Ep471 - Escape the Physician Grind with Your Solo Private Practice

39min | 06/24/2025

Description

This episode is sponsored by: My Financial Coach
You trained to save lives—who’s helping you save your financial future? My Financial Coach connects physicians with CFP® Professionals who specialize in your complex needs. Whether it’s crushing student loans, optimizing investments, or planning for retirement, you’ll get a personalized strategy built around your goals. Save for a vacation home, fund your child’s education, or prepare for life’s surprises—with unbiased, advice-only planning through a flat monthly fee. No commissions. No conflicts. Just clarity.

Visit myfinancialcoach.com/physiciansguidetodoctoring to meet your financial coach and find out if concierge planning is right for you.

———————

In an era where autonomy drives physician fulfillment, how do you break free to start your own practice? Dr. Bradley Block welcomes Dr. Kara Pepper, who transitioned from 14 years in employed practice to founding an 18-state telemedicine practice focused on eating disorders. Dr. Pepper also explores the qualities—innovation, risk tolerance, and lifelong learning—that define successful solo practitioners. She discusses overcoming analysis paralysis, leveraging automation to cut overhead, and innovative models like cash-pay visits and direct primary care. Highlighting her own journey, she offers practical advice for physicians, whether sole breadwinners or dual-income households, to navigate risks and build sustainable practices, making this episode a vital resource for those seeking to reclaim healthcare on their terms.

Three Actionable Takeaways:

Embrace Risk Tolerance – Assess your willingness to take risks and view failure as a learning opportunity to thrive in a solo or micro practice.
Automate Administrative Tasks – Use technology and virtual assistants to reduce overhead and focus on patient care, enhancing practice sustainability.
Start with the Smallest Step – Overcome analysis paralysis by identifying the tiniest action (e.g., researching EMRs) to launch your practice and build from there.

About the Show:
The Physician’s Guide to Doctoring covers patient interactions, burnout, career growth, personal finance, and more. If you're tired of dull medical lectures, tune in for real-world lessons we should have learned in med school!

About the Guest:
Dr. Kara Pepper is a primary care internist and executive coach based in Atlanta, Georgia, with 14 years of private practice experience. She founded an 18-state telemedicine practice specializing in adults with eating disorders and created Micropractice Mastermind, a community supporting physicians in solo practice. As host of the podcast “It’s Not Just You” she guides doctors to transform healthcare through autonomy and innovation.

Website : https://karapeppermd.com

Email: hello@karapeppermd.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/karapeppermd?igsh=MW94ZGs3ajEwcm1qNg==

About the host:

Dr. Bradley Block is a board-certified otolaryngologist at ENT and Allergy Associates in Garden City, NY. He specializes in adult and pediatric ENT, with interests in sinusitis and obstructive sleep apnea. Dr. Block also hosts The Physician’s Guide to Doctoring podcast, focusing on personal and professional development for physicians

Want to be a guest? Email Brad at brad@physiciansguidetodoctoring.com or visit www.physiciansguidetodoctoring.com to learn more!

Socials:

@physiciansguidetodoctoring on Facebook

@physicianguidetodoctoring on YouTube

@physiciansgui...

About Succeed in Medicine

Was your training enough to handle everything physician life demands? From lawsuits to leadership, career decisions to challenging conversations, balancing the personal with the professional — not enough was addressed in medical school, residency or fellowship. This show fills those gaps so you can live up to the expectations that come with the white coat — not just in the exam room, but in all the places your MD follows you. Your host, Dr. Bradley Block, a private practice ENT, is right there with you — navigating the same challenges and bringing in world-class guests to teach, as he puts it, “everything we should have been learning while we were memorizing Kreb’s cycle.” With nearly 500 episodes and close to half a million downloads, Brad has built a trusted space where physicians come for brass-tacks, immediately-applicable advice. You don’t need another certification. You need a podcast that covers personal finance, private practice, side-gigs, main-gigs, reacting to bad reviews, misinformation, social media, charting, parenting, communicating, negotiating, leading, managing, teaching, learning and what to do when someone yells, “Is there a doctor on board?”

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

About Succeed in Medicine

Was your training enough to handle everything physician life demands? From lawsuits to leadership, career decisions to challenging conversations, balancing the personal with the professional — not enough was addressed in medical school, residency or fellowship. This show fills those gaps so you can live up to the expectations that come with the white coat — not just in the exam room, but in all the places your MD follows you. Your host, Dr. Bradley Block, a private practice ENT, is right there with you — navigating the same challenges and bringing in world-class guests to teach, as he puts it, “everything we should have been learning while we were memorizing Kreb’s cycle.” With nearly 500 episodes and close to half a million downloads, Brad has built a trusted space where physicians come for brass-tacks, immediately-applicable advice. You don’t need another certification. You need a podcast that covers personal finance, private practice, side-gigs, main-gigs, reacting to bad reviews, misinformation, social media, charting, parenting, communicating, negotiating, leading, managing, teaching, learning and what to do when someone yells, “Is there a doctor on board?”

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Description

This episode is sponsored by: My Financial Coach
You trained to save lives—who’s helping you save your financial future? My Financial Coach connects physicians with CFP® Professionals who specialize in your complex needs. Whether it’s crushing student loans, optimizing investments, or planning for retirement, you’ll get a personalized strategy built around your goals. Save for a vacation home, fund your child’s education, or prepare for life’s surprises—with unbiased, advice-only planning through a flat monthly fee. No commissions. No conflicts. Just clarity.

Visit myfinancialcoach.com/physiciansguidetodoctoring to meet your financial coach and find out if concierge planning is right for you.

———————

In an era where autonomy drives physician fulfillment, how do you break free to start your own practice? Dr. Bradley Block welcomes Dr. Kara Pepper, who transitioned from 14 years in employed practice to founding an 18-state telemedicine practice focused on eating disorders. Dr. Pepper also explores the qualities—innovation, risk tolerance, and lifelong learning—that define successful solo practitioners. She discusses overcoming analysis paralysis, leveraging automation to cut overhead, and innovative models like cash-pay visits and direct primary care. Highlighting her own journey, she offers practical advice for physicians, whether sole breadwinners or dual-income households, to navigate risks and build sustainable practices, making this episode a vital resource for those seeking to reclaim healthcare on their terms.

Three Actionable Takeaways:

Embrace Risk Tolerance – Assess your willingness to take risks and view failure as a learning opportunity to thrive in a solo or micro practice.
Automate Administrative Tasks – Use technology and virtual assistants to reduce overhead and focus on patient care, enhancing practice sustainability.
Start with the Smallest Step – Overcome analysis paralysis by identifying the tiniest action (e.g., researching EMRs) to launch your practice and build from there.

About the Show:
The Physician’s Guide to Doctoring covers patient interactions, burnout, career growth, personal finance, and more. If you're tired of dull medical lectures, tune in for real-world lessons we should have learned in med school!

About the Guest:
Dr. Kara Pepper is a primary care internist and executive coach based in Atlanta, Georgia, with 14 years of private practice experience. She founded an 18-state telemedicine practice specializing in adults with eating disorders and created Micropractice Mastermind, a community supporting physicians in solo practice. As host of the podcast “It’s Not Just You” she guides doctors to transform healthcare through autonomy and innovation.

Website : https://karapeppermd.com

Email: hello@karapeppermd.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/karapeppermd?igsh=MW94ZGs3ajEwcm1qNg==

About the host:

Dr. Bradley Block is a board-certified otolaryngologist at ENT and Allergy Associates in Garden City, NY. He specializes in adult and pediatric ENT, with interests in sinusitis and obstructive sleep apnea. Dr. Block also hosts The Physician’s Guide to Doctoring podcast, focusing on personal and professional development for physicians

Want to be a guest? Email Brad at brad@physiciansguidetodoctoring.com or visit www.physiciansguidetodoctoring.com to learn more!

Socials:

@physiciansguidetodoctoring on Facebook

@physicianguidetodoctoring on YouTube

@physiciansgui...

About Succeed in Medicine

Was your training enough to handle everything physician life demands? From lawsuits to leadership, career decisions to challenging conversations, balancing the personal with the professional — not enough was addressed in medical school, residency or fellowship. This show fills those gaps so you can live up to the expectations that come with the white coat — not just in the exam room, but in all the places your MD follows you. Your host, Dr. Bradley Block, a private practice ENT, is right there with you — navigating the same challenges and bringing in world-class guests to teach, as he puts it, “everything we should have been learning while we were memorizing Kreb’s cycle.” With nearly 500 episodes and close to half a million downloads, Brad has built a trusted space where physicians come for brass-tacks, immediately-applicable advice. You don’t need another certification. You need a podcast that covers personal finance, private practice, side-gigs, main-gigs, reacting to bad reviews, misinformation, social media, charting, parenting, communicating, negotiating, leading, managing, teaching, learning and what to do when someone yells, “Is there a doctor on board?”

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

About Succeed in Medicine

Was your training enough to handle everything physician life demands? From lawsuits to leadership, career decisions to challenging conversations, balancing the personal with the professional — not enough was addressed in medical school, residency or fellowship. This show fills those gaps so you can live up to the expectations that come with the white coat — not just in the exam room, but in all the places your MD follows you. Your host, Dr. Bradley Block, a private practice ENT, is right there with you — navigating the same challenges and bringing in world-class guests to teach, as he puts it, “everything we should have been learning while we were memorizing Kreb’s cycle.” With nearly 500 episodes and close to half a million downloads, Brad has built a trusted space where physicians come for brass-tacks, immediately-applicable advice. You don’t need another certification. You need a podcast that covers personal finance, private practice, side-gigs, main-gigs, reacting to bad reviews, misinformation, social media, charting, parenting, communicating, negotiating, leading, managing, teaching, learning and what to do when someone yells, “Is there a doctor on board?”

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

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