In this podcast episode, John interviews Dr. Debra Blaine,  a returning guest from 2022, for Part 2 of their discussion on how to publish a book and promote your business. 

Dr. Blaine, a former physician turned full-time author, continues to share her insights on the writing and self-publishing process.

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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.
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Overcoming Writer's Block and Setting Realistic Goals

Dr. Blaine emphasizes the importance of manageable writing goals, suggesting that aspiring authors shouldn't feel pressured to write a 300-page book immediately. She recommends breaking the writing process into smaller, less overwhelming pieces.

Dr. Blaine also shares tips on crafting engaging openings and maintaining reader interest throughout a book, including using “hooks” at the beginning of chapters and “cliffhangers” at the end.

Practical Writing Tips from a Seasoned Author

Dr. Blaine offers practical advice for aspiring writers, including keeping detailed notes on characters and plot points. She discusses her current projects, including a guide on the elements of fiction writing and a new trilogy.

Debra emphasizes the value of consistent writing habits, suggesting that authors find a routine that works for them, whether it's writing every morning or setting aside specific times during the week.

Summary

To learn more or connect with Dr. Blaine, you can visit her website, allthingswriting.com, email her at db@allthingswriting.com, or find her on LinkedIn. Debra's books are available on her website and at Amazon, and she offers a free novella titled Deadly Algorithm through her website, providing an excellent introduction to her writing style and themes.

Links for today's episode:

• Dr. Debra Blaine's Website: All Things Writing
• Debra's latest book on self-publishing, The WriteR Stuff: Step-by-Step Guide to Self-Publishing and Worldwide Distribution
• For an example of Debra's writing download a free copy of Deadly Algorithm
• Vellum, the software Debra uses to write her books (this is an affiliate link)
• Debra's LinkedIn Page
• Part 1 on How to Publish a Book and Promote Your Business
• Purchase Your All Action Pass Videos and Bonuses from the 2024 Summit (Use Coupon Code 30-OFF)
• The Nonclinical Career Academy

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 373

Part 2 - More on How to Publish a Book

John: The question is when you're doing the coaching and people need help, you said it was the creative side.

Dr. Debra Blaine: It's the creative side, and feeling overwhelmed. A lot of them thinking I can't write a whole book. And so, the first thing is you don't need to write a whole book. Nobody eats a slice of pizza in one bite. You write a piece of the book and it doesn't have to be a 300 page book. It can be a 100 page book. It could be an 80 page book. You can sort of figure it out so that you don't overwhelm yourself. That and getting organized, helping them to organize.

John: Okay. I'm not going to jump into writing the memoir of my entire family, my nine siblings and all of their families and my parents and aunts and uncles and everything in over a span of 80 years or something. No, I'll remember not to do that for sure.

But I did notice recently, and I don't know if it was, I was reading a book or watching a movie or both was that I need something to get me interested in the first page. Like you said, if there's something happening right now, you just into it, you have no idea who you're reading about, what their motivation is, what's going on, except something is happening. That's a good way to get me at least interested in the book.

Dr. Debra Blaine: Yeah, and that's called the hook. And not only do you want your title to represent the book and be a little bit of a hook, your metadata, the book description, that first line that says what the book is about, that's got to be a hook. But then when you start your first paragraph should be a hook. One of the things that a lot of new authors do, in particular, is they start off the book with it was the best of times, it was the worst of times, which is great, because they had a longer attention span back then. But when I write a book, a lot of times when I consult with my author clients, I have them jump into a scene, it's already happening around you. It doesn't have to be the main character. But what is the emotional stress on this character? And why? And so, immediately, who is the person? What is the conflict? Why do we care?

And so, not everybody's going to love every book, right? But for those who are going to be your readers, they're going to eat that up. And then they're going to keep going. And at the end of every chapter, you don't want to leave the end of the chapter, "Okay, and she went to bed feeling much better." Chapter three. I can put that down and I forgot to pick that up. Oh, three months later. She went to bed, but the question was still in her mind of what happened to whatever, fill in the blank. You always want to end the chapter with a little bit of a hook that makes the reader want, I don't want to see what's happening and turn that page.

John: Isn't that how soap operas do it? There's a cliffhanger at the end of each episode. And so you'll come back next week.

Dr. Debra Blaine: Yeah, exactly. Right.

John: Something like that. Yeah. I don't know, when you get older, it seems like time is going faster. This is totally off the wall, but I just mentioned when I'm reading a book, each chapter towards the end seems to go faster than the ones that were the first half of the book. Is that just my imagination?

Dr. Debra Blaine: Well, it could be. In my books I tend to write short chapters, although this trilogy that I'm writing, I've noticed that the chapters are longer, but it depends. Some authors write shorter chapters. Take a look, look at the old books, the days of your, and if the chapter was 25 pages, and then this one is only five pages, well, then it's not you.

John: I see, they're manipulating me. Okay. I was going to ask you about some lessons you've learned that want to make sure prospective writers or current writers might learn from to make things a little easier for them if they decide to do this kind of thing.

Dr. Debra Blaine: I didn't know anything about really book writing when I started. I had this story to tell and I mixed it in. I had the story to tell about what's happening in healthcare, but I mixed it in with this medical thriller about people hacking into our EMRs and extorting money and killing the patients. I didn't have a sense of... I read a lot when I was a kid. I kind of understood instinctively the arc of a story and that I wanted my characters to be really interesting people and what makes somebody interesting. They learn things about themselves, but there were so many things I didn't understand. And even though I worked with a mentor for a year and he helped me tremendously. I used to say that I got my master's from Rich Cravolin because he used to be a professor at the University of Southern California, but he didn't send me a certificate. But there's so much more, I guess the PhD version. There's so much more.

I love that you're familiar with my books. I wrote Undo Influences and then I wrote Beyond The Pillars of Salt. And then I wrote the Meraki Effect and that was followed by the Meraki Nexus. In trying to put those together, what I didn't know then is that a series sells faster. Now, when I was writing my first book, don't talk to me about series. I got this one book and that's all I can handle, but series sell faster. And since in those three books or four books, I kind of used the same characters. I liked the characters. I had developed the characters. I liked what they stood for. There was one that I didn't like too much. So I knocked them off, which is something you can do when you're an author.

But the difference was, is that the first one, Undo Influences is a conspiracy thriller, a government conspiracy political thriller, takes place in 2020. Beyond the Pillars of Salt is sort of a natural progression of what happens to those people and to the world with climate change and dictatorship like government that we seem to be headed for, at least at the time. And so, then that became more of a dystopian. And then like a dystopian is almost by definition, science fiction. And then what did they do? They had to leave planet earth and figured out how to do that, try to make it as realistic as possible. And then they got to planet Meraki. And so, that was a pure science fiction colonization, space opera, whatever.

I tried to put them together. I completely confused the Amazon algorithm. Seriously, it's an algorithm. It learns some things, but it's also kind of stupid. But it's a political, contemporary political thriller, dystopian science fiction, and then pure science fiction. Dystopian fiction, mostly on earth and then science fiction on another planet. And my sales went like through the floor. The things that I didn't realize is, this time I'm writing this trilogy and I'm going to keep it all in one genre and I'm going to write it to market.

The interesting thing is, I know self-published authors. I personally know self-published authors who are five, six, and seven digit authors. And I know of traditionally published authors who are probably five, six, and seven digits or more like James Patterson or somebody who has other people write most of his books now, by the way. But I know these people, I've spoken to these people. They're my coaches. They've told me how to work things. I didn't know this stuff before. And so, it's really helpful.

I've also heard and seen that most writers don't make it big until they've published a number of books. One of our colleagues, Freda McFadden, I'll throw in a plug for her though, not that she needs it. She is a neurologist. She has written, she has completely dominated the top 20 Amazon thrillers for the last six, eight months. She earned so much money from that. I don't know how much exactly, but I can promise you, she's probably in seven digits at this point. But she told me it took her nine years to become an overnight sensation.

John: Right.

Dr. Debra Blaine: She's got like 20 books out. My friend Christina's got 20 books out. A lot of hers are novellas. People do it with novellas too. But the magic number they said is about five or six where you start to see that you really can, because there's so many books out there. And when people buy a book, they want to know if they like it, that the author's written other things because they want to stick with that author.

John: Let me ask you a quick question. In the online world, there's this thing, you've probably heard of it, a thousand true fans. If you have a thousand true fans, whether you're selling photos or you're selling books or whatever, or a podcast or whatever, if you have a thousand true fans, which means they'll buy anything you produce. Have you ever calculated whether that would be sufficient to meet a certain level of success?

Dr. Debra Blaine: Well, you need to sell more than a thousand books.

John: But if you have 10 books out.

Dr. Debra Blaine: If you have 10 books, now you've got 10,000. And if they're true fans and they tell other people. So if you figure the average royalty, if you do it yourself is between... Well, the little guy, it's less because it's a small book. I can charge less because the printing cost, the paper costs and the paper costs has gone up. With an eBook, most of the places, if you self-publish will give you 70% of the profits as opposed to Ingram says they give you 70%, but I never got more than a buck and a half. And whatever their processing fees are.

But let's say you're getting $4 a book and you sell a thousand in a month, then you got $4,000. Once you start selling, that's how my little guy got to be number one and stay there for so long. Because I sold 52 copies in the first week. And when that happens, once it starts selling, then Amazon, the algorithm again, starts saying, "Okay, this book, people like this book", and it starts showing it to random people. Even if they're not the people that heard about it from me from somewhere.

And so, the more popular your book is, this is the way all social media works. When you post something on Instagram, if somebody likes it, that's great. But if they comment on it, then the algorithm thinks, "Oh, people like this", the more people that have commented on it, the more people Instagram will show you or not hate Instagram, I can't really figure it out. But the algorithm part I understand. And it's the same for Facebook, for LinkedIn, for Amazon, for any of these places. The more people are interested, it thinks more people will be interested. And because Amazon wants to sell books, it wants to present the one that seems to be selling so we can make even more money.

John: Right. It behooves us to maybe if we're doing something like that, to get a big bump at the beginning somehow.

Dr. Debra Blaine: Well, that's what I did. Actually when I published this little puppy, I put it up for the first week for 99 cents. And a bunch of people bought it. Now, I don't think 52 people that I presented to bought it. But a lot of other people bought it when it was on sale for 99. So now it's $3.99. But other people bought it. And then it stayed up there for two weeks. It was in the top five.

John: When I want to learn something, it's been a while, but I would just go on to Amazon and look, they have free books and then they have 99 cent books. And so, if I say, well, I want to learn about this, I'm just going to buy the first five of those books for five bucks. And so, there is some motivation there. People are looking for that because they know there's a good chance it's going to have good information. It's not going to usually be garbage or the person wouldn't have taken the time to produce it and get it out.

Dr. Debra Blaine: You'd be surprised. Some things are.

John: But some things are.

Dr. Debra Blaine: The thing with that is Amazon doesn't really want you to put your book up for 99 cents because they don't make any money. What they do is if your eBook is between $2.99 and $9.99, they give you 70% in royalties. There's no printing costs or anything. If it's below $2.99 or if it's above $9.99, they give you 35%. 52 people bought this, but I didn't make any money on it. It was more to get it up there and get it to where it was going to be seen. They each have their and the printing price when you go to put something up when you self-publish it, it's going to tell you as you're in the different stages that you enter it, it's going to tell you, okay, this is your book. This is how many pages it is because it's going to have looked at it before you get to that stage and it'll say the print cost will be, and it can be $2 if it's a tiny book, or it could be $5 or $6, or if it's a hardcover, it's going to be maybe $12 or $14, which is why hardcover books cost more. When you calculate your royalties for a print book, you're going to take the cost of the book. Amazon gets 40% of anything in print. Take the 40% off, then take the cost of printing and subtract that from what's left from your 60% and the rest is yours.

And when you punch it in, you say, okay, I want to charge $8.99 for this book and it'll calculate and say, this is going to be your royalty. I want to charge $12.99. Okay, this is going to be your royalty. I want to charge $4.99 and say, nope, can't do that, it's costing us more to print that. Really, you're not blind to it. You know exactly what you're going to get.

John: All right. Well, I think we're about out of time here. We've covered a lot of things, answered a lot of my questions. All right. Did you already mention what you're working on now?

Dr. Debra Blaine: I'm working on the sister to this guy, which is going to be about how to organize your book. What is a story arc? What is a character arc? How do you develop characters? How do you write convincing dialogue? The basic elements of fiction and applying it. And then I even have one example of taking a story, "Sue found a cat under a bush and took it in." Well, that's a plot, but the whole story arc, I go into this whole thing and what she was feeling when she found it and what happened when she picked it up because it's a scared cat and the vet bill. I created a story arc, but I also use examples from real time, like movies that we know and books that we know. That's that book.

John: I have a question about that.

Dr. Debra Blaine: Yeah.

John: That comes in my head also while you're talking. Do you have to keep a bio on your characters handy, or do you remember everything about how your characters think, what they would do in this situation, that situation, or you just wing it? How do you figure that out?

Dr. Debra Blaine: Great question. No, I can't keep all that on hand. Sometimes I can't even remember the name of what was her husband's name. But what I do is when I write, I have two documents going. I have the book and then I have the notes for the book, kind of like your show notes, maybe. And I list things. First of all, I'll write out the general arc of the story. I'll write out who are the characters and I'll put something about each character. And then when something significant happens, I'll add it. Okay, this woman was actually married to that guy and he did this. And I'll add those things and I save that.

And I do a lot of research when I write my books. Some of it's scientific, some of it medical, some of it physics, whatever. And I'll copy that and put it in too. I have it all so I can go back to it, not just in writing this book, but for the next book. Yeah, I can't remember all that.

John: I would think you'd need some kind of cheat sheet.

Dr. Debra Blaine: Yeah, how do you do that? I don't know anybody who can just sit down and... Maybe Frida can, I don't know.

John: I like to read series. As you mentioned, those are very popular. So I have this Michael Connolly has a series, he's like up to 30 books now. There's no way you could remember the characters, especially when he skips a book or two and then goes back to these old characters.

Dr. Debra Blaine: Right, right. Instead of reading the book again. But the other book I'm working on, which I'm really excited about, because this one it's more of a term paper kind of thing. I just started a trilogy. And did you read? Now I'm not intimidated by the idea of I'm going to write a trilogy because, well, yeah, I've written I've written seven books. Why can't I have a trilogy? So I can write three more. I don't know if you read. I put out a little freebie reader magnet Deadly Algorithm.

John: No, I have not read that. I saw it on your website.

Dr. Debra Blaine: Yeah, I can send you if you're interested. We can put the link in there because it's free if anybody wants it. It does put you on my newsletter, which is something I learned that authors need to have. But in that book, it's a medical thriller and it's got some EMR things and quirks. But what happens in the book is the mother. There's a child, a four year old child that has to be left behind with the dad.

And so, what I'm doing now is it's 12 years later and that child is looking for her mother. And so, this is going to be the quest and the bad guy, the antagonist in in the novella in Deadly Algorithm is basically corporate greed insurance companies, big pharma, they don't want to pay for health care anymore. So there they want people to die. And this particular character, who's the main character of that story, doesn't have any medical problems, but they give her one, a medical problem for which the cure will kill her. And so, why is that happening? And she has to run. Anyway, you can get that in just the blurb about it. So this is not 12 years later.

And now it's going to be where the real bad guy is way bigger than big pharma. And in the first part, the first book is going to be about Jenna searching for her family and what leads her to have to do that. And then ultimately, the population of the earth has been thinning due to climate change and people and too many resources depleted. And where is that going? I don't want to say the end of the book, but it's going to be that she said that that's a cat. She said, No, don't do it. But the bigger antagonist, the bigger evil is going to be way, way bigger. And it's going to have something to do with artificial intelligence. That's all I'm going to say, because that's the big thing these days.

And this time, I've got a lot of detail on that first book. I've got the second book, sort of roughly outlined, but I know where I'm going with it. And the same with the third. And I'm really excited about it, because this time, I'm writing it to market. I'm putting in the things that I didn't know to do before. So, how do you write to market? You find books that are like the book you want to write. And you look at them and compare them. How old is the protagonist? What's the setting? What's the year? Where are they? What are the common? What are the tropes that you find in there? What are the flaws of the characters? Now, that doesn't mean my book is going to be anything like them. But to just make sure that readers who expect those kinds of emotional bounces, we'll get them.

John: Nice, nice.

Dr. Debra Blaine: I'm excited about it.

John: Okay, that's going to be good. That'll be good for another podcast episode then. Okay, where should we find you? allthingswriting.com? Is that the best place to start?

Dr. Debra Blaine: That's my website, allthingswriting.com. And you can also find me on LinkedIn. And you can email me at db@allthingswriting.com. I don't know if you want to put in, there's a Calendly link, which you can find on my website. It's hard to know if I was able to get it into LinkedIn, I don't think I was. I was trying to figure that out.

John: But I always ask authors this, writers this. Probably you've already answered it. But should they go to your website to buy the books? If you go to your website anyway, to check them out, but I do end up just pushing them off to some other site or do you sell from the website?

Dr. Debra Blaine: I haven't started selling from the website because it's complicated. But Amazon is a great place to go. You can just do just do a Google search Debra Blaine books. And you'll come up with my books. And the nice thing is that the more even though I would get more money if I sold them myself, the more people buy it from Amazon, that algorithm kicks up. So it helps.

John: Right, right. Okay, well, I'm going to let you go now here in a second. You have a minute or two, if you have any bit of last minute advice for the listeners, maybe try to convince them to become a writer or not become a writer or a novelist.

Dr. Debra Blaine: I had a note about that, but I can't find it. My advice is write. If you have a story in your head, we call it a word dump. Just start writing it. Don't edit it while you're writing it. It's a first draft. It's a rough draft. It's not even your first draft. Because you can get so bogged down. And you don't have to figure "I'm going to write 80,000 words." You don't even think in terms of words. Put the word ticker on later but if you don't start writing, nothing will get down there. I used to have a mantra when I was writing Code Blue. And it was, "It's not going to write itself." Because I was one of those people who wanted to have written as opposed to wanting to write. But it doesn't happen like that.

John: Are you disciplined now? Can you black out so many so much time where you're going to write? Or do you kind of wing it now when you feel real productive to do more and then other days...?

Dr. Debra Blaine: I try to write every morning. My brain is crisper in the morning. And that's still that whole COVID thing. And I schedule clients usually in the afternoons and evenings. And even if I feel like I'm waning, I don't want to say sundowning. But if I'm waning, once I'm talking to someone, that energy that we bounce off each other, that ignites me and that's really helpful. It's a different part of my brain, but to sit and to write and to do the research and go back and forth. I try to do that in the mornings. And I try to write every morning.

John: Nice. That's good. That's good. Sounds like something that we should emulate if we're going to try and do that.

Dr. Debra Blaine: You don't have to do it every morning. As long as you put aside whatever time it is for you. And let's say it's only three times a week. Three evenings a week I'm going to tell my family, please just give me an hour. And it's the inertia I think of, you need to get started. Sometimes I'll say I can only write for 20 minutes and it'll end up being an hour and a half because it's getting started.

John: Once you get going, it's like a lot of things. I might have to split this into two episodes, Debra, but it's okay. Because then I don't have to do another episode. I'll just spread this out. Nobody wants to listen for an hour and they can break it up themselves, but I tend to go. I'll think about that after we hang up here.

All right. But with that, I'm going to say goodbye officially from the podcast and thank you for spending all this time with us today.

Dr. Debra Blaine: Thank you. Thank you so much. I always love talking to you.

John: You should read the books guys, because they're entertaining. It's an escape. Reading, relaxing, walking.

Dr. Debra Blaine: And you write the best reviews for me too. Well, that's the other thing. Please write review. The reviews are the hardest thing to get. It's really hard.

John: I'm going to put that in the show notes too. I'm going to say, here's the link. If you want to look for the books or you can go to Amazon here and always write a review if you do that, because the author definitely needs that. All right, then, you take care.

Dr. Debra Blaine: Okay. Thank you so much, John.

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The post More on How to Publish a Book appeared first on NonClinical Physicians.

In this podcast episode, John interviews Dr. Debra Blaine, a returning guest from 2022, for Part 1 of a discussion on how to publish a book and promote your business.

Dr. Blaine, a family physician turned full-time author, shares her experiences transitioning from medical practice to writing and self-publishing seven books since 2017.

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 Power of Self-Publishing

Dr. Debra Blaine shares her journey from medical practice to full-time author, having published seven books since 2017. She discusses the advantages of self-publishing, including greater control over the publishing process, faster turnaround times, and significantly higher royalties.

Self-publishing allows authors to maintain ownership of their work and make decisions about cover design, titles, and content without interference from traditional publishers.

Crafting Compelling Fiction

Drawing from her experience as an author and coach, Dr. Blaine offers insights into creating engaging fiction. She stresses the importance of a strong story arc, believable characters, and natural dialogue. The post discusses techniques for hooking readers from the first pages and creating emotional connections with characters.

Summary

In Part 1 of this 2-part episode, returning guest Deborah Blaine discusses her transition from physician to full-time author. She explains the benefits of self-publishing. She also shares insights on self-publishing, including tools, techniques, and the importance of effective book design and metadata. Finally, she offers her advice on crafting compelling fiction, focusing on the creative aspects of writing.

Links for today's episode:

• Dr. Debra Blaine's Website: All Things Writing
• Debra's latest book on self-publishing, The WriteR Stuff: Step-by-Step Guide to Self-Publishing and Worldwide Distribution
• For an example of Debra's writing download a free copy of Deadly Algorithm
• Vellum, the software Debra uses to write her books (this is an affiliate link)
• Debra's LinkedIn Page
• Purchase Your All Action Pass Videos and Bonuses from the 2024 Summit (Use Coupon Code 30-OFF)
• The Nonclinical Career Academy

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

Email Download New Tab

Transcription PNC Podcast Episode 372

How to Publish a Book and Promote Your Business - Part 1

John: I really enjoy reading novels. I've slowed down recently, but I probably read 10 or 15 novels when I was really in the mood to read some years. But that's in addition to all the business and self-help books, things like that over the years. And I've always been impressed by the combination of creativity and discipline that successful novelists have. So, I think of people that are creative as being creative. But to be creative and disciplined, that's something a little bit different.

Anyway, I invited Dr. Debra Blaine back to the podcast now because she's a novelist. She's been writing for years. She's been on the podcast two or three times before. And she just recently self-published a book on self-publishing. That was very Meta. So welcome back, Debra, to the podcast.

Dr. Debra Blaine: Thank you so much, John. Thanks for having me.

John: It's always fun when we get together. We have a lot to talk about, but you've been very busy. I don't talk to too many writers that can say that you've written how many books in how many years now?

Dr. Debra Blaine: Well, I started just writing a first draft in 2017, but I have now published seven books.

John: Okay.

Dr. Debra Blaine: And I'm working on some more.

John: That's quite a lot of productivity there from the writing standpoint. So if you can keep that up, then you'll have a lot of books out there over the years. And the other thing, of course, the listeners should remember that one of the things that makes you unique, I've had other writers on, but they're mostly medical writers, but you made a commitment. You decided, "You know what? I'm going to stop practicing and I am going to try to grow this writing thing to be sort of my new vocation." Is that what I recall correctly?

Dr. Debra Blaine: Correctly.

John: Okay. And you're actually the only one I've ever interviewed that has written a novel or six. And I had one poet once that wrote a book of poetry. I don't know if that that doesn't quite count. I don't think so. Anyway, let's get into what's new with you. Fill us in since you know what's been going on since we talked. Oh, it's been about almost two years ago.

Dr. Debra Blaine: Great. It's interesting. You said I decided. I was writing as kind of a side gig. Sometimes life comes along and kicks you in the butt and says, okay, you're really miserable practicing medicine and you're not going to do this anymore, even though you think that maybe you should or whatever reason. I got Covid about 18 months ago and it completely changed my life. I'm a very special person. I'm one of the seven percent who got long Covid. And I still even now, I cannot focus for 12 hours straight. I don't have the stamina to go from room to room, to room, to room and spend every moment of those 12 hours concentrating or treating patients thinking I need to take breaks. And what they told me was when I asked them and I said, "Listen, I'll come back to work, but I'm going to need to take a 10 minute break every three or four hours." And they actually wrote it in a text. "Unfortunately, there are no breaks in urgent care."

And so that being said, I resigned. I was on disability for six months and then that ran out. And then life kicked in and kicked me in the butt and said, okay, you have the side gig. And I think that even if that hadn't happened, I feel like a lot of my life and a lot of perhaps other people's lives is constantly redefining where we're going. It's like if we're headed in one direction, sometimes it's not quite due north. Maybe it's northeast a little bit. Or maybe I need to take a detour over here. It's kind of a zigzag finding my way. It has been for me to find my way into what I really enjoy doing and to be able to throw myself into it.

I started writing in 2017, a few words scribbled on a couple of pages. I published that book in 2019. And since then, I've put out six more books. And this summer I put out two books. One of them is really short. The self-publishing book is pretty short. And I'm working on I'm working on two books now. And one of them is also a nonfiction, it's going to be a guide. And I'm going to come up with a better name for it, but a guide to fiction writers, the elements of fiction. What do you need to put in? How do you how do you determine a story arc? How do you develop characters so that it's more of a how to without having to get a master's degree in writing. Just in a short little book bum, bum, bum. These are the things to put in. This is why. And these are tips. I'm going to hopefully have that out in a couple of weeks.

John: But I have a question since you mentioned writing two books. The most writers, this is how I would think of it, would I would keep I would try and work on one till it was pretty much done and then go to the next as opposed to going to write two or three or four all simultaneously. I assume different authors, writers just do it differently.

Dr. Debra Blaine: Yeah. I thought I was absolutely out of my mind. But to me, they're different sides of the brain. Writing a guide about how to write fiction is kind of like writing a term paper, but making it interesting and fun. Whereas the trilogy I just started is a complete my right side of the brain. And it's a whole different kind of thinking. So they don't really clash. But the one of our colleagues who said she kindly said she would take a look at it when it's finished to tell me if I forgot anything. She said she's working on two books right now. And so she would get to a couple of weeks. I said, oh, I'm not the only one.

John: Yeah.

Dr. Debra Blaine: So I guess not. But yes, I think common sense. And certainly if you're a beginning writer, I would focus on one.

John: Yeah, that makes sense. I can imagine, though, the great writers that we all have our favorites. I could imagine if that was their full time occupation and they were really putting 40, 50 hours a week in it, that they might have three or four things going on at once, because I know there's certain times of the day, certain days of the week. And just the way your mind works, sometimes it's more focused on certain things than other things.

Dr. Debra Blaine: And some of them have ghostwriters for them, too.

John: Well, I got some questions for you today. We'll just kind of go wherever you want to go, but tell us about the self-publishing book. Why did you write it? And then you can tell us, some of the advantages to self-publishing while you're talking about that.

Dr. Debra Blaine: Okay. Just as a caveat to that, I'm going to say or a segue into that is that I think I've spent as much time studying, learning, going to webinars, reading about the authorship process, including publishing, as I did in basic sciences. And so, I learned to self-publish. And when I did that, everything changed for me. I could put books out so much faster. I could do it on my timeline. And I wanted to share that. I wanted other people to know that there's other options. If you want to go the traditional publishing road, you have to query an agent and the agent has to find a publisher. And the process can take forever and literally because you may not ever find someone. Agents, I think they get like 200 queries a week and they have to go through. And most of the time, traditional publishers will not entertain your submission without it coming through an agent. And then there's hybrid publishers, but I wanted to be able to offer people how do you do it yourself because you can use a hybrid, which is a whole other thing.

Hybrids are pretty pricey. They go anywhere from like $5,000 to $7,000 to $15,000 to $17,000. I know one of our colleagues spent $17,000 on a done for you that was not really done for you. And I was like, wow, I did all that for a client and I didn't charge nearly that much. And I couldn't. I wouldn't ever do that like in in good conscience. I couldn't do that. But just to be able to show people that it's not hard.

I'm a technology challenged individual. If it's a software, I'm leaving. Until a couple of years ago, I didn't think I could handle anything like that. But when I spoke to, actually, it's the same person who's going to look at my book coming up and tell me if I'm missing anything. And she's published like twenty five books now. She's a successful author. I only knew her from the women physician writers group and Facebook group. But I remember I messaged her that I was thinking about using this self-publishing company and she messaged me back immediately "Stay away from this company." I was like, whoa. And then we got on the phone a few days later and she spent 45 minutes with me just telling me, "Okay, this is what you do. You do this, this, this and this. You know all the parts that go in the book because you already published two books with the hybrid. And I recommend that you set up accounts with each distributor."

It's a pain in the butt, but for her it was worth it because of the control she had and the visibility that she had and the ability to get paid quickly with royalties. I ended up doing that. That first book that I self-published was Beyond the Pillars of Salt. And from the time that I finished my final draft, which is when I would have sent it back to the hybrid because they were willing to publish another one for some another exorbitant fee. I think it would have been $9,000. From that day to the starting from there. I sent it to an editor. I got a cover designer. I got my ISBNs. I filled in everything I needed to do. I set up the accounts to the time that it was released and available everywhere around the world was 67 days.

The first two books, first they said six months and it came out in eight months. The second one, they told me six months. It came out in 11 months. And then for this third book, I was like, "Well, how much can you promise me? Because I want to wait a year with this." And they said, "Well, we can promise to a year", which could be 18 months. And so, that's when I said, okay, I'm going to try this. And I kind of very gingerly stepped into it.

And you can't tell that it's self-published. It's printed. The people who print it are the same people who print the traditionally published books. And as long as you have the software that I use, I use Vellum software, and it gives you all this. It creates the beginning of your copyright page. It creates your table of contents. It offers you a dedication page and an acknowledgement page and all the things that you want to put in. And now it's come up with things where if you add back matter, we can talk about back matter in a bit. It'll save that and add it to all your other books. If you want to say here's how to get in touch with me, you don't have to put it in every single time.

And the price, you can't beat the price because you pay once. First of all, you don't even pay right away. This was what helped me because they said I can download the software. I can play with it. I can put my stuff in. If it looks like I like it and I want to generate a book, then I pay them. I can hold on to it for six months and never use it. Whereas there's another one called Vellum is only good for a MacBook, Apple. But there's another one, Atticus, which is very popular, which is you can use on either PC or a Mac. They make you pay up front, but you have a 30 day where you can return it. I would guess, and I don't know this for sure, but I would guess that if you use it to generate books, you can no longer return it. But with either of these, you get unlimited books, eBooks or print books. When I generate files, I have separate files for Kindle, Nook, a generic EPUB, Apple Books, and a print. And it breaks it down for me. So when I go to upload those books, I just choose the correct file and there it goes.

John: All right. So let me ask a question here because I'm thinking some of our listeners are like me, like total novices. And what I know a little bit about is, there's a lot put out there about how to make money on the internet, writing books and that. But the whole gist I got from that was that if you put something together and it's done well, and it's helpful to people and you put it out there, someone's going to buy it. And if you can cut out the middleman, you can make more money selling it. But it never occurred to me, if you have this software, whatever it might be, Vellum, you mentioned, once you're using the software, you can write the book in Vellum, right? Isn't that how that works?

Dr. Debra Blaine: You can.

John: Do you do it like in Word or something else?

Dr. Debra Blaine: I do it in Word and then I upload the file. You can do it in Vellum. It's a different screen and I like the features that I have in Word better.

John: Okay. But it converts that easily, right?

Dr. Debra Blaine: Oh, yeah. It's got to be a DocX file.

John: Yeah.

Dr. Debra Blaine: Or a Word file or a Scrivener file.

John: But I'd never thought about that. Well, once you've done that, as you said, I never thought that, "Wow, if I write another book and then load that, everything else is already in there from the first book."

Dr. Debra Blaine: Yeah. You have to set it up for that.

John: Yeah. Awesome. Well, that's cool. Anyway, go on. Let's see, where were we? We're talking about, you learned all this and you've been using it. What are the other advantages besides the time component and the fact that it's really not that costly, but the other advantages to self-publishing?

Dr. Debra Blaine: Okay. I want to just add on, did you ask me why I started doing it? One of the things that I do for clients, for authors, is I help them self-publish their own book, which is often about their side gig. Because when you have a side gig, if you have either an eBook up on your website or a book on Amazon, and by the way, it can be available anywhere. You can have it go through IngramSpark and be distributed wherever you want. It's an unconscious assumption. If they have a book, they must know what they're talking about.

John: Right. That's right.

Dr. Debra Blaine: I had encouraged a lot of people and worked with people to write a book about their side gig and I hadn't done one myself and I thought, "Well, that's really stupid." That's why I started that. But the advantages are, there's two major advantages. One is the control that you have in terms of your timeline and the fact that you own your book. And the other big one is the money, the royalties.

When I took my books back from the hybrid and put them up myself, my royalties increased four times. And not only that, but when someone else is publishing your book it takes six months for them to tell you, "Okay, this is what you earned." Your earnings are a pittance and you don't see what's happening in between unless you bug them and ask them. And if they're in a good mood, they might tell you.

But when you self-publish, with Ingram, it's still the same. You can see what's happening, but you don't get paid for six months. But for example, on Amazon or Kobo or Apple or Barnes & Noble, you see day by day, how many people are buying your book and you get paid every 30 days. I think Barnes & Noble won't pay you unless you've got at least $10 in royalties, but hopefully you will. And they'll pay you direct deposit to your account. You set up your own accounts. Nobody else is putting their fingers in the middle. And it takes that whole part of when you're wanting to write a book and then you finish the book and you think, oh, great. And it's like, oh, I got to publish it now. That means you got to write a query letter and you got to find an agent and every agent wants a different kind of query letter.

So you can't just make one letter and send it to a bunch of people. You have to tailor it to each person. It just takes so much of that stress out of it. And then you have the control. If a traditional publisher picks up your book, they'll pay for everything, but they'll also tell you you're using this cover. We don't like your title. We're using this title. And you know what? This chapter doesn't fit. We want to get rid of it. We want you to write a chapter like that.

One of our colleagues has done well in terms of getting her books published.    I think on the third book, she's with a traditional publisher. She wanted to write about a male main character, a male hero, instead of a female. And they said, no, we won't publish that because we have you in the female lead and we don't need you as a male lead. So you lose a lot and you don't own your book. And this way I own my books.

John: Okay. Now I was going to ask you to go over at the high level, the process of writing a book, but we might as well stop right here and just tell us about your book about self-publishing because bottom line is they're not going to remember everything that we talk about today, unless you're really taking great notes. And what they need to do is just get your book on self-publishing. So why don't you give us that information right now?

Dr. Debra Blaine: Okay. What I have in the book, actually I didn't want to miss anything. I wrote it somewhere so that I could take a look. I talk about the different kinds of publishing. I talk about how to get an editor. I'm an editor too, by the way. I learned to do that. How to get a cover design, what you want from your cover design. People do judge a book by their covers and how to figure out what's going to be effective because there are strategies to this.

See, I didn't know any of this before. The hybrid completely got the cover wrong for one of my books, Undo Influences. And I was told by someone that it looked like a psychology self-help book and it's a political thriller.

John: Yeah. I think the original has a picture of a brain on the front.

Dr. Debra Blaine: It does. You changed it.

John: You changed that. You got rid of that.

Dr. Debra Blaine: I got rid of that. I got rid of it. And now it looks like a thriller. And the sales went up and my royalties went up because for every sale, my royalties went up. I talk about how to format, setting up accounts, metadata and back matter. Once you have a couple of books, you may want to put in the back of the book, "Hey, see my other book? If you liked this book, go to this book, join my newsletter." I talk about how to do that and where to do that, because there are certain places where it's like the classic book, you think of once upon a time and then the end. The moment you write the end, Amazon, for example, if you're on a Kindle, we'll stop showing you the rest. You can go to it, but it'll immediately flip you to something else to buy because the book is over. So how do you get your messages, your links in before the end? Well, for one thing, you need to write the end and you don't end the chapter. When you finish the story, you put an ornamental break in there. And then if you like this, Amazon thinks it's still part of the algorithm, thinks it's still part of the meat of the book. Your reader will know that it's not part of the reader. If you wrote a good ending.

So, there's so many things that I've learned about, and I try to put a little bit of everything into that book I just published. I didn't want to put everything in, all the detail. Because it is overwhelming and I don't want to overwhelm anyone. That book is really for people who have written what they want to write and they're ready to publish and they know a little bit about it. They know my book needs, I want to put a dedication in it. I want to put an acknowledgement in it. I want the different things that they want to add about the author. They want to know where can I put a link to something else? Where do I put my other books? And that's what the purpose of that book and how to format and how to use software.

I also talk a little bit about how to write metadata. Metadata is your book description. I think it's official that human beings have the attention span of a goldfish. Have more attention than we do. We're just bombarded with so much information and people scan, but to get them to stop and read, you have about three seconds or less. You got to hit them with a hook, something that immediately makes them say, "Oh, I want to read about that." And so, you want to target that hook to the people who would be interested in your book. You don't want to hook someone who wants a great cooking recipe and then talk about a cozy mystery. You want to be appropriate.

I talk a little bit about writing metadata, the keywords, where you find your keywords. I didn't know anything about keywords and categories. And when I was getting it published by the hybrid, and certainly if a trad publisher, did they choose all that for you? Sometimes they're not working so well.

When you do it yourself, you can go right back in and change your keywords. You can change your categories and you can test it and say, "Okay, let's see if that works better." And I talk about how to calculate royalties. Just down to the nitty gritty, down to the penny. How do you calculate the royalties? What happens when you have so many fingers in the pie and where the money goes? Or in the case of Ingram, sometimes we don't really know where the money goes. It just disappears. And some of the common mistakes that authors make.

And then I have a checklist at the end for do it yourself. Bum, bum, bum, you're going to do this, this, this. While your book's being edited, you're going to get your cover designer. You're going to set up your account. I try to put it in a really simple format.

John: Nice. It sounds pretty comprehensive, but not overwhelming. Now you mentioned that you help others do this personally. And I think you have training as a coach.

Dr. Debra Blaine: I'm certified as a coach and a master trainer coach as well.

John: Oh yeah, that's right. I forgot about that. You have all the skills already to facilitate people on whatever it is they're doing whether it's life skills or writing a book. So what is the typical person come to you for now in terms of helping them? Is it the software? Is it more of the creative process, all the above?

Dr. Debra Blaine: I have more clients for the creative process, which is why I'm going to release another self-help book. My books are called the "Writer Stuff. And this is going to be the second one. And it's going to be just outlining what is the story arc and why is it important? How do you create dialogue that doesn't sound like he said, she said? How do you develop your characters so that they're believable and they're deep in there and people can get emotionally connected with them?

Characters drive your story always, and you have to care about your character. There's a book that was written called Save The Cat. I'm just going to work from the title because I'm not working from the whole book, but the idea that if you have a villain who you start the book, because you always want to start your book with something that draws the reader in. If the reader is not interested in the first two pages goldfish mentality, they're going to look inside, they're going to be like, "Yeah, I'll look for another book."

So you had to draw the reader in. So you got this guy, he's running because he just killed three people and he's slashed another one and he's running away. And then the police are after him. And as he goes into an alley, he hears a cat stuck on a fire escape and he stops and he brings the cat and he gets the cat to the ground and then runs off. Now, the police are even closer to him. So now it's like, okay, this is some evil dude. He's a murderer, but wait, he saved that little cat. So that idea, to make people care about this guy who's not just a murderer. We don't know why he murdered them yet, but we do know that there's something in him that's a good person.

That kind of stuff that gets a reader just interested enough to keep reading and want to keep reading. People when they read novels, they want to feel emotions. If they're reading a textbook, they want information. If they're reading a novel, they want to feel things. And especially in our day and age when there's not a lot of time spent on our feelings. I think when people read, they get into that. There's been studies shown that people who read fiction have a much reduced incidence of dementia later on.

John: Oh, really?

Dr. Debra Blaine: Not nonfiction, fiction. And I'm thinking it's because there's so many subplots that they're following along and it's a different part of the brain.

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Interview with Dr. Morgan Leafe – Episode 338

In today's episode, John interviews Dr. Morgan Leafe to help you determine if you will love medical writing as much as she does.

Dr. Morgan Leafe shares her journey from clinical medicine to medical writing, emphasizing the flexibility and opportunities the field offers.

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.

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.

Exploring the Diverse World of Medical Writing

Dr. Leafe discusses the wide spectrum of medical writing, starting with the distinctions between regulatory and non-regulatory writing. She delves into various roles, from crafting content for Continuing Medical Education (CME) activities to covering advisory boards, web content creation, journalism, and manuscript writing. Dr. Leafe provides valuable perspectives on the creative aspects, work pace, and client interactions, offering a comprehensive overview for aspiring medical writers.

Navigating the Path to a Freelance Medical Writing Career

Morgan also outlines the steps for physicians interested in entering the medical writing field. From joining professional organizations like the American Medical Writers Association to conducting informational interviews and gaining practical experience, she highlights the significance of networking and connecting with fellow medical writers.

The discussion extends to the advantages of having a medical background, efficient work practices, and the potential for recurring relationships with clients. Dr. Leafe offers insights into maintaining a freelance business, emphasizing the role of flexibility and adaptability in the dynamic field of medical writing.

Dr. Morgan Leafe's Advice

I am so enthusiastic about medical writing. Changing careers was one of the best things I've ever done in my life. And it's a great fit for folks who want to travel, part-time, full-time, freelance, employed. There's so many different options and I'm just a big advocate of getting as many physicians as we can into the field, especially because so much of the content that is generated is intended for us.

Summary

You can visit Dr. Morgan Leafe's Personal Website and for more information about Dr. Morgan Leafe and her work in medical writing, you can check her portfolio.

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:

• Morgan Leafe MD, Website
• Dr. Leafe's Writing on Turning Over a New Leafe Website
• American Medical Writers Association
• Association of Healthcare Journalists
• Why Build Your Own Rewarding CME and CE Writing Business?
• Add Discipline to Creativity to Be a Successful Medical Writer – 179
• How to Shine as a Technical Medical Writer – 155
• How to Weave Medicine into a Dedicated Writer’s Life with Dr. Andrew Wilner – 075
• How to Find Freedom as a Freelance Medical Writer with Dr. Emma Nichols – 056
• How to Become a Medical Writer with Dr. Mandy Armitage – 022
• Dr. Debra Blaine's Coaching Services

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Podcast Editing & Production Services are provided by Oscar Hamilton

Today's PNC Podcast Transcript

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Transcription PNC Podcast Episode 338

How To Know If You Will Love Medical Writing

- Interview with Dr. Morgan Leafe

John: Medical writing is a good field to understand because it offers you a way to leverage your education background and training in a variety of genres. It's got a lot of flexibility and it's generally done remotely. And it's also one of the things you can do part-time to see if you like it. So it's really a good career or side gig for physicians and other clinicians. Today's guest is perfectly suited to tell us about that and see if she agrees with my assessment. And so, I want to welcome to this show for the first time, Dr. Morgan Leafe. Thanks for being here.

Dr. Morgan Leafe: Hi, John. Thanks for having me. I'm happy to be here.

John: Yeah. I really like talking to medical writers. Everyone has a different way of doing things. Some specialize, some do a lot of different things. I do want to pick your brain today specifically so that we can get a little bit into that. But why don't you just start by telling us a little bit about your background and how you made your way into the world of medical writing?

Dr. Morgan Leafe: Sure. Like a lot of your guests, I would say my path from clinical medicine to where I am now was not a direct route, which is not a surprise to anybody probably listening to this podcast. I did know for a while, I'm a pediatrician by training, and I did know that staying in the clinical world was not my ultimate goal in my career. And so, I started to think pretty early on in my attending career about what I wanted to do nonclinically. And actually, initially I was interested in informatics. Interested enough that I got a master's degree and became board certified and I thought my career path was taking me maybe into a leadership role within informatics.

And then one thing led to another. I was always that kind of person, probably also like a lot of your listeners who always had a side gig going on. And I ended up with a side gig where I was the pediatric medical editor for a board review company. Not even knowing that that really was in this world of medical writing that I didn't quite yet know about. And as the wheels were turning and I was saying, "I'm getting ready to leave clinical medicine, what should I do?" I found myself at the SEAK conference which you're very familiar with. And through the SEAK conference I learned specifically about the field of medical writing from Mandy Armitage, who's a fellow physician medical writer, who's been in the field for a while. And I said, "Wait, I'm kind of already doing that and I really like it, and this can be a whole career." And from there, all the pieces of the puzzle fell into place.

In 2020 I had my planned exit from clinical medicine, which ended up being very fortuitous because I actually planned to leave my job at the time in April of 2020. And my job happened to be connected to the school systems here in California. And so, when COVID hit in March of 2020, I would've been out of a job anyway.

John: Wow, great timing.

Dr. Morgan Leafe: Just with all this interesting series of events. And here I am working as a full-time freelance medical writer now.

John: Okay. Have you ever been employed as a medical writer or have you always done it as a freelancer?

Dr. Morgan Leafe: I have not. For me, freelancing was my goal from the get-go. My husband works from home, he runs his own business. I also have a sister who runs her own business from home. And so, to me, that lifestyle aspect of it was very appealing. I never considered an employed role because of that.

John: I see. Now, just as a side note, you and your husband are both kind of not tied to an office. Do you ever just travel and work while you're traveling? Can you do that?

Dr. Morgan Leafe: Absolutely. All the time. I'm talking to you today from Santa Barbara, California, where we primarily live. We're originally from the East coast and we have our house in Philadelphia still where we met. And we rent that out on a short-term basis. And then for a few months out of the year, we drive cross country with our dogs and stay at our house in Philly and see our family and friends there.

John: Nice.

Dr. Morgan Leafe: Everything I dreamed of when I was working those 80 hours weeks.

John: Every once in a while I talk to someone who has a remote job, but they have a remote job that they have to do from home. It's kind of a weird scenario. But if you work for an insurance company they might give you a computer and say you have to work from that site. And it's like, "Well, what's the point?"

Dr. Morgan Leafe: Yeah. Not in medical writing. You're your own boss. You're a freelancer.

John: All right. Well, let's see. We're going to get into learning a little bit here. Just from your perspective, maybe you can describe the types of medical writing. And I kind of got the feeling from reviewing your LinkedIn. You've done a lot of those, so you could either go through it as an academician or just the different things you've done. You take your pick.

Dr. Morgan Leafe: Yeah. When I'm talking to folks, from the get-go, what is medical writing? I always say I like to divide it into two buckets from the top. And those buckets are regulatory writing and non-regulatory writing. The regulatory writing bucket, as you know John, is writing sort of very official paperwork, submissions for the FDA, working for pharma, for biotech. And there are certainly physicians who do that. I would say out of all the physician medical writers out there, more sway towards the non-regulatory areas. But regulatory writing is an option. Most people will tell you it's a little bit easier to get started in regulatory writing by taking an employed position because there's just so much to learn. It's a little hard to pick up on your own. And then the other bucket of the non-regulatory writing is really a very large bucket with many, many items in it.

Those of us in the non-regulatory world, one of the primary things that I do is create content for CME activities. I write a lot of blogs, I cover advisory boards. If folks are familiar with the advisory boards that take place, maybe when a new medication is coming out and all the key opinion leaders get together, usually in a nice city, and have a big meeting about it, they usually hire a medical writer to cover that event for the day and then write up a report.

Web content is a big thing for various kinds of websites. And by the way, I'll add because I think it's important to your listeners, you just never know where your experience is going to come in handy. And believe it or not, that's where informatics has really come in very handy. Even though I would not consider myself in practicing information at this point. People see my background in informatics and ask me to write about health IT issues a lot, which has been great.

There's journalism. And some people focus just on writing content for patients or light audience. And some people kind of vary between, "Oh, I write some for clinicians, I write some for patients." And of course, manuscripts are another big area of medical writing. Grants manuscripts, anything in the academic publication realm. I shy away from the manuscripts. That's a little bit of just a big long project for me. I like things that are a little bit shorter, quicker and more creative. But there's options for everyone.

John: Now, what would some typical kind of journalistic type of writing be?

Dr. Morgan Leafe: Yeah. It's interesting because journalism in the sense as it relates to medical writing can have a few different definitions, I would say. And by the way, if that's something that interests anyone who is listening, there is, I hope I don't get the acronym wrong, the American College of Healthcare Journalism - ACHJ. I think there is a professional organization for healthcare journalists. And when you think healthcare journalist, what might come to mind is Sanjay Gupta or somebody on the ground reporting on the news. And that's certainly part of it too. There's also a lot of web content to be generated in the journalism and news area.

And then the other angle too would be covering conferences. All the big meetings for the different specialties have somebody cover them for the different internal outlets for that specialty. That's actually another aspect of journalism that I don't think comes to mind for some people when they think about that area.

John: Yeah, that's interesting because I know someone who actually spent 10 years as a physician doing just that while he traveled and scuba dived and did other things. He made a living and then he went back into clinical medicine, if you can imagine that.

Dr. Morgan Leafe: Wow. Those meetings are fascinating. Those big oncology meetings and all. There's so much excitement and the stories are so big. Yeah, it's a really interesting world.

John: Now, let's see. Can you give me some more comparing and contrasting? Because it was pretty obvious that the regulatory it's just, I don't know, I would call it tedious. It's very particular. A lot of rules or regs. And if you can't do it, they're not going to hire you. You got to be right on. But what are some of the differences in your mind between the other types of writing that you have done? And then I'll get into more questions once you take this first stab at it here.

Dr. Morgan Leafe: Yeah. There are a lot of angles to consider when you are thinking about what type of medical writing you like. And one thing is how fast do you like to work? How fast do you like to turn around things? I like writing journalistic pieces, but to be honest, I'm so busy I don't do a lot of them because they have a quick turnaround. And right now my calendar is booked out a month. Nobody wants a new story a month from now. How much pressure you like to work under as part of it.

I think how creative you like to be in your work is a big part of it. What I love about making CME content is I'm getting the opportunity to make some really fancy slide decks and help a graphic designer make interesting graphics and really make content kind of come to life in that sense. So, if you have that sort of creative side to you, I think CME content is really appealing.

I think a lot of physicians come into medical writing with a passion for communicating with patients because that's ultimately why a lot of us became physicians. There is definitely room for that as well. It's a skill to hone and there are courses out there on that. But if you feel like my passion is really talking more to patients and helping them understand disease processes, then it is maybe teaching or informing my fellow clinicians. I think that's one thing to consider.

Who you want to work for and with is probably another consideration too. What kind of clients do you like? If you're a freelancer, do you want to freelance for a large medical communications company? I prefer smaller clients I have a personal relationship with, and that definitely plays a factor and is part of the learning curve of becoming a medical writer.

John: Yeah. When you were talking earlier, and I just want to expound on that and have you expound on that a little bit. The way I was thinking about it too is for my limited exposure, some things tend to be a little more involved. You were saying that you like the creativity of let's say the CME writing. Now I do some editing for a CME provider. And I would never write an article for them because they're a hundred pages long, they're 10 hours of CME and they have usually 100 to 200 references. And I'm like I would blow my mind.

Dr. Morgan Leafe: That's not what I do.

John: Yeah. And also tell me what you think about this in terms of how efficient can you be in certain genres and how's the pay associated with that? It kind of always boils down to an hourly rate, I guess, but what's your thinking on that?

Dr. Morgan Leafe: That's a great question, and it's funny to hear you say that about the long CME content. I'll tell you what I was working on before I came on our call today is CME activity that's on Twitter. I was writing CME activity in little 285 character bites, which I love it. It's just a totally different way to think. I think it's a lot of fun. There's so much variability out there. You're absolutely right.

And as far as efficiency and pay, to me, being a physician has a huge advantage in the field no matter what you do because of that. Because it's important to know that medical writing as a whole, I always tell people, if you went to our professional conference, the American Medical Writers Association, and you looked around the room, I don't know for sure, I'm sure the statistic exists somewhere, but I'm going to say 10% of people in there are physicians. Maybe 20, 30% are PhDs and maybe the other half bachelor's or master's in some type of science or bachelor's or master's in journalism or English.

And so, it's a very varied group of folks, which is awesome. I have just amazing colleagues that I work with. And it means that when you are coming from the medical profession where your medical knowledge is really top tier, you're going to save yourself a lot of time. People ask me a lot, "Well, do you only write on pediatric topics?" No. I write on everything.

But I can guarantee you that even as a pediatrician, when I do a project on prostate cancer, which never came across my radar as a practicing clinician, I can still read and absorb and understand the topic and the data and generate something from it a little faster than somebody who doesn't have that medical school background.

John: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And in fact, the ones that I edit, I'd say at least half of them are written by non-physicians. They're equally good but I can envision the fact that maybe the physicians are a little bit quicker at writing the CME that they're doing. The other thing that's kind of cool there, I believe, is that the way they work is that when it's time to review it, every two or three years, they're a lot more efficient because they actually get paid well, almost as much for the initial writing of it. But I'm sure it takes them a fraction of the time to review it.

Dr. Morgan Leafe: Yeah. And it's a big advantage in the CME world too, because you're often asked to come up with patient cases to accompany an activity. And I think that can be a real stumbling block if you've never seen a patient before. So, it's nice just to have that, obviously, information that you don't even think of as an advantage necessarily, but that's in your head, you know what it is to see a patient, what they're going to say, what they're going to ask. So, that comes into play probably more than you even think about as a medical writer.

John: I'd never thought of that. It never even crossed my mind. That is a very good point. Okay. Now I know that you do some mentoring, coaching, advising and so forth. I'm going to kind of flip it around and say, okay, let's say that someone has a penitent for writing of some sort. Is there a way that you can help them figure out other than just doing all of it for a while, which is going to be very inefficient, how to pursue this. You already mentioned some of the characteristics, but maybe there's a way we can approach it logically from the beginning.

Dr. Morgan Leafe: Absolutely. If you're interested in medical writing and you are saying, "This seems really interesting to me. I don't know what field, how do I go forward?" I think a couple of things. First step is definitely do your research. Go to the American Medical Writers Association, consider joining. It's only like $250 a year, and it's really an amazing professional organization. I can't say enough good about it. It's very, very supportive people. And there are a lot of racist sources on there about the different areas where you can learn more. You can also join your local chapter and connect with people there to learn more.

And then there's a wonderful book written by Dr. Mandy Armitage about going from clinical medicine to medical writing. That's a great resource. You already know Dr. Emma Hitt Nichols has a course that teaches you backgrounds in journalism, CME, manuscripts and other things you might want to know.

Just by starting out and trying to hone your skills, I think that's a good first step. That might make you say, "Oh, okay. Yeah, I didn't really like writing that whole manuscript. That was too much for me. Or the CME, I had to look up all those references. That wasn't for me." That's a good place to start.

I always want to caution people that you don't need to go overboard with training or investigating things. There absolutely are certificate programs out there for medical writing. University of San Diego has one. University of Chicago has one. If you really want to pursue that, go for it. But don't do it because you feel like it's a requirement under the profession, because it is not. Most of us don't do such multi-year programs to get into the profession. So, it's not a bad thing, but it's not a necessity. And then I think you get out there, you try it out, you see what you like. And the fact of the matter is what happened for me and how I continue down the path of CME writing is that was the work that was coming to me.

A lot of the work that you're going to get in medical writing comes from networking. You meet, you network, you introduce to people and they offer you work. And sometimes that pushes you along your path as well. Really networking and talking to people, especially about what they do is a great way to learn if that's the field for you. "Oh, you do advisor role. How much do you have to travel for that? How much notice do they give you? What's the pay like?"

And most medical writers are super happy to talk with you on any specific topic. They're very sharing groups. So, anything that you can ask questions about, do. And it's a process and you can change. It's not like going into residency where you're stuck. You can change your mind.

John: Excellent. Now let's see, one thing I was going to ask you. Are most of the projects that you're doing now from recurring relationships with a given company or firm or whatever it might be?

Dr. Morgan Leafe: They are, yes, which is really exciting. And that was a big part of the growing process for me over the past four years or so, expanding my business, because of course, when you start out right, you're like, "I'll take any client that will pay me anything." And then you reach the point, "Okay, I have this many clients and maybe I'm even getting more work than I can handle."

And then for me, I came to just a really lovely position of being able to choose who I wanted to work with and work with people who really reflected my values and who I have a lot of fun working with. I have just the nicest clients. I can't say enough about all of my current clients and how wonderful they are. And that is really a breath of fresh air, I think, especially for maybe the burned out physician out there who's just having a tough time in your office environment. It's a real change of pace because I think everybody in medical writing is very cognizant of the fact that lives are not hinging on what we do. And it just is a lot more relaxed and it's really laid back. So, recurring clients and maintaining those relationships is key.

John: Yeah. And you'll probably... Well, I'm not going to say "probably". You'll never be sued as a medical writer.

Dr. Morgan Leafe: I hope not. I have insurance in case I do.

John: Just in case. Okay. But yeah, it's very cheap compared to medical malpractice.

Dr. Morgan Leafe: Yeah. Well, I'll tell you something, John. My errors in omissions insurance actually costs more money per year than my malpractice did my last year in practice.

John: Really? Are you high-risk pediatrics or what?

Dr. Morgan Leafe: I was only practicing part-time, so that affected the malpractice insurance. But you know what happens when you get into these nonclinical roles that aren't well understood by the general public is the insurance company just hears that you're a doctor and that's all they can hear.

John: It's inflated.

Dr. Morgan Leafe: It's one of those things you learn along the way about running a business. You just figure it out.

John: Yeah. There are always some expenses in that, of course. The other thing, just to give us an idea, about how many regular relationships for recurring work do you have at any given time?

Dr. Morgan Leafe: Okay. I'm a little ambitious. I would say I'm working usually for a project at some stage or another, maybe for 10 different clients at a time. That's going to totally vary depending on the type of work that you do though, and how many hours and what types of projects. CME projects tend to span a number of months to put together. It's a little more feasible to be working on multiple of them at once because they're all at different stages. It just totally depends.

Some people will, and I don't recommend this to tell you the truth. Some people will take on a freelance client that's giving them 30 hours a week of work. Then that person is kind of giving you 75% of your work hours. And that's fine. Again, it's a good way to get started, but I feel more comfortable having multiple streams of income in case one of them goes away. To me, that's really the comfort in freelancing as opposed to employed work. I'm not sure everybody's answer would be the same, but I would say for me give or take 10 clients at a time.

John: And I have to assume you have some kind of master calendar where you can figure out, "Well, this is a three month project, this is a six month or two month, and so let's fit it here." Like you said, these things are scheduled in advance, not like I need an article on this next weekend.

Dr. Morgan Leafe: Flexibility is key as a medical writer, especially in the CME realm, because ultimately all the content I am creating is usually going to a key opinion leader in the field to review and to maybe present as a webinar. Those people are very busy. And so, delays happen all the time. And I'm going to show you since we're on video, but the listeners won't be able to see. I'm showing you right now my paper calendar that I fill in with a pencil because things change. And that was a technique my business coach taught me. That has been very useful. You have to be able to roll with the punches. If it's going to throw you for a loop, that somebody says, "Oh, this is delayed a week", then you want to consider that when you are specializing within the medical writing realm.

John: Very good. Now that helps a lot. I'm going to go back to something you talked about at the very beginning of the types of work that you do, because to me, I couldn't figure out how you would find those jobs. And you were talking about working for advisory boards.

Dr. Morgan Leafe: Yes.

John: And that seems like something that wouldn't have an easy way to find, but is there a way?

Dr. Morgan Leafe: It doesn't because it's kind of a popular thing to do. You get in there and you get to know people. It's a networking thing. The way that people are recruited for advisory boards is often through medical communication companies. I have been contacted before because some of these advisory boards are filmed or audio recorded, I have been contacted by the companies that are doing the recording. They've been asked to hire a medical writer. So, it just kind of depends, but yeah, it's not the easiest one to chase after. It's a little more falling into it and making connections over time. Because it becomes one of those relationships with your fellow medical writers kind of thing. "Oh, I got caught about this. I can't do it. It's a date I already have something else. Are you able to go?"

Interestingly, advisory boards all used to be travel. Then, of course, during COVID they went to Zoom. It's not a huge piece of what I do right now, but I know people who do many. And what I'm told is, it's kind of split now. Some are still on Zoom, but some people are back to traveling. Depending on how you feel about travel, that's going to influence whether covering advisory boards are interesting to you or not.

John: Okay. Good to know. Well, let's see. We're going to run out of time here soon. Any other tactics or things we should know about if we're thinking about getting into this field?

Dr. Morgan Leafe: This is similar to a lot of nonclinical fields. I know I've said this already in the podcast, but really networking and putting yourself out there to meet people is really the key. I have a lot of people who come to me and say, "Oh, I found all these medical writing jobs on LinkedIn and I applied and I never get a response." And I'm like, "Yeah, you're not going to. That's just not the way to get a job in medical writing."

And as you know, networking can sound like a very intimidating term. I don't mean it in the sense of schmooze people. Very direct people reach out to me on LinkedIn like, "Do you have any work for me?" No. That's not the way to do it. But the way to do it is to reach out to other physician medical writers, "Hey, do you have 15 minutes? I can pick your brain about your career or sort of an informational interview type of situation." And just getting involved, getting to meet people. You never know where a connection is going to lead.

I'll tell you that a few of my first clients, how I got them was I was on a Facebook group for women physicians. And this was during COVID and I had just embarked on my full-time medical writing career. And a woman posted in the group about being a medical director for a CME company. And their conference was being canceled, and what do people think? And I said, "Oh, you're a medical director for a CME company. I've been writing needs assessments for CME, but I don't really know what a medical director is. Could I talk to you about that?" And we talked on the phone and it turns out we went to the same medical school. She's like 20 years older than me, but we went to the same school and she's lovely. And I now call her my godmother of medical writing and she connected me with now three of my current clients.

So, you just don't know. You can't expect something from every conversation that you have with somebody because it's not going to be the case, but you can expect to make friendly contacts and something is going to lead somewhere. So, it really is just that putting yourself out there is going to be more productive for moving your career forward than clicking that apply button on LinkedIn.

John: Yeah. But LinkedIn is another place to do research, and my recommendation is that they go to, for example, your LinkedIn profile and other medical writers' profiles because they will see the names of a bunch of companies that they could possibly talk to.

Dr. Morgan Leafe: Absolutely. Absolutely. And I'm the first person to say, and I didn't mention this, besides being a medical writer, I'm also a resume writer and LinkedIn profile writer. But I'm always open to say to people, if you're not sure what to put in your LinkedIn profile, go to mine. Check it out. You can borrow it, please don't copy it exactly. But if you need an idea of what to put in a LinkedIn profile to get noticed as a medical writer, yeah, please look me up. Absolutely. And importantly, AMWA, the American Medical Writers Association also has a freelance directory that is a similar, tiny version of LinkedIn. And if you join and get the freelance membership, you can have a listing in there. I get tons of clients from there.

John: Nice.

Dr. Morgan Leafe: That's another good place to get your information out there because yeah, networking is key, but people are also going to find you as long as you put the right information out there.

John: And I'm thinking if the listeners are interested in medical writing and they might want to actually talk to you directly. So, why don't you tell us where we can find you? Of course, we know LinkedIn and actually I think it's just your name so they can look that up and find you pretty easily.

Dr. Morgan Leafe: And my last name is Leafe. My website is morganleafemd.com and you can reach me by email morgan@morganleafemd.com. And if you're interested in what medical writing portfolio looks like for collecting your samples or what types of pieces you might be interested or wanting to write and how to put together a portfolio for yourself, you can check my portfolio out, which is turnoveranewleafe.com.

John: Excellent. Yeah, I looked at both of those and it was pretty nice the way you've got it broken down on the portfolio page. It's a lot more detailed than looking at your LinkedIn profile, but looks very nice.

Dr. Morgan Leafe: Thank you.

John: Let's see. I think that's all that we need today. A lot of information there. I will put links to everything that we talked about in terms of some of those resources at the beginning and AMWA and anything I can capture. And so, that'll make it easy for listeners and viewers if they're looking at the YouTube version of this. Any other last bits of advice for our listeners before I let you go?

Dr. Morgan Leafe: I would just say I am so enthusiastic about medical writing. Changing careers was one of the best things I've ever done in my life. And it's a great fit for folks who want to travel, part-time, full-time, freelance, employed. There's so many different options and I'm just a big advocate of getting as many physicians as we can into the field, especially because so much of the content that is generated is intended for us. I hope that some folks who are listening today are inspired to check out medical writing because it's a lot of fun.

John: Yes. I think you've been very inspirational. I like your story and your enthusiasm. It's been fantastic. Thanks Morgan for being here. With that, I'll say goodbye.

Dr. Morgan Leafe: Thanks John.

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The post How To Know If You Will Love Medical Writing appeared first on NonClinical Physicians.

In today's podcast, we review 4 unique nonclinical careers. Each is open to just about any physician with some clinical experience.

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 that you love. To find out more, contact Dr. Kate Atchley’s office at (865) 974-6526 or go to nonclinicalphysicians.com/physicianmba.

4 Unique Nonclinical Careers

1. Episode 127 with Dr. Nicole Rochester

The job title is Independent Health Advocate. It is similar to a health navigator. You will provide a variety of customized health advocacy services. You will help patients and their caregivers navigate the complicated healthcare system.

In this role, you will use your understanding of the healthcare system and clinical medicine to assist patients and their families in several ways.

• Provide administrative support, helping patients understand what they need to do to access their insurance benefits and overcome insurance denials.
• Translating medical jargon into understandable information about their options for care, and the indication and side effects of their medications.
• Speak directly to physicians to help patients better understand their prognosis and treatment options.

If you’re interested, go to Dr. Rochester's website at yourgpsdoc.com and navigate to her contact page.

2. Episode 134 with Dr. Shirag Shemmassian

Shemmassian Academic Consulting reviews and edits essays, and advises clients on curricula to pursue. The goal is to optimize the chances of admission to a top-ranked university, medical school, or residency program.

To best qualify for this unique job you must demonstrate:

• Intimate knowledge of the admissions process (admissions committee experience is a plus);
• Excellent written and communication skills;
• Exceptional patience, empathy, and warmth;
• A degree from a top-25 university;
• Current or past enrollment in a prestigious residency or fellowship program;
• Completion of Shemmassian’s evaluative interview process and training.

To find out more, go to www.shemmassianconsulting.com/join-our-team, or send an email to jobs@shemmassianconsulting.com.

3. Episode 227 with Dr. Armin Feldman

Dr. Feldman offers training as a Medical Legal Consultant. The consulting is pre-litigation and pre-trial in nature. The consultant helps attorneys manage the medical aspects of cases, increase case value and save attorneys' time. This helps attorneys to negotiate and settle cases and get the appropriate medical care for their clients. This job does not require participation in medical malpractice cases.

The work mostly involves personal injury and worker's compensation cases. 

Dr. Feldman has created a comprehensive coaching program for physicians interested in learning how to do this work. You can watch a short video by Armin and learn more at mdbizcon.com.

Episode 238 with Dr. Paul Hercock

Mantra Systems employs physician consultants with European Union MDR expertise to do a variety of duties for its client medical device companies. The entry-level position is called Medical Affairs Associate.

Those services include things like:
•  Clinical Evaluation Report-writing services.
•  Regulatory Medical Writing services designed for EU MDR compliance.

The easiest way to find out about the EU MDR and the Medical Affairs Associates Program is to use this link: nonclinicalphysicians.com/mantra

Summary of 4 Unique Nonclinical Careers

In this episode, John presents four unique nonclinical careers that most medical school graduates can consider. Some also require at least a few years of clinical experience. They can be started part-time, and grown to full-time. And most can be done remotely on your own schedule.

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. Nicole Rochester's Website
• Shemmassian Academic Consulting
• Dr. Armin Feldman's Website
• Mantra Systems Medical Affairs Associates Program
• How to Start an Innovative Career as a Healthcare Navigator – 127
• Young Doctors: How to Be a Part-time Academic Consultant – 134
• How to Do a New Kind of Medical Legal Consulting as a Part Time Gig – 227
• How to Prepare For a Great Job at a Medical Device Company – 238
• NewScr!pt

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Podcast Editing & Production Services are provided by Oscar Hamilton

Today's PNC Podcast Transcript

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Transcription PNC Podcast Episode 245

Doctors Should Explore One of These 4 Unique Nonclinical Careers

John: You're listening to Physician Nonclinical Careers with John Jurica, the podcast that inspires, encourages and teaches physicians how to pivot to a new career. I'm here to help you pursue a career that brings you joy and harnesses your zone of genius.

Episode number 245 - Doctors should explore one of these four unique nonclinical careers. If this is your first time listening, well, then welcome aboard. Every week I bring you an interview or a solo presentation to help you find a part-time side gig or land an alternate full-time job. If you like what you hear, share this podcast with a frustrated friend or colleague. For those who've been with us before, let me ask you this. Have you written a review of the podcast? No? Then please do me a favor. Scroll down on your smartphone when you're in the podcast app and leave a rating and a review. I'll really appreciate that. And it helps to keep us going.

For today's presentation, it's just me reviewing the specifics of four unique nonclinical jobs that I have encountered during the past few years. Some of you I know aren't looking for a traditional nonclinical career in a sense in hospital management, pharma, medical writing, consulting, or utilization management. Those are the big industries that typically employ physicians nonclinically. But if that's you and you don't want to do one of those, I think you'll find all of these very intriguing jobs, something to consider. The other reason that I single these out is because there are specific training programs available for each that will teach you how to prepare for and land your first job in the field.

Now, before we get to the interview, if you want to connect with me and hundreds of other colleagues, developing alternative careers, the best thing you can do is join us in Newscript where you can write a new script for your career and your life. It's an online forum and repository of interviews, written resources, courses, and livestream events, all in one place, right there in your smartphone. It's private, uncensored and free with a growing panel of expert mentors.

You get it at a monthly subscription cost. That's less than a single cup of coffee and a donut for an entire month, still under $5 per month as of me recording this today. Now, if you listen to this down the road in a few months or a year, it probably will be at a higher price because as the community grows, the cost of becoming a member will increase. In the meantime, just go to newscript.app to join hundreds of clinicians writing a new script for their lives.

Now it's time to thank our wonderful sponsor. An MBA can be very helpful for certain nonclinical careers, and for those already in practice, an executive MBA is probably the best option. Our show sponsor, the University of Tennessee, offers the longest running and most highly respected physician only executive MBA in the country. In fact, it has produced more than 700 graduates and for some career pivots, you really need that MBA. The ASM college of business at UT was recently ranked number one in the world by Economist magazine as the most relevant executive MBA program.

And it's efficient, unlike most other programs, which run about two years in length, the UT PEMBA only takes one year to complete. And while you're there, you'll complete a company project while working on the MBA, which will help you to demonstrate the value of the degree while you're still in the program.

Graduates have taken leadership positions at major healthcare organizations and have become entrepreneurs and business owners. If you want to acquire new business and management skills and advance your nonclinical career, then contact Dr. Kate Atchley's office at (865) 974-6526 or use our link at nonclinicalphysicians.com/physicianmba.

Nonclinical nation, as I mentioned, I want to review today four unique nonclinical careers that all share the following features. That can be started part-time while still performing your current job, that can all be done remotely for the most part. And there are professionals who are doing the job who will teach you how to do the job as well.

The first job was discussed way back in episode 127 with my guest Dr. Nicole Rochester. Dr. Rochester is the founder and CEO of Your GPS Doc, LLC. A health advocacy company whose mission is to educate and empower patients and family caregivers so they can navigate the healthcare system.

Nicole was inspired to launch her company after caring for her late father. She uses her inside knowledge of the healthcare system to advocate for her clients, thereby overcoming the barriers that interfere with timely effective patient-centered medical care.

Nicole is a nationally recognized speaker, best-selling author and media expert. When I first spoke with Nicole and I heard what she was doing, I really became intrigued and thought that this could be a very fulfilling career for other physicians because we like to help patients and we're to trying to get away from the clinical mess that we're in sometimes with the electronic medical records and other aspects of modern medical practice. And by being a healthcare navigator or advocate, you definitely can be helping patients.

She calls this position that of an independent health advocate. It's similar to a health navigator that some hospitals employ, kind of similar to a case manager in a way, except that case managers are either working for a system or working for an insurance company. But as an independent health advocate, you are working for the patient and the patient's family generally. In doing so, you will provide a variety of customized health advocacy services to help the patients and their families and help them navigate the complicated healthcare system, of course, that they find themselves in, in the United States.

In this role, you will use your understanding of the healthcare system and of clinical medicine to assist patients in several ways. Let me list a few of them. You might provide administrative support, helping patients understand that they need to access their insurance benefits and overcome insurance denials in certain ways. Those are the things we come into contact with constantly while taking care of patients. You'll be translating medical jargon into understandable information about their options for care and indications and side effects or their medications.

For families and patients who are faced with a really serious illness or an uncommon illness, patients can use you to speak directly to their physicians and review their medical records and help them better understand their prognosis and treatment options. These are things that really a physician would be best at, even other professionals in the medical field can't really understand the nuances of the discussions to the extent that a physician would.

In this role, you're paid to integrate the information for patients with serious illnesses, so they can make more informed decisions about their care and have a clearer understanding of the consequences of their illness and its treatment. To do this job, you may need to attend medical appointments in person, but often it can be done virtually. You can do things like compare assisted living, rehabilitation, long term care, nursing home facilities, and home care agencies, and then provide your advice to the clients about which would be the best for you.

Basically, you'd be using your medical background in education to research treatment options and alternatives, especially in those various serious illnesses. The work can be very rewarding. And as I noted a minute ago, it's mostly done remotely. Generally, in this kind of business like the others discuss today, you're going to be serving as an independent contractor and small business owner. The overhead is negligible. You're paid as a consultant, usually at an hourly rate.

Now, when I last spoke with Nicole, she was mentoring and teaching other physicians to become independent health advocates. If you're interested in learning more about how to do this, the quickest way is to contact her directly. You can go to her website at yourgpsdoc.com and then navigate to her contact page and send her a note. You could probably also reach out to her on LinkedIn.

Now, the second unique job I want to present today was described to me by my guest, Dr. Shirag Shemmassian. Now in episode 134, I learned that there's a growing need for young physicians to serve as part-time consultants and advisors to high school and college students and med students really, as they prepare to compete rather for positions in universities and medical schools and residencies.

Shirag is not a medical doctor. He's actually a psychologist who completed his undergraduate work at Cornell and masters in PhD at UCLA. And he wasn't sure what he was going to get into. But about 20 years ago, he began doing some part-time coaching and advising students to help them with admissions to universities and professional schools. And he kept having more, more people ask him to help with those kinds of activities. So that in 2013, he formally opened the Shemmassian Academic Consulting company, which now employs dozens of academic consultants and assists hundreds of students each year.

What do these consultants do? Well, just like he was doing, they provide remote coaching and mentoring of students who are preparing to apply to universities, medical schools and residencies. And in that role, they review and edit essays. They advise clients on courses and curricula to pursue, to optimize their chances for admission. And usually, they're focusing on admission to the top tier schools.

To best qualify for this unique job, you must have an intimate knowledge of the admissions process. If you have experience on an admissions committee, that'd be a great plus. You have to have excellent writing and communication skills. You have to have exceptional patience, empathy, and warmth. You should hold degrees from a top 25 university or a top medical school. You should be currently enrolled or completed a highly ranked residency or fellowship program. And then to get going, you have to complete the Shemmassian's evaluative interview process and the training they provide.

This is the first time I've ever talked to an academic consulting type position, someone doing that and also teaching it. I found it very interesting and this probably is not open to those who are more than just a few years out of their residency or fellowship. But if you've been involved in academic institutions and teaching, if you've been on an academic review committee, then it's really something worth thinking about and Shemmassian's company will help prep you for this and teach you how to do it.

And then of course has jobs right there for you to pursue. You can learn more about this at the website www.shemmassianconsulting.com. If you add the suffix join-our-team, that's the tab that'll take you actually to the contact form to get in touch with them. Shemmassian is spelled with two M's and two S's. It's www.shemmassianconsulting.com and you will find out how to learn more about that job.

The third of our unique positions is that of medical legal consultant. I was introduced to this work by Dr. Armin Feldman in episode 227 of this podcast. Armin completed his training in psychiatry at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. And he practiced psychiatry and psychoanalysis for over 20 years.

But he began doing a unique kind of medical old legal consulting about 20 years ago. And for about 14 years, he devoted himself professionally entirely to this type of service full time. And then 12 years ago, he began training other physicians how to do the same thing that he was doing through his medical legal consulting coaching program. And it is different from medical expert witness consulting.

To be a medical expert witness, you should really still be in practice and you will provide three primary services. You'll be doing chart reviews, depositions, and courtroom testimony if you're an expert witness. But Dr. Feldman's consulting is pre-lit litigation and pre-trial in nature. So, he's helping attorneys manage the medical aspect of cases, increasing case value and saving attorney time. In other words, he's using his medical expertise to kind of show the attorneys the pros and cons in this case, should it be pursued, should it not be pursued? He's helping attorneys negotiate and settle cases and get the appropriate medical care for their clients, but he doesn't participate in medical malpractice cases.

He's not really doing expert witness work. He does not do depositions and he doesn't do any sort of testimony at trials. Part of the reason is the work mostly involves personal injury and workers' compensation cases. And really what you're doing is you're reviewing available information, medical records and the history of the cases and so forth. And you're doing research on the actual injury or illness that has occurred and using that information to educate the attorneys who then have to decide how they're going to approach that case. And so, unlike expert witness consulting, you don't have to be an active practice or even have an active license.

And the other thing is that Dr. Feldman is a psychiatrist. He really doesn't have extensive knowledge in orthopedics or occupational medicine or that kind of thing. But everything that he has learned in order to provide the expertise for the attorneys that he needs to provide them just comes from research and his medical background, 90% of which just came through medical school from what he tells me.

Similar to these other jobs, he works as an independent consultant, probably forming an LLC to do that. Set your own hours and you work remotely. And it's really not limited to any specialty. It can be started part-time and grown and like medical expert witness consulting, it pays better than the other positions I'm describing in today's episode.

Now, as I said, Dr. Feldman created a comprehensive coaching program several years back, and he's actually had over a thousand physicians go through it. Using his course, you can learn how to do this work and grow your consulting business. And so, it sounds pretty intriguing to me. You can learn more by watching a short video by Armin and learn more about it at mdbizcon.com.

Well, this brings me to the fourth and final unique job I want to present today. It was described by Dr. Paul Hercock in episode 238 of the podcast. Actually, he was on my podcast twice, and number 238 was his most recent visit. He's an author, entrepreneur and an educator. Actually, the first time we talked to him, we talked about his book.

But he started personally serving medical device companies several years ago. And this kind of grew out of the recent adoption of the MDR regulations in the European Union. And since they've adapted these new sets of rules and regulations, the need for more physicians to serve in a variety of roles to help medical device companies comply with them has grown tremendously. Paul runs a company called Mantra Systems that employs physicians like this, who are consultants with EU MDR expertise to do a variety of duties for its client medical device companies. And the entry level position that we mostly spoke about was called the medical affairs associate.

Now these medical affairs associates do things like the following for their clients. They do the actual clinical evaluation and clinical evaluation report writing, in which they do extensive data analysis and they use their medical writing expertise. They also do regulatory medical writing services, again, that are designed to meet the MDR regulations. Again, with this new adoption, the demand for these experts has been so high that he ended up developing his own program to train physicians to provide those services. At first it was limited, but he has created an extensive set of courses or lessons within his program to train physicians how to help companies such as medical device companies and contract research organizations meet the MDR requirements.

And like the other three jobs described today, it's a remote part-time position that can ultimately become full-time if desired. It pays well, and really is actually open to physicians in the US as well as the UK. And there are several other international locations where these same regulations apply or where the medical device companies have headquarters or locations where you could do this.

So, you can complete your training and apply for a position with Mantra Systems itself or with other medical device companies or contract research organizations that support the medical device companies. The easiest way to find out about the EU MDR and the medical affairs associates' program is to use this link that I created nonclinicalphysicians.com/mantra. I made that back when I was talking with Paul.

Let me wrap up now. These are four pretty unique and interesting nonclinical careers and jobs that I wanted to present. They can all be started part-time and performed remotely. They're all open to physicians from almost any specialty. The other thing I wanted to mention is I'm not an affiliate for any of these training programs, so I don't have any financial relationship. I will say that Mantra was a sponsor for two episodes of my podcast. But other than that, we have no ongoing relationship. I just think these are unique, interesting, and potentially well-paying part-time jobs that can be done remotely that physicians should take a look at. Now, all the links that I mentioned today and a transcript of this episode can be found at nonclinicalphysicians.com/uniquenonclinicalcareers.

Let's see, before we close, let me remind you about Newscript. It's a community of clinicians writing a new script for their careers. We're still accepting new members, of course, and the membership is very low cost. There's really a lot of free content in there once you're a member. There are live streams I'm doing weekly and they're recorded. So, there's probably at least 20 of those. They're all about nonclinical and non-traditional careers and some business topics, management and leadership.

Tom posts all the time. We have now about eight mentors covering things like locum tenens, an expert in SEO who's a dentist, I believe. Mark Leads is his name. We have pharma experts. We have book authors. There's a lot in there already, and it's going to continue to grow. So, it's really foolish not to check it out at newscript.app and consider joining now before the cost jumps up. Once you've locked in your payment level, you can keep that forever.

Remember that the podcast is made possible by support of my nice, wonderful, ongoing long-term sponsor, the University of Tennessee Physician Executive MBA program. If you're seriously thinking about going for an executive MBA, you definitely should check out the UT at nonclinicalphysicians.com/physicianmba. I'll remind you that I do use affiliate links from time to time, which I receive a payment from the seller, but there shouldn't be any in today's episode, or on the blog or website.

The opinions expressed today are just mine while the information provided in the podcast is true and accurate to the best of my knowledge. There's no guarantee that using the methods discussed will lead to success in your career, life or business. Always consult an attorney, accountant or career counselor or strategist before making any major decision about your career.

Now, usually at this point, at least recently, I've been trying to give you a teaser about what the upcoming episode will be. I'm in a weird situation now because I'm moving from where I've lived with my wife for the last 20 plus years into a new home. So, we are in the middle of packing everything up, and I'm falling behind a little bit on my episodes here, but I have some very interesting guests coming up in the next few weeks.

I just don't know who's going to be up next week because I haven't recorded it yet, but I hope to be interviewing Dr. Lynn Marie Morski who's been on here before. But since we spoke with her, she has become the founder and president of the Psychedelic Medical Association. And I want to learn about how different kinds of what used to be totally avoided medication and controlled and so forth, which they still are, but how some of these psychedelics and cannabinoids and ketamine and other things are being used in new ways for PTSD and depression and other things. So, she'll be coming on the podcast soon.

I'm talking to a physician and she'll be on the podcast who is running basically a nonclinical career website with all kinds of free resources, but she's in the UK. So, doing a lot in the nonclinical career area and I just discovered her in the past month or so. So, she'll be coming on the podcast. And then there's another, again, international physician who teaches health wellness in yoga instruction. I think she was a family physician and she'll be coming on. I've got some interesting episodes coming up and I don't want to belabor that anymore. I really thank you for listening here to the very end and I will see you next week. Bye-bye.

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Disclaimers:

Many of the links that I refer you to 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.

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 Doctors Should Explore One of These 4 Unique Nonclinical Careers – 245 appeared first on NonClinical Physicians.

Today I present my thoughts on how to become a successful medical writer.

I am presenting an excerpt from my course on the Nonclinical Career Academy called Introduction to Careers as a Medical Writer. It should answer some of the questions you have about this popular career.

I’ll explain more at the end of the podcast today. But in addition to the video lesson, there are several downloadable audio interviews with physicians who became writers.

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 that you really love. To find out more, contact Dr. Kate Atchley’s office at (865) 974-6526 or go to nonclinicalphysicians.com/physicianmba.

Types of Medical Writing

Medical writing is a broad field that is commonly assigned to one of the following categories:

• Technical
• Journalistic
• Medical Education, including CME
• Patient Education
• Copywriting, including marketing and advertising

Further, medical writers can work as freelancers or as employees. Freelancers will usually require a business structure such as an LLC.

Become a Successful Medical Writer

To become a successful medical writer, you will need to do the following:

• Decide whether you want to be a freelancer, building your clients over time, or an employed writer. Freelancers have more freedom but require more discipline. Employed writers usually have a greater structure to their jobs and more options for advancing their careers. Both types will probably have the opportunity to work from home.
• Select a field of writing. You might be a technical writer for a CRO (Contract Research Organization), a freelance writer for a CME Company, or an employed writer for a health education company. 
• If employed, you may be able to step into a role as an editor, or as a senior medical writer or manager of a writing department.

Summary

Medical writing is a career that often provides the ability to work from home, or while traveling. Your skills can be applied in a variety of ways, for a variety of audiences, and advancement opportunities to supervisory roles are often available.

Links for Today's Episode:

• Nonclinical Career Academy's Introduction to Careers as a Medical Writer
• American Medical Writers Association (AMWA)

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

Disclaimers:

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 Add Discipline to Creativity to Be a Successful Medical Writer – 179 appeared first on NonClinical Physicians.

Michael Cyll is a cardiac sonographer working in the Phoenix area for over 30 years who retired and began doing work as a medical voice over professional.

As Mike Cyll approached retirement from his clinical career, he developed an interest in narration and voice over work. He now specializes in performing narration in the science, technical and medical fields.

For the past year, he has been honing his voice-over skills and performing in a variety of freelance jobs, including audiobook narration, YouTube videos, and Zoom Theater productions.

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 that you really love. To find out more, contact Dr. Kate Atchley’s office at (865) 974-6526 or go to nonclinicalphysicians.com/physicianmba.

From Retirement to Medical Voice Overs

I believe that there is a need for voice overs by knowledgeable clinicians. How many times have you heard a medication mispronounced on a radio or TV ad, or even in educational videos? I think it would be great if we had nurses and physicians familiar with medical terminology doing some of those narrations.

Mike provides us with a quick overview of his efforts to enter the field, and some pointers to get started. And I hope he inspired a few of you to explore this interesting field.

Tools of the Trade

The equipment needed to start recording your voice, applying for freelance jobs, and submitting finished products is similar to that required for podcasting. You will need to record and edit audio files. I provide a list below of some of the software and equipment that Mike mentioned during our conversation. 

I'm also providing other information that he referenced, including YouTube videos, an article, and a book that provide instruction on how to enter the field.

Summary

He is still early in developing this new career in medical voice over and narration. But I think Mike is on to something. There are many opportunities for clinicians, especially physicians, to narrate educational videos and advertisements, and do medical voice over work.

Links for Today's Episode:

• Audacity – Free, open-source, cross-platform audio software
• GarageBand – Free audio software for Mac
• Pro Tools – Suite of free and paid audio production software
• Backstage – A resource for performers to find work while helping talent-seekers move their projects forward, a powerful network of entertainment professionals, best-in-class casting tools, and more performance roles than any other casting service
• Backstage Voice Over Audition Listings
• Casting Call – A place to connect with performers and audition for acting, narration, and voice-over work
• Upwork – A site to find freelancers providing service in the IT, marketing, design, writing, and administrative support fields 
• Voice Over Jobs on Upwork
• Narration Jobs on Upwork
• How to Get into VOICE OVER from ZERO – YouTube Video
• How To Start Doing Voice-over Work – YouTube Video
• Essential Voiceover Jargon to Know – YouTube Video
• The Locum Life Audiobook read by the author Andrew N. Wilner, M.D. (Audible Site)
• The Locum Life Audiobook read by the author Andrew N. Wilner, M.D. (Amazon Site)
• Doing Voice Over Work Online in 2020(blog article)
• How to Start and Build a SIX FIGURE Voice Over Business (popular book)
• Mike Cyll's email address: mpcyll@gmail.com
• Mike's Backstage Page
• Mike's LinkedIn Profile

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

Disclaimers:

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 Do You Want to Be a Medical Voice Over Professional? – 178 appeared first on NonClinical Physicians.

The post What Is the Latest Way to Connect Doctors with Interesting Jobs? – 170 appeared first on NonClinical Physicians.

Interview with Sarah Campbell

In this episode of the PNC podcast, Sarah Campbell offers her expert advice to become a strong CME writer.

NetCE is a continuing education company that produced online education for health care professions. Sarah has spent much of her career working there. She is the Director of Development. In that role, she works with planners and authors to develop the materials that NetCE produces.

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, with over 650 graduates. And, unlike other programs, which typically run 1 – 1/2 to 2 years, this program only takes a year to complete. Recently, Economist Magazine ranked the business school #1 in the world for the Most Relevant Executive MBA.

While in the program, you'll participate in a company project, thereby contributing to your organization. As a result, the University of Tennessee PEMBA students bring exceptional value to their organizations.

Graduates have taken leadership positions at major healthcare organizations. And they've become entrepreneurs and business owners.

By joining the University of Tennessee physician executive MBA, you will develop the business and management skills needed to find a career that you really love. To find out more, contact Dr. Kate Atchley’s office by calling (865) 974-6526 or go to nonclinicalphysicians.com/physicianmba.

What is Continuing Medical Education?

Continuing Medical Education materials are a major component of NetCE's products. As such, it is constantly looking for new content. And it regularly engages a CME writer to produce it.

The topics should timely and widely applicable. The writing should be evidence-based and well-supported by references. And NetCE must expand its offerings to topics not covered before. It helps if the CME writer has a genuine interest and expertise in the subject matter.

“If you're writing about something that's actually interesting to you or that you have been impacted by, then it can be really valuable to the learners.” – Sarah Campbell

For example, NetCE worked quickly to develop a course on COVID-19 recently. An established CME writer for NetCE worked on an expedited schedule to meet the need. In most cases, however, Sarah can predict new course requirements and plan for them in advance.

The Medical Writing Process

Sarah outlined the process of medical writing during our conversation.

1. Before writing a manuscript, authors submit a formal proposal. It includes a brief abstract and a big-picture overview of what the final product will look like.
2. The proposal goes to the Development Committee, which reviews and provides feedback on it.
3. The company issues a contract, and the author writes the manuscript.
4. When the first draft is submitted, the CME writer receives her honorarium.
5. NetCE completes editing, graphics, and publishing. This process can take up to a year to finish.
6. After three years, the company reevaluates the course based on need and new scientific developments. If it is still valuable, the author will complete revisions and receive an additional honorarium.

Summary

In the episode, Sarah also provided advice for CME writers for maintaining a good relationship with CME Communication Companies. And she describes ways to optimize compensation for your medical writing.

Download This Episode:

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

The Clinicians Career Cooperative Official Launch Began on June 1, 2020.

This is the ONLINE MARKETPLACE OF IDEAS for nonclinical, and unconventional clinical, jobs and side gigs. We have started with some of the most influential names in clinical career transition, including:

• Maiysha Clairborne
• Michelle Mudge-Riley
• Tom Davis
• Marjorie Stiegler
• Andrew Wilner
• Phil Boucher
• Mike Woo-Ming
• Jarret Patton
• Jill Wener
• Christopher Loo
• Lisa Jenks
• Mandy Armitage

There is an automatic 7-day Free Trial. So, this is a no-risk opportunity to connect with experts and begin your career transition today.

To check it out, head to the Clinicians Career Cooperative.

Follow 4 Easy Steps:

After clicking the link and heading to the Cooperative and watching the Welcome Video…

1. click the Teal Colored JOIN NOW button, then,
2. select the annual or monthly membership by clicking the Sign-Up Link, then
3. add your registration information, and,
4. click REGISTER HERE to join the Cooperative.

It's that simple.

Imagine what it will be like 6 to 12 months from now to start a fulfilling career, and leave behind the headaches, long hours, and constant threat of a lawsuit. Joining the Cooperative is the first step on that journey!

So head over to the Clinicians Career Cooperative.

The post Here Are the Keys to Being a Strong CME Writer – 146 appeared first on NonClinical Physicians.

In this episode of the Physician NonClinical Careers, Dr. Mike Woo-Ming revisits the podcast to discuss freelance consulting. 

Mike was one of the first guests on the PNC Podcast, in Episode 19.  During this visit, he also tells us all about his new book, The Positioned Physician: Earn More, Work Smart & Love Medicine Again, which 15 years in the making!

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, with over 650 graduates. And, unlike other programs, which typically run 1 – 1/2 to 2 years, this program only takes a year to complete. Recently, Economist Magazine ranked the business school #1 in the world for the Most Relevant Executive MBA.

While in the program, you'll participate in a company project, thereby contributing to your organization. As a result, the University of Tennessee PEMBA students bring exceptional value to their organizations.

Graduates have taken leadership positions at major healthcare organizations. And they've become entrepreneurs and business owners.

By joining the University of Tennessee physician executive MBA, you will develop the business and management skills needed to find a career that you really love. To find out more, contact Dr. Kate Atchley’s office by calling (865) 974-6526 or go to nonclinicalphysicians.com/physicianmba.

Four Levels of Financial Freedom

In his book, Mike takes the four levels of financial freedom and applies them specifically to physicians. They are:

1. Employee

This is the level where almost everyone begins. Unfortunately, for many specialties, remaining an employee makes the most sense. In fact, 75-80 percent of physicians fall into this category. However, being an employee always means working for someone else.

2. Business Owner

This is the physician who owns their own practice. They see patients, but they also manage the entire business. Hence, there is more reward, but the business owner may become overwhelmed, trying to juggle too many responsibilities at once.

3. CEO

This is where things begin to accelerate. When physicians are CEOs, they practice medicine. However, they also have trusted staff to manage the business and see patients. Then, the CEO and the business are generating revenue, but so are the employees.

4. Investor

This is the highest level. Investors are in charge of multiple businesses and bring in multiple, dependable streams of revenue. Ideally, this is the way to “recession-proof your life.”

Speaking the Language of Online Marketing

Mike initially achieved his success by pursuing one of his interests outside of medicine: online marketing. As someone who owned a digital business, he decided to learn more about search engine optimization and pay-per-click advertising. One of his first freelance consulting side hustles was helping other medical practices with lead generation and growing traffic to their practices.

He was able to get his foot in the door not because he was an expert on these topics, but because he was a physician. As a result, he understood the businesses better than the average marketing consultant.

“I understood the language. I understood the problems that the businesses were having… what kept them up at night.” – Dr. Mike Woo-Ming

Is Freelance Consulting Right for You?

For those who are considering freelance consulting, but are not sure what niche to pursue, Mike has developed an acronym: CLEARED. Young consultants should rank themselves on a scale of 1 to 10 based on the following questions.

• Competency: Are you an expert in this niche?
• Lucrative: Are people making money in this market?
• Energy: Do you feel excited and ready to work in this field?
• Audience: Is this a group of people you want to work with?
• Relationships: Are you already connected to others working in this field?
• Evergreen: Will this business still be relevant in 5, 10, or 20 years?
• Demand: Is there a demand for your services?

By finding a niche that gets high scores on each factor, the physician consultant will enhance the chances of success.

We really just scratched the surface of this topic. If you're interested, there are a couple of easy ways to learn more about a freelance consulting business.

First, you can go to positionedphysician.com/freebook to get a copy of The Positioned Physician for just a small shipping and handling fee.

Next, you can learn more directly from Mike by joining the Nonclinical Career Academy. I've posted a 4-Part Masterclass where Mike continues his lessons about freelance consulting. And to make it even easier, listeners to this episode can get a one-month Trial for only $1.00, using the Coupon Code TRIAL at nonclinicalphysicians.com/joinnca.

The Clinicians Career Cooperative Official Launch Begins on June 1, 2020.

This is the ONLINE MARKETPLACE OF IDEAS for nonclinical, and unconventional clinical, jobs and side gigs. We have started with some of the most influential names in clinical career transition, including:

• Maiysha Clairborne
• Michelle Mudge-Riley
• Tom Davis
• Marjorie Stiegler
• Phil Boucher
• Mike Woo-Ming
• Jarret Patton
• Jill Wener
• Christopher Loo
• Lisa Jenks
• Mandy Armitage

There is an automatic 7-day Free Trial. So, this is a no-risk opportunity to connect with experts and begin your career transition today.

To check it out, head to the Clinicians Career Cooperative.

Follow 4 Easy Steps:

After clicking the link and heading to the Cooperative and watching the Welcome Video…

1. click the Teal Colored JOIN NOW button, then,
2. select the annual or monthly membership by clicking the Sign-Up Link, then
3. add your registration information, and
4. click REGISTER HERE to join the Cooperative.

It's that simple.

And if you JOIN BEFORE MIDNIGHT ON JUNE 8, you will receive over $375 worth of Bonuses:

• Guide to 10 Nonclinical Careers for Physicians (PDF) – a 19-page guide that introduces you to 10 popular nonclinical careers, and resources for pursuing each one, by John Jurica
• Crash Course Checklist to Becoming a Hospital Executive (PDF) – a brief summary and checklist with the steps any hospital-based physician can follow to land a career in hospital management, by John Jurica
• 25 Top Nontraditional Careers Video – a broad overview of the most popular nonclinical careers and side jobs, as well as unconventional clinical jobs
• Telemedicine Mastery Course ($100 Value) – a comprehensive course by Tom Davis for any clinician considering telemedicine, that addresses: legal structure, licensing, liability coverage, selecting a telemedicine technical partner, contracting essentials, and optimizing your income
• A Free 2-Month Membership to the Nonclinical Career Academy ($194 Value) – an online learning center for physicians with 15 courses addressing mindset, career transition strategies, overviews of home-based and pharma jobs, and masterclasses
• $75 off the price of registration to your choice of the July, September or November 2020 NEXT Intensive Series –  the Clinical Career Conference presented by Michelle Mudge-Riley where you’ll have the chance to hear from post-transitioned physicians about 25 non-clinical and non-traditional careers and get hands-on help with your resume, cover letter and where to find non-clinical jobs

Imagine what it will be like 6 to 12 months from now to start a fulfilling career, and leave behind the headaches, long hours, and constant threat of a lawsuit. Joining the Cooperative is the first step on that journey!

So head over to the Clinicians Career Cooperative.

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The post How to Build a Terrific Freelance Consulting Business – 145 appeared first on NonClinical Physicians.