Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in mental wellness but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Candace Morey Wall, Owner of 413 Theraworks, located in North Adams, MS, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

413 Theraworks is a group psychotherapy practice located in the Berkshires, Massachusetts, additionally providing online services to all of Massachusetts, New York, and Vermont. We are helping professionals working to enhance the mental well-being of children, teens, and adults in our community and beyond. Our therapists bring with them an abundance of expertise in their own niches, including: burnout, postpartum anxiety, and depression, trauma, eating disorders, substance use, relationships, insomnia, anxiety, life transitions, justice-involved, and military populations.

Tell us about yourself

I've worked tons of different jobs in several industries and have seen firsthand the commonalities of burned-out employees—myself included. Researching burnout and bearing witness to broken systems, it was a simple conclusion that continuing to participate in this field wouldn't be sustainable at this pace and in these environments. Seeing burned-out staff (and being one of those burned-out staff) engage in power struggles with their clients and their inability to see how it is a lose/lose situation made me realize that we are all human and we all have our limits. How do we get back to a place of some sort of balance or healthy life? Increasing personal flexibility in my life while improving the lives of community members were driving factors in creating 413 Theraworks. Downshifting from overdrive took some time, but once I hit my stride, it became my mission to offer this opportunity to other providers in my field. Building a space for other therapists to actually want to show up and do this incredibly hard work every day with compassion, laughs, and sometimes tears are what keeps me going.

In 3 years, we've grown the team from 1 to 8 employees. We're collaborative in our practice, we care deeply about the quality of our work, we take pride in the relationships we build, and we all have an ownership mindset. Culture fit is incredibly important to us, and all of us are engaged in the hiring process. Ensuring 413 Theraworks employees continue to feel valued, heard, safe, and supported is my priority.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

Our team is my biggest accomplishment. This work is no joke, and more often than not, therapists take the brunt of being overworked, financially exploited, and manipulated into believing that they will never be able to make any money in this field. It is a deep passion of mine to support therapists in this breakthrough—"enlightening themselves into knowing they are worthy, deserving, and capable of achieving and serving the populations that are within their zone of genius." I'm grateful for the opportunity to lead the team at 413 Theraworks every day. I'm excited to watch us continue to grow and meet new providers who will continue to teach us and laugh with us as we continue to evolve as mental health leaders in the field.

What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner?

The hardest part of being a business owner is knowing bad hires will happen. Having a process to recover, regroup, and workshop our hiring process is essential in continuing to grow as a business and healthy team.
Bad hires can wreak havoc on entire systems and absolutely decimate workplace culture. Small teams, especially, take time to build and create safety. Some people are just not the right fit for the team, and sometimes the team is just not the right fit for a person.

There are so many learning opportunities when missteps happen and teasing apart our intended results with our actual results helps us reframe what can make us successful in the future.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

  1. Know who you are. Show up authentically as that. Make moves that align with your values.
  2. You'll make mistakes, have missteps, and need to come back to the drawing board. Failure is a part of the redirection you need to move your business forward.
  3. Your ideas aren't dumb. Your ideas could plant the seed for someone's whole life to change. No one is better at being you than you are. Imposter syndrome is real, but don't let it paralyze your next step.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://413theraworks.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/413theraworks
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/413theraworks/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/candacewall/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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