In today's episode, Dr. Tom Davis and John have a conversation about how we will survive as the healthcare system around us collapses.

The context is about the challenges the co-founders and members of NewScript go through, and how the collaboration between NewScript Mentors and members can benefit everybody.

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.

NewScript: Background and Goal

NewScript developed from the realization that clinicians are less inclined to use social media platforms for researching nonclinical careers and issues around burnout. Those sites are often less discreet and private. Therefore, NewScript was developed as a private community.

Benefits of NewScript are:

1. Clinicians can remain anonymous;
2. Members can easily network with other clinicians seeking a professional transition; and,
3. There are resources to help members in a collegial and mutually supportive environment.

And NewScript brings together Mentors who are enthusiastic about assisting, training, counseling, motivating, and inspiring members.

Today's Talk Points

During the conversation, the cofounders of NewScript discussed: 

1. Services for large institutions to prevent and address burnout;
2. Financialization of healthcare;
3. Generating revenue using the Internet; and,
4. How authenticity will lead to a following that wants your services.

Advice from Dr. John Jurica

I like to remind people that there's a whole world of other things you can do outside of clinical, and you can do clinical in different ways.

Advice from Dr. Tom Davis

The only barrier to making change is you.

Summary

Healthcare is undergoing constant transformation. Much of that is unfavorable for clinicians.

But there is also reason to be optimistic. It is getting much easier to apply our education and expertise in productive ways outside of the system.

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:

• How to Save Healthcare, Satisfy Patients, and Fix Physician Burnout – 256
• What Is the Proven Path to a Rewarding Online Business? – 288
• How Do I Choose the Best Coaches Mentors and Masterminds for Me? – 208
• NewScr!pt

Download This Episode:

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

Podcast Editing & Production Services are provided by Oscar Hamilton

Today's PNC Podcast Transcript

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Transcription PNC Podcast Episode 297

How We Will Survive and Thrive While the Healthcare System Collapses

- Conversation with Dr. Tom Davis

John: Okay, nonclinical nation. It's John Jurica here. Tom is looking at me like I'm crazy because I was pausing for up to a minute because I didn't really realize how I wanted to start today. But it started, so now we're going.

I'm happy to have Tom Davis with me here today. This is a little different type of episode. I had this brainstorm that Tom and I should get on the show occasionally together to just talk about what's going on with NewScript and other things that he and I are both involved with. Some together, some not together.

It's because we're both interested in bringing value to you in an ongoing basis, and there's a lot going on around us in the healthcare system in general. And I think it might be fun to just chat about these things from time to time. So that's what this episode is about. And with that, I will formally say hello, Tom. How are you today?

Dr. Tom Davis: I'm wonderful, John. Thanks for having me on. It's a privilege.

John: The idea here is I'm not really interviewing Tom. We're going to just have a conversation hopefully. So, we're not going to talk about the summit because the summit is actually over even though we're recording this before the summit has been held. So, that's just the peculiarities of recording these things ahead of time.

But anyway, I want to just talk to Tom a little bit about NewScript and remind people that NewScript is out there. It's been out there for a few years. And Tom, what would you say are the most interesting or exciting things going on with NewScript recently? And maybe explain to people exactly what NewScript is for those that aren't members or haven't seen it.

Dr. Tom Davis: Well, first John, I want to congratulate you on the smashing success of the summit. It was amazing.

John: Absolutely. That's what we're anticipating.

Dr. Tom Davis: NewScript came from an idea that folks were getting increasingly wary of using the social media platforms to explore nonclinical careers and issues of burnout and career change, simply because they're not private. What if your employer is of a certain size? I promise that they have a line item in their budget to record every keystroke that you put into the various social media categories because they sell that. That's one of the things that they sell. And that's kind of understandable. Your employer wants to safeguard themselves, but they're also spying on you. I hate to put it like that, but that's it.

So we were looking at creating a kind of a private community. Nothing so grandiose like a private Facebook, although that would be nice. Just a private community people can log on, they can be anonymous and they can connect with faculty members, folks who are in the career transition space and grow comfortable with them and perhaps find their path in life, providing resources to help them and doing it in a mutually supportive environment. That's the vision. And that started about two and a half years ago. And we haven't looked back since.

John: Yeah, I remember when we started, we thought, "Okay, it's going to be somewhat like a Facebook group. We'll just have a main feed. People come in, they can share, they can ask questions, and everybody in the feed can contribute." I think it's been nice because we do have people who are designated as mentors. I think sometimes on one of those social media groups, there are people that you go to when you ask a question, but it's pretty random. Whereas we have recruited people who are interested in helping clinicians, teaching them, advising them, encouraging them, inspiring them.

And so, they're in there, they can be tapped. And it's not just you and me that are responding to comments or questions. That's one thing I like about it. And then as we come across materials that are useful, we have places in NewScript to post those. I tend to grab whatever webinar I've recently done and put a copy of that in there. I have some of my old material that I used. Well, it's still in my academy and elsewhere, and you've added a lot of value as well. So, maybe you could talk a little bit more about that.

Dr. Tom Davis: I went ahead and posted all of my telemedicine mentoring information just on there for free. I came to John as we discussed this idea with the thoughts that mentoring folks in how to create and run their own telemedicine practices. An independent contractor was a great bridge between burnout and a second career. And the story behind that is about 10 years old, but I've been doing that successfully for a number of years. And I had put up a couple of courses and they went bananas. I couldn't believe how much revenue they generated.

So, when we decided to do this, we started putting that up inside the community for free. And then offering that kind of direct mentorship that people were paying me for just free there because it had become such a demand. And I needed to scale access to myself because there are people who wanted it and couldn't access me because I didn't have the resources to offer to them.

That's just one example. We have little mini mentorships in there about overcoming imposter syndrome and we have great resources about optimizing your LinkedIn and we have a ton of folks that we refer people to for specific needs. And again, it's a great way to gain some comfort with these people that you might want to work with to coach and mentor you into a second career.

And the best part about that, John, is that hiring is so difficult now if you try to go through the front door of these large corporations. You just never know if anybody has even received your resume. And the best part about going through one of these industry coaches is that they know the back doors and they also have some credibility with the folks that do the hiring. So, if they decide to work with you and they bring you in, then you'll get access to opportunities that you would never get access to if you just try to go through the front door.

John: Very cool. One of the other things that has intrigued me and been surprised a little bit is that some of our members and primarily the mentors are trying to collaborate in more substantial ways. The summit, which was wonderful although we haven't done it yet. You're talking about collaboration, pretty much the faculty is many, if not most of our mentors. So that's cool.

And then we are toying with something now that's actually in place. I think maybe you can describe it better than me, but we get this one minute coaching through DocWorking THRIVE, or DocWorking, whichever way you want to look at it. It kind of opens up new ways to collaborate, in my opinion. So, I don't know if you have any other thoughts on that.

Dr. Tom Davis: The challenge for all of us who are career transition professionals is how to scale access to our offerings, to the people who need it. And the folks who are selling this to the healthcare organizations, they have found that getting traction, with that set of customers is pretty difficult.

The health systems talk a good gain, but when push comes to shove, they'd rather retain their resources internally and not purchase outside services like One Minute Coaching or 24/7 crisis counseling or access to career coaching. I believe it's a two reasons. One, it's to make sure that they husband their resources, and two, they want to make sure that nobody actually gets encouraged to leave their job. And I guess that's understandable except doctors are committing suicide at a record rate. So, there is a higher purpose there.

These folks have been talking to us about engaging with our platform and offering their services at scales to individuals instead of selling it as a package to a health system. And DocWorking is one of those. And they have a fantastic product. It's called One Minute Coaching. They have a tremendous stable of coaches that have great wisdom to offer. And so, they offer bite side coaching every week for you to engage. And we're in the process of aligning ourselves with that particular product. So, folks that subscribe, they will get access to that particular resource if they want to reach out and get it.

The point that I think that you and I tried to make when we created this community is if the product is free, then you are the product. In NewScript, we charge a very modest subscription fee compared to how much the thing costs. But it does send the message that you're not the product, we're the product and we're here to serve you.

John: As you were talking about that, it occurs to me I've been interviewing people for five years or more now about their nonclinical careers and working in the hospital environment, which I'm most familiar with, and all the burnout, as you mentioned, suicides that have occurred. And many clinicians, I'm sure it's not just physicians, it's all of them.

I consistently ask the question particularly when I'm talking to coaches or people that produce services for large institutions to prevent or address burnout. And there's many out there and not too many systems that I'm aware of really take it seriously. And even in those that I've asked about, where they've put in place a burnouts program, or let's just call it more of a clinician support program of some sort. It might be under their EAP or something like that.

I've not found one yet that's told me that it's actually been implemented, been successful, and they're really happy with it. It seems like they do a survey, they do some things, sometimes they ignore the survey. That's what they did in my hospital. We did a survey every two or three years of the physicians, and I don't remember us ever putting in place anything substantial or consequential that would actually address the issues that were mentioned in the survey.

So, you can imagine that the physicians and the other clinicians that do these surveys end up not responding, or they don't really take it seriously. It worries me, it bothers me that these systems haven't seen the light because they're going to find themselves unable to get any kind of clinician to work for them long term if they don't address these issues.

Dr. Tom Davis: Indeed. And you see that that is the fruit of the financialization of healthcare. You look at the financialization of society, the folks who have the experience and the vision, they are systematically isolated from those who need to benefit from it. And in healthcare, that is the same process that has been going on. You and I, we should be adjunct professors at our local medical schools, we should be in senior leadership positions in whatever practices that we have. And we should have at least a few clinicians who have identified as role models and come to us and help us for mentorship. And that's the model that you and I developed or grew up under. And that's the model that the people that mentored us developed professionally under. But that model is gone. It is dead.

And so you and I, and all of the other wonderful coaches that see this and feel a need to pay their good fortune forward, are trying to create a space on the internet where that mentorship, that engagement can take place. Unfortunately, it's a new paradigm and even though the less experienced clinicians grew up in the cyber world, it's still something that they're just a little uncomfortable with. And that is always a challenge to try to overcome old patterns of thinking. And if there's one thing that medicine socially is, it's a conglomeration of old methods of thinking, and the folks calling the shots are trying to turn that to their advantage. We're just trying to offer a space where people can come and engage on their own.

And John, it is very, very hard to generate revenue consistently through the internet. You really have to work at it. And of all the people that don't want to spend money, doctors are at the very, very top of the list. And of all the people that they don't want to spend money to, it's other doctors, good lord. And that is a huge barrier. It's a huge social barrier to try to overcome. However, it is a commentary on the social fabric of our profession that it is increasingly being overcome, not just by NewScript, but by the entire constellation of coaches out there.

John: Yeah. I guess we just need to keep reminding people that we're here, there are lots of other people out there, other physicians and clinicians of various sorts who are trying to offer support and help.

I like to remind people that there's a whole world of other things you can do outside of clinical, and you can do clinical in different ways. There should be hope out there for you, but you've got to look around and really dig into it and find out that they don't want us to know about these options. So we're not going to get into those options today, but suffice it to say there's a place where you can make good money, not really treat patients, but serve patients in other ways and be happy and free and have some autonomy and move forward with your career.

Dr. Tom Davis: Healthcare is the most regulated space that there is. And the one of the reasons is that costs for labor, that's you and me, have to be suppressed. Otherwise the system becomes wildly unaffordable. It's wildly unaffordable now, imagine if physicians got paid market rates, it would collapse on day one.

And because of that suppression, the compensation that clinicians can earn outside of the system, both clinically and non-clinically, not only equals what you can earn inside the system, it far exceeds it. Especially if you factor in the liability risk, the suicide risk, and the amount of effort, if you want to measure it in hours or stress, however, that you have to put in to get it.

I worked with a neurosurgeon back in the day. Now this guy's a neurosurgeon, so he's pulling down seven figures doing neurosurgical stuff. He quit. He quit after 10 years because he built his own surgery center, identified how to do that best. And he started consulting with other neurosurgeons about how to build his surgery center. He started about by making way more income and then he suppressed his income by taking a piece of the action in every surgery center that he built. And that's fantastic. That's phenomenal.

It is just one example of even at the highest levels of our profession and recognized compensation, the opportunities out there are huge. And that is simply because wages have been suppressed for decades. And now that particular chicken is coming home to roost. Most people who listen to this probably don't understand how much revenue they can generate for themselves outside the system, and that's because that information is being suppressed.

But you go out and get a corporate job, it's a medical science liaison or even administration, not necessarily hospital administration, but administration say as a medical director as an insurance plan, you can exceed your current income very, very quickly, especially with all of the deferred compensation plans that you have. When I started my journey, one of my mentors told me, when you step outside the system, not only will you be amazed at how much revenue you can earn, you'll be astonished at your quality of life. And I have found that to be absolutely true.

John: That's great to hear because it's true. Yeah, I just can't really say anything more to add to that. I do want to shift gears here though because I heard we had talked about before we got on this call that you're doing some new things or taking some resources you've had in the past and putting them all together in a new way. So I thought why not talk about that since we're into helping as many people as possible.

Dr. Tom Davis: As you all know, one of the principles of NewScript is walking the walk. You and I are not just on, they're flapping our gums telling people that they need to go to nonclinical careers. It's kind of a George Plimpton. If you don't know who that is, look it up. George Plimpton asks and we try out some of the things that we recommend and the ones that we can't try out, we try to get faculty members who have.

For me, I'm a big one on using the internet to generate a side revenue and perhaps having that side revenue develop into a full-time job. And it's very, very challenging to do it. But it's also very straightforward because with the connectivity of the internet, you can reach people that previously you needed to go through a gatekeeper to reach like an editor or theatrical agent or somebody like that. It used to be you need somebody's permission in order to access mass media, but now you got mass media at your fingertips and you have the means of production so that the quality of your production is not a distraction. The only thing that's lacking is your desire to do it and then the lack of information about how to do it.

So, we try to model that. And one of my primary gigs is doing business consulting under value-based care. And I really found myself in quite a bit of demand for that service when I first started out. So, I didn't really need to do a lot of internet marketing, but now I'm wearing a bit of the grind, even though the expertise I have is way more valuable since we're all going to be paid under value-based care by 2030 by decree of CMS.

I've taken all of my different sales funnels for my services and I'm putting them into a one gated community. The idea is to make that gated community be my discovery call. And business people who want to engage you for your advice usually want to talk to you first, and usually, you don't get compensated for that. And so, it can eat up a lot of time. And I used to really love doing that. I found that is something I don't love now.

So I've created this gated community with all sorts of free information in there, sprinkle in a few courses, and then give you a clear shot at engaging me if you want. But if you need to have a discovery call, then you just need to look at all the free stuff there until you're comfortable engaging me as a consultant. And it's probably going to greatly decrease the number of engagements I get, but the people who reach out to me are actually going to pay me and they're going to be the highest quality folks.

I figured I'd give that a shot and see if I can take the power of the internet to the next level. Now, that's kind of an advanced thing because I've been messing with it for 10 years and I've hired an exceptional marketer to help me with that. But for the average person out there, all you have to do is start a TikTok channel, start a YouTube channel, start talking about your expertise, and everybody who's listening to this has their expertise. Develop an audience, set up a website that you drive people to. Offer free stuff there. Offer a Patreon, people who appreciate you, give you a donation. And if you feel like it, you start selling some courses that offer a little bit more in-depth information.

What folks are trying are looking for right now, John, is authenticity. They want a connection and they don't find that in healthcare. In healthcare, people have been commoditized. Healthcare is essentially human trafficking now. The healthcare system. That's essentially what it is. Now that's harsh, but if you look at the fruits of the system, it's 100% true. And I'll defend that to my last breath.

When you're in that situation as a patient, you want to connect with somebody. And the connectivity internet has lowered that barrier to the point where it's completely up to you. If you want to do it, you can, and you don't have to be Chris Pratt or Sir Laurence Olivier or anything like that. Just being an average 60 year old guy. Just offering your expertise free in easily absorbable formats on a consistent basis, you build your audience. And if you get a couple of thousand people that will buy anything that you sell, your true fans, that's a living. That's a living. And there are 5 billion people on the internet. All you need is a couple of thousand. They're out there, you just have to connect with them.

John: No, that's so true. If you're a nurse with a lot of experience, if you're a physician, if you're a speech therapist, it really doesn't matter. You have so much expertise already. There's a whole bunch of people out there that could use what you know. It's just a matter of connecting and this thing is what you're talking about. And then you're investing a little time and effort in making it work.

Dr. Tom Davis: And you can't be afraid of making yourself look like a fool. One of our hints as far as dealing with imposter syndrome, it's just take a second and just scroll through TikTok or YouTube at random. You don't have to worry about looking like a fool. Look at these other people.

And the other issue with the other opportunity to the internet, John, is actually very, very recent. But it is something like one of those rare things that's new under the sun. When you put yourself out there, when you put your real face out there with no filters, nothing like that, your real self out there, up until now, you've been competing with other people who are putting their real selves out there. But going forward, especially in the next 18 months, we're all going to notice that the internet is going to be filled with crap, homogenized crap created by AI that is specifically designed for a purpose, usually promotional, not with a sense of service.

That's what you and I will be competing against. And people will be starting for authenticity.

The internet has always been filled with crap, but it's been authentic crap. Now it's going to be computer-generated crap programmed by somebody that says what combination of words will help us sell more biscuits or whatever. That is a gargantuan opportunity for anybody who wants to put their authentic self out there. And I am very curious to see what happens in the space over the next 24 months. People who offer themselves are going to be rare, and what is rare is valuable, and that's an enormous opportunity for every healthcare professional because we all have something of value that people want to offer.

John: Absolutely. Nice thing about being authentic is you don't have to remember to say a certain line or act a certain way that you did the other day that wasn't authentic. Be your authentic self. It's simpler. It's like don't tell a lie because you're going to have to remember that lie later. Just be who you are, tell the truth and offer things that are going to be of help to other people.

Dr. Tom Davis: If you want to see authentic, go to our TikTok channel, @nonclinicalcareercoach, you'll see authentic.

John: Yeah, that is very useful, entertaining and informative information every time. I'm just starting to dabble in TikTok, so I'm going to get my posts out there soon. You reminded me when you said the AI. Now I'm getting inundated with AI generated emails, and it's like, wow. Since that opened up, I'm just getting all these emails in response to just my website, the info link. I got to figure out a way to filter all that out. But it's not accepted, it's not something we want to see or we want to use when we see that kind of garbage. We just eliminate it and move on.

Dr. Tom Davis: It's made to seem authentic, but something just through the sheer volume for nothing else, you understand that it's just crap. One of the big things in value-based care is using AI to select specific patients and target them for outreach opportunities and whatnot. I see a lot of tech firms trying to sell this, and you and I as doctors know exactly where that's going to lead. The people are going to check out even more than they check out before.

I talked to patients in my focus groups, they actually block their doctor's offices. Now who blocks their doctor's office? It's like, oh my gosh. So, there's an answer to that, but it's just an example of how AI is going to change everything and it's a huge opportunity for those of us who are driven to be authentic.

John: Yeah. And I guess in the future episode like this, maybe we'll talk about some ways to actually work around or use AI if it ever gets to that point where it's actually useful. But for now, just be yourself.

One other thing I'm going to mention and then I think it's going to be time to go. You mentioned about implementing the things that we're talking about. I had a guest on my podcast a couple of times and I think he's currently a mentor, Armon. Is he a mentor for us in NewScript? I believe he is. Anyway, I went through his whole course and in another future episode of the podcast or YouTube or this or whatever, I'll explain how that was and whether I successfully implemented what I learned through that medical legal consulting conference that I'm going to put together.

But, it was really awesome. I'll just say that as a plug. I'm not going to put a link in or anything to that, but there's so much information in NewScript and around what we do that it's just somewhat overwhelming and you just have to pick and choose what's right for you.

All right, Tom. Well, I think that's it for today. I'll remind people that I'm doing the occasional webinar for NewScript, members in particular, although I'll usually invite other people if there's room, to watch for that. We will be reporting on the results of our summit in a future episode of this. Anything else you want to tell us before we let you go, Tom?

Dr. Tom Davis: Just that the only barrier to making change is you.

John: That's it. All right, Tom, thanks a lot and I'll be talking to you real soon. Goodbye our listeners. Thanks for being here.

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The post How We Will Survive and Thrive While the Healthcare System Collapses – 297 appeared first on NonClinical Physicians.

Today we introduce the 12-Month Roadmap to a New Career.

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.

12-Month Roadmap to a New Career

The Roadmap is divided into five phases. Each phase is used to perform specific duties that flow naturally over the 12-month timetable. And each phase has three to seven significant tasks that must be finished in that period. Oftentimes, they can be done concurrently.

Before getting started, there is a prerequisite. You must have already chosen two to three potential jobs to consider. This also assumes that the problem driving you away from traditional clinical practice cannot be solved by simply leaving your present department, switching to a different manager, or changing organizations.

In other words, you have already decided to leave traditional clinical practice.

What Happens in Month One?

The 1st month's steps include 4 tasks:

Revisit self-limiting beliefs and common myths that can slow your progress

Review self-limiting assumptions and common myths that might impede your progress. In order to move forward, you must overcome the self-limiting assumptions and widespread myths that emerge as we start to implement this life-changing event.

This topic was addressed in episode 252, “How to Kill the Myths About Alternative Jobs for Clinicians.” The most common misconceptions include these five:

• there are a limited number of jobs available;
• I'm not qualified for a nonclinical job, since all I know is medicine;
• my income will decrease greatly;
• I'm abandoning patients; and,
• my reputation and position will suffer.

All of these have been shown to be false.

Review job descriptions

Do NOT wait until you're actually ready to apply for a job to look at job postings on websites like Indeed and LinkedIn. At this stage, it is important to understand the requirements of the jobs, and the language used in those positions.

Find a mentor

Episode 208, “How Do I Choose the Best Coaches Mentors and Masterminds for Me?” addresses this issue. Find a mentor for each industry that you are considering.

A mentor is someone who looks out for your best interests and is not typically paid. They are very familiar with the job you are pursuing and can help you avoid mistakes and accelerate your job search. 

Join LinkedIn and create your initial profile

Complete your first profile right away. Updates can and will be made in the future. You don't necessarily want to tell your employer that you're seeking work if you're still employed. So, the initial version can be more general in scope.

And, by turning off notifications, when you start to post your interest in finding a new job, your current connections (including your employer) will NOT be notified.

Summary

The 12-Month Roadmap to a New Career is a model to teach how to make the transition from a practicing clinician to a nonclinical job. It helps to organize the steps into a logical sequence that is not overwhelming. In the model, during the first phase, there are 4 tasks to complete that will set the stage for a productive job search.

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:

• How to Kill the Myths about Alternative Jobs for Clinicians
• How Do I Choose the Best Coaches, Mentors and Masterminds for Me
• How to Become CMO in a Year – 052
• NewScr!pt

Download This Episode:

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

Podcast Editing & Production Services are provided by Oscar Hamilton

Today's PNC Podcast Transcript

Email Download New Tab

Transcription PNC Podcast Episode 269

Month One of the 12 Month Roadmap to a New Career

John: Welcome back to this week's show Nonclinical Nation. Today will be a slightly different type of episode. It's just me again, but this episode will be part of a series. The overarching theme of the series is this. The 12-month roadmap to a new career.

A couple of years ago, I put together a roadmap with all the steps that would take you from full-time clinical practice to becoming a chief medical officer of a hospital. And I structured it as a 12-month series of actions to take that would result in landing your first CMO job. On reflection, this roadmap can be generalized to cover the steps in landing any of dozens of nonclinical jobs, whether it's in pharma, consulting, insurance, or education, or in a health system.

The 12 months is also somewhat arbitrary. With effort, the process could be accomplished much quicker, but on the other hand, 12 months is a nice round number and it takes into account the need to give up to six months' notice that some employment contracts require. It might be 90 days, might be 120 days, or even six months to longer. That kind of fits in that 12-month timeframe.

Today, I'm not going to go through that entire roadmap, but I'm going to start with month one, and I'll be covering all four sub-goals in this important step at times referring to previous episodes in which we explored those topics in more detail. So, everything I've discussed, and I'm going to discuss today, really, I've discussed in other podcast episodes and sometimes in other videos and courses and so forth. But I'm going to put it all together in this series so that you can actually work along with the steps if you like.

Now, before we go any further though, let's thank our sponsor. The University of Tennessee offers the longest running and most highly respected physician only executive MBA in the country. It produced more than 700 graduates, and I've spoken with many of them.

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All right, let's get started with today's content. I put together a list of steps that can be spread out over six to 18 months that can be used to pursue and land your first nonclinical job. It's funny because a lot of the steps are exactly the same no matter what kind of job you're looking for. It's really a career transition model I guess is what you would call it. A little bit different from maybe starting your own business but even there, there's a lot of overlap. And so, I'll put a version of that roadmap in the show notes and also in my email that I send out announcing the posting of this episode. And so, that'll be available to look at, obviously, for those listening on the podcast, you don't really have something you can look at while you're driving or working out or what have you. Anyway, in the past, I've shared that slide. It was called Roadmap - 12 Months to a New Career. But going forward, I think I'm going to change that to the 12 Month Roadmap to a New Career. That's how I referred to it for this series and probably in future podcast episodes or even courses on my academy.

As constructed for the 12-month version, it is split up into five major blocks of time during which certain tasks are completed. And each of those steps, we'll call them, includes three to seven major assignments or tasks that need to be completed during that timeframe. And usually, they can be completed concurrently. In other words, you can work on one and work on another, kind of going back and forth, because some of them you need to give some time anyway to take breaks. And of course, you might also be working your full-time job during this time.

Now, there is a pre-condition for starting this process. So, this process, these 12 steps or this roadmap, it doesn't go all the way back to the very, very beginning where you're just contemplating something and you haven't really thought much about it. So, this starts when you've already selected two to three potential jobs to consider. And this assumes as simply leaving your current department, maybe getting a new manager or leaving your current organization is not the answer to whatever issue is pushing you to leave traditional clinical practice. Whether you are interested in doing something new, something different or you're burnt out or you're miserable, or you've decided to just leave the high-stress situation that you're in.

As in any model or construct like this one, some of the design is arbitrary. However, those items generally need to be done early and are placed in steps one or two, while the end results such as attending an interview or considering an offer are logically placed in step five. Note that step six is accepting an offer and starting a new job. So, that's not really a separate step, but it's included in the slide that I use to describe this.

Anyway, with that background, let me dig into what I place in step one, which can easily be accomplished in a month in most cases. The four tasks that I'm putting in step one include number one is revisit self-loading beliefs and common myths that might slow your progress. Number two, review job descriptions. Number three, find a mentor. And number four, join LinkedIn and create your initial complete profile. Let's go through each of those quickly here.

Task number one within that is revisit self-limiting beliefs and common myths that slow your progress.For you to go from just contemplating a change to actually deciding to move forward, you must have already overcome to some extent the usual self-limiting beliefs and common myths that occur in us as we begin to take on this rather immense life-changing event.

But the thing is, even if you've come to the conclusion, you want to move forward, what we found, myself and other coaches and consultants, is that these lingering self-limiting beliefs and myths will slow you down because you keep bumping up against them. They'll keep you from moving forward. Now this was addressed quite a bit in some detail in episode 252 called How to Kill the Myths about Alternative Jobs for Clinicians. But let me talk about these two somewhat separate issues of self-limiting beliefs and common myths and we'll just kind of spend a couple minutes on that.

Self-limiting beliefs, I kind of categorize the things that people say in their internal conversations with themselves. Things like, "I'm not good enough. I don't know what I'm doing. I don't want to look stupid. I don't want to look foolish." There are all kinds of these sorts of self-limiting internal beliefs and conversations that we have that a lot of people have spoken about. And I think I had an interview with Dr. Maiysha Clairborne to talk about some of these.

Now, they're not to me the biggest issues because we were able to obviously overcome those when we decided to enter medical school, to excel in college, to choose a residency. And some of us went to some very competitive residencies and to persevere through three to five years of residency and fellowship or more if we did that. So, I'm not going to spend a lot of time on that, but you need to do some reflection and see if you really buy any of those things. Most physicians are relatively confident in their abilities. It's really the second part of these myths that hold us back because in a sense, they're logical, sort of arguments against moving forward. And so, I want to address the five most common myths. Again, I spoke about those in episode 252, and there'll be a link down in the show notes for this.

But the first myth is that there's a limited number of jobs available. Again, as I've discussed before, there are at least nine major industries that hire thousands of physicians. It's reflected in the fact that the jobs typically are things like physician advisor, medical director, and chief medical officer. Those are jobs that only physicians can do. Those are kept a big secret that is kept from us when we're in medical school and residency because most of our teachers don't want us to be siphoned off into those nonclinical jobs.

But the reality is that there are thousands and thousands of jobs out there just waiting for us, and on any given day, there are thousands that are open. You could find, I can guarantee you that if you start looking at job descriptions, which we'll talk about in a minute, you'll see thousands of them there. So that's number one. You have to get past that myth.

The second myth is that all you know is medicine and that you're not really qualified for other jobs. But again, I just described the fact that the prerequisite, the core prerequisite for doing 99% of these jobs is that you're a physician. Many of these jobs are open to physicians that don't have residency training or don't even have a license, but the fact that you're a physician is the core or central part that's needed.

Now, sometimes there are other skills that you need. Most of those can be usually learned on the job, or sometimes you can get a little extra training or certification or attend a course or something like that, and you'll be ready for those jobs. So, medicine is a very large, huge knowledge base. It includes so many different sciences, statistics, and epidemiology, not to mention how to work in teams, how to teach, and how to do presentations. There are so many skills you have, and you're so attractive as an employee because you're so reliable. Presenteeism is not an issue as opposed to absenteeism. Your focus, your ability to get the job done are just so great that you're a great employee anyway. And of course, even if you're going to do something if you're not employed, but you're self-employed, those skills all come in handy.

The third big myth is that your income is going to suffer significantly. Usually, when I'm addressing that, I talk about two things. Number one, you've got to compare apples and oranges. You cannot compare the fact that you're making $600,000 a year as some kind of surgeon or interventional cardiologist. Take into account, at least to some extent that to do that, most of the time you're being on call every third or fourth day, you're coming in at all hours, you're working 70 hours a week, more or less. And so, you've got to compare that to these other jobs where you're typically working 40 to 50 hours a week at the most. And also, the other jobs have to pay at least a basic salary of around $200,000 or more. They're not going to get physicians to do those jobs.

And the job growth and the salary growth is very rapid in some of those jobs. For example, most chief medical officers and hospitals make over $400,000 a year at this point. So, they're not low-paying jobs for the most part. If you're a freelance medical writer and you're only writing 10 hours a week, you're not going to make a lot of money. But there are medical writers and editors that make $200,000 and more a year as is right now.

All right, the other two myths. "I'm abandoning my patients." Just think of this. What job is it that you can create a new device or a new drug, bring it to market, demonstrate its safety that can save thousands of lives? Obviously, a pharma job. What job enables you to identify and reduce errors and improve the quality of care in a hospital? CMO jobs, medical director jobs. I saved more lives as a chief medical officer than I did seeing patients, most of which had really trivial illnesses or chronic illnesses that I had little impact on.

Most jobs that you do nonclinical have a very positive impact on populations of patients. And usually, it's many more patients than you could ever interact with and impact significantly one on one.

And then the issue of your stature and or reputation being diminished, that you're no longer a doctor. Everyone I've ever met who's done a nonclinical job is still called a doctor, still recognized as a physician. And part of that is because the jobs I talk about are those that involve building on your medical background. In other words, you're not just going to become, let's say, an attorney who doesn't work with malpractice cases or a business owner in something that has nothing to do with healthcare. Most everything we talk about here, our jobs in which it's part of your background as a physician, that is the reason you move into these new positions, which are usually a lot more pleasant, less stress, no liability. That's another thing that should be compared in terms of the cost.

And so, keep that in mind. Your reputation is intact. In fact, when I went from being just one family physician in a hospital with 300 or 400 physicians on staff to the chief medical officer, if anything, my stature and reputation improved significantly, and it's true of very many other jobs.

The first task is the self-limiting beliefs and myths. You have to keep reminding yourselves of these things as you go down this path to the roadmap to a new career. The second one I listed is reviewing job descriptions. Now, that might not be intuitive in the sense that usually you don't have to start actually looking at job descriptions, job postings on websites in Indeed, in LinkedIn and elsewhere, until you're actually getting ready to apply for a job.

However, we need to keep in mind what Stephen Covey mentioned many years ago, that when we're doing something, running a business, starting something, have a goal, we need to start with the end in mind. So, there are things that are peculiar to different types of jobs that you might not come to realize unless you actually start looking at job descriptions. Now, granted, a job description is only so long. It doesn't always tell you exactly what each job is going to entail. There might be things hidden, but there are going to be things in a job posting that you might have never thought of, even if you've done your research on a job.

Suffice it to say that you might think you know what an MSL - medical science liaison - does because you've read about it in an article or in a book or something. But you might look at the job description and go, "Oh, I didn't realize that's what I need to do or I didn't know that this was the jargon that we would use in this job."

And again, whether that's for working in pharmacovigilance in a pharma company or becoming a hospital medical director, or chief medical officer, or you're going to do something in an insurance company. As you go through those, you learn the language that's being spoken at least by the recruiters, and most likely also by the CEO or the people that are hiring you for a position for that particular industry. So, you want to start scanning through those. Again, you've already decided on two or three or four different industries you might be looking at a job in. So, you want to start scanning through those. And if you see something pop up like 50% of the time you're going to be traveling and you wanted to do something closer to home, that's going to tell you "This really isn't a job for me."

And there's lots of little things that can come up in those job descriptions that you might not have thought of. Again, this is just something to do with the beginning. Take a few notes, and keep them in mind. You will circle back to the job descriptions and the job postings later when you're getting serious about actually applying to a particular job.

And the other thing is, when you look at those things besides the factors that might exclude you from considering it, there might be some positive things that would tend to attract you to the job. But the other thing is they'll mention things where, okay, maybe there is some training, or maybe I should take a course or try to get some kind of experience. They'll list the type of experience they're expecting.

A lot of times for a management position for a physician, they have certain specific experiences they like you to have had. Like maybe you've looked at a P&L or other financial reports. Maybe you understand the difference between cash accounting and accrual accounting, and that you can learn from reading an article. You don't have to have a degree for that or get an MBA, but sometimes you might want to get a certification, and the certifications can sometimes be accomplished by reading something and taking an exam or maybe attending a few weeks of courses. And then taking an exam doesn't mean you're going back to college for a year or two part-time or full-time. It can be lots of little things that would give you a little edge over other people. So, that's the other reason for looking through those.

The third thing in this category, in this first major step is to find a mentor. I've talked about finding a mentor before several times. Episode 208, "How Do I Choose the Best Coaches Mentors and Masterminds for Me?" is one episode in which I discussed it. There are some others. And you can have more than one mentor. So that's one thing. If you have in mind two or three different industries that you're still toying with at this point early in the process, then get a mentor for each.

Sometimes I bring this other issue up. It's kind of like having a mentor and that's being able to shadow. It's really not that easy. And in a lot of nonclinical jobs, for heaven's sake, if you have a mentor and someone who could take you around showing them the job they're doing, that you're thinking about getting, shadowing for a day can be super helpful. You're not really going to be there to learn the skills or the techniques you would use in the job. Just to be exposed to make sure you understand that it's the type of thing you'd like to do.

So, find a mentor or two or three. I'll remind you that a mentor is someone that generally is looking out for your best interest, somebody who is not being paid generally. I distinguish a mentor from a coach, although there is some overlap there. But heck, if you're going into these jobs, you should be able to get somebody that you can talk to informally on a somewhat infrequent basis and just ask a single question or two. You're not trying to monopolize your time for two hours once a month to teach you everything you need to know about this job.

I had someone that I met through the medical society, the Illinois State Medical Society, who was working as a surveyor for CME like I was. And lo and behold, I didn't know what job he was doing. I just knew he wasn't seeing patients anymore. It turned out he was a chief medical officer for one of the largest stand-alone hospitals in the state of Illinois. I didn't even know what a CMO was. I'd never heard the term.

So, he became my mentor, and I'd meet with him informally three or four times a year at a meeting where we were doing something else, or maybe call him once in a great while, and that was it. But he gave me enough information and encouragement and support that I actually pursued that job as chief medical officer.

The fourth task in this Step One that we're talking about today is to join LinkedIn and create your first complete profile. Or if you already have a LinkedIn profile or LinkedIn page, it's a good chance it's not complete. And if it's not, then just go ahead and complete your first profile.

Now keep in mind, it's going to be sitting there. It doesn't have to be spectacular, and it can and will be updated later. In fact, you want to keep it kind of general because you haven't decided specifically which job you're going to apply for.

Once you get down to step five and you're applying for your job and you're completing your resume, then you want to tweak your LinkedIn to be much more specific. The other reason for that is if you're still employed, you don't necessarily want to let your employer know that you're looking for a job.

That would not be the first thing I'd put on the very top of my LinkedIn profile. I would tend to complete all the sections that LinkedIn asks you to complete, but you can just complete them with the information of what you're doing now and maybe some interests you have that are potentially pertinent to your new job, but you could put those down more as a hobby or an interest. So, keep that in mind, but those can always be updated.

The other thing is, if you're going to do this update from time to time, which you will as you get closer to the end of that process, you can turn off the notifications if you like, which means that when you add something like "I am now looking for a job in the pharma industry", you can make it so that your connections, your followers don't get a notice that you've made a change. The default, I think, in LinkedIn is still that anytime you make a change, that's a trigger for someone to get an update. Like, "Oh, John Jurica just updated his profile. He's now doing X, Y, and Z." You can turn that off so it's there if someone's looking for it actively or if you send them to your profile. But your friends and family and your boss and your coworkers won't be notified when you add those kinds of things to LinkedIn.

Those are four good things to work on in the first month of this 12-month roadmap to a new career. That's plenty to work on. And if something bleeds into the second step, that's fine too. It's like a Gantt chart where you're working on multiple things at the same time, and there can be overlap from step to step.

But you should have a few mentors. You should get that LinkedIn profile going. You should start looking at job descriptions, in my opinion, to help kind of hone your further research. And then you should make sure you still aren't being held back by some of the internal self-talk that goes on in terms of your limiting beliefs and or the common myths about nonclinical career transition.

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

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

The post Month One of the 12 Month Roadmap to a New Career – 269 appeared first on NonClinical Physicians.

In today's episode, I describe how coaches mentors and masterminds can support your career transition.

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.

What Is a COACH?

Coaching is generally a more formal situation. Characteristics of a business or career coach include:

• Paid service
• Formal relationship
• Regular schedule
• Less directive
• Goal-oriented

What are the differences between a mentor and a coach?

• Growth-oriented vs. goal-oriented
• Unpaid vs. paid
• Intermittent and infrequent vs. regularly scheduled
• Ongoing vs. time-limited

What Is GROUP Coaching?

• Similar to coaching, but with multiple clients
• Less costly to purchase
• Ability to reach more clients and have a bigger impact

Coaches Mentors and Masterminds

My first experience with a mastermind group grew out of my experience with executive coaching. Every month or two, all of the senior executives at the hospital where I was CMO would dedicate one of our scheduled meetings to a special session. During that session, one of the C-suite executives would take the metaphorical “hot seat.”

Once there, the facilitator/coach would start by asking the subject to describe the major challenge in their job that they wanted to discuss. Then the rest of us would spend the next 20 to 30 minutes asking questions to obtain clarity about the problem. Then we’d explore what had been tried already to resolve it.

We would ask probing questions. Ultimately, the subject on the hot seat would define the next steps based on insights and ideas inspired by the group.

It was amazing how often this erudite and accomplished person could find solutions through the mastermind that they had previously been unable to discover on their own. The mastermind never failed to generate new ideas and instill a level of accountability that was otherwise not attainable.

Characteristics of a mastermind group:

• A concept described by Napoleon Hill and others since the 1940s
• Used mostly by business leaders and entrepreneurs to create breakthroughs and accelerate their success
• It requires a facilitator
• It can be done in a variety of formats
  • Monthly meetings for months to years
  • Weekly or biweekly for a shorter duration
  • Larger groups over a weekend retreat
  • Face to face or online
  • Some are free – many are paid 
• Benefits
  • Peer accountability
  • Brainstorming
  • Support
  • Networking
  • Real-time education
  • A catalyst for success

Summary

Coaches, mentors and masterminds can be used to accelerate career transition. Each has its strengths. And there is nothing wrong with using all three. In fact, they can be complementary to one another.

If you'd like to join my next Nonclinical Mastermind Group, you can learn about it and join the waiting list at nonclinicalphysicians.com/mastermind.

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

Links for Today's Episode:

• Why Both a Coach and a Mentor Are Vital to Your Career
• Unlock Leadership Through Coaching
• Top Reasons Why Coaching Is So Essential for Healthcare Leaders – 197
• Why You Need to Get an Executive Coach Now – 102

Download This Episode:

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

Podcast Editing & Production Services are provided by Oscar Hamilton

Today's PNC Podcast Transcript

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PNC Podcast Episode 208

How Do I Choose the Best Coaches Mentors and Masterminds for Me?

All right, I want to get on to today's topic, which is near and dear to me. And it entails coaches, mentors, and masterminds. I think it's important that we distinguish each of these and use them properly during our career transition.

This topic has come up several times in recent email requests for listeners looking for a career coach. I'd like to spend this episode doing Q&A about this topic. So here we go.

Now, remember, there's a lot of overlap between these terms potentially. And on the paid side of things, we might even include a consultant and coach interchangeably. In other words, if I am coaching you about how to open a practice while you could easily say, that's also a consultation where I'm teaching you or facilitating your opening your office. But when we talk about coaches, we're generally talking here about one-to-one relationships, either focusing on health, wellness, business career, things like that.

So, let's go back to the title. And the first topic is mentors. Now my first mentor was an internist that I met as a result of a long string of events. Let me try and explain the short version. I came into the hospital that I was working at clinically as a new physician with two other partners. And I had some free time on my hands, obviously while I was building my practice. And so, I use that time to go to a lot of committee meetings and do things in the hospital medical staff, probably more than the average physician just because I had the time and I was still learning.

I was attracted to the CME activities and I started to volunteer on the committee to help support the CME activities. And then the long-time chair was nearing retirement and so, then I took over as chair. Shortly thereafter, we had a survey by the state medical society, which was the organization that certified intrastate sponsors of CME. And we did a pretty good job. And I guess they thought that I was pretty interested in up-to-date on the requirements.

And so, they later had me appointed to the state committee on CME accreditation, which meant that I was on the committee now that would look at the applications and then help decide if they should be approved and for how long.

Well, as a result of that, I began interacting with other members of the committee, and the former chair of the committee and I would meet occasionally at annual meetings. His name was Don and he was an internist and he was working at one of the largest standalone hospitals in the state of Illinois. And over time we worked on different projects having to do with CME.

And I came to find out at some point that he was not actually practicing. I thought, "Well, what does that mean? How can a physician not be practicing?" And I asked him about that and it turned out he was the first chief medical officer that I ever came across. I hadn't come across that in my residency training. CMOs were not that common at the time in hospitals.

He became an informal mentor. If you were to ask him, I'm not sure he would even know that he was my mentor, but every once in a while, every three or four months I'd run into him and I'd ask him about he was doing, did he like it and what should I do if I might want to do similar things. And he was pretty receptive because he saw that I would volunteer for a lot of these nonclinical things like chairing the committee and being a surveyor for CME and so forth.

So, I would ask him questions. He would point me in a direction. I think he was the first one that told me to join the American College of Physician Executives, which is now known as the American Association for Physician Leadership. And that I should do this and do that, go to this meeting and so forth.

That's what a mentor is to me. Let me just kind of summarize what Don was to me. A mentor is usually an informal relationship, that mentorship. It's usually a volunteer or a non-paid situation. It's usually informal. It usually occurs infrequently. Although you could meet with a mentor on a regular basis. But usually, with a mentor, you don't want to be a big burden on them. Again, not like a coaching relationship, which I will discuss in a moment. And it's usually a self-selected relationship. So, I sought him out or he became available to me as opposed to being appointed to me by let's say my boss, which we'll talk about in a minute when we get to coaches.

The mentor is usually dedicated to the mentee's growth and development over time and not necessarily focused on a particular type of outcome or goal. In other words, you could be a coach, let's say, coaching in the athletics arena. You could be a serving coach for tennis or a sprinting coach or just a track coach, I suppose. But usually, there's something specific you're trying to learn, and it's very focused if you're a coach in that setting.

Even in the business end, in the entrepreneurial setting, a coach is usually trying to get you to that next level. And a lot of times the coach will drop off after you've achieved it. So, we'll talk about that again in a minute.

A mentor is able to give you specific advice and point you in a direction and also help you to avoid big mistakes or what I would call landmines in whatever you're doing. And so, as I look back, I've had other mentors, actually the CEO of my hospital was a mentor and there have been others.

We can often have multiple mentors depending on what we're trying to achieve. And as far as me, now I've become a mentor. I do mentorship. In a way, this podcast is a form of mentorship, although it's pretty informal or impersonal. But I have been mentored to specific listeners and also people in my nonclinical career academy where I'll offer some free advice. People contact me all the time by email, asking me questions that I sometimes talk about here on the podcast. And I will send them resources. I would point them in a direction or maybe even point them to a coach. So, I'm definitely a mentor.

Now, coaching is another story. I first experienced formal coaching when I was a senior VP and chief medical officer at the 300-bed hospital, south of Chicago that I eventually grew into. That situation. It was the same hospital I'm talking about where I was doing the CME, but over time I became more and more involved. They took medical directorships and ultimately, I became the CMO.

And the chief executive officer, the CEO of our hospital, had been getting some direct I think it was biweekly or monthly coaching. And after he'd done that for a year or so, he thought it was so helpful that he brought the coaching into the hospital. He offered the coaching to the senior executive team, the C-suite basically, all the VPs and the chief this and that.

And we got some group coaching and we had different programs that we would do together. And then we also had the ability to have individual coaching. So, I would meet with this coach, which was also the CEO's coach, and we would have a conversation for an hour. And that was my first exposure to formal coaching.

Now the thing about coaching, this kind of coaching is it's usually costly. It's a paid service and the people doing the coaching are very well-trained and usually quite experienced. And so, you can imagine, it costs hundreds of dollars per hour generally. And so, it's not an informal sort of situation. It's very formal most of the time. It is almost like therapy in the sense that rather than giving advice or pointing you in a certain direction, a coach is usually facilitating your progress and helping you by asking questions.

And the idea is as a coach to find out what your challenges are, and kind of walk you through a series of questions that will put the onus on you to discover possible solutions. And that's why I say it's very therapy-like in a sense. So, when you're in psychotherapy, again, your therapist does not tell you what to do or how to think but walks you through a process where you have certain "a-ha" moments and insights that take you down a path to become healthier.

Now, coaching is not therapy because there's no illness involved but you're using similar techniques. Usually, the coaching is formal and so, you have a regular schedule. It could be weekly, biweekly, it could be monthly. It could be face-to-face. It can be online. It's definitely less directive, but it is goal-oriented most of the time. So you're being coached in order to improve your leadership skills, or you're being coached to advance your career. And it's become quite common for physicians to hire another physician coach as a career coach. I've done some limited coaching. And when people now ask me, I know many coaches, I've interviewed many. There are some directories available now.

I will say coincidentally today's episode sponsor is the Physician Coaching Alliance as you heard a few more minutes ago from Erin Weisman. So, that's a resource for coaching, if you are looking for coaching.

Now I have tended to stay away from coaching. I'll talk a little bit more about that in a minute, for certain reasons, but what are the differences? Let's just go through the differences between a mentor and a coach. I've sort of already mentioned them, but basically, a mentor is growth-oriented versus a coach who is goal-oriented. A mentor is usually unpaid versus a coach who is paid. A mentor can be quite infrequent, very informal, versus their regularly scheduled meetings with a coach.

Mentorship sometimes can go on for years. Now it is true that you can have new mentors. As you progress, you might sort of catch up with your mentor in terms of what they're doing and how they can help you. You might need a new mentor. It would be quite common for someone like myself early in my career, going to the director of the pharmacy to get some mentorship about getting better at medication safety.

But once I become quite good at it, then maybe the next mentor might be the CFO or the COO or the CEO of the hospital, as opposed to coaching which usually is going to be somewhat time-limited in part, because it's quite expensive.

Now there's a version of coaching called group coaching, which is just like what it sounds. It's very similar. The process is very similar. Many coaches take on group coaching because basically you can only get paid so much doing one-on-one coaching unless you continue to raise your rates. And it becomes onerous to the coachee to keep paying more and more.

So, doing group coaching allows a highly successful and in-demand coach to offer their services to a larger group without raising the rates exorbitantly. And at the same time, keeping it actually less costly to the coachees. So, you can imagine a situation where instead of paying $200, $300 an hour for a coach, if you get in a group situation, you might be paying $100 an hour, but there might be five, six, or seven coachees in the group. And so, the expert coach is making it enough to make it worth their while.

In group coaching you still have the regular meetings. You still have the fact that it's less directive and more therapy-like. And basically, it's more reach for the coach and less costly to the coaches.

Now, my first experience with a mastermind group grew out of my experience with the coaching that I mentioned a minute ago when I was the CMO. The other thing that we did was every month or two, all the senior executives at the hospital where I was working would dedicate one of our scheduled meetings to a special session. And during that session, one of the C suite executives would take the metaphorical hot seat. So, the hot seat is just a term used to apply to the person who is going to be the center of attention for this part of that meeting. And the way we were doing it, we would probably have at least two people take the hot seat, sometimes only one.

And once you're there on the hot seat, the facilitators/coach would start by asking the subject to describe the major challenge in their job that they wanted to discuss that day. Then the rest of us would spend the next 20 to 30 minutes asking questions to achieve some clarity about what the problem really was. It's funny, but if you've gone through this process, you'll often find that sometimes it's difficult for the person in the hot seat to articulate what the problem really is, or in a way that is clear.

So, the whole process of just being on the hot seat and being questioned helps to really clarify the problem. Sometimes when you clarify the problem, the solution becomes self-evident and that's the end of the process. But we would normally explore what this person had already tried to resolve or to solve the problem or the challenge.

And eventually we might ask some leading questions - Has she tried this or that? And we would ask the person in the hot seat whether he would define the next steps that he was going to take based on the conversation with the group.

It was really amazing how often this erudite, experienced, and accomplished person would be able to find solutions that they were unable to devise on their own with weeks or months of effort prior to being on the hot seat. It's very interesting to watch, and it's consistently a very successful process.

The mastermind never failed to generate new ideas and instill a level of accountability that was otherwise usually not attainable. Let me go into a little bit more about what a mastermind is. This is a concept that was written as early as the 1940s by Napoleon Hill. I think there were others at the time that latched onto this, so I'm not sure he was the absolute first. And it's usually used by business leaders and entrepreneurs to try to experience breakthroughs and accelerate the pace of their success in their business.

It always requires that at least one person be a facilitator that can rotate, or it can be the person who puts together the mastermind. It can be done in a variety of settings and formats. It could be monthly meetings for months or years on end. It could be weekly or biweekly for a shorter period of time with an end date. I've heard of masterminds getting together over a weekend or maybe one and a half to three days where these larger groups each go through the hot seat multiple times and try to come up with a lot of plans to take back home.

A mastermind can actually be done face-to-face or online summer free if you just get together with 4 or 5 people, 6, 7, 8, whatever number that have issues similar to you, maybe you are in a similar business at a similar level. You can just do a free mastermind together and you'll rotate the facilitation of it. But many are paid and some can be quite expensive. And even $10,000 to $20,000 per year can be on the low end. There are masterminds with very, very well-known gurus and people that are leaders in their fields. It can be quite expensive, but there are people out there that want to do that because they are so successful.

And part of the reason why they're successful is just not the obvious process of being on the hot seat, but they offer peer accountability. When you're done on the hot seat, you're going to declare what your next steps are. And then you can be held accountable to that during the next meeting. It's a lot of brainstorming. It's a lot of support between the members. You all get to know each other usually pretty well, particularly for those that are ongoing. There is a lot of networking that happens. So, some of the success that comes from this is networking and then sharing or referring outside interest, the networking cohort with the others in your network, in other words. And that's the way that you can become successful and others can become successful by having you refer to them. So, there's real-time education that goes on. There are usually people in any group that are sort of semi experts in certain things that they share during the process. And the bottom line is it's a catalyst for previously unattainable success.

These are three methods or techniques that you can use to accelerate your career transition. Definitely you want to use mentors. It's free, it's informal. It should be a given that you should have multiple mentors as you're trying to advance your career. And there's no reason not to use a coach if you can afford it. And there's a process for finding and selecting the right coach. But again, these different things are actually complementary to one another.

And then the mastermind is another one that I think if you can get into a mastermind, and commit to it and show up and be accountable, they can really speed things along.

So, now the question becomes, "What do I offer? Well, I certainly provide a fair amount of free mentoring. I mentioned that earlier. If you just send me an email with a question, I'm happy to share my wisdom such as it is, my insights, my knowledge. I'll send you a free list of nonclinical careers or a free list of different resources for different things.

Coaching I've done to a very small extent. I've avoided coaching primarily for two reasons. I don't have that much time. And so, I'd have to really charge a super high fee to make it worth my while. And I don't feel like I have the best skills as a coach. I feel I'm better at being a mentor and offering resources.

But I have been intrigued by the idea of developing a mastermind group for physicians interested in nonclinical careers for a long time, because I think it offers a lot of great advantages and, again, could complement the other process that you might be going through.

So, I took the leap and I started a paid mastermind group with five listeners like you about three months ago. We've been meeting biweekly every other week for the past three months. And I must say, I'm really impressed by how well the physicians have taken to the process because I really don't think that we're generally exposed to this kind of a process during our training or at other times. As far as I know, none of them have been involved in a mastermind group before.

We've had some major breakthroughs and the members are very pleased with the way things are going. So, we're still going, we're still meeting. Our next meeting will be a week after I'm recording this. And I plan to start another group of up to 10 members in September. So, I haven't really gone out and started looking for those members.

But for those of you who are interested, you can join a waiting list to find out more and definitely with no obligation, of course, at nonclinicalphysicians.com/mastermind. It will require a short interview at some point in the process just to answer your questions and to be certain that you're appropriate for the next group.

I'm going to have some constraints on it. I probably won't take residents in, for example. I definitely will not take people that are just simply burnt out and need more of a burnout coach or something like that.

But for those that are interested in going from a clinical to a nonclinical career and wanting to get together with peers who are doing the same thing, even if it's in vastly different fields of careers pharma versus hospital versus insurance company and so forth. I think a group of physicians together can really work and make some great progress and breakthroughs.

Again, I am looking forward to sharing this process with more of you as time permits. Again, if you want to check it out, you can definitely go to nonclinicalphysicians.com/mastermind. Right now, it's just a waiting list, but because we're getting close to September, I'll be sending out more information to the people on that list very soon.

Well, I think that should do it for today's episode. I hope you've enjoyed it. If you have any questions about today's content, you can email me at john.jurica.md@gmail.com. As usual, I'll put my links in the show notes, which will be at nonclinicalphysicians.com/coaches-mentors-and-masterminds.

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The post How Do I Choose the Best Coaches Mentors and Masterminds for Me? – 208 appeared first on NonClinical Physicians.

In honor of my 200th episode, I want to tell you how to discover your first nonclinical job. But first, I will play a recent audio review from one of my listeners.

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.

Discover Your First Nonclinical Job

In this discussion, I describe the three steps that must be followed when pursuing a nonclinical career.

Step One 

This step requires that mindset issues be addressed. These are fears and faulty beliefs that keep us from moving toward our goal of a new career. I spend a few minutes explaining why they can lead to an “upper limit problem,” and how to overcome them.

One of the biggest myths is that we don't have transferable skills. In reality, we have most of the skills needed to land almost any nonclinical position. In some cases, we need a little training in management and leadership that we can learn very quickly.

Step Two

In this step, we must discover which jobs are suited to physicians. We typically have very little exposure to the industries that employ doctors or the hundreds of specific jobs that require a medical background. During this episode, I briefly describe 15 of the most popular nonclinical careers for physicians.

Step Three

In this final step, we must put together a plan in which we…

• select our preferred position,
• engage a mentor or two,
• learn as much about it as we can,
• join pertinent professional organizations,
• prepare a complete LinkedIn profile,
• prepare a cover letter and resumé,
• find appropriate job listings,
• apply to a job that matches our goals, and
• ace our interview.

More About the Nonclinical Career Academy Membership Program

The NCA Membership Program will enable you to complete each of the above steps and discover your first nonclinical job. It is open for enrollment for only 3 days following the release of this episode. To learn more about the Membership Program go to nonclinicalphysicians.com/joinnca.

As the host of the Academy Membership Program, it is my promise to do all that I can to help you land a satisfying nonclinical or nontraditional job. That job will enable you to leave assembly-line, soul-crushing medical practice and apply your background to helping patients in a new way.

I have already dedicated hundreds of hours developing 22 courses that bring you the knowledge I’ve garnered over the past 20 years. And I will continue to add new lessons to assist you in your career journey. The Program also includes Masterclasses with Drs. Mike Woo-Ming, Andrew Wilner, and Maiysha Clairborne, and resumé expert Charlotte Weeks.

So, check it out at nonclinicalphysicians.com/joinnca.

Summary

There is a straightforward strategy for pursuing a new career. In today's podcast episode, we walk through the three major steps of that strategy.  

NOTE: Look below for a transcript of today's episode that you can download or read.

Links for Today's Episode:

• Nonclinical Career Academy Main Page
• NCA Membership Program
• How to Claim Your First Job in Industry
• How to Get Your Fabulous First MSL Job – 126

Download This Episode:

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

Podcast Editing & Production Services are provided by Oscar Hamilton

Today's PNC Podcast Transcript

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Transcription - Discover Your First Nonclinical Job

Even If You Don't Know Where to Start

John: All right, I think we're ready to start our presentation. This is "Discover Your First Nonclinical Job Even If You Don't Know Where to Start". My name is John Jurica. Let me tell you a little bit about my story. Most of you know who I am. I'm a podcaster obviously. And I also put together a nonclinical career academy membership site for people to learn about nonclinical careers.

But I'm a family physician. And early in my career, after joining my two partners as fresh out of residency, I started doing nonclinical jobs. I was looking to moonlight and rather than do more clinical things, which I did a little bit of, I started to work in different nonclinical roles. So, I was a physician advisor for utilization management. And then I was working in a family planning clinic clinically, and then I became medical director for that.

Then I received an MPH. Well, I took the courses to get my MPH and I became the medical director for an occupational medicine clinic. And from there eventually, I moved into leadership roles at a hospital as a VPMA, and then chief medical officer.

So, I've done a lot of nonclinical activities. And when I got tired of doing that after about 15 years as a senior executive at the hospital, I decided to open an urgent care center with some other investors. And now I'm the medical director and part-owner of the clinics. There are now two clinics, but I'm only working clinically one day a week, although I'm still working as a medical director. So, in the meantime, I started this podcast and I started interviewing physicians and coaches so that I could learn how to move into nonclinical careers other than the ones that I have already done. So, I have a lot of firsthand experience and then a lot of secondhand experience through interviews and so forth.

So that's my story. And I'm here to tell you what I've determined is really a process for moving from really a non-satisfying clinical career with burnout and the risk of liability and lawsuits and all the paperwork and the owner of CMRs and so forth, and really take everything that you've learned clinically in your experience, your training, and then move into a nonclinical role, but still applying that and usually helping out lots of patients in the process. By the way, that picture was from about 15, 20 years ago. So that does not meet today. I've got a lot of gray hair these days, but I guess that only means I'm seasoned at what I'm doing.

All right. So first I wanted to tell you the secret that I learned about career transition over the period of time that I've been studying it. And really the main secret is that we have a lot of transferable skills. And the reason this is important to talk about is that it's very common for physicians to feel and to even express that all we know, all they know is medicine.

And so how can we move into some other career? It feels like we've really niched down, right? We started undergrad. We do a very broad generalized education usually. A lot of us are in liberal arts and sciences, but even if we're in some other college within a university, yeah, there's a lot of different courses. It's not very specific. And we usually have to go to graduate school or medical school or something to get more specified.

And we kind of then niche down into medicine, of course. And so that kind of separates us from other people. And I'm not saying in a necessarily supercilious way or we're any better, just narrows it down. And then as you go into your specialties, you might do a general specialty like internal medicine or family medicine, but you might go into neurology or surgery and then a subspecialty of surgery.

So, it seems like we're so "niched down" that all we know is we've spent 13, 14, 15 years learning how on earth could we just shift to something completely different, particularly something that involves management or finances or leadership or something like that.

But I think we look at it the wrong way when we do that. So, I like to use this thought experiment that you're, let's say, the last of a small group of human beings who are going to be shipwrecked or who are on the earth in some apocalyptic story. And there's a number of people in that group. There are teachers and politicians, attorneys, a judge, there might be a nurse, that could be someone who works hard labor type of job, a plumber and then there might be an engineer and a physician.

And as I thought about this kind of thinking process, like who would I want to be stranded with if I only could pick one or two partners? Well, it would be the engineer and the doctor basically. The engineer knows a lot about physical things and building things and what's safe and what's not safe, but the physician knows a lot of other things, which I'm going to talk about in a minute. And believe me, you'd want to have a physician on that team, not just because of your own chances of being injured or becoming sick, but for a lot of reasons.

So, let's go through this. Here are some of the things that physicians pretty much across the board understand and know. They have a background in physiology, anatomy, biochemistry, pharmacology, statistics, epidemiology, and a lot more. You've got these so-called soft skills. They're not really scientific, but this commitment to lifelong learning, the teaching, the presenting, the communicating, working in teams, and a whole lot more.

And then there's a personality trait. Physicians are very reliable and accountable. They have a lot of perseverance and grit, dedication. Things that employers are really looking for. And then you've got in my estimate, 70% to 80% of pretty much any nonclinical job requirements that you might need. And really the proof is almost in the pudding. If you're looking for a nonclinical job, a large percent of them fall into one of these categories and the bottom here on this slide, and it's not like this description defines exactly what the role is. But within every industry, there are physician advisors, medical directors, and chief medical officers, chief medical information officers.

But you'll notice the reason that term "physician" is in there or "medical" is in there is because the only person that can fill that role is a physician, an MD, a DO, and MBBS, whatever the equivalent is, somebody with at least that four-to-six-year background in medical school. And then oftentimes they also need to have some clinical experience in residency training and possibly board certification, but not always.

So, to think that we're not suitable for a number of these roles, I think we need to put that aside. Now, this is one of those self-limiting beliefs. And I'm going to talk more about that in a minute when I get into what are the three major areas that we need to focus on when thinking about making a pivot from clinical to a nonclinical career.

So, here are the three components that I tend to teach my mentees, my coaches, my students, and my colleagues really. One is we've got to overcome some limiting beliefs. I call them self-limiting beliefs, usually.

Next, you have to find out about the specific jobs in the most popular industries to choose from. So, I would ask you right now, can you name three popular fairly lucrative nonclinical jobs that physicians would be able to move into? I think probably most of you can, but if you can't, well, I'm going to go through about 20 of them in about two minutes. Because this is going to be maybe something to think about later, as a result just of this episode, this presentation. Have you internalized some of the things I'm telling you, by the end of this, you should be able to name at least three, if not more, nonclinical careers that are very common, very popular.

But the final part of this, maybe three-legged stool besides knowing what you're suited for and what's available, getting over your self-limiting beliefs, we've also got to understand the tactics that most job transitions require when you're moving from a clinical to a nonclinical. And some of them are very specific to that sort of thing. The others, there are general principles and changing careers, whoever you are, whatever you're doing, but there are some that are unique to physicians.

And these are the three big areas that I talk about. And we'll go into these in some detail. So, I'm basically trying to give you in one fell swoop, sort of the overarching look at how one makes the change from clinical to nonclinical.

And the thing is, this method or this approach really applies to whether you are board-certified or not. it applies to pretty much any specialty background. Now, there are certain specialties that either would tend to include you or exclude you from certain careers, but in general, any specialty can do almost any nonclinical career with a little bit of preparation.

And then whether you've pursued additional certification or an advanced degree, you can get most of these jobs without that. But at times it's beneficial to get the additional certification or degrees. But that's more or less to be more competitive. It's not necessarily something that is always required or even often required.

So, when you're done and when you do this right, when you go through the process I'm talking about today, you can understand why you're already qualified. You're going to realize that these nonclinical careers are the next logical step in your professional growth. So that's another myth or another belief that we have to get over. And the belief that we're stepping back or that the pinnacle of our career is being a physician. Well, we're always going to be a physician, but we actually can step up and forward, not down or back. We're moving to the next phase of our career like a lot of people do. If an attorney is working as a defense attorney for 20 years and then becomes a judge or a justice, they don't look at that as a step back. Well, I'm abandoning my career as an attorney. No, that's the next step forward. Well, there are lots of nonclinical careers that in that situation are exactly the same. So, as we move forward, this is actually a step up. And I've been doing nonclinical careers for a long time. I'm still called a doctor and I'm still entitled to that because most of the things that I've done, if not all of them, have helped patients, but in a different way.

So, let's move forward here. Let's go through some of these steps in more detail and dig a little bit deeper and we'll go from there. The whole step one is the whole mindset thing. And there are many people who are half-ready to start a new career. There is something called the upper limit problem that I think Gay Hendricks wrote about in a book in which you seem to be making progress, but then something holds you back. You hit a limit and you can't go beyond that. And what it turns out, is often what are these self-limiting beliefs that are related back to something that happened in your childhood and you may or may not actually remember what happened. You may not even be aware that you have this belief, but at an unconscious level, it keeps you from earning more money. It keeps you from moving to a new job. So, this is very common.

Now, some of the fears that I see that come out are fears of letting your family down. There are some cultures in particular, or in some families, where being a physician or being an attorney, being a professional at that level, those are the only options. And if you don't do that, and if you deviate from that or move beyond that, they do see it as stepping back. There's a fear of looking bad. This is just a common human self-limiting belief that if you do something else., you're going to look bad. You might fail.

Obviously, we can fail, but we need to look at failure in a different way. As physicians, we're not used to failing, we are used to making that next step, that next step, that next step, passing each test, doing well. When I applied to medical school, I was rejected the first time. So, I understood what that failure was, but I just overcame that, kept working, studying, took some additional classes, retook the MCATs, moved on, and was accepted.

But that doesn't happen to most people. They have a string of successes from grammar school, high school, get into college, get into medical school, get into residency, and so forth. And then there's that fear of "I'm not good enough" and the fear of financial ruin. Now, many of you are making good money if you're full-time working in your intended career after residency and passing your boards and so forth, and you may have loans out there and a lot of expenses and you need to make a lot of money. But remember, it's at the expense if you're listening to this of near burnout, no fulfillment, the feeling like you're just churning patients. And so, we need to rethink how we look at that.

But the bottom line is that a lot of these things relate back to this statement that you don't have the necessary skills or expertise to do anything else that we started with. If you feel that way, then you're going to feel as though you're looking bad. You're not really doing the right thing. You're going to feel that you're going to fail because you don't have the necessary skills. You're going to feel that you're not good enough, or that you're not going to make enough money because you're not going to get that next job.

So, two things on this. The first one, the fear of letting people down, I would say, have a conversation with your loved ones and say I'm miserable. I really don't like what I'm doing for a variety of reasons. I've been burned out. I've been depressed. Whatever it is, unfulfilled, 99.9% of the time, your loved ones are going to say, "Sweetheart, do what is best for you. And if you can do it using what you've learned, fine". But do something that helps you, or allows you to work within your zone of genius and help people and not be stuck in some job that you hate. Nobody should do that. So, I think you'll find that your family will support you.

And then as far as the other things, the financial. You might have a temporary reduction. So, you've got to plan ahead. You shouldn't just stop working and then start looking for a job. A lot of these things, you can overlap very easily. Don't do anything foolish, but at the same time, you are a physician. They're not going to be able to pay a physician the salary of someone else that does not have that medical degree and doesn't have that background and experience. It might be a little less, but you're going to be working less hours. You are going to have no call. You're not going to be liable for a lawsuit. You're going to have so many other upsides that even if there's a small downside financially, it's really a good trade-off.

And then ultimately, usually you're going to get increases in pay whether it's normally through your employment and raises every year, or if you're a hospital administrator, something like that, you're going to have deferred comp and all kinds of things coming in. And really there's a lot of jobs that pay more than you are paid as a physician unless you're just really super hard-working, extremely busy, specialty surgeon, or interventional cardiologist or something like that.

All right. So that's step one. And obviously, I'm not going to get you through that step in just five minutes, but I think you have to try to think about what we've talked about and do some introspection and see if these things make sense to you.

Now, step two is a lot of people who move towards a job change. They're like, "Well, what do I do?" It's one of the most common comments I get in the Facebook group where I'm a moderator, the Physician Nonclinical Career Hunters Facebook group. And it's like, I don't know what to do. And the other members of the group when the new member says that they find it a little bit ironic because they've been exposed through the group to dozens and dozens of different jobs, different industries. And it's really a typical, and it's expected question, and that's why step two is to find out what's out there, what's available.

Do you have to find out every single job that any physician has ever done in any industry? No, but you should be exposed to at least 20 or 30 different jobs in 5 or 10 different industries so you can see what meshes with your personality and so forth.

So, I'm going to go through and list some of the jobs that I've talked about in the past that I hear about that I study and that I present, for example, in my Nonclinical Career Academy membership site. So, these are very common. Utilization management, probably the number one job in the Facebook group. That can be done at an insurance company, but it also can be done in the hospital setting. In fact, that's where it grew out of. You can be a hospital medical director for quality improvement, for CDI, which also has medical advisors, for utilization management, for informatics, not to mention all of the service lines where you can be a medical director.

And then you can move up to a chief medical officer, chief quality officer, chief medical information officer. And those are very high-paying jobs, a lot of responsibility, and a lot of impact on patients at the hospital where you're working. There are at least six types of medical writers, and you can do those jobs either as a freelancer or as an employee. So, there are 12 different iterations right there.

And then there's another medical writing job called medical communications, which I kind of carve-out usually because it's working for an ad agency to help pharmaceutical companies get the word out, get the word out on their new medications and existing medications and expansion of the applications of their medicines. And so, if you think about that, this is one of the overlaps between medical writing and the pharma industry, which I'll talk about in a minute.

Another one that's come up recently. I just put it in here. It's not the most common but accrediting organizations need physicians. Oftentimes they need physicians to be surveyors where they can get paid to do that. That's usually part-time, or they can be management in those companies. The ACCME, the accreditation council for CME. The leader of that has always been a physician. The ACGME, I believe, has always been led by a physician and they have surveyors. There are all kinds. The Joint Commission has a surveyor. There are jobs for physicians there because they know medicine.

And so when they're dealing with physicians in these institutions that they're serving, they have physicians that can speak their language and they get a little more respect when they're teaching them or trying to show them how they should be doing something when they've had an issue.

Insurance medicine is a big one. There are not as many jobs there, but there are definitely medical directors and there is a society of physicians for insurance medicine. So, it's definitely a bona fide and very popular job and physicians don't leave that job because it's very intellectually stimulating. And yet, it's very reasonable in terms of the lifestyle.

You got medical consulting. Now, when I usually talk about this, I'm talking about working for a big healthcare or management company like McKinsey or Accenture or BCG or Huron, or there are probably at least 15 of them. And there's lots and lots of jobs, but you could also be a freelance consultant yourself as a consultant I guess I should say, and you can teach other physicians about how to run their practice or how to do the finances or how to do branding for their practice. I've interviewed physicians doing all of those things.

Then in pharma, you've got medical directors, basically, in the medical affairs division, you've got medical science liaisons, or an MSL, which is a very popular position. That's open to physicians who have not gone through residency. Medical monitor. Oh, by the way, these jobs are also open to physicians who do have residency like the medical science liaison, the medical monitor, but they will take both depending on your background, for sure. Medical safety or pharmacovigilance, they need physicians and pharma for that.

Then we'll shift gears totally to expert witnesses, which is usually a part-time job. And you can cut your practice in half, see patients 20 hours a week and do medical expert witness job type work, chart reviews, and depositions 10 hours a week, and make a much higher total salary than you would just by practicing alone in most specialties.

There's a lot of home-based careers. There are some of these overlaps like the UM and even the CDI consulting, they can be done from home because of EMRs and so forth. But there are others, there are independent review organizations that you can do reviews offline or online with different disability companies and workers comp. And you can even go to state medical societies and do quality reviews on charts. So, it's a lot of home-based careers and we call them remote control careers sometimes.

And then physician coaching is a huge one. There are probably 10 or 12 different types of coaching from life coaching to career coaching and business coaching. But with that, you get to be like a physician in terms of what you're doing and how you're helping people, but there's almost no liability. There's no call. It's a much better lifestyle.

So, you need to review and get exposed to what's out there. The pros and cons of each. Does it involve travel? Does it involve other things that would not fit with your lifestyle? I have an example here of someone that followed my process. He was not residency trained. He came to this country as a foreign medical graduate. He tried to get into residency and he couldn't.

If you look at the bottom and work your way up, this is just a LinkedIn profile. And you can see that he was working as a medical assistant, but he did have the medical background for medical school. And then he became a scribe. And then he began working as a medical case manager, almost like a nurse and utilization review specialist, but he was in the hospital setting. He was exposed. He was networking. He was getting mentored by physicians who would help advise him and how he might move into something more lucrative and have more responsibility. And he was able after taking a short course on ICD-10 to get a job as a clinical documentation specialist, as a physician. So, he was there on sort of a level playing field with other physician CDI specialists and he carried forth on that. He was working for a larger company remotely, and he really enjoyed it.

You have to overcome that knowledge gap about available opportunities. So, what are the most popular industries? What positions exist in those? And then what are their characteristics? As I said a minute ago, are they remote? Are they face to face? Are they in an employed situation? Are they freelance? Are they 09:00 to 05:00 or are they flexible? So, which job fits you best? As you become aware of more jobs, you have a bigger choice of those that will fit with you.

And then the next step, of course, is where do you find those jobs and how do you find those jobs? So, if you do this right, you're going to start with this big overview. You're going to understand the differences. You're going to see if they align with your preferences as noted on this slide. And you can begin to identify how prepared you are and what additional education certification or degree you might need if any.

And another physician that was an OB, who really was unhappy and she looked around and she found through her studies that she liked to write. She knew that, and she took a course to help her set up her LLC for her freelance writing. And she did that for several years, developed relationships. She was doing that while she was working as pretty much a full-time laborist.

And then at one point after really making some good money on the side as a medical writer, she was contacted through LinkedIn about a job for a contract research organization CRO, which usually is providing support to pharmaceutical companies and they needed a technical writer.

And although she hadn't been a technical writer, she was definitely a good writer and she applied for the job and she got it very quickly and that worked out great and she stopped seeing patients clinically. So that's just another example. And it's an example of the kind of thing that you can do if you apply yourself and follow the principles that I'm talking about today.

Now, step three is, I could say to come up with a plan, but really the plan has so many little steps in it that I'll mention here in a second. But basically, some of the steps here, and I'll go back. This just shows you what a plan could look like. This would be a one-year plan that would probably work out pretty well.

The beginning is addressing the self-limiting beliefs, starting to look at job descriptions, really not so much because you want to apply, but because you just want to understand what they list in there, what's critically important for each type of job you might be choosing or thinking about choosing.

Early on, you should get a mentor. You should get a full LinkedIn profile set up and so forth. I'll go through this in the next slide. But each month or two, you can do additional steps in this process. Some of these are ongoing. Some of these you only do as you get towards the end of the process. So, at some point, you're going to have to put together a resume and a cover letter. You're going to have to make that very personal. You are going to have to switch it from a CV to a resume. And there's a big difference between the two. And then you're going to have to really narrow it down to where you're going to look, how you're going to send those materials in, and how to prepare for, let's say, a telephone or a video call, how to prepare for your interview.

So, I've listed these here. In the meantime, you will join professional organizations if there are any because they can help you. They can add more evidence and different courses and information about getting a job. Some of them have job boards. As I mentioned, you're going to complete your LinkedIn profile. You're going to network constantly. And you're going to network in a way that is not like staying after a meeting and having a drink in a conference room and just small talk and hand out your cards. No, you're going to network with people you already know, try and find contacts that they'd have other contacts in the industry you're looking for.

And then you need to learn the jargon. And then if you have to, you can say, well, maybe I need some additional courses or certifications or degrees. But again, I advise people that it's okay to take some additional courses, but if I were you and you're going to look for a degree, I'd probably start work on a degree while you're looking at that job. And with any luck, you can land the job while you're still in the process of getting the degree, and then maybe you can get your employer to help pay for it. So, there's a whole strategy there.

And like I said, the cover letter, the resume, and how to prepare for your interviews, and how to do research on the organization that you're interviewing with is a big deal as well. So, this is a big step. Step three has a lot of moving parts in it, but there's a science between each of them and there are experts that can be accessed. So, you put it all together and you look at the steps. You may already have a perfect LinkedIn profile, but maybe your resume needs some improvement. There are some things we can do together to do that. Or maybe you hire someone to look at your resume. It's not that expensive. And if you use someone who knows how to design a resume for this kind of job, it's probably worth it. And you probably want to write down some kind of a visual map of your plan. You might call it a Gantt chart or some process where you say, "Here's what I'm going to get done in week one, week two, month one, month two, month three, and so forth. So, there is a science to it.

Anyway, when you do it right you can make your career shift, get away from burnout, less stress, wake up in the morning, looking forward to work instead of dreading it, and you'll have the skills necessary if you listen to what I'm saying today, or learn more at the membership site that I'm going to talk about so that you can do this over and over again, that slide that I showed here actually can be reiterated each time. You can do it for the first job, the second job, the third job, it gets a little easier each time. Your advancement usually goes a little quicker when you're willing to make the change to a new job, but there are still great opportunities within organizations to move up as well.

So, I have a mentee, someone that I mentored and coached, and it was actually a friend of mine as well. We worked at the same organization. And he had reached the end of his career. I mean, he could have continued to work as a cardiothoracic surgeon, but he saw the writing on the wall. The number of open-heart surgeries was declining as the cardiologist became more and more aggressive in what they could do. A transcutaneous I guess is how I would put it. And he was a good leader and he ran some good programs and during the last two years of his work at the hospital as a surgeon, he did most of his online MBA, a very well-respected one.

And he was able to get a position as a physician advisor. I think it was a lot more than a physician advisor in the sense that he was doing not only helping with UM but quality improvement. And he was involved in root cause analysis. He had learned a lot about quality improvement in his role as the medical director for the cardiac program. So again, he just applied the same principles. He didn't have to do a lot of interviews. He just approached one of the hospitals they had privileges at, and he was able to move right into that position once he decided to stop working clinically, and he's still helping people provide in his hospital to provide really good patient care. So, it can be done. He has the know-how and confidence to apply to his next position if he decides to move on.

And it should be pretty obvious now that there's a series of logical steps that are best done in a deliberate way if you want to move forward from your clinical till your nonclinical. You should never just quit a job without a plan. Some people have done that successfully, but most of those have had big nest eggs that can tie them over. You really want to do small pivots. You want to do pilots. You want to do things part-time, do things on the side if you can. In the hospital setting, you can volunteer for things. And you do learn management by being the chair of a committee or two, and then working on the board, if you have an opportunity for that. So, there are ways to do it that I teach my students.

So, to reiterate, we're going to overcome the self-limiting beliefs and develop confidence in your transferable skills, which you have many of. You are going to identify some potential careers that will build on your education and training. Then you're going to become an expert at the tactics. You need to make that shift from using a mentor and networking to preparing your resume and acing your interview.

So, the other thing that's important here. And so, we're getting to the end of this part of it. And it's just to say that not wasting your time chasing useless information. This is one of the things that's a benefit of having a mentor or a coach sometimes, or a teacher or whatever you want to call that person. It's just to avoid the landmines, avoid the big mistakes that slow your progress.

And so, that is what I wanted to share with you. And especially in honor of my 200 episodes, I've kind of boiled down a lot of what I've learned in the last 30 minutes, just to give you a broad overview. And this is the path to a new fulfilling career that I want you to understand. And if you need help with that, then you should consider joining the Nonclinical Career Academy membership program. It just reopened recently. And so, if you'll indulge me for just a minute or two longer, let me tell you more about it.

So, think about what it would be like if you could find the career that you love, overcome burnout and experience joy and balance in your life and avoid another frivolous lawsuit. And feel like you're still in a career based on your medical knowledge and training. And that's why I developed the Nonclinical Career Academy so that I can help you to move in that direction quickly and conveniently.

The NCA membership program started as 12 courses back almost two years ago. Now with 22 in 7 major categories. Introductory, getting started, the important tactics. And then there are some really specific things about hospital management medical science liaison. There's a six-lesson course there that could pretty much get you fully into a position to interview and land your first job, locum tenens, and consulting.

And I set it up as a membership because then there's unlimited access to all the courses at whatever time you are available to do it. I could sell the courses individually, but I continue to add courses every couple of months or so. And a lot of that's based on the feedback I get. So, if this sounds like something that is interesting to you, then definitely to nonclinicalphysicians.com/joinnca and just look around. That's just a homepage where you can look and see there are a lot more details about it. And with the program, you can do these things. You can avoid burnout, you can move on, eliminate your lawsuits and be happy, basically, using your medical knowledge and experience.

The program does have a seven-day money-back guarantee. So, you can go in there and look around and see if it's really what you think will help you on your journey. And I've had many members who have been in it for over a year. But you can get in there and get three, four or five months under your belt, find that next career and move on. And that'll be a lot less expensive than buying a $3,000 or $4,000 or $5,000 course with this much content in it. And you only have to use the parts that you want to use and you'll have access for as long as you're a member.

The membership site closes on the 18th, Friday, the 18th of June. To learn more, just go to nonclinicalphysicians.com/joinnca. Check it out. And if it's something that you think is going to be helpful, sign up, look it over. If you don't like it, you can withdraw. Otherwise, start going through it. And let's get you on course to get your first nonclinical or non-traditional job and have you moved up to that next phase of your nonclinical professional life.

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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 Discover Your First Nonclinical Job Even If You Don’t Know Where to Start – 200 appeared first on NonClinical Physicians.

In this week's show, I explain the 5 steps I took to go from family physician to hospital Chief Medical Officer.

I start by explaining why I believe hospital leadership is an excellent career. Then I set the stage for the rest of the discussion.

Our Sponsor

Today's sponsor is a new one: Vohra Wound Physicians. This is a great physician-led company, that is looking for additional physicians to join its team. Wound care is in great demand, and Vohra enables physicians to focus on taking care of patients without administrative burdens.

And working for Vohra means no weekends and no call. Vohra will support you with its excellent in-house training. And Vohra embraces technology, integrating telemedicine so that you have more flexibility in your schedule while reducing travel demands.

If you have an unrestricted license to practice, have been actively practicing for the past 12 months, and are able to commit to at least three 8-hour days of work each week, you should contact Vohra Wound Physicians here: nonclinicalphysicians.com/woundcare. 

5 Steps to a Leadership Position

Here are the five steps I describe in today's monologue:

1. Be curious and volunteer for committees and special projects;
2. Engage one or more mentors;
3. Try different part-time paid positions as pilots to see what interests you while gaining new skills;
4. Get additional education and certification or a new degree;
5. Go for it, and ask for the job.

My path spanned about 20 years. But you can compress what I did into a much shorter time frame. In the end, you will find a well-compensated position that enables you to have a meaningful impact on healthcare in your community. 

And if you're like me, you'll have fun doing it.

Summary

This is an excellent career open to any physician who regularly works in the hospital setting. By demonstrating interest, learning on the job, obtaining the help of a mentor, and furthering your education, you will be able to find a career as a hospital executive.

Links for Today's Episode:

• American Association for Physician Leadership
• Follow Six Essential Rules to Engage a Mentor
• Vohra Wound Care Jobs

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. It should not be construed as medical, legal, tax, or emotional advice. If you take action on the information provided on the blog or podcast, it is at your own risk. Always consult an attorney, accountant, career counselor, or other professional before making any major decisions about your career. 

The post 5 Steps I Took to Be a Hospital Executive – 175 appeared first on NonClinical Physicians.

In this episode of the PNC podcast, I present an excerpt from the upcoming What to Consider Next Virtual Conference that may help you find your new career!

This live, interactive online conference is being presented by Michelle Mudge-Riley and Physicians Helping Physicians in July 2020.

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.

Three Principles

Physicians are all “family.” We're all part of a guild or fraternity/sorority because we've all gone through a shared experience as part of our education. So we feel a kinship. And we hurt when other physicians are unhappy or distressed.

Secondly, like everybody else, we deserve a career that we love. We're not more entitled than anybody else. But given all of the years that we spend studying and preparing to serve others, we should at least find a career that we love.

The other principle is that physicians are natural leaders. It's built into our training. Many potential nonclinical careers involve leadership. And physicians are desperately needed to serve more leadership roles in healthcare.

Here's Where You Might Find Your New Career

There are dozens of careers that have this one thing in common: they are only available to physicians. Here are a few suggestions to help you find your new career.

Hospital-Based Positions

There are utilization management, clinical documentation improvement, and informatics. And these may lead to an executive career as Chief Medical Officer or Chief Information Officer.

Medical Writer

Medical writing is a diverse field. You might start as a freelance writer, and work from home. Or you can join a medical communications company as a writer, and then move up to editor or medical director. 

Coaching

Coaching has become a popular career. It allows physicians to apply much of what attracted them to medicine. But there are none of the insurance hassles or on-call duties.

Other Careers

The list goes on and on: life and disability insurance, consulting, teaching, public speaking, and nontraditional clinical careers such as telemedicine and locum tenens work.

The Conference

The speakers are awesome. They are all experts in physician career transition, starting with the organizer, Dr. Michelle Mudge-Riley. She has been coaching and teaching physicians for over 15 years.

Then there is Dr. Michael McLaughlin, who wrote one of the first books addressing physician nonclinical career transition. He is also known for:

• founding the Physicians Renaissance Network,
• creating his own medical communications business, and
• moderating the Non-Clinical Careers for Physicians LinkedIn Group. 

In addition to the great speakers and mentors, this live online conference is set up to allow you to network with other attendees, speakers, and mentors during designated break-outs. Using a sophisticated platform, you can move from virtual table to virtual table, asking questions, and getting feedback directly from the experts.

The whole experience is designed to allow you to interact with colleagues and speakers without the cost of travel and lodging or the fear of exposure to a pandemic.

Summary

There are dozens of unconventional careers for physicians. Some are open to physicians who have not completed a residency or who no longer have a license. With so many options, your real problem is going to be selecting one and preparing yourself to land that first job.

Download This Episode:

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

The Clinicians Career Cooperative Official Launch Was 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
• Brent Lacey

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 Is It Really That Hard to Find Your New Career? – 148 appeared first on NonClinical Physicians.

Before we get started, I want to thank our sponsor, the University of Tennessee Physician Executive MBA Program offered by the Haslam College of Business. You’ll remember that I interviewed Dr. Kate Atchley, the Executive Director of the program, in Episode #25 of this podcast.

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

More About PEMBA Students

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

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

Alright, let’s get to today’s episode, in which I describe some simple tactics you can implement to help hasten your career transition.

My Story

I was working full time as a family physician, with a fairly busy practice. Other clinics and committees sought my help. In the early years of my practice, I joined the CME Committee at my hospital. And I filled in at the family planning clinic. Later, I began to cover a few shifts at the hospital’s new occ-med clinic.

Later they asked me to provide part-time administrative support. This included developing policies and procedures, supervising a PA or NP, and doing a walk-through of a local factory.

As the demands on my time increased, I cut back my clinical duties. I made these changes over several years without any specific plan.

Management is Challenging and Fun

I really enjoyed the management work, and looked for more opportunities to do it.  Thinking it would help with my occ-med work, I pursued a master's degree in public health.  I finally started to seriously consider a full-time career in hospital management 13 years after residency.

The tedium of daily practice, increasing paperwork, and declining reimbursements partly fueled my desire to make the shift. But most of it came from a passion to work in teams, participate in projects, improve quality of care, and bridge the communication gap between my physician colleagues and the hospital C-suite.

How to Expedite Career Transition

Looking back, the process could have been a lot more intentional. I’ve since learned simple tactics that can expedite the search for a new career. Entrepreneurs developed these tactics to accelerate business growth. But they certainly apply to career transition, also.

I can think of 5 simple tactics that I could have used, or used more effectively, to expedite my career pivot.

Who Best to Use These Methods?

These tactics are best used once the following conditions have been met.

• You're committed to changing careers;
• You have narrowed your new career to one or two fields;
• You’re frustrated by the slow progress you’re making.

5 Simple Tactics

Here are the five simple tactics that I’ve found to significantly expedite the process. I know they would have helped me immensely if I had used them from the beginning. And they’ll help you to pursue almost any nonclinical career or side hustle, not just the one I chose.

1. Develop a WRITTEN PLAN

Think about and write down your personal career-focused mission, vision, and goals. Use SMART goals [specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-limited] when developing your PLAN. Start with the broad brush and answer these questions for yourself:

• What is the mission and vision for my career?
• What is my ultimate goal?
• Which steps should I take to get there?
• Can I define deadlines to shoot for?

More Intentional Goals

Here is what mine might have looked like if I had been more intentional:

• My mission is to work in hospital management at the executive level.
• My vision is to pursue a career that provides more freedom, while allowing me to express my passion for quality improvement, continuing medical education, and medication safety.
• The CME Committee will select me as it's chair later this year.
• Next, I'll join the American Association for Physician Leadership, and complete at least three management courses this year.
• I'll prepare a resume, and schedule interviews for a hospital management position at least once a quarter.
• By the end of next year, a hospital will hire me for a management job.

One of the benefits of writing down your mission and vision is that it helps to make decisions about new opportunities. It will help direct you to what your next steps should be, and also to what you should say “NO” to.

You can determine if additional work is aligned with your mission, vision and goals, using your plan. Then, you can eliminate those that aren’t! I recall volunteering for several committees that took me down a rabbit hole that delayed my career transition.

Write dow the PLAN and review it regularly. By doing so, you'll stay on track to your ultimate goal.

The remaining four tactics are helpful for assuring accountability, while the final three also add guidance and advice.

2. Get an ACCOUNTABILITY PARTNER

Choose somebody who is also interested in pursuing a nonclinical job. You can meet weekly or biweekly and discuss your plans, your accomplishments, and your challenges. You’ll also follow-up on your commitments, so that you both keep making progress.

Remember the mantra for accountability: Doing what you said you would do, when you said you would do it, how you said you would do it. Your partner will help you keep the commitments you make, and thereby expedite your transition.

3. Find one or more MENTORS

A mentor is someone who's a step or two ahead of you, has succeeded in the career that you’re pursuing, or has needed expertise. I believe that mentorships don't have to be formal arrangements.

The mentor simply needs to be willing to answer a question and point you in the right direction from time to time.

I’ve had several mentors over the years. I’m not even sure they knew they were mentors. One was a physician working as a full time chief medical officer. I occasionally called him, or cornered him during a break at a conference, and asked his advice.

The other was the CEO of my hospital. At the time, I didn’t report directly to him. But I would occasionally get his advice on how to advance my career.

The thing to remember is to use mentors sparingly. Don’t burden them too much by trying to make them responsible for your career success.

4. Create a MASTERMIND GROUP

It’s been said that you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. A mastermind group is like an accountability partner on steroids.

To create such a group, identify 2 to 5 colleagues who are all striving for a similar goal. Meet on a regular basis, perhaps monthly. For the first meeting or two, you’ll get to know each other, including each other’s career goals and steps you’ve already taken.

Photo by rawpixel.com from Pexels

Then each meeting should focus on one or two members. The other members ask questions and keep the person in the “hot-seat” accountable, and encourage new insights. A good description of mastermind groups can be found in the book by Aaron Walker, The Mastermind Blueprint or on Wikipedia.

By getting together regularly, you’ll help each other think of new approaches to advancing your careers, and accelerate the pace of change.

Mastermind groups don’t typically cost anything to join. A knowledgeable expert or coach sometimes creates a paid mastermind group. None are devoted to physician career transition, however.

5. Hire a CAREER COACH.

This may be the most powerful way to expedite your search for a nonclinical career. The other methods generally don’t involve any cost. But coaching is going to require a financial investment.

By working with a coach, you're going to have access to someone who has devoted their career to helping you. A coach will help you to identify your strengths and weaknesses, and define your interests. She'll help clarify your goals, and work through self-limiting beliefs.

A career coach will provide practical advice about where to find jobs that align with your career goals, vision and mission. In some cases, they might have relationships with recruiters or companies that hire physicians for nonclinical positions.

I’ve spoken with many physicians who have been delighted with the outcomes of coaching. In many cases, they consider it to be the turning point in their career journey.

Summary

Let me summarize the five tactics that will expedite your search for that new career:

1. Develop a PLAN, complete with your career mission, vision, and goals
2. Get an ACCOUNTABILITY PARTNER
3. Find one or more MENTORS
4. Create a MASTERMIND GROUP
5. Hire a CAREER COACH

You don't have to use all five of these tactics. But the more that you use, the more likely you're going to shift gears and find the fulfilling career that you've been looking for.

Developing a PLAN is the most important step to expedite your search. The other tactics add accountability. And several add expert advice and guidance. I’m sure my career transition would have been much smoother, if I had used these simple tactics.

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

Thanks again for listening. I hope to see you next time on Physician NonClinical Careers.

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it on Facebook and Twitter.

Disclaimer:

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

The opinions are my own, and my guest's, and not those of any organization(s) that I'm a member of, or affiliated with. The information presented is for entertainment and/or informational purposes only. It should not be construed as advice, such a medical, legal, tax, emotional or other types of advice.

If you take action on any information provided on the blog or podcast, it is at your own risk. Always consult a professional, e.g., attorney, accountant, or career counsellor, before making any major decisions related to the subject matter of the blog and podcast.

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

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

The post 5 Simple Tactics That Will Hasten Your Career Transition – 060 appeared first on NonClinical Physicians.

I’ve been meaning to review a book and discuss this topic for some time. It relates to self-limiting beliefs that keep us from pursuing the career that we’re meant for; a career that bring us joy and fulfillment; a career that uses our personal and professional gifts.

Have you ever noticed that just when some people have made it, just when they reach new heights in their career or their relationship, something happens to undermine it?

Have you ever been in a relationship that seems to be getting better and better, when you and your spouse or fiancé get into an argument over some trivial or otherwise forgettable issue?

What about the entertainer who seems to be an overnight success, often after years of struggling, only to suffer a disaster like a drug overdose or major automobile accident?

The Big Leap

This is a phenomenon called the Upper Limit Problem by Gay Hendricks, in his book The Big Leap. And its one of several very interesting and useful concepts he describes in his book.

This book as been out since 2011. However, I first read it earlier this year (2018) after hearing Cliff Ravenscraft talk about it. Cliff is a well-known podcaster. He is probably one of the most experienced podcasters in the world.

Cliff has been hosting podcasts for more than a decade. He’s known as the Podcast Answer Man and has literally taught thousands of people how to produce a podcast through his personal coaching, mastermind groups and paid courses.

He recently devoted several episodes to the ideas he learned about in The Big Leap. I think he even interviewed the author for his podcast because he was so taken by the book.

My Turn

So, I read the book myself. And then read it again last week.

I believe that the concepts that Hendricks presents ring true. And they might help you to understand what’s holding you back from pursuing a truly wonderful and fulling career.

So, today I want to present what I’ve learned from the book, with examples from my life, and some of the stories in the book and stories told by Cliff Ravenscraft in his attempts to implement its ideas.

I don’t intend to cover every aspect of the book. And I’m not sure that I’ll do it justice. In fact, I hope that by hearing how it has impressed me, you'll buy a copy and read it yourself.

Here are the ideas that resonated most with me.

The Upper Limit Problem

The first concept Hendricks discussed is the Upper Limit Problem.

He describes this as an internal set point, beyond which we sabotage ourselves from achieving happiness and success. He describes it as “an inner thermostat that determines how much love, success, and creativity we allow ourselves to enjoy.”

This tendency has a number of causes that Hendricks gets into. Generally, it’s a deeply held, but subconscious, belief from our childhood that pulls us down when we start to exceed the upper limit.

Cliff Ravenscraft described his work as the Podcast Answer Man, and how he reached an income plateau that he couldn't surpass. He created new products and services, and temporarily exceeded the income plateau. But his income always dropped down below the old ceiling until he implemented the strategies outlined in Hendricks' book.

The author provides other examples in the book about the Upper Limit Problem, where people cannot tolerate success, such as:

• An actor who stars in a likely box office hit, then gets into an altercation on the eve of the premier party and ends up in jail;
• The athlete who wins an international championship, then fires his coach and fails to place the following year;
• The recording artist who has a major hit, only to die of a drug overdose.

Hendricks explains that people make a breakthrough, but then self-destruct.

The Four Zones

To fully understand the concept of the Upper Limit Problem, you need to understand what it keeps you from. And that’s what Gay Hendricks calls your Zone of Genius.

Intuitively, it makes sense to me that we function in one of four zones.

Zone of Incompetence

The Zone of Incompetence consists of things we are no good at. That’s pretty simple. I shouldn’t try to repair snowmobiles or play the piano. I think playing golf also fits that category for me.

Sometimes we work in the Zone of Incompetence out of necessity. We need to make a quick buck. I remember trying to work as a chef at a restaurant chain while still in college. I had no idea what I was doing, and I had to go through a training process.

Until I started to get the hang of it, I was definitely in my Zone of Incompetence and several meals had to be discarded rather than being served.

Zone of Competence

The next level is the Zone of Competence. That doesn’t sound bad.

Many of us have spent some time there. We can do the job, but there are others who can do it better.

Doing the accounting for my small practice, probably fit in that category. I could do it easily enough, but there were definitely those that could do it better.

And it was smart of me to delegate that to someone for whom accounting was in the next level for them: The Zone of Excellence.

Zone of Excellence

The Zone of Excellence is that career, hobby, or relationship in which you can comfortably perform very well, probably better than most.

Most of you probably functioned at this level when leaving residency. You’ve spent years learning your profession. You still continue to learn, but you perform at a level above those who have been out of residency for years and fail to keep up with medical advances.

When I heard first heard this term, I thought YES! This is where I want to be. Excellence is a good thing.

Zone of Genius

But my eyes were opened when I read the book, and listened to Cliff’s discussion of the Zone of Genius. This is “the set of activities you are uniquely suited to do. They draw on your special gifts and strengths,” according to Hendricks.

When performing in this Zone, you’re often in “the zone” or in “flow” or in “deep work” as described by Cal Newport. Time seems to fly by. You're creative and you produce awesome results. You feel no resistance, because it is what you were born to do.

Wow! Now that sounds even better than the Zone of Excellence.

Getting back to Cliff Ravenscraft. When he worked as the Podcast Answer Man he was obviously in his Zone of Genius. He created training for this new medium and loved what he was doing. And, he became the number one go-to person for learning podcasting, both the technical and creative sides of it.

Drifting from Zone of Genius Back to Zone of Excellence

But over time, he slipped into his Zone of Excellence and it became boring and no longer challenging. He discovered that he wanted to go back into the Zone of Genius, so he redefined his business. He describes how he now helps clients avoid or recover from burnout by earning an income from the work that they feel most called to do in this world. So, he completely gave up podcast training. He now devotes himself to being a coach, mentor, mastermind group leader and public speaker.

I think I experienced a similar revelation.

I started in practice in my Zone of Excellence. Then I moved into my Zone of Genius. I was taking care of patients of all ages and growing my practice. I was using state of the art approaches to care.

But  after a few years, I slipped back into my Zone of Excellence. Practice became boring and tedious. Managing staff and doing more and more paperwork became annoying.

In the Zone of Genius Again

But then I transitioned into hospital management, and began to work in CME and quality improvement. I moved into the CMO role, and led initiatives to install quality measurement tools, and work on QI projects. We started being recognized as 5-Star HealthGrades performers, and received designation as a Truven Top 100 Hospital. I was working in a cohesive, highly effective senior management team. “My engine was hitting on all eight cylinders.”

But I slipped into the Zone of Excellence again, and sought my next challenge as an entrepreneur. I was still in my Zone of Excellence, creating the policies and procedures for the new clinic, monitoring quality, and growing the business to 70 encounters per day from nothing. But it wasn't what I was born to do.

So, I began to blog. Then I started the podcast and mentoring physicians looking for a career change.

I think my Zone of Genius, what I was born to do, is to inspire, encourage and teach physicians how to find their Zone of Genius. And for some, that means encouraging and mentoring them as leaders.

Living in the Zone of Genius

The last half of Hendricks' book explains the steps to take to live more fully in your Zone of Genius. Cliff has made a commitment to live in his Zone of Genius at least 80% of the time.

I’m still learning these concepts. And I’m committed to working through the exercises outlined in the Big Leap.

I want you to think about which zone you're working in. Are you living in your Zone of Genius? Or have you capitulated to living in the Zone of Competence or Excellence?

Are you still subject to the Upper Limit Problem?

I certainly don’t have all the answers. But I urge you to read the book and let me know what you think.

And don’t let your Upper Limit Problem keep you from making the Big Leap to your next career.

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it on Facebook and Twitter.

Disclaimer:

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

The opinions are my own, and my guest's, and not those of any organization(s) that I'm a member of, or affiliated with. The information presented is for entertainment and/or informational purposes only. It should not be construed as advice, such a medical, legal, tax, emotional or other types of advice.

If you take action on any information provided on the blog or podcast, it is at your own risk. Always consult a professional, e.g., attorney, accountant, career counsellor, etc., before making any major decisions related to the subject matter of the blog and podcast.

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

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

The post How to Recognize Your Zone of Genius – 058 appeared first on NonClinical Physicians.

My timetable for the podcast prep this week was a little compressed because I spent 2 days attending the 15th Annual SEAK Non-Clinical Careers for Physicians Conference. And that put me a little behind.

I recorded my observations during the conference, and I’m going to share those with you today.

I wouldn’t ordinarily spend an entire episode promoting a conference. However, many of you have asked about it, and I believe it’ll be helpful to tell you more about it. Some of you may need a little more information to help you decide whether to attend next year.

To be clear, I have no affiliation with SEAK. And I registered and paid to attend just like everybody else.

A Unique Resource for Physicians

But this is the only meeting that presents an overview of career options for physicians. The SEAK meeting has two other unique features.

• 30 to 40 physicians working in nonclinical careers, including career coaches, meet with attendees in 15-minute appointments to give advice and answer questions about nonclinical options.
• A small number of employers interested in recruiting physicians to nonclinical jobs attend the conference to answer questions and set up interviews.

This year’s meeting was held on October 20 and 21, at the Crown Plaza Chicago O’Hare Hotel and Conference Center It's actually located in Rosemont, Illinois. That puts it only 10 minutes away from the airport. So, it’s easy to get to if you’re flying into Chicago.

I happen to live just south of Chicago, so I was able to commute to and from the conference each day. As a result, I don’t have any insight into the hotel accommodations. But I didn’t hear of any complaints.

An Apology

Before I go any further, I want to apologize to one of my listeners. Shortly after arriving, as I was entering the conference space, one of the physician attendees said hello. And she mentioned that she enjoyed my podcast. I think I responded with a nod, and hardly slowed down, as I tried to locate one of the mentors.

I want you to know that I’m truly sorry that I didn’t stop to thank you for listening to the podcast, and for your encouragement. That was very rude of me.

I should have stopped to chat. I’d really like to hear what you have to say about the podcast, and if you have any suggestions for improving it. So, PLEASE — email me at john.jurica.md@gmail.com or call me at 815-263-3486 so I can apologize in person and chat for a few minutes.

The 2018 SEAK Conference

The conference is laid out well. All of the meetings were held next to the hall where mentors and vendors were set up.

The SEAK staff confirmed that the conference continues to grow, with attendance easily exceeding last year’s. I estimated that there were well over 400 physicians at the meeting.

In addition to attending the individual sessions, and catching up with friends, it was fun to speak with physicians at the meeting, to hear their stories.

For example, I had a chance to chat with a physician while waiting for the first plenary session to begin. I’ll call him “Robert” to keep up his anonymity. He appeared a bit somber, as he explained how he lost his license and had been unable to practice while involved in litigation to recover it.

His efforts were unsuccessful, so he decided to attend the meeting to learn about nonclinical careers he might pursue. Since I had attended last year’s meeting, I gave him advice to help him optimize his time at the meeting. I did catch up with him later to see how things were going. I’ll describe his comments later.

Feedback from Attendees

The enthusiasm and optimism that many of the attendees expressed by the end of the meeting impressed me.

At lunch on Sunday, I spoke with three physicians who were all very hopeful. An anesthesiologist nearing retirement was intrigued with becoming an expert witness. He plans to slowly build such a career part-time, while winding down his clinical activities. The others at the table identified several leads on careers they were going to evaluate further.

I spoke with a pediatric physiatrist, only a year into her clinical career. She found it unfulfilling and was considering several nonclinical alternatives.

Three physicians recognized me and told me that they enjoyed the podcast. That made my day. And it helps motivate me to continue. They also provided me with helpful feedback and ideas for future episodes.

Photo by bruce mars on Unsplash

I ran into “Robert” several times during the conference, and each time he seemed very positive and more optimistic. When I asked him how things were going, he responded “fantastic” with a big smile on his face.

My Take-Aways

There were too many take-aways to list them all, but a few stood out for me.

• The presenters and mentors all expressed a great deal of hope and optimism.
• In just 2 days, we heard about more than 25 potential nonclinical careers or part-time jobs.
• Many presenters emphasized the importance of networking as the foundation for finding a new position.
• Several also mentioned the importance of maintaining a complete, professional-looking LinkedIn profile.
• Pharmaceutical companies have multiple categories of nonclinical career opportunities – with variations in educational background, travel requirements, and ability to work from home.
• Consulting, medical writing, and medical science liaison are often open to foreign medical graduates, and those who are not residency trained or board certified.
• Hospitals, Independent Review Organizations, and health insurers need utilization reviewers. And previous experience is often not required.
• Telemedicine can be a great job for physicians who prefer to work at home, or as a bridge when shifting from clinical to nonclinical work.
• The field of hospital and health system quality improvement demonstrates a growing need for medical directors and chief quality officers.

Conclusion

I could go on, but you get the idea. There is an ever-expanding need for physicians willing and able to take on these and many other nonclinical careers.

Attending the SEAK Annual Conference is one way to learn about those careers, while obtaining mentoring and exploring employment opportunities.

I hope you found this episode helpful. If you have any questions for me, send me an email at johnjurica@nonclinical.buzzmybrand.net.

Sign up for my twice weekly newsletter, including my weekly update called Creating My Online Business, by going to vitalpe.net/newsletter.

Please join me next week for my review of the book The Big Leap, by Gay Hendricks, and a discussion about how the principles presented in the book apply to your career transition.

Disclaimer:

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

The opinions are my own, and my guest's, and not those of any organization(s) that I'm a member of, or affiliated with. The information presented is for entertainment and/or informational purposes only. It should not be construed as advice, such a medical, legal, tax, emotional or other types of advice.

If you take action on any information provided on the blog or podcast, it is at your own risk. Always consult a professional, e.g., attorney, accountant, career counsellor, etc., before making any major decisions related to the subject matter of the blog and podcast.

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

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

The post Despair and Hope at the 2018 SEAK Conference – 057 appeared first on NonClinical Physicians.

First, My Sincere Thanks

Before we get into our interview today, I’d like to thank all of you who sent me condolences following last week’s episode. I deviated from my usual topics and posted a tribute to my recently deceased mother, Vicky Jurica. I want to acknowledge those who sent me kind words of condolences and reassurance.

My Endorsement for the American Association for Physician Leadership

Also, I want to spend a minute talking about the American Association for Physician Leadership. I am not an affiliate marketer, and I receive no compensation for this endorsement. But I’ve been a member of the AAPL for about 25 years, and it’s an outstanding organization.

It helps to support and promote physicians as managers, executives and leaders. Its members work and lead in:

• government agencies,
• the military,
• health, life and disability insurance companies,
• hospitals and health systems,
• medical groups,
• pharmaceutical companies, and,
• anywhere physicians are employed.

The AAPL provides live conferences and online education, books, coaching, mentoring, career services and nonclinical job postings. It also provides physician executive certification, the CPE, that demonstrates your expertise and skills as a physician leader.

I’ve mentioned the AAPL in numerous podcast episodes and interviewed the Director of Career Services in Episode 24.

It truly is the world’s leading organization of emerging and established physician leaders.

The cost of annual membership is a little less that $300 per year, which is a ridiculously low price. I strongly recommend you consider joining. Check it out using this link – AAPL Information.

Dr. Cindy Wang

Cindy has been practicing full-time anesthesia for about four years. She is determined to pursue a career in hospital management. She has already enrolled in the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health in order to complete a master's degree in public health. And she has become involved in QI efforts at her hospital in Toronto.

Photo by Piron Guillaume on Unsplash

Advice for an Emerging Physician Leader

During our conversation, we address some of the following topics:

• Cindy's educational background and work situation;
• Some of the reasons she is pursuing this new career;
• Why she chose to pursue an MPH;
• What she has done so far to begin her career transition;
• My model for pursuing a management and executive career;
• How working with non-physician directors can help your cause; and,
• The importance of mentors in career change.

Action Items

Some of the action items she will follow-up on include the following:

• Develop a deeper understanding of the quality measurement tools being used at her hospital, so she can become a resource for her colleagues;
• Seek out the quality director to learn  more about quality efforts at her hospital;
• Develop a relationship with the pharmacy director and learn about medication safety projects in which she can participate;
• Evaluate the American Association for Physician Leadership as a possible research for her career pursuits;
• Identify additional mentors to help her chart a clearer career path.

Photo by JOSHUA COLEMAN on Unsplash

I’ve completed a Free Guide called 5 Nonclinical Careers You Can Pursue Today. It’s a 24-page manual that outlines the steps you can take to pursue a career in utilization management, clinical documentation improvement, informatics, medical writing and hospital management. It can be found at vitalpe.net/freeguide

Resources

I hope you enjoyed today’s episode. If so, open your podcast app or go to iTunes and leave a review.

Join me next week for another episode of Physician Nonclinical Careers.

Here are the links for today's episode:

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The post Advice for an Emerging Physician Leader – 032 appeared first on NonClinical Physicians.