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Emergency Medicine Maverick: Dr. Courtney Downes on Travel Hacking, Freestanding ERs & Empowering Through Reading

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Discover the exhilarating world of medicine and travel with Dr. Courtney Downes, an inspiring emergency medical doctor and podcast host. She shares her fascinating journey from medical school in Connecticut to the bustling ERs of Las Vegas, bringing to life the unpredictable and vibrant experiences unique to her hometown’s nightlife. With an innovative twist, Dr. Downes introduces us to freestanding emergency rooms that promise quicker, more personalized care, while also revealing her exciting transition into podcasting and launching her platform, Prescription to Travel MD, which champions self-care and adventure for healthcare professionals.

Unlock the secrets of travel hacking as Dr. Downes demystifies how medical professionals can live luxuriously without breaking the bank. By leveraging everyday expenses into credit card points, she makes dream vacations accessible, showcasing the synergistic benefits of continuing medical education perks within these adventures. Dr. Downes offers practical advice on maximizing sign-up bonuses and shares her personal stories of travel, creating a roadmap for those eager to explore the world without financial strain.

In a heartfelt exploration, Dr. Downes discusses the profound impact of family support on her personal and professional life. She shares the motivating story of her daughter’s experience with racial discrimination, which inspired the creation of a reading book club with her sister, Bree, promoting stories from diverse authors. This initiative not only empowers kids but also fosters a sense of belonging and appreciation for diversity. Wrapping up with a touch of local flavor, Dr. Downes recommends her favorite brunch spots in Las Vegas and invites listeners to connect with her for advice on travel and points strategies, building a community centered around growth and adventure.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to Vegas Circle Podcast with your hosts, paki and Chris. We are people who are passionate about business, success and culture, and this is our platform to showcase the people in our city who make it happen. On today's podcast, we're going to be diving into how an emergency medical doctor discovered how to use continued education credit card points to save time and thousands on travel with her family and friends. Now new podcast host and book founder, dr Courtney Downs. So welcome to the circle, welcome, welcome.

Speaker 2:

Thank you guys for having me.

Speaker 1:

So this is a good friend of mine man. So Courtney and I go back man. We know a lot of the same people married to a good friend of mine man. So Courtney and I go back man, we know a lot of the same people Married to a good friend of mine, chris Downs. So both physicians. But let's first kind of start off just a little bit about your professional background. Being an ER doctor has got to be wild, man. What made you choose that profession, to kind of jump in?

Speaker 2:

Well, I started off as a med student just trying to figure out exactly what I wanted to do, and I initially thought I wanted to do like peds emergency medicine and then I started. I was working with a couple of docs and pediatricians in emergency medicine and doctors and we went to Uganda for a month and while we were there I was trying to sort out like which path I was going to take and then ultimately, by the end of the month, I knew for sure that I was going to be an ER doctor.

Speaker 2:

Okay, so I came back and did my residency in emergency medicine, did my training at KU in Kansas City after doing med school in Connecticut, UConn, and was in Kansas for a little bit and then we finally made our way back home. So Las Vegas is home for me.

Speaker 1:

And you were born and raised in Las Vegas, right yeah, born and raised. So you've seen everything, man, all the growth and the whole nine.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, not too many of us.

Speaker 1:

What's a day like for specifically with a loss, being a crazy city like Las Vegas? What's the life like or the day-to-day for an emergency medical doctor?

Speaker 2:

What does that look like? You know it's not. I don't think it's any crazier on most days than it is in any other city. So when I first moved to town, I worked for HCA, so I worked Sunrise. Some of the bigger hospitals scaled back a little bit, and so I do some of the freestanding emergency rooms, which is kind of a novel idea now, but it just allows people to have access to care more readily. You're not sitting in the ER waiting for three, four hours at a time before you're seen. So it really just allows us to give more specialized attention to patients and it's been a good change for me. So yeah, I mean you still get a lot of crazy things.

Speaker 1:

I mean you get the drunks on the weekends, that's exactly what I was going to ask, Especially where you at you know strippers falling off poles, I mean you get some only seen in Las Vegas type of things.

Speaker 3:

but for the most part, it's just yeah, it's just a novel idea, I think, for me as, like a patient, in certain situations I feel like I always go to those standalone emergency, no matter what it is. Like I always just go to them because I feel like they're more accessible, Like it makes it a lot.

Speaker 2:

We're going to a hospital.

Speaker 3:

I feel like I'm in there for days for something small.

Speaker 2:

You are, and then we have the ability to treat everything. So we see heart attacks and strokes. I mean, you'll get the walk-in gunshot wounds on a rare occasion, but we do coughs and colds and all of that and we have the ability to transfer you to the bigger hospitals if you need more care than what we can provide.

Speaker 3:

Your days get as dramatic as they are, like you see in the movies, for like.

Speaker 2:

ER Once upon a time. Yeah, definitely. The bigger ERs you are, it is like nonstop, it's just like being on a show ER.

Speaker 3:

Oh geez, yeah, so it sounds exhausting.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it is, it is so you kind of jumped into the space now in podcasting, right? So you do a lot of, I guess, training and going to conferences and things like that.

Speaker 2:

And is that kind of how this all came about? Yeah, well, you know, I think it's partly because of that. I think, as physicians, we spend a lot of time working.

Speaker 2:

I think we're hard workers, we're over workers and so we don't take the time off for ourselves that we should. And so I created Prescription to Travel MD as a platform to allow physicians and other healthcare professionals to realize that, hey, you can take the time off for yourself. It's okay to rest, it's okay to take time for yourself. You know, we don't, we have PTO. Take your PTO, you. If you don't have PTO and you're like a self-employed physician, take your time off anyway. You know, book that trip, travel, book that vacation, staycation, whatever it is that you need to reset.

Speaker 1:

So, especially being in a city like Las Vegas, right Like Chris and I talk about all the time and we got, I mean, our playground is hotels and we got, you know, top, you know five resorts or, I'm sorry, five-star resorts and things like that. What are you seeing? Just backtracking a little bit as far as, like, the technology side, right, like, are you seeing, are you happy with the kind of the future of medicine a little bit, and what you're seeing and all the robots and AI and things like that that you're seeing, are you kind of excited about the future of medicine?

Speaker 2:

You know I am. I think AI is really being integrated into medicine. I actually just came back from a conference where that was like a really big thing, talking about like the use of, like chat, gpt to be able to do so many different things. Take it into the patient's room with you, so that way it's essentially taking all the information and putting it into your chart. So, instead of you having to come out after being in the room for 15, 20 minutes to you know, then try to regurgitate everything you just heard the patient say it's able to do some of that for you.

Speaker 1:

That's taking so much time, man. That's why you'd be all over that.

Speaker 2:

I can definitely see it Like you're seeing every profession to that.

Speaker 3:

It's you turning to utilize it to your point. It's making the patient experience a lot quicker. But from like an actual medical standpoint, are you seeing a shift in, like the technology and the equipment that you're using and then you know, as you're kind of learning and navigating those new equipments? Is AI helping navigate some of that or is it strictly just like?

Speaker 2:

I don't know. I think we'll get there no-transcript.

Speaker 1:

I want to shout out my doctor. That's how his office is, with all the paperwork everywhere.

Speaker 3:

You definitely see it and it feels like it's antiquated and it's going to get to a point where everything's going to evolve to this next step, where you're going to have a clear shift in the medical. I think that hasn't really happened in a long time, where people that didn't want to adapt and spend all this money on the new technology and the ones who did, you have to.

Speaker 2:

You have to, and so, even like I went down to the spear and you, I don't know, have you guys been down there?

Speaker 1:

oh, yeah, okay, yeah, we actually went together.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, okay, cool, yeah, so it's cool to see like all the ai stuff that they have um in place, and so and I just read something and I was talking about like ai being able to like replace nurses and I was like, haha, like for one who's gonna roll over the patient, like who's giving meds so I don't think it's ever gonna get to a point where it replaces, like the human touch, but I think if you don't know how to use it, then you're gonna get left behind so, yeah, I'm glad you said that, because we've talked a lot about that.

Speaker 1:

It's like you know bill gates has been saying it for years high tech, high touch.

Speaker 2:

You still need this yeah, you still need the bedside manners and things like that oh, emr's crash all the time, or like you'll, all of a sudden everything's working and then the computer's just shut down. You're like, okay, downtime, and you're back to paper charting yeah and everybody's scrambling because you know there are a lot of people who never grew up with paper charting and so it's completely foreign to them. And yeah, and your, your three-hour wait turns into like a six hour wait.

Speaker 1:

So let's jump and talk about this podcast. I'm so happy you jumped into this. We talked about this for a long time, man. So prescription to travel MD. Of course, chris and I go ask right off the bat, man. So how do we save money, man?

Speaker 3:

So how do we get these points, let's jump right in.

Speaker 1:

How do you get points so what would you, I guess I guess the first question I should ask you is what's the best credit card, or couple of credit cards, that you should use to get the right points? Like I've got Capital One, you always hear Southwest Airlines, all these different ones, but what would you recommend as kind of the best credit card to use to get your best points?

Speaker 2:

So I always say it depends. So it depends on what your goals are for travel. If you're looking to travel internationally and you're looking to book flights, then Amex is a good one to start with. I mean, I know people are always a big fan of like flashing around the Amex Platinum, which is not the best card. It's probably one of the worst cards.

Speaker 2:

Well, not the worst, but it's not a great points earning card in most instances, but it does have a lot of perks that you can use. For most people, I think, starting like in the Chase ecosystem, that's a good idea. So the Chase Sapphire has a couple of different cards, so the Reserve and the Preferred, which are great entry-level cards. One of them will give you all the travel benefits, lounge access, things like that. The other one is maybe the fee's a little lower and so it's an easier starting point. Some people, I think, don't want to deal when they see that like $550 for, like you know, an annual fee for this credit card.

Speaker 2:

But they give you $300 back automatically if you in annual credit so yeah, so I mean.

Speaker 3:

So I think, starting there is good Chase also has very good hotel redemptions, so I like what you're saying I like what you're saying I like what you're saying for sure.

Speaker 2:

So some of the other hotels Marriott, Hilton which are great require a lot more points to be used, so, whereas you can use your Chase points to transfer over to Hyatt Hotel. So we just booked a trip to Costa Rica for my birthday, so I was trying to figure out where to go. I just booked a trip to Costa Rica for my birthday, so I was trying to figure out where to go, and so we were able to book the Andaz for. So book two nights, or five nights, two rooms.

Speaker 1:

You and Chris or the family, the whole night.

Speaker 2:

Myself and my family. So my husband works. He's the one I'm trying to convert and convince that he should travel more.

Speaker 1:

Like the other doctors.

Speaker 2:

He just came back from Trinidad, like an hour ago. But yeah, so being able to book that trip like it would have cost me like almost $9,000. And I booked, you know, two rooms for five nights on points and zero dollars. I'm going to hate her. I'm going to hate all of you.

Speaker 1:

So she's been. I think it was Amsterdam, right. That's another trip that you went to. Can you kind of explain how that works? So like, how does the points work? Were you able to get so much off? Yeah, so how does that actually work?

Speaker 2:

So I think a lot of people like you see, if you have already got points, you can maximize the value of your points if you're transferring it out. So, like I transferred my points, I had some Capital One points, I had some Amex points, a little bit of everything, and I was able to transfer my points over to KLM Flying Blue and so they'll sometimes have transfer bonuses, so you get more points when you transfer them over. And then I was able to book six tickets. So we booked six premium economy tickets for like $890 and like 190 something thousand points. And then we got downgraded, unfortunately, which was fine because we only, like with you know, six people were always flying economy anyway. So they downgraded us, but then they gave me back like 75% of my points. So I spent what A hundred and something dollars and 44,000 points to get six of us nonstop from here to Amsterdam, which is insane. So now I've got points to.

Speaker 1:

I've got points to burn this summer. That's absolutely. It seems like almost unreal when you're saying that Right.

Speaker 2:

Because we wouldn't have gone to Amsterdam, we would have. We would have still been here in Las Vegas or Mexico or you know somewhere else. Cool. But just knowing that like the magic of points exists allows us to take all these like amazing trips, and it sounds kind of scammy and I think a lot of people are like no, there's no way, and I'm like okay, well, because that's what the first, that's what you think, right, yeah, how much you have to spend, exactly right?

Speaker 1:

what's the catch?

Speaker 2:

yeah, and there and there is no catch is it's spending on things that you would normally spend anyway. So you're paying your bills, you pay, pay your car insurance, you pay you know whatever bills you can pay with your credit card and you pay it off. I guess the catch is that you have to pay your bill and you have to pay it on time. So you don't, you know, generate any interest, and so you're just using it like a debit card, but you know you're you're getting something for it.

Speaker 3:

So where does this kind of um, almost passion come from? Right, you, being a doctor being, you know in the medical industry for your whole life, a lot of effort at time and put into it, and I know you mentioned briefly that, obviously your passion for travel and taking your time off as one part of it. But how did that, you know?

Speaker 2:

coincide with the points.

Speaker 1:

Like you know what really drove that passion Cause now you're like pretty involved in this right Like you're knowledgeable about the experience.

Speaker 3:

So it's kind of turned more from a you know a fun project to now something that you want to like get out there and share.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you know what my? So my husband, he's a hospitalist and he works a lot and so he'll be on some days for like 12 days at a time and he has the ability to take some time off for vacation. But he's kind of limited and so he has a certain amount of time that he can take off for CME or continuing medical education.

Speaker 2:

It was maybe like four or three, or four years ago, we booked the trip to hawaii using continuing medical education, and so we realized that we could one be reimbursed for his trip, or at least his part of the trip, and for our hotel, um. And then they give you discount rates on like hotels and they give you access to all these different perks, and I'm like, oh so, like. Now, every year we take a cme trip I don't blame you.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, yeah and.

Speaker 2:

And then we went to Disney World one year with the kids, so also booked through CME. So we were able to book a trip, book the hotel, using discounted rates through the education program. We were able to again pay for his hotel, which is our hotel. Pay for our flights. They give you discount Disneyland tickets which no one else could like, match Um, so that was taken care of. Then we use points to pay for all of our flights. So I mean, this would have been like a like 15, $20,000 trip, you know, staying on property for you know six days. Yeah, disneyland park tickets.

Speaker 2:

You know how much it costs to go to Disneyland for one person, and now I have two kids and they're no longer free when they go to Disney, so so you got to pay for all that. So I was like this has existed to me, like how did I not know that these things existed? You know, and other people don't know about it because nobody's talking about it. So I just I think I just want to share it with everybody else, you know so. So I'm not, I don't enjoy being in front of the camera, um, and then even like the podcast thing was kind of like, but I'm like you know what? Like put your ego aside and just realize that you, like, you have all this knowledge to share and there are all these people who are doing all these amazing things, and I just want people to know about them.

Speaker 3:

So here I am. It's kind of like an eye opening experience I need to get out. I know this for my whole life, my whole life Like we've been.

Speaker 2:

We've been here and we've been, like you know, going to work and using our like CME money to buy like stethoscopes and uniforms, and we could have been going to Hawaii.

Speaker 1:

Like there's no, yeah, there's no mass to be able to do that. Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 2:

So your focus so like the niche is more on the medical professions. My brother anybody who will listen I've been trying to convince them.

Speaker 1:

I need to do that.

Speaker 2:

I think once you do it, once you just get one card, even if you like I'm. I'm a little obsessive, so I have a lot of cards, but even if you.

Speaker 3:

just how many cards do you have?

Speaker 1:

I'm going to ask her, because it's my sister, so I'm going to ask her straight up so how many credit cards do you use on this? How many do I use?

Speaker 2:

So that's the thing I don't use them all. And so like right now I'm working on like one signup bonus. So a sub or a signup bonus is when they give you a huge sum of points for getting a minimum spend. Um. So, for instance, there's like an Amex gold card.

Speaker 2:

A business card will give you like 200,000 points if you spend $10,000 over three months or one of the chase cards will give you 90,000 points if you spend $6,000 over three months. And again, you're just putting you, if you sit down and think about how much you spend over, you know, in just the month period on groceries, on going to restaurants, you know paying for your your car insurance.

Speaker 1:

like all the things right it adds up, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:

And so you do that and you're like, oh, so, that was just like an easy 90,000 points, and so you can book a nice Hyatt, so, and as Costa Rica, it's like 25,000 points a night, you know so one sign of bonus, that's. You know so one sign of bonus, that's, you know when y'all three, three, that's three nights there, you know so, and for stuff that you're gonna buy anyway instead of you know, instead of spending a thousand dollars a night.

Speaker 1:

So yeah, I love the aspect of it because I mean, you know, we always talk about kids, we all have kids here and I know I talk about this a lot, but you do need that stress relief you do like you really do and and um, travel to me I mean you know we talked about this at your home and our home and stuff is you get so much from travel, man, your kids learn so much from travel.

Speaker 1:

Right, the stress relief from being able to do that, so I'm so happy you're, you're doing it. What? What's kind of the biggest the lesson that you've learned, you know, just interviewing people and talking with them about it? Are they? Do they kind of shut you off? Are they? Are they kind of surprised or what? What do you get out of? Uh, when you, when you're interviewing some of these doctors?

Speaker 2:

Um, you know, it's just been interesting because there are people that you like, you see them doing all these crazy things and all these amazing things and you're like, oh well, for one surprise that they're actually giving just the fact that these are people who are like, at some point they realized that rest was a necessity and that travel was an important part of that. And they're doing it, you know. So I've interviewed one doc who took a year long sabbatical. So she took a year, left her practice, quit her job, you know, and took her family and traveled around the world.

Speaker 1:

You know and now she's for a whole year.

Speaker 2:

You know, and she just kind of planned for that and she was like you know she was scared but she did it. You know there were all these thoughts, all these reasons why she felt like she couldn't do it, but she did it.

Speaker 3:

And now she's back you go back, you're actually a better performer more in tune with your family, more in tune with your job than you did if we were just powered through it.

Speaker 2:

That's very interesting to think about. Yeah, Yep, and we're better for it. We can take better care of our patients. If you know we're recharging, we're taking care of ourselves of ourselves.

Speaker 1:

And so I think that's the biggest thing. Well, you wear many hats, right? So from podcasting, you know, in the medical profession, you just launched a kid's book club with your sister, bree. Can you kind of talk a little bit about that, because I know reading is a big problem and specifically Vegas, right it is as far as the scores and things like that. Yeah, can you kind of share why you started a book club with you and Bree?

Speaker 2:

Sure. So I have a daughter. Last year she was in first grade, and so the first week of first grade she goes to school, she comes back, she's saying her prayers at night and she's praying. You know, please, lord, don't let so. And so let them be nice to me. And I'm like like what happened, you know? And so story comes out that she was at school and the little girl told her that people weren't going to want to be her friend anymore because, because her skin color and because they're, her hair looks funny and she's only black girl in class, she's got braids, just like her mom.

Speaker 2:

And so I was, like you know, just heartbroken, like this is my daughter right, right, so I don't you know, and so really not wanting her like core memory and like the building blocks of like the rest of her life to be like this moment.

Speaker 1:

you know, yeah, for real, and so me and my sister Bree.

Speaker 2:

we decided we were going to start a kids book club, and so you know, Bree, she plans everything, she has.

Speaker 1:

I love Bree. Shout out to Bree. This girl is amazing yeah.

Speaker 2:

So party people, events.

Speaker 1:

She plans parties and birthdays and all sorts of she just did Floyd Mayweather's, I think, birthday or something, right, yeah, I think there was like a relative of his Of Floyd's yes, right.

Speaker 2:

So she does all these amazing things, so she essentially helps us run the book club. But we decided we were going to create this book club where kids can come and they could read books. We would find books by black authors, black and brown authors that had black and brown characters, so the kids could see themselves in it and realize, hey, you know, I'm significant, I'm beautiful and you know there's, I'm not, I'm not an anomaly, I'm not weird, there's nothing weird about me. Like I belong here and so and everybody belongs, and so we have book club and anybody is welcome. We open it to everyone. I'm always encouraging people Bring your family, bring your friends and encouraging the kids to read. And that's a big thing, because I know we have parents come all the time. They're like my kid doesn't like to read, but like ours, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:

But then they're like but then they saw the other kids reading and now they're really excited about this book.

Speaker 2:

You know, and just like they light up when they're there, like they're excited to come back to the next meeting, and so we do it every month. We just celebrated the year anniversary of a book club, so yeah, so it's been. It's been really good to turn, like a moment that wasn't so great into so much positivity and just to be able to spread so much love throughout, you know, throughout the community and so what's the goal?

Speaker 1:

because I think the next, the next chap, I know a little bit. I don't know if you could share, but is it trying to do the non-profit route and try to get some funding around it? Yeah, so you can't share too much.

Speaker 2:

I mean no, that's okay, so it's something that we've been talking about and we were trying to trying to get that set up by.

Speaker 2:

I think my problem right now is that I have my my hands in a little bit of everything um, and there's a lot of work in terms of, like actually being able to get it set up, but we love that like to be able to to get a non-profit so that we could get funding to be able to do different things with the kids, because, um, it does add up after you know um a while you know.

Speaker 3:

So yeah, for sure, yeah, for sure, yeah, but Are you seeing it grow like consistently? Like, are you? Because you said, you said invite who you want, get more people, but then at one point it does become like okay.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, and it's like a party, like go like my sister, she goes all out.

Speaker 1:

so I mean she's like literally goes out.

Speaker 2:

We find a book she's doing like arts and crafts. She'll plan an escape room like she's got all these different things going on and then we make sure that everybody gets lunch and dessert, like it's literally like a party, like every breeze like my favorite sister that I don't know, I don't have like she's literally.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, she's amazing. But some I think my kids are bad. Sometimes it's all my kids are too.

Speaker 1:

Bring them because they get around and it's funny because you'll see the energy go up and everybody acts different because they realize like, okay, I'm paying attention and they know the golden rules you have to be kind, you have to be respectful, you always have fun and there are no silly questions.

Speaker 2:

And you tell them these things and every month they show and they're really reading the books, and so it's just and it's growing. And so people kind of come and go like if you can't make it this month, that's fine, if you can only make it one month out of the year, that's fine. We just read the book at home, you know. So they're still encouraged.

Speaker 3:

But yeah, you know, creating an environment where kids can be excited about doing something productive versus you know like now, all that, I swear. All my kids want to do is play video games all the time.

Speaker 2:

Birthday parties, have a Fortnite party Like no, no, they're excited about it, but they're isolated. My kids too, between that environment, that environment, yeah so, yep, so you're not, you're not alone. Bring them anyway. And they'll be like, oh, these books. And then you'll find they're reading at times when, like you're like, oh, they would have been playing games, but they're actually reading this book and they want to see what's going to happen and they want the because you're making it fun and that's how I learned.

Speaker 2:

is you want to be around the energy of the room, not just being on the board and just sitting, you know.

Speaker 1:

So it's amazing. I applaud what you and Bree are doing. I got kind of a two-part question, so we always talk about people in your circle. But I'm curious, man, I love your family so much, man. But what I want to ask is biggest lesson you learned from your father? I don't know if you could be able to get into that a little bit.

Speaker 2:

But now you lost your father a couple of years back. Well, what's one of the biggest lessons you learned from your father? You know my father, he was a very, very hard worker. So many lessons learned from him. But we lost him unexpectedly, like a year before he was getting ready to retire.

Speaker 2:

And so I always, I think seeing that made me realize that you have to do it now, like I mean, I don't think I don't necessarily. I think there's an urgency, um, not that you have to feel rushed, but I don't think you should wait, like you don't wait until you retire. Um, oh, I'll do it, but, you know, maybe in like 10 years, once I get situated and you know, once I've done saving up for my retirement, or once I've done I up for my retirement, or once I've done I'm finished paying, you know, putting as much money as I need to put aside for the kids college fund. Or, you know, when I, when things slow down a little bit, then I'll, you know, take that trip or take that vacation. I'll do it now, like you know what's, don't wait because time is fleeting and and there might not be, you know, next year.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's a powerful. It makes me think about when we started this podcast. We waited two or three years before we did it. Daryl, who you know you close with. She's the one yelling at me talking about let's get it started.

Speaker 2:

You know what I?

Speaker 1:

mean Because you do waste so much time. You know doing it. That's a great lesson.

Speaker 2:

You guys are doing it now, which is amazing.

Speaker 1:

I appreciate it. So what's reflecting on the importance of people in your circle? Man, you've got a small circle. Great energy, things like that come from a great family. What's a specific thing that you kind of learned that's been helpful for you and kind of guided you, and who's in your circle that you can kind of bounce things off to kind of keep you straight?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, well, you know I rely very heavily on my sister to kind of help to help run my life, and just to. She's always the one that I'm bouncing ideas off of. She's the creative in the family as well. So when it comes time to like she built my podcast or helped me set up my podcast, she built the website. She's like hey, this is what you should wear for your photo shoot, for your branding, this is what you should like.

Speaker 1:

She's she is yeah, yeah, so when it?

Speaker 2:

comes to anything. So probably her, and like my mom, she's like my biggest supporter, she, she is there to be your cheerleader, like no matter what you're doing, like she's going to, you know, go to bat for you. So I think just having them there has been really helpful and just having just my family as a whole, just you know that's powerful.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, talking a little about family, right no-transcript long ago.

Speaker 2:

Um, and I think that's kind of what helped me get outside of my head and say, you know, I, I want to do all these things. And they're like, hey, well, all right, well, when are you going to do it? Set a date, when are you going to do it? And I'm like, okay, well, I guess I'm releasing my podcast episode this day, and okay, and you know, and they also help with, like, keeping balance in other parts of my life, so being able to focus on, you know, spirituality and finding time for, like, meditation and exercise. And, like I said, I don't do everything very well, but at least I know, like these are the things that I want to get done and you know it's a work in progress.

Speaker 1:

For sure. What's one tip that you can kind of give somebody as far as business advice right, because I know you do so much you, you know medical profession, your husband's in the medical profession what would you share for, maybe, somebody that maybe you want to get become a doctor like yourself, or maybe you want to start their own podcast or whatever space it is? What would you share with them as far as like a nugget?

Speaker 2:

I think you just get started, you just expect that you're going to do everything imperfectly. But it's progress, not perfection, and so it's like I said, it's always just putting one foot in front of the other. Like you know, with med school I was like, oh, I'm going to apply, but I probably won't get in and all these other things. My dad's like just apply. And I was like okay. And then it was like, okay, well, now I got all these interviews and then you just put one foot in front of the other and somehow, someway, I ended up here, so yeah, that's awesome, let's get started.

Speaker 1:

Good stuff. You know I love food. Being a foodie, we've been to a lot of restaurants, but I'm curious what's your favorite restaurant in Vegas?

Speaker 2:

Favorite restaurant in Vegas. Oh my gosh, that's a hard one, you know. I don't know that I necessarily have a favorite restaurant in Vegas. I like brunch and so we spend a lot of time eating like breakfast.

Speaker 3:

Okay, a lot of brunch places. I love a good brunch spot. Yeah, I love a good brunch spot.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I'm always looking Good brunch spot. Well, baby Stacks is probably one of my favorite. Like, just go to and like you know if I'm Pancakes is bomb, baby Stacks that's probably one of my favorite, like local places. Okay, and then let's see, there's a place at the Paris that they have like a breakfast place.

Speaker 3:

The French place. Is it Mon Ami Gabi?

Speaker 2:

Mon Ami Gabi.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, okay, right on the water facing the lasso. Yeah, so that's a good place.

Speaker 2:

So I like take people whenever people are in town. Okay, Awesome. There's two gyms. Yeah, yeah, so okay, awesome.

Speaker 1:

Yep, what else is uh is on your agenda? Maybe for this year and next year, man, we might it might've forgot to ask you. Man, did you want to kind of leave us out? What else is on my agenda?

Speaker 2:

So yeah. So, really just trying to go full circle with the prescription or travel MD and increasing, like the point points, consulting and that I've been doing so helping people get the credit cards that they would need to get to where they want to go. And then also helping with redemption. So once you get the points, I think earning the points is easy and it's trying to figure out, like, what do I do with them now that I have them?

Speaker 1:

So, yeah, so can people reach out to you as like a consultant, like, hey, I want to try this Can. Can I bump it off, courtney? Is that?

Speaker 2:

how you would work it out. Yep, absolutely.

Speaker 1:

Also see, a DM is going to be. Send me a message. Yeah, so we're on.

Speaker 2:

We're on Instagram.

Speaker 1:

What's the, what's your social handles?

Speaker 2:

Yep, so it's prescription to travel MD. We're on Instagram. We have a Facebook group for doctors, dentists, any healthcare professionals. The prescription to travel MD, a doctor's lounge. We've got a website, so, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Well, check out, man. She's doing some big things, man, somebody pay attention to. Yes, looks like Kerry Washington.

Speaker 2:

We, we're going to say, we interviewed Kerry Washington today.

Speaker 1:

But I appreciate your time, Ms Courtney, and check us out at thebakersterncom.

Speaker 3:

Great stuff. Thank you so much, nice to see you. Thank you guys for having me.

Speaker 1:

Great stuff, good stuff, good stuff.