Today we’d like to introduce you to Kelly.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
From the outside, I was the picture of success. I graduated from Wake Forest University, built a career in fundraising and executive leadership, and became the Chief Development Officer of a national legal nonprofit. I also seemed incredibly healthy. I was an avid runner, practiced yoga, and lifted weights. I cooked most of my meals, ate plenty of fruits and vegetables, and avoided processed food.
But my body was telling a different story. In 2022, I started dealing with skin issues and insomnia and was diagnosed with PCOS. I was told there was no cure but that I could manage the symptoms with prescriptions and “diet and lifestyle changes.” I remember thinking wtf? What diet and lifestyle changes? I was already checking every box. But under the frustration, I was scared. How does someone doing everything “right” end up like this?
Then came a trip to the ER with uncontrollable facial swelling, several more swelling episodes, and finally a second “incurable” diagnosis: Mast Cell Activation Syndrome. That’s when my sadness turned into determination to find real answers. And anyone who knows me knows a determined Kelly is not messing around.
I threw out the playbook and started over. I read everything I could from physicians who trained in conventional medicine but looked beyond it, including Dr. Gabor Maté, Dr. Bruce Lipton and Dr. Casey Means. I questioned things I’d always accepted as fact. I trained formally in integrative nutrition and later got certified in genetic analysis through 3X4 Genetics.
If I could sum up everything I learned, it would be this: health is about far more than diet and exercise. Your mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual health are constantly interacting with one another to create health. Symptoms are signals, and real healing comes from reconnecting with your body to understand what those symptoms are trying to tell you.
This shift in perspective changed my life. My skin looked healthy, I started sleeping through the night, and the swelling episodes stopped. But the biggest change was harder to see from the outside. For the first time, I felt connected to my body, and I realized how disconnected I had been for years. So in 2025, I left my executive role to start Floreo Health, a boutique health strategy and coaching practice for ambitious, high-performing women.
Every woman’s health story is her own. But in working with women like me, I see similar patterns. The traits that make us so successful, like perfectionism, powering through, and putting everyone else first, are often the same ones quietly wearing our bodies down. I know, because I lived it. At Floreo, I combine systems thinking, genetic insights and root-cause strategy with my own experience to help high-performing women flourish.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It’s been a wild, bumpy ride. No one really knows what they’re getting into when they start a business. I had never had a job where my starting salary was $0. You’re building something from nothing, and as a recovering high achiever, I was frustrated that the money wasn’t coming faster. I had spent my whole career hitting goals and seeing results, and suddenly the scoreboard moved much more slowly than I was used to.
I’ve spent most of my career in sales and fundraising, so I’m no stranger to hearing “no.” But rejection hits differently when the business is yours. I’ll never forget the first time I got professionally ghosted. I had a great discovery call with a prospect who was excited to get started, and because it was early on, I was ecstatic. I sent over the client agreement and a payment link, and then nothing. I followed up by email, then called, then texted. Silence. It’s hard not to take that personally when what you’re offering is so personal to you.
Another moment that stands out: I sent an email to former donors and clients telling them about Floreo Health. One gentleman, and I use that word loosely, replied that “sending a picture of a pretty girl with nice t*ts ain’t going to sell it.” At that point, all I could do was laugh.
As you know, we’re big fans of Floreo Health. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Floreo Health is a personalized health strategy practice for professional high-achieving women. These are women who are doing all the “right” things and still don’t feel right. Many have been diagnosed with conditions like PCOS, Hashimoto’s, insulin resistance, endometriosis, IBS, eczema, migraines or mast cell activation syndrome. Others have symptoms no one can explain, like fatigue, poor sleep, hormonal imbalance or gut trouble. Most have been told to manage it for the rest of their lives. I’ve come to believe the framework we’ve all been handed for thinking about health is due for an overhaul.
The name comes from the Latin floreo: I bloom, I blossom, I flourish. A flower blooms when the conditions are right, with good soil, sunlight, water and environment. People also have an extraordinary capacity to flourish when the conditions that support health are present. Symptoms and diagnoses are the body’s way of communicating with us. My job is to help women become fluent in the language of their bodies, so they can understand what their body is saying and build a plan that addresses root causes instead of chasing symptoms.
At its core, Floreo Health represents a paradigm shift in how we understand and cultivate health, and that shift starts with systems thinking. Most wellness advice adds more to your list: one more supplement, one more workout, one more rule. I majored in economics and I look at health the way an economist looks at an economy. Your sleep, blood sugar, hormones, stress, mood and thoughts are all interconnected, and they influence each other in both directions. Adding more rarely helps. Real change comes from understanding how the pieces work together and adjusting the right levers.
To do that, I combine several kinds of information that are rarely looked at together:
-Your genetics. Through 3X4 Genetics, I look at how your body is wired to handle nutrients, stress, detoxification and inflammation, so every recommendation is built specifically for you.
– Your biology in real time. Tools like continuous glucose monitors show how your body responds to food, stress, sleep and exercise.
– Your life. This includes your schedule, your stress, your relationships and the habits that made you successful. Many of those habits, like perfectionism, powering through and putting everyone else first, may also be driving your symptoms.
My core offering is 90 Days to Flourishing™, a one-on-one program that starts with the a deep look at your history, symptoms, genetics and lifestyle. From there, we build your a personalized strategy we carry out together over 90 days.
What I’m most proud of is the shift from correction to cultivation. So much of health culture is about fixing and optimizing, as if your body were a problem to solve. Floreo is about growth. When you give your body the right conditions, it knows how to flourish. I’ve lived it, and nothing is more rewarding than watching my clients experience it too.
What I want your readers to know is that “no cure” and “just manage it” don’t have to be the end of the story. When you change how you see your health, you change what’s possible. There’s another way, and you don’t have to figure it out alone.
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
I am the epitome of a risk-taker. I think some people are wired to be a little more fearless than others, and I’m probably one of them. I also believe fearlessness is cultivated. When you’ve been through enough hard things and come out OK on the other side, your body learns something. It builds a kind of resilience that makes the next leap feel a little less scary.
To me, anything with an uncertain outcome is a risk, and I’ve collected quite a few. In 2019, I moved from DC to Nashville without knowing many people. That December, I took a job at a hospitality tech startup, just three months before every hotel in the country shut down. I’ve run with the bulls in Pamplona. I ski black diamonds. I’ve fallen in love, which might be the biggest risk of all. And I’ve been known to drive around with an expired license plate.
When leaving my role as Chief Development Officer to build Floreo Health, I asked myself what the worst-case scenario was. The answer was simple: if it doesn’t work, I go back to corporate America. That honestly terrifies me more than running with the bulls but not enough to stop me.
Fear is interesting. So much of our society runs on fear because it’s an incredibly powerful motivator. But when you challenge a fear and follow it all the way down to its core, you often find there’s much less there than you expected. That applies to careers, relationships, and health. Many of the women I work with have spent years making decisions from a place of fear. Learning to question that fear is often where real change begins.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.floreohealth.io
- Instagram: @floreo.health
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellydianemcnair
