In September 2024, Business is the Best Medicine became one year old. Unfortunately, we were too busy to celebrate. Heather was in the last stages of preparation for our second annual education conference, which took place September 20-21. I was buried in the ER and preparing my lectures for the event. The conference was a success, and now that things have calmed down a bit, I have time to reflect on the last year.
Highlights
Overall, there has been way more good than bad this year, so I’ll start by accentuating the positive. This is something that I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. Perhaps it’s my personality, 20 years in the ER, or some innate human tendency, but I tend to focus on the few things that are wrong instead of all that is right. Anyway, I’m trying to open my eyes a little wider to all the good things in my life and the world.
Getting Started
I thought about starting a blog for years without taking action. I was always too busy, and I could always find an excuse. I told residents and fellows I had been teaching for several years that “by next year, I’ll start writing things down.” Simply getting the blog started is a big win in my book.
Being Consistent
I read a book on blogging before starting this adventure, and one of the main points was that you had to write and publish consistently. Like the good students we are, Heather and I set out with the goal to do just that. By my count, we have published 95 articles on BBM and another 7 on other blogs or periodicals for over 100 unique posts in the first year. I think we have accomplished that goal.
Guest posts
The most obvious highlight of the year was the guest posts. My first two guest posts were for the Motivated MD. I wrote Why I Still Work After Achieving Financial Independence specifically as a guest post for the site. It was included in Physician on Fire’s Sunday Best in February of this year. When I sent in the submission, I started to second guess myself and added a second article I had written for BBM that I had just finished. I assumed the second article, The Myth of the Tax Write-Off, would be a little too dense for a guest post. However, the site wanted to publish both, and the tax article actually gained some traction and is still listed in Motivated MD’s most popular section. It was also picked up and distributed by Doximity. The response to my initial two guest posts was a pleasant surprise!
Next, I wrote Talk to Your Patients About Money for KevinMD and did a Q&A with 1500 Days to Freedom, which was a lot of fun. Afterward, Carl sent me digital copies of my favorite workout videos, which I have used religiously over the last six months. My last guest post for the year was How This Financially Literate Physician Got Scammed Out of $75,000 on the White Coat Investor.
Heather also wrote a guest post on the White Coat investor, provocatively titled “How PAs and NPs Can Make Doctor Money.” The article caused quite a stir, and I’ll be surprised if it doesn’t make WCI’s 2024 list of most controversial articles. She also wrote Creating a CME Eligible Education Conference, published in Volume 8, Issue 3 of Urgent Caring: A Peer-Reviewed Publication.
Podcast appearances
I appeared on two podcasts in the past year. First, I discussed my article on The Podcast with KevinMD. It was a quick discussion, all done in one take without editing. Recently, I appeared on The Perfect Scam Podcast from AARP, discussing the same topic as my WCI article. This one was quite edited and altogether a very different experience.
Working with Heather
I have worked with Heather in the ER and UC settings for several years. However, working with her as equals on BBM has been fun. Before you give me grief about the word “equals,” I am the owner of the ER group and UC, where Heather is employed. That colors your relationship no matter how much you try to be “just one of the providers.”
I have enjoyed working on this project together, hearing her perspective on my writing and ideas, and listening to her feedback and her ideas. It’s truly been a collaborative effort of which I am proud. We have grown as writers and educators over the past year. Most blogs are written with one voice, probably for good reason, but having a partner in this adventure has been fun.
Challenges
Finding time to write
One of the wonderful and terrible things about my life as an ER doctor is that I have no set schedule. Every week is different. There is no rhythm or pattern. I am writing this sentence on an uncomfortable bench at my son’s jiu-jitsu class. They practice 3-4 hours weekly, so I often write here. Over the past year I have also written from the boy’s tennis, soccer, basketball, and piano practices, my daughter’s dance and gymnastics lessons, and a host of airports and vacation destinations. Sometimes, I write in the morning, other times in the afternoon, and occasionally at night. Perhaps when I finally retire, I will settle into something akin to a normal schedule. For now, it is anything but.
It also takes me a lot of time to complete an article. I write almost in a stream-of-consciousness style, which forces me to edit and re-edit everything over and over. This makes the process of writing fast and slow at the same time. The words and sentences come easily, but the paragraphs and articles take shape slowly.
Staying focused
I just stopped writing a different article in order to start writing this one. This happens all the time. I begin one topic, then quickly shift to another. Perhaps it’s my ER brain – I just can’t concentrate on one thing for too long. Finding topics isn’t my issue – I have started dozens of articles I haven’t finished. I have a problem shaping all the ideas and snippets of writing into a coherent article. I would like to say that I have improved my writing focus this year, but I’m not sure that is true.
Gaining traction
While we have had some success, gaining readers has been challenging. The internet is littered with failed blogs – maybe failed isn’t the right word. The internet is littered with dormant blogs – those that have stopped publishing new content. That’s better. I’m not sure what I expected. Heather and I made a pact that we would continuously publish content for at least two years. We understand that building an audience takes time, especially with a blog. Heather and I are both driven, results-oriented people. Perhaps the issue is that we didn’t set any metrics for success, so we don’t know what it is.
Writing About Business
The name of our blog is Business is the Best Medicine, not Personal Finance is the Best Medicine, or FI is the Best Medicine. Perhaps I misnamed it. Although I have written some business articles, I have found myself gravitating towards personal finance.
Other Positives
Some positives have come from a year of blogging that don’t show up in the highlights or online metrics. Even if no one reads what I write, the process itself has some benefits.
Writing
I’ve always had a torrent of words and ideas running through my head. It can get exhausting. Writing the blog over the past year has helped purge some of it from my brain. The sheer volume has helped. In the past year, I’ve written what I’ve published on the blog, the guest posts, dozens of unfinished articles, one complete but as-of-yet unpublished e-book, and about 40,000 words of another, unfinished book – not to mention the tens of thousands of words that I’ve written and deleted. I think that sometimes I’m a little calmer now that I’ve finally gotten some of this out of my head.
Researching topics of interest
Working on the blog has led me down many a fascinating rabbit hole. I spent weeks going over historical Japanese stock market returns. I’ve studied the US 10-year treasury chart and its relation to interest rates and stock market returns. I’ve created dozens of spreadsheets to confirm or deny hypotheses based on historical market returns. I’ve spent more time studying the US tax system than I ever thought possible. And I’ve enjoyed every minute of it.
Goals for Year Two
The goal is to keep going. BBM will continue to publish at least five articles per month for the next year. After starting the blog publishing twice a week, this reduced load seems to be our sweet spot. Heather and I have busy family lives and careers, which hopefully makes our writing more interesting.
I would love for more people to read the blog, offer feedback, and benefit from what we write. However, I’m okay if that doesn’t happen. As mentioned above, I’m getting a lot of good out of the process itself.
I will attempt to get some more guest post-credits in year two. Our guest posts in year one led to interesting opportunities and were a lot of fun. It’s challenging to write things for other blogs because a) it’s more writing for our busy schedule, b) you must ensure that what you are writing is beneficial for their audience, and c) only a few blogs offer guest posts. So, if you know of any medical, business, or finance blogs that are looking for guest posts, let me know in the comments!
Finally, I’d like to add some more educational material on our site for students, residents, and fellows—perhaps a book, a course, or some downloadable spreadsheets. If the goal of our blog is to educate and inspire medical professionals to get their personal financial lives in order and start their own businesses, these items should be helpful.
Favorite Posts
My favorite posts that I have written include The Myth of the Tax Write-Off, which I mentioned earlier. I think it takes a complex topic and makes it understandable, which I believe is why it gained some traction.
The hardest post for me to write turned out to be Medical Business Basics – Commercial Leases Parts 1-3. I thought it was a good idea at the time. I had been going through some commercial leases and figured others could benefit from thoroughly understanding them. I happened to be on vacation in Europe and thought it would be an easy series of posts. However, it took days and days to write and was the one post that felt like a lot of work that I didn’t necessarily enjoy. Conversely, the easiest post was Why FI Rock – The Magnetic Fields, which took about one manic hour to write and was a lot of fun. I think that comes through in the post.
Finally, I am proud of Personal Finance Basics for Medical Professionals Part 1, Lessons 1-6. This is the closest thing we have to a course on the blog, so I’m happy I finally have somewhere to point medical professionals new to personal finance. I think it’s a great place for them to start. I will continue the series in year two.
Heather
My favorite posts of Heather’s include Journey to Striving for Personal Growth Over Perfectionism, which I believe was very personal for her. I think you can note the conflict she has about this particular topic in her writing.
I also enjoyed The ‘My Doctor Did Nothing’ Dilemma: How to Increase Patient Satisfaction in Modern Medicine, which I believe was well-written and informative. It showcased how far Heather’s writing has come over the year and her maturity as a provider.
I was also very proud of her WCI guest post mentioned above. It took a lot of courage to write it, knowing there would be backlash. Even then, I think we were both surprised by the uproar it caused in the WCI comments. She handled the controversy with strength, grace, and humility – a difficult mix that she blended perfectly.
Conclusion
One year down, at least one more to go. I’m a man of my word. Besides, I’m still enjoying many aspects of writing this blog, and I have a ton of topics I still need to get to. I want to thank those of you who are regular readers. I hope you enjoy reading our blog and get some helpful information out of it. If so, please subscribe below. Also, leave comments or feedback to spark discussion. Tell your friends or post a link to your preferred social media accounts -every bit helps.
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