Ep #229: How I Would Decide Whether or Not to Join the EntreMD Business School If I Were You

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. I was thinking of how I can bring you the best value today and I said, you know what? Why don’t I take you behind the scenes to tell you how I choose coaching programs? How I choose what program I’m going to invest in.

And I have been doing this since 2017 so at this point it’s been five years since I’ve actively invested in myself. I think at this point I can say, yeah, hundreds of thousands of dollars at this point. But the truth of the matter is I would not have it any other way.

I love investing in myself because it’s an investment, right? And it has a return on investment. And I am a long term investor and it’s just wonderful. And I was like, you know, I’ll take you behind the scenes and tell you all about it.

At the time you get to listen to this we would have already completed EntreMD Live 2022. And at this point I can say it’s my dream that it will be the absolute best one we’ve ever had. I’ve put so much effort into it and I cannot wait to see it unfold. And so by the time you’re listening to this, you’ll be able to go like, “Oh, Dr. Una, this is the way it was.” And I’m super excited to hear about it.

But let’s talk about how I choose coaching programs. And I say this because people would have a lot of questions about programs. I run the EntreMD Business School and people would have questions about that. And I always strive not just to theorize, but to tell you what I’ve done.

At this point I’ve been an entrepreneur for, I don’t know, 12 or 13 years. And I’ve been the CEO of EntreMD for going on four years. And I have two very successful businesses outside of investments and all the other things that we do. So I think my perspective would be really valuable because I’m somebody who’s done what I tell other people to do. So let’s take a look, how do I do that?

So the first thing I do is I look for what I want to accomplish, right? That’s the starting point. It doesn’t start with a program, it starts with me, okay? What do I want to accomplish? So when I first came in contact with the coaching personal development world in a way, I was at a stage where I didn’t know what I wanted.

I just knew there was more. And me being a physician that owned her own private practice, was working four days a week making good money, that was really, really great. But that I had to retool myself. I had to be able to be a speaker, a consultant, and all of that stuff.

I needed to be able to say I can really have a profound impact in the world and generate a lot of revenue not being a physician. And not because I wanted to quit, but because I wanted to have options. I wanted to be in control, I wanted to have autonomy and all of that.

So at that point I knew I wanted more and so I started thinking about it. More, to me, looked like being a paid speaker or being a consultant and all of those things. And so I came across this program and it was a speaker’s boot camp that ultimately led to a speaker’s mastermind. So that was in alignment with what I wanted to do.

We use the EntreMD Business School to run the parallels so you see what I’m talking about. And so for instance, if you’re like, “I want to learn how to build a business. I want to build a profitable business. I want to build a business that will have a lot of impact and generate a lot of revenue. I want to serve and earn.”

If you’re like, “That’s what I want to do.” Even if you don’t have it all figured out, then you can say this is in alignment with what I want to do, right? Do you see what I’m saying? And so it doesn’t start with what does the program look like, the features and all of that stuff. It starts with what do I want?

There may be a temptation to say I don’t know. And if you say I don’t know, I want you to go take a walk if that’s your thing, take a long shower if that’s your thing, you know, go listen to jazz music if that’s your thing. And I want you to unearth what that is because it’s there and it’s time to articulate it.

You may not be completely clear, like I wasn’t completely clear. I knew there was more. I know maybe I could be a paid speaker. So there was a maybe to it, right? But I could articulate it some kind of way. Okay?

All right, so that’s the first thing, what do you want? And for you, if I use the business school parallel, you may not have your idea fleshed out but you know you want to be an entrepreneur. You want to get your autonomy back, right? You want to control how much you earn and all of those things. So that’s number one.

Number two, after I’m done determining what I want, I start looking for who has done it. Who’s done it? Like who’s actually had the results, okay? So these people who ran the mastermind, now there was two of them and one person who was Larry Winget. Larry Winget is a professional paid speaker and he will tell you, “I’m not getting out of bed for less than $50,000 a talk.”

And so this is somebody who has done this. And the person that he was doing the program with is Suzanne Evans and she is a master at selling from the stage. And she would do $250,000 at a gig and stuff like that in sales from the stage. And so these people had done it, right? These people had done it.

So I’m not looking for people who talk a big game, I’m looking for people who walked a big game, okay? It’s the same thing I do with books, as a sidebar. Like I don’t read titles, I read authors. Have they done it? Because my philosophy is you cannot give me what you don’t have, the end. Okay?

So have they done it? And so I look at them, done it. Okay, my current coach now is on track to make 100 million in revenue. And so I’m like, cool, has done it. Has done what I am trying to do. Not the 100 million, I’m not opposed to that but that’s not my next milestone. But she’s done it, right? And so I’m like, “That’s who I want to learn from.”

And so that is why, uncomfortable as maybe sometimes it makes me, I don’t know, I will tell people I’ve built a seven figure practice, my practice is generating seven figures without me physically being in it. The last time I saw patients, the last time I set foot in my practice actually was six months ago.

And so that tells you a number of things, we know how to work the money, we know how to work the team and all of that. And then you might be like, “Well, it’s because it’s a private practice and it’s insurance and all of that stuff.” And I’ve done the same thing with EntreMD, right? Taken it to seven figures as well and growing, right?

And so it’s like, has this person done what I’m trying to do? Whether that’s revenue, whether that’s team, whether that’s positioning in the marketplace, whether that is the magnitude of impact, right? And so if you look at all of those things, you’re like, “This person has done what I’m trying to do.”

And for me, I don’t look at just business, I look at life, right? Is this person a person of integrity? Is this person someone I would love to be friends with? Is this somebody I would leave my kids with? Is this somebody who values family? Because I don’t want to learn from someone who has no value for family because I value my family over my business.

Do they value family, right? And all of those things. So it’s looking at has this person done it, right? And have they done it in a way that I would love to do it like that? Not meaning that you’re a clone and it’s exactly the same, but the overarching principles, okay? So that’s the second thing.

The third thing I look for is has this person helped other people do it? Because there’s such a thing as unconscious competence, right? Where you’ve been able to do something but you don’t quite know how you did it. And so because you don’t know how you did it, you can’t document it, you can’t teach it to somebody else, you can’t help somebody else get the same result. So what do I want? Who has done it? And have they helped other people do it?

And so the event that I talked about that I went for, this speaker’s boot camp, in that three day event they showed us people who had gone through their program and were doing really great as speakers. But even beyond that, because it was a three day program they taught us the framework of a talk. They’re like, “Here, go practice your three minute talk,” and all of those things.

And I saw myself, within a day and a half, I was already different, right? One is I was like, “Wow, I can identify as a speaker.” Two, this is not a personality type, this is actually a skill and I can learn it. Three, I had practice doing a three minutes signature talk, and it was really good.

And so I had experienced all of this transformation in less than 48 hours and so my confidence that they could help me do it was through the roof. You know what I mean? And this is years later and my husband and I still say that’s the best $43,000 that we’ve spent, right?

And so can they help me do it? Have they helped other people do it? And some people are like skeptics, right? Like, “Oh, well, it’s just those people. It didn’t work for everybody.” I choose to be one of the people that it works for, okay? I go into every program with the decision that I’m 10X’ing my investment, the end, okay?

So if we bring that to EBS, there are tens and tens of doctors who have had unbelievable results, right? We have people who thought they couldn’t start a private practice who have started. We have people who thought they couldn’t earn up to six figures as coaches who are doing it now. We have people who are like, “I want to cross the seven figure mark this year,” and they crossed it. Actually we had two or three people last year who did that.

We had people their first year in business they did much more than they ever did as an employed physician, employed specialist, factoring in all expenses paid, all loans paid back, all startup costs paid back. I’m talking like ridiculous results, right? Ridiculous results. And so when you look at that, you know, has this program helped people? Yes, it has. Oh yes, it has, right?

Okay. Now, number four, the fourth thing I look at for me, okay? So this may be a little personal, but I stand by it and that’s why I build the programs that I run that way. Do they have a community? Do they have a vibrant community?

And why do I care about community? Because let me tell you, I’ll give you all the reasons. First of all, there is so much learning that happens horizontally, right? So your learning with your coach is vertical, right? Like they know a whole lot more than you, not in a way that they’re above you, but you know what I mean, right? Like so they’re mentors and in that kind of capacity you’re learning so much from them, that’s like a vertical. Like it’s vertical learning.

But there’s also horizontal amongst your peers. And there’s so much you can learn from them. There’s so much you can pick up from them just in conversation that I’m like, I’m not willing to miss out on that. You might say, “But I can find them anywhere.” But you can’t, okay? You can’t.

I want you to think about this, only 9% of businesses make a million dollars in revenue, like a million and above. Only 9%. So they’re not everywhere, right? Because 91% of businesses are not doing that. And so when you have a program and you have a community of people who are trying to do the same thing, I’m using business because, of course, this is a business podcast, right?

You have people in the same community who are trying to do the same thing. Wow, that is a curated community, right? It’s like people voted with their wallets to be here. They voted with their drive, they voted with their commitment to their vision to be there. It’s so different from everywhere else, right?

And so the community, that 9% is then skewed because you look at it, it’s a bigger percentage, right? And if you think about it, let me flip it, 86.3% of businesses make less than $100,000 a year. 86.3, right? And so if I am in this community, some communities the bar to entering is a million. I mean, like that is the ultimate in curated experiences, right? Like think about it.

But think about a community where it is normalized making 100,000, 250,000, 500,000, three quarters of a million, a million, 2 million, 10 million, it’s normalized. It’s normal, right? That is a very special place and there is so much you can gain from the mentor, the coach, whoever is leading the program. But there’s so much you can gain from your community.

So I love communities, okay? I absolutely love it. I love group programs for that reason, especially when they’re curated. And that’s the reason why I built the EntreMD Business School the way I built it, and where community is a huge part of it is because there’s so much to gain. So much to gain.

If you think about it, if you’re in a community with 100 people and on average everybody has three very significant people in their network. Now you automatically have access to 300 very significant people because you have access to their networks.

Do you see what I’m saying? The value of your circle is just insane. The kind of ideas you’re exposed to are just insane. Why? Because of the community that you put yourself in, right? I think I’ve beaten this a bit, but it’s really powerful.

And so in the EntreMD Business School, we have a lot of people, and in different stages which is just the beauty of it. Some people have made that commitment, they’re starting their businesses. Some other people, they’re like, I need to get my first revenue in. Some other people I’m working towards that 100,000. Some other people are like I’m working towards the multiple six figures, seven figures, multiple seven figures, and on and on. And there’s so much, so much to be learned from that. So much to be learned.

So that’s the way I look at it right? What do I want to accomplish? Some people sign up for programs out of FOMO, you know, fear of missing out. Everybody’s doing it so I’m going to do it also. I don’t do that, okay? So yes, we are having a group experience as humans, right? But we are still running individual races though, right? Our own race, our own destiny, our own vision and all of that. So it’s time to get quiet and decide what do I want?

What do I want? Okay, and that’s a question you want to answer, what do I want? You may be in the phase where you’re like I want to start a business. You may be like, I need to grow this business. I need to build a team so I can really scale. I need to scale. I’m like, I just want to entertain that thought of making this a seven figure business finally, whatever. What is it, right? What is it?

And number two, who has done it? Who has done it? Number three, who has helped others do it? And number four, do they have a community, okay? Because community, I mean, the way I like to describe it is like being under a vent, you can change by default. And one of the ways you can change by default is by changing your community.

You change your community, you change, the end. There’s a proverb that says those who walk with the wise will be wise, the end, right? Walk with the wise, you’ll be wise. Think about yourself, I think about myself, I speak English, why do I speak English? Is it because I made an executive decision to speak English? No, it’s my community. I grew up somewhere and they were speaking English and I spoke English, the end.

And in the same way, you walk into a community where the belief and possibility is through the roof, it rubs off on you. You walk into a community where people are like, “Yeah, I was afraid of putting myself out there, but I did it anyway,” it rubs off on you.

You walk into a community where people are like, “Yeah, that’s how we roll, we build very successful businesses. We’re not ashamed to talk about money, we know that it is a tool, that’s all that it is, right? It’s neither good nor bad. It just takes the shape of whoever has it.” And then you change.

That’s what your community does. It’s like a thermostat, right? It determines the temperature and it determines everything. It’s amazing. And so that’s the way I look at it. That’s the way I invite you to look at it. I hope this helps, it helps you rise above the FOMO, it helps you rise above being afraid that you’re missing out or this is a celebrity coach so I should go and all of that stuff. You can make an executive decision based on these things, okay?

Now, if you are here, and you’re listening and you’re like, I really want to build, I want to build a business, I want to do it sustainably. I want to still have a full life, right? Which means the things that matter to me, I have time for them. I don’t want to do the go, go go lose your life, just hustle, grind until you drop type of thing.

You don’t want to do that. You’re a physician and you’re like, I want to be in a space where I’m understood. And you’re like, nobody understands what I’m doing or nobody understands why I feel the need to do this. They’re like, “You have everything you want, you’re a physician, why are you doing this?”

If that’s you, there is a place for you and it’s called the EntreMD Business School. And it is a place for physicians who are like, I want to embrace entrepreneurship. I want to build a six, seven, or multiple seven figure business. I want to serve a lot and I want to earn a lot, then it’s the place for you. You should come check us out, okay?

You will be in a place where if that’s what you want, you’ve checked off one. If you’re looking for someone who’s done it, I’ve done it with multiple businesses in multiple industries and from a place of integrity and a place of authenticity. Leading with service, not salesy or creepy or yucky. And if you think about sales, you know exactly what I mean. While still doing the things that matter the most to me.

My spirituality, my time with my family, I have four kids, I homeschool the older two. I have time to build really good quality relationships. I mentor a lot of the next generation. And I’m truly having a blast doing what I do as an entrepreneur.

And then if you’re looking for someone who’s helped others do this, we’re going on 200 doctors who have gone through the EntreMD Business School with tons and tons and tons of stories and testimonials of people who have experienced massive wins and created businesses that are truly transforming their entire lives.

And community, oh yeah, we have community. We have community. I remember when we first launched the business school people were like, “I just want to be coached by Dr. Una. I don’t want to be in a group.” And after they joined the group then it switched to, “Oh Dr. Una and my classmates and Dr. Una and my classmates.”

And I remember our first retreat and then people were like, “Dr. Una is really amazing, but oh, my classmates.” Right? And so it’s a nice split. And you get both of them which I believe is necessary, especially if you’re going to grow faster, okay?

So I thought I would throw that out there, I think it will help you when you have to make decisions. This is not about pressure, this is not a sales tactic. This is me sharing with you what I have done and there has not been a single coaching investment or investment in a program that I’ve made that I have not made my money back many, many, many times over. And it starts from picking and this is how I pick, okay?

All right, so this could be you in the EntreMD Business School a few months from now looking back and saying, “My goodness.” Right? It could be you a year from now, two years from now going, “If they told me I would build this six, multiple six, seven, multiple seven figure business, I would not have believed it, but look at me now.”

So that can be you, I want it to be you. If you are at a stage where you’re like, “Man, I think, but I have a question.” Reach out to the team, they’ll help you, hello@entremd.com. So that’s hello, H-E-L-L-O, @entremd.com, they will help you. But I truly want to see physicians be the leaders in entrepreneurship, leaders in the healthcare space, leaders period, okay? And this is how we do it.

So if this is something you’re like, “I want to do this,” then come join us, okay? Entremd.com/business. If you’re like, “This is a really great episode, and I’ve learned a lot and I’m thinking about it. Maybe I’ll be ready for it later.” That’s fine too, okay? That’s fine too. This is not a high pressure thing at all. I just wanted to give you the how to, which is how I do it.

So I’m so glad that we were able to look at this today. I think it’s something really important and it helps take a lot of pressure off. Thank you so much for listening. Don’t forget to share this episode with another doctor in your life, and I will see you 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.