Healing Hearts and Minds: Dr. Annette Bosworth's Journey in Healthcare

[00:00:00] I think I know what I want to be when I grow up. Let's see if I can do that.

[00:00:05] And in the process, I'm trying to navigate you show up to Biology 101 and the professor says,

[00:00:10] how many of you want to go to medical school in the whole room of a thousand students raise their hands?

[00:00:15] He says two of you will make it into the medical school statistically.

[00:00:18] And I couldn't believe that. Like, oh my goodness, this competition is really hard.

[00:00:24] So I got a 4.0, I'm like, okay, let's game on. I do not want to end up back in that hot bar.

[00:00:38] Welcome to the En Factor conversations with entrepreneurs.

[00:00:42] I'm Rebecca White and I am so excited today to have a net buzzword with me.

[00:00:47] She is a physician, advocate, faculty member, entrepreneur. And I think I am in saw in her background that she dabbled in politics a little bit.

[00:00:57] So she's done a little bit of everything, a true slash career woman who's really made a name for herself in the healthcare industry has recently moved to Tampa

[00:01:09] and I am so excited to welcome her to Tampa and to get to know her a little better. Welcome.

[00:01:15] Thank you. Thank you, Rebecca. I'm super excited to be on your show and to learn more about the community that I landed in.

[00:01:22] Honestly, I had the biggest fear when leaving my 50 years in South Dakota was, how do you push reset at 50?

[00:01:33] When I come from a rich set of relationships and friendships. And it's been...

[00:01:40] So I'm looking forward to this too just because of people like you in this community are everywhere, but I'm still a quarter turn off of getting into real relationships with them.

[00:01:51] Yeah. Let's be part of this.

[00:01:53] I'm so excited to welcome you here and as I read more about... And I'm excited to learn more about you today.

[00:01:59] But as I've read about your background, as I said to you, you're the kind of doctor I would like to have.

[00:02:05] So you're an internal medicine physician and you've done a lot of amazing things.

[00:02:10] So I'd like to just go back and say, how does South Dakota girl who grew up on the plains as you put it in some of the things written about you find her way to medicine? What led you there?

[00:02:25] Well, I will say with all honesty that it was hog tours that got me here.

[00:02:33] Sometimes you reach for things in life because of what you're going away from and a little bit about what you're heading toward.

[00:02:40] And I grew up in a town of 800 people, so K through 12 and one building. You start kindergarten with 21 kids. You graduate 13 years later with the same 21 kids.

[00:02:50] Wow. Wow. People... When you look at rural and you look at how difficult small town vitality is to keep.

[00:03:01] I think it's difficult for those that don't come from that to really understand.

[00:03:08] There is this attraction that people have, this Laura Ingalls wilder. If you ever saw...

[00:03:17] A little house on the prayer.

[00:03:19] That was South Dakota. This is small town USA.

[00:03:23] I mean, people who are brave and take on the weather and do things because if you don't do it it doesn't get done.

[00:03:29] And that idyllic lifestyle... Well, it has a backside.

[00:03:35] It has a side that I grew up thinking I don't want to be a farmer's wife.

[00:03:41] There are hogs out there, right?

[00:03:43] My dad was a hog farmer.

[00:03:45] I castrated hogs for the first 10 years of my life probably longer but at least for

[00:03:53] the first 10 and knew that there had to be a better way than this.

[00:03:59] Well, I love that because we actually have a lot more in common than you might think

[00:04:04] because I grew up in a small town too in West Virginia and it's a completely different

[00:04:10] lifestyle.

[00:04:11] I agree with you.

[00:04:13] Now my mom was an entrepreneur.

[00:04:16] Your father was a farmer so he was an entrepreneur, right?

[00:04:20] Was that part of your inspiration that led you to kind of want to be even though you're

[00:04:25] a physician, self-employed?

[00:04:26] I mean how did all that happen?

[00:04:28] Well, I'll tell you that I didn't know the word then.

[00:04:31] I didn't either.

[00:04:32] I didn't either.

[00:04:33] My mom just owned a business.

[00:04:36] That's all I knew.

[00:04:37] Right.

[00:04:38] Well, my mother ran for a county auditor.

[00:04:40] That's the first job that I saw her get after raising the kid, art us but when I was young

[00:04:45] she had gone to school for being a registered technician of X-ray and so she'd been in a

[00:04:50] medical world but you're in the middle of nowhere where the drive to the closest job

[00:04:54] is over 30 miles away in 1971.

[00:04:58] That's a long ways away but as she did her beginning life stayed at that for a little while

[00:05:04] but then said, you know what?

[00:05:06] Three kids I'm I belong here.

[00:05:08] As soon as that was a little more stable she said, I can't just I need something.

[00:05:13] I need a I need more and so she ran for an office in our county called you know she was the

[00:05:20] assistant to the auditor and that began a journey where she then ran for office herself

[00:05:26] and became the county auditor.

[00:05:28] So she was leading her own way and I know that was a big part of what said, I can do this.

[00:05:35] I can be that independent when you are born into a farming family is strange.

[00:05:43] This conversation might sound in 2024.

[00:05:47] I mean my dad prayed for boys.

[00:05:49] And he had me.

[00:05:52] So the next the next baby was a boy but he was born very premature.

[00:05:58] There was actually twins and one died and so for the longest time I was in a place where

[00:06:05] acting like the you know strong do what dad wants have that drive to get things done

[00:06:12] figure out problems without having to be told.

[00:06:15] So there was this mentality I think that happens in most rural communities especially if

[00:06:19] you're a farm kid that you don't have an electrician come for everything.

[00:06:23] You don't have a plumber come for everything or you would never be able to afford it.

[00:06:27] So there's this mindset that you solve problems as you go through life and that was a really

[00:06:33] strong product of what my dad exampleed for me and my mom on the other side and was much

[00:06:40] more involved in our church and our community and then the leadership in the political side

[00:06:44] of things for running for office.

[00:06:47] She showed me that if you don't show up and do things your community doesn't have it

[00:06:53] that if you know if you didn't go out for the basketball team there wasn't a basketball

[00:06:58] team.

[00:06:59] It took five girls to go off for the basketball team and I was the fifth one.

[00:07:02] I was not good at basketball but I went out because the other girls really wanted to play

[00:07:07] basketball.

[00:07:08] So that kind of mentality of you don't have a community meals on wheels in a small town

[00:07:15] you have ladies that go to your church and volunteer to do that for the elders in your

[00:07:19] community.

[00:07:20] And if you don't show up and do it it doesn't exist.

[00:07:23] So I just think that heart of service that doesn't keep score was very much a part

[00:07:29] of this is just what you do.

[00:07:31] There's no there wasn't an option not to that's just what you did.

[00:07:36] Which is a big part of entrepreneurship you know that the whole taking ownership right

[00:07:42] because when I first started teaching entrepreneurship it was in Cincinnati where we had a lot

[00:07:48] of corporate headquarters and I can remember that the organizations for the graduate

[00:07:54] students would not their companies would not pay for an entrepreneurship class but it wasn't

[00:07:59] too many years later because they were afraid they were going to lose them.

[00:08:03] But it was not a there was not a few minutes.

[00:08:06] It wasn't too much later that those companies realized that having employees who take ownership

[00:08:12] which is what you're talking about makes for a better employee.

[00:08:16] So yeah I can think of as I was going through training and saying okay I'm going to drive

[00:08:23] to find a job that doesn't land me back in my little town and the years it took to do

[00:08:30] that and I kept reaching for what I thought was the right thing for I mean it's what everybody

[00:08:36] was reaching for a safe job that paid well in a world where medicine was changing a whole

[00:08:42] bunch.

[00:08:43] I mean you were going from lots of independent clinics to almost everybody had been part

[00:08:47] of a corporation and if your electronic medical record didn't work then you were nothing

[00:08:52] you know there there is these rules that were all shifting as we were all coming of

[00:08:55] age inside medicine so you wanted the job that was secure.

[00:09:00] And I remember getting to one of the first jobs and thinking oh there's a whole bunch

[00:09:04] of problems here that need to be solved and that ownership of the problem will it turn

[00:09:10] into leadership that if you're going to be in a company where there's lots of people

[00:09:14] just like you with lots you know medical degrees all the way up and down the aisles but

[00:09:18] there were these problems that what why is it so hard to get a urinary tract infection

[00:09:24] treated by a woman who's had it you know four times in the last two years and now you're

[00:09:29] making your way to week to come see me or go to the ER that there's a way better way

[00:09:34] to solve that.

[00:09:35] And I think that same sense of if you don't solve it nobody is going to do that that ownership

[00:09:41] part really did come as it must be part of my soul for me.

[00:09:47] Now I don't know.

[00:09:49] So you went to college obviously and you chose a career path in medicine and you've

[00:09:56] been an entrepreneur let's let's back up a little bit did you but what led you to college

[00:10:02] because not every little not every girl from a small town goes to college so how did that

[00:10:08] happen and and how did you choose medicine.

[00:10:11] How and why?

[00:10:12] Yeah that's so bizarre it's a it's a okay so the truth is I

[00:10:18] didn't want to be a farmer's wife and I had this mantra my dad would say to his especially

[00:10:26] his daughters I will give you an education but I won't give you away meaning I'll pay

[00:10:30] for college but I'm not going to pay for your wedding.

[00:10:33] So good priority setting I see where he was going and this all worked out well unless

[00:10:38] you look at the hog market in 1990 which is when I graduated actually 1989 and 90 which

[00:10:43] is when I graduated from high school and the hog market just it just fell out.

[00:10:48] I mean I've never seen my parents so desperate to pay bills in it.

[00:10:53] I mean we weren't any we weren't wealthy we were a small farm but we had a lot of our

[00:10:58] life vested in the hog market and it just went to pot it went to it went to pot.

[00:11:04] So all of the things that were saved for my college education were they were gone.

[00:11:09] I can remember my dad sitting on the edge of my bed saying that money I'd saved is gone

[00:11:13] and I was definitely terrified.

[00:11:17] At this point I had whispered the words that I wanted to be a doctor because of a school

[00:11:22] assembly that's a word used in a small town in case you don't know where everybody comes

[00:11:28] to listen to somebody speak.

[00:11:30] Now I don't know if everybody was there but at least I was in the seventh grade and so

[00:11:33] it was at least seventh grade to seniors in high school were in front of these two they

[00:11:39] were the Adams family and it was two kids that I knew from Sunday school they were much

[00:11:45] bigger than me and I they left and now they were back and they were giving the assembly

[00:11:48] because they were back from college.

[00:11:49] They were about a year apart and it gone to one of the universities in South Dakota

[00:11:53] and they were talking about how to choose a college why college is you know what it has

[00:11:58] for a path and for sororities and fraternities and how you network and so they give this

[00:12:04] little presentation and then they ask questions and I was listening and the first I'm like

[00:12:09] seventh you know seventh grade in the front row raised my hand as high as I can and they

[00:12:14] said what's your question I'm like what's your job?

[00:12:19] And the two of them looked at each other I mean being really nervous because they looked

[00:12:22] at each other you can see them flush and they had taken up studying music.

[00:12:30] One was a trombone player and played in the church all the time I knew they were a trombone

[00:12:33] I knew this was their skill set but they had gone through it.

[00:12:37] They had done this thing called college and they didn't have a job and at this point I

[00:12:42] was riding my bike to and from school so it's a long country road on a bike and I can

[00:12:48] remember being so upset on the bike ride home that the equation for college did not

[00:12:53] lead to job and I'm at the end of our driveway which is about a half a mile long and I pick

[00:12:59] up the mail and on the front of time magazine it said job placement and satisfaction.

[00:13:05] And I can remember riding my bike with no hands down a gravel road reading this chart that

[00:13:09] says if you studied in medicine you had like a 95% chance that you were going to like

[00:13:15] what you did or get a job and that you were going to like what you did and so that night

[00:13:21] I said I'm going to be a doctor.

[00:13:25] Dan Dlyxlin says what?

[00:13:29] My mother's like do not say okay what's it take to be a doctor?

[00:13:34] You know don't shout off.

[00:13:36] I love that story so you know is it amazing how these tiny little things can be put in

[00:13:43] our life you know the serendipity of it almost and if you hadn't picked that up and read

[00:13:50] that where would you be today maybe you'd still be in the same place.

[00:13:55] But it's you didn't have role models in your family in other words who are physicians.

[00:14:00] I hadn't met I hadn't met a doctor I got all my vaccinations from the county nurse

[00:14:05] I didn't ever go to the doctor.

[00:14:07] I knew that that was somebody that had a pretty good job and had to study really hard.

[00:14:13] So there was I've actually said to young women like you should actually meet people in

[00:14:18] your profession before you decide that's what you want to be.

[00:14:23] So when you were in college did you ever find yourself at a point where you were like oh

[00:14:28] this was a mistake I shouldn't have done this and almost turned around obviously you didn't

[00:14:33] but almost.

[00:14:34] I'll tell you my dad said all right you think you want to be a doctor.

[00:14:38] I think you should be around some some examples of medicine.

[00:14:42] And so the closest thing that I could do in high school between my junior year and my senior

[00:14:47] year in freshman of high school I was a nurse's aide in a nursing home that was about 25 miles

[00:14:54] away and I rode with this little lady who'd been a nurse's aide for 40 years.

[00:14:58] That's all she'd been and I she was my ride I did the same shifts as her that's how I got

[00:15:02] to and from.

[00:15:03] And then I my dad said if you can find pleasure in in serving at that level in medicine

[00:15:09] I'm sure you can find pleasure in serving in as your rank goes up and your knowledge goes

[00:15:14] up.

[00:15:15] And I learned that dentures are a disgusting thing I never want to own.

[00:15:20] And I was like my whole job all along was that but then I was I transferred that skill

[00:15:28] to there was an emergency room and and and host nursing home and emergency room connected

[00:15:35] together in that college town where I I showed up for a couple of shifts a week and then

[00:15:41] that turned into summer jobs where I was a nurse's aide and I would work in a nursing

[00:15:45] home and would be able to cross train over in a hospital which is where I actually got

[00:15:52] to meet physicians and see what they did and saw what their skill sets were and mirror

[00:15:56] a shadow to them you're kind of in the background.

[00:15:59] But I found that their influence on me was way bigger than they know it was and that

[00:16:07] I've tried to appreciate that there is somebody three layers behind the leader that is still

[00:16:12] watching and that professionalism and that ability to you know example how hard the job

[00:16:19] can be and the grace you have for yourself and others it ripples through a community through

[00:16:24] an organization and especially a care team in medicine.

[00:16:28] So that's actually where I said well I think I know what I want to be when I grow up let's

[00:16:33] see if I can do that.

[00:16:34] And in the process I'm trying to navigate you show up to biology 101 and the professor

[00:16:38] says how many of you want to go to medical school in the whole room of a thousand students

[00:16:42] raised their hands he says two of you will make it into the medical school statistically

[00:16:47] and I couldn't believe that like oh my goodness this competition is really hard.

[00:16:53] So I got a 4.0 I'm like okay let's game on I do not want to end up back in that hog

[00:16:59] barn and I can remember sitting in the library and as soon as I would hear my friends would

[00:17:05] say let's go let's go I'm like the smell my nose would haunt me saying I'm gonna put in

[00:17:11] a couple more hours I'll meet you there.

[00:17:13] We need to give up right right don't give up when it is a journey it's a heck of a journey

[00:17:18] yeah yeah and you know there are so many things in that story I love and and I think

[00:17:24] the one thing I want to pull out is this life of service that you've chosen because

[00:17:32] it goes all the way back to what you were talking about with your community showing up

[00:17:36] being part of a community of people caring about the people around you and and your whole

[00:17:43] career has been about that.

[00:17:48] Let's go back so you got out of med school I know it's a lengthy journey I had a

[00:17:54] lot of graduate school as well and so when you got out what tell me what how you started

[00:18:00] how did you start your career.

[00:18:02] Well so I originally thought I was going to be the kind of doctor that ran an ICU and

[00:18:07] had intubated patients with calculatable answers because they were either right or wrong

[00:18:13] and that black and white it's a lot simpler isn't it wouldn't that be true.

[00:18:18] Well it turns out that's not what happens in ICU but it looked that way from my point

[00:18:21] of view when I was trying to pick which kind of doctor do you want to be.

[00:18:26] And I took my mom seven years to get pregnant so I you know I'm married and I tell my husband

[00:18:32] I think I should go off the pill I think we should be prepared but it's going to take a while

[00:18:39] in a month later I don't feel good.

[00:18:41] I still have my 10 days before I had hours in residency I'm putting like 115 to 120

[00:18:48] hours a week and I'm pregnant.

[00:18:52] Anyway so I have this baby in residency and I had still been vying for this very competitive

[00:18:58] place in yeah ICU medicine or it's called intensive care pulmonary fellowships and I held

[00:19:06] this baby in my hands and said honey I don't think I want to do that I think I want

[00:19:09] to just be an outpatient physician with a clinic and come home at night and do this

[00:19:15] and I have no regrets about doing that but my husband did say you know you get your

[00:19:20] changing one of the most lucrative paths in medicine for one of the least lucrative paths

[00:19:25] in medicine and we still have the same student loan bill.

[00:19:30] So he was being funny but also knew that I wasn't going to let that other major job in

[00:19:38] life which is raising my family be something that was I just think that role has served

[00:19:46] me well not in just showing what acts of service look like to my staff mates, the medical

[00:19:52] students that I've you know mentored but also my kids to say you can do a really well educated

[00:19:58] job and you can balance it in a way where your my role as a wife and a mom has also blended

[00:20:05] well with these acts of service because I was well trained and had this other skill set

[00:20:10] that yeah yeah I love that message too once again we have a lot in common because I got

[00:20:17] pregnant during during my PhD program I had two little ones before I graduated I had to slow

[00:20:22] down the process and I can remember that I wrote my dissertation from like four in the

[00:20:28] morning till six in the morning because they weren't up yet so it was either then or it was

[00:20:34] late at night and by night I was too far gone so right so you know I think that's an important

[00:20:40] message you know it but but it's not easy and there are lots of sacrifices along the way

[00:20:47] and I know that and and I know you made a lot of sacrifices to get where you are. So your

[00:20:55] so you you decided to did you go into practice with the

[00:20:59] Trins out when you're going to be a intro medicine doctor and do primary care there were a lot

[00:21:04] of people who wanted to do it so the job options were pretty amazing I we decided not to move like

[00:21:10] we were in Salt Lake City Utah at the time and I really loved the mentorships that I had really

[00:21:16] that I created there. I got really attached to the medical community and thought I don't feel

[00:21:21] like I can walk away from these relationships because I don't think I've learned enough

[00:21:25] and I know if you go to another medical community those relationships are difficult to foster

[00:21:31] as a brand new graduate you really you sacrifice so I stayed there for another several years

[00:21:37] and had I augmented my four days a week at the clinic with one weekend a month in a little town

[00:21:45] about a hundred miles from anywhere where I ran the emergency room. So I got to blend what I thought

[00:21:51] was you can call it front your medicine because you're the only one around but also just really good

[00:21:56] skill set for for that thing I like to do which was you're in the middle of nowhere you're in

[00:22:01] you're on a farm and the plumbing doesn't work and now you got to figure it out. So you call somebody

[00:22:06] and you've got to be able to think and solve this problem without all of the resources but

[00:22:10] enough of the resources I loved I loved those weekends in film or Utah for several years and

[00:22:17] it was I think it really blended well for where I was headed. My mother then calls one

[00:22:25] you know the other part of that story I think that's helpful to weave in is when you

[00:22:31] when you don't have a lot of mentors and medicine you get to this special place at about the third year

[00:22:35] of your medical school training and they say well what kind of doctor do you want to be? And I

[00:22:39] was like oh my lord another major life decision about something I hardly know I mean I know a

[00:22:45] handful of each types of these doctors that you want me to pick what I'm gonna be and so

[00:22:50] I chose internal medicine because as I was answering the questions that my parents would have

[00:22:56] the people who fed me the answers that my parents liked the best were the internal medicine doctors.

[00:23:01] They said they seemed to know the answer is deeper and I felt satisfied in a way that

[00:23:07] the one day I can remember my dad actually he believed I was a doctor was when I answered a question

[00:23:13] so thoroughly in a way he totally understood it was a major right of passage for me where he's like

[00:23:19] oh my god you're actually a doctor. Anyway so I took this internal medicine training and

[00:23:28] my mother had called me from a hospital that in a little town the same little town where she was

[00:23:34] the x-ray tech 30 miles from our farm and the pathologist dialed me directly to say it's cancer

[00:23:44] and I hung up the phone and said Chad remove him. He was all this born I'm the oldest born

[00:23:51] and there's just something about that right where your parents get sick and not only is that illness

[00:23:56] something I need to be close for but I'm a doctor so they've been recruiting me back to South Dakota

[00:24:01] for a long time by now and I said yes so we had it back to South Dakota and I leave one corporation

[00:24:07] and I go to another corporation and I'll tell you Rebecca it might be the biggest lesson ever

[00:24:12] for saying companies have a culture companies have a place where they honor certain characteristics

[00:24:21] and they scold certain characteristics and the leadership in that organization that I had been

[00:24:27] assigned to had had some major turnover and the problem solving side of my brain that I think

[00:24:35] is definitely deep it's part of who I want to be that was not that was not a welcome place for

[00:24:42] that environment you did what everybody else did you did not you didn't you only been here a year

[00:24:46] you don't have the answers quit trying to lead stop doing that you're disrupting things you're not

[00:24:52] doing it like everybody else and it was just one bloody nose after the next were I finally said to

[00:24:58] my husband I I can't I can't do it and I can remember that week in church I had never given up on

[00:25:08] anything ever in my whole life and I had told him I give up I give up and they were passing around

[00:25:19] as 2010 there are passing around a clipboard to volunteer at for the Haitian in Haiti for that

[00:25:28] Haitian earthquake yeah yeah and he signs us up without asking me and the next day I'm

[00:25:37] like this little old lady with blue curlers and like Axis says this form says that you're a doctor

[00:25:43] and we need some of you for this this disaster going on in Haiti and I am in the not in my right

[00:25:50] mind I'm very down and I mean well probably officially depressed because it was such a sad

[00:25:55] place in my personal life saying why couldn't I make that work and I said lady I don't even know where

[00:26:02] Haiti is he goes well what kind of a doctor are you I'm like a good one but I don't I'm not you're

[00:26:11] I can't do this and she said well I need you to pray to God I'm gonna call you tomorrow and ask again

[00:26:21] when I was so mad I was ready to I had every little wine I was gonna tell her this is exactly

[00:26:26] and if you've ever had a moment where you just can't say something she's talking to me

[00:26:32] in the next day and I'm ready to fight with her and there was every I don't know something took

[00:26:37] over my own vocal cords and I said yes when I wanted to say no and I end up in Haiti in a place where

[00:26:45] the devastation and disaster was well it was what it was like the disappointment I felt in myself

[00:26:52] for not being able to do this job in an environment that I mean I clearly didn't belong in that

[00:26:57] environment it was not gonna be the best use of my skills and talents but I couldn't see it from

[00:27:02] that point of view and I showed up in Haiti and I I did service it was service it was the

[00:27:10] thought it was a part of medicine I was missing that it was solving a problem figuring it out and

[00:27:17] and I left there more alive than I'd been and over since I'd moved to South Dakota

[00:27:22] and I told my husband I could do I could have done so much better had I been prepared

[00:27:27] uh let's go back and five weeks later we went back and took another crew and it became this I

[00:27:35] think we went to Haiti over 30 times taking medical students doing service taking our kids to say

[00:27:40] you can take a blood pressure you can write it down you might be eight but you can do this and

[00:27:44] you know you you can learn how to serve people too and it was in a place where I awoke in my

[00:27:52] my my soul was alive again I was really I don't I probably haven't ever explained how devastating it

[00:27:58] was for me to not succeed it something I was trying my hardest at and I don't think I obviously

[00:28:05] got didn't want me to just succeed there he wanted a different plan and that was the first time

[00:28:09] where I said I don't know how to run a clinic I don't have to be a doctor and so but I I started

[00:28:16] and I said okay let's solve these problems let's figure out how to solve one of these problems at a

[00:28:21] time and thankfully when you are work for a corporation I had signed a non disclosure a non-competitive

[00:28:31] excuse me yeah and they came to me and said well you're you know you're no longer part of our

[00:28:37] organization but you also can't work within 20 miles of our advertising in South Dakota

[00:28:45] 20 miles from one of their advertisers was like a call pasture I mean there's there was no

[00:28:52] population there and I said there's got to be a better way to do this I just move three kids

[00:28:57] and a family across the country two years ago for a mother who's fighting cancer I'm not going

[00:29:03] to move and so a whole bunch of shiny shoes left the room and they came back in and said okay you

[00:29:09] can see Medicaid and the homeless for two years and so I found a volunteer I found a shelter that had

[00:29:19] a room where I you know pay a little rent and set up a very slow building not a lot of money

[00:29:27] but it was great it was great it was like the best feeling of freedom that says I don't know how to

[00:29:34] do all this but I am really good at figuring it out and I will I will figure it out and

[00:29:41] that that became a place where I saw a whole bunch of brown kids in a white community meaning

[00:29:46] there was a lot of Native Americans in our in those shelters and they needed a good doctor

[00:29:51] and I needed somebody to serve and so it was the perfect marriage and I found my

[00:29:57] wow what a story and again so many things in there I'd love to talk about the you know the value

[00:30:07] when so first of all someone like you who succeeded at everything that you've tried to do pretty much

[00:30:15] be through like hard work right you put your head down and you figure it out

[00:30:20] and then you get to that thing that you just can't push through and it's like the boulder right

[00:30:26] and you know you've got to go around it but it's such a it's so hard to give that up because you

[00:30:33] it's like you lose something in yourself but when you did when you gave up some of that self

[00:30:40] and and and focused on other other people that's when you were able to find really your passion

[00:30:48] and in your purpose and what a great story you know so many of the listeners to this podcast are

[00:30:56] young people who are trying to find their passion you know a lot of my students say to me

[00:31:01] everybody tells me to follow my passion but I have no idea what it is and I'm like that's okay

[00:31:07] just go do something because your passion you'll find it it will find you but you have to kind of

[00:31:15] you kind of have to let go and trust in that system and yeah what a great story I love it and so

[00:31:24] you came back you were in your small community and I just have to ask is your husband

[00:31:30] a physician also didn't know so he was willing you know it's a reminder of the importance of

[00:31:38] families and partnerships especially for entrepreneurs you know sometimes it's really hard on family

[00:31:44] members too yeah you know my husband has his family comes from a legacy of salesman and entrepreneurs

[00:31:54] he had that word in my head long before I would ever have called myself that even after I had

[00:31:59] my own clinic I didn't I didn't have used that word I was not that was not me I was that was something

[00:32:04] his family did or but you get around that mentality of other people solving problems and the freedom

[00:32:11] of saying huh the world just changed and we are able to adapt as opposed to what was happening inside

[00:32:19] that corporation that I was really frustrated with and they were frustrated too they were trying to

[00:32:24] solve it when you back up and see it wasn't me it was this organization that was doing these old-style

[00:32:30] things when medicine was changing and the bills weren't going to get paid the same way they had

[00:32:35] to change I just happened to be the time where it was really easy to say well it must be that problem

[00:32:41] that must be the problem and you then get away from that and look at other people saying wow

[00:32:47] there's only five of them in that little company but they just solved the problem that everybody

[00:32:53] needed an answer to and they did it in a quick way that did not have a lot of bureaucracy

[00:33:00] so that means you have to be small in order to be an entrepreneur and this is where I don't think

[00:33:05] that's true but I didn't think it's really hard to take young students and say yeah you don't

[00:33:12] have the skill set to be an entrepreneur from step one nobody's going to give you capital money when

[00:33:17] you haven't had a few more trips around the sun and a few failures if you try and failures but

[00:33:22] that means the path you're on needs to have that mindset of take ownership solve a problem take

[00:33:27] ownership solve a problem yeah absolutely and keep going right in my book which you said that

[00:33:33] you bought which I'm thrilled about see do repeat yeah that's that simple formula you know it sounds

[00:33:40] really simple it's hard but it but it is about seeing opportunities and taking ownership in action

[00:33:47] and then just continuing past past failure and and obstacles along the way and I know you've you've

[00:33:55] had your share so let's go you know you've you started you had this non-compete which many of our

[00:34:03] listeners probably at one point or another if they haven't already may have and they may have to

[00:34:09] be creative and I think there's a lesson in that because usually the problems we're presented with

[00:34:15] are where our most creative solutions came come from so you had a creative solution and you started

[00:34:23] a clinic basically right your own clinic said that was your step into entrepreneurship they're

[00:34:30] in small town in South Dakota yeah and yeah I think the best part that probably helped

[00:34:37] when you leave this kind of month I mean it sounds like such an overwhelming thing to do start

[00:34:43] your own medical clinic I mean in today's world you got to have billing and you got to have you

[00:34:47] got to know how to compute a programming and I mean it is a goliath of a job but I think what was

[00:34:55] more luck probably than anything was I had this niche I had this I have people that couldn't paint

[00:35:01] and then I had Medicaid I had very narrow window for two years to say let's figure out this

[00:35:07] audience and then we're gonna add the next ones and then we're gonna add the next ones yeah

[00:35:11] that kind of step wise in any problem solving is just don't don't take the whole elephant in

[00:35:18] with one bite you need to really say find find what it is that is going to be part of your service

[00:35:24] the hardest part about the way we what way I started was I mean there's a there's a reason

[00:35:32] that most clinics are that serve Medicaid are subsidized by the government because the margins

[00:35:39] are stupid but yeah you're like I don't know how I'm gonna you have one thing go wrong

[00:35:46] and you don't get paid for six months you get investigated by a Medicaid it's the only people

[00:35:51] you're seeing well something went wrong that's called an investigation if you're investigated by

[00:35:55] Medicaid nobody pays you for 18 months oh wow that's a that's a that's a that's a lesson I mean so

[00:36:05] that process of becoming an entrepreneur had lots of failures in the beginning but it was at a

[00:36:11] scale that was slowly rising that we think got my husband had had his life and his business that

[00:36:20] was going well yeah yeah but there is such I mean I'm so glad you brought it up because that is

[00:36:27] you know that there's such a great lesson in that because we have to test everything that we're doing

[00:36:32] and there's lots of one of my favorite things for my students of course you weren't quite there yet

[00:36:38] but the the riches are in the niches so you know finding a niche and and doing something on a small

[00:36:45] scale is absolutely the way to go absolutely and it's so much easier now even then it was back

[00:36:53] then of course we're talking about healthcare which is for most of us who are not in it maybe even

[00:36:59] for a lot of people who are in it it's it's it's it's a real challenging maze to figure your way

[00:37:08] through healthcare and insurance and just as you pointed out you know sometimes waiting for a doctor

[00:37:17] or months you know it's just it's just really challenging. I'll give you an example of how that the

[00:37:24] the next so as I'm learning and failing and then figuring out how to get a little better and a

[00:37:28] little better and a little better I mean I come from this pulmonary medicine ICU training and

[00:37:36] then was really good at how do we take a broken brain and get it to peak performance that was

[00:37:42] really there's lots of things in turn us do but that's really the I'm bread and butter. I do high

[00:37:47] blood pressure cholesterol diabetes thyroid problems cancer all of that I don't catch babies I don't

[00:37:52] do surgery but what I love is when the brain isn't working how do we get peak performance out of it

[00:37:58] and whether we're talking about some of the Parkinson's or bipolar or not sleeping well or a head

[00:38:03] injury that is where I really enjoyed the puzzle the solve. So as I am trying to on on my own you know

[00:38:13] little clinic you can't spend a lot of time with each patient if you're going to pay the secretary

[00:38:19] it's not some office manager telling you you need to shorten up the times you see the patient

[00:38:24] you actually can't make payroll if you do that too much so I had I had this process where the first

[00:38:32] step that you must do when healing any brain injury is you have to fix their sleep their sleep

[00:38:37] have that's where the brain heals that's where you cannot be drinking yourself to sleep you cannot

[00:38:42] be taking those sleeping medications and asking to fix your brain and so there were some steps that

[00:38:47] had to be done before we could start the treatment protocol that was going to improve their brain

[00:38:52] and when a patient comes to see you three times and the only appointment they can get is about every

[00:38:56] six weeks and the first step you have is here's what we're doing for your sleep I need you to work on

[00:39:01] these things come back and show me your sleep schedule and six weeks later they come and they do

[00:39:06] not remember the conversation that you had the last time and then they come again and you did it

[00:39:11] again so now I'm frustrated I'm having this third conversation with a person whose brain is so

[00:39:17] broken they can't remember what I told them and now their you know doc I've seen you three times

[00:39:23] why aren't you taking care of these other things so I said okay I'm going to do something that I haven't

[00:39:30] seen anybody else do maybe what's happening but I just hadn't seen it it's 2012 and I have the

[00:39:36] brain lecture the sleep lecture that I need them to watch and I I film it on a Sunday and I put it

[00:39:44] on YouTube and in that hour long discussion with sleep I make a handout like you would in the third

[00:39:50] grade where you fill in the blanks to say what did I say and that now I'm saying all right before

[00:39:57] I see you again you've got to go watch this video that's on YouTube and here's the handout if

[00:40:02] you lose it you can print it out but I need you to fill this out and if you come to the next

[00:40:06] appointment and you have not watched that video you're going to sit in the front room and watch

[00:40:09] the dang video so that you can learn what I need you to know for us to get to the next step

[00:40:16] and that process was well it's the beginning of the second company which was the first time I said

[00:40:24] the medical information I have how do I get it into the minds of patients outside of the

[00:40:28] exam room because nobody's paying for the education of what I would give a person and I think I haven't

[00:40:35] looked in the last month but I think we were at over a half a million subscribers for our YouTube

[00:40:39] channel which is again a niche that was solving a problem in the first company that led to the

[00:40:47] second company yeah yeah now what's the name of the second company the doctor buzz that's the doctor

[00:40:53] buzz company okay and doctor buzz is your YouTube channel and your educational material online and

[00:41:04] and your books yes yes because I remember you're an author yes yes and so

[00:41:11] so you actually again great lesson took problems that you had turned them into an opportunity

[00:41:19] so you found your opportunities in a problem right yeah and I didn't think that was I mean I put

[00:41:25] that out there I just left it alone and the next thing I look about six months later I was sending

[00:41:30] patients so I thought like there'd be a few dozen patients that would watch that video and it was

[00:41:35] like a half a million people had watched this video and shared it with other people and you're like

[00:41:41] huh maybe it was a hundred thousand I don't know it was a lot of people like more than I was ever

[00:41:45] going to reach in a clinic and there was no monetization then this was just me saying I need to solve

[00:41:51] this problem in a way that's not getting me so frustrated and get the patients to the next step

[00:41:56] so I think that that's that's to me what entrepreneurship is too you're looking at you know people say

[00:42:03] like where's my passion where's my passion sometimes passion is connected to the place where you feel

[00:42:09] the greatest frustration or pain for something say this is stupid why is it why is this so hard

[00:42:16] why can't this be easier and that's really where I like okay how would I solve this how could I

[00:42:21] possibly fix this problem that I am super frustrated about and well on the whole that few years

[00:42:28] later it's a YouTube show yeah yeah I love it I love it and and I think that just happened probably

[00:42:34] for a lot of entrepreneurially minded people you know it's solving a problem that you find your

[00:42:40] opportunity so I just have to ask you because healthcare has so many problems that there isn't

[00:42:49] there isn't any lack of opportunity for entrepreneurs in the healthcare space and so I'm

[00:42:55] you know I'd love to have you talk a little bit about how it's been being an entrepreneur in this

[00:43:01] space because I know there's sort of this sometimes this conflict between you know business and

[00:43:09] medicine and you know and and you know if you've got insurance on one side you've got doctors you've

[00:43:16] got the patient it's very complex and people are not necessarily being served any better through

[00:43:25] this complexity in fact it's probably gone a long way from the days when you know I can remember in

[00:43:31] my little small town you know there was one doctor there and they took care pretty much everything

[00:43:37] now did they know everything not necessarily but they had a great bedtime matter which you know

[00:43:42] you brought up yeah you brought up the issue of not even being able to spend enough time with your

[00:43:48] patients that you could talk to them and here because you know I had a friend who is an emergency

[00:43:54] room doctor and he always said my patients will tell me what's wrong if I give them a chance and listen

[00:44:01] and you know but there's not that time now so I'm just I'd love to hear you talk a little bit about

[00:44:07] the the healthcare system and what it's like to be an entrepreneur in that space and maybe you know

[00:44:13] where you think opportunities for any of our listeners who are in that space maybe

[00:44:19] so let me let me share some of the pain that's come with that that whole journey so

[00:44:24] internal medicine that we take care we start a puberty we take them to the grave so as patients age

[00:44:29] especially as they become subsidized by government paid insurance it comes with a lot of rules

[00:44:37] so let's take the average internal medicine patient has at least 15 medical problems

[00:44:43] most of the medical problems are not acute meaning I'm not going to be gone in six weeks they're

[00:44:47] going to be here we you know visit after visit after visit for that there are government rules

[00:44:52] that say I can see that patient every 12 weeks for a chronic problem that's four times a year

[00:44:58] for that problem that if I want to see them sooner than that it has to be an acute problem within

[00:45:06] the chronic problem and you have to document that or you won't get paid or you can do it that you

[00:45:12] take care of these four chronic problems today come back to see me in four weeks will take care

[00:45:16] of these four chronic problems the next time now don't talk about the original chronic problems

[00:45:20] because the government's only paying for these other four chronic problems and then you can get to

[00:45:24] the you know now you've only gone through eight problems you've got at least another eight left

[00:45:28] in most people and god forbid you've changed medications in the last two visits because you

[00:45:33] can't follow up on that at the time that you're because that's a wrong problem I'm pointing out

[00:45:37] the complexity that when you're trying to take care of humans you've had these policymakers that

[00:45:44] well they've done some things that really just handcuff physicians and so unfortunately what

[00:45:49] physicians have done is they've compartmentalized the body oh that's a gut problem see that doctor

[00:45:55] oh that's a brain problem oh that's not that kind of brain problem see that brain doctor not

[00:45:58] that brain doctor they're not going to take care of the same brain things oh that's a heart problem

[00:46:02] see that doctor oh I mean it's absurd and then to have a patient try to navigate a system

[00:46:09] that is so compartmentalized you had to start with medical school to understand what we're talking

[00:46:13] about as far as where they're going and then to know that they're not going to get satisfied without

[00:46:18] this proficiency of understanding how the system is built and how it is built wow okay so the

[00:46:26] the the profoundness of the problem and you don't need me to be the one to tell you that there's a

[00:46:29] problem but I'll tell you where I think where again I wrote the frustration is easy to see um

[00:46:37] but when you say how could you how could I solve it um and to me one of the most dangerous things

[00:46:44] that's happened is how patients have uh oh let me just play a game when you hear the word HIPAA

[00:46:52] what do you think of I think of all the papers I have to say when I cut the doctor right

[00:46:59] and then what happens with your privacy it gets uh it gets put I mean it's supposed to I guess

[00:47:06] it's supposed to keep it private but it gets put into a big database somewhere right so

[00:47:12] knows what happens when that gets uh in that attack well I'll tell you what most patients they

[00:47:18] have they have that similar thing that's a bunch of paperwork and it's about being secret about your

[00:47:22] problems yeah and um that you're right uh they're your problems uh but that doesn't mean you

[00:47:29] should be secret about them it does mean that if you're trying to teach people about medical problems

[00:47:35] teaching them one-on-one behind the exam room door is the worst way to teach them first of all they're

[00:47:40] defensive they can't see into their own pain and suffering and step backs and advances they usually

[00:47:47] are going to need to see somebody else with that same problem watch their behavior and say oh yeah

[00:47:52] I got that too i mean the way the human mind works is we mirror information and problems

[00:47:59] and solutions from other people and when you take care of medical problems and I have to re-educate

[00:48:04] them from zero to one every single visit because they have no community that they can talk about

[00:48:10] this problem with amongst themselves do a bunch of cross-learning that comes from you know educated

[00:48:17] nurses or educated educated people educated parents uh that that missing component of the

[00:48:23] community is missing in these medical problems that to me you find lonely patients who are taking a

[00:48:29] bunch of medications who don't ask enough questions and they feel stuck yeah so you're saying that

[00:48:35] the patient feels more isolated than through all of this mm-hmm so i'll tell you where that problem

[00:48:41] landed smack dab and I didn't see this problem until I started solving it I didn't I'm like I do

[00:48:46] was like every of the doctorates it's hip I can't talk to them you can talk to them but no they

[00:48:50] wouldn't they didn't have the proficiency to they they kept their problem secret and so it was

[00:48:54] between you and a parent you and the patient and there was just not enough space for them to really

[00:49:00] enrich how they solved this problem with me so i wrote this book and it was a book on one of

[00:49:07] the most stubborn patients I'd ever taken care of who had been who'd had chemo twice uh had really

[00:49:14] done a terrible thing to her brain that it wasn't working right and um she comes to ask me a question

[00:49:21] that i've been asked lots of times and many times I I don't tell them the truth I told them what they

[00:49:25] wanted to hear and the question was doc if it was you what would you do and the patient's cancer

[00:49:33] was growing rampantly uh chemotherapy is what was recommended by all the textbooks but the last two

[00:49:39] times the chemotherapy just took her brain offline for six months like she was a zombie for six months

[00:49:46] and the patient was my mom and I said mom i'll show you what I would do

[00:49:54] and we did something completely rogue uh we we went on a ketogenic diet for six weeks um

[00:50:01] and the cancer at six weeks

[00:50:04] her outcome was better than any chemotherapy was predicting it blew my mind what happened in that

[00:50:11] story so I thought 12 people would read that book because my husband i lost a bet to my husband

[00:50:17] i wrote the book because he said you should write a book he's writing in your spare time right exactly

[00:50:24] what i said and i lost the bet i wrote the book and people people loved it

[00:50:32] and now i've got people calling into become my patient so much that my staff is ready to go on a

[00:50:39] they're ready to um um strike like we if you had one more patient to this docket we cannot see

[00:50:45] anymore we are so full we are so backed up um we got to hire him and we got to hire in order to

[00:50:50] see more at this point and so i'm trying to do the mom thing and i'm at middle school picking up

[00:50:54] my son from middle school in the middle of December and this woman takes my book and she

[00:51:00] smashes it into my uh frozen windshield while i'm in line and said she looks around and said

[00:51:06] did you write this book and i'm looking at this woman going do i know you i don't know the whole

[00:51:12] student is out the gutter but i don't think i know her and i couldn't roll down the windows because

[00:51:17] they're frozen so i said we'll get in so she sits in the front seat of my car and she proceeds

[00:51:21] to tell me that she's read my book she wants to do this she cannot get into my clinic um and i'm

[00:51:28] pushing back saying well who's your doctor i know your doctor start good doctors you do not need

[00:51:32] a seat need to do this book you can just read the book and she's arguing with me and she says well

[00:51:37] then you need to teach a class on this and i'll be your first student and it was one of those

[00:51:43] moments again where i couldn't say no like oh that's probably a good idea i said all right

[00:51:50] i'll i'll teach i'll do it i'll have a support group you can come and ask me questions

[00:51:55] and here's what we're going to do and i start what is a support group uh answering questions

[00:52:02] for patients as they come in a community led by a physician but it doesn't have to be led by a

[00:52:07] physician led by discuss these medical problems and i started that group in 2015 and i still do it

[00:52:15] here in Tampa we my my office is right next to the the pin chasers or the bowling alley um so i

[00:52:22] run the birthday room at eight o'clock every Tuesday morning you have a support group where

[00:52:30] they come and ask me questions and i will tell you Rebecca it's the best medicine i've done since

[00:52:35] he is i love it i love it and and you're building not not just get you're not just scaling

[00:52:43] what you would say to one patient for example uh which is wonderful that you're able to do that

[00:52:49] scale that to many but they're building a community with each other that's probably yes

[00:52:55] and i mean the number of frustrations behind that come see me every 12 weeks for that medical problem

[00:53:02] so that i can build the government for the next medical problem like it just that solution

[00:53:09] was you know y'all have the same problems you know if you talk about what you're doing and how to

[00:53:14] improve this google thus answer a lot of them but i don't have to do it inside the exam room

[00:53:20] but more importantly when you get stuck isn't it great that i could help you with that lift to

[00:53:24] the next level as a community instead of as one-on-one yeah yeah and that's powerful because people

[00:53:31] can get together they can do dr. Google and i want to ask about that in a minute but having

[00:53:38] having an expert there you know an actual physician to because things can get misinterpreted

[00:53:46] and i guess that was one thing i wanted to ask you about because i know i have that weakness

[00:53:52] you know if i have any any problem it's really easy to go and say okay what's this study cake being

[00:53:58] what's this you know and and then you just start reading and you can go down the that whole of

[00:54:05] you know the google search hole of you know medicine so what are what are your thoughts on that i

[00:54:11] mean do you want your patients to get out there and do their own research and and is there are

[00:54:17] are there any you know issues or challenges that it creates for you well if like anything there's a

[00:54:23] two side there's two sides to that right but it maybe i hang around weird doctors but the doctors

[00:54:31] that i hang around with are so relieved when the patient wants to have responsibility and an

[00:54:38] understanding and takes initiative to say even if you google the wrong thing i feel relief when

[00:54:44] people said yes i want to find an answer so i tried myself and then you say well where did they

[00:54:50] go wrong okay well so there are some credible things and versus not credible okay that's pretty

[00:54:55] easy to find and each each algorithm that's come out over the last you know every four or five

[00:55:01] years you you really i don't google a lot of things until i watch what my patients are googling

[00:55:07] and then you're like oh wow they're doing a lot better job this they really are i mean

[00:55:13] yes it can be misinterpreted but i think that that process of the victim mentality that i have

[00:55:20] this problem and i need to wait for these precious 20 minutes or 40 minutes that you get with the

[00:55:24] the physician and in those 40 minutes i'm supposed to capture your the social settings that

[00:55:31] you're under the the sleep you know that you had last night the the lab data that is showing me

[00:55:38] what where you're off the what does mean the amount of of calculations that you need to put

[00:55:44] in your brain for pattern recognition as a physician all fitting into 40 minutes there's no way

[00:55:49] there's no way you're going to satisfy that patient and unfortunately i think the the next

[00:55:55] downside has been the compartmentalization well i understand your socioeconomic and your biological

[00:56:02] and your your relational and that you're going through divorce and that they're so i understand

[00:56:06] this part of you now go to the cardiologist and have him manipulate your blood pressure

[00:56:10] because he's not gonna take time for that he's the specialist he just does his organ

[00:56:16] and and they're in lies where that mean there's one thing about a small town is that

[00:56:23] you you did know everybody's family tree and where it forked and where that guy was sleeping with

[00:56:27] a neighbor and the preacher's wife was doing this other thing that she was supposed to have

[00:56:31] i mean all the things that happen which is called gossip in a small town but and you can look at

[00:56:36] that in a negative light but you can also say that it was a community that you had you could have

[00:56:41] an appreciation for why that family's struggling what's going on and have the grace that during a

[00:56:46] season where you should just hold off your new judgments what they've gone through is a lot

[00:56:51] and they're not making perfect decisions but i don't know that any of us would and having that

[00:56:57] community understanding of them i mean it shifts how i see every patient going through a

[00:57:05] a slump season that's not so hot yeah yeah and yeah so i know i think that's that is so insightful

[00:57:14] in the you know what what i hear you saying is that it's an you know when physicians can take a

[00:57:21] true holistic approach um it's completely different because i mean we all know that our bodies

[00:57:28] in our minds that it's all connected oh yeah right and and uh you know i know my mom my mom's

[00:57:35] no longer with me but she you know when she was going through her later years and i was helping her

[00:57:42] through that you know there were so many you know one medication could lead to another problem

[00:57:48] and if it's if they're if your compartmentalize you can miss that it's real and so yeah we know when

[00:57:55] you say how does medicine find the entrepreneurship uh in you know how do you find a way through it

[00:58:02] because the problems are and it is a broken system there's nobody that you would talk to today

[00:58:06] that say this is ideal and as i look at what what has unfolded i didn't plan on solving this through

[00:58:15] community support groups but i'll tell you that my my flagship service to patients right now is

[00:58:24] i lead a um i just got down last week so this is my first day of not being in class for three weeks

[00:58:31] where i lead a 21-day metabolic kick is what we call it where we are going to improve your metabolism

[00:58:38] from whatever age you're at uh this is exactly what i would need to do if you have a brain injury

[00:58:43] if you have seizures if you have cancer if you have high blood pressure this metabolic kick is the

[00:58:48] foundation for improving your health your mitochondria your body and when we we put them in the

[00:58:56] classrooms on zoom i lead each classroom at 8 30 every morning at 9 30 i debrief with all of

[00:59:02] your all of the coaches so they have the questions from yesterday answered to go into their support

[00:59:06] groups the groups are five to seven people um big uh or five to ten people big and after those

[00:59:14] three weeks they can choose to stay in community with these people who have been trained because

[00:59:18] you're not going to improve your metabolism perfectly in 21 days but you are going to have a road map

[00:59:23] of how to reverse medical problems based on the metabolic health through the education we give you

[00:59:29] in that class and the community of other people that are educated through that same course with you

[00:59:35] me that that's a place where medicine should be growing you should be finding a way to create a

[00:59:40] community of problem you know community around the problem and then educate them and keep them in

[00:59:46] community and that that's weird that that's got hip uh what does it do with hip uh yeah yeah

[00:59:53] it's it's really interesting because those are the bottlenecks right that just kind of get in

[01:00:00] the way of all this but i know you spend a lot of time on on chronic combat and chronic disease

[01:00:06] and that that's a lot of the metabolic uh repair that you're talking about there and and if you fix

[01:00:12] that there's a lot more that can get fixed right i mean i mean we can really back at the pandemic

[01:00:19] right and and some you know that's a whole other podcast maybe that we could talk about but

[01:00:27] but you know the the people that you know we're oftentimes hit the hardest we're also dealing with

[01:00:33] some wrong term effects of absolutely inflammation in their body and that's what it's

[01:00:39] absolutely the summary of that i mean when you look at internal medicine we have terrible

[01:00:45] marketing like what does that mean you take care of the inside of the percent but not the outside

[01:00:49] no you take care of chronic problems and if we do our job well you you don't know what you

[01:00:54] what what we helped you miss what we have worked what we said no that's a life that's going to be filled

[01:00:59] with autoimmune diseases and cancer and aging and ill health and when you when you look at the

[01:01:06] how do you fix it if you think it's a bunch of my prescriptions

[01:01:10] i you're going to find yourself in the grave with with low energy for the 10 years before you

[01:01:14] hit there yeah yeah yeah i kind of again a whole other podcast probably but i kind of hate to see

[01:01:21] all the pharmaceuticals advertised out there because i think a lot of people kind of assume that's

[01:01:28] the approach but i love that you take a preventive health care approach and that you this community

[01:01:34] approach which i find fascinating and something i hadn't really spent a lot of time on in terms of

[01:01:40] thinking about it you know with my own health i'm i'm really focused on being an advocate for my own

[01:01:45] health and and being educated i think sometimes i drive my doctors crazy because i've done so much

[01:01:51] research before i before i talk to them but i'm thrilled to hear that you that you you know

[01:01:57] you focus on education i know you even spend some time as a faculty member so you know you're an

[01:02:03] educator which i love and i think health education and helping us help ourselves is such a powerful

[01:02:10] mission yeah i think what prepared me for being a youtuber which my kids think is really great

[01:02:17] was the years i spent you know being a being good teacher like yeah i want to see a failure

[01:02:23] try to have a student tell you what you've just tried to teach them and when they can't give it back

[01:02:28] to you at all you're like and that was me that was me that just failed there watching that education

[01:02:33] and really honing in the skill of how do you how do you teach a patient but also the next generation

[01:02:39] of physicians it's something i took very seriously i loved doing it you could feel that was where

[01:02:44] i was supposed to be but much like medicine when you're in uh you know the academic side of medicine

[01:02:52] isn't well it doesn't pay that well so when you're independent uh you just couldn't do it as much

[01:02:58] as i needed i had to give it up i had to say you know what there's gonna be a different season for this

[01:03:03] um and then what happened next was youtube really so that's yeah transfer it over into a video

[01:03:09] so i i love i love everything that you're doing and i love that you're here in Tampa now so what's

[01:03:15] what's next for you and what what what brought you to Tampa and what are you going to be doing in

[01:03:19] Tampa well tom Brady bought me brought me to Tampa my husband he turned 50 and he wanted to see

[01:03:27] tom Brady play in a football game so we came and we watched the chiefs and uh the Tampa Bay

[01:03:32] Buccaneers play over Thanksgiving which turned out to be the Super Bowl exact same place

[01:03:39] teams but the Super Bowl of the Buccaneers won yeah yeah he saw the Chiefs won anyway so it was a

[01:03:46] wonderful experience and um you know it was at a time where we that there was you know the pandemic

[01:03:52] was really hard on my clinic my clinic had imploded i got actually stuck in Hawaii when we when

[01:03:58] the pandemic hit for 93 days well and you cannot be a patient even through zoom if you are not

[01:04:05] licensed in the state that you're in in a pandemic so that was uh that was a heck of a deal so we

[01:04:13] ended up home and i said if there was ever a time where we were going to move honey this would be it

[01:04:18] and he said all right let's do it so ended up in Tampa because of tom Brady but also a pandemic post

[01:04:25] pandemic and you know when you push reset and you've had those several trips around the sun

[01:04:31] of saying how can I do this better this time around um i've been really uh tried to yeah

[01:04:39] trying to find a way that medicine is satisfying to the to the consumer and to the physician

[01:04:47] uh is been i think that's probably the most rewarding part of where i've been is how

[01:04:54] how many people they don't they don't need to have me as their doctor but they really do need some

[01:05:01] really good education about what the doctor is trying to teach you but only has this very limited

[01:05:06] amount of time to teach so i think of some of that education on the youtube channel as

[01:05:13] partnering with their physician on here's what they're doing here's why they're doing it and here's

[01:05:17] what you need to do in order to help them do it better so that's that's a place where i think

[01:05:23] the youtube channel has really grown um my my medical clinic uh is now you know i you i were

[01:05:31] transplanted across the country and could not believe how hard that was that was probably the hardest

[01:05:36] thing to keep um a finger on the pulse that i didn't give up on that one um and then there's

[01:05:42] actually a third company but i don't know if we have time to talk about that one right now well uh

[01:05:47] i'd i'd love to hear about it maybe i need to have you back on how would that be i i i know uh

[01:05:54] i've probably taken enough of your time today i'd love it i i'd love this conversation

[01:05:59] and i want to learn more and i think uh you know i'm excited to know that there are positions like

[01:06:06] you out there um taking an entrepreneurial mindset applying it in health care i'd love to see

[01:06:14] um i'd love to see more of health care adopt some the principles of entrepreneurship which i'm

[01:06:19] passionate passionate about i believe they work in virtually any context and you're a great example

[01:06:25] that and um you know i always i always ask my guests before we close if they have one piece of advice

[01:06:35] for our listeners knowing that many of them are aspiring entrepreneurs or or practicing entrepreneurs

[01:06:40] what would that be what what's one thing i know you've already given us some really

[01:06:44] correct advice but no i think my advice would be that when you are feeling that pain and frustration

[01:06:53] the part that makes you want to give up that pause because it's usually right in that moment that

[01:06:59] you'll see what your passion is that the passion that people see i get this from students too i don't

[01:07:05] know what my passion is i don't know my passion is like when you feel pain when you feel frustration

[01:07:10] don't run away and say i quit look carefully because the solution is right there in that struggle

[01:07:16] uh that's right phone line anyway i love it i love it that's that's that's great advice thank you and

[01:07:23] dr. Bosworth and uh where can our listeners uh bind uh dr. Bosz and find out more about your work

[01:07:33] know what i think youtube's the easiest place to land you can find all kinds of connections off

[01:07:37] that channel but if you type in dr. Bosz on the youtube channel you will you'll land on all my links

[01:07:42] and you'll you'll end up you'll you'll find me that way thank you for joining me and i i'm

[01:07:48] sincerely would like to have you back uh in a very short term and share more about what you're up

[01:07:54] to here in tampa and and beyond i would like that sounds great it's a date

[01:08:01] if you enjoyed this episode and would like to learn more about entrepreneurship we would love it if

[01:08:05] you hit that subscribe button thank you so much for listening to this episode of Infactor