IAM2711 – Physician and Podcaster Helps People Live the Best And Healthy Lives

Dr. Berry Pierre is founder of drberrypierre.com, CEO of Pierre Medical Consulting and a Board Certified Internist who host the weekly podcast the Lunch and Learn with Dr. Berry and the video series Empower Yourself For Better Health. As a physician, he realized that this passion was helping others live the best & healthy lives they could but understood that his one to one interactions with patients in the office wasn't going to be enough. Its why he stepped out the clinical walls to bring the masses the health information they need to live their best lives.

• CEO Hack: Understanding that it's not going to be perfect but you have to do it
• CEO Nugget: Ask for help sooner
• CEO Defined: The hardest worker in the company

Website: http://www.drberrypierre.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.om/drberrypierre
Twitter: https://twitter.com/drberrypierre
Instagram: https://instagram.com/drberrypierre
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drberrypierre/

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Transcription:

Berry Pierre 00:00
Ask for help sooner, I think as a, as a CEO, because a lot of, especially when it's your company, it's your baby, right? You want to try to do everything your own. And I don't feel like my company grew more than what it is until I started. Really. I need help doing it. Like, yes, I can post, yes, I can do these things, but I need to get some team members to kind of help me out. So don't be afraid to ask and ask for support.

Gresham Harkless 00:56
Hello, hello, hello, this is Gresh from the I Am CEO Podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Dr. Barry Pierre of Pierre Medical Consulting. Dr. Barry, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Berry Pierre 01:06
First of all, thank you for having me.

Gresham Harkless 01:08
No problem. Thanks for having, thanks for being on the show and looking forward to having you on. And I wanted to read a little bit more about Dr. Barry so you can hear about all the awesome things that he's doing and Dr. Barry Pierre is the founder of drbarrypierre.com he's the CEO of Peer Medical Consulting and a board certified internist who hosts the weekly podcast the Lunch and learn with Dr. Barry in the video series Empower Yourself for Better Health. As a physician, he realizes that his passion was helping others live the best and healthy lives they could, but understood that this one to one interaction with patients in the office wasn't going to be enough. It's why he stepped out of the clinical walls to bring the masses the health information they needed to live their best lives. Dr. Barry, are you ready to speak to the I Am CEO community?

Berry Pierre 01:52
I love it so it's so funny. Every time I hear the audio I'm like wow. I guess I yeah, I guess I ain't really do.

Gresham Harkless 01:58
Puts everything in light when you can hear yourself here, all the awesome things you've been doing. So I wanted to kick everything off by hearing about what I call your CEO story and what let you get started with your business.

Berry Pierre 02:09
So I think when, when I first started out of course as a physician, most of us kind of have our career kind of like set, set in a line force, right? You know, you go to school, you do what you need to do, and you become a doctor, and then it's kind of there. But what I realized very quickly, and I really think having a background in public health, as, you know, my spearhead, that I realized I wasn't helping enough people. And even though I was taking care of my patients, my patients loved me, they were doing well. I always used to feel like, well, yes, I can take care of the person in front of me, but what about their mom? What about their aunt? What about the person who doesn't have the opportunity to see me or doesn't have the ability to even come to the doctor's office? What am I actually doing? Especially if my goal is wanted to care and save people, what am I actually doing for those people? And I think that was my big driving force that kind of spearheaded, I like to call it my side job, but it's something where I talk to everybody instead of really focusing on the one person.

Gresham Harkless 03:05
Yeah, that makes perfect sense. And a lot of times, because there's all this technology that's out there, you can definitely get your message out to so many more people with all this technology and all these tools like podcasting and vlogs and websites, you can. It's up 24 7. Anybody can look at it anytime. So when you have a message, when you can make an impact, that's truly a great way to do it.

Berry Pierre 03:24
Definitely. I think as. As a physician, you know, our, you know, being really is wanting to take care of as much people as we can. And we've. We've gotten the ability now with social media and with the Internet to do so. So I thought it was only right that I really kind of spearheaded and, you know, took it really to the next level.

Gresham Harkless 03:43
Yeah, absolutely. So I wanted to drill down a little bit deeper. Could you tell us how you're taking it to the next level? Tell us exactly what you're doing to kind of support the clients you're working with?

Berry Pierre 03:51
Sure. So I first started out, I was just blogging. It was something that I started doing as a medical student where I would just blog, I'd do a weekly blog, and I'd just talk about just general life habits as a medical student. And it grew as a medical resident, even grew as an attending. And once I started getting traction and I started realizing a lot of people like reading the blog, I would get a lot of people say, hey, man, I love reading it, but can you some deal? Right. Because I like watching video as well too. And at that time, YouTube really started blowing up. So I actually started this, my Lunch and Learn series where every Tuesday and Thursday I would out actually during my lunch break because again, you know, as a physician, you don't get that much time, but you got to focus on it. During my lunch break, I would actually focus on different health topics that I knew my patients had questions about. But a lot of times they never had the time to really ask the doctor, which was unfortunate. Right? You know, you get to 15 minutes and then you're out the room. So I would spend an hour, sometimes hour and a half, just having live sessions, talking to whoever was on at this time, I was using Facebook and whoever was on to really try to drive home that message. And then it's spirit on to like, people say, hey, I love the audio and I love the video. Like, can I get an audio version as well too? So then I was like, okay, I guess I got to do a podcast as well. Because they'd be like, I love watching video, but sometimes I don't have the time. And then like I said, patients, they're busy, they're working, they're doing. Their life is just happening. Right. So I don't. But I don't have the time. Maybe watch a video or watch you live. Is there any way I can, you know, make a video audio aspect of it? And of course I can tell you I was scared. Right. Again, I was. I love technology, but I didn't realize, like, podcast. Sure, I guess, if you want to hear it. And then that's really how the kind of podcast kind of came about. And through all of these channels, the blogging, through the video, through the podcasting, I'm able to work with clients, do consultations, personal one on one one, with many group consultations as well, to really kind of help get everyone's health really in line. I'm really. My goal at the end of the day is trying to make health cool. I want to make. I want to make it cool to be healthy. Because, you know, at this time, it really isn't yet.

Gresham Harkless 05:53
Yeah, well, I definitely think that, you know, the saying goes like, health is your wealth. The greatest health is wealth. I think the greatest wealth is health got it backwards. But at the same time, you know, it's something that's where. Where it may not be cool. It's definitely super important. So it's great to hear that you have so many different ways you built your own media company and brand around being able to touch people in so many different ways so you can read information. If you can't read information, then you can watch a video. If you can't watch a video, then you can listen to it via podcast. So getting all those touch points.

Berry Pierre 06:21
Sure. And a lot of times, you know, for, you know, for us, sometimes we have to eliminate the excuses. I'm pretty sure, you know, excuses are tools that are confident. So if someone say, oh, I can't get a chance to read it, well, hey, I got a video. Oh, but I don't got time to watch it. Hey, I gotta do it too. Like, stop it.

Gresham Harkless 06:33
Exactly, exactly. Excuses are tools to the confidence, building bridges and nowhere monuments and not that. So, yes, I've heard that. Once it was. Or twice. So I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce. And it could be for you or your organization, but what do you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?

Berry Pierre 06:49
I think one of the biggest things, especially as a physician and even a minor, honestly, and I champion it all the time as a minority physician, a lot of times people don't see people who look like me talking about health and really talking about how important it is. So once they see, like, wow, this is a black physician who is confident, who's talking about health and really gets a joy and passion and making sure you're healthy, that's the way to go, right? I want to make sure you're healthy. And I, I, I, again, I. Sometimes they can't sleep, right. If my patients aren't doing well. And they see that passion in me. And that's what separates me from a lot of my colleagues. Because a lot of my colleagues, you know, again, I love them, right. But a lot of times they're just doing it because they kind of have to do it, and I generally want to do it. Like I said, as a physician, if I don't blog, if I don't do a video, if I don't do a podcast, I'm still a physician. But I wouldn't be a complete, in my mind, I'm not a complete physician if I'm not doing all of those things, because I can't possibly be helping someone who may be in a different state, even a different country, Right. If I'm, if my goal really is to try to promote this health. So I think that's what's been really helping me separate this part. Because they see a brother who, you know, actually loves doing what he does, gets excited. I'm getting hyped now. I'm getting excited about talking about health in many different ways, and especially because I'm 35 years old. I know this is the age usually my 25 to 35 year olds I call as the superhuman folks. Right. Because we don't really. Health is really not important to us as it should. You know, a lot of our parents, you know, start experiencing these health related problems. But I'm trying to make it that a 25 and 35 year old is like, I got to get my wellness exam, I got to make sure my blood work is correct because I don't want to be 35, I don't want to be 40 dealing with 60 year old problems.

Gresham Harkless 08:30
Right. Yeah. And it definitely makes perfect sense. It definitely sounds like it's your mission. Not even just your passion, but your mission. And you've been me hyped as well too. Just because I think anytime that you know, you have a vision, you have a goal for what you want to do and then you go out about doing it doesn't. It doesn't help but motivate everybody else in order to do that. So I definitely appreciate you sharing that with us and of course leading the charge as far as doing that. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack.

Berry Pierre 08:57
So this could be an app, a.

Gresham Harkless 08:59
Book or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

Berry Pierre 09:03
I think the biggest thing for me, especially as a CEO, especially I know you have a lot of business owners who do this, is getting out my own way and understanding that it's not going to be perfect, but you still got to do it. And this was something big. As I could tell you. I know my type A positions are going crazy because we grow up, we're trained in a field that everything has to be 100% correct before you make a move. Because we know at the end of the day, this is someone's life I'm dealing with. But in business you can't do that, right? In business you gotta be like, hey, yes, we're 90% of the way and but you can't wait for the hundred percent or you'll never go. I know a lot of, I know a lot of business folks. I have a lot of physician friends who follow me who want to do what I'm doing. But because the lighting isn't like I'm in my car right now, right? So the lighting isn't correct. They don't got a good backdrop. All of these things here, they won't do it at all. And as you see, the same trait with CEOs who get stuck. And it's usually stuck because they're trying to get that perfect opportunity. And I'm pretty sure, you know, the perfect opportunity usually going to come. You got to go and get it. So get, get out your own way understanding that, yes, you're going to make some mistakes, but don't look for the perfect opportunity. Look for opportunity that you will make perfect.

Gresham Harkless 10:13
I love it. I love it. Yeah. I always usually say, don't let the perfect perfect in any way the possible. Because a lot of times we make some stuff, make things happen, but we don't do it because we don't take those actions. So how are you able just to kind of ask you a little bit more about that? How are you able to kind of balance both of those? Because you still have that physician role where you do have to be perfect and then at the same time you have to be able to just kind of have that. Let's just do it and see what happens when it comes to, like, your blog and your podcast and everything.

Berry Pierre 10:38
So I, I think it definitely, I, I can tell you it wasn't, you know, right off the jump. It was definitely a, a work that I had to keep, like kind of pinning down and hitting over the head and saying, hey, you, you need to do this. And I really just, I would just think about my patients. I was thinking about the people that I was trying to help and understanding. Like, hey, Barry, if, if you allow yourself not to do that podcast, if you allow yourself not to record that video, if you allow yourself not to write that blog, someone's not going to be helped. Someone's not going to know about their blood pressure, they're not going to know about their cholesterol, they're not going to know about their diabetes. So I would take that personal. I would say, okay, I can't be the reason why this person doesn't learn about their blood pressure or doesn't learn different tricks and hacks that it can get around and improve their quality of life. I can't be that reason because I was waiting for some special perfect opportunity. So sometimes again, I do it all the time when I'm doing my medical stuff in our hospital. Yes, I gotta be 100% correct. But I understand when I'm doing this here with the promotion and the education and the advocacy, I like to call myself the number one advocate.

Gresham Harkless 11:41
Okay, perfect. So, yeah, it makes perfect sense because a lot of times you have such a strong mission and you become mission driven rather than getting in the weeds because I Think sometimes again, you're trying to make things perfect, trying to get and make sure the T's across and dies are audit. While there's a time and place for that, of course, you know, you want to make sure that your, your why is stronger than your how. And you, you figure out exactly what that is and you drive forward on that. So I appreciate you for sharing that with us. And, and now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. And this is a word of wisdom or a piece of advice or if you can hop into a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?

Berry Pierre 12:15
Ask for help sooner, I think as a, as a CEO, because a lot, especially when it's your, your company, it's your baby, right? You, you want to try to do everything your own. And I don't feel like I, my company like grew more than what it is until I started. I need help doing it. Like, yes, I can post, yes, I can do these things. But like, I need to get some team members to kind of help me out. So don't be afraid to ask help and ask for support. That's one thing I would try to tell every CEO right from the bat. Like, do not be afraid to ask for help. Accept. Again, you can't ask for it and not accept it either. You got to accept that help as well too, because it will help your business and yourself kind of grow.

Gresham Harkless 12:56
Yeah, absolutely. I always say success is a team sport. So you got to make sure that you have that right team in place. And you got to be able to ask for something because very rarely will you get something unless you ask for it. And then when you get that, yes, you got to make sure that you're accepting it too. You're not pushing that person away when they're trying to help you. Because sometimes we'll want to do that because we will be our superhuman selves sometimes and try to tap into that. So now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different quote unquote CEOs on the show. So, Dr. Barry, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Berry Pierre 13:27
I think being a CEO means that you're going to be the hardest worker in your company. You're going to have. Your why will always outpower your work ethic. Right? Because once, once you have your why and you know why you're doing these things right, the work won't even be considered work anymore. It'll be Something that you just love to do. But if.

Berry Pierre 3:44
If you. But you have to be the number one worker. I think a lot of our CEOs get in trouble because when. Especially when we start asking for help, getting help, we expect other people to kind of, like, do most of the work. And like, that's. It didn't go like that. Right. You have to be the hardest worker from day one, from the beginning, because not only are you supporting your mission, but you're supporting the people who have to support your mission.

Gresham Harkless 14:04
Yeah, absolutely. And I think a lot of times, you know, you have to have that perspective, and, and you have to. You shouldn't. I don't believe at least you should ask of anybody something you won't do yourself. So if you're not willing to put in that hard work, then don't expect somebody else to put in that hard work so they'll take on your leadership side. I think that's incredible perspective, incredible definition. Dr. Barry, I appreciate you. I appreciate your time even more. I wanted to pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you want to let our readers and listeners know. And then, of course, how best they can get a hold of you, subscribe to your podcast, read your blog, and see all the awesome things you're doing.

Berry Pierre 14:35
Perfect. Perfect. So I think, especially as a. As a CEO who's still in the mix, right? Still, you know, working to. To get better, understanding that a community like this, right, where you have CEOs from different industries and don't think that because I'm in the house, I can't help you because you're in your. Your marketing or your business. Like, understanding that a lot of us are in the same business, a lot of us will have the same traits that will make our businesses better, but we just have to listen. And so I love these opportunities. I love a show like this because it brings us together. Because a lot of times, you know what, A lot of times this is a lonely road. Tell you this, but this is a lonely road that we need to. That sometimes less travel. And because it's less travel, we need that support. So I love this opportunity, you know, to talk to others and make sure we're all kind of doing the same thing. Because that's our goal. Our goal is to help each other out and help the world.

Gresham Harkless 15:27
Yeah, absolutely. Because we all have our mission. So you want to make sure that you're in line with doing that.

Berry Pierre 15:34
For those who want to follow me again, Again, as a CEO hack again, I am Dr. Bear Pierre. So my website is actually drbayerpr.com you can find me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, let me see. I think I'm on snap at any social media site. I'm at Dr. Bear Pierre. Again, if I could give a nugget, make sure you lock down your username for everywhere you go. So that'd be a little extra as well too. But again, I frequent Instagram, I frequent Twitter, I love answering questions. I have a Facebook group as well too. But again, just go to the website drbarrypierre.com, you'll see the serve. I love sending out information. I talk about the podcast, I talk about health related topics. Because again, we're getting old one way or the other. You might as well get old and healthy while you're doing it.

Gresham Harkless 16:18
Absolutely. And just like you said, one of those CEO nuggets is making sure that you're easily found. So one of the ways you can do that is make sure you have the same handle. But to make things even easier, I'll make sure to have the links in the show notes as well so that everybody can just click through and follow up with you everywhere. But Dr. Barry, appreciate you, appreciate your time, appreciate your mission and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.