Ep #117: Help! I’m Behind

Hi docs, welcome to The EntreMD Podcast, where it’s all about helping amazing physicians just like you embrace entrepreneurship so you can have the freedom to live life and practice medicine on your terms. I’m your host, Dr. Una.

Well, hello, hello. Welcome to another amazing episode of The EntreMD Podcast, I am super pumped to be in your ears today and we’re going to be talking about something fun.

It’s not too rare that I have people go like – maybe they just joined the EntreMD Business School and just embraced their journey as entrepreneurs and all of that stuff and they’re like, “Oh my goodness, I’m so behind.”

And in the EntreMD Business School, we have a way of putting it. We say there’s no such thing as behind, right? But I remember when I got in my first program, my first real program as an entrepreneur. It was a speaking program.

And at this time, I was working four days a week and I had this one day to focus on my business. And a big part of it – this was pre-COVID – was going to get onstage, like going to get stage time to speak. And I couldn’t really travel that much. I had little kids at home and I had my practice that I was running and all of that. I didn’t have time to travel every weekend to go speak.

And people in my program will come up and they’re like, you know, “This is what I did. This is where I got paid to speak,” and all this kind of stuff. And I could have felt behind. I didn’t. I did some things. I didn’t because I was clear on what I could and could not do.

And some of the things I did was I took everything I was learning and I applied them. It’s just that I applied them online. So, I started a Facebook show called the Legacy Parent Podcast and I started speaking every week and practicing my calls to action and practicing all of that.

And so, I was able to go through that time very clear that I wasn’t behind. And my journey looked a little different from everybody else’s, but I was applying everything I was learning. So, I try to help people see that you’re not behind.

But there’s a way to evaluate that though, because you may be doing things that are setting you up to be behind, and we’re just going to look, like, what are some of the reasons why you would feel like you’re behind, and what do you need to do to fix that?

And it’s going to just help you enjoy your journey where what you’re doing may look different from what everybody else is doing, but you’re okay and you know you’re moving forward and you know your business is moving forward and you’re hitting milestones. And it’s great.

As doctors, we go through medical school and it’s kind of – you know, everybody has a similar path. I mean, fairly similar. And when you come into entrepreneurship, you kind of think that too. People start a business together, so we should hit revenue goals at the same time, exposure goals at the same time, all of that. And nothing could be further from the truth.

Entrepreneurship is just a whole different thing and your path is your path. Your lane is your lane. And you need to own it. But you need to know you’re doing what you should. So, let’s just go into this.

So, I have five reasons why you may feel behind. And this is kind of the way you would evaluate it. When that feeling comes, “I’m behind,” think about it. It’s not a feeling that leaves you empowered. It’s not a feeling that makes you go, “Yeah, let’s go do this.”

That thought, “I’m behind,” doesn’t provoke those kinds of feelings. It’s kind of like, “So what’s the point? I might as well quit. This isn’t working anyway,” and stuff like that. So, it’s just a yucky thought to have. So, this way, you have a five-step process to evaluate that thought. And then, you can get rid of it so you can go on to think empowering thoughts.

But anyway, so let’s look at these things. So, I have a thought that I’m behind. Okay, so I have to ask, I have to look, which of these five things are the trigger? So, let’s dive right into it.

So, what is the first reason? The first thing that may be causing you to feel you’re behind is inaction. You literally have to have a come-to-Jesus moment with yourself, in action. And you have to ask yourself, “Am I doing what I’m supposed to do? Or am I talking about what I’m supposed to do? And planning about what I’m supposed to do? And learning about what I’m supposed to do, but not doing what I’m supposed to do?

And being honest with yourself is one of the best things that you can do. Just take a look. So, you have a business. You’re trying to hit goals. Are you putting yourself out there? Because if you’re not, you may be falling behind.

You’re scaling your business and you know your limiting step is building teams. Are you building a team? So, you can start getting results through people, through a team. And if you’re not doing that, then you’re going to feel behind and overwhelmed and all of these other things.

So, are you taking action? And if you’re not taking action, you can fix that. The question becomes, “What should I be doing to move my business forward?” Then you start doing them. And it’s a simple framework of things that you should be doing. So, start doing them.

What are the things you know to do that you’ve been procrastinating on? And listen, you don’t have to feel 100% confident about what you’re going to do. Some of your confidence is going to come from repetition. You do it and do it and do it and do it and then you become confident doing it.

So, that means you can do it, even though you’re not fully confident. You may not be an expert at doing that thing. You may not be an expert at speaking. But you’re not going to become an expert until you speak a lot. So, you go out there and speak and speak and speak.

You don’t like networking, but guess what? It’s one of the greatest tools for growing your business, so you’re going to go do it even though it’s not really what your natural bent would be. I am an introvert. But networking is one of the things that has made EntreMD what it is. It’s people.

So, you’re going to ask yourself, am I doing what I should? And if you’re not, it doesn’t mean then get sad, like, “Oh, I suck. I’m not doing what I should.” No, it just means turn around, itemize what you should be doing, and start doing it. Okay, so inaction is one of the reasons.

What’s the second reason? It’s the cousin to inaction. It’s called little action. Now, little action means you’re putting a little action at our business or you’re throwing little action at multiple different things so nothing is having enough action thrown at it for it to produce any kind of real momentum.

And this is why in the EntreMD Business world, I constantly talk about focus. You can put all your energy and be so busy on five different things and they’re all little, little trickles. Or, you can take all your energy and throw it at one thing and it explodes and then you can ride that wave and build five other things. But you have to have focus.

So, maybe it’s little action. But like I said, with little action, you still may be really busy, but scattered busy. So, you’re quote unquote behind. So, what do you need to do to fix this? You throw massive action at your primary business, if you’re starting. You throw massive action at what you’re doing to scale your business. You throw massive action at it.

If you look at those that are successful, when they’re trying to take something off the ground, they worked hard to take it off the ground. I know there’s this whole seductive thing of, you know, entrepreneurship is this easy thing that you do, sipping margaritas on the beach and then all this passive income is coming your way.

And truthfully, that’s not the way entrepreneurship works. Now, is there an opportunity for passive revenue and all that stuff? Of course there is. But that’s not the way it works, especially when you’re starting and when you’re scaling. Those are not cruise control times.

So, you ask yourself – because sometimes people will tell me, “Oh, well I don’t know why this isn’t working. I did two posts on social media.” I’m like, “Nobody saw it.” It takes a little more than that. “Oh well, I’ve been a guest on one podcast.” It’s not enough. You have to throw action at what you do. You have to show up. You have to make offers. You have to tell people, “Come and use my stuff.” You have to serve your clients with excellence.

You have to do all this, but you have to throw something behind it. So, am I behind because I’m not taking action? A I behind because I’m taking little action? And this thought, “I’m behind,” is it coming because I’m impatient? That’s number three is impatience. There is such a thing as a process of time. And a process of time, there’s nothing you can do about it, it is a process of time.

So, for instance, if I was to plant a corn seed, I am not expecting a corn harvest tomorrow. It just doesn’t work that way. If I found out I was pregnant today – and I better not find out I’m pregnant today. But if I did, I would have to wait nine months for that baby to show up. It is a process of time.

So, if you are impatient with the results then you’ll feel like you’re behind. So, when it looks like you’re throwing a lot of effort at something and you know you’re doing the right things and you haven’t had your big break yet, what do you do? You celebrate your consistency with the process.

So, I’m running a business and every single month I go for two networking events. Every single month, I am a guest on, you know, four or five podcasts. Every single day I’m making offers, like, “This is what I do. If you’re looking for this kind of stuff, come check me out.”

Say I own a private practice and I’m doing Facebook lives or YouTube and I’m making offers, I’m sending emails to my clients and all of that, am I doing stuff to generate exposure and new clients and all of that? Yes. So, what do I do? I celebrate my consistency with the process while I wait for the results.

So, I saw this wonderful quote that says, “For success you need…” and I may be misquoting a little bit, but it says, “You need two things. You need patience and you need urgency.” You need urgency with the actions and you need patience with the results.

So, you set what you want the result to be and then you track back and then start urgently taking action with the things that are part of the process.

So, if you feel you’re behind because, “Oh, I’m not seeing results,” the question is, you know, am I doing what I should? If you are, then it may be an impatience thing.

So, what do you do? You find out, am I engaged in the process? Am I doing what I should? If you are, then keep at it and wait. Okay, alright, so that’s number three.

And number four is ignorance. Now, when you hear that, it may be a little overwhelming because you’re like, “Oh my gosh, I can’t learn all the stuff,” and all this stuff. Listen, there is a framework. There is a way to analyze your business, to say what is the next thing that I should really be focusing on?

So, say you’re starting a business. One of the things you have to focus on is building an audience. You just have to. Why? Because nobody knows you exist. You have to let people know, “I’m here.”

Let’s say you are scaling. One of the things you will have to focus on is building a team. Because you can’t take on more without giving up some stuff. That’s the way it works.

So, what is the bottleneck in the phase of my business? And then maybe I don’t know how to do that. There was a time in my practice where hiring was such a big problem. I mean, it was like a revolving door. People were leaving as fast as we were getting them onboard.

And I can go like, “Oh, you know…” al this stuff, whatever. But what I did do is say, “Okay, the problem is not just the people. The problem is I don’t know how to do a good job of hiring. I don’t know how to get the right people on the bus and I don’t know how to set them up to thrive on the bus.”

So, I went and I found resources on hiring and firing and building company culture and I studied them and I implemented them. And then, everything got better. So, I’m feeling I’m behind because this other person has this big team and I don’t, but maybe it’s just ignorance of a step.

So, the reason why I’m pulling this out is because there is scattered learning and there is focused learning. As entrepreneurs, our learning should be, “I need to learn to do.” I talk about this a lot. It’s learn to do.

So, I don’t need to learn all the things. I have this pain point in my business. I need to learn that thing, apply it, and get onto the next pain point because there will always be pain points, they just shouldn’t be the same one.

So, what is the fix for the ignorance? It’s focused learning. In EntreMD Business School, we’re really big on this. In fact, some of the doctors joke and they said Dr. Una has a framework for everything. Why? Because you need to know where your business is. You need to know where the pain points are. You need to know where the bottlenecks are so you can go at that and get rid of that bottleneck. So, that is number four.

Number five – and I find that this is really, really common. Almost everybody has this. And it’s a lack of awareness. It’s a lack of awareness. So, nothing is working in my business is what a lot of people would think, or you know, my business is not that amazing, or anything like that.

And with my clients in the business school, one of the things I do is I teach people to celebrate their wins. Why? Because you’re in the business. You’re running around in it. You see all the problems. You see all the setbacks. You’re aware of your own insecurities and self-doubt. So, of course it’s going to look like nothing is working or that your business is not as amazing as it really is.

When you get into the habit of celebrating your wins – I’m talking about when you have a mindset shift, when you have a first client, when you have your 10^th client, when you get a new client at a new price, when you break a milestone in your private practice, when you get invited to a stage you’ve never been on, all those things, you celebrate all of them.

Why? That is your reminder that you are making progress. Your business may not look like somebody else’s. You may not be the number one yet. But you’re doing so well. So, it’s a lack of awareness of what has actually happened.

And it’s so funny because whenever I start meetings, I always start them with wins. In fact, my one-on-one clients, they know – so, they come on and they’re like, “Okay, so my wins…” and sometimes they’ve already itemized them.

Some are like, “Well, there are no wins, especially in the beginning.” I’m like, well, let’s take a look at this. What happened with this? What happened with that? At the end of it, we pull out seven wins. And they’re like, “Oh my goodness, this is amazing.”

And if you’re thinking that, you’re not thinking, “I’m behind.” You’re thinking, “Well, it’s amazing what that person is doing. But man am I on my way.” So, what do you need to do for that? What is the fix? You need to become a person who celebrates all the wins. I celebrate everything. Everything.

First podcast episode, 10^th podcast episode, 100^th, which was a few months ago, I celebrate it all. Why? Because it’s my indicator that this is working. I celebrate the students in the EntreMD Business School. I celebrate their wins. I celebrate all of that.

Why? It’s my indication that this is working, no matter what else is going on. So, number one, inaction. Number two, little action. Number three, impatience. Number four, ignorance. Number five, lack of awareness.

So, what I want you to do after this, I want you to reject the thought. It doesn’t serve you. “I’m behind,” it doesn’t serve you. So, for instance, if the problem is inaction or little action, rather than embracing that thought just say, “Hey, you know what? I just called myself out. I’m not doing what I’m supposed to do and I’m making a commitment. From now on, I’m going to do what I need to do.”

And move on. That leaves you feeling empowered. That leaves you feeling in control. That leaves you feeling like, “I got this,” rather than I’m behind. It’s just such a yucky thought that produces yucky feelings. So, always reject the thought.

Evaluate, action, inaction, little action, impatience, ignorance, lack of awareness. What is going on here? So, evaluate and react appropriately. So, if it’s inaction, take action. Little action, do more action. Impatience, just recognize it’s like pregnancy, it needs nine months, we’re on this. If it’s ignorance, get the information you need from that step. If it’s lack of awareness, celebrate, celebrate.

Actually, set a timer. For you it could be Sunday where you just take stock of what has happened in your business over the last week and celebrate it. But the idea is, from today, always reject the thought, “I’m behind.” It does not serve you.

If you have friends who talked bad to you, you would get rid of them. I want you to get rid of the habit of talking bad to you. So, I’m behind, we don’t do that anymore. And just imagine with me, okay, being free of that nagging thought, nagging feeling, “I’m behind.” Imagine seeing people who are ahead of you doing bigger things than you, people that are having wins. And you can honestly genuinely celebrate them because you know you’re not behind.

You know, the fact that that person got it, that’s just a pointer that I can get it too and this is all amazing. Imagine if that was your reaction. And it could be. Okay, so reject the, “I’m behind.” Let’s be free of that and enjoy our journey as entrepreneurs.

So, that’s all I have for you today. And I know that this is such a huge problem for doctors, so I want you to share this episode with the doctors in your life and share it on social media and let’s get rid of the “I’m behind,” together. And I will see you, my friend, on the next episode of The EntreMD Podcast.

Hey, if you love listening to The EntreMD Podcast I want to invite you to join EntreMD On Demand. It is my signature subscription program that gives you access to a library of business courses designed to help you do one thing as a physician entrepreneur, and that is to thrive. Just head out to entremd.com/ondemand and I’d love to have you join us. See you on the inside.