In this post, I want to explain why it is important to validate your business idea. You may recall that in my previous blog post in this series, I described the factors needed to select a product or service to offer future customers:

• It's an area that you’re passionate about (or reflects your purpose),
• You have expertise or skills to share,
• There are customers with a problem to solve, and
• The customers are willing and able to pay for the product or service.

Try Selling a Prototype or Presell a Course

This trial run does not necessarily have to be a fully developed product. Let's look at an example.

• there are parents of these children looking for online help, and
• they’re willing to spend money to meet that need.

I’ve since found that there are products and services that physicians are willing to purchase to expedite their career transitions. This became evident when I started helping with a Facebook group (Physician Nonclinical Career Hunters) devoted to nonclinical careers two years ago, which now has over 15,000 members.

I now recognize that there's a demand for coaching, mentoring, and training. Several books have been published on the subject of nonclinical careers. There is a growing interest in this niche. And I’ve started to sell my own products.

I created a course dedicated to finding a job as a medical science liaison. That sold fairly well. So, I created more courses. Since I planned to continue developing courses, I decided to accelerate that process and open a membership site. I started with a minimal viable product (in my mind that was 12 courses).

I was able to sell an encouraging number of memberships. Now I've put more time into improving the first 12, and have added 6 new courses. I've recruited several affiliate partners to sell my course to their followers. And I'm relaunching the Nonclinical Career Academy Membership program very soon.

Several physicians I have interviewed who are coaches have followed a similar path. They started with one-on-one coaching. After building a sufficient following, they added group coaching. Some of them later created a course developed from their coaching experiences, which scaled their business, while serving more clients.

Examples include:

• First, Optimize Your Attitude – Interview with Dr. Katrina Ubell – 035,
• How to Be a Successful Physician Entrepreneur – Interview with Dr. Nneka Unachukwu – 123
• How to Be a Shrewd Business Coach and Consultant – Interview with Dr. David Norris – 111

Summary

As you plan your nonclinical online business, be sure to validate your business idea by confirming the demand for your product or service. Begin by looking for others who seem to be successful.

Then sell a prototype, or begin with a limited run of whatever you're selling. If you are a coach, sell a few discounted sessions to get going. Assess the response of your clients and the success of your coaching.

If you're creating a course – develop the first few lessons, then try to pre-sell the soon-to-be-finished course. But only finish creating it if there is interest confirmed by sales. Then use the feedback from your first few students to help direct future lessons.

Coming Next

In the next blog post, I will answer this question: What are the legal and business issues I should address before moving on?

Next Steps

Please add you're thoughts and questions in the Comments. I will respond to them all.

Contact me: john.jurica.md@gmail.com

Thanks for joining me.

Until next time.

The post How to Validate Your Business Idea appeared first on NonClinical Physicians.

I have decided to write a series of blog posts focused on how to get started on your nonclinical online business. It has been a long time since I wrote a dedicated blog post not related to a podcast episode. But it is time to ramp up this part of the web site!

The topics will be about starting and growing a business, entrepreneurship, and all of the online tools and tricks that I have learned over the past few years.

How Did I Get Started?

I started my first blog about four years ago because I wanted to do something creative, hone my writing skills, and help physicians. My first blog, called “Contract Doctor,” was devoted to helping with contract negotiations. The response was modestly positive, but it didn't get a lot of traction.

I found later that I was interested in writing about my experiences as a Chief Medical Officer. And I wanted to encourage physicians to step up to management and leadership positions in the hospital setting. So, I started my second blog the Vital Physician Executive.

I wrote articles about the differences between clinical practice and working as an executive. I addressed topics for physician leaders, including new skills to learn, new attitudes to adopt, and related topics. But it soon occurred to me that this topic of being a hospital leader was a subset of a much broader topic, that of nonclinical careers. So, I started the PNC podcast addressing that larger niche, and now I'm into my 143rd episode.

I’ve since found that there are products and services that physicians are willing to purchase to expedite their career transitions. This became evident when I started helping with a Facebook group (Physician Nonclinical Career Hunters) devoted to nonclinical careers two years ago, which now has over 13,000 members. And I recognize that there's a demand for coaching, mentoring, and training. Several books have been published on the subject of nonclinical careers. There is a growing interest in this niche. And I’ve started to sell my own products.

Reminder – Leverage and Growth Virtual SUMMIT is Live May 11 through May 22, 2020.

I'm a contributor and affiliate partner for Peter Kim's Leverage and Growth Virtual Summit. With over 50 expert faculty, it is incredible that you can access all of the sessions for FREE. It is designed to build freedom into your life through passive and active income streams, and help secure your family's future in these uncertain times.

My session is on May 19, so be sure to view it. All of the sessions with be released over the next 2 weeks, starting the day this podcast episode is released on May 11, 2020. Each week's sessions will also be posted again on the respective weekend, at absolutely NO COST. And you can pick and choose each day which sessions to view.

At any point, including the final days of the SUMMIT, you can choose to purchase access to all of the videos if you find them to be helpful. In any case, whether you choose to enroll in the free access or buy the video bundle, please USE THIS LINK. It is the only way that I get credit for sharing this SUMMIT with my listeners and readers. And doing so has no effect on the price if you elect to purchase the videos.

Get Started on Your Nonclinical Online Business by Finding a Niche

But the process that I followed was a bit backward. I now believe that if you want to start an online business, it is best to follow a more intentional path! Let me describe how I think you should get started on your nonclinical online business.

When starting a new business, I believe there are four requirements that must be met. Visualize a Venn diagram. Your niche must exist at the overlapping section of these four.

Engage Your Passion

Identify Your Expertise

Find Customers with a Problem to Solve

Find Customers Who Can Afford a Solution

Summary

As you get started on your nonclinical online business and determine your niche, keep your options open. Consider several. Find others in those fields and see how they are doing.

For a more extensive discussion of this topic, check out Chapter 9 in The Positioned Physician: Earn More, Work Smart & Love Medicine Again, by Mike Woo-Ming, MD, MPH. Mike is featured on the podcast in Episode 19 and will return on Episode 144.

Coming Next

In the next blog post, I will answer this question: Can I go a step further and demonstrate that customers will buy, before I sink a lot of time and money into my potential niche?

Next Steps

Please add you're thoughts and questions in the Comments. I will respond to them all.

Contact me: john@nonclinicalphysicians.com

Thanks for joining me.

Until next time.

The post How to Get Started on Your Nonclinical Online Business appeared first on NonClinical Physicians.

Michelle Mudge-Riley recently interviewed me about my wonderful nonclinical careers. She runs Physicians Helping Physicians , a site that helps physicians land new careers. She interviews physicians like me who have developed interesting side hustles or careers outside of medical practice, and posts the podcasts on the site.

Along with a dozen other physicians, I’m helping Michelle and PHP to present it’s first major conference dedicated to career transition this coming April. The conference is designed to share information about nonclinical careers and side-gigs.

That meeting is being held in Austin, Texas, on April 6 and 7. In anticipation of the meeting, Michelle interviewed me for her podcast. Her podcast episodes generally involve a discussion with a physician about their career transition. So, I had an opportunity to discuss my career transitions with her. I say transitions, because I have changed careers several times, and engaged in several side-gigs before leaving clinical medicine completely.

Our Sponsor

This podcast is made possible by the University of Tennessee Physician Executive MBA Program offered by the Haslam College of Business. You’ll remember that I interviewed Dr. Kate Atchley, the Executive Director of the program, in Episode #25 of this podcast.

The UT PEMBA is the longest running, and most highly respected physician-only MBA in the country, with over 650 graduates. Unlike most other ranked programs, which typically have a duration of 18 to 24 months, this program only takes a year to complete. And, it’s offered by the business school that was recently ranked #1 in the world for the Most Relevant Executive MBA program, by Economist magazine.

University of Tennessee PEMBA students bring exceptional value to their organizations by contributing at the highest level while earning their degree. The curriculum includes a number of major assignments and a company project, both of which are structured to immediately apply to each student’s organization.

Graduates have taken leadership positions at major healthcare organizations and have become entrepreneurs and business owners. If you want to acquire the business and management skills needed to advance your nonclinical career, contact Dr. Kate Atchley’s office by calling (865) 974-6526 or going to vitalpe.net/physicianmba.

Background

I received my MD from the University of Illinois College of Medicine, and a master’s degree in public health from the Medical College of Wisconsin. Taking advantage of the American Association for Physician Leadership, I attended leadership training and achieved designation as a certified physician executive (CPE).

I enjoyed clinical medicine. But I was always interested in pursuing other things. Besides serving on committees and boards, I was part-time medical director for family planning and occupational medicine clinics.

Currently, I split my time as an urgent care medical director, and publishing the weekly Physician Nonclinical Careers Podcast. I guess I'm not slowing down!

Although I liked providing one-on-one care to patients, I knew I could help more patients by transitioning to a physician administrator role. With public health training, I had a desire to improve the care of populations of patients.

Influencing People with the Podcast

Always looking for something new to learn and do, I enjoyed writing, so why not start a blog? That way, I could share what I've learned from pursuing various careers with others.

Click here to download today's TRANSCRIPT

The Vital Physician Executive Blog transformed into the Physician Nonclinical Careers Podcast to make a bigger impact on listeners. With the podcast, I can interview other physicians about the wonderful nonclinical careers they have enjoyed. I'm learning along with my listeners!

Two of my favorite episodes include:

• The Journey from Career Loss to Physician Advocate with Dr. Stephanie Pearson – 023, which focuses on a doctor who became disabled due to an injury she incurred while delivering medical care.
• How to Become an Author, Consultant and Online Authority with Dr. Tom Davis – 047.

In addition to the podcast, I plan to offer courses and mentoring programs. My ultimate goal is to become a resource for physicians looking to change careers.

Physicians are Natural Leaders

Physicians tend to be natural leaders due to the vigorous and focused training they receive. However, we need more physician leaders. Currently, physicians only run about 6 percent of hospitals.

And physicians deserve to find a career that brings them joy and allows them to work in their “Zone of Genius.” Only then can we do the jobs we were born to do.

Looking back, I can honestly say that I enjoyed all of my wonderful nonclinical careers!

Links for today's episode:

Dr. John Jurica on Facebook
Dr. John Jurica’s Physician Nonclinical Careers Podcast
Dr. John Jurica’s Vital Physician Executive Blog
How To Land Three Popular Hospital Management Jobs (free guide)
Dr. Michelle Mudge-Riley
Physicians Helping Physicians
American Association for Physician Leadership
The Big Leap Book by Gay Hendricks

Thanks to our sponsor…

Thanks to the UT Physician Executive MBA program for sponsoring the show. It’s an outstanding, highly rated, MBA program designed for working physicians. It might be just what you need to prepare for that joyful, well-paying career. You can find out more at vitalpe.net/physicianmba.

Thanks again for listening to the story explaining how I found my wonderful nonclinical careers. I hope to see you next time on the PNC Podcast.

If you enjoyed today’s episode, share it on Twitter and Facebook, and leave a review on iTunes.

Podcast Editing & Production Services are provided by Oscar Hamilton.

Disclaimers:

The opinions expressed here are mine and my guest’s. While the information provided on the podcast is true and accurate to the best of my knowledge, there is no express or implied guarantee that using the methods discussed here will lead to success in your career, life or business. 

Many of the links that I refer you to, and that you’ll find in the show notes, are affiliate links. That means that I receive a payment from the seller if you purchase the affiliate item using my link. Doing so has no effect on the price you are charged. And I only promote products and services that I believe are of high quality and will be useful to you, that I have personally used or am very familiar with.

The information presented on this blog and related podcast is for entertainment and/or informational purposes only. It should not be construed as medical, legal, tax, or emotional advice. If you take action on the information provided on the blog or podcast, it is at your own risk. Always consult an attorney, accountant, career counsellor, or other professional before making any major decisions about your career. 

Right click here and “Save As” to download this podcast episode to your computer.

Here are the easiest ways to listen:

vitalpe.net/itunes  – vitalpe.net/stitcher  – vitalpe.net/googleplay

The post How I Found My Wonderful Nonclinical Careers – 072 appeared first on NonClinical Physicians.

I produce this podcast because I’ve personally pivoted to a nonclinical career. And I think that's a valid option that frustrated physicians should seriously consider. Over a period of several years, I shifted from full-time clinical practice to full-time hospital chief medical officer.

Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash

About 4 years ago, I began contemplating my next move. Would I seek an executive position at another hospital similar to what I was already doing? Or would I flex my entrepreneurial muscles and try something with a bit more risk?

Entrepreneurial Tendencies

My Dad and many of my 9 siblings have started small businesses. It seems to be in our blood. And about 10 years ago, I helped my wife, Kay, identify a franchise to purchase and run. I then provided a little help with setting up QuickBooks to track the business finances.

Today she runs an award-winning Home Helpers, in Bourbonnais, Illinois, and has over 70 caregivers and nearly 100 clients. So, I’m a big supporter of entrepreneurial efforts.

Four years ago, I began looking for another position in hospital leadership and went on several interviews at nearby hospitals.

Then an entrepreneur contacted me through LinkedIn with a business opportunity. I'd help him open a new urgent care center north of Chicago, and become a minority investor, medical director, and clinician.

I won't go into the details now, but after some analysis and due diligence, I decided to proceed with the venture. I left my job as chief medical officer in late 2014.

If you'd like to hear more of the details of my journey, you should listen to the interview by Dr. David Draghinas on Doctors Unbound. It's the December 18, 2017 episode. You can find it by going to vitalpe.net/johnsinterview or at iTunes at vitalpe.net/doctorsunboundinterview.

So now I'm a partner, medical director and clinician at an urgent care center where I've been working for about three years. The plan has been for me to get things going, train the staff and then gradually reduce my hours as we add other clinicians. I've already begun to cut back.

A New NonClinical Career

While building that business, I started my blog in 2016 and my podcast in 2017.

I'll admit it's been a challenge at times creating the blog and podcast. There's a lot to learn, from web site design, to creating good content, and building an audience.

It takes time to arrange, record and edit interviews, and create blog posts and show notes to go with the podcast episodes. But there's a method to my madness.

I started the blog two years ago, in part to improve my writing skills. But I also wanted to encourage emerging physician leaders.

The podcast came about because I developed a strong desire to help physicians transition to a new career if they're unhappy or unsatisfied in their current situation.

Photo by Neil Godding on Unsplash

But there’s another reason I'm pursuing these new activities. It's because it gives me an opportunity to experience another potential career transition myself. And as I successfully develop this online business, I’ll write and talk about my successes and failures, and share what I’m learning.

I want to demonstrate that it’s possible for a physician to become an online entrepreneur as a blogger, podcaster, online coach, course creator, or e-book producer. So that's what I'm trying to do.

It's technically a hobby, because it doesn’t generate significant income. However, I have a plan to help you achieve your goals, create a community of like-minded physicians, and build a viable business along the way.

As I do so, I’ll document what I'm doing on the blog, podcast, and Facebook. I’ll share everything that I learn, in order to help you accomplish the same goal, but faster and easier than I me. In that way, I hope to inspire you to create your own online businesses, if you're so inclined.

What Did I Learn?

Writing the blog and creating the podcast has really helped me understand better what my colleagues are going through on a daily basis. And what I've learned isn't only from the interviews and the research I've done. I've also learned from readers, listeners and physicians who have already carved out space in the online business world as bloggers, podcasters, coaches and speakers.

During the process of sharing my content, I’ve joined several LinkedIn and Facebook groups, including the Physician Nonclinical Career Hunters Facebook Group.

This group was founded a couple of years ago by Dr. Laura McKain. And it's been growing pretty rapidly. After joining several months ago, I had the privilege of becoming one of the administrators for the group. There were about 4,000 members when I joined. The group is now approaching 9,000 members as I'm recording this in March of 2018.

In addition to that group, there are other Facebook groups and several LinkedIn groups that are devoted primarily to physician career transition or dealing with burnout.

1st Lesson

I've contemplated the forces that are driving this increased interest in nonclinical careers. And my attitudes about how physicians are being treated, especially by big corporate employers, has evolved.

In the past, I tended to be a bit “old school.” I came through medical school and residency at a time when it was still common to take in-house call every third day and work up to 100 hours or more per week. I'm not saying that's a good thing, but stoicism was a big part of medical training at the time.

It still is, but there are caps on work-hours during residency now. And there is acknowledgement that physicians in training can't work optimally if they're sleep deprived and chronically overworked.

My point in describing this is that, I wasn't highly sympathetic about physicians’ complaints about long hours or frequent call. In fact, when I was the CMO for my hospital, I was often frustrated because our physicians wanted to leave the office at 4:30 or 5:00 p.m. and didn't like the idea of being on call every third or fourth weekend.

Shifting Perspective

But as I talked to physicians that were reporting to me after implementing a new EMR, it became apparent that there was a lot of frustration.

Their jobs were becoming less and less fulfilling and more frustrating. Many of them were spending two hours in the evening, or three or four hours on weekends completing their medical records at home. I came to believe that those long work hours just weren’t right. Adding the demands of prior authorizations for testing, and new regulations only increased those frustrations.

More recently, I've spoken with physicians about career change. And, I've interacted with members of the Facebook and LinkedIn groups that I talked about earlier. It's become apparent to me that many physicians are being pushed around and overworked for no good reason.

Photo by Lucas Gallone on Unsplash

In fact, some physicians seem pretty darn “crispy,” and ready to walk away from medicine. Many are leaving simply because of the intense workplace frustrations they're experiencing.

New Realization

This has led me to the following conclusion:

Given the long hours, the years of training, intense effort, and sacrifice (forgoing vacations, hobbies and time with friends) tells me that you deserve something better.

There's absolutely no logical reason why you should NOT pursue and enjoy a career that's fulfilling and joyful. You should NOT continue doing a job that is burning you out. And you should NOT be working for any organization that's sucking the life out of you, intentionally or not.

So that's realization number 1 that I've come to fully embrace.

You don't owe your patients, your employer or your community your very soul. That’s not the oath you've taken. That’s not a debt that you owe.

If you're stuck in a situation like that, then I implore you to do two things.

First, make a commitment to yourself to change it, either to make it better, or to get out. Second, begin talking to someone about your feelings, whether it's your spouse, significant other, boss, or colleagues. Let them know what you’re feeling so they can support you as you do something about addressing the cause of those feelings.

You don't have to leave your current job, if you can make the situation better. But if you can't, then it's time to get out!

I think that is the most critical belief that you must come to grips with: that you must take action if your career is dragging you down, rather than bringing you joy and satisfaction. And that you deserve to be happy.

4 More Lessons

The 2nd thing I've learned, and talked about in Podcast Episode 2, is that if you're going to make a change, it doesn't have to be all or none, at least not initially. You can start with small pilots before you make the formal commitment to a new career. And that it's possible to do it in a way that isn't going to be disruptive.

I've also learned more about the pros and cons of obtaining an MBA. Yes, there are some very clear areas where an MBA can be useful. But after speaking with Dr. Atish Jaiswal in Episode 3, and with Kate Atchley in Episode 25, I think that considering an MBA should be done very deliberately, with the idea of balancing the costs and the benefits.

If you know that you're ultimately going to be in a leadership position, the best option might be the following. Get some leadership experience and a formal part-time or full-time job in management. Then when it's time to seek that MBA, approach your employer to help you with time off and funding.

The 4th thing I’ve learned is that there are many coaches available to help you. I would strongly encourage you to consider using a coach. Even if it's just for a few sessions, it will help to focus your efforts, particularly if you're not sure what direction to go.

Photo by Jamie Templeton on Unsplash

You may recall that I interviewed coaches Kernan Manion, Michelle Mudge-Riley, Robert Gleeson, Charlotte Weeks, Dian Ginsberg and Heather Fork. I found that they all demonstrated a great deal of experience and wisdom when working with physicians.

I’ve also heard from their clients, and they all benefited from the support and coaching of these capable professionals.

Most of them mentioned one common observation about their clients: that self-limiting beliefs and fear play a big part in holding them back from pursuing that new career. This is the 5th lesson I’ve learned.

And to move forward, we must learn to overcome those limiting beliefs. We all have a vast skill set and are capable of entering one of dozens of possible careers out there. A career that's much more interesting and fulfilling.

Mentors, Conferences and Professional Associations

The 6th lesson that I learned about while talking with the coaches mentioned above is that mentors are extremely important. I spoke specifically about how to identify and engage a mentor in Episode 4 of the podcast.

Since we're speaking about resources, the 7th thing I learned is that LinkedIn can be your best friend when seeking that new career. This is noted by most of the coaches I spoke with, and I addressed it in Episode 8 and Episode 9.

There are two other big resources that I've identified during the course of this work.

The 8th big thing I learned about is the Annual SEAK Nonclinical Careers Conference held in Chicago each October. It's the one place where you can find education, mentorship and coaching by dozens of physicians who have made a shift to a non-clinical career.

The other big resource, and the 9th lesson I’ve learned, is the American Association for Physician Leadership. It is a fantastic organization run by physicians, for physicians, that will help you to become a leader in whatever career you pursue. In Episode 24, Dian Ginsberg provided a detailed description of the organization.

How To Pursue Specific Nonclinical Careers

Finally, for my 10th important lesson, I learned about specific non-clinical jobs and how to pursue them. Developing a career in each was something I didn't understand before interviewing the following guests.

Cesar Limjoco talked about this role as a clinical documentation improvement consultant, but we also learned in Episode 5 how you can hone your skills in this area, and pursue a career as a physician adviser for CDI.

In Episode 12, Timothy Owolabi talked about his role as a physician adviser for care management. He really enjoys the work. And his job serves as a stepping stone to other management and leadership roles in the hospital setting.

I spoke with Brian Young in Episode 14 about medical informatics. He explained that informatics is a rapidly growing field with a need for physician experts. It’s a field that you can begin with just a sincere interest and a little experience.

Serial entrepreneur Mike Woo-Ming provided insights into how to create a new career or side-hustle in Episode 19. We learned about medical writing from Mandy Armitage in Episode 22, and how to become an insurance broker and physician advocate from Stephanie Pearson in Episode 23.

A Steep Learning Curve

I've learned a lot in these last 25 weeks. I was a little nervous when I started the podcast. There were the technical issues, and I really didn't have much experience doing interviews.

But I was a big fan of Michael Hyatt, Amy Porterfield, and Pat Flynn, and I was able to learn a lot from them, purchasing some of their courses to help me on my blogging and podcasting journey.

Things have gone pretty well. I've had generally positive feedback from listeners and readers. And I've had an opportunity to engage with many young physicians that want to learn more about career change. I’ve also met some great physician professionals who are working to help those physicians find the right career.

A Few Thanks…

I must mention Laura McKain, the founder of the Facebook group I talked about. I've been intending to interview her because she's a coach, resume writer, and nonclinical physician who worked in pharma for many years. She recently switched to a new career with a biotechnology company. She's done a fantastic job starting and growing the Physician Nonclinical Career Hunters FB Group.

I met her at the SEAK Conference last October. She's a great resource for physicians. So, I want to acknowledge her for the work that she's done. She encouraged me and invited me to help her with the Facebook group. And she's been a great role model for me and other members in the group.

Photo by rawpixel.com on Unsplash

I'd like to acknowledge others who have served as mentors and colleagues to me. I've developed relationships with other bloggers, such as Future Proof MD, Physician on Fire (they like to post anonymously), and Mark at The Productive Physician.

As I mentioned earlier, Dave Draghinas at Doctors Unbound has been a source of encouragement. I’ve also had the opportunity to interact a little with Nii Darko at Docs Outside the Box.

Several of the people that I've interviewed have continued to keep in touch and encourage and support me. I’m especially thankful for the support and encouragement from Heather Fork at Doctors Crossing (Episode 18); Kernan Manion (Episode 7); and Michelle Mudge-Riley (Episode 10).

I'm Here to Serve You!

I'm really here to serve you. I encourage you to contact me in any way that you'd like. Please give me feedback and ideas for future episodes of the podcast.

The easiest way to contact me is to write me at johnjurica@nonclinical.buzzmybrand.net.

And I’ll tell you a little secret. If you’re interested in pursuing a career in hospital quality or administration, email me at that address. I'll provide up to an hour of free coaching if my schedule allows.

Otherwise, you can add a comment to the show notes below.

Today's Quote

Let’s end with this quote:

See you next time on Physician NonClinical Careers.

Here is a list of resources mentioned in this episode:

[table id=11 /]

Right click here and “Save As” to download this podcast episode to your computer.

The easiest ways to listen:  vitalpe.net/itunes or vitalpe.net/stitcher

The post What Did We Learn and Where Are We Going After 25 Episodes? – 026 appeared first on NonClinical Physicians.

As you've probably noticed, I launched the podcast a few weeks ago. The episodes are being posted right here on the blog every week. They're also accessible on their own PNC Podcast Page.

Each podcast episode has its own post that describes the material for those that prefer to read their content. And the post includes links to important information mentioned in each episode and to iTunes, Stitcher and Google Play.

With all of the work that went into producing the first eight episodes, I had no choice but to take a hiatus from publishing blog material on leadership topics. However, my intention moving forward is to continue to write weekly on such topics.

This is getting a little challenging, because it takes time to research and prepare the content for both the blog and the podcast. But I'm going to continue to work on this.

I enjoy new challenges. I'm learning more about blogging and podcasting every day. And, I'm getting to meet some really fascinating physicians who have done wonderful work. I'll bring many of them onto the podcast for interviews.

And, with your help, I'll continue to learn and grow and provide better podcast and blog content.

I really appreciate your support and patience. My goal is to continue to produce value for you.

Latest Update on Newsletter Improvements

Here is the latest update on my Newsletter. I'm going to try something new. I'm going to move my curated content, which is what I previously called the Monthly Favorites, to the email Newsletter. I'll continue to use the newsletter to announce the release of blog posts and podcasts. But, I'll also provide information that's pertinent to physician leadership and nonclinical careers. My intent is, again, to provide additional value in another way.

For example, I will discuss newly released or recently discovered books I've read, or a new course or conference that;s of interest to Newsletter subscribers.

The Newsletter will have unique content, so you should sign up for it by clicking RIGHT HERE.

Your Input Needed

Please bear with me. Help me to improve the podcast and blog. I'll be sending out a survey shortly to my email list. It will be really helpful if you sign up for that email list and newsletter, because you'll be able to provide valuable input and direction to improve these resources.

Together, we'll make this enterprise as valuable as possible for all of you. Thanks for listening. I'll be back with you soon.

John

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Next Steps

Please add your thoughts and questions in the Comments. I'll respond to them all.

Contact me: johnjurica@nonclinical.buzzmybrand.net

The post Latest Update on the Podcast and Blog appeared first on NonClinical Physicians.

When I jumped in and took my first executive position as vice president for medical affairs, it began a period of growth that I had not experienced since medical school and residency.

During that time, I was constantly feeling a sense of discomfort. I was only partially prepared for my new role. The experiences that felt especially uncomfortable were:

• Being the outsider at meetings with the CEO and other members of the executive team, who had worked together and met weekly for years before I joined them;
• Learning to interact with, support, lead and inspire the directors who actually ran my division;
• Accepting full accountability for my own performance and that of my division; and,
• Understanding and embracing budgets.

Over time, as I developed skills in these areas, my discomfort lessened. But the CEO and COO always saw to it that new challenges were identified. They tried to ensure that professional growth continued for all members of the team.

I'll come back to the growth discussion later. For now, I'd like to update my list of physician authored blogs and podcasts.

Updates on Physician Blogs

I have found some new blogs and podcasts to add to my list of physician authored blogs. I recommend you check them out. They are generally inspiring and often very interesting. Here they are:

The Boss MD

From the About page: “To equip doctors with the skills to effectively contribute to healthcare organizations and manage their careers.”

The Boss MD is an internist and the blog is rather eclectic, covering topics that are personal, professional and financial.

My Curiosity Lab

From the About page: “At base, this is an attempt to put what is on my mind on the page. Some of the topics you can expect to see include:

Life and health experimentation
Parenting
Travel (including family travel)
Early retirement
Personal finance
Food (cooking and eating out)”

This author is a radiologist and he covers a fairly eclectic mix of topics, as noted above.

Dr. Corriel MD

According to the author, Dana Corriel, her content is as follows: “As readers, you will be seeing a mix of material- both medicine and parenthood-related, and even some of the other beautiful things in life that I enjoy sharing- food I love, experiences I want to share, my love of vintage, and more.”

She is an internist addressing an eclectic mix of subject matter.

The Health Care Blog

From the About page: THCB covers the business of healthcare, national healthcare policy, technology and day-to-day health care news.

The publisher is Matthew Holt, and he is not a physician. But I include this blog because the topics area relevant, and many of the writers are physicians. The topics relate to the healthcare industry, and the specialties of the contributors varies.

TheExaminingRoom.com

According to the side bar, this blog is: “A physician's commentary on current issues in medicine, clinical research, health, and wellness.” We don't know his specialty, but he appears to write mostly about health and wellness.

Two New Personal Finance Blogs

Doctors on Debt

Here is information from the About page: “We are a married couple in our early 30’s, and we each practice our chosen healthcare professions in a small-ish Midwest city. We live in a little house with our child and a temperamental cat. We are not millionaires. We are not financially-free. Our goal is simple: Get rid of our student loans ASAP, and make other smart financial decisions along the way.”

This one is dedicated to personal finance. The specialties of the Doctors on Debt are not specified.

Miss Bonnie MD

From the About page: “…there is an enormous gap in knowledge and resources for how professional women should not only manage money but also tackle the rising cost of childcare, divorce, elder care, and other unique concerns for breadwinning women.”

Miss Bonnie MD is a dermatologist and she writes about personal finance.

How About Two Podcasts

Weight Loss for Busy Physicians

Katrina Ubell is a pediatrician with a focus on weight loss for physicians.

According to Ubell: “What I do is create a safe space for you to unpack all of the baggage that is manifesting itself as extra fat on your body. Then, piece by piece, we work through all of it.”

She mostly produces podcast episodes and provides coaching services for interested followers.

Hippocratic Hustle

This is a podcast by Carrie Reynolds, a pediatric gastroenterologist, who is devoted to creating “a space where women doctors can come together and share their stories of their business, project or side-hustle. We will also explore ways to stretch our hard earned dollars and be more efficient with our time and money. Join us as we explore the many creative ways women can practice medicine.” Her focus is on careers.

I will soon add these nine blogs and podcasts to the Physician Blogs Page.

Please send me any new physician authored blogs that you encounter.

Now for a New Growth and Discomfort Opportunity

One of the reasons I cut back to weekly posts a couple of months ago was to work on a new project. Let me provide some background.

During my research of topics for emerging physician executives, I've observed a great deal of interest by physicians in a variety of nonclinical careers. Management is not meant for everyone.

Some are more interested in work as a medical advisor or expert witness. A career in coaching or consulting is intriguing for others. There are numerous other career opportunities that enable physicians to:

• reduce or eliminate direct patient contact;
• fill the need to explore new opportunities and engage new and untapped skills;
• abandon some of the frustrations of “routine medical practice,” whatever the specialty; and,
• recapture passion for their careers.

I have addressed this broader issue of nonclinical careers in several posts, including:

• How to Pivot and Launch A New Career: A Book Review
• Is it Time for a Non-Clinical Career?
• Options for a Non-Clinical Career

I clearly have an affinity for hospital management, and will continue to recommend it as a challenging and rewarding, career choice. But there is an almost endless universe of other career opportunities that can be explored.

New Facebook Discovery

I recently discovered a very interesting and popular Facebook Group called Physician NonClinical Career Hunters. It is moderated by Laura McKain, MD, who works in the pharmaceutical industry. The group has been growing rapidly. As I’m preparing this post, it has just reached 6,000 physician members.

Reading through the posts, and interacting with the members and McKain, leads me to believe this is an area with a lot of ongoing interest.

Goodbye clinical career?

This is understandable, because the rapid changes in healthcare have caused many of us to rethink our commitment to direct patient care. And like any group of people, we all have different gifts that sometimes do not become apparent until later in our lives.

The Upshot

So…

I’m in the process of putting together a podcast that will address this very issue. It will be designed to inspire, inform, and support physicians seeking a “side hustle” or a full-time career in an area beyond direct patient care.

I look forward to learning more about the options available to physicians. I will be speaking to issues related to management, leadership and administration, as I have done on this blog. My plan is to learn more about other opportunities along with my listeners, by interviewing experts and physicians who have already successfully made the transition to one of these careers.

I’d ask that you check back from time to time to see the inaugural podcast episode. I will present the cover art and the name of the podcast on a future blog post before the podcast is released.

My goal is to publish the first episode by the end of September. I'll do everything I can to accomplish that.

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QUESTION

My additional request is that you let me know which nonclinical career you would most like to hear about. You can respond via email at  johnjurica@nonclinical.buzzmybrand.net or use the Voice Message option.

Next Steps

Please add you're thoughts and questions in the Comments. I will respond to them all.

SHARE this post, SUBSCRIBE Here and complete a SURVEY .

Contact me: johnjurica@nonclinical.buzzmybrand.net

Until next time.

The post Growth And Discomfort for the Vital Physician Executive appeared first on NonClinical Physicians.

It was founded in 2002 and is now owned by Microsoft. With over 500 million users worldwide, it boasts about 130 million users in the United States. It currently posts about 10 million jobs.

The primary feature that defines LinkedIn is each member's profile. Your profile can be thought of as a dynamic visual resume.

My LinkedIn Story

I updated my LinkedIn profile and submitted my name to the job listings page. An entrepreneur contacted me shortly thereafter looking for a physician with my skills to join him as a minority partner in a new venture: to open a brand new urgent care center.

He had spent two years researching the business opportunity. He had plans to open a clinic in a region north of Chicago that had a deficit of urgent care services, so he messaged me through LinkedIn and started an online conversation.

Click image to go to my LinkedIn profile.

About six months later, following some negotiation, I signed several agreements. I purchased stock in the new company, and gave notice to my then employer that I was leaving my job as chief medical officer.

Fast forward two and a half years. PromptMed Urgent Care has grown from nothing to a very active clinic, treating 40 to 50 patients per day on weekdays (a bit less on weekends).

Reasons to Be LinkedIn

For physician managers, executives, consultants, coaches, pharma representatives, or those planning to pursue a career in any nonclinical field, LinkedIn is a must.

Here are the reasons I find it so useful to be LinkedIn. Most of them relate directly to its status as an online resume, which facilitates the following activities.

1. Job Hunting

By updating in your profile and participating in LinkedIn jobs, you can constantly receive alerts about new jobs that match your search criteria. Remember, your profile is an online resume. It needs to be detailed, clear, complete and authentic, like any resume or CV. But it can present much more information, and is suited to providing details of your values and long-term goals.

It should contain your complete employment history (no gaps), educational background, other experience, and endorsements from those that know you well (professionally).

Think of this as creating your own personal brand that can be used for a variety of purposes, but especially job hunting. Describing your vision, values, goals and passions can be very attractive to employers looking for certain attributes.

2. Connections and Followers

LinkedIn provides recommendations for potential connections in an ongoing basis. You can cull your existing email lists and or manually search for connections to add. But LinkedIn also facilitates the process of identifying new connections.

It will use your first degree connections to identify second and third degree connections. You can message them and invite them to connect. (Premium services are more helpful and flexible in this regard).

You can identify people in your workplace, and alumni from your undergraduate school, medical school, and residency programs to connect with or follow.

Once you've developed this network, you can sort and categorize them for information you want to send them. You can message them, ask them questions, and consult with them in ways that helps each of you professionally.

I currently have almost 550 connections and another 20 members that follow me.

3. Get Published

LinkedIn encourages you to post articles to showcase your expertise and writing skills. This will help with your career advancement, but also with network development and promotion of  your side business or consulting practice.

Posting on LinkedIn enhances your authority and reputation by allowing you to share articles from other sources, or your own original writing. You can repurpose chapters from books or blog posts you've written.

If you happen to write your own blog or host a podcast, by posting articles on LinkedIn, you can encourage readers to visit your sites, and generate business for any venture you may be involved with.

I post my blog articles directly to LinkedIn using Buffer, and they typically generate about 200 views each, depending on the topic.

The last article I posted, Every Emerging Physician Executive Must Learn These New Skills, received 364 views. My most popular article, The Best Hospitals Are Managed by Physicians, attracted 554 readers.

4. Groups

There are hundreds of groups on LinkedIn that can expand your reach and serve as a source of education and networking. I'm personally a member of 14 groups, most of which are related to physician leadership, hospital executive interests, and non-clinical careers. I also enjoy the conversations posted to the Writing on LinkedIn Group.

These groups serve as another source of connections. You can interact with your group members even if they are not one of your connections or followers. You can post specific articles and opinions to your group and thereby encourage interaction with other members. I find this to be a very useful reason to be LinkedIn.

5. Great News Source

Depending on your connections and the groups you've joined, you will receive an ongoing flow of information similar to that of Facebook and other social media sites.

You can access the news in two ways. By following other members, you receive their posts. To follow new members, you can manage your feed preferences by clicking the More icon on any post. Then you add persons to follow from the Improve My Feed list, or the Followers list.

News and other content is also delivered to you daily from each of your groups. When you enter the Groups area, you're be presented with Today's Highlights, which presents a personalized selection of conversations from your groups.

6. LinkedIn Learning

LinkedIn Learning grew out of LinkedIn's purchase of Lynda.com. It has taken this content and merged it with its professional networking. I believe there is a monthly fee to access LinkedIn Learning, but it is included in Premium memberships.

There is a library of over 9,000 digital courses. And LinkedIn Learning will create personalized recommendations of courses for you, based on your interests and expressed needs. These courses can be accessed anytime, anywhere on cell phones and other personal devices.

I've just begun to explore their business courses, and they look very professionally produced.

Bonus Reason: It's Free!

One of the big reasons to sign up is that you get all of this for free. There are premium services that can sometimes be useful, but are not required. Everything I've presented is free, except for the ability to reach out to second and third degree networks, and LinkedIn Learning, both of which are included in the premium membership plans.

I've been growing my network on LinkedIn for about two years, mostly using the free membership.

In Closing

Any physician that has professional activities outside of clinical medicine, particularly a career as a hospital or medical group executive, consultant or coach, absolutely must have a LinkedIn profile. However, to have a poor LinkedIn profile may be worse than having no profile.

So, if you join LinkedIn, be sure that you complete your profile 100%. You should upload a professionally done portrait. And you ought to clearly articulate your goals and values. I would also recommend you check out LinkedIn Learning to see if there's information there that can be of benefit to you.

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Have you found LinkedIn to be valuable? Do you have questions about LinkedIn?

Next Steps

Please add you're thoughts and questions in the Comments. I will respond to them all.

Don't forget to SHARE this post, SUBSCRIBE Here or complete a SURVEY.

Contact me: johnjurica@nonclinical.buzzmybrand.net or leave me a Voice Message here.

Thanks for joining me.

Until next time.

The post Top Reasons to Be LinkedIn appeared first on NonClinical Physicians.

(I had 70 on my list, then realized I had forgotten to add The Productive Physician, a blogger I mentioned in my Monthly Leadership Favorites for March, Wealthy Doc and Smart Money MD).

You may recall that I posted my first list of 30 blogs with My Fascination with Physician-Authored Blogs. Then I added 20 more and published the list of 50 in Are You Intrigued or Entertained by These 50 Physician Authored Blogs? All 73 of them are included in the updated table below. The new ones are listed at the top.

In this list I have avoided blogs that are strictly clinical in nature (well, maybe one or two slipped in). However, some of them may have a mix of clinical AND philosophical or financial content. In fact, one of them (Sutured for a Living) has a mix of clinical and quilting content (you saw that right: quilting!).

My Current Favorites

My favorites physician authored blogs are listed here:

1. UrgentCare Mentor
2. The White Coat Investor
3. Future Proof MD
4. The Productive Physician
5. Physician on FIRE
6. Investing Doc
7. The Happy MD
8. ZDoggMD
9. GomerBlog

The new ones that piqued my interest and might become future favorites include the following:

1. The Foodie Physician has lots of appetizing and healthy meals.
2. I enjoy humorous writing, especially when it involves stupid things patients say and do, which are often written about by Dr. Grumpy.
3. GomerBlog takes humor and satire to a whole new level. That's why I already added it to my favorites list.
4. The Happy Hospitalist seems to consist of humor scattered with the occasional coding and documentation advice. Confusing, but entertaining.
5. Matthew Hahn looks intense, and devoted mostly to standing up for us battered physicians. MACRA Must Die sounds like a good read.
6. I found five new personal finance blogs: Smart Money MD, Wealthy Doc, Some Random Guy Online, Doctor in Debt and The Wall Street Physician. I think that brings the number of physician authored finance blogs to thirteen!
7. And, finally! I found two blogs by physicians focused on leadership: md2leader and Richard Winters MD.  I met the author of md2leader at a recent American Association for Physician Leadership meeting and was pleased to find his blog once I returned home.

Newly Discovered Physician Authored Blogs

Like last time, the table is searchable and sortable, so if you want to see all of the Personal Finance or Happiness blogs together you can easily do so. Also, I have set the table to display 37 sites at a time. You can scan the first 37, then see the next 36 by clicking Next at the bottom of the table. I think you can also adjust the number of rows being displayed if you prefer.

Other than listing the recent additions first, the table is in no particular order. Most sites are all fairly active with multiple posts within the past few months or so. The Entrepreneurial MD is one exception – its last post dating back to 2016.

I attempted to categorize the 73 physician authored blogs the best I could, without providing detailed notes from their About Pages. It is easy to identify a site as Personal Finance in nature. But some of the other descriptions are rough approximations of their content at best. I sometimes just called them Eclectic if they have commentary about lots of unrelated issues.

And one minor warning: a few of the blogs appear to promote political leanings. But none seem to be blatant. I am still trying to get a feel for Rebel.MD, for example. But the writing was very good, and I think the political content is minimal.

Here is the updated list of physician authored blogs:

[table id=8 /]

Next Steps

Check out some of the sites at your leisure and let me know what you think. Also, send me the name of your favorite physician authored blog or podcast, and I will add it to my list.

Don't forget to Subscribe here.

Please provide FEEDBACK, FEEDBACK and more FEEDBACK:  Survey Page

Use the Comments or email:  john.jurica.md@gmail.com.

Thanks for reading!

The post Newly Discovered Physician Authored Blogs: 23 Additions appeared first on NonClinical Physicians.

It also required a thorough review of workers compensation and occupational medicine. And I needed to take a mandatory course and exam by the National Registry of Certified Medical Examiners in order to conduct physical examinations for interstate commercial motor vehicle drivers.

As a result, I was not able to attend any recent American Association for Physician Leadership Annual Conference or Institute.

However, I am now registered to attend the 2017 Spring Institute and Annual Meeting! They run back to back from April 18 through April 23, in New York City. And my wife will be attending with me because she loves New York.

As the name implies, the event is actually two meetings in one.

The AAPL Spring Institute

This part runs from April 19 through April 21.

The AAPL lists the following benefits of attending:

• Live interaction with world-class faculty
• Learning with peers
• Opportunities for networking
• Concentrated learning (time efficient)
• Fun group activities
• Personal education advising sessions

The Spring Institute focuses on in-depth study of topics from its Physician in Management Series. I have participated in several of these educational activities that in the past. They address management topics such as:

• Quality Improvement
• Negotiation
• Finance
• Marketing
• Teamwork

Physician leader Atul Gawande

The presenters are always polished and very knowledgeable. For this meeting, I heartily recommend sessions presented by:

• David Nash
• William “Marty” Martin
• Kevin O’Connor

Each of them is very engaging and effective in meeting the objectives of the presentations.

For the beginner physician leader, it is probably best to start with Managing Physician Performance or Three Faces of Quality.

As a more seasoned participant, I have decided to attend the sessions devoted to Resilient Leadership and Coaching and Mentoring Physicians to Higher Performance.

The American Association for Physician Leadership Annual Conference

This year’s Annual Meeting officially runs from April 21 through April 23. The educational sessions don’t begin until Saturday morning, April 22.

It is designed differently from the Institute. There are two keynote presentations, and two workshops. The rest of the educational material is presented in the form of Peer-Led Learning Labs.

What is a Peer-Led Learning Lab?

It is one of forty-seven 20-minute presentations covering the following categories:

• Leadership
• Healthcare Organizations
• Finance
• Communication
• Careers
• Management
• Patient Care/Quality
• Health Care Professionals
• Innovation and Technology
• Health Law and Policy

As I look at the list of topics, several appear quite interesting. I recognize several of the presenters. They all currently hold leadership positions in many different types of organizations.

I can also recommend the session by Jeremy Blanchard. He will be discussing Language, A Fulcrum for Physician Engagement and Culture Transformation on Saturday, April 22nd, between 10:30 and 11:30 AM in the Madison Square Room (according to the schedule I have been provided). I interviewed him for this blog back in January.

There will also be opportunities for networking, and other formal and informal events.

I will be helping out as an “Ambassador” for the meetings. That means I will be introducing Edward A. Walker at the start of Coaching and Mentoring Physicians to Higher Performance on Thursday and Friday, and helping to manage the peer presentations Saturday morning in the Bowery Room (three presentations each for Lab 1 and Lab 2).

I would love if any of my readers stopped by and said hello.

How I'm Preparing for This Conference

There are some things can be done to help maximize the value of this or any other conference. I’ll admit that I have not always followed my plan for this meeting.

That's in part because I am an introvert and find it difficult to strike up conversations with strangers. But networking is probably as important as the content I will be trying to learn during the meeting.

Attitude

• I want to be intentional with this conference; to participate with curiosity and a willingness to meet other participants.
• As a committed introvert, I will overcome my hesitance to engage with others.
• I will strive to remain coachable.
• I commit to speaking up and contributing verbally when asked to do so.

Goals

I am approaching the conference with specific goals in mind. My primary goals are to:

• Learn new ways to be a more resilient leader;
• Achieve a deep understanding of coaching and how to effectively coach others to achieve their personal and career goals;
• Meet at least five new colleagues from the AAPL that might consider being interviewed for this blog in the near future;
• Pick up some practical tips from the Peer-Led Learning Lab in the Leadership and Management content areas;
• Get to know more of the AAPL staff by working as an Ambassador; and,
• Promote this blog to at least one hundred conference participants, in networking events, before and after presentations, and at any exhibits that may be held at the meetings.

Recent business card to bring to the meeting.

Further Preparation

One of my Institute sessions requires completing pre-conference work (a personality inventory), so I have already completed that .

I have taken a closer look at the faculty for my sessions and have looked them up in more detail on LinkedIn, as a way to better engage with them during the meetings.

My Advice

I recommend that you seriously consider attending this meeting if you are in a leadership position or thinking about moving into one.

Next Steps

My next steps are to:

1. Check that my flights and hotel room are confirmed;
2. Get all my work (including blog posts) caught up, prior to departing on April 18;
3. Review any instructions from the AAPL regarding my role as an Ambassador;
4. Take copious notes at the meeting;
5. Write a blog post or two based on inspiration from the meeting.

For more of my thoughts on healthcare and leadership Subscribe here.

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Feel free to email me directly at john.jurica.md@gmail.com with any questions about anything. I am here to help you excel as a physician leader.

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Thanks so much and see you in the next post!

The post The Looming American Association for Physician Leadership Annual Conference appeared first on NonClinical Physicians.

Some years ago, a young African-American came to the realization that the key to escaping the poverty and hopelessness into which he had been born was to escape from illiteracy. Hence, he devoted much of his youth to educating himself. He not only learned to read, but to speak and write passionately and eloquently.

After moving from his birthplace in Maryland as a young man, he began to write about his experiences and found a following for his writings. Eventually, he published a book describing his life as a young black man in the U.S. Those writings and his speeches inspired thousands of persons who read them to join the movement that he had committed himself to.

His book, written and published at the age of 27, described in detail his life under, and escape from, slavery. It was published 16 years before the start of the U.S. Civil War, and made a meaningful contribution to the abolitionist movement that eventually ended slavery. That author was Frederick Douglass.

Great writing can have profound effects. It is an essential skill of any leader. Verbal communication is important. But writing serves as the basis for most important forms of lasting communication, even if the message is delivered in a speech. Whether writing a scientific presentation, book, white paper, or newsletter to our colleagues, it is a fundamental skill that must be learned.

When I think about improving my writing skills, I tend to think about writing from two standpoints:

• How to improve the process of writing, i.e., how can I make my writing more effortless and productive?, and
• How to improve the quality of writing, i.e., how do I create a message that is more engaging and persuasive?

I have found that blogging has enhanced both aspects of my writing. I am no expert, nor am I the next Twain or Hemingway. But I have spent hours studying the process of writing. And through blogging, I've experienced a crash course in creating content.

I have written in excess of 100,000 words in the past nine months. During that time, I have learned some things about writing more productively and efficiently that I think that other physician executives might find useful.

For this post, I am going to focus on the first aspect of writing skills: the methods I use to write in the most efficient way possible. Attmepts I've made to improve the quality and persuasiveness will be presented in a future blog post.

How I Used To Write

When I was preparing a presentation for the board, a lecture for the medical residents, or writing a paper to present to my medical staff colleagues, I usually wrote using the following approach:

1. Select the topic,
2. Decide on the three or four most important points I wanted to make,
3. Begin with a short introduction,
4. Write the body of the text, being careful to correct my grammar and spelling as I went along,
5. Write the conclusion, emphasizing the major points,
6. Create the title of the paper, based on what I had written, and
7. Go back over everything once or twice to clean it up.

This approach works, but it can be very inefficient. As a hospital executive, it might work out if you are only preparing one or two major presentations a month, and only occasionally writing articles in excess of 1500 words.

Unless your writing produces one complete coherent message (which I have never been able to do) it is unlikely that creating these documents would take less than three to four hours each, especially if they need to be converted to a slide deck for presentation to a medical staff or executive team.

Creating something like this twice a week will chew up a good day or two, especially if substantial research and inclusion of references are needed.

My New Keys To Writing Quickly

These are the methods I have learned and adopted over the past year. I found them useful in focusing my efforts to create content that is of equal quality to prior efforts, but in less time.

1. Create Writing Rituals

I was taught the concept of “state learning” when I was in college. This is a phenomenon in which memory retrieval is best when the learner is in the same state of consciousness as when the memory was formed. A similar process occurs when creating. Without getting into a long discussion about deep work or achieving a state of flow, suffice it to say that we each write best under certain conditions.

For me, it is early in the morning when I'm able to concentrate and unlikely to be distracted. I've already consumed at least a half cup of fresh coffee. And I have disconnected from phone calls, social media and email. Other rituals are described in this piece by Kathleen O'Shaughnessy. This may be the most important of my keys to writing quickly and clearly.

2. Start With a Descriptive and Compelling Title

As noted above, I used to believe that it was easier to brainstorm my content, write out the majority of the material, and then use what I created to help develop a title that was pertinent and descriptive. Over time, however, I have come to believe that by spending my time on the title first, based on the purpose of the article, it will drive the rest of the writing process. It forces me to be sure that my content truly delivers on the promise of the title.

Besides describing the point of the article or presentation, I try to create a title that will pull the reader in. It should be compelling and inviting. For this site, I think some of my titles might sound a little clichéd, but it is usually clear what I'm writing about.

3. Use the “Brain Dump” (or “Vomit”) Method

I've come to use a method recommended by other authors in which I write very quickly, without any censorship, dumping as much content on the page about the subject as possible. The idea is not to worry about syntax or spelling, poor construction or even vulgarities in this first iteration.  Just get the ideas down.

I have learned to ignore the spell checker. Some writers turn it off for this part of the process. I try to capture every related thought or idea about the topic, regardless of how peripheral it may seem initially.

And I don't want to be side tracked by any editing as I go. Editing comes later.

4. Use Google Docs for the First Draft

I use Google Docs because it has the best spell checker, hands down. I have noticed that some spell checkers are good, some are terrible, and Google Docs is awesome.

For example, although I would never write an article using email, I've noticed that the spell checker in AOL is awful. Because my typing is so crappy when I'm in a hurry, I often spell “the” as “teh” and “would” as woudl.” The spell checker in AOL never catches those mistakes.

Microsoft Word is pretty good, but its list of proper spelling suggestions often places my intended spelling in the middle of its list. The same can be said for the spell checking in my WordPress text editor. So, I must take the time to select the correctly spelled word most of the time, before moving to the next one.

However, Google Docs catches every misspelled word, and it somehow places the correctly spelled word at the top of its list every time. So, I just accept every suggestion and can correct an entire 1500 word document with dozens of mistakes in less than 10 to 15 seconds. I then copy and paste that draft into WordPress for the final editing if I'm writing a blog post.

One more advantage of Google Docs is that it automatically stores every document in the “cloud.” So, I don't have to send it to DropBox or Evernote to keep it accessible. This is great for me because I use three different computers to write (depending on if I'm at home, at work or traveling), one of which is a MacBook! I can access Google Docs on any of them flawlessly.

5. Use a Template

I learned this from Michael Hyatt. He uses different templates for all kinds of documents. For blogging, I have created a template that reminds me of the overall structure of the article. It can be changed, if necessary, but it eliminates the need to recreate the structure each time. If you write regular updates or board reports, using a template will maintain consistency and speed up the process.

The template I use for a blog post generally follows this structure:

• Title
• Personal experience or story
• Introductory paragraph
• Photo
• Body
• Photo/Quote/Table or Graph
• Summary/Conclusion
• Call to Action

This helps keep me on track. Also, if I get stuck on one part, I will work on another for a while, then jump back and finish the previous section later. I use a different template for different types of articles (e.g., a journal submission versus a blog post).

6. Do Research After the First Draft

This just sounds wrong! And it's true that for a scientific paper, I better have my facts organized and referenced, because the purpose is to present those findings to support a thesis.

But for white papers, guest posts, and non-peer-reviewed journals, the number of footnotes or annotated references is small. And the research is often used to support only a handful of statements. I don't know I'm going to include most of those statements until after the brain dump is completed.

If I do extensive research before I write, then I spend time chasing down some arcane fact that I end up not using in the article anyway. I can waste hours running down these rabbit holes.

For me, it's better to get a first draft on paper, then track down the references for the one or two statements that need support and include footnotes or links as needed. Often times, I may already have the reference stored in Evernote, since I use that to collect information proactively to help stimulate ideas for my writing.

For example, when I started this post, I had no inkling I was going to mention deep work and flow under: 1. Create Writing Rituals. But there they are, so I looked up the links to those terms after the completion of the first draft.

7. Set It Aside, Then Edit

Once I'm satisfied with the first draft, I really like to step away from the copy for several hours, or a full day if possible. I think I make better decisions about paragraph placement, eliminating clichés, and assessing section headings if I am looking at the content with fresh eyes. What seems like a logical statement sometimes reads awkwardly after taking a significant break. And remaining misspellings and missing words jump out much easier.

And I edit ruthlessly. I cut, shave, shorten and reorder until it sounds the way I want it to. I sometimes eliminate 30% or more of the original material in this step.

8. Read the Article Out Loud

It would be nice to have the material reviewed by an editor. But because I'm focusing on productivity and speed, this is not an option in most cases. Reading the content out loud is one more way to pick up poor sentence structure or phrases and paragraphs that sound awkward or confusing.

9. Write More

The final key that I've come to realize is that writing more helps me write better and faster. Nothing works like practice!

Wrapping Up

There may be additional little tricks that I've forgotten. But if you adopt some of these nine suggestions, you will certainly improve the speed and quality of your writing. And you could start writing a blog to practice these techniques and enjoy the other benefits of blogging that I described in a previous post.

Next Steps

Please tell me about any writing hacks that you have discovered and applied. My readers and I can always use more hints to help us improve our writing.

In a future post, I will provide some ideas about writing that is more compelling and inspiring.

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Email me: john.jurica.md@gmail.com

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The post Blogging Has Taught Me 9 Keys To Writing Quickly And Clearly appeared first on NonClinical Physicians.