As a business owner, Chris and his brother founded one of the largest craft breweries in the southeastern United States, Big Storm Brewing Company. He also opened a marketing and consulting agency and recently founded Walk On Clinic, Inc in 2017. He has consulted to dozens of executives in various industries as a commercial insurance consultant for 13 years.
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Christopher has a unique range of experience and expertise having consulting to the C suite and now being in the C suite. He is a University of Central Florida graduate, an avid reader, chess and tennis player. He volunteers at UCF, mentoring and teaching students in what is one of the nation’s top professional selling programs. Chris lives in St. Petersburg, Florida and is married to national TV personality and HSN host, Michelle Yarn. Chris and Michelle have two boys ages 9 and 6
Mr. Yarn’s Prescription for Success:
Number 1: Get in alignment with your highest purpose.
Number 2: Be Thankful. Wake up every day and say thank you at least three times.
Number 3: Follow your intuition. When you feel good about something, act on it.
Connect with Mr. Yarn
Walk On Clinic Website: Walkonclinic.com
Email: cyarn@walkonclinic.com
LinkedIn: Christopher Yarn
Notable quotes from Mr. Yarn’s interview:
Putting the clinic on site when someone can utilize the clinic onsite while at work is infinitely at work. Who doesn’t want to be paid while seeing a doctor?
20% of those employees are going to need a primary care physician. You say “Primary Care Physician” and they think about their Pediatrician.
It’s about convenient access for the employees.
When you feel good about something, act on it.
Note: Links on this page may be linked to affiliate programs. These links help to ensure we can continue to deliver this content to you. If you are interested in purchasing any products listed on this page, your support helps us out greatly. Thank you.
Access the Show Transcript Here
Transcript
[0:00] What’s the patient experience in Journey like when you know the physician versus it’s some random person in their living room you don’t know where they got their medical degree they have none of your family history you’re starting from scratch every time,
you click a button right versus calling your physician that knows you.
[0:20] Paging dr. cook paging dr. cook dr. Turk you wanted in the OR.
[0:30] Music.
[0:53] 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 my MD coaches.com because you’re not in this alone.
[1:22] And don’t forget you can earn CME credit just by listening today so check the show notes for more information about cmf.
[1:31] Well my guest today began his career in insurance but over time that has evolved.
Into a totally new idea for improving access to primary care it’s called walk on Clinic.
And Chris yarn is here today to tell us the whole story well welcome everybody to prescription for Success I’m really excited about the guest that we have
today.
[2:00] Christopher yarn is with us from Pinellas County Florida Welcome Chris it’s great to have you here now thanks for having me.
So let’s begin as we always do Chris with
your origin story we’ve already mentioned that you are currently located
in Pinellas County which is kind of Central Florida a lot of people think it’s South Florida but nonetheless you’re a Florida native tell me when you.
[2:29] Began your.
Show called formal education at University of Central Florida did you have this kind of career in mind or was it something else no I think I think I was probably always in entrepreneur but.
Spent a lot of time in sales kind of
outside of the entrepreneurial space I went to high school I was in the medical magnet program at books Yaga high school and swore I would,
never do anything in the medical industry even though my parents wanted me to be a doctor or a scientist and you know turns out you know now now here I am after UCF and several years in the commercial insurance industry and Entrepreneurship
and the brewery roiled with my brother and now founder and CEO of walk-on Clinic.
Yeah well let’s talk a little bit more about that now right out of college we’re you immediately looking for something entrepreneurial.
To do or were you somebody’s employee at first how did that work no I mean straight out of college it’s actually funny how you know God kind of put you on your life’s path and.
The very first account I ever worked straight out of college I worked for Liberty Mutual doing property casualty large
Commercial Workers Compensation Insurance so we call it self-funded workers comp which is very similar in function to now.
[3:54] The self-funded health insurance industry.
Um and funny enough the very first account I ever worked even before I was licensed was Rosen hotels.
And I don’t know if you’ve ever had a Ashley beco or
T Smith or Harris Rosen on but they’re one of the you know first on-site Clinic companies in the nation back in the early 90s to put a clinic on site for their employees
and save I think I’ll put them on the list yeah I think on average they save 6 million dollars.
They spent six million less a year on Healthcare than other hotels their size so again before I was ever licensed the very first account I ever worked.
[4:35] Was just an unbelievable eye-opening experience just happened to be in Orlando graduated UCF went to work for Liberty Mutual in Lake Mary and then the first account I’m working is a large self-funded workers comp,
case where they just had this completely Innovative on-site Clinic you know all the employees utilizing it and just.
Unbelievably good health insurance renewals workers comp renewals because they cared for their employees on site about what.
Time frame what year or decade was that going all this was 2005 but he had had the clinic in existence since I believe early 90s,
but that had to be as you say the absolute beginning of that notion,
oh yeah I mean it was there’s some larger companies that have done on-site clinic but nobody that had done it the way he was doing it I actually remember
debating internally at Liberty Mutual with all the other sales force because he had implemented a smoking cessation program he basically banned employees from smoking back in 2005.
[5:38] Or they couldn’t work there.
So and it was any tobacco tested and all the stuff and we were trying to figure out if he was going to you know violate employment laws and calls himself epli claims and now you know fast forward 10 years you’ve got,
companies all over the place with smoking cessation programs and you bid you know so it was he was just a very Innovative employer and that
that stuck with me throughout my 10 years in the commercial insurance industry actually used his employee handbook to
to implement smoking cessation programs with other employers and advise them even before I was in the health insurance space advise them on the value of putting a doctor on site for their employees and opening up on-site clinics or at a minimum partnering with a local.
You know primary care physician for their health.
[6:23] For their health care access so the the seed clearly was planted at that point I don’t know if you were aware of it or if you saw that in your in your future or not but it,
it’s some point you got into the beer business.
Yeah it was did you or did you think that you were going to that was going to be it and you were going to get away from insurance or was it always to be a side gig,
well I always joke I had to go from,
you know harming livers to saving them you know so so but you know really I was kind of a silent partner an investor in big storm and ran some of the marketing end of it Big Storm Brewing kind it was it was the brewery it was my older brother,
that kind of took the first journey into you know family entrepreneurship but I did learn one that came up with the name.
Yeah yeah he did Big Storm Brewing Company I did the logo design and stuff but he’s about as brilliant as I’ve ever heard Big Storm Brewing yeah he did good with especially if you live on the Gulf Coast.
[7:30] So lightning capital of the world is Tampa Bay people like why is it the Tampa Bay Lightning it’s like well it’s the lightning capital the world most people don’t know that I apologize for the interruption please go ahead no no no you’re fine.
[7:43] But
yeah no so he took the first journey into entrepreneurship and then I started an internet marketing firm at that point and an insurance Consulting agency afterwards and the
Insurance Consulting agency is what actually
brought me back into this space and kind of like reignited the the fire I was I was actually at a church in private school.
[8:09] Where the young consultant that I was advising his Agency on you know how to sell insurance and
how to sell health insurance and workers comp and everything basically building their agency from the ground up we offered a doctor on site and a mobile clinic,
through a buddy of mine.
And they signed the broker of record letter right there and this was a 24 year old kid who had never sold a health insurance policy before.
Taking an account from a very large.
Insurance well-respected insurance agency in town and it shouldn’t have happened yeah I was driving home and I was just mine was kind of turning us like that’s,
that’s the fastest broker of record letter I’ve ever seen
in my you know 13 years in insurance and all he did essentially was offer a modified version of the on-site Clinic.
[9:03] And just bringing it on in our fractional basis hey I’m going to bring a doctor here twice a year for you and your employees to do their annual Wellness exams on site see a physician get plugged into a local.
Doctor in the area and that’s how valuable the client felt that service was and so that was kind of my aha moment.
Where I called up Crystal chivo the other founder of of walk on clinic and I said Hey how do we.
I see really big utility here with all these employer groups more and more going self-funded level funded.
Every day you know and now I want to apologize apologize for the interruption but I want to make sure I understand this was actually an insurance company that was looking for a way to do On-Site Health Care is that right it was an insurance agency.
[9:52] That was trying to sell you know Blue Cross Aetna Cigna United trying to sell health insurance to a client and how these agents differentiate themselves.
Is in what value they also can bring to the client outside of just the standard.
Blue Cross and Aetna Cigna policy you are right on the thing that I think is most remarkable about the story and that is you know.
People often ask me I don’t know why they would but they often ask me why doctors,
don’t do something about the cost of healthcare and as you’re aware because doctors probably don’t understand Healthcare economics better than.
Any average guy on the street but they certainly do in the insurance industry so these people understood how important it was to take care of
employees and do it in a way that they could afford 100%
yeah and they know you took it from there yeah yeah so that was
2017 is when we founded walk on Clinic really with the model of serving employer groups and you know helping doctors scale outside of their brick and mortar facility
we also kind of saw the rise of direct Primary Care kind of coming up at that same point in time and until you sort of right.
[11:17] We will you sort of conscious of they were businesses out there that were saying gee I wish I could take care of my people.
Right here but there’s such a big investment we can’t do it and yes in from that you
but you but you said well we’ll just bring it to you is that yeah that’s something that that’s really 100% what my mindset was then and what it was is
the barrier to entry to put a clinic on site you’ve got these large on-site Clinic companies you know care ATC one medical these big on-site Clinic companies that
traditionally they were only serving employer groups you know 3,000 5,000 10,000 employees.
[11:56] Because back then those were really the only groups going self-funded but since the Affordable Care Act.
I mean you have groups that are now have 50 employees that are in a self-funded Health Plan Arrangement so once it becomes the employer’s money being spent.
Versus the insurance carriers money being spent.
They have no choice but to manage risk like they do everything else in their business right it’s their money now so.
I was very cognizant of that I was in the industry long enough to kind of see the shift from fully funded plans to self-funded plans but I also knew that.
There’s thousands of Middle Market companies that you know have eight locations.
And they’re not going to spend seven hundred thousand dollars every time they want to open up an on-site Clinic company nor does it make any sense to open one up where there’s a.
Only 100 employees that one site you might have 500 at another 300 at a different one so it’s.
The big kind of question was well how do you solve that problem and the way you solve that problem in my mind was.
Well you don’t have to build a brick and mortar facility you have to be able to move the clinic to all those locations and kind of like the beginning of MRI.
Yeah back when we first had MRI and the MRI came to you for that happened for a lot of years so you’re just taking that burden of Base usage away.
[13:20] From the people who can’t afford to pay for it and you bring it to them that’s great so,
keep going I apologize for the repeated in interruptions but no just fascinating to me and interrupt me anytime you want I have the tendency to ramble sometimes so any time I go to Long feel free to cut me off but yeah it’s um.
It’s you know that’s just one aspect the mobile clinic is one aspect of what walk on Clinic does it’s a tool.
But really what we call it as we call it hybrid Healthcare right so if you look at why a DP C practice.
[13:55] Direct primary care has 80% of all patient interaction occur,
telephonically or virtually it’s because the patient knows and has a relationship with the doctor,
okay versus when you look at at Ella Dock and their stock just kind of recently tumbled but if you look at a tell a doc even before covid they were under half a percent utilization
in United Healthcare plans after being in existence for 10 years and that included new groups so in the self funded space where they made access to tell a doc free.
[14:26] Any United Healthcare plan.
The utilization rate was still under half a percent and this is again including new groups right so what that an impressive number.
Oppressively low price of only small yeah that’s so so we look at it we say well why is that occurring,
right and I have a belief that it’s occurring because it’s not that the doctors that are
answering the tell doc calls or bad Physicians or you know are good or didn’t go to medical school they you know maybe some of them aren’t very good but the reality is they don’t have a relationship with the patient so so what is that
what’s the patient experience in Journey like when you know the physician versus it’s some random person in their living room you don’t know where they got their medical degree they have none of your family history you’re starting from scratch every time,
you click a button right versus calling your physician that knows you right so our goal is to basically take a,
hybrid health care approach where when that clinic comes whether it’s there an employer group needs it there five days a week one day a week once a quarter once a month once a year is too
go touch and serve those employees at that organization in person.
[15:42] On Whatever frequency basis the insurance claims say makes sense right or that the employer wants.
For a positive return on investment and their claims data but then keep those employees tethered.
To those same providers and in a case where it can’t be the same provider it’s at least the same,
company that has their medical records and knows their history and when they call then they can pull something up and say hey I saw your last visit with us with six months ago here we are cholesterol here were your glucose numbers here’s your weight tell me what’s going on.
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[17:31] And and then what what does happen when a need for specialty referral arises is that.
Connection built-in or.
Is it every man for himself yeah no it’s it’s built in and part of the plan design when we go put a put a clinic on site so there’s kind of two ways we function in a model where to
a permanent on-site clinic in a self-funded health plan that’s going to be built in we’re going to sit down with the insurance agent the HR Director and the medical director
and basically look at all the different resources we have in the area so the broker might already have a.
The direct contracted Orthopedic Network right that they want the primary care to refer to because,
it’s a better Network or better pricing or they might have a solution like green Imaging plugged in or something like that for Imaging right and so they’ll
you know we sit down the planning process and say okay what are all the specialist resources and what Hospital Systems we want to work with who do you have direct contracts with who do not and then.
That that becomes the when you have the primary care on site you can create the plan design steerage that you need.
To to make the plan run more efficiently and profitably for the employer and and quite frankly better for the patient’s because as I’m sure you’ve heard multiple times a lot of the time it’s.
[18:56] The hospital systems in Orthopedic groups with the least amount of readmissions that also have the best pricing so it’s a so it’s just,
it’s about sitting down and going through the data before you put the clinic on site now,
in a fully funded model where an employer group just wants to connect to that local primary care physician and have them come out once a year.
And Bill the annual Wellness exams then that’s going to fall in the Wheelhouse of.
You know that that medical director deciding which ENT and cardiologist and the you know whoever he wants or she wants to refer out to but it’s just it depends on if a group is If an employer group is self-funded.
Or fully funded and a Health Plan Arrangement approximately how many clients are you servicing right now,
all right we got about soon emerged again yes 68 to 70 we get a we started in 2017 and then covid actually took us from to mobile clinics 29.
We did Government Contracting for the first time we just we happen to already have systems and procedures in place to be able to do what we call large throughput testing,
so we had already been licensing software systems like we had qr-codes like six months before all the state testing sites did.
[20:18] We are already using that kind of technology to get patients registered and do a covid test but it was only because for you know two years prior to covid-19,
we had been doing you know 500 biometric screenings in a day and we had systems built out to how do you do 150 Wellness exams in a day over a 12-hour period say okay we have a.
You have a four-bedroom Clinic.
That you can put this many patients through and you’ve got a scheduling system and a software system that allows you to be efficient you get the medical supplies on site and so.
[20:48] Covid actually.
Not only grew us as a logistics and technology company which is really what walk-on Clinic is but it grew all of the practices and doctors that we work with
one of our practices affordable care clinics over in Melbourne Florida on the other coast from me they
exploded with us during Coban because they they were the medical director for a site that was you know doing.
Thousand covid test today up in Panama City so it’s a we help doctors.
Scale their practices outside of their brick and mortar facilities that want to scale and maybe necessarily don’t know how to or they know how to but they don’t have the bandwidth or aren’t ready to make the financial commitment to yeah,
and all of these clients that you have our hosting if you will the arrival of the clinic,
it’s from some frequency that’s decided upon based on the number of employees but you guys are not involved in.
[21:52] Every day service anywhere is that correct.
Say that again not involved in any taste like like 5 times weaker know I guess what I’m asking is do you have any clients
where you have medical personnel available on their site you know every working day or is it strictly.
Mobile I mean that it says these little yeah no it’s on an as-needed basis so some companies will have the clinic there and it’s only open two days a week.
But we have a right to move the clinic if another employer groups wants wants use of it you know
time is a week so we can move it around but there are we’re looking at a group in Cincinnati right now where it will be a permanent on-site clinic for that employer.
But based on where they’re located it will also be.
An open Clinic just like a standard clinic for 14,000 other employees in the area.
[22:48] Just as basically it’s kind of it will almost operate depend on what equipment we decide on as like a.
And on-site urgent care for a thing like a Port Authority or airport I can’t say too much but it’s there’s going to be an opportunity there where there’s a lot of.
Type of government municipality employers things in the public sector where it makes total sense to just.
Make the convenient access to care more convenient not just for one employer group
but for several that are all in the same area and that’s similar to the near site Clinic model that you’ve seen from you know care here and carry TC where several employers contract with one near site clinic but I have nothing against that model.
[23:34] It goes to what.
Healthcare and Physicians has struggled with forever which is how far is a patient willing to travel to come see you you know and just because it employers building is 1.2 miles from the clinic.
Doesn’t mean that the employees are being brought my dad worked for IBM in Tampa and they had a clinic he was never driving over the bridge to go see,
somebody in Tampa from say it just wasn’t happened it wasn’t happening so it’s like hey it’s great to had it on say clinic but he didn’t use it he used the,
the guy that’s you know two miles down the street from his home so putting the clinics on site when somebody can go utilize the clinic while they’re on the clock at work.
Is I just think infinitely better model because it’s.
[24:25] Who doesn’t want to be paid while they’re seeing the doctor you know if you want to encourage people to do preventive medicine see doctors and take care of their health
they have to do it and it convenient fashion
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[26:44] And now let’s get back to today’s interview so if you look back and reflect on what you did right and.
What you did wasn’t so right can you share some of those experiences with us yeah I would say if I had to.
[27:07] Kind of start walk on Clinic over we would probably.
[27:11] Maybe build the technology initially instead of Licensing different technology platforms that allow us to do what we do I think that probably would have been,
a smarter of us and initially I think maybe Contracting with.
[27:30] Several more physician groups I mean we’re in the process of doing that right now with a couple large physician groups just to give us more,
you know more reach because what it is is it’s works really well in a,
even in the fully funded model when the doctor happens to be local so I mean if you’re if you’re a doctor out there.
And you’ve got 50 employer groups in your area and you want a way to connect to those employer groups it’s kind of like what better way than to,
go do annual Wellness exams at that employer group and then give all your business cards if they’re in a fully funded plan Arrangements which is still a large portion of the market and then twenty percent of those employees are going to need a primary care physician.
Especially with today’s youth
you know I mean they don’t you say the word primary care physician and they think it’s their pediatrician how they they don’t they don’t they don’t they don’t have that a lot of them don’t have that connection so it’s definitely a way
I think if we had a lot more doctors we were.
[28:34] Contracted with I would just see a scaling much quicker and I think certain Physicians groups that are Forward Thinking.
And want to grow or have some growth capacity
I would see them being you know really really good partners and certain Market places throughout the United States and it you know everybody always thinks mobile Healthcare and they think rural rural rural it’s like well you could do it I mean rurals great and
there’s massive utility for mobile Healthcare and axes and extender but you can connect to a lot of suburban and.
[29:05] City employers with a with a mobile clinic I mean we do work in Miami we do work in Fort Lauderdale we do work in major major cities here throughout Florida because again it’s about convenient access for the employees.
[29:20] So sounds like you’ve been pretty smart all the way I don’t hear you saying.
[29:25] Gee I wish I hadn’t stepped in that hole wow I wish we would have contracted with more Physicians I would say
you know I wish we would have built our first Clinic much better I mean the first Clinic we built was only two bedrooms and then if we do we got a contract with Hillsborough County.
[29:42] And they wanted us to go see 700 employees and I did the math on it real quick it’s like well if we can only see,
50 employees had a and this two bedroom unit really it was a waiting room and an exam room so it wasn’t even really do bedroom so it’s 25 a day is like it’s going to take us 30 days to see all of those employees.
So that was just the immediate okay if we’re going to build clinics we need to build clinics that are for exam rooms because we can essentially build a clinic.
[30:09] Before exam rooms for slightly more well a lot more but for more than a more than a two-bedroom clinic but.
But the pay up the payback is much quicker because it’s not like opening a practice where you don’t know if you’re going to have patience we know before we move the clinic.
That there’s going to be patients there that makes sense sure yeah so it’s like so it was not really you’re not really describing oh gee I wish I hadn’t done that thing that cost us,
so much financially you just underestimated.
[30:43] The demand from the beginning it sounds like yeah oh yeah I think that and I mean it was a.
It wasn’t a good spend to build a two-bedroom Clinic you know we could have built a could have built a four-bedroom or you know I so I think that was
probably a mistake initially it’s interesting a lot of fqhc funded groups that do like Medicaid and you know kind of where the mobile healthcare industry has played for most of it’s life in these communities they,
they build these 600,000 million-dollar RVs and they only have two exam rooms in it.
It’s like well you’re not serving that many people but they’re operating on grant money to so it’s yeah you know I would say the mobile clinic builds were bad.
Licensing software I would have liked to have built our own from the beginning and then I would say you know.
Is thankful and grateful as I you know.
[31:43] I was happy to serve during the during the pandemic for a small business like us that’s trying to scale and has a business plan.
To just go on that roller coaster of you know behind you know hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of testing kits and then doing thousands of patients I mean it.
I certainly
I think I aged 10 years in about to if that makes sense I can imagine a lot a lot of hair yeah I can imagine there was some considerable stress in there but
All Things Considered you know you hear a lot of
stories of entrepreneurs that talked about having to get a second mortgage on the house and all the terrible things that can happen when you
fail to anticipate things but this appears to have worked out well and that certainly is
to your credit and I want to congratulate you for that and I want it.
[32:42] Thank you for sharing that story with us but before we have to go away from this conversation.
I really want to hear some more about your performance career you mentioned that you were
very interested in performance art as a youngster but you haven’t really given that up have you mr. no drop-off
no no I have not so so this is where you’ll be able to on the podcast play some hilarious song parodies of maybe show of health insurance yeah so yeah so yeah
it’s funny you know at the beginning of this journey with walk-on Clinic I was actually driving back.
From Orlando from Rosen hotels you know 15 years later I’m leaving Having just met you know with Rosen hotels again and talking to them about their clinic and what I’m doing in the on-site Clinic space.
And I realized as a former broker how difficult it was to get in front of you know Brokers like that are doing that are part of the big self-funded movement so you know.
Dave Chase and Nelson Griswold and then all these Brokers that also are you know view themselves as consultants guys like Carl schuessler and David contorno and I mean there’s too many to name all the names of the.
[34:05] The Consultants out there that are trying to move this mountain towards right you know,
changing you know and I love it because it’s re localizing care it’s getting Physicians connected directly to these employer groups which are the they are the true payers of health insurance,
rrr of healthcare it’s the employer it’s not the care even though.
Carl will tell you they call themselves The payers but it’s when they’re when they’re really should be called processors but I love that whole you know we’re lucky enough to plug in to every model because of how we operate.
[34:40] But.
I wanted a way to connect to all these people quickly and so I was driving back from Rosen hotels and I was like well I’m certainly a terrible writer so I can’t write a book.
We don’t have the capital to you know pay to go to all these trade shows and do this stuff and I was like well I can do one thing I’m like I can still sing pretty decent and.
My wife’s in television and she could shoot videos so I think what I’ll do is I’ll take one of my favorite Sinatra songs
I had recently met my 90 year old Jazz instructor again that I grew up with four we did a thing for his 90th birthday
me and some actual famous musicians that I grew up as a kid with and so I was inspired at the time and I it was hilarious I posted a video under the
the pseudonym or fake name or character Frank micdroppa like Sinatra but microphone dropper micdroppa on LinkedIn and in two days.
I had more followers on a fake LinkedIn profile then
I did in 13 years on LinkedIn like as an actual professional you know insurance agent and entrepreneur and and then two weeks later
I was at the World Health Care Congress in front of everybody that I you know wanted to be in and at thats you know it’s just kind of Follow Your
follow your gut sometimes and luck I mean if you’re you know it sounds crazy but it’s like.
[36:09] That’s what I wanted to do what I was convicted on and a lot of walk on clinics growth has absolutely been due to.
Singing funny song parodies about health insurance and Health Care believe that you know so Frank
so Frank micdroppa is not only available on YouTube he’s not only available for video you actually do this live at conferences and yeah yes I do so I think the last video I did was actually.
[36:38] With the patient’s right Advocate Group we did it too and I,
I only do Sinatra I’m a one-trick pony so Sinatra only saying in his range so I only will parity Sinatra.
At least under this Frank might drop them on occur so high you’re ever going to run out of audience for that well you know I listen I love it I you know I learned singing,
you know from from my mom and my grandfather who actually passed away about a year and a half ago now but.
[37:07] I mean I love the music I grew up singing it and and I think I don’t know I just feel like it’s the right time and it what it does,
unintentionally it’s really just who I am but unintentionally it appeals to an older audience because they know the music but it’s in a content form that the younger audience consumes.
You know so so these let’s face it so Nitra is timeless.
[37:34] He just is so yeah I think it’s it’s brilliant and I’m going to.
Plug this thing right now for our audience and later after you give us your prescriptions I want to make sure that you remember to give us the spots where we can find Frank but now
this is not this is not Garth and Wayne and the basement this is
this is really high quality production work incredible sound work Wonderful lighting and incredible performance and all thanks so it the
you doing yourself a big favor audience if you’ll go in fine
frying Mike drop on YouTube because it’s not only funny it’s just fun to watch,
I promise you will at least smile or laugh you know if you go watch one or two videos you will guaranteed
you will smile or laugh because you’ll just be like what is this guy doing it’s
I think in one video from Girl from Ipanema I’m falling off of a unicorn into a pool on a float I did that one with a telemedicine company it was yeah it was fun I just you know I just like to have fun and when we when I go to these conferences it’s.
[38:51] It’s great to make people smile and that’s just I mean again I grew up a performer I was 12 years old,
singing the main stage of the Montreux jazz festival and Switzerland you know and so it’s a and then you stop doing that stuff as a kid.
And so to kind of have that outlet again even if it’s just Insurance conferences or whatever it’s a blast you know and it makes people happy and it brings some fun and entertainment.
And and at markets walk on Clinic you know so you know it does so yeah
well Chris listen I really enjoyed this conversation and I don’t want to hold you up any longer so before we get out of here it’s my turn to close my mic and get out of your way
and audience we’re going to get to here Christopher yarn give us his personal prescriptions for success.
[39:44] All right thanks I’d say my first prescription for success is get in alignment with your highest purpose so what you should what you know you should be doing every day.
Try and take action and do it.
And be alignment with it so when you go to sleep at night you feel good about how your day went and what you did my second prescription for success is to be thankful wake up every day and say thank you.
At least three times that you’re taking in breath again and you’re here and your present and you are able to.
[40:18] Go go create you know
the future that you want to create for yourself and and how you’re going to serve others that day and I’d say my third prescription for success is follow your intuition and gut you know follow that little,
Jiminy Cricket or conscious or whatever you want to call it when you feel good about something act on it when you don’t feel good about something or something seems too good to be true.
[40:43] Make a pivot and those are my three prescriptions for success and thanks for listening to me and enjoy the Frank might drop entertainment well thanks for sharing with us Chris it really has been
a lot of fun talking with you today before we completely let you out of here I want to give you an opportunity to give us,
anything that you want to share with our audience about how to how to find you the websites the LinkedIn,
all that stuff so yeah perfect go ahead yeah I would say if you like to get in touch with me.
[41:21] Best way to do that is typically by email or LinkedIn
email is see yarn cya RN just like a ball of yarn at walk on clinic and then I have to LinkedIn profiles I have Chris yarn my actual LinkedIn and then I have Frank micdroppa which I.
M unfortunately on more because more people message me on as Frank or know me as Frank than actually Chris so you can also go to the LinkedIn profile Frank micdroppa
and then obviously if you want more information you can go to the site walk on Clinic.com.
So you’re being eclipsed by your own Alter Ego the yes yes my Alter Ego is is taking over my my Chris yarn profile and I will tell you one funny story so
and this has happened multiple times I’ll go to a conference and I’ll perform is Frank like opening up the conference right and people will know Frank from LinkedIn.
[42:17] And then I’ll have a conversation with them I’ll have the whole getup on and then the next day I’ll be talking to them like I won’t have the Fedora on or the pork by on and they’re like,
I feel like I know you like how like I feel like I met you before and I’m like and I said I had a hat on yesterday like I guess this is how Superman got away with being Clark Kent I guess the disguises real you know so that’s actually happened twice so.
I mean yeah it’s a fun time so well thanks for sharing with us in thanks for being here Christopher yarn it’s been great.
Thanks Brenda.
[42:52] Music.
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you click a button right versus calling your physician that knows you.
[0:20] Paging dr. cook paging dr. cook dr. Turk you wanted in the OR.
[0:30] Music.
[0:53] 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.
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Visit MD coaches on the web at my MD coaches.com because you’re not in this alone.
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[1:31] Well my guest today began his career in insurance but over time that has evolved.
Into a totally new idea for improving access to primary care it’s called walk on Clinic.
And Chris yarn is here today to tell us the whole story well welcome everybody to prescription for Success I’m really excited about the guest that we have
today.
[2:00] Christopher yarn is with us from Pinellas County Florida Welcome Chris it’s great to have you here now thanks for having me.
So let’s begin as we always do Chris with
your origin story we’ve already mentioned that you are currently located
in Pinellas County which is kind of Central Florida a lot of people think it’s South Florida but nonetheless you’re a Florida native tell me when you.
[2:29] Began your.
Show called formal education at University of Central Florida did you have this kind of career in mind or was it something else no I think I think I was probably always in entrepreneur but.
Spent a lot of time in sales kind of
outside of the entrepreneurial space I went to high school I was in the medical magnet program at books Yaga high school and swore I would,
never do anything in the medical industry even though my parents wanted me to be a doctor or a scientist and you know turns out you know now now here I am after UCF and several years in the commercial insurance industry and Entrepreneurship
and the brewery roiled with my brother and now founder and CEO of walk-on Clinic.
Yeah well let’s talk a little bit more about that now right out of college we’re you immediately looking for something entrepreneurial.
To do or were you somebody’s employee at first how did that work no I mean straight out of college it’s actually funny how you know God kind of put you on your life’s path and.
The very first account I ever worked straight out of college I worked for Liberty Mutual doing property casualty large
Commercial Workers Compensation Insurance so we call it self-funded workers comp which is very similar in function to now.
[3:54] The self-funded health insurance industry.
Um and funny enough the very first account I ever worked even before I was licensed was Rosen hotels.
And I don’t know if you’ve ever had a Ashley beco or
T Smith or Harris Rosen on but they’re one of the you know first on-site Clinic companies in the nation back in the early 90s to put a clinic on site for their employees
and save I think I’ll put them on the list yeah I think on average they save 6 million dollars.
They spent six million less a year on Healthcare than other hotels their size so again before I was ever licensed the very first account I ever worked.
[4:35] Was just an unbelievable eye-opening experience just happened to be in Orlando graduated UCF went to work for Liberty Mutual in Lake Mary and then the first account I’m working is a large self-funded workers comp,
case where they just had this completely Innovative on-site Clinic you know all the employees utilizing it and just.
Unbelievably good health insurance renewals workers comp renewals because they cared for their employees on site about what.
Time frame what year or decade was that going all this was 2005 but he had had the clinic in existence since I believe early 90s,
but that had to be as you say the absolute beginning of that notion,
oh yeah I mean it was there’s some larger companies that have done on-site clinic but nobody that had done it the way he was doing it I actually remember
debating internally at Liberty Mutual with all the other sales force because he had implemented a smoking cessation program he basically banned employees from smoking back in 2005.
[5:38] Or they couldn’t work there.
So and it was any tobacco tested and all the stuff and we were trying to figure out if he was going to you know violate employment laws and calls himself epli claims and now you know fast forward 10 years you’ve got,
companies all over the place with smoking cessation programs and you bid you know so it was he was just a very Innovative employer and that
that stuck with me throughout my 10 years in the commercial insurance industry actually used his employee handbook to
to implement smoking cessation programs with other employers and advise them even before I was in the health insurance space advise them on the value of putting a doctor on site for their employees and opening up on-site clinics or at a minimum partnering with a local.
You know primary care physician for their health.
[6:23] For their health care access so the the seed clearly was planted at that point I don’t know if you were aware of it or if you saw that in your in your future or not but it,
it’s some point you got into the beer business.
Yeah it was did you or did you think that you were going to that was going to be it and you were going to get away from insurance or was it always to be a side gig,
well I always joke I had to go from,
you know harming livers to saving them you know so so but you know really I was kind of a silent partner an investor in big storm and ran some of the marketing end of it Big Storm Brewing kind it was it was the brewery it was my older brother,
that kind of took the first journey into you know family entrepreneurship but I did learn one that came up with the name.
Yeah yeah he did Big Storm Brewing Company I did the logo design and stuff but he’s about as brilliant as I’ve ever heard Big Storm Brewing yeah he did good with especially if you live on the Gulf Coast.
[7:30] So lightning capital of the world is Tampa Bay people like why is it the Tampa Bay Lightning it’s like well it’s the lightning capital the world most people don’t know that I apologize for the interruption please go ahead no no no you’re fine.
[7:43] But
yeah no so he took the first journey into entrepreneurship and then I started an internet marketing firm at that point and an insurance Consulting agency afterwards and the
Insurance Consulting agency is what actually
brought me back into this space and kind of like reignited the the fire I was I was actually at a church in private school.
[8:09] Where the young consultant that I was advising his Agency on you know how to sell insurance and
how to sell health insurance and workers comp and everything basically building their agency from the ground up we offered a doctor on site and a mobile clinic,
through a buddy of mine.
And they signed the broker of record letter right there and this was a 24 year old kid who had never sold a health insurance policy before.
Taking an account from a very large.
Insurance well-respected insurance agency in town and it shouldn’t have happened yeah I was driving home and I was just mine was kind of turning us like that’s,
that’s the fastest broker of record letter I’ve ever seen
in my you know 13 years in insurance and all he did essentially was offer a modified version of the on-site Clinic.
[9:03] And just bringing it on in our fractional basis hey I’m going to bring a doctor here twice a year for you and your employees to do their annual Wellness exams on site see a physician get plugged into a local.
Doctor in the area and that’s how valuable the client felt that service was and so that was kind of my aha moment.
Where I called up Crystal chivo the other founder of of walk on clinic and I said Hey how do we.
I see really big utility here with all these employer groups more and more going self-funded level funded.
Every day you know and now I want to apologize apologize for the interruption but I want to make sure I understand this was actually an insurance company that was looking for a way to do On-Site Health Care is that right it was an insurance agency.
[9:52] That was trying to sell you know Blue Cross Aetna Cigna United trying to sell health insurance to a client and how these agents differentiate themselves.
Is in what value they also can bring to the client outside of just the standard.
Blue Cross and Aetna Cigna policy you are right on the thing that I think is most remarkable about the story and that is you know.
People often ask me I don’t know why they would but they often ask me why doctors,
don’t do something about the cost of healthcare and as you’re aware because doctors probably don’t understand Healthcare economics better than.
Any average guy on the street but they certainly do in the insurance industry so these people understood how important it was to take care of
employees and do it in a way that they could afford 100%
yeah and they know you took it from there yeah yeah so that was
2017 is when we founded walk on Clinic really with the model of serving employer groups and you know helping doctors scale outside of their brick and mortar facility
we also kind of saw the rise of direct Primary Care kind of coming up at that same point in time and until you sort of right.
[11:17] We will you sort of conscious of they were businesses out there that were saying gee I wish I could take care of my people.
Right here but there’s such a big investment we can’t do it and yes in from that you
but you but you said well we’ll just bring it to you is that yeah that’s something that that’s really 100% what my mindset was then and what it was is
the barrier to entry to put a clinic on site you’ve got these large on-site Clinic companies you know care ATC one medical these big on-site Clinic companies that
traditionally they were only serving employer groups you know 3,000 5,000 10,000 employees.
[11:56] Because back then those were really the only groups going self-funded but since the Affordable Care Act.
I mean you have groups that are now have 50 employees that are in a self-funded Health Plan Arrangement so once it becomes the employer’s money being spent.
Versus the insurance carriers money being spent.
They have no choice but to manage risk like they do everything else in their business right it’s their money now so.
I was very cognizant of that I was in the industry long enough to kind of see the shift from fully funded plans to self-funded plans but I also knew that.
There’s thousands of Middle Market companies that you know have eight locations.
And they’re not going to spend seven hundred thousand dollars every time they want to open up an on-site Clinic company nor does it make any sense to open one up where there’s a.
Only 100 employees that one site you might have 500 at another 300 at a different one so it’s.
The big kind of question was well how do you solve that problem and the way you solve that problem in my mind was.
Well you don’t have to build a brick and mortar facility you have to be able to move the clinic to all those locations and kind of like the beginning of MRI.
Yeah back when we first had MRI and the MRI came to you for that happened for a lot of years so you’re just taking that burden of Base usage away.
[13:20] From the people who can’t afford to pay for it and you bring it to them that’s great so,
keep going I apologize for the repeated in interruptions but no just fascinating to me and interrupt me anytime you want I have the tendency to ramble sometimes so any time I go to Long feel free to cut me off but yeah it’s um.
It’s you know that’s just one aspect the mobile clinic is one aspect of what walk on Clinic does it’s a tool.
But really what we call it as we call it hybrid Healthcare right so if you look at why a DP C practice.
[13:55] Direct primary care has 80% of all patient interaction occur,
telephonically or virtually it’s because the patient knows and has a relationship with the doctor,
okay versus when you look at at Ella Dock and their stock just kind of recently tumbled but if you look at a tell a doc even before covid they were under half a percent utilization
in United Healthcare plans after being in existence for 10 years and that included new groups so in the self funded space where they made access to tell a doc free.
[14:26] Any United Healthcare plan.
The utilization rate was still under half a percent and this is again including new groups right so what that an impressive number.
Oppressively low price of only small yeah that’s so so we look at it we say well why is that occurring,
right and I have a belief that it’s occurring because it’s not that the doctors that are
answering the tell doc calls or bad Physicians or you know are good or didn’t go to medical school they you know maybe some of them aren’t very good but the reality is they don’t have a relationship with the patient so so what is that
what’s the patient experience in Journey like when you know the physician versus it’s some random person in their living room you don’t know where they got their medical degree they have none of your family history you’re starting from scratch every time,
you click a button right versus calling your physician that knows you right so our goal is to basically take a,
hybrid health care approach where when that clinic comes whether it’s there an employer group needs it there five days a week one day a week once a quarter once a month once a year is too
go touch and serve those employees at that organization in person.
[15:42] On Whatever frequency basis the insurance claims say makes sense right or that the employer wants.
For a positive return on investment and their claims data but then keep those employees tethered.
To those same providers and in a case where it can’t be the same provider it’s at least the same,
company that has their medical records and knows their history and when they call then they can pull something up and say hey I saw your last visit with us with six months ago here we are cholesterol here were your glucose numbers here’s your weight tell me what’s going on.
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[17:31] And and then what what does happen when a need for specialty referral arises is that.
Connection built-in or.
Is it every man for himself yeah no it’s it’s built in and part of the plan design when we go put a put a clinic on site so there’s kind of two ways we function in a model where to
a permanent on-site clinic in a self-funded health plan that’s going to be built in we’re going to sit down with the insurance agent the HR Director and the medical director
and basically look at all the different resources we have in the area so the broker might already have a.
The direct contracted Orthopedic Network right that they want the primary care to refer to because,
it’s a better Network or better pricing or they might have a solution like green Imaging plugged in or something like that for Imaging right and so they’ll
you know we sit down the planning process and say okay what are all the specialist resources and what Hospital Systems we want to work with who do you have direct contracts with who do not and then.
That that becomes the when you have the primary care on site you can create the plan design steerage that you need.
To to make the plan run more efficiently and profitably for the employer and and quite frankly better for the patient’s because as I’m sure you’ve heard multiple times a lot of the time it’s.
[18:56] The hospital systems in Orthopedic groups with the least amount of readmissions that also have the best pricing so it’s a so it’s just,
it’s about sitting down and going through the data before you put the clinic on site now,
in a fully funded model where an employer group just wants to connect to that local primary care physician and have them come out once a year.
And Bill the annual Wellness exams then that’s going to fall in the Wheelhouse of.
You know that that medical director deciding which ENT and cardiologist and the you know whoever he wants or she wants to refer out to but it’s just it depends on if a group is If an employer group is self-funded.
Or fully funded and a Health Plan Arrangement approximately how many clients are you servicing right now,
all right we got about soon emerged again yes 68 to 70 we get a we started in 2017 and then covid actually took us from to mobile clinics 29.
We did Government Contracting for the first time we just we happen to already have systems and procedures in place to be able to do what we call large throughput testing,
so we had already been licensing software systems like we had qr-codes like six months before all the state testing sites did.
[20:18] We are already using that kind of technology to get patients registered and do a covid test but it was only because for you know two years prior to covid-19,
we had been doing you know 500 biometric screenings in a day and we had systems built out to how do you do 150 Wellness exams in a day over a 12-hour period say okay we have a.
You have a four-bedroom Clinic.
That you can put this many patients through and you’ve got a scheduling system and a software system that allows you to be efficient you get the medical supplies on site and so.
[20:48] Covid actually.
Not only grew us as a logistics and technology company which is really what walk-on Clinic is but it grew all of the practices and doctors that we work with
one of our practices affordable care clinics over in Melbourne Florida on the other coast from me they
exploded with us during Coban because they they were the medical director for a site that was you know doing.
Thousand covid test today up in Panama City so it’s a we help doctors.
Scale their practices outside of their brick and mortar facilities that want to scale and maybe necessarily don’t know how to or they know how to but they don’t have the bandwidth or aren’t ready to make the financial commitment to yeah,
and all of these clients that you have our hosting if you will the arrival of the clinic,
it’s from some frequency that’s decided upon based on the number of employees but you guys are not involved in.
[21:52] Every day service anywhere is that correct.
Say that again not involved in any taste like like 5 times weaker know I guess what I’m asking is do you have any clients
where you have medical personnel available on their site you know every working day or is it strictly.
Mobile I mean that it says these little yeah no it’s on an as-needed basis so some companies will have the clinic there and it’s only open two days a week.
But we have a right to move the clinic if another employer groups wants wants use of it you know
time is a week so we can move it around but there are we’re looking at a group in Cincinnati right now where it will be a permanent on-site clinic for that employer.
But based on where they’re located it will also be.
An open Clinic just like a standard clinic for 14,000 other employees in the area.
[22:48] Just as basically it’s kind of it will almost operate depend on what equipment we decide on as like a.
And on-site urgent care for a thing like a Port Authority or airport I can’t say too much but it’s there’s going to be an opportunity there where there’s a lot of.
Type of government municipality employers things in the public sector where it makes total sense to just.
Make the convenient access to care more convenient not just for one employer group
but for several that are all in the same area and that’s similar to the near site Clinic model that you’ve seen from you know care here and carry TC where several employers contract with one near site clinic but I have nothing against that model.
[23:34] It goes to what.
Healthcare and Physicians has struggled with forever which is how far is a patient willing to travel to come see you you know and just because it employers building is 1.2 miles from the clinic.
Doesn’t mean that the employees are being brought my dad worked for IBM in Tampa and they had a clinic he was never driving over the bridge to go see,
somebody in Tampa from say it just wasn’t happened it wasn’t happening so it’s like hey it’s great to had it on say clinic but he didn’t use it he used the,
the guy that’s you know two miles down the street from his home so putting the clinics on site when somebody can go utilize the clinic while they’re on the clock at work.
Is I just think infinitely better model because it’s.
[24:25] Who doesn’t want to be paid while they’re seeing the doctor you know if you want to encourage people to do preventive medicine see doctors and take care of their health
they have to do it and it convenient fashion
hi I’m Rhonda Crow founder and CEO Forum D 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 I really hope you’re getting a lot of great information.
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[25:41] We’ll get back to our interview in just a moment but right now I want to tell you a little bit about physician Outlook
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[26:44] And now let’s get back to today’s interview so if you look back and reflect on what you did right and.
What you did wasn’t so right can you share some of those experiences with us yeah I would say if I had to.
[27:07] Kind of start walk on Clinic over we would probably.
[27:11] Maybe build the technology initially instead of Licensing different technology platforms that allow us to do what we do I think that probably would have been,
a smarter of us and initially I think maybe Contracting with.
[27:30] Several more physician groups I mean we’re in the process of doing that right now with a couple large physician groups just to give us more,
you know more reach because what it is is it’s works really well in a,
even in the fully funded model when the doctor happens to be local so I mean if you’re if you’re a doctor out there.
And you’ve got 50 employer groups in your area and you want a way to connect to those employer groups it’s kind of like what better way than to,
go do annual Wellness exams at that employer group and then give all your business cards if they’re in a fully funded plan Arrangements which is still a large portion of the market and then twenty percent of those employees are going to need a primary care physician.
Especially with today’s youth
you know I mean they don’t you say the word primary care physician and they think it’s their pediatrician how they they don’t they don’t they don’t they don’t have that a lot of them don’t have that connection so it’s definitely a way
I think if we had a lot more doctors we were.
[28:34] Contracted with I would just see a scaling much quicker and I think certain Physicians groups that are Forward Thinking.
And want to grow or have some growth capacity
I would see them being you know really really good partners and certain Market places throughout the United States and it you know everybody always thinks mobile Healthcare and they think rural rural rural it’s like well you could do it I mean rurals great and
there’s massive utility for mobile Healthcare and axes and extender but you can connect to a lot of suburban and.
[29:05] City employers with a with a mobile clinic I mean we do work in Miami we do work in Fort Lauderdale we do work in major major cities here throughout Florida because again it’s about convenient access for the employees.
[29:20] So sounds like you’ve been pretty smart all the way I don’t hear you saying.
[29:25] Gee I wish I hadn’t stepped in that hole wow I wish we would have contracted with more Physicians I would say
you know I wish we would have built our first Clinic much better I mean the first Clinic we built was only two bedrooms and then if we do we got a contract with Hillsborough County.
[29:42] And they wanted us to go see 700 employees and I did the math on it real quick it’s like well if we can only see,
50 employees had a and this two bedroom unit really it was a waiting room and an exam room so it wasn’t even really do bedroom so it’s 25 a day is like it’s going to take us 30 days to see all of those employees.
So that was just the immediate okay if we’re going to build clinics we need to build clinics that are for exam rooms because we can essentially build a clinic.
[30:09] Before exam rooms for slightly more well a lot more but for more than a more than a two-bedroom clinic but.
But the pay up the payback is much quicker because it’s not like opening a practice where you don’t know if you’re going to have patience we know before we move the clinic.
That there’s going to be patients there that makes sense sure yeah so it’s like so it was not really you’re not really describing oh gee I wish I hadn’t done that thing that cost us,
so much financially you just underestimated.
[30:43] The demand from the beginning it sounds like yeah oh yeah I think that and I mean it was a.
It wasn’t a good spend to build a two-bedroom Clinic you know we could have built a could have built a four-bedroom or you know I so I think that was
probably a mistake initially it’s interesting a lot of fqhc funded groups that do like Medicaid and you know kind of where the mobile healthcare industry has played for most of it’s life in these communities they,
they build these 600,000 million-dollar RVs and they only have two exam rooms in it.
It’s like well you’re not serving that many people but they’re operating on grant money to so it’s yeah you know I would say the mobile clinic builds were bad.
Licensing software I would have liked to have built our own from the beginning and then I would say you know.
Is thankful and grateful as I you know.
[31:43] I was happy to serve during the during the pandemic for a small business like us that’s trying to scale and has a business plan.
To just go on that roller coaster of you know behind you know hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of testing kits and then doing thousands of patients I mean it.
I certainly
I think I aged 10 years in about to if that makes sense I can imagine a lot a lot of hair yeah I can imagine there was some considerable stress in there but
All Things Considered you know you hear a lot of
stories of entrepreneurs that talked about having to get a second mortgage on the house and all the terrible things that can happen when you
fail to anticipate things but this appears to have worked out well and that certainly is
to your credit and I want to congratulate you for that and I want it.
[32:42] Thank you for sharing that story with us but before we have to go away from this conversation.
I really want to hear some more about your performance career you mentioned that you were
very interested in performance art as a youngster but you haven’t really given that up have you mr. no drop-off
no no I have not so so this is where you’ll be able to on the podcast play some hilarious song parodies of maybe show of health insurance yeah so yeah so yeah
it’s funny you know at the beginning of this journey with walk-on Clinic I was actually driving back.
From Orlando from Rosen hotels you know 15 years later I’m leaving Having just met you know with Rosen hotels again and talking to them about their clinic and what I’m doing in the on-site Clinic space.
And I realized as a former broker how difficult it was to get in front of you know Brokers like that are doing that are part of the big self-funded movement so you know.
Dave Chase and Nelson Griswold and then all these Brokers that also are you know view themselves as consultants guys like Carl schuessler and David contorno and I mean there’s too many to name all the names of the.
[34:05] The Consultants out there that are trying to move this mountain towards right you know,
changing you know and I love it because it’s re localizing care it’s getting Physicians connected directly to these employer groups which are the they are the true payers of health insurance,
rrr of healthcare it’s the employer it’s not the care even though.
Carl will tell you they call themselves The payers but it’s when they’re when they’re really should be called processors but I love that whole you know we’re lucky enough to plug in to every model because of how we operate.
[34:40] But.
I wanted a way to connect to all these people quickly and so I was driving back from Rosen hotels and I was like well I’m certainly a terrible writer so I can’t write a book.
We don’t have the capital to you know pay to go to all these trade shows and do this stuff and I was like well I can do one thing I’m like I can still sing pretty decent and.
My wife’s in television and she could shoot videos so I think what I’ll do is I’ll take one of my favorite Sinatra songs
I had recently met my 90 year old Jazz instructor again that I grew up with four we did a thing for his 90th birthday
me and some actual famous musicians that I grew up as a kid with and so I was inspired at the time and I it was hilarious I posted a video under the
the pseudonym or fake name or character Frank micdroppa like Sinatra but microphone dropper micdroppa on LinkedIn and in two days.
I had more followers on a fake LinkedIn profile then
I did in 13 years on LinkedIn like as an actual professional you know insurance agent and entrepreneur and and then two weeks later
I was at the World Health Care Congress in front of everybody that I you know wanted to be in and at thats you know it’s just kind of Follow Your
follow your gut sometimes and luck I mean if you’re you know it sounds crazy but it’s like.
[36:09] That’s what I wanted to do what I was convicted on and a lot of walk on clinics growth has absolutely been due to.
Singing funny song parodies about health insurance and Health Care believe that you know so Frank
so Frank micdroppa is not only available on YouTube he’s not only available for video you actually do this live at conferences and yeah yes I do so I think the last video I did was actually.
[36:38] With the patient’s right Advocate Group we did it too and I,
I only do Sinatra I’m a one-trick pony so Sinatra only saying in his range so I only will parity Sinatra.
At least under this Frank might drop them on occur so high you’re ever going to run out of audience for that well you know I listen I love it I you know I learned singing,
you know from from my mom and my grandfather who actually passed away about a year and a half ago now but.
[37:07] I mean I love the music I grew up singing it and and I think I don’t know I just feel like it’s the right time and it what it does,
unintentionally it’s really just who I am but unintentionally it appeals to an older audience because they know the music but it’s in a content form that the younger audience consumes.
You know so so these let’s face it so Nitra is timeless.
[37:34] He just is so yeah I think it’s it’s brilliant and I’m going to.
Plug this thing right now for our audience and later after you give us your prescriptions I want to make sure that you remember to give us the spots where we can find Frank but now
this is not this is not Garth and Wayne and the basement this is
this is really high quality production work incredible sound work Wonderful lighting and incredible performance and all thanks so it the
you doing yourself a big favor audience if you’ll go in fine
frying Mike drop on YouTube because it’s not only funny it’s just fun to watch,
I promise you will at least smile or laugh you know if you go watch one or two videos you will guaranteed
you will smile or laugh because you’ll just be like what is this guy doing it’s
I think in one video from Girl from Ipanema I’m falling off of a unicorn into a pool on a float I did that one with a telemedicine company it was yeah it was fun I just you know I just like to have fun and when we when I go to these conferences it’s.
[38:51] It’s great to make people smile and that’s just I mean again I grew up a performer I was 12 years old,
singing the main stage of the Montreux jazz festival and Switzerland you know and so it’s a and then you stop doing that stuff as a kid.
And so to kind of have that outlet again even if it’s just Insurance conferences or whatever it’s a blast you know and it makes people happy and it brings some fun and entertainment.
And and at markets walk on Clinic you know so you know it does so yeah
well Chris listen I really enjoyed this conversation and I don’t want to hold you up any longer so before we get out of here it’s my turn to close my mic and get out of your way
and audience we’re going to get to here Christopher yarn give us his personal prescriptions for success.
[39:44] All right thanks I’d say my first prescription for success is get in alignment with your highest purpose so what you should what you know you should be doing every day.
Try and take action and do it.
And be alignment with it so when you go to sleep at night you feel good about how your day went and what you did my second prescription for success is to be thankful wake up every day and say thank you.
At least three times that you’re taking in breath again and you’re here and your present and you are able to.
[40:18] Go go create you know
the future that you want to create for yourself and and how you’re going to serve others that day and I’d say my third prescription for success is follow your intuition and gut you know follow that little,
Jiminy Cricket or conscious or whatever you want to call it when you feel good about something act on it when you don’t feel good about something or something seems too good to be true.
[40:43] Make a pivot and those are my three prescriptions for success and thanks for listening to me and enjoy the Frank might drop entertainment well thanks for sharing with us Chris it really has been
a lot of fun talking with you today before we completely let you out of here I want to give you an opportunity to give us,
anything that you want to share with our audience about how to how to find you the websites the LinkedIn,
all that stuff so yeah perfect go ahead yeah I would say if you like to get in touch with me.
[41:21] Best way to do that is typically by email or LinkedIn
email is see yarn cya RN just like a ball of yarn at walk on clinic and then I have to LinkedIn profiles I have Chris yarn my actual LinkedIn and then I have Frank micdroppa which I.
M unfortunately on more because more people message me on as Frank or know me as Frank than actually Chris so you can also go to the LinkedIn profile Frank micdroppa
and then obviously if you want more information you can go to the site walk on Clinic.com.
So you’re being eclipsed by your own Alter Ego the yes yes my Alter Ego is is taking over my my Chris yarn profile and I will tell you one funny story so
and this has happened multiple times I’ll go to a conference and I’ll perform is Frank like opening up the conference right and people will know Frank from LinkedIn.
[42:17] And then I’ll have a conversation with them I’ll have the whole getup on and then the next day I’ll be talking to them like I won’t have the Fedora on or the pork by on and they’re like,
I feel like I know you like how like I feel like I met you before and I’m like and I said I had a hat on yesterday like I guess this is how Superman got away with being Clark Kent I guess the disguises real you know so that’s actually happened twice so.
I mean yeah it’s a fun time so well thanks for sharing with us in thanks for being here Christopher yarn it’s been great.
Thanks Brenda.
[42:52] Music.
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