Episode 2 of the Working Moms Podcast is here to spark your inspiration, ignite your entrepreneurial spirit, and remind you that the pursuit of your dreams is a journey well worth taking. In this installment, we sit down with the incredible Dr. Rai Harris, a woman whose journey embodies the essence of work-life harmony and the entrepreneurial spirit.
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1. Are you from Chattanooga? If not, what brought you here?
I am from St. Louis, Missouri originally. We kind of came here because you can practice Chiropractic anywhere and so we wanted to find somewhere first that we wanted to live and where we wanted to raise a family. We happen to be stopping through Chattanooga on our way to a wedding in Atlanta and really just kind of fell in love. It actually had our Compromises on our list for where both of us wanted to live and so we took a jump and went for it and we love it here.
2. Tell me a little bit about Skyline Chiropractic. When and how did you start your company?
I had known that I was going to open my office right when I graduated and then I had some setbacks with boards and licensing and all that jazz so my plans got a little derailed. So instead of starting Skyline Chiropractic when I graduated I started it about a year later. I think it was at that point and we were pregnant and so we opened when Keya was six days old and haven’t really looked back. So we are a pre-conception, prenatal and pediatric office which is a little bit different than what people normally think of when they think of Chiropractic. We actually serve a lot of kids a lot of people about to have kids and a lot of people that really would love to have kids and so it’s it’s a really special place to be because people are trusting us with the health of the thing that they usually care about the most.
3. What would you say are your biggest strengths when it comes to your business?
I think our biggest strengths are our compassion in our humility. Business is not an easy place to be and I think it’s really easy to lose lose yourself morally. There has been so many times in these past five years that I feel like we we’re really tested and we’re often said like how would we want to be treated if we were in the situation. We did get burned a few times and I feel like we have lost a bit financially because of that but we really feel good about ourselves at the end of the day and I think that’s what matters most. So I think our strengths really lie in our compassion in our art, and need to serve people.
4. What would you say are your biggest challenges when it comes to owning a business and maintaining your personal/family life?
I was once told by a mentor that it wasn’t about balancing it was about harmony, because balance is such that you’re giving equal time to everything which is just never the case when you own a business and are a mom and running up and we are running a family and running a business. There is no equal time that you’re giving to anything. It's about harmonizing and it’s about making sure everyone has what they need in that moment and I think the biggest challenge is 1) becoming OK with being harmony and 2) knowing what that looks like accurately for every person in your family and not just yourself but take care of yourself, your spouse, your kids your business cause it’s like another baby and just making sure everybody has what they need in that moment, and that doesn’t include extended family friends, other people you wanna maintain relationships with, so it’s always. It’s always a harmonizing acting out of balancing act with harmonizing act.
5. When it comes to working with kids and having kids, what age group is your favorite and why?
I’m probably really strange for saying this, but I really love toddlers like that 2 to 5 age range is hysterical to me. I love that they are just usually really unabashed and that they’re not really ingrained into what society says that they need to rethink or you know they’re not really Influenced by anyone yet and I just love seeing that that raw personality come out so that they can just express themselves in the way that they were intended and I love seeing that.
6. What advice would you give someone just starting a company similar to yours?
Honestly, I would have to recycle some advice that a friend just gave to me and that’s that you’re not in business for the money money comes success comes, but what you’re in business for us to serve people and serve your community and if that’s not always the first thing on your mind business is gonna be miserable because owning a business is not for the faint of heart it’s gonna be miserable you’re gonna hate it it’s gonna feel way worse than a 9 to 5 grind so it’s really important to know Especially as a service professional who you’re here to serve why it’s you that was called to serve them and why your business is so important in their life.
Learn more about Skyline Chiropractic
Website: https://goskychi.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SkyChiChatt/