[INTRODUCTION]
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[EPISODE]
Christopher Habig
Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Healthcare Americana. I'm your host Christopher Habig, the CEO, co-founder of Freedom Healthworks. Today we have a repeat offender as our guest, Dr. Eddie Williams of Foundation Direct Primary Care. Dr. Williams has not only been on this show a couple of times and you can catch his fantastic episodes on our website, healthcareamericana.com, but he is also a dedicated physician, which is pretty obvious, but also a very dedicated father and with that being the split of the physician and the father, he is also a business owner as you could probably imagine with Foundation Direct Primary Care. He's with us to share his experiences with trials and tribulations of fatherhood, practicing medicine and how his lifestyle is impacted by being a business owner. Dr. Williams, it is always a pleasure to welcome you to Healthcare Americana, my friend.
Dr. Edward Williams
Yeah, thank you for having me again.
Christopher Habig
Now let's start, well let's build the backstory a little bit. So you're down in the Mobile Bay area of Alabama. You've been up and practicing for, my, has it been three, four years now?
Dr. Edward Williams
Started in 2021 don't make me do math, but I think it's like third year.
Christopher Habig
I guess three, I think that's three, that's three down there. Hugely successful, you've upgraded offices already, you've started a branch from your normal DPC practice, specializing more in men's health, I guess is the easiest way to say that. And what kind of struck me when we're looking at this episode and being able to build a relationship with you over the years is how much you bring your family life into it. Father of four young kids. And we were just chatting offline that it's really interesting because when we talk to physicians about the concierge and DPC models, it is overwhelmingly female physicians. And we just don't get the family first attitude from a lot of the male physicians out there. And I know you have some insights on why that may be just from your colleagues and compatriots here.
But you know, I want to start this show by really diving into your journey with fatherhood, with medicine, being a dad, being a doctor, and how many people I think will see those two roles as very disparate and say, look, I either need to be focused on my family or I need to be a doctor. I can't be both. But here you are saying, you know what? That's not true at all. You can do everything there and still be able to go see your kids at night and have a successful practice.
Dr. Edward Williams
Yeah, so that's a lot. We'll try to break it down a little bit. yeah, I guess going back to why you're seeing more females. Kind of going the DPC route versus males and I have no data to support what I'm about to say. This is all just opinion is probably not gonna be politically correct, so forgive me.
I would argue that the females, physicians, providers, they just have a better grip on probably what's important. Family is just super important. Not saying that the guys don't have that ability to kind of focus on that, but I don't know if I was fortunate or unfortunate enough to get thrown into a system where when I started fee-for-service back in like 2019 or so I got thrown into a location where the doctor, was retiring and I mean they threw him a goodbye party. He's been there for like 25 years and they you know let him go with a donut party essentially and thanked him for his service. And he moved back home, which I believe was in Indiana. So he moves home, but I got to work with them for a couple of months while they were transitioning and got to know he had three kids, they all moved away, never sees them anymore. And one of his bigger regrets was that he didn't spend as much time as he would like to when they were young, when they were kids growing up, because when he retired he just kind of moved away and I kind of lost contact with him. But I guess that planted the seed.
I didn't even know I was looking for this kind of stuff, but then I'm sure you've heard my story many a time, especially you, but then you go down the DPC path and you start to understand that you can dictate a lot of your schedule to revolve around helping your family with family stuff.
I cannot think of a better way to be a good dad than to set your own schedule so that you don't miss things that normally you would miss if you're working from nine to five. If my kids have something going on like a field trip or an activity that seems fun, I wanna go, I don't wanna be at work, kidding me? I'll just block my schedule. Yeah, let's go to the zoo, that sounds cool.
Just the freedom to do that and share those experiences with them as they grow up is I think just absolutely unbelievable. And we're homeschooling our kids. So just the ability to if they have, you know, something going on where I think I would be a benefit to, you know, lend my hand in teaching. I mean, we're doctors, so we're teachers as well.
I taught residents so I think I can handle a six year old. Maybe. We'll see. But.
Christopher Habig
That sounds like a tall order there. A little bit different of a demographic. I think to jump in there, it's really profound what you're saying is that you have the flexibility and I'm kind of sitting here giving you the silent thumbs up every time you say you got the freedom to be able to do it. Just insert our little brand identity in there. So I appreciate that.
But it's almost like you're saying like I don't identify strictly as a physician. I'm not going to just say I'm a doctor and nothing else. And I think that's where you were talking about a lot of the male physicians out there are really gung-ho about patient care and really gung-ho about healing people and treating people that that's all they really identify as. And, you know, for me, our personal story, like when I go to events and I meet somebody new like the worst question it just kind of makes me cringe is when someone says so Chris what do you do and I'm like well shoot I love watching movies with my family like I'm that a**hole who's like going through and saying I like to make sure that like my backyard is nice and you know I got a nice bourbon collection. And they kind of look at me funny. I'm like you mean how do I pay bills? You know what I do for work well here's what I do for a living you know. But so many people are like, so hey, what do you do? And they're saying, I'm a doctor. And I've just always been allergic to letting my profession be my identification and dictate who I am as a person. But I feel like you were saying a lot of the male physicians do fall into that, where they're a doctor and that's it.
Dr. Edward Williams
Yeah, and nothing against them. I mean, if that's what you want to do, that's great. The better, I mean, you always want your physicians to be focused. I would just recommend to think of something else to do because if you get your physician mist taken away from you, what do you have? I would suggest that, you know, just kind of take a step back, detach a little bit and kind of look at things from what are you going to be happy you did? What do wish you did when you were, you know, you're 80 years old? And I'm speaking from a perspective of being a dad with young kids. Obviously, when they're old and they're moved out and they're adults, I bet I spend a lot more time working because, you know, we don't have school in the mornings, stuff like that. So that's my perspective.
And I just kind of feel bad for the guys or just really anybody that has that regret. And I think I just learned that really early and fortunately like when my kids were still young to be able to go…This is important. This is what everybody regrets missing. Every time I talk to somebody that's older or retiring or something like that, they wish they had more time at this stage. I'm not going to squander that. And I just wish that more people had the experience that I had, which was somebody just, you know, bringing that to my attention. So I don't have to have that regret later in life.
But I mean, if you love what you do and you're doing the best that you can and you're happy, then who am I to say that to discontinue that? So two each their own, but I just feel like I see a lot more guys out there really focused in on the stuff that in 50 years, 60 years, when they look back, they're gonna go, man, I know your kids don't remember the days that you spent at work. They remember the days that you took them to Chick-fil-A or something.
Christopher Habig
Absolutely. And as you're talking, the thing that kind of popped in my mind is that when we talk to doctors about, because we know that if we're ever going to work with somebody, that we have to really educate them on this model and what it really brings to it. And the people that do really, really well are the people who in their minds have already said, look, if I don't go make a change in how I practice medicine, I'm going to leave medicine. And I think that's the biggest kind of point of you got to reach that point of no return, I guess is the right way to say that. Where you're saying, look, I can't take this anymore from what the hospital is doing or whatever, wherever you're working. If I don't go find a different way to practice medicine, I am okay walking away from this. And that is a big, that's a big hurdle to overcome with the time and the energy and the money that we ask people to put into becoming physicians. But that just kind of struck me when you're, as you're talking there, that if you're so ingrained in the system that you're unable to walk away. You're not going to be successful in this model. You're not going be able to inject enough of your personality to build your practice up just like you have done.
So I do want to talk about the aspects of being a business owner, building a business, and still juggling and being very involved with a handful, I would say, of young children. And you might use a more descriptive word for handful, but got younger kids and you want to be active in it. So what are the challenges that you saw from being a business owner, building up the practice, but then not losing sight of that family dynamic?
Dr. Edward Williams
Man, I don't know, I feel like I'm selfish or maybe not the best person to answer this question because I feel like it wasn't a challenge, it wasn't a big issue because there's just so much you can do that's automated and kind of takes your stress level down as far as building the business goes. Obviously, thing, mean, being a dad to four young children, A, my wife does, my wife is like, her back hurts from carrying the team, I guarantee you. Shout out to Tammy, I would not be able to do this at all without her, first of all.
But, being a business owner and with young kids, mean, the timing was perfect because they don't have to go to, they're not in college, they're not in expensive things, just, mean, diapers are expensive, but they aren't situated in a spot where me making a big change was gonna be that detrimental. So selfishly, it was a good time to start the business. And if you're happy at home and things are going well at home, that leads over into how your attitude is with the business and with starting anything. I think my patients or prospective patients are the people that I'm going after really feel your energy and your attitude towards something. And if you're happy and excited and kind of letting your audience know that they'll be attracted to you based off of that energy as well. I think being a dad at home and being happy at home has bled over and made me a better businessperson. Because one thing leads to the other and if you're happy at home, you're gonna be happy at your job. If you're unhappy at your job, you're gonna be unhappy at home. So it really works hand in hand to kind of set yourself up for success. With that too, I have no idea if that answered your question, but I just got up on a rant, sorry.
Christopher Habig
That's where these deep, questions, you know, and looking at your family dynamics and yeah, it takes a support team because business is, business in general is, you know, there's some financial stress that can come along with it. And if you don't have a support team there to say, that was a bad month last month, let's get this month and get out there and we can adjust. Without a support team, you're gonna really, really struggle.
And it's always funny since we started this business, there have been very few people where we haven't met spouses or parents or financial. We meet the support team and that's what's always fascinating about it to see like, okay, this person's got a great support team behind them. We think they're going to be really successful going out here and being able to do this.
When you were kind of explaining, for the part of the business ownership and then what it takes to get up and going. I'm thinking back on poor Mrs. Dr. Williams over there and I hope you've gotten her like a Sprinter van or something to carry the team around. We recently joined the minivan life and we're actually kind of loving it right now. But I know you had an old truck. Is the truck still kicking around?
Dr. Edward Williams
No, no, I sold that to my dad. He lowballed me, but that's fine. Yeah, Pops, he took the truck. I got a Toyota Corolla and I feel like I'm breaking it every time I sit in there. And my wife got a Suburban in January. And it is awesome. I refuse to get a minivan. They're tough to get through the woods. So I had to get a suburban that had a four wheel drive.
Christopher Habig
Wait a minute you said you have the Corolla. So you taking the Corolla turkey hunting is that's what I heard?
Dr. Edward Williams
Not very, it doesn't work very well in those situations. We have different vehicles for that though. But the Corolla can drive to the moon and back with one tank of gas, so we're good.
Christopher Habig
That's fair. That's fair. That's a little community vehicle. I always got to ask, know, when people have families like that, it's like the vehicle situation is one of those things that, it's like, man, you just never really see it coming. It makes sense, but it's, yeah, like I said, we joined the minivan life and I'm like, you know what, especially with the little newborn, we just take the little car seat, plop it right there, you're not hoisting it up. It's like, this is quite nice. So, you never knew this interview would actually turn into an endorsement for minivan life.
Dr. Edward Williams
Or suburbans, yeah.
Christopher Habig
The minivan life or the Suburbans. There you go. There you go.
Dr. Eddie, looking at our past conversations and where you are with Foundation DPC. You're branching out into men's health and kind of building a little subsidiary there. What's next for you? What's the next? I say this as a term of endearment. What's the next crazy idea you got stewing away?
Dr. Edward Williams
Well, we're at the point where we're comfortable, the men's health thing. I just think that's just part of the DPC practice. I think primary care has to encompass men's health. And especially with, just how they're going, that's getting really popular. As it needs to be. I feel like that's an underserved aspect of our communities, is getting our men to feel good. There's not many practices or physicians or anybody around this area that's kind of doing the thing that I'm doing. There's some big box places that I'm sure you could look up, but I feel like they don't offer what I offer, which is a kind of personalized tuning in of your situation and I've got plenty.
I'd say the practice is about 40% men's health, which is just a blanket for the DPC. And then the regular. Then probably the rest are typical DPC primary care type situations. The men's health guys still get primary care, don't get me wrong, it's just that they join up for a different reason. The DPC people usually sign up for.
But in the future, probably within the next year, I'll be looking to take on an extender of some sort, PA or nurse practitioner. We'll see. But right now, we're just kind of pruning the bushes and getting the practice as streamlined as possible, which is going fine.
Christopher Habig
Fantastic. Any advice you want to share out there for physicians? You know, we can focus on male physicians out there who aren't really happy in the hospital world and are admitting to themselves, hey, this can't continue to go on. I got to make a switch. Any words of wisdom?
Dr. Edward Williams
Yeah, so what pushed me over the edge was I was driving to my food for service job and just counting the half days to Friday and just would go home and look in the mirror and go like this is horrible. You're being poisoned. You can do better than this. And if you're feeling that way, like you know this path that you're going down is going to lead to detriment and poison and you're going to be a worse father. You're going to be a worse husband. Like, you know that's going to happen. If that's who you are and that's the path you're on, then think about going down this other path.
So when I made that decision, I was like, this is where I'm going. This is what it's going to lead to. I don't know what this other path is going to do, but I'm willing to roll the dice and gamble that it's going to be better than what I'm heading down right now. And the gamble definitely paid off. I cannot imagine going back to what I was doing prior to this. It's unbelievable.
Christopher Habig
Have you ever, the Mrs. Dr. Williams ever said, you know what, I really wish you were back working in the hospital?
Dr. Edward Williams
Depends on the day. Sometimes she likes me, sometimes she does not. And on the does not days, she wishes I was a lot of places. Especially away from her. I'm just teasing she's great. No she hated me feeling bad and me feeling like previously described, just poisonous. It was just seething out of me and that was not gonna lead to good things. But as all relationships go, we have good days and have bad days. And on the bad days, she either sends me to work or to the woods, which is fine. I'm okay with that.
Christopher Habig
I can see the pain in your face there when you said that. Well, Dr. Eddie Williams, Foundation DPC, just one of our best repeat offenders on here. I always appreciate having you take a moment out of your day to come back on the podcast and chat with us about our wide-ranging myriad number of topics. But I appreciate you being a guiding light for so many docs out there and showing people that, hey, a better life is possible. And being happy as a physician is definitely within grasp.
Dr. Edward Williams
Yeah, thank you so much again.
Christopher Habig
And to our listeners, thank you for joining us on this episode of Healthcare Americana. We hope you found today's discussion insightful and above all, very inspiring. If you enjoy the show, please leave us a rating review on your favorite podcast platform. For more episodes and the latest output dates, visit our website once again at healthcareamericana.com.
I'm Christopher Habig reminding you to stay informed, stay healthy and stay empowered. Until next time, take care.
[OUTRO]
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[END]