Entrepreneurial Success Stories – Melanie Berry Surpasses the $1M Milestone
Why entrepreneurs helping entrepreneurs is so unique, and so successful
Interview By: Dana Marxer, EO Charlotte Board Member and CEO at ayeQ
I recently sat down and chatted with two new graduates of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) Accelerator program. Their stories are totally different, yet their journeys were remarkably the same. This two-part blog post highlights each one – Melanie Berry, Owner and Clinical Director at Carolinas Biofeedback Clinic, and Logan Shinholser, Owner of Contractor Growth Network. Both of these entrepreneurs recently completed EO’s Accelerator program, aimed at equipping entrepreneurs with the tools they need to scale up their business. Graduating from the program requires the business to surpass the milestone of $1Million in revenue. The EO Accelerator program is unique in the region because it was created by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs.
Melanie’s Story
Some of us are just born entrepreneurs. From childhood, Melanie’s question was not “why,” by “why not?” That was her filter on life, challenging traditional constraints and barriers. After three smaller entrepreneurial ventures, Melanie asked the bigger “why not” on our approach to healthcare.
Melanie is a Board Certified (BCIA) Fellow in Biofeedback, Board Certified (NTCB) in Neurofeedback, and a Diplomate in qEEG by the American Neurotherapy Association (ANA), with a master’s degree in Psychology. She has further specialized her training, supervision, and work experience in psychophysiological stress, trauma and pain management earning her status as Fellow at the American Institute of Stress. She has published research studying the efficacy of Biofeedback for attention deficit, post-traumatic stress, and chronic pain.
“Our medical system is at its best in an emergency, but it is poor when it comes to long-term, chronic health conditions,” said Melanie. “I could see we needed to make efficacy-based natural therapies such as neurofeedback more accessible and more individualized.” Melanie sought to apply proven self-healing techniques in collaboration with our traditional medical and mental health systems for far superior outcomes. Carolinas Biofeedback Clinic was birthed to offer ultra-personalized programs for self healing. Melanie reflected on how much awareness has changed since she opened her doors in 2008. “When I first opened the clinic, we were the clinic of last resort after people had exhausted all the traditional options. We want to become the ‘clinic of first resort’ so people don’t have to struggle for so long.”
I was so passionate about helping people use the power of their own brains and bodies for healing,” said Melanie. “But I needed to learn a host of business skills to deliver the solution to more people.” Determined to give access to a greater population of patients, Melanie had to look outside of her healthcare training.
“One of my clients was in EO, and told me about the Accelerator program,” said Melanie. Melanie joined the program in the middle of the COVID pandemic with the goal of breaking the $1M revenue threshold. “The program helped me wrap my head around the business aspect of my practice. It gave me a coaching team of other entrepreneurs who had walked my same path. They helped me set priorities, define my business model, and track to goals. They understood the state of my business in a way that other business coaches couldn’t.”
Melanie successfully broke the $1M mark in less than a year after joining the EOA program. While Melanie used the program to learn business essentials for scaling a business, she sites an even more important aspect that helped her build a thriving work environment.
“EOA helped me build the culture I really wanted in my business,” said Melanie. “I wanted our team to grow together, to have a true team-oriented culture. The combination of strategy and people skills from the Accelerator program helped me build that culture by articulating core values and managing to them. I could not have done that on my own.”
Melanie still attends Accelerator learning days today, even though she is now part of EO. “While I still learn the business fundamentals from Accelerator, I joined EO to be part of a group of like-minded people who understand the challenges of entrepreneurship,” said Melanie. “I needed that connection. As you scale a business, your responsibilities grow. EO members help me carry that load.”
Carolinas Biofeedback Clinic believes humans can overcome, out-perform, recover, and transform at any age. Their brain-savvy experts help people think better, feel better, perform better, relate better, act better, and recover faster. Their experts oversee more than 7,000 client sessions a year and have analyzed over 1,100 brain maps, still they strive to make every client feel like a red carpet VIP. Visit https://www.cbfclinic.com/ for more information about Carolinas Biofeedback Clinic.