How Dr. Carolina Sueldo Built a Practice Her Community Trusts

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the Profitable Private Practice Podcast, the show that proves that private practice isn't dead. It's just getting started. I'm Chaka Anachuku, and every week I sit down with thriving private practice doctors who are rewriting the rules and redefining what success looks like in healthcare. From smart business moves to mindset shifts and everything in between, we're here to show you how to build a practice that is not only profitable, but purpose-driven. If you're ready to thrive like these doctors, join the movement at ontremd.com forward slash thrive. Now let's dive in. Hello everybody, and welcome back to the Profitable Private Practice Podcast. And today I have with me Dr. Carolina Sweldo. Hi, Dr. Sweldo.

SPEAKER_00 0:42

Hi, Cheddar. Thank you so much for having me on.

SPEAKER_01 0:46

Oh, I'm so glad you were able to make it. I'm so glad this is going to be, you know, a very awesome and amazing podcast episode. So that just so that we can get started, could you please give us a 60-second introduction of yourself?

SPEAKER_00 0:58

Oh man, I don't think I've ever timed myself. Okay. So I am Dr. Carolina Sweldo. Um, I'm a double board certified fertility specialist, and I'm also the founder of Sabo Fertility Center, a boutique fertility practice in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

SPEAKER_01 1:15

Wow, that is amazing. I love Fort Lauderdale.

SPEAKER_00 1:18

I've only been there a few times, but very nice, speachy, good destination.

SPEAKER_01 1:23

Good destination, yes. Okay, so I like to do a little bit of research and you know find a fun fact about whoever I interview. So I heard a few things. One that you were born in Carolina and then you moved to Argentina, and that you're a very avid soccer fan. So I was doing some research and I found like a post from like 107 weeks ago, and it was, I think of like your son, and he had a messy um jersey on, and you're just talking about it. So could you tell us a little bit about, you know, your love for soccer, how you were born in California, moved to Argentina? Could you tell us a little bit about that?

SPEAKER_00 1:55

Absolutely. Yeah. So um my parents are originally from Argentina, just outside of the capital, outside of Buenos Aires. Um, and in the early 70s, they emigrated to the US. They started first in Chicago and then ended up in California. Um, that's where my brothers and I were born and raised, but we were very connected to Argentina, even like before I can remember. So we were traveling back uh once or twice a year for extended periods of time. Um, and then when I was 15, the family actually packed up and moved down there. So I actually did high school and I stayed down there for medical school and then came back for my post-grad training. So I did residency in California, my REI infertility fellowship in Connecticut. Um, and then I've now been in practice for a little over 10 years.

SPEAKER_01 2:43

Wow. I love that. That is amazing. So in a sense, you have oh, go ahead. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 2:49

No, I was, and and I was gonna say, so um it's a it's a bicultural uh upbringing, very much from the very beginning. Um, but one thing that sort of um from the very beginning exploded was love for soccer. So my dad actually played club soccer in Argentina in the under 18s, um, and you know, had us in soccer all through our childhood, um, for as long as I can remember anyway. Um, and so yeah, really, really avid uh soccer watcher, soccer enthusiast. And pre-kids, we actually had jerseys, my husband and I, for our dogs, and um, and then once the kids came along, we got them their own.

SPEAKER_01 3:28

That is amazing. So we have pretty deep roots in Argentina, yes.

SPEAKER_00 3:33

For sure. For and in fact, um is the national flower of Argentina. So the name of my clinic um is tied to that background, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:41

Oh wow, that's beautiful. So you mentioned that you moved back when you were 15. Did that, you know, like affect anything? Um, you know, seeing as you didn't exactly like you went back and forth pretty much while you were younger, but you fully moved there when you're 15. So did that affect anything lifestyle-wise?

SPEAKER_00 4:01

A hundred percent. I mean, I think it it definitely shaped who I was as a person. Um, my like two cents is anyone who can. Um, I encourage them to live abroad um during their sort of formative years. I think beyond visiting, I think living abroad just it completely changes your view of the world. Um, it for me really shaped, you know, my extroverted personality, how I am in social circles. Um, starting high school at the age of 15 in a new country and a new language and a new culture was a whole, you know, because even though you visit, it's one thing to visit family and be in sort of a family home environment. It's very different to actually live there and go to school there, do sports there, etc.

SPEAKER_01 4:45

Yeah, that is awesome. And I know for me, um, my family and I, we recently um had the opportunity to visit Dubai. And Dubai and America are two completely different things. So it's just amazing to see like what one person can do in like an entire place. So all of us as we went, we were just like, so when we get back home, what do what do we plan on doing differently? Just because like going out, going abroad is very eye-opening. So like it makes you like want to change something about your life. That's that's beautiful. So let's go ahead um and you know get started on the entrepreneurial side of things. So could you tell us about the first moment when you entertained the thought of becoming an entrepreneur?

SPEAKER_00 5:26

Yeah, so um I actually never had plans to open my own practice that was never in the cards. Um, but when my husband and I made the decision to move back to South Florida, this was sometime in 2022, um I knew that I had first practiced here right out of fellowship. So I knew most of the players. I didn't know all of the practices, but I knew many of the players. And in the fertility space specifically, um, private equity firms have actually acquired the large portion of the market share. So most of the big practices in the area are backed by or majority owned by private equity firms. Um, and so really at the outset, there was like, you know, which of these is the least bad for me? I had already lived the private equity experience and and really was just didn't fit well with it. My personality, how I wanted to practice, there was just so many things that were fundamentally misaligned. Um, and so really my husband was the one who first planted the seed of like, you know, if you're gonna go into something already knowing that you're gonna be unhappy, you should just like do your own thing, shoot your shot, see what happens, and if you can make it work, great. And if you can't, you can just join one of them later.

SPEAKER_01 6:42

That is wow. So he kind of just pushed you to start your own practice.

SPEAKER_00 6:49

Exactly. And you don't know what you don't know. Like I had two small children. Um, at the time when we were contemplating this, you know, my my older son was two, my my younger guy, I'm sorry, three, he was three. My younger guy was, you know, just barely a year when we were starting to navigate this. Um, and you know, when we moved, um, they were, you know, four and eighteen months. Um, and so it was a really big decision for me as a mom to young children to make this leap. Um, but but it really came down to, you know, I was um on the verge of 40. I knew I had still many years left to practice, and I knew I loved what I was doing and could create a lot of impact, but I did not love the business of medicine and sort of my options that were on the table at that time. Um, and so it really was kind of that leap of faith, like, hey, let's do it and we're gonna shoot our shot and let's see, you know, what we can do with this.

SPEAKER_01 7:50

Okay. So then what were some mindset shifts in essence that you had to make before starting your practice?

SPEAKER_00 7:58

I think the first thing um was I needed to believe that it was possible. Um, I needed to find examples. Um, and there was somebody in California who was already doing it, had been doing it. Now, the conditions and circumstances were a little bit different than what I was walking into, but um, they were a great support and mentor in the beginning. So finding examples that it was possible, um, and then finding community, right? Like surrounding myself with both the people and the tools that I was going to need. Because you don't, again, I said it earlier, you don't know what you don't know. And so, what were the tools that I was gonna need to make that happen? You know, um, we talk a lot about marketing strategy, knowing your numbers, et cetera. But even basic things of like joining the local medical society, finding the office space, where was I gonna get, you know, my supplies from, exam tables, how was I gonna furnish, like all of those things I didn't know what I didn't know. Um so, and then it it was really being okay with the discomfort. I think that was probably the biggest mindset shift. Um, in medicine, there's very much kind of this train that you are on, right? Medical school, then post-grad training, whether it's residency or residency and fellowship. And then you join either a hospital or a group and you're on that track and you may or may not be up for partnership. And it's very sort of defined, if you will. Um, and what I was doing, certainly in the fertility space, um, you know, no one, or I shouldn't say no one, but it was very rare to see people doing that. And and here in South Florida, um, you know, it people thought I was crazy. Like they were like, you're doing what? Like that's never gonna work. I literally had somebody call me and tell me, you know, they were just waiting for me to fail so that they could absorb my myself and my patients. Um, it was definitely going against the grain and and having to be okay with that and like knowing that it was it was possible.

SPEAKER_01 10:03

Wow. And so you mentioned a few times that you don't know what you don't know. So when going into practices, I've interviewed some people who were like, well, I didn't really know anything about it, so I joined the business school. And then after I joined the business school, I had my practice, um, I started my practice. So did you like wait until you had majority of the information before you started your practice, or you kind of just went straight in?

SPEAKER_00 10:26

No, so there's the saying, uh, build the build the plane while you're flying. That is very much me with Savo. Um because I can take really good care of patients, right? Like patient care is my zone of genius. Um, the business side, whole different ballgame. And and so you have to you learn and you grow with your business. Um, so I did not know. I knew so at so at the time that I found entree MD and Dr. Una, um I knew that we were coming back to Florida, but I didn't know what that looked like. So really I stumbled upon it more from like a brand building, reputation-building type of approach. Um, and then as I I think I had just joined the business school, it was kind of around the time where I made the decision I was gonna open my own practice. And so I knew I was gonna need that. Um, and and so it was the business school, it was the community, and then locally on the ground, I actually leaned heavily on the local society, the the medical society, um, and then you know, just colleagues in the area, like, hey, I'm looking for XYZ. What's your suggestion? Um, but those were kind of the different, the different tools. So no, I most definitely did not have, I don't think I didn't have any information actually when I was starting out.

SPEAKER_01 11:47

Wow. Okay. And so what are some surprising opportunities that entrepreneurship has opened up for you?

SPEAKER_00 11:55

Oh, um so I think that there's a few things that you really don't think about. Um one of them, I think, is the work-life balance. And so one message that I received a lot of was you're gonna be in solo practice, you're gonna be on call 24-7, it's gonna be miserable, you know, 365 days a week. Um, but having control over my schedule, autonomy over my schedule, and control over the patient experience, actually, my patients were getting so much communication from myself and my team that I rarely got called. I mean, I think I've been open, this is now year three for us. Um, I can count on one hand the number of times that I've been called in the middle of the night or called on a weekend or whatnot unexpectedly. Um, so I think the work-life balance was actually much better than what I was um expecting going into it. The second opportunity was um the local networking with other female physician founders. Um, that really was unexpected. And just getting to see what other people are doing, um, I would say both here on the ground and in the business school, and just getting the opportunity to network with um other female founders who are doing like really rock star things. And there's some rockstar guys in the business school too, but just, you know, for me, kind of seeing um seeing those examples and having those vision boards, again, both here on the ground and in the business school across the country, um, that was really unexpected. And what you find is that there's actually people that are rocking it in medicine. Like it's not this sort of negative gray picture that everybody paints. Um, and then the third is really um it's this kind of bucket of like consulting, speaking, um, device, like this sort of world that opened up people um, you know, that are interested from other other industries are interested in both learning from you and and um hearing your expertise on, you know, from a medical standpoint on different things. So that's been cool.

SPEAKER_01 14:07

That sounds that sounds amazing. I love absolutely love that for you. And that I do believe that entrepreneurship does open up, you know, a lot of opportunities. So, you know, in the way where you were saying that, um, you haven't exactly you can count on your hand how many times you've been called in the middle of the night. I feel like I can do the same thing for my mom, where like the way she has her work life balance. So even when she gets calls, like it, you know, they're fat, they're fast-paced, is you know, never, you know, that big of a deal. But then she hardly ever gets them because I believe that she has trained her patients in a way where if you need this, then you go here rather than um you know calling me to do this. So she has absolutely mastered that, and I love that for both you and her. And so one of the wins that you mentioned um in the little questionnaire was that you were named, you know, the best doctor in Fort Lauderdale in 2024 in 2025. So could you expand on that for us a little bit? Yeah. And yeah, minds would like to hear about that.

SPEAKER_00 15:04

So, you know, there there is um a concept that Dr. Una talks about a lot, which is sort of establishing yourself as an authority um in your space. And when I moved to Fort Lauderdale, I had been away from the from the South Florida region. I was never in Fort Lauderdale, so I was brand new to the area. Um, but I'd been away from the South Florida region for five years. So nobody really knew who I was. Um, and there was a lot of reputation and brand building that has gone into the last couple of years for me. Um and apparently there's a local magazine, it's called the Fort Lauderdale magazine, and uh readers can vote to see who is the best doctor in the area. And in 2024, I got an email, which I thought was spam at the time, and they're like, hey, you won. And now, mind you, at this point, we had been open less than a year. Okay. So we were, yeah, we had been open less than a year, and I get this email, you won best doctor for Lauderdale. I'm like, what is this? Whatnot? Um, and I was getting texts from from like, you know, my kids, school from the parents and whatnot, like, oh my gosh, you're in the magazine. And I was like, what is happening right now? Um so yeah, I mean, I think, and it it speaks to two things, right? So, so to for me, it speaks to number one, the gap, right? And and sort of what patients were wanting and what patients were seeking, and the kind of service and the kind of care that we were giving to our fertility patients. Um, and number two is that I would have never thought that the Fort Lauderdale magazine um was of significance, if you will, for my brand building. And yet it was so important and allowed for so many things. And then that led to other things, right? Because then that's something that's going on your social media, that's something that's going on your pitches when you're pitching for podcasts or pitching for um interviews, et cetera. Um, so it adds a layer of like street cred that is maybe outside of the orthodox, what we think of as street cred, which is you know, certifications and titles and whatnot. Like nobody cares that I'm double board certified, nobody cares about my maintenance of certification, nobody cares. I care. Um, but really they're looking to this type of recognition. So um it was pretty cool. I mean, year one of business, we got it, year two of business, we got it. We're now uh uh voting actually closes at the end of March, but we're hoping for um a three, you know, a three P three years in a row. So we'll see how that goes. But um yeah, that that was a surprising win, definitely, with less than a year open.

SPEAKER_01 17:45

That's that sounds amazing. Now, you did mention at the beginning of that that um something that Dr. Una talks about is making yourself an authority in that place. So could you talk a little bit about how you were able to do that?

SPEAKER_00 17:58

Yeah, I think one of the things that I focused on very early on was getting out in my community. So there's a local medical society that I joined. Um, and to be a member, you have to give a five-minute talk. Um, and there's all different specialties, right? And so that's a way for other providers in the area to get to know me. Um, I also joined a few different women's groups, um, uh volunteering and and um women's networking. And they allow, you know, we then found events where I could speak at locally. Um, and so it was really about getting myself out in the community. And then once you're out there, you know, you can share your credentials, you can share, you know, all the the letters behind your name, etc. But um, that visibility is huge.

SPEAKER_01 18:48

So it's essentially when it came to starting out your practice, you didn't hold back with the visibility thing.

SPEAKER_00 18:54

Yeah, I went full court press. There's nothing like your face out there in the community. Yeah, for sure. For sure.

SPEAKER_01 19:01

Okay. And you did talk a little bit about brand building. So could you mention some of the things that you were able to do? Because I know your social media is definitely on fire. I've seen you like all over my feed. So could you talk a little bit about you know what it is that you do for that?

SPEAKER_00 19:15

Yeah, I mean, we so we started with a personal account, um, Dr. Carolina Sweldo, and I still um work that and I still, you know, have that. But Sabo was always meant to be bigger than me. Um Sabo was always meant to go beyond, you know, one doctor. And so we created um the Sabo Fertility Center Facebook um and Instagram page, which are linked together. So it's one post feeding into two venues. Um, and really just being consistent um with the content and publishing regularly. I have a virtual assistant um who's phenomenal. She's been with me since before Savo. So she's been with me um, you know, since the very first days of just building my own personal brand. And she knows me and my voice so well that she's really able to curate that content. You know, there's still stuff that, you know, I will do or I will post or videos that are, you know, mostly me. Um, but she's the biggest driver. So we have a strong, consistent presence on social media. Our website is also um really incredible. Uh, everybody, you know, the website, um, you don't want to spend a ton of time on it. If you can, you want to outsource it, but it is definitely a representation of your brand. And I've gotten many comments on um the ease of navigation, the aesthetic, you know, the information. So that's been really important as well for that digital footprint.

SPEAKER_01 20:47

Okay.

unknown 20:48

All right.

SPEAKER_01 20:48

And so in getting to this point where you are now, you know, where you've gotten the best doctor at Fort Lauderdale two years in a row, and you know, um, etc. etc., what were some of the challenges that you had to face in getting to where you are now? So many.

SPEAKER_00 21:06

Where do I start? We could do a whole podcast episode on that. Um, but you know, if I could encapsulate it, I would say the biggest thing is learning resilience. Um, and I and you know, anyone who's a doctor is resilient. You've you've had to go through years and years of training and exams and and you know, all kinds of stressors, um, you know, critical cases, etc. But it's it's you are, I mentioned in the beginning, like patient care is your zone of genius. You are basically a beginner when it comes to medicine, or I'll speak for myself. I was a beginner when it came to the business of medicine. And there were a lot of things that happened in the beginning from you know, a landlord that was really difficult to work with, um, from uh, you know, a difficult patient that ended up with a financial. financial impact to the practice, to you know, a vendor not delivering on time, and then that directly impacted patient care to you know personnel and staffing situations and having to let somebody go within their 90-day probationary period, etc. So there's been so many things that have happened in this short amount of time. And I think the biggest shift has been my bounce back. In the beginning, I would not sleep, I would really struggle through it. I leaned very, very heavily on the EBS community in that first year. I don't I don't know that there would be a SABO without EBS. In fact I say that all the time to Dr. Yuna. But but what I can tell you is that as the as time has passed the challenges are still there in a different way and my ability to respond to them has also evolved. And so that's been really nice like that that valley that that negativity it doesn't last forever and so you mentioned that um that without EBS there is no SABO.

SPEAKER_01 23:11

So could you talk a little bit about you know the business school what does the business school contribute to the success of you know your private practice I mean so many things um too many to list.

SPEAKER_00 23:23

I think um probably the biggest thing is having the community um being a you know solo founder in any industry but especially in medicine today is extremely lonely extremely isolating um you know in my particular case add that I was a a a new mother to young children, aging parents, you know, the sandwich generation it was that first year was brutal and and the only way that I got through that was having the support in the community of the entree MD business school a hundred percent there's no doubt. Beyond that I think it's um the frameworks so so the systems that come from okay I know I need to brand build what does that actually mean so I need to have a social media I need to have a website I need to pitch for podcasts I need to okay what does that actually mean? Like what is the actual sequence to doing that? What's the frequency you know et cetera um you know Dr. Una talks about the revenue generation framework that's like literally ingrained in my brain and I'm still using that now and and you know thinking about the other thing that's been interesting now which I didn't think about it at the time but now in year three is building for growth and and building for sort of that you know starting at the foundation but building for a business you know two or three iterations from where you're at today makes all the difference. And so running meetings um you know how the staff operates the the SOPs the um ROI for each employee et cetera like all of that is is the thinking is okay SABO five years from now SABO 10 years from now you know what is that looking like so that that mindset was really helpful. But yeah and then I would say you know back to the loneliness and isolation like you don't really have a lot of spaces where you can go and share and be vulnerable with the hard parts of doing this. And so having the business school as a safe container to navigate not only the wins which you know are what we typically share with everyone but also the valleys and the hard parts of doing this that was critical. Okay so speaking of wins can we talk a little bit about them let's do your three your top three wins we can do both tangible and intangible yeah um so so tangible wins I would say um from a revenue standpoint so I self-funded the business I did not take out a loan um I bootstrapped uh so you know started very lean and kind of grew into it that's not right or wrong that's just how I chose to do it. By the end of year one I had paid myself back startup costs and had paid myself a six-figure salary. And then going into year two yeah we it was a stretch goal but we wanted to double our revenue and we actually hit that by the end of December um 2025 so year two of business. And and so definitely from mind sharing what was the revenue goal you had for the I'm sorry sorry sorry that's okay so 2025 my revenue goal was a million dollars wow yeah yeah yep yep and so we hit that that's amazing we did we did before December 31st we broke that number which was incredible. Wow it was a very big stretch for us starting the year so we were very excited about it. So that's definitely like you know tangible you know revenue um numbers goal um I think the second win is is really um from a positioning standpoint so you know I'm now uh I mentioned being a member of the local medical society I'm a co-founder um for a local female physician founders group in South Florida and I helped co-run that um based on my EBS experience um I'm also a member for the Latin American Reproductive Medicine Association which was also on my vision board um for 20 for two years in a row 2023 2024 and that finally came into effect um and and I think the third is a little bit more intangible but living with intention um and setting those annual goals in the nine areas of life that's something that we practice in EBS it wasn't something I I had heard of this but never had done it um in any sort of intentional way and it's something that I've carried with me did recently with my team for their own personal development and then we did a collective one for the business and uh and and hitting those like getting to the end of the year and seeing 75 to 80% of those goals met is is pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01 28:28

So yeah I think those would be my top two or three uh wins from EBS for sure those are amazing wins I'll take them now a little bit earlier you talked about your work-life balance and something that I know Dr.

SPEAKER_00 28:42

Una talks a lot about is having your dream business and dream life so could you talk a little bit about how you're experiencing both areas yeah and I'll just like qualify it with like yes there's gonna be seasons where you may have to put a little bit more into the business a little bit less into the business um but generally speaking I have a four-day work week um you know I typically work eight to four eight to five if I'm doing some extra stuff I don't work weekends I'm closed all major holidays um and my goal which I hit last year was to take one week off a quarter um this year I'm trying to increase one of those to two weeks so we're seeing if we can make that happen um and and you know more than anything it's the autonomy of like hey my kid has a school show at 930 on a Thursday so I can move things around and make that happen. So so I think that work-life balance is definitely doable. It can look different for everyone and I think one of the big takeaways from the business school was live a version of your dream life now. Like you may want to work X number of days or you may want to take X amount of time off or whatever the ultimate goal is. So what version of that can you live now? And that was really helpful as I'm still technically growing the business, right? We're still very much in growth mode you know the my word for 2026 is thoughtful scaling um how do I scale the business with without compromising patient experience without compromising team experience um and and so you know really being thoughtful um in that and at the same time like living a version of my dream life. I know what I want for my five year my tenure how do I incorporate that you know or pieces of that now wow and so that um the the thoughtful scaling could you talk a little bit more about I've never heard that before so could you talk a little bit yeah absolutely absolutely so um it really was born in my first year year and a half of business I probably had at least four if not more um investor groups reach out to me and like you know we'll build your lab we'll help you grow Sabo you know et cetera et cetera I had um my business consultant come in review do an audit of all the business the numbers et cetera and he like he had dollar signs in his eyes like we could have you know 35 Sabos across the country and like let's blow this thing up and whatnot. But at its core like my why was I wanted something different for myself and I wanted something different for the patients. And so you know in the beginning it was really about carving out my little corner of the world to see my patients the way I wanted. And once we had proof of concept we were like oh we can actually be a serious player in the space like what does now what does that look like right and so as we grow the business and as we think about scaling because because really the vision for Sabo is not to be Fort Lauderdale you know not to be a single practice like the thought is that that Sabo is a different model within the fertility space offering boutique care and we want to replicate that in other parts of the country how do we scale and how do we grow the business in a way that won't compromise patient experience and and what we've been able to deliver in the last couple of years and also doesn't compromise the team whether it's myself and my work life balance or my team and their work-life balance and how they're able to function. So those are really like keeping those two at the forefront and the priority but still with the intent of growing like you can and I and you know the message that I have from my SABO experience is you can serve and give a lot of impact you can give your team and yourself work-life balance and you can still grow the business and be profitable. So there is there is a way to do this without um the model that's currently in the space which is like high volume working a million hours you know and that's the fastest way to get you know to whatever your 10x multiple is okay now if you could say something to a private practice owner you know who's feeling a little bit challenged you know in the area of okay maybe they have too many work hours or maybe you know patient care is their thing but at the same time they feel like they're not making enough so like you know the patient care is kind of going down.

SPEAKER_01 33:22

What advice would you give to that person who's struggling with something like that?

SPEAKER_00 33:26

So I think one of the biggest lessons that I learned along the way in part thanks to the business school and specifically the EBS math puzzle is it's don't make it an emotional decision. Like remove the emotion out of it remove the burnout remove the fatigue and think about like what it is it that you're trying to achieve if it's a revenue goal if it's a patient number if it's a you know work hour number etc and then and then back into the back into that result. So first identify what are you trying to achieve and then retrofit your work to to match that. So um you know I knew I wanted to hit a million in revenue at the current rate that I was going that even if I worked quote unquote more and went to five days a week instead of four, I wasn't going to hit it. So how do I then back into that number? Whether it's you know increasing patient volume in the same amount of hours whether it's increasing pricing whether it's increasing my own hours which I knew I didn't want to do so so I think it's about having the goal and then working backwards to solve for that solution and so you you mentioned the business school just a little bit within that you know the EBS math puzzle and so what has been let's do your biggest takeaway from the business school like the biggest lesson you learned while in it um I don't know that's a really hard one it's a really hard one so you know I I think one is visibility um you have to be visible like you just you have to in today's day and age in today's society and the way that we have an attention economy you have to be visible. Number two is systems and being okay with those systems breaking with each new level that you kind of get to the systems that got you here won't get you there. And then three is the the strategy and like being clear on what you want but but removing the emotion from it and then backing into the decision.

SPEAKER_01 35:43

Okay those are powerful and then so if you could say something to someone who is on the fence about joining the business school like you know they're one foot in and one foot out what would you tell them?

SPEAKER_00 35:53

Yeah I mean I think what I said earlier there is no SABO without EBS and I I wholeheartedly mean that. And so I think you know having the community having the space where people are rocking it and like really doing incredible things um and and people that are going to support you and and hear the good the bad and the ugly um all of that you know makes it well worth it. And then you add sort of cherry on top is what you learn but but really you know nav because people are like oh well I can get that from a book or I can get that from you know a podcast or I can get that from whatever but the community and the support and the like hey I need to pick your brain about this specific thing like that's very very unique to EBS and that and that community that curated community curated community yeah and so now to anybody who is listening and you believe that like like what I said like you're a little bit on the fence about the business school I would like to invite you to book a call so in that you have the opportunity to talk with one of our team members and be able to lay out your concerns you know talk about why you're on the fence and what our team will do is that they will help you figure out your next best step.

SPEAKER_01 37:08

So if you're interested in booking a call you can go to andremd.com forward slash success. But like what Dr. Sweldos said if you're looking for that type of community because that community really isn't something that you can get from a podcast and it's not something that you can get from a book. You know that community of where you have doctors who are uplifting you and you know they're not trying to tear you down so that they can get on top I really do believe that you know booking a call will really help just so that you're able to talk to somebody about you know any questions that you may have because like my mother likes to say Dr. Una she says that EBS is here to serve you. And so that's what we're all about we're all here to serve you to help you with whatever it is that you may need. So that'll be on gmd.com forward slash success so that you can book a call today. And now Dr.

SPEAKER_00 37:53

Swell I know you mentioned the community and I feel like that may be your answer but um when you were in the business school what was your favorite thing about it actually so yes community but like tied to that the live events um the live events were magic and you know having the accountability of the Wednesday calls was great. The accountability is so important when you're navigating this um but the live events of EBS were magic.

SPEAKER_01 38:21

I still miss them yeah that is awesome I love the live events as well and so Dr. Swelder I just want to say thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00 38:31

This has been a very awesome interview and I've had a lot of fun and I've learned a lot of things but now for our last question where can people find you they want to get to know more about you where should they go to look for you from sure yeah so I am on all the major social media platforms the best thing to do would be um to just send me a DM on my Instagram DR Carolina Sweldo or Dr. Carolina Sweldo. If not they can always submit a web inquiry on our website sabofertilitycenter.com but yeah happy to happy to help if anybody has questions always reach out um happy to help you navigate and answer okay and then I do have one more question now actually so if there's anything from this episode that you want someone to you know take away and to keep with them what would that be it's possible it's possible I think the the messaging in medicine right now um is very negative it's very um you know it like private practice is dead um if you're not working for a hospital or a group um you know you're you're not gonna make any money um you're not gonna have that doctor lifestyle or you're gonna just be working yourself to the bone um and and I think if you can take one thing away from this episode is that it is possible. And just knowing that it is possible and that there are physicians a lot of them who are doing amazing in this space and that medicine is still um thriving uh if you let it so like what Dr.

SPEAKER_01 40:12

Una says sometimes is that the common narrative is that private practice and that medicine is um you know it's bad and that it's dying but it's not because private practice is thriving and there are a lot of great examples out there of how private practice is thriving. So that is a beautiful takeaway so if there's anything anything that you take away from this podcast episode is that it is possible and that you can do it. And there are whole there there are an amazing amount of living examples of people who are doing this. Dr. Carolina Sweldo is one of them so thank you. Dr. Swelda thank you so much for coming on this has been this has been amazing. I've learned so much and I believe that I'll be taking you know a lot away from this podcast episode. So I just want to say a really big thank you for coming on today. I'm so glad thank you for saying that I'm so happy that it was helpful to you and so to everyone who is watching remember not to allow this episode to be your best kept secret. So if there's something that you learned that you believe will benefit another doctor then I do want to invite you to share that with them to share this with them and I believe that it'll make an impact in their life and so a very big thank you to you for watching and we will see you next time. Thank you for listening to the Profitable Private Practice Podcast if this episode inspired you share it with a private practice doc in your life and subscribe so that you never miss an episode. Don't let this podcast be the best kept secret I'm Chetana Chico and I'll see you next time.