America’s Favorite Doctor: Laura Purdy, MD, MBA

Transcript

[0:00] I innately seek the path of most efficient. And I don’t like to duplicate work that has already been done or is going to be done.

[0:16] Paging Dr. Cook. Paging Dr. Cook. Dr. Cook, you’re wanted in the OR.

[0:23] Music.

[0:46] Welcome to the Prescription for Success podcast with your host, Dr. Randy Cook. Hello everyone and welcome to Prescription for Success. I’m Dr. Randy Cook, your host for the podcast, which is a production of MD Coaches, providing leadership and executive coaching for physicians by physicians.
To overcome burnout, transition your career, develop as a leader, or whatever your goal might be, visit MD Coaches on the web at MyMDCoaches.com because you’re not in this alone.

[1:17] And don’t forget that CME credit is available when you listen with us. Just look for CMFI in the show notes to learn how.

[1:26] My guest today got her medical education as an officer in the United States Army. Today she’s a civilian and she’s established quite a presence for herself.

[1:38] In the field of telemedicine. So let’s hear Dr. Laura Purdy share her story of success.

[1:46] I am really looking forward to my conversation today with Dr. Laura Purdy, who has a fascinating career that we’re going to explore in some detail. But first things first,
Dr. Laura Purdy, thank you so much for being here and welcome to Prescription for Success.
Well, thank you so much for having me. I am just as excited to get to be here with you today. I’m really looking forward to it.
Well, that’s good news. Well, what we’re going to do is literally begin at the beginning. And I want to hear a little bit about your early life. I understand that you are a Kentucky native, is that right?
Oh, good. All the way back. Yeah, exactly. All the way back to my blue grassroots. You are correct. So if we want to take it all the way back, I was the first baby born in the hospital.

[2:33] In Bowling Green, Kentucky. No kidding. In the delivery rooms. So back in the day, they used to do operating room deliveries and then they had the birthing rooms. And if the story my mother has told me is correct, which I have every reason to believe that it is.
I was the first baby born in the delivery rooms there in Bowling Green, Kentucky. What an honor. That’s really cool. Isn’t that fun?
Isn’t that fun? Yeah. And I don’t think they deliver babies anymore at all there anymore these days. You know, that has become an issue in rural areas as you’re very well aware.
So sad that that’s the case, but what a great story for you to be able to tell. Isn’t that fun?
And what was it like growing up in the Bowling Green area?

[3:18] Well, so I lived in Russellville, which is just… So a lot of people have heard of Bowling Green because it’s where Corvettes are made. Exactly.
Almost everyone has heard of Bowling Green and almost no one has heard of Russellville, but Russellville is where I grew up. It was a very small town life. But if I’m being totally honest, it was a very sweet childhood. Oh, I bet it was.
Oh, I bet it was. There was so much nature. I remember playing outside and going into the woods and being in the hills and going to Dogwood Lake by Lewisburg, which is a site that really probably only people who are from there would know.
But it was a very country life. I would consider myself from the country because I lived there for 15 years. Yeah, I was a small town boy myself and it really, you just can’t beat it as a way to grow up.

[4:13] Right. I agree completely. It was lovely. But you left there in the middle of your teens. That must have been stressful. Not at all. So for me, I am these – well, I’m sure these themes will come up as our,
conversation evolves. But I always, even from a very young age, was very driven towards success and I outgrew the environment that I was raised in.
Aha. from a music perspective, from an academic perspective.
And as a 14 and 15 year old, I was so bored and I needed more. And my parents, I remember the conversation, my parents had no idea where they were going to send me to high school and I didn’t know either. It was either the city or the county.
You know, that’s interesting. In the area where I grew up, a lot of boys got sent to military school because that was an option and it was a place to get a good education, but it was kind of limited for girls, wasn’t it?
It really was, and they wanted to put me in a place that had opportunities, and they wanted to put me in a place that would push me academically, and it just wasn’t there.
We actually talked about moving to Bowling Green to have a new level of education and opportunity because they wanted me to be challenged.

[5:29] But my dad, who was a businessman, actually had worked at Logan Aluminum in Lewisburg.
I think he was there when the plant opened in the late 80s. He had been a sheriff in the, the men in my family had a heritage of being police officers and sheriffs in that small town.
Yep. That’s, that’s my origin. And so then it was a little bit of a, I mean, dangerous, you know, risky, high risk job.
And he took a job at the factory, Logan aluminum, when it opened, I want to say it was maybe 1982 or three, slightly before I was born.
And I guess I just dated myself, didn’t I? So child of the eighties.
And he got a job at an automotive manufacturing plant in Westfield, Indiana.
And I knew that he was going to get that job because I saw him updating his resume, which was something I had never seen happen before.
And I remember going up to the giant, bulky desktop computer that we had back in those days and saying, oh, so we’re going to move.

[6:32] And he said, no, I mean, I don’t know. I’m just updating my resume. And sure enough, within six months, we had moved to Indianapolis, a suburb of Indianapolis, which was Noblesville, Indiana.
And I was beyond thrilled. I was so excited.
Yeah, it was truly the big city for the eyes of a person such as yourself. Yeah.
I mean, coming from a school of 63 people to a school of over 2,000 people, I mean, it was massive.
The school seemed like it was the size of the entire neighborhood I grew up in. Yeah, I bet. You know? But that’s where the opportunities were.
So I dove into the show choir and the honors classes and the academics. I really thrived there and I credit a lot of what has happened today to that very pivotal point being put in an environment where I could thrive in ways that I could not in rural southern Kentucky.
Hi, I’m Rhonda Crowe, founder and CEO for MD Coaches.
Here on RX for Success, we interview a lot of great medical professionals on how they grew their careers, how they overcame challenges, and how they handle day-to-day work.

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And now let’s get back to today’s interview.

[9:39] Well, now let me ask you, at what age were you aware that you had better than average musical abilities? I assume that was when you were still living in the country as it were.
Jennifer Steele Very much so. So my grandmother was – I get it honest. So I come – my dad’s side of the family is exceptionally musical. All of them are. All of them, whether it’s singing,
we have trumpet, we have flute, we have seriously piano, organ, great grandfather, who was a state representative, was also the choir director. I mean, you get them all together and it
just sounds like a bunch of angels singing. It really does. So, I started taking piano lessons from my grandmother when I was five or six.
And by the time I remember, I started performing publicly within the first couple of years.
I was younger than 10 by the time it was identified that there was something special going on there with the music gift.
I’m sure you enjoyed making the music. You wouldn’t have succeeded had you not, but did you like the attention that it brought?

[10:50] No, not at all. I actually did not. I never liked recitals. I never liked solo. I didn’t even like playing inside.
My parents would get so frustrated at me because we would go piano shopping or something like that. And I was so uncomfortable playing in the store.
Like I wouldn’t even test out the instruments because my love is not ever, and this ties into business, it ties into medicine, it ties into everything.
My love is not and never has been being in the spotlight. As a pianist, I love to accompany choirs, orchestras, musicals is my true love, is musical theater, Broadway type shows.
I love to support the main act, to support who is in the spotlight and do everything within my power to make them look so good because the musician is a critical supporting role in the act of whoever is being up there.
And I just never, never loved and still don’t love the spotlight.
Well, that’s very interesting because, and we’re going to talk about it a little bit later. You’re certainly sort of in the spotlight now, but let’s fast forward a bit.

[12:08] You decided at some point to change the focus. Now, did that happen while you were in undergraduate school or before you were out of high school? Did that all occur?

[12:20] It happened around the time that I was applying to music school. So I had my auditions ready. I had my, and the way that that works is you master a few pieces and then you go and you sit
before a board of faculty and you play for them. And there’s, it’s like a, you know, it’s almost like a job interview, but to get into school. So you were actually laying the foundation for a career at that point. I was. Okay. I wanted to be a professional accompanist. And honestly,
I think I would have been so happy doing that. It would have been great. And to this day, I still gaze into the sky and kind of fondly think about someday, someday I’ll get the opportunity. Somebody’s going to say, Hey, we hear you play. We have this thing. Would you,
I’m just, I’m waiting for that opportunity to come in someday. But I did, I had a, I had a gig,
that I was working on with some people who I considered to be very dear to me at that time.

[13:17] And I was just a kid. I was 17, 18 years old at that point but had a thriving career. And there was an instance where the people that I was working with, they
broke my heart. I mean they hurt me. There’s no other way to say that. It was a bullying, oppressive environment and as a child not knowing how to stand up to myself with these, for myself with these adults, I was heartbroken and,
devastated and immediately chose to walk away from that entire lifestyle.
Wow. In one day. All it took was one day.

[13:55] That’s quite a story. Yes. It was devastating. To this day, there’s still a bit of heartache when I think about it. I bet. All right. We’re probably going to revisit that moment a little bit later on in the conversation,
But now I’m really fascinated how you made the pivot into majoring in psychology at Ball State.

[14:17] I’m having a hard time connecting the dots. I’ll tell you, I will tell you.
I innately seek the path of most efficient, and I don’t like to duplicate work that has already been done or is going to be done.
So when my dad said to me, why don’t you go be a nurse? I said, okay, great, I’ll go be a nurse.
So then I applied to nursing school. So that was kind of – this is something where women can find a job. I suppose that was his idea.
He said my sister does it, she likes what she does, and – because I said I quit music. My dad said, okay, go be a nurse. I said, you know what? I don’t have a backup plan.
Okay. Sure. That sounds great.
All right. That was, that was the conversation. It was at the dinner table.
I still remember the conversation so clearly. And I said, okay, sounds great.
So I started candy striping and volunteering. And over the course of several months and events that have happened, I said, no, no, I don’t want to be a nurse.
I, I trust myself with the responsibility and the decision making capacity and the leadership skills of a physician. So that’s what I’m going to do. that’s what I’m going to do.

[15:30] But when it came time to choose a major in school, I started out pre-med, honors college, and then I realized that all of the classes they were going to give me, I was going to repeat in medical school.
And I said, no, I’m not going to do that. I’m not gonna take a bunch of classes now to take them again in four years. They’re gonna teach me everything I need to know about being a doctor in medical school.

[15:53] So I just chose something that I enjoyed. and I had had a psychology class in high school. I enjoyed it.
It seemed that psychology would be close enough, like closely related enough to medicine to still teach me something useful.
And I also almost got a German minor because I took several years of German speaking.
And so I chose psychology so that I could not have to do a bunch of hard science classes, but just expand my understanding of some of the soft sciences and something that I enjoyed.
I still enjoy psychology, actually. Sounds like you are ahead of your time.
And I think nowadays you see a lot of encouragement from medical schools to do exactly what you described and that is let us teach you how to be a physician.
You go ahead and develop.
But for a very, very long time, everybody was expected to major in some kind of science. Certainly I was back at about the time they discovered fire.
So I think it was incredibly wise of you at that age to make that decision. It sounds like it paid off.
No regrets, right?

[17:03] No regrets. Not a single one. I think even today, I still use or think about or leverage the things that I learned in psychology, you know, when working with children, attachment styles, even working with the veterans like cognitive behavioral therapy.
I learned so much and in every role I’ve had since college, it’s been relevant. So it was a very good choice.
Yeah, it’s a great story. So when it came time for medical school, did you consider any other options other than the uniform services route Or was that the plan all the way along?

[17:45] Oh, I did not. My dad, all of these stories involve my dad, but it’s true. I mean, this is exactly how it happened. And the influence that a parent can have on a child and young adult’s life is profound
and indescribable. But my dad called me up one day and I had had a half scholarship for staying in state, going to a state school in Indiana. And he called me up and said, I’m not going to pay for for your grad school.
This was in 2004 or five, something like that. I graduated in 2005, so it was probably 2005.
And he said, I’m not going to pay for your grad school. And I said, well, I’m not going to pay for my grad school. So I guess the government is going to pay for my grad school.
That’s how the conversation went. And at that time, the war was very young. It was only, we were within our first three or four or five years of the war.
And there was a lot of patriotism, yellow ribbons everywhere, more footage on every news station. And I said, I’m going to do that. And I said, but if I’m going to join the military, I’m not going to do the HPSP because then I’ll still have to take out loans. And if I’m not going to have loans,
then I’m not going to have loans. So I applied to one school, the Uniformed Services University.

[18:59] And if I may sidebar, received so much criticism from all of the people in my life except for for my dad, but everyone else who was around me chastised me heavily for only applying to one school.
And I remember looking at them and saying, okay, well, if they don’t take me, then I’ll figure out why, fix it, and reapply.
That’s also uncommonly wise, I think, for a person in that age group. And I think most people nowadays when they’re applying to medical school apply to sometimes dozens because the odds are kind of steep.
But let’s face it, you were going in as a magna graduate of a respected university. Your chances were probably pretty good, don’t you think?

[19:46] Well I analyzed the statistics on or the demographics of all of the people that accessed over the last few years.
I could see what they were involved in. I could see what their majors were, what their GPAs were, what their test scores were. And what I have found in my life is that if I know what I want to do and don’t scatter
that focus too broadly, then I can hone in on what’s required for the thing that I’m trying to do and then just do what I need to do to make that thing a reality.
So I studied the people that they accepted and then I aligned myself with the people that they accepted.
I looked at the interview questions, I prepared in advance and I showed up and proved to them that indeed I was worth the investment that they were looking for.
And I told them that in the interview. I said, look, I don’t know if I have everything and I’m definitely not the smartest, but I I can 100% guarantee you that I will successfully graduate from your program and I will make you proud.
And I hope that they know that I made good on that promise.

[20:52] Have you ever had a moment in your life that altered your future? To see that we have this bottleneck with residency that so many people don’t get that chance to get that so needed training.
Have you ever wondered why you chose the direction you went? When I had left my prior position, I didn’t plan on going back to practicing medicine. Coming this month, it’s Life Changing Moments, hosted by Dr. Dale Waxman.
The parts of your job that are professionally fulfilling, can you say a little bit more about that?
In this companion show to Prescription for Success, we will explore those decision points with our former guests and provide you with the wisdom and insight to make those choices for yourself.
What can I do for the country other than the psychosocial assistance?
Getting the new show is easy. If you are already subscribed to RX for Success, you’ll get it automatically.
But if you are not subscribed, now is a great time to do so. You can find the RX for Success podcast on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

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[23:17] I would also like for you to talk a little bit about the Uniform Services University and the healthcare learning capabilities that are there.
I suspect there are a number of listeners who are not even aware that it exists. So just a little promo, if you will, about the Uniform Services University.
Certainly. So the Uniform Services University of the Health Sciences is the only congressionally created, it was founded in the 70s or so, created by Congress, put in Bethesda, Maryland,
which is very, very close to the Washington DC line, but it is on the Maryland side. It,
backs up to Bethesda Naval Hospital and it’s right across the street from NIH, which are landmarks that most people- Nicely located.
Yes, very nicely situated.
It is an active duty service academy. So just like a West Point or an Air Force Academy, it is a service academy for graduate medical education.
And it’s not just for doctors. By the time I graduated, there was a nurse practitioner program and nurse anesthesia program and who knows what they’re doing now. I’m sure it’s grown since I left 13 years ago, 12 years ago.

[24:35] But it is, you are active duty while you are there. You have a military ID card.
All of the, I would say probably 85% of the faculty is also active duty. You can be stationed there as a professor and there’s a few retired civilians and other folks but it’s largely active duty.
All of the staff is active duty.
It is a duty station and your duty description is to go to school and graduate from school and become an MD. Curriculum wise, it is identical to any other medical school in the nation,
but what you get additionally is the military medical education and there are a few.

[25:16] I would say, academic didactic blocks and then even summer trainings where they really start to ingrain into your mind that military mindset and mentality. It was just an exceptional.

[25:30] Indescribably wonderful experience.
So a big difference, I’m sure there are many differences, but a big difference that I can see is that whereas a lot of people who go to the more,
for lack of a better word, traditional medical schools have their summers off and do whatever they do.

[25:50] But you were an army officer during all that, right? Absolutely, 100% I was. My first summer I went to basic training.
So right before school, the first summer, when most people start school in July, we went to basic training in July and then school started, I want to say it was late August or early September.
Then the second summer I, we got to do almost like a, like a, like a job share or a job study. I went to Fort Rucker, Alabama and attended a pilot captain’s career course. And I got to fly around in helicopters.
And then by the time the third year hit, it was So cool. I happen to have grown up in central Alabama and we’ve seen those helicopters flying back and forth between Fort Benning and Fort Rucker over in Ozark.
So fun. We’re familiar. Yes. So how’d you like the helicopter rides?
Well, I thought it was a lot of fun but they did not tell me that eating a massive lunch of Thai food was an unwise decision before we went on an instrument flight.
So there were some moments of temporary regret. I bet. It was fun.

[26:59] I bet it was. And we’ll go ahead and fast forward a little bit. I mean, I could talk to you for days about this,
but at some point you made the decision that your specialty was going to be family medicine, which indeed sent you to Fort Benning.
How did you arrive at that decision?

[27:19] There were two primary decision-making factors, and I hope that what I’m about to say does not come across as unkind at all or offensive to anyone, but I have always been turned off by the inhumanity,
of graduate medical education. They were so mean to each other, surgeons, internists. I just wanted to crawl inside my own skin listening to how people were treated by their peers and their mentors during morning report or on rounds or if they made a mistake.
But that’s the way that medical education, they say the key to adult learning is repetition or trauma and you don’t get a lot of time for repetition in graduate medical education, so we do trauma instead.
And I didn’t like that. I’m not aligned with treating people in that way. And I went into medicine to be filled with kindness, love and compassion, not aggression, narcissism and just being mean to people.

[28:19] But in family medicine, that was the one rotation where I didn’t fear being wrong. I didn’t fear asking questions.
I enjoyed being up in front at morning report and I, because I didn’t feel like I was going to be steamrolled by the audience, and I genuinely got to enjoy the process of learning medicine.
So that was one.
And the other was I didn’t want to rule out any demographic. I wanted to know at least something about everything so that I can be helpful to people.

[28:51] Whereas internists, they can’t really help with pediatrics or obstetrics.
Obstetrics can’t really help with anything else or male patients.
And pediatrics can’t help with adults. And emergency doesn’t really know a lot about primary care and they really don’t deliver babies unless it happens on accident.
And surgeons, I just can’t. It’s just a two self-sacrificing of a lifestyle And I just, I could not sacrifice myself for my own career.
And so family medicine seemed like the very natural fit and I am so thankful that I made that choice actually.

[29:26] Dr. Marshall McNeese Sounds like it was the right place for you to be.
Dr. Beth Dombkowski Absolutely. Dr. Marshall McNeese And after they got you trained in that particular specialty, you spent some time doing some very military-like things. You want to tell us about that?
Well, that’s what you do in the military is you do military things and then also you do what they tell you to do. So my first assignment out of residency was the battalion surgeon for the 91st Civil Affairs Battalion in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. And battalion surgeon is a misnomer.
It just means the senior medical executive, but it’s an old school term. Back in the day, military history, all military doctors were surgeons.
I think even before that they were maybe butchers that were… Started in France, I think, that they got that moniker.
The history is, yes. And so, but now they’re almost never surgeons. They’re all primary care because they need the surgeons to work in the hospital or be attached to the forward surgical teams or something.
But that was an incredible experience. I spent a lot of time training medics. I became very good at tactical combat casualty care.
I think I could do a chest tube with my eyes closed, which not a lot of family medicine doctors can say, right? That’s a fact.

[30:44] Turnikits. I would feel so comfortable knowing how to largely save a life in a, in a situation like that, because I spent two and a half years just living, living.

[30:59] That and training it and validating it and practicing it.
And it was so much fun. lots of travel medicine, tropical diseases, and really learned how to be on a commander’s staff, which is not that much different than being a C-level executive. In fact, that’s exactly what it is.
It’s the military equivalent of a C-level executive, and it was put into that position right out of medical school – or right out of residency, rather, I should say.
Darrell Bock And you’re making it sound like you were really a good fit for the military and the way that they do things. And you stayed there a good while, and then you decided to make the move into private practice.
And I am dying to hear what put that idea in your head, and how’s it going?
I think it depends on who you ask, because I would argue that I was very much not a good fit for the military. I wasn’t, but I did the best I could to be under authority and to do what I was asked to do.
And I genuinely tried to be the very best that I possibly could.

[32:04] But I like efficiency, I like purpose, I like intention, I like to be innovative and disrupt systems and processes.
And I love picking out my own clothing and getting to wear makeup and jewelry and do my hair and wear high heels.
And really the military strips your femininity away from you.

[32:28] And I am…

[32:31] You know, a woman’s woman. I really am. And the fact that that part of me was oppressed for so long, I fought it. I really did. And so I don’t think I was a good fit for the military, but I do think I did a good job,
while I was in the military. And that’s when I got into telemedicine. So I knew that I never wanted to open a clinic.
I knew that I never wanted to work in a brick and mortar hospital. I knew that I needed a change because an institution had owned me for 15 years.
It seems like a long time, but I got out as soon as my contract was over.
And I knew that that was the way that was going to be. I wasn’t going to give it one more day because I’ll be honest with you, I was ready to go. I wasn’t a good fit. I knew that my potential was being stifled.
There were some stories that are not positive stories that we will not probably share on this particular podcast, but there were some experiences that caused me to need to go away and my growth
was quite stunted, but I learned so much and I’m so grateful for, I use what the army taught me,
every single day, but it was time for a change. Yeah, and I was just going to say it sounds like.

[33:54] You brought some of the principles that you learned from military medicine and even battlefield medicine into what has become a very popular type of healthcare delivery,
at least in this country, and that is…
Telemedicine. At the time that you decided to process out, is that what you had your eye on? You were going to continue to help with the reinvention of telemedicine or was it just one of those serendipitous kind of things? Oh, it was not serendipitous. It was very intentional.

[34:31] I started doing telemedicine because I needed to make more money to pay for my children’s school. I didn’t earn enough to put them in school. And still see your children.
And still see my children. And the Army is tough, it’s tough to moonlight. They’ll just tell you to go to the ER and work more there if you need more work, but they won’t pay you more.

[34:51] I mean, that’s the way it works. And I just, I needed to make more money. So when I saw what telemedicine and virtual care was, I immediately realized that this was the future. And this was many years before COVID. I realized this is the future. I want to be a part of this. In fact,
not only do I want to be a part of it, I want to drive it, I want to change it, I want to innovate,
it, grow it, develop it, and I must. I mean, I don’t even feel like I want to. I feel like I must.
I feel like it’s one of my purposes is to be the voice of the revolution and driving the change and bringing the future so much closer than it would have been otherwise and empower and enable the people for success.
We were more or less developing telemedicine perhaps without knowing what we were doing in the military a long time ago, wouldn’t you say?
You can’t have an MD with every battalion, every platoon everywhere on the face of the earth.
Got to be some way to transmit medical expertise into those battlefield zones.
And it seems to me that that’s kind of where the birth of telemedicine came about. Would you agree?

[36:11] That is 100% exactly where it came from. Our unit, the unit I was with when I started my first job outside of residency, would travel to Africa.
They would send two companies and Africa is huge and there would be a couple dozen medics scattered across the entire width of East and West Africa.
One PA who may or may not be on continent and then me in North Carolina. And the medics are the equivalent of highly, highly trained, you know, critical care paramedics sort of level. Very, very good, but not physicians. And the only way that I could possibly support them,
was through technology and telemedicine.
Dr. Darrell Bock That is so cool. Did you have to come up with some different kind of plan to foresee how it would work in the civilian community, or Or did everything just translate from A to B effortlessly?
I didn’t realize it while it was happening.

[37:13] It took me a while to realize that I was in the middle of this big transition because I was really just in survival mode in all realms of life.
I had two kids, I was pregnant, my husband was deployed, I was working hospital shifts and side hustling and trying to get the kids to school. So I didn’t notice what was happening. I was still in the army.
I didn’t notice it as it was happening, but it did happen. A lot of the systems, so the first thing that I did was I plugged into systems that were already there.
And very quickly I was asked if I would become a leader and then a manager and then a W-2.

[37:51] And I just kept saying yes.

[37:53] That’s one of my prescriptions for success actually. Say yes as often as you can. With the caveat of if yes becomes a no, can we have a backup plan?
And they almost always say yes if you put that out there up front.

[38:04] And so I just kept saying yes as often as I could and I feel like I blinked and then I found myself closer to the tip of the spear of innovation and change in the digital health tech industry.
So tell us a little bit about what that looks like for you right now. What is the life of Dr. Laura Purdy when you get up in the morning and go to work?
Well I go to work in my home usually unless I’m traveling. I’m currently talking to you from Dallas, but my life has evolved at such a rapid, light-speed.

[38:37] Unbelievable pace and cadence that I don’t think I ever could have predicted. I really don’t.

[38:45] But today, what I do is I wake up and I check my calendar and then I do what it says. and then I open up my email inbox and I handle what’s in there.
And my entire operational structure is run very much like a massive consulting firm. I have several different verticals that I’m involved in, whether it’s executive work,
fractional executive work, advisor work, consultant work. I sit on boards. I’m an investor.
I work with so many startups, founders. I have co-founded a couple of companies myself.
Now I’m doing so much press and media and there’s this whole, if I could use the word, although it still kind of makes me feel strange to use it, but celebrity transition that’s evolving.
But the fun thing about it is that I really have no goal. There’s no aspiration.
I’m not really driving the train. I feel like the train is driving itself.
I’m just showing up and doing as best as I can on for whatever is being asked of me in any given moment. moment, and it’s working. That’s fascinating.
And you’re licensed to practice medicine in 50 states.

[39:55] All of them. How do you do that? How do you get that many licenses? Well, the smartest way to do it is to get hired as a full-time W-2 telemedicine physician for a company that’s willing to buy them and keep them up for you.

[40:09] Well, that was actually going to be one of my questions. In my experience, medical licenses are very expensive, but there are actually people that that are willing to make that investment just to have your skill set available to them.
Is that right? It is an asset that they are purchasing.
So they can either purchase one Dr. Purdy, or they can purchase 10 other physicians with five state licenses or 50 with one.
And any good business person will know that when it comes to things like people and management, especially professionals like physicians, less is often more.
And you’re, correct me if I’m wrong, But I believe that you also at least have some involvement in sort of medical aesthetics, Is that right?

[40:53] Aesthetics is my hobby. Yes. So one of the things that I do is I do own several med spas and I serve as medical director, consultant, advisor, or collaborating physician for hundreds, hundreds,
of them. I think there’s around 200 across the country. I am fully trained in all of the aspects,
but I’m a businesswoman in my heart. I am really a businesswoman disguised as a doctor. And that’s where I thrive and am most happy. And you’ve heard what I’ve said about my dad today. I get it honest.
That shouldn’t be surprising. And so I love aesthetics and I think it’s just, it’s beautiful to help people be beautiful and it is so much fun. Well Laura, this has been a fascinating
conversation and I have enjoyed every minute of it. If we could keep people tuned to a podcast for a few hours, I would go on, but alas that is not the case. And what I think we’ll do now is.

[41:46] Move into what I think is the most important part of the program and that’s when I get out of the the way and let you speak to the audience.
So I’m going to close my mic and Dr. Laura Purdy is going to give us her personal prescriptions for success.
My prescriptions for success. It’s not that hard actually.
I don’t think it’s that hard to be successful, but there are a couple of things that I do recommend. Three, actually three big things that I tell people.

[42:13] Number one, you have got to be willing to work hard. Real success that is earned and not conferred to you from someone else is going to be very hard work.
There will be an element of self sacrifice and it probably will be several years of sustained self sacrifice.
So you’ve got to be willing to work hard.
The second thing is say yes as often as you can.

[42:38] Say no when you have to and be willing to allow a yes to become a no if it needs to be. And I’ve learned that when it comes to people in relationships, if we are just open and honest and having a good dialogue, then it’s okay if a yes is a no. And I will tell people,
I would love for this to be a yes, but I want you to understand that this is not reasonable for me or what you’re asking is not really what I think you want to ask for. And I want,
you to have a good experience. I want us to have a good relationship. And so in order for me to give you a solid yes, it needs to look like this. How does that feel for you? And I’ve been surprised at how many people are willing to work.

[43:24] With me if I meet them where they are, allow them to meet me where I am, and we come up with more of a collaborative relationship. So the first thing is work really hard say yes as often as you can and the third is so simple be kind to,
people and don’t burn bridges especially as a physician people are terrified of,
us I meet people every day who tell me that they were afraid to talk to me and it’s not because I’ve ever been scary I mean I’m sure there’s times in my life I’ve been scary.

[43:59] I am not scary, but they are intimidated because I’m a physician. They see me online.
They read my articles. Maybe they’ve seen a magazine cover.
Maybe they’ve heard a podcast.
Maybe they Googled me. I get it that it is intimidating. And so when I show up to interactions with people, I am always thinking I have got to be humble.
I have got to be kind.
I have got to not only treat them like I would want to be treated, but to elevate them in a respectful position of honor.

[44:31] Because someone who is coming to me with a need that I can feel for them, that is such a vulnerable position for them to be in and I have got to honor that.
So being nice, compassionate, kind, and never burning bridges until you absolutely have to.
And in my entire career, I have only intentionally burned one bridge because that thing did need to come down and occasionally they do.
But that is a power to use only very sparingly and for a very good reason. And usually it’s because ethics just don’t align and it serves the greater good to burn that bridge to the ground.
So work so hard, say yes as often as you can and just be nice to everyone.
Success will come your direction. if those are the things that you live by.
Well, Dr. Laura Purdy, that is a lot of wisdom, and I’m very impressed with what you have to offer. And I am so grateful that you took the time to be with us and share with us today.
Before we get away from here, I want to give you an opportunity to tell our audience where they can find Dr. Laura Purdy.

[45:44] Absolutely. Several, several places. I do have a website that is almost completed production. It is drlarapurdy.com. And then I also have an Instagram. So my brand is America’s Favorite
Doctor. And so it is spelled doctor, not DR. On Instagram, you can find me at at America’s Favorite Doctor. You can find me on LinkedIn. I believe it says Lara Purdy MD MBA. And you can,
always reach out to me in any of those, through any of those channels at any time.
Dr. Darrell Bock And once again, Dr. Laura Purdy, thank you so much for being with us today. It really has been quite a pleasure talking to you, and I am grateful that you took the time to be with us. Dr. Laura Purdy Thank you so much for having me. It’s been so much fun.
Dr. Darrell Bock Thank you so much for joining us today. We hope you’ll visit our Patreon page for exclusive subscriber content.

[46:41] Like rapid-fire questions with our guests. Your five-star rating gives us much more visibility, and it helps us stay on the air. You’ll never miss an episode when you visit our website at,
rxforsuccesspodcast.com to subscribe, and while you’re there, learn how to get CME credit from CMFI just by listening. Special thanks to Ryan Jones, who created and performs our theme music,
and also to Craig Claussen of Claussen Solutions Group who edits the show.
And remember, be sure to fill your prescription for success with my next episode.

[47:20] Music.