Meet Marie Starling of The Healing Center Denver in Greenwood Village

Today we’d like to introduce you to Marie Starling.

Marie, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I started being a chiropractor when I graduated at age 25. I say the universe kind of pushed me into it. While working as a server, I slipped carrying a big 50 lb tray on my shoulder. I didn’t drop the tray but in order to not drop it, I had to torque my whole body which sprained my left SI joint.

As a result, I had pain down the lateral part of my leg for about seven years. I didn’t want to go through traditional medicine as I never liked their tools, I didn’t like drugs even then, and I never wanted to be an M.D. Not knowing that my work would have paid for a chiropractor, I started going to chiropractic student interns in Kansas, at Cleveland Chiropractic College. While doing that, I got to hear the backside of the practice, helping people without the use of drugs or surgery and getting to own my own business sounded fantastic.

Has it been a smooth road?
Let me start with the three things that I learned. First, find people who are doing what you want to be doing and ask them for help. Follow them around and study what they have done. I did not do this. I thought I needed to learn this all on my own, and as a result, I struggled in the beginning. I graduated and went ‘Huh! I should have a plan,’ and that began my journey at 25 years old in owning my own business; with zero training, absolutely no experience, and not knowing how to ask for help. I then spent the next few years barely making it and having to learn everything the hard way over the next two decades. So, the best advice I can give you is to find someone doing what you are doing and volunteer your time to learn what they know. Ask them to mentor you and study all the information that you can get. Put yourself in the circumstance where you work for somebody doing what you want to be doing, whether they pay you or not because it will accelerate your learning curve so much. I did not do that and would not recommend doing it that way.

The second big obstacle that I faced was learning how to play a big game and not wear myself out, which meant learning how to delegate and create systems. Without systems and delegation, you are going to recreate things repeatedly and you are going to have to spend a ton of time doing it. So the fastest way to grow and develop, that I recommend is to create systems and delegate them then get out of your own way. You don’t want to be in charge of all the pieces, so it is important to figure out what you are good at and then delegate the rest.

The third thing I would say is to learn about yourself, know yourself, learn how other people relate to each other, and how you relate to them. Good tools for this are things like the 5 Love Languages, personality assessments, self-development and transformation work. The reason for this is because when you start getting big, you start building a team. If one of those people are not a hell yes, then they are a hell no. There is a great book by Jocko Willink that talks about extreme ownership. It emphasizes having the right butt in the right seat for the given task, and if you don’t, get rid of them. That is ultimately what you are doing when you create a team, a bad team will sink you, one bad apple will destroy the culture. Gossip is the fastest way to sink the ship.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into The Healing Center Denver story. Tell us more about the business.
I practice functional medicine and I specialize in complicated cases. To do this, I approach everything from the most fundamental root place we can go to, which is what causes illness and what builds health? There are three things, and only three things that can go wrong with your body. Those three things are what we call the Three Roots of Dysfunction: Something is missing that you need, something is there that is bad, or there is a vicious loop driving systems of problems, and you could have multiple of any of these. From that, I look at the Ten Pillars of Health which are: Elimination and detoxification, proper nervous system function, energy production and blood sugar, sleep, exercise, hidden illnesses like infections, nutritional deficiencies, digestion, and healthy gut function, mood and stress, and gene vulnerability and epigenetics.

What are you known for?
I am known for complicated cases in autoimmune diseases like celiac disease, Hashimoto’s, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, leaky gut, and adrenal problems. I have a tagline ‘ I am the one you go to when you are complicated or smart or both’. Our patients get better 90-95% of the time, because we look at all the different fundamentals, giving them specific protocols, which are customized to their needs in combination with a wide variety of tools.

What are you most proud of with your business?
I am most proud of how special this office is. People come in and they not only get the answers but effective treatment as well. They get to experience amazing energy, a staff that is top-notch alongside a real warm, inclusive, environment where they are heard.

What are your plans for the future?
Currently, I am finishing a book called Powerfully Autoimmune, as well as, developing my abilities as public speaker. It is my goal to be one of the voices that changes how we build health rather than react to disease.