NBS #17: I Built A Lifestyle Business So I Could Retire From Medicine At 37 – Here Are 3 Tips To Build Yours

It took me 12 years to become a physician, and just 9 years later I chose to retire from medicine.

Did I hate being a clinician?

Nope. Not even close. I really enjoyed working with patients and I like to think they liked working with me.

So why did I retire from medicine, then?

Location independence.

You see, for me, being able to live in different countries was very important. But as you know, medical licenses aren’t exactly portable… This realization was the first clash between my desired lifestyle and the life I had built so far.

Perhaps you don’t care about location independence  but there’s definitely something else about your career that’s made you feel this way before. 

And if you have, don’t fear. I won’t ask you to retire from your chosen profession or give up your license… (Unless you want to… 🤷🏻‍♂️)

But what I do want you to learn about is the concept of lifestyle design and how building a lifestyle business lets you have your cake and eat it too. In more ways than one, I might add…

So in this post I want to share 3 big tips for building a lifestyle business:

1. Define your ideal lifestyle
2. Decide who you’ll be creating for
3. Build it in public

If this sounds like something you’d like to learn more about, keep reading!

The Goal Is Not To Retire From Medicine; It’s To Build A Lifestyle By Your Design

Before we get to the tips, you should know there are 3 common mistakes to avoid when building a lifestyle business:

• Mistake #1: Keeping it under wraps
• Mistake #2: Treating it as a job and not as a business
• Mistake #3: Thinking you just need to build it and they’ll come

The reason experts tend to make these mistakes is because we fear what others might think of us when we’re “deviating” from what’s socially acceptable given our field and training. 

As a result, we keep ourselves stuck, wanting our lives to go in a different direction but feeling guilty for not valuing what we do have…

If you’ve ever felt this way, here are 3 tips to start working towards your lifestyle business -sans the guilt and frustration:

Tip #1: Define Your Ideal Lifestyle 

Obviously you can’t build a lifestyle business if you’re not crystal clear on what your ideal lifestyle looks like. 

Yet not being clear on their vision  is something I often encounter whenever I consult with new clients. The reason is we all think we know exactly what we want so we assume that just by being in control of our income, we’ll be living this imaginary lifestyle. Unfortunately, this is rarely the case. 

In fact, if you’re anything like the hundreds of experts I’ve helped in my programs, you’ll notice you know a few things you want, many things you don’t want, and… that’s about it. Not a very clear picture of a dream lifestyle is it?

Let’s fix that. 

Take a few minutes (can be as few as 10) and just open up a notepad or journal and write down what your “masterpiece day” would look like. Describe everything from the moment you wake up in the morning to the moment you go to bed at night. Mention the people in your life, your work, your self-care. Everything.

If you’re having trouble going through this on your own, there are several YouTube videos and podcast episodes on Spotify that guide you through this exercise. 

Only once you’ve gotten crystal clear on your “masterpiece day” can you begin building a business you know for certain will get you closer to it.

Tip #2: Decide Who You Are Creating For 

The second most common mistake I see experts make when they begin creating a digital product or service is to fall in love with their product, and not with the person they’re serving.

If you’ve been working on a course, a podcast, a newsletter, or any other digital asset, you’re likely putting in a lot of love and effort into it. You’re distilling your years of experience into every piece of that content. As such, it is normal to get too attached to it in its current form.

Unfortunately, this is not always what your audience wants.

As someone who invested 200+ hours into his first digital course to only make 1 sale, I know first-hand how heartbreaking this is.  

What was that course? A sales and marketing training for doctors teaching them how my team and I  had scaled my own practice from losing money to 7+ figures per year. 

I spent so much time thinking about the product, I had completely forgotten to think about the audience. 

If I had, I would’ve recognized most private practice physicians who wanted to grow their practice to several million dollars per year, did not want to learn marketing. They much preferred to have someone do the marketing  for them. *Sidenote: this is how my marketing agency was born.

So, if you want to avoid my fate, make sure you fall in love with your clients, not with your products.

*Fun fact: This is the reason why I sign most of my posts, emails and newsletters with 🤟🏻. It means “I love you” in American Sign Language and it reminds me every time I write something, that I’m writing it for my clients, whom I love.

Tip #3: Build It In Public

And finally, the third big tip I have for you when building your lifestyle business, is to do it in public.

Remember when I told you about my failed course launch? Well, not only did it fail because I was too focused on building a product instead of focusing on serving a person, it also failed because I kept it under wraps for the entire time.

And I get it, it’s scary to put your ideas out in public.

You think someone else will steal them. Or they’ll make fun of you. Or both.

They won’t.

And you wanna know why? They’re even more scared than you are!

In fact, seeing you put your ideas out there might even inspire them to take action.

Plus, building in public is also better for you and whatever it is you’re building.

Because when you build in public, the clients you’re creating it for get to weigh in on what you’re building. They give you feedback. They help you identify your blindspots. They even line up to buy it before you open the doors!

Talk about win-win here!

That’s it!

As a reminder, this is a post I contributed for Dr. Jamie Wilkey’s newsletter “Launch, Already!“. I hope you’ve found it valuable as well.

Hit me up on X or LinkedIn and let me know if you found it helpful —I’d love to hear from you!

See you next Saturday,

🤟🏻 Dr E