Today we’d like to introduce you to Danielle Gagnon and LoriBeth Gesner .
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Individually we were finding that we struggled to reach people in the way we had hoped and imagined we would be able to upon finishing school (Nutritional Therapy Association). This was both a disheartening and empowering realization as it led us to the path we have now created for ourselves, a path together in business. Corporate Wellness was always an underlying passion for each of us, but is an overwhelming undertaking individually. Once we discussed what our hopes were for our personal futures and the impacts we each desired to make in the world we discovered we were very much in alignment.
Our business was formed shortly thereafter. The Be Well Girls name was born out of the combination of our individual practices, Be Well Danielle and L. Be Well. We fell in love with the name as it embodies what we bring to the world—wellness; specifically, wellness in the workplace. We know and understand that for those working a multitude of hours a week; one’s own wellness tends to be the last thing checked off on a lengthy “to-do” list.
There is a great need in this area, the country, and the world as a whole for people to better understand how to “be well” and we hope to reach as many people in our journey as possible. Creating a more well minded workspace is a much needed step in the workplace and highly beneficial for not just the employees but for the employer as well. We believe that a happy and healthy person is a more productive person, be that in life or work. We have each individually experienced that transition for ourselves.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
As holistic practitioners it can be difficult to shift people’s mindset of how they can heal their body. Our approach is often a longer, more gradual road requiring mindful dedication and patience. We are currently a society with an expectation of instant gratification (i.e. taking medication for immediate relief of a symptom) that doesn’t always fit with a holistic healing approach that incorporates the entire body. Educating our clients is an investment on our parts as well as theirs but it is always well worth it for both in the end. Changing the mindset of those we work with from the Western medical approach they have become used to, to the more inward approach of nutritional therapy can be a challenge, the results are not always immediate in the outwardly but they are almost always inwardly apparent.
Please tell us about The Be Well Girls .
The most unique and special aspect of our business and each of us is our education and training as Certified Nutritional Therapists. This sets us apart from most in the corporate wellness space. We have been uniquely trained to look at the body as a whole organism with multiple counterparts that all work together as a beautiful and bio-individual system. With this approach our program teaches others how to view their body as a complex interplay of multiple parts that come together to form a whole functioning system.
Simplified, think of your body as a car; if there is one part is that is broken, not maintained, or not working at its full capacity, it begins to negatively affect the entire vehicle. In learning how to maintain each individual component, you support optimal function and efficiency. The body works in a highly analogous fashion. This approach is not common to the Western medical paradigm that often views the body as individual parts, treating only one unmaintained part of the body at a time.
In teaching this approach towards health we empower others to take responsibility over their health and make more knowledgeable decisions, this is what we are most proud of in what we do.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
Danielle:
Even though it is easy to look back and say “I wish I would have known this, or done this differently” there are no mistakes. I don’t ever wish anything ever happened differently than it did because I believe we are always exactly where we are meant to be and that we are always on our path no matter what.
LoriBeth:
There are certainly days where I think to myself “if I could do it again I would do this”, but in the end, everything that has happened has led me to where I am now. I tend to joke that I took the long road in figuring out what I wanted to do or create for myself, spending 11 years working an entirely different career. I know now that each of those years in an office and working for someone else gave me such tremendous insight on the areas that we lack so deeply in the working environment. Our own personal wellness tends to be the last thing we consider at the end of, or during a packed work week, I know this, I have been exactly that person, and I am so grateful for the experience. It has made me and Danielle uniquely qualified to work with these companies and understand the overall frustrations, concerns, and time constraints that one might battle in their journey towards better help. So I suppose if I had to start over, I wouldn’t change anything, every moment I have experienced has brought me here and I am so proud of what we have created.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.thebewellgirls.com
- Email: bewellgirls@gmail.com
- Instagram: @thebewellgirls
Image Credit:
Lisa Esposito; Katie Harwood; Carly Nicole Photography; Alexis the Greek
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