We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jenna Valentine a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jenna, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Do you take vacations? How do you keep things going – any advice for entrepreneurs who feel like they can’t step away from their business for a short vacation?

ABSOLUTELY! My clients love that I take exceptional care of myself because it means that I am able to show up for them in deeper and more meaningful ways. Taking vacations rejuvenates me and helps me keep my metaphorical cup so full that it naturally overflows for the benefit of all those I work with. Vacations also allow me time to learn about new places and cultures, which gives me more connection points with both current and future clients. If I am preaching about self care, but not taking care of myself, I’m doing it wrong. Vacations are a nonnegotiable!

Jenna, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Like most interesting stories, it was a windy and weird path that led me to my current life and most of it is due to my mom. I was raised by a single mother who questioned the Western medical model. Part of this was we didn’t have a lot of extra money to throw at medical interventions, part of this was because her journey with sobriety made her question all exogenous substances, and part of this was because my mother is a very intelligent woman. Headaches meant water and cool cloths – not a pill, our liquid medicine for coughs was tea, sugar was essentially banned from our household, and we got a second opinion for any suggested medical intervention. My mother was also incredibly religious in a way that didn’t work for me, so I ‘rebelled’ by studying Buddhism and Daoism in high school. This introduced me to acupuncture which I thought was absolutely absurd at the time. Like, WHO WOULD PAY SOMEONE TO STAB THEM WITH NEEDLES?!?!?! While I loosely pondered alternate religions -and rebelled further with candy bars – I followed my mother’s passion for helping at-risk youth and began a career in the child welfare/juvenile justice system. Acupuncture was always a subtext in my life and I finally got up the courage to try it in college. I was immediately obsessed, but had already labeled myself as ‘the girl who works with vulnerable youth,’ so I continued pursuing my career and benefitting as a recipient of acupuncture. Years later, I had a daughter (who was induced with acupuncture) and I became a stay-at-home mom since the child welfare world doesn’t pay enough to cover child care costs. Being pregnant and having a baby pushed me further into holistic and complementary medicines where I became more convinced that working WITH the body was a far better strategy than fighting AGAINST the body. Fast forward several years, and I was lucky enough to have a surprise divorce completely capsize my life. It gave me the opportunity to reevaluate all the assumptions I’d made about myself and, in a quintessential ‘light bulb’ moment, I knew I needed to become the person who offered the medicine I was so deeply obsessed with. I was enrolled in acupuncture school immediately and have never looked back.

In addition to providing acupuncture, I also provide facial microneeding, cupping therapy, tuina, Chinese herbs, supplements, and many other modalities. I’ve incorporated intimacy coaching as an option for clients who seek to be more integrated in their relationships with both themselves and others. I also created a deck of Aggressive Self Care Cards to provide a resource for people who want to be bossed around to take better care of themselves, but with lots of love behind it. Soon, I will have a book available on mantras to make this form of meditation more accessible to ‘everyday’ people. I also have custom guasha tools, a supplement line and facial serums.

I’ve found that one of my favorite parts of this ‘job’ is helping people learn how they can incorporate health and wellness into their everyday lives. Even small changes can reap massive rewards. This passion has extended into public speaking where I get to help corporations and groups learn about relatable wellness with pragmatic and practical health tips.

I’d love for people to know how much I love what I do. There are no ‘mondays’ in my world and I would be thrilled to help more people along their wellness journey.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Oof. I have had to unlearn my narrative that you have to struggle in order to deserve money. I love what I do and it feels so fun that at times it has felt ‘wrong’ to get paid for it. I am so happy with my work that it would be easy to do it for free and, yet, I have had to learn that the energy exchange is important to maintain balance. The energy of my time, knowledge and skillset in exchange for the energy of money is essential to ensuring there is a respected equilibrium. I sometimes have to remind myself that just because it feels easy now, there were countless hours and years and dollars spent on getting to this “easy” point. My empath heart wants to give everything away, but I have had to tap into my business savvy heart and the more meta understanding that money is just one form of energy. My clients are happy to give me this in exchange for what I give them and it keeps our relationship a true partnership where we are both active participants.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

Hands down the best source of new clients is word of mouth. I have the absolute coolest clients in the world and they refer other incredibly cool people to me and I feel like the luckiest person in the world. All I have to do is live an active and interesting life where I meet a lot of people and then people from these various circles will eventually come in for an appointment. They tell their friends, coworkers, lovers, family, etc and I get to meet an extended family of amazing people. Obviously, I also need to be good at what I do, which I take very seriously, and am constantly seeking out more ways to learn how to help people and be more effective in my role. My clients know that I am in their corner. They know that I care deeply about them and I aim to be as accessible as possible in between appointments. I’m the practitioner that will send a client a link to. a podcast with a text that says “I thought about you at min 42.” In a world of rushed medical appointments and dismissive doctors, I think my clients are grateful for my attentiveness and love, which they in turn want to share with their loved ones. It is such an honor to be trusted to see someones grandma or father or child and these word of mouth referrals mean the absolute world to me.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.valentinecare.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/valentinecarewellness/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ValentineCareWellness/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenna-valentine-08027b111
• Youtube: bit,ly/valentinecaretips
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/valentine-care-west-lake-hills

Image Credits
Jarod Kennedy