We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Dr. Courtney Brandenburg. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Dr. Courtney below.
Dr. Courtney, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear the backstory of how you established your own practice.
No one told me that opening a business from the ground up and immersing myself fully as an entrepreneur would be anything short of easy, but they did say it would be damn gratifying when you put in the work.
That is where this beautiful, challenging entrepreneurial story begins.
Hurricane Maria was a category 5 storm that quite literally changed the trajectory of my career and entire life. I was clueless as to how significantly that hurricane would course correct every aspect of what I knew and was planning for the foreseeable future. Maria hit Puerto Rico on September 20th, 2017, a mere three months before I was to graduate from Chiropractic school in Los Angeles and move to Puerto Rico to practice with my (Chiropractor) ex-boyfriend at his office. We were not able to directly communicate for a week after the hurricane and the first words he said to me were “you have to figure out another option for when you graduate.” Less than THREE months before graduation, all of my plans for moving, working and being with the love of my life, at the time, were completely shattered. I was shook, terrified and damn near clueless as to what the heck I was going to do with this Doctor of Chiropractic degree now that all of Puerto Rico had been demolished. That’s when lesson #1 (of 2948239423…and that number continues to increase daily) of my entrepreneurial journey presented itself to me. Always have a plan A, B, C, D, E, and maybe even a plan F. You never know what will be thrown your way that will completely steer you clear of a potential disaster waiting to happen (more on that to come).
So, I got a plan B real quick. The fact that I didn’t fall in love with a tall, tan, muscular California guy shocked everyone who knew me, so there was really no point in staying on the left coast. My Pops always told me I had to “come back east of the Mississippi,” as my family had settled in North Carolina. So, beautiful Charleston, South Carolina it was! Close enough, but also far enough from home, by the ocean, up and coming on all cylinders, and always having a love for it in my heart…that was where I was planting my roots and becoming my own boss.
Dr. Courtney L. Brandenburg finally walked across the stage on December 20th, 2017 in Los Angeles, California as a Doctor of Chiropractic and was a resident of Charleston, South Carolina on February 4th, 2018. The “plan B journey,” if you will, had officially begun. That journey was no walk in the park…it was about to be the most insane ride of my life. My dominant, driven personality started putting in the work to open Connection of Life Chiropractic before I graduated because I wanted to fly out of those gates and serve as many people as possible…I was on FIRE!
A hurricane totally warped my plans and I picked up the pieces to move forward and kick ass…nothing else could possibly go wrong, right? HA! That’s precisely when the never-ending speed bumps in the road started showing up like wildfire…
The South Carolina Board of Chiropractic Examiners somehow lost my transcripts from Los Angeles College of Chiropractic and University of Maryland, which delayed becoming licensed as a Doctor of Chiropractic in South Carolina…how convenient!
The first office space I submitted a LOI for, I got denied…for reasons that I would rather not revisit.
One morning in March I woke up to an alert from Credit Karma saying that my credit score had gone down 136 points OVERNIGHT! Came to find out, someone had stolen my identity months prior and opened an account with my personal information linked to it. That sweet soul charged $5500+ of electronics to the card in my name and obviously never intended to pay for it. That folks, is identity theft at it’s finest. Please be kind, don’t do it, it really screws innocent people’s lives up overnight for a lengthy period of time.
As a result of my identity being stolen, my credit was awful and I was unable to get a business loan until it was all settled through each of the credit bureaus. If you’ve dealt with any of the credit bureaus, you know that is a painstaking and highly unorganized process.
There were a myriad of other events that occurred over the course of those few months that caused my nervous system to be in a constant state of sympathetic overdrive. My adrenals were toast. I was exhausted. I was depressed. I was drained. I felt like I had been mentally and physically beaten to the ground, yet I hadn’t even technically started. More than anything, I did not understand why I was hitting all of these roadblocks. I was not only trying to get my practice off the ground but I was also committed daily to bettering myself on a personal level, eating well, getting adjusted, working out daily…doing all the things. What was I doing wrong? Why was Connection of Life Chiropractic not coming to fruition? Why, why, why?!
April 28th, 2018 I received a call from my Pops while I was in Costa Rica saying my mother had a serious case of the flu and that I needed to come home to North Carolina immediately when I got back into the country. My Dad is a brilliant man and never in my life had I heard him speak with such urgency to come home besides when he told me my Mama had had a stroke a year prior. I was scared.
I will never forget walking into my house that day, my sweet Mama was gray. I knew it wasn’t the flu. Fast forward two days later I had already headed back to Charleston and I got a call from my Dad that he had rushed her to the hospital. She was getting blood transfusions because her hemoglobin had drastically dropped and she was unable to walk.
They needed me home. I left the next morning before sunrise and received another call from my Dad that she was on the oncology floor. It is the call that you never want to get and that rocks your world forever.
Seeing my Mama on the oncology floor at Wesley Long Hospital in Greensboro was something that I wish on no one. Soul shattering. I received a phone call from my realtor that I finally got an offer on an office location. Amidst tears, I declined because my first and greatest patient was now my Mother…my dreams of opening a practice were now on the back burner. She was diagnosed with the most aggressive and progressive form of blood cancer, acute myeloid leukemia (AML).
I now realized why I had hit so many roadblocks with starting my business. God and my family needed me to be my Mother’s caregiver during this sacred time. My Dad had two practices, two of my brothers were still in college and another had a family, the caregiver role was on me and I accepted with gratitude.
Time was of the essence. The cancer had taken over her body. We decided to take the naturopathic route of healing and drove her to Scottsdale, Arizona to receive treatment as she was too weak to fly. A week after being there she had two seizures, was rushed to the ER four times and then admitted to the oncology floor for 39 days. To say she is a warrior that beat the odds every single day is an understatement.
My life during 2018 and 2019 was spent between Scottsdale, Charleston, and Greensboro, caring for my Mother and being the glue for my family.
Fast forward to spring of 2019, my Mother was stable and my Dad gave me the push to follow through with opening my practice. On July 1st, 2019 I opened Connection Health Center in downtown Charleston, South Carolina. What a feat that was! The first week into opening my baby business my Mama was admitted to UNC Hospital and it was a downward spiral from there. On December 19th, 2019 she went to dance with Jesus. Most people with the disease she suffered from live three weeks to three months, we were blessed to have her for 19 months before her entrance into the gates of Heaven.
Within the first eight months of opening my business I lost my Mother and endured a pandemic. Those two challenges alone have taught me that I can truly do anything. Nothing is impossible and that there is only greatness ahead.
I did a full gut renovation and opened my dream office on January 25th, 2021 across from Hampton Park in downtown Charleston. What a journey it has been. I feel gratitude for this path I have been given and the hardships that I have endured. They have prepared me for business in ways I could never imagined. That being said, have clarity and endless certainty in yourself and your abilities. Intestinal fortitude is a pre-requisite as an entrepreneur as this amazing, autonomous path is not for the faint of heart. Always approach situations in a state of flow versus force…when things are forced, that’s the Universe steering you in another direction. Most importantly, no one believes in you and your abilities more than YOU, love yourself and find the challenges as blessings to catapult you to your dreams.
Dr. Courtney, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I always knew I wanted to do something in the field of health and have been getting adjusted since my teenage years. Taking a break after undergrad at The University of Maryland to travel, enjoy my 20’s, and bartend, my Dad sparked the question “what’s next and what are you going to do with your degree.” Enter applying to chiropractic school. Being highly independent from a young age, I knew I would run into problems working for someone else, which is when Connection Health Center (CHC) was born! At CHC we offer corrective chiropractic care, food sensitivity testing, lab testing, spinal exercises, massage therapy, breathwork, and workshops. We have numerous events from yoga, breathwork, meditation, yoga, and deep stretch classes. We provide a vibey, welcoming, and chill environment where our clients feel safe and at home. From the natural light, psychedelic artwork, music, and scents of palo santo…ambiance is everything. I am a firm believer that your environment dictates your state and I feel I have created a really beautiful space for people to open up and heal. I am truly most proud of enduring my Mother passing and the start of a global pandemic within the first eight months of opening my business. That is no small feat but proves that one’s will and drive can move mountains. This is just the beginning for Connection Health Center, we have so many beautiful plans for the future and spreading the love worldwide…stay tuned!
Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?
Having intestinal fortitude, being physically fit, and being able to stand strong towards the medical profession/the haters. Adjusting is HARD WORK. To provide stellar adjustments, you have to be in great physical shape and quite honestly why would you want to take health advise from a doctor who isn’t physically fit? I often think about how I picked probably one of the most challenging professions on the planet. The chiropractic profession is up against the medical model/big pharma every single day. It take a lot of mental strength and will to educate and show people what true health and healing is day in and day out. You must be grounded and have the strength to not let the negativity many uneducated people say about chiropractic to dim your light and truth!
Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?
Profit First by Mike Michalowicz has been a gamechanger for how I manage finaces at Connection Health Center as well as Power vs. Force by Dr. David Hawkins which applies to all aspects of life.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.connectionhealthcenter.com
- Instagram: @drcourbchiro & @connectionhealthcenter
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC84r8ov3ndpgA2XXxzQvgKA