In this podcast episode, John's guest shares how to make meaningful changes in your life and career. Dr. Michelle Bailey is an accomplished academic pediatrician, medical director, and physician coach who first visited the podcast in Episode 124.

Helping physicians navigate career transitions since 2012, Dr. Bailey combines personal experience with expertise to guide others through transformative career decisions. Her approach emphasizes the importance of thoughtful reflection and strategic planning in making successful life changes.

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The Medical Legal Consulting Coaching Program will teach you to build a nonclinical consulting business. Open to physicians in ANY specialty, completing Dr. Armin Feldman’s Program will teach you how to become a valued consultant to attorneys without doing med mal cases or expert witness work.

His program will enable you to use your medical education and experience to generate a great income and a balanced lifestyle. Dr. Feldman will teach you everything, from the business concepts to the medicine involved, to launch your new consulting business during one year of unlimited coaching.

For more information, go to nonclinicalphysicians.com/mlconsulting or arminfeldman.com.

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By joining the UT Physician Executive MBA, you will develop the business and management skills you need to find a career you love. To learn more, contact Dr. Kate Atchley’s office at (865) 974-6526 or go to nonclinicalphysicians.com/physicianmba.

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Make Meaningful Changes Using the Power of Strategic Pausing

Drawing from years of coaching experience, Dr. Bailey introduces her concept of the power of the pause – a transformative approach to career decision-making. She explains how taking intentional time to reflect and assess can lead to more fulfilling career choices, rather than making decisions from a place of burnout or fear. This methodical approach has helped numerous physicians discover paths they hadn't previously considered.

Her framework helps doctors identify their core values and non-negotiables, essential elements often overlooked in career transitions. The process involves creating space for deep reflection about both professional and personal priorities. Dr. Bailey emphasizes how this pause can be the crucial difference between making a reactive career move and finding a truly fulfilling path.

Transforming Medical Skills into New Opportunities

Michelle shares eye-opening perspectives on how physicians can leverage their existing skills in new ways. Her insights challenge common misconceptions about career transitions, revealing how medical training provides valuable transferable skills that can open doors to diverse opportunities. She offers practical guidance on identifying and articulating these skills effectively to make meaningful changes in your career.

Her approach helps physicians recognize and articulate their unique value proposition in nonclinical roles. She discusses how medical training develops numerous transferable skills that are highly valued across industries. 

Summary

Physicians interested in exploring career transitions or seeking clarity in their professional journey can connect with Dr. Michelle Bailey through her website at DrMichelleBailey.com or schedule a complimentary career consultation at callwithmichelle.com. Her approach focuses on helping physicians make thoughtful, strategic career decisions through structured reflection and practical action steps.

Links for today's episode:

• Dr. Michelle Bailey's Website
• Schedule a Consultation with Dr. Michelle Bailey 
• Dr. Michelle Bailey's LinkedIn
• Dr. Michelle Bailey's Facebook
• Dr. Michelle Bailey's Instagram
• Should I Work for a Contract Research Organization? – 124
• How Do I Hire a Suitable Physician Career Coach or Consultant? – 215
• More On How to Hire a Suitable Physician Career Coach – 216
• Purchase Your All Action Pass Videos and Bonuses from the 2024 Summit (Use Coupon Code 30-OFF)
• The Nonclinical Career Academy

Podcast Editing & Production Services are provided by Oscar Hamilton

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Today's PNC Podcast Transcript

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Transcription PNC Podcast Episode 388

How To Make Meaningful Changes In Your Life Immediately

- Interview with Dr. Michelle Bailey

John: I'm really happy to welcome back a guest from about five years ago. Back then, we were talking to her about her work as a senior medical director and some of the coaching she was doing. And I've been looking to get her back for a while, she's back to talk to us today and we're going to discuss mostly what she's learned and what she can teach us about career transition and physicians and so forth. Dr. Michelle Bailey, welcome back to the PNC podcast.

Dr. Michelle Bailey: Hi, John, thank you so much for inviting me back. I'm so happy to be here.

John: Yeah, I've been following you over those last five or six years just to kind of see what you're doing. As far as I know, you still exist. You still have a LinkedIn profile. And I know that you're still doing coaching, physician coaching, it's always good to pick the brain of someone who has interacted with and helped physicians navigate their career, their life, whatever. That's why I really wanted to get you back here. So welcome back.

Dr. Michelle Bailey: Thank you, thank you. Yeah, I've learned quite a few lessons over the last five years since we've had a chance to talk.

John: Yeah, and I think you've been coaching since around 2012. So you've been doing that for a while.

Dr. Michelle Bailey: Yeah, I actually started coaching around self-care and balance between work and home-life before it was a thing. And it was just what I was seeing in my work at Duke with students and residents and fellows and even some faculty. And that sort of blossomed into more coaching work around career satisfaction and career transitions, particularly after I made my own transition back in 2016.

John: Yes, yes, that was a big change. To go from full-time, I think you were doing academic pediatrics at the time.

Dr. Michelle Bailey: That's right.

John: Yeah, and then you flipped into the other thing you're doing, which is the nonclinical work. Tell us just about that for a minute.

Dr. Michelle Bailey: Sure, yeah, I was an academic pediatrician. I was seeing patients full-time in addition to teaching responsibilities at the medical school. And I decided to make the leap and move into a nonclinical career. I went to work as a medical director for a global contract research organization. And for those listeners who haven't heard of that, essentially the company I work for is hired by pharmaceutical or biotech companies to execute the running of their clinical trials. And so I wasn't sure if I was qualified to do that in the beginning, but they were very confident that I was and made an offer for me to join the team.

And essentially I get to leverage my medical education and experience and bring all of that into the world of pediatric clinical trials. And it's just been a wonderful career path for me, surprising in many ways. I still get to learn, which I love, and I still get to advocate for kids and to be a part of helping to bring life-saving and life-changing medicines to them.

John: Okay, we're going to talk mostly about what you've been doing with the coaching, things that maybe are new or just aha moments maybe that you've even had over these, let's say last five years. However, you did mention that issue about going to, I guess some people call it now biopharma, they use this kind of all-encompassing name, but the physicians often just feel like, well, how can I do that? I'm not a researcher. I haven't spent any time writing articles on things like that. But explain what you were kind of alluding to in terms of the fact that you were qualified for what you did then and what you're doing now.

Dr. Michelle Bailey: Yeah, I can certainly say my journey and my experience mirrors a lot of the physicians that I have conversations with and ultimately end up coaching in that in our training and education, we don't really learn about options outside of direct patient care or bench research. And so that's really all I knew. And once I decided that I wanted to do something different, I had no idea what that would be.

And back during that time, there weren't a lot of podcasts like yours or conferences and other things around to kind of help educate you. But what I've learned over my eight plus years of being in this new industry is that we have transferable skills. So these things that we learn and skills we acquire as physicians, like leadership, for example, we have these skills that we bring with us to other industries and we can apply them.

For example, in my case, some of the skills that I get to use are just my general knowledge about children and the fact that they don't come to clinic visits alone, they come with their parents or they come with siblings. And so I'm looking at a study protocol for a research trial. And I see that the assessments for that study are going to keep that family on site in the clinic for like six to eight hours.

In my mind, that's going to be a difficult study to enroll for because as a parent, it means I've got to take time off from work. I've got to get my kids from school. I've got to arrange maybe childcare for the other kids or bring them with me. We got to figure out food while we're there for that period of time. So those are the insights that I can bring to a team that has never worked in a clinic and had these kinds of interactions with a family. And so it's things that are seemingly simple to us.

And I think we don't appreciate how much we know because it's just our world. It's what we do. But also just sort of the leadership that we acquire as a physician, the fact that we are really good at doing hard things, that's a part of our training. And also we're really good at figuring things out. So just because you've never seen something before, you don't know how to do something, you are motivated to figure out a potential solution. So that's another skill that we bring with us into these different roles.

And so I quickly understood how I could add value and contribute in meaningful ways to the team. And that really helped boost my confidence. And so what I talk to physicians about now is understanding their own set of transferable skills.

What are the strengths that they have? What skillset do they already have? And what gaps might they need to fill? But also just really paying attention to what it is they enjoy doing. Because usually there are things that we're really good at that don't feel like work because it comes naturally to us. And those are things that other people struggle with.

For me, what was really helpful was what I call the power of the pause is just stopping long enough to reflect on how I felt about my career at that point in time, what it was I wanted moving forward and getting really clear on that. And that included what I didn't want. So I had to get clear on that as well and then ask myself why I wanted that because that was going to be the motivation to help me push through the difficult moments as I was looking for a new career path. And I helped my clients with that power of the pause as well.

John: Nice. Well, I got to write that down, the power of the pause. I'm going to tell my listeners a secret right now. Actually, I've never discussed how I prepare for an interview before, but I want to discuss it now with you here because I'm going to ask you probably at least a few questions that the audience will be like, well, where did those come from? And so I'm just explaining to my listeners that when I'm preparing, some of my cohorts that do podcasts just wing it. They just know what they want to talk about when the guest comes on and they just do it. I'm so, I don't know what you'd call it, maybe insecure or is it just compulsive, obsessive compulsive?

I have to do a little research and so I'm looking at Michelle's website and I'm looking at Michelle's LinkedIn profile and so then I see these things out there. And so that's why I'm going to ask, for example, the next question. I think you may have already answered this question, but this is, I just want to let the audience know why I'm maybe being a little redundant, but you talk about getting clear on what's working, what's not working and what's missing from our lives.

That's kind of something a coach does, I think it helps their clients. And you're talking about the pause, is that when you're doing that getting some clarity or am I looking at something different there?

Dr. Michelle Bailey: No, I think you're absolutely right, John. So taking the time to pause is what allows you to have the space created to get clear. For many of the physicians that are looking to make a transition from clinical practice, they often are feeling very burned out, they're feeling low energy, exhausted.

And so from that space, if you're really just looking for how do I get out, your search is going to be driven largely by fear. It's like this sort of desperate energy of, I don't know what I'm going to do, but I got to get out of here, I got to do something. And instead, what I'm encouraging is to take that time to pause and give yourself a little breathing space to say, okay, I know I don't want to continue to do this indefinitely, it doesn't feel sustainable for me.

Given that, if I knew everything could work out well, what is it that I would want to do? And why do I want to do that? And taking the time to get clear on those things instead moves you into this energy of sort of positive momentum to move forward. It's a focus on where you're going rather than what you're running away from, you know? And I've seen how that makes a difference because I've had some physicians who've come to me after they've made a transition, but they didn't really think it through. They saw someone that they knew made this move into a different industry.

They thought, "Oh, they look happy, that's what I'm going to pursue." And so they do and they get an offer and they're thrilled about that. Everybody just wants to get their foot in the door, but only to find that this isn't a good fit for them based on the season of life and career that they're in and what it is they want.

For me I'm not afraid to tell my age, but I'm at a different stage of life. I'm 57. And so I have grandkids. I want to be able to travel with my wife. I want to spend time with my grandkids. I want to pick them up from school or go on field trips with them.

It was important to me that whatever I did next allowed me location independent work and also allowed me to be able to have a flexible schedule so that if I needed to go and pick up my grandson from school, I could do that without feeling stressed out about it. So you have to just get clear on what your priorities are and what your values are.

When I work with clients, I have an exercise I do with them to help them get in touch with what their core values are now. Because the person that we are when we embark upon this journey in medicine is not necessarily the same person we are now, depending on how much time has passed. Like most of us are young adults when we're starting out on this medical journey and life happens along the way. And so being clear on where you are and what's important to you and where you want to go will really help direct your path towards something that's going to be a better fit for you.

John: Boy, how long would you say the average client that you've spoken with or even people you've even just mentored, how long does it take to figure that out do you think normally? Because many of us have this sense that we don't know what our passion is. We don't know what our purpose is. We don't really know what we like and we don't like. We just barrel forward and do our job because that's what we'd spent 15 years of our lives learning and it's hard for us to stop and even come up with answers to those questions.

Dr. Michelle Bailey: Yeah, it varies quite a bit. I will say the physicians that have the fastest results in terms of finding that next step career in the nonclinical world are the ones that already come with a degree of clarity. They have made the decision. There's no ambivalence as to whether or not I want to do this. It's like, I've decided I'm going to leave clinical practice. I want to pursue a nonclinical career.

I don't know exactly what, but this is what I'm thinking of because I like X, Y, and Z. And so that the more clarity you have, the more accelerated I would say your journey is in terms of the transition. But for some people who haven't really given it much thought, the questions that we go through are very deep and reflective questions and it can take a good six weeks for them to really figure out, okay, this is what I want and this is why I want it.

But then there's another step of giving yourself permission to actually go after what you want. There's a lot of guilt and other uncomfortable emotions that can arise in thinking about making the transition. I feel like I'm going to be abandoning my patients. I don't want to abandon my partners. I don't want to leave them in a lurch. My family won't understand.

I may have to change my lifestyle if the salary that I get for nonclinical position is less than what I've had as a clinician. So there are all of these variables that come into play and I do think it's really helpful when you have a coach that can help hold space for you to work through some of that because you don't want that to be the barrier that keeps you stuck for yet another year and you're miserable. Life is just too short and too precious for that.

John: Well, if I was going to engage a coach, that would kind of be the thing. That's why I would do the engagements. Like, okay, I don't like what I'm doing. I'm not satisfied. It doesn't mean I'm burned out or whatever. I'm just it's just no longer what I want to pursue. And I really can't figure out, I would engage a coach to do that. So that makes perfect sense. that's kind of a core addition to the process that you have. So can you give us like just a glimpse as like what you said, you had either like some method or some tool or something to help people tease that out. Just an example would be very helpful.

Dr. Michelle Bailey: Yeah, sure. So one of the things that we do is to explore like what's important to you now so that you can figure out what are some of the non-negotiables that you will need in this next career. So for example, like I have one client that I'm working with now, and it's important to her to be near an aging parent so that she can be a support to them.

And so she is really looking for an opportunity that allows her to stay in her geographic region for work. She knows through this exploration that it's important to her to have social connections around work. So as much as some people think, oh, I would love to just work from home full time, it is not for everyone.

And so if you need that social stimulation and connection on a regular basis through work, then you may need to have an opportunity that is office-based or at least hybrid. Where certain number of days you're going into the office and then a certain number of days you're working from home. So these are the kinds of questions that I will ask a client so that they can get clear on what's really important to them. And that sort of builds the scaffolding so that they know this is the container. Like I have to have this and I have to have that. Those are my non-negotiables.

Now with that in mind, what kinds of opportunities would fit into that? Because often we're doing the opposite. We're looking for an opportunity and then seeing how we can fit into that opportunity instead of the other way around.

John: I'm such a practical person at times. I have to ask this question. So what I would do, it could be a little overwhelming. There's lots of things that I definitely do want and a lot of things that are like absolutely not. And so they develop maybe even a checklist so that when as they're looking at job descriptions or they're talking to recruiters or whatever, it's like, okay, I got to make sure that we got these five are in and these five are definitely out of this job.

Dr. Michelle Bailey: Yes, absolutely. And it kind of helps you create a matrix that you can work from. And even for you, like if you were thinking about doing something different, for example, I would start by saying, well, John, just write down like top of mind, the first 10 things that would be important to you in your next career, in this next opportunity.

And sometimes when people are asked that question, they're not able to write down 10 immediately. So that's not an uncommon thing. But what I would do is continue to ask yourself, it's like, okay, if I'm not so clear yet on what it is that I do want, let me start with what I don't want and write that out.

Let me get clear on that. For me, as an example, I was really clear that I did not want a job with a long commute because that's what I had in my clinical work. My commute was easily 40 to 45 minutes, an hour plus if the weather was inclement.

And so, it's like, well, I need a commute that's 15 minutes or less because I want to be able to maybe even go home for lunch. So starting there can help you gain that clarity that you need for what it is you do want. And thinking about like what would an ideal schedule look like for you? What hours would you be working? Would you be sitting at a desk or would you be doing something that's more interactive with people on a day-to-day basis? So these are the kinds of questions that you can ask. And I've developed some tools that I use with my clients to kind of help guide them through that process.

John: Excellent. I think that gives everyone a pretty good idea how that goes. And I go back probably about the time when I was speaking with you the first time on the podcast, like just have an episode with a coach about why coaching is so beneficial.

And because there's a lot of resistance to coaching. I see it all the time. And people call me or they ask for advice and it's like maybe you just need to sit down with a coach for a few weeks because I don't do coaching. And I'm not going to answer your question in a short email. But they're like very reluctant at times. But so that's a good refresher and a good look into coaching.

Now, I had on my list too, I wanted to ask you about what new revelations have you had about coaching in the last five years? Is there something new about coaching or just have things evolved in terms of where we are as physicians in the whole milieu of the healthcare system itself and different forms of employment?

Dr. Michelle Bailey: Yeah. Let me start off by saying, I believe in the power of coaching. And so I have my own coach. I'm a coach, but still I have my thoughts and beliefs that at times can be limited. And so one of the things that's valuable in working with a coach is having someone to help you see different perspectives. I will say that I have noticed that there seems to be an increase in thinking about working with a coach. Like you, I've been in a lot of Facebook groups and other social media groups where I saw a fair amount of bashing of coaches.

John: Oh, really?

Dr. Michelle Bailey: Yeah. And I think there's some that really feel like there are people who are out there who are presenting themselves as coaches that don't have any training, that don't have any background and are really just looking to take advantage of physician colleagues. So I'm not a proponent of that. However, there are a lot of us physicians who have gone on to do additional training in coaching.

And there are different types of coaching as you probably know, John there's executive coaching for people who are trying to get into executive level positions who want to do hospital administration or maybe go into the C-suite for an organization. There are life coaches, there are career coaches. So there are different sort of specialty areas, if you will.

And for me, career coaching was the likely choice because people started reaching out to me to ask me to help them with their own transition because I was speaking so visibly about my own journey and how I didn't have as much support as I would have liked back then and thought something was wrong with me because I wasn't happy doing what I was doing. And so I do see that more physicians are reaching out for some support, that many of the challenges that I hear when I have conversations with physicians about their career, is they're feeling a bit stuck and unmotivated. They don't know what they would do next if they were to transition.

If they decide that they do want to transition, they don't know where to start or how to sort of get their foot in the door. And it's feeling not as easy to make the transition for a lot of physicians as it was previously. And I can say that certainly there are changes within the industry that are reflective of the economic state of the region that you're living in that can make a difference.

But even at times where we've seen a downturn, where there were fewer jobs available, there's always someone somewhere that is hiring. And so one of the most powerful things that you can do to enhance your own career and raise the likelihood that you can accelerate your transition is networking. And I get a lot of eye rolls when I say that. It's kind of like role plays when we were in medicine and we were learning a new skill and they were like, okay, we're going to do a role play. And everyone's eyes would kind of glaze over because no one enjoys doing it. But it is an activity that helps you develop a skill and get better at it.

And networking is one of those things. And the way I sort of talk about it is if you're looking for an opportunity for yourself, you are one set of eyes, one set of ears. But if you are telling other people what it is you would like to do, then you get more sets of eyes, more sets of ears.

It's kind of like boots on the ground that are going out like little sentinels that are looking on your behalf. So when something comes to their attention, they can think about you and reach out to you. So you want to stay top of mind for people. And that's one of the most important reasons for networking. Plus you learn about other things that people are doing that you otherwise might not be aware of.

John: Yeah, I just have a comment on a couple of things you said just to actually emphasize those and support what you're saying. Number one, most physicians would probably be shocked to know how many hospital CEOs still get coaching. There's so many people in business that get coaching.

They just see it as part of the job because they want to be cutting edge. They want to think strategically and they get a lot from the coaching. So that's one thing I, again, that kind of just because of this resistance that physicians have like, well, I've gone to all this school.

Well, that's not the point. And then the networking that's, there's so many it's not like you're going to a meeting and then having some drinks after the meeting and a conference room and you're networking. Nobody likes that really, at least physicians don't have time for that.

But to connect with people, whether it's through LinkedIn or through word of mouth or whatever, like you said, it just magnifies what you're doing. It just makes it so much more of a reach and exposure. So, yeah, it seems like that's becoming more important since we last spoke.

Dr. Michelle Bailey: Absolutely, yeah. I think, as you mentioned, CEOs and other executives, this is just a part of the job. And often they are provided with a coach at the expense of it's charged to the company. And coaches are really valuable in helping you with a strategic plan so that there's some organization to what you're doing. And you're not just like throwing things at the wall to see what sticks. Because that burns a lot of time and a coach can really help you be more efficient and more organized because you're thinking in a more strategic manner.

John: That is so true. And I love hearing that. Okay, we're going to run out of time pretty soon, actually. I had this long list of questions, but let's try and kind of focus here. What else have you got to tell us that really can be useful? I know we were talking before we got on about making changes and I was thinking, well, that could be useful not only in career transition. I don't know if we've touched on that yet, just how to implement those changes in your life or other career tips or transition tips, anything like that that you think would be helpful.

Dr. Michelle Bailey: Yeah, I think there are a few skills that really lend themselves to making change. One is decision-making. I didn't give this too much thought before I started working with a coach, but then I realized I have an approach to how I make decisions.

And I'm one where I need to have all the information. I want to see it all laid out so that I can weigh all my options before I make the decision. And there's this saying, how you do anything is how you do everything. And I noticed that that wasn't just showing up with big, important decisions. It was little decisions, like what entree I wanted to eat when I went out to a restaurant at dinner.

And my wife is like, pick one. I'm asking all these questions of the server to try and weigh my options. Which am I going to enjoy more? So decision making is a skill and I think it's one that can really lend itself nicely to helping you when you want to make change in your life. I think another skill like that is, well, I call it a skill, but self-confidence.

So belief in yourself. I said earlier during our conversation that physicians can do hard things. It's just part of our training and we're really good at figuring things out. I often remind the physicians that I'm coaching that they can do hard things and that they can figure it out. And it's okay that you haven't done this exact thing before. You have what it takes to be able to do it. And so your own self-confidence plays a big factor in how successful you may or may not be in doing things in your life when you're ready to make a change.

John: Okay. No, that is also, and people, I think if they recognize that maybe they don't feel that they're portraying themselves as not confident, but if they're doing it and not realizing it, then maybe they just need to step back and say, okay, let's stop and think about what I'm doing and saying, and then let's see if I can just portray myself as I really am, which is a confident powerful person that definitely can handle this new job.

Dr. Michelle Bailey: Right. And I'll tell you one way you can know if you're lacking in confidence is the action that you're taking or rather the action you're not taking. So one of the things that I do see is for a lot of physicians, they are doing what they feel is taking steps to transition, but it's honestly a lot of busy work.

That's not really putting themselves out there because they're either afraid of rejection or they're having that self-confidence issue. And so when I ask very concrete questions, like how many applications have you submitted in the last week? And they say, well, none. So being able to really look at some concrete metrics for yourself and focusing on what you have control over. So you don't have control over whether or not someone makes you an offer for a job, but you do have control over how many people you connect with to network, how many applications you're putting out there how many jobs you're exploring, like maybe reaching out to recruiters.

These are things that you have some control over and just take a look at whether or not the actions you're taking are things that will make a meaningful difference in moving your career search forward, or if it's just accumulating more information and more data, which isn't necessarily going to help you in that next step.

John: So true. Again, it's logical. But the thing is, too, if you apply to a lot of places, you're eventually going to get feedback. And then you're going to say, oh, I didn't know that was stupid of me to do that way. And you're telling me because I've now made a contact with this person, a recruiter or the HR department. And there's a lot of information you can get from that. And it doesn't happen unless you start to apply.

Dr. Michelle Bailey: Right. And the caveat is applying strategically.

John: Yeah.

Dr. Michelle Bailey: Right. Just applying for any job and using the exact same resume, the exact same cover letter isn't going to cut it. People are looking at why should we hire you over someone else? And so the purpose of your resume and your LinkedIn profile is to help them understand why they should hire you. Why would you be a good choice as opposed to someone else? And most of the folks within HR who are looking at the initial application to invite folks for a screening interview don't have a medical background.

They don't necessarily understand how you can translate the skills you already have into this new role. And as a result, a lot of physicians, when they look at the job description, feel like they're not qualified for these roles that they're interested in. And so that's where transferable skills come in. And I'm developing a resource that folks can use to help them identify those transferable skills and what positions would be really good, a good fit for those skills.

John: Okay. That's a good segue because this is going to be a chance to learn more about your website and contacting you. But I want to say one other thing, and I've probably forgotten it now. But anyway, I think it's, I had a guest once tell me that she, before she found her first nonclinical job, she literally had sent in a thousand resumes, but she was going to websites and putting it in. She had no contact with any company person. She never called anybody, never talked to anybody.

And so, it was just a black hole. These things were going into. And like you said, the other thing I remember was that the job descriptions are like what they would want in the perfect candidate. Here's everything we want. They never get everything they want. So don't think that that rules you out.

Dr. Michelle Bailey: And to that point, I would say there's a lot of research that's been done on gender bias. And men, when they look at a job description, if they have like a third of the qualifications will apply. Whereas women, if they don't check off all the boxes, are less likely to apply. And that may sound like a generalization, but there's a lot of literature that's been done to kind of back that up. And so I would encourage listeners to not count themselves out. And if you check all the boxes, you're probably overqualified for the position and it's not going to necessarily be a good fit for you. So look for something where you have a lot of the qualifications and you can move into that role and still have room to grow.

John: That sounds good. That's good advice. Okay. So how do we find you and tell us about your website and yeah. And maybe even if you want to do a little pitch to say, what is the kind of client you're looking for that would be ideal for you? We could give you that opportunity too. Just tell us about your website and stuff.

Dr. Michelle Bailey: Sure. Folks can find my website at drmichellebailey.com. You can also sign up for a complimentary career consultation with me. I love having conversations with physicians and hearing about where you are and what you're thinking about if you're considering a transition. And I'm happy to give you just some guidance on what might help. And for that, you can sign up at callwithmichelle.com. And then you can also find me on social media.

I'm on Facebook at Michelle Bailey, and I'm on Instagram at the Dr. Michelle Bailey. And I would say in terms of an ideal client that I enjoy working with and that I think I can help the most, it's someone who has been thinking about leaving medicine for a while, but they're still ambivalent. They're not sure whether or not that's the best course of action for them. And they have no idea where to start or how to figure that out. I think having just that complimentary consultation that I spoke of earlier is an opportunity to create that space where you can pause and reflect on where you are and where you'd like to be.

And I've had conversations with a lot of physicians who haven't gone on to be clients, but had that one consultation and came back to me and said that was so helpful because I got much clearer on what it was I wanted, or I learned that I'm actually not ready to leave clinical practice. I just need a different position within clinical medicine. And so I would encourage you to just think about that. But I'm happy to sit and chat with anyone who wants to have a conversation. I enjoy helping.

John: Very good. Now, I would definitely encourage people if they've been in this mode for the last six or 12 months, thinking about it and maybe even ruminating about it and just can't get it out of their mind, but I have not taken any action, you definitely want to reach out to Michelle and see if you can get off either fix the problem or move forward to the next thing. So that'll be very helpful.

There will be links in the show notes with all those, because it's sometimes hard to write those things down while you're driving. So just go to the website. At the end of the outro of this, then I'll put all that stuff there where you go to find all these links.

All right, Michelle, I will thank you very much for coming here today. But we really covered a lot of stuff that was very dense. Like you could write a book based on that.

Dr. Michelle Bailey: Thank you so much, John, for having me. I really appreciate it. And just wanted to say how much I appreciate all you do to support the physician community.

John: I love doing it. And it gives me a chance to meet people like you, which is really fascinating. And I like to see other people helping us, our colleagues who are suffering.

Dr. Michelle Bailey: Agreed.

John: Yeah.

Dr. Michelle Bailey: And impact is the most important thing for me.

John: All right. With that, I'll say goodbye.

Dr. Michelle Bailey: Bye, John.

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The post How To Make Meaningful Changes In Your Life Immediately appeared first on NonClinical Physicians.

In this podcast episode, John interviews the founder of a fantastic B2B Business. Dr. Nicole Rochester returns to the podcast 5 years after her initial appearance in Episode 127 in 2020.

Starting as a pediatrician who launched Your GPS Doc, LLC in 2017 to help patients navigate the healthcare system, Dr. Rochester has expanded her business to include consulting for major healthcare organizations, speaking engagements, and coaching other physicians to start health advocacy practices.

Our Sponsor

We're proud to have the University of Tennessee Physician Executive MBA Program, offered by the Haslam College of Business, as the sponsor of this podcast.

The UT PEMBA is the longest-running, and most highly respected physician-only MBA in the country. It has over 700 graduates. And, the program only takes one year to complete. 

By joining the UT Physician Executive MBA, you will develop the business and management skills you need to find a career you love. To learn more, contact Dr. Kate Atchley’s office at (865) 974-6526 or go to nonclinicalphysicians.com/physicianmba.

For Podcast Listeners

• John hosts a short Weekly Q&A Session on any topic related to physician careers and leadership. Each discussion is posted for you to review and apply. Sometimes all it takes is one insight to take you to the next level of your career. Check out the Weekly Q&A and join us for only $5.00 a month.
• If you want access to dozens of lessons dedicated to nonclinical and unconventional clinical careers, you should join the Nonclinical Career Academy MemberClub. For a small monthly fee, you can access the Weekly Q&A Sessions AND as many lessons and courses as you wish. Click the link to check it out, and use the Coupon Code “FIRSTMONTHFIVE” to get your first month for only $5.00.
• The 2024 Nonclinical Summit is over. But you can access all the fantastic lectures from our nationally recognized speakers, including Dr. Dike Drummond, Dr. Nneka Unachukwu, Dr. Gretchen Green, and Dr. Mike Woo-Ming. Go to Nonclinical Summit and enter Coupon Code “30-OFF” for a $30 discount.

Building a Career with a Fantastic B2B Business

Nicole's journey from clinical medicine to entrepreneurship demonstrates how physicians can leverage their expertise to create multiple revenue streams while making a significant impact. Dr. Rochester's business evolution exemplifies organic growth through network building and opportunity recognition.

Starting with board participation and speaking engagements about health disparities, she expanded into consulting for healthcare organizations and hospitals. By accepting new challenges and learning as she went – from creating scopes of work to determining consulting rates – she built a successful B2B practice.

Her approach emphasizes the importance of valuing one's expertise appropriately, with payment rates for consulting that significantly exceed clinical hourly rates.

Expanding Revenue Streams

Beyond consulting, Dr. Rochester has developed additional business streams, including coaching other physicians to start their own health advocacy businesses. Her eight-week program helps doctors leverage their medical expertise in the growing field of patient advocacy.

She emphasizes the importance of mindset work for physicians transitioning to entrepreneurship, noting that doctors often underestimate their ability to run successful businesses despite their significant accomplishments in medicine.

Her approach combines practical business guidance with strategies to overcome imposter syndrome and build confidence in their nonclinical roles.

Summary

Physicians interested in exploring health advocacy or healthcare consulting can connect with Nicole through her website or by scheduling a discovery call to learn about her coaching program.

Her journey demonstrates how physicians can successfully transition from clinical practice to entrepreneurship. Leverage your medical expertise, personal experiences, and professional networks and create innovative healthcare solutions and multiple revenue streams.

Links for today's episode:

• Your GPS Doc
• Your GPS Doc Consulting for Healthcare Organizations
• Free Discovery Call to learn about coaching to build a Health Advocacy Consulting Business
• How This Consulting Business Grew Directly From a Patient Need – 289
• How to Use Consulting and Advising to Find Freedom – 249
• How to Become a Consultant to Venture Capital Firms
• Purchase Your All Action Pass Videos and Bonuses from the 2024 Summit (Use Coupon Code 30-OFF)
• The Nonclinical Career Academy

Podcast Editing & Production Services are provided by Oscar Hamilton

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

Today's PNC Podcast Transcript

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Transcription PNC Podcast Episode 385

How to Create A Fantastic B2B Business

- Interview with Dr. Nicole Rochester

John: Today, I'm very happy to welcome back my guest from five years ago. It's hard to believe. And at that time, she introduced us to her new innovative work as a physician health navigator. I think that's the right term; it can probably be called other things. But anyway, her business has grown and evolved since then, and so I thought I'd invite her back to talk to us, provide us some inspiration and share what she's learned and— maybe some things we can apply to our businesses. So with that, Dr. Nicole Rochester, welcome back to the podcast.

Dr. Nicole Rochester: Thank you, Dr. John Jurica. It's so great to be back. Thank you for having me.

John: My pleasure. I know people are just gonna get a lot out of this because what you do is somewhat unique, I think. I know you're teaching others to do it, so that's awesome. But it's somewhat unique and you're running businesses or your business since, I don't know, six, seven years ago. And I see you're doing a lot more speaking recently. So why don't you catch us up? What's been going on for the past five years? You can maybe mention a little bit about your medical background before that, but bring us back up to speed.

Dr. Nicole Rochester: Sure. Yeah, so I'll start a little bit at the beginning, like you said, just for those who may not have heard the prior episode. So I'm Nicole Rochester. I am a pediatrician by training, and I always like to say that I loved pediatrics because I know in this day and age, many doctors are finding their ways into non-clinical careers out of necessity, or they're kind of running away from something. And there's nothing wrong with that. There are lots of reasons to run away from medicine these days. But in my case, I really did enjoy my job and really thought that I would work there until I retired.

And for my situation, it was the life experience that led to my transition into entrepreneurship. It was a caregiving journey with my late father and seeing how difficult it was to get the care that he needed, to communicate effectively with the members of his medical team, to advocate for him. And so I found myself doing these things behind the scenes, realizing that as a physician and an insider, I was really uniquely positioned to advocate for my dad. And then after he passed away wondering, how is everybody else managing this? If it was this hard for me, who's a doctor, one of my sisters is a nurse, how much more difficult must it be?

And so I really felt this calling to advocate for other patients and family caregivers the way I had advocated for my dad. I thought I was making this up; it turns out I wasn't. There's an entire field of what's known as professional health advocates or independent health advocates. And so as I started thinking about this business model and doing research, I discovered that others were already doing it. And so in 2017, I left my academic pediatric career and launched Your GPS Doc, LLC, which started as a health advocacy company where I was working one-on-one with other patients and family caregivers, helping them understand and navigate the healthcare system, which involves a whole lot of things.

So yeah, so that was kind of how I got started. Since then, you know, since I was last on your podcast, my work has really evolved from working one-on-one with clients, which were patients and family caregivers, to working with healthcare organizations and hospitals and health systems. And that work involves some speaking, workshops, and training, as well as consulting. And then, as you alluded to, I also am coaching and teaching other physicians how to launch their own health advocacy businesses. So a lot has happened in the last five years, and honestly, things just continue to evolve. And I think I'm still learning, growing, and figuring things out as I go.

John: Good, we can learn from you and with you then as you know this continues. There are so many things that I could say about your opening comments. I'll start by saying that I bet 99% of the people that go see a physician when they're done with their visit and they go home—if they're really sick or not really sick—they can't spit back 5% of what they were told, except, "I saw the doctor and my blood pressure was okay." I have a 96-year-old aunt who doesn't live close to me, but I keep in touch with her. She goes and sees physicians, and then when she comes home, she asks me all these questions. And she's not even given a piece of paper with what her meds are or what she's supposed to do. It's just like, "Come back in two months." So that's shocking.

But the other thing I wanted to mention when you were talking about, you said there are these health advocates, but at the time you started doing this, what percentage of those health advocates were physicians?

Dr. Nicole Rochester: Yeah, that is a great question, John. I, to this day, have not been able to get reliable, validated data on that, but very, very little. And today, very, very few. You know, there are more, and I'm happy that I've contributed to that increase. But there were very few when I first started. And in fact, I was on a mission to find other physicians who were doing health advocacy, and I found a few, you know, maybe four or five. But it's something that I think most physicians continue to not be aware of. When people find out about me, specifically other doctors, they're like, "Oh my gosh, this is the part of my job that I love the most." And to your point about your aunt, these are the things that most of us went into medicine for. We liked talking to our patients when we were medical students and being able to sit and spend that time. And the reality is that we just can't do that for so many reasons. And so I always get excited when I talk to other physicians about the work because it's the communicating and the explaining and the connecting, the part of our jobs that most of us love but don't have enough time to do in the current environment.

John: Well, I wanna learn more about that aspect of what you're doing. So let's go a little deeper into your GPS Doc business and how it's changed in the last five years. How did you kind of migrate to working with organizations?

Dr. Nicole Rochester: Sure, sure. So in terms of the work now, you know, I think the biggest lesson that I've learned and that I hope that your listeners will take away is that the things I'm doing now were birthed out of opportunities to which I said yes. I didn't go back and get another degree. I didn't go back and get more certifications. And I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that but I allow myself to sit in the space that they're asking me to do these things. How can I figure out how to do them? What do I already know? What do I need to learn? And we know doctors are great at learning and finding information. And I say that because there are opportunities that I easily could have shied away from due to fear, due to imposter syndrome and all those other things that we amazing, brilliant doctors face.

And so I look at where I am now, and I think about like those first opportunities that led to this pivot. And it just reminds me that we don't give ourselves enough credit for all of the knowledge and experience that we have. So what happened with me is that I was on a board. In fact, I just finished my ninth year and just fell off of the board, but I was on the board of an organization in Maryland where I live that basically serves as the primary source of education and training, leadership education and training for healthcare professionals. And so they are deeply connected to the local hospitals and healthcare systems.

And so I was on the board, and in 2020, we had a meeting in June, just a few weeks after George Floyd had been murdered. We were in the midst of the pandemic, and so we were talking about what was going on in the world. And the meeting headed to an end, and I said, "Wait a minute, like, what are we going to do? Like, what, what can we do in this space?" And we were specifically talking about health disparities and racism in medicine. And so me asking that question kind of led to me being, I won't say voluntold, but I was asked, "Hey, what do you think we should do?"

And so I thought about how could we provide education in this space and start to educate healthcare leaders and healthcare professionals about structural racism and how that impacts the healthcare that individuals from marginalized communities receive. So then that led to, "Well, would you be willing to do it? You know, can you develop a talk?" And I have been giving, you know, all of us give talks, right? As medical students, we give talks as residents. I had definitely given a lot of talks as an attending, but I had never given a talk about this. And so this was the first time I said, "Okay, I'm going to say yes to this."

I had already always had an interest in health disparities, even as a medical student, so I kind of relied on that, did a bunch of research, found out, you know, what's going on, looked at statistics, all those things. And I developed a talk called, combating, I think it was called "Combating Structural Racism and Disparities in Healthcare" or something like that. I gave that talk for this organization, and it put me in front of a lot of hospital leaders, doctors, and other medical professionals in my state. And so then some of them reached out after the talk and said, "This was great. Can you come give that talk to my hospital? Can you come give that talk to my medical staff?" And so that led to more opportunities for speaking.

And then an organization that's affiliated with that original organization, the Maryland Hospital Association—actually, I'm sorry, it was the Maryland Patient Safety Center—they reached out, and I had been familiar with the CEO of that organization, who happens to be a pediatrician, a retired pediatrician. He and I had worked together in a hospital. So again, there's a thread here, that leverages network. So he saw the work that I was doing, he attended the talk and he said, "Hey, you know, we're in the middle of COVID. We're seeing that a lot of community members who are minoritized, marginalized are saying no to the vaccine, not only in the community, but we're even seeing healthcare workers who are Black and Brown and marginalized saying no."

And so they had a project where they wanted to address vaccine hesitancy in the context of health disparities. And so he said, you know, "We'd like for you to work for us as a consultant." At this point, John, I had never ever done a consulting job. They asked me to provide them with a scope of work. I literally didn't know what that was. Said yes, got off the phone, Googled how do you write a scope of work, and looked at a bunch of templates and examples, and basically created this scope of work around what I thought would be helpful. And that led to my first consulting gig, which then led to other consulting gigs and more speaking. And now, that has really kind of positioned me as a thought leader and an expert in health equity. And so then that led to some specific health equity projects around maternal health. And it just, you know, the snowball just keeps on going, and it all started with me asking a question in a board meeting and then developing a single talk, which has led to lots of iterations of that talk and many more.

John: All right. So I can ask you many questions about this, but I'm going to focus on two. One is, a lot of people that are trying to get something like that going find themselves having to do some kind of marketing, but it sounds to me like this thing kind of snowballed kind of on its own to some extent. So were you seeking speaking engagements, for example, or doing other things? Number one. Number two. Did you at any point charge for the speaking, or did you just use that as your marketing tool?

Dr. Nicole Rochester: OK. Yes. So I definitely—I had already been doing some speaking within the context of my business, Your GPS Doc. But because I started out primarily working with family caregivers and helping people navigate the healthcare system, the talks that I was giving were really focused on that. So I was giving talks at caregiver conferences, I was giving talks for local departments of aging around that, and some of those talks were paid. Initially, a lot of free talks, and then like many speakers, you start out free, and then finally either you get the courage to ask for money or somebody offers you money and then you go, "Oh my gosh, I can make money." And then you gradually raise your price.

So definitely the talks that I'm describing now were paid engagements. And once I did a few of them and really, really loved it, I did formally market in the sense that I put a page on my website, speaker page. I put a contact form so that people could contact me if they were interested in having me come speak. And I'm very active on LinkedIn, and so I started to post. If I would have a speaking engagement, I would post about it on LinkedIn. I would post a picture. I would usually ask somebody, "Can you please take a picture of me while I'm speaking?" And I would post that photo. I would tag the organization. Inevitably the organization would comment, "Oh, this was such an amazing presentation." You know, maybe they would share my post or maybe they would do their own post. And so that definitely led to some traction on LinkedIn. And so periodically, I continue to get requests about speaking engagements, either from people that saw something on LinkedIn or maybe they went to my website and saw it there.

So there definitely has been some intentional marketing. I will say that one of the things that I am admitting and acknowledging—and I always think about this to myself—is that I really don't market myself as much as I could or should. And I've just really been lucky, blessed all the things with the opportunities that have come my way. And I also recognize that moving forward, I am going to have to probably be more intentional about marketing and making sure that I'm top of mind and that people are continuing to find me.

John: Did you end up, at least on the marketing side and, you know, whether it's emails or posts on different social media, did you hire anyone and you have any assistance or are you handling all that yourself at that point?

Dr. Nicole Rochester: There have been a lot of iterations of having help and not having help. I definitely will say I probably waited too long to get some help in my business. And so I have had a virtual assistant at times, and I've had a social media manager. And I'll also say very transparently that at times those are my two young adult daughters. So, you know, if you have kids, teenagers, young adults, they can be amazing at helping you with those things. And then I've also had other individuals that I've worked with. But a lot of it I do and have done and continue to do on my own, just organically. And I have to, you know, social media is its own beast. Sometimes I'm really good at keeping up to date. And then other times I'll look and say, "Oh my gosh, I haven't posted in a month." And so I try to balance that.

John: Well, it's tough when you're helping patients directly, you're doing the things with an organization, and trying to manage and handle everything. And then, oh, I, got to remember to, you know, go on Facebook or Instagram or LinkedIn or whatever. It it gets overwhelming pretty quickly.

Dr. Nicole Rochester: Yes, absolutely.

John: If you're like me, then you go in cycles, though, when you really nail it for a while and then you drift away for a while. So you had to learn how to basically write a proposal, a scope of work. And actually, like you said, one of the big things was, well, how much do I charge? I don't want to necessarily ask what you charge then or what you're charging now, but maybe like, how did you figure out what? How did you come up with that number thinking, I don't want it to be so high it's crazy, but I don't want to leave a lot on the table? I mean, I'm spending a lot of time researching and doing all this work.

Dr. Nicole Rochester: Yes, that is a great question. That is something that I feel like it's hard to know, and I will say that generally—and this sounds crazy, John—but I just, I make it up. Not completely make it up, but I try to do some research. I try to ask around and see what other people are charging. As you know, a lot of times for many reasons, you don't get straight answers with that. And then I just would try something. I would say typically whether it's speaking, consulting, and even coaching, the initial price was much too low. Like I would significantly underprice my services. And then I would realize, you know, after getting feedback or seeing how it's going, it's like, "Wait, you know, I could be charging more." And then I would charge a little bit more the next time. And If I get a very quick yes, I'm like, "Uh-oh, you know, that probably was too low."

And so you kind of inch your way up as you get more comfortable, as you get more experience. For me though, like I did go in some of the Facebook groups for physicians, nonclinical careers, things like that. And you ask the question and a lot of times you would get kind of a range or people would say it depends. But I really felt strongly that as a physician, regardless of what I'm doing, whether it's consulting, definitely in the consulting space, what I was hearing from other doctors who were willing to share is that they were charging anywhere from $300 to $600, some even more, dollars per hour. And so I felt like, "Okay, let me maybe land in the middle of that and then kind of see if they say yes and then work my way up from there."

I think that we—one thing that I've noticed when coaching physicians is that they often start... When we're talking about the hourly rate, for example, with the health advocacy, they will go to their clinical hourly rate. And if they're a pediatrician like me, we're at the bottom of the pay scale and they'll say stuff like, "I don't think I should charge more than $150 an hour." And I'm like, "Absolutely not." Especially if you're working with organizations and things like that. So I think we all have a tendency to try to compare that work to what we did in a clinical setting, and the two are little like apples and oranges. And getting accustomed to the fact that your knowledge and expertise is extremely valuable and that you know the companies that are hiring you to consult or advise they're doing that because of your unique vantage point and your experience, and that deserves to be compensated. So it's not about taking advantage of anyone, but it's really kind of standing in your truth and trying to understand and figure out what you're worth.

John: That's good advice. You know, I was a chief medical officer for a hospital, so we had consultants always coming in. And, you know, a lot of times there were big consultations, so they wouldn't even give an hourly rate. It would be like just a project that would take a year, and, you know, it would be $100,000 or something like that. Now, you know, you have to do some work backwards, I guess, and see how much time you think it's going to take. But I would say, again, this is based on nothing except just talking to people like you. Like if you're a physician doing consulting and your clinical rate is like $200, $300 an hour, you know, doing whatever you're doing, you should at least double it.

Dr. Nicole Rochester: I agree.

John: What else have you learned in the last five years as you're making this, transition to doing really these bigger things and working with more of an institution? Anything you want to share with us about your mindset?

Dr. Nicole Rochester: Oh, wow. Oh, yeah, mindset. I think what I have learned—I know that what I have learned in the last seven years since becoming a business owner is that 95, if not more, percent of the work is in our own head. It's our mindset. Everything else can be figured out. The information is out there; you can find it. But having the information, like as doctors, we always feel like if I just have more information... But for us, it's here—for everybody, but particularly for us. And I've been really intrigued with my own journey and with now coaching physicians, this idea that we represent—I don't know the exact number, but we're in the top echelon, I believe, in terms of intelligence and things like that. And we do really, really hard things as physicians, like literal hard things, like intubation and putting in central lines and saving lives. And yet when it comes to starting a business—and I'm not saying it's easy, because it is not easy—but we have so many fears and trepidations.

And I've talked to so many doctors that are like, "I want to do this, but I'm afraid to start my own business. I don't think I can start my own business. I don't think I could do it." And it's like, "Are you serious? Like you save lives every day. You're an emergency room physician. You're a critical care doc." And you don't think that you can start a business? So our mindsets are so important. And you know, whatever it takes, whether it's mantras, affirmations—for me, sometimes, John, I will actually go look at my CV, and anytime I have an opportunity to update my CV, it becomes an amazing exercise in boosting my confidence because I start to look back at like all of the talks that I've given and you know, my regular job and all the work I did as a pediatrician. Then to look at the different talks that I've given, the articles that I've contributed to, and the clients that I've had a chance to work with. And that reminds me like, "Nicole, you're doing pretty well,"

And so I think that we discount ourselves so much as physicians, and we just don't appreciate that, yes, we have the medical knowledge, but there's so much more that you can do with that medical knowledge beyond the clinical arena, and really, you know, just embracing that. So mindset, I continue to work on my mindset regularly because every now and then, it's something that you don't conquer, at least for me. Like sometimes I'm thinking like, "I've got this," and then some new opportunity will come my way and I see myself, I see that old part of Nicole trying to sneak back in. So I think mindset is incredibly important.

The other thing I've noticed specifically around speaking as a doctor is that I have had to creatively and respectfully remind organizations I'm a small business owner. And I say that because I continue to speak for free periodically, but it has to be like a very small nonprofit or a very religious organization or just a cause that really aligns with my purpose in life. But there are large organizations, like large John, that will approach me about speaking and then tell me that they don't have a budget or the budget that they have is significantly below what I would charge. And I've gotten to the place now where I just politely decline. And if there is a back and forth, which sometimes there is, I will tell them, you know, they'll say, "Well, Dr. So-and-so spoke for us last year, and he or she did it for free." But they're always naming a physician who works for an employer. And so, you know, you may recall, when I worked in academia, speaking was considered, you know, you do it for "exposure."

I love when they say, "Oh, we thought you would just do it for exposure." And it's not... to sound arrogant by any means, but I don't need—well, I don't want to say I don't need exposure. I always need exposure, but I'm kind of beyond the stage of speaking for exposure. And when they bring up a physician who is employed, I remember when I was employed, absolutely, I gave talks all the time for free. But at that time, I had a goal of, you know, maybe advancing up the academic ranks; like there was something tied to that effort. And so now, you know, my CV doesn't earn me a title of associate professor or professor, and I literally work for myself; I provide for my family.

And so I think that's another thing that I want to share. You know, certainly in the beginning, again, there's nothing wrong with doing things for free. There's nothing wrong with doing things for lower cost as you are making a name for yourself. But after you've done that, you deserve to be paid. And so I just find a lot of times because we're so altruistic, there's just this attitude that we should come speak to large healthcare systems and pharmaceutical companies even just out of the goodness of our hearts.

John: Wise words there. So it's absolutely true. And when you're going your own and run a small business, you have to earn a living and you have to put money aside for when maybe it gets a little light for a while, you know.

Dr. Nicole Rochester: Yes.

John: It makes perfect sense. That's good encouragement. Okay, now there are some people that like what you're doing and, you know, different aspects, but I'm sure there are people that like the advocacy part because that's something, again, that maybe they hadn't realized they could actually get paid to do. So you're teaching other people how to do that as well, correct?

Dr. Nicole Rochester: Yes. Yes, that is correct.

John: So tell us all about that.

Dr. Nicole Rochester: Sure. Yeah. And that's another thing, you know, there's a theme I'm realizing now. There's a theme in our conversation in terms of saying yes and embracing opportunity. Because with the coaching, I started my company in 2017. I was doing health advocacy. Within a couple of years, I became known in some physician circles as the doctor who does this. And so one, when doctors would say, "Hey, I have a family member who this happened to or this happened to," they would remember, "Oh, Nicole dealt with that when she was caring for her dad," or "Nicole now works with people."

And so I would get tagged in these Facebook posts. And so initially I would get tagged for like helping someone's family member navigate the healthcare system. But then doctors would sometimes say, often in the nonclinical groups, "Hey, is there such thing where I could just like help people understand their medical conditions or maybe when they're hospitalized, I can help them understand what's going on and communicate with their doctors?" And then I started getting tagged. They were like, "Hey, Nicole does that."

And so I would get tagged and then I would reach out to someone, I would hop on Zoom calls and maybe talk for an hour or two hours and just kind of answer their questions about how I got started and all the things. How much do you charge? Do you need insurance? All these things. And so I started doing that and then as I got busier, I didn't have the time or the capacity to have these two-hour Zoom calls. And so then doctors would say, "Well, can you just coach me?" And the first four or five or six or eight maybe times, I said no. I was like, "No, I don't do that." And they were like, "Well, can you just coach me?" "Nope, I'm not a coach."

So finally, around 2020, I started saying yes. I never advertised it. I just, you know, I said, "Okay, somebody reached out and they were like, 'I really would love to learn from you.'" And so I said, yes. So similar to that consulting scope of work package where I had to figure out what it was, I started researching, you know, coaching and like, how much should I charge? And then I thought about my journey. What were the things that I needed to know in order to launch Your GPS Doc? But even more importantly, what are all the mistakes that I have made? What are the things that I wish I knew when I first started?

And so I started developing a curriculum and I took my first coaching client and I worked with her one-on-one, and that was great. Everything went great. And so then, you know, the next doctor that came, I said, yes, I do this. But I never advertised it. I was still afraid. So if somebody came to me, I would say yes. But I wasn't out there saying "Hey, you all, I'm a physician coach." So then that led to me formalizing a curriculum that went from like a three-week program to four weeks to six weeks. Now it's an eight-weeks program. And then I went from a one-on-one to a group model.

And so since 2022, I've been hosting or leading the small group cohorts of physicians who want to start their own health advocacy business. And again, as the landscape changes, as new things pop up with the industry, I go back in, we update the modules. But right now, it's an eight-week program; there are lessons and modules and videos and downloadable templates and things that live on an online platform. And then weekly during the program, we have coaching calls, live coaching calls where I answer questions, where I deal with mindset challenges and coach the individuals. And yeah, we do that, and there's even an alumni program that I started just a few months ago because what I noticed is that a lot of the doctors that would finish, some of them would just take right off. Like they would finish the program, implement everything, start their business.

But a lot of them were still kind of nervous or scared, and they still needed a little more support. And so now we have an alumni program for those who want ongoing support after the eight-week program is finished. And it's just been an amazing thing to see these doctors in various seasons of their career. Some are retired, some have been out on disability for injury or illness, and some are still working full-time or part-time, and seeing them launch their health advocacy business and helping other patients and families has just been amazing.

John: Sounds like, though, from your standpoint, I mean, looking at what you're doing, you're definitely juggling a lot of things here.

Dr. Nicole Rochester: Yeah.

John: You know, you have, but it's interesting. I mean, real entrepreneurs, that's kind of what they do. Maybe you didn't really consider yourself an entrepreneur 10, 15 years ago, but you know, you're just meeting these needs as they arise. And some are, you know, huge, you know, organizations and some are just individuals. So it's really, I think it's very—I was going to say impressive, no, but it's very—it is impressive, but it's just, it's encouraging, I guess. It's like you said, there's so many things you can do if you just have that mindset. You could do a whole thing. It's all the mistakes to avoid because that's really like the, what did a consultant provides: "Don't do any of these things; do these things, and you're going to be where I was only it's going to take one-third of the time or whatever."

Dr. Nicole Rochester: That part. That is so important. Time is compressed when you work with somebody who's already done it. They've already made all the mistakes. Absolutely.

John: So where does somebody go to learn about that part of it, the coaching?

Dr. Nicole Rochester: Probably the best way you can schedule a call with me to learn more about health advocacy and about the program and we can decide if this is a good fit. And that's bit.ly/NHAcall. And N-H-A is in all caps. And they can also just go to my website, which is yourgpsdoc.com.

John: Well, you've covered a lot and you've really given us a lot of inspiration and actual good practical advice as well. So, anything else you—I guess we're going to get to the end here. So, I just would open it up for any advice you have for physicians. You know, my audience, a lot of them are either burned out or they're frustrated or they've been in medicine for 25 years and they're like, "You know, I just don't want to work like a crazy person anymore." What advice would you have for them?

Dr. Nicole Rochester: Yeah, one, I, you know, I—sending hugs because it's really, really difficult to practice medicine now for so many reasons. And honestly, I'm afraid as I get older, like who's going to be around to take care of me because I know that so many of our colleagues are leaving. But I guess the advice I would give is really, really embrace the knowledge and the expertise that you have—not just with your medical career, although that's incredibly important—but your lived experiences, your personal experiences, your interests, your hobbies—like all of those things make you who you are. And all of those things are potentially monetizable.

And I think that's something that I've learned and continue to learn is exactly what I'm always surprised at: What is monetizable? And for me, it's not just making money. Like that's not my, that's never been my motivation: is to make money. I'm excited that I get to make money while I'm still doing things that bring me joy. But realizing that there's so much information and knowledge that we have that can help others and that other people are willing to pay for that information. So it's a win-win. I mean, you have a way of monetizing your skills and your knowledge and you're doing it in a way that helps the broader society.

John: I agree 100% and you're a good example of it..

Dr. Nicole Rochester: Thank you.

John: All right, Nicole. I don't think I'm going to wait another five years, but if I still have a podcast going maybe in two years or so, then I think we're going to have to get together again and see what else you've been up to. But this has been very interesting, fascinating, helpful. And I thank you for being on the podcast today.

Dr. Nicole Rochester: Thank you, John. Thank you for having me. And thank you for this platform. I've talked to a lot of doctors who listen to your podcast, and that's been their motivation to step out into the deep. So thank you for what you do.

John: Well, I appreciate that. All right. Well, take care. Bye-bye.

Dr. Nicole Rochester: Take care.

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The post How to Create A Fantastic B2B Business appeared first on NonClinical Physicians.

In this podcast episode, John brings Dr. Heather Fork back to the podcast to share her secrets for overcoming procrastination.

Dr. Heather Fork is an ICF master certified coach helping physicians find their best career path forward, whether in medicine, a nonclinical career, or something else. Heather is passionate about making it easier for physicians to navigate their careers.

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By joining the UT Physician Executive MBA, you will develop the business and management skills you need to find a career you love. To learn more, contact Dr. Kate Atchley’s office at (865) 974-6526 or go to nonclinicalphysicians.com/physicianmba.

For Podcast Listeners

• John hosts a short Weekly Q&A Session on any topic related to physician careers and leadership. Each discussion is posted for you to review and apply. Sometimes all it takes is one insight to take you to the next level of your career. Check out the Weekly Q&A and join us for only $5.00 a month.
• If you want access to dozens of lessons dedicated to nonclinical and unconventional clinical careers, you should join the Nonclinical Career Academy MemberClub. For a small monthly fee, you can access the Weekly Q&A Sessions AND as many lessons and courses as you wish. Click the link to check it out, and use the Coupon Code “FIRSTMONTHFIVE” to get your first month for only $5.00.
• The 2024 Nonclinical Summit is over. But you can access all the fantastic lectures from our nationally recognized speakers, including Dr. Dike Drummond, Dr. Nneka Unachukwu, Dr. Gretchen Green, and Dr. Mike Woo-Ming. Go to Nonclinical Summit and enter Coupon Code “30-OFF” for a $30 discount.

Procrastination: A Barrier to Success

In today’s interview, Heather helps us understand the root causes of procrastination. She describes how destructive it can be in keeping us from reaching our goals. It can be caused by simple disorganization, lack of planning skills, or deep-seated emotional barriers.

When trying to achieve any important task, procrastination can completely derail us. And the procrastination itself can be a source of negative self-recrimination.

Heather shares a model for thinking about procrastination. She breaks it down into three levels of tasks being avoided:

1. Small tasks that get overlooked because they are insignificant or non-urgent;
2. Mid-level tasks that require focus and planning that may take several steps;
3. Big, overwhelming projects that may be emotionally charged.

Strategies for Overcoming Procrastination

Here is a list of strategies to address procrastination, starting with the simplest:

1. Schedule 30 minutes to tackle a group of small non-urgent tasks in one sitting;
2. Set up rewards for yourself for completing an overdue task, or create a punishment if a deadline is not met;
3. Apply restrictions until a task is done (for example: if your delaying a drop off of clothing to Goodwill, restrict yourself from buying any new clothing until the old is dropped off);
4. Schedule procrastinated times on your calendar as an appointment;
5. Recruit an accountability partner to help you with your procrastination while you help them with theirs;
6. Spend time analyzing negative thoughts you have about a task, write them down, and reframe them more positively.

Bonus Strategy

Heather closes by describing how to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to help you to eliminate this roadblock to your progress. Heather provides a detailed description of how she uses ChatGPT to help prevent or overcome procrastination.

You can use it to break down tasks into smaller steps, create schedules, and provide emotional support. You can start by going to ChatGPT.com and asking it to create a manageable plan for breaking down a large project into smaller steps, an outline for having a dreaded conversation, or ways to become more efficient, in general.

Summary

In this interview, Dr. Heatehr Fork draws on her years of coaching physicians to help us identify and understand procrastination, and implement some simple measures to overcome it.

Links for today's episode:

• Dr. Heather Fork's Doctor's Crossing Website
• The Doctor's Crossing Carpe Diem Podcast
• Recent interview on the Carpe Diem Podcast with Dr. John Jurica on the topic of Retirement
• ChatGPT
• Purchase Your All Action Pass Videos and Bonuses from the 2024 Summit (Use Coupon Code 30-OFF)
• The Nonclinical Career Academy

Podcast Editing & Production Services are provided by Oscar Hamilton

If you liked today’s episode, please tell your friends about it and SHARE it on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

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

Today's PNC Podcast Transcript

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Transcription PNC Podcast Episode 377
Secrets to Beating the Top 3 Categories of Procrastination - Interview with Dr. Heather Fork

John: Well, I'm very pleased to have today's guest back again. She's been here before. I think we both think it's been three, although I didn't go back and count, so awesome. I'm glad she's back for another episode of the podcast. She's been an awesome source of support and advice for struggling physicians with their careers for many years. Many of you should already know her very well. She's a well-known coach and an expert on resume writing and LinkedIn, using LinkedIn. So she has courses on those that you should take advantage of. And what they represent to me, like some of those things that we need to know when we're getting into this whole idea of maybe moving to even if it's a new clinical or a nonclinical position, you're going to need a resume. You're going to need a LinkedIn and tons of other things to prepare for it. And one of the things we're going to talk about today that really has a big impact on your moving forward or not. So with that, I will stop and say hello to Dr. Heather Fork. Welcome back.

Dr. Heather Fork: Hi, Dr. John Jurica. It is an honor to be back on the podcast. And actually the week that we're recording this, the podcast that you did with me on The Doctor's Crossing Carpe Diem Podcast is out this week, and it's all about part-time opportunities for those of you who are thinking of slowing down nearing retirement. But all of those things can be good for anyone at any age and stage, and I really thank you so much for coming on and doing that with me.

John: Oh, it was fun. And, this is a few weeks later, of course, by the time this gets posted, but I will put a link in the show notes. So I would recommend if you want to hear more of Heather and myself talking, then you can listen, especially in that one with a lot of ideas if you're getting near retirement. So you've come on before and you've talked about what you do, and by the way, we're on a first name basis, of course, Heather and John. So, what I want to know is what has happened, if anything new or if you've shifted gears in any way in the last couple of years, and just also mention just all the things that you do so for those that haven't heard you before, they'll get a better understanding.

Dr. Heather Fork: Oh, thanks, John. Well, my job keeps me out of trouble. I love it very much. I get to help physicians at the crossroads, and that can be through the podcast, the Doctor's Crossing Carpe Diem Podcast. I also do coaching. So I have a one-on-one coaching program, but I also offer one-off consultation. So if you just would like some perspective on your career, but you don't necessarily need a program, you can inquire about scheduling a paid consultation for an hour on Zoom. I also have, as you mentioned, the LinkedIn course, the resume kit, and a bunch of freebies on my website. So if you just go to the doctor'scrossing.com website, and it's a freebie tab, there's a bunch of different PDFs you can download.

John: Excellent. So again, there'll be links to the website and those other things at the end here. But before we get there, then I want to bring up this topic that we're going to be talking about, because it is a barrier to moving forward if you're frustrated, if you're burnt out, whatever it might be. There's a lot of reasons to change what you're doing. And this is like a basic one, and it's extremely common, and it's not just when it comes to career change. And so, I want to hear Heather deals with this and coaches people about this particular problem, and the problem is in procrastinating. So this is going to be fun, and we're going to get some tips and how to think about it. So, do you think this is, where does this rank in terms of things that hold people back?

Dr. Heather Fork: Oh, John, I think it's enormous. Absolutely. It's enormous. And it can have minor consequences. For example, if you want to take some clothes to Goodwill and clean out your closet, well, if you delay that, like who's really harmed by that?

John: It's true.

Dr. Heather Fork: Nobody, seriously. And at the other end of the spectrum if you, for example, delay seeing a doctor, we all know, because this is what we do, that this can have really serious, even life threatening consequences. And it makes me think of when I was a resident in dermatology at the VA in Miami, there was a patient who came in and he literally looked like he had a brand muffin stuck on his forehead. It was just this huge brown glob that looked like a brown muffin on his forehead, and it turned out to be a basal-cell carcinoma. And I asked him, "What made you decide to come in now? Why did you wait?" And he goes, "Well, it's been there for decades. And I just, I got sober." And he came in.

And this story in some ways, I think explains some of the complexity across the nation, because there can be things going on just with your personal life. It can be fear, such as, I see this thing's growing on my forehead. It could be a cancer, but I don't really want to know it's a cancer, so I'm just going to pretend it's not there. And it can be the problem of, well, who do I call? I need to make an appointment and getting to the appointment. Maybe I don't have transportation. So I like this topic of procrastination because it's actually fairly complex and there's not a one size fits all answer. So there's a lot we can talk about and hopefully give people some help for whatever they're dealing with.

John: Is there a way that you think about procrastination, or well, just tell us when it comes up as being an issue for maybe some of your coaching or even in your own life, how would you start trying to compensate for that or overcome that?

Dr. Heather Fork: Well, I recently came up with a framework because I've been listening to a lot of podcasts on procrastination, reading about it, I did a podcast myself on it. And the basic gist of that podcast was that it's not that you're lazy, that you're procrastinating, there's some kind of underlying internal conflict. So that's often there, but doesn't explain all types of procrastination. So to try to capture more the breadth and depth, the procrastination, I came up with my three different types. You ask yourself this question, is it a mouse, a monkey, or an elephant that I'm procrastinating on?

John: Interesting. Okay. Well, that helps us remember the three, but I have no idea what the three things relate to. So, go ahead and tell us how does that help us break this down?

Dr. Heather Fork: Absolutely. So, well, let's start, let me just ask you, John, first is, what's something that you may procrastinate on? And we'll see maybe what category it fits in.

John: Well, the thing that I think about when I'm thinking about procrastinating is I hate to talk on the telephone. So it affects every part of my life. For example, I try to stay in touch with my children. One's married, one's not married. I mean, my three step kids are married and I hate calling them. I just don't like getting on the phone. So I will procrastinate on that knowing that, gosh, they're going to think I'm not thinking about that. That's one side. The other side is like, as let's say the medical director for the urgent care center, some things come up, behavioral issues come up with the PAs or the NPs, or potential, maybe complaint or something, who knows.

And so then I'm talking to the CEO or to one of the managers and they say, "Well, could you call this person and talk to them?" I'm like, "Yeah, certainly that's something I should do." And I just dread it. And I don't dread it because I'm afraid of it. I just don't like being on the phone talking. And so I have to try and come up with a way to put a deadline, like I have to do this by this date or I'm just not going to do anything else. So those are the two types of things, but to me, that's one sort of minor in a way. And one big one, or maybe they're both big.

Dr. Heather Fork: All right. So those are really great examples about really not liking to talk on the phone. And it affects different parts of your life, and certainly too, if you have to have a bit of a challenging conversation. So we'll go through the mouse, the monkey, and the elephant, and we'll see where you feel like it fits in. And we'll also look at strategies to address each of these. And then just procrastination in general. So the mouse, as the name implies, is like, it's a small sort of issue that you're procrastinating on. It's not big like an elephant, it's annoying. Maybe it squeaks at you sometimes, but often it just screws away and hides and it's off the radar, so you don't really deal with it.

So some examples of things that could be in the mice category would be making a doctor or a dentist appointment, hanging up or framing a picture in your house, sending an email, making a phone call, paying a bill, returning an item to the store or to Amazon. These don't tend to be things that have a lot of underlying emotional content to them. They're just sort of nuisancy things. So that's in the mouse category.

John: Okay.

Dr. Heather Fork: Do you think either of those things are in the mouse category?

John: The way I laid it out, I made it sound like calling my daughter, for example, was on the mouse, but it really isn't because that's one of the most important things in my life or my relationship with my kids. Yeah. So I don't think that either of those are mouse categories now that I think of it.

Dr. Heather Fork: Okay. Good. Okay. So let's go on to the next category, which is the monkey category. So monkeys, obviously, they're bigger than mice, they're smaller than elephant, and they jump around and they're curious, they're wily, they can have a sense of humor and be pesky. So there's a lot of nuance to monkeys. So some examples of what might be a monkey is preparing a presentation, a talk that you have to do, decluttering your closets, going through piles of paper or stuff that's in the garage, or attic. It might be planning a vacation. So it could even be something positive, but you might feel like, oh, I can't leave my practice. I don't get paid when I am away and I don't know where I want to go.

So it can even be fun things we procrastinate on. It could be finding the right help, that might be a house cleaner, a therapist, a tutor, a handyman, or a doctor for yourself, for your child, could even be doing a hobby or interest that you enjoy, maybe playing that banjo like you do you play your banjo. Maybe it's being neglected. Doing artwork, writing, learning a language. So these are bigger things and they may be bit more thought and emotion that comes up when we try to address them.

John: Yeah, that's definitely, those are much bigger than some of the more trivial mouse type things. I'm thinking that for me, actually, as you were talking, I'm thinking both of the ones I mentioned are probably in this category, because I think the elephant category is going to be really, really a critical big thing. So I'm thinking these are both things, although maybe the not talking to the employee in a timely manner can become an elephant thing. Because if I let it go too long, then it's definitely going to have a consequence. So that one might be on the edge.

Dr. Heather Fork: Right. Absolutely. So they do sound like monkeys, and so they require some more focus, they require more planning, and you may have to do a little internal inquiry to understand why the procrastination is happening.

John: Absolutely. Yeah, which makes me want to think of what an elephant one will be for me. So, well, let me hear you tell us about the elephant.

Dr. Heather Fork: Okay.

John: Unless you have other examples you want to give on that one.

Dr. Heather Fork: No, sure. I think it's a great time to go onto the elephant. So obviously elephants are big and we often talk about, oh, the elephant in the room, the thing we don't really want to address, but it's there and it's big and it's looming. And so these are often tasks, or goals that are emotionally charged, and they can feel daunting and they can create a lot of avoidance and have pretty serious consequences because they are more major things in our life. So, for example, for listeners out here that could be addressing your career situation, I often talk to physicians who've said, well, I've often talked to physicians who say, oh, I've been listening to your podcast for two years, three years, four years, and they're very unhappy, but they still haven't made any changes. And so might be like, well, if your happiness is a 3 out of a 10, what's happening? Because it's obviously a serious situation.

It could also be something like creating an online course. I know definitely procrastinating on those things, writing a book. It might be addressing a significant relationship issue. Maybe you're feeling that your marriage is in trouble, but it just, you can't even just imagine thinking, unpacking all that. Or maybe you want to meet somebody. You want to meet your soulmate, but when you think about getting out there on the internet and doing online dating, you just shut everything down because that sounds really scary and potentially hurtful to yourself. Rejection is definitely a reason to stay safe. So often when we want to keep ourselves safe, we stay stuck. Could also be taking on a personal challenge such as an exercise program or weight loss program, can be addressing your finances, looking at debt, looking at your budget, looking at how you are spending your money. If you have enough retirement, you may not want to peak and see, oh my God, this means I have to work another 10 years.

John: Yeah. I remember talking to a lot of people, I don't do coaching like you do, but I've had several mastermind groups and this thing comes up all the time. It's sort of like, we've been talking about a certain issue. They all want to do something different. I mean, that's why they were in the mastermind and yet they might come back month after month after month as come together as a group and they may have had things they were supposed to work on, are they committed to working on. And really were making zero progress in spite of having been given a lot of good suggestions and encouragement and so forth. In a mastermind type situation, you don't necessarily get to the root cause of it.

You're hoping that just by interacting and having that accountability that they'll take the bull by the horns and move forward. But it's pretty common. And I would say for me, and this probably maybe affects a lot of people that are getting right at the point of retirement, yeah, I've definitely retired from seeing patients face to face. But it's the financial. We had a plan for while we were working and we were saving money, but then, do I really know, this came up for me this week actually, do I really know whether and how I'm going to now start to access those funds that I've put away? Do I need to change the way I'm managing them? I'm putting them? It's a whole different thing. And I've definitely been putting that off for months, if not years, so I can fall into that category of type of procrastination.

Dr. Heather Fork: Yeah. And so when we look at strategies to deal with procrastination, it's obvious just from the conversation we've had that different strategies are going to be better for the mice, the monkey or the elephant. Some will apply to all of them, some may be helpful to you, but not to me. And sometimes something works one day for us and the next day we're like a stubborn petulant child and nothing will work.

John: Yeah. Yeah. So I'm interested in hearing what types of, approaches we can take for the various levels of procrastination. And then maybe I can apply one of those to the areas that I'm procrastinating in right now.

Dr. Heather Fork: Okay. Well, I like to think about this as a continuum. So for things that are more like mice, we can use some of the simpler ones. And then as we get into the elephant, we're going to involve some more complex things that really deal with emotions and the conflict that's going on. But some of the simpler ones could also apply for the big ones. So it's really just a smorgasbord. And you get to pick and choose because like anything that's challenging, just like a disease that's challenging, we often have a lot of different therapies that we may use because there's no one thing that actually wipes it out.

All right. So let's start very simply. Like number one could be just make a list. And I have a whiteboard in my kitchen and I have different quadrants on it where I put something like the easy ones, like the mice will be up in the top right corner. And I like to batch my mice. So if you've heard that term, batching, just like, instead of making like one cookie, you make a batch of cookies, it's just easier. So with batching your procrastination mice, you just say, okay, there are these five things I'm going to do and I'll do them all at one time. So batching works really well for mice, but making a list can work for any of these things. And I think so many of us as physicians, we're big list makers and we like to cross things off. And sometimes we'll even add something on that we already did, just so we can get the dopamine hit of crossing it off.

John: Sometimes if you have those lists and you've been crossing them off, I don't keep my list, but some people do. And it's like, if you keep those cards or even while your whiteboard's going to run out of space. But sometimes looking back and saying, holy macro, I actually did so much this week or this month, it's incredible. But it's just everybody has a lot of little things they have to do and definitely don't want to put them off too long.

Dr. Heather Fork: Right. And we always hear about when you set goals, you need to set a deadline. So it's good to have some type of timeframe that you want to achieve this goal by. If it's something like making a dentist appointment, well, it could just be, okay, by Saturday I will have done this by the end of the week. If it's preparing a presentation, then you might say, okay, I'm going to do this by the end of the month. I need to change my career, you might give yourself one year or two years, you might say, by six months I want to have narrowed down my options. So you adjust the timeframe to what's appropriate.

And it's also helpful to let somebody know. So this is where accountability can come in. And some days this works, sometimes it doesn't. I know I've definitely told Katie, my assistant, okay, I'm going to have this to you by this date. And then if not, I've even said, "All right, I'm paying you $100."

John: Oh, wow.

Dr. Heather Fork: Well, I hate to admit it, but I said, like, certain date, I was going to get so many videos done and I didn't get them done, and then I paid her $100. So sometimes these things work and sometimes they don't, but they can help you get closer to your goal even if you don't quite make it.

John: That's a good one. Putting some money attached to it. There'll be different ways that you could do that. I was just thinking of something else that I procrastinate on and I've got to figure out which category it's in and what kind of technique I can use. I do editing of manuscripts for CME. I've mentioned this to listeners before. I've been doing that for 20 years but they arrive randomly in my house. And I don't really set aside any particular, there's not a regular schedule. And so sometimes I'll get them done within a week or two, and other times I'm looking at, it's like, oh my gosh, it's already been four weeks. And so it goes from maybe something that's relatively minor to something that can get really serious because the longer it waits, there's somebody there waiting for that to be published.

Dr. Heather Fork: Right.

John: So I have to use a combination, I think of these methods to tackle that one.

Dr. Heather Fork: It's absolutely true. And I think one of the challenges we have as physicians is that when we think about our training, we've done all the things that are hard in terms of why people procrastinate. Like people procrastinate because they don't want to feel incompetent. They are perfectionist or they don't like uncertainty or they don't really want to put all the effort in. But in our training, we had to do all these things, work hard, be accountable, show up when we're tired. We had to take our tests when the tests were scheduled. There were a lot of negative consequences for procrastinating. And so we were in a container. And that often works well when someone else is putting in the deadlines and there are these adverse consequences. But then when we get out sort of free, we're free people floating around and we have to put those restraints and guardrails and deadlines and accountabilities in for ourselves. It's harder. So it's almost like, that muscle of personal accountability got weak because we had so much external accountability.

John: One of the things I did when I was working as CMO, and it was a little easier because that was a very structured environment and there were certain things I didn't look forward to doing. But I would just put it on my, I would have my assistant put it on my schedule and that time was blocked only to do that thing. Not that it was due that day, but that I had blocked the time out so that I couldn't the next day or a week later, say I didn't have time to do it because it was on the schedule.

Dr. Heather Fork: Yes, John. And you must have ESP or you read my notes or something. Because one of the strategies is to do what I call schedule to a time. So I had a friend when I was growing up, Jenny McLaren, and she had this sign in her room, we were like 12. And it said, "I'll do it when I get around to it." And it was TUIT. So I used that recently because there was this dress I wanted to post on Facebook marketplace to resell, but I've been procrastinating on it so much that it was a spring dress and now it's fall and I hadn't done it. So I said, I'm putting to a time on my calendar, and it was going to be one hour to do all these mice. And the interesting thing is, once I had that to a time scheduled a couple days before, I just did the things, I did my mice. And it was, yeah, there was something about knowing how time set aside that I wanted to beat the clock. And I just, and this thing I've been procrastinating on for half a year, I just did it. So that's to a time.

John: Keep going. We got a lot to learn here.

Dr. Heather Fork: So another one is use a reward or restriction approach or and/or. And so when I wanted to get this dress on Facebook Marketplace, because I bought it, and when I thought I'd look great in it, but I looked like I should be on the set for a little house on the Prairie. It wasn't the western cowgirl look I was going for. But I just dragged my feet. And so I said to myself, you can't buy anything new until you put this dress on. And I'm not a huge shopper, but I like going to Marshall's and just finding a little treasure here and there. And so I said, okay, and you can't buy anything new. Well, for months I didn't buy anything new. I think I just get it up there but I didn't. So then, that was a restriction.

So the reward could be, I can get to get something. So you can reward yourself. And I think, that's really helpful. Sometimes just accomplishing it is reward enough, but if there's something like, hey, you want to go out to dinner with your friend or your spouse, or you'd like to make a small purchase, or you'd like to set aside like a fun day or get a massage, use a reward. But restrictions are important too. Like, hmm, sorry, you can't do X, Y, Z until you get this accomplished. We're used to the punitive approach I think as doctors.

John: I'm going to have to think of how I can punish myself if I can stay on track, I got to make sure it'll be something I will hold myself to though if I do that. But that's a good one. Or reward. I mean, rewards sometimes even work better if it's something you've really put off for a long time and wanted to do or have or use.

Dr. Heather Fork: Yeah. And so getting to the more complex issues like the elephants, and we can use this for your situation, is to really dig deep and understand what is the internal conflict that's going on. Because I think for so many of the things that we, as physicians, especially at the crossroads struggle with in procrastination, there's internal conflict under theirs, which is, I want to change my job, but I have these fears. So it's usually addressing the things that we're concerned about or we just have issues with. So in your situation with not liking to be on the phone, what's that about? Like, can you tell us a little bit more about that?

John: Oh, let's see. I can try. Number one, I'm an introvert. I'm not an outgoing person. I don't get thrilled by being with people. I feel most comfortable and actually most powerful when I'm by myself doing something and recharging, that usual introvert extrovert thing. So that's part of it. I'm a people pleaser. So if this phone call involves trying to have a difficult conversation with someone, they might take it a certain way. So I don't want to hurt their feelings, but any good manager or director or spouse or whatever needs to be able to have those uncomfortable conversations. But I think that's part of it. I suppose things like not like fearing the pushback or the negativity coming back at me, if it's, again, a difficult conversation. I guess those are some examples of why, that internal conversation that's going on before I make a phone call or whether I even realize it or not.

Dr. Heather Fork: On a scale of 0 to 10, John, with 10 being I really don't like talking on the phone phone and 0 being, oh, I'm fine with it, how much do you dislike talking on the phone?

John: I dislike it? Well, I would say about a seven, seven or eight. Right now, if I look on my phone, I have a weekly reminder to call my daughter. Now, I don't really plan to call her every week. But I put it on there weekly because then at some point I'm going to see it and then I'm going to do it. But if it wasn't on there, I might just put it out. So, yeah. So I mean, I just, I don't know again exactly the why so much, but that's the scale. Yeah. It's fairly, it's just when I'm on the phone and I'm already engaged, it's not a big deal. It's just the act of initiating it and just doing it. Getting it going.

Dr. Heather Fork: Well, you make a really good point there that often the biggest barrier is that first step and makes me think of this quote, "The heaviest weight at the gym is the front door." I love that. "The heaviest weight at the gym is the front door." So, like you said, initiating the phone call is the hardest part. And that's true for so many things we procrastinate on, which is another clue as to a great strategy, which is make that first step a baby step. For example, if you're trying to write a book, write a sentence, or if you're having trouble looking at your finances, the first step is to just gather the information. So if you think about what you procrastinate on, say what's the lowest barrier of entry? What's that door at the gym, if I can just get in that door, I'll be okay and start there.

Don't think of all the billion things that you have to do. Like if you say you are in a difficult relationship, and every time you think about a addressing that, it's like, oh my God, the kids, the money, the house, so this and that, that's paralyzing. But if you said, the first thing I might do is I just might talk to a friend or I just might write down why I need to do this, why this is bothering me, and just something simple. And then don't think any further than that.

John: It'll help break it down.

Dr. Heather Fork: Break it down.

John: And lower that barrier.

Dr. Heather Fork: So I know we're getting close to time here, but I do want to mention, in addition to finding your why, which is something we just talked about, that's important to just look at why accomplishing this goal is important to you. What will it do for you? How could it change your life? And if you look back in one week, one month, one year, five years, what will be different? Will that be worth it? That can be motivating. But this next thing that I want to mention to me is game changing. It can be life changing. Do you know what this next one, can you guess what it is? It's a great new resource.

John: No, just tell us.

Dr. Heather Fork: Okay. Okay. Using artificial intelligence, so ChatGPT.

John: All right. Now, how on earth is that going to help us with procrastination?

Dr. Heather Fork: It's phenomenal because so many of the things we procrastinate on, not so much the mice, but the monkey and the elephant, the monkeys and the elephants. If we say, okay, Chat, I need to address my finances. This is my situation. These are my student loan debts, this is what I'm doing for investment. I don't have a financial advisor. First you go on to ChatGPT, it's free. So just get on there and then chat. It's like having a conversation with a super smart, empathetic, compassionate person who thinks in seconds, incredibly fast. So then you just type in whatever your situation is. And then say, "Can you give me a strategy or a plan or steps to start addressing this?" And then as soon as you press enter, you count to three seconds and you have your answer there. Whatever it is.

Say you need to do a talk on something, just still chat what the talk is about and say, "Can you make 20 slides for me? Or can you make an outline?" Or if you have to, let's say career change. I did a whole podcast on using ChatGPT to help you with looking at your career. And that can be from, help me understand what nonclinical options are chat. Or help me convert my CV to a resume. Help me understand better what to put in my summary on LinkedIn. And the cool thing is chat is also like a Dear Abby, so you could even say this. So maybe try this, John, say, "I'm introverted. I don't really like docking on the phone, but I have to have these conversations. And sometimes they're where I have to give some constructive feedback and it's challenging for me, can you help me out with this?"

And chat will give you an answer. And the neat thing is, is this is a conversation. So it's not like Google where you Google something, you get an answer and you're done. But then you can follow up and say, "All right, chat. Well, that's awful. But what I really have trouble with is when I'm afraid that person's going to be mad at me. That I'm going to hurt their feelings. Can you help me with this?" And whenever I use ChatGPT with my clients and they have something they're trying to address and I show them online how to use it, all of us have the same response. Our jaw drops every single time. People are like, "Oh my God." And they usually just start laughing and can't stop because it really is mind blowing.

John: No, that's very interesting. You telling me that, yeah, my barrier to asking ChatGPT something which I don't use routinely, but would be zero. I mean, it's an inanimate thing. I can ask it. Because I Google things all the time and to me that's yeah, it's just a step beyond that. So no, that's interesting. In fact, I should probably just use that for a lot of other things. Just like to get ideas. But particularly whether it's with procrastinating or with creating something or with doing something else, it sounds like, yeah, I've never actually sat down and used it.

Dr. Heather Fork: Okay. Well, tonight, promise me tonight, John, and any one of you listening out there, whatever it is you're struggling with. And like I said, it can be a logistical thing, a practical thing. It can be emotional, psychological. It can be like I have, you might say, well, I'm dealing with loss of self-respect because I've been procrastinating so much on this and I just feel bad about myself. I'm telling you, Chats worth the best paid therapist, really, like you can get really great therapy for free.

John: All right. Well, this is how much of a novice I am. So would I just go to chat gpt.com or how do I access it?

Dr. Heather Fork: Yeah, you can go to chatgpt.com. It's also called Open AI, but go to Chat, G as in George, P as in Paul, T as in Tom. And then there's a free version 3.5. The pay version is 4.0 and it's $20 a month. I use the paid one because if you do so many searches or queries, you run out of time, you run out of searches basically. But I would start with the free version and it's just a prompt. There's a space, like a search bar that you just put in the prompt and you can also set up your computer where you can just speak. For me, I press like Ctrl twice and then my microphone comes on and I just talk to chat. I explain the situation, what I'm dealing with, and I say help me out.

John: Nice. That is awesome. Well, that's a great bit of advice in addition to everything else. Thank you for that.

Dr. Heather Fork: Oh, you're welcome. You're welcome. I'd say, that may be one of the most powerful anti-procrastination device that we have so far. So please check it out.

John: All right. This has been awesome. Anything we didn't hit on that you think we need to know about or other ideas for addressing this problem? If not, feel free to tell us again about where we can reach you.

Dr. Heather Fork: Oh, absolutely, John. So I think just to summarize look at whether it's the mouse, the monkey, or the elephant. And then there's so many different ways that you can use to help in terms of strategies such as making a list, having a whiteboard, setting a goal, getting accountability, putting something on a calendar like your to a time. When you're going to actually do these things. Get somebody to be an accountability partner. Look at your why, why it's important to you. Break it down in steps. Lower the barrier of entry to that first step. Do a really mini baby step.

Reframe your fears. Like if there's things that you're worried about, like your income going down, have you changed careers? Try to reframe that and say, well, I can look into options. I know other doctors do this. They're actually jobs where people make more. So I didn't really talk much about reframing the fears, but that's a big part. And that's mostly what I talk about too in my podcast that I did on procrastination. So yes, doctor'scrossing.com is where you can find me and I'd love to help anybody. I'd like to reach out.

John: Well, I am always amazed when I have you here on the podcast, Heather. I guess you always come up with some outstanding topics and issues and solutions and you're just such an experienced coach. So I mean, I really appreciate you. Not only have you helped a lot of physicians working their way through their careers and so forth over the years, but we've known each other for a long time and I really feel like I've gotten a lot of support from you as well. So I do appreciate you and I advise everyone particularly, I mean, if you think you might need coaching, I like the idea of a one-off. If you just want to get a sense of what the coaching would be like. A lot of us have never actually been coached.

And so we don't really know what coaching is. We think it's like someone's going to tell us what to do and I suspect it's not that at all. And so you might just do the one hour, but anyway you have so many things available on your website and the big ones that, like I mentioned earlier, that I find so useful are those pertain to the resume and the LinkedIn because they're so practical. But obviously there's a whole lot more than just that to making a major change in your life, whether it's your career or something else. So thanks again for being here today.

Dr. Heather Fork: And thank you, John. I'm a huge fan of yours. I recommend your podcast all the time and the courses and the summits that you offer and that's why you've been on my podcast multiple times and people really enjoy your episodes and get a lot out of them. So thank you so much. I'm a big fan.

John: You're welcome. So with that, I will say goodbye and maybe we'll see you back here on the podcast again down the road.

Dr. Heather Fork: All right. Well, thanks again, John.

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The post Secrets to Beating the Top 3 Categories of Procrastination appeared first on NonClinical Physicians.

In this podcast episode, Dr. Tod Stillson explains more about the benefits of a professional corporation and the steps to take in forming one.

This week we build upon our previous discussion where he introduced the concept of employment light and shared his journey from traditional employment to independent contracting. 

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The UT PEMBA is the longest-running, and most highly respected physician-only MBA in the country. It has over 700 graduates. And, the program only takes one year to complete. 

By joining the UT Physician Executive MBA, you will develop the business and management skills you need to find a career you love. To learn more, contact Dr. Kate Atchley’s office at (865) 974-6526 or go to nonclinicalphysicians.com/physicianmba.

For Podcast Listeners

• John hosts a short Weekly Q&A Session on any topic related to physician careers and leadership. Each discussion is posted for you to review and apply. Sometimes all it takes is one insight to take you to the next level of your career. Check out the Weekly Q&A and join us for only $5.00 a month.
• If you want access to dozens of lessons dedicated to nonclinical and unconventional clinical careers, you should join the Nonclinical Career Academy MemberClub. For a small monthly fee, you can access the Weekly Q&A Sessions AND as many lessons and courses as you wish. Click the link to check it out, and use the Coupon Code “FIRSTMONTHFIVE” to get your first month for only $5.00.
• The 2024 Nonclinical Summit is over. But you can access all the fantastic lectures from our nationally recognized speakers, including Dr. Dike Drummond, Dr. Nneka Unachukwu, Dr. Gretchen Green, and Dr. Mike Woo-Ming. Go to Nonclinical Summit and enter Coupon Code “30-OFF” for a $30 discount.

Making the Transition Without Rocking the Boat

Our first episode focused on how doctors can win as a micro-corporation and negotiate better contracts. Part 2 reveals practical strategies for a seamless transition and income diversification through professional incorporation.

The beauty of transitioning to a professional corporation lies in its seamlessness. As Dr. Stillson explains you can maintain your regular clinical presence while restructuring your business model behind the scenes. He continued wearing the same lab coat, attending medical executive meetings, and maintaining hospital relationships – but with one significant difference: a $200,000 increase in compensation.

You don't need to shout it from the mountaintops… You just need to ask for it very quietly. – Dr. Tod Stillson

The key is creating a win-win situation where your hospital isn't paying more, but you receive fair market value for their services through a more powerful business structure.

Benefits of a Professional Corporation and Income Diversification

The medical landscape is evolving, and with it, new opportunities for income diversification are emerging. Today's physicians are exploring:

• “Job stacking” – strategically combining part-time positions
• Direct primary care models
• Telehealth and “practice without walls” concepts
• Multiple revenue streams from different medical services

Dr. Stillson successfully monetized various aspects of his practice, from clinic work to sports medicine coverage, ultimately creating multiple distinct income streams. This approach not only increases financial stability but also provides greater professional autonomy.

Summary

For those ready to dive deeper into professional corporations, you can find Dr. Stillson's comprehensive guide Doctor Incorporated: Stop the Insanity of Traditional Employment and Preserve Your Professional Autonomy on Amazon. His website offers both free resources and paid courses to help you navigate this transition. As part of his commitment to helping physicians thrive, Dr. Stillson also offers a free eBook titled 20 Reasons Every Resident Should Start a Corporation During Their Residency. 

Links for today's episode:

• Part 1 of this conversation can be found at Now Every Doctor Can Win As a Micro-Corporation
• Dr. Tod Stillson's Website SimpliMD.com
• Free Subscription: Subscribe to the SimpliMD Blog.
• Dr. Tod Stillson's Book: Doctor Incorporated: Stop the Insanity of Traditional Employment and Preserve Your Professional Autonomy
• Employment Lite: Check out our Employment Lite landing page on why this hybrid model of employment and private practice is so appealing to many doctors.
• Free E-Books: Choose from a large menu of free E-Books that support your micro-business journey as a self-employed doctor.
• Professional Business Network: Our vetted and preferred network of small business professionals and resources that will support your professional micro-corporation journey.
• How to Save Healthcare, Satisfy Patients, and Fix Physician Burnout – 256
• Check out the 2024 Nonclinical Career Summit to learn about MORE unconventional career options.

Paid Resources from SimpliMD:

• $199 Course: Creating A Practice Without Walls.
• $99 Consultation: 1:1 Micro-Business Consultation.
• $500 Micro-Corporation Start: A Business Consultation + Connection to Legal Professionals to Start Your Professional Micro-Corporation.
• $99 ($10 for residents) SimpliMD Membership: Join our community of self-employed doctors and receive exclusive perks for members only
• $2000 SimpliMD Coaching: 1:1 holistic coaching with a small business focus.

Podcast Editing & Production Services are provided by Oscar Hamilton

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Today's PNC Podcast Transcript

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Transcription PNC Podcast Episode 375

More On The Benefits of a Professional Corporation

- Interview with Dr. Tod Stillson Part 2

Dr. Tod Stillson: And I'll say back in the day when I did this tenure over a decade ago, John, my simple goal was to let everybody in the community, including my own peers, have no idea that it was happening. In other words, I still wore all the same lab coat. I still wore all the branding of the hospital. I still did every bit of work that I was doing. It really looked like no different. I still even went to the medical exec meetings, the staff meetings. I participated. I was very willing to participate. On many levels, it looked like I was doing exactly the same thing.

But behind the scenes, the business model was dramatically different. And that's what was empowering in terms of my autonomy and in terms of my taxes and really the financial side of the equation, as I mentioned. And when I made that transition, I got a $200,000 raise just by making that transition. And so an amazing amount of money. But the point is, is that I wanted to do it seamlessly. And that's how I encourage most doctors to do it.

You don't need to shout it from the mountaintops. You just need to actually to make it the most win-win. You just ask for it very quietly, okay? And for the hospital, they're not paying you more in this system. In other words, you're not asking for a raise. Now, you're listening to me go, wait a second, you said you got paid $200,000 more. Well, I did. And that's because their stupid employee contract was a stupid employee contract that wasn't paying doctors fairly, okay? I just was now getting paid fairly for what I was worth in the marketplace. And it's that simple.

So that's not more, that's just fair, right? And that's important for a hospital. I see it in that way. I have plenty of hospitals that also pay doctors in employment-like contracts on salaries too. It doesn't have to be productivity-based. There's all sorts of PSA structures that a doctor can use that makes sense for them if they prefer that. But the point is make it win-win.

John: Excellent. Now, I don't know if you mentioned this earlier or I heard it somewhere else in hearing about your background in that.

So if you're currently employed and you have a non-compete, does that itself become a barrier in any way? Or do you still have a non-compete under your professional incorporation?

Dr. Tod Stillson: It's all about the negotiation. One of the elements that the hospital wanted to put in place with my new PSA contract when I made that conversion, they wanted to put a non-compete in that basically was non-compete in the essential services the hospital was performing while I was engaged in the contract. It didn't have a one year or a 30 day or 90 day, one year, two year wraparound non-compete around it. It was just literally during while the contract was in place. That was all about negotiation. So the point is, it's all about what you want to negotiate.

So if you convert it over and if they're like we had a one year non-compete when you were an employee. We want to have a one year non-compete in this employment-like contract. If you're okay with that, they're okay with that. But it's also a point in time where as an independent contractor, you might say, well, let's negotiate that down. Okay. Let's take that down to three months, six months, eliminate it altogether.

And as your listeners know, this is something that's a hot topic in medicine anyway, right now that it may get eliminated federally all across the board, or at least get put back into the state's hands. And there's just a whole bunch of stuff going on in that context. But the answer is, this is an opportunity when you reformulate a contract to determine the exact terms of it.

I'll bring this point up again to your audience. This is the point where I did what I would recommend them to do. I hired a lawyer who understand healthcare contracts, who negotiated and worked on my behalf. And that was one of the smartest moves I made. And one of the best return on investments that I ever made when it came to this, because they knew and understood things. And they could speak the language, but the hospital lawyers that they needed to hear and communicate it in a way that was best for me.

So when you try and negotiate it yourself, you're not going to typically beat the hospital layers. Okay. You aren't. No matter how kind they seem to be to you, they-

John: They're smiling all the way.

Dr. Tod Stillson: They are smiling all the way. And that's because they're going to kind of, because of information asymmetry, oftentimes, they're going to list that contract more towards them. That's their job. That's who they represent, then towards you. So don't be afraid to hire a contract review or negotiation lawyer. We have them as SimpliMD people that we work with. And so that's another take home message for your audience.

John: Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up. Because I get that question occasionally, it comes up, do I need an attorney to do this or that? And actually, when I close out each podcast episode, I say, get an attorney, get an accountant, do these things. And it's just, I mean, it's not cheap, but it's worth it. You're going to end up just being in a much better position if you really have someone who knows what they're doing, advising you and maybe even creating the documents.

Dr. Tod Stillson: That's exactly right. And I'll say when you do it like I've done as a micro corporation so my own PC professional corporation, that's a business expense. So it's not even coming out, unlike when you're traditionally employed, all these things come out of your personal pocket, right? So that's post-tax dollars. And it's feels a whole lot better spending on professional services when you're using pre-tax dollars to spend on those professional services.

John: Now, are there some other things I think, because you've written a lot on this topic, other things that you can think of just offhand that using this new model for yourself, that it enabled you to do that did end up, ultimately, basically diversifying your income or assets. Let's put it that way.

Dr. Tod Stillson: Yeah. So what's your question specifically?

John: So when you've switched to this model of interacting and creating your own micro business, there's other things you can do with it.

Dr. Tod Stillson: Oh, I see. Yeah. Got you.

John: Yeah, that are beneficial.

Dr. Tod Stillson: So first of all, it's about diversifying your income channels. And so then anytime you as a professional can diversify your income channels, the better off you're going to be. Now, a traditional employee, professionally, most of their work is being done with that one prime employer, right? So that's one income channel.

And there's doctors that do side work. They can do 1099 side hustles. Like I said, 40%, 50% of doctors will do that. And so you can have those. That's a good example of just professional income diversification, right? In today's world of younger doctors that I talk to all the time, we call this job stacking. The younger doctor, the younger population call that job stacking. And in today's world of job stacking is really cool, John, because Kate, for you and I, we grew up in this mentality of like, you work for one part, one employer, one job, one income. You're kind of, we're all in, in one place.

And that's just how you did it. And there's a lot of loyalty involved in a lot of these things because they are intertwined in that. But younger doctors don't have that same amount of loyalty. They're smartly, they don't have as much loyalty. They think about lifestyle. So what they do, their end point is not just setting down in a community and working a job for 40 years. Okay. Their goal is a certain lifestyle that they're going to then do the backwards math of saying, what number of jobs that I need to take on that will give me the lifestyle that I want to live and the income that I want to have to connect the dots to that process.

So younger doctors are not uncommon for them to not have a 1.0 full-time job with somebody. It's for them to take on a 0.5, a 0.6, a 0.7 full-time equivalent, and then take the extra time they have and stack in other professional income or non-professional income sources. So they can use their time wisely to create income channels that are not reliant on one big source, but reliant on multiple sources. That allows them to then pick and choose the levers moving forward of how they want to increase or decrease when depending on how it's going to still meet the lifestyle they desire.

Okay. So that's called job stacking and younger doctors will get that. And they are doing that more and more. I don't have to remind your listeners this, that more than, it's actually a little bit more than half of doctors now in training are women as opposed to men, and women in medicine, not to say they can't be full-fledged all in. But we see more and more women not wanting to work 1.0 full-time jobs because they've put off having kids and then they're going to start their family. And they do want to sit down in that a little bit more.

So we're seeing a lot more employers offering 0.5, 0.6, 0.7 FTE positions because you have to for the workforce, especially the women, but even for men. So there's a lot of opportunities that exist in the workforce now to do this job stacking. And that all comes back to your concept that you said, multiple income sources.

So now if you roll back to what I did 10 years ago, I developed multiple income sources and income channels out of the work that I had been doing, that was one source. So what I did was I monetized my clinic work. I monetized what I was doing in the hospital. I monetized my call. I monetized my unassigned hospital newborn call, my unassigned obstetrical call, because those are different nuances when you're covering your own practice and when you're covering the hospital's service, so to speak. And so all of those things got monetized.

I monetized my sports medicine work. I've been the local team physician for the high school for years and oversaw athletic trainers. I monetized the nursing homework that I was doing. And then I began to diversify my income channels through things outside of the hospital's control, okay, including real estate, right? So I'm medical office building. Remember you heard me say I started the medical office building and began to receive income related to the medical office building.

And we really just began to diversify other real estate related elements and other income sources that at the end led to about, all said and done, probably 8 to 10 income sources that were all contributing to my household benefit that was beyond just the one that I had when I was traditionally employed. And that diversification is number one, empowering, but number two, it's also a better way to grow your financial footprint and your financial health because you're going to grow more wealth that way.

John: Excellent. Wow. That's a lot.

Dr. Tod Stillson: That's a lot. I know. I know it's a lot. I'm sorry. No, it is.

John: I'm probably going to, we're going to run out of time here in a minute. I do have one more question I want your opinion on, although you may not be an expert because I'm going to ask you about something I don't think you've ever done, but when you do talk to people in one of the options that some physicians have come up with to say, I want to do my practice in a completely different way. So I'm going to do some kind of cash only practice.

I'm going to do a DPC. I'm going to do this, that, do you have an opinion about just the pros and cons of that model versus doing what you're describing? Is there such a thing as a combination? I don't know.

Dr. Tod Stillson: Well, they're kind of, anything's possible nowadays. So I can say that it'd be tough because of the non-compete part to do a combination. But here's what I would say is number one, employment light is hybrid. So it's like having your foot in both doors, like a private practice and a hospital employee altogether. So it's a hybrid model, if you will.

And I found there to be some great strength and benefit for that. I can see though, that there is great, one of my best friends and my former practice partners here in my local community has a direct primary care model in our local community. So when all that went down to over a decade ago, he left, he went to work for basically a bank, became their little contracted family doctor in the bank, big bank. Okay.

John: Corporate medicine, huh?

Dr. Tod Stillson: Yeah. Corporate med. He went and did a little corporate medicine in a different way, but he got away from the thumb of the hospital. And then he eventually came back into the community and started a direct primary care practice. And he's been wildly successful at that. And I know he's a good friend. I talk to him regularly and I support everything he's doing, even though you kind of, in one level, we might be, "competing" with one another. We're not. But I love that model.

I think for patients, it's a tremendous winner. I think for doctors, it's a tremendous winner. I think that there's huge amount of space and opportunity for direct primary care and kind of going, I call it going off the grid medicine where you're just doing cash only. And I think this is a great place for that. It's not going to be the right thing for every doctor, but it fits into this idea of what I, and it's really what I encourage doctors to think about is micro corporations. So back in the day, John, we would think about medicine fit into one or two boxes, A, private practice.

You ran a business, you had HR, employees, lab, building, a lot of things about running a business versus the other end of the spectrum, being an employee where they ran the business and they just gave you a paycheck. I mean, and that was the two models that have existed for about 20 to 30 years, mostly.

Now we're seeing this growing space of cash only practices. Fantastic. Love to see that. Micro corporations, which is what in some regards what I did. I mean, I'm a little small corporation who has, well, two employees, myself, my wife's my bookkeeper. So there's some reasons that we benefit from having her being a bookkeeper in that. But really only person I have to manage is myself. So that's a micro corporation, and really direct primary care is oftentimes similar version of that, right?

A direct primary care clinic might have their own building. But there's usually going to be one doctor, maybe a nurse, maybe a receptionist, it's very lean. It's that almost again, lean versions of private practice is what direct primary care is in some regards. But I'd also say in this world that we're in, John, for doctors, there's also, and this is one of the courses I teach and people can get on my website to check it out. It's called the practice without walls, how to create a practice without walls, because that's the emerging space that a lot of doctors are inspired to do. And that is exactly what I have done.

Incorporate yourself and then contract out your professional services to anywhere in the world who virtually needs your professional services. So telehealth would be a classic example of that. And so, you can be doing telehealth and while you're living in California here in the Midwest, right, you can do that from anywhere you want in the world. And this practice without walls concept is just growing significantly. Think about Hims & Hers and there's doctors behind the scenes who are filling those prescriptions. Has to be a doctor behind the scenes, right?

John: Yes, exactly.

Dr. Tod Stillson: And so those doctors are working virtually somewhat in a telehealth model, doing that, easy money, easy work for them, so to speak. All right. So there are all sorts of ways that doctors can do location independent work. You had mentioned, I think even before we got online here, that you're still an administrator with the urgent care company that you've been working with. So that to a large extent, location independent work, right? So you don't have to be there. You can do that from your home. That's your professional work, both clinical and non-clinical that doctors can do a whole lot of that.

There's legal work, there's administrative work, just a massive amount of things that doctors can do that isn't just in that traditional private practice model. Okay. So the world is our oyster. There's a lot of options and I like to just inspire and encourage doctors to look at all options rather than just blindly following the herd into traditional employment and saying, this is my lot in life. Because quite honestly, that's a miserable lot to be in nowadays.

John: For sure. For sure. Well, I think you mentioned earlier, we're going to end in a minute here, but I think you mentioned your son is in training. Has he figured out what he's going to land in when he's all done?

Dr. Tod Stillson: Oh, I literally just talked to him today and I said, "John, have you figured out yet what you want to do?" And he loves medicine, and he gets that from his dad. I love medicine. In a family medicine, there's just so many options, right? So he's still trying to figure out how he wants to land the plane, whether he wants to do direct primary care, he might do some emergency medicine too. Even today he's like, "Dad, I might just take a year. We might go out to California." Because his wife's from Alabama and they're having their first child. They're going to end up in Alabama. Let me just put it that way. I know that.

But he's like, "We might take a year when it's easy to travel and go out to California, go somewhere we want to be and just work." Again, he's a good example, creating the lifestyle that you want and then working backwards to do whatever work supports that work. And in family medicine, John, you and I know, you can go a thousand different directions when it comes to the work you want to do.

And so he's got options. I don't know where he's going to land and what he's going to do, but I can tell you this much, he's going to be a great doctor. He's a great young man. I love him. I have five children. I love all five of my children, but he's going to be a good young doctor. A lot of the things I teach, I've shared with him one-on-one and he gets it. And so he's well-equipped. He's already started his own corporation. He's using it for moonlighting while he is in residency.

And so he's doing, like I told you, he's doing what I would have told my younger self to do so that he can thrive in the marketplace. And I really have a, in fact, one of the free eBooks that I have online is 20 reasons every resident should start a corporation during their residency. I feel strongly that if a resident can enter the marketplace by saying to the marketplace, I'm a business, I'm a micro corporation, and I want to be identified as a micro corporation, not as a traditional employee, when they enter the marketplace, that's the key spot because once you get started, even 3 to 5 or 10 years in, just because of the forces of physics, it's hard to make a change.

Okay. It's true. But if you can start out at the beginning by understanding and empowering yourself in that way, you'll likely stay in that space and really learn from it.

John: Okay. Well, I think that if your son was already in practice, the advice you just gave would be just as good. And the reason I say that is because listeners, that's your advice. Look at these things and choose an option and check it out and see if you can make things better for yourself. Tell us again, the website, the name of the book, where we can get all that stuff before we let you go.

Dr. Tod Stillson: So simplimd.com, S-I-M-P-L-I-M-D.com. And my book is Doctor Incorporated: Stop the Insanity of Traditional Employment and Preserve Your Professional Autonomy. You can get that on Amazon. I have lots of free and paid resources on my website. Listen, John, this is my passion project. I retired after 30 years in the clinic and I'm doing this as a passion project, as well as a very novel telehealth business I'm going to be getting off the ground in the next three months that's going to be really cool for doctors.

Think of Hims & Hers in the form of acute infections for the world to be treated in. As a family doctor, we're experts in acute infectious treatment, right? So I'm starting a site to work on that. But I love medicine. I love our tribe in medicine. And my passion and my retirement is semi-retirement, I would call it, my wife would agree, is to help our tribe and help our world be a better place than it currently exists.

And the system is rigged and broken right now. We've got to make changes. And I'm going to keep shouting it from the mountaintops. There are alternatives. There's a better place for us to land. And I want to see us all end up in win-win relationships.

John: Bravo. I'm glad to hear that. And I think if we have more people like you pushing it and sharing and educating, we'll get there eventually. So thanks, Tod, for being here today. I really appreciate it. I've learned a lot. And I think the listeners have too.

Dr. Tod Stillson: And John, thank you for your seven years plus of doing this show and really making a difference in the world. I realize sometimes it feels like, kind of feel like you're in an echo chamber sometime. But the reality is you're making a difference one person at a time. And it's a great effort that you're making. And I appreciate you inviting me to be a part of this. It's a kind of join arms to help people.

John: Yeah. Well, I appreciate that. Thanks a lot. Bye now.

Dr. Tod Stillson: Bye-bye.

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The post More On The Benefits of a Professional Corporation appeared first on NonClinical Physicians.

In this podcast episode, Dr. Tod Stillson describes how to win as a micro-corporation. For the past 10 years, Tod has been working under a professional services contract, rather than as a direct employee, providing him with greater autonomy and income.

Dr. Stillson shares his journey from a traditionally employed physician to an independent contractor. In this revealing interview, Tod introduces the concept of employment light and explains how doctors can negotiate better contracts with their current employers.

Our Sponsor

We're proud to have the University of Tennessee Physician Executive MBA Program, offered by the Haslam College of Business, as the sponsor of this podcast.

The UT PEMBA is the longest-running, and most highly respected physician-only MBA in the country. It has over 700 graduates. And, the program only takes one year to complete. 

By joining the UT Physician Executive MBA, you will develop the business and management skills you need to find a career you love. To learn more, contact Dr. Kate Atchley’s office at (865) 974-6526 or go to nonclinicalphysicians.com/physicianmba.

For Podcast Listeners

• John hosts a short Weekly Q&A Session on any topic related to physician careers and leadership. Each discussion is posted for you to review and apply. Sometimes all it takes is one insight to take you to the next level of your career. Check out the Weekly Q&A and join us for only $5.00 a month.
• If you want access to dozens of lessons dedicated to nonclinical and unconventional clinical careers, you should join the Nonclinical Career Academy MemberClub. For a small monthly fee, you can access the Weekly Q&A Sessions AND as many lessons and courses as you wish. Click the link to check it out, and use the Coupon Code “FIRSTMONTHFIVE” to get your first month for only $5.00.
• The 2024 Nonclinical Summit is over. But you can access all the fantastic lectures from our nationally recognized speakers, including Dr. Dike Drummond, Dr. Nneka Unachukwu, Dr. Gretchen Green, and Dr. Mike Woo-Ming. Go to Nonclinical Summit and enter Coupon Code “30-OFF” for a $30 discount.

The Rise of Corporate Medicine and Its Impact on Physicians

Corporate control of healthcare has led to decreased autonomy and increased burnout among physicians. Tod describes how arbitrary compensation caps and a lack of understanding from administrators have contributed to this problem.

He emphasizes the need for doctors to stand up for themselves and take control of their professional lives. And he describes the simple change he made to accomplish that goal.

Empowering Physicians to Win as a Micro-Corporation

Recognizing the lack of business education in medical training, Dr. Stillson created SimpliMD, a resource for doctors to improve their business acumen. He emphasizes the importance of understanding:

• The true value doctors bring to healthcare systems, including downstream revenue,
• How to negotiate fair compensation based on productivity, and,
• The power of business knowledge in preserving professional and personal autonomy.

Summary

In Part 1 of this two-part episode, Dr. Tod Stillson offers valuable insights for physicians looking to regain control of their careers and achieve a better work-life balance. Dr. Stillson's experience and resources provide a roadmap for doctors to navigate the complex world of healthcare employment and find success on their own terms.

Part 2 of this conversation follows in the next episode of the Physician Nonclinical Careers Podcast.

Links for today's episode:

• Dr. Tod Stillson's Website SimpliMD.com
• Free Subscription: Subscribe to the SimpliMD Blog.
• Dr. Tod Stillson's Book: Doctor Incorporated: Stop the Insanity of Traditional Employment and Preserve Your Professional Autonomy
• Employment Lite: Check out our Employment Lite landing page on why this hybrid model of employment and private practice is so appealing to many doctors.
• Free E-Books: Choose from a large menu of free E-Books that support your micro-business journey as a self-employed doctor.
• Professional Business Network: Our vetted and preferred network of small business professionals and resources that will support your professional micro-corporation journey.
• How to Save Healthcare, Satisfy Patients, and Fix Physician Burnout – 256
• Check out the 2024 Nonclinical Career Summit to learn about MORE unconventional career options.

Paid Resources from SimpliMD:

• $199 Course: Creating A Practice Without Walls.
• $99 Consultation: 1:1 Micro-Business Consultation.
• $500 Micro-Corporation Start: A Business Consultation + Connection to Legal Professionals to Start Your Professional Micro-Corporation.
• $99 ($10 for residents) SimpliMD Membership: Join our community of self-employed doctors and receive exclusive perks for members only
• $2000 SimpliMD Coaching: 1:1 holistic coaching with a small business focus.

Podcast Editing & Production Services are provided by Oscar Hamilton

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Today's PNC Podcast Transcript

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Transcription PNC Podcast Episode 374

Now Every Doctor Can Win As a Micro-Corporation

- Interview with Dr. Tod Stillson

John: All right, NonClinical nation. I think today's interview might potentially change your lives. Our guest today is going to explain how he was able to work in a fulfilling medical practice as a pseudo-employee while maintaining his professional autonomy and earning a much higher income. That seems like nirvana to me. So let's welcome Dr. Tod Stillson to the podcast. Hi, Tod.

Dr. Tod Stillson: Hey, John. It's great to be with you and I'm excited to share my journey with your listeners.

John: Yeah, I'm excited to hear this story from the horse's mouth, so to say. I mean, I've read about you and looked at some of the things you've done online, and this just sounds like an exciting option for some of the people out there that are unhappy in their practices.

Dr. Tod Stillson: It is one of many options that exist, and I tell you the beautiful thing about the marketplace today is although corporations strongly control it, there are lots of new developments happening for doctors to regain their autonomy and not feel like they have to end up as a corporate employee, or really what I call a high-paid factory worker, okay?

John: Yeah, that's definitely what it feels like. I mean, that's what I hear constantly. In lack of autonomy and overwork, they don't understand what a physician does.

Dr. Tod Stillson: Oh, yeah, 100%.

John: It's going to lead to the demise of the profession unless we do something.

Dr. Tod Stillson: John, you and I trained at similar times and have similar experiences as family doctors, and you're exactly right. It's the undermining of the professionalization of our great work as doctors that all doctors across the country do, but it has been eroded. I'm a fan for doctors standing up and saying, that's enough. Let's take control of this ourselves.

John: Awesome. Yeah. Well, tell us a little bit about your background and the mission that you have to educate physicians on how you have found a way to make things better, even if you're, "employed by a hospital system."

Dr. Tod Stillson: Yeah, and I'll tell you the short story, and then we can get into more details later if you want, but I grew up in the Midwest and did my training in Indiana and went out to Virginia to do my residency in family medicine as well as surgical obstetrics. Came back to Indiana and worked here basically in a primary care clinic in rural Indiana for nearly 30 years. And when I came back to this area to begin working, there was the opportunity to work as an employee of a hospital and really just receive a paycheck for it.

And this is way back in the day when it felt like everybody was in a win-win relationship, right? Where you were given a fair compensation. They still gave you a lot of autonomy in the practice. And as long as you know your downstream was good and everybody's working well, everybody wins. And it was very somewhat simple, but really great. Over time, though, as you know, the corporization of America really came into play. And even our little rural hospital began to lose its autonomy to a larger health system that began to take more control and try and crank out more money and in the process remove more and more.

It's the same script that we've heard from doctors all over the country, right? This just happens and happens and happens. And over time, for me, what happened was because I was a full-service family doctor, meaning I did inpatient care, newborn care, OB care, surgical OB, I really did everything in the hospital, okay? We were busy. I mean, in a rural place, any of those doctors out there that work in rural places you know back in the day, especially, you could be very, very busy. Consequently, I earned a lot of RVUs.

And I mean, I really cranked out a lot of money, if you will, and was paid fairly for it at the time for the hospital myself. They really still came out ahead because of the downstream, okay? But nonetheless, the hospital system that owned them came in and began looking at some of our rural family doctors' pay compared to the city people that were working. And they're like you guys are making a lot more money, and that just doesn't seem right. We're going to kind of level the playing field and we're going to put a ceiling on how much you can earn. Arbitrarily.

John: It sounds like my CFO when I was CMO of the hospital, you know?

Dr. Tod Stillson: Okay. Yeah, makes sense to them, right? Put a ceiling on this. How could a family doctor make that much money, right? And so, I'm like, all of us are like, "Wait a second, what are you talking about? We work hard for our community and for the sake of our hospital, and you want to just give us a pay cut and expect us to go, 'Oh, thank you very much. That's okay.'" So, the long and short of it is, as all these things kind of get dragged out, as they often do, our group of about eight doctors, we saw five of them leave, basically, over a year's time. They're like, "I'm not staying around for this." This left about three of us holding the balls up in the air, meaning we were working harder and doing more work, but still the ceiling loomed.

And eventually, we were just like, what are we going to do? Do we want to go out into private practice together here? Because none of us wanted to move. Do we want to just say, okay, thank you very much. I'll accept this contract or something else. I was wise enough to know, like most doctors are, I was business illiterate and also relatively financially illiterate. So one of the greatest moves I've made in my life was I reached out to some business consultants in healthcare and said, "Hey, this is the situation. What would you recommend to me to do?" And in the process, they unfolded this employment light concept to me that was newer and just coming out and people were using it in the marketplace.

And they proposed that model to me to take back to the institution I was working for. And lo and behold, because I was in a bit of a position of power, because I had a lot of patients, but number two, fortunately, my contract did not have a non-compete in it. And so, they knew that I had some power to take my 5,000 plus patients to any healthcare company that wanted a contract with me. And so, they were somewhat incentivized in that moment in time to say, "That's a good thought to make you an independent contractor that looks like you're an employee still, but really you're an independent contractor." And that's what employment light is.

And they agreed to that while I was in it and while the moment was in my favor, my business consultants also recommended you might consider purchasing a medical office building and having them lease it from you, wisely said and wisely done, they agreed to that. And so, and then really beyond that, I then negotiated an employment light agreement that is basically productivity-based, so compensation-based. If you remember, they wanted to have a ceiling for that productivity. But that was, here's the seat, that was for their traditional employees, their traditional employees they control, right?

Independent contractors, they have the freedom and liberty to form individual contracts. And so, I could then say, this is what the MGMA data is for what a family doctor in a rural area is doing. This is what I should be paid as work RVUs for that. And they agreed to it because they weren't forced to comply with the corporate employee model. Now, I have an individual one-on-one contract that quite honestly, John, I wasn't asking to be paid more than I was worth. I was just being asked, I was asking to be paid for what I was worth.

And they agreed to all that. And so, the long and short of that was the rest is history. That was over a decade ago. I've loved every minute of that decision. And that's led me to SimpliMD because that experience and my wonderful experience of seeing how that revitalized my professional autonomy is the message I have to doctors all over the country. This is possible. You can do this. It's not visible. It's not seen. Employers are not telling people about it, but it's possible. And that's the story I have.

John: That's awesome. Let me ask you a couple of questions that pop into my mind. And as I said as a CMO, I was sometimes, actually, I was doing a lot of the negotiating for contracts. And that was the thing, the contracts need to be somewhat consistent.

Dr. Tod Stillson: Sure they do.

John: But I think I've heard you speak in other settings about sometimes even given that if you're really producing a lot of RVUs because you're doing certain things that maybe the other doctors aren't, they want to put that cap on what you mentioned earlier.

Dr. Tod Stillson: That's correct.

John: So I guess my two questions, did you still somehow have any kind of a cap that affected you once you had made this change number one? And how do you avoid burnout? Because there's still the incentive, I think, is to work your tail off in a way. Maybe that's two questions.

Dr. Tod Stillson: That's a fair question. Spoken like a true doctor about the burnout side. So number one, I had no ceiling in it. And so I negotiated that in the contract, no ceiling. And in fact, I normally, and it's called the professional services agreement. You know that from being a CMO. By the way, for your listeners, professional service agreements are traditionally where locums are seated. Okay. If you want to think of it in a simple way, that's often what locums do, that's contracted labor, and that's often called the professional services agreement.

Employment light that I'm talking about, in my experience, is also a services agreement. So that's the big box that it goes into. And in my professional services agreement, it's a three-year agreement that renews. But we renegotiate at the end of every three years. And I had an elevator for my work RVUs in it as well. So I didn't just get paid a dollar value per work RVU per year. Each year that went up. Okay. And so because, right, because we have issues like we're all experiencing right now, inflation, right? So numbers tend to rise. And if you keep it static, you're going to end up on the backside of that. And a lot of physicians don't understand how that works.

So anyhow, I had that built into mine and there was no ceiling, and it was just fair compensation for the work that I was doing. Now, I will tell you this much, the moment that I turned that on and began doing the same number of work RVUs I'd been doing the prior year, I made a couple hundred thousand dollars more. I mean, literally apples, apples, not doing more work, not doing anything more, literally just being paid fairly, it led to a couple hundred thousand dollars difference in pay annually.

Now, to answer your second question though is, is there some challenges with that that you get into when it comes to, do you sometimes incentivize yourself to work harder than you need to, right? And I think any self-employed doctor, especially if you've ever been in private practice or ran your own practice in any way will ask themselves that question. And you have to guard yourself from going into that rabbit hole.

All right. Do the work you enjoy, do it at a pace you enjoy, do to the rhythm you enjoy, meet the expected requirements that that pseudo employer has for you, if you will, at least be a mid-level performer, if you will. And let it fall from there. I took five weeks of vacation every year. Okay. And by the way, in the model that I worked in, today's where people always talk about pay time off, right? PTO, all that business. Nope. In my model, when I was working, I got paid.

If I wasn't working, I didn't get paid. And I know what that opportunity cost was for me. If I took a week off, it was going to cost me about $14,000 of income. Just that's what it was. But you know what, for my own sense of well-being and my own sense of sustainability in it, it was very important to take that time off because indeed, I was a high-performing doctor, did a lot of obstetrics and was available a lot. But that was a rhythm and pace that I enjoyed. So your listeners, if you do get engaged in a contract like this, you definitely want to guard yourself from overworking because you're sort of incentivized by that carrot. Find that sweet spot, so to speak.

John: I'm going to have a series of questions here now to put you on the spot. But because I'm going to do that, I want to early in this game here, remind our listeners that you do teach other people how to do this in a variety of ways. And so tell us about, before I get into my laundry list, SimpliMD and everything you're doing to help physicians learn more about this.

Dr. Tod Stillson: Yeah, I'm glad to do that, John. One of the fundamental problems in my story that you heard was I had business illiteracy. Most of us go through our medical training and unfortunately, there's not a lot of financial or business literacy that exists, right? Now, we have a lot of organizations that have been populated out there for doctors to become financially literate, and it's for doctors, things like White Coat Investor, et cetera, that are really nice resources that are filling some gaps that exist in helping physicians. And I love that that's happening.

The reality, though, is there's not a lot of business or micro-business resources like that for doctors. And so I chose to develop SimpliMD as a micro-business competency website that would help doctors flourish and thrive by understanding their business powers and really understanding that doctors are a business individually. And so I have a whole bunch of resources and assets from courses, to consultations, to coaching, to free eBooks that can be found at simplimd.com, and that's spelled S-I-M-P-L-I-M-D.com. And so your listeners are more than welcome to go to that, take a look at the various products that exist.

They can look at the header and find everything. I love helping doctors. I just love helping them learn from what I've discovered and learning how to thrive through the preservation of their professional and personal autonomy. So it's a really powerful idea. And I can tell you at SimpliMD, I don't want to go too far around this rabbit hole, but pretty much the system is rigged against doctors. Yeah, I don't know if you know this yet or not, okay?

John: Yeah, it is, pretty much.

Dr. Tod Stillson: Systems rigged against doctors, okay? And it's because the corporatization of medicine has really stolen that autonomy we have. And then they funnel us all into W-2 workers, right? And then the federal government, who's the other force at play here, they love hiring doctors, hiring taxpayers like doctors who are W-2 employees, because they got no place to turn, right? And that we literally are the targets that they are looking at and saying, oh, you guys are the ones that make a lot of money. We're going to be happy to take all that from you as a W-2 earner.

And so there's not a doctor I don't talk to that doesn't say taxes are killing me. They're horrible. So whether it be burnout or taxes, doctors are having all of this erode that deep sense of when you and I became doctors. We're like, you know what? I don't need to be a gazillionaire, but I certainly look forward to the good life of a doctor, where I have some professional autonomy, where I have some personal autonomy, where I can make a good living and not feel like I'm being picked apart day by day. That's what doctors are looking for.

In today's world, there's so many forces that push back against them. And what SimpliMD is about, and some of the work you're doing I know as well, John, is all about re-empowering doctors in the marketplace to say you don't have to give into those two things. And there is a different path and a different space you can go into. That's what I talk about at SimpliMD.

John: A couple of things I wanted to say. First of all, reflecting again back to the day when I was working at the hospital as an executive the CMO, well, not CMO, the CFO, the CEO, the COO, they're going to want to get out as much as they can from their physicians. They want them to be productive. They want a bottom line. They're driven by that. And they actually, they really do not understand a physician's life. I mean, I actually had to do a lecture for the team explaining to them that when we go home at five o'clock, if we go home at 5:00, that's not the end of our day.

Dr. Tod Stillson: That's correct.

John: We could be busy doing records and answering phone calls, being on call, coming back, going to the nursing home, so many other things. And they just, they don't get it.

Dr. Tod Stillson: No, they don't.

John: So when you were talking about that, it really rang true for me.

Dr. Tod Stillson: Yeah. So there's two things to keep in mind and you understand this as a CMO. Number one, what the work you do in the clinic or face-to-face with patients, your professional services, so to speak, that's just a little, that's a small part of the bucket of what that hospital system is really looking at. They're really looking at the downstream revenue of what your work produces and it's the churn. In business world, we call that the churn, right? The churn of what you produce for them and every doctor who's in an employee situation, you need to know what your churn is. That is exactly what the real value is to your health system to them. And that is that downstream revenue.

Spoiler alert, that's usually worth anywhere from $2 to $5 million, depending on your specialty per doctor. Now translate that $2 to $5 million churn that you're creating for them, not just seeing patients in the clinic, but the whole churn and they're micromanaging every click of the mouse that you have in that clinic space and all the while are making a whole bunch of money on that churn that exists for you downstream. That's what burns out doctors. And that's where you begin to feel undervalued, uncared for, and misunderstood.

So understanding that you do have a downstream revenue beyond what you're doing in the clinic is an important part of the business model that when you become an employee, you're engaged in. And you're exactly right. The administrators don't fully respect and understand what it's like to live under that microscope that you are churning out for them and the difficulties and challenges of it, because they're really looking at you as a number on the spreadsheet.

You're an impersonal number on the spreadsheet. And here's how it looks. Physician labor, expense, period. Okay. That's your salary plus your benefits and anything else that you're doing to create money, to make the system pay for you. Okay? And then the, what you're doing in the clinic plus the downstream revenue. And that's the equation. And you need to understand the dynamics of how those things interplay and the power you have as a doctor to stand up for yourself and say, wait a second, you're undervaluing me and you're underpaying me.

John: Yeah. Now, the other thing I wanted to mention before we move on to my next question is that I did look thoroughly at your website and I felt like I was in a YouTube thing because, not because there's all videos, really, it's a lot of blogs, but the titles and the questions you're answering there are so damn interesting. You know, it's like, damn, I wish I knew that 10 years ago. Damn, I wish I knew that when I was in practice. So I mean, there's a ton of free information and it really gets to all these issues and it addresses maybe some of the questions I'm going to continue to ask you here in a minute, but I really recommend people go and check that out.

Dr. Tod Stillson: And I appreciate that, John. And I will say, I'm so thankful you said that, because to be honest, I created that website and that business with just that in mind. What would my younger self like to know and what can I communicate and share with the rest of my physician tribe that the younger version of myself, now I'm 30 years into practice and so forth, that I wish I would have known.

And part of that, John, and I really write about this in my book, Doctor Incorporated: Stop the Insanity of Traditional Employment and Preserve Your Professional Autonomy. That book was written, a little bit of my website was written with my son in mind. He's currently a third year family medicine resident in Dallas, Fort Worth with John Paul Smith Residency Program. I just was thinking, and it's really what inspired all of those, what's the best advice I can give my son to thrive in the marketplace? And all of that really somewhat began to inspire the whole work that I did with the book, SimpliMD. So intentionally, you're right. That's exactly for the viewpoint that I write those, getting those resources that can make their life better, if I would have known that 10 years ago or earlier.

John: All right. I'm glad you did it.

Dr. Tod Stillson: Yeah, thanks.

John: That's very interesting. And even though I'm never going to be practicing again, once I fully retire. Okay, here's a question. You're in the setting as a physician of being employed, you're subject to all these issues, you're burned out or what have you. I can imagine that it's not necessarily an easy conversation to say, okay, guys, I don't want you to get worried that I want to leave. I don't want to leave, but I don't want to be employed by you anymore. And I don't want to go into private practice. So I have this idea. So you help people work through that I think.

Dr. Tod Stillson: I have.

John: How do you approach that?

Dr. Tod Stillson: So there's a couple of things about it. This is important for your listeners to know. Number one, a professional services agreement and employment light, virtually every hospital knows about it. And here's why they know about it. That's because this is the pathway and the bridge they use to bring private practice doctors into their safe harbor. This is the same pathway they use. They use it virtually every year, all the time. And it's that bridge, but they want to make it a one-way bridge. They kind of want to go, well, this is what we do to engage private practice doctors to come in and become employed doctors. And this is the pathway for it.

But if you're already employed with them, it's like they've got this big kind of bar in front of them and go, you can't go the other direction with this. The reality is that they know about his existence, but it's in what I call the hidden drawer. Let me just use a real Midwestern analogy with you. I like going to the dairy queen. We've got a great dairy queen in our little community. And the day went that my wife and I went to the dairy queen and we both are going to order peanut buster parfaits. And so I order peanut buster buffet with the fudge and all that stuff was really good.

And my wife got up and she said, "I want the peanut buster parfait, but I want peanut sauce substituted for the chocolate." Okay. And I looked at her, I'm like, "Well, that's not on the menu." And she's like, "Oh, but it's on the secret menu. You have to ask for it. And as soon as she said it, they just like, "Okay, we can do it." Well, secret menus exist in all restaurants just as an FYI. Okay. But number two, secret menus exist for all employment contracts.

And the first drawer that they're going to pull out for you is the boiler plate traditional employment contract for every doctor. That's what they're going to go first. And they're going to make you think that is your option. And you have to have enough savvy to say, number one, you know there's some other contracts in your drawer there that we could also talk about. And my preference is to be considered an independent contractor, not an employee. So you have to have the business awareness and your own self-awareness to say that.

Now, if you're a doctor who's been traditionally employed and then your contract's coming up for renewal, or you want to have a conversation with your CMO, again, you got to have the awareness that this is one of the contracts that you would potentially talk about transitioning to. You're like, and here's how I coach doctors to say it. And this is exactly how I said it to my CMO.

I said, "Look, I like wearing our team jersey. I'm all for wearing our team jersey. I want to see our organization succeed, but I want to do it in a little bit different way than what we've been doing it before as a traditional employee. And I think we can do this in a win-win relationship where I'm an independent contractor that still does all the same work, still produces all the same downstream, still gets all the fair compensation from you. But what I gain from that, Mr. CMO, is A, a little more professional autonomy, and then B, an amazing amount of tax efficiency. I have now added a whole bunch of tax tools to my kit that I no longer am targeted as a just a sole W-2 employee. Now I can save 10% to 15% of my income, which for a doctor is a lot of income annually, in that model.

So guess what, Mr. CMO? I want to see you guys win. I want to see me win, and we can do this in a cost-neutral way so that everybody wins. How about it? Let's have a conversation, talk about this, and let's pull that secret menu contract out of your drawer, and let's talk through this." And honestly, it's that simple. Now, there's a couple of caveats here I want to bring forth to your listeners, John.

Number one, to be considered an independent contractor, you can't have that hospital work that you're doing as your sole contract, okay? Because the IRS is going to look at the hospital as like, hey, you're just trying to avoid FICA tax by employing this person as a contractor rather than as an employee, and they get a lot of penalties, and that's where hospitals get really uptight about these things, right? So they're like, wWell, we can't do that because we could get in trouble from the feds," and dah, dah, dah, dah, dah.

So it's very simple, right? How many doctors do you know that don't do some side hustle of some type? I mean, gosh, the studies show 40% to 50% of doctors do. I mean, it's very common. But to be considered an independent contractor, you'd want to have that primary contract and then a job stack, a secondary work that you do as an independent contractor. It could be nursing home assistant director.

It could be taking call. It could be doing telehealth. It could be, in today's world where there's physician jobs that are location independent, like gobs of them, there's all sorts of things you can do. And it's really not so much about the amount of money that you're making in those independent positions. It's that you're doing it. So in other words, you can demonstrate to the IRS and to the employer that you indeed are doing more than one job, okay?

That's the definition of an independent contractor, all right, you're doing more than one job. So that's an important caveat, but it all begins with you going to your superior and saying, "I'm interested in a win-win conversation, okay? This is not me against you. This is not me getting away from you. This is about us doing this together.

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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.

The information presented on this blog and related podcast is for entertainment and/or informational purposes only. I do not provide 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 counselor, or other professional before making any major decisions about your career. 

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The post Now Every Doctor Can Win As a Micro-Corporation appeared first on NonClinical Physicians.

Today we provide an inspiring story and learn how to become an IME (Independent Medical Examiner) from an expert orthopedic surgeon in this classic episode from 2021.

Dr. Emily Woolcock is an internationally recognized speaker, best-selling author, mentor, and consultant. She is among the country’s most well-known orthopedic surgeons. Dr. Woolcock is board-certified by the American Board of Orthopedic Surgery and the American Board of Independent Medical Examiners.

Our Sponsor

We're proud to have the University of Tennessee Physician Executive MBA Program, offered by the Haslam College of Business, as the sponsor of this podcast.

The UT PEMBA is the longest-running, and most highly respected physician-only MBA in the country. It has over 700 graduates. And, the program only takes one year to complete. 

By joining the UT Physician Executive MBA, you will develop the business and management skills you need to find a career you love. To learn more, contact Dr. Kate Atchley’s office at (865) 974-6526 or go to nonclinicalphysicians.com/physicianmba.

For Podcast Listeners

• John hosts a short Weekly Q&A Session addressing any topic related to physician careers and leadership. Each discussion is now posted for you to review and apply. Sometimes all it takes is one insight to take you to the next level of your career. Check out the Weekly Q&A and join us for only $5.00 per month.
• If you want access to dozens of lessons dedicated to nonclinical and unconventional clinical careers, you should join the Nonclinical Career Academy MemberClub. For a small monthly fee, you can access the Weekly Q&A Sessions AND as many lessons and courses as you wish. Click the link to check it out, and use the Coupon Code “FIRSTMONTHFIVE” to get your first month for only $5.00.
• The 2024 Nonclinical Summit is over. But you can access all the fantastic lectures from our nationally recognized speakers, including Dr. Dike Drummond, Dr. Nneka Unachukwu, Dr. Gretchen Green, and Dr. Mike Woo-Ming. Go to Nonclinical Summit and enter Coupon Code “30-OFF” for a $30 discount.

Dr. Woolcock Begins Doing IMEs

Dr. Woolcock founded businesses in Georgia, Florida, and Maryland. They include the Orthopedic and Joint Replacement Institute, the Accident Rehabilitation Center, and National Orthopedic Consultants. In 2016 she established the IME Academy. Through the Academy, she teaches students to perform defensible, literature-based independent medical examinations.

Emily is passionate about helping other physicians. So she helps them break free from the work/life balance issues she experienced early in her career. As a wife and mother, she understands the struggles physicians and other healthcare professionals face. 

When she first began experiencing burnout, she found that a skill she learned in residency could solve her problem. She began performing highly compensated independent medical exams. By doing IME consulting and delegating nonclinical work to team members she cut back on her office and operating room commitments.

How to Become an IME

Emily is a very creative and dedicated physician. She balances clinical work, performing IMEs, writing books, and mentoring dozens of young people. She is busy. Yet, she loves her work. And she is not burned out. 

This is the first time I had a guest with the expertise to explain how to become an IME. It is similar to what an expert witness does. But it also involves examining patients, which some of you might find more compelling as a side job.

Like expert witness work, learning to be an IME pays very well. You generally must continue to practice medicine, at least part-time.

Find out what makes you happy and learn to  integrate that with your vocational calling and you will be a much better, well-rounded person. – Dr. Emily Woolcock

Emily provided inspiration and valuable information. She knows this topic well. If you’re interested in learning to be an IME you can find her course at theimeacademy.com.

Summary

Dr. Emily Woolcock describes her inspirational story. She discovered a way to reduce her work time while producing more income by performing Independent Medical Examinations. In this interview, she explains how you can do the same and improve your work-life balance. 

Links for Today's Episode:

• The IME Academy
• Dr. Emily Woolcock Website
• Dr. Emily Woolcock LinkedIn Page
• My Doctor Looks Like Me, by Emily d. Woolcock, MD (female ver.)
• My Doctor Looks Like Me, by Emily Woolcock, MD (male ver.)
• Mi Doctor Looks Like Me, by Emily Woolcock, MD (Spanish ver.)
• Looks Like Me Books Facebook Page

Download This Episode:

Right Click Here and “Save As” to download this podcast episode to your computer.

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

Today's PNC Podcast Transcript

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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 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.

The information presented on this blog and related podcast is for entertainment and/or informational purposes only. I do not provide 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 counselor, or other professional before making any major decisions about your career. 

The post How to Become an IME: A PNC Classic from 2021 appeared first on NonClinical Physicians.

Interview with Dr. Sharon Hull – 351

In today's episode, Dr. Sharon Hull explains why exploring what matters most is critical to designing your career.

From her early experiences in small-town medicine to her role as a pioneering leader in physician coaching, Dr. Hull's story resonates with professionals seeking greater fulfillment and meaning in their work lives. Today, she empowers listeners to embark on their personal journeys of self-discovery and intentional career design.

Our Show Sponsor

We're proud to have the University of Tennessee Physician Executive MBA Program, offered by the Haslam College of Business, as the sponsor of this podcast.

The UT PEMBA is the longest-running, and most highly respected physician-only MBA in the country. It has over 700 graduates. And, the program only takes one year to complete. 

By joining the UT Physician Executive MBA, you will develop the business and management skills you need to find a career that you love. To find out more, contact Dr. Kate Atchley’s office at (865) 974-6526 or go to nonclinicalphysicians.com/physicianmba.

Our Episode Sponsor

Dr. Debra Blaine is a physician like many of you, and her greatest challenge was fear. The whole concept of leaving clinical medicine was terrifying. But she is so much happier now as a professional writer and a coach. According to Debra, “It’s like someone turned the oxygen back on.”

If fear is part of your struggle, too, she would like to help you push through those emotional barriers to go after the life you really want. Click this link to schedule a free chat.

Or check out her website at allthingswriting.com/resilience-coaching.

Navigating Leadership in Medicine

As a seasoned coach and mentor, Dr. Hull recognizes the importance of leadership development for physicians and other professionals. She discusses the unique challenges physicians face in leadership roles, from communication barriers to institutional politics. Drawing from her coaching experience, Dr. Hull offers practical advice on cultivating essential leadership skills, including effective communication, time management, and strategic decision-making.

Professional Careers by Design

Dr. Hull's forthcoming book, Professional Careers by Design: A Handbook for the Bespoke Life, serves as a roadmap for professionals seeking to design their careers with intentionality and purpose. Through a blend of practical strategies and thought-provoking exercises, the book guides readers through self-discovery and career planning. Dr. Hull emphasizes the importance of aligning career choices with personal values and aspirations, encouraging readers to embrace change and pursue meaningful work that reflects their authentic selves.

Dr. Sharon Hull's Mantra

Start with what matters and then figure out how you can get more of that in your life.

Summary

To connect with Dr. Sharon Hull and explore her insights further, you can visit her website at www.mettasolutions.com. You'll find valuable resources there, including her blog and information about her book, Professional Careers by Design: A Handbook for the Bespoke Life. Additionally, you can follow Dr. Hull on LinkedIn for updates and insights into career transformation and intentional career planning. Whether you're seeking guidance on navigating career transitions or crafting a purpose-driven career path, Dr. Hull's expertise and resources offer invaluable support on your professional journey.

NOTE: Look below for a transcript of today's episode. 

EXCLUSIVE: Get a daily dose of inspiration, information, news, training opportunities, and amusing stories by CLICKING HERE.

Links for Today's Episode:

• Dr. Sharon Hull's Metta Solutions Website
• Dr. Sharon Hull's LinkedIn Page
• Professional Careers by Design: A Handbook for the Bespoke Life
• Dr. Debra Blaine's Coaching Services

Download This Episode:

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Today's PNC Podcast Transcript

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Transcription PNC Podcast Episode 351

Explore What Matters Most and Design Your Professional Career

- Interview with Dr. Sharon Hull

John: One of the things that comes up very often when I'm speaking with physicians who are looking for what to do with the next chapter of their life because they're unfulfilled or unhappy is they have this question, "How do I figure out what I should be doing or find out what my passion is?"

Anyway, they've never done that introspection before and that's why I'm so happy to have today's guest, Dr. Sharon Hull with me today. She's written a book, she's been doing coaching for years and she's addressed this particular problem many times with her clients over the years. With that, let me welcome Dr. Sharon Hull.

Dr. Sharon Hull: Thank you, John. It's a delight to be here. I've been following your work for several years and happy to talk to your audience of people who are trying to figure out how to make peace with this career choice.

John: Yes, and how to make the best of it maybe and continue it, maybe get rid of the bad parts of the particular situation and keep the good parts. Tell us about your background, what you've been up to and then we'll get into my questions and about what you've been doing. So tell us about your journey.

Dr. Sharon Hull: I'm delighted to tell you a bit of my story. I'm a family physician. I tell people by initial training and by my DNA. It was my natural fit when I went through medical school and had a wonderful 30-plus year career in family medicine, most of it in academic medicine but I did start in solo rural private practice near my hometown which was its own wild ride of an experience. People that were my second parents, my best friend and my babysitter as a child helped me paint the trim on my office the night before we opened. That's a classic small town family medicine story.

I had a great career as a physician and I realized that my life was going to need to make some shifts along the way to deal with family needs and for that reason I entered early a career of coaching kind of as a side gig with medicine. Everybody in my medical world and my academic world knew that I was doing it and I figured I would go full-time into it when I retired in my mid-60s. That was my mental plan.

And life happened and in my early 50s I got the opportunity to become a full-time coach within an academic center and build a program for coaching physicians and scientists in that center and had a wonderful time doing it but I found myself in my encore career about a decade before I expected to and I haven't looked back. No regrets about medicine and no regrets about an early transition to an encore. So, that's the short version of my story. I'll answer any questions you have.

John: That was very interesting and listeners, I recommend you look at Sharon's LinkedIn profile because you'll get a fuller picture in some ways. It's not the full story obviously but it just shows the number of transitions that Sharon has navigated. Before we get into my other questions, Sharon, can you just tell me the name of your hometown in Southern Illinois?

Dr. Sharon Hull: I grew up in a little town called Ridgeway which was the popcorn capital of the world as it claimed itself. There were 1,200 people in town and 23 people in my high school graduating class. It was a classic small town experience.

John: Do you have any idea how far away that is from Metropolis? Have you ever heard of that town?

Dr. Sharon Hull: I do. I know exactly where Metropolis is. Are you from Metropolis by the way?

John: I'm not but my wife's family is from there and some of them still live in that area.

Dr. Sharon Hull: I grew up probably about 60 miles from Metropolis, just a little bit north.

John: That's definitely Southern Illinois. It's almost Kentucky.

Dr. Sharon Hull: People think that Illinois is all Chicago and there's a whole bunch of the state left.

John: All right, let's get back to the interview. One of the things I wanted to comment on is it looked like because you're involved with academics and you're doing it with coaching, it looked to me a lot like it was leadership coaching and I think that the part they don't necessarily teach in med school and residency, you have to be some type of leader when you're a physician but it's not always the right type of leader. Any comment on that observation?

Dr. Sharon Hull: I have some comments about it. I don't think we get taught how to be leaders and I think leadership is a profession in and of itself that has a certain skill set that you might have if you're a physician and you might not have. I worked with a lot of physicians who found themselves in leadership roles because of their clinical expertise or their scientific expertise and they didn't know what to do with humans in a nonclinical setting.

Usually I wasn't working with people who were in trouble. I was working with people who were new to leadership roles and trying to build the skills. We focused a lot on communication skills, on time and energy management as a new leader and what I sort of jokingly call the institutional perspective or the politics of the whole thing. That's where I spent most of my time in leadership coaching. It's that perspective taking and communication skills.

John: Yes, as you know physicians are often put in leadership role for a team or a committee but if we work in a corporate environment, it's different, or any kind of big hierarchy. It's a whole different way of interacting with people. A lot of people are focusing more on servant leadership for the last 10 or 20 years and so that means it's not like the military approach, the way medicine used to be. That's an important thing. And you must have been contributing heavily to your organization. I don't think there are that many that were doing that kind of coaching at the time.

Dr. Sharon Hull: We were one of the early institutions. I won't say we were the first but we were among the first to really put in place a program that wasn't about people being in trouble. It was really an investment in mid-career talented people who were rising up the ladder and helping them be successful. It was a lot of fun.

John: Sounds like it would be fun. That was a thing that brought me to you when we connected on LinkedIn a month or two ago. And at the time I was setting this interview up with you I didn't actually realize you were on the verge of releasing your book and it addresses all these issues around leadership and designing one's career. I thought this was definitely something we have to talk about. So tell us what's the name of the book and why did you write it?

Dr. Sharon Hull: I'm happy to do that. The title of the book is Professional Careers by Design: A Handbook for the Bespoke Life. This book is kind of a distillation of about a dozen years of coaching professionals about how to help them make their career what they want and need it to be at that moment. Helping them realize that their needs and wants change over the course of a lifetime and that's okay. It's really kind of a guidebook to a lifelong process of being intentional about your career.

I came to write it because I kept coaching people who were asking these questions. How do I know what I want? What do I do? I've trained to do one thing and I can't imagine not doing it but I can't imagine keeping on this path. And I kept looking for the book that I could have them read and I couldn't find the book that covered what I was covering. And after about eight or nine years I decided I probably was going to just have to write it. And that sounds arrogant and I don't mean it to but I couldn't find anybody who was talking about it the way I was coaching people. So I decided to put that in print and maybe leave it as a guidebook.

John: I'm glad you did and the thing is the book hasn't been released yet as we're recording this but it's coming out very soon.

Dr. Sharon Hull: Launch day is tomorrow, John. April 30th. By the time your podcast goes live it will be live and released. We're going to do a big launch event tomorrow where I'm doing interviews of people about their career journey and we're going to have a lot of fun. By the time your listeners hear this it will be available to the public.

John: Okay, we'll get to how to get the book in a minute but it struck me as I was looking at the index for the book there's so many different areas they think are right on in terms of what we need to learn about it. Probably any professional in a similar situation. I don't know if you'd agree but there's a big group that's a lot like us physicians and that's professional athletes. They work really, really hard for a long time. They get burned out and they face things even more in a compressed way because their careers are usually shorter.

That's what I'm going to ask you about today. Some of the things in the book and you can educate me and our listeners and then go off in any direction you want but just to get things started you know what I hear a lot is that physicians say they're just unhappy. I can't really keep this kind of pace up forever. I'm just overwhelmed. I've experienced the same thing myself and that even if you enjoy medicine there's a certain point as you get older you just can't keep up that pace. You can't be on call and work long hours forever. And so, the question is always what do I do next? How do I find out or figure out what I should go towards rather than running away from something?

Dr. Sharon Hull: I'll respond to that first by saying it is good to go towards something rather than just run away. I think that's a hallmark of the early conversations when I meet with somebody who wants to think about changing careers.

The next things I do because I'm a family physician by training is I try to assess the degree of burnout and the degree of mental health compromise and assuming that people are stable and not in urgency about those things. Then we have a conversation about what matters to you. I remember asking one man in his early 50s that question and said "What matters to you right now?" And this was a kind of a classic stoic man who looked at me and just started crying and it surprised the heck out of him that he cried but when he was able to gather his thoughts he said nobody's asked me what I wanted in 40 years. And I think as professionals, it's not just men it's men and women, and it's not just physicians but as professionals we don't ask ourselves what matters very often.

And so, at the beginning of my book the front section is about discernment and it starts with that question, "What matters most to you at this season of your life?" I think that list changes over our seasons. It changes when you're early in your career when you have young children if you have children, when you have caregiving responsibilities or health issues. That's what I mean when I talk about the seasons of people's lives.

When I give them this exercise and it's the first exercise in the book, make your top 10 list of the things that matter. And I tell people, I quote a dear friend and mentor who's recognized in the book, personal and professional, it's all one life. You have a finite amount of energy. What you do with it's up to you. And so, that's kind of the ground state for the book and then I ask them to make that list of what matters and I tell them the only rule is you have to have some personal and some professional things. And there's no right ratio, just make your list. You can't be wrong it's your list.

I bring people back to talk about that and I ask them what they learned and what surprised them. And almost invariably what surprises them is the top five to seven things are personal they're not professional. For all of us, it's kind of near universal human experience with the exception of people who are very early in their careers or at a very high competitive time in their career. I have a professor who's trying to get tenure and trying to get their grants written or somebody who's trying to get through residency or fellowship. Those people it's mostly professional at the top. But for most of us once we're through that, it's about person and nobody gives us permission to do that conversation in our own heads. I feel like I'm preaching to the choir here, let me be quiet and let you do any follow-up if you want to.

John: Well, I think it's ironic sometimes when I talk to people, for example, someone who's working 60 hours a week they're trying to generate a lot of money so they can donate it or contribute it to some venture to be able to share the income to get access to and support that other thing that probably is what's important to them. And to me it's like "Well, why don't you just do something that somehow brings these together if that's really what matters to you?" And like you said life and the career aren't necessarily separate. So that's just an observation that I've made and I'm sure you've seen different versions of that same kind of thing.

Dr. Sharon Hull: Well, you do too. You reach a lot of people and you've talked to a lot of people. I have seen some of the online conversations you've had and these are common questions and you're seeing the same variations on a theme that I see. I will say they extend beyond just the profession of medicine and I tried to write the book or any professional however they define themselves but particularly people who have studied for a long time to enter a profession and have a set of expectations that they'll stay with it from society or from their family or from income needs or whatever. That's who the book is written for is the people who feel like they might be stuck.

John: I'd like to go back to something that you mentioned earlier and it's this whole idea of a life and a career by design. Maybe that's something everyone should be taught either in high school or college about actually taking time to try to design your career, design your life and maybe go back to it from time to time. Growing up I was good at math, I was good in science, I got good grades, so I guess I was going to be a physician. So, how should we really look at that? How should we conceptualize that?

Dr. Sharon Hull: I devote some time in the very beginning of the book to talking about the idea of design thinking, kind of the idea that you make the best first choice you can make and you keep tinkering. And it's people who design furniture or design machine parts do that. Thomas Edison did that when he invented the light bulb. He had 1,500 ways he failed and he said "I didn't fail, I had 1,500 ways not to do it." Sometimes I meet people that feel that way about their careers. And so, the idea that we're designing always gives people that sense of agency to reassess.

And my real unstated goal, I guess I'm stating it here so it will be out of the bag is to get this book in the hands of young trainees as early in their careers possible. I actually think that people younger than you and me have handle on this that we didn't have and they're going to reiterate their careers multiple times. This is just a guidebook to how to do it.

John: Well, I have to agree with you. I have seen some examples that I thought "Wow, they had so much insight in an early age and they were really thinking two or three steps further than I ever thought." Again we're such old school I think, we're from a different era but I couldn't see past that horizon so I just kind of plugged along and did my thing until maybe I felt like it just wasn't the right thing anymore.

Again, I mentioned this earlier but if people look at your LinkedIn profile I think it was a good example yourself and again it might not have all been by design at the beginning but it does demonstrate that you can make significant changes, you can evolve, you can shift from you know patient care to some non-patient care position but still doing what you love and maybe like you said what matters.

Dr. Sharon Hull: It doesn't have to be static but people do have constraints on their decisions. And we talk about that in the book. Perhaps when you're young you have fewer constraints. And we enter a time in our late 20s early 30s to maybe our 40s mid 40s where there are a lot of personal constraints. They might be financial, they might be child rearing, they might be geographic. There are lots of reasons people feel stuck in that period. But if they can see light at the end of the tunnel or see that they do have choice, they can come through burnout a little differently, I think. At least that's my hypothesis, we'll see.

John: I think that's right on at least from what I observed. You mentioned the term "agency" a minute ago. We don't use that term very often. Maybe in a corporate environment I might have heard it once in a while it's a bit of jargon but has a certain really applicable meaning to what we're talking about. So, can you explain what that means to you?

Dr. Sharon Hull: I will. I will first say that as a young family physician I was taught the term self-efficacy, the ability to believe I could do something about a problem I was facing. And to me agency is maybe a just a different term, maybe it's more corporate speak, maybe it's more ethical psychological speak. We are the agents of our own lives and we don't talk about that much. That doesn't make us selfish. It does make us responsible for the choices. I have a coffee mug on my desk over here that says "Never complain about what you permit." And when I first saw that quote it hit me right between the eyes. It's like yeah, if you don't like something, figure out how to change it without just creating chaos around you. And the book is about how not to create chaos but to do it intentionally.

John: Yes, it's odd to me that we feel that in spite of being part of one of the most educated professions on the planet we don't feel we have any options and we don't have any control over life once we get locked in and we've finished residency or fellowship, whatever it is. And you kind of feel like "I have to do this, I've invested so much into this role." And that whole thought process holds us back. But we're not actually obligated to do anything.

Dr. Sharon Hull: I actually have two things I'd like to say about that if I could. The first is that I spent a number of years as the dean of students for a medical school. And my job was to run orientation for the first year students and it was about three weeks long. And at the end of three weeks I would meet with them in small groups and I would say "If in the last three weeks you've figured out that this is not the place for you, and this is not the profession for you, could you say that?" And in eight years six or eight years of doing that job no one ever said yes. Three weeks in people felt stuck.

Now the second thing I want to say about that is our friends in law will tell you my law degree teaches me how to think but it doesn't mean I have to be in the courtroom. They see the skills as a doorway to do all kinds of things. And for a long time I was envious of my law colleagues and then I thought "Well, I have some skills that could open some doors for me too. I just need to think about it differently." So, I got fascinated talking to my law friends.

John: When you were just talking about that question you asked your students as a dean, I always kind of looked at it as a conspiracy. I can't imagine any of my instructors professors or other teachers would tell me "Oh, yeah, after you get into this or maybe eventually you want to do something else outside of medicine or something that applies medicine in a different way where you're not subject to being stuck with dealing with insurance companies and all the regulations and the long hours doing in the EMR."

It seems like they're part of that system and they want to continue this system. They don't want to let anybody out of the system and that might be overly cynical I'll admit. And at least you were there asking that question. I personally have never talked to anyone who's had a positive response to a physician in training who was thinking about leaving medicine. They'll usually do whatever they can to keep them there for a lot of practical reasons too.

Dr. Sharon Hull: Some of the earliest informal coaching I did was with medical students who really did figure out the answer to that question that they really didn't want to do clinical medicine. And much to the chagrin sometimes of my superiors I became a safe place for them to talk. And that may have been where I kind of learned my pathway was going to have a place here.

John: As I suspected your superiors weren't necessarily real enthusiastic about that.

Dr. Sharon Hull: There's this whole mentality of societies investing in your training and you owe society back. They've invested in you and this is a calling. There are lots of parts of that myth and it's not entirely mythical you have to decide what part of it applies to you.

John: It shouldn't be a surprise though when you consider that most of us made a decision to go into health care when we were children.

Dr. Sharon Hull: That's where the term agency comes in. I'm the agent of my own career. And sometimes the choices before us aren't great but we make the best one we can in the moment and get really intentional about what's next.

John: Well, there's more about that in the book, and I am going to ask you one more question before you go. But first let's talk about where they can find the book and then tell us the title and the easiest way to get the book when it comes out.

Dr. Sharon Hull: They can find out more about me obviously through LinkedIn and I'm assuming you'll put my LinkedIn in the show notes. But my website is www.mettasolutions.com. Metta, that's the name of my company, Metta Solutions. And on that website they'll find my blog, they'll also find a page devoted to the book which is titled Professional Careers by Design: A Handbook for the Bespoke Life. On the book page are several options for buying it. You can also find it in the common places like Amazon or Barnes & Noble or Goodreads. But that book page on my website collects all of those in one place.

John: Okay, excellent. Well, we are going to run out of time pretty soon now so I'll put those links to everything you mentioned in the show notes, of course. In thinking about your kind of typical clients or my listeners, any last words for any professional who might just be frustrated or unhappy in their career and how to maybe be better at designing it.

Dr. Sharon Hull: Start with what matters. That is my mantra. Start with what matters to you and then figure out how you can get more of that in your life systematically every day and let the list change as your life changes. That sounds like airy fairy kind of stuff but it's really not. It's common sense. My grandmother would understand it. Just start with what matters and the rest does come. The book can be a guide to the technical parts about what you need to deal with.

John: Yes, that's very helpful. Let's start with what matters. Maybe just sit down and start writing your list.

Dr. Sharon Hull: Top ten list.

John: And if you need help you can start by getting the book. All right, Sharon, this has been fun.

Dr. Sharon Hull: It has been fun, John. Thank you.

John: Thanks again for coming. Bye-bye.

Dr. Sharon Hull: Bye-bye.

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Interview with Dr. Lara Salyer – 344

In today's episode, Dr. Lara Salyer explains how she integrates the best of traditional and functional medicine in her practice. In the process, she takes listeners on a journey of career reinvention and personal empowerment. 

Dr. Salyer shares valuable insights and practical advice for practitioners seeking fulfillment and career balance. From the transformative power of creativity to the importance of storytelling and self-expression, listeners are inspired to try something new.

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We're proud to have the University of Tennessee Physician Executive MBA Program, offered by the Haslam College of Business, as the sponsor of this podcast.

The UT PEMBA is the longest-running, and most highly respected physician-only MBA in the country. It has over 700 graduates. And, the program only takes one year to complete. 

By joining the UT Physician Executive MBA, you will develop the business and management skills you need to find a career that you love. To find out more, contact Dr. Kate Atchley’s office at (865) 974-6526 or go to nonclinicalphysicians.com/physicianmba.

Annual Nonclinical Career Summit Coming Soon!

It's time for the Second Annual Nonclinical Career Summit. It’s called Clinical Practice: Make It Great or Move On. We have 12 top-notch speakers such as Dr. Dike Drummond, Dr. Nneka Una, Dr. Gretchen Green, and Dr. Tom Davis.

We'll learn about creating a cash-based practice, MedSpa, Infusion Center, or other business, protecting yourself legally, and learning a lucrative side gig or investing in real estate.

Admission to the live event is free. If you prefer, you can purchase the recordings and bonuses for a small fee. Please join us on the evenings of April 16 through 18.

Go to nonclinicalcareersummit.com to learn more and reserve your spot today.

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Dr. Debra Blaine is a physician like many of you, and her greatest challenge was fear. The whole concept of leaving clinical medicine was terrifying. But she is so much happier now as a professional writer and a coach. According to Debra, “It’s like someone turned the oxygen back on.”

If fear is part of your struggle, too, she would like to help you push through those emotional barriers to go after the life you really want. Click this link to schedule a free chat.

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Reimagining Healthcare and Integrating the Best Parts

In this engaging podcast episode, Dr. Lara Salyer reflects on her transition from burnout in family practice to discovering functional medicine. During our interview, she emphasized the importance of aligning one's career with personal passions and values. Dr. Salyer highlights the transformative power of creativity and innovation in revitalizing professional and personal fulfillment.

Empowering Practitioners and Cultivating Her Speaking Engagements

Lara describes her new role as a mentor, guiding practitioners through strategies for reclaiming joy and autonomy in their careers. She shares practical tips for crafting impactful speeches and navigating the speaking circuit, emphasizing the value of storytelling and authenticity. Additionally, she explores the significance of boundaries, self-expression, and embracing “messy” progress.

Dr. Lara Salyer's Advice on Career Fulfillment

Find your path to fulfillment with WARM: If I'm feeling stuck, overwhelmed, unhappy, I start with “W.” Whose voice is in my head right now making me feel bad?… then Aim low with tiny steps, Remember your ‘why', and “M” is “Messy moves the needle,” you don't have to be perfect.

Summary

Through engaging anecdotes and actionable tips, Dr. Salyer offers a roadmap for reclaiming passion and purpose. Whether you're navigating burnout or seeking to reignite your professional spark, Lara provides hope and guidance, reminding us that it's never too late to design a career that aligns with our deepest values and aspirations. To get in touch with Dr. Salyer you can find more information and contact her directly on her website drlarasalyer.com.

And if you wish to access any of her programs, you can use the Coupon Code “CATALYST” for a $50.00 discount off the usual price.

NOTE: Look below for a transcript of today's episode. 

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• Dr. Lara Salyer's Website
• Freed.ai Medical Scribe App
• How to Reclaim the Best Parts of Your Career – 120
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Today's PNC Podcast Transcript

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Transcription PNC Podcast Episode 344

Integrating the Best of Traditional and Functional Medicine

- Interview with Dr. Lara Salyer

John: Sometimes when rebooting your practice, it's helpful to speak with someone who has a lot of imagination, and that describes today's guest to a T. She first appeared in the podcast in December of 2019, and she was about two years into reimagining herself, at least her approach to patient care. And she's continued to innovate since then, and she's now mentoring clinicians, more than she was at that time. I think that she's a great one to talk to today about remastering, recreating your life and your career. Dr. Lara Salyer, hello and welcome to the podcast.

Dr. Lara Salyer: It's a pleasure, John. I was so excited to receive your email invitation again, and mind blown that it's been four years. I feel like it was just yesterday. We were talking about innovation and transforming healthcare, and look, it continues. I'm happy to talk to your listeners about reimagining healthcare.

John: Yeah, I couldn't believe it either, because I just made a point a few months ago to say, well, I got to go back to my old guests and see what they're up to. And in my mind, your name just stands out. It isn't like something I had to dredge up. It's like, yeah, Laura, she's in the Midwest, she's been doing all these things in Wisconsin. Four years. That is crazy.

Dr. Lara Salyer: It's crazy. We're practically neighbors. But see, this is the beauty of what we've all been through in this global pandemic in the last four years, the world is made larger and smaller. I feel like it's really exploded our ability to connect across the seas and virtually. With the advent of telemedicine laws changing, there's so much cool things and innovations and AI that it's really inspired me. And yeah, I'd love to dive in and just talk about all the changes. Where should we start?

John: Well, let's see. We don't have to redo everything we did last time. I will have a link to the previous episode that has a lot of the information and how you found functional medicine and got involved in that, which I think has escalated exponentially. But anyway, start from there maybe and where we were then. And just touch on some of the things that are new about you and your practice and what you're doing with patients and other physicians.

Dr. Lara Salyer: Sure. Well, this is sort of the example of creating your own career that is a self-expressive vote of the future you'd like to see. And that's really what I embody and I try to use this as my compass as my mantra every day. Just in a one sentence nutshell, I was a burned out family practice doctor, realized I was burned out, not sure if I wanted to stay in medicine, but then fell in love with functional medicine on my last CME and decided that's what I wanted to do. I opened up my practice and we had our interview in 2019 and I talked about what that entailed being an entrepreneur in this space and learning those ropes.

Well, since 2019, I've really enjoyed embracing this creativity of educating patients with online courses and having online group visits every week that provides an ecosystem of support for my patients and really exploring this sandbox of tools that we have right at our disposal to make medicine fun again. And it's naturally been sort of an attracting beacon to other practitioners looking to innovate and to explore some of these options.

I've really amped up my mentoring, not just in the functional and integrative space. I help those practitioners grow and scale a membership practice in their own community using a lot of AI and tech. But I also mentor colleagues in burnout, those that want to tap back into creativity. I graduated from the flow research collective in their high flow leadership, so I can coach how to get that flow acquisition, which for those that don't know, flow is the only time your brain produces all five neurochemicals of happiness. The more you learn how to make your day flow channeled, the happier you are, the more easeful life feels.

And so, I'm enjoying this renaissance of my own personal career, helping practitioners learn how to become and embody their ideal self. And then that naturally just extends into my international speaking career. I had the honor of being invited to the center stage in London last year, last summer, on the largest European medical conference and was able to stand beside some greats that I was honored to have shoulder to shoulder. It just keeps expanding and it's just fun. And like I tell my teens when it stops being fun, now that's the time you need to think of making a shift. But I'm still having a blast.

John: That's a lot to talk about and to consider, but it sounds very positive. I don't know if we're going to get into the flow thing a lot, but maybe we will. But maybe just for our purposes, is that flow state, whether you're working or at home doing something, I'm assuming that's the same thing that in general we talk about when you're in that zone.

Dr. Lara Salyer: Yeah, in the zone. Yes. Just simple. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi coined the term and it's anything from being in a sport or you're doing Tetris or you're balancing your books. It's just being in deep work.

John: Okay. Cool. I wanted to talk about the speaking a little bit because a lot of my listeners ask me about how to get into that. It seems to be kind of a black box. They don't know how to start. And just some tips on becoming a recognized speaker and getting some of the big types of engagements that you've talked about already today.

Dr. Lara Salyer: I've got lots of tips, John. I think I'm a shameless kind of person who is open to feedback all the time. So, be prepared to speak and make mistakes and fumble and keep getting up and trying again. But the key to establishing your own speaking career is finding your story. You have to have a story and everybody has a story. And once you find the story that is underlying this anchoring mission of why you feel compelled to speak, what are you speaking about? For me, it's speaking about healthcare burnout and the intersection of creativity and how we've lost that piece in healthcare.

And I really believe that physicians, if we could be allowed more autonomy to be self-expressive in the way we deliver medicine, we wouldn't have as much burnout. Of course, it's not that simple. If you look at my message, anybody could look at it and go, "Well, that's not the cure to burnout." No, I'm not saying it is. But it gives me the platform to tell my story, to offer things that I've learned that have helped people. I work with residencies and medical schools and I travel and do workshops. I'm able to craft this around my central story, which is I'm a physician who burned out and found a second career. Or third or fourth, however many you want to count. For anybody listening who's thinking, "How can I develop my speaking career?" start looking at your story. What's your story say? What are you passionate about? If anybody stopped you on the street and said, "You have 40 minutes to tell me something that you're passionate about without any slides, without any prep." That is what you need to talk about.

And so, right there, getting the topic and then second, crafting your PowerPoint, working with a mentor. I had my own public speaking coach, and I believe firmly in coaching. And that's part of the underlying result of my mission with working with so many residencies in medical schools and in my mission that I want to make coaching a part of medical school. That every medical student has a coach assigned. Everybody's got somebody there because we are not above needing that kind of executive help.

And so, when you work with a coach, like a public speaking coach, it can help save time and unlock some of the things that you didn't know you were doing and fidgeting. It makes such a difference. I would start there with knowing your story. What does that say about your mission and your vision in the world? And then working with a coach to help you craft that narrative and really make it professional.

John: I think that's awesome. Because when I think about things that successfully communicate, whether it's a book or a presentation, it always includes a story. Either the speaker's story, the writer's story, or somebody else's story, but it always ties back. That gives that great example of the point you're trying to make and it pulls people in, and they want to hear how the story ends. So, that's cool.

Dr. Lara Salyer: Yes. At least for me, I hated being in, and this is just my preference. Whenever I would be in a lecture or in some kind of presentation and listening to the speaker, it always felt empty to me when there wasn't some kind of transformative takeaway. And so, I like having all of my talks have something at the end that the listener gets, whether it's something that they can download or something that they can walk away with and remember you by. If you're looking to make a speaking career, develop that signature talk. Have some kind of takeaway. Like something downloadable. And if you don't have any of the fancy things like a CRM or an autoresponder, if those words don't resonate with you, you can simply just ask them to give you their email and you can send them something. You can be very old school about it. You don't have to be super polished and professional.

John: I think there are other people that think, "Okay, I'd love to have a speaking career." I don't think they're necessarily as committed because they're a little nervous to have a little stage fright. So, how do you get ready? That UK presentation, that was a big deal.

Dr. Lara Salyer: That was a huge deal. Oh my gosh.

John: How did you prep yourself for that?

Dr. Lara Salyer: Oh goodness. Well, it's that fine line of delusional almost OCD prepping and then trusting the universe that it'll be okay. I love the books. TED Talks, Chris Anderson, or Talk Like TED. Those are the two favorite books I have. I also like Rule the Room is another book, that's a resource. And I often listen to a podcast by Grant Baldwin called Speakers Lab. And believe it or not, that has taught me more than anything because he goes into the business of speaking of how to invite people or pitch to people and follow up and all those kinds of things.

I've learned a lot about the business, but when you're coming down to the wire and you're practicing, it's a combination of I would look at my slides because I was allowed to have some slides, but it was a TED style talk. I had 20 minutes to give my one message. And so, I would practice with the slides and then I would go on a walk and I would listen to myself because I recorded myself and I would listen and imagine the slides on my walk. And then I would try to see if I could anticipate the next sentence. I'd pause the recording and see if I could anticipate the next sentence, not so that it was rote memorization because a lot of public speaking coaches would say, "That's awful. You do not want to memorize your talk." You want it to feel like a conversation. And you want to allow for inflection and for moments of improv in a way.

What I would do is divide my talk into four segments of main points and I would try to anticipate, "Oh yeah, there's that next point. I'm going to talk about this." And that's all it was, was a summer of walks with my dog and just really memorizing the next point that was going to happen until I became comfortable that I felt like I could do it without any help.

John: No, that's awesome. Because you can tell, I watched a lot of TED talks in some of the smaller venues. You can tell the speaker is glancing at a monitor or screen or something to remind them of what they're doing. It doesn't really flow and it's okay, the message is good, but when you have a really good speaker, it flows and it's engaging and it goes by like in two minutes.

Dr. Lara Salyer: Yes. And don't be afraid to practice. Before that UK talk, I had other opportunities where people said, "Could you just give a 20 minute? - Oh yes, absolutely." And I remember in Toronto, I was asked to speak at a very large event for naturopathic doctors, and it was going to be broadcasted and I had no teleprompter, nothing, no slides. I thought, "This is even harder than UK. I am on it. Let's do this. This is going to be gritty test time." And I did it. And guess what? There were interruptions. Somebody walked in front of the feed when it was being recorded. There was a person that interrupted the door and I got put off. I didn't remember my next line, but guess what I did? It just took a moment. And that's the thing is when you face that kind of awkwardness and you realize you're not going to evaporate into ashes, it's okay. And you chuckle and you learn how to sidestep.

Everybody wants you to succeed. Nobody is sitting in the audience waiting for you to mess up and going, "There it is. I'm glad she's messing up." They want you to have a great time. So if you fake it till you make it in that moment and be like, "Okay, here we go", that's when you get to be that elevated speaker that people want to hear from because you're relatable.

John: That's great. That's awesome. I love that. And a lot of resources, I wrote those down and we'll put those in the show notes so people that are really interested can take advantage of those.

Okay. We're going to move into helping other clinicians, but I think before we get into that and how you're doing that, I think our listeners need to understand exactly what does your practice look like now? Functional medicine, not everybody even know what the functional medicine is and kind of tied to that. I think you still call what I would call clients patients but there's a distinction that some people make. And I think it's easier in functional medicine than let's say in doing something like yoga. You're not going to call them. If you can capture all of that in the opening of this next section here on how you help physicians.

Dr. Lara Salyer: Sure. Real quick, I do have a license to practice medicine in Wisconsin and Illinois. I have my attorney that comes in and teaches inside my mentorship for practitioners. I stay very, very close to the law. I don't want to call my patients clients. I'm still a physician, so I have a physician patient relationship. But my practice is very tiny. I call it very cozy. And I keep it that way because I have a lot of other hats I wear. Last year I was invited to be the director of practitioner activation for the School of Applied Functional Medicine. Basically I am the mentor for their school. And so, that is a job that I do part-time, but I also have my own mentorship, the Catalyst studio.

And these are practitioners that come in for 12 months and they're with me and they have a bunch of resources online. And we work one-on-one, and we also have weekly masterminding. We call it studio time. And the reason I've created this artistic metaphor is because I want physicians to create their masterpiece, their work-life masterpiece. I don't believe in work-life balance. I don't think that is something we can achieve. I believe it's a masterpiece. It's an integration of work and life. And so, they're with me for 12 months. And then in addition to that, I have one off session.

People that aren't even in functional medicine, they don't even care about integrative medicine. They might be a medical student, a resident, or just an attending who's like, "Hey, I need some inspiration on how can I pedal through some of these emotions, this burnout." I use solutions focused, positive psychology, a little bit of acceptance commitment techniques that help them tap back into flow. And I give ideas and resources and really get them back into what are they doing here. And helping them with decisions. It can be making a decision on the next step for their career or just how to play again as an adult. We forget that and kids are so good at that. I love being almost that little inspirational fairy that can help my colleagues get back into that childlike wonder.

John: Can you give me an example? And it could be even amalgam of many people, but what is the type of person that shows up at the beginning, either for the one-off mentoring or the 12 month? And then how does it look different at the end of that period? I'm just trying to get that so the listener can say, "Hey, that sounds like it's right up my alley."

Dr. Lara Salyer: Yes. That's great. I like to call this the average practitioner. They are frantic, they're rushed, they're stressed. They're feeling almost hopeless and wondering why they chose this career. But they feel stuck like "I have to be in this track." They don't see many options. They've probably not played or had their hobby dusted off the shelf for years. They probably look at you with blank eyes when you said, "When was the last time you did something fun?" They don't even know. They don't have free time. They really are a victim of their calendar. They're really reactive in their calendar planning instead of proactive. That's the typical practitioner.

And then at the end of my programs, I call them the catalysts. The catalysts, they are expansive, open-minded. They're innovative. They are very much in control of their calendar. They're very autonomous. They see those elements in their calendar and time and space and energy. They're boundaried. They're able to really keep and protect that energy and spend it on things that give them joy. They are more tapped into gratitude and creativity. And these catalysts are such a joy.

And so, I can take people through this journey. In fact, I have a 10 hour CME course that people can take online. Completely self-driven. And it helps them kind of walk through the standards that I've found have worked really well for my clients. I call those clients, my mentees, my catalyst. And it helps walk them through some of the basic foundations of finding your flow and finding your anchoring down into your "why" and how to use that throughout your day to bring joy back into focus.

John: On average, is that group of people employed at a large organization where a corporatization of medicine has kind of driven most of them crazy? Or are they in a practice and they're just overwhelmed? They may own it, but it's out of control because they're trying to handle everything.

Dr. Lara Salyer: That's great. For the functional integrative physicians and practitioners inside my 12 month mentorship, those people usually are solopreneurs. They might be employed, they might have a hybrid practice of insurance and cash pay. And these people are really looking how to strategically move that business. How to make it more streamlined and flow channeled. The one-off catalyst advantage, those are the people that sign up for just one or two or three sessions.

I have bundles of packages where they can meet with me one-on-one, and there's nothing to do with business. It's more about personal development. And those come from all walks of life. I have discounts for students and residents because I remember those days, you can't really afford much. And then it can be attendings, it can be nurse practitioners, people that are just curious about personally developing themselves. And they come from all walks of life as well. They could be independent, most of them employed.

My grand goal in my future, my five to 10 goal is I would love to be a chief wellness officer at a large organization because I've enjoyed working in this high level systemic change and seeing the results of what some of these modalities can do for practitioners is really life affirming for me. So, it's just been a wonderful journey.

John: Now as a secret in some of those to really focus on doing what you love and where the flow can occur potentially, and getting rid of the stuff that just drives you crazy. And does that require delegation? Does that require, or can it enable one to say, "Look, I'm a family physician, but I'm not going to do 100% of what a family physician could do. I'm going to focus on something that I like to do and I'm going to get rid of the rest."

Dr. Lara Salyer: Yes. Oh, I love this. It is getting comfortable disappointing other people. I think as physicians, especially family physicians, we are the bottom of the totem pole. We get everything dumped on us and we just get used to serving our patients, saying yes, doing it all. And it's time to push back. And it's okay to have boundaries. This is where I help people with those boundaries in saying, "Listen, if you are literally burning up and you are a miserable shell of a human, you're going to work, you're coming home from work and you are just not happy at all, something's got to change."

Now you can't change overnight the whole system. The system is slowly changing. But we are at a dawn of a new healthcare with AI helping. I love freed.ai. It's a wonderful program that is a charting program where all it does is listen to you and your patient and creates a beautiful SOAP note. I actually interviewed the founders. It's a resident and her husband who's a computer guy, they founded this company. It's phenomenal. And it's things like this that are going to help us fall back in love with medicine and do what we do best, which is being a healer. We are right now data entry clerks and we're not able to delegate because a lot of hospitals are saying, "No, you have to enter in those lab results. No, you have to do it all." And it's crumbling.

I really believe if we hang on, we are almost through the dark ages of medicine and we're about to enter the dawn of where AI can help us and it's suddenly going to be so much fun. It's like driving a Tesla. It's just, "Wow, everything's done for me." And so, hanging on, I think that's my role in this whole structure is helping our colleagues just to hang on and let's find a way through this that can help you stay human while we wait for AI to help. And it might mean take a day off every week and you go to your administrator saying, "I need to be different RVU. I need to back it down." Because we want to want to save you before you go out with the ship.

John: What was that link again to that AI tool?

Dr. Lara Salyer: Yeah, it's freed.ai. And what I love about them is they give you 10 free visits to try them out. You don't even have to put a credit card in. The proof is in there, amazing algorithms and AI. And then when you do, it's really affordable. You can get an industry, your whole institution can get a license, or you can get your own. If you use the code CATALYST, you get $50 off. I'll just give that out there so people can get a discount if they want it.

John: Excellent. I'll tell you and our listeners here why I am so interested in this is because my thing in the past has been "What other options can you do if you're a burned out physician?" But really, 15, 20 years ago, there wasn't a lot of focus on fixing within your own practice or something like your practice. Now I'm trying to get more people like you to say, let's go back to the beginning and take all the good things that you wanted to be when you went through med school and residency. And let's try and get rid of the other crap that doesn't help.

Dr. Lara Salyer: Yes.

John: That's just holding you down. And as we push this, I think we're going to see more of it. So, I appreciate what you're saying.

Dr. Lara Salyer: I'm glad that you've recognized that. I think there is an exodus of people. Their pendulum swung where people were leaving. Sadly, we lose a lot of people to suicide, a whole medical school class worth every year. And there's a lot of physicians that are just retiring early. But I think the pendulum is going to swing back the other way. Like you said, I want to save the career of medicine. I want to make the career of medicine something that still honors the joy and the creativity and the self-expression. Nobody wants to go see a robotic doctor. And so, I really think that we're almost there. We just got to hang on a bit and keep working at it.

John: The thing is not only are physicians frustrated and upset, the patients aren't happy. They're not happy with a five minute visit for something it takes 20 minutes normally and the doctor spends all their time documenting and sending notes in and blah, blah, blah. The whole thing has to change for patients as much as for physicians.

All right. Why don't you spend a couple minutes telling us about your website and what's on your website and how to get ahold of you and all that kind of stuff?

Dr. Lara Salyer: Oh, sure. Absolutely. We'll start to different things. If you're a patient in Wisconsin or Illinois, you can find me on my website, drlarasalyer.com. But I do keep a very, very long waiting list because I devote a lot of my time and passion to our colleagues. So, if you're a physician, a nurse practitioner, and you're curious about what creativity and flow can do to enhance your happiness and joy, again, go to my website, drlarasalyer.com and you'll be prompted through a series of buttons. It'll ask "What are you here for?" And it will direct you to the practitioner page.

And I would encourage you to take the Catalyst Archetype quiz. It's a free quiz. You'll be matched to one of the four archetypes. Are you a fervent flame, a resolute rock, a wise wind, a reflective river? And then it matches you to a two-page plan that will give you suggestions on adult play activities, things that you could do to enhance your hobbies and self-expression.

And also on that page, you'll find opportunities to do a sample session with me, a real one-on-one working session where we can just dive in and start getting you aligned with your best self. And all my stuff is there. If you need a speaker for your next conference, you need a keynote, again, I have a speaking page on my website. I love speaking. I'd love to connect with you. And there's an application form there as well.

John: Excellent. Well, listeners, I think you should take advantage of that, even if you have to skip the next few weeks of podcast listening. Spend that time checking out Lara's website and make a plan to change your life if you're not happy.

All right, Lara, we're going to run out of time here. So, just some more advice, some last minute advice before we go to our listeners who might be unhappy, out of balance, just frustrated and not enjoying their careers in particular. What advice do you have before we go?

Dr. Lara Salyer: I love little acronyms. I'm going to give you an acronym that I use when I'm feeling stuck, when I'm feeling unmotivated or overwhelmed. It's WARM and it goes like this. If I'm feeling stuck, overwhelmed, unhappy, I start with "W" and I ask, "Who's talking? Whose voice is in my head?" Is it the administrators saying, "You need to see more?" Whose voice is in my head right now making me feel bad? Is it my family of origin? Maybe it's an auntie or a grandma or something. Who's talking right now? Am I listening to my own voice or is it someone else?

The next is "A", which is aim low, not aim high. Aim low. Use Tiny Atomic Habits. James Clear is famous for that book. Atomic Habits. Do one tiny thing. Aim Low. What can you do in the next moment, even if it's just your next breath? Aim low. You're looking for tiny evidences of progress that you can find your way out of this mess.

Then "R" which is reason. What is your reason? What is your reason for medicine? Anchor yourself back into your "why." Why are you doing this? And there's many reasons. And it can shift, it could be stability. I wanted a predictable career. I wanted travel, whatever. But look at your reason because it may have shifted and maybe you're aiming towards the wrong North Star. But just look at that reason.

And lastly, "M" which is messy moves the needle. You don't have to be perfect, you don't have to have the answers all right now. You don't have to figure it out, but you can be messy and show up messy in this spot. When you're feeling overwhelmed, stressed, just remember WARM. Who's talking, aim low, find that reason, and then just be messy and give it another day. It's always going to be better.

John: Thanks for that. I'm going to write that down and see if I can apply it to something I'm doing today.

Dr. Lara Salyer: Perfect. It works every time for me.

John: It sounds like it does. I like the last one too. You're saying in there messy moves, avoid perfection. Don't let perfection drive you so much. Just do something in the right direction. I like that.

All right, Lara, this has been fantastic. We're going to have to get together again, probably in less than four years, if I'm still podcasting.

Dr. Lara Salyer: Another leap year.

John: Oh yeah. No, that's not good. All right. I want to really thank you for being here, and I'll put all those links in the show notes and share it. And with that, I'll say goodbye.

Dr. Lara Salyer: Thank you, John. Bye.

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The post Integrating the Best of Traditional and Functional Medicine appeared first on NonClinical Physicians.

Interview with Dr. Angela Mulrooney – 342

In today's episode, Dr. Angela Mulrooney explains how to create your ideal life and shares her inspirational career journey. 

Dr. Mulrooney's unique journey began as a gymnast turned dancer and choreographer while studying dentistry. She built a thriving practice following graduation. However, she developed an illness that made it impossible to practice. So she transitioned into coaching dentists, leveraging her experience to build a successful coaching company.

Our Show Sponsor

We're proud to have the University of Tennessee Physician Executive MBA Program, offered by the Haslam College of Business, as the sponsor of this podcast.

The UT PEMBA is the longest-running, and most highly respected physician-only MBA in the country. It has over 700 graduates. And, the program only takes one year to complete. 

By joining the UT Physician Executive MBA, you will develop the business and management skills you need to find a career that you love. To find out more, contact Dr. Kate Atchley’s office at (865) 974-6526 or go to nonclinicalphysicians.com/physicianmba.

Clinical Practice: Make It Great or Move On

Recognize dysfunction, fix it, and protect yourself, or seek better opportunities

In only about one month from now, the second annual Nonclinical Summit will be starting. It’s not entirely nonclinical, however. Sure, we’ll be presenting topics related to fully nonclinical work, such as freelance Medical Legal Prelitigation Consulting, Expert Witness Consulting, and Medical Affairs Regulatory Consulting. But we’ll also have experts talking about whether it’s medicine you need to leave or your job or current boss. And we will discuss several types of clinical businesses that make you the boss, opt out of insurance participation, and build an asset that you can sell later.

If you’d like to learn more, check out the 2024 Nonclinical Career Summit, with a complete list of speakers, topics, and objectives for each presentation.

And just like last year, you can attend the live sessions for FREE, so block your calendar on April 16, 17, and 18 from 7 to 11 PM Eastern/4 to 8 PM Pacific.

Our Episode Sponsor

Dr. Debra Blaine is a physician like many of you, and her greatest challenge was fear. The whole concept of leaving clinical medicine was terrifying. But she is much happier now as a professional writer and a coach. Debra says, “It’s like someone turned the oxygen back on.”

If fear is part of your struggle, too, she would like to help you push through those emotional barriers to go after the life you really want. Click this link to schedule a free chat.

Or check out her website at allthingswriting.com/resilience-coaching.

From Dilapidated Practice to Referral-Based Success

Angela pursued her dental career dream by working primarily with children. She took over a rundown practice, revitalizing it over six months by implementing physical and aesthetic changes. And she converted from insurance-based to non-assignment services.

By investing in her skills, including IV sedation, full-mouth rehab, and implants, she transformed the practice into a referral-based success, targeting patients afraid of the dentist.

LinkedIn Mastery and Unleashing Influence

Recognizing the power of LinkedIn in reaching professionals, Dr. Mulrooney strategically utilized the platform to build her coaching businesses, rejecting conventional choices like Facebook and Instagram. Unleashing Influence, her coaching company, emerged from her experience coaching dentists.

Leveraging LinkedIn's Sales Navigator, she refined her approach to connecting with the right professionals. She guided them through a transformational process in her events, ultimately leading them to join her coaching programs. This approach has proven highly effective, resulting in significant success for her clients.

Dr. Angela Mulrooney's Advice to Create Your Ideal Life

If you have been plateauing for a while, you've got to decide if you want to stay plateauing or if you want to get out of your way.

Summary

Dr. Angela Mulrooney's career evolution serves as an inspiration for frustrated clinicians. To connect with her, reach out through her LinkedIn profile, where she actively engages. Additionally, search for her on popular social media platforms or visit her website Unleashing Influence for more information.

NOTE: Look below for a transcript of today's episode. 

EXCLUSIVE: Get a daily dose of inspiration, information, news, training opportunities, and amusing stories by CLICKING HERE.

Links for Today's Episode:

• Unleashing Influence Program
• Dr. Angela Mulrooney's LinkedIn Page
• How to Start and Grow a Profitable Cash Based Medical Practice – 293
• Do You Want to Live Life and Practice Medicine on Your Own Terms? – 237
• How to Be a Successful Physician Entrepreneur – 123
• Top Five Start-Up Secrets for the Physician Entrepreneur – 087
• Entrepreneur and Business Owner – Interview with Dr. Mike Woo-Ming – 019
• 2024 Nonclinical Summit – 12 lectures & Attend for FREE
• Dr. Debra Blaine's Coaching Services

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Today's PNC Podcast Transcript

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Transcription PNC Podcast Episode 342

Light Your Entrepreneurial Fire and Create Your Ideal Life

- Interview with Dr. Angela Mulrooney

John: For those entrepreneurs listening and watching today, I have a real treat for you. Our guest was working as a dentist and somehow her entrepreneurial side kicked in and she created a very successful referral-based dental clinic, and then later a professional dance company, and then a coaching company for dentists. And then this is morphed into what she's doing now, which we'll get into in today's interview. I'm very pleased to welcome Dr. Angela Mulrooney to the podcast. Hello, Angela. How are you?

Dr. Angela Mulrooney: Hi. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.

John: And I appreciate you being here. Another healthcare professional who has veered off in a direction which I think my listeners would love to hear about. Like we usually do here, why don't you just start by telling us about your background, how you went from being a dentist to doing what you're doing today. You don't have to go into too much detail, but just an overview of what you've been up to the last decade or so.

Dr. Angela Mulrooney: Sure. I originally was a dentist and I wanted to be a dentist since I was two. It was really a dream come true. And every day that I got going into practice it felt like I was just playing. Power tools and blood. Pretty cool. I did that for the first four and a half years. I worked as an associate, primarily working with children because I was so ridiculously shy. I couldn't look adults in the eye. I focused on kids because I could just tell them stories. And then I happened to run into one of my old bosses who was working in a locum for a 78-year-old dentist. And he was like "I really don't like doing this dentistry. Do you want to take a couple of days off my hands?" So I said, "Sure." That was on a Friday. By Sunday night he called me, he is like, "Ang, can you just take the whole thing? I really don't want to be practicing dentistry." I was like, "Okay."

I had no idea what I was getting into and walked into this practice. It was the most rundown, broken down practice I'd ever seen. The carpet was black because it had never been cleaned. Pretty gross. But every day I walked in there I just stopped and it turned into me going from always saying "I was never going to own a practice" because I was still a professional dancer at that point to me thinking, "Wow, there's potential in everything here. I think I can turn this place around."

I ended up going and seeing the 78-year-old dentist. He unfortunately was dying of bladder cancer and asked him if he was okay with me putting a bid on the practice. And it was funny because before he had always said there was no way he was going to sell it to a woman. He was very old school. And he had heard enough good things from the patients who had come to visit him like they were family. He was like, "Yeah, I would actually love for you to take over the practice." So I did.

And six months into owning it, I really scraped everything that was in there. Rebuilt the whole practice physically and aesthetically and also went from taking insurance to not taking insurance. I went from an assignment practice to a non-assignment practice and went and started investing in my skills to be able to serve.

What I saw was potential in the practice was these people who were terrified of the dentist because the old dude was pretty rough. I went and got my IV sedation. I did my full mouth rehab, implants, all these things. And that's how I created a referral based practice because most people do not want to work with patients who are afraid of the dentist because it takes a lot of time.

I had really a blue ocean market and started just sending out letters and referral pads. And every month on the week that the referral pads went out, we got a whole rush of referral of patients who either needed IV sedation or who were terrified of dentists.

So, that was awesome. I got the practice to the point that I wanted it to be at. And then I got injured out. I ended up with focal dystonia, which had been kicking in slowly over time. And then finally during the middle of a surgery, my hand completely stopped working. I couldn't pick up my drill. So, it was the last day I practiced dentistry, which was a really scary day. And so, that put me on a completely different path to start doing other things with my life.

John: All right. Did you say you were a professional dancer in there?

Dr. Angela Mulrooney: Yes.

John: Explain a little bit about that. We got to know.

Dr. Angela Mulrooney: Yeah. Actually, I was originally a gymnast as a kid and then when I went to university, the biggest social club was the University of Saskatchewan Ballroom Dancing Club. I was like, "Okay, well, that's where everyone else is so I'll go there." And the first year after I was in the club, they started asking me to teach. And I'm like, "No, no, I'm trying to get into dental school. Don't distract me." And then I got into dental school and I'm like "Please distract me, let me have a position." I started teaching and then I turned pro the day that I graduated dental school. And so, I had those two parallel careers. I would go into the studio at 05:00 or 06:00 in the morning, go and train until my shift started. And then when my shift was done, I would go back to the studio and teach. I had two careers going at the same time pretty much until I got injured.

John: Did that interfere then with the dance as well or did you end up teaching that later or at the same time? How did that fit in?

Dr. Angela Mulrooney: With the dystonia, it affected styling because it was actually this very famous picture of me with my hands are supposed to be like this. So, it affected styling and sometimes control of my arm, but we just built choreography around it and got it. We just made it work.

John: Okay. Then what did you do after that? You got very entrepreneurial after all this happened from what I know. So, go on from there.

Dr. Angela Mulrooney: After I got injured, everyone was telling me that you built this brand, you're known in the market, you're known to patients, you're known to the dentist to keep going with it. You can run this as a CEO and not practice clinical dentistry. I was like, "Okay, I guess I can do that." The unfortunate part was I had invested so much in my skills, I had to bring in four different associates part-time to try and cover off the skills that my patients were used to receiving. That was a bit of a headache. And after two and a half years, I'd been through the global financial crisis when I first bought the practice. And then I was in Calgary, which is an oil-based city. And the 2015 oil crash, the economy was dropping super fast. And I just was like "You know what? Every time I go into the practice my heart hurt because these people don't care as much about patients as I did." It didn't feel that way.

And so, I decided it was time to just pass the torch to someone else and start moving on with my life. I decided to sell the practice, I fire sold it, and passed it on to someone else. And honestly, the day that the deal went through, official ownership transferred, it was like this weight was lifted off me and I felt released to go and do new things. So, it was interesting how much that weighed on me trying to keep this thing alive that just wasn't a fit anymore.

John: Okay. Now I know ultimately you began at some point teaching other people how to become entrepreneurs and pursue their dreams. But take us through the way that developed or the steps to getting to that.

Dr. Angela Mulrooney: Yeah. After I sold the practice, I took a year away from dentistry because everyone knew who I was and what had happened. And everyone that I met in the dental world was pity. And I didn't deal very well with pity. I was having enough problems just keeping it together. So, I stepped away, spent a year just building my professional dance company.

And in that time what happened was the pieces of "why" things had happened started to make sense. I was like, okay, I've been through some really strange things from the owner dying halfway through me buying the practice to getting sued by my team to worst case scenario of being injured out of my career. So, I decided to take all the lessons of what I've done and create my coaching company for dentists. And really what my goal was, it was to help them to build a brand but also find their passion in dentistry. Because a lot of dentists really don't like dentistry and they're doing things on a daily basis that they don't like. My goal was to help them to get passionate.

That went on for about two and a half years. And how I built that company was actually getting on LinkedIn, posting content, starting conversations. And in a year of putting effort into LinkedIn, I went from 200 to 12,000 industry followers.

John: Wow.

Dr. Angela Mulrooney: And so, then people started to go, "How did you do that? And can you do that for me?" I started to take a few different colleagues' accounts and I said, "I don't promise anything. I don't know if what I did was a complete unicorn or if I can replicate this, but I will try." I started working on their accounts that I was actually able to replicate the results. So that's where unleashing influence, the original iteration of it was a social media agency for professionals.

And so, that came out of me building my business coaching company for dentists. And that became an official company on January 17th, 2020. March 17th, 2020, Canada got shut down and so exactly two months the day I had some big decisions to make because I had a couple of team members. I had three different companies. I had my dance company, the business coaching company, and the social media agency. And I told the people in the social media agency to buckle in, keep yourself healthy, get lots of sleep because we are going to take this to the moon. And by 10 months into the pandemic we had gone from two and a half full times to 14 full-time team members. So, it just took off.

The dental coaching company got shut down because dentistry got shut down. Dance company got shut down because we weren't allowed to be near each other. I definitely picked the right pony at that point. And then by the end of the year I was like, "I don't want to be in lockdown in snowbank anymore in Calgary." I made the decision that I was exiting Canada to go hang out in a tropical place for at least 12 months. I want to avoid snowflakes for 12 months. So, I bought a one-way flight to Nicaragua and arrived there on January 21st, 2021.

John: Wow. That's a lot. Now I could ask you a thousand questions, but I want to go back because your experience with dentists applies I think to physicians as well. And so, I'm just curious when that thing was working and you were going to even expand it, what were the things that dentists could do with their practices that were unique to each of them? In other words, it's like with physicians. We're cookie cutter. We are family medicine, we all do the same thing, we get bored, that gets tedious and so forth. But I can imagine there are things you can specialize in certain things or you can focus on certain things. So, just give me a glimpse of some of the things that you helped dentists do before we get into the rest of it.

Dr. Angela Mulrooney: For sure. Well, what happens is we're trained in university to be generalists and you're not going to be good at everything. And so, if there's things on your schedule that make you go, "Ugh, do I have to do this today?" Or if there's a patient that you see that you feel that way about, why are you doing that to yourself?

John: Oh boy, I've had those feelings. Yeah.

Dr. Angela Mulrooney: Yeah. Life is way too short. So, if you can be comfortable saying, "Okay, I no longer do root canals. Maybe I don't do surgery anymore, maybe I don't do kids." And focus in on the skills that you're actually talented at and passionate about. Yes, you're going to have to send some people out or you're going to have to bring an associate in to cover that stuff. But what's going to happen is you're going to get better, you're going to get more niched into your genius in that skill and you're going to be so much happier doing it and patients are going to feel that.

So, if you are not a good jack of all trades, which let's be honest, nobody is. If we can start getting away from that jack of all trades, they have to give us a jack of all trades education in university because they have to expose us to everything, but it doesn't mean we have to do everything forever. If you can hone it down to the things that you actually like doing and focus around that, you can build a practice, you can make money doing anything, let's be honest. But you have a professional degree, you have a designation that is recognized by the public. If you say you're a doctor, you say you're a dentist, people have the gist of what you're doing. It's pretty easy to market it and just focus on exactly what you like to do and then either fill in the gaps with an associate, as I said, or refer those patients out. But you can design a practice around anything that you want. There's no legalities about saying no to root canals, saying no to surgery, saying no to whatever you don't want to be doing.

John-: Yeah. I can imagine in the US where you'll say a family physician, you're on some kind of Medicare panel, you can't necessarily refuse. But if you say, "Look, okay, I'm just not going to do that anymore. I'm going to do this part of my practice. And if you don't like it, go somewhere else." That's fine. I've not really heard anyone really emphasize that aspect, but it sounds very effective. I appreciate that.

Okay, now jump forward. Basically you had started this agency, it was a social media type company. What does that really look like? I'm trying to imagine who were on that team, and maybe just explain a little more detail as to what that business looked like and was comprised of. It sounds interesting.

Dr. Angela Mulrooney: Sure. There was 14 full-time creatives. I had everything from copywriters to graphic designers to people who were doing video editing for me. I had one manager in place. But yeah, pretty much it was almost 14 full-time creatives. And so, there was pods working on different clients. There was lots of little moving pieces in it. And I'll be honest, there's a reason I sold the agency. It's a lot to manage because there's so many moving pieces and you have to be relying on people to keep up. And I found I had to build a lot of redundancy in because at that time there was so much turmoil in the employment market as well. So, someone would get offered another job and they'd be like, "Okay, I'm moving over there." So then you're quickly replacing. We always had two of everything and a backup plan for that, which was really stressful, especially when there was a shift. So, I was losing a lot of sleep over my agency, which is why I ended up selling it.

John: Now, who are the clients? What type of people or companies were they?

Dr. Angela Mulrooney: Most of my clients were actually coaches, consultants, and speakers. Because what happened when we had the shutdown, all the events were gone. Their way of being able to go and hang out and have coffee with people or speak from the stage and get clients, all those in-person marketing tactics were off the table. And a lot of the speakers as well, and even the coaches, sitting in front of a camera and trying to be entertaining when you don't have a thousand people in the room who are giving you energy, there was people who were losing their career because they couldn't pull it together on camera.

A lot of them were coming to me to be training, "How do I use my hands? How do I use the space? How do I use the actual camera to be engaging so that I can get back on track?" Because the pandemic landing zeroed the field for speakers. These people who were famous for 30 years, who were amazing in a room were terrible on camera and they realized it very quickly. And so, they had to develop a new skill set. I acquired a lot of those coaching them on camera as well as building out their social media presence so they could go out and reach and hunt new people into their business.

John: All right. Very good. Now that brings us up to almost the present here, unleashing influence. Is that right?

Dr. Angela Mulrooney: Yes.

John: Okay. Tell us about that in more detail and then I'll have some more questions about that.

Dr. Angela Mulrooney: Sure. After moving to Nicaragua, I started to really realize I did not want to work hundred hours per week. That had been my norm for the past two or three years. And so, I started to realize, "Okay, this social media agency with all these team members is just not good for my health." I sold it to one of the team members and then I was like, "Hey, this coaching company for dentists, this is not really where my heart is." Because every time I walk into a practice and or talk to a practice that's not as passionate about dentistry as I am and I'm like "I want people to practice on my behalf because I couldn't anymore" it was like someone ripped a scab off my heart. So, I decided to sell that one as well and just go all in on what I did best, which was really cracking clients open, helping them to see their potential, see what they could be in the marketplace. And also helping them to really step into their genius and fully own that and be able to burn away everything that didn't belong.

So, that's what I hunkered down to. And for three months after I made that decision, there was money coming in after selling the other two companies, but it wasn't super confirming that I'd made the right decision. So, I was a little scared. And then about three months to the day after selling the last company I got a deposit from a client which was paying in full for my services. And it was more than I would've made full-time working as a dentist. I was like, "Okay, that's a sign. This is going to work." The ball is rolling so I let it keep rolling.

I let that develop out and because I changed what I was showing on LinkedIn, people started to contact me saying, "How can I work with you?" And suddenly my book of business increased and I was like, "Oh geez, if we keep going down this path, I'm going to be back to working a hundred hours a week, back to being addicted to be an entrepreneur." And that's not what I want.

So, I took a step back and looked at what I was doing and really I was saying the same thing multiple times a week. I had these really talented clients who were feeling very alone in their journey. When you step out of corporate and step into being an entrepreneur, people think you're insane because you've taken a massive risk, especially after you've had a 30, 40 year career and now you're like, "Yeah, I'm going to do what I want instead." They had a lot of misunderstanding from the community and they also had a bunch of genius.

I decided to have some hard conversations and say, "Okay, this one-on-one thing is not working and I want you to trust me to do this group coaching thing and let's just see what happens." And it was like magic. What used to take so many years to get people through, in 90 days, we could collapse two years' worth of work into 90 days and get the massive outcomes. So, that's what Unleashing Influence became, is a coaching company and that's what I do for a living now.

John: Awesome. I think the next part is going to sound to my listeners perhaps as an advertisement for you, but really I want to hear the cases. Give us specific examples of some of the success that your clients have had just because it's fascinating and we can learn from what they learned. So, just a few cases would be fantastic.

Dr. Angela Mulrooney: One of my clients, she was former CIO of NASA.

John: That's a minor job. Yeah, right.

Dr. Angela Mulrooney: After 40 years in the tech industry, she came to me and she's like, "Okay, I don't want this anymore, I want to pivot." And originally she thought she wanted to be a professional speaker and I'm like, "Well, let's have a conversation about professional speaking looks like." Because I had done that before the pandemic had hit. And so, after our conversation, she's like, "Okay, I want to do what you're doing." I'm like, "Okay, let's do that."

She went through the accelerator with the other people in the group and she was able to close $150,000 the first month of working out of the accelerator. She was able to pivot fast and get her programs up and running.

I'll give you a dental specific one. She was making good money but she was working all one-on-one. So, she could only take on 10 practices and she was also traveling to the practices. And we have taken all the travel off the table and made it all online because she was like, "I want to be able to be geographically free like you. Not necessarily traveling the world, but at least have some freedom to move around without being stuck. I have to go to this practice this week, I have to go to this practice this week."

We were able to redesign her program to 10 times her hourly rate and decrease how many hours she was working a week by a 10th. Then that freed her up to design a new program that allows her to keep condensing things and stay with the group programs and be able to move that into the future.

So, what I really like doing is helping people to get away from the one-on-one because if you've done any one-on-one, you go in with your idea and someone comes in with whatever happened that day and they're knocking you off.

John: I see.

Dr. Angela Mulrooney: Off your path. And you're like, "Okay shoot, we didn't stick to the curriculum." But with group, especially if you're doing a high caliber per group, and I recommend creating boutique groups, not your down sell of "Oh, I'll do one to a thousand." No, these are six people in your group and they start together and they finish together and they're going through a very specific curriculum and there's a very specific outcome that they are going to be achieving. People are so dedicated to that because no one wants to show up being the kid who's like, "Well, the dog ate my homework." They're all high caliber individuals. The dog didn't eat your homework, you just didn't do it. So, it's a very different approach versus one-on-one. And what I found is what I help people to do is some of the fluff that they were putting into their one-on-one coaching, we get rid of that. It's like, "What is the 5% that is creating 95% of outcomes?" That's all that goes in your program. So, that allows us to time collapse because they're not spending time on fluff and then the outcomes become huge.

John: Okay. I hear questions coming in right now. One of the question is going to be without going into too many specifics is what did the NASA person do in terms of just what was the general feel that they went in where they could generate that with just refocusing and reapplying some of the things that you've taught her?

Dr. Angela Mulrooney: She stayed in the tech industry. As a woman in tech, she shouldn't have been able to achieve what she did achieve with being the gender that she was being in the generation that she was. She goes in and works with Fortune 500 companies and helps a cohort of women to be able to raise their hand be like, "Okay, here's the innovation I want to bring into this company. Here's what I want for it." They're helping to elevate the company and they're also helping to elevate their own status within the company because that's what she did her whole career. So, we just took what she naturally did. This is what I do with everyone is, "What do you naturally do? How can we take what's happening in your beautiful brain and turn it into a curriculum that we can teach other people how you naturally did that?"

John: One thing I would add to that, and it sounds like I'm maybe disagreeing with her, but actually if you're a minority, if you're gender is woman or whatever, anything that's different companies are looking for that.

Dr. Angela Mulrooney: They are now. Yeah.

John: Don't let that hold you back. Let's boom, let's do it. All right. That's awesome. Okay, other examples? Have you worked with many clinicians as a background doing something like this, abandoning the old?

Dr. Angela 0Mulrooney: Yeah, I've worked with a few dental clinicians as well. Some of them are getting injured out and they're like, "I can see the end coming" which is nice if you can see the end coming. And some of them are just like, "I'm just done. I just want to move on to other things." And again, take what they naturally do that is so unnatural to everyone else and be able to teach them a process to get to the next level.

John: Okay. Now let me ask you, there was another question I had. I'm going to ask you about LinkedIn for sure.

Dr. Angela Mulrooney: Sure. That's my favorite topic.

John: Yeah, that's what I thought. The groups, and I think you mentioned this on your website, but what you sounded like you were describing is what some people call a mastermind. It's like group coaching but you're all holding each other accountable. Is that a separate thing, the mastermind, or is that just basically part of this process?

Dr. Angela Mulrooney: The first thing that they have to go through is the pivot accelerator. That gives them the foundation. I'm taking whatever they've got. If they already have one-on-one coaching or if they're coming from corporate and building out a new program, I do what's called a "crack you open" session. They always say that it's like "You took a look at my soul." And then you look at my experience, your expertise, passion, and then I package them and give them their brand in the marketplace. Then the accelerator is building out everything from building out their personal brand, learning how to be good on camera to create awesome content, building out their curriculum, learning how to actually sell themselves because selling for another company versus selling for themselves is a different story. And then also all the tech that they need behind it so that they can run a seven figure company with a part-time VA supported by a tech platform for it. That's the first level that they have to get through. And then once they graduate, then they can qualify to become part of the Badass Entrepreneurs Club, which is what we do to continue to become masterful at the program that they created while also scaling it to the next level.

John: Very nice. All right, we're going to get on LinkedIn, but why don't you go ahead and tell us your website URL so we at least have that now before the end of the episode.

Dr. Angela Mulrooney: Sure. It's unleashinginfluence.com.

John: Okay. That's easy. Unleashing influence. Of course, that'll be in the show notes. Now tell me why do you like LinkedIn so much? It sounds like you use it a lot. And I don't know if you use it to find clients or to just promote yourself. Just tell me your LinkedIn story.

Dr. Angela Mulrooney: LinkedIn is a beast. And a lot of professionals, including medical, dental, avoid LinkedIn. When I was first building my business coaching company for dentists, they're like, "You need to be on Facebook, you need to be on Instagram." I'm like, "My bet is on LinkedIn." Because no one else was using it. I was able to build a six figure company in six months just leveraging LinkedIn. And all I was doing was sending out messages, putting out content that was speaking to what I believed in and that got me clients. Then when I built the social media agency for professionals, LinkedIn again was our main tool. And I have dabbled with Facebook. I've tried Facebook ads. Meta has now eaten my lunch a few times without giving me a single client. $60,000, $70,000 worth of ads with no return. Yeah. I'm not a fan of Meta. But it's still a good platform, it's just not good for me and for the clients that I'm going after.

You have to really pick your platform based on what are you offering and who are your clients. There's tons of people who do well on Facebook. There's tons who do well on Instagram. For the clients that I work with, they're professionals speaking to professionals. That's why LinkedIn is so powerful. Yeah, that's how I built a social media agency. That is how I've built Unleashing Influence as it currently stands. All my clients come from LinkedIn.

John: Now, when you are using LinkedIn, I've never used an add-on software or tool for LinkedIn. You are just using basic LinkedIn, maybe Premier. How do you use LinkedIn and how do you reach people? Are you just one at a time reaching out?

Dr. Angela Mulrooney: We use Sales Navigator. With all my clients we get really specific about what are the degrees that we should be going after. Sometimes it's gender specific. Some of my clients only work with men, women, some of them only work with men. And then it's also figuring out what year would they have likely have graduated to be a certain age. We comb through those details. Sometimes it's also specific to a part of the country. Sometimes it's specific to a part of the world. It depends on the time zones that they want to work in and whatnot.

But we do get very specific about those things because LinkedIn has taken away people's ability to spam and behave badly. Now you only get 20 new connections per day on average. And so, you want to be very careful with how you're spending those 20 connections, especially if you want to get profitable fast, you want to be getting in touch with the right people. The more drilled down you can get into that as to the things that I talked about, the better off you are. And then not only do you need to be finding the right people, you need to be sending the right message to them.

I always talk about being polarizing, and it's not to be a badass or anything like that. It's just to be like you either want people to be a "yes" or "no." Not a "maybe." Because you don't have time to be talking to people who are "no." The people who are "yes", that's what you want to figure out. And you want to slowly get them dialed down by having conversations with them, getting them into an event and then getting them onto a call to become part of your program. And the faster you can push people out who are not appropriate, the faster you're going to get the result.

And a lot of people, I'm going to refer to my nationality here, are very Canadian about this and they're like, "But I started a conversation so I have to finish it." And it's like, "Well, you don't actually." You can politely find your way out of it. And lots of people, they don't come back onto LinkedIn for like six months. The fact that you didn't respond to someone who was not appropriate to you, it's not going to be a big deal. No one's going to shoot you over that.

John: I like it. Good advice. What I noticed when I'm looking at your website, and I actually signed up for one of your courses, I think it was one of the intros, but I think you used that. So, explain how that works for those that might be the right process. You have something out there, you have a LinkedIn profile, maybe you're reaching out to people. I gather the thing you want to do is just get them into that first exposure to you at some level. So, just map that out for our listeners.

Dr. Angela Mulrooney: Right. After we found the right people, we're going to send a message, start a conversation, and then I take over the conversation until I get them to the point where I'm like, "Okay, this seems like the right fit of person." If they're like, "I really need to talk to you because I've shown them what I do", then I will get on a call with them. But I don't really want to close them on that first call because I want them to have time with me in the room. That's what my events are for. I do five day challenges and five hour intensivess. And what those are is me taking people through what it would be like to be in my classroom, and helping them to move into a transformation. Usually what I focus on is a mindset transformation. I'm going to give you technical things to do as well, but the biggest shift is getting out of your own way. And we talk a lot about burning things away, which is usually what's holding people back. Because they're like, "Oh, but I've always done this" and so I need to keep doing it. They carry all this garbage with them and they keep redoing the things that aren't actually making a difference. So it's like how do we pair this down to the 5% that's giving you 95% results.

And so, when people experience that, they're either a "yes" or a "no" for actually becoming part of my program, which makes it easy for me. And I'm also a "yes" or a "no" for them being part of my program because I'm seeing how do they behave in the room? Do they play well with others? Are they willing to be vulnerable? Because I ask some pretty hard questions in it. So, I want to make sure that they are actually going to be willing to be truthful, not posture about what is actually happening in their life.

And also are they responsive to inputs? If they're like, "Oh no, no, no, I already knew that", they're not really likely to be coachable. That's going to make it not very fun when they're in my accelerator, or intensely trying to get through things, resistance is not great. For people who are resistant, I'll recommend that they do the Unleash Your Badass Self Profitability, it's a 30 day mindset program, and to see how they come out on the other side of that. Because it really makes it clear what your programs are, what your resistance is, what has been holding you back. But yeah, it gives people, for my clients to use it as well because of the same reasons. You get to see who's in the room, you get to see how they act, you get to see if you're a good chemistry together or not and decide whether you want them in your program.

John: Interesting. Yeah. It reminds me of someone I heard say when asked the question of whether they're interested in something. If it's not a "hell yes", then it should be a "no." That's the old adage. Okay, we are actually out of time. We went over a little bit, not a big deal, but we are going to have to wrap up. Actually, if you want to tell us anything more about what you do and convince some of the listeners to get off their something and take action, I'll give you a couple minutes to do that and then we'll wrap up.

Dr. Angela Mulrooney: Sure. My suggestion is if you have been plateauing for a while, you've got to decide if you want to stay plateauing or if you want to get out of your way. And if you come to one of the events, either the five day intensive or five day challenge or five hour intensive, you are going to see things about yourself that you can't unsee that are going to propel you forward. It will make you break through your plateau. It's really hard to go back to what you were before the event started. So, if you are feeling stuck and you're looking for possibilities and want to get some ideas, I highly recommend that you attend one of those.

John: And that would apply to even someone who's maybe unhappy in their clinical situation now, but still wants to see patients somehow, but just needs to have a breakthrough or something that would apply to them as well. Correct?

Dr. Angela Mulrooney: Absolutely. Absolutely.

John: Okay, good. Because I tend to get focused on taking people out of practice and move them into utilization management or this or that or starting some kind of company. But there's really no reason why they can't apply these principles to what you're doing now and just make it like you said, something that you love to do and get rid of all the stuff you hate. Okay. Again, how's the best way to get ahold of you?

Dr. Angela Mulrooney: The best way to get ahold of me is on LinkedIn. My profile is Dr. Dr. Angela Mulrooney.

John: Okay. That's easy to find and I'll put that in the show notes. We've got your website, unleashinginfluence.com, which I'll put in the show notes as well. We've learned a lot here in the last 30 minutes. This has been fantastic, Angela. I really thank you for taking time on your world travels. We didn't tell the listeners when we started, where are you right now?

Dr. Angela Mulrooney: I'm currently in Paris and in two days I will be moving to Greece.

John: Paris, Illinois. No, I don't think so. Paris, France, and going to Greece next. Oh, that is awesome. And I guess you are working obviously.

Dr. Angela Mulrooney: Yeah.

John: All right, with that Angela, don't hang up on me, but we're going to say goodbye for the podcast. I really appreciate you coming here and I hope to talk to you again soon.

Dr. Angela Mulrooney: Perfect.

John: All right, bye-bye.

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What's New and the Cost of Coaching – Episode 327

In today's episode, John shares what's new, and explores the cost-benefit considerations of career coaching. This topic was triggered by a podcast listener's question. It is a common concern of those seeking a major career pivot, and are considering whether to hire a coach to help them navigate the process. 

He guides listeners on how to discern the right type of coach, considering multiple factors, including the cost. Before getting into that topic, he also provides an update regarding what's new with NewScript, the Nonclinical Career Academy, and former podcast guests.

Our Show Sponsor

We're proud to have the University of Tennessee Physician Executive MBA Program, offered by the Haslam College of Business, as the sponsor of this podcast.

The UT PEMBA is the longest-running, and most highly respected physician-only MBA in the country. It has over 700 graduates. And, the program only takes one year to complete. 

By joining the UT Physician Executive MBA, you will develop the business and management skills you need to find a career that you love. To find out more, contact Dr. Kate Atchley’s office at (865) 974-6526 or go to nonclinicalphysicians.com/physicianmba.

Did you know that you can sponsor the Physician Nonclinical Careers Podcast? As a sponsor, you will reach thousands of physicians with each episode to sell your products and services or to build your following. For a modest fee, your message will be heard on the podcast and will continue to reach new listeners for years after it is released.  The message will also appear on the website with over 8,000 monthly visits and in our email newsletter and social media posts. To learn more, contact us at john.jurica.md@gmail.com and include SPONSOR in the Subject Line.

Understanding the Value of Expertise in Coaching

John explains his perspective on using a coach to accelerate one's professional advancement. He challenges the perception that coaching should be priced solely based on the hours spent, asserting that it's about the value derived from the coach's expertise. He explains the importance of coaches committing to tangible results, drawing parallels to his experience as a CMO where outcomes were paramount.

Choosing the Right Coach for Your Goals

John discusses the importance of selecting a coach aligned with your objectives, emphasizing that experienced coaches, despite their higher fees, offer valuable expertise. He touches upon the price range, mentioning that fees can vary, from a few thousand dollars for shorter sessions to potentially higher amounts for longer-term coaching. He advises prospective clients to carefully assess a coach's approach and seek references before making a decision. 

Summary

The best coaches are well-trained, with years of practical experience. Many have expertise in specific industries and serve as mentors and consultants. The cost of hiring a coach can be significant. But in most cases, those costs are justified by the improved lifestyles, career advancement, and higher salaries the clients achieve as a result of their coaching. 

As explained during the episode, Dr. Debra Blaine has recently released her 4th novel. It is called The Meriki Effect and can be found at most large bookstores and here on Amazon (this is an Amazon affiliate link).

And Dr. Andrew Wilner is releasing the 100th episode of his popular podcast called The Art of Medicine on December 10th. It is an eclectic collection of interviews that will entertain and educate listeners like you. It can be found on all major podcast channels, including iTunes, Buzzsprout, and The Art of Medicine on YouTube.

And if you'd like to listen to Dr. Wilner's interview with Dr. Blaine from three years ago, that can be found RIGHT HERE on YouTube.

NOTE: Look below for a transcript of today's episode. 

EXCLUSIVE: Get a daily dose of inspiration, information, news, training opportunities, and amusing stories by CLICKING HERE.

Links for Today's Episode:

• Why Physicians Should Not Underestimate the Value of Coaching – 274
• More On How to Hire a Suitable Physician Career Coach – 216
• How Do I Choose the Best Coaches Mentors and Masterminds for Me? – 208
• Top Reasons Why Coaching Is So Essential for Healthcare Leaders – 197
• NewScr!pt

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Today's PNC Podcast Transcript

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Transcription PNC Podcast Episode 327

What's New in My World and Is Coaching Worth the Expense?

John: Okay, before I get into the actual topic for today, I'm going to tell you a little story, which obviously will relate to the question. There was a time in Russia when all religions were basically banned. Churches were closed. There were no gatherings allowed to pray, and they were being persecuted. It doesn't mean that all the activities stopped, of course, because you can't really keep people from worshiping if that's what they've been taught and what they grew up doing.

But anyway, after a while, things did loosen up and the brave believers could go back to church. There was a priest in a very small town who began to spend time every day in his church. And the mayor or magistrate of that town didn't like it. He was still against having those kinds of gatherings and allowing people to do that. He sent a soldier to stand at the front of the church every day at the front, at the door to intimidate the priest when he would go over there. When he tried to enter the church, the soldier was to demand the answer to questions. The questions were the following. Number one was, who are you? And the other was, why are you here? And so then the priest would have to take a moment and quietly and without being too aggressive, answer the questions. And then the soldier would begrudgingly let him in.

This went on every day. The priest was going every day. The soldier was there every day, rain or shine, snow, whatever. And week after week and month after month, this soldier would ask, "Who are you and why are you here?" And the priest would adjust his answers over time as he had more time to try and come up with answers. But finally things really loosened up. And the soldier informed the priest that day would be his last day because he was being reassigned and being no longer a soldier at the door.

The priest looked at him and he said, "Sir, when you finish your career as a soldier, I'd like you to come back here and resume your duties. Because you have no idea how much you've helped me by forcing me to answer those two questions each day for myself, who am I and why am I here?"

I like that story. And honestly, I heard that story from a bishop who was residing over a Catholic mass in Lourdes, France. You can imagine that the setting was kind of interesting, and I won't go into too much, but I had never heard that story before. And so, it has stuck with me.

But it relates to coaches, because for some coaching, that's kind of the crux of their coaching. "Why am I here? Who am I? What do I stand for? Who am I? Why am I here? What are my goals? What are my plans?" Things like that.

The question that I was asked earlier this week was pretty straightforward. Basically, described what he wanted, what his situation was, why he was looking to find a new career. And he had contacted several coaches with the information and had told him what he wanted, what he needed.

And one of the coaches said, "Well, she was going to provide three hours of coaching, split up three separate hours, and it was going to address the three issues that he really had asked her to address." And she was going to charge somewhere between $2,000 and $3,000 to do that. And so, the follower or the listener from the podcast that emailed me said that to him that sounded kind of "steep", it sounded kind of expensive particularly since it was going to be limited to three hours. Maybe he did the math, I don't know, but he was maybe expecting a lower number. I provided my answer, and what I'm going to do now is sort of doing an extended version of the answer that I provided to him.

Thinking about my answer to this and this issue, brings up another story, actually. We can call it a parable, but I think this one is actually real. But there was a factory, actually, a publisher owned a multimillion dollar offset press that it used to print weekly tabloids. And one day the press came to a screeching halt. It just died. It made a really loud noise, stopped running, and that was it. The people working at the print shop, they were working on this massive press, tried everything they knew to get it running again. The operators, the maintenance staff, they even had mechanical engineers at the plant, and they were unable to get that machine to run again. They were out of business temporarily until they either replaced the machine or got it fixed. The operations VP called around to all of her colleagues to try to identify someone who might know how to solve this problem, recounting everything that they had tried so far.

And there was one name that came up several times during those calls. The VP reached out and contacted this consultant, made arrangements to come by the next day. Now, I said the word consultant, and when I'm talking about consultants and coaches, there's a lot of overlap. Sometimes I'll use those terms interchangeably because when we're talking about career coaching, a lot of that is consulting too, because you're not just doing the generic things that a coach would do, which are very similar to what a therapist would do, but you get into a lot of specifics when you're doing career coaching as to how to apply, where to apply and that kind of thing.

This consultant spoke to everybody who ran the press, everybody who tried to repair it. He looked at the machine for about 30 minutes, made a few adjustments, and he was able to get that press running a few minutes after doing all of that. The thing was, the VP was pretty upset when the consultant handed her a bill for $15,000 for repairing the machine. And she asked him how he could justify $15,000 for about one hour's worth of work. And what the consultant told him was, "Look, you didn't hire me as an hourly employee telling me what to do. You needed my expertise. No one else could have solved this problem. I spent the last 30 years acquiring unique experience and knowledge to be able to fix this particular problem."

And so, that wasn't what the $15,000 for. It wasn't his time there, his ability to remove a piece of the equipment or whatever it was. Knowing what to do, having seen that kind of problem before, reaching into their mental toolbox and figuring out, "Okay, this is what's going to solve this problem."

And I'm sure the other part of the argument was, "Look, if I hadn't come today and solved this problem, you would probably at best be able to get the manufacturer to come out here in two or three days and maybe solve the problem within the next few days or even a week. And by that time, you would be way beyond $15,000 worth of lost revenue, not to mention a lot of unhappy customers."

I use that again as an example of what we're talking about in coaching and consulting. So, you have to change the way you look at this. First of all, what I know is that the most experienced and effective coaches will probably charge the most for their time. And if you're thinking about it, let's say you're applying for a job as a physician or a clinician, let's say an APN, PA or whatever, pharmacist, you're going to be making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.

If you're a physician, it could be $300,000, $400,000 a year and whatever job you're going into, whether it's clinical or nonclinical. And to expect to hire an effective coach for $100 an hour or $200 an hour for you to land a job that's going to stop a lot of your problems, make you happier or make you less stressed, uses your skills. There's a lot that goes into that. You should expect to be paying that person just doing the job you would be applying for can make $200 or $300 an hour. So why would they devote time and sharing their expertise with someone for less than that at least.

And the thing is, if you need specific information, this is where I'm talking about the expertise of a really focused consultant or coach. Let's say you want to get a particular job in a particular industry that's going to pay very well, and that means the coach has probably had that job or has hired someone to that job, knows the job description, knows what the must haves and the nice to have skills or experiences needed to land that job would be, then it's going to be worth a multiple of that $200 to $300 an hour.

And again, if you're talking about just general life coaching, it's going to be on the lower end because there's just general principles that can be applied. But if you also want to get in, I need specifics of how to write my resume, how to send out a cover letter, where do I apply? What's the quickest? There's some things that you have no idea.

For example, for some jobs in pharma, let's say, you really should apply to a CRO rather to a pharmaceutical company. And a good coach that is let's say addressing pharmaceutical jobs in the pharmaceutical industry will have that kind of knowledge. Someone in hospital health systems, they're going to have specific knowledge as to what the CFO, the CEO and the CMO are looking for in hiring a medical director or even a VP for somebody in that facility.

Another way to look at it is to consider what is your goal when you're thinking about engaging a coach? And maybe this will help make it even more clear. Is it a simple task or a complex task? That's a big differential. If we're talking about, okay, I want to learn how to plant the tree, I want to learn how to fix a tech problem, or let's say repair my bicycle. Well, to learn that, to get coaching for that, it's pretty simple. You can go online, you can Google it, you can go on YouTube and within five minutes they'll walk you through a process. You can answer those questions.

But if we think about some other more complex sorts of goals like landing a new job, starting a successful business, I can imagine even winning your first election, I've never tried that, but I'm assuming that they're experts and coaches and consultants that help you do that. And they're not going to be cheap.

Even this is a good one that I talked to a podcast guest about, and that was gaining admission to a top tier medical school. Now, there are dozens and dozens of things that you should do. Now we think we know how we're going to do that, obviously get the best grades we can and write a good letter of introduction and do the application properly. But there are people that are paying hundreds and hundreds of dollars per hour because they're thinking, "Okay, I want to get into this residency in this specialty." You name it, whatever, gastroenterology or otolaryngology. And I have my eye on two or three fellowships and two or three residency programs and maybe a really top tier medical school for whatever reason. That's not how I did it. I just want to get into med school so I can be a doctor.

But there are coaches who specialize in starting with the undergrads, how to get it in the best med school, the best residency, the best fellowship they pay. They're paid hundreds and thousands of dollars to teach them how to do that because there's only a few people that have done it. And besides just being an excellent student and having a good work ethic, there are a lot of little tips and tricks that if you don't know them, you're never going to get into Harvard.

As we get into these more complex and maybe even time-wise, more longitudinal, the cost is going to go up because the number of people with the expertise is going down. Now there are caveats because just because someone says they can do this, shouldn't be you're going to plunk down $5,000, $10,000, whatever, and believe that they can do it. So, there are caveats.

One is what is the deliverable that you want to get from this coaching? Is it just you need an accountability partner who can do basic coaching once a month, once every two weeks to accelerate your progress? Pretty much any good coach, general life coach or business coach can do that, can maybe take you from something you would've done on your own in a year and get it down to six months or two years down to nine months, something like that. And that doesn't require necessarily specific special expertise.

But if you're looking more towards a deliverable that is an outcome, it's like in the hospital setting when we were talking about quality improvement and patient safety. You've got some outcomes. Well, they're not really outcomes, they're processes. I put in place a good quality improvement process, so that means I have good quality, right? No, that doesn't ensure that at all. It just means you have a process which may or may not be delivered appropriately and effectively. The real proof is the outcomes, the patient care outcomes. That's the end point.

So, it's not always easy to get a coach to commit to an end point because so much of what you accomplish when you're being coached is the commitment that you have and the time and the coachability that you have. I like to think of myself as coachable, but it's hard when you have a strong personality. If you might be a little OCD like me or whatever it might be, you might always think that you know how to do things. And so, if you're going to get a coach, you want to be coachable, particularly if you're trying to get an outcome, because most of the time the coach won't take you unless you agree to follow what they do. Otherwise, they can't guarantee the outcome.

I remember this applied too when I was working as a CMO of the hospital. When we had a consultant come in, we always wanted to know what the outcome was. In other words, we didn't want someone to come in and say, "Look, I am going to do some lectures and I'm going to teach your staff all about how to be doing utilization management and reduce your denials. And so, you're going to pay me $1,000 for every lecture. I'm going to do 10 lectures, I get $10,000, and that's how I'm going to address your utilization management and length of stay program."

As opposed to someone who said, "No, we're going to come in, we're going to have a team, and we're going to start by educating everybody. And then once you implement these new things that we're teaching you, we're going to be there side by side watching and coaching your staff how to respond to questions, how to talk to patients, how to talk to physicians, what kind of checklist to use, and really get down into the nitty gritty. And we will guarantee that you're uncollectible revenue because of denials or other metrics that represent that we'll guarantee at least a 20% improvement in that. And generally we shoot for a 50% improvement."

Now you're talking about outcomes. You have to get to that point if you want to really make sure that an expensive coach is worth it. If you're saying, "Well, I want to find a part-time remote job in either utilization management or clinical documentation improvement", and then you try and pin down the coach, "Okay, so you're going to teach me specific ways to accomplish this, and in your estimation, I should be able to land that new job within what period of time." So you might not get an actual guarantee, but you'll might get something like, "Well, if you follow everything that we tell you, come to your meetings, don't blow us off and pay us on time, then yes, we will refund part of your money if that doesn't happen." That's almost like a guarantee.

The way to do that, two things. One is you definitely have to interview your coach, and most coaches have a so-called discovery call, which actually has value because they will give you advice right on that discovery call. But the main purpose of the discovery call really is to have a 30 minute conversation, let's say with the coach, and just hear their voice, tell them to explain why they think they can help you, what would be entailed, do they have a certain way to approach this problem? And really, if at all possible, get some testimonials for sure, although those are usually provided directly by the coach or consultant. But getting references, if you could talk to two or three people that can concretely answer your question, how long were you using this coach? How often did you meet? What were your sessions like? And was there other supporting material? Did they have intellectual property they were sharing with you like checklists and, and resource lists and things that they only share with their coachees? And did they live up to their promise and did you get the job that you thought you were going to get at the end of that coaching?

Sometimes there's coaches that won't do that, but really a few thousand dollars for a few hours with a career coach for a physician is quite reasonable. I know though there are others that go as high as $5,000 or $10,000 over we're talking a year or so because career transition can take a long time. And if you think about it, there are people that spend tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of dollars to be in let's say a monthly meeting with Tony Robbins or some really high powered motivational expert.

The bottom line on the answer to the question that I had earlier this week from that physician was, look, something between t$2,000 and $3,000, if you can make it crystal clear what you're looking for and your expectation is that you should be able to be in a position to really identify the job and apply for the job by the end of your coaching. And if the coach will agree to that, not guaranteeing that you get the job, but really sharing all that knowledge, information and advice and even encouragement, then I would say definitely.

I've paid two people in the past for a year's worth of coaching, which is basically monthly meetings for $8,000 for each, for two totally different reasons. I'm a believer and I think it was worth it. And just like I think it's worth it to pay my fitness coach and work out with him two times a week. And when you add up all the payments that I've done every week for the last few years, it's added up to more than a few thousand dollars and I'm in a lot better health.

And just to be crystal clear, I was saying that the $2,000 to $3,000 for three sessions plus whatever ansley information that the coachee would get was worth it. Now if you're talking about something that goes six months or a year, it's probably going to be much more than that. And I still think that's a good investment.

All right, that's all I have for today. Thank you very much for being here.

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The post What’s New in My World and Is Coaching Worth the Expense? appeared first on NonClinical Physicians.