Interview with Dr. Dana Corriel – 325
This week, John dives into an insightful interview with Dr. Dana Corriel, where she shares invaluable insights on personal branding and the path to nonclinical careers for physicians.
Dr. Dana Corriel, a renowned expert in personal branding for physicians and nonclinical careers in healthcare, shared her valuable insights on episode 94 back in June 2019. She brings a wealth of knowledge as a board-certified internist who has recognized the evolving role of the Internet in healthcare. She is dedicated to empowering healthcare professionals to brand themselves effectively and contribute to improving the healthcare system.
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The Power of Personal Branding in Healthcare
The conversation underscores the power of personal branding, allowing physicians to control their professional identity, regardless of the hospital systems or organizations they work with. Authenticity remains a central theme, with Dr. Corriel stressing that a physician's brand should authentically mirror their principles, vision, and values.
But today, each of us are basically brands. We are each becoming what’s called intellectual property – Understanding Branding
Furthermore, Dana, provided key points to guide physicians in creating their brand aligned with their values and career goals:
- Understanding branding
- Creating content online
- Authenticity and values
- Nonclinical careers
Dr. Dana Corriel's Important Message
I think that all of us as healthcare professionals need to first of all take a step back and survey the situation and determine where our fit is here, and then arm ourselves with the tools in order to fit ourselves in this in the right way.
Summary
Dr. Corriel recognizes that the journey toward personal branding and nonclinical careers is a unique and individualized process. She emphasizes the importance of physicians charting their path and carving out their niche within their preferred field. This approach grants them autonomy and control over their career, a liberating shift for physicians who may have felt constrained within the conventional healthcare system.
She also mentioned SoMeDocs, a platform designed to assist with networking and content creation, which can be a valuable resource for physicians looking to explore nonclinical career opportunities.
NOTE: Look below for a transcript of today's episode.
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Links for Today's Episode:
- SoMeDocs
- Dr. Corriel's LinkedIn Page
- Dr. Corriel's Personal Website
- The Delightful Life of the Expert Social Media Doctor – 094
- NewScr!pt
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Transcription PNC Podcast Episode 325
Top Insider Tips on Branding and Social Media - Interview with Dr. Dana Corriel
John: Hello everybody, this is John Jurica. I'm a podcaster at Physician Nonclinical Careers podcast. That's kind of my claim to fame in a way, and the reason why I'm interested in hearing about branding and social media and anything related to that. I don't know exactly what we're going to hear today, but Dana did say that she was willing to spend some time teaching us about branding and social media. And so, I've got a few questions, but she is an internist and she has SoMeDocs and somedocs.com and drcorriel.com and some other things too numerous for me to mention. And so, I appreciate her for being here today and today. Dana, if you want to go ahead and say anything else about your introduction, I'd be happy to have you do that for us.
Dr. Dana Corriel: Absolutely. To whoever's here and whoever's listening later, I'm Dana Corriel. I'm a board certified internist, and I have dabbled in the online space for many years. Years ago, I foreshadowed that the internet would be the main form of communication between humans and I actually don't even think we've reached the place where we're going to be in the future, but I can definitely foresee what's going to happen, and in an attempt to brace myself, towards that place, I think that all of us as healthcare professionals need to first of all take a step back and survey the situation and determine where our fit is here, and then arm ourselves with the tools in order to fit ourselves in this in the right way.
I think that we are the rightful healthcare influencers. I think that the word "influencer" has a really bad rap, but I think that if you re-angle the way you think of influencing, you can realize that many of us, we influence every single day. And so, what I specialize in is how do we brand ourselves as physicians the right way? How do we do that together? And then what are many of the tools that we can use to do that? And I have created many of those resources that I have, and I actually just left clinical medicine in order to dedicate my 100% full effort towards bettering the healthcare system and doing it together.
John: Yeah, that's a good intro. I'm definitely interested in breaking this down and getting your input on this and learn more about it. I think the simplest thing is to just ask you to maybe describe what you mean by when you talk about branding, because it's like a term that I can get my head around. I know that we need to get our message out there and let people know who we are. But when you're thinking and talking about branding for physicians, give me the whole overview of what that might mean.
Dr. Dana Corriel: Yeah. The old way that we used to think of a brand was like a thing, a product, a physical entity. One of those examples could be Coca-Cola, another one could be Nike. When you say those words, it conjures images of certain things. It also conjures up emotions. When we say Coca-Cola, the Coca-Cola company would like to brand itself as something that is refreshing, something like that puts a smile on your face. That's why they have images out of the polar bear during Christmas and happy families. That's extremely clever marketing techniques to brand.
But today, each of us are basically brands. We are each becoming what's called intellectual property - IP. And that means that each of us is a brand that could be represented on different platforms that are not necessarily physical or existent. Examples are on social media platforms, like on Facebook and on Twitter. Another example is in a book. You could put your thoughts down, your IP down in a book. But at the end of the day, it's important for us as physicians to be a part of that space because eventually in the future, if you don't own your rightful intellectual property, then someone else can.
And so, again, that's just very brief in a nutshell. I want to also mention that an example that comes to mind when I think of an intellectual property that's an actual person is someone like Oprah or someone actually like Dr. Oz. These are people that stand for something. They are brands. Oprah. She is someone who's thought process and thinking in general, the things that she puts out are extremely valuable and important. Same with Dr. Oz. Whether or not you agree with him, he's looked up to. And so, how amazing would it be if physicians were actual thought leaders as we should be, because we've earned degrees and we're medical doctors, and so we're intelligent people that are capable and should be creating intellectual property that's valued.
John: We should have a persona. We represent some authority and that sort of thing, which is all part of our brand. And so, if I'm in my practice, then there's a certain brand associated with that. But that does extend particularly in the Facebook group where we're aiming some of this is that there are a lot of people in there that are looking not to be in practice. So, maybe you can expound a little bit on the importance of branding in those situations.
Dr. Dana Corriel: Oh, absolutely. In fact, now more than ever, I think I mentioned that I left clinical practice. I didn't leave clinical practice because of my SoMeDocs because it is taking off. I left because healthcare is broken in my opinion. It wasn't working for me. I'm a generalist, I'm an internist. It just doesn't work. And so, I think that I want to give my best attempt at fixing healthcare, at least doing my part in it indirectly by creating this company SoMeDocs, and by fueling individual physicians and their online voices to actually collectively change a big system.
But inherent in branding and putting yourself out there is the fact that you literally can invent yourself or even reinvent yourself. You could go on there as the neurologist that you are and create an IP. I create IP content that revolves around a neurological concept.
Like you want to be a thought leader in headaches, go ahead do that. But you don't have to. If you want to start dabbling in things outside of medicine, the online world is really your oyster right now. You can literally tomorrow, today, this second, get off of the internet, look up the URL of the desired website that you want to own and become a thought leader of, and you can claim ownership of it.
So, if you literally want to dabble in finance, and become the finance guru of physicians, it is not too late. All you have to do is find out if that website is open, is available, claim ownership by paying the company that was smart enough to in advance have either bought that domain or just the companies that own these things and operate them and start creating content.
Now, it's not easy to brand. The first step is claiming ownership, is finding the name for yourself, for the brand and defining the goals of that brand. But afterwards, it might be a long process, but it's definitely doable for physicians. For example, for physicians that are looking for nonclinical careers, there are a lot out there. But you can literally create that nonclinical career yourself by first understanding the concept of branding, deciding where you want to dabble, and then dabbling in it by creating content online.
John: The thing I notice on this is that, if you're an entrepreneur, like my wife owns a business and I've owned different practices, and this whole idea of branding becomes sort of second nature, or if you're building a product or providing some other service. But for physicians, it's like, "Well, I have my brand. I'm going to have my name in the yellow pages. I have a little picture on the website, and I have my name on the bulletin board or on this marquee out front. People know I'm here." So, I guess I'm getting into the how-to, but that's not really quite what you're talking about in terms of branding yourself.
Dr. Dana Corriel: I think that it still holds clout, sufficient clout to do certain things, but I think that the world is changing. I'm not happy about it. I'm very actually sad about it. I think that having earned a medical degree no longer confers the authority that we once had. And that's because of the internet. It's because of social media.
And an easy explanation for that is just look at who is influencing and look at the way that they're influencing. So, you take celebrities and you give them a space where they can market themselves, and it's genius. They get to say what they want, but the second the lines are blurred and they start talking about healthcare, it becomes confusing because they're not healthcare professionals. And so, when they're saying things that are correct, it's one thing, but when they're speaking out incorrectly, then you've got pseudoscience out there and we don't like that happening.
And it's actually becoming real life now that, for example, all the anti-vax sentiment is flowing into the real world and people are actually not vaccinating. And so, again, I think a medical degree is important in real life, but the more we increasingly live online, the less that becomes meaningful. And it's very sad. Basically, the online world sort of equalizes the playing field. And so, we're all sort of equal online because there's no real vetting process. So you've got to stake your claim in it, even as a doctor.
And I think that that's one of the problems here is that as a physician, we've always traditionally been so comfortable in our skin and we've come at it from a place of, "Well, we've earned it." And everyone always just took that for granted and respected us, but we're losing that because of the online world. So we've got to really take control of it and take charge, but also do it cleverly and strategically.
John: I think a lot of us had the feeling that the more letters we had after our name, that was our marketing, that was our branding. As long as I have an extra degree or some certification, that's really going to put me above the others. But it really isn't.
Dr. Dana Corriel: Not any more.
John: The thing I notice is when you start a new business, your marketing plan should be there from the beginning. It has to be part of it. You can't wait till you're six or 12 months into a new business and then decide, okay, now I'm going to do the marketing. It's almost going to start even before you open your doors in some way.
So, let's just touch a little bit on this. We don't have a ton of time, but to move into, if I was a physician and let's focus maybe a little more on the nonclinical career than the clinical, but a little bit of both, what does that really look like when you're saying that I'm branding myself, I'm marketing myself? How is it different from just let's say networking with my colleagues or putting a post on Facebook or something like that?
Dr. Dana Corriel: I think networking is super important. We could talk about that later. SoMeDocs main goal is to have physicians network, but I think that you can't really effectively build a brand without networking. Now, networking serves a much broader purpose in that you can actually link up with people that have an already existing business and you can join them. And so, you take something like an MLM I think they're called, but the businesses that work in that way. And that's for example, where networking can really help and that someone's already defined and discovered something and you're then going to sell it. The difference from that and branding is that they're interrelated. The nice thing about branding is that you can literally create your own space and your own product. Product, again, standing for UP and it can sell itself.
In terms of a nonclinical career, this is a wonderful way to at least define that space in which you're going to create something. Even if it is working for someone else, you at least have your own space. And that's something important to teach physicians, because when I first founded SoMeDocs, the purpose of it for me was that it was going to be done in a way that did not have anyone telling me what to do. I was going to make the rules. And I think to me, that's part of what's broken about with healthcare is that so many people were telling me what to do, that as a physician, it was frustrating. I literally could not treat my patient the way I felt he or she needed to be treated.
And so, in the same similar way, I think that branding is super important because we create our own brand, our own space online. Again, I don't want to go into the medicine part of it, but even within medicine, branding is huge because you can literally work for a hospital today. So, your brand exists within the overarching system, but tomorrow, if you're fired, you could literally pick up your brand and you could put it over here in a different hospital system where you're going to work as well. But all the intellectual property, all the content that you yourself create along the way that you own, it goes with you. So, it doesn't matter at the end of the day who you're working for, you've got a brand online that's stamped out for yourself.
John: And that brand, in a way, it should be authentic, and it should actually represent who you are and what your principles are, what your vision is. Those kinds of things.
Dr. Dana Corriel: Well, yes, it would be great, but actually now that you're asking it, it depends on the angle you're looking at it. It depends. If you are looking to build a product, you would probably strategically go about that in a different way than if you are branding yourself as a human being. The reason I distinguish that is because, for example, if your brand is going to be a physician brand where you're literally sitting behind a white coat and just lecturing on headaches as a neurologist, that's okay, that's a great brand and it's needed out there.
But when you say authentic, you should always be authentic, but you're not necessarily going to chit-chat about, I don't know, taking like a bathroom break. You're still being authentic, but you're certainly being strategic about what you're putting out there. I think that's what's important is we do need to be authentic that we're out there, but you have to also be smart about the things that you're creating.
And so, yeah, that's important to say. But yes, brands like yours and like mine, yes, we should be authentic because we want to earn people's trust. And in order to do that, we do want to be the same both online and when we are attending conferences where we want to speak. You don't want people saying, "Well, she or he was totally different live than they were online." But again, it depends. It's all about strategy and it's about things that I teach and I cover.
John: Well, I'm just thinking about too, where let's say I look at other podcasters have been out there, and so then I started a podcast thinking this was a good idea, but the thing was, I shouldn't probably just try to copy what someone else is doing. Oh, they're successful, so I want to be just like that.
Dr. Dana Corriel: Absolutely not.
John: So, it's like bringing my own self to that brand.
Dr. Dana Corriel: Oh, I'm huge about that. I think that it serves a purpose to look at others. I think that it helps you sort of build foundation. It helps you to just validate that what you're doing works. But there's 100% nothing wrong with being authentic. And I think there's 100% everything right in it. And that's what I'm about, is just being unique and original. And if I listened to the haters and the naysayers and the people that told me 10 years ago when I said this was what I was going to do, if I had listened to them, then I would not be where I was today. I decided to push past it and say, "Well, I'm going to create it." First of all, it absolutely exists.
Even if you don't understand it, that doesn't mean that it won't work. It was something I knew would work because in my head it made sense as the future. And I was like, "I'm going to tap into, and I'm going to literally be a physician in the space that gets it and that builds into the space, a niche that is like a gap." It's like a void that we need to fill. And so I've filled it despite people telling me no, and I've done it uniquely and originally. So yes, I think there is value to looking at other people who have done things before you to pave the way, but it's 100% wonderful to do it your own way authentically.
John: Okay. I think that the people that are watching and listening are going to say, "Okay, some of us are very practical." You've been successful. People are like, "Well, you've come out of nowhere. You're a wonderful writer, you're a wonderful photographer." Can you give specific examples of things that you have done to promote your brand or other people that you've worked with in terms of how they promoted? Maybe they did it differently than you've done it, but I think the people that are watching this will just like to hear examples of practical things too.
Dr. Dana Corriel: Yeah. There are steps along the way. Absolutely. I think what you're talking about is sort of more of the marketing. And so, the sort of implementation of the strategic plan of how to make your brand go viral and be a brand that people want to see, want to hear, want to buy, whatever it is that your endpoint goal is.
And so, again, there's steps to that process. Once you've created your brand, you've decided where you want to go and the goal of that brand, that's where you need to market yourself and find really, really clever ways to get out there and reach the target audience that you're trying to reach and draw them in so that they want to see more Dr. Corriel or they want to be a part of SoMeDocs.
I could literally talk for hours about it. It's so dependent on what you want to do, but I'll just give a quick example in that there are many ways to market yourself nowadays because there are so many apps that meet endpoint users. And so, you take something like Facebook, you take something like Twitter, you take something like Instagram. They each have their demographic audience. And so, first you have to determine that. Then you have to determine how to frame your content in a way that appeals to them, that makes them think, "Well, I want to hear more from her, or I really want to buy her deodorant or her scrubs", or whatever it is that you are trying to get people to do.
With physicians, a lot of times it is thought leadership. And so, we are more cerebral. We want people to follow us as thought leaders. And so, talking about us as intellectual property and about topics that we cover is usually something that really resonates with a physician, but there's tons of physicians out there that are trying to be entrepreneurs. And so, that's a different way of thinking about things as well. Whether it's a service that you sell or it's an actual product that you make. Again, things SoMeDocs would love to bring to light. Me especially, I'm a physician that turned on entrepreneur. Like I said, I stopped clinical medicine and I'm totally exploring entrepreneurship and I am marketing my own brand, Dr. Corriel, just as much as I'm marketing my company SoMeDocs.
John: Well, I think one of the questions that came up on the chat was a question about what are the steps. And I'm taking it, there's probably no real steps the way you're going to do this. I'm just trying to think in my own career, I'm focusing on promoting and supporting physicians looking for nonclinical careers. So it's like, okay, what are the different ways I can do that? How do I present myself in a way? I'm basically doing what a lot of physician coaches do which kind of ties really into what physicians do, which is help people.
Dr. Dana Corriel: For sure.
John: I'm just finding my own way of helping people within the field of this nonclinical career search.
Dr. Dana Corriel: Right.
John: But I bet that would be a very long story to go through what all the steps might be.
Dr. Dana Corriel: It is, it is.
John: You've already touched on it, so maybe you can expound a little bit if someone's thinking of starting something new, how they kind of conceptualize a brand.
Dr. Dana Corriel: Yeah. It is a long, long process, which is again, why at the end of this, we'll put a link down, but which is why I am now starting these what's called Growth Pods. It's a perfect opportunity to say that. A Growth Pod is a virtual sort of space and interactive group that you grow your brand with.
At this point I'm so busy I just can't easily hop on with individual physicians to help them to focus in on their brand because it takes a while to figure that out if you really want to do it the right way. And so, I've created these really small physician groups of 20 at a time, and literally, you can imagine like a pod, almost like a planter. And the physicians are like the seedlings inside. And then myself or at some point a group of physicians, since I will need to bring others in as the demand is high, we will be watering these pods in order to grow the plants each with its own branch.
And that's the beauty of a Growth Pod. And again, I've made up Growth Pod, it's almost like a cross between a masterclass and an incubator. And so, you water the plant by starting to ask the questions that are necessary for you to figure out, "Well, what am I doing or where do I want to go with my brand?" And there's a lot of questions in between that you need to figure out before you realize the direction in which you're taking it.
It took me a really long time. This is not something that happens overnight, but it certainly helps to have somebody from the outside who has done it and done it successfully to ask you the questions that you need to get thinking and especially thinking outside the box. Because again, you could do it the way others have done it, but what's really going to stand out is if you do it differently.
And if you think about it, think of, for example, drinks, like water. You could sell water, but when you have the bottles just sitting there, something's got to differentiate your bottle from the other bottles. I saw this somewhere in an imagery in an article. You have Perrier. It's like the classy water. And that's what you think about when you want to drink Perrier. And then you've got VOSS. VOSS is that long bottle, the expensive bottle, and it's like glass. Then you've got the new recyclable ones made of paper or whatever. You know what I'm talking about? JUST Water, it's called. I know the guy, he's the CEO. But JUST Water. That's got to shtick too. You want to help the environment.
Again, your brand's got to be different than the other brands. It's not enough to say "I'm a podcaster." John Jurica has got to be the podcaster that everyone listens to, but you've got to figure out what it is about you that makes you super cool and that makes you someone that people want to listen to. And that's going to market, that's going to market you and your brand.
John: Well, I'm a big fan of mastermind groups and accountability partners, coaches, mentors, nurturing. We can be sitting in our silo trying to figure out what our brand should be and come up with these ideas. But really, is this an opportunity with the Growth Pod for people to kind of bounce ideas and to share and get your feedback? How is that going to work?
Dr. Dana Corriel: Yeah, absolutely. The first one that I'm launching is just me, teaching it and holding it. And so, what I've done until now is just personally gotten on calls with physicians and connected and helped people grow. But at this point I think that a small group setting is much more valuable because it's me at the helm. I'm there to toss out the questions and to teach, but at the end of the day, it adds value that there are 19 other physicians with you helping you to grow. First of all, because you grow together. Secondly, because you bounce ideas off of each other. Thirdly, because I always say this is that I am an N equals 1. I am not the end all be all. I have my own ideas, but we have so much value in networking.
And so, the pot allows you to not only network, do it together, do it in a supportive, collaborative way, just like SoMeDocs stands for, but then also make it super exciting so that if the pod is successful for you, you could actually take another one. Whether it's the same one because no two pods are going to be the same or take one that's completely different because I have some in the works and I know John knows about that. That is going to help us nurture in more ways than just branding and understanding the different outlets in which we can market our brand.
John: Can you tell us a little bit about how that is going to happen? Is it telephone calls? Is it face-to-face? Is it online? Is it written?
Dr. Dana Corriel: The first one is launching soon. And it's going to be a combination of a group interaction at your own disposal. The nice thing about this is it's going to last four weeks at a time each pod. You as the guest, you are going to check in whenever you want, whenever you have time, which is why this is going to work. You could literally be sitting at the comfort of your own home between breaks or after dinner when the kids go to sleep and you could do your work.
And it's not going to be work. The whole point is that a lot of it is extreme fun. And that's the nice thing about it. It's almost like attending a really high value conference, but you're doing it virtually. You're doing it online. And so, I'm excited.
John: Excellent. So, how do we find out more about that? What's the quickest way? I know we can go to drcorriel.com.
Dr. Dana Corriel: drcorriel.com is my own brand. I focus less on that. I do talk about my experience as a growing entrepreneur and talk a little bit about SoMeDocs, but you could go to somedocs.com or doctorsonsocialmedia.com. And first of all, there's membership options, which are awesome because once you've got your brand, or even if you don't, there's so many perks to signing up. It's all listed there. It would be too many for me to say, but you also actually get a discount for the Growth Pod and the Growth Pod is there. It's under the resources which I'm actually actively and slowly growing in terms of just quality resources for physicians to exist as brands and to use the online spaces that are out there.
John: There is another question since we still have some time here to talk about how social media fits in and how to best use them. And before you answer the question, the thing I've heard many people say is don't do everything at once. But beyond that, what do you think about Facebook and LinkedIn and IG and all that?
Dr. Dana Corriel: They're extremely valuable. So, what do I think? I don't like them. I think they're terrible actually, and a danger for our youth. But what am I going to do? It's here. It's here to stay. It's a double-edged sword. Let's find the right edge of the sword and let's stay on it as smart healthcare professionals and let's start to leverage it. Let's start to fight with, let's start to use it as a weapon in our favor. And so let's speak out with evidence-based medical truths. Let's make our brands work. And 100% social media is going to help you to achieve that. Why? Simple. Because everyone's on it.
And so, that's sort of like the 101 of marketing. It's like you want to go where people are. If you think about the way that media has always been, the top magazines and newspapers work really well because they've got a large following in a large audience. Essentially you can do that on social media. It doesn't have to be a personal thing. And that's what scares doctors is "I don't want to put me out there." You don't have to. And that's where we go back to that, you are not being authentic, but sometimes you have to really strategically choose what you want to share with the world.
And so, I'm extremely present online. My SoMeDocs is now my number one thing. That doesn't mean that I'm going to tell people everything about the way I live or every little secret of mine. Absolutely not. In fact, I encourage people not to give away everything in your personal lives because we've all read, we don't really need to read it. We know that the online is also a source of a lot of depression and things like that because you're going to throw stuff out there to strangers.
John: You got to be careful.
Dr. Dana Corriel: Yeah. The people that really matter are your family, the people in real life. Of course, the people out there matter as well. To me, for sure. But in terms of putting yourself out there, you've got to be strategic about what you do, in a good way. You got to be strategic about spreading evidence-based medicine. At the end of the day, this is what I'm trying to do with SoMeDocs.
John: Well, yeah, and it seems like every type of social media has certain pros and cons, good for one thing, not good for another and one is better than the other. There's a question about how you might use or how you network on LinkedIn, do you use LinkedIn to network. I have a bunch of followers or connections on LinkedIn, but in terms of networking with them, I have my own approach to it, but do you have any thoughts or feelings about using LinkedIn as one of those sites?
Dr. Dana Corriel: I don't want to say every, because there are so many apps out there when I go to conferences to teach and I show the graphic of just how many social media platforms there are, it boggles the mind. But I really do know how to very efficiently use most of the major social media platforms. I've done that on purpose. I've taken my time and been patient about learning to do a dabbling in it. And so, now I really know how to use them. Absolutely. I use LinkedIn.
The key is to really leverage it to what you are trying to achieve and to re-angle it in a way that fits your purpose and your cause. And so, that's the key to really being a successful brand and to marketing it, it's just finding that unique angle. And that's again, where you need, I don't like to call it a coach, but where you need something like a Growth Pod where your hand is held to some degree by someone who's either done it before or is really good at it and can think outside the box.
John: Okay. Yeah. It's going to be very specific to what you're doing.
Dr. Dana Corriel: Yeah.
John: I would say though, in general, when I have connections on LinkedIn and I reach out, they usually respond. And you go from there. If you've made a connection and you've got something that might help them, to me it's always about helping them first and then you develop that rapport.
Dr. Dana Corriel: Absolutely. It's always about that. At the end of the day, if you're going to be successful, you've got to realize that the person on the other end has got something that they want. And there's something so negative for some reason in our society about everybody sort of wanting something. It's like we shouldn't ever want. And yet everyone always wants everything you do has an endpoint goal. Even when you are, for example, donating something. You're wanting to feel good by donating. And so, at the end of the day, we're always getting something for what we do. To approach an interaction, especially a business interaction, in which you think of the other person first and see where it fits into your goals is extremely clever in terms of entrepreneurship, in my opinion.
John: Well, I like what you said earlier too about, as we're making these connections, it's really about collaborating and trying to develop this kind of little mini partnerships with people and whatever it's doing.
Dr. Dana Corriel: Always.
John: And you may not work closely with somebody, but a year from now, there may be some time when your path crosses.
Dr. Dana Corriel: Oh, absolutely. It's funny you say that because everyone's got naysayers. I don't necessarily see them. I think I've been fairly positive. I've had a lot of support, but I know that they're out there. At the end of the day, as an entrepreneur, something that really helps me succeed is just being respectful of everyone, regardless of how they act. That doesn't mean I'm always happy with the way people act, but you've got to always respect your fellow entrepreneurs because down the line they may be acting different. So, you've got to just be nice, respect.
John: I was reading a book recently, I won't even say what it was, but he was a speaker. One of the things this person did was a speaker and he was trying to figure out how people got the most speaking gigs. And he said it turned out the guys and women that got the most gigs were the ones who were nicest to the people that were planning the meetings. They didn't like working with jerks and they would work with people that are nice and that want to collaborate. And it was a pleasant experience. So yeah, that always goes a long way.
Dr. Dana Corriel: Totally.
John: All right. I think we've discussed this for a while. Do you want to go ahead and give some more information and any last comments in terms of what you're doing with the pods and where people should go to find you and other last bits of advice?
Dr. Dana Corriel: Yeah. First of all, I think there's a lot. If you actually enjoy this conversation, there's so much more where this came from. I am 100% of an idea person and every day, no joke, I get hundreds of ideas. And I try to really just all put them together in content pieces and put them out there, whether they're written or images.
I also try to do that with doctors because I realized that that was something I was talented in. And that's what SoMeDocs is for, is to help with networking and to also help with actual content creation. So if you like the way that I do it, that's how SoMeDocs work. We take your content and we put it out there for you. And we serve as a platform by which you can bounce your ideas off of, both in a physician only setting in a Facebook group and in public.
And in terms of opportunities, with SoMeDocs, there's a free platform. I'm always going to keep that free. But then there's paid options, like membership, it's very affordable.
John: I think we hit most of the questions here.
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Transcription PNC Podcast Episode 325
Top Insider Tips on Branding and Social Media - Interview with Dr. Dana Corriel
John: Hello everybody, this is John Jurica. I'm a podcaster at Physician Nonclinical Careers podcast. That's kind of my claim to fame in a way, and the reason why I'm interested in hearing about branding and social media and anything related to that. I don't know exactly what we're going to hear today, but Dana did say that she was willing to spend some time teaching us about branding and social media. And so, I've got a few questions, but she is an internist and she has SoMeDocs and somedocs.com and drcorriel.com and some other things too numerous for me to mention. And so, I appreciate her for being here today and today. Dana, if you want to go ahead and say anything else about your introduction, I'd be happy to have you do that for us.
Dr. Dana Corriel: Absolutely. To whoever's here and whoever's listening later, I'm Dana Corriel. I'm a board certified internist, and I have dabbled in the online space for many years. Years ago, I foreshadowed that the internet would be the main form of communication between humans and I actually don't even think we've reached the place where we're going to be in the future, but I can definitely foresee what's going to happen, and in an attempt to brace myself, towards that place, I think that all of us as healthcare professionals need to first of all take a step back and survey the situation and determine where our fit is here, and then arm ourselves with the tools in order to fit ourselves in this in the right way.
I think that we are the rightful healthcare influencers. I think that the word "influencer" has a really bad rap, but I think that if you re-angle the way you think of influencing, you can realize that many of us, we influence every single day. And so, what I specialize in is how do we brand ourselves as physicians the right way? How do we do that together? And then what are many of the tools that we can use to do that? And I have created many of those resources that I have, and I actually just left clinical medicine in order to dedicate my 100% full effort towards bettering the healthcare system and doing it together.
John: Yeah, that's a good intro. I'm definitely interested in breaking this down and getting your input on this and learn more about it. I think the simplest thing is to just ask you to maybe describe what you mean by when you talk about branding, because it's like a term that I can get my head around. I know that we need to get our message out there and let people know who we are. But when you're thinking and talking about branding for physicians, give me the whole overview of what that might mean.
Dr. Dana Corriel: Yeah. The old way that we used to think of a brand was like a thing, a product, a physical entity. One of those examples could be Coca-Cola, another one could be Nike. When you say those words, it conjures images of certain things. It also conjures up emotions. When we say Coca-Cola, the Coca-Cola company would like to brand itself as something that is refreshing, something like that puts a smile on your face. That's why they have images out of the polar bear during Christmas and happy families. That's extremely clever marketing techniques to brand.
But today, each of us are basically brands. We are each becoming what's called intellectual property - IP. And that means that each of us is a brand that could be represented on different platforms that are not necessarily physical or existent. Examples are on social media platforms, like on Facebook and on Twitter. Another example is in a book. You could put your thoughts down, your IP down in a book. But at the end of the day, it's important for us as physicians to be a part of that space because eventually in the future, if you don't own your rightful intellectual property, then someone else can.
And so, again, that's just very brief in a nutshell. I want to also mention that an example that comes to mind when I think of an intellectual property that's an actual person is someone like Oprah or someone actually like Dr. Oz. These are people that stand for something. They are brands. Oprah. She is someone who's thought process and thinking in general, the things that she puts out are extremely valuable and important. Same with Dr. Oz. Whether or not you agree with him, he's looked up to. And so, how amazing would it be if physicians were actual thought leaders as we should be, because we've earned degrees and we're medical doctors, and so we're intelligent people that are capable and should be creating intellectual property that's valued.
John: We should have a persona. We represent some authority and that sort of thing, which is all part of our brand. And so, if I'm in my practice, then there's a certain brand associated with that. But that does extend particularly in the Facebook group where we're aiming some of this is that there are a lot of people in there that are looking not to be in practice. So, maybe you can expound a little bit on the importance of branding in those situations.
Dr. Dana Corriel: Oh, absolutely. In fact, now more than ever, I think I mentioned that I left clinical practice. I didn't leave clinical practice because of my SoMeDocs because it is taking off. I left because healthcare is broken in my opinion. It wasn't working for me. I'm a generalist, I'm an internist. It just doesn't work. And so, I think that I want to give my best attempt at fixing healthcare, at least doing my part in it indirectly by creating this company SoMeDocs, and by fueling individual physicians and their online voices to actually collectively change a big system.
But inherent in branding and putting yourself out there is the fact that you literally can invent yourself or even reinvent yourself. You could go on there as the neurologist that you are and create an IP. I create IP content that revolves around a neurological concept.
Like you want to be a thought leader in headaches, go ahead do that. But you don't have to. If you want to start dabbling in things outside of medicine, the online world is really your oyster right now. You can literally tomorrow, today, this second, get off of the internet, look up the URL of the desired website that you want to own and become a thought leader of, and you can claim ownership of it.
So, if you literally want to dabble in finance, and become the finance guru of physicians, it is not too late. All you have to do is find out if that website is open, is available, claim ownership by paying the company that was smart enough to in advance have either bought that domain or just the companies that own these things and operate them and start creating content.
Now, it's not easy to brand. The first step is claiming ownership, is finding the name for yourself, for the brand and defining the goals of that brand. But afterwards, it might be a long process, but it's definitely doable for physicians. For example, for physicians that are looking for nonclinical careers, there are a lot out there. But you can literally create that nonclinical career yourself by first understanding the concept of branding, deciding where you want to dabble, and then dabbling in it by creating content online.
John: The thing I notice on this is that, if you're an entrepreneur, like my wife owns a business and I've owned different practices, and this whole idea of branding becomes sort of second nature, or if you're building a product or providing some other service. But for physicians, it's like, "Well, I have my brand. I'm going to have my name in the yellow pages. I have a little picture on the website, and I have my name on the bulletin board or on this marquee out front. People know I'm here." So, I guess I'm getting into the how-to, but that's not really quite what you're talking about in terms of branding yourself.
Dr. Dana Corriel: I think that it still holds clout, sufficient clout to do certain things, but I think that the world is changing. I'm not happy about it. I'm very actually sad about it. I think that having earned a medical degree no longer confers the authority that we once had. And that's because of the internet. It's because of social media.
And an easy explanation for that is just look at who is influencing and look at the way that they're influencing. So, you take celebrities and you give them a space where they can market themselves, and it's genius. They get to say what they want, but the second the lines are blurred and they start talking about healthcare, it becomes confusing because they're not healthcare professionals. And so, when they're saying things that are correct, it's one thing, but when they're speaking out incorrectly, then you've got pseudoscience out there and we don't like that happening.
And it's actually becoming real life now that, for example, all the anti-vax sentiment is flowing into the real world and people are actually not vaccinating. And so, again, I think a medical degree is important in real life, but the more we increasingly live online, the less that becomes meaningful. And it's very sad. Basically, the online world sort of equalizes the playing field. And so, we're all sort of equal online because there's no real vetting process. So you've got to stake your claim in it, even as a doctor.
And I think that that's one of the problems here is that as a physician, we've always traditionally been so comfortable in our skin and we've come at it from a place of, "Well, we've earned it." And everyone always just took that for granted and respected us, but we're losing that because of the online world. So we've got to really take control of it and take charge, but also do it cleverly and strategically.
John: I think a lot of us had the feeling that the more letters we had after our name, that was our marketing, that was our branding. As long as I have an extra degree or some certification, that's really going to put me above the others. But it really isn't.
Dr. Dana Corriel: Not any more.
John: The thing I notice is when you start a new business, your marketing plan should be there from the beginning. It has to be part of it. You can't wait till you're six or 12 months into a new business and then decide, okay, now I'm going to do the marketing. It's almost going to start even before you open your doors in some way.
So, let's just touch a little bit on this. We don't have a ton of time, but to move into, if I was a physician and let's focus maybe a little more on the nonclinical career than the clinical, but a little bit of both, what does that really look like when you're saying that I'm branding myself, I'm marketing myself? How is it different from just let's say networking with my colleagues or putting a post on Facebook or something like that?
Dr. Dana Corriel: I think networking is super important. We could talk about that later. SoMeDocs main goal is to have physicians network, but I think that you can't really effectively build a brand without networking. Now, networking serves a much broader purpose in that you can actually link up with people that have an already existing business and you can join them. And so, you take something like an MLM I think they're called, but the businesses that work in that way. And that's for example, where networking can really help and that someone's already defined and discovered something and you're then going to sell it. The difference from that and branding is that they're interrelated. The nice thing about branding is that you can literally create your own space and your own product. Product, again, standing for UP and it can sell itself.
In terms of a nonclinical career, this is a wonderful way to at least define that space in which you're going to create something. Even if it is working for someone else, you at least have your own space. And that's something important to teach physicians, because when I first founded SoMeDocs, the purpose of it for me was that it was going to be done in a way that did not have anyone telling me what to do. I was going to make the rules. And I think to me, that's part of what's broken about with healthcare is that so many people were telling me what to do, that as a physician, it was frustrating. I literally could not treat my patient the way I felt he or she needed to be treated.
And so, in the same similar way, I think that branding is super important because we create our own brand, our own space online. Again, I don't want to go into the medicine part of it, but even within medicine, branding is huge because you can literally work for a hospital today. So, your brand exists within the overarching system, but tomorrow, if you're fired, you could literally pick up your brand and you could put it over here in a different hospital system where you're going to work as well. But all the intellectual property, all the content that you yourself create along the way that you own, it goes with you. So, it doesn't matter at the end of the day who you're working for, you've got a brand online that's stamped out for yourself.
John: And that brand, in a way, it should be authentic, and it should actually represent who you are and what your principles are, what your vision is. Those kinds of things.
Dr. Dana Corriel: Well, yes, it would be great, but actually now that you're asking it, it depends on the angle you're looking at it. It depends. If you are looking to build a product, you would probably strategically go about that in a different way than if you are branding yourself as a human being. The reason I distinguish that is because, for example, if your brand is going to be a physician brand where you're literally sitting behind a white coat and just lecturing on headaches as a neurologist, that's okay, that's a great brand and it's needed out there.
But when you say authentic, you should always be authentic, but you're not necessarily going to chit-chat about, I don't know, taking like a bathroom break. You're still being authentic, but you're certainly being strategic about what you're putting out there. I think that's what's important is we do need to be authentic that we're out there, but you have to also be smart about the things that you're creating.
And so, yeah, that's important to say. But yes, brands like yours and like mine, yes, we should be authentic because we want to earn people's trust. And in order to do that, we do want to be the same both online and when we are attending conferences where we want to speak. You don't want people saying, "Well, she or he was totally different live than they were online." But again, it depends. It's all about strategy and it's about things that I teach and I cover.
John: Well, I'm just thinking about too, where let's say I look at other podcasters have been out there, and so then I started a podcast thinking this was a good idea, but the thing was, I shouldn't probably just try to copy what someone else is doing. Oh, they're successful, so I want to be just like that.
Dr. Dana Corriel: Absolutely not.
John: So, it's like bringing my own self to that brand.
Dr. Dana Corriel: Oh, I'm huge about that. I think that it serves a purpose to look at others. I think that it helps you sort of build foundation. It helps you to just validate that what you're doing works. But there's 100% nothing wrong with being authentic. And I think there's 100% everything right in it. And that's what I'm about, is just being unique and original. And if I listened to the haters and the naysayers and the people that told me 10 years ago when I said this was what I was going to do, if I had listened to them, then I would not be where I was today. I decided to push past it and say, "Well, I'm going to create it." First of all, it absolutely exists.
Even if you don't understand it, that doesn't mean that it won't work. It was something I knew would work because in my head it made sense as the future. And I was like, "I'm going to tap into, and I'm going to literally be a physician in the space that gets it and that builds into the space, a niche that is like a gap." It's like a void that we need to fill. And so I've filled it despite people telling me no, and I've done it uniquely and originally. So yes, I think there is value to looking at other people who have done things before you to pave the way, but it's 100% wonderful to do it your own way authentically.
John: Okay. I think that the people that are watching and listening are going to say, "Okay, some of us are very practical." You've been successful. People are like, "Well, you've come out of nowhere. You're a wonderful writer, you're a wonderful photographer." Can you give specific examples of things that you have done to promote your brand or other people that you've worked with in terms of how they promoted? Maybe they did it differently than you've done it, but I think the people that are watching this will just like to hear examples of practical things too.
Dr. Dana Corriel: Yeah. There are steps along the way. Absolutely. I think what you're talking about is sort of more of the marketing. And so, the sort of implementation of the strategic plan of how to make your brand go viral and be a brand that people want to see, want to hear, want to buy, whatever it is that your endpoint goal is.
And so, again, there's steps to that process. Once you've created your brand, you've decided where you want to go and the goal of that brand, that's where you need to market yourself and find really, really clever ways to get out there and reach the target audience that you're trying to reach and draw them in so that they want to see more Dr. Corriel or they want to be a part of SoMeDocs.
I could literally talk for hours about it. It's so dependent on what you want to do, but I'll just give a quick example in that there are many ways to market yourself nowadays because there are so many apps that meet endpoint users. And so, you take something like Facebook, you take something like Twitter, you take something like Instagram. They each have their demographic audience. And so, first you have to determine that. Then you have to determine how to frame your content in a way that appeals to them, that makes them think, "Well, I want to hear more from her, or I really want to buy her deodorant or her scrubs", or whatever it is that you are trying to get people to do.
With physicians, a lot of times it is thought leadership. And so, we are more cerebral. We want people to follow us as thought leaders. And so, talking about us as intellectual property and about topics that we cover is usually something that really resonates with a physician, but there's tons of physicians out there that are trying to be entrepreneurs. And so, that's a different way of thinking about things as well. Whether it's a service that you sell or it's an actual product that you make. Again, things SoMeDocs would love to bring to light. Me especially, I'm a physician that turned on entrepreneur. Like I said, I stopped clinical medicine and I'm totally exploring entrepreneurship and I am marketing my own brand, Dr. Corriel, just as much as I'm marketing my company SoMeDocs.
John: Well, I think one of the questions that came up on the chat was a question about what are the steps. And I'm taking it, there's probably no real steps the way you're going to do this. I'm just trying to think in my own career, I'm focusing on promoting and supporting physicians looking for nonclinical careers. So it's like, okay, what are the different ways I can do that? How do I present myself in a way? I'm basically doing what a lot of physician coaches do which kind of ties really into what physicians do, which is help people.
Dr. Dana Corriel: For sure.
John: I'm just finding my own way of helping people within the field of this nonclinical career search.
Dr. Dana Corriel: Right.
John: But I bet that would be a very long story to go through what all the steps might be.
Dr. Dana Corriel: It is, it is.
John: You've already touched on it, so maybe you can expound a little bit if someone's thinking of starting something new, how they kind of conceptualize a brand.
Dr. Dana Corriel: Yeah. It is a long, long process, which is again, why at the end of this, we'll put a link down, but which is why I am now starting these what's called Growth Pods. It's a perfect opportunity to say that. A Growth Pod is a virtual sort of space and interactive group that you grow your brand with.
At this point I'm so busy I just can't easily hop on with individual physicians to help them to focus in on their brand because it takes a while to figure that out if you really want to do it the right way. And so, I've created these really small physician groups of 20 at a time, and literally, you can imagine like a pod, almost like a planter. And the physicians are like the seedlings inside. And then myself or at some point a group of physicians, since I will need to bring others in as the demand is high, we will be watering these pods in order to grow the plants each with its own branch.
And that's the beauty of a Growth Pod. And again, I've made up Growth Pod, it's almost like a cross between a masterclass and an incubator. And so, you water the plant by starting to ask the questions that are necessary for you to figure out, "Well, what am I doing or where do I want to go with my brand?" And there's a lot of questions in between that you need to figure out before you realize the direction in which you're taking it.
It took me a really long time. This is not something that happens overnight, but it certainly helps to have somebody from the outside who has done it and done it successfully to ask you the questions that you need to get thinking and especially thinking outside the box. Because again, you could do it the way others have done it, but what's really going to stand out is if you do it differently.
And if you think about it, think of, for example, drinks, like water. You could sell water, but when you have the bottles just sitting there, something's got to differentiate your bottle from the other bottles. I saw this somewhere in an imagery in an article. You have Perrier. It's like the classy water. And that's what you think about when you want to drink Perrier. And then you've got VOSS. VOSS is that long bottle, the expensive bottle, and it's like glass. Then you've got the new recyclable ones made of paper or whatever. You know what I'm talking about? JUST Water, it's called. I know the guy, he's the CEO. But JUST Water. That's got to shtick too. You want to help the environment.
Again, your brand's got to be different than the other brands. It's not enough to say "I'm a podcaster." John Jurica has got to be the podcaster that everyone listens to, but you've got to figure out what it is about you that makes you super cool and that makes you someone that people want to listen to. And that's going to market, that's going to market you and your brand.
John: Well, I'm a big fan of mastermind groups and accountability partners, coaches, mentors, nurturing. We can be sitting in our silo trying to figure out what our brand should be and come up with these ideas. But really, is this an opportunity with the Growth Pod for people to kind of bounce ideas and to share and get your feedback? How is that going to work?
Dr. Dana Corriel: Yeah, absolutely. The first one that I'm launching is just me, teaching it and holding it. And so, what I've done until now is just personally gotten on calls with physicians and connected and helped people grow. But at this point I think that a small group setting is much more valuable because it's me at the helm. I'm there to toss out the questions and to teach, but at the end of the day, it adds value that there are 19 other physicians with you helping you to grow. First of all, because you grow together. Secondly, because you bounce ideas off of each other. Thirdly, because I always say this is that I am an N equals 1. I am not the end all be all. I have my own ideas, but we have so much value in networking.
And so, the pot allows you to not only network, do it together, do it in a supportive, collaborative way, just like SoMeDocs stands for, but then also make it super exciting so that if the pod is successful for you, you could actually take another one. Whether it's the same one because no two pods are going to be the same or take one that's completely different because I have some in the works and I know John knows about that. That is going to help us nurture in more ways than just branding and understanding the different outlets in which we can market our brand.
John: Can you tell us a little bit about how that is going to happen? Is it telephone calls? Is it face-to-face? Is it online? Is it written?
Dr. Dana Corriel: The first one is launching soon. And it's going to be a combination of a group interaction at your own disposal. The nice thing about this is it's going to last four weeks at a time each pod. You as the guest, you are going to check in whenever you want, whenever you have time, which is why this is going to work. You could literally be sitting at the comfort of your own home between breaks or after dinner when the kids go to sleep and you could do your work.
And it's not going to be work. The whole point is that a lot of it is extreme fun. And that's the nice thing about it. It's almost like attending a really high value conference, but you're doing it virtually. You're doing it online. And so, I'm excited.
John: Excellent. So, how do we find out more about that? What's the quickest way? I know we can go to drcorriel.com.
Dr. Dana Corriel: drcorriel.com is my own brand. I focus less on that. I do talk about my experience as a growing entrepreneur and talk a little bit about SoMeDocs, but you could go to somedocs.com or doctorsonsocialmedia.com. And first of all, there's membership options, which are awesome because once you've got your brand, or even if you don't, there's so many perks to signing up. It's all listed there. It would be too many for me to say, but you also actually get a discount for the Growth Pod and the Growth Pod is there. It's under the resources which I'm actually actively and slowly growing in terms of just quality resources for physicians to exist as brands and to use the online spaces that are out there.
John: There is another question since we still have some time here to talk about how social media fits in and how to best use them. And before you answer the question, the thing I've heard many people say is don't do everything at once. But beyond that, what do you think about Facebook and LinkedIn and IG and all that?
Dr. Dana Corriel: They're extremely valuable. So, what do I think? I don't like them. I think they're terrible actually, and a danger for our youth. But what am I going to do? It's here. It's here to stay. It's a double-edged sword. Let's find the right edge of the sword and let's stay on it as smart healthcare professionals and let's start to leverage it. Let's start to fight with, let's start to use it as a weapon in our favor. And so let's speak out with evidence-based medical truths. Let's make our brands work. And 100% social media is going to help you to achieve that. Why? Simple. Because everyone's on it.
And so, that's sort of like the 101 of marketing. It's like you want to go where people are. If you think about the way that media has always been, the top magazines and newspapers work really well because they've got a large following in a large audience. Essentially you can do that on social media. It doesn't have to be a personal thing. And that's what scares doctors is "I don't want to put me out there." You don't have to. And that's where we go back to that, you are not being authentic, but sometimes you have to really strategically choose what you want to share with the world.
And so, I'm extremely present online. My SoMeDocs is now my number one thing. That doesn't mean that I'm going to tell people everything about the way I live or every little secret of mine. Absolutely not. In fact, I encourage people not to give away everything in your personal lives because we've all read, we don't really need to read it. We know that the online is also a source of a lot of depression and things like that because you're going to throw stuff out there to strangers.
John: You got to be careful.
Dr. Dana Corriel: Yeah. The people that really matter are your family, the people in real life. Of course, the people out there matter as well. To me, for sure. But in terms of putting yourself out there, you've got to be strategic about what you do, in a good way. You got to be strategic about spreading evidence-based medicine. At the end of the day, this is what I'm trying to do with SoMeDocs.
John: Well, yeah, and it seems like every type of social media has certain pros and cons, good for one thing, not good for another and one is better than the other. There's a question about how you might use or how you network on LinkedIn, do you use LinkedIn to network. I have a bunch of followers or connections on LinkedIn, but in terms of networking with them, I have my own approach to it, but do you have any thoughts or feelings about using LinkedIn as one of those sites?
Dr. Dana Corriel: I don't want to say every, because there are so many apps out there when I go to conferences to teach and I show the graphic of just how many social media platforms there are, it boggles the mind. But I really do know how to very efficiently use most of the major social media platforms. I've done that on purpose. I've taken my time and been patient about learning to do a dabbling in it. And so, now I really know how to use them. Absolutely. I use LinkedIn.
The key is to really leverage it to what you are trying to achieve and to re-angle it in a way that fits your purpose and your cause. And so, that's the key to really being a successful brand and to marketing it, it's just finding that unique angle. And that's again, where you need, I don't like to call it a coach, but where you need something like a Growth Pod where your hand is held to some degree by someone who's either done it before or is really good at it and can think outside the box.
John: Okay. Yeah. It's going to be very specific to what you're doing.
Dr. Dana Corriel: Yeah.
John: I would say though, in general, when I have connections on LinkedIn and I reach out, they usually respond. And you go from there. If you've made a connection and you've got something that might help them, to me it's always about helping them first and then you develop that rapport.
Dr. Dana Corriel: Absolutely. It's always about that. At the end of the day, if you're going to be successful, you've got to realize that the person on the other end has got something that they want. And there's something so negative for some reason in our society about everybody sort of wanting something. It's like we shouldn't ever want. And yet everyone always wants everything you do has an endpoint goal. Even when you are, for example, donating something. You're wanting to feel good by donating. And so, at the end of the day, we're always getting something for what we do. To approach an interaction, especially a business interaction, in which you think of the other person first and see where it fits into your goals is extremely clever in terms of entrepreneurship, in my opinion.
John: Well, I like what you said earlier too about, as we're making these connections, it's really about collaborating and trying to develop this kind of little mini partnerships with people and whatever it's doing.
Dr. Dana Corriel: Always.
John: And you may not work closely with somebody, but a year from now, there may be some time when your path crosses.
Dr. Dana Corriel: Oh, absolutely. It's funny you say that because everyone's got naysayers. I don't necessarily see them. I think I've been fairly positive. I've had a lot of support, but I know that they're out there. At the end of the day, as an entrepreneur, something that really helps me succeed is just being respectful of everyone, regardless of how they act. That doesn't mean I'm always happy with the way people act, but you've got to always respect your fellow entrepreneurs because down the line they may be acting different. So, you've got to just be nice, respect.
John: I was reading a book recently, I won't even say what it was, but he was a speaker. One of the things this person did was a speaker and he was trying to figure out how people got the most speaking gigs. And he said it turned out the guys and women that got the most gigs were the ones who were nicest to the people that were planning the meetings. They didn't like working with jerks and they would work with people that are nice and that want to collaborate. And it was a pleasant experience. So yeah, that always goes a long way.
Dr. Dana Corriel: Totally.
John: All right. I think we've discussed this for a while. Do you want to go ahead and give some more information and any last comments in terms of what you're doing with the pods and where people should go to find you and other last bits of advice?
Dr. Dana Corriel: Yeah. First of all, I think there's a lot. If you actually enjoy this conversation, there's so much more where this came from. I am 100% of an idea person and every day, no joke, I get hundreds of ideas. And I try to really just all put them together in content pieces and put them out there, whether they're written or images.
I also try to do that with doctors because I realized that that was something I was talented in. And that's what SoMeDocs is for, is to help with networking and to also help with actual content creation. So if you like the way that I do it, that's how SoMeDocs work. We take your content and we put it out there for you. And we serve as a platform by which you can bounce your ideas off of, both in a physician only setting in a Facebook group and in public.
And in terms of opportunities, with SoMeDocs, there's a free platform. I'm always going to keep that free. But then there's paid options, like membership, it's very affordable.
John: I think we hit most of the questions here.
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