapeutic room. I've had clients that, you know, tell me or ask me at the end of session, like, can we just pull a card? And for them, it's sort of like the mindset for the rest of their week or the mindset until, you know, the focus until I see them again. And it's just validating whereas sometimes the bigger concepts, bigger mental health concepts are hard for them to conceptualize or just like the general like journal and doing all these like basic coping tools. They're like, yeah, yeah, I know that. But it doesn't necessarily really help them.

But when I bring out some of the other tools, I find that they really, they just understand it and they soak it up in a different level. And that's why I keep using them."

Jenna Fabrizio: "Anything that I'm using with you guys, I have done for myself. I have tried myself. I have been a client doing these things. And I bring it now to my clients because I truly believe in it because it has helped me. You know, human design helped me tremendously in in the early days of business ownership of not necessarily trusting my gut. Right. My Oracle cards helped me a lot just with my mindset and my own anxieties and just being able to ground myself every day."

More About Our Host and Guest

Erika Taylor-Beck is the founder of Authentic Foundations, which offers comprehensive leadership training for managers looking to build stronger teams and more effective communication skills. Her approach emphasizes authentic leadership principles and practical strategies that help transform workplace dynamics. 

You can discover more episodes of the "Stumbling Forward" podcast on Apple Podcasts, where Erika interviews various guests about their personal and professional growth journeys.

Jenna Fabrizio operates her virtual therapy practice through Rolling Into Wellness, where she offers holistic mental health services to clients in South Carolina, New York, and Florida. Beyond traditional therapy, she incorporates various healing modalities including Human Design, Reiki, and sound healing.

Contact Information

For those interested in working with Jenna in New York, Florida, or South Carolina, her practice is fully virtual and can be found at rollingintowellness.com. She takes insurance in all three states.

For those interested in her work beyond therapy, she can be found on Instagram at Soul Society Wellness. Her collective can be found on Instagram at Carolina Wellness Collective and on Facebook in the Carolina Wellness Entrepreneur Collective group, which welcomes practitioners in the healing space.