Latest / GlowInto / The Story of Suzy Bushur
Transcript
- Jen: Welcome to the Glowin' Two podcast. I'm Jennifer Joyner, founder of Glow and Two, an online publication sharing the stories and experiences of women over 40. Here we get to know the women behind the stories, the paths they've taken, the unexpected turns, and what they're discovering about themselves along the way. We're talking about creativity, connection, starting something new and making room for the things we still want from life, because there's so much more to our stories. Susie Busher is bringing years of family life, financial experience, and volunteer service into her first business with a team she trusts and plans it reach beyond the services. Before I had finished my tour of the beach in Troy, Illinois, the conversation had already paused for greetings, a familiar face, and a customer looking for a service. It gave me a chance to see the business in motion, people ask questions, talked with the staff, and moved through the experiences available. Susie showed me around, explaining the equipment while keeping up with the people coming through the doors. The beach tanning and spa open on January 2nd, 2026. and at 46, Susie is in her first year of owning a business, and she has brought a great deal of her life into how she runs it. For women accustomed to fitting their own needs around everyone else's, she wants this to be a place to spend some time on themselves. She understands that How easily that time can disappear. Her life includes four children and 11 bonus children she and her family have helped raise, a long career in finance, and a decade of work with the St. Jacob Park District. Now those experiences meet in a business built around wellness, personal connection, and making room for people. This is the story of Susie Busher making room for wellness and community at the beach. And these are the women of Glowin Two. As Susie showed me around the beach, there was plenty to ask about. The business brings together tanning, sunless options, and a range of wellness experiences with equipment that can look unfamiliar until someone explains what happens during a session. The dedicated red light bed uses red and near-infrared LEDs with adjustable settings. Separate light panels offer another way to experience those wavelengths. Susie explained that the dedicated red light sessions last 10 minutes and possible benefits of red and near infrared light therapy include smoother looking skin and reduced appearance of fine lines, with ongoing research exploring pain relief and muscle recovery. Benefits vary from person to person and depend on the treatment schedule. Next is the Arctic Dry Float. And that was one experience I wanted to understand better. A treatment table gently lowers guests into a bed of chilled water with a membrane keeping their skin dry. It offers the sensation of floating and exposure to cold without stepping into a pool. The beach lists reduced inflammation and muscle recovery among the Arctic dry floats potential benefits. and for those who prefer warmth, the beach offers a far infrared sauna. That accommodates one to two people, providing a space to unwind and sweat at a lower temperature than a traditional sauna. Next is the whole body vibration platform that stimulates repeated muscle contractions with possible benefits including improved strength and balance. Another option is PEMF, short for pulse electromagnetic field therapy, which uses equipment such as full body mats to deliver pulses of a magnetic field. Researchers are studying its potential to ease certain types of muscle and joint pain. The TNE equipment has its own differences. The K11 Air combines adjustable UVA, UVB, and red light in an open design, while the Sunrise 11 is a standing booth. Other beds offer features such as cooling, music, and adjustable tanning programs. For Sunless Color, the Mystic Unity Spray Booth offers customizable shades without UV exposure. Its well-fit skincare applications can be added to a spray tan or selected on their own. And as we moved between the equipment, Susie took time to explain the choices. For someone like me who had heard about several of the services without trying them, that conversation helped turn a list of unfamiliar names into a clearer picture of a visit. Membership choices include wellness, tanning, and combined access. Susie explained that all Access members can choose up to four experiences in a day. That creates a room to explore several services in one place and choose according to personal interests and available time. Your business has a story. Does your brand tell that story? I'm Jennifer Joyner, founder of Glowin'Two, and through Glow Two Creative Services, I sit down with you to learn how you got here and what shaped your business and what you want people to understand about your work. Then I turn that conversation into a story that you can use on your website, on your social media pages, in your about section, and in your marketing, helping customers. Get to know the person behind the business. Even an established business keeps evolving. Staying visible and relevant means giving people fresh reasons to connect with you. Your experience, your purpose, and the care you bring to your work are part of that connection. Let's tell the story of the business you built and where you're taking it next. Visit glowin' two.com and reach out about Glowin' Two Creative Services. Santa Anna Ct 3: Big ideas are exciting, but turning them into something real? Hey, that's where the magic happens. I'm Shannon Shores, founder of Bertie Mae Consulting. I help business owners and women in leadership turn big ideas into bold moves through clarity, confidence, and actual strategy. Because having a dream is one thing, but having the courage and a plan to chase it, that's everything. Stop playing small. Bet on yourself. Birdie Mae Consulting. Big ideas, bold moves, real growth. Jen: Throughout the tour, I kept thinking about the woman who had brought all of this together. Her first business had opened in midlife, but the experience behind it had been accumulating for decades. Susie became a mother at a young age. Responsibility arrived quickly. She needed a job and a way to provide for her son. That job became a career in finance lasting more than 15 years. While working full-time, she continued her education with her employer's support, eventually earning a master's degree. The company valued her, she said. It also became a place where she met her husband. They did the same kind of work and her career brought her to Illinois, where they eventually built their life together. Later, after welcoming two more children, she stepped away from her financial career to stay home. The family settled in Saint Jacob, Illinois, across from the park she visited regularly with the children. People began encouraging her to help run the park district. She was unsure. She had never written a grant or managed a government entity, but she took it on and over ten years learned the administration, tax levies, grants, payroll responsibilities, and organizing that kept it moving. What stayed with me was how quickly Susie had moved past those 10 years of volunteer work before explaining what they involved. Grants, payroll, budgets, responsibility for a place families depended on. I wondered how many women do the same thing with their own experience, describing as just volunteering or helping out when they have been learning to lead for years. That work had given her the practical knowledge to open the beach. All of that I have been able to do on my own because I had been doing it for the last ten years, she said. it had also taught her how much she cared about the people and places she served. When she began building the business, she spent two years preparing to hand over the park responsibilities. Two women now share that work, and she still checks in and offers her help. Leaving something she loved required trust. Building something new required it too. At the beach, she has found that trust in a core group who have been with her since the doors opened. Heidi, her full-time manager, and Olivia and Marty, who both work part-time. Marty is also her best friend of fifteen years. She speaks about them with affection, and when we discussed another possible location, her hesitation centered on whether she could recreate what they have together. These people are my family, she said. The relationships reach beyond work. Children attend the same schools, members become familiar faces around town, and humor carries into the videos Susie shares online, where she is happy to laugh at herself and let people see the imperfect moments. She wants guests to feel comfortable enough to ask questions and get to know the people helping them. Recommendations from guests have played an important part in the business's growth. Her plans for the beach also reflect a family connection that has long shaped her community work, military service. her father was a Vietnam veteran, other relatives served, and both of her adult sons chose military paths. One is an Army captain currently deployed, and Veterans Day holds personal meaning for the family. Making space to recognize veterans is an important part of the What Susie wants to do here. Previously, her family helped develop a Veterans Day event in St. Jacob that brought people together and helped fund accessible pathways in the park. For the beach's first Veterans Day, Susie is turning that family tradition into a week of giving back. In her announcement, she describes Veterans Day as the most important holiday in her home. Her gratitude extends to the ordinary things she values: freedom, family, business. And the ability to live her daily life. She wants that gratitude to lead to action. The week begins Monday, November 9th from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. with a little black book mix and mingle and veterans fundraiser at the beach, open to the public and little black book members. Guests who make a donation will receive a free beach experience and a goodie bag. Donations from the event will go to Detroit VFW to support local veterans. For the rest of the week, the beach will offer one-time experiences at 50% off, with all proceeds from those experiences donated to support local veterans. Throughout the entire week, veterans and their spouses can enjoy any experience free of charge. Susie is using the honor system with no proof of service or marriage required. Giving people several days to participate also leaves room for other Veterans Day traditions and commitments. It is a practical expression of something that has run through our conversation. Susie thinks about the people she wants to welcome, then works out how to make it easier for them to take part. She is applying the same approach to women building businesses. Susie plans to bring a group together before business hours to practice social media skills, from making videos to going live, and she knows that motivation does not automatically come with instructions. You don't need to be inspired. You need to know how to do it, she said. The day before our interview, a 25 year old woman came to her worried about filing her LLC paperwork. Susie pulled up two chairs and they worked through it together. In about 30 minutes it was done. I thought about the experience between encouraging someone and sitting down beside her. Susie had given her time to help with the task that was making this young woman hesitate. In my conversations for Glow and II, I'm often interested in what helps a woman move forward. Here was one practical answer someone willing to give her time and work through an unfamiliar step together. There is a clear connection between the young mother. Who learned unfamiliar work because she needed to, and the woman who took on a part district despite her doubts, and the business owner willing to sit beside someone taking her first step. Susie recognizes the uncertainty. She also knows how much can happen once you begin. When I asked her what she would tell her younger self, she paused and then she offered a few words. You're gonna do it, girl, she says. At the beach, those words have a place in the future she is building. A business where people can explore wellness, experiences, a team she trusts to welcome them, and room for others to find the confidence to begin something of their own. think Susie's story is about how much we can learn to do before we ever give ourselves credit for it. We raise families, we work, we volunteer, we become the person someone calls when something needs to get done, and then we consider doing something of our own. We wonder whether we have what it takes. I hear that in so many of the glow-in-tooth stories. Women discovering that the experiences they gather over the years has value beyond the roles they first gained it. And they recognize their ability to lead, create, to make decisions, and begin to trust it. Susie's story also makes me think about what happens when we extend that trust to someone else. When we give another woman a chance, welcome her idea, or encourage her to take a step she's been questioning, building something of our own can make room for other people to grow too. That's something I'm coming to appreciate more with every conversation. Our stories are connected by the ways we help one another see what's possible. Sometimes another woman recognizes something in us before we can quite see it ourselves. And maybe as you listen today, you thought about something you've been wanting to try. I hope you'll give yourself credit for what you've already brought. And maybe today, as you listened, you thought about something you've been wanting to try. I hope you'll give yourself credit for what you already bring to it and a little room to learn the rest. Thank you for spending this time with me and getting to know another woman of Glow In Too. And as always, keep glowing and two who you were always meant to be.