Today we’d like to introduce you to Holly Massengill.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I have worked in health, nutrition, and weight management for over 11 years. I discovered this passion while working and doing medical mission work in third-world countries. I volunteered in several clinics all around Haiti and I saw first-hand the impact and effect that nutrition and exercise, or lack thereof, can have on one’s overall health and quality of life. I also worked as a Registered Nurse in a local hospital in Knoxville and there saw the first-hand effects that obesity can have on one’s health. For instance, how it can lead to cardiovascular disease, type II diabetes, high cholesterol, and other conditions that can cause long-term health damage. This got my wheels spinning and motivated me to want to help others stay on the front-end, so to speak; I felt that if I could help others control and manage their weight, it could possibly improve not only their quality of life but quantity as well.
After working as a Registered Nurse (RN) for over 5 years, I went back to graduate school and obtained my Master’s Degree in Nursing. After passing boards, I became credentialed by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) as a Family Nurse Practitioner. I have been working in that capacity and specializing in nutrition and weight management for the past 6+ years. In 2017, after battling my own unexpected health issues and going through six months of chemotherapy, I was reminded just how short and precious life is. After much prayer, lots of research, and many discussions, my husband, Brandon Massengill and I, decided to open our own medical weight loss practice in Knoxville.
Founded on the Golden Rule, we launched New Vision Weight Loss Clinic with the mission to take a comprehensive approach in helping others obtain and maintain a healthy lifestyle while also helping improve their overall well-being and quality of life.
Since that time, the practice has grown immensely and has been voted “The Best Weight Loss Clinic” in Knoxville the past three years consecutively. While humbled by those awards and recognition, I feel that it’s most rewarding to see individuals and families in the community become healthier and take charge of their own health.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Has it been a smooth road? Absolutely not. I feel that it is a common misconception that “success” looks like an arrow pointing straight up. It’s not. Or it hasn’t been for me. There have been a lot of squiggly lines in my arrow, per se, and definitely lots of ups and downs. These struggles have varied immensely, but overall have taught me a lot and ultimately made the business, as well as myself, that much stronger.
Unfortunately, one of my initial struggles began the second week I opened my practice. There was actually a local competitor who kept trying to pose as a New Vision patient and left me and my practice multiple one-star Google reviews online. Everyone knows that when starting a business, word of mouth, referrals, and reviews are huge! They can truly make or break you. So for a competitor to intentionally leave these negative and false reviews purely out of malice, was really disheartening. Nonetheless, though, my patients and the community have been great to share their experiences with my team and practice, and seeing their progress and how our program has changed their life for the better, has meant the world to me.
Another struggle has been trying to navigate owning a business amidst a pandemic. Obviously, the unknown of the pandemic is scary to all, but especially when you’re trying to ensure the safety of your patients and your team, which is always of utmost importance to me. You always want to do what’s best for everybody and sometimes that answer isn’t easy. Aside from health safety during the pandemic though, you also run into a variety of business issues, for example, delayed manufacturing on items you need, items constantly being sold-out and back-ordered, and multiple shipping delays, just to name a few. All the while though, I feel very blessed, as we were able to maintain our employees during this time and ensure our patients were still safely taken care of.
So while struggles have come in a variety of ways, I think the key to overcoming them is one’s adaptability to change and also perseverance to always keep pushing forward.
As you know, we’re big fans of the New Vision Weight Loss Clinic. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
New Vision Weight Loss Clinic is a medically supervised weight loss practice that specializes in helping others obtain and maintain a healthy lifestyle. We will help you succeed by customizing a nutrition and fitness plan just for your schedule so that being healthy becomes a lifestyle. We strive to not only help you lose weight but to focus more on what we like to call “non-scale victories.” These non-scale victories help one prioritize all aspects of leading a healthy lifestyle without feeling you are defined by a number on the scale. This could include preventing cardiovascular disease, preventing hypertension, preventing type II diabetes, etc… Our team offers complimentary consultations, nutrition counseling, meal plans, a variety of customized protein supplements, fitness education, and a large range of medical weight loss options.
I think one of the main aspects of New Vision that sets it apart from other practices is that we’re founded on The Golden Rule; we strive to treat every individual as we would want to be treated ourselves. I also feel that the personalized approach we use, as well as the unending support and motivation that one receives from our team, also makes us a little different. Additionally, we recently added our own line of New Vision protein supplements and I feel this too, has already added to the diverse ways that we can truly enable one with all the adequate tools to become healthier and sustain that health is long-term.
Overall, I am most proud of two things: 1. My team and 2. Our community outreach. My New Vision team is full of motivated, encouraging, and knowledgeable healthcare professionals and I am very proud of each one of them and the key role they play in my business. They work hard and go the extra mile, even when they don’t have to; New Vision truly wouldn’t be what it is today without them.
Secondly, I am proud of our community outreach: I strongly feel that the local community is very important and therefore I try to invest back as much as possible. This includes Angel Tree gifts for local school children, Christmas gifts for the children’s home, sponsoring multiple local high school teams, hosting food drives around the holidays, donating to local animal rescues, sponsoring local sensory nights, volunteering at the homeless shelter, staying active in a variety of 5-K runs, helping promote Alzheimer’s Awareness, and participating in local litter pick-up throughout the year just to name a few.
I feel that it is the combination of my amazing team and the community with their support that has made my business what it is today.
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
I’m not really a big believer in “luck.” My outlook and mindset on business and life, in general, is more about faith, hard work, and perseverance. With that said though, I do feel that luck and hard work are somewhat inseparable, in that they can be a feedback loop, in which one constantly inspires the other one.
Contact Info:
- Email: info@newvisionweightlossclinic.com
- Website: http://www.newvisionweightlossclinic.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/newvisionweightlossclinic
Image Credits
Megan Haun Photography and Shane Hawkins Photography
