Matthew Ray Scott's Physician Brand Rx Turned a Pub-Napkin Outline Into His Second Scribe Media Book
“Doctor, trust is your currency, and your reputation is your bank account.”
Matthew Ray Scott, co-author of Physician Brand Rx
Matthew Ray Scott spent his early career as an Army psychological warfare officer, studying how people make decisions. Today he helps surgeons build their reputations, and with orthopedic surgeon Dr. Scott Sigman he turned that work into Physician Brand Rx. It is his second book with Scribe Media, and he is already talking about the third.
From a pub napkin to a playbook for surgeons
Clip · Matthew Ray Scott on the napkin outline that became the book · 29s
Matthew’s training in behavioral psychology became the base of a healthcare career. Patients, he noticed, want a surgeon who can deliver a good outcome and who they can understand. So he set out to become, in his words, the Jerry Maguire for surgeons. One of his first clients was Dr. Scott Sigman.
Three years ago, Dr. Sigman flew to Matthew’s hometown of Bentonville, Arkansas. Over a napkin and one beer at a local pub called The Odd Soul, they drafted the outline that became Physician Brand Rx: a step-by-step way for surgeons to think about their reputation.
By then the two already had a large audience. A book was the harder, and better, assignment.
“Scott and I already had award-winning podcast and hundreds of thousands of followers. We already had that. What we didn’t have was a process in 138 pages to clarify everything that you’ve learned and to democratize that knowledge.”
Matthew Ray Scott
They were not trying to sell a hundred thousand copies. They wanted the book in the hands of the right surgeons: private-practice specialists who, as Matthew puts it, are working harder every day for a shrinking result.
Trust is the currency
Clip · Matthew Ray Scott on what branding means to a doctor · 75s
Surgeons are trained to diagnose and treat. They were never prepared for patients who research them online before the first appointment. The book teaches them to earn that trust before a patient ever meets them.
“But we wanted this book to be the concept that said, here is what branding means to you, doctor. It means who you say you are, who your patients say you are, and who the internet says you are.”
Matthew Ray Scott
Clear, not louder
Clip · Matthew Ray Scott on being clear, not loud · 59s
The myth Matthew sees most is that a great surgeon will simply be found. His answer: "You’re not invisible. You’re just not legible." Patients judge a surgeon who stays silent, and they judge one who is loud. The fix is not more noise.
“So the one thing that we tell physicians, in fact, we put it here at the back of the book is physicians don’t need to be louder to stand out. Instead, they need to be clear about the problem they solve.”
Matthew Ray Scott
Why he would not wait to be picked
Clip · Matthew Ray Scott on why he would not wait for a publisher · 69s
Matthew had a book in him for a long time. One day turned into two years. He compares waiting on a traditional publisher to standing at recess in sixth grade, hoping to get picked for kickball. Self-publishing looked easy until his first co-authors, both published authors, ruled it out.
“The concept of waiting for Penguin to pick you up, they still can, by the way, if you want to go that route, but why would you, because the commission range with Scribe is so great.”
Matthew Ray Scott
When it came time for the second book, he told Dr. Sigman not to cut corners on saving a few dollars and to hire an expert team.
“And again, I’m not paid to say this. If you want a book done in less time and less effort, then that’s why we chose Scribe. And I would not go any other way after that experience.”
Matthew Ray Scott
Two and a half years, then two weeks
Clip · Matthew Ray Scott on two and a half years, then two weeks · 42s
Matthew’s first book, men@pause: Life 2.0, was written with two friends: one he grew up with and served alongside in the military, the other a colleague from corporate America. Their first plan was three separate voices. It did not work.
“Before we approached Scribe, we had putzed around for like two and a half years on this and everything. We turned the manuscript in. [Scribe’s] editorial team says, you’ve got a great book, but this is not it. And here’s our suggestion. And I kid you not, that one beautiful sage editing advice, it took us two weeks because the story was there.”
Matthew Ray Scott
That one note, to put the book in a single unified voice, is what turned years of stalling into a finished book.
Write it the way you speak
Clip · Matthew Ray Scott on writing a book the way you speak · 68s
For Physician Brand Rx, Matthew was in Arkansas and Dr. Sigman was in the Boston area, operating on patients. So they met on Zoom, recorded their conversations, printed the transcripts and marked them up, with a goal of two finished chapters a week.
“And this is the advice that I would give people, because the best writing advice that I ever received is write a book that sounds the way that you speak. Stop writing a book based on some false prose style analysis. Write the way that you speak naturally.”
Matthew Ray Scott
What the editors taught him about silence
Clip · Matthew Ray Scott on the art of silence in writing · 78s
Matthew and Dr. Sigman knew how to communicate on stages and podcasts. Writing, he learned, is a different skill. He compares the Scribe editors to music producer Rick Rubin, whose credit on a Jay-Z album read "reduced by Rick Rubin."
“And Rick Rubin’s job was to slash, remove, reduce, give it breathing room, give it a gasp, give it an exclamation point, give it a ponder. And that’s what I learned from [the Scribe] editing team on give it silence, give it motion, give it ponder at the right point in time in the book.”
Matthew Ray Scott
Imposter syndrome never stops
Clip · Matthew Ray Scott on imposter syndrome in writing · 67s
Two books in, Matthew is honest that the doubt does not go away. It shows up again with every draft.
“So, number one, resistance doesn’t quit after the first draft. It just changes clothes and context.”
Matthew Ray Scott
What kept the book moving was an editing team that would not let him settle. The revisions went on for weeks, and he says he would have given in early on his own.
Physicians expected a marketing book
Clip · Matthew Ray Scott on controlling your digital reputation · 81s
The early response from doctors who have read the book has surprised them in a good way.
“So what we’ve learned so far is physicians have been so pleased in the comments that we’ve received are saying, oh, wow, we thought this was going to be a marketing book. When they read the book, they quickly realized that this is not about marketing.”
Matthew Ray Scott
The word was authorship
Clip · Matthew Ray Scott on choosing authorship as his word for the year · 81s
Every New Year, Matthew’s 85-year-old mother asks each person at the family table to pick one word for the year ahead. His word for 2025 was authorship.
“So my word in 2025 was authorship. I made the decision I was going to be an author for my own reasons. I wanted that.”
Matthew Ray Scott
He plans to keep writing books with friends: buddies from bars, barracks, boardrooms and operating rooms. He is already talking with Scribe about a third book, and he has sent other people to Scribe, including a woman from his annual healthcare content conference who is now about to produce her first book. Here is what he told her.
“You better write that first book because you’ll learn the art and craft and hopefully commerce of putting words on a printed book and sending it out to the universe.”
Matthew Ray Scott
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