ER Exit to Empire: Building Wealth, Wellness, and Freedom Beyond Burnout

Episode Introduction and Guest Welcome 0:00

Welcome to a special Heartline Echoes episode where we revisit some of the most impactful conversations from Heartline changemaking in healthcare. This rerun isn't just a replay. It's an opportunity to reflect, reconnect, and reignite the ideas that continue to shape the future of healthcare. Whether you're hearing this for the first time or returning for some fresh insights, let's dive back into this powerful discussion. Enjoy! Welcome to Heartline, Changemaking in Healthcare. I'm your host, Dr.

Andrea Austin, a board-certified emergency physician, physician development coach, and educator. After years on the front lines, I've learned that real change in healthcare starts within. Each episode invites you to explore the inner work that unlocks clarity and bold leadership, because healing systems through changemaking begins with following our heartlines. I'm very excited today to have Dr. Miranda Phillips, who is the co-founder of Elite Wealth and Wellness with us on the podcast today. She's an entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist, along with an international speaker and a physician.

She started practicing medicine in 2009, and she has a love for helping others to continue to grow. She stands by her lifelong physician oath, Do No Harm, as she works towards fulfilling her mission of creating wealth and wellness for all. Welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much, Andrea. It's a great pleasure to be here. So I read your bio and you've had a really interesting life journey. How did you choose medicine? Actually medicine, I feel like chose me. Whenever I was a kid, I was raised in a very rural town in Texas and We didn't have any money.

No one in my family had ever graduated college, much less going off to med school to become even a nurse or a physician at all.

Choosing Medicine and Emergency Care 1:57

I was involved in church at the time and the church I was involved in was having like a career oriented mission trip for the youth group. So being 16 years old and never having left that small town, believe it or not, I was kind of excited. Like, oh gosh, this is a trip going to international, going to Guatemala. At the time I had taken, I think two or three years of Spanish and I was like, Oh, it'd be so cool to use my Spanish. And plus I would get to see some of the other career opportunities.

And I actually was originally put in the orphanage. So I flew down there, I started on the orphanage and then the person that was in the hospital She wasn't doing well, I guess, with the heat plus cutting and blood and all these other things. And so sight, smell, gutter, I think. And I was asked if I would move over to the hospital and let her take my place at the orphanage. And I said, yeah, of course. And so I moved over there. and started working in clinics, which was really going to people's huts and helping them there.

We would spend some days doing that. We were there for two weeks total. And then some days would be in the hospital. And what I experienced throughout all of that was not really, believe it or not, the science or the surgery. It was how impactful people could be on other people. And specifically the physicians and the healthcare team When I saw patients and specifically patients' families and how positively impacted they were by the skill set and the ability to help others get well or even potentially save their life, The gratitude, the tears, the gratefulness, it was such an impact and that really left a mark on me.

And I thought this is how I want to spend my life. Like I want to be able to have a positive impact on others in this uniquely profound way. Maybe it was even a little selfish. I just thought, wow, it's so rewarding, but these people are just so much better off because they get to keep the ones they loved or maybe not have to take care of them on their deathbed, all these different things. So. When I came back from that trip, I actually decided, you know, even though I knew that we didn't have money, I had no idea how I was going to get there, but I knew at that point I was going to become a physician.

So how old were you when you went on that trip? 16. Wow. All right. So then you, I'm sure do the typical thing. You go to college, you go to medical school. Where did you go to med school? Oklahoma State University is where I went to med school. All right, great. And then what happened? What residency did you do? I chose emergency medicine. And the reason I chose that was because I really wanted to be able to help anyone, any age, any time, any place with just about anything. And, you know, if I needed to hand them off to someone, at least I could get them to that point, you know, where they could be handed off.

But instead of going deep in one specialty, I really wanted a wide scope to be able to help people. Yeah, I think that resonates with me as well. And many of our listeners are also emergency medicine. And so you did emergency medicine for how many years were you practicing? I practiced, well, technically, I guess I still use my emergency medicine skills because I do a couple of urgent care shifts a week, but I left the trauma center where I was practicing full on emergency medicine in the widest of its scope in January of 2020. And tell us about that.

Leaving Emergency Medicine for Family and Financial Freedom 5:18

I mean, you look pretty young to me. So how long did you practice emergency medicine? So yeah, I, let's see, I graduated med school in 2009, entered residency and then yeah, I practiced until January of 2020. And it was an interesting departure. It was probably about the end of 2017, maybe beginning of 2018 when I started kind of feeling a little bit of pain. And when I say pain, Even the last shift I worked at the trauma center, I loved it. I love medicine. I love the adrenaline. I love the challenge.

I love the teamwork. I love all of it. And if the price, I guess, is how I would put it, if the price wasn't so high, if the cost had not been so high, I would absolutely still be there. But my Life situation was changing. You know, when I chose emergency medicine, I was warned nights, weekends, holidays. Really? Are you sure that's what you want to do the rest of your life? And I'm like, Oh, it's fine. You know, I'll work half the month, have half the month off more or less, you know, it's fine.

You know? And so I didn't at that point in my life, it wasn't a super high cost to me. And. As I got older, I had a family, I had a relationship. It's the time that I really started feeling pain. I actually was a single mom and my child was around the age of eight years old. And my little buddy had always been the most understanding young man and he would even protect my sleep time. Oh, it was just so sweet. It still touches my heart. He got to a point in his life where he really needed me in a very profound way.

And I'll probably leave it at that, but suffice it to say that for all you moms out there, you know, whenever your child may do, and then when you're the only one that can really help in a profound situation. And when it comes down to that versus your own wellbeing versus your career. we all know what comes first. And so I guess that was when it became too high of a cost for me to stay. And so I started making another plan. And at the time I was dating a guy who is now my husband and he was in a similar situation as a single dad.

And he was going through a really rough patch and he really needed more time to be able to spend outside of his career. So we kind of embarked on this journey separate, but together. And we really needed to find kind of a plan B And in doing so, we discovered that we didn't have time to go find another job. And so we needed a way to be able to increase our income in a way that didn't require us to spend more time creating it, but that would be there if we decided that we could no longer practice medicine.

And that was just kind of a safety net for us. I think as a single parent, you think about that more, at least I did. It was more of a, I'm not depending on anyone else to support me and I still need to be able to support, you know, my son and I. And so I need an income. Even if I need to step away from my job, I got to figure this out. That was when I discovered investing and specifically passive investing. And so I ended up on this journey of making time that I didn't have, but because it was a priority, figuring out how to invest in a way that I could put my money to work since, I mean, I had enough of that.

All of us at ZeroDocs know that, you know, we can make ends meet pretty well and create extra money where we want it. And so I took that and I invested it after doing my due diligence and education and getting some mentors to help. By the time I left the trauma center, our passive income, my passive income had specifically already surpassed what my emergency medicine salary was. And so I felt like I was in a very safe place. financially to be able to step away and take care of some other priorities.

And so that's exactly what I did. And ultimately, I was able to take care of things and get life rebalanced and optimize my own health again. Now I had several leadership hats that required me to have multiple phones on me all the time, 24 seven, 365, even when I was traveling. And so I really had no way just to create the time I needed until I stepped fully away and kind of hit the reset button. And so when I did that, I actually optimized myself again. I discovered lifestyle medicine and healed my own health.

And fortunately there's nothing, you know, catastrophic, but you know, optimize my health again, start sleeping, you know, seven hours plus again. eating healthy, having relationship time. And that's whenever I think the soot, if you will, and ash started to blow away off of my little light inside of me that chose me for medicine. And I really started feeling this motivation again of like, man, I love what I'm doing. I love being financially free. I love having time for me and for family and relationships and charity.

But I really I love seeing patients too, you know, I really wanted to be able to have patient care in my life again. And so that's when I was so fortunate to find the urgent care system that I'm working within now. where, you know, the shifts are always Monday through Friday from eight to five. And I just work one or two, just enough to satiate, you know, my cravings, if you will. And then I still do, you know, mission work and such internationally. So I feel like I'm so very blessed and so very privileged to be in the position that I'm at today, where I just love everything about my life.

If you had asked me, you know, on a scale of zero to 10 back in 2017, 2018, you know, how happy are you with life? I honestly probably would have answered a three-ish. And it got that high because I was still in love with emergency medicine. So it was that high of a score for that reason. But now when that question is asked to me, I say a nine and a half because there's always room to just tweak it a little bit more, which I continually strive to do. But life is so, so different now that I feel like my values are more aligned.

And now in my entire life, everything's integrated. And so I feel like I have a high integrity again in that. I'm really honoring what my values are in my life right now and still being able to give back and help others at the same time. Kind of a long answer. I love it and it's so beautiful and it's really courageous and it's what people need to hear because, you know, Linda and I have countless conversations with women physicians every week and this past week I spoke to two physicians that were quitting a typical emergency medicine practice.

And there's such shame, such guilt, such fear of a loss of identity. And thankfully, we also work with women going through that process, and we see them on the other side. And the vast majority of the time, it's this story. I mean, your story is unique, but the pieces are similar, that you got clear on your values. and your boundaries and, you know, you embraced the possibilities of a new life that could be even better than the one we dreamt about when we were in medical school. And it's okay for dreams to change.

Absolutely. Yeah, you said it right on. And it's kind of tough to think about, like you said, it's the identity that we have. It's where we've spent and invested all of our time and our energy for so many years. And I remember at the time people kind of saying. You know, you remember how hard you worked to get here, right? Like, are you sure you want to leave? Like, is that really what you want to do? And at the time I didn't exactly have a clear answer for them. I just thought, well, you know, again, I know what my priorities are and I know that my top priority right now is not getting any attention.

And that's absolutely, that can't be, you know, again, I say that's my son and what he needed at the time. And, and I said, you know, and ultimately, whenever I reflected back and I thought about how can I help people understand this analogy? And the best one I could come up with, which is not the best one, but it's the best I've got. And the analogy I came up with was like, I would ask people, well, imagine this. Imagine you're underground digging a tunnel and you dig and you dig and you dig and you dig for like 10, 15 years.

And what you're digging this tunnel for is to get to this perfect paradise, whatever your definition of paradise is, that's what you're digging to get to. So 10, 15 years later, after digging underground, you pop up, you break through the surface and You've reached your paradise except you didn't reach your paradise. Somewhere in there you ended up tumbling a little in the wrong direction and now you've landed in a prison cell. Would you just sit there the rest of your life because you spent 10 or 15 years digging yourself into that prison cell?

Like would you just stay there because you spent so many years doing it?

Identity, Values, and Career Transitions 14:07

Or would you get back down and start digging again until you get to that paradise that you were dreaming of? And the reason I use that analogy is because I think everyone would say, well, of course, no, I wouldn't decide to spend the rest of my life in a prison cell if that's where I landed inadvertently. And so. Even though emergency medicine is clearly far from being a prison cell, whenever we're not honoring our values, when our priorities and that hierarchy of them get inverted, that's what it can end up feeling like for someone.

And we may not explicitly say it. We may not tell people, but that's what we're feeling inside because it's hurting us so badly. And that's why I say a high cost or a high price. We may still love emergency medicine. I mean, love it, love it, love it. But when that cost is too high, the pain that you feel from that never goes away. And it becomes so painful that finally there's enough pain that you end up moving, you know, you end up making a change, you end up doing something different. But for all those people that question and say, you know, are you sure that you're the only one that knows that you're sure, because you're the one that knows your circumstances.

And even though other people have been in the same little bunny hole with you for a long time, your healthcare team, your administration, your colleagues, your even former residency directors and admins, they still have no idea the details of your life. Even if you tried to tell them, I know, I don't know about you, but for me, when I tried to explain it, I still couldn't quite do justice to what I was living. And because I couldn't be completely, you know, disclosing about all the situations to somewhere kind of private and things.

And so. I think that, you know, at the end of the day, we have to make those decisions. The decision is right for our life. And the beautiful thing is that just like you, Andrea and Linda and myself and others, there's people that we did. We made those tough decisions. We got uncomfortable. And then we emerged into this beautiful world that we never even really knew existed and that we didn't know was an option at the time. And now we're super happy for it. And so I think that what I love about what you and Linda provide as resources and what you're doing is that you're a fantastic source of information and resource.

To help people that were in my situation know what your options are and help people understand that you're not just jumping off a cliff, hoping you can build the airplane on your way down. There's actually options and there's ways to continue to practice medicine, but in a way that's better aligned with what your situation is, what your current values are, what your current priorities are. Yeah, absolutely. And we've talked about that very concept on the podcast before that only you really know the intricacies of your life and you really don't owe other people explanations.

And I learned that very early on. I got a divorce during medical school. And there was a lot of guilt and shame around that. And then finally, one day I just realized, you know, nobody else really knows what's happening in this situation besides me. And this is my life. And I only have one life and I'm going to do what's best for me. And I really don't care what anyone else thinks about the situation. Absolutely. You know, there's a good book and I am going to blank on the name of it. It was written by a hospice nurse though, and she spent a lot of time with people in the last months and weeks of their lives.

And she started asking them the same questions over and over again, but she was curious to hear the answers and One of the questions that she asked was, you know, what's your number one regret in life? And the most common answer that she got was not living the life that was true to myself, but instead trying to live a life that was pleasing to others. And I think that that's powerful. And that certainly has helped me in my little lighthouse, my guidance of, you know, I don't want to be on my deathbed and have a ton of regrets.

I really don't. And I know that. It's never comfortable being uncomfortable, but we can to a degree get comfortable being uncomfortable, which means that we get used to it and we just get used to putting ourselves in uncomfortable situations. And honestly, If we can be resourceful, it doesn't matter how uncomfortable of a situation we're in. There's light on the other side. We absolutely can get through it and we absolutely will. It's all about mindset in that way. It's about the determination, the belief that there is something better out there for me.

There is a better situation for me. And then having the resourcefulness to figure out how to put those pieces together so that you can create your most beautiful life ever. And again, that's where you guys really have my respect and admiration, you and Linda both, because that's what you help with people, you know, you help them put those pieces together because you guys have a bigger perspective. And, you know, when we are hurting that bad and we know we need a change. I don't know about you, but I got tunnel vision.

I couldn't see outside my own box. And so it probably would have been a much quicker process for me to get to the other side. And I probably would have done it slightly differently. If I had had that outside resource, someone outside of my box to be able to look inside my box and say, here's what I see. Here's also what I see outside of your situation. Here's what I've seen other people do. And here's how I've seen other people succeed. Other women have gone through similar situation. And I think that brings a lot of hope and I think it also helps people in that situation have the confidence to believe that there's absolutely a better situation out there for me and I am going to be so much happier in it.

I just need to have the fortitude and the perseverance to just break through those walls and get to the other side. Hey friends, Andrea here. There are moments in a doctor's life that mark you forever, and for me, they often involve travel. It's where I connect with awe and wonder that help me see my life and my career differently. The Heart of Medicine in Uluru, Australia, July 29-31, 2026. is a retreat that is an immersive soul-level experience at one of the world's most sacred landscapes. It's a space to breathe again, to reconnect with your purpose, to hear your own voice without the noise of the busy clinical environments we all work in.

We'll gather a small group of clinicians for thought-provoking sessions, storytelling, cultural learning, and genuine rest.

Investing, Passive Income, and Elite Wealth and Wellness 20:38

Spots are very limited. If your heart has been asking for something more, this is your invitation. Learn more and register at coachingfordoctors.net.au or you can email me at andrea at andreaaustinmd.com. I want to talk a little bit about the specifics around your business elite wealth and wellness and specifically around the investing side because I'm sure you're aware that there's a lot of people that target physicians and, you know, have various things that they tell us that they're going to make us rich.

And there's a lot of different entities out there. So I think some listeners, when they hear investing, they immediately get nervous. And they're like, you know what? I'm just going to stay at the place with my retirement plan and pension. I can't do something like that, especially right now with how risky the stock market is. Absolutely. No, it's a great question. I was right there, believe it or not. I really did not, I mean, I didn't even take any business classes in college. I had no business background.

I had no, like no one in my family that I could ask or use as a resource. I kind of had to figure it all out on my own, which probably why it took longer than it needed to. But really I was in a situation where I had a financial advisor. And whenever I started talking to my financial advisor about You know, I need income now. Like, it's great to have income 30 or 40 years from now, but I need to figure out a way to create cash flow now. And my advisor, a great, great person, love him to death. We still keep in contact with each other and his expertise.

And you kind of have to understand that most financial advisors, when they get licensed, they get licensed and they get committed to Wall Street, more or less, and certain types of vehicles. And real estate does not fall within that wheelhouse. And as a matter of fact, I think the majority of those, they get licensed to do that kind of work. I don't even think they can get into real estate. It's an interesting thing. I have some friends who are trying to leave that world and become full-time real estate investors now.

And they're having trouble because there's some legal ramifications of being licensed in that way. But all that to say there are people that have their own. specialties, if you will, in the financial world as well. And so you have to understand what, when someone brings us as physicians an offer or a package or a deal, whenever they come to us and say, you know, here's what I can do for you. It's important to ask the questions, you know, well, help me understand what you do for yourself. And, you know, if they are invested in just one type of asset, like paper, then you have to understand they're probably going to be a little bit tunnel vision.

They probably won't be the best person to get information from when it comes to other asset classes. I think the best way for a physician to be able to understand what's right for them financially is to get educated. And it doesn't have to be as crazy of a process as going and getting an MBA or a financial degree, honestly. And the way I did it was again, mentors are super helpful. So I hired a mentor, a financial mentor who was the CPA was their background. And they worked with me for 12 months and they coached me into doing the work that needed to be done to understand different asset classes.

And they helped me where I needed help. And so I understood like from A to Z, what all the different investment vehicles were that were out there. And then once I realized that multifamily investing, apartment investing was going to be the right vehicle for me, I had no time. I had extra money as a physician and I needed to grow fast. And I needed to have income coming now, not like 10 or 15 or 20 years from now or even longer than that away. So apartment investing was the right vehicle for me so but then I've never invested in apartments so I thought okay, now what, and so I hired another mentor for another substantial amount of money.

But again, it was worth it to me at the time, it felt a little risky, like, oh, gosh, I don't know, I'm doing here's a lot of money to drop, you know, on a mentor. But the mentor helped me get invested in apartments and start winning. And then whenever I got invested and started seeing that money come back into my account, and mind you, again, the work I did was getting myself educated, which I think is just unfortunately, There's no shortcut other than it's just not as complicated as one would think, especially when you've got resources and people that have already been there and done that that can help you.

But basically, once I got that mentor and got invested and started seeing that, hey, this machine works. I started learning more about it because then it became really fun. And then eventually I had so much money invested that I was like, man, I need to take this to another level and learn even more because at this point I've got so much money at risk that I need to make sure I'm understanding even what's going on in the background, not just handing my money to someone and trusting them to make money for me.

And then the trust is a big thing, right? I mean, you have to, for me, I don't invest with anyone. I don't know. I get to know them. I have a relationship with them. I learn that we're trusting each other and I get comfortable with that before I ever invest with them. And I think that's highly critical because I think that relationship capital is more valuable than just financial capital. And so that's a really, really important piece to all of this. But whenever I started learning more about what was happening in the background, that was whenever I thought, man, you know, this is amazing.

Like I love the team sport, kind of like it's a team sport and the teams that come together, you know, from my perspective, it has to be a synergistic team. It has to be a team that everyone trusts each other. Everyone wants to help each other, however they need to help each other so that everyone can win together. So when I learned that piece of it, I got even more intrigued and I thought, Man, this is amazing because I knew how well I was doing and how much money I was able to make through this process.

And I thought, man, I want to be able to help other physicians who were in positions like I was in do the same thing, especially like single moms out there that are like, I know I need to change, but it's scary financially to do so. I mean, if there is anyone out there that, you know, you're scared financially, I was there. That was, that's holding against single mom. I've got to bring money in. And so I had to get this figured out. Like I had no choice. And so making time to figure all this out on my own really was just, it was the obvious, it was the given, it was what I had to do.

And so now I really love that I've been doing it long enough now. And now I've been on the other side where I see and participate and help manage, you know, the properties that I invest in. Now, you know, we create opportunities for other people and That was kind of how elite wealth and wellness came to be was because people started asking me, some of my friends and my colleagues, you know, started asking, what are you doing? Like, how are you, you know, able to leave the emergency department? They knew as a single mom, like you're a single mom, you're getting ready to leave.

You know, how are you doing all of this? And so I started answering all these questions and having the same conversations over and over again. And so, you know, I decided, well, maybe, you know, and my husband was the same way because he was doing it again. We were kind of doing this together, but separate financially at the time. And he was the same way, like his colleagues and his friends were asking him, how are you doing this? What are you doing? And so since we started having the same conversations over and over again, we finally decided, you know, maybe we should record some videos.

And so in the beginning, we just recorded some videos and. We ended up creating just like a one page, you know, website and kind of through these free videos up there and, and just directed people to that. And it was several hours worth of videos because you can imagine, you know, investing is not just a one hour conversation of how do you do it and what do you do and what do you need and how do you get to where you want to go. And so we ended up just building on that. And we built more videos and built out our website and eventually just became this education platform.

And so now we help other physicians who really need to go ahead and start getting some passive cashflow now and building that wealth for themselves. That's kind of where our little niche is. We're able to kind of help them get into an environment where they can trust to their width and that people that have track records, you know, including us, we have track records now and we can show what our wins have been and all the proceeds and everything, and then help people really understand how they can go ahead and get started creating that passive income so that they can get financially free and get that financial security.

That's awesome. And we'll definitely have in the show notes your website. And is that the best way for people to get in touch with you if they would be interested in learning more about investing? Yeah, absolutely. I can be emailed at miranda at elite 12th and wellness.com and is spelled out and all one word. So yeah, feel free to reach out. You can send me an email. I'm always happy to help any way that I can at any time. I just, I know how difficult it is to get through certain situations, especially whenever, again, I can only speak to my former self, a single mom, and I remember so well what that felt like and the discomfort and the concerns, but knowing what my priorities were.

And so, yeah, anytime I can help anybody, please feel free to shoot me an email, miranda at elitewealthandwellness.com. Always happy to help. So we don't have a ton of time, but I want to touch briefly on the lifestyle side of what you're doing. And I've had conversations with a few physicians that have gone through the revitalized courses and programs and a couple do have lifestyle medicine certifications or is that something you have or did you train on your own or what was your path? Yeah, I did.

So whenever I left the trauma center in January of 2020, I was in a search for what that optimal life looks like. Like how do you live your best, healthiest, both physically and mentally healthiest life ever?

Lifestyle Medicine and Physician Wellness 30:48

What does the human require for that? And so I dug into the research and I'm totally an evidence-based person. I'm all data. I love data. That side of my brain is like very strong. And so I dug into the data and the research and that's actually where I discovered that there were people that had already done this work, and they created the American College of Lifestyle Medicine. And so that was whenever I turned my attention to the college and started learning more about lifestyle medicine as a specialty and it resonated with me so much so.

that I went ahead and pursued board certification and started practicing, if you will, on friends and family, you know, just making recommendations of how they could tweak their lifestyle and was able to get people off of cholesterol medicines, blood pressure medicines, reverse type two diabetes. It's been so much fun and it started with recovering myself first and really just understanding that there are some critical things that we need as humans And if we neglect them, there's going to be consequences.

And if we tend to them, there's going to be great reward. And so I feel like, you know, lifestyle medicine played a huge role in recovering me as a person and as a physician. And now I get to utilize those skillsets. So whenever I, in my practicing world, in my medicine world now, I, as I mentioned, spend like maybe one or two shifts a week doing urgent care, but I also spend Um, about one day a week doing lifestyle medicine, where I actually get to see patients and help them optimize their lifestyle for people who are wanting that.

Some of them, they're getting to that point where, oh no, medicine has been recommended, but I don't want to get on a bunch of medicines or, you know, I'm talking to surgeons and here's their recommendations, but I want to see if this is fixable through lifestyle first. So I don't have to do a surgery and. And so I've been able to really enjoy the reward of helping people in that way too. So yeah, I love lifestyle medicine. The American College of Lifestyle Medicine is a great, great, great resource for people, especially physicians who feel like they're burning out or feel like something's just not right in their life, that they're just not living their best life ever and they need to kind of troubleshoot it.

I mean, the college is great. And when you say you see patients one day per week, do you see them in person or virtually or a mix? I do telemedicine for the lifestyle medicine piece, the urgent care I do in person. And then the lifestyle medicine, I do it through telemedicine. And that has been really convenient for patients as well. And so, yeah, that's kind of what I do. That's awesome. So I can tell that you are very fit while this is a podcast. And we always like to ask our guests a few closing questions.

So what do you do to stay fit? I have a little bit of a routine. Um, on a bad week, I'm only in the gym three days a week, but most weeks I would say I'm usually there four to five days a week. During the warm months, I like to be outside. So especially in nature, I love the warmth and the sun. So I'll go out and I may run a few miles around the neighborhood during the summer. During the winter, I'll run in the gym on the treadmill. And so typically my workouts look fairly similar in that. I always get my cardio and so I'll spend about 10 to 20 minutes doing really vigorous cardio.

And then I go over to weights and then I'll spend probably about 45 minutes to an hour. Sometimes I'll go two hours. It depends, but that's rare just because my schedule is usually a little tight. So usually it's an hour and I will hit. Every muscle group and I'll do three sets of about eight to 12 reps for each muscle group. So just kind of a circuit, if you will. And I go to pretty nice clips so that my heart rate stays up high enough that it still counts as moderate exercise. And so I'm getting that much, you know, moderate exercise plus the vigorous.

And so I'm addressing from my perspective, my cardiovascular health, but then I'm also addressing resistance training for muscle health, which of course, especially for women is. critically important and feel like sometimes that gets lost on us, but cardio is only half of the equation. And so keeping our strength and our muscles. And then of course, stretching is important as well. And you know, for when I can include yoga in my day, I definitely will, but unfortunately that's one of my areas of improvement.

I need to do that more often. I love it when I do it. I just, I need to make more time for it. Yeah, I think that's a great message for our listeners. And I have a recording with one of my friends that's a personal trainer. I think I'm gonna save for January when many people are making fitness New Year's resolutions. And he's very big on weightlifting. And I think a lot of my physician friends love cardio, they love to run. And I think there's some overlap in kind of that running culture. with the way our brains work and the way we're kind of programmed in medicine.

But if you're only doing cardio, it may actually be making things worse. Yeah, absolutely. No, you're totally right. I mean, there's a lot of things that doing that resistance training helps with. I'm sure the podcast that you release in January is going to really speak to that, but we need that resistance on our bones to help strengthen our bones. And it also stimulates growth hormone and other hormones just naturally in our body. that help us to do a lot of things, including like anti-aging, right?

How many people get on growth hormones and other hormones that are similar to it just to try to keep themselves from aging as fast? Well, it's a natural stimulator of growth hormone. And so it's something that keeps us young for longer in a natural way. So that's just scratching the surface. Of course, there's so, so many benefits that I'm sure you guys will speak to. Well, it sounds like we need to have you back to talk more just about the lifestyle medicine side of things. And it's really an area I'm interested in because I think physicians, unfortunately, are some of the unhealthiest people.

And I'd really my dream this I'm going to put this out in the universe. I'd love to have a lifestyle slash functional medicine practice for physicians and I've been running experiments on myself with tracking heart rate variability and I've gone through a functional medicine workup and you know I think most physicians probably suffer from adrenal suppression and all the various things that we've done to ourselves and had done to us, frankly, because the system really doesn't give us another way.

You know, when we're in residency, you don't really have a choice about when you sleep and what food is at the cafeteria. It's pretty brutal. It is. You're absolutely right. And I totally agree with you. The adrenal suppression. Oh, every ER doc has it. You know they have it, right? It only makes sense. So yeah, I would love to to come back and speak to the lifestyle medicine piece. And it would be happy to got our clinic, the clinic that I do the lifestyle medicine out of is called Sahavita Institute or actually based out of Sarasota.

But it was started up by me and two other female physicians who also experienced burnouts in their careers and wanted to put together a lifestyle medicine based clinic. And so that's what we started up down in Sarasota and actually started it up earlier this year. So we're still in. ground zero build up phase and building up our patients, everything. But with that said, I mean, anytime you want to talk lifestyle medicine, like that's definitely a passion of mine now as well. So always happy to do so.

The way we end every podcast is we want to speak to that physician that's maybe driving to their ER shift right now or their other shifts. and they're dreading it. They can feel it in their chest. They're maybe gripping the steering wheel a little tight and they just don't really know how they're going to get out of this tunnel or this hole that they're in. What's your one piece of advice for this person today? My one piece of advice would be to say that I was absolutely there. Unfortunately, again, as much as I loved emergency medicine, I had the same reactions when I was driving into work.

But again, it was more because of the cost of what it meant for me to do it. And so in that space, that's where I felt Like I didn't know what my options were. All I knew is I had to do something. And so what I would really, truthfully from the heart, what I would say is that Andrea, you and Linda are a phenomenal resource that I didn't have when I was in that place. And even just a conversation with you guys. And I mean, just reaching out to say, Hey, here's my situation, you know, Andrea, what do you think?

Or Linda, here's my situation. You know, do you see hope? Do you have any, any way that you think you can help me? And I. know that you guys are going to have the answer of yes, here's what I see from my perspective and here's resources and here's other people that have been where you're at. Here's what they've done. And I think just hearing what the options are that there is hope that there are options and that people believe it or not have been exactly where you're at and have felt exactly the way you're feeling, whether it's probably other colleagues even, and they're not telling you because we don't advertise it.

We just don't. That's the way that we were brought up in medicine. And that's just how strong we are as independent women. So we're just not talking about it, but I promise you there's a whole world of us that have been exactly where you're at right now. And having a resource like Andrew or Linda be able to reach out to them and just say, here's my situation and let them help you. Oh my goodness, mentorship, not just in one area of life, but in any area where you need help. If you can find a mentor or coach that can help you.

The right mentoring coach can be absolutely priceless and they can turn your world upside down in the best of ways into something you never even thought possible.

Fitness, Coaching, and Final Advice for Burned-Out Physicians 40:38

I love that. I mean, that's what Linda and I say all the time. Stop going at it alone. You're programmed to do that in medicine. There's this cowboy, cowgirl culture of you're supposed to be able to handle everything in this facade. Just have a conversation. And whether it's me or Linda, we've got so many different contacts out there. We're just about getting you connected to what's going to help you thrive, and it's different for every person. But, you know, it's courageous to reach out for help, and it's taboo.

And we hope that that changes the next few years that you know, it becomes the norm that everybody has a coach and everybody needs a coach for something at some point in their life. You know, you think about your youth. Most of us had tons of coaches from athletics to, you know, you could extrapolate that to if you were at church or, you know, whatever extracurriculars you did. And then somehow we get to adult life and we don't need coaches. We don't need teachers. We don't need helpers. And it's just bizarre to me.

Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, mentors and coaches are the ultimate leverage because you can do things so much faster. I mean, you could probably figure it on your own, you know, if you have enough pain and enough perseverance and drive, but Why spend all that extra time, you know, whenever you can have a coach or mentor who's already seen it all and can help you get there so much faster. It's absolutely right. And, you know, just to insert this quick little bit, Linda and I, you know, work together with the same ER group for many, many years.

And so I knew her on a personal note and it's funny. I. never really went to her as a coach. However, she always had this just kind of air of wisdom about her and would offer these little pearls that were very guiding, you know, throughout the years. And I don't know you yet, Andrea, as well as I know Linda, but I know that she has been an amazing resource for me throughout the years, whether she knows it or not, just her leadership and her leading by example. And all the things that she's been through in her life is just, it's amazing.

It's amazing to have you guys as resources. So absolutely reach out to these guys. I mean, gosh, again, I'd never had Andrea or Linda as a resource that I knew of at the time that I could go to and talk to. But if I was in that same situation again, that's exactly what I would do. Oh, I love this. Well, Miranda, it has been an absolute joy. For our listeners, please check out her website, elitewealthandwellness.com and the and is completely spelled out and it'll be in the show notes. Thank you. This has been just an enlightening and heartwarming conversation.

Thank you, Andrea. You're too kind. I've thoroughly enjoyed it. I appreciate it. Thanks for listening to Heartline, Changemaking, and Healthcare. If you're ready to deepen your own inner work or want to bring these conversations into your organization, visit andreaaustinmd.com. You'll find resources and ways to connect with me for coaching, speaking, or consulting. Don't forget to subscribe, leave a five-star review, and share this episode with a friend or colleague. Until next time, keep following your heartline.

This podcast represents the views of the host and guests. It does not represent the views of any entity we work for or with. It is also for informational use only and does not replace any professional advice, including medical or psychological. If you are interested in unlocking your true potential, reach out to me. If you're an organization interested in supporting the wellbeing of your people, I'd love to connect on innovative solutions. Schedule a strategy session at andreaaustinmd.com.