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16. Living + Leading in Alignment with Dr. Karen Quinn
18 Plays1 year ago
She had confidence in her skills, just not in herself.
Chiropractor Dr. Karen Quinn (aka “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman” in Nicole’s brain) doesn’t do all or nothing—not anymore. It’s one of the lessons she’s learned building her own practice, her way.
Like most women business owners, she struggled, doubted, and waited tables in a kilt to make ends meet. Over time, though, she learned to trust in her voice. She noticed how decisions felt in her body. She redefined “success” and stopped equating net worth with self worth.
The result? A business that feels authentically aligned with her values and healing philosophy.
Learn how Karen helps women realign their bodies (and minds) through gentle chiropractic care and deep conversations. Plus, we chat about “solve small” ways frazzled business owners can dial down stress and boost overall body function.
For more inspiration, subscribe to Unbound Turnarounds on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts!
LINKS:
- Connect with Nicole
- Connect with Mallory
- Connect with Karen: www.drkarenquinn.com
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Transcript
Introduction to Unbound Turnarounds
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to Unbound Turnarounds, a podcast all about the challenges women business owners think about constantly, but rarely voice. We're Nicole and Mallory, entrepreneurs, friends, and co-founders of Business Unbound, a community helping women alleviate the headaches, heartaches, and backaches so work actually works for life. This is your safe space for the ups, downs, and the turnarounds.
00:00:31
Speaker
Welcome back to Unbound Turnarounds.
Guest Introduction: Dr. Karen Quinn
00:00:33
Speaker
We are really excited about the guests we have today to finish out January. And before we get into it, I just want to say, hey, Mal, how is it going? Hello. It is lovely. How are you today? I'm doing OK. I'm doing all right. I'm excited about this season. We talk about it all the time. We want every season to be this season. And we'll see what people want. But tell us a little bit about who we have today.
00:00:57
Speaker
Okay, awesome.
Dr. Quinn's Chiropractic Journey
00:00:58
Speaker
So today I am really excited to welcome our guest chiropractor, Dr. Karen Quinn. So Dr. Karen Quinn has a boutique chiropractic practice filled with all ages in Calgary, Alberta, which is now my new hometown. She focuses on the impact posture, lifestyle, and the nervous system function has on overall health and wellbeing.
00:01:22
Speaker
In addition to chiropractic, Dr. Quinn is also a certified yoga teacher and offers mind body wellness retreats. She has a love for all things related to natural health, personal development, and the great outdoors. Fun fact, for anybody who's listened to my wellness story and my initial story in season one, Karen is the one who finally helped me have relief from my back pain after a seven, eight month daily struggle.
00:01:50
Speaker
Thank you for your service, Karen. It's been super fun getting to know her. I even recently attended a day retreat that she led here in town and it was so nourishing for the soul to be around her and all of those beautiful people. Karen, thank you so much for being here. Thanks for having me. I was so excited. We are excited to talk to you.
00:02:12
Speaker
So just a quick reminder for everyone here in season two, we are talking all about wellbeing and what that looks like and what that feels like for women, small business owners. So because there's this mental and physical health interplay, I would say, we really wanted to have Karen on to talk about how she helps patients live lives of really optimal health and vitality and how we can extend those best practices and all of her wisdom.
00:02:40
Speaker
into running our businesses in a way that feels better. So that's what we're all about today. Yeah. So to get us started, Karen, let's talk about, and we have confirmed you're good with us calling you Karen throughout the show. Yes, of course. Totally. Totally. So tell us about how and why you got into chiropractic work in the first place.
00:03:00
Speaker
Well, it was a little bit of a kind of accident actually in a sense. So I was in kinesiology here at the University of Calgary and my major was exercise and health physiology. And I went into that just because I really didn't know what I wanted to do. So I'm like, well, if anything, I'll learn how to live a healthy life for myself.
00:03:20
Speaker
And maybe I'll find a career along the way. I loved the program and started just taking inventory on what it was I loved about it. I could read anatomy, physiology textbooks for fun. Like I knew the human body and just understanding body function and performance and optimization was just my jam. So I still didn't know what career would potentially fit that and happened to overhear someone in my class talking about how they were planning to go to chiropractic college. And I thought.
00:03:53
Speaker
I had no idea, like I didn't have an opinion on it either way. I just didn't really know anything about it. And my dad had seen a chiropractor, but for a bad back and that was the extent of it. So I don't like knowing things or not knowing things, I should say. So I went and did my research and was looking into what chiropractic was actually about and how it actually coincided with the things we were already learning. And it was a fit for everything I was looking for. I was wanting to,
00:04:09
Speaker
Why would you do that?
00:04:20
Speaker
work with the human body, with people. Not only that, but I was really looking for something that would support people in optimizing their health in the first place and not just address things once things are bad. Obviously, there's a bit of that too. A lot of people do come in when there's stuff going on.
00:04:41
Speaker
you know, the benefits of chiropractic extend far beyond that in just my experience, in my everything I've learned, and in my beliefs as well. So yeah, so I started then I got a job at a chiropractic office working at the front desk. I started seeing a chiropractor just to see all angles. And then I went down and looked at a school in Iowa and just fell in love and pursued it. And that was been on the path ever since.
00:05:06
Speaker
I love that. So it sounds like you immediately knew that it was a good fit once you started learning about it and it felt like the right thing to tick all the boxes of what you wanted.
00:05:18
Speaker
Now my question is, a lot of people will come out of school and they will join another existing practice, right? Like you worked at one at the front desk, or you could have come on to what someone else had already built. So I'm curious, what made you want to create your own practice?
Challenges in Building a Practice
00:05:35
Speaker
And if that was immediately something that you wanted to do,
00:05:38
Speaker
or just what was that thought process like of either I'm going to join something or I'm going to build something? Yeah, good question. There's so many avenues that people take out of school, and I actually did join as an associate right out of school, and I didn't graduate with a thirst to open my own practice. I could dive deep into why that is, I don't know, but it just was never a big dream of mine, but I wanted to practice.
00:06:03
Speaker
out of school, you don't know. You know a lot, but you don't know a lot. There's most of the learning. I'm almost 18 years now into practice and I can confidently say like the majority of what I know and like what do I apply on a daily basis was learned like post-grad.
00:06:19
Speaker
So you graduate, you know, you get through your board exams. But for me too, there was a huge identity crisis because I had been a student my entire life from kindergarten to graduating from grad school. And I loved school. Like I was a super academic gal, you know, like I loved school and now I had a title and I was no longer guided by the academic schedule.
00:06:43
Speaker
So there was definitely an adjustment to just who I was in that and who I had to show up as. And it took some time to really loosen up a little bit and realize that the golden goose was actually in being myself and following my own heart. So back to your question, I was an associate, I've been an independent
00:07:05
Speaker
contractor. Okay. I now rent a room like a multidisciplinary practice. So I have autonomy. I have my own practice, but I don't have my own brick and mortar that I hang my name on. And really it works for me. Like I really like it. You know, I have the team. I'm a one stop shop in sense of that. I'm my bookkeeper. I'm a marketing person. I book, I schedule, or I do all the billings, all those things. So there's a lot of hats that I wear, which comes with its own challenges and for better or worse, but it's been like.
00:07:35
Speaker
It was the right thing to do for me at the right time when the opportunity came up. So it kind of evolved from like more hand holding in a sense and a lot more learning within our practice to more independence, more confidence, and just like a space where I could actually just trust my own voice in my communication and how I'm presenting myself.
00:07:56
Speaker
Yeah. Well, looking back, and I would say that that is a similar story for a lot of entrepreneurs, even if it's not brick and mortar, you have to get confidence and get experience and start doing the thing to figure out where your niche is or where you feel the most like yourself. But looking back, since we talk about highs and lows on this podcast, what was hard about stepping into your own practice after leaving the hand holding situation? What was hard or what made you feel nervous? And then how did you get through those times?
00:08:26
Speaker
Yeah. Every scenario has some hard, I'll get deeper into this, but every scenario has some hard and every scenario has some benefit, obviously, right? So when I was an associate, I had less income potential, potentially, but I knew what I was making. Like it was a very, like I had security in a sense where I could be at a predictable income. As you evolve and take on more risk, you have more potential.
00:08:50
Speaker
for the financial growth, the autonomy and what you're wanting to change or incorporate, but you also carry the risk. When I moved to my current office, I was leaving an independent contractor situation. I was doing very well, had only been there for a couple of years, but I had worked my butt off to grow that practice. I wasn't starting from scratch, but you lose people when you move. It was a regrowth.
00:09:17
Speaker
I was bearing all the risks now, right? Because I had flat overhead that I needed, whether I had nobody in my practice that week or I was completely full, which of course at the beginning, you're not completely full. And I was working my butt off. I took no time off, which I would not recommend.
00:09:33
Speaker
That was not the solution. And yeah, I've been in and out of burnout many times, I would say, but yeah, like I was seeing some growth. I was, you know, I had predictable like years where I'm like, okay, at XYZ, this is where I'm going to be. And it was proving that and then COVID hit.
00:09:48
Speaker
And so, I mean, that completely changed. I mean, I would say I was lucky in the sense that I just plateaued. I was doing okay, but like it didn't grow, but it also, I didn't lose my business. So I always saw that as a success. You know, there was a lot of extra challenges through that time, but then I would say this, like only recently do I feel like that momentum is back in like that I'm back on that growth track.
00:10:13
Speaker
but it's taken a lot longer and there's times where you can look back and be like, okay, this is what I could have shown a better way or this was where I contributed. But there's also obviously some events that happened that, you know, but at the same time, I'm really careful not to place blame on anything because I did learn a lot about my own resiliency in that time. It wasn't all bad in that sense. Like I was grateful to hold space for people during that time too and beyond, but I also,
00:10:42
Speaker
This too shall pass. Even though there were days where you're like, this is ridiculous. There's so much on your shoulders that you're trying to, and some days you felt like, how am I going to get out of this plateau? And some people had it for worse in the stressors around that.
00:11:00
Speaker
Here we are, like we've surpassed that piece of it. And I'm seeing evidence in my own energy and my own rebound around that. And also in just the revenue and the growth that I've seen come back in practice, which is encouraging. Well, and I'm curious how in those early days, you mentioned that you were creating this new identity after you lost the identity of student, which I feel very seen from having a family of academics. We do school, that's what we do.
00:11:29
Speaker
So when you came out of that and you came into this new practice and you were building up, I would say pre-COVID is this new identity and then COVID hits. And what does that do to your psyche? Like what's the rebuild part of that, right? Because there's a rebuild of the finances and the growth and all of that. But what did that do to you as a business owner to just think, oh, like this thing I thought was maybe secure in these ways suddenly is not so much.
Maintaining Habits for Overcoming Challenges
00:11:58
Speaker
Yeah, I think I was able to stay above water and maintain what I had built because of the years prior. So it definitely wasn't something that I just started doing the work when it got hard. I was doing the work when things were
00:12:16
Speaker
Good. I think that's a big piece of it. I mean, I see that in healing. I talk about that with patients where it's easy to be buckled down, nose to the grindstone when you're struggling because you have that drive of like, I want to get out of this pain.
00:12:31
Speaker
but it's a lot harder when you're symptom free and when things are good and it's easier to kind of, not that you always have to have your foot on the gas, like I don't agree with that either, but the habits that got you out of the weeds need to be the habits that you maintain, right? And so there's a ton of parallels I can draw from like the business side to just like patient
00:12:54
Speaker
healing and body care so yeah no I think that's a huge part is just like those habits that you use to climb out of something hard you shouldn't just discard them afterwards yeah and I think too I mean it really
00:13:10
Speaker
Again, I feel like it, for me, it highlighted how resilient I was, like I was stronger than I thought I was. So the test shows you more about yourself. It highlighted who were my true supporters and who I could rely on and who I had the capacity to support. So like there was a lot of, I think when you're kind of under fire, whatever the circumstance, like it doesn't have to be that example specifically even.
00:13:36
Speaker
It displays more clearly if you're looking for it, like where your resources are and so that you can draw from them and surround yourself with the people or whether that's within my practice or outside my practice, socially, all of it. There's lessons in it all.
00:13:52
Speaker
We talk about resilience as one of our tactics or fixes in our brain course and our boost your brain wellbeing course. And specifically what you said that in order to grow, you have to have challenges. So I really love that you highlighted that as really a way that you reframe COVID in your head to look at it that way. So I think that's a really positive mindset to practice because you could easily just talk about the hard and not put the positive spin on it. So I'm glad that you brought that up.
00:14:22
Speaker
Yeah, well, I think it's important to take accountability for yourself, you know, and there's always going to be external situations, people, things that aren't potentially make things harder. I think you can still grow when things are easy too.
00:14:38
Speaker
I think sometimes in the past I probably have created hard situations for myself to make myself feel like I'm doing something. I think it can go both ways for sure but I think taking accountability for our role in our own life and that means taking responsibility for some of our successes as well as our failures.
00:14:59
Speaker
I mean, even as a chiropractor, like I remember early on, I might've even been in college, they talked about like, take no credit, take no blame. Like even as you're thanking me for helping Mallory, it's like, I'm happy to be a facilitator in that, but it's Mallory's body doing the healing. You know what I mean? Like it's, it's like, if I'm taking the credit for things that are going well, then I also am like, okay, then it's also my fault when things aren't. So that's when I'm helping other people. But in my own life, the second I,
00:15:28
Speaker
put it on COVID or the employer that had or the weather or whatever it is, right? I lose control over doing anything about it. So I just think that's probably a lesson that I've learned in many different aspects over time of just taking accountability for myself and understanding that other people have a role in their own life to take as well.
00:15:50
Speaker
Wow, she has the maturity of a nine-year-old and she is so young and delightful. And I'm just like, how did she learn all the things already? What is happening? Why is she so far ahead? Because she's consistent. That's why. She's growing all the time.
00:16:09
Speaker
Well, so I'm curious how this showed up for you in the beginning when you had to learn a lot of different skills, right? So you had, of course, your core skill, you had the chiropractic skills, but you're also building a business. And like you said, you're doing the invoicing, you're doing the scheduling, you're managing the clients. Like that's a lot.
00:16:28
Speaker
besides your quote unquote day job. So when you're starting to do that, how did you even know how to do that? Is this something you learned in school? You picked this up at the front office when you were working? Like where do you even start? Well, I mean, I would start with the offices I did work at. I learned a ton. So I was very lucky to be mentored in a sense from a variety of different types of practices, personalities. And I would say like,
00:16:57
Speaker
Even learning like, okay, this doesn't feel like a fit for me is also learning something about what you want.
Financial Struggles and Self-Worth
00:17:03
Speaker
So I was very lucky to have some really kind, successful people that I could learn from. Early on, I will say, you don't really realize that you kind of are absorbing things as you go.
00:17:15
Speaker
And then I would say, I made a lot of mistakes. I went into a lot of debt. I had no idea. I mean, even at a school, I remember I didn't know even how to pay off my student loans and I had a lot. And so I remember going to the bank because I thought that's where you got money advice. Yeah. Which is funny now. I don't know how to pay this off. Like how do I, I didn't know how to budget. I didn't know anything. And they're like, they would pull up my information and gasp and tell me how I'm ending and I'm like,
00:17:46
Speaker
Yeah, I know. I looked for where I thought I needed to, but no one honestly gave me direction in how to actually organize that side of things. I winged it for a long time and went into a lot of debt to try to just
00:18:06
Speaker
And then, you know, where I, the biggest shift I would say isn't even in like, you know, then hired an accountant and like learned through, like self taught myself QuickBooks and like did different things like that. But I would say the biggest shift came with mindset shift in.
00:18:22
Speaker
learning more of my self-worth, reminding myself that I'm capable, that I'm not. My financial situation or debt level doesn't reflect my value as a chiropractor, as a human, whatever. And then over the years have been able to get more organized and with that comes so much more ease. It doesn't mean that I don't have debt, but
00:18:44
Speaker
It just means that I have an understanding that this too shall pass. Like this is a, you know, and it's the cost of all the things I've learnt. So I see it kind of as a second education.
00:18:59
Speaker
your net worth is not your self-worth, I think is what you've learned, right? Well, and also, yeah. And I also think too, because I actually really love what I do and I wanted everyone to have access to this. So I think I also, there was times where I undervalued myself as like in terms of my service. So I was being underpaid based on what I was
00:19:23
Speaker
And I also then wasn't looking at like, Hey, well, what's my overhead? Like what do I need to get paid to keep my lights on kind of thing? So it was many like things that could have probably made a better decision, but now it's like, okay, I know a lot more than I did. I have a lot more to learn guaranteed. But yeah, it was through that process of some of the pain that came with that of like, man, I just want to get ahead or like the comparison to other practitioners and what you think is
00:19:51
Speaker
Oh, they're doing so much better. It's like I had to really define what success was for me and learn the logistics of, okay, how do I move ahead? A lot of these are parallels to what we talk about our courses, specifically the money management ones. So yes, we are aligned with what you're saying. And I appreciate all those reminders. Let's talk about what you're doing in your practice now. So what are the main things that you focus on and has that evolved over time?
00:20:14
Speaker
It's evolved a ton in some ways. Philosophically, I wouldn't say it's to my core. So philosophically, I mean that the nervous system is guiding everything and if spinal function influences nervous system function and by improving spinal function, whether that's posture, segmental motion, all those details.
00:20:35
Speaker
will influence nervous system and thus body function and health. So that piece has been my blueprint and unwavering, I would say. But there's many ways to influence the body. And I would say over the last few years, I was seeing such heightened physiological stress in people beyond levels I'd ever seen in my life in practice. I already do very gentle techniques. So I do more instrument adjusting. So I'm generally not putting people into a state of stress.
00:21:04
Speaker
that they might have if they're nervous about manual adjustments or whatever. I have no issue with manual. I think manual chiropractic is amazing. I just don't do that. I've always influenced the nervous system in a very gentle specific way, but I added in cranial sacral therapy as a technique adjunct just to allow people to have more space and just lower the dial of just how amped up they are.
00:21:31
Speaker
I didn't know at first how I'd integrate it. And so sometimes I'll integrate it in pieces and sometimes people even on their own will be like, I'm booking longer so I can just have that. I'm like, perfect. They know, people know what they need on some level, right? So I've added definitely different techniques.
00:21:47
Speaker
I would say that's the biggest thing that's evolved is just adding in more tools, partly because I'll have a case where, you know, I'm curious of like how I can be of more assistance. I also refer out a lot though, so I don't feel like I have to be everything to everybody. I don't want to be everything to everybody. So yeah, more tools. I think.
00:22:08
Speaker
how I've communicated has probably changed as I've become more clear on who I am, like outside of practice even. And what I stand for and my own personal experience brings that too. I can't imagine having conversations that I have now right out of school. Some people probably can, but I personally couldn't. I didn't have the confidence. I had confidence in chiropractic, but not in myself. And I feel like it's been the biggest piece for me was
00:22:37
Speaker
just the deep dive for me on my own. And I see that too, like just in terms of, you know, I mean, there's many ways of measuring like where I'm at in practice on my end. But if say I'm looking at just my number of people I'm seeing, just as an example.
00:22:52
Speaker
The times that I have had like the busiest practice growth and the fastest practice growth with ease without really putting any energy into like marketing or ads or anything like that has been always when I'm doing something for myself. So when I was training for a triathlon, when I was doing a mindset course, something like seemingly unrelated, it's always been related to
00:23:17
Speaker
my own growth. This actually brings me to a question that I was curious about because you mentioned that you're seeing higher stress levels in bodies than you ever have before,
Importance of Well-being for Women Entrepreneurs
00:23:29
Speaker
right? In bodies, minds all connected of course. Yep. And that you find that growth comes with this ease more so when you are pouring back into yourself in some way through a class or through learning or something.
00:23:43
Speaker
So why do you think that entrepreneurs specifically, and women even more specifically, have to make well-being such a priority based on what you're seeing? What's the upside? What's the downside? How does your body handle this stress if you're not proactive? It doesn't. It doesn't. It doesn't. That's the I just teed that right up for you thing just breaks.
00:24:08
Speaker
Yeah. No, I think, I mean, the body and brain do a phenomenal job at keeping us going to our demise, right? And so if we're not paying attention to the cues, which I think is where like, you know, in the example of entrepreneurial women and men too, but for using women as an example.
00:24:29
Speaker
You have so many things that you're focusing on. There's high stress. You have many people, like if you have a family at home, like there's many things that your attention is being pulled to. And so it's easy to put those cues, like not even pay attention and be like, I'll deal with that tomorrow. I'll deal with that next week. I'll deal with that when it slows down. And your brain will be like, okay, like we'll keep going. And it'll keep pulling from other tanks and like just to kind of fuel the tank that you're asking it to until it can't. Like there is a limit.
00:24:59
Speaker
And that's when people get sick. That's when people get injured and don't recover. That's when people are just not resilient in like even the daily things anymore, right? So it shows up in different ways for different people, but I think
00:25:13
Speaker
people that are going through, say like a health crisis as an example or whatnot, if they can take from that lesson, then that had more value for them, right? Because it can move forward in a different way and make, you know, some non-negotiables around their personal care, their time, their space. And it might not be like a consistent scheduled thing. It might be like just, they start to see cues of like, I'm not sleeping, I'm taking a midday, you know, or whatever that is.
00:25:41
Speaker
What do people ignore so much that you see or that you hear from afterwards? They probably don't even know their cues sometimes.
00:25:48
Speaker
Yeah. And they can be anything, right? It's really, I think the more we pay attention to our own rhythms, then it's easier to see. If we don't even know what our baseline is, then it's really hard to compare. Like many people will come in and they'll be like, I'm good. Like, yeah, no headaches. No, you know, they're thinking of the big stuff and then they start care. And then we do their re-exam or we're kind of chatting into care and they're like, Oh, I slept through the night. I'm like, you don't sleep through the night. Oh, yeah. You know, or I were having bowel movements again.
00:26:18
Speaker
Like, okay, because so many things become our landscape, right? Like if it's a very regular thing, we think a common thing is normal and many, just cause it's common does not mean it's normal, but it can be subtle and it's not always going to be like a slap in the face. Sometimes it can be, but it's not always. Yeah, that's interesting.
00:26:39
Speaker
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Speaker
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00:27:29
Speaker
So if you have people listening who maybe want to step into some proactive care, is there, I know this is hard because I'm making a general statement, but where are some areas that they could start so it's not so overwhelming?
00:27:44
Speaker
Oh, there's a number, but I would say breathing deep breath work would be the very first thing for a number of reasons. One being when you're in a state of physiological stress, stress I will say isn't a bad thing. Stress in itself is a very necessary response, entity, whatever you want to call it.
00:28:03
Speaker
But it's when we stay there and we don't rebound out of it. We're not supposed to be living in that heightened sympathetic nervous system state. So when we go into that stress fight or flight state, there's specific physiological responses that will happen every time. And that happens if you're imagining it. So you're anticipating a job interview or a bad, hard conversation.
00:28:26
Speaker
Or if you're, it's actually happening. So it'll happen if you're imagining it or experiencing it and it'll happen with so-called good or bad stress. So if you're getting prepared to go on a vacation, that's exciting, but your physiology is still going to be right now.
00:28:46
Speaker
Or if you are dealing with a loss, right? That can be, that your physiology is going to be, it has the same responses. So one of those responses is just, it changes how we breathe. We breathe in a more short, higher chest lift of the rib cage, shallow, shallow breathing. Shallow, thank you. That's the word I'm looking for. Yes. I'm very familiar.
00:29:07
Speaker
Yeah. So stress can create that physiological response. And then if we're not changing that breath pattern, then our brain is also being told you're stressed. So it can happen from the physiology too. If you're really locked up in your rib cage and you're not experiencing like a stressful event, your brain thinks you are. I see.
00:29:27
Speaker
You have less oxygen, more oxygen is better. That's reasonable to think. And the more movement, you have so many joints in the rib cage and spine in that thoracic cage that just the movement of that can stimulate the brain in such a good way. And so if you were to do one thing and the nice thing about deep breathing is, and there's different breathing exercises obviously too that people could dive into, but
00:29:52
Speaker
You can do that anywhere. You can do that in crazy Christmas shopping traffic. You can do that in the grocery store line when someone steps in front of you. You can do that with your children. You can do that.
00:30:05
Speaker
You don't need equipment, you can do it anywhere. It seems too simple, but it's so, so important and that would be number one. Yeah. I feel like the cycle that we sometimes only get half of is that we think we're stressed and so our body ends up reacting, right? We don't always necessarily think of the opposite being there could be something misaligned in my rib cage that makes my body think that I'm under stress.
00:30:31
Speaker
that then mentally makes me feel stressed, right? Because a lot of the time, you know, and Mallory has talked about this too, but when your body isn't quite right, that's on your mind all the time. It affects everything. It affects everything. And so I think we see that a lot with women entrepreneurs, especially because like you said, they have so many balls in the air and they're trying to do all the things and take care of everyone and also make a living. And also if one small thing goes wrong with their body, it's amplified.
00:31:00
Speaker
and vice versa, right? So stress, I think it gets amplified in the body as well. Yeah. 100%. You know, when you think about the value of, self-care is a term that's probably overused or overly generalized, but being aware, like you said, of looking for those cues and realizing that normal isn't maybe normal.
00:31:23
Speaker
Right? And just being willing to think a little bit broader about stress is not just this one thing over here that lives by itself. It impacts your body, impacts your mind's association of whether you're stressed. And that's something that just doesn't get talked about a lot. And I would imagine it's not something that a lot of chiropractors talk to patients about a lot either.
00:31:47
Speaker
Well, I don't know. I mean, I do and the chiropractors I know do. It just depends though on like what the relationship is, I guess, and what if people are coming from a really multifaceted side of things, right? It also depends too. Like there's people that come in and they definitely need that conversation, but they're not ready for it.
00:32:08
Speaker
I need to meet people where they're at and there's certain people I can have hard conversations with where I'm like, this is concerning me. And there's other people and like, you need to do something different. You need to quit your job or something or explore other options. But then there's some people, you just need to kind of meet them where they're at. And I know the nice thing is I know that the body support I can offer, even if I say nothing is something like it can at least turn the dial down a little bit for them.
00:32:38
Speaker
even if they're not necessarily even, it's not a tangible change for them. Yeah. That makes a lot of sense.
Self-Care Practices and Menstrual Cycle Awareness
00:32:45
Speaker
Yeah. So tell us what, if you're willing to share, what it means to you as a woman entrepreneur to focus on your self-care physically. What's your physical well-being? Maybe if you could share some of the things that you focus on, they could be almost like tactics or strategies for the rest of us.
00:33:02
Speaker
Okay, physical. Well, I get adjusted. Yeah, you're like chiropractic, obviously. Well, how would people find a chiropractor though, to start? Because it's hard. I would start with, yeah, I would start with, I mean, anyone can contact me and it wouldn't matter what city they're in, depending on what they're looking for. I know people all over the world. So if I don't know someone, I'm confident. Someone knows someone who knows someone.
00:33:24
Speaker
That would be a good fit. But at the same time, I would say, I would start with your family and friends and just see what they're like, if they have someone that they'd recommend. They know your personality, they know kind of like what you're looking for. And there's many different approaches within chiropractic. And my style wouldn't be for everybody. And that's totally fine.
00:33:43
Speaker
And so I'm confident there's someone out there that would probably be able to support them. So yes, I get adjusted, I get massages, I get acupuncture. I do my best. I probably could do better at staying on top of just those practitioner support. In terms of my own, obviously, like if I was only relying on practitioners, I would need to see someone probably every other day.
00:34:05
Speaker
Yeah. Getting outside for a walk has become one of my favorite and most needed things. I would say that is both a physical and mental strategy. My time I listen to, I do a lot of mindset coaching and stuff on the receiving end. And so that's when I listened to my
00:34:25
Speaker
mindset stuff and this podcast, obviously. Exactly. Yes. It's kind of my time, right? And, but getting outside is huge. I think that's not always easy in like the colder climates, but we've had a lucky winter so far.
00:34:41
Speaker
I agree. And yeah, so getting outside is important. Walking strength training is crucial. I mean, I have a very physical job, less physical than some chiropractors, I will say, but it's still like I'm on my feet all day. I'm standing over people all day and I can feel it in my body if I'm lagging on the strength side of things.
00:35:02
Speaker
And even from like, you know, different information that you learned through like the hormonal improvements and balancing and sugar balancing, all of the things that kind of can become an issue over time with age and whatnot. Like strength training is like a non-negotiable. Yeah. I mean, I've done yoga, I've done different things as well, but I would say strength training and walking are like, yeah.
00:35:24
Speaker
to my biggest things. And just to confirm when you're saying strength training, this is my understanding of what I've been learning over the last couple years too of how important it is to be lifting weights. But can you just elaborate what that means for people? Sure. I'm not sure. I mean, I guess to me it seems so obvious. So that's a good question.
00:35:40
Speaker
Do it like laymen's terms, right? Yeah. I mean, strength training can be, if someone has never lifted a weight, strength training can be with resistance bands, right? I have some people that I'm teaching them how to stand up from sitting down, right? Depending on where they're at, depending on their age, their condition.
00:35:56
Speaker
It's using your muscles with resistance essentially, right? But isometrics have become a lot more like on the scene in terms of just how beneficial they can be. So it doesn't mean someone has to go to the gym and be like deadlifting 200 pounds. Right.
00:36:12
Speaker
It also depends on your goals. If you are training to be a fitness competitor or to be in a CrossFit Games, that's going to look very different than someone who's training to be able to hike until they're 80 or to be able to pick up their grandkids or
00:36:30
Speaker
maintain their knees and not need a knee replacement or hip, you know what I mean? Like, so like maintaining our joints and just that longevity piece and the independence that comes with it, if that's kind of my driving force for being strong and also maintaining my job, right? Sure. If I injured it and I can't work and if I'm not working, there's no income, right? And so for me to maintain and practice and being able to do what I do for the long haul, I need to be taking care of myself now.
00:36:59
Speaker
rather than waiting until things are exposing themselves as injury for myself and then having to catch up. I just didn't want people to think that they had to be lifting 50 pound weights for it to be considered strength training or to get the hormonal balance or to get the
00:37:15
Speaker
all the things you shared. So yeah, thanks for elaborating that. No, it's meeting, it's again like meeting your body where it's at, right? And so for all of us and even our own bodies at different stages, like I cannot do the workout I was doing when I was training for a triathlon. Like I can't do that workout now I'm dying. And so I think having some grace with myself for whoever's out there is an important piece and just reminding yourself like this is a journey. There's no destination. It's a process.
00:37:44
Speaker
And it will evolve with time. You've had to coach me on that Nicole too. I'm like, okay, I'm not doing, I'm not lifting what I was, or I'm not riding the bike like I was. And it's hard. I think you've both said the words like, just give yourself some grace right now. It will be a journey. It will come back. It will fluctuate. I've had to learn that.
00:38:04
Speaker
Well, and I think that's something that, you know, showing ourselves grace is a little bit harder than showing grace to other people, obviously. But a lot of the times I think there are tons of women business owners who are so stressed, so tired, so overwhelmed that even the thought of just doing like any kind of physical activity, moving your body, it just, there's no appeal to it.
00:38:29
Speaker
Right? Like you can get into this place. 100%. And also when you're in that state of stress, and I remind people this all the time and myself, because I'm one of everyone else too. When you're in that state of stress, your nervous system, like your brain is not in a space to find creative solutions. Like it cannot see that it is in survival mode. And so if you're working on things when things are good, you start to kind of create strategies and tools to be like, okay,
00:38:57
Speaker
When I'm in the weeds, what can I do? Even if it's just, okay, I have a 10 call day, I'm going to between call five and six, I'm going to get out of my house and walk around the block and come back. Even that, obviously that's not going to change your fitness, but it's going to change your head space and your nervous system response and all the things that kind of cut my thoughts.
00:39:19
Speaker
Well, I think that peace is really important so much so that I'll say it again, but when you're in these types of stress that your brain cannot...
00:39:28
Speaker
create the solutions that it normally would. And so it may be that if you're in that state of overwhelm, yeah, picking up a new fitness hobby may not seem feasible at the moment. And it may be that you need to go to something that feels gentler and more caring, like maybe that's chiropractic appointment, maybe it's a massage, maybe it's acupuncture. And you start there because you need to just simply move your brain out of that space.
00:39:58
Speaker
And then once your brain starts getting into a better space, you have more options, right? You just can't see those options right now. So that's perfect. Yeah. Like just your capacity is different. Your capacity is different. Exactly. And I think it's very common. Mallory does it. I do it. You probably do it. To kind of beat yourself up is the first initial reaction to being like, well, why don't I feel like doing that? Why don't I feel like doing that thing that I know is good for me?
00:40:25
Speaker
But you don't feel like it and you don't have the capacity for it. And instead of maybe spending a week in self-loathing about it, instead, just pivot to making one appointment that actually cares for you. Especially if you feel like you are not in a place to care for yourself, then this is the perfect time. A hundred percent. You know, to go out and find that kind of support team of practitioners. And that's something Mallory's talked about a lot too, is just trying to do everything by yourself is just so much heavier.
00:40:55
Speaker
It's so much heavier, whether it's your health or your mindset or any of it. Totally. And there's a time to also for recovery. So like I said earlier, a comment about, I don't feel like you always have to have your foot on the gas. And I think sometimes we feel like to move forward, I have to press the gas. But there's a time for recovery. And I would say I had a trainer years ago and
00:41:17
Speaker
I felt, I had good momentum. I felt strong. I was getting results, but I was like, I was hitting a wall and she's like, you need to take a week off. Like I'm cutting your training for the week. And I was like, no, right? You have this perception like I can't stop. And she did. And it was the best thing and it was the best lesson and reminder that transfers into all of it, right? Like outside of even just the fitness conversation, but
00:41:40
Speaker
The recovery is just important, especially with women. If you have a menstrual cycle, there are different times in your cycle that you are going to have more energy and there's different times where you are needing to retreat and honoring that even can be so, so pivotal for women to tap into their strengths.
00:42:01
Speaker
at different times in their cycle. I would love to dive into that just slightly, because we haven't talked about that on the podcast. And I think it fits in this physical episode. So would you be able to elaborate on which phases of the cycle really set you up for kind of rest and recovery versus the times where you could really maybe push the edge or push the boundary or try something new? Yeah, so in general, I mean, obviously there can be nuances and whatnot. And there's people that are
00:42:30
Speaker
far more educated on like those nuances than I am. But I would say in general, the first two weeks of your cycle are generally where you're going to have more energy, where you're going to be like action oriented. Once you ovulate, which is about two-ish weeks in. So the first half is called the follicular phase. Then you ovulate, the second half is called the luteal phase. And the luteal phase is in general,
00:42:55
Speaker
where you will probably feel a bit more tired. Your recovery might not be as quick and where you might need to be more gentle with yourself. If you're really tuned in and you start paying attention to your body and your rhythms, you'll typically become more in tune to what you need. Your cravings, right? We sometimes are like, they get joked about or whatever, but it's like,
00:43:17
Speaker
your cravings can be there for a reason, right? So are you getting enough? Like protein? Are you getting enough? Like are you nourishing yourself within that as well? So obviously that's just as important. But yeah, in general, the second half is kind of where, you know, you might find that you need a little bit more rest and that's completely okay. Again, I wouldn't force that either, right? Like the more intuitive you are with your own body, like if you're feeling the energy to kind of push it through like a task or a workout or whatever, like,
00:43:46
Speaker
Do it, you know, like your body will give you feedback and you'll know during or after if that was like, you know, maybe too much. But I would say if you're feeling like you're pushing through a stage where you're like, I just don't have it in me. It could be cycle related. It could be that you're in burnout and that you.
00:44:02
Speaker
have nothing to pull from your tank and you might need like a big overhaul and you might just need some space or a day where you are working on things but you're able to kind of actually make some momentum and have no other distractions. So the recovery in space can look, it doesn't mean you're sitting in like your cozies watching on Netflix, it might be like actually pretty awesome to me.
00:44:26
Speaker
Yeah. But it could be just like, okay, I'm not having meetings today. Well, and that's one of the things that's nice about having your own business is that you can pick and choose those tasks more so than normal if you're working for someone else.
00:44:41
Speaker
That's the other thing I feel like sometimes we do is say here's the task I planned on doing so if I don't do that I have somehow failed at this thing. Whereas you could reframe it and say out of all these things that I want to get done, what suits how I'm feeling today? Wouldn't that be a healthier way to approach
00:45:01
Speaker
Most days. Yeah. Because you're still being quote unquote productive. You're still doing things that need to happen in order to move your business or your life forward. But maybe it doesn't have to be quite so rigid as the plan. Yeah. You know, maybe you can pick and choose and be like, here's energetically what I have in the tank today. And that means that this meeting is not a possibility.
00:45:24
Speaker
Yeah. But this other thing, like this feels gentler and I can do this today. Yeah, totally. So I would just give yourself permission, like you said, to honor where you are every day and then adjust accordingly. Yeah. And there's times where we do have to do things we don't feel like doing. Like, but yeah, it doesn't have to be the norm. It doesn't have to be like, and then maybe when you start noticing, like there's tasks that I progress.
00:45:49
Speaker
I hate doing, and I'm like, maybe I should hire someone to do this for me because why am I forcing myself to do this where it's my least favorite piece and it just doesn't get done? Yes. And then it's always in the back of your mind. And we don't have space for that. No, we don't need that. We need to get that stuff out of there.
00:46:06
Speaker
So can you, I think maybe you alluded to this in the beginning and I'm just going to give you an opportunity to come back to it. Could you talk to us about some hard times and maybe it's the COVID time or other hard times in this entrepreneurial season that you've been in, whether it's business or life related. If you're willing to share that, what that experience was, and then if there were any specific things you remembered that you did to pull yourself out of that physically or mentally.
00:46:33
Speaker
I can't think of one specific time. I would say there was a time, so I had moved, like I'd left Calgary for a couple of years and practiced in Halifax and had like the best job out there, loved it, but my family's all here. So I was really homesick and people sick from them, even though I had amazing humans out there. I was very, very lucky. So I made the decision to move back. And when I moved back, I had no job and I was like, oh, fine one, you know,
00:47:02
Speaker
Things work out. Things work out. But I was very rigid on what I was looking for, the type of practice, and not in an inspired way. Looking back, now I can see this clearly, I was rigid on what I should be doing and what it should look like. I probably missed out on a lot of opportunities that I could have
00:47:24
Speaker
been great, but I was stuck on this, you know, one opportunity. It kept getting kind of delayed because of their build out, whatnot. I was going to join this practice and I ended up waiting tables for a number of months, which was fine. I'm like, well, I need money. This is like, you know, flexible of something, you know, of practice. It's a practice. It got you back home.
00:47:45
Speaker
where you wanted to be? Yeah, I mean, I was living with my parents at the time, waiting tables as a chiropractor in a kilter knee highs. Oh, hello. Okay. Yeah. At an Irish pub waiting tables. And I mean, looking back, it was a really hard time for me because I felt like I wasn't living up to my potential. I didn't know where I was going to land. I felt like it was impossible that I was ever going to ever be able to make any. Sure.
00:48:15
Speaker
money doing what I love to do and yet all my friends seem to be doing so well and I was in an oil and gas city with you know friends that were outside of my profession were like kept buying their second home and going on vacations and like had the lifestyle and I had chiropractic friends that appeared to be you know like they had their own practices and and here I am living with my parents waiting tables and I'm like this is
00:48:37
Speaker
I'm the one that's supposed to be successful. Right. What has happened? How did this happen? That was really, really hard. Plus, I had this feeling, and I don't know if it was accurate or not. I feel like it was probably more of me projecting this on other people. Whenever people heard about what I did, I always just assumed that they assumed that I should be just really well off and stable. Well, people assume medicine, period.
00:49:05
Speaker
Yeah, and doctor, you know, and it's just like, you know, that wasn't my reality. And so I felt a lot of shame around that. And so I probably like overstretched myself to try to like also maintain whatever I felt like I had to like, right, image wise, whatever.
00:49:23
Speaker
I didn't know where I was going to land. And so it took me a long time to kind of move out of that. And again, like I had come back to it, I said it before, like it was all mindset. Like it was all just reminding myself like who I actually was and like what I wasn't and like what was important to me. And like also whose opinion really freaking matter. Let's be honest. Yes. And so I think that comes with a little bit more years under my belt to just like caring less about people that
00:49:53
Speaker
I really shouldn't have an impact on my wellbeing. So that was probably the hardest from like identity, perception of success, financial, like all of it, right? But I also met some amazing people through there too. And so like, I also don't regret it. I'm still in touch with some of the people that I worked with then and
00:50:15
Speaker
Yeah, like I mean, I don't know if like looking back I also felt like I had so much pressure in my like late 20s to be like have made it like yeah, baby still right so I don't know like I I had so much pressure to just like have it figured out and
00:50:34
Speaker
And now I'm like, okay, that was silly. Like, I don't know. Well, like you said, there was nobody back then who walked you through and said, okay, great. You want to be part of a practice? Okay. Here's everything you need to do. Here's all the systems you'll need. Here's how to get like, no one was doing that for you. So how in the world would you know? Right? But it feels like you should just know.
00:50:56
Speaker
But even if they did, because I did, there are coaching and systems. I feel like there was a lot that also just didn't fit for me. It didn't feel right. I had nothing against it. These other ways of practicing, they can be very successful, but they weren't authentic to me.
00:51:13
Speaker
So for me, like the second I would say challenge was I left a practice and it was my first time going independent. And I was just like, I had been unhappy and I just really wanted to like fulfill my potential essentially. And I didn't feel like I could have this one practice. And I learned a lot there, like, you know, no ill fillings, but that next year I realized was where I gained my professional confidence because it was all on me. And so it was very challenging on a lot of different ways.
00:51:41
Speaker
It was only a year and then I came back, you know, I found a different job because it wasn't the right job for me, but it was so valuable because I feel like after that year, I was able to stand on my feet and I knew I'd be okay. You know, that's great. Yeah. Well, how is it that doing a business your way, which is something we talk about a lot and having it feel authentic.
Authenticity in Business Decisions
00:52:05
Speaker
and the decisions that you're making or the ways that you do business feel authentic to you, how is that translated to lowering that stress level, dialing that down? Have you seen that in your own actual physical and mental wellbeing of now that you're in a place where you're making those decisions for yourself and you're not making them based on how you want to be viewed? Has that impacted your physical and mental health in a way that you think is pretty tangible?
00:52:34
Speaker
A thousand percent. And I think too just gaining more trust in myself and my decisions because that was one of the things that I struggled with was just trusting that I could make the right decision after judging myself on different choices I had made where I'm like, that put you behind or that was not the right decision or whatever. It's like, yeah, it's easy to say that now.
00:52:54
Speaker
So definitely gaining some self trust in that and kind of something else, but now I know it's gone. It like travels. Later. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I do think that that's for me at least something that always, you know, you do this gut check and we talked about it a little bit in season one.
00:53:16
Speaker
of the human sedine section specifically, but having that kind of gut check of, does this feel like the way that I want to do insert any business decision or any life decision, frankly? But if you live kind of disconnected from the authentic way that you would be doing it, I think that just adds this extra level of stress that you're then carrying around. We just don't have room for that. We don't have time for that.
00:53:44
Speaker
I think too, one thing that I learned was one of the beliefs that I subconsciously was like living was all or nothing, right? And I think one of the things that has really helped back to kind of that previous question you had is reminding myself that I can change my mind. So even if I make a decision, I pull, you know, the trigger on like, you know, a procedure or
00:54:09
Speaker
Whatever. Something I want to implement in my practice. I can do it different tomorrow if this isn't going to work. If this isn't flowing, if this isn't feel right, if people aren't receptive, I can do it different. So I feel like sometimes, I mean, I know for me in the past, I've made decisions or I've committed to something and I'm like, well, I need to see it through, even if it's like not serving anything. That was the goal I set. And now even though I don't want it anymore, I must reach it.
00:54:37
Speaker
You're like, why am I doing this? But it's a good call out because it's harder. We've kind of said it's going against what you feel is authentic or what your gut is telling you. It's like you're forcing it. And if you kind of take a step back and allow it to run its course or to change or just to be more fluid with it, it just feels easier. So why don't we take the easier path and do that?
00:55:02
Speaker
I don't know, Mallory.
Conclusion and Gratitude
00:55:03
Speaker
Why? I don't know. Can you answer that? Jared, why don't we do that? Why is that so hard? I don't know.
00:55:10
Speaker
No one has the answer to that, but we had more questions, but we are up on time and we so appreciate having you here. I loved it. I love when I get to see you, we get little nuggets of this, but having a whole hour has been amazing. So thanks for sharing with us and all of our listeners. Thank you guys. This was so fun. Thank you so much. It was wonderful to meet you. Thank you for taking the time to, like she said, just share your wisdom. And I love hearing about the ups and downs of especially
00:55:40
Speaker
different kind of job that I've never experienced right running an office and doing all these that like that's completely outside my comfort zone and I love hearing about it from you and we are just really excited to keep this season going and talk about all the ups and downs of well-being so we will chat with you all next week
00:56:01
Speaker
Thanks for listening. Hop over to UnboundBoss.com to join our community and leave us a voice memo. We absolutely love hearing from you. If you like the podcast, please subscribe, leave us an Apple review, and share your favorite episodes with other women entrepreneurs. Talk to you soon.