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

Nicole, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear the backstory of how you established your own practice.

When my husband and I knew we wanted to open our own practice we wanted a few things. 1. We wanted to provide the best possible care. Care that looked at the whole body. Considered treatment for the physical, mental, and chemical health of the body. Care that wasn’t just a band-aid approach, but care that truly helped people heal and make sustainable lifestyle changes.
2. We wanted to provide care that was focused on the goals of our practice members. Sure, we have goals for everyone we work with, but what we want doesn’t really matter. We have found that oftentimes collaborating with other providers, thinking out of the box, and learning alongside our practice members is often necessary to get the best results.
3. We wanted to make the process of healing, connecting with your body and finding ease a fun and happy experience. As individuals, we are fun, lighthearted people. And we knew we wanted to create a space and an environment that aligned with us but also cultivated a space for each person who walks in our door to let go and heal.

Those three things were some of the founding things that allowed us to create our business. From there, we got in front of our ideal client and showed them how we were different. We met with local providers that we wanted to collaborate with, put ourselves out there on social media, in networking groups and other things that pushed our “comfortability”. And in time, as more and more people learned what we do and how we’re different, our practice has grown. We now have 2 practicing chiropractors and are grateful to creating a community of people who want to feel empowered about their health, and supported in living a life of wellness for them and their families.

Nicole, 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?

Hi, my name is Nicole Short and I am the co-owner of Rise Chiropractic & Nutrition. My journey to chiropractic started back in college. I knew that I wanted to work in the healthcare field, but I had no idea what I wanted to do. My freshman and sophomore year of college was by far the sickest I’ve ever been. I was constantly sick. I was diagnosed with Mono and CMV within 6 months of each other and carried around a gallon size zip lock of medication. I knew deep down that there was another way and that I didn’t have to be living in a state of ‘sick’ all the time. Fast forward a few years and I discovered chiropractic. I moved from Columbus, Ohio out to St. Louis to attend Chiropractic College at Logan University on a whim. After doing a lot of research and job shadowing, I was hopeful that graduate school would help me find a way that aligned with me to work with the human body. Looking back, chiropractic school was some of the most difficult years of my life, but it taught me how to think, ask questions, and sparked my passion for helping the body heal. After graduating school I gained great experience working around the city, but I struggled to find a practice that treated patients in a way that aligned with me. In 2021, my husband, Jay, and I opened our practice, Rise Chiropractic & Nutrition, where we brought our passions and expertise together to create a new wellness experience for our community.

Today, we have a brick & mortar practice in Bridge Park within Downtown Dublin where we practice chiropractic care. But, if you ask me, the care we provide here goes way beyond the popping, twisting and cracking that people traditionally think of when they think of chiropractic care. We primarily work with active families and focus on bringing balance and healing to the nervous system, reducing stress, improving energy, and maximizing mindset so that you can truly feel your best and live a life that you love.

Jay, who in addition to co-owning Rise is also a dietitian. While you’ll often find him at our office in Dublin, he offers online nutrition coaching and works with active adults and athletes across the globe.

We are so proud to be bringing a different approach to health and wellness to our community– an approach that truly focuses on the physical, chemical and mental health of the body. We understand that everything is connected, and put an emphasis on providing you and your family customized care. We love being able to empower and teach our practice members how to stay & be well and are grateful for our ever growing community!

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

In a sense, I feel lucky that as a chiropractor, I truly only need myself to do my job. But I knew we were going to need a bit more than that to give our practice members the experience we were hoping to give them. For about a year prior to opening our practice, my husband and I were both employed. We strategically budgeted our personal finances to live off of one income and saved about 6 months of our 2nd income for two things. The first 50% to physically invest in the business, to get all of our supplies and equipment and the second 50% for us to live off of while we were building our business.

We found a small space to rent in Downtown Dublin, knowing it wouldn’t be a spot that we’d be in forever, but a great location for us to grow. We were very intentional about the furniture we selected (bargain shopping at Ikea & TJ Maxx) and kept our initial equipment and set up costs to about $10,000 and our monthly overhead under $3,000/ month.

Our business grew incredibly quickly and after two years we had completely outgrown our space. As owners we had the ability to take home much more money than we did, but decided to save most of our profits from our first two years in business and re-invest it into Rise. We took all those savings to help us build out a beautiful new office space that is twice the size.

For us, it has never been about the money. We opened our business so that we could provide excellent care for our patients and create a life that centered around better work/life balance for our family. We are grateful that we’ve been able to keep our overhead low and not need a loan to do the work that we do.

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

This is an answer that many people probably won’t love, but here it goes– Be yourself.

I have a motto that I always refer back to– “I want to give high-quality care to my practice members without sacrificing myself”.

I have found over my 6 years in practice and 2 years as a business owner that when I take the absolute best care of the practice member in front of me all while staying true to my values and boundaries I don’t have to “work” very hard to grow.

I put “work” in quotations because the truth is, it takes a lot of work. But it’s work that doesn’t feel hard. It is work that feels easy. Work that we get to do from a place of peace, ease, and love. And approaching growth from that perspective has made all the difference for our practice.

Sure, social media, networking groups, and getting out and meeting people have all been incredibly helpful to our growth as well. But at the core, when we’re providing high-quality care and being true to ourselves we have been able to grow leaps and bounds.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://risechiropracticandnutrition.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr.nicole.short/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/risechiropracticandnutrition
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolelefton/
• Other: Google: https://goo.gl/maps/4hJheAqD72FCtoDK8 Booking Link: https://risechiropracticandnutrition.janeapp.com