We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kaley Decker a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Kaley, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.
I knew I wanted to be an acupuncturist when I was 17 years old. I have taken many risks to make that dream possible. My first risk was moving 17 hours away from everything I knew to attend school in Florida and obtain my masters degree. It was financially risky to take out so many loans. It was emotionally risky to be in a state without knowing one person. It was risky for my future to go into a field so unknown. But, I was determined and failure wasn’t an option. I graduated as the youngest student from the East West College of Natural Medicine and moved back to my hometown to start my own business, which was even riskier than the first step of pursuing my dream. I lived in a small town where there was already one acupuncturist practicing. I put all of my heart and money into starting a business not knowing the outcome. But one thing I had learned was to trust in myself. Trust the plan God had for me. Trust in my abilities. Trust in my determination. Yes, the success of my business did rely on others. It was out of my control. It was risky, but it was my dream and I was determined. I had a choice to be fearful and think about all of the things that could go wrong: No one will come to me. No one knows what acupuncture is. My town is too small for two acupuncturists. I will lose all the money I invested. OR I had the choice to trust. So I trusted, believed, and prayed and it payed off. My business thrived. My one treatment room has since flourished into 8 treatment rooms. I have 6 employees and am actively living my dream. Because I took a risk. Because I trusted. Because I was determined. Because I didn’t let fear get in the way of pursing my dream. Because I didn’t give up.
Kaley, 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?
I grew up in a family of nurses and knew I was drawn to the healthcare field at a young age. I injured my back running cross country in high school and tried many conventional medical solutions without success. Finally, I tried acupuncture and couldn’t believe that it helped my pain. I was immediately intrigued and started researching everything I could about this medicine. The more I learned the more I was drawn to it. At 17, I decided I wanted to be an acupuncturist so I could share this amazing medicine and help others. After going away to college, I moved back to my hometown to pursue my dream in helping others. I started my own business in 2011 and quickly learned there was a large need for other integrative health options in our town. So I slowly started expanding my practice. In 2023, I officially transitioned my acupuncture business into a full integrative healthcare center, Flourish Integrative Health. In addition to acupuncture, we now offer massage therapy, IV nutrition therapy, vitamin injections, detox foot baths, infrared sauna therapy, cold laser therapy, IPL laser aesthetic skin treatments, and cupping therapy. We work with our patients to create customized treatment plans integrating a variety of practitioners and therapies. We are also honored to serve our Veterans. We have two community care providers that are able to provide services to our Veterans and no cost to them! Our professional team of providers, including a nurse practitioner, RNs, massage therapists, acupuncturist, and naturopath, boasts over 70 years of combined medical expertise. Our services offer relief from pain, stress, fatigue, digestive disorders, and so much more! When patients walk in our door, they become family.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
I saved for 10 years to be able to finally purchase an office building. In January of 2020 I spent every dime I had, took a risk, and purchased an office building. I had big dreams of adding additional services and I knew my dreams could grow in this office. I had my grand opening in march of 2020 and my office was shut down due to Covid April 26, 2020. I had doubled my expenses, had no savings, had employees I still had to pay, and had to homeschool my kindergarten son. I had overcame challenges in the past, but this seemed almost impossible. Thankfully, I live in a small town. Our community rallied around local businesses. My commercial banker, Scott Utt, at first Vincennes savings bank reached out to me and told me about the SBA ppp loan that was available. I was able to receive enough help from the ppp loan to pay my employees and keep from going under. It was a long, hard year for everyone, myself included. I was able to come back at 50% capacity by the fall and 100% by spring of 2021. However, due to the financial strain, I couldn’t launch any additional services yet. Finally, after building business back up, in April of 2023, I was able to launch several new services. I transitioned my office into a full integrative health office and was able to add 2 new employees. We have continued to flourish since then. I could have given up. I wanted to give up some days. But my resilience paid off in a big way for my business, my community, and my patients. I knew God had a plan for me and I was faithful in pursuing that dream.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
We are always told about “work/life balance.” Our work life and home life should be in balance: 50/50. Anyone who owns a business knows this is not true. Most of the time as business owners we feel like we are never giving enough to our home life, ourselves, or our businesses no matter how in balance we try to be. A few years ago I had a mentor explain work/ life balance to me differently and it changed my perspective dramatically.
She said work/ life balance is not something that we create or do. It is something that happens organically just as a scale operates. It will always ebb and flow. If you are in a season of giving 70% to your business by starting a new project or working late, it will automatically take time away from your home life and yourself. Sometimes home life will need more of your attention and you give 50%. You may need 35% for yourself and your business may only receive 15%. Very rarely will the balance be equal.
The hardest part of this concept is to not feel guilty for where your time is going. I had to unlearn that my life was going to be an equal balance of giving to myself, my family, and my business. I relearned that the scale will change, move, reposition frequently and that is okay. Every entrepreneurs scale looks differently. You have to accept that you won’t be equally balanced in each aspect of life, but that doesn’t mean you are failing. It means you are blessed enough to be able to have so many important areas of your life that require your attention.
Once I unlearned that life didn’t need to be equal, my life changed. The next time you feel inadequate because your work/ life is not equally balanced, remember, the scale will balance naturally. It’s okay for it not to be equal all of the time and for it to constantly change.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.flourishintegrativehealth.org/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/flourishintegrativehealthllc/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/restorationacupuncturecenter
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