We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Dr. Mel Krug. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Dr. Mel below.
Alright, Dr. Mel thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. 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?
Even before opening Inspire Life Chiropractic Center, I hit the ground running. I was determined to make connections and serve my community. I started prepping well before graduating chiropractic school. I spent my days (and long nights) planning, prepping, creating, and building a vision for what I imagined would be an epi-center of health and wholeness in my community. We experienced setbacks in our build-out, changes in the management of the space, and moments that felt like near burn-out. Those early days were exhausting, but SO worth it.
Have built my practice from scratch, I constantly filtered everything through not only the vision, but what my ideal client would desire as far as their experience at Inspire Life. From the energy in the office, aesthetics, color, flow, smell, look, and feel, every little detail mattered.
Many people supported me in my early stages and still do to this very day. Others doubted me and wondered if it would even be possible.
My advice to young entrepreneurs – hold strong to your vision, even when challenges arise. These road bumps are part of the experience to teach you and grow you into the powerful person that’s inside. Also, don’t forget to plan. A detailed business plan can serve you well if you’re seeking capital to support your initial launch.
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?
Growing up, I struggled with a variety of health challenges, both physical and emotional. I did not grow up with Chiropractic care and so my method of dealing with ailments was to simply pop some over the counter medication and just “deal with it.” That avoidance of pain and symptoms lead to menstrual cycle dysfunction, immunity issues during the holidays, and big emotional ups and downs in my teenage years.
It wasn’t until I experienced a severe rugby injury that I found myself in a Chiropractor’s office learning all about how the body can truly heal itself when we address the underlying cause of dis-ease and dysfunction.
When I began receiving care for myself in my early 20’s, my low back pain started to dissipate. My menstrual cycles started to re-regulate, I began losing weight, and a mental clarity came over me like I never experienced before. I knew at that moment that this art of healing was my true calling.
Today, Inspire Life serves 100’s of women, men, children, and families every single month. From chronic pain and insomnia, to anxiety and menstrual cycle dysfunction, our unique approach to care, Network Spinal, addresses the underlying cause of bodily healing allowing our practice members to live to their fullest potential in life.
We know and believe that optimal physical, mental, and emotional health is every person’s birthright. We as humans were designed to heal from the inside out and so we hold this vision for each and every one of our clients.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
March 2020 – Current.
For nearly 3 months in the spring of 2020, our business revenue and client load dropped by 50%. We were thankful still to be essential providers when so many others were unable to operate like normal. And so as we teach, we adapted fast and efficiently.
This time period has been one of the most challenging, yet most rewarding in my time as a practitioners and entrepreneur. When the world shut down in 2020, we had to adapt rapidly. We cared for every client even more as an individual and held the space of autonomy and choice for all. From cleaning every table, to rescheduling and offering alternative ways to access us via social media, we went to work. Inspire Life offered online classes such as yoga, workouts, and weekly live streaming videos teaching people how to care for their health from home.
We welcomed all people and all choices, knowing that what mattered most was creating a space of safety and trust. These principles have always been part of our core values, however 2020 really called us into these practices at a deeper level. We updated our clients daily and ensured that we were doing everything in our power to make sure our clients were well taken care of regardless of their personal health decisions.
While the last 2 years have provided many challenges, they have also initiated us into taking a stand for holistic health in our community at a deeper level. Our vision and mission is now stronger than ever, and we can thank COVID for such an initiation to grow.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
What’s helped our reputation the most in our market is being real and authentic with our audience. The Inspire Team and myself are not afraid to share our personal struggle and challenges as well as how we’ve overcome such setbacks. I believe that when your clients can see that you’re a real human being (not just a doctor or influencer), they gain a deeper trust in working with you. I believe this to be true because they can see themselves in a part of you.
Additionally, our approach to health and wholeness is like none other in the industry. We provide a nervous-system first approach to care that’s very gentle and very effective. We’ve been able to open up the eyes of even the biggest skeptics in trusting chiropractic again.
Contact Info:
- Website: inspirelifechirocenter.com
- Instagram: @inspirelifechirocenter
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/inspirelifechirocenter
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-mel-krug-647b3813b/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC65QrhGiThFWiJPGWp4K3-w
- Other: personal instagram: @dr.melkrug
Image Credits
N/a