The last thing you want to watch is another Coronavirus video, but I wanted to address specifically the issues that are affecting you, the Physician Entrepreneur. You might be feeling guilty if you’re not on the front-lines, or worried if you’ll still have a business if you are. Here to help is my good friend Maiysha Clairborne, MD, who is a master on the entrepreneurial mindset and what’s she been doing that can be a lesson for us all. You will get some take home advice after watching….Please stay safe!
[TRANSCRIPT]
Living the new normal in the age of COVID-19 and its effect on physician entrepreneurs, in this episode of BootstrapMD.
Hey guys, it’s Dr. Mike Woo-Ming. Thank you for joining us. My special guest and good friend, Dr. Maiysha Clairborne, is here. I thought of no better person to help us as physician entrepreneurs know how to deal a bit with what’s going on. Some of you may be feeling guilt; some of you may be in the front lines, and thank you so much for keeping us safe. Maiysha is the person that I talk to to help me get through all of this. You know her as the founder of The Stress Free Mom MD, founder of the Next Level Physician Entrepreneurs Institute. She’s my partner in crime at our BootcampMD events. And I wanted to get her wisdom and her perspective about how she may be dealing with it, and also how she’s maybe helping her clients deal with this, through this tumultuous time. So, without further ado, Maiysha, thank you for taking time in your busy schedule to join us today.
Yes. You know I’m always a yes for you, Dr. Mike. Always. Yes.
Always so positive. So, tell me, first of all, are you safe? What’s going on with you and your business, and of course, your family? What’s going on right now?
Most people know I’m in Atlanta. The schools are closed in Atlanta. Surprisingly, however, my son’s in Montessori, the school was open this week; they just announced closure for next week, so I’m going to be, along with most parents, homeschooling. I’m safe. I have a little bit of the voice thing; that was way before this actually started. But we’re good, we’re safe, we’re good. My family’s good, my mom’s good, my dad’s good, everybody’s good, so I feel blessed in that regard. Thanks for asking.
One of the reasons I asked you on here is you put out a little… a great post, it was a kind of infographic, and what you were basically… The reason for it is you were feeling guilty somewhat. You had your own integrative practice; you’re not clinically in practice right now. Your full-time income is now based upon your online businesses, which is awesome, your coaching business. What was the reason that you put out that infographic? It was, for those who hadn’t seen it, and we can put a link on it, it was basically to talk about how to start a telemedicine practice or how to integrate a telemedicine practice if you’re in clinical practice.
Yeah. So, it’s interesting, because last weekend, and it’s funny, it’s been that long already, but last weekend, I was… I went into the weekend, I was feeling some kind of way, like, “Okay…” I’m a family doc by training, and as a family doc, I feel like I’m supposed to be on the front lines, like the ER docs, the urgent care docs. And as a family doc, most of what I did was in urgent care, that was what I loved to do, and so I felt like, “Man, I could be out there in the urgent care, I could be out there on the front lines, what am I doing?”
And then I had to really get for myself that I am a contribution where I am. And so, I thought, “Well, how can I? What can I do, being that I have primarily transitioned out, 99% out of clinical medicine? What can I do to keep myself and my family safe, but also to contribute to the docs out there?” And that’s why I put out the infographic. I got this sort of swarm of ideas: “Okay, well, there’s a need for telemedicine as we’re going into this sort of stage of quarantine, stage of social distancing. How do we protect the doctors so that they can be home but still serving patients at the same time?” And that’s why I came up with that infographic and put that out.
Now, what do you say to the doctors like myself, I’m not on the front lines, who may be feeling guilty? I talked about this with you last night. What are the things that… Somehow we feel powerless, and I’ve even seen some posts on some of the non-clinical forums where it was like, “Hey, are you guys feeling guilty that you’re getting a non-clinical job?” What do you say to that?
Yeah. You know, it’s easy to, when you’re seeing your colleagues, and especially if you’re trained in one of those frontline specialties, it’s easy to feel like you’re helpless or useless, or like you should be. I think that’s the biggest thing, like, “I should be out there.” It’s almost like survivor’s guilt. A lot of people who are in situations where they survive and other people don’t, it’s like a survivor’s guilt, so it’s sort of like a cousin to that, I feel.
What I say is, you want to look at where you can contribute. First of all, you want to get that where you are, you are a contribution. In every level… I was talking to my friend who is a physician, but also he’s in the military, and he’s actually over in South Korea, and he was telling me that there are levels of contribution to make things work at a system level. There’s the front lines, and then there’s the officer level, but then there’s logistics. And we don’t realize, as people who may be, like those docs who are non-clinical, who are working in utilization review, who are doing disability exams, who are doing all kinds of other things that are not directly in those front lines, what our contribution is to helping keep people well. Because believe it or not, there are people who still need… There are still people who need regular health care, like general, routine. There are people who need to have these utilization reviews so they can get their stuff paid for. The world is still turning.
So, wherever you are, and especially in entrepreneurship, like as coaches, especially… I hear it a lot from people who have transitioned to online business and coaching like myself. People need coaches, people need guidance in this time. Even the entrepreneurs, one of the things that I put out, I said in one of my live streams, was that this is a time where, as a new entrepreneur, it’s not the time to get scared, it’s the time to push forward, it’s the time to move forward in your business, in your idea, because there’s an amazing opportunity ahead.
So, first you got to really get, wherever you are, you are a contribution. That’s just what’s so. And it doesn’t, like you said, I’m just… Honor and respect, and I’m grateful for those who are on the front line. And now, we have, those of us who are not on the front line, we are not because we have the option of not being on the front line.
At least for now; we don’t know.
Right. Right, for now, absolutely, for now. And for now, right? And so, let’s look at where we can contribute. Where can you contribute? It could just be speaking out. I’ve seen a lot of docs doing Facebook Lives lately, educating people on the symptoms of coronavirus, or urging people to observe the social distancing, really being educators. And we undercut the value of our knowledge and what we could be doing, even from the periphery, not from the front line. You see what I’m saying? So, I think it’s just important to get, there are so many other ways that you can contribute that make a difference, that are going to help these people on the front lines, like educating, like putting out infographics, like supporting the docs. I’m going to probably be doing some online meditations over the next coming weeks just to kind of give some respite, a recorded meditation. That’s tools, just to give docs respite when they’re out there in the field. So, I mean, there’s just lots of little things that we don’t feel sometimes is relevant that really are relevant.
Yeah, and that just reminded me, even with my own people that I teach and some students, one student said… And I’m helping her with her online business, and she said, “You know what? I need to have this information even faster now. I need to move right now. It’s just given me more impetus to start working on my own.” And if you’re an entrepreneur, you’re a leader, and this is also a great time for opportunity. Not opportunity like, “Hey, I’m going to hoard all these respirators or masks and sell them,” but opportunity is like, what is your skillset? What are you doing?
If you feel that your best aspect of your business is teaching, teaching in entrepreneurship, whether it be helping them with investing, helping them starting their own businesses, if you are… Or if you feel that your best need is to educate the public on COVID-19, then go ahead and do that. But whatever you do, don’t… I think the last thing you want to do is just kind of huddle up, even though all of us are huddling up, but use that time to be productive. You were just talking, you’re using it to create content, using it to create videos, preparing for your kids, what’s to come.
Right, right.
So, these are all opportunities for you to work on, and almost have a time out. I’ve seen, at least for many of my entrepreneurs, many of whom I know, they’ve got multimillion-dollar businesses, they’re looking at it to actually, interesting, have a pause in their business right now, and actually almost like a reset. “What am I doing this for? Why am I actually doing this? For myself, protect my family, those kinds of things.” But use that, as someone who… If you are learning to be an entrepreneur, use this time to… Hey, you know, we should be prepared. I’m a preacher of multiple streams of income, having streams of income. If you’re someone who’s like, “Oh, shoot,” or other words similar to that, “my whole income is based upon me being an employee.” Well, yeah, it kind of sucks the way it is, but what could you do in the next time this happens? Because there will be a next time, whatever that is. There will be a next time.
Absolutely, yeah.
And prepare for it, you know? And use this as a learning lesson for you. What are your thoughts?
Yeah, no, this is absolutely the time to be thinking about, what can you do to create that new stream of income? This is a time to be… Like you said, I’m using this time to not only create content, but also to reevaluate my business model, my business strategy, my marketing strategy. This is a good time for those who are already in business to take a step back and to look at, “Hey, what is the big picture here, and how can I be profitable, but also be relevant and be a contribution at the same time?”
There is a principle in NLP, y’all know that I am an NLP trainer, and there’s a principle that says the person or persons with the most flexibility controls the system. And it’s so important that you get that, because in this time… I was just talking to a colleague, like, look, whatever your message is, make it relevant for what’s going on to empower the people. You’re building community, you’re empowering people, but you’re also being flexible inside the system. And then, as all of this starts to boil over, you are going to be at the forefront of people’s minds as someone who was supporting and a contribution, and you’ll be the person people look to in the future.
So, just think about that, think about… And not as an “in order to,” but more as, this is what you can be doing, this is what you can be doing to impact. Like you said, you’re not on the front lines, but you still can be making an impact, and at the end of the day, this will also benefit your business. Right? But now is the time to be doing this.
Another question people have brought up too, and something that I’ve felt as well is, “Well, maybe this is not the time to be selling. I don’t want to feel like I’m taking advantage of the situation.” People also may be more holding on to money right now because of the uncertainty. What do you say to that, or how are you dealing with that?
You know, I have not found that to be true. I still have people who… And I think it’s now more than ever, because people are looking for a way out, people are looking for something different. And so, while they will be more mindful of their spending, they’re not going to necessarily stop it, especially if you have something of value that is going to contribute and pull them forward. So, I say, continue to promote, but in a way that is relevant to what’s going on, in a way that helps to empower people.
In all of my video content, I have an invitation for people to schedule a strategy call with me. I have an invitation for people to check out my free masterclass, which will lead them into an invitation to schedule a strategy call or to join membership. Right? So I don’t think we need to feel guilty about promoting our business; we just need to do it in a way that has integrity, and a way that is ecological. But yeah, definitely don’t stop promoting yourself. Just, you know, make it relevant.
Right. I had one mentor tell me, he’s… Be opportunistic, but ethical, obviously. You know, ethical and integrity, because that’s, at the end of the day, that’s really what it’s all about.
Yeah.
Dr. Maiysha, this has been amazing. I know you’ve got a lot of stuff going on too. Also realize, guys, that there’s a lot more people on social media these days. If you’ve been having trouble getting in front of someone right now, there’s a lot of people who are on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, social media, whatever it is. Whatever your social media is of choice, start making more videos. And we’re seeing that too, we’re seeing more Facebook Lives, a lot more now with LinkedIn Lives, and different things, and it is… You know, the engagement is there, so if you have something of value, you owe it to your public to share that with your audience. You really owe it to them.
So, thank you, Dr. Maiysha, thank you for this impromptu therapy session. Where can they go to get more information about what you have to offer?
They can always go to drmaiysha.com. I have three masterclasses, one being directly related to mindset, Remap Your Mind for Manifestation and Success, Cracking the Code, and the, of course, Non-Salesy Selling. You know I love talking about sales. So, you can access the free masterclasses right on my home page, drmaiysha.com, and if you want, you can also schedule a strategy call if you need a little help with your mindset.
Thanks again, Maiysha. Of course ,,,[glad] your family is safe during this time.
Thank you.
And of course, all of you out there in internet land. And as always, don’t just hunker down, keep moving forward.
Keep moving forward. Y’all stay safe, namaste.
Namaste.