Episode #35 – Ellie Todd – Embracing the Unconventional Journey as a Portfolio Doctor

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. This is your roadmap to kickstarting your journey with us. Enjoy the show. We have hit record today because I came across this amazing human this week called Ellie, Ellie Todd, and we exchanged a few messages on LinkedIn. And as I have done a couple of times before, I've done it with two other podcasts. So I'd been exchanging voice notes and then suddenly we've gotten a conversation.

Ellieu2019s Background and Portfolio Career 1:51

We've said, let's have a cup of tea, Let's Have a Chat, And we just pressed record. That's what we have this time. It's a kind of welcome to the podcast slash Hi, Ellie. Nice to meet you kind of conversation. But Ellie, tell us a little bit about who you are so that you can introduce yourself better than I just did. Hi Joe. So I am I describe myself as a portfolio career doctor. I think that's the simplest way to define it. and they are largely centered around either working as a doctor or running my own business ventures.

And then when I'm not doing those things, it's either getting busy in the gym or outside exploring, doing something that kind of just like gets me moving and exploring the outdoors. So yeah, so I do quite a few different things. I am not a conventional medic. Definitely not following a convention or career path. That is a message that I try and spread wide. And I think that's probably how you found me. So yeah, and that is partly one of the things I do is trying to basically empower others, especially other healthcare professionals who are perhaps feeling a little bit uncertain and unfulfilled maybe in their existing career about what they can do to change that and how they could maybe navigate any career doubts.

and start a business if that's something that they want to do. But I do try and be a bit pragmatic and share the reality because it's not all roses as I'm sure you will be very much sharing to your listeners. Yeah, a hundred percent real life. This is actually what it's all about is very, very important. So that's awesome. Right. You're a portfolio, portfolio doctor and a self-confessed workaholic. I love that because actually to do all these things, to make all this stuff happen. It's not magic.

Is it? It takes a lot of hard work. Tell me how far into your sort of medical career was it before you diversified? Oh, great question. So to be honest, even before I started studying at university, I was already dabbling in various different things. I did a lot of tutoring as a student at my secondary school, helping people in the years below me, mainly getting into entrance school exams and then I was one of those that loved science, didn't know what I wanted to do then. I guess I still don't what to want to know now.

That narrative hasn't changed. And, you know, people were like, oh, well, if you love science you'll have math. Why don' you do medicine? That'd be a great idea. No one else in my family were medics. But there was very much the narrative of, look, If you get to a good uni, and you study medicine, the world's your oyster. and I've always kind of lived by that narrative. It's something that my mom has always said to me. You can kind, of you can do anything. And as I come to learn, you can do anything.

but you can't do everything. So I ended up applying for medicine. I got into Oxford, studied at Oxford uni and there I did my pre-clinical, which was very much lecture based. You don't even step foot in the hospital. And at that point I was already thinking, Oh God, is this really what I want to do? I'm not sure. Maybe I do want go into like management consultancy. and I, was surrounded by others that, you know, doing PPE, business, like finance degrees, going off and doing that like summer internships.

There's that bit of me thinking Oh, would I prefer the corporate life? decided to stick with it and go, let's crack on. Let's do the clinical years, make sure that I, you know, I haven't really given this a shot, did the clinic. And I found it hard being a clinical medical student, like being on the wards. I actually that really struggled being kind of like, felt like I was in the way a lot and I didn't like that aspect to it. But I did start to enjoy the medicine more and actually applying what we'd learned.

But there was still this part of me that was like, I don't know. And I hadn't found a specialty that I really liked. I was doing a lot of tutoring, which I loved. So I basically started at that point reaching out to the careers advisors at uni and got quite a bit of support from them actually.

From Medicine to Entrepreneurship 5:48

There's loads of resources available, but there's also loads like societies where you do like management consultancy projects and things like that. That's why I started getting into that space. Actually applied for some management consulting jobs thinking this is what I wanted to do. didn't get any offers in my final year as a med student. So I was like, okay, I'll just crack on and do F1, F2. I did F one, started doing F 1. And again, like the learning curve I loved. and I think, you know, we all love that challenge.

We've like suddenly thrown into this environment. It was great. it was fast. hard work, which I, think we will thrive off, but I still just like this, don't see myself aligning with this end goal. so I again reapplied for management consultancy stuff. And again, like, did you go through so many rounds of interview interviews? And I again didn't get any job offers. So kind of got to this point where I was like what do I do? Do I just keep applying for stuff or do. I start taking more control of this situation myself.

And at that point I within a relationship where my partner had started a startup in the skiing industry and I'd seen him and his two mates. three of them, which no discredit to them. But like, you know, they've not got an A level between them but very passionate about the ski industry, very competent and capable, go off and raise investment and start a business. And I just sat and thought, if they can do this, surely I can this right? And, I found myself in the middle of lockdown, or at the start of lock down, kind of getting through my F2.

My brother and I were looking at basically setting up a Airbnb rental property we started getting involved in kind of like looking into the property industry and property space. And we came up with this business idea, and we were like, let's crack on, he got furloughed so he had nothing to work on and was at home twiddling his thumbs. I was still working in the hospital, but was coming home, you know, still like chomping at the bit to be working on something of my own. And so, yeah, we launched our first business, our best proper business I'd say.

That's kind of how it started. Then I finished my F2. I didn't apply for specialty training because I did not have a specialty that I wanted to apply to. wanted to just kind of give that a go and in being in the middle of the pandemic as well, I just then carried on locaming in A&E and I've basically just been doing that ever since. And you're still locating in any you still do? Not as much as I do as i did before so it's something I talk quite a lot about on social media in terms of like the reality of working as a locum because it is not as It's often I think overly glamorized and it's definitely changed in the last, I'd say the 18 months hugely.

But yeah, so I do still work just not as much as I perhaps would like to. And I that's something that you touched on. I thing the first time I heard you speak was on the Medics Money podcast and you talked about low coming man and about this thing, well, this aspect of not pulling away completely from your clinical job, even though it doesn't, there's this lack of alignment and you're thinking, or this isn't quite for me, you know, There's nothing I dread more than somebody, than someone getting in touch with me and saying, I've walked away from my job.

I have given up my jobs. You know I'm ready to go on my business and I am like, no stop you know like rewind the clock because go back yes exactly exactly because because you need that income like the reality of business as we will come to is that that Income takes a while to come so I love the fact you're you you'll locaming in A&E you are doing shifts I think A and E and GP you really lend themselves brilliantly to being able to balance it until such a point that you can actually step outside.

And someone said to me once, you know, until your business, till you're actually losing money by not working on your busines, then step away. Yeah. Then stepaway. I think that's really important. So let's just go back a little bit. What I'm hearing from you and what I hear from a lot of people that I speak to on the podcast and generally medics that come into my world is this love of learning. essentially give you something to do and you will go out there and do it and learn and probably be brilliant at it.

How would you think that's been helpful to you now you're on this entrepreneurial journey or since you decided to start this business with your brother? It's the most important skill set. It is by far the more important skillset. And this is why I say I think any medic can start a business. because you have all the skills you need, cause you are able to learn. And you've got a stack of undeniable proof that you can learn, like you spent six, five, six years studying and the rest in training, learning, and you do the exact same in the business space.

I just think it is obviously a very different type of learning in a sense that often it has to be very self-directed. Like you to go out and try and like Google stuff, search for stuff look online, talk to people, sit and maybe apply for courses. If there's courses available that will help you fast track learning things. But ultimately, you know, You can learn how to brand. You Can learn How to build a website. you can Learn how To build A massive tech stack. If that's what you need to Build,you know you Can Learn How To sort out your CRM and get your Posts going on socials and how.

To set up payment processes like you. Can do all of this. that you can learn it and you're more than capable of doing that, yeah. So doctors have got this inbuilt ability to learn, which is a massive advantage going into the entrepreneurial space. What about the disadvantages? Because there are some aren't there, you know, difficulties that medics have at taking this jump. And mostly what I see is this the lack of kind of hoops to jump through or hurdles set out in front of you, you know, we've, gone through GCSEs, A levels, et cetera, with this like, next you do this, do you see that cropping up sometimes as a problem?

Learning, Perfectionism, and Business Uncertainty 11:54

Yeah, so two key things, I think, there's probably more I can pump, but two, key ones that always just sit and blinker at me is number one, perfectionism, like we are perfectionists and This is something that I noticed when my brother and I were starting our first business, we were very much like, okay, messaging functions. They can chat to each other. There needs to be like a payment process so they can pay invoices. And we thought of all this stuff and we were like, okay, we need to go and get some quotes to get it branded.

In landed our first quote that's in, I kid you not, like we're talking tens of thousands. Then it was okay. How are we going to this website built? Another quote. We're taking like as a prototype that we can just show to investors, again, tens or thousands, but to it built properly, were looking at a couple of hundred thousand. Were looking each Oh, what have we started? We want to do this properly, but actually this isn't the space we know. And we, we wanted to everything perfectly, But we were just suddenly so quickly faced with the reality that starting a business, you might want do things a certain way.

Yes, You might wanna perfectly branded business and you want everything to look like the companies that you see on the TV and on railway lines, in their adverts. But actually starting your business is often messy. It's often of just trying to get stuff out there. They often use the expression like throwing stuff at a wall and seeing what shit sticks. And it really is. We were forced really quickly to go, okay, we don't have tens of thousands to invest in this business. How can we do this as basically as simply as possible that doesn't look unprofessional, but at the same time isn't like as sophisticated as say, other businesses that are existing.

And so, you know, You can you can just create so many barriers for yourself if you want to as a perfectionist, like it is an innate to us. But actually, The faster you start just moving forward and just, okay, create some brand colors, like choose a brand palette. What do you like, what aligns with your target customer? Like, let's just design a logo. Let's get a website up that does the basic. Like yes, we need terms and conditions in place and all that kind of stuff. But you know, it's, trying to not let your perfectionism hold you back.

And I think that's really key. Yes, there are certain things you have to do when it comes to starting a business in terms of legalities and getting it set up properly. Those are very specific things that you do need to get ticked off and done. but you can procrastinate a lot if you, if try and do things too perfectly and ultimately you won't get your product out there. And then there is that sense of directionless. You know, I say there's like certain steps that you need to take to set up a business and yes, there are those things that need you to do.

But once you've kind of done those thing, like ultimately, you take your business in whatever direction you want. If you want to focus on this marketing strategy, you can, if you wanna focus, I'm making those kinds of like collaborations and those certain campaigns and you know, can do whatever you with your business. There's no kind of rule book of, okay, the first step is to go and do this. The second step to going to do that is completely down to you. And you're steering that ship and no one's telling you where to.

Um, sometimes you don't know where you going, which makes it really hard. Cause then you'll like, and I've got these sales and we should actually, we're gonna be pulling them in. Even my brother, who's not a medic has found that hard because you do sometimes sit and wonder like, am I doing the right thing? And the truth is the longer I've been doing this, the more I realize and I can see in other people and other that have been very successful as well that no one knows. Like no, one has a clue and everyone is just trying stuff.

It like the journey of entrepreneurship is about experimentation. it's about trying different things, seeing what works, Seeing what gets adapted by and adopted by your customers and like making tweaks here and there. adapting to the market and trends that are going on and just experimenting, which can be hard, but it is, it's something that you have to try and get used to as well. Yeah. I think you're a hundred percent spot on. And this is everybody that isn't a medic too, you know, this journey of uncertainty.

It's like, sailing a ship without a rudder and you, have be able to do that. a skill that I think medics have to learn from the outset. I'm very much somebody that is very honest about this. The first time I ever tried a proper business, I did a business probably 18 years ago, but my first proper You know, it is literally has been a journey of creative challenges, movement, pivoting, you know working out, that's not for me, I actually really enjoyed that. I love working with that person, opening doors, peeking around the corner, shutting them again or leaving them a little bit open, all the way through.

And most people don't like that and it's okay to find that uncomfortable and it's not for everybody. So I think the worst thing you can do is think that this is what you want and not give it a go. If this creative idea or this business idea, or you wanna get something off the ground, this constant need to move quickly, get Something to market, is this a problem only you're having or is there a need out there? and are acting quickly and in small, tiny, affordable chunks. So you're not spending lots of time or money, but you need to spend some time and money.

That's the reality. To know whether this is something you want to do or not, because a lot of people would find what you've just said quite stressful for them, cause there's no guarantees, are there? No, and this, this the key thing, which is a mistake we nearly made as my brother and I, you know, we, like I said, if you go right back to the beginning when we started Dormart, getting these quotes and we were thinking, okay, we need to raise from family or friends. Like, should we raise investment?

Like this is what I'd seen my partner do. And then it was like, Okay, well we'll get our SEIS and our EIS advanced assurance so we can then start pitching and raise the investment. We actually spent, so much time, probably invested a year into having discussions, optimizing our pitch deck, pitching to angel investors and VCs, to be told by VCs and pretty much most angel investors that we had no proof of concept because we were just a prototype. And actually, at this stage, as much as it sounded like a great idea, they couldn't afford to take that risk.

But as eventually to go, They don't wanna take the risk, why are we trying to ask our friends and family to risk? When you start a business where you've got no proof of concept, it's literally like pouring cash down a drain. You don' know if that cash is gonna come back up or if you could be just burning it. Um, and I see so many people do this when they start a business and they invest a lot. Like, I don't actually think I've said it on any podcast, so this is a first, but we, my brother and, in total, probably invested about 30,000 pounds into Dormart, of which we've not got back.

It is revenue generating, it's not providing us with salaries and it is profitable monthly, giving us that finance back. And that's something that we've both taken away from this, that particular business is like, this was a huge learning curve and like amazing, such a good experience for us because we could have invested a lot more and lost a little more. Whether we will, you know, like I said, hopefully we'll eventually see that come back, but it takes a long time. Yeah. How many years into that business are you now?

So that was, so it's been revenue generating since about 2021, 2022. So, yeah. Yeah, for people listening, the business is bringing in enough money to cover its costs, to pay whatever outgoings you have or staff or people that you had, but you're not taking a wage from that and you've invested money in that that hasn't been paid back to you since. And that is very normal. I mean, that's a great situation to be in at this point with a revenue generating potentially profitable business, you know, after four years.

But that is a reality. You are not taking a wage from this. And I think that has not understood enough when people go into it. I see medics going in. We are incredibly fortunate to have the job for life thing is now a little bit less Guaranteed.

Rejection, Validation, and Business Lessons 20:30

But we have a good wage coming in, a monthly wage that comes into your bank account. Whether you've done a job to 100% of your ability or whether you have actually shown up half-assed for the last month, you're going to get paid at the end of it. So I think that's really important for you to share and I've shared a similar story about, you know, all of my businesses and i think, that is the reality that people need to see. I just want to pick up on something that you've talked about a lot and, I love your honesty about this.

You've, talked, about your no's you, have talked. About fails you have, talks about not getting things and things not working out. Talked about applying for jobs for management consultancies And you've just talked about pitching, going in front of people, VCs and getting nos. How important is accepting failures and nos and learning from them in entrepreneurship and business? Like it is so important. It is important, but it's not easy. And, you will want to resist them so hard. But you do also need to listen to them.

So if I give a good example, as a business, we were a two-sided marketplace where we have our property professionals. And ultimately we had people then coming to us who say, Oh, I need help buying a house in Liverpool or I needed by help, buying your house at Manchester, but I don't live there and I want someone that's on the ground that can help me find it. You know, maybe get it set up if want to start renting it out, et cetera. And we'd spent, we spent months building the website and like building a prototype and then reaching out to property professionals going, Hey, would you like to sign up to the platform?

Like when it's live, like, this is what we'll do. You'd be advertising your services, the way in which you'd get paid or like the, way, in, which, you have to like pay to use a platform is basically we. sell you a lead as and when that person comes in and says, hey, I need help. We like tender out ultimately for a fixed cost. And, you know, we had all these property professionals coming to us saying, yeah, this sounds like a great idea. This sounds great. I'd use this platform. and we'd anticipated like how many leads would be getting in, how much revenue would you be taking from these properties professionals.

It was all great, You know? I don't think we were even pitching at this stage. we we're just discussing it with a kind of like incubator that will kind trying to help us. this woman just sat and said there, she was like, their verbal agreement means nothing. So you've got no property professionals actually that have paid to use your platform, really, have you? And it was a bit like, well, at this stage, they can't buy in. But at the same point, she was right. No one had actually exchanged cash to consume our product.

And at that point in time, I didn't really appreciate the value of it. And it's only now, like five years later, that I sit and remember that conversation and go, do you know what? It's so true. Like reaching out to people and saying, hey, would you like the idea of this product? Like, what do think of, this, and this? And like, This is how much it would cost. What do, you think? That's great. It is really important market research. but ultimately don't get too excited because you may not actually have people coming and paying for stuff and buying it.

It's a very different someone verbally agreeing that they're going to consume something and then actually coughing up cash. And so that no from her like initially hurt so much. And I remember my brother and I like our tone in that call, we suddenly became quite defensive and we, you know, came off it being like, Oh, who's she like blah, blah blah. You take it so personally because what you're doing, like regardless of whether it's me like applying for jobs and facing rejection, whether you start up a business, it is so personal.

This is also personal and your business you treat it like a baby because you, know it something you've worked so hard on. Um, You do need to kind of push on through, absolutely. And like a no doesn't mean you have to stop, but you do you need I think use that as like, a sign pose to go like okay, let's check in here, lets reflect, like let take some time away from this situation and then let come back in it and go okay. Was that a valid no? Is there stuff I can learn from this? Did they actually have a point?

What was it that they presented that was their reasoning for that? No, is that something that we need to be worried about or that actually need a kind of reflective view on? And kind go from there. And I think for me, I subconsciously did that when it came to all the management consultancy rejections, because I'd got to the point of having like, three rounds of interviews with BCG for them to come back and say, no, that was two years running. So I'd done that twice. Then to them come the second year and go, oh yeah, just reapply again.

There's not really any constructive feedback we can give you. Like it was, you know, your kind of fine. It was just, try again for me to go. Oh, am I really gonna just keep doing the same thing again? With no like no kind ability to kind improve and like increase my odds. So you do need to reflect on those no's, definitely, but don't let them stop you from the end goal. Yeah, absolutely. And I think there's so many stories out there, aren't there? I was reading about the girl that set up Canva, for example, you know, it's a classic, what she did 100 noes before she got the S.

It's part of that resilience piece. Like you say, checking in, is this really what I want? Is this taking me in the right direction? How does this feel? Is this really what I need personally? Is it what the business needs? It gives you that opportunity. And I think this is the roller coaster or I liken it to my journey between I live in South Wales, my parents live North Wales and I like an entrepreneurship to that kind of like ups and downs and twists and turns and like massive like cattle in the middle of the road have to go back a bit.

That's what it's like. You've highlighted that. Yeah. So what does the future hold for you and your business? You're still working with your brother? Yeah, so since we launched Doormat, we do a couple of different things now. Doermat is still running, kicking along. Thankfully, it largely runs itself. It's quite automated, which is very nice. And we've tried to create it as lean as possible. So we don't actually have like any hires or anything like that. It's just me and him that kind of work on it.

And as a result, we then kind have gone, what are we actually passionate about? What do we want to do? Cause we realized that we fell into this problem of being desperate to start a business and going, okay, let's find a problem and create a solution rather than properly kind Reflecting on things that we necessarily were really passionate about all that. We've properly passed like we'd experienced personally and that We could really get get behind I guess more With more like fulfillment. I think that's the right thing Like it's ultimately you need to be really passion about your idea for you to get that fulfillment from it So he's lent into his own business ventures and I've lent in to mine, which are largely within empowering and helping other healthcare professionals to navigate career doubts and if they want to start a business.

So I recently just launched the clinical shift. which is a platform supporting healthcare professionals who are considering a career change.

Pivoting to The Clinical Shift 27:30

And it's very much a platforms to help people navigate doubts. So it is not to encourage people to leave. It's to have people, anyone that's kind of sitting there thinking, oh, maybe the grass is green or on the other side, to go through and review that and maybe explore alternatives and, and may be leave if that is what they realize is right for them. Similarly, maybe actually realize that medicine is right for them. They maybe just need to make a few tweaks here and there to Make it better tick their boxes.

So yeah, so that's something I'm frantically working on building a hand as a podcast with that as well as the platform, which is very much just a landing page at the moment, but it's a work in progress. So what's that going to look like? Is that like a membership? No, I'm trying to bring my business from my Business Hat, and perhaps your listeners will be interested to hear how I've explored building this. I very want to try and make it as free to consumer users, so to healthcare professionals as possible, I think we should be able to access career advice for free as much as we can.

So that is a monthly newsletter where resources are sent out, there's going to be various resources on the website that they can access and engage. But then there will be a directory of coaches, career coaches that we endorse and that work closely with. There will a be directory as well of courses that can attend that perhaps help them develop certain skill sets, whether that's maybe like in aesthetics, if that something that they're interested in pursuing or whether it's in kind of like life support training or maybe that in completely other fields like, I don't know, photography or nail tech or like whatever it might be that maybe they just want to explore.

There will be again a directory of those various courses there for them to explore as to whether there's something they want to do to maybe give them confidence to kind of just like start making a change or just to like I said, explore. I think so it's interesting because I thinks it sounds like a sort of similar business model, this sort matching scheme, like bringing the users and you know, it is a similar concept but a different group of people, right? Yeah, absolutely. And this is kind we've learned so much from our previous business.

And we know what the like the infrastructures there and we Know what works when it comes to also when is it easier to get consumer users to pay for a product or a service or business users pay For a production service, right? Yeah, and a really great case study of this, I just come across recently is so you know, loop the loop earplugs. Have you heard of looped ear plugs? Oh, Yes, yes, I have. Yes. Yeah, so you can put these little earplugs in your ears to obviously, you know, like to like quite an in sound like you use them when you're sleeping or as like noise protection when But anyway, going on their website, having a look at them, because my brother's actually working with the brand, and he was like, gosh, Ellie, have you seen this?

And they do commercial, they have like commercial contracts where corporate, I guess, like businesses were able to buy, we're talking tens of thousands of these earplugs. And it's not just a D to C business, it is a B to B business. where they're selling these earplugs on bulk to probably companies like Amazon, like Google, big warehouses where their distribution centers, where the staff need ear protection. And this is a classic example of a business that's taken a product and it's not only just selling direct to a consumer, it is also selling directly to businesses.

Sometimes it a lot easier to get businesses to buy into products because it easier for them to see the value, easier they're a bit more commercially minded when it comes to understanding what it can provide them with. But I think it's also a really good example of you obviously you're really talented at that aspect of it like whether you know bringing people together understanding this need for this person to have this product and matching them together and if that is where your skill set is that can be rolled out into lots of different groups of people and I to me and my community building and supporting people in a sort of community.

Like basically with the Howe people, we were rocking up every Thursday on a Zoom call at seven o'clock and we we're making brownies and doing journaling and having inspirational speakers come in. And essentially that's what I'm doing now, except we don't make brownie and finger knitting, although I am sure the medics that I work with would love to do that. But it's a similar thing because that is what i really love doing, but it is just a different group of people. That is an example of pivoting, but knowing your strengths and knowing the kind of stuff that you like doing behind the scenes.

So that's super exciting. And I'd really like to link that up in the show notes so people can find out more. I think there's a massive value here, Ellie, about your age, being a bit younger and having that understanding of what that junior doctor pressure is like. a couple of nephews that are in the beginning of their medical careers. And I feel quite detached from their decision making and what's around them at the moment, because it's very different to how it was when I was there. You know, it feels very heavy.

I think for people it's like, well, you know what do I do? Do I go and work in Australia where things are better? And you the NHS in England is disbanding. And what does that mean? What does it look like? Shit, what else can I? Because I've lost all ability to think beyond medicine. So I this is massively valuable. Off the top of my head, I can think of several people that really need this. That's exciting. is, I think, and that's where it honestly comes from, for me, because it's this is something that, again, i started talking about on social media, so I talked about how I felt, you know, disempowered by the system around me and how i felt trapped for so long and How I'd kind of like found the courage and confidence to kind Of do something a bit different.

And I just and the whole point of the clinical shift is just to help people realize that they're not stuck.

Advice for Starting a Business 33:30

Yeah. And even if they do, you know, even they decide that they want to kind of become a medical student, see where things go. If they wanna, start specialty training or whatever, like that's fine. But you, if you want make a change, You can. you know, just because you've made that decision, it's not face to complete. And I personally, I think it is improving, but particularly when I was at med school and as a med student, there wasn't a lot of discussion about other things that you could do. There was this overriding assumption, you're gonna go into the NHS training pathway, You're going to become a consultant and that's it kind of, and it doesn't have to be that way.

No. Okay, amazing. There's been a lot. We've talked about an awful lot, you touched on a few really important things earlier in terms of advice, but I'd really love it if you could just share a couple of things that you would say to somebody Particularly, I guess, most of my listeners are in this entrepreneurial space as opposed to the clinical space, that's why they're here. What would you say to somebody that is thinking about starting their own business, has got an idea, is maybe holding back, what would be your advice to your kind of early entrepreneurial self?

The first thing that I would honestly say is I'd be like, you need to run through the 3P checklist for your business idea. So I always say, to anyone, if you're starting a business either be like a previous profession that you've had, like that's gonna help, you're gonna be more likely to succeed in a business if you are starting something that already got experience in and you already have some credibility in. So if it's one of those, then know, you can have some confidence, this is probably going to be an okay idea for you to see.

The second thing would be, is it a problem that you've previously experienced? And if so, and it's not just a program that he plucked out from the air, then that's usually a great starting point, because, again, there will likely be other people just like you, who have experienced that problem. And you could then just lean into creating a business around yourself. know for you because there will be other people just like you so that's a great starting point again have confidence this idea is a good one or um is it something you're really passionate about and if it is and it's something that you know you've been thinking about for years you are already like well connected in the space because you already, like, you, know, say you love playing tennis and you all know all the tennis courts around and, and then you got tennis coaches and all about tennis brands and where you can learn about tennis, all this kind of stuff, and you just live and breathe it, then why are you not going?

If it's one of those three P's, have confidence that it is an idea that suits you and aligns with you. And then you've just got to get started because it only going to be easier. It won't be pretty. But the quicker you start, the faster you learn and the fastest things start to fall more into place. Amazing. Love that. Three Ps. Previous profession, a problem that you previously experienced or passion. And I think having that passion piece, you know, people say, oh, well, run a business that is your passion.

But actually what this comes down to, I think, is the ability to get up day after day, after today and do it even when you're not being paid. So that was my, you know, always it was like, would I get an hour earlier every day? Which is, the only time I have to work on my business without being for the next three years. And if that's a no, then it's not worth carrying on with. Absolutely. It comes to what you said about the facing rejection and being like are you more likely to up and keep going?

when you're passionate about something and you will. Even if you have to take a bit of time away to kind of just like rebuild your enthusiasm, that's fine. Amazing. Ellie, thank you so much for joining us today. I'll link everything up in the show notes and I know that people will be reaching out to get in touch with you. So good luck with everything that you do in future. Thank you very much, Jo. I hope this episode has sparked some new ideas or challenged your thinking.

Closing Thoughts and Resources 37:30

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 startup, 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.