Speaker: 0:01

Welcome to the heart-led Business Show, where compassion meets commerce and leaders lead with love. Join your host, Tom Jackobs, as he delves into the insightful conversations with visionary business leaders who defy the status quo, putting humanity first and profit second. From heartfelt strategies to inspiring stories, this podcast is your compass in the world of conscious capitalism. So buckle up and let's go. Let your heart guide your business journey.

Tom Jackobs: 0:36

Ladies and gents, buckle up tight for we are journeying into the heart of business and busting some serious medical myths tonight. Making some major doctor drama with her pearl of wisdom and profundity. Dr. Rachael Degurse is delighting her delightful heart-led business. Gone are the days of corporate cages. Dr. Rachael has ditched the dread and embraced open and honest patient relationships with gleam and grace. Stay tuned as we get thrilled, as we dive deep into her rejuvenating realm on the Heart-Led Business Show. No stethoscopes needed. Just lend your ears and we'll do the rest. Dr. Rachael, welcome to the show.

Rachael Degurse, MD: 1:21

Thank you for having me.

Tom Jackobs: 1:23

I always love to have medical doctors that are ditching the corporate world and going out on their own on the show because there are a lot of doctors that want to do that or, and are afraid of doing that. So I think this is going to be a really good conversation on how to make that transition and being okay with being in heart-led business, but also making a profit doing it. So I'm really excited for this conversation. But of course, the first question I always like to ask is what's your definition of a heart-led business?

Rachael Degurse, MD: 1:58

First of all, thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited to be here. My definition of a heart-led business is putting your guests or patients or whatever clients, however you like to refer to them first and making them the center and focus of your business of what you do. Think it's really important to give back to the community. So for me, in addition to the business itself is giving back to the community that we're in. That's very important.

Tom Jackobs: 2:32

That's really awesome. And I really like that word guest. I've not heard that from a medical doctor before as referring to the people that come to see you. And I think that's a really cool way to envision how. Is that how you actually refer to the patients that come to see you?

Rachael Degurse, MD: 2:51

It is, yes, we call them guests because they're, we're inviting them into our home, so to speak our business, and we want them to feel well taken care of and heard and listened to, and I feel like guest is the best way to describe that.

Tom Jackobs: 3:10

That's very cool. I remember I had to have a hernia surgery years ago and the hospital that I went to was very much on the par of a five star hotel. And they referred to, they had a piano, in the lobby of a hospital, like as you can get wheeled in. I was like, Oh, this is really interesting. This is going to be an interesting experience at a hospital getting surgery. But it, it was on par with that as well, which is, it left me feeling really nice in terms of just being taken care of as well. So that's very cool. Yeah.

Rachael Degurse, MD: 3:49

Yeah, I think that a lot of medical situations, because of their very clinical aspect, which is, natural it's sterile, you want to make sure it's clean, but sometimes it can really that relationship, which is fundamental, I think, to a physician and patient relationship is the connection.

Tom Jackobs: 4:11

Yeah. And especially as you're transitioning from insurance to cash pay, You really needed to take care of the patients and the guests so that they come back for more and give you good reviews online as well. I expect that's probably pretty important as well.

Rachael Degurse, MD: 4:31

Oh, yes. Very important. It's a little bit of a different mentality. When you're, I, as I'm a primary care physician by a training of family medicine and, the reviews are, important, but ultimately people are going to still come and see you no matter if you have a bad experience with one person. And, It's not as much the case here, so it's very important to make that connection and make everybody feel well-taken.

Tom Jackobs: 4:58

Yeah. Why do you think that? In traditional medicine where, we have a PCP that, or primary care physician that kind of we're assigned to by insurance. Why do you think that the mentality is I just have to go to the same one. I can't switch. What do you think is driving that?

Rachael Degurse, MD: 5:19

Tradition, in early medicine, the patient, they couldn't even question the doctor, the doctor just told you what to do and that's what you did. Now, whether you actually followed it or not, that's your choice, but, to ask a question back about, maybe you'd feel uncomfortable about that choice or ask follow up are there any other options? That just wasn't ever done, In the fifties or sixties, like the monarch of your healthcare journey. And what they said went and for better or worse, changed a lot. And, but I still feel like a little bit of that mentality is there that people go into a lot of doctor's office expecting to wait a long time and maybe have an uncomfortable experience on some aspect. And they also don't know how much they're going to be paying for it. And it's just a lot of uncertainty and confusion and fear sometimes which, yeah, honestly, from a physician point of view, that's not our intention but that's more of the corporate or the setup of the actual office that leads.

Tom Jackobs: 6:33

Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's a shame as well, because like you said, it doesn't have to be that way. But let's shift gears a little bit. Tell us a little bit about your business now and what inspired you to have a heart-led business?

Rachael Degurse, MD: 6:47

So I own a med spa it's called Pearl Skin and Body Rejuvenation and basically what that is non-surgical cosmetic procedures because there is some confusion about what is a med spa. So we don't do like massages or you don't have like a woo experience, you're not going to get like the fronds. Slapped against your seaweed wrap, none of those things here but basically if you have a cosmetic concern then we can address that from a non-surgical perspective. We do injectables skin care, weight loss, body contouring, skin tightening. So a wide variety of things are available or you don't have to have surgery.

Tom Jackobs: 7:33

Okay. So what's the difference? Cause I've heard the two different phrases before, cosmetic practitioner and plastic surgeon. What's the difference between the two?

Rachael Degurse, MD: 7:48

So a plastic surgeon is a medical doctor. So he's gone to medical school done a surgical residency or a plastic surgeon, plastic surgery residency. You can approach that a couple of different ways. And then they do primarily surgical cosmetic procedures. So facelifts, tummy tucks, liposuction, those kinds of things are all their bread and butter. Now sometimes a plastic surgeon will have a med spa attached to it. That's becoming very popular where they have their non-surgical cosmetic procedures done as well. A way for them to keep everything all in one, one space. And, a lot of times people do have better outcomes. from surgery if they do the non-surgical things either before or after. Everybody's facelifts looks better if you have good looking skin. It makes sense. And then like a aesthetic practitioner or cosmetic practitioner is somebody who is in that med spa setting, non-surgical setting. It doesn't necessarily have to be a physician. Although legally med spas are overseen at least by a physician or have a physician medical director. But sometimes a aesthetic practitioner will be like a PA or a nurse practitioner or even like an a little bit. Definitely less less skill technically than a plastic surgeon.

Tom Jackobs: 9:12

Okay. And less invasive as well. So tell me about the transition that you went through to go from being a family medical practitioner to having a med spa. What was that like for you?

Rachael Degurse, MD: 9:25

was a big challenge that I'm still learning how to grapple with, but basically I, in my family medicine practice was part of a multi-specialty group independent group that was owned by the physicians they decided to sell their business. Very common they sold their business to a large company and then that large company sold their business to an even larger company. So within span of two years, we went from a small independent physician owned group to being the second largest healthcare organization in the country just because of who we were, you get that, you get a lot of changes. My day looked a lot different than it used to. And I was very happy with my day. I saw 18 patients a day. I spent 30 minutes with everybody. If somebody needed more time, I could do that. And I was very okay with that. But my employer was not okay with that. They wanted us to see, up to 26 patients a day. And in the amount of time. So that, that's a big change. And if you felt like you needed more time with somebody that time came out of. Somewhere likely your personal time, your time for lunch, or your time with your family, you got to work, I went to work earlier, I stayed later, and just the things that I enjoyed just slowly got chipped away from me, and so I seriously considered leaving medicine completely, and just Something else that I threw out a lot of that were really unrealistic, like becoming a beekeeper or, just like things that sounded

Tom Jackobs: 11:21

Yeah, that would be great, right? Yeah.

Rachael Degurse, MD: 11:24

And several of my colleagues told me they're like you should consider opening a med spa. And at first it was I laughed it off. Oh, that's funny. Could you imagine me in a med spa? I don't know, I'm talking about raising alpacas over here and you're suggesting a med spa and the more that it was suggested and I started doing some research about it, the more I actually found it really appealing because it was a way for me to still practice medicine and connect with my patients, which is The thing that I like the most and I would be able to regain some of the control over my life that I had lost by being owned. I did a lot of education, a lot of training, a lot of things in my spare time before I actually opened my doors. And for three years, almost about two and a half years, I worked both family medicine and at my med

Tom Jackobs: 12:29

Oh, wow. Yeah.

Rachael Degurse, MD: 12:33

the days that I wasn't, at family medicine. I was here just trying to build up my practice as much as possible before I before I left. And it was a very slow but I feel like gave me a little bit of the security that I that I needed before I actually took the leap. fully to my med spa business. And now I'm doing it full time. And I thought it would be really challenging. Like I would still maybe drive to work on accident, but that's actually never happened. So that's great. And I feel a lot happier. My husband tells me that he didn't even know what life with me was going to be like without me being stressed every day. And just to hear that feedback and from people that I, my friends and family, and just me how different I am, just in a positive way. Telling me that I made the right choice. I couldn't keep going down that, that path that was not going to lead to good things.

Tom Jackobs: 13:36

Yeah. No doubt. And I'm sure the financial implications were quite different as well, leaving a steady paycheck to being an entrepreneur, but how do you put a price on the happiness and the less stress and all of that come with, doing what you love to do and being able to serve. Your patience at a higher level than 10 minutes or 15 minutes or five minutes, in the office setting.

Rachael Degurse, MD: 14:03

Yes. That the paycheck aspect is still a part that I'm still starting to graph trying to work through. because yeah, I left a very lucrative job to not have a guaranteed paycheck at all. But have a very supportive spouse who still does have a guaranteed job. So that's helpful. And every time that I question myself, then he supports me, but also I get to do the things that I really enjoy and connect with people and that makes it

Tom Jackobs: 14:37

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I have a friend. I shouldn't say I had a friend. I have a friend that was an OB-GYN and for just five years in, in private practice and decided to quit, went back, got his MBA. And then now is the CEO of a community healthcare system. And just living I don't have to wake up at 2 AM and deliver a baby and don't have to worry about the corporate aspects of that work or the insurance that the malpractice insurance that you have to pay as well. But just being able to give back to the community as well in terms of being, building a community healthcare system which serves underinsured or non-insured people in the community, which is pretty cool. It's cool to see that, people doing that with, still with medical degree, but not necessarily practicing medicine as well.

Rachael Degurse, MD: 15:33

Yeah. That's fantastic. I've talked to a lot of physicians in this process. I'm part of several physician groups and the, There's a lot of that burnout happening. And nobody goes to medical school because they're like, Oh, I love dealing with insurance or they don't go into it for the money. And honestly, they don't teach us about the, business side of medicine. You just go through your training and you learn all of your things that are important for taking care of people. And then they. You just go out into the world and it's totally different than what you expected it to be. And it's quite shocking to devote over a decade of your life to something and have it not be what you thought it was going to be. So there, there's a lot of this discontent happening and, a lot of fear about what do I do now with my life and The nice thing about being a doctor is that fundamentally, you're a great learner. You're a professional student. You can do almost anything with that. It just takes a little bit of courage and support and finding something that you do love.

Tom Jackobs: 16:49

So you had mentioned too, that as part of your practice, you like to give back to the community, part of being that heart-led business. So what is it that you do for the community in terms of giving back?

Rachael Degurse, MD: 17:03

So one of the big organizations that we support is a a nonprofit in town called Cheyenne Village. We're in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and this is an organization that supports adults with developmental disabilities. It's one of those group of people that gets, Not forgotten, but like they don't have as many services available to them. There's a lot available for children especially in the school settings, but once you turn 18, there's not a lot of resources for these people. And their mission is really to support them and help them be as independent, as possible, whatever their highest level of independence is. So they You know, help provide housing for them. And then also if they need caregiver support then they also provide that. Sometimes it's 24 seven support and sometimes it's just a person living in an apartment and they check in on them like once a day or once a week and just make sure they're paying their bills and taking their medication and then also help, develop life skills so that they can be more independent. An organization that we support both financially and then with in kind donations for their fundraisers that they do. And a group that we support quite a bit. And then some other like peripheral organizations that are, have similar missions, like we also support them in their fundraising attempts. That's the main one that we work

Tom Jackobs: 18:30

Yeah that's really great. That's yeah. Finding an organization that's underserved. It's so critical. And yeah. Adults that have some sort of the, the disabilities that you were talking about that definitely is an underserved population. There aren't a lot of social services for those folks. That's. So that's really awesome. And what a great way of giving back in terms of, when they have silent auctions and giveaways like that, then, a day at a med spa and let's go get some Botox and a laser treatment and body sculpting. It's a win for everybody at that point.

Rachael Degurse, MD: 19:10

Absolutely. A lot of these people are caregivers who are going to these events and they don't spend a lot of time taking care of themselves. They take care of other people a lot. So also get to take care of some people that maybe don't prioritize themselves all.

Tom Jackobs: 19:25

Yeah, that's awesome. That's really great. So how do you balance then being a heartled business, but also Taking care of the business and making sure that there's a profit at the end of the day?

Rachael Degurse, MD: 19:37

It was a lot easier when I had a guaranteed paycheck because I didn't care as much about making the money.

Tom Jackobs: 19:45

right?

Rachael Degurse, MD: 19:45

I cared, but It was lower priority because I didn't have to support myself with the business. And I definitely have a tendency to give away a lot of things. Which I'm trying to wrangle in and find a balance. I think the important thing for us is finding those few organizations that we do want to really support that are like on mission for us because for a while there I was just, anybody who approached me was like, hey, do you want to do this donation? I was like, I was giving away a lot of services which is not just the service, but also my time. And

Tom Jackobs: 20:22

product as well, too.

Rachael Degurse, MD: 20:25

yes, exactly. So finding a few organizations that we really felt connected to has been helpful because we can really focus on them. And then I am very fortunate that I have a strong partner who is very analytical, who helps me really like break down the expense, the overhead for some of these things that we do. And then that helps me figure out what truly my margin is. Cause then I, it gives me a solid number about okay here's what's realistic for you to discount things if you're going to, or so I'm not just making up numbers like on the fly, which is never good when you're running a business. So just having some solid idea of what your margins are is important. Those have been probably two big things. And then we also have a business consulting group that's specific for med spas we've been working with and it's been very helpful to identify. Gaps and goals and what industry standards are for margins and Like return on investment and like how much these should be making per hour and those kinds of things that should are good benchmarks for me to set up goals for running our business. And it's wrangled me in a little bit more, which is good. Cause I just want everybody to feel good and feel like they look good and to me, it's not as important to the. Make money, but I do want to keep the lights on and I do want to make sure my family's fed.

Tom Jackobs: 22:02

And to continue helping people and supporting the community as well. You can't do that if you're out of business as well. So that's, I'm really glad that you mentioned that, having a coach and somebody like a second set of eyes. To look at the business and give you some advice because, for me, when I first started my fitness business, I didn't have that. And I almost went broke because of that. And until I invested in coaching and education of running a small business. which is drastically different than if you're in the corporate world. And you might be managing budgets, but you're not managing the whole enchilada as it were. So yeah, that's, once I invested in coaching, it paid off in dividends years and years after the fact. So that's really good advice to give to any new business owner is to invest in a coach that's been there and done that. I think that's. That's really the key as well, because there's a lot of coaches out there that's never really built a business. And so how can you coach if you've never been there and at the same point, right?

Rachael Degurse, MD: 23:12

Oh that's very true. Yes. And pretty much for any business you have there's some coach out there for small, some small business organization for your specific industry. So it can definitely be found for people who are reputable and educated or reliable.

Tom Jackobs: 23:29

And I used to do a lot of teaching and coaching at the small business development Corporation SBDC. And that's a nationwide organization. I think it's government run at some point. There's definitely volunteers. Like I volunteered my time to go in and help some business owners with sales advice and things like that. So yeah, there's resources out there that don't cost an arm and a leg to get the help that, that small businesses need. I'm really glad that you brought that up.

Rachael Degurse, MD: 23:58

is another one out there. Yeah,

Tom Jackobs: 24:02

Score. Yeah, that's right. The Society of Old Executives.

Rachael Degurse, MD: 24:08

I don't know what it stands for. I just know it's score.

Tom Jackobs: 24:11

Something like, I forget the name, the acronym, but I was thinking they're executives that are no, that are retired typically. That helps.

Rachael Degurse, MD: 24:18

Yes. All the retired executives, that,might be what it is.

Tom Jackobs: 24:23

I don't know what the SC that's for. Yeah. Hopefully we don't get angry emails about that. No, I'm sure not.

Rachael Degurse, MD: 24:32

I apologize. Sorry.

Tom Jackobs: 24:34

Anyway Rachael, this has been such a great conversation and I know you, your business is fairly new, there's so many listeners out there that are in that transition or pre transition phase. And, having that advice that you shared today is just super valuable for them as well. But tell us, before we kind of wrap things up, how can people learn a little bit more about what you're doing? And, if they're in the Colorado area to get some some filler or Botox or laser treatments and all that good stuff.

Rachael Degurse, MD: 25:07

Thanks. If you're in Colorado and you want to come visit us you can check out our website at www. pearlskinbody. com. And we offer free consultations. If you would like to reach out to me to just talk about MedSpot ownership or physician transitioning, or have additional questions about that, you can reach me on LinkedIn at Rachael Daguercy MD.

Tom Jackobs: 25:31

Awesome. Thanks for that. And thank you very much for being on the show today and sharing your experience as well. This has been a great conversation.

Rachael Degurse, MD: 25:41

All right. Thank you for having me.

Tom Jackobs: 25:43

Absolutely. And thank you listeners for listening and watching to the show today. We really do appreciate it and make sure you're checking out everything that Dr. Rachael is doing. And we provided all that down in the show notes. So make sure you're checking out those links and connecting with her, especially if you're in Colorado. And need a little touch up on the forehead or a little. Extra filler around the cheekbones, what have you. And if you could do me a solid favor and share this show with a friend or a colleague that could use that advice that we shared on today's show, that would really help spread the word about the show and help some people that might need that help. And until next time lead with your heart.

Speaker 2: 26:25

You've been listening to the Heart Led Business Show, hosted by Tom Jackobs. Join us next time for another inspiring journey into the heart of business.