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.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:11):
Welcome to Vegas Circle Podcast with your hosts,
paki and Chris.
We are people who arepassionate about business,
success and culture, and this isour platform to showcase the
people in our city who make ithappen.
On today's podcast, we're goingto be diving into how an
emergency medical doctordiscovered how to use continued
education credit card points tosave time and thousands on
travel with her family andfriends.
(00:32):
Now new podcast host and bookfounder, dr Courtney Downs.
So welcome to the circle,welcome, welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Thank you guys for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
So this is a good friend of mine man.
So Courtney and I go back man.
We know a lot of the samepeople 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 ofmine, chris Downs.
So both physicians.
But let's first kind of startoff just a little bit about your
professional background.
Being an ER doctor has got tobe wild, man.
What made you choose thatprofession, to kind of jump in?
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Well, I started off as a med student just trying to
figure out exactly what I wantedto do, and I initially thought
I wanted to do like pedsemergency medicine and then I
started.
I was working with a couple ofdocs and pediatricians in
emergency medicine and doctorsand we went to Uganda for a
month and while we were there Iwas trying to sort out like
(01:17):
which path I was going to takeand then ultimately, by the end
of the month, I knew for surethat I was going to be an ER
doctor.
Okay, so I came back and did myresidency in emergency medicine,
did my training at KU in KansasCity after doing med school in
Connecticut, UConn, and was inKansas for a little bit and then
we finally made our way backhome.
So Las Vegas is home for me.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
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 (01:44):
Yeah, not too many of us.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
What's a day like for specifically with a loss, being
a crazy city like Las Vegas?
What's the life like or theday-to-day for an emergency
medical doctor?
Speaker 2 (01:56):
What does that look like?
You know it's not.
I don't think it's any crazieron 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 hospitalsscaled back a little bit, and so
I do some of the freestandingemergency rooms, which is kind
of a novel idea now, but it justallows people to have access to
(02:18):
care more readily.
You're not sitting in the ERwaiting for three, four hours at
a time before you're seen.
So it really just allows us togive more specialized attention
to patients and it's been a goodchange for me.
So yeah, I mean you still get alot of crazy things.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
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 (02:46):
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 alwaysgo to those standalone emergency
, no matter what it is.
Like I always just go to thembecause I feel like they're more
accessible, Like it makes it alot.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
We're going to a hospital.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
I feel like I'm in there for days for something
small.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
You are, and then we have the ability to treat
everything.
So we see heart attacks andstrokes.
I mean, you'll get the walk-ingunshot wounds on a rare
occasion, but we do coughs andcolds and all of that and we
have the ability to transfer youto the bigger hospitals if you
need more care than what we canprovide.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Your days get as dramatic as they are, like you
see in the movies, for like.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
ER Once upon a time.
Yeah, definitely.
The bigger ERs you are, it islike nonstop, it's just like
being on a show ER.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Oh geez, yeah, so it sounds exhausting.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
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 (03:49):
And is that kind of how this all came about?
Yeah, well, you know, I thinkit's partly because of that.
I think, as physicians, wespend a lot of time working.
I think we're hard workers,we're over workers and so we
don't take the time off forourselves that we should.
And so I created Prescriptionto Travel MD as a platform to
allow physicians and otherhealthcare professionals to
realize that, hey, you can takethe time off for yourself.
It's okay to rest, it's okay totake time for yourself.
(04:09):
You know, we don't, we have PTO.
Take your PTO, you.
If you don't have PTO andyou're like a self-employed
physician, take your time offanyway.
You know, book that trip,travel, book that vacation,
staycation, whatever it is thatyou need to reset.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
So, especially being in a city like Las Vegas, right
Like Chris and I talk about allthe 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-starresorts and things like that.
What are you seeing?
Just backtracking a little bitas far as, like, the technology
side, right, like, are youseeing, are you happy with the
kind of the future of medicine alittle bit, and what you're
seeing and all the robots and AIand things like that that
(04:47):
you're seeing, are you kind ofexcited about the future of
medicine?
Speaker 2 (04:49):
You know I am.
I think AI is really beingintegrated into medicine.
I actually just came back froma conference where that was like
a really big thing, talkingabout like the use of, like chat
, gpt to be able to do so manydifferent things.
Take it into the patient's roomwith you, so that way it's
essentially taking all theinformation and putting it into
your chart.
So, instead of you having tocome out after being in the room
(05:10):
for 15, 20 minutes to you know,then try to regurgitate
everything you just heard thepatient say it's able to do some
of that for you.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
That's taking so much time, man.
That's why you'd be all overthat.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
I can definitely see it Like you're seeing every
profession to that.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
It's you turning to utilize it to your point.
It's making the patientexperience a lot quicker.
But from like an actual medicalstandpoint, are you seeing a
shift in, like the technologyand the equipment that you're
using and then you know, asyou're kind of learning and
navigating those new equipments?
Is AI helping navigate some ofthat or is it strictly just like
?
Speaker 2 (05:40):
I don't know.
I think we'll get thereno-transcript.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
I want to shout out my doctor.
That's how his office is, withall the paperwork everywhere.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
You definitely see it and it feels like it's
antiquated and it's going to getto a point where everything's
going to evolve to this nextstep, where you're going to have
a clear shift in the medical.
I think that hasn't reallyhappened in a long time, where
people that didn't want to adaptand spend all this money on the
new technology and the ones whodid, you have to.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
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 (06:28):
oh, yeah, okay, yeah, we actually went together.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Yeah, okay, cool, yeah, so it's cool to see like
all the ai stuff that they haveum in place, and so and I just
read something and I was talkingabout like ai being able to
like replace nurses and I waslike, 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 getto a point where it replaces,
like the human touch, but Ithink if you don't know how to
(06:52):
use it, then you're gonna getleft behind so, yeah, I'm glad
you said that, because we'vetalked a lot about that.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
It's like you know bill gates has been saying it
for years high tech, high touch.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
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 suddeneverything'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'sscrambling because you know
there are a lot of people whonever grew up with paper
charting and so it's completelyforeign to them.
And yeah, and your, yourthree-hour wait turns into like
(07:22):
a six hour wait.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
So let's jump and talk about this podcast.
I'm so happy you jumped intothis.
We talked about this for a longtime, man.
So prescription to travel MD.
Of course, chris and I go askright off the bat, man.
So how do we save money, man?
Speaker 3 (07:36):
So how do we get these points, let's jump right
in.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
How do you get points so what would you, I guess I
guess the first question Ishould ask you is what's the
best credit card, or couple ofcredit cards, that you should
use to get the right points?
Like I've got Capital One, youalways hear Southwest Airlines,
all these different ones, butwhat would you recommend as kind
of the best credit card to useto get your best points?
Speaker 2 (07:58):
So I always say it depends.
So it depends on what yourgoals are for travel.
If you're looking to travelinternationally and you're
looking to book flights, thenAmex is a good one to start with
.
I mean, I know people arealways a big fan of like
flashing around the AmexPlatinum, which is not the best
card.
It's probably one of the worstcards.
Well, not the worst, but it'snot a great points earning card
in most instances, but it doeshave a lot of perks that you can
(08:20):
use.
For most people, I think,starting like in the Chase
ecosystem, that's a good idea.
So the Chase Sapphire has acouple of different cards, so
the Reserve and the Preferred,which are great entry-level
cards.
One of them will give you allthe travel benefits, lounge
access, things like that.
The other one is maybe thefee's a little lower and so it's
(08:43):
an easier starting point.
Some people, I think, don'twant to deal when they see that
like $550 for, like you know, anannual fee for this credit card
.
But they give you $300 backautomatically if you in annual
credit so yeah, so I mean.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
So I think, starting there is good Chase also has
very good hotel redemptions, soI like what you're saying I like
what you're saying I like whatyou're saying for sure.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
So some of the other hotels Marriott, Hilton which
are great require a lot morepoints to be used, so, whereas
you can use your Chase points totransfer over to Hyatt Hotel.
So we just booked a trip toCosta Rica for my birthday, so I
was trying to figure out whereto go.
I just booked a trip to CostaRica for my birthday, so I was
trying to figure out where to go, and so we were able to book
(09:28):
the Andaz for.
So book two nights, or fivenights, two rooms.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
You and Chris or the family, the whole night.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Myself and my family.
So my husband works.
He's the one I'm trying toconvert and convince that he
should travel more.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
Like the other doctors.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
He just came back from Trinidad, like an hour ago.
But yeah, so being able to bookthat trip like it would have
cost me like almost $9,000.
And I booked, you know, tworooms for five nights on points
and zero dollars.
I'm going to hate her.
I'm going to hate all of you.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
So she's been.
I think it was Amsterdam, right.
That's another trip that youwent to.
Can you kind of explain howthat works?
So like, how does the pointswork?
Were you able to get so muchoff?
Yeah, so how does that actuallywork?
Speaker 2 (10:12):
So I think a lot of people like you see, if you have
already got points, you canmaximize the value of your
points if you're transferring itout.
So, like I transferred mypoints, I had some Capital One
points, I had some Amex points,a little bit of everything, and
I was able to transfer my pointsover to KLM Flying Blue and so
(10:34):
they'll sometimes have transferbonuses, so you get more points
when you transfer them over.
And then I was able to book sixtickets.
So we booked six premiumeconomy tickets for like $890
and like 190 something thousandpoints.
And then we got downgraded,unfortunately, which was fine
because we only, like with youknow, six people were always
(10:54):
flying economy anyway.
So they downgraded us, but thenthey gave me back like 75% of
my points.
So I spent what A hundred andsomething dollars and 44,000
points to get six of us nonstopfrom here to Amsterdam, which is
insane.
So now I've got points to.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
I've got points to burn this summer.
That's absolutely.
It seems like almost unrealwhen you're saying that Right.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Because we wouldn't have gone to Amsterdam, we would
have.
We would have still been herein Las Vegas or Mexico or you
know somewhere else.
Cool.
But just knowing that like themagic of points exists allows us
to take all these like amazingtrips, and it sounds kind of
scammy and I think a lot ofpeople 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 (11:35):
what's the catch?
Speaker 2 (11:36):
yeah, and there and there is no catch is it's
spending on things that youwould normally spend anyway.
So you're paying your bills,you pay, pay your car insurance,
you pay you know whatever billsyou can pay with your credit
card and you pay it off.
I guess the catch is that youhave 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 adebit card, but you know you're
you're getting something for it.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
So where does this kind of um, almost passion come
from?
Right, you, being a doctorbeing, you know in the medical
industry for your whole life, alot of effort at time and put
into it, and I know youmentioned briefly that,
obviously your passion fortravel and taking your time off
as one part of it.
But how did that, you know?
Speaker 2 (12:19):
coincide with the points.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Like you know what really drove that passion Cause
now you're like pretty involvedin this right Like you're
knowledgeable about theexperience.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
So it's kind of turned more from a you know a
fun project to now somethingthat you want to like get out
there and share.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Yeah, you know what my?
So my husband, he's ahospitalist and he works a lot
and so he'll be on some days forlike 12 days at a time and he
has the ability to take sometime off for vacation.
But he's kind of limited and sohe has a certain amount of time
that he can take off for CME orcontinuing medical education.
(12:56):
It was maybe like four or three,or four years ago, we booked
the trip to hawaii usingcontinuing medical education,
and so we realized that we couldone be reimbursed for his trip,
or at least his part of thetrip, and for our hotel, um.
And then they give you discountrates on like hotels and they
give you access to all thesedifferent perks, and I'm like,
oh so, like.
Now, every year we take a cmetrip I don't blame you.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Yeah, yeah, yeah and.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
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 theeducation program.
We were able to again pay forhis hotel, which is our hotel.
Pay for our flights.
They give you discountDisneyland tickets which no one
(13:36):
else could like, match Um, sothat was taken care of.
Then we use points to pay forall of our flights.
So I mean, this would have beenlike a like 15, $20,000 trip,
you know, staying on propertyfor you know six days.
Yeah, disneyland park tickets.
You know how much it costs to goto Disneyland for one person,
and now I have two kids andthey're no longer free when they
(13:56):
go to Disney, so so you got topay for all that.
So I was like this has existedto me, like how did I not know
that these things existed?
You know, and other peopledon't know about it because
nobody's talking about it.
So I just I think I just wantto share it with everybody else,
you know so.
So I'm not, I don't enjoy beingin front of the camera, um, and
then even like the podcastthing was kind of like, but I'm
(14:18):
like you know what?
Like put your ego aside andjust realize that you, like, you
have all this knowledge toshare and there are all these
people who are doing all theseamazing things, and I just want
people to know about them.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
So here I am.
It's kind of like an eyeopening experience I need to get
out.
I know this for my whole life,my whole life Like we've been.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
We've been here and we've been, like you know, going
to work and using our like CMEmoney to buy like stethoscopes
and uniforms, and we could havebeen going to Hawaii.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
Like there's no, yeah , there's no mass to be able to
do that.
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
So your focus so like the niche is more on the
medical professions.
My brother anybody who willlisten I've been trying to
convince them.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
I need to do that.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
I think once you do it, once you just get one card,
even if you like I'm.
I'm a little obsessive, so Ihave a lot of cards, but even if
you.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
just how many cards do you have?
Speaker 1 (15:12):
I'm going to ask her, because it's my sister, so I'm
going to ask her straight up sohow many credit cards do you use
on this?
How many do I use?
Speaker 2 (15:20):
So that's the thing I don't use them all.
And so like right now I'mworking on like one signup bonus
.
So a sub or a signup bonus iswhen they give you a huge sum of
points for getting a minimumspend.
Um.
So, for instance, there's likean Amex gold card.
A business card will give youlike 200,000 points if you spend
(15:40):
$10,000 over three months orone of the chase cards will give
you 90,000 points if you spend$6,000 over three months.
And again, you're just puttingyou, if you sit down and think
about how much you spend over,you know, in just the month
period on groceries, on going torestaurants, you know paying
for your your car insurance.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
like all the things right it adds up, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
And so you do that and you're like, oh, so, that
was just like an easy 90,000points, and so you can book a
nice Hyatt, so, and as CostaRica, it's like 25,000 points a
night, you know so one sign ofbonus, that's.
You know so one sign of bonus,that's, you know when y'all
three, three, that's threenights there, you know so, and
for stuff that you're gonna buyanyway instead of you know,
(16:21):
instead of spending a thousanddollars a night.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
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 doand and um, travel to me I mean
you know we talked about thisat your home and our home and
stuff is you get so much fromtravel, man, your kids learn so
much from travel.
Right, the stress relief frombeing able to do that, so I'm so
(16:44):
happy you're, you're doing it.
What?
What's kind of the biggest thelesson that you've learned, you
know, just interviewing peopleand talking with them about it?
Are they?
Do they kind of shut you off?
Are they?
Are they kind of surprised orwhat?
What do you get out of?
Uh, when you, when you'reinterviewing some of these
doctors?
Speaker 2 (16:58):
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 theseamazing things and you're like,
oh well, for one surprise thatthey're actually giving just the
fact that these are people whoare like, at some point they
realized that rest was anecessity and that travel was an
(17:22):
important part of that.
And they're doing it, you know.
So I've interviewed one doc whotook a year long sabbatical.
So she took a year, left herpractice, quit her job, you know
, and took her family andtraveled around the world.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
You know and now she's for a whole year.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
You know, and she just kind of planned for that
and she was like you know shewas scared but she did it.
You know there were all thesethoughts, all these reasons why
she felt like she couldn't do it, but she did it.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
And now she's back you go back, you're actually a
better performer more in tunewith your family, more in tune
with your job than you did if wewere just powered through it.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
That's very interesting to think about.
Yeah, Yep, and we're better forit.
We can take better care of ourpatients.
If you know we're recharging,we're taking care of ourselves
of ourselves.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
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 clubwith your sister, bree.
Can you kind of talk a littlebit about that, because I know
reading is a big problem andspecifically Vegas, right it is
as far as the scores and thingslike that.
Yeah, can you kind of share whyyou started a book club with
you and Bree?
Speaker 2 (18:36):
Sure.
So I have a daughter.
Last year she was in firstgrade, and so the first week of
first grade she goes to school,she comes back, she's saying her
prayers at night and she'spraying.
You know, please, lord, don'tlet so.
And so let them be nice to me.
And I'm like like what happened, you know?
And so story comes out that shewas at school and the little
girl told her that peopleweren't going to want to be her
(18:57):
friend anymore because, becauseher skin color and because
they're, her hair looks funnyand she's only black girl in
class, she's got braids, justlike her mom.
And so I was, like you know,just heartbroken, like this is
my daughter right, right, so Idon't you know, and so really
not wanting her like core memoryand like the building blocks of
like the rest of her life to belike this moment.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
you know, yeah, for real, and so me and my sister
Bree.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
we decided we were going to start a kids book club,
and so you know, Bree, sheplans everything, she has.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
I love Bree.
Shout out to Bree.
This girl is amazing yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
So party people, events.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
She plans parties and birthdays and all sorts of she
just did Floyd Mayweather's, Ithink, birthday or something,
right, yeah, I think there waslike a relative of his Of
Floyd's yes, right.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
So she does all these amazing things, so she
essentially helps us run thebook club.
But we decided we were going tocreate this book club where
kids can come and they couldread books.
We would find books by blackauthors, black and brown authors
that had black and browncharacters, so the kids could
see themselves in it and realize, hey, you know, I'm significant
, I'm beautiful and you knowthere's, I'm not, I'm not an
(20:02):
anomaly, I'm not weird, there'snothing weird about me.
Like I belong here and so andeverybody belongs, and so we
have book club and anybody iswelcome.
We open it to everyone.
I'm always encouraging peopleBring your family, bring your
friends and encouraging the kidsto read.
And that's a big thing, becauseI know we have parents come all
the time.
They're like my kid doesn'tlike to read, but like ours,
(20:22):
yeah, yeah.
But then they're like but thenthey saw the other kids reading
and now they're really excitedabout this book.
You know, and just like theylight up when they're there,
like they're excited to comeback to the next meeting, and so
we do it every month.
We just celebrated the yearanniversary of a book club, so
yeah, so it's been.
It's been really good to turn,like a moment that wasn't so
(20:46):
great into so much positivityand just to be able to spread so
much love throughout, you know,throughout the community and so
what's the goal?
Speaker 1 (20:53):
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 getsome funding around it?
Yeah, so you can't share toomuch.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
I mean no, that's okay, so it's something that
we've been talking about and wewere trying to trying to get
that set up by.
I think my problem right now isthat I have my my hands in a
little bit of everything um, andthere's a lot of work in terms
of, like actually being able toget it set up, but we love that
like to be able to to get anon-profit so that we could get
funding to be able to dodifferent things with the kids,
because, um, it does add upafter you know um a while you
(21:25):
know.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
So yeah, for sure, yeah, for sure, yeah, but Are
you seeing it grow likeconsistently?
Like, are you?
Because you said, you saidinvite who you want, get more
people, but then at one point itdoes become like okay.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and it's like a party, like go like
my sister, she goes all out.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
so I mean she's like literally goes out.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
We find a book she's doing like arts and crafts.
She'll plan an escape room likeshe's got all these different
things going on and then we makesure that everybody gets lunch
and dessert, like it's literallylike a party, like every breeze
like my favorite sister that Idon't know, I don't have like
she's literally.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
Yeah, she's amazing.
But some I think my kids arebad.
Sometimes it's all my kids aretoo.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
Bring them because they get around and it's funny
because you'll see the energy goup and everybody acts different
because they realize like, okay, I'm paying attention and they
know the golden rules you haveto be kind, you have to be
respectful, you always have funand there are no silly questions
.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
And you tell them these things and every month
they show and they're reallyreading the books, and so it's
just and it's growing.
And so people kind of come andgo like if you can't make it
this month, that's fine, if youcan 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 (22:47):
But yeah, you know, creating an environment where
kids can be excited about doingsomething productive versus you
know like now, all that, I swear.
All my kids want to do is playvideo games all the time.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Birthday parties, have a Fortnite party Like no,
no, they're excited about it,but they're isolated.
My kids too, between thatenvironment, that environment,
yeah so, yep, so you're not,you're not alone.
Bring them anyway.
And they'll be like, oh, thesebooks.
And then you'll find they'rereading at times when, like
you're like, oh, they would havebeen playing games, but they're
actually reading this book andthey want to see what's going to
happen and they want thebecause you're making it fun and
(23:24):
that's how I learned.
is you want to be around theenergy of the room, not just
being on the board and justsitting, you know.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
So it's amazing.
I applaud what you and Bree aredoing.
I got kind of a two-partquestion, so we always talk
about people in your circle.
But I'm curious, man, I loveyour family so much, man.
But what I want to ask isbiggest lesson you learned from
your father?
I don't know if you could beable to get into that a little
(23:51):
bit.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
But now you lost your father a couple of years back.
Well, what's one of the biggestlessons you learned from your
father?
You know my father, he was avery, very hard worker.
So many lessons learned fromhim.
But we lost him unexpectedly,like a year before he was
getting ready to retire.
And so I always, I think seeingthat made me realize that you
have to do it now, like I mean,I don't think I don't
(24:12):
necessarily.
I think there's an urgency, um,not that you have to feel
rushed, but I don't think youshould wait, like you don't wait
until you retire.
Um, oh, I'll do it, but, youknow, 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 doneI 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 thekids college fund.
(24:33):
Or, you know, when I, whenthings slow down a little bit,
then I'll, you know, take thattrip or take that vacation.
I'll do it now, like you knowwhat's, don't wait because time
is fleeting and and there mightnot be, you know, next year.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
Yeah, that's a powerful.
It makes me think about when westarted this podcast.
We waited two or three yearsbefore we did it.
Daryl, who you know you closewith.
She's the one yelling at metalking about let's get it
started.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
You know what I?
Speaker 1 (24:56):
mean Because you do waste so much time.
You know doing it.
That's a great lesson.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
You guys are doing it now, which is amazing.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
I appreciate it.
So what's reflecting on theimportance of people in your
circle?
Man, you've got a small circle.
Great energy, things like thatcome from a great family.
What's a specific thing thatyou kind of learned that's been
helpful for you and kind ofguided you, and who's in your
circle that you can kind ofbounce things off to kind of
keep you straight?
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Yeah, well, you know I rely very heavily on my sister
to kind of help to help run mylife, and just to.
She's always the one that I'mbouncing ideas off of.
She's the creative in thefamily as well.
So when it comes time to likeshe built my podcast or helped
me set up my podcast, she builtthe website.
(25:40):
She's like hey, this is whatyou should wear for your photo
shoot, for your branding, thisis what you should like.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
She's she is yeah, yeah, so when it?
Speaker 2 (25:46):
comes to anything.
So probably her, and like mymom, she's like my biggest
supporter, she, she is there tobe your cheerleader, like no
matter what you're doing, likeshe's going to, you know, go to
bat for you.
So I think just having themthere has been really helpful
and just having just my familyas a whole, just you know that's
powerful.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
Yeah, talking a little about family, right
(26:34):
no-transcript long ago.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
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 goingto do it?
And I'm like, okay, well, Iguess I'm releasing my podcast
episode this day, and okay, andyou know, and they also help
with, like, keeping balance inother parts of my life, so being
(27:06):
able to focus on, you know,spirituality and finding time
for, like, meditation andexercise.
And, like I said, I don't doeverything very well, but at
least I know, like these are thethings that I want to get done
and you know it's a work inprogress.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
For sure.
What's one tip that you cankind of give somebody as far as
business advice right, because Iknow you do so much you, you
know medical profession, yourhusband's in the medical
profession what would you sharefor, maybe, somebody that maybe
you want to get become a doctorlike yourself, or maybe you want
to start their own podcast orwhatever space it is?
What would you share with themas far as like a nugget?
Speaker 2 (27:41):
I think you just get started, you just expect that
you're going to do everythingimperfectly.
But it's progress, notperfection, and so it's like I
said, it's always just puttingone foot in front of the other.
Like you know, with med schoolI was like, oh, I'm going to
apply, but I probably won't getin 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
(28:02):
interviews and then you just putone foot in front of the other
and somehow, someway, I ended uphere, so yeah, that's awesome,
let's get started.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
Good stuff.
You know I love food.
Being a foodie, we've been to alot of restaurants, but I'm
curious what's your favoriterestaurant in Vegas?
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Favorite restaurant in Vegas.
Oh my gosh, that's a hard one,you know.
I don't know that I necessarilyhave a favorite restaurant in
Vegas.
I like brunch and so we spend alot of time eating like
breakfast.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
Okay, a lot of brunch places.
I love a good brunch spot.
Yeah, I love a good brunch spot.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Yeah, I'm always looking Good brunch spot.
Well, baby Stacks is probablyone of my favorite.
Like, just go to and like youknow if I'm Pancakes is bomb,
baby Stacks that's probably oneof my favorite, like local
places.
Okay, and then let's see,there's a place at the Paris
that they have like a breakfastplace.
Speaker 3 (28:54):
The French place.
Is it Mon Ami Gabi?
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Mon Ami Gabi.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
Yeah, okay, right on the water facing the lasso.
Yeah, so that's a good place.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
So I like take people whenever people are in town.
Okay, Awesome.
There's two gyms.
Yeah, yeah, so okay, awesome.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
Yep, what else is uh is on your agenda?
Maybe for this year and nextyear, man, we might it might've
forgot to ask you.
Man, did you want to kind ofleave us out?
What else is on my agenda?
Speaker 2 (29:15):
So yeah.
So, really just trying to gofull circle with the
prescription or travel MD andincreasing, like the point
points, consulting and that I'vebeen doing so helping people
get the credit cards that theywould need to get to where they
(29:39):
want to go.
And then also helping withredemption.
So once you get the points, Ithink 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 (29:48):
So, yeah, so can people reach out to you as like
a consultant, like, hey, I wantto try this Can.
Can I bump it off, courtney?
Is that?
Speaker 2 (29:55):
how you would work it out.
Yep, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
Also see, a DM is going to be.
Send me a message.
Yeah, so we're on.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
We're on Instagram.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
What's the, what's your social handles?
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Yep, so it's prescription to travel MD.
We're on Instagram.
We have a Facebook group fordoctors, dentists, any
healthcare professionals.
The prescription to travel MD,a doctor's lounge.
We've got a website, so, yeah,yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
Well, check out, man.
She's doing some big things,man, somebody pay attention to.
Yes, looks like KerryWashington.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
We, we're going to say, we interviewed Kerry
Washington today.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
But I appreciate your time, Ms Courtney, and check us
out at thebakersterncom.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
Great stuff.
Thank you so much, nice to seeyou.
Thank you guys for having me.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
Great stuff, good stuff, good stuff.
Welcome to Vegas Circle Podcast with your hosts,
paki and Chris.
We are people who arepassionate about business,
success and culture, and this isour platform to showcase the
people in our city who make ithappen.
On today's podcast, we're goingto be diving into how an
emergency medical doctordiscovered how to use continued
education credit card points tosave time and thousands on
travel with her family andfriends.
(00:32):
Now new podcast host and bookfounder, dr Courtney Downs.
So welcome to the circle,welcome, welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Thank you guys for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
So this is a good friend of mine man.
So Courtney and I go back man.
We know a lot of the samepeople 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 ofmine, chris Downs.
So both physicians.
But let's first kind of startoff just a little bit about your
professional background.
Being an ER doctor has got tobe wild, man.
What made you choose thatprofession, to kind of jump in?
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Well, I started off as a med student just trying to
figure out exactly what I wantedto do, and I initially thought
I wanted to do like pedsemergency medicine and then I
started.
I was working with a couple ofdocs and pediatricians in
emergency medicine and doctorsand we went to Uganda for a
month and while we were there Iwas trying to sort out like
(01:17):
which path I was going to takeand then ultimately, by the end
of the month, I knew for surethat I was going to be an ER
doctor.
Okay, so I came back and did myresidency in emergency medicine,
did my training at KU in KansasCity after doing med school in
Connecticut, UConn, and was inKansas for a little bit and then
we finally made our way backhome.
So Las Vegas is home for me.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
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 (01:44):
Yeah, not too many of us.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
What's a day like for specifically with a loss, being
a crazy city like Las Vegas?
What's the life like or theday-to-day for an emergency
medical doctor?
Speaker 2 (01:56):
What does that look like?
You know it's not.
I don't think it's any crazieron 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 hospitalsscaled back a little bit, and so
I do some of the freestandingemergency rooms, which is kind
of a novel idea now, but it justallows people to have access to
(02:18):
care more readily.
You're not sitting in the ERwaiting for three, four hours at
a time before you're seen.
So it really just allows us togive more specialized attention
to patients and it's been a goodchange for me.
So yeah, I mean you still get alot of crazy things.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
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 (02:46):
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 alwaysgo to those standalone emergency
, no matter what it is.
Like I always just go to thembecause I feel like they're more
accessible, Like it makes it alot.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
We're going to a hospital.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
I feel like I'm in there for days for something
small.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
You are, and then we have the ability to treat
everything.
So we see heart attacks andstrokes.
I mean, you'll get the walk-ingunshot wounds on a rare
occasion, but we do coughs andcolds and all of that and we
have the ability to transfer youto the bigger hospitals if you
need more care than what we canprovide.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Your days get as dramatic as they are, like you
see in the movies, for like.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
ER Once upon a time.
Yeah, definitely.
The bigger ERs you are, it islike nonstop, it's just like
being on a show ER.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Oh geez, yeah, so it sounds exhausting.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
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 (03:49):
And is that kind of how this all came about?
Yeah, well, you know, I thinkit's partly because of that.
I think, as physicians, wespend a lot of time working.
I think we're hard workers,we're over workers and so we
don't take the time off forourselves that we should.
And so I created Prescriptionto Travel MD as a platform to
allow physicians and otherhealthcare professionals to
realize that, hey, you can takethe time off for yourself.
It's okay to rest, it's okay totake time for yourself.
(04:09):
You know, we don't, we have PTO.
Take your PTO, you.
If you don't have PTO andyou're like a self-employed
physician, take your time offanyway.
You know, book that trip,travel, book that vacation,
staycation, whatever it is thatyou need to reset.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
So, especially being in a city like Las Vegas, right
Like Chris and I talk about allthe 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-starresorts and things like that.
What are you seeing?
Just backtracking a little bitas far as, like, the technology
side, right, like, are youseeing, are you happy with the
kind of the future of medicine alittle bit, and what you're
seeing and all the robots and AIand things like that that
(04:47):
you're seeing, are you kind ofexcited about the future of
medicine?
Speaker 2 (04:49):
You know I am.
I think AI is really beingintegrated into medicine.
I actually just came back froma conference where that was like
a really big thing, talkingabout like the use of, like chat
, gpt to be able to do so manydifferent things.
Take it into the patient's roomwith you, so that way it's
essentially taking all theinformation and putting it into
your chart.
So, instead of you having tocome out after being in the room
(05:10):
for 15, 20 minutes to you know,then try to regurgitate
everything you just heard thepatient say it's able to do some
of that for you.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
That's taking so much time, man.
That's why you'd be all overthat.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
I can definitely see it Like you're seeing every
profession to that.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
It's you turning to utilize it to your point.
It's making the patientexperience a lot quicker.
But from like an actual medicalstandpoint, are you seeing a
shift in, like the technologyand the equipment that you're
using and then you know, asyou're kind of learning and
navigating those new equipments?
Is AI helping navigate some ofthat or is it strictly just like
?
Speaker 2 (05:40):
I don't know.
I think we'll get thereno-transcript.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
I want to shout out my doctor.
That's how his office is, withall the paperwork everywhere.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
You definitely see it and it feels like it's
antiquated and it's going to getto a point where everything's
going to evolve to this nextstep, where you're going to have
a clear shift in the medical.
I think that hasn't reallyhappened in a long time, where
people that didn't want to adaptand spend all this money on the
new technology and the ones whodid, you have to.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
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 (06:28):
oh, yeah, okay, yeah, we actually went together.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Yeah, okay, cool, yeah, so it's cool to see like
all the ai stuff that they haveum in place, and so and I just
read something and I was talkingabout like ai being able to
like replace nurses and I waslike, 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 getto a point where it replaces,
like the human touch, but Ithink if you don't know how to
(06:52):
use it, then you're gonna getleft behind so, yeah, I'm glad
you said that, because we'vetalked a lot about that.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
It's like you know bill gates has been saying it
for years high tech, high touch.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
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 suddeneverything'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'sscrambling because you know
there are a lot of people whonever grew up with paper
charting and so it's completelyforeign to them.
And yeah, and your, yourthree-hour wait turns into like
(07:22):
a six hour wait.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
So let's jump and talk about this podcast.
I'm so happy you jumped intothis.
We talked about this for a longtime, man.
So prescription to travel MD.
Of course, chris and I go askright off the bat, man.
So how do we save money, man?
Speaker 3 (07:36):
So how do we get these points, let's jump right
in.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
How do you get points so what would you, I guess I
guess the first question Ishould ask you is what's the
best credit card, or couple ofcredit cards, that you should
use to get the right points?
Like I've got Capital One, youalways hear Southwest Airlines,
all these different ones, butwhat would you recommend as kind
of the best credit card to useto get your best points?
Speaker 2 (07:58):
So I always say it depends.
So it depends on what yourgoals are for travel.
If you're looking to travelinternationally and you're
looking to book flights, thenAmex is a good one to start with
.
I mean, I know people arealways a big fan of like
flashing around the AmexPlatinum, which is not the best
card.
It's probably one of the worstcards.
Well, not the worst, but it'snot a great points earning card
in most instances, but it doeshave a lot of perks that you can
(08:20):
use.
For most people, I think,starting like in the Chase
ecosystem, that's a good idea.
So the Chase Sapphire has acouple of different cards, so
the Reserve and the Preferred,which are great entry-level
cards.
One of them will give you allthe travel benefits, lounge
access, things like that.
The other one is maybe thefee's a little lower and so it's
(08:43):
an easier starting point.
Some people, I think, don'twant to deal when they see that
like $550 for, like you know, anannual fee for this credit card
.
But they give you $300 backautomatically if you in annual
credit so yeah, so I mean.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
So I think, starting there is good Chase also has
very good hotel redemptions, soI like what you're saying I like
what you're saying I like whatyou're saying for sure.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
So some of the other hotels Marriott, Hilton which
are great require a lot morepoints to be used, so, whereas
you can use your Chase points totransfer over to Hyatt Hotel.
So we just booked a trip toCosta Rica for my birthday, so I
was trying to figure out whereto go.
I just booked a trip to CostaRica for my birthday, so I was
trying to figure out where to go, and so we were able to book
(09:28):
the Andaz for.
So book two nights, or fivenights, two rooms.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
You and Chris or the family, the whole night.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Myself and my family.
So my husband works.
He's the one I'm trying toconvert and convince that he
should travel more.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
Like the other doctors.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
He just came back from Trinidad, like an hour ago.
But yeah, so being able to bookthat trip like it would have
cost me like almost $9,000.
And I booked, you know, tworooms for five nights on points
and zero dollars.
I'm going to hate her.
I'm going to hate all of you.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
So she's been.
I think it was Amsterdam, right.
That's another trip that youwent to.
Can you kind of explain howthat works?
So like, how does the pointswork?
Were you able to get so muchoff?
Yeah, so how does that actuallywork?
Speaker 2 (10:12):
So I think a lot of people like you see, if you have
already got points, you canmaximize the value of your
points if you're transferring itout.
So, like I transferred mypoints, I had some Capital One
points, I had some Amex points,a little bit of everything, and
I was able to transfer my pointsover to KLM Flying Blue and so
(10:34):
they'll sometimes have transferbonuses, so you get more points
when you transfer them over.
And then I was able to book sixtickets.
So we booked six premiumeconomy tickets for like $890
and like 190 something thousandpoints.
And then we got downgraded,unfortunately, which was fine
because we only, like with youknow, six people were always
(10:54):
flying economy anyway.
So they downgraded us, but thenthey gave me back like 75% of
my points.
So I spent what A hundred andsomething dollars and 44,000
points to get six of us nonstopfrom here to Amsterdam, which is
insane.
So now I've got points to.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
I've got points to burn this summer.
That's absolutely.
It seems like almost unrealwhen you're saying that Right.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Because we wouldn't have gone to Amsterdam, we would
have.
We would have still been herein Las Vegas or Mexico or you
know somewhere else.
Cool.
But just knowing that like themagic of points exists allows us
to take all these like amazingtrips, and it sounds kind of
scammy and I think a lot ofpeople 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 (11:35):
what's the catch?
Speaker 2 (11:36):
yeah, and there and there is no catch is it's
spending on things that youwould normally spend anyway.
So you're paying your bills,you pay, pay your car insurance,
you pay you know whatever billsyou can pay with your credit
card and you pay it off.
I guess the catch is that youhave 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 adebit card, but you know you're
you're getting something for it.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
So where does this kind of um, almost passion come
from?
Right, you, being a doctorbeing, you know in the medical
industry for your whole life, alot of effort at time and put
into it, and I know youmentioned briefly that,
obviously your passion fortravel and taking your time off
as one part of it.
But how did that, you know?
Speaker 2 (12:19):
coincide with the points.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Like you know what really drove that passion Cause
now you're like pretty involvedin this right Like you're
knowledgeable about theexperience.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
So it's kind of turned more from a you know a
fun project to now somethingthat you want to like get out
there and share.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Yeah, you know what my?
So my husband, he's ahospitalist and he works a lot
and so he'll be on some days forlike 12 days at a time and he
has the ability to take sometime off for vacation.
But he's kind of limited and sohe has a certain amount of time
that he can take off for CME orcontinuing medical education.
(12:56):
It was maybe like four or three,or four years ago, we booked
the trip to hawaii usingcontinuing medical education,
and so we realized that we couldone be reimbursed for his trip,
or at least his part of thetrip, and for our hotel, um.
And then they give you discountrates on like hotels and they
give you access to all thesedifferent perks, and I'm like,
oh so, like.
Now, every year we take a cmetrip I don't blame you.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Yeah, yeah, yeah and.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
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 theeducation program.
We were able to again pay forhis hotel, which is our hotel.
Pay for our flights.
They give you discountDisneyland tickets which no one
(13:36):
else could like, match Um, sothat was taken care of.
Then we use points to pay forall of our flights.
So I mean, this would have beenlike a like 15, $20,000 trip,
you know, staying on propertyfor you know six days.
Yeah, disneyland park tickets.
You know how much it costs to goto Disneyland for one person,
and now I have two kids andthey're no longer free when they
(13:56):
go to Disney, so so you got topay for all that.
So I was like this has existedto me, like how did I not know
that these things existed?
You know, and other peopledon't know about it because
nobody's talking about it.
So I just I think I just wantto share it with everybody else,
you know so.
So I'm not, I don't enjoy beingin front of the camera, um, and
then even like the podcastthing was kind of like, but I'm
(14:18):
like you know what?
Like put your ego aside andjust realize that you, like, you
have all this knowledge toshare and there are all these
people who are doing all theseamazing things, and I just want
people to know about them.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
So here I am.
It's kind of like an eyeopening experience I need to get
out.
I know this for my whole life,my whole life Like we've been.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
We've been here and we've been, like you know, going
to work and using our like CMEmoney to buy like stethoscopes
and uniforms, and we could havebeen going to Hawaii.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
Like there's no, yeah , there's no mass to be able to
do that.
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
So your focus so like the niche is more on the
medical professions.
My brother anybody who willlisten I've been trying to
convince them.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
I need to do that.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
I think once you do it, once you just get one card,
even if you like I'm.
I'm a little obsessive, so Ihave a lot of cards, but even if
you.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
just how many cards do you have?
Speaker 1 (15:12):
I'm going to ask her, because it's my sister, so I'm
going to ask her straight up sohow many credit cards do you use
on this?
How many do I use?
Speaker 2 (15:20):
So that's the thing I don't use them all.
And so like right now I'mworking on like one signup bonus
.
So a sub or a signup bonus iswhen they give you a huge sum of
points for getting a minimumspend.
Um.
So, for instance, there's likean Amex gold card.
A business card will give youlike 200,000 points if you spend
(15:40):
$10,000 over three months orone of the chase cards will give
you 90,000 points if you spend$6,000 over three months.
And again, you're just puttingyou, if you sit down and think
about how much you spend over,you know, in just the month
period on groceries, on going torestaurants, you know paying
for your your car insurance.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
like all the things right it adds up, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
And so you do that and you're like, oh, so, that
was just like an easy 90,000points, and so you can book a
nice Hyatt, so, and as CostaRica, it's like 25,000 points a
night, you know so one sign ofbonus, that's.
You know so one sign of bonus,that's, you know when y'all
three, three, that's threenights there, you know so, and
for stuff that you're gonna buyanyway instead of you know,
(16:21):
instead of spending a thousanddollars a night.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
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 doand and um, travel to me I mean
you know we talked about thisat your home and our home and
stuff is you get so much fromtravel, man, your kids learn so
much from travel.
Right, the stress relief frombeing able to do that, so I'm so
(16:44):
happy you're, you're doing it.
What?
What's kind of the biggest thelesson that you've learned, you
know, just interviewing peopleand talking with them about it?
Are they?
Do they kind of shut you off?
Are they?
Are they kind of surprised orwhat?
What do you get out of?
Uh, when you, when you'reinterviewing some of these
doctors?
Speaker 2 (16:58):
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 theseamazing things and you're like,
oh well, for one surprise thatthey're actually giving just the
fact that these are people whoare like, at some point they
realized that rest was anecessity and that travel was an
(17:22):
important part of that.
And they're doing it, you know.
So I've interviewed one doc whotook a year long sabbatical.
So she took a year, left herpractice, quit her job, you know
, and took her family andtraveled around the world.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
You know and now she's for a whole year.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
You know, and she just kind of planned for that
and she was like you know shewas scared but she did it.
You know there were all thesethoughts, all these reasons why
she felt like she couldn't do it, but she did it.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
And now she's back you go back, you're actually a
better performer more in tunewith your family, more in tune
with your job than you did if wewere just powered through it.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
That's very interesting to think about.
Yeah, Yep, and we're better forit.
We can take better care of ourpatients.
If you know we're recharging,we're taking care of ourselves
of ourselves.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
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 clubwith your sister, bree.
Can you kind of talk a littlebit about that, because I know
reading is a big problem andspecifically Vegas, right it is
as far as the scores and thingslike that.
Yeah, can you kind of share whyyou started a book club with
you and Bree?
Speaker 2 (18:36):
Sure.
So I have a daughter.
Last year she was in firstgrade, and so the first week of
first grade she goes to school,she comes back, she's saying her
prayers at night and she'spraying.
You know, please, lord, don'tlet so.
And so let them be nice to me.
And I'm like like what happened, you know?
And so story comes out that shewas at school and the little
girl told her that peopleweren't going to want to be her
(18:57):
friend anymore because, becauseher skin color and because
they're, her hair looks funnyand she's only black girl in
class, she's got braids, justlike her mom.
And so I was, like you know,just heartbroken, like this is
my daughter right, right, so Idon't you know, and so really
not wanting her like core memoryand like the building blocks of
like the rest of her life to belike this moment.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
you know, yeah, for real, and so me and my sister
Bree.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
we decided we were going to start a kids book club,
and so you know, Bree, sheplans everything, she has.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
I love Bree.
Shout out to Bree.
This girl is amazing yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
So party people, events.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
She plans parties and birthdays and all sorts of she
just did Floyd Mayweather's, Ithink, birthday or something,
right, yeah, I think there waslike a relative of his Of
Floyd's yes, right.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
So she does all these amazing things, so she
essentially helps us run thebook club.
But we decided we were going tocreate this book club where
kids can come and they couldread books.
We would find books by blackauthors, black and brown authors
that had black and browncharacters, so the kids could
see themselves in it and realize, hey, you know, I'm significant
, I'm beautiful and you knowthere's, I'm not, I'm not an
(20:02):
anomaly, I'm not weird, there'snothing weird about me.
Like I belong here and so andeverybody belongs, and so we
have book club and anybody iswelcome.
We open it to everyone.
I'm always encouraging peopleBring your family, bring your
friends and encouraging the kidsto read.
And that's a big thing, becauseI know we have parents come all
the time.
They're like my kid doesn'tlike to read, but like ours,
(20:22):
yeah, yeah.
But then they're like but thenthey saw the other kids reading
and now they're really excitedabout this book.
You know, and just like theylight up when they're there,
like they're excited to comeback to the next meeting, and so
we do it every month.
We just celebrated the yearanniversary of a book club, so
yeah, so it's been.
It's been really good to turn,like a moment that wasn't so
(20:46):
great into so much positivityand just to be able to spread so
much love throughout, you know,throughout the community and so
what's the goal?
Speaker 1 (20:53):
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 getsome funding around it?
Yeah, so you can't share toomuch.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
I mean no, that's okay, so it's something that
we've been talking about and wewere trying to trying to get
that set up by.
I think my problem right now isthat I have my my hands in a
little bit of everything um, andthere's a lot of work in terms
of, like actually being able toget it set up, but we love that
like to be able to to get anon-profit so that we could get
funding to be able to dodifferent things with the kids,
because, um, it does add upafter you know um a while you
(21:25):
know.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
So yeah, for sure, yeah, for sure, yeah, but Are
you seeing it grow likeconsistently?
Like, are you?
Because you said, you saidinvite who you want, get more
people, but then at one point itdoes become like okay.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and it's like a party, like go like
my sister, she goes all out.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
so I mean she's like literally goes out.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
We find a book she's doing like arts and crafts.
She'll plan an escape room likeshe's got all these different
things going on and then we makesure that everybody gets lunch
and dessert, like it's literallylike a party, like every breeze
like my favorite sister that Idon't know, I don't have like
she's literally.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
Yeah, she's amazing.
But some I think my kids arebad.
Sometimes it's all my kids aretoo.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
Bring them because they get around and it's funny
because you'll see the energy goup and everybody acts different
because they realize like, okay, I'm paying attention and they
know the golden rules you haveto be kind, you have to be
respectful, you always have funand there are no silly questions
.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
And you tell them these things and every month
they show and they're reallyreading the books, and so it's
just and it's growing.
And so people kind of come andgo like if you can't make it
this month, that's fine, if youcan 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 (22:47):
But yeah, you know, creating an environment where
kids can be excited about doingsomething productive versus you
know like now, all that, I swear.
All my kids want to do is playvideo games all the time.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Birthday parties, have a Fortnite party Like no,
no, they're excited about it,but they're isolated.
My kids too, between thatenvironment, that environment,
yeah so, yep, so you're not,you're not alone.
Bring them anyway.
And they'll be like, oh, thesebooks.
And then you'll find they'rereading at times when, like
you're like, oh, they would havebeen playing games, but they're
actually reading this book andthey want to see what's going to
happen and they want thebecause you're making it fun and
(23:24):
that's how I learned.
is you want to be around theenergy of the room, not just
being on the board and justsitting, you know.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
So it's amazing.
I applaud what you and Bree aredoing.
I got kind of a two-partquestion, so we always talk
about people in your circle.
But I'm curious, man, I loveyour family so much, man.
But what I want to ask isbiggest lesson you learned from
your father?
I don't know if you could beable to get into that a little
(23:51):
bit.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
But now you lost your father a couple of years back.
Well, what's one of the biggestlessons you learned from your
father?
You know my father, he was avery, very hard worker.
So many lessons learned fromhim.
But we lost him unexpectedly,like a year before he was
getting ready to retire.
And so I always, I think seeingthat made me realize that you
have to do it now, like I mean,I don't think I don't
(24:12):
necessarily.
I think there's an urgency, um,not that you have to feel
rushed, but I don't think youshould wait, like you don't wait
until you retire.
Um, oh, I'll do it, but, youknow, 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 doneI 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 thekids college fund.
(24:33):
Or, you know, when I, whenthings slow down a little bit,
then I'll, you know, take thattrip or take that vacation.
I'll do it now, like you knowwhat's, don't wait because time
is fleeting and and there mightnot be, you know, next year.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
Yeah, that's a powerful.
It makes me think about when westarted this podcast.
We waited two or three yearsbefore we did it.
Daryl, who you know you closewith.
She's the one yelling at metalking about let's get it
started.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
You know what I?
Speaker 1 (24:56):
mean Because you do waste so much time.
You know doing it.
That's a great lesson.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
You guys are doing it now, which is amazing.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
I appreciate it.
So what's reflecting on theimportance of people in your
circle?
Man, you've got a small circle.
Great energy, things like thatcome from a great family.
What's a specific thing thatyou kind of learned that's been
helpful for you and kind ofguided you, and who's in your
circle that you can kind ofbounce things off to kind of
keep you straight?
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Yeah, well, you know I rely very heavily on my sister
to kind of help to help run mylife, and just to.
She's always the one that I'mbouncing ideas off of.
She's the creative in thefamily as well.
So when it comes time to likeshe built my podcast or helped
me set up my podcast, she builtthe website.
(25:40):
She's like hey, this is whatyou should wear for your photo
shoot, for your branding, thisis what you should like.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
She's she is yeah, yeah, so when it?
Speaker 2 (25:46):
comes to anything.
So probably her, and like mymom, she's like my biggest
supporter, she, she is there tobe your cheerleader, like no
matter what you're doing, likeshe's going to, you know, go to
bat for you.
So I think just having themthere has been really helpful
and just having just my familyas a whole, just you know that's
powerful.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
Yeah, talking a little about family, right
(26:34):
no-transcript long ago.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
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 goingto do it?
And I'm like, okay, well, Iguess I'm releasing my podcast
episode this day, and okay, andyou know, and they also help
with, like, keeping balance inother parts of my life, so being
(27:06):
able to focus on, you know,spirituality and finding time
for, like, meditation andexercise.
And, like I said, I don't doeverything very well, but at
least I know, like these are thethings that I want to get done
and you know it's a work inprogress.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
For sure.
What's one tip that you cankind of give somebody as far as
business advice right, because Iknow you do so much you, you
know medical profession, yourhusband's in the medical
profession what would you sharefor, maybe, somebody that maybe
you want to get become a doctorlike yourself, or maybe you want
to start their own podcast orwhatever space it is?
What would you share with themas far as like a nugget?
Speaker 2 (27:41):
I think you just get started, you just expect that
you're going to do everythingimperfectly.
But it's progress, notperfection, and so it's like I
said, it's always just puttingone foot in front of the other.
Like you know, with med schoolI was like, oh, I'm going to
apply, but I probably won't getin 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
(28:02):
interviews and then you just putone foot in front of the other
and somehow, someway, I ended uphere, so yeah, that's awesome,
let's get started.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
Good stuff.
You know I love food.
Being a foodie, we've been to alot of restaurants, but I'm
curious what's your favoriterestaurant in Vegas?
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Favorite restaurant in Vegas.
Oh my gosh, that's a hard one,you know.
I don't know that I necessarilyhave a favorite restaurant in
Vegas.
I like brunch and so we spend alot of time eating like
breakfast.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
Okay, a lot of brunch places.
I love a good brunch spot.
Yeah, I love a good brunch spot.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Yeah, I'm always looking Good brunch spot.
Well, baby Stacks is probablyone of my favorite.
Like, just go to and like youknow if I'm Pancakes is bomb,
baby Stacks that's probably oneof my favorite, like local
places.
Okay, and then let's see,there's a place at the Paris
that they have like a breakfastplace.
Speaker 3 (28:54):
The French place.
Is it Mon Ami Gabi?
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Mon Ami Gabi.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
Yeah, okay, right on the water facing the lasso.
Yeah, so that's a good place.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
So I like take people whenever people are in town.
Okay, Awesome.
There's two gyms.
Yeah, yeah, so okay, awesome.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
Yep, what else is uh is on your agenda?
Maybe for this year and nextyear, man, we might it might've
forgot to ask you.
Man, did you want to kind ofleave us out?
What else is on my agenda?
Speaker 2 (29:15):
So yeah.
So, really just trying to gofull circle with the
prescription or travel MD andincreasing, like the point
points, consulting and that I'vebeen doing so helping people
get the credit cards that theywould need to get to where they
(29:39):
want to go.
And then also helping withredemption.
So once you get the points, Ithink 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 (29:48):
So, yeah, so can people reach out to you as like
a consultant, like, hey, I wantto try this Can.
Can I bump it off, courtney?
Is that?
Speaker 2 (29:55):
how you would work it out.
Yep, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
Also see, a DM is going to be.
Send me a message.
Yeah, so we're on.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
We're on Instagram.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
What's the, what's your social handles?
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Yep, so it's prescription to travel MD.
We're on Instagram.
We have a Facebook group fordoctors, dentists, any
healthcare professionals.
The prescription to travel MD,a doctor's lounge.
We've got a website, so, yeah,yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
Well, check out, man.
She's doing some big things,man, somebody pay attention to.
Yes, looks like KerryWashington.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
We, we're going to say, we interviewed Kerry
Washington today.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
But I appreciate your time, Ms Courtney, and check us
out at thebakersterncom.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
Great stuff.
Thank you so much, nice to seeyou.
Thank you guys for having me.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
Great stuff, good stuff, good stuff.
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