Hidden Gems: Meet Alex Stalberger of Well Connected Twin Cities

Today we’d like to introduce you to Alex Stalberger.

Hi Alex, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
In 2017, I officially graduated and was a certified integrative nutrition health coach. I was wildly excited to change the world. However, I quickly realized that life as a health coach was life as an entrepreneur. And life as an entrepreneur was much more than being a health coach. My training did not prepare me for running my own business and immediately felt ill-equipped and lonely.

I quickly began reaching out to anyone I could find through Instagram + Linked In who was local and owned their own coaching business asking to meet with them to learn all I could from their experiences.

To my surprise, I didn’t receive a single “No”. Each person who responded to me was happy to share what they had learned and recommended resources, hot tips, and life lessons. I began to ask each of these people a question – this sharing of experiences and relating to each other felt SO good. Where do health professionals go to connect, learn from each other, and encourage each other’s growth?

Each time I asked, I got the same answer. “I don’t know.”

I began to ask myself, what if there was a safe space for collaboration, where we could go beyond formal education and share real life learnings that came from actual experience building successful practices. And what if it wasn’t just coaches? What if we could learn across disciplines, not only satisfying our own thirst for knowledge but to building a powerful referral network that benefits all our clients?

This was just the beginning of what is now the professional network that fuels Well Connected Twin Cities.

It wasn’t long after, I was introduced to my now business partner, Lilly Zaborowski. Lilly had developed the digital discovery platform that would allow the community to discover all that was possible with a whole-person approach to health + well being. She was looking for practitioners to be listed in the directory, and I was looking for a way to spread the message of empowered healthcare!

It was a perfect match!

We joined forces and have been working as holistic healthcare advocates ever since!

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
So many challenges.

The first was simply timing. Well Connected Twin Cities was born the same month as my first child 🙃 So much change happened in the first 6 months of our partnership.

Personally, I was navigating postpartum anxiety (didn’t know that was a thing), struggling with the identity shift of becoming a mother AND a business owner, and navigating a brand new relationship in Lilly + my business marriage. All while not sleeping through the night for 9 months.

The next challenge was finding the right model. There are a ton of directories out there and few that are really successful and none that were the resource we envisioned creating. From the start, we knew we needed to create a resource that was all-around accessible. Which meant keeping the prices fair, while keeping the integrity of the information, all while appealing to practitioners both new + seasoned! It took a lot of trial and error before finding the current model which features a professional membership with a sliding scale fee.

The challenge I’m forever grateful for was the shutdown. While it threw a wrench in our attempt at renting a physical gathering space for healing professionals, it forced us to grow slowly, diligently, and allowed us to deliver a really high-touch experience to our practitioners. We were able to co-create with each of them, understand their mission, their challenges, and connect them with others that we’re sharing that experience.

This emphasis is still core to how we co-create content with our health + wellness professionals from our podcast interviews, written articles, and in-person panels + events. That rapport is the foundation for all our collaborations and I think that shines through! (Thanks 2020 dumpster-fire)

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Well Connected Twin Cities is a place to discover and connect with all things health + wellness in the greater Twin Cities metro. When you explore the site you can read an article about skin health, listen to a podcast interview with a holistic dentist, or search the directory for the nearest practitioners who specialize in supporting immune disorders or hormone imbalance. Everything you find will bring you to a practitioner who is local to the area that you could actually meet in person at one of our upcoming community events!

Well Connected makes it easier to find the right information and the right person to take action for a more empowering health experience!

We are known as connectors in the local health + wellness industry. And the trust and integrity we’ve been able to build as a brand is something I’m most proud of. That comes directly from the professional we work with to inform all the content.

You can think about Well Connected Twin Cities as two sides of one coin.

On one side, you have all of the wonderful + informative content and events designed for health and wellness discovery. AND, you also have the professionals behind the scenes that are collaborating to bring you that unique experience and trusted information.

That’s the second side. The burnout rate among practitioners is high, and building a new practice is really confusing kind of work! By connecting practitioners with each other, guiding them in collaboration and peer sharing with each other, we’re creating a more sustainable industry that will be around to serve the greater community for years to come.

Together we are reaching more people and experiencing more joy in the process!

What makes you happy?
For me, there is nothing like meeting a new person that you feel like you’ve known all your life. A good conversation can fuel me for days. Especially when it’s about astrology, delicious food, or a new innovative idea.

Pricing:

• Annual Membership $300 yearly or $30 monthly includes: Weekly networking in-person and virtual, Keyword optimized directory listing, Podcast interview, and the opportunity to collaborate on articles, classes, and events for the community.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.WellConnectedTwinCities.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wellconnectedtwincities/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wellconnectedtwincities
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/wellconnectedtc
• Youtube: https://wellconnectedtwincities.buzzsprout.com/
• Other: https://www.alignable.com/minneapolis-mn/well-connected-twin-cities

Image Credits
Angela Divine Knox
Wellspired Co.