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Reinvention with Sharon McLaughlin · Lean Out Podcast

• 0:01
  Welcome to the lean out podcast.
• 0:03
  I'm your host, Dr.
• 0:04
  Don baker.
• 0:05
  Are you looking for a new approach to finding authentic and sustainable work-life balance?
• 0:10
  You've come to the right.
• 0:11
  Place.
• 0:11
  For inspiration.
• 0:12
  information.
• 0:13
  and a community.
• 0:14
  community.
• 0:14
  of like-minded.
• 0:15
  Professionals.
• 0:16
  Let's get to the show.
• 0:24
  Hello?
• 0:24
  Hello.
• 0:25
  Thanks for being here.
• 0:26
  How's your summer going?
• 0:28
  I love summer because I'm very partial to warm weather.
• 0:31
  I love flowers and also walking around without socks.
• 0:35
  I've been doing some more clinical work this summer, lots of people in the group where I do PRN, or as needed work.
• 0:42
  I want it to take vacation this summer.
• 0:45
  So they're offering a pay incentive to people like me and I'm taking advantage of it.
• 0:50
  Why not?
• 0:51
  I still have a feeling like there's abundant time for the fun stuff of summer.
• 0:55
  I don't feel like I'm wasting the season.
• 0:58
  And I think the key to this is having a lot of control over my schedule and knowing that I'm choosing to work more, not having the work be thrust upon me.
• 1:08
  Looking at things from a lens of, I get to, instead of I have too is very helpful.
• 1:14
  And that's my goal for you in listening to the stories in this podcast and in sharing all the things that I do.
• 1:21
  If you haven't already please go to iTunes or Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.
• 1:28
  And leave a review.
• 1:29
  If you've been liking what you hear.
• 1:31
  In this episode, we are going to talk all about entrepreneurship and reinventing yourself.
• 1:37
  My guest today is Sharon McLaughlin.
• 1:40
  Sharon is a plastic surgeon, turned serial entrepreneur.
• 1:44
  She is the creator and CEO of power of peacefulness.
• 1:48
  Host of the power of peacefulness podcast.
• 1:51
  And the founder of a large Facebook group called female physician entrepreneurs.
• 1:57
  She has authored multiple journals and a book with other women physicians that's titled thriving after burnout.
• 2:04
  And this episode, we discuss Sharon's burnout from plastic surgery and how she started out working on businesses that were adjacent to what she knew.
• 2:13
  Eventually she left clinical medicine and the plastic surgery and aesthetics world, and became a consultant to an insurance company, a job that she still does presently.
• 2:23
  Along the way she's had many more entrepreneurial pursuits, including helping other women physicians with their own entrepreneurial journeys.
• 2:31
  I hope you enjoy our conversation.
• 2:37
  SM-Dawn: Sharon McLaughlin, welcome to the show.
• 2:39
  SM-Dawn: I'm so happy to have you here.
• 2:41
  SM-Dawn: Can you please introduce yourself for the audience and tell us a little bit about your work life balance?
• 2:47
  SM-Sharon: First of all, Dr.
• 2:48
  SM-Sharon: Beaker, I have to say, thank you for having the podcast and getting out into the community and sharing the message that you've been working on.
• 2:55
  SM-Sharon: Thank you.
• 2:56
  SM-Sharon: It is an inspiration to me and others that work balance is a big deal and that we should lean in and lean out.
• 3:05
  SM-Sharon: My story, uh, well, my training is in a board certified plastic surgeon.
• 3:12
  SM-Sharon: I had a practice for about 14 years and really started getting burnt out and it's not like I was working for anybody.
• 3:20
  SM-Sharon: It was my own practice.
• 3:23
  SM-Sharon: But between the staff, the surgery, the patients.
• 3:28
  SM-Sharon: Being a mom, being a wife, it was all just too much for me.
• 3:32
  SM-Sharon: I didn't know how to stop.
• 3:36
  SM-Sharon: I didn't know boundaries.
• 3:39
  SM-Sharon: I didn't know how to be the best version of myself.
• 3:45
  SM-Sharon: And now I don't live like that anymore.
• 3:47
  SM-Sharon: It's important for me to.
• 3:49
  SM-Sharon: Reassess what's going on internally with me and to always ask those questions.
• 3:54
  SM-Sharon: How could I be the better version of myself?
• 3:56
  SM-Sharon: And what do I need so that I can be the best for others?
• 4:01
  SM-Sharon: And that's something that I didn't always live by.
• 4:04
  SM-Sharon: And so that's how I would introduce myself.
• 4:07
  SM-Sharon: Before we started, you had talked about how you're always reinventing yourself, Sharon, and it's so true.
• 4:13
  SM-Sharon: I do reinvent myself, and for those who are listening out there, if what you're doing isn't working, it's time to reassess.
• 4:22
  SM-Sharon: Why do you feel the way that you do, and what can you do to pivot?
• 4:27
  SM-Sharon: What can you do to reinvent yourself?
• 4:30
  SM-Sharon: Where in the past, it was always, okay, how can I make other people happy?
• 4:34
  SM-Sharon: How could I do what society expects of me, that go, go, go, be the doctor, do, did all that training.
• 4:41
  SM-Sharon: This is what's expected of me.
• 4:43
  SM-Sharon: How can I do anything different?
• 4:45
  SM-Sharon: I strongly encourage that you do ask those hard questions because I say hard in the sense that you may have to make some changes.
• 4:55
  SM-Sharon: The chances are you are going to make some changes.
• 4:57
  SM-Sharon: Because if you're feeling this way, if you've lost the passion, how do you get that passion back?
• 5:04
  SM-Dawn: Yeah, I would love to hear more about all of the different reinventions and how and why you chose entrepreneurship after plastic surgery.
• 5:13
  SM-Dawn: But I also want to know, did you have any sort of particular inciting event that really made you wake up and want to reassess and decide to pivot from what you were doing at that time?
• 5:26
  SM-Dawn: Thank you.
• 5:26
  SM-Sharon: Yeah.
• 5:27
  SM-Sharon: You know, it's funny because when I talk to people too, there's always one event that really sticks out.
• 5:34
  SM-Sharon: It's like that straw that broke the camel's back.
• 5:36
  SM-Sharon: They say, yeah, my dad had gotten sick.
• 5:39
  SM-Sharon: And I wanted to spend time with him and that was about the time that I really started second guessing myself because I was in the bedroom quite a bit with him lying there and really assessing like, you know, here's death, mortality hitting me right in the face.
• 5:54
  SM-Sharon: And how do I want to live my life?
• 5:56
  SM-Sharon: Because someday it's going to end.
• 5:58
  SM-Sharon: And will I be happy with how I lived it?
• 6:01
  SM-Sharon: And, uh, I just remember wanting to spend time with him and I was getting a lot of phone calls, Dr.
• 6:05
  SM-Sharon: McLaughlin, we know he's sick, your dad's sick, but can you do this?
• 6:08
  SM-Sharon: Can you do that?
• 6:09
  SM-Sharon: And, uh, there were no boundaries.
• 6:11
  SM-Sharon: I just kept on going and going.
• 6:13
  SM-Sharon: But during that time, it was like sitting in the bedroom, wondering, reassessing, which I don't think I ever slowed down in the past.
• 6:21
  SM-Sharon: It was always that go, go, go.
• 6:23
  SM-Sharon: But because I was forced to slow down, it had me thinking.
• 6:27
  SM-Sharon: So that was the inciting event.
• 6:29
  SM-Dawn: Hmm.
• 6:30
  SM-Dawn: Yeah, that makes sense.
• 6:31
  SM-Dawn: Because a lot of people, like you said, never really stopped to think and don't have that little extra space in their days to take the perspective.
• 6:41
  SM-Dawn: But you were forced to take the perspective because you had to help your dad and you needed Yeah.
• 6:48
  SM-Dawn: To be in a kind of a stillness place.
• 6:51
  SM-Dawn: So what was your first move after you decided that you were going to leave your practice?
• 6:58
  SM-Dawn: I know that you pivoted toward entrepreneurship, but you've done many different things in that arena.
• 7:04
  SM-Dawn: Where did you start?
• 7:06
  SM-Sharon: It was actually during my plastic surgery years, I was always thinking of ways.
• 7:09
  SM-Sharon: to get additional income, like work smarter, right?
• 7:13
  SM-Sharon: Not harder.
• 7:14
  SM-Sharon: So how can I bring an additional income?
• 7:16
  SM-Sharon: And I was looking around seeing what other people were doing and skincare led me into the med spa, which led me into additional services.
• 7:23
  SM-Sharon: And that honestly is all entrepreneurship because you have to market yourself.
• 7:27
  SM-Sharon: You have to run a business.
• 7:29
  SM-Sharon: It's normal.
• 7:30
  SM-Sharon: Like I think running a business.
• 7:32
  SM-Sharon: It's extremely important in medicine.
• 7:33
  SM-Sharon: It's not something that we're taught, but that just seemed to come naturally to me in the plastic surgery arena.
• 7:39
  SM-Sharon: Once I stepped into the med spa arena, that was a whole nother, another ballgame because now I have competitors that that's what they do, where I was still trying to do my plastic surgery business as well.
• 7:52
  SM-Sharon: So I would say that it was the skincare that started this all.
• 7:56
  SM-Sharon: And then once I started doing that, I looked around like, what else?
• 8:02
  SM-Sharon: Are people missing?
• 8:03
  SM-Sharon: What else can I work on?
• 8:04
  SM-Sharon: What else do I have experience in?
• 8:06
  SM-Sharon: And one of the things that I had was, um, non Hodgkin's lymphoma when I was younger.
• 8:11
  SM-Sharon: And that left me with an increased risk of breast cancer because I had chest wall radiation, ended up getting a mastectomy.
• 8:17
  SM-Sharon: And I was married and it was very hard to find lingerie that I felt sexy in.
• 8:22
  SM-Sharon: Like it was a lot of this lingerie for women who have had breast cancer.
• 8:25
  SM-Sharon: I felt like it was like that granny look, you know, it was just.
• 8:30
  SM-Sharon: It was just not enough for me.
• 8:32
  SM-Sharon: So I wanted, I designed my own, um, lingerie line.
• 8:36
  SM-Sharon: I had no experience in sewing, but I was fortunate to live close to the fashion district in New York City, and they had some factories that would do small runs for me.
• 8:46
  SM-Sharon: So I ended up doing a run of a hundred.
• 8:49
  SM-Sharon: To get my feet wet, my feet in the door, however you want to say it.
• 8:52
  SM-Sharon: I was inspired because there was a lack, I saw a problem and there was a lack of, at the time, lingerie that would fit that need or my need.
• 9:02
  SM-Sharon: And that was my second.
• 9:04
  SM-Sharon: And then also as a plastic surgeon, the scarring is an issue.
• 9:07
  SM-Sharon: So, We have silicone gel sheets.
• 9:09
  SM-Sharon: I ended up doing some private label on silicone gel sheets.
• 9:14
  SM-Sharon: And then I ended up doing my own skincare line.
• 9:17
  SM-Sharon: I had that manufactured.
• 9:18
  SM-Sharon: So that was all during the time of being a plastic surgeon before I even stepped out.
• 9:24
  SM-Sharon: And then as far as pivoting, I told this story before, but during that time when I felt extremely busy, pulled in a zillion different directions, one of the chief medical offices of a hospital had asked me to do some quality reviews for the hospital.
• 9:39
  SM-Sharon: And I so bad wanted to say, no, I don't want to do this.
• 9:42
  SM-Sharon: I have enough on my plate, but he is such a very nice man.
• 9:47
  SM-Sharon: I always had a problem saying no, right.
• 9:48
  SM-Sharon: I was a people pleaser.
• 9:49
  SM-Sharon: So I said, yes, but I remember walking away from that, that conversation.
• 9:54
  SM-Sharon: With a lot of tears in my eyes, like how am I going to do this?
• 9:57
  SM-Sharon: But it was actually good in retrospect because I got the experience of doing reviews that led me to consulting work, which I then was able to do on my own time there was a turnaround, but I really did get to decide how I was going to live my day.
• 10:12
  SM-Sharon: And I hadn't had that before ever in my life.
• 10:14
  SM-Sharon: It was always that go, go, go.
• 10:16
  SM-Sharon: So I started with consulting, doing physician reviews.
• 10:20
  SM-Sharon: And that actually led to a full time job for a New York state plan.
• 10:24
  SM-Sharon: And that's what I pivoted into initially.
• 10:27
  SM-Sharon: No, I ended up pivoting into quality, like a utilization management position to get the experience.
• 10:34
  SM-Sharon: I stayed there for a year and then I took that position with a New York state plan that I mentioned.
• 10:39
  SM-Sharon: And I probably never would have gotten that as a plastic surgeon, unless I had the path that I did, like, the physician review, working for that other insurance plan, getting the experience.
• 10:53
  SM-Sharon: So for those who want to make a pivot, look to see what opportunities you have.
• 10:59
  SM-Sharon: And most of the time, honestly, I'd have to say they're right there in front of you.
• 11:03
  SM-Sharon: But because we're so busy, we're not looking at.
• 11:06
  SM-Sharon: at what's in front of us, whether it's unconscious or I think we just think like, Oh, I need something else totally different.
• 11:15
  SM-Sharon: But I strongly encourage you to look to see what you have right in front of you and start there.
• 11:21
  SM-Sharon: It's like a muscle just building up.
• 11:24
  SM-Sharon: I don't, how do I say this?
• 11:26
  SM-Sharon: I'm very, um, I'm not as held back.
• 11:29
  SM-Sharon: Like, I don't think I ever had a lot of confidence, but getting out there and marketing and something I truly believe in I have difficulty with and yet.
• 11:40
  SM-Sharon: One of the things that I do is I run this group, the female position entrepreneurs group, and I see it as a constant, a constant issue with members that are there.
• 11:49
  SM-Sharon: They want to promote, but they don't have to promote where they don't take the time promoting, or they don't want to put themselves out there.
• 11:56
  SM-Sharon: They feel icky about selling.
• 11:58
  SM-Sharon: And it's unfortunate because if this is something you believe in and you want to sell that message has got to be crystal clear and you have to stand by it.
• 12:06
  SM-Sharon: 100%.
• 12:08
  SM-Sharon: And if you're not able to do that, it's not like you can go and hire someone to do it for you because they're never going to be able to back it as much as you could back your own product or service.
• 12:20
  SM-Dawn: I have to say that I'm in that group, I've been in that group for more than five years, and I find it to be such a great resource, and thank you so much for starting it.
• 12:30
  SM-Dawn: What was the impetus behind starting a Facebook group that has now grown into tens of thousands of members?
• 12:39
  SM-Sharon: Well, I have to thank Dr.
• 12:40
  SM-Sharon: Shah for that.
• 12:42
  SM-Sharon: When I took that position for the New York plan, he had seen my resume, had seen me online.
• 12:48
  SM-Sharon: You know, guys, they do that.
• 12:49
  SM-Sharon: Ladies, they do that.
• 12:51
  SM-Sharon: So you have to be careful.
• 12:52
  SM-Sharon: But it was all about lingerie and skincare and all these other things.
• 12:56
  SM-Sharon: And he's like, Are you going to be able to work here?
• 12:58
  SM-Sharon: Because looking at this, I don't see that this is a good fit for you.
• 13:02
  SM-Sharon: He was very honest with me.
• 13:03
  SM-Sharon: And I said, Oh, sure, Dr.
• 13:05
  SM-Sharon: Shaw, I'll be able to, you know, just put my eggs all in one basket.
• 13:09
  SM-Sharon: I didn't say it like that, but I said, you know, I'll be able to focus 100%.
• 13:12
  SM-Sharon: And that was good for about two or three years.
• 13:14
  SM-Sharon: And I was like, I need more than this job.
• 13:18
  SM-Sharon: So I started with a Facebook group just not to ever monetize it.
• 13:22
  SM-Sharon: To this day I still have a hard time people push to monetize and I really just wanted it as a place where we can come talk about business.
• 13:29
  SM-Sharon: I hear a lot of people say doctors not good in business but I don't believe that at all.
• 13:33
  SM-Sharon: I believe that we're good with whatever we surround ourselves with and whatever we take the time to learn about.
• 13:40
  SM-Sharon: So if we sat there together and we shared what we knew we would grow together.
• 13:45
  SM-Sharon: So that was the idea of the group.
• 13:49
  SM-Sharon: And then from there, it's pivoted into a number of things.
• 13:52
  SM-Sharon: We've done summits and conferences.
• 13:54
  SM-Sharon: We did a book together.
• 13:56
  SM-Sharon: There's a business program.
• 13:58
  SM-Sharon: It's always something and right now the new thing would be that we just started Instagram on Friday.
• 14:03
  SM-Sharon: So I've never had an Instagram account for that group, but it's a good way to get out there and promote others and showcase others, and when I think about how I like to help others, it really is about networking and.
• 14:16
  SM-Sharon: showing others
• 14:19
  SM-Dawn: Well, it's a really great resource.
• 14:22
  SM-Dawn: When you were switching out of the entrepreneurship things that were related to your identity as a plastic surgeon, and you took that pivot away from that identity, what was the hardest part about leaning out and doing that for you?
• 14:41
  SM-Sharon: my relationship with my husband.
• 14:44
  SM-Sharon: My parents had already been deceased by that time.
• 14:46
  SM-Sharon: I think I, I think my dad was very proud of seeing Dr.
• 14:49
  SM-Sharon: McLaughlin.
• 14:50
  SM-Sharon: Nobody from his family, neither my mom or my dad graduated high school.
• 14:55
  SM-Sharon: So education was a big deal for him.
• 14:57
  SM-Sharon: And I think he was so proud to say his daughter was a physician.
• 15:01
  SM-Sharon: So I'm glad that I didn't have to disappoint him in that way for children out there who, you know, we're grown adults now, but it is a disappointment for the parents, even though they just want to see their kids happy.
• 15:12
  SM-Sharon: I think he would have been disappointed to some degree, but I also think that we have to live our life.
• 15:19
  SM-Sharon: authentically and what's right for us and not live by other people's standards or expectations or what makes them happy.
• 15:27
  SM-Sharon: But it was my relationship with my husband that really suffered.
• 15:30
  SM-Sharon: He, you know, one of my friends said she's a plastic surgeon.
• 15:33
  SM-Sharon: She's like, you know, Sharon, You don't really have patience with him.
• 15:36
  SM-Sharon: And I was like, no, he doesn't want me to leave.
• 15:38
  SM-Sharon: He doesn't get it.
• 15:38
  SM-Sharon: I'm totally burnt out.
• 15:40
  SM-Sharon: I wasn't suicidal, but I was not happy.
• 15:42
  SM-Sharon: And it angered me that he didn't get it.
• 15:45
  SM-Sharon: And, um, you know, she's like, well, he married a plastic surgeon.
• 15:48
  SM-Sharon: I'm like, he married me.
• 15:49
  SM-Sharon: And that's kind of forcing that identity of a plastic surgeon with me.
• 15:54
  SM-Sharon: And I wanted to break free of it.
• 15:57
  SM-Sharon: So that was the hardest part was the expectations, society's expectations.
• 16:04
  SM-Sharon: My family questioned it, just about all my sisters questioned it.
• 16:07
  SM-Sharon: Um, one, if she's listening, Patti did not.
• 16:11
  SM-Sharon: She just said, do what makes you happy.
• 16:13
  SM-Sharon: But just about everybody else did.
• 16:16
  SM-Sharon: And it wasn't positive either.
• 16:17
  SM-Sharon: It was all negative.
• 16:18
  SM-Sharon: In my mind, it was negative.
• 16:19
  SM-Sharon: Granted, I was very sensitive at the time anyway.
• 16:22
  SM-Sharon: So maybe it wasn't as negative as I thought, but I felt like it was a lot of judgment.
• 16:26
  SM-Sharon: And so for those that are listening out there may understand what I'm talking about.
• 16:31
  SM-Sharon: This may resonate with them, but again, you have to live your life the way you want to live your life.
• 16:37
  SM-Sharon: You know, one day we're going to die.
• 16:39
  SM-Sharon: So how do you want to live the rest of your life?
• 16:42
  SM-Sharon: You've lived it way that you're living it to this point today.
• 16:46
  SM-Sharon: But after hearing this, how do you want to live it going forward?
• 16:50
  SM-Sharon: What is it that you're passionate about?
• 16:52
  SM-Sharon: What's important to you?
• 16:55
  SM-Dawn: Was there any particular resource that you used?
• 16:59
  SM-Dawn: Was there like a practice or resource that helped you to get through that time of all of the naysayers around you?
• 17:09
  SM-Sharon: Dawn, nowadays I see a lot of physician coaching.
• 17:12
  SM-Sharon: I see podcasts like yours.
• 17:14
  SM-Sharon: I see, I am sure that that was there, but not to the degree that it is now.
• 17:22
  SM-Sharon: And it wasn't available to me, is the bottom line.
• 17:25
  SM-Sharon: I didn't know enough to look for it.
• 17:27
  SM-Sharon: And I don't think it was there to the extent that we now have.
• 17:31
  SM-Sharon: You know, we talk about physician burnout and the hospitals.
• 17:35
  SM-Sharon: Employment actually tries to do some programs around wellness, which they never used to do back when I was training and in my practice.
• 17:44
  SM-Sharon: Um, you didn't really hear about physician coaching back then, and yet it's available now.
• 17:51
  SM-Sharon: So the resources would just know it was, it was a dark period.
• 17:54
  SM-Sharon: I think it was a dark period that lasted longer because I didn't have those resources.
• 17:59
  SM-Sharon: And I would say that thing that helps the most is to normalize.
• 18:04
  SM-Sharon: So like whether it's a Facebook group or get, surround yourself with people that have been through it, reach out.
• 18:12
  SM-Sharon: Most people are willing to talk, especially if it's coming from the heart, you know, when it's coming from the heart, you know, they're not just trying to sell you something.
• 18:19
  SM-Sharon: They really want to help you.
• 18:22
  SM-Sharon: And it's there.
• 18:23
  SM-Sharon: You just have to A, accept how you feel, and then B, decide, okay, this is how I feel, how do I go about making some changes?
• 18:33
  SM-Sharon: And what you see today may be totally different than what happens next year or five years from now.
• 18:39
  SM-Sharon: And just accept it, be open to it.
• 18:43
  SM-Dawn: We've heard a little bit about your evolution from the plastic surgery days and tell us a little bit about what your work life balance looks like today.
• 18:53
  SM-Dawn: What kind of things are you doing on a weekly basis?
• 18:57
  SM-Sharon: Okay, I will tell you that it's always reinventing yourself and getting better at those soft skills.
• 19:03
  SM-Sharon: I think communication is huge.
• 19:04
  SM-Sharon: It's probably the number one thing that is so simple and obvious, and yet we don't work on those skills.
• 19:10
  SM-Sharon: So I'll give you an example.
• 19:11
  SM-Sharon: Um, earlier today I met with my people leader.
• 19:15
  SM-Sharon: Right.
• 19:16
  SM-Sharon: I'm employed for an insurance company.
• 19:18
  SM-Sharon: And two years ago, we really were bucking heads.
• 19:21
  SM-Sharon: You know, he wanted to keep pushing me to do more things.
• 19:24
  SM-Sharon: And I was like, my plate is full.
• 19:25
  SM-Sharon: I am totally busy.
• 19:26
  SM-Sharon: I can't do anything more.
• 19:27
  SM-Sharon: And it wasn't very, I guess the tone of the way I was saying it, what I was saying was straight from the heart, but he didn't want to hear it.
• 19:36
  SM-Sharon: And it was probably the way that I was saying it.
• 19:38
  SM-Sharon: Well, here we are two years later again, and I'm feeling like.
• 19:41
  SM-Sharon: It's a lot of work that we get assigned each day, um, it's too much, and so during our meeting I told him, and completely different than two years ago, I don't know what it was, I think that's the way I said it, maybe the way he was willing to listen to it, but he actually said, I totally agree, this is going on, that's going on, and it was just, I think what I'm trying to say is your current relationship May change so work on Swift skills, whether it's through reading books, podcasts, getting some coaching.
• 20:15
  SM-Sharon: I did do a coaching program and I do think that although I have no desire to do group coaching per se like life coaching.
• 20:21
  SM-Sharon: It has helped me tremendously with soft skills and I think there's still a lot of room for improvement.
• 20:27
  SM-Sharon: But it's better than where I was.
• 20:29
  SM-Sharon: And, again, it's something that we take for granted.
• 20:32
  SM-Sharon: So that's what I would say as far as like, you asked me what I do for work life balance, work on my skills, because everything else revolves around being able to communicate.
• 20:43
  SM-Sharon: And if we don't spend time, if like what we're doing currently isn't working, because like in a relationship, I see this a lot in the Facebook groups and talking to people.
• 20:52
  SM-Sharon: It's a constant theme that gets keeps on getting shoved under the rug or swept under the rug.
• 20:57
  SM-Sharon: It's there, but we fight about it and then it gets better because we don't talk about it, but then it comes up again in some other way.
• 21:05
  SM-Sharon: But if you just talked about it and had that open conversation, Okay.
• 21:10
  SM-Sharon: And sometimes it's like what I call those critical conversations that you have to have.
• 21:15
  SM-Sharon: They're hard, but it's either easier now and then hard because it keeps coming up again in life, or you have that hard conversation and then with time things do get easier.
• 21:28
  SM-Sharon: So, pick your choice, like what they say, pick your poison, whichever is, I elect to do the hard first.
• 21:34
  SM-Sharon: Do the hard so that going forward, it gets easier, right?
• 21:37
  SM-Sharon: It's like the light at the end of the tunnel, something to look at, otherwise it's just avoidance.
• 21:43
  SM-Sharon: It's kind of like the woman trying to market their business.
• 21:46
  SM-Sharon: If they don't feel comfortable, they keep pushing it off and pushing it off and then they're like, I don't understand why it's not growing.
• 21:51
  SM-Sharon: I'm like, it's not growing because you can't just post here and there, like you really have to get out there.
• 21:55
  SM-Sharon: Yeah.
• 21:55
  SM-Sharon: Yeah.
• 21:55
  SM-Sharon: But getting out there is different for everyone.
• 21:58
  SM-Dawn: Hmm.
• 21:59
  SM-Sharon: work life balance, communication, number one, and really just you deciding what is important to you.
• 22:08
  SM-Sharon: Like we know self care, right?
• 22:10
  SM-Sharon: Like we're supposed to do that.
• 22:11
  SM-Sharon: Dawn, when we came on today, you look amazing.
• 22:14
  SM-Sharon: You take care of your body,
• 22:16
  SM-Dawn: Thank you.
• 22:17
  SM-Sharon: You take care of yourself.
• 22:18
  SM-Sharon: And it's so evident, just like one glance at you, you make self care a priority.
• 22:23
  SM-Sharon: And that includes working out and we don't all do that.
• 22:27
  SM-Sharon: So, that's another thing, like, we can't have good mental health and we can't have good physical health unless we make the time to prioritize ourself.
• 22:36
  SM-Sharon: And so if you're go, go, go, you know you're gonna burn out, you have a higher rate of burning out.
• 22:42
  SM-Sharon: So, choose.
• 22:44
  SM-Sharon: to make yourself a priority and see how life gets a little bit easier for you.
• 22:49
  SM-Sharon: And we talked about boundaries before too.
• 22:51
  SM-Sharon: I know it's so easy, right?
• 22:52
  SM-Sharon: It's like cliche.
• 22:53
  SM-Sharon: Oh, just be able to say no.
• 22:55
  SM-Sharon: Saying no is difficult.
• 22:56
  SM-Sharon: Saying no for me as a people pleaser to this day is difficult, even though I spent years trying to work on this.
• 23:04
  SM-Sharon: And that may be Be reinventing yourself as well.
• 23:07
  SM-Sharon: That may just be talking about it.
• 23:10
  SM-Sharon: Journaling, I think is a great example of like something that may have happened, getting a therapist, getting a coach.
• 23:16
  SM-Sharon: Like why are these recurrent themes over and over again in your life?
• 23:20
  SM-Sharon: And then, you know, we kind of pick ourselves apart, right?
• 23:22
  SM-Sharon: Like, Oh, this happened again.
• 23:24
  SM-Sharon: And you know, why did this happen again?
• 23:27
  SM-Sharon: A lot of those questions we just ask ourselves, like, what can, what can I do?
• 23:32
  SM-Sharon: First of all, what part do I play in this and how can I make this better?
• 23:37
  SM-Dawn: Those are great pieces of advice.
• 23:39
  SM-Dawn: Do you have any other messages that you'd like to share with the audience as we're closing up our interview today?
• 23:47
  SM-Sharon: You get to live your life the way that you want to live it, and if you're not living it the way that you want to live it, it's up to you to change it, and only you can change it.
• 23:57
  SM-Sharon: Someone's not going to come along, sweep you off your feet, and say, okay, Sharon do this, Sharon do that, and it's going to be better.
• 24:04
  SM-Sharon: You could have guidance along the way, but it truly is up to us to look inside ourselves, to know ourselves.
• 24:10
  SM-Sharon: I don't think we can give any gift that's better than knowing ourselves.
• 24:17
  SM-Dawn: Yes, that's great advice as well.
• 24:19
  SM-Dawn: Sharon, thank you so much for everything you do, and I really appreciate you coming on here and sharing your story with us.
• 24:26
  SM-Sharon: Dawn, thank you so much for having me.
• 24:31
  Sharon really has reinvented herself multiple times.
• 24:34
  I didn't even know all the different businesses she's been involved in.
• 24:38
  It's really inspiring to me when people aren't afraid to do those experiments.
• 24:43
  Here are my takeaways from our conversation.
• 24:46
  Number one.
• 24:47
  Sometimes there are opportunities to lean out, do something different, or make a pivot and they're in plain sight, but you just don't see them.
• 24:55
  You don't always have to reinvent the wheel and go off and do something completely different.
• 25:00
  A slight tweak in your schedule and even saying yes to an opportunity that helps you build a new skill.
• 25:05
  Like what Sharon described that led to her getting a position as a consultant for an insurance company.
• 25:11
  Something, she obviously still enjoys enough to have continued doing for years.
• 25:16
  Sharon says in her work with physician entrepreneurs, they often overlook opportunities that are right under their noses.
• 25:24
  Number two.
• 25:25
  Lean on communities, such as Facebook groups and podcasts communities like this one to help you get through the uncertainty you might feel when making a change.
• 25:35
  It will help with inspiration ideas, blind spots, accountability, and just dealing with the naysayers that might be nagging at your intuition.
• 25:46
  When Sharon needed this, she did not know where to turn.
• 25:49
  Now.
• 25:49
  She runs a community to help women just like us.
• 25:54
  Number three.
• 25:55
  Don't be scared to reinvent yourself.
• 25:57
  To change the name of your company to scrap a product and start over.
• 26:02
  To ditch the role you're in and pivot to something new.
• 26:05
  I've seen Sharon go through different names for her own podcast.
• 26:09
  Switch from focusing on guided journal sales, to teaching women, how to run businesses.
• 26:14
  This takes self knowledge and mindful examination and intentionality.
• 26:19
  It's all a continuous process of learning, experimenting.
• 26:23
  And making small changes.
• 26:24
  Just like apps and computer programs.
• 26:27
  There's version 1.0, version 1.1.
• 26:30
  Version 2.0 and so on.
• 26:34
  So my parting question to you, I'll take it straight from Sharon at the beginning of this show, what do you need to be a better version of yourself?
• 26:44
  Thanks for listening to the lean out podcast.
• 26:47
  If you find these conversations inspiring and useful, please forward them to a friend and also leave a review on iTunes or Spotify so that other people can find them easier.
• 26:59
  If you want to get in touch with me, you can find me at my website, practice balanced.com, where you can subscribe to my newsletter and get updates regularly about new podcast episodes, blog posts, speaking, engagements, and coaching services.
• 27:16
  You can also support my work by buying my book, lean out a professional woman's guide to finding authentic work-life balance for yourself, a friend, family member, or coworker.
• 27:28
  Have a great day and we'll see you next time