Meet Sarah Trautman | co-founder, defy community

We had the good fortune of connecting with Sarah Trautman and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sarah, what role has risk played in your life or career?
“No risk, no reward”.

We’ve all heard this phrase hundreds of times when we talk to our friends and family about doing something in our lives that we might be unsure about or that seems really hard or a financial gamble. But is it really true?

I think a better way to think about taking risk in one’s life and especially in your career is this –

Doing anything has some risk involved. What do you value the most in your life that is worth taking a risk for?

Having clarity about who I am, what’s important to me and what I’m willing to risk in an effort to live my values has helped me make critical career decisions in my life. This doesn’t mean that everything has always gone according to plan or that I haven’t fallen flat on my face (I have numerous career battle scars). I’ve made lots of mistakes and acquired a long list of failures along the way, too.

BUT, living my values through my career decisions and being willing to take risks that align with my values has been what helps me GET BACK UP. It’s what’s allowed me to be able to be reflective and compassionate to myself when things don’t go according to plan. And it’s helped me to be resilient and focused.

Real talk – I still have a healthy amount of fear and anxiety when I make decisions that are high risk. But I’m able to feel the fear and do it anyway because my values are aligned with my actions. And if everything goes sideways I know that I can deal with that, too.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
I ran a Behavioral Health business for 15-years. I sold it in 2019 and has to totally rethink who I was outside of being a CEO. And then the pandemic started and I had incredible amounts of time to be reflective about what I wanted to do in the next chapter of my life.

I have been involved in various leadership positions in my field for years. During the pandemic my industry provided essential healthcare services which was critical to ensure the folks we served continued to receive medically necessary services. But it was also exhausting. Like REALLY exhausting. I started receiving a lot of feedback from colleagues about how burned out they were and that they didn’t know what to do to help alleviate their own suffering.

At the same time Carol Bell, who is defy’s co-founder, reached out to me in response to a social media post. Carol and I had met at an event in Texas in 2019, but didn’t know each other well.

We realized very quickly we were a great fit for each other in terms of our values, working styles and areas of skill. And we both wanted to help the folks in our industry to be happier, healthier and more productive…

So after a lot of ideas and pivots we started defy community – a membership organization focused on helping Behavior Analysts ditch Clinical Burnout! We have spent a LOT of time researching effective practices to decrease burnout in other fields, have surveyed our ideal customer and conducted over 100 interviews to get clarity on how to ensure ALL of our members benefit from being a part of our community. We’re still learning and we don’t always get it right. BUT, we’re willing to take risks that are aligned with our values and so far it’s paid off!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My close friend and mentor, Dr. Pat Friman, has helped me more than anyone to help me better understand who I am, what matters to me the most and to be willing to live BIG!

I also love the work of Adam Grant and highly recommend his latest book – “Think Again”!

Website: www.defy.community

Instagram: @defycommunity