329-SYB-Dr-Nicloe-Rochester.mp3: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.
Carol Cox:
Have you ever had an experience that compelled you to take action? That’s exactly what happened to my guest, Dr. Nicole Rochester, which you’ll hear about on this episode of The Speaking Your Brand podcast. More and more women are making an impact by starting businesses, running for office and speaking up for what matters. With my background as a political analyst, entrepreneur and speaker, I interview and coach purpose driven women to shape their brands, grow their companies and become recognized as influencers in their field. This is speaking your brand, your place to learn how to persuasively communicate your message to your audience. Hi there and welcome to the Speaking Your Brand podcast. I’m your host, Carol Cox. We are doing a new series on the podcast this month all around using your voice. And I decided to kick it off with a very special guest. Dr. Nicole Rochester was last on the podcast way back in December of 2018, so that was four and a half years ago and episode 98, it is one of my favorite episodes. I referenced it a lot. It’s an honor coaching call where Nicole and I talk about how she can take her personal story and universalize it into a message for her audiences that she talks to.
Carol Cox:
So I’ll have a link to that in the show notes so you can go back and listen to that episode after you listen. Today. Dr. Nicole Rochester is a physician. She’s a board certified pediatrician, and she’s the founder and CEO of Your Doc LLC, which is an innovative company whose mission is to eliminate health disparities by empowering, educating and advocating for parents and family caregivers as they struggle to navigate the health care system. And Dr. Rochester, I guess I should call her Nicole, and her bio, says Doctor Rochester. But Nicole was inspired to start her company after caring for her late father and witnessing the complicated health care system, as she says, from the other side of the stethoscope. So even as a physician herself, she realized how much people struggle navigating the health care system. Nicole attended our in-person client retreat, speaking intensive that we held in February of this year in Orlando. So it was so fun to see Nicole in person after knowing her now for about five years online. Nicole, welcome to the podcast. Thank you, Carol.
Dr. Nicole Rochester:
I’m so excited to be here and thanks for having me back. Well, it is.
Carol Cox:
Absolutely my pleasure. Let’s wind the clock back to December of 2018. You came on the podcast and I know we were chatting before we hit record that at the time I ran a Facebook group for speaking your brand and you were a member of that. And I think I had put out a call for for people who wanted to be on air to do on air coaching episodes on the podcast. And I think you had replied and said that you would be interested in doing that because you had an idea for a TED Talk that you wanted to do, but you wanted to get some guidance on it. So Nicole, tell us a little bit about where you were at that time, say fall 2018, where you were with your business and with your speaking and what you were looking to do?
Dr. Nicole Rochester:
Well, I can’t even believe it’s been that long ago. So in fall of 2018, I was about 15 months, 15 to 18 months out from leaving clinical medicine and starting my own business. I was still in the very early stages of that, honestly, making a lot of mistakes, figuring things out as I went along, ditching some mindset blocks and perfectionism and all the things that go along with being a great doctor that aren’t necessarily good at being a business owner. And I really had this desire to do a TED Talk. I had been watching Ted Talks and was an avid listener of your podcast, which I still am, and really saw how that just elevated your message. And I felt like I had a lot to say and I felt like what I went through as a caregiver to my late father was a relatively universal experience, and I also wanted an opportunity to speak to the health care industry on a large level to really share what I went through and how I thought they could make things better. So a TED Talk seemed like the perfect opportunity, and you seemed like the perfect person to help me do that, which you did.
Carol Cox:
And so we did the on air coaching call that aired. That was it aired in December of 2018. And then what happened after that?
Dr. Nicole Rochester:
So during that call, Carol, not only did you walk me through, you know, of course, an abbreviated process because it was a podcast, but of how to tailor my message and even some very specific tips about how to craft my message. You pulled out some elements in that that you thought would be really great. And then at the end of the podcast episode, if I remember correctly, you basically told me how to go about finding local TED events. And so once we stopped recording, I immediately went. I had taken all these notes and I went and did exactly what you told me to do. And I found a local event about an hour or so away from my home and was able to apply to that event. And even though I had just missed the deadline through a series of amazing events, they decided to review my application and I was accepted. And so in March of 2019, I gave a TEDx talk.
Carol Cox:
And what was that experience like? What was the experience like creating the talk and then standing on the stage to deliver it?
Dr. Nicole Rochester:
Oh, wow. It was amazing. I mean, it was very scary. Like, I have to be honest about that. Creating the talk so I can be long winded. And so honestly, it was very difficult to take everything that I and my family had gone through during that three year journey caring for my dad. Everything that I had experienced as a pediatrician, as a physician, and distilling that into this, I think like 11 minute talk. So that was very, very difficult. There were a lot of cuts, you know, and things that I really thought needed to be in there, but I had to eliminate them. And then the process of preparing for the talk and memorizing the talk was also quite daunting. Being on the stage. I mean, it was it was amazing and something that I will never forget. And it was also terrifying.
Carol Cox:
Did it go by in a blur? Did you like did you finish and like, wow, that felt like an out-of-body experience.
Dr. Nicole Rochester:
It was absolutely an out-of-body experience. And, you know, I needed it wasn’t until I saw the recording months later that I was like, oh, okay. I guess that did go pretty well because of course, when you get off, you’re thinking about, Oh, I forgot this or I didn’t do that, or I didn’t move as much as I wanted to, but I got a lot of really positive feedback from my friends and family and also from other attendees. And then when I saw the recording, it’s like, Oh, okay, this, this actually happened and.
Carol Cox:
I’ll make sure to include a link in the show notes here to watch that video as well. Nicole your TEDx talk so that listeners can go and check that out. So you do the TEDx talk in early 2019 and then how what else do you end up doing as far as your speaking your thought leadership? I know you’re also doing this to help grow your relatively new business at the time.
Dr. Nicole Rochester:
Yeah. So I would say that TEDx talk really was kind of a launching pad for my public speaking. I had already been doing a lot of speaking as a physician and a lot of kind of educational talks and lectures and things of that nature. And when I first started my business, I was doing a lot of Facebook Live videos and things like that, but, you know, very much more educational. This was really the first time that I was sharing what I would consider a thought leadership message. And so that really led to invitations to be on other podcasts. And even today I continue to find people reach out to me and say, I saw your TEDx talk, or I heard you on this particular podcast. And honestly, I don’t know. I was still surprised that people are continuing to to find the talk, and it definitely led to opportunities to speak. It has allowed me, I think, to charge more as a result. You know, there’s a certain level of, I guess, distinction, for lack of a better word, that comes with being a TEDx speaker. It definitely just catapulted my growth as a speaker and has led to many other opportunities in my business, including consulting work as well.
Carol Cox:
That’s incredible. Nicole And to your point about TEDx speakers being able to charge more like it’s almost like a premium because you do have that moniker, kind of like that connection to the TED brand because of that. And recently, not too long ago, I was talking to a past client who also is a TEDx speaker and she said she was talking to some event organizers and asked them, you know what, like what are the going rates that you’re paying for speakers? And they said, for TED speakers, it’s really like 20 to $50,000. Wow.
Dr. Nicole Rochester:
Well, I can’t say I’ve commanded that yet, but thank you.
Carol Cox:
Yes. Yes. But really, because and this is something, you know, I feel like for so many of us, especially, you know, as women, we do tend to under charge whatever it happens to be, whether it’s in our business workshops, speaking engagements and so on. It doesn’t mean necessarily that you’re going to pitch yourself or present a fee for 25 or $50,000, and they’re necessarily going to say yes, yet they just might. We don’t know until we try it.
Dr. Nicole Rochester:
That’s so true.
Carol Cox:
Nicole. I remember back earlier this year when we were talking about you coming to our client retreat, the in-person speaking intensive that we did, and we chatted a little bit about why you wanted to come to to do the in-person and, you know, thinking about your speaking fees and wanting to to make sure that you’re raising them, you know, in in proportion to to where you are as a speaker. So tell me a little bit about why you wanted to come to work with us in person and what that experience was like.
Dr. Nicole Rochester:
Well, first, I have to say that for the last almost five years that I’ve known about you, I have wanted to work with you. And as you know, it’s just there’s always some schedule conflict. And so when this opportunity popped up, I saw it in my email and I immediately went to my calendar and I was available all of the dates. So I knew that I had to be there. And also, I’m at a point in my business where I am kind of merging the different identities of my business. And so as you mentioned in my bio, my company primarily was founded to help patients and family caregivers understand. And to navigate the health care system. Over the last three years, I have pivoted to some degree and have begun doing a lot of speaking and consulting around health inequities and eliminating health disparity gaps, particularly among black and brown people and black and brown communities. And I have been thinking a lot over the last, I guess, 4 to 6 months about how do those relate. And I believe very strongly that one of the keys to eliminating health disparities is actually by empowering marginalized communities to be able to advocate for themselves in medical settings while we wait for the system to get fixed, which is likely going to be maybe not even in my lifetime. So I wanted to really get some assistance with merging those ideas and developing a new talk that really explores what that would look like, you know, to use health advocacy as a tool to eliminate health health inequities. And so the timing was absolutely perfect because I had been kind of milling it around in my head and the experience at the intensive was just phenomenal.
Carol Cox:
I remember, Nicole, that, you know, the first couple of days we have you all practicing on the stage to get you prepared for day three, which is when we do the professional filming so that you have that video at the end. And I remember I think it was the second day. Yep. And you had your note cards with you, which is fine. Like it’s fine to have some notes. And so you went up onto the stage to practice and what happened?
Dr. Nicole Rochester:
So I actually had my phone, my notes were on my phone, and Carol took my phone from me. I was probably I don’t even know 30s in. And I and I know I was glancing at my phone. I really felt like I needed those notes because as you just said, it was only day two. I had not memorized it yet. And Carol took my phone. And I’m going to be honest and say I was angry, but it was the best thing that ever could have happened. And I should have known then to trust your judgment and and your expertise. Because basically, Carol, what you showed me in that moment and certainly the next day when we filmed, is that the information is already inside of me. My stories already know the stories. I don’t have to do it in a certain perfect order or certain detail. And it’s okay if I don’t tell the story the same way every time. So honestly, you even though I had already given a TEDx talk that that was memorized and you really showed me that these impactful talks don’t have to be memorized and that everything that I need is is already within me. So I just want to thank you publicly for that.
Carol Cox:
It’s okay to be angry. That was all right. I know it feels it’s like it’s like your safety blanket. You know, it feels comfortable to have whether it’s the notes on the phone or the note cards or a piece of paper slides when we’re presenting like, I love slides because they’re the prompts for me, so I know what I’m talking about. Yeah, like you just pointed out, Nicole, I also know that you know your content and your stories and like we’re having right here, right now in a podcast interview, you don’t need notes to, to tell me. Yeah, You know what matters to you and what you experience. So thank you for being willing to go along with that.
Dr. Nicole Rochester:
Thank you for pushing me off the ledge.
Carol Cox:
Yes. Yes. With the harness. With the parachute attached. Yes, that’s right. All right, Nicole, so since we’re since this series that we’re doing, it’s all around using your voice. Can you share with us a bit about, you know, what your experience was like navigating the health care system as a family caregiver instead of as a physician, and why that kind of prompted you to to recognize that you wanted to make sure that you were empowering others to use their voice when they, too, were going through the health care system?
Dr. Nicole Rochester:
Yeah, I sometimes say that that experience was like an episode of Undercover Boss, and I don’t know if you’ve ever watched that, Carol or your listeners, but it’s a really intriguing show. And, you know, I knew the health care system very well at the time that I started helping to care for my dad. I had already gone through four years of medical school, three years of residency, and I had been practicing medicine for over ten years, mostly in the hospital. So so I thought that, you know, me being in charge of my dad’s medical care was going to be like, not necessarily super easy, but I was like, I got this. And it was so incredibly difficult. And what I saw really early on is that my dad’s medical care and the way that he was treated and the way that I was treated as his caregiver changed abruptly for the better when they discovered what I did for a living. And I thought that that was extremely unfair and it honestly made me angry. And I just there were so many instances where I knew that the only way I was able to successfully navigate something for my dad’s care was because I either knew what questions to ask based on my medical expertise or I knew how the system worked.
Dr. Nicole Rochester:
And so I knew how to escalate my concerns or honestly, just the influence that comes with being an insider and them kind of bending over backwards once they discovered that I was a doctor. And so it made me think, okay, well, that’s okay for my dad and my family. But what about all of the other millions of patients and family members who don’t happen to have somebody in the family who is a doctor or a nurse or another health care professional? And it just made me think about the fact that there there is disparate care, not just based on your race, your ethnicity, your gender, but also based on how much you know about the system, where in which we receive our care. And so that really was what prompted this decision to start a company and begin speaking and educating and empowering others so that they could show up for themselves and for their family members. The way I was able to show up for my dad.
Carol Cox:
Did you have any self-doubts, Nicole, about, you know, putting yourself out there in this way, especially as someone who is an insider, as a physician and really kind of calling out the health care industry for this? Did you Dow’s insecurities, vulnerabilities, anything like that come up?
Dr. Nicole Rochester:
So in terms of the speaking out part, I’ve always kind of been that person. You know, even as a little girl, I’ve always been someone who was quite opinionated and, you know, not afraid to share my thoughts about things. And so that part wasn’t as scary as as you may think. But but starting a business like leaving a career that I had dreamed about since I was a kid and that I loved, like I really enjoyed my job, I thought that I would be there until retirement. That part was very scary. And leaving that sense of security in terms of, you know, a steady paycheck, quote unquote, and benefits and all of those things, the speaking out part, I mean, there was a little bit of trepidation and knowing that I was going to incur probably some negative negativity from some of my colleagues, I always try to frame it in a way that, like, I get it, I’m one of you and I understand these challenges. And so I always try to bring in that perspective. But but I have had colleagues that have not been so, so happy about some of the things that I say. But at the end of the day, you know, I think everyone can admit that the system is broken and that patients and families deserve better.
Carol Cox:
And Nicole was thinking that as you were telling your story about navigating the health care system as the caregiver for your dad, that one. So one of the stories, key stories that we encourage our clients and those of you listening to to work on is the compelled to take action story, which is generally so something happens in your life, whatever it could be in any age or any stage in your career, and you realize that this experience is compelling you to take action. So making a shift in your life, your career, your business, what have you, and that very much is what sounds like what happened to you because of this experience and then starting your own business. So you said you had a little bit maybe of some some insecurity starting leaving a profession, you know, leaving the career that you had and starting your business, which I’m sure many of us can relate to. What helped you during those first few years as you were starting and growing your business?
Dr. Nicole Rochester:
I definitely can’t underestimate the spiritual aspect to this because I’ll be honest, like I don’t think I would have done this had it not been. I really felt like a spiritual calling to do this. So I definitely want to mention that also my my family was so incredibly supportive. You know, I hear from other doctors who have left medicine to pursue other interests, and some of them have stories about friends and family members saying, oh, my gosh, like, why would you do that? And who leaves? Who leaves that lucrative career? I honestly haven’t had anybody in my close circle say anything like that. Everyone. I think when I explained why I was doing it and what I was going to do, everyone thought it was such a wonderful idea. So my family and my friends have been super supportive. And then just finding communities of other like minded people has also been really helpful and getting advice from others when maybe things weren’t going well and people that have helped me to pivot at times when I needed to pivot. So I think all of those and then just really like internal reflection and mindset, I really had to work a lot and continue. This is a continuous process, working on my mindset and unlearning some of the things that I learned as part of my medical training. So all of that I think allowed me to kind of overcome the fear.
Carol Cox:
I like to say that being an entrepreneur is the ultimate personal development journey because you learn so much about yourself, your character flaws, your strengths, your weaknesses, whatever it happens to be like it is going to be, it is going to show up as an entrepreneur. And Nicole, what have what has it shown you?
Dr. Nicole Rochester:
Oh, my gosh, Carol, that is such that is the truth. It has shown me so many things about myself. I think it showed me already kind of knew this about myself, but it showed me just how much of a control freak I was. I now call myself a recovering control freak and a recovering perfectionist, but. All of those tendencies that honestly made it possible for me to get through the medical education process and to be a good doctor and all those things, You know, you can’t you have to be very careful. You have to be meticulous. And also, like the path to becoming a physician is honestly all laid out. I mean, it’s not easy, but you know exactly what you have to do. So getting used to not having a roadmap in front of me and just doing things, not knowing whether they were going to work or not, and even not getting that feedback. Like I’m someone who I realized was really tied to praise and feedback and grades. I hadn’t realized that about myself. You know, I used to think that I was very internally motivated and I was but there was a huge element of me being motivated by the feedback and being a straight-A student and all those things. So when you’re starting a business, you know, you may go months, years without getting that validation that what you’re doing is the right thing. And so that was extremely difficult. But like you said, I mean, it has been the greatest personal development journey ever. I think that I know that I’m a better person, a better, better mom, friend, sister, all of those things as a result.
Carol Cox:
And Nicole, thank you so much for sharing that and and for your self-awareness, because I do feel like being an entrepreneur does bring a lot of self and brings up a lot of self awareness whether we want to or not. And I completely understand about like and wanting to control things and you know, especially someone like you, you know, going through medical school and being a doctor, like you said, everything’s laid out. There’s a clear cure A, B, C, D, e, like, you know, here’s what the steps you need to take. Getting the good grades and know so many of the women listening right now can probably relate to this idea of, yeah, our validation comes from like we got we got the A’s, you know, our teachers liked us and they praised us. And then all of a sudden we’re in this business world and we’re like, Well, guess we’re doing it right right now. Hopefully so. I know that I’ve learned about myself that even though I love being with other people, like I love the in-person events that we do, I love the Thought Leader Academy and, you know, getting to know people on Zoom. I really do feel like I know them, even though we’ve only met on Zoom most of the case. But I’ve also discovered that I really like working by myself on things like I’m a I’m the I’m the student. When we were in high school and college, she did not like to do group projects because number one, right. I would be the one doing most of the work anyways. And I’m like, You all are getting in my way. Just let me do the work and get it done. You can you can sign your name to it. I don’t care. But don’t interrupt my process.
Dr. Nicole Rochester:
Carol was very similar. Yeah.
Carol Cox:
Right. Yes. So that’s like. Yes, like I like to put my head down and get it done. But also then also there’s so much benefit to collaborative work and collaborative brainstorming. And so, yes, I definitely have, you know, tried to fit both in to what? To what I do. Absolutely. All right, Nicole, so thinking about, you know, this idea of using your voice, what’s next for you? What? No, you’re still doing a lot of speaking. I see you on panels. I know. I see a lot of the stuff that you’re doing when you share on LinkedIn. What’s next? Any any big besides just in general? What are you doing? Any big dreams or goals or aspirations you have?
Dr. Nicole Rochester:
Oh, wow. Yes, I appreciate that question. My my big goal for 2023 is to develop and implement a curriculum to train community based advocates and navigators. One of the things that I have struggled with internally since I started my company is that when you hire a health advocate that’s out of pocket expenses, it’s not covered by insurance. And this idea or this recognition that the people who need these services the most are in some cases not going to be able to pay for those services. And so, again, we have this inequity. And so for the last six years or so, I’ve been thinking like, how do I reconcile that? And so and also thinking about how do I scale my business in a way that allows more people to have access to health advocacy services. And so I am thrilled that, you know, the way I think this is going to work very well is to train community based, just normal laypeople in faith based organizations, churches, community based organizations, neighborhoods, so that the people who need these services have access. And so that’s what I’m working on now. It’s a huge endeavor that requires me to. Interestingly, Carol, you brought up collaboration. So again, this is a stretch for me because really for the last almost six years, it’s been just me and, you know, VR and social media manager, but mostly me. And now I’m at a point in my business where I can’t do this alone. And so in order to accomplish this vision, I have to collaborate with others. So I’ve been having a lot of calls and meetings with people in the community, organizations that can help with this, people who develop curricula. And I’m really excited about bringing this two to life, hopefully by the end of the year.
Carol Cox:
Oh, fantastic. They go, That is definitely going to help you to not only to spread the word, but, like you said, to help other people be advocates. And it’s like the domino effect, right? You get to like, you know, set off one domino and then it gets to spread out through all these different communities. That’s right. All right, Nicole, so where is the best place for people to find you?
Dr. Nicole Rochester:
The best place is, well, LinkedIn. I love hanging out on LinkedIn, so you can definitely find me there. Just search Nicole Rochester and then my website is your GP’s dotcom. You can find a lot of information there as well.
Carol Cox:
Fantastic. I’ll make sure to include those links in the show notes. Be sure to connect with Nicole on LinkedIn. Go check out her TED Talk and also back episode 98 and that original honor coaching call that we did. Nicole, thank you so much for coming back on the Speaking Your Brand podcast. I’ve enjoyed seeing everything that you’ve been doing over the past few years, and I’m so grateful that you are part of our speaking your brand community.
Dr. Nicole Rochester:
Thank you for having me, Carol. I really appreciate it. This has been great.
Carol Cox:
All right, everyone. So we are continuing our podcast series all around using your voice. So make sure to stay tuned for next week and the weeks after as we continue to bring you more inspiring women. Until next time, thanks for listening.
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