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Dr. Josh Luke is a healthcare futurist and former hospital CEO well known for his humorous and entertaining personal stories that entertain and engage audiences. His expertise includes sharing simple tactics on how to make health care more affordable for your family and employees, as well as how to get access to the best doctors and hospitals.
Dr. Luke started his career as a jet-setting sports marketer working with some of the most famous athletes in the world. Then, after a career change to healthcare brought on by his grandmothers disease process, he ascended to become a hospital CEO by age 32.
After ten years as a hospital CEO, a new owner arrived and Luke was out of a job, had no health insurance for his family, and his mother was subsequently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease. Soon after he penned his first book and became a best-selling author.
He now finds solace in sharing his experiences as a caretaker for his mom and being without health insurance for his family has given him a deeply emotional understanding of the other side of care delivery.
He shares the well-kept secrets of the industry with the mainstream to ensure that individuals are fully informed to protect and ensure the health of family members and employees. Luke shares his faith and how it impacted his journey, and his presentations are always entertaining, humorous, and leave the audience feeling great and informed.
Luke, shares some of his early career stories in sports marketing as well as experiences as a young hospital CEO as they help shape the leader he became as a hospital CEO.
Now, he exposes the long-kept secrets of the healthcare trade to help businesses and families keep healthcare from bankrupting their American Dream.
In his newest book published by ForbesBooks, Dr. Josh Luke—a veteran hospital CEO and award-winning healthcare futurist and public speaker—breaks down the complex and greed-ridden healthcare system and provides actionable guidance on how you can afford to be healthy.
1. After being a CEO for almost ten years what were the deciding factors that led you to pursue entrepreneurship as a career path vs applying for other CEO jobs?
Even though I have three college degrees and went to college for almost ten years, I never had a single business class in college. Just after I became a CEO at age 32, someone suggested two books which I call beginning finance books that really shaped me.
“The Millionaire Next Door” and “Rich Dad Poor Dad”, both are great books for a young executive to read. Both reiterated multiple times that to be truly wealthy you must be your own boss.
Rich Dad even went as far as to say you are a prisoner if you are not your own boss. That resonated with me and I began plotting my journey to being an entrepreneur,
By design it was a several year process.
2. In today’s day and age many millennial or even people working corporate want to pursue entrepreneurship, what would you recommend to people wanting to do so ? Would you tell them to jump ship?
I would never tell anyone to jump ship without a well thought out plan. The exception is if someone is coming at you hard to be a partner, then give it consideration. Some of the best advice I ever got on being an entrepreneur was to go work for the competition for 6-12 months before starting your own gig.
Although I never did that, and it does come with some risks, its great advice. My advice would be save a bunch of money to give yourself some runway, cut back on spending for a few years, and go for it but only after a well thought out plan is in place.
In my case a window opened in which I had the opportunity to be first to market on a new concept after Obamacare passed. I had the street cred and background to back up that I was an expert so it all worked out.
3. You have a deep desire to promote affordable healthcare- what are the main reasons for continuing to spread your message ?
Its personal to me. American healthcare providers and insurers have taken advantage of American citizens and stolen many’s only shot at living the American dream. As a 32 year old hospital CEO, one of the first GenXers to aspire to hospital CEO, I asked a lot of questions and was troubled by the answers.
My grandmother and mom both have had a tough time accessing basic services t hey drastically need, and that’s frustrating for me as t hey both worked hard their entire lives.
More than 50% of a millennials lifetime earnings are projected to go to healthcare in America and that’s tragic.
My kids are GenZ and I assume they will have no interest in getting health insurance. Aside from healthcare, the biggest complement I have been given recently is consistently being referred to as a true industry disrupter. I did not set out to disrupt, I just speak from the heart.
I am a public speaker by trade now and one of my favorite things to tell people is that the best thing about being your own boss is that you can say whatever you want, whenever you want without consequence.
That may sound cocky but the fact of the matter is that this simply allows me to be honest and speak my mind all the time. Looking back, I have truly disrupted the way healthcare is delivered in America and its only the beginning. Bring street cred and bring a voice — see who follows.
Be open minded, accept criticism, if you don’t have a few haters than you are not having the impact you desire. Having an educated opinion will strike up a great conversation and a handful of haters — its inevitable.
4. What has been the most difficult part of transitioning from CEO to entrepreneur and how did you overcome the moments of self-doubt?
I got fired or laid-off from 4 of my first 6 jobs after grad school. Some were layoffs but in retrospect it was mostly because I am a truth-teller. I wasn’t cut out to work in corporate America and I always knew it. I speak my mind and I cant help myself, that’s how I believe the entire world should be — honest and transparent.
I think everyone should use their gifts. My gifts include creativity, guerrilla marketing and seeing how things are materializing long before they do — such is the Healthcare Futurists title. I am inpatient, but I use that as a strength. I had to work on my listening skills as I wasn’t great at listening as a young executive so I focused on becoming an active listener.
Most importantly I take note of any individual who has a trait I admire and see how much of their gift can be learned by me and implemented into my repertoire.
5. What has being an entrepreneur taught you ?
Pay attention. Stay on your toes. Learn from everyone, even those you don’t admire but have been successful.
Probably the biggest mistake I see seasoned executives make is not paying attention to millennial culture and what factors have led to the explosive growth of many millennial operated businesses.
I have learned so much about being an entrepreneur by paying attention to everyone I admire, including millennials. That’s where many GenXers are missing the boat.
I pay attention to those I admire and study their habits. Jim Rossi is passionate about delivering credible news, I admire his passion and learn from it. Natalie Riso is passionate about issues relating to both Asian and American culture, I learn from her.
Brittany Hoffman is one of the most focused brand creators I have ever known, and I just got exposed to her online but learn from her everyday.
For a few years now I have learned so much about personal branding from Natalia Wiechowski, and I have never met her but she is a close friend now.
I respect Manu Goswami and Aaron Orendorf and learn from their passion everyday.
They all have gifts (side note: they are all millennials). I admire you(Fahad) because your learning from all these others that you interview, and that’s the same approach I have taken.
If more GenXers would be willing to learn from millennials, we would all be more successful!
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