Why Monica McKitterick Fired the Healthcare System (and Built Her Own)

0:02Who's ready to rock today, Fire Nation, JLD here, and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire, brought to you by High Level Level, the all-in-one sales and marketing marketing.

0:30profitable, patient-first, DPC practices nationwide. And today we'll talk about the experience that made Monica fire the healthcare system, what direct primary care is, impact, family, wellness, what it is, how it works, the blocks, and oh, so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Monica and our sponsors. Are you ready for the ultimate all-in-one platform for entrepreneurs, marketers, coaches, and agencies? Build funnels, automate follow-ups, manage clients, and even white label your own software. Say hello to our featured partner, High Level, and visit highlevelfire.com to start your free trial today.

1:14Fire Nation, success isn't a solo journey. It's about who you surround yourself with. That's why I built the Freedom Circle, a powerful community of entrepreneurs ready to support, inspire, and share the ideas that move you forward. Visit freedom-circle.com to learn more. Monica, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. Well, I will absolutely say what's up to the world out there. So something I believe about success is that it shouldn't be tied to a number. And I think a lot of people do believe that it's based off of some sort of number, whether that's your income, your revenue, your number of clients, whatever that is.

2:01And I'm going to say that's crap. That's my take on that. Well, I love it. And Fire Nation, I love how Monica does take on the world. And why she fired the healthcare system and built her own is going to be the focal point of our conversation today. But I want to know, Monica, the actual experience that made you fire the healthcare system? Because we've all had our moments. We've all had just our banging our head against the wall moments, but you actually fired the healthcare system. Tell us that story. Yeah, I was done being treated like garbage and also treating my patients like cattle because that is not why I went into healthcare.

2:40I went to school for nine years to take care of human beings because I love people. I love relationships. I love seeing people be their best. and that is not at all what our healthcare system gives to patients nor providers. I was spending all of my time doing charting and working for people in the C-suite who had never taken a care of a patient a day in their life, but wanted to tell me that A, I wasn't doing my job well enough and that B, I wasn't doing it enough of it. And so I was just done with it. I don't tend to be an anxious person, but I was actually working for a business of medical practice.

3:15And the CEO was just this like, crazy, I know better than everybody else, even though he was not a healthcare provider. And no matter what I did, it was never good enough. And I was literally in yoga class and started crying because I was just so anxious about going back to work. And it was just ridiculous. And so it was kind of like my my breaking point of like, I can't do this anymore. I'd been a nurse practitioner for 10 years at that point. And I was, I was pretty done. And so it was at that point, I was like, I got to go figure out a better way to do it. And so here I am. Well, I definitely resonate with your story because both of my, well, I should say my mother and my sister.

3:54So both people in my family, both women in my family became nurses and both were incredibly disillusioned once they became nurses and kind of experienced what that actually looked like, you know, what you think it's going to be. And then the reality is quite different, at least in their experiences. And it sounds like it was the same for you as well. So that kind of moves us into direct primary care. What exactly is direct primary care in plain English? It's everything I went to school for. It is building relationships with patients. It's doing what's best for the patient and not for your profit.

4:30It is allowing your patients to talk to you and allowing me to listen to them. It's allowing me to do all of their issues at one visit instead of four. It allows me to take care of them in the way that I feel is best for them and what's best for what the patient feels is best for them. You know, some people want a magic pill and others don't. It is actually getting to the root cause of healthcare and talking about things like sleep and stress and nutrition and body movement, as opposed to what prescription I can give you to make you feel better. It is allowing patients to be seen the same day when they're sick instead of two weeks later when they might be dead by then.

5:12It's all about creating an environment that is comfortable and what patients ultimately want and deserve, and also a place where healthcare providers can do what they went to school for and what they have passions for. And so bottom line is it's taking care of people. It happens to be a membership-based, right? So we don't process insurance claims were much like Netflix for your doctor or affordable concierge. So it's under$100 a month and our patients get unlimited access to the office to get the care that they need, that is affordable, that is price transparent and everything that it should be.

5:46I love that. And for me, I've actually had an amazing relationship with a functional medicine doctor for nine years now. He's like my close confidant. I actually invested in his business because I believe so much in what he's doing about treating disease. Because in his words, like what are disease? It's dis-ease in the body. And how do we address that dis-ease? How do we get to the root cause of it? How do we actually find what is causing that to remove those problems so that we can move forward and become healthy individuals? And I've lived, Monica, I don't know if you know this, but I've actually lived in Puerto Rico for nine years now.

6:23I love the island. It's beautiful. It has incredible healthcare challenges though. I mean, we just are truly a third world country in a lot of ways. And the healthcare system is one of them. But one really interesting thing about Puerto Rico, that everybody that moves from the States down to the islands, they always have their first experience with a doctor, with a nurse, with whatever that might be. And they come back and they say, wow, like the person sat down and talked to me. Like they actually sat down, they talked to me, they want to know about my life, about my family, about who I was. Like they weren't rushing me out of the office.

6:56And in fact, they're like, sometimes they were just like talking too long. I'm like, don't you have patients like in the waiting room out there? And they're like continuing to have conversations. So of course there's a balance that needs to happen, but it's just really interesting to see that how far we've come, especially like in the United States, like in this quote unquote first world country when it comes to healthcare and how far away we are from actually treating what we should be treating, which are the root causes of dis-ease within in the body. So how exactly did you build impact family wellness?

7:29And maybe even more importantly, how the heck did you make it work? That's a great question because I have three degrees in nursing and not one in business. And so I had, I have no business being in this space at all. Um, but it was actually a Facebook ad that came to me that said primary care physician takes home $400 ,000 in a year and is home in time for dinner. That really sparked my interest. Uh, That clickbait worked like a champ. So props to those guys. But that really was the introduction for me into this model of direct primary care. And so I dove into it. And then I went to my husband who has an MBA.

8:06And I said, hey, husband, I'm going to open a practice where I can see less patients, take better care of them, have more control over time. And I'm going to make the same amount of money. And John, he straight up laughed in my face. He was like, Monica, that sounds great, but that's not real life. So I did more deep dive. I Googled how to write a business plan because chat GPT was not a thing then. So I actually had to write it myself. And basically said, I need$20 ,000. I'm going to start this practice in a new location, by the way. I'm going to move to a new state where no one knows who I am.

8:44I have no following of patients. And I'm going to start a new model of healthcare. and I'm going to do it. And you know, my husband said, okay, Monica, we'll do that. So I did. I relocated to the state of Texas, um, opened my doors and really just had a plan to give myself a job. I just wanted to give myself a job that I didn't hate and that I could do what I wanted to. Well, I did a ton of networking, a ton of marketing, learned all the mistakes. I was the janitor for a long time. Um, and then quickly realized that this is a service people want and they need, they just don't know it exists. Nobody's Googling direct primary care.

9:22So Google ads don't work for us. It's a lot of education. All I do all day long is educate people on the fact that there is an alternative to crappy healthcare with our broken system. And so it just kept growing and growing and more and more people wanted our service. And so I actually expanded it. I now have three office locations. I have seven nurse practitioners that work for me. We take care of over 2 ,200 patients, and I actually don't see patients anymore. I am just the CEO. I just run this joint and trying to take over the world one patient at a time. Well, I would say you are slowly but surely doing that.

9:57So congratulations, Monica. I know you're going to be inspiring a lot of people who are listening to this episode to maybe reexamine what they're doing and how it could look different. And we have a lot more to talk about around this topic when we get back from thanking our sponsors. Okay, let's talk about a platform that's completely changing how entrepreneurs are running their business. And they are also our featured partner, High Level. If you're an entrepreneur, coach, agency, or course creator looking to grow faster and smarter, High Level is the all-in-one platform that replaces your entire tech stack.

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12:18Four out of five employers who post on ZipRecruiter get a quality candidate within the first day. And if you go to ZipRecruiter.com slash fire right now, you can try it for free. Again, that's ziprecruiter.com slash fire. Zip Recruiter, the smartest way to hire. Monica, we're back and you won the Blocks. That is B-L-O-X. So first off, what is the Blocks and how did winning it change your path? Absolutely. So the Blocks is the nation's largest entrepreneur competition. It is put on by Wes Bergman. And he was on The Real World back in the day. And so it's a competition where I was competing against 120 other business owners.

13:06It was recorded in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I was on season 18 of The Blocks and I won. I won$10 ,000 and was deemed best business owner there, I guess, is what you could call it. And so I came out of that with so much like drive, right? And as a overachiever and a people pleaser to a fault, I was like, I have to open 12 more clinics and I have to do it today, right? Because that's how I can take over the world. Well, that quickly led to lots of burnout and like physical illness. And so through a lot of journaling, tears and therapy, I realized that I was not chasing my definition of success. I was chasing what I thought everybody else thought I should be doing.

13:50Cause if I can have three clinics, why can't I have 10? Right? Because that's how you really take over the world. Um, but I realized that every new clinic took more and more out of me. And then when I went back to the reason I opened this practice, it was to have more control of my time, not less. And so I admitted out loud that I didn't want to open any more clinics. And my husband said, cool, that's fine. And I was like, wait, what? You're okay with that? And he was like, yeah, of course. Like you did this to regain control of your time, not lose it. Um, so then I had to rethink like, how am I going to change the world if I'm not going to open more clinics?

14:22And the answer is I need other people to open more clinics, but I don't need crappy healthcare providers to open direct primary care clinics. I need the best primary, uh, healthcare providers to open these clinics. So I decided to write a book and I wrote a book about who should be opening this practice. It's not a how to open a direct primary care practice. It's a, are you the right person? So it's really written for healthcare providers who are looking for a different way out. Um, but I only need the best of the best. I don't need mediocre healthcare providers because then you're going to ruin the name of direct primary care that I'm trying to let the whole world know exists.

14:59So wrote a book and then made a course that goes along with it. For those that do decide this is the place for them to, um, then you know, actually open their own practice from how do you establish an LLC to a bank account to marketing and all the things. So, uh, the blocks really changed my trajectory from opening multiple clinics to letting other people do it. And then, you know, ultimately my goal in life is to make sure that the entire world understands what direct primary care is so that it is the norm and not the exception. That's my goal. Fire Nation. I think we all need to have goals that align with our values And, you know, maybe not everybody's going to have quite the supportive and understanding part of the Monica has.

15:40But at the end of the day, we need to know exactly what we're doing and why we're doing it before we just drive forward, sometimes off a cliff. So I want to know about the DPC Launch Kit. And of course, DPC standing for direct primary care. So what's the launch kit and who's it for, Monica? Absolutely. So the launch kit is really the online course. So I created the DPC formula. That's the brand behind my book that is DPC, Dream Job or Total Disaster. And then the launch kit is an eight module course that walks a healthcare provider who decided, yes, I want to not be burnout and I want to do what I love and I want to open a clinic, but I don't know how.

16:21And so instead of being where I was six and a half years ago, like, um, so what's an LLC and how do I do that? it walks them through step-by-step what they need to do from LLC to GPO to EMRs, all the things that you need to successfully launch a practice. It'll take you from idea to launch. Fire Nation, who doesn't want to go from idea to launch? I mean, we need that method. We need that proven system because there are people that have come before us who have been there and done that. We, and by we, I mean many of us, most of us, if not all of us, are standing upon the shoulders of giants. And we just need to recognize that and learn from those who have come before us.

17:02And your definition of success, Monica, I mean, it's really changed. So what advice would you give to those who are struggling with both being successful and defining what success is? Yeah, I would say it's a very personal thing. And like I said in the beginning, if your definition of success has a number in it, I'm going to tell you it's wrong because you can chase numbers, but as soon as you reach that number, guess what? You're going to find another number. And so you can set goals. I think goals are a great thing to have with, with numbers, but when you really define success, it's really a matter of what, what does your life want to look like?

17:42I think that's what I find success in. And to me, that means traveling when I want to travel, spending time with my family when it matters the most. And really just surrounding myself with people that I love and that appreciate me. And to the rest of them, they can be somewhere else. And so I would say it took me a lot of journaling because I've been chasing what I thought everybody else thought was success, right? From my GPA to what my major in college was. Let's be honest, I didn't really, I went to college as a biomedical engineering pre-med major because it sounded cool. Not because I had any clue what that meant.

18:26Right. But when you say that to people, they're like, Oh, wow. Right. And that's what I was going for. Yeah. Not at all. What I actually wanted to do. Engineering is not my jam for sure. For sure. I would have been miserable. So thankfully I changed before I got there. But I think so much of us chase what we think everyone else thinks we should be doing and not what we truly want deep down in your heart. So figure out what that is and follow that dream to success, not a number. Monica, I love that. And one thing I ask people from time to time is, have you ever sat down and written out what a perfect day in your life would be?

19:08from the moment you wake up to what are you doing? Are you walking your dog? Are you going to work out? What are you doing right when you wake up until the moment you're closing your eyes at night? Like, what does a perfect, perfect day look like? And of course, we're never gonna have our perfect day seven days a week. But now at least you have something that you can look at and say, okay, this is a perfect day. Maybe one, two, four days a week, I can achieve something very close to that perfect day. and sometimes maybe more depending on how you design your life. So something to really think about Fire Nation to at least have an understanding about what that could look like and move towards something that's truly meaningful to you that's going to make you happy, fulfilled going forward in this short, short, short life that we have.

19:55So Monica, you wrote a book. Give us a little update about that, where Fire Nation can go to consume that content, to read that book. Any call to action you have for our listeners and then we'll say goodbye. Absolutely. So my book is on Amazon, but you can, uh, so you can search for it there or the DPC formula.com is my domain where you can find my book, my kit, my launch kit, all the things. If you have more questions about this whole direct primary care thing, right? So my office is in central Texas. So if you're in Texas, we're the best one in all of Texas. It's called impact family wellness.

20:28We are impact family wellness on all of the social channels. But if you're not in Central Texas, you can still find a direct primary care office near you. If you Google direct primary care mapper, there's a map of all of the DPCs across the entire country. So if you are in search of a healthcare provider who actually cares and wants to really take care of you, then go find one because we need everybody to have a DPC provider, not just those that have been able to find it. So yeah, that's my biggest call to action is if you've never heard of DPC, my guess is somebody else has never heard of DPC.

21:04So help me spread the word because 10 years from now, I actually want my book to be null and void. Like there's no reason for the book because everybody knows what DPC is. And there's so many DPC clinics that you don't need to know how it's just normal. Like that's what everybody does. So that's my goal. I need your help. Go tell somebody about this thing called direct primary care. Well, fire nation loves being part of worthy missions. And this is an incredibly worthy mission. So Fire Nation, take up this flame, take up this torch and drive forward with Monica because you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with.

21:37You've been hanging out with MM and JLD today. So keep up that heat. And for links to everything we talked about, visit eofire.com. Just type Monica in the search bar and the show notes page will pop right up. Monica, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation today. for that. We salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side. Thanks so much, John. Hey, Fire Nation, a huge thank you to our sponsors and Monica for sponsoring today's episode and Fire Nation. Over the last decade, I've interviewed more than 4 ,000 of the world's most successful entrepreneurs, and I've created a revolutionary 17-step roadmap to your financial freedom and fulfillment.

22:16I put it all into my first traditionally published book, The Common path to uncommon success, personally endorsed by Seth Godin and Gary Vaynerchuk. The common path to uncommon success is the step-by-step guidance that you need to achieve the lifestyle of your dreams. Visit UncommonSuccessBook.com. I'll catch you there or on the flip side. Are you ready for the ultimate all-in-one platform for entrepreneurs, marketers, coaches, and agencies? Build funnels, automate follow-ups, manage clients, and even white label your own software, say hello to our featured partner, High Level, and visit highlevelfire.com to start your free trial today.

23:00Fire Nation, success isn't a solo journey. It's about who you surround yourself with. That's why I built the Freedom Circle, a powerful community of entrepreneurs ready to support, inspire, and share the ideas that move you forward. Visit freedom-circle.com to learn more.