The Open Doors Podcast launched with Episode 1, "The Stories Behind the Lessons", on Dr. Crosse's own channel, Open Doors with Dr. Crosse. He is joined by Rick Deadwyler Jr., who wrote the book's foreword, and Clay Goldsborough Jr., a partner at First Financial Group in Bethesda, Maryland — two childhood friends whose stories appear in Open Doors. You can watch the full episode on the watch page.
For the last month, Open Doors travelled by invitation. A podcast, a medical talk show, national talk radio, an HBCU stage in September. Every one of those rooms belonged to somebody else, and every one of them was earned.
This week the pattern changed. Dr. Crosse stopped waiting to be booked and built the room himself.
Episode one does something smarter than an introduction
Most first episodes are a throat-clear. Here is who I am, here is what the show will be, please subscribe. This one skips that entirely and does something more interesting: it brings on the people the book is actually about.
Joining him are Rick Deadwyler Jr. — his friend since childhood, and the man who wrote the foreword to Open Doors — and Clay Goldsborough Jr., a partner at First Financial Group in Bethesda, Maryland. Two men he has known since they were boys. Two men whose stories are already in the chapters.
That is the whole premise, and it is in the title: The Stories Behind the Lessons.
A lesson in a book is a conclusion. The story underneath it is the evidence.
Why this format is the right one for this book
A career book has a structural problem. To be useful it has to compress — a chapter on follow-up cannot also be a full account of the night somebody did or did not send the email, and what it cost them. So the lesson survives and the story gets trimmed.
The trimming is what makes advice feel weightless. Readers nod at "follow up" and change nothing, because a rule with no story attached is just a rule.
Putting the actual people on camera reverses that. When the man in the chair is the one who lived it, the lesson stops being a maxim and becomes something that happened to a person with a name, in a year, with consequences. That is also the argument the book makes about mentors — the value is not the advice, it is the proximity to someone who has been there. The mentor gap is what happens when nobody in your life has.
What it says about how he works
There is a lesson in the launch itself, separate from anything said on the episode.
He did not start with a channel. He started with a book, then said yes to rooms other people owned, then built an audience across four of them in a single month, and only then made a place of his own for that audience to go. The order matters. Most people try it backwards — build the platform first, then hunt for something to put on it.
It is the same sequence Open Doors describes for a career. Be good in rooms you do not own. Be easy to recommend. Then the room of your own is a consequence rather than a gamble.
Watch it
The full episode is on the watch page, alongside his appearances on Doctors with Dr. M, the How You Doin Podcast and KBLA 1580. As with every video on this site, nothing loads from YouTube until you press play — the thumbnail is served from this domain, and the card tells you so before you click.
If you want the argument in writing first, the free Open Doors Blueprint is the short course, and the TEEE Score takes four minutes and tells you which of the four is costing you the doors after the first one.
Start with the free course
The Open Doors Blueprint turns the ideas in the book into a short guided course. No cost, and it saves your progress.
Frequently asked
What is The Open Doors Podcast?
A podcast hosted by Dr. Kester Crosse, MD on his own channel, Open Doors with Dr. Crosse. Episode 1 is titled "The Stories Behind the Lessons".
Who is on episode one?
Rick Deadwyler Jr., who wrote the foreword to Open Doors, and Clay Goldsborough Jr., a partner at First Financial Group in Bethesda, Maryland. Both are childhood friends of Dr. Crosse whose stories feature in the book.
Where can I watch it?
On the watch page at opendoorssuccess.com/watch, or on the Open Doors with Dr. Crosse channel on YouTube. Nothing loads from YouTube on the watch page until you press play.
How do I book Dr. Crosse to speak?
Availability, formats and enquiries are on the speaking page at opendoorssuccess.com/speaking.