Ep #141: How to Use the Power of Gratitude to Grow 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. Welcome back to another amazing episode of The EntreMD Podcast. And as always, I am super pumped that you are here. This is going to be a really, really, really good episode. It’s going to set you up to be that person who has, you know, an unstoppable mindset, like, “How do I build that?” So, this is going to be so good.

I was in a group last week and they had posted something about, you know, what wins did you have in your business last week? And that’s not an unusual post, right? That’s not an unusual thing.

And you think, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, I had some wins, stuff like that.” And I was like, you know what? I’m not going to do that. I’m going to actually sit down to take stock of what has happened in the last week. You know, what’s happened?

And in the beginning, it was hard to pull these things off. And at the end, I ended up with 10 things; 10 things that made me say, “Wow.” And after I did that, I was like, “Wow, this is a muscle that has to be developed over time.” And I wanted to share it with you, for you to also adopt the same thing.

So, we’re going to be looking at how to use the power of gratitude to grow your business. How to use the power of gratitude to grow your business. So, let me pull up what I actually wrote. And like I said, I started, and it was tough to pull these things off. And then, at the end when you listen to it, you’re going to be like, “What, how did you not remember that?” You know what I’m saying?

So, I started off with this, like what a week. So, I was like, number one, the Doctors hanging Medicine Podcast hit 2000 downloads. So, if you don’t know this already, we have a second podcast. It’s called the Doctors Changing Medicine Podcast. It’s primarily an interview podcast where I feature doctors who are practicing medicine on their own terms, changing the experience doctors have in medicine, either or. Because I just want doctors to realize that we’re not stuck. We’re not victims. We have options.

And our options are literally limitless. And I just feature that so doctors have a place where they go to, they’re just inspired. Maybe you know there’s more but you don’t know what it is. Well, that’s like a buffet because you get to see all these doctors doing all these amazing things. And you can get inspired and you can realize, “Wait a minute, my life doesn’t have to be the way it is. My career doesn’t have to be the way it is.”

And I interview people who are what we would consider intrapreneurs in the EntreMD world, so they’re working jobs. I’ve interviewed people who have developed products, people who have developed services, doctors who are fighting bullying in the workplace, fighting burnout, the whole nine yards. So, it’s a really great podcast, right?

Now, The EntreMD Podcast at this point is like 117,000 downloads. So, there is that tendency to go, “Well, 2000 downloads, you know, whatever.” But no, that is something to be celebrated, because guess what I didn’t have before. I didn’t have 2000 downloads.

So, if you’ve never checked it out, I want you to check it out. It’s called the Doctors Changing Medicine Podcast and so, the first thing I wrote there is, okay, we hit 2000 downloads. So, that’s a win. And I’m telling you, I literally am thinking, working my brain.

And then I’m like, okay, what’s the other thing? I was like, I scheduled 14 episodes for Q4. So, the way I worked the Doctors Changing Medicine Podcast, I know that at this stage in my business, in my mission, if you will, the EntreMD Podcast and the EntreMD Business School are the top priorities. Actually, the business school is the top priority because I’m like, I want to help doctors get results. I want to help them get it faster. I want them to experience transformation. I want to build the school so it’s even better as a tool to help doctors go from point-A to point-B.

And that’s my focus. And so, I’m going to do the Doctors Changing Medicine Podcast, but I need to do it in a way that it still lets me keep my priorities the same.

So, what I did when I launched it in May of 2021 is that prior to that, I did four recording sessions and recorded 22 episodes. Because I was like, I can’t touch this every week. I can’t even touch it every month. I don’t have the bandwidth for it.

So, I did 22, so that means I had all my episodes from May all the way to September. Done. So, now, at the time of this recording, it’s time to do for the rest of the year, so the middle of September through December, and it’s the 14 episodes that I need.

So, I had reached out to guests. I’d reached out to a lot of guests and I had 14 people who both our schedules worked and I had 14 of those scheduled. And that’s a big deal because that means, once I do that, then I’m done. All the episodes for 2021 are done. So, that’s the second thing I typed up that I was grateful for.

And then number three, so get this. Here I am thinking, “What am I grateful for?” Well, the Forbes Business Council has an invite-only community. And I was invited and I got accepted to the Forbes Business Council, and I’m thinking about what to be grateful for, thinking about what a win is…

Okay, so that was number three. And I’m still thinking. In fact, Miquita is in my house. Miquita is my executive assistant and she was in my house that day and I’m like, “Miquita, what are the wins we had last week?” So, I’m digging.

And then, number four, I was like, wait a minute, we hosted, in the EntreMD Business School, we hosted a TED Talk style meeting last week. So, at the time of this recording, last week. And it was amazing.

So, we got to our live session. We have live sessions every Wednesday. And we’re doing the signature talk challenge and it’s all about building out your signature talk, where to deliver it, all those kinds of things, the stories that go with it, building out a really great talk.

And the assignment for the week before was to do the three-minute version of this signature talk. And then, when we came on the call, I’m like, “Oh welcome…” I had people share their wins and all that stuff, it’s so amazing, like oh my goodness, this is great.

And then I say, “Okay, so this is what we’re going to do. We’re going to have three people who are going to come up and going to give the three-minute version of their signature talk.” I had not prepped them for it at all. I had not told them that’s what I was going to do. And three hands went up. I think four hands went up actually.

And we’re like, okay, let’s do it. And they did their talks and I was like, “Oh my gosh, all these things you did, amazing. Here’s where you can tweak it and here’s where you have opportunity for improvement.” And then we go to the next one. It was so good. It was so amazing. I mean, it was an amazing night in the business school.

And I was like, “Oh my goodness,” but did it just occur to me that that was a win? No. So, number four was I hosted the first TED Talk style meeting for the EntreMD Business School. It was so wild. So, so, so wild.

So, shoutout to Dr. Jessica Degele, who is one of the people who volunteered. Shoutout to Dr. Yinka Skin, who is the founder of Dr. Yinka Skin, the skincare line for People of Color, Women of Color especially. Shoutout to Dr. Diana Mercado, who is a coach, an ADHD physician coach and she helps people reclaim five to 10 hours of their life every week. It’s so amazing. So, shoutout.

So, they did that and that was amazing. Then, number five, we are hosting a vision retreat in Hilton Head, South Carolina for the EntreMD Business School, and it’s two days of total immersion. And they’re going to leave with not just their business goals, but their life goals for 2022. So, one of the things I do is I cheat every year and I start my year in October. I don’t start my year in January at all.

So, I set all my goals in September, October, and then I start working on them. So, that way, the distraction of the holidays and all of that is not there. So, it doesn’t mean I don’t celebrate the holidays. It’s just that I don’t donate my entire November and December to the holidays. You know what I mean?

I still get what I want done, and then I spend time with family and do all the holiday things. And by the time January rolls around, I’m on a high because I’m already a quarter almost into my goals. So, I do that in October, so I’m going to take the EntreMD Business School students through the same experience.

And, of course, it’s by the beach so it’s going to be amazing and we get to meet ourselves in person, so it’s going to be really, really good. And I was like, “Oh wait a minute, we’re 55% full.” And that’s great. That’s so great.

And then number six, I was like, you know, I spent two days in a mastermind working on my business, so I had a two-day conference that I was a part of that week. And it was like an implementation type of thing. So, I got to work on my message. I got to work on the strategy for my business, like review all of these things. I had areas where I was stuck, where I was able to get unstuck. It was really good.

So, I spent two days working on my business, not in my business. And I went on to say I went back to the basics; my message, my funnels, my podcast strategy, et cetera.

And then, number seven, I locked in the title of my book which will be released in December or January. I haven’t decided yet, but I’m writing a book. And the name of the book is The EntreMD Method: A Proven Process for Doctors Who Want to Live Life and Practice Medicine on Their Terms. That is so phenomenal.

And I finally decided on the title and I reached out and I locked in the title, so they’re going to start working on the book cover and all of those kinds of things. And that’s the thing. I’m grateful for that. That’s a win.

And then, number eight, I read a book. It is Traffic Secrets by Russel Brunson. A really good book. It can be a little technical, but if you don’t let that throw you off, it is a really good book.

So, I read it. I read the first half of the book, and that’s a thing, right? That’s a win. And then number nine, so, that week was one of those weeks where the doctors in the business school had such great wins. You know, a doc who was starting her practice, she was launching her practice a week from then and she posted about that, it was amazing. A doctor who was like, “Oh my goodness, for the first time I was able to delegate like I should and chart like I should, so I left the office by 5:30 with everything done.”

I had a doctor who had this dream, like a dream guest. I can’t give you the details just yet, a dream guest. And the person reached out to her and they’re doing a collaboration together. My first client and my first Facebook Live and my first podcast, so I launched my podcast. It was just crazy. And I had cried multiple times.

So, number nine was I cried multiple times this week because I read the wins from the doctors in the EntreMD Business School. I’m like, yep, that’s a win. My tears, that’s a win.

And then number 10, as you guys know, I lost my dad recently at the time of this recording. And I had created a legacy series. So, the Thursday episodes of The EntreMD Podcast throughout the month of July were all about my dad and the business lessons that I learned from him.

And that week, I had a lot of people send me emails and send me PMs to say, like, “Wow, I learned so much from it. I was like, if your dad could go from growing up in a mud hut to becoming a US-trained surgeon in the 60s, then I’m playing small. I can dream bigger. I can do more.”

And people were touched by when I talked about his habits and they were like, “Oh my goodness. I’m adopting that.” It was so inspirational and it was so meaningful to me that I was able to have thousands of doctors be inspired by his life. Like, what better way to honor his legacy?

And so, getting those PMs and DMs and emails, I mean, it was so good for me and I don’t really have words to describe it, but that was a huge win. It’s a huge win. I never interviewed him on the podcast, but technically I did. I was able to share his story. And I have no idea the changes people are going to make in their lives because of them.

And if you haven’t had an opportunity to listen to them, you can. They’re really good episodes. And so, I ended up with these 10 things that were wins in one week. And you might be saying, “Oh, Dr. Una, that was an amazing – what a week,” right?

But you know what? I know that if you take the time, you put in the time and the thinking, you’re going to come up with a list too. Now, it may not look like my list because we’re not the same and my business is not your business and all of that. But you’re going to come up with it.

So, the point here is that complaining is our default. And it’s not our default because we’re bad people or we’re complainers. It’s just that we’ve developed that muscle. We’ve developed that muscle of identifying everything that is wrong and we’ve done it for so many years.

So, I’m 42 years old, so that means I’ve spent a lot of time practicing how to look for things that are going wrong and highlight them. But you can develop a new muscle starting from today. You can develop the muscle of really looking and decoding what is working.

And it’s not the big things that are working. You celebrate everything. Did you do have a first? So it could be first video, first time you spoke onstage, first time you made an offer, your first client, your first whatever milestone, 100,000, 200,000, one million, 10 million, your first the first networking event you went for or the first guest you had on your podcast.

What are those firsts? You don’t wait for them to be big to celebrate them, just the way we celebrate our babies. They’re babies. I mean, they can’t feed themselves. They can’t even pee on their own, you know, pee in the bathroom on their own. They can’t do any of that.

But we celebrate. That’s the same attitude you want to have with your business. So even though it looks quote unquote little, celebrate it. What are the big things? Celebrate them. What are the things that are intangible, like mindset shifts? Celebrate those because that’s huge. That’s what gives birth to all the big things that you want to see. Become a person who celebrates.

And for me, this is one of my strategies for mental toughness. So, what is the power of gratitude? So, I’m going to give you three things. One of them is that that’s your evidence that things are working. Because let me tell you something else that happened in that same week. Well, that week. I had a lot of challenges as well.

I had a lot of things that went on in business that didn’t quite go the way they were supposed to. But these 10 things are evidence that, okay, well, this is messy, this is a little chaotic. But in the grand scheme of events, we are moving forward. We are making progress here.

The more you practice celebrating your wins, the more you practice being grateful for what is working, the more you focus on what is working, the more evidence you have that it’s working, the more you’re able to weather storms because you know this too shall pass, it’s working. So, that’s number one.

Number two is that it helps you show up with the right attitude. You know what I mean? Have you had that time where maybe you were supposed to do a talk or you were supposed to show up on a podcast or whatever but you’re already in this frame of mind like nothing is working, I’m an imposter, I don’t even know why I’m doing this? You show up with a different energy. You show up apologetic and you show up not in your authority, not in your leadership, not in your authenticity. And people know that.

And they don’t follow people who are not confident. They don’t follow people who are not owning their space, you know what I mean? So, you show up differently when you can look, week to week, and say, “This is working,” when you can show up day to day and say, “This is working,” you just show up differently. So, this is why you should practice that.

And then the third reason is it helps you maintain the drive. It helps you stay in momentum. It keeps your motivation up because you’re like, “Wait a minute, all that happened? Wow. What else could happen?” And even when you’re facing challenges, it helps you keep that drive up because you’re like, “We can do this.”

So, I want you to get into the habit of celebrating your wins. I told you that it took me a moment to dig all these things up and I told you that I had Miquita, I was like, “Miquita, what worked?” And so, maybe you need to talk to your spouse. Maybe you need to go through your to-do list and all that stuff like, to dig out, like, wait a minute, what worked?

Now, in life and in business, there are always going to be positives and negatives. There’s always going to be the good and the bad. There’s always going to be the highs and the lows. There’s always going to be the things that worked and the things that are disappointments. So, they’re both there and everybody has them. Everybody. You’re not unique because you have challenges. This is the human experience. You’re not unique.

The question is, what are you going to focus on? So, we don’t deny facts. If something is not working, it’s not working. If there’s an aspect that’s not working, there’s an aspect that is a challenge, it is a challenge. So, we don’t deny it. But you can choose what you’re going to brood on. You can choose what you’re going to focus on. You can choose what you’re going to quote unquote meditate on.

And my advice to you is to choose to focus on what is working. Choose to focus, set your mind on the things that are working. You can put plans in place to deal with the things that are not. But as far as what you think about a lot, what you brood over a lot, it should be the things that are working and you can have a lot of gratitude.

And you can apply this in every aspect of your life because this principle works. The 10 things I listed in one week, those were just business things. Well, I also have things in my family. I also have things and the things I’m doing for my legacy. I also have things in health. I also have things in my social capital, the relationships that I’m building. I also have things in finances.

So, how many could that have been? I could have had a list of 100 things. Like, imagine every week writing a list of 100 things that you were grateful for. Is that wild or what? What does it do for the way you show up? What does it do for you knowing that, “Wait a minute, my life is working? Yes, these other things are not, but in the grand scheme of events, my life is working.”

What does that do for your drive? What does that do for momentum? So, this is my challenge. Make it your thing. If you’re more of a daily person, you can have a daily win journal, and every day you just write five things that are working, five things that are working, and at the end of the week, you’ll have 35 things. And you can review them and say, “Golly, in one week? What can my life look like in a year the rate at which I’m going?”

And the more you do it, the more you want to create wins so you can celebrate more. But I want to challenge you to build that muscle. So, we build the muscle of complaining and griping and believing nothing is working and all of that stuff. Now I want you to build a new muscle of celebrating, celebrating, celebrating, celebrating.

In the business school, the EntreMD Business School, we do this all the time. We celebrate wins. And this is the reason why. It is just such a gamechanger.

So, some people may call this a soft skill. I disagree. It’s a foundational powerful thing you can do to grow your business. So, do that. And this could be you. This could be you celebrating every week, even in the midst of challenges, you’re full of joy and you’re excited because you know it’s working and you know that the things that were challenges yesterday are the things you’re celebrating today because you overcame them, and these new challenges are going to be just like that. You can have that strong of a mindset. You can have that level of emotional maturity. And I’d love to see it for you.

So, go practice this and make sure you share this with another doctor in your life because there’s a lot of discouragement, there’s a lot of negativity, there’s a lot of that out there. But if you can build this, it makes everything better.

Alright, so I will see you, my friend, on the next episode of The EntreMD Podcast.

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