We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Raquel McCorvey a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Raquel, thanks for joining us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.
Pastor Keion Henderson once spoke in his sermon, “How to Heal,” about how you could be stuck at a job and how God will remove the job from you so you could be the entrepeneur He’s been telling you to become and start your own business like He’s been telling you to. This really resonated with me as this had already happened to me in the past, and this unexpected experience resulted in me taking a life-changing risk. I recall in 2020 working from home as a Nurse Supervisor, overseeing 10 people throughout the state of Louisiana. I felt like I was stuck there as I did not like how some of the people who looked like me were being treated. I was one who spoke up for them professionally, did not like where I was, but yet I stayed there as a sacrifice for my family. I remember going to God in prayer and letting him know how I felt…and 2 weeks later I was laid off from this job. This speaks volumes when we say “be careful what you ask for.” I was told my termination had been due to the impact COVID had on the company. At that time, I had already been an entrepeneur but had not really been doing what I was passionate about. I was already a Family Nurse Practitioner and had been thinking about going back to school for Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP) for years but had always found a way to talk myself out of it. I would sometimes allow fear to talk me out of things. However, seeing how COVID was impacting others not only within my community but also throughout the country gave me all the motivation I needed. Therefore, I found enough courage to go back to school for PMHNP.
I was part of the Black Nurse Entrepeneur (BNE) organization and attended their conference in Dallas in July 2022. I was supposed to go there with one of my primary care colleagues, but she ended up cancelling the day before the conference. I was determined to go, eager to learn how to start my own psych practice, so I drove up there alone…took me about 8 hours to get there. I was reminded by the founder of BNE, Alvionna Brewster, several times throughout the conference that I was exactly where I was supposed to be. While hearing Tammy Marshall speak at this conference about the impact she was able to create with her Medspa, I was inspired to go a bit further by opening my own MedSpa, BeLuxxe Health and Wellness. I realized I would be able to help more people and quickly realized that aesthetics, health and wellness, and psych were all related and could be intertwined to not only meet the needs of the people I would serve but also benefit the women of color I sought to empower. At the conference, I met Dr. Viola Pierce, an amazing nursing business coach, who introduced me to my MedSpa coach, Dr. Jami Bryant, who helped me get BeLuxxe up and running in less than 5 months. I remember having so much fear: fear of the unknown, fear of failure, and fear of everything crashing. I also had multiple roles at that time: mother, wife, caregiver, new grandmother, full-time hospice provider, and entrepeneur….and this was scary. However, I still made the decision to take the leap of faith and open my MedSpa despite having little support and limited finances. Thus, BeLuxxe opened January 2023, and I have not looked back since. The risks I took have definitely paid off as we were able to serve 431 clients and perform 2562 visits our first year. Our clientele continues to grow, and our number of staff has increased since we opened.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I grew up in a small town, Cecilia, Lousiana. We didn’t have much, but my family always made sure we had what we needed. I lived with my maternal grandparents in my grade-school years and would later go back and forth from there to my mother’s house. My parents were separated, and my mother often worked two jobs to sacrifice and provide for me and my brother while my father was in prison. I spent lots of weekends visiting my dad, and despite all the challenges, both of my parents made sure we were always taken care of and have always been my biggest supporters. I had always dreamed of becoming a nurse one day but didn’t feel like I had the resources I needed to pursue it. I graduated Salutatorian of my high school class and went on to college on scholarship. While at Xavier University pursuing a pre-pharmacy degree, I got pregnant and decided to move back home. I transferred schools and switched my major to Nursing. I endured hardship while trying to raise my daughter and deal with life stressors but persevered and went on to graduate nursing school and later become a Nurse Practitioner. I am currently dual certified as Family and Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner with a passion to empower women of color who may have gone through similar situations, and I am also a Master Storyteller, CBD Advisor, Death Doula and Professional Legal Nurse Consultant. It was during my Psych clinic preparation that I was inspired to open a MedSpa so I could help more people, and my business coach helped me get BeLuxxe Health and Wellness open in less than 5 months.
Our clients face several key problems that we at BeLuxxe aim to solve. Many of them struggle with chronic dehydration, which can negatively impact energy, skin health, mental clarity, and more. Additionally, deficiencies in key vitamins and nutrients are widespread, causing issues like fatigue and decreased immunity. On the mental health front, many people have difficulties accessing or affording medications and therapy for conditions like anxiety, depression, and PTSD. The ongoing stigma surrounding mental illness also prevents people from seeking the help they need. In addition, their increasingly busy modern lifestyle leaves little time for adequate self-care. People long for relaxing experiences like massages, facials, and therapeutic treatments but have trouble fitting them into packed schedules and budgets.
At Beluxxe, we provide inviting, affordable solutions to these common problems, and we combine health and beauty for exceptional outcomes. We provide health, wellness, and aesthetics services and products, empowering individuals to look and feel their best. We offer weight management, IV hydration, vitamin therapy, hormone management, micro-needling, platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections, noninvasive lipo treatments, hair restoration, vaginal rejuvenation, penile rejuvenation, micronutrient testing, Botox, Dysport, fillers, massage therapy, reiki sound therapy, mental health NP visits, virtual/telehealth visits and esthetician services such as facials, waxing, etc. Our health and wellness supplements and medical grade skin care products available for purchase online and in our MedSpa. We are pleased to serve not just women of color but all individuals who come to us. Our solutions address their underlying issues and strive to promote true health and wellness from within. We provide valuable insight to improve the mindset of others and help them to overcome the specific hurdles they face to reach their health and wellness goals. What sets us apart is the customized holistic treatment we provide to each and every client. We treat the whole person: body, mind, and soul; and we take the time to listen to our clients, treat them like family, and make the necessary adjustments according to their individual needs.
I am most proud of the transformation seen with our clients from the time they come in for consultation to after they have reached their goals. Knowing that we are doing what God has called us to do and be able to witness the changes for better health and overall wellness is a blessing in itself.
If you could go back, would you choose the same profession, specialty, etc.?
I would absolutely choose the same profession and specialty all over again because this is what I feel I was called to do. Many of us who do this make it look really easy. However, being a nurse practitioner and entrepeneur is not for the weak. Behind the scenes it’s a totally different ball game regarding staffing, finances, scaling up, etc. We sometimes feel overwhelmed and burnt out, especially if we wear too many hats. It was tough for me trying to start a new business, work a full-time job, manage a household, support my family, and build business credit at the same time. My medspa took off within the first month, having me to hire additional staff.
Although there are challenges, there are still many rewards. In nursing, we can pivot to any field we choose, such as ER, ICU, home health, hospice, medspa, dialysis, etc., and we can specialize in whatever area we feel passionate about. That’s the beauty of it. I have worked many different areas over the past 20+ years, and I could always switch it up if I wanted to. I chose to open a health and wellness MedSpa, and I am so glad I did. There is so much joy in seeing the look on our clients’ faces when they reach their goals, improve their self-confidence, practice self-care, and start living again. The holistic aspect has a huge impact on our clients, and it is such a blessing to be able to serve them in this capacity.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
Our strong support system, resources, customer reviews, testimonials, community involvement, and the great work we have done here at BeLuxxe Health and Wellness have helped us to build our reputation within this market. I am from this area, so our clientele started with friends and family who believed in us and our vision. They were pleased with our services and started to share their great experiences. We tapped into the available resources, learned from them, and stayed true to who we are. Thus, word of mouth traveled quickly, and we have held up to our reputation.
Collaborating with like-minded individuals has also helped us to build our reputation. Sharing knowledge between one another has been helpful in knowing what it takes to be successful in this arena. Talking with others who have been in the game longer than us has also beneficial as they have helped set the standard for establishing a great reputation.
We also have to thank our clients for their commitment and willingness to put in the hard work to reach their outcomes. When they are successful, this has a great impact on our reputation. No work = no results, and I feel like no results over and over would not = a good reputation. We are willing to push our clients and motivate them because we actually care about them and want to see the positive changes.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.beluxxehw.com
- Instagram: beluxxe_healthandwellness
- Facebook: BeLuxxe Health & Wellness
- Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/company/beluxxe-health-and-wellness-llc
- Twitter: @BeLuxxeHealth
- Other: Email: info@beluxxehw.com
Image Credits
Torian Priestly JCI Creatives