We recently connected with Claire Obryan and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Claire, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?
My work ethic is a product of my upbringing. While my dad worked tirelessly as a physician, my mom also worked tirelessly at home and in our community. My dad would get up and round at 2 hospitals every morning before going into the office for a full day of patients. I realized recently as an adult just how hard he worked. As a child, if my brothers or I came down in the morning for breakfast and he was still at home it was unusual – like Dad why are you still here it’s 7am! He was also there for everything he could possibly attend for us too – he never missed out on major events. My mom worked hard raising the 3 of us but was always working at our church, school, helping friends and family – whatever needed to be done she would step in and do! As we got older, I think both my brothers and I also fed off of each other’s work ethic as well. My older brother is a relentless entrepreneur who worked extremely hard to build a large company, which he sold by age 40. My younger brother is also now a physician. I think we just all enjoy seeing the fruits of hard work and dedication to our careers – while also prioritizing family.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I am a nurse practitioner and Co Founder of a national practice called SkinClique. We are a concierge medical aesthetics practice, bringing in home treatments to our patients all over the country. While we started this model prior to Covid, the way that changed the global workforce – particularly in medicine – really proved that our model is something patients desire. We believe that time is your most valuable resource, and if we can give a little bit of that back to you during the day? It’s a win. We have been able to change not just the lives of our patients but really the lives of the women and men who work for us, by giving them a flexible work solution. They’re no longer working 50 hour weeks on someone else’s schedule, and that’s life changing.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
– HUSTLE – This may seem obvious but there were so many days when friends were hanging out, going out, doing whatever and I was at home working on our business or even out at a conference or event. Hustling. I went to so many lunches, met with reps, conferences, educational meetings, took every call, did every interview – unpaid and on my own time – to get our name out there. There’s this misconception that “good ideas” or having different resources just leads to automatic success. That’s wildly untrue.
– Vulnerability/relate-ability – I’ve always connected well with my audience by putting it all out there. I don’t have the biggest audience, but man they are engaged. I’ve always been open, honest and truthful (getting better about tempering how that comes out as well, because sometimes I can be too harsh with what I think is the truth). I think that honestly makes me great at sales because I’m able to build trust.
– Saying NO – I would rather say NO to a patient and gain their trust than sell them something I don’t think they truly need. People truly struggle with this and it can be hard to teach but it’s one of the first things I go over with new providers and even women in business
Who has been most helpful in helping you overcome challenges or build and develop the essential skills, qualities or knowledge you needed to be successful?
My husband is my biggest sounding board and educator in the areas I’m most deficit in. He’s not just a brilliant physician (though we do have extremely different training so he’s often clueless in my specialty areas) but he has an MBA and is just so different from me personality wise. I lean heavily on him for advice and guidance, he’s so great with people but also helps me see the bigger picture from a business strategy standpoint. It’s great. I mean sometimes it’s annoying because I prefer to be right all the time but I have to admit defeat sometimes.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @claireobryannp
Image Credits
Alice Keeny
