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Welcome to The Health & Wellness Practitioners Podcast! Dr. Danielle and other guest experts talk about everything from getting your practice started, developing your clinical skills, growing your practice YOUR way, and dealing with the real stuff life burnout and work/life balance. Whether you’ve been practicing for decades or just started your journey, you’ll find something here for you!
DR. DANIELLE: Hello, friends. I'm excited to have this conversation today because what we're going to talk about is something that I am just starting to work on myself in some ways. And in other ways, I feel like I've been doing it my whole life already. So I am here today with Dr. Taryn. And we're going to talk about her life. I think it is something that a lot of people here will be able to relate to. So before we kind of dive into talking about homesteading and running multiple businesses, just share a little bit about who you are, and what you do.
MEET DR. TARYN STITTLEBURG
DR. TARYN: Yeah. So I graduated five years ago I think now as a chiropractor, shortly after that I had my second daughter. She spent six weeks and a day in the NICU and I kind of completely transformed what I wanted to do. As in, I went a functional medicine route, so I now am four years into my practice. Which means I graduated more than five years ago, whatever that's whatever. And so now I am completely virtual throughout the United States doing functional medicine. I am married to an organic dairy farmer. We're all 100% grass. We are organic certified. We do beef. We do pork with no soy, no corn. We do chickens. We live off the land as much as we can. So not only suggesting what people should do with their choices, but also practicing what I preach very wholeheartedly. And I love it.
DR. DANIELLE: How did you get started farming? Was this something that your husband was already doing before?
DR. TARYN: Yes. So they used to farm in Minnesota, in Jordan, Minnesota, which is south of the Twin Cities. And then they actually relocated about 10, 11 years ago to our farm that we're now at, in north central Wisconsin. So they've always been organic which is wild to think about his dad's dad, I believe, or maybe it was his grandfather sprayed one time, got super sick, and they've been organic ever since.
DR. DANIELLE: Interesting. Okay. That's really interesting. So my children, and I've shared this with you before in our chats, my children, not all of them, not the 19 year olds, but 11, 7, and 4 year old, they have their heart set on moving to a farm. And actually we moved from the city to the country 5 years ago. And at that time, even my now 11 year old was like, I want to move to a farm and I want to have goats and I want to have cows and I want to have lots of dogs and I was like, that's a lot, first of all. And we're lucky to just be able to make the move that we're making. And now here we are five years later and I'm like, I kind of wish that we had listened. Maybe done that then. But it's been five years and they still want to move to a farm, but I don't think that they really understand what they would be getting into. Like what the expectations are. That sounds sort of funny, but can you describe what the reality is of running a practice and also living on a farm?
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A HOMESTEADER AND CHIROPRACTOR
DR. TARYN: Yeah. So what's cool is my husband is a handyman. I can ask him to do something out of my vision. Usually he's like, oh, that doesn't make a lot of sense. We'll do it this way. I'm like, that's fine, that's your cup of tea. So he built my home office privately, so it's a private home office. And through this here, I basically run my office. I have a phenomenal virtual assistant. And then he does his whole dance on the farm. He is definitely the farmer, I help where I can but he'll tell you that I'm not the greatest help at certain things. But yeah, I mean he milks twice a day, so he's up and out milking by 6:30 usually every morning, milks for a couple hours, comes in, eats breakfast, whatever - he's doing so many different things every day I feel like I can't even keep up to what he is doing. But then he milks later on in the evening around dinner time, he's usually out milking by 4:30 or 5.
At that point then we do have some help on the farm. Now we have a farm hand, but definitely not full time. So realistically it's my husband and his father. So my father-in-law that do the majority of the milking. So that means that when we enjoy our Monday Memorial day off, right, I mean, they're still milking. They milk Christmas, all holidays, so it's a lot, but then again, there's places that aren't doing dairy, the reason that it's so vigorous and time constraint commitment wise is realistically is the dairy aspect. So yeah, I guess kind of in a nutshell there's not enough hours in the day for what needs to be done on the farm. But that's kind of how it is.
DR. DANIELLE: Yeah. When I was a kid around five years old, we moved my parents and I, my siblings from the city to the country at that time. And we moved to a farm and I think we lived on the farm for about three years before my parents separated. And my dad went back to the city and my mom and I, and my siblings stayed on the farm, but the farm wasn't really like a working farm after my dad was gone. But I have some really interesting memories from growing up on the farm for those years. And like my dad butchering chickens for the first time, and me helping him and like neither of us knew what we were doing. And my mom was like really flustered and kind of, I think they were both kind of freaked out.
They were just like maybe 26 years old and they had four kids and they were just trying to figure it out. And that was my experience with living on a farm. So I feel like I had enough, I don't know, awareness, I guess at that time to realize like, this is a lot. And also now though I feel like it's a lot, but it's actually how we're supposed to live. I don't want to diminish farming or the necessity of growing your own food, because I feel very strongly more now than ever actually.
DR. TARYN: Definitely. Well, even when you were talking about butchering chickens, so we do meat chickens as well. And our son is, so he would've been eight last year and he actually helped with essentially cutting the heads off the chicken and in that process. And we're very vocal. I mean they know that they'll name some of the cows - well not the cows, well, they do name cows - but they'll name some of the pigs that we have. And then we talk about how this pig is going to be our dinner later on and they understand the process. And it's interesting because I have some friends that have reached out about how we do things on the farm after all those videos went on with those other farms and the issues and whatever. And it's interesting because there's this whole push for plant-based things because of how terrible animals are treated.
But at the end of the day, it depends where you're getting your meat from. If it's a food lot, those animals are treated way different than what they're doing on our farm. It's realistically they live their best life here, and then eventually they get to their demise, but it's nothing inhumane with the process of how they're butchered in those types of things. So it's interesting. It's really interesting where we've evolved and where we've gotten to, because even right now Derek's trying to get into the field and plant and till it all up and do all of the farm-esque things that he does all the time. But with the price of diesel, it's wild, it's wild where we're at. And there's no point it's not going to slow down. It's just going to get worse. So it's like, where'd we go from here unless we can sustain ourselves.
DR. DANIELLE: Right. I know. I never thought that we'd be in a time where eating meat and even talking about growing your own food is like a political statement. We are drawing a line almost from the start just by even having this conversation because it has become such a polarizing topic. There was something I saw on social media recently that was about how cows or the cattle industry is so harmful to the planet or the environment. And that someone that like used to identify as an environmentalist. I just, I had to really take a pause. I was like, we've gotten to a place where cows are the enemy of the earth? How does that even make sense? I don't know. Maybe there's something I'm missing.
DR. TARYN: Right. And there's such sweet animals. I mean, it's interesting though, because some animals are put in stanchions stalls basically. So they get milked, they get put into stanchions and that's essentially their life. Our cows live their best lives. They're out on pasture all through the spring and summer. The majority of them are pretty friendly. The calves it's pretty cool. Being a chiropractor in general, I've learned a lot. I'm by no means an animal chiropractor, but within the state of Wisconsin, I do adjust our animals. So it's super cool. We'll have calves that aren't drinking on the bottle or they're not doing great. I can adjust 'em and the next day it's like a whole new calve. We'll have, honestly, it's kind of a funny joke. Derek to this day, I'll say that one of his favorite cows is the reason he married me because he had this top producing cow. She had her baby and she could no longer stand. She was having issues. And he was like, you know what? You save this cow and I'll marry you one day. So you know what I did, I figured out how to adjust the cow, how to give her the mobility back and I did, and she's still here milking today. And it's super cool how similar cows are to women. It's wild when you think about how the similarities are.
FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE, BUT MAKE IT VIRTUAL
DR. DANIELLE: Yeah, of course. I mean, we're all animals. Tell me a bit more about your practice. I know that you're doing functional medicine and your practices are virtual. There are a lot of people that are wanting to shift to either all virtual or like a hybrid online and in-person services. How did you even get started seeing people online?
DR. TARYN: Right. So actually when I first went into my office, I kind of had a broader gaze of sure, I can treat people in the area, but I also can do this virtually because I can order labs and I can send panels. And you know, those types of things, the reach is wider. So after COVID or I guess in the middle of COVID, when everything went virtual, we kind of said, Hey, let's bring it home. Let's make it completely virtual because I was seeing both at that time. When I had transitioned, almost everybody wanted to stay virtual. It was way more convenient. That's what they wanted. So that's kind of how we stayed. So how I transitioned; it was easier for me because I was already virtual and then I just went completely virtual. I don't know if that really answers the question.
DR. DANIELLE: Yeah, it does. I think though sometimes people have these big ideas or they have a vision for where they want to go. And they can't see how to get from where they are to where they want to. Definitely. And I think sometimes it's just you gotta let go of it.
GOING ONLINE AND THE LOSS OF ADJUSTING IN PERSON
DR. TARYN: Right. I think it's an internal battle too of always wanting to do something, but kind of being stuck in that mold of not knowing where to start or where to begin. So, I mean, I've dealt with a lot of turmoil in my life, so if I'm going to do something or I set my mind to it, the sky's the limit because I'm going to make sure that it happens. And thankfully I have an amazing husband that supported me throughout the entire process, but at the end of the day it's kind of like you find your niche and you support it, but even going virtual, if you're not practicing what you preach, it's kind of like who's going to listen to what you have to say and in what's going on?
And I can tell you, it was very difficult for me to no longer be adjusting patients. I miss it so much, but it's so cool because just like you, you have a lot of great chiropractic referrals, right? There's so many great chiropractic referrals you can refer your patients to - but at the end of the day as it turns out, there's not a ton of people like me in the realm that you're able to be trusted with your patient care base. And it's not just like dollar signs because I have a huge issue of sending for the dollar sign component. So I think you gotta find your groove on what you want to work for and push for it.
DR. DANIELLE: On the note of missing adjusting patients, I don't know that I necessarily miss adjusting people because I know many people do like I adjust people. But in August of 2018, after I had my youngest, she was just about seven months old. At that time I was running two businesses and raising four kids and my husband was working a full time job and a seasonal job. So he was still gone a lot. Our lives were very different than they are now. And I just, I had a moment of like kind of getting smacked over the head with reality. I was like, I can't keep doing all of this, like I have to choose. And I decided to just take some time off of practice and now it's been almost four years.
DR. TARYN: Wild. It's wild how it works.
DR. DANIELLE: Yeah. It's definitely not what I expected. And there's been a lot of times where I've felt like, is this okay when I'm doing? Like I'm helping other people grow their practices, but I'm not practicing actively myself and like doing this dance all the time.
DR. TARYN: But how could you do both?
DR. DANIELLE: Yeah, exactly. That was exactly it. And there have been times that people have come to me and said like, well, how many patients do you see? And I'm like, you're asking me the wrong question. What you should be asking me is what results are my clients seeing.
DR. TARYN: Right. A hundred percent. Well, and it's wild the way that you say that because I was an associate in two offices before I started my own. And it was a horrible experience. My bosses were very male dominant, very stuck in their ways, I wasn't really treated or respected as a doctor. It was kind of like, I might have well as just been, I don't know, at the front desk. It was very, very bizarre. And I at that point, just like you're saying, you can't do both. I was in the middle of a nasty divorce. And I had a nine - oh goodness, he would've been in kindergarten. So I had a kindergartner and then I had a baby in the NICU. And at that point too, I was back in practice after an emergency C-section at four weeks.
That's insane, right? And at that point it's like, what the hell's best for me? Like what's best for my kids? I want to have this flexibility. The doc I was working with was doing 12 hour days and I was thinking, this is insane. You went to school for all these years and built this practice and you're working 12 hour days. That's wild to me. And it's just the burnout mechanism all the time. And I said, I don't want to do that. I can't do that. And I had lots of complications following that birth. And that's something that's interesting with chiropractic too - it's like, we think that our bodies are these never running tools and we're never going to wear out and then something happens. And then what do you do? So it's having the, I don't even know if education is the right word. I mean, I guess having the back set of what else you believe in and where you're going to, because I've always been incredibly interested in functional medicine, but the 300 hours I completed, if I went to been in this situation to have taken a leave, like you said, from work too, I don't think I would've ever been able to complete that.
DR. DANIELLE: Yes. I hear all of that. And unfortunately, the story like having the experience that you had as an associate and being back to work four weeks after giving birth; vaginal birth, cesarean, whatever - that's just, it's not okay. But it happens all the time. And I think at the root of it, that's a part of the reason why I do the work that I do still even though I don't necessarily talk specifically to moms or about motherhood. It's like that mindset that brings us back into the office at four weeks postpartum, whether it was because you wanted to, orthey were like bring you back in that early is a symptom of the bigger issue, which is the hustle culture that wears us down ultimately in the worst way.
DR. TARYN: I'll never forget it. I came back in at four weeks because obviously I was needed. And my boss at the time, he looked at me and he said, You know what? I practice with broken ribs and I still showed up every day. And I was thinking, oh wow, that's comparable to this baby getting cut outta me? You do you buddy. And at that point I was like, wow, this is wild to me. I don't know. I don't know what we're doing.
But I was thankful and fortunate that, like I said, I had a support system. I mean, I was at that point a single mom essentially with a baby in the NICU and my son going to kindergarten and it was like life hit you. And I feel like sometimes everybody says, everything happens for a reason. Is that true? Sure. Sometimes the environment speaks, the universe speaks to you and calls you in certain ways. And having that support was huge. But at the end of the day, everything I've gone through, I would never have the empathy or the compassion that I do if I would've never experienced those things. So the relatability about it is huge too.
THE POLITICS OF WELLNESS
DR. DANIELLE: Yeah. Okay. So let's back up on this. I want to hear from you where do you see things going? What are the things you want to do next? I mean, you've got a lot going on already with running a farm, living on the farm raising the animals and, and also practicing, taking care of your kids - that's a lot. So what's your long term vision for what you want?
DR. TARYN: Right. So my long term vision, I've always had a dream of opening a direct pay primary care office. So I think I would love for that to be my end game. I'm sure the things that you're seeing, well not technically seeing patients, but still people that you're talking to and those types of things - now more than ever, we need holistic healthcare. It's wild what we're doing, the infertility rates that I'm seeing are astronomical, the children with environmental-esque diseases going forward; it's wild. So my dream would just be to continue to help as many patients as I still can and support them through that. Because a lot of the times you spend thousands of dollars and you still don't get any answers and then you're told that basically you're crazy or maybe when you hit menopause things will be better, or maybe you'll just wake up tomorrow and things will be perfect and peachy because apparently you just imagined the whole thing.
DR. DANIELLE: The worst of all having been through infertility for many years in the past is when people say, “You just need to relax.”
DR. TARYN: Right. Okay, tell me about that - tell me how to relax in that regard. When you're not getting any information from anywhere, and then you just go crazy every month when your period, it's exhausting. And that's something that I went through too as well. And like I said, the relatability component is really important. And I think that this world always just needs more of the empathy. And not so much, how can I help you, but still is this helpful or is this hurtful?
DR. DANIELLE: Yes. So with you. And I did a class yesterday and at the beginning of that class, I was talking about this exact thing - holistic, alternative, natural healthcare has never been more needed and actually also more wanted then now. I've been in healthcare for 20 years, I've never seen more people looking for options outside of the conventional medical model. So now is our time. Like this huge opportunity in front of us to help more people and really start to make a dent in the health of the planet overall.
DR. TARYN: Definitely. I mean, it's wild, even when I talk about living on an organic farm, so which means we use no chemicals for literally anything. We don't use any chemicals for anything. And the amount of people that I talk to patient base wise that they grow their own garden. But I say what do you use on the garden? And they say, oh, we spray Roundup around it or the weeds, and I say, that's not what you want to be doing. There's different ways you can do things. And that's not a whole lot better than what you're buying in the store.
So it's just the reality of the world that we're living. And it's no secret that chemical usage is literally degrading everything, but money runs the world and we can just continue to support what we can do and preach about it and be vocal. But then also on the flip side get attacked for doing so. I can't tell you the amount of literal death threats that I get for things that I can say, or whatever, it's wild to me. It's wild to attack something that you don't understand, but then take such a bold stance on it.
DR. DANIELLE: But it's emotion driven.
DR. TARYN: A hundred percent. It's not logic, it's just anger.
DR. DANIELLE: Cool. Okay. So if people want to learn more about you about your practice, where is the best place for them to go?
DR. TARYN: Yeah. So Facebook, we have a huge following on Facebook. We do lots of stuff on Facebook. Stittleburg Restorative Healthcare. We also do lots of stuff on our website. We also two years ago I think it was, we started Rib Falls Farms which is where we sell and distribute our meat, and I know I talked to you about how we did maple syrup this year on a larger scale. And some people have no idea what getting raw maple syrup is. And my husband does honey, and I feel like there's nothing that he doesn't do. So there's lots of cool things that we show on there for people that want to see more about the farm. We actually just got 75 chicks the other day. We have chickens that run around our house all the time. They're free range. Our house I feel like most days is a zoo, but I think that's just the reality of living on a farm and doing it to the best of the animals' health, but then what we get from the animal. So the healthier they are, the better health we have.
DR. DANIELLE: Awesome. Thank you so much for hanging out with me.
DR. TARYN: You're so welcome. Thanks for having me.