Dr. Tea 0:01
Practicing medicine without insurance is possible. Imagine a private practice where you get to see your best patients every day, providing medical services you truly enjoy, all without the hassle of insurance. My name is Dr. Tea Nguyen, and I'm a recovering specialist who was completely burned out from insurance based medicine. I pivoted into direct care, where patients pay me directly for my medical services, and have never looked back. If you're a private practice owner or planning to become one who's looking to be free of the grind of insurance and you're craving it, simplicity, efficiency and connection with patients, you are in the right place. This podcast will help you map out your exit plan and uncover the mindset needed to thrive in today's economy. Welcome to the Direct Care Podcast For Specialists.
Dr. Tea 0:53
So you found the cure for cancer. What do you do? You've got option A, you hide it. Tell no one, or Option B, you tell everybody. The thing about business ownership is that too many doctors have a unique problem solving skill, many or even life saving treatments, but at the right people don't know that you can help them. They're going to continue to suffer, or they end up choosing someone who happens to be louder, who may not necessarily have the credentials, or they end up making the person way worse. So how do you get the right people to pay attention to you? This is what we call marketing. It's telling everyone you have the solution for their problem, and I know the things that I say or the advice that I give will often times pass over a lot of doctors' heads, especially for those who are just not ready to understand this. So I want to make this message very clear, if you have this gift to heal and you feel embarrassed or you don't want to put yourself out there. You're afraid to fail. You don't want to deal with criticisms. You just want to float on by hoping the right people will eventually find you. Doesn't that sound a little bit, I don't know, self absorbed to thrive in your business, you really do have to believe in what you offer. Have the conviction that you've got the solution that will save lives, and let's say you didn't find the cure for cancer, but the following is true. Maybe you are in sexual medicine, you save marriages and people's self worth. If you're a pain specialist, you ease people's pain so that they can be independent, be able to function with day to day tasks that many of us take for granted. If you're an oncologist, you are literally treating cancer, and you can unburden family members through education and ease the end of life suffering with your warm presence. If you do aesthetics, you are restoring people's confidence in a world where people try to take it away. If you're a psychiatrist, you have the power to debunk mental health stigma and give people the tools to navigate their world with meaning. And there are so many examples of how specialists can alleviate pain and suffering.
Dr. Tea 3:20
And if you believe in the idea that you are on this earth for a purpose, you have to step into that version of yourself. You have to truly believe in the work that you do, in the value that you bring. Too often doctors succumb to the feeling of not feeling worthy Ivy medical hazing or the key quiet to avoid conflict. They don't want to stick out like a sore thumb and be subjected to ridicule, criticism, or worse, what I went through risking losing their job. The thing is, playing small does not change lives. So you have to fall in love with serving others in such a way that you show up for them, and that requires you to be brave, and that's the cost of business ownership. Your Business solves people's health problems, and it requires that you put yourself out there, because you have the solution. A lot of the common objections I deal with when I try to help doctors include things like, I'm embarrassed, or I don't think I'm good enough, or I'm not ready, you are. You're just getting in your own way. Or maybe you need to learn a couple of key things when it comes to marketing, like the way you convey a message. For instance, others say, I don't know what to say. Well, this is a skill that you can learn. It's easier than medical school, and others say things like, I can't deal with criticism. And I just want to share with you what I know. The thing is, I know medicine can be a very toxic place where many of us have been subjected to some negative experiences. And I'll share my story. Here for you. In my first to second year of residency, some of the things that I experienced as a resident included bullying. For my director, he didn't love that. I kept making recommendations to improve the program. Academically, I was being held out of my surgical experiences with no legitimate reason other than presumed retaliation, and the chief resident that held me out of those surgical cases, years later, apologized and told me that that was their job to not allow me to have that residency experience. For whatever reason, I was also forced to sit with a psychiatrist, which was way across town, so I had to leave my residency site in order to meet with this person, who would then proceed to diagnose me and give me antidepressants. Otherwise I would be considered as non cooperative and be at risk for losing my position. I was subjected to random urine drug screening again, no reason, just because they can. I then endured weekly meetings with the medical education director, who sits above the residency director, and all he did was sit across this little table to talk down to me and to tell me how I needed to fall in line or I would lose my position. So eventually, good news is both of those individuals lost their positions by the time I graduated, and if you truly want the details, we're gonna have to grab some drinks. But listen, that was over a decade ago, and I'm not here to rehash the pains of the past, but my point is I know that my experience is not that unique. These scare tactics keep residents small, keep doctors small. It is intended to keep us in line. It's a top down approach to a dictatorship, and you just listen to what the dictator says, and you cooperate to minimize our power.
Dr. Tea 7:03
And here's the thing, I believe I had to go through some of those hard things to realize my own power with my voice, which then led me to being here with you. I am a staunch physician and patient advocate, and I survived to tell my story. I don't know if I would be here sitting and talking with you if I hadn't had that conviction that what I have to share is important and that it's meaningful to someone somewhere, and that's the message I want to share. Despite the environment that we're in, you do have the power to change someone's life for the better, and in order for you to do that you have to believe that what you have will change lives. That means stepping outside of your ego the fears that hold you back and realize the bigger picture that you are meant for this path to influence, inspire and to be of service to others, if the purpose of life is to ease the pain and suffering within your sphere of influence, then you should do it. There's a free assessment from the author of positive intelligence that can help you identify those annoy low voices that might be holding you back from sharing your gift to the world. I'll put the link down in the show notes. All you got to do is click on it, go through some of the questions, and it will populate the results for you.
Dr. Tea 8:23
This is a concept that I integrate in my coaching program to help doctors overcome their biggest hurdle in business ownership, which is their thoughts, their mind. I hope you check it out and do some self exploration. If you feel compelled to share the results with me, I would love to get on a call to help you discover your next step towards thriving in your direct care practice. So if you had the cure for cancer, what would you do? Option A, you hide it, tell no one, or Option B, you tell everyone, and you can replace cure for cancer, for whatever it is you enjoy solving, and I really hope you do choose to tell everyone how you can help them ease their burden and pain. I'm so glad that you made it here with me today. I will catch you next week.
Dr. Tea 9:13
Take care. If you enjoyed this episode, please give it a review and share it with a friend so more doctors can learn about direct care. Let's keep the conversation going on LinkedIn so we can help more doctors escape insurance and thrive in private practice. Thanks for listening. I'll talk with you next time take care you.
