Behind The White Coat - Real Talk For Physician Spouses
Being married to medicine comes with challenges—long hours, relocations, and feeling like you’re navigating it all alone. That’s where this podcast comes in.
I’m sharing the things I wish someone had told me—how to survive medical training, juggle parenting, manage finances, and actually build a life you love. We’ll cover everything from making friends in a new city to understanding insurance, finding childcare, and staying connected as a couple.
Some episodes will be just me, sharing real stories and lessons learned. Other times, I’ll bring on expert guests—financial advisors, physician spouses, and those who’ve been through it all—to offer practical advice.
Most of all, this is a place for community. A space where you can feel understood, supported, and even laugh along the way. Because being married to medicine doesn’t mean doing it alone.
So grab a coffee (or wine!), and let’s talk about the real side of life Behind The White Coat.
Behind The White Coat - Real Talk For Physician Spouses
#10| My Newest Secret Weapon
I was skeptical about ChatGPT until my kids and real estate coach convinced me to try it, and now it's completely changed how I manage the chaos of physician spouse life. This free tool acts as a smart assistant at your fingertips that helps with writing, organizing, brainstorming, and simplifying tasks without judgment or guilt trips.
• Writing assistance for emails, messages, and communications that adapts to your personal style and voice
• Planning and productivity help when feeling overwhelmed with competing priorities
• Organization tools for managing kids' activities, meal planning, and household scheduling
• Parenting solutions for picky eaters, summer activities, and rainy-day entertainment
• Specific planning capabilities for dinners, date nights, social media auditing, and even vacation itineraries
• Better results come from being very specific with your instructions and requests
If this episode gave you a laugh, lightbulb moment, or just helped make life a little less stressful, please share it with another physician spouse who might need it. Hit subscribe or leave a review if you feel inclined - I'd be so appreciative. Remember that perfection is overrated, but community is everything.
Hey there and welcome to Behind the White Coat. I'm Amanda Barron, your host, physician, spouse and your go-to friend for real talk about this medical life. If you're juggling long hours, solo parenting or finances and feeling overwhelmed, you are not alone. This podcast is your space for honest conversations, real advice and the support that I wished I'd had years ago. So some episodes will be just me sharing what I've learned along the way, and then other times I'll bring on guests to help navigate the challenges of being married to medicine. So grab a cup of coffee or wine, get comfy and let's dive in. Hello everyone, and welcome back to another episode. I am so happy you're here In this episode today. I hope that you find it a little bit helpful, but also a little bit of a confession.
Speaker 1:And then I always ask myself how in the heck did I survive without this? So we are talking about my newest hack, and it's not a meal delivery service, but it's ChatGPT. And no, this is not sponsored by them. I can already see you guys rolling your eyes, but hear me out just for a second. So I know I am behind the times with a lot of things, but I will say ChatGPT I was a little bit skeptical about at first. Does it really work? And you guys, it's life-changing. My kids kind of convinced me to try it out. I know that they use it quite often in their day-to-day. And then I have a real estate coach shout out to Lacey Newman who said it's game changer, and she uses it for everything for her therapist to ask it various different questions, to make time a little bit quicker, for research, and so I was like skeptical, but I'm going to lean into this. So if you've not used ChatGPT which I think probably everybody has, but it is a free tool. They do have paid options that is like a really smart assistant that is at your fingertips at any time. It can help you write things, organize things, brainstorm, simplify, condense time. It can browse the internet, you can give it a photo. I mean it can really do just about anything, which is amazing, yet a little bit creepy if you ask me. But anyhow it does its best with zero judgment, zero guilt trips, but you can basically ask it anything and it's kind of perfect for this phase of life. So how do you use it? I'm going to share what I've been doing to use it, but I would absolutely love if you guys have other tips, suggestions. I'm by no means an expert, but I would love for you to let me know how you are currently using ChatGPT in your everyday life and share how it can help all of us whether it's a time saver, it helps with decision fatigue. Please, please, please, let us know how you use it. So here's how I've been using it, basically every week, if not every day One.
Speaker 1:It can help you write anything you need to Put your thoughts down on paper. It can help you write a birthday message or rewrite an email. And the cool thing is, the more you use it, the more it gets to know you. So it gets to kind of know your personality. Are you super stiff and professional? Are you funny? Are you super stiff and professional? Are you funny? Are you lighthearted? Are you a parent? Are you a professional? So it kind of starts to learn your voice, learn your audience, which again is so cool but can be creepy. But you could basically say please remember to move your laundry before your next shift into chat GPT and tell it to come out in a nice message and you then send it to your husband or your wife, which I know is a funny example, but anything. If you have an email, you want to write to your kid's teacher but you want to make it nice but direct, I mean it will put any kind of voice in there. So I use it all the time to help me just script and write things.
Speaker 1:A second way that you can use it is for planning and productivity. When I feel a little bit overwhelmed, just I'll ask it you know, help me plan for this week, and then I'll tell it what I have. I've got two showings, I've got an out-of-town client, my kid has a dentist appointment, my spouse is on call for nights this week, and give me a ideal plan schedule to fit it all in and not lose my mind. It will literally spit out an example plan for you, which is crazy. You can give it a screenshot of your Google calendar and say, hey, where can I move things around to make my time a little bit more efficient? Or where do you see that I could squeeze in two one-hour workouts this week? It literally will tell you any of that. I could go on and on about how amazing and cool this is.
Speaker 1:It can also help you organize things. So if you've got kids field trips, you are the parent in charge of bringing snacks. You've got a plan for summer camp and a lot of times, like I said, you're just tired, you can't think straight, decision fatigue. You can ask it to create you a checklist. You can ask it gift ideas for end of school teacher gifts. I feel like it helps me stay organized and quickly problem solves when I've got questions. Another thing is just summer ideas, parenting ideas. What could my kids be doing over the summer instead of being on video games all the time? Today it's raining and we can't go outside.
Speaker 1:Give me five activities that my kids can do. You could ask it for ideas for a picky eater and something that's kid-approved yet healthy. A couple other examples that I can give to you guys is you could basically just say help me plan five dinners for picky kids using these ingredients that are in my pantry and refrigerator. It will literally spit those out for you. Give me some creative, budget-friendly date night ideas around my husband's schedule on these days and these times. You could also have it audit your Instagram. I've had that before, where I will tell it to go onto my Instagram, look at my last five or six posts and audit and then give it some more actionable instructions. Audit my Instagram for the last five posts and give me suggestions on better engagement, and it will spit it out. The other thing that I like to do is give it even more instructions. So back to my example of give me five meals that are kid-friendly, using these ingredients in my pantry and in my refrigerator. But I like to be more specific and tell it to do it with links to recipes, to create a grocery list and then to make it into a table labeled Monday through Friday. So it could be like just crazy organized for you like that.
Speaker 1:I have a client, sweet resident. Her and her boyfriend took a two-week trip to Europe and she said she literally used ChatGPT to plan the entire thing, to give her an itinerary, to give her suggestions of what they should do, where they should go, eat, the whole shebang using ChatGPT, which I thought was brilliant. I have not done that yet, but I am definitely going to try. So, anyways, use ChatGPT. I would love to hear any of y'all's feedback once you do use it or, for those that use it on a regular basis, give me suggestions of how I could be using it better and implementing it into my life more. So that's it for today's episode.
Speaker 1:If it gave you a little laugh, a little light bulb moment, or at least just a sense of helping you in this chaotic time of life to make things a little laugh, a little light bulb moment, or at least just a sense of helping you in this chaotic time of life to make things a little bit less stressful, I would love for you to share with another physician spouse who may need it. Hit the subscribe button or, if you feel inclined, to leave a review. I would be so, so appreciative and just know that here we keep it real, we keep it honest and remember that perfection is overrated, but community is everything. So thanks so much and until next time. That's a wrap on this episode of Behind the White Coat.
Speaker 1:I hope today's conversation left you feeling more understood and supported and if you enjoyed this episode, I would love for you to subscribe, leave a review or share it with another physician spouse. Your support helps more of us to connect. Keep in mind this podcast is for you, so let's keep this conversation going. Dm me on Instagram at Amanda Barron Realtor with your thoughts, topic ideas, questions or even guest suggestions. I would really love to hear from you. Thanks for spending part of your day with me and remember you are never in this alone. See you next time.