Bearing It All EP 8: From Shutdown to Startup with Katie Wiechnicki

Kate Ginsberg
Hi y'all, I'm Kate Ginsberg. Thanks so much for joining us for the Bearing It All podcast, where entrepreneurs and business owners discuss the highs, lows, tumbles, and triumphs of building a business. If you're here for stories that inspire and keep it real, you're in the right place. On today's episode, I'm talking with Katie Wiechnicki, co-founder of Diabetes and Nutrition Partners in Austin, Texas. Katie is a registered nurse who launched her business in 2023 after her hospital department was eliminated.

She and her partners have built a hybrid practice offering both cash pay and insurance-covered services. They work with patients with diabetes as well as those who are looking for one-to-one health coaching for weight loss, diabetes management, and the management of high cholesterol and blood pressure. Katie, welcome and tell us a bit about your history and what led you to this point in your entrepreneurial journey.

Katie Wiechnicki
Thank you so much, Kate. I appreciate you having me on today. I have always been interested in the field of medicine and have a family history of diabetes and a personal history of some metabolic health issues, including polycystic ovary syndrome and insulin resistance. During my formative years I was in and out of endocrinology offices all the time, so diabetes has always been at the forefront of my mind.

I finished nursing school at Boston College, worked in a medical surgical unit for a while to get all the skills that I needed, but quickly felt like I was just always putting a bandaid on much bigger issues. Oftentimes it felt like I was addressing things that could have been prevented in the first place. So I went back to school and got my master's in public health, and then dabbled in lots of different things that were more preventive in nature, including research.

After I had my first daughter, I was looking to get back into the clinical world but wanted some flexibility. I ended up finding a grant-funded program here in Austin that provided diabetes education in hospitals, inpatient. It felt like the perfect fit at that point in my life. I started doing that, worked inpatient and outpatient, and loved it.

Kate Ginsberg
Fantastic.

Katie Wiechnicki
And then in 2023, our large outpatient hospital department completely shut down. Our group at that time had about 15 people in it. Four of us—two registered nurses and two registered dietitians—decided, hey, this is what we love to do. We're clinicians, but let's figure out the business part of this. We started seeing patients early 2024, so we've been up and running for about a year and a half now.

Kate Ginsberg
Congratulations. That's so exciting. It sounds like you kind of fell sideways into entrepreneurship like I did. It was never something I planned to do, but it suits me.

Katie Wiechnicki
Thank you. Yes! Never in a million years would I have imagined starting a business, but we're making lemonade out of lemons.

Kate Ginsberg
You're doing it and that's amazing. Congratulations on a year and a half of success. I'm so glad you've joined me. I love chatting with people at all different points in their entrepreneurial journey and catching you at the very beginning of yours. When we met last week, being able to be the person that opens some doors for you—my heart loves that kind of thing.

Katie Wiechnicki
My gosh, my heart appreciates it so much as a newbie. All of your tips and guidance are incredible.

Kate Ginsberg
Some of it is just figuring it out on your own, and every industry has that learning curve. But we can smooth that for each other and we should.

Katie Wiechnicki
We should, and I so appreciate it.

Kate Ginsberg
It doesn’t have to be as hard as it is sometimes. Having somebody to reach out to and say, “My God, you're not going to believe what just happened,” and being able to chat through struggles like, “I don't know if I'm doing the right thing, this is really hard all of a sudden, am I the only person that's struggling with it?” The answer is no. Absolutely not. And we should talk about it. Which brings us to our questions. I need you to pick a number one through ten, please.

Katie Wiechnicki
Yay! Okay, I'm gonna go with six.

Kate Ginsberg
Okay, it's a good one. Entrepreneurship can be isolating at times. How have you dealt with the loneliness or pressure of being in charge?

Katie Wiechnicki
That is a really good one. I’m really fortunate that there are four of us who co-own and co-founded this. Truly, there have been times when I felt like if I didn’t have a group behind me, I would have stopped. So I don’t feel terribly isolated. I am one of the only business owners among my group of friends, though, so sometimes I feel like I can’t even describe my day—it’s just too crazy.

Kate Ginsberg
It’s weird. That line got really blurry during COVID, where you didn’t just work when you were at the office, you worked from home too. And especially with building a business—I assume you prioritize seeing patients during the day, which leaves running the business to after hours, weekends, and early mornings. It’s very different than that nine-to-five life.

Katie Wiechnicki
It is. And it’s a different level of pressure and accountability. I feel responsibility for my partners. I want all of us to do well. It’s completely different and new, and also exciting. You mentioned some great resources for me—local Austin meetup events I plan to join, plus Austin Small Business Association trainings. Talking with people in the thick of it or even still in the planning stages is so refreshing.

One time when I was feeling completely overwhelmed and like, “What am I doing? Who am I to do this?” I got in my car and went for a drive. Every building I passed I thought, “Okay, they’re a business. They’re a business. Somebody started this.”

Kate Ginsberg
Somebody is doing the thing.

Katie Wiechnicki
Exactly. If all of these other people are doing this, I can do this too. Yeah, we can do this.

Kate Ginsberg
We can do this, even if we don’t always know what we’re doing. We can quiet that imposter syndrome voice in our brain. Part of that is connecting with other business owners who are further along or in the same phase. One book I really love—and wish I had read sooner—is The Gap and the Gain by Dan Sullivan.

What he describes is that there’s the gap between where we are now and where we want to be, and the gain between where we are now and where we started. If you’re always focused on the gap, it keeps moving as your goals change. But if you focus on the gain, it shifts your perspective. Instead of saying, “I’m so far behind,” you look at how far you’ve come in the last 18 months.

Eighteen months ago, you were figuring out how to move forward after your department closed. Now you have a business. You’ve helped people. You’ve learned so much about running a business. It’s no joke.

Katie Wiechnicki
That’s great perspective. It is.

Kate Ginsberg
It’s discouraging to live in the gap and feel like things are happening slowly. But so much has changed for you in 18 months. And if you knew then what you know now, how do you even wrap your mind around it? You’re building something brand new.

Katie Wiechnicki
Yeah.

Kate Ginsberg
And it takes tenacity and fearlessness. I give you major props for continuing to get up and do the damn thing every day.

Katie Wiechnicki
Thank you. You’re leading the way. You’re ahead in the game, but I love that perspective. It’s such a mindset change. Eighteen months ago we were nowhere. Now we have over a hundred providers referring patients to us. I understand insurance and billing and claims now. I never touched that before. Now everything is my problem.

Kate Ginsberg
All the things you didn’t deal with in the hospital—those were somebody else’s problem. Now they’re yours. But eventually you’ll grow enough to outsource. That first admin hire is such a milestone.

Katie Wiechnicki
We are looking forward to that.

Kate Ginsberg
Amazing. When you can stop wearing all the hats and feeling like you’re constantly drinking from a fire hose, that’s a very good moment.

Katie Wiechnicki
Yes. Recently we had an issue and they told us to consult our IT department. We were like, “Whoa. Who’s taking that on?”

Kate Ginsberg
Which one of you is that? I picture a hat piled with cable spaghetti and wires everywhere. My God. I used to joke, “Can I take Friday off? Let me ask my boss. Kate, can I take Friday off? Yes, sure, have fun.” Conversations with myself wearing all the hats.

Katie Wiechnicki
Yes. Again, in terms of isolation, I am so fortunate and blessed with my partners. They’re awesome. They’re all moms. Two of them are grandmothers. Their wisdom and experience—I’m blessed. I feel supported and not isolated.

Kate Ginsberg
That’s amazing. I made it 10 years on my own. I didn’t know it was impossible, so I just did it. When you’re in the depths of it, you don’t realize how impossible the things you’re doing actually are. From outside, people ask, “How are you pulling this off?” And you’re just like, “Doing it.”

Katie Wiechnicki
Yes. Just doing it.

Kate Ginsberg
The turning point for me was when my partner Heather came on. She took over the tech, website, job listings, hiring—things I didn’t have experience with. Her help carried me so much further. And now I have someone who is in the nitty gritty with me who can say, “What the hell?”

Katie Wiechnicki
Amazing. Yes.

Kate Ginsberg
We do a lot of back and forth. As long as we don’t both freak out at the same time, it’s fine. One of us keeps it together while the other panics, then we switch. That’s so important.

Katie Wiechnicki
Yes. Joanne and I take turns talking each other off the ledge. It’s important to have somebody to talk to. This is stressful. It’s no joke.

Kate Ginsberg
It’s no joke. And the things you least expect can throw you for a loop. It’s often the straw that breaks the camel’s back, and you need someone with perspective to say, “We can figure this out.” Even if it sucks, we’ll solve it and move forward.

Katie Wiechnicki
Yes.

Kate Ginsberg
Navigating insurance is tricky and changes depending on legislature. I don’t have to deal with that, but I can provide outside perspective. That’s another reason connections with business owners in other industries matter—they spark new solutions.

Katie Wiechnicki
Absolutely. We’re one of the only diabetes-focused nutrition and education groups in Austin now. There is value in industry-specific learning, but also in outside perspectives. Even meeting with you last week, I was writing furiously. We’re all doing parallel work: budgets, hiring, growing. Mentorship and outside perspective are critical.

Kate Ginsberg
Exactly. I’ve learned some of my best lessons from completely different industries—accountants, food service, CPG companies. Those relationships help us do cool things like our custom tea, even when minimums were too high.

Katie Wiechnicki
Yes.

Kate Ginsberg
And it’s nice to hear other business owners admit they’re not great with everything. Not everyone fully understands their P&L, and that’s okay. That’s why we hire accountants. Hiring experts is a huge milestone.

Katie Wiechnicki
Yes.

Kate Ginsberg
In our first year with employees, we tried to do our own books and taxes. It was not pretty. Being able to hire that out was amazing. That’s what I tell new entrepreneurs: figure out what you’re great at, what’s eating into your billable hours, and outsource what you can.

Katie Wiechnicki
That makes a lot of sense. How long did it take you to get to that point?

Kate Ginsberg
The last two years we’ve outsourced more than we’ve taken on. We reviewed our org chart and asked: What do I not want to do? What doesn’t need to be done by me? That shift is huge. It’s easy to say, “I’ll just do it myself so it’s right,” but that’s a slippery slope.

Katie Wiechnicki
Sure.

Kate Ginsberg
About a year ago we had a part-time team member come on whose strength was onboarding and quality assurance. We built those processes together. He also handles handyman tasks for clients—things like hanging pictures, changing bulbs, re-caulking sinks. He enjoys it and does a phenomenal job, and it frees me to focus on business development and team support.

Katie Wiechnicki
That’s cool.

Kate Ginsberg
Exactly. It frees up ideation space. Running a business requires risk, trial and error, and making mistakes. In the medical field, you can choose insurance-based, cash pay, or hybrid models. What matters is deciding what’s right for you.

Katie Wiechnicki
Yes. The insurance piece takes so much time. We use Simple Practice and like it, but billing and claims took forever when we were starting out. I was stuck behind a laptop when I wanted to be out building relationships. I’m working on relinquishing control—because I am a control freak.

Kate Ginsberg
No—you want things done properly and with oversight.

Katie Wiechnicki
Thank you. That sounds nicer.

Kate Ginsberg
You wouldn’t call your best friend a control freak. You’d say, “You want to make sure things are done right.”

Katie Wiechnicki
You’re right. So I’m working on stepping back, thinking big picture.

Kate Ginsberg
Big picture is huge. It’s easy to get pulled into minor details. If the consequence of something being imperfect is minimal, it’s okay to let it go and course correct later. The first step is delegating.

Katie Wiechnicki
Yes.

Kate Ginsberg
Sometimes that first step feels like plummeting off a cliff, but I have yet to hit the ground. Katie, thank you so much for being here today. Would you give us your social media handles before we go?

Katie Wiechnicki
Absolutely. We are on Facebook and Instagram as Diabetes and Nutrition Partners.