Lunch and Learn with Dr. Berry, Dr. Brooke Williams, ColorofMedicine, Mentorship

LLP141: Mamba Mentality with Dr. Brooke Williams

Let's talk about mamba mentality…

On this week's episode of the Lunch and Learn with Dr. Berry we have Dr. Brooke Williams, a third year Internal Medicine Resident and most importantly one of my mentees. I got the chance to meet Dr. Williams through one of my mentors, Dr. Robert Hasty and it has been such an amazing experience we decided to record one of our mentor/mentee sessions.

On this episode we get to see some of the different phases of life that Dr. Williams maintains concurrently and how she is able to juggle them all. We also talk about why mentorship is so important regardless of your career.

Text LUNCHLEARNPOD to 44222 to join the mailing list.

Remember to subscribe to the podcast and share the episode with a friend or family member.

Listen on Apple Podcast, Google Play, Stitcher, Soundcloud, iHeartRadio, Spotify

Sponsors:

Links/Resources:

Social Links:

If you are looking to help the show out

  • Leave a Five Star Review on Apple Podcast because your ratings and reviews are what is going to make this show so much better
  • Share a screenshot of the podcast episode on all of your favorite social media outlets & tag me or add the hashtag.#lunchlearnpod

Download Episode 141

[showhide type=””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””post”””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””” more_text=””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””Episode 141 Transcript…”””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””” less_text=””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””Show less…””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””] Introduction Dr. Berry: And welcome to another episode of the Lunch and Learn with Dr. Berry. I'm your host, Dr. Berry Pierre, your favorite Board Certified Internist. Founder of drberrypierre.com, as well the CEO of Pierre Medical Consulting. Helping you empower yourself for better health with the number one podcast for patient advocacy, affirmation, as well as education. This week I get to bring you a special episode with my mentee, Dr. Brooke Williams, who is a third-year medical resident out of Chicago, Illinois currently. But she's gonna be going back to her home state of North Carolina. Dr. Williams has developed a passion for bringing awareness to physician burnout as well as mental health awareness. She has a philosophy, “I too am a minority”, which helps promote multicultural awareness and graduate medical education by supporting the principles of increasing cultural competency, reducing racial health disparities, and advocating for increased representation and underrepresented minorities. So this is going to be an amazing episode, guys. Again, I've talked a lot about mentorship and really the importance of mentorship. Those who have been following me from the beginning know that I wouldn't have started on the journey that I had been. and it really got to the level that I've gotten to. If I might say shout to out to my coach Dr. Drai who help open my eyes. Remove the blinders off me and help take me out of the box that I used to put myself in. So I always, always make it a point to be able to reach back and give any support I can, especially to people who I know what working hard and wanting to get to where I get to. So Dr. Williams is going to be an amazing discussion today and what we're going to do today is we're actually going to have one of our mentor-mentee sessions. We're actually going to go through what we typically go through when we meet and have a discussion and talk about everything Dr. Williams related. So I can't wait for you guys to get a chance to listen in on our conversation. And again, this isn't a scripted one where like we were going to say stuff that we wouldn't say on our typical calls. We're going to actually break down the process that I typically go through when I'm working with her, when I'm getting into her business and trying to get her to that next level. Because again, she doesn't have much longer to go depending on when you listen to this and if she's going to be an attending soon. And there's a lot of responsibilities that come when you become an attendee. So I'm trying to mentally get her ready to prepare for that. Like always, if you have not had a chance, make sure to subscribe to the podcast. Give me a five-star review. If you are watching me right now on YouTube, shout out to my YouTube subscribers and appreciate all of your love and support. Make sure you subscribe. Give me the thumbs up as well. Throw a comment, say, hey, I'm watching on YouTube under the comment just so I know everything is going well on that side. So, without further ado, get ready for another amazing episode here on Lunch and Learn with Dr. Berry. Episode Dr. Berry: Alright, Lunch and Learn community. You just heard another amazing introduction from one of my mentees. It's actually the first time I've had a mentee on the podcast and I thought it was important guys. I preach the importance of having a mentee and the need for a mentee. So why not have a one of my own. And we're actually going to go through our own session to get a deep dive of what's going on. We're going to get to business with Dr. Williams. Again, Dr. Williams, thank you for coming on the show today. Dr. Brooke Williams: Of course. Thank you Dr. Berry for having me. I am so excited to share our personal sessions, so something people can learn about. How mentorship is. Why it's so important and how to actually have a mentee and vice versa. How should they treat their mentors though? Dr. Berry: I love it. Because a lot of times, especially when I talk to people who are looking for mentors. A lot of times the mentees always think, is this one side a situation where they got to give their all to the mentor. But like I said, it's a two-way street. If you're a mentor isn't given into you as much as you're giving it to them, that relationship is never going to be good. And again, Dr. Williams is not have that problem now. So we have no issue of concern. (No, we don’t). So, I gave a little bit of your bio in the introduction. But there's people who always skip the introduction. They get right to the main episode. So Dr. Williams or Dr. Brooke, however you want to be called. And I do this all the time, especially for my physician friends. I'll call them by the first name. I'll call them by last name. However is more comfortable to you, what we'll do it that way. Dr. Brooke Williams: Yeah. First name is fine. Dr. Berry: Yes, Doctor so with Dr. Brooke. Because we got to keep title doctor on that level. We've got to show that level of importance. Gives someone something that they may not have caught in your bio, but they said, they're gonna walk away saying, oh, you know what, I think I know who Dr. Brooke is. Dr. Brooke Williams: Well of course, mentorship is important to me. That's already established because we're doing this podcast. But particularly I like to be a mentor, myself I actually started a nonprofit in Chicago my second year of residency, which was a huge undertaking. Shout out to my cofounder, Dr. Desiree Leach. She was definitely a main reason as to how we spearheaded this project. So basically we just have a nonprofit that helps increase minority awareness and increasing underrepresentation within medicine and STEM. Dr. Leach actually has her PhD. She works at Northwestern. So two black females coming together, one each side of medicine and just wanting to give back to the community specifically with the Chicago public school system and just mentoring kids really allowing for kids to see how important it is to see someone like them. And the crazy is, I actually had a dinner with a few of my mentees at my hospital last week and I had this aha moment. I'm with one of the neurologists. Two of them are gastroenterologists and I used to be interested in GI, but to be completely honest, in med school I hated neurology. I think most people dread judge, judge, read that course. But when I did the rotation with her in December, and this is third year and for anyone listening, neurology is its own, has its own residency. So you don't go through it traditionally through internal medicine. And Dr. Pierre I don't know if you’re president, go through it or not. But honestly, I felt someone who, I guess how people look at me as like, oh my God, I want to be that one day, and you know what, if I would have seen her and actually got to be with her, I would consider neurology. And I think a lot of that has to do with seeing someone who looks like me who can stand her ground. She has her PhD and MD and she is all the way put together and it really does make a difference. And unfortunately, this world, there are a lot of biases that we all encounter. But it definitely does help when you get to see someone who's able to carry themselves out and who you could one day hope to see yourself look like as well. So again, I do not like neurology as a student. But when I did this rotation as a third-year resident. I was like, well, maybe I should have given neurology a chance. So that just goes to show that everyone's watching you, no matter how big or small you think you are, you definitely are influential to people around you. Dr. Berry: And the reason why I love that is because I think a lot of times we don't understand, especially when we're in our emotion, the level of importance of modeling is. And I think especially when you're a mentee or you’re a mentor, either way, understanding that the way you walked away carry yourself can really influence someone's whole trajectory, whole life. And I remember I was an undergrad. I was wandering aimlessly at Florida state. I was telling everybody I was going to be a doctor. I had no clue whatsoever how to be a doctor like. Especially when I think about it, I was like, oh, it’s crazy and I'm actually a doctor today because I had no clue about an MCAT test. I had no clue about study. I just figured by the time I graduate I just apply somewhere and then someone accepts me. And it was crazy. I remember I think I was in a career center and I told the career person, she said, what do you want to do? I want to be a doctor. Well, are you a part of this organization? And that organization, that organization, and I had no clue the organizations she was naming. And I was like, oh, okay, alright, clearly I am definitely a step a behind where I need to be. And thankfully, shout out to you Ms. Anderson. She took me under her wings and she said like, no, no, no. You're going to be a part of, I need you to be a part of this organization. Which happened to be MAPS, which is a student organization, for a Student National Medical Association, which I've talked about on this podcast before, is hands down the best organization ever. That's probably all bias. But I truly believe, if not for Ms. Anderson, not for MAPS, not for SMA, I will not be standing in front of you today. So I definitely carry that mantle moving forward. And then like you said, when you talk about career choices, I remember when I first started at medical school and I was like, I don't know, I knew I wanted to do some type of clinic or outpatient meds or something and I started hanging around a lot more people, especially in internal medicine. Especially one of my mentors, I definitely going to talk about it in a couple of minutes. He was a huge factor, probably 95% of the reason why I became an internist in general. Because just seeing him, seeing how he would carry himself. Carry himself in conversations. Just how crazy smart he was. I was like, oh, if I could be one, like this guy, Dr. Hasty shout out to you, Dr. Hasty, I'd be good. If I could just be 70%, I don’t even need to be at full 100. If I can be 70%, I'd be good. If I was around with Dr. Hasty ‘s level. So definitely having that modeling mentorship is so important. And like you said, that you probably couldn’t been a neurologist right now if you happen to have run into her before everything else kind of came into play. Dr. Brooke Williams: Right. It's crazy because again, never seen never. But it does the whole modeling. Behaviors is imperative. It's reasons as to why in medicine you tend to gravitate towards people that you get along well with, who you have a good experience. It's regardless of maybe if you didn't like the rotation of neurology or not. But it is very important, or someone who's younger and they see you have a good attitude and have a good encounter. Maybe I can be a doctor, or I want to be like that and it's with any learn behavior, people are always watching. Dr. Berry: I love it. And so I want to, especially if people, they may not follow us on IG. If you don't follow us on IG, please correct that ASAP. And of course, like always, you don't have to write down all of information. My information you should know I'm @DrBerryPierre everywhere. You've heard information will definitely everywhere in the show notes as well too. So make sure you follow her ASAP. Press pause, follow and then come back. Stay on play. So for some reason they didn't catch your IG, tell Lunch and Learn community how we first got together and got to this point where we've established this amazing relationship. Dr. Brooke Williams: As you mentioned Dr. Hasty, who was a fundamental in your medical journey. He was definitely very influential in mine as well. And I was fortunate enough to meet him at Campbell University School of Osteopathic Medicine as part of the first class and all of the professors and faculty definitely took a huge role in, felt like it was a necessity to definitely help us get to where we want it to go. And Dr. Hasty was definitely one of those people, I would be like, oh, hey, can we have. For example, Dr. Bob Ross Lee speak for SMA chapter and he'll make it happen. So he definitely saw my vision and it's really good to have someone who believes in your ideas, even if they can be so far-fetched. So crazy. There's plenty of topics, where like, oh I don't think you can get her. And he was able to get Dr. Anderson who is still the civil rights leader, actually friends with Dr. Martin, marched with him. He was able to get him and those are just two, but of many people that Dr. Hasty was able to network me with and he has always been in my corner. I can text him at 2:00 AM and definitely, he will respond at 2:05. Dr. Berry: Trust me, she is not lying. What do you think about? Okay. Dr. Brooke Williams: Fast forward, throughout my medical journey I have shown interest in wanting to have some type of social media influence. I'm always been a people person, which I think you have to be to be in medicine. But I definitely wanted to do it on a different viewpoint and whether that be actually on TV, on radio or just having an influence to mentees and people who look up to me. With the whole mentorship, he (Dr. Hasty) was like, oh, I have a former student, Dr. Pierre who I think you guys would definitely mesh well with. And literally the rest is history. He hooked us up through email and gave me introduction and we literally felt like I had known Dr. Pierre for years. He's really good at putting together personalities and being able to read that. And of course, that's important to any type of relationship you have. But it was a perfect match and we literally have been talking since. Shout out to Dr. Hasty. Dr. Berry: And it was crazy because, Dr. Hasty knows he does not have to ask me things twice. All I got was a text message or email. Hey, I got this person I think you need to meet. Take her under wing. Oh sure. I didn't even have to ask because I knew if he was given a cosign, that's all I need it. If I got a doctor cosign, I was a good money there. And that's why I think it's important especially because we talk a lot about the mentor-mentee relationship. The importance of being able to show up. Because when your mentor calls, when your mentee calls for you, you have to be able to show up and show out. Be about the action and being able to help whoever that is, take that next level, the next step. And when I see a lot of relationships, mentor-mentee relationships don't do well or don't last. A lot of times is because someone on one end isn't showing up when they're required to show up. And I could tell you when Dr. Brooke, she was emailing us, she wanted to know she needs you. I get mentee requests all the time, trust me, all the time. I get two requests, whether it be Facebook, Instagram, whatever. And I always know how seriously you are versus how serious that contacted me. They may hit me one time and then I never hear from them again. Okay, alright. That's fine. First of all, I knew she was gonna be serious. She was like, no, no, no, we need to meet. Let's meet at this time. I would say, I'm good. And then I think our first conversation I was at work during our first conversation. But I could just hear how excited she was. The potential relationship and that guy even more heart. Because like I said, if you're hype about it, there's no reason why I should not myself be hype. So it was really match made in heaven and in the annex that we've been talking to diversity and I'm really trying to help. It really helps each other grow. Because like I said, it's a two-way street. A lot of times mentors think that they're the ones giving their all to the mentee, but that's 100% not true. Your mentee will help you grow and learn about yourself and learn about them and be able to care for others. Because that's really the goal where as a physician we set out to serve others. So when you can serve someone in your niche, in your ballpark, she just happens to be an internal medicine resident, I happen to be internal medicine physician, and Dr. Hasty happens to be internal medicine. It's just something that just happens to click. So it just really made the relationship much easier. Like I said, it's not even a chore. It's one of those things where I just love talking to her. I love saying like, alright, what are we doing here? What do we do? What's going to be a next level? And just waiting for that next conversation. And I think that's why we got here because I wanted to be able to, not only show people are, yes, the importance of mentorship, but we're actually guys, we're actually gonna know it's realistic and we're gonna actually got to run through one of our sessions. So we're actually gonna break down exactly what we be talking about, just so you guys know, it's not fluff. We really be trying to get some work in, always the goal here. Dr. Brooke Williams: We like to share or, I mean we're open book and I think that's important too. The viewers know this is real life. There's no fluff to our session. Dr. Berry: Yes. We are like, what are we doing? Why didn't we do it? You have to be right. Because if you're not going to be in a position to help your mentor-mentee grow. You're not doing them the best justice. You have to be able to be on them and be that push and they need a push, pull someone up when he be pulled up. Because that's how we do because medicines is crazy. And she's a third-year resident. She's ready to finish. Light is getting so bright. But what she doesn't realize what I've been trying to tell her, like yeah, that light is bright, but you got a lot of work on that back here. A lot of works about to hit you and you don't even know. So we've been definitely coaching each other and say like, hey the work is coming, the work is coming. But because we're prepared for the work, and that's really the goal. Because we're prepared. We're going to be fine. It's not going to be an issue whatsoever. We know the work is coming and we're going to be prepared for it to go. Dr. Brooke Williams: Yes. Dr. Berry: So what we typically do is, with Dr. Brooke, I break her down to four different parts. Because as a physician, a lot of times our character and identity usually get pigeonholed into the fact that we're just a doctor. And to the point where it looks, people almost seem weirded out when you do something that's outside of you being a doctor. And our goal, especially from the beginning when I told her is that, if you want to branch out, you want to be the person you want to be. You have to want to let people know like, no, just don't look at me right as Dr. Brooke Williams. Look at me as this person who does A, B, C and D. So that's how our sessions are structured. We'll start out talking about her resident. And then we'll lead onto her being the attending. And then we go on to, she's mentioned it, which again, which is so boss, right? That she co-founded a non-profit organization, which is absolutely crazy when I think about it. I have a non-profit organization, but I didn't do that till I was an attending. She did it as a second-year medical student. So I want y'all guys to give a virtual clap for that because that's absolutely crazy. So shout out to her Color Medicine as well. Again, link will be in the show notes for that aspect. We just talk about it, just that the general branding. Because unfortunately in medicine we don't get taught that. We're taught to be the spokesman of health care, but no one teaches us actually how to be that spokesman. They just, hey, you're a spokesman, you're supposed to represent all the medicine. Especially because we're black so we represent all the black medicine and then she's a woman, so she works all a black medicine and being a woman. So she's got a lot of hats, that she's been, has been to rest upon her. We're just trying to make sure she can balance it all. Dr. Brooke Williams: I really appreciate that Dr. Pierre. We definitely have a lot of talking today. Dr. Berry: So let's talk about, obviously you'd be in a resident. So what block a rotation are we on right now? Dr. Brooke Williams: We are currently on rheumatoid, better known as rheumatology. it is definitely one of those different fields. Being an internal medicine, we like our evidence-based, a plus b equal C and rheumatology unfortunately is not like that. It is a lot of blurred lines. There's a lot of, well it can be, but it is quite interesting. But it is very important for clinical practice in most, importantly the most upcoming thing for me is boards and rheumatology is heavily tested. Whether that be for your step three or calm works, all the way up into your I am boards, which I'm currently studying for. It's just one of those topics. It affects all body systems. So it's easily testable and thinking out the person and breakdown. And it's actually, it's not as heavy as cardiology or GI. But it is, I wanna say probably third or fourth highest tested system. And again, that doesn't include looking at the cardiology system and applying an autoimmune disorder to that. So there's a lot of overlap. And so I'm just trying to get learn the most I can out of the rotation. I didn't do it as a fourth-year student. But I did it to tell it in a fourth year and everyone knows how fourth year medical school is. You are literally on cruise control. Dr. Berry: Especially once you get past auditions. I tell people all the time, fourth year, is a worst year of your medical school life until after auditions. Once after auditions is that now let's go. Dr. Brooke Williams: Maybe didn't deserve to be doing it, after decisions and all that matching. But this is important right now and it's same thing with third year residency. You start getting burnt out. Hopefully only have one more four months where my ICU month left at this point. And you're just trying to get through, you're starting to interview for jobs and apply for boards and get ready for fellowship if that's what you thought it to do. But it's really important to try to still to make sure that you're still focused on day to day and learning and using this half million-dollar investment that you put into. It's easy to get lost and empty, put a dollar sign to that. So you have already invested in these days, so you might as well make use of your coins. Dr. Berry: How are we doing as far as our voice said the last time, we were having a questions. We were doing questions for the boards. We were talking about mksap; we were talking about med study. How are we doing as far as that front? Dr. Brooke Williams: So board studying is slow and steady. I am still, you're always behind. So I think we should even throw out that term being behind. I am trying to do questions every day. I would say just working out up probably five out of seven days. With rheumatology, my attending actually gives me homework, legitimate homework where we have like quizzes on the board, quiz of the day. Dr. Berry: Oh that's too funny. Shout out to that attending. Dr. Brooke Williams: Yes. He is very, very engaged in resident and fellow learning, which is important. Again, it's all investment and so that really pushes me to do questions read, pretty much every single night. And even though this is an elective, I think I've worked maybe just as hard or harder than your traditional four months. Because four months I don't read and come home. Because you're so tired, you're just trying to get through the day. So yeah, this has been very impactful a month for my board studying. I'm still using mix app. Um, I'm probably a little bit more than halfway done with it. I actually did my schedule yesterday. So my goal is to try to be done by March because my program actually, will purchase new road for the third year resident. And you roll, just like for again all the stuff, all the complexes is one of those two things that give me great questions. And I was actually talking to her, my co-residents if you look at it, you roll doesn't have a board review course, they just use questions. So it's a method to their madness. I definitely think that their questions, they only have a Q thing for a reason and that most people use their QA for a reason and are pretty successful on it. So I'm going to use that out there. Mix up and for my sample mini reading, I've been using the notes study books. I personally liked the way they read. It's like someone is literally talking to you like having a conversation. Just the way I like to study, how to read and regurgitate information. I felt like my study was more helpful for me than mixed up books. But everyone's different and that's what you have to, you have definitely, nature that I realized that going forward. And everyone always tells you, don't try to look at what other people are doing. Of course, it's good to get some types of advice, but you can get really lost in, oh, I did this, I did that. And also using a lot of material. Yes. Technically I'm using several resources, but I'm picking specific things out of those resources. I'm not doing mixed questions. I'm just using the books for stuff wanna reading if I need to mix that up. It's just the golden standard. Everyone knows it to be, ACP. So to get through that Q bank baseline was one of my goals. And using UWorld as another supplemental Q bank after I finished my passthrough mixed stuff. Because also we use mixed up questions for board review during our residency. So a lot of times you seem to question so you know, if you've seen the question once, even if you know you've read the explanation, you're probably gonna remember the question if you see it again. So it's not really doing you that much information. So that's why I want it to pick another Q bank. And then I also, and not everyone does this, but I'm going to do a board of recourse. I've been doing some research that began, there's plenty out there. John Hopkins has on the Cleveland clinic. Dr. Berry: There’s so many. Are you planning on new year’s online or onsite? Dr. Brooke Williams: I want to do it on site. There is his board of the course called awesome board review. I'm not sure if you've heard of it. They're based out of New York, New Jersey. And one of the Facebook groups I'm actually part of, someone had asked about ABIM or did the course and someone had mentioned the awesome board review course and one of my co-residents had mentioned it and they someone had commented and was like, they felt like they had the cheat sheet for ABIM board. That's how good the course was. And there's one gentleman who teaches the course. It's either over the span of two weekends or a full week. And of course, as long days. But if I can do something to re-solidify everything that I have learned and just building up confidence, I think that's the biggest thing for me is to build my confidence not to reteach me or teach me the first time through a board course. Because that will just send you down with will be so much. Dr. Berry: What I love is what's so important is the fact that you're recognizing, we, Lunch and Learn community, we've talked about this as well, especially in this stage of the mentorship as far as under the resident tab is that it is very easy to get overwhelmed with the amount of ways you can study for this exam. There's so many different testing modalities, so many different ways and you have to know yourself. You have to know what works best for you even before you start anything. Because if you don't, you then you end up spending crazy amounts of money on multiple question banks, multiple study guides, multiple books, all of these things here because you're not sure. And when I talked to a lot of mentees and I see that level of uncertainty, those are the ones who typically will buy like four or five different things. That are essentially doing the same exact thing because they're just really not confident themselves. So having a level of confidence is first and foremost the most important thing when you get into this board study aspect. And we talked to in one of our earlier about kind of setting a schedule for it, which is why, she said she feels she's quote unquote behind, but I can tell you right now, as a Program Director, we've supplied the mixed stuffs for all of our residents. And because I do, so I can see how many questions my residents have done. And I can tell you, being halfway would be higher than out of 18, probably 16 of my residents. Just to give you an idea and it's crazy. So you'd be surprised, you were actually a lot further along when you think about it. But again, you don't want to think about in comparison versus where I want to be, is this the pace where I was and that, and that's really what we've been stressed and just making sure she's pacing herself. Because we don't want her burning out over questions and study guides and books and everything else because there's so much stuff out there to get inundated with. We definitely don't want that. We want her to be super confident. When that test does come around, she kills it and then she doesn't have to worry about it for another 10 years. Dr. Brooke Williams: Yes, because this is not a test I am wanting to retake by any means. One of the hardest board exams across the board. But literally because you have to know everything about everything. So it is definitely doable. I want to let people know that the question is, like any other board questions you have in licensing. They're not meant to trick you. So if you study, you know that you'll be able to answer them. It's just making sure that you get through the material and solidifying again what you know. Dr. Berry: There's definitely nothing worse than not getting through the material, taking a test like that and then looking back at your material like, wow, that was the next chapter. If I thought I would just read that chapter, I would. That's the worst feeling whatsoever. So what I will be telling her is that once she's done and when she's ready to take that test, don't go back looking to see what was this, this was the answer. Just you gotta take a deep breath because you don't want to beat yourself up over something and especially with the results. So you're going to be a lot of relaxed at once that test is said and done. Dr. Brooke Williams: Well I am so bad for doing that self-sabotaging. Even in the middle, I remember in service exam and all this and in between each section I would go, we would have the Barbie book and I would click through and see if I got it right or wrong. And I don't know why I do that every time. It doesn't help. It just brings up your nerves. Because the tests are just focused on either what you got, mostly what you got wrong and then you can't think clearly. So this is a big jumble. I'm not sure if they allow you to, I've heard mixed things, you are allowed to have stuff in your locker or have to look it up for the ADIM. Dr. Berry: AOBIM, I don't think I had anything in my locker. I have stuff in my car. I don't remember if I had anything in my locker per se. But I'm also the type, full disclosure, I'm the type that on test day, I am not the one sitting in class reading a book. I'm probably like listen to music because I've already, my setting has already happened Sunday nights. Once Sunday night hits, I'm getting good night's sleep and that's it. What I know, I know what I don't know. I'm not gonna learn it in the next 12 hours anyways. I leave books at home. There's no point in bringing it. I'm not going to look at it. I'm coming here, I'm coming to vibe. I'm listening to my music and then I'm going to take this test and then I'm going home. That's how I usually rock. Dr. Brooke Williams: So you recommend don't bring? Dr. Berry: It's obviously from individual's standpoint. Maybe bring something even if it's in the car, where you can at least especially when you have that lunch break and you have hours and changes and decompress. Alright, let me just show up my rheumatology. Let me show up these last tidbits of before I go in there and knock out the rest of the half. So you could do that. Dr. Brooke Williams: A sheet of a couple facts or stuff that, okay. So yeah, maybe I'll do that. Dr. Berry: Just those quick facts where you don't have to necessary committed to long-term memory. You just need to know it for that test because it's mundane. But it's mundane that they always ask for it, which is typical in medicine boards and medicine board related questions. Dr. Brooke Williams: Yes. Especially those antibodies, which is will be the death of me. Rheumatology, I mean good god. Dr. Berry: Rheumatology. So funny because it'd be like, well yeah, you can be ANA positive and had the symptoms. Well you can also be a negative, it has the same symptoms. I was like, what do you mean? That make no sense. Dr. Brooke Williams: My frustration is rheumatology, but I'm learning, I'm learning. I'm just go on the path of least resistance. Very best what I can. Dr. Berry: So our next section is Dr. Williams’ future attending. And so this is one weird, this is the way where we always have to redirect and make sure she's going in the right direction for us. Because it can be, it will sneak up on you. I'm telling my third years right now, like, hey, you're going to be graduating soon. I just want to let you know that it's happening though. Yeah. I know. It may seem like a faraway, but you got to look up and then it's graduation time. Man, we kicking you out. We kicking out the door regardless. So you're not staying here longer than the three years. Dr. Brooke Williams: Honestly, I'm like I want six more months. One of those times too where you're like, oh man, I can't wait to be done. And then the time literally flies by, like goodness gracious and you realize time is flying by and… Dr. Berry: We already in February. Dr. Brooke Williams: The fact that you are going to be a person who really is in charge. I think that that is one of the biggest things. And even down to, okay, I'm having a discharge. I say, I know when you are almost ready to be discharged, but that setting in my old crop, like, you know. Dr. Berry: I'm really going to be the discharger. It's not even a, oh, hey, I think this person's ready. They're like, well, if you need it ready, put the order. And I guess that's what was going to happen. Dr. Brooke Williams: Yes. I guess everyone goes through this and it's nothing new, but just, I mean, I guess you won't really gain your confidence as an attending. I've heard like it takes five years, three to five years for you to actually feel comfortable as a, not junior attending, that's coming out with junior attendings, but like actually in your management. Because you're constantly learning your medicine. You're not going to have to throw away the idea that you, after you finish residency, you're supposed to have. No, you don’t know everything. No. So it's okay. Recognize you know what, you know what you don't know. You can look things up. It's not a test. And just be ready to continue to learn just like in any other part of your training. The job search process I think has been a rude awakening, I think. Not the sense of disappointment, but we all have looked forward to smelling, like, oh my God, I cannot wait and be so happy if I looked for a job. I can make all these demands, but you really can't. And I think that people need to be realistic. Dr. Berry: I love it though, because that's really what it is. I had some thoughts and then reality came through and said, nah, let's relax. Dr. Brooke Williams: Real quick. Everything's negotiable. Yes it is. But I don't want to sound pessimistic. But you can't have it all. And I think the sooner you come to that realization and seeing what's most important to you and then some things that you know are negotiable with you and your future employer. Even if you've worked for yourself, you can’t have everything. There's definitely pluses and minuses, pros and cons of anything that you do, any job. And so again, coming and putting them out big girl panties and realizing, this is not a rainbows and unicorns or whatever analogy you want to put to it that. This is a job. Yes, you are going to be compensated for it and it's probably going to be a little bit better than residency. Again, plus or minus. Dr. Berry: Lunch and Learn community, I told it better be a lot better than residency. Dr. Brooke Williams: I hope so. The person is not, they say it's the biggest adjustment period too. I don't know. You could tell me like what do you, the first thing now Dr. Berry: I think one of the biggest things, especially as a resident, for Lunch and Learn community members who may not know. Typically, the salary range is depending on where you live at between I'll say 48 to like 55, something in that range. Just that's where that you'll live at. And so imagine, for three years you getting paid around that range. And then all of a sudden you graduate and now people are giving you numbers like 150, 200 a year, we're talking about thousands, a 250,000. And you're seeing almost three times the amount of money that you've seen over the past three years. And if you are a medical student, you likely weren't working. So just imagine that magnitude of a salary increase that occurs. And for a lot of residents, especially as a few, the future attending stages, getting mentally prepared for that, most important. Because bills are coming. I like to say the lottery's about to hit. Because all of a sudden you're going to make, let's say five figure checks. Something that you probably, most medical students, most residents are not used to making. And you have to be ready to be able to deal with that type of money sending in your account. Especially because the bills are coming. I’m stressing before, the bills are coming. By bills we mean student loans, if you have student loans. So if you're not, you do as well. So it's definitely something that really get that mental wrap around. But then I stress and we talked with Dr. Brooke. I say we but it just me. The fact that we can't let money be that golden carrot leads us astray. Unfortunately, a lot of jobs will do that. They’ll throw these crazy numbers because for you they are crazy numbers. But she talked about her must have and must have not. And I told her that one of our first things as a future attending. I said, you need to make a list of what you're not going to want to do as an attending and be bold right there. Which you're not going to want to do as an attending. I don't want to do this. I don't like, if you don't have that, then I can hit you with that shiny carrot and then you are just taking and all of a sudden you're doing things that you hate doing for two, three plus years. Dr. Brooke Williams: True. So I guess I get down and down and dirty, probably superficial. So I have a job interview in North Carolina for the audience purposes, I actually have a loan scholarship of the state of North Carolina. They gave me $60,000 over the span of a medical school and return that I go back and serve the state of North Carolina, people in North Carolina. One year for each of year we signed that contract, which was four. So the total was 60 grand. Over the course of medical school and residency, it has been accruing interest at 8%. If I do not go back, I owe the 60 grand at 8% that has an accruing. So the most logical and financially responsible thing is for me to at least go back and start working some of that, per se, or my obligation that would turn to a debt if I did not go back. I think someone calculated the math and I'm not a math person. So it'd be about like 90 grand that I'll be looking at, paying back if I didn't. And again, that will be accruing interest. So they would expect for me to pay that back immediately except some type of payment plans. And so there are, I could definitely work and save up some money, pay my way out of the contract because what I didn't realize is that usually when you do residency yet, you ended up, like in a place. I came to Chicago on a whim. I have no family here. I'm a Southern girl. And my first two and a half years I hated it. And I was like, I can't wait to get back to North Carolina. So this loan contract I signed with some insure me I get back. And then now lo and behold, I want to stay in Chicago, but I have an obligation. So whether it would have been my own doing and me going back to North Carolina and saying, you know what, I still do want to go back home versus having a loan. It's a lot better going back in your own terms. So that may, of course, that's something that I have to learn and something I did. I don't necessarily regret it. They definitely did help with some of my student loans. But again, it's one of the sacrifices and things you learn from. Dr. Berry: When finances are an issue, it's one of those things where you're like, wow, it is a nice, especially while you're in the thing and not having to think about like, wow, you know what? I got about 60,000. Having to give it out to loan, but like, I at least I have this crutch there. So this job, was going now? Dr. Brooke Williams: It's going down the end of February. It is in a more ruralish area, part time position because one of the things I didn't want to do is work at night. And right now a lot of places are looking for not turner because most people don't want to work nights. Dr. Berry: Most residents don't want to work nights. So imagine try it again attending to work nights. Dr. Brooke Williams: Right. So I was like no. So right now, they have an opening for a part time day position. The salary is pretty. It's within a least 90, 95th percentile. So they are compensating you very well on the role. Dr. Berry: Even at a part-time position? Dr. Brooke Williams: At part-time, yeah. Dr. Berry: What does part time mean for Lunch and Learn community? Dr. Brooke Williams: So, hospitalist is a one week since you have a month, seven days. So you work 12 weeks out the year. And that's with me being able to bring in, like you said, six figures. And so some of the things you look at or what I looked at, we talked about was non-compete. So that's something where basically you and your employer have a contract that states that you aren't able to work with a competitor within a certain amount of time and a certain on a radius. If you decide to quit or terminated for a reason, but this employer does not have a noncompete, which is a plus. And I could do a one-year contract, which I was also advised to do. Most people coming out of residency say your first job, anywhere from 12 to 18 months. Usually, you try to figure out what you like, what you don't like. So one I think would give me the opportunity to see is this someone I want to continue to do after one year. I've learned and now I want to do something else. So I think that that will be a good opportunity for me. And then also my first year I plan on things, my parents, God helped me for the first year to save money. And even though, I feel like it's backtracking, every single person says you'd be crazy not to take that opportunity. I'll have no financial stability. Dr. Berry: Lunch and Learn community, let me tell you right now, if I could stay with my mom right now and that has paid this mortgage, that'd be right up in the house. When she first said that, I was like, whoa, nice. Because I wish, trust me, I'm telling you and I was married, I didn't have a kid at the time. I would have gladly moved right back into my mom's house if I could. Because again, like I said, the bills that come, right. And if you can avoid one of the main bills, which is housing. If you're going to avoid that as if not only for six months, eight months, a year. The amount of money that you can save, makes complete sense. You can save that money and then get your own house. And then you'd be like, wow, I wish I would stay with my parents again. We definitely had that chuckle about that. And that's gotten anywhere about, y'all got nothing to be embarrassed about. One, because a lot of people do it. A lot of people. There's a reason why a lot of people go back home. And it's because of that financial support that's there. And it could be indirect. Imagine if we had like, I have kids, and my mom stays five minutes from the house. My aunt stays, I've got family close. So guess what, I don't have to pay for. I don't have to pay for babysitters. And that's the thing where we might not have that direct costs. But the amount of money that you saved, you're like, okay. So there's a lot of different reasons people go back home. And finances is usually number one. I said you're lucky. I said, you're in a position where you can do that. So please take advantage of it for as long as you can until they kick you out. Dr. Brooke Williams: Okay, I'll try. Listen, I am going to try for a year and I'll be able to travel and do all those types of things. They give me just very, an array of benefits to doing that. Dr. Berry: This one week or month is actually, and I'll bring the question because I know someone in Lunch and Learn community probably could think about it. First, you're still thinking about Chicago. Working once a once a week definitely could open up the opportunities to be working in Chicago if you want it to do that as well too. It would probably have to be in another part time capacity. That is something to think about. Now with this once a week, now does that, is it the same week, the same first week or second week? How did they break down as once a week? Dr. Brooke Williams: I'm not sure. That'd be a great question for me to ask when I did the interview because hopefully we can have one more quick session before I do the interview, interview questions to ask. Because we go in there and a deer in headlights. Because again, they're gonna be putting that money in front of you and they know how to lure people in. Dr. Berry: Like I said, they know the money is nice. You go like, woo, please move the money out the way so we can talk about the real business. You gotta be very diligent. We'll definitely, we won't record that, but we'll definitely have a dozen interviews, discussion for sure. Obviously, I'm as a program director, as a fraternity member who I was associated, I was the state director. I've been through a lot of interviews. Probably, I mean just program director alone, over 200 as a program director. In my fraternity I'll probably like close to 50. Yeah. Probably like 50 folks I've interviewed as well too. And the framework is all the same. I'll say that the framework is all the same. Questions they all the same, but a framework is definitely all the same on how to have a successful interview. Dr. Brooke Williams: Maybe we can do like a quick IG live session. I think questions to ask specifically for someone coming out of residency. Going to their first interview or second or whatever the case may be is important. Because, what do you ask, what are the things that you need to make sure that they, that before entering, making sure you have an attorney look over your contract, things like that. And have you said, how would my schedule be? Would it be the same week or would all that? Dr. Berry: No, it is a very good question because especially I start thinking, wow, if I was working somewhere at once a week, I could easily fly into that once a week. They want to have a job and then fly out. And that's what I automatically started thinking what you said once a week. And then again, whoa, we'll definitely touch more on it. But I definitely would want to know what happens if I do pick up extra shifts kept. Do I get paid the same rate? That'd be another question I'm just thinking about. Like I said, we'll definitely do IG live and it touched base on that. So this is our first interview. So definitely, let's give a class for that. Definitely excited for our first interview. How far away from home is this? Dr. Brooke Williams: It's about a 15-minute commute. It’s not too bad. Dr. Berry: So that was very good. Dr. Brooke Williams: Fifty, like five-zero. Not 15. Dr. Berry: Say it again. Dr. Brooke Williams: 50, not 15. Dr. Berry: About an hour. Okay, well you're going to get a lot of podcast listening in and audio books and especially for that type of drive, but I'm pretty sure may correlates with it. Dr. Brooke Williams: The money does. My mentor actually has a condo. She actually works for that hospital as well. So, worst case scenario, if I'm tired, I can always stay there. Do what I need to do. But I commute now. It's about 30 minutes. I know people, can meet day to day, people, drove back in hours. Dr. Berry: We just got to keep ourselves busy and productive during that hour or two hours really because we got back to and fro for standpoint. So alright, we can ready for our first interview. Definitely excited about that. Now what else are we doing with as far as on the job? Where are we at as far as just some of the different hospital stays and hospital systems out there? Dr. Brooke Williams: I want to talk to you and just some, anybody who has experience with Locum. And I was possibly entertaining that. And again, not have plus or minus. The Locum is for anybody listening. It's an opportunity for you to do a contract at work. The pay is higher, but it tends to not have insurance benefits, things of that nature. But with the part time position I'm looking at, I would have full benefits. So for me it would work out. For that, of course I'll have to make sure that the Locum, I'm not sure Dr. Pierre, they have a noncompete with, working for other companies. I’m not sure. Dr. Berry: I know several people who do Locum and they work Locum for several different agencies. And so it was usually, they'll have three or four different agencies. They really is because the rate is higher in this state with this agency versus that one. Some agencies have the contract with certain hospital where others don't. So it definitely behooves you to almost be a free agent, in the sense in the Locum world as well, to be able to maximize your opportunity. And a good friend of mine, Dr. Stephanie. I'll put her a link in the show notes as well too. She has her own, she does a Locum course as well. Especially for any residents who are itching, they're thinking, Locum maybe something would think about. I'll definitely put Dr. Stephanie's course information in there. It's good. I definitely would recommend her to check out. And She has a Facebook group. If I can find her Facebook group, I'll make sure up in the group as well too. But definitely she has a course. Anyone who's interested in the Locum should be definitely thinking about. Dr. Brooke Williams: And she actually reached out to me. It's funny because one of the other docs have recommended her to me. Dr. Berry: Oh, nice. I love the circle. It's not a big circle. I'll take a look, oh Dr. Stephanie. Dr. Brooke Williams: Yes. And maybe that would be someone we could do a podcast with her. Dr. Berry: Oh yes. It's alright. It's done. Dr Stephanie, if you're listening to this. You're getting an invite, just letting you know. Dr. Brooke Williams: We could do a three way. Again, it's not a one size fits all. There are different strokes for different folks and my switch may be different as she may give me different advice rather than someone else who's been in the game for a little bit. And moving around in different hospitals, I'm pretty sure it's not the most comfortable because it's new every single time. You're not comfortable with the people and stuff like that. So take everything with a grain of salt. But that will definitely to have a session if you can make that happen. Dr. Pierre, you can be a Dr. Hasty and pull it together. Dr. Berry: I love it. I love that. So we have job interview coming up, so we're still applying to other places. Locum also. Will your Locum be in North Carolina? Someone has to be in North Carolina to satisfy the scholarship? Dr. Brooke Williams: So what the part time position. So the scholarship loan that I have when I spoke to, the name of the scholarship alone. They said I literally just had to start the people in North Carolina that they had so much difficulty retaining people in the program. That was my only obligation. It did not say full time, part time, because I called them. I've been struggling with this. Yes. I would love to practice probably in Indiana versus Illinois because they're not practice. But if I did do local and say in Raleigh, and I was being compensated again well enough. I could fly from Chicago and still afford to stay in a hotel. I have plenty of friends here who I could stay with, but it was still putting me in a financial position to be able to come to Chicago as I please. So that might be something that I could look into instead of trying to force things up here. And if I just kept going back and forth and I found myself really being up here more than, I could look up, maybe I should look at to something a little bit more than my permanent in Indiana, Illinois and Chicago land area. So just trying to be open. Never say never. I said I would never stay in Chicago. Dr. Berry: I want to go. I can't go. I can't go. And that's what I love. Especially as a resident, you're about to finish your career. A lot of us think that we have to hit this jackpot. We're going to get out of residency, we have to hit the dream job right out of residency. If we don't hit the dream job right out of residency we failed, that's not true. Like I said, a lot of people don't stay in a job, has two to three years because they're like, you know what? I like this starting foundation, but I'm actually ready to go prosper. That's, how it turned out with me. I love outpatient medicine, so of outpatient medicine, but, and I started with at Bethesda. But then this opportunity came and it was like, hey, you can be a Program Director. And I said, alright, but that's the kick rocks. See you later. Bye. And then I left. There were some issues, but I've talked about it before where I was glad I was leaving. I'm not necessarily glad I was leaving the people I was working with, but just that corporate organization just wasn't aware mentally I needed to be. So not knocking it out of the park on your first job opportunity isn't out of the ordinary. It actually happens a lot. And you know, being able to say like, yep, nope, this is not for me and that's when, again, we got to go back, go back to our foundation, say like, alright, what am I must have, what am I must have nots. And then once you start seeing that your must have nots started accumulating and that's when you got like, alright, I gotta go and this and that's a fluid list. You may get there and say, you know what, I may want to start doing nice again. You may say something crazy like that, that may sneak into a mental. And that's okay. Because we know that you're allowed to change it because you're one year a grown adult. And that's you're a grown adult and your physician, and you're allowed to do that and you're in the med regardless of what people say. You're in very high demand for your position you want. Dr. Brooke Williams: Do you recommend, because people always ask like, okay, you're talking to a recruiter or whoever it may be also, what is your experience like. Because they tend to definitely weigh that in, which of course, they definitely should. Do you think that's something that, it's way up on the totem pole as was being compensated or you think they're just trying to… Dr. Berry: Well, the compensation, it was funny as they really depend on how they're paying you. If like for example, for those another say in a hospital setting, where let's say if you're getting collections, like you're getting paid based on the people PPC and you get a percentage of that regardless of how much experience you have. You could come fresh out of residency. I could be out of the game for 10 years and if you see more people than me, you're going to get paid more than me. Because that's just the name of the game. So your experience really doesn't matter. It may be justify when they start thinking about starting pay. But if your payment, the way your pay structure is in based on how many years you've been in this game, and I could tell you right now, a lot of corporations are moving away from it. They're moving towards the setting of productivity, AKA how many patients did you see, that whole year's thing is more fluff than anything else. But they usually do it to establish a baseline to say like, hey, you just got out of residency so I'm not going to pay you more than 200 a year. Versus if someone was out for 10 years, they'd have to start out at like 240 and then work with the compensation on the back end as well. So that definitely varies on how you're getting paid. But it usually that's how they finagle it. They say, oh well, we'll just start you out of this. And then, if you collect more, you collect more. Dr. Brooke Williams: I see. I see. Okay. Dr. Berry: So that's Dr. William, a future attending. Let's talk about Dr. Williams, the nonprofit founder. Last time we talked, you were doing a volunteer event at a Michelle Obama's high school. Was had been since then? Dr. Brooke Williams: Things have been going well. I think we had a board meeting. And just to give you guys a little background, my cofounder, she is doing her postdoctoral at Northwestern. So she's still in training. The board members, one is a third-year neurology resident going into a fellowship and the other one is a medical student at UNC. So we all are very fresh slash currently in training. So a lot of what we want to do has to be scaled a little bit because we're full time. We are still, we cannot operate as a lot of nonprofits would because that's their full-time job. Like a lot of nonprofits, that's all they do day in and day out. So we have to come to a realization that we have these grand ideas, which is great and hopefully we can achieve those one day. But right now what can we do that's going to be the most impactful, that’s not be watered down. We don't have that many members, but we can definitely most certainly do things within the community that will make a marker impact. So we decided to continue our table talks, discussions, which all that entails is this going inside the classroom or doing community meetups where we just talk about who we are, what we do, what we can offer people, whether that be them coming to shadow, them getting our contact information and asking us a little bit more about how to get to where we are. Or just giving a word of encouragement. So that has definitely been a common amongst all of us and the board members and saying, this is what we want to do for sure. Initially we wanted to do a mentee-mentor program, which in the initial vision was a one-on-one program. Like many people know, one-on-one mentee mentorship takes a lot of time on both sides. A lot of dedication. And not to say that we wouldn't be able to, but I think where we are realistically, would that come with the sacrifice of us taking away from where we are right now in our careers and trying to learn, and not being able to present the best version of ourselves to someone else who's looking up to us. So with all that being said, we have decided to hold off on that aspect, contained the mentorship of, day to day. But not do one on one mentoring until one we had members within the organization and also our time. Time is very valuable. Dr. Berry: And that's why I broke down Dr. Williams in these four parts. Because I wanted her to be able to see just how many different hats she was wearing all at the same time. And a lot of times when we're in the mist of the work, of the mist of the action. We don't even realize all the stuff we're juggling. So I did, I've purposely, when we first started say like, Oh you're this person, you're this person. I have to treat you, yes you are four different people. Because really that we were actually more but you we didn't even go that far. I said like, we'll just focus on these four here just so she can see like, oh wow, I do a lot. Because I think that's what happens too. We're too busy ripping and running that we don't sit down and even appreciate the amount of work that we're doing. So, and you guys, you can see just how much work she's been doing just up until this point you hearing. Remember she's still a resident. She still hasn't even, covered the big checks yet. She still gotta sign out to attendings. She's still got interest to look after. She hasn't even been releasing a lot of her responsibility. But it's one of those things where you have to smell the roses now as well as you can see she's putting in work. And trust me, also as a nonprofit founder as well, I can tell you one of the things that we set out early is to make sure we don't overburden ourselves. Because you never want it to feel like work. You never want your service and what you're giving back, you don't want it to feel like where you just want to say like, oh, I just love what I'm doing. And a lot of times if you got too much stuff on your plate and that's what can happen. And then everybody suffers. You suffer, the mentee suffers, organization suffer. So we don't want, no one suffer. Dr. Brooke Williams: I definitely take that to heart now. And I think that's essentially what we had to do. And take a step back and say, you know what, what can we do? Well, right now, with us four and we have a great adviser who is very well equipped to being on or being involved in nonprofit organizations. And she's not a helicopter mom, but she definitely, there's some great oversight and tells us maybe we should think about it this way or just trying to make us realization. You don't have to do it all today or tomorrow or next month. So that’s where we're at. We definitely are going to continue to be involved and with CPS and I'm actually doing the second part to our research that I got approved and using surveys to distribute to high school students and see where some of these gaps are within that are causing students to not matriculate or specifically underrepresented students into medicine. That aspect, because I'll be presenting the research in April at hospital's second annual research symposium. So that's going to be another opportunity for us to get grant funding. Because it's a nonprofit, we don't have fund, so we have to make sure that we are showing reasons as to why people should donate. And what our purpose is and what they can see from that. So, I did not realize how much work a nonprofit, a lot of people throw around that term. It is a full-time job and you have to be fully invested in it. And the ladies, doctor, I have talked to them because we all work together with our schedules. We come home, we're tired, we want about to graze in who I want to watch Grey's anatomy. Whatever the case may be. And you eat some food and go to sleep. But we have board meetings. There's only time we got. We have to have board meetings during the week, after work for several hours trying to figure out what we're going to do next or it's just a lot of different things. So, always a great opportunity. I still love it. Has not become a job yet. And I don't want it to become, just like Dr. Pierre said. Dr. Berry: And I can say like we've had our nonprofit for I think like five or six years. And the only thing, and I think we purposely did it. Because I'm a co-founder, my other co-founder, he's like a VP at bank of America. He's just like, he's a big, he's even bigger shot than me. We have our executive director and employee. So we have literally, the only thing we do is we give out a high school scholarship every year. We haven't expanded, we haven't moved. We went from two scholarships before and that was it. Because we just know ourselves and that and temper ourselves like, hey guys, hear all of a sudden we want to do, let's pop our brakes a little bit. We just have the one thing, we do that one thing very, very well and we do it every year and it's like clockwork, is not work. We boom, boom. We select some for folks and say, hey, here you go. Just one scholarship. So definitely agree with that. Especially because obviously, even Dr. Williams, the attending, still going to want to be involved for a nonprofit, so it's not something that's going to go away. And once I think we take off the moniker of resident, we'll actually have some free time, some more free time, some more leeway, some more finances to do some things that will benefit the nonprofit Dr. Williams as well. Dr. Brooke Williams: Absolutely. And then outside the nonprofit too, I'm still building my brand. Dr. Berry: Yes. This is the next thing. Dr. Williams is a brand. Let's talk about it. Dr. Brooke Williams: Dr. Williams is evolving every day. Seeing what I like, what I don't like, things that I thought that I would really enjoy that. Oh my God, that looks so amazing. I wish I was able to do X, Y, Z and I get the opportunity and I'm like, you know what, maybe this is not what I want to. It is different than what you see. So it was all a trial and error basis. Actually having an IG live session coming up with one of my six sisters/mentors, Dr. Vidwan Millhouse. She's a neurologist and one of the other physicians from a Facebook group, gentlemen. And we're actually going to be having a discussion the day before Valentine's day. And talking about dating and relationships for the young professional and that's be part one. And then we'll have a part two, that's going to be talking about marriage and beyond. I think it'd be something good for, especially around this time. And again, this evolves around my life. Not to be selfish. Dr. Berry: It's not selfish that puts yourself first. Because if you don't like who's supposed to. Dr. Brooke Williams: Right. Absolutely. So again, we'll be sharing some of our experiences and it's like a therapy session. Dr. Berry: Where do we tune in for that so the Lunch and Learn community knows? Dr. Brooke Williams: So you can turn into DrBrookeAshlynn, that is my Instagram name. You'd be going live on there. And it'd be probably like an hour talk. People can access live, questions. We've actually, throughout the week we'll be posting things on our stories to get some audience teasers and see what people want to actually talk about, where some people's opinions about certain things. And then just go on from there. It'd be fun, lighthearted. And just to bring shed light to what we go through day to day. Again, we carry different hats. But our personalized sometimes take a back burner because we have to sacrifice time away from what most people our age would be doing now. And I am the first person to admit it. I have been successful I guess from the career side but not on my like personal relation side. So I'm 30 now and that's something that I do want. I want to be a wife. I want to be a mother. So it's not really saying catch up. Because there's no really catch up to your own timeline. Your timeline is your timeline. But that is something I know I do want out of life. So, what did we talk about that and just the nuances and the plus and minus to being married before or during or after. And I'm sure Dr. Pierre, you can definitely speak on both those topics. You had to date before you got married. So all of those scenes, the spectrum and mixed in with trying to be a physician or being a physician or being an attending or a resident, wherever you are in your training is pretty difficult. Dr. Berry: That's going to be a very interesting conversation because there's so many different factors and levels. So again, Lunch and Learn community, please, please, please turn into that first one that's happened on the 13th. You said the February 13, the day before Valentine and then we'll find out when the next one because those are very interesting topics. And Lunch and Learn community, again because I'm in a lot of groups as well too. It's definitely something that there's not get brushed around. It was funny even with all of the hats and the discussions that me and Dr. Williams, Dr. Brooke has. I know the personal is like this huge like elephant. I have to balance it because I know the personal factors in a lot of the other things. The resident, the future attending, the offer, the branding of itself, I know I want to have a person like this. It has to be a factor. We're not going to get onto the on pocket. We're not going to get you and your business. But it is something that I know affects every different level. So it's definitely, I'm going to be tuned then on the 13th. I'm going to be very interested to hear people's take on it. Because this is an extremely important topic that I, unfortunately, I don't think we talk about it enough. Give or take which I think is funny. Because again, when we talk about wellness and mindset and being having someone to talk to, being in a relationship, sometimes that, especially in medicine where we really need to decompress. A lot of our professionals, again, I'm an internist. I’m a hospitalist. It is just as common for me to go to work, say good morning to someone and not be able to say good afternoon because they pass away. That's unfortunately a reality that I have to face with my job. And a lot of us are in jobs that where your patient that you may say be able to say hi to you may not be able to say bye to. The patient that you put in the ER, you meet in the ER, you admit from the ER, may not walk out that hospital. It's very telling, as medical professionals that a lot of times, our mindset and our wellness usually gets put on the back burner because we're putting everyone else in the front. And that's why I made sure I stopped there and said like, no, no, no. It's okay to be selfish because you have to be because no one else is going to be selfish and no one else is gonna put you first, until you do it. Dr. Brooke Williams: Absolutely it's just one of those, I think people look at essentially physician's lives like as Grey's anatomy, like, oh, let's see, you know, doctor. No, I'm sorry. I wish much like that, but it's not. So would definitely be dissecting this and we are helping you're on there and be able to chime in. I really wish we could do this as like an in-person live. I feel like we need like a talk show. It is hard people are going to be trying to text or type out the respond. A lot of people want to say stuff. But unfortunately you don't, y'all just be able to see us. But I think it hopefully, whatever, we'll see what happens if people want to continue to hear things like this and you never know who's watching. So who knows. This could take off somewhere. So I realized Grey's anatomy. Dr. Berry: I'm 100% with that. Last time we talk, especially because on the branding standpoint, you are doing something Neutrogena. How do that go? Dr. Brooke Williams: That went well. That actually opened up doors for other opportunities, about had opportunities with three to nutrition, with the compression stock company. I've had opportunities with a hand lotion. Other companies will approach you as a physician, as anyone healthcare field because of your expertise and as you're building your brand, you have to realize that you have the opportunity to yes or no. Initially, when I first started doing this, I was like, oh, I'll say yes to everything. But then you realize, not necessarily that the brain is bad, but it may not be something that you want to represent. Dr. Berry: Correct. And just for full disclosure, Lunch and Learn community, when we started having a discussion way in the beginning, because I asked her, I said like, oh, how do you see yourself? Because it's very difficult to bring yourself if you don't visually see it. So we saw her as, Lunch and Learn community, if you look at her profile picture, she's a very pretty woman. So it was very easy. Like I said, Oh. And then we stopped. We did a lot of stocking before we went out and like, so we were in fact, we still stopped to this day. So, if you're to IG, we probably stock you. We probably share your portfolio to each other because everything's about modeling, right? Like I said, we're not here to that no wheel. We're here to see like, oh, what is someone doing? I see what they're doing. And then we're just going to model that and we're just gonna we're going to look better doing it. And that's typically how we go about doing things. So it was very easy for us to make adjustments for her and say, oh no, I need you to do it. Again, we're not going to talk about all the things. It ain't ruin anytime business. We definitely set out a goal and it was very interesting to see the reaction that we got as quickly as we got it was. Let's just know we're going in the right direction. I stress her enough and this is more of her, Dr. Williams being the doctor. Most doctors are so type A. They gotta be perfect. Gotta be model, run line ready. And if we get straight fact and Lunch and Learn community, when you follow her, I want you to put on a comment postmark Because that's one of my things that every time I get to this section here, you need to post more. Now she be posted in her stories. I know she pulls into stories because I get notification every time she does it. So I see the stories happening. And I’ll be looking for the profile takes it and she'd be lacking on it. So we just got down here. So I told her, every picture, don't gotta be model. We already know she looks good. Go ahead. Just post looking crazy when you go into rheumatology, like we want to see that too. Because as a brand, you have to, what will usually make people fall in love with a brand and follow a brand is that they've been able to see multiple sides of that brand. So they've been able to see like, all right, oh look, this side here, oh I love that side here. They've been able to see all of that so they appreciate it more. So we don't want to give them all of that top of the line stuff because we want them to appreciate the top of line. Because once you start giving them nothing but top of the line and they stop appreciating and we don't want them to not appreciate it. Dr. Brooke Williams: True. Absolutely. Dr. Berry: Every time we get text message, I wish she would post more. Dr. Brooke Williams: I know I need to have a contract with someone to just be like, I promise you I'm going to do this, this and this. I mean it's difficult. It's cool. But yes, I need to do better. I need to be better and sit down and come up with some content because we started to narrow down the target audience. Dr. Berry: Remember and of course we'll give this free nugget out to the member. You are the content, so you go in a class is the content. You shopping at target is a content. You're the content. No one defines us what content is. We just say what content is. We just say like, I think today, today I posted a picture. I took my family, all of my younger siblings and my children to outback. So I posted it. I think you guys should delve into that. And then of course the likes happened. So we defined that aspect, especially in the brand. We allow ourselves to define. And then what happens is you don't get restricted, because sometimes if you choose a specific way, like, oh, I'm going to only post when I'm in school. Then what happens when you're not in school, then you never post. So they be forced to go back to school to post something in the library. We don't want that. We want you to be able to post in front of the crib, post at the restaurant, posting the store, posting the school. We want you to be as open as possible. And so what I will say, we will give you a one little tip, especially for those who may be interested in, especially from a an Instagram standpoint or just Facebook or whatever, is you should have four or five different models, where you say like, for example, for those who follow me on Instagram @drberrypierre . I have Dr. Berry, the family person. So you'll see family photos. Dr. Berry, the Program Director, you'll see me posting about program director stuff. Dr. Berry entrepreneurs stuff. You see me posting about entrepreneurial latest stuff. And then Dr. Berry, the physician. So you'll see me posting about strictly health related things. So majority of my posts will center around those four pillars. So then that allows me to post whatever I want in those four pillars. So I'm quote unquote restricted myself as far as the pillars are concerned. But because I have four different pillars, I'm allowed to expand and go in different ways. So definitely for the Lunch and Learn community listeners who want to help grow their brand for Instagram. That is definitely a way to do it. And really, the goal is post more, post more and post more. Dr. Brooke Williams: Absolutely. We go back to IG live because those are fun. Dr. Berry: We've been lacking. We gotta apologize to IG because we definitely were supposed to give them one thing last month or something with, we'll take care of that. Dr. Brooke Williams: We will definitely do that and get back on to doing that. Dr. Berry: So we are getting to the end. First of all, Lunch and Learn community members, I want to really thank you guys for rocking with us during the session. And again, Lunch and Learn community members, this is literally how we'd be talking. This is really goes into this length and this talking. Because we really have to like, you know, because again, when you're a hat, when you're, when you have a true relationship, right, with your mentee, which a mentor, right? Like these conversations are very easy. Like it's, is that is there's nothing you gotta pull out. You're not dragging. Like it's no, it's very easy to kind of come out, come out and open and you know, kind of talk because, um, once you care for that person, right, and you care for that person, love being right, you're going to make sure you do everything you can to get them in that right position. So again, Lunch and Learn community listeners for rocking with us. Things were going on about. Oh, as long as an hour and a half or something like that. So definitely. Thank you and again, honestly, this isn't us long talking just for this podcast. This is literally how our sessions go. Dr. Brooke Williams: Absolutely. We can talk for days. Dr. Berry: Most definitely. Sometimes we'll get stuck on one of the sessions and majority of times get stuck on that one section. Because again, really we're trying to hit home, that level of importance making sure the whole person is taken care of. That’s definitely thing for us. So Dr. Brooke, please tell people where they can find you, stalk you, love you. Let the people know how they can get in touch with you. Dr. Brooke Williams: Most certainly. You can definitely follow me on Instagram, @drbrookeashlynn on Instagram. You can follow me on Facebook, still the same handle Dr. Brooke Ashlynn, and feel free to always email me as well. dr**************@gm***.com. And of course, Dr. Pierre post my contact information. So anyone who has any questions or concerns or just wants to chat, feel free to reach out. Dr. Berry: Perfect. Thank you for being a willing participant and really telling your story live and telling your story out for the world for many people to hear. But again, I think it's so important and a lot of times, when we don't see what a good model, this type of relationship is, we don't know how to look for it. So again, thank you for allowing yourself to be open for our Lunch and Learn listeners. Dr. Brooke Williams: Thank you for having me. Been a great session and really, I wish we talk much. So this is great. A lot of times you like try to hide stuff, because it's all out on the table so it's much needed. I really appreciate you and thank you for time to work with me. Dr. Berry: Perfect. Again, Lunch and Learn community members, we will see you guys next week. Again, like always subscribe to the podcast, five stars. Follow Dr. Brooke on all of our social media platforms. Like I said, don't spam her email. Don't do that. Please follow her. Show us support. And again, thank you. [/showhide]

Download the MP3 Audio file, listen to the episode however you like.

About the Author:

Admin

Admin

Welcome to the Official site of Dr. Berry Pierre, Board Certified Internist, Podcast Host, & National Speaker.

Quick Links

Follow Us

© Copyright 2020 2021 | Dr.Berry Pierre | All Rights Reserved
Facebook-f Twitter Linkedin-in Instagram