Helping Those Who Help Others: Meet Latrina Walden By Traci Sanders As a double-board-certified nurse practitioner and a professor at a local university, Latrina Walden noticed some gaps in the teaching realm concerning nurse practitioners. Three years ago, she decided to fill that gap by developing a few signature programs and styles to address the application and retention piece she felt so many students were missing. Thus, the education company Latrina Walden Exam Solutions (LWES) was born. RNs who are in the process of completing Nurse Practitioner school and taking board exams such as AANP, AGNP, ANCC, and more can access Walden’s digital courses, workbooks, and private social community for resources and support. “Through these digital
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courses, I provide them with the blueprint on how to take care of their patients when they walk into the clinic,” Walden stated. “This, in turn, allows them to pass their board exams.” Through the platform Thinkific, LWES has been able to serve over 16,000 students, allowing Walden to build a support team so she can focus on what she loves most: creation and execution of her products and programs. “The challenge lately is strategically building a team,” she said. “Being remote has been a task in itself. As the business grows, I want all my employees to be in the right role with LWES. There is something to having in-person water cooler talks with your colleagues, and I do believe that my team is missing that key link.” Getting a program off the ground was no small feat. “The first year was a blur,” Walden explained. “I was still working full time as a professor and building my business with the help of two people and a freelance web developer. I would go to the clinic to see patients, go teach at the university, and then come home and work until midnight or later on my business. I worked on weekends and would turn around and do it all over again. Honestly, it was exhausting, and I often look back and wonder how I never had any breakdowns.” Walden’s business was initially built completely through word of mouth alongside social media. “Students would tell their classmates, faculty would tell their students, and the journey would continue on,” Walden added. Currently, her Facebook study group has over 15,000 members. Because Walden built her business completely online prior to the pandemic, 2020 brought some great numbers. “The pandemic granted people more time to study and focus, causing an influx in orders and interactions,” she said. “People wanted to purchase all of our products.” The one drawback Walden’s company faced was being challenged to keep up with the rapid growth. In 2021, she decided to hit the pause button in order to put a team in place to build the infrastructure for her business, resulting in an organization that would grow steadily and develop smoothly in the years in to come. The health and wellness industry has always played a huge part in Walden’s life. That’s why it made perfect sense for her to sign up to compete in the half Ironman recently. “The 70.3 Ironman is my first Ironman half-distance branded race,” she said. “It involves a 1.2-mile swim, 56 miles of biking, and running 13.1 miles consecutively until the end. I know I’m not ready for the full Ironman yet, so I am listening to my body and taking on the half Ironman instead.” Conditioning for this race has also trickled into Walden’s business and made her a better entrepreneur. “The more I can complete physically,” Walden explained, “the more mental strength I gain. Doing this level of training day in and day out, while being an entrepreneur, mother, and wife is a journey. These workouts allow me one to two hours of mental space where I can solely focus on my overall growth, physical and mental.” Even while training for the half Ironman, Walden is heading up the LWES process of developing more workbooks, product lines, and an entire study system to give nursing students exactly what they need to succeed and provide ultimate care for their patients. When asked what advice Walden would offer to an entrepreneur just getting started, she replied, “Be consistent in your business. Make sure you take time for yourself, whether that is working out or finding a therapist. You matter! In order to grow personally and professionally, you have to continue to work on these things regularly.” More information at https://www.latrinawaldenexamsolutions.com/.
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