What happens when the dream you chased your whole life stops feeling like yours?

This week on Surgeon, Interrupted, Frances Mei sits down with Sarah Rav — former doctor, former McKinsey consultant, and now a positioning and content strategist helping professionals build powerful personal brands.

Sarah shares her journey from direct-entry medical school in Australia to corporate consulting, and ultimately to walking away from prestige entirely. Together, they unpack:

• The pressure of immigrant expectations and “safe” careers

• Prestige addiction and socially acceptable success

• The sunk cost fallacy in medicine

• Transferable skills doctors underestimate

• Why visibility matters more than hard work outside the hospital

• Dealing with online criticism (and why backlash can mean growth)

• The concept of being “brave scared”

If you’ve ever wondered whether the path you’re on is truly yours — or just the one you were taught to want — this episode will feel like permission.

As Sarah says:

"This is my rebirth. I decide who I am, how I show up, and what I leave behind."

You’re not behind. You’re exactly where you’re meant to be.Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Guest: Sarah Rav

Connect with Sarah:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-rav/

https://www.instagram.com/sarahrav/

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Follow Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩ on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.

Sarah Rav is a former medical doctor and McKinsey consultant turned Positioning & Content Strategist. Sarah has spent over 13 years building an audience of more than three million followers across Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn by helping professionals clarify their message, build powerful brands, and create new opportunities beyond traditional career paths.

After stepping away from medicine and consulting, Sarah now shares what it really takes to stop letting external expectations dictate your life, to lovingly release identities that once served you, and to find the courage to pursue work that feels aligned and expansive. Through her work, she shows how building a personal brand can give professionals real agency, enabling them to pivot careers successfully, confidently, and on their own terms.

Today is February 24th — release day.

Frances Mei and Colin sit down on the eve of launch to talk about what it feels like to finally let Surgeon on the Edge go. After three years of drafting, redrafting, anger, resistance, breakthroughs, and letting go of control, the book is no longer a mirror — it’s an old photograph.

In this intimate conversation, they unpack:

1. Why the first draft “wasn’t true”
2. How anger transformed into clarity
3. What it means to create art without controlling its reception
4. Why writing the book changed Frances Mei more than publishing it ever could
5. The difference between being an “angry person” and being overwhelmed
6. The real breakthrough (spoiler: there wasn’t just one)

They also talk book tour, color-coded Canva calendars, cozy gaming optimization strategies, and why sometimes you need someone who knows who you are — and will break it to you gently.

The book is out today. The work is finished. The interpretation is not.

You get in life what you have the courage to ask for.

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Order Surgeon on the Edge now: https://www.amazon.com/Surgeon-Edge-Frances-Mei-Hardin/dp/B0G3JWCCH4

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Follow Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩ on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.

This week on Surgeon, Interrupted, Frances sits down with her oldest friend—Executive Pastry Chef Rebecca Freeman—to talk about what happens when your childhood dream actually comes true… and it’s still hard.

Becky is the Executive Pastry Chef at Coyote Café and Santacafé in Santa Fe, a National Pastry Chef of the Year, and a multi–40 Under 40 award winner. She knew at five years old she wanted to be a chef. Frances Mei? Not so much.

Together, they unpack:

1. The brutal reality behind The Bear (spoiler: it’s not exaggerated)
2. Crying in the walk-in vs. crying in the call room
3. Working 400 days in a row to outrun imposter syndrome
4. Why high-achieving women panic after success instead of celebrating
5. How toxic training environments mirror dysfunctional families
6. And what it looks like to break the cycle when you finally become the leader

This is a conversation about abuse in elite professions—kitchens and operating rooms alike. About ambition. About ego. About emotional regulation. And about the strange truth that sometimes the job you begged the universe for still makes you question yourself.

If you’ve ever achieved the dream and still thought, What’s next? Why am I not satisfied? — this one’s for you.

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Guest: Chef Rebecca Freeman

Connect with Rebecca:

IG: @chefbckyfreeman

https://www.newmexicomagazine.org/blog/post/rebecca-freeman-santa-fe-pastry-chef/

https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/business/glaze-of-glory-club-at-las-campanas-executive-pastry-chef-wins-national-culinary-prize/article_a42250e2-517e-11ee-87d2-bbbea92e1dac.html

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Follow Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩ on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.