The Transparent Podcast
The Transparent Podcast
India Martin - Brain Integration and a Purpose-Driven Practice
Every founder remembers the moment the idea stopped being abstract and started feeling urgent. That spark drives this conversation with India Martin, Owner of Atlanta Brain Integration and the first brain integration practitioner in Georgia—a journey born of a personally driven purpose and the search for a gentler, more effective path to healing.
Learn more about India's mission and Atlanta Brain Integration at https://www.atlantabrainintegration.com/
Hi, this is Nick Ford, and I'm the host of the Transparent Podcast, where we believe in bringing transparency to the world of small business. And this week I am joined by a guest, India. India, let you introduce yourself.
SPEAKER_00:Hi, Nick. Thank you so much for having me on your show. I really appreciate the opportunity. Um, my name is India Martin, and I am uh the owner of Atlanta Brain Integration. I am a brain integration practitioner. I'm actually the first in the state of Georgia.
SPEAKER_02:That's amazing. Yeah, that's so interesting. I'm sure we're gonna be able to talk a lot about that. So, yeah, I this is exactly why I started the podcast. My the idea behind the podcast was I just really felt like more people should get into entrepreneurship. And I think there's ways that entrepreneurs who you know were working for another company are able to offer different levels of service when they can do it on their own and and do it outside of the corporate structure that sometimes bogs down, especially medical practice, uh, as you know. And so the idea was to let people hear from other entrepreneurs and how they got started, and hopefully that would inspire other people to to take that leap or at least move forward in the process. Uh so you know, one of the I love watching Shark Tank. And so one of the things they talk about on Shark Tank when these entrepreneurs come and pitch their ideas is they they tell them you need to be all in. Like if they find out that the person has a job uh on top of the business, a lot of times they're like, No, you need to quit your job and be all in this business. What do you think about that? Do you think that you can do a have a side business and it be successful? Or do you think you know you gotta jump all in and go for it?
SPEAKER_00:Well, you know, Nick, I think that I think you can be successful either way. Um just depends on your circumstances. Um, I come from a family of entrepreneurs. I'm third generation entrepreneur. Um, and because of that, I have some relatives who work full-time, have full-time corporate jobs, and they have um small businesses as kind of a side thing, and they do really well. Um, it's still allows them to be successful, they supplement their income and they enjoy it. But then I have some who have the circumstances to just kind of dive in with both feet and and be all in. So I think either way, you can be successful.
SPEAKER_02:Right. I think, yeah, I think it depends on what you want to do with the business too, because there's some businesses that people will go into knowing, okay, this is a stay-aside business, like a second stream of income, like uh, you know, rental property. Like that can be that's can be a fairly hands-off business, especially if it's like a long-term rental or something. You just need to make sure you get a good tenant and and then you know, you don't need to be involved in it every day. Whereas like my business is very hands-on, like I need to be involved with recruiting and with working with clients and things like that. It makes it a lot harder to be, you know, it can't really run itself on its own. So I need to be more involved with it. But uh, yeah, I think it just depends. I think I think a lot of times too, uh, a good point that someone else made on the podcast actually was it it changes when you're taking capital from someone. If you're taking capital from an investor like a shark on Shark Tank, they have a different expectation when they're taking their money to go into the business. Yeah. So I think that does change things.
SPEAKER_00:So that's true. I agree.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. So tell me a little bit more about how you got into the behavioral health space and uh Atlanta brain integration.
SPEAKER_00:Well, I definitely uh I never thought I would be in any type of behavioral health field. I I had no um plans um of doing so, but you know, sometimes when you go through your own struggles, um, it kind of opens your mind up a bit to different areas that you can be of assistance to others. Um my second child, um, while being an absolute blessing, came with a lot of challenges. Um, I ended up being diagnosed with placenta previa, kind of, which is a very risky um pregnancy, and started dealing with anxieties of my own. You know, uh I never had been a person who suffered from any sort of anxiety, panic attacks, anything like that. I really didn't understand it. But going through that on the heels of having some very close family losses um led me to start to experience um a lot of anxiety, you know, um, and even to the point of having a panic attack. Um so it's something I never dealt with. Um, and it of course that energy transferred to my my unborn child. And so, you know, she came here very nervous, very shy, and then COVID hit. So it was like the perfect storm. So um, you know, long story story short, I actually ended up being referred by another practitioner to um a brain integration practitioner in in Boston. And the process just did wonders for myself and my family. Um, people would literally stop me and ask, like, is this the same little girl? You know, um, and so I was um, you know, introduced to the field by Jackie Gorman, which is um she's my mentor in Boston. And then I was introduced to Nancy Lodi, who trained her, and um she identified a great need for practitioners in my area. There are uh just a little over 200 pack practitioners throughout the country, but there were absolutely none in my state. So after a lot of thought and prayer, and you know, had a lot of discussion with my husband, who by the way, you know, has been extremely supportive through the entire process, um, decided to just kind of take that leap leap of faith and dive right in.
SPEAKER_02:Wow, what a that's an amazing story. Thank you. That's really amazing. Thank you for being open and sharing some of that um kind of history. And yeah, um, we had family that also dealt with the placenta for previous, and it it ended up resolving itself. Um, I guess in the first trimester it can be more common and then it can resolve itself if if it's early on. So it did end up doing that. So it's I think we got too worried about it because it was actually more common than we thought. And I mean, if it didn't resolve itself, it's very it can be very risky, but yeah, but yeah. Um so yeah, that and then you know, like you, I I shared with you that I've I've spent a lot of time in the behavioral health space and I've dealt with my own behavioral health uh you know, depression, and so just and then we've had family with autism, and so you know, I've worked with uh one of the clients I've worked with is a school-based behavioral health school, and so they have licensed clinical social workers on staff for a therapeutic day school, and so being able to like help those kind of clients that are helping kids like that um is super impactful and just gives you a different layer of your why, you know, why you're you're doing what you're doing. So that's great.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. So um as far as you know, I've looked into, and I don't know how this works with what you're doing, but I've looked into sort of the franchising idea, and I looked, I looked pretty heavily into I was one really wanted to do a coffee shop and had talked to a Hawaiian uh coffee franchise that I love that they have quite a few locations in uh Florida, and there's just nothing like that in Atlanta. There's not a Hawaiian, I don't know of a Hawaiian coffee shop in Atlanta.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I've never heard of that either.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, but what do you think about that idea of you know buying a franchise and kind of having a playbook and you know, maybe some back-end marketing support and things like that versus starting on your own from scratch?
SPEAKER_00:Well, I think that when you start it yourself, it means more. Like Atlanta Brain Integration, or I use the acronym ABI, that's my baby. Like literally from the logo, from my marketing methods, from my office space. I mean, just hours and hours of my time have gone into this. Um and so not that if you purchase a franchise, you can't, you know, have the same level of integrity to your business, but I just feel like um it's closer to your heart when you kind of build it yourself. Um for me, the integrity of what I offer, um, people them being treated in a way that allows them to really see the value of my work is like super high priority. Um we live in a time where everything is ridiculously expensive and people are spending their hard earned, yeah, and people are spending their hard-earned money, you know, on whatever it is that you're offering. So it's very important to me that they see the value of the work. Um and, you know, I come from a city where mom and pop establishments are very common. Um, and I feel like for me, I've always been able to see the difference between the um those type of establishments versus kind of the big box ones.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Yeah, because in in, you know, anytime you are in a franchise or when you're working for another company, there are limitations. You know, there's guardrails that you have to kind of stay within. And um, so there's there's definitely uh there's a factor there. And like I th I had uh had Dr. Connolly on on the podcast, and he talked about like for him, he's able to like pray with patience, which you can integrate his faith into his practice. And if you work somewhere else, that you may not be able to do that, they may not be comfortable with that. And so there's just and then just how you want to do business and how you want to like your like you were talking about with marketing and things, you can have your own strategy. There's there's pros and cons, you know. You can hopefully like with a like that coffee shop, you do have their whole marketing team to to back to back you up and that kind of thing. So I think there's there's there's pros and cons. Um, but for me, uh you know, I obviously started my company from scratch and I wouldn't have done it any other way. Also, you know, especially uh for someone who is first getting into entrepreneurship, I think um buying a business can be risky because you don't learn all the business when you do that. You don't you're not learning how everything works. Whereas like for me, I've been a solopreneur a good bit of the time. I've had contractors, but I haven't had a big team of like employees, so I've had to wear all the hats, and I'm now I understand how all of the business works, and so that just that helps you so much. And and I think I was able to do that partly because my grandfather, like you, you have a family of entrepreneurs, my grandfather was an entrepreneur, and one of the pieces of advice when I went into my first job out of college, I asked him, like, well, if I want to be an entrepreneur someday, like what should I do now to to be able to prepare for that? And he was like, Learn your business, like what you're you're part of the business, but learn all the other parts of the business. Learn how all the different departments work together and what they're all doing and contributing to the final product or service. Because if you want to start your own business one day, you're gonna need to understand all of that.
SPEAKER_00:So I agree with you. Yeah, that's that is sage advice.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah, for sure. He was why he was a wise man. Um, but yeah, so you're how so how long have you been in uh your business now, and what are some of your you know, scaling challenges or you know, your growth things that you're working on?
SPEAKER_00:So I've had my business for um a little over a year. Um approaching a year and a half. I would say the biggest challenge is just time. Um you know, I have at home I have two small children that are still in elementary school. I have a stepdaughter that's in college, I'm married, I have various religious um activities that I'm involved in, um very close-knit family life. So just trying to balance everything can be tough. Um, because while this is my baby, they're they're my real babies. So I um struggle with just I I want to make sure that I'm there for my household. Um, and I want to make sure that I'm balanced with my time. Um plus, you know, with this being an energy-based work, um it can be really taxing. Um, so self-care is super, super important. Um, so you know, while I have a million great ideas on what I can do next to grow the business and to um enhance the business, just finding the time to execute everything is probably the biggest challenge.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I I can totally relate with that. And I I follow um, there's this guy named Art Williams. I don't know if you've heard of him, but he he was a um he owned a massive life insurance company. And then he also was a motivational speaker. I think he still is, but he's up in years now. But uh he has this speech called the Do It Speech, and the summary of the speech is just do it. But he uh talks about how you know when he started getting higher up in the corporate world, he started realizing that a lot of the people he looked up to that were super successful in business, they had their family life was a wreck because they all they did cared about was business. Yeah, and and that's what people told him was like you have to put a business first, and uh business has to be your number one priority in your baby if you want to be successful. And he said, like, you know, I knew from the beginning that I that was not gonna be work for me, and that he believes that faith has to come first, family has to come second, and business has to come third. And basically said, if you don't do that, your the your family life and you know the other aspects of your life are going to impact your business long term if you don't take care of those things first.
SPEAKER_00:That's true.
SPEAKER_02:So and I think you know, with that, like finding that work-life balance, because I definitely struggled with that early on when we had when our kids were young, like newborns with our first with our firstborn, like I was working 70, 80 hours a week and wasn't helping with you know the kids as as as much as I should or spending time with them. And so over the years I've gotten better about it. I can't ever say it's perfect, but definitely try to you know find the balance. And I think too, like one of the things, you know, if you if you decide you're gonna work 60 hours a week, you'll find a way to fill 60 hours. But if you tell yourself I have 40 hours to get what I need to get done, done, you've probably gonna find the time to get it done in that that amount of time, and you'll work harder, work faster, or find better ways to do things. It's worked relatively for me. There's times where I have to adapt that, but yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Um, well, so you know, Art Williams is one of those motivational people. I love studying like successful people and like you know, Steve Jobs or people like that, or I love um people like Tony Robbins, like motivational speakers and things like that. And they they always talk about what separates successful people from people who fail, because I don't remember what the statistic is now, but it's like I don't know, four out of five companies fail in the first like five years or something. Um some crazy statistic. So what do you think kind of separates those people? Because you you have a it sounds like you know, generational entrepreneurship family. So what do you think about that?
SPEAKER_00:You know, um well, I I feel like while I'm kind of too new to speak from experience, um, like you said, um through observance, observance of you know, my relatives that have had successful businesses, um I think just being steadfast, um showing integrity. Your reputation is so important. Um working hard, just just being able not being afraid of rolling your sleeves up and and wearing different hats, like you mentioned. Um and also um not just continuing to learn and grow. Um spending time for me, like I know that spending time around other practitioners um really helps me keep my edge. Um hearing their struggles, um, seeing their success. It helps to keep me from you know getting discouraged and just kind of keep going. Um and I love to learn. So learning the next new thing and how I can how I can help what I do to evolve and just get better. I mean, I I absolutely like I just thrive off of that, but also pacing yourself because um, you know, I've learned through experience now that if you don't, when it's time to sit down, your body's gonna force you to sit down. So pacing yourself is really important.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. So it sounds like for you, uh a big importance is on continual learning, like continuing to get better and learn and and not grow stagnant.
SPEAKER_00:Yes. Um, we have a monthly practitioner call where you know all the practitioners around the country just kind of hop on. And literally, there's not one time I get on that call and I don't just I'm not able to collect just a bag full of gems. I learned so much from my colleagues. So um continuing to learn is is extremely important to me.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. I think that's yeah, I think that's really important. I think one of the things that separates successful people is they study other successful people. Like they're they f they they're they're willing to learn, they're willing to adapt, they absolutely um pay attention to those things. And the other thing is too, like being willing to ask for help, like being willing to reach out to like your peers, because some people think like, oh, I own a coffee shop, I'm not gonna reach out to the coffee shop down the street and ask them what's working for them. They're a competitor. But like in my experience, so much of the time people are willing to share, like they're willing to help. Um, and you know, Starbucks is probably not going to do that, but you know, another local coffee shop, they want to help the other local coffee shop. Like they want what's what's beat Starbucks, you know. Um, that's they're they're not the real we're not each other's competition, really. The big guys are. Um and I think that's I found that.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I think that's the beauty of one of the the things I love about what I do. Um there aren't so many of us that it's cutthroat. So literally, you could just just about call any practitioner with a question. Um, we have a Facebook group, and at any time you can drop a question in there, and you know, you'll get 10 different answers with everyone's ready, ready and willing to help.
SPEAKER_02:So right, absolutely. Yeah, I and for me, I think as far as what the success, to me, the biggest thing I think is the people who know where they're going and have goals, I think is the biggest thing that separates people. Like if you look at someone like Steve Jobs, which he had other flaws, but he was a visionary. He he saw like an ideal future that other people didn't see and then figured out how to make it happen. And so I think the people who see a different, you know, I future ideal um or and are working toward that continually and keep their focus on it. Um that's that's another one of those people that I follow. His name's Ernest Nightingale. He's he's passed away now, but his thing was the people the thing that separates successful people is having goals, just being able to, you know, uh he had a thing where for 30 days write down what your like life goal is and look at it every day. And that if you do that, there's no way you will not go closer to that goal because that's all you're thinking about. And he believed that you'll become what you think about. And I definitely believe that as well. Um, so I think you know, having goals that are realistic goals that you can work toward. Um, and I believe in I call it I think I made this up, but I call it laddering, where like you have like a next floor you're trying to reach, but there's ladders, you know, ladder steps in between. So you have like kind of micro goals that you know are working towards the bigger goals. Yes. Um, so I think that's that's the biggest thing to me, I think, is is knowing where you're going and what you're shooting for.
SPEAKER_00:So agree.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Yeah. So one of the things that um, and I don't know. Well, tell me a little bit more about what what kind of team do you have right now, or is it just you now, or what's your dynamic? Okay. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yep.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. And so how does that that's a great question for you then. So how do you most how how do you spend your time? Because there's different things that you can be focused on. And as a a kind of clinician, you can't you want to spend time with patients, but you can't be all of your time if you're the only one in in the business. So how do you do that?
SPEAKER_00:So yeah, um, I try to be very intentional about my time. Um because it is just me. So um, you know, and people who do this type of work are typically natural empaths. So sometimes you can get so wrapped up with your client that you are just you you could easily go over time. And so, you know, just really sticking to a schedule um is super important. I have a daily checklist that is key for me. And I may not check off every box each day, but it's my outline. It just kind of helps me stay on task um because I really don't have much time to waste.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I think that's yeah, that's that's huge. I um I read the story about I don't remember what the company was, but the CEO brought in an outside consulting company. It was like you know, a KPMG or like a PWC big company, and was wanted personal coaching on how to spend his time as CEO, like what he should be doing. And um they tr they charged like something ridiculous, like$25,000 to come in for like a couple days to do this consulting. And the advice that they gave him was for him to make a list daily of all the things that he needed to get done and to prioritize them by what is the most important for the business and for you, and go to go down that list and do not go to number two until number one has been completed for the day. And it's so simple, and but it changed the it changed the way he was running the business because he wasn't doing it, yeah. Um so like that's awesome that you have a checklist because you focus on the things that are most important first, I'm sure. So I do.
SPEAKER_00:I I it like I said, it I don't check every box every day, but it keeps me on task.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so you're in the wrong business. You need to be doing consulting and charge$25,000 to CEOs.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I see.
SPEAKER_02:So yeah, um, well, very good. So yeah, for me, it's challenging because you know, I have one full-time employee and then I have some cons uh consultants, contractors that that work part-time or on commission with me. And yeah, like I love recruiting, I love networking. And, you know, we met through BI, and so I love doing networking groups like that. And so finding the balance of like how much time do I spend working with candidates that I'm recruiting or working with clients that I'm working with and um the administrative parts of the business, which you know, that's that's a challenge is like the administrative parts. I don't that's probably my least favorite part of it. Um I do like it and I like having control of it, I guess, but it also is like not the exciting part of the business. Like you know, doing accounting as like a clinician is not like probably your forte. Like do it, it's just not fun.
SPEAKER_00:Exactly.
SPEAKER_02:But um, yeah, so that's that's the challenge for me, is just finding that balance, like where is my time most valuably spent, both like from a vision mission of the company and just practical, you know. So I'm um it's it's a and it's an adapting thing as as the company changes and things like that.
SPEAKER_00:So yeah, we're ever evolving.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. So where do you see um how do you see your business growing? Do you want to bring in more um people like you to replicate yourself, or do you happy with how it is and stay that way? Because being a solopreneur has benefits too. You don't have to worry about people.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that's true. Um, yeah, I would love to. I mean, Georgia's a big state. It would be wonderful if there were more practitioners here. Um but for me, um I guess I just I'll have to see how it goes. Um right now I'm just trying to uh grow the client base, um, which right so far I I've I need to do more, but I've done very little marketing. Um, but most of my growth has been just you know through referrals, uh, word of mouth, uh, which I feel like that's the strongest. Um, you know, that's the strongest type of growth. Um, but yeah, at some point if you know I had more clients than I could handle, I would definitely need another practitioner on board.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. And you have to license someone. You'd probably have to coach someone into getting licensed.
SPEAKER_00:They'd have to, yes, they'd have to go through the certification process. So it's it's not an overnight thing.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, right. So that might that take some future planning a little bit.
SPEAKER_00:Yes.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. So how do you think we can help other people that you know you're you're in the first year, so you've gotten through some early stages of you know, marketing and setting up the business and some of those administrative things like registering your LLC and and however you set that up. But what advice would you give to people who are entrepreneurs, the entrepreneur that's sitting on the fence with an idea and hasn't done anything yet?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Um well, as far as helping each other, those of us that are already kind of started, I think that um just if you can refer to each other, you absolutely should. Um, things like what you're doing, Nick. I think this podcast is amazing. Um, you know, just networking as much as possible. I mean, for me, I prefer to any type of business or money that needs to be spent. I prefer to go to the small guy versus the big box company. That's just my personal preference. But more of us that do that um help keep the little man in business. Um and just encouraging each other. Um, you know, like I said, we have a monthly practitioner call that's great. So having those type of forums to just get on there and just, you know, present new trade new ideas, um, you know, ways to help each other grow and be successful are great. And for those that are entrepreneurs, um, I would just say don't give up. Just the timing and circumstances will never be perfect. Like so don't be afraid to get out there, don't be afraid of change. Um, you may fail, but you know, when I was initially starting this, I um met the owner of um Olig Olive uh Olive Branch Wellness, sorry, in downtown Decatur. And she said something to me that really resonated because um, you know, she's a woman business owner like myself, she's a minority, she's a mom. And she told me that she wanted to be able to tell her girls that mommy tried. Mommy at least tried. And that really resonated with me because it may not work.
unknown:Right.
SPEAKER_00:But you just kind of get out there and give it all you can and just move forward.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah, 100%. I think that's spot on. You know, I think that just the advice I'd give too is just like take the first step. Like it'll be just as easy to take that first step as sitting on the idea and wishing that you had done something. Um definitely and so I mean evaluate the market and or give it away for free at first. Like if it's especially if it's like a service-based thing, test it out with a client, offer to do something for the client, a client for free, and just see if it's something that's needed and you know what kind of feedback you get. And then that hopefully will go a long way where they'll they'll refer you to someone who's gonna be a paying customer, possibly, um, if it goes well.
SPEAKER_00:And so and that's kind of exactly what happened in my case, because through our certification process, we have to have you know X amount of successful case studies. And some people that I, you know, had as case studies, they referred me, you know, like you said, paying clients.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think that's a great way to evaluate the market, and that's what I did at first. You know, I charged I didn't what did I didn't do it for free, but I charged probably half of what someone would pay another agency when I got started. And that was a lot easier to do when it was a side business. And you know, I hadn't have as much overhead back then. And so, you know, that gave me the opportunity to to get my foot in the door and and build um you also when you do that and you give us away, having that first success story to be able to fall back on and move forward into the next client or the next patient is so gives you so much validation to be confident going into the next step.
SPEAKER_00:Definitely.
SPEAKER_02:So, so yeah. Well, um, well, tell us a little bit more about um, you know, kind of as we get to to close here, tell us a little bit more about what you do and where people can find you.
SPEAKER_00:Sure. Um, so my office is located in Roswell, so just outside the metro area. And so brain integration is an energy-based work um that uses kinesiology or muscle monitoring to identify areas of the brain that um are testing for imbalance. So I follow a protocol that was put together by a neuroscientist and a psychologist, and it addresses 120 areas of the brain. And we're able to help with just a host of issues from anxiety to depression to ADHD, dyslexia, um, sleep issues. I mean, it's it's just such a wonderful work. Um, it's an energy-based work. Um, so it's non-invasive, it's a very relaxing process. Um and I mean, some I've even had clients to fall asleep on the table. So it's a non-invasive, relaxing process, and people see results while the results, you know, are guaranteed or um promised after going through the complete protocol. I typically have clients who see results after the first or second session. So it's wonderful.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that's perfectly perfect description. That's great. Yeah, thank you. Um I learned some just in that in that little bit there. So that's great. Um, and then do you have a website too where people can find more information?
SPEAKER_00:Yes, I do. It is AtlantaBrainintegration.com.
SPEAKER_02:Awesome.
SPEAKER_00:And I have lots, there's lots of resources on the website. I've got articles, videos, testimonials, the whole bit.
SPEAKER_02:Awesome. Okay. Well, I'll also leave a link to your website in the show notes so people can find that. Thank you. And uh thank you so much for being a guest on the podcast. This was a great this is a great conversation.
SPEAKER_00:Thanks for having me, Nick. It was wonderful.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely.