I sat in the parking garage, phone to my ear, breaking bad news to the doctor/client on the other end of the line. He, most likely standing just outside a patient exam room, showed me what might be a healer’s most valuable trait.
The business I’ve run for the past 10 plus years is winding down. Like a patient with a chronic condition that doomed it to a half-life, it would never be its former self or a better self. I’d made the decision to close it.
The past couple of years had been an experiment to see if there was a cure for what ailed the business. There were efforts at giving away the day-to-day to those closer to the client and presumably the culture. There were also the sometimes successful but short-lived efforts to build another business from within it. And of course, the ill-fated attempt to become better at managing the business and less of being the business. None of these in-house remedies would do more than treat the symptoms or frankly simply mask the condition.
So, I started a series of letters and phone calls to those who’d become part of my family. Most humored my description of what was going on for a moment before quickly asking, “what’s this mean to my whatever it is/was we’re doing together?” I get that. It’s always been about the customer.
But this one was different. “So, how are you doing?” he replied. “You know you’ve helped to bring my practice into the 21st century.”
I thanked him for that and began to apologize for the inconvenience my closing would create for his business. He interrupted, “This is business. You have great ideas. First, you have to take care of yourself. I want you to trust your instincts and ignore what other people say.”
A lump formed in my throat.
I’d imagined how many times he’d offered similar advice to a young mother. That’s part of what pediatricians do, right? And considering that he sees 30 plus moms and their children each day and has for twenty-plus years, he probably knows what works and what doesn’t.
He’s treating the child and in some measure the mom. She second-guesses herself in response to a mother-in-law’s comment, something a teacher has said, or some child-expert on television. “You’re not doing this right” or “that’s not how we did it in my day.” And she starts to doubt herself. He turns the doubt around.
So Dr. Bubba Edwards, thanks for your bedside manner – empathetic and hopeful – and for extending your wisdom to me. You captured in a moment what I’d sought to find for the past couple of years. While the things we tried were sincere and genuine efforts they ran counter to what my intuition was telling me – it said, “It’s okay to be the brand and to let talented others lift it. They’ll rise, too.”
I didn’t listen then but I’ll have to now, doctor’s orders.
So Doc, thanks for indulging me these past two years as Memphis Medical News has allowed me to share thoughts regarding the medical community’s use of social media. What men and women like you and Dr. Edwards do each day is invaluable. And while they say that Dr. Google is the most popular “physician” on the Internet, it’s still you the patient most trusts. Hey, you don’t have to practice medicine alongside “him” but you can use Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or Instagram to remind them of something he can’t do, care.
Tim C. Nicholson is the President of Bigfish, LLC. Find him on twitter @timbigfish or email tim@gobigfishgo.com