Bold Moves Changing The World One App At A Time: A Conversation with Dr. Patricia Kelly Marsh

 

Dr. Patricia Kelly Marsh, MD, is a sweet Georgia peach whose allegiance to her hometown of College Park, GA, runs deep. As a young girl, Patricia developed a fascination for teaching and science. Determined to make a difference in her community, Patricia vowed to use her passion for helping others as fuel to push her toward her goal of becoming a doctor, professor, and now an App Developer. By launching her new brand platform, ShhParty App, she has introduced a way for DJs and performers to get paid virtually. "Often ask people, “What’s your go-to party app?”. Most would say, “I don’t have a party app,” until now! ShhParty App is a social media entertainment app, aka The Party App, for everyone. Launching Nov 30th at Atlanta Tech Village rooftop, ShhParty App Version 2.0 will feature DJs and entertainers worldwide. I created ShhParty App because my sister, award-winning international jazz artist Gabbie McGee, was putting go to my CashApp in the comments of her virtual performances. So I built a platform her fans can give tips while viewing her performance, virtually and in person. Now any entertainer can get paid WHILE performing. Did you know I am the first black woman to solely create a patented Social Media Entertainment platform? As a doctor, I put the heart of a physician into my platforms. I wanted to create something that would not exploit social media users’ data for profit but allow them to generate income at no cost using the platform. I wanted to build a platform that could help anyone around the world increase their income in an entertaining way. And I want to shift the current social media paradigm from exploitative to economic empowerment for users." Dr. Patricia Marsh states.

LS: A black woman who is a creator has a powerful gift. What does that gift mean to you?

PRM: Oh, man, that's an excellent question. If you ask a black woman what she does, you should ask that question five more times because our skill sets are a laundry list of things, and a woman’s power cannot be limited to just one thing. We get a lot of flak about being the Super Women and doing everything, but the point to that is just making sure you're cognizant of when you need your rest and keeping yourself balanced. Therefore, it really evokes this kind of picture of a powerful woman who can do many things well, with just a little bit if necessary. Being creative and being a black woman that creates is just power in itself

LS: Tell me about Background Noise LLC?

PRM: Background Noise LLC, I started back in April of 2019, when it became official. Now the year before that, I was finishing up my residency, and I had just moved from Los Angeles back home to Atlanta. I wanted to begin creating my invention, so Background Noise was the first app I made. It was a muse of my ex-boyfriend that kind of sparked the whole thing. It was a way of expressing my creativity because up until then, I had been immersed in medicine, focused on college, med school, and residency training. So finally, I had come to a place in my life where I was going to be able to "do it all." But vainly just being able to exercise my creativity and inner inventor, a desire that began at a very young age.

LS: Fast forward, you have created a new app that combines tech and entertainment together with the Shhh Party app. When you decided to put the creation in motion, what was your go moment?

PRM: Oh, man. It was definitely the day that I returned to the city of Atlanta on July 1, 2017. I was getting my residency and board certification in family medicine, so I had no time to do any of these creative works. But God…He is so mysterious because even while I was doing my medical training and becoming more adept in that world, I had all these creative thoughts. I wanted to finally get the ideas I had written on paper manifested. Becoming an inventor was extremely important to me and was my life goal: to die empty, die having invented all of my ideas. Because at the core of any invention I have, there is the physician's heart where it's to improve or better someone else's life. And so that was my go moment, July 1, 2017. I was like, It's time to go... I didn’t have to turn in any homework or work long hours in the hospital, and I had no 24-hour calls, I had the time and opportunity to finally manifest my ideas.

LS: How did your sister inspire you while creating the Shhh Party app?

PRM: My sister Gabby McGee, is an International Jazz artist, and she has been my inspiration for creativity within the party app. Over the pandemic, I had a kind of primitive form of the party app, but it didn't have the economic empowerment needed yet. Until my sister did a show online during the pandemic, and she put to go to my cash app in her post. I was like, if they are going to your cash app, then they are not watching your show anymore. At that moment, I was like, I can do something here. I can make it so that they can get sown seeds from their audience, and their audience could stay there and watch an amazing show. So I added that to my party app. That's how she was my inspiration for starting to get those monetization features for entertainers using the app.

LS: You are the first black woman to solely create an app like this. What have you learned about the industry and yourself during this journey?

PRM: I did not go to school for technology. My connection to technology is my dad was a computer engineer when I was growing up. So we had computers, we had the latest technologies to kind of play with, and that gave me this. I love technology, but I didn't know how to build it, but that didn't stop me. And that doesn't stop anyone who really wants to be in technology or make a platform. God will supply you with all of your needs. Everyone that I've met during this journey, all of the experts, all of my developers, and all of my mentors, they are my tech experts. They are all in awe at someone outside of tech, in medicine, well into medicine, thats coming into this environment with such innovation, and so I definitely learned that. You do not need to have it all. Your dream can come true. You just have to have that faith and trust. And keep putting one foot in front of the other.

LS: Now, tell us how performers and entertainers can get onto the app if they want to be able to utilize the service? What is that process for them?

PRM: My goal was to make it easy and free because I come from a background of being on government assistance and lunch programs, and I knew how important it was to create a tool that could make some money for an artist. A simple one-step to you get started. All they have to have to do is download a party app, that's Shh Party app, from your app store. Make a profile, just like you do any other social media platform, and then they can put up their performances, upload an mp3 playlist or upload a video. Users can mirror their youtube content or go live. So you don't even have to be seen. You can just engage the listener and the audience. I wanted it to have all those options so that it could be dynamic, as dynamic as the artists I know will find the Shh Party app extremely useful.

LS: Now you just don't just have a dynamic vision for entertainment and music but for Healthcare as well. Tell us how you want healthcare to evolve moving forward.

PRM: Yes, so 2018 was the first time that I was on the other side of healthcare, where I wasn't the Physician, and I wasn't talking to a patient. However, the patient was my dad, and he was in the hospital. He was very sick and had to go to the ICU, and we thought we would lose him. Well, he made it through and finally came out of the ICU, and I stayed with him. I will never forget I stayed with him for an entire week because I was so concerned about his well-being. He had an emergency overnight, I'll never forget it, April of 2018, two o'clock in the morning. And I went to the nurse, who knew I was a doctor, and told her please call his doctor this could be an emergency.  I told her that it looked like my dad had a bowel obstruction. I went back to my dad, and then I saw blood. I was like, "oh, hell no... where is the doctor. So she called the doctor again, now mind you, this is the third time, and the doctor did not come. At that moment, I knew what I needed to do. Number one, I needed to contact the head doctor so that they could enact my dad's care. The situation made me think if I wasn't a doctor, if I wasn't here, all of the things that could have happened to my dad, death being one of the possible outcomes. And so that really pushed me to do something about this. This happens more frequently with other people, especially overnight, having emergencies or needing assistance. And the doctor just not showing up. I would never do that as a physician, absolutely not.  So what I want to see in healthcare are more physicians who advocate on behalf of patients to get the care they know they need. I want us to speak to each other and be able to stand in the gap for the patients and their families to make sure that they have a safe journey, whether in the hospital or outside the hospital. And that's what Asked Me Your MD does. It has a doctor in your family, and you text us right from your phone. You go to askmeyourmd.com, and there's a chat mail button. You will be speaking to a licensed doctor who can help guide you through your questions. We help guide caretakers all the time. I have many testimonials of people caring for their mother or family member, not knowing where to go or what to do. And us just shining that light and being able to say, hey, have you considered this? Or who are your doctors? We'll call them. And I call doctors. I've been on the phone while the patient sees a physician asking those questions. You know, sometimes you don't even know what questions to ask. But we're there to ask those questions to help you, even after that encounter with the doctor, to say, this is what this means until you understand it yourself.

LS: You are an award-winning physician. You create apps, you are an investor, and you're an innovator. You are on your way to being a pioneer for the African American community. But what do you do to prevent yourself from burning out?

PRM: Yes, that is called a team. Leaders are no good if they do not have a team around them for support, encouragement, working, and grinding with you. You really have to lean into having that team around you and those people around you, I would not have gotten this far with any of my platforms or endeavors without my family. My family is my first team. My dad, sister, brothers, and husband all support me 100,000%. And they have been there since the beginning. Make sure that you have people around you who can hold you up and help you throughout your journey.

LS: What next as you build your empire?

PRM: Well, get ready, world, because Shh Party app is about to take over. We are shifting this paradigm of social media platforms, taking your information, and getting profits from it to now those profits will come back to you. So the biggest thing that is to come from the party app is these innovative ways to get money back into the hands of our users. We don't want it to be a unilateral relationship. And I already foresee the businesses that will make it long, long term is those businesses that can create and generate money for their customers. And so that is the biggest thing up and coming will be having shows all around the United States going to the hottest club in LA, New York, Chicago, Miami, Houston Vegas. We're going to hit up those cities' first big music and entertainment cities, have real live shows from there and have people engaged through the app from all over the world.

Stay Connected To The Shh Party app Movement: @ shhpartyapp on all social media