We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Maddie Wallace. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Maddie below.

Hi Maddie, thanks for joining us today. Do you think your parents have had a meaningful impact on you and your journey?

This is a great question, thank you for asking this. My parents have always been super supportive of me and my younger sister. Growing up they pushed us to succeed in school and extra curricular activities but we never felt like their love for us depended on these achievements. They wanted us to do our best and celebrated whatever that meant for us. For example, they encouraged us to try out every type of sport we possibly could to see what we liked. Now, neither my sister or I are particularly athletic and we were usually an average player at best. But as long as we were having fun and trying our best our parents would praise our performance and chauffeur us around to all the games, practices, team parties, etc. Even when I became quite good at tennis and was competing at a higher level, my parents would always focus on what I had done well rather than where I could improve.

Receiving that type of consistent positive feedback taught me that doing my personal best is what matters most, not being better than anyone else or reaching a certain achievement. It also reinforced the idea that I am worthy of love just for being me, not because of how well I preform. Being encouraged throughout my life to try new activities allowed me to be outside of my comfort zone again and again, which made it easier to do so in the future. Also, once I showed skill in tennis my parents encouraged me (okay, forced me a little bit) to practice and get better. Although I was resistant at first (I would rather be hanging out with friends than going to private tennis lessons) I eventually fell in love with the sport. I became appreciative of my parents pushing which gave me the opportunity to excel at something. This was one of the first time I really worked hard for something and felt good about how far I had come. I learned that it is rewarding to both participate in something without the pressure of trying to be the best, and it is also rewarding to work hard to improve and rise to the top. There is a time and a place for both.

Another thing my parents did right was make family a priority. We spent quality time with the 4 of us, playing games, baking chocolate chip cookies, hiking, camping, going to the beach and more. My parents also made sure we had close relationships with our extended families. I have such fond memories of family gatherings at my parents house. My aunts and uncles and cousins would come over and there was always so much food & laughter. We also visited family in the Bay Area quite often, and took fun vacations with the whole crew. Looking back I applaud my family’s willingness to take a bunch of kids on such big trips, such as Yellowstone National Park, a house boat on Lake Shasta, and of course the memorable trip we all took to Nicaragua.

We had about 18 people total, 10 of which were children under the age of 13. It was quite an eye opening experience for us, being in a completely different culture, in an environment that felt very foreign to us. We were confronted by monkeys, giant spiders, scorpions, bats and all sorts of creatures that made themselves at home in our rooms. Driving around the country, talking to locals and exploring the town were also quite eye opening experiences. We recount stories from these adventures often and laugh about how wild that whole trip was!

I still value family and spending quality time with loved ones as a top priority. And I am so grateful for being able to travel so much when I was younger. It certainly has stayed with me and my love for travel continues to grow!

Maddie, 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?

Sure! I am a family chiropractor which means that I work with people of all ages. I specialize in pediatric and prenatal care but I am well trained in treating almost everyone. I love helping people feel more at home in their bodies and more connected to their own innate healing power. I truly believe that the human body is a powerful self-healing, self-regulating organism and that we are designed to be healthy. My job as a chiropractor is not to fix you, but simply to remove any interferences that may be preventing you from your fullest expression.

Let’s talk about babies, for example. A lot of people don’t know that babies can get adjusted, and don’t understand why. I think this is due to a lack of clarity about what chirorapctic does. Chiropractic care unlocks the healing potential of your body through improving the function of the nervous system. When you look at it that way you can see why a baby would benefit from chiropractic care. Babies are brand new to this world! They are in full adaptation mode. They are learning new things every day, they are growing and developing at a rapid pace, and they are figuring out how to function in their environment. All that takes a lot of energy and input from the nervous system.

Some of the main things I see with babies are trouble with latching or breastfeeding, issues with sleep, torticolis, frequent ear infections, hypersensitivity to their environments, constipation and colic. My goal with care for babies is simply to help them adapt better to life.

Truly, this is my goal with every one of my practice members. But with older kids and adults there is usually some sort of unwanted symptom that brings them into the office initially. A symptom is an intelligent message from the body that some dysfunction needs to be addressed. My goal with theses types of patients are to help them adapt better to life, which allows their body to heal, which helps get them out of pain. I know that pain is a major limitation for people and that being in pain diminishes your quality of life, so being able to help people be pain-free and get back to doing the things they love to do is a very rewarding part of my job.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

This is a great question. One of the biggest lessons I had to unlearn is that in order to be successful in business you have to always be in hustle mode. In chiropractic college older chiropractors would speak at the school and tell stories about how they did non-stop marketing events and networking events and how much time and effort it takes to grow a practice. They way they spoke about it sounded exhausting.

So guess what. When I began my chiropractic career I would do as many events as I could, I went to every single networking event that I could and I was putting myself out there non-stop. And guess what, it was exhausting.

It’s not that you don’t have to do the things, because you do have to get out there and make those connections, but it is not necessary for it to be your entire life. In fact, when I was going, going, going nonstop I was anxious AF. I was stressed out and if I hadn’t slowed down I guarantee you I would have been burnt out by now.

I was doing the things with the wrong mentality. I was saying yes to every opportunity out of fear and guilt. I was afraid of failing and I thought the only was to succeed was to constantly be DOING and never let your foot off the gas. In the rare occasion I would turn down an opportunity I would feel so much guilt. I would beat myself up for “not wanting it bad enough” and being lazy.

In truth, you can’t pour from an empty cup. You can’t be in “hustle mode” 24/7. As humans we are part of nature and nature moves in cycles, in seasons, in ebbs and flows. There are natural periods of expansion where you feel inspired and motivated to get out there. And there are natural seasons of rest where you need to slow down and recuperate. Within the period of a week or a day it is important to decompress and let yourself relax. I now pick and choose what to participate in and make sure that when I say “yes” I am ready to give it my all, willingly and enthusiastically.

I would rather do less with more energy and intentional than do as much as possible while feeling burnt out.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

I think the #1 most important aspect of being a leader or boss is to lead by example. This means being mindful of your words, your actions and your attitude.

When I first hired my employee I would catch myself complaining about having to do some of the not-so-fun tasks of running a business, or voicing how stressed I was when I had a particularly busy week. I realized that this poor leadership not only for my employee, but for myself as well. I don’t want to set the tone that complaining and catastophizing are the norm. I also don’t want to reinforce the idea that being a business owner is not fun or having a busy week is stressful.

Words have power. What you say effects how you feel, the energy you put out and what actions you are most likely to take. Talking about being stressed creates more stress, and complaining about something makes it even less appealing. I am now much more careful about what I say and make an effort to set the standard of positivity, gratitude and encouragement.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.awakenchiro.com
• Instagram: @dr_maddie_wallace
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrMaddieWallace

Image Credits
Geri Koenig