We recently connected with Dr. Sarah Duke, DC and have shared our conversation below.
Dr. Sarah, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Was there a defining moment in your professional career? A moment that changed the trajectory of your career?
I knew that I was meant to work with infants and small children the day my third child was born. A few months before she was born, I had taken my first infant adjusting class, and I learned a chiropractic technique that was very similar to other massage techniques I had done in the past using sustained holds. Fast forward to the moments after birth, I realized through a hormonal rush of adrenaline within myself that this baby was not thriving at birth. She seemed to be struggling to breath even though we allowed for delayed cord cutting to get her oxygenated blood in her body. This baby was very purple and I was scared. The first thing I did was pull out those new skills that I had learned knowing that C1 (the very first bone of the spine) was possibly compressing the nerves that fed into her breathing centers. I placed an index finger on both sides of her atlas bone, and I immediately noticed that it was shifted to the left. Without really trying, the bone shifted between my fingers with 3 tiny clicks, and my baby came to life before my eyes taking a big breath of air followed by several more. This purple baby pinkened up within seconds and I could see the blood running into her fingertips. I already knew how powerful the adjustment was prior to this experience, but this opened my eyes to how meaningful this work can be. I have watched countless people walk out of our clinic with control over thier lives again, which they previously did not have. Our mission is to change lives one spine at a time, and we get to that every day. It is pretty magical.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My husband Shane and I worked in the spa industry as massage therapists for over a decade, and we were totally burned out from our jobs. In 2010, we took a trip to Hawaii after our second child was born to rejuvenate from the hustle and bustle of life, but little did we know at the time, we really went to have an awakening. Shane wanted to find us an authentic Hawaiian Lomi Lomi massage while we were there away from the big commercial spas, so we drove to this shack at the base of a mountain closer to the interior of O’ahu. Here we met a Hawaiian Kumu who did an ancient bone setting technique on us that had been passed down from his ancestral line followed by a lomi lomi massage from one of his students. This entire experience changed the trajectory of our lives. On the flight home, we started to plan for opening Austin Community Wellness, which happened in 2017. I prepared for and went to chiropractic school after this trip, and Shane got formally trained in Lomi Lomi and craniosacral therapy. The entire experience reignited our drive and passion for bodywork and giving people thier lives back on a much more personal and clinical level. We now offer chiropractic, massage, infrared sauna and a mechanical massage chair at our clinic.
Can you talk to us about how your funded your firm or practice?
Shane and I both worked 3 jobs when we opened our business to fund both the business and our personal life, and we used our savings to buy a couple of pieces of equipment that we needed. We started out renting space hourly to keep our overhead as low as possible, and we were able to use the tables and equipment that was already there. After the first 5 months of working, I was able to cut out one of my side jobs, and I kept growing our practice by doing chair massage at corporate gigs through my friend’s company and doing massage on Saturdays. At our 2 year mark, we had completely outgrown the hourly rental place, and we were starting to lose money because we couldn’t book enough appointments. At that point, Shane and I moved to a 500 sq ft space, then we added a 300 sq ft space in the same building, and very recently we upgraded to an almost 1,500 sq ft space in that same building. We have not had huge success obtaining funding for our business, so we have had to grow through personal savings and small loans from friends and family along the way.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
In the last 6 years, we have really struggled to get funding to grow our business because both of us are self employed. I have talked to many friends who have been able to get loans to grow thier businesses, and I have found that those who are most successful in getting loans have a spouse who has a full time job, or that individual had a full time job at the time of getting the loan. This is not to say that we haven’t had opportunities to get into a loan shark situation with impossibly high interest rates and extremely short payment terms that render the entire loan useless in my opinion, but I’m talking about a favorable business loan with a good interest rate and reasonable terms. Since funding has always been scarce and unfavorable for us, this has forced our business to grow organically, and it keeps us from getting bigger than what we currently can handle. Each step up brings new challenges, expenses and revenues that are always unexpected, so growing a business within our means has been crucial to our success.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.austincommunitywellness.com
- Instagram: @austincommunitywellness
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AustinCommunityWellnessClinic
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/AusCmtyWellness
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@AustinCommunityWellness
- Yelp: https://m.yelp.com/biz/austin-community-wellness-austin