Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Crissy Fishbane & Cindi Michaelson. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Crissy Fishbane , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

When we first met we quickly realized that even though we were at different stages of motherhood, we faced many of the same struggles.

I (Crissy) suffered severe postpartum anxiety after the birth of my daughter. I felt as if I was constantly walking around with adrenaline coursing through my veins, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Suddenly, daily chores felt like Herculean tasks and even the smallest setback felt catastrophic. The meager one-page intake form given at my 6-week postpartum check-up failed to get me the support I so desperately needed. The truth is that I have always been a good test taker and felt that this was a test I shouldn’t “fail.” Without even thinking about it, I answered in a “safe way.” I assumed that, if I let anyone know how much I was struggling, I would be viewed as a failure and perhaps even as an “unfit” mother.

Since Cindi’s children are a bit older, the challenges she was facing at that time were different. She found herself growing frustrated as she worked to advocate for the needs of her daughter’s anxiety and learning struggles while also attending to her own mental health and self care. Both the medical arena and school system were complex, leaving her uncertain as to where to go for help. She felt insecure and overwhelmed as she navigated Google searches that produced thousands of results, not all of which were trustworthy. Her frustration grew as each doctor gave her a different diagnosis and ultimately filled her mind with more questions than when she started. To top it off, she was disappointed when she faced a school system that didn’t want to hear her concerns. Cindi truly felt lost as to how she could best support her daughter and didn’t know where to turn.

We both felt frustrated, lonely, overwhelmed, and exhausted. We immediately developed a strong bond and appreciated feeling understood by a fellow mom. In addition to motherhood, we had also connected over our previous careers in wellness, having served as personal trainers and health coaches. Through this past work, we had collectively spoken with hundreds of moms and recognized that the gap in care was a universal theme of the postpartum experience. We realized that countless women were navigating motherhood with an inadequate support system.

We felt driven to do something. We knew women were being underserved by the current system. Mothers were slipping between the cracks, forced to seek answers on their own, and navigate a disparate system of care without access to the village of support often enjoyed by previous generations. We saw a need to provide real support for the mothers in this country and set out to build a system that would better serve them. Thus, HER Health Collective was born.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

HER Health Collective has a three-pronged approach to serving moms. The first key component is our resource network. This includes our expert panel, library of vetted content, and award-winning podcast, Mama Needs a Moment all of which provide moms easy access to trusted information and resources.

The second key component is our supportive and welcoming community, called HER Circle. This community was thoughtfully and intentionally designed to help moms build authentic and genuine relationships with other mothers. We host a variety of events every month to give moms opportunities for self-care, friendship, connection, and fun.

We know that if a mom is armed with these two key components – trusted knowledge and a supportive community – she can conquer any challenge.

The third and final component is our advocacy work. We found that moms want to feel a part of something bigger than themselves and find ways to give back to their community. We offer moms unique opportunities for fundraising, charity work, and advocating for causes that are important to mothers.

HER Health Collective, and specifically HER Circle, provides trustworthy resources and a warm and welcoming community for moms that feel lonely and have a deep longing for genuine friendships. We offer the village of support that previous generations once enjoyed. Our community is unlike any other mom group we have come across. It is a judgment-free zone and we work hard to set that tone in all we do.

Without a doubt, the most rewarding part of founding HER Health Collective has been getting a front-row seat to all the authentic friendships that have formed between the moms in our community. We ourselves have made lifelong friendships and built an incredible network of support for our families. We know the work we are doing each day matters. It’s making a difference in hundreds of parents’ lives and in turn impacting children and our community at large. That is incredibly rewarding.

We are proud of the growth our small business has experienced in three years’ time. We have received immense support from the community and we are honored that we’ve been able to create so many fruitful partnerships with fellow business owners in the Raleigh area and beyond. We are incredibly proud of the HER community, and the work we put into building it.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

When we initially began dreaming up HER Health Collective, we were actually working with two additional people. They were both pelvic floor physical therapists and together we had created an entire pilot program to help moms heal diastasis recti. After the conclusion of our pilot program, both of the pelvic floor PTs gently let us know they were unable to continue with the business venture due to personal and professional obligations.

We were absolutely devastated. We had put so much energy into this program. We were both fully invested and ready to give the business our whole hearts. We took some time to lick our wounds and then started over from scratch.

We let go of the idea of needing to develop an offering based on our professional background in fitness. Instead, we asked ourselves: what is it we are most passionate about.? What struggles have we heard about from moms over and over again? What is the real need here? How can we serve moms who are suffering like we had been?

As we thought about those questions, our passion was reignited. HER Health Collective was born from our minds and hearts as we sat at coffee shops and in one another’s living rooms. We dreamed and brainstormed, sending entirely too long midnight text messages, and having lengthy phone calls filled with excitement, tears, and laughter.

We put everything we had into creating HER Health Collective, and it worked! It was like a snowball rolling down a hill. As it gained traction, it got bigger and bigger and eventually took on a life of its own. In many ways, HER Health Collective has become its own entity, though we remain its faithful stewards guided by our original vision of building a supportive community and resource hub for moms.

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

We held our soft-launch event in October 2019 with a great deal of community support and a wonderful turnout. It was enthralling!

We then officially launched our membership-based community and the resources on our website in January 2020, three months before the world would essentially shut down due to the global pandemic. Our initial launch had promised members a multitude of fun in-person events to attend every month so they could meet other moms, and all of a sudden we couldn’t provide one of our core offerings.

We had to pivot fast and hard. Beginning in March 2020 we hosted 5 virtual events a week. From virtual playdates to expert workshops and conversation circles, we were working overtime to make sure the moms in our community still had a place to connect with one another.

It was incredibly challenging to keep the events fresh and the moms engaged while still fulfilling our obligations to our expert panelists to share content, maintain a website, etc. Yet, somehow we did it.

As the world slowly opened back up we again pivoted to socially-distanced events. We have now come full circle and are again hosting in-person events, though we still have 3-4 virtual events a month as we have welcomed moms from other states to our community.

All the hard work and pivoting paid off. The moms in our community were exceedingly grateful for the opportunities we offered for fun and connection. We gained intensely loyal members and word of mouth has been our main avenue of growth.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://herhealthcollective.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/her_healthcollective/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HERHealthCollective
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/crissyfishbane/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/HER_HealthCo
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrljXEGfWv2EC1pBW-SU-Tg
• Other: HER Circle Waitlist: https://waitlist.herhealthcollective.com/hercircle

Image Credits
Crystal Gift Crissy Fishbane