Doctor & More Interview Dr. Errin Weisman DO
Chance encounters can turn out to be so much more than just a connection. I met Errin for the first time through Linked In. Errin is in Southwestern Indiana and I’m in Northwest Arkansas but we were lucky enough to meet in person through our screens earlier this year. We had so much to talk about and I quickly learnt that Errin has so many interesting roles and facets to her life. She was an obvious choice as someone who I was keen to learn more about her life outside of being a physician.
Errin successfully juggles being a physician life coach, podcaster and advocate in addition to being a mother and her role within medicine. From here I’ll let Errin do the talking.
Karen: What does being a physician mean to you?
Errin: A specific type of healer. Though my own journey, where I use to think there was only a few specific ‘right’ ways to heal, I know see it’s one particular wave in a spectrum of healing.
Karen: What are your passions away from your day job in medicine?
Errin: Getting into some sort of body of water be it lake, river, ocean, or hot tub.
I also loving getting outside and getting my feet muddy and wet.
I love traveling to new worlds through fantasy fiction
Karen: Do you have any tips on how to successfully do so many different things?
Errin: Delegate. Though it may look like I ‘do’ a lot of things, most have at a minimum a helping hand from someone else.
Karen: What is your favourite thing to do at home?
Errin: Recharge. But after my battery is full, I get cabin fever and must get out.
Karen: What is your favourite thing to do at work?
Errin: Talk with others. I love conversation
Karen: If you had a bonus day free from all commitments and responsibilities, you were fully rested and could do anything you wished, what would you do?
Errin: Probably arrange a get-together with friends, food and kayaking
Karen: What advice would you give to your younger self?
Errin: Girl, this is going to be the hardest thing you have ever done. Harder than natural childbirth and med school. Harder than a 54 hour call and your own burnout.
When you decided to step out, to run in your own lane, it means you can no longer compare to justify your success. You can no longer out hustle someone else to inflate your sense of achievement. You can no longer base your value off the perceived value of others.
Stay in the middle of your purpose, boo. Daily, remember why you chose this. Reach out for help early and often. Struggle but don't give up! Love you!! And, hey, nice butt.
“When you decided to step out, to run in your own lane, it means you can no longer compare to justify your success.”
Karen: How did you find coaching?
Errin: Within my first months of practice, I was desperately searching for help. I can remember sitting in my office after hours scrolling through my phone thinking, “There’s got to be a solution for how I’m feeling.”
I had been reading the KevinMD blog with other physicians feeling similar to how I did but their solutions of DPC (direct patient care), training in fillers and botox or leaving their practice then traveling the world just didn’t fit me.
I came across a blog post about being an entrepreneur physician and it directed me to a site called The Entrepreneurial MD. After reading through, I signed up for the freebie. I enjoyed it so much that later I bought the self paced “Physician Odyssey'' program. I learned so much about myself in the first chapter but I craved to talk to another physician. I need an non-biased colleague to talk about how I was feeling and what I should do next. I signed up with Philippia Keannely MD to be my coach.
It was a slow start but through our coaching relationship, I was able to have huge discoveries.
I describe my “being coached” experience as THE CAVE.
I felt like I had gotten lost in a cave deep, down in the ground with a broken flashlight. When I got a coach, it felt as if someone joined me, replaced the batteries in my flashlight (empowered me) and said, “Hey, I’m here with you. Let’s walk and explore.”
This black cave lit up with this new ray of light (hope). Instead of being a creepy dark place, it was now a beautiful cavern with rock formations and sparkling jewels embedded in the walls (to any Snow White fans, you know what I’m talking about). I felt like during our coaching calls, we would go on these exploration walks where she would let me lead and ask insightful questions that made me go, “Hmmm, IDK?!” We had many deep conversations along the way while just exploring and not trying to solve all my solutions.
Eventually, I got to a place that I felt confident enough to go out on myself. We had worked on my plan together. I then was able to walk out of that dark place by myself on my own terms because of her help.
Being so changed by this manner of openness and authenticity, I knew that I had to become a coach as well for other physicians but also because it fulfills a burning desire to help others in me.
“ I felt like I had gotten lost in a cave deep, down in the ground with a broken flashlight. When I got a coach, it felt as if someone joined me, replaced the batteries in my flashlight (empowered me) and said, “Hey, I’m here with you. Let’s walk and explore.””
Karen: Have you learnt anything about yourself over the course of the pandemic?
Errin: That my superpower of intense, hard work is still thriving and that it could still be my kryptonite if I don’t stay vigilant and have safe guards and rest breaks in place.
Karen: How did you come to set up the Physicians Coaching Alliance? Tell me a bit about what PCA is and does.
Errin: It all started from an email sent February 2019 to 15 colleagues that I knew were interested in wellness work. I had been rolling an idea around after I had started to meet so many wonderful physicians who were coaching or interested in coaching. I wondered, “What if I got all the coaches I know together and we worked together? How would that uplevel ourselves and healthcare?" And the idea of Coaching Circle was born.
The group began meeting once monthly then twice monthly and grew in membership. We saw the benefits from viewing different styles of coaching and our art of coaching together in a mutual setting because the most beautiful thing to emerge was COMMUNITY. With a new name, Physician Coaching Alliance LLC, and forward momentum, this crazy idea was reality.
Errin Weisman, DO is a life coach, podcaster and fierce wellness advocate who helps inspire female physicians and working moms to do the work they love and absolutely love life. Her work in the world is to openly tell how she faced professional burnout early in her family medicine career so that no one feels alone, all know that change is possible because "if she can do it, so can I" and that you can have a joy-filled and sustainable career.
She lives and practices life coaching and medicine in rural Southwestern Indiana, loves her roles as farmer's wife, athlete and mother of three. Besides being sassy, she enjoys getting mud on her shoes, teaching her children to catch tadpoles and reading a great fantasy novel.
You can find out more about Dr. Weisman on her podcast Doctor Me First, her website truthrxs.com or hang out on IG @truthrxs or LinkedIn Errin Weisman DO.
