Nurturing Future Leaders with Intent and Grace from Dr. Camysha Wright

Okay, I'm just tickled. I always am tickled when I have the chance to interview and spend any more extra time with my amazing clients. So I'm thrilled to have Dr. Kamesha Wright with us today. And Dr. Wright, as we all call her, in good company. Let's see. You have been working with me. You did how to CEO. You did empathic CEO, because you are one of. And now you've been in the SAGE program since we started. So you are the OG of sage, right? You and Danielle.

Right.

You're the two. But you're also. And a very accomplished physician, which we will talk about, and recently very accomplished author, which we will talk about and have several other distinctions in your profession. And of course, nothing is stopping you. I know you have a lot more ambition and things you want to do in the world. So I just love when I get a sliver of time extra with you because your brain is gorgeous and so are you. So tell us, Dr. Bright, who you are. Tell us about you.

Thank you, Chris. That was such an amazing introduction and ditto for you. I mean, it's been. You spent a blessing. I call you like my angel in disguise, working with you. And the way that you've opened up my mind and the way that my mindset has changed has been amazing. Okay, so I'm Dr. Kamesha Wright, and I'm a board certified otorhinolaryngologist, or ENT.

For short.

For those of us who don't know what that is. And I've been working with you for four years. I still can't say it, Odo. I still can't. So ent.

I like saying it in Spanish better, actually. Like odor. I love it.

Oh, say it again.

Otorino Laryngola. Here.

Oh, yes. Very fancy. Sounds very sophisticated.

Yeah, but basically just ent.

So we look at the ears, the nose and the throat. And I. I have my own practice for going on 10 years now. I'm in a larger group. So it's kind of interesting the way that we have it organized because we basically, we have our own individual practices, but then we operate under, like, a larger, like, group number or whatever, like negotiated with insurances and things like that. So we get a nice blend where we can kind of have our own business, but then also, like, have a nice niche where we can, you know, do what we like.

Yeah, you have some freedom in there.

Some freedom in there. And then also you can talk to your colleagues and have some. Some, you know, conversations going on there. So I have that For a private practice. I'm also the allergy director for that group. There's, like, over 90 different EMTs in our group, and whenever they have an allergy issue, they are able either figure it out on their own or kind of like, you know, send a little, you know, conversation out to me, and we try and figure out some type of answer to kind of fix their.

You're the expert and you tell us you're in Florida, right?

I am in Florida, yes.

You run that. You are in that role for 90 other physicians across the state of Florida?

Yeah, across the state of Florida, from Miami all the way up to, like, the Panama City, like, Destiny, from north to south.

So if you live in Florida and you have really tricky allergy issues. Yeah. If you see a different doctor, they're likely consulting with Dr. Wright.

Or you should just go see Dr. Wright. Because your practice is in, what, Fort Lauderdale or Port Lucy? Or Port Lucy, I can never remember.

It's in Plantation, which is.

Plantation, yeah.

It's just west of Fort Lauderdale. So, like, you know, about half an hour from there. You. You're saying Port St. Lucy? Because I. I do have some, like, ties up in Port St. Lucy.

That's what I thought.

I'm like.

I know there's all the Pl and there's. And Florida's like, California. It's like, everything is that near Miami. Right. Like, people are always saying to me, oh, do you live near San Francisco? I'm like, two hours. But, yeah, you know, it's fine.

Yeah.

Okay, so.

And, yeah, I mean, as far as, like, for medicine, I've been very blessed. So, you know, so I've had my own individual practice. I also try and do, like, a lot of, like, advocacy. So I was the most recent past president for the Florida Society of Otolaryngologists. Currently, I'm on, like, the board of governors, so that, you know, so basically, for all the different otolaryngologists, you know, across the country, we'll have, you know, meetings and so forth and talk about the current issues and concepts. The annual meeting is going to be down here in Miami. So I'm kind of one of, like, the little, you know, poster child, like, advertising for it and trying to really kind of get Florida, you know, some. Some. Some, you know, get our name out there for, like, all the other people, all the other colleges from across the country. And we're going to come down and visit us and, you know, learn more about what we're doing here.

Yeah, With a lot of advocacy. Right. For your profession and the needs that your doctors have. Right. Through that association and the work.

Absolutely. I mean, because there's always so many things changing on the healthcare front. And so, like, one of the things that, you know, is very important to me is obviously, like, educating not only like myself, but like my patients and then other doctors so that we can understand like, you know, changes that can affect our businesses and also like the way that we manage our patients.

Huge role, unfortunately, I'm sure.

Yeah, that's an ongoing battle. I know we have several doctor clients in the different programs that I run. And that's, that's a whole other conversation for the impact that things are having on physicians in general. Right, Absolutely.

That'll be like another day.

So a couple of years ago, you said out loud, I want to write a book.

Yes.

And so then you did. And I remember when we were in Rhode island and AI just started coming out and you were sitting up in your room. We were at the SAGE retreat and you were like, look at these pictures that. Right. And we, and I don't think that this was actually one of the ones that we saw, but you were. I just remember it was so fun to like, realize, like, wow, you can do such cool stuff by defining what you wanted. And I know you worked on this book when we were all together. So Breathe Easy is an absolutely beautiful book and it's an incredible title. Right. For an ENT allergist specialist to write. Because so much as you have taught me so much about our health and our well being is rooted in our ability or our lack of ability to breathe. Right.

So true. I mean, I, I wrote the book primarily because I was getting a lot of, you know, you start out as a doctor, you see your patients and you see a lot of like the same type of questions. You know, every day people will say, well, I'm not sure, like, my sinuses are acting up. And it could be their sinuses or it could be an allergy or it could be something else. And there was just a lot of confusion there. And I, and I noted that I was saying the same thing over and over again. So I was like, well, how can I get this information out to people in a different format? And many times, like many doctors will tell you, like, or if you go to the doctor, we say so many things to you, it's hard to remember everything. So to have a resource that you could just go to, to just reference a quick thing here or a quick thing there, I thought would be useful.

It's so useful.

Started it yeah.

And you have such a, you know, even in conversation, because obviously, when we're all together, people ask you things because you're a doctor.

Yeah.

It's the way it works. And you just have a way of making things make sense. And there's a simplicity to it. You know, there's a complexity to what you do.

But.

But as a. As a patient or as a layman, you really help explain why there could be a host of symptoms. Like one of the things I know you and I have talked about, like, I get. I get my throat gets kind of hoarse in the mornings, and it's because I have creamer, real cream in my. I have actual cream in my creamer. But I'm not willing to change that. Right. Because I. But I know I have an allergy. I totally have an allergy.

But I will not give it up.

That's one of the chapters of the book, too. We talk about food allergies in that. Because you're right. Because we don't always put two and two together.

No.

It's like how, you know, different triggers could cause different symptoms.

No.

Okay.

This is hysterical. I don't think I've told you this. So I've been married to my husband for 27 years. Yeah. We've been together for 29. This year it'll be 30. And.

Three years ago, this man loves peanut butter. He puts peanut butter on apples. He eats nuts. He, like, he'll eat a handful of nuts, peanuts, almonds, cashews. Yeah, all of it. Right. Protein things with peanut butter. Right. All. All the things. Yeah. And every time he has it, he starts coughing. Every time.

Every single.

Yeah, I'm like. Three years ago, I'm like, you know, do you have an allergy of peanuts and nuts? Look at. Every time. And now it's hysterical because every night he has a Reese's Peanut Butter cup for dessert. Every night he starts coughing. And I'm like, okay.

I'm just.

We probably should keep an EpiPen, because one of these days that thing's going to kick you over the edge. But it's just so insidious. There's so many things in our lives. Right. And you talk also about, like, there's that. There's the external ones, and then there's what that does sort of in your system. Right. Like having. When you don't. When you have inflammation from allergies, how does that affect how you breathe?

Right.

So do you want to talk a little bit about. About that, just for the layman listeners?

Well, yeah, I Mean, that was one of the reasons why I wrote the book exactly how you described it. I tried to make it very simple. I actually had one of my doctor colleagues, like, review it for me. He goes, this is way too simple. I'm like, it's not written for you. It's written for patients and for, like, the normal person. One of the things that is a key, you know, avenue that I delve into with the book is the fact that our airways unified. When you have inflammation, say, like, in your nose or your upper airway, it can actually affect more distal parts or, like, distant parts of your body, like your lungs and things like that. So when there's, like, a baseline of inflammation, you breathe in, say, a certain allergen, let's just say dust, and it goes into your nose and you breathe it in. And then these little allergy cells come and seize that. They're like, I don't like that. Obviously, it's trying to attack me. And they, like, explode, for lack of a better way. And we saw these, like, chemicals that are. That cause your body to have a reaction. That reaction causes the symptoms. You can get congestion or postnasal drip. But while it can happen in your nose, sometimes those same chemicals can be stimulated in other parts of your body. And so with allergies can have other conditions, like asthma. You know, the nasal congestion can cause you to get some severe nasal blockage in your nose, which can lead to problems like nasal congestion or like, sleep apnea being a contributing factor to that. And. And while sleep, you know, by snoring and being congested is like, the end of the world, having something serious, like sneak sleep apnea could lead to more serious conditions.

Mm, absolutely. Well, and that for sure. You know, I got diagnosed with apnea, what, five. I'm five or five years in. And I was young. I was in my, what, mid, early, late 40s, I guess, when I got diagnosed. And I have a whole family who has it. But that has changed my life to be able to literally, to breathe. Right. You don't realize when you have apnea and you don't know you don't have it. I just say that. Right. You don't realize that there's, you know, a good chunk of time that you're not breathing. Yeah. And for a lot of women I know who are kind of roughly in our age group. Right. There's a lot of women who don't sleep well. And I know there's a host of reasons why that could be happening, but one of the things I always tell People is like, I would request a sleep study because you don't know. And not everybody who snores has apnea. Right, right. Vice versa.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, because, you know, we have a. I have a snoring chapter and I was like, hey, you know, just because you're snoring, I mean, that could be annoying. But we want to make sure that we rule out just the annoying snoring from something serious. Apnea is actually you're holding your breath for 10 seconds. We have this thing called apnea hypopnea index that we look at on our sleep study. And apnea is when you're holding your breath. Hypopnea is when you're doing really shallow breathing. So you're breathing not enough where you're getting good air or oxygen. And both of those can have, you know, really terrible effects of your body, you know, over time. You know, you're not getting enough, you know, blood flow with good oxygenation to your brain, to your heart, to all the different parts of your body that need it. And you can have a higher risk for having a stroke. You can have a higher risk for having a heart attack. I've had patients who had, you know, family members undiagnosed and they die in their sleep. And friends of mine who 50 stroke, I'm like, this is crazy. And when things like that were happening, I'm like, we need to really get the word out that people know about this because it's really an epidemic that can be fixed.

I love, I mean, I know that wasn't the point of really this podcast, but I do want to say, like, I think it's really important and because I also, you know, I'm very open about it. I'm. Listen, I don't love that I have it, but I like to breathe and I like to breathe easy. I have BiPAP, so I breathe very well because my bip is heaven. But the amount of people now that I know who have, who have apnea, who you wouldn't think they do, they're not severely overweight. They're not. Right. There's all these sort of stereo. They're not a hundred year old man. Like there's these stereotypes with it that have really, I think, affected how we help people to get diagnosed. And I, if it were up to me, I would, you know, once people get to be a certain age, I would just do a sleep study because it has to mitigate the expense on the, on the tail end of heart disease. Afib.

Yeah, right.

All the other things that we know happen. My mom had an undiagnosed apnea until she was in her mid-70s and too late. She had to get a pacemaker. She has afib, right. She's. So the damage had been done. So anyway, I just think your book, for all of you listening, you know, we take for granted that we breathe.

Until we can. Right, until we get a cold even, or a sinus infection or, you know, some sort of flare up or pneumonia or whatever. And it's not all. And in fact, I would bet you would say the majority of the issues that we face are not because of a virus. It's other things that are going on in either and in the environment or your body's reaction to it. Yeah.

And yeah, during my chapter, you know, I was, I go into like, you know, I wanted to start out with just having everyone understand, like, hey, you know, you're stuffy, so what does this mean? And I try to do a differentiation with it. It could be allergies, it could be a viral infection or it could be a sinus infection. A sinus infection can be caused by a virus. You know, all sinus infection is, is just inflammation in the sinus cavities, the little hollow areas of your face that, you know, cause it to, you know, get good air and so forth. And so if you have a sinus infection for like, that started out as a virus, but then it didn't clear up within about seven to 10 days, well, then you could get a secondary bacterial infection. And that's why the doctors, like myself will give you an antibiotic. But if you have like a, a sinus infection that's lasted forever, like for months, then it could be either be a chronic sinus infection or you could have a confounding issue where you have allergies. Yeah, yeah.

That's just continuing to perpetuate inflammation and.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah. I just think that we're so all about, you know, the more physicians I have in my world, the more I realize how little we know. Right. And WebMD and Google are not really the best resources because most of the time you're gonna find out that you're gonna die. If you Google any symptom up, it's always back to like, well, so you should all go get, breathe easy because this is like, it really is like a layman's. It's, you know, I love even how I'm gonna show the inside because there's like pictures, see if I can get to a couple.

Right.

Hello? I know, I just saw a Few. Where are you pictures. Well, that was useful. There's pictures and it's, it's really written. There you go. It's written for you and me, people, not other physician people. And I think it's a great book to have in your house if you have kids, if you also have your own issues. It's kind of your little guide to. I keep feeling this way. I wonder what's happening. This is happening to me. I can't deal with this. I can't taste things right now. What's that about? And So I think Dr. Wright has really built a very useful and simple household resource. And I think also what's so great is that you really are available. So if you have issues as a, as a person and you are not been able to resolve those, you know, I don't know what the, the way things are in states and all the way things happen, but if you want to go to Florida and see Dr. Right, you probably should because she's a fricking expert and she's really good at what she does. And I'm a fan of experts.

Thank you, Chris.

Right. I just, like, I just want to always know where, who's.

The doors are open for everyone, for sure.

Yeah, I, that's what I mean. I would go there when I was in Florida. You took care of me. So I'm in, like, it's, It'll work for me. Yeah. I like to have a doctor in every state. Why not? That's kind of handy. Okay, so let's just touch a little bit too on you and the fact that you are also this, you know, you're an accomplished position, an accomplished expert in your field now published author, soon to be another one. I know you have another idea in the back of your head that you're working on. What do you think it takes to be a woman in the world that you're in, especially as a physician and lead. And lead. Well.

You know, I learned a lot from your program because I mean, as a physician, you know, I would say that we get a lot of training about medicine, about how to save a life, which is also very important. But you don't get, you know, any like really direct guidance on how to run a business, on how to lead your team. So I actually learned a lot from doing your program. I learned how to set up an actual guideline and get the rules and regulations in place and how to set my expectations and be able to hold people to those expectations. That is actually something I actually learned after being in medicine.

Not to Plug you. But I would say probably, if they don't know that, they should probably look you up too, to try and get some.

Yes. And I'll take it. But what do you think, though, was the, was the, was the switch, though? Because you really are quite effective as a leader, Kamisha. I mean, you're a very approachable woman in general, but you, you've built, you know, an organization. It's hard to build as a practitioner to find other people who can also do practitioner work and also take good care of your patients and have an administrative team that does that as well. And so what do you think you needed to get? Like, what was the gap that you walked over that you would say, you know, this is the thing probably for me, that has made leading and running a team, not just a business. Yes. A little bit easier for you?

I feel like it's more. So I had to really kind of get my intentions clear. Like, what were, what were my goals? Like, what do I really want to accomplish? You know, like, how do I want this, like, practice and business to look like and how do I want my team to look like? I will start for. You know, we wanted to practice, you know, medicine with grace and empathy and also be innovative. So we, we do that and everything. We try and actually have the best customer service and get back to people as much as possible. After the book, Breathe easy. I'm like, I'm going to change my motto so that our patients can breathe easy and any part of our practice.

But just from them calling us up, you know, I don't got to worry about it. I can breathe easier because I'm dealing with Dr. Wright and her team. And we, we just had to really be intentional about that and, and then have that kind of push us in everything that we do. It's only an appointment to following up on patients, to, you know, all the customer service and then leading our team. I'm, I'm very intentional with how I try and like, have. Be respectful for my, for my employees. And then they are also, like, we're, we're not like a family, but we're very well, I guess, well, oil. I'll just say so that we all kind of know our, our parts, our roles, and we work together well.

Well, and that's exactly it. Right. So you set the intention, you set the direction, you set the vibe right. It's like an ecosystem you've built. You built it on purpose. Whereas what you, you know, what is true for most of us when we start a business, we don't do it on purpose because we're just trying to get, in your case, patience. I'm just trying to build a practice or trying to make it my practice. Right. And now that becomes simpler. And that's what I've watched over you, over with you over the few years here is even though you've had transition in your team, the process after you've done it once, Right. If you have to replace positions again, which we always will all have to do, always, is that it's not as emotional, it's not as angsty, it's more clear, it moves faster. Because now you know what you're looking for and you know what you don't want.

Yeah.

So, yeah. And.

And that's also part of the intentionality too, I think. I spoke with you like, so when I choose some of the employees who work in my practice, we tend to choose people who want to be future, like doctors and future leaders. So we know that they're not going to stay with us forever. And we want kind of go and grow and get to those next steps. So we have a lot of change and a lot of turnover intentionally. Because you also, they, they also care about their work and they're like, they really want to learn, so they really want to help people and try to be strong and impress you. So, you know, it really works to our favor. But in that regard, I know there's always going to be a little bit of change, but I'm used to it now.

Yeah, yeah. Because then you get, right. Like top talent wants to work for top leaders.

Yeah.

And so if you get that, as you build that reputation, which you're already obviously doing in your industry. Right. There's going to be really great young talent that wants to come work with you and learn from you. And why, why wouldn't you want that? Right. Because eventually one of those people will be the one that you could probably sell your business to. Right, Right. And so I think it's such a. You know, we talked about at the Sage gathering that I just did in Sonoma, we talked about developing proteges.

Yeah.

Instead of just hiring team members as founders. I think that's a valuable perspective. And there's one other thing I want to call out that you said to everybody listening, and that's that you talked about building a business that focused on empathy and grace.

Yeah.

And innovation.

Yes.

There's a lot of jibber jabber in the world that empathy and grace are soft skills. They're not as valuable. Right. And I think in your world as doctors is true in so many other industries.

The, The.

The value is placed on the science, and yes, that matters. But what we know matters equally is being able to create a culture where both patients and people that work there feel good.

Yes.

So important. So important.

Because, I mean, I mean, with any, you know, you know, avenue of, like, you know, where people are working, I mean, healthcare, it could be very. A lot of people burn out, A lot of people get, you know, frustrated or get tired. So you have, like, intentionally set a culture where, you know, it can be a place where people can thrive. And that's really what I wanted to do when we started this practice.

Yeah. And I think the longer, you know that, we're getting more and more into era where that's expected by team members more so than it used to be. And so that's one of the edges that I believe women have. If you learn how to honor that, honor, empathy, honor, grace, hold space for that, but also still have clear expectations, clear standards, and you don't have fear around holding people to the agreements that they made when they said yes to working with you. Right.

So true. Yeah.

Yeah. So if you were going to talk to young women doctors who want to also have their own practice, what is the really the best piece of advice you would give them in terms of the leadership of their business, not necessarily the development of the practice?

I mean, I actually, I'm very blessed that I actually have the opportunity to speak to some of our colleagues that role. I'm a mentor. I get to teach with residents and medical students and such. So, I mean, usually when I'm approached with that, I tell them, like, you know, one of the things first and foremost is to figure out, like, your own mind. Figure out, like, what it is that you. What you need and what you want. Because sometimes you may feel like everyone is like, screwing this up or screwing this up, and it's just the way you're thinking about it or what have you. So I try and have them first focus on themselves, get support for themselves. I've learned that from you because many times we try and do everything and we don't support ourselves. And once you're more clear with who you are and what you want, then you can kind of have an idea about what will get you there, like what kind of team will get you there and how you can lead them because you know what you want and what will make you happy. It's going to be different for everyone. Everyone's not going to be as, maybe as empathetic as me. They May be have a different personality, but you just have to know yourself.

Exactly.

Yeah, exactly. It's like the story I like to tell.

Right.

About the client that you and I both know well, who also lives in Florida, who can be a little cheeky. And she, you know, she was frustrated because people she was hiring were like, too sensitive. Yeah. And I'm like, well, you have to tell people who you are. You have to say, this is what it's like here. We're a little sarcastic, we're a little cheeky, we kind of banter a lot. And you get that clear, you're going to get the right people in with you. So it's not just that you have to be empathetic and graceful, like. No, but just be clear so that you're building a team that is representative of your values. Right. I love that. And I think the more we can give women that freedom to know, it's okay. It doesn't have to look like Bob and Jim and John's business. Yeah. It can look like yours. Yes, yes, yes.

Unapologetic about that because we always like being. Saying sorry or like, you know, just for being who you are as a person. It's crazy.

Yeah. Well, I was, you know, I was thinking about it the other day and I. It really is true that women have really only been in the kind of leadership role that you're in that I'm in that, you know, even within corporations for. Since the. Let's just call it the late 60s, early 70s mass. Right. And even still, we got a long way to go.

Yeah.

So. So that's. It's understandable that the models we look at to learn from are not necessarily easy to emulate because they just don't align with how we kind of act and want to be in the world. And so I think that the more of us that share our stories and do our work and gain prominence both as leaders and experts, we create other pathways, other options for so many other women. So I just. It's. It's an honor to know you. You're such an understated genius. I think is what I would say about you when. When you talk to Kamisha, she's just is. As you find her here on this video and this podcast, she is lovely. You're lovely and easy, friendly and. And yet you are like this high achieving, high producing, ambitious and innovative woman. And you know, I know every time I meet up with you, every couple few months, I'm. I'm like, what are we going to do now?

And there's always something.

So that's what I. Research study. Yeah. You could do another thing if you want, but you have to tell me how you're going to support it if you do, because it can't be all you. Right.

I think the two research studies are good.

Yeah, we'll stick with that for now before we open up a new business or write another book or take on a new program. I think it's fabulous. Okay, so where do people find you? I think you, I know you have a social presence and then what's your website and all the things.

Yeah, so my website is the right ent.com. so it's the right with a W. You can actually find links to all of my socials there as well as like a link to my, my, my book is on available on Amazon, either paperback or Kindle or even audio version.

Look at you.

I know.

I'm going to. We'll make sure that all the links are in the show notes for the podcast. But for now, please go follow Kamesha. Buy her book. Get the book for yourself. Get the book for anyone, you know who struggles with airway or just breathing in general, other issues. Great gift for new moms, I think, for who are, you know, about to embark on all, all of the baby problems that all of us are terrified about. So anyway, I think it, I think there's a lot of great, great uses for having your book on, on some on your desk or in your bookshelf. So thank you. Thank you for writing it. Yeah.

All right. Thank you for inviting me for this. I really had a great time. It's always a pleasure talking with you.

Yes, love, nice to see you. I'll see you next time. Remember that I asked you to be a part of my Catalyst podcast event where I'm inviting you to become a visionary Catalyst. Share the podcast link with women that you know. And as soon as you hit 20 shared links clicks on those, we can measure that. I'm going to give you one of my bonus digital courses. Go to the visionary CEO Catalyst. Get yourself registered. Grab the podcast link super easy. And please share it with women that you know that are leading in the world. Because I'd love to be able to impact 20 million women. I know that when women feel more confident in who they are as leaders, it changes who they are in their lives. Let's help women live and lead on their own terms. I can't wait to see how many clicks we get. Let's get it.