LeaderImpact Podcast
LeaderImpact Podcast
Ep. 68 - Joe Dugger - Faith-Driven Leadership
What if your professional journey was shaped by both a prophetic vision and a profound personal transformation? That's exactly what happened to Joe Dugger, the visionary CEO and founder of One Life Direct Care. In this episode, Joe opens up about his journey from reluctant medical student to pioneering leader in employer-focused healthcare, inspired by his father's foresight and a pivotal summer research project. Joe's story is one of aligning a medical career with deep faith, drawing on the healing stories of Jesus to transform the patient experience and prioritize employee well-being in innovative ways.
Ever wondered how spiritual discernment can impact your leadership decisions? Joe shares candid reflections on the balance between seizing opportunities and seeking spiritual guidance. Through personal anecdotes, including a vivid dream that reshaped his business approach, he highlights the risks of overlooking divine insights. As Joe navigates the transition to an empty nest, he reveals how these lessons are enriching his leadership style and family life, encouraging us all to cherish each moment and grow intentionally.
Explore the intersection of faith and professional legacy as Joe discusses the joy of witnessing transformative changes in patients' lives. The conversation touches on the challenges and rewards of integrating spirituality into the workplace, fostering an environment of love, grace, and truth. Joe also introduces the global reach of Leader Impact, inviting listeners to connect with resources and groups worldwide. Dive into a wealth of opportunities to enhance your leadership skills and foster a culture that leaves a lasting legacy, both personally and professionally.
Thanks for listening!
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Welcome to the Leader Impact Podcast. We are a community of leaders with a network in over 350 cities around the world dedicated to optimizing our personal, professional, and spiritual lives to have impact. This show is where we have a chance to listen and engage with leaders who are living this out. We love talking with leaders, so if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions to make the show even better, please let us know. The best way to stay connected in Canada is through our newsletter at leaderimpactca or on social at Leader Impact. If you're listening from outside of Canada, check out our website at leaderimpactcom.
Lisa Peters:I'm your host, Lisa Peters, and our guest today is Joe Duggar. Joe is the visionary CEO and founder of One Life Direct Care in Searcy, Arkansas in the United States. He is a board-certified in family practice and has an interest in sports medicine and obesity medicine. Joe is transforming the face of employer-focused healthcare. His groundbreaking approach has enabled countless businesses to deliver immediate, personalized healthcare to their employees. Joe's proficiency lies in aiding organizations grappling with the dual task of attracting premier talent and providing affordable, competitive healthcare benefits. He strongly believes and demonstrates that investment in superior healthcare doesn't have to burden the corporate purse. His strategy strives to foster healthier, happier employees, boosting profitability. Joe is a follower of Jesus and lives and walks daily by the power, love, grace and truth of the Spirit living in him. He is married to his wife, Angie, and has four children. Welcome to the show, Joe.
Joe Dugger:Thank you, Lisa, glad to be here.
Lisa Peters:Oh, it is nice to meet you. You know, I tried, as I was saying earlier, before we turned the go button on. You're a hard guy to find on anywhere else on social media. You have your websites, but you must be just clearly a good guy because I couldn't find anything out about you. It is nice to meet you.
Joe Dugger:Yeah, oh, thank you Likewise, I'm just not out there, I guess, like.
Lisa Peters:You're clearly too busy, Joe.
Joe Dugger:That may be a fact.
Lisa Peters:So I know I'm going to assume that in Canada we have an incredible physician shortage, and I know it's not. You know, is this something that's common in the United States? Common everywhere?
Joe Dugger:It is. Yes, I mean we have a lot of mid-level providers as well, PAs and nurse practitioners with us but it still isn't enough to meet the need. So that is one of the challenges that our company really embraces is how do we use everything, infrastructure that's already there and even AI to assist us in really trying to meet the needs that are that are out there for for medical care.
Lisa Peters:Yeah, good, all right. Well, we'll start with a few of our questions. We definitely want to find out more about your professional story and how you got to where you are today, and if you have a couple of snapshots that were pivotal in the turning points along that journey.
Joe Dugger:Well, I do. My father had always encouraged me to be a physician, and I don't really know all the reasons for that.
Joe Dugger:I think my father passed in 2014. Looking back, I think that he, I don't even think he recognized it, but I think he had what I would call a prophetic gift where he could see things and other people, and so I remember him telling me when I was young that I should consider being a medical doctor, and I remember thinking that's a crazy idea. I have no desire to be a medical doctor, and so I had other desires to be a scientist, or at one time I thought I wanted to be an architect, and so I was in college I was actually a pre-med student, but it was because I was going towards full-time research and so I spent a summer in South Carolina doing that, and that was right before my senior year of college. And I remember one of the guys that was presenting there was a lifetime you know scientist, one of our mentors for the summer, and he was one of the world's experts on the stride lengths of lizards, and he was giving a presentation one day and most everybody in the room was an undergraduate still in college and they were just dialed in, you know listening to this guy, and I just remember thinking who cares? I mean, this guy, this guy has spent his life researching how long of a step a certain species of lizard takes and I'm just going, wow, what am I doing here? I'm in the wrong place.
Joe Dugger:And in the process of that summer, I realized you know really, that that was not what I wanted to do and I wanted to be directly involved in the lives of people, having impact, developing relationships and having meaningful you know like my life's work needs to be something bigger than measuring out how far a lizard steps.
Joe Dugger:So, anyway, that was definitely a turning point. And then I took the MCAT, my senior year, and went on to medical school and then, in medical school and residency, realized what an opportunity I had to just bring the kingdom of God into people's lives, you know and I was always inspired, even when I was young, by the stories of healing, when Jesus would heal people. I just love those stories and I would, you know, I'd read them repetitively just to get every detail. And so that all started to really come back to me as I was beginning to learn the practice of medicine and so really feeling some fulfillment even at an early age, in the beginnings of my medical practice, and realizing then that my dad was seeing something that I didn't see, and I was very thankful for that.
Lisa Peters:Well, number one lizards don't love you back. Maybe they do, I don't know. And a question would be did you grow up in a family of physicians? Was your dad a doctor, you know? Was there anyone around you?
Joe Dugger:No, really not. My parents were both really from very, very poor families. So farming families, you depression-era farmers. I know my mom's family, they were sharecroppers and so you know, they were like migrant workers back in the twenties and thirties. And then my dad's side, pretty similar backgrounds, and so I think I was the first physician in our family. I know on my dad's side that was the case, and so his mom was always just very, you know, quick to introduce me to her friends, as, oh, this is our family, this is our doctor in the family, and so, yeah, I think I was really the only one. My dad was a professor in the university here where I live, so he was, he taught there for 45 years.
Lisa Peters:Well, your parents, they sound very proud of you. Your mother's introduction of you.
Joe Dugger:Yes.
Lisa Peters:That's good, good. I was wondering if you can give us your best principle of success and if you had a story that would illustrate that.
Joe Dugger:Well, I would say that one of the things that has always been a guiding principle for me was and I guess when people would ask me, you know, in youth group and church, when I was little, you know what's your favorite Bible verse? You started getting those questions a lot in junior high and high school, and so over time I realized that Romans 12: 1 was always one of those verses. And so I, you know, finding out what God's will is for my life and seeking that will. But you know, and even I think the Bible at verse the day today was from Proverbs and it's commit to the Lord whatever you do and he'll establish your plans. And so I think that guiding principle for me has always been there. The word has always been in me from the time I was little, because of the heritage that my parents passed on to me. And, you know, as an adult now, looking back, I see that my faith became my own at a very young age. I knew God was real. I knew Jesus was, you know, the most historically accounted-for figure in the history of the world, and I knew he was God's son. I just, I mean, I've always known that, I've never doubted that and I knew the Bible was his word. So I just really at a young age, I would read through the Bible a lot.
Joe Dugger:And I grew up in a church that was it was a good church, a lot of good relationships. There was definitely some hyper-religious type of people and some you know, I don't want to say Pharisees, but I think you have this type of mindset in probably most churches. But I got the good out of that and I think one of the things and I don't think it was legalism, but I think it could turn into that but for me it was very well driven into me that I needed to know the word and be in the word, and so I did read the Bible through yearly a lot when I was growing up. So the times that I have not succeeded, I can look back and see that I wasn't asking God for guidance, I wasn't listening to the Holy Spirit when there were clear red flags that I should not proceed or I should change course, and so I don't have just one story of success, but I can tell you my best success is my wife and my family, and I was very prayerful about who I was to marry. And my wife is actually six years younger than me. So when we started dating, it was somewhat scandalous because I was 22 and she was 16. And so I knew her family very well and I had a good relationship with all of them.
Joe Dugger:Her older brother and I played football together in college, and so I actually this is a story that all of our inner circle knows, but I was on a bus trip to a football game and I was actually a grad assistant that year and Nick, Angie, my wife's brother, we were really good friends. He was sitting on the bus with me asking me about who I was dating, and you know usual conversations and I said, oh, I'm not, I'm not really dating anyone. I, you know, not really wanting to date, I just want to. You know I'm not necessarily just trying to find a wife, but I'm just not really wanting to just date, to date, you know. And anyway, he mentioned that his sister was available. And I said, cause she was, she didn't have a boyfriend. But this was not Angie, this was Nick is one of she's. She's one of five children, so Nick is the oldest and the other four are girls.
Joe Dugger:So and this was Angie's older sister, my wife's older sister, and Nick encouraged me to ask her out on a date, and I said, oh, I can't do that. I said I love your family, your sisters are all great, but there's just too much of an age gap. But then I said but if I was going to ask out one of your sisters, I would ask out Angie, who's actually a little younger than Marcy. And Nick got very excited and he said oh, you should, you should do that. So anyway, the idea grew on me and after a few weeks I asked for her father's permission, secretly, and so he gave me his permission, which I look back and go 16-year-old to date my d if
Joe Dugger:I don't know that I would give any guy permission to date my 16 year old daughter, especially he's 22, but, um, he, we had a good relationship and he trusted me and the whole family knew about it, except for Angie, and so they all knew that I had asked permission to ask her out, and so they're just really having a hard time keeping it a secret. But they did until I called her and asked her out. So that was how we started. But that decision was one that you know God led me in, and there's no doubt that the and I think generations will be, you know we'll, we'll know the story down, you know down the road, but generations are going to be blessed by that decision for sure.
Lisa Peters:Oh, that's a great way to end that. Your decision will be blessed. I love that. Yeah, that God's will will be done. It's a good. That is a great principle of success. I wrote that one down. We're going to switch over to failures and mistakes. I think we all know we probably learn more from a failing or a mistake and more than from our successes. So I'm wondering if you and what you learned from it.
Joe Dugger:Yeah, absolutely. Well, I have always tried to be as aware as I can be of opportunities around me. So as an entrepreneur and as a business owner, that has been a blessing and a curse, I would say. I mean, sometimes I allow too much of the distraction of, oh, this looks like a good opportunity and I would dive into it without really looking at or listening to or prayerfully considering the entire situation to or prayerfully considering the entire situation.
Joe Dugger:So, several different business partnerships I'm using that term loosely, but relationships, collaborative agreements, have not gone well in the past been destructive to some extent, with loss financially and even relationally. And I can look back and see clearly that those were times when I did not really listen or ask for counsel. And so I mean God is always speaking and for me, sometimes even God dreams, I will be able to. I mean he will show me things and I don't always understand them, but sometimes he's pretty clear and I just didn't listen. But specifically, I know business relationships and partnerships have been bad decisions that I made and looking back even early into those relationships, I would see red flags, I would see things that needed to be addressed. I wouldn't address them or I wouldn't step courageously and boldly up to just you know be clear but also be you know assertive about what needs to change or how we can navigate a situation.
Lisa Peters:wants and what we want ahead of, as you said in Romans 12, one our God's will for us. We, I have been caught telling God what I want. You know, and I think he just like yeah, no, and you talked I. You know when, when you make a mistake, or you know, and I call it a brick, I get hit, god just throws me a brick. It's like you weren't listening. I tried to whisper to you, I tried to show you, I tried, and then I get hit with something. It's not literally a brick, but you know, you just I put my provoked ahead of maybe what God wanted for me.
Joe Dugger:So yeah, I think God, the learning something process there if... t, if we'll take the lesson and grow from it can really be beneficial. One of the dreams that I had was it was just a very brief but it was a vivid dream and I was sitting in a circle of friends at a table and. And scratching under my chin and I noticed there me, when I wake up, if I haven't had a dream like this in quite a while. But if it was a very vivid dream and it just had some, I mean, just really provoke my thoughts and I woke up, I would write them down and then pray about them and see if there was anything that was discerning from those. But this one was a very vivid dream and I had a small sore and I kind of did, you know, just touched it and this almost like a tumor came out from my chin and it was. It was just, you know, I was amazed and you know kind of thought what, what is this, you know? But everybody around the table was just talking and no one even noticed, and that was the extent of the dream.
Joe Dugger:And so I understood that, if there was, god was showing some, he was. There was something in me that he wanted me to recognize that didn't need to be there. It was not good, it was something that I needed to take out, and so I just prayerfully, over the course of weeks, tried to understand that dream and and I did it was basically God revealed to me. This is your need for approval. God revealed to me. This is your need for approval. This is you seeking the approval of others, and that's what this sin is, this thing that you just need to get rid of.
Joe Dugger:And got older and Thank you went through some of these relationships in business, I realized because I'd written down this dream that the people at that table were actually people that I had bad business relationships with, and God was basically showing me that. then. But I didn't At and LeaderI mpact didn't listen. But I was too professionally, about what they thought about me I appeared in those relationships to address the things that were coming up in as we were going into a business together that I should have addressed. And it was because I would. I didn't want to to lose face, so to speak. I didn't want to, you know, lose their approval and affirmation because of something that was not what they wanted to hear.
Lisa Peters:Yeah, uh sharing this failure to listen. I'm hearing know the failure to listen to God's word. in in your sleep. It slips. You know he's around us, he's us, you know I I appreciate the story. Um, at leader . And, uh, you have shared some incredible stories so far. Would you be willing to share an example of how the spiritual makes a practical impact in your life as a leader? a
Joe Dugger:Yes, yes, I, you know I'm. So I'm 55 years old now and, uh, it's amazing how fast I got here. But, kids are. We're close to empty nest stage now. So, uh, my youngest is a freshman in college and we have four kids. My oldest is finishing up his master's and we have four kids. My oldest is finishing up his master's.
Joe Dugger:My kids are all fairly close together in age, so my wife has always been so intentional about, you know, let's family time and let's really prioritize that, and that's been such a blessing for all of us. In the last several years I just have been impacted by how brief of a time we have with our children and really just the whole lifespan is so brief. So I've been a lot more deliberate about every day and how I approach the day, every day and how I approach the day. So you know, I'm really I have an inner circle which is mostly my kids and my wife, my employees, but I'll usually send out a scripture every morning, I'll spend a little time in the word and then at verse of the day, but just the importance of washing them with the word and, and you know, washing myself with the word, renewing my mind to God's reality in my life.
Joe Dugger:And I can't separate the spiritual, but I just think we've mean, even when I younger, I remember sitting in in, sitting in seeing much student Ripple-Effect. I Drip, it's struggling. Just maybe they were really shy and just couldn't connect very well with people and I could see the way they were and I could feel this empathy for them. But I just remember thinking, you know, even just saying something to them like hey, how's it going? Or did you do your homework? It didn't matter. There was this desire to just have a brief conversation because I knew there was a ripple from that. You know there was going to be something good that could come from that, from that. There was going to be something good that could come from that and it was going to help that person engage in the world around them and see that they had value and that someone else cared enough to talk to them.
Joe Dugger:So it's just to me, as I've gotten older, the spiritual is, you know, we're mind, body and spirit, but I think the spirit is where everything really has the most significance and definitely the most permanence. And so you know, when God, talks about laying up happened heaven, I really think that that comes down to relationship, and what we do and what we say and how it impacts people is so I always think about the ripple effect and what it's going to do, even generationally. I think that's where the spiritual God me is most the is because we don't see it necessarily, but we know it's there not. and Paul see it over time as it. You know, as as our parents or pass and we understand left us and what they've done we, we can recognize the importance of what's happened in the spiritual realm.
Lisa Peters:Yeah, many times in my care group, you know, we, we talk about, we've talked about this and I, I use the professional, word I drip on people. I, I much prefer ripple effect Drip. It's like you know, we just drip on people, it's like you know, if they can see that I'm a Christian, or in my language, in my language, . in my actions. But, yeah, I'm going to use ripple effect, changing my words.
Joe Dugger:Yeah, that's good. Yeah, I think it's hard to understand in some ways. But we do compartmentalize into the physical and the emotional and the spiritual, but I think we're all those wrapped in one. You know we've got mind, body, spirit and so, um, a lot of what's. What's happened for us, you know, in Christ is in the spiritual realm and when we're born again it's a, you know, it's an instant, um, you know phenomenon.
Joe Dugger:But so I think in the spirit that work is complete. We're this new creation, we're. We're perfect. You know, god sees us in. The spirit is perfect, but the mind and the body still are not so we're, paul says in Ephesians, one, we're purchased but not redeemed yet. So I think that that part of us is, is the, is the part that needs the spiritual realm to continually renew our minds and renew our bodies, even to the reality of Christ in us.
Lisa Peters:Yeah, I wanted to ask you about. You're the founder of One Life Direct Care and when I, when I do find your professional everything, it's not that the website is Christian, it's in the name of the company. For me, you know, and I'm thinking this is clear, this is done intentionally and because everything I find out about you is very, very empowering All the titles not the titles, the company names that you're involved? with What Very do I intentional. ?
Joe Dugger:Yes, yes.
Lisa Peters:Yeah, all right. So Leader Impact is dedicated to leaders having a lasting impact. So, as you continue to own journey, have considered what you want faith legacy to be when you leave this world? .
Joe Dugger:I've been considering it a lot more in recent years, for sure, yeah, I really, you know, I think when I have a strong desire to go into something or do something, especially knowing that it's going to take everything as far as resource to do those things, I just weigh can't always see the end at the beginning, but I just weigh out what is the impact and what I want the legacy to be, what I want my life's work to be about, and I can have an opinion on that. But what will people say? You, you know, and what will my grandchildren say? So I want them to. I want them to say that they saw Jesus, they saw his love,. That's, that's really the, the, the biggest desire that I have, and that's really pretty simple, but it's real, yeah it is.
Joe Dugger:yeah, I haven't really had to think It's while, but that's good to reflect on.
Lisa Peters:It is, and . When I it's a business podcast we're thinking for and, it's, it's not big, it's and it's not hard. What am I thinking of? Um, it's not as simple At it is that's, but it's, it's the truth and it's. Yeah, we try to come up with such big answers, judged, Really smart answers. Anyway, my final question for you, joe, is what brings you the greatest joy? .
Joe Dugger:Yes, I so you know I've always been more fulfilled in the practice of medicine when I see people come off of their medicine for diabetes or medicine Sometimes if for high blood pressure and to just be empowered to realize that they can make Christians the lifestyle changes and they can do some things that will. That will have a huge impact on their health and maybe kind of even change their paradigm of how they're thinking about their destiny. Because some people just will sort of think, oh, my parents, my dad, had a heart attack when he was 50, so that's going to happen to me, and so I love to see that paradigm shift. And the greatest really is when people understand and realize that Jesus is their .. And And, um, even if it's through medicine or whatever, if they can encounter Jesus and this might be people who Christians their whole life, but they may not have ever met Jesus as their healer and I he clearly in the gospels. You. But it's just like time, you want the father, just look at me and he's he's healing them of everything that they come with. And so, um, I just I love to see that happen.
Joe Dugger:Uh, to see that happen some. Uh, you know it's, it's awesome when it happens in an instant. Sometimes it happens over time, but, um, it's just. I can see why Jesus said this is my to when his, when his followers were trying to get him to eat something. He's like you don't understand. I've got this bread, this is my food. It's doing doing the will of my father, which he was talking specifically, I think, about healing and, and you know, turning people's lives around. So, um, that's to me greatest . Because sure.
Lisa Peters:Thank you for sharing Um, you know, uh, when I listened Listening and I that you know you you are a family doctor with your specialties in, I think, uh, obesity uh, sports obesity and sports medicine. Do you take your faith into your work? That is, at Leader Impact? That's one of our biggest. You know we are trying to integrate. When you go to work, sometimes you're judged right. People don't want to hear it. And when I asked you about the name of your company, you talk about the culture. You send out messages every morning. You know from the Bible it's inspiring and not everybody's like that. You know some workplaces. How did you set this up?
Lisa Peters:Well, you know, I try and be discerning about
Joe Dugger:what to say and how to say it, and I want people to be drawn to Jesus. If you say on your website or you say on your sign, you know, christians can come here in so many words, then that means everybody else doesn't necessarily want to come or feel welcome, and I don't want to do that. So I think there's a time when people are ready to receive the good news and know that Jesus loves them and that he wants to have a relationship with them, and we don't always know when that's going to be. But I have worked for employers before where, you know, I was reprimanded for talking about Jesus too much, and these were Christian people that were saying you know that I had, I think I had prayed with a patient, maybe and and I don't remember all the details of it, but anyway, I mean I just I took that as as the you know the reprimand that it was, but at the same time I also, um, felt like that there's, this is not going to stop me, I'm not going to, I'm going to stop talking about him or telling people about him, but I do want to do it in a way that's most effective and has the greatest potential to to plant those seeds of truth.
Joe Dugger:And so, um, and now that I own my own business, I have more of an opportunity to create the culture and help to facilitate that, and I see that as part of my role as a leader in our business. To you know, whatever they want to do with it is their decision. But I'm going to speak truth and I'm going to do it in a loving way and, you know, if we disagree, that's okay. I'm not going to hate them and I'm not going to respond in a way that's, you know, going to turn them. Turn them off too, because there may be a chance for them to to come around to those realities at some point.
Lisa Peters:Yeah, oh, thanks for taking the time to answer that question. I listening to you. I just I think there's a lot of people listening thinking how do I do this? And at Leader Impact we are, we're marketplace leaders who integrate our personal, professional, spiritual. We all come together and you know, to have the ripple effect not drip, but have the ripple effect. So you are definitely having the ripple effect. I want to thank you for just joining us for the last half hour. I just appreciate your time. You are a busy guy and just taking these last 30 minutes. I loved it. You changed a little bit of me and I know that our viewers. You changed a little bit of them.
Joe Dugger:Thanks, Lisa. I appreciate you having me on your show.
Lisa Peters:You're welcome. And now, if anybody wants to find you, engage with you anything, social media or a website, what would be the best way to find you?
Joe Dugger:Well, I am on LinkedIn. I don't have as much knowledge on my social media. Someone doing that for me but I'm on LinkedIn. Joseph is my full first name, Joseph Duggar, and it's D-U-G-G-E-R. My website for the company is OneLifeDirect, so it's OneLifeDirect. org, and so that's the easiest way to reach me.
Lisa Peters:All right. Good. Well, thank you again. It was a great half hour. All right, Well, if you're part of Leader Impact, you can always discuss or share this podcast with your group. And if you are not yet part of Leader Impact and would like to find out more and grow your leadership, find our podcast page on our website at leaderimpact. ca or check out our free leadership assessment. You will also find on our webpage chapter one of Braden Douglas's book Becoming a Leader of Impact. You can also check out groups available in Canada at leaderimpact. ca or, if you're listening from anywhere else in the world, check out leaderimpact. com or get in touch with us by email info@ leaderimpact. ca and we will connect you. And if you like this podcast, please leave us a comment, give us a rating or review. This will help other global leaders find our podcast. Thank you for engaging with us and remember impact starts with you.
