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Welcome to the Clinician Researcher podcast, where academic clinicians learn the skills

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to build their own research program, whether or not they have a mentor.

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As clinicians, we spend a decade or more as trainees learning to take care of patients.

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When we finally start our careers, we want to build research programs, but then we find

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that our years of clinical training did not adequately prepare us to lead our research

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program.

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Through no fault of our own, we struggle to find mentors, and when we can't, we quit.

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However, clinicians hold the keys to the greatest research breakthroughs.

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For this reason, the Clinician Researcher podcast exists to give academic clinicians

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the tools to build their own research program, whether or not they have a mentor.

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Now introducing your host, Toyosi Onwuemene.

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Welcome to the Clinician Researcher podcast.

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I'm your host, Toyosi Onwuemene and it is an absolute pleasure to be talking with you today.

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Thank you for listening.

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I am excited to be talking with you today about the 20%.

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These are the keys to your 2024, keys to succeeding in 2024.

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We are well, well into 2024 now, but you always need keys for success.

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Today I'm talking about the 20%.

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The 20% comes from the Pareto principle, and that is the principle that 80% of your productivity

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or 80% of your benefits or your profits come from 20% of the things that you do.

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This principle was highlighted specifically in the book, The 80-20 Rule by Richard Koch,

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and it is a really great book.

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I totally recommend reading it.

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What he talks about is that the 80-20 rule is not really like a number.

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It's not really like 80% comes from 20%.

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It's really like a ratio.

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It's recognizing that of all the things you do, of all the things that move you forward,

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very, very few things actually count to enhance your productivity.

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Very few things count to move you forward.

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Everything is moving you forward potentially, but some are moving you forward more significantly

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than others.

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If you look back, let's say you look back at your weekly calendar and you look at the

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time you spent writing, how much of that time actually produced the manuscript that you

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were planning to finish?

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You look at it and you recognize that every time you write in the afternoon, you spend

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a lot of hours writing, but you don't produce very much content, as opposed to when you

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write in the morning, wow, a couple of paragraphs produced or several, several sections were

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completed.

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You know that your 20% is the morning time that you put into writing because that's the

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time that allows you to really move the needle forward in producing as far as writing is

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concerned.

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I use that example because I am a morning writer, I'm one of those people who's got

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to get it done in the morning and I can write at any time of the day, but I am so much slower

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in the afternoon, I produce much less in the afternoon.

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For that reason, my 20% is to write in the morning.

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So that's the example, comes from the Pareto principle and it's really described well in

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the 80-20 rule by Richard Koch and it's also described well in the book Essentialism by

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McKeon.

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So I'm talking about the 20% and how do you succeed in your research program by thinking

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about the 20%?

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Well, let's talk first about the 20% in your writing.

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Now, one of the things I say all the time and I think it's important to recognize that

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when you are a clinician researcher, you are a science communicator and that may be one

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of your greatest gifts of all time is your ability to communicate your science.

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Actually, you communicate not only your science, you communicate other people's science as

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well because you are communicating your science in the context of other people's science.

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And so your writing is one of your, or at least should be, one of your 20% items.

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And by writing, it's like everything that moves you forward from concept, from idea

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to your final published work, whether that's your final published manuscript, whether that's

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your final presentation, whether that's your finally submitted protocol, whether that's

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your finally submitted grant proposal, that all counts as writing.

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And no, it's not always fingers on the keyboard typing.

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It's also the work that you're doing to read.

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It's the work that you're doing to do the research or analyze data.

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All of that is what I'm counting as writing in your science communication.

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Let's talk a little bit about the science communication.

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For one, the most important person you're communicating with is yourself.

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You're number one.

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You got to understand the work that you're doing.

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If you don't understand it, you're going to have a hard time helping other people understand

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it.

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And this is not so much a challenge as you grow in your research career.

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It's more of a challenge when you're first starting out, especially when you're working

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on projects that mentors are recommending that you have no clue about, and you're studying

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and you're trying to figure it out.

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And sometimes there's a sense of, let me just go by faith and believe all that the mentor

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told me.

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And I'm not saying you shouldn't believe your mentors.

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I think mentors are great.

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And I think in order to be able to fully own your work, you have to understand it.

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And you cannot own what you do not understand.

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Now this was highlighted in a recent, actually it's been about a year now, when I was an

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interviewer for finalists who were being considered for a grant award.

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And so these are finalists who had submitted proposals and we're now showing up to defend

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their proposals.

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And some of them had amazing, outstanding proposals.

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I mean, the proposal was like butter to read if proposals could ever be like butter.

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I mean, it was smooth and so beautiful.

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When it came to discussing it, when it came to defending it, wow, they had no clue what

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they had written about.

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They were just totally clueless.

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And they're like, well, it's my mentor's project.

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And it's like, no, no, not okay.

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The most important person that you need to communicate with in terms of science, your

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science is you.

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And so you want to focus on making sure you understand what you're doing.

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And if you don't understand it or you don't like it, sometimes when you don't like something,

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it doesn't matter how well people explain it, you're like, I just don't like this.

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I hate it.

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Me that's cell receptor signaling or receptor cell signaling, do you see?

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It's just the one project.

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It's one of the things I won't do because I can understand it, but I'm like, I just

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don't care that much.

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I mean, it's good work and thank you to all the scientists who are doing that work, but

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just saying that it's not the thing I am primarily interested in.

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And so it makes it difficult to communicate with myself if I was doing a project in that

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area.

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Okay.

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So you're a science communicator.

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You communicate with yourself first.

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You also communicate with funders.

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And this is important because funders fund your work, whether those be internal funders,

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whether those be funders in the NIH, at the NIH, whether those be funders at foundations,

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you are communicating your work to them.

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And if they don't get your work, if you don't communicate your science well, and they don't

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get moved to fund you, they don't understand the significance of your work, they don't

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move to fund you.

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But it's the funders, but it's the reviewers that also represent the funders.

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So you're in communication with them and you write proposals and submit them so that you

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can communicate well.

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Right?

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So you focus on the 20% of increasing the skill so that you can continue to do that

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well.

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And then another thing, another channel of your communication, and so the scientific

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community is submitting manuscripts all the time.

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You're interacting with editors, kind of behind closed doors, because the editors are interacting

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with your work and they're not talking to you as they're making decisions as to whether

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they move it forward for peer review or not.

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And the peer reviewers are certainly not talking with you as they review your work.

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So you're communicating with the scientific community every time you submit your work

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to be published or you submit abstracts to be reviewed.

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You're always communicating with the scientific community.

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And then the group that you communicate with, that's also not always fully, you know, front

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and center, but is always there and in the background is the lay public.

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The lay public who is interpreting your work one way or the other.

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So you are a science communicator.

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If you're someone who's going to get funded, you're a science communicator.

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If you're someone who's going to get invited to give presentations, you are a science

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communicator.

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If you're somebody who's going to have their work read by the scientific community all

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over, you are a science communicator.

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And so you want to make sure that when you're prioritizing what your 20% is, especially

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as a clinician scientist, you prioritize your ability to enhance, grow, and make space for

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and make room for your science communication, which is your writing.

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Okay, that's number 120% is your writing.

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Number two is your interactions.

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And here's what I mean about your interactions.

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If you look at all the interactions you've had, tally them over the last four weeks,

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and you can look and say, here is where my energy was completely drained, and at the

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end of the conversation, it was only five minutes with this person, I was no longer

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able to do any work.

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And then you can trace the people who you spoke to for even 10 minutes, who totally

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transformed your experience, and they helped you see that you could do it.

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They helped you see that you absolutely had what it took.

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They encouraged you, and you came away from that conversation with a lightheartedness

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in your step.

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You're like, I can totally do this.

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This is not going to hurt me.

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I can do this.

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Yes, there are those people.

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And then there are those people who just make you feel crummy about yourself all the time.

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You don't even have to see them for them to affect your experience.

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Okay, if you're going to enhance your experience, you're going to want to minimize the 80% that

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drain you.

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And that may be bathroom conversations, that may be water cooler conversations, it may

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be the caucus that forms after the Grand Rounds presentation.

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I don't know what it is, you know, but there are environments that keep you from doing

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your work.

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Now, for me, part of the 80% was asking people how they're doing.

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I love people.

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And if I see you, I want to know how you're doing.

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I want to know how your dog is doing.

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I just want to know.

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And to some extent, some of that is a people pleasing tendency.

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I want people to know that I care about them.

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And so sometimes I'm willing to continue to do that to the detriment of my work.

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And so part of my people pleasing strategy and my weakness was being at conference physically,

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because at the end of conference, I just felt like I needed to talk to everybody.

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And I felt like I just needed to, you know, make sure everybody who was there was doing

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fine.

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And there are some people who when they start talking, wow, they don't stop.

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And they don't really care that you have anything else going on.

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And so what started as what may have felt to you as a kind gesture becomes a situation

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in which you're strategizing in your head, like, how do I end this without seeming rude?

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And in focusing on the 20%, what you do is you say, what are the interactions that enhance

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me?

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What are the interactions that allow me to continue to do my work?

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What are the interactions that pull energy from me, drain me or keep me from going to

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my work?

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And so for me, part of that 80% was going to conference.

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I don't go physically as much as I used to.

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I go, I go virtually or, you know, intermittently in person, because as much as the collaborations

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and the connections are critical, one of my flaws is the need to continue to talk to people

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and find out how they're doing to the detriment of the work I'm supposed to be doing.

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And so you want to understand what interactions you have that keep you from moving forward.

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You want to identify the interactions that keep you moving forward.

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You want to up those interactions.

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You want to up those communities and you want to downgrade the ones that do not move you

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forward.

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So focus on the 20% in your interactions.

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Okay.

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The next one is a 20% of the spaces to which you show up.

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Now this is really important.

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And I want to speak specifically, honestly, in this way to people who are underrepresented

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in academia, you know, not every space is a safe space.

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And it's important to just acknowledge that.

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And I'm just acknowledging that, that not every space is a safe space.

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We would hope that academic institutions are bastions of learning and acceptance and tolerance.

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And we would love to believe that.

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But the experience of many people is different.

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And there are spaces to which we show up where we're having to defend ourselves more than

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anybody else is, more than we've ever had to.

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There are spaces to which we show up where we get up to give a simple presentation and

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we're challenged and then we're challenged again.

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And then we feel like we need to prove that we were correct.

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And there's a lot of energy that goes into showing up in those spaces, preparing for

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those spaces, you know, making sure that we recover at the end of being in those spaces.

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And I just want to encourage you to think 20%.

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What spaces do you show up to?

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What really nourish and encourage you?

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And what are the spaces you show up to that, frankly, do not?

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And it's important because, you know, yeah, you might have to work in all the spaces,

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but how could you minimize your time in spaces that do not affirm you?

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So okay, everybody has to present at 8 a.m. conference every Monday morning.

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But 8 a.m. conference is where there's this tiger of a surgeon who gets mad and starts

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yelling at people and telling them that work sucks.

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Okay, how many times do you have to present?

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What is the bare minimum number of times you need to present in that space?

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Mark it, you prepare for it, you coach, you sit with a coach and navigate every time you're

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going to that space.

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What strategies you're going to use to be calm, cool.

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You're going to have a plan for when this person starts to ask the kinds of questions

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that get under your skin.

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You're going to have a plan.

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You're going to have a plan.

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And then you're going to not show up to that space very much.

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And sometimes there's this sense that like, oh no, if I keep showing up, then I'll be

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able to get conditioned to the space.

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It's like, no, no, there is not enough time.

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There is not enough time to try to grow thick skin while someone is trying to hammer and

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batter you down.

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You got a lot of work to do.

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And the work you need to do to move your scholarship program forward is not worth investing, it's

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not worth investing that energy in trying to help people love you more and trying to

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help people be convinced that you're worthy or that you know what you're doing or that

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you are intelligent.

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It's not necessary.

248
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People who don't believe you can, don't believe you can because they have evidence.

249
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They don't believe you can because for whatever reason they have a bias.

250
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Because if people are giving you feedback, at the end of feedback, there is a win on

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all sides.

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If you are left with feedback that leaves you feeling worthless, then I would suggest

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that that probably doesn't count as feedback.

254
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And so maybe, maybe you stop asking for feedback from the person who's always tearing you down

255
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in the name of feedback.

256
00:15:41,900 --> 00:15:43,380
I don't know what the answer is for you.

257
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I just know that there are some spaces where you are not affirmed for who you are.

258
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And I'm saying just minimize the number of times you show up in those spaces and maximize

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the times that you show up in communities where you are nourished, where you are affirmed,

260
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and where people celebrate you.

261
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Okay, at 20% in the spaces where you show up.

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Or maybe there are meetings that you show up to.

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And at the end of the meeting, you look at yourself, you look at the time and you're

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like, what did we talk about again?

265
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Hmm.

266
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And you're not sure.

267
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You can't really clarify what was accomplished in the meeting.

268
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And this is not a one time event.

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This happens over and over and over again.

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I want you to mark that meeting and begin to think of ways to negotiate out of it.

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It's not a toxic space, but it's not a productive space.

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And you, my friend, when you are moving your research program forward, when you're moving

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your program of scholarship forward, you are about efficiency and productivity.

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And therefore any space that is neither efficient nor productive is space that shouldn't feature

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as much on your calendar.

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All right.

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That's enough about spaces.

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But 20% in the spaces to which you show up.

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And the 20% in your presentations and grant submissions.

280
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And I grouped these two together because, actually, they could be grouped separately,

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but I'm just trying to get the five.

282
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So bear with me.

283
00:17:10,300 --> 00:17:11,300
Okay.

284
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So 20% in your presentations and grant submissions.

285
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What does that mean?

286
00:17:16,100 --> 00:17:19,020
You're a clinician and your field is so broad.

287
00:17:19,020 --> 00:17:23,700
For example, I'm a hematologist and I can do hemostasis, bleeding disorders.

288
00:17:23,700 --> 00:17:25,900
I can do thrombosis, clotting disorders.

289
00:17:25,900 --> 00:17:29,540
I can do hemoglobinopathies, disorders like sickle cell.

290
00:17:29,540 --> 00:17:31,660
I can also do red cell disorders.

291
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Sickle cell is part of that, but also anemias or hemolytic anemias, all the anemias.

292
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And then there are white cell disorders.

293
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Remember the patient has leukocytosis.

294
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That's not cancer.

295
00:17:44,260 --> 00:17:48,060
There are a lot of areas in which you could call me to give a talk and I could absolutely

296
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pull the talk together.

297
00:17:49,220 --> 00:17:51,580
But here's what happens.

298
00:17:51,580 --> 00:18:01,220
You know, over time, there are maybe 20% of topics that you keep getting called to present

299
00:18:01,220 --> 00:18:08,900
on and there are 80% of topics that you present on maybe once every three years.

300
00:18:08,900 --> 00:18:13,020
And so when they call you to do the once every three year presentation and you have to dust

301
00:18:13,020 --> 00:18:19,140
up your slides, it takes a long time to catch up again on all the things you haven't read

302
00:18:19,140 --> 00:18:22,140
in the last three years because that's not your area of focus.

303
00:18:22,140 --> 00:18:27,160
So what you want to do is you want to make sure there's just a narrow area of focus that

304
00:18:27,160 --> 00:18:31,800
you present in so that every time someone says, hey, come present, you're not starting

305
00:18:31,800 --> 00:18:33,700
a new presentation from scratch.

306
00:18:33,700 --> 00:18:34,700
You're ready to go.

307
00:18:34,700 --> 00:18:40,820
I mean, yeah, no presentation is without the need for, you know, dusting up every once

308
00:18:40,820 --> 00:18:46,540
in a while, but what you don't want to do is to be creating a presentation every time.

309
00:18:46,540 --> 00:18:48,940
So define your field, define it.

310
00:18:48,940 --> 00:18:53,180
And if you're a clinician researcher, you're moving scholarly program forward in one specific

311
00:18:53,180 --> 00:18:54,180
area.

312
00:18:54,180 --> 00:18:57,380
And it can be a broad area, but it's just got to have a theme.

313
00:18:57,380 --> 00:19:02,420
And if you find yourself creating a new presentation every time you're invited to speak, that may

314
00:19:02,420 --> 00:19:07,640
be a sign that maybe it's too broad or maybe your criteria are not narrow enough.

315
00:19:07,640 --> 00:19:10,320
What you want to do is go back to all your presentations.

316
00:19:10,320 --> 00:19:14,020
Pick the ones you love the most, pick the ones that are most interesting to you and

317
00:19:14,020 --> 00:19:17,340
the ones that people continue to invite you back to speak about.

318
00:19:17,340 --> 00:19:19,860
And you want to move those ones forward.

319
00:19:19,860 --> 00:19:21,860
In your grant submissions, the same thing.

320
00:19:21,860 --> 00:19:26,860
You know, you have a big program, you have funding from this person and funding from

321
00:19:26,860 --> 00:19:29,220
that person.

322
00:19:29,220 --> 00:19:34,780
And there are just some of the programs or some of the grant funding agencies that really

323
00:19:34,780 --> 00:19:37,260
give you a big bang for your buck.

324
00:19:37,260 --> 00:19:43,420
And so maybe you submit 12 proposals, only one or two really gave you the big payday.

325
00:19:43,420 --> 00:19:45,780
You want to spend 20%...

326
00:19:45,780 --> 00:19:50,700
The 20% is to spend time on the grants that give you the biggest payoff.

327
00:19:50,700 --> 00:19:55,940
You could apply for many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many small grants

328
00:19:55,940 --> 00:19:59,140
that you're competitive for, you're able to move forward.

329
00:19:59,140 --> 00:20:04,500
But at the end of the day, you collate them together and it's like, oh, wow, I got $50,000

330
00:20:04,500 --> 00:20:08,460
from this, you know, these 20 applications that I sent out.

331
00:20:08,460 --> 00:20:12,700
And maybe you could have maybe invested more time in one big application that could have

332
00:20:12,700 --> 00:20:17,940
given you a bigger payday and less time involvement over time.

333
00:20:17,940 --> 00:20:19,980
And so those are the kinds of things to think about.

334
00:20:19,980 --> 00:20:24,700
I think I'm not saying don't submit grants or don't submit as many as possible, but think

335
00:20:24,700 --> 00:20:30,660
about what is the threshold of money that will get me out of bed to submit this grant?

336
00:20:30,660 --> 00:20:31,660
I think it's important.

337
00:20:31,660 --> 00:20:36,780
When you start, you know, you do start small because it gives you momentum, it builds your

338
00:20:36,780 --> 00:20:37,780
momentum.

339
00:20:37,780 --> 00:20:43,620
And so I'm not saying don't apply for monies that are considered small, but as you progress,

340
00:20:43,620 --> 00:20:47,700
especially as you begin to have a bigger research program and you have more needs to your research

341
00:20:47,700 --> 00:20:54,900
program, you start asking the question, what more, what more can I get from the same amount

342
00:20:54,900 --> 00:20:56,900
of time, the same amount of effort?

343
00:20:56,900 --> 00:21:02,420
And as you start to build your team, you start to ask the question, how much more of my team

344
00:21:02,420 --> 00:21:07,460
can support me in this really big thing so that I'm not trying to do it all by myself?

345
00:21:07,460 --> 00:21:12,380
I want to just pause there and say, hey, if you are writing grants all by yourself, there's

346
00:21:12,380 --> 00:21:16,140
opportunity to invite people to be part of the process with you.

347
00:21:16,140 --> 00:21:20,140
And if you have people in your program who have expertise, say in biostatistics, so they

348
00:21:20,140 --> 00:21:25,620
have expertise in a certain methodology, they should be helping you write the grant.

349
00:21:25,620 --> 00:21:28,140
Absolutely should be helping you write the grant.

350
00:21:28,140 --> 00:21:31,280
They can't write the whole grant for you because that's why you're the leader.

351
00:21:31,280 --> 00:21:35,100
That's why you're the person with foresight and oversight of the team.

352
00:21:35,100 --> 00:21:39,700
But they really can help you so that you're really coming to the grant or coming to the

353
00:21:39,700 --> 00:21:48,260
proposal as a master, as a master, what's the word, the master, the lead researcher,

354
00:21:48,260 --> 00:21:51,540
you know, the lead, the PI.

355
00:21:51,540 --> 00:21:53,260
The word I'm looking for is PI.

356
00:21:53,260 --> 00:21:54,260
You are the PI.

357
00:21:54,260 --> 00:21:57,740
You're the one who thinks about the direction of the research program.

358
00:21:57,740 --> 00:22:04,660
And so to the extent to which your community, the community that you lead, the community

359
00:22:04,660 --> 00:22:11,740
that depends on you to find funding, to the extent to which they can help you, you want

360
00:22:11,740 --> 00:22:16,780
to take them up on that offer so that they can help you think critically about components

361
00:22:16,780 --> 00:22:20,240
of the grant or at least give you first drafts for you to really, really shape.

362
00:22:20,240 --> 00:22:24,000
So you want to think about that as you're doing presentations and doing grant submissions

363
00:22:24,000 --> 00:22:25,000
as well.

364
00:22:25,000 --> 00:22:26,000
OK.

365
00:22:26,000 --> 00:22:30,020
Number five is the 20% in your productive time.

366
00:22:30,020 --> 00:22:33,220
Now I alluded to this earlier when I talked about being a morning person.

367
00:22:33,220 --> 00:22:36,060
I'm the person who rises early, early, early.

368
00:22:36,060 --> 00:22:40,660
I'm the person who's writing before people wake up because it's just my best time of

369
00:22:40,660 --> 00:22:41,660
day.

370
00:22:41,660 --> 00:22:46,100
When I look at my productivity, I see that in the morning I get the most done.

371
00:22:46,100 --> 00:22:47,580
I have the most ideas.

372
00:22:47,580 --> 00:22:50,060
It's so beautiful, so awesome.

373
00:22:50,060 --> 00:22:52,940
And I get to go right in the afternoon because I'm able to do all things.

374
00:22:52,940 --> 00:22:57,220
But I don't get as much out of it when I write in the afternoon.

375
00:22:57,220 --> 00:23:05,140
And so for that reason, it's really important that you recognize what is your peak productivity

376
00:23:05,140 --> 00:23:06,140
time.

377
00:23:06,140 --> 00:23:12,140
And you want to give that time, you know, you want to make sure that you put in that

378
00:23:12,140 --> 00:23:14,540
peak productivity time the most important things.

379
00:23:14,540 --> 00:23:17,900
And there are some things that, you know, are not as important.

380
00:23:17,900 --> 00:23:20,140
For example, checking email.

381
00:23:20,140 --> 00:23:23,780
Yeah, you do need to communicate with people.

382
00:23:23,780 --> 00:23:25,700
You don't need to spend all day on it.

383
00:23:25,700 --> 00:23:30,980
And if you spend the best, most productive time checking your email in which, you know,

384
00:23:30,980 --> 00:23:34,980
that inbox is a hot bed of stuff, right?

385
00:23:34,980 --> 00:23:37,180
There are things in there that you have to respond to.

386
00:23:37,180 --> 00:23:39,700
There are emails in there that make you so mad.

387
00:23:39,700 --> 00:23:42,680
Take away your energy, waste your time.

388
00:23:42,680 --> 00:23:45,720
And then you come away from that and you're like, wow, I don't even have the energy to

389
00:23:45,720 --> 00:23:47,180
write I'm so mad.

390
00:23:47,180 --> 00:23:48,180
Exactly.

391
00:23:48,180 --> 00:23:51,420
So what you want to do is you want to reserve those activities for later in the day.

392
00:23:51,420 --> 00:23:54,740
When you're like, you know what, okay, that's fine.

393
00:23:54,740 --> 00:23:55,740
Okay.

394
00:23:55,740 --> 00:24:00,260
And you know, you're just more tired and you can read the email and respond, or you can

395
00:24:00,260 --> 00:24:01,260
just let things go.

396
00:24:01,260 --> 00:24:05,940
But you don't want to use your peak productive time to do the things that you could do at

397
00:24:05,940 --> 00:24:06,980
any time of the day.

398
00:24:06,980 --> 00:24:09,140
For example, putting your desk together.

399
00:24:09,140 --> 00:24:11,940
I hope you have somebody else help you put your desk together.

400
00:24:11,940 --> 00:24:13,660
But let's say you have to do it.

401
00:24:13,660 --> 00:24:15,860
Don't do it in the time when you should be writing.

402
00:24:15,860 --> 00:24:18,260
Don't do it in the time that's most important.

403
00:24:18,260 --> 00:24:19,820
Okay, so that's the 20%.

404
00:24:19,820 --> 00:24:22,420
I want to share one more thing with you.

405
00:24:22,420 --> 00:24:26,820
This is the way I think about the 20% in my research program.

406
00:24:26,820 --> 00:24:31,660
I think about my 20% in one making offers, and that's really submitting grants.

407
00:24:31,660 --> 00:24:37,400
I make as many offers as I can, because the more proposals I submit, the more opportunities

408
00:24:37,400 --> 00:24:40,900
I have to have funding to move my research program forward.

409
00:24:40,900 --> 00:24:44,420
So I do prioritize submitting proposals.

410
00:24:44,420 --> 00:24:48,020
The second thing I prioritize is really maintaining my own platform.

411
00:24:48,020 --> 00:24:50,260
Nobody knows what you're doing until you publish it.

412
00:24:50,260 --> 00:24:51,640
You may look busy.

413
00:24:51,640 --> 00:24:55,800
You may be like, oh my goodness, it was so tough in the lab yesterday, or oh my gosh,

414
00:24:55,800 --> 00:24:58,340
this program of research is so crazy.

415
00:24:58,340 --> 00:25:02,860
But until it is out there in the public domain, people don't know what they're doing.

416
00:25:02,860 --> 00:25:07,420
That's why people talk about manuscripts as the currency of academic medicine.

417
00:25:07,420 --> 00:25:10,820
And so what you want to do is prioritize getting those manuscripts out.

418
00:25:10,820 --> 00:25:15,140
We're doing all these projects, but the manuscripts are piled up.

419
00:25:15,140 --> 00:25:17,060
It's like, I'll get to it, I'll get to it.

420
00:25:17,060 --> 00:25:18,980
Don't be the bottleneck.

421
00:25:18,980 --> 00:25:22,060
I have been the bottleneck for my research program.

422
00:25:22,060 --> 00:25:26,780
Until recently, I started finding first authors who would finish my manuscripts for me.

423
00:25:26,780 --> 00:25:31,620
And they get a manuscript, a first author manuscript publication, and I get my work

424
00:25:31,620 --> 00:25:32,620
finished.

425
00:25:32,620 --> 00:25:37,420
And so it's really important that I prioritize that, getting the manuscripts out, because

426
00:25:37,420 --> 00:25:39,660
they are the evidence for the work that I'm doing.

427
00:25:39,660 --> 00:25:40,660
So those are two things.

428
00:25:40,660 --> 00:25:46,580
The third thing I also prioritize is getting on other people's platforms, meaning going

429
00:25:46,580 --> 00:25:48,500
and presenting my work.

430
00:25:48,500 --> 00:25:52,780
And the more work you have out there, the more people invite you.

431
00:25:52,780 --> 00:25:56,380
But some of it also is the more they see your work, the more they think of you.

432
00:25:56,380 --> 00:26:01,500
And so sometimes what you want to do is to reach out to someone and say, hey, I'm growing

433
00:26:01,500 --> 00:26:03,700
my expertise in XYZ.

434
00:26:03,700 --> 00:26:06,100
May I come and give grand rounds at your institution?

435
00:26:06,100 --> 00:26:09,420
Yes, invite yourself if they don't invite you.

436
00:26:09,420 --> 00:26:12,780
There are some of us, especially those of us who are underrepresented in the academy,

437
00:26:12,780 --> 00:26:17,060
and people just don't think about us because we're not part of the large networks where

438
00:26:17,060 --> 00:26:19,820
people maybe meet each other all the time.

439
00:26:19,820 --> 00:26:23,900
And so you just have to think strategically about doing things differently.

440
00:26:23,900 --> 00:26:28,580
If you're not invited, look around at institutions, find people you know and say, hey, I would

441
00:26:28,580 --> 00:26:31,300
really love to come give a talk about XYZ.

442
00:26:31,300 --> 00:26:34,300
And here's how I think it will provide value to your faculty.

443
00:26:34,300 --> 00:26:35,840
Would you care to have me?

444
00:26:35,840 --> 00:26:39,260
People are always looking for grand round speakers to fill the schedule.

445
00:26:39,260 --> 00:26:40,700
Of course they would love to have you.

446
00:26:40,700 --> 00:26:44,220
They've never thought of you because they didn't know.

447
00:26:44,220 --> 00:26:46,100
And that was your area of expertise.

448
00:26:46,100 --> 00:26:50,260
And I know that every time you submit manuscript, you're like, by now people should know me.

449
00:26:50,260 --> 00:26:51,260
And they don't.

450
00:26:51,260 --> 00:26:52,260
And it's OK.

451
00:26:52,260 --> 00:26:53,660
It'll take time for them to know you.

452
00:26:53,660 --> 00:26:57,660
And until then, you're going to ask them if you can come and present.

453
00:26:57,660 --> 00:27:02,700
And so one of the things I want to invite you to do as we are closing this episode out

454
00:27:02,700 --> 00:27:08,940
is to make a list of 10 institutions at which you want to give a talk this year, 10 institutions.

455
00:27:08,940 --> 00:27:11,500
And don't tell me, oh, I'm not really an expert yet.

456
00:27:11,500 --> 00:27:12,500
You're a physician.

457
00:27:12,500 --> 00:27:13,500
You can read.

458
00:27:13,500 --> 00:27:14,500
You can write.

459
00:27:14,500 --> 00:27:18,860
You are an expert as long as you start doing the work and giving the presentations.

460
00:27:18,860 --> 00:27:20,540
And of course, you're leading a program of studies.

461
00:27:20,540 --> 00:27:22,060
So of course you're the expert.

462
00:27:22,060 --> 00:27:23,060
OK.

463
00:27:23,060 --> 00:27:24,420
So you're going to write a list.

464
00:27:24,420 --> 00:27:29,140
I'm asking you to write a list of 10 institutions at which you want to give a talk this year.

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Then I invite you to name 10 people who are at the institute, or not 10 people, but just

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for each institution, one person per institution.

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And you're going to end up with a list of 10 names of people that you know, either directly

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or peripherally.

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So remember, six degrees of separation.

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There's always someone who knows someone who knows someone.

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And then I want you to reach out to just one person this week and say, hey, I'm building

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my reputation in this area.

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Here is a paper I've published in the field.

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Or if you haven't published anything, that's OK, too.

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Say, may I come and give a Grand Rounds talk on XYZ?

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And I think it's a great thing.

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And you can do that and see what happens.

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And you know what?

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Come tell me about it.

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Come tell me about it on Instagram, on LinkedIn, and on Facebook as well.

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Or you can just come to our podcast website, clinicianresearcherpodcast.com, and leave

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a voicemail for me.

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Would love to share your voicemail with the audience.

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All right.

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That's all.

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It's been a pleasure talking with you today.

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I look forward to talking with you again the next week.

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Thanks for listening to this episode of the Clinician Researcher Podcast, where academic

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00:28:40,540 --> 00:28:45,980
clinicians learn the skills to build their own research program, whether or not they

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have a mentor.

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00:28:47,340 --> 00:28:53,460
If you found the information in this episode to be helpful, don't keep it all to yourself.

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00:28:53,460 --> 00:28:55,180
Someone else needs to hear it.

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So take a minute right now and share it.

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00:28:59,260 --> 00:29:04,700
As you share this episode, you become part of our mission to help launch a new generation

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00:29:04,700 --> 00:29:10,660
of clinician researchers who make transformative discoveries that change the way we do healthcare.