408: She drew cartoons through medical school - now she has over 90,000 Substack subscribers (with Laurie Marbas)
About this episode
Laurie Marbas discusses her journey from medical school to becoming a successful Substack writer with over 90,000 subscribers.
Season 4, episode 8 is here! Laurie Marbas, MD, MBA started her Substack on January 6th, 2025. She had three kids in medical school, served in the Air Force, built and sold a telemedicine company, and spent 25 years as a physician before any of that. This conversation went everywhere, and it was brilliant. What we covered: - How Laurie got through medical school with three small children by drawing cartoons, and why she still remembers everything she drew 25 years later. - What lifestyle medicine actually means in practice, and why Laurie thinks putting it at the centre of medical education would change everything. - The story of a patient who reversed type 2 diabetes by walking to the end of her driveway, and what it taught Laurie about where real change actually begins. - Why the biggest psychological mistake people make when trying to improve their health has nothing to do with willpower. - The one question Laurie thinks every Substack writer needs to answer before they write a single word. - How she grew a Facebook page from 9,000 to 83,000 followers in a matter of months and what that did for her Substack subscriber count. - What she thinks is coming next, including three…
People in this episode
Host: David McIlroy
Guest: Laurie Marbas
Topics covered
- Substack growth
- medical education
- lifestyle medicine
- health improvement
- cartooning in medical school
Keywords
- Substack
- medical school
- lifestyle medicine
- health improvement
- cartoons
- type 2 diabetes
- social media growth
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: The Habit Healers
More episodes of How to Write for a Living
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- 406: Becoming a world builder (with Nathan Baugh)
- 405: He deleted every social media account and built a thriving community anyway (with Seth Werkheiser)
- 403: How to access your main character energy (with Olivia Wickstrom)
- 402: Things that passed me by (and why you shouldn't let my next event pass YOU by)
- 401: Welcome to Season Four (let's build it together)!
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