974 Shannon Decker:

Wings of Inspired Business Podcast EP974 – Host Melinda Wittstock Interviews Shannon Decker, CEO of VBC One

Melinda Wittstock:

Coming up on Wings of Inspired Business:

Dr Shannon Decker:

We provide fractional support to organizations that are taking risk. We also work with what we call provider enablement solutions that are providing solutions that aid in the taking of risk. And it’s not just Medicare; it’s all health insurance. But we work with medical groups and health plans that are responsible for the healthy outcomes of patients. In Value Based care, which is what VBC stands for, you know, the mission is to really prevent patients from getting sick. So, by encouraging them to get say, vaccinations or you know, if they already have say, diabetes, how can we better manage that? Through education, through making sure that they’re taking their medications appropriately and so preventative care.

Melinda Wittstock:

Many of us are concluding that the American healthcare system is more aptly described as a “sickcare” system, oriented to treating symptoms rather than preventing disease. Dr. Shannon Decker is one of those on a mission to reinvent healthcare as we know it, with her firm VBC One, a consultancy that partners with physician groups, health plans and vendors to optimize value-based care performance.  Today Shannon, with her 25-plus years’ experience in Medicare, healthcare strategy and analytics, shares her entrepreneurial journey of reinvention, plus the opportunities she sees for entrepreneurs in the healthcare industry.

Melinda Wittstock:

Hi, I’m your host Melinda Wittstock and before we get going with this episode of Wings of Inspired Business, a gentle reminder to make sure you’re taking time for yourself and your selfcare in these anxiety-inducing times. Prioritize finding some inner peace amid all the negative news and emotions bombarding us at an ever-quickening pace. You feel it right? It’s chaos, uncertainty, fear, and keeping yourself in elegant balance means finding a way to stay informed so you can make vital decisions while not getting overwhelmed. So, take deep breaths, take a walk in the woods or the beach, ground yourself in nature, music and joyful hobbies. Be in community and service to others, and remember all that you have for which to be grateful. Ok now to the show, and if you’re new here, this is the place where we share the inspiring entrepreneurial journeys, epiphanies, and practical advice from successful female founders … so you have everything you need at your fingertips to build the business and life of your dreams. I’m all about paying it forward as a five-time serial entrepreneur, so I started this podcast to catalyze an ecosystem where women entrepreneurs mentor, promote, buy from, and invest in each other. Because together we’re stronger, and we all soar higher when we fly together and lift as we climb. If you’ve been listening to any of the past 973 episodes, please help us get the word out about the show. Please subscribe so you never miss an episode. Tell your friends and colleagues, share the episode and leave a quick 5-star rating and review on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. We really appreciate it. Thank you! 

Melinda Wittstock:

Today we meet an inspiring entrepreneur and healthcare expert who made the leap into entrepreneurship after an unexpected layoff to found her growing consultancy firm VBC One, boldly navigating the ever-changing world of value-based healthcare. Today, Dr. Shannon Decker opens up about the emotional and psychological shifts of moving from employee to entrepreneur, the importance of giving yourself grace through uncertainty, and the freedom—and responsibility—that come with building a business on your unique talents. She also dives into the complexities of value-based care, the impact of new technologies like AI and telehealth, and the challenges—and opportunities—facing both startups and established organizations in the healthcare industry.

Melinda Wittstock:

Let’s put on our wings with the inspiring Shannon Decker.

[INTERVIEW]

Melinda Wittstock:

Shannon, welcome to Wings.

Dr Shannon Decker:

Thanks for having me. Excited to be here.

Melinda Wittstock:

You have, you know, 25 years’ experience in Medicare and healthcare strategy, analytics, operations, everything about it. And something made you want to start your own firm several years back, VBC ONE. What was the impetus to leap into the fun up and down world of entrepreneurship?

Dr Shannon Decker:

I’m glad that you asked that question. You know, and I think the way of the world today, especially in our industry, there’s a lot of ups and downs and uncertainty at the moment. And at that time, I was laid off. And I think a lot of folks would see that as potentially, you know, something that would stop them. And it really, it gave me an opportunity to reflect and think about, you know, what it was that I wanted to do next. And I really think that it provided the opportunity for me to envision, you know, I’ve done so much that I could do this on my own. And so that really was the impetus was, you know, I had so much work experience at that point. And not that we can’t learn something new.

Dr Shannon Decker:

I learn new things every day, but I really felt like, you know, there was an opportunity for me. I felt like I had outgrown what I was doing and where I was and that, you know, the place where I needed to step into was having my own company and being able to share the things that I knew and the, you know, the nuances of the industry by having my own company.

Melinda Wittstock:

This is a very common-sense story. Almost a thousand episodes into this podcast now, and so many women later in life, they’ve gathered all this expertise and often senior management experience, executive experience, and all this domain expertise. You know, they’ve had kids, they’ve done all these things and then it’s like, wait, now what? And start businesses a little bit later in life. They don’t start out like, I’m going to be an entrepreneur, like a lot of guys in hoodies in their 20s.  What were some of the early challenges that you had? Was there anything like really unexpected that you just hadn’t banked on or you weren’t aware of in just making that kind of very emotion? It’s a very psychological and emotional change, right? From being an employee to running a business.

Dr Shannon Decker:

Agree.

Melinda Wittstock:

What was the most unexpected thing?

Dr Shannon Decker:

I think it was allowing yourself grace. I’m the type of person. And you mentioned all the different labels, right, or names that, that women carry. Mom, you know, daughter, sister. So on and so forth and, you know, and all the things that I had done in my life, being very organized and having expectations that things would run a certain way and not that they can’t run that way in business, but I think it was, it was allowing yourself grace that days may be different and, you know, rolling with the punches and just because something. And it could be positive or negative. Right. But just because something comes out differently than maybe what you were anticipating doesn’t mean that it’s wrong.

Dr Shannon Decker:

And don’t, you know, don’t take that as being, you know, a setback and again, really providing yourself, I think, grace, to say that, you know, there’s a different tempo, I think that was the thing that I had to learn. There’s a different tempo to running your own business than it is to, you know, showing up and not to make light of the, you know, 9 to 5 W2 world. Not that I don’t work 9 to 5, but, you know, but showing up to work for someone else. There’s, you know, there’s a, there’s a bunch of things when you, when you first go out into the world, you know, there seems like there’s a lot of freedom, but then there’s not. And then, like I said, you know, giving yourself grace to understand that there’s a different tempo and there’s a different quality of space, if you will, of how you’re, you know, how you’re approaching your day.

Melinda Wittstock:

Right, exactly. We get trained, you know, from early school days and there’s a certain societal expectations, and it’s sort of like you follow the plan. And entrepreneurship is the exact opposite of that. There is no plan. There’s you.

Melinda Wittstock:

There are some best practices, but every entrepreneur’s journey is different and it’s all on you, right? So, it’s more responsibility, but it’s also more freedom.

Dr Shannon Decker:

Absolutely. And I think one of the things that I enjoyed the most for a long time in business, you know, there would be things that I would do that maybe or things that I would want to try that may be the traditional organization. And I, I don’t think that there’s many industries that get more traditional than health insurance and healthcare, but there would be things that I would want to try. And, you know, it would, it might be frowned upon or, you know, we don’t have the budget, or we don’t, you know, we don’t have the time to explore that. And the one thing that I found that I really enjoyed in entrepreneurship is that the things that I felt were natural to me, public speaking, you know, there were, there were other types of things that I think, other talents that I had, that I had an opportunity as an entrepreneur to be able to express myself. Now, that’s not to say that you don’t have good sense, and you think about, you know, what you’re putting out there in the world and, and, you know, and what your contributions are. But I really had an opportunity to think about and, you know, you asked about surprises. I would say probably about six months into the venture, I had a, you know, a seat on the floor of my office and it was like, what do people, what value do I bring? What do people tell me that I do great and how can I emphasize that through my business or help bring that forward? And that was the thing, when we talk about entrepreneurship, being freeing, was being able to exercise some of those skills.

Dr Shannon Decker:

And so, I know I started talking about not feeling necessarily like I fit anymore or where I would go next. I felt like I had outgrown where I was and what I was doing. And then, then again, entrepreneurship really allows you to explore, you know, explore your strengths, explore your weaknesses too. Those will become, you know, pretty, you know, pretty clear sometimes glaringly at the outset. But I, I think, you know, that’s one of the things that I’ve enjoyed most is getting to explore those pieces of me that I know that others told me, you know, over the years were talents and, and getting to explore them and having the freedom, you know, to explore things that you might not be able to do in a traditional, you know, a traditional job.

Melinda Wittstock:

Right. I mean, it’s really self-actualization. And the art, of course, is matching those unique talents and perspectives and expertise and what you just love to do with where the gaps are in the marketplace. And when those two things intertwine, you have something, you know. So, tell me about VBC ONE, what it does and how it is drawing on your unique abilities.

Dr Shannon Decker:

Sure. So, we provide fractional support to organizations that are taking risk. We also work with what we call provider enablement solutions that are providing solutions that aid in the taking of risk. And so just, you know, simply and broadly, as simply as I can make Medicare, but we look, and it’s not just Medicare, it’s all health insurance. But we work with medical groups and health plans that are responsible for the healthy outcomes of patients. And so, the intent is, is that a lot of us think of health, you know, where we get sick, we show up to the doctor, they prescribe things to take care of symptoms. In Value Based care, which is what VBC stands for, you know, the mission is to really prevent patients from getting sick. So, by encouraging them to get say, vaccinations or you know, if they already have say, diabetes, how can we better manage that? Through education, through making sure that they’re taking their medications appropriately and so preventative care.

Melinda Wittstock:

You know, we talk about the health or the wellness industry, but some people call it the sickness industry because if you’re only treating the symptoms, you’re not treating the underlying cause or preventing the underlying cause. So that’s lovely that you do that. I mean, I, I can see it’s pretty obvious how that would de risk, you know, from an insurance standpoint, if people are healthier, they are not having.

Dr Shannon Decker:

To pay out as much 100%. There are other pieces to it though too. I think just looking at our society, I always say people are living longer, but not necessarily healthier. And we do not have the infrastructure to care for all those patients as people again are living longer. It’s not that they’re necessarily sicker, there’s just more of them. And so how do we take care of them? And this model allows that. Again, if you’re showing up to the doctor when you’re sick and you’re not doing anything around that to change lifestyle and you know, and to encourage healthfulness, then, you know, it makes it difficult. There aren’t enough doctors to simply take care of all the people.

Dr Shannon Decker:

And so, this type of system allows for that. It encourages people to get the right care at the right time, in the right place. And so, we work with educating physicians, we work with educating patients on how to take up their own healthcare appropriately. And then, you know, it’s in those contracts there’s certain behaviors that are encouraged. And again, you know, these are activities that the health plans have to take part in as far as keeping contracts with the government as well as these medical groups. And then provider enablement solutions are just companies, a lot of startups, but companies that create solutions that again help, you know, help patients take up this, these behaviors and physicians too, so that they can be more helpful and use the healthcare system in appropriate ways.

Melinda Wittstock:

Well, it must be a really interesting time for you given all the changes with the so called “big, beautiful bill” and all the impacts that’s having on Medicare, but also people’s health insurance. I mean, you know, just the pro, you know, the cost is difficult for a lot of people. A lot of people have had to unenroll, for instance. So, there’s this huge thing going on with how has that affected your business? All these changes.

Dr Shannon Decker:

Every time that there’s a change, and that’s the one thing I think about this industry is that there’s always change. And that just makes me busier because a lot of folks are trying to understand what the changes are. There was the proposed rule just came out the other day. And so that’ll lead to a lot of changes for again health plans and physician groups and how they need to be practicing. So, it just, it makes more business for me because it’s not easy, it’s challenging. And so, they’re looking for folks to help them navigate and operationalize a lot of those changes. But agree with you and myself included, you know, health insurance is expensive, but that’s the intent of value-based care. As we move towards that and you know, the government has said that they want everyone by 2030 to be in a risk bearing contract.

Dr Shannon Decker:

And the thinking there is again that we’re going to improve healthcare, ideally the waste, right. The extra cost and things like that are eliminated because again, you know, folks are getting the care that they need at the right time in the right place.

Melinda Wittstock:

Right, exactly. And I mean there’s so much confusion for patients. But then there’s all this opportunity, I guess in the startup world where you have a lot of health tech companies and a lot of people, you know, all the way from Mark Cuban and Cost plus through to all kinds of companies that are innovating AI to kind of help make these processes better through to wellness company. I mean there’s so much innovation just generally in the health and health tech spaces. And so, you mentioned that you worked with a lot of startups. What are some of the innovations or what are some of the opportunities that you’re seeing to just kind of improve this, especially in a really uncertain or changing system in the U.S. yeah, sure.

Dr Shannon Decker:

You know there’s, I would say there’s different segments but the one that I think will provide the greatest change and we’re already seeing these things is around access. And so that could be things from telehealth, and you know, telehealth platforms to now we have patients, you know, they can get on and schedule their own appointments. You have screening devices that can be worn at home. So, more ways, I think that you can provide more immediate access to patients and knowledge about their health and more immediate access to physicians. Right. To be able to see that data and act upon it. So, there’s lots of changes. And I think that healthcare is taking a nod to companies like Amazon, or Netflix. We’re used to getting personalized recommendations. And so why shouldn’t we have, of all things, where the humanist center. Right. Why shouldn’t we have personalized healthcare? And so, there’s a lot of development that’s being done in this area where I think it’s improving access not only from an affordability standpoint, but a timeliness standpoint as well. That’s improving that access for patients and then again for improving their health. Because doctors have more access to the technology that can alert them about that patient’s condition.

Melinda Wittstock:

Exactly. And then you wonder with adoption of things like AI, where across so many different areas. It can help with that personalization that you’re talking about. On the other, it’s being used to even discover new therapies and new drugs, also in a very personalized way. It can lead to efficiencies and just the delivery of healthcare. And yet there’s a lot of fear about it, I guess, privacy concerns or like just regular people using an AI to diagnose themselves kind of poorly or whatever. How do you see AI impacting it? What’s good about it? What’s not good about it?

Dr Shannon Decker:

Great question. And I actually just spoke at an AI summit. AI is definitely figuring largely in healthcare. I think what’s good about it, again, are some of the things that I mentioned about providing access and just the timeliness of sharing information. We have physicians that are able to tap into literature that they may not have had access to in the past that’s able to direct them or help diagnose patients more quickly. That obviously would get them onto treatment plans, you know, more quickly. But some of the challenges. Well, and I’ll continue on some of the benefits.

Dr Shannon Decker:

I think when it comes to cultures, it’s improved access in that way too. You know, we have areas, I work with some companies that are able to translate information, healthcare information into other languages. And we know that we have a lot of, you know, different cultures in our country. And it’s not even so much as straightforward as translating. Right. There are certain cultural nuances to how someone might express themselves. Say, you know, growing up in Southeast Asia versus, you know, South America versus, you know, or having that cultural heritage and then, you know, being in the United States. And so, you know, how do you.

Dr Shannon Decker:

Because again, you know, in wanting folks to access the healthcare system appropriately, you know, how do you provide those prompts? And sometimes it’s not as straightforward as just, you know, translation. Like I said, there’s other nuances that you may need to apply. So, there’s lots of benefits, I think, in diagnosing folks quickly and again, shaping and guiding behavior, in, in providing access to information. But you asked about the, you know, the challenges, and there are a few. And it’s something that I think that we need to be discriminate consumers of AI we have seen. I was just having a. Literally a conversation about this last week about how AI really wants to please us. And it’s always going to strive to get an answer and sometimes it’s going to fill in the gaps with what we call hallucinations and, you know, try to bring information together.

Dr Shannon Decker:

And those are the things that you need to be wary of. Not all AI is created equal. And so really being thoughtful and still having. I think the great thing about AI is that it’s able to take over on some of the mundane tasks. But when we think about critical thinking and higher levels of thinking, we still need the humans to do that and to really provide that oversight to AI, to make sure that we don’t become so overly reliant on it, that we allow it to give us false information that we act on and that we’re unaware that it’s inaccurate or inappropriate.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, exactly. I mean, there’s a lot of innovation going on in this space at such a rapid pace. It’s hard for people who. Well, I guess there’s not really much any regulation of AI, but it’s really hard for people who don’t have that same level of expertise to even understand, to know kind of what to do. It’s a really interesting time and there’s a lot of opportunity for entrepreneurs to provide things like trust layers in AI and all these sorts of things. So, a really interesting time to be in the business that you’re in. I like to ask anyone who comes on the show who’s in the health industry, if you could remake it from scratch, given all the issues that the American health system has, what would be some of the things you would do? I mean, think of it from the, you know, from the structural point of view. It seems like a lot of money is spent for. Maybe we could get a bigger return on the investment that’s spent on health than we’re getting generally.

Dr Shannon Decker:

Great question. Yeah, I think, I think value-based care really provides a lot of opportunity there because it, it really flips the paradigm. You know, the thinking before was we were very reactive. Like I shared, you know, you show up to the doctor, you have symptoms and they’re treated and really we need to be proactive. And that’s what, you know, this type of system, you know, really promotes is that we are proactive. And so, I think that there’s opportunities for folks to be more involved in their health, you know, to enact lifestyles, changes. And I want to, I want to, you know, place a caveat there because I think, you know, folks think, oh, you know, you’re telling me I can’t eat, you know, dessert or you know, have fun or you know, those types of things. And I’m not advocating that.

Dr Shannon Decker:

I’m just saying that, you know, we’re aware of the choices that we make and that, you know, maybe there are certain things that we’re doing within our lifestyle that are not necessarily healthy. So, we might be able to change one, right. Or you know, even one day out of the week and that could make a difference. But I think again, it’s, it’s, you know, providing education and, and sharing with folks, you know, how they can, how they can improve their health. And then also too, our poor physicians are and are just overworked and overburdened. And you know, if folks managed, you know, their A1C, if they’re diabetic or you know, if they got their vaccinations or they got their screenings, there’s a lot of care that could be avoided because it’s not necessary. Right. It’s not like you’re not getting the care that you need, but you’re being directed in a way that again, you know, you’re, you’re not going to be waiting till the end and showing up, say to the emergency room and getting admitted if there were things that you could do like see your doctor.

Dr Shannon Decker:

And a lot of us probably have called and gotten. And part of this comes from value based care, you know, where you call in in the evening and it’s after hours or you can get like a weekend appointment or you have urgent cares that you can go to, you know, so using those types of things early on as opposed to letting conditions get out of control and exacerbate to where it might have been easier to manage them early on as opposed to letting them get out of control and then needing more extreme forms of intervention.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, it makes a lot of sense. So, tell me a little bit about your clients. Who are your ideal clients? Who’s perfect for the consulting that you do?

Dr Shannon Decker:

We love small to moderate health plans and medical groups and I’ve worked many years across the country, but California and some other states, Texas, Florida are maybe a little more mature, meaning they’ve had more experience with value-based care contracts. And so, I want to say three years ago now it was stated that, you know, by the government, the federal mission was that everyone would be in a value-based care contract by 20, 20, 30. And it’s moving across the country. And so, we’re working with a lot of new groups that this work is relatively new to. How do you engage your patients? How do you put the technology in place to be able to address where there are gaps, where we know that there may be someone with a particular condition that we have yet to tap into and we need to get them into the physician earlier and those types of things. So, it’s working with those groups that are relatively new, I would say. You know, earlier I talked about gifts and, and, you know, talents and things like that. And one of the things that I’ve had the benefit of doing is educating.

Dr Shannon Decker:

I, I have my own podcast that is, you know, specific to value-based care and talking to folks in the industry and including startups and things like that. I also speak often at conferences, at least a couple of times a month. And so, we’re always looking to educate. You know, you mentioned the word earlier about self-actualization and. Absolutely a proponent always striving for that. And so, to the extent that we can help groups and health plans and these provider enablement solutions, you know, get to be the best that they can be in value-based care, you know, that’s what we aim to do.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, that’s, that’s wonderful. How hard is it to find new clients in your business? I mean, how much of that is prospecting? Or do you have referrals come to you or what’s it like growing your business? Are there any challenges around that? Or do you just easily find the right people and have the capacity to grow and serve them? Or is there a limitation in terms of how much in a consulting business you can actually, actually do without being like a technology company that scales, for instance.

Dr Shannon Decker:

Great question. Well, so a couple of things about my company and, I’ll go back to that question if I can. So, I do have others that work for me. We have a pretty large team, and we. It goes beyond strategy, so it’s not just consulting. We’re also, you know, actually doing the work.

[PROMO CREDIT]

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Melinda Wittstock:

And we’re back with Shannon Decker, the Founder and CEO of VBC One, a consulting firm that partners with physician groups, health plans and vendors to optimize value-based care performance.

[INTERVIEW CONTINUES]

Dr Shannon Decker:

And so, for medical groups who don’t have teams in place that are able to take on risk, we actually can go in and do all the work that they need. So, reviewing of medical records, educating their physicians, putting together the databases that are needed to house the data that’s necessary, being able to create the files to submit those, you know, to the. Whoever the entity is that we have to submit reporting and things like that, too, and then doing the reconciliation, the financial support. So, we go beyond strategy and actually get delve into operations. And the folks that are part of my company, including myself, have had many years of experience. And so, what I’d like to say is that, you know, you’re not paying us to come in and learn. We can actually come in and hit the ground running. We, you know, we’ve done this work for years, and so it’s easy to plug us in, and we can do a little or a lot. So, kind of the, the Goldilocks approach of that operational support. You asked about how we find clients in prospecting, you know, it. It varies because right now, like I said, it’s challenging. It can be challenging. In health care, you know, the market, I always find, is expanding and contracting in different ways, almost what seems like simultaneously. Most of my clients, or a lot of my clients come from work that I’ve done in the past. So, the relationships that I formed, and, you know, I would, I would say to other entrepreneurs out there, you know, think.

Dr Shannon Decker:

Think back, because there are people that I KNEW, you know, 25 years ago that I’m now doing work with. So never, you know, never burn bridges and, and always make sure that you’re maintaining relationships, but I also find them. And that was one of the other things, too. And I shared with you that epiphany that I had on my office floor, sitting there and saying, how can I bring value? I started my podcast, and so we’ve grown pretty considerably. And I put information out. My primary channel is LinkedIn, because that’s where a lot of my folks are. And then also too speaking at conferences, I never say no because I think that if there’s an opportunity to talk to people and to put yourself out there and to have good conversations and hear others idea, you know, sharing of ideas and those types of things, those are all great opportunities to find, you know, to find clients and so, you know, really putting yourself out there. So, I’ve gotten people from, like I said, places where I’ve worked and then word of mouth and then also too, in leading my podcast, I’ll have people reach out to me on LinkedIn and we’ll have conversations.

Dr Shannon Decker:

And then, you know, the other way would be speaking at conferences and being out there and folks getting to know you. And that’s not to say I just want to, you know, add something to that. That’s not to say that that happens overnight. You know, it’s, it’s really, I think, a way of approaching the work that you do and, and, and giving, you know, to people. And I think that, you know, in, in working in that way, things come back to you tenfold. And so, you know, that’s 20-some-odd years now speaking. I think I’ve had like 400 and some odd appearances and we’ve been running our podcast now for a little more than two years. Um, so anyway, that’s what I think.

Melinda Wittstock:

Is a great way for a lot of businesses to find clients because they, they, they get, there’s an intimacy. Right. So, they get to know you and your expertise, you know, and get a lot of value, you know, and sort of like qualify themselves. Right. Also, but develop trust with you, you know, before. So that’s, that’s a, that’s a, that’s a great way to do it through podcasting. More businesses should have podcasts. I’m just going to always advocate for that.

Melinda Wittstock:

So, tell me about some of the challenges that you’ve had along the way, Shannon. It’s pretty male dominated industry. I mean, what are some of the things that you’ve had to overcome? What have been some of the most difficult things in your industry that you’ve had to figure out a way to, you know, jump over hoops, get around them, under them, etc.

Dr Shannon Decker:

That’s a great question.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, it’s kind of like one of those kind of answer. Yeah, exactly.

Dr Shannon Decker:

Yeah, there’s a lot of, a lot of layers there. I would say it is a male dominated world and there was a time where I was speaking more often, so I had gone from speaking a Couple times a year to. I was speaking a couple times a month, and it happened pretty quickly. And I did have some folks, men that made comments to me of, you know, who did I think I was, and, you know, to. to come on the scene and. And, you know, and things like that. And it was. It was difficult, but it was something that, you know, I had to ask myself, was I going to let something like that someone’s opinion of me or someone’s criticism? I heard something the other day that I think is probably relevant here and in it, and even to this day is as old as I am, I’m still having reflections like this.

Dr Shannon Decker:

And I think a lot of women, you know, we work through imposter syndrome and, you know, whatever you want to call it, but kind of like, you know, do I belong where I’m at? And you kind of alluded to it in the beginning about how some women wait until they’re much older. But anyway, the statement was, was that if someone criticizes you, you’re doing something so they wouldn’t criticize you or they wouldn’t feel like they needed to make a comment if you weren’t doing something. And so, I use that in the back of my mind, you know, to kind of guide things. But when. When those comments were made, I had to ask myself, you know, was I going to, you know, listen to those, you know, those naysayers and those that wanted to stop me and where was it coming from? You know, was it coming when the criticism was offered? Was it coming from a good space or was it one that was more selfish? And I think that, you know, I had realized that I was being true to myself and I had a. I had a message and a way of working, and I felt like I could make a contribution. And, you know, who were they to say that I shouldn’t be doing something? And I knew, you know, the risk was that I could fall on my face.

Dr Shannon Decker:

But, you know, it was nothing venture nothing gained, I guess. And the thing is, is it’s. I’m glad I didn’t listen. And I think that, you know, it’s. It’s just provided for a better life. You know, I love being an entrepreneur. I love the freedom that comes with that. Like I said, you know, it doesn’t mean that I make.

Dr Shannon Decker:

That every step I make on the path is right. I fall off every now and again, you know, But. But yeah, I’m glad I didn’t listen. And like I said, if someone criticize you, criticizes you, it means that you’re doing something, you may have to reflect and make sure that what you’re right is; isn’t hurting anyone. And, you know, is done with the best of intent.

Dr Shannon Decker:

But I think, yeah, I, I would say, you know, that those were some of the challenges. Some of the other challenges, you know, you’ll have. Folks, you know, the. The. What I like to think of the Chicken Littles of the world that, you know, the sky is falling. But I, I think that’s the other thing, too, is always being flexible on being able to, you know, go with the flow, if you will. There are changes that come out all the time in health care, and, you know, they’ll have a new rule or a new law, and everyone’s like, oh, you know, business is done. Everyone’s shutting down.

Dr Shannon Decker:

And it’s like, you can’t think of it that way. You know, every time that there is, I guess, maybe a door closed, there’s a new one that opens. And so, figuring out, you know, how you can continue to. To work in this space. And so, you know, like I said, that’s been a challenge. Like, things have shifted somewhat in healthcare. Some focus on different programs. I won’t get into the, you know, the specifics here, but, you know, I, I think it’s figuring out how you shape and change and grow with the changes that are coming along and, and as long as you, you know, can maintain some type of vision of flexibility, you know, that, that you stay relevant and, you know, you continue to see how you grow and change and, and continue to involve in your business.

Melinda Wittstock:

Amazing. Well, I want to make sure that people know how to find you, Shannon, and work with you. Like your podcasts, I imagine they’re everywhere. You’ve got a bunch of them. So, name your podcasts. And also, what’s the best way to. If you’re working in the health industry and want the benefit of your wisdom, what’s the best way to find you?

Dr Shannon Decker:

Thank you so much. Our podcast is called VBC. That’s the letters VBC ONE, O. N. E. And then you can find us at infobc1.com send us an email. Or you can find us on LinkedIn as well. You can either find me Dr. Shannon I. Decker or our LinkedIn page, VBC ONE, and send us a message, and we would love to connect with you.

Melinda Wittstock:

Wonderful. Well, thank you so much for putting on your wings today and flying with us.

Dr Shannon Decker:

Thank you so much for having me.

[INTERVIEW ENDS]

Melinda Wittstock:

Dr. Shannon Decker is the Founder and CEO of VBC One, a consulting firm that partners with physician groups, health plans and vendors to optimize value-based care performance.

Melinda Wittstock:

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Melinda Wittstock:

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