Building Community-First Healthcare with AI | Johnny Cantrell of Orchid Health | The Brainiac Blueprint Podcast

In this episode of The Brainiac Blueprint Podcast, we’re joined by Johnny Cantrell, Senior Marketing Manager at Orchid Health, to explore how rural clinics are using AI to stay sustainable, reduce burnout, and remain deeply human.

Johnny shares how Orchid integrates AI tools like Freed to free up clinicians’ time and focus. He also dives into the power of trust-based community marketing, rebuilding after wildfires, and what it takes to deliver care where options are few but the stakes are high.

Full transcript below.

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⏱ In this episode, we discuss: 

 00:00 | Intro

 01:02 | Meet Johnny Cantrell and Orchid Health

 04:02 | Serving rural communities with full-spectrum care

 06:35 | “90 to 95% of our health happens outside the doctor’s office”

 09:01 | How Orchid responded to a devastating wildfire

 13:06 | Putting employee well-being above financial outcomes

 15:40 | Community-based marketing that works better than ads

 28:52 | Using Freed AI to cut documentation time and reduce burnout

 35:23 | How AI helps with everything from sign permits to strategy

 38:11 | Using AI to build localized playbooks and target the right audiences

 41:03 | Keeping heart in content: when AI helps, and when it doesn’t

 44:20 | Hope for healthcare: “Let’s use AI to make us better, not replace us”

🔗 Johnny Cantrell 

LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonnycantrell/ 

Orchid Health → https://www.orchidhealth.org/

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Episode Full Transcript:

Kyle: Welcome back, everybody, to another episode of The Brainiac Blueprint, where we discuss the intersection of AI and how it impacts the business world today - and how it’s impacting our esteemed guests, of course.

I’m your host, Kyle Lambert, founder of Left Brain AI and Action Hero Marketing.

Today is another episode in our healthcare series, where we’re going to be discussing marketing to local and community-based clinics.

With that being said, welcome to the show - Senior Marketing Manager of Orchid Health, Jonny Cantrell. How are you, Jonny?

Jonny: Hey, doing well. Thanks for having me, Kyle.

Kyle: Of course. I’m looking forward to this conversation. I think it’s always interesting when you’re talking about local communities. There’s always a unique style and perspective you need, especially from a marketing standpoint.

So tell us a little bit about you. Let’s set the stage - who are you, where are you from, and what’s your experience?

Jonny: Sure. As you mentioned, I’m Jonny. I’ve lived in the Portland metro area basically my entire life. I love it out here in the Northwest.

If you’ve been, you know that we have mountains just one hour east, beaches one hour west, and tons of outdoor recreation.

I’ve been in marketing for a little over a decade now.

I started at a CBD company - that was my first job, doing social media. Left that, did some freelance work, and eventually landed where I am now - Orchid Health.

I’ve been here since 2020. When I started, we had three clinics and about 40 to 50 employees. We’re now at six clinics with nearly 100 employees, so we’ve grown quite a bit.

We serve rural communities - often underserved communities with limited health options. We specialize in compassionate and exceptional care.

Our first appointments are 60 minutes long, so we can truly understand our patients. We do our best to show up in our communities in their own unique ways.

Being in Oregon, a lot of our communities are former logging towns - a lot of Bigfoot energy out there as well. Haven’t personally come across Bigfoot yet, but some of our patients certainly have - and a few of our staff members too.

I have a family - two young kids, a beautiful wife - and we’re just so grateful to be part of Orchid and living in Portland during this time.

Kyle: Didn’t find Bigfoot, but you found the wife, kids, and a good job - so I guess things aren’t too bad, right?

Jonny: Totally. Yeah. Sometimes the search for your wife is actually harder than the search for Bigfoot. So it was nice that part worked out for me.

Kyle: There you go. Amazing.

Well, I’m excited to jump in. I love Orchid’s mission and who you focus on. I think something we hear a lot about today - especially in the U.S. - is accessibility to healthcare.

So it’s great that you’re serving underserved communities - people who really need your assistance.

Do me a favor and just set the stage for Orchid. I know you said you've gone through a lot of growth, but what kind of services do you guys provide? What can people expect when they interact with Orchid Health?

Jonny: Yeah, so we’re your primary care home. We do your regular checkups. If you have an illness, a scrape, or need stitches, we'll help with those types of things. We’ll refer out for those larger, more complex things, but we try our best to be a one-stop shop in our communities.

We are often the only health clinic in town. In fact, a lot of rural health clinics throughout the entire country are closing down one after another, so it’s been really challenging as an industry to have sustainability in it.

Orchid’s model - outside of the care - is that we actually put our financial sustainability as the final pillar within our organization, with employee satisfaction being the most important.

As people are well aware, healthcare is an industry that has a reputation for burnout. So Orchid, at the employee level, is doing its best to prevent burnout, have flexibility in scheduling with the providers, and really work around it.

At our clinics, we work a lot with physician associates. We have nurse practitioners, and we also have MDs - and those are the ones who are giving the actual service.

We treat everybody - from someone who’s pregnant and expecting, to a newborn baby, all the way to helping support end-of-life care within our organization.

We also have behavioral health, which is a little unusual to have within the building of a primary care facility. Our behavioral health is focused on short-term counseling that’s more results-driven. So they have up to ten sessions - not long-term psychiatric care, but more for emotional support, grieving, and things in between that.

We also have a community health role at each of our clinics. This role is really a liaison between the offerings of the community - whether it’s transportation, grocery help, housing help - any of those varieties of needs that can come up that create stability.

They help work with folks to set them up in those regards.

Our clinics are serving the entire population of the rural towns that we exist in, and they do their best to be able to support everything under one roof. Like I said, when it gets more complex, we refer out.

We have six clinics throughout Oregon. We serve populations from about 1,500 people all the way up to 10,000 and growing.

It’s been a really transformative experience to work in rural health - especially in healthcare - to get to hear some of these amazing patient stories.

Just today, I heard about a mom we helped out. When she first came to the clinic, she had high health needs, hadn’t seen a doctor in a while, hadn’t been to the dentist. We got her set up and insured, even helped her get access to care and a car seat for her child.

Things like that might seem a little outside healthcare, but they matter. About 90 to 95 percent of our health happens outside of the doctor’s office.

Being able to meet our community for their mental health and their health that exists outside the clinic walls is super important to being successful.

So that’s a little bit about Orchid - our services, our background, and the “why” behind it.

Kyle: Amazing. So if anybody wants to check out more about Orchid Health, you can look at orchidhealth.org. A lot of information on there.

You mentioned some amazing things there, Jonny. It’s very cool to hear. It’s a compassionate organization that’s truly there to help.

There’s one thing I didn’t want to skip over, though. You mentioned they focus a lot on employee satisfaction. It sounds like there’s compassion there for patients and employees.

And I think today, in the age of information, your talent is the most important part of an organization - keeping those good people and good workers.

So I’m curious if you have a story or something you’ve seen or heard that Orchid has done to truly support employees.

I know you were there during COVID, so is there an employee highlight you might share?

Jonny: Yeah, there’s a lot we do to support employee well-being.

We’ve made ongoing improvements to benefits - like 401(k)s, family insurance, getting care at our clinics as employees.

We have a well-being fund - every employee gets $1,000 a year from the company to spend on whatever they want in support of their health.

I’ve bought knives with that. I’ve paid dental bills with that. Little things like that.

The one story that comes to mind on how we showed up for our employees happened in 2020 - and it wasn’t even COVID-related.

We had a devastating wildfire take place at one of our clinics. It was called the Holiday Farm Fire, and it happened on the McKenzie River.

Earlier that year, we had just occupied the first-ever federally recognized rural health clinic in Oregon - called the McKenzie River Clinic. We had taken it over in January.

Come late August or early September, the Holiday Farm Fire broke out and devastated the community - including our clinic. The clinic got totally burned down.

I remember receiving a text message first thing in the morning saying, “We’ve got this situation.”

We do our best to employ people who live in the community. It’s important they have that connection to local realities.

You’ll often hear in smaller towns, people saying, “Don’t Portland our Estacada.” It means, honor the culture and heritage of the community.

We had multiple staff members evacuate their homes; a few even lost them.

Orchid made sure those displaced continued receiving pay and weren’t expected to come back to work right away.

They also mobilized the other clinics - at that time, we had three total - to help take calls from patients who were also displaced.

When stuff literally goes up in flames, it creates a ripple effect - patients lose access to prescriptions and pharmacies. So having the network of providers step in was crucial.

This was during COVID, so telehealth had become more common. We were able to connect with people virtually.

Orchid made sure employees felt ready to come back after something collectively traumatic.

Many people lost property. The area was beautiful - lush, green - and it was all burnt down.

That’s an example of where I don’t know how a larger organization would’ve handled it, but I know those who experienced it were grateful the company was flexible and didn’t rush them.

Even on the patient side, there was so much quick decision-making and innovation.

Our financial director happened to be connected to an organization that had a mobile health clinic. He called them, told them our situation - they immediately lent it to us.

Once the fires were manageable, we came back in the mobile clinic and started providing care locally.

Then the team worked out of a quilt shop, which we converted into a temporary clinic.

Just last year, we reopened a brand-new state-of-the-art clinic in the original spot - thanks to our state representatives and the community.

That story really touched all four of Orchid’s pillars: employee satisfaction, patient relationships, community health, and financial sustainability.

Our belief is that if employees are happy, everything else trickles down.

That’s an example of all four pillars working together - showing compassion, understanding, and grace to people experiencing something heartbreaking.

Kyle: I love to see a mission and its pillars in action. So many companies have words on a poster, but to see it lived out is powerful.

As if COVID wasn’t enough - then a wildfire. But that created unity and showed true empathy.

Those employees and patients aren’t just employees and patients anymore - they’re ambassadors now.

That’s really cool to hear.

Jonny: Thanks.

Kyle: I want to jump into your role specifically around marketing.

We’ve talked about building trust in the community - it’s different in rural ecosystems.

Can you elaborate on what your marketing looks like in a place where traffic and volume may not matter as much, but quality and trust do?

Jonny: Totally. As mentioned, we serve lower populations and are often the only shop in town.

I’ve found myself in a space that merges community engagement, traditional media, and digital media.

Word of mouth is our number one referral source.

Our second biggest referrer? People seeing a sign.

So someone sees the sign while driving and says, “Oh, that’s the health clinic,” and then schedules an appointment.

Kyle: The sign at the actual physical location, not a billboard?

Jonny: Yeah, the sign at the physical location.

So me having to really understand our clinics at the local level has become really important to being successful in it - and the relationship building that comes with it.

Small communities can easily storytell in a much faster way than an urban community. Urban communities, you can kind of get siloed into whatever your audience or niche is.

But in a smaller community, they’re talking to each other. So we really have to find where people are showing up at - whether it’s at the local library, some kind of community park, or there’s another trusted partner.

So we really do focus on building relationships when we come into a new town. One of the most important things that we do is connect with the school, connect with the local government, and then find other stakeholders within the community.

And so, for example, our most recent clinic that we opened in Welches, Oregon - it’s called the Hoodland Clinic - we worked with the original owners of the building to help tell that story in a really unique way.

I didn’t pay for a digital ad. I built a relationship with somebody. I would send her pictures of my kids - all genuine, it’s not a fake thing. We genuinely talked to each other, we built a relationship.

And then she was like, “Yeah, of course, what do you want me to post? What do you want me to say?”

Her endorsement was way stronger than showing up with any marketing I could have pushed out on the digital side, because she’s one of the people who has been in that community for decades.

Her husband’s family has been there for generations. They own a lot of property out there.

So being able to find those unique ways in is why that community engagement is so important.

Then on the digital side, what we’re really doing is hoping to sustain and build an audience of people locally within the community, but also engage on these forums that they have.

So Facebook is a place where there are groups that exist, and on these groups, you connect with parents of the area, you connect with other community leaders, other business owners - to share your story or to let people know of happenings.

And so I really find myself engaging in those areas, having higher engagement. The posts that get the most engagement are when it’s a very real, down-to-earth post that came directly from the clinic.

It’s not saying, “Hey, come get your behavioral health here,” or whatever. It’s really the people they know from their community showing up on their feed that’s the most exciting thing.

And so that’s kind of the cross-section that I exist in. Like I said, it’s this sort of community, traditional media, and digital media.

There’s still the digital side, which has a lot of value - we do see plenty of results, especially from email campaigns - but the relationship building and endorsements and trust are the things that help our clinics remain sustainable in these smaller communities, where it’s really easy for a story to dominate the arena, so to speak.

Kyle: It’s funny - I spend all my days trying to crank out ads and put together the perfect creative and landing page, and you just have some lady posting messages on Nextdoor for you that’s generating leads. That’s so cool. I need to look into a Nextdoor lady over here.

Jonny: Yeah, you know, just connecting with the existing network and trust that somebody’s already built - it went a long way.

Kyle: That brings up an interesting challenge, though. I think if any marketers are listening and thinking like me, there’s the immediate thought of - how do we measure this?

You said you have the digital campaigns you can measure, the traffic, the clicks, whatever it may be - but there’s some of this offline stuff that’s really just qualitative feedback and word of mouth.

So how do you understand what’s working for you? Is there a measuring stick, or is it just, “We know this matters, let’s keep doing it until feedback suggests otherwise”?

Jonny: Yeah, I think it is hard to quantify the value of these relationships.

What I’ve learned since being at Orchid is that the local relationships are key to trust-building - and without trust, it can be a domino effect of storytelling and confusion around us.

So yeah, I would say it’s more of a pulse check.

We’ll get feedback from the community or from our other stakeholders.

Three of our clinics at Orchid Health are school-based health clinics - so we’re co-located within the high school of the area.

We have to have a super solid relationship with the school district in order to feel successful, and with the parents of that district as well.

We can sense when there’s pot-stirring happening in the community because we’re locally connected to people who live there - the people we’ve hired.

And of course, we can sometimes just see it live on Facebook - somebody saying something.

Then we can make sure to support that reputation.

So I would say it’s more sensing and responding - like, we know when it’s off.

We’re well aware - we have goals for how many patients we want to see every day, we have goals for the total amount.

So if we started to see a drop in some of these things, there would be more of a push to find quantitative ways to measure it.

Another example that comes to mind is print media. These clinics that still have a local newspaper - genuinely local, not owned by some big company - those ads work really well.

In our Hoodland Clinic, word of mouth, Nextdoor, and the Mountain View newspaper were the three biggest referral sources.

We have a big ad in there, we keep it going, good relationship with the owner.

Those are the measures - when we see the referral reasons come in.

If someone says, “Oh, I heard about you through my school,” or “I saw you in the paper,” then we know our relationship is working in that sense.

Another example would be at our Sandy Clinic - I work closely with the Director of Communication, and he’ll send emails to the entire parent group across every school, letting them know about our services, sports physicals, or new providers.

He just does that whenever we ask.

That came from relationship building.

So the way we track whether these relationships are successful is when it shows up in our referral reasons - why a patient chose us.

Then we can say, “Okay, yeah, it’s worth investing in.”

And like I said, we know when it’s off - someone in the community will tell us, and we’ll do our best to navigate that situation.

Kyle: Interesting. Yeah, there’s always someone who will speak up if there’s an issue. That’s both a good thing and a bad thing, I guess.

Jonny: Totally.

Kyle: So I’m curious, in terms of your marketing - Orchid has multiple locations. Do you have an overarching strategy, or is there a strategy specific for each location? Because these are the services that might be needed more in one, or maybe something resonates differently? Or is it a combination of both - a high-level brand strategy and nuances per location?

Jonny: Yeah, there’s a high-level brand strategy, which consists of showing up at these certain touchpoints I’ve talked about.

That can look like events happening in our communities, sponsorships, or the overall digital strategy - basically Instagram, Facebook, and capturing emails.

So those are things we show up with continuity throughout.

Where the more nuanced happenings occur is at that local level.

One of the things we’ve implemented since I’ve been here, which came from a reputational challenge we had, was a role called the Marketing PR Liaison.

At each clinic, we’ve identified someone who can take on that extra responsibility - to be the person who works directly with marketing if there’s a PR challenge or community nuance.

We work with them to identify high-impact spaces where we can show up.

An example of that is one of our clinics - our first clinic - out in Oakridge, a former logging community. They have an annual heritage festival called the Tree Planting Festival.

For many years, for some reason, our clinic hadn’t participated - maybe it wasn’t happening for a while, I can’t remember the full story.

But when our PR liaison started working with us, they identified that there was actually a need to revamp the Tree Planting Festival - as a means to help support the community.

This was post-COVID, maybe 2022, when people were finally getting together again.

The festival really connects with people who grew up in the area. They remember the parades, the Children’s Olympics, the crowning of the town princess.

It holds huge sentimental value.

When it was getting revamped, we had extra funds from a government grant, and we said, “We’re going all in to help support this, make it sustainable, and give it the leg up it needs.”

That was identified through our clinic - through our marketing liaison.

So yeah, those are all the ways we use local resources to market ourselves authentically, for the community.

And like I said, we just have our overall digital strategy, which I feel like I have the most control over.

But each clinic is different - really different. It’s wild how unique they all are.

Kyle: I’m sure they are. That’s really interesting stuff.

I want to pivot slightly. This is an AI podcast, obviously, so I want to jump into AI and tech a little bit.

When we previously connected, you mentioned Orchid Health isn’t a tech-first organization, but you’re starting to integrate certain things.

I think you alluded earlier to telehealth and maybe an AI scribe.

So I’m curious how you’re implementing some of these - how AI fits into the model now and what’s next.

Jonny: Yeah, so there’s a few ways right now that we’re integrating AI into the actual delivery of care.

One of the things that we just recently implemented is called Freed.ai, and it’s a scribing tool that is made for-

Kyle: You’re not going to believe this. I literally yesterday interviewed for the podcast the content manager from Freed.

Jonny: No way. My mind’s blown right now. That’s so funny. I’m going to have to let her know.

Kyle: That’s so funny. I’m going to have to let her know.

Jonny: Yeah, let her know! I just reviewed their entire website so I could pull information and write content. That’s rad.

So yeah, we’re using her platform.

It’s a tool that-well, if you listened to the previous podcast, I’m sure you got all of it-but for anyone who’s only listening to this one, I’ll tell you in real time what it’s about.

It basically listens to the conversation between the provider and the patient, and then gives you a report of what that conversation was about - the summary, your next steps, etc.

What’s really valuable about that is our providers are just inundated with paperwork.

As patients, we don’t really see that side of it. They’re dealing with the insurance side, documentation, coding - they’re spending a lot of their time on administrative tasks.

And most providers get into this field, believe it or not, to give care to people - not to do admin work.

So this tool has been really great to roll out because it’s starting to save providers time and mental energy.

I forget the term, but there’s a phrase people use about the transition between tasks - that shift of attention. It’s really challenging to go from sitting with a patient who’s struggling and sharing something emotional to suddenly doing billing or notes.

So this is a tool we’re using to help providers out - totally an employee well-being thing.

Now, in terms of whether our patients accept and adopt it, that’s something we’ll still have to see over time.

We’re doing our best right now to make sure it’s communicated clearly. I actually just made a flyer based on Freed.ai’s information that speaks to its validity, safety, and the fact that it’s HIPAA-compliant.

There can be, in some of our communities, a little bit of distrust toward the digital age.

We’ll hear people say they’re unwilling to fill out a digital new-patient packet - they only want to do paperwork. So sometimes there’s hesitancy to adopt.

I do think tools like this - that feel straightforward and clearly beneficial - will be simpler to adopt.

Another example of AI showing up in our care was a grant we were part of for school-based health clinics.

It allowed telehealth in the nurse’s office at the school.

There was this tool - I can’t remember the exact name, I think it was called the Tyto device - it’s this small handheld gadget with a little camera at the tip.

You can put it on your body, and it reads your vitals. It measures heart rate, sends the data to the provider on the other end of the telehealth call.

This was rolled out during the pandemic - probably around 2020 or 2021 - and even now those tools have gotten more advanced, doing predictive modeling and things like that.

We’re not using those every day, but it’s amazing to see how far it’s come.

So those are some of the ways AI has shown up in our clinical care.

Our administrative side is also continuing to adopt and understand the right ways to use AI effectively.

You’ve probably heard the term “AI slop,” right? Where you look at something and you’re like, “Dude, come on - can you do this one more time before you put it in front of us?” It’s got like twenty em dashes.

So there’s been a lot of learning around quality control.

Our HR team was one of the early adopters of AI, using it to support policy writing and putting up guardrails.

In marketing, we adopted AI really early.

When I was working with my mentor back when AI was just rolling out, we were on ChatGPT all the time trying to figure out what kind of creatives it could do.

Right now, my department is me, a marketing coordinator, and those liaisons I mentioned earlier.

So being able to use AI has really helped elevate all of our content overall.

It also works as a feedback loop of information.

There’s something powerful about having a tool that can pull from so much information - more than I could on my own.

I’m mostly self-taught in marketing. My degree is in history, so I learned marketing through doing, through books, and through mentorship. I got the education eventually, but I didn’t go to school for it.

Kyle: So AI wasn’t in your history books?

Jonny: Not this time, yeah.

But yeah, using AI to generate ideas, to support copy - it’s helped us expand our SEO, our email campaigns, everything.

Because when you’re just a department of two people, there’s only so much bandwidth.

Some tasks are more valuable than others.

For example, as I told you earlier, our second biggest referral source is signs.

So when we get a request to update a sign, we take that very seriously.

I’ve learned a lot about signs - and permitting.

And with AI, I was able to ask, “What are the city’s codes and regulations for this type of sign?”

It cut down hours of research.

As a marketer, my favorite thing is creating - videos, graphics, writing. That’s what I love.

So those are the ways we’ve been integrating AI - on both the clinical and marketing side.

There are probably more ways happening that I don’t even know about yet.

But for us, it’s really about using AI as a creative partner, like an agency suite of information and ideas.

Kyle: Yeah, I love that. AI lets you focus on the work that actually matters and eliminates those time-suck tasks.

Instead of reviewing four hours of documents, five seconds later, you’ve got the info.

It’s so powerful, and it’s only going to keep getting more powerful because of its own feedback loop.

I’m curious, though - you mentioned having multiple clinics and local differences.

Do you have plans to use AI to help streamline communication or segment how you’re working with each clinic?

Jonny: Yeah, so right now there’s this backburner project I’ve been working on - I’m essentially training AI and having it give me prompts.

I’ll feed it our brand guidelines, our voice, all that.

Then I’ll feed it data on each clinic - the community’s socioeconomic makeup, cultural details, everything - and use that to get content or campaign ideas back.

I’ve been working on trying to establish basically a playbook that our clinics can use, so they can go around marketing if they need to.

It would let them quickly communicate something or send an email out.

That’s kind of on the back end - not fully implemented yet.

But we do feed AI that local information so it can have a more holistic understanding of the communities we serve.

It’s been really helpful for determining audiences.

For example, one clinic came to me and said, “We want to promote telehealth.”

So I said, “Okay, great - but who are we promoting it to?”

Using AI, I fed it information about the community, and it came back saying, “Your biggest target here is working moms - they’re the most likely to adopt telehealth.”

That insight was spot on.

So from there, I created content specifically for working moms.

And as you know, social media audience targeting is incredibly advanced - you can get hyper-specific and really meet people where they’re at.

So those are some of the ways we’re using AI to segment and refine how we approach each clinic - while still supporting their autonomy and uniqueness.

Kyle: Very cool. You hit on something really important.

You talked about audience - who are we doing this for, why are we doing it - and that’s something that should be at the core of every marketing campaign, especially for community-based organizations.

So just to kind of put a bow on this conversation in terms of AI and content - your strategy clearly has heart.

It’s storytelling with compassion and empathy.

So how do you determine when it’s appropriate to use AI for writing, imagery, or anything creative - versus when to keep it purely human?

What’s your philosophy for keeping it authentic and on-brand?

Jonny: I love that - “content with heart.” That really resonates.

The Orchid logo is literally a heart with our colors surrounding it.

We never want to lose sight of the people we’re serving.

Here’s an example: we have a provider who’s been with us seven years, super well-liked. He’s leaving in October for a new opportunity.

So the clinic came to me and said, “We need to communicate this to patients.”

And on top of that, the main provider is going on paternity leave around the same time - he’s expecting a new baby.

Kyle: Because why not, right?

Jonny: Exactly. When there’s a fire, you might as well add some fuel.

So this is an example where I might use AI to help with the structure - to get that first draft down, the outline, the flow.

But then I’ll go in and add the heart. Talk to the real people. Make sure it sounds human and trustworthy.

Even with graphics - I don’t mind using AI to generate a first pass or a concept, but I don’t want to just download the AI image and call it done.

As a creative, I already know that image will get pixelated in three forwards and never scale right on a sign.

So we’ll use AI as a starting point, then build it out ourselves, add our spin, make sure it’s usable.

We’re sensitive about how we show up - especially when something’s sensitive or impacts the clinics or people we serve.

And like I said before, when our clinics just want to post something organic and natural, we want it to feel organic and natural.

So sometimes it’s literally, “Hey, we’re over at the Wooden Boat Festival - come check us out!”

I saw your cat kind of your cat just came through

Kyle: Sorry, my cat just made an appearance - he does that every episode.

Jonny: Oh, I had a cat that looked just like that growing up!  She lived to be 22.

Kyle: My little gray girl

Jonny: Yeah, so those are the ways we use AI - to build the foundation, but always layer in the human side to keep it real and compassionate.

Kyle: Very cool. I love that.

So we’re getting toward the end here, and I’ve got to ask the impossible question:

What’s your prediction for the future of healthcare and health tech - and how AI might continue to integrate?

Jonny: Boy.

AI is a tool that can either really advance our society or destroy it.

I hope we see AI used to help providers make better decisions and understand health more holistically.

There’s so much opportunity there.

When you get into quantum computing and that level of modeling, it gets wild - but in the best way.

If we use AI in a way that benefits society, we could be curing diseases. Running models that solve things we never could before.

But I also think humans have to stay at the center of it. We’re complex. We need empathy, not just sterile interactions.

So I hope as AI continues to grow in healthcare, providers remain central - the ones advocating for patient health - and they use the tool to make their work better.

On the marketing side, I feel the same way.

There still needs to be a person at the center helping it navigate.

I don’t think it should 100% take over or replace creation.

For example, I haven’t used the AI video tools yet - and that’s because I have a background in video. I’m hesitant to add that in because it can take away the humanity.

So I just hope as AI grows, we as a society set the right guardrails - so it helps people instead of harming them.

We don’t need a world where everyone’s unemployed and the AI overlords are running the show.

I’m optimistic that we can use it as a tool - to make us better at our jobs, not replace them.

Kyle: That’s so in line. I think once per episode, I end up saying that AI should be human empowerment, not human replacement.

And I love what you said about using AI for cures - little teaser, by the way: on Thursday, I’m recording an episode with someone from a precision oncology company that uses AI to analyze biomarkers for specific cancer types.

So I’m very excited about that conversation. So a little teaser there. 

All right, so, I want to jump into just a couple of rapid-fire questions, just to kind of understand you a little bit more and have some fun. We have five quick ones here for you.

So, I ask everybody this - or some version of this. Genie in a bottle offers you one wish, and that wish has to be a functional workflow, or AI, or some automated system. What would that be?

Jonny: Social media.

It would be great to have social media. It’s just, you know, I’m at the age now where, like, many millennials are kind of getting hit with this, where we’re just like, “We gotta go back to simpler times.” So I would love for my social media to be fully automated. I can walk away from it. That would be awesome.

My wish to the genie - take care of social media. Never make another social media post again. 

Kyle: Start rubbing some lamps.

Jonny: Yeah, totally.

Kyle: All right, what is harder - convincing someone to get a flu shot or to sign up for a digital newsletter?

Jonny: Boy... gosh... what is our flu shot adoption... I will say... I will say digital newsletter, only because I don’t fully know what our clinic’s flu shot adoption rate is. So I’m just going to assume that they do a great job and everybody gets hit up with it.

Kyle: Give them the benefit of the doubt.

Jonny: Yeah, benefit of the doubt. So, I’ll say for now, it’s probably getting the email rate. Although, we’ve built some pretty good email lists too. So, just to say, we have a list as well. But yeah, I’ll say that for now. I’ll ask one of my providers and they’ll send you an email with what they think.

Kyle: Perfect. We’ll do a follow-up on that one.

If you could choose any superpower, what would it be?

Jonny: Teleportation.

Kyle: Oh, I like that. I like that.

If you went viral for something non-work-related, what would it be? What would have happened?

Jonny: Oh... it would probably- I told you this when we met initially - I do improv. So it would probably be me making an ass out of myself on stage.

Kyle: Perfect. Get some good laughs out of it.

Lastly, what are you binge-watching currently?

Jonny: Oh, so... you know how I talked about, like, going back to the ’90s? We just - we got rid of our smart TV, got a dumb TV. So we’re just a DVD and Blu-ray family right now.

Kyle: Wow. Okay.

Jonny: So, watching is less available in this model, but it’s had me revisit my DVDs. I have Simpsons Seasons 1 through 12 on DVD, and I started rewatching those. And I was like, “Oh yeah, I remember why I totally fell in love with this show as a kid.” So The Simpsons - even though it’s still going - that’s the one for me right now.

Kyle: Very cool. I like that answer. Amazing.

All right, open forum time. Anything we didn’t talk about that you want listeners to know?

Jonny: Yeah, thanks for the space.

As I mentioned earlier, 90 to 95% of our health happens outside the doctor’s office.

Our health lives in our communities, our homes, our environments, and our day-to-day actions.

If I could give one piece of advice, it’s this:Get to know your neighbors. Connect with your friends. Go on walks. Join a group. Love yourself.

The world is challenging, but you can be a light - and your light shining for just a few people can ripple outward.

It’s a butterfly effect.

Only 5–10% of your health gets handled at the doctor’s office. The rest happens in your daily life.

It doesn’t take much - a daily walk, a conversation, a connection - goes a long way. So I just say connect with people that you know, and love and find a hobby.

Kyle: That’s a beautiful sentiment and an amazing way to end this episode.

Jonny, I really appreciate your insights and your time today.

If anyone wants to connect with Jonny, it’s Jonny Cantrell - C-A-N-T-R-E-L-L - on LinkedIn.

Orchid Health is orchidhealth.org - check it out.

Jonny, thank you again for joining me on The Brainiac Blueprint.

If you wouldn’t mind, look at the camera and say, “Stay brilliant, Brainiacs.”

Jonny: Stay brilliant, Brainiacs.

Kyle: Awesome. Thank you, Jonny.

Jonny: Thanks, Kyle. Take care.

Kyle: You too. Bye.