187: How to Stop Using Shifts to Fund Your Dream Lifestyle

Dr. Debbie Stein is a Pediatric Nephrologist at a leading academic medical center. Inside this episode, she shares her journey inside of Next Level Freedom — how coaching helped her build a career centered on her strengths: patient care, teaching, mentoring, international speaking. Promotion. All without leaving medicine or burning out. You'll learn: How exactly to get charts closed so your patients are cared for, even after a long call week — using a simple mantra that eliminates perfectionism  How to say No to work that doesn't fit without burning bridges How to say Yes to the work you love without burning out  How to cultivate your passion projects and strengths into best patient care, mentoring, international talks, and promotion  Why coaching doesn't make you leave medicine (unless you want to) — it helps you build a sustainable career where you do your best work, and where you and your institution both win For these exact frameworks, join my free, live masterclass series July 28th, July 29th, and July 30th where you get the exact process of cutting back to part-time hours at your full-time doctor salary in under 90 days. At the masterclass, doors open to Next Level Freedom with an unprecedented 72-hour bonus bundle. We only open once a year. Your $100K raise. Your part-time schedule. Your son's soccer games. Sign up for the free live masterclass now! https://christinaarnoldcoaching.com/live-masterclass

Every year as a physician, you should be making more money while working fewer hours. Negotiation gets you there. Tax strategy gets you there. And so does manifestation — faster than either of the others. When someone first said "manifestation" to me, I rolled my eyes straight out of my head.  And then I got honest. Because every big thing I'd ever done — medical school, my marriage, retiring at 45 — I had seen it clearly before it happened. I just never called it that. Einstein ran his entire theory of relativity as a thought experiment before he touched the math. Steve Jobs saw the iPhone fully formed before a single engineer built it. You saw yourself in a white coat before you had any proof you could be a doctor. You're already manifesting. You just haven't aimed it at your bank account yet. This week on Happy in Medicine, here's what we cover: - The ladder experiment  - Why worry is manifestation in reverse  - The one closing sentence that lets the universe bring you something even better - How to EXACTLY manifest your $100K raise   Everything we cover in this episode — and a bonus $5,000 manifestation course — is inside Next Level Freedom. Clients have used it to manifest raises, part-time schedules, and exits from jobs that were quietly breaking them. You can join us THIS week by booking your free sales call here: https://app.squarespacescheduling.com/schedule/bd3b6a3c/appointment/33598962/calendar/5849920 Reply back and tell me everything! Christina P.S. — My free live July training is coming up. Real strategies for part-time hours at full-time pay. Under 90 days. The invitation goes to the email list so get on it-- go to link in bio to get on the email list today! PPS-- Know someone who'd love to be making a doctor salary while working part-time hours??? Forward them this podcast episode! They'll thank you for it!

When my husband and I walked out of medical school, we had over $500,000 in student loan debt between us. Two medical degrees. One baby. One condo. Two cars. Half a million dollars. Our classmates went into emergency mode: pay it off as fast as possible.  I wanted to as well! But my husband had us do the math instead. We decided to pay the minimum on the med school loans. Attacked our high-interest debt. Bought a house. Had baby #2. Went on nice vacations.   And then the government forgave the loans entirely.   We watched the loans zero out over night. My friends who did all the moonlighting to pay off the debt asap? They didn't get the money back. They didn't get their time back. It broke my heart to see that.    Here's what I know now that I wish someone had told me then:  A 2% student loan isn't a crisis — it's cheap money. Debt is a tool, not a moral failure. Loan forgiveness programs still exist. The real $100K raise isn't always a negotiation. It's often a simple financial decision, get a strategy that will make your kids wealthy. Managing money makes your kids rich (running from debt keeps us broke). The shift from "I need to eliminate this as fast as possible" to "I deploy every dollar where it grows the most" — that shift is worth millions over a lifetime. If you're done feeling broke even though you're a high earner, done sacrificing your family for your career, Next Level Freedom is where physician women get part-time hours at their full-time doctor salary in under 90 days. No pay cut. Join my free, live masterclass series where you get the exact process of cutting back to part-time hours at your full-time doctor salary in under 90 days. [REGISTER HERE] https://christinaarnoldcoaching.com/live-masterclass   Reply back and tell me everything, Christina P.S. — In July, I'm running a free three-part live masterclass where I'm going to show you exactly how to get part-time hours at your full-time doctor salary in under 90 days. REGISTER HERE.  https://christinaarnoldcoaching.com/live-masterclass PPS. Forward this to everyone you know who wants to make more than their doctor salary while cutting back to part time hours. In under 90 days.  

What if your employer was already willing to give you an extra $20,000 a year — and all you had to do was say yes? No negotiation. No meeting. No asking anyone for anything. You just... claim it. Most physicians aren't claiming it. This week's episode is going to fix that. Here's what we cover: - Why the employer match beats a $20,000 bonus — by a lot (the math will make you want to log in today) - The pre-tax concept that takes ten seconds to understand and changes how you see every dollar you earn - The second retirement account hiding in your hospital benefits portal that most physicians have never opened - How to shelter moonlighting income from taxes in about an hour, one time - The free physician-built resource that explains all of this in plain English And if making your paycheck go further is just the beginning of what you want to fix — If you're done working evenings and weekends, done watching your family move through life without you, done waiting for a promotion that keeps getting pushed back — Next Level Freedom is where physician women get part-time hours at their full-time doctor salary in under 90 days. No pay cut. No side hustles. No waiting on anyone's timeline but yours. See results in their very first call. Book your free sales call here to join us this week →   Reply back and tell me everything, Christina P.S. — In July, I'm running a free three-part live masterclass where I'm going to show you exactly how to get part-time hours at your full-time doctor salary in under 90 days. The registration link goes out to the email list on June 28th. If you're not on the list yet, [get on it here → link] before the doors open.

I just figured out how to give myself an at least $10,000 raise every year of my life. I have to tell you about it. I finally sat down with a trusted accountant — someone who specializes in high-earning physicians — and she showed me I could save at least $10,000 a year on my taxes. Now — if taxes give you the heebie-jeebies, if money talk makes you want to close this email right now, go back to the beginning of this money series first. But I want you to hear this: this is a story with a very happy ending. It's one where you keep more of your money instead of giving it all to the government. You get richer while working fewer hours. That is the whole point of Happy in Medicine, of Next Level Freedom, of everything I do. So stay with me! It was a SIMPLE change. No restriction, no spending money, no complicated strategy. Just... keeping money I was already earning instead of handing it to the government. I sat there doing the math in real time. If I'm in business for 10 more years — and I will be — that's $100,000 or more that stays in my account. Just from one conversation. 💥You're $100k raise is hiding in plain sight. You can gave it WITHOUT negotiating, asking your boss for anything, or waiting for promotion. Here’s what you get in this week’s podcast episode: Your $100k raise hiding in plain sight Why most physicians have $100k+++ hiding in their tax returns Your one action this week to reclaim your $100k raise without talking to your boss And if taxes are just the beginning of what you want to fix... If you're done working evenings and weekends, done watching your family move through life without you, done waiting for a promotion that keeps getting pushed back.... Next Level Freedom is where physician women get part-time hours at their full-time doctor salary in under 90 days. No pay cut. No side hustles. No waiting on anyone's timeline but yours. See results in their very first call. Book your free sales call here to join us this week →  https://app.squarespacescheduling.com/schedule/bd3b6a3c/appointment/33598962/calendar/5849920   Reply back and tell me everything, Christina P.S. — In July, I'm running a free three-part live masterclass where I'm going to show you exactly how to get part-time hours at your full-time doctor salary in under 90 days. The registration link goes out to the email list on June 28th. If you're not on the list yet, go to link in bio to get on right now!  

If you've ever looked at booking a family vacation and thought “that's four extra urgent care shifts” — this episode is for you. If you think about splurges like a new TV, a designer purse, or sending your kids to a high-end summer camp in terms of how many urgent care shifts you need to pick up — this episode is for you. Because that's not freedom. It's a trap. In this system, the only way to earn more money is to sacrifice more time away from your family. This ties you to Medicine forever. You're not failing. The system is. And today I want to show you one very concrete way to start living the life you went to medical school for — without working a single extra hour to do it. I'm sharing how I funded first-class flights to Europe, business class to Japan for cherry blossom season, and my daughter's entire summer abroad — for under $500 out of pocket. The secret isn't spending more. It's finally getting credit for the money you're ALREADY spending. Medicine gave us a high income. Points travel helps you keep it. In this episode: Why the shift math is keeping you trapped — and the mindset shift that breaks it How to divorce the link between working more and having more — for good How travel points work as a real wealth-building strategy (not a travel hack) Cashback vs. points — how to know which one wins in each category How to get started without math, spreadsheets, or becoming a points obsessive This episode is a preview of how we think inside Next Level Freedom — where the entire strategy is built around one idea: your career should be giving you more life every year, not taking it. Fewer hours. Same salary. A life that doesn't need a recovery plan. Inside Next Level Freedom, I help overworked physician women who want to stop sacrificing their family for their career achieve part-time hours with a full-time doctor salary in under 90 days by learning how to Coach Your Boss with Trauma-Informed Physician Coaching Skills. We're opening doors in July with an unprecedented bonus bundle we've never offered. Book a free sales call NOW and join us this week: https://app.squarespacescheduling.com/schedule/bd3b6a3c/appointment/33598962/calendar/5849920 Reply back and tell me everything! Christina P.S. In July I'm running a brand new three-day live free training exclusively for women physicians — all about your next $100k raise while cutting back your clinical hours. No side hustles. No extra RVUs. No waiting. Get ready to register for this free live event — details dropping soon.

I found tens of thousands of dollars I didn't know I had. Not from a new contract. Not from a raise. Not from picking up extra shifts. It was sitting in my own accounts — money I was already earning, already saving — and I just hadn't looked closely enough to see it. Here's what I found when I finally did look. A subscription I thought I'd cancelled five years ago. Still running. **$250 a month.** Over six years, that's $18,000. I found several charges like that. Tens of thousands of dollars quietly leaving my accounts every month because I was too anxious to open the statements. You're not failing at money. You inherited a story about it. Most of us did. By the time we were eight years old, we'd already absorbed our parents' beliefs — about whether money was safe, scarce, dangerous, or dependable.  My kids noticed. If they wanted to talk about money, they'd go find my husband in the other room. I knew I didn't want to pass that forward. So I did the work. And today you get the best lessons I’ve never shared before….because I just invented them! The Money Map — the exact exercise I run with every client inside Next Level Freedom that consistently reveals millions of dollars they didn't know they had (the look on their faces never gets old) The Monthly Money Date — a simple line-by-line practice that found $18,000 in forgotten subscriptions in my own accounts — and why most physicians are hemorrhaging cash the same way right now The underspending leak no one talks about — why playing it safe with your money is costing you more than any latte ever could, and how I turned $10K into $130K by finally letting money do its job The inherited story running your finances — what you absorbed about money before age eight, how it's making your decisions for you today, and the reframe that changes everything 5 money sprints you can do this week — none of them require a financial advisor, all of them make you more money without one single RVU This episode isn't about budgeting. It's not about cutting back. It's not about skipping your daily Starbucks luxury coffee. No Thank You! It’s about creating a $100k raise from what’s in your accounts righ tnow. And if you're ready for your $100k raise, join Next Level Freedom today. Book your free sales call and be immediately onboarded: [Book your free call →]: https://app.squarespacescheduling.com/schedule/bd3b6a3c/appointment/33598962/calendar/5849920   See you inside! Christina P.S. In July I'm running a brand new three-day live free training exclusively for women physicians — all about your next $100k raise while cutting back your clinical hours. No side hustles. No extra RVUs. No waiting. Get ready to register for this free live event!  

What does moving to California with no house, no plan, and 80% of your belongings in a donation pile have to do with your career as a physician woman? Everything. I just survived one of the hardest transitions of my life — selling in Colorado, landing in one of the most expensive real estate markets in the country, and getting the house anyway. And every single lesson I learned applies directly to your job. These aren't soft lessons. They're the exact moves that work when the path isn't visible yet, the market isn't cooperating, and waiting is no longer a strategy. If your job isn't working and you're done hoping something changes on its own — this episode is your starting point. Inside this episode: The $3M decision I made in under an hour — and why your next conversation with your chair requires the same move What eight rejected offers taught me about the decade of data sitting in your employment contract right now The moment I stopped spinning at 2am and started winning — and how to find that moment in your job Why the most powerful thing I did wasn't fight harder — it was know exactly when to stop The one belief I repeated on every flight, every rejected offer, every hard day — and why it's the only mindset that gets you to part-time hours If you are in a season that is asking more of you than you expected — this episode is for you.  Next Level Freedom is where we do that work. Part-time hours. Full-time doctor salary. In under 90 days. Most women see results in the very first call. Join us this week by booking your free sales call here now.https://app.squarespacescheduling.com/schedule/bd3b6a3c You are moving towards better. Way better. — Christina PS. Forward this to the women physicians in your life who need to hear it. And if the podcast has been useful to you — a rating and review means everything. It takes two minutes and it helps us reach more listeners just like you. PPS. If you are ready to stop waiting and start moving — Next Level Freedom is where we do this work. Join today. The only women physician community focused on getting you part-time hours at full-time doctor pay. Lifetime access. One-time investment of $2500. Join us this week by scheduling your free sales call now: https://app.squarespacescheduling.com/schedule/bd3b6a3c/appointment/33598962/calendar/5849920  

Early in my career, a very senior woman in my field decided she didn't like me, even though we had never spoken. She rejected every paper with my name on it. She openly challenged every leadership nomination. At one point, she told me she was going to destroy my career. She didn't. Because I had a Promotion Coalition. In last week’s episode, I taught you how to build a Promotion Coalition (make sure you check it out!).  In this week’s episode, I teach how to keep your Promotion Coalition from falling apart. Inside this episode, here’s what you get: What to do when someone isn’t pulling their weight How to handle jealousy to create even more advocates When jealousy turns into sabotage — and exactly how to shut it down Ready to build your Promotion Coalition? Join Next Level Freedom today. We are your Promotion Coalition! — weekly group coaching, lifetime access, and a framework that gets women physicians promoted early while working less. One-time investment: $2,500. Your $100k raise we help you get will more than cover it!  Weekly group coaching. Lifetime access. Book your free call here. https://app.squarespacescheduling.com/schedule/bd3b6a3c/appointment/33598962/calendar/5849920   Reply and tell me everything! Christina   P.S. Would you please forward this to your besties? Then rate and review the podcast — it helps me know what you love AND gets this into the hands of more women physicians who need it. Thank you!

One senior male physician left a scathing anonymous Amazon review on one of my books. He called us authors "the mafia," trying to tank our sales, publicly humiliate us. I was horrified. Humiliated. Embarrassed.  I didn't go looking for a fight. I didn’t have to. I had a Promotion Coalition — women physicians looking out for me in rooms I wasn't even in.  Because he didn't have a Promotion Coalition, his career at that prestigious center was over. The review was traced back to his personal computer. He ultimately lost his job. Here's what I know for sure after years in medicine: this field is full of ego, bad leadership, and people who will absolutely threaten your schedule, bonus, office, and job without blinking. We've all watched physician careers disappear overnight. A Promotion Coalition is how you make sure yours doesn't. It doesn't matter if you're in academics, community practice, private practice, or industry. It doesn’t matter if you don’t care about promotion or you’re already promoted. Every woman physician needs one. This episode shows you exactly how to build yours — including: How it zooms your career ahead 10 years while getting you home more How to put your promotion on autopilot — while you're on service, your coalition is moving everyone's careers forward Who to recruit to make it bulletproof — and how to lead it so nobody can take it down with one anonymous Amazon review Ready to build yours? Join Next Level Freedom, we become your Promotion Coalition — weekly group coaching, lifetime access, and a framework that gets women physicians promoted early while working less. One-time investment: $2,500. Your $100k raise we help you get will more than cover it!  Weekly group coaching. Lifetime access. Book your free call here. https://app.squarespacescheduling.com/schedule/bd3b6a3c/appointment/33598962/calendar/5849920   Reply and tell me everything! Christina   P.S. Would you please forward this to your besties? Then rate and review the podcast — it helps me know what you love AND gets this into the hands of more women physicians who need it. Thank you!