The EntreMD Podcast

5 Steps to Finding the Right Coach for Physician Entrepreneurs (4X ROI)

• Dr. Una • Episode 425

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Are you thinking about investing in a coach but aren’t sure if it’s worth it or how to find the right one? 

I've got you. In my seven years of working with coaches, I've never lost money, and today, I will make sure you don't either! 

In this episode of EntreMD, I share my strategic 5-step approach to investing in coaches and coaching programs for physician entrepreneurs that will allow you to get a return on your investment every time. 

Tune in! 

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Key Takeaways: 

  • 00:00 Intro 
  • 01:35 Cost versus value 
  • 04:09 Creating the results you want
  • 04:53 Aligned values
  • 06:50 Getting a ROI
  • 11:00 It’s a two-way street
  • 16:26 What is the value? 
  • 18:44 The shortcut to success
  • 20:38 The power of accountability  
  • 21:54 Finding a community
  • 23:45 Is coaching fake? 
  • 25:45 Outro 

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Additional Resources:


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:

What can I do to do my part, to the best of my ability and in an ever-increasing way, to help people get results. The first component is mentorship, and mentorship is really important because you know, people say there is no shortcut to success. Of course there's a shortcut to success. It's called people right your mentors, your coaches and things like that. 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.

Speaker 1:

You may have had the opportunity to work with a coach or a consultant and you thought for a second that, wow, maybe this could absolutely change my business, it could change my world. But this question came up will it work for me? Is it worth it? Should I do this? And maybe you stalled, maybe you didn't make the decision. Maybe a year later, you're wondering, wow, what would have happened if I did it? In this episode, I am going to show you my process that puts me in a position where I never lose money on coaching. I have never lost money on coaching, and coaching is something that I have been involved with. I've worked with a coach for the last seven years in some capacity, and so I'm going to walk you through how I make that decision and you're going to walk away from this knowing what programs to invest in, what coach to invest in and how to never lose money on coaching.

Speaker 1:

Okay, now, this was all inspired because I had a friend of mine reach out. She had an opportunity to renew a contract with the coach she was working with and she's like this is how much it costs. And I'm wondering if I'm being afraid of investing in myself. Is that why I'm hesitating and all of those things? And I said, okay, well, let's have a conversation. And it was such a beautiful conversation. At the end of the day, I was like you know what? I'm just going to make this a podcast episode, because this is a process that I've really dialed in, I've really thought about and I want you to be able to have the same experience I've had.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so she said I have the opportunity to renew with this program. Let's say you start a new program or whatever. I'm going to make up some numbers here and she's like okay, it's $500 a month, and so that's not like it's too much. But I don't know about, you know, like I don't know, am I overthinking? I don't know if you know what, if I have some cashflow problems later and all of that stuff, and so I, you know. So I'm going to, I'm going to walk through the five different thoughts that I came up with, and so at the starting point, I said well, when I think about working with a coach or a consultant, I never start from the standpoint of how much it will cost me.

Speaker 1:

I'm more interested in the value that I am in the cost and that's why, for me, it's not a cost, it's an investment right. I'm more interested in the ROI than I am with the cost. I don't make decisions based on cost and, to be clear, that doesn't mean I don't factor that in at all. That doesn't mean I don't think about it at all. Of course I would have to, but that's not the starting point.

Speaker 1:

The starting point is what is the value I would get out of this? So what that means is for me, I've already made a decision. This is what I need for my business right and different phases. It would be different things Like if you have not launched a business. It would be like I need to launch a business If you have not launched a business, you'll be like I need to launch a business.

Speaker 1:

If you've launched a business, it's like I need to take it to the first 100,000, the first 500,000, the first million, the first 10 million, whatever that number is. If you have a business that's thriving, chances are that you need a lot of support with team and systems and all of those kinds of things, right, like. So it's, what is it that I need, right? So that's where I start from. And then I look for a program or a coach that can take me to. So the starting point is not the coach, the starting point is not the consultant. So FOMO doesn't get the better of me, because that's not what I'm looking for.

Speaker 1:

I know what I need, at least I have a general idea of what I need, and I am looking for someone who can deliver that right. And so, again, I don't start from cost, I start from value. It is the value that I'm looking for. Okay, now, when I look. So that was the first thing.

Speaker 1:

The second thing is you know, I told her I talked to her about is. You know? And actually this is more of my thought process. I want to throw that out when I'm looking at somebody to work with, I want to have some kind of safety. I know there are no guarantees and I take responsibility for my own guarantees I'll talk about that in a second but I want to make sure that this person can take me where I want to go, and so the way I look at it is, the person that I'm going to work with is somebody who needs to have created the results that I want them to create for me. So they've created that in their own world. So that's one. Two is that they have helped other people create that result, so they have a track record of sorts.

Speaker 1:

And then three, as much as possible, our values are aligned, right, and this becomes really important because you know, you can have somebody who's running a $10 million business and they put their business first, and you have another person who's doing a $10 million business and they put their family and their faith and their health and all of those things first, and they will run their businesses in completely different ways and their strategies will be completely different. It may land them in the same place, but then you're going to have complications, right, like if you didn't pay attention to your family. Well, who wants a $10 million business and not a family right Like, if the opportunity cost was your family or health? Who wants that right? And so we don't have to be exactly alike, but we want our values to be close enough that I'm not needing to fight every strategy, because the strategy will not take me to where I'm trying to go because of my values, right?

Speaker 1:

So, for instance, in the OnTrendy Business School, we talk a lot about building your dream business and your dream life concurrently, because I'm so big on the fact that we have put so much of our lives on hold to get through medical school and residency, training and fellowship and attending hood and all of those things that I'm like I am not willing to To then put my life on hold more. I didn't know that as well when I started out as an entrepreneur, but I know that, oh my goodness, this is possible and this is the way that we need to do it. And so I'm like we're going to build businesses, and building a business is going to require stuff from you. It's going to require the time, it's going to require effort, it's going to require money, but at the same time, oh my goodness, you could be building your dream life right, like you can start with one version of it and as your business grows, you up the version, as the business grows up the version, so you're ending up with both right, and that's what we train people on. So I'm really looking for somebody who has that. So they have their track record of their own results. They have their track record of results they've helped other people create and they have values and our values are kind of aligned. Okay.

Speaker 1:

So then I said now, once you determine that this is the value I want to get and this person can take me there, then you want to start thinking. I always think ROI. So in this example, if it's, you know, 500 bucks is what I'm paying per month. That means you know that comes to what $6,000 a year. And the question becomes can I 4X that? Like, 4x is my floor.

Speaker 1:

I have many programs that I have 10X, 100x, all those kinds of numbers, but like, can I 4X this? So what that means is, in this case, can being in this program, if I follow what I'm learning, if I lean into the networks that I have and all of that, can I create $24,000 worth of revenue worth of an ROI? And if I can. Then I gladly like do you see how just thinking about the math brings you to a place where you're like oh, I could do that, I could do that, right. And you're going to say but, but, but, and I'm coming, I have other things I'm going to talk about. I just want you to lean into this, because for me, once the pathway to 4X is clear, then I'm ready to go right, like, how is this going to create that?

Speaker 1:

Now, depending on the stage of your business, this could happen quickly. This could happen a little slower, like if you are starting a business and you don't know the first thing about business and all of that stuff, well, you may or may not get an ROI in the first six months or anything like that, but you will get an ROI. Like, that's the way I show up, I will get an ROI, okay, and I will talk about the responsibility part in a minute. And so for this person I was talking to, I was like okay, great. So you know like this is the outcome I want. You know like, I would love to work with this group. Clearly, you already worked with them for a year.

Speaker 1:

So then the question then becomes what is the pathway to an ROI. Like, if it is 6,500 a month, can this create $2,000 a month? And she's like, absolutely. I'm like, okay, how it's like, well, there's the accountability. I'm like, okay, great, but accountability does not directly lead to dollars. So accountability in what way? Well, accountability where they help me look at my business as a whole, the numbers and all of those things. So because of that, I can eliminate waste.

Speaker 1:

Because of that, it's very clear. It's easier for me to see if the decisions I'm trying to make are strategic or not, and all of those things. It shows me where I have opportunities, it shows me where I have threats, and I'm just not somebody who would look at my numbers otherwise or whatever. And I'm like, okay, beautiful, now do you think if you did that it could bring you to this place where you're cash flowing from your investment, if you will $2,000 a month, and she says absolutely. I said, great.

Speaker 1:

Now remember that, of course, you have opportunities in the community to network and it's filled with your people and one idea from them can create the whole 24,000 on its own right. So it's not as though that is the only way. But you want to map away and you're like, okay, okay, I see how I can 4X my and 4X is not a cap, 4x is like the base. And you're like oh yeah, I can see how I can do that. Okay, now, if there is a concern, like you know what if I can't make the payments, or whatever, the question then becomes so this is the next thing, like if I had to create, in this case, $500 a month let's say I had some cashflow problems, things happen whatever. And you say, let's say I had some cashflow problems, things happen whatever. And you say how can?

Speaker 1:

The question I would ask is how can I create this? Like, let's say, the usual way I would pay for this is not showing up. How could I create this? And you know, like there are many things you can do, right, like so, for someone who has an established business, that means you already have a client base. That means you already have an audience. You have all of these things.

Speaker 1:

And so if you are, for instance, if you're, a private practice, well, you know what to do to get more people to come in. If you're a coach, you can make more offers. You can create it. Right, you can create it. If you're starting off, you're really early in your business. Using debt may be something that you want to do, or using savings could be something like. You get to choose. But the clearer you are on what your plan B would be, the easier it is for you to say yes on something that could give you an unbelievable ROI. Okay, All right.

Speaker 1:

So that was the fourth thing that I told her. Then the fifth thing I told her I said okay, so now that you know I can make this into an investment, not a cost, because I can link it to value, I know these are the people that I want to work with. I see a pathway to 4X profitability right, or like ROI on my investment, and I know like, if things happen, this is how I can afford to pay for this. I said okay. So the next thing and you have to be very clear on this nobody's going to create the ROI for you, and please understand this like I run a program, so of course, I do everything within my power to help my people create results. But this is the thing, right, and this is the example I gave her.

Speaker 1:

I'm a pediatrician, so you're a physician, so I hope you're not grossed out by this, but I'm like in a nursing relationship. Okay, the mother is going to learn how to breastfeed the child and the child is going to learn how to nurse. Okay, both parties have to be playing for you to have a successful breastfeeding experience, okay. So if the child is just like, if my mom really loves me, she'll feed me, that child is going to be hungry. Or they're going to need to put the child on formula, or they need to put the child on TPN. Okay, they may need to do that, but so it doesn't matter how much milk the mom has if the baby will not nurse.

Speaker 1:

Programs are that way. Working like going to school is that way. A marriage is that way. Programs are that way. Working with a coach is that way. It is a two-way thing.

Speaker 1:

Both parties have to work for there to be an ROI, and so for me, I'm like I want to be responsible for my ROI, I want to be in control of my ROI, I want to determine if I will get an ROI or not, and so I told her, I said okay, so if you decide that the accountability is what I need from this program, then I'm like you're going to have to get it, you're going to have to go after it, if you know that, wow, I need people. You know, like, what I need accountability with will be my numbers and all of those things you know in that particular program they had. You know, like smaller groups and stuff like that, and like you ask for the small group where people focus on this, you look out for the people who are nerdy, the people who get so excited if they were to see an Excel spreadsheet. I am not that person. I'm so amazed. If you are that person, just know that I'm blown away by you. Okay, all right. So I said, you find those people and you become friends with those people. You raise your hands, you ask questions. If the conversation is going a certain way and you're not getting what you need, you raise your hand and you ask for it. But you're not going to sit in the corner and say, oh man, this is what I need and they're not giving me what I need. Like you're not going to do that, you're going to take radical responsibility for the ROI. You know that you're in the right container. You know that container can deliver the results and you're like I want that and I'm going to get it.

Speaker 1:

And I told her. I said I have never, ever, ever, lost money on a coaching program. It has never happened, it is never going to happen. And it's never going to happen because I show up and I'm like I know exactly why I'm here. I know the outcome I'm trying to create. I know this community can deliver, I know the mentor leading the program can deliver and I am going to be like a tree with really nice roots. I'm going to put my roots all the way in. I'm going to get all the mineral I need from the soil. Okay, all the moisture, all the minerals, all everything, all the nutrition. I'm going to get it Right. So I'm like a big tree with big top roots and I don't play.

Speaker 1:

Okay, I said if you want to get an ROI, that's what you're going to do. Nobody's going to spoon feed it to you. Nobody's going to read your mind and know what you want. Nobody's going to read your mind and know where you're struggling. Nobody, like nobody's going to do that. That is your responsibility, and so I have. I have never lost money. This has. This has never happened.

Speaker 1:

And so at the end of our conversation I'm like so what do you want to do? She was like yeah, I'm going to renew. I know exactly what I need. I know they can deliver what I need. I'm going to show up and get what I need and I'm going to create the ROI. So it becomes a very strategic decision. I make very strategic decisions when I want to invest.

Speaker 1:

And again, I and I and I told her cause I invest pretty heavily myself and I told her, I said, listen, like with what I'm trying to do with the current mentor that I'm working with, by the time I'm done doing it, I mean like I, I, I will owe her a lot of money, quote, unquote, because the difference between what I've paid and what I'm going to get out of it. I mean, like I will owe her a lot of money, quote, unquote, because the difference between what I've paid and what I'm going to get out of it, it's going to be night and day. But again, see, that is my decision. She can't make that decision for me. That is my decision to make, right? Okay? So this is how I make that decision. This is why I have never lost money.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so I decide this is an outcome I need. This is somebody who can take me there. This is the investment, this is the pathway to, at least for X in the investment. And this is the way I need to show up to get that ROI. I do not roll over, I do not play dead, I do not whine and complain. I don't do that. Life is too short. I have one life. This is not the rehearsal, this is the real thing. And I mean, I'm 45 years old, right, we need to do this stuff if we're going to be celebrating the way I want to celebrate at 90. Okay, so I don't have time to mess around Now on the flip side, because this is the way I reason it out. This also is the reason why I have built the programs, that I've built the way I've built them.

Speaker 1:

So let's talk about the Entremdi Business School for a little bit. Right, what is the value that somebody will get out of it? Well, the value is that you will have a profitable business. The value is that you would have made the transition from physician to physician entrepreneur. The value is that you will now become a master of your time, so you're able to get so much done in less time and you have time for the things that really matter to you. The value is you become an expert at sales, at marketing, and these are no longer sleazy things to you. You know how to do them in a professional way. The value is that you're able to build a team. You're able to build a team that gives you your time back and multiplies your impact, because they come with all of these skills and expertise and experience that you do not have, right, but they give you your life back. The value is, as you go on, you're able to build a company that is a business asset.

Speaker 1:

So it's not only that you're delivering a service, but you've built a business that is an asset on its own that if you wanted to walk away from it, you could, and boy would you have a pleasant pay day when you do that, okay. Or if you choose to do that, right, okay. So that is the value. It's the results, right, and the consequences, well, your marriage is better because you have time to focus on it and you're not burnt out, and all of that, the values that your relationship with your kids is better. The value is that you have such a wonderful impression of the significance of what you do, the impact you have in the lives of people, whether they're your clients, whether they are team members, whether it's people in your industry. The value is that you'll be able to transform industries if you choose to do that. The value is you get your life back and you get to be completely exempt from the amazing by that I'm being very sarcastic by the craziness in the healthcare space. Okay, you get to be exempt from that.

Speaker 1:

So when I think about that, I'm like okay, what can I do to do my part, to the best of my ability and in an ever-increasing way, to help people get results? So the first component you'll hear me talk about these components over and over again. The first component you'll hear me talk about these components over and over again. The first component is mentorship, and mentorship is really important because people say there is no shortcut to success. Of course there's a shortcut to success. It's called people right your mentors, your coaches and things like that, the school.

Speaker 1:

I say that on the podcast too, that I have taken one for the team, and so you don't have to go through this, because I found the shorter way. I found the 10 ways not to do it. I found the way that does work, and so my job is to shorten the pathway to the results that you're trying to get. This is why I invest so heavily in coaching. Right, I spend over six figures coaching every single year. Am I recommending you do that? Not necessarily. I will tell you, I do that, and the reason I do that is I am responsible for thousands of physicians.

Speaker 1:

People listen and say, oh my goodness, I was inspired by this. Oh my goodness, I now realize that building a seven-figure business, a multiple seven-figure business, is possible for me Writing bestselling books, launching a podcast that changes the industry, leading a team, taking time off, getting my life back because I have a team that can run my business without me, all of those things. And so, while that's amazing, that is inspiring, it also means that I can be a lid. It also means I can be a lid, and so my job is to continue getting better so I can be a better and better mentor. That is why I invest so heavily in myself, so that I can help people get results faster. I can help them get results that they didn't think were possible. I can help them live life on their terms. I can help them do all of those things. So mentorship becomes something that we put in place to make sure that the strategies you need, the frameworks you need, the blueprints you need to create those results, that they are available to you. That's why we do that. So mentorship is a huge, huge part, why it's a shortcut.

Speaker 1:

The second part is the accountability, because, me included, we all have things. We know if I do this, it will absolutely change my business, but we just don't do it, whether that's because we have mind drama, whether we just don't feel motivated, whether we feel scared, whether we think we have imposter syndrome, whatever that is. And so I know the power of accountability. People say, oh, you're always motivated, you're always showing up, and all of that. No, no, no, I have a lot of accountability, I have a lot of accountability, and so part of what we do is we give the people we work with the gift of accountability, and that looks so many different ways, whether it's the challenges that we do, whether it's the smaller groups that we have. Some of them, it's as simple as a post on Facebook. Sometimes I'll call some people out, like I see you're not doing the work right. Like, do stuff like that. We have, you know, the in-person events to bring you to a place where you can sit in a place and workshop stuff and get a lot of work done right. We do it with so many different things we put in place just to keep you in momentum. The Entrepreneur Business School is structured such that even if you only did 30% you hear many of our students say that even if you only did 30%, but you were doing the best that you could, you will just move forward by default, because we put those things together to help people move forward. Okay, all right.

Speaker 1:

So that's the second thing, and the third thing is community. Community is so, so, so powerful. Listen, when I started off as an entrepreneur so this is 14 years ago at this point there was nothing entrepreneurial about me and I remember I would literally Google like physician entrepreneur, because I'm like where are these people, where are the people like me? Because there's nobody around me that was like me and it was really hard. But I know the level of transformation that can happen if you are in the right community. Because people say, oh, you won't grow by osmosis. You actually can. You can grow by osmosis. You can grow If you're in the right environment.

Speaker 1:

All of a sudden, your limitations become obvious. Like this is just a limitation, like this is something I can overcome. Your mind drama becomes obvious because you're like, oh, that person had the same drama, but yet look what they did, right. Like, the challenges become normalized. The hardship of entrepreneurship becomes normalized. The fact that you can move ahead even if their challenges becomes obvious, the fact that you can learn skills like the fact that you don't know, you're not good at marketing or selling or building a team or whatever it doesn't mean anything. You can learn it, right? You watch people literally get transformed and you're like, oh, my goodness, what happened to this person? And you're like, if that could happen to them in 60 days, what could happen to me in 60 days? Being in a community is unbelievably amazing.

Speaker 1:

And so we built this, where you have the mentorship, you have the accountability, you have the community, all of those things. We built everything around that because we want you to know, like, if I come into this container and I own my responsibility apparently these guys have owned their responsibility we can create magic, right? I want nothing more than to create magic with you, right? And so the reason why I took the time to explain this process and walk you through this is people say a lot of things like, oh, coaching is fake and all those things, and I think it's such a tragedy for anybody to think that? Because think about it right. Like in what professional sport would a successful person say coaching is fake, like you're not going to get there without coaching, right? A lot of the executives we know and admire that's what they do. A lot of the high-level entrepreneurs you know that's what they do and so it's not fake, right?

Speaker 1:

But you do need to know how to make the decision, and that's why I shared this, and I also wanted you to see that that is that same philosophy that drives the way that the Entremet Business School is structured. So, if you are somebody who's committed to building a six, seven figure business, or you're somebody who's like I want to build a team so that I can build a business that can work without me, or I want to become someone who has revenue, confidence, like I can create wealth, I can create a six figure business, seven figure business-figure business, I want to be that person. Well, the Entremet Business School has your name written all over it and now you know how to choose, so you can make a great decision like is this for me or is this not for me? But I will tell you, we have served hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of physicians with results to prove right Massive, crazy, wild results to prove because it works right so you can make your own decision, like my friend was able to make her decision.

Speaker 1:

So I want you to think about you know, what is it that you want? Stop thinking in terms of cost. Stop thinking in terms of cost, at least not the leading thoughts. The leading thought is what do I want? This is what I want. Who can give that to me? This person can give it to me. Is this person the one for the job? Have they done it? Have they done it for other people? Do we share values and all of that? You check that. They're like how can I 4X this? This is how I come. 4x it Boom, let's go, let's go, okay. So I want you to think about it for yourself, I want you to get those answers for yourself and I want you to imagine that you know for any program you sign up for and it may be the Entree MD Business School, of course, if you're someone committed to building a successful, profitable business like we have been waiting for you, okay. So come talk to us. But if you choose to do that, you become this person who you never bother about it because you're like I know how to create a return on investment.

Speaker 1:

I won't like Dr Una, I am deciding I will never lose money on coaching, ever. Okay, all right, so I cannot wait. I think this is an episode that would be really great for you to share with the doctors in your world. And if this hit home for you, send me a DM, send me a PM, say oh, my goodness, dr Una, so this is on Instagram or Facebook and you're like that was amazing. Thank you for giving me a framework I can use to decide if I'm going to invest in a coaching program and stuff like that. And, like you, I've decided I'm not going to lose money on coaching, decided I'm not going to lose money on coaching. Okay, so so let me know that this was helpful and I'll see you on the next episode of the Entree and Free Podcast.