Is taking care of yourself actually selfish? Or is that just what healthcare trained you to believe?

Dr. Dani Williams is a CRNA and IFBB Fit Model Pro — and she trained for her Pro card while she was in anesthesia school. Not after. During.
In this episode, Shantall and Marc sit down with Dani to talk about what it actually costs to put yourself first when your entire career is built around putting everyone else first. Guilt, burnout, body image, boundaries, the pressure to always be available, the money you leave on the table every time you say no. All of it.

They go there.

What you'll hear:
• How Dani competed through CRNA school and what it actually took to pull that off
• The hidden price of discipline, borrowed energy, and running on caffeine for years
• Mom guilt, dad guilt, and why turning down a shift can quietly feel like failure
• Why burnout doesn't look the same for everyone — and why that matters
• What a self-care practice that fits your actual life looks like instead of someone else's
• Off the Record: what each of them does to genuinely recharge

Being "selfish" might be the thing that makes you a better provider, partner, and parent. This episode is the permission slip you didn't know you needed.
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Connect with us
📧 clockoutandconnectpodcast@gmail.com
🎥 YouTube: Clock Out and Connect
📸 Instagram: @clockoutandconnectpodcast
📘 Facebook: Clock Out and Connect Podcast

Chapters
• 00:00 Cold Open: Is Self-Care Selfish?
• 09:00 Welcome Back to Clock Out and Connect
• 10:00 Meet Dr. Dani Williams
• 13:00 What It Means to Be an IFBB Fit Model Pro
• 19:00 Competing Through CRNA School
• 25:00 Borrowed Energy, Caffeine, and Discipline
• 35:00 Who Pays the Cost of Your Goals?
• 36:00 Burnout After CRNA School
• 57:00 Saying Yes, Boundaries, and Job Culture
• 1:09:00 Off the Record: What Recharges You?

#ClockOutAndConnect #CRNA #CRNASchool #SRNA #NurseAnesthesia #CRNALife #HealthcareBurnout #HealthcareProvider #IFBBPro #FitModel #HealthcarePodcast #NursePodcast #SelfCareForNurses #NurseBurnout #AnesthesiaLife #WomenInHealthcare #FitnessAndHealthcare #HealthcareBoundaries #ProviderBurnout #OffTheRecord

✨ Connect with us:

📧 Email: clockoutandconnectpodcast@gmail.com
🎥 YouTube: Clock Out and Connect
📸 Instagram: @clockoutandconnectpodcast
📘 Facebook: Clock Out and Connect Podcast

💬 Got a story, question, or an Off the Record submission? Send it our way.

Everyone talks about what it costs you to chase CRNA school.Nobody talks about what it costs them.

The spouses who held down households alone. The parents who stopped calling because they didn’t want to add to the weight. The friends who slowly disappeared. The marriages that survived — but barely.

In Episode 3, Marc and Shantall get honest about the people who didn’t sign up for anesthesia school but lived every second of it anyway. Marc opens up about what it was like being newly married to Becky while trying to survive clinicals, and how their first year of marriage became something neither of them could have planned for. Shantall goes there about being geographically separated from Adam during military training and USAGPAN — almost failing out her first semester, hitting a wall she couldn’t climb alone, and what it actually took to ask for help when everyone around her looked like they had it together.

This episode doesn’t wrap itself up neatly. It talks about loneliness, resentment, guilt, jealousy, and the quiet grief of watching someone you love disappear into a version of themselves you don’t quite recognize yet.

And then — it talks about what comes after. Where their marriages are now. Why strong relationships aren’t luck. What it means to keep choosing each other through school, kids, career pivots, ambition, and every season that follows.

If you’ve been through it — or if someone you love is in it right now — this one is for you.
Off the Record: Real talk for the person who is in the middle of it right now.
Up Next: Marc and Shantall are joined by Dr. Dani Williams, DNP, CRNA and IFBB Pro card holder, for an episode called Selfish — about what it looks like to actually choose yourself in a profession that never stops asking you to give.

Connect with us
📧 clockoutandconnectpodcast@gmail.com
🎥 YouTube: Clock Out and Connect
📸 Instagram: @clockoutandconnectpodcast
📘 Facebook: Clock Out and Connect Podcast

If this hit home, share it, leave a review, or DM us your story.

Chapters
00:00 Cold Open: Everyone Paid for the Yes
03:00 Welcome Back to Clock Out and Connect
04:00 What They Thought CRNA School Would Cost
07:00 Realizing This Was Harder Than Expected
12:00 When Your Spouse Feels Alone Too
17:00 Living Separate Lives While Staying Married
22:00 Communication, Distance, and Survival Mode
27:00 Almost Failing Out and Asking for Help
36:00 How School Changes Every Relationship
57:00 Off the Record: Keep Going, But Stay Human

#clockoutandconnect #CRNA #CRNASchool #SRNA #USAGPAN #NurseAnesthesia #CRNAJourney #ICUtoCRNA #HealthcarePodcast #NursePodcast #CRNAMarriage #HealthcareRelationships #Military #MilitaryNurse #SRNALife

✨ Connect with us:

📧 Email: clockoutandconnectpodcast@gmail.com
🎥 YouTube: Clock Out and Connect
📸 Instagram: @clockoutandconnectpodcast
📘 Facebook: Clock Out and Connect Podcast

💬 Got a story, question, or an Off the Record submission? Send it our way.

What does saying yes to CRNA school actually cost? Marc and Shantall unpack the real price: friendships, marriage, identity, and why they would still do it again even knowing what they know now.

This episode is for current CRNA students wondering if it is worth it, ICU nurses considering the leap, and anyone who has ever had to rebuild themselves after saying yes to something that changed everything.
Marc knew it was over the day a preceptor snapped a photo mid patient turn, gray sweater, aching back, exhausted. Shantall’s breaking point was the slow, heavy realization that a system asking too much shift after shift was never going to suddenly ask less.

What you will hear:

• The exact moments they knew they had to leave the bedside
• What CRNA school costs that nobody warns you about: time, money, and who you are outside of work
• The marriage conversation, how school and training changed them as partners and what it took not to lose each other in the process
• USAGPAN versus civilian programs, financial stability versus loss of freedom, and the tradeoffs they would make again or not
• Off the Record: substance use in anesthesia, the impaired provider no one wants to talk about and why staying silent is not an option

CRNA school cost them friendships, holidays, weekends, sleep, and confidence. It cost Marc his sense of self and nearly his marriage. Shantall did not recognize herself after graduation and talks about what it took to put the pieces back together.

They also break down the real world difference between USAGPAN, the military CRNA route, and civilian programs: guaranteed paycheck and benefits versus limited autonomy and personal freedom, and what you are actually trading when you choose one path over the other.

Off the Record, Marc addresses substance use among anesthesia providers: who is really at risk, what it looks like when the strong one starts to slip, and why bringing it into the light can save a career or a life.

Next episode (May 19):
They Stayed, what this career costs the people who loved you.
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Chapters:

• 00:00 Cold Open: The Moment I Knew I Had to Leave Bedside
• 09:33 What Saying Yes Actually Cost Us
• 10:53 You Never Get Back to Your Life
• 17:46 Why We Didn't Quit
• 21:52 USAGPAN vs. Civilian: The Real Trade-Off
• 27:18 Off the Record: The Conversation Nobody Wants to Have

#ClockOutAndConnect #CRNA #CRNASchool #USAGPAN #CRNAMarriage #ICUtoCRNA #HealthcareReality #NurseAnesthesia #ImpairedProvider

✨ Connect with us:

📧 Email: clockoutandconnectpodcast@gmail.com
🎥 YouTube: Clock Out and Connect
📸 Instagram: @clockoutandconnectpodcast
📘 Facebook: Clock Out and Connect Podcast

💬 Got a story, question, or an Off the Record submission? Send it our way.