Today we’d like to introduce you to Blake York.
Hi Blake, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
As a young child, I grew up with parents who built owned, and operated multiple Health and Racquetball Clubs (the first of their kind) in cities around south Louisiana during the 1980s. Later my mother and Stepfather would become involved in the medical field with my mother starting her first Integrated Physical Therapy practice and my Stepfather becoming a physician. After some twists and turns, I graduated from Nursing school in 2007 began working, and got my bachelor’s in Nursing the following year in 2008.
After a few years of experience as a Nurse, I began searching for something else… I longed to have my own business and was opening my mind to opportunities around me. It was then when I was introduced to Network Marketing in the form of a Health & Wellness company in 2011-2012. I began to help others lose weight and improve their health through lifestyle management and inadvertently experienced some success in the home-based business industry over the next few years.
It was here that I gained significant mentorship and skills through training and personal development including networking, sales, marketing, branding, leadership development, and customer acquisition and retention. But most importantly, I found my passion and purpose. That is helping others make changes before they HAVE to.
Fast forward to 2014, I began to have a vision of opening a medical clinic, and after some years of traveling to different cities decided to relocate to the city of Dallas applying for graduate school and enrolling into University of Texas at Arlington’s Family Nurse Practitioner program.
Finally finding a way to merge my passion for preventative and promotional health and wellness with my medical background and education, I discovered Functional Medicine. I graduated in 2017 and became licensed and certified as a Family Nurse Practitioner in 2018 and a year later became a Board-Certified Health Practitioner in the field of Anti-aging, Functional and Regenerative Medicine awarded by the American Board of Anti-Aging Health Practitioners.
Fortunately, I landed an opportunity out of school that placed me in a position to begin practicing in my chosen field. After a year or so, I decided to take a chance on my dream and begin the process of developing the business concepts of my future practice.
From this vision and process, Equilyst Modern Medicine was born and officially launched, and brought to life January of 2020.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Haha, I don’t know that any entrepreneur can say with honesty and transparency that beginning any business venture provides a smooth road.
While I anticipated some potential economic changes to occur, I don’t think anyone anticipated or prepared for what we experienced in March of 2020 when Covid hit the United States. This was less than 3 months since I opened my doors!
I can tell you that this was quite possibly the most humbling and challenging experience I’ve had in business – it was also the most educational. Sudden changes and chaos ironically make room for innovation and adaptation which is necessary for growth. With all beginning expectations of how I thought my first year in business would go thrown right out of the window, the crisis allowed me to sit back, settle in and embrace the slower pace to build, grow and learn every aspect of my practice familiarizing myself with the process and tweaking things along the way.
That being said, I did not get here alone and thankfully have had tons of support from friends, family, and loyal clientele. Because of this, we are still here now in year 3 of practice.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
The current state of the conventional medical system is falling short when it comes to individuals living in optimal health and wellness through a deep understanding of how whole foods, natural medicine, and exercise can influence our well-being.
Despite the United States spending more on healthcare than ever before, the current system has led us to have the most chronic diseases and the shortest lifespan of all industrialized nations in the world.
Équilyst is the future of healthcare. Using state-of-the-art technology, we go beyond conventional modes of treatment and into a systems-oriented approach. Striving for more than your diagnosis, we create healing plans that treat you at the root cause of dysfunction. Patients are educated throughout their restoration process so that they can better understand and take control of their unique biochemical makeup. Our goal is to help you discover the compass to your mind, body, and soul’s optimal health. We call it futuristic functional medicine.
We specialize in 3 general areas of care: Health & Wellness, Aesthetics & Recovery. Treating a variety of patient complaints including Weight loss, Fatigue, Sexual Dysfunction, Sleep disturbance, and Acute and Chronic pain and injury amongst others.
We pride ourselves on creating and providing a unique and modern high tech and high-touch patient-client experience set apart from the typical experience in medicine. Proudly creating a brand that is both colorful, creative, energetic, and inspiring in an effort to bring Functional Medicine and its benefits into the mainstream of society with a comfortable and inviting message of hope and transformation through life change.
Any big plans?
As far as the future goes, we are continually looking to serve and treat the residents of Deep Ellum and the surrounding communities in Dallas, TX as well as continuing to improve our client experience and outcomes through customer service. We will be looking to expand our reach to clients throughout the state of Texas and beyond through virtual care service offerings making the benefits of functional and metabolic medicine both accessible and affordable to those seeking alternative treatment. Lastly, considering the opening of potential future locations in other areas of the Dallas Metroplex and elsewhere.
Contact Info:
- Email: blake@equilystmed.com
- Website: https://equilystmed.com/
- Instagram: @equilystmed
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/equilystmed/
Image Credits
Diaz Ad Group
Dallasites101
