We recently connected with Alyse Carter and have shared our conversation below.
Alyse, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.
I feel like I found my purpose later in life. I’ve always been a very social and helpful person and I’ve been called a social butterfly. My father always thought that I would become a nurse because I loved helping people, but I never felt like that was my calling. I was never quite set on what it is that I wanted to do but when I got to high school I excelled in writing, and I loved taking pictures so I figured that I would become a photojournalist. I got accepted to SCAD for their photojournalism program but that ended up not panning out which was for the best. So, I found a program for an ultrasound tech specializing in OB. And when I went to tour the school, the advisor told me that I should think hard about going into OB because people don’t usually think of the negative aspects of the job like stillbirths or birth defects, things of that nature. I understood then that OB was not my calling because I knew I wouldn’t be able to handle those issues if they occurred; it would take a toll on me mentally and emotionally. Then they told me about cardiovascular sonography. And this perked my interest because my grandmother, who was my favorite girl, died of heart issues when I was around 8 years old. So, this field spoke to me because of her and honestly, I didn’t even know there was such a thing as cardiovascular ultrasounds, so it was intriguing. When I entered into the cardiac field after my schooling, I interned at Atlanta Medical and that’s where I fell in love. Being a sonographer is my purpose. I’m able to help people clinically as well as emotionally. I am able to be of service to my community and just leave someone in a better condition than I found them in. I feel that it’s important to be of good use to your fellow man. My profession allows me to do just that.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I’m a cardiovascular sonographer and I’ve been in the field for over 10 years. My business blossomed out of my hospital experience. I’ve always worked in a hospital setting and I loved it. I loved being able to go visit the inpatients, assist with Cath lab procedures, see all of the pathology and just be up to date with all the things that are happening in the cardiac world. But in my years of experience, I noticed that there was a trend. Not only did we service inpatients, we had an outpatient clinic as well. And in dealing with our outpatients, more times than not, I would notice that after their exam was over, they would still be there. Every time I would bring another patient back for their scan, I would notice my patient that I scanned hours prior to still sitting in the waiting room. Sometimes, it would be so severe that the patient would still be there when I was leaving to go home for the day. When I started to ask my patients why they were still there, the stories seemed to mirror each other. It could be that they were waiting for their child to get off of work to come pick them up or some sort of transportation service was running behind and this didn’t sit well with me. I didn’t like that my patient’s whole day was basically taken away from them because of their lack of transportation. So, I started to think, “There has to be a solution for this.” And this is where the idea for my business came from. I wanted to be able to give our patients their lives back. I didn’t think that it was fair that they had to sacrifice their time just to be able to check on their heart. This shouldn’t be an either or. They should be able to check on the health of their heart while still being able to live their lives. So, this was the birth of Lovelei Cardiology and Medical Staffing LLC. We provide in-home heart health services. We bring echocardiograms, vascular scans, and EKG to our patients’ homes. This relieves the anxiety of patients having to figure out their transportation situation as well as just the convenience of having someone come to their homes so (take out that) they don’t have to waste their time in traffic or feeling like they’re bothering their loved ones just to get their heart checked on. Heart disease is the number one cause of death in the United States, so I couldn’t understand why there was not a service that provided convenient services for cardiac patients. That’s how I knew this was my purpose. It was the reason why I was led to this field so that I would be able to assist my community in bringing heart health care to the people who need it.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
I would say connections, consistency, and finances. I think my biggest hurdle in starting up my small business was the finances. Everything seems so easy in the beginning. Like yes, this is a great idea, why wouldn’t it work? And I didn’t take the time to understand the logistics of it all. Understanding that you actually have to pitch this to a company or a person who has something to financially gain or possibly lose. We just look at it as this wonderful idea that we’ve come up with and everyone should love it because we love it so much. And eventually everyone might just love it like you do, but when you start out, not so much. You need to be able to make it make sense to someone who has no idea who you are and no reason to believe that you’ll succeed. Those finances need to be crystal clear. I found out with my business there can be no forward progress without those finances being in order and honestly it was the most frustrating part of my journey. That leads me to my next point which is consistency. Because of the frustration of the finances, it was very hard to remain consistent with the business plan. My forward motion was stunted tremendously when I would get hung up on making my numbers make sense to not only myself but to others. This is where your connections come into play. Finding a mentor or someone who excels in whatever it is that you lack. It might not be finances for you, it might be building relationships, understanding who your audience is or marketing. Starting a small business will force you to be honest with yourself and show you that asking for help is not a bad thing. The plan works so much better when you allow yourself to become a student and learn from more experienced individuals. In my small business journey, I’ve learned to take constructive criticism and not be married to one specific idea and be flexible and open to different avenues.
Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?
Always!! We provide services to adults 17 years and older and we focus on cardiac and vascular patients. But ultimately our clients are hospitals as well as doctor’s offices. We are looking to partner with cardiac clinics, hospitals, retirement homes, high schools, colleges, ETC. Specifically, we want to contract with establishments who already have a cardiac client base because we want to assist them in regenerating revenue which they have lost due to patients not showing up to their appointments. We want to be able to service patients who not only have transportation issues but patients who might have health issues that are hindering them from making it to their doctor’s appointments. These patients would include post-op patients, elderly patients, disabled patients, etc. I mentioned earlier wanting to contract with high schools and colleges as well and that’s because the players are now being required to have cardiac clearance in order to participate in their athletic programs. From my experience, it is very difficult getting students into the office due to their school schedules and academics are very important to us at Lovelei Cardiology. So, we will bring the cardiac services to the schools so that the students won’t have to worry about having to miss class in order to get their cardiac clearance to participate in their season. We are excited to gain new partnerships as well as employees! So if you think you might be interested in working with us, look us up on LinkedIn! We also provide medical staffing. 
