Ep 052 Michelle Finkel, MD: Insider Medical Admissions

Oct 4, 2018

In today’s episode, we speak with Michelle Finkel, MD, owner of Insider Medical Admissions and Emergency Medicine Physician. She tells us all about how she got her business started, and how she has helped over 1000 applicants improve their candidacies for medical school, dental school, residencies and fellowships over the past 11 years. She also explains how she balances being a busy wife, mother, business owner and physician.

In this episode, you will learn:

• Why Dr. Finkel decided to start her business and how she got it up and running.
• How she ventured into the writing world and uses that to help her applicants.
• How she juggled her life as a wife, mother and physician and grew her business at the same time.
• Why she feels outsourcing is important to grow your business.
• How the medical admissions process has changed over time and become more competitive.
• Why she thinks having your own business offers autonomy but she still chooses to practice medicine part time.
• How she uses all of her skills in writing and medicine to help applicants achieve their goals.
• Why she feels that women specifically need to be less humble and learn how to showcase their accomplishments.

Dr. Finkel is a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Medical School. On completing her residency at Harvard, Dr. Finkel was asked to stay on as faculty at Harvard Medical School and spent five years teaching at the world-renowned Massachusetts General Hospital. She was appointed to the Assistant Residency Director position for the Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency where she reviewed countless applications, personal statements and resumes. In this role, she also interviewed applicants and made key admissions decisions. For over nine years Dr. Finkel trained medical students, residents, and fellows, yielding her three Harvard Medical School faculty teaching and mentorship awards, including Best Faculty Mentor. Dr. Finkel is currently a board-certified, practicing Emergency Physician.

Links we discussed in the show:

• Find out more about Michelle and all of her services at Insider Medical Admissions.
• For more information about the AAAS Mass Media Fellowship.
• Check out Michelle’s stop animation video series Guru on the Go.
• Find out how to get things done cheaply and easily for your business using Fiverr.com.
• Read Dr. Finkel’s article she wrote for StudentDoctor.net: How I Stitched Together My Own Golden Parachute.

Quotes from Michelle Finkel, MD:

• “Part of my goal is to help people find their path, calm them, let them know other people are stressed out.”
• “I have this autonomy, I have this flexibility, and it’s really liberated me from some of the drawbacks of Emergency Medicine.
• “What’s wrong with her wanting to have a balance in her life?”
• “If you have happier employees, you get better quality of work.”
• “It’s our job to showcase our accomplishments, to be persuasive and to be memorable.”

Special thank you to this week’s show sponsors: PearsonRavitz for all of your physician disability and life insurance needs and Johanna Fox Turner at Fox & Company Wealth Management.

Thank you for listening to the Hippocratic Hustle! I know that time is your most valuable resource so I really appreciate you spending some of it with me. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it!

If you’d like to help me improve and grow the podcast, send your suggestions to: [e-mail]

Lastly, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast, so you won’t miss an episode!