Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in health and wellness but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Christine Patterson, Founder of Vital Journey Wellness, located in Portland, OR, USA.

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

My business is a virtual Functional Medicine consulting + coaching practice focused on empowering ambitious, driven women to feel and perform their best by aligning with their body through specialty wellness testing, one-on-one concierge care, and root cause focused solutions. I practice as a licensed Nurse Practitioner in the states of Oregon and Washington and health coach.

Tell us about yourself

The idea of starting a practice focused on delivering root cause solutions began percolating in my mind years ago when I began to become more and more aware of the gaps in traditional medicine. I have been in nursing for over a decade and would see over and over again how traditional medicine overlooked or underplayed simple solutions with diet + lifestyle in favor of medicines and procedures. I say that as someone who was practicing that way herself. I look back now and see so many opportunities I missed coming alongside my patients that would have likely gotten them better outcomes because I was trained to use medicines more than I was trained in personalized nutrition and lifestyle practices.

I really felt the gap when I was experiencing my own health concerns with headaches, severe neck pain, gut issues, and exhaustion. I kept seeing doctors, taking their prescriptions, and doing what I had been taught to do. But I just knew that there had to be something deeper going on. I asked my doctors for testing that they didn't feel like I needed. My dissatisfaction with my progress led me to the world of biohacking, and eventually, I found Functional Medicine. Once I found Functional Medicine, I was able to get the testing I had wanted for years, and it unlocked so much understanding of my body and what it was doing.

I began to see that my body was wise and doing exactly what it was supposed to be doing, which allowed me to align with it rather than working against it (which I had been unwittingly doing). I was able to start personalizing my nutrition plan and lifestyle techniques based on what I could tell my body was doing, and in a matter of weeks began experiencing better energy, got rid of pain, and haven't looked back.

Every day I'm motivated to do this work because I know how valuable it is to empower women to find that same ah-ha moment where they can feel mentally and physically aligned. I love seeing their faces when that moment of enlightenment hits because they finally understand their bodies, have answers, and know what they need to do.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

The accomplishments that I take the most satisfaction in are seeing my clients get better and start to experience the benefits they were looking for. It also feels like a huge accomplishment to be consistently partnering with others online and in my community to expand access to and awareness of how valuable these tools can be. I love that every day I take another step towards more women feeling and performing their best so that we can continue to heal as a community, society, and world.

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

I think for me, one of the hardest things has been the waiting period between planting and harvest. What I mean by that is that there can often be a long lag between something I've done and the benefits of what I did. Sometimes I see the benefit in a matter of days or weeks, but most often, it's months that I might be waiting, thinking that I wasted my time on something, and then all of a sudden I get a call or connection that was the result of that work. Or maybe nothing really ever happens except for me learning, lol. That counts as a benefit too :) It can be hard to stay motivated in the liminal space between, so sometimes I just have to give myself a moment to feel the difficulty, have a good cry, and then just take the next best step.

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

  1. Have a clear vision of your why. It will be your life preserver when you feel like you're crossing the ocean in a dingy, so it needs to be powerful, grounded, and aligned. It should tug at you emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.
  2. Accept the reality that you will be spending most of your time feeling uncomfortable in the uncertain middle. You'll have started something, and then you will wait, and it may take a while to know if you're on the right path. Remember where you started so that you can recognize how far you've come even when you haven't made it to the destination you had dreamed of yet.
  3. Have big dreams and stay grounded by simply taking the next best step. And then the next best step and then the next over and over and over again. You need both dreams and action to move.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.vitaljourneywellness.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vitaljourneywellness
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christinepattersondnp/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christine-patterson-24953345/

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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