At The Core: Spotlight On Dr. Shekar Challa
About Dr. Shekhar Challa
Dr. Shekhar Challa, President & CEO of Kansas Medical Clinic (KMC), is board-certified in Gastroenterology and is a practicing Gastroenterologist at Kansas Medical Clinic. KMC is a multi-specialty group practice with 150 employees, 33 providers, and is spread across 13 locations throughout Kansas and Missouri.
He is the founder of Osteoporosis Services, Inc. Which, at its peak, was the largest mobile bone density service company in the United States; spanning 6 states and 150 rural hospitals.
He also had the opportunity to co-found with his daughter Akhila, a nutraceutical probiotic company, called Probulin. Probulin is currently available in over 4,000 stores in the USA, including Whole Foods and Sprouts.
In addition to his several companies, Dr. Challa is an award-winning author. His books include “Winning the Hepatitis C Battle,” for which he received the Readers Preference Award and was a Benjamin Franklin award finalist, “Spurn the Burn: Treat the Heat-Everything you need to know about Acid Reflux Disease,” and “Probiotics for Dummies.”
Dr. Challa is on the board of Medtronic. He has been involved with the Greater Topeka Partnership since its inception and now serves as its chair.
In 2020, Dr. Challa was selected to the Junior Achievement of Kansas Topeka Business Hall of Fame.
MARTIN: I’m excited to introduce Dr. Shekhar Challa. He’s the president and CEO of the Kansas Medical Clinic, and known as the Renaissance Doctor. Dr. Challa, welcome to the show.
DR. CHALLA: Thanks for having me.
MARTIN: Dr. Challa, tell us about your background.
DR. CHALLA: I was born in India, but I was in New York for five years, from 1982 to 1987, which is where I did my training in internal medicine and gastroenterology. I was definitely very nervous moving to Topeka. When you train in New York, you can work anywhere in the world. I was pretty confident about my skillset, but nervous and not sure whether I’ll be successful.
MARTIN: What led you to diversify your medical services?
DR. CHALLA: As the old adage goes, don’t put all your eggs in one basket. We also wanted to be sure we’re meeting what the consumers in Kansas need. Twenty-five years ago, my wife came up with the idea to start a med spa. We were the first med spa in Kansas. We later found our sweet spot in dermatology. In the last 10 years, we’ve also scaled our research. There are a lot of medical conditions out there for which there are no drugs, and research provides an avenue to try something out. I’m proud to say that we are doing 16 studies on liver disease, fatty liver, and cirrhosis. There’s no treatment for it and all the major pharmaceutical companies are racing to make the first drug.
MARTIN: Not only are you a doctor, but you’re also an entrepreneur. How do you balance the two roles?
DR. CHALLA:My dad told me to be a good doctor first, then an entrepreneur. I was just a doctor for the first 10 years. Once I felt comfortable, I decided to be an entrepreneur. Eighty to 90% of my work still involves the medical practice, which I owe to my superstar management. They’re awesome. And because of that, I still can practice gastroenterology and hepatology and let the company grow.
I’m not a micromanager, which helps. Over the years at KMC, we’ve developed what we call the “great philosophy.” One part of the great philosophy is to make the patient’s day. That’s why we are here. Play, but within reason. We are family and need to take care of each other. My management team makes it easy for me to balance the two roles.
I think medical training teaches you to work hard and be resilient, which helps in your entrepreneurial journey. They don’t teach any of this in medical school, which is sad.
MARTIN: You’ve written several books, and you also run a business with your daughter. Tell us more.
DR. CHALLA: I’ve written multiple books, and I’m proud to say that my book about hepatitis C was translated into Spanish. I wrote “Probiotics for Dummies” after my daughter told me she wanted to start a supplement company. We formulated our own products and I wrote the book to give our products credibility. Our biggest challenge was bringing our products to the market. We were strong in coming out with the product and getting credibility, but we were poor in understanding how to sell the product. That’s when we got a traditional CEO. Soon, our products were in 5,000 stores. We exited the company in 2019, I believe.
MARTIN: What advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs in the medical field?
DR. CHALLA: Known your product or service better than anyone else. You have to be the purple cow, like in Seth Godin’s book “Purple Cow.” In short, he says that you have to be remarkable so that people from far away will identify you as the purple cow, as opposed to a regular cow. Beyond knowing your product, my advice would also be to get ready to work hard, be resilient, and understand your numbers.
MARTIN: What principles or strategies have you learned from opening your own practice?
DR. CHALLA: Never be overconfident. Self-doubt helps you learn along the way and grow. I tell my kids that dreams are free, so dream big. The two mantras I have are “perfection is the enemy of good” and “status quo is the kiss of death.” If you try to be perfect, good is good enough. Otherwise, you’ll be striving for perfection and will never move.
MARTIN: Why did you choose to open KMC in Topeka?
DR. CHALLA: I came here in 1987. I wanted to be in a place that’s good for raising a family, and close to a big city. Topeka was ideal. I was not who I am today in 1987. Topeka made me, so I owe it to Topeka.
MARTIN: You’re also involved in the community and on multiple leadership boards. When do you sleep?
DR. CHALLA: Luckily, I don’t sleep a whole lot, so four to five hours is enough for me. I catch up by taking afternoon naps on weekends.
MARTIN: When it comes to work-life balance, what advice would you give to others?
DR. CHALLA: From a business perspective, numbers don’t lie. You have to be true to your numbers. There is no advantage pursuing a passion if the numbers don’t make sense, if the economics don’t work. You have to be honest with yourself. You will soon realize when to push the gas pedal and when to hit the brake.
MARTIN: When do you know it’s time to take a break?
DR. CHALLA: Unfortunately, I’m not triggered that way. If it was left to me, I wouldn’t take a break. But I have good people surrounding me — my wife, my kids, my mentor — who keep me accountable.
MARTIN: Talk about why you recommend that everyone have a mentor.
DR. CHALLA: My mentor is a gentleman by the name of David Finkel. He wrote the book “Scale.” He keeps me grounded, accountable, and gives me a second opinion. A trained mentor pulls from a lot of businesses, and that helps whether you’re in the medical field or otherwise.
I look at mentorship in two ways. You are not only mentoring the business aspect, but also the personal side of the individual or the company. You have to be supportive and tactical when it comes to mentorship, and you have to be speaking in actionable terms, set a date, a time, a deadline. That’s how mentorship is from a business side, from a personal side. You have to mature as a person, too. Humility is a virtue we hardly see. Being humble is good.
The other thing is don’t let success go to your head, or failure go to your heart. Failure is inevitable in business. You just need to get up and keep going. Entrepreneurship is the ultimate equalizer. It doesn’t see your gender or skin color. When you are successful, take the time to pay it forward. One of the ways you can pay it forward is by mentoring others.
MARTIN: How can people find a mentor?
DR. CHALLA: There are so many people out there. You think they’re so busy and won’t have enough time for you, but that’s not true. You’ll be surprised. You just have to ask. I mean, I’ve been asked by several people, but expect homework. Don’t come back to me and waste my time unless you have done A, B, C. A mentor doesn’t even have to be someone in your field. A mentor is somebody who’s been successful and also had failures in their life, but got over that and continue to be successful.
MARTIN: Would you say that you’re comfortable with failure?
DR. CHALLA: Absolutely. If you have not failed, you’re either a rookie and just getting started, or you’re not comfortable stepping out of your comfort zone. I have had my share of failures. As long as you learn from your failures and don’t repeat the same thing, you are okay.
MARTIN: What advice would you give to those who are trying to be as successful as you are?
DR. CHALLA: It’s not going to happen overnight. It is going to take time and a lot of hard work. At some point, you may realize that your product may not be as good as you think it is, or your service is not as good as you think it is. This is where mentorship and getting a second opinion will always help.
MARTIN: Do you see retirement coming anytime soon?
DR. CHALLA: We just signed on to a couple of research studies, which will go on for seven years. I don’t expect to retire, but I may slow down in the practice of gastroenterology.
MARTIN: What legacy do you want to leave?
DR. CHALLA: To be remembered in a positive way.
