Dr. T  0:00  
Owners of a direct care practice are more likely to experience higher job satisfaction than the insurance based practice. And it's no wonder why direct care is independent of insurance. Patients pay the doctor directly for their expertise, the doctor gets full autonomy in how they care for patients and how they get paid. They have chosen this path with a love of medicine. This is the direct care way. 

Dr. T  0:24  
By listening to this podcast, you may even start to believe that you too can have a successful direct care practice. Come listen with an open mind as I share my personal journey, and how I pivoted from an insurance based practice to direct care right in the middle of the pandemic. And the valuable lessons along the way. This podcast may be the very thing you need to revitalize your medical practice. I'm your host, owner of a direct care podiatry practice Dr. Tea Nguyen.

Dr. T  0:52  
Welcome to the last episode of The Year of 2022. This is number 46. And this will be the end of the year reflection that I want to share with you. So just take a moment, take a deep breath, and enjoy the next 10 minutes or less. Today, there is an important practice that all successful entrepreneurs do. And that is to reflect on how far they've gotten to be where they're at today. And I want to invite you to do the same look back to where you've been what you've gone through to see where you're at today. There's a quote that I love to repeat. And it said, as of today, you have survived all of your heart days when I take this to mean is that we are warriors, we don't quit when things get hard. Even if we wanted to. We can take breaks, we can step away, we can even pivot we don't actually quit. And we're still here, it's really easy to get stuck in the puddle of self pity to drown in despair, to wallow inner self created misery. And it's really okay to have these emotions, these experiences. But to stay in that space, it's a personal choice that you don't have to take, you can choose to look at it differently, you can choose to have a different experience in that of all this shit that I've been through from almost getting kicked out of my residency program. 

Dr. T  2:22  
That was the time where he talked about being muzzled and medicated, you know, that was a really bad time. For me, I was in a really, really dark place. And even to When I had finished my fellowship program, and I asked for a letter of recommendation by somebody who I trusted, and thought would give me a good letter of rec, they wrote me the exact opposite of everything you can even think of it was a complete surprise to me until after the fact. And I didn't even know until somebody politely called me and said, By the way, one of your letter of recommendations was not very positive, you might want to reconsider who you ask if you really want this person to keep sending out letters on your behalf. And I was so confused. Well, that will be a story for another day. So anyway, and then yeah, and then I actually got kicked out of a coaching program. So you know, like, there is a theme and the common theme. And all of these experiences was me, I was in the midst of this drama, in residency, I was the person who got this horrendous letter of recommendation. And I was the one that got kicked out of a coaching program that I really was enjoying at the time until I didn't. 

Dr. T  3:37  
And I could look at all of these experiences and say poor me, woe is me, or, you know, life was shitty, right? I could have just sat there and believe that those memories were true, that I was the victim and all these scenarios. But if you know me by now, I don't see it that way at all, the way I see it. And the way that I hope you see it as well is that these experiences have shaped me to who I am to be an empathetic person who understands when someone else is hurting, or can have compassion for somebody who is just a little bit different. And through that, to have compassion for myself, because life is really hard. And it's it can also be really easy all at the same time. And you're probably wondering how that could be? Well, if you appreciate the experiences that come from the good and the bad, and you find opportunities in them, then you can move through them through the hard times with relative ease, because you've now had experience and it's just easier to get through them and get past them to move on to the next thing. I remember when I was getting kicked out of a year long coaching program and feeling incredibly hurt because at that point, I've gotten to know the group really well and have connected with them. But suddenly I get this private message on the side saying you're not fit for them. program you need to move on, essentially. 

Dr. T  5:02  
And now that I'm on the other side, I can say that that was the opportunity I needed to start this podcast, to start my coaching program, and to open myself up to be with other people who were more like me, the crazy dreamers who were determined to help people in our own special way, I might even get emotional recording this because I feel a great sense of gratitude for being able to see through the fog through the uncertainty of what was to come next, after all of these awful experiences, they essentially were character building, and if nothing else, they were great stories for me to tell, the good that came out of my unpleasant experiences, is that I'm still here. And I'm still going to show up for people who need to hear my story. And I can still help people where I can and with what I have, I'm not going to be jaded by these seemingly singular incidents, and try to generalize a whole population of people. I don't think that would be fair or right. These were individual incidences that had a common thread, which was me, so I had to choose how I wanted to view those experiences and grow from them. If you're going through some hard times, right now, I want to offer you some peace. If you're up for it. I know it might even be hard to hear through your pain. So please come back to this. 

Dr. T  6:32  
When you're ready to hear it again. It might resonate differently. I want to acknowledge that you are human, and you are allowed to feel hurt. Your emotions are real. But let's hope that they are transient and even motivating. What if I told you you're supposed to learn something from this pain? What would that lesson be for you because life has a funny way of repeating itself. When you don't learn from it. The first time, I'll share with you what I was supposed to learn. As I was getting pushed out of my residency program or even from my coaching program, I learned that I wasn't the victim, that I had to build confidence in myself to be able to stand up for myself and see what other opportunities existed. When I almost got kicked out of my residency program, I learned that I was a lot stronger than I believed myself to be at the time that my voice mattered that other people had the same experiences. But whether they were too afraid to share and show up and I wanted to be the person who wasn't afraid. So I learned that I could do that for myself and for others know about the time where you know, I got kicked out of my coaching program, that was pretty shitty, too. But what I got from that is so much more, so much more than I can ask for, I created a tangible product, this podcast that you're listening to,

Dr. T  7:53  
I create a coaching program that just launched his first cohort. And now I'm getting ready for the second cohort in January of 2023. I'm helping a lot of physicians find value in themselves, so that they can create a direct care practice that aligns with their values, and brings them joy. So these were the things that I probably wouldn't get to had I not gone through those experiences. So in all of that, what I learned is that my feelings were mine to control. I had no control over how others treated me. But I do have full control in how I responded and how I treat myself. So I chose to be more kind to myself, when I gave myself grace. And it wasn't hard on myself for not getting it right all the time, then it gave me room to mature it gave me clarity, to see things a little bit differently as well. Now, this is the last episode for the year 2022. And I have so much to be grateful for I opened my private practice from the ground up, I built it to be exactly how I envisioned practicing medicine was going to be like I'm doing all of the procedures that I want to do almost exclusively at this point. 

Dr. T  9:08  
And I have freedom in my schedule to do whatever I want. Literally, I can go shopping, if I wanted to, I can go get my nails done, I can write an article, I can continue on podcasting, all of these things that I could not do when I was tied up in the insurance space practices because I was fussing around with administrative work and full schedules and all of those things. So I am incredibly grateful for what I have for being right here. And I am very grateful that you're here with me too. And with that, I hope that you gain a little piece of gym a little piece of hope from this episode that you too can create the life that you want. As long as you know that you are in full control with your thoughts in how you feel and how you direct your future. I'm wishing you a bolder more back Add after a year for you in 2023. I'll see you on the other side. Take care. 

Dr. T  10:07  
Thank you so much for being here with me. If you enjoyed this episode and want to hear more, please like, share and subscribe so more people like you can have access to another way of practicing medicine, that direct care way. Let's connect find my info in the show notes and send me your questions. That might be the topic for future episodes. 

Dr. T  10:27  
And lastly, if you remember nothing else, remember this be the energy you want to attract. See you next time.