The Business of Medicine

In this episode, Elias Arjan and Matt Schneider explore the history of snake oil, leadership principles, the evolution of perception and reality, and the future of healthspan and AI. They discuss how symbolic control influences society, the challenges of personalized medicine, and the potential of collective action in healthcare innovation. In this episode, Matt Schneider and Elias Arjan explore the complex landscape of longevity, peptides, regulatory challenges, and the global race for health span innovation. They discuss the influence of big pharma, the role of social media, and the upcoming HealthSpan Summit in LA, offering insights into how society can navigate and shape the future of health technology.

Chapters

00:00 The Origins of Snake Oil Salesmanship

05:54 The Symbolism of Leadership

11:47 The Shift from Physical to Symbolic Reality

17:48 AI and the Future of Humanity

23:51 Elias Arjan's Journey into Health and Wellness

29:22 The Health Span Collective: A New Approach

34:40 Personalized Preventative Care: A Complex Journey

40:03 Identifying the Core Problems in Health Care

45:39 FDA Showdown: Peptides and Regulatory Challenges

51:40 The Future of Peptides: Big Pharma's Role

56:59 Brian Johnson: The Biohacking Paradox

01:03:54 Personalized Health: The N of One Experiment

01:09:39 Building a Collective: Education and Accessibility

01:15:20 The Role of Influencers in Health Conversations

01:21:52 Feedback Loops Between Science and Clinical Practice

LinkedIn - https://linkedin.com/in/eliasarjan

Twitter - https://twitter.com/eliasarjan

Website - https://eliasarjan.com

LinkedIn - https://linkedin.com/in/eliasarjan

Website - https://healthspan.community

Learn how to address infertility with holistic methods. Discover root causes and actionable strategies to enhance your fertility journey.

Infertility can feel overwhelming, leaving many couples searching for answers and solutions. In this post, we'll explore a holistic approach to fertility that addresses the underlying causes rather than just the symptoms. Dr. Kelsey Barraza shares her insights on optimizing reproductive health through natural methods and personalized care.

Understanding the Fertility Landscape

Infertility is increasingly common, affecting a significant number of couples trying to conceive. Many turn to conventional methods like IVF and medications, often without considering the root causes of their struggles. Dr. Kelsey Barraza emphasizes the importance of examining all aspects of health, not just reproductive systems.

The Importance of a Holistic Approach

Dr. Barraza founded New Eve to help couples navigate their fertility journeys, focusing on the idea that optimal health leads to improved fertility. Her practice caters to a diverse range of clients, from those trying to conceive naturally to those who have faced years of infertility challenges. By addressing the body as a whole, she aims to remove barriers to conception, allowing the body to restore its natural fertility.

Common Root Causes of Infertility

In her practice, Dr. Barraza identifies several common root causes that can interfere with fertility. Understanding these can empower couples to make informed decisions about their health.

1. Environmental Toxins

- Why This Matters: The environment plays a significant role in reproductive health. Exposure to toxins, particularly in our homes, can disrupt hormonal balance and affect fertility.

2. Nutritional Deficiencies

- Why This Matters: Nutrition is a crucial component of overall health and fertility. Deficiencies in key vitamins and minerals can hinder reproductive capabilities.

3. Gut Health

- Why This Matters: The gut microbiome significantly impacts overall health, including hormonal balance. A disrupted microbiome can lead to various health issues, including infertility.

Connect with Dr. Kelsey

• https://www.newevehealth.com/
• https://www.instagram.com/newevehealth/

Dr. Kelsey Recommended Products

• Equip Protein
• Lumebox Red Light Therapy

About the host, Matt Schneider aka "The Profit Doc"

• Profit Practice: Consulting & Chief Growth JV
• Ignition Systems: HIPAA Compliant CRM

Today's guest is a certified functional medicine practitioner with a degree in nutrition science and dietetics. She spent years battling her own gut health issues that nearly required surgery, and in the process, she discovered the root cause approach to healing.

From a $50,000-a-year dietitian job saddled with $60,000 in student debt, Rachel Scheer launched a side business in 2017 that within years scaled into a multi-million-dollar practice.

Today, Rachel not just running a thriving functional medicine clinic—she built an accredited institute that trains the next generation of practitioners, created a popular gut health supplement line, and is launching a 50-state HRT and peptide clinic. Rachel represents what happens when you stop trying to fit into a conventional box and instead lean into your own story.

In this episode, we dig into how vulnerability and storytelling became Rachel's greatest marketing tool; the nervous system science that transformed her understanding of why chronic disease happens; the bold business decision to hire coaches and reinvest every penny; and the operational lessons she's learned building a team-driven, scaled practice. We also talk about the ethics and integrity required in a booming functional medicine space, how she sequences healing in her clients (nervous system first, gut health second, detoxification third), and why she believes the combination of small daily stressors—not one root cause—is what drives most chronic illness.

This is a candid conversation about transformation, the power of saying your own story out loud, and why profit and purpose are not mutually exclusive.

Enjoy this Business of Medicine episode with Rachel Scheer.

Get in touch with Rachel

Website: rachelscheer.com

Instagram: @RachelScheer

Affiliate Opportunity:
Rachel offers an affiliate program for her gut health supplement line. If you resonate with her work and want to refer clients, reach out via her website.

Matt Schneider — The Profit Doc

Matt is a business operations consultant to private practice owners and clinic managers in integrative health, concierge medicine, direct primary care, and aesthetic medicine.

His consulting practice, Profit Practice (profitpractice.com), specializes in helping clinic owners optimize their business models, scale their teams, and achieve profitability without burnout. He also runs Ignition Systems (ignitionsystems.com), a HIPAA-compliant CRM infrastructure for health practices.

Book a free discovery call at profitpractice.com/discovery.

• Ignition Systems (HIPAA CRM): ignitionsystems.com

Today's guest has lived several lifetimes rolled into one. Elina Fuhrman escaped the former Soviet Union at age twenty, just weeks after the Berlin Wall fell, came to the United States, and built a career as a CNN journalist and war correspondent reporting from Afghanistan in the aftermath of 9/11.

Then came a diagnosis of aggressive breast cancer — and a choice. Told she wouldn't survive without chemotherapy, Elina trusted her intuition, declined the standard of care, and charted her own healing path. That journey became Soupelina, her plant-based healing soup company, her book Soupelina's Soup Cleanse, and The Healing Journey — her method for guiding women through cancer naturally. Today she is 17 years cancer-free.

In this conversation, Matt and Elina dig into:

• Her escape from the Soviet Union and the resilience that shaped everything after
• Reporting from war zones for CNN — and what journalism taught her about asking better questions
• The diagnosis that changed her life, and why she chose a different path than the one prescribed
• How a personal healing protocol became a business, a book, and a movement
• What conventional medicine misses about whole-person healing — and what providers can learn from patients like her

This episode shares Elina's personal experience and perspective. It is not medical advice.

Connect with Elina Fuhrman

• Website: https://www.soupelina.com
• The Healing Journey: https://www.soupelina.com/healing-journey
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elinafuhrman
• Soupelina on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/soupelinala
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/soupelina
• X/Twitter: https://x.com/elinafuhrman
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elinafuhrman

About the Host

Matt Schneider — "The Profit Doc" — is a business operations consultant to private practice owners and clinic managers in integrative health, concierge medicine, direct primary care, and aesthetics. Nicknamed by Dr. Gabrielle Lyon after he helped her become a New York Times bestselling author and added multiple seven figures in annual revenue to her medical practice, Matt helps doctors build clinics that are as profitable as they are clinically excellent.

Ready to scale your private practice? Connect with Matt at https://profitpractice.com — and explore practice CRM and systems at https://ignitionsystems.com.

#TheBusinessOfMedicine #ProfitPractice #TheProfitDoc

What happens when a nurse practitioner decides to own her niche — completely? In this episode of The Business of Medicine, Matt Schneider sits down with Dr. Lisa Chism, DNP, APRN, FAANP, FAAN — a two-time AJN Book of the Year award winner, Certified Menopause Practitioner, and certified sexuality counselor with over 25 years of experience as a nurse practitioner.

Dr. Chism has built a remarkable specialized practice at the intersection of three underserved — and highly profitable — clinical areas: sexual health, breast cancer survivorship, and menopause care. She shares how deep specialization isn't just better for patients, it's the blueprint for building a practice that's virtually impossible to commoditize.

In this conversation, you'll hear how Dr. Chism carved out her lane in women's health, why menopause and sexual health are areas most clinics ignore at their own financial peril, and what it actually takes for nurse practitioners to step into their full potential as clinicians and business owners.

Whether you're an NP looking to launch or grow a specialty practice, or a clinic owner trying to understand where the next wave of patient demand is heading — this episode is for you.

About Dr. Lisa Chism: Dr. Lisa Astalos Chism (DNP, APRN, BC, NCMP, CSC, FAANP, FAAN) is a nationally recognized nurse practitioner specializing in breast health, menopause, and sexual health. She is a Fellow of both the American Association of Nurse Practitioners and the American Academy of Nursing, and the author of The Doctor of Nursing Practice: A Guidebook for Role Development and Professional Issues.

What happens when a competitive bodybuilder, NLP-trained coach, and exogenous ketone expert makes it her mission to change 10,000,000 lives, you invite her onto the BOM podcast to give her a platform.

Bonnie Barnes is a health and wellness coach with over 20 years in the field — starting as a personal trainer for triathletes, evolving into competitive bodybuilding, and eventually becoming a passionate advocate for brain health, women's hormonal wellness, and exogenous ketones. She's also the founder of Let's GO! and works with athletes — including youth — at a performance training facility, blending nutritional strategy with mental resilience coaching.

In this conversation, Matt and Bonnie cover a lot of ground: how exogenous ketones work at the cellular level, why women in particular are underserved when it comes to brain energy during hormonal shifts, how GLP-1 medications interact with ketone metabolism, and what the research out of Yale with Dr. Ben Bikman is revealing about brain fuel and performance.

They also go deep on mindset — NLP, proximity, the cost of superficial relationships, and why the mental game is the make-or-break variable in health, business, and life.

This episode is for anyone who wants to understand what's really going on between their ears — and do something about it.

Connect with Bonnie Barnes:

• https://www.instagram.com/fitceo_onthego/
• https://letsgobhb.co/

Connect with Matt Schneider:

• Website: profitpractice.com
• CRM for clinics: ignitionsystems.app

What happens when a competitive bodybuilder, NLP-trained coach, and exogenous ketone expert makes it her mission to change 10,000,000 lives, you invite her onto the BOM podcast to give her a platform.

Bonnie Barnes is a health and wellness coach with over 20 years in the field — starting as a personal trainer for triathletes, evolving into competitive bodybuilding, and eventually becoming a passionate advocate for brain health, women's hormonal wellness, and exogenous ketones. She's also the founder of Let's GO! and works with athletes — including youth — at a performance training facility, blending nutritional strategy with mental resilience coaching.

In this conversation, Matt and Bonnie cover a lot of ground: how exogenous ketones work at the cellular level, why women in particular are underserved when it comes to brain energy during hormonal shifts, how GLP-1 medications interact with ketone metabolism, and what the research out of Yale with Dr. Ben Bikman is revealing about brain fuel and performance.

They also go deep on mindset — NLP, proximity, the cost of superficial relationships, and why the mental game is the make-or-break variable in health, business, and life.

This episode is for anyone who wants to understand what's really going on between their ears — and do something about it.

Connect with Bonnie Barnes:

• https://www.instagram.com/fitceo_onthego/
• https://letsgobhb.co/
  

Connect with Matt Schneider:

• Website: profitpractice.com
• CRM for clinics: ignitionsystems.app

Kimberly Verbeke is a Naturopathic Practitioner, certified health coach, and the founder of Avita Wellness & Aesthetics in Boerne, Texas. Her clinic is a destination for patients seeking root-cause, integrative care — from advanced IV therapies and peptide protocols to BHRT, regenerative medicine, and functional aesthetics. Known for her ability to crack cases that conventional medicine has missed, Kimberly blends scientific rigor with a deeply personal, whole-patient philosophy. Today she’s joining us to talk about building a thriving integrative practice, the business realities behind root-cause medicine, and what it really takes to grow a clinic on your own terms.

Key Takeaways

• Root-cause medicine is a business model, not just a philosophy — but you have to build the systems to support it
• Protocol-driven care creates consistency, trust, and revenue stability
• Cash-pay integrative practices require strong patient education and clear value communication
• The best clinic owners are constantly investing in their own clinical education — it directly drives growth
• Burnout is a systems problem, not a passion problem — the right team and operational structure changes everything

About Kimberly Verbeke:

Kimberly Verbeke is the founder and owner of Avita Wellness & Aesthetics, an integrative health practice located in Boerne, Texas. As a naturopathic practitioner, certified health coach, and dedicated athlete, Kimberly has built her clinic around a single conviction: the body has an extraordinary capacity to heal when given the right tools, environment, and guidance.

Avita Wellness offers a comprehensive suite of root-cause, evidence-based services including IV therapy (NAD, high-dose Vitamin C, ozone, Methylene Blue, and more), peptide protocols, bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT), low-dose naltrexone (LDN), regenerative medicine, personalized supplementation plans, and integrative aesthetics. The clinic also features a PA-C specializing in functional and integrative dermatology, creating a truly whole-person care environment.

Kimberly’s approach is rooted in personalized medicine. Rather than managing symptoms in isolation, she works to understand the unique biochemical and lifestyle picture of each patient — using comprehensive lab analysis, symptom assessment, and cutting-edge therapies to design individualized care plans. She is especially skilled in cases involving chronic illness, hormonal imbalance, toxicity, Lyme disease, immune dysfunction, and aging optimization.

Her path to naturopathic medicine is both professional and personal. Having navigated her own health challenges, Kimberly brings a depth of empathy and lived understanding to every patient relationship. She is known among her patients for her meticulous attention to detail, her willingness to listen deeply, and her ability to identify root causes that other providers have missed.

Beyond the clinic, Kimberly is a lifelong learner and competitor. She stays at the forefront of integrative medicine through ongoing education and conference attendance, and she channels the same discipline she brings to athletic training into her clinical practice. Whether in the gym, outdoors, or with her family and dogs, she exemplifies the vitality she helps her patients reclaim.

Avita Wellness & Aesthetics serves the greater Boerne and San Antonio, Texas area at 104 Medical Drive, Boerne, TX 78006, and accepts patients by appointment.

Dr. Felice Gersh delves into her decision to pursue integrative medicine and the expansion of her therapeutic toolbox. The conversation covers the evolution of medicine, the challenges of starting a practice, building a thriving practice, balancing clinical and non-clinical work, and the impact of integrative medicine. It delves into the flexibility and evolution of medical practice, as well as the challenges and rewards of venturing into private practice.

Chapters

• 00:00 Early Career Influences
• 25:27 Transition into Integrative Medicine
• 34:45 The Evolution of Medicine
• 49:34 Balancing Clinical and Non-Clinical Work
• 01:05:21 The Impact of Integrative Medicine

About Dr. Gersh

Felice Gersh, M.D. is a multi-award winning physician with dual board certifications in OB-GYN and Integrative Medicine. She is the founder and director of the Integrative Medical Group of Irvine, a practice that provides comprehensive health care for women by combining the best evidence-based therapies from conventional, naturopathic, and holistic medicine. For 12 years, she taught obstetrics and gynecology at Keck USC School of Medicine as an Assistant Clinical Professor, and she now serves as an Affiliate Faculty Member at the Fellowship in Integrative Medicine through the University of Arizona School of Medicine. Felice is a prolific writer and lecturer who speaks globally on women’s health and regularly publishes in peer-reviewed medical journals. She is the bestselling author of the PCOS SOS series and Menopause: 50 Things You Need to Know.

Her research focuses on women's hormones, metabolism, aging, and menopause. Whether she’s mentoring medical students, writing groundbreaking books and medical articles, or guiding her patients, Dr. Gersh’s mission remains constant: Empower women to thrive in harmony with their bodies and their health.

Cynthia Thurlow, NP is a nationally recognized nurse practitioner, women's health expert, and the author of the bestselling Intermittent Fasting Transformation and Menopause Gut. Her 2018 TEDx talk, "Intermittent Fasting: Transformational Technique," has been viewed more than 20 million times — making it one of the most-watched TEDx talks in history and the launchpad for what is now a multi-7-figure women's health business.

In this conversation, Cynthia sits down with Matt "The Profit Doc" Schneider to unpack the operational story behind the brand. She started her career on the clinical side — emergency medicine, then cardiology — and saw firsthand how the conventional system was failing women in their 40s and 50s with hormonal, metabolic, and weight challenges. Rather than push harder against a broken model, she stepped out of the four walls of the practice and built her own — a content-led, education-first business serving women globally.

Inside the episode:

• The pivot from clinical practice to entrepreneurship — what it actually took, and what she'd do differently
• The TEDx talk: how one piece of content became the cornerstone of an entire business
• Building the Everyday Wellness podcast into a top-rated health show — and how the podcast feeds the rest of the ecosystem
• Productizing expertise: courses, programs, books, supplements, and the operational lift behind each
• Hiring, team building, and the moments when she had to bring in operators and advisors (Matt included) to keep up with growth
• Authority-building lessons for clinicians who want to extend their reach without abandoning the patients they serve
• What she sees coming next in women's health, hormones, and integrative medicine — and the business opportunities inside the shift

Whether you run a concierge practice, an integrative clinic, an aesthetic medspa, or a DPC — and you've ever wondered whether the future of your business lives outside the four walls of your office — this conversation is a masterclass.