Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jackie Beck. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Jackie, thanks for joining us today. Is there a heartwarming story from your career that you look back on?

The work we do with kids involves some very specific physical exercises and some specialized equipment that they wear while they are with us three times a week. Not all kids are open to the process … at first. This is the story of one of those kids, Landon.

When Landon came to me, he was eight years old and his brain age was between 18 months and 3 years old. He had so many behavioral issues, the family never went out to dinner together, never went to the movies, never really did anything as a family. To complicate matters, Landon would never go to the bathroom anywhere except the bathroom at the community pool. He was reluctant to do anything, saying “I hate you. You want me to do things and I don’t want to do things.” He always went to bed at night swaddled in a thunder blanket.

For a little while, he carried a large stuffed animal with him named Stuffy and the three of us, Landon, Stuffy, and I would spend most of our sessions under the table. At first, we got nothing done. After a few sessions, we got one or two things done. I was able to get Landon geared up by gearing up Stuffy and, eventually, we started getting more and more exercises done. As we progressed through the program, there were small changes, but the first big one came a couple of months into the program when Landon told his mom he didn’t need the thunder blanket. Mom was shocked and Landon told her that maybe she could lay it next to him in case he needed it. He never used it again.

After a few months, Landon started excelling in school. He would go to the bathroom in his home or wherever they happened to be. The family was able to go out to dinner, the movies, even on vacation … without issues. At the end, Landon was a typical, cuddly, eight-year-old boy.

Jackie, 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 started my journey to where I am today many years ago when I took leadership training with Mary Morrisey. Those leadership and coaching skills became the foundation for the next chapters in my life.

Fast forward a few years and I became interested in holistic medicine to promote health and healing. My many certifications in some of those healing arts led to the creation of Healing Combinations, a company dedicated to providing natural remedies to those in need.

While building Healing Combinations, I also took a greater interest in my health. In addition to my regular running schedule, I started attending CrossFit, which later led to adult and kids coaching certifications.

While at a CrossFit competition, I was asked to create a healthy protein bar. With that success Tribal Treats was founded to provide healthy protein-based treats to athletes and others with a desire to live their best lives.

More than eight years ago, I started another chapter in my life working with kids with neurological issues such as ASD, ADHD, Dyslexia, etc. It wasn’t long before I began following and learning from experts in the field such as Dr. Robert Melillo, Dr. Peter Scire and others.

It was through my work with these experts that I decided to create NeuroFiT Connections, combining Neurology and Fitness, to develop the program we use today based primarily on the work of Dr. Robert Melillo. It combines the best holistic tools in the world backed by science and research with the latest fitness techniques to solve the root cause of developmental delays.

Now NeuroFiT Connections combines all of my knowledge and skill to solves today’s most challenging health issues such as Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia, and more. To date, we have 100% success in meeting the reasonable goals set forth for our students.

I am passionate about helping kids live their best lives and I feel the best way to do that is to understand how the brain works and what causes the mental health challenges they face, then developing custom solutions to get them caught up to their peers.

Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?

My husband calls me a “kid whisperer” because I have this ability to get to a kid’s level and speak to them where they are. I think that it is so important to meet kids where they are and bring them up instead of dragging them down. It is even more important when working with kids with developmental delays.

You can often hear me saying “There are no bad kids” and sometimes I’ll add the rest, which is “only bad behaviors”. In the work we do correcting the root cause of Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia, and the like, we often have parents tell us that their kids are doing things they’ve never done before. Some of that is good, some not so much. It’s a temporary condition called “Emerging Function”, which means a child’s brain is growing and changing. During that time, we see good and what we would call “bad behavior”.

As a parent, we tend to want to say to our child “You know better” … except they don’t. They are not bad kids. They are just exhibiting bad behavior. We want to parent the behavior, meaning we want to tell the child the behavior is not something we do.

I believe that one of my gifts, one that has helped me succeed, is that I can meet children where they are and get them to do things others can’t as a result of being on their level.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your firm or practice?

While I’ve been working with kids to correct the root cause of issues like ADHD, Autism, and Dyslexia for more than eight years, I didn’t always run my own company. And while I’ve owned several companies over the years, including house cleaning, alterntive medicine, and healthy treats, I didn’t have any aspirations of starting another company.

I was happy working for a franchise and then the corporate office of another company. But as I learned more about the Melillo Method® and began training directly under Dr. Robert Melillo, I discovered that he was doing the research to better serve the population of kids we do and that he had better tools and techniques to get better results. His passion, knowledge and dedication inspired me to venture out on my own.

When I told my husband that I wanted to start my own company working with kids, he was supportive and encouraging. We took the cash value from our life insurance policies, a loan from our 401K, the money we had from savings, and the extra money from refinancing our house and dumped it all into the business.

Some of that money went into the equipment required to work with the kids we work with. Some went into the office furniture. Some went into the services we needed; website, social media, direct mail, bookkeeping, accounting, and so much more.

I am amazed at what it takes to start and run a company today. Fortunately, we had savings, money in life insurance and our 401K to fund the business.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://neurofitconnections.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/neurofitconnections/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/neurofitconnections
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/neurofit-connections?trk=public_post_feed-actor-name
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/NeurofitConnect
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@NeuroFitConnections
• Yelp: https://www.instagram.com/neurofitconnections/