Episode #48 – Marketing with Authenticity, Or Bust – with Dee Blick

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 kick-starting your journey with us. Enjoy the Show. Today on the podcast, I am joined by the wonderful Dee Blick, who is a multi award winning fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and a number one bestselling marketing author. Dee has written four previous books, including The 15 Essential Marketing Masterclasses for Your Small Business, published by Wiley, rated an excellent read by The Sun and winner of The Book Bag Nonfiction Book Award.

Her earlier self-published title, The Ultimate Small Business Marketing Book, also became a top 10 Amazon category bestseller for five consecutive leads,

Introducing Dee Blick and Her Marketing Background 2:01

leading to an international publishing deal in China. Di has now launched her fifth book. It's called You're the Best, How to Build an Authentic and Magnetic Personal Brand. And it's 13 chapters of practical, theory-free wisdom designed to help you move from being the seeker to becoming sought after in your business. On pre-release alone, this book has hit number one across six Amazon categories, and it is essential reading for anyone wanting to build a credible personal brand on a shoestring budget.

Across a 40-year marketing career, Dee has worked with founders, solopreneurs and business owners to help them build authentic personal brands and become recognized as a key person of influence, using the very same process she's applied to her own career with considerable success. And if this conversation resonates, Dee is joining my community this month for a live 90-minute masterclass based on the ideas in You're the Best. And for this session, I am opening it up to podcast listeners, people on my email list, and people outside of my Community.

All the details on how to join, including how get the book, are in the show notes because I want everybody that attends this master class to have a copy of the In this episode, we explore what authentic personal branding really looks like, how to stand out without the gimmicks, and how build a reputation that lasts. And Dee's random fact is a really great one. You have not touched alcohol for 26 years. Is that right, Dee? This is true, yes definitely. So how old were you 26 years ago when you stopped drinking?

Oh my god, I was 37. Right. 37, with two young boys when I gave up drinking. Not for vanity reasons, i was addicted and so it was alcohol addiction that drove me to give up, not just Oh, I'm being a bit too skittish at parties. I better just cut out the wine. It was I was a glugger and a slugga with two young boys. And so the option of cutting down wasn't there. it was cutting out or else. OK. and did you do that with hell? Yeah, I did. I mean, i went to a 12-step fellowship. i think we all have different routes to recovery and for me i've always been a fan of the being in a group and sharing all your foibles and your the the things that aren't going well in life as well as that can trip you into active addiction again so i was just really lucky that i found self-help group.

And I think talking therapy, whether it's business, personal, emotional, spiritual, you name it, it is so important. You've got it now with your community, Jo, that we find community that gets us, understands us at our most brilliant and when we're on the flipping rocks and they're there to lift us up. Absolutely. Well, well done. What an amazing story. I'm sure there's actually a book in that as well because there are you know that's the kind of thing that I think a lot of people when they're in that cycle hearing from somebody that actually so much further down the line and actually made an amazing life that possibly things would have taken a very different turn had you not done that so massive respect and I know there'll be people wanting to know a little bit more about that which we might get into but we were introduced by Portia Gibson who I adore and you adore, and she's basically sent me one of those messages which is like Joe I've met this woman.

You need to get her on your podcast and she needs to come and do a masterclass to your community. So how did that happen? How do you and Portia know each other? Let's start there and let's just find out all about you, and how you can help our audience here. I mean, with Porta, it was a case that we both went to a networking group.

Authentic Branding and Marketing Fundamentals 5:53

It was pretty dire, but we've both bonded over our irreverence and our sense of humor. And I think that for me is fundamental. If you cannot have a laugh, wherever you are, then, you know, obviously not at a funeral and there are certain situations where having a laugh would be deemed to be highly inappropriate. But I'm all about having fun, Portia's just great, she's devilish, She's skittish she is passionate and we just bonded over that and then I founded a marketing mastermind group for people that don't do marketing and I invited Paulshire as one of the founder members and i'm so delighted that she said yes and then she was like you've got to know my friend Dr Joe and thinking i've gotta know your friend dr joe i definitely have got a know-your-friend dr Joe love it and we spoke we got We had one of those, like, let's touch base in the car.

And I was driving up to North Wales and we spoke on the phone, didn't we? And it was almost like I felt like had known you for years at the end of that. You very kindly said you'd come and give us a bit of time so you can support some of our listeners who are at various stages in this sort of beginning bit, of thinking about doing something differently outside of the NHS. Then I've got people that are further down the line that have got themselves established and have maybe even got to the point where they've You know, they've invested lots of money in a website and a logo and somebody to help them with this, that or the other.

And they they're then sort of sitting there wondering where all the clients are coming from. So this is the spread of people that we have. I think it's important for me to to say at this point that I. Think within the NHS, particularly in general practice, marketing is not an issue like we do not have to stand outside our doors. looking for clients to come and see us. Like somebody is literally batting them away with a shitty stick before they even make it in the door and then they are desperate to get in our rooms.

Now, that's not how it works in The Big Wide World, is it? No it's not and I think the message I'd like to share because I've been a marketer for 40 odd years and have hewn my experience and expertise actually working with businesses of all shapes and sizes and i think that the messages of hope is it doesn't matter where you are in your career defining juncture whether you've invested in that website whether your thinking about it that the most powerful thing you can do is to equip yourself with the know-how.

And if I use myself as an experience, that I have no agenda when it comes to sharing my knowledge and expertise now. I share for the thrill of somebody like yourself, or it could be one of your, a member of you community going, wow, I can that now, but you absolutely have to equipped yourself the right understanding and the knowledge. What I would like to do, or what I am doing now, is try to swerve people away from spending thousands of pounds on what i call shill advice. I'm quite passionate about this in that somebody's like, oh if you spend all the, let me show you my coat with all, the jewels here.

If you spent thousands or pounds with you, I'll put you on the road to success. And my view is that that is a load of cobblers. that really what any person should do is equip themselves with the marketing fundamentals and that's why I think my books have sold all over the world that I don't do sexy or spicy, I do not do complicated, these are the hard yards. these are the steps I advise you to take and guess what the good news is this costs your time and thinking rather than a wad of cash because I've seen so many business owners have fallen by the wayside because they've spent huge amounts of money on what they think is the next best thing and then they're left sort of like going well I put the A board outside but nobody came and it's like well before we put The A Board out we should have been looking at who the heck are your target customers are looking at where they hang out.

My mission now Joe is to share to, I've got this crazy mission of thousands of people worldwide that you can be self-sufficient, you could be successful at marketing if you have the know-how which is the bedrock, it's the foundation for success and you don't have to be a marketer. To have that, you just need to be curious. You have to have an enlivened mind and be open. So all that your community are incredibly bright people that have shown through the assiduous process of knowledge, of studying, or practising of the doing, they've shown they have got everything that I would ask for as a marketer.

They've got all the basic skills there. What my job is to say, well, that's just brilliant news. You've got it all, so let's now get you to pivot all that brilliance into the direction of marketing and get into what I call the marketing mindset. And the market mindset is not spend shag loads of cash. That's a bit of a long-winded answer, I appreciate it. I get on a hobby horse about stuff like that. Oh, and this is, we could have talked for days, didn't we? Because I think we're coming from the same place here.

The amount of people that come and they say, I've got all this set up and then I spent this on Google ads and this one Facebook ads. And then, I have gone to this conference and I dived into this group. Then I'm like, tell me a little bit more about your business. There is no clarity around who they're speaking to. That is the equivalent of me, like you say, putting an a-board out the front of your house and just expecting people to show up. Let's look at that. You know, I think there's lots of things I'd like to pick up on there.

But let's look at that first, because I thing people start rolling their eyes at me when I make a point of this. And there wasn't five years ago, and there certainly isn't now, in not knowing who you're talking to. Again, that whole reference with general practice, as you can imagine, When I go into my GP world and one minute an elderly man with prostate cancer comes in, next minute a fitting child comes, in next minutes a venipausal woman comes. Next minute, a suicidal teenager comes and I can help everyone with everything.

Right. So. If I took that approach into business, how would that go for me? I think it would be a disaster because you would end up spreading yourself so thinly and you will not know the rubies in the rubber. You would not now the brilliant groups to target because she got almost this far too big a picture. of who you perceive to be your target audiences. But I think, Jo, that we need to go back a step and before we even start thinking about target audience is because every single business that I work with, I take them through this really painstaking practical process.

And the first thing is, what am I offering? Because how can we know who we're going to target? So we've got a pretty clear idea about what we are offering and how that's likely to be perceived by the people we want to targeted. And then we can align with whatever research is going on in the wider world that can bolster our approach to a particular audience. So my first step is, well, let's write down, you know, and I always say, Let's not have limits, lets just plan without limits.

Finding Your Audience and Avoiding Wasted Spend 13:24

Let us look at your offering. You can call them products, services, I don't care. But let us really take this look about what you would love to offer. And then we thrash it around, we discuss it. It's a really creative process. And we're like, let's now wiggle this down. Because there are some of your services that are further down the line when you build experience. I talk about this as proof of concept. You can't go to target group A now because you've not got enough in the can. You're an unknown quantity.

They're a little bit suspicious. they want to see proof of concept. But hey ho, further down the line, that group that you're keeping in your little back pocket now, they could be fabulous for targeting further on. And so we need to do that before we can then go into, well, let's just take a big view of who our different target audiences are. Let's be as detailed as possible then let's look at the low-hanging fruit most likely to say yes I'm really interested Dee in finding out more and those that are like really Dee look okay but not sure I trust you now because what business owners run out of is hope.

They start full of hope, then they lose hope. It dissipates as they begin to do this. Everybody in the world needs my products and services. They ping a few posts out on social media, and then, they're saying to me, oh, it doesn't work. Marketing doesn' work, nobody knows me. And yet, They took the wrong approach in first place. So, when I work with a business, the massive we spend, is a fabulously creative process because If you imagine it, well, if your, your communities wants to be, I don't know, acupuncture, or they want to look at reiki or, they went to, look, at some alternative health therapy, all they wants a look up coaching.

They want a coaches coach, confident, accomplished speakers, because they've done that in their career. That attended conferences and so on. Well, it's like, let's just now really capture all of that. and write out all these different products and services and then let's look I call them your starving crowds who's got the biggest hunger and who is quite full so you've got to wait till their hunger is satiated and they're like looking at you with more expectant eyes sorry I waffle on about this I just you're pressing all the right buttons for me as a marketer because It breaks my heart when I see business owners and I've had, I probably spoken to thousands over the years through different channels and when they tell me the money they've wasted on targeting and it's like, oh my God.

I had one guy very briefly came to me. He spent 20 grand on advertising. It hadn't worked. So I gave him a marketing plan, worked out all his target audiences and at the end of it, he said, Oh, it was just such common sense. And my answer was if it is common-sense, why did you waste 20 Grand? it's you know my marketing common sense is like 40 odd years of really distilling it down to the basics so that talented people like your community really talented intelligent enterprising people can grasp it and go yeah yeah I get that I can do marketing now I've got that that mindset whereas before they might have been thinking what the hell is marketing it is just too big a subject for me to absorb.

Absolutely and I think you touched on something there that I, think losing hope. I I. Think once you've lost that and you feel like nothing you're doing is working. You've tried, you invested time, invested money. You're often on the brink of something really important, aren't you, if you have the right support and help around you? I think as business owners, we're always going to have those dips, but it's knowing that you can kind of brush yourself off and get back up again. If you don't have fundamentals of the learning or the community and support around, you're just basically trying different things and hoping it all seems what sticks.

in your very medical community. Most people I work with don't have entrepreneurs, marketing people around them. Then you just stop, don t you? And I, you know, I certainly I think at the beginning when I first tried to do Botox and I tried first to acupuncture I had no clue what I was doing and six months later I just stopped. So the learnings are fundamental, right? Those basic learning of what this is. Do you think everybody can be an entrepreneur? Do think can do marketing or do you think you have to be a certain type of person to do this?

We have this very fixed idea of entrepreneurs like Stephen Bartlett, like Deborah Mead and like the Dragons. I think being entrepreneurial is about a mindset of being willing to take risk, of been willing just strike out on your own. of being willing to challenge yourself. So I think that if you really want something enough and you're willing, to go the hard yards, you absolutely have got an entrepreneurial mindset because you striking out on your own. And part of me is I want to current prevailing myth of what being an entrepreneur entails.

And I think if we look specifically at your community, Jo, you have got such talented people that have shown the rigours of learning, of education. They're resilient, they're robust, They go the extra mile. they are emotionally very connected with their role. to actually be successful. I think what they have to do is they want it enough. And I talk about this in my new book about what are your whys. If you can connect with your why's, why do I want to strike out on my own? And if your whys are compelling enough and they're grounded in more than just the emotion of, oh, I quite fancy it, then you absolutely can succeed at both marketing and at striking out on your own.

Because marketing is as much about learning. You can learn from old bats like me. I've done it for 40-odd years.I've got my fellowship. i'm steeped in marketing. It's all I have ever known. And I love it to bits and I loved sharing. the winning approach because I've worked with thousands of businesses all over the world and many just like your members of your community. They're either starting out and they're a bit frightened or they halfway down the line and thinking oh my god I don't know where to go now and I can truly say that if they get that marketing know-how and that doesn't mean searching the internet because there's so much conflicting advice on the Internet It's almost like try and get some credible sources of information.

I mean, I'm going to say answer, but with my books, because they've won great awards and I've had thousands of people that have written to me about my book, about how I gave them hope that marketing was not the big scary monster. they perceived it to be. So I can say with absolute certainty that your community members, if they want this new business venture enough and they're willing to get a little bit

Why, Recovery, and Recalibrating Before Starting 20:38

marketing savvy, there is no reason why they cannot then wear that entrepreneurial hat with pride. I'm just taking a quick pause out of the podcast because if you're enjoying this conversation with Dee Blick, then you'll gonna love what is happening this month. In February, 2026, as this podcast goes live, Dee is going to join my community for a live 90-minute masterclass based on her book called You're the Best, which is all about building an authentic magnetic personal brand. And for this one session in February and possibly for future session, but I'm going to try it out this month.

I am going open it up beyond the community. But there's a catch. There's only one thing you need to do and that is to buy a copy of Dee's book. She is coming into the Community for free and I promised her that everybody in there is going have a Copy of the book, so that's what's going happen. So, to be able to get an invite to this special Masterclass, you'll need take a photo of yourself, ideally a selfie, And you need to direct message me on Instagram or LinkedIn, and I will send you the Zoom link.

No forms, no sign ups. This is happening on Thursday the 12th of February, 2026, 1.30 till 3 o'clock UK time, live on Zoom. So if this conversation is resonating, come and be in the room with us. Medics are not afraid of hard work. They've put shifts in, they've done difficult things, but they have often done those with the kind of, with almost like the barriers up when you go bowling with somebody sort of like pushing you back into the middle or saying you've got to jump through this hoop now or that hoop and yes you're ready, yes, you are, exam.

You've passed this, you've past that, and you're ready to go on to the next stage. And I think that's sometimes where medics really struggle with this sort of progression with entrepreneurship and striking out on your own, because nobody tells you that you are ready, that it's the right time. There's nobody discerning to tell you you were listening to right advice at the wrong time, or the advice right at wrong times. That's why community matters. learning matters 100%. But I'd like to go back to the why, because that's, you know, that something obviously Simon Sinek, started us on the Why thing.

And it's I talk about it as well in my Banoffee pie business model. It's the basis that all of this is built on is why you're doing it. With medics that I work with, I look at these sort of push and pull factors because I think coming into business from a place of burnout, frustration, wanting to change the NHS and feeling on your knees is not a great place to jump into. It feels like going from the frying pan into the fire for me. Yeah. Because business is stressful, isn't it? So you need to know, and if you don't know what your why is, you needs to give that time to develop it.

Don't you? I've started businesses because I wanted flexibility and freedom. And then I ended up with a business that needed half a million pounds worth of investment and a factory and 16 people in hair nets. I was like, what the hell have I done? It's so important, is it not? Oh, yeah, I think I wish I could bottle what you just said there, because as you were saying it, it was almost like parroting you in my mind. And I you make that important point about we need to recalibrate if we're coming out of a situation where we've been bruised and battered.

We need a period of time to re calibrate, to sort of nourish our soul, so make us feel whole again, make is open to the universe to make as teachable. And that's why I think so important with what you're doing, Joe, that you've established a community where people can feel safe to express how they feel. But at the same time, you giving them touch point where they can actually get started on their journey when they are ready. And I think that period of time to it's the same with addiction. I came out of active, addictive drinking.

And for the first year, there was no way I could be the smart marketer. So I did lots of fairly baseline jobs, I cleaned houses, engaged so I could mentally heal, which I know sounds very new agey, but I had to do it after drinking addictively for so many years. I have to give myself time to recover and to adjust to life. It's a bit like when you talk about your members adjusting to live outside of the NHS, I just had a life outside the bottle and it took a little bit of time. Once I've given myself, it's took me about a year And then I was suddenly open to, wow, I can really make hay with this marketing business.

And, then it was, well, can start to write books. So I didn't just become teachable again. I just became open the idea that I more than just a woman, a mum with two boys who got into addictive drinking. and I would imagine it's the same with your community, that if you felt burned by the NHS, you've put so much into it, you come out of it and that period of just really looking after yourself and exploring yourself, and being kind to yourself. And accepting that the shit that I'm in now it won't, excuse my French, it wouldn't be like that forever.

I need this period time now. So for me it was getting with my two boys, I was a mum with young sons that I had all of that to to manage before I could then even think about starting up a marketing business again. Yeah and I'm actually going to download this podcast and give it straight to the people in my community rather than than waiting for this because I see this a lot so I help people very very early stage we pick apart all the ideas we work out what the push and pull factors are what the why is, the type of people they might want to help.

And then, because medics are medcs, they think that the next stage is linear and there are hoops to jump through. What actually can happen is that you need to go away and you just need sit with some of that for a bit. You need do whatever healing you do. Look after yourself. Move away from toxic environments, etc. Pay your bills. Work out how that's going to happen while you're starting a business. And only then are you really gonna be ready to take this forward. And then curve balls come out of nowhere, knock you for six, relatives get unwell, whatever.

You have to put things on the back burner. So I get people messaging me saying, look, I'm really sorry I haven't been in the WhatsApp group for three months, or I really, sorry, haven t attended a live session. I say to people, this is not school. l am here as somebody to buffer and support you because that first year, of going from, this is an idea, but I definitely want to make it a thing. Like, you know, it's only by the end of like a year, if you kind of got vague idea of what you want do, You're doing quite well, really, because there's so much learning and stuff to do isn't there?

So it is important not to let that get you down, isn' it? Absolutely and I think I always encourage because I've worked with a lot of business owners that have come to me like this and i say let's just reframe things, let us just look upon it as it's time to recalibrate but also use this period where you're kind of getting over it could be bullying in the workplace but you are using it is an opportunity to explore without limits and explore with our expectation. So I always say to when I talk to business owners like this, it might be you want to start reading about marketing.

You want get your head around it, but just read for interest. Don't read with this. Oh, my God, I've got to be a guru. Use this period of time in a way. It's almost like if you were studying for a paper, you would gather You would gather all the information, all of the research,

Authenticity, Learning Sources, and Realistic Expectations 28:28

and you'd probably quite enjoy that phase before you then have to start making sense of it. So I think with your community, it's like using, again, the talents they had when they were studying. It's just, imagine yourself, you're back in there, but there's no great exam paper that you have sit. All you are doing is bringing it all together. Because what I often find with working with entrepreneurs is that you get those eureka moments and eureca moments come when you haven't planned them. So you might be reading about something and you're in this nice stage of recalibrating, of exploring and thinking, oh my God, that is so interesting.

And suddenly before you know where you are, you've scoped out a product that your going to be offering a bit further down the line. And I always, it's like, I call it, you're in this field of pure potential when you are exploring. True, your healing, and I had to heal. But I began to explore about writing a book. Didn't even occur to me, one day I might end up writing six of The Little Bleeders, but I begun to explain what it might take. and that's just it's almost like giving yourself permission to tap into all the talents that brought you into in this case into the NHS into being truly accomplished but you you just need to take one step at a time don't you along the way like you know nobody's going to come and tell you it is the right thing you've got to learn this stuff so we've talked a bit about learning we have talked about you know, the healing that is required sometimes before you actually go into this.

We've talked about all sorts of stuff. we've mentioned community and the importance of community. What I'd also like to come back to before we go to that, is this whole like gurus You know, you talked about Stephen Bartlett and Deborah Meezan and this sort of dragon's den approach to business and, tough girls or like glossy girls on Instagram telling you that this is the one and only way of doing business, and making money and young guys who haven't got kids telling how to manage a business. And you're running around with four children in the after school run.

How important is it where you get your information from? And, can we just speak a bit about this whole Instagram telling you that life's easy and that you can earn 10 grand a month from a Hammock and Barley concept? Yeah, I mean it drives me bonkers and I think it's not relatable and it is not real life and i think that if we go back again to the people in your community they're smart people, they don't need to be fed empty vessels and hollow dreams that I thing when we start to try and measure ourselves up against this impossibly glamorous image or against somebody who made millions.

It can actually be counterproductive and I talk about this in others a chapter in my book called why being authentic is the ace up your sleeve, because it's accepting that you're perfectly okay as you are. to be successful on your own terms. You don't have to a mad extrovert, you don' have be this really massive titan who's fierce, loud and compromising, who strides around a stage and everybody's terrified of you and they'll pay thousands to breathe the same air as you. I think if you look at the mindset of successful people, they don''t fall into these weirdly unrealistic outlines they don't fall into that they can be introvert they could be extrovert, they couldn't be like me with ADHD they, could, be completely ordinary people that have got that desire to do something different, to be something, different and to have a good crack at being successful and for me it starts authenticity is so important it, starts by recognising what you are, who you stand for, the best bits about you, of polishing, of preening, a little bit more of education or of whether it's basic like my presentation skills need to be up or I need learn more about X, Y and Z.

If we can start on a realistic platform of respecting ourselves for who we are rather than trying to measure ourselves against some titan of industry or some glossy Instagrammer that's posing in a bikini with a bottle of wine or nice jewels, Just abandon all of that and really accept you're more than enough as you are, as your true authentic self. And that gets, I know authentic gets bounded around a lot. I mean, knowing who you, are not trying to be who, you not. So if you an introvert, not tryna make yourself extrovert but you accept, good enough, but if he wants to become, so I talk about magnetic in my book.

If you wanna become magnetic and I say that is when your journey is going from being the seeker to the sought-after, that's the whole point of the journey of my latest book, then accept that you're going to have to change a bit. Not change your character, but you are going have embrace the new, the unfamiliar, things that haven't done before. But trust that your training as a medical person, your willingness to do this, just get you onto that road less travelled, it's more than enough. And I would say sod all this Instagram and and entrepreneurs and all the rest of it because they set an unrealistic.

benchmark, the carrying ourselves to them. All that happens is we end up feeling disenchanted and disillusioned. Quite robust on that one, Jo, because I see it happen so much around me. I want to be like her. And I'm like, why? Be like you? And that's about connecting with you. Why is it about that learning all the steps? So I am not a seeker anymore. Suddenly, I've sought after, and it's most definitely a journey. to make the journey, then we should change our flipping characters. Yeah, we absolutely have to.

And I think if you're running a business in a way that you are looking at somebody else and you try and follow them or you do exactly what they're doing, you know, first of all, like you say, authentic bands it around, but it's so true that, and not going to come across as authentic. It's not gonna be you. But also it is really hard work to show up as something you aren't. it isn't gonna last very long. so you know you don't try and there is a place for everybody like you've said this sort of exploring without limits this this experimental approach i call it to to yeah out there and seeing what this is about you it's just so important so be careful who you learn from as well i think learning you the the basics and the fundamentals and you doctors are brilliant at investing in more letters after their names or diplomas in various things but actually those things You know, don't bring people to come and see you who are happy to pay for your services.

You have to invest in the learning. Like, obviously, you know in my community, in your community your books, there's plenty of YouTube channels, but learn from the right person. Somebody maybe that's been there and done what you're wanting to do or somebody that has the same thing going on at home or something that you can relate to as opposed to these really unrelatable people that are out there. telling you how easy this is, because I can tell you it's not easy. And I'm constantly on a day-to-day basis supporting people in my WhatsApp group who are like, you know, I've tried to have four discovery calls, three of them have cancelled.

I only had one, maybe this isn't working. No, that's just a step you've got to take. That's something that is going to happen. How can we change the process? What can you do to improve? You've just got pick yourself up because nobody else does that for you. It's no easy, is it? I am sure in your life, There's been many times where you thought, my God, I better go and get a job. It's much easier. Oh, absolutely. And I think you're right about real life. I was writing this last book, and I can remember being up against the deadline.

But still on a Wednesday, in my mum-in-law, or I take her out with the little dog, she's got dementia. She went roaming in the shopping center and left me for ages. The irony wasn't lost on me. There I've got a publishing deadline and looking for my mom- in- law who's wandering around a shopping centre. In the end, should walk back home and forgot she'd come in with me, But you're right, I think it's all about I admire people that are relatable, that I can embrace that because they're not making it too big a hill to climb.

Closing Thoughts and How to Connect 36:48

The minute I look at authors or if I looked at marketers, The minute a marketer starts to make themselves remote and inaccessible because they're talking jargon is when people are frightened off. And I've always made it my mission as a Marketer. I have done all the jargons and I got the qualifications, but you won't hear me spouting it because I want people to pick up that little toolkit I'm offering them and think, yeah, I can do that.I understand what she's talking about. She's not, you know, covering everything in this huge load of theory to make marketing appear like a blackout when it's not.

Marketing is super effective communication and knowing who you want to communicate with, why, where you find them, and what you're going to offer to them over what period of time. And what I help businesses to do is join all the dots up, then give them those bits of expertise, which now is through my books, because I'm not taking clients on. But yeah, I just really people should just acknowledge I am more than flipping good enough because if anything in the NHS if your backstory and your war story has not taught you something it's that you are so much more resilient and capable than you give yourselves credit for and then that leads to the fact there's probably so unexplored potential within you.

You know, all those skills are just waiting. They're juicy and they're waiting to be put to even better use. And so with like the support you give in your community, it's like you're just lighting that little touch blame, aren't you? You're lighting it. and giving them that hope. This has been such a valuable conversation. I really appreciate your time, Dee. It's been amazing to kind of like riff these ideas around with you and actually hear your wealth of experience, these books that people can go to, they can learn from you.

You know, I always say to my community that part of my role is to put trusted, real people in front of them to learn the skills that they want to And for me, you've got that in spades. And I'm really looking forward to being able to share this with my close community and my group, but also with the wider audience in the podcast. So how do people get in touch with you? You've mentioned you're not taking on any more once you get all the books. Like, is that the best way? Is there anywhere? Yeah, I'm not taking clients on, but when a reader buys my book, they become in my little circle, which means that if they message me on LinkedIn and say, D, it's the latest one that you're the Best.

If they write and I've got your book D and if you ask me a question, They will always find me happy to answer. I have never in all my life, to my knowledge, not responded to a Reader. So I always say when you buy my books, you get a bit of a passport to me. that you can just, and I do things like, we can talk about this, doing little master classes. I'm doing one for a group, there's 40 of them, they've all bought my book, I am doing a whole two hour master class on marketing, where I walk them through the book taking questions, so that's the space I mean.

They buy the books, get access to me, who knows what you and me might do in the future. we could end up doing a really cracking little marketing masterclass. We'll see what happens. Love it. Thank you so much for your time. I massively appreciate it and I will put all of this in the show notes. It's been amazing. And I've loved getting to know you even better. and i can't wait to meet you properly one day. Well, I think we're like kindred spirits. The things you're saying I kept thinking, oh my God, i was going to say that.

Brilliant. well thank you, Portia, for putting us in touch and we'll speak to you soon. 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-racking 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 This has been a Monkey Pants Productions Podcast.