We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Marsha Bradford a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Marsha, thanks for joining us today. One of the most important things small businesses can do, in our view, is to serve underserved communities that are ignored by giant corporations who often are just creating mass-market, one-size-fits-all solutions. Talk to us about how you serve an underserved community.
Diversified Health and Wellness Cares is the 501(c)(3) non-profit branch of DHWC. Our mission is to provide need based low- and no-cost health and wellness services to the greater St Louis community.
The core of our services is mental health counseling, covering a wide spectrum of needs for individuals, couples, and groups. Supplemental services include dietary and nutritional counseling, fitness, reiki, chiropractic, and meditation.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
Owner & Founder, Diversified Health & Wellness Center Owner & Founder, Diversified Counseling
While serving the community since 1995, Marsha has established a non-judgmental and informative view of those in need. She works with individuals, groups and couples to help them attain a better, more centered life while helping to educate them on relaxation skills, self improvement techniques and greater overall mental and physical health. Marsha focuses on the whole person and not on diagnoses or disorders. She has worked in the mental health field for over 23 years and has an extensive knowledge in metal health medicine and mental health issues.
Marsha has been working with the LGBT community for 20+ years. Being a public advocate and friend provides better understanding and education with LGBT issues and needs.
Do you have any stories of times when you almost missed payroll or any other near death experiences for your business?
Back in 2019, even though our business hadn’t fully matured to what it is now, we found our feet financially, and were contemplating our next steps. Unfortunately, we had a small group of providers who were not happy with the direction in which we were heading, among them some long time collaborators and some who I also considered friends. Just after Thanksgiving, all six people gave notice and decided to go into business with each other, including one who was in breach of contract and stiffed us the money she owed. Several of these staff also had supervisees under their wing, so we also lost another eight staff. With the mass exodus, another handful of staff left as well. All told, about 45% of our revenue stream vaporized overnight. As we were mulling how to proceed, and seriously contemplating closing shop, the pandemic hit. As awful as that was on so many levels, it actually jump started our business, and we’ve been steadily progressing in the direction we had hoped!
How’d you meet your business partner?
My cofounder and I met as a result of one of my supervisees. She was nannying for his kids at the time, and he had given her a pair of Garth Brooks tickets that he wasn’t able to use. So, she took me to the concert, and I asked how she had gotten the tickets. She told me about him, told me he was a swell guy, and gave me his number to reach out. I had just enough liquid courage to text him and we hit it off both personally (he’s now my husband) and as business partners. He encouraged me to pursue my expanded dream and has put in the sweat equity right along with me.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.diversifiedhwc.com/
- Instagram: @diversifiedhwc
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Diversifiedhealthandwellness/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company-beta/15242736/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/diversifiedhwc