We recently connected with Ayanna Quamina and have shared our conversation below.

Ayanna, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about how you went about setting up your own practice and if you have any advice for professionals who might be considering starting their own?

I’ve been practicing naturopathic medicine for about 15 years, mostly as a part-time practitioner in various integrative clinics. My time at each location taught me a lot, both about health care as well as about the intricacies of running a business – a person can be a fantastic doctor, but a horrible business owner. About mid-2017 I created an LLC and started seeing patients on my own while still working as an independent consultant at a clinic. I didn’t have any particular business goals at the time, but but mainly started it to have a bit more autonomy over how I treat, price, and bill. Fast forward to 2019 when the pandemic hit, and I the clinic I was working in at the time was taking longer than I’d liked to move from in-person to virtual. I’d already set myself up to be fully digital and had a relatively robust patient base, so I made the scary leap to Indigo Wellness full time.

It’s been an insane journey since then, and I continue to learn new things every day. One of the most impactful things I’ve learned recently has to do with focus. I’ve found that I do much better when I focus internally on the quality of my service instead of outwardly trying to search and find my customer. If my service performs at a high level and surpasses patient expectations, they in turn tell their circles about me, and my business grows on its own merit.

Business owners tend to instinctually pay a lot of focus and attention outwardly – on selling the product or service so they can bring in sales and make a profit. I fell into this pattern as well, and found myself getting frustrated about the lack of connections I was making. After spending some time in quiet reflection I was inspired to try re-centering my focus back to the reason why started the business in the first place = helping my patients regain their wellness and vitality. If your service is impeccable, then your people will find you.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am a Naturopathic Physician – a segment of the health care industry that is trained to focus on the core/root cause of a patient’s concerns vs the symptoms they are currently experiencing. We utilize the least invasive forms of treatment first then move progressively deeper as needed, and also take the full body into consideration when dealing with rebalancing a condition.

For example; let’s say that a patient comes to me for help with improving their glucose or A1C numbers. Instead of starting off immediately with a medication, I’ll take some time during an in-depth intake to learn more about her as a person and help understand why the glucose values are off in the first place – is it simply her food intake or maybe something more, like her overall relationship with food, how her specific body metabolizes food, the health of her digestive system, or maybe something seemingly unrelated but actually connected like the status of her hormones, stress, or sleep. After additional lab work and/or physical exams, I’d then create a full spectrum plan to include areas like diet, sleep, movement, and self care in addition to pinpointed nutraceuticals = all specialized with her particular needs and lifestyle in mind.

We are a small but growing industry, but the tools and approach have been around longer than the conventional medical options most people think of when they think about a doctor. And yes, we are doctors – I attended a fully accredited medical school, had to pass clinical boards, and have a state and national governing organization I have to adhere to, as well as yearly continuing education required to complete in order to maintain my practicing status.

Finding my way to this style of medicine was very much a winding journey. Much like other MDs my story starts out knowing at a young age that I wanted to be a doctor. However, after interviewing a number of practicing docs while doing pre-med research, they all were very upfront about the difficulties they were experiencing and suggested I find another path, since I’d shared that I wanted to be a doctor in order to heal. Taking their advice to heart, I put my dreams of health care to the side and moved from Oakland to Los Angeles to pursue a career in music; my second love. This also didn’t last long – after about 3 years working in A&R and Licensing I’d learned how terrible the industry treats their artists and found myself at another crossroads.

I distinctly remember sitting in my cubicle at EMI/Universal contemplating the direction of my life, doing a deep-dive internet search. Medicine was still calling to me, but I knew it wasn’t quite what I was looking for. I was also drawn to alternative forms of healing, but it was important to me that the program I entered produced a degree vs a certificate. I was there for hours, getting closer to connecting the dots until I finally found Naturopathic Medicine. It matched everything that I was looking for = their approach to medicine matched my values, and they also provided an in-depth clinically-based program. I was sold and immediately made plans to apply to one of the regional schools.

It was a very difficult road, full of long nights, pain, marriage, two births, and divorce. Practicing as an ND is a unique and constantly giving profession – I absolutely love what I do. I love to see my patients get better, get empowered about their own bodies, and move on to live out their lives from fully vital point of view. It has repeatedly stretched me beyond my perceived limits, and I would also choose it again and again.

If you could go back, would you choose the same profession, specialty, etc.?

I touched on this a bit in the previous prompt, but I would choose my profession again and again. I’ve never questioned this career path and am constantly fed from treating patients with my style of training and education. The way I get to take my time with my patient, get to listen to their concerns without needing to check the clock or juggle between multiple patients, I get to slow the pace down to educate them about their own body. I get to allow them to ask questions or address their concerns at their comfort level. I get to decide what labs to get done in order to gain additional information I deem important, or even what the patient would like to learn more about (with some guidance, because labs can also be misleading or give too much information). I also get to choose what to provide in terms of treatment, and include each patient into taking an active part in each stage, so they understand the direction and expected outcome. I love it all.

Now, because life is all about balance, there are a number of areas that I don’t enjoy as much. I don’t think any profession is completely rainbows and sunshine and there is always going to be things to contend with no matter what we choose. Dealing with the daily administrative duties can be burdensome, and since I own my own company I can be doing something around it no matter the time or day = entrepreneurship is literally a 24 hour 365 endeavor. There are no days off unless I create them, and that takes additional work and planning away from running the business itself. So it’s very easy to burn myself out, and I have to consistently self-check to make sure I block out time for restoration; a constant work in progress.

The fact that I’ve chosen a path that is away from the conventional world of health care has its own snags. I have to do a lot of education about it being a trusted and effective form of medicine, both with patients and other practitioners. It can be a lonely world since we don’t fully fit into conventional nor alternative modalities. More recently, I’m finding a post-covid world of mainly social media-fuled short attention spans, full of immediate returns and overall increased pace of life has made it tricky for people to comprehend an idea of a preventative, slower form of health care. So although I still very much love what I do I’m finding I need to adjust my messaging to fit the audience that needs it.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I believe that any successful entrepreneur has had to pivot multiple times in their life. I’d go further to say that entrepreneurship is mostly about pivoting – life is about change, and it’s essential to continue to learn what and how things like social and fiscal environments, innovation, consumer perspectives have evolved in order to remain relevant.

I’ve mentioned a couple of times that I’ve pivoted in my past; from pivoting from becoming an MD to finding Naturopathic Medicine, and how I’m currently in a state of pivot to better serve my patient base. I had a rather large unforeseen pivot when I decided to relocate to Minnesota from California after medical school.

When I originally decided to start med school I’d planned to move back home to the Bay Area, where I had a base of people that were both familiar with me as a person as well as Naturopathic Medicine, or were at least more familiar with unconventional forms of healing. What I didn’t anticipate was meeting and falling in love with someone who was from an area I had literally never even thought about, and had no clue what they knew about my style of medicine. I’ve now lived in Minnesota for over a decade and even though consumer demand for alternative medicine has started to grow, it was nowhere close to a typical Californian’s understanding when I first arrived.

This meant I had to drop the expectations I had for how I was going to present my offerings; the style of messaging, the price point, the treatment pacing all had to change drastically to fit the population I was seeing vs who I’d been planning on seeing for the past 4-6 years. I had to learn the culture and position myself in a way that felt comfortable and approachable, yet also respectable and trusted – and as the only Black ND in the state this was no easy feat. I sought out and aligned myself with the state association and joined the board of directors so I could have a first hand account of how things were done in the area. I met with multiple NDs that were practicing in a way that felt similar to my approach. I asked a lOT of questions, and circled back for more questions when I needed clarification. I also listened a LOT – to what the surrounding community was talking about, what was important to them, and abut their communication styles.

I’m still a fast-paced Californian at heart, and will flex my sarcasm, quick wit and sharp tongue at times. I’ve also learned to adopt a slower, softer, quieter approach to my practice, and have Minnesotans to thank for that.

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.indigobringsbalance.com
• Instagram: Indigobringsbalance
• Facebook: Ayanna N Quamina, ND
• Linkedin: Ayanna N Quamina, ND