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Lean Practice with Mitra Sadhu · 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.
• 0:23
  Hello?
• 0:23
  Hello.
• 0:24
  Thanks for being here.
• 0:26
  It has been quite the heat wave out in the west and places, even at high elevation in the mountains have been quite hot.
• 0:35
  I don't know what it's like, where you are, but that's what we've been dealing with.
• 0:40
  And I mentioned, if you listen in real time, on the last podcast episode, That I share a lot of tidbits about mountain living and homestead living in my newsletter, which goes out usually one to two, maybe three times a month, if I'm really on top of things.
• 0:58
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• 1:05
  You go to practice balance.com/get in touch and then put your email in the purple box.
• 1:12
  So I go and look at my website and I realized that the purple box isn't there.
• 1:16
  And I was like, whoops, but I am happy to say that I have fixed it.
• 1:21
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• 1:33
  Inspiring when new episodes drop and also new articles and things I'm doing, then please go over there and do subscribe to the list.
• 1:43
  Okay.
• 1:45
  My guest today.
• 2:37
  MS-Dawn: Mitra Sadhu, welcome to the Lean Out podcast.
• 2:40
  MS-Dawn: I'm so happy to have you here.
• 2:42
  MS-Dawn: I would love it if you would describe yourself and your current work life balance.
• 2:46
  MS-Mitra: Okay.
• 2:47
  MS-Mitra: Hi, Dr.
• 2:47
  MS-Mitra: Baker.
• 2:48
  MS-Mitra: Thank you so much for having me on the podcast.
• 2:51
  MS-Mitra: I'm thrilled to be here.
• 2:52
  MS-Mitra: So my name is Mitra Sadhu.
• 2:54
  MS-Mitra: I am a nephrologist in Florida.
• 2:57
  MS-Mitra: I did my med school in India and, then my residency and fellowship, uh, at the university of Miami Jackson Memorial Hospital.
• 3:06
  MS-Mitra: And, after training, I took some time off to be with my babies when they were little.
• 3:10
  MS-Mitra: So And then went on to a couple of independent contractor gigs before I decided I wanted to do more.
• 3:20
  MS-Mitra: And that's how I ended up starting my own practice.
• 3:26
  MS-Mitra: Now the catch here is that I've always known that I wanted to work part time.
• 3:31
  MS-Mitra: I want to save my best energy for my kids as well as my patients.
• 3:35
  MS-Mitra: And, I also want to spend a bunch of time with my patients.
• 3:39
  MS-Mitra: When I interviewed with groups in town, it appeared that there were two choices.
• 3:44
  MS-Mitra: One could either work a hundred hours and go down the partnership track, or one could work uh, what they like to call mommy hours and, you know, and, you stay that way.
• 3:55
  MS-Mitra: Somehow I wanted to have my cake and eat it too.
• 3:58
  MS-Mitra: And I realized I would have to probably create my own path in order to accomplish that.
• 4:03
  MS-Mitra: So I started trying to think outside the box.
• 4:07
  MS-Mitra: And figured out, that in order to be a practice owner and still work part time, I would have to run really lean.
• 4:16
  MS-Mitra: And that is how my lean practice was born.
• 4:19
  MS-Mitra: I decided to focus on the two biggest line item expenses for a small practice, namely office space and staff.
• 4:28
  MS-Mitra: And therefore, um, one, I started at a shared workspace location to cut down on rent.
• 4:34
  MS-Mitra: And number two, I started off as a micro practice, which means I was doing everything for the practice.
• 4:40
  MS-Mitra: No employees, no third party, companies, no independent contractors helping me.
• 4:45
  MS-Mitra: And I kept my startup expenses.
• 4:47
  MS-Mitra: Really small, the grand total of 1, 200 to start up the practice.
• 4:51
  MS-Mitra: Uh, so no loan either for that.
• 4:54
  MS-Mitra: And that's how it's been chugging along.
• 4:57
  MS-Mitra: That was a very long answer to an introduction.
• 5:02
  MS-Dawn: How many years has it taken you to get from that position where you were starting out as an independent contractor to the place that you are now managing your lean private practice?
• 5:14
  MS-Mitra: So I, um, I started the practice in the middle of the pandemic.
• 5:18
  MS-Mitra: I was doing the independent contract gigs prior to that, again, to have the flexibility to be with my children, more hours.
• 5:26
  MS-Mitra: So I, uh, yeah, the last one of those was in 2019.
• 5:31
  MS-Mitra: I started the practice in 2020.
• 5:33
  MS-Mitra: Bang in the middle of the pandemic.
• 5:35
  MS-Dawn: Okay, great.
• 5:37
  MS-Dawn: And I do want to point out just right off the bat that you have a website where you have lots of different articles about how you did this and about the different aspects of your lean private practice and your startup costs and things like that.
• 5:50
  MS-Dawn: And can you tell us the name of that website?
• 5:53
  MS-Mitra: Absolutely.
• 5:53
  MS-Mitra: Um, so yes, I've shared my journey with my lean practice.
• 5:57
  MS-Mitra: At lean private practice solutions dot com.
• 6:00
  MS-Mitra: It's actually just transitioning over from what I had started a few years back as a physician, finance basics dot com So if you see some, names, here and there that suggest that that's the reason then I found that this is really what I am You talking about mostly and hence, um, hence the shift.
• 6:18
  MS-Dawn: Well, I'll make sure to link to that website in the show notes because I was looking at some of your articles in preparation for having this conversation, and I found them very helpful and detailed and kind of the, how I did it type of stuff.
• 6:31
  MS-Dawn: And then also there's some other information about business and finance on there.
• 6:35
  MS-Dawn: So thank you for, for having that resource for people.
• 6:39
  MS-Dawn: You mentioned that you've always wanted to work part time.
• 6:42
  MS-Dawn: What motivated you to want to work part time?
• 6:47
  MS-Mitra: So, as I mentioned, I was home with my babies for a little while.
• 6:52
  MS-Mitra: I was doing volunteer work at the time to maintain licensure and stuff and Because my husband is also a physician that we know a lot of physicians in real life between the physicians We know in real life and all the physician groups, on social media Everywhere, there was only one resounding.
• 7:14
  MS-Mitra: tone, which was of discontent, or of, burnout, of clinician distress, whatever you want to call it.
• 7:22
  MS-Mitra: And I was like, wait, what is this death trap that everybody's entering into?
• 7:26
  MS-Mitra: And so that is how I figured out that, you know, working full time would not work for me.
• 7:32
  MS-Mitra: I wanted to spend more time with my children.
• 7:36
  MS-Mitra: Uh, my husband is, very busy.
• 7:38
  MS-Mitra: I, um, subspecialist physician and I did not want to absentee parents for the kids.
• 7:44
  MS-Mitra: Therefore I kind of did not start off with, working full time, going the, you know, going, all nine yards.
• 7:51
  MS-Mitra: And then, because I knew I'd probably burn out for sure.
• 7:55
  MS-Mitra: Um, that's how I, kept it, part time, both for my independent contractor gigs, as well as as a practice owner,
• 8:02
  MS-Dawn: I think it's great that you had that foresight, before really going all in and getting stuck on that treadmill.
• 8:11
  MS-Mitra: It is a hard one to get out of.
• 8:13
  MS-Mitra: If you get into it or when you get into it, of course, there are ways out, but it is definitely harder to get out of that than to not, be in it in the first place.
• 8:22
  MS-Mitra: If your circumstances allow.
• 8:24
  MS-Dawn: Yeah, right.
• 8:24
  MS-Dawn: Absolutely.
• 8:26
  MS-Dawn: How did it work for you to transition from being an independent contractor to, like you said, having the best of both worlds of having a part time schedule, but also being a practice owner?
• 8:44
  MS-Dawn: What was that transition like?
• 8:47
  MS-Mitra: It actually morphed very well.
• 8:51
  MS-Mitra: Because the independent contractor gig, the last one that I was doing kind of disappeared.
• 8:56
  MS-Mitra: There was some issue with the physician I was covering.
• 8:59
  MS-Mitra: So that job was no longer what the way I had started it as.
• 9:04
  MS-Mitra: And so it was relatively easy decision to leave.
• 9:07
  MS-Mitra: And the thought of, starting my own practice had already been in my mind.
• 9:13
  MS-Mitra: By that point, I had already looked around and interviewed, in a couple of places and, and I got an idea of the landscape.
• 9:21
  MS-Mitra: So I kind of knew that, okay, the next step is going to be the practice whenever Is and timing wise, it just happened, to, fall right into place.
• 9:33
  MS-Mitra: Except, uh, for one little detail, of course there was, the pandemic.
• 9:36
  MS-Mitra: Um, uh, my plan was to, uh, I left that gig in 2019, gave myself three to four months for credentialing, as, as expected, and I thought I'd open in the spring of 2020 and, that, it didn't quite turn out that way.
• 9:51
  MS-Mitra: Um, my kids, started homeschooling, so I spent the spring and summer with them, and by fall when they went back to school is when I finally, started.
• 10:02
  MS-Dawn: And what kind of schedule are you following now for work?
• 10:05
  MS-Dawn: What is like a typical week look like for you?
• 10:09
  MS-Mitra: So I worked two days a week, most of the time.
• 10:13
  MS-Mitra: Um, and, those days are, full.
• 10:16
  MS-Mitra: I try to keep the schedule very efficient, and, have a full schedule those, two days, occasionally three, to make up, for say vacation or, if the wait list is building up, I do some admin work, on the other days.
• 10:31
  MS-Mitra: Once the volume built up, I hired a remotely located virtual assistant to help me out and, she takes a ton of.
• 10:40
  MS-Mitra: I did that once I found that I was spending weekends and evenings working on the admin aspect.
• 10:50
  MS-Mitra: And so that was again, taking away from my goal with the practice.
• 10:54
  MS-Mitra: So that has really been a good decision.
• 10:58
  MS-Mitra: So yeah, for the most part, I see patients twice a week and, spend some more time doing admin work, and, a little bit of, home dialysis, which is not related to the practice.
• 11:09
  MS-Dawn: For a lean private practice, you know, you, you mentioned some of the aspects, having low overhead model, not having a fancy office space.
• 11:18
  MS-Dawn: space, for example, not having a ton of other ancillary staff and support.
• 11:23
  MS-Dawn: That can be considered a negative for some people, the lack of support, and yet you have enough volume now that you have a virtual assistant.
• 11:31
  MS-Dawn: What would you say is the hardest part about, operating a practice like this?
• 11:37
  MS-Mitra: That one's easy.
• 11:39
  MS-Mitra: It's mindset.
• 11:40
  MS-Mitra: It's mindset of our own as physicians and clinicians, and practice owners.
• 11:46
  MS-Mitra: And it is this mindset of society in general.
• 11:49
  MS-Mitra: We have come to associate, say success or say certain professions with a certain, look, and environment.
• 11:58
  MS-Mitra: And it doesn't.
• 12:00
  MS-Mitra: quite have to be.
• 12:02
  MS-Mitra: Um, I do want to point out something though.
• 12:04
  MS-Mitra: I didn't start out this way.
• 12:06
  MS-Mitra: I was fairly embarrassed, of my setup in the very beginning.
• 12:11
  MS-Mitra: When patients used to ask, and a few of them would outright ask, Hey doc, Why are you here?
• 12:16
  MS-Mitra: This kind of setting, and just to, you know, figure out, uh, I was, uh, legit.
• 12:21
  MS-Mitra: I used to mumble something.
• 12:23
  MS-Mitra: It took me time to recognize That the value I was providing to the patients was not going to be an iota more if I was in a fancy office with staff hovering over me.
• 12:37
  MS-Mitra: So once I recognized that and believed in that, I found my voice.
• 12:42
  MS-Mitra: I responded to patients differently when they started asking, and at this point, if someone asks, I actually take the time to, you know, uh, explain to them or educate them on how medicine is changing and how the narrative is being driven by insurance companies so much so that private practices around us, at least in my neck of the woods, is getting, really hard.
• 13:04
  MS-Mitra: We have really few independent.
• 13:06
  MS-Mitra: Yeah, especially primary care, practices around us and why that is so, and therefore that something needs to give that the practices of today and tomorrow are going to look different from practices that started even a short 10 years back, that the days of redundancy in medicine are gone, that the days of waste are gone.
• 13:26
  MS-Mitra: So I guess it's the perfect time for lean.
• 13:30
  MS-Dawn: I love that you figured this out and that you turned it into a way that you can educate patients about the changing landscape of the healthcare system and how you're even improving it for them because in the bottom line, it's going to be better care for them and also less costs.
• 13:48
  MS-Dawn: How did you change your mindset?
• 13:51
  MS-Dawn: Were there particular exercises or resources or ways that you were able to realize?
• 13:59
  MS-Dawn: this limiting belief that you had about the way a practice should look and then shift it to be more open and be more accepting of the way that you are doing things and then educate other people about it.
• 14:13
  MS-Mitra: Um, I think it was a gradual shift.
• 14:17
  MS-Mitra: I did not have any role models.
• 14:20
  MS-Mitra: I did not know of anyone else who was doing this.
• 14:24
  MS-Mitra: So I really had to figure this out for myself.
• 14:27
  MS-Mitra: And as they say, action, provides the evidence.
• 14:32
  MS-Mitra: Once I started, seeing more patients, started having positive reviews, both from patients and from referrers.
• 14:40
  MS-Mitra: I realized that, okay, you know, maybe what I'm doing is, not so bad after all for the patients.
• 14:47
  MS-Mitra: Yeah, and I think that's, uh, where it started from.
• 14:50
  MS-Mitra: That's what gave me my confidence.
• 14:53
  MS-Dawn: I love it because what you're demonstrating there is that You had confidence to experiment.
• 15:01
  MS-Dawn: Inherently, confidence is about willingness to try things.
• 15:04
  MS-Dawn: And at the same time, what feeds back in a positive feedback loop of confidence is gaining the experience.
• 15:12
  MS-Dawn: And so, you had the initial, willingness.
• 15:16
  MS-Dawn: And then your confidence grew with getting the positive reviews and the positive feedback.
• 15:21
  MS-Dawn: So that, that's a really good example of that.
• 15:25
  MS-Mitra: Thank
• 15:25
  MS-Dawn: is the best part of your, lean private practice micro practice model?
• 15:31
  MS-Dawn: What do you love about your work situation?
• 15:35
  MS-Mitra: For me, undoubtedly, it is, the freedom that it affords me.
• 15:40
  MS-Mitra: The time freedom, to do all the things that I love apart from satisfying my entrepreneurial spirit by being a practice owner.
• 15:49
  MS-Mitra: The ability to doctor exactly the way I choose to.
• 15:52
  MS-Mitra: Without anybody breathing down my neck and saying, I have to see a certain number of patients or that I can only see them in 10 minutes, lots or anything of the sort.
• 16:00
  MS-Mitra: I think I get to spend more time with patients than is considered feasible in an insurance based model and I am in a completely regular insurance based model.
• 16:15
  MS-Mitra: So those are some of the things that I think have.
• 16:19
  MS-Mitra: led me to what I like to say, uh, the ability to craft my ideal life in medicine, and find the joy in it.
• 16:26
  MS-Dawn: So this is something that maybe I don't understand about the particular specialty in the way that, you might be hired by a hospital system or a patient, but how do you go about making the connection so that you have the patient base when you're in this kind of a business?
• 16:46
  MS-Mitra: Right.
• 16:47
  MS-Mitra: So actually that is no different from setting up any regular, subspecialist practice, in town.
• 16:53
  MS-Mitra: Since it's an insurance based, model, and since I'm a subspecialist, I reached out, to the primary care physicians in my neck of the woods.
• 17:02
  MS-Mitra: I hit the pavement, um, went and met, as many primary care physician practices, that I, found, in my area.
• 17:10
  MS-Mitra: Um, and gave them my cards, gave them my cell number.
• 17:13
  MS-Mitra: I was, always available, happy to answer questions, able to get in patients quickly.
• 17:19
  MS-Mitra: So, you're right, none of that is different because my practice is lean, except that maybe I was the one going out.
• 17:26
  MS-Mitra: To the referrals rather than sending staff.
• 17:29
  MS-Mitra: Though, I'd like to, add that even if you have staff, this is something this connection is best made physician to physician.
• 17:35
  MS-Mitra: And therefore, it may not, be best outsourced.
• 17:38
  MS-Mitra: So, it's a good idea to, do it this way.
• 17:42
  MS-Dawn: Yeah, absolutely.
• 17:43
  MS-Dawn: I'm sure that was a big benefit, uh, no matter what your business model is, just connecting, like, like you said.
• 17:51
  MS-Dawn: During the transition and even now as a business owner, do you have any tips for navigating uncertainty, whether it be financial or patient volume or, anything like that?
• 18:06
  MS-Mitra: Yes.
• 18:07
  MS-Mitra: They're trying to remember that it's always going to be a roller coaster And being okay with that Knowing that that is a normal part of the process there will always be Ups and downs in volume of referrers.
• 18:23
  MS-Mitra: There will always be ups and downs with reviews I like to remember that reviews are more about the reviewer Done about the reviewee.
• 18:35
  MS-Mitra: Much the same way as any words reflect more the thoughts and beliefs of the person saying them.
• 18:41
  MS-Mitra: As far as financial aspects, with the business, well, the math has got to match.
• 18:46
  MS-Mitra: I did a very basic back of the napkin business plan and kind of figured how many patients I'd need to see in a week to make what I wanted to make.
• 18:59
  MS-Mitra: And I was like, Hmm, that sounds doable.
• 19:01
  MS-Mitra: And therefore I went for it.
• 19:03
  MS-Mitra: But, yes.
• 19:04
  MS-Mitra: This is a.
• 19:08
  MS-Mitra: Low cost model, the insurance model is a low cost model.
• 19:11
  MS-Mitra: You don't make too much per patient.
• 19:13
  MS-Mitra: And so you do have to figure out the details of, how many patients you'll see in order to, um, you know, one pay for your expenses and then some.
• 19:23
  MS-Mitra: So, you're able to, take home or what you would, consider adequate, uh, remuneration for your expertise and your skill and to take care of your family.
• 19:34
  MS-Dawn: Okay, is there anything that you know now that you've been doing this for a few years at least that you didn't know when you first started out, anything that you wish you knew then that you know now?
• 19:49
  MS-Mitra: Not so much during the independent contractor phase, but everything since starting the practice.
• 19:57
  MS-Mitra: I knew none of this.
• 20:00
  MS-Mitra: I googled pretty much everything.
• 20:02
  MS-Mitra: I learned basic stuff, like what's an HMO and what's a PPO.
• 20:08
  MS-Mitra: And in fact, for the first three or four months, I did not know what an HMO was.
• 20:13
  MS-Mitra: And, I was obviously, running a little late with say, posting payments and, reconciling my accounts and stuff.
• 20:20
  MS-Mitra: And I found that there were these, in one patient's instance, um, the same patient for that.
• 20:25
  MS-Mitra: I didn't get paid for two visits and I was like, Hmm, what is this about?
• 20:28
  MS-Mitra: And I made a call to the insurance company and I found that there's something called an HMO for which you need a prior authorization before seeing them as a specialist.
• 20:38
  MS-Mitra: Uh, you could have seen my face at that point.
• 20:41
  MS-Mitra: So, you know, that was a very basic thing that I did not know.
• 20:45
  MS-Mitra: And it sounds almost funny now, but there are innumerable instances like that, like the tech of things, how to make processes more efficient, of course the revenue cycle management aspect, which is everything that happens.
• 20:59
  MS-Mitra: After you see a patient because guess what you may have seen 20 patients today, but you haven't made a dime unless you've signed that note and submitted that claim and made sure all of it is done right so that you can actually get paid
• 21:14
  MS-Dawn: That is a really good point, which is that you can learn things from scratch that you really don't know anything about, and all you need to do is be inquisitive, be open, um, do some research.
• 21:28
  MS-Dawn: And things that might feel foreign to you, they're unusual, things that you don't know anything about, you can make them a part of your business.
• 21:36
  MS-Dawn: Yeah.
• 21:37
  MS-Mitra: Right, 100, 110 percent in fact, and you know, I'm sorry to interrupt, but I do want to point out that I want to remind our colleagues, the docs are incredibly smart.
• 21:51
  MS-Mitra: innovative folks.
• 21:53
  MS-Mitra: I hope folks haven't forgotten this, we're some of the smartest people and so we can figure anything out.
• 21:59
  MS-Mitra: If we, if we feel backed into a corner at this point, we within ourselves have all the resources to get out of this corner and to take back, whichever part of the narrative we choose to.
• 22:14
  MS-Dawn: Yeah, that's great advice.
• 22:15
  MS-Dawn: Is there any other things that you would like to say in our closing here to women who might be feeling overwhelmed or stuck in a work situation and desire more freedom like you did?
• 22:30
  MS-Mitra: Like you said, be open and always believe that, there are choices out there, no matter how much it may seem.
• 22:39
  MS-Mitra: Otherwise, coaching has really helped me over the last few years.
• 22:43
  MS-Mitra: With some of these limiting beliefs that I had, myself.
• 22:47
  MS-Mitra: And, with regard to, medicine or practice in general, I still think despite all the challenges that private practice, is a great way for many physicians to practice.
• 22:57
  MS-Mitra: And to remember that, it's going to look a little different now and, it's okay as long as we define the value we provide for our patients and be laser focused on it.
• 23:09
  MS-Mitra: Everything else is actually fluff.
• 23:11
  MS-Mitra: Um, change is hard, there will be a little resistance but at the end of the day, if it's the right thing to do, the right thing wins.
• 23:18
  MS-Mitra: And, in somewhat of a digression, pertaining to the innovation that we talked about that needs to come from us.
• 23:25
  MS-Mitra: I am all about, creating solutions, for, private practice, and love to hear of these things, from everyone.
• 23:31
  MS-Mitra: So, my, The latest venture is a little online business called linkmedicalspaces.
• 23:39
  MS-Mitra: com where one can look for medical office space to sublet.
• 23:44
  MS-Mitra: From, other established practices, because I was in that boat myself looking for space to sublet and didn't find any, which is why I ended up in the shared workspace, location.
• 23:55
  MS-Mitra: And I hope this will be of value to, some folks, especially, To reduce the barrier to entry in private practice because on top of med school loans, the thought of another loan in order to start a practice is daunting and not very desirable.
• 24:14
  MS-Dawn: That is so true.
• 24:15
  MS-Dawn: Well, we'll be sure to have links to both of your websites in the show notes and also you have a Facebook group and tell me the name of that group.
• 24:25
  MS-Mitra: Sure.
• 24:26
  MS-Mitra: The name of the group is the same, Lean Private Practice Solutions, where we talk about all things Lean Practice.
• 24:33
  MS-Dawn: Wonderful.
• 24:34
  MS-Dawn: Mitra, thank you so much for being on the show.
• 24:36
  MS-Dawn: It's been a pleasure.
• 24:38
  MS-Mitra: Thank you, Dawn.
• 24:39
  MS-Mitra: Pleasure was all mine.
• 24:40
  MS-Mitra: Again, all the very best for the podcast and all else.
• 24:43
  MS-Dawn: Thank you.
• 24:47
  I loved hearing about what Metro is doing, because it has a little bit of a personal connection for me.
• 24:53
  And I will explain that in the takeaways.
• 24:57
  Number one.
• 24:58
  The key to getting more.
• 25:00
  Can sometimes be less.
• 25:01
  Less of something like overhead startup costs, et cetera.
• 25:06
  While I'm not in the same kind of medical practice as Mitra.
• 25:09
  I have seen And the benefits of this type of lean private practice model.
• 25:14
  My husband has a very similar micro-practice for patent law.
• 25:18
  And he has been doing it since 2005.
• 25:21
  He was really an early.
• 25:22
  The adopter of this type of model.
• 25:25
  As was Metro's experience.
• 25:27
  It was a little bumpy at first and there was some upfront learning and extra work involved to get the tech down and the billing and those kinds of things.
• 25:34
  Those are the types of things that inner traditional practice might get hired out.
• 25:39
  But since then, I have only seen my husband thrive on this model.
• 25:44
  He has complete freedom over his schedule and client load and his take home pay is always maximized.
• 25:50
  He has consistently worked less hours than I have of.
• 25:53
  Course this means out.
• 25:54
  Out of residency.
• 25:55
  And he has always.
• 25:56
  I always.
• 25:56
  made more money.
• 25:58
  I know other people that are doing something similar in the accounting field.
• 26:01
  And now maitre is showing us that it's possible to do this even in a medical insurance-based field.
• 26:08
  Number two.
• 26:09
  You are intelligent and resourceful.
• 26:13
  You wouldn't have gotten to where you are.
• 26:14
  If you weren't these things, you are able to learn new skills and gain new knowledge.
• 26:20
  Meter had to educate herself on lots of things related to running a private practice.
• 26:24
  And over time it has paid off.
• 26:26
  Remembering, this can be helpful if you're feeling stuck on Alina journey, because there's a part of where you want to go, that requires you to gain some sort of specific knowledge or skills that you don't already have.
• 26:39
  Number three.
• 26:41
  Communicate with others confidently about the choices you've made.
• 26:45
  With or without an accompanying explanation, maybe not as needed.
• 26:49
  When you're doing something out of the box in your profession, this is very important.
• 27:21
  My question for you today is what could you be doing less of to get more of what you really want in your work-life balance?
• 27:31
  Thanks for listening to the lean out podcast.
• 27:34
  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.
• 27:46
  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.
• 28:02
  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.
• 28:15
  Have a great day and we'll see you next time