What does it really take to survive and succeed in a system that wasn’t built with you in mind?

In this episode, I explore that question with orthopedic surgeon Dr. Sonya Sloan. We talk about the hidden curriculum of medicine: the unspoken rules, the power dynamics, and the strategies required to navigate surgical training, especially as a Black woman in a historically white, male-dominated field.

From early inspiration in the operating room to enduring microaggressions, bullying, and even physical assault during training, Dr. Sloan shares what she learned, how she protected herself, and why resilience alone is not enough.

This episode is not just about survival; it’s about strategy, leadership, and rewriting the rules for the next generation.

We talk about:

• How her early experiences sparked a career in orthopedics
• What it was like being one of the only Black trainees in a surgical program
• The reality of bias, microaggressions, and exclusion in medicine
• The difference between mentors and true advocates
• A moment of physical assault in the OR, and how she handled it
• Why documentation and strategy are essential for protecting your career
• The hidden “rules” of medicine no one teaches you
• How surgical culture impacts women
• The critical importance of leadership and communication skills
• Why “soft skills” are not optional but essential
• How humor and tone-setting can transform the OR environment
• The emotional toll of training, and the importance of narrative processing
• Why so many trainees feel isolated, targeted, or unsupported
• What needs to change in surgical education right now

Takeaways:

• Resilience isn’t enough. You need strategy, awareness, and support
• Documentation is power in environments where bias exists
• Mentors advise. Advocates act. You need both.
• Microaggressions shape careers, even when they seem subtle
• Leadership skills are not taught, but they are critical to survival
• You don’t have to silently tolerate inappropriate behavior
• Processing your story is part of healing and reclaiming your voice

Learn more about Dr. Sonya Sloan and get her book, The Rules of Medicine here.

Follow Dr. Sloan on instagram here.

Check out Hardball for Women here.

Check out White Fragility here.

Join us inside Empowered Surgeons Group here.

Learn more about what's inside ESG here.

In the perfectionist surgeon's mind, either we get a perfect outcome or we fail. But in the realm of humans, perfection is impossible. And we don't always have full control over the final surgical result.

Instead of thinking in terms of surgical "success" and surgical "failure", what would it look like to categorize circumstances into mistakes, complications, and missed expectations? That's what I explore inside this episode.

In this episode, orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Brian Nwannunu, shares his journey from being the son of Nigerian immigrants to building a career in surgery rooted in purpose, faith, and service. Brian knew from a young age that he was called to medicine, but his path wasn’t linear. After not getting into medical school on his first attempt, he pursued a master’s in physiology, eventually gaining admission and thriving - reinforcing a powerful truth: test scores don’t define clinical excellence or future success.

We talk about the realities of surgical training, where Brian faced criticism, microaggressions, and the pressure of being one of the only Black residents in his program. Despite external narratives that questioned his performance, he had objective evidence of his excellence and mentors who helped him stay grounded. His story highlights the disconnect that can exist between perception and reality in training environments, and the lasting impact of bias, labeling, and unequal protection among trainees.

Brian shares how these experiences shaped the way he practices today. As an attending, he’s intentional about bringing humanity back into orthopedic surgery: slowing down, listening deeply, and recognizing that every surgery affects not just a patient, but an entire life system. We also explore the difference between operating from service versus ego, and how that distinction changes both outcomes and fulfillment.

The conversation expands into the broader realities of modern medicine: insurance barriers, loss of autonomy, and the growing influence of private equity. Brian explains why he chose private practice, why physicians need an exit strategy, and how models like direct care may shape the future of certain specialties.

Finally, we talk about identity beyond medicine. Brian shares how he’s diversified his life through teaching, speaking, and financial literacy, which all creates a sense of purpose and stability that extends beyond the OR.

This is a conversation about resilience, integrity, and choosing how you want to practice, both as a surgeon and as a human being.

Follow Dr. Brian Nwannunu on instagram here.

Join us inside Empowered Surgeons Group here.

In this episode, I have a conversation with emergency physician, educator, speaker, coach, advocate and legal expert Dr. Gita Pensa about the reality of medical malpractice from the physician defendant’s perspective. We explore why getting sued can feel like being dropped onto another planet. Also why shame, fear, and avoidance often keep doctors from learning how the system actually works.

Gita explains how the malpractice landscape has shifted dramatically in recent years. Public trust in medicine has eroded since COVID, nuclear verdicts are increasing, and third-party investors are now funding lawsuits in pursuit of massive payouts. Meanwhile, physicians often stay silent, leaving the narrative about medicine to be shaped by media outlets, documentaries, and plaintiff attorneys who are highly organized and strategic about influencing public perception.

We also unpack a crucial misconception: a verdict or settlement does not necessarily mean bad care. Medicine operates in a world of uncertainty, yet the public expectation of perfection has never been higher. Complications, missed expectations, and true mistakes are very different things, but in courtrooms and headlines, they’re often treated as the same.

Gita shares practical insights into the litigation process, including why the deposition is one of the most important moments for a physician defendant. She also discusses the work she does helping physicians prepare for these high-stakes conversations so they can show up with clarity instead of fear.

Finally, we zoom out to the bigger picture. From legislative advocacy to improving how medicine talks publicly about risk and error, physicians need to become more informed, more strategic, and more willing to speak openly about malpractice and its consequences.

Because the truth is: if we want the system to change, we have to be willing to understand it and talk about it out loud.

Learn more about Dr. Pensa's LEAP course here.

Listen to Doctors and Litigation: The L Word podcast here. Season 3 episode 4 features Dr. Nirav Patel, the radiologist who is an example of what is possible.

Join Empowered Surgeons Group here.

At the time, it felt deeply unfair. I felt hate. I felt indignation. I felt like a victim. I even fantasized about horrible things happening to the people who complained about me. They were my villains.

But, through my own coaching journey, I began to understand that pain is not individual; it is inherited, relational, generational, and cultural. These two complaints were sources of clean pain, but they were not the source of my suffering; my decision to indulge in drama was the real cause of my suffering.

In this episode, I'll teach you the important lessons I learned from that year.

I now feel immense gratitude for experiencing what it's like to be investigated by the Board, and I'm so happy I can bring these lessons to all of you.

If you want to take this work deeper and master the lessons I now teach, you're going to want to join us inside Empowered Surgeons Group here.

Not ready yet? Definitely get on my email list here so as not to miss any free or paid offerings.

Sign up for the webinar, "Mistakes, Complications and Missed Expectations" on March 26th at 5 pm EST here.

Check out her article with Dr. Andrea Merrill, The Hidden Reason Women are Leaving Surgery: They're Being Pushed Out here.

Check out her book, The Sky Was Falling here.

The first physician in a family of writers, artists, and communicators, she grew up surrounded by people willing to speak openly about medicine’s vulnerabilities. A former theater kid, she found early inspiration in Atul Gawande’s Complications and the patient safety movement—so much so that she wrote her senior honors thesis on its history. After college at Harvard and medical school at Columbia, she developed a deep interest in health policy and the cultural forces shaping modern medicine. She reflects on how differently she writes when her “research hat” is on—passive voice, sterile, stripped of self—compared to the personal writing she uses to metabolize the hardest moments of her career.

We talk about what it was like to be a young surgeon in New York City when COVID hit—what was meant to be the crown jewel of her training. Following intensivists on early medical Twitter, she became convinced by February that disaster was coming. What frightened her most wasn’t ventilator shortages but the prediction that hospitals would run out of staff as clinicians fell ill. She felt dismissed, even gaslit, when others minimized the threat. Yet she knew—capital B Bad was coming. When the surge hit, it felt dystopian: inadequate PPE, mounting loss, the emotional toll of watching a system strain and fracture. That experience deepened her commitment to nurturing the softer, intuitive, vulnerable parts of herself—and to helping others do the same.

Cornelia also speaks candidly about women’s attrition from medicine, including her co-authored work with Dr. Andrea Merrill examining why so many are leaving. From differential treatment in the OR to referral streams quietly diverted to younger male partners, from pay disparities to the subtle “thousand paper cuts” of heightened expectations, she describes the cumulative mental load women surgeons carry. She has a unique vantage point watching how OR staff treat her husband compared to how they treat her and her female colleagues. Meanwhile, medicine offers few of the perks seen in tech and other industries—despite the time, sacrifice, and invisible labor the profession demands.

We explore the erosion of public trust, the ways academic medicine has ceded ground to the wellness industry, and how rebuilding credibility will require more than data—it will require humanity. For Cornelia, the path forward means reinjecting compassion into the profession, setting boundaries, and redefining what it means to be a powerful physician in today’s world.

Follow Dr. Griggs on TikTok here.

Check out Dr. Frances Mei Hardin's book, Surgeon on the Edge here.

Sign up for "When you Can Cut the Tension with a #10 Blade: Anxiety, Performance, and the Surgical Nervous System" here.

Join us inside Empowered Surgeons Group here.

Life is more fun when your career path isn’t linear. Dr. Raymund King knows this well. From performing magic to practicing medicine, from the courtroom to the screen, Raymund’s life reflects a deep willingness to evolve and follow his inner knowing.

We talk about witnessing tragedy, bucking the norm, the mindset of a doctor vs lawyer vs creative, reinvention of self, becoming a good steward of service, and the importance of trust, even when things are scary and uncertain.

For physicians navigating burnout, or identity shifts, Raymund’s story is a reminder that your path does not have to be singular to be coherent. Reinvention is not failure. And sometimes the most powerful next step is the one that makes the least sense on paper.

Find Dr. Raymund King on IMDB here and Linkedin here.

”It makes you feel crazy as a patient,” Tiphany Kane.

As physicians, we have more influence than we realize over how patients feel and how they perceive us (and the profession in general). Whether or not we diagnose them or operate on them, patients want—and deserve—to be treated humanely.

At its core, our job is simple: serve the patient.

But that becomes profoundly challenging inside a dehumanizing healthcare system rife with moral injury and burnout. I get it. It’s easy for physicians to slip into a transactional mindset when the system itself is transactional.

And still, both things can be true.

We can humanize ourselves, humanize every patient we see, and work to change the system at the same time. In fact, I believe everyone wins when we choose this path.

In this episode, you’ll hear one patient’s journey. Tiphany Kane is an entrepreneur and a medical mystery. She shares what it was like to be gaslit for years by her primary care physician, cardiologists, nephrologists, and endocrinologists. It wasn’t until she independently enrolled herself in a clinical trial that she finally received the care she had been searching for.

And it wasn’t easy. Despite surgical complications and unexpected setbacks, Tiphany speaks with gratitude and deep respect for the surgical team who cared for her.

Her story is a powerful example of what becomes possible when physicians make compassionate, patient-centered, service-based care their highest priority.

Follow Tiphany and her medical journey on instagram here.

What happens when the skills that make you a great surgeon begin pulling you toward a different kind of impact?

In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Ivan Capobianco, who trained as a hepatobiliary and transplant surgeon and whose career journey spans Italy, Germany, global health work in Angola, academic research, AI, entrepreneurship, and medical publishing.

Ivan shares a deeply honest account of how he moved from the operating room into startup life and research, not because he couldn’t handle surgery, but because he began asking a bigger question:

How else can I serve?

We talk about:

-Growing up in Italy in a creative family, and why medicine wasn’t always the obvious path

-Training at the University of Padua, one of the oldest medical faculties in the world

-Key differences between European and U.S. surgical training systems

-How a year “off” before residency led him to Angola and permanently changed how he saw medicine

-Why pediatric surgery culture felt different, and what that revealed about surgical identity

-Burnout that didn’t announce itself until it did

-A pivotal moment during parental leave that forced a reckoning between career, family, and self

-Attrition in surgery, particularly for women

-The unfortunate truth that productivity and profit override patient-centered values in modern surgical systems

-The realization that helping healthcare workers may help more patients than operating alone

Ivan also shares how his love of research, data, and prevention led him to:

-Learn coding and machine learning

-Found the healthcare documentation startup Briefly

-Create STITCHES, a daily newsletter that curates and summarizes the most relevant surgical literature from hundreds of papers published each day

We explore:

-Why most “AI in surgery” papers miss the mark

-The value of small case reports and practical technique papers

-Why knowing open surgery still matters in a robotic era

-The loss of discussion and collaboration in modern academic medicine

-The myth of “I don’t have time”

-How essentialism can reduce cognitive and bureaucratic burden for surgeons

This is a conversation about agency, courage, and redefining service and usefulness in a system that often narrows our sense of who we’re allowed to be.

About the Guest

Dr. Ivan Capobianco leads the Surgical AI anda Digital Phenotyping Group at the Department of General Surgery, University of Tübingen. His research focuses on machine learning and artifical intelligence, Big Data in medicine, with a a particular emphasis on natural language processing methods applied to clinical data. He is the founder of the healthcare startup Breeflee, and creator of the surgical research newsletter STITCHES, which reaches over 5,000 readers daily. His work focuses on improving working conditions for surgeons and other healthcare professionals through better data, automation, and access to meaningful research.

If you are catching this episode outside the window, no worries! You can still join us inside Empowered Surgeons group here.

In this episode I speak with Dr. Mandy Rice, a dual board–certified General Surgeon and Surgical Intensivist whose path to surgery was anything but traditional. She began her career as a pediatric ICU nurse at 22, carrying the belief that she “wasn’t smart enough to be a doctor” - until a physician challenged that narrative, and she chose to believe him.

Mandy loved medical school: the chaos, the autonomy, and the sense of purpose. Only later did she realize that the chaos she gravitated toward mirrored the chaos of her childhood, and that comfort and disorder had long been paired in her nervous system. After graduating medical school at 36, she entered residency and discovered stark differences between nursing and medicine, mentorship and hierarchy. A strong female role model in medical school contrasted sharply with a toxic training environment in residency, where lack of support - particularly from women in leadership - left her asking, “Why would people who are paid to train me treat me this way?”

We talk openly about the pain and disorientation of being fired from a training program, and the rude awakening that truth, logic, and “first, do no harm” do not always govern surgical culture. From there, Mandy navigated her first job out of training, reimagined the life she wanted, and ultimately designed a practice on her own terms, including direct-care surgery and later, community-based women’s health and hormone therapy.

Along the way we examine burnout, depersonalization, and the subtle spectrum between over-empathizing and dehumanizing patients. The middle ground, we learn, is compassion and skillful empathy. We also explore the gifts of palliative medicine and how it reshaped her ability to have difficult conversations, confront uncertainty, and meet suffering without collapsing into it.

Today, Mandy practices community surgery through a circuitous and self-authored route - proof that there are many ways to practice surgery, many ways to serve, and many ways to live a life in healthcare that is meaningful, humane, and your own.

Learn more about Dr. Mandy Rice here.

Join us inside Empowered Surgeons Group here.

This week I speak with Mark Shrime, MD, PhD - Head and Neck surgeon, researcher, and former Chief of the Harvard Program in Global Surgery - about discernment, vocation, risk, and the search for meaning in medicine. Mark talks candidly about disliking medical school, nearly quitting, and ultimately choosing ENT after spending time with a surgeon who modeled what it means to balance work and play - a theme that never stopped mattering.

We explore how physicians make consequential decisions under uncertainty, how intuition can be trained, and why medicine treats vocation almost like the clergy: you choose young, never leave, and give your whole life to it. Along the way, we discuss administrative bloat, the profit motives of healthcare, the indoctrination of not listening to our inner voice, and the question of whether doctors are truly risk-averse or simply trained to be.

A turning point comes with Mark’s service work on Mercy Ships, where he performed head and neck surgery in a purely service mindset. An epiphany in Monrovia - punctuated by a near-fatal car accident - clarified his path in a way that finally felt aligned rather than obligatory. Conversations in Madagascar later informed his paper Trading Bankruptcy for Health (Value Health, 2018), a study I referenced in my TEDx talk Seeing Beyond the Red Swans.

We talk black swans, white swans, and red swans, and the privilege of being present with people in their deepest truths. Ultimately, we circle back to what humans crave most: to be seen, accepted, safe, and unjudged, even though safety is not incentivized in modern healthcare.

We close with positive psychology, the inner judge and its saboteurs, and the uncomfortable but necessary skill of falling in love with failure, especially in surgery, where complications become harder emotionally even as skill peaks.

Watch Mark's TEDx talk, Putting Purpose Over Path.

Work with him and buy his book here.

Follow him on instagram here.

Please enjoy this special episode of Surgeons with Purpose.

The "Pain to Power Workshop" will launch on Jan 18th. Get on my email list here to get all the updates about the program.

And if you are ready to join us in Empowered Surgeons Group, click here.

Steph Sheldon is a creative entrepreneur, business coach, website designer, and brand strategist who works primarily with women founders and coaches to help them clarify their voice, build intentional digital spaces, and grow sustainable, aligned businesses. She blends her background in architecture with business strategy and creativity to support her clients in creating meaningful, effective online presences and offerings.

Steph frames business not just as technical work but as creative and personal expression, rooted in clarity, intention, and connection between the founder and their audience. Her content and coaching often explore how inner beliefs, creativity, and somatic experience inform business success.

Follow her on instagram here.

Join Empowered Surgeons Group here.

In this episode, Dr. Lauren Umstattd shares her journey through otolaryngology training, a painful facial plastics fellowship experience, and the difficult decision to leave a path that no longer aligned with her values. First drawn to ENT as a medical student by its breadth and clinical complexity, Lauren enjoyed the precision of endoscopic and microscopic surgery during residency but found herself emotionally weighed down by head and neck cancer care. A rotation in facial plastic surgery changed everything, offering her clarity, creativity, and a sense of elective choice that resonated deeply.

Fellowship, however, became one of the most difficult chapters of her training. Despite being a strong student, Lauren felt profoundly out of alignment with her fellowship director and increasingly isolated, questioning herself in ways she never had before. As the experience deteriorated, she began simultaneously building her future practice, ultimately making the terrifying decision to resign just ten months in, despite fears about certification and professional identity. Ultimately, she chose her hard.

Lauren goes on to describe building a facial plastic surgery practice rooted in trust, transparency, and psychological safety. She discusses leveraging social media, thinking like an entrepreneur, and learning to separate the certainty required in surgery from the experimentation required in business. Central to her work is reframing perfectionism and failure, setting honest expectations with patients, and acknowledging that neither surgeons nor outcomes are ever perfect.

This conversation explores what it means to design a life and practice on your own terms, build culture intentionally, and fall in love with the hard parts of the work. It’s a powerful reminder that sometimes the bravest move in surgery and life is choosing alignment over approval.

Dr. Lauren Umstattd is a facial plastic surgeon and entrepreneur known for her commitment to autonomy, ethical patient communication, and psychologically safe practice culture. She is passionate about building systems that support excellence without sacrificing humanity. Follow her on instagram here and TikTok here.

In this convo, we explore how medicine places an impossible mantle of perfection on physicians, why resilience is a finite resource, and how the system punishes anything that falls outside the narrow definition of “excellence.” Dr. Hudon reflects on moral injury, middle management challenges, the growing administrative bloat in healthcare, and how she realized she always had a choice.

This episode is about reclaiming agency through values, connection, collaboration, and the courage to design a life and practice that actually aligns with who you are.

Key Themes:

From Idealism to Disillusionment

1. Kat describes the arc many physicians experience: entering medicine as a high-achieving, enthusiastic learner and slowly realizing, “I thought this was going to be better.”
2. Residency forges some of her most meaningful, lifelong relationships—even as the system itself begins to erode joy and creativity.
3. As leadership changes in employed medicine, conditions often worsen rather than improve.

The Myth of Infinite Resilience

1. Medicine demands perfection while punishing anything less.
2. Resilience is not endless—it’s a bucket that must be actively filled and resourced.
3. The dream of post-training life rarely matches reality; the clinical work is often the easiest part of the job.

Moral Injury and Systemic Failure

1. Five years ago, Kat witnessed a dramatic rise in loneliness and anxiety among children without adequate training, resources, or systems to support them.
2. The moral injury of feeling like she was causing harm simply by working within a broken system shook her willingness to participate in it.
3. Healthcare has become an industry of industries, bloated by layers of administration and confusion designed to perpetuate itself.

Insurance, Power, and Autonomy

1. Insurance companies dictate care decisions, limiting physician autonomy and patient-centered care.
2. If given a magic wand, Kat would eliminate the outsized power insurance holds over medical decision-making
3. The growing number—and salaries—of administrators contrasts sharply with the lived experience of clinicians.

Choosing a Different Path

1. Disillusionment with healthcare helped catalyze Kat’s move toward building a direct care clinic focused on longevity and age management.
2. Starting a business required clarity around core values and identity.
3. Physicians have highly transferable skills and more freedom than they are often led to believe.

Relationship Over Paternalism

1. One of medicine’s most powerful skills: building trust within minutes.
2. Relating well to patients—rather than using fear or authority—creates better outcomes.
3. Kat shares how relationship-centered conversations led to a 95% success rate with vitamin K acceptance, compared to 10% when scare tactics were used.

Designing a Sustainable Practice

1. Kat describes her current practice model, including hour-long initial consultations followed by a membership structure.
2. Diversifying income streams and designing life intentionally creates capacity for empathy, connection, and meaningful discourse, even in challenging conversations.

The Second Mountain & What Comes Next

1. Drawing on David Brooks’ concept of The Second Mountain, Kat reflects on moving from achievement-driven success to purpose, service, and community.

If You Feel Stuck: Where to Start

Kat offers practical first steps for physicians who feel trapped:

1. Pause and reflect: Identify what’s working and what isn’t. This isn’t quitting; it’s pruning.
2. Assess probability: What are the chances you’ll be happy if you stay? What are the chances you’d be happy doing something else?
3. Remember: You always have a choice.

Dr. Kat Hudon isn’t just another voice in the crowd; she’s a dedicated advocate for a new era of medicine–one that values integrity over profit, compassion over convention, and authenticity over everything.

Her voice rises above the noise, guiding both practitioners and patients toward a more holistic, honest approach to healthcare. Because real medicine isn’t just about treatment; it’s about trust, and Dr. Hudon is here to redefine what it means to truly care. Dr. Hudon is on a mission to educate, inspire, and advocate for a system where patients and practitioners are empowered to pursue health and healing with more humanity.

Follow her on instagram here.

Join Empowered Surgeons Group here.

Click here to join us in Empowered Surgeons group.

Check out my latest TEDx talk, "Seeing Beyond the Red Swans", here.

This episode is especially relevant for surgeons and high-achievers who have poured everything into one role and are wondering how to prevent burnout without giving up ambition.

We Talk About:

The Identity House

1. The idea that we all live in an identity house with multiple rooms (e.g., surgeon, parent, artist, athlete, writer)
2. Why having multiple rooms matters: if one room floods or burns down, the entire house doesn’t collapse
3. Not all identity rooms are the same size, and we don’t need to spend equal time in each
4. You can spend most of your day in one “room”—the key is not letting the others get moldy
5. The concept of minimum effective dosing for neglected parts of identity
6. Why it’s never too late to renovate your identity home, even if you’ve lived only in the “surgeon room” for years

Core Values as Burnout Prevention

1. Why defining core values is the first step in preventing burnout and moral injury
2. Research-backed values associated with long-term well-being: Autonomy, mastery, belonging
3. Two distinct types of burnout:

Career vs. Week Thinking

1. The danger of optimizing for a “successful week” instead of a successful career
2. How ego convinces us we’re more indispensable than we are
3. The liberating truth: the world keeps turning without us

Mastery, Presence, and the Craft of Surgery

1. “Feeling our way to excellence” and how it intersects with see one, do one, teach one
2. The universal mastery trajectory:
3. Simple → Complex → Simple
4. Why what looks “simple” is actually hundreds of unconscious micro-steps
5. The four stages of competence:: unconscious incompetence, conscious incompetence, conscious competence, unconscious competence (the apex of excellence)
6. Why many high-achievers get stuck in conscious competence (or try to skip steps)
7. Presence, intimacy with craft, and why the best moments (like a first kiss) are thoughtless

Process Over Product

1. Seeing your work as a craft, not just a job
2. Identifying the right goals without obsessing over them
3. The danger of outcome fixation
4. Why process is what sustains excellence over time

Intensity, Rest, and Renewal

1. The nuance of “going all in” without “going all the time”
2. Stimulus + rest = recovery
3. How intensity and joy are not opposites, but partners

Join Empowered Surgeons Group here.

Find Brad Stulberg and his incredible books here.

Drawing from my own experience with complex PTSD and panic attacks, I walk you through a practical, humane process for moving through trauma rather than around it. This isn’t about fixing yourself or returning to who you were before. It’s about learning how to metabolize difficult experiences and create something meaningful from them.

If you need support, you can get on my calendar for a free consult here.

Join us in Empowered Surgeons Group here.

Book a free consult with me here.

And if you're here for the free content, amazing! My next masterclass + open coaching is on December 14th at 10 am EST. Sign up for "5 Ways Surgeons Fail" here.

In this episode, I break down what coaching is. Not the corporate wellness version, but the real, practical, life-changing version that surgeons and high-stakes professionals actually need.

Coaching, as I define it, is choosing thoughts that generate feelings that empower you to create results you truly desire. It's the antidote to the soul-crushing grind of modern healthcare, moral injury, the day-to-day depletion, and the feeling that you’re running out of capacity while the system demands more.

It’s also the only part of this profession that you can truly control.

We start by identifying what you yearn for (your will), then reconnecting with your power, the internal clarity, agency, and authority that have been buried under years of training, cultural conditioning, and systemic pressure. Then we learn how to wield that power with intention and compassion. In this way, one moment at a time - little by little - your impact and your world expands. Instead of stagnating and staying small, you show up big. You create big things.

I know it works because I've done it.

If you’ve ever wondered what coaching actually is (and isn’t), why it works, or whether it’s worth your time, this episode is your starting point.

This episode discusses suicide, which may be distressing for some listeners. If this subject is triggering for you, please consider skipping this episode. If you choose to listen, do so gently and take good care of yourself. If you’re feeling hopeless or suicidal, please reach out for support. You can call the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or click here for additional resources.

Dr. Michelle Chestovich is a family medicine physician, physician coach, and the host of the Remind Yourself podcast—soon to be renamed Stress Rx. She is also the sister of Dr. Gretchen Butler, a brilliant, beloved human and radiologist who died by suicide on March 5, 2021.

Michelle’s story mirrors the quiet struggle many physicians face. She found herself living a life she didn’t quite sign up for, balancing the demands of medicine with a shifting sense of identity after becoming a mother. Coaching became her pathway back to clarity, alignment, and truth.

Her sister, Gretchen, faced the impossible convergence of pressures, expectations, and circumstances that contribute to the staggering statistic of 300–400 physician suicides each year.

This episode is a tender, honest conversation about grief, the hidden burdens physicians carry, the systemic failures that harm our colleagues, and the transformative power of recognizing our own humanness.

Get a lifetime of support in Empowered Surgeons Group here.

Learn more about Dr. Michelle Chestovich and how she can help you here.

This episode discusses substance abuse and suicide. Please listen carefully.

In this powerful and deeply honest conversation, Dr. Courtney McKeown shares the story she was once told would be “career suicide”—a story of mental health crisis, addiction, recovery, and the hard-won journey back to her authentic self.

She reflects on the research-year psychotic break that led to hospitalization, the healing support of an extraordinary program director, and her rise into a prestigious hepatobiliary fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic. But even at the top, her body kept signaling what she now sees clearly: her life was misaligned, fueled by external validation and hidden coping mechanisms.

When routine monitoring uncovered her secret drinking, she was thrust into the harsh reality of how the medical system treats physicians in distress—often punitively, fearfully, and without nuance. She describes how the state of Ohio’s approach pushed her to rock bottom, how a trusted psychiatrist saved her life, and how the state of Massachusetts’ more compassionate physician health program ultimately helped her rebuild it.

Courtney has been sober since March 2021. She chose to share her story publicly, despite warnings it would end her career. Instead, the opposite happened. A closed credentialing door redirected her to a new opportunity—now serving as Chief of Surgery in a community where she is supported, aligned, and deeply fulfilled.

Her journey highlights both truths: yes, institutions can weaponize oversight against physicians who don’t “fit,” and our ultimate success cannot be dictated by anything outside of us. Alignment, authenticity, and courage are powerful forces.

Today, she is living her best life: thriving in private practice, leading a department, and connecting with her patients more meaningfully than ever.

Key Topics

• The research-year crisis: stimulants, psychosis, and hospitalization
• The power of a supportive program director and the road back to residency
• The dream fellowship that wasn’t aligned, and how her body told the truth
• Addiction, secrecy, and the moment she was “caught”
• How states differ dramatically in supporting (or punishing) physicians in distress
• The paradox of safety expectations: punished for depression, allowed to operate without sleep
• The credentialing roadblock that redirected her to the role she was meant for
• Two truths: systemic weaponization and internal sovereignty
• Sobriety since March 2021 and what real recovery looks like
• Living in alignment: joy, leadership, community practice, connection with patients

Find Courtney on instagram here.

Watch her story on CBS morning news here.

Join Empowered Surgeons here.

Scott shares the retained foreign body case that transformed his approach to leadership, the danger of tense OR energy, and the difference between title-based authority and referent power. We also discuss the failure of punitive peer review, the legacy of Ernest Codman, and what it really takes for surgeons to regain confidence after early-career mistakes.

We each open up about panic attacks—mine recently in the OR, his in medical school—and talk about vulnerability, preparation, and staying ahead of fear. Scott also previews his upcoming book, Wipe Out Rise Up, a blend of surgical stories and lessons from surfing on resilience, perseverance, and facing storms head-on.

Find Scott and his book here.

Listen to his TEDx talk "Lessons from Surgery and Grey's Anatomy" here.

Join Empowered Surgeons Group here.

Join us in Empowered Surgeons Group here.

Anxiety can be transformed into resilience and courage, but only when we move toward it, not away from it.

Anxiety is the life-saving fear response misapplied to the imagination.

By definition, anxiety is a lie.

What we fear—killing the patient, facing a lawsuit, losing our reputation, losing everything—is not actually happening in real time.

Fear is intuitive, primitive, and immediately actionable. It comes in a wave, then recedes.

Anxiety, on the other hand, never relents.

The Five Fear Responses

• Fight
• Flight
• Freeze
• Fawn
• Flop

When we close a loop with fight or flight, our brain registers safety and completion.

But when we respond with freeze, fawn, or flop, the event can encode as trauma.

That’s why exercising healthy fight—asserting boundaries instead of people-pleasing—is essential.

In the hierarchical culture of surgical training, this can be especially hard to do.

Managing Anxiety: Before, During, and After Surgery

Pre-op

Notice the thoughts your brain offers, often disguised as innocent questions:

“What if I don’t find the nerve?”

Instead of accepting that thought as truth, offer the opposite:

“What if I do?”

Then, shift into a mental state that serves you. I like to remind myself:

“It’s not about me. It never was, and it never will be.”

Finally, create a short ritual, like visualizing the entire case from start to finish at the scrub sink.

Intra-op

When anxiety hits—bleeding, getting lost in a dissection, uncertainty—let the physiologic surge pass through your system for 90 seconds.

Do not believe the story your brain tells you during those 90 seconds.

Once the wave subsides, find certainty:

“What do I know for sure?”

Then move from known to unknown with curiosity and creativity.

Post-op

Download your thoughts.

Speak them into a voice memo or write them down unedited, unfiltered, stream-of-consciousness.

Getting it out of your head helps you process, release, and reset for the next case.

Key takeaway:

Anxiety isn’t the enemy; it’s an invitation.

When you learn to meet it directly, you transform it into the fuel for courage, clarity, and growth.

In surgical culture, we often carry false notions, like the idea that we should give our time, energy, and value away for free (see Episode #4: Toxic Martyrdom).

The truth is: we aren't exempt from the rules of business. Businesses need money for sustainability, and money comes from value.

As surgeons, we have a lot of value to give the world.

We give value to our patients when we hold space for them in clinic and offer our expertise. We give value in the operating room when we use our skills to help fix their problems. We give value to our communities by taking call. We give value every time we answer phone calls and messages.

These are all value points, and we’re not wrong or bad for monetizing them. Every other industry does. That’s how a profession becomes sustainable: the more value you offer, the more people want to pay to receive it. The more resourced and protected you are as the ASSET, the more capacity you have to give your value for free…when you want to. Giving value away for free isn’t bad in and of itself, but when a system or culture forces us to martyr ourselves against our will, that’s a recipe for burnout and implosion.

When we begin to understand how the world outside of surgery works, we open the door to diversifying our identity. We start to feel comfortable with the idea of multiple income streams. We stop telling ourselves that we’re special snowflakes with no discernible skills beyond surgery. We can learn marketing, selling, and social media just as well as the next person.

The sooner you learn these lessons, the sooner you release yourself from your self-appointed shackles and the sooner you create freedom to evolve with your career. You deserve to be compensated for the immense value you offer the world. And you get to give value away for free on your terms.

If this resonates, you are going to want to follow The Hippocratic Collective here. If you have an idea you want to share with the world, HC can bring that idea to life. If you are a woman surgeon interested in the Cabo retreat, get on my calendar here. You can learn more about Empowered Surgeons Group here.

This episode discusses child abuse, religious trauma, depression, moral injury, and pediatric violent trauma. Please listen carefully.

Pediatric surgeon Dr. Jose Greenspon shares an unflinching account of practicing at one of the busiest trauma centers in the country, shouldering all of the work after his partners resigned, all while his own faith, family, and mental health unraveled. He speaks candidly about stigma in surgery, moral injury, being labeled “disruptive” when asking for help, and the moment a sensory trigger in the OR surfaced a childhood assault by a rabbi. This conversation is about the cost of carrying more than one human can hold, and the courage to put the burden down.

If this episode resonates with you, and you'd like to reach out to Dr. Greenspon, email him at jgreenspon76@gmail.com

In this episode we discuss:

• Dealing with life-and-death without a vent partner: Pediatric penetrating trauma is difficult enough; facing it without support is punishing. Dr. Greenspon recognized the essential need for a trusted peer or space to unburden the experiences surgeons carry.
• Faith in crisis: As an Orthodox Jewish man, he struggled to find God in the chaos—then a flashback to childhood molestation shattered what remained of his religious safety net and contributed to the end of his marriage.
• The breaking point: A child his daughter’s age died from a gunshot wound to the chest. A smell in the OR triggered a panic attack and a vivid flashback. He finished the case, then self-reported to the CMO.
• Stigma and moral injury: Seeking help led to being labeled rather than supported. “You martyr yourself, and it gets weaponized against you.”
• Choosing to leave: Why leaving a toxic job and facing his demons was the best decision, and how outstanding residents became close friends.
• “Parent whisperer”: How he builds trust with families, honors the gravity of every operation, and treats residents with radical humility: “The only difference between me and you is that I happen to come first.”
• Work as a vice: How unprocessed trauma can morph into work addiction, guilt, and a compulsion to protect children—plus what recovery looks like now with a therapist who understands religious abuse.
• System reflections: On toxic competitiveness in pediatric surgery, administrative incentives, and what true appreciation and backup should look like.

Resources & support

RAINN (U.S.) — National Sexual Assault Hotline: 800-656-HOPE (4673) | rainn.org

988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (U.S.) — Call or text 988 | 988lifeline.org

Physician Support Line (U.S.) — 1-888-409-0141 | physiciansupportline.com

Connect & continue

• If this conversation resonated, share it with a colleague.
• Subscribe to Surgeons With Purpose and leave a review to help other surgeons find the show.
• For coaching and community: Empowered Surgeons Group—tools, calls, and connection for surgeons navigating moral injury, complications, and career inflection points.

Thank you, Dr. Greenspon, for the honesty and heart you brought to this episode.

On today's episode, enjoy the replay of the webinar, "From Imposter to Integrated: Reclaiming Humanity and Authenticity in Surgery".

You can access all webinar replays inside the Empowered Surgeons Group member portal. Looking forward to seeing you inside the group!

Click here to learn more about Empowered Surgeons Group.

It's back-to-back Chrissy(ie) episodes! Dr. Chrissy Guidry is a trauma and critical care surgeon and founder of Whole Body Optimism, a program designed to empower busy healthcare professionals find integrity of mind, physical body, and soul by implementing practical intentional practices into their everyday lives.

In this conversation, we explore Dr. Chrissy's journey through academic medicine, infertility, and institutional betrayal, and how it all led to a deeper integration of mind, body, heart, and soul.

After seven and a half years at Tulane, she found herself at a crossroads. While navigating marriage and fertility treatments, she faced the harsh reality of how academia often punishes physicians for being human. What began as an ultrasound appointment became a weapon used against her and a defining moment in reclaiming her integrity and purpose.

In This Episode:

• Surgeon Purpose Check: Who are we really doing this for: ourselves or the patients?
• Coaching as Catalyst: How hiring a coach for the department transformed the culture for everyone.
• Fertility and Academia: The tension between starting a family and the unspoken expectations of academic productivity.
• Integrity in Healing: How her fertility journey sparked a whole-self integration of mind, body, heart, and soul.
• Becoming the Medical Education Wellness Director at Tulane
• Creating wellness champions across departments
• Using GME funding to host interdisciplinary networking events
• Developing an app to centralize well-being resources for residents
• Expanding the Mission Online: How she brought physician wellness work to the digital space, helping clinicians worldwide prioritize their humanity.
• Mindset Over Strategy: Why happiness isn’t a moving target; it’s a mindset shift.

Key Reframes for Resilience:

• We are human beings, not human doings
• Life doesn't just have to happen to you; it can happen for you.

Reflection Questions:

1. How can I take more responsibility for the outcome?
2. How can I grow from this opportunity?
3. What good is already present in this challenge?

In today's episode, Dr. Chrissie Ott and I sit down to discuss my journey.

In this episode, you’ll learn

• How panic, insomnia, and “I must be broken” thoughts can be early sirens of burnout—and what healing looked like for me.
• The Drama Triangle (victim–hero–villain) vs. David Emerald’s Empowerment Dynamic (creator–coach–challenger), with real clinical scenarios
• Why the “healthcare hero” narrative can unintentionally disempower patients
• Fiduciary ethics in the exam room: naming incentives, protecting integrity, and keeping decisions in the patient’s hands
• Why creation must be “for you first”
• What agency looks like in career evolution: closing one chapter so another can fully begin
• How to transmute suffering into service without bypassing the hard parts
• The vision of the Hippocratic Collective: every physician’s voice belongs

Dr. Chrissie Ott is a physician, coach and host of Solving for Joy Podcast.

Find her on instagram here.

Join Empowered Surgeons Group here.

In surgery, it's tempting to attach our identity to surgical outcomes. But what result does that create? Because complications are inevitable, patients are unpredictable, and surgeons are human--and fallible, the result of grasping onto perfection is always the same: suffering.

If we instead define failure as simply failure to serve, we create freedom for ourselves. Our focus shifts from trying to control the uncontrollable to setting a clear intention: service. In that reality, we reclaim agency and purpose no matter the outcome.

Today I’m talking with financial activist, author, and viral TEDx speaker Mel Dorman about how to create wealth in a way that’s simple, sustainable, and rooted in community. This conversation will stick with you long after you listen.

Watch their TEDx talk [here], grab their book [here], and explore the Seller Finance Academy [here].

Ready to join Empowered Surgeons? Click here.

In this episode, my guest, Dr. Priya Kothapalli, and I discuss the beauty and power of intuition, the challenges of corporate medicine, imposter syndrome, don't know mind, and what it's like to have the courage to design a life true to oneself.

Priya Kothapalli, MD, is a coronary and structural heart disease interventional cardiologist based in the Dallas Fort Worth area, model, yogi, and host of the Open Heart podcast.

Follow Priya on instagram here. Follow her podcast, which debuts this fall, here.

Join Empowered Surgeons Group here.

Check out Hippocratic Collective here.

You’ll hear:

• How loss reshaped their family and his career as a physician
• Why talking about death matters more than avoiding it
• The art of skillful empathy and being present without absorbing every tragedy
• Why doctors should guide, not decide, for families

Dr. Hoeflinger's words of wisdom for physicians:

"The world’s not on your shoulders…Don't expect so much of yourself."

"Spend more time away from the hospital."

Follow the Hoeflinger podcast on Apple podcasts here and on YouTube here.

Get on the Dr. Hoeflinger newsletter here.

Follow Dr. Hoeflinger on instagram here.

Join Empowered Surgeons Group here.

Check out Hippocratic Collective here.

Dr. Karuna Dewan was accepted to medical school at just 16 and knew early on she wanted to be a laryngologist. Today she is an Associate Professor of Otolaryngology, the Jonathan Glass, MD & Cherie-Ann Nathan, MD Endowed Professor in Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery, and Director of the Ark-La-Tex Voice, Airway and Swallow Center at LSU Health Shreveport.

But her path was anything but straightforward. In this conversation, she opens up about the bullying, rumors, and systemic failures she endured during residency, and the long shadow of trauma, PTSD, and professional stigma that followed.

Dr. Dewan speaks candidly about:

• How residency culture can mirror high school bullying.
• The “weaponization of professionalism” and the absence of true advocacy for residents.
• Why labeling trainees as “problem residents” causes lasting harm.
• The power of mentorship, and what anti-mentors teach us.
• Concrete ways faculty can offer curiosity, specificity, and constructive feedback instead of dehumanizing criticism.

She also shares how she rebuilt her confidence, thrived in a new residency, and now fiercely supports her own residents with kindness and compassion. Her story is one of resilience, advocacy, and a vision for a future where training doesn’t come at the cost of humanity.

“I didn’t get here by magic. I earned this.” – Dr. Karuna Dewan

Follow Karuna on instagram here.

Learn more about Empowered Surgeons Group here.

Learn more about the Hippocratic-Collective here.

Have you ever considered the creative process of your favorite artist?

I, personally, will never forget the moment I found out that Jerry Seinfeld wrote his jokes on napkins!

Comic book artist and family practice physician, Dr. Ryan Montoya, comes on the show to talk about his evolution as a physician and an artist, how he balances his dual life, and the value of a creative outlet.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• From Rags to Resilience: Growing up on welfare in California and being treated like just another number, then moving to Massachusetts and experiencing a system that valued him as an individual.
• Education & Isolation: How higher-quality education and feeling singled out shaped his perspective and fueled his drive.
• Creativity as Survival: Using art, movement, and creative thinking to solve problems when conventional support systems weren’t enough.
• Capturing Creative Moments: The importance of noticing and preserving moments of creativity in everyday life.
• Learning from the Greats: Insights drawn from creative icons like Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David on harnessing creativity effectively.
• Creativity vs. Anxiety: Why channeling energy into creative outlets is healthier than letting the brain default to anxiety.
• A New Lens on Media: How approaching shows and comics with a creative, analytical mind can unlock new perspectives.
• Balancing Medicine & Art: Managing parental pressure to pursue medicine while following artistic passions, and finding harmony between professional and creative endeavors.
• Preventing Burnout: How maintaining a creative outlet and staying aligned with personal values protects against professional exhaustion.
• Career Wisdom: The pitfalls of overvaluing power, status, or wealth over meaningful experiences, and the importance of self-knowledge before taking leadership roles.
• Introspection & Self-Knowledge: Understanding your conative style, whether you’re a visionary or implementer, and how tools like the Kolbe Index can guide career and creative decisions.
• Creating for Yourself: Embracing imperfection, starting before you’re ready, and why being “paid for your art” transforms you from hobbyist to professional.
• Who Before How: Why understanding yourself and your values is always the first step in any field or endeavor.

Follow Dr. Ryan Montoya on instagram here.

Join Empowered Surgeons group here.

Learn more about the Hippocratic Collective here.

Dr. Ryan Montoya, MD is a board certified Family Medicine physician. He graduated from Harvard University with a degree in Biology, and completed graduate courses at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Johns Hopkins University, before attending medical school and residency at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Dr. Montoya provided full spectrum family medicine care and opioid addiction medication assisted treatment (MAT) at a Federally Qualified Health Center while starting his own direct primary care practice in Massachusetts. He has lived and provided community healthcare in the countries of Bosnia and Herzegovina and India, and acted as the Associate Medical Director of Planned Parenthood in Washington, DC. He currently serves as the Physician Medical Officer for the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, Russia.

Aside from the practice of medicine, Dr. Montoya is a professional comic book artist and writer whose works have appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine and Scientific American. He received art training from the Massachusetts College of Art, Art Institute of Boston, School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, and the Joe Kubert School of Comic Book Art. He has also worked as a luggage and trunk designer for the brand Goyard and a project manager for the CIFF Raven fashion fair in Copenhagen and the Devambez Panorama fashion collective in Paris.

Dr. Montoya’s describes his blog, “Forced Perspectives,” as follows: 

 “I am interested in perspectives: what does the world of medicine look like from the patient’s point of view, and from the provider’s point of view. I’m attracted to stories devoted to the mundane, nuanced experience of receiving medical care in the United States, and I want to write essays and illustrate comics that explore the interface between patient and provider on a small and large scale – whether that means discussing just how informed your “informed consent” might be, to how the color of your skin might affect your medical bill. My hope is that these pieces will be informative, engaging, and fun. If you also find them compelling, transcendent, ground-breaking, and award winning, I won’t be upset.”

Master storyteller and fellow disrupter, Dr. Frances Mei Hardin comes on the podcast to discuss the article The Impossible Oath.

We talk about what the Hippocratic Oath is and, perhaps more importantly, is not.

You'll learn how the system grooms us for "betrayal blindness" and why a better-you-than-me, cut throat mentality isn't good for anyone.

Dr. Hardin recounts a residency moment when she was wrongly reprimanded, an experience many of you will recognize.

Finally, we address the disproportionate number of women and minorities placed on remediation plans.

Learn more about the Hippocratic Collective here.

Join Empowered Surgeons Group here.

Frances Mei Hardin, MD, is a reformed gunner. She survived ENT residency, practiced solo in the rural South, and then peaced out of medicine entirely to start the Hippocratic Collective. She decoupled her self-worth from her identity as a surgeon, survived an ego death, and is now entering her mogul era—writing her first book, building a physician-led media empire, and making the kind of stuff she wishes existed back when she was white-knuckling her way through surgical training. She no longer thinks being a doctor is her whole personality. You shouldn't either.

Your self-concept is the story you tell yourself about who you are. It shapes everything: the decisions you make, the risks you take (or avoid), and the way you show up in the world. But most of us never consciously choose it. Instead, we inherit it from cultural messages, past experiences, and unconscious beliefs we’ve never questioned.

In this episode, we explore the hidden beliefs that quietly steer your career, relationships, and happiness as well as the behaviors and emotions of imposter syndrome, people-pleasing, or perfectionism.

Because changing your self-concept is not about waiting for confidence to arrive; it's about deciding to become the person you want to be, and then stepping into your power.

Learn more about Empowered Surgeons Group here.

Learn more about Empowered Surgeons Group here.

Learn more about Hippocratic Collective here.

What happens when the surgeon becomes the patient? When the body you relied on to do your life’s work… stops cooperating?

Today’s guest, Dr. Stephanie Pearson, walks us through her powerful, often painful journey, from aspiring pediatrician to ObGyn surgeon to founder of PearsonRavitz, a physician disability insurance firm born from lived experience.

This episode is a raw, inspiring conversation about loss, identity, reinvention, and the deep cracks in our medical system that no one talks about until it’s too late.

We cover:

🔹 Wanting to be just like her childhood pediatrician, and realizing in med school she couldn't make kids cry

🔹 The inappropriate OR moment that changed her surgical trajectory (and the perfect clapback that still lives rent-free)

🔹 Falling in love with ObGyn by accident and matching into her dream program

🔹 The career-ending injury: torn labrum, frozen shoulder, being called a “pussy” by an orthopedic surgeon, and ultimately losing her surgical identity

🔹 The spiral that followed, and how a puppy and her husband saved her life

🔹 What happens when physicians become the meanest part of your grief

🔹 Losing everything that brought joy: martial arts, rock climbing, her career

🔹 Trying to rebuild through med mal, biotech, editing, until nothing lit her up

🔹 The disability insurance nightmare (rejected workman’s comp, denied group policy), and why she sued the state of Pennsylvania

🔹 Getting licensed in insurance and crying in her car when she passed... because she didn’t get an A

🔹 Why musculoskeletal injuries are just the tip of the iceberg for physician disability

🔹 The “emotional ergonomics” of surgery and why we need an ergonomic time-out

🔹 What it means to “protect the asset”

🔹 People-pleasing, perfectionism, and the impossible standard for woman surgeons

🔹 How understanding both medicine and insurance is her value add

🔹 Building a mission-driven business (Pearson Ravitz just turned 8!)

🔹 Why she won’t be satisfied until every resident is covered

🔹 The quiet truth: Physicians are human. Health issues happen. And identity can evolve.

As the husband of a physician, Chris found himself isolated and invisible during Hannah’s residency. What followed were hard conversations, conscious choices, and a shared commitment to rewrite the rules. Together, they challenge the unspoken norms of medicine, from toxic gratitude and performative suffering to the misplaced belief that having a family somehow weakens you as a physician.

They also introduce their project, The Other Side Med, aimed at supporting the often-ignored partners of those in medicine and building a new vision of success that includes relationships, rest, and real human connection.

In This Episode, We Discuss:

• The origin story of The Other Side Med and why male spouses of doctors need their own space
• Chris’s emotional turning point, and the conversation that changed everything
• The unspoken rules in medicine that quietly punish anyone who colors outside the lines
• The cultural gaslighting of residents: ‘if you can’t deal with it, change your choices’
• How Hannah protected herself during pregnancy without asking permission
• Why 70% of what happens in medicine would get you fired anywhere else
• You don’t need to leave your personal life at the door, and why integration makes doctors better
• The difference between transactional and relational medicine
• Their personal non-negotiables and how you can start defining your own
• Learning to say “no” with intention, knowing it will get easier every time

Key Takeaways:

• “You're not alone.” Whether you’re getting married, raising kids, or prioritizing your health, there’s no one right way to do medicine.
• Define your non-negotiables. What do you need (relationally, physically, emotionally, spiritually) to feel whole? Those are your anchors.
• You don’t need permission. From scheduling OB visits while pregnant to creating boundaries, advocacy doesn’t require approval.
• Toxic appreciation is real. Gratitude shouldn’t be used to normalize exhaustion or mistreatment.
• Say no, and mean it. If it’s not a hell yes, it’s a no. Protecting your time and energy isn’t selfish; it’s essential.

Follow Other Side Med on instagram here.

Learn more about the Hippocratic Collective here.

Learn more about Empowered Surgeons Group here.

Watch Charles Duhigg's TEDx talk here.

Get his book, Supercommunicators: how to unlock the secret languange of connection here.

To recap

Supercommunicators:

1. Listen closely to what’s said and unsaid
2. Ask the right questions
3. Recognize and match others’ moods
4. Make their feelings easy to read

The four types of conversations are:

1. Social
2. Emotional
3. Experiential
4. Practical

Social conversations answer the question, "Who are we?" The goal=acknowledgement.

Emotional conversations answer the question, "How do we feel?" The goal=empathy.

Experiential conversations answer the question, "What was that like?" The goal=understanding.

Practical conversations answer the question, "What's the solution?" The goal=decision making.

The more we match and synchronize with the person we’re communicating with, the more effective the communication becomes. Doctors often try to jump straight into practical conversations with patients, believing it saves time. In reality, first matching the patient’s style of communication and then gently guiding them into a practical discussion is a far more efficient—and effective—approach.

This episode contains discussion of suicidal thoughts. Please listen carefully or, if this topic is especially triggering for you, skip this one entirely.

In this episode, Dr. Femi Oyewole shares his deeply personal journey of navigating medical training while living with undiagnosed ADHD. He opens up about how the pressures of residency, coupled with ADHD-related challenges, led to anxiety, depression, and even suicidal thoughts, and how a leave of absence, support from loved ones, professional help, and self-discovery transformed his life.

We explore:

✨ How ADHD can masquerade as anxiety and depression, especially during times of high stress

✨ The spiral of negative self-talk: “I can’t manage my life → I’m not worthy → I’m worthless”

✨ Doing well at work while your personal life quietly unravels

✨ The power of a diagnosis: learning he wasn’t broken, and strategies for managing ADHD

✨ Why medication and coping strategies are both essential but not always enough

✨ The critical role of supportive programs and communities when taking a mental health break

✨ Signs of ADHD often missed in high-achieving adults, especially women

✨ How ADHD traits, like rejection sensitive dysphoria and executive dysfunction, impact everyday life and training

✨ Dealing with stigma as a neurodivergent physician

✨ How lived experience with mental health challenges can make you a better doctor

✨ Meditation, gratitude, and re-directing your brain as tools for healing

✨ Advice for physicians who suspect they may have ADHD

Femi's story is a powerful call to action to prioritize your mental health, lean on your support system, and embrace your authentic self.

Follow Dr. Femi Oyewole on instagram here.

Learn more about Empowered Surgeons Group here.

Get Boyd Varty's book, The Lion Tracker's Guide to Life, access his courses, or retreat with him here.

What if losing your way isn’t a detour, but the only way forward?

In surgery—and in life—we’re taught to crave certainty. A clear path. A guaranteed outcome. But what if that very craving is what keeps us stuck?

In this episode of Surgeons with Purpose, Dr. Mel Thacker invites you into a conversation about uncertainty, purpose, and the courage to follow your inner tracker. Mel explores how self-trust can become a portal to transformation, especially for those of us navigating burnout, career crossroads, or the deep sense that something in our lives isn’t quite aligned.

You’ll hear reflections like:

✨ “Too much uncertainty is chaos, but too little is death.” - Boyd Varty

🐾 “As paradoxical as it sounds, going down a path and not finding a track is part of finding the track.” - Boyd Varty

💡 “If you can see your whole life’s path laid out, then it’s not your life's path.” -Joseph Campbell

We’ll unpack how following your bliss may lead you into spaces where others don’t understand or respect you, and why that might be the most vital, alive place you can stand.

This episode is for you if:

✅ You’re a surgeon (or any high-achiever) standing at a career crossroads.

✅ You feel restless or disconnected from your original purpose.

✅ You’re tired of “playing it safe” and longing for a life that’s fully your own.

Because on the trail, as in life, there’s not one right way. The only mistake is refusing to choose at all.

Plastic surgery isn’t just about appearance—it’s about reinvention. For Dr. Blair Peters, that theme runs through every part of his story.

After coming out before medical school and finding his place within the queer and trans community, Dr. Peters saw firsthand the inequities in gender-affirming care. Patients traveling across continents for surgery, often with no idea who their surgeon was or how they’d get post-op care—it felt wrong. That’s when his mission became clear.

Today, gender-affirming surgeries like phalloplasty, vulvoplasty, vaginoplasty make up the majority of his practice. But that’s not where the innovation stops. His expertise in peripheral nerve surgery is now transforming care for cisgender patients too—addressing chronic pelvic pain, loss of orgasm, and other conditions that have long lived in the "black box" of genital health.

We discuss:

• The massive, all-consuming nature of gender-affirming surgery as a field
• The unique multi-disciplinary approach required
• His work creating a national fellowship registry for plastics training in gender-affirming care

Dr. Peters also opens up about the resistance he faced in becoming a pioneer:

• The stereotype that trans patients would be too high maintenance
• The internal debate about making an entire career out of being queer
• The real fear of becoming a public target in a national political firestorm

We cover the grim reality many gender-affirming surgeons now face:

• Death threats, doxxing, and needing police escorts
• Being secretly recorded at conferences, with videos landing on right-wing media
• The political machinery driving today’s anti-trans healthcare movement—how it started with trans athletes, moved to youth care, and now threatens adult care nationwide

Dr. Peters explains how state-level policies, executive orders, and forthcoming legislation have created chaos at institutions like his—leaving surgeons to navigate legal, ethical, and personal safety decisions on the fly, often unpaid and unprotected.

Yet through all of it, he continues to operate—literally and figuratively—at full capacity:

• Fielding political crisis calls from 6 am to 10 pm
• Taking urgent meetings between cases
• Consulting with institutional leadership and legal teams
• Wondering daily: Are we still safe to provide care?

We also dive into the joy and creativity that sustain him:

• Designing nerve reconstruction surgeries with sticky notes and sharpies
• Innovating individualized procedures for patients both trans and cisgender
• Finding peace in the OR, surrounded by blue gowns and bright lights
• Reinventing his practice to stay engaged and energized

Dr. Peters shares powerful reflections on visibility and authenticity in academic medicine:

• The exhaustion of assimilation
• The freedom of showing up as himself
• The real question: Is it professionalism… or forced conformity?

We close with a conversation about sustainability, boundaries, and the 30-year plan:

• Guardrails around time and energy
• The wide, interdepartmental future of peripheral nerve surgery
• The healing power of storytelling—both his own and his patients’
• His plans to one day write a book that blends memoir with patient narratives to build empathy in a time when it’s urgently needed

This is a conversation about surgery, identity, advocacy, and resilience. About holding space for others while fighting for your own right to belong.

Because at the end of the day, we’re all just humans trying our best to live our lives in a crazy world.

Follow Dr. Blair Peters on instagram here.

Blair Peters, M.D. is a leading expert in gender-affirming surgery—a pioneering surgeon, researcher, educator and advocate whose influence extends across medicine, policy and social discourse. He is an Assistant Professor in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and Urology at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) and serves as the Surgical Director of OHSU’s Transgender Health Program, the most extensive multidisciplinary transgender health program in the country. He is also the Fellowship Director of the Advanced Gender-Affirming Surgery Fellowship, the premier training program of its kind. Additionally, he leads the national gender-affirming surgery fellowship match, shaping the next generation of surgeons and expanding access to high-quality, affirming care across North America.

Dr. Peters is a prolific surgeon and a respected researcher, driving the field forward. With over 65 peer-reviewed publications in major medical journals, he is widely recognized for his groundbreaking work on genital nerve anatomy, sensation and the clitoris—revolutionizing the understanding of sensation in gender-affirming surgery and setting new standards for patient-centered care. His research is not just theoretical; it has reshaped surgical techniques and outcomes, ensuring that sensation and autonomy remain at the core of gender-affirming procedures.

Beyond the operating room, Dr. Peters is one of the most influential voices in gender-affirming healthcare today. A highly sought-after speaker, he has delivered over 50 keynote presentations and endowed lectureships and has served as a visiting professor at more than 20 of the most prestigious medical institutions worldwide. His expertise is called upon at the highest levels of academia, and he is frequently referred to as a defining leader of the modern era of gender-affirming care.

Dr. Peters’ impact extends far beyond medicine—he is a tireless advocate at the intersection of healthcare, social justice, and policy. His bold, authentic voice challenges misinformation, dismantles barriers to care, and drives systemic change. He engages with major media outlets and uses social media to further amplify education, advocacy, and the urgent fight against anti-trans rhetoric and policy.

Dr. Peters work is transforming the future of gender-affirming surgery, ensuring that access, quality, and innovation continue to evolve in service of transgender and nonbinary communities worldwide.

A graduate of the University of North Carolina, Tyler pursued both writing and medicine with the quiet hope that someday, he could bring those two worlds together.

In this episode, Tyler shares how being a long-time patient shaped his perspective on medical training and culture, including the deep stigma around being labeled a “pain patient.” We explore what it really means to be a physician or surgeon: Is our job simply to diagnose and treat? Or is there something more intangible—bearing witness, holding space, and being present with patients?

We also talk about why doctors are wired to hate uncertainty, and how that can get in the way of both healing and growth. Tyler reveals the counterintuitive secret that helped him expand his capacity during medical school. The best part is that it’s something you can access too.

Learn more about Tyler and his best-selling book, Freeze Frame, here.

Follow him on instagram here.

Check out Hippocratic Collective here.

Learn more about Empowered Surgeons Group here.

In this powerful episode, we explore why traditional cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) may fall short for high-functioning professionals—especially surgeons—whose deeply ingrained patterns stem from unmet emotional needs. We dive into the world of Schema Therapy, which addresses the origin of recurring emotional pain, not just its surface-level expression.

You’ll learn about the concept of “limited reparenting”, the 18 core maladaptive schemas, and the one that often plagues high-achievers: unrelenting standards and hypercriticalness. We explore how the environments of surgical training—hierarchical, elitist, and shame-based—reinforce these painful inner narratives.

What You’ll Learn:

• What schemas are: core beliefs developed through repeated unmet needs in childhood
• How trauma gets “stuck” in the body when fight-or-flight is inhibited
• The cycle of negative feedback in training, and how it impairs learning and emotional development
• Why positive reinforcement—not criticism—is the most effective teaching tool
• How to reconcile compassion for others with righteous anger and boundary-setting
• Why mental self-flagellation is learned, not necessary
• How it’s possible to be a brilliant surgeon with the frustration tolerance of an 8-year-old
• The link between repressed anger and chronic illness (“Repression of anger will f*ck you up”)
• Somatic and schema therapy techniques that actually help you heal, not just cope

Modalities We Discuss:

• EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) – how moving your eyes during trauma recall helps decouple the emergency response
• Somatic Completion – allowing the body to finish survival reflexes that were blocked
• Imagery Rescripting – going back into a childhood memory and rewriting the experience to reclaim power

Core Insight:

You can be competent, accomplished, and admired—and still be psychologically underdeveloped. It’s not your fault. But it is your responsibility to grow.

Final Thought:

Emotions are just data. Anger is not dangerous—it’s a vibration. Learn to feel it without reacting to it. Only then can you choose wisely.

Join more than 83k others and follow Barlas on instagram here and join his reparenting community. We all know we need this.

Join Empowered Surgeons Group here.

We discuss:

• The emotional rewards of caring for high-risk cardiac patients who have few options left
• The "Black Swan" framework for surgical decision-making: a grounded process for choosing wisely when the stakes are highest
• Why just because we can, doesn’t mean we should—and how she decides when not to operate
• Why post-op cardiac care is never à la carte—and how communication defines outcomes
• Why self-flagellation after a complication sabotages future decision-making—and how to shift from fear-based to mission-based thinking
• What skydiving teaches about emergency preparedness, trust, and rapid execution
• How anxiety, fear, and trauma must be processed after the fact—not in the middle of the OR
• Using celebration and reflection to build self-trust and resilience
• Reclaiming your identity in medicine by anchoring to mission, not job title

This episode is a powerful invitation to rethink risk, courage, and how we serve. If you've ever struggled with self-doubt, anxiety about litigation and complications, or the emotional toll of high-stakes surgery—this conversation is for you.

Alexandra Kharazi, MD, is a board-certified cardiothoracic surgeon, author, speaker and skydiver.

​Dr. Kharazi is board certified in general surgery and cardiothoracic surgery. She has publications in numerous medical journals including The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, Innovations: Technology and Techniques in Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery, and Journal of Innovations in Cardiac Rhythm Management. 

In addition to her medical degree, Dr. Kharazi holds a masters degree in biology, having completed a masters thesis titled "Generation and molecular analysis of dominant negative alleles of anthrax lethal factor in Drosophila."

Having received multiple honors and recognition for patient satisfaction, she has been featured in regional and national media outlets and peer-review journals, Medium, KevinMD, and Doximity among a few. Dr. Kharazi is the author of “The Heart of Fear” and offers realistic success plans that help her audience to become better … both personally and professionally.​

She is a member of the American College of Surgeons.

Follow Dr. Alexandra Kharazi on instagram here.

Connect with her on her website here.

Learn more about Empowered Surgeons Group here.

In a profession that demands perfection and endurance, it’s easy to default to survival mode. But what if the real evolution happens when we shift from self-preservation to purpose?

In this episode, we unpack the 6 core human needs—belonging, autonomy, mastery, esteem, trust, and purpose—and how understanding them can change the way you show up in the OR, in leadership, and in life.

We dive into powerful mindshifts specifically for surgeons, like:

🔹 Perfectionism → Service

🔹 Scarcity → Abundance

🔹 "I have to" → "I get to"

🔹 "I don't know" → "I'm figuring it out"

🔹 Triggered → Curious

🔹 "I can’t say no" → "I only say yes when it’s a hell yes"

🔹 Self-focus → Other-focus

🔹 Waiting for the other shoe to drop → Trusting you'll be okay no matter what

These aren’t just affirmations. They’re tools for resilience and power—the kind that help you lead, advocate, and operate from your values, not just your training.

Whether you're burned out, bored, or just ready for something more aligned—this episode will help you remember what’s possible when you start leading from your whole self.

We talk about the cost of “doctor-pleasing,” the power of saying “no,” and the importance of waking up to the beliefs we inherit from medicine. Sharon opens up about taking a sabbatical, discovering coaching, and now enjoying a mix of surgery, speaking, and professional development—all rooted in her values.

If you’ve ever questioned the system or felt torn between who you are and what medicine asks of you, this one’s for you.

Sharon Stein, MD, FACS, FACRS is a Harvard trained colon and rectal surgeon with over 10,000 cases under her belt. Laparoscopic, robotic, open - all of the cases. Textbook author. The kind of surgeon people went to when other surgeons couldn't figure out what to do next. Always an advocate for her patients.  Professor of surgery with over 150 articles in peer reviewed journals. Moderator, course director and faculty for more than 150 programs internationally. Program director for surgical fellowship. Board examiner.  Former president of Association of Women Surgeons, Committee chair for American College of Surgeons, Executive Council for American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons. With 100's of hours of coaching under her belt, Sharon provides her clients with insight, perspective and skills that they need to be more effective as a surgeon and communicator.  Sharon trained as a coach at Weatherhead School of Business, Case Western Reserve and completed diversity and leadership training at Kellogg School of business/ Northwestern University. She is internationally known as a coach, speaker, and host of the Intentional Surgeon Podcast. 

Connect with Dr. Sharon Stein via her website here.

Learn more about Empowered Surgeons Group here.

What we cover in this episode:

• Coaching, reframing excitement as anxiety, and the importance of pausing when things get hard.
• Facing your first complication as an attending.
• The emotional weight of complications post-training versus during residency.
• Growing up the daughter of an orthopedic surgeon—rounding in soccer cleats and witnessing community impact.
• The torn ACL that inspired her path into orthopedics.
• Giving birth to her first child during residency—and what it took to keep going.
• Trailblazing as one of the first two women in her fellowship program, and how much she loved it.
• Navigating “ortho bro” culture.
• The growing pains of her first year in practice.
• Ergonomics in orthopedic surgery—and how to operate smarter, not harder.
• What enrages her about how the system treats grandma’s hip—and why it matters.
• Going head-to-head with the head of medicine as a resident advocating for patients.
• The sad reality: if healthcare workers don’t advocate for geriatric patients, no one will.
• Understanding hip fracture care as end-of-life care—and reframing what that means.
• Knowing when to go above and beyond for the people who need it most.
• The parallel between breaking barriers as a female surgeon and the women we care for who once broke barriers themselves.
• Seeing herself in her older patients—and why that connection matters.
• Setting boundaries thoughtfully—who are we saying “no” to and why?
• Carving out time for meaningful conversations within a system that rarely makes space for them.
• Her dream to collect patient stories and write a book that honors their lives.
• The privilege of hearing people’s stories at some of the worst moments of their lives.
• Remembering our impact—how a two-hour surgery can define a patient's entire life.
• Why caring deeply is both a gift and a burden for highly empathetic surgeons.
• Sound advice from an ER resident: “Every time a patient is horrible, I remember—they’re having the worst day of their life.”
• And finally: Don’t mess with little old ladies with hip fractures. They are history. They are human. They matter.

Follow Dr. Colleen Balkam Balk on instagram here. Whether you are a medical student, resident, or practicing physician, she’d be honored to serve as a sounding board for you!

Find out more about Empowered Surgeons Group here.

This episode will teach you actionable steps to go from the “distract and avoid” type of surgeon to the “process and create” type of surgeon. The result for you? Empowerment.

Speaking of empowerment, if this resonates, you are going to want to sign up for the Empowered Surgeons Group! Learn more here.

Get Cesar's and Steven's book, Great Speech! here.

Watch my TEDx talk, How to Save Lives with Two Minutes of Listening here.

People don’t retaliate against physicians they know, like, and trust.

This webinar will teach you how to cultivate know, like, and trust with every human you encounter.

You can take this work deeper by joining Empowered Surgeons Group. Learn more about what's included in the group here. Have questions? Feel free to email me at mel@melthackercoaching.com.

In this rich and layered conversation, we explore how sex coaching becomes a powerful *pleasure* portal to self-compassion, nervous system regulation, and healing from burnout. Danielle shares how experiencing debilitating physical symptoms in her twenties—and recognizing the abusive dynamics in her own mind—led her to a deeper understanding of the mind-body connection.

We talk about the bridges between neuroscience, pleasure, and human behavior, and how these connections help women access not only physical intimacy but personal freedom. From sex and surgical intuition to compassion-based strategies for self-evaluation, this episode is a deep dive into reclaiming agency, inside and outside the bedroom.

You'll learn

• Why neuroscience gave Danielle a language that mindfulness and yoga couldn’t
• Why prescriptive strategies fail without mindset alignment
• That sex can be one of the most nourishing human pleasures, be it the truly intimate version or "donut sex"
• How to create safety in the bedroom just like in the OR
• The parallels between surgical intuition and sexual agency
• How to have hard conversations with your partner about sticky subjects like sex
• Why intentions matter
• The importance of nonjudgmental evaluation of less-than-perfect surgery and less-than-perfect sex
• How sex coaching becomes a masterclass in self-compassion

Danielle Savory is a master certified coach, podcast host, and expert in the fields of neuropsychology, mindfulness, sexual pleasure and intimacy. Danielle brings a unique perspective to coaching, helping clients understand the ways in which the brain and body are interconnected and how this connection can be harnessed to experience the sensual pleasure the body is wired for.

As the host of Mashable's #1 Rated Sex & Relationship podcast "It's My Pleasure," Danielle has explored a wide range of topics related to sexuality, relationships, and personal growth - empowering women to embrace their sexuality and prioritize their pleasure. Danielle is a master certified coach with over 10 years of experience coaching hundreds of women with her proven process of increasing desire and expanding orgasmic capacity.

Check out her [website here], catch her insights (and wit) on [Instagram here] and on the It's My Pleasure podcast here, and don’t miss the Wall Street Journal piece she contributed to: “Is Everyone Having More Sex Than You This Summer?”—read it [here]!

If you loved this conversation, you are going to want to join the Empowered Surgeons Group! Get immediate access to the 4 step process, bonus courses, the empowered surgeons playbook and weekly coaching with peers from all surgical specialties. Learn more HERE.

I’m joined by Dr. Joan Chan, who brings her unique perspective of growing up in a fundamentalist Christian household, deconstructing black-and-white thinking, and navigating her career as a family physician through boundary-setting, and rehumanization.

Together, we explore how deindoctrination—whether from dogma or systemic norms—can actually bring us closer to creativity, innovation, and truly humane care.

If you’ve ever felt trapped between "just work harder" and "this isn’t sustainable," this episode will help you find your way back to the messy, liberating middle place where real solutions live.

We cover:

• Why surgeons can become unintentionally "scary" in a dehumanized system
• How depleting the system of humanity is dangerously short-sighted
• The fact that women physicians lose their longevity advantage compared to the general population (spoiler: it's the profession, not the gender)
• The connection between growing up with black-and-white thinking and entering rigid medical systems
• Joan’s personal journey: deconstructing religious dogma and deconditioning from overwork as virtue
• The trauma of realizing the rules you were taught aren't always humane — and learning to think for yourself
• How medicine can feel like religion: follow the dogma or be labeled a heretic
• The impossible math of family medicine (and, let's be real, every specialty): why no doctor can follow every guideline and stay sane
• The essential practice of setting boundaries around administrative burdens
• Reframing "saying no" as a sign of humanity, not laziness
• Why less work doesn’t mean less care (and why we urgently need more people doing less, not fewer people doing more)
• Moving from the drama triangle (villain, victim, rescuer) to the empowerment dynamic (creator, challenger, coach)
• How emotions protect us — and why success is often a terrible teacher while failure is a fantastic one
• Using curiosity, creativity and experimentation (instead of rigid certainty) to innovate in medicine
• Deindoctrinating ourselves from toxic beliefs about work, worth, and emotions
• Why the truth doesn’t break—and how to trust yourself (and your patients) as experts of your/their own lives
• Taking the same precision you use in surgery to cut out what no longer serves you

If you loved this conversation, you can get more Dr. Joan Chan in your life by listening to her podcasts, The Other Human in the Room and Experiential Anatomy. Follow her on instagram here and find her website here.

If you are a surgeon looking to humanize your life, I’ve got the perfect program for you. Learn more about Empowered Surgeons Group here.

Getting back into the current is as easy as ABC:

A: Awareness, Allowance, Acceptance, Aligned Action

B: Breathe; Get your Brain Back in your own Business

C: Certainty-->Curiosity-->Creativity

Now...

You learned how to operate.

You learned how to care for patients.

But no one taught you the essentials of being human in the world of surgery.

This program fills that gap.

After completing this program, you will:

✔ Gain clarity on your internal and external world.

✔ Develop the tools to surf your way through all of life's challenges.

✔ Learn how to evolve and grow with your career.

✔ Free yourself from confusion and powerlessness.

Plus, you get BONUS courses to support you:

▶ When your patients have complications.

▶ On your commute to the OR and clinic

There’s nothing else like this.

This program distills everything I’ve learned from 12 years as a surgeon. It combines tested coaching concepts—proven in both the clinic and the OR—giving you the language to finally describe your experiences and navigate them effectively.

No more wondering why you dread going to work.

No more spinning in confusion or feeling like a victim.

No more unnecessary stress.

This program will empower you.

I will hold you to your highest power—

And what you create with that power is limitless.

Get immediate access to the entire program + bonuses like “Surgical Mistakes and Complications”, “Mindset Reset OR Day”, “Mindset Reset Clinic Day”, and “Diversifying Your Identity” (Diversifying my identity is exactly how I found the courage to evolve with my own career. While your path will not look anything like mine, you can’t evolve until you diversify.)

And because implementation is the hardest part, you get weekly group coaching with me.

Every Wednesday at 4pm EST, we will come together for an hour and work the process.

A place for you to be held in a non-judgmental, compassionate space and solve the collective problems and pain points we have all faced as surgeons.

While you may think you are the only one who experiences anxiety in the OR, imposter syndrome, or self-blame after complications, I can assure you, everyone feels the same as you do.

Being witnessed in your truth and receiving a weekly infusion of coaching is the most impactful gift you will give yourself this year.

And if you can’t make the calls, the replays will be available to you.

Carve out your time. And invest in yourself.

Get your hard copy of the Empowered Surgeon Workbook.

And remember…this is a risk-free investment!

There is no scenario where you lose value. Either you get value from the program or you get your investment back, no hard feelings.

It’s really that simple.

Purchase and get immediate access to the Empowered Surgeons Group HERE.

Learn more about what's included in the group HERE.

It's not the prior auths, unfinished charts, or patient messages that are burning you out. While those circumstances need reform, they are merely symptoms of a much bigger problem—a problem that has everything to do with you, which is fantastic news because it means you can do something about it.

In this episode, you’ll:

• Learn how your human animal communicates with you
• Normalize feeling unfulfilled, even when you’ve achieved everything you ever dreamed of
• Understand how we sometimes use the profession against ourselves—and how that leads to pretending
• Explore how the perceived cultural forces of self-sacrifice, people-pleasing, and always saying “yes” prevent meaningful change
• Dive into the evolution of self and the importance of reconnecting with your essential self
• Unpack why internal conflict is so common among surgeons
• Understand that every surgeon has their own burnout timeline
• Recognize how resisting what is can reduce your capacity
• Discover how to be okay where you are—so you can feel safe enough to move forward

Because you have a human brain with a built-in negativity bias, it will naturally direct your attention to what’s wrong.

It will point out all the problems in your world, presenting them as if it’s simply reporting the news.

But it’s up to you to intentionally look for what’s right—to pause, scan your life, and notice what’s actually working.

From that place, you can make a conscious and deliberate decision about the direction you want to go.

And remember, you always have three choices:

1. Accept it
2. Change it
3. Leave it

Sign up for Empowered Surgeons Group today and don't miss any of my offerings by getting on my email list here.

—Dr. Eric Henderson, On Surgical Failures: Onward to Objective Evaluation of Our Less Proud Moments

Failure is required for success—but failing in surgery is different. It’s layered. It’s nuanced. It carries weight that most outside the field can’t fully grasp.

In this episode, we explore:

• Why failure in surgery is fundamentally different from other professions
• The distinction between objective failure and subjective failure
• How to process the complex emotions that come with failure
• Why evaluating failure is not optional—it’s essential
• A clear, compassionate process for evaluating your own failures
• How to detach your self-worth from your outcomes
• The power of strategic pessimism to help you prepare for and learn from failure

Whether you’re grappling with a recent complication or quietly carrying one from years ago, this episode offers tools to help you reflect, reframe, and move forward with intention.

Get free value curated for surgeons straight to your inbox here.

Want to learn how to create safety for yourself in the profession of surgery? Register for my upcoming webinars:

Register for Master Curveballs in the OR (and life) in 5 Steps here.

Register for Your Best Career Insurance: Know, Like, and Trust here.

How do we incentivize surgeons to evolve their techniques? Why hasn’t scarless thyroid surgery taken off in the U.S.?

In this episode, we dive into:

• The disconnect between those who stay stuck in their beliefs and those who have incentive to innovate
• Why we often don’t offer techniques we don’t fully understand
• Rethinking patient counseling for thyroid surgery
• The evolution of surgical standards
• The delicate balance between certainty and an open mind in the profession of surgery
• How rigidity in our convictions keeps us stuck—and how loosening our grip can create new possibilities
• The crisis of faith in healthcare and how clinging too tightly to beliefs may be making it worse
• The pros and cons of academia and the challenges of building something new
• Following the internal whisper that calls for change—and the stickiness of leaving a job
• Navigating career transitions while keeping joy and curiosity alive
• The art of offering all the options—RFA, transoral surgery, and traditional surgery—without bias
• The mindset of an innovator and the power of Vu Ja De (seeing the familiar in a completely new way)
• Ego and bias in surgery—how to channel them for good rather than letting them hold us back
• The unexpected joy of being bad at something (when no one gets hurt)
• How fear keeps us where we are—and the fallacy that life is ever certain
• Expanding your identity to unlock new career horizons

This conversation is all about embracing uncertainty, questioning our assumptions, and stewarding change in a profession built on tradition.

Tune in—this one will challenge the way you think!

Follow Jon on instagram here.

Dr. Jon Russell is the Founder of The Russell Center for Endocrine Health. Before starting the Russell Center, he was Director of the Division of Thyroid and Parathyroid Surgery at Johns Hopkins and directed the Thyroid Tumor Center.

Dr. Colleen Plein, an otolaryngologist and coach for gifted adults, joins the podcast to explore the unique challenges of being a gifted or neurodivergent adult—something many of us in medicine and surgery can relate to. Find her on instagram here or email her cpleincoaching@gmail.com. She is resource for all of you gifted docs out there.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Neurodivergence isn’t something kids "grow out of"
• Gifted individuals often experience social struggles due to asynchronous development
• How normalizing your neurodivergence can be incredibly freeing
• The lack of support for gifted kids in school systems—and the lasting impact
• The performance cliff and how it affects gifted individuals
• How early praise for intelligence and achievement can lead to a fixed mindset and self-worth tied to external success
• Why gifted kids can struggle, even with loving, supportive parents
• The challenge of finding identity and self-worth beyond what you do or produce
• The overlap between giftedness, ADHD, and autism
• Why coaching can be especially effective for gifted minds, who are drawn to “out-thinking” their thoughts
• The impact of rejection sensitive dysphoria in residency
• How simply having language for your experience can be a relief
• A surprising reason you might procrastinate finishing your charts
• How coaching can fill in gaps that therapy often doesn’t
• The importance of connecting with other gifted and neurodivergent individuals who share similar lived experiences

This conversation is packed with insights that can shift the way you see yourself and your experiences.

Dr. Andrew Brunswick, a neurosurgeon at Kaiser Permanente in LA, joins us on the podcast to discuss the psychological challenges and culture in surgery. In this episode, we cover:

• The culture Andrew experienced while working on Wall Street
• The problem with getting stuck on the hedonic treadmill
• The power of the word "enough"
• Why satisfaction is a decision available to all of us at every moment
• Parallels between athletes and surgeons
• The psychological challenges of training in neurosurgery
• Navigating difficult conversations and the human tendency to self-blame after surgical complications
• How surgery culture addresses complications and mistakes
• The slippery slope of feeling like we owe our patients our lives
• The perils of perfectionism
• Reflecting on the kind of surgeon we would want if we were patients
• Self-care and balance during residency and beyond
• Making Mom proud in the OR
• The power of being courteous, patient, respectful, and empathetic
• How focusing on “What if?” can drain joy from the job
• The importance of modeling emotional intelligence and resilience
• Why protecting the asset is not the same as protecting the ego or being lazy
• How being salaried can reduce subconscious bias in decision-making

Follow Dr. Andrew Brunswick on Instagram here and find his clinical profile here.

Essentialism is the disciplined pursuit of less, and the profession of surgery could use a hefty dose.

Surgeon Essentialists do less, but better. This means we focus on the results we are trying to create, and then we reverse engineer the actions required to get us there. The primary goal of a surgeon is to help patients sustainably. In order to do that, we must honor two main essentials:

1. Showing up in service to the patient

2. Protecting the asset

 Learn more about Greg McKeown and Essentialism here.

Mental health struggles, self-sabotage, rock bottom, psychiatric admissions, having the "wrong" facial expressions and tone of voice, an intra-op assault accusation, grief, discrimination, bad teachers, big emotions, and creativity.

In this episode, Dr. Cindy Lee Neighbors shares her experience as a creative, passionate, and vocal presence in a system that couldn’t handle her. Her story highlights the immense emotional toll when training programs target their trainees.

I was definitely a troublemaker in residency too, and I watched other troublemakers get pushed out—just like Dr. Neighbors was. But are the troublemakers really the problem? Or are they the solution?

Cindy Lee Neighbors is a physician, writer, and advocate for mental health, education reform, and women's rights. Born and raised in Honolulu, she pursued her dreams of acting in Los Angeles before embarking on a career in military medicine. Her debut memoir, TOO MUCH, is a raw and honest account of her experiences navigating mental health challenges and fighting for change within the demanding field of military medicine. She won a 2024-2025 Reader Views Readers Choice Gold Prize in Humanities and was a Finalist in Memoir/Biography/Autobiography.

TOO MUCH is a gripping true story of a woman driven to the brink, sacrificing everything—love, loyalty, and sanity—in the name of retribution. It's a raw and honest look at the dark side of medicine, the challenges of mental illness, and the courage it takes to break free. It’s a story that will remind you how a brighter future is possible, even when it feels like everything is broken. This is the story of a whistleblower.

Find Dr. Cindy Lee Neighbors on instagram @cindyleeneighbors @surgerylandbooks @toomuchthebook, her websigte, www.cindyleeneighbors.com, and LinkedIN Cindy Lee Neighbors

TOO MUCH can be purchased from Amazon here, Barnes and Noble here, and Strand Book store here. Get Benji and Briana Become Booger Doctors here.

Here's that poem she talks about in our discussion and submitted to The Pharos:

I actually miss

The stupid little things

Retracting

In the OR

Suturing

People

Wearing a headlight

Starving

Not being able to pee

Freezing

Standing on a stool

Bumping heads

Having to suction the blood

Adjusting my loops “loupes”

Holding my breath

Because of the plume

Praying

Not to kill someone

Even though I know that doesn’t change thin

Going from trainee to attending requires a death and rebirth. One identity dies and another is born. Stepping into the identity of an authority, an expert, an attending IS the first step. If you are studying for oral boards or about to graduate, elevating your self-concept is the best thing you can do. Here are some self-concept qualities to consider for a trainee vs attending:

Trainee:

- In service to patient first, then program and self

- Surgery looks easy (it's not)

- Self-worth is detached from outcomes

- Striving

- Revere your mentors' ideas

- Say "yes" to everything for approval and popularity (sacrifice your own needs for success)

- World is small in a good way; it's a container you signed up for

Attending:

- In service to patient first, then self and practice/employer/institution

- Surgery might seem hard or scary, until you get to know your new environment and build muscle memory and confidence, then it can get easy to the point of boredom

- Self-worth is attached to outcomes (can shrink your world)

- Stagnation (unless you learn to strive for something you desire again)

- Revere your own ideas

- Say "no" more than "yes" knowing respect matters more than approval (unless you stay stuck in trainee identity, particularly the story that you have to sacrifice yourself for success)

- World can become big if you allow yourself to evolve or world can shrink from anxiety and experiential avoidance

From ambitious and intelligent young woman who fast-tracked through college and medical school to hard-working surgery resident to new mom in her chief year to attending trying to navigate life after training, Dr. Vassell tells us all about how she reinvented herself multiple times to create a career that aligns with her desires and values. Her story is an example of what is possible for all of us. We are NOT stuck. There are paths that allow us to help patients in meaningful and fulfilling ways without sacrificing our autonomy, freedom, or joy. We just have to get creative and learn how to feel comfortable with uncertainty. If she can find her happy place, so can you.

Dr. Rashida Vassell is the CEO and Founder of Safahla Medical PLLC, an integrative, cutaneous surgery and medical aesthetics practice. She is double Board-Certified in Wound and Hyperbaric Medicine and Anti-aging Medicine. Dr. Vassell spent years honing her clinical skills as a Medical Director at the teaching institution, Montefiore Mount Vernon, in Westchester County, NY; followed by Guthrie Corning Hospital.

Find out more about Dr. Vassell and Safahla Medical here. Follow her on instagram here.

We don't typically end up living the life we imagined we were going to live when we applied to our specialties. Dr. Amina Farooq shares her experience working as an academic interventional radiologist within a dehumanizing system. For many of us, this dehumanization erodes our sense of purpose. Healthcare is the one profession where institutions have normalized dehumanizing doctors and patients. If we want to humanize this profession, we are going to have to start with recognizing and stepping in to our own humanity.

Follow Amina on instagram here.

****SENSITIVE CONTENT WARNING*******

****This episode discusses suicide, which can be distressing for some. If this subject is triggering for you, please consider skipping this one. If you are going to listen, make sure to listen carefully and take good care of yourself. If you are feeling hopeless or suicidal, please find support, call the suicide and crisis lifeline 988 or click here****

In this episode, Dr. Blake Palmer's widow, Dr. Andrea Palmer, comes on to talk about Blake's life, his committment to his patients and profession, his struggles, the lack of support from his institution, and the circumstances leading up to his death. Blake's story highlights how the glaring lack of humanity in our systems and institutions leads to desperate measures, particularly for a surgeon who is empathetic and caring, who feels isolated, and who is poorly resourced. His story is unfortunately not unique. 

Consider supporting the well-being and mental health support of healthcare workers by donating to the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes Foundation here. Find an Internal Family Systems Practitioner near you here.

Find Dr. Andrea Palmer on instagram or email her at andreabpalmer@gmail.com.

"Blake was a loving husband and father who enjoyed all things outdoors. From hiking mountains, to traveling, to running Spartan races with his wife and kids, he was a man who loved music, movies, good food and making people laugh with classic dad jokes.

Blake will be remembered as a skilled and caring surgeon who spent his working life devoted to his patients. Blake earned his Bachelor's degrees in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry from the University of Colorado and went on earn his M.D. from the University of Oklahoma, College of Medicine. He completed his Urology residency and Pediatric Urology Fellowship at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. He was board certified through the American Board of Urology in Urology and Pediatric Urology and was an active part of the American Academy of Pediatrics Section of Urology Executive Committee as the Vice-Chair for Education.

Prior to arriving in Fort Worth, Blake was an Assistant Professor in the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center Department of Urology, Director of Pediatric Robotic and Minimally Invasive Surgery for the Children's Hospital of Oklahoma and was Pediatric Surgery Director in the Oklahoma Transplant Center. At Cook Children’s in Fort Worth he developed the kidney transplant program, the robotic surgery program and was Chief of Urology from 2018 until his death."

Excerpt from Blake's obituary.

"I think we need to stay relentlessly curious. And we need to understand what we're working in and recognize there is nobody who comes to work everyday and thinks I'm going to make somebody else miserable." - Dr. Wendy Dean

When service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan were not responding to PTSD treatments, it became clear that they were not dealing with the anxiety and experiential avoidance caused by PTSD but instead the shame associated with perceived immoral conduct. This specific form of distress is called moral injury: "perpetuating, bearing witness to, or failing to prevent acts that transgress deeply held moral beliefs and expectations" (from If I Betray These Words: Moral Injury in Medicine and Why It's So Hard for Clinicians to Put Patients First by Wendy Dean, MD with Simon Talbot, MD).

Whenever the business of medicine gets in the way of our ability to provide care to our patients, we experience some form of moral injury. It's hard to escape moral injury when we have all the responsibility and all of the accountability but none of the autonomy. And that is the system we work in. None of us are completely autonomous. A whopping 78% of US physicians are employed by hospitals, health systems, or other corporate entities, and the meager few of us who are independent are still beholden to insurers for compensation. Because medicine has become corporatized and consolidated over the last several decades, we have slowly given up our ability to provide care efficiently and affordably. Sixty years ago, hospitals were locally owned and operated and decisions made by experts in healthcare--the physicians. In the 1970's, doctors formed groups and outsourced operations to administrators, entering an era of skyrocketing administrative growth and costs in a system in which executives do not see themselves as responsible to clinicians or patients but to shareholders, who have one goal: to maximize profit. 

But what can we do about it? In this conversation, I discuss the broken US healthcare system with Dr. Wendy Dean and Dr. Matt Ramsey and what we can do right now to make a dent in fixing this behemoth of a problem. We may have gotten into this profession to practice medicine and surgery, but it is part of our job to learn the bureaucracy and the business sooner rather than later. We have to understand where we are, and from there, maybe, just maybe, we can collectively come together to creatively solve this thing.

Get on-demand, lifetime, risk-free access to the Empowered Surgeons Group here. One investment of $2,499 to learn essential concepts you didn't learn in training. This one course will change your perspective, and life, permanently.

Nobody in your audience, including your patients, wants your CV shoved down their throat. They don't care. They want to know if and how you can help them. Steph Sheldon is a website designer, former architect, and master at helping people reconnect with their creative side.

Creativity is the emotion we generate to solve problems. We tell ourselves we don't need to be creative, or we say "I'm just not creative", and that works fine when we only encounter problems humans have previously solved. But what about the times we encounter problems that have no tried or true solutions? We are all going to find ourselves in unique and novel situations, and we need to use our creative brain to find the solution, which sometimes leads to incredible innovations.

If your website needs an update or you want to launch a side gig and aren't sure how to market or brand yourself, Steph can help you! Find her at her website and on instagram.

Get on-demand, lifetime, risk-free access to the Empowered Surgeons Group here. One investment of $2,499 to learn essential concepts you didn't learn in training. This one course will change your perspective, and life, permanently.

As a society, we are collectively dealing with an epidemic of anxiety. And no, we can’t just calm down.

In today’s episode you will learn 3 important characteristics of anxiety

1. Anxiety lives in the left hemisphere, which has been strengthened by cultural messages

2. Anxiety is contagious

3. Anxiety must be replaced, not erased

We are all born with a powerful force within us that we can use at any time to melt our anxiety and solve problems: creativity.

Creatively calming anxiety is a 2 step process:

1. Be kind to yourself (like really though)

2. Ask your brain: What can I create from this situation?

For more, check out Martha Beck’s book, Beyond Anxiety as well as Jill Bolte-Taylor’s book Whole Brain Living and Gavin DeBecker’s The Gift of Fear

Get on-demand, lifetime, risk-free access to the Empowered Surgeons Group here. One investment of $2,499 to learn essential concepts you didn't learn in training. This one course will change your perspective, and life, permanently.

Facial plastic surgeon, entrepreneur, and life coach, Dr. Dan Ward, comes on the podcast to share his story. He offers his insights on the struggles of parenting, what makes it difficult for surgeons to show up as our best selves, and the power of understanding our human brain and human emotions.

In this episode you'll learn:

- Thoughts are real but not true

- The two rules of CBT

- Why it makes sense that surgeons tend to act like toddlers 

- Drama is a symptom of cognitive distortion

- The problem with buying into all the stories our brain tells us

- The importance of taking care of ourselves and our tribe when we create big things

- It’s okay to downsize, seek help, and advocate for ourselves

- If we are going at a million miles per hour, we need to prioritize rest and recovery

- Masterminding is an incredible way for surgeons to support each other

P. Daniel Ward, MD, MS, FACS works to empower surgeons and physicians to unlock their full potential in both business and life. As the founder of multiple successful businesses, including Ward Institute, Form Derm Spa, FormRx Medical Grade Skin Care, and a Real Estate fund, Dr. Ward has demonstrated firsthand what it takes to build thriving enterprises while maintaining a focus on quality care and patient satisfaction.

Through his coaching programs, Dr. Ward has guided numerous surgeons in transitioning from being employees to becoming visionary business owners. He helps his clients master the principles of entrepreneurship, leadership, and personal growth, enabling them to build practices that not only reflect their values but also create financial freedom and personal fulfillment. 

Follow him on instagram here

Find out more about his upcoming mastermind in Hawaii here

Get on-demand, lifetime, risk-free access to the Empowered Surgeons Curriculum here. One investment of $1,997 to learn essential concepts you didn't learn in training. This one course will change your perspective, and life, permanently.

Empowered Surgeons Group is available now! This program will teach you everything you wished you learned but didn't in training. Read about everything you get in the program (group coaching, Empowered Surgeons playbook, bonus videos) here or sign up immediately here.

***SENSITIVE CONTENT WARNING***

This episode discusses eating disorders and suicidal ideation. If these topics are triggering for you, please listen carefully or skip this episode all together. Take care of yourselves. And if you are struggling, please seek out professional help.

A person I consider my soul sister, Dr. Jillian Rigert, comes on the podcast to talk about how a life-threatening illness led her to leave surgery and shaped the person she is today. We talk about tying external validation to worthiness, the perils of unresolved toxic shame, anorexia and what it’s like to be stigmatized by the medical community, giving up on life, survival instincts, her path back to her essential self, the beauty of being witnessed in her vulnerable truth to begin her healing journey, and how important it is for all of us to have a community of support and unconditional love. We also touch on emotional manipulation, the problems with autocratic leadership, how surgical training culture and military culture compare, and finding compassion for your inner bully. Whether that inner bully wants you to numb out with substances, overworking, disordered eating or otherwise, your inner bully NEEDS your love and compassion. And if you want to help your patients heal, stay until the end and learn how to harness mindsight with “PARTS”.

Jillian is truly a one-of-a-kind human being, a beacon of truth and light, and a resource for all of you.

As Jillian said so poignantly, “Healing requires love not shaming”

Check out Jillian's Youtube Channel, A Life True to You, her TEDx talk, and her website. You can also find her on Facebook, Linkedin, and Instagram.

Empowered Surgeons Group is available now! This program will teach you everything you wished you learned but didn't in training. Read about everything you get in the program (group coaching, Empowered Surgeons playbook, bonus videos) here or sign up immediately here.

Enjoy salient snippets from 2024. I left out episodes #1 and #2, which are foundational and need to be listened to from start to finish. If you haven't checked them out, go back and listen. Have a great New Year and see you all in 2025!

Good surgeons get sued. That’s the hard truth. Even if you do everything right. Even if you establish “know, like, and trust”. When the stars align, patients sue. And, as surgeons, the cards are stacked against us.

Dr. Pensa has experienced malpractice first hand and explains what it’s like to go through the misery of being tried TWICE. She embodies what it means to become a creator when circumstances make us want to fall into victimhood. She is a wealth of knowledge and a resource for all of us. Come back to this episode any time litigation anxiety seems too big to hold.

Gita Pensa, M.D., FAAEM, is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Brown University, and is widely recognized as one of the nation's leading experts on malpractice litigation stress and physician litigation support. Her open access podcast curriculum, "Doctors and Litigation: The L Word" is an introduction to the practical and psychological preparation necessary for malpractice litigation defendants, and is now used as a teaching tool in medicine, law, and the malpractice insurance industry. She works as a consultant to medical malpractice insurance companies, hospital systems and defense attorneys, and also is a well-being and litigation performance coach for medical defendants. She has been featured in forums such as Time magazine, SXSW, NPR, and the new PBS documentary "A World of Hurt: How Medical Malpractice Fails Everyone.” You can find more about her at https://doctorsandlitigation.com/ .

***SENSITIVE CONTENT WARNING. This podcast discusses addiction and may be triggering for some. That said, most of us are addicted to something, be it behaviors like overworking, overeating, overspending, numbing out on socials, or some other substance or behavior that creates feel-good neurotransmitters. There is no shame in the human desire for comfort, which, at its heart, is the source of addiction. Take care of yourself, seek professional help if you need it, and listen with care.***

ENT surgeon, friend from residency, and burnout coach in training, Dr. Brett Cordes comes on the podcast to talk about how and why addiction upended his seemingly perfect life. He discusses what led him down that dark path, what it was like to be investigated by the Texas Medical Board (news flash: they treat doctors like crap), and the exciting new path his life is on now. 

If we had "most likely" contests in residency like we do in high school, Brett would have easily been voted "Most Likely to Succeed". His story illustrates how none of us are exempt from mental health struggles or substance abuse. We are NOT super humans. We are regular humans navigating a challenging, identity-consuming career and doing our best to manage those inevitable moments of shame, self-doubt, inadequacy, and suffering without crashing and burning. 

Does Brett's story resonate? He is a resource for you! Find him on instagram @the.burnoutdoc or email theburnoutdoc@gmail.com.

Surgeons are humans, and all humans err. In this episode you’ll learn how to become the “architect of your experience” in the face of intraoperative mistakes. You'll also learn how fear and anxiety shrink cognitive capacity, and what you can do instead to expand your brain space. Take these immediately actionable and science-based tools with you to the OR, and you’ll be ready when mistakes are inevitably made.

Listen to Dr. Feldman Barrett’s talk here: https://www.ted.com/talks/lisa_feldman_barrett_you_aren_t_at_the_mercy_of_your_emotions_your_brain_creates_them?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare

Learn about Internal Family Systems and “No Bad Parts” by Dr. Richard Schwartz here: https://ifs-institute.com/nobadparts

You'll learn:

- how it's not about shaming yourself for not listening deeply enough but instead about showing up with presence

- that giving patients your presence is an investment that actually saves you time

- the importance of engaging with patients about a subject that's completely different than medicine

- what it means to appreciate how their symptoms affect them and how that makes them feel

- the power of noticing eye color

- how bringing enthusiasm and humor can elevate the patient's experience

- what it means to identify the "question behind the question" and how to use your "marmoset response"

- how we are uniquely positioned to build patient self-confidence and self-efficacy

Bradley Block, MD, is a general otolaryngologist and partner at ENT and Allergy Associates on Long Island. He is the creator and host of the Physician’s Guide to Doctoring, a personal and professional development podcast for practicing physicians, which has over 400 episodes and almost half a million downloads. This covers all topics that affect the lives of physicians, in and out of the exam room, one of which is doctor-patient communication. He is also the CEO and the Doctor Podcast Network, which provides community and services to physician podcasters.

PhysiciansGuidetoDoctoring.com

@physiciansguide on Instagram, Twitter, Threads

http://www.linkedin.com/in/bradley-block-md-1712a6127/

https://www.youtube.com/@physiciansguidetodoctoring

Get on-demand, lifetime, risk-free access to the Empowered Surgeons Group here.

Some take aways:

- There are 3 main components of physician contracts: work obligations, compensation, and exit strategy

- Employers may have the power to unilaterally change your work obligation clauses; look for this in your contract

- 40% of physicians change jobs in the first 5 years, so know the legal and financial penalties of exit (how much will it cost me if I change my mind?)

- Get clear on what's most important to you: control and autonomy, scholarship, or compensation?

- There are 3 established insurance-based practice models: true classic academic, perpetual employment, and business owner/private practice

- Direct care/concierge is the one practice model that gives you 100% control, freedom, and autonomy, but it comes with potentially more risk and less upfront compensation

- You are a small business, and your potential employer is an entity to which you outsource the business end of medicine--billing, collections, equipment, staffing, marketing, etc.

- Employers can still subtly or not-so-subtly discriminate against women and BIPOC physicians even if they have standardized the compensation plan

-Don’t let financial needs blind you, and always prepare to pivot

- Everything is negotiable, even if they say it’s “non-negotiable”

Follow Michael on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/physiciancontracts

Get his course here: https://physiciancontracts.com/

Empowered Surgeons Group is available now! This program will teach you everything you wished you learned but didn't in training. Read about everything you get in the program here or sign up immediately here.

Some of the pearls we cover in this conversation:

- Building a strong foundation to ride the highs and lows

- Becoming okay with acute failure to achieve chronic gain

- Addressing failure to achieve mastery

- Consistency over intensity

- How simplifying your practice can monumentally improve your life

- The importance of going all in in a way that is sustainable

- Striving is the point

- World class suffering does not equate to world class performance

- Minimum effective dosing to diversify your identity beyond "surgeon"

- 3 causes of physician burnout

- The clutch state and raising the floor

- Stress + Rest = Growth

- Showing up as a fallible human to create psychological safety for your team

- The middle ground is where genuine excellence lives

- Anyone can crush the day, but it takes intention and compassion to sustain excellence

Here's how to find him and work with him:

https://www.instagram.com/bradstulberg/

www.bradstulberg.com

https://t.co/6XWf8OT0it

Empowered Surgeons Group is available now! This program will teach you everything you wished you learned but didn't in training. Read about everything you get in the program here or sign up immediately here.

This episode is all about the space between stimulus and response, circumstance and action, event and reaction. That space is an opportunity.

In this podcast, I discuss what happens internally when you get the dreaded postop call, "Doctor, your patient is bleeding (or insert postop problem here)". I explore what happens in your brain when you let yourself react by default vs accepting the invitation to enter the space and consciously meeting the moment.

Learn more about Laura Jack and the Compassion Code Academy here: https://www.laurajack.com/

Get her book here: https://thecompassioncodeacademy.com/book/

Empowered Surgeons Group is available now! This program will teach you everything you wished you learned but didn't in training. Read about everything you get in the program here or sign up immediately here.

If you have a big idea to share, Cesar can help you get to the stage! Join his mentorship here: https://www.cesarcervantes.tv/

I highly recommend Simon Sinek’s courses to hone your delivery and understand your “why”: https://simonsinek.com/

Empowered Surgeons Group is available now! This program will teach you everything you wished you learned but didn't in training. Read about everything you get in the program here or sign up immediately here.

Listen to The Life Coach School Podcast episode about emotional childhood and adulthood here:

https://www.thelifecoachschool.com/podcasts/the-life-coach-school-podcast-2/episodes/2148780126

Empowered Surgeons Group is available now! This program will teach you everything you wished you learned but didn't in training. Read about everything you get in the program here or sign up immediately here.

I'll teach you a simple 5 step process that will allow you to connect with anyone and everyone. No need to people please or let patients walk all over you. The result will be glowing reviews from your patients, less chance for retaliation, and, hey, maybe you'll even look forward to clinic.

Empowered Surgeons Group is available now! This program will teach you everything you wished you learned but didn't in training. Read about everything you get in the program here or sign up immediately here.

Today's episode features Dr. Francis Mei Hardin, an otolaryngologist, host of "Promising Young Surgeon", and a pioneer of culture change. She interviewed me about being sexually assaulted when I was a 4th year resident. We talk about power dynamics in training, the importance of compassion and support for trainees, and how my program cared for me in my wounded state after the assault. If you have ever experienced assault or violence, please take good care of yourself, seek support, and listen with caution.

Link to Promising Young Surgeon Podcast:

https://heyinfluent.com/podcasts/promising-young-surgeon/

Thank you to the Influent Network!

Empowered Surgeons Group is available now! This program will teach you everything you wished you learned but didn't in training. Read about everything you get in the program here or sign up immediately here.

Empowered Surgeons Group is available now! This program will teach you everything you wished you learned but didn't in training. Read about everything you get in the program here or sign up immediately here.

Empowered Surgeons Group is available now! This program will teach you everything you wished you learned but didn't in training. Read about everything you get in the program here or sign up immediately here.

Empowered Surgeons Group is available now! This program will teach you everything you wished you learned but didn't in training. Read about everything you get in the program here or sign up immediately here.

There is overlap between two contradictory sides of ourselves. When we see the world this way, we are able to accept ourselves in whatever realm we tend toward and consciously shift ourselves to the realm that best serves our goals. From the system's perspective, we should be unemotional, selfless martyrs. The truth is: we are complex, feeling, thinking, imperfect creatures.

In this episode, you'll learn about the energy-sucking disadvantages of self-focused, "get" energy and the benefits of other-focused, "service" energy. You'll learn how to use duality to strive for 100% perfect results with every patient while also knowing that is an impossibility. You'll also learn how to use strategic disconnection to get out of your own head and serve your patients at your highest level. Don't miss this one!

Empowered Surgeons Group is available now! This program will teach you everything you wished you learned but didn't in training. Read about everything you get in the program here or sign up immediately here.

I want to hear from you! Email me all about the drama in your life at mel@melthackercoaching.com or shoot a text to 262-893-0303.

Empowered Surgeons Group is the lifeline you never knew you needed as as a surgeon. It 's where surgical mastery meets self-mastery. Learn more about it here or sign up immediately here.

Surgical complications are none of your business. They are the universe's business.

What do I mean by this? NOT that you shouldn't take action to help your patients when they have a complication. You absolutely should. I say this to mean that you do not own a complication as something you intentionally caused or have full control over.

We own our own business. That's where we have agency. That's where we get to decide how to respond to circumstances of the world. That's where we get to decide what we make them mean. We simply have no jurisdiction in the other two businesses.

I want to hear from you! How does this framework change your perspective? Email me at mel@melthackercoaching.com

Empowered Surgeons Group is the lifeline you never knew you needed as as a surgeon. It 's where surgical mastery meets self-mastery. Learn more about it here or sign up immediately here.

The way to reduce medical errors, build rapport with patients, and increase efficiency is to identify the black swans--the unknown unknowns--and turn them into white swans--known knowns.

White swans exist both in the real world and in our brain. Red swans do not exist in the real world but do exist in our brain. Black swans exist in the real world but do not exist in our brain...unless we identify them by asking the right questions.

Great black swan questions:

-What don't I know?

-What would make this picture whole and complete?

-Is this a problem worth solving for the patient?

-Is my belief triad (belief in self, belief in surgery, belief in patient) strong?

-Is the patient's belief triad (belief in self, belief in surgery, belief in me as a surgeon) strong?

I want to hear from you! If you implement this framework, please email me your story at mel@melthackercoaching.com.

Empowered Surgeons Group is the lifeline you never knew you needed as as a surgeon. It 's where surgical mastery meets self-mastery. Learn more about it here or sign up immediately here.

Viral video "I was an MIT trained neurosurgeon": https://youtu.be/25LUF8GmbFU?feature=shared

"Never Split the Difference" by Chris Voss: https://www.blackswanltd.com/never-split-the-difference

Empowered Surgeons Group is the lifeline you never knew you needed as as a surgeon. It 's where surgical mastery meets self-mastery. Learn more about it here or sign up immediately here.

Empowered Surgeons Group is the lifeline you never knew you needed as as a surgeon. It 's where surgical mastery meets self-mastery. Learn more about it here or sign up immediately here.

If you or anyone you know is struggling with mental health, please find support. Contact your doctor, call your best friend, make an appointment with a mental health professional, do whatever you need to do to support you. I'm here for you, and I'd love to hear your story and support you. Please email me at mel@melthackercoaching.com

Find The Life Coach School Podcast here:

https://www.thelifecoachschool.com/podcasts/the-life-coach-school-podcast-2

Empowered Surgeons Group is the lifeline you never knew you needed as as a surgeon. It 's where surgical mastery meets self-mastery. Learn more about it here or sign up immediately here.

I want to hear from you! Please share your personal experiences of martyrdom culture with me at mel@melthackercoaching.com.

EmpoweredSurgeonsGroup is available now! This program will teach you everything you wished you learned but didn't in training. Read about everything you get in the program here or sign up immediately here.

Listen to Bewildered's "Unshamable" episode:

https://marthabeck.com/episodes/unshamable/

Empowered Surgeons Group is the lifeline you never knew you needed as as a surgeon. It 's where surgical mastery meets self-mastery. Learn more about it here or sign up immediately here.

EmpoweredSurgeonsGroup is available now! This program will teach you everything you wished you learned but didn't in training. Read about everything you get in the program here or sign up immediately here.

EmpoweredSurgeonsGroup is available now! This program will teach you everything you wished you learned but didn't in training. Read about everything you get in the program here or sign up immediately here.

You climbed a mountain. You beat the video game. And you have all the diplomas, AOA memberships, awards, degrees, and board certifications to prove it. 

Now what? What matters to you? Where are you going next? Let's get you there with a sense of purpose.

Empowered Surgeons Group is available now! This program will teach you everything you wished you learned but didn't in training. Read about everything you get in the program here or sign up immediately here.