Ep #167: How Can I Stop Struggling with Content Creation?

Hi, docs. Welcome to The EntreMD Podcast, where it’s all about helping amazing physicians just like you embrace entrepreneurship so you can have the freedom to live life and practice medicine on your terms. I’m your host, Dr. Una.

Well, hello hello everybody. Welcome back to another episode of The EntreMD Podcast, we are going to have a blast. Now, we are going to do this recording because I had posted in the Facebook group and I’m like, “Hey, guys, what do you guys want to see me record about?”

And a doc came on and said, “Listen, how do I stop struggling with content creation?” And I was like, “Well, let’s talk all about it.” Okay. Now, I talk about it because I had thought the same thoughts, like how am I going to be able to keep up?

But I have content for the EntreMD Business School every single week, and then plus what we do in the Facebook group, and challenges and all of that. I have three episodes I produce every week, two on the EntreMD Podcast and one on the Doctors Changing Medicine Podcast. And I do social media posts and all of this stuff. It’s like there’s a reservoir where all this stuff is coming out of and I’m going to give you all the secrets, okay.

But before we do that, I do want to read a testimonial that an amazing doctor sent me. She sent this to me by email. Now listen, you can always share your stories with me by email, Dr. Una, D-R-U-N-A, @entremd.com. And this is from Dr. Zainab.

And she says, “Hi, Dr. Una, I just had to give you this feedback as my way of saying thank you. So I listened to this episode of the EntreMD Podcast about two years ago. I don’t quite recall the caption, but your guest spoke about limiting beliefs about money and I had a light bulb moment.

I didn’t realize I had a saving mindset towards money, and I was proud of myself for being good at saving, when I should have been good at investing. I couldn’t get the lesson from the podcast out of my mind. So within a few months of listening to the podcast I went out to buy a house, fixed it up, and I leased it out. Fast forward two years and I’ve just purchased another one from what I’ve saved.

Now when I put money aside, the narrative reads saving for my next project. This may sound small, as rent in my part of Nigeria isn’t much, but it is a lot for me. I don’t know where this is leading, but I choose to see it leading to financial freedom, retirement from a job, and control of my time. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

Now, I’m going to put this in context because you may not necessarily be able to get this if you live in the United States. When she says buy a house, she means buy a house. She doesn’t mean putting down a down payment, she means paying for the entire house. So this is really, really big.

And so Dr. Zainab, I want to say congratulations, this is amazing. I’m so excited to hear about this. And this is the beginning of things to come. And I’m so proud of you for not being sure where this is leading, but you’re like, “But I’m on the right path and I’m going to take it anyway, even though I don’t have the full picture.” So I love it.

And if you’re listening and you’re also like, “I don’t have the full picture, I don’t know where this is going,” and all of that. Well embrace it, right? Why don’t we take the next steps and we can figure the rest out as we go? This is totally doable. So thank you so much for sharing that. And if you have stories, I want you to share them with me too. I will probably be shouting you out on the podcast next. Okay.

All right, so let’s get into this how can I stop struggling with content creation thing, okay? I want to start off by saying I don’t believe any doctor struggles with content. It’s just that when we think in terms of YouTube, podcasts, blogs, social media, it seems like this really foreign thing that we don’t know how to do.

It’s like, “Oh, how do I do this? How do I come up with content? How do I always have the right thing to say? The right pictures to post? How do I create things that will be engaging and all of that?” But it’s all in the way it’s presented.

So let me bring it to doctor mode. What if you thought about content creation like taking notes, like note creation? Content creation like note creation. So the average PCP is going to see 20 patients a day. Many see 30, many see 40. But let’s just pick 20 for the sake of argument.

And think about what you do. You have somebody come in, you have no idea what they’re going to say and somehow, you’re comfortable with it. You have no idea what they’re going to say when they walk through the doors.

So they come in, they tell you this is going on, you ask questions to clarify. You’ve been trained to do your HPI in the words of the patient. So you’re really good at messaging. As a physician, you’re really good at messaging.

So you get the pain in their words. And then you think about okay, what exactly is going on here? You make an assessment and then you come up with recommendations. That’s what you do.

If you think about that, that’s pretty good, it’s a pretty good outline for content. Problem, assessment, recommendations, problem, assessment recommendations. I will even take it further and say we also do reassurance. And so if you take these antibiotics within three to five days, Johnny should start feeling better. Symptoms may not go away altogether.

And so what are you doing? You’re doing what we talk about, right? When you’re speaking, you’re doing the imagine if. Like, if you do these things I tell you, this is what life could look like.

You didn’t know that you were hypertensive, and you’ve been having all these headaches, and all these things have been going on. And now you’re going to start taking it and yeah, you’re going to need to take your medicine every day, but you’re going to be back to your normal self. That’s imagine if.

So the patient comes in, you document what’s going on in their words, you make an assessment, you make recommendations, you leave them with imagine if, right? That’s the framework for content. And guess what, we do it every single day.

So if we go back to the PCP who’s seeing 20 patients a day, that means that that doctor creates 20 outlines. That’s outlines for 20 episodes of a podcast, 20 YouTube videos, 20 blogs every day, right? Who has a better muscle at doing that than we do?

So you do that every single day. And if you do that five days a week, that’s 100 a week. That’s 400, 400 outlines every month. I need you to just sit with that thought. You create 400 outlines every month.

If you can just re-frame the way you think about content, you’ll be golden because you do this for fun. And you don’t get stressed out like, “I wonder what’s going to come through the door.” You don’t get stressed out like, “What am I going to tell them?” Because you’re walking around with all the information, right?

And so you’re really good at this stuff. You’re really, really good. So what if you did the same thing in your business? What if you followed that? So the HPI like the story, the recommendation like your teaching points, and the reassurance like your imagine if. Think about all the content you can create.

All right, so let me apply this to business. Let’s pick some examples and we’ll take it from there. So let’s say you’re a PCP, let’s say you’re a pediatrician, internal medicine doc, actually not even PCP, you’re just a doc, but you work in private practice.

So you’re a cardiologist, or you’re a OB/GYN or whatever. And you want to create a YouTube channel for your practice knowing fully well that if you do this, because not too many are, if you do this is sets your practice apart, you become the practice.

And if you’re listening to me and you have a private practice and you haven’t done this, I want to invite you to embrace it. It will change your business. It will create immigration problems in your business, like people are trying to come in and you’re like, “Oh my gosh, we don’t have enough room for these patients.” But maybe you can hire somebody else and maybe you can take two days a week off. I don’t know.

But think about it, every patient story, and I’m not talking about violating HIPAA laws or anything like that. But every story is a video. Like, “Doc, I don’t, know my kid’s poop was green. Is that normal?” Title of video, is green poop normal?

You can say my newborn is sneezing, is that normal? If my newborn sneezes, does that mean they have allergies? I don’t have my period on the same day every month, is that normal? Should I have my period on the same day every month?

Do you see how every question they ask you is a topic for a video? Every single one. So when I did a Facebook Live for my practice, I would literally just have a notepad on my phone that I use for running topics.

So when people ask me stuff, I’m like, “Wow, that’s interesting. I didn’t think about it that way.” And I would just add it to my note so when it’s time to record I have all these things to do.

You should have a running note, you will never run out of content. You can never run out of content because people have lots of questions, they do.
So every question is a topic. Your patients, they gift you with topics. And you might say, “Oh, but that’s so simple.” It’s not about it being complex.

Please hear me, if a mom has a kid and the kid poops green poop and she’s wondering if this is normal. What do you think she’s going to Google? She’s going to Google “Is green poop in a two year old normal?” Now, if you have done a YouTube video that says, “Is green poop normal?” Guess whose video is being pulled up. Yours.

You want to do it in their words, you want to do it in their terms because that’s what they’re going to be searching for. That is what they’re going to see on Facebook and stop scrolling. They are looking for what they are looking for. They’re not looking for anything complex, they’re just looking for the questions they already have.

If you take those questions, it will do wonders for you, for SEO. It will do wonders for your fear, like, know, and trust factor because people are like, “Oh my gosh, she gets me. Oh my gosh, he gets me.” Because you are saying what they’re thinking. So that’s if you’re a PCP.

Okay, so let’s say you’re a coach. Okay, so we have in the EntreMD Business School community, we have Dr. Michelle Clark and she is a run coach. She’s a pediatrician by training and she’s a run coach. And people walk up to her, I’m sure, and ask her lots of questions. And I picked her because I would have a lot of questions for her.

I would say things like, “I’m not a runner. I don’t think I can do a 5K.” And then so she flips that and that becomes a topic, “Well, how to do your first 5K even if you don’t think you’re a runner.” What do you think I’m going to do if I see that topic? I need to watch that, right?

And she could do like, “What kinds of shoes should I wear? What kind of tracker should I use? How much water should I be drinking? Where should I train? How should I train? What do I do if my knees hurt?”

These are all questions that people who are her ideal clients, or her ideal audience would want to know. And then she just takes all those questions and turns them into videos, or podcast episodes, or blogs, whichever she wants to use, and that’s content. And they will always have questions.

When it’s the summer, how should I prepare to run in the summer since it’s so hot? How do I prepare to run in the winter since it’s so cold? How do I run in the snow? What do I do if I need to pee in the middle of a 5K?

I’m just telling you there are a million questions. And there are a million questions and there are a million limiting beliefs. And that’s all content. Do you see when you look at it that way you can never run out of content.

What that means is when you’re in Facebook groups and people are talking about their struggles as a runner, I mean, she would probably be doing cartwheels because it’s like, “Oh my goodness, they gave me all this content.” You go answer their questions, you go address their struggles, and that’s all content.

All right. Now, Dr. Cheruba Prabakar is the one who asked this question. She is called the fibroid doc, you can follow her on Instagram, she’s there as @thefibroiddoc. And I’m going to use her example as well because she was the one who was so generous as to give us this question.

Now, you can see I’m doing what I’m showing you to do. She’s like, “I am struggling with content creation.” So I created a podcast episode, how can I stop struggling with content creation? Literally, that is how this works. And she has a YouTube channel and that’s where she’s putting a lot of her her content.

And so what would she do? Okay, so think about it, think about fibroids. Well, how do I know if I have a fibroid? So somebody heard her friend say, “Oh my goodness, I had a fibroid, I didn’t even know. And now they’re saying I have to do surgery and all this stuff.” So guess what her girlfriend is thinking, “Well, how do I know if I have a fibroid?” Right? So how do I know if I have a fibroid?

People don’t like surgery, I’m a doctor and I don’t like surgery. How can fibroids be fixed without surgery? You better believe they’re going to be Googling that. Can I still have children if I’ve had a fibroid? Can I still have children if I’ve had surgery for fibroids?

Some people are like, I’d rather bleed and deal with the pain than get rid of this fibroid. If I have fibroids and I’m bleeding, is that bad? Is it bad? What could I have done to prevent these fibroids? How serious is the surgery? How long will it take to recover? Will I need to have a hysterectomy? What is a hysterectomy? Are there different kinds of surgery for fibroids? Can fibroids turn into cancer? Can fibroids come back?

Even, if you think about it, somebody is going to be told you need to have a hysterectomy. Now, I’ve never had to tell a patient that but I’m imagining it’s a very hard thing to have to deal with. I can imagine it’s very emotional to have your whole uterus taken out. I mean, especially if you wanted kids. And even if you have had kids, right?

So people have questions, you can have an episode, so now you have to have a hysterectomy. And you walk them through whatever it is that you tell them when you’re in the office with them. Now, of course we’re observing HIPAA laws and all that so we’re not using anybody’s information directly with identifiers and stuff like that. But these are things people want to know.

So we’re not just talking about content for the sake of content. We’re talking about content that will make people go like, “My goodness, she gets me. My goodness, he gets me.” And you become the obvious choice. This is what makes people say yes to you because you’re already serving them.

On the EntreMD Podcast I am already serving you. There are people getting massive wins. Look at Dr. Zainab, she has closed on two properties, paying for them in full. She has never been in any of my programs, she’s been on the podcast. Do you see what I’m saying? I’m already serving. I’m already serving.

So if you think in these terms, you can never run out of content. It is literally impossible. You are a reservoir of content and the more you produce, the better that muscle is and the more you can produce. The more you produce, the more you realize, “Oh my goodness, I can’t run out of this stuff.” You know what I mean?

And that could be you. I just want you to start with re-framing how you think about it. Stop thinking about like content creation, like this thing that master YouTubers do. No, content creation is what physicians do. We are good at it, we can produce 400 pieces of content a month, and not hypothetically we can, we do, right?

We produce notes, we produce over 400, some of you it’s 500, some of you it’s 700 a month. And that doesn’t include conversations we need to have, that doesn’t include callbacks, that doesn’t include any of that. We produce content, we are great at it. We’re just putting it in a different vehicle.

So if you think in terms of people always have questions, people always have limiting beliefs, and there are a lot of myths. So for example, the example I gave with Dr. Prabakar, the fibroid doc, what are the myths around fibroids?

Could it be that fibroids equal to cancer? Or could it be that if you have a fibroid, the next step is hysterectomy. What are those myths? Every one of those myths, you debunking it is an episode. It is content, right?

So people are not going to run out of questions, not going to run out of limiting beliefs, not going to run out of myths. And so as long as those three things remain, you can never run out of content. You can’t. You just cannot.

And if you think about it, you can always come at the content from different angles. So you may think of one topic and you’re like, “Oh, I’ve talked about that topic.” Maybe you have, but maybe there are 12 different angles and you’ve talked about one. That leaves you with 11. Do you see what I mean?

Because I can talk about stopping the struggle with content creation from the angle of the mindset of find content. I can talk about batching. I can talk about re-purposing. I can talk about collaboration. There’s so many angles to it so I can talk about content creation for 12 weeks. Do you see what I mean?

You can never run out of content. I want you to embrace it. And when you think, “I’m struggling with content creation,” you need to go like, “I’m a doctor, okay, we produce hundreds, hundreds of pieces of content every single month. And I’ve done this for a decade, I am great at producing content.”

So, what I want you to do today, so hear me out, and this is an assignment that I want you to do today. Except if you’re listening to this podcast at like, 11pm before you sleep, which is not recommended because the EntreMD Podcast will wake you up, it’s not designed to help you go to sleep.

Okay, but I want you today, today to create a list of 30 topics for your content. 30 topics. So whatever, if you’re a private practice, or you’re a coach, or you’re a pure content creator like a YouTuber, that’s your primary business model, or you have a personal brand, or whatever. Whatever that is, I want you to create a list of 30 topics.

Okay, so that’s your jumpstart. And then that becomes a running list that every time you hear a question, every time you hear somebody in your ideal audience talking, speaking, talking about their challenges, the questions they have, all that you add it to it.

So this is going to be an open running list. But I want you to go zero to 30, boom. Zero to 30 right there, in their words. Think HPI. we’re not thinking diagnosis. We’re thinking HPI. What are they saying? What are they saying?

So you do that because if you do this, what will happen is you’re going to be that person who goes from, “Oh my gosh, where do I find the content?” To, “Oh my gosh, where do I find the time for all the content I have?” You have an unlimited amount of content on the inside of you, and I want you to become a master at pulling this out.

All right, so let me know how the episode helped you, take a screenshot, post it on social media, post your biggest takeaway from it, and then tag me, #EntreMD. I love to read it and I love to shout you out as well. So I will see you, my friend, on the next episode of The EntreMD Podcast.

Hey, if you love listening to The EntreMD Podcast, I want to invite you to join EntreMD On Demand. It is my signature subscription program that gives you access to a library of business courses designed to help you do one thing as a physician entrepreneur, and that is to thrive. Just head out to entremd.com/ondemand. And I’d love to have you join us. See you on the inside.