Today we’d like to introduce you to Marla Osner.
Hi Marla, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I am a bit sass, so please be prepared for some sassy verbiage. I started as a veterinary nurse in the late 90’s. I worked at an emergency vet hospital and decided to go to school for small animal science. However, life has a funny way of sticking it to you, and after a year I ended up at community college in the early 2000’s trying to figure out what to do with myself. I ended up in nursing school and got my associates in 2006, I also got married 2 days later and started working right after. My love for emergency medicine albeit with animals initially, spilled into my nursing career and I ended up working the ER at several hospitals as a nurse. During this time, I lost my daughter while pregnant, I then got pregnant again, got my bachelors degree, and then subsequently got divorced. I then got my nurse practitioner in 2014 and moved into a roll as a provider in the ER. As an aside, the student loans, divorce debt, left me reeling with $120k in debt. So, I made a plan. I researched, I struggled, I taught myself, and then I taught others how to get out of debt, and start building wealth. This was the birth (unbeknownst to me at the time) of Wealthy Women Coaching. A business that I made to help other women learn the foundations of financial literacy, debt repayment, budgeting, building emergency funds etc. Back to the emergency room, the gig was great, I learned a ton and had a lot of autonomy but the hours, if we are being frank were shit. I would leave the ER at 4 am, roll home, nap for an hour and then head out with my young son for wrestling meets on a Saturday morning. Catching naps on hard bleachers between his matches. It was nothing short of brutal. I finally met my now husband in 2018 and he encouraged me to stop living la vida loca and get a job that was less crazy with the hours. To be honest it was hard, really hard, giving up what I had built in the emergency room. I was able to have a really good relationship with my colleague’s, I had fought hard to garner a skill set and learn all I could to make me a good provider. I knew what I knew, I knew what I didn’t, and I knew when to ask for help. However, as it should be, your kid always wins out, this caused me to look for a career elsewhere. I ended up working for a Doctor who was a medical director at a nursing home and he owned some urgent cares. That single job lead me to become Vice President of a company we built together in PA and NJ that placed NP’s in Nursing homes, to help decrease hospitalizations, to catch patients before they were so sick that they needed to go out, to treat in place for the elderly clients. It was an incredible concept and worked really well for years. However, as the reimbursement landscape changed and politics started getting involved, we slowly had to shut down the practice. Meanwhile as all of this was happening, I started my own personal hellish journey with perimenopause. Forgetting things, the brain fog was torture, for someone who spent 8+ years in college, and is reasonably intelligent I was “dumb”. I couldn’t remember anything, I was exhausted, my hips hurt like I was a 90 year old woman, and my gyn told me, “Well, its not menopause” which I already knew…. however it WAS perimenopause and my Testosterone levels were 3 and I had no progesterone- who knew. This discovery was made because I took my health in my own hands and did a slew of tests, a ton more research, and then realized what was going on. At the time, I had no hormonal health background. I found a perimeno/meno specialist in mid pa, I took 8 pages of summary notes, pages and pages of lab work, and waited a solid 4 months or so to see her. I walked into her office, laid everything out on her desk, synopsed the whole thing and then broke down in tears. Like sobbing, my new marriage was on the rocks, I couldn’t stay awake, my body hurt like an old lady, my poor kid couldn’t understand why I was snappy. And bless the female Doctor who sat in her chair across from me, cross legged with no shoes on and was girl I got you. And then after she explained what I had sort of figured out on my own, I knew I wanted to learn as much as possible and start helping other women. Because if I as a provider, was dismissed by my own provider…. how were other women fairing? As our one business began to close down, my boss and I became partners in a whole new venture. Eclipse Total Health was born, we are a Regenerative medicine and hormone health clinic. My partner Dr. Soiferman does the Regenerative medicine and I do the hormone health. Its a really synergistic practice. We look at the body as a whole, instead of pieces like many other specialties.
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?
Phew, its been all kinds of rocky. As mentioned, dead daughter, divorce, giving up something I loved in emergency medicine and venturing into geriatric medicine was hard. Having no business background and building a multi state company was hard. Being a woman in a mans world especially the ER and then in the Business realm, was hard. I once was told by a doc in the ER that he thought “I had the biggest swinging dick in the practice”. I took it as a compliment. I prided myself in being confident but not cocky, and fighting for what I thought was right for my patient, not just what was right for the business of the er, the hospital, the nursing home, etc. This didn’t always earn me fans among the higher ups, but it got what I needed to get done for the patient most of the time. We don’t have enough providers fighting and bucking the system. We haven’t gotten mad enough at the insurance companies or the multi million dollar ceo’s that cause our healthcare dollars to go up. And frankly, we aren’t collaborating enough amongst ourselves as providers because the higher ups can’t bill for that. I can’t tell you as a cash based practice, how much more time freedom I have to collaborate care with patients other providers, but it is nor reciprocated by far because those providers don’t have the time in their day to stop and talk. Its a huge problem, and a big reason we spend so much on healthcare. Myself included. We paid over $18k dollars last year in premiums, another $9k in deductibles… and we RARELY use our insurance, I provide a fair share of the care for my family for free. Let that sink in. This was for basic labs, chronic medications, and the privilege of having coverage incase of a hospitalization. One of the biggest struggles currently for me is wanting to help all women, but also being smart business wise and realizing that not everyone can pay out of pocket to see us. This is hard. I have the freedom to help people in a more in depth scale by not using insurance, but it also excludes some people from being able to use my services. This is an issue I grapple with daily, the nurse, the nurse practitioner, the empath in me is always triggered by the wanting to support everyone, but only being able to support the ones that can pay. Its actually sickening to an extent.
As you know, we’re big fans of Eclipse Total Health and Wealthy Women Coaching. . For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
I kind of answered this all on the prior pages. However,
Eclipse: Hormone health and regenerative medicine clinic- we provide in depth blood work to figure out hormone health, we look deeply into the thyroid, inflammatory markers, adrenal glands/cortisol levels, vitamin and mineral panels. So when we approach the hormone health we look from a whole body root cause perspective. Our programs now offer services from other women owned companies- pelvic floor pt’s, personal trainers, nutritionists, somatic coaching, perimenopause/menopause support groups, and we are discussing collaboration with a company who does cold plunge, red light sauna, vibration plate therapy, red light therapy, compression therapy, and more. As for the Regenerative piece, we work with MMA fighters, elderly clients, weekend warriors, patients with neuropathy, plantar fasciitis, and patients who have hormone imbalance many times will also have frozen shoulder, or hip issues etc. Regenerative Joint Medicine using the bodies own healing power with PRP and Stem Cells helps us support a variety of patients.
Wealthy Women Coaching: I actually got my life insurance license as well so I could help women protect their children/families in case of their demise. This whole program is actually going to be overhauled, I am working on a self paced, cost effective platform for women to use, so they can learn as they go. By making it recorded and self paced, it will decrease the cost and increase the availability to everyone. Last year I had the pleasure of talking to young ladies from across the country at Rising Stars Football Academy at their inaugural Girls Flag Football Camp. We talked about failing forward, the things that led me down the path of starting WWC, how I got into nursing, and why financial security starting young as a woman is so incredibly important. It allows us opportunity, but it also allows us an escape, whether it be a bad job, a bad relationship, or whatever, having financial security allows us to pick up and walk away and move on without worry of being homeless, etc.
I think in both practices what sets me apart, is that I lived the hell, I did the failing, and I did the digging and crawling out, so I know what its like to be in the shoes of my client/patient, and I know how to get them where they want to be from where they are now. One thing we are talking about for 2027 (my partner and I) is melding both companies to hold a retreat. A women’s retreat that provides, health, wellness, financial literacy, wealth building, etc. Its a dream that I had and when I brought it to my partner for Eclipse he embraced the idea.
How do you define success?
Great question, no idea. I fight this battle every day. I am type A and habitually looking for the next way to grow, and get better. To continue using my failures as a way to propel myself forward and make it better the next time, to learn etc. My therapist would be sad if we figured this out because then I wouldn’t need her anymore. LOL.
One thing I can tell you that I feel success about is my son James, this kid is humble, he is kind, charismatic, a leader and just overall a good human. He is a dedicated student and athlete, and as much as I can’t take credit because he is his own person, seeing him grow up to be a gentleman, well traveled, well rounded, and a caring dedicated boyfriend makes me feel like I have done something right in this weird, crazy world.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.eclipsetotalhealth.com
- Instagram: eclipsetotalhealth
- Facebook: EclipseTotalHealth
- Other: www.wealthywomencoaching.com, FB: wealthywomenfinancialcoaching
