Why does LeBron James make more than the NBA journeyman who goes from team to team each year? How does a 19 year old Youtube influencer make hundreds of thousands a year, while another 19 year old makes minimum wage? It’s simple. They’ve increased the perceived value of their worth to the world.
Pain specialist Dr. Melissa Cady wanted to reduce the amount of hours she worked, while maintaining the autonomy of her own practice. As she details on this interview, she learned to design her career by honing her craft and marketing herself. This attracted lucrative career opportunities, as she could provide a unique set of skills and expertise that you couldn’t find anywhere else.
Just like the title of Cal Newport’s book, when you become “So Good They Can’t Ignore You”, people will seek out your expertise. The more rare and valuable skill you can provide to the world, the more in control you are able to design the life you want.
If you feel you are not getting paid with what you are worth, this is an episode you won’t want to miss!
The Challenge Doctor – Melissa Cady, DO
https://www.challengedoctor.com/
Melissa Cady’s Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/challengedoctor/
The Changed Physician – Podcast to help you learn the mindsets, skills, & strategies to create the life you want. Cohosted with Dr. Kevin Cuccaro
https://www.thechangedphysician.com
RAW TRANSCRIPT
Dr. Mike Woo-Ming
I love to spotlight physician entrepreneurs. And I’m seeing a trend with with many of us. And oftentimes we have an independent streak. We’re often someone who is kind of in a square peg in a round hole. And I think it might encapsulate I’m not sure, but it might encapsulate my next guests. Dr. Melissa Cady, also known as the challenge doctor is a Board Certified anesthesiologist, and pain management specialist. She’s the author of the book, Pandemic, a practical and holistic look at chronic pain, the medical system, and the anti pain lifestyle. She’s co host of the change physician podcast with Dr. Kevin Cucarro, who I recently had the opportunity to be interviewed with and we recently had him on a podcast. And the change position to podcasts you guys need to check out is where you can learn the mindset skills and strategies to create the life you want without selling out your morals or values. And I needed to have her on the program. So Dr. Cady, thank you for joining me on the bootstrap MD podcast.
Dr. Melissa Cady
Well, thanks for inviting me and thank you for all you’re doing to inspire and guide other physicians as well.
Dr. Mike Woo-Ming
So I was able to interview your partner in crime or your co host
Dr. Melissa Cady
gic?
Dr. Mike Woo-Ming
That’s right. Yes, I know. I know you’re married, but you also got your podcast partner.
Dr. Melissa Cady
got my business? Yeah, married partner.
Dr. Mike Woo-Ming
And when you interviewed me, I definitely getting to know each other, you kind of had an independent streak I could with the questions that you’re asking. And I just thought it was so unique. So I wanted to learn more about your background. And that’s why I wanted to have you on the program. But am I am I hearing that correctly? Or did you know since elementary school, you wanted to become a doctor.
Dr. Melissa Cady
First of all, that guess this, this whole round peg in a square hole or square peg in a round hole has eluded me, because I think I’ve always felt that sense of not quite fitting the traditional, or I’ve not been one to want to. You know, even for a lot of organizations, even in college, I felt like I didn’t want to conform in this way where it didn’t allow this ability to think and maybe look at things a little differently. And know I’ve never really wanted to be a physician since I was a child. There are a few positions in my family like my uncle’s. But I may have thought I’ve talked about being a veterinarian, but I think there was a lot of influence from maybe perception of what was a noble field, and what was something that would enable some stability of income. And I love to learn, I think that’s the one thing that I realized I love to learn. And I like to think differently. So I, because of that, I think that creates a sense of, I don’t want people to tell me what to do, or how to do when to do it. But the problem is you have to go within that infrastructure in order to create this opportunity to be a physician. So when you are on this treadmill, and I’ll just keep going and giving you some ideas, my perspective there. Please stop me if I go too far. Right? Yeah, so I feel like I’ve been on this treadmill where you just kind of hop on and do what you’re supposed to do in order to achieve. And I think I’ve had a sense of I think my pursuits have been directly related to a feeling of just feeling good about myself and filling voids, like the sense of accomplishing and, you know, is that part of trying to please others, whether it’s family or friends, probably to a certain extent, because I don’t think I really, really dove into that true personal development type of just that. That pursuit of personal development. I don’t think I was ready for it. In my teens, my 20s I mean, I was always learning but academics is a little different than like relationship learning and and life learning. And, and so I think it really took time for me to kind of grow into myself and realize some of these insights that maybe I felt but I can never put into words, because I don’t think I had the emotional intelligence to really appreciate that back back then. And you know, and it’s still a journey, I’m still evolving. But I think there’s this feeling that and it’s really created issues, and I think it might be relevant for people to hear is that I have had a problem, I’ve kind of gone against the grain in some ways in where I worked, because of the system that we work within. So just to give you an idea, I’ve worked in anesthesia for, oh, gosh, I finished my pain fellowship in 2009. And then I worked part time and had a seizure, because I had a hard time conforming to the traditional pain medicine practices, because it didn’t feel right, I’ve dealt with my own pain, I know there’s a lot more that goes into it from the patient perspective, there’s a lot you need to do a lot, you need to understand a lot of things you need to appreciate to really, really be on that journey of healing and, and less pain. And I call it the anti pain lifestyle, this is a general term of just, you’re never gonna have a pain free life, in order to really achieve and improve pain or improve a state of anxiety or stress you there’s, you’ve really got to learn to, you know, there’s these challenges you’re just going to have to deal with, and it takes a certain level, I’ve gone on a tangent, and I just want to, I’m not sure I’m going now. But in essence, all of all of these challenges and struggles, it requires a certain level of personal development to really improve. And so when I dealt with pain, when I dealt with, let me come back to my tangent here, when I dealt with pain, and I dealt with, you know, going into this medical profession, who is very much driven by, you know, this, this, unfortunately, money, and a lot of people are in it. for the right reasons, it’s just Unfortunately, the system is designed to give you more money for doing the things that probably you don’t need to be doing to patients. And maybe we need to do more education and helping people learn how to live healthier lives and deal with stress and deal with these challenges of stress, anxiety, pain, all these things that that we’re trying to fill a void or trying we’re struggling with. And it could be just the environment we were born into, or that we’ve chosen.
And the medical system is no different. So I’ve, you know, struggled and I know a lot of us, as physicians have gone through this medical system, realizing things should be better, and it’s stressful, it doesn’t enhance the wellness of physicians. And unfortunately, I feel like if we don’t take care of ourselves, and we don’t take care of each other, hence why the podcast came about. If we, if we don’t do these things, you know, for each other, then it’s hard to take care of patients. So it’s almost like victims take care of victims. And so the whole system, I think comes crumbling down and you look at the pandemic or some I’m kind of putting a date on this interview here. But and I never even obviously, I didn’t have a crystal ball to know that my pain demick trademark in my book would actually come to be a, you know, there’s actually a pandemic around the corner, you know, but those those things are are real, some of these challenges we have in our system. And so when you get into the system, and you’re working in it like I did with the anesthesia, and then you no longer when I first got out of my training, I was the kind of locums and I was part time. And then I decided to become employed. Which to me for me. And that’s not it’s not necessarily everybody. That was a big mistake, I think on my part. Because when you become employed from a financial standpoint is beneficial, got benefits and all this other stuff. But it could it can put kind of this constriction on me. And I know, I’ve, I’ve come to know myself and realize that I can’t have that kind of binding around me, like I need to feel the freedom, I need to feel the autonomy. And once you sign that contract, and you’re expected to do what you need to do, and you’re making salary, and yet your hours increase or you need to cover more call, you’re actually working less on when it comes to an hourly basis. So you give it up more time, in some cases, and sometimes it can work out great for people. But for me, I want the freedom. It doesn’t mean I work less. I think you probably can agree that sometimes when you’re independent, you find work as physicians, I’ll speak for my personality. Work is our sanity. Like in some ways, it’s create a structure for So many years and we were trained, and that we don’t know what else to fill our time with, other than more work, because that’s, that’s been our, we’ve been kind of like brainwashed in a way to be the kind of people that will take more work and do more work and do it for the good or, you know, the better of people, and just just for the good of society. And so and so I have a lot of biases, of course, I’m, I’m a female, I’m, you know, I’ve gone through the medical system, and all these things influenced me and how I perceive the world. But I see in my perspective is that when you are trained as a physician, you have to work really hard, you have to sacrifice a lot. We’re used to sacrificing our, our view is that we want to know things to help people, we feel this, we feel like we have to have the answers all the time. And sometimes part of being a great physician isn’t necessarily your answers. It’s being present, and being part of the journey with patients. And the way that we are that infrastructure and how we get paid is for, you know, doing things to people. And, you know, I’m reading a book right now by Vivek Murthy about together in isolation and loneliness and such a big part of our health and our wellness and, and I think it also applies to how our interactions are with patients. Now. We’re not and I’m not talking about emergency situations, but you know, these continuity of care type things, you know, we need to be present. So you know, I kind of went on multiple
Dr. Mike Woo-Ming
rounds here was a great, we’re dead now.
Dr. Melissa Cady
Don’t You’re what? I’m missed it, what do you say?
Dr. Mike Woo-Ming
That’s, that’s all the time we have left now.
Dr. Melissa Cady
But there you go.
Dr. Mike Woo-Ming
It’s fascinating, because there’s so many, there’s so many directions that that we can take this conversation. But when did you feel that this way? I know, I know, I talked a little bit about it, you actually were a personal trainer, or a personal trainer. And then that would would kind of lead you into medicine? Correct.
Dr. Melissa Cady
So it’s, it’s kind of been It was kind of an evolution from them. I loved musculoskeletal medicine, I played sports, I had a fascination with the human body. It just kind of a natural inclination to be a personal trainer. But then I was feeling uncomfortable when I had patients that had like heart problems and, you know, back problems, and I just felt like I need to know more. And you know, it’s just like, you have so much energy, you know, in your 20s. And you just so driven many times, that’s where a biggest drive start. And so I felt like, why not? Let’s just try. And so I got into medical school and, and because of my love of Go ahead.
Dr. Mike Woo-Ming
So you went into medical school. Again, the pain you’ve you’ve had sounds like you’ve had some pain, personal pain issues as well, which which led to that. When did this disillusionment of becoming an employed physician? Start? I know where it started. For me, it was pretty pretty in residency where I kind of learned but, you know, I thought that for about five years, what was it for yourself?
Dr. Melissa Cady
I think I just, you know, I was drinking the Kool Aid throughout the whole training thing. I think that year of pain fellowship. And this, this feeling that what I want to do for patients would not allow me to make the profits because the just the way that the incentives are, you know, put together. I felt like I felt this nauseating feeling like I couldn’t join a practice, I have to do it on my own, that I probably couldn’t afford the overhead in the way that I would spend time with patients, I would see half the number that my colleagues and my fellowship would see, and they were fine with it. But I was willing to take on some of the most, you know, challenging patients or just frustrating ones and, and I enjoyed it. But I think that’s when it first started. And then I just had the freedom and the income after that, at part time. And I literally started I think this is unusual, talking about the square peg in a round hole. Another really unusual thing about me is I, I decided this is the number I need to make per month in order to live. And as long as I make that amount, I’m fine. So I’d work two to three days a week right out of the gates. Because my perception is I can always work more, but I don’t want my state or my standard living to be so high that it’s stressful to come down if I need to. So I did have that around that time. And I literally told myself, I need to make 10,000 a month for me to be happy. That was kind of like mine. Number. And so and I still feel like that, you know,
Dr. Mike Woo-Ming
and it’s so simple. And what I tell, you know, other physicians is okay, you you’ve done you graduated medical school, you know what your average salary is, and your hourly rate, you have an idea what that’s going to be. But so many doctors feel that they need to make meet the average, right? Because we all see this average amount of salaries, anesthesiologist, cardiologists, you know, pediatricians way below primary care a little bit about above that, we kind of need to know that the averages and they, you know, they come up with this every year, and you’re in the West in the south, we all know what kind of averages is. And for whatever reason, they feel that well, I need to meet that. Even if I’m working 50 plus hours, even if I’m doing three plus hours. But you can, you know, it comes down to just this independence is you went you went into locums and just like I can always get that back. I can always work more if I need to. I’m Why do you think more doctors don’t think similarly to that? Because I see so many that’s just trying to catch up? You know?
Dr. Melissa Cady
Yeah, I think there’s, I think obviously, like most things, and humankind is complex. But I think there’s, you know, first of all, there’s the golden handcuffs of I’ve got 100 to $300,000 in debt, they feel like they gotta get that paid off right now. I think sometimes it’s hard for us to realize, and you know that you’re not guaranteed tomorrow. And sometimes people overwork on the front end thinking they could just push and get this all done, make tons of money and retire early. There’s attitudes of, you know, they want something secure. So they get the J ob, which requires them work full time. And I don’t think that the medical system creates the options in a way that makes it normal to maybe not work full time. I think we’re also to blame us physicians, too, too. And I’ve been the subject of this, too, is that sometimes people look down on you for working part time as if you’re not putting as much effort in, you know, here’s the little light bulb that should be going on, oh, she’s making less money than me, you know, so that there’s a sacrifice that’s being made in a different way. And so I think as clinicians or physicians, we should, we should embrace and support people that want to design their life, I think we need to be better at designing our life versus just getting on the treadmill that we started on from the very first day of medical school. I think there’s a pre med for that matter. There’s just I think we’re so used to being followers. And I think you said that in one of our interviews, that many physicians don’t tend to be the typical leaders. Were there willing to construct or create the life they want? And granted, there might be people are perfectly happy with, you know, the jlb and the full time and there’s no question to them, and they’re happy. But you know, through some of our interviews on our podcast, it’s interesting to hear from, you know, one of the things Dr. Aaron Wiseman, and made a really good comment that sometimes, you know, for like men versus women and women are the ones unfortunately, we’re the only ones that can really like bear children if we’re gonna have children. So there’s a little different kind of stress there. But the system is really kind of been designed for for men, because that’s kind of what it started out that way. So, you know, it’s, it kind of depends, I guess what I’m getting to is it depends depends on your expectations. You know, what, if you’re going to be happy that or not? And to answer your question directly, why are people less likely to be more entrepreneurial? I guess? I think it’s just because we’re brainwashed to just be followers. And by the nature, we have to follow the rules, we have to pretend to be conservative and, and how we, you know, we don’t want to we’re worried about our reputation. You know, there’s everything we’re worried about, like it’s all about following the guidelines. And even if you look at what we have to answer these things, if we’ve had any medical psychiatric things, there’s, you know, there’s been a push by several physicians to work on that, too. Like, we’re shaming a lot of physicians in ways like, if you just had a bout of depression, you just lost your wife and you’ve been in depression for a year like, you don’t want to share that like you don’t even want to go get seen like we can’t even work on our own wellness because of the nature of the system. But I think a lot of people out there just i think that i think we’re just brainwashed into just being employees. And we’re not we’ve lost our autonomy.
Dr. Mike Woo-Ming
Well, and to and this will probably get me in trouble. So I might read this later. I mean, I’ve worked with the medical board. I did some things with the medical board and We get this quarterly newsletter that gives us a list of all the adopters who did not follow. didn’t follow everything. And of course, there’s some definitely should be practicing medicine. But then you’ve got people who like, here’s a name because they didn’t turn in their, their license on time or you know, there had some tax issues, or maybe had a DUI, but it’s all listed, all listed here. And it just shows you like, okay, here, the doctors that aren’t following the system. Credit, many of them are reasons why they should be but it’s this public embarrassment.
Dr. Melissa Cady
Yes. shaming, again, the shaming
Dr. Mike Woo-Ming
about that. So tell me about your your practice. Now I know you’re working part time, tell me how you kind of set it up and the other businesses that you run.
Dr. Melissa Cady
So right now I do part. So this is, it’s kind of it’s been kind of fun, to be honest. I left the group of an anesthesia group after about nine years, September of 2019, and then did locums. And then, of course, a few months with pandemic, I couldn’t do any elective cases that I thought I’d be starting in May or low earlier than that. So as of June, this year, I started working directly with two plastic surgeons that I worked with, when I was with the prayer group. They came to me directly and asked me to do their cases. This is, you know, plastic surgery, mainly elective, mainly cash based practice, seizure. So I’ve really embraced it. And the reason I think it kind of ties into things we’re talking about is having the autonomy to create the experience for patients that I feel like they deserve and should be in place. So this is take a little bit of time for me to create this. But essentially, I have the plastic surgery office will let me know, hey, we need to cover this case. Okay, I get the phone number. I text the patient. I said I’d love to do a pre op zoom online preoperative assessment with you. And talk about all your questions. Do that ahead of time, so it’s not done the day of surgery. So I send them that I send them a link, they can schedule themselves. I see them on that particular day for our preoperative chat, I call it an anesthesia chat. And then I after I talked to them, if they’re not insurance, which most of them aren’t, I get permission send to the email and invoice to prepay for their anesthesia experience, which is all inclusive whether the surgeon goes longer than the estimated time or not. And then I see on the day of and literally it’s a pop in for a minute or two, just say hey, do you have any questions since we chatted last time, make sure vital signs are good and hadn’t eaten and and then I give them IV Margarita and we go back to the operating room. And after that I ended up getting you know, I give them a card with a direct that same phone number I’ve texted from they have any questions about their anesthesia experience, they can directly contact me. And then after about a week later, I send them something in the mail. And I asked actually the text message I send Several days later, by the end of the week, see if there’s any issues, any questions, if they don’t, please fill out this survey. So I get feedback directly by text, which is document instead of just on the phone. So it’s actually they’re printed. And then they fill out a survey. That’s, you know, I put it up anonymous for testimonials later if I want to. And I specify that and then I sent him something in the mail a little gift tonight, I have this whole experience that is just unheard of. And I absolutely love doing that. And so I’m keeping track of all the you know, feedback and potentially even the surgeon thinks that we should present it at a conference. But it is by far the amount the amount of feedback and the kind of feedback I get back just goes to show you we’re not delivering on value. Not that everyone has to be happy. I don’t believe that every patient has to be happy because they are what makes them happy may not be good for their health. So you know that that’s different, but that is my part time practice right now with two plastic surgeons, that volume might change because one surgeon is going to be going off to do a separate location
Dr. Mike Woo-Ming
and what compelled the physicians, the surgeons to reach out to you.
Dr. Melissa Cady
Um, I am very particular about not every anesthesia provider is the same. There’s a lot of great anesthesia providers, right. I just happen to be the kind of person that once more I want to dive in a little more details about them. I might spend a few more minutes on the pre op. They’ve heard me when I worked with the other group they’ve heard me and how I just from a professional standpoint and and consistency and wanting to know how they did afterwards. Like there’s there’s a lot of care and detail that is unique to me. But there’s a lot of people that care, and but the way that they do it is might be different. And he knows that I’m an entrepreneur, and that this would be something probably up my alley. And he felt like his patients do well, when I take care of them. So I don’t, that’s, that’s my guess. I mean, otherwise, he wouldn’t be coming to me.
Dr. Mike Woo-Ming
I really think it hits the nail on the head, because we got so many physicians who are complaining about so much and mildly so declining reimbursements, I’m seeing my salaries going down. But when you’re able to be do really, really well, at whatever specialty you’re at, which you obviously do, they’re coming to you. Because I don’t know, you know that that movie, Liam Neeson from taken, you know, he has this particular set of skills, you’ve heard that phrase, right, because he’s using the best one. And that’s why he charges so much money, I’m a physician to a hired killer. But if you get my point, the way that you can increase your value is increased the amount of benefit that you can provide. And that’s why they come to you, you’re not going to them. And if you’re a physician that’s struggling right now, and you feel like you’re just a number. It’s because that’s how they treat, that’s how they perceive you. And we know that’s not true. But a part of being a physician. And I don’t know, if your book may be playing a role into it. But did that help you in terms of marketing yourself? We don’t like to think of ourselves as marketing ourselves. But But did that help do that get you noticed more than than other?
Dr. Melissa Cady
Well, these of course, he’s the one of the two surgeons that actually pursued me and in and even discussed in my prior group, like, I really, we really want her to do the cases. He knows that I wrote a book, he came to my book signing, he, I think he was quite, you know, he appreciates he understands what it’s like to he has his own practice. And he knows the struggles of building your own practice. Now, I had the benefit. And he talked about the salaries in the country, the sounds totally off topic, but not necessarily, but I don’t have to worry about an overhead. So like a surgeon, imagine a plastic surgeon, he has a huge overhead. And he has to manage staff. I don’t have to do that other than, you know, communicating with people in the surgery center that I work at, and I worked at before. For many years. It’s there’s something to say about I guess, once you’re kind of have that mindset, you kind of understand that this other person has that similar mindset, in the book, I think just created evidence that I have that tenacity and that and I still need to write the second edition, which I need to get that tenacity back. But yeah, it’s I think, I think it just added to this perception of my drive to create a better experience, and I’m very committed to educating I feel very, very strongly that people should be better informed. And I do recognize some people get super anxious to too much detail. And I try to monitor that and present it in a way that they can tolerate but there is a certain minimum I expect them to hear as an adult consenting to any type of elective procedure.
Dr. Mike Woo-Ming
Again, you know, what’s interesting, too, is is you know, in my audience got a lot of entrepreneurs and doctors who are entrepreneurs as I jump in for them, as you know, they want to do that. But if you’re still passionate about medicine, which I can tell you, you sure are like myself, is just want to be the best at that. That just be the best and make yourself where they come to you. You don’t necessarily have to come to them because that’s when you can when you can you know, again money is not the end all but you write your own check, you can decide how you want to work right? Because that that really kind of improves your your standing I have a friend who has a weight loss doctor and his primary care we deal with weight loss for like a minute. Yeah, but he charges like five to 10 times higher than the average other doctors dealing with weight loss one he’s got a book he’s had a special on PBS. So he charges 1000s of dollars. I’m not saying that’s that’s not what you have to do to to charge that but it brands and better. Is he the best doctor dealing with weight loss, he would probably tell you not you know, you know, there’s some universal things about eating less moving more, but because the perception is he’s able to brand himself and he enjoys what he does. So even if so if you’re someone who said, You know, I don’t like doing this, but there may be there’s a part in medicine that you do, like, maybe you love to create podcasts, why not be the best podcaster that you can be. But it’s it helps those who are not ready to make that leap to becoming their own boss and say, Hey, I mean, it’s just the branding and marketing. And I know Kevin loves to talk about marketing, the call weight room for like, two hours. We couldn’t like get and that but but I love that you that you illustrated that point? And then looking back, it’s like, geez, you don’t have to kind of follow those average salaries. You know, that’s why NBA players, why did they get make millions of dollars? multi millions of dollars, right? Because the best of what, at that particular skill? Yeah. But yeah, thank you for illustrating. And just showing evidence that that is true. We met so you have that in one or the other, your businesses that you work on? Sure.
Dr. Melissa Cady
Well, I’m in a stopping kind of in a pause on my my pain out loud website is still still there, I’ve got an app associated with it actually is a small New Zealand company that was a startup at the time that helped kind of bridge an app with my website. So I have a lot of interviews with pain professionals and people live and I call them pain, challengers and pain professionals and just gives their stories. And so they’re video interviews that are on the website and can be seen in the app as well. At least for now. I’m just debating whether or not to continue the app based on utilization. And I’ve found that it’s the one thing about pain, it’s people don’t necessarily think they need an education on it. Because they experienced it, and they think they know it and understand it. And as Dr. Caro Caro, who wasn’t interventional pain physician in the past, who’s now third, he considers himself a pain specialist. We both stopped doing interventions for pain, because they’re really not necessary most of the time, and nearly most of the time they are not. And so we’ve we have a very strong belief there. So my my venture into that was several years ago was starting to just share stories to help people realize there’s better ways of understanding pain and dealing with it and to minimize injections, medications and surgeries. Not to say I’m completely anti against those, but people need to have the basis of understanding before they choose to take on a risk that may not be necessary. And so I think going in eyes wide open was my my goal. And the tagline was healing stories matter. And so sometimes people need proof that there are other ways of doing it versus learning the hard way, which is what most people in the society in the United States that are pursuing pain interventions are doing. They’re just like, let’s try this and this and just, you know, possible complications and learning the hard way. So that’s one of my ventures that I’m trying to decide how I want to take that or if I’m going to consider it more of an archived effort, definitely not going to get rid of all the interviews, I think they’re helpful. But sometimes we need to curate the information in a way that’s very guided, and so that that’s something that I you know, might develop over time. Of course, a podcast is something that there’s been a lot of fun for, you know, Kevin and I to do, because we just had this joint vision of doing something it was meaningful. And of course, a lot of fun interviewing people to hear their stories. He didn’t
Dr. Mike Woo-Ming
remove the background of his fireplace, though.
Dr. Melissa Cady
Yes, he needs a different background. It’s it’s all zoom background. So it’s not really like a true fireplace. Yeah, I need to pick something different. I just talked about that. Yeah. What’s up?
Dr. Mike Woo-Ming
You didn’t hear from me?
Dr. Melissa Cady
Oh, no. Well, I, I need to bring it up. So I like giving them a hard time, you know? And let’s see what else what else do I have, there’s, there’s something I can’t really talk about right now, that’s kind of a startup that I might be involved in. But it will be more on a telemedicine type of venture where I can use some of my pain background in my position standing to help people. And this can be a position that I could potentially, I could work, I love to go to Australia, New Zealand quite frequently. So. So if I’m off site here, then I could enjoy, you know, still be making some income doing that. But, you know, some of my other little entrepreneurial things are real estate and, you know, working on a couple other book ideas, but those are kind of
Dr. Mike Woo-Ming
fun, but that you’re having fun doing it.
Dr. Melissa Cady
That’s right. Yeah, I think the this is the thing that I think makes a lot of people happy. It’s not just me, but having the opportunity for creativity, with autonomy, and not doing too much of the stuff you love, like in the medical field where it has its own stressors because I need a break from that as much I love it. I don’t want to do it full time. So I want the flexibility, the autonomy, the creativity, to design the life that suits me. And so for everyone else, that’s different. I don’t have children. So you know, some people, they need to surround themselves with their children that will take up their time to solve a cat,
Dr. Mike Woo-Ming
you got a cat,
Dr. Melissa Cady
I have a cat into rabbits, into rabbits. Yes, they’re all rescues. So if you’re curious out there, don’t ask. But they’re low maintenance, put it that way.
Dr. Mike Woo-Ming
But what what’s great is just just like, if I had one dead client of mine, he said, you know, Mike, you get these opportunities, you know, and I can’t get the same opportunities, because, you know, you’re out there a bit. And anybody can can get these opportunities. Anybody? Can we would you agree, you just have to have your eyes open your door and be willing to put yourself out there, which be honest, you know, as someone who’s introverted, it’s difficult to do this, you know, sometimes, but I think the benefits outweighs the rewards. Because, I mean, do you agree in general, that there are opportunities
Dr. Melissa Cady
out there? Sure. Well, that’s, that’s the mentality. I think this this applies to many areas in life. And, and sometimes you can’t just find it, you have to create an experience that either someone else has put out there for you to go experience, or you create your own, like podcast experience, and which forces you to connect. And when you start connecting, it’s those connections that open your eyes and your ears to opportunities you would never even thought of because you’re we’re in your little world. That is, I would say just brainwashed, but they have a certain mentality of what if you’re focused on just surviving, and you’re stressed out, and you’re not getting enough sleep, and you feel isolated, despite being around tons of people who are burned out as well and just want to go home, and may affect the quality of patient care. I mean, you can go on tangents on all this and how it has these multiple effects. But yes, I think that you have to, there is without a doubt, if I had not put myself out there with. And sometimes it’s about thinking about what’s if you think about trying to help somebody else, whether it’s a society or its individual, if you just start going out there and trying to do something good for people, people will notice people acknowledge it, they’ll appreciate it, they might connect you with somebody else, then they start recognizing your value, and then they share you with somebody else. And that’s like the ultimate marketing is that people, they might have an impression about you that might not be completely accurate. But if you don’t put out your value, or you don’t put out the good things you want to do in this world, then people won’t be able to see it, and won’t be able to share it. And so I think, you know, you just kind of had this, you just brought up some ideas, I really haven’t even said in words, but you have to you have to engage in an experience with people. So whether it’s somebody else has created it, or something you’re deciding you want to do, because it just sounds cool. You want to try it, or you want to learn, you know, the paradox podcast, he doesn’t because he wanted to learn more about some topic. And so you just put it out there for the world to hear too. So find something that helps other people maybe selfishly helps you to. And it’s amazing how you can start connecting with people and opportunities. Many times the opportunities are all around us. Or we’re not engaged with the right people in order to see them. And I don’t mean to social media and stuff because they’re gonna start targeting you with certain stuff and, but really engage with real relationships with people. And it’s, it’s kind of cool to, you know, connect with people you didn’t think you’d Connect so quickly with or maybe learn something from them. I mean, that’s how wealthy people I mean, you have to have your networks of people.
Dr. Mike Woo-Ming
Right, right. Right. And, I mean, it sounds woowoo. And I know you’re from Austin, and that no, yeah. I love you. But but it is, you know, I’ve always been the belief you just put something out there out into the universe, whatever you want to call it. Something always comes in. And I think the other thing that you mentioned, too, is that drive is a curiosity factor. No, you can’t fake that. No, you mean you. I do it because I just like to hear interesting perspectives. That’s how we learn. And as you mentioned, you’re not at your journey. We’re just still kind of riding along. We don’t have all of the answers. We don’t know what’s going to happen. I mean, if you told me that You know, the country was going to shut down for, you know, all of 2020 you know, saying, you know, what are you smoking there. But it happens and it’s just the way we’re able to connect. And you know, we all have a love hate relationship with social media, we know the trolls and the bad things that can happen and that but there’s also opportunities to meet people we’ve never met face to face, but we can have these conversations over these zooms. It’s not 100% replaceable, but it’s allowed us to bring us closer together and in some weird fashion, but there’s so much great stuff, we’re gonna need to have you come back I love the way that you that the way that you think and see these things. where can our audience go to learn more about what you do? Just give some links that you can you want to share with us today? Sure.
Dr. Melissa Cady
Sure. I I think the easiest thing is just going to challenge doctor.com you can put my name and Melissa Cady, calm but everyone misspells it. So it’s better to
Dr. Mike Woo-Ming
have a golf. Assisting a golfer? You’re not a caddy?
Dr. Melissa Cady
I’m not a golf caddy. Yes, Cady, like Lady but with the see. Sounds like a first name. But yeah, go to challenge doctor.com I’m, you know, Instagram, I’m trying to get a little bit busier on that course, I got a couple Instagram pages because I got the podcast, and I manage all my own stuff. And at some point down the road, I might have someone else do it. But I’m kind of that control freak.
Dr. Mike Woo-Ming
thing about being a father is I get it. Okay.
Dr. Melissa Cady
Very nice. Very nice. Yeah, feel free to you know, follow me challenge doctors pretty much my hashtag on any of social media. That’s wonderful.
Dr. Mike Woo-Ming
It was wonderful. You just, I love how you put things into into perspective. And just kind of the way you think. And for those listening, I hope you were inspired as much as I do every time I hear her talk. And as always guys keep moving forward.
