Latest / White Coat Black Sheep / The Doctor Who Left Medicine for a $60 Million Car Wash Empire
Transcript
- 0:00Welcome to White Coat Black Sheep, where science gets curious and dogma gets
- 0:03uncomfortable. I'm your host, Dr. Savelli.
- 0:06Today, we talk physiology, evidence, and real-world medicine, and everything in
- 0:10between. Plus, the questions you're not supposed to ask but probably should.
- 0:14If you care about health and think there's a better way, welcome to the show.
- 0:18Thanks for joining me today, Dr. J.
- 0:19Thanks for having me. How are you guys doing?
- 0:21Such an honor. I love having you on.
- 0:24How are you?
- 0:24Doing good. I've been in the thick of it today.
- 0:27Running here, running there, slightly sweaty, trying to make it look good.
- 0:31Well, you look great.
- 0:34Thank you.
- 0:35Thank you.
- 0:35You too. I appreciate your time.
- 0:38No problem.
- 0:39I'm going to read a little bit about you to the listeners.
- 0:42Sure.
- 0:42I enjoyed doing a little background on you.
- 0:49Okay. So Car Wash Doc is what we go by, right?
- 0:55Yeah.
- 0:55All right. So internal medicine physician and former frontline doctor.
- 1:01Typically, in your past, you worked pretty much 100 hours per week.
- 1:06Is that-
- 1:06That's very true
- 1:07... on point. Experiencing significant burnout. Understandable.
- 1:12Entrepreneur, moved into acquisition and improving underperforming car washes.
- 1:19An advocate for subscription-based business models, business ownership, tax
- 1:23strategy, and replacing earned medical income with scalable income. Love that.
- 1:29Husband, father, and help people reclaim their time, energy,
- 1:34and give more presence at home. That's amazing.
- 1:39Thank you.
- 1:39Is all that true? Did I do a good job?
- 1:41Yeah, I try to actually live by those principles.
- 1:45I was a hospitalist for Kaiser for
- 1:51eight years. I've been out of training for eight years, and I recently just left
- 1:55because I had to really choose between medicine, entrepreneurship, and
- 2:01lifestyle. And at that point, the easier choice was just to leave
- 2:06medicine. And it kind of wasn't the initial intent was to never leave medicine,
- 2:12it's just something that my side hustle became my main hustle and ultimately
- 2:18granted me a different set of freedoms, but also came with a different set of
- 2:22chains and shackles that are different from what, say, a physician has.
- 2:28Yeah.
- 2:31Business ownership is a whole animal.
- 2:34I am working to get better at it, but I don't think I would define myself as
- 2:40nailing it just yet. I'm still in the troubleshooting stages.
- 2:43I don't think anyone ever nails it. That's the honest truth.
- 2:46If you're not improving constantly and doing better than the next day, there's
- 2:51no nailing it.
- 2:56Yeah. It's constant energy forward, right?
- 3:00Yeah. Just one step in front of the other, one foot in front of the other, and then
- 3:03just try and improve upon yourself the next day until you're officially out and you
- 3:07put someone else in charge and you walk away.
- 3:10And I'm hoping to get to that point in five, 10 years.
- 3:12But right now, I'm still in the thick of it. Every day is just different.
- 3:17New challenges, new stuff. You always go like, "WTF today?" Right? I don't know.
- 3:22Yeah.
- 3:25It's so real. I value that you shared that.
- 3:29Some people just keep it in, and there's this curtain that you can never look
- 3:33behind. For me, I'm the first doctor in my family, business
- 3:39owner. That's kind of different than, I would say, most of my family.
- 3:45So yeah, looking behind the curtain is super important to me and just really
- 3:51showing that to other people who maybe want to close maybe a income gap
- 3:57or just change their life, change their family dynamic.
- 4:00Yeah. It's important to self-reflect on what you're doing though, right?
- 4:03The big question is why are you doing this? Why do I wake up at 3:00 a.m.
- 4:08to go answer pages, or why am I doing this? Why do I go work at the car washes?
- 4:14Yeah.
- 4:14So if you don't self-reflect, you kind of lose that purpose, and I had to do that a
- 4:19lot in the last couple of years to just figure out-
- 4:23Yeah
- 4:23... what my life goals were. They would always just constantly be redefined every
- 4:29year. Kids, family, marriage, things like that, business ownership, what I
- 4:35wanted to do with my academic medical career versus entrepreneurship career.
- 4:40There's always a constant change.
- 4:45Yeah.
- 4:47You look very young.
- 4:48Thank you.
- 4:48And I hope you take that as a compliment.
- 4:52May I ask what is your age? I'm 42. I'll share first.
- 4:56Sure.
- 4:56I'm 42.
- 4:57I'm 40. I just turned 40.
- 5:00Yes.
- 5:01Yeah.
- 5:01Okay. When did you start as a doctor?
- 5:06So you graduated residency when?
- 5:08In 2017.
- 5:12Okay, that's a little bit of time ago.
- 5:14Yeah.
- 5:14Awesome.
- 5:15So I finished and I trained up in the Inland Empire, close to San Bernardino, or I
- 5:21trained at Arrowhead Medical Regional Center as a hospitalist.
- 5:24This was more-
- 5:25Okay
- 5:26... internal medicine, but heavily focused hospital-based medicine.
- 5:30I loved it, enjoyed it.
- 5:32Mm-hmm.
- 5:32It was fun. I don't know if you ever watched the TV show "Scrubs,"
- 5:37but I felt like I lived that.
- 5:38Yes.
- 5:38And it was just awesome. And I was kind of tired of LA
- 5:43and the Inland Empire, so when I went to go look for jobs as I wanted to be a
- 5:49hospitalist, I took the first offer I got in San Diego, and I just booked it down
- 5:54here for, again, with the intention of lifestyle, and that's what I wanted to do.
- 5:58So I ended up in San Diego at Kaiser for a while.
- 6:03Yeah. Was that overall a positive or negative?
- 6:08It feels like it was a negative experience to launch you into the next, but I don't
- 6:11want to make conclusions.
- 6:12No, I don't look at a lot of things in life as negatives.
- 6:17I always try to find the positive in things. There's always setbacks.
- 6:22But I guess the important thing is to keep yourself up and keep moving forward.
- 6:26So I never thought of it that way.
- 6:28Love it.
- 6:28It's like, okay, well, hey, I'm going to San Diego. Hey, I'm doing this.
- 6:31I'm buying car washes, or, hey, I developed a house.
- 6:36Spent more money than I wanted to, made a bad investment. Oh, s**t. Oh, well.
- 6:39Learned something from it, at least.
- 6:44Yeah. I share that same-- I call that resiliency.
- 6:51A lot of people can't just bounce back if there's a bad deal.
- 6:56That sends some people into a spiral.
- 6:58Oh, yeah. 100%.
- 6:59So
- 7:01I love that you just took that as it's a learning touchpoint. Noted.
- 7:06Yeah.
- 7:06And then you kept on going.
- 7:08Yeah. Again, we're both very young.
- 7:10I hope to live to be 100 with the use of AI or something, but I have plenty
- 7:16of time ahead of me to still make mistakes, and I'm still going to learn.
- 7:20And if I fall, I can always pick myself back up.
- 7:23Yeah.
- 7:23I think one of the things that's really powerful that I've come to just
- 7:29realize is the most dangerous person in the room is the one that's willing to start
- 7:34over and not be afraid to, because they're willing to give up everything to go back
- 7:40and grind it out again. And they may do it better the second time.
- 7:45Yeah. And that's how it is.
- 7:47I love that. I always thought the most dangerous person in the room is the one who
- 7:51has nothing to lose, but I love your version of the most dangerous person.
- 7:56Yeah, it's the same thing. Not that they have nothing to lose, they have everything
- 8:00to lose, but they're willing to start over again.
- 8:04Yeah. Everything. Yes. Willing to.
- 8:06Had to, and then willing to, and then it's like,
- 8:12yeah, the bounce back.
- 8:14You say bounce back, I just think about patients that come back to the ER.
- 8:18Discharge, bounce back.
- 8:21You're still in the medical mindset.
- 8:23All over, yeah.
- 8:23You are a doctor.
- 8:26Oh my gosh. So 2017, you started your journey.
- 8:32Now here we are almost 10 years later.
- 8:35Yeah.
- 8:36It's crazy.
- 8:38So I graduated residency in 2023.
- 8:42I had a long gap between medical school and
- 8:48getting into residency. Caribbean grad And
- 8:54yeah, I struggled. I would say I had a lot of life in between
- 9:00the space of starting as a pre-med person and then arriving where I am right now,
- 9:06and worked a lot of different random jobs, tried to quit several times.
- 9:10Like, "I don't want to be a doctor."
- 9:13Yeah.
- 9:13Because it's hard, right?
- 9:14Yeah. It's definitely hard, and you should be proud of yourself-
- 9:16Yeah
- 9:16... because you still made it through the thick of it and done what you've done.
- 9:21Not many people can go through that.
- 9:24Everyone's got their own struggles, their own life story.
- 9:26You don't know what battles people are facing.
- 9:28Yeah.
- 9:28That's what I think when I see a patient in the ER, I don't know what they've gone
- 9:33through. I'm only here to help them now and help them get-
- 9:37Yeah
- 9:37... through this hospital stay. And that's kind of how you look at things and just
- 9:40hearing your story too-
- 9:41Mm-hmm
- 9:41... like, I had a gap year. I didn't get in the first time.
- 9:44I'm an osteopath, but big whoop, I'm still a doctor.
- 9:48You're still a doctor today.
- 9:50Yeah.
- 9:50That's a huge accomplishment in itself.
- 9:55The problem now is I can't burn myself out.
- 9:59Because it's almost like making up for lost time.
- 10:04Yeah.
- 10:04And then there's this pressure that is behind a lot of what I do.
- 10:09Yeah. Yes. I empathize with that. I've talked to a lot, I
- 10:16say, recent grads that feel the same way. Like, "Hey, I'm such and such age.
- 10:21I finished, I have this much in debt. I feel like I need to buy a house.
- 10:24I need to get married. I need to drive a nice car.
- 10:26I need to go on multiple trips because my friends have been living their life and
- 10:29I've been stuck in school, and I'm trying to figure it out." You know?
- 10:33Yeah.
- 10:33Yeah. I felt that way, too.
- 10:38Yeah, and so fast-forward to now where I'm in the
- 10:44wellness space.
- 10:45Mm-hmm.
- 10:46I've built several wellness, I would say centers, and not all of them have
- 10:52worked out. So, it's interesting to be unwell in a wellness
- 10:57industry. So, really, it's forced me to just look at habits and
- 11:03the industry impact, really.
- 11:06Yeah.
- 11:07There's a lot of industry culture situations that we're kind of up against as well.
- 11:12Yeah, everything you do-
- 11:13Like a workaholic
- 11:14... you said you've worked on some things that haven't worked out.
- 11:18Well, you've learned something from that, right?
- 11:20And then you're in the-
- 11:21It's tremendous learning
- 11:22... you're a business owner now, so you're juggling doctor plus business owner, and
- 11:26I had that same experience, and then it's like throwing into two different-- I felt
- 11:31like I was compartmentalized into Car Wash Doc and Dr. J. That's who I was.
- 11:37Yeah.
- 11:37And then I found a way to eventually kind of blend it, but I couldn't hold it
- 11:41together because the lifestyle balance, just being
- 11:47well. I'm probably in the best shape and best mental health I've ever been now
- 11:53since I left-
- 11:54That's so great
- 11:55... Kaiser six months ago, and it was kind of a necessary change that had to
- 12:00happen.
- 12:01Mm-hmm.
- 12:02I'm still a per diem doc, but don't ask me how many shifts I've done this year.
- 12:06I haven't done very many. But I would love to sometimes go back-
- 12:10That's liberating
- 12:11... but it's like I'm so busy, and you just got to prioritize.
- 12:14Priorities are a huge thing in life now, too.
- 12:19Yeah.
- 12:20And then as different scenarios come up, that hierarchy of priorities, it's
- 12:26okay to shift.
- 12:27Yeah, 100%.
- 12:28So, right.
- 12:30Constantly-
- 12:30Not anchoring into that fixed point
- 12:32... every six months, my priorities change. I know my top priorities.
- 12:35In the intro, you mentioned father, husband, those are my two top.
- 12:41Everything else under that is just constant shifting.
- 12:44Like this month I'm prioritizing this.
- 12:46Next six months, I'm going to prioritize that. So they're always shifting.
- 12:53That's a really good thing that you just said.
- 12:56And when it comes to family and relationships, and
- 13:01really the thing that is your core, right? You have to have that foundation.
- 13:07I've
- 13:09been tested in that area, and I realize the level of importance it is to me.
- 13:15Because you can make a lot of money, and then it's for nothing.
- 13:18Yeah.
- 13:18And then you're also just locked into work, and it just is kind of
- 13:24meaningless. But having a reason that is bigger than you, while you're doing your
- 13:30calling, while you're earning an income, while you're deepening your relationships,
- 13:34to me, that's nailing it.
- 13:37Yeah. I want to say it took me a time to figure out.
- 13:41I just didn't understand what I was doing, and then at the end of the day, I kind
- 13:45of lived-
- 13:46Yeah
- 13:46... my life by, what are my kids going to be proud of?
- 13:50Are my kids going to be proud of my actions going forward?
- 13:53They're going to remember whether I was there for back to school night yesterday
- 13:57versus- ... I working a night shift. And so as you start to prioritize that.
- 14:02Yeah.
- 14:03My wife has been my rock. She's kind of supported me through this crazy journey.
- 14:07She holds down the fort at the house. She's also in the medical field.
- 14:11She's a nurse anesthetist who's a YouTube content creator as well.
- 14:15So we've got kind of these different-
- 14:17That's awesome
- 14:17... side hustles that we do, and
- 14:21what turned out to be side hustles for us are now our main hustles.
- 14:24And again, our focus is our kids, each other, being husband and wife first,
- 14:29reconnecting. Because at the end of the day, I don't want to be 80 years old with,
- 14:35say, $100 million, but alone.
- 14:39Yeah, and we see that. There's a lot of doctors who end up like that.
- 14:44Yeah.
- 14:44It's really sad to me. I don't want to be that, and I
- 14:50think I want to be proof, and you're proof that it doesn't have to look like that.
- 14:54That's not your only pathway, to be 100 and still working-
- 14:58Yeah
- 14:58... shifts instead of with your family.
- 15:00One thing I've taken away, too, in the last couple years is you are not defined by
- 15:06your degree. That's just one part of you.
- 15:11No.
- 15:11Yeah. I'm Dr. J, but I'm also the Car Wash Doc. I'm also a husband.
- 15:15It's like a blend. You're not just a doctor.
- 15:18Yeah.
- 15:18Don't define your life by, "I'm doctor, and that's all I can do," and you're just
- 15:22going to stick in that lane. You got to do more.
- 15:25You're so right.
- 15:27And it's almost like the universe will break you if that is what you're anchored
- 15:33to.
- 15:33Yeah, 100%. Change is one of those things that is the
- 15:39only constant in life.
- 15:43You think it's backwards. It's an oxymoron, right?
- 15:46But change is constantly happening.
- 15:48Yeah.
- 15:48There's entropy. You cannot be just one person. You cannot just be a physician.
- 15:53You've got to be other things in your life, otherwise you're not going to really
- 15:57live a holistic, wholesome life.
- 16:02I really resonate with that. I have a mug that says, "I am change."
- 16:07Yeah.
- 16:09And I always talk in my personal relationships, I don't know if on the podcast, if
- 16:15I've said it before, but being able to, I would say, ready yourself and
- 16:20prepare and then embrace change, that's a whole thing.
- 16:24It's an experience, and it makes your body feel unsettled.
- 16:28Mm-hmm.
- 16:29So you really are allowing... I don't know what to call it.
- 16:34It's a mindset to accept the change as we're going to go into this.
- 16:39I know it's going to feel off or destabilizing, but I have my core that
- 16:45I'm relying on to stabilize me.
- 16:47Yeah.
- 16:49For when I left Kaiser six months-- or I left in December of 2025.
- 16:54But the decision, just to make that decision, it took me seven months, and I had
- 17:00so much anxiety thinking about it, and like, "I'm going to do this."
- 17:04That's the prep phase. I'm just kidding.
- 17:06Like, "This change is coming, and I don't know what to think.
- 17:12How am I going to balance life?
- 17:15Am I going to have too much free time, or am I going to have no free time?"
- 17:18Mm-hmm.
- 17:19"Go back and work." There's so many questions. I lost so much sleep.
- 17:24Now I sleep a lot better at night now, but going from night shift-
- 17:29Yes
- 17:30... I don't have to work night shifts anymore, so it's been a good change.
- 17:36That is amazing. Yeah, so that prepping your mind and body
- 17:41for how it's going to feel. But then also while you're in that transition or you're
- 17:47thinking about the possible transition, you are already anxious.
- 17:51Yeah.
- 17:51And some people choose to stay there rather than just plowing forward-
- 17:57Yeah
- 17:57... into that unknown space for the chance that this might go away, and you might
- 18:01feel better, which you did. Which I do.
- 18:03Yeah. It's crazy to think about the amount of anxiety and stress that I had,
- 18:09because I'm not a very stressful guy, or I don't have anxiety.
- 18:14But until I made these-
- 18:15Mm-hmm
- 18:15... really big decisions that were like, "I'm giving up the safety, security of a
- 18:20steady job." I gave up my pension. I gave it all up. I gave up my health insurance.
- 18:26Yeah.
- 18:26I don't even know what I'm going to do for health insurance when I leave Kaiser.
- 18:30What if my kids get sick? And blah, blah, blah.
- 18:33You start to think of the negatives, but then at the same time, you look at like,
- 18:36"Okay, well, I'm doing it for these reasons.
- 18:39I'm doing this to improve my life." This is a change that I actually kind of
- 18:43wanted, and now God is giving it to me or whatever, and it's like, "Okay, well,
- 18:48time to embrace it. Let's figure it out."
- 18:52Yeah. And they say be careful what you ask for, but I'm just like, "Oh, some things
- 18:56you just can't know."
- 18:58Mm-hmm.
- 18:58You can't possibly predict how it's going to impact you, and you just feel called
- 19:02to step into that-
- 19:04Yeah
- 19:04... next thing, whatever it is.
- 19:06Exactly.
- 19:08Yeah. And I just pray to be brave. I think that's what I ask for a lot.
- 19:15Well, I think you're doing a great job so far.
- 19:18Thank you.
- 19:20Because all of this is scary. It's scary to go onto a podcast.
- 19:24It's scary to have opinions or to feel courageous enough to apply what
- 19:30we've learned in med school or in business, like I have what it takes to make this
- 19:35work.
- 19:36Mm-hmm.
- 19:36So it's trusting a lot. Yeah.
- 19:39Just going deeper into that, just some stories.
- 19:43When I was telling people at the hospital, like, "Hey, I bought a car wash." And
- 19:46they're like, "What the heck are you doing?" And just the looks, and they were
- 19:51like, "Are you sure that's a good idea?" I was like, "I think so.
- 19:53I ran the numbers. I did them doing it with a partner and figuring it out." And
- 19:56eventually came to like, "I'm leaving." They're like, "Are you sure?
- 20:00You're going to leave? Oh my God, why would you do that?" And not that they were
- 20:05putting doubt in my head, but it was just like you see the shift of these people or
- 20:10these other physicians, colleagues of mine,
- 20:13they were just one track mind, "I'm going to work here till I'm 65," or whatever.
- 20:18And it's like, "Okay. That's for you.
- 20:20That's great."
- 20:21Yeah.
- 20:22I don't know. I feel like there was this different calling, this different thing
- 20:24that kind of happened, and I'm just going to-
- 20:26Mm-hmm
- 20:26... get off the freeway and take these side roads.
- 20:31I love that. Yeah, it's liberating, and it's interesting.
- 20:37I have learned for myself, at least, to not freely share my
- 20:43dreams, my vision, those things that I'm building or actively working
- 20:48on. I would rather talk about it after because people do put seeds of
- 20:54doubt, and that's not-
- 20:56Mm
- 20:56... I would say fruitful for me. It doesn't bring out the better outcome.
- 21:02To me, it gives me anxiety, so I just lock it down.
- 21:05It's funny because I take the opposite approach.
- 21:08I tell everyone-
- 21:08Yeah
- 21:09... what I'm doing because it holds me accountable that I'm going to go out there
- 21:12and do it.
- 21:13Yeah.
- 21:13But guess what? Even if I fail, at least I know I'm 10 steps ahead on the next
- 21:18thing.
- 21:19Yeah.
- 21:19Or I've gained or I've grown some way.
- 21:22If I tell people, like, "Hey, I'm going to
- 21:25buy $100 million in car washes."
- 21:29Yeah.
- 21:29If I had said that three years ago, you bet yourself I would've had it by now.
- 21:33Even if I failed, oh, well, I have $80 million.
- 21:38Mm-hmm.
- 21:38I have $70 million in car washes. But it's not like-
- 21:41Yeah
- 21:41... I'm still better than what I was when I had said that the first time.
- 21:46I love it. Yeah. The accountability thing, I think I understand
- 21:51you. That definitely plays a role.
- 21:54And maybe there are some people that I apply that principle to in my tight circle.
- 22:01But with colleagues and stuff, it is challenging because you are different.
- 22:07You're an entrepreneur. Doctors don't classically think to build things outside of
- 22:13medicine, and so I love that you really took the side road.
- 22:17Yeah.
- 22:18That's where-
- 22:19Yeah, sort of like, "Oh, that looks interesting.
- 22:21The beach is that way."
- 22:22Yeah.
- 22:23But we're trained very conservatively.
- 22:27We're in a very conservative profession.
- 22:29Yeah.
- 22:29So everything we've done is very conservative.
- 22:32And I wouldn't say I've always been a risk-taker, but I've always kind of held that
- 22:38middle ground, and I try to steel man my own arguments or I try to have
- 22:43these pros and cons in my head. And so it's like you're conservative.
- 22:48Well, the conservative route is I'm going to work at this job, and I'm going to
- 22:51stay here for however long till I get my pension or whatever, whether you're a
- 22:55nurse-
- 22:56Mm-hmm
- 22:56... a nurse practitioner, an engineer, a lawyer, or whatever.
- 22:59Or I can go try this new thing because guess what?
- 23:02If it does fail, I can probably still get a job back where I was.
- 23:06Maybe I have to start over again.
- 23:08Yes.
- 23:08It's not the biggest deal in the world.
- 23:11Yeah.
- 23:14I
- 23:16really love that. It's like you can do these
- 23:21side streets. You can diverge. You can pause medicine, or you can do both.
- 23:28Now that I'm here at this point and I've tried a bunch of different things, I think
- 23:33I'm going to try the SBA loan route next.
- 23:38Oh, yeah.
- 23:38So SBA, 250 is the minimum that you can take out.
- 23:43Mm-hmm.
- 23:43So I'm like, "Well, we can easily spend 250 on something."
- 23:49Well, that's how I got started in my first car wash deals.
- 23:53Oh, amazing.
- 23:54I have over 30 million in SBA loans.
- 23:58Oh, that is so good. I'm proud of you.
- 24:01And the government's handing out these freebies.
- 24:04I don't want to say they're freebies. They come with strings attached.
- 24:07But again, at the end of the day, my worst case was my base case, which was I was
- 24:13going to go work at Kaiser till I was 65, maybe a little bit longer because I had
- 24:16some loans to pay back. But that was my worst
- 24:20case.
- 24:20Yeah.
- 24:20So I looked at it as like, "Okay, I'm going to sign the personal guarantee for this
- 24:26SBA loan to start this side hustle," and eventually just was like, "Hey, this is
- 24:31kind of like a cheat code. If you know how to navigate the system and figure it
- 24:35out, you can take that and scale rather rapidly." And that's what I did over the
- 24:41last three years. So in three years-
- 24:43That's the right way
- 24:44... I have 21 car washes in three years that are probably-
- 24:49Good job
- 24:50... the value of is probably 60 million,
- 24:54and I've put down-
- 24:55That is-
- 24:56... six million to buy them. So-
- 24:59I'm so excited for you. People can't do that, and they're too scared to do that.
- 25:04And I don't know who or how you found out about SBA loans, but you did, right?
- 25:10And that is-
- 25:10Yeah
- 25:10... that's a game changer.
- 25:13It's like one of those things, just being curious and learning, and you see all
- 25:17these people online, they're like, "Hey, it's easy to make money doing this," or
- 25:21flip real estate or sell these things or drop shipping.
- 25:24Yeah.
- 25:25There's some truth to a lot of this stuff.
- 25:27You see I'm probably not one of the guys that's like, "Here, let me count cash with
- 25:31the car wash," and you just watch my videos.
- 25:33Yeah.
- 25:33But I'm watching those same videos three years ago, and I was like, "How the heck
- 25:37do these people do it? And how do I figure it out?" And you have access to AI and
- 25:43Google, and you can literally figure out stuff if you're just curious enough and
- 25:47just keep digging at it. And that's what happened to me. I kept digging at it.
- 25:52Yeah. And it's paid off.
- 25:55Yeah. It wasn't easy. You pay your tuition doing it.
- 26:01Again, I've made some mistakes here and there, but it's like, "Hey, oh, well, I'll
- 26:04do better on the next one." I wouldn't say I've lost money-money, but could I have
- 26:11made more efficient use of the capital I deployed or done something differently and
- 26:15had a stronger return? Yeah.
- 26:17Mm-hmm.
- 26:18Did I get
- 26:19scammed by a vendor or did I lose some money on a deal or something? Yeah.
- 26:25It happens.
- 26:27Yeah.
- 26:27And that's just business in a sense, and you've got to take those risks-
- 26:30Yeah
- 26:31... and build that into your safety cushion, your game plan, your execution, and
- 26:36you just know that you've got to roll with those punches too. They come.
- 26:39There was days I'd walk into Kaiser as a hospitalist and get punched in the face
- 26:43with every patient pretty much, figuratively It's no different than business.
- 26:48I walk in, I get-
- 26:49Yeah
- 26:49... punched in the face sometimes with things that happen.
- 26:51I'm like, "Oh my God." Like, okay, well, roll with the punches.
- 26:55Yeah. You guys are rough. Not you, Jay, but I'm talking to the listeners.
- 27:01It's hard to be a doctor. It's customer service.
- 27:04It's-
- 27:05Yep
- 27:06... the expectation of some vision of a doctor that I didn't create, but here we
- 27:11are plugged into this system. Failed expectations, that's
- 27:17always being managed.
- 27:19Yeah.
- 27:19So, it's tough.
- 27:23It's a different world, going from-
- 27:27Yeah
- 27:27... customer service and, say, healthcare.
- 27:29Because you're trying to provide patient satisfaction.
- 27:34Mm-hmm.
- 27:34But sometimes patients don't want to hear what you have to say because it's-
- 27:38Mm-mm
- 27:38... the truth. You're trying to give them truth and help them, but it
- 27:43was different. In medical care, it felt like I was always crossing
- 27:49a bridge that led to nowhere-
- 27:51Yeah
- 27:52... in medicine. I would see a patient, greet them at the ER, and then I would just
- 27:57bridge them over to the pay discharge door a couple of days later.
- 28:02And it was like, "Okay, and I guess I'll see you on the return trip back.
- 28:06You're going to come back because I can't help you." It was always like a Band-Aid,
- 28:09the bridges were just Band-Aids.
- 28:11Mm-hmm.
- 28:12And being, I guess, an entrepreneur
- 28:15and having control of my own businesses now, it's no longer a Band-Aid, it's no
- 28:20longer a bridge.
- 28:22We're actually fixing things and making them-
- 28:25Yeah
- 28:26... better.
- 28:26Yeah.
- 28:26Imagine trying to do that in a hospital system, and you're like, "Hey, I'm Dr.
- 28:30Spell here, and I got an idea." "Oh, well, get in line with the administrators and
- 28:34figure this out, and blah, blah, blah, and go to this meeting," and-
- 28:38I can't
- 28:39... you can't change a thing.
- 28:40No. Yep.
- 28:41It was the most frustrating thing about medicine probably for me.
- 28:43Mm-hmm.
- 28:45And so, having business control and being like, "Hey, we're going to do it this
- 28:49way, and if it doesn't work, we'll just pivot back."
- 28:52Yes.
- 28:52We can do that.
- 28:53I love it. Yeah. Those barriers, on one hand, there's people who are really good
- 28:59at navigating it, and they're built for it. They're meant for it.
- 29:03They can handle going through the red tape and, outpatient wise,
- 29:10prior authorizations and-
- 29:12Mm-hmm
- 29:13... med refills and the forms.
- 29:18That shuts me down. I feel it.
- 29:20Yeah.
- 29:21It's like a defeat feeling. So that, to me, is just, I guess, a signal to my
- 29:27body that I need to shift. I can't be the one for this.
- 29:31There's a lot of people who can, and I just am not it.
- 29:35So-
- 29:36Yeah
- 29:36... yeah.
- 29:36And that's very true. The burnout, that's part of the burnout with medical care
- 29:41and-
- 29:42Yeah
- 29:42... physicians and nurses is going through that red tape over and over again.
- 29:46Mm-hmm.
- 29:46And it's like, okay, if I have to do it every once in a while, it's fine.
- 29:50But if I've got to deal with it with every insurance, every, say, hospital
- 29:55discharge, DME that I've got to order, or prescriptions that can't get filled-
- 30:01Yeah
- 30:01... and I'm like, "I can't do-
- 30:03So much
- 30:03... this for every single patient." It does not-
- 30:07Yeah.
- 30:07It sucks. It's like, when did I become a paper pusher rather than someone who's
- 30:12more critical thinking and trying to help a patient?
- 30:15Yeah.
- 30:15And then again, part of my burnout, too, was just I would see sometimes the same
- 30:20rotating patients come through, and it's like, there's got to be a better way.
- 30:23Wellness, I feel like that's more of a recent shift in-
- 30:28Mm-hmm
- 30:28... the last generation or two. But the baby boomers that I'm seeing, they didn't
- 30:33have the wellness conversation. So it's like, no.
- 30:37No way.
- 30:37It's like, "Dr. J, how do I fix this?" "Oh, sorry, sir, you're 10 years a little
- 30:41too late."
- 30:43Unfortunately.
- 30:44Yeah. Unfortunately, you're 10 years too late because you should've been working on
- 30:48your health, your weight, your sleep, all these things.
- 30:50And I feel like it's more of a bigger focus now, which I'm more, I guess, bullish
- 30:56on the younger generation of people.
- 30:59Mm-hmm.
- 30:59They're more health conscious. But-
- 31:01Yeah
- 31:01... the older generation, it's hard to take care of them because you get to a point
- 31:06where there's no return from this, and now it's just a management type of disease
- 31:11where you've got to manage this thing.
- 31:12And if you don't manage it well, I'm going to see you back in the ER pretty damn
- 31:16soon.
- 31:18Absolutely. It's not rewarding for either side, for the doctor, for the
- 31:24patient. It's just a failed cycle. Something has to change.
- 31:29Yeah. And unfortunately, some of those things you can't change.
- 31:32Yeah.
- 31:32Sometimes you have to say-
- 31:34I'm one of those patients.
- 31:35Yeah. And then some things, it's like the insurance red tape or whatever you want
- 31:38to call it, just getting the appropriate care delivered to the patient so they can
- 31:44change or can improve the outcomes. And it was the most frustrating thing.
- 31:48It's probably the biggest relief that I've had leaving medicine-
- 31:53Yeah
- 31:53... and not having to deal with that anymore.
- 31:56Well, it's an inspiration, and I hope it makes other people brave as they're
- 32:01dealing with burnout and watching their health decline.
- 32:06I noticed, okay, doctors and lawyers, they're probably the worst.
- 32:11We're the worst with doing our health checks,
- 32:15labs, screenings. We're the doctors.
- 32:19Yeah. We're the worst patients.
- 32:20We're the worst patients.
- 32:21We're the worst patients. Yeah.
- 32:23I feel like I'm really creating something centered around taking care
- 32:29of our colleagues, because to get any of us to leave the clinic to go give
- 32:35blood, are you serious? That is mission impossible.
- 32:39Yeah.
- 32:39When?
- 32:39Yeah. You got 10 patients waiting already.
- 32:43You're already behind in the day, and you've got to-
- 32:45Yeah
- 32:45... call a couple insurance companies back about a pre-op, and it's like, dude,
- 32:48there's no time in the day. You feel the constant rush.
- 32:53Yeah.
- 32:54How many times have you skipped lunch?
- 32:57All the time.
- 32:58All the time. You don't really take lunch.
- 32:59I hardly drink water because you've seen me trying to catch up. I had to work out.
- 33:04But it's just, yeah. It's hard to do everything and take care of yourself and take
- 33:10care of people around you in the way that you know it should be done.
- 33:15Yeah. And I should throw a disclaimer out there.
- 33:17Running a business also is not the easiest either.
- 33:21You still skip lunch, you still lose sleep over things.
- 33:24But at least it's a little different that at the end of the day, running a
- 33:30business hinges on your, I guess, dedication and work ethic.
- 33:35Mm-hmm.
- 33:35But you can still take that pause and carve out that time because it's
- 33:41done on your time versus you try to say, "Hey, I need a wellness break for two
- 33:47hours in the middle of a clinic day." You're doing that on patients' time, and
- 33:51you're-
- 33:51Yeah
- 33:52... on someone else's paid time. So you can't really do that, and that was one of
- 33:58the things-
- 33:58Can you imagine admin looking at you if
- 34:01you say-
- 34:01Yeah
- 34:02... "I'm going to be on two-hour wellness," blink, blink.
- 34:05I think they would be speechless.
- 34:09Probably. I just don't see a world where we can get back to...
- 34:15Imagine telling admin, "Hey, instead of seeing 22 patients in a day, I'm going to
- 34:19just see 16 and spend more time with them and take a nice break and go get-
- 34:25Yeah
- 34:25... lunch."
- 34:27Good luck with that.
- 34:28It's not a system built. Yeah.
- 34:30Yeah.
- 34:30Unless you own the practice yourself and you built it that you can sustain
- 34:34yourself, yeah, do what you want. But until you've earned that right, which again,
- 34:40I tell a lot of people, even businesses aren't passive.
- 34:43Other investments, for the most part, aren't passive.
- 34:45Yeah.
- 34:46You have to earn that right to do that.
- 34:48That's so true.
- 34:48I feel like I've kind of
- 34:52gotten a grip or gotten to that point where I've earned it, and I've been doing car
- 34:56washes for three years. And I'm still not at that point, because when I'm
- 35:02actively on site, I'm working 16-hour days and I'm skipping lunch still, and I
- 35:06barely go take a potty break.
- 35:08Yeah.
- 35:10That's how it is. But eventually, hopefully in five years, I've earned it, that
- 35:13we're like, "Hey, I'm going to go work one hour a day and be done."
- 35:17Yeah. That's ideal. And then when it comes to that
- 35:22structure of outsourcing, so you put plugging in the right people,
- 35:29I feel like it is a whole separate category for me to learn
- 35:34with choosing how to vet the right people, how to screen the right-
- 35:39Oh, yeah
- 35:39... people so that they're trustworthy, they are truly reflecting you, they're
- 35:43extensions of you, and they're not misrepresenting your company or your brand.
- 35:48That's hard.
- 35:49Oh, yeah. Definitely. It's probably more so important for you because you're
- 35:55dealing with patients.
- 35:56Mm-hmm.
- 35:57Like for us, it's our employees on site that represent us, and our me is the
- 36:02manager or the owner, and it's like you want to find those good people who you
- 36:05trust. I have to trust employees with cash.
- 36:07I can imagine you have to trust employees with sensitive information and talking to
- 36:11patients and conveying and-
- 36:13Well, I'm cash-based outpatient. So, yes.
- 36:17We-
- 36:17Yeah.
- 36:18Yeah.
- 36:18So, it's a lot of that stuff. It's hard to find good people.
- 36:22Not saying that there aren't any out there-
- 36:24Mm-hmm
- 36:24... but you've got to find the right fit for you.
- 36:27Yes.
- 36:27And for us, it's been not a struggle, but it sucks when
- 36:35a good employee needs to move on. And we're happy to see them move on-
- 36:39Yeah. That's good
- 36:39... go do a different job. You're happy for them, but at the same time, it sucks
- 36:43because it's like now I've got to find someone that was just as good as them-
- 36:45Yeah
- 36:46... and hire them.
- 36:47Yeah.
- 36:47It's easy to let go of the bad employees-
- 36:50Yeah
- 36:50... but then if you don't have the payroll for it to
- 36:54hire well-
- 36:56Mm-hmm
- 36:57... you're going to suffer, your business is going to suffer.
- 36:59Well, okay-
- 37:00You know?
- 37:00... so on that point, just paying well is not enough.
- 37:06Like-
- 37:07Yeah, sometimes, yeah.
- 37:08Yeah. And so I had to learn that because you start somebody out, and you
- 37:14feel like, "Okay, I'm going to invest into my people." And you give them
- 37:19market or above market rate perks-
- 37:23Yeah
- 37:23... support,
- 37:25but it does not guarantee it's going to work.
- 37:30Mm-hmm.
- 37:31It's a really-
- 37:31Yeah,
- 37:33it's one of those things, we're quick to hire, but we're also quick to fire.
- 37:38And it's not like we are hiring people to just firing them-
- 37:42Yeah
- 37:42... we're trying to find a good fit that works with us, that works with our
- 37:46schedule. We're flexible. We try to
- 37:50support our employees on site. We're a mostly Phoenix-based.
- 37:54It's 110 degrees out there. We have water-
- 37:57Oh, shoot
- 37:57... delivered to sites. We make sure we have AC there.
- 38:00We make sure we have
- 38:03cold refrigerators at work.
- 38:05Yeah.
- 38:05Things like that. We get them fans.
- 38:07We want them to have a safe work environment, but at the same time, if you can't
- 38:11handle it or you don't want to or if this is just-- I'm not saying this is going to
- 38:15be your career.
- 38:16Yeah.
- 38:17We're
- 38:19lower-end labor, but if you need something else or you're just not the right fit,
- 38:25we'll let you go. For you, you're probably looking for skilled MAs-
- 38:28Yes
- 38:28... skilled nurses.
- 38:29Yes.
- 38:29And you're trying to hire from a different pool of people-
- 38:32Yes
- 38:33... and it's difficult. You've got to find people who also care, that have the same
- 38:36message as you.
- 38:37Mm-hmm.
- 38:37It's a lot more difficult.
- 38:39Yeah. And there's also a gap that exists, and I'm working to close it, but there's
- 38:43a gap between what people believe that they know, what they think that they're good
- 38:47at, and what they're actually good at.
- 38:51That perceived value of what you bring to the table is not always it.
- 38:57And so without crushing somebody, giving feedback in a proper
- 39:02way,
- 39:05that is hard. It's hard.
- 39:07I can imagine.
- 39:09My feedback's probably a lot different than yours, but you've got to find people
- 39:15that
- 39:17aren't so ego-driven or narcissistic in a sense-
- 39:21Yes
- 39:21... because then if you go in there and you say, "Hey,
- 39:24Mrs. So-and-so, didn't like the way you talked to him." Like, "What are you talking
- 39:27about? I'm the kindest person." Like, "No, you kind of-"
- 39:30Yeah.
- 39:31"Becky, you got an attitude."
- 39:32Yeah.
- 39:32Like, "You've got to tone it down a little bit."
- 39:34Yes.
- 39:35And that happens.
- 39:38Yeah.
- 39:39And that's difficult. Really difficult.
- 39:40Definitely. Or getting the name close but wrong.
- 39:46That actually, I was told by a patient today, "Yeah, when your reception called,
- 39:52she messed up my name, and I told her, and she didn't correct it."
- 39:58If you're told, "My name is
- 40:00Valerie," and the other person just skips over it, that is perceived as rude.
- 40:06That's not good.
- 40:08Oh, yeah. It's like you keep calling them Veronica, and it's like, "No, I told you
- 40:11my name is Valerie, not Veronica."
- 40:13You're like, "I can't pronounce it."
- 40:15Yeah.
- 40:15It's not fair.
- 40:16And it's like, well,
- 40:19am I just another number you're calling?
- 40:21Or are you really-
- 40:21Feels like it
- 40:21... does this office really care about who I am as a patient, right?
- 40:26Yep.
- 40:27Yeah. It's a huge deal.
- 40:29Yeah. Well, I love what you said, that you are in the best shape of your life right
- 40:33now. Tell me more about that.
- 40:35Yeah. Well, so when I was working at
- 40:41Kaiser at the same time doing my side hustle, I was working night shifts
- 40:48Friday, Saturday, Sunday. I was like a weekendist.
- 40:51And then I would take off and go work the car washes,
- 40:56and I would physically be on site pretty much Monday through Thursday, and maybe
- 41:01sometimes even drive back on a Friday or fly back on a Friday, and I would go to
- 41:05work. And I was killing myself. I was literally working 100 hours a week because
- 41:10at that point, the car wash income hadn't surpassed my
- 41:16physician income. But I saw that, hey, if I grinded it out for a couple of
- 41:21years, this could be something a lot bigger.
- 41:25Mm-hmm.
- 41:26And so I did that for two to three years.
- 41:29And in the beginning, it wasn't straight night shifts.
- 41:31I was rounding-
- 41:32Mm-hmm
- 41:32... was working seven days straight. The seventh day was a 24-hour shift.
- 41:36And then I would have a week off-
- 41:38Oh my God
- 41:38... but my week off, I was still working.
- 41:40I'm still juggling being a dad, a husband, all these things, activities, trying
- 41:46to still be social. I had no time. What's the first thing that goes?
- 41:51The gym, right? You're eating fast food because it's fast, right?
- 41:56You're not eating healthy anymore.
- 41:58So, that was one of the biggest struggles to just manage.
- 42:04And it was hard. Even with the times I didn't travel to the car washes and was off
- 42:09from my night shifts, I didn't have the motivation or energy to even go to the gym.
- 42:14Yeah.
- 42:15Because I felt like, oh, I'd only go for one day, two days, and then I'd be gone
- 42:18for two weeks or I wouldn't be able to-- It's like you-
- 42:20You give into it
- 42:21... you lose that routine and then...
- 42:23Yep.
- 42:23Yeah. So when I left, it's like, okay, well, I made a conscious decision, if I'm
- 42:28going to leave Kaiser, I'm going to make it so that I can still be healthy
- 42:34and well at the age of 80 because I want to play with my grandkids.
- 42:38How do I do that? I've got to start working out now.
- 42:40I've got to build my bone density. I've got to make sure I'm strong-
- 42:43Yeah
- 42:43... healthy, get my physical checkups now.
- 42:46Yes.
- 42:46Go get my blood drawn now.
- 42:47Good job.
- 42:48So, things like that. Yeah. And it's been a huge transformation because now, okay,
- 42:53yeah, I still travel maybe 10... Now I probably travel now 10, 12 days a month.
- 42:59But I make it a point that if I am home, I will go to the gym for at least an
- 43:05hour a day.
- 43:06Good.
- 43:07And if it's the first thing I do at 6:30 in the morning, that's what I'm going to
- 43:10do. And then me and my wife cook more now at home because I'm home, and it's like
- 43:15you're not making a meal for one because your significant other's gone and my two
- 43:20little ones don't eat that much. But now we can meal prep better, and we can afford
- 43:25more organic, healthy food options-
- 43:28Yeah
- 43:28... and things like that. So, then you just start really caring about your health
- 43:32more. You're like, "Oh, I'm going to do a little bit of red light therapy."
- 43:34Yes.
- 43:35"I'm going to do saunas and-"
- 43:36I love that.
- 43:37Yeah. "I'm going to do saunas and cold plunges." So, it's like you start to add
- 43:40these things, and I'm like, okay, well, I've built a routine around it.
- 43:43I know if I'm going to travel for at least 10 days a month, that means the other 20
- 43:47days I can for sure hit the gym.
- 43:49Perfect.
- 43:49I can for sure do these things.
- 43:51Yep.
- 43:51And so I've made that a priority now, and it's shifted higher than, say, working
- 43:56per diem shifts at the hospital because I come home, and I'm burnt out.
- 43:59I'd rather focus on my health than go work an eight-hour swing shift or midnight
- 44:04shift at the hospital.
- 44:04Mm-hmm.
- 44:06So, yeah, I'm losing income, but I feel like I'm gaining wealth in other areas of
- 44:12life. They always talk about the five pillars of wealth, but I've always
- 44:18neglected the health one-
- 44:19Same
- 44:19... for a long time.
- 44:20Same. And I'm-
- 44:22So-
- 44:23Yeah, I didn't like myself like that
- 44:24... like I said, no-- Yeah. I feel better. I wake up better. I feel more rested.
- 44:30Yeah.
- 44:30I have more energy.
- 44:33I feel like I can do a lot more.
- 44:38I'm trying to not be the patient where I'm telling them, "Sorry,
- 44:43sir, it's 10 years too late." I'm trying to practice what I preach as when I did as
- 44:49a doctor. I don't want my younger self telling my older self, "Hey, you should've
- 44:54been working on this in your 40s." I kind of wish I started in my 30s, but hey,
- 44:59there's no wrong-- Any time to start is a good time to start, right?
- 45:02Absolutely. That's the message. Really, even if you're in your 50s, 60s, 70s,
- 45:08you can have a body transformation physically, and then the labs will show us that
- 45:13the inside is also adjusting So it's pretty profound.
- 45:18And there's chronic disease. And so if that's unmanaged for-
- 45:23Mm-hmm
- 45:23... quite a long time, there are some things that are irreversible, but you can
- 45:28still reduce its impact.
- 45:31Yeah. But like you said, the chronic disease just doesn't show up one day and it
- 45:35becomes chronic.
- 45:36Mm-hmm.
- 45:36It's been brewing for so many years because of neglect.
- 45:40Yeah.
- 45:40Maybe your BMI is like 40, maybe your stress management is
- 45:46eating chocolate sweets or something-
- 45:48Yeah
- 45:48... and you're just stuffing your face full of Hot Cheetos or something.
- 45:52Yeah.
- 45:52That's stuff that builds up. And heart disease and stress management,
- 45:58all these things, they didn't start yesterday, they started years ago.
- 46:02You're exactly right.
- 46:03And they don't show up until maybe a doctor diagnoses them.
- 46:09But again, that's just when the diagnosis hit.
- 46:12Mm-hmm.
- 46:12But again, they've been probably brewing for a long time.
- 46:16Yeah. So, it's interesting because you're not in a new space without stress.
- 46:20The stress is still there. Both pathways are hard.
- 46:23Both of them made you react differently, though.
- 46:26You changed your behavior when you changed your environment, and you're better for
- 46:31it. So there's some level of,
- 46:34I wouldn't say full balance is achievable.
- 46:37I always strive for it, but I think you're a lot closer doing
- 46:43exactly what you're doing.
- 46:44Yeah. I would agree.
- 46:46I would agree. Nothing's ever perfect.
- 46:48It's not real.
- 46:50Nothing's ever perfect. Even to be perfect is not a real thing.
- 46:54Mm-hmm.
- 46:54But as you transition, you have more, say,
- 46:59freedom financially or with your time. You get to make those conscious choices.
- 47:05Yes.
- 47:05A fresh grad doctor probably doesn't have those choices in the beginning because
- 47:10they're, again, trying to figure out life and their lifestyle-
- 47:13That was tough, right?
- 47:14... their work-
- 47:14Post-grad
- 47:15... schedule.
- 47:15To just jump in.
- 47:16Yeah.
- 47:16Now you can make decisions. You're like, "Wait, what?"
- 47:20Yeah. I was like, "I finally have money.
- 47:23Am I flying to Vegas to go party this weekend, or am I going to pick up extra
- 47:26shifts? Because I'm still in credit card debt from residency."
- 47:29I was a little bit of both.
- 47:30"I don't know what I'm going to do." Yeah, I was a little bit of both.
- 47:33Yeah.
- 47:33And
- 47:35so now that you have more time, or I should say, I am fortunate
- 47:41enough to have that time and be able to make those decisions.
- 47:45The stress hasn't gone away. It's changed. It's morphed.
- 47:48Yeah.
- 47:49I've found new ways to cope with it, deal with it,
- 47:52handle it a lot better.
- 47:55Mm-hmm.
- 47:55And I think it's just one of those things you just grow into, and I don't know,
- 47:58maybe I've matured a lot more since my 30s.
- 48:01You are 40 now. It kicks in at a different level.
- 48:04I know, right?
- 48:06I've got some grays coming in.
- 48:08Yes.
- 48:08I don't know. It's one of those things, hey, again, I'm trying to
- 48:14just live a fulfilling life with interesting stories that my kids are going to be
- 48:19proud of, of who I am and what I do, even when I'm not there.
- 48:23It's like that integrity component, and
- 48:26again, at the end of the day something happens, oh well.
- 48:29And I guess one of the other big things about medicine is I'm not stressing over
- 48:35the decisions that impact someone's life anymore.
- 48:38Mm-hmm.
- 48:38The decisions that I stress over are like, "Do I go fix this machine?
- 48:42Do I go do this? What do I do with this employee?" It's not like a life or death
- 48:46sort of thing. Not every decision in medicine's life or death, but that decision
- 48:51weighs on you more heavily.
- 48:54Yeah.
- 48:54And I feel like that stress load has kind of lifted.
- 48:58Yeah.
- 48:58I don't go home at night and wonder, "Hey, did I order the right meds for this
- 49:01patient?" Or, "Hey, I wonder if that patient-"
- 49:03Yeah
- 49:03... "is okay anymore." I'm kind of removed from that.
- 49:05Yeah. That is beautiful. I can see how that would be liberating.
- 49:13Yeah.
- 49:13Yeah. It is liberating. And still, it's funny because some of my friends will ask,
- 49:18"Are you going to come back and work as a doctor?" I'm like, "Yeah, I kind of would
- 49:21love to go still use that skillset." But I find it crazy that I still use the same
- 49:27skillsets as a doctor in business.
- 49:31The empathy part, the critical thinking-
- 49:35Ooh, you're right
- 49:35... being a diagnostician. You still use it all in business.
- 49:41Yes.
- 49:41It's just I'm just using it in a different form.
- 49:43Yes. That's a great point. I guess I am, too, in a sense.
- 49:47Yeah.
- 49:49It's people. We're managing people.
- 49:51The clients are people, the employees are people, and that's the skill that we were
- 49:57given.
- 50:00That's actually probably the biggest skill a physician has is their empathy and
- 50:04their ability to connect-
- 50:05Yeah
- 50:05... develop rapport, walk in their shoes-
- 50:08Yes
- 50:08... understand, relate, communicate important things-
- 50:12Mm-hmm
- 50:12... analyze data, and come up with a diagnosis and a treatment
- 50:18plan.
- 50:19Mm-hmm.
- 50:19You can replace all those words for a business
- 50:23whatever word.
- 50:25Mm-hmm.
- 50:25But you have what I call, it's like you have an MBA
- 50:31without knowing it.
- 50:31Mm-hmm.
- 50:31You have the skillset. You're obviously smart.
- 50:35You went to med school, you graduated, you finished residency, you retained a lot
- 50:39of knowledge, you passed your boards.
- 50:41Yeah.
- 50:42So you are capable. And I tell that to a lot of physicians, too.
- 50:45You are way more capable than just being a doctor.
- 50:47Again, don't stick in that one lane.
- 50:49You can do a lot more things-
- 50:51Love that
- 50:51... if you just put your mind to it.
- 50:53Yeah.
- 50:54Again, I don't blame them. You've worked so hard, you've spent
- 50:59four years in college, four years in med school, say four years residency, and it's
- 51:03like 12 years have gone by.
- 51:04Mm-hmm.
- 51:04Maybe you want to check out for a year or two, but if you want to check out till
- 51:07you're 65, I can't help you. That's just who you are as a person.
- 51:12Yeah.
- 51:12And so again, and it's not a wrong choice.
- 51:15You've just got to be able to live with that risk that you're taking.
- 51:17Exactly. I don't know if you can hear that phone ringing. I'm sorry.
- 51:21I don't know where it's ringing from.
- 51:26No, it's fine. I don't hear anything.
- 51:26I would fix it, but I don't know how to do it. I'm not touching anything.
- 51:31Yeah.
- 51:31Yeah. No, that's powerful, because people are scared.
- 51:34They're scared to take the jump. They're scared to change their lives because it's
- 51:38the devil that you know.
- 51:39Yeah.
- 51:39The fear of change is real. Change
- 51:44itself is scary. It doesn't feel natural,
- 51:50but plowing forward anyway, it's worth it, taking the leap.
- 51:58Yeah. Even just doing a new hobby, it's scary to people.
- 52:03Yeah.
- 52:03Meeting new people now. I'm 40, and I have social anxiety.
- 52:08I wouldn't call it social anxiety-
- 52:10Never know
- 52:10... it's like meeting new people, it feels tough, joining a new friend circle,
- 52:14going to go play pickleball with you.
- 52:16That's a highly social sport.
- 52:17Playing with someone like you're doing it for the first time.
- 52:19Yeah. You're exactly right.
- 52:21And so you put yourself in a situation-
- 52:22Yeah
- 52:22... you've got to do it. You're not going to know, and you'll never know until you
- 52:26try. And again, if you fail, at least you learn something or learn something about
- 52:30yourself and you grew as a person.
- 52:31Absolutely. Yeah. That's part of it. Last question for you.
- 52:37I know you have a lot to do.
- 52:40Sure.
- 52:41Have you done any of these specialty labs to see what your biological age is, and
- 52:45what do you think about that?
- 52:49I haven't. I've been curious about that.
- 52:51You see a lot of stuff about these peptides and all these other things.
- 52:55I think it's actually a really fascinating space because now you have AI doing
- 53:01drug discovery. You can analyze data and huge pools of data, and
- 53:07it's something that I'm optimistic on the future of healthcare in that
- 53:13sense because all these new things are going to come out.
- 53:17My one thing is I just hope the data is different, but I hope people don't become
- 53:22dependent on the drugs.
- 53:24Yeah.
- 53:24It still takes hard work. It still takes going to the gym-
- 53:27Yes
- 53:27... eating right, practicing mental stability and all those things because a pill
- 53:32can't fix all those things. But maybe a pill can help supplement, like these new
- 53:37GLP-1s have come out and stuff like that. I am curious to do it.
- 53:43I haven't done it myself. I've been telling my wife maybe next year we'll go to
- 53:48Turkey and just do a full body medical certification and something.
- 53:50We have it here. You don't need to go to Turkey. I'll send you a kit.
- 53:55Well, I was thinking of... Yeah, send me one. It'd be interesting.
- 53:58I would like to just try it because it's nice to have your basic
- 54:03metabolic panel.
- 54:05Mm-hmm.
- 54:05You got your cholesterol panel, your A1C, but that's all we track.
- 54:09Yeah.
- 54:09There's probably a lot more. There's inflammation markers that we can-
- 54:12Enzymes
- 54:13... Yeah, there's so much more that we haven't discovered.
- 54:16Telomeres.
- 54:16Yeah, and-
- 54:18And it's like, why aren't we doing this?
- 54:21Well, we're not doing this for every patient-
- 54:23Mm-hmm
- 54:23... because it costs money, and it's expensive.
- 54:26Insurance companies-
- 54:26Yeah
- 54:26... aren't going to pay for it yet. Maybe they will in the future if they start to
- 54:30hone in more on-
- 54:31Mm-hmm
- 54:32... wellness. And I can see that being a huge industry, and it's already exploding
- 54:36and it's growing. Like I said, I feel like the younger population is going to be a
- 54:41lot more healthier than,
- 54:44say, the baby boomers and Gen X that are kind of getting up there now.
- 54:49But I would like to explore that and probably do a couple of tests just to kind of
- 54:53see, because again, I do it now, maybe do it again when I'm 45 and then do it when
- 54:57I'm 50, and it'd be fun to say, "Hey, I'm 40, but
- 55:02my metabolic or my body's biological age is 30."
- 55:06Well, that is what I say.
- 55:09I'm like, "Ah, woo!"
- 55:09So you know what? Okay. So I do it-
- 55:11Yeah
- 55:11... every three months. Fun fact, I'll just freely share, and when I graduated from
- 55:16residency, that was the first time that I started it, and I read some article, and
- 55:21I saw it was published by Harvard, and I want to say it was True
- 55:26Diagnostic Health is the brand that I used.
- 55:30And I was
- 55:33so stressed. I was in the worst, I would say, health of my life. Excuse me.
- 55:39And
- 55:41I was 55. It breaks it down into organ system. 55.
- 55:47Oh, wow.
- 55:4755. And I'm like,
- 55:50it's math. It tells you how it arrives at all of these conclusions about your age,
- 55:56and it's pooled off of several thousands of different people.
- 56:01It is a database, right? So that's what it's pooling from and doing some
- 56:04calculation.
- 56:06Yeah.
- 56:06And it's predictive. It has probability language.
- 56:11So-
- 56:12Yeah
- 56:12... now that we're here, I'm 39.
- 56:15How do you-
- 56:16And I'm happy with that.
- 56:17Yeah.
- 56:17We're just working on it. But-
- 56:20You're working on trying to bring it down near my year
- 56:23... yeah. I want to be 55 again.
- 56:26Not to the actual age, but yeah.
- 56:29No.
- 56:29You don't want to be there.
- 56:30I was just like, "We have to change everything."
- 56:32You don't want to be there.
- 56:32And I did, and so my behaviors changed as a result of that data.
- 56:37So for me, that feedback is very helpful.
- 56:40And even for the food changes that I've made, I do the microbiome testing, and I do
- 56:46the microbiome support with-
- 56:48Mm-hmm
- 56:49... Biome. I know there's a lot of brands out there, but I found I kind of like
- 56:52their style of the information and their price point.
- 56:59Yeah. Again, I'm so optimistic on the future of medicine.
- 57:05I would say I'm pessimistic on the old school-
- 57:08Me too. It's so bad
- 57:09... stuff that we have learned.
- 57:13I feel like it's outdated, and when the times are changing so fast and so
- 57:19rapidly, medicine stays on this linear progression of change while the world
- 57:25is now becoming exponential, and medicine-
- 57:29It's not
- 57:29... is not keeping up. So that's why you see all these supplements and all these
- 57:32new testing that's all off the shelf, kind of not covered.
- 57:37I wish it was covered because I think people should get it.
- 57:39Yeah.
- 57:40You should
- 57:41know. Go and-
- 57:43Yeah
- 57:43... get your test done, and see what you are and track it, because that could be,
- 57:48again, it's predictive of maybe you'll have a heart attack when you're 50-
- 57:52Yes
- 57:53... or hey, you're in good shape. Maybe you got to work on your bone density
- 57:57because-
- 57:57It'll tell you
- 57:57... you're going to get a hip fracture.
- 58:00Yeah.
- 58:01Mm-hmm.
- 58:01Things like that. It's so cool. I really wish I had the knack more-
- 58:06Mm-hmm
- 58:06... so for that.
- 58:08I considered pursuing medical type of businesses because I was
- 58:14leaving-
- 58:14Mm-hmm
- 58:14... Kaiser, and you have kind of a non-compete when you work for a big HMO.
- 58:20So I was like, "Oh yeah, maybe I'll start doing these other things." I just haven't
- 58:23had the time to really be like, "Oh yeah, I'm going to go explore such and such and
- 58:28do my own med spa or wellness clinic, medical clinic."
- 58:31Hey, at least you're having fun-
- 58:32And I'm happy
- 58:32... and you're making a lot of money doing it, so I love that for you.
- 58:36Your health has benefited. Your family-
- 58:39Thank you
- 58:39... has benefited from this change.
- 58:41So I hope it's an inspiration to other people listening because it's hard to do
- 58:46what you've done. It is near impossible to do what you've done. It's brave.
- 58:53Thank you. I hope to inspire or hope we are inspiring-
- 58:57Yeah
- 58:57... other physicians. Again, you're just not a doctor.
- 59:00Yeah.
- 59:00You can do a lot more, and you shouldn't just define yourself by a single paycheck
- 59:05that you're getting every two weeks. Yeah, you have the doctor title, great.
- 59:11Yeah.
- 59:11Go do something cool now. Go-
- 59:15... conquer whatever world that you-- Go climb whatever mountain you want to climb.
- 59:20Yeah.
- 59:20It doesn't have to make money, but do something that helps you, benefits you, helps
- 59:24you with your mental stress.
- 59:27Again, we are way more capable as physicians of doing more things than we ever were
- 59:33able to-
- 59:34Yes
- 59:34... in the years before. So again, that's the one message I could leave people.
- 59:39Just go out and-
- 59:40Go for it. Yes
- 59:41... go at it. Just go after it.
- 59:42I love it.
- 59:43Yeah. The worst thing that's ever going to happen is you're still-
- 59:47Yeah
- 59:47... a doctor at the end of the day. You're not going to lose your license-
- 59:51Crazy
- 59:51... unless you do something sketchy.
- 59:52Yeah, don't be sketchy.
- 59:53Don't. Yeah.
- 59:56Don't be sketchy. Yeah, but again, go for it. Do it.
- 59:59You might as well because again, you're not going to get that chance-
- 1:00:02Right
- 1:00:02... when you're 70. At that point, you're playing life-
- 1:00:05Yes
- 1:00:05... safer. You don't want to take those risks.
- 1:00:07I love that.
- 1:00:07But take it now.
- 1:00:07I couldn't agree more. Well, thank you so much, Dr. J.
- 1:00:10I appreciate your time, your energy, sharing your experience, your life.
- 1:00:15Let's do this again sometime. And I'm going to send you a kit.
- 1:00:21Yeah, no problem.
- 1:00:21We'll see your actual biological age.
- 1:00:21I appreciate it. Thank you. It's been great hanging out and talking to you. Yeah.
- 1:00:27If it's higher than 40, don't post it.
- 1:00:29Maybe when you're done and yours to share, I would love to see the results either
- 1:00:32way.
- 1:00:36Awesome. No, thank you for having me.
- 1:00:37It's been fun, and I hope we-
- 1:00:39Definitely
- 1:00:39... can do it again soon.
- 1:00:39All right. Talk to you later. Bye.
- 1:00:43All right. Take care. Bye-bye.