For residents making the leap into their very first job, navigating interviews, contracts and salary negotiations can feel like a minefield.

On one hand, you want to make sure the value you bring to the table is reflected, but on the other hand, you’re socialized to take whatever’s offered because of your inexperience.

How do we make sure we’re not short-changing ourselves at the negotiating table?

What are some of the unique pieces of the contract we need to consider?

In this episode, I’m joined by Academic Physician Coach, speaker, and founder of Joy in Family Medicine Coaching Services®, Dr. Tonya Caylor.

We talk about setting yourself up for success in your first negotiation.

Three Things You’ll Learn In This Episode 

• Why you shouldn’t use your newness to discount yourself
  When our employers say there’s no room for more money in our packages, should we advocate for ourselves or just accept what’s on the table?
  
  
• What we have to...

In any negotiation, fairness is usually a front-of-mind concept - in fact, it’s often the measure with which we judge the success of the entire process.

But here’s the challenge, fairness isn’t as simple as a singular yardstick.

It’s actually made up of multiple facets that sometimes conflict with each other.

With that in mind, how do we take fairness to the negotiating table and make sure we’re ticking the boxes that matter?

In this episode, I share how to approach the concept of fairness so that you walk into the negotiation with a tangible way to achieve it.

Three Things You’ll Learn In This Episode 

• How to determine what a fair offer looks like for you
  How do you move forward when fairness has multiple norms that often conflict with one another?
  
  
• The interplay between equality and equity
  Is it possible to get something that’s equal to everyone else while also taking previous barriers into account?
  
  
• How to make fairness a priority for your...

Getting a job that serves us often requires us to tweak or modify our current work environment, but what if the situation is too far gone and too toxic to salvage?

Many of us are guilty of staying in negative situations a lot longer than we should, damaging not only our careers but also our health.

We’re typically more biased towards staying with the devil we know, even if it destroys us, so how do we combat it?

In this episode, I’m sharing how to know when quitting is the only option, and why severing the tie sooner than later saves us a ton of pain and anguish.

Three Things You’ll Learn In This Episode 

• Comfort vs. predictability
  What makes us hesitant to change jobs even when we know it’s harming us?
  
  
• Ways to safeguard against staying too long in a bad situation
  How do we create a “prenup” with our jobs and insulate ourselves from staying longer than we should?
  
  
• The perils of grit
  Resilience is something physicians are known and praised for,...

Non-compete clauses have never been beneficial to physicians.

They are notoriously difficult to negotiate out of.

They keep us trapped in toxic work cultures, and they back us into career moves that can be harmful.

I’d also argue that non-competes also harm employers and the economy as a whole.

Removing this barrier would be highly beneficial to a lot of people, so I'm encouraged by the FTC’s proposal to end non-compete clauses.

What would changing this rule mean for physicians?

In this episode, I share my thoughts on the proposal to ban non-competes.

Three Things You’ll Learn In This Episode 

• The problem with handcuffing people to the job
  Is there a better and more humane way to increase retention and encourage physicians to be loyal?
  
  
• Why physician burnout needs to be a solved at the systemic level
  How do we create work cultures that support less burnout?
  
  
• What happens next
  Before the decision is made, what actions can we take?

If you really think about it, most of the goals and resolutions we set at the beginning of the year are often based on having more - more money, more stuff, and more responsibilities.

In the spirit of un-goals and values, what if we set the intention to have less?

Could we achieve more by having a lot less on our plates?

There are plenty of opportunities for excess, but that could create clutter and barriers that make life more stressful.

In this episode, I’m sharing why I’m aiming for having a lot less this year.

Three Things You’ll Learn In This Episode 

• Why it’s so easy to accumulate more
  There are plenty of opportunities for excess when you have a lot of spending power. How do you use that power wisely?
  
  
• The lesson I learned recently
  It’s so easy to get caught up in having more and adding to our plates, but do we have to do all the things?
  
  
• How to get used to less
  Many of us get a little itchy when we have extra time on our hands, how do we get...

When we talk about finding that right-fit job, the checklist is usually centered on salary, benefits, schedule, and the tangible things that ensure that it reflects our worth.

The less tangible things also require some thought too, and they can have a bigger impact on how well we thrive in our roles.

Enjoying your job and feeling like your values are being met preserves our happiness and our longevity in medicine, so it’s worth pinpointing them.

How do we identify the values that matter most to us and apply them to our current or next jobs?

In this episode, I talk about how to uncover what truly makes you happy at work.

Three Things You’ll Learn In This Episode 

• Why our values can help us keep burnout at bay
  Can being in alignment make us more productive and purposeful at work?
  
  
• The win-win of focusing on your values
  Why is it so much easier to go above and beyond in our work when it aligns with what makes us happy?
  
  
• How to apply your values to your current job or job...

From finishing med school to reaching a certain income level, most of us live our lives by outcome-based, tick-the-box goals - but what if this approach just limits us?

We’ve been indoctrinated with the idea of setting goals, but having such concrete resolutions can rob us of opportunities to fully enrich our lives.

How do we shift from hard-coded goals to a driving principle for the year?

How do we hold our lives to something less tangible?

In this episode, I share why in 2023, I’m trying un-goals on for size.

Three Things You’ll Learn In This Episode 

• Why goals can keep us from our highest potential
  Can we still make amazing things happen without an outcome pulling us?
  
  
• How to hold yourself accountable to something intangible
  If you thrive around the structure of a concrete goal how do you stay motivated?
  
  
• How to live towards your values
  Once we’ve set our un-goal for the year, how can you modify the different buckets of our lives to align with it?

...

‘Tis the season for functioning in survival mode.

With busy schedules, to-do lists, holiday plans, and the usual end-of-year stuff, sometimes all we can muster is just “good enough”.

We can’t always be in peak achievement mode, and that’s okay.

But when survival mode becomes less a temporary phase, and more a chronic state of being, there’s a problem.

How can we tell if survival mode is becoming more maladaptive and toxic?

What can we do when we’re stuck in survival mode?

In this episode, I share what a long-term state of survival tells us and what we can do about it.

Three Things You’ll Learn In This Episode 

• The good thing about survival mode
  Is working in survival mode ever acceptable?
  
  
• Chronic survival mode vs. hibernation
  Sometimes we slow down to prepare for a big leap forward, but how do we make sure that’s what’s happening?
  
  
• The giant caveat of functioning in survival mode
  How can we tell if our survival mode is a...

Call it gut instinct, a weird vibe, your sixth sense, or your brain picking up subtle cues, intuition is something we all have.

As physicians, we get so caught up in the logic of things, it’s really easy to shrug off a gut instinct as unreliable, but what if the little nagging feeling holds a lot more wisdom than you give it credit for?

In many ways, we subconsciously know what’s best for us, so ignoring our intuition can actually be detrimental.

Do our instincts provide useful information we should include in our decision-making?

How can our intuition serve us in a negotiation?

In this episode, I talk about why we shouldn’t dismiss our intuition before listening to what it has to say.

Three Things You’ll Learn In This Episode 

• Why we shouldn’t underestimate our intuition
  Intuition might not be as woo-woo as you think. Could those nagging feelings be backed by science?
  
  
• Why your gut instinct serves you in a negotiation
  Listening to your intuition...

Conversations - the ones we have with ourselves, and the ones we have with others - are such everyday, autopilot things, we can easily forget how powerful they can be.

By fine-tuning our conversational skills, we can tap into a world of possibilities and create moments of transformation, whether it’s in your next negotiation, or at the dinner table over the holidays.

What are the ingredients of a transformational conversation?

How do we get past the natural tendencies that make it hard for us to open up??

In this special throwback episode, I’m joined by certified life coach, fitness enthusiast, podcast host, and founder of Life Coaching For Women Physicians, Ali Novitsky.

We talk about the power of upping our conversational intelligence.

Three Things You’ll Learn In This Episode 

• How to identify an opening for a transformational conversation
  Is every interaction an opportunity to go beyond an informational exchange?
  
  
• High trust vs. low trust conversations
  ...