#254 7 Side Hustles for Physicians to Boost Their Income

Hey, everyone. Hope you've had another amazing week. This week is a fun one. Everyone knows I like talking about additional streams of income. And today we're going to talk about a topic that everyone should consider. If you're a doctor, physician, the side hustle, burnout, student loan debt, and the changing healthcare landscape I believe make it essential to explore additional income streams. So today I'm going to share seven powerful side hustles that can boost your income while while leveraging your medical expertise. I hope you enjoy these, so stay tuned.

Welcome to the Passive Income MD Podcast, where we talk about creating your ideal life through multiple streams of income. If you enjoy hearing about this stuff, make sure to hit subscribe. Now, let's get on with the show.

Now, I like talking about passive income primarily when I mean passive income, I talk about income that is scalable, meaning that it's income that isn't proportional to the time that you put into it, meaning that time in doesn't always mean money out. And there's ways to scale that to not put additional work in and to let it grow. I will tell you that today's episode, the things I'm talking about, many of them are tied to your time. So they may not be scalable, but some of these you're able to actually scale. If you're smart, you build a business. But either way, it's a way to create additional income. And if you create that additional income, it can create a little bit of freedom for yourself. It also allows you to allocate and put more money towards investments that can create passive income for you. So let's get started. Number one, telemedicine. There's no doubt that Covid accelerated the adoption of this whole virtual medicine space into our daily lives. Like so many physicians out there, especially in our community, they were able to explore this world of telemedicine where they could see patients either synchronously, like live, you know, face to face. And I've done that as a patient, or asynchronously, meaning they are able to log in and catch up on signing charts or prescriptions. And they could do it on their own time. Since this whole time of COVID there's been an explosion of telemedicine platforms. And so many physicians have found this to be a great side hustle. You get paid for the time you put in, but you get to decide for the most part when you do that. Some physicians I know are making 150 to $250 an hour on their own schedule. And that freedom accounts for a lot now. Some have made it their entire careers and, and have left their brick and mortar and they've even found positions as practice owners or maybe even chief medical officers of some of these telemedicine companies. And that can really ratchet up their income. So it's no longer a side hustle for these people. It's a true career. And I think that's where the space of telemedicine is going. And I'm not lying when I say I've heard some physicians making six figures a month from this stuff. If you're serious about making telemedicine a major income source, make sure you get connected to a great community of people who are doing this. There's several in our community that I can refer you to, but just connect and find out what other people are doing. It's a growing space, it's not going anywhere. And there's potential here for everyone listening to this to potentially participate in this if you're interested in making additional income. Number two, expert witness work. Now, being an expert witness as a physician, like what does that mean? It means that you use your medical expertise to provide opinions in legal cases. Lawyers hire physicians to review medical records, to write reports, offer opinions, and sometimes testify in court about medical conditions, treatments or standards of care. And these cases can range from everything from malpractice lawsuits to personal injury claims, workers compensation issues, and sometimes even criminal cases involving medical evidence. Now, I know the physicians can typically earn somewhere between 250 to $500 per hour or more, depending on your specialty. And, and to get started, physicians just need to network in the space. There are organizations they can join, there are people and groups who are teaching these type of things. I recommend that if you're interested in this and you want to find out more, just get started in the space. Connect with others who are already doing it and they'll share the information of how they were able to get started. You can leverage your medical expertise to become an expert in the space, market yourself as such. And honestly, people are finding really meaningful income from this. Number three Consulting for healthcare startups now health tech startups, they often need physicians. In fact, I believe they all need really physicians to help refine their products and make sure and ensure that they align with medical standards or regulations and what the real world clinical applications are of their startup or app or whatever that might be. And you might be as a physician involved in advising on medical accuracy for AI driven diagnostics or telehealth platforms or wearable health devices or EHR software, something like that. And you can all bring some really valuable expertise just by identifying gaps in the use cases, ensuring that there's compliance with healthcare regulations like hipaa, FDA guidelines. You can offer insights into the real needs of patients and how they're actually gonna use this to make their lives better. So these startups, they'll hire doctors as consultants either on an hourly basis, a fee basis, and some even offer equity if that's something that's important to you, that you can negotiate in in exchange for some of the contributions. And this can be anywhere from a couple hours to ongoing type of work. But I know for a lot of people you love that space, the health tech innovation space. It's just exciting for you. There's one way to marry that interest and that passion with getting some extra income or potential equity gains if there's a future exit or future buyout of that company in the future.

There are no shortage of companies that.

Are being put out there today and it's something that everyone listening to this can get started with the current knowledge and experience they have. Hey everyone, have a quick question for you.

Are you looking for a secure and reliable long term investment strategy? Meet Eckerd Enterprises. It's a family owned and operated firm with over 35 years of experience specializing in US energy and alternative of investments. Here at Passive Income MD you often hear me talk about the need to diversify. One of the safest investment strategies available today are mineral rights. And with Eckerd Enterprises you can diversify your portfolio. Their team is committed to helping private investors like you and me identify and develop successful diversified portfolios. With an average return on investment of over 24% across their portfolios. The Ecker team is dedicated to to helping you build and protect your wealth through long term passive income. All of this while minimizing the risks associated with traditional investments. So check out Eckerd Enterprises if you want that great investment experience, go to eckerd enterprises.com again that's eckerd enterprises.com.

Everyone, it's Peter here with passive income MD and I've got something exciting for you. If you're a physician looking to take control of your future, whether that's through entrepreneurship, investing or simply finding new ways.

To create more freedom in your life.

You need to mark your calendar. The Leverage and GROW Summit 2025 is happening on March 10th through 14th and trust me, this is one event you're not going to want to miss. I know how demanding life as a physician can be. Between patient care, administrative headaches and everything Else pulling at your time.

It's easy to feel like you're stuck.

On a treadmill with no way off. But here's the thing.

You can create a life that aligns.

With your goals, passions and financial aspirations. Now this summit is all about showing.

You how we're bringing together physicians who.

Have done just that. Doctors who have built thriving real estate portfolios, launched successful startups, written best selling.

Books, and even landed on reality TV and TED stages.

At the Leverage youe Growth Summit, you'll hear stories from physicians just like you.

Who decided to take a leap and make a change.

You'll walk away with actionable strategies and a fresh perspective on what's possible beyond.

Or within the clinic or hospital walls.

So best part, it's 100% free. No travel, no expenses. Just pure high value insights delivered straight to you.

So here's what you need to do right now.

Register now for the free summit by going to leverage and growth.com it's time to stop wondering what if? And start discovering what's next.

See you there. Number four, public speaking. I mean probably something that many of you probably try to avoid. And you probably heard that the number one fear of so many people out there is public speaking. But it can be a great way for physicians to leverage their expertise while generating extra income on the side. I mean, physicians are experts. They're sought after to speak at medical conferences, industry panels, corporate wellness events, and even non medical conferences on leadership, burnout, prevention, or get this one, physician finance or real estate conferences. Now there's so many topics that you as a physician can cover. I mean I mentioned a few of these, but you can talk about healthcare trends, patient advocacy, mental health, innovations in medicine. And there's so many different organizations, pharmaceutical companies, medical associations, conferences that are willing to and even institutions that are willing to pay physicians anywhere from a thousand to ten thousand per speaking engagement. You can also get your hotel room, travel, transportation, meals covered as well, depending on how well you're able to negotiate this and the need for you and the audience size and the expertise that you might have. The key to all this, just so you know, is, is to build a, a niche, to create a niche, craft a compelling presentation, develop a personal brand around this stuff. You can use social media to do that, thought platforms, you can use LinkedIn to do this. And one way to break into the space is just to offer to give some free talks at smaller events to build experience. You can collect testimonials, you can create a portfolio, you can get a video made, you can learn Your speaking style better. And this can lead to paid opportunities and larger audiences in the future. And I know so many people who do this. It leads to other opportunities like being part of health startups like we mentioned before, or being part of new companies if that's something you're interested in. Again, network with other people already doing this. Number five, coaching and mentorship. Now coaching and mentorship, it really can provide a physician with the opportunity to guide and support others while generating extra income. I know that physicians at the core, we love to help and serve others and to be able to do that while helping someone else. And for many, they choose to help physicians in particular to transition into different careers or help with physician wellness and burnout, to help out with financial matters, to help out with leadership for business, for entrepreneurship. They can help medical students, residents, even young fellow doctors navigate job searches or again, different career paths. This is a growing field and I know many people think, why do physicians in particular even need coaching? Well, I can tell you when you look at every high performing athlete, they.

Have coaches to help them out.

When you look at many of the Fortune 500 entrepreneurs, CEOs out there, they all have coaches as well too. Executive coaches and CEO coaches. Why do all these people have these coaches outside of themselves to help them out even though they're the best at what they do? The truth is we can't see everything. We all have our own limiting beliefs, we all have challenges within ourselves that it helps to have somebody to speak this with and for help, somebody to help you maximize your potential in this area. It's a smaller investment for oftentimes a huge return and it can make a big difference in your life. And I've seen it make a big difference in my life personally. And you can become a coach by taking certain certifications, putting your experience out there marketing yourself and you can learn to figure out what is your niche and how can you truly help people to get where they want to be. And I know it can absolutely be fulfilling. People have asked me if I coach and I can just say because it is somewhat time consuming at time, you know, I only coach a few clients a year personally. Help them with personal finances, with getting their real estate investment portfolio together, help them build businesses, connect them to resources and I can just tell you personally it's super fulfilling for me. Number six, you can start a brand through a blog, a podcast, through social media like YouTube channels and Instagram. There are ways that you can monetize this to generate passive income. You can create content on so many different topics. As a physician, you can do medical expertise, medical education, wellness, healthcare, finance, career advice. And there's so many ways to monetize something like this, including ads or sponsorships that are already built into the platform. Or separately, you can do things like affiliate marketing is where you promote other services or businesses that you believe in. You can create your own digital products, you can create online courses. There's so many different ways that physicians, if they can develop an expertise, be seen as a thought leader. They can use these platforms to monetize, help and serve a ton of people, but also create income at the same time as part of this business. It's not always for the faint of heart, but again, if you talk to other people who have done this, you can learn from their mistakes. And of course today with the Internet, there's so many different resources out there for you that you can find to help navigate in this world, but it can be very, very fulfilling for people and also be lucrative at the same time. Number seven, owning or investing in a medical business. Now, what does this mean? You can start or invest in medical business? And I just, first of all, I know that it can be one of the most powerful ways for physicians to create additional income and potentially some long term wealth. There are so many different avenues here to explore. I could talk about creating your own practices like concierge medicine, or you can create medical spas, you can create urgent care centers, telemedicine companies, healthcare consulting firms. There are so many different ways that you can create a medical business around the expertise that you have or others have. You can do this more actively by creating your own business, or you can do it more passively by investing or partnering with someone to start up something on this on your own. Now you, as a physician, you have all the tools and capabilities and the skills to understand how many of these can be successful. Sometimes just understanding a little bit more the business side can benefit you, but that's where you can bring in other experts to help you get through this, to help you understand this. And with experience, you'll get there on your own. I've seen so many physicians who take this leap that go into the unknown and are willing to grow and build a practice based on either their expertise or they're able to invest in someone else smartly. And it's created a ton of income for them. Especially because this area is blowing up too. The different services outside the different businesses that have been spawned outside of medicine based on medical expertise or procedures is huge. And it's growing daily and there's so many opportunities for physicians to get involved in these type of things. So many in our community. If you're part of the Leveraging Growth Summit, you probably heard of so many different people doing these kind of things. Surround yourself with people who are doing something similar to what you're doing. Learn from them and it'll help serve you to accelerate your path and help you avoid making your own mistakes in the future. So I quickly went over seven side hustles for physicians. Let's do a quick recap. Number 1 Telemedicine Number 2 Expert witness work Number 3 Consulting for healthcare startups Number 4 Public speaking Number 5 Coaching and mentorship Number 6 Building a brand through blogging, podcasting, social media, YouTube Number 7 Owning a medical business. Now if all of this talk about side hustles got you thinking about starting one yourself, congratulations. I tell people, just take action. Pick one that you're interested in and take a small step this week to get on that journey, to get on that path. Maybe it's connecting with somebody who's already doing it to maybe you want to learn more. You're going to Google it or go to ChatGPT and learn more about it. Just get started. Just get started. And you don't know where you'll end up in three to five years. In any case, hope you enjoyed this. I love our community because we're always trying new things. We challenge ourselves to be more, to do more, to give more. And it's so exciting to see that. I hope you're able to create more freedom in your lives. Thank you for being part of this community and let's talk in soon. Bye.

Enjoy the show. Let me know by dropping a review in the podcast app you're listening to us in. And if you haven't already, make sure to hit subscribe. Join thousands of physicians who are also on this journey to creating their ideal lives through multiple streams of income. Learn more at our website passiveincomemd.com thanks again for allowing me to be a part of your journey.

See you next time.