Dr. Erin Nance | TikTok Star & Author Dr. Erin Nance, Are There Any Doctors That Still Care? + What Online Views Are Looking for (Fun, Facts & Feelings)? Why 175 Social Media Million Views = $5,000 of Lifetime Earnings

Audio Transcription

Transcribed with Cockatoo

(Speaker 4)
My name is Kevin Thomas and the name of our company is MultiClean. We are a commercial janitorial service and we serve the entire state of Oklahoma and Kansas and soon to be Arkansas. We have probably grown probably five times. Before we got involved with Thrive Time, we didn’t really have any systems or processes in place. I’ve probably been to, oh, in six, seven years,

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Started from the bottom, now we here Folks, the question I have for you, the question I have for me, the question I have for all of us is are there doctors out there that still care? Perhaps you would be thinking, I don’t know, I don’t know. I’ve gone to the doctor recently, I don’t know if that doctor cares. I’ve gone to that doctor, I don’t know if they care. Are there any doctors that actually care?

(Speaker 2)
You find yourself showing up in the lobby of a doctor, maybe they’ve migrated, they’ve changed from the clipboard to the patient, and you’re trying to be patient hoping that the medical industry will change and maybe you’re saying are there any doctors out there that still care? Well if you’ve ever had that thought, if you’ve ever had that concern, today’s show is a show you want to grab a pen and a pad and enter into the lab in the dojo of Mojo Faux Show

(Speaker 2)
because today’s guest, Dr. Erin Nance, she’s going to break it down like fractions because her passion is helping you optimize your healthcare experience. Dr. Erin Nance, welcome on to the Thrived Time Show. How are you?

(Speaker 1)
Hi, Clay. I’m doing great. Thanks so much for having me on.

(Speaker 2)
Okay, so I got to ask you real quick, people out there looking you up right now, like, Dr. Erin Nance, who is this? If people look you up, what are they going to find? What’s your background? Sure. So I am a board certified orthopedic surgeon.

(Speaker 1)
I’ve had my own practice in New York City for over 10 years. I’ve trained at the most prestigious places in the country, Hospital for Special Surgery, Memorial Sloan Kettering, Baltimore Shock Trauma, Boston Children’s Hospital. So I’ve kind of been all over in terms of seeing how the best systems work in terms of how they treat their patients, how doctors work inside those systems. And then I started my own practice in New York City right after I graduated my fellowship

(Speaker 1)
from Hospital for Special Surgery. And so the past 10 years, I’ve been seeing patients as part of my private practice. And then about two years ago, I became really an unwitting medical influencer online. So most people know me from my viral TikTok account, Little Miss Diagnosed, where I talk about the most commonly misdiagnosed conditions.

(Speaker 2)
Now, there’s so much there I want to unpack. People say orthopedic surgeon feels like a dentist who does braces, but it isn’t a dentist. Orthopedic, ortho. Somebody out there is going, what’s an orthopedic surgeon? Can you explain, what is an orthopedic surgeon?

(Speaker 1)
So primarily, we’re dealing with the bones, right? You fall and you break your wrist, you’re seeing an orthopedic surgeon. We deal with all of the muscles and the tendons and the nerves. So if you, my producer just yesterday,

(Speaker 1)
cut her hand carving an avocado, right slipped on the pit, you would come see my specialty. I’m a hand surgeon to reattach those tendons and nerves. So think of us as we really own the musculoskeletal system.

(Speaker 2)
And so why are you on this passion, this path, this journey to get this message out to the masses? Like what is inspiring you to write a book, hop on podcasts, and do things that are probably monetarily not beneficial? When you could be being an orthopedic surgeon.

(Speaker 1)
Why are you doing this? Well, it started when I solved this woman’s 10-year medical mystery in three seconds, but I didn’t do it in my office. I did it over TikTok. And this woman had a diagnosis that was clear to me within three seconds, but she had seen five different doctors. She had gone to many different appointments and no one could help her. People said, nothing’s wrong with you.

(Speaker 1)
They made her feel like she was crazy, like it was all in her head. But this is a line that I say over and over again, but the eyes only see what the mind knows. And so if you go to a doctor and that doctor does not know what a glomus tumor is, you’re never getting diagnosed with a glomus tumor. And in this patient’s case, that’s what she had.

(Speaker 1)
She had a small tumor under her fingernail called a glomus tumor. It’s exquisitely painful, but it’s a more rare condition. So if you didn’t go to the right person who knows, if you go to type into Google PubMed glomus tumor, my name pops up or my meta name because I’m one of the world’s experts on glomus tumor. And so I believe that really we can use the scale

(Speaker 1)
of the internet to help people shorten that time to diagnosis.

(Speaker 2)
Now you’ve written this book here. I’m gonna pull it up and make sure this is what we’re talking about here. People want to look it up. I’m looking it up. We’re all looking it up.

(Speaker 2)
Everybody’s looking it up. People are looking it up. People are driving a car trying to look it up. People shouldn’t be looking it up while they’re driving, but they’re doing it. Tell us about the book. What’s in the book? Why do we want to look in the book? Why should everybody check out this new release?

(Speaker 1)
Well, the first story that I share is one that I believe that everyone has one Netflix-worthy story about their life, or if not Netflix-worthy, at least Hallmark Channel. And for me, that story was the story of my first day of work as an orthopedic surgery resident. And on that first day of work, my brother was in a diving accident, broke his neck,

(Speaker 1)
became a quadriplegic, and in essence became my first patient. And so this book really goes into how that family tragedy shaped me into the doctor I am today. And what we talked about the very beginning about, are there doctors who still care? I think that for anyone who has been on the other side of the medical curtain, that’s how we care, right?

(Speaker 1)
I care because I was that family member who was waiting all day long for that doctor to just show up and give us the one piece of information, that one piece of hope that we could cling on to. So this is a book about my journey from starting as a lowly intern all the way to, you know, chief resident fellow at HSS, and how I challenge the system all in the name of doing the right thing for the patient.

(Speaker 2)
Now, how did you become the TikTok star or a TikTok influencer? Or how does, because again, when I think about an orthopedic surgeon, I don’t think about people that are on TikTok. But when people think about you, they do think about TikTok. And when people, a lot of people think about you

(Speaker 2)
because they found you on TikTok. So what made you all of a sudden get on TikTok? Well, I started a media company about

(Speaker 1)
three years ago, and I’ve been involved with multiple kind of media projects from, you know, television. I’m like the doctor on TV. I had a couple of TV pilots and I had a producer once tell me that, listen, everyone gets their ideas from social media first. You have to prove yourself on social media really to have the idea kind of take off. So that’s what I started. I started a channel called The Hand Doctor, and it was more about the ins and outs of

(Speaker 1)
being a hand surgeon, give people tips and tricks. I worked with a company called Hookpoint. They taught me how to reverse engineer viral videos and that channel was very successful. I probably had 20,000 followers, over 25 million views, but what I told them is I don’t want to follow the trends, I want to be the trend. And that’s when I started doing my medical storytelling and that’s

(Speaker 1)
when I told that first story of my first day of work, my brother’s accident. That video was viewed almost 3 million times. So I knew I had a format that worked. And so then I started telling more stories about times where I went above and beyond for patients or sometimes when I went against the system or went against my, you know, attendings for the sake of the patient. And those stories were just racking up views,

(Speaker 1)
so many comments, so many people thanking me for being that example. I wish you were my doctor. I wish my doctor would do something like how you’ve done. That’s how the book came about. I was actually asked to write the book.

(Speaker 1)
That’s how I got my book deal. I was scouted from my, you know, viral TikToks. So I tell people, listen, TikTok is the fastest, easiest, cheapest way to gain, you know, visibility. And especially if you’re an expert in a subject, you can do really well on that platform.

(Speaker 2)
Do you have a website where you send people to? I mean, do you have like a specific site where you say this is where people can find you and all things Dr. Erin Nance? Well, I would say that the company that I’m

(Speaker 1)
building, which is called Feel Better, B-E-T-R, is the new app where it is a clinician-led social media platform. And the point of this platform is for people to get credible medical information. So that’s, I wouldn’t say I have one necessary website for people to go to, but this is really where I am going to be living.

(Speaker 1)
And this is where if you’ve ever worried about misinformation when it comes to medical knowledge online, this is really my attempt at having one safe and trusted place for people to get credible health information.

(Speaker 2)
I’m going to pull it up real quick here. I think I found the right place. Maybe I’m playing Oregon Trail. Maybe I’m playing Oregon Trail. Maybe I’m playing Gallagher.

(Speaker 1)
Yeah, this is the website, and our app is actually live. We haven’t launched it to the public yet because we’re building, I would say the, you know, the, the library of all the clinician content. Um, but this is where people can, you can join the wait list or you can actually just join the app, which is crazy for me to say. Um, but the app is technically live, you know, on the app, which is crazy for me to say, but the app is technically live on

(Speaker 1)
the App Store.

(Speaker 2)
Now, when I interview people like you that are high-functioning, what does that mean? High-functioning, good at getting a lot of things done, a polymath, someone who’s good at medical, maybe book writing, maybe social media, that kind of thing. I like to kind of deconstruct how you do that. So I want to ask you, what time are you waking up every day? Like what time are you starting the day in the world of Dr. Erin Nance?

(Speaker 1)
So you would be surprised. As an orthopedic surgeon, you may think that I wake up at 5 AM. And I love waking up early because that’s been my life for the past 20 years. I value my sleep more than almost anything.

(Speaker 1)
And so I usually will sleep in until, again, most, it depends on the school year and I’ve got a 10 year old daughter, but my job is to get her to school. So I sleep probably up until seven o’clock until she rolls me out of bed. It’s quite the role reversal. And then I’m bringing her to school. That is a sacred time for me. I love spending that 45 minutes walking with her talking with

(Speaker 1)
her talking about what she’s excited for for the day, letting her know exciting things that happened with me the day before. And then I would say I start my work day probably around 830. So I’m doing about a couple of hours and what you described is what I would say is a little bit of a renaissance woman in that my day can look very different based on it’s Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. So for example, on Wednesdays, those are my sacred patient days.

(Speaker 1)
I am seeing patients all day long. Do not schedule me an email. Do not schedule me a meeting. Do not schedule me a lunch or a dinner. I am seeing patients. On Mondays and Fridays, I’m generally creating content.

(Speaker 1)
That is, I’m creating content for TikTok. I’m creating for my podcast, The Medical Detectives. And then on Tuesdays and Thursdays is when I’m doing my own kind of business outreach for Feel Better Platform.

(Speaker 2)
Do you subscribe to the idea of intermittent fasting? Do you, during the day, do you eat a lot? Do you not eat a lot? Are you, I wanna get your, I’m asking, you’re an orthopedic surgeon and you have made a mistake to be on this show. You’ve lowered your standards. Your people have lowered their standards. So you’re stuck with

(Speaker 1)
Medinafer. And I want to ask you, are you somebody, cause you know, you, you, you’s your move? I’m about to say something that may shock people, but I have been intermittent fasting for 20 years unintentionally. I never ate breakfast throughout my entire, because again, I valued sleep the most. So I would sleep until the last second and then just start my day as a resident. When you’re a resident, there is no time to eat. And then usually I wouldn’t be eating until I get home. Same thing when I became an attending. I wanted to get my patients

(Speaker 1)
notes done. I want to see my patients. I didn’t want them to be waiting for any, you know, period of time. And so I usually would not eat until maybe I got home five, six, seven o’clock. Now, don’t get me wrong. I’d have the equivalent of three meals, you know, during that time. But so I am proof that I do not believe that intermittent fasting works.

(Speaker 1)
I think it’s just you eat when you want to. OK. And all of the science behind the intermittent fasting, I have never seen anything that shows that this is some sort of long-term replicable, you know, way to lose weight or save energy. For me, I think you do what works for you and understand, yes, you have to stay hydrated, you have to have, you know, healthy foods, you have to have healthy foods, you have to

(Speaker 1)
have a good balance of food. But for me, I would never tell someone to do an intermittent fast, which I’ve been doing, not intentionally forever, because I think that’s the healthy thing to do. Most people think it’s crazy that I… And don’t get me wrong, someone invites me out to breakfast, I’m eating breakfast. But just as a habit, I typically do not eat

(Speaker 1)
until the end of the day.

(Speaker 2)
How often are you getting upset, irritated, pissed, angered, frustrated, not happy about comments people make about you on TikTok? You’re on TikTok and people might make a comment, you’re on social media, people might go, I hate you. Someone else is like, I love you. Somebody else is saying, to quote Ric Flair, woo.

(Speaker 2)
So how do you process the range of ups and downs, the positive and the negative? I see a lot of people that are experts, that are reluctant to share their advice or expertise on a larger platform because they fear the rejection from those that may not agree with and or like what

(Speaker 2)
they’re saying. How do you process

(Speaker 1)
that? It’s a wonderful question because I hear the same thing from a lot of physicians. That’s what’s holding them back, right? Is this fear of the comments. I will tell you, and this is with 100% honesty, I have never once gotten upset or angry or wasted any energy on a negative comment before. I would say I’m extremely lucky that I have very, very few negative comments in general. But I also try and balance that same emotional response

(Speaker 1)
with the good comments, right? Being on social media is like a drug, right? I’m getting hundreds of thousands of likes. I’m getting hundreds of thousands of people saying, thank you so much, I wish you were my doctor. I just had someone two days ago email me

(Speaker 1)
that they were almost about to take their life, but they saw one of my videos on YouTube and they felt hope for the first time and they didn’t go through with it. These are so powerful, but I have to be able to balance

(Speaker 1)
that power for good and bad. And so for me, I am able to kind of regulate those emotions.

(Speaker 2)
Hopping on a podcast, you hop on podcasts, broadcasts, major news outlets, you’ve done a lot of interviews. You know, when you’re on an interview and somebody like me, you’re stuck with me and you’re going, gosh, this guy, he’s not asking me any good questions. That’s the problem.

(Speaker 2)
Let me ask, is there any question that you wish that podcasters, myself included, that we would ask you when you’re on these shows? Is there any question you’re going, you just, you need to ask the question. What’s the question?

(Speaker 1)
Well, I always liken it back to, you know your audience the best. And I’m a wealth of knowledge in my industry. But what I really want podcast guests to ask are questions that your audience wants, you know, is most valuable to them that I can put my spin on.

(Speaker 1)
Or I can put, you know, my life experience as being a surgeon, but I can relate it to whether or not these are, you know, audience members who are interested in starting their own business for the first time on opening a TikTok account for the first time, right?

(Speaker 1)
So that’s what my goal is always, how can I provide value for your specific audience?

(Speaker 2)
All right, well, my listeners wanna know, well, how can I make money on TikTok? So, in terms of making money in TikTok, you, you know, I, I, I see a lot of people who are just throwing hundreds of thousands of dollars. I mean, there’s hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to get a tick tock following, trying to get a YouTube following, trying to get an Instagram following. And I, I, I mean, I meet people all the time at my conferences

(Speaker 2)
and I don’t claim to be a tick tock optimization expert, but I see people all the time that really have put a lot of time and energy into trying to monetize TikTok and YouTube, and it’s not working. And meanwhile, their core business is working. So their core business is working, but their social media career is not working. And so they keep dumping money into the trying to monetize the TikTok and the YouTube and Instagram.

(Speaker 2)
What would you say to someone like that?

(Speaker 1)
So I have close to, I would estimate 175 million viewed videos, and I don’t think I’ve ever made more than $5,000 off of views. So for all of these people who are promoting, you know, making money through content, for me, my visibility on the platform is what gave me authority to land a six-figure book deal, right, is what gave me the authority to be approached by TLC to be the next host of one of their medical shows.

(Speaker 1)
Right? So I utilize it not as an engine to make money, but as an engine for visibility and authority generation. Did you just say- Because I learned this a long time ago. All right?

(Speaker 1)
And this is another thing that prevents people from just starting online is you think you have to be the number one top expert know all you know all the steps X Y & Z whereas when you are online you are considered an expert if you are only one step ahead of the person who is viewing the content. So I think people kind of downplay their own expertise and they think, well, just because, you know, I’m a hand surgeon, why am I doing a video on endometriosis? I know a lot more about endometriosis than most people who are viewers on this platform.

(Speaker 1)
Just because I’m not an OBGYN doesn’t mean that I’m not qualified to speak on medical issues. And if people want kind of some like tips and tricks for how to have a better presence online, this is what I would recommend. So the vast majority of viewers, they intake content in one of three ways. All right. Either they’re looking for fun,

(Speaker 1)
which means you make a video that is exciting, it’s engaging and maybe a fun format. Facts, they’re engaging, and maybe a fun format. Facts, they’re the ones who want the bullet points. They want the data. Give it to me straight. Or feelings, did you create content

(Speaker 1)
that’s going to evoke an emotional response? So if you can create content that hits on fun, facts, and feelings, you are going to capture about 90% of the general audience with that content. So the point of creating like how you make a viral video is making somebody care about

(Speaker 1)
something they knew nothing about 20 seconds ago.

(Speaker 2)
Now you said something, I’m taking notes here. You said that you have 175, I think I got it right, 175 million social media views, and you said the most that you made in a month is $5,000? Am I getting that wrong?

(Speaker 1)
No, the most ever. The most lifetime. The most lifetime. Okay. These are, and again, part of this is, you know, I mean, I only started making content about two and a half years ago. I was part of a creator fund for the beginning. Then I had so many copycat accounts that then my content

(Speaker 1)
was being flagged for unoriginal when I was the original source. So there are a lot of metrics that are always changing when it comes to money for views. But for me, that is not a true source of revenue.

(Speaker 2)
And I’m just saying this, I’m mentioning this because people ask me all the time and again, everyone, this interview is not about me, it’s about you I’m just saying I’ve been doing our you know podcast for well for 10 years and when I interview I just do because I love it I just sincerely love interviewing you know Wolfgang Puck and going how did you start I liked interviewing I like interviewing Dr. Aaron Nancy I like interviewing you going how are you why are you doing this how are you, why are you doing this? How are you doing this? What fires you up to do this? It’s a curiosity thing. And so for me, it’s just like an endless, I enjoy it. So to me,

(Speaker 2)
it’s like, I, I enjoy interviewing people, but when these people, that’s what comes across

(Speaker 1)
in your podcast interviews, is that curiosity, right? Is that thirst for knowledge? And that’s part of, you know, physician, we’re supposed to be lifelong learners, right? And I think a lot of patients, when they go and have an interaction with their patient, they feel like their doctor is just not curious in them,

(Speaker 1)
right, that their own story is not worthy of their attention. And that’s what I said in the beginning is why a lot of people feel like their doctor doesn’t care. It’s because they’ve lost that curiosity. And there’s a lot of reasons for that. And a lot of it has to do with the system of healthcare that

(Speaker 1)
we’re operating in. But I think why people love watching my content is not just because I’m providing the data and the facts and the figures, is that I am interested in the subject. I’m really empathetic towards the people who have this problem. And I’m doing this because I want to spread awareness. And I think that that has really become, you know, my second half of my career, what I was really meant to do.

(Speaker 2)
Okay, final four minutes. I’ve got five questions for you, rapid fire. Here we go. What is your favorite sport or do you have a favorite sport?

(Speaker 7)
Soccer.

(Speaker 2)
What is your favorite meal? Favorite meal.

(Speaker 9)
Favorite meal.

(Speaker 10)
Favorite meal.

(Speaker 1)
J.G.

(Speaker 9)
Mellon’s Cheeseburger.

(Speaker 2)
What is your favorite genre of book to read?

(Speaker 1)
Tabloid magazine.

(Speaker 2)
What’s your favorite kind of music? Favorite kind of music, any artist or niche or genre?

(Speaker 1)
I gotta go Billy Joel. I just finished watching the HBO documentary as a born and bred Long Island girl. Six hours of bliss.

(Speaker 2)
Favorite movie or favorite movies?

(Speaker 1)
That is tough because I am really not a movie person. I’m so bad with movies. But I will tell you my current, well, I’ll tell you my

(Speaker 2)
current TV obsession is the Gilded Age. The Gilded Age. Okay, there it is, folks. Dr. Erin Nance, I really do appreciate you. I’m going to give you the final word. We got 60 seconds. So I’ll let you share whatever’s on your heart, whatever you want to share with our listeners out there, whatever call to action. But before we do that, I want to make sure everybody knows where they can find this incredible book here. So your book, we go to Amazon, we find it Little Miss Diagnosed. Someone says, what’s the title? Little Miss Diagnosed. Somebody says, say it to me again.

(Speaker 2)
I want to remember. Little Miss Diagnosed. So with that being said, Dr. Ernance, final word, what say you?

(Speaker 1)
Well, thank you, Clay, again, for having me and for your listeners for taking the time. Healthcare is really under attack in America. And in my estimation, I think that medical misinformation is the greatest threat to our health. And right now there are too many voices who are not unfortunately credible enough for you to believe. But when people are going to their doctor and they’re not getting any answers, I don’t blame them for going online, for looking for answers.

(Speaker 1)
So I want you to know that there are physicians who do really care, who are interested in you, who think that you are worthy of getting answers. And that is why I have built Feel Better, again, Feel Better BETR, to be that source of credible health information. So would love to see everyone. You can have a sneak peek because it’s not even launched to the public yet but just for your audience I am announcing it and would love to have

(Speaker 2)
them on the platform. Dr. Erin Nance thank you so much for the chance to interview you and I hope we will talk to you soon. Thank you Clay. Bye bye. One of the gentlemen’s name is Bob Healy came to our conference with a quasi-functional prototype. He had terminal cancer, and Bob came to me and said, help me.

(Speaker 6)
Entrepreneur Clay Clark has built several multi-million dollar businesses. Now, he helps budding entrepreneurs like Bob turbocharge their ideas with a 14-step plan.

(Speaker 2)
And grillblazer.com is now a massively successful company that’s becoming a household name in many American homes.

(Speaker 6)
In this episode, we dive into how to rebuild American small businesses and industrial capacity.

(Speaker 2)
You never want to outsource your core competency. We have to import certain technology from countries that hate us to make military weapons to defend us. That doesn’t even make sense.

(Speaker 6)
This is American Thought Leaders, and I’m Jan Jekielek.

(Speaker 3)
But Clay Clark, man, he is one character.

(Speaker 8)
That’s a good word for him, character.

(Speaker 5)
Yeah, that is it. Good, driven, smart. And I’ve never met a guy who was so hyper all the time. He’s doing so much good. And then I met his mother. And she just says, she just lets him be Clay Clark. I mean, so he’s endorsed by his mother. And he’s doing magnificent work. So it was great meeting you out there and all the people that he surrounds himself with. His clay Clark starts his days

(Speaker 3)
at five o’clock in the morning.

(Speaker 8)
Oh, it’s incredible. Yeah, he’s he’s like, he’s a machine. He’s a machine.

(Speaker 5)
But his you know, I could I have problems with my company starting

(Speaker 7)
at nine o’clock.

(Speaker 5)
He has hundreds of people showing up at 5 a.m. in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Man, he’s a leader of a leader. Man, he’s a leader of a leader. He’s a fantastic young man.

Transcribed with Cockatoo