What is physician coaching?

Dr. T  0:00  
Owners of a direct care practice are more likely to experience higher job satisfaction than the insurance based practice. And it's no wonder why direct care is independent of insurance. Patients pay the doctor directly for their expertise, the doctor gets full autonomy in how they care for patients and how they get paid. They have chosen this path with a love of medicine. This is the direct care way. 

Dr. T  0:24  
By listening to this podcast, you may even start to believe that you too can have a successful direct care practice. Come listen with an open mind as I share my personal journey and how I pivoted from an insurance based practice to direct care. Right in the middle of the pandemic. And the valuable lessons along the way. This podcast may be the very thing you need to revitalize your medical practice. I'm your host, owner of a direct care podiatry practice, Dr. Tea Nguyen.

Dr. T  0:52  
Hey there, welcome to another episode, what is physician coaching, this may be the first time you've heard of physician coaching. And I know this is a newer term in more recent years, and it's exploding. It's it's a population of doctors who see and understand the value of physician coaching, who have decided to become a coach themselves, just like me. Now you're wondering what qualifies a coach, what qualifies a person to be a physician coach? Well, it should be somebody who has already done the thing that they said they're going to help others do. And in my case, it's I'm helping other podiatrist, start their direct care practice. And I'm going to show them what not to do, and the mistakes I made, and what you should be doing and how your business can thrive if you did all the things. 

Dr. T  1:44  
So physician coaching is beyond a checklist of things to do to get started in direct care. And I'm going to share with you the 10 benefits of a physician coach the stuff that I found a huge benefit in and I know you're going to benefit from it, too. So now you're probably wondering, Why does a physician even need a coach, don't doctors know how to do stuff, we do know how to do stuff. What we don't know is how to do the business stuff and medical business medical practice, or really any business 90% of it is mindset. It's how you think about your business, what you believe about businesses. So if you get this 90%, right, then everything else falls into place. If you recognize that business is a service, that your medical practice is a service oriented business, then you really understand why it's important to have good connections, why it's good to connect with your patients, why it's worth understanding your patients beyond what their pain, you really want to help solve their problems, and so on. 

Dr. T  2:42  
So here are I don't know it's 10 or 11, benefits of a physician coach, here we go. Number one, a physician coach gives you clarity and focus in a world full of distractions. I mean, have you ever gone online wanted to check your mail and you got distracted by another mail and you're like, what was I here doing in the first place, or you went on Facebook with one intention, and you're like all the ads and all the people saying stuff like we are living in a world full of distractions. So it's so easy to lose focus of your purpose of what you're doing, even in the moment of you trying to do something. And it's easy to be overwhelmed. And your physician code should help you should provide you with clarity and focus so that you can hit your target goal faster with less bumps in the road. I'm not saying what you do in business is going to be easy. I'm saying a physician coach can help bring you back to full clarity and focus so that you can go about your way in reaching your goals. Number two, a physician coach provides you with confidence. 

Dr. T  3:41  
They don't just hand you the confidence but they help develop your confidence. And what that comes in is the form of various exercises, maybe it's a challenge. Maybe it's identifying a weakness and building on that, like a physical therapist, they recognize the weak point, and they focus on strengthening that so you are well balanced. Same thing in your business, they're going to see where you're weak at focus on that and help you build the confidence to reach your goal to do what you need to do in order for you to have a thriving business. Number three physician coaches provides you the blueprint of what to do and what not to do. I find this to be so incredibly powerful. Because why make the mistakes when it's already been done, might as well learn from somebody else. Oftentimes they share with you their experiences, not just their own experiences, but with other people that they've coached. So you have a whole library of things that worked and didn't work, and they can provide you with that blueprint. 

Dr. T  4:35  
And then there are some things that are a little bit in the gray area of we're not really sure how that's going to work out for you go ahead and explore. So you do still have that wiggle room in your business where it's not exactly black and white. But there are some definite news like definite things that you should not do, and then things that you should do and that should be made clear by your coach so they provide you with the blueprint of what to do and what not to do. so that you're more efficient and more effective in reaching your goals. Number four, I love this one. Number four is that the physician coach, they provide you with support, emotional support, and even more of the workflow support, you know that you have a question about something, they're there to answer it for you, or at least finding the resources to direct you to, they also provide support in all of the people that they've helped, because they, they are going to be the anchor to connecting you with people who are like you who are trying to do the things that you want to do achieve a direct care practice without insurance interference. 

Dr. T  5:35  
And so what's really nice about community support is the coach can bring you all together, and you can share the good things and the bad things. And I've talked previously about, you know, where do physicians find their coaches, it's not the insurance administration, it's not through state licensing. It's not through the people who do the CMEs, the reality is physician will benefit so much more through physician coaching and that support network that they provide. Number five, your physician coach might be the only person who believes in you more than you believe in yourself. I don't know why this is, but we doubt ourselves so much. And it may be because of the way we were raised different generations have different ways of speaking to their children. Sometimes those voices, those actual voices from your parents become your inner voice in your mind, self doubt. And it's nice to be with somebody who believes in you more than you believe in yourself. So that is what they can do for you. Number six, physician coaches may actually be the only one who is real with you, they have a reason to be real with you. I mean, if people all around you just sugar coated everything, they had to say you can never truly be your fullest potential self, whereas a physician coach, they're not in it to be friends with you unnecessarily. 

Dr. T  6:48  
They want to see you succeed. And so they're going to be very honest about their observations about you, so that you can be the better version of you. So they may be the only person who is real with you. And sometimes that hurts. But sometimes that is exactly what you need. So embrace that number seven physician coaches will make you uncomfortable on purpose. So there's a purpose with the things that they offer you the things that they asked you to do. They're helping you become this new version of you this extended version, the future self love you really. So they're going to give you challenges, they're going to see you through your obstacles, they're going to celebrate your wins with you, they're going to understand and empathize your hardships, but if you embrace the discomfort, you're going to grow a lot, you're going to grow to great heights that you didn't even know what's possible. And that is what a good physician coach will do for you. Number eight, in all that they do for you, they're going to help you become the upgraded version of yourself. Isn't that magical? Can you imagine the upgraded version of yourself, maybe you struggle with fear, maybe you struggle with competence, maybe you can't wrap your mind around believing the value of what you do, and then charging patients cash for that service. That's what they can help you do. 

Dr. T  8:06  
A checklist cannot help you do that. Number nine, physician coaches help you learn skills that can take you further. And they're transferable. So not only will they help you in your business, those skills that helped you in your business to thrive is transferable to your personal life. And I think that's incredibly powerful. If they can teach you things provide you the tools in improving your business that can be applied in your personal life too. Because it's a matter of how you see the world, your mindset, again, business is 90% your mindset. So take advantage of that, whatever it is that they have to teach you to show you that skill is transferable. So you get a lot of bang for your buck, really number 10. Position coaches, they show you what's possible. Even when you doubt yourself, you know, the mind is a crazy thing, we may be in the best time in our lives. 

Dr. T  8:58  
And then suddenly we doubt ourselves. It's like we hit an upper limit that we can't possibly be the better version of ourselves. And, again, that is a survival mechanism. Your mind wants you to be comfortable. And when you're uncomfortable. It's very scary. And so you think the worst case scenario and then you're like I don't want to be uncomfortable anymore. I'm going back to baseline and your coach is going to help you get out of your brain drama and show you what's possible because they probably already did what you want to do or they're going to show you people who have successfully done what you want to do. Again, it goes back to that community asset that community support that they can pull in for you. So with this network, they're going to show you what's possible even when you doubt yourself and that is so incredibly powerful. A checklist can't do that for you. All right, last one number 11. Okay, I did decide this is going to be number 11. A physician coach can strengthen your emotional intelligence. This will mature you and humble you all at once emotional intelligence. is I love this term so much, because I'm gonna read it from a dictionary, it is the ability to understand, use and manage your own emotions in positive ways to relieve stress, communicate effectively empathize with others overcome challenges and defuse conflict. Not a lot of people have emotional intelligence, a lot of people allow what is happening on the outside the words that they see on Facebook, post, the news, the media, all these things they allow the outside sources affect them emotionally, and they react. 

Dr. T  10:35  
But when you have the maturity to understand that you are in control of your emotions, you've elevated your own emotional intelligence, and you can then communicate much more effectively, you can empathize with other people much more easily, you can transform people in the way that they think better if you develop this emotional intelligence. And it's so important in business, because in business, you're gonna have some really bad days. But then you're also going to have some really great days, hopefully more great days than bad days, of course. And then one day you meet your goals. And you're like, how did I do that? How did I get to here, and I hope that you become very proud of yourself. And oftentimes, it's the coach that helps guide you along so that you get there faster. How nice is that? Right, we always want to get things faster. So that's how you do it, you can certainly do all the things on your own, a lot of us have done all the things on our own. But we've also made some very costly mistakes. 

Dr. T  11:30  
So if you have access to a professional, I highly recommend it, assess them first to see if you're even a good match. Because just because there's a coach, it doesn't mean that they're good for you. So assess them as if you were dating as well. In many ways, I believe a coach is kind of like your spiritual guide. They are the helpers that we didn't know we needed, until things got really rough. And then I know a lot of us try to self troubleshoot, try to dig our way out of things. But I'm telling you, you don't have to do it alone, you can actually be way more effective if he had somebody else to help you somebody who's already done it before you. So take advantage of that. Use that as your leveraging power to move forward faster, doctors who want to remain in clinical care, we all have the same complaints. 

Dr. T  12:17  
We are all working for insurance and it blows. And you know, we're just afraid to leave the comforts of the insurance based practice. And, you know, I want to share with you that it isn't all gravy all the time. Most of it, it is really wonderful to have power in my practice and thrive. But sometimes even I still doubt myself that and wondering, Am I doing the right thing? Was this the right decision? And my coaches have shown me that this is just part of the journey, entrepreneurship, business ownership, you're gonna have hard days and you're going to be tested. And how do you show up when you're tested? Do you retreat and go back to the old ways and say, I'm done. I don't want to fail anymore, or do you push forward. And so my coaches have helped me have given me the tools to push forward in my direct care practice safely. 

Dr. T  13:10  
And that's what I hope to share with you. You can have a business you love without insurance BS, without seeing more patients are little pay and without all of the paperwork, the administrative work, a garbage that just interferes with the patient physician relationship, we can get rid of all of that. So I know that we all know the current system is a mess. So what's next we can sit in the comfort that this is all about we know and ride the waves even if it goes downhill or we can take the power back and drive our business to exactly how we envision it. practicing medicine without insurance meddling in patient care if that's you, and you know, this is your path to direct care, but you're not quite sure exactly how that's gonna work out for you or what to do next, or how to do it safely with in mitigate risks as it pertains to business ownership be part of my coaching program.

Dr. T  14:06  
That's what I'm here for in my coaching program knows exactly what you need to do beyond the checklist so that you can get closer to your dream practice and to that freedom that you certainly deserve. My contact information is below. Let me know if you're interested in my coaching program. I'll put you on the list. And I certainly hope I get to meet you in person someday. I look forward to being part of your journey. Thank you so much for listening. 

Dr. T  14:32  
Thank you so much for being here with me. If you enjoyed this episode and want to hear more. Please like, share and subscribe so more people like you can have access to another way of practicing medicine, that direct care way. Let's connect find my info in the show notes and send me your questions. That might be the topic for future episodes. 

Dr. T  14:51  
And lastly, if you remember nothing else, remember this be the energy you want to attract. See you next time