Building Something Up While Everything Falls Apart with Nelin Krull

In this episode of the Mom Owned and Operated podcast, Rita Suzanne and Nelin Krull discuss raising a family, running a business and remembering yourself.

Nelin Krull is the co-owner of Myofascial Canada. NeIin completed her Master’s of Science in Physical Therapy at the University of Toronto. Upon graduating she was attracted to the fast pace and acute nature of patients in the hospital setting. 

For 6 years, Nelin worked as a Physical Therapist in her local Hospital in various areas including Surgery and ER. After the birth of her daughter, Nelin decided the pace of the hospital didn’t fit with her young family any longer and took on the role of Clinic Director & Co-Owner of Myofascial Release Mississauga, a chronic pain clinic started by herself and her husband Justin, also a Physical Therapist and Expert Myofascial Release Practitioner. 

Nelin is an advocate for Women’s Health and ties that passion into the practices of the clinic. Her goal is to empower as many people (especially women) as possible with the tools to self-heal both physical pain and emotional trauma through Myofascial Release.

You can connect with Nelin locally in Mississauga, ON Canada, on their website, on Instagram and Facebook.

Chapters

• 0:30 Myofascial Release and Family Business
• 11:44 Healing Through Gentle Bodywork
• 17:25 Balancing Business and Self-Care
• 29:17 Myofascial Ball Techniques Tutorials

Transcript

Rita Suzanne: 0:31

I am Rita, suzanne, and this is Mom Owned and Operated. Today I have my guest Nellyn with me. I'm so excited to chat with you. Please tell us all about you, your business and your family.

Nelin Krull: 0:43

Of course. Yes, thank you so much for having me. So my name is Nellyn Krull. I am a registered physical therapist up in Canada. I'm in just outside of Toronto in Ontario, and my husband and I co-own a practice here called Myofascial Release. Mrs Saga and we're also the co-founders of Myofascial Canada, so we started our joint practice back in 2020, but we've been practicing for just over 12 years together and we have a young family. We have two young children. One is I have a seven and a half year old girl and a three year old boy. So very, very busy and and it's, you know, it's that's like being a business owner and being a mom.

Rita Suzanne: 1:34

Yeah, definitely. So, um, how was it, like, what made you decide to start your business and how did that happen?

Nelin Krull: 1:43

It. Yeah, it was a bit of an interesting story. So, um, when my husband and I graduated from our master's degree, we both kind of went in different directions. We're both physical therapists. I went more the hospital route, so I was doing a lot of acute care doing, I was working on surgery and I also worked in the ER for quite some time and my husband did went strictly to private practice. He knew from the get-go that that's what he wanted to do and he was lucky enough to have been exposed to this technique that we use called myofascial release, at one of his clinical placements as a student. So he just pursued that for the next seven or so years and I was in the hospital.

Nelin Krull: 2:35

Seven or so years and I was in the hospital and I was decently happy there until I got pregnant with my first child and then the demands were just so, so, so intense, like and I'm sure you know yourself in the audience is very aware of like what caregiver burnout is, especially when it comes to healthcare, and it was already present back then, not before COVID.

Nelin Krull: 2:57

So I was working way too much 10 hour days doing a lot of heavy lifting, and I just didn't know if I could continue. I did go back to work after I had my daughter for a year and it was torture Just a little bit. I mean, I love helping people, it is so fulfilling, but at the same time it was just really hard. So I decided I couldn't continue at the hospital anymore. And so at the same time my husband around that time decided he wanted to open his own solo practice. He just wasn't finding what he was looking for you know, working for other people in other clinics and so he started a solo practice and I helped him set that up, because he's so good at treating clients but he's not good at anything administrative. So the business just took off and he realized that after a year that he needed to expand and that he desperately needed my help in order to do that, so we decided to open our practice together in January of 2020.

Rita Suzanne: 4:07

And what made it so hard for you going back to work? Was it just the demands of the job or just like trying to juggle all of it together?

Nelin Krull: 4:36

Yeah, a little bit of both. I think the demands of the job are intense. When I went back, I was working in the ER, so I was doing 12 hour shifts, basically eight to eight, and so those were like my daughter's waking hours, like I would. She would just have woken up when I left and she would already be in bed when I got home.

Rita Suzanne: 4:44

So I didn't see her on the days that I worked and that was really hard. And then, yeah, er is just it's a wild. It's a wild thing, I don't know how better to describe it. I'm sure it's super stressful. I remember when I was working in corporate and just I hated dropping my son off and just leaving him there, and so I can only imagine you not getting to see her and how you know. That would, you know, be so much pressure in addition to having such a stressful job. So I'm sure there's different stresses when you have a business and all of that stuff and you know. So let's talk about myofascial release. How let's you know? Because we talked briefly about it and I'm a little bit aware of what it is, but I'd love to hear a little bit more of what it is and how it's beneficial.

Nelin Krull: 5:29

Of course yes. So myofascial release technique is the way we do. It is a sustained pressure approach. So before I get into what the technique is, I want to explain a little bit about what the fascia is, because I feel like that's important for people to understand.

Nelin Krull: 5:45

So your fascia is the connective tissue of your body. It is a three-dimensional web that, basically, is continuous from head to toe and it supports every single structure in the body. So a lot of times when people think about fascia, if they have some awareness of it, they often think of it as like the sausage casing, you know, or like if you've ever cooked a piece of raw chicken, that sort of like white sheath that you kind of pull away In living tissue. It actually is not just the casing, it is integrated into every cell. So it supports your muscles and bones, of course, but also your internal organs, your brain tissue, your blood vessels and your nerves. So it touches every structure in the body. And because it's continuous, the way we see the body is you can't compartmentalize it, since the fascia touches everything. So this fascial web we call it, when it's healthy and happy, everything's moving and gliding freely, everything's all good. When it's restricted, it gets stuck down. So this sort of web gets stuck and if you can imagine it's similar to like bubble gum in hair. It gets stuck down and that sticky area alters all the lines of tension and force in the body and so all of our typical biomechanical patterns of efficiency become completely inefficient and so it can create these far reaching effects where you have this restriction and pain in one area of your body but it's creating all kinds of weird symptoms elsewhere. So the number one being pain, but it's creating all kinds of weird symptoms elsewhere. So the number one being pain. A lot of people will experience that first, but you can.

Nelin Krull: 7:36

The thing about fascia is because it touches every structure. You can get really weird symptoms, like you know, like nerve issues. You can get blood flow issues, you can like some of the things that people come to us to see are like IBS or fertility issues. So it's because it's so far reaching, it can have such a big impact on the body when it comes to myofascial release essentially the way to get rid of that sticky glueiness that the fascia gets stuck in, to apply what we call gentle sustained pressure.

Nelin Krull: 8:09

So we find areas of restriction in the body and they typically present as really hot, really tender, really firm, or even sometimes we can feel that they're vibratory, really firm, or even sometimes we can feel, uh, that they're vibratory, yes. And so we place our hands in that area and apply gentle pressure so just meet the tissue where it's out, so we're not forcing anything, we're not like um and, and hold that pressure for at least five minutes and then five minutes that time is key to allow that really sticky, gluey substance that's holding the fascia down to actually sort of quote unquote melt and become less sticky so that now the fascia can glide again and all of the pressure that it was creating on all those pain sensitive structures around it is relieved. So not only are you relieving that pain, but you're also relieving the pressure on the nerves and the blood vessels and all the lymphatic tissue and all that, but and it takes repeated treatments, though, to make it actually go back to its original self.

Rita Suzanne: 9:16

or does it ever go back? How has that worked?

Nelin Krull: 9:23

or does it ever go back? How does that work? It does. Yeah, it's totally reversible. It tends to be that as we sort of accumulate experiences in our life as we age, that we accumulate myofascial restrictions as well. So it's rare that there's just one. And so if you think about that from a structural point of view, if you have one myofascial restriction, you release that. Think about that from a structural point of view If you have one myofascial restriction, you release that. Now that area is moving well. But now you may notice in another area that you feel restriction because now it's like it has been freed to some extent and it's like wait, I want to do more. So it doesn't take a lot of sessions to get to those areas because there's a lot of full body techniques that we do, a lot of sessions to get to those areas because there's a lot of full body techniques that we do.

Rita Suzanne: 10:09

But it is totally reversible and it is really quite effective for any kind of pain. So the first time that I heard about it and I'm sure that like you've heard this before but when the whole fascia blaster came out, like obviously what are your thoughts on that? And like that's, when I got, I dove like really into it, because when I was young I started to have cellulite just out of nowhere, you know, and I was like this is wild, you know, especially because I was very athletic and I was, you know, in shape and I just couldn't understand where it was coming from.

Nelin Krull: 10:43

Yeah, so in that context, tools like that they tend to promote more of like an aggressive, forceful type of pressure and unfortunately, like that will break up a little bit of the elastic component initially but won't help you with that sticky ground substance, right, um, so what ends up happening is you get some temporary relief and then it sort of just keeps coming back.

Nelin Krull: 11:13

Um context of cellulitis. Um, essentially what cellulitis is is basically just like um restricted fascia creating these pockets of fatty that um reduce that sort of smooth appearance of the skin. Um, so release is actually an excellent tool for cellulitis. Um more of a hands-on practice, you can also do it with some tools at home. We've taught many people how to do that Um's, but it's much, much less aggressive and much more pleasant to do.

Rita Suzanne: 11:45

I think over time, people have realized that you know, all of that bruising and things that people were seeing is that they were being a little bit too aggressive and that maybe it wasn't as effective as or maybe they weren't following directions I don't know.

Nelin Krull: 12:00

I think what it is, too, is, if you're feeling that kind of you know the sensation that people say like when they leave a treatment of some kind, that they felt the next day they felt like the hit by truck. It's because it's that that aggression creates so much inflammation in the body, and if we want to truly heal, what we need to do is bring that inflammation down. Actually, so oftentimes we're sort of working against our goal.

Rita Suzanne: 12:28

Yeah, and anytime you get any type of massage you're supposed to be, you know, hydrating again and all of these things. So maybe they weren't necessarily fueling their body the way that they were supposed to be. I don't know. Yeah, I found, I just found the whole thing really fascinating because she I believe she was like a physical therapist, as you know, and and trained in doing all of these things as well, and so I thought, you know, this is just a really interesting concept and I've gotten massages that were specific to fascia release because of, you know, like I said, the tightness that I would feel because I love working out and but I always had tightness in my hamstrings and so having those massages would help that tightness and all of the extra stretching and stuff, and so, you know, that has definitely helped over time, but I think the massaging is is wonderful. So what are some things that people can do, maybe at home if they can't come all the way to Toronto to see you?

Nelin Krull: 13:40

Of course and you know what we do actually offer a program for people to fly in, get a week of intensive treatment and then go home a different person. But if you are just starting out at home, there's a couple of tips that I can give you, the number one being that time component. Any kind of stretch that you're doing at home, hold it for at least five minutes and so, off the bat, that does sound really intense, right, but that's because typical conventional stretching it encourages you to like, go to the end of your range and then like, push, like, really push into that end of range. In order to sustain a five minute stretch, what you need to go is just to that first barrier of tension. Don't worry so much about how much range of motion you're getting, how much your stretch looks like, the picture of what it's supposed to look like, it's more of a felt sensation. So going inward, really feeling where that first barrier is, and just holding there, using gravity to help you, is really beneficial as well. So you're not stuck in a you know, bracing pattern with the rest of your body just to be able to stretch one part.

Nelin Krull: 14:55

So something as simple as, for example, a hamstring stretch. If you don't have that full range of motion to just be able to sit with your legs extended and bend over your legs, if you do, great, just get into that position and let your upper body hang and wait that five minutes. But if you don't let the knees bend a little bit, you can hold on to like a yoga bolster or a pillow or even one of your couch cushions. Um, put that on your lap and then rest your upper body on that, um, so you're partially supported, and then hold that for five minutes. Um, if that's too difficult, flip it the other way. Do legs up the wall again. You don't have to get your bum all the way into the wall, just find that first barrier of tension and then, just like, let gravity do the work right, and when you feel that, stretch to to actually relax and to yeah, yeah I love that so are you able to do?

Nelin Krull: 15:59

you take your kids to work with you, like what is an actual day in your work life looking like yeah, um, my, so my daughter is in school, um, but my and my son's in daycare. But during the summer, um, you know, I have the luxury of being able to not have to put my daughter in full-time camp. Uh, so, uh, so, um, sometimes she does come to work with me actually, um, it's just, you know, like folding linens in the back or like putting them in the rooms. She actually really enjoys doing those things. I've asked her to help me with like more administrative tasks before, like scanning documents and stuff, and she's like no, she's not interested in that, it's boring, um, but she actually does enjoy coming to work with me.

Nelin Krull: 16:44

I get very little done when she's not interested in that, it's boring, but she actually does enjoy coming to work with me. I get very little done when she's there, of course, but on the days where she's at school and my son is also in daycare, it usually looks more administrative. So I spend a good amount of time doing consult calls with new clients and then a lot more of the background scheduling, staff management. Staff management is kind of a huge piece of what we do. We have, um, about eight staff right now, and so like managing all of their needs as well. Um and then, uh, you know doing these sorts of things talking to new people, networking, marketing, accounting, social media, all of the above.

Rita Suzanne: 17:26

So, speaking of that, what would you say is the hardest thing about running a business? Because I always say that people assume that when they start their businesses, that they're just going to be doing the thing that they're going to be doing right. When they start their businesses, that they're just going to be doing the thing that they're going to be doing Right. So what, now that you have to do all of the things, what is the hardest thing about running your own business?

Nelin Krull: 17:50

Uh, easily, social media media it is. It's a beast. I um if I do get a little bit of help with it, uh, because I have to. I am not a social media marketer. I can come up with some ideas, but keeping like feeding that funnel constantly, constantly with fresh content, or even recycled content or just content in general content creation, is very time consuming. Not only does it take a lot of time, but it's a long game. You have to keep at it. Um, it's not an instant reward and um, and it's hard to know what's what's topical, what people want to hear about. Every, every time you're creating that content. Um, so that's easily the hardest thing. And then, second to that might just be staff management, but because there's everybody's so different.

Rita Suzanne: 18:44

Yes, and there's so many things. There's always something going on, I'm sure. I remember when I was in corporate and I was in management and there was always something and you know you had to deal with um at the time. So I can only imagine having eight. I think I was overseeing five at the time. So yeah, so, okay. So if another mom came to you and she wanted to start her own business, what would your advice be to?

Nelin Krull: 19:14

her. That's a good question. If I'm being perfectly honest, I would say, um, stick to your strengths, like, stay in your zone of genius, stay in your own lane and whatever is outside of that realm, either bring on a partner or hire out, because otherwise what ends up happening is you spread yourself way too thin and then, um, you, you, you, you, you. You don't have that momentum, that drive to keep going in your business. I love being a physical therapist. That being said, I don't carry a clinical caseload because if I did, all of the other administrative stuff would fall by the wayside, and I actually don't mind it. I help people through other ways, through educating them, through bringing them into our doors and then our therapists take over from there. But I actually have always enjoyed the business side of things. When I was back, when I was younger and pursuing, you know, my degrees, I actually had a really hard time deciding between, like, business and accounting versus health care. So this kind of gives me the best of both worlds.

Rita Suzanne: 20:25

So this kind of gives me the best of both worlds, right, and I think it's good because you're educated in the actual aspects of the business so that you're able to go out and make educated decisions and talk about it in a way that someone who isn't really educated would be able to. So I think that that's amazing. So tell everyone what are you listening to or reading right now? What is what's on your list?

Nelin Krull: 20:53

All right. So right now I'm listening to slash reading, because I mostly just do audio books Badass Habits by Jen Sincero.

Rita Suzanne: 21:03

Love it.

Nelin Krull: 21:04

Yeah, her, her whole series.

Rita Suzanne: 21:06

I love her. She's like my slave.

Nelin Krull: 21:09

Yeah, and listening to her is just such a joy. She's so funny, but really I think the humor helps get all of the information across. So that's what I'm reading right now and then listening to. I do listen to some podcasts. I was recently just listening to the Jay Shetty podcast, but I'm kind of all over the place with that. I'll listen to many things.

Rita Suzanne: 21:37

I'll listen to different things, just based on topic, and then I'll just jump around whatever I'm interested in. I don't necessarily. I don't know that if I subscribe too many. I just will listen based on the topic. I think a lot of people do that.

Rita Suzanne: 21:50

When I first started, though, I was die hard on Amy Porterfield and Pat Flynn for smart passive income, and I used to listen to the Fizzle Show. I don't even know if they're still around, but I those were the three that I would listen to on my way to work. We're talking 10 years ago, so I those were the three that kind of inspired me to actually start my business, because they were always talking about marketing and business and they would talk about you know, websites, and I thought I can, I could do this. I didn't even know how to make a website at the and I thought I can, I could do this. I didn't even know how to make a website at the time I was. I had to teach myself how to do this, but I was like you know what I'm, you know I'm tech savvy, I can do it. I don't know what I was thinking.

Nelin Krull: 22:41

I'm but. I did it. You can really learn on your own. I you know, like I learned how to build my website, I've learned how to do payroll and accounting and social media and basically human resources Right.

Rita Suzanne: 22:57

It just it's just going to take us a little bit longer to do it Right. And even like building websites for other people, it took me a little bit longer because you have to understand the branding in order to make it for somebody else. You can't just jump in there and say, ok, you know, there has to be some aspects of who it's for and all of these things. Okay. So, as I mentioned before and as I always tell everybody, the main reason why I started this podcast was because I was struggling with, like some personal trauma and I was wondering how other moms were able to do all of the things, because I just could not do all of the things. I mean I could barely do any of the things, all of the things. I mean I could barely do any of the things. So I love to know how you are able to like what are you doing for yourself.

Rita Suzanne: 23:53

You know, as moms, we often neglect ourselves and so. I want to know how are you taking care of yourself? What are you doing for you?

Nelin Krull: 24:01

So, yeah, that that's a really important question to ask. I think lots of moms feel that way. I definitely felt that way in various points in my career, particularly after my son was first born and I had two kids. I think that there are seasons in life where it is just hard. There was, you know, like right after my son was born. There was no getting out of the feeding schedule and all of those things.

Nelin Krull: 24:29

But outside of that, I think that the number one thing that women should really, really, really, really work hard on is delegating tasks. There is no reason why you have to do it all Um, it's, it's. You know, if you have a good support network, which is key to be able to delegate those tasks, um, it will make your load much easier to bear. And again, you then you get to stay in your kind of zone of genius, um. So I will say, um.

Nelin Krull: 25:00

One thing that I've done recently is um, I hired an assistant um to manage some of the day-to-day clinic operations so that I can work more remotely, which allows me to go for a walk in the middle of the day while listening to a podcast, or turn on some yoga and do like 15, 20 minutes of yoga whenever I feel I need it. Do my myofascial self-care whenever I feel I need it. Myofascial self-care whenever I feel I need it. And you know, just like, get that little bit extra work-life balance by being able to have the flexibility in my schedule to sort of pause Okay, I need to handle something to do with, like a family issue and then come back to work. You and then come back to work.

Rita Suzanne: 25:47

I recently heard this analogy and I thought it was so, just so, so brilliant, and it was basically that we should work like the lion and not the cow, and I don't know if you've ever heard this before, but I thought that that was so amazing because, um, essentially, and so I have to tell myself don't be the cow, don't be the cow right, so the cow.

Rita Suzanne: 26:15

this has nothing to do with anything else, except the cow is constantly grazing, right, it's constantly grazing the lion. It doesn't graze it in a wait, it's waiting until it sees its prey, and then it's saving its energy until it's ready to expend its energy. And that way then it has the energy to pounce. And so the way that would work is then, when it's time for you to go, you have the energy to go, but the cow can't go because it's constantly expending that energy grazing. And so I thought that was so brilliant, because a lot of times, as women, we're constantly trying to do all the things. Everything, even by grazing, is slow. Right, it's a slow paced thing, but it still is expending your energy. And so I and I thought to myself like that is so profound, like I can't even think of an another way to put it except don't be the cow and even if you think about that analogy is like how many blades of grass you go through in a day.

Nelin Krull: 27:25

I'd say that's probably equal to how many different thoughts and responsibilities we're holding onto in our heads every single day. You know from you know like school responsibilities for your kids to literally the groceries, taking care of your house and then work on top of that like the mental load we carry is intense.

Rita Suzanne: 27:48

Anything that you can delegate from that perspective is huge just huge, and so I'm always telling people like as soon as you can hire an assistant, that'll help you grow fast, and so I you know, much faster. And a lot of people are resistant to do that just because of control issues or and or financial issues. Oftentimes, though, it's control like they don't want to give up in the control of doing things, and I get that, but it will help you grow so much faster. Plus, it'll take off so much pressure from you. So it's been such a pleasure getting to know you. Where can everyone find you? Where are you online?

Nelin Krull: 28:31

Likewise, thank you. You can find us at myofascialcanadacom. We're also on social media, on Instagram and Facebook, at Myofascial Mississauga.

Rita Suzanne: 28:43

And on your website you have. You shared a free gift with me. Tell me about that really fast, because I want people to like go and grab that as well.

Nelin Krull: 28:51

Yeah, of course. So what I've shared with you is it's basically a two pager, really simple, easy to follow document of the types of myofascial stretches that you can do at home to get that really deep, intense and long lasting release of the fascia in your body. So lots of really good whole body techniques in there that really anyone can benefit from, because we've all got restrictions. But specifically, this guide I've given you helps people to learn how to use myofascial ball, and we have these myofascial balls. But you can get them at, like you know, a toy store, a kid's store, dollar store, whatever, just basically an air filled rubber ball, and you can use it to spot treat wherever you need, or you can also use it to do more of a holistic whole body technique. So it gives you all the how to guidelines and then a visual representation of where to put the ball and what positions to get in, and it's pretty much all done on the floor. So it's quite relaxing.

Rita Suzanne: 29:53

Nice, love it Well. Thank you so much. And just one more time. Your website is myofascialcanadacom. Yes, all right, Perfect. Thank you again for being a guest. Thanks for having me.