Bodybuilding and Building a Personal Brand: Lessons from a Radiology Resident
“Most importantly, I realized that my time is limited. You only have one life to become your ideal self. Only one life to make a difference. For me, social media is the best way to make a difference on a large scale.”
Q: Tell your story about how you got where you are and why you do what you do. Why did you choose to go into radiology and why did you choose to also create a YouTube Channel/website/social media brand?
A: Michael Jordan once said: “limits, like fears, are often just an illusion.”
I’m Dr. Swole (Bill works too). I work as a radiology resident, run a YouTube channel, compete as a bodybuilder, host a podcast, manage a Facebook group, run an e-commerce website, sell a book that I wrote… And some other things I can't remember right now.
Years ago, my organic chemistry professor once sat me down in his office. He was trying to get me to pursue research as a career and told me “Bill, make a difference in this world… You’re only on it once.” I took those words to heart but took a different path. I went into medicine, and chose radiology because of the diagnostic gratification of the specialty and my love for anatomy. But you’re not here to hear about my medical life. Maybe you’re a physician or professional as well - been there, done that. The question is, what else do you do?
I started my YouTube channel as a passion project… I wanted to join the conversation in fitness and knew I had a unique perspective. My channel theme is evidence-based bodybuilding, and my target viewer is my younger self. When I got into the gym as an 18-year-old, I scoured the web but couldn’t find truly science-backed information. As a physician trained in the evidence-based era, I saw that there was a gap in the fitness information space where I could seriously make a difference.
Most importantly, I realized that my time is limited. You only have one life to become your ideal self. Only one life to make a difference. For me, social media is the best way to make a difference on a large scale. Stop for a moment and think about this: you’re going to die one day. I’m not trying to be a downer. In fact, a sense of mortality is what drives our purpose. And when you fully understand your mortality, you realize that you can’t waste another moment.
Q: At what point in your life did you decide to start Dr. Swole? How do you find balance between both?
A: Dr. Swole was born in medical school, largely as a joke to my friends. My YouTube channel burst into reality one dreary night driving home from the hospital as a first-year resident. “Ask Dr. Swole” flashed across my conscious and I didn’t look back.
Two weeks later I launched my channel with my first 3 videos.
Balancing everything isn’t always easy. I make sacrifices. Free time spent to myself these days is about 30 minutes a month.
Aggressive time management is critical. Some of the things I do (that you should try too) are:
Leverage video and audio content. Every morning, as you’re getting ready, pick a YouTube video about a topic you want to learn about and play it in the background. Find a podcast on that topic and listen to it on your commute. Now you have no excuses for “not knowing how to start.”
Give up TV. It doesn’t better your life. Get into reading instead. Audiobooks are a current favorite of mine, and guess what - they fit into my point above.
Live in the moment. Make the time to sleep enough and rest well. During the day, make every minute count. Work hard. When you have time for your passion project/personal brand, make things happen. When you’re with friends and family, unplug from work and your phone.
Q: Do you have any advice or wisdom you can share with other current or future radiologists who also envision starting a personal brand?
A: The most important first step is to realize that medicine (or whatever your day job is) is not your whole life. You absolutely can explore another pursuit and get surprisingly far with it if you make time on a regular basis. What’s a niche where you can bring a unique perspective? This might be through education or entertainment. If you’re a physician, you have a special set of experiences and that give you the power to change lives both in and out of the hospital.
The next step is to
J U S T
S T A R T
The biggest problem people face in starting their personal brand is not starting; not putting pen to paper or posting that first piece of content. It doesn’t have to be perfect! Perfectionism is baked into us in medical school like M&Ms into a cookie. I use the 80% rule when it comes to content creation. Once your idea reaches 80% perfection, execute. I’m not saying rush into half-baked ideas - just 80% baked.
No one remembers the times you didn’t knock it out of the park and those are the times that make you learn, the times that make you better. Even if an idea doesn’t work out, you’ve gained a lot of experience and a good story.
Lastly, remember: limits, like fears, are often just an illusion. It’s time for you to get out there out and break some illusions.
Bill Wong is a radiology resident at the University of British Columbia. He is also a competitive natural bodybuilder and fitness influencer; he runs a YouTube channel called “Ask Dr. Swole.”
Find Bill on social media:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr_swole/?hl=en
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/AskDrSwole
Image Courtesy of Bill Wong, MD
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