By: Dr. Maiysha Clairborne
I went from burned out physician to successful entrepreneur building & running a successful multiple 6 figure practice for over a decade. As a physician AND a coach, I understand the unique dynamics of our profession that other coaches may not get. I have helped hundreds of professional women & women physicians create their ideal careers over the last 10+ years.
I help dissatisfied, disenchanted, and unfulfilled doctors create their ideal career so that they can have more time with their kids, reconnect with their spouse, and do the things they love to do for themselves, without sacrificing income & while practicing on their own terms. Here are 4 examples from my own career in medicine to consider if you are dreaming of success as a physician entrepreneur:
I think being a business owner was in my blood. My mother owned two dental practices growing up, and so I was exposed early. In my training years in residency, I realized that my path in medicine would be different, and in order to be able to have the autonomy to build my career and honor my gifts, I would need to be my own boss. That was my first inspiration to become a business owner. My first practice I started grass roots style. I started from scratch with no outside financing on start up. I subleased a small office inside another doctors office and worked 2 days a week in the office while I moonlighted at other places to fund my business and pay my home expenses. I beat the streets, going to local wellness businesses and spa’s in my area networking with other practitioners and building relationships.
It was hard work, but it was a great practice as I developed a lot of referral sources, and ended up being asked to join a larger wellness center that could help me to grow my practice faster. However, I still needed to do some outside advertising. Because mine was a cash based concierge style holistic practice, the growth of the practice was slower than a traditional practice. Back then integrative medicine was not popular, so I was a trailblazer, even back then I was outside the box.
My coaching career actually began 10 years before I transitioned to coaching physicians. As an integrative medicine doctor, I found myself frequently coaching patients in nutrition, stress management, communication, work-life boundary and even career fulfillment. At some point, I said to myself, “I should make it official and do a training.” So I did. Coaching became a major part of my private practice. It made perfect sense when it was Time to transition to have coaching my the primary modality.
From a career standpoint, I have always been creative with finances. I started my practice with no outside financing and grew it through a recession. My second company, I was able to start without a huge investment as well (mostly because it is a virtual business). As an entrepreneur over the years, obviously there were ups and downs. That’s the life. However, learning the seasonality of the business allows me to prepare for the “slower” months. Overall, though I have been able to continue to grow financially even through a complete career transition. That is part of now what I’m teaching physicians that they can do as well if they desire.
I have had many mentors in my life. Ones to mention here though… My mother was my first mentor as she is the one who modeled entrepreneurship, and helped me to learn to think outside of the box. She was always coming up with creative ways to grow her business. She also showed me what unstoppable looks like. She side-stepped every obstacle and used failure as fuel for forward movement. Second, Dr. William Richardson who was the first to inspire me to take the road less traveled in medicine. That’s how I found my‘integrative medicine’ roots. My friend Dr. Dawn Aldrich never let me give upon my visions (even before the physician coaching). She embodied what it looked like to truly follow your “assignment” (life’s purpose). I’m still inspired by her today.
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This article is the first part of a Physician Entrepreneur/Side-gig blog series. Check it out: Click Here
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Dr. Maiysha Clairborne is a serial physician entrepreneur who has experienced burnout twice in her career. After successfully fighting through those hard times of being unfulfilled by her career, she is now helping fellow physicians navigate their own path to happiness. The integrative family physician is also an Associate Clinical Professor for Morehouse School of Medicine and the founder of the Mind Body Spirit Wellness, DocSupport LLC & Stress Free Mom MD. She has turned her wisdom into two transformational books.
