Strategies for building a thriving FB group with Dr. Sharon McLaughlin

On this episode, I’ll discuss strategies to build a thriving Facebook group with special guest, Dr. Sharon McLaughlin.

Are you struggling to grow your Facebook group? Do you feel lost and awkward when networking? We will discuss than and provide actionable tips on how you can build an amazing Facebook group of your own.

In the episode, we we discuss:

#1  Dr. Sharon's story.

#2  The top three factors that have contributed to the growth of her FB group.

#3 How her group has stood the test of time (it’s almost four years old!) 

#4  How Dr. Sharon leverages the power of networking. 

#5 Advice for someone who is thinking about starting a Facebook group.

 Listener spotlight of the week
 
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Tracey, MD

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Love it!

Thanks Dr. Una, I love your podcast! It’s so inspiring and motivating… I really look forward to commuting with you to work every Monday morning! I love that I always walk away with some real actionable things I can do to move forward in business or in life or often both. Thanks!!!

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Thank you Dr. Tracey for your kind review, and I am so happy I get to join you on your Monday commute! 😊

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Links mentioned in this episode:
 
EntreMD Business School

EntreMD On Demand

Join the EntreMD Private Facebook group here. 

Join the Female Physician Entrepreneurs Facebook group here. 

SharonMackMD.com

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:03

Hi dogs. Welcome to the EntreMD Podcast, where it's all about helping amazing physicians just like you embrace entrepreneurship so you can have the freedom to live life and practice medicine on your terms. I'm your host, Dr. Imna. Well, hello, everybody, and welcome to another episode of the EntreMD Podcast. As you always know, always excited to be in your ear, talking all things business of medicine. And today I have a very special guest. I have Dr. Sharon McLaughlin. And she is the founder of Female Physicians Entrepreneurs. And she has a huge Facebook group. And a lot of times I get questions about how do I run a Facebook group? How do I keep people engaged? How do I get people in the group and all of that? And we are going to talk all things Facebook today. So this is going to be super exciting. Hope you're ready. So welcome to the show, Dr. Sharon. I'm so excited you're here.

SPEAKER_00 1:03

That's Una. I appreciate you having me here. I'm thrilled to be here, actually. And I've watched you grow and do all the magnificent things you're doing for other people. You're a wonderful business coach. I've spoken to you. You've helped me run the group before. So thank you for all that you've done.

SPEAKER_01 1:16

Oh, thank you. See, you're trying to make me cry. That's not the aim. This is so good. And you guys are going to see what you just saw is what part of what makes her so amazing because she's really good at pulling people in, pulling the best out of people, networking the whole night yard. So this is gonna be great. So, Dr. Sharon, can you take a moment and introduce yourself to the listeners?

SPEAKER_00 1:39

Sure. I am boarded in plastic surgery. I ended up burnt out, a bad marriage, not sure what I wanted to do, just wanted to walk away from it all at one point. And slowly but surely, maybe day after day, I just started taking care of myself and said to myself, what is it that's really important to me? It's my life to live. When I ended up burnt out, people didn't understand why I wanted to walk away from clinical medicine. And at the time I didn't want to explain to anybody. So to this day, this is I always go back to because that was a really rough time in my life, you know, speaking to other people. I'm a cancer survivor. And honestly, being burnt out from medicine and walking away from it all, and then having people who I, my husband, my sisters, my family, question why I was doing was the worst time or very dark time in my life. So I always go back to that. And whatever I can help other people do, this is hence why I started the group. One of the reasons that I started the group, that's pretty much me in a nutshell. I love to help other people. It's why I went into medicine. It's just different now. It looks different to me now. You know, when someone says, you know, how do you help other people? The group is one way, different areas of my life. I have a site business that I help other people, but it's a lot of people at one time. It's not just this one-on-one with, you know, the doctor-patient relationship anymore.

SPEAKER_01 2:56

Now, you said one of the reasons is because you wanted to help people. So let's uh let's lean into that a little bit. So you're the founder of this group, female physician, entrepreneurs. And if you're female and you're a physician, look for it on Facebook and join the group. Okay. Now talk about why you started it in the first place.

SPEAKER_00 3:14

So I have always been interested in entrepreneurship, not during medical school. I was very focused on completing medicine. I don't consider myself a really great student. I struggle. I have dyslexia. I really had to give everything that I possibly could to medical school. But when I got into residency, I started noticing that some of the doctors were doing different things. And I was always interested in that. I'd be like, let's talk about this. Like during the case, when you're operating, you talk, you know, like you see this on TV shows or whatever. But physicians actually talk or doctors, surgeons talk during the case. And yes, we could be leaning over somebody doing a case, but we talk. We do small talk. We so I found a lot about investing and there were interests in entrepreneurship. And those were the docs that I really appreciated working with the most because yes, it was medicine. We were doing medicine, but we're talking about outside of medicine. So I think from a long time ago, I wanted to do step out of the box and do different things and not just be, not just have that doctor-patient relationship. There's so many different things we could do, and life is short. As I mentioned, I'm a cancer survivor. So in my own life, my husband is very, he's a straight hour. I call him. He's a great guy. He has no interest in entrepreneurship. He likes his job, comes home, doesn't deal with his job at all. That's the type of shift work that he has. My very close friends were not interested in entrepreneurship. I love them, they're in medicine, there's no interest. And so I found myself very alone and I felt like an oddball. And yet I knew people were out there interested in entrepreneurship. So, and the other thing, as I as I mentioned, I ended up burnt out. And my my feeling at the time was if you had something outside of medicine that perhaps you can make extra money with, you wouldn't be tied down, right? Because so many of us we have debt and then we're used to that higher life. You know, we get it. Most of us have a decent income compared to other jobs. Not all, not everyone, I'm not saying that, but most some of us do. And so we get used, we get accustomed to that lifestyle. And then so what do you do on the side that can replace that? Like you kind of feel, I think people feel stuck. Like, I've trained all this time. I'm now in a corner. I'm not exactly happy. I'm being pushed into this corner by administration or by lower insurance fees, how, whatever it is. And what do I do? There's nothing I can do to get out of this. I feel and this is where you come in with all of your work, Dr. Una. So this is why I started the group. I was like, if I'm interested in this, I did it for myself. If you could say selfish reasons, I wanted to know, I wanted to be around other docs that were doing similar things. And I knew that they were out there. It was just a matter of getting them together. At the time, I didn't know about physician side gigs. You know, Nisha Mida had started this group. I wasn't even aware of it. And I was on Facebook, I was in a large physician's group, but I wasn't aware of Nisha's group. So this is why I started it. And I'm happy that I did it in retrospect. There's been some ups and downs. I'm not going to lie to you, anything with business or as far as the group goes, it's more or less a hobby for me. There's always ups and downs. But if it means a lot to you, you're going to be persistent and you're going to stick with it. So this is why I started it in a nutshell to get people together, to network, to support each other. And for my own selfish reasons, I wanted to feel like I was in an oddball. I wanted to, I thought as a group, if we can share experiences, you know, maybe you know a little about this. I know a little about this. We could all grow together to reach our endpoint faster.

SPEAKER_01 6:24

Love it. Love it, love it. So that was a problem you noticed that you had. And you're like, and I'm sure other people have this problem. So we're going to get all of them together and we're going to figure this out. And that is, you know, and that's the true spirit of what's going on in the group, too. So that's really nice to hear the whole origin story because I didn't know of that. So now with your group, you know, you have over 6,000 doctors in the group. And there are lots of people who have groups that are much smaller. I have a group that's much smaller. So what would you say to the person who's started out or has a smaller group and they want to grow their group? What are the maybe top three things that have helped you that you can attribute the growth of your group to?

SPEAKER_00 7:04

Definitely persistence. I know it's common sad, but it's persistence. If you don't show up, nothing's going to happen. And honestly, I think personally it was easy to start Facebook groups three years ago, or on March, I guess it will be four years when I started this group. I think it was easier back then. But even that back then, remember, I told you there really weren't a lot of groups as far as entrepreneurship, physicians with entrepreneurship. It was crickets for months, and I'm talking months. I questioned whether I was like I saw the numbers going up, but I'm like, is anybody even nobody was engaging? No joke. Like they really were not engaging. And I just keep kept on going at it. I tried different things. At the time, we weren't doing panels. There it was really all things that I came across in entrepreneurship, books that were I was reading. Whatever it is, and this is kind of like all three at one time, perhaps. You have to make the group about them. It's and Dr. Una, I've heard you say this plenty of times. What is in it for me? We are a society that there's so much information all over the place. So you have to stand out, you have to be unique, you have to niche it down, you have to offer quality, like really good value, and just keep on doing it. And they will come. And when people and you ask, you actually have a call to action. I need people, you don't have to say I need people to join the group, but if you're happy, if you think that this is providing value, then ask your friends to join. Because how else does, you know, that's the best way. You can try to do some paid traffic. I think I tried that for less than a week. Honestly, it was expensive, and I just didn't feel like it was getting me anywhere. So I gave up on that. It's really primarily been all organic. And now recently, what I've been doing is I have something coming up in the group that I haven't really mentioned to many people before, but um, I want to do some fundraising with a foundation, and I want that group to I want FPE to be bigger. So yeah, thank you. But now I'm actually messaging people, which is another thing. You can message people and you could ask them to join. And that started about a month ago. Honestly, I haven't been consistent with that. I think about the and then I know we're getting off topic here, but multi-level marketers, like they message people, and you really have to be consistent. And I've heard this over and over again. I'll do it like once a week, and then I'm like, oh, I haven't done this and I don't see the group. Like, I will watch the numbers. I'm in the group a lot. I watch those numbers, and if I feel like we're stalling, I'm like, okay, got to get this going again, keep going. And the way that Facebook is, is unless your group is engaging, unless uh it's growing, it's probably not going to show your group to other people. You know what I mean when you're going down the Facebook feed and on that right hand side, it'll be suggested. So you wanna you wanna be in one of the suggested groups and just keep on doing that. You know, whatever it is, ask people, call to action, whether you message people, who cares? It's if you feel like you're really providing value, which honestly you need to feel that way, otherwise don't bother doing it. But if you know and you could stand behind your product or service 100%, keep on doing it because you have a message and you need to share that with other people and you're going to help other people. I love it. That's a lot of good stuff.

SPEAKER_01 10:05

Yeah, that's really good. You know, because now you're so what you're saying, which I hope everybody got it, is you know, I started it and for months and months and months it was crickets. And that is usually where most people will quit. And then so there will never be their own version of FPE because they didn't go through the months of crickets to get to the month where there were 6,000, right? So even when they're crickets, you can look for how to make it better, but not necessarily quit. And then the thing you talk about niching down and you know, being aware of what your people need. Everybody's tuned into that channel. What's in it for me? And then give them what they need, you know. So that is that is so good. And, you know, all the other different things you talked about. I love it.

SPEAKER_00 10:52

Yeah. No, it's important. And it depends. Like I started this for fun, more or less. Like this is right. I don't do business coaching. I started this for fun. But if this was your business, then whatever you're adding in the group could be used as content elsewhere, Instagram, LinkedIn, or however you want to do it, do a TikTok little video on what you've just said, you know, sum it up. But always it always has to do with content, you know. And and I this happens over and over again. Where do I get content from? I don't know. Find it. And if you're working with people like your target market, it's going to come, Dr. I've heard you say this before. You know, listen to what people are saying, listen, what are they asking? Make that a form of content, address the QA's. People love that. And always make it about them, get them engaged. That's really the key answer here, is because you don't want to just that's like what a Facebook business page is information, information, information. A group is engagement and it's different, and you need to get them involved.

SPEAKER_01 11:48

Oh, I love that. Okay, so the Facebook page is information. The Facebook group is all about engagement, and you need to get them engaged and involved. I love it. That is a quotable quote right there. A rewind moment. Okay. Love it. Now, the other question is you know, you mentioned the book is going on almost four years at this point. And I'm sure there are so many opportunities to quit. There are many groups that have been around for a year or two and they're done.

SPEAKER_00 12:15

What has kept you going for almost four years? I know myself, those messages every once in a while, they definitely keep me going. They don't happen all the time, but you know, a lot of times their messages help me, help me, help me. And I'm like, oh my goodness, I already have a full-time job. I'm doing lots of different things. I can't help you anymore than, you know, sorry, but it's two girls, the ladies. But the other, the the nice ones, like you've helped me so much. I've watched you. And honestly, some of these people, I don't even see them post. I'm like, who are you? But they they come out and they write to me, and I'm like, that's so nice, really. That really helps. It's that gratitude. It makes you feel it's nice. Oh my goodness. Can I interrupt you for a second?

SPEAKER_01 12:52

Please, because this is too good. Okay. Now, what you said is so profound because you're talking about people private messaging you, and you're like, wait a minute, this person has never responded or engaged in the group. And that goes to say that our impact is always so much bigger than we realize because there are people who are not going to come comment on your post no matter what you do. But it doesn't mean you're not helping them. So in those moments where they're crickets and you feel like nobody's paying attention and this is useless, remember that sometime in the future, somebody's gonna slide in your DM and say, thank you. You know, this changed my life, even though you've never heard from them before. That is powerful. And then the second thing is the gratitude piece. And I'm gonna invite everybody here to pay it forward. So you have been uh impacted by somebody else's comments, somebody else's content. And I want to challenge you today to be that person who would encourage them to keep going by going to tell them what you're doing has made a difference. So maybe you're already in the FPE Facebook group and you have never said, this group has been so beneficial to me. I've gotten this connection, I you know, I got this piece of information, this panel was huge. Maybe you're listening to this podcast and you've never written a review and stuff like that. Who knows? Maybe four years from now I'll be podcasting because of you. Right? So pay for it and let somebody know how their content is helping you. That was just so good.

SPEAKER_00 14:22

Okay, I'm I'm done. You can go on. No, there's so many things, collaboration and network. For me, the collaboration is huge in the group because I see great things come of it. And that makes me so happy. I love to see some people. Let's think positive. I love to see people succeed. I truly do. I want us to all succeed as a group. I really do. This is why I started the group. I thought we could all succeed together. Some people they see other people doing well and they get a little jealous. I don't know. It's I don't know what to say about that. Look at them as a model. If they're doing it, you can do it. All right. So always look at that. But the collaboration and networking is huge. That's another thing that it really just makes me so happy to see and that people are successful. And, you know, I started the group and people are just at the beginning stages a few years back, and now they're making some of them are making millions. And it's really nice to see. So that's why I kept going. I felt in my heart that this was important. I felt like people could use this, and I'm not happy with the way medicine is right now. I'm just not. So, what can I do to offer it? I think of another doctor who says you could take your practice and build with it, like with ancillary services and whatnot. And you could do that. At the time, I didn't even think that it was a done deal for me. I know that the door was closing behind me. I wanted that door to close behind me. But maybe you're in that gray area. So, you know, keep your options open and keep looking, but collaborate and network with other people. If you're by yourself, it's going to be so much harder. I guarantee you, whatever you're going through, other people have gone through as well. So lean on them.

SPEAKER_01 15:50

Okay, so now you said the ultimate words that it's, you know, doctors don't like. That's networking, collaboration. We're really good at doing things by ourselves. And for most doctors, I don't think that comes naturally. For me, I know networking is something I had to learn. I had to be deliberate, like to do it. Because it's like, you know, for to start with, I'm an introverted introvert. And so that just didn't work. But anyway, talk to us about networking, like the difference it's made for you. And then for somebody who's terrified of networking, what would you tell them?

SPEAKER_00 16:24

All right. The one that stands out in my mind is I was just doing this group. It was a hobby. And then Julie Silver from the Harvard, there's a writing social media course, reached out to me and said, Oh, I'd like you to be, you know, part of the panel. I was like, What? That imposter syndrome. Like, what? Me? Like all I'm doing is like writing about ink articles for remember, if you're doing, you know, your group, whatever it is, you have to provide information. So I was going to like Success Magazine, Ink Doctor, you know, Forbes, TED, and just posting, like taking little quips from them and quotes and posting it and discussing it. I'm like, you want me to come to that heart, you know? So that really stuck out. I was like, wow, you really can make very good relationships. And again, people are listening because I don't, prior to that, I don't remember having a conversation with Julie at all. So you just never know where this is going to go. And networking is important. How do I say this? Just do it. It's act like you're having coffee with a friend. These, you know, you are for me with the group, the female physician, we've all been through it, right? We've been through medical school, we've been through residency, and we're here now. That in itself is common ground. You have common ground with everybody on this universe in this universe as far as I'm concerned. It's just a matter of finding it. Whether you're a mom comes to mind with the children, making small talk. But get into, you know, they can help you, you can help them. And honestly, you go so much further as a group than by yourself and just keep that in mind. I can't tell you, like that the Harvard one sticks out, but even recently with networking, I mentioned to you the foundation. I have a nephew who has Pearson syndrome and is starting a foundation with him. And if you don't know, it's um Dr. And I know that you know what it is. But it's basically a terminal disease right now. I hope that with time that they can do some gene, you know, manipulation, and that won't be a terminal disease. And I hope that he gets to live to see this. That's my goal here. So I was somebody had reached out to me, you know, what do you do with the group? And I want to post this. And I mentioned I'm thinking about doing a there's a foundation, and I'm thinking about making it where we do paid sponsorships. Like you want it, just send me, you know, I don't want any money from you. Just show me a receipt that you paid this foundation. And she goes, Oh my goodness, I work at the NIH and I can hook, you know, basically hook you up there. Has he been to the NIH? Is he familiar? Wow. And that so there's so many different levels. Like just keep your mind. I think we're all to take this back a step. We are all busy. Sometimes when you get messages, you know, they're like, I want to get involved. I don't want to get involved because you have so much on your plate. Just listen, be open to it, say yes. You just never know where this is gonna go. It may not go anywhere, it may change your life.

SPEAKER_01 19:01

Wow. It may not go anywhere, but it may change your life. That is so good. And we have there's some common ground, we have common ground with everybody in the universe. We just have to find out what it is. That is so good. Okay. If you're afraid of networking, you heard it. Just do it. And then, you know, find the common ground, pretend you're having coffee with a friend and say yes, be open. That is so good. Okay. Now, for someone who's inspired by you, inspired by your story, and they've always wanted to do a Facebook group, and you are proof that this is possible and they can pull it off and they can build a big big group. What would you tell them, the person thinking about starting a group?

SPEAKER_00 19:42

Doesn't necessarily have to be on Facebook. You have to find out where your audience is. In all honesty, in the last month or so, people are leaving Facebook. So it may not be Facebook, but I can tell you I'm on WhatsApp, I'm on Telegram. Telegram is a great resource to check out as far as groups, because whenever you publish something, the people see what you're publishing and vice versa. But we'll just say Facebook. Just find the people, just start doing it, be consistent, and just do it. I you have to try it. It may not go anywhere, but you have to try it. And again, if you feel like you're giving value to somebody, which you are, this is why you're doing it. And yes, it could be that you want to build your business as well, but you're offering a service. And what better way to connect with your target audience than by having a group? Does that help? So good. That does help a lot.

SPEAKER_01 20:30

It does help a lot. Now, I'm gonna give you, um, gonna let you tell people where to find you, you know, where to find the group. All the information will be in the show notes, but just talk to them where they can find you, where they can connect. And maybe even for someone who's thinking about, you know, being part of what you're gonna do with the foundation, but maybe it's a guy, right? I have, you know, I have guys that are listeners, and how can they be part of that as well?

SPEAKER_00 20:56

My website is Sharon MacM D. So Sharon MacM A C K M D. My last name is McLaughlin, but most people can't say it or spell it. So I've just abbreviated it as Mac, and that that works out pretty good. And then from there, there's some resources as far as you know, different links off to different websites. I have a few websites to be honest with you. So, but that's the one that kind of leads everywhere, which is good.

SPEAKER_01 21:18

Awesome. And when you're ready for the foundation, all that information will be there. People can find that there. Awesome.

SPEAKER_00 21:24

Yeah, and I'll put it in the group as well. I'll put it on the cover of the Facebook group. My nephew gave me approval for it, so I wasn't sure how he felt about it, you know, because it's their child, and but I'm not one to sit back and just wait. No more. And you definitely aren't.

SPEAKER_01 21:39

You definitely aren't. Well, that's it, people. All the links are gonna be in the show notes. And you know, if you're a female, that's a really good group to be a part of. I'm a part of that group as well. And um, Dr. Sharon is someone that, you know, is worth following, so much to learn from her. And she is a true networker and true collaborator. And I wish you, you know, if you're if you're listening to the podcast, I wish you could see the video to see the way she lights up when she talks about helping others thrive and networking and opening doors for others. It's something that she really does do from the depths of her heart. So this has been a really great episode. Thank you so much for coming on and thank you for everything you do and for setting the stage for female physicians to embrace entrepreneurship, creating a space where they can find models and increase their belief in what is possible for them. So thank you for doing that. Thank you for all the work that you're doing. Awesome. So there you go, people. So hope you enjoyed this episode. Be sure to pay it forward. That's what we're doing with this episode. So go find her group, join the group, go on social media, post about how this helped you, tag us, hashtag entreamd, and I'll see you on the very next episode of the OnTraMD Podcast. Hey, if you love listening to the OntreeMD podcast, I want to invite you to join EntreMD On Demand. It is my signature subscription program that gives you access to a library of business courses designed to help you do one thing as a physician entrepreneur, and that is to thrive. Just head out to entreamd.com forward slash on demand, and I love to have you join us. See you on the inside.