00:27 Hey, welcome back to the podcast. I am so excited today because we've got somebody on who has way more suffixes than I do in her name. And so prefix is suffixes. We're all over the place with Dr. Laura Purdy, MD- MBA, which is so awesome. It means a lot to a lot of people. Dr. Laura, tell us who you are and what do you do?

00:49 Todd, thank you so much for having me. I think we're gonna have a great conversation. You gave me a great introduction. My name is Laura Purdy, who I am. What do I do? Well, I do a lot of different things, but I'm the CEO and founder of America's favorite doctor, healthcare organization. We're building a new health system. And I've been working, so for the last, I would say better part of the last decade, I've been working all throughout the virtual health industry, learning about what we do, advising, assisting, working with companies and examining the problems inside of our current healthcare system. And so now I'm going to go build some solutions.

01:25 Well, I'm a little surprised because I didn't think we had any problems in our healthcare, first of all. All right.

01:35 I know. I feel like we're nitpicking a little bit, but if somebody's got a nitpick.

01:40 Yeah, yeah. Well, I'm glad you're addressing some problems. Which problems do you see? Because I've got a list of problems that I know about. But tell me about the problems you're seeing and what are you trying to solve? What's the big thing in your mind?

01:51 Yeah, several things agree with you. There's problems on the patient side and there's problems on the clinician side. And I want to try to solve some of those problems on both sides because what good is our solution? If it creates more problems while solving at the expense of the other group. So let's talk about the patient side first, right? Because the patient is at the core of what we do. It's for the patients. Number one to care, getting to see the right doctor at the right time for the right reason, which kind of leads me into the second thing, which is for the right price, the lack of price transparency. Who thinks any other industry where you go complete your transaction and then a few weeks to months later get a bill that you may or may not be able to afford?

02:46  And that you have no idea how to read it and understand it. And yeah, yeah. And nobody told you ahead of time that, yeah, you probably could have gotten away with this other test that costs like a quarter as much, but we'd wanted to do the full one, right?

03:00 I agree with you, there's no problems in our healthcare system, but no, I'm kidding. Price transparency, people deserve it. People deserve healthcare when they want it. They deserve to know how much they're paying for it. And the third thing is a little controversial, but I really think that we need to raise the bar in not necessarily the quality of the science or the medicine that's delivered, but the overall patient, or if I could say customer experience. Nobody, almost nobody, because I'm not going to speak in absolutes, but the overwhelming majority of people are so anxious when they go to the doctor, they get treated poorly, the bedside manner. Doctors are notorious for being jerks. I hate to say that, but arrogance, God complexes, talking down to people, talking down to their staff in the office. We get treated better when we go to the grocery store than we do when we go to the doctor. And so I believe that we use that standard of human interaction and hold people accountable for the way they're treating other people. That's what I think. There's way more than that, but I think that those are the big three. I could probably give you more, but those are the big three for patients. Does that make sense?

04:19 Um, no, I have no idea what you're talking about. Yes, it makes sense. This is incredible. This is incredible that someone from the industry is coming out and saying, hey, you know what? We could do a better job of actually providing awesome customer experiences, because I think that is the very last thing. I don't know that there's a class, I haven't been to medical school. I don't know that there's a class on customer experience. Now, you've got the MBA, you've got the MBA on the back of your suffixes of your name here, which means that you have learned about that. And that's probably why you're seeing these problems so glaring in the industry. Tell us about that. Why do you feel like you need to set out and solve this problem?

05:01 It hurts me. It hurts me. I'm an empath by nature, but I'm also a mother. So let me go all the way down the rabbit hole with you on that. 

05:10 Oh yeah, take us.

05:11 When I was in the medical school, we're going to go just jump right in. Right. And my dad died when I was in medical school, my second year of medical school. And I didn't know anything about anything. But I was on the family side of that. And we had both awful doctors and we had great doctors. And I got to see and experience firsthand. What happens when you have one or the other? I'm a mom, I have four kids. I have had instances where I could not get healthcare for my own children in the place where I worked. And I went to the place where I worked, right? And it's simple.

05:49 You're a doctor in a hospital and you can't even get health care for your kids.

05:54 No, why is that? I've been gaslit myself, because what I like to do, and I don't mean to come across as a mystery shopper, because that's not what I'm trying to do here. But when I go to the doctor, I don't, it doesn't matter who I am. I don't tell them who I am. I don't tell them what I do. Sometimes they can tell, because I will explain my children's symptoms in a way that, if you know, you know, kind of a thing. But I don't walk in there and say, guess what? I'm a doctor, and here's what you need to do. That's not the point. And.

06:28 So you drop the MD, MBA at the end when you introduce yourself.

06:34 I am just regular Laura just or Samuel's mom. I mean, you I could call me whatever you want. But I ain't your doctor here kind of a thing. And but I've been gaslit. I have been told that I was crazy. For example, one time I why I had diverticulitis in my early 30s. Why? But you know, they said y'all this is an OB thing. We can't help you. We got to go see the OB and said absolutely not. And that's what it was. And I had pre-eclampsia and was told that I didn't. I mean, I have been through it on the patient side of things. And if I'm gonna do better, then I expect my peers to rise to the occasion because I can't be the only one who wants to do better. And if there are more out there who want to do better, then we should band together because there's strength in numbers and create a new system so that patients can not only have a choice, but feel good. I want patients to feel like they're going to Disney World. Sort of not, what Walt Disney is absolutely one of my role models, you know, and thinking about how the experience was designed. It needs to be experienced, not what we allow it to be today.

09:25 Well, there's no doubt about it. There's no doubt that people get a little bit anxious when going to a doctor. I know I am one of those people. We lost our health insurance during COVID and, you know, I've got seven kids and, you know, guaranteed once a year, someone's gotta go to the hospital. And so, you know, paying out of pocket is not the funnest thing, you know, but we've had to. And so what you're describing sounds like an amazing solution because I wanna know more details. Tell us about the solution now. We know the why, we know what's driving this, but tell us what you're doing. What does this actually mean? You're starting some kind of new clinic style or just a new, yeah, hit us.

10:06 Well, if you don't mind, if you don't mind, I may like to backtrack and give you my big three for the providers too. Cause we may have clinicians that are listening to this thinking, well, okay, that's what you're gonna do for the patients, but am I still gonna be suffering? When I talk to people about what the point of this project, afd.health is what the website's gonna be, America's favorite doctor, healthcare system. I don't know exactly how it's gonna be called, but AFD, cause that's easy to say and it's catchy, and health because that's the domain we bought. Everyone in your system is suffering and not necessarily from illness, right? You're already suffering enough, you're sick and you're hurting and you have mental health and physical health, but the system itself imposes unnecessary suffering on everyone in it, everyone in it. That's why people are excited about this. So I seek to end or at least alleviate the suffering imposed by the system. So put that over there. What can we do for the clinicians? Number one, there is no good reason why our healthcare practitioners, whomever they are, they could be nurses, physical therapists, nutritionists, labor and delivery nurses, I don't care. If you deliver care, I'm not just doing this for doctors, this is for everyone. There's no reason, I think I saw a statistic that was like 50% of all just doctors alone are gonna get out of practice in the next three to five years because they are burned all the way out. And the system is running us into the ground. And everyone that I talk to, whether they're a doctor, MPPA, nurse practitioner, physical therapist, they all went out of the system because the system is hurting them. The system that they devoted their education to and they've bought themselves and sacrifice and get treated like garbage a lot of times. Treated like machines or assets rather than people. So I wanna bring that up. I want the AFD Health System to be the place where people love to work and not because it's easy, because it's gonna be hard work, because we're not using insurance, it's cash paid. We're gonna work hard. But I want them to love it because they're helping people and the system is not hurting them and oppressing them and running them into the ground. So that's the first thing. Number two, I want them to have options. I want clinicians to be able to say, you know what, I'm going to do a little bit of work from home, a little bit of big clinic, or maybe I'm going to do procedures, or maybe I'm going to do some med spa, or you know what, there's an AFD affiliate clinic going up in Vegas. Maybe I'll go work in Vegas for a month, which that's a future plan, by the way. That's where I want to put the first one. The first one's in Nashville. I don't want the clinicians to feel like they are powerless. I want them to feel like the health system supports them and supports their growth, their maturity, their career trajectory, and allows them options within the system to grow and scale if they want to, or if not, they don't have to, but the option needs to be there. And number three, I want to be able to provide them with some protection, legal protection, protection from patients. To be a doctor right now is a very difficult, and I'm playing doctor, but I mean healthcare provider. A lot of places it's not a felony to assault a healthcare provider, it is not. You can get yelled at, berated, treated like nonsense, demanding. I get all caps cursed outrage by patients every single day. And you know what, Todd? I immediately fire them on the spot and they do not get a second chance. And someday I'll probably ban them from my system for a long time because I will expect the same behavior that is given to you because this is a choice, right? So we're going to help preserve that clinician wellbeing by helping them know what to do if they get sued and protecting them, helping protecting them from abusive patients, helping protect them if they get forward action or something disciplinary. It's we're gonna take a.

14:29 After all, doctors are just practicing anyway.

14:31  Right? That's what it's called. That is what I feel like, yes.

14:37 No, totally. My father-in-law is a physician, so I tease him all the time about this. But as we talk about what you're doing and what you're building, it's totally fascinating. As someone who has been self-insured for my entire adult life, I will say that there's times where we've got great insurance, times where we got nothing, times where it's just frustrating because we're not part of a big group plan or something crazy like that. And I think the majority of Americans, that probably the majority of my listeners are sitting here going, yeah, tell me more, tell me more. Tell me about the business side of this. Where are you at and how soon can we start seeing some of this come into play? Because I know you've got a healthy start, but tell us what you're doing to grow and scale this. Because I think that's what is interesting me. You're in Miami, I'm in Utah. I would love what you've got right now. I would love it right now. I would sign up today.

15:36 And it's accessible to you. So what's really interesting, and I wanna put my little mentorship two cents in there for those of you who are listening. And I get told all the time, I get told very frequently what are the best ways to do things. And I respectfully choose what I do and don't listen to, because I'm trying to do something that's already been done. I'm not trying to re-prove a formula that's already proven. And one of the things I've learned over the last, I'll say five years, but really have aggressively been focusing on this project for about three, is what we said before, is that relationships are everything, everything. I have, so my virtual primary care clinic, which has over the, over time, it's had maybe five different clinicians in it, now we've got three, we've got another one coming on, has 30,000 patients in it, approximately, because we have one's coming and going every day. We have two, about 250 or so, and getting 10 to 12 leads a week on community affiliate clinics that we can refer patients to, which are all cash pay, all direct to consumer from across the country, because we're already nationwide. I'm licensed and have been widely licensed. So I have not spent one dollar, Todd. I have not spent one dollar on marketing. And by what I mean is client acquisition marketing, right? So of course I do PR, done magazine covers, modeling, and all that stuff, right? Is to create the persona so that there's someone behind the clinic to make it feel relatable. But I don't dump money in Google Pay Per Click. All of it comes from word of mouth because people have learned what it's like to work with me and for me and with us. It's not just me. I have a huge team and on the forums, on the social media chats, when people are supporting each other in their like-minded goals, my name comes up all the time and I don't even have a sales team. I don't have a business development team. We don't need it. So the biggest thing for growing and scaling has been relationships and not schmoozing, genuinely caring, going to New York and saying, hey, I need to host that. I need to see the people that I work with hosting a happy hour and 27 people who have worked with me but don't know each other show up because I wanna see me, right? And that has been the way that I would recommend that you grow in scale, endear these people too. So that's my...

18:23  Oh, that's not the only thing. I mean, come on here. You literally in one to three years have gained 30,000 active people who want to utilize your services. That's a lot of people and that's a very, I mean, if that doesn't shout out to the medical world that they're screwing things up, I don't know what will. Because I mean, literally, without hesitation, there are so many more people that work in the world, in the country especially in America who are not part of a big organization who have a blanket healthcare system already provided to them. The vast majority of us in America are like me, the small business of owners who have, you know, a few dozen employees who don't have healthcare all the time. Sometimes we do, sometimes we don't. It kind of depends. Otherwise we, you know, it's a nice benefit to have and you can do it, but you know, you get something like COVID and all of a sudden you lose that ability. So, How are you, you know, word of mouth is amazing, but what else are you doing? You said you're, I mean, obviously you're hopping on podcasts. What else are you doing outside of word of mouth only? To kind of get the word out there that, hey, there's something new coming down the pipe.

19:39 Well, I'll tell you what I'm doing right now is I'm getting ready to do all of it. I'm going to do all of it. I'm going to go, we're gonna go to conferences. I wanna have the biggest booth at the largest healthcare digital industry conference. I mean, we're gonna come out in, everybody knows me and not a lot of people know what I'm working on. Everybody in the industry knows me. And so we're going to show up and assert our presence into the field and say, here we are, this is what we're doing. But yes, Podcasts I do a lot of print editorial. So like I said, I do modeling and like AFD is actually in with the QR code to the clinic. I speak at conferences Yeah, I just gave a workshop in Washington DC last week. I do all We do like there's a PR team so there's hundreds Probably thousands at this point of times where I've been Created in the social media and then we're going on the AFD tour. So we're gonna go across the country. We're gonna meet all of those facilities, at least the ones that will welcome us, because they gotta agree. But all the ones that will welcome us in their doors, we're gonna shake hands, we're gonna hug, we're gonna take favors. Maybe I'll do some Botox, give a seminar, do some social media, make some content, go on the morning news in that town and promote their businesses. Because for me, my motto has always been, Every smaller company or smaller business or virtual clinic that I touch needs to be as successful as possible because we all have to be successful for change to happen. And so the current project is a consolidation of all these little clinics out there who are doing fine, but we can bring them in and make them a part of something bigger and more meaningful. And we're going to do all the marketing. We're going to... I have an Instagram live that I do on Tuesday nights at 9 p.m. Eastern time where I talk to people all across the industry about whatever they wanna talk about and we're raising awareness.

21:43 Love it, love it, love it. This is really, really fun. And honestly, I think it's so fascinating what you're trying to do. And I do think that, excuse me, while a lot of the older, more established medical professionals are gonna be poo-pooing this, I think that everyone on the patient side is gonna be welcoming. And I know a lot of Physicians who are eager to jump into something different than working at a hospital and working at a place where they're so Demeaned and it is a hard life you know I've got several close family who are nurses and doctors and I hear complaints all the time from the clinical side and So what you're saying and what you're trying to solve is a big deal and for those of you listening, you know I hope you're catching on to the theme here. This is a problem and a fix for the medical industry, but what she's doing is a lot like what you're doing in your industry. There are a lot of establishments out there, not just medical establishments, but in almost every industry, there's something, an established way of doing things. And what I love about what Laura's doing is she is driving the fact that, you know what? I can think differently and we can act differently and we can make this thing happen because that's what patients want. And when you're thinking about your business and how to take those next steps in the growth, you've gotta think what do the people want and then provide it, right? I mean, that's really all you're doing.

23:18 What the people need, what the people need, right? They want it because they need it, because they have a need that is not getting met in every industry. I love disruptors, innovators, because that's the future. Do you know what? They will put it in, and that's okay, because they won't be around in 20 or 30 years. But if we do it right, sounds cliche as a founder to say that, but if we do it right in 20, 30 years, we will have a new system, and all of that will have faded out, transitioned away banks, right? Remember back in the day we used to have to go to the bank all the time? We don't do that anymore because somebody disrupted and innovated that industry thing.

23:57 All my business banking is done through an online only. No, they don't even have a physical branch. It's awesome. I love it.

24:05 Do you use mercury? Relay? Can you tell me which one? Those are my favorite, too. Blue vine. Ooh, I got a two-pound.

24:07 Bluevine. Yeah, bluevine.com. Fantastic, really, really great. I even earn interest while money's sitting in my checking account, which is awesome. So, yeah, it's crazy. I mean, my other personal bank accounts, I'm paying 25 bucks a month on every account. I'm like, ah, Disruptor came in and took over business banking. I love what they're doing. It's awesome. So,

24:30 I love disruptors, right? They're creating change and that's what we need.

24:36 Quick plugs all over the place. Listen, Laura, this is so awesome. I love what you're doing. What can we as a community of disruptors, we are a community of founders and operators of businesses. How can we support what you're doing and how can we get on the bandwagon of what you're offering?

24:54 Oh gosh, I mean, let's get on each other's bandwagons, right? Together we create a new future. And these are the industries and these are the societies of the future. So I will support yours as much as you will support mine. And I do think that, you know, reach out. You can find me on Instagram at America's Favorite Doctor or on my website, drlarapurdy.com. We're transitioning all that into the AFD ecosystem. But tell me who you are, tell me what you're doing. Show me what your business is. Maybe you'll come on my Instagram live show and we'll talk about what you're doing for 30 minutes. Because we need to reflect each other's light into the world, especially when it comes to creating a better future for people.

25:35 Yep, yep. Couldn't agree with you more. Laura, I asked this of everyone, but I'd love to know from you specifically, is there a person or a group or a team that has inspired you along this journey to disrupt this global industry? And by the way, after we hit that, you know, I'm gonna wait. I've got another question for you. Tell us who this shout out is, because I just thought of another great question that I'm really curious about. Hit us with the shout out.

26:02 Okay, I am shouting out to all of the AFD early adopters, because we hear about the adoption curve, right? And I was gonna give a shout out just to my AFD team. I don't wanna name them by name because there's like 25 of them now and I'm afraid I'll forget somebody. But the patients, all the AFD early adopters, my patients, my staff, my providers, my partner companies who are using my platform as a way to push their ideas. We got about four of those. Those are all the early adopters who said, you know what, I believe in you and yes. And they have stuck through hard times, legal stuff, investigations, financial hardship, backlogs of a week. Patients have tolerated me not practicing in their state, wrote letters on my behalf because these people are the early adopters who believe in their soul what we're doing. And honestly, there are days, I'm sure all founders feel this way, where I feel like I can't do it sometimes. I think that the establishment's gonna win, they're bigger, stronger, they got more money, and who am I? And on those days, it's the people who are believing, am I gonna cry? I'm gonna try not to cry when I say this, because I feel it right here. But it's those people that kind of come alongside me and say, no, don't forget what we're doing and on we go and those are the people who get my shout out today.

27:30 Love it, love it, great shout out. Now that leads into the last question, last question. Dr. Laura Purdy, MD, MBA. Okay, tell me this, as you have built this operation and started to implement and execute in all these states, tell me about the backlash. What has been the worst thing that's happened from the establishment? Because there's a lot of crap I'm sure that's going on.

27:56 The worst thing that ever happened, I can't talk about because there's an ongoing federal investigation. So here's what I'll tell you. Let me take it high level, right? I have been mocked, I have been bullied, I have been accused, I've had my identity stolen and federal crimes committed with my identity. I have been criticized by my friends and family. I have been fired from positions by people who didn't understand that I'm not trying to compete with them. I'm trying to help save them and sustain them. I've been investigated. I've actually been investigated so many times that I've created an investigator welcome letter and an investigator onboarding packet because my doors are wide open. It is different. It is high volume. It's fast. We're working on building the quality every day because process improvement. I mean, we live, eat, sleep, and breathe process improvement because there's nobody out there who can tell us what the standard is. The standard for this type of healthcare has not yet been established. So we have to try to take the old standard of care and implement it into new technology. And oh buddy, I've been on trial, I've been interrogated, I have been punished, I have all, I've had stalkers. I've had to hire a private investigator because I've had stalkers if you can believe it or not. So if you've seen it, I've had it. But for all of the backlash that I've received, there has been an outpouring of support from the people who get it and who are there with me to see that vision of the future and help me bring it into focus so that we can really move with it. And I'll take all the backlash because that's still attention.

29:51 Yeah, it totally is. It's good attention, backlashes. I mean, look at Trump. Almost everything negative is turning into a positive and it's how you take it. You know what I mean?

30:01 For every person who points a finger and has something to say, somebody's looking at that going, wait a minute. What is she doing? What is that?

30:09 100%, 100%. Wow. Well, Laura, I love this conversation. Thank you so much for inspiring our people. And honestly, I can't wait. I'm gonna talk to you afterwards about where I can go to sign up. Actually, tell us now, where are we gonna sign up if it's available in our state?

30:31 Do it, all 50 states. So as of right now, there's a couple states that I'm refining processes in, getting approval, and then moving forward, Mississippi and Virginia. Not that you can't get care, but it will take a couple months because we're still getting our final round of approvals on the SOP. Some states you gotta make special policies for. We didn't even talk about what I want to achieve on the regulatory level, but leveling the playing field on what type of care people can get where we have a long way to go on that. So, but if you go to drlarapurdy.com, you can click to become a patient. It takes about 30 seconds to sign up. It's really fast, totally free. Send me a message and say, hey, it's Todd, don't forget me. Or I saw you on Todd's podcast or whatever. And so I have entities, doctors. nurses, MAs, a whole team of people who embody, we say, the AFD ethos. They are AFD. And you'll be delighted by the care that you receive. It's lovely. I think, and if you're not, I want to know. I want to know if you don't get world-class.

31:35 Love it. All right, you heard it here guys. Dr. Laura, you are amazing. Thank you for doing what you're doing. And we'll put links to everything she's talking about down below and we can't wait to sign up. I can't wait to tell my wife that we just had this conversation. She's just gonna be so grateful. So anyway.

31:52 Well, we'll see all you kids when they all get strep throat at the same time next.

31:58 Right. Yes, it happens. All right. Well, Laura, thanks so much for the time. Well, if there's anything we as a community can do, we will do it. And we will catch up with the rest of you on the next episode. Thank you, Dr. Laura.

32:09 Thanks guys, bye.