E61: Jenny Finnell, CRNA: From Facebook Group to 7-Figure Business

Brett Fellows CFP®, Founder & President at Oak Capital Advisors, spoke with Jenny Finnell, CRNA, founder and CEO of CRNA School Prep Academy (CSPA) and Teach RN. Dr. Jenny began her entrepreneurial journey not with a business plan, but with a simple desire to help.

After joining social media in 2019, nurses began reaching out for support on navigating how to become a successful candidate for CRNA school. By starting a Facebook group to answer questions and make her time scalable, she quickly realized the immense need for support as the group grew to 6,000 people within six months. This passion for solving problems and helping others laid the foundation for her businesses.

Contents hide

1 The CRNA School Prep Academy Model: Scaling Support

2 The Financial Realities of an Entrepreneur

3 The Core Decisions That Define Entrepreneur Success

4 Next Steps: Securing Your Future Through Strategic Planning

5 Links Relevant to this Episode

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The CRNA School Prep Academy Model: Scaling Support

CRNA School Prep Academy’s mission has always been to provide access to support and allow any nurse the freedom to explore the possibility of becoming a CRNA. To meet the demand for one-on-one services, Jenny initially started leveraging peer-to-peer support by connecting nurses with their peers. This proved effective, but managing wait lists and the backend work made it unsustainable.

This demand spurred the creation of Teach RN, a peer-to-peer marketplace designed to be a scalable solution. Teach RN expanded the mission beyond CRNAs to support the broader nursing profession through services like resume critiques, mock interviews, personal statement reviews, and tutoring. The platform currently features over 200 mentors.

Jenny sees a future where CSPA and Teach RN create an “ecosystem” that can work with institutions, developing a pipeline program to support ICU nurses and ultimately help health systems retain their nurses and grow CRNAs in-house.

The Financial Realities of an Entrepreneur

Jenny is open about the challenges of starting a business, noting she didn’t know how to read a P&L or understand basic financial concepts like cash versus accrual accounting. Her most painful lesson was scaling her team too quickly, hiring faster than growth, and nearly crippling the business.

However, her position as a practicing CRNA became her “safety net,” allowing her to return to clinical work to take on the financial risk of her businesses. She stressed the complexity of navigating tax structures, moving from an LLC to an S-Corp, and finally to a Delaware C-Corp.

Her advice to intimidated CRNAs is to “not be so afraid”. She encourages aspiring entrepreneurs to view professional life like the “man in the arena.” This means to embrace criticism, listen to your intuition, and test the market first rather than building and assuming people will come.

The Core Decisions That Define Entrepreneur Success

Jenny highlights the importance of making wise financial decisions, but stresses that happiness is the true measure of success, not money. She advises CRNAs coming out of school to:

Live Conservatively: Don’t let social media dictate your lifestyle; be careful how you spend money and live within your means.
Be Strategic with Debt: Refinance high-interest loans and make a plan to pay off debt in five years, rather than carrying it longer.

This strategic approach is reflected in her business’s results. By collecting data from day one, CSPA discovered an astonishing 80% acceptance rate for members in the program for six months or more, significantly higher than the national 12% average. This success is so consistent that CSPA offers a money-back guarantee, and in three years, has never given a refund.

Jenny believes this success is entirely driven by the community she cultivates. By fostering a culture of mutual support, they are allowing others to skip mistakes, jump over hurdles, and get “further faster” by standing on the shoulders of giants.

Next Steps: Securing Your Future Through Strategic Planning

Jenny Finnell’s journey from a practicing CRNA to a dual-business owner underscores the truth: building long-term wealth and professional freedom requires a clear strategy. Her candid discussion of scaling too quickly , navigating complex taxes (like C-Corps) , and the reliance on her CRNA income as a financial safety net highlights the inherent risks of entrepreneurship.

Whether you are taking the leap into a 1099 role, building your own practice, or simply ensuring your high-earning CRNA salary is optimized against market and policy changes (such as student loan management), specialized financial guidance is essential..

Ready to see how Oak Capital Advisors can help? Schedule a meeting.