Ep #199: Stop Waiting

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. This is Dr. Una and I am coming here to record a special birthday episode, if you will, of the EntreMD Podcast. It will be released on my birthday., I’m not sure when you’ll listen to it. But I really wanted to share some reflections that I’m having. I just turned 43 and that is super exciting. I’m grateful to still be here and so honored that I get to serve my world the way I do.

And I just want to take you behind the scenes and share some reflections, which I think will be so powerful for you. So before we do that I want to take a moment to acknowledge someone who wrote us a review. This is from ijebuzz. And it says, “Amazing.” Amazing, and she put those five beautiful stars that I love.

And it says, “Honestly, this is the podcast. I didn’t know I needed the EntreMD Podcast until I started listening, and now I am hooked. Every sentence in every episode is relevant and useful. Dr. Una is gifted at helping physicians recognize the different ways they can bring value to the world. Truly a gem.”

Thank you so much for this review. It means the world to me that this is helping you. Thank you for sharing it with me and with the world. It really helps get the word out there. Thank you. I truly, truly, truly appreciate it. All right.

Now, if you haven’t left me a review, I mean, come on. Okay, so first of all, you listen to this, you love it, tell the world. Second of all, it’s my birthday, okay? So we’re going to review and we’re going to share, that’s the way this is going to work. But anyway, I just wanted to share, so this will be really thought provoking, if you will. Just buckle in, let’s see what we come up with.

Now, when I turned 38, I think when I turned 38 was the first year it occurred to me that I won’t live forever. And you might be like, “What do you mean? You always thought you’d live forever?” No, no, I mean, I think everybody knows that we’re all going to die, but it doesn’t quite sink. If someone is like, “This is such a sad episode already.” I promise this is not a sad episode, but hear me out.

It was the first year that I came to terms with my own mortality, it was very strange. And it gave me this sense that you don’t really have forever. So the things you’ve been thinking about, you probably want to start doing them. And that helped me overcome my fears a lot.

That’s when I developed the relationship with my 90 year old self, you guys would have heard me talk about that a lot. Where I’m like, I think about it, like when I’m 90, what do I want to be said about me? At my 90th birthday party what do I want to hear people say? What kind of impact would I want to have had at that time? And I’m like, okay, you’re close to halfway there so you might as well start. And that was an interesting experience.

And then last year, I lost my dad. He lived to 84, he was a surgeon. And I did four podcast episodes, actually, about the lessons I learned from his life, which were really wild and really good. We’ll link to it in the show notes. And after he died, I think he’s the closest person to me that I’ve lost. And I became more aware of my mortality.

So not in the sense that I’m thinking I’m going to die soon. But really that understanding that I have a finite amount of time to be here. And so whatever I want, I need to do it within that time block. It made me more aware of that. So not in a morbid kind of way.

And then last weekend was the NBA All Star games. And you guys know that I’m an NBA fan by marriage. Okay, so my husband loves to watch basketball so I watch basketball, I don’t know a lot about basketball. And it was the All Star weekend so we’re all watching. And it was the 75th anniversary, I believe, of the game. And so one of the things they did was they celebrated the most legendary players of all time, so 75 of them.

Okay, so 75 legendary players. And they started, you know, they did the forwards, they did the centers, they did the guards, you know, each of those positions, and it was very fascinating. Some of the players are kind of still in their prime. Some of the players they’re still playing but, you know, they’re kind of on their way out.

Some of them had retired. And some of them were really old, like with canes and stuff. Well, not really canes, only one person, I only saw one person with a cane. But, you know, walking with a cane and stuff like that, but really old. And some of them were dead.

Okay, and so as I looked at that, I was like, you have a finite amount of time to make your mark, to be a legend. And be a legend doesn’t necessarily just mean go to the NBA and be a legend there. But in my eyes, I want to be a legend. And what that means is not necessarily other people calling me a legend, but knowing that the things that I’ve been walking around with in my heart, I got them done. The change that I wanted to make in the world, I did that, right?

It’s almost like I’m having my own all-star game, you know? And I’m like, yeah, I want to die empty, right? You’ve heard me say that many times if you listen to the podcast. I want to do everything I’m supposed to do, everything I feel I’m supposed to do. And so it’s that awareness that makes me show up in my businesses the way I do.

And I show up in my businesses, it’s not primarily about the money. Now, please don’t misunderstand me, money is a very important part. Like generating revenue, you hear me say time and time again it’s about serving and earning. But you will notice that this service is first, right?

And so with EntreMD, what am I trying to do? With EntreMD I’m trying to help doctors build profitable businesses. I’m trying to help them take the lids off that have been put on us by the healthcare system. I’m trying to help them see that they can also build, not just start businesses, but build wildly successful businesses. We’re talking seven and eight figure businesses, nine figures even. That’s what I’m trying to do. I’m trying to change the narrative for the physician community. That’s my driver.

And it’s kind of like you have a finite amount of time to do this. So yes, you may be scared of some things. Yes, some things may be overwhelming. Yes, some things may be frustrating, but we don’t have time to sit there because we’re going somewhere, we have a finite amount of time. Okay?

So what does this have to do with your business? You’re like, “Dr. Una, what are we talking about here?” Your business, and I’m not saying go do something rash and just get up and start doing crazy things. But you don’t have forever. You have a block of time and in that block of time you want to throw in as much as you can to achieve what you want, right?

And so what does that mean? It means, well, there are things you’ve been meaning to decide on, get the information you can get and make the best decision with the information you have and start moving. Start moving.

For some of you, maybe you’ve decided I want to start. But you’ve been thinking about that for three and a half years. Now’s the time. Maybe you’ve been in cruise control in your business and you know that you want to scale. You know you want to help people. You know you want to have a bigger impact this side. Decide. Decide and let’s go for it, right? Make a decision and start working on it, we don’t have forever.

And for many of us listening, this is your prime time. We’re not going to let the prime time get away from us, we’re going to do what we should do now that we can. And then start helping the next generation. Very philosophical, but it’s my birthday. Okay? So it’s time. I don’t know what time it is for you, but there’s something you’ve been stalling on. It is time. It is time, embrace it and start getting it done.

So if I can recommend three things that you should probably start doing on a bigger scale or embrace and go all in on so you can be a legend, right? Well, this is what I’ll tell you, the first thing I’ll tell you is go all in on helping people. Because sometimes we get so caught up on the vehicle, right? Like am I going to do a podcast? Am I going to have this kind of program? Am I going to scale to this kind of program? And all of that.

Zero all in on helping people and that will guide you on what you’re supposed to do. Help people. Help people, like help a lot of people. Make that your vision, make that your driver. This is what businesses do, businesses serve people and get a thank you note called revenue, right, called money. But help, and help, and help, be on a drive.

Why? Well, I don’t know, you think about it. When you’re 90 what do you want your business to have done? Who do you want it to have helped? How many people would you have wanted it to help? What kind of impact would you have wanted it to have? Start doing that. Stop waiting.

So maybe you haven’t started at all, start. Maybe you’re on cruise control and you know it, it’s time to start scaling. It’s time to start scaling, it’s time to reach out. If you’re walking around with a dream anyway, I wish I could, I wish I could, I wish I could, I am telling you we have a finite amount of time. And we need to use the time that we have wisely. So start. Start.

The second thing is learn how to make money. Learn how to use the vehicle called business properly. So you help people, you learn how to make money, this is a learnable skill. Why am I saying this? You cannot help people at scale if you don’t know how to make money. Because your revenue in your business is the right you have to still stay in business.

If you don’t figure out the money thing, the business has to shut down and you don’t get to help people, right? So learn it. Maybe you’re uncomfortable talking about money. Learn to become comfortable. Maybe you don’t think about charging for what you do and you’re like, “Oh my goodness, it’s time to start charging.” Maybe you don’t charge anything close to what you should because the whole thing makes you uncomfortable. Now is the time.

Maybe you’ve never owned that, oh, my business is going to hit 250,000, my business is going to hit a million, my business is going cross multiple seven figures. This is the time to learn it. It is a learnable skill. People with a lot less education have learned how to do it and they are doing it.

You might say, well, it’s private practice. There are private practice people who are doing that. Oh, it’s coaching. There are coaching people who are doing that. Oh, I have a product. There are people who have products who are doing this. Learn how to make money. It is your right to stay in business, it’s your right to help a lot of people, okay?

So maybe it makes you nervous, maybe you run away from it because you’re like, you know all the drama around it. It’s time to embrace the drama and figure it out, okay? So that’s the second thing.

The third thing, which will help number one and number two a lot is embrace the mess of it all. I find that people want to come into entrepreneurship and get a pretty algorithm and they do 1, 2, 3 and everything falls in place. That is not the way this works, okay?

Entrepreneurship is the best, well, let me say one of the best, I don’t know. One of the best personal development programs ever. Not a business program, you embracing entrepreneurship is the best personal development program.

Why? Because you’re going to be forced to grow. And what happens in that process is there are going to be frustrations, there are going to be disappointments, there’s going to be fear that will show up. There will be uncertainty. It will be uncomfortable. Okay? But if you embrace it all and navigate it, you end up with a business that helps a lot of people and earns a lot of money.

Embrace it all. Stop striving for comfort, the great’s don’t strive for comfort, they strive to hit their goal. Stop striving for comfort. And when I say comfort, what I mean by that is, well, I’m going to avoid the money thing because it’s uncomfortable. I’m going to avoid thinking I’m building a seven figure business because it’s uncomfortable. I’m going to avoid putting myself out there because it’s uncomfortable.

No. No, you embrace the discomfort. Think about the basketball players that I was talking about, do you think they’re embracing comfort? No, they’re trying to become the best at what they do. That means working harder than other people. That means embracing goals other people don’t want to touch with a 10 foot pole.

It’s the same thing with entrepreneurship, stop chasing comfort. Stop not doing things because you’re afraid you’re going to be disappointed. It is part of the game. It is part of the game and if you will embrace it, there is a huge return on investment. Everything you’re dreaming of is on the other side of your comfort zone.

Stop looking for comfort like something that won’t be uncomfortable is something that, oh, that’s easy. I can do it. You’re a physician, this is not how you became a physician. This is not how you became somebody who is so well educated, who is at the top of healthcare. That is not how that happened.

You knew you are going to have to read those big books and you decided to do it. You knew you would have to pull all-nighter after all-nighter and you embraced it. You knew you were going to have to go into debt to do this. You knew it will cost you a decade and you said yes to all of that. Why come to entrepreneurship and start chasing comfort?

Now it’s not going to be as uncomfortable maybe as med school, but it is going to be uncomfortable if you want to change the world, if you want to be a legend, so embrace it. And you might be like, “Oh, that’s for people starting.” No, whether you’re starting or whether you’re scaling, every time you embrace a new goal, guess what shows up? Your fears, frustrations, discomfort, uncertainty, doubt. And you’re going to navigate that.

And when you get to the next level and you’re like, “Okay, let’s push for something new.” Guess who shows up, the same guys, the same people. And so if you run away every time there’s discomfort, then you’re not going to be a legend. You’re not going to fulfill everything that you think you’re wired to do. The dreams you’ve been walking around with for your business, you’re not going to see them. The price to pay for that is discomfort, a lot of it, okay? A lot of it.

And you can reduce some of this with help, with coaching, but it will not be eliminated. I see people sometimes come into even my program, into the EntreMD Business School, and they seem surprised that there’s work involved. And I’m like we’re not a magic pill. And I hope I do not present it to you in a way that you think this is a magic pill.

This is not a magic pill. There’s going to be uncertainty. There’s going to be frustration. There’s going to be disappointments. There are going to be things you do and you’re expecting a bigger result, and it was not as big as you did. But that’s why you’re in community, because there will be other people further along than you and tell you, “Oh man, let me tell you about when I did my X, Y, Z. and what happened.”

And you realize this is the path of the successful entrepreneur. This is the path. When we had the EntreMD Business School Vision Retreat last year, it was very fascinating to watch because some students had looked at other students like, “Oh my goodness, they’re so amazing.” And they probably thought these people have no challenges, everything’s just working for them.

And in the course of sharing, and unpacking challenges, and sharing wins and all that, they’re like, “Wait a minute, we’re all the same. We are all the same.” We are all the same. No matter how successful somebody looks, trust me, they’re dealing, they come to deal with this same discomfort. They have to work through it.

We don’t have forever, okay? There’s no compatibility between legend status and comfort. They don’t go together, they just do not, okay? They don’t. All right, so what do I want you to do? So we talked about, you know, helping people, learning to make money, embracing the mess of it all.

What do I want you to do? I want you to stop waiting. We don’t have forever, okay? I want you to stop waiting. And I want you to start embracing whatever that next step is for you in business, embrace it. Embrace it. I want you to stop dabbling, where everybody kind of thinks you’re doing something but you know you’re not doing anything.

You know you’re not doing what you should do. You know you’re doing enough so nobody can call you out. You know that you’re doing enough to satisfy your conscience that I’m kind of sort of doing something, but you know you’re not doing what you’re supposed to do. Stop dabbling. Stop chasing comfort. Do what you need to do.

Grow like you need to grow. Embrace the new challenges you need to embrace. Embrace the new level of growth. Maybe you’re here, you need to hire people. And when you think about it you’re like, “My goodness, I can’t imagine paying people that much.” But you know that your business is not going to go forward if you don’t do it. Embrace it. Embrace it.

You’ve been terrified of being on stage. Well, the fastest way to grow a business, embrace it. Embrace it. You’re kind of like comfortable with your business at 250,000, but you’ve always had a dream. I want to build a seven figure business, I want to retire my spouse, I want to send my mother on a trip around the world. Embrace it, embrace it.

You’ve looked at a whole industry and you’re like, “I want to change this industry.” Embrace it, stop looking for comfort. Get in the rink, get in the rink of your dreams. It’s time to fight, it’s time to become, it’s time to pay the price. It’s time to do it now so that when we’re old or when we’re gone, we can look back and we’re like, “Wow, I did it.”

So at your 90th birthday people can come and celebrate you for the things that were only dreams that you actually made a reality. We don’t have forever. We don’t have forever.

And so this is my birthday message, if you will, to you. I pray you have a really long, healthy life. But even if you live to 120, a day will come when you won’t be here. Don’t leave what will be written about you to chance. Don’t leave how you feel on your deathbed to chance.

Take charge, start taking action now. Start embracing now. Make decisions quick now. Start helping a lot more people now. Start generating more revenue now. Embrace the mess of it all now, okay? So that’s what I have for you.

But I would love, I would love you, like me on your 90th birthday, to be celebrating and to be glad. To be at a point where you’re like, well, the rest of my life I just have to give back to the next generation because I did what I set out to do. I want you to see a whole industry celebrating you for what you did. I want you to be a legend. Not just in your eyes, but in the eyes of the industry you serve.

So happy birthday to me. Happy new phase of life for you. And please share this episode, that’s what I ask for for my birthday, share the episode. 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.