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- [00:00]
Jennifer McKenney
The healthcare, healthcare world has developed. So I, in the first couple of years was already getting burnt out and I'd worked so hard to get to that point. I had a one year old at home. I was crying between patients. You know, I mean, it was just not a good situation because I wanted to care for people so badly, but also I had to do all the paperwork and everything to get paid. That's when I said, okay, I have to figure out something different. And we figured out a way to have scribes take care of our documentation.
- [00:29]
Podcast Intro/Outro Voice
Who.
- [00:29]
Jennifer McKenney
So then I was like, okay, this is, this is life changing for me. I was enjoying practicing medicine. I wasn't having to sit there and type in front of my patients and. And I could just do what I loved. And. And then as I told my colleagues, whether locally or across the country, what I was doing, they were like, how can I do that too? So.
- [00:46]
Narrator/Announcer
Jennifer McKenney is an award winning, nationally recognized and dedicated family physician, rural healthcare leader and founder of the Remote Scribe Company. She is also the Associate Dean for Rural Medical Education at the University of Kansas School of Medicine.
- [01:00]
Jennifer McKenney
One of the things that we fail to do sometimes is we don't say yes when we could have said yes. Say yes to that position that you weren't sure you were qualified for. Say yes, because if you don't say yes, then somebody else is going to say yes. And maybe your passion, your vision, your values aren't going to be represented. Said yes to a lot of things that I wasn't quite sure about doing, but say yes and just see what happens. And I think really great things can happen from that.
- [01:31]
Podcast Intro/Outro Voice
It spans the globe like a super high cold Internet. Elvis Presley. Today, Apple is going to reinvent the phone. It's not over until I win. The Living youg Legacy Podcast. For those who live to leave a legacy that's extraordinary. The impossible has been. Oh, that is sensational. Jordan Open Chicago with the lead. You said Paul is the fastest man on the planet. You can live your dream.
- [02:06]
Jason Tyler
Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to the Living youg Legacy podcast. I'm your host for today, Jason Tyler. And today I AM joined by Ms. Jennifer Bacani McKenney. I wanted to make sure I got all the names in there.
- [02:16]
Jennifer McKenney
All of them. Yep, got it.
- [02:17]
Jason Tyler
Got it. Jennifer, welcome to the show.
- [02:19]
Jennifer McKenney
First of all, thank you for having me.
- [02:20]
Jason Tyler
Thank you for being here. Now we're about to go into filming your episode of Women in Power. First of all, are you excited?
- [02:28]
Jennifer McKenney
I am super excited. It's, it's really. It's fun to be here, even be outside of Kansas. So Miami's great.
- [02:33]
Jason Tyler
You know, welcome to sunny South Florida. The weather's you. You picked a great time of year where it's not boiling hot out. It's still pretty hot. But, you know, for the viewers, for the audience out there, what would you say is like the number one thing that you want them to be able to take away from your story?
- [02:51]
Jennifer McKenney
You know, I think that one of the most important messages that I would like to share, I guess, with the, with the world out there is I'm a small town doctor. I'm born and raised in rural Kansas. And I just want to make sure that people know the value of the people that live in small towns in the middle of the, of the country, in the Midwest that people call the flyover zone. We're doing big things. We're helping people across the country in various ways. And I just want to share those things with people listening that there are great things happening in small packages.
- [03:30]
Jason Tyler
I mean, you guys got a couple of Super Bowls over there.
- [03:33]
Jennifer McKenney
We do.
- [03:34]
Jason Tyler
I think there's a lot more eyes on Kansas City nowadays than there might have been maybe 10 years ago. But talk to me a little bit about. You're, you're in a unique position that I don't find a lot of our clients to be in, which is you're an owner of multiple businesses, right. And you've got a couple of brick and mortars and then you have this one national business. Talk to me about what it's like owning and operating more than one business at a time, because I'm sure, like, you start one and you're like, well, I've kind of hired my way out of being the owner operator. Now let me start another one. But what's it, what's your day to day like?
- [04:10]
Jennifer McKenney
It's complicated, I guess, right? That's like your social media status. It's complicated. Yeah, no, it's, it's, it's exciting because I surround myself with people that I trust to help do the work day to day. And that's. That I think is one of the key parts of, of having multiple businesses is just knowing that you have teams in each area that are, that are doing the work and you, you don't have to micromanage and oversee all the time. But yeah, I started as a family physician and historically we doctors are not great at finances and business and things like that. I hate to say that, but it's kind of like we have these sciencey brains and then it pushes out all the other stuff.
- [04:55]
Jason Tyler
My dad falls victim to that.
- [04:56]
Jennifer McKenney
Yeah, that's right.
- [04:57]
Jason Tyler
He's a psychologist, and he handles the doctor part of the business. And my mom handles literally everything.
- [05:04]
Jennifer McKenney
Yes, it's really a thing. You start your. Your practice and. And a lot of people, most people actually these days are employed physicians because, I mean, it is hard to figure out the finances and the hiring and firing and. And all the. All the things that go along with the practice. But I decided to join my dad, who is a general surgeon and in our hometown of Fredonia, Kansas, and he had a private practice for. For 30 years before I started there. And then I joined, and he just said, okay, Jen's taken over. You figure it out. And I'm like, all right, thanks.
- [05:36]
Jason Tyler
Handed over the keys to the family business.
- [05:38]
Jennifer McKenney
Exactly. But you had to figure it out all of a sudden. So it was just out of necessity, like, what are we doing right? What are we doing wrong? And in that whole process, I was like, hey, you know, this business stuff is not so bad. And being able to manage people and kind of set the vision for the clinic and what we wanted to represent and what our values were and how we were going to care for people, that was really important to me, and it was really exciting. So then in the process, I'm trying to see patients and just be the best doctor I can be. But as the healthcare world has developed, we doctors have just so much more documentation burden, so many more faxes and messages and prior authorizations and things like that that come at us every single day. So I, in the first couple of years, was already getting burnt out, and I had worked so hard to get to that point, and I had a. One year I was crying between patients. You know, I mean, it was just not a good situation because I wanted to care for people so badly. But also I had to do all the paperwork and everything to get paid, to keep the doors open, to do everything they needed me to do. That's when I said, okay, I have to figure out something different. And we figured out a way to have scribes take care of our documentation without them having to sit in our exam room with us. Because it's a personal thing, you know, to be with your patient and. And to have somebody else in there sometimes can be awkward. So we figured out a way to have scribes in another room that. That were listening and taking care of all the typing and sending prescriptions and orders and things like that. So then I was like, okay, this is. This is life changing for me. I was Enjoying practicing medicine. I wasn't having to sit there and type in front of my patients and I could just do what I loved. And then as I told my colleagues, whether locally or across the country, what I was doing, they were like, how can I do that too? So that's when I decided I was going to start the Remote Scribe company. Because if I could replicate that for other people and make it life changing for them also, then I figured it would be a good decision. And I had already been working on my one business, the clinic, and I thought, okay, well, how bad could it be to start another business? And then somewhere along the way, I ended up renovating my dad's building that was in downtown Fredonia. It was an older building from the early 1900s. And I just said, well, what if we did? What if we made a medical spa in our little town because we deserve nice things here too. And I had heard that people were driving an hour and a half to do things like Botox or laser hair removal. And I thought, like, you know, we can have this too in southeast Kansas. And people don't have to drive that far just to feel good about themselves. So we did it. I started another business. And here we are. So three businesses.
- [08:26]
Jason Tyler
Here we are with all three of them. Now, you mentioned something that I think is really, really important. Like our audience, they're very entrepreneurial, they're very business minded. And you mentioned something about setting the vision. And I think that's so important for business owners because if you, as a business owner, if you're managing people and you're hiring on new staff and you're not able to communicate your vision for where you're going, it becomes, it becomes very hard to. Your turnover rate is going to be high because people don't see where they're going. They just see the drudgery of the day to day. And if you're not able to communicate that vision, nobody's going to buy into it. Nobody wants to go to the same destination. We don't even know if there is a destination. You know what I mean? So as a, as an owner of multiple businesses, how do you separate and be able to set a vision for each one of them?
- [09:16]
Jennifer McKenney
You know, I think they, they do all intertwine a little bit. Because I, the work that I do in my clinic, I use that to make sure that the decisions we're making in the Remote Scribe Company are the right ones. Because if I'm, if I'm selling a product or a service to other physicians across the country, and other providers across the country. It has to work in my clinic first. And so it has to be something that makes sense. It has to be relevant, it has to be viable. And in the same light, if I'm taking care of somebody again in my clinic and taking care of their high blood pressure and diabetes, but they also need, you know, self care, then it kind of overlaps into the medical spa space where it's like, let's do some of these things that maybe aren't. Aren't necessary for your overall, you know, physical health, but let's talk about the things that make you feel good as a person. And so they definitely intertwine, but at the same time, you know, I have different staff at each location. Each team knows their role really well. Communication is such a. A big part of that. Transparency is such a big part of it. People know what they're expected to do, but at the same time, they're given the ability to kind of branch out and help the company grow in the ways that they can use their talents and make the companies grow. I think it's just having the teams, assembling the teams and then talking about what each team member's role is, and then in my role also, you know, kind of bigger picture with each of the companies and then, you know, giving them. Giving them that independence and that, that, like empowering them to be able to. To own the company themselves.
- [11:02]
Jason Tyler
Not being a micromanager.
- [11:04]
Jennifer McKenney
Exactly. Yeah.
- [11:05]
Jason Tyler
You hear that, guys? Make sure that when you start your business, don't be a micromanager. If. Hire people that you can trust to do the job that you hired them for. If you can't trust them, then why did you hire them? I think it's just, it's. It sounds like common sense, but it's not.
- [11:19]
Jennifer McKenney
It' not always. Right.
- [11:20]
Jason Tyler
Common sense is never common anymore. But that's. We'll get off topic, but I want to take a second here to just, you know, in your remote scribe business, and as you were describing it, I'm kind of like, oh, wow, this is like a concept that I haven't even really thought of because you never really, like, when you're at the doctor's office, you don't really think about what the goings on behind the scenes are, right? You're just like, all right, put the needle in. Let's get the. Let's get this show on the road.
- [11:44]
Jennifer McKenney
Right?
- [11:45]
Jason Tyler
How are you utilizing technology? And, you know, as we're seeing, like, the advent of AI and things like that, like, what are your utilizations for that in your remote scribe company.
- [11:56]
Jennifer McKenney
The tech piece of it is huge. When I started the company, that was about 2018, 19, but when I started using a virtual scribe and it was more like 2011 or 12, nobody was talking about AI at that point. So it was kind of creating this workflow and using technology in a way that people weren't using it at the time. And it's a big combination right now. It's a, It's a combination of the technology to get people connected across the country. You know, pairing a scribe that we have trained really well with a provider, doctor, nurse practitioner, Pennsylvania. People that are needing the help because they're just overloaded with day to day work. Or they're just like, maybe not even overloaded. We just have a lot of like day to day stuff. You mentioned the background stuff. You're right. We don't talk about that stuff because it's really like demoralizing sometimes.
- [12:48]
Jason Tyler
Yeah. Because us on the consumer side, like, we don't, we don't understand that stuff at all. We're just like, I'm here for a physical. I don't know what's going on back there. When the doctor walks out of the room, you're just sitting there in limbo,
- [12:58]
Jennifer McKenney
kind of like, what are they doing?
- [13:00]
Jason Tyler
What's going on back there?
- [13:02]
Jennifer McKenney
Exactly. And probably they're, you know, you're back at your desk, you're. You're scrambling to put in orders, you're yelling at your nurse over there to please, you know, get this stuff assembled for the patient. I mean, it's just all of those things. And then at the end of the day, what you're doing is you have this kind of like list of people. Or back in the day, it was like a stack of charts, you know, a physical stack of charts that was just staring at you and you think, okay, well, let's do this. And so for me, that meant going home, eating dinner with my family, getting everybody to bed, and then staying up till two in the morning, you know,
- [13:38]
Jason Tyler
doing all the things, going through that whole stack.
- [13:40]
Jennifer McKenney
Yeah. And then waking up in the morning early to get ready for the next day so that I don't have so much at the end of the day and then doing it all over again over and over. But yeah, we don't want patients to see that because we want to be kind of those people that are like, I'm taking care of myself so I can take care of you. But the reality is that's not probably
- [13:59]
Jason Tyler
true all the time. What's Actually going on. Which brings me to my next question is how do you implement self. A lot of business owners do not implement self care in a way like that. That makes sense for being able to provide good service to another person. Right. They burn the candle at both ends. How do you handle self care as it pertains to being a business owner of multiple businesses, but you also have a med spa.
- [14:26]
Jennifer McKenney
So I'm like, I'm kind of promoting that.
- [14:29]
Jason Tyler
Right, I know. So talk to me about how you handle self care.
- [14:32]
Jennifer McKenney
Full disclosure, I don't always do a good job and I don't think that we. You, you mentioned like burning the candle at both ends. Like some days it takes that. But I'm really good at taking vacations. I'll start with that. Sometimes you just have to get yourself out of the space. Right. And just, just go away. And that's my, my dad taught me that. He's like, just leave. That's, that's sometimes because in a small town, people actually know where you live. Sometimes they show up at your house or you go to the grocery store and people are, you know, they want you to refill their medications or look at their rash in the produce section. So. So you just, you don't escape it unless you physically escape it sometimes. So. So I think that's a huge part of it. But I also give myself grace. I think that's my biggest thing day to day, is to give myself some grace to say, I'm not going to succeed at everything today. I'm not going to be the best boss in every one of my companies or be the best, you know, best, whatever. Sometimes I feel like I fail at being a mom or I fail at being a doctor, or I fail at being a business owner or even a team player, whatever it is. But when I realized that, you know, I'm not going to succeed and be really, really great at everything every day, but I'm going to probably be really good at something every day. You know, that for me, helps me give myself a little bit of, you know. Yeah. Grace, I guess to say tomorrow we're going to kick ass at something else.
- [15:53]
Jason Tyler
You know what? That brings up a great, like mindfulness. Because since my dad is a psychologist, I do a mindfulness journey at the end or a mindfulness journal at the end of every day. But that's a good addition that I'm going to. To my journal. What was I really good at today?
- [16:08]
Jennifer McKenney
Yeah, Yeah.
- [16:09]
Jason Tyler
I usually do, you know, what am I grateful for? For the day? What is, you know, who was I happy to see? Who was I, you know, who did I interact with? That left a lasting impression on me. Those are like little things that I try to write down. But what was I really good at today? I feel like going back at the end of the day and making that observation is really key.
- [16:26]
Jennifer McKenney
I think so. Because we. We probably are doing really good things every single day.
- [16:30]
Jason Tyler
That's something.
- [16:31]
Jennifer McKenney
Yeah.
- [16:32]
Jason Tyler
You know what? I was a great driver today in traffic. I didn't honk at anybody.
- [16:36]
Jennifer McKenney
I didn't merge anybody.
- [16:37]
Jason Tyler
I didn't merge them properly, which is a typical thing in Miami. But.
- [16:41]
Jennifer McKenney
But, yeah, but then at the end of the day, a lot of times, we're sitting there thinking, oh, my gosh, I didn't get this done, or, I didn't do really well at this, and. And you give yourself such a hard time for the things you didn't get done. But, yeah, I mean, if we just focus on what we did get done and then tell ourselves we're doing. We're doing this really well tomorrow, because I didn't quite touch on this today, let's do it really well tomorrow.
- [17:03]
Jason Tyler
That'll do it. Now, guys, if you're still tuned in at this point in the episode, I want to make sure that you check out Jennifer's episode of Women in Power, because that's going to be coming out shortly after this podcast airs. So make sure you guys stay tuned for that. Jennifer, do you have any here? We're here at Inside Success, and my final question for the podcast is always the same, but what would be your number one key for success?
- [17:29]
Jennifer McKenney
You know, I think one of the things that we fail to do sometimes is, is we don't say yes when we could have said yes. And, you know, there's a lot of talk. I mean, I even have a company that is about, you know, burnout and about, like, helping people, like self care and all of those things. Like the Remote Scribe Company is about, like, you know, physicians avoiding burnout and avoiding all those stresses and letting somebody take over that kind of work for you. So in theory, a lot of people talk about, well, it's okay to say no. It's okay to say no to things. But I think saying yes isn't exactly the opposite. It's saying yes to the things that matter to you the most. Say yes to letting somebody do this work for you. Say yes to taking care of yourself and say yes to that position that you weren't sure you were qualified for. But you're going to try really hard because There's a lot of people out there that are not qualified for the positions they're in. And they said yes. Micro commentary. Yeah, but anyways. But. But.
- [18:34]
Podcast Intro/Outro Voice
Right.
- [18:34]
Jennifer McKenney
But we should say yes. And especially women. Especially women. Historically, we think we're not qualified for things, and so we say no, but we should say yes. And you know what? If we were wrong and it's not something we're passionate about or something that we feel like fulfills us, then get out of it. But try it. Be willing to be there. Say yes to sitting at the table. We belong at every table. Say yes. Every time there's an opportunity to represent other women, to represent anybody who you feel. Any community, any population you feel passionate about, you feel that needs empowered, say yes. Because if you don't say yes, then somebody else is going to say yes. And maybe your passion, your vision, your values aren't going to be represented. So I think. I think if. If. If I were to look back, I've said yes to a lot of things that I wasn't quite sure about doing. Starting businesses and. And, you know, being able to. To make a company that was. That was nationwide, you know, and just. I mean, creating a medical spa in a tiny town. Right. Like, but say yes and just see what happens. And I think really great things.
- [19:43]
Jason Tyler
I love it. I love it. The power of yes, which I get so many people that talk about. The power of no. Like being able to say no to the wrong thing.
- [19:50]
Jennifer McKenney
Yeah.
- [19:50]
Jason Tyler
But being able to say yes to the thing that you're kind of afraid of, but being able to make that step anyway, I think is super, super important. So I just wanted to say thank you so much for being on the show today. And are you ready to go and film your episode?
- [20:06]
Jennifer McKenney
I am ready. I'm pumped.
- [20:08]
Jason Tyler
I believe. I believe we're ready. So, guys, this has been another episode of the Living youg Legacy podcast. Again, I'm your host, Jason Tyler. Jennifer, thank you so much for being on with us today. And let's go knock out your episode.
- [20:21]
Jennifer McKenney
Let's do it.
- [20:21]
Jason Tyler
Let's do it. Catch you guys in the next one.