Toucan Talks
Toucan Talks is a podcast for Wilmington-area business owners and entrepreneurs who are eager to learn from those on a similar journey. Each week, we talk with an area business owner about their successes, challenges, and experiences in business. Don’t worry – we keep it fun as we bounce from topic to topic.
Toucan Talks
09 - Buffy Andrews from Made Well Center
Buffy Andrews, owner of Made Well Center for Wholeness, joins Toucan Talks to talk about her journey as a multi-passionate entrepreneur. Buffy shares how she combined her passions for helping others, wellness, and mental health into a thriving business that not only fills her cup, but also serves her clients in a unique way.
Join us as we talk about how to combine your multiple passions into one business - and what you should examine in order to make sure your passions lead to a profitable business.
If you’re a multi-passionate business owner, this episode is for you. We unpack the decisions and work it takes to be successful, as well as receive great nuggets of wellness advice from the Wellness Buff herself! Grab a notebook and hit play to hear from Buffy Andrews.
Visit the Made Well Center for Wholeness Website
Follow Made Well Center for Wholeness on Instagram
Visit the Wellness Buff Website
Follow the Wellness Buff on Instagram
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Kickstart Collective is a creative marketing agency based in Wilmington, NC. We offer our clients a creative advantage through creative content and marketing strategies.
Welcome to the Two Can Talks podcast, where we bounce from topic to topic with our guest to give you an inside look at their life as a business owner. No question is off limits as we talk about what has led to the successes, the challenges and more.
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Speaker 1:Welcome to this episode of Two Can Talks. Today we have Buffy Andrews from Madewell Center of Holiness here in Wilmington. You guys are I mean full service of wellness, I don't know. I feel like counseling therapy, nutrition.
Speaker 3:We've got health coaches. We do women's retreats every year. We have get well gatherings every month. They're just educational. So yeah, lots of cool things just to learn about mental health and wellness all around.
Speaker 1:I love it. So, yeah, I'm super excited today to chat with you about being multi-passionate and entrepreneur and I feel like a lot of, obviously, the things that you do and love have tied in well to one business, which is cool. So we'll have some general questions. We'll have some questions about that. We'll have some random, fun questions in this lovely can.
Speaker 3:I'm very nervous about that, honestly.
Speaker 1:I honestly. So we have a set of generic questions not generic, but questions that everyone gets for each can, and then we do throw in a few specific to each person, so we'll see what happens. But yeah, basically you will drop a coin if it lands on a one. That is the more business questions. The two is the random questions. So yeah, basically, before we get started though I guess we talked a little bit about what the business does, but is there anything else people should know before we?
Speaker 3:jump in. I mean, I guess like now I'm entering in a new phase of life, I have a kid now, so I'm like kind of learning to juggle kid business, wellness, trainings, like all the things. So it's yeah kind of still multi-passion, lots of passions kind of combining into one. But yeah, it's exciting and we, our business, is growing and we have a lot of clinicians now. So yeah, it's great to be able to serve Wilmington in this way, for sure.
Speaker 1:Awesome, sweet, okay, well, let's just jump right in and we'll see where it goes.
Speaker 3:I just drop it wherever you want.
Speaker 1:It is the Wild West on this board, Wow so fun. One. So business, Okay, get to it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we're diving right in Straight to the biz.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, we really are just diving right into this. What has been your biggest challenge? Oh, man, out the gate, we're not warming up the audience. Yeah, no for this interview, sorry everyone. No, gosh, biggest challenge in the business yeah maybe to make it easier, because that is a big question, maybe let's go in terms of like having multiple passions.
Speaker 3:Yeah, okay. So I would say probably the biggest challenge with having multiple passions is trying to figure out how to do them all and still make money. Because I remember when I first started Madewell, I was teaching a lot of yoga classes and things like that, because I loved that I was doing intensive in-home services, so it's like a more kind of crisis intervention therapy, and I loved the yoga piece and I was like, oh, if I could just do workshops and yoga all the time, that would be wonderful. But I quickly realized that those weren't making money the way that.
Speaker 2:I needed to make money right, so.
Speaker 3:I think the trick with being multi-passionate is definitely learning where is your biggest revenue stream coming from, and then how do you foster that, how do you grow that piece and then still have the time to do the other things, because I don't actually need to make a ton of money teaching yoga, I just need to have time to do the thing I love. Yeah, that's cool.
Speaker 1:And so.
Speaker 3:I don't have to do it for five classes a day, every day a week. I just need to have time during the week that I do it and that fills my bucket, kind of deal. So I think probably the biggest challenge was, yeah, kind of figuring that out. Maybe, yeah.
Speaker 1:Figuring out the making money, the revenue, yeah, yeah, the revenue, still doing, yeah, where's the?
Speaker 3:revenue coming from and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1:I feel like that's good, even if it's not, I mean, I think, if you're not multi-passionate, but you have a lot of parts of your services.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly Like. Okay, what do we?
Speaker 2:need to hone in on Right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, do you do one of these things?
Speaker 2:and I get to ask you a question?
Speaker 1:Absolutely not.
Speaker 2:Dang it. You can ask me whatever you want.
Speaker 1:Okay, oh, another business. We're just down to business today.
Speaker 3:Straight down to business today. All right, okay.
Speaker 1:Well, speaking of multi-passionate, I didn't even ask you if you wanted to talk about the wellness buff side of your business.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah sure.
Speaker 2:Let's do it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, how does that come into play just in your life and business?
Speaker 3:and your yeah.
Speaker 1:So I guess first. So we need to, yeah, explain what it is so first, wellness buff is me, I'm the wellness buff. Yes, you are.
Speaker 3:I just thought it was a clever title you know, I'm into wellness. My name's Buffy.
Speaker 2:You know it just worked.
Speaker 3:But I would say the wellness buff piece is kind of more my personal branded side of the business, because I've grown Madewell Center now to having, you know, 10 clinicians and practitioners and so they're all kind of doing their thing and I'm doing a lot of the running of the business right and so. I don't have as much time to do one-on-one stuff with clients. You know it's harder to fit those people in every week.
Speaker 3:So wellness buff kind of was born and that for me is my opportunity to do the things I love a little bit more of. I get to do the wellness retreats and I get to do healing intensives which I can explain more about that later but you know, getting to do those aspects of the business and not worry so much about the one-on-one constantly all week long, because for me that's exhausting now, because not only was I doing one-on-one with clients, but I was doing one-on-one with clinicians and helping them make sure that their client load is good and doing one-on-one meetings with people in the community and those kinds of things.
Speaker 3:And so wellness buff is kind of my way of you know, speaking to the world, I guess, of different things that I love being able to do kind of deep dives with people and educate people more, because I love the educational side of it I love speaking. I love, you know, being with people and making things simple for them. So that's just how I get to kind of fuse it all together.
Speaker 1:I guess, yeah, yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, do you feel like on the Madewell side? Because when did you start Madewell?
Speaker 3:Madewell, I started it officially in. Well, if we want to go. When did my LLC get?
Speaker 2:created 2017.
Speaker 3:Okay, sweet, but I didn't. That was me doing the yoga, the workshops and that kind of.
Speaker 1:Thing.
Speaker 3:And I didn't really start the counseling deep dive kind of piece until 2019. Okay, yeah, because I started in 2018. When Florence hit I actually was kind of forced into like private practice realm a little bit, because I was already working part-time at my other job and when Florence hit I was not able to get paid because I was in schools in Pender County and Pender County schools were closed for months. Yeah, and so I was like hubby.
Speaker 3:I know we just got married. But can I quit my job and pursue, you know, private practice world? And so I did, and when I opened up my schedule, I think just me being so plugged into the community I was able to get a lot of referrals really quickly. And then that, you know, just boosted my confidence for doing it on my own, because I was working at another practice at the time, and so I think that just boosted my confidence for doing it on my own. And so it was spring of 2019. I was just blessed with a lady who she was a therapist, but like she was very well off, and so she rented her office space to me for really cheap, so I was able to have low overhead you know, and kind of trickle into that realm, but it just kept growing from there, so yeah, Cool.
Speaker 1:Do you feel like you're which I feel like you've sort of touched on this but like you're definitely more on the made while side, like running the business side of? It versus in like yeah, the weeds of I don't want to say the weeds of, like client work, but sure, well, I call it for us.
Speaker 3:I call it, yeah, definitely, well, yeah with me.
Speaker 1:It's a very. I can just like client work because it's, but I don't know. No, sure, sure, sure.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, I'm definitely more on the business side of it now. I only have room in my schedule, especially coming back from maternity leave and everything. I really only have room in my schedule for like seven one-on-one clients a week and then I spend. I have to spend the rest of the time, just like managing everything you know, just like you know admin asking me questions and being able to answer those questions and also do website stuff with you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean the whole say builds all the things and it's like people don't realize that there's so much of that that really goes into running your own business, and so I'm sure people probably are like you don't see hardly any people in a week and, yeah, like you're just getting a free ride over here.
Speaker 1:It's like no, I'm just like making it work. That's what Rebecca MacaE from Beauty Lab on. And that's what she was like. She'll do some of her like business work at home and people will ask you like what do you mean? You're working from home, like you're a trainer and she was like yeah, but I also own and run this business, I got to communicate with people.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean just like communication with people.
Speaker 1:It takes so much, yes, the work and the job, and then the running the business.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Side of things, which is fun, but it's right, it's two jobs.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah yeah, yeah, it truly is. There's so many hats, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1:Sweet.
Speaker 3:All right, let's go. Yeah, all right, I'm going to try on this side. Maybe we'll get a two.
Speaker 1:Oh, we got one, let's see, it's always a fun time, sometimes like there'll be ones that we haven't gotten in a while and I'll be like I forgot that was in there.
Speaker 3:I'm nervous, I'm not sure about the two. Then ones are easy, yeah.
Speaker 1:All right, what is your spiciest opinion that most people disagree with? And I will disclaimer this with two things. One, this is on the internet.
Speaker 3:No, it doesn't have to be business related.
Speaker 1:It could be anything.
Speaker 3:Yeah, little spiciest opinion. I definitely have some opinions about mental health, realm of life. Yeah, how do I phrase this in an opinion? Like sentence, maybe. My spiciest opinion is that oh, maybe this is one. Primary care providers should not prescribe anti-depressants and anti-anxiety medications without meeting with someone more than one time. Yeah, I feel like that's fair, very fair, but it doesn't happen. Interesting People are just like oh, you have anxiety, here's some medication, and I'm like you don't even know. You don't even know them. You sat with them for 15 minutes, so why are you just off the gate giving them the meds right away? I'm not saying meds are a bad thing, but you should meet with somebody more than 15 minutes for them to truly determine is it a chemical situation that you're needing addressed or is this like wow, your life is really hot meds. Let's work on that.
Speaker 3:You know before giving you some medications because we don't need to just slap a band-aid on it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that might be a spicy one. Yeah, I feel like for your industry. Yeah for sure there, yeah, ok.
Speaker 3:I like it.
Speaker 1:I mean I don't like it, but I like it, Right.
Speaker 3:All right, let's see here, oh, OK.
Speaker 1:OK, Yep, that happened. Yep, that might happen some more, you never know. All right, let me go one over. That's why um oh, same one. I think that's why the investment boards have the plexiglass.
Speaker 2:So they don't jump out of it. They're not dangerous.
Speaker 1:They don't hurt your podcast guest. That's funny, all righty. So how did you get into your current line of work?
Speaker 3:Oh, that's actually kind of an interesting story, I feel like, because I would say, though, a lot of people that enter into therapy realm of life probably did so because they either went to therapy a lot as a kid and they really benefited from it, or they had some sort of traumatic event themselves or something like that.
Speaker 3:That kind of is like oh, I want to help the people the way I was helped, right, I never had that experience because my parents don't really believe in therapy, which is terrible because I'm a therapist, but that's hilarious. So I would say I've always loved helping people, though, and I as a kid thought, oh, maybe I'll work for a nonprofit or something like that. And then when I graduated college, I moved here to Wilmington, didn't have a plan.
Speaker 3:I actually studied film and media production and all this stuff worked for a couple nonprofits and just did my thing with them. But basically I was also working at a barbecue joint nannying these little hellions and it was like there's got to be more to life than this, and so I started looking at big girl jobs, online Googling and pretty much everything that I thought I would be really good at or that I wanted to do. Said I needed a social work degree.
Speaker 3:And I didn't have that. So I was like dang it, I have to go back to school. Like this sucks. I don't want to do that. So I applied at UNCW and ECU and UNC Charlotte and I got into ECU right away and I was like Lord please do not send me back to Greenville. I do not want to go back there. And then I got waitlisted at Charlotte and then I just waited and I finally got into UNCW.
Speaker 1:Because you said you were living here then.
Speaker 3:Yes, I was living here, I was like I just moved here, I don't want to move back. So basically applied for school, got in literally didn't have time to study for the GRE None of the things that you should do if you really want to go get your master's in something. I was like Lord, just let me get the minimum score that I need. And I got it by two points, hey answer. So, yeah, got into school, still didn't know what I wanted to do, but basically in school we had to do these practicum internship things and I would shadow therapists and I really was like wow, this is cool, like I can do this.
Speaker 3:I can sit with people. I love hearing people's stories, I love kind of diving deep with people. And so from there, just kind of, you know, I entered into that realm. And then, as I was in that realm with the high crisis, you know, management type stuff I was really realizing there was a lot of education that was missing for people, kind of practical daily living things that people just weren't doing to feel better right. And so in my mind I was thinking how can I, how can I do what I love, how can I do therapy? But in a way that's not really dictated by all the red tape or, you know, it doesn't have to follow these certain guidelines. And so from there it honestly just kind of grew. I was like let me just create my own thing, create my own path. It's been a little bit like that of like if something's not working, I'm not gonna just wait around for someone else to figure it out, I'm gonna make it work for me. And so that's just kind of how it happened, I guess. Yeah, total God dang. Honestly.
Speaker 1:Made it happen. Yeah that's cool.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I don't feel like. I don't know if we've ever talked about that?
Speaker 3:I don't think. So, yeah, cool, love it. All. Right, how many of these is this?
Speaker 1:the last one, yeah, and then we'll reload, or?
Speaker 2:we'll do another round.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh, okay. Okay. So this happened before and we're like we need to create a thing that, if this happens, oh, like are you Either you know for us. Oh okay, yes Because of our $20 Target. Board. Yeah, so you either get to ask me a question or there's a stack of cards on the shelf.
Speaker 2:I don't know if I need to talk to the mic.
Speaker 1:Up in the little yellow stack of like random stupid stuff. Ooh, so you have to do-. Yeah, some of them are like you have to talk in hashtag sold so Both of us. No, that you would give me.
Speaker 2:It's a punishment for me.
Speaker 1:Or you can just ask me random question. Whatever you wanna do.
Speaker 3:Oh, let's see here, these are interesting.
Speaker 1:They're almost like cards against humanity style things.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Of like just dumb.
Speaker 3:Ooh, I'm just gonna ask you this Okay. What is your next big thing?
Speaker 1:My next big thing. I mean, it could be job related.
Speaker 3:it could be life related Good one. Secret that probably no one knows.
Speaker 1:But I'm definitely gonna tell on this podcast. Next big thing Do, do, do, do, do do do do, do Gonna do a more game show podcast? No, um, I don't know. I feel like somebody.
Speaker 2:We launched this, so that I feel like we can check off the box. Current big thing.
Speaker 1:Current big thing, not work related Luke and I. Our anniversary is coming up and we're trying to figure out where to go. How many years, 12. Hey, that's a big number.
Speaker 3:It is a big number, but it's not like 10. Hey, but it doesn't matter, 12 is big. That's up there, Gosh 12 years.
Speaker 1:Wow, yeah, we were children. We were children. I was 20. Oh, wow, I know that. Oh, you were a child, you were a small baby.
Speaker 3:Yeah, for sure, that's amazing.
Speaker 1:Are you guys looking to do like out of the country, or okay, we were talking Portugal maybe, or then, like yesterday, maybe like Italy, or Spain, basically Spain, where there's like wine and food. That would be fun.
Speaker 3:Listen, you know who you should go talk to. There's a new Spanish market in town on. Castle Street, okay, called La Mar Salada.
Speaker 1:Ooh.
Speaker 3:The guy is from Spain.
Speaker 1:The wife is from Mexico.
Speaker 3:Victor. He's from Spain, okay, espana, but he like could tell you so many fun things about Spain, I'm sure because he's only been, you know, over here for a little while.
Speaker 1:I don't know how long, but you could talk to him.
Speaker 3:That might be a good like get you some culture on the ground, kind of stuff you know. So plug for La Mar Salada. They have a paella making class which you should also do.
Speaker 1:Okay, I saw that on your Instagram. Yeah, we need to. Was that fun? Yes, it was. It was really fun. I was thinking super fun people down to earth salt to the earth you know, you should have them on your podcast? Yeah, we totally should. Yeah, and then eat some food, exactly, yeah, that'd be fun. Done, done and done Cool. So yeah, there you go, go on a vacation and not like move somewhere.
Speaker 3:Yeah, actually, go on a vacation. You don't have to like pick up everything to be there, just like take one bag. Yeah, be good yeah.
Speaker 1:Cause you're like, we're somewhere that we don't like, we wouldn't be like. Oh shoot, this would have been fun for the kids.
Speaker 2:Like something that like right.
Speaker 1:Cause like South Africa could be cool, but that I feel like would be cool when, like, they're a little bit older and like go. So, yeah, yeah, maybe hopefully it happens. If not, this was a bummer of a question. Well, that just has to happen.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So let me just grab it.
Speaker 1:You can just push it to the side. You can drop it again.
Speaker 2:It doesn't matter, oh that too.
Speaker 1:There we go Okay.
Speaker 3:I don't know. I just feel like truth or dare and like really there are some dares.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there are some there, that's not wrong. Um, okay, so I joke sometimes that we are a marketing agency, but like I'll forget. I'll like work on a page on our website and then I'll like forget to update it or like Our LinkedIn, will disconnect from our social scheduler.
Speaker 3:It's like the, sometimes it's like the plumber with the leaky pipe situation.
Speaker 1:Um, so how do you practice what you preach? Hmm?
Speaker 3:That's a great question. I actually just the other night, in the middle of the night while nursing, was thinking I should start going to counseling again, so I started making a list of things that I need to talk about in counseling.
Speaker 3:So that was like kind of part of it. But I also try really hard to schedule myself in such a way that I can do like a workout class or that I, you know, make sure I go on a walk or make sure that I communicate my boundaries and what I need, you know, with my husband and just to be like, hey, I'm stressed out, I need an evening to do some work and get some things done, because I can't do it with a child during the day. So, like just communicating, I guess what I need pretty often is probably my strongest thing that I do and electrolyte water. Y'all don't sleep on the electrolyte water.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean.
Speaker 3:I need to.
Speaker 1:I wish I had my electrolytes in this, but I ordered some drops Cause I think when I was pregnant I was like I was graving Gatorade. I had not drink Gatorade in years and you're like, get these drops, and I did. Yeah, I need to order some more.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I love the trace minerals drops. And I also love the LMNT electrolyte packets and things are good and they're just good for you. They don't have like the fake sugar alcohols or anything like that in them, so they're really nice and your body needs electrolytes. If you're a salty craving person, you probably need electrolytes. Interesting.
Speaker 1:And if you are a sweet craving.
Speaker 3:You probably need some B vitamins.
Speaker 1:Probably. Yep yeah, fun box, fun box. Well, there you go. Yeah, that one wasn't too bad. Do you want me to give you that? Oh yeah, can unload.
Speaker 3:You need one of those slider things like connect for that they could just drop out.
Speaker 1:There is I don't exactly know why, is a battery pack. So I think I need to put batteries in and see what happens, cause it hits. When it hits it'll like Light up or something.
Speaker 3:Do something. Oh, that could be a new level. Next big thing Shocking level.
Speaker 1:All right, do you want me to do this? So fun to drop it. I like it. I don't have some speed to it.
Speaker 3:Oh right, I think when it hits this thing is when it shoots out at you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, sometimes that and then like right here.
Speaker 3:Oh, there's a little bomb Mm-hmm. Yeah, you gotta like.
Speaker 1:I don't know how you fix that. I think you just splurge for the big one, like let's see if this podcast works out and then we'll invest. Okay, what advice would you give to a person either about to start a business or early on in their business ownership journey?
Speaker 3:I think a couple of things is like don't be too big for your britches, Okay, you know.
Speaker 2:Like don't try to like.
Speaker 3:Yeah, don't try to, you know, rent the nice office and buy all the fancy equipment and like, basically get a huge business loan to get all this stuff that you don't actually know is going to work yet. Yeah, like, start small. You know, get the $20 board from Target and then upgrade it.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Oh, but yeah, I like this advice.
Speaker 3:I would say that's probably like one of the biggest ones, because for me that was a huge thing of learning how to kind of build foundationally.
Speaker 2:I guess right it's like you start small.
Speaker 3:You get the tiny office it's just you. Like. Don't rent a 12 office space office for just you and hope that you can fill it. Yeah, that's a dumb move. Yeah On your part.
Speaker 3:That's expensive, that's an expensive mistake, yeah, so I don't do that kind of stuff. And then I would say be okay, maybe with phases of your business Kind of goes hand in hand, I guess. But learning how to be okay with saying okay, years one through three, it'll be a solo office with just me, you know. Three through five I will expand to like a two or three person office after I've like already started sharing my office with another person and kind of learn how to build in those phases.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And just ask a lot of questions like sit down and meet with people, people who do things that you'll need to know how to do in your business, that you don't know how to do, things like accounting. Yeah, if you're not an accountant like meet with an accountant.
Speaker 2:Learn what you've got to like, do to organize your business.
Speaker 3:If you need help with, you know organization or scheduling like meet with people who are good at those kinds of things. If you're a mental health person, you know meet with other practitioners who are in the field, who know what they're doing and who know how to get you credentialed, or you know just all the different pieces of the puzzle, because that's what I had to do. I had just get coffee with so many people in the beginning.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So much is the like mental health, not environment, this moment in the world.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Like Wilmington. Is it pretty like you could call? Is it pretty like friend friendly, I guess? Yeah, I know what you're saying Collaborative, I guess that's a better word.
Speaker 3:I would say that it definitely can be. I just have to find the. You have to find the right person and you have to ask in not a way that sounds like you're trying to steal someone's business. Fair, because that will get on my nerves real quick. Yeah, when I have, I definitely have had people reach out and be like, hey, so I want to have a business just like yours. Would you mind telling me like what you did?
Speaker 3:and blah, blah, blah blah and I'm like so you're asking me to give you my business? Yeah, that's what it sounds like you know, but like there's ways to go about meeting with people. That's just like, hey, I'm interested in this industry. Yeah, could you tell me your story, could you help? And then, because then that gives you more information to gather information. You know what I mean. But I would say like Wilmington is friendly in that way and a lot of our therapists are collaborative.
Speaker 3:But I will say something that's interesting is we have a lot of I think maybe because of COVID we have a lot of practitioners and associate licensed people who are not fully licensed yet but they want to start out in private practice, whereas when I started out I started out at an agency, you know, doing community mental health work. Yeah, and I would say a lot of people should go that route. It's not?
Speaker 1:glamorous yeah.
Speaker 3:It is not pretty and not fun all the time, but you learn so much about how to help your clients in that you learn a lot about documentation, about paperwork and all the things, whereas we have now. I think a trend is that a lot of young therapists are like coming out of college and wanting to just bypass the difficult and go straight into private practice realm because they think like, oh, I can work less hours, get paid the same amount which you can.
Speaker 3:But what's happening too is that we have a lot of telehealth providers coming out because they don't have enough money to get an office or you know whatever, and so it's interesting because you have all these people who are new and fresh in the field that if they would just go work for, like an agency or something like that, they would probably learn a lot more and learn how to do and set up a lot of things for themselves without having to bypass that Like the hands-on yeah.
Speaker 3:You gotta be hands-on to some of that stuff, yeah. But yeah, I mean, we're pretty collaborative in terms of sending referrals and you know that kind of thing, but as far as, like, I guess, building each other's businesses, you know. I do business consulting with stuff like that. So if somebody wants that information for me, I'm happy to give it to you. Yeah, but you're gonna pay me for my time.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, I mean, if you've had Done it long enough. Yes, yeah, yeah, it's valuable information. Yeah, yeah, that's a.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Consulting is a real career.
Speaker 3:It's a real career Career, career, yeah, yeah, so that's cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean it's fun. Fun to like help people grow and learn, but also like, yeah, don't just try to come in hot and take my business, Ooh a two.
Speaker 1:Dun, dun, dun, brightness me. Oh, a fan favorite. What's your favorite thing that comes out of a can? Coconut milk?
Speaker 3:Amen, I love making like curry and stuff like that, so I love. Or coconut rice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, coconut rice is so much better than plain rice and it's a good, healthy fact for you yeah, so like get that coconut milk.
Speaker 3:Yeah, don't sleep on it. Don't sleep on it. What else comes in a can Beans? I like beans.
Speaker 1:LaCroix has been a popular answer Sure, sure, sure Drinks.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:It comes from a can yes.
Speaker 1:I feel like brain goes immediately to like canned vegetables or like those sorts of cans. But it's any can you want?
Speaker 3:Could be enough, Jen. What are things that are not food or drink that come in a can?
Speaker 1:Joshua.
Speaker 3:Paint Pink can, there you go.
Speaker 1:Pink can Can Barrel of monkeys, that game is totally not a can, but that is what popped in my head. That's not real.
Speaker 3:Paint can, gasoline can. Is that a thing? No, maybe Paint thinner.
Speaker 1:Oil, my favorite paint thinner Just love the way it smells. Yes, and now I'm getting referrals to make. Well, I, I, I, I, I, I don't know. I don't think we've had any non-like food or drink related answers. Have we? Yeah, okay, also, if you need anything, google it. You can always ask Joshua. He's here, he's not hidden Business.
Speaker 3:All the biz Straight Getting in my biz. It's all about your. Um, it's funny to try to read these backwards.
Speaker 1:I just want to say that, because it says like what did or how did, and I read that as how bib, how, but it Um well, the question was like how did made well begin, and what services did you start with? We sort of already talked about that, um, so I was going to try to figure out how to Expand upon that Well.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean basically again, that was kind of like just the starting small.
Speaker 3:I guess you know, and you know, trying to learn what worked and what didn't work, and so yoga classes, workshops, and then the mental health like one-on-ones, um, and then I guess, like, as we've grown, that's where we've added in health coaches and we've added in, you know, our gut health specialists and things like that. So, um, yeah, definitely the mental health counseling piece, though, was like the big, biggest in the beginning. That actually made me money. Yeah, because I was able to build insurance and things like that, so I was able to get paid through that. So it definitely helped not having to like it didn't have to find a whole clientele of self-pay people who could pay, you know, $150 for a session.
Speaker 3:Like I was able to Build insurance and get reimbursed through that. So it was still felt approachable for people, um, and affordable. Yeah, you know, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And then you had the first location down the street, and then you've moved twice in the building or the same.
Speaker 3:Well, yeah, so we had our first office on shipyard. Then we moved over to park avenue, which is where we're at now, but we were in a different building.
Speaker 3:So it's like the same complex but we moved the building we were in. We only had half of the second floor and then we moved over and now we're at the whole second floor. So that's what I'm saying. Like a lot of people would probably walk into, made well and be like, wow, like you must just be so good at business I mean like I am but it took me a while to get here.
Speaker 1:You know it's grown, it's grown for sure.
Speaker 3:And it's great that it's grown fast. Yeah, I think part of growing is also recognizing opportunity for growth and kind of not being afraid of that.
Speaker 3:I think, too often people will take a backseat to their growth because they look at something like a new office space and they think, oh my gosh, that's so much more money and rent and blah, blah, blah, and they might try to wait on more people in their current office. But then it just becomes hectic, it becomes chaotic. Like you're, you're not able to actually get things done the way you want. So you have to, at some level, take a leap of faith and say, okay, here's what I know I need to grow, here's how many people I know I need to grow. Yada, yada, and let's move over here. We can sustain it with whatever we're at now, but to make it truly sustainable, we'll need these more. You know, many more people or whatever. So, yeah, and then it's just been cool to grow and add in, like the gut health practitioner and health coaches and things like that too. So that's cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, gotta the wholeness. Yeah, you got it all. Gotta bring it all in together, because we can't heal.
Speaker 3:Just one piece, no, no, no. I think something that's interesting as a therapist is we kind of become educators of a lot of different things, like I can't tell you how many people I've had to work with budgeting on you know, or things like that Like not really mental health but but also it affects your mental health.
Speaker 3:Yeah, if you're someone who's going to be chronically financially stressed, it's like, well, hold on, let's talk about it, let's learn, like, what are these barriers, how do you budget? You know all those kinds of things. And so the more I've done that kind of stuff with people, the more I've seen, wow, we really do need to integrate, like mental health and wellness, and then things like our gut health practitioner. I mean, your gut health is so related to your mental health. It's wild and people don't know and people still don't want to recognize that.
Speaker 3:That's kind of what I mean too, with, like primary care providers, just prescribing medication off the jump. It's like, okay, well, hold on. Did you even assess what do they eat for a day? Yeah, I had. If you're this client listening, just think that it's not you, but I had this one client one time.
Speaker 3:Everyone now is like, who is it? Is it me? But I did have a client one time that I had her do like a little journal right, like a tracking of your mood, food, so it kind of connects everything. It's on our website, actually on madewellcenterorg under like resources, yeah. But yeah, you track like time of day, the mood that you're in, external factors, foods that you've just eaten or haven't eaten, or whatever, how much water have you had?
Speaker 3:all kinds of stuff. And it was so interesting because she tracked it for just like five days and I was like, I was like girl, when was the last time you ate a? That's shed, double Like when, yeah? And then all on her thing was Taco Bell, chick-fil-a, some sort of cheeseburger. And I was like, seriously, when was the last time you ate a vegetable? And she legitimately couldn't tell me and I was like. I think this could be part of why you're anxious.
Speaker 1:Yeah, your body needs something.
Speaker 3:Your body is very lacking nutrients right now and you need that to be able to thrive, and so it was something she didn't even really recognize. So it's cool to see Madewell grow and have all these different practitioners that can really address these different things and have health coaches who can walk alongside you and that stuff so that, okay, they're walking alongside you in the health realm with foundations that you need, and also therapists can now walk alongside you in the deep things.
Speaker 3:Let's process that trauma, let's process your relationship, and you're working on these things. So now we're building your capacity for healing so much more.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no that is cool. We ate corn dogs from Cookout recently. Oh, I used to love them. Things Terrible Like it was delicious. So we both like, because we do eat pretty like clean Felt, terrible the next day.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, I'm sure it's like what is even in it. I don't know, I don't know, I don't have a clue. I used to love a corn dog. So good, so good.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I was like oh my gosh, yeah, not it.
Speaker 2:Not a good choice.
Speaker 1:No, it's not, it's probably not worth it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, let's see, I don't think I'll put one down this little.
Speaker 1:Okay, we'll see.
Speaker 3:Two-pan tox bubble.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3:Oh, it was like the same one. I thought I was going to keep on.
Speaker 1:Sometimes, every now and again, they will all stack up on like the same number. Okay, how do you feel like you having some like multiple passions, but I feel like you know it's generally in the wellness realm. How has that benefited, like your business as a whole?
Speaker 3:Just so. How has having multiple passions in wellness Just benefited my business? Yeah Well, I think when you have multiple passions, you're able to learn about a lot of different stuff. Yeah, right, so if you're very passionate about a lot of different things, you're going to listen to a lot of books, read a lot of articles, listen to podcasts, you know all kinds of stuff. To get more information, yeah, and so I just think the more information you get, the more you know, and then the more you know, the more you're able to implement things you know you know, I think that's been just how it's benefited is just my desire to learn and have yeah.
Speaker 3:Just so much information has really helped me say wow, we really do need a gut health practitioner, because these people that we've been dealing with their trauma for, however long, aren't getting as well as we would like for them to get, yeah, so maybe we should help with this other way? Yeah, you know, because they're yeah, it's just interesting how many different things connect. I mean, I've had our gut health practitioner connect things back to a person's trauma and be, like this is when it started right.
Speaker 3:So it's very interesting that kind of stuff, and so, yeah, I think just being multi passionate allows you to learn so much that then you can implement the things you learn and you can grow and you can, you know, do new trainings for your clinicians, or you can teach them things in your team meeting or you know just different things like that.
Speaker 1:Do you feel like, since you have all those services like under essentially one roof, like it's easier for your clients to be like okay, like, yes, I'll take that step towards that, versus like, even if you had to refer it out, like sure, and maybe this is just me being lazy sometimes, but I'm like okay, sweet, yeah, I trust you.
Speaker 2:I'm already here.
Speaker 1:Let's do it versus like oh, I gotta go start a new relationship, and new like you feel like that helps people like, maybe like the beard and tree, or like the acceptance of it versus like, since it's all there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I do think some people for sure benefit from that, because some people, like like you said, are kind of either anxious or they're just like I don't want to have to go do that or whatever.
Speaker 3:And so it definitely helps for us to be able to, you know, be sitting in a session and be like, well, I see Carrie has availability next week. You want me to go ahead and schedule you with her? Yeah, cool. And then, yeah, if they're under one roof and they're nervous about having to divulge all the things again, or something along those lines, you can always say, well, hey, would it be all right if I shared this information with her? Yeah, cool, okay, I'll give her the rundown of what you're dealing with and then, when you all get together, you can get down to some of the nitty gritty, right? So I definitely think it helps in that regard. But also, I think some people are just not going to follow through, even if you recommended it to them every day of the week for the next 365, you know, days, kind of thing they're just not ready. They're just not ready, or they just don't want to, or I think some people well, maybe this is a spicy opinion- oh bring it back.
Speaker 3:But I think some people like to live in their diagnosis, you know, and I think some people like to, some people just like they don't know how to live otherwise.
Speaker 2:Right, because they have lived in that label or that diagnosis for so long that they're kind of like well, what would life be like if I didn't have that, or if I?
Speaker 3:healed from this thing and people are afraid to dream of better. They truly are. That's sad, yeah, but it's true, you know, and so Sometimes we just have to, like, walk alongside them till they're ready, yeah, but yeah, I think that's probably kind of a spicy opinion to people just like to be labeled something yeah like we all want to fit in and belong.
Speaker 2:you know, I get it yeah but also we can heal. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I know and I'll sing, not well, but of us in certain Situation person and I was like I wonder if like the thought of like, because it is work like it's hard, like if just the thought of the work that it would take to get there is like it's easier just to sit and let me inform you of my chaos.
Speaker 3:Bubble theory.
Speaker 1:This what I'm saying might be true Chaos bubble theory. Okay, oh wait, hang on. Is this like a theory you've created? Yes, yes, I think it may be. Here's what I learned about myself.
Speaker 3:I have a lot of theories, and then somebody was either rich enough or smart enough to do like a study or something, and then they put language to it. I'm like, yeah, I had that.
Speaker 1:I knew that I should have done that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so this is my chaos bubble theory. Okay, if you're rich and can do studies out there, don't steal it.
Speaker 3:Invite me into the process. That's all I'm saying. Okay, we're gonna pretend trade market real quick. So chaos bubble, right. On the one hand, you've got things like depression, anxiety, lack of identity, trauma, whatever. Your chaos is right, this is your chaos bubble, okay. Over here, you've got your bubble of things like freedom, joy, love, excitement, adventure, healthy relationships, health in general, whatever that is right. In between, we have this chasm, okay. Now our brain does not. Our brain's Job is to protect us, okay, right.
Speaker 3:So if you've gotten used to this chaos over here, at some level, your brain knows how to deal with that, because, even though it's chaotic by like definition, yeah, your brain is used to it. And your brain says, ah Well, when someone comes home drunk, we know how to deal with that. Right, so we'll just like keep letting that person do their thing will be, you know, offended by it or whatever and we'll just deal and move on. Right. But over here, things like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, junctionness and self-control for the spirit Hello, your brain may not know how to deal with those things, right?
Speaker 3:So your brain says that's kind of scary to go from here to here, like, I don't want to jump. I don't want to cross this chasm right to get to this bubble, and so your brain Inherently will protect you and try to keep you here because it understands it more. Yeah, and so we have to learn how to, like, build the bridge right to get to this chasm over or this bubble over here, so that and we have to speak to our brain so that we can teach and retrain our brain that, hey, like these things are good and they may be scary because we've never experienced them before, but they're good and we need them, you know. So that's kind of like I always love to explain that to clients. You know, because truly, I think that's what a lot of people do is we stay in our chaos bubble because we look at the, the divide might seem so big.
Speaker 3:Yeah you know, versus realizing that we can kind of bring the divide a little closer together than we think. Yeah, just by teaching our brain some new tricks and skills. Yeah, it's interesting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I like it. Trade mark that one day Okay.
Speaker 2:I don't know if you trade mark, theories and the mental health world.
Speaker 3:Whoa. I wanted like a loop up, like here we go.
Speaker 1:Alright, let's see, we'll do this one and then we can hit our our closing questions. Okay what is something about your industry that has surprised you lately?
Speaker 3:Hmm, that has surprised me. I Think it has been surprising to see that. I think a lot of people are starting to lean into the proactive medicine kind of realm of life. Yeah, so that's been a little surprising, just because we have so much going against us with red tape of insurance and all that kind of stuff. I think another surprising thing Um has been how many therapists feel the need to like, get on tiktok, and I'm like do you really need that? Like, do you really?
Speaker 1:got to get on tiktok.
Speaker 3:Just like boost your biz? I don't think so, but you know, maybe, maybe, so people.
Speaker 2:I don't know.
Speaker 3:But yeah, I would say it's been a little surprising how it's a good thing, yeah, but I'm also still surprised by it. Yeah, I still think we have a long, long way to go, but I think it's coming around. I think people are starting to see the value of preventative medicine, yeah, and so hopefully, yeah, you know, we can all kind of hop on the train there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, overall.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, that is cool. I feel like that's, that's a good surprise, mm-hmm, yeah, yeah it was good.
Speaker 3:I'm sure there's some bad ones out there that I'm not thinking about right now, but that's okay.
Speaker 1:Cool. Well, what can people expect from you next? And or made well and or wellness buff all the above.
Speaker 3:Yes all the things I would say from made well center just like a couple little things is we are bringing on another clinician in August. Her name's Stephanie Tucker, so that's exciting. She can see kids, so that's just like a cool thing. And then our health coaches and got health practitioners. You're just building up their practice a little bit more, which is yeah, and then wellness buff you can see some really cool healing intensives coming out.
Speaker 3:So, people are like what is that? Yeah, I'm here to tell you. The healing intensives are really designed for people who kind of want to take a month and a half to two months of therapy and Compress it into a day. Okay, um, because I recently had a experience with a business coach where I got to do that. I got to do a day of like Diving in, talking about barriers, goals, like really sifting through the weeds of everything, and I walked away feeling so good yeah.
Speaker 3:I was like oh yeah, I almost felt like I just dumped out all of my junk and I got to like sort through it and organize it and put in some piles Right.
Speaker 3:So the healing intensives are kind of designed to be that way there for individuals or couples and you can basically Compress, like I said, two months of therapy into a day and we can do some deep dives. We can do some baseline testing maybe on you, if you're an individual, and, yeah, really talk through some of that. And then, if you're a couple, it's really designed for couples who want to connect more.
Speaker 3:Yeah and maybe have some time of groundedness and learning some practical communication skills and then practicing them in office. Yeah, I think the interesting thing about therapy is a lot of times people will do a therapy session, get their skill, get their homework, whatever and then it kind of gets like lost on them right. And so I think doing the healing intensives will be a really cool way to Allow people to practice it in session and really feel what that's like. Yeah, then be like oh Okay, I really can do this at home or I really can apply this when I get home, type of thing.
Speaker 3:So yeah, so the healing intensives are gonna be a fun addition.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think yeah, okay, what is the best way people can get in touch?
Speaker 3:If you are looking for counseling or health coaching, anything like that, definitely reach out to madewellcenter, wwwmadewellcenterorg, or you can email info at madewellcenterorg. And then, if you're interested in a healing intensive, the women's retreat coming up this fall and they can email hello at wellness bufforg.
Speaker 1:Yeah, awesome. Well, thanks again for joining us and, of course, playing our little game and sharing all your good info. Yeah, I'm trying to think what else? I feel like we're good, yeah thank you.
Speaker 3:I appreciate you guys having me on.
Speaker 1:Y'all are obviously watching this on YouTube. Yeah subscribe if you want. If not, no big deal, but you should, and then we'll put links and everything to the website in the show notes. So those are easy for people to access. But yeah, thank you.
Speaker 3:I appreciate it.
Speaker 1:It's good to catch up. Yeah, good to hang. Thanks, yeah.