The EntreMD Podcast

Five Things To Never Lose Sight of in the Pursuit of Business Success

• Dr. Una • Episode 373

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Ready to achieve not only business success but also personal fulfillment? We promise to equip you with the essential strategies to balance your entrepreneurial dreams with the most crucial aspects of your life. We discuss the significance of prioritizing family, health, relationships, personal growth, and financials, supplying you with personal tools I use to maintain balance. 

How can we cultivate relationships, identify our purpose, and adapt to change to ensure success in business and life? We unravel these questions in a candid conversation. Additionally, we introduce you to the OnTramD business school - an ideal stepping stone for physicians aspiring to build successful businesses. We invite you to tune in, absorb the wisdom, and most importantly, act on it to create a thriving business without sacrificing what truly matters.

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When you are ready to work with us, here are three ways:

  • EntreMD Business School Accelerator - If you are looking to make a 180 turnaround in your business in 90 days, this is the program for you.
  • EntreMD Business School Grow - This is our year-long program with a track record of producing physician entrepreneurs who are building 6, 7 and 7+ figure businesses. They do this while building their dream lives!
  • EntreMD Business School Scale - This is our high-level mastermind for physicians who have crossed the seven figure milestone and want to build their businesses to be well oiled machines that can run without them.

To get on a call with my team to determine your next best step, go here ...

Speaker 1:

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 Ibnah. Well, hello. Hello, my friend, welcome back to another episode of the EntremD podcast. I am super pumped to be in your ears and I want to take a moment to say thank you for listening, thank you for sharing the podcast with the doctors in your life. Together, we are absolutely changing medicine. That's what we're doing, and today I want us to look at something that is really important, because it's kind of like living today with the end in mind, right, I was recently listening to an interview by Jim Rohn. It was actually the last interview before he died and he was 75 years old at this time, and if you don't know about Jim Rohn, I probably want to check him out. He's pretty cool and there are a lot of the people who are in the personal development space the Tony Robbins, brian Tracy, jack Canfield, the rest of them who were all directly or indirectly mentored by him, so he's kind of like the father of personal development in a way, and at the time of that interview, he had been doing what he did for 40 years. Right, he had been doing this for a long time and he was kind of talking about the things that he had to pay attention to, the things he would do differently. It was really good to listen to a 75 year old who had a 40 year career reflect right, and it kind of made me start thinking about my journey and I'm 44 years old at the time of this recording. I talk a lot about my 90th birthday and I find that when you are building a business, there are a lot of moving parts. There are a lot of new skills you have to learn, there are a lot of challenges you have to deal with, there are a lot of pivots you have to make, and it can be a lot in the sense that you may start giving up other aspects of your life to really go all in on your business. And today I want to talk about five things to really never neglect as you build your business. You want to build your business and build these things at the same time. So in the EntryMD Business School we have this concept where we talk about building your dream business and building your dream life simultaneously and the reason why I'm really big on that concept is because I don't know. I'll speak for myself. I don't want to build a really great business and find out that there's some critical things in my life that I didn't touch or I didn't enjoy my life, or I didn't create my dream life. I don't want to get all the way to the top and find out that I was building only like one leg and I have this other leg that's really short and so I have a limp anyway. And so I'm going to give you these five things that I. These are things that they're not urgent, but they're important, and if we don't pay attention to them, it's going to hurt later. And I would really love for you to go through your journey as an entrepreneur, create a life that you love you absolutely love and get there and realize you paid attention to all the right things. So the things that matter. You invested a lot in them, so you have them too. Okay, so let's take a look at these. The first one is five things to never neglect. The first thing is your family. Is your family? In my value system, the family comes before the business it does. In my value system, it is always before the business. I have no interest, none whatsoever, in building a business that is wildly successful. At the end of the day, my marriage is in shambles, my kids don't wanna talk to me, I didn't build a relationship with them, I didn't enjoy watching them grow up, and all of those things. I have no interest in doing that. And sometimes we can think well, with what I have to do with my business, I just don't have time for my family and I wanna invite you to kind of look away from making statements like that. So think about your brain as, like chat GPT, right, it's the prompts that you put in it that determines what this powerful machine will spit back out at you, right? And so if you put into chat GPT, well, I'm running a successful business, I don't have time to run my family, to take care of my family, invest in my family. Chat GPT is probably not gonna give you a response because that is not a prompt that is gonna produce a response. But if I put into it, well, I run a very successful business and requires a lot of my time and I am married and I have four children. What are 25 ways I could make time? I could create time to invest in my family, then I've given it a prompt that it can respond to, and so our brains are that way. So we don't wanna make these final statements like I don't have time to do that or I just have to give up the business then, or give up my family. Then the question is, how can I do that? How can I build a dream business and still have the time I need with my family? And then your brain, which is a really sophisticated computer, can then come up with some things that you can do. Okay, and so we don't wanna neglect our families. I spend a lot of time talking to people who are older, so 70s, 80s I hope I'll get to speak to a 90 year old one of these days that would be so cool and they talk a lot about family. It is at that stage, it is a priority for them, and I think if something's gonna be a priority when I'm 90 and I wanna start prioritizing it now, right, and so if you've seen one family, you've seen one family. So I'm gonna share some of the things that I do, but it doesn't mean that's just some starter for you to think about it, but you'll know what works for you, and so for me, one of the things I do with my husband is I make sure that we decided on a date night, and so Tuesdays are date nights and it's a time where we don't talk shop. We're both we really like talking shop, so it's a time where we don't talk shop. We both pass our church. We don't talk church, we're kind of talking, checking in with each other and things like that. So it is this time where we spend with ourselves. We would try to do a number of couples vacations a year. Some of them will be local and so in Georgia, but we'll go somewhere, or it would be somewhere like Florida, or it'll be international, and we just do these trips. No kids, it's just two of us and again, it gives us this time to really connect and lean in, check in, share vision, share what's on our heart and things like that, and it's something that works really great for our marriage. We've been married 17 years at this time and it's been such a gift. So that's what we do for the marriage piece. Of course, there are a lot of other things, but this is a kind of a place to start and for my kids, one piece is really spending time with them, and I've talked about this a lot on the podcast. I have this thing called we call it Me Tweak, so it's MTWK Meaningful Time with Kids, and I'll just make sure that I am stopping to really check in with them, play with them, have conversations with them, be silly with them, do all of those things. So I'm not neglecting that. I actually schedule that every day. So that's on one side, is the time spent, but the second piece is really the time spent in training, and I've started leaning into this concept so much more because I know, for my kids, the real legacy that I'm going to leave them. It's not necessarily money, and if I'm a good steward of my money, I will leave that money and quite a bit of it, but it's also the thing that created the money. And so the wisdom that I have, the knowledge that I have, my decision-making algorithms, the habits I have, the habit of reading, the habit, like all of these things, instilling those in them, I believe, is a true legacy. And so I have the time I spend with them, but I also have the time I spend training them on the things that have made the biggest difference in my life, my life and then, as the years go by, I have different ways of doing it, but the things that I'm great at, I want to help them become great at them too. But I don't want to neglect that. And in the beginning of a business or at a time when you're making a drastic change, it may be harder to, you may have less time to do this, and then, as you go along and build teams and all that, you'll have more time. But the important time is the important things to give it some time and you can do more as you get more time. But this is something that is so critical, so vital, so important. I believe investing in your family really is a huge legacy. It's what makes your work continue forever, because you invest in them and they invest in the next generation and enjoy your family and your family relationships getting better as you get older. I think that's all fantastic and I don't believe there's a business in this world that is worth giving that up for. Okay, so that's the first thing to never neglect. The second thing to never neglect is your health and the way my husband talks about this. He says your body is your earth suit and is what gives you the rights to stay here. Same way, if you're in space, you need a space suit, and once you abuse it, then you have to leave, right. And so if I wanna live till I'm 90, I wanna be strong till I'm 90, well, the time to start working on my health is not when I'm 90, right. And so it's something to pay attention. Am I drinking enough water? Am I getting enough sleep? Am I? I'm 44,? So am I doing strength training? Cause I'm gonna need that muscle mass and I'm gonna need the strength. What am I? Cardio, all of those things. And am I getting my checkups? Am I getting my screenings? These are things that it doesn't matter how busy the business is. We wanna start doing these, right. If you're busy, you're probably gonna do a little less, and as you get less busy, you're gonna do more. But we never wanna neglect it. We're gonna need that. You're gonna need your body later and you wanna and there's compounding interest, right. That same philosophy works with what the habits that you have for your health, and it's when you get older it's kind of too late to start to prepare, for that Doesn't mean you can't do things then, but no better time than now, right? So nothing, not a thing to neglect at all. I remember when the pandemic first hit, I was sitting I was sitting a little longer doing telemedicine, all of these kinds of things, and so the commitment I made, for instance I'm just throwing this out here was every time my phone would ring and I had a meeting, that was a phone call. Then I just opened the door, walk out, take a walk. So I'm taking a walk doing the phone call, and that was just a way of incorporating some more walking, even while I was working. Right, people get standing desks, people get weights, and so in between calls they would do some squats and some arm exercises and all of these kinds of things, right, but we wanna pay attention to our health. Again, this is not urgent, but it's really, really important. The third thing is your network. Okay, so now your network is made up of people. They could be friends, they could be mentors, they could be people who are referral sources, who have been really huge for the success of your business. It could be your team, your human relationships we refer to those as social capital, and social capital a lot of times is more valuable than financial capital Like the people will absolutely change your life and you wanna make sure you're nurturing those relationships. So, for instance, for mentors who have made such a big difference, something as simple as sending in a handwritten card to say, look, thank you for this. Had this meeting with you, you told me this I've applied to my business, I've applied to my family, I've applied to wherever, and this is the result I've got and I really appreciate you in my life nurturing those relationships. I mean, that is something you never want to neglect. Those relationships are gold, and human relationships are like. They're like flowers, they're like plants. You're going to have to water them, right? You want to pay attention to the people who help you with your kids, or the teams who help everything go round All of these things. You don't want to be so into the business and so into the drive and so into the target that you forget to see people. If you are surrounded by great people, you truly are wealthy and that's the truth, right? You have friends who stood with you in storms and all of those kind of things. When was the last time that you reached out? When was the last time you watered that relationship? Because you're going to need them. You really are, and so that's something, again, you don't want to neglect. The fourth thing you don't want to neglect is your purpose, and this is something to think about. Usually, you may be able to do this through your business. Some of the times, it's something that you may do after you've created financial freedom and created time freedom in your business, right? So for me, if I can use myself as an example, well, I started off after career-wise. I started off working a job as a pediatrician in a practice in Stockbridge, georgia, and while I was there, I'd been there for, I want to say, about eight or nine months and my boss says here's a five-year contract. And I'm like I can't do a five-year contract, I need to move anyway. So I'm not going to be staying. And he says, okay, you should start your own practice. And initially I was like you're nuts. Nobody starts a practice right out of a year out of residency. But you ultimately went on to start a practice. And when it comes to purpose, I have always had this drive to help people become the best versions of themselves. Like I've always had that drive, I've always wanted to help people. I've always wanted to inspire them, help them develop habits, show them how little things can make big differences show them how they can do things scary. They can do things messy and still create big results, and my purpose was tied to that some kind of way, and so I had the business, which was my private practice. But I also had this purpose and, like, what I do with Entrez MD is part of that, because what I'm doing is helping doctors build these very profitable, very successful businesses and bringing them to the state where they're booking the status quo, they can live life on their terms, they can practice medicine on their terms, and it's truly magical. It's part of my purpose, and so it's this dream that I have, and so you're listening to this. You may have this dream and you've been busy and all of those kinds of things. You haven't been able to touch it. Well, if you're at a stage where you're building a business and you need the time, you're probably not going to build multiple things at the same time, especially if you want to build big. But then you understand, okay, I have to create the time freedom for this. So what that means is I'm going to build the current business. I'm in as a business asset, meaning that I have the service, I have the systems and I have the team, so this can function like a well-oiled machine without me, and so that way I have the freedom to then chase whatever purpose, passion, project, any of those things that I want to pursue. But Keeping that at the forefront of your mind means you don't lose that. You still go on to do that. You still go on to accomplish that, which is huge. We don't want to give that up, because it's something that doesn't go away. You may be 50 years old listening to this, and this has been something that's been on your heart since you were 10. It doesn't go anywhere. At some point, we want to take some action on that. The final thing you never want to neglect is your evolution. When it comes to your evolution, I want to think about it this way your life and your business are the way they are because of the version of you that currently exists. The version of you that currently exists created it. If you want your life to be different, if you want your business to be different, then you need to evolve. When we think about this, I want you to think about you as a doctor. You were in high school and you decided the doctor thing is what I wanted to do. It required your evolution. Because of that you went to pre-med. Because of that you took the MCAT and you did what you needed to do to get a great score. Then you went into med school and then you went into residency. And all of that, all those years, what you were doing, you were evolving to become a doctor. Because when we get to that point, we're like, oh, my goodness, I am never doing this again for as long as I live. Well, who wants to be the same for 40 years, 50 years, 60 years? Because if we're the same, then we're going to produce the same result in the same life and the same level. But what if we could continue to evolve? For instance, I finished up with my residency, I got my first job and then I evolved and became a practice owner. And then I had a practice where I was a solopreneur as a solopediatrician, and then I evolved again and became a private practice owner who had other doctors working and had built systems. I had built teams, and so I was think of it like a lead pediatrician, if you would. And then I evolved again to be this person who built a business asset. And so my practice now has systems, has processes, has teams in such a way that I could walk away and take an extended sabbatical, and the business continued to grow. And then I evolved again to become this person, who is a podcaster, who is an author, who owns an online education business, who hosts conferences, who hosts retreats, and all of those required me to evolve. I had to learn new skills leading people, hosting events, leading leaders, like all of these kind of things and if I said I was not going to evolve, then I would not have the result Right. And so, yes, we want to build our businesses, but we also want to pay close attention to make sure that we are continuing to evolve. We are continuing to become the kind of person who will have the next level of results that we want to have, and this could look like there are podcasts you listen to, there are books that you read with the intention of gaining specific skills, or, even better still, you're joining the Entry and the Business School, where it is all about your evolution, and so, for instance, one of the things we're focusing on for the next 12 months is really this thing of owning the vision of your 10X only life, your 10X only business and going through the process of evolution, to become the kind of person who creates that kind of business right, and so these are things like you can actually neglect them and you have a version of your life that's really nice and you have a business that's really great, but at some point you're going to run out of steam. At some point you're going to find that, well, I'm not able to create massively bigger results because I didn't develop these things, or I've created a life I don't love because I didn't pay attention to the things that matter to me. Okay, so your family, your health, your network, your purpose, your evolution these are five things. Please do not ignore them. What I have done to make sure that I don't is that I have built scheduling around all of these things. So I told you about scheduling date nights, scheduling the meet week. I schedule my exercises, I live in my purpose. I have a running list of the people who are in my inner circle, with strategies in place to make sure that, on a quarterly, bi-annual, annual basis, I'm touching each of them in a meaningful way, and I invest heavily, heavily in coaching to ensure that I'm constantly evolving. I'm constantly being stretched, being called to become the higher version of myself so I can continue to create greater results, okay. So I want to invite you to do the same thing. Look at these five areas. Make some decisions, schedule some things. Please pay attention to this. This is not something that is urgent. So there's this temptation to procrastinate on it. Please don't. Your future self is telling you. Please do not procrastinate on these things. Make some decisions today, okay, because I want you, 10 years from now, 15 years from now, to absolutely love the business you have and absolutely love the life you've created, and to find that the things that mattered the most, you paid attention to every last one of them. Okay, that's what I would love for you. That's what I would love for all the physicians in your world. So, if you would, I would really, really love for you to share this episode with another doctor in your life. They'll thank you forever, and you can share this on social media. Use the hashtag. Hashtag on TramD. I'd love to reshare what you post and I would love to give you a big shout out. So go, do that and I will see you on the next episode of the OnTramD podcast. If you enjoy listening to the OnTramD podcast, you have to check out the OnTramD business school. It's the number one business school for physicians who want to build six, seven and multiple seven figure businesses. You get the coaching, the accountability and the community. You need to do the work so you can thrive. So find out if this is your best next step, book a call with my team. Ontramdcom forward slash call. That's ontramdcom forward slash call. I can't wait to celebrate all the wins we can create together.