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

Alright, Mallorie thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Setting up an independent practice is a daunting endeavor. Can you talk to us about what it was like for you – what were some of the main steps, challenges, etc.

I have been an OB/Gyn for 10 years and absolutely loved my job! I built relationships with patients, delivered babies, and was able to really help people feel better. But after many years of this, I heard myself saying the same thing over and over: “I’m so sorry you’re feeling that way. I don’t think we know how to help with that.” You see, the conventional medical approach does some things really well, like taking care of accidents or treating infections. But so often women would come to me with symptoms that I just didn’t have the training to help with. So I started looking for answers for these patients and discovered integrative and functional medicine. In my training there I learned how many answers could be find by helping patients return to foundational health practices and working from there up. I was able to help women with insomnia, anxiety, hormone issues, infertility, pregnancy, etc. After trying to do this within my traditional practice, I quickly realized I needed a different model to really be able to support women through these assessments and changes. I was also feeling really burned-out with the conventional medical model: arguing with insurance companies that my patient did in fact need this treatment, feeling pressures to see more and more patients within the same period of time, watching my patients feel rushed and left with questions but feeling powerless to do things any differently. I left for work early with 2 tiny kids at home and another one on the way, and came home at unpredictable hours, working frequent 24-hour shifts that left me exhausted and trying to recover during the little time I did have at home. My marriage was struggling as my husband was exhausted being the other half of this whirlwind of a life, constantly picking up the pieces I couldn’t keep together.

After a lot of soul-searching and coaching, I decided the best way for me to serve women, rediscover my own health and wellness and show up for my family how I wanted to, was to leave my traditional practice and start my own much smaller practice. I wanted to prioritize time spent with patients and use all the tools at my disposal to help women heal, instead of only those I was taught in medical school. I learned about meditation, nervous system retraining, natural herbs and supplements, lifestyle changes, acupuncture and so much more. I was so excited to start seeing patients in this new construct that I really believed would help them change. But I quickly realized that, to do so, I was starting a business and needed to know how to run a business. This is not something I learned in medical school.

Around the time I was considering this shift, I learned I was pregnant and decided that it would make the most sense to leave my practice at the time of my maternity leave, then build my new practice during my maternity leave and whatever time it would take after, then start my new practice. (I’m still undecided if this was brilliant or insanity. But it’s done now!) I worked with business coaches, I found doctors who had built similar practices, I asked so many questions, I read book after book. I googled. A lot. And slowly, very slowly, I started to put pieces together. I had a very clear cycle of thought I went through over and over. It looked a little bit like this:

I can do this, lots of other people have done this, I went to medical school, I can start a practice.

I can’t do this. I don’t know how to build a practice, I just know how to practice medicine, what on earth was I thinking?!

My coach would help me through my thoughts and help me find stable ground. I would accomplish a few tasks further in building the practice. Then I’d run into something that felt hard and back to…

I can’t do this! What on earth was I thinking?!!

Over time though, it was coming together and it became harder to argue with myself that I didn’t know what I was doing, because there was proof. The moment I posted the link for patients to schedule, my stomach was in knots and I cried out of every mixed emotion as I left the house. What if no one came? What if too many came? What if I fail at this?? My husband reassured me it would be fine and it’s that thought alone that helped me push send and move forward. And people came. Lovely, trusting, incredible patients are coming. And I feel so incredibly grateful and honored to offer them the type of care they deserve.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am an OB/GYN, a physician taking care of women. I further specialized in functional medicine. This is often called “root cause medicine” because we take symptoms and try to uncover where they’re really coming from–lack of sleep, poor nutrition, etc. I run a clinic for women’s health where I spend lots of time listening to women, their experiences, their symptoms and helping them connect the dots that help them to understand and believe they really are capable of healing, that they’re not broken, and that there is hope. I am most proud right now that I made a really scare decision to leave my traditional job that paid our bills, and instead broke the status quo to offer women something different. And I’m so proud to see the range of patients that are coming. It’s such a lovely thing to see that my message applies to so many different women. The main thing I want women to know about my work is that they deserve this kind of care! It makes me sad that what I’m offering is exceptional…it should 100% be the norm for taking care of women but I’m so eager and excited to offer this kind of care to more women. I prioritize listening to women and helping them feel cared for, heard, and hopeful, instead of before when I was forced to prioritize insurance codes. I spent so much time at my last practice just dealing with insurance and copays, and reimbursement; now I when a patient asks how much something is, all of that payment goes to time with them instead of paying people to work with a middle man who frequently is trying to cover as little as possible in their care. It was a maddening process. I’m thrilled to just talk to the woman in front of me and help her. No other funny business.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

The patients I’m seeing now have come from people getting to know me and appreciating my message. Some patients have followed me from my previous practice. They knew me there and I’m so grateful they feel like there’s value in continuing to see me. Most other patients have actually come to me from word of mouth or through my instagram account. I post there about all things health and wellness and I think it resonates with a lot of women. I’m still working on refining the account but I really enjoy sharing things that I’m seeing people struggle with and strategies to help.

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

My mindset around money was and is a real hurdle for me. It’s difficult having a cash-pay clinic. Many people believe deeply that they can’t afford to pay for health and wellness care outside of insurance coverage. And it felt really greedy to me to want to avoid the whole system. But I realized that I was fighting a losing battle: I wanted to offer a new type of care to meet needs that weren’t being met, but do it all within the same system. And I couldn’t do it. I had to keep reminding myself that to offer the care I felt passionate about offering, I was going to have to ask for cash.

It was funny because I’ve been charging money for my services my whole career, but somehow because it went through insurance, it all felt better. But the thing many don’t realize, is they’re still paying for their care. Often the insurance deductible is so high that they’re paying for everything out of pocket anyway, but getting a 15 minute hurried visit that often doesn’t really address their problems, instead of in a new model where we can really take the time to promote healing. I had to really own the service I’m offering and believe that it was worth the money I’m asking for. It still feels difficult, like it should all be free because everyone deserves to feel well. But we don’t live in that world. I had to keep reminding myself, I didn’t make the world’s money rules. I just have a service to offer and I’m going to do that.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.upliftforher.com
• Instagram: @upliftforher
• Facebook: malloriecracroftmd
• Linkedin: Mallorie Cracroft
• Youtube: @upliftforher6905
• Other: Podcast: Uplift For Her