On this episode of the Prosperous Doc ®, our host Shane Tenny, CFP® welcomes Dr. Stacy Goldbaum. Dr. Goldbaum shares her story of moving away from home to Charlotte, NC, and how she quickly realized the importance of making friends and building a community as an adult, especially as an individual balancing the needs of a demanding profession and career.
Dr. Stacy Goldbaum’s move to Charlotte, North Carolina was a bigger transition than she’d anticipated. She missed having her friends and extended family near. Recognizing the importance of having a sense of community, Dr. Goldbaum decided to find a way to create connections in her new city.
Historically, making new friends isn’t difficult for Dr. Goldbaum. However, with this move, she knew putting herself out there would be key to finding her people.
“I think we all are very aware, just as with training, you can't always pick [your city]. Sometimes when you're trying to find your first job out of training, you can't always have the choice of location or hospital system you want.” Dr. Goldbaum says. “We just picked up, moved, and hoped for the best. Charlotte is a bigger city compared to some, and it had access to airports, so we knew we could get to family quickly if we were having that itch to go visit them.”
In this episode of the Prosperous Doc®, our host Shane Tenny, CFP®, invites Dr. Goldbaum to explore the important topic of making friends in adulthood. They discuss how to cultivate a professional community for yourself while balancing the needs of a demanding career.
Dr. Goldbaum also discusses how the idea and need for the Cultivating Resilience Conference first began and shares details for the upcoming event on Saturday, May 14th, 2022 in Charlotte. The conference is the only Charlotte wellness retreat for local women physicians by local women physicians.
“The goal of this conference is to find out what's meaningful to you, who are the people who are going to support you, and how do you make friends out of this conference too," she says. "I'm telling you, once you find your people, it is such a life-changing experience, and every day just gets easier.”
Name: Dr. Stacy Goldbaum
What she does: As a board-certified Internal Medicine physician specializing in Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism, Dr. Goldbaum serves as an assistant professor in the Department of Medicine at Atrium Health and as the site-based medical director for her office. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Goldbaum also hosted monthly get-togethers for local women physicians through the “Women in White Coats: Charlotte” meetup group. She is a contributing writer in the SheMD.org virtual community.
Company: Atrium Health
Words of wisdom: “Once you find your people, it is such a life-changing experience and every day just gets easier.”
Top takeaways from this episode
[04:30] Putting yourself out there: Dr. Goldbaum knew that after moving to a new city she had to commit to putting herself out there if she wanted to make new friends. Having that go-getter mentality is important as you prepare for an upcoming move.
[07:04] Creating a meetup group: After finding that many of her work colleagues were in different life stages that occupied them on weekends and evenings, Dr. Goldbaum decided to start a meetup group. The group provided a place for women physicians to connect.
[09:54] Personal and professional support: Because the meetup group was created for women physicians, Dr. Goldbaum found both friendship and professional support from the members who attended events.
[12:19] Pandemic disruptions and pregnancy: In 2020, when the pandemic was new to everyone, Dr. Goldbaum struggled to maintain her community as everything shifted to virtual events. This was compounded by trying to minimize potential exposure to the virus while pregnant.
[13:07] Re-finding her community: After six months of struggling through virtual events, Dr. Goldbaum discovered a nationwide course called Empowering Women Physicians by Dr. Sunny Smith. Just like that, she found her community again.
[16:18] How Cultivating Resilience began: It was a desire to help women in her community treat burnout through a day of mindfulness and wellness that first launched Cultivating Resilience.
[19:45] Health, wealth, and self: Dr. Goldbaum shares the details of her upcoming Cultivating Resilience Conference on May 14th, 2022, in Charlotte, NC, where women can take a day for themselves.
[24:12] Wisdom versus information: Dr. Goldbaum shares a lightbulb moment she had after asking another physician who was late in her career what her biggest regret was.
[26:25] Creating lightbulb moments: The goal of the conference is to have women walking away with light bulb moments where they feel curious and delighted about the opportunities available to them.
[32:14] People that do awesome things don’t do them alone: Dr. Goldbaum gives a shout-out to her good friend Dr. Alexandra “Lexie” Mannix, MD for the support she has provided over the years.
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Disclaimer: Prosperous Doc podcast by Spaugh Dameron Tenny highlights real-life stories from doctors and dentists to encourage and inspire listeners through discussions of professional successes and failures in addition to personal stories and financial wellness advice. Spaugh Dameron Tenny is a comprehensive financial planning firm serving doctors and dentists in Charlotte, NC. To find out more about Spaugh Dameron Tenny, visit our website at www.sdtplanning.com. You can also connect with our host, Shane Tenny, CFP at shane@whitecoatwell.com or on Twitter.
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Top quotes from the episode:
[09:16] “I was dating [to make] friends … I am so grateful to these women. They showed up in droves and they supported each other, and it was a community I didn't know existed before then. In training, you're very sheltered from what it's like to be a physician as an attending. Once you get to the real world, you start having all these doubts. You think you know some stuff and then, right away, you're going to get the weird case in your office that was only on Boards. Of course, it's going to show up your first week of being an attending. And these women were able to help me.”
[19:20] “The conference is going to be Saturday, May 14th in South Park in Charlotte here at the Hampton Inn. Our goal is to do health, wealth, and self with a community to get us all together. It's the day away with people who just ‘get it.’ This is a conference that came out of us wanting to help our friends. We knew what the power of having a community could do, and we wanted to bring that locally.”
[22:01] “We've been told for so long that there's a glass ceiling that we have to break as women. And we are moving and moving and moving and moving, and we always seem to be two steps behind. And we're always saying yes to the next thing in the hopes it'll get us to the next level, but why are we saying yes to everything when it's depleting our energy stores?”