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Premed Productivity Podcast with Dr. Andre Pinesett
I’m Dr. Andre Pinesett and I’d like to welcome you to the Premed Productivity Podcast, where I'm bringing 15+ years of experience as an award-winning mentor/coach to take the stress out of getting into med school with episodes designed to help you: develop a healthy mindset, study efficiently, premed smarter, dominate the MCAT and make your application stand out!
I was told I wasn’t good enough to get into medical school, but I adopted the “No Excuses, Just Dominate” mindset, learned the secrets of successful students and got into Stanford Medical School.
Now, I'm on a mission to empower 1 million students in 5 years by making sure that every passionate student has the information, inspiration and support they need to make their doctor dreams a reality. This podcast is all about you, the premed. I will be answering real student questions, coaching premeds and breaking down every aspect of premed and getting into med school. Enjoy!
PremedProductivity.com
Premed Productivity Podcast with Dr. Andre Pinesett
5 Ways to Shine in Pre-med Research and Clinical Experiences | How to Get a Great Letter of Rec
Want to get a great letter of recommendation from your pre-med research or clinical experience? In this video, I’m giving you the 5 most effective ways to shine in pre-med research and clinical experiences — so you stand out, make a real impact, become the student everyone wants on their team, get a great letter of recommendation and ultimately get into med school.
Dr. Andre Pinesett, The Pre-med Productivity Expert, is a Stanford Med School grad who reveals what you need to do to dominate your summer opportunities and earn glowing letters of rec.
🎯 Whether you're shadowing a physician, working in a research lab, or volunteering at a hospital, this is the ultimate guide to becoming an superstar pre-med.
In this video, you'll learn:
✅ 5 ways to shine in pre-med clinical experiences and research
✅ What doctors, PIs, and healthcare teams actually look for in premeds
✅ How to avoid the entitlement trap that kills your reputation
✅ Real examples of students who turned low-level roles into high-impact letters
✅ How to earn a great letter of recommendation that makes your med school app stand out
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Each week, I’m bringing strategies for:
💪 Locking in that bulletproof mindset.
⏰ Cutting the nonsense and getting productive.
🧠 Studying smarter, not harder.
🩺 Streamlining your path to med school.
If you're serious about medicine, this is where you need to be!!
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Today is the day, guys. You're going to take your future into your own hands. You're going to dominate, you're going to be successful. No excuses, just dominate. What is up, guys? Good morning, dr Roger Bynes. Here we are, live Action, and today we're talking about making the most of summer opportunities research, internships, hospital volunteering, you name it. We're going to talk about it today because I see a huge mistake that students are making, and I just had an encounter with a student recently that highlighted this for me and reinforced why it's so important for you guys. And so I'm going to get on here and tell you guys about it so you don't make that mistake and so you make this summer worthwhile. If you're working hard, you might as well make it worthwhile, get the letter of recommendation, get into medical school, and so today we're going to hit it hard how to make the most of opportunities. Maybe five key takeaways to stand out as a pre-med in your summer research stuff, in your summer volunteering, whatever you're doing, you're going to stand out. You're going to be a superstar. So I'm going to hit the intro. If you have any questions about summer opportunities you're getting questions about pre-med extracurriculars put it in the box, because we'll talk about it. Today we're live action. I can answer your questions. That's the beauty of it, right? So get excited. Here we go. Today is the day, guys. You're going to take your future into your own hands. You're going to dominate. You're going to be successful. No excuses, just dominate. All right, guys. Like I said, dr Andrew Price, here I'm the pre-med project expert and, as always, I'm here to help you be more productive, help you be more positive, reach your goals, do well academically, get into medical school. And today we're talking about summer opportunities, and it is a golden opportunity that too many students waste because they make one huge mistake they think that they're going to make this huge impact in their extracurricular and they're going to be this leader in the lab or leader in their volunteership, and that's how they're going to get ahead.
Speaker 1:They lean on their resume, on their titles, and they forget that the number one thing that people who work with you care about, and the number one thing that medical schools care about, is your character, and this is so important, the reason when you apply to medical school. On the application, they talk about experiences, and then the three ones that you highlight, right, the most important ones. What do they call them Most meaningful experiences is that they're trying to get a sense of your character and that you house the characteristics that would make a stellar physician. And so if you aren't using your pre-med to demonstrate to others that you have the characters of an elite physician, you are missing the boat. And the number one aspect of character and the easiest way to see am I putting my best character forward? Am I embodying what it means to be a doctor Is to ask yourself are you the type of person that you would wanna work with? So if the shoes run to the foot and you had to work with you, if you had to hire you, would you hire you? Would you be glad to see you every single day in lab? Or would you be like, oh, it's this guy again. What's going on? And the inside of that character? Right? And asking yourself if you want to show up.
Speaker 1:The biggest turnoff to everybody, guys, is entitlement. As you go through pre-med process, and this is one of the things that's frustrating about going through medical training whether it's in the nursing field, whether it's in the physician field, whether it's in other fields PT, ot, whatever it might be is that as you go through your training, you're constantly going to be at the bottom of the totem pole, because healthcare is a complex field, and so you're constantly learning new things, you're constantly being challenged, you're constantly being pushed to your brink, you're possibly stretched beyond your capabilities, and so you always, always, always, are not completely confident. You always are at the bottom of the totem pole and you don't have the most to offer. And so the way that you make up for not having the ultimate competency when you're going through training is that you show up as the ultimate character, the ultimate compliment to the team. So it's not about competence when you show up to things, it's about complimenting. Are you adding to the team in a positive way? And it starts with your attitude. You can't show up entitled, acting like somebody owes you something.
Speaker 1:I see it all the time. People show up Gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme. It's about me, it's about me, it's my experience, it's going to mean something to me. It's not about you, and it's in the writing. When you go into residency, it's in the writing. It's like yeah, we're here for your education, all that kind of stuff, training as a resident. But, most importantly, it's about patient care first. The patients come first, and when you are a pre-medical student, you really have nothing to offer in terms of competency, so you're there to complement the team and so the patient comes first, the attending comes second, the resident comes third, you, you're at the very bottom of the totem pole and so you have to get in where you fit in. Don't show up asking, hey, what can you guys do for me? Show up and say, hey, what can I do for you guys, what can I contribute to you guys? And I had a student recently, last summer, who was going through an experience and she highlights what we were talking about this week in coaching but her name is Mariana and she was involved in a free clinic.
Speaker 1:And she was involved in a free clinic and she was super excited because it means something to her, because she's a first-generation college student, first-generation pre-med, and her parents, when she was young, her and her family had to frequent the free clinic and so it meant a lot to her to be able to go to the free clinic and volunteer. And when she thought she was going as a volunteer, she thought she was gonna be shadowing positions. She thought she was gonna as a volunteer. She thought she was going to be shadowing physicians. She thought she was going to be working with patients inside the room, looking at cool procedures, doing all those things, talking to patients and taking histories, but what she found herself doing was working the front desk. They assigned her to work the front desk and so, instead of doing all the behind the scenes medical stuff, she was up front checking patients in, going through paperwork, guiding people the way they're supposed to go, and she was upset about it. And so she called me and she's like Dr Pines said.
Speaker 1:I sent up for the volunteer position and talked about direct contact with patients and being with providers, and they sat me at the front desk because they need to be there. They're short staffed and I'm answering phone calls, I'm responding to faxes, I'm filling out paperwork and I'm not doing the clinical things I want to be doing. And I'm like Mariana stop right now. Stop right now. Think about what you're saying. Right now You're in a volunteer position. You're there to help the clinic in however they need you and they're shortstop on the front desk. You are an integral part of the healthcare framework and I think it's.
Speaker 1:One of the issues that we have in healthcare is that everyone I don't want to say people are selfish in health care. But people have a vested interest in what they do in the hospital and oftentimes they don't show the same level of respect for other people in the hospital and it messes up the health care team dynamics. When I was attending an academic center and I was teaching residents and teaching medical students and teaching pre-meds, I would always tell them I'd say listen, when you're here, treat everyone the exact same. Treat the gender like they're your attending. Treat the nurse like they're your attending. Treat everybody with the utmost respect and you will find that you will be a much more valuable piece around here. You'll be much more well-liked around here.
Speaker 1:But when you treat people differently and you disrespect people because of the way their position is and you disregard it, it's not right. And what's interesting is is that when you do this and I always tell my residents I'm like listen, I know we're physicians, but your best friend is the nurse Always ask the nurse, her or his input. Why? Because the nurse is at the bedside. They're there with your patient for 12 hours straight. They know what's going on. They got their finger on the pulse, so why try to loop around them instead of going right to them and asking them hey, what's going on? Give that direct information. And so it's all that respect of the team. And so, as a pre-med, you start practicing that respect right now and recognizing that it's not about you, it's not about what position it is.
Speaker 1:Respect every position and treat it like it's the most important position. So if you're working the front desk, you work that front desk like man, like it's the greatest thing you've ever done. You show up with excitement and this is a big thing People don't recognize. Again, it's not competence. You're not bringing something spectacular someone else couldn't do. But what is your compliment? What is your attitude? Are you showing up every single day with a smile? Are you showing up like, oh gosh, when am I going to get to go with the back? I'm up here doing paperwork again? Are you treating the patients with dignity and respect? And so I pointed those out to Mariana. I'm like man.
Speaker 1:Think about when you were going to the free clinic. How hard was it for your parents, who didn't speak English as well as you would have liked. How hard was it. How difficult was it for them to navigate the front office. Was it nice to have someone there guiding them through? I said you are that guiding light, you are the one that allows them to get back to see that position. And so she was like, oh my gosh, you're right, I didn't even think about that. And so she went back and started making the most of the opportunity.
Speaker 1:And what's incredible is when she started stepping up, showing up with energy, showing up with excitement, asking and volunteering to do things that maybe other people didn't want to do, right, one day the printer broke down and she literally troubleshoot the printer. She didn't know anything about printers, she didn't have a competency, but she tried hard and eventually she figured it out Probably just bang, bang, bang, slap that thing, whatever and figured it out, but got the printer working. And everyone was so excited because without that printer, patients can't get prescriptions, patients can't get discharge instructions. It was an integral part. And so what was awesome was she took all this time. She fixed this printer. She did a great job the rest of the summer, last summer, and then fast forward to the end of the summer, when her time is wrapping up and her.
Speaker 1:Last week the clinical director came to her and said oh my gosh, my name has been such a pleasure to have you here. It's been amazing and I'd love it if you'd come back and actually do some shadowing if you want. I actually work over at the hospital and I also work here. You can come back and you can shadow me and follow me around for the day. And she's like, oh my gosh, that'd be incredible. And then she, as my students always keep your eye on the prize letter of recommendation. I said she asked him hey, also I'd love to come back and shadow and I definitely will do that, but I was. It's like, of course, I'll write you a letter of recommendation. You've been incredible, you've been an integral part, you were the heart of our front staff this summer. And if you listen to that phrasing, this is so powerful.
Speaker 1:Because when you get these letter of recommendations from medical school, what makes them stand out? What makes them stellar? Our unique aspects. Right, every single person who applies to medical school has letters of recommendation. What makes letters of recommendation stand out from other letters of recommendation? It's the nuance, it's the specificity, it's the uniqueness of that letter that speaks to what your character. So we can foreshadow who you're going to be as a future doctor. Right, it's that future doctor narrative I talk about.
Speaker 1:And so when someone says, hey, you were the heart of our clinic this summer. If I'm Mariana, I immediately I write that down in an email and when I confirm and I send this attending an email and I say, hey, thank you so much, it was so great working with you this summer. I look forward to shadowing you. Here's some available dates. Also, we talked about the letter of recommendation. I went ahead and drafted a couple of bullet points about this summer to help with letter of recommendation writing. I've always found that it's helpful to have letter of recommendation writers write their letter, write fresh off the opportunity. I am fresh in their mind and so I just want to put some bullet points together to help you put a letter of recommendation together and if you wouldn't mind doing that, that'd be awesome. And then in that bullet point you can put you were the heart of this clinic this summer. You were integral to our front desk staff.
Speaker 1:When you fix the printable and you bring down all these key points so that it's super robust and it's super personalized and it speaks to the characteristics of someone who goes above and beyond their duties, someone who shows up and is ready to do whatever is required to serve the patients, does that make sense everybody. So that's the kind of person you want to be, and the opposite of that is when you show up all entitled and we had the COVID epidemic, covid pandemic, and right now what we're going through is an entitlement epidemic with you, social media characters and one of the big things about social media and you see it now, right, I'm doing a live stream. I'm 11 minutes in. Right now we are live action. If you're liking this live stream right now, like this video, comment, let YouTube know, let the algorithm know, that you guys are enjoying my content. Let them know that long form still lives.
Speaker 1:But we have this entitlement epidemic that's come up with social media and that, as young people, you guys are used to having instant, instant right. Tiktok 10 seconds, tiktok 10. I don't have patience to wait 10 minutes. I gotta have 10 seconds of instruction. It's all the patients I have.
Speaker 1:And it's funny because I have kids and it's what we see with the ipad. Like the first time my kids saw a commercial. We went on vacation in the hotel and they saw like what the heck is is like I was watching that what's going on, what is happening, and I'm like that's a commercial and my daughter was like a commercial and like it was like bizarre to her to have to wait for programming. I'm like I grew up in an era when you had to run home from school to see your program at three o'clock. If you didn't get home right at three o'clock for our song to come on the radio, right, it wasn't just streaming where you play whatever you want. And so, with this ease of access that has become our lives, you can order Amazon same day. It's game changing.
Speaker 1:All of these instant things in our lives have made it so that our patience is low and our entitlement is high. We expect things instantly. We expect instant success, instant gratification. We see all these filters right, everybody on Instagram looking six pack ready and all that stuff, and people don't recognize the hard work it takes to get an incredible body. Instead, we want to rely on filters, we want to have frustration and we don't understand. Like, wow, can I drop 50 pounds today? And it's the same way in your guys' career journeys is that people expect to come into a position, be treated like King Daddy when they walk in, they expect the red carpet to be rolled out and they expect to instantly be a leader. And I'm like how can you be a leader before you're a follower? How can you instruct someone in doing the work if you've never done the work? And this is what I always try to explain to people.
Speaker 1:What makes me so great as a person who helps people level up their studying the reason my total student transformation program is so powerful for studying, for students, is because I was the worst student and I did the work to improve my reading. I did the work to improve my time management. I did the work to improve my reading. I did the work to improve my time management. I did the work to do all the things I've walked. I've done what you guys would call the grunt work to improve myself. And so, because I've walked that journey, I know what it is to be barefoot out in the snow. Academically, I can show you the path out of that blizzard, into clarity, into the tropical oasis. That is greatness and is efficiency in your study. And it's the same way with the pre-med process. Right Is that you guys have to recognize you're going to have to put in some grunt work, and what has made me such an excellent provider today as an anesthesiologist is that I was willing to do the grunt work. I was willing to go do midnight IVs. I was willing to go do airways that were annoying to some other people. I was willing to do that grunt work. As a medical student I never looked at it as grunt work to have to do the charting and have to pull this and have to go around and pull labs and do all kinds of things, because it gave me the opportunity to do things.
Speaker 1:And one of my favorite shows first four seasons was Suits. I don't know if you guys ever seen Suits Shannon's on here right now. She knows I love me some Suits, right, mike and Harvey. And in this show they have a character called Louis Lit and I was very disappointed in my wife Shannon because she never got me. You Got Lit Up mug. It really hurt my heart. But Louis Lit is this character and the show Suits is about a law firm and Louis Lit is in charge of the first year character and the show Suits is about a law firm and Louis Litt is in charge of the first year associates and so these people have graduated law school and they come into the law firm and they're at this big, swanky law firm in New York and they're basically the grunts of the law firm and Louis Litt is in charge of them, and he finds out that they've all been complaining that he doesn't do any work and they're doing all his grunt work and what he has to then go in and show them. He stays up late one night and does all of their work for the next day overnight by himself for a room full of 20 people, and he's trying to point out to them. He's like guys, I could easily do all your work with my eyes closed. I've done this work for years. I'm giving you the opportunity, by giving you this so-called grunt work, to learn to understand the process, to understand the steps, to understand what it is to put this work in. So that way you have the knowledge, you have the skills. So that way you then can become the leader and do what you need to do. And that's the way it happens in academics and in a research lab. I mentioned how you guys are not right, you aren't competent, but you can be a compliment.
Speaker 1:There was a student in a research lab and I had a buddy who was telling me about this. He's in the lab as a postdoc and he's telling me about these pre-meds. I mean, what's up with these pre-meds and I'm like what do you mean? I'm like he's like they come to these labs and they want to do everything. And he's telling me about this guy and he basically says this guy shows up and all this conversation points are around his resume oh, my GPA is this and oh, my dad went to this school and if I don't get into this school it'd be crazy. And da, da, da, da. And like, oh, what school did you go to? And he was inadvertently not intentionally necessarily, but he was inadvertently coming off like a snob, he was coming off above it, he was coming off entitled, like he was so spectacular.
Speaker 1:And all these people who are grinding in the lab the postdoc is looking at this guy like buddy, you may have this great GPA, you may have this great legacy, you may have all these great aspirations, but in this research lab you don't know. Jack, jack, diddley Watt, you are a nothing burger here. You are like the flies that we experiment on. You are zero to us. And when you come in with all this entitlement, all this arrogance, and when people are asking you in the lab like they were doing, asking him to do stuff hey, listen, can you go ahead and check on this, or can you do this? Can you present this paper during journal club? And he's like, no, no, I need my own project, my own project, I need my own project. How can you have your own project if you don't know how to do the research, if you don't know how the research lab works, if you don't understand their foundations, if you haven't done that process, you can't be a leader in the lab. And, as a result, what was?
Speaker 1:This guy spent all this time there and then they asked him not to come, continued to spot, they filled it with somebody else who was glad to be there, who was excited to be there. Instead of being entitled. They were excited and they expressed that excitement, that gratitude. They're willing to do the work and do compliment the team, and that's what it's got to be about.
Speaker 1:And when you guys go into research experiences, I always tell my students when you go into research, the key when you go into a research lab is to understand that you truly are nothing. You are the feces in the bottom of the rat tank. You can contribute very little from a knowledge standpoint, and so what you need to do is go into that lab and act like you're thankful to be there, like you're excited to be there and look for opportunities to assist others. Hey, do you need any help, any assistance, an extra hand? Can I carry something for you? Blah, blah, blah. Hey, I know we have Journal Club coming up. Can I present an article? Hey, pi, are there any articles you think I should read to get up to speed in what the lab is doing? Hey, is there any way I can talk to you about your project? Can you tell me how this project came about and what you're doing, what the next steps might be, and so forth?
Speaker 1:And so you're learning, you're soaking up, you're building up that competency in your early parts of the lab. And it's twofold, because not only are you building up your competency and your ability to be able to actually contribute, but you're also allowing people to see that you are excited to do what, to learn, to contribute, that you care about this lab and what is special about this lab. And by doing that you become more competent, you show them that you're interested and you're building this connection with people. And so then opportunities will start coming to you and being there. And when students go in with that mindset, they escalate much faster in the lab, to be able to contribute to things, to be mentioned as an author on a paper that maybe they didn't do very much.
Speaker 1:And for me I can tell you literally I'm the world's worst researcher. I don't like it, I have no interest in it, I think it's not my bag, truly. That's why I do anesthesia. I like instant stuff and research takes a while for anything to happen, and so for me it's very tedious. To me I'm not saying it's not worthwhile, but for me it feels very tedious. And so for me I wasn't into it. But I showed up with excitement. I showed up wanting to learn, I asked great questions and because of that and I contributed in ways the best I could, and because of that I got stellar letters of recommendation from my research experiences and I got put as authors on papers and I'm like how, I don't even know how, but I'm on there as an author because of my attitude. It wasn't my aptitude. It as an author because my attitude, it wasn't my aptitude, it was my attitude. And that's the way you guys can do it going into these experiences. So, as you guys go into any of these summary experiences, I want you to ask a couple questions. Okay, write this down. Write this down. Guess what we like this video right now. Let me know you here, and we have live action on this Saturday morning.
Speaker 1:This is the test of if you're a student or you're a pre-man that people want to work with. Ask yourself okay, do you show up early? Do you show up early as the low man on the totem pole, the low person in the lab or in the volunteer position, in the internship, in the job? When you're starting out, first impressions are everything, and showing up early is a no aptitude, it's simply effort. Showing up early and being there and having people see you as someone who's there early goes a long way. When you do show up early, do you show up prepared? Have you read up on what's happening that day? Have you checked your boss's calendar to see what's coming up that day that you can contribute to? Have you checked what's happening in the research lab that week and how you can contribute? Have you checked what the clinic needs? Did you get there early? Did you put some printer paper in the printer? Did you make sure there was clean pens in the clean jar? Did you take the dirty one, put it in the clean jar? How did you help? Did you wipe the counters? Did you set up the papers on the bed in exam rooms? Are you showing up early and prepared to be successful? Are you proactive about helping others or are you only focused on what you were given? Okay, I'm assigned the trash. Okay, I did the trash. Oh, yeah, I see that other thing. There's trash in that counter, but I'm not impossible at the counters. Someone else's jar is gone.
Speaker 1:Go the extra mile and I work with. I do mobile anesthesia and so with me I take an anesthesia assistant, and so this is one of my students from inside my program who I have hired and I pay a very nice wage to to assist me and help me with the day, and I have multiple assistants who currently work with me and they alternate days and different things to fill in for each other. But both of my assistants are incredible and this is what I screened for. In the interview process I said listen, you don't have to know anything. I'm going to teach you everything you need to know, but you have to have the right attitude. And I'm so thankful for both of the assistants I have right now because they show up with the right attitude and it literally elevates my day. I give them raises, like once a month, and it's because it makes me feel so good to show up to work knowing that I'm not even going to have to ask and things that need to get done get done.
Speaker 1:Something's dirty, it's clean oh my gosh. Patient shows up early. They're checked in oh my gosh, patient's running late. They call the patient and say hey, where are you at? What's going on? It's so amazing to see them go above their job description to be incredible. And what's cool is I mentioned they're my students, right, and so one of them is an aspiring nurse and one of them is an aspiring physician, and so they're actually both applying right now to nursing programs and to medical school. And so one of my students is applying to an accelerated master's in nursing program and then my other assistant is applying to medical school, and I wrote them both incredible letters of recommendation that were so personalized, so centric, and I could speak to specific experiences and times where they stepped up and went above and beyond. And because of that, the student who applied to nursing school has already gotten into multiple nursing schools, including USF, which is very prestigious here in California, san Francisco, and so has done that. And then my other student's going to apply to medical school and she's going to get in anywhere she wants to go because of that letter of recommendation. I know it because I wrote that letter of recommendation. I know what that is. And so when you're proactive, when you're helping others, when you're doing things outside of your assignment, it's incredible for that experience and for standing out.
Speaker 1:Do you handle the boring tasks with excellence or do you roll your eyes If I ask you to do something that could be considered a menial task? It's not super advanced, not super exciting. Do you respond like, oh, absolutely, get right on that. Or are you like, fine, okay, I'll do that. Okay, what's your body language, what's your tone? How are you responding when you're giving instructions? Do you carry it out with excellence or do you just yes, I took the trash out, yeah, but this was over here. Did you see this was trash? Hey, yes, I know you clean these out, but did you also check back here to see if there's anything? Are you doing things with excellence, going that extra mile?
Speaker 1:Do you thank people for their time or do you expect help? Okay, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you goes a long way. Courtesy, polite appreciation. When you are showing gratitude and appreciation for people's time and effort and energy, they give you more when people come and hang out with me, for example, my son came and chatted with me this week and I made him sit through a 45-minute lecture of me lecturing about anesthesia, physiology and a lot of it's over his head. But it's interesting because he remembers a lot of it. We talk about it. He remembers parts of it. It's great.
Speaker 1:And so when anyone comes and shadows me, anyone comes and works with me, I'm always lecturing, I'm always teaching. Hey, here's a key point. Hey, look at this airway, look at what's going on here, bro, teaching. But the moment I feel like you don't want to hear my teaching, the teaching stops. If you're not excited to learn, I'm not excited to teach, and then I back away. And so now not only have you lost out on learning experiences, but you've lost out on me writing in your letter recommendation that this person is eager to learn, and in fact, you might lose out on my entire letter recommendation, because one of my biggest things that I want to see in students is excitement. I want to see an eagerness to learn, because when you go into healthcare, it is truly lifelong learning, because things are always altering, changing, shifting, advancing, and if you don't love to learn, then you don't belong in medicine. So do you thank people and show appreciation and show gratitude when people show up for you and people try to help you, if that makes sense, like the video right now.
Speaker 1:Guys, dr Pineset here. Dr Pineset, here, we are live action. If you have any questions, put them in the box so we can answer them. So how can you be an incredible teammate? Let's end it on this note, guys. I'm gonna give you five takeaways. You wanna be an incredible teammate?
Speaker 1:Number one give value first. Give value first. Stop asking what do I get out of this and start asking what does the team need from me and how can I meet that expectation? And, even better, how can I exceed that expectation, even if something is not your job? That's how you go above and beyond is doing things outside the scope of what you're asked. Are you giving value first? And the more value you give, the more you show you're willing to give for the good of what you're asked. Are you giving value first, and the more value you give, the more you show you're willing to give for the good of the team, the more the team will get back to you. Yes, follow up with gratitude, so immediately when something happens. Be gracious in the moment and then follow up later, send a text, send an email.
Speaker 1:Hey, I really appreciate you showing me that technique. I just wanted to show you that. I wrote it down step by step, this lab technique, so in case you want to share this with anybody else, because your teaching was incredible, I really appreciate that. Hey, oh my gosh, I learned so much from watching you interact with the patient. I particularly liked how, when that patient, I could see they were getting really anxious and you took an extra step and you move closer to them and blah, blah, blah. That was a great technique and I'm really going to apply that into what I'm doing. So you're following up, showing them that you noticed, and then you're taking the time to appreciate that and show the values. What are they going to do? They're going to be more willing to show you these kinds of things, asking the question this is so important, so important. Hey, thank you so much for the opportunity to shadow today. Thank you so much for working with me on this project this week. Hey, thank you so much for having me in your lab. I've been in the lab now for two weeks. I was wondering is there anything you'd like to see me doing that I can do more of or I can do better? How can I be a better complement to the lab? Ask that question and you're in the money. Guys, just even asking that question One because they see that, oh my gosh, this person wants to get better, this person wants to contribute. Thank you for that. And, secondarily, give them the opportunity to actually respond to that and say, yes, thank you for asking. We could really use help with this. Actually, in fact, we have this project. We want to get off the ground and we happen to get off the ground, and if you are open, we could do it.
Speaker 1:And when I worked in consulting, I started off as an intern, right, and then I worked my way to a project manager. But when I first started out, I was constantly asking hey, what can I get involved in? What can I get involved in? I was overextending myself, even I was working long hours, but by doing that I was able to actually become a lead of a project. They thought that I couldn't complete. They're like, yeah, this project is going to take a long, long time. Just look at it, see what you can see and see what's the first steps that we can take.
Speaker 1:I took was going to take probably a year. I accomplished in about three months. And it was simply a matter of effort and going above and beyond and doing that. And when I did that, it was crazy. This is a crazy statement to say I did this thing. I thought was going to take a year. I did it in three months and because of that they looked at it as okay, look at how much time this guy saved us, how much energy he saved, how much time and energy he put in, and then also this expedited timeline of seven months. What does that help us make in terms of money? And so they wrote me a bonus check that was five figures and I was like I'd never seen a five-figure check. And so to get a five-figure check to go to deposit, I didn't think my bank account would take. They'd probably think it was fraudulent, like what the hell is going on here? This guy's got this big old check. What's going on here? But it was simply because I asked hey, what can I do? What can I step up on for you guys? How can I contribute? And people will give you the opportunity.
Speaker 1:If you're in an experience and you aren't seeing anytime you're in experience, only a couple of things matter, so important One are you growing in an experience? Are you learning something? If you're not learning something, then you must be making money. You must be making money, and if you're not making money right, then you shouldn't be in that experience. If you're not growing and you're not making money, then what are we doing? It's a complete waste of everybody's time. So you have to own your growth and you have to look for ways that a position can grow you. But then this is the second part that people miss you have to own your own growth and ask yourself how are you making growth happen? How are you going outside of the scope of the position to grow yourself? And so when I enter any experience whether it's going to medical school or starting a research project or starting residency I create my own growth plan and I create a curriculum outside of the core curriculum for me to grow and I set my own goals, and so I'm learning outside of the structured experience or whatever.
Speaker 1:So, for example, if I enter a lab and I entered an engineering lab when I was an undergrad and I said, okay, this is engineering. I'm not an engineer, so what am I gonna do? I'm gonna go and I'm to start reading some articles that are around and about this lab. I'm going to start reading some physics texts. I'm going to start watching videos on this physics so I can understand. We're talking about launching satellites and microsatellites and the circuit and blah, blah, blah. I want to have a practical understanding of what this is.
Speaker 1:No-transcript at other people's charts. So if I'm in one OR, I'm in OR two. I know there's 20 ORs running. When I have free time, I'm going to the charts of the other patients and I'm looking over their things and I'm practicing what would my anesthetic plan be? And so, instead of them working one case at a time, I'm working four or five, six cases at a time, mentally, in my head, and so I'm growing into this incredible physician. So I 5x my experience to become this great physician.
Speaker 1:Yes, own your growth. What is your growth plan if you're a student, even in your classes? It's not just about learning the material, learning to learn. What is your growth plan If you're a student, even in your classes. It's not just about learning the material, learning to learn. So what is your plan for elevating as a student? Yes, do we get it? Did we learn today? Was this valuable 31 minutes of your time? If so, like the video, guys, comment, let me know. You guys appreciate it. Again. Show that gratitude for me giving you my Saturday morning when my kids are downstairs. I appreciate you guys. Take a moment, guys. We always want to take what I teach you guys and turn it into action. So I want you guys to sit down right now and turn this video off and I want you to answer three questions.
Speaker 1:One this week, in your experiences in your life, did you go above and beyond and just write a journal entry? Yes, I went above and beyond and I did so in this way, or no, I didn't go above and beyond. And then, if you didn't go above and beyond, how could you have gone above and beyond? How did you miss opportunities to go above and beyond? And how do you plan to go above and beyond next week? Did you take initiative or were you forced? Did people have to force you to do things? Did you make anyone else's life easier? Did you make anyone else's life easier, and this is a big one, guys. How did you help someone else? It's not about you. This is why I put this last, because I want your focus to always be on adding value. Did I make someone else's life easier this week? If I did that, I'm winning.
Speaker 1:And then write down how it was and how you felt about it and how it wasn't skin off your back but actually feel incredible about that and then look for ways that you can make people's lives easier. What's the impending issues, hiccups, problems, roadblocks for my team and how can I help them overcome? Yes, so recognize your summer research experience is an audition. It's not just about that experience. It's about your medical school pathways. It's about your life. Treat it seriously.
Speaker 1:You don't get remembered for your scores, for your resume. You get remembered for your character. So what character are you putting forth? How are you making people feel? How are you making an impact for people in their lives? And you have the power not to be the most competent person, but to be the most complimentary person in your experiences and to be the kind of teammate that people want and the type of person people would want as a physician on a healthcare team, leading and guiding that team, because you will be looking to help all the staff the pharmacist, the nurse, everybody on the team be their best.
Speaker 1:You're not too young, you're not too inexperienced to be an impact difference maker. But the way you make a difference is through, first, your attitude right, how you show up, and then how you help others, and then eventually it's through your competence and through actually doing that high level stuff. But start at the low level and never be above showing up entitled. Never be above it, never be above it. Nothing is below you. We're always gracious just to be in the room. Show that, express that and you guys will go a long way. All right, thank you, guys will go a long way, all right. Thank you guys. So much for joining me. Like I said, I'm Dr Pineset. If you have any questions, put them in the box. I'm always here. I'll be live action a lot more on this YouTube channel. So please let me know you guys are here with me. Comment, like the video and I'll see you guys next time. How do we always end? No excuses, just dominate guys. See you next time. That's it for another episode of the pre-med productivity podcast. Show your love by smashing the like button and commenting the box below.
Speaker 1:Today is the day, guys. No more excuses, no more complaining. You're going to take your future into your own hands. You're going to dominate. You're going to be successful. I challenge you. What are you going to do today to make your life better? Get to my website, premedproductivitycom. Grab a free ebook, sign up for a free webinar and, if you're really ready to transform, enroll in one of my life-changing courses or coaching programs. You have greatness inside you. Let me show you how to unlock it so you can dominate and make your dreams a reality. No excuses, just dominate.
