IAM165- Founder and Podcaster Passionate About Family Dynamics in the Medical World

Lara McElderry has a background in family sciences and graduated from the University of Arkansas with a Masters Degree in Teaching. She has worked with youth and adults and has a strong interest in family dynamics. Lara has been navigating the medical world for the last seventeen years as she has supported her husband through medical school, residency, a specialty change, fellowship, as well as raising five boys. She is the founder and podcast host of Married To Doctors. Her show is an interview based weekly podcast. Spouses of physicians share their stories and experts share advice as Lara leads a discussion asking personal and hard questions that explore the joys and challenges of being Married to Doctors.

• CEO Hack: Canva for social media graphics.
• CEO Nugget: (1) Trust you idea (2) Reach out to your audience and sponsors sooner
• CEO Defined: Creating something that didn't exist before

Website: https://marriedtodoctors.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marriedtodoctors/

Podcast: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/married-to-doctors/id1323179967?mt=2

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Transcription:

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:27

Hello, hello, hello, this is Gresh from the I AM CEO Podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I've Lara McElderry of Married To Doctors Podcast. Lara, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Lara McElderry 0:37

Yeah, I'm happy to be here. Thanks for having me.

Gresham Harkless 0:39

No problem. And what I wanted to do was just read a little bit more about Lara, so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. Lara has a background in family sciences and graduated from the University of Arkansas with a Masters's Degree in Teaching. She has worked with youth and adults and has a strong interest in family dynamics. Lara has navigated the medical world for the last 17 years as she has supported her husband through medical school, residency, a specialty change, and fellowship as well as raising five boys.

She is the founder and podcast host of Married To Doctors. Her show is an interview-based weekly podcast. Spouses of physicians share their stories and expert share advice as Lara leads a discussion asking personal and hard questions that explores the joys and challenges of being Married to Doctors. Lara, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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Lara McElderry 1:26

Yes, I am

Gresham Harkless 1:27

Awesome. Let's do it. So the first question I had was to hear a little bit more about your CEO story. And what led you to start your business?

Lara McElderry 1:33

Ah, it was multiple things, right? So it was it was life experience these 17 years of being married to a physician. It was also my love for teaching. And I think podcasting is a great way to kind of teach or counsel people in kind of a personal way. And I just wanted to create a space for physician spouses, it was something that didn't really exist, or it didn't exist on a very large scale. And so I wanted to help grow that space.

Gresham Harkless 1:59

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. And I've always loved that, especially about the podcasting space, because there are so many kinds of niche podcasts and things that you didn't even think about. But then obviously, there's a tribe around usually what you build. And that's what I love about the business, love about podcasting and entrepreneurship is that if you have and see kind of an opportunity to kind of just take advantage of that. So I appreciate you for doing that.

Lara McElderry 2:19

Sure. Yeah. Like there were several Facebook groups I was a part of, and I would hear just like little, a couple of sentences from people. But I was like, man, I would love to get to know that person better. And so finally, I just thought, let's do this. Let's start this interview-based podcast and really learn from each other.

Gresham Harkless 2:34

Awesome, yeah. And true entrepreneurial form, you decided to create it yourself. So I appreciate you for doing that. And I wanted to drill a little bit deeper and hear a little bit more about the podcast and everything that you're doing. So can you tell us just a little bit more about that, and how you're helping to support your clients?

Lara McElderry 2:46

Yeah, so I think my business is fairly new, it's about a year old. And so the first goal is just to exist, right? And so it's starting up the business, it's getting it out there, it's being very consistent in content, I'm happy to say that I have not missed a week of publishing a podcast, which anyone in the podcasting world knows that that's kind of a big deal. I've made it a complete year coming up in just two weeks, it'll be a complete year without missing an episode.

And then I plan on taking my first two weeks off around Christmas. So I'm super excited about that. And I think being consistent in the content so that the audience can actually grow has been really important. And then offering resources, one of the things I do is connect people. So I've been fortunate enough to have a few sponsors, maybe their life coaches, therapists, or someone in the financial world, and they need in need of my audience. And then I get to play the middleman and connect them.

Gresham Harkless 3:44

Yeah, that makes sense is all about being able to connect to that audience. And a lot of times, as I mentioned, there are so many kinds of communities that people don't know about. But then like you mentioned the life coaches, people that once actually connect with that audience, you're able to kind of play that connector, so to speak.

Lara McElderry 3:58

Yep, that's kind of my role at this point, I hope to in the future have my own products as well. But those take time. And so I'm working on some of those.

Gresham Harkless 4:06

Yeah. And then sometimes the hardest part is building that community. So definitely sounds like you're well on your way. And definitely congratulations on that consistency for this year. And now I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce. And you might have already touched on this, but this is what you feel kind of distinguishes you or set you or your podcasts and organization apart.

Lara McElderry 4:24

Yeah. So one thing I think is the niche, like finding something that maybe wasn't there in a very big form. The other thing I think about is how I involve my audience. So one thing I wanted to do with the show was to have experts that could give advice, but I also want to just to kind of have quote-unquote, regular doctor wives and doctor husbands on the show. So my listeners become part of the show when they are on the show. And then I feel like they're more invested, they share it with their friends. So I have a very engaged audience because, in fact, my audience can be part of the show.

Gresham Harkless 4:56

That's powerful. I love that kind of niche because your listeners are also the people that you have on your show. And then even if they're not on your show, they sound and kind of sounds like they have that connection with the people that are on the show anyway, so they kind of feel like they are going through the same things.

Lara McElderry 5:11

Yeah. Or maybe they have a connection, like someone will write in and say, Oh, my gosh, I heard from so and so. And it happens that they studied at my same school, or just little things like that help people to feel more connected.

Gresham Harkless 5:22

Yeah, that's pretty cool.

Lara McElderry 5:23

Yeah,

Gresham Harkless 5:24

Yeah. Imagine it's probably a very connected niche-down kind of community. So you probably you being able to kind of bring all those people together in kind of a different way definitely provides those opportunities for that.

Lara McElderry 5:36

Yeah. Cuz I think there were a lot of spaces for physicians to gather and talk, but physicians, families, physician spouses, like what do we have in common, other than the fact that we've happened to marry a doctor, right? But yet, we actually do have a lot in common because we have these shared life experiences, but no one to really vent to about it. What is it like when your spouse has six figures in debt and the neighbors think you're wealthy? What is it like when they work holidays and weekends, and you know, are there for your kid's band concert, or whatever.

And these are things that aren't common just in medicine. But I find that physician spouses have often had a hard time voicing their frustration with these things. Because we are so proud of our spouses in their work, we are thankful to be married to doctors. And so it's always walking that fine line of yes, showing gratitude, but also recognizing some of the sacrifices and dealing with some of the real problems, like physician burnout, physician suicide, actually, there's a really high rate of physician spouse suicide. So there are a lot of things to consider. And I just wanted to have a better place to be more open and honest about this journey.

Gresham Harkless 6:47

Yeah. And that's definitely awesome. Because you would never know that unless you're part of that community. And sometimes, if you're not even a part of that community, sometimes you may feel like you're alone, that you're just struggling with it yourself. But the fact that you built that community provides an opportunity for people to engage, have those conversations to understand that, hey, it's not just me going through this, this is something that's common, and this is how we can deal with it. This is how we can work through it. So that's awesome that you've been able to do that.

Lara McElderry 7:09

Yeah, thanks. I think it's been well appreciated because a lot of people have thought and man, I wanted to say these things or put a voice to this, but I was nervous, too. And I was too I was extremely nervous to start the show. But by and large, it's been met with positivity.

Gresham Harkless 7:25

Yeah, definitely sounds like this definitely have given people a voice, which is always important to do. And now I wanted to switch gears a little bit and ask you for what I call a CEO hack. And this might be an app or book or habit that you have, but it's something that makes you more effective and efficient as an entrepreneur and business owner.

Lara McElderry 7:41

I like Canva. I like using Canva. For all my social media stuff, it's been great, and fairly easy for me to figure out. And social media has been important to me as a kind of free means to grow an audience. So if you're not using Canva, check it out.

Gresham Harkless 7:57

Yeah. And if you want to make sure that it also converts to whatever size for whatever social media channel you use. It's great that if you're a designer, or you're not a designer, you could definitely use that.

Lara McElderry 8:09

Yeah, and I find that really helpful if I want to do Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram, and in my line of work in multiple places has been important. And so with the click of a button, it magically resizes. And I'm not recreating it each time. So it's very handy.

Gresham Harkless 8:25

Yeah, and anyway you can save time is of course of extreme importance. So now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. And this is a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. Or if you can happen to be a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?

Lara McElderry 8:39

I think it's that you have to ask for what you want. So I started my podcast, really as a passion project. Like I said, I want I wanted to start this, I felt like there was a real need for it. But at some point, it was like, okay, the podcast is costing me money. We're one of these physician families with six figures in debt.

So at some point, I have to figure out what am I going to do to make money and one of the hardest things for me as an entrepreneur was to just ask my audience, you know, and say, hey, I'm making this content for you week after week, you know, would you be willing to give a donation?

And the other thing is to reach out to sponsors. Because I'm like, well, I'm not that big, you know, I so niche down. But then there are a lot of people that are actually happy to talk to physician families. They have products and services for those families.

And so, for me, I think if I could go back, I would say, you know what, trust your idea, reach out to the sponsor sooner, reach out to your audience sooner. And don't be shy to ask for what you need to keep your business going.

Gresham Harkless 9:42

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. And it's definitely a great reminder because there's a saying that kind the riches are in the niches especially because people want to try to connect with the physician and the spouses of physicians and be able to provide opportunities for people to do that. And then having an alignment with what your community actually wants. It creates that perfect synergy where awesomeness happens, so to speak.

Lara McElderry 10:02

I hope so that's the goal we're getting there. I'm very happy to have had sponsors within the first year. And I hope to see that grow in the future.

Gresham Harkless 10:09

Awesome, awesome, awesome. And now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And I'm hoping to have different, quote-unquote, CEOs on the show, but I wanted to ask you, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Lara McElderry 10:22

To me being a CEO is, is being able to create something that didn't exist before. And it's also allowing me to still be the kindergarten homeroom parent.

Gresham Harkless 10:31

Absolutely, that's definitely important. It creates that balance and that freedom to be able to paint your own canvas, so to speak. But also the freedom to be able to be where you need to be whenever you need to be, which is also of extreme importance. Lara, I truly appreciate you for taking some time out of your schedule. What I wanted to do is pass you the mic, so to speak, to see if there's anything additional you want to let our readers and our listeners know, and how best they can get a hold of you and of course, subscribe to your podcast.

Lara McElderry 10:55

Well, thank you so much. It's been really great to be here. And I want to encourage everyone who's trying new things to just keep going and to trust in your ideas. Um, you can find me wherever you're listening to this podcast, just search for Married to Doctors, even if you're not married to a physician. I find a lot of people relate to the content because a lot of it is just marriage content and good marriage advice.

So if you're married to anyone, you might enjoy it. We cover all types of things from sex and romance, to alcoholism, to depression to anxiety. So I think you'll really enjoy it. I have a lot of great speakers. So again, that's Married to Doctors, you can just find it where you're listening to this. And of course, I do have a website, which is marriedtodoctors.com.

Gresham Harkless 11:39

Awesome, awesome, awesome. We'll make sure to have those links in the show notes just so that again, you can search through however you listening to this but also check out our show notes as well too. So we'll have links as well there. But Lara, I truly appreciate you for taking some time out of your schedule. I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Lara McElderry 11:53

Yeah, I appreciate you having me. Take care.

Outro 11:56

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co

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