Tasha Holland-Kornegay

Dr. Holland-Kornegay is passionate about helping others reach their maximum potential. She is an author, motivational speaker, and entrepreneur. She created Wellness In Real Life to help decrease health care provider burnout.  Having wrestled with a formidable case of burnout herself, she knew about working in high-stress healthcare environments. Creating WIRL allowed Dr. Holland-Kornegay to help herself, and other healthcare professionals.

Dr. Holland-Kornegay enjoys studying people and understanding their perceptions toward life and their surrounding culture, which in turn cultivates her love of bringing problems to solutions and solutions to problems. It has always been a love affair of hers to help and work with people.

Dr. Holland-Kornegay is also the founder and owner of Our Treatment Center, PLLC. She is a Licensed Mental Health Clinician who earned her Doctoral Degree in Counseling(Human Services) with a concentration in Family Intervention Strategies.

Dr. Holland-Kornegay has held positions of School-Based Counselor for Wake County Public Schools, N.C., Program Coordinator for Communities in Schools(nonprofit), as well as working with inner city youth as Program Manager for Covenant House of New York City(nonprofit).

Dr. Holland-Kornegay is a proud Graduate of the North Carolina Public School System.

She brings years of experience in the Mental Health field and Marketing and Management.

Where did the idea for Wellness In Real Life come from?

My journey to starting WIRL began with a serious case of burnout. After opening a healthcare practice, managing thirteen clinicians every day, and having a baby at 42, my mind just couldn’t take it. My days of happily knocking things off of my to-do list were over — now, I was irritable, stressed out, completely unproductive, and unfulfilled.

When I finally admitted to myself that I was suffering from burnout, I realized that I needed a plan. So, I started making lifestyle changes. I freed up more time for things that were important to me, started talking to my support network of people who understood my situation, and eventually, I beat my burnout.

Knowing firsthand how the stressful healthcare environment can take a toll on mental health, I was inspired to help other healthcare professionals. With WIRL, healthcare professionals will be able to host workshops, meet and support each other, and great exclusive deals on great wellness-related products!

What does your typical day look like and how do you make it productive?

As you can imagine, there’s a lot of reading, emailing, and calling. But in terms of self-care, I manage to get a lot of breaks in there too.

How do you bring ideas to life?

By connecting problems to solutions and solutions to problems.

What’s one trend that excites you?

The self-care and wellness trend has been surging in the personal and business sphere. People are stressed out, and they’re looking for ways to feel better. We all want to manage our work and home lives with grace — to be better partners, parents, employees, and people in general. I think the welltech space is uniquely situated to give people actionable, life-changing services — and I’m so glad to be a part of it.

What is one habit of yours that makes you more productive as an entrepreneur?

Believing in my product(s)

What advice would you give your younger self?

Don’t waste time because you can’t get it back — but never lose yourself in work.

Tell us something that’s true that almost nobody agrees with you on.

I’ve come to realize that challenges are rarely as bad as they seem — if you spend the time trying to understand them, you can do a lot more than just overcome them: you can grow. For instance, the burnout episode that I mentioned earlier wasn’t just a fruitless setback. It encouraged me to start WIRL and achieve a more stable, healthy lifestyle. I think if we all stop treating challenges as deadends and start treating them as learning curves, we’ll all be better for it!

As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?

Running a business takes up a lot of time, so whenever you set your sights on starting a new one, you’re going to have to recalculate your work-life balance. Coming from someone who has had a few hard run-ins with burnout, this wasn’t something I took lightly. But over time, I’ve come to realize that the challenges that running a business present are actually opportunities for personal and professional development.

What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business?

I’m always amazed at how many inspiring and kind people I’ve met, and nothing has helped me more than building strong relationships with them.

What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?

Not sure if I would call them failure, as I have learned so much from the so called failures> Really, I would rather call them a “Leaning Curve.”

What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?

Lawn Service- In this day people don’t have time, and always looking for ways to buy back some of their time.

What is the best $100 you recently spent? What and why?

I caught a pair of jeans on sale at raleighdenimworkshop.com – perfect fit and saves time. These jeans can casual or dressy.

What is one piece of software or a web service that helps you be productive?

Hootsuite- schedules all of my social media post.

What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (Neighborly Words of Wisdom from Mister Rogers). This book is encouraging, gives food for thought, and lays the foundation for good living.

What is your favorite quote?

“You can’t pour from an empty cup.”

Key Learnings:

• Believe in Your Product: It might come off as cliche, but there’s just no getting around it. The reason I connect so deeply with my customers and clients is because I really believe in WIRL. I’m building something that will help other healthcare professionals who are stuck in the same burnout rut that I was in. That goes a long way.
• Know Your Customers: Because we work in welltech, specifically for health professionals, we have a really narrow clientele. Since I’m also a health professional who has struggled with burnout, this deep understanding of my customers helps me make lasting connections — and build a platform that actually works.
• Togetherness: Here at WIRL, we want to be teammates with our clients and customers, so we try to make all of our interactions personable and uplifting.