¶ Introduction to Marta Hamilton
Thank you for coming on board today to listen to our podcast . Today we have our featured speaker , Marta Hamilton , who is the founder and creator of Telewellness Hub , a digital platform startup revolutionizing the experience of access to mental health and wellness providers .
Telewellness Hub instantly connects users for free to mental health wellness providers and their full range of content , offering on-demand access and flexible options for provider appointments and their services beyond therapy educational videos , podcasts , provider-created products and resources all in one powerful digital hub .
Welcome , Marta , thank you for coming on our show today .
Thanks so much for having me and for this wonderful introduction .
Yes , thank you . And before we get started , I would like to hear a little bit from you and your personal journey of why you do the wellness work that you do .
¶ Marta's Personal Wellness Journey
That is a good question . I'm used to asking that question to others , so it's so interesting kind of having that flipped right . I think my why is a combination and , I think , cumulative experience as a student , as a provider , as a therapy client , as someone who has walked life as a single mom , as a mom , as a wife , as a sister .
I think mental health and wellness touches so many aspects of our lives and it's such a critical part of , for me , of living right . This sense of like wellness is so important and it's unique to every individual and unique to different phases of life and different aspects of ourselves .
And I just found that I really felt that there is nothing like knowing that you can impact someone's life , like the work that you're doing is creating this meaning and instilling hope for their future , and that is a really priceless experience . That's .
You know , unless you're a provider , you don't necessarily you can experience it perhaps in other ways , you know , as a friend , helping other people navigate , but as a provider , it is so rewarding to really get to experience that shift , that change , that inspiration , that hope , and that is why I keep doing it instead of something else right , because we all have
these options for what we do in our career and I just I feel really confident that I am aligned in the field that I've been .
Absolutely , and if I could just mirror your sentiments , being a therapist myself , it's such a rewarding feeling to be in the field to heal others , to make an impact on their lives , and even in with through our podcast , having others listen to the different providers and the different guest speakers and how the impact of wellness recovery affects their lives every
day . It's just such a rewarding experience . So thank you for kind of explaining a little bit about your journey . I want to hear more from you , marta , on specifically did you anticipate the kind of the power or the how much
¶ Building Telewellness Hub
Telewellness Hub has taken off ? The power or the um , how much tele-wellness hub has taken off ? Did you anticipate it would be this kind of such a ? Um , huge experience and a huge platform to give others to speak on these topics ?
Honestly , if I was very honest . No , I think I stepped into tele-wellness hub a little bit naive of what , of what all , what it would entail and where it would lead me and the types of conversations and platforms that I would be connecting with .
I thought I saw a need for us as providers , for a tech-centered a health tech-centered platform that allowed us to make a greater impact when it came to our clients , whether it's through offering a transformation in how we do our work , right to be able to see more clients , to be able , beyond our zip code , right like other directories , or to be able to offer
services outside of one-on-one therapy , to be able to showcase that we have workshops or products , to be able to showcase our multiple disciplines that we might do if we are doing coaching and therapy or consulting and therapy , and so I thought let's just see if we can make this , and there have been lots of ups and downs and learning curves and a lot of
resources , time , my mental space , like I'm always thinking about telehealth , and I did not anticipate that it would lead me to , you know , pitch competitions and discussions with investors and learning , really being in the kind of the tech field , being in this tech startup world .
It's so different than private practice , so I didn't I , I just kind of leaped into it , not really , not really fully knowing what it all would entail , but it's been a fun journey so far , yeah .
Awesome and with all the different hats that you just kind of pointed out , you know , being a single mom , being a sister , being all the different roles that you've taken on Tell me what keeps you grounded in this realm , in this industry ?
¶ Finding Balance While Building a Startup
That is a good question because I think there are days that it changes . I think I have a wonderful family , like I'm very close .
I'm very fortunate that I'm very close to my , my family , my parents , my , my brother , who works in the tech industry , so he's been really helpful , like in marketing and giving me his insight , even when I don't want to , like I don't want to necessarily hear it right , like , hey , your website is down or you need to fix this link or you need to do X , y
and Z and it's things . It's it's encouragement and balance and having people who are looking out for your , for , for what you're building , but also for yourself . I have an amazing husband now , um , I , you know , I have my daughters , and so I think I've had to be really intentional about how I used my time .
I think , once I learned to really block off chunks of time that I knew were going to be for either myself like making sure I went to yoga , for example is like that's what helps me or I literally had a block off , like walking my dog and just being outside walking my dog , listening to music for fun , listening to podcasts for fun , and being really intentional
about , um , staying connected with , with people that know me , um , and people that I I care about , being able to ask them what's going on in their life , right , and friends , family .
That has been what has been really helpful in um , helping me feel less chaotic , because when you're on your own business whether it's private practice , right , or you're launching a different startup it's so easy to never turn it off , like there's always something you could be doing right , like there's always something you could be doing .
And I think , by being really mindful of my time , I think that was like the best way for me . Like , okay , it's time to turn off that part of my brain , it's time to turn off that part of my like role and it's time to turn on just , you know , going to yoga time , to just family movie night .
It's time to just be okay with not being productive right now , because in slowing down , I found that I became more productive because I wasn't working from a place of burnout . I was able to work from a place of , you know , a refreshed mind and spirit .
I love that you speak on that because I think in today's society we're always built to just go , go , go and you know school work , take our kids to other activities and it's always such a fast paced kind of competitive environment and to produce and excel .
So I love that you kind of brought that intersect there like being mindful and understanding that our time is very valuable and to turn off those you know , leave work at work , and to leave whatever obligations that may be ruminating in our head , leaving it at work and not taking it home with us .
So I love that you kind of illuminated that experience and how it works for you . Did you imagine that you would , five years ago , looking back on this project ? Did you imagine that it would take off the way it did and expand the way it has ? And what are your dreams maybe for ? the next vision on board .
¶ The Vision for Mental Health Tech
So yeah , five years ago this wasn't even necessarily on my radar yet , but like close to five years it was I knew that I wanted , like my private practice was very focused on integrative services . My private practice was named integrative solutions center . So , my idea was I really wanted to bring um . I had neuropsych , I had counseling , I had yoga .
I just I just really believed that there was I guess it was in the works that an approach to helping any potential client find the care that they needed in one central place . That was always something that I had envisioned and it just ended up being through technology . I did not anticipate the on like . We were able to onboard 700 providers .
We've had interest . What's been the hardest thing for me , if anything , is not being able to anticipate , I guess , from like , the technology standpoint , how much I needed to create . Well , first of all , it it takes cost a lot of money to create a custom web application . I I didn't anticipate that .
If I'm honest , I'm gonna just be really candidly I thought oh we can do this , like on WordPress or make a website , and I learned it is not that easy , like this is a whole platform , and so I had to , I had to really so . I had to .
I had to really so in order to , in order to execute the vision and the dream and what I know this can be in the future . I had not going to . I cannot , I'm not going to charge them right now . I need their input . Let's build something with their input . I had to be okay with that because the vision for what's to come is like so amazing .
I I had to learn from you know where we started to where we are now , because we went through iterations where we realized , okay , we need a platform that's as powerful and built on the same technology as Netflix and Airbnb , because , for all these listings , for all the searching and I had , and that's what we did , like we're , that's what , what , that's what's
happening right now in the backend and I'm very excited because it's going to be . It's going to be amazing . It's going to be a mix of providers being able to really find freedom .
There's other platforms out there , but I think what makes Telewellness Hub different is that it's built by a provider for providers and like even us as providers , coming together right To have these conversations and and really showcase individual providers so that you're not another number in a big tech company .
Exactly .
You're not like a contractor or an employee of Telewellness Hub . You run your practice and you have the freedom that you want . And basically , I have this . I now have an amazing technology team that has worked for like big corporations who can build the platform that we all wish existed , so as providers .
So I'm I'm very excited for what's to come , because now we will have the ability to , I guess , keep up with , keep up with these other platforms with keep up with these other platforms in in the health tech space that maybe aren't created by providers and they have their , their usefulness and I'm grateful for them in many ways .
But I think , like , for our future for mental health and wellness , we need someone who's and I call it's not just me , it's not me , it's like a collective , it's all just me , it's not me , it's like a collective , it's all the providers who have , like seen a part of the vision and are on board Like collectively .
We need us together to create this platform so that we can mobilize and be able to to have a voice in in the mental health and wellness industry , so that we can also , in doing so , empower our clients , because we know their needs , we know what needs to be done in this mental health system that is very broken .
It's very broken , and so that's my dream , that's my vision , and I I see it coming to life slowly , like brick by brick , because it was know I'm not backed by like a big venture capitalist firm that you know it's been slow and steady , and but now we're here , so now it's it's time . The big reveal is going to be huge .
Well , we're so excited to be on board with this tele wellness hub podcast . As you know , I've been a guest speaker a couple of times and many of my friends are fans of this platform and kind of the vision that we have on board .
I'll just have to say it's been a humbling experience to be part of this community as well , because you know it's such a demand for what we need having providers connect with others . The topics that you speak about on these podcasts are really like hot button issues and things that people can really relate to on everyday levels .
Just out of curiosity , where did you kind of get this ? Where did you kind of get
¶ Humanizing the Therapist Experience
this passion for this intersect , for this , for this platform ?
Well , I think you know I've been a private practice owner myself . I've been a group practice owner myself . I understood the pain points and the struggles of being able to share your voice while you're also seeing clients . Right , like that's , your main priority is your client .
And you know , sometimes there were days I was in session back to back eight to eight .
You know those were my long days and on Wednesdays , wednesdays , I saw clients eight to eight and you know you're just hoping you have time to eat lunch and you know , call people , make your documentation and respond to insurance and questions that they have and different things with different providers . I just thought like wow , what an amazing person , colleague .
I felt like really inspired and encouraged and motivated by each encounter that I thought if we , if we can just showcase and highlight and give , give a spotlight to this person of what they're doing where they don't have to do worry about like how do I go about that myself ?
Right , because , like I said , like you're just trying to figure out , how do I make lunch for myself , like make time for lunch sometimes , I mean truly if we can figure out a way to make it easier for providers to do the wellness work that they do , and also easier for potential clients to get a glimpse as to what a provider is like , like even their
mannerisms , right , like when searching for a therapist , you're like I don't know , I guess I'll Google them and you don't know what it's going to be like working with them . But how nice to get a little inside glimpse as to you know what they , what their expertise is because they talked about it on their podcast episode their history , their viewpoints .
It brings an openness that I think is necessary in the mental health and wellness field to take away some of that stigma , to make it approachable . And it's a platform where potential clients don't have to pay and sign up to register . They can freely search and find their ideal provider .
So in doing that , that's a win for a provider too , because you want to have the ideal client find you and you want to be the ideal provider for your client . So , um , there's just a lot there for for what's driven my passion .
But I think my experience as a provider , um , in private practice and as a therapy client client myself , ultimately is the main thing that has propelled this forward .
Yes , and to your point . I really love how Telewellness Hub really just gives an opportunity to humanize us as therapists , because I think sitting in the client role , they don't get to know too much about the therapist . It's not actually a dual relationship here , it's actually one relationship that's very one-sided .
So when you see our speakers on Telewellness Hub , you really get to know them on a personal level , what they're passionate about , what their dreams are , what humanizes them , and I think that I love how we have that opportunity to get to know the therapist on board . So that is the right fit for both the therapist and the client .
Well , martha , I want to thank you so much for being on our podcast today and being on our wellness journey . As always , you've been a leader in our field and I really appreciate you coming on board to share a little bit about how you got started with Cal Wellness Hub . And thank you , listeners , for being part of our show today .
Thank you so much , it was a pleasure .