The doctor breaking medical moulds and helping other MDs rethink their influence: conversation with Dr Olivia Richman

Olivia: this is why we have to encourage people to speak up more and, and get on social media and not just like in the physician world, but like.

Olivia: Other people who are dealing with things. if you are dealing with X, other people are also dealing with X. You know, whether that has in the world of mental health or sexual health or physical health or whatever it is, like, I feel like sharing your story is so powerful because it could reach other people and make people feel less alone.

Caitlin: Hello, hello. Welcome to the place for offbeat health professionals who have bravely swapped their healthcare hats for nonclinical creative caps. I’m Caitlin, a psychologist, turn copywriter, and this is healers with hustles.

Caitlin: Now my guest today is Dr. Olivia Richmond, who is a board certified family medicine physician two times TEDx speaker and the founder of Glamourpuss MD and Doc Lester, MDO. Through her bold sex positive content, she’s redefining what it means to talk about sexual health, normalizing pleasure, masturbation, and communication with humor and zero shame.

Caitlin: With Doc Influencer MDO, she’s building a national movement of doctor influencers using their voices to change healthcare through the power of social media. For Dr. Richmond, pleasure is health and shame is the disease. Ooh, I love that.

Caitlin: Well, welcome, Dr. Olivia Richman. I’m so excited to have you on the podcast.

Caitlin: Thank you for, agreeing to chat with me.

Olivia: Thanks for making it happen.

Caitlin: so I always like to start off by asking people about their journey because I think a, their story. I guess being a psychologist. I’m so always so fascinated in people’s life, histories and everything.

Caitlin: we talked a little bit about it before we hit record, but, tell me a little bit about your journey, and your career journey into medicine, but then also into the creative fields.

Olivia: so I love this question also. ’cause I also am curious about other people’s journeys, but my career into medicine, my mom is a physician and I always felt more.

Olivia: Pushed, not by her, by myself, more pushed to go into medicine. And I was always very resentful. I always had like this like anger towards medicine, but I was like, but I have to do it, but I have to do it. And at like 22, I had like a total break. I was like, this isn’t working. Like I cannot live like this anymore.

Olivia: I was fighting with my mom all the time. I had all this resentment towards her and I didn’t know why. And this was like after going through college, pre-med, applying to medical school, not getting into any medical schools. And my mom said to me, she was like, please go take this seminar. And it was this seminar, in New York.

Olivia: It’s all over the world. But she was like. Please go take the forum. She was like, go take it. I can’t deal with you blaming me anymore. And I was at my wits end and I was like, fine. And so I went and I took this three day seminar where I just like learned all about myself and I realized that one of the reasons that I.

Olivia: I was like holding onto this resentment from my mom was this narrative that I created at five years old. Whoa. About that. She doesn’t love me, which is not true. It’s like not true, but at five everything’s traumatic. Anything could happen and it could be traumatic, whether it actually is or isn’t.

Olivia: And so this narrative was, my mom doesn’t love me. And simple like a simple bus story at kindergarten, you know? I lived my entire life from five years old until I had this realization at 22 that I’d been living life as mom doesn’t love me. And so I needed her approval for everything. And one of the things that I thought I needed to do in order for her to love me was to go to medical school.

Olivia: And so I always had this very tumultuous relationship with medicine. I had this incredible self-discovery weekend and then I was like, I don’t wanna do medicine right now. I want to explore, I want to, try other things. And I started working at this nonprofit here in New York, and it focused on entertainment education.

Olivia: And what they would do is they would produce. Content, content, whether it be shows, radio, radio series, comic series, they would focus on a topic and 70% about that topic was entertainment and 30% was education. So they would be like, oh, there’s a place in Columbia, you know, in the country where it’s really high domestic violence.

Olivia: Let’s put a series over there. And talk about and do like this domestic violence series where people tune in because it’s entertaining, but also they give a ton of resources. And so I worked there and I like fell in love with this concept. After like taking three years off, four years off, whatever it was, I decided, okay, I’m ready.

Olivia: I’m now, I choose to go to medical school.

Caitlin: Mm-hmm.

Olivia: And so I went to medical school. And, during medical school I saw a lot of unwanted teen pregnancies, sexual assault cases. Yes. And I was like, I need to do something about this. I want to. And my whole life I was like, mom, I wanna go to Hollywood. I wanna be a famous actress.

Olivia: And she was like, not a career that is like super stable. So like, let’s find a backup and you can do that at some point. Mm-hmm. And, So I’ve always been someone that’s been like, very comfortable in front of a camera. Love the spotlight, love the attention. And so I, I started a YouTube channel and it was all about educating girls on their sexual health and their bodies and how to prevent teen pregnancy, how to avoid, STDs or STIs or HIV and, a whole series of things that have to do with your sexual health.

Olivia: And I started it when it wasn’t very popular to talk about. It was about 10 years ago and it, I just took off from there. I just kept on going and rolling and moving and going to the next thing and, and pivoting. And, you know, having a social media channel is a total journey and I would consider myself a micro influencer, but it’s something that I always felt like.

Olivia: I don’t want to just do like silly things like I wanna contribute to the world and I, and I need to, like, I am compelled to, especially as a physician, having, you know, this education behind me and having being lucky enough to have this education behind me where other people, women, boys too, guys too, don’t have that sexual health education at their fingertips.

Olivia: And I do. And so, that is a little bit about my medical journey and about my social media journey.

Caitlin: Perfect. Wow, that’s so cool was it you were working or was it more of like an internship or like what did that

Olivia: It was an

Olivia: internship.

Caitlin: Yeah.

Caitlin: But that feeds so beautiful into what you do now, right? With like dog flu, like MD os.

Olivia: Yeah.

Caitlin: How perfect. And was that just something that you realized when you look back, you’re like, oh my gosh, it makes so much sense that I’ve gone into this route now. Or was it because you’ve had that experience you thought, no, I can make a difference and with Yeah, my channel and

Olivia: I would say like.

Olivia: There’s a quote, and I’m not gonna quote it perfectly, but it, it’s like, by Steve Jobs and it’s like when you look forward, you can’t connect the dots, but when you look back, you can connect the dots, something like that. And mm-hmm. I definitely see it like that. You know, with docfluencer is like a bit of a different,that I went down, after residency.

Olivia: so I graduated residency and when I was in residency I just, I felt like that there was a lot of inequalities and a lot of things that were very unfair and, you know, that had to do maybe with work ar hours or with,covering other people’s shifts and not getting covered back and not being paid for overtime and working overtime and mm-hmm. Being talked down to by your superiors, you know, and, and just having just incredible,

Olivia: you could be a great teacher and not be cruel. Like you can make an impact and not be. Condescending and in medicine. I don’t know why, that’s not why like, physicians haven’t picked up on this yet.

Caitlin: That’s it. It’s like the, I was treated this way by Yeah. My, superior. So I’m gonna treat like people this way.

Caitlin: It’s like you can break the cycle. You don’t need to

Olivia: break the, the trauma cycle. Like I, and I don’t know if it’s because. Physicians. I don’t know if this is true or not, but I almost feel in my experience that like physicians don’t have a lot of, interest in self-reflection. Like, I think just now it’s like therapy becoming a thing and you know, like I feel like medicine.

Olivia: It’s just like you’re studying all the time and like if you are complaining, suck it up. And, and which, you know, I guess it would make sense ’cause physicians have a very high suicide rate. yeah. But yeah, very high medical students and physicians have high suicide rates and so I think that would make sense.

Olivia: You know, you don’t care for your mental health and also you are in a position where there’s a lot of burnout and you suffer, but you have to suck it up ’cause you have to work.

Caitlin: Yeah. And do it in silence and yeah.

Olivia: And so when I was in residency, I saw a lot of those inequalities and injustices and things that needed to change.

Olivia: I also realized I know nothing about our insurance, like how our, how our health insurance works and how our health system works. And I’m like, how am I a doctor in the system? But. Know nothing about this stuff. Like is this by design? Like how, why is this happening? And so I decided to create Doc Docter, MDO.

Olivia: and MDO is because we have MDs and dos, in the us. I don’t know if it’s different what’s, say

Caitlin: it’s like medical doctor and then what’s do,

Olivia: doctor of Osteopath, or osteopathy. Oh. Same exact thing. They have the same exact I’m, I’m, you know, I was in residency with dos also, like dos are the same exact thing.

Olivia: And I just, I needed to include DOS because they’re physicians and there’s kind of like a stigma that I hope is changing around it. Yeah. They have all the same classes. They just literally have an extra class on top of that. And for some reason people are like, no, I wanna see an md, which I 1000% disagree with.

Olivia: So,

Caitlin: that’s so interesting. Didn’t know that. Md. Oh.

Olivia: And, and I wanted to create it because I wanted to create a, a place on Instagram where you could find reliable, credible, credible, medically accurate, entertaining, and educational information. Hmm. By physicians and that doesn’t exist right now. Like there’s no one hub that doc influencers live, where you could be like, oh, I don’t know much about this.

Olivia: Let me go to doc, to the doc page and see if they have it, that, if they’re covering it. And so, I kind of want it to be like a medical news source or a medical hub for information. Yeah,

Caitlin: particularly considering what’s happening online with like meta and like how they’re removing all fact checking and things like that.

Olivia: Right. I didn’t even think about that. That’s a good point. Like,

Olivia: yeah.

Caitlin: Yeah. it just, it freaks me out a little bit. Like I can’t think about it too much, like, a bit like, oh my gosh, spiral, but what a great thing you’re doing. Like, I think it’s incredible what you’re doing.

Caitlin: Thank you. Thank you.

Caitlin: It’s really, really cool.

Olivia: Yeah. Thank you. I

Olivia: appreciate that.

Caitlin: Yeah. And because you seem like you’ve got a, like an interest in like mental health and wellbeing and that’s a really big key part of what you do and what you believe in. Is that, like, how did that come about? Is that from your training or is that from maybe like your family culture or how to.

Olivia: I would say so I would say my family culture and also on top of that, the course, that I took, like I just didn’t know myself. I was, you know, I was 22, I wasn’t in therapy at the time. And, you know, therapy’s great for some things, but I think coaching is just so impactful

Olivia: And so, I think it’s always been in my family conversation. You know, empowering talk has always been in the conversation, has always been part of the language of my family. But then once I did the work myself. then I was like, oh, like I’m in charge of my life. I can’t blame anybody for my life.

Olivia: Mm-hmm. I have to, you know, maybe I, I’ve been shaped to the way I am because of past experiences ’cause of parents, family, whatever it may be. But like right now, in this point of, of living, I have to take ownership for everything. Yeah. and I realized that, you know, in my early twenties and I was like, whoa, this is terrifying.

Olivia: And also empowering. And so I always felt like, what else can I learn about myself? It was just such an impactful weekend that I was like, what else do I not know about myself that I could have breakthroughs in, that I can grow in? And that really is, I, I mean, I attribute that to where I am today and how far I’ve gotten is because of the breakthroughs that I’ve had in self-expression and speaking up and bravery and courage and, you know, I, I mean confidence, so many things is, is just from self-development.

Caitlin: That’s beautiful. Wow. I’m just thinking about like how impactful that was for you. And it was a weekend course, like completely changed the trajectory of

Olivia: 100% change. Like three days.

Olivia: Yeah.

Olivia: Yeah. And resolved the things with my mom, like my mom and I stopped fighting like it was wild. I was like, you know, the Friday night of the course I called her and I was like.

Olivia: I discovered that I created a narrative about you when I was five, and I’ve been blaming you for my entire life. And I was like, that’s not on you. That’s on me. I can’t, you know, and I stopped.something I always used to say to her was, you make me feel, you are, you are making me feel this way. And that, and that was like the weekend I had said it to her, the weekend after or the week after.

Olivia: I was like, mom, you’re making me feel. And she was like, I’m making you feel like nobody can make you. You’re making yourself feel that way. And I was like, oh, yes. I can’t believe it. ’cause she had taken this course also. My whole family’s taken.

Olivia: yeah.

Caitlin: Well that’s, I love that. how cool. It just yeah.

Caitlin: Makes me realize like how Important conversations like that are. Mm-hmm. That’s really cool. but to go back to doc fluencers, Maybe it’s because I wasn’t a huge social media user before

Caitlin: But what is the history of influencers that, healthcare professionals, on social media? is it a relatively recent thing or.

Olivia: you mean, having, like doctors being on social media, is that relatively new?

Caitlin: Yeah. Yeah. I

Olivia: think that, I don’t think so. Like, especially some of the influencers that I’ve been, that I’m interviewing, they’re like, I started my journey in medical school, which would, for them might be around 10 years ago, so maybe a decade, which I guess overall could be somewhat new.

Olivia: I would think so though, because I think that it’s, it’s come in the wave with social media. Mm-hmm. I think in the beginning, doctors were probably like, oh, like this is, this may seem unprofessional. Like

Caitlin: Yes.

Olivia: And I get that. However, it’s so mainstream now, doctor, like other doc doctor influencers, especially like the ones that I’m talking to, they’re like, we need more professionals on social media.

Olivia: Come on, social media. We need you. We need your help. We need your support. And I agree. I mean, I only know of two other sexual health influencers that are physicians.

Olivia: Oh.

Olivia: And I’m like in this space, like searching for these people. So maybe, maybe three that I’m thinking about it.

Olivia: Yeah, those are like English speaking. English speaking, yes. So,

Caitlin: yeah. is that a reflection of like people’s thoughts on like sex and sexuality, or is that just people’s fear of being online? That’s a curious thing. Tell me more about that or what that was like for you, like when you first started.

Caitlin: Being like, no, I’m gonna start my YouTube channel because that sounds like such a scary thing. Well, at least for me it sounds really terrifying.

Olivia: Oh, totally. I think always when you put yourself out there and you’re putting yourself in a vulnerable position of sharing, of totally being shut down by your for your ideas or being criticized for your mind, I think anything in that position is scary.

Olivia: And from the outside perspective, ’cause I was in medical school still and there’s that hierarchy, I would tell my superiors, like my attendings, like I’m starting YouTube channel about sexual health. And they were like, so many of them were like, do not do that. Don’t do that. And I was like, yeah, but it’s educational.

Olivia: And they’re like, no, like you are going to be judged for it. People are going to criticize you. You have a whole career ahead of you. You could ruin your career. And I was like, I’m not backing down from this. Like I don’t see how this is gonna ruin my career. Like this is education about sex. Like absolutely.

Olivia: Like you are a doctor. Like you should know that this is education. So I’m glad I didn’t listen to any of them.

Caitlin: Yes. for sure. Because a lot of people would be like, oh yeah, no, the authority. Yeah. Like my attendings, my superior said like, I can’t do this, so yeah, I shouldn’t do this. Right.

Caitlin: But how cool that you’re like, nah. Fuck it. I’m gonna, I’m gonna do it. Because

Olivia: I knew, I knew, I was like, there’s no way that this is inappropriate. Then nobody should be talking about heart disease. Like, yeah, well that’s sexual health. Right. It’s, there’s no difference. It’s your health, period. End of story.

Olivia: It’s your health.

Caitlin: Hmm. It’s your health. That’s it. Yeah. Yeah. I wonder if you would’ve gone to them saying, yeah, I’m gonna do a channel on Yeah. Like, yeah, heart disease or something. They would’ve been like, oh, that sounds great.

Olivia: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And when I, and you know, I actually used one of their, like, I, I did like a little spinoff when I gave my first TEDx talk.

Olivia: I said, I, the, my first opening line was, something like I, I talk about sex online, like I, I hold, I talk about sex. It was something like that where it was like a little, like racy and then I was like.

Caitlin: It’s a great hook.

Caitlin: and I guess maybe leading on from that, like, ’cause yeah, like you said, it’s, I remember before we pressed record you said a really great line about like, you felt like you were, had to tiptoe out and like, you know, you wanted to explore your c creativity and doing this thing alongside your training and Yeah.

Caitlin: Being a, a physician and. Because there are, so, like you said, there’s only what, three people that are in the sexual health space or as like influencers online. So what would you say to people who are maybe thinking about starting an Instagram or a YouTube channel or something like that? Like it’s in the back of their mind, but they’re a bit freaked out about all the the possible things that could go wrong or, yeah,

Olivia: you’ll never know what could go wrong until you start doing it.

Olivia: Like, it’s never, it’s never going to be fully formed. You know, it’s like starting school for example. You know, it’s like, I don’t, well what, what questions are they gonna ask me? What notebook should I get? Like what teacher am I gonna have? Like what homework will they assign? I don’t know. I don’t like, no, you just go, you just start.

Olivia: Right? Because it’s something that one you have to do. But I would almost like be like.

Olivia: That you’re doing online, you should feel like, I ha like I have to do this. Like, I am so compelled to do this. Even if you’re not, actually, I wouldn’t even recommend that. Like I’m just saying that that would probably be the most consistent. If you wanna go do something online, you gotta be consistent. And if you wanna be consistent, that thing is going to be driving you.

Olivia: Mm-hmm. And let’s say you’re not consistent, ’cause I’m, sometimes I’m not consistent. That’s also a learning process. And then I would just say like. last thing and it’s my favorite line and I tell myself all the time, also like no one cares what you are doing. Like everyone is so self-absorbed into what they’re doing and scared about looking bad themselves.

Olivia: They’re not worried about how bad your, you might be looking like, they’re just worried. We’re just worried about ourselves. So like that fear is only impacting you. It’s not impacting anyone else.

Caitlin: No. Exactly. That’s, yeah, it’s so right. I remember like when I first started, I was, yeah, I had all of those things like, oh my gosh, like imposter syndrome.

Caitlin: Who am I to be doing this? Like, what are my peers gonna think? Something about like the profession and like, oh my gosh. I think ’cause we’ve got a, our regulatory bo body, like AHPRA there. I was freaked out, like basically like a, were gonna like knock on my door and take me to like jail because I was doing something that was so out of the lines of what a, like psychologist should be doing.

Caitlin: But then when I did it, I’m like, I don’t think people really even notice. Really. Right. Even noticed get like attention online.

Olivia: Right. It’s almost like you have to think about like this literal celebrities, a-list celebrities, right? And I know that they’re not like in professional settings like, like, as a physician or a psychologist, right?

Olivia: But like, think about a-list. Celebrities. Are we up to date every single scandal that is going on in their per, not even scandal, one post where, where I’m sure. J-Lo is like, oh my God, should I put this there? I mean, she definitely isn’t, she doesn’t do that anymore. She just fucking does whatever she wants.

Olivia: But like, just think about it. It’s like all, like nobody, I don’t check up on every single A-listers post and they’re, they’re in the limelight, the

Caitlin: Yeah.

Olivia: No one’s. It’s fine.

Caitlin: That’s fine. That’s it. Yeah. Just do

Olivia: what makes you happy and challenge yourself. Yeah. And where it takes you.

Caitlin: Yes. And speaking about challenging yourself.

Caitlin: Tell me what you told me, before we hit Record always happens. Like we always have these like, cool conversations Before I record

Olivia: we’ll circle it back, we’ll circle it back, we’ll circle back. That’s it.

Caitlin: You were

Olivia: telling me about like, oh my gosh, having starting a podcast. So wasn’t me. This is what you said to me before.

Olivia: Mm-hmm. And yet here you are interviewing me and it’s so cool. We’re on opposite sides of the world and we get to like meet a new person. And then I said to you that, my roommate and best friend, me and her call that being unrecognizable, which is like our favorite thing.

Olivia: It’s like, how do, what are you doing this year to make you un or this month or this week where you’re going to be unrecognizable? Like you won’t. You would look back and you were like, I can’t believe I did that. And like for me, one of the things that I just did, and I don’t know why I did it, but I did it because my cousins are doing it, but I’m training for a half marathon and I’ve never done this before.

Olivia: Like, I am not a runner. This is not, I’m just like, I’m usually like, no, I’m doing my own workouts. But I signed up for a half marathon and I’m training for it. So it’s wild, but it’s really cool. But that’s something we’re like. By April that I’m gonna look back on Olivia in in January and be like, wow, who was that girl?

Caitlin: I love that so much. Like being unrecognizable and yeah, doing things that are so out of your comfort. So like you were talking about, you keep talking about like the narrative that we have about ourselves and that stories that we tell ourselves, like I’m not a runner, like I’m not a podcast, like I’m not a good speaker.

Caitlin: Like all these ideas that are Yeah, they’re just stories in our head that we’ve. Somehow picked up along the way that, and then reinforced it. So I think that’s, so I’m gonna, keep that in mind for sure. Your permission slip.

Olivia: Yeah, it’s a, the, the fable about the baby elephants and they have the baby elephant with this big, you know, heavy rope around, its neck.

Olivia: And and then they tied the rope to a peg. And the, and the elephant can’t move more than this radius, but then the elephant grows and grows and grows and they keep on having to change the ropes. And finally there’s a full grown elephant with this thin little rope around its snack. But still not going outside of that radius because it doesn’t think it can, because it was trained since it was little.

Olivia: that’s us when we were five years old, we didn’t care if we sang on the street and skipped down the street singing and running and jumping, that was our self-expression. And it was joyful and light and fun. And I think that you start building, building, building stories and narratives your entire life.

Olivia: You know, from instances and things that happen and things that people say to you, and instead of being a goldfish, which is like you have a two second memory and you just let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go. It builds, builds, builds. And then we become this quiet, fearful person that wants to be as small as possible.

Caitlin: Exactly. And not take up space. I think that’s also something I totally recognize, particularly myself. Like I didn’t wanna take up any space. Like I’m someone that’s like, yeah, shrinking. Like, don’t notice me. Like I don’t wanna take up any, any space. And then I realized like, that’s like not healthy, but also, I’m limiting myself so much.

Caitlin: Yeah. It’s, self development, it’s a, mm-hmm. It’s a, it’s a long journey, but No, it’s really cool. like when you talk to influencers, like doc influences, do you notice any patterns of like imposter syndrome and all of those things and these people who are wildly successful and have like huge achievements?

Caitlin: Is that a conversation that comes up?

Olivia: That’s so funny because I don’t think we’ve had that conversation. Maybe with one. Two doctors, but know that all of them, I actually don’t know if this is true or not, but I would take a guess that we’ve all experienced it and I still experience it. You know, I, I speak to my mom and she’s a practicing physician and she still experiences it.

Olivia: She’s been in medicine for 30 years, so I just feel like it’s, it’s something that’s just. Common and it’s there and it’s just like, okay, how do we work through it on a day-to-day basis? And also like it’s, we’re bigger than than that. Like we’re bigger than, like that story isn’t gonna hold me down ’cause I know it’s not true.

Olivia: Right? It’s a story versus reality and like reality is where I choose to live.

Olivia: Sometimes

Olivia: I pop back into the story, but I have to have the awareness of going back into reality.

Caitlin: That’s it. Like having that awareness and realizing it for what it is. Yeah, it’s a story. It’s a, the thing that’s there, and it seems to be, quite common.

Caitlin: I’m just amazed by, like you being in, business based groups and every now and then a post will pop up about that. And these people, I’m like, wow, you are like, so experienced and you’re, you’re so incredible and you’re, you have feelings like this. So. Yeah. I wonder if that like ties into, I’m just thinking about your, like your miss mission, which I think is so, it’s such good writing, to make quiet conversations loud.

Caitlin: I think for me, maybe like, if I was to think about a quiet conversation that I’d like to make loud is yeah. That about like imposter syndrome or that feeling of like self-doubt that people create, maybe like healthcare professionals have about their creative side. But I wonder what that looks like for you.

Caitlin: Like what are your big things that you wanna shout out Loud?

Olivia: I think one of them is the sexual health, one of them is mental health. And then I think with doc influencers, change within healthcare and I think that looks different for everybody. And that’s why, you know, I have an Instagram live every week on doc flus where I’m talking with one of the docs that I’m highlighting and.

Olivia: We talk about what they would like to change in the healthcare system because the healthcare, our healthcare system has to change. We don’t have universal healthcare. It’s, it’s just such a complicated, crazy system. And so I’m trying to navigate it and so I, I, I talk to other doc influencers to understand more, to learn more, to see what they’re dealing with, and kind of see how, how we can make a difference.

Caitlin: I feel like so ridiculously privileged, like in Australia, We have healthcare for everyone and it’s, I, yeah, I remember I saw one of your posts when you were talking about, it was a surgeon that was in the middle of surgery and got a call from their health insurance saying like, you can’t, it’s not approved, or something like that.

Caitlin: And I thought, and I think maybe if I follow like Lady Spine Doc and like she was talking about, that as well and I was just thinking like mind blown, like that’s something that you, doctors, physicians are dealing with day in and day out. Like that’s Yeah. Yeah. Heavy.

Olivia: Yeah.

Olivia: I’m sure this hap that happened probably to other doctors who don’t have a social media channel. And so it’s kind of like, this is why we have to encourage people to speak up more and, and get on social media and not just like in the physician world, but like.

Olivia: Other people who are dealing with things. if you are dealing with X, other people are also dealing with X. You know, whether that has in the world of mental health or sexual health or physical health or whatever it is, like, I feel like sharing your story is so powerful because it could reach other people and make people feel less alone.

Caitlin: I was just, when you’re talking, I was just reflecting on my, I feel like I’m talking about myself a lot.

Caitlin: This is, no, about like my, yeah. Experience like in high, you know, school of sexual health and that it was just non-existent. Right? Yeah. Is that similar in like, the states that it’s just not That’s,

Olivia: yeah. That’s funny that you said that. ’cause I was like, oh, I wonder what it is like in Australia. It depends on what state you’re in, right?

Olivia: It depends on where in the country you are. If you’re in, like, we call it like the Bible belt, which is kind of like the south area and like goes all the way across the country. And if you’re in that area, like it’s abstinence only and you’re not really learning about sex. And those are the states a lot like Louisiana, Alabama, those are the highest teen pregnancy rates.

Olivia: Yeah. and also all the states were like, abortion’s illegal or is becoming illegal. And so. It’s, we, it depends on what state you’re in, and then it also depends on what school you go to,

Caitlin: because

Olivia: certain schools might be a lot more, maybe have funding for the education or are more liberal. But you, your school didn’t, you didn’t have any sex education?

Caitlin: Well, we did, but it was, yeah, because I went to quite a, like a religious, exactly like a religious school and. It was pretty non-existent. Like I remember one talk where this, it was actually quite, almost a little bit of a traumatic experience for a lot of us. This lady came and spoke to us and she was like, I guess a trigger warning, like a, a child of rape.

Caitlin: And she was talking about her experience about her mom. Like it basically, it was like telling us that I, if my mom had an abortion, I wouldn’t have existed. And it was like, that was her like telling us and we were like, how old We were grade 10 or something like that. So we were like 14, 15 and we were all, that was the, pretty much the only experience that we had of sexual education was like that.

Caitlin: Wow. But luckily we had some great teachers who I think even after that, sat us down and like debriefed us a little bit, but still. What I remember more about it was that, yeah, lady like bringing her trauma in, which she probably should have been talking to a therapist about and not Right. Going around from school to school and Oh my gosh.

Caitlin: I don’t know if that was a common thing of every schooling in Australia, but at least where I went to school, that was what it was. What it was like. Yeah. Well, yeah. I’m glad there are people like you who are changing that for people and making sex a, a topic that we can talk about and have proper education.

Caitlin: So that’s really cool. Yeah, definitely. is there anything that like you, like as we’ve been talking now that you’ve wanted to. Anything that you wanna say or anything that’s like come up that I haven’t asked you any questions about and you’re like, actually no, I wanna, I wanna speak to this.

Olivia: I would say that I, I am doing all of these things and also I’m still figuring it out. Like I still don’t know what the plan is, like I’m making the plan like, but like literally minute by minute, you know, like I, I’m always having new things in my head where I’m like, oh, I wanna do this. Oh, this can transform into that.

Olivia: and that’s why I always think it’s important to start the thing that you wanna start. Because it might not look the same in a month, six months, a year, five years, and it might transform into something that you’re obsessed with. Something that’s, or something that’s a total, I don’t know, not what you expected it to be.

Olivia: I was gonna say the word failure, but it’s not a failure. It’s just, it, it, it shifts. It, it changes and I’m still figuring it out. in like therapy and in journaling, I’m like, I wanted to just, I want to have it all figured out already. It’s like that just not happening. I just need to change my language around it and be like, the journey and the journey’s fun.

Olivia: Or like the journey is I’m in discovery and it’s just, you know. Well, I like that

Caitlin: discovery.

Olivia: I’m discovering. and I, I feel like discovery is fun. and also you can. Have the laundry list of all the things that you’ve accomplished and still feel like there’s so much more to do. and, that is how I feel.

Olivia: So, don’t let the overwhelm stop anyone. Just, you

Caitlin: know, yeah,

Olivia: just do it. Keep

Caitlin: going and just do it and see what happens. ’cause you don’t know, like maybe yes, you’ll do something and then it might shift, but it might turn into something. Totally amazing. And yeah, if you hadn’t started that YouTube channel, you might not be here now.

Caitlin: Exactly. I just thought of the word, like learning when you said like, you didn’t wanna say failure, it’s like a, a, a failure plus a learning. A learning. Oh, I love that. Like one of my, copywriting mentors talks about that. Like a Yeah. That you can just learn from your failures and Yeah.

Caitlin: It’s a learning so.

Olivia: I like that. Yeah. My, my quote for that is, you never lose. You either win or you learn. Ah,

Caitlin: cool. Yes. Yeah, that’s perfect. but before we wrap up, I have a thing that I always, ask people. It’s probably one of my favorite parts of the interview, is like, rapid fire questions.

Olivia: Love rapid fire questions.

Caitlin: So, Olivia, I’m, I’m curious about this. What’s your favorite movie?

Caitlin: Thanks for everything. Julie Newmar.

Caitlin: What’s the so was that

Olivia: It’s called To Wong Foo. Thanks for everything, Julie Newmar. Wow. It’s an incredible movie. and it’s, not at all what you expect from the characters that are in it or the actors that are in it.

Olivia: It’s just a story about adventure and comedy and self discovery and love. It’s wonderful and friendship.

Caitlin: Amazing. Who’s in it? Like who was the actor? So actress. It’s

Olivia: like these three. It’s these two. So, Wesley Snipes and Patrick Swayze, who Oh, wow, okay. Notoriously, when this movie was made in the eighties or nineties, they were like, action people.

Olivia: And they in the movie are drag queens, and it’s John Zamo also who’s a comedian. And the three of them are drag queens. And it’s unbelievable. It’s unbelievable. Sounds so good. The movie’s unbelievable. Highly recommend.

Caitlin: I, yeah, I really wanna watch that now. I’m hoping that it’ll be on like Netflix or something.

Caitlin: and what is a concert you’ll never forget?

Olivia: So many concerts, I guess I’ll have to say my first concert was with my mom and my sister. And my mom. We were in middle school and she took us to go see Ricky Martin. And so I think it was a combination of like Ricky Martin and also that it was with my mom and my sister.

Caitlin: Yeah, it was the first one.

Caitlin: That sounds really fun.

Olivia: Yeah.

Caitlin: Cool. Oh yeah. I think like, first concerts are always like memorable for sure. and what about, I always struggle to like phrase this, but what’s an absurd or like quirky fact about you or absurd thing that you love?

Caitlin: I know this exists. Oh yeah.

Olivia: What’s yours? What’s yours?

Caitlin: yeah, its an example. Mine is that I eat pizza backwards. So, because I,

Caitlin: it’s like, I love that, that, so I have a crus because I’m like, that’s the, like the, not the nice part of the, the pizza. The best part is like the middle bit. So I’ll have that last.

Olivia: So true. Oh my God. What is a quirky? I, well, I don’t eat the crusts, but that’s not a quirky thing, and I don’t want that to be my answer.

Olivia: the first thing that’s like coming to mind is like,

Olivia: I got it. I’m a hype woman. Like I’m a, you tell me like, what you, you tell me that like, you learned how to tie your shoe differently. And I’m like, oh my God. Like, we need to talk about this. What happened? How did you learn? Tell me more. So, I’m a hype woman.

Caitlin: Beautiful. That’s, That’s a really cool, like quirky fact about you, but like I get with you that it is come from a place of like genuine, like you are very genuine about it, which yeah.

Caitlin: Is the big difference there. Nice. and your cat, what’s your cat’s name? I.

Olivia: She’s my med school kitty. Oh wow. She’s been with me day one of medical school. She was like a little homeless outdoor kitty, and I was like, you’re mine. Scooped her up. You’re

Caitlin: like, oh, I need, yeah.

Olivia: Oh,

Caitlin: been through a lot then. Yeah, she looks really like love loving. This is so cute. Little that.

Caitlin: Oh, that’s so sweet. but where can people, find you online? your, maybe even your TED Talks? Are they online? I, I did watch one, but yeah. Tell the,

Olivia: yeah, tell everyone. Yeah. So, if you wanna watch one of my TED talks, you could just type in Olivia Richman, TEDx. It’ll pop up on YouTube. On YouTube and Instagram For my sexual health channel, that’s under Glamourpuss md and that’s G-L-A-M-O-U-R.

Olivia: P-U-S-S-M-D. And then Doc Influencer, MDO is my doctor influencer channel where I highlight doctor influencers in the US in, in hopes of changing the healthcare system. and that’s on Instagram. So those are the places that you could find me.

Caitlin: Beautiful. Thank you so much for this. I’ll pop all the show links in the episode as well.

Caitlin: but otherwise, thank you very much. I really enjoyed this chat, and I’m so glad that we could Yeah, make it happen.

Olivia: Me too. Caitlin, thanks so much for inviting me on. This was awesome.

Caitlin: Thank you.

Caitlin: All right. That’s the end of another episode. Thank you so much for tuning into Healers with Hustles. If you’ve enjoyed today’s episode, will you do me a tiny favor and subscribe to the show? Just tap the subscribe button on your favorite podcast platform, and you’ll be the first to know as soon as the new episode drops.

Caitlin: Thanks so much for listening. Okay, for now.