Ep #95: Why Are Their Businesses Growing Faster Than Mine?

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, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of The EntreMD Podcast. We are going to have a come-to-Jesus meeting this morning. Well, it’s something that I’ve been thinking about, right?

So, this is to be fair to everybody who’s an entrepreneur. You started that business or you’re trying to grow it and you look around and it’s like, “Wait a minute. How come these people are growing so much faster? How come they’re doing so much better?” Maybe they post their revenue online and you’re like, “How are they doing that?”

And you’re not jealous or anything – maybe you are – but you’re genuinely asking, “What is going on? Why am I not growing? What’s wrong with me? What’s wrong with my business?” And I’m here to answer that question today. So, this is going to be a ton of fun and you’re going to leave going, like, “Okay, I got this and they got this and it’s good.”

So, I’m going to start off by reading a review by RhysiePiecey. I hope I said it right. And this doc said, “She’s amazing…” and gave me those lovely five stars that I love to see.

And she says, “I’m a little late to the party, but better late than never. My mind is blown. I love her insights and her practical advice. In just 10 episodes, I feel like my mindset is reset. Thank you so much for this gift.”

And thank you so much, doc, for this review. I really appreciate it. And I’m glad that you’re having a mindset reset in just 10 episodes. I cannot wait to see what happens. We’re about to celebrate episode 100, so this is so cool. Thank you for leaving me a review.

And if you’re here and you are a listener and you haven’t had a moment yet, write me a review, pretty please with a cherry on top. I like them, okay. I collect reviews.

Alright, so let’s dive into this. Why are their businesses growing faster than mine? Why? And I’m going to give you three reasons. And the idea is, by the time we’re done with this, it should set you free, where you’re not really bothered about any of that.

The first reason is this. We may start businesses at the same time, but it doesn’t mean we’re starting from the same point. I’m going to say that again. We may be starting businesses at the same time, but we may not be starting at the same point.

So, for instance, I worked for a doctor. This was a locum physician. And I worked for this doctor who started a practice. So, she starts a practice. And within six months, she needs to hire another doctor.

Now, somebody else could have started a practice at the same time, and within six months they’re still hustling to get up to full capacity. And that doctor who is not up to full capacity might go, like, “What’s wrong with me? What’s wrong with my marketing? What’s wrong with all this stuff?”

Well, let me tell you what happened with this doctor. This doctor that had the practice that exploded in six months, she had three OBGYN friends. She’s a pediatrician. She had three OBGYN friends who had practices within 10 miles of her practice. And three of them were like, “Oh, we’re going to get you busy.”

These are not just referral sources. These are her people and they’re like, “We’re going to get you busy.” Of course, they got busy in no time.

So, were those two practices starting at the same point? No, they weren’t. Because the practice that exploded had already built the foundation of a network base that was going to feed her practice. Do you see what I’m saying? So, did they start at the same time? Yes. Did they start at the same point? No.

I have a client I’ve worked with, Dr. Barbara Joy. She’s the one who did the episode on networking. And if you haven’t listened to it, I’m going to link to it in the show notes. Amazing, amazing episode. She’s a master networker.

She has a huge Facebook group full of doctors and lawyers and she has referral bases and she’s done TV and she’s done all of that. If she decides to start a business tomorrow – because she’s an intrapreneur now. If she decides to start a business tomorrow, guess what’s going to happen to that business. It’s going to explode. Why? Because all this time, even though she hasn’t quote unquote been working on a business, she has been working on a business.

So, somebody else could be starting their business at the same time going like, “Why am I not getting speaking gigs like her? Why am I not having people refer like her? Why am I not getting shoutouts like her? Why is my social media not going like hers?” Because she’s been working on it for years.

You may be starting at the same time, but not at the same point. Let’s say you meet a physician coach. And this physician coach, while she was working a job, has been building wellness programs for physicians, has been hosting retreats, has been responsible for raising money for projects, community projects and all of that, and then she starts a coaching business and you are starting from, “I’ve been an employee. I did not even realize entrepreneurship was a thing for doctors. But coaching has been my heart’s desire. I didn’t even know that’s what it was called but that’s what I want to do.” And you start your business at the same time. But, oh my goodness, no, you’re not starting at the same point.

So, will that other doctor’s grow faster? You know, the doctor who has done all these wellness programs? Absolutely, and it’s okay. This is not the only reason, but it’s one of the reasons. It also doesn’t mean this is the way it always plays out. But more often than not, that’ show it plays out.

So, when you see someone else who started at the same time as you, don’t let it throw you off. You guys might not be at the same point. So, that’s number one.

Number two, they may be doing the work that you’re not willing to do. Okay, now I am part of a fitness program. So, I took this fitness challenge because I’ve not been paying as much attention to my body as I should. And I’ve been doing the bare minimum to keep me healthy. So, I would take walks. I do all that. I’m not doing aerobics. I’m not doing strength training. I’m not doing intermittent fasting. I’m not drinking enough water. I’m not doing any of that. But I’m fine because I’m doing a little bit. That’s what I was doing.

And this year, I was like, “You know what? My body is my responsibility. My body is my earth suit and if I abuse it and destroy it, then I have to leave.” That’s kind of the way this works. So, I signed up for this eight-week transformation thing and it’s brutal, for me because it’s a lot of things that I don’t do.

And we’re five weeks in. And the level of transformation, we’re talking about people who their doctors have taken them off their hypotension medications because their blood pressures are normal. We have people who their doctors had to take off their insulin, or really lower the dose because of the dramatic transformation. We have people whose cholesterol were high and are now normal. We have people who have lost 10 pounds, 20 pounds. It’s amazing. We have people posting pictures like, “Hey, look, it’s a muscle…” all kinds of stuff happening.

Now, there’s a range of results. I’ve had results. I’ve lost weight. I’ve built some muscle and all of that stuff. But there are also people who had a lot more results than I have. But when I look at them, I’m honest. They didn’t miss workouts. They did the extra workouts. They followed the diet plan to a tee. I modified a lot. I mean, don’t tell me to do a one-minute plank. I just flat-out can’t, right? So, I modified a lot.

But there are people who are all in. The results of people who are all in tend to be different from the results of people who are not all in. So, when you see someone doing better than you – I mean, I could have looked at those pictures and gotten mad or frustrated or discouraged. I looked at it and I had a conversation with myself.

I’m like, “We’re halfway through. We’re halfway through this challenge. You have to modify a lot because a lot of this stuff you couldn’t do anyway. We’re halfway through. You need to give the rest of it your best shot so that you don’t come out at the end of eight weeks and have regrets.”

So, me seeing them succeed faster than I have and get results bigger than mine didn’t make me get annoyed. It inspired me. It made me have a come-to-Jesus moment and inspired me to say, “Hey, they’re getting those results because they’re doing the work. If you do the word, you’ll get results too.

So, for instance, you have a business. Have you spent the time to figure out the discipline of figuring out who your ideal client is? Have you spent the time putting yourself out there? Have you created referral sources? Have you done Facebook lives? Have you gotten on podcasts? Have you reached out for speaking gigs? Are you disciplined in your speaking, where you’re not just going on and just talking, where you’re helping people get wins and you’re telling them what you do? Have you been selling, or are you still going, like, “I don’t want to make offers? I don’t want to bother anybody. I don’t want to do that.”

Because if they’re people who are willing and committed to doing this stuff, they’re going to get massive results; massive. So, you have to ask yourself, are they doing stuff I’m not willing to do? Are they doing the work that I’ve said no to? Because if they are, then that’s why. Okay, so that’s number two. They may be doing the work you’re not willing to.

Number three is time and chance. They may just be doing a lot better because they’re in the right place at the right time. For instance, think about it, Zoom stock has gone up, I think first quarter of 2020 was up 300 or something percent. It was insane, I mean their revenue; insane. But it was time and chance.

It was a pandemic and everything went on lockdown and everybody needed Zoom. Time and chance. Now, did they have a part to play? Of course. Because they have been stretching themselves when they could have been relaxing. Because if they didn’t have the framework to accommodate that level of growth, they would have disappeared as well.

So, they had a part. I’m not saying they didn’t do anything, just time and chance. But time and chance. There’s a pandemic. It worked perfectly for them.

Look at Amazon in a pandemic. I mean, they were doing well. They were growing. They were not doing well. They were doing very well, right? But then a pandemic comes and it’s just like… time and chance.

Think about somebody starting a practice, and a month after they started a practice – so, let’s say it’s an internal medicine practice, a month after they started, a practice that was a five-minute drive away just shut down, or the owner disappeared.

All of a sudden, people are like, “Where’s the next place?” And it’s this other practice that just started. Time and chance. Right place at the right time. Time and chance. Time and chance.

So, if you look at these three reasons, you’ll see, you can’t really compare your business with another business because they’re just different. They’re just flat-out different. So, I want to give you a concept I learned a long time ago. I wasn’t an entrepreneur at the time, but I learned it.

There’s so many different fruits. You have oranges. You have mangoes. You have strawberries. You have grapes. You have bananas. And they all get ripe at different times.

So, imagine a banana jealous of a grape when a grape is in season. Imagine an orange being mad at a mango when a mango is in season. Imagine a strawberry being mad at a watermelon when the watermelon is in season. It doesn’t make sense.

When you see entrepreneurs thriving, celebrate them. They’re in season. Your season is coming. You play your part. You own your journey. Your season is coming. So, yes they may have started at the same time as you, but maybe not the same point. Yes, they may have started at the same time as you, but maybe they’re doing the work you’re not willing to. Maybe they started at the same time as you, but time and chance happened for them. It’s okay.

So, rather than worry about somebody else’s journey, I want to invite you to do something else. I want you to own your lane. I want you to focus on your business. I want you to give it your best shot. I want you to stay out of your comfort zone. I want you to put your head down and work. If you need help, get it. If you need a community to do it with you, get the community. If you need the coaching, get it. If you need to do work that you’re uncomfortable with, do it.

Own your lane. Own your lane. Celebrate other people’s successes and put your head down and own your lane. Don’t worry about anybody else. Don’t worry about anybody else. And if you adopt this, you become that person who you can celebrate everyone. You can see their success and you’re excited and you don’t compare anymore because you really can’t compare. How do you compare oranges to mangoes? There’s no comparison. They’re different. They just are.

You can celebrate everybody. You can get rid of compare-itis, as I all it. it’s a disease of comparing yourself to others. You can enjoy watching other people succeed and you can do what you need to do to succeed.

So, I know this helped. And what I want you to do with this episode is I want you to take this link, copy it, and I want you to share it with your friends. I want you to share it on your social media. I want you to text it to another doctor in your life. Why? Because this trips us up. It does. But we can live above it. Okay.

Alright, I am so excited for you. And guess what? I’m looking forward to celebrating your success. I’m looking forward to celebrating your wins. So, own your lane and go do it. And when it happens, tell me about it. I want to know. I want to shout you out.

Alright, so thank you for listening. Go share this and I’ll see you on the very next episode of The EntreMD Podcast.

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