IAM013 – Entrepreneur Empowers People to Make Informed Health Decisions

I provide healthcare interaction services lending my 12+ years as an RN to guide my clients from a managed care mindset to preventative care.

• CEO Hack: Tapping into resources like mentors
• CEO Nugget: Know thyself and be patiently persistent. My fire is not your fire.
• CEO Defined: Being comfortable and being true to oneself

Website: https://kbcals.wixsite.com/homepage
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kbcals
Twitter: http://twitter.com/kbcals267
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/kyanajb

Transcription:

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place, Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:27

Hello, hello, hello, this is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today Kyana Brathwaite from KB CALS – Caring Advocacy & Liaison Services. Kyana, It's awesome to have you on the show.

Kyana Brathwaite 0:42

Thank you for having me.

Gresham Harkless 0:43

No problem, no problem. What I wanted to do was just kind of read a little bit more about you and your bio, so people can learn a little bit more about all the awesome things that you're doing. And Kyana provides healthcare interaction services, lending her 12-plus years of experience as an RN to guide her clients from a managed care mindset to preventative care. So Kyana, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

Kyana Brathwaite 1:06

I'm definitely ready.

Gresham Harkless 1:07

Awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, the very first question that I usually have is if I give you the mic, so to speak, to ask you if you could tell your CEO story and tell us a little bit about yourself, your background, and what led you to start your business.

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Kyana Brathwaite 1:18

Okay, as you mentioned, I have been an RN for a little over 12 years, and I've been in healthcare for 20 years, I can't believe I'm saying that at this point in my life. But I noticed throughout that timeframe, I will come across a lot of different gaps. And even as a, I was a nursing assistant, and a CNA and a phlebotomist and a nurse intern, so I kind of, you know, went up the ladder, so to speak. But during that timeframe, I noticed there were a lot of gaps in people's utilization, understanding, and just willingness to actually interact with the healthcare system.

A lot of times people were coming to it from what is called knee-jerk responses, there's a problem I want to fix. And then I want to leave, I don't want to have anything else to do with the system. So going from that preventative care mindset, or the managed care mindset is the I'm going to just have something fixed. And then I want to go preventative more. So in the sense of, you know, I know that I have these things that could quite possibly happen. And I want to kind of plan for those just as we do with financial services.

So I would try to guide my patients in the acute care setting, I started off in critical care and moved into the outpatient setting, I was trying to guide them through thinking through that process, right, not just having that knee-jerk reaction that came in for a procedure and I just want to get that done. But let's talk about how to connect the dots with what you're doing with our department as well as how that connects with your general practitioner and any of the other specialty positions that you may have under that health care and health insurance umbrella.

So I realized that that was something that I love to do, I had stepped outside of the nursing space for a very short amount of time. And I kept being brought back every time I would talk to people about things, I always found myself educating them and healthcare and the best way to utilize the system and interact with the system. So I said, you know, instead of trying to fit inside a box that somebody else created, let me be that peg or let me you know, let me create what I know I do well. And that's how I started on my CEO entrepreneurial journey. That's pretty much my story long and short.

Gresham Harkless 3:22

Awesome, awesome, awesome. No, it's interesting. Like, it's funny how the universe kind of works, and pushes you exactly where you should be, like you said, you sat down for a little bit, but he kept being redirected back to it's almost like this is exactly the path that you should have been going on. And then it kind of just took you there. So I wanted to drill down a little bit further to kind of understand exactly about your products and services. But what exactly do you do to kind of help out people?

Kyana Brathwaite 3:45

As you said, I provide healthcare interaction services, and that's different from navigation. A lot of people call it navigation, but to me, navigation has a noninteractive, nonparticipative feel to it. And what I and my company tried to do is pull you in as the participant, right? Because really healthcare is the system and the industry as well as health insurance, the system, and the industry began around the patient and it started off patient-centered and it went in a completely different direction. So we do things such as Wayfinding, which is similar to navigation, right? Insurance research, provider matching, benefit utilization, and then a health and wellness plan.

But that's a grand scope of things that I believe in. What I've tried to do with clients as well as patients when I was in the different health systems is to go from that model to move you through this intentional interaction and this intentional participation where you're saying, Okay, I am thinking through these processes, and I'm thinking of what effect they're going to have on me and how I want to look in the long run if I'm, I'm putting my age out there, but I'm 38 and I have a number of family issues, family history.

So for me, it's like, okay, I know I need to have a cardiologist, I know I need to have a general practitioner, I'm a woman, I need to have a GYN, you know, so what does that look like? And why am I doing these things? And how do I want to make sure that I stay as healthy as my parents and beyond?

So that's kind of what those services provide, they start off with, this is what your issue is. So let's deal with that issue. And then let's plan out how to truly interact with and utilize and benefit and be comfortable with the professionals that you're interacting with. Because they are there to plan with you to work with you and to partner with you throughout the life of your lifetime and your health and wellness planning.

Gresham Harkless 3:45

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. And, I like what you were saying before about being able to kind of connect those dots because often if you go to one person within your health, your health care, they may not talk to the other person will be able to kind of connect those dots and get like a quote-unquote, maybe holistic approach is definitely, you know, something that's beneficial to everybody. So I guess the next question I want to ask was kind of like around like, what kind of makes you unique to you and your organization, your company you need? What are some of the things that you feel like help you do that

Kyana Brathwaite 6:05

One big thing is were independent. So a lot of times I get people to say, Okay, well, why wouldn't I use your services when you know, independence, Blue Cross, or Kaiser Permanente, some of the bigger entities provide this or something similar? And the reason why a lot of my clients choose me is that I'm not tied to Independence Blue Cross. So if independence, Blue Cross is pushing this one thing, but that's not good for you, or that doesn't work for your family, or it's not something that you can fully utilize, then you and I can sit down and talk about what those options are, and what benefits Independence Blue Cross offers you that will work for you and does turn into that patient-centered focus. And also, I help you learn the construct with which you're working, right, sometimes if you're an employee, and you have employee-based benefits, that's a construct that you have to work within.

So understanding that construct and then utilizing that construct so that you can operate within it in a personalized manner, and understand it and have knowledge of it. Because I always believe that the more we understand what we're working with, and what we're working within, the better we can utilize it. So that's really what sets me apart is I'm independent, I'm not tied to your employer, I'm not tied to the insurance company that you're you're utilizing or that your employer provides or I'm not tied to the insurance company that you've subscribed to. I am specifically here to help you plan out what's best for you.

And I'm not going to push one product or another just because it's something that I'm going to benefit from monetarily I'm pushing, what based on your needs and your health and wellness planning is what would be the best thing for you. Um, that's pretty much what sets me apart from I think a lot of the other options that are out there.

Gresham Harkless 7:47

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. And I think often, you know, sometimes, you know, when you're the patient focus, as you were saying, you try to find exactly like what will help out that person not say that, Oh, well, I don't know anything about that. So you can't use that, or that's not part of my company. So don't go that way. But you find out whatever helps, you know, get that person to a healthier, I guess a more enjoyable lifestyle, I imagine.

Kyana Brathwaite 8:10

Exactly.

Gresham Harkless 8:11

So I know one of the things that we get to ask on here is a CEO hack, which might be like a book or resource or something that you feel like you use on a regular everyday basis that you feel makes you more effective and efficient as a business owner. So do you have one of those CEO hacks you can share with us?

Kyana Brathwaite 8:26

My biggest hack is tapping into my resources in the Philadelphia area, there are so many different resources and opportunities, and mentors available. So even when I was going through nursing, I always made sure I latched on to mentors and resources and people who were within that entity or that industry that I was interested in and pulled from them the best that they had to offer.

So that's always been my hat, whether I'm a CEO, a nurse or a student, or a mom, I make sure that I surround myself with resources, and I'm tapping into them. Because you cannot do this by yourself. It's a very hard and lonely journey. So the more you reach out, the more you find and the more you connect, the more information you can take in I tap into books, I tap on the apps, but my biggest thing is what is available, you know, what organizations, what foundations and what people really want to help you succeed. That's my hack.

Gresham Harkless 9:21

I love that. I love that. And often people don't look around to see what's around them to see how they can get help. And often we sometimes as CEOs, entrepreneurs, and business owners feel like we're alone. But that's not always the case. Sometimes we just have to ask and a lot of people will be able to help us out and provide the resources we're looking for.

Kyana Brathwaite 9:37

Definitely, definitely.

Gresham Harkless 9:38

And so the next thing that I have was kind of you getting words of wisdom from you. So those resources that you got from mentors and things and people in your life we want to kind of figure out what would be like your CEO nugget which might be a word of wisdom that you can kind of give to us as entrepreneurs and business owners to be more successful.

Kyana Brathwaite 9:55

So I have two that I try to abide by on a minute, hourly and daily basis, before I stepped into this space, I really got to know myself because I realized that stepping into an entity or a space that I'm not familiar with, as far as entrepreneurship and not having a real construct to work with, I needed to know, okay, what's important to me? What are my values, you know, what's my mission, and then once I got to know myself when people start coming at me with ideas and suggestions, that are able to utilize the information that's pertinent at the time, put stuff aside, and then use it if it's something that comes to me that's, you know, useful later on?

But to be able to do that I had to know who I am. So the first thing is to know thyself. And then the second one is to be patiently persistent in the space when you're getting something off the ground, and you're just learning, you know, you're learning other people in learning about you. So things don't happen when you want them to happen.

And I have a very good friend who says that my fire is not your fire. So you have to realize that that's the case, right? This thing may be really interesting. No, you may be really passionate about it. But you're going to have to spend the time you're going to have to be persistent. But you're also going to have to be patient, allow opportunities to come allow things to work in the backend, and then just, you know, get yourself out there. So that's my two big nuggets, know yourself, because you're gonna have a lot coming at you, and then be patiently persistent.

Gresham Harkless 11:16

I love those. I love those. Yeah, self-awareness is huge. And I say everything comes to the he or her who hustles while he waits. So I know. So I guess the next question I have is, do we get the opportunity to speak with a lot of quote-unquote, different CEOs? So these are entrepreneurs that might be starting businesses in their garage, or have, you know, 500 plus employees and, and shareholders that they have to answer to. So I wanted to ask you very specifically, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Kyana Brathwaite 11:43

Being comfortable, right, and comfortable in my skin and being comfortable in my clothes, when I was working for the different health systems, they always told me what I had to wear. And now that I'm a CEO, I get to decide, okay, well, if I'm going to a meeting, and I'm going to a class, and I'm going to a mentor, you know, ship or a workshop, and I decide that I want to work out after that, well, I can wear, you know, my workout attire, and to a certain extent to all of those things, and still get done what I want to get done for myself. And also being true to who I am, you know, I was a representation of all of the different entities that I work with.

And I had to be mindful and cognizant of that on a constant basis, which kind of made me change who I was as a representation of who they are, who they thought they were. And now that I'm, I am, you know, who I am and I'm working for working with and building KB CALS, I get to be Kyana and you know, that goes in ties into that know that self because now, I don't have to be apologetic for who I am.

Yes, there are certain ramifications to my being true to myself having good and bad days. But I also get to realize and be okay with being human, right, making mistakes learn from those not repeating them. So just being comfortable in my skin and, and being able to wear what's comfortable and what's true to my personality. That's what being a CEO means to me, along with all other stuff. But those are really the two things that add, I really enjoy about being a CEO and entrepreneur.

Gresham Harkless 13:08

I love that I love that. Yeah, it gets down to the essence of like kind of who you are as a person. And like you touched on, you know, the self-awareness piece, and being able to be comfortable with who you are strengths and weaknesses, all of that and being true to yourself. So I love that. So Kyana, I truly appreciate you taking some time out of your schedule to kind of speak with us, and tell us a little bit about your background. And of course, some great, you know, information that you provided to us, I wanted to give you the mic so to speak for if there were any last words of wisdom or pieces of advice that you can give to us or anything additional, you can tell us about KB CALS.

Kyana Brathwaite 13:38

Sure, just have fun, you know, you're passionate about what you're doing, you're doing what you're supposed to do, and you are servicing your community, whether you're providing a product or service, you are filling a gap and a need and a space that somebody else isn't able to fill.

So you know, as hard and as it can be as frustrating as it can be, you still have those wins and enjoy those wins and those successes, you know, take that time to celebrate yourself, and then go for that next goal, you know, move on to that next target, go for that next client and to sell that next product but have fun with it, you know, wake up, you get to do what you love to do every day and that everybody gets to do that.

Gresham Harkless 14:17

Yeah, it's very, very true. And I couldn't say those are awesome words of wisdom. So Kyana if someone wants to get a hold of you, what is the best way for them to do that?

Kyana Brathwaite 14:24

There are two ways you can call me. My phone number is 267-625-2422. You can visit my website, kbcals.wixsite.com/homepage, there's information about the services that offer or you can call me I love talking to people. I love educating people and I love walking people through this process.

Gresham Harkless 14:45

Awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, Kyana will have those links in the show notes and information about your phone number as well too, just in case anybody wants to give you a phone call. But again, I'm super appreciative of you taking some time out of your schedule to kind of speak with us and I hope you have an awesome rest of the day.

Kyana Brathwaite 14:59

Thank you for having me. I really appreciate the time to be able to share my passion and my excitement about healthcare and the health insurance industry.

Outro 15:08

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO podcast powered by Blue16 Media tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE And leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co This has been the I AM CEO podcast with Gresham Harkless Thank you for listening

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