Second Act Success Podcast
Season 1 -Episode #18 - Nurse to Founder of Seattle Sutton’s Healthy Eating with Seattle Sutton
Guest: Seattle Sutton
Transcription (*created by Descript and may not be perfectly accurate)

[00:00:00] Seattle Sutton: It's never too late. And I gotta admit, I can't really do everything I used to do at age 90, because honestly, when you start a business, it's not a 40 hour a week job. You have to be willing to work. I just knew that I, I had a good idea and I knew I could help a lot of people. But I ran into big hurdles too. But you just have to overcome them.

[00:00:23] Shannon: Hey there. My friend, before we get into the episode, I wanted to pop in to let you know that you can now subscribe to the Second Act Success newsletter to get weekly emails with info on the latest episodes, blogs and advice on moving towards your second act, head on over to www.secondactsuccess.co to sign up. Now let's get on with the show.

Are you at a crossroads in your career or in life? Well, don't worry because life's next chapter is waiting. This is the Second Act Success Podcast. I am your host Shannon Russell.

I'm a television producer, [00:01:00] turned boy mom, turned business owner, podcaster, and career coach. If you are looking to start a new career or begin a fresh chapter in life, then get ready to be inspired with stories of women who have done just that. We will share advice and offer steps you can take to help figure out what your true calling in life really is.

It is time to shine. So let's turn the page and get started.

Welcome to Second Act Success.

Seattle Sutton is 90 years old. She began her career as a registered nurse. And when she was 53, she decided to help her patients eat healthier by creating the well-known meal plan service, Seattle Sutton's Healthy Eating. Her company became a multi-million dollar family business that she just sold a couple of years ago. Seattle kept me laughing this entire interview. And I'm so excited to [00:02:00] share it with you now. This is Seattle Sutton's Second Act Success Story.

[00:02:05] Shannon Russell: Welcome to the podcast, Seattle. I'm so happy to have you here.

[00:02:08] Seattle Sutton: Thank you. I'm excited to talk with you, Shannon.

[00:02:11] Shannon Russell: Thank you so much for even doing this.

[00:02:14] Seattle Sutton: By the way, I was born in 1932, so I'm 90 years old now, I was born during the, the great. recession in, North Dakota my mother she came from a family. 14. I had 66 first cousins because everybody had big families because they were homesteaders of land in South Dakota and then North Dakota, where I'm from, I have, five children, 14 grandchildren, and I have number 21 great child on the way.

[00:02:44] Shannon Russell: Oh my gosh. Bless you. That is so amazing.

So Seattle, I'd love to start with you just telling me about your journey as a registered nurse. When did you decide that you wanted to go into nursing?

[00:02:57] Seattle Sutton: I knew from when I was like third [00:03:00] grade, we got like one gift for Christmas and it was a little nurses kit because my mother said to me oh, I would've just loved to been a nurse. Then I guess in my head, I thought, well, maybe I want to too. You know? So I, I just followed that dream

[00:03:20] Shannon Russell: you got your idea about nursing from your mom. You might not have known that. That was a possibility for you.

[00:03:26] Seattle Sutton: My dad had two years of high school, my mother only went through eighth grade and my dad, he moved us off the farm. My dad's side of the family. They liked business. So my dad decided we should move into the little town of Gackle and he became mayor of this little town and he started a farm implement international harvester business so with two years of high school, he started that and he started a standard oil filling station and a car dealership selling [00:04:00] Chryslers and Plymouths. And guess what? My mother with her eighth grade graduation did all my dad's bookkeeping. All these different companies taught her how to do the bookkeeping for all these businesses.

[00:04:14] Shannon Russell: What a wonderful lesson. And then you went to college. So how did you get that opportunity? Did they want that opportunity for you that they didn't have?

[00:04:23] Seattle Sutton: My dad was kind of hoping I'd stay home. And we were very close but some of my relatives in his side of the family had gone to Jamestown College, and they said, oh, if she wants to go to nursing, Jamestown is great. So I got to go to college. Jamestown College had a collegiate program to start nursing. I decided to go there. And one of the reasons was Shannon that, I was getting pretty interested in boys and I didn't like the idea of going to a nursing program for three years where there were mostly all girls. [00:05:00] I mean, Really attracted me because I could live on the campus at Jamestown College and my major could be nursing. And so in four years we received our RN and our Bachelor of Science degree. And I loved my freshman year there because I became a cheerleader for the Jamestown Jimmys. And I was in a play and I was in the chorus and I was in the band. I, I joined everything cuz I thought everybody did. But after the first year I realized that, oh my gosh, I can't do any of that because we had to go down the hill to the hospital and we had our clinicals. They sent us to Cook County Hospital for our third year in Chicago it was during the, the, a polio epidemic, actually in 1953.

[00:05:50] Shannon: What an incredible learning experience for you, nursing students. What came next?

[00:05:55] Seattle Sutton: It was four years and three summers. so then I had an RN and a [00:06:00] BS degree. And my first year when Kelly, my husband was taking his internship at Peoria, Illinois, St. Francis Hospital. I thought I'll just work at the other hospital Methodist. , while he gets his internship and, and stuff. So I was on the floor the first day and they came to me and because I had a Bachelor of Science degree back then a lot of RNs did not have that. And they asked me if I would like to teach nursing at t he hospital there and I said, oh, yes. , I would love to be on the staff of teaching, I was only 22 years and so proud. I had 55 freshman students that I just adored, when you have a specialty like nursing and you're teaching like freshman nursing, they were there because they wanted to be. I had no computer back then to do things like, I gave them an exam on every assignment. And I hand corrected all these, tests that I [00:07:00] gave them and stuff, because I had time, my husband was interning and many times he had to stay there all night.

I still now keep in contact with many of them. And do, do you know that those 55 students, I was Mrs. Sutton to them, but they finally realized that, Hey, that's Seattle Sutton of Seattle. Sutton's Healthy Eating. So when they realized that they said, oh my gosh, we found you, would you come down to our 60th class reunion? So I did. And it was a special function they had for all graduating nurses. They said, you know, you influenced us for the rest of our lives,

[00:07:41] Shannon Russell: What a nice reunion Seattle, they wanted to meet with you. They wanted to see you after 60 years.

[00:07:47] Seattle Sutton: They wanted to visit my manufacturing facility of Seattle Sutton's Healthy Eating, cuz they had heard so much about it so they came up to visit me several times.

[00:07:57] Shannon Russell: Wonderful. Oh, teaching your [00:08:00] students must have really taught you a lot during that time. Don't you think?

[00:08:04] Seattle Sutton: Oh, it did. I put my heart into, because I loved them. I wanted them to learn everything and they did. They were so great.

[00:08:12] Shannon Russell: So then you moved with your husband to Wichita, Kansas, and that's where you started your family?

[00:08:17] Seattle Sutton: My husband was deferred from being in the service for two years. During the Korean War, So we had to go to, Wichita, Kansas in the Air Force. And then we started our family.

We moved to Marseilles, Illinois in 1957, I was real busy, I had five children in seven years, I really couldn't even leave because my husband was making house calls. So I wasn't like most women, they could take off and take a break and go shopping at the grocery store. I could not do that as they got a little older, he would take one or two and that was a break for me. And he would take them with him on house calls to carry his bag and they loved it and the patients loved it.

[00:08:58] Shannon Russell: You deserve that free [00:09:00] time.

[00:09:00] Seattle Sutton: My husband we would wait for him when he was in family practice and he delivered about 2000 babies. And there were no specialists at Ottawa, the hospital, where he was on the staff. So he did everything and he loved family practice because he loved like in Marseilles and Ottawa area, he loved knowing who's related to whom and the whole family. We built a new medical clinic in Marsailes and, uh, the only thing he really was very concerned about was he said, I want my exam rooms big because sometimes they bring the whole family and I get to meet the whole family and stuff. And so that, that's what he got. And It's still there. It's owned by another hospital now,

[00:09:43] Shannon: Awww it sounds like he was a really well-respected physician in your community. Did you work with him at all yet at this point?

[00:09:50] Seattle Sutton: Back In 1969, I said, you know, Kelly, I've been thinking about coming to help you at the office. And he said, I was just thinking that that would be great. [00:10:00] And so I decided to go help him in his medical practice. I learned everything I could from reading medical, economics, and things. And I got him incorporated and I got a profit sharing plan set up and I, I ran the office and it was really fun working together. Being a nurse helped, and also that I was interested in the business part of, accelerating all that.

[00:10:23] Shannon Russell: it seems to me that you and Kelly were both such great partners, both at home and in the office.

[00:10:29] Seattle Sutton: Whether it was socially or just working or whatever. I enjoyed him. And he enjoyed being with me more than anybody.

[00:10:37] Shannon: You two really had such a special marriage and a special business partnership as well. That's so lovely to hear.

[00:10:43] Seattle Sutton: When my husband was very sick and he is deceased now for eight years. , we miss him terribly. The whole family does, and he was very influential as a really great father. And he was a great family physician. We talked about a lot of things that we really hardly [00:11:00] had talked about, like I asked him one day, I said, you know, Kelly, his name was Herman Kelly Sutton, but, I said, I wonder why when we got married, we didn't really talk about when should we plan on having children or whatever. And he said, oh no. He said, I wanted to see what they looked like. And I thought, is that why we had five kids and said, yeah,

[00:11:26] Shannon Russell: sounds like he had a very big sense of humor. I can tell.

[00:11:30] Seattle Sutton: He did. He had a very good sense of humor and you have to laugh and you have to have fun.

[00:11:36] Shannon Russell: How long were you married Seattle?

[00:11:38] Seattle Sutton: 60 years.

[00:11:39] Shannon: How very lucky Seattle, 60 years is a long time. So tell me, why did you decide to pivot once again in your fifties to start your own business?

[00:11:49] Seattle Sutton: Why did I start my business? As a nurse, I felt that handing people a sheet of paper, like if they needed to be on a low cholesterol diet or a low fat diet or [00:12:00] whatever, handing people, a sheet of paper did not do the job. I felt like talking to them, the patient and trying to help them was really important, but that not everybody wants to spend their time in the kitchen all day. I knew that. And so I thought, gosh, if somebody would just do the meals for these people and count the calories for them and stuff they would, they would do well. I know they would, but they're not gonna do all that work. And so one day after I got home, I said to my husband, you know, somebody should do the meals for people and I said, I think I might start that. And he looked at me up cuz I was 53 years old then. And he said, well, you're not gonna get any younger Seattle, if you wanna do it, do it now.

And he was always supportive. He let it be my business, I rented space from a local caterer and started that and eventually proved that Seattle Sutton's Healthy Eating was everything it said it is. You know, low [00:13:00] sodium, low, fat, low cholesterol, f reshly prepared meals, including, salad and, fresh fruit. Meals were fresh delivered to your door twice a week. And I used my name in it because it was so unusual, Seattle Sutton's Healthy Eating.

[00:13:15] Shannon Russell: I know it started in Illinois, but it's available countrywide. Is that right?

[00:13:19] Seattle Sutton: Yes. It's a way available nationwide. Yes. They can have a choice of either being on 1200 calorie for weight loss or a lot of the elderly share the 2000 calorie, which is way big enough to share. We have a vegetarian line now also, which is about 1500 calories a day average. And it's 21 meals a week, every breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And the reason I did that was so people, when they're on Seattle Sutton's Healthy Eating, they only receive the same meal, including breakfast, 10 times a year.

[00:13:52] Shannon Russell: Wow. That is a lot.

[00:13:55] Seattle Sutton: One of my personal reasons for also starting the business for weight loss. [00:14:00] And I know that hundreds of people lost over a hundred pounds and I'm very proud of that. I know I really helped them. Some I saved their lives. I f the distributors would let me know, I would send them a personal note with a check for a hundred dollars for losing a hundred pounds. My personal reason was my, my own father weighed 385 pounds. And so I was always concerned about congestive heart failure and type two diabetes. Unfortunately he died five years before I even planned to start my business. But I always knew that if he just had somebody to do the meals for him, he would do well.

[00:14:36] Shannon Russell: It really is hard. You can see it on a piece of paper, but to make the effort of changing your lifestyle, of changing, how you cook and eat is really hard. So to have a company like you created to prepare those meals and have that just easy for you just makes a world of difference.

[00:14:51] Seattle Sutton: Somebody needs to do it for them. And of course it's not cheap, but when you add up your time and your travel costs to go buy [00:15:00] groceries, to plan your meals, to cook, to clean up and all, if they can possibly afford it, we can do the meals for them.

[00:15:08] Shannon: It's a family business. Your kids are involved as well. Right?

[00:15:11] Seattle Sutton: The whole family was involved somehow. Peter, who was an electrical engineers in California, he did my payroll. And Chris, the oldest son was very good at, diagnosing things that financially we should do and whatnot , he was a big help. My oldest daughter, Paula was at Baylor Hospital for 22 years, but she wanted to get involved with my business and she loved nursing and she was an excellent nurse. And Ruthie was mostly a heart specialist as a nurse. And then Sarah was a pediatric nurse, but as they retired, they knew they were still helping people in nursing if they joined my business. My three daughters were much help. So it was a family-owned business. And in 2012, I gave up all my shares to them and I [00:16:00] delegated and kept delegating more things for them to do.

[00:16:03] Shannon Russell: Seattle. That's amazing.

[00:16:05] Seattle Sutton: At one point, the most meals we did in one week at Seattle Sutton's Healthy Eating was 800,000 meals a week.

[00:16:12] Shannon Russell: Are you so proud of everything you've created?

[00:16:15] Seattle Sutton: I actually invested a thousand dollars to begin with. I never borrowed money to do the business. So I invested a thousand dollars and at one point the highest a annual gross income we had was 27 million.

[00:16:30] Shannon Russell: Wow.

[00:16:31] Seattle Sutton: So I did that with a thousand dollars. So yes, I'm, I'm real proud.

And when anybody asks me, gosh, I have an idea too. I just don't know if I should do that. My advice is if you have a dream, pursue it, even if you fail. So what? I mean, you can go back to work or take more courses or whatever. So go for it, go for it,

[00:16:53] Shannon: that's such excellent advice. You must get asked a lot to speak about your multimillion dollar [00:17:00] business.

[00:17:00] Seattle Sutton: I loved giving talks to Chamber of Commerce and Rotary Clubs and wherever, or be on radio and TV. And I would, you know, mention my business and all, but when I was asked to speak mostly about entrepreneurship, I said, the thing is, if you think of, of anything that you wanna do, I said pursue it, but remember this, that do it right. Try to do it right. Do it very business. You need to incorporate and have a good lawyer. You need to have a CPA. You need to pay your taxes. And the number one have good, good, honest, ambitious employees. Those three things are really, really important. If you wanna start a business. And in my case, I had read that it takes about 10 years average to start a completely new business. I didn't believe it. I thought I could do it in six months. but I'm an optimist. And even though that wasn't possible, I [00:18:00] remember about two years after I started the Seattle Sutton's Healthy Eating and at a hard time meeting the payroll. And I thought it will I ever. And I finally started making a little money and the first thing I did before I ever took a profit and it was like several years later, I, I, I gave all my wonderful employees, , a raise. I gave them a raise before I ever took a dime out of the company. I mean, after all, I was still helping my husband and being paid by that corporation and, and he was doing okay, really? He had a nice big practice, so I was fortunate to be able to do that. And then when I started the business, I didn't wanna charge too much because I just wanted to prove that the Seattle Sutton's Healthy Eating works. I just wanted as many people as possible to experience and we had no contracts to sign. I kept it really honest.

[00:18:56] Shannon Russell: You were at the point in your career as a nurse, [00:19:00] working with your husband, that you could have retired and instead of retiring, you decided to open an entire new business.

[00:19:07] Seattle Sutton: Yes. And I still, during that time until 1991, when he retired, I was still helping him at the office. I would be up at 4:00 AM and, and go see how they were doing and then run back you know, when you love what you do the whole key is you shouldn't fret over the little things. They're not so important. What's really important is, you know, other people in your friends and the more you can do for other people or enjoy them, the happier you are. so I have a good time.

[00:19:39] Shannon Russell: And starting Seattle Sutton's Healthy Eating was making you happy. And you surrounded yourself with people that you wanted to work with. Right? So it was a enjoyable venture for you. And it just so happened to be extremely profitable as well.

[00:19:54] Seattle Sutton: Yes. It ended up. Yeah. I really honestly never did it for that [00:20:00] reason. I just knew though that somebody should be doing the meals for people.

When we got to selling the business, we decided. We gotta take a break and we're gonna sell. We all agreed. We had big venture capitalists interested in buying Seattle Sutton's Healthy Eating and I even had the letter of intent, which I read and I thought, oh my gosh, I can see things that, that they're put in there that if they fail, they're gonna blame us for not training, right. Or whatever. I could see that I picked up the phone and I had always wondered. Why didn't some registered dietician do what I'm doing, because I've always had a lot of respect for registered dieticians. They really learned the science of, nutrition. We had a wonderful registered dietician with us named Rene Ficek. And she was a registered dietician and a diabetic educator. We had her full time. She believed in all my same philosophies of no [00:21:00] gimmicks, no contracts, just, you know, do the right thing and just, you know, and so I picked up the phone one morning and I called her and I said, Rene, you might have realized because we were having appraisers that we might sell the business. Would you be interested? There was a little pause. And she said, yes. She said it like that. Yes. And she never veered from that. I asked her why the little pause and she said it was because she just knew that she was pregnant with her second child and she thought that might make a difference. And I said, oh my gosh, congratulations. We all lived through the children and, and that's wonderful. And yes, you could do it Rene. We sold the business to her instead of some venture capitals,

[00:21:48] Shannon Russell: so you kept it in the family with her. She'd already known you and your, and your staff and everyone.

[00:21:53] Seattle Sutton: She never changed the name. It's still Seattle Sutton's Healthy Eating. And the website is still the same. [00:22:00] If anybody wants to really see our menus and all that, our freshly prepared meals, it's www.seattlesutton.com.

And by the way, I'm, I'm still on the meals and I've never stopped in 36 years. I never had a chance to go out to lunch with my friends or anything like that either. So now after my husband retired and all, and now that I've sold the business, oh my gosh, I'm out for lunch or out for dinner and stuff. So I just get a half a week, so I don't have to shop or cook it's delivered to my door and, it's really healthier than anybody could cook on their own because of the variety and the sodium restriction.

[00:22:38] Shannon Russell: And you eat healthy and wow. You are amazing at 90. Wow. You sound. So healthy.

[00:22:45] Seattle Sutton: A friend said, I wanna go to Vegas in March. cuz our bridge players were going and my family was meeting with me because they have to help me when I invite people

[00:22:54] Shannon Russell: Right. So how was Vegas for you? Did you have fun? I love that you're traveling.

[00:22:59] Seattle Sutton: Oh, I love it. [00:23:00] And I like to play craps. Okay. But you know what they did to make up for the COVID losses. And I, I want them to be in business, so I can't blame them, but they, they don't have the $5 minimum, crap tables even downtown anymore. And that throws off my game. So I play craps.

[00:23:17] Shannon Russell: Craps and bridge. I love it.

[00:23:21] Seattle Sutton: Do you have children?

[00:23:22] Shannon Russell: Do. I have two little boys.

[00:23:24] Seattle Sutton: Okay. I've written a book about parenting. My first book was the Seattle Sutton Solution. About 10 years ago. And it has a lot of my husband and my thoughts about raising children.

[00:23:37] Shannon Russell: That's so special I mean, you have so many stories to share. And are a lot of your, stories, are things from your business in the museum that you started as well.

[00:23:46] Seattle Sutton: when I, , sold the business, I always thought that Everything I saved someday should be in a museum because nobody is doing what I'm doing, all the things I have saved. From the business, , a thousand [00:24:00] articles written about me and all that. Many times I would send my husband up to the garage, which we had a bunch of shelves and it'd be a bag. And it said, save for a museum. And my husband would look at me and laugh. He'd say what museum? I wish he was here to enjoy. In 2016 I bought the old Depot in Marsailes and turned it into a Marsailes Museum. I found a local person she's a wonderful director. And then my friend Rosemary Martin who helped me start my business. She became the, manager of my volunteers . So it's really been great.

[00:24:40] Shannon Russell: a lasting impact for your town and your town has meant so much to you and your family. So what a way to give back.

[00:24:46] Seattle Sutton: Oh, yes, I don't want it to be just my business on display. We have special events. We honored all the past, barbers in Marsailes, or the ministers in this town, we have big events. In the first year my [00:25:00] museum was open, we had over a thousand people register.

[00:25:04] Shannon Russell: That's so lovely. Seattle, you've had such an impact on your family, on your community, on the business that you've built with Seattle Sutton's Healthy E ating. What do you think your impact as a female business leader has really meant to everyone?

[00:25:19] Seattle Sutton: Well, I think when you're a leader in anything. If you are born with a lot of energy and a lot of ambition and all more is expected of you, I also feel that everybody has their good points and we shouldn't look for the bad and we shouldn't criticize. We should look for good things to mention, it's what do you think you can accomplish and your ambition, your goals and work hard to do. That's so important I think look for the good and, and you'll be happier. They'll be happier. And good nutrition.

[00:25:53] Shannon Russell: Yes. Yes. So what is your advice, Seattle? What would your advice be for someone who's ready to start their second act?[00:26:00]

[00:26:00] Seattle Sutton: If they have something that they really wanna start and do, they should go for it, but be sure to do the three things I mentioned before. Start with people, friends and people that, are ambitious and honest as your employees and have a good accountant and set it up as a business and not just as a hobby, many businesses fail because they don't do that. And then of course you get incorporated to save your personal assets, but have a good lawyer. And so that you are directed in the main things of a business in the correct way, you have to do it like a business. And so read about that, learn about that. And you can Google about everything to give you information nowadays. So there's no excuse.

[00:26:46] Shannon Russell: Yeah. , so you started in your fifties and you're now 90, and you've set up this successful business. Would you suggest that people who are a little bit older and have this idea it's not too late to start, [00:27:00] right. Would you speak to that?

[00:27:01] Seattle Sutton: No, it's never too late. And I gotta admit, I can't really do everything I used to do at age 90, because honestly, when you start a business, it's not a 40 hour a week job. You have to be willing to work. I just knew that I, I had a good idea and I knew I could help a lot of people. But I ran into big hurdles too. But you just have to overcome them. So I really sold the business. I guess I was 87 and I was still working, like handling many of the things. I had not delegated everything to my children. The biggest joy I had is talking to potential customers on the phone and finding out what their goals are and being available to people. My distributors could call me personally. My employees could call me personally and, and ask me questions or give me a complaint. There was no ladder to climb. I didn't allow that. I just wanted to be available for anybody that had [00:28:00] question. And I think that that is a big mistake a lot of businesses are making, and they're really maybe a little bit too high tech before their time. And if they do go into that, like, like I knew our business was really great for the elderly people, that they had a choice of going to a nursing home or have their meals prepared for them. We save many people, $15,000 a month. We saved them that by staying in their own home because they didn't have to shop cook clean up and they were eating healthy. And so, look at the whole picture of things and, decide what you wanna do and go for it. And just love people.

[00:28:40] Shannon Russell: That's you and your beautiful heart that is saying that Seattle, cuz you really are such an inspiring, loving woman and it's been so amazing to get, to hear your story. I am so honored that you took the time to chat with me for this podcast. I really am.

[00:28:56] Seattle Sutton: I love it. I'd be so proud that you asked me and I [00:29:00] just love it. Shannon, you do such a good job of asking questions.

[00:29:03] Shannon Russell: I'm very inspired by you, Seattle. Thank you so much for all that you've done. And

[00:29:09] Seattle Sutton: great. It was lots of fun.

[00:29:10] Shannon: Still going strong at 90. Seattle Sutton is such a special person and I am so grateful to have shared her story with you. Seattle shared fantastic advice with us today, including the importance of setting up your business the right way at the start. Hiring ambitious employees and treating them right. And following your dreams at any age. Let us all be as outgoing as Seattle when we are in our nineties. To learn more about her. Go to www.seattlesutton.com.

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