Shannon Blake of The Tired Nurse on Letting Go of a Nursing License to Build Something That Lasts

Shannon Blake is the Founder of The Tired Nurse, a family-owned novelty gift business in Iowa that she started in 2018 and runs with her daughter, Olivia. With a nursing degree and a master's in public health, she spent 15 years in healthcare before letting her RN license expire in 2026 to focus on the business full time.

In this Q&A, Shannon shares what made her leave nursing, how the mix of sarcasm, humor and heartfelt messages in her gifts came about, and what she hopes to build next, from a downtown storefront to a workplace that gives people a fresh start.

Her story is a reminder that a Plan B can quietly hold you back, and that the most meaningful businesses are often built around helping people feel seen, heard and valued.

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Q: You left nursing after years as an RN to run The Tired Nurse full time. What made you take the leap, and what was that decision like?

After 15 years in healthcare, I had become increasingly frustrated with the gap between what I believed patient care should be and the realities of working within a complicated system. Patient advocacy was always at the heart of my career, but over time, particularly during the pandemic, the obstacles made it harder to practice in a way that matched my values.

Interestingly, that frustration had already inspired The Tired Nurse back in 2018. What began as a creative outlet for my own professional stress gradually grew into a business built around humor, encouragement and human connection.

By 2022, I was already questioning whether I wanted to keep nursing. For the next four years I kept renewing my license and occasionally took short-term nursing positions during our slower business seasons, but my heart wasn't in it anymore.

The truth is, my nursing license had become my Plan B. Entrepreneurship comes with incredible highs and some difficult lows, and knowing I could always return to nursing gave me a sense of security. Eventually I realized that security might also be keeping me from fully embracing what we were building.

In August 2026, at 52, I decided not to renew my RN license. Some people look at my business degree, my nursing degree and my master's in public health and wonder why I would walk away from all that. I don't see it that way. That knowledge doesn't disappear with a license, and I draw on it every day in running this business.

I think of it like learning to fly. You can spend years running and jumping with solid ground beneath your feet, but to find out whether you can fly, you have to step up to the edge of the cliff and jump. Letting my license expire was that jump. And surprisingly, I didn't feel fear. I felt relief, excitement and freedom. The fear had been in holding on for so many years.

I still believe deeply in caring for people and making a difference in their lives. I'm simply doing it in a different way now.

Q: Your gifts mix sarcasm, humor and heartfelt messages. How did that tone come about, and what do you hope people feel when they give or receive one?

The tone of The Tired Nurse was born during one of the more difficult periods of my life. I was frustrated with my career, questioning my direction and navigating a lot of change. I remember wondering whether I was the only person who felt completely overwhelmed by life and wasn't entirely sure what I wanted to be when I grew up, at around 44.

Humor became my outlet. In 2018, I started making little damn-it dolls from custom-printed fabric covered in blunt phrases, my way of saying what I suspected a lot of other people were thinking but not saying out loud.

During the pandemic, that same irreverent attitude found its way onto face masks, including ones that said "Non-Essential." I found the idea of labeling someone's work as insignificant deeply troubling. I've always believed that everyone deserves to feel valued, regardless of their profession or circumstances.

As the business evolved, so did our products. In spring 2022 we introduced our first sassy message jars. Around the same time, we began developing messages for people experiencing grief and loss. To some, those might seem like opposite directions. To me, they made perfect sense, because real life is complicated. Sometimes you're having the worst day imaginable and need someone to tell you it's going to be okay. Sometimes you need a good laugh, or permission to be completely fed up. And sometimes you need all of those things in the same afternoon.

My dad used to tell me that things have a way of working out how they're supposed to, even when it's nothing like what we planned. I've carried that perspective through a lot of unexpected turns. Being able to laugh at ourselves, find humor in difficult moments and recognize when someone needs a hug, a shoulder to cry on or even a pillow to punch is an important part of being human.

When someone gives one of our products, I hope they feel they've found a way to say something meaningful, even if they couldn't quite find the words themselves. And when someone receives one, I hope they feel understood. Whether they laugh out loud, shed a tear or simply smile, I want them to know someone thought about what they needed in that moment. At the heart of The Tired Nurse, it's always been about meeting people where they are and helping them feel seen, heard, valued and appreciated.

Q: You've built this with your daughter and have a storefront in mind. What's next for The Tired Nurse?

When I think about the future, I don't think only about financial milestones. Profitability matters, of course. We have bills to pay like everyone else. But the bigger picture has always been building something that lasts: something meaningful, a legacy.

I picture a storefront in one of the older downtown buildings here in Siouxland, with exposed brick, rustic wood and concrete floors. A warm, welcoming little boutique where people stop in after work or just because they're in the neighborhood. Behind it, I imagine our production and fulfillment operation, with people cutting cards, rolling messages, packing orders and shipping our little creations all over the world, with music playing and a team that takes pride in what they make.

I picture doing all of this alongside my daughter, Olivia, and our family and friends who have been part of making this happen. We don't always approach things the same way, and that's part of what makes our partnership work. I love the idea that what started as my creative outlet could someday become something she continues to build and makes her own.

I also want The Tired Nurse to be a workplace where people look forward to showing up. I've experienced that awful feeling of sitting in the parking lot before work, dreading the moment you have to walk through the door, and I don't want to recreate it for anyone who works with us. I envision consistency, quality, flexibility and mutual respect, with people having some say in where they contribute best.

More importantly, I'd love to create opportunities for people who might otherwise struggle to find them: a mother rebuilding her life after leaving a shelter, someone in recovery who needs an employer willing to give them a chance, or someone with a difficult past who has worked hard to turn things around. People grow and change, and sometimes all they need is someone to recognize who they are today. That matters to me because I've experienced financial hardship firsthand as a single mother, stretching $20 between groceries and gas for the week.

So when I imagine the business becoming more successful, I also imagine what we could do with that success: getting actively involved in local charities and organizations that help people experiencing homelessness or financial hardship, and connecting people with housing, jobs, identification documents and training.

I've often asked myself, "And then what?" We hit a sales milestone, and then what? We open a storefront, and then what? For me, the answer has to be bigger than making more money. I want Olivia and me to look around someday and see a thriving business, happy employees, a supportive community and people whose lives are a little better because we were here. That's what success looks like to me: building something that matters long after I'm gone.

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