IAM369- Medical Student Develops Content to Showcase Lives of Medical Providers

Adam is a 4th year medical student interested in Emergency Medicine. When he is not studying or seeing patients, he is usually traveling somewhere with his camera.

In an effort to motivate and inspire healthcare workers and students alike, he developed The Med Life, a hub for showcasing the lives of medical providers. His content ranges from study tips to travel hacks and much more showing that being in healthcare does not have to define your life outside the hospital or classroom.

• CEO Hack: Book- The digital version of How to Win Friends and Influence People
• CEO Nugget: Knowing how to pave it and being self-reflective
• CEO Defined: Leader – the orchestrator of the bigger organization

Website: https://www.seethemedlife.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seethemedlife/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN6oXnDhu4nfACa8J-MN-Zw

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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 0:30

Hello, hello, hello, this is Gresh from the I am CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Adam of See the Med Life.

Adam, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Adam 0:38

Thanks so much for having me.

Gresham Harkless 0:40

No problem super excited to have you on and what I want to do is just read a little bit more about Adam so you can hear about all the awesome things that he's doing. Adam is a 4th year medical student interested in Emergency Medicine.

When he is not studying or seeing patients, he is usually traveling somewhere with his camera. In an effort to motivate and inspire healthcare workers and students alike, he developed The Med Life, a hub for showcasing the lives of medical providers. His content ranges from study tips to travel hacks and much more showing that being in healthcare does not have to define your life outside the hospital or classroom.

Adam, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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Adam 1:18

Absolutely.

Gresham Harkless 1:19

Awesome. Let's do it. So they kick everything off, I wanted to hear a little bit more about what I call your CEO story. What led you to start your business?

Adam 1:26

Yeah, so I think it came out of a bunch of failures, like a lot of people that start a business, I actually started something back in the first year of Med school. Actually, let me take it back even further. When I was in college, I started a blog that was called the Pre Med Life. It basically was chronicling, and I wasn't exactly a great student in high school. So I wasn't sure that I would even get into college, get into medical school, and go on from there. So I figured, let me make this blog and let people see what I did from someone who felt like imposter syndrome shouldn't be there, up until, hey, maybe I'll get in and people read this.

People really connected with it was kind of crazy. I had never really done anything like that. I wasn't really known as a strong writer, and it morphed into its own thing. It was on Tumblr, and, super young, I didn't know about monetizing, or, I had really no interest in business at the time. So I did that and grew that to a decent size at the time. When I went to med school, I was getting overworked and didn't have the time that I felt I wanted to commit to writing and it really took time to write those pieces. I still felt like I was reaching a lot of students and connecting with a lot of people who were not at the top of their class and felt like they still deserved a shot at med school.

So I started a YouTube channel called the Pre Med Life. That was one of my babies that never really made it. I put a lot of effort into that, I have actually a partner that I work with. So he does all the editing, and I would do obviously all the content creation. We tried really hard. We had a video or two that got a little bit of traction, but nothing really took off. In between classwork and board exams and things, it just got pushed to the side and unfortunately fell off and never really developed. And we kind of left it.

As I went through medical school, I took an interesting path I added a year on to teach some anatomy. During that time, I got some time to reflect and think about what I wanted to do to what I wanted to leave as a legacy for medical school, I felt I had learned so much in the classroom, but about being successful and performing well, I mean, I did not do well on SATs, I did not do well on that MCAT, which is the Medical College Admissions Test. So I switched that around, and I grew from that. My board exams were above average for both our first and second board exams all throughout med school. So I made a big change.

I felt like those were things that I could help other people figure out how to do and succeed. I'm nobody special. And so that's motivated and we started the Med Life, which is kind of the maturation of the Pre Med life. I took what we failed with built on it and moved forward. I already knew that the audience was there and interested in this information, it was just a matter of reaching them. So we launched YouTube again, it was slow growing. My partner in the project here, Josh suggested that I look at Instagram.

I had previously deleted the app wasn't using it for my personal use, but I said Hey, we'll give it a shot. And so we launched on Instagram and it took off like wildfire and grew incredibly fast. And that's been translating slowly to growth on YouTube and, and on from there. So long-winded answer, but hopefully that kind of gave you an insight as to why I'm starting the Med Life.

Gresham Harkless 5:00

Yeah, absolutely. It's super exciting. I think, obviously, I see some commonalities between The Pre Med Life and The Med Life. So it sounds like you have a trend going on. But I think that's one of the things, we always try to remind ourselves is that especially in this digital world, but really, for a lot of stuff, whether it be business, or whatever it is you have to try. And a lot of times, you get to learn a lot from trying, whether it does succeed, or it's like the failing babies. So whatever happens, you get to learn a lot from that. But a lot of times a lot of people are on the sidelines, and they never jump out to actually try to do something, but it's great to hear that you've been able to do that you've been able to grow. Are you still creating?

Adam 5:39

Absolutely, yeah. I mean, it's that easy. It's probably one of the most common and we can I'm sure talk about it later, One of the most common questions I get on Instagram is how do you possibly have time to do this? And we'll get into it. But there's no magic bullet.

Gresham Harkless 5:55

Yeah, yeah, that makes perfect sense. So I wanted to hear a little bit more on what you're hoping to do with the Med Life and I touched on a little bit when reading your bio, but I wanted to hear a little bit more about what people can expect.

Adam 6:06

Absolutely. So right now, the goal of Med Life is basically to just reach out and connect with those students, and healthcare providers. And, I mean, really, my vision when I started it with, especially with that title was to show that medicine is more than just sitting at your desk, Everyone thinks that you go to medical school, and you have no life, you don't do anything for two years, three years, until you're out seeing patients. And I think that's not true at all. I mean, some of my best memories have been in med school, I've been very fortunate to travel, meet incredible people, and have incredible opportunities.

And I think it's all about how you approach it. And so my goal with that visual aspect of Instagram and YouTube is to show, hey, there's more to this than just sitting at a desk, and you can have fun, you can grow as a person, outside of learning all this medical knowledge. And the second arm of that prong or idea was to motivate these students and these healthcare workers, and, as I said, share what I've learned, because I am by no means the smartest guy in the room off the bat, but I like to think that I'm one of the hardest workers in the room. And I think that is something that you can help teach someone help motivate them, and show them what you did, because it's not like I sit down look at something once, and boom, I have an A or a high board score, or whatever it is, I definitely put in a lot of work, but it pays off.

And I think so my goal was to get other students to do that, because nothing crushes my heart more than seeing students who fail board exams, for no real reason, just because of poor strategy, or lack of mentorship, motivation, that kind of thing. So, that's where the Med Life is now. And I'll just give a little teaser, of where it's going, I'm looking to expand some content creators, so it's already in the works, it's moving, becoming hopefully, November we're looking at, but kind of expand out into nursing, maybe Dental, physical therapy, that type of thing. And capture some more of those audiences, because all of those have students who are looking to go into that field and want to achieve success. And so I'm going to be working hopefully with some experts and creators in that field to get some content for those demographics as well.

Gresham Harkless 8:28

Nice, that's definitely exciting. And especially because I know we talked a little bit offline about it, which I didn't mention, but I was the reason I brought up law school is because I was gearing up to go to law school. So something like that the law life or whatever related to that would have been amazing, because I think I spent a good amount of my college years getting ready for law school, when in reality, it wasn't necessarily the right path that I think that I should have went down but having a YouTube channel content to actually get a real live view. And so like, what you're potentially investing a lot of time and energy into would have been great to see. And even if I went down that path to have the tips and tidbits that you're providing to be successful would have been even better.

Adam 9:08

Absolutely.

Gresham Harkless 9:09

Nice. And so now I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce. And you might have already touched on this. This could be for you or for the Med Life, but what do you feel kind of sets you apart or makes you unique?

Adam 9:20

So I think again, it's two-pronged I hate to keep using that phrase on you. But it's two things. I think number one is the work ethic. And it's not to say that everybody isn't working hard. There are people out there hustling every day, our slogan when we relaunch and we've been starting to push around a little bit now is hustle, grind, stay humble. And I really like to try and live by that and impress upon anyone who's visiting my page visiting MedLife how important that is because that's all it is. There's nothing is given to you. And I'm not like I said I'm not inherently the smartest guy in the room and I think hustling, grinding away putting in those hours and then that will help you achieve success.

And then that last line staying humble is so important. And that's kind of that second prong. I mean, I get a lot of times my Instagram again, there's always bigger accounts, my accounts grew very quickly and people really shocked when they get a reply back from me within, you know, I try and answer everything within a day or two, and they're like, Wow, I can't believe you answered me. And I think it's important. I mean, every single follower on all of my social media is incredibly important to me. I mean, they are the reason that I'm here, they're the reason that I'm doing this, to help folks.

Gresham Harkless 10:30

Nice, well, I definitely appreciate that. And especially a lot of times you even touched on the scores, the MCAT scores, or whatever that might be that someone gets, and it may be lower than they expected, doesn't necessarily mean it's the end of the world. So I appreciate you for bringing light to that. Because sometimes we can get discouraged whether it be an MCAT score or something. And life doesn't necessarily go the way we want. But we can also lean on our effort, lean on our hustle, and our ability to grind and stay humble, as you said. And as you kind of touched on with the brand that you're building as well. I wanted to switch gears a little bit. And I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. This might be an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but it's something that makes you more effective and efficient.

Adam 11:11

Sure. So I think I'll kind of touch on a book that I've read that has really, I guess helped me change my perspective on especially social media, because I think, again, a lot of folks get lost in this and connecting with the customer and your demographics. It's the Dale Carnegie book, How to Win Friends and Influence People in the Digital Age. The newer version, though, I'm sure the original still applies. I think the title is incredibly misleading. It sounds like almost coming from a medical background sounds like someone with psychopathic tendencies. But really the book is more about how to be a good person.

Gresham Harkless 11:47

Nice. I definitely appreciate you sharing that with us. And I didn't even realize there was a digital version of it. Yeah, that's pretty awesome that they took that spin because that's a classic book. And I guess just as life changes in business changes, and relationships change as well, it's great to see that boogie board, and I definitely wanna make sure to pick that up.

Adam 12:07

Absolutely.

Gresham Harkless 12:08

And 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 could happen to be a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?

Adam 12:18

That said, it's a great question, I think, never giving up should be told to everyone. But on the flip side of that coin, know when to pivot, I think that's the biggest thing I have learned, as I've grown a little bit older, know when what you're doing is not working, know how to be self-reflective, and do that weekly assessment, Sunday night, Monday morning, whatever it is, and say to yourself, here's where we're going, here's what our plan is, are we on track? What is holding us up? What's propelling us? And I think that's been really key. We've definitely between the Pre Med Life and The Med Life, one of the biggest differences is our ability to pivot. We're certainly adjusting and making a lot more changes lifetime, rather than just beating against a wall. That's not going to come down.

Gresham Harkless 13:11

Nice. Yeah. And that makes perfect sense. I think a lot of times when people think about pivoting, they think that they are giving up on something, but I'm glad you mentioned that because a lot of times we have an overarching goal. And if we're able to do that, that manifests itself in a lot of different ways. So it might be, this way, or it might be another way, but by pivoting, you can still reach your goal, your overall goal by just making a tweak to be more successful.

Adam 13:34

Absolutely.

Gresham Harkless 13:36

Nice. Now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is a definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different, quote and quote, CEOs on this show.

So Adam, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Adam 13:46

Sure. I think that's a really cool question. I think to me, it's being kind of a leader, the orchestrator of the bigger organization and the person who keeps it on the rails. I think, the characteristic of a good leader is being able to recognize the strengths of everyone on the team and play to those strengths.

Gresham Harkless 14:07

Absolutely, yes, definitely a great visual, especially being the person in front of an orchestra, and leading them and understanding the strengths and weaknesses, what somebody does better than maybe somebody else, and understanding how to fit that all in together to make some a beautiful symphony and a beautiful sound. So I appreciate that perspective. And, Adam, I appreciate your time even more. And what I wanted to do was pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you can let our readers and listeners know and then of course, how best we can find out about all the awesome things you're working on.

Adam 14:38

Yeah, I think we did cover a lot of stuff here. Certainly have, lots of content over on my page. And like I said, I'm really excited about this new avenue. I don't really want to spill the beans on it yet. We're still kind of getting everything together in beta. But I will say that, as far as I know, what we're doing is going to be one of the first of its kind I haven't found anything like it out there yet. So I'm super excited for that kind of assembling my team right now and we're looking to launch in November. So really we'll be reaching, hopefully, a much broader audience with that. But yeah, absolutely check out the content on Instagram and YouTube.

And like I said, I mean, I'm happy to chat with anyone and it doesn't just have to be medicine. I believe strongly in what I've done to get to this point, I don't think that it just applies to medicine. I think it really applies to anyone who's trying to achieve a goal to overcome a hurdle and become one of those high performers. And I think medical school forced me to find that and it's not just Instagram there have been small things over time that kind of led me to this, this idea where it's like, well, you can become a high performer with the right things. I mean, in med school, I developed a photography business I was actually hired as a contractor by the state.

Gresham Harkless 15:55

Yeah, definitely appreciate your time. We'll have the link to your IG in the show notes as well. And Adam have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Adam 16:02

Thank you and you as well. Thanks, everyone for listening.

Outro 16:05

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 I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating. Grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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