Episode 1 - Hope and Optimism Around the Future of Healthcare

Episode 1: The Collapse of Sickcare & the Rise of Real Medicine

Welcome to the very first episode of the MAHA Marketing Podcast — where we expose the corruption of America’s healthcare system and shine a light on the bold doctors breaking free to build something better.

In this episode, host Paul Mackiewicz — veteran, father, and marketing expert — shares why this podcast exists and what’s at stake. With over 15 years helping businesses generate hundreds of millions in revenue, Paul is now channeling his expertise into a mission that could change America: helping functional and independent private practices grow, thrive, and reclaim the soul of medicine.

We cover:

• The institutional breakdown of the U.S. healthcare system
• How good doctors are being mistreated, overworked, and spiritually crushed
• Why patients are waking up and seeking alternatives like never before
• How AI, marketing, and tech can empower independent practices to rise
• The growing wave of acceptance for functional, integrative, and preventative care
• And what this movement means for families, communities, and the future of health

This isn’t just a podcast.
 It’s a rebellion.
 It’s a restoration.
 It’s how we Make America Healthy Again.

🔗 Connect with Paul:

www.sickcaresucks.com

@Honorableentrepreneur on social platforms

Transcript

Welcome to the Maha Marketing Podcast.  This is a show for, for doctors, for healers, for fighters who know deep down that the healthcare system isn't just broken but it's, at this point, been manipulated and changed so much that it's not doing its initial function, which is actually healing people.  And my name is Paul Mackiewicz.  I am a husband, a father to 2 awesome kids, a toddler and an infant, and Ithey're counting on me to be part of building better future.  They're counting on you.  And I've spent 15 years in marketing now, just helping businesses, especially attorneys.  Truly made them like hundreds of millions of dollars at this point.  So i- if there's one thing that I'm great at, it's generating attention and helping people win.  And so, the whole reason that I'm starting this podcast is 'cause I, I went through quite a change personally.  You know, I'm a military veteran.  I've dealt with the s- slow system that is the VA Healthcare, like the, the bureaucratic mess that it is.  I've, I've seen what happens when people put their trust in, uh, the machine and the machine just doesn't even work for them.  So now that I'm in a position where I can take everything I've learned, all the strategies, all the, the very hard-earned lessons and looking at it, pointing this in a direction of the one mission that I think could truly change America forever, which is getting people out of the sickcare system.  I wanna get them into independent patient-focused private practices and keep them out after they've already gone through that by pushing them, pointing them in the direction of power behind preventative medicine, like functional medicine or, or integrative wellness.  This isn'tuh, it's not a theory.  It's, it's not waiting for politicians or big hospitals to figure this out.  It's about real doctors, individual communities, real healing.  That's happening now if you are tuned in to that.  So if you're a doctor who's tired of being a cog in this machine, if you believe that your calling is bigger than 7minute visits or, or billing codes, like the fact that you have to have like an entire billing department just to, to operate within the system, it's telling you everything that's wrong with it.  TheAnd it's time to build thriving practices that are changing lives and leave a legacy.  I think that's my calling, is to leave a legacy by helping, you know, serving those who are serving others.  Now, that's, that's who this show is built for.  It feels like a bit of a rebellion.  It feels like res- like restoration.  It truly is about making America healthy again, because the current system that we have in place is never going to do it.  So I just want to run through some of the big things that I think are happening in the industry, the reasons that you should be very optimistic about where all of medicine is going, and just the massive opportunity around where we are, because the, the system's collapsing.  Like if we're just very blunt about it, the, the healthcare system is collapsing.  It's not, uhit's like it has its own virus.  It has its own COVID happening right now.  And it's part corruption, it's part laziness, it's part profit motives, it's partYou know, I, I grew up Catholic, so my least favorite thing is, "That's the way you've always done it.  "Like you, you have to adapt and change to, to overcome the sickness that is the sickcare system.  And we're, we're at this point now where this system, how it was initially designed, it's not even struggling, it's, it's failed.  It's been totally hijacked and taken into this profit model, because even though it wasI actually think that the initial creation of, say, like the American Medical Association, and even like Big Pharma, right?Like, it was this new technology, this new, "Oh, wow, if we, you know, make the correct chemistry combinations here, we can, we could change the body.  "But that, the patient-centered side of that is completely gone.  It's onnow all just profit-driven.  I think you would have a very hard time convincing me of any other motive behind it right now.  Th- and what sucks is, people that are paying the price for this is good doctors and everyday families.  Like they're, they're the ones that are suffering now.  It'sNo part of the corporate side of this is, is feeling this, ex- except maybe now that we have like RFK in there and McCary at the FDA, like maybe they're starting to feel a little bit of pressure.  But I think until, until real moves are made, none of that really matters.  We're, we're at this point now where decades of greed and inefficiency and government corporate alliances, we're, we're hitting this tipping point.  Patients are sicker than ever with chronic disease, despite the record spending.  Doctors are now leaving hospitals trust in healthcare isLet me, let me find the exact stat here.  It has now dropped to 34% compared to 51% just a decade ago, and that's as of 2023.  I mean, people get this.  When, when you see that the US spends nearly twice as much as the average developed country on healthcare and yet is 34th in life expectancy.  One in 5 healthcare workers have quit their jobs since the pandemic, and that was in 2021.  That's even higher now.  I mean, the, the list really could go on and on here.  Just want to look at more reasons why it is breaking down between healthcare workers leaving, the skyrocketing healthcare costs with the declining outcomes, the bureaucracy that is just killing innovation.  I mean, red light therapy, functional medicine, we have the technology.  We are at a place where people could probably be living to 120 if there wasn't so much holding it back, and people know this.  But the good part is when people see a system that is dying and declining and not providing any value, they're going to seek alternatives, and that's where we're at right now.  So if you're a good doctor today, I feel like the system is, is there to break you.  And so what I want to talk about on this show is the hope and optimism you should be feeling about this broken system that is going to funnel a massive amount of attention and patients towards you if you are positioned correctly.  Plus the technology is there to be positioned well.  So we're just gonna run through how doctors are treated, because it's, it's actually mind-blowing when you start looking into it of just how much the system is chewing up the most vital part of it.  and spitting them out.  The awareness and the awakening that is happening between both patients and doctors and the tools, oh, my gosh, these AI tools that are now at your fingertips are going to completely change your life.  If you're not using AI right now, and I don't mean use it like, "Write me a blog post.  "I mean, like, having a conversation with it about the unique value that you are presenting to your local community and how to generate more awareness around it and having a conversation.  We're gonna get into some of that and just the overall increasing acceptance of functional medicine and that should make you extremely, extremely optimistic because the system, just because it's breaking doesn't mean that you as a doctor have to go down with it.  There is a better way and it's truly already happening in front of you.  Oh, let's get into it.  I've got my tea.  I'm ready to talk.  All right, let talk about how doctors are treated in the system because they go through 10-plus years of brutal education, a massive amount of debt all because they decided they want to help people.  And then they get into this machine where it'sLike, if they go to the large hospital system, they're forced to literally hit billing quotas and not health quotas so the churn that they go with is, is really rather insane.  The stat here is a primary care doctor is often expected to see at least 30 patients a day to keep the revenue machine fed and those quotas to be hit.  And 52% of physicians say administrative demands, so the billing, the coding, the insurance paperwork is hurting their ability to actually provide quality care.  And one of the biggest culprits behind all of this is the insurance companies because they are dictating medical decisions and, and removing that from the doctor which, again, the doctor is the one that went to school, not, not the insurance company.  Even though the insurance companies have some doctors on hand, they are not talking to the patient.  They are there to do one thing and one thing alone which is generate revenue.  It, it actually doesn't even matter what the doctor thinks is best.  It matters what the insurance company approves at the end of the day.  These prior authorizations are delaying treatments and the denials, they're overruling the medical judgment of the doctor.  Doctors spend hours a week fighting for just a basic approval and that time, imagine how much better the care would be if instead of a 7minute visit it was a 20-minute visit.  And alone, just removing having to deal with the denial process with the insurance companies would do that.  The other thing is compensation for doctors is it's so rigged it is actually laughable because the reimbursements from insurance companies has been steadily shrinking year after year.  They are approving less and less things and so what is a doctor to do, right?If he knows his patient needs this thing but the insurance company's not approving it, the ethical, honorable thing to do is to get them the treatment that they need but now they're eating that cost.  Good doctors that are prioritizing that quality over the quantity, they end up getting punished.  They, they make less money by providing more quality outputs.  That's the system.  Like, if I could boil it down to an entire nutshell, a good doctor receives less financial incentives to provide quality care.  Like, many doctors end upThey work harder for less money at the end of the day and more liability and fewer resources.  It's pretty insane.  Since 2001, so in the last 24 years, physician pay adjusted for inflation has dropped by over 26% while hospital administrator salaries have risen by 90%.  It's insane.  This corporate system that is essentially stripping away the autonomy of doctors, it's limiting what they can do because doctors in a corporate healthcare system, so if they're working for a hospital, they are losing their right to decide what treatments they can even offer, how much time they can spend with a patient, which vendors, labs, devices they can even use.  The hospital policies and partnerships is dictating literally every move that they can make.  They're reduced from being healers which isI mean, imagine being inspired to want to heal people and going to school for 10 years to do this and then you get into a system where you are now a healthcare employee.  Here's a stat that will also just kind of blow your mind, is the hospital system is actively trying to destroy the private practice side.  74% of physicians are employed by hospital systems or corporate entities.  It is the highest it has ever been in US history.  So they're inspired, they go to school, they are ready positively impact their community and heal the world, then they get into this meat grinder and they're not allowed to do the one thing that they want.  And just imagine the emotional and the spiritual breakdown that must cause for these doctors.  'Cause you know they didn't sign up to, to punch a clock or to chase bonuses.  You don't go to school for 10 years to do that.  Being stuck in that broken system, it's gotta be crushing, unable to practice the true care that you want.  And, like, watching the, the chronic disease crisis just blow up while being at the front line of this collapse, I mean, the depression, the burnout, even suicide, it'sall comes from, like, a spiritual exhaustion, not just your workload.  So much so that according to the American Psych- Psychiatry Association, doctors have a suicide rate that is double that of the general population.  So when you ask why, it's, it's pretty easy to see.  When you're sacrificing your freedom, your income, even your life mission to serve a system that doesn't care about you or your patients, that just strips it of all the nobility.  It's slavery with a lab coat.  The good news is therethe way out is not super complicated though, but it takes, takes courage, honestly.  It's, it's happening but it's, in my opinion, probably the most exciting shift that medicine will ever see, and that is private practice.  That is being able to, to run your own practice how you see fit, and to heal people, and to do it in a way that removes yourself from the system.  All right.  So we know the system's collapsing.  We know that doctors are truly taking the brunt of it, but what, what is the general population doing right now?And if I had to point any single thing which would cause the most optimismI think there's a ton of reasons that doctors should actually be optimistic, and that even the thought of private practice should light them up.  But the main reason that they should be optimistic is that people are waking up.  The people who aren't justthey're justthey're not hoping for better care.  They're not hoping that the system's gonna fix itself.  Some people are relying on RFK and MHA and, and thinking that, from a political standpoint, that this is gonna get solved, but people are actually, like, through their actions, they're starting to demand it.  Just to give you an idea, like record numbers of people are, are starting to seek out functional medicine, it's integrative wellness or even just cash-based practices in general.  You know, Googling alternatives to Big Pharma is exponentially growing and questioning the motives behind hospitals, insurers, even the government health agencies.  I mean, theto think about what we are seeing right now with RFK and you're, you're watching the media literally lose its mind.  Yeah, with, with, with the media losing its mind, it's, it's pretty mind-blowing.  And this, this, I'm sure will be covered in many episodes, but there's also a reason that it's going hand-in-hand, trust in the media, trust in institutions, trust in medicine.  It's all dying, right?People are waking up.  So much so that integrative and functional medicine, it's grown over 230% in the last 5 years based on Google Trends.  So a significant portion of America is now actively going into Google and searching for these things.  Patients are, they're tired of that pill for every ill model, you know.  They're, they're willing to pay cash, you know.  Most of my clients are now to cash-based, they're completely out of the insurance model, which is great.  Like, my wife and I, we, we took our insurance, we literally said, like, "Give me that bare minimum just in case something incredibly horrible and tragic happens," but outside of that, like, it doesn't cover anything that we want.  It doesn't cover our chiropractic care.  It doesn't coverAnd I, you know, I have the VA healthcare system, but it's, like, what's the point in paying for these things 'cause deductibles are flying up?I mean, we'll get into the insurance in one of these, but it, it's just broken from really so many angles.  Like, you can onlyit's not like cracks in a system, there are, like, missing chunks of the system it's so bad.  The thing that's cool is, like, doctors are, they're quietly and then boldly stepping away from the system.  More and more physicians are, are walking away from hospitals and launching independent practices, and that'sMy gosh, if there was one thing I could do for the rest of my life, it would be meeting with doctors, building their marketing plan to break out of the system.  It is so personally rewarding and it is so incredible to see the impact that this has on their communities.  This underground network andI'll tell you, there, there's some awesome people on X to follow, like Duff Rojas is a fantastic follow.  Um, gonna get him on this podcast at some point, I guarantee it.  There's this underground network, there's doctors that are now going direct pay, it'sor it's membership-based or it's functional medicine clinics, and younger doctors.  My God, it's so awesome that younger doctors, in particular, are seeing this writing.  They want that autonomy, they want the purpose, they want the connection with their patients that no hospital will ever be able to replicate.  Between 2021 and 2023, direct primary care practices grew by 25%.  That's huge.  Private practice, it's no longer this risky choice.  It's becoming a sustainable, desirable model for more, like, mission-driven doctors.  It's incredible.  It's fantastic to see.  What an amazing time to be alive, honestly.  And alternative medicine, it's massively amplifying this moment.  You know, the legacy media, I mean, I don't know anybody that watches CNN and goes like, "That's real.  "even Fox News, like, who cares?Like, whatever you watch, chances are it's lying to you.  But independent media, I believe that certainly a lot more, and it's the same thing with doctors.  You know, people are turning to podcasts and Substack and, you know, shit, Reddit, YouTube.  Independent doctors on social media are becoming influencers because people want to hear it directly from their mouth.  And those people's practices are growing like crazy.  The explosion of alternative voices isit's making people more educated than ever.  Some may say, like, for better, for worse, right?Like, "Misinformation.  "But kind of all bullshit, right?You wouldn't buy a car without doing a re- little research.  It's good to do a little research on, on health.  And with all these alternative medicine influencers, you can give a lot more voices in the space and it's not just the, the corporate narrative coming at you anymore.  You know, people should expect options and they should be able to, to go online and, and share the, their stories.  I mean, everything that we're seeing with autism right now, I mean, the media is telling you, like, "Not all autism is the same," which of course it's not the same.  They're saying, "A lot of autism is functional.  "Yes, of course a lot of people with autism are functional, but there's also a lot of people that, you know, are helping their 17 to 20-year-old have to go to the bathroom, right?Like, why should we not ask questions around that?And when you have the media that's constantly just telling you not to and telling you a particular way to think, when the reality that you're seeing is different, you gotta call bullshit on it.  So nearly 60% of Americans under the age of 50 get most of their health information from independent online sources, rather from mainstream media.  And that came from the Pew Research Center, 2024.  That is fucking phenomenal 'cause it's a- it's not just, like, a technical awakening.  I think it's spiritual.  I'm completely convinced that there's a, uh, battle going on right now of good versus evil, and there's a spiritual battle happening in the healthcare space.  The evil side I call sick care.  The good side I call, you know, alternative medicine, we'll say, or patient-centered medicine.  But this failure of health care is part of a much bigger crack in society's trust in institutions across the board.  I love archeology and when somebody's like, "Oh, the pyramids are 3,500 years old," I'm like, "Are they?I don't know.  We should probably look into this a little deeper.  "And now they found these tubes underneath it.  I mean, the institution of archeology has many, many gatekeepers and it's a high barrier of entry.  And so when you get somebody like, say, Graham Hancock come along and say, "Hey, we should look at some different theories," and all of the gatekeepers immediately say like, "Nope, pseudoscience.  Pseudoscience.  "What is being protected with that narrative?So it's not just archeology, but it's- it's government, it's media, it's education, it's pharma, it'sYou name the institution, we- we're questioning it right now.  And some might say like, "Oh, that's Russia propaganda or Chinese propaganda trying to, trying to break down our trust in our institutions because they are the foundation of society.  "But I don't think they are anymore.  I think the access to technology, the access to the internet and interconnectivity that we can have with people across massive spectrums allows us to take that institution and say like, "Great.  Like, do your thing over in your corner.  You can be part of the conversation, but you aren't the conversation.  "And that is, that's how we're gonna have actual progress, right?You need less gatekeepers, more conflicting viewpoints.  I mean, itThe second somebody is saying, like, you shouldn't platform someone, that person's an asshole.  That person is, is censoring and promoting self-censorship, which is just the exchange of ideas.  How do you figure things out unless you talk it out, right?How do youThere's so many things I've brought to my group of friends and they're like, "Dude, you're full of shit.  "And I'm like, "I don't know.  Am I?"And then, like, they'll send me some sources and I'll read that and I'll be like, "Okay.  Well, cool, but that study was funded by, like, that big pharma company.  Like, do you have anything that they didn't fund?""Well, no, I can't find.  "I'm like, "Okay.  Well, then I'm gonna continue to have my questions because the funding matters.  "Right?SoBut again, I think this is spiritual.  It- it's not just intellectual and I think it all comes down to truth.  I mean, I'm a Christian.  I believe that God became a human, came down to our planet, gave us a perfect example, sacrificed himself in service for us to have relationship, direct relationship with God.  That's my belief system right there.  And I believe that God divinely created everything.  I think that that's why things work in cycles.  Or to put it this way, how a shell grows, the Fibonacci sequence is the same as how a galaxy grows.  So something as small as a, a tiny little seashell is the same proportions as the solar system.  Like, that's not an accident.  Like, that's divinely created.  Science and math work into everything.  That's- that's our own little inkling into the way that God operates.  I mean, it's- it's incredible to think about.  I feel so horrible for atheists.  My God, like, how depressing does that have to be?And I- I guarantee, like, with this being a spiritual awakening, there's a direct correlation between the amount of people that don't have a relationship with God and depression.  100%.  There's no study out there that convinced me otherwise.  As a result of all these people seeking truth, that's literally what Jesus says, that he is, like, "I'm the way, the truth, the life.  "Says, "Truth.  Truth.  "Like, honesty.  You're- you're getting to see the mask that is the institutions and media when they openly admit that they're lying to you to protect you.  Yeah, that's the world we live in.  That's reality right now.  We live in a dysfunctional relationship with our institutions.  And this hunger for truth, it immediately, like, brings you back to root cause healing.  Like, why do we have chronic disease?And Big Pharma is just- they're really, the entire allopathic system is just Band-Aids.  Band-Aids on symptoms.  They never actually figure out what's wrong with you.  They never get into the spiritual side, into your mind, into your thoughts, into your mitochondrial health, into your cell health.  the amount of people that are- that are dehydrated from- at a cellular level is insane, you know?And it's because of the nutrition and that mind body spirit integration, the natural health.  Like, functional medicine and independent care, it- it fits perfectly into the deep longing for connection for truth that we are looking for, for- it's a restoration.  I mean, this is what we want.  The system wants you to believe that you're alone if you want real change.  But the big thing is, you're not alone.  Patients are ready.  We're seeing it in the search volume.  Good doctors are ready.  We're seeing it in people that are leaving the hospital system.  And for those bold enough to act, like, this is the single greatest opportunity in modern medicine.  I mean, fuck, you should be optimistic.  Something is shifting, right?We can all feel it.  Patients are sick of being lied to.  They are done waiting for 3 months for a 7minute appointment only to leave with some pills and no more answers.  They are looking for real solutions and they are willing to walk right fucking past these big box hospitals to find it now.  And the doctors, they are waking up too.  There's no more golden handcuffs.  There's no more trading your purpose for a paycheck.  There's a new model rising.  It is built on relationships, on trust, on real healing.  And if you're ready to lead, if you want to reclaim what medicine was always supposed to be, you- you won't just survive this collapse.  I think you will come out on the other side thriving in a brand new world of medicine.  So that is the number one reason why you should be incredibly optimistic about what is happening right now.  But what I would put as a very close second is the technology that we now have at our fingertips and the capabilities behind it that level this playing field between hospitals and private practice, it has never been more impactful.  Because hospitals have these- these billion dollar marketing budgets, right?Like, you're not just competing with a guy down the street.  You are competing with this full-scale propaganda machine, and if you don't lean into your authenticity, if you don't, you know, sh- sell your own story, then the big hospitals are gonna define whatever the story is.  'Cause patients today, they're- they're not passive anymore, you know?They're- they're gonna Google you.  They're gonna look you up on social media.  They're gonna read your reviews, watch videos that you put out, and they're gonna do all this before they even call you.  So why not take advantage of that opportunity to display, 1, the value you present, your methodologies, why they should like you, not only as a doctor but as a human?And think of that immediate differentiation between you and the sick care system, the hospital system.  You know, this- don't think of your practice as a business.  Think of it as a movement.  It's not about selling your services anymore.  It's about being like a rallying point in your community for people who are tired of being treated like a number, of being treated like shit by a system.  It's a movement that you're starting.  Think of your positioning around you are not there to process patients.  You are there to restore health one family at a time and to make your community better.  That's why you start your private practice.  And then along with that, you also get the financial benefits of it.  You get the time freedom.  You get the ownership.  You get the autonomy.  There's so many benefits to opening up your own practice right now.  And with AI and technology, it is truly making this easier than ever.  Say it this way, like, allows you to punch above your weight.  You could tell the hospital system go fuck themselves.  Yeah, you need those relationships here and there, but essentially, you could operate totally out of it and build a- a thriving lucrative business.  Now, you realize it, imagine like personalized email campaigns.  Imagine it through a consistent social media or having a great reputation online.  The fact that you could optimize for SEO your main thing, say it was like hormone balancing for men in their 50s.  Great, you can constantly be pumping out content around that thing and AI helping you do it.  You could be that subject matter expert in a matter of weeks to months.  A hospital can't do that.  Like, that hospital system isThere's so- there's so many different aspects of it.  And one, they can't be authentic 'cause there's no one to be authentic.  The owner of the hospital is not gonna get on Facebook and talk about why he started this hospital.  There's so many advantages to being your own private practice.  It also comes at a time when you don't have to have massive overhead.  Like, automation is fantastic.  You could have chatbots that have a knowledge base that is answering your- your most frequently asked questions.  I mean, that's- that's incredible.  You could have smart scheduling, fewer missed calls, more patients booked directly online as opposed to even calling the office and having to have that receptionist do it.  You could plan out your content in ways just even 6 months ago were hard.  If you leverage smart technology so that you can spend less time pushing paperwork and more time pushing healing and talking to patients, what incredible value you're presenting to your community.  Because local community engagement, that's- that's the secret weapon.  The most functional and independent practices, they forget how powerful they are locally.  You have unbeatable advantage over a hospital.  You live there.  You shop there.  Your kids go to school there.  You are in the community.  You could be buying milk at the local store and be seeing patients.  I mean, the big health systems, they- they can't do it.  They can't fake that, 'cause you know most of what they're doing is fake anyway.  So-That community strategy, just think about it this way, you could be sponsoring local wellness events or sports teams or partnering with organic farms, gyms, home school, churches, hosting education seminars, open houses, celebrating patient success stories on your own social media.  Obviously, get their permission and things like that, but people don't need a passport to find world-class healthcare anymore.  You just need to look down the street to the guy that you like and you could be that guy or girl because there's a philosophical change that I think a lot of doctors need to go through right now because marketing, marketing should be the most fun part about running your business.  It's like, it's my favorite part of running a business.  Forget the slick bullshit and just, just be real.  Like this, what I'm doing right here, this is me being real.  I've got some notes that I'm reading.  I've got some, some stats that I'm pulling.  I, I'm just having a conversation.  Right?And that's, that's what my entire podcast is, right?It's just a conversation about this, this bullshit and how optimistic doctors should be about the future.  So when, when you're thinking about how to position yourself online, being real, being raw, being honest, being a, a leader and telling the truth even when it's uncomfortable, that is a massive differentiator.  Like if, if you've ever heard of the phrase a unique mechanism, like P90X, they didn't invent muscle confusion.  Muscle confusion has been around forever.  They just named the product, right?They said, "Oh, we introduced muscle confusion.  "And people were like, "Oh, this is a new thing.  "It wasn't new and it sold literally millions and millions.  So just your authenticity is your differentiating factor.  It is your unique mechanism.  You are your unique mechanism to your local community.  If you love Harry Potter, talk about Harry Potter.  I hate just about everything the government does.  Like I'm not on a team.  I'm on team people, right?I, I love the Bills.  I, I'm a nerd.  I love sports.  I go to every single Marvel movie.  I can talk about just about anything to anybody.  I've lived in like 8 different major cities between Atlanta, New York City, Miami, LA.  Now I'm in Greenville, South Carolina raising kids.  You have to be you.  People like you and even if they don't like you, let them get to know you.  Give them that opportunity.  Position yourself as, as a liberator, not just an option.  These people want this stuff.  Speak directly to their fears.  So many people have horrible experiences with the hospital.  They were ignored, they were rushed, they were shuttled through like cattle and your message should be empathetic.  It should be, "I'm listening.  "It should be, "I'm gonna find the answers for you, not just what the insurance company is telling me.  I'm gonna find the answer for you.  "It should be, "I believe in your body's design to heal.  "That's the biggest thing, in my opinion, that the healthcare system has gotten wrong is we assume that humanity is dysfunctional.  We think that you came out of your mother's womb with problems.  You are unable to live in the world.  That's what mainstream medicine thinks and that's bullshit.  As a- and it starts, geez, from the mom.  I mean, I could go off on, on a million tangents here, but bringing a child into this world under massive fluorescent lights and then jamming it full of chemicals is not putting a whole lot of faith in your body's ability to naturally live in this world.  It's really sad, honestly, like when you think about it.  Our bodies are amazing and we should lean into incredible aspect of, again, divine creation.  And so one of the things I deal with with a lot of functional medicine doctors is they have no idea like what to say.  Like you ask them, "What's, what's your elevator pitch?"Some of you are like, "Well, I'm in functional medicine," and people hear that and sometimes they turn off or they go like, "Ooh, alternative," or, "Woo-woo.  "Build an elevator speech.  Utilize AI, tell it all of your problems, everything that's cool about you and then say, "Build me a quick elevator speech.  "One that, that I use as just a general one is, "I help people who feel ignored by the traditional system finally get the answers and care they deserve so they can get back to living fully.  "That's incredible, right?If you could help somebody do that, instant connection, instant movement builder in your local community.  So you've now got AI, right?You've gotAnd I could give you, you know, reach out to me.  You can go to sickcaresucks.  com or just email me, paul@honorable.  marketing and if you want me to help you come up with some of these ideas, I would be so honored to do that.  The, the institutions are failing.  Or they're, they're all failing here.  And good doctors, the more of them I can get to rise up out of this, especially with how ready people are and the technology that we have now,I feel like there's a slingshot.  It's the David and Goliath, right?There's a slingshot right now that we have that is technology and the awakening that could truly take down the entire system.  God, it gets me excited just even talking about this stuff.  I mean, it's awesome.  But the last thing I just want to touch on is the increased acceptance of functional medicine.  I like to think about 10, 15 years ago when you said, "I'm going to a chiropractor," and they're like, "Oh, back cracker," or likeThey all think it's BS.  Joe Rogan still thinks it's BS, which I thinkI find hilarious.  But same with, like, acupuncture, with cupping, with all these alternative medicines.  But it's not fringe anymore.  It's a real thing and people know.  If you say, "Root cause healing," people are like, "Oh, okay.  "Like, they get it.  Personalized treatment.  Yeah.  Like, people understand what integrative care that respects the mind, the body, the spirit, th- that's what this awakening is about.  People get this stuff now.  Now, one in 3 Americans have used some form of integrative or functional medicine.  That's awesome.  That's awesome.  That is absolutely incredible.  And the mainstream institutions, they are, they're quietly having to adopt it and, like, being forcedEven major hospital systems now have, like, integrative medicine, and the only reason that they're doing it is not because they want to, it's because people are asking for it.  Insurance companies are starting to have to reimburse for services like, like nutrition counseling and acupuncture, chronic disease management, things like that, because it's, it's being demanded.  The number of US hospitals offering complementary and alternative medicine services grew by 60% over the last decade.  It's incredible.  You know, they, they realize that they can't ignore what patients actually want.  You know, functional medicine isn'tIt's not fighting for scraps.  It's literally pulling people out of this broken system and in so many cases, like in mine, saving them.  I had Lyme disease that went undiagnosed from the VA for 2 years, called fog brain, or, like, foggy brain, and, and my joints hurt and they thought I had fibromyalgia because of the balls of my feet and blotchy skin, and, like, I went to a DO, osteopathic doctor.  2 months, changed my nutrition, changed up a little bit around my lifestyle, and it was great.  It's really incredible.  And the other thing is God works in very mysterious ways.  I think, this is just my personal belief, that the pandemic was divinely inspired.  I think that it was put into our lives to force us to look in the mirror, to expose the healthcare system for what it is, to expose, like, the, the massive weaknesses and its true priorities, which is not patient health, obviously.  It is profit.  I think COVID was divinely inspired to show how evil that system is.  And w- maybe you will disagree with me, but I think God works in mysterious ways.  I think that we can never understand God's motives behind things, but in retrospect, it's what it's done.  We're seeing the data.  More and more people are skeptical of these, like, standard protocols and, you know, more people want real, we'll say real immune support and not just vaccines and drugs, and more people are now willing to pay cash for a preventative, holistic care than they are in paying for an insurance, a just-in-case fund that really doesn't even cover that much.  The most recent numbers, and this came from Global Market Insights, is that the global functional medicine market is protec- projected to grow from 19 billion today to 32 1000000000, so not quite double, but close, in the next 4 years.  That's incredible.  And it, it all really just aligns around, like, that bigger awakening that's going on, that it, it fits perfect with a society that wants decentralization, like cryptocurrencies, blockchain, local first, big systems second.  Th- no one wants more personalization.  There's no more cookie-cutter treatments.  Like, fix me.  Don't fix my symptom.  Don't fix people like me.  Fix me.  We'll say it's no coincidence that the majority of people that died from COVID had, you know, comorbidities, that it's because they weren't in a pre- preventive mindset.  They got sick and then they had to rely on a broken, trashed system that threw them on a ventilator and probably killed them.  That's, again, just my opinion.  I'm not a doctor, but I've talked to enough doctors, I've, you know, watched enough stuff a- and I don't think this is a trend, what, what we're seeing right now.  It's, it's the natural evolution of healthcare.  Things ebb and flow, you know?It used to be natural, holistic, functional medicine, and then it went over to the allopathic, cut you open or throw a pill at you, and now it's swinging back the other way, but we'll still have the benefits of this side.  That's where we're at as a society.  And so if you are a doctor and you are in this and we see what's coming, we see the writing on the wall, jump that train.  Hop onto the tracks that are going a little straighter.  You'll feel better.  Your life will be better.  You'll be in more control.  I mean, functional medicine, it's not, it's not this alternative anymore.  It is the obvious answer for a world that is waking up to its own potential.  So as, as we're seeing this world changing, as we're seeing the patients rising, as we're seeing good doctors rising in turn with them, functional medicine not being fringe, that fear-based older system is getting called out for the bullshit that it is, this new system that is hopeful and rooted in truth and real human connection.  So if you are ready to step forward, if you're ready to lead, if you're notNot just building a better practice by going and opening your place, you're truly building a better world.  Like I said at, at the beginning of this, myI have 2 young kids.  I am working towards building a better world.  That's what this entire podcast is about.  And so it's the framework behind it, and what I'm looking to do is to talk to amazing minds that can shed more light on this space.  People that understand tech, doctors that have broken away from the system and are now doing their own thing and wanna share the hope and optimism and the joy that they experience in, in running their own practice, people that understand the statistics and the science and the psychology behind why we are seeing what we are seeing, and resources that can help you break out of the system, or if you've already broken out of the system, how to excel in this new system.  I am so fucking pumped.  I'm really excited for this new system.  I'm really excited to see where our world is in the next 5 years because th- there Like I said, there's 5 massive, massive reasons to be hopeful and optimistic.  This podcast is gonna be awesome.  I'm super excited about it.  I've already recorded a bunch before I did this one, so the conversations have been incredible and it's inspiring me to do even better work for the functional medicine community.  For all the doctors out there, for all the Americans out there that are just ready to fix this singular item that I think will have a ripple effect across other nations, across other industries, across other institutions, if we fix healthcare, we fix the world.  I truly believe that and I'm so happy to have you with us.  Follow me for more.