[BTS#5] Breaking Traditional Healthcare Career Trajectories

Welcome to the 5th edition of my behind-the-scenes newsletter. Last week I shared how I’m using feedback loops to develop the Launch Community.

Beyond “what will this cost?” (I’ll let you know in-detail next week), I’ve also been getting a lot of questions from you about the details of exactly what a strong personal brand is.

“Do I have to try to be an influencer? Because that is totally not me”

“I am not looking to be famous. I actually kind of hate attention on myself”

Your personal brand is the new reputation.

It is your resume.

You get to create how the world sees you with your own personal brand.

When you have a strong personal brand you unlock all the things you want from a career:

• More time freedom to work how you like

• You earn more money as The Expert

• You have more autonomy and control of your career trajectory

• You become more confident about yourself

I need to make sure you all understand that a personal brand isn’t just for people who want to be full time influencers going viral, or to even those starting their own businesses. Everyone who wants to do work they love needs a strong personal brand so the world knows who they are and can hire them for that work.

Let’s Go Through 2 Scenarios: Your Traditional Career Vs. Your Personal Brand

Scenario 1: Keep Your Status Quo

You paid many years of work and hundreds of thousands of dollars to be in this profession. You’re in a good position. You have a decently safe job that pays in the low 6-figures. Yet, you’re starting to feel the pinch of the golden handcuffs: earning enough to be comfortable but not enough to have financial and time freedom. You are still being paid only by your W-2 job.

Dang.

You’re probably starting to think “I don’t know if I want to do this forever.”

“I can’t NOT BE a pharmacist. I’m so in debt. There is nothing else I can do”

“I want to build wealth without being on a company's schedule.  Its the how to do that and what do I do that is difficult for me to work out.”

“Maybe I should just change career entirely. I hate this field I’m stuck in”

“Hanging in there until retirement. Then I enjoy enjoy life and hobbies a bit more”

The career ladder is pretty grim.

I mean, do you really want your bosses’ job?

I have a number of medical doctors and dentists in my family. They’re in the same boat and have told me, “Gosh, Jamie. I should have started something like you did online awhile ago. I don’t want to do this forever. I’m already burned out at work and not looking forward to another 20+ years of the same job. Sure, it pays well, but money isn’t everything. Especially now that our life is settled I’d trade my job for significantly less income just to get time back and to get out from that hectic work schedule. But I can’t. I’m stuck with the degree I picked. My career choice made my job a sunk cost.”

Yikes! These guys are pediatric cardiologists and cosmetic dentists who are telling me this. You are PharmDs are feeling this too, right? I know I did when I was working at Walgreens for 10 years.

Traditional jobs are fine. They are not great. They keep you working on a schedule that is not your own and for a salary that you have no control over.

Scenario 2: Build Your Own Future

Here you are. A smart PharmD with more education than 99% of Americans.

Your job is ok. It pays the bills and keeps you comfortable, but you know you don’t want to clock into a paycheck for the rest of your career.

So, you start making small, consistent moves now to make yourself stand out in the world. You know that working harder won’t build wealth. But worker smarter will build wealth.

The smarter way to work is to use the power of the internet to create your own strong brand so you can decide how the world sees you and how you help people. You’re doing this so to help people with all the skills you’ve learned in a modern way.

You’re an introvert and know this is a no-risk endeavor. You can only improve from being completely unknown online. You start to share your ideas because you know that 99.5% of your peers in healthcare don’t create content. They just scroll and stalk.

You position yourself as a thought leader in the field. This gives you the flexibility to pivot in your career. Whether you choose to stay in healthcare or do something completely different. And as a recognized expert you can command higher fees for your services.

With a personal brand, you have more control over your career trajectory. You're not solely dependent on your employer for growth and opportunities. You can create your own path and define what success looks like for you.

Building a personal brand boosts your confidence. You know your worth and can communicate your value effectively. This confidence not only helps in your professional life but also in personal growth and fulfillment.

This is a Learned Trait

I don’t think of building a brand as a one-off “I’ll give this a try” kind of a thing. It is about who you are. Someone who chooses to build their best life doing work that lights them up and making their expensive education & experience work for them in a modern, profitable way.

To me, building a brand is part of who I am. I get to control how the world sees me. I get to control how much I work.

I get to control the kind of work I do.

I’ll tell you what: after 10 years of working as a hamster on a hamster wheel in retail pharmacy this feels so good.

My degree gave me a valuable skill set. It did not give me the real-world skills to flourish in my career today.

I had to learn how to be relevant in 2024. And you’re going to learn how too!

No Magic Potion:

Personal branding also doesn’t happen over night. It takes months & years to fully develop. I have the kind of patience to develop that for myself and I know you do too. And that’s the joy of having a long timeline. Other people are impatient and want to make a quick buck right now. That’s why I guarantee I can outlast them and you can too.

You and I have patience. We have the ability to outlast others who blink in and out of existence online. You’re starting off how I started: doing this as a side hustle to your day job. You’re not burning bridges. You’re not going all-in right now to being a full-time ride-or-die creator.

You’re intelligently using little bits of time during the week (that would otherwise be wasted scrolling on your phone) to stand out in the world in a way authentic to you.
Knowing how to build this just right, and being in the right private community with other PharmDs doing the same thing is going to make all the difference. You don’t have to figure this out by yourself. We got you.

Here is some advice on building your personal brand:

Start writing online today. Set up a schedule where you write online every single day. Don’t worry about the topic yet. It is more important that you become a writer than nailing your niche right outta the gates.

If you need help knowing what to write, don’t worry. I’ve got your back in Launch Community. I’ll help you with templates and systems to make this easy to do automatically. But don’t wait until then to test out the waters and try writing online yourself. Come join us in August with 2 full months of posts under your belt. You’ll get so much more out of it then.