Why I'm Building Circe Health
Connecting back with curiosity and a look behind the scenes at Circe HQ
At Circe Health, we bring modern business tools to holistic healthcare practitioners who are looking for sustainable success with ease.
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In today’s post, I’m going out of my comfort zone to answer a question that I don’t think I talk about enough in this newsletter. It’s quite a long stream of consciousness and ends with an invitation to come grow Circe Health with us, share your support needs, or collaborate with me at Circe Studio, which I wanted to include here in case you don’t make it to the very end.
You haven’t heard from me in a while, which to be honest is because I only write or create content when I’m feeling inspired - and in the last month or so I struggled a bit to connect with that feeling. Partly because I’ve felt disillusioned by what’s happening to the holistic health space and how it’s being hijacked by the MAHA movement, with similar shifts happening across Europe too, including in my home country of The Netherlands. And partly because of the growing number of beige brands entering this space who are creating content en masse that’s not informed by evidence, and promoting a kind of spiritual materialism that doesn’t resonate with me. The last thing I want to do is to add more noise to this space that, in my view at least, desperately requires clarity, transparency and curation. I wondered if Circe could still contribute in an authentic way in this space, and if it was even needs?
Then I came across this quote: “Curiosity is a better compass than cynicism—it shifts from defending your territory to exploring what's possible.” which inspired me to make more space for curiosity and connect back with my own motivation to build Circe, the values we stand for and our reason for being - and make decisions from that place.
And as I’m working 1:1 with practitioners on Circe Studio website projects, while also investing time and energy in growing Circe Health’s booking platform, I’ve had plenty of conversations about the ‘why’ behind Circe and the state of the holistic healthcare space too. And it’s these chats that brought me back to my inspiration to keep creating - so I thought to share some of it with you here. Plus, I often forget that the reason behind building Circe is not that obvious to other people, and sharing the wider scope of our work in this newsletter is something I don’t think about often enough.
Like many of you, I’ve had a personal health journey that took me down the complementary healthcare route. And while the eventual outcome was very positive for me, the experience of finding the right treatment type and practitioner was really frustrating. Despite having some recommendations from friends, it took me months to find my practitioner matches. How could I know who could help me with my specific concerns, and who to trust?
If you’re not familiar with complementary healthcare it can be so challenging to find the treatments that will be helpful to you, especially with conflicting messaging from the NHS, social media, friends and individual practitioners. (And I see that only getting worse with the stream of new wellness brands coming in, the rise of the wellness influencer and bland AI-generated content.)
I was missing a brand that could act as a trusted guide for me, one that showed respect for all the incredible complementary modalities that are available but that was also promoting a grounded and evidence-informed view on treatments. I didn’t need another dodgy looking website that overwhelmed me with options without any curation or proper search options. Instead I was looking for a modern brand that made it easier to find quality complementary care. No existing platform offered that.
Circe Health started as a personal project in lockdown, to build the online platform I was looking for on my health journey so it may help many others. I’ve since said goodbye to a career in the art world and am working full-time on Circe now. The experience of starting out as a tech entrepreneur and the wild rollercoaster ride it’s been so far, is a story I’ll save for another time…In the process we’ve added Circe Studio, a popular practitioner support offering, to our booking platform and we now serve a global community of acupuncturists, osteopaths, homeopaths, nutritionist, functional medicine practitioner, reflexologists and many other holistic therapists with this newsletter and on socials.
I have no intention to add more noise to this already noisy space. Instead my hope is to bring in some welcome curation and simplification, to help people find the right care for them while at the same time supporting you, the practitioners, with high quality, modern support to thrive in your careers - with a specific focus on your online presence. In the longer term, by building bridges across integrative healthcare and nurturing a vibrant practitioner community, we hope to raise the bar for the industry.
We’re not financed by outside VC investment, but winning a government grant in 2022 helped us build the first version of our booking platform. So we’re working with a lean team and tight budgets. Growing in this ‘bootstrapped’ way also means we have full freedom to create outside of the traditional business building playbooks, and grow at a speed of trust instead of pushing for growth at any cost. That creative freedom is what excites me a lot.
It means we can keep a high quality standard without watering down our messaging or adjusting our services for mass adoption. And it also means that our platform’s software is not at all where I’d like it to be - it looks ok on the outside and it’s very much DIY on the inside. So I’ve learned a thing called patience in the process. Pick your hard is what I often remind myself of. And it’s working, Circe Health is alive and growing steadily.
With new people finding us to book their treatments with vetted practitioners, more readers enjoying this newsletter and a growing number of practitioners coming to us for support with website design and strategic career support. The big quest is to do this work at scale, with a UK-wide booking platform and an international community growing across borders. Time will tell. Until then, onwards and upwards we go.
So while there was a little wobble at the start of the year, I’m back building Circe with inspiration. And writing to you in these newsletters to share useful insights that help you build fulfilling careers and connect with new audiences. And perhaps share some more behind-the-scenes looks as well, if you’re up for it!
If Circe’s story and reason for being resonates with you, come join us on our quest! You can do so either by joining our booking platform, scheduling a strategic coaching call, or working with me to improve your website. I’d love to connect on Instagram also.
From connecting you with new clients, to improving your websites, strategic brainstorms for career growth, writing professional bio’s, and making introductions for jobs and rooms to rent - I’d love to hear how else we can support you, and what’s on your mind in these changing times. Send me a note by replying to this email, I always personally respond to every email we receive and look forward to hearing your stories.