Episode #40 – Ruth Machin – From Adversity to YouTube Sensation

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. So welcome to today's podcast. I'm really excited about this one. Dr. Ruth Machin has been in my community for the last year. She's an absolute legend. And in this podcast, we discuss all of the ups and downs that is life after medicine, starting your own business. Root shares her wins, her struggles and her advice to her early entrepreneurial self.

Dr Ruth Machin is a retired consultant radiologist. She worked in a tertiary centre cardiothoracic imaging specialising in post-mortem imaging in natural and forensic deaths. Ruth has had to take ill-health retirement due to corneal neuralgia, a chronic eye condition, in August 2023 which was a pretty tough time and she had to give up her license to practice. This then led Ruth to set up one of the UK's first dedicated dry eye charity with a professor of optometry and started her journey as a health coach.

Ruth Machinu2019s Background and Career Transition 2:30

Ruth has now set-up a Health Coaching business and is currently studying for an MSc in Clinical Nutrition at the University of Nottingham. And in the last four months we can now say categorically that you have become a YouTube sensation, which is very exciting. But your fact, before we even start thinking about YouTube, your random fact is one of my favorites. You have a 50p coin that you have designed that remains in circulation. How on earth did that happen? There are still some in circulation, there's not many anymore because people collect them.

So that was a competition, I was registrar on nights and reading the paper as you do on your break, obviously not when you're supposed to be working hard, basically in one of the papers saying put your design on this 50p and we'll make it. So I entered and I won one of them so I think there were 26 winners for various sports, mine is fencing and yeah they liked my design so they made it into a coin which obviously got put into circulation and occasionally still turns up. So I've got a small bit of me kind of circulating for all eternity until coins are, you know, gotten rid of and we're all electronic.

So it's amazing. That's a great fact. I absolutely love it. Well, welcome to the podcast, Ruth. Thank you for your time. So why don't we, before we get overexcited with what's happening right now, let's wind the clock back to Ruth that I met. that sort of side of things first and then we'll go into who you help and how you helped them. Yeah, perfect. So yeah, we met, it was April a year ago, pretty much, wasn't it? You were in a sauna, you had a sort-of woody backdrop and I was Basically at the kind of vague idea stage, so the vague that I wanted to set up my own health coaching business.

At the time I hadn't even finished my diploma, but I didn't really know. Well, I had a vague inkling that wanted do something sort of related to heart health, that was about it. I did not know who I served, what an ideal client was. I had absolutely no idea how you set up a business other than I have a vague inkling that I'd need a bank account and a website. But that was literally it. So I went in knowing pretty much nothing. And obviously then, you know, through your program kind of did tried to do it in the right way, i.e.

not jumping straight to the website and all the kind of shiny things and starting to think about who I helped and that has very much evolved in time as well. So what I thought I wanted to right at the start has evolved as I have had. Basically I've tried things, I'm seeing what's worked and what hasn't worked, and feedback I got from clients as to what resonates with them. I not exactly pivot, just kind of change how I sort of put my message out there. Specifically because what I wanted to do, which was coach over 50s women about heart health, then discovered that over fifties women don't think they have heart-health issues because they associate it with being a man's disease.

So I kind had to change, how i put it out, there so they're still getting health coaching information and support that will improve their heart health, it's just kind of in a slightly roundabout way. It's packaged up in different ways. I remember that first conversation that we had because one of the things that when we're looking at your unique perspective, your professional experience, is that I know how people die, I've seen people who've had who've had car accidents I've seen inside their hearts and, you know, super passionate about heart health.

And we had this long, chat about who your ideal clients could be. I think at the beginning, I was kind of saying to you, well, men need this. and I have this conversation with a lot of people around this whole like men's heart, health thing. That's where you started. Then it went into women's health because you've got so many women coming to. You. What's interesting now is what you're saying is that you were taking feedback all the time on the fact that they weren't engaging with these words that

Finding the Right Audience and Messaging 7:00

you were putting out there and they were understanding that that's what they needed. So just by making those tweaks in your language, you're giving the same help, the Same information, The same advice, but it's now landing with people in a different way. Is that what that Yeah, I've slightly changed my focus. And again, some of my changing focus has come around because of going to study nutrition. Obviously you do a small amount of nutrition as a health coaching. in a health coaching diploma, but you obviously have to work very much within your scope of practice, i.e.

you would never give anyone a meal plan or tell them to cut out certain food groups because you're not a dietitian, you are not registered nutritionist. So obviously through studying that, I've sort of got an interest in basically postmenopausal nutrition, female nutrition and it's obviously slightly different in that you have, well, you've still got kind of the remnants of menopause symptoms, but then you got the increased cardiovascular risk and the risk of bone health. So ultimately, when I'm in registered nutritionist, that's where I want to go, is supporting women's bodies as they age.

Because obviously, we live a lot longer now, and we still have the menoppause at 50. That's 30 years of your life. without the estrogen you used to have and the effects that has on the body. So taking account of that and making sure we're eating properly to age healthily, that's where I wanna go with it. And obviously the heart health is a part of, so that why I've slightly changed focus. Again, it was just talking to people, not to sell them, to get them on my coaching program, just to talk to them for market research.

I put it out there on social media, I want to to women, and I don't want anything. And yeah, the overwhelming message was, your messaging doesn't land with me because I don't think it's my problem. but I want this, and then the things they want are the thing that will conversely improve their heart health, i.e. I don't want to lose my visceral fat, I wanna get fitter, so all the other things, but just not, the messaging just wasn't landing. And yeah, as you say, didn't get any, one male client, all of the others, just seem to be attracting over fifties women and I enjoy coaching over 50s women, There's no point doing something I don't enjoy.

I enjoy this, hence. The first time we recorded the podcast, I was at that transition stage and I lost in a slump because I didn't know where I'm going. Then I had to go back and do all that basic work again. and suddenly got an awful lot more clarity so now I've kind of obviously decided well this is what I want to do and now i'm going to go all in all guns blazing and the messaging now does seem to be landing which is very nice. So just to recap for anyone that's listening that sitting there thinking i've seen this woman on youtube iIve heard about this.

We have deliberately wound the clock back and it's just one year now that story that you've told I think could be three years or five years. I think you have done this very, very quickly. What you've talked about is the importance of market research, the important of getting out there, not selling, talking to people. We think we've spoken to so many people as doctors, we think that we know all this because we have got lots of consultations behind us and lots It's a very different beast. So getting out there, speaking to people, taking quick, messy action.

That's what you've also demonstrated. But you also said that the classic adage, you give them what they want and tell them they need. They want to lose a visceral fat and all of those things that you suggested. you know, the needs are the same, whether it's that or whether its heart health. So there's just so many juicy things I can pull out of that, but you have shown massive resilience because that dip was around October time. I think I remember that time, Ruth, what's yourself given hashtag? Oh, hashtag no job, no kids.

That's because when comparisonitis kicks in, because I am, I obviously have time. I have what most of in the coaching group don't have because I don t have kids and I do not have a job because i'm retired. So what I had is time so I will do things a lot quicker than everyone else then everyone will go oh you're doing things so quickly and it's like yeah that's because like my caveat for getting things done quickly. Obviously now I don't have a lot of time because I'm now a part-time ageing student, which has obviously got its challenges in itself.

So that obviously has thrown a bit of a spanner in the works. But until I decided it would be a really good idea to go back to university at 50, I had a little more time. Yeah, and time is an important factor when we're starting out. And I think what you've touched on, that comparisonitis, you can't, if you got a full-time job and three children under the age of 10, You've got challenges on your time that Ruth didn't have. But you also used your times really wisely. Like you say, now you're pretty busy with your nutritional work.

You're busy pretty with YouTube stuff. Pretty busy your health coaching as a result. But you have allocated that time, but that slump in October. Let's go back to that a little bit. What was going through your head at that? Oh, I just I was quite low because it's like it was that I think. When you start out, you have a misconception of how it's going to be. And I don't know if it is a medic thing or it just an anybody thing. You think, well I'm going put something out there and it will be great.

There's a small part of you which thinks that. Why would no one want to buy my service? Because it it amazing. Then you do something. The Americans call it crickets. tumbleweed moment and you think oh okay so I was doing things and just nothing was resonating so then you start thinking well is it me am I just rubbish do people not want to buy my thing because I'm rubbish and get yourself in a little bit of a downward spiral and what helps is somebody in the group or yourself going, that's completely normal.

That happens to everybody. And people saying your first offer isn't going to be your final offer. You know, it's going evolve. It's gonna change. So I think I was in that kind of slump and trying to decide whether I should change what I doing fairly radically, having sort of gone down one path. Although it actually wasn't that radical, I just built it up in my head that it was and it really wasn t. I wrote one LinkedIn post on it and just changed things and that was it. People pay way less attention than you think they're going to pay, hence I doubt many people even noticed.

It was just because it scary and because I felt like failure and my inner critic was going well you're rubbish at this why why you know all these people you went to your health coaching diploma with they're getting clients why aren't you you? You know you've got this background why can't get clients what's wrong with you are you a rubbish coach? So that's the inner-critic and obviously all of us I think sometimes struggle with that because even though rational brain goes yeah that is rubbish, irrational brain is like So that's basically where I was in October.

I also had quite a sick dog at the time. My dog wasn't very well and my dog unfortunately later did pass away. So just generally life wasn t great and the career thing wasn having to go back to university and suddenly put my aging menopause, brain foggy brain through a flippin biochemistry exam was, yeah, it was just like, what have I done?

Taking a Break and Rebuilding Confidence 15:00

What have you done. What I have done, so it's kind of all of that at the same time and the business not working. So I wasn't in a great place. And I do remember having that one call when I had to turn the camera off It's just like I'm gonna cry in a minute. So yeah, it was not good. I bounced back, It took a couple of months, but I bounce back. And in that couple months you went away. It was your birthday and you when away and I remember you saying to me, yes, I am gonna stop for a bit. Yeah. How did that go?

Basically, I think you'd said it and Rachel have both said, sometimes you just need a break from it. And I did. I basically just put everything on hold, went to America for 10 days because I was 50 and I thought that might ease the transition somewhat. and then basically didn't go at it again probably until well after Christmas into January because I had an exam in January as well so I thought well that takes priority. So I came back to it two months later with fresh eyes basically and thought, well what I was doing wasn't working so i'll try this and I did some more market research I've done some recently, sort of put out a survey and sort things.

And I thought, well, yeah, this might work. So I'm going all in and I'll see how the messaging lands and if it lands, I go with it. If it doesn't help, try something different again. I just keep trying things differently until something does land. But I think this does have some traction now. Certainly the YouTube is showing that there's people out there who want this service. Yeah, so I am pleased I took the time away because it just gave me a bit of headspace. to re-evaluate. So before we get on to that, because in my head, I've got the timeline.

I know exactly where we are. We're like mid-January. And I want to just highlight what you've just said. You took some time out. Now, everybody has this guilt of taking time outs, particularly when you're in a program like mine, which is a year long for a reason. Because I kind of expect everybody to have this period of time where they're, like, do you know what? I can't do this anymore. Stop, stop, Even if it's for two weeks, four weeks it could be for 2 months. Becca Ryle had a six month break.

It's normal and like I say it lets those creative juices in. So you've come back, you have been away. you're thinking, right, I'm going to go all in. Is that shift in your mindset? It's like, i'm gonna make these changes, and i'll be brave, so there's something there, isn't there? That's switched a little bit. And then if I remember rightly, the first, it was around the time of the Mastermind. Yeah, end of January it was, first YouTube idea. So tell us about that. Yeah. That was in your masterclass.

I can't remember who had been talking about YouTube in the actual talk. And I put in chat box, oh, I'd love to start a YouTube channel. Hermosh replied and said, oh, I can help you with that. And then he tracked me down on LinkedIn. He said he stalked me, he didn't, it just searched my name. So he basically sent me a message on Linkedin, go, seriously, do you want to start a YouTube channel? I could help because I have one. I think the key to it was I just didn't allow myself to think too much, because if I'd thought too, much I would have taught myself out of it.

And I didn, I kind of went, so he gave me the, and he, if he hadn't given me, the nudge, wouldn't have done it either. I was just kind, okay, yeah, do it then, right, what do I need to do? And, And literally did record my first video, recorded all my videos on a really rubbish iPhone 12, but yeah recorded my, first, video iPhone, 12 no mic, no nothing. and put it on the internet and it just kind of happened within a week so because my first video out was the 13th of February so two weeks it took and I put out there and just went with it and i think if I had taken longer or not just put something out that I'd have managed to talk myself out of it because it's honest to goodness one of the most frightening things I've ever done because it's not just putting yourself on social media, it is putting your head on your voice and people see more of you in a video than they ever will via your writing.

that's frightening because you know at some point someone's going to be really mean to you and someone has been, yeah, I've been told I'm on a power trip because I hang on to my doctor title, i've had a boring and unremarkable career and now i'm being boring on the internet, you have had some really not particularly pleasant comments I either reply with sarcasm, going, well, you obviously found it so boring you watched till the end making the algorithm like the video, all the more thanks for that.

Or I just delete and block them because, if you're going to be mean, I'm going block you. Oh, and I've been called ugly as well. So that's nice. You have to develop a bit of a thick skin. But equally, negativity bias of your brain, you're going to focus on the bad comments, but they are literally less than 1% of the total. The vast majority are lovely. And so I have found people like what I'm doing. there's a sense of community on YouTube as well. It's nice because they're obviously trying to develop the platform to make it a little bit more like other social media platforms.

So you can put written posts on aswell and start to developed a community. I now have a Community on there. What's your goal of the week post on on a Monday, I put a share your wins on Friday. so I'm starting to give a bit of coaching for free and to try and give people some support and that with the once a week videos. Yeah, it seems to have snowballed and what was really useful in the first stage was David was able to give me some feedback on those early videos saying you need to lose the theme tune, that's really old fashioned.

You need make your intro shorter because you've literally got 15 to 30 seconds to hook your viewer or they will click off your video. So it's been a really steep learning curve. I bought a better mic because sound quality is way more important than sort of video quality. So I've learned a lot in a short space of time and I was getting pretty slow growth and then I made the way to best video and it went bonkers. Basically, I'd warn it. There's all this stuff on social media about how they were a game changer for older women.

And so I thought, are they really? So bought one off Amazon, tried it for a month, wrote about my experience. sort of vlogged about my experiences and then went through the science of them to say, you know, are they good for bone density?

Starting YouTube and Handling Feedback 22:00

Are they for muscle mass preservation? Spoiler, not as good as people say they are. And they have a propensity to give people back pain. So I put all of that in the video and it out there thinking well this isn't even one of my better videos because it's basically 18 minutes of me banging on a bit there wasn't any script it was just me wibbling there was a big with the cat in and all sorts and I think three days in it just went mental and i was getting like a thousand views an hour at one point and it Just kept going up and up And so I got monetized my channel got Monetized literally off the back of that one video because I went from uh 95 subscribers to obviously well over a thousand and got my watch hours in as well so yes the one video monetized my channel and i think you know why just before we get do we know what you analyzed so yeah some of it was it had some it I think because it has quite a high click-through rate so click through rate is determined by your youtube thumbnail it's basically people scrolling by it and clicking on it to watch I think that I had got a kind of, when I put it out there I was always worried it was a bit click-baity because it's a picture of me wearing a vest and it said no one mentions this because no-one does mention that these things can give you back pain and they're not as good as the, you know, the influences say they are.

And I thing my title is something like I wore a weighted vest for 30 days and delved into the science or dug into science and so something about that had sparked some curiosity and made people click on it. So the click-through rate was high. And then it was quite a long video as well. Even though, if you look at my stats, my audience retention graph is actually pretty rubbish. Literally like 30% made it till the end. But the average view time is good because it's quite long a video. Because compared to my others, people were watching for longer.

Ultimately, what does YouTube want? Well, it wants people to stay on the platform so it can show them ads. That's what it want, the algorithm. and obviously something about it and I mean it's more complicated than that because it obviously depends on what other videos are out at the same time. The algorithm obviously picked it up and started putting it out to people and i think the problem at that time is the algorithm didn't really know who my audience was because, it takes a while to learn. And it obviously started putting it out to over 50s women, and I can tell that from my stats.

And they loved it. Once it starts getting some engagement, you start getting likes and comments, then that obviously tells the algorithm, people are engaging with this. And then what they were doing was then starting to watch my other videos. And again, the YouTube algorithm all like that, because it's keeping them on the platform longer. So it all kind of organically worked at the right time. There's a big, big old element of luck in it as well. Because it depends on what other video are around at that time, and I don't fully know how the algorithm works.

It's been a mystery. But something worked. I think it has 180,000 views now, which is Yeah, huge. This is massive, isn't it? Because Dave got very excited, because obviously he then came and did a masterclass in May, and you were an example of his master class. And I think at that time it was fairly early on. Yes, I'd only just got monetised at the point, I hadn't got monetized, I was almost there. And then it kept going. Apparently 90% of channels don't get monetised, that's the official stat. So obviously getting monetise was my goal because obviously that whole medit competitive thing is like, well I want to do this because most people can't do it.

I don' want do for the money, because I wanna do because people most can. So that was my goal. So I obviously hit that. And then it's kept on going. I mean, I'm at 10,000 subscribers now. This is hilarious.I'm officially a micro influencer. My husband laughs. He's like, oh, you're going to be going into shops and going, do you not know who I am? I look like a influencer, give me three things. But yeah, so I'm at 10,000 subscribers now. Well, 10.1 as of this morning, I checked. So yeah. My next goal is like 20, 000 and then, you know, we'll see.

Let's put this. YouTube is an example of long form content, right? So we took YouTube, newsletters, podcasts, um books these these are ways like touch points with you but ways of people finding you and being able to like binge listen or binge watch or really sort of accelerate what we call that no like and trust yeah if you have an instagram channel and you find Ruth on instagram then you're going to get distracted by something else that pops up two seconds later But if you find a video and you watch a videos and your like, I love this woman, and I like what she's on about, you can actually binge watch the whole thing, join your community and become part of your world very quickly, can't you?

So that's why YouTube and podcasts are great for that sort of thing. How does this fit into your kind of ultimate plan and ecosystem in terms of health coaching? How are you turning these into clients? So that's exactly why I started it. I like long form, I don't like short form content, and I struggle with short from content. And I struggled with Instagram, but I liked going into depth. So as you say, it's a blog on your website or sub stack. It's podcast, a YouTube channel. I picked YouTube because I just sort of decided it would be easier than finding guests for a podcast, whether that's correct or incorrect.

I think that was my initial logic. And also, I will answer your question in a minute, as I've deviated slightly, there's the visual creativity side of YouTube, which I really like. I've got my GCSE in art and I love Canva. I absolutely adore Canava, sort of graphics software. So I like all of that. In terms of my ecosystem, I'm still on Instagram, although I post very little on there. It's just so I got a presence if somebody looks. And I liked LinkedIn, and love LinkedIn because LinkedIn works well for long form if you start a newsletter.

What I have now is I had my weekly video, which is on a Thursday. I will take an aspect of that video and delve deeper and that forms the basis of my Friday newsletter which is identical the one that goes to my email subscriber list and the ones that go to the LinkedIn newsletter subscriber because I don't think everybody's duplicated, I'm sure that there's not much overlap. And that again there by going deeper on one topic or putting an extra insight in is what I hope will give someone the incentive to go from my YouTube video to my email subscriber list because I am not just repeating things, I'm going deeper and there's got to be a reason for them to go across and something extra.

So it's like well you'll get deeper insights, you will also get first dips of any offers I put together etc etc. And again it was because we had that I had that hot seat with yourself after the weighted vest and I've gone, oh, it's gone absolutely mad and don't know what to do. And you went, go and make a leap magnet. So I did. Um, and, I think I made a cheat sheet for my next video and yeah, loads of people signed up and they loved it. They were like, Oh, really like that. Thank you. Cause I'd think of puts on it, you know, print this out and put it on your fridge.

It was some, three really easy, healthy habits you can do, And so by doing that, my subscriber list has gone from 107 to 647 in, again, in three months, which is, I mean, considering how long it took to get to 106, that's pretty decent growth.

Growth, Monetization, and Building an Audience Ecosystem 30:00

And then obviously I've got my LinkedIn newsletter, about 400 subscribers on that. I've now got quite a decent distribution list. And again, at any point, the YouTube algorithm could make a mistake and decide I'm offensive and take away my channel. That's obviously the big fear with any big social media following. So obviously, it's nice to have the people who really like you in a separate system so you can contact them if need be. has helped and again it's doing something because I'm now starting to get people booking discovery calls and I know they're via the YouTube channel because they are mainly in the States and my audience is two-thirds American so I am guessing the vast majority of the people who are coming through who in an American time zone have found me via YouTube.

I do tend to ask them how they came across me when I chat to them. So it is starting the system starting to work. So obviously now what I need to do is make an offer rather than just my one-to-one coaching, which it is at the moment, put together a new offer and at some point put that out into the ether and see how that lands. That's my next job. exciting stuff. So just to recap a little bit what Ruth's talking about here is turning people that are watching and curious and looking into actual members of an audience that she can then get in front of regularly.

Because I think often when you start out, your focus is all on followers and posting on social media. And like Ruth said, none of those people are business, they are just watching what you do. So that lead magnet, which many of you might understand, it's this way that we've all signed up for many lead magazines in the past. It's way of basically saying, you know, if you give me your email address, I'll give you this extra help. And getting somebody on an email, address people, people often kind of look at me in horror when they're like, why would I do that?

Like emails, who reads emails? But It is the only way that you can actually say, like, these are members of my community that I am able to communicate with, grow that trust, show up relentlessly, and just keep trying to understand as much as possible what they need. And then, you know, when you're making offers, by offers we can mean anything from one-to-one coaching through to group programs or memberships or whatever it is, but you don't just stand there and, shout about it on your doorstep or post it once on social media.

You go out there and you tell your newsletter. So that's what Ruth's talking about. You reference Hot Seats, which is one of the parts of my membership where people have 10 minutes and we thrash through a problem. There were a couple of steps as well, I think, in this, weren't there? One is that we got super clear on your niche. And the other thing is you stepped into another uncomfortable world. There's two camps in the world of AI with medics. One is like, oh my God, don't talk to me about it.

It's horrendous. it's going to take over the Earth. And the other are like oh, this is interesting. The way I sit with AI is that AI's not going takeover the World, but humans that know how to use AI are where we need to be heading. And we have an incredible AI marketing expert in my community called Terrell. So talk us through that, because I think that's made a big... That has made huge difference. I mean, I'm very pro AI, and I thinks some of that is because of come from radiology. The big thing, everyone keeps going, oh, radiologists, AI is going to take your job, but it's going drink less coffee.

But so what radiologist has done as a profession is go, We cannot fight AI. AI isn't going anywhere. What we have to do is work smart and work with AI and let AI do the things that we can't do. I say, for example, look at all the GP chest x-rays that have been taken, pick out the ones it thinks they've got cancer on and bump them to the top of the reporting pile. i.e. you're using it smartly and then you've still got that AI human interaction. So I've never been particularly, I'm quite pro-AI, well obviously until it's like Terminator and it takes over the world, but until then I am pro AI.

And again, there is a lot of AI generated content out there on LinkedIn and there's an awful lot AI-generated content on YouTube. You can spot it a mile off, what you can do with it is use it your messaging and give you ideas so what really worked for me was firstly as you say getting really clear on niche and talking to yourself about I want to help over 50s women who are at this stage in their journey to go from A to B and what that transformation is and kind of person I wanted to work with. So my ideal client is Jane and she's based on a real person who I worked with and loved working with so brilliant so then I went and sat with Terrell for about 90 minutes and she basically quizzed me on my business, on what I wanted to do, which is start a group coaching program and then she went away and took all of that and built a custom GPT.

And they said, oh, you know, go away and have a play with it and then come back to me and let me know how you get on. So I went away, and I needed a bit of guidance from her on how to prompt, because how do you prompt it, mate? It's like if you put rubbish in, get rubbish out. You have to prompted in certain ways. I'm went to and used it. And then I started this almost iterative process. So I went away and I spent a lot of time just chatting to it and going through, if I put a group coaching program together, how can I do it?

How do I market it, what can i put into it that will get people from here to A to B without overwhelming them? And just got really, really clear on what I wanted it to look like. And then I basically adapted all the documents that were originally written and said to Tara, right now, can you show me how to go into the back end of it and put like version two of the document in? So it's updating its knowledge bank based on the work I did with it. Hence it is this kind of like a cycle, cyclical process.

And by doing that, it keeps it up to date because it doesn't always, on a custom GPT, it won't have a memory between chats. It forgets things. You have to go back into the original chat. So I found it incredibly helpful, particularly because I like a lot of medics, I find I'm not very good at marketing myself at all. I get the ick. It's like, oh I feel horribly like I was showing off. So I can say to the GPT, how would you word this? And it will come up with something and I could either go brilliant or I oh that sounds a little bit like a used bmw seller can you make it a bit less salesy and it'll come back again and give you something and you know we have full-on chats it's like i i'd say i need to name i think i'm going to call it alan for some reason so yeah i occasionally fall out um i'll go don't you start giving me that cortisol spike nonsense again So I found it really, really useful and for helping me just get clear on strategy.

And I could say, right, should I do this now or should think about doing it later? And it will give me like a table breakdown of pros and cons of doing things at certain times. I can go on forever about AI. The other thing I've done, obviously, because I bought the paid version of ChatGPT, it's only 20 quid a month. You've obviously then got the other bits of chat GPT that you wouldn't necessarily use the custom one for. So for example, I did use that deep research function. I said, right, go out, look at my niche, give me some advice on pricing group coaching programs.

And it takes about 10, 15 minutes and then it comes back with the market analysis or go and look the over 50s niche on YouTube and tell me what topics are trending at the moment. and it will go away and come back 15 minutes and give you literally a full report and suggest some content pillars. So it's phenomenal because for me, because I've got an eye condition, I don't want to spend a long time looking at stuff and doing research on the internet. The biggest thing it saved me is time and that's my health.

because I've only got two hours of screen time a day on average, which doesn't always get a lot done. And it can do in 15 minutes what it would take me a morning to do. So why would I not want to use that technology? So I'm fully, I think where you don't use it, you use to write all your stuff because it doesn' sound human. You can spot it a mile off. and it just doesn't use language in a way that sounds human and I enjoy writing. I love writing, I like long-form writing I, like being able to show my personality in my writing so it's never going to replace me but what it does help with is structure and again if I create I always give it a script for example a YouTube script and go could you tell me which bits are a bit waffly or where there's duplication so can you help me lightly refine this to take out a little of the repetition and make sure it's clear and that it does a great job of that and then it will send it back to me and I'll go okay and tweak it again so it was like human AI human sandwich is where I like using it.

Oh absolutely yeah I think you know you've touched on some really great stuff there and i think anyone that is sort of having that I can almost see it

Using AI to Refine Strategy and Content 40:00

on the zoom calls when we have master classes with Terrell it is like sometimes people's like eyes glaze over and they start looking quite pale and clammy. She knows so much as well, which is why I didn't want to build my own custom GPT. I wanted someone else to do it for me because I wouldn't have a clue. And I still don't really have the clue, but I know slightly more than I did before because she's taught me through it. But again, it's That's what I think I would strongly advise is don't try and do it yourself from the beginning, get someone else to help you and then you kind of learn on the job as it were like an apprenticeship, you learn as you use it and at some point you'll go well I want to change it, I wanna change its knowledge banks because I've changed what i want.

And at that point, then you can go back in and learn how to change it. But if you had to do all that from the beginning, I wouldn't have done it because I'd have just got overwhelmed and then gone, oh, not interested, bye. Because I basically I think sometimes you just have to accept those people out there who are experts and use them wisely. That was my logic with that. Absolutely. And we go back to that piece about investment of time and money at the beginning. You know, you need to invest in your business and in you own personal growth and what you know what what need at different stages.

I think it's important not to rush into the process because you do have to have that clarity over who you want to help. We don't want you to be going in and doing this process and then completely changing your niche. So your sort of timeline I think most people with a job and a kid, we might be talking three years of what you've done in a year, but I thing getting to that point where you're super clear, you are building your audience, getting out there and you being brave, not just waiting for the next bit of tech to do it for you, then you refining, want to get your strategy in place, work smarter.

The AI used this way is replacing You know any kind of like copywriter that you might require or any you know It's like it's having a business coach in your pocket if you train that what we're talking about a custom GPT is a is A is as a trained bot basically which you're seeing all over the place now that knows all the information just about you and that's what you then use for information. So we don't want to get too much deeper into that, but I have to point out that it's another thing that you were like, yep, I'm going to learn about that and you go out there and learn it.

And there's been lots of points along your way where you've felt kind of like yeah, this is something I need to embrace, let me go and do it, so I think we need draw things to a close, we've talked about the highs and we talked some of the lows in the conversation. So let's go with your advice first, you know, your three pieces of advice to somebody starting out and then we'll make sure that we've covered everything at the end of that. Yeah, so again I was taking this on the context of what would I say to myself in April 2024 when I started the process and number one I would say it will take a lot longer than you think it would and that is completely normal and again that Acceptance that it's normal is what comes through the community and other people go, yeah, it takes that long.

And my accountant going, if you're breaking even at the end of two years, you are doing well. You go yes, that is completely normal because then you don't interpret it as a personal failing. Well, this is just how long it tastes to start a business. But it is obviously going into a completely green and knowing nothing. I didn't realize how it took to set a businesses up and the answer is it take a long time and it a lot of work. I mean, the irony is because I'm retired. This is when I was low in October.

I said to my husband, I don't know why I am doing this. They don t even need to do this because i'm retired. You know, i've got an income. My husband said you absolutely do need do it because you are unbearable when you've nothing to focus on and you will go bonkers if you're doing nothing other than pruning the roses. So you do you need it for you. And he was entirely right, which is partly why i married him. So that's number one. Number two, LinkedIn finds your tribe. You need people in the same place as you who, A, for their positivity saying, yes, you are doing a good thing, keep going, rather than going what are you doing?

Oh you started a YouTube channel, what are you doing? So you need to know people in the same boat as you because you know some people who are ahead because then you can see what they did and learn from them. So when I joined, people like Olga, Sarah Lou, who were further along the journey showed me what was possible with work and time. and now I hope I am therefore passing that on to the people who've just joined going this is what you can do and this, is how far you, can come so you need that and you also need people at the same level as you so, you're not getting freaked out by the, people further along the line.

So yeah having a community of like-minded souls I would say do that, and I think number three is you've got to be brave you. Can't stay in your comfort zone because if you do it ain't going to work you got, to push yourself outside your and stick your head above the parapet and accept that a few people might take pot shots at it on social. I mean, I've been told about medical industry parrots because of various nutritional information I passed on. You get called all sorts, you just have to accept, that if you're going on Social Media, it's going to be uncomfortable.

But equally, if want to grow a personal brand, yes, You can do it without social media, but it is a lot easier to do with. So you've just got to put your big girl pants on and big boy pants or big anybody pants. Be inclusive. Just your pants, put you pants and get on social media and put yourself outside your comfort zone. And as medics, we go, oh, you know, what if someone sees me on a social medium and think, and you're from an academic medical background and thinks, You know what is she doing?

Who is She? You just Can't think like that because you can't basically, you should never do anything. Yeah, absolutely. Cracking advice there, it takes time. Find your tribe, like-minded people. I like that, I think you're totally right. People at the same level, people further ahead and people behind. Because that learning curve is quick and that's something I have really uniquely in the community. It's amazing. And being brave. There are so many points along your story that you've just told us where you were really bloody brave and putting your anybody pants on.

Just to finish, I remember in that sauna, and I have to clarify I was not actually in a sauna. You had clothes on, it was fine. I'm fully clothed in an turned off sauna which is my office when we are in the mountains. It's just bloody lovely. you telling me that you had lost your purpose. You had had a really terrible time leaving the NHS, you really felt quite lost. Yeah, I'd really struggled because I've just made a YouTube video on this and that is a perfect example of connecting with people.

I made you a video about losing purpose when you lose your job and when your jobs is part of your identity, which it is if you're a doctor or nurse, a teacher. when it tends to be more vocational it, tends be part of who you are. And I made a video about it and then I make a very, the most personal newsletter I've ever written about, it about being a form of grief that you have to work through and goodness did that hit home. I had no end of people just hit reply and just send me their personal stories and something about is obviously resonated with a lot of and yeah it is exactly that it was about not really quite knowing what to do with myself and I think again I don't think it's uncommon when people retire full stop even if they retire to normal age, normal retirement age and suddenly go from working very hard to not working and sort of trying to find themselves but I Think it s particularly hard if you retire young and if not through choice, you know, I didn't want to retire.

I mean, everyone assumes that it's this easy life. Actually, far rather keep being a radiologist, i really did enjoy it a lot. And I really didn t really want break my body irreparably to to retired. But it happened and you roll with the punches. So yes, it was finding that thing that would give me because I've essentially got, 15 years till I'll be at regular retirement age, you need something to do in that time. I mean, it might be all fun at first. You can go out for dinner and you can get up at 8.30 and go on holiday and not have to worry about booking leave and coordinating with colleagues.

But that novelty wears off pretty quick. And then you sort of find yourself sitting around the house all day going, oh, now what? What do I do? So that's what this has given me. It's given I mean, I'm just going to acknowledge that I am in a very privileged position because I don't have the financial concerns that a lot of people have because i have another income source at the moment obviously through the pension. So just put that out there, i realise that i am a privileged person for that. But even so, it's given me something to focus on and a way to give back as well.

And perversely, I'm probably touching as many people's lives and helping as people through my YouTube channel as I probably ever did reporting x-rays. In the video I say I love the fact in radiology you can totally change somebody's life because if I spot the early cancer on the GP chest x-ray that someone

Advice for New Entrepreneurs and Closing Reflections 50:00

else might not have spotted and that gets removed and the person had stage one and lives, that's absolutely that feeling and they don't necessarily like send a video they, don t even know your name. That feeling was phenomenal and I missed it. But now when you put a newsletter out and people reply going this really resonated with me, I ve got this disease, that disease. I've had to leave my profession.I don' t know what to do with myself and you've given me some hope. Then that, you know, I've got a little bit of grit in my eye.

That is phenomenal and being able to touch people's lives in that way. And that's what this has given me. through the YouTube channel, which is just an extension of what I'm doing anyway, and it's also giving a little bit back. So it was me being able to use my skills as a coach and my knowledge base to give something back to people for free who might not be able afford coaching as well, Which is again, something very special. And yeah, I didn't want to get too gushy, but yeah it has given me my identity back as an influencer.

I was going to say, as a YouTube sensation and micro-influencer. And I can see it as palpable, and it's just been an absolute honor and joy to watch that journey and all the bumps along the way. It's obviously struck with me because I could remember them really clearly. I'm incredibly proud of what you've done. Thank you. Well, I couldn't have done it without you, so thank you! Well, you're a pin-up girl in the community. Everybody loves you. So thank you for spending time with us. I think you've touched on so much there.

And I know that lots of people are really going to enjoy this podcast. Thank you, for your time. Delighted that you found your purpose. And yeah, let's take something from this. And I think the big overwhelming thing for me is that courage, the courage to just go and just take an idea and run with it and not overthink it, take the action, because I get stuck with our own, like you say, inner critic, overthinking everything. So that movement forward and getting out there and giving it a go. Like you said, nobody actually cares quite as much as you think they do.

What's the worst that can happen? You know, you see celebrities who go through, let's reference Jimmy Carr and his tax issues. That was all over the papers. He's still got a job. You still present it. It can do far worse than I'll ever do a bounce back. So what's going to happen is you're never going see these people again. That was my view. Yeah, what's the worst that can happen? Brilliant. Well, thank you for joining me. There's lots of stuff we've talked about on here. We've talk about the program.

we have talked Terrell. I will be offering a combination of the bigger program with like a VIP option where you have a one-to-one with me and then you'll have this strategic AI build out with Terrel. That will probably be offered as this podcast goes out. So if you're interested in any of this stuff, just send me an email. Ruth, it's been a pleasure. Thank you so much and thank you for listening. then the best places to find her are on the website at www.ruthmachin.com. On Instagram and LinkedIn, she is Dr.

Ruth Machin, and then, the YouTube channel that you've just been hearing all about is, DrRuthMachIn, Wise Women Wellbeing. So she'd be happy to hear from you from any of those platforms. Thank you and goodbye. I hope this episode has sparked some new ideas or challenged your thinking. 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. Fall is all about cozy comforts, but when you're prioritizing your health, it's easy to feel like you are missing out. With Hero Bread, you can enjoy all your fall favorites, because they're made with Hero bread sliced bread loaves, tortillas, bagels, dinner rolls, and more.

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