SPEAKER_00 0:00

Okay, so the reason why I'm sitting here, so if you're watching this on firstly, welcome to episode one. Secondly, if you're watching this on the YouTube channel, you're probably wondering why I'm sitting in my um veranda at the table alone for the first episode, because if you'd seen the teaser video that I posted on LinkedIn and everywhere else, I had these big ambitious plans to interview interesting guests. And my first guest that I planned on interviewing was my very own cousin Yak, who's got a very interesting story, among other things, climbed Everest, and he's a dentist in in Joburg, studied in Mauritius, all these interesting things. I joke and I call him a celebrity dentist because he's got quite a big following on Instagram, thousands of followers, and the problem with these celebrity dentists is that they're hard to pin down. So I've been battling to work out a mutually suitable date for the both of us because I also have a day job. But when I posted the announcement video on LinkedIn, I knew that this was going to be a problem. Because I've spoken to people who host successful podcasts, and the theme that I got from them when it comes to advice is to make sure you've got your content lined up and ready. And the only reason why I posted the announcement video was because I'd had this idea for the podcast for ages now, and I kept saying, I'll do it, I'll do it, I'll do it, and I kept putting it off. And I said to myself, let me actually put it out there to the world that I'm gonna do this, and hopefully that'll keep me accountable and force me to get going and convert the idea to reality. So that's why I posted it, and I didn't expect the reception that I got. I mean, lots of people were encouraging me and saying it's an interesting idea, and you know, even the even the CEO of Discovery Vitality, I don't know whether he was happy that I was wearing a Vitality shirt on in my announcement video, but he even he said go for it. So I was very encouraged to do it, but again, life is getting in the way, and um I've been itching to get something out, honestly, but I don't want to just post content for the sake of posting content. And one of the comments that I got on the video, in the announcement video, was somebody, an old colleague of mine, Lerato, who's actually also very supportive, and thanks for the support. And she said she hopes one day I'll talk about my story. So I decided let me get episode one out without Yak. He's booked in for next week and we're gonna record something. But for now, I just want to say why I became a doctor and why I became a dentist.

SPEAKER_01 3:22

Not a doctor and then a lawyer. But then I started recording this episode and I found it boring. And so I said I'll park it off for another time.

SPEAKER_00 3:41

And I actually just decided, let me explain why I've I've wanted to do this podcast. I used to be a dentist for a very short time, half a decade. That's nothing. That's a drop in the ocean, right? And very quickly into the start of my career as a dentist, I knew I couldn't do it for the rest of my life. It just wasn't for me. And I had the privilege of being able to change after I'd started the career. And I I have this suspicion that there's lots of people that get into dentistry and healthcare and medicine, whatever. And by the time you've gotten to start your career, you've already invested five, six plus years into it. And so when you start, you you have no choice but to continue and carry on. That's my suspicion. That's what almost prevented me from changing. The only difference with me is that I had the privilege of knowing that I could go 180 degrees into another career and know that I would have support from spouse, from parents, um, and I didn't have responsibilities at the time. And so it wasn't a brave thing for me to do, it was just a no-brainer. But I feel like I'm pretty sure that most people don't have that ability to just change because after you've started, you've got families to support, you've got things to pay for, people to pay for, all these kinds of things.

SPEAKER_01 5:25

So I've always wondered about are there others out there that are like that?

SPEAKER_00 5:36

I know there are others that just absolutely love what they're doing. I also have a feeling that those those people are fewer and far few and far between. And the ones that you see loving what they do are the ones that are always talking about what they do and trying to spread awareness, and you can just tell when somebody's passionate about what they're doing, right?

SPEAKER_01 5:55

So I wanted to just speak to people in this industry and find out what makes them tick, what made them get into it, whether they want to get out of it, and how they're working through all of that.

SPEAKER_00 6:15

And also in my daily job, right? I deal with doctors and clinicians on a day-to-day basis. That's everything I do. And it's only in the context of when something's go gone wrong. We used to always talk about dentists in South Africa being seen as grudge purchases, where unfortunately the culture is that patients come to us. And I think it's this is quite a universal culture in well, and I maybe it's changing in in in in certain countries, but it's a culture of cure rather than prevention. So you come to the dentist when you've got a toothache. It's almost, I mean, it's like a lawyer, you know, when you go you don't go to a lawyer generally, unless you're buying a house or you know, starting a business, but you don't go to a lawyer just for the sake of it. You go there for a reason and often it's because of a dispute or some issue. So we're saying this grudge purchases. And in my current day-to-day job, I feel like I'm still in the industry of grudge purchases because doctors and dentists and psychologists and whatever come to us when there's a difficult situation. And so I always see them when they're in difficult situations. And it I feel like it's kind of skewing my outlook on the profession because I'm always seeing negative things happening.

SPEAKER_01 7:54

And I'm always seeing upset clinicians.

SPEAKER_00 7:58

But I know that there must be someone or someone out there who absolutely thrives in this field and loves what they do. But I also don't want to just speak to people who are at the top of their game and who are killing it. You know, I want I want to speak to all along across the spectrum, you know, people that are just there as a nine to five. If healthcare can be described as a nine to five, I don't think it can. But I want to speak to those kinds of people and I want to speak to people that are absolutely smashing it and doing amazing things because I don't want to skew it one way or the other. And the actual reason behind all of this is to give people insight into what it takes to become a clinician, what it takes to stay one, what life is like on a daily basis for healthcare workers, that might inspire people to get into the profession. It might make people pause and think, do I really want to do this? Are there easier ways to make money? And there really are. And it's weird because I feel like lots of professions say that about themselves after they're in it. Because I've spoken to a number of doctors and dentists who've used that phrase, you know, there's easier ways to make money. But then I've also spoken to lawyers who've also used that phrase. I mean, I worked for one who said to me, Yesh, if you're gonna come and join my team, don't come here if you think you're gonna be uh making big money. This is not where you there's and he said to me there's easier ways to make money. So I feel like from the outside, there's always a perception that people are racking it in, you know. You look at lawyers wearing suits and you think it's like suits, and then you watch Grey's Anatomy and you think medicine is like that, or scrubs, or whatever. But hopefully, if people can see real-life conversations with clinicians, they'll get to appreciate what it's really like. And I feel like healthcare in this country could benefit from having people in the industry who got into it knowing what they were getting into. Because if you know what you're getting into, you're prepared for the long calls and the working under constrained resource with constrained resources and not always dealing with a perfect system. And I feel like if you're prepared and if you know that it comes with the territory, ultimately your patients will still benefit from the work you give them. Because if you come into the profession thinking you're gonna get the doctor title and the dollars, one of my people that studied dentistry with me, I asked her, Well, why did you do it? And she said, the DR and the dollars. So if you think you're coming into it just for the DR and the dollars, I suspect there's a rude awakening. And that leads to treating patients not the way that they should be treated. It leads to clinicians being despondent and becoming burnt out and ultimately a poor healthcare system, which nobody wants to be in and nobody benefits from. So, yes, those are just spitballing. This is unscripted, also. I haven't really thought about what I'm gonna say. I'm just saying it now. So this is episode one of why did I start this podcast? I'm getting Yak Lindy on Google him, Dr. Yak Lindy. He's Y-A-K-L-I-N-D-Y on Instagram. I'm getting him on soon. I'm gonna interview him this weekend, and hopefully it's just gonna be a matter of one shot, one take, how ambitious am I, um, and upload. And I've got a few others lined up. Some people have requested to be on the show and some interesting people, and um some people that I'm planning on getting, like my good friend Caifus, who's a general surgeon in private practice.

SPEAKER_01 12:42

And yeah, so that's where we're going with this.

SPEAKER_00 12:48

I don't want to talk about my story yet because I don't want to set the bar low uh after hyping it up on this the trailer video. I want to talk to people, not talk at people, even though I'm doing that right now. And so, yes, episode the first interview is coming up. But this is why we started the podcast, so cheers everyone.