Episode #27 – Dr Alice Thomson – The Transformative Power of Movement

Podcast Introduction and Mission 0:00

Welcome to the Startup Support Surgery podcast, where we light the entrepreneurial spark in medics and healthcare professionals. Join me, Dr. Jo Watkins, GP, business coach and co-founder of The How People, on a journey to discover where your medical know-how meets the business world. This will help you find some clarity on how to balance work, passions and family so that you can gain more freedom and control over your life but also continue to help people, which is actually why most of us went into medicine to start with.

Embarking on this entrepreneurial adventure is not easy. It is a roller coaster of emotions, but it's hugely rewarding and exciting in the process. Drawing in on my 20 years of blending medicine and business as a GP, I am here to share experiences, insights and lessons. Expect lively chats, expert interviews and real life stories from medics who have taken their own path. Let's break free from traditional healthcare norms and explore more innovative ways of making a real difference to people's health and wellbeing, along with paving the way for a brighter future for us as healthcare professionals.

Oh, don't miss my free PDF called From Stethoscope to Startup, which is an 11-page guide in the show notes full of practical help and advice.

Alice Thompson's Background and Career Shift 1:24

This is your roadmap to kick-starting your journey with us. Enjoy the Show. I'm delighted to welcome Alice Thompson to the podcast today. Alice is a certified lifestyle medicine practitioner, a health coach and a former dentist with a passion for helping outdoor loving women reconnect with their health and lifestyle. Grounded in science, she delivers simple, actionable coaching to empower women with realistic plans for cultivating confidence, vitality and wellbeing. using nature, nutritious food, restorative sleep, relaxation and community, which she believes is the foundation of a happy life.

Feeling isolated as a self-employed coach, Alice launched Fresh Fridays, her in-person networking events with a wellness twist. These gatherings bring together action-taking, outdoor-loving women for hikes in Scottish countryside, good coffee and a focus on health, business and personal development, as we will hear. Beyond work, Alice loves trail running with her dog, wild swimming, team sports, singing, and life on a rural farm in Fife, Scotland with a husband and three children. And her fact for the day is that Alice is a lead singer in a band called Alice and the Wonder Lads.

I had a recent gig at a friend's 40th in under the sea themed fancy dress. Yeah. Tell me more. I mean, the lead guitarist was in flippers, so that made it quite tricky moving around the stage in a wetsuit and he had like a snorkel on. Yeah, we sort of roll out for people's birthday parties. We're not serious. And we just practice because it's a bit of fun. You know, you can nip up to the local city and rent some rooms out and have a Brilliant. What was your fancy dress then? I was a pirate, so I had like a sword.

I kept pointing at people in the crowd. And after we'd done our little set, they had a DJ come on and he had foam machine. So he was like spraying everyone with foam whilst we were, it was the gig of my life. We were absolutely loving it. Sounds incredible. Thank you so much for joining us, Alice. I absolutely love the fact that six months ago I didn't know you at all. I remember the minute you came over and had a chat with me and I just love everything that you do. So I'm really excited to share this with everybody on the end of this podcast.

You tell us, I've given you a bit of an introduction, but you tell who you are, who help and let's get chatting. Yeah, so I thank you very much for having me on. I feel very privileged and I do laugh every time anyone ever calls me an expert at anything. But anyway, try and live up to that. And I totally remember that moment as well when I came and spoke to you because it was really It was really quiet. Lots of other people were in lectures and we were at this conference and I just took a wee moment to have a chat with you.

And the sun was properly streaming in and it just felt so calm. I was immediately like, I love Jo and definitely want to work with her. You've helped me so much over the past six months, so thank you! Who am I? I suppose, yeah, you've said a little bit about me already. I absolutely love being outside.I love moving my body. And I've always been really into team sports and sport and movement in general. Growing up, I was in kind of every club going. My parents were both sports coaches and they were also both dentists.

So I got to about six years school and couldn't really think of what else to do. I became a dentist as well because I loved people and I love biology and science. And I'm actually, fun fact, I am a fourth generation dentist, so even my grandma, grandpa, great-grandparents, my brother, and my sister, everybody did dentistry. So I went straight out of school and did that uni and I always liked it. I really like people, but I never loved it, I suppose. And it's afforded me so many amazing things. We lived overseas in Australia and i practiced there for a few years.

I've met wonderful people. I have learned loads of skills. Every team that I had been in, I met lifelong friends and lots and lot of lovely patients. But after I'd had my third child, was feeling like a little bit of a... I took a career break to look after the three kids and then I thought there was maybe some space for me to explore passions. And I suppose thinking back, I probably always was looking for something, some creative outlet. When I lived in Australia, I did an interior design diploma.

I've had like design blogs. So I learned how to holster things and I had a little small business like renovating furniture for people. And I have always enjoyed sustainability and things. Yeah, so I tried lots of different wee things, and then somebody mentioned to me the British Society of Lifestyle Medicine and I read their website and i was like click this is exactly what I love and it's science-based and its health care but it is a deep dive into more than just the mouth. So I did the diploma with them and I loved it.

But I kind of still felt like I couldn't really apply that to dentistry. Like people with the best will in the world, they're not interested in you being a nutritionist and a dentist or anything like that. So then some lovely doctors through the BSLM gave me gave me their time and I just asked for help and they were so kind and kind of spoke to me and recommended

Building a Coaching Business Step by Step 7:54

a health coaching course. So I did that through the Institute of Health Sciences and that was about six months and it was really hands-on. There was a great mentor in there. I got buddied up with someone who was awesome. She'd been a business coach for 20 years and was wanting to learn about health. And I probably knew a lot about Health, but not as much about coaching. So that was perfect. Um, and then bit by bit I just sort of created a brand, I suppose. I opened a business called InLive and with Alice Thompson and it started off, got quite a few jobs in corporate just by speaking to people, knowing people offering some free things.

And then they said, Oh, you need to come and do this for my staff, et cetera. So I ended up doing a lot of coaching one-to-one on zoom in my first year, probably 80 plus hours of. Of coaching. That was amazing. But as I said at the start of this ramble, I love being outside and I loved moving and like real in-person interactions. I'm a team sports person. So last year I started, I just started running my own workshops locally around the lifestyle meds and pillars. And they sort of picked up a bit of traction and I start doing social media and trying to share what I was talking about and a wee bit education, wee of inspiration.

This is a long ramble, I'm sorry. No, it's brilliant, keep going. But then I was starting to feel quite lonely because in between all the workshops I, was on my computer in my room doing one-to-ones on Zoom and I thought that I needed business pals to kind of bounce ideas around with and I don't really like networking because I feel awkward and weird. And I, um, I felt like my face does weird things when I'm smiling, when a forced less stressed situation. Um, so then I just thought, well, let's see if I can create a wee event.

Cause I was already running events and it's kind of used to that, which is for business women who love the outdoors like me and want to meet together and would hike. And then we could lean on each other. And, um, I got someone who was a one-to-one client to kind of speak at it about her kind. How she prioritizes her health and how she balances her big business and her children. Um, and then. We had some nice coffee and people just wanted a bit of that. Uh, those, uh, grew and grew. Now I run those events and they sell out and have wait lists and.

I, with your help, created a membership this year. So that's been lovely. And now I've got a cohort of women in there who we meet in person at these events. But in between times, we've go zooms where we support each other. We goal set. I got some awesome people coming in to do master classes. on everything from like phone photography for business to marketing to styling for confidence and you're coming on, which everyone's very excited about. And so a lot of what I'm doing now is putting the health and wellness and the pillars of lifestyle medicine together with business women who run small to medium businesses and are feeling like it's difficult to prioritize self.

So I suppose I'm creating a space for people around that. And now we're at today and that's the end of my story. That's brilliant. We're going to pick that apart. But if I just before we pick it apart, if i'd said to Alice with three young children at home who was a dentist that in five years or four years, or less time. I did the diploma in 2021. So yeah. And so that, in under five, years this would be your working life. What would you have said to me? I'd be like, are you joking? People are going to pay me for that.

You're like what? How does that work? Amazing. So let's just go back. I love it. The fact that you've talked us through the evolution essentially, which is what it is. Keep saying to people, this is a journey. It's a cringey word. Everyone hates it, but it's what you start off doing is not necessarily what Let's go back to the dentist thing. You're the first dentist I've had on. Um, but I think it's the same medics, dentists. We are, you know, particularly like fourth generation is pretty impressive.

I'm kind of second generation. How was that? How, was, how was kind leaving that dental legacy? Was there any kickback from family? You know? I love the fact that you talked about the fat that liked it, that didn't love it. And I that is. That is often the way with professions and that is okay because like you say, it opens doors. It gives us privilege and opportunity and it is a reliable source of income and nobody has to do any marketing. You have patients coming to you needing your help, but was there any kickback from either internally or from other people about what you were doing at that point?

Oh, massive. Yeah. A hundred percent. I'm very different person than I was four years ago. Um, I think, as well, when you've just had, um, babies, you do lose sight of yourself a little bit as. Well, so, there's that year where I'd kind of taken the career break and there was a lot of questioning and imposter syndrome and relearning kind who you want to be. And definitely a lot of fear around leaving a profession that is so highly respected. And, you know, it's the same for medicine. It's same. There's a love that.

I don't know if white coat syndrome is the right word, but basically people would think you're financially stable. You're very clever and inverted columnist who have been able to do that. And why would you go and try something different? And for the most part, I would say my friends and family have being incredibly supportive. I was very nervous about telling my grandma because I don't know. It would have incredibly difficult for her to become a dentist, you know, there was like three women in her entire year when she became a dentists and she's, absolutely paved the way in that over in Ireland where she lives.

But they just understood it and they could see, I think a lot of it was in my head, what other people may or may not think. Ultimately, everybody in family loves me and wants what makes me happy. And of all my ideas, which I explained, this was the gore that had the most, it lined up with all of my values and actually still, you know, I can still talk about dentistry. I talk the oral microbiome and my gut health workshops and it's still relevant and ties in with it all. So, it's been an evolution, as you say, me sort of believing in myself.

And it just happens over time, the more you prove to yourself that you can do it. But I think as healthcare professionals, we're all, It's tricky because in the business world, you just have to be a bit messy and have a shot and get out there and fail fast and feel forward and all that stuff. But actually, we have no practice at failing in healthcare. It's very undesirable to fail. Yeah, and it's really undesirable to not know what you're doing either. Yes, exactly. And then in the business world, you are like, everyone's just out here flying by and seeing their pants.

Like, what's happening? But I love that. I can have an idea. frenzy over it, create some marketing about it. Tell some people, put it online, people buy tickets and it happens. I've created workshops and run them two weeks later and I love being my own boss in that way because I can just give things a bash. But I didn't do that immediately. I did step by step and just took opportunities. And I couldn't have done any of this without the support of my husband. He's actually GP. And when I was talking to him, he could see that there was a bit of unrest and he can see this was good opportunity and that he's been able to support our family whilst I've been getting this off the ground.

From Online Coaching to Outdoor Events 17:18

And I think that's really important to say as well because I know a lot of people I, I've had, had the three young kids and I was kind of balancing that, but I wasn't being a dentist at the same time as starting this up. Um, and once my last one went to nursery, then I had sort of two days a week where I could really focus in on it, um, in between nine and three. So, yeah, lots of people have supported me and my family as they saw it grow. Even my mum. Yeah, it takes a village. It's like, but it's, like raising teenagers, building a business is exactly the same.

You've got to have that support of the people around you. And then you build your scaffolding as I think it was Sarah Lu in the first episode of The Podcast talked about that scaffold and that you need to make this stuff happen. So it is always nice to recognize that. I'm sure your husband's incredibly proud and has Like you say, you're a different version of what you were four or five years ago, and you are showing your kids what is possible. And I think that's amazing. I thing there's a lot of people that go into medicine and dentistry.

Historically, the healthcare professional roles that we were offered, I like to say we, obviously you much younger than I am, but back in the day, there were only those options. Most of us like people, we like science and human biology and we want to help people get better from something. And there are now many, many more ways to do that. You know, I think going into those professions now, it does look different. But I there were a lot of people like you and I out there who have done dentistry and medicine and maybe have had this creativity burning.

I loved your story about all those things you did in Australia because that just tells me that there is an entrepreneur locked in there, a creative force that's been waiting to get out. You touched on, you said you started your business and you've started before you were ready. Tell me how important that had been. Was there a bit of a perfectionist, like an ex-perfectionist in the telling you to wait till it was all ready or did you just get it out there and give it a go? I mean, I think that's probably one of the biggest things I've changed over the, like, since I started all of this.

Perfectionism, likes so many other, especially women in healthcare professions, just complete perfectionists. And we can't let things be and we stay for hours after the end of workday because we're worrying about something or giving more than possibly we need to, or is asked of us. writing notes that are like war and peace. Absolutely. Yeah. And I, as a dentist, I would quite often not run super, super late, but if something didn't look totally perfect, and just couldn't let it be like I'd, like, have to get the corner of this filling perfect before I can let the person leave and actually like done and functional and like clean and, you know, those things are better than it being absolutely and utterly perfect and you run late for everything.

And so I, I wonder if I ever went back to dentistry, if, uh, think I would be a very different, practice very differently. I think everything I've done over the past four years would, be so helpful to me as a healthcare professional, If I was still practicing. And I seriously believe like that every doctor, dentist, every physio, health care professional should do a short coaching course because it would change the way that I took things home. Like I would put it all on me and I'd be fretting about something.

And now as a coach, I see that the patient or the client gets out what they put in. And obviously not in every single circumstance, but it's a relationship where they need to go away and do something as well. It's not all on you. But yeah, perfectionism is something I've had to massively let go of. I didn't mean to I didn't even really exactly mean to start, just the lady that I spoke about earlier who I got buddied up with in the health coaching course, who was a business coach. She is absolutely amazing.

Mary, if you're listening to this, hi. And she was at the time working in HR in a big business in Ireland. and she just said, listen, I want you to come and coach like you coached me because we got bloodied up and coached each other, the staff in my wing of her business. And so she rolled out two pilot schemes and I just started. I think I've just called it Alice Thompson Wellness and set up a Gmail account.I didn't have anything. Then I created tools as I went, I worked out how to make worksheets or what would be useful.And I'd learned things in the health coaching course as well about slightly how to structure stuff, but the more I did it, I just probably found my own way.

And then I had a mate who was struggling a lot with his sleep and I said, Oh, could I, can I practice on you? Can I come and like coach you a little bit? And I think I could help you. Then he owns his business and said well, listen, you need to come in and do this for my staff. So, and then as I was doing those things, brand this and bit by bit I got some branding done and made things that kind of, I like things to be cohesive so that every touch point feels the same as me and the energy that I want it to bring.

So, but that didn't all happen, you know, at once. I don't even remember a moment where I was like, aha, Yes, and that's exactly what I recommend people do because I think if you're waiting for this like big launch moment, this big thing to get out there into the world, you'll gonna be waiting a long time because there's always gonna to be something getting in the way. So that learning by doing, getting out that, it's just setting up an email address, setting a Facebook group, whatever it may be that actually gets you going and gets moving and then you learn as you go along is fantastic.

And it wasn't very long By the time you'd created a little bit of a monster, I guess, actually, and I talk about this when I talked about my granola business is that I started a business without really thinking about what that was going to turn into. And before I knew it, was making 30 kilograms of granolas from a family kitchen while pregnant with two children and a dog. it was kind of incompatible with what I really wanted to be doing. And it sounds like the Alice that I know and see now, you were on Zoom for 80 hours of the month, or did you say 80 hour a week?

No. No, no, that was across like six months. Oh yeah, I was going to say that. That was not in a year. 80 Hours down there. Come on now. I'm all about lifestyle and balance. So I've not doing 80-hour a weeks. But you'd created a business where you were sitting on the end of a zoom call. Now we all like in COVID times, you know, the fact that we could sit on The end Of a Zoom call was an amazing thing. And the Fact that We could take our business online. But I'd imagine there was a little bit of friction there as to what you wanted to be doing.

Would that be true to say? Yeah, definitely. I mean, I'm coaching people on getting more movement, getting outside, good foods, like prioritizing your sleep. And I can see from my desk, and I live on a farm, so I could see all the hills and would just put a gap in between Zoom calls, 15 minutes, 30 minutes. and just run up and down and then come back in. So that was a way that I balance stuff out. But even when I went into some corporates that hired me and I would just go in and work the whole day and just do back-to-back one-on-ones, oftentimes I'd be in an office with no window and doing back to back one to ones and trying to get outside in the lunchtime.

And I was like, this is not this is not what I would like it to be like. And so, yeah, then that's when I kind of, I don't know. I just, would speak to someone and they were like, you should meet this person. You should come to this thing. Then an idea would happen. is really, really powerful. I know that's not what you just asked me, but that what's made me think about how even just getting out and some sort of movement, you always bump into someone or have an idea and something comes from it. And then I've just learned now to listen to that little voice or whatever.

If you have idea, and it feels kind of juicy and good, then, I'm like, well, probably worth investigating that and doing something about it, and not ignoring it. And you haven't ignored it? You've gone with every single gut feeling that I think you've had. You mentioned the fact that you're not somebody that particularly likes the concept of networking, but actually getting out there and meeting people has opened doors and opportunities. It's almost like that North Star has been, how do I make this business involve the outdoors?

How do I make this business involve a bunch of people that are going to lift me up and come with me on this journey? And you've made that happen by taking those uncomfortable moves, like going into networking events, organizing workshops. And before you know it, your business looks like it does now.

Balancing Business, Family, and Perfectionism 27:30

Before we press record, I was saying to Alice that I get absolute FOMO about not living in Fife when I look at Alice's stuff. So if you don't follow her already, then please do because it just, I mean, the energy that comes off your Instagram posts and the stuff that you do is just incredible. So just I want obviously people to get an understanding of that. There may be people on here who don't live anywhere near you, but there may people that have friends up near or have some contacts up there.

You obviously a lot of what you now is in person, But I know that also if, if people want to organize retreats or organize something, you would probably be able to help with that sort of thing and run workshops and things. So just talk us through like a standard Alice Thompson day for somebody that's coming to one of your events. All right. Well, thank you very much, by the way, for your compliment. That's very kind. And I was saying to you as well, you should move to Scotland. It's great. Come on up.

We'll come up for a holiday or a sabbatical. Uh, I suppose most, so I run most of my events now from a rural farm and called Lindoors in Fife. And I've got a really beautiful best friend that runs it and they have just created this incredible place. It's a, it's, a working farm, but it also got like a big bothy that's renovated with a wood burning stove and. really cool, rustic design. And they have a beautiful private bit of farmland that goes up a hill and it has views down over the Tay, which is the river that feeds into the North Sea between Fife and Dundee.

So I run most of my stuff there. It's really, really amazing to be able to work with my friend and kind of collaborate that way. whether it's a wellness day for women or whether its a business networking wellness event, we usually meet in that bothy and you know, there's, a there is a big buzz. There's great energy that comes from the people that attend these things. And then everything I do always involves a hike, which is about three and a half K loop up around this. We've got unofficial stop points because it's quite steep at the start.

So there's like a gate where we all have a lean and a wee breather and everyone loves to take pictures. And then up at top there across country as well. There's those of these big horse jumps. In January, I had this brilliant woman called Jillersk and she runs something called Wild Strong. and they did this movement class for us on the top of the hill and it was really playful but she was getting everybody to like jump over the horse jumps and like it's kind of like sports day meets fitness. And then she had these big swords that were made out of foam and golf shafts and all the women were like battling each other.

And she was like, I think it feels like we should probably have a full scale battle. And I was, like yeah, well, let's line them up. But then we got them to run at each other. That was quite hilarious. Then we pulled horse box saunas up onto the hill and had, you know, they've got a barbecue hut where they have fire pit in the middle of it and we've done food up there. Down in the bothy, once we're back down off the hill, I run workshops in there and just goal setting stuff from a coaching point of view.

I've done gut microbiome workshops and got this cool lady, Dominica, in who does kimchi and fermenting. We did a practical element. Just trying to find fun ways to basically extrapolate the lifestyle medicine pillars and connection is obviously a huge part of everything. And so it's exciting and fun to do that. In my marketing, I just keep speaking to the outdoor loving business women or the outer loving women who's an action taker, who loves a bit of fun. And, and those are this type of people that I suppose I'm calling in and that's who turns up.

And those people are getting time after time. Like you say, we mentioned, you've growing this membership and was about trying to sort of streamline from a business point of view so that you weren't just selling one workshop after another. So you had people sort in for a year who were able to sign up for all of your events and you were then able support on Zoom. I think you're right. By by by being so consistent in everything you do and being authentically you, you know, this is you and this Is what you love and This is what your about your living your values your your Living, You know a life true to what what You want is going to attract those people into your life that you enjoy working with and you can see that that's happening.

What about before we wrap things up? I'm aware of time. I want to ask you two things. One is about One is about advice. So I'll get you all three pieces of advice at the end, but you've got three young kids. Are there difficult bits about running your business? You know, are there things that you struggle with? We've talked about good stuff. Uh, the things Oh, a hundred percent. And I always lead with that. I am absolutely not perfect in any sense of the word. Um, and, you know, there's times where the house is a total tip and I come out my office and then I'm like, ah, or there is, trying to get food shops in or like somebody's looking for a jumper and it's not being washed.

then he dropped to like different clubs. And obviously, you know, my husband, he's a GP, a partner, where they are, it's just incredibly stressful for him, like in the work where he is. It's amazing that we live on the farm and he can come back and decompress here. But yeah, trying to make sure that I'm in a good place as well when he comes back, so I am not just like, as soon as he come in the door, which, you know, I can be. But, yeah it's hard to balance it all and that's like a big, big part of the business community thing that i've created.

We all just say on Friday we had an event and I asked this question to to the speaker Julie and i actually feel like she had a really good answer and, I'm gonna steal it, but she just said I've lowered my standards across the board and she was like I just don't expect so much of myself and like i'm like well the house is messy well, the dishes aren't done and and. I think that's. that's what balance is. Like I always say to people that balance to me is not like perfectly weighted scales. It's like walking along the top of a wall and you wobble to one side and something gets more attention and then you recalibrate and come back to the middle and always something's getting more retention.

It may be that it's your kids for a little bit and you've done less for your business. And maybe that its, you know, friends because they really need you and less free or other half is just, it was just knowing that you can come to a center all the time is, is kind of what I shoot for. Yeah, absolutely. I love that analogy. Um, and life gets in the way, but one of the, one the most incredible things about running a business like this and being in control of your own time and when you work is that you can shift and wax and wane along with that balance, can't you, whether the kids are off school or relatives need you.

So yeah, I like that, lowering your expectations across the board. That was good, wasn't it? I love that. And honestly, Jo, you've really helped me with that with talking about working seasonally, because obviously when you're in a nine to five or whatever, it's all laid out for you. I found that quite difficult to wrap my head around as an entrepreneur. You were excellent at saying, well, listen, your year isn't going to look. exactly the same every month like it does as a doctor or a dentist. And I suppose that's like the walking along a wall or tightrope thing.

That's what being an entrepreneur is. Like you've got big months and you got quieter months, and that is okay as well. Yeah. Seeing it seasonally is nice. So thanks for that. tip. That's great. I love that. So what about to finish off with your sort of top tips to somebody, maybe somebody that's done the lifestyle medicine diploma,

Advice for Medics Starting a Business 36:30

or maybe someone that has done some coaching. You've mentioned your health coaching, I'm also going to link Tom Dillon and Helen Leathers below your coaching journey, which is a six month coaching for medics and healthcare professionals. People have done training and are often just stuck on the How do I make this a thing? How to I get out there into the world and what does that look like? So any advice to your kind of early entrepreneurial Alice or somebody else that might be in that position? Well, I suppose I remember the first mentor I had in the health coaching course.

He said a phrase I'd never heard before, and you've probably had it, but done is better than perfect. And I think because we're all perfectionists, that's an incredible concept. So I love that. I say that to myself a lot now. Um, so that might be one, one thing to rattle about the brain. Just get it, just get done because it doesn't need to be perfect. And a lot of the time you've, you talked earlier about being authentic. People want to just, people want you if you're real and you likeable and they can trust you and what you are producing doesn t need be totally perfect, it just needs to authentic, um, and From another point of view, I suppose, just sitting down and thinking about, we've touched on this already, but what are your values and your vision for where you want it to go?

And making sure that what you wanted to create would actually line up with that. For example, I literally did this with my membership this morning and I wrote mine down too. And I was like, my values are kind of being outside, fun, family, adventure. So I want whatever I'm creating to kind line up with those things. If you've done coaching, you know a bit about what it's like to make a vision and it is so powerful. Just something tangible, not something in five years time. six months away, what do I want to feel like or look like?

Um, and then I suppose a third thing would be just, just the next step. What's the step and do it and take a kind of small, um, action every day towards whatever it is that you want achieve. And if you're feeling like, okay, I can't leave medicine at the minute because of finances or I'm struggling to see where I could fit in the time to do that. If you're kind of thinking where can I have the to run this whole business or do this thing, then maybe just bring it right back to what's the actual next step you would need to.

Maybe it's literally set up an email or research something or read an article or look at where you could host a website or start a social media page. Any one of those things ultimately would take you 30 minutes or less. and then just set a smart goal for it and be like, right, okay, the next thing I need to do is start a social media page and done is better than perfect. It doesn't have to have the perfect name and all look perfect because you can change everything as you go. But just, just think about the next wee thing you want to do and then say a time and a place that you're going to get it done.

Like when I'm sitting in the car while the kids are at swimming class or something, I am going research, you know, or set up an email for my business, whatever. And then that's one wee think ticked off and now people can contact you, et cetera. Love that. Sound advice there. So we've got, done is better than perfect. Well, it's something I absolutely live by. Or in my business community, we talked to the other day about it only needs to be 70%. That's, that's enough. 70% is totally fine. So done is better than perfect.

Yeah. Knowing your, knowing your values and your external and you're internal values, there's lots of different ways of doing that. Anyone that comes into my program or that does the clarity starter kit, We do a big thing about values. I think they are so important because they help you guide your decision-making. Does this fit with what I want this to be? And I didn't realise until many, many years later that the reason why everything felt so difficult with my granola business is that it just wasn't in line with any of my values, external or internal.

And that was the problem, but I did not realise that at the time. So know what your values are and know the next step is and small, small steps and committing in the podcast before this, I can't remember the number. I talk about needing to put time, money, needing your business to have a sense of place and needing the right people. That time doesn't need to be hours and hours. Like you say, it can be 10 minutes. It can one Instagram post. it could be connecting with somebody on LinkedIn, setting yourself up with an email address.

What is your next step? and actually committing to do it. So I love that. Brilliant advice. I've loved talking to you, Alice. Thank you so much for coming to speak to the community here, and I look forward to chatting to your community. You've been absolutely brilliant. Oh, thank you for having me, Jo. It's been a pleasure. Transitioning from medicine to business is not easy. It's about adapting our skills while embracing the unknowns of entrepreneurship. it can be nerve wracking but remember you are not alone on this journey.

Please feel free to reach out to me via direct message on LinkedIn or Instagram or just shoot me an email at joe at bendylegs.com for support and don't forget to grab the free PDF from the show notes from stethoscope to start up, which is your go to guide and resource for diving into entrepreneurship. Many thanks for tuning in. I will see you next time. Thanks for spending your precious time with me. This has been a Monkey Pants Productions Podcast.