Ep #183: The Cavalry is Here!

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.

Hello, hello, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of The EntreMD Podcast. We are going to have an absolute blast because we are going to be talking about one of my favorite things.

But before we do that, I am going to read a quick review left by Dr. Jia Ng. It says best medical entrepreneur podcast ever. And then she goes on to say, “Listening to Dr. Una is like having a mentor/business coach/best friend talking to me. She gives sage advice and empowers all of us. Importantly, she keeps it real, not empty motivational talks. I highly recommend The EntreMD Podcast.”

Well, thank you so much, Dr. Jia. That is such an amazing review. Thank you for sharing it with me. And this just lets me know that I am accomplishing what I want to accomplish, which is not empty motivation. But to inspire you, motivate you, and give you practical tips you can start applying right away.

So thank you so much for listening. Thank you so much for sharing your review with me and with the world. I truly, truly appreciate it. And if you’re listening and you haven’t left a review yet, please go leave us a review, it really helps to get the word out there, which is what we need to do. Okay. All right.

So we are going to be talking about something really fun, and that is the cavalry is here. Now, the medical space, there’s a lot of stuff going on. I was just reading an article from September 2021 in Medical Economics, and it put up a survey. And the survey showed that four out of five physicians are currently experiencing burnout.

Four out of five, that is insane. I mean, four out of five, there are a million physicians. We’re talking 800,000 physicians, this is a problem, this is an epidemic. And if you’ve listened to the podcast for any amount of time, you know I’m not big on talking about problems without talking about solutions, right? So we’re going to talk about burnout and the state of medicine. And we’re going to talk about what we need to do about it. All right.

Now, when I looked at the reasons why people thought they were burnt out, the things that came up were things like loss of autonomy, like they don’t feel like they have no control over their career. Too much paperwork and regulations. Of course, the EHR, you know, death by 1,000 clicks. Working too many hours, poor work life balance, declining reimbursements, things like that. These are things that most of us know about, and most of us have experienced.

And the thing that makes this really sad is that they said based on the survey 78% of doctors were thinking of leaving medicine, 78. 78, think about the amount of money that has gone into training 78. So let’s just call that 80% for the sake of argument and so the math is easier for me. So if it’s 80%, that’s 800,000 physicians are thinking of leaving medicine.

Please think about the impact of that. What happens to our healthcare system if 800,000 doctors actually leave? Think about the money spent to train 800,000 physicians. Think about the years spent training 800,000 physicians. And they’re willing to walk away.

Okay, so we have a really big problem on our hands, really big. And we need to look at it, and this is not just an individual thing. Because you may say, “Well, I’m among the 20%. I don’t feel any burnout whatsoever. I’m living my best life and all of that.”

But listen, if 800,000 physicians were to walk away, or worse still 800,000 physicians are there but don’t want to be. I want you to think about the effect of that. It’s going to affect everybody. I mean it already is, but it is going to affect everybody.

So we may not have created this problem, but we’re going to fix it. Okay, that’s what we’re going to do. You might say, what does this have to do with business? Everything, okay, just roll with me, everything.

So, what really is a solution for this? And my book is going to be released in another two months or so from the time of this recording, it’s called The EntreMD Book, A Proven Roadmap for Doctors Who Want to Live Life and Practice Medicine On Their Terms. And the dedication, when they’re like, “What’s the dedication?” I started writing and it says, “To my fellow physicians, the cavalry is not coming. The cavalry is here. The cavalry is us. We are the solution.”

So that was the dedication, we are the solution to this problem. Nobody’s coming to save us, nobody’s coming to make it better. This is us. But guess what, there’s a million of us. Like, let’s put this in perspective, 1 million, 1 million. And I have done a lot of research on movements and stuff like this because I’m like we can change this.

And it said, to tip a culture, to tip the way things have been, you have to touch 10% of that community. And that’s 100,000 of us. 100,000, okay, out of a million. If we will rise, if we will rise above the system, if we will set examples, if we can do that, then this current state of things for physicians, it crumbles.

All it takes is 10% of us. You and I reaching out to 10%. Okay, so what if 10% of us decide to rise and be the solution that we want to see? It will be the beginning of a grassroot movement that will force the system to change. It will force the system to change.

We are not victims. We are not in situations that we don’t have control over. No, we’re going to change it. And I want to challenge you to join me, we are going to change it. We cannot have 78% of physicians walk away from medicine. We cannot have 80% of physicians being burnt out. We’re going to change it. Okay.

Now, you might go like, “Okay, how? How, Dr. Una?” But the thing is this, there are so many ways. And this is whether you’re employed or not, whether you own a business or not, like there’s so many ways.

So I’m going to give you a few examples just from students in the business school. Many of them you’ve heard their stories and stuff like that. But I just want to show you examples. Because what do we need to do? We need to be an example of what is possible. And we need to invite other people to come be examples with us. Right?

So I’ve told you the story of Dr. Barbara Joy Jones-Parks, who is a family medicine physician and she’s working in a hospital system. And she started building her own brand, started building her own brand as a medical expert on TV. So she’s been on CNN, she’s been on Fox, HLN, Sister Circle, all of those places, she’s been there.

And based on the brand she built, she was able to walk to her hospital and say, “Listen, nobody else is out there representing you guys on CNN and all this other stuff. So it’s not to your advantage that I’m here five days a week. So I want to work four days a week.” And guess what they said? Yes. And what did they do with her pay? They left it the same. And she had Friday’s off, so she had a long weekend, every weekend,

Now, does that look like it fixes the system? No. But it sets an example, it sets precedents, right. So other people can say, “Well, I want to work for days too.” Do you see what I’m saying? So that’s one example.

There’s Dr. Weili Gray, who talked about bringing coaching to her institution. So she had experienced coaching and she was like, “Wow, every physician should have this.” And she went and she lobbied for it, for one of a better word. And her hospital system said yes.

So now at no extra cost to the physicians, they have access to coaching. They have access, right? And you may say, “Well, you know, that’s her hospital, that’s not the entire system.” But it is an example. It is setting precedents so other people can demand the same thing for their hospitals, right? We’re talking about pioneers here. That’s who we are, we’re the cavalry, we’re the pioneers.

There’s Dr. Amelia Bueche, she is the founder of Coaching For Institutions. And she is going to institutions, right, she’s going to institutions to establish coaching programs for them. This is what she does. This is the change that she’s bringing to medicine. And she has all kinds of data to support that coaching does work. And she’s bringing change that way.

There’s another Doc, I’m not going to mention her name, because this is not something that we’ve talked about publicly. But she was in a work environment that was not conducive, let’s just leave it that way. Okay. And they’re like, we’re not renewing her contract.

Now, a lot of times this happens to be something that’s devastating for a physician. It’s like oh my god, they didn’t renew my contract. You know, she’s a high paying specialty and all of that. But she had already been in the EntreMD Business School for a year building her brand, learning business principles and all of that when this happened.

And so when it actually happened, she celebrated it. You won’t believe it, she celebrated it and she’s like, “You know what, I’m going to start my own thing.” And she’s in the process of doing that. But because she knows what to do, she’s doing like a boss. So she’s doing it so well that her lawyer and her accountant were like, “Oh my goodness, usually when we get doctors, they don’t know what they’re doing. You’re so far ahead. How come?”

And so she is going to rock private practice, like totally rock it. And this is something that would have been a source of a lot of stress, a lot of burnout, a lot of bitterness and all of that. But she is celebrating it and she’s rocking it. And she knows exactly what to do so she’s going to be busy from day one. Day one.

What is she doing? Setting precedents. Yeah, if they mistreat you somewhere, go make your own thing somewhere else, whatever. Right? She’s setting precedence.

And there’s Dr. Szabo, and she’s a dermatologist and she has built a multi-million dollar practice. And what is that? It is an example of what is possible. See, that’s what the cavalry is doing here. It’s like, “Hey guys, we don’t have to do all that. The limitations they’ve put on us, all those things, they’re just fake. Really, you could have this other kind of life.” You can have this other kind of life.

And so she’s an example of what is possible for physicians. She’s an example that private practice is not dead. She’s an example that you can build something successful.

There’s Dr. Michelle Quirk, she shared her story on here, and she’s a pediatrician, she’s a run coach. And her running for herself has brought so much peace and joy and all of that stuff in her life. And she was not a runner. She was not someone who did a marathon, she was not that person like she didn’t do any of that stuff. And so she embraced running later in life.

And now she goes around helping other people do that. And it brings so much meaning because she has all of this impact outside of the exam room. And so she has so many people who, you know, it’s my first 5K, it’s my first 10K, it’s my first half marathon, it’s my first marathon.

She recently had a couple complete their first marathon. And it’s like all of this stuff. So she’s not experiencing burnout in the way that others are because there’s this meaning to what she does. There’s this autonomy she has over her career.

You see what I’m saying? And she’s doing well with it. I mean, earlier in the year she had already done three times her revenue from the preceding year. So she’s doing really well with it. And I can go on and on. There’s doctors who have done TED Talks.

What does that do? It sets precedence. It takes us outside of the exam room. It takes us to a place where we can be in control, we can negotiate bigger, we can be on bigger stages, we can be in bigger rooms, we can be at bigger tables. That’s what it does, right?

We have doctors who are bestselling authors, and actually the business school, we are doing a collaboration book, which is going to be a bestseller. And so all these doctors are all bestselling authors, right? We have doctors who’ve been featured in Forbes. I’ve been featured in Forbes, I’ve done contributing articles, about four of them.

And I have doctors who are now you know, when people have devices and stuff like that, the doctors are at the table having the meetings with the CEOs of these device companies, these services and stuff like that because we deserve to be in the room. We’re the ones who use these devices, we deserve a space at the table.

And that is exactly what is happening. Now, these are only about eight examples. Imagine if there were 100,000 of us intentionally doing this work, showing doctors no, what they’ve told you is not true.

The more we grow our reach, the more we grow our impact, the more we grow our connections, the more we grow our financial freedom, the more empowered we are to rise above the system. The more empowered we are to take back control. But it will take all of us. It will take you. Like you’re listening to me, it will take you to do this.

All right. Now, there are a few things that have happened. I just want to show you the way the system, the society and all of that, the way they think about us. And we’re going to change that narrative, right? So for instance, in the finance world, what do they call bad deals? They call them doctor deals.

They call them doctor deals because they’re like, “Oh, doctors, they don’t know anything. They don’t know anything about business. And so when we have the bad deals, we send them to them because they’re just gonna sign up for it.”

And historically that has been true, right? Doctors are just like, “Oh sign here,” and they sign. That’s it. Don’t read, don’t analyze, don’t anything. But that’s changed. We are changing that narrative because doctor deals, that line is not going to work anymore. Okay, it’s not.

We’ve had the thing of, “Oh, stay in your lane.” There’s no lane. We own the whole highway, there’s no lane. There’s no lane that we’re going to stay in. Historically this has worked, we’ve put our heads down and we’ve stayed in our lane. Not anymore.

They have the nerve to call our salaries golden handcuffs. Like we’re going to pay them that and their hands are tied, and they can’t do anything else. Not anymore. Okay, not anymore. And I am inviting you to join me, because we’re not doing this anymore. Enough, is enough. Okay.

So now, what can you do? What am I asking you? Okay, Dr. Una, I get it. I’m all in, I’m rah, rah, let’s go take it. Enough is enough. What do I want you to do? I want you to do two things. One, is I want you to become an EntreMD. I want you to become an EntreMD. What does that mean? An entrepreneurial MD.

And what that looks like, practically is you come on here, you listen to this podcast, I want you to become an entrepreneur or up-level what you do as an entrepreneur. Because we are the examples of what is possible. You might say, “But I work a job.” Fine own your voice. That means get a platform. And that platform could be social media, it could be a podcast, it could be YouTube.

Own your voice. Negotiate like a boss. Don’t just roll over and play dead. And I’m not saying go cause a ruckus. I mean, if you listen to more than two episodes, you know that’s not what I’m saying. But what I am saying is it’s time to be a boss. In the EntreMD world you are an entrepreneur, well you have the opportunity to be an entrepreneur whether you’re employed or not.

If you’re employed, you work for a doctor, you incorporate it. I want you to take care of your brand. I want you to elevate your brand. I want you to put your brand out there. I want you to start speaking on stages. I want you to look inside and see what your message is and start putting it out in the world. I want you to negotiate.

I don’t want you to roll over and play dead. Okay? I want you to stand up for yourself. I want you to be that. If you’re an entrepreneur, I want you to make your business work. I want you to put yourself out there. I want you to speak.

I want you to set a goal, hey, my business is going to make $100,000. My business is going to make half a million. My business is going to make a million My business is going across multiple millions. I don’t know, wherever you are, take it up a notch. Take it up a notch.

Set the example like hey guys, this is what is possible. Because guess what, there’s a million physicians, and 999,999 doctors are watching you. And that’s not from a pressure point. But they want to be inspired, they want to know what’s possible. They want to know this is not the only way. And you, my friend, are the cavalry. I’m the cavalry. We’re it.

So I want you to set the example of what is possible. I want you to set it, embrace your fears. Not just for you, because all the magic, all the great stuff happens on the other side of your comfort zone. But I also want you to embrace the fear to show some other doctor what is possible.

Okay, so I want you to become an EntreMD. The things you hear on this podcast, lots of how-tos. I mean, this is like the business education in your pocket, it’s an MBA to go. I want you to take the things there and I want you to apply them. And do it intentionally knowing I’m the cavalry. Okay, I’m going to do for me first, but I’m also going to do it for the physician community.

If you’re like, “Let’s take it up a notch.” Come join us in the EntreMD Business School. I cannot begin to tell you what is happening in there.  Doctors are building six, seven, and multiple seven figure businesses. Doctors are daring their fears. Doctors are overcoming all kinds of stuff. They’re going on stages. They’re writing books, They’re starting programs. They’re getting called to the biggest tables. Biggest tables.

So number one is become an EntreMD. Number two is become an infectious EntreMD. This is not about you, this is not about me. This is about the physician community. Okay, so be contagious. You listen to an episode, share it with another doctor.

You talk with a program director of a residency program, share it with them. Tell them, “Listen, how can you graduate physicians who know nothing about business in a world where competition is the norm and competing is mandatory? How can you send them out there? How can you send them out there to go negotiate their first contract when they don’t know what a non-compete is? They don’t know that they’re signing away their intellectual property. They don’t know any of that.”

If you go to associations, share the message. If you get an opportunity to speak to a group of physicians, tell them, “Listen, you have to go listen to this podcast because we’re done. We are that grassroot movement who’s going to topple the system, in a good way.” Okay, we’re not destructive, in a good way. Okay be contagious, share it on your social media. Use the hashtag EntreMD. Be part of the movement, be a contagious EntreMD.

So those are the things that you can do, very simple. Very simple. Take this episode and share it. The cavalry is not coming, it is here. It is us. It is time for us to rise. It is time. Let me tell you something, this is the best of times for us physicians because it is the beginning of the end of burnout, of the loss of autonomy, of being devalued, and a horrible return on investment for the time and money we spent becoming doctors.

This is the beginning of the end. And you and I get to be a part of the movement that changes everything. Okay, so be an EntreMD, be a contagious EntreMD starting right now. And let’s make this what it really is, the beginning of the end.

So thank you so much for listening. Thank you so much for being a part of this movement. And over the next 12 months we’re going to see dramatic changes happen because we say yes. All right.

So if you got something out of this and you decided that you’re part of the movement, I want you to take a screenshot of this episode. I want you to post it on social media. And I want you to say I am part of the movement, the EntreMD movement, come join me. And tag us, #EntreMD, because I want to go re-share all your stuff.

This is the beginning of the end and I’m so honored that I get to do it with you. So 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.