Ep #219: My #1 Lesson from the Business Makeover Mastermind

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, my friends. Welcome back to another episode of The EntreMD Podcast. As always I’m super pumped to be in your ears. I don’t think that will ever change, I’m so honored that you would listen to the podcast week after week after week. And we are going to have the most amazing time because I am not as scripted as I usually am.

I really just want to share an experience from my heart and let you know that the business ideas you have, the business that you do have, the ideas you have to change the world, those things that you think about that maybe you’re not even bold enough to talk about that have been with you all these years, like you try to shake it off, it doesn’t go anywhere. They are so valid. And I want to show you how to own them today, okay?

So that’s what we’re going to be doing. And it’s going to be one of those episodes that’s just going to make you have chills and is going to change your life, okay? And not to be cliche or anything, it’s legitimately going to do that.

So, before we get into it I really do want to shout out, I want to say this is Dr. Danielle Manalo, who wrote a review for The EntreMD Method book. And so she left these five beautiful stars that I love, and said, “Take notes, so many actionable items.” And then she goes on to say, “I read this book on an international flight back home. I answered questions, I took notes, and now I have some actions to take. Thank you, Dr. Una, for sharing your zone of genius.”

So big shout out to you, thank you so much for leaving us this very kind review. I am so happy. Every time I hear that the book helped somebody take action, think differently, own their own zone of genius and all of that, it makes me super glad. So thank you for sharing that. Thank you for getting a copy of the book. I’m just beyond grateful.

Okay, so today we’re going to talk about the power of doing it afraid. I remember letting my fear stop me. I remember, not owning my ideas or owning what I thought I was supposed to do because it didn’t look like what somebody else was supposed to do. And I think that more and more I’m coming into my own where I’m like, “No, this is exactly what I want to do. This is exactly why I am on this planet, and I’m going to own it. I’m going to do it.” Okay?

So last weekend, at the time of this recording it was last weekend, we hosted the Business Makeover Mastermind. Which was a two day event, well a three day event for the EntreMD Business School students. And it was in Atlanta, Georgia and it was the most phenomenal event ever.

And so the docs came in on Thursday, we had what was supposed to be a casual meet and greet that was a book signing, and dinner, and amazing conversations, and networking, and all of that. And then we had a full day on Friday, a full day on Saturday. And the words used to describe it are words like magic, fairy dust. I mean, it was so unbelievable.

So we had 54 doctors come and we had one doctor who flew all the way from Puerto Rico. And we had another doctor who flew in from Trinidad and Tobago. So I need you to imagine what it was like, right? It was absolutely insane. And the energy, the energy in the room, it’s like all of these people, they are all rooting for each other, they all respect each other, they’re opening doors for each other and it’s literally like family away from family.

The coaching, the strategy sessions, the networking. And people got to network in diverse ways, like people that don’t look like them, don’t have their kind of businesses, don’t have their level of income and all of that. And then people also got to network, for instance, we had those of them who are in private practice, insurance space, cash space, those who are coaches, those who are speakers, those were event hosts, and there were different sessions for all of them. It was just crazy. It was crazy.

It was a room where doctors had taken, they left with this resolve, right? I’m going to build, I’m going to build a big business. I’m going to build a wildly successful and very profitable company. I mean, and we talked about money and it was good. It wasn’t yucky because these are people who are leading with service. They’re not leading with wanting to make a buck, but you can serve and earn, right? And it was just so good.

So many people got breakthroughs. You know, I don’t have words. I really don’t. The collaborations were crazy, the wins were crazy. You know, like people standing up, like I wanted to talk about this, but my business just crossed seven figures and all that. I mean it was off the chain. It was completely off the chain.

And since then for those of the doctors who were there and those who weren’t, we have what I’ve decided to call a win fest in the EntreMD Business School, where the kinds of wins people are sharing, I’m like, “My goodness,” right? And so it was this two and a half day event that was really a defining moment.

And I’ll tell you what I mean by that. There are some things, some events, some seasons in your life that kind of change the trajectory in a good way. And you’re like, “Man, my life was going in this one way until this happened.” And I could tell that that was a defining moment. Like people are going to go like, “My business was like this until I came for the EBS Business Makeover Mastermind.” Okay?

And I remember, one of the days they were having lunch, and they had lunch outdoors. It was such beautiful weather, like the most amazing weather. And so they had all these tables, they were probably about seven to eight per table, and they were sitting outside in groups and they’re doing lunch.

And I was standing on the inside, looking out at them. And I remember going like, “Wow, there are a million physicians. But what happened here this weekend, the effect of it is going to be this ripple that is going to sweep across the entire physician community. And these doctors are the examples of what is possible. And they have made decisions here that’s going to make them shining examples of what is possible.”

It was very strange, in a good way. But it was very strange just sitting there and thinking that. And I started thinking about the honor and the privilege that I have to be a part of their stories. And really, that’s what it is, it’s a very humbling experience. Very humbling.

I sat and I thought about it and I was like, I have come to a point where I know that my assignment is to stay true to what I’m supposed to do. And I may never know the full impact, and I’m okay with that. I just want to stand true. I want to stay true to what I’m supposed to be doing.

I started thinking I was like, you know what? This is all beautiful. People walked up to me in tears, like this has absolutely changed my life. It’s changed my family, it’s changed everything. Walked away like I’ve had a shift, I used to think money was bad. I used to think I was not worthy to make more. I used to think I was sleazy for wanting to make anything.

People walked up to me and said I didn’t know I had so much in me, and I’m going to live it out. Someone walked up to me and said, I’m going to fix this problem in my entire state. Like that’s how elevated my self-concept is now. And it was just one thing after the other. Like in the vision retreat we had in October, we called the microphone, the cry-o-phone, because you just hold it and you cry, and that’s what happened.

So why am I saying all this? I’m going somewhere. So just go with me, you know I have a point, right? So I stood there when I was watching them over lunch and I thought about it. And I was like, this is something that is tangible. This is something that you can see, you can see what’s happening, you can see the changes in the lives of doctors, you can see some of the ripple effect and all of that.

But it started off like something that was a joke, like something that wasn’t serious, right? And I’m saying this because you may have an idea, you may even be running a business but you’re holding so much back because you’re like, this thing, this direction I want to take the business in, nobody else is doing it, it doesn’t look conventional. Maybe you’ve even talked to somebody about it and they said that’s not the way it’s done, don’t do it. I need you to hear me, okay?

All right, so I started off wanting to help all entrepreneurs, okay? I was like I’m going to help all entrepreneurs, that’s what I’m going to do. And so I hosted my first event and I had physicians and non-physicians in there and I was talking about entrepreneurship and all of this stuff. And it was very strange.

I’ve told this story many times that afterwards, when I was getting feedback, all the physicians were like, clearly you’re not talking to us because that’s for people like them, whoever else was in the room. And the people who were non-physicians are like, clearly you’re not talking to us because you don’t understand what we’re going through. We don’t have access to capital like you do. We not as intelligent as you and all that kind of stuff. And so I realized I was talking to nobody, okay?

But what was my thing? I wanted to help people. I want to help people learn how to build businesses, become the best versions of themselves and all of that stuff, okay? And so I remember going like, “Wow, I have to make a decision.” And maybe you have to make a decision in your business right now and you’re like crippled by, oh, what if I go the wrong way? And all of that kind of stuff, right?

I had to make a decision. I’m like, am I going to talk to physicians? Or am I going to talk to non-physicians? The truth of the matter is that any of them would have worked, okay? But I had to make a decision, right? And not making a decision, not being quick to make decisions is something that you want to learn to stop doing.

If you look at the lives of the ultra-successful, they’re decisive, right? And so I was like, “Okay, well, if I could only help one group, who do I want to help?” And it’s the physicians because I’m like, look, I mean, there are a lot of programs and trainings and stuff for people who are not physicians. But for physicians, first of all, people don’t even get what our limiting beliefs are, and why we don’t step into entrepreneurship and we don’t embrace it, you know, all of that stuff.

I’m like and they’re my people, you know? And so we said, “Okay, we’re going to talk to doctors.” And I remember getting with Makeda. And I’m like, “Okay, Makeda,” Makeda is my executive assistant and personal assistant and the boss of my life. I just do what she says, okay? So we’re like, “Okay, so what are we going to call it?”

I’m like, oh man, you know, we’re going to help doctors, what are we going to call the company? And we’re like, okay, so we want them to be entrepreneurs and they’re MDs and, you know, like EntreMD. We came up with a lot of other ones, we bought a bunch of domain names, right? And EntreMD was, you know, what we ended up with.

And then it’s like, okay, so we have to sell the vision. And I was a super shy, introverted introvert so I didn’t have a lot of physician friends or anything like that. So I was like, okay, let’s do our first meeting. And so I used all the marketing skills in the universe that I had at the time, and I got six doctors to come, and some other medical students. And we met at a Maggiano’s Little Italy.

And we sat over there, we had our first meeting, it came out, I shared the vision, all of that kind of stuff. It was six doctors. It was six doctors and that was in September of 2018. And then I started doing some one on one coaching. And then in 2019 in June, you know, we made a decision in June we’re going to have our first event, right?

And then that’s when I was like, okay, if we’re going to invite people for an event, the least we can do is have a website. And we made the website and we did EntreMD Live and it was really good. It was 47 doctors from eight states, people flew in for this stuff, okay?

And then we went on to do our first 12 week program, the Freedom Formula Masterclass. It was so good, but then it was 12 weeks so at the end of the 12 weeks, people are like, “Okay, bye.” And then I learned the lesson. I was like, “Oh my goodness, that is so not for me.” Because I know that every success you get is the steppingstone for the next thing.

And so the 12 week thing hurt my heart because I was like, “Well, they all got wins.” And they got crazy wins, I’m talking about business growth of 150%. Like big growth, right, in that short amount of time. But then I was like, no, I am never doing another 12 week thing for as long as I live, right? Because I started my journey as an entrepreneur, what, 13 years ago? And I’m not slowing down, I’m firing up.

And then I looked for a one year version and then eventually was the EntreMD Business School, which launched in June of 2020. And so we’re about to hit the two year mark, but I’ve spent almost two years tinkering at it, making it better, tweaking it, going like what? Because I have one agenda, I want to help doctors build profitable businesses.

I want to help them build six and seven figure businesses, or multiple seven figure businesses. I want to help them do that. And so I’m like, how can I do that? How can I get them better results? How can I support them? How can I help them get rid of their limiting beliefs? How can I make this so simple that anybody can get it? All of that. And I’ve spent almost two years tinkering at it. Tinkering and tinkering just to make it better and better.

And then last weekend, watching that unfold was just beautiful. And I thought about it, I was like, “That idea didn’t look like a big idea.” Like if you were walking with me through it, it just looked like, I don’t want to say confusion because it wasn’t quite confusion. But it was like finding clarity as I went. Being willing to commit to the idea for the long haul. And it just kept getting better and better.

I guess my point is, there is gold in your ideas. There’s gold in your dreams. There’s gold in the business that you’re doing now. Yes, there are frustrating times because, yes, there will be what people consider failures along the way, but really they’re lessons. There will be people who would hurt you, there are things that happen in your business that will make you go like, “I don’t want to do this anymore.”

But I want you to take a deep breath and realize that on the opposite of all of that is the change you’ll create in the world, the impact you’ll have, and the ripple effect that you’ll never be able to measure. Not on this side of eternity, you won’t be able to measure it because that’s how large it will be.

So it doesn’t matter where you are, if you’ve been thinking about doing something, do it. If you’ve been dabbling, stop dabbling, own it. If you’ve been hiding yourself, hiding your true values, hiding the true impact you want to have, I want to encourage you to come out of hiding. Own it, work on it. Failures will come, don’t let them stop you. Success will come, don’t let it stop you either. Go all in. Whatever your business is, right?

So business, yes, business, do you generate revenue? Of course, right? But business is about serving and earning in that order. And you can serve a lot and you can earn a lot, but it’s in that order. There’s an impact you want to make, make it. There’s personal change that you will experience as you do that, it is the most rewarding part of building a business.

The most rewarding part is not the impact you make, it’s not the revenue you generate, it’s who you become in the process. You will love that person. I mean, you love yourself now but you’ll go like, my goodness, right?

And so, like I told you, this is not scripted. I really just wanted to come on here and tell you, your idea, your business, and you could be at multiple, seven figures, it doesn’t matter. Own it, work it, don’t let the failure stop you. Don’t let the success make you settle. Own it and change your world. You’re a physician and you went into medicine because you wanted to help people, because you wanted to change the world, because you want to have a huge impact. Do it, okay?

So that’s what I have for you. It will really warm my heart if you share this episode. If you got anything out of it, take a screenshot, post it on social media. Tell your followers you absolutely have to go listen to this episode. 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.