From Doctor To Author With Dr. Debra Blaine | Ep #71

It seems like becoming a doctor is a dream of so many children, and their parents. For Dr. Debra Blaine, she became disheartened with the healthcare industry and needed a change. After over 30 years as a doctor, Debra turned to writing as a creative outlet. She successfully merged medicine with words and launched her first book. Now Debra is a published author of 3 books. She also coaches healthcare professionals on how to pivot, while she works part time as a doctor.  Join Shannon Russell as she interviews Debra Blaine about her second act success story on Episode #71 of the Second Act Success Career Podcast.

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Transcript

Second Act Success Career Podcast
Season 1 - ​​From Doctor To Author With Dr. Debra Blaine
Episode - #71
Host: Shannon Russell
Guest: Debra Blaine
Transcription (*created by Descript and may not be perfectly accurate)

[00:00:00] Debra Blaine: I'm just on autopilot, I'm doing something I hate I'm doing something I don't believe in and what the hell's wrong with me. Like, why am I doing this? the response I got from my colleagues when I said, yeah, I'm not gonna work as a doctor now was amazing. It was like, good for you I wish I had the guts to do that. 

[00:01:00] 

[00:01:18] Shannon Russell: For decades now becoming a doctor has been a dream of many children and their parents, most recently, Ellie Sparkles from the hit YouTube channel pulled over 1005 to eight year olds and asked them what they wanted to be when they grow up. And guess what they said. A healthcare professional. However things are definitely changing. And on this episode of the Second Act Success Career Podcast. I have a fascinating conversation to share with you with Dr. Debra Blaine. Debra has practiced medicine for over 30 years in New York. When Debra became disheartened with the drastic changes she saw are occurring in the healthcare industry. She [00:02:00] pivoted quickly and started a second act as an author. Debra now has three published books and she coaches other healthcare workers and writers. Here is my interview with Dr. Debra Blaine. 



[00:02:14] Debra Blaine: All right. I 

[00:02:15] Shannon Russell: have Deborah Blaine here with me. Hi Deborah. 

[00:02:17] Debra Blaine: Welcome 

[00:02:18] Shannon Russell: to the podcast. I'm so excited to hear all about your super interesting journey. Why don't you tell me where everything started, maybe from college. Let's say from 

[00:02:28] Debra Blaine: college. So first of all, thank you so much for having me on here and I really love what you're doing, I just think it's so important to inspire women, especially to follow their dreams. , I started college as a pre-med major cuz I was kind of told that I should be a doctor. In my family, the only three acceptable professions were Dr. Lawyer engineer. So I started as a pre-med major, but you know, I was away from home and I felt like I could do whatever I wanted. I was in a, in a, an honors humanities program at the university of Texas at Austin. And you just had to concentrate, but they had a pre-med program that [00:03:00] you could go through.

So after the first year I dropped out of. The pre-med part. , and I became a physics major for a short period of time. And then I realized that what I was really interested in physics was relativity theory and quantum mechanics, like the really esoteric, weird stuff. and then I ended up changing and becoming a philosophy major. so I combined that philosophy in Hebrew. So I graduated and I started a graduate program in comparative. a temple university. And so I was working for a PhD and, um, I went home during intercession one year and, uh, I succumbed to parental pressure. What are you gonna do with a doctorate in comparative religion? I could think of things, but you know, they weren't doctor lawyer engineer. So I went back to Texas and, took some pre-med classes that I missed. And I went to Baylor college of medicine and became a doctor.

[00:03:54] Shannon Russell: were you excited about this or you were 

[00:03:56] Debra Blaine: really just, I don't, you know, when I look back, I don't really, I [00:04:00] can't tell you honestly, that I was super, super excited. I felt very accomplished. , and then, um, I came back. To New York for residency. I started in psychiatry and then I ended up going to family practice and psychiatry. Would've been a better fit, you know, philosophy, psychiatry. Yeah. You know, I've been like kind of all over the place. But I ended up in family practice and, I got married. And I had a child. Wonderful, wonderful young man. He's not really that young anymore. he's 30 years old. He's not like a 22 year old kid, so right. He's got his own career he has his own career and he actually, became a doctor. I couldn't talk him out of it. And I became really, um, just frustrated. I mean, for a lot of years I've been getting more and more frustrated. And so have my colleagues. I mean, I'm not alone in this it's it's um, when we had our 25 year reunion for medical school and we've since had our 35 this year, which is blows me away , we sat around, like, who knew that medicine would end up like this and my consolation for my son was [00:05:00] well, In 25 years, we never imagined this would happen to medicine. And in another 25 years, you know, anything could happen and it could get much better. So when I got to the point that I was so burned out that I started writing a book and this is like where everything kind of changed for me because, I just would, would write writing a book is daunting. Like when, for when you first take it on, it's like, oh my God, I'm gonna write a whole book. and, um, I started writing about different patient encounters and the challenges that we have and trying to just provide appropriate care. How do you get the patient, the medication they need or the imaging studies they need or, or to the specialist they need when they don't have the right insurance and then how do you deal with. The leadership who says, oh, well, the patient has to pay $25 for a nebulizer. And meanwhile, the patient is missing three fingers is a single parent of three kids and is unemployed because of her fingers. And she can't, she says $25 is money. And I actually called, I said, just give it to her. And I emailed the [00:06:00] leadership and I said, I'm giving her the I'm giving her the nebulizer, which costs us like a dollar.

Wow. You know, just for the medicine, because the machine's already paid for I said, if she doesn't, you know, if that's not okay, then I'll pay for her nebulizer. And, you know, they finally wrote me back and they said, well this once, , we'll let you do it this one time. You know, like don't make a habit of it. I mean, but the woman was wheezing and she could hardly breathe and I couldn't let her out the door. This was pre COVID. And then we have all these, we have the other side, which is the very privileged demanding, I want what I want when I want it, which is right now or yesterday. So it's, you know, I want my ZPAC or I. The MRI on my shoulder, I felt 30 minutes ago. No, we don't do that. There's just a lot of problems with that. So I started writing this book and the book was a bunch of patients encounters and in the patients encounters, each scenario was. Something that I had actually experienced.

I changed the names and I changed the circumstances just enough you couldn't recognize who it was. then it got to [00:07:00] be a whole different experience. It was like the more outrageous my encounter, the better fodder it was for the book and fun to write.

I bet you probably, and more fun to write. And it became like, it completely transformed my experience in the clinic. And I even had colleagues calling me and say, you, you won't believe what happened to me too. You have to put this in your book. that's amazing. Then I had to decide if it was gonna be fiction or nonfiction. And as a nonfiction, there was a lot of liability on me. Which urgent care are you talking about? which company, why do you say this? It was just too messy. So I said, okay, I'll make it a fiction. Mm-hmm so when you write fiction, you need a plot. Not just a series of encounters. You need a plot, you need a hero, you need a villain, you need obstacles, you need challenges. You need, allies. And so I created this plot, the Russian oligarchs hack, our electronic medical records steal the information and then they use it to extort millions of dollars. And then they murder the [00:08:00] patients and I had so much fun writing it. The thing that I really wanted to accomplish with the book, which I think I did was that people walked away. They would say I had no idea that this was happening in medicine. Like now I know why I can't spend more than three and a half minutes with my doctor and their faces in a computer. You need to keep up with productivity. That means how many patients per hour and you know, the customer satisfaction surveys, now? They might not like you because they didn't like the coffee creamer selection. They might not like you because they wanted an antibiotic that they really shouldn't have, or because they wanted an MRI that, that isn't appropriate. Oh, you're not doing a good job. And it, by the time I finished that book, I realized that I didn't wanna be a doctor anymore, quite an epiphany for me and I, I'm not being authentic. I'm just going through my life. I'm just on autopilot, I'm doing something I hate I'm doing something I don't believe in and what the hell's wrong with me. Like, why am I doing this? 

[00:08:56] Shannon Russell: when was it, I guess, throughout your role as a doctor [00:09:00] where things started changing in you and you started noticing more of the business, legal, things that were not settling right with you.

[00:09:09] Debra Blaine: Probably about 10 or 15 years ago, it's been a long time, but it started very in a very subtle kind of way. Also a lot of the places that I worked were owned by doctors until very recently. And then what happened was, once the practices started getting gobbled up by business ventures, that everything really changed. Every practice, every doctor has to negotiate their own terms or, or else just take whatever they give you. And the larger, the practice, the more money you. I no idea. Wow. Yeah. Most people don't. So, so that's why people end up in these larger practices because not only that now the government is you. Demanding that there's all this extra paperwork digital paperwork. And so you need people in the office to take care of that you need, that's another salary to [00:10:00] pay, and then you need to have more and more people because they're getting paid less and less per patients, you need more and more patients per hour. it's a business now. It's not like it used to be, you go into medicine because you wanna do some good you're gonna make enough money. You're gonna be, your kids will go to school. You'll have a nice house and decent neighborhood. Now. It's like, these corporate mobiles who go into medicine into healthcare. I don't even call it medicine. They go into the healthcare industry and they do it because, Hey, there's a lot of money to be made there. Oh. And by the way, we'll be doing something good. Like the whole focus is changed 

[00:10:34] Shannon Russell: You went into medicine to help people to help families. And then it started becoming about the surveys and the reviews and the paperwork mm-hmm and it just, it's kind of like when people talk about teachers nowadays, right? You used to go when we were younger, right. Teachers got to pick their curriculum and, okay, great. I'm in the first grade, this is my lesson plans. And now. You don't get a, say, you have to hit these requirements 

[00:10:57] Debra Blaine: and teachers now are teaching for the test and [00:11:00] not for the knowledge. Yeah. Because it's so important that their students make a certain, you know yeah. Hit a certain level on the test on the exams. So, yeah, it's the same. And so doctors. Yeah. 

[00:11:09] Shannon Russell: And so for what you were doing, I bet you, and I hope I'm wrong that there are some doctors out there that are in it for the money and not for the patients as much. So they'll be fine having their face in the computer, like you said, and not really caring. because they need to get that next patient in because that's just more money for them. And I can see where that was a road that you. With your good conscious just couldn't couldn't you wouldn't do it. 

[00:11:32] Debra Blaine: Yeah. 

So I took 11 months off. I became certified as a coach and I started my second book it's funny because the response I got from my colleagues when I said, yeah, I'm not gonna work as a doctor now was amazing. It was like, I expected them to be like, Oh, man, what are you doing? Like, you know, you gotta stay with us, you've got all this experience. I didn't get that at all. I got, good for you I wish I had the guts to do that. Mm-hmm and that's just like, [00:12:00] so, so telling is that so often we just continue on doing what we're doing because. We don't have the guts to change. Change is terrifying, but change is also liberating, especially for women, there's three stages, I'm simplifying, but so there's before kids, you grow up, what do I wanna be when I grow up and what am I gonna do? And where am I gonna go? And how am I gonna become that? And how am I gonna train for that and learn about it. And, we have children. and the whole focus of life kind of shifts to the children making sure everything they have everything they need and what I need I'll I'll do it later. I mean, not everybody does that, but I think the majority of women do that and then the kids grow up and if we've done a good job, um, They leave they're out on their own. They don't need us anymore. And now they're doing their thing and now it's kind of like, you scratch your head and it's like, okay, what did I wanna be when I grew up? Who am I? Who am I? I can't remember. You know, I can't remember what was important to me. I can't remember what I dreamt about. I was just so busy worrying about getting them [00:13:00] through and, and providing everything they needed. And, , it's very confusing in some ways, frightening period, but it's also, again, it's a liberating period.

So everything I think is the way we look at it, we interpret our reality and we decide what we're gonna do with, what we're confronted with. So I, I discovered that I loved writing thrillers and I wanted to write another one. I wrote Undue Influences because I was looking around At our society and the, the extremism that you know is just so, so rampant and people, you know, families, aren't talking to each other friends, aren't talking to each other. This isn't used to be the case. Shannon, you and I used to be able to have a discussion about some political issue. We could have disagreed on every single point. and then we could have said, okay, where are we going for lunch? A thousand 

[00:13:49] Shannon Russell: percent. You're right. It's not like that as much anymore. You just don't talk about it. If you think there's a slightest chance of a difference in 

[00:13:56] Debra Blaine: opinion. Right. And if you do talk about it and you [00:14:00] have that difference of opinion, you know what, I'm not really hungry. yes, you're right. You know, and people don't. So, Now I'm writing my third. My third is a dystopian fiction and the takeaway from this one is that, there's a very strong likelihood. We're gonna face extinction if we don't become better human beings. and so that's kind of a called Pillars of Salt. You know, there's so many platforms to jump on. There's so many petitions to sign. There's so many marches you can go on. There's so many, you know, everything is a crisis. And who wants to hear about another crisis? Who wants to hear, oh, there's a healthcare crisis who wants to talk about the extremism that's in our country. So my feeling is that by writing fiction and getting readers emotionally involved in the characters, hopefully you like the characters, you get involved in their lives and you're rooting for them. Right. That's what we do when we read a book and then the things that they're going through and the questions that come up, that there's more of a chance that it will affect someone enough to think about it.

they think about it in their own time [00:15:00] and in their own way. And they don't feel forced. , the whole point of Undue Influences is to ask people to think and not follow their friends or follow their party or follow their kids, but to actually say, you know, well, is this true for me? And then the big question is, how do I even know what's true for me? Where did I get these beliefs? Cause a lot of times we're instilled with beliefs from the time we're very. And it's not our parents' fault, cuz they have no idea where their own beliefs came from and they have no idea that they're giving it to us. But we're following in the footsteps, the thought footprints of our parents and then of our teachers and of our friends. And how often do we actually stop and say, well, is that true for me? 

[00:15:42] Shannon Russell: everything aside, what do I think? What do I. There really, isn't a time where you take that pause and you're just looped into what you were taught and how you were brought.

[00:15:54] Debra Blaine: I think it used to be like adolescents. That was like the time when we'd start to like branch out and think for ourselves, but then it [00:16:00] depends on who you're hanging out with. And where you are, where when you're asking those questions, if you're in a social studies class or an intellectual history class, you're gonna ask different questions. Then if you're hanging out at bars or, you know, going to parties. Right. I feel very strongly that if we don't start to take responsibility, even for our thoughts. and then for our actions, we're just not gonna, we're not gonna do well. I mean, we're not on a good road. 

[00:16:24] Shannon Russell: Um, Very interesting. What an interesting road and path that you've had and that that you continue to go down. I wanna break things down a little bit and ask you quite a few questions about different points throughout your journey. You decide, I'm gonna go on the road to be a doctor. You saw it changing and then you said, oh, and then I just started writing a book. Well, where did that 

[00:16:48] Debra Blaine: come from? Where did that come from? I, you know, I wanted to write, 

[00:16:52] Shannon Russell: I 

[00:16:52] Debra Blaine: was a humanities major, I couldn't even imagine writing a whole book, but I went to a book talk, And it was, Ed Hershey, who was a former, [00:17:00] News Day reporter retired. And he wrote a book, The Score Keeper, and he was talking about the book and he had little vignettes, little sections, you know, little memories. And I thought, well, I can do that. I can do, little. Patient encounters and each patient encounter is a few pages. I could do that. And so when I did that, then I, I started to string them together and then I sort of wove this story around them, 

[00:17:24] Shannon Russell: it sounds like it was a little getaway for you. Like you had a bad day at work. And let me just write down the, it almost like therapy, right? It 

[00:17:31] Debra Blaine: was therapy. It was exactly therapy. I could get through the days and feel like. Okay. It's okay. That this person was so horrible because I can just write about it and them, you know, and I would, after I'd come outta the room, I would just scribble a couple of notes to get in my pocket and, you know, I would, it would remind me of that story and, and I would just write about it later. The first book is called Code Blue: The Other End of the Stehescope. It's one an award, from the New York City Big Book A wards. I did have a mentor, [00:18:00] so I went to this, it's called seek SEAK. But it's for physicians who are interested in nonclinical careers there's actually a lot of physicians out there who are. pivoting into non-clinical career paths. And I found out that there are a lot of physician writers out there. And I met Rich Corboland, um, he's a retired, professor from Southern California university. And I met with him for 15 minutes and we talked and he said, he would be happy to help me, if I wanted him to, to look at my stuff, I had brought the first 30 pages and I gave it to him and I didn't really expect to ever hear from him. But he emailed me about five days later, he told me he read it, you know, he would like to talk and if I wanted to hire him and I did, and he, he really helped me. I went to a workshop and he said, okay, you, you need a plot. And I wrote about one of the most dramatic moments of my life. And it was when I found out my brother was dead and I wrote that. And when I went and, and everybody kind of read each other's, that became the book. And we went back and forth with Rich, and he, you know, he would tell me how to [00:19:00] create suspense, how to weave it into the story. He said, now you've got two stories here. You've got what's going on in the clinic. And you've got this, this story about the Russian oligarchs, and you've gotta now blend them together like this. And so I did that. And that's it. The rest is history . okay.

[00:19:16] Shannon Russell: So mentor and going to workshops is something that you would recommend. 

[00:19:20] Debra Blaine: In the beginning mm-hmm I also took an online writer's class. It was $89. It was the best $89 I ever spent. It was the University of Cinncinat ti. six weeks, two lessons a week. And, and it just taught me like the basics that, things like you don't change voice in the middle of a paragraph or in the middle of a chapter. If you're in one person's head, you gotta stay in that person's head, and you can go to the next person's point of view in the next chapter. It was really helpful. You don't have to spend a lot of money to do stuff like that, but, you find a way to just sort of get your feet wet and get a little familiarity.

[00:19:52] Shannon Russell: probably helps to, give you that extra boost of confidence that you're on the right path too, 

[00:19:56] Debra Blaine: I actually had finished the book. And that's when I realized [00:20:00] I don't wanna do this anymore. Cuz I looked at what I. By the end of the book, I was like, I I'm being inauthentic. I'm not being true to myself. So then I became certified as a coach. And then the pandemic happened. And it was a little bit difficult to, be out and about and doing book talks and things like that. And I also had This image of my grandchildren one day saying to me, grandma, what were you doing during the pandemic of 2020?

And I, I would be saying, oh yeah, I had quit medicine. I was just sitting out and I was embarrassed, you know? So I ended up going back. I worked part-time and it gives me health insurance, and I face my mortgage, but otherwise, I'm writing pretty much full time and I'm coaching. I particularly work with doctors who are disgruntled and how to not necessarily leave medicine, but how to make it work for them. You know, they've gotten, the proverbial veins, the industry has sort of brainwashed doctors, especially younger doctors into thinking, well, this is the only thing you can do. [00:21:00] You're not qualified for anything else. You spend all this money all this time and now like, you're stuck here. So we got you. 

[00:21:06] Shannon Russell: And this is what you're gonna do until retirement. 

[00:21:09] Debra Blaine: Exactly. So what I do is I help them to. Understand that that's not the case that they have this plethora of skills and knowledge and they have a doctorate. I mean, you have a doctorate in science. sometimes just having that confidence, you know, what I've learned is that when we change how we look at ourselves, we present ourselves differently to the world. And then the world responds to us differently. And it's almost immediate, when you can really on a deep level change your self image, everything changes. And all kinds of opportunities come your way and you start to explore things you wouldn't have explored before. Cuz you thought, oh, I can't do that. Well, why can't you do that? I'm struggling with the whole social media thing and I'm like, you know, I'm a freaking doctor, I'm gonna get this, you know, I allow myself and many people allow themselves to [00:22:00] be intimidated by things, and say, well, I don't know how to do that. So I can't do that. We make. Equation. I don't know how equals I can't no, we don't know how to do anything. When we start out, we have to learn 

[00:22:13] Shannon Russell: It's so true. I'm thinking about when you went to that conference in California and you're sitting here amongst other writers. Did you just feel like you're in your element? You know, a lot of us have imposter syndrome,

[00:22:25] Debra Blaine: doctors have that big time. but now 

[00:22:30] Shannon Russell: you're there and you're like, no, I'm a writer. You know, the first class you took, the first workshop you took, putting yourself out there and did it help you to feel like, yes, I am writing. I am a writer too. I'm a doctor, but I'm 

[00:22:44] Debra Blaine: a writer. I didn't quite feel like a writer yet. But what I was feeling is all these people around me could do this. I wasn't different from them. That sense of community that, you know, if, if, if you can do it, I could probably do it too, you know, and [00:23:00] not feeling like, oh, I'm fighting this uphill battle that nobody can possibly get to the top of that mountain. No you're climbing with other people and they're all making it. And some of them are ahead of you and some of them are behind you, but we're all on the journey. And we, we help each other along. We share the energy. So, I mean, now I feel like I'm a writer. And I am a writer now I'm an, I'm an author, you know? my second book won two awards and, I feel much more confident about that now. And when I sat down to write this third one, it took me like, I wanna say seven months, maybe six months, you know, it just, it kind of flowed, it gets easier and easier each time. 

[00:23:33] Shannon Russell: So how can fiction writing make a more positive impact on the culture of our society than maybe practicing.

[00:23:42] Debra Blaine: There are people that I feel like I've made a deep impact on with medicine and maybe save their lives or made their lives much easier, diagnose them faster or something. But I feel like, so I started doing urgent care when my cuz my, I became a single parent when my son was two. So that was also a struggle. So, I feel like the world of urgent [00:24:00] care now is, you know, I've been swabbing a lot of noses for COVID mm-hmm, prescribing, you know, little medications here or there, but I don't feel like I. Really contributing to the wellbeing of the earth or the, the people who live on the earth. Whereas with fiction, I feel like. If I can get people to think about something that they would not normally have thought about. If I can get them to get involved in it for a few days or whoever long, it takes them to read the book and let it sink in. And then even if maybe later, you know, it occurs to them, well, I'm reacting to this person. I haven't really thought it through, like, why am I doing that? Or is somebody else controlling the way? I think, cause Undue Influences is about the government, both sides in their own way, literally controlling our minds. And it's outrageous, but is it ? Yeah. , if I can get people to really examine how they're living their life, I feel like that's a more positive impact than prescribing them in nasal spray.

[00:24:56] Shannon Russell: That's really interesting. Yeah. And your books can [00:25:00] allow people to have like a little escape from reality, but also bringing up different issues that, you know, really can make you self-examine yourself and your. In the world. I mean, hopefully 

[00:25:12] Debra Blaine: they're really interesting suspenseful they're page Turners and, and they, you know, some people say they've read it in a day or two because oh, you know, it was that it was just easy to read. And so hopefully it's just fun. 

[00:25:22] Shannon Russell: Let's talk about your coaching real quick, So right now I'm mostly coaching disgruntled physicians. But I'm not limited to that. I also am very happy to coach writers, it could be, how to make themselves just have more confidence. So many doctors just define this. I'm a doctor. Okay. You're a doctor. You're a mother.

[00:25:41] Debra Blaine: You're a wife, perhaps. Oh, look at that. You're a hiker, you're a singer. You're a chef. You're, you know, you're all these things. You're an animal lover. You're a tree hugger. yes. Look at all these aspects of your life that make you a complete person. And sometimes. It's amazing. We can capitalize on some of those other things better [00:26:00] than on the career label. Yeah. That we've created. And it really expands our own experience of going through every day. 

[00:26:09] Shannon Russell: I've never been a fan of the career label. I feel like it's really just the all encompassing person. So that's nice that you can really help your clients get to that route.





[00:26:26] Shannon Russell: Name one thing that these different chapters in your life have taught you. 

[00:26:31] Debra Blaine: Don't settle. You know, there's too many times in my life where I settled for something and it wasn't really what I wanted and I ultimately was not happy. So I would say, you know, go deep inside, do a deep dive and, and find out what you're really passionate about and go for that. And even if it seems really. That's the most important thing, I think, because in the end, you're not gonna take anything with you in the end. You just wanna have lived a good life, and what defines a good life. You wanna live a life that you are happy with, [00:27:00] that you're proud of. 

[00:27:01] Shannon Russell: Would you recommend taking a leap into a big life change to your best friend? So end, 

[00:27:07] Debra Blaine: so. With a proviso. If it's something they're really, again, really impassioned by. I'm working as a reporter and I don't really love it. So I'm gonna go get a job as an editor for, one of the big traditional publishing houses. But I don't think I'm gonna really love that either, but it'll be a change. Don't do that. Only do it. If it's something that's really important to you, like, yeah, this is what I really wanna do. And if it is, then you have to go for it. You absolutely have to go for it. Don't put it off. Cause in five years you're gonna be five years older, whether you did it or not 

[00:27:39] Shannon Russell: What is one piece of advice that you can give to someone trying to start their second act? 

[00:27:44] Debra Blaine: Follow the dream. Expect the dream to come true. That's the most important thing have faith in yourself, have faith in the universe have faith in. If you believe in God, if you don't just have faith in the higher powers of the universe that it's [00:28:00] going to happen, envision it write down all the details in the present tense. This is who I am today as if it were today that you already had it and meditate on it and write it out and just keep seeing yourself in it. And don't give. And of course you have to take some action steps too, to get there, but inside, you know, really make that own, it really own it. 

[00:28:21] Shannon Russell: What does the next chapter look like for you? Debra? 

[00:28:25] Debra Blaine: Okay. So my goal is to be earning. Twice my previous full time clinical income, just from my books. maybe throw a movie or two in there. being able to speak to people and make a difference. If I can get two or three people to start thinking in a different way that would be healthier for them. then I could feel like I made a positive contribution to the society. That's what I'd really like to do. I mean, I love this planet. I love the earth. I love animals. I'd love to be able to wake people up and say, be respectful, of everything around you, because it's also much bigger than you are. And it gives you so much. And, you [00:29:00] know, we shouldn't just be takers. We should be respectful of what we take and give back. 

[00:29:04] Shannon Russell: you're doing that with your work. I believe that you're really. you're contributing to society. You're helping your community. You're coaching people to bring them to a better place. So you're, you're doing it all. Um, thank you. Where can our audience 

[00:29:18] Debra Blaine: connect with you? you can get me at my website, debrablaine.com. From there, you can go onto the coaching page if you're interested in coaching. My Facebook is Deborah Blain, author, physician coach. My Twitter is @debrablainemd, and my Instagram is @docdebwriter, but you can get to all of those things just by going to debrablaine.com.

[00:29:39] Shannon Russell: well, Deborah, thank you so much it's truly inspirational and I thank you for the time. 

[00:29:43] Debra Blaine: Well, thank you so much for having me. Appreciate it.



[00:29:47] Shannon Russell: Debra success. Really amazes me. Her trajectory has just changed so drastically. And really what she has cultivated for herself is completely impressive to me. I absolutely loved how [00:30:00] she pulled together, her medical background and her love for writing. Wrote books that kind of combine the two and really what an accomplished woman with such an impressive story. Be sure to head over to debrablaine.com to dive into her books and learn more about Debra and her journey. My mission with this podcast is to share stories like Deborah's so that you can listen and take tidbits of advice and get inspiration and ideas to motivate you to move forward on your own path and to find your own second act success story. I hope listening to this episode helped you with that today. And that you feel a little bit more inspired to truly follow your own path no matter what that is. I encourage you to subscribe to the second act success career podcast. If you have not already so that you can catch up on all the episodes that you may have missed. To learn more about this show and my mission for Second Act Success go to secondactsuccess.co. Make it a great day my [00:31:00] friend and i will talk to you soon