29: Dealing with anxiety while building a business

After working in finance for almost 10 years, Teddy Levarda was looking to make a career change. Having to sit all day at work and the constant stress of his investment job had given him chronic hip and back pain. 

In this episode of Career Switch Podcast, Teddy tells us how acupuncture changed his life and how it inspired him to become a licensed acupuncturist. He shares his initial doubts about giving up a six-figure salary when he went back to school for his Master's in 2016. 

Teddy also opens up about the anxiety he felt while starting and building his practice, Morningside Acupuncture. Today, Teddy specializes in treating pain and stress using acupuncture, dry needling, and Chinese medicine.


Find Teddy Levarda at:

Website: www.morningsideacupuncturenyc.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/morningsideacupuncturenyc

Facebook: www.facebook.com/morningsideacupuncturenyc

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/morningside-acupuncture

Music credit: TimMoor from Pixabay

Podcast info:
What's your career switch? What do you think about this episode and the show? Tell us at careerswitchpod.com. Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Transcript

Lixandra: Hi, everyone. I'm Lixandra Urresta, and this is Career Switch Podcast. This show is here to encourage you to take action with whatever career change you're considering or working on. Maybe you're trying to switch industries or professions or break out on your own and start a business. In some episodes, I talk to people who've made their own career switch, whether by choice or circumstance. They share the good, the bad, and the truth about their journey, including what worked for them and what didn't. In other episodes, I speak with experts who offer their best career advice on challenges that can come up during the process of making a career change. After all, it takes guts to switch things up, and it's not easy. However, it is possible. 

So, I hope you hear something in this episode, an idea, a suggestion, a piece of advice that'll spur you into action with your own career switch, whether it's taking that first bold step or trying something new. Welcome. I'm glad you're here. 

Sometimes a career switch can be inspired by a life-changing experience. After working in finance for almost 10 years, Teddy Levarda was looking to make a career change. Having to sit all day at work and the constant stress of his investment job had given him chronic hip and back pain. 

In this episode, Teddy tells us how acupuncture changed his life and how it inspired him to become a licensed acupuncturist. He shares his initial doubts about giving up a six-figure salary when he went back to school for his master's in 2016. And he opens up about the anxiety he felt while starting and building his practice, Morningside Acupuncture, in New York City. He now specializes in treating pain and stress using acupuncture, dry needling, and Chinese medicine. 

Hi Teddy, thanks for joining us today. Let's dive in. What were you doing before your career switch and what led up to it?

Teddy: Prior to going to acupuncture school and getting my acupuncture license, I worked in finance for almost 10 years. I studied finance in undergrad and then Thought that's what I wanted to do with my life and started in different areas of finance and moved around. Started in wealth management, then I worked in portfolio management and trading, and lastly, investment banking. So I kind of got my hand in most aspects of finance, hoping that there would be a good fit for me there. And analytically, I really enjoyed some aspects of finance, all the problem solving and the quick thinking, and even working under pressure was fun sometimes. It just wasn't a great fit for me with all the sitting and just not being able to control my schedule. That was hard for me and always something I struggled with when I was working there.

Lixandra: Tell us more about what was hard for you.

Teddy: There were a number of things that were hard for me. One was sitting all day in a chair for 14 hour days and being under high stress. At a certain point, I think I was around 25 years old, I started having horrible hip and back pain. and not having control over my schedule. There were so many times I missed out on life events because I had to work late or I had an important deadline to meet. And it was always hard for me to find a balance between my own life and my work life. And also just seeing other people around me, especially working in investment banking, you're helping other people build their dreams. Investment banking involves helping companies raise money to expand and grow or acquire other companies. At the end of the day, I just felt like I was a matchmaker for other people living their dream and always wondered, what's my dream? What am I doing to facilitate my life?

Lixandra: So how did you leave your job?

Teddy: I left the finance industry once, and then I came back. So the first time I had been working at a trading hedge fund, and that was a really intense job. there was a lot of money at stake every day. It was to the point where like, you know, I couldn't get up to pee. Sometimes I'd have to like eat my lunch at my desk if I was lucky enough to, and my lunch had to consist of easy to eat things that I could eat while working. Um, and you know, I had a number of issues stemming from that, like some horrible back pain, some hip pain, wasn't sleeping well, my digestion was off. And then eventually I just kind of reached my breaking point. There was like a day I was late for work and my boss got really upset with me. He actually told me I was fired and then I wasn't fired. Very awkward and weird situation. But at that point I was like, you know what, maybe this is for the best. And I just decided, you know what, I'll stay here for six weeks. And I told him I was leaving and I hadn't lined anything up. I was just past my breaking point stress wise.

Lixandra: And what did you do after you left?

Teddy: And I traveled for a little while. I didn't work for almost a year and I had had some money saved up thankfully. And I was just frankly too burned out to get another job. So I visited some friends in Asia and on the West coast of the US and didn't really know what I wanted to do. And then, you know, time passed, money was spent and then I was like, okay, so what do I do now? And after a while you get kind of anxious about like, you know, what, what am I going to do? So, you know, I ultimately went back to finance for another couple of years. And during that time, I met my now wife who's a psychologist and, you know, she was finishing her PhD at the time. And at that point I had discovered acupuncture.

Lixandra: Yeah. How did you get started with acupuncture?

Teddy: Part of the stress and the back and the hip pain I had from working at the hedge fund. I was also a longtime soccer player. And at that point in my life, I was also training for the New York marathon. I guess when you're that stressed, you're looking for an outlet for that stress. For me, it's usually exercise. But you know, that didn't mesh well with sitting in a chair all day. So I was really stiff and then running a lot and playing soccer. And eventually I had a hamstring injury while playing with a soccer team. I strained my hamstring. And, you know, the coach was really adamant that I go get acupuncture. And I had tried acupuncture among the hundred things I tried for my hip and back issue. You know, I had gone to an orthopedic doctor, had a cortisone injection, physical therapy, massage, yoga, swimming, Pilates, magnet therapy. I even tried traditional acupuncture. That helped temporarily. I can't say it wasn't helpful, but it just wasn't enough relief. And then it wasn't until this hamstring injury, the coach was like, Oh, trust me, it's going to be great. This guy will fix you in one treatment. I was like one treatment. I had like 10 treatments. It didn't fix me. And he's like, trust me. I'm so confident in this that I'm willing to pay for your treatment. We need you to play next week. I'm like next week, I strained my hamstring. That usually takes like a month or so to recover from. So I went for the session. It was a different kind of acupuncture than I'd had before. It's what's called trigger point acupuncture. Some people call it dry needling. He explained to me that it's going to be a really strong muscle spasm. It's going to kind of hurt a little because you already have a strain. You'll be sore for a couple of days. And then after that, You should feel somewhat better, maybe totally better. Maybe you need to come in again a few more times." And I was like, okay, I guess if you feel like that's what I need, then go for it. He put the needle in my hamstring. It spasmed really strongly, just like he said. I was sore for a couple of days. It was almost like I had a Charlie horse for two days and I couldn't really walk well. But then it was incredible. After that, my hamstring was totally fine and I played in next week's soccer game. It was just such a powerful experience.

Lixandra: Wow. And when did you start thinking that acupuncture could be your next career?

Teddy: The acupuncturist's name was David Barron. You know, he since has become a mentor to me. I kept seeing him regularly after that for the issues I was having with my back and my hip. And I actually started to feel better and he really fixed a lot of my issues. And, you know, it took some time of getting regular treatment, but now that's what like 11 or 12 years ago and I you know, don't have those issues anymore. So it really did help tremendously. And there was a moment where I was getting a treatment in his office. And I don't know, I don't know how, but this light bulb just kind of went off where it was like, acupuncture. For whatever reason, my brain decided to think of his life from like his perspective. And I was like, this seems like an interesting job. You know, sessions were like 45 minutes to an hour long and he got to take his time with me. He got to get to know me. He was helping me tremendously, like literally changed my life. From a business perspective, he had his own business. He didn't have a boss. He could make his own hours. And it was like, all these check boxes were like going off in my head. Like, this sounds like what I'm looking for. You know, the next session I asked David, I was like, you know, how long is acupuncture school? What's it like? He was like, it's three years long. It's a master's degree. I was like, wow. So it's like legitimate.

Lixandra: Once you decided you wanted to go to acupuncture school, what did you consider?

Teddy: So, you know, one consideration was, you know, kind of thinking about, okay, if I'm going to go to school, like what are the finances of this, especially working in the financial field? You know, I was making a six figure income at the time. From that perspective, it was very grim, right? It's like three years of school, you lose six figures every year. And then acupuncture school was like $75,000. And, you know, if you're taking student loans and not working, you know, I had to take out more than that because I needed to take some extra money for living expenses and books and travel and all that stuff. So, you know, in my mind, I'm like, I have to really want to do this, right? This is like you're talking about at least $400,000 of like a financial swing in your life. You know, my wife, I'm so thankful for her. She was so supportive. She's like, you know what, if you really want to do this, like, I'll support you. It's probably going to be hard for a few years, maybe financially, we won't be as far as long down the road. But if you really want to do this, I'll support you. and she was really instrumental in like going through the process of applying for school. And, you know, I felt really, I don't know, it was a weird thing because, you know, when I'm talking it out, it's like, wow, that's like kind of a really crazy decision to give all that up. But there was something inside of me that just felt very confident in it. It was like, you know what, I really like think this is what I want to do. And I think having that experience with my acupuncturist, it was just such a strong experience that I was like, I want to have these types of experiences with other people. And like, that felt really meaningful to me.

Lixandra: So you started studying acupuncture in 2016. It was a three-year program. So tell us about that time that it took for you to get your master's.

Teddy: It was kind of scary at first, right? Like, you know, we're learning about acupuncture and Chinese medicine and Chinese medicine is very, um, metaphorical. Like, you know, there are these, all these things you learn about like five elements, because basically the way Chinese medicine sees the world is through like metaphors related to nature. And, you know, it took me probably like a year to just wrap around my head that way of thinking. And, you know, one thing that's also different about Eastern thought is just this idea that life is constant change. It was really hard for me to wrap my brain around that. There were times where I was like, was this a good idea? You know, then we started poking each other with needles like four months in. That was really scary, both because like I had to poke someone with a needle and I had no idea what I was doing. And also because I was just going to let somebody poke me. I knew they didn't know what they were doing because they were in it with me.

Lixandra: Did you ever regret anything while you were in school?

Teddy: You know, there were definitely times at the beginning where I had some regret, especially when I was like looking at my bank account and I was like, oh man, You know, you do the calculation. Oh, it's been one year. I could have had, you know, over a hundred thousand dollars in salary or now I have nothing. So, so that was hard sometimes. And I'm thankful for my wife that she was working and, you know, we could figure things out financially during that time.

Lixandra: Okay. So once you graduated in 2019, how did you start your practice?

Teddy: I always knew I wanted to have my own business. That was a big part of why I decided to pursue acupuncture. They didn't teach us that much in school. The courses were lacking direction as far as how you actually set up the business. So I started that process before graduation, just like looking into what's required, like licensing wise and taxes and filings you need to do. I'm really thankful for my finance background that allowed me to make a plan both during school and then after when I started my business. know, I made a spreadsheet that included things like how much is it going to cost to rent a room, there's security deposit, there is a monthly rent, there are supplies, there's a table. And I did the math. And if I wanted to rent a room full time, it would be really, really expensive. And generally, when you start a business, you don't have any patience. So It's not like I was going to break even the first month or probably first couple of months. And I had to take that into account as much as I wanted to just be on my own. It really wasn't viable out of the gate. What I ended up doing is renting a room part-time. It was like about two days in total. It was like two half days on a full day. And then I worked at another acupuncture business. So that provided me some income so that I could basically pay for my practice. And it also allowed me to keep my expenses down in the beginning. So even though I was losing money every month, it wasn't an astronomical amount of money.

Lixandra: How did you do those first few months?

Teddy: Yeah, I was slowly growing my business. It was really scary at first because you're just like, Oh my God, I don't have any patients. Or you have like one patient and then see them a few times. And then, you know, the idea is that they get better. So they start feeling better and then they don't need to see you anymore. And it's like, okay, now I need another patient. you know, you might've had four or five and now you have two. And it's, you know, acupuncture can really be an up and down business as far as like, you're really busy one week and then the next week you're not as busy. And, you know, I think dealing with those ebbs and flows of like, that's just how it goes. It doesn't mean you're doing bad. And I think that was something I always struggled with is like wanting to do a good job from the beginning and putting a lot of pressure on myself. I think that was probably like my finance background.

Lixandra: And how did you build your clientele?

Teddy: Yeah, marketing is really like a trial and error game. So now I know what works. But when I started, I had no idea. And, you know, with marketing, it's all about you try something, you see who it attracts, and then you either pour more into it, or you stop doing it. So at the beginning, I tried lots of things. I tried like Google ads and Facebook ads, and you know, reaching out to different referral providers, like doctors or physical therapists or personal trainers. After a while, there were a few things that consistently worked, like the more I did them, the more patients I would get, and there were certain things that didn't seem to do anything or would just bring the types of patients that maybe I didn't want to see. You know, one thing in starting a business is like honing who your target audience is and who your client or patient base is. And at the beginning, you know, you're just a new acupuncturist. You want to see anybody, right? You're like, I need patients, so I'll take anyone. But I always knew that for me, like pain was my biggest specialty, probably pain and stress are the two biggest things. So let me just focus all my energy into figuring out where those types of patients come from. And ultimately it was getting referrals from physical therapists, personal trainers, some orthopedic doctors. Word of mouth is always for any business, right? The longer you're in business, the more people you've helped, the more people talk about you. And then also, you know, I found that doing some marketing through Instagram was actually a good platform. At first, it didn't really work well. I hired someone to help me manage that aspect. And I found that between that and getting reviews online, So that's like a three prong stream now where it's like I'm getting word of mouth from existing patients. I'm getting referrals from different types of providers that deal with pain. And then my people are finding me online as well. Now I've figured that out, but it definitely took some time to get to that.

Lixandra: What were some mental challenges of growing your business?

Teddy: When you have a business, your income depends on like how many patients you see, how hard you're working to get them, how hard you're working to manage the business. So especially at the beginning, there's a lot of pressure to put in a lot. And if you're not seeing patients at the beginning, you have a lot of free time. So that was, uh, probably a pretty anxiety riddled process of just, am I doing a good job? Should I be doing more? Is the business going to be okay? I think those are questions a lot of new business owners are constantly asking and then just seeing the numbers of okay I lost money this month, how am I going to turn it around. A lot of the marketing efforts, it's not like you do something and tomorrow you have a patient some of these efforts, especially when it comes to word of mouth and referrals. it takes a long time to build relationships and just establish yourself as an acupuncturist. So for me, that was hard to accept that, okay, this is a process. And there was part of me who got that. I mean, I had like a financial model I built knowing that I'm paying this much in expenses. How many patients do I need to break even? So that was the thing I was always looking at all the time. It was like, I don't remember the number. I'm just going to make up a number. I need 20 patients this month to cover my expenses. And that was really always the goal was like, get to that number and then you'll start making money.

Lixandra: Did giving yourself a concrete goal, like 20 patients, like you said, help with your anxiety? So you could think, all right, I have 20 to focus on this month instead of getting overwhelmed by everything.

Teddy: Yeah, I think that was probably the biggest thing is that I had a plan. And, you know, every time I would tweak the plan based on how many patients I saw or any new expenses. And I think, you know, I would model things up for the whole year. And just also just about setting positive intentions, like, okay, the goal is to get to 20 this month. the goal is to get to 30 next month and then 40. And then I actually had built it out a year in advance for the whole year of like, and then, you know, every month I would kind of adjust it. Okay. Maybe I didn't make that. And there were some months, wow, I did better than I thought. And seeing that always felt good. And I think the more anxious I would get, and sometimes the more I would tweak that and play around with it. And it would give me some comfort that, okay, this is like a viable thing that down the road, I think I'll be okay. So I think the finance background was so vital for me to get through those beginning stages. And even now, I still rely on that all the time.

Lixandra: Now, let's talk about the pandemic. It hit when your practice was still new. How did it affect your business?

Teddy: Well, when the shutdown in New York happened, it was March 13th, 2020, and at that point, acupuncturists weren't allowed to work at all. I think there was just a ton of uncertainty. At that point, I had my office and I was working for another practice. They decided to close the business temporarily, and I had to do the same thing with my practice. Each day, I had no idea when was I going to work again. And every day was like another day. I wasn't seeing patients, I was paying rent on my office, and I just didn't know when things would get back to normal. I started working again June 15th. The acupuncture office I'd been working in was still closed and I still had the room I was in for two and a half days. And so I was trying to build that up, not knowing if that office would open again or if it would stay closed. It seemed like it might end up staying closed and it actually did end up closing. And I was really lucky to find a space on the Upper West Side. There are a lot of psychologists and all of them had gone virtual on Zoom at that point. So there were a lot of empty psychology offices that were basically just open rooms that could double as acupuncture offices. So I found an office within a three room suite. And at first I said, you know, I'm going to go for it. I'm going to rent a room in this office. So I rented this room full time and I did the math. It was, you know, actually when you do all the math, it wasn't that much more than what I was paying, but I had to pay a security deposit. So there was like a lot of upfront expenses that I had to stomach and really just had to be confident that, okay, I'm going to do this. I'm going to figure it out. I'm going to go all in on my business here. I rented the room in September and by December I was inquiring about renting a second room because I was getting so busy. I even hired a friend during that time to work for me because I was getting a lot of phone calls. Now that I look back on it, it was because a lot of acupuncturists had left the city. They had moved out during the pandemic and closed their businesses like the place I had been working at. So they were just less acupuncturist. And on the Upper West Side, I was lucky that people were working from home there. It's a more residential neighborhood and a higher income neighborhood. So people still had their jobs up there and they maybe had an acupuncturist where they used to work, but they weren't commuting. So they were looking for that service close to home. And I happened to come up more often. So my business really grew tremendously during the pandemic, you know, especially in the fall. And eventually I took over the third room, so now I have a three-room office suite for my business, which is something I never thought my business could sustain. And it's just really a testament to making a plan and sticking with it and trying to execute.

Lixandra: Okay, so the pandemic actually helped your business to grow. It's now been three years since you started your practice Morningside Acupuncture. I want to touch upon what you said earlier, that you liked that your acupuncturist David had gotten to know you well. Now that you're on the flip side, how do you find working with clients?

Teddy: And when it comes to professions and dealing with patients, I think I am more open than like my primary care doctor is with me or like maybe like a psychologist, like my wife doesn't tell her patients anything because that's just part of the treatment, right? If you know too much about your therapist, it might affect the treatment. Whereas with acupuncture, you know, I don't think that's necessarily the case. So I really enjoy getting to know my patients and, you know, they've gotten to know me over the years and I really enjoy that part of the job.

Lixandra: Okay. So tell us about your practice Morningside Acupuncture.

Teddy: Morningside Acupuncture is an acupuncture practice on the Upper West Side in New York City, and we specialize in treating pain and stress. And the way we do that is by combining traditional acupuncture with another style of acupuncture called trigger point acupuncture, or sometimes called dry needling. Primarily people are coming in for things like neck pain, back pain, shoulder pain, hip pain, general muscle tightness, headaches. Often those can have a muscle tightness component to them. So, you know, one of our specialties is doing the trigger point acupuncture.

Lixandra: And where can listeners find you? What's your website?

Teddy: www.morningsideacupuncturenyc.com. We're also on Instagram at Morningside Acupuncture NYC. We also have a Facebook page under Morningside Acupuncture NYC, and we're also on LinkedIn.

Lixandra: Great. And to wrap up, what three tips can you offer our listeners who are working on making their career switch?

Teddy: The first one would be to be brave, you know, go with your gut. If you feel really strongly about something, that's your body trying to tell you something. So go with that. Number two is to make a plan. You know, any large change is difficult with or without a plan, but it is much easier when you have a plan and that definitely helps when there are setbacks because there will be setbacks. And the third is to just stick to the plan and have confidence in yourself. It can be really scary to go through big changes. I definitely went through a lot of ups and downs in the process. I really appreciate getting to share my story. I'm really thankful that I'm getting to live my dream and I wish other people the best if they're going through similar life changes. Thanks again for having me.

Lixandra: Thanks to Teddy Levarda for being our guest today. You can find Teddy at his website morningsideacupuncturenyc.com and on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. You can find links to the resources mentioned in this episode and more helpful information in the show notes and on our website, careerswitchpod.com. 

So, what's your career switch? Are you motivated to take action after listening to this episode? Tell us at careerswitchpod.com. We'd love to know, along with any feedback you have about the show. Let us know too, if you'd like to be a guest. Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn at careerswitchpod. And please rate, review, and share with your friends and colleagues. It'll help get the show out there. Thanks for listening today. Till next time.