Ep #223: How to Create Quantum Leaps in Your Business

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. Super pumped, as always, to be in your ears. And we are going to have the most phenomenal conversation, if you will, because you’re going to talk back to me. Because I’m going to be sharing something that I’m going through right now. It’s a process I’ve used over the years, but I’m so excited that I get to share it with you.

And that is how to create quantum leaps in your business, right? Where it’s not just addition, we’re talking about exponential growth, radical growth, dramatic growth. Where people are like, “My goodness, I’m watching you and I’m just watching you change into another person, your business have like this huge impact.” There’s a science to it. There’s a framework to it. You know I love frameworks, formula, all those kinds of things. So this is going to be really good.

But before we get into this, I want to read this review of the EntreMD Method book from Dr. Heather Fork. And I saw this this morning, it was so amazing. It really warmed my heart and I was like, I’m going to share it with you. And so she leaves five stars, and she says, “A gem of a book!”

And then she says this, “Dr. Una is a rare gem of a person and physician, and her book, EntreMD, is a gem as well. If you’re feeling discouraged as a physician and wondering what you can do to take control of your situation and be empowered, this quick read will get your engines revved up. Dr. Una’s message is very inspiring for physicians. She tells us we don’t have to accept things the way they are, and that we can take charge of our lives.

In this book, she lays the foundation for how to be happier in medicine, as well as how to start a business and be an entrepreneur, if you so desire. I love Dr. Una’s can do spirit and practical advice. She shares a lot of her personal experience from starting her own practice to helping out coaching other physicians in her EntreMD Business School.

She’s the real deal and is truly passionate about her role in leading other physicians to their own success and fulfillment. I am recommending her book to a lot of my physician coaching clients. Make sure to check out her great podcast as well.”

Dr. Heather Fork, I have been an admirer of yours for a long time. And I want to say a big thank you for leaving that review. It means a lot to me, especially coming from you. Thank you so much for sharing that. And for everyone listening, this is a book to put in the hands of physicians.

It’s a book that we should all be reading because this is our time and it’s the season for the mass business education of physicians. Yes, things look bad. Doctors don’t have autonomy. Doctors don’t love being in medicine. Doctors don’t have financial freedom. But we are not victims and we are not waiting anymore.

We’re not waiting for some Cavalry to come save us. We’re not waiting for the AMA or the AAP or any other aid, no disrespect to them. We are the ones who are going to take charge. We took charge, that’s how we became doctors. We’re going to take charge, that’s how we stay in medicine. That’s how we stay loving what we do.

Okay. So, Dr. Heather Fork, thank you so much for that. For everyone listening, if you’ve not gotten a copy, please get a copy. If you haven’t left us a review, leave us a review. And if you want to join the group of doctors who are like, not only are we going to get this and read it and be the example, we are going to pay it forward and give it to other doctors, then I want to invite you to do that, okay?

And you can reach out to us, druna@entremd.com, and we would be happy, that’s D-R-U-N-A @entremd.com. And we will be happy to connect you with bulk purchase options and all of those things.

I personally got 32 copies and sent to my residency program, you know, where I graduated from. And I’m like, “Put this in the hands of every pediatric resident.” Why? I’m like, “Well, what if I knew this then?” And they are graduating to a world they have no idea what it’s like out here, right? And so if you want to do that, reach out to us, we’ll be happy to help you get that done.

Okay, so 2022 has been a very interesting year for me. Because I’ve just had this awareness that it’s time for us to do things on a bigger scale, it’s time to impact more people, it’s time to be a bigger example of what is possible. And you might be in a stage in your business where you know it’s time for a shift, it’s time for a change. You may not know how. Knowing how is not required, okay? It’s not required. That’s not where we start from, we start from the what.

So I knew that and that’s kind of why I took on this Herculean task of we’re going to do the mass business education of physicians. We’re going to drive it We’re going to share this message with 100,000 physicians, right? And even for the EntreMD Business School I had this feeling that it’s time to up-level the kind of results that I can help them, support them to get and all of that.

And the Business Makeover Mastermind, it literally challenged them. In the EntreMD Business School we have two live events, in person events. And one of them is the vision retreat, that’s usually in October because you know if you listen to the podcast that I start my year in October. I don’t start in January.

And the reason being I can maximize the end of the year when there are so many distractions. And that’s not to say, I don’t observe holidays, of course I do. I have a family, I have four children. But it keeps me focused, in a way, at the end of the year so I’m not like blown off by the holidays and all the other things that happen there.

And in January, when people are like Happy New Year, I’m like three months in. Been there, done that, like I’m technically in April. And so it’s all mind games to keep me focused, to keep me productive, to keep me on the straight and narrow. And so that’s what I do.

And so the vision retreat happens in October, beautiful, beautiful event. And then this year, for the first time, we did the Business Makeover Mastermind, which was in Atlanta, it was so amazing. And at that event I challenged everybody.

I’m like, let’s all build million dollar businesses. Let’s all build seven figure businesses. If you’ve already crossed the seven figure mark, which a number of them had, I’m like add another million. Add a zero, I mean, add something but let’s dream bigger. And let’s show up bigger and bolder. And let’s get bigger results. And it’s crazy what’s happened between that event and now, the transformations and all of those things that are happening. And it’s wild.

And you might go like, “But how many businesses do that?” To which I’m going to say, how many people become doctors? I mean, we do impossible things. This is kind of our MO, you know? And so I know that I’m in this phase where it’s like reach up higher, be a bigger example, show people even more what’s possible, right?

And so I know I have to make these quantum leaps. And so the question is, how do you do that, because I’ve done that before. I’ve done that many times before. That’s the thing about your life, if you choose to live a life of impact there’s no end. It’s just this beautiful journey that you stay on.

And so I’m like quantum leap and I start doing all the things. I’m like, you know what? I have a framework around this stuff. So I’m going to come and I’m going to talk to you about it. And if you’re listening to me here, your quantum leap may be you start a business. Your quantum leap may be you hit your first six figures. Your quantum leap may be multiple six figures, seven figures. It may be that you serve 10,000 people, 50,000, 100,000.

But I want you to think of that, all right? Because I want you to listen to this in the context of that. This podcast episode, I mean, let me tell you, if I charged you $5,000 for this podcast episode, you would still come out ahead. Your return on investment of this is going to be huge. Like we’re talking 10x, 100x, 1,000x, right? This is going to be amazing so I want you to lean in.

So first thing is I want you to think, what is that next leap? What would be a quantum leap for me? And I don’t mean you just throw out a number, you know, like some number that you don’t connect with at all. I want you to pick a number, or an impact that you have, or something that you do that is when you think about it, you’re like, “Man, I’m going to need a lot of help for that.” Like I might could do it. So it’s a stretch, but it’s not breaking you.

If before now you were like, “I think I might want to do a business,” and you pick 100 million, you’re not really connecting with that number. You see what I mean? So pick a number you can connect with but a number that’s a stretch. An impact you can have but an impact that’s a stretch, you know, like a stretch, like a quantum leap type of stretch, okay?

Now, so how do I make quantum leaps in my business? The starting point is this, you make quantum leaps in your business by growing by quantum leaps, okay? It has nothing to do with the business. It has nothing at all to do with the business. It has everything to do with you. It has everything to do with me.

As the entrepreneur in my business, I am the rate limiting step. In my business I am the lid. In my business I am the asset that appreciates the most. If I want to change my business, I don’t start by going to my business to change things, change my website, change my team, change all of that. I may need to do all of those things, but it starts with me. I need to change.

And if I want an itty bitty change in my business, then I can change itty bit. But if I want a quantum leap in my business, then I I have to make a quantum leap myself. It’s not the business. So when I think about all these things, I’m not trying to change the business. Am I going to change things in the business? Of course I am. Am I going to change things? Yes. But is that where I start from? No.

The first thing that needs to change is me. When I change, everything changes. I’m like the center of gravity. I’m the rate limiting step. I’m the lid. I’m the “problem,” right? I don’t mean this in a negative way. But if you’re like, “We have a problem in this business,” the first problem in the business is me.

All right, so it’s that understanding, I have to change. And it’s easier to change the website, or fire a team, or bring on a new team and all of that. The hard work is to change me, is to change the way I think, to change my mindset around things, change the stories I taught myself, change my ability to dream. Like all of that, right? That’s harder, that’s more uncomfortable.

That requires me to confront some maybe fears that I’ve had, right? Or limiting beliefs that I’ve had. And the most uncomfortable work, a lot of times is the work with the biggest return on investment, the biggest ROI. I need to change.

So I want you to think about whatever milestone it is that you picked. Whatever you picked as your quantum leap, right? That’s amazing, but what is the first thing that needs to happen? You need to change. Just like I need to change, okay? All right.

So I’m not going to give you everything, but I’m going to give you two critical things. And if you do these two things, this will make a huge difference, okay? All right.

So number one, number one, if I want to grow by quantum leaps, what is something that I have to do? Number one, I have to identify the stories that no longer serve me. I have to identify the stories that no longer serve me.

So a lot of times the issues that we face are not really the issues, right? It’s the stories that we tell ourselves about them. Sometimes the things that we’re looking to do in our businesses, they’re not necessarily impossible dreams, it’s just what we tell ourselves about them.

And so I remember thinking about it, I was like, okay, I have a great team. I really have a great team. And I was like, I’m going to have to grow my team and all of that. But I didn’t realize it, but I have this story running in the background, you’re not good at building teams.

You’re not good at building teams. You’re not good at attracting talent. You can’t build a team. And because you can’t build a team, you can’t do this bigger, you can’t affect more people, you’re stuck. But think about where you’ve already come. You’re doing a lot, you can just settle here. You don’t have to do more.

That was a story running in the background. And I remember verbalizing it on a specific day and my husband looked at me, he was like, “What are you talking about?” I was like, “You know, like team. I’m not really good at building team and all of that.”

And he’s like, “When was the last time you were in your private practice?” I was like, “Five months ago.” And he’s like, “And is the practice running?” I’m like, “Yeah.” And he’s like, “So who’s running it?” I’m like, “My team.” He’s like, “What are you talking about?” Right? He was like, “You’re great at running a team.”

And the EntreMD team, I have really great people. The leader of them is Makeda and she does a fantastic job. And they take so much off my plate and that’s why I’m able to get so much done. And I realized that that’s a story that I had let in the background. And that story has the capacity, it has the ability to stop me from actually going on to accomplish what I set out to accomplish.

And so I had to identify that story and I had to put that story on trial. Obviously it’s a lie, right? So that I can buy into the truth, which is I am really good at building teams. Now, could I get better? Of course. Am I going to get better? You bet. But am I good at it? Yes.

And so I started taking an inventory, and that’s what I want to invite you to do. What are those stories that don’t serve you? What are those stories that stop you from dreaming? What are those stories that kind of cripple what you’re trying to do? They don’t serve you. It’s time to put them on trial and be done with them. Put them on trial and be done with them.

So I took the time to do this and I want to invite you to do the same thing. Take the time to do this. When you say, well, I can’t do that. I’m not a good speaker.” Right, that’s a story. You know, I’m not a good speaker because I’m an introvert. So that’s a story, right? Being a good speaker has nothing to do with a personality type. It has nothing to do with whether you’re an introvert or extrovert. It is a skill.

It’s like saying I’m an introvert so I’m not good at spinal taps. What does being an introvert have to do with spinal taps? It has nothing to do with that, right? So it’s a skill. You learn the skill, you practice the skill, you become great at the skill. It’s the same thing with speaking, right?

Or you may say, well, I’m not good at selling, right? I’m not good selling. I’m a coach, I’m not good at making offers, I freeze up when I make offers and all of that stuff. Again, you identify that as that’s the story that’s running in my background that is stopping me from accomplishing what I’m set out to accomplish.

And you have to put that on trial. And you have to ask yourself, well, hang on, I’m really good, I’m a pediatrician, I’m really good at selling parents on getting their children vaccinated. I am an oncologist, I’m really good at selling people on yes, this is a bad diagnosis, but we have chemo, it will work great. Even though they have objections, I will lose my hair. I will lose weight. What happens to my fertility? And all of that, but you’re still able to help them walk through that process and get them to say yes. So guess what? That is selling.

Now, there may not be the money piece that has been attached to it, but that is selling. You sold somebody on letting you into their medical school. You sold somebody into letting them into their residency program. You sell your kids on not having a temper tantrum in the middle of Walmart. You sell your husband on taking you on that vacation. Like whatever that is, you are good at selling, right?

And so you identify that story and go like, wait a minute, right? Now, does that mean I have to get even better at it? Yes. And you can, like everything else you’ve gotten better at. Does it mean you need to get better at the money conversation that goes with it? Yes. But you can, like everything else, right?

And so it’s time to identify those stories. Oh, I can’t hire a team. Oh, I can’t build a seven figure business. Why can’t you build a seven figure business? Well only 9% of businesses make it to the seven figure mark. Yes, and only 7% of people who try to get into medical school get in. Odds are in your favor, right? And so you put it on trial and then you squash the story. You rewrite a story, okay? So that’s the first thing. That’s the first thing that you do.

The second thing is a little close to it. But I think I want to talk about it separately. And that is identifying lids that you’ve accepted, right? And I’m talking about things that you just write off. And let me talk about revenue, okay? We can use revenue as that example.

I can build a six figure business, but I can’t build a multiple six figure business, especially because it’s X, Y, Z. Like insert whatever the business type is. That’s a lid. Well, I can build this seven figure business, but multiple seven? No, no, I can’t do that. That’s a lid, right? That’s a lid and sometimes, you know, I alluded to it like you insert the business type.

Well, I can’t do that because it’s life coaching. If it was business coaching I could. I can’t do that because it is coaching, if it was private practice I could. I can’t do because it’s a product, if it was a service I could. But the truth is that for every type of business you’re thinking about, especially if we put it through the matrix, we talk about how to identify your profitable business idea. You put it through there, oh yes it can, and people have already done it. People have already done it, okay?

So identify those lids, right? Like I remember looking at somebody’s house on Instagram, a mentor of mine. And I was like, “Man, that is so beautiful.” And I had never heard this before, but this thought just floated up to the surface, I could never have a house like that.

And then I was like, why would you think that? And this is not about being extremely materialistic and going about and taking everything, it’s not about that. It’s about why would you write yourself off for that? Why would you not accept that you can? Why would you, right? It’s to stay open.

Now I’ve learned over the years, I just stay open. I may not be looking for a house like that, I may not want a house like that. But at the same time I’m not going to say I can’t have that kind of house. Why not? Why can’t I, right? So it’s identifying those lids and going like, I don’t do those anymore, right? I don’t do those lids anymore.

Okay, so what’s the third thing? The third thing is painting a vivid picture of where you’re going. And this one, I am telling you, you’re going to have to block off time on your schedule to do this one. The return on investment is huge, but most people won’t do it.

In fact, if you do do it, I want you to send me a pm, I want you to send me a private message on Facebook or Instagram. And I want you to tell me, “Look, Dr. Una, that homework of painting a vivid picture of where I’m going, I did it.” Okay? And you tell me what it was like for you.

But this is what I mean by that, I have a dream of what I would like EntreMD to look like, right? How I would like the EntreMD Method book, the kind of impact I would love for it to have. I have a dream of the kind of businesses that the EntreMD Business School helped doctors create. I have dreams of all of those things, the kind of events I would put on and all of those.

And sometimes you look at, it’s like, man, that’s a lot, I don’t know if I can do it. Or you’re in the weeds because you’re in the doing phase, you’re in the weeds of running the business day to day and all of that stuff and you kind of lose track of the big picture. One of the things you can do to force yourself to see that picture and start drumming it into your subconscious so it becomes this narrative that’s going on in the background, is to paint a vivid picture of what that would look like.

Or if you realize, and this has happened to me multiple times, where I’m like my business has grown so much bigger than I realized in my subconscious. So I’m acting smaller than I should. It’s strange, but you’ll get it. I’m sure you get it, right?

And so you paint a vivid picture, those things on your vision board or that you wrote as your goals, you literally map out time and you sit, for me I typically write it down so I’m not distracted. And I start picking those areas like, so what does EntreMD look like? When people think about it in the physician community, what are the words that come to mind? What kind of events do I put on?

And I travel to the event, I look at the number of people who attended it, I look at what they’re saying after the event, I look at the ripple effect that the event has. The EntreMD Method book, how many copies did we sell? What kind of revolution did it create? How many residency programs got copies?

I do that, right? I look at the EntreMD Business School, I attend our live events, like our in person events. Like in my mind’s eye I go and I’m listening to the testimonials from them. Like I’m immersed in it, I create this whole VR experience of my goals like they’ve already happened and I’m walking through and experiencing them, and touching them, and feeling them, and seeing them, and just interacting with them.

And the more I do that, the more convinced I am. Remember, humans we’re sight activated. If I can see it, right? And you’re like, it may seem a little woo-woo, it may seem like what a kid would do. But I’m telling you the ultra successful, they all do this.

In fact, golfers, a lot of your league golfers will literally close their eyes before they take their shot and they would visualize hitting the ball, the ball going up in the air, rolling on the grass, getting into the hole, right? Like they visualize it, then they open their eyes and then they do that, right? Basketball players do it, they all do this visualization.

But like deep visualization where you can see, you can feel, you can touch, you’re going through it, like all of it. And the more you do it, the more concrete your dream becomes. And the more it goes into your subconscious and the more it’s the subconscious story that you’re telling yourself and you show up that way. And it’s amazing, right?

So identify the stories that don’t serve me anymore, identify the lids that I’ve accepted, then I paint that vivid picture of where I’m going, right? Now, those are three things, there are actually seven of them, but they are three things that I do to start that process. To start that process of making my own quantum leaps because when I do, then everything around me does. The business is better, my team is better, the way I show up is better. The results I expect is better. Like it’s all better, right? It’s all better, it’s all bigger.

Okay, so I want to start from this place. I’m want you to start from this point, whatever you set as the milestone I want you to do these exercises and I want you to start going after this, okay? Own that next level because it’s within the realm of possibility for you. Own it, you’ve done impossible things before. You’ve accomplished things that very few people end up doing. You did it, you can do this too. Don’t believe any lie.

So set that bar and identify those stories that stop you, start working on them. Identify the lids, get rid of them, right? And then paint that vivid picture and start showing up like the person who’s already at that level. Act as if, act as if. Okay?

My friend Myoshia Boykin-Anderson, she is an amazing entrepreneur multiple seven figure business, she’s in the tech space and she said that’s what her mom taught her. And she was a speaker at the Business Makeover Mastermind and that’s a line that we’ve walked with, act as if. Act as if. Show up as if, right? Believe as if, see as if, okay? So do that. So own your next level.

And if you’re listening and you’re like, “Man, I’m excited but I’m scared. This seems like something that I can do.” I want to throw an invitation out to you, okay? The EntreMD Business School, this is what we do there. And we do it in community, where you can be scared when you’re around people who are all scared and all doing amazing things.

It is such a magical place where your dreams are accepted. Not that you need the acceptance, but you have people who believe in you and believe in your dreams. And they have connections, they can connect you with people. They have ideas, they have experiences, they get amazing coaching. The accountability is there, it’s just phenomenal.

And if you don’t want to do it alone, come join us. If you’re like, “I got this, Dr. Una,” you’re fine, right? But if you’re like, “I want to do this with people, I want to do this in community. Where people like me?” There are people like you, they are in the EntreMD Business School. Okay, so come join us there.

But I want you to take a second and I want you to think about this, whatever dream, whatever milestone you thought about when we started, I want you to think of that as already done. Already done. Already done, it’s now your reality. Think about it, that can be yours. It all starts here, okay? So I want you to do this, let me know, send me a PM let me know how it goes.

If you really got a lot out of this episode, I want you to take a screenshot of it and share it on social media say, “Hey, guys, look at what I learned. Come learn with me.” I would really love that, tag me. I’ll give you a big shout out. 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.