Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Madilynn Beck, founder, and CEO of The Better Spot, located in Chicago, IL, USA.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
The Better Spot is a pioneer in wellness, introducing a cross-industrial model that offers a digital app for care professionals and an in-person hub featuring on-demand care and on-demand space.
There's an obvious disparity between diverse, quality, affordable wellcare. This apparent deficit has irreparable ripple effects throughout generations. While the majority of industries benefit from the perpetuating lack, non-pharma health+wellness relies strongly on the abundance of community for progress. As practitioners enter their fields year after year, they are faced with rising costs of operation and increasingly stringent industry mandates. The costs are undoubtedly handed down to their clients, and the constantly shifting landscape creates polluted and insecure communication.
Currently, holistic practitioners that are serving 65-80% of the world's population using Alternative Complementary Medicine are forced to overlook their local communities due to big tech's focus on global, engage in open forums fostering toxic environments and or misinformation, and jeopardize their licenses, certifications and client relationships because of their inability to transfer sensitive information safely.
In an electrifying time where the world is finally working towards normalizing health + wellness, 50% of the market is actively being excluded from the solution. If the industry is supporting the users, who are supporting the practitioners? The Better Spot is creating a communal environment, ushering in a culturally humble, destigmatized approach to holistic wellness.
Tell us about yourself
After experiencing trauma in 2017, I started my journey to becoming a Psychotherapist while simultaneously being in treatment. Sitting in "both chairs" proverbially gave me a unique healing journey. I was able to experience therapy as a Client and the issues that go along with consciously building a care team, while I was also a container for others, navigating the academic and professional woes of what it means to be a care provider. I wanted to make some discoveries with current Therapists to learn what lay ahead, and the broken record of pain points I encountered felt solvable. I began developing a concept for an equitable wellcare marketplace and incorporated The Better Spot.
Fast forward to March 2020, when I was actively practicing therapy as an Associate and experiencing "unprecedented times" with the rest of the pandemic world. The problems I'd heard in 2018 were now amplified; in addition, the mental and physical health of those very same care practitioners was deteriorating right alongside those they supported. I realized that my in-person solution would be beneficial when we launched, but the inclusion of virtual support with a practitioner-focused lense would be the radical impact we, as a culture, needed.
Every day, I'm motivated by the evolution of consciousness I witness as a mother, founder, and therapist of the communities I belong to, as we collectively realize that what we categorized as a "health care" system isn't working for those who work for it.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
Not giving up. The past two years would have been the ideal time to throw in the towel, free of judgment or scrutiny or guilt, but I chose not to. I'm extremely proud of my adaptability but, more importantly, the belief I have in myself, my company, and what we're building.
What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?
The hardest thing for me as a business owner is also one of my biggest joys, assembling and leading a dynamic team. It's an integral part of building a sustainable business, it changes (hopefully, not often), and it's very rarely something that you have control of the outcome. It's an intuitive dance that requires listening, reflection, vulnerability, and trust.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
Whew! This question...I suppose if I had to pick only three, they would be:
- Have a strong circle of support: Partner/Spouse, Family, Friends, other Founders; while they aren't on the exact same path as you, they are a part of your journey, and you'll undoubtedly need them along the way and can learn from them and improve or pivot based on their feedback and insight.
- Have a strong wellness practice: Spiritually, physically, and emotionally, hold yourself accountable to a holistic self approach. When one part of yourself fails, the others will only be able to sustain you and your mission until they inevitably all crumble. Checking in with your overall wellness is something that you owe to yourself and your vision.
- Remember that change is your only constant: Fortitude is beneficial in certain circumstances, but endearing something that clearly isn't working is small-minded. Open yourself to change, diversity, and shifts, allow yourself to flow with them, not against them and try to find excitement in the new.
Is there anything else you'd like to share?
We're launching our app this Summer and looking to partner with burgeoning startups that value a human-first approach to wellness as much as we do!
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://www.thebetterspot.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theBETTERspot/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebetterspot/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/thebetterspot
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solopreneur that you'd like to share, then email community@subkit.com; we'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
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