Latest / Coffee Playdate Podcast with Dr. Olga Deengar / How Dr. Marissa Caudill Rewrote Her Own Prescription: Ep 26 Entrepreneurship, AI & Life in Alignment
Transcript
- Coach Olga MD: Welcome to the Coffee Playdate Podcast. I have a very special guest with me today, Dr. Marissa Caudill. Welcome. Dr. Marissa Caudill: Thank you Olga, it's great to be here with you. Coach Olga MD: so happy you're here. We're gonna start off by how do you like your coffee? Dr. Marissa Caudill: So I generally take my coffee, no sugar, just creamer. Coach Olga MD: do you drink that every day? Dr. Marissa Caudill: ⁓ yes. Coach Olga MD: Perfect. like to start off by playing two games. The first one is a rapid fire questions game. I'm going to ask you to choose between ⁓ answer or the other, but you don't have to explain yourself. Just go with your gut instinct. Here we go. ⁓ entrepreneurship or building a big team. Dr. Marissa Caudill: building a big team. Coach Olga MD: about improving clinical efficiency or improving patient engagement. Dr. Marissa Caudill: Improving patient engagement. Coach Olga MD: Next one, tech that saves physicians time or tech that deepens physician-patient connections. Dr. Marissa Caudill: Tech that saves physicians time. Coach Olga MD: game is a sip. the same idea, but this time we both answer and if our answers match then we take a sip from our coffee cups. ⁓ Hosting a conference or attending one? Dr. Marissa Caudill: Okay. hosting a conference. Coach Olga MD: I'm gonna say attending one, I'm not brave enough to host. Dr. Marissa Caudill: I've never hosted a conference, but that sounds really fun. Coach Olga MD: Yeah, awesome. Next one, planning content ahead of time or creating it in the moment? Dr. Marissa Caudill: planning content ahead of time. Coach Olga MD: me too. Cheers! Dr. Marissa Caudill: Yeah, okay, so cheers. Coach Olga MD: How about an ice plunge or a deep tissue massage? Dr. Marissa Caudill: Deep tissue massage, 100%. Coach Olga MD: Me too. Cheers to that. in the Alps or whitewater rafting through the Amazon? Dr. Marissa Caudill: I'd go skiing in the Alps, though I've never done ⁓ Yeah, okay. Coach Olga MD: Me too. I do, me neither. Cheers. Okay, so Marissa, can you tell us a little bit about yourself? Dr. Marissa Caudill: Sure. So my name is Marissa Caudill. I am a physician, a child psychiatrist by training. I grew up in the East coast, New Hampshire. I moved out to California for residency at UCLA in 2007. I'd never been out West. I thought, okay, it'll be like three, four years and then I'll go back home. And that was, know, now 19 years ago. So I met my husband here. We have two kids. Our son, Calvin is 13, daughter Emily is 9 And they're definitely our reason for being the joy in our life. Um, and I started, let's see, 2022, I had gone from a private practice that I had for about six years coming out of training. After I had my second kid, went and worked at Kaiser Permanente because I don't know, your mom listeners might relate to this. I got to a point where I felt like juggling everything in private practice was too much. And I just wanted a job where I would go in, you know, eight to five, nine to five, and then be done, off when I was off. Um, and I did enjoy that, I spent four and a half years with Kaiser Permanente here in Southern California as a child psychiatrist. There's no cap in their health world. So for me at a certain point, especially with the changes that went into effect with the pandemic with telehealth and trying to care for more acute children using telehealth, I found it just wasn't a good fit. I had gotten into real estate investing during the pandemic. And I left and we spent three months that summer, 12 weeks with our kids and my sister's kids, It was amazing. It was my first summer off in like 30 years. I really wasn't sure if I wanted to keep practicing as a psychiatrist or if I wanted to do real estate or if I wanted to do something else. I think there's many things I could do and be happy doing, but I pivoted and rebranded myself as the parent doctor. And that's the clinical work that I've been doing the last few years. I basically coach parents of mostly kids who are pre-adolescent, like five to 12 years old, to really be able to have... a solid, well-connected relationship with their kids. And often the kids have challenges like anxiety or ADHD or autism. by supporting the parents, I think I can really help that connection be strong so that when the children hit adolescence, that connection with the parent helps them weather that storm and be less likely to have mental illness problems. So that work has been super fulfilling. I love it. So 8th year, another physician who you should interview, Dr. Mona Sodhi and I co-founded a company called Superdoc Tech. And so this is a HIPAA compliant customer relationship management software solution for physicians that I discovered through my work as the parent doctor. I don't know how many. Doctors you've talked to who start doing their own thing, but when you do that, you start to realize there's a lot you don't know. if you want to have a website, you got to figure out where am I going to put the website. If you want to have a course, you have to figure out where am I going to put the course. Then you got to be on social media and you got to figure out how am going to do this in a way that doesn't feel like a full-time job. So. I found this software and customized it for physicians. And it really has changed my life dramatically. And I feel very passionately about helping doctors who want to do some new entrepreneurial thing. If they have a vision to provide healthcare in a new way. So that's what we're doing now. That's pretty much my full-time gig. I still work clinically with parents on Fridays, but 80 % of the time my work is now building SuperDocTech and we have now over 30 members that we're supporting. So been really, really fun. Coach Olga MD: Wow, this is amazing. I'm really curious to know, have you had any success stories with doctors being able to really leverage your software platform and save some time and things like that and really grow their audience? Dr. Marissa Caudill: Yeah, it's been fascinating. I came at it again, assuming everyone was like me that they would want to get in and they would find it fun to build their own website. But what we're learning is that's not how most people are. Most people would like guidance And if I can tell you what to do and you make it happen, that would be better. ⁓ so that's what we've evolved to do, but our first members were really with us, like rolling up their sleeves, getting in there, building their custom websites and their funnels and their lead magnets. We've had some amazing success just in the last six months. So the people who joined us for our first kind of cohort of learning together, we called it the accelerator. so of them is a pediatrician who turned ADHD specialist. So she had her private practice as an ADHD specialist and like me, started realizing, you know, these parents really need more support. They don't just need a pill for their kids who have ADHD. They need to understand what does my ADHD child need from me? And so she started doing some coaching and she had great experiences and great outcomes with the parents who did coaching work with her. she really enjoys the coaching work even more than the clinical practice. And she wanted to build her coaching program, but didn't really know how. And so... By joining SuperDocTech, she was able to import all her contacts to one place. That's what a customer relationship management tool or CRM does for a business. So then you create a system where each week you're sending out your newsletter, giving people information that's valuable to them, letting them know how they can work with you. And she has seen a 10X in her coaching in the last six months. And now she's making more money from coaching ⁓ from her clinical practice. And she's happier than ever because that's what's more heart aligned for her in terms of what she's doing. So that's one example of a success story. On the other side, we have people who've built like big clinics taking insurance and now are doing ⁓ sort of training of other physicians with courses or using our AI receptionist to help their clinic run more efficiently. And that's been super valuable for them as well. So there's a lot of features within SuperDocTech and really depending on what kind of a doctor you are and what you're looking for, may use some or all of the features, but we can talk and discuss what would be most useful for you. Coach Olga MD: what is an AI receptionist? I'm very curious to know how that works. Is it like you talk to everyone? ⁓ Dr. Marissa Caudill: It's amazing. Yeah, you can, I, will, you know, if anybody wants to try it, well, actually I don't want to do that because it's actually kind of expensive. It's about 20 cents per minute for me, for everybody who calls my AI receptionist, but it is a human sounding voice. So for anyone who has become familiar with 11 labs, have you heard of that? So it's a technology company that's right now the premier voice AI service. our AI receptionists are voiced by 11 Labs voices. But then behind the scenes, you train this AI receptionist to understand and do whatever you want it to do. So on the simple side, you can have an AI receptionist trained in minutes. That's just going to collect every caller's name and email. It'll have the phone number because that has the number they're calling from. And then our CRM takes that data and pings you and says, hey, you had a caller. So for a clinic, say that's paying a part-time or full-time receptionist to answer the phones, that's great because it's a human being and it's a warm contact. or the people who call you, but the downside is that person can only answer one call at a time. Our AI receptionist can answer 200 at a time. That person probably only speaks one language. Our AI receptionists speak eight. And then that person may not be 100 % efficient in always collecting the same data from everyone who calls. And also they're human beings. So they're going to have some days where they might be a little snippy or tired or And that might come out on their tone ⁓ their Coach Olga MD: you Dr. Marissa Caudill: word choices with the customer's calling. Whereas the AI receptionist, you know, if you've done any conversations with ChatGPT, they're extremely conscientious and friendly and polite. And so they've done a great job with like, spontaneously deescalating things. But the real magic happens when you connect to that AI receptionist to your scheduling, because then you basically have a way for your patients to 24 hours a day, seven days a week, be able to schedule, reschedule, find out the information about when their appointment is. And that just frees up so much time for your human staff. it's a real game changer for busy practices. It's a no brainer, because it's less than the cost of a medical assistant. And it's someone who's working 24 seven for your practice. Coach Olga MD: That is incredible. I mean, how did you make all of this HIPAA compliant? I'm just curious. This is really cool. Dr. Marissa Caudill: So this is all based on a platform called Go High Level. And we can integrate to make sure that everything is HIPAA compliant there at an agency level. just the value as a user and realized, I don't think most doctors know that this even exists. And so it feels to be able to be bringing things to cash pay practice owners ⁓ in a way that's salient and useful and, you profit, it makes more profits, Coach Olga MD: This is so cool. love how passionate you are about your new venture. And ⁓ wanted to ask, as you were going through your entrepreneurial journey and ⁓ the journey now, ⁓ there a mindset shift that you had to make in order to be successful? Dr. Marissa Caudill: Yeah, I think I forget how far I've come in such a short time. A lot of mind-set shifts. So even, I would say it started for me in 2021, was probably when this work all started, when I started doing some real estate investing. So I got to a point, and it's interesting, what's the trigger? For me, the trigger was my husband and I are both physicians. Coach Olga MD: Yeah. Dr. Marissa Caudill: We had both gotten our like big attending jobs and we were making great money, just wonderful. And I was doing our taxes, cause I'm like the DIY girl. And this one year we paid more in taxes than I brought home. And I had a really great like six figure salary that I was super proud of. And I just felt so defeated and angry. Cause again, like I felt like, okay. Coach Olga MD: you Dr. Marissa Caudill: So that's what led me to have interest in real estate investing. was driven by a desire to like shelter some money from taxes and to build wealth in a different way and have more, um, variety in our investments other than just our employer 401Ks. And really through that work and that community, it planted seeds in me in 2021 about what's possible. And so it's been a slow shift. I've done a lot of events with Tony Robbins, which has helped a lot. And actually it was at Business Mastery, which is a Tony Robbins five-day event in 2023 that I realized Although I had come up with the parent doctor and I was doing private practice again, realized I thought that I'm in business, but a self-employed physician is not really a business because it's not scalable. It's not sellable. It's not something that can earn money when you're not there. It's really just a big job, right? Because the parent doctor and Marissa Caudill MD only make money ⁓ the parent doctor is doing something or Dr. Caudill is seeing a patient. And not that I don't love that, not that ⁓ isn't good. But it really got my wheels spinning and thinking about like, could I be a business owner? Could I make a business? What would that be? What would it look like? it was over the next few months that things clicked for me. And I realized that this platform I had been using and more and more as I learned more of what it could do could be business if I packaged it right ⁓ and delivered to physicians in a way that made it digestible and usable. And so It's been a huge mindset shift. I mean, if you had told me five years ago that I would be starting up a health tech company, I would have rolled my eyes at you and said, you're crazy. But anything's possible. I mean, I think once you open yourself to what the universe is bringing you, I know that sounds so woo woo, but I do feel like I have probably, I don't know if it's unfounded. I have a strong sense of self-confidence that I can do anything I put my mind to, which is probably. in some ways helpful, in some ways sets me up for failure. But I don't know. That's how you learn. Yeah, I'm not afraid to try new things, but it has been still a journey. Coach Olga MD: But that's how you learn. ⁓ Dr. Marissa Caudill: So I would say that was the first big shift was kind of letting go of my dream of being professor somewhere in a lab. And then I did clinical work. did private practice. So again, I stepped into that new identity of I can be a self-employed person. but I stepped back into an employed role and I realized I could do this, but don't love it. It's not my favorite. now I'm running business and I answered that question. when you ask me teams versus solo entrepreneur, think up until now in my life, I would have said solo entrepreneur, but I'm stepping into the headache that comes with teams because I know a lot more is possible when you build a So it's painful, but it's also exciting. Coach Olga MD: Yeah, I love how you're thinking outside the box and really coming up with new ideas and ways to really bring value to physicians. So I think that's really cool and not lot of people could really get this creative, that's for sure. Thank ⁓ Dr. Marissa Caudill: That's the next thing. Like that's the baby. Like I'm not going to end if I like it. Like the rest of it's going to have to go. So now slowly the real estate has gone under property management. I've cut back my clinical work to just doing what I love most was just the coaching part and consulting for medications, and I'm all in on superdoc tech and it's great. Like I'm happier than I've been in years. It's really, really been a positive change, even though I'm not yet making the money I was making clinically. I know it will come. I just have faith. I believe in my heart that this is a really useful tool that once more people know about it, it's gonna get its own momentum. Coach Olga MD: Yeah. And do you feel like you're living in alignment with your core values right now? Dr. Marissa Caudill: Yeah, 100%. That was another thing. So my husband and I both did Date with Destiny, which is a Tony Robbins seven day event in 2023. That's all about that. It's about finding out like, who are you really? what core values have you been living with? And what new core values do you need to install? He kind of calls it like a software update. And it was so eye opening. Coach Olga MD: Thank Dr. Marissa Caudill: Cause it actually, I think that's probably pretty common physicians, right? Like we're hardworking people. We're kind of type A perfectionist people. We set this high bar And at the end of the day, I came out with this just simple certainty that like what's most important to me is just to enjoy with the people I love and. ⁓ make wonderful memories. Like that's what I want. Like that's what I want on my deathbed to be thinking about that I've done. Not that I achieved X, Y or Z or made so much money or got whatever award. Like those things are fine, but that's not what really matters. So I do feel like now I'm definitely living more in alignment because I have control over my schedule, which is so huge. And that just gives me the flexibility to be there my kids. I don't think you can, underestimate psychologically, like what an impact that has on you, especially as a mom. Like my kid, when he was in kindergarten, I was working full time at Kaiser and I was a junior person, So I missed like so many things, right? I missed the open house, I missed the holiday show, the winter program. Coach Olga MD: and then. Dr. Marissa Caudill: ⁓ And now I be there for those things, which is plus minus. But it's all good, I think it's all good it's an evolution for the better You you have kids too, right Coach Olga MD: So good. I'm excited. I do I have three boys they are six, three, one. ⁓ So Dr. Marissa Caudill: Oh my goodness. wow! Awesome. I think it's so important for our kids to see this. I mean, with Superdoc Tech, the kids, they see me on Zoom calls, they see me going to meetings, you we have branding. And so they'll come in sometimes and be like, is that a Superdoc? You know, they're like, I think it's really cool for them to see that we've created this community. And it's, it's very valuable for kids to see you doing something brave and in alignment. Coach Olga MD: Thank Dr. Marissa Caudill: And we've actually talked about this on our SuperDoc Stories podcast with how you can think you're hiding from your kids, that you're feeling a little burnt out or a little stressed and you put on a happy face for them, but they see it, they feel it. They know if what you're doing feels draining versus if what you're doing feels invigorating and exciting and aligned. I tell you as a psychiatrist, like that has a huge impact on our kids ⁓ view what... the meaning of life is, what the whole point of it is, if it's all worth it. we can't underestimate how important it is to live our lives by example for our kids because you can't tell them What it takes to be happy if you're not doing it for yourself The words don't matter. You have to live it. You have to walk the walk Coach Olga MD: Yeah, absolutely. And you are paving the path for them so that they can choose what they want to do, what aligns with their values and all of that. I think there's a lot of, there's a lot to parenting. ⁓ Dr. Marissa Caudill: Obviously. Coach Olga MD: And it's hard to always be there for the kids, especially when you are stressed, but if you can show them that you are doing what you're passionate about and you're following your dreams, I mean, that's the biggest example that you can set. Dr. Marissa Caudill: Mm-hmm. I hope so. Ask me in 10 years. I'll tell you how the kids turned out. ⁓ Coach Olga MD: Now as you were building Super Doc Tech, did you come across a specific challenge and then how did you overcome that challenge? Dr. Marissa Caudill: Yeah, I think the biggest challenge for me was I am a control freak. And so I've been most comfortable in the solopreneur, like, you know, this is my private practice. It's just me. I do what I want, right? That was comfortable for me. But I realized that if I want to grow a business that can scale and serve more people over time, I can't do that by myself. So the hardest part for me was accepting that I would need to ask for help because I don't like asking for help. And then when I met my partner, we really spent months like having zoom calls and emails. It's almost like you're getting married, right? Because we were like, okay, if we start this business, and if it really takes off, that would be great. But it also could be, you know, we all know people whose businesses have fallen apart who end up in lawsuits with their co founders, Like basically what would happen if one of us, like we're saying we to do this 50-50 great, but what if it changes like three years in and the other one can't be available? How are gonna handle that? And then we did wanna start it just with two of us. so we had to talk about like, what if we don't see eye eye on something? How are we gonna decide what direction to go? So did a lot of exploring about what's gonna make this a good partnership. And so when things do get tough, even after they get a little spicy in a conversation, we pretty much immediately come back and repair it and get back on track. And that's made such a difference because we're learning. And when you're learning, you always do it wrong before you do right at some point. So there has to be some ability, a very good ability to process those things without shame and anger. so that you can let your systems become better and let your communication become better. I think that's been the biggest thing is shifting from solopreneur to teams ⁓ especially finding the right partner to start this business venture with. Coach Olga MD: It sounds like you're laying all the cards on the table from the get-go. ⁓ Dr. Marissa Caudill: We really did. Yeah. Coach Olga MD: Thank Dr. Marissa Caudill: What if five years from now we're not 50-50 anymore because something came up for me or something came up for you, are you still gonna feel happy to have been part of this all of that? I think the most important thing is to find your people. Coach Olga MD: Amazing. I know you've already given a lot of advice, which is very inspiring, but is there something else that you would like to tell someone who maybe is starting out in a similar space as you? Dr. Marissa Caudill: If you're a physician and you're trying to do something novel, often you feel like the weirdo. mean, definitely among my peers at Kaiser, they're all wonderful doctors, but they weren't really understanding what I was doing when I started the real estate investing. And they certainly didn't understand what I was doing when I started this tech thing. And even the parent coaching, they were kind of like, why would you become a parent coach if you're already a child psychiatrist? To them, it felt kind of backwards ⁓ a step backwards. Coach Olga MD: Thank you. Dr. Marissa Caudill: The good news is there's a lot of other doctors who are weirdos like you who are outside the box. And so if you can find them, even though they might not be in your zip code, you'll have so much more inspiration and support. So get on Facebook, talk to friends, get on WhatsApp, wherever they are, go to conferences like PIMDCON where we met this year and find those people and lean into them because that makes all the difference. Coach Olga MD: It's true. And actually from PIMDCON there are so many new friendships that I've formed and like so close to the doctors that I met there. It's incredible. I feel like I've really found my tribe. Dr. Marissa Caudill: I love that conference. That's like, it's like the homecoming conference. Every year it gets better. Coach Olga MD: And to end things off, is there a book recommendation that you have for our listeners today? Dr. Marissa Caudill: So many. So I think one of my favorites is The Gap and the Gain by Benjamin Hardy and Dan Sullivan Coach Olga MD: Yeah. And I have. It's so good. Dr. Marissa Caudill: So have you read it? Are you familiar with it? Yeah, I love that book. And I talk about it with my kids all the time to the point that now, like when I get in the gap, they're telling me like, mom, you're in the gap. So we catch each other. I'm like, I know, but I'm a human being. We all spend time in the gap sometimes, but thank you for reminding me. Let me reframe this and be in the game. But sometimes you just got to wallow in the gap for a minute. Coach Olga MD: Really? ⁓ Wow, well said. right. Well, thank you so much, Marissa. It's been a pleasure having you on the Coffee Playdate podcast. Dr. Marissa Caudill: Thank you, and I can't wait to have you on SuperDoc Stories soon. Coach Olga MD: Yeah, I'm excited. Cheers. Dr. Marissa Caudill: All right, take care. Cheers. Bye.