The EntreMD Podcast

Overwhelmed Growing Your Business? Here's Your Step-by-Step Guide to Change That

• Dr. Una • Episode 428

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Success always sounds marvelous until we achieve it. 

Then, all of a sudden, it’s full of burnout, overwhelm, and stress …

Many physician entrepreneurs are shocked at this stage and don't know how to cope with these feelings. 

But being overwhelmed by the success of your business can and will kill it! 

That's why today I will give you my 3-step process for overcoming overwhelm so you can rise above it and thrive.

Tune in!  

—

Key Takeaways: 

  • 00:00 Intro 
  • 00:53 Overwhelm is deadly
  • 04:15 Identify the problem 
  • 10:01 Create the solution 
  • 12:46 Execute relentlessly 
  • 19:58 Don’t do overwhelm
  • 21:39 Outro 

—

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:

You have grown your business, you have a lot of team members, but you're overwhelmed by managing them right, like managing their schedules, managing when somebody's out, doing the one-on-one meetings, doing the team meetings, doing all of that stuff and you're like this is so overwhelming I want to throw it away. But the truth of the matter is, if you look at it, 10 people reporting to one person is too many people, and so bringing in one single thing like what's the problem? Problem is you need another layer of management. That is not you right. Like you don't have that layer. That's the problem.

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 Imna. Embrace entrepreneurship so you can have the freedom to live life and practice medicine on your terms. I'm your host, dr Imna.

Speaker 1:

One of the things that shocks entrepreneurs the most when they start getting successful is that there is burnout, there is overwhelm, there is stress that can be associated with success, so much so that they no longer want to grow, they don't want to get bigger, they don't want to succeed anymore and in fact, sometimes they're like I just want to throw this business away. Today I'm going to show you what to do if you start feeling overwhelmed by the success of your business. Now, a lot of this came out of a number of conversations I've had with doctors over the years, and it doesn't matter whether you are, you know, in the early stages of your business or you have already hit the $1 million mark. The challenges that come to you know, come with success are almost inevitable, except you know what to do. The way we say it in the Entremet Business School is that the reward for solving problems is new problems, right, and so these things show up, but they're problems that go with the territory. There are some that are just a result of things that we don't know, but today I'm going to show you how to fix the ones that are as a result of things you don't know.

Speaker 1:

So I had a conversation with a doctor who was in the earlier phases of her business and she was probably at a 10th of capacity, but she had just started experiencing growth. And she says oh my goodness, I am so overwhelmed by the few clients that I do have, and so when I think about getting any bigger, I don't even know how I'll handle it. And when she said that, I knew without a shadow of a doubt that it also meant that day to day she was sabotaging her growth by herself, every single day, whether she was doing it consciously or unconsciously. And so when there are opportunities to increase her visibility, I know she won't take it or she'll just do it a little bit. I know when there are opportunities to make big ass, I know she'll hold back because she doesn't really want the new clients anyway. And so I told her, I said okay, so this is something that we absolutely need to fix because it is too expensive. It is too expensive to spend your hours as a CEO of your company trying to not grow your company, like actively not growing your company. And I'll take this to the other side.

Speaker 1:

I have another friend I was talking with and she's grown her business and her business is at full capacity for her, like not bringing in any other team members and things like that at full capacity for her. But then she's in tears because she's like it is so overwhelming. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I wish I could just quit all my business. I don't want to do this anymore. There's so many clients to serve and now that we're at full capacity, we're no longer able to give them that great experience. I'm burning the candle at both ends. I don't want this anymore. I'm showing you how deadly being overwhelmed or by the success of your business, how deadly that is. And so here is somebody who wanted to build a business, who is doing something that many people don't get to pull off, and she's like I just wish I could throw it all away. Okay, all right. So it's critical that we understand what to do with this. Okay, so I'm going to give you three things to do and at the end of this, you're going to build this into a framework that you use all the time and it just make your life so much better. It will make you come to a position where other people are wondering how you're so calm and they think you know, like this is chaos and you're cool and you're thriving in the middle of it.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so step number one. Step number one is identify the problem. So when you find yourself saying I'm so overwhelmed, nothing is working, everything, everything is falling apart and all of that stuff it's not necessarily true, right, like when you see that I want you to think of it as mental clutter. It's like showing up in a house, maybe owned by a hoarder, and there are things everywhere. It is overwhelming, right, like it's just stuff everywhere.

Speaker 1:

Now, what the seasoned entrepreneur will do will then say, okay, in the midst of all of these things, what is the actual problem? Right, and so I've done this many, many times with different entrepreneurs, so I'll just throw up, you know, random examples. So, for instance, I've talked to people who have private practices and they're like, oh, my goodness, I'm so overwhelmed, blah, blah, blah. I'm like, okay, great, and I'm like, okay, when you think about it, what is the thing that is actually stressing you out? And a number of things will come up. So, you know, let's use examples here, and I may have a doc say well, you know, I have all these people calling out no-transcript, so there's so many no-shows the next day. Or the fundamental people calling for records or whatever they need to do, over and over again, because these things are not done, co-pays are not collected appropriately on all of those things, right, and so, yes, there are all these things going on, but if you break it down all the way, it's a team problem, right, and it's really the MA and the front desk right, because it could be physicians, it could be an office man, it could be all kinds of things, but it's really that Right. And this specific situation.

Speaker 1:

I said okay, well, I'll tell you what we did when the great resignation hit. When it hit, we realized that, you know, until we got a more stable team, that we were not going to be able to rely on people to be there every single day, and so we outsourced those things that were critical, things that needed to happen Collecting the co-pays, the prior authorizations, making sure medical records are sent out, all of those things. We outsourced it to a team that we could rely on, right. So we had virtual medical assistants and we knew, day in, day out, they would be there doing the things. So, even though we were having this turnover thing which I am so grateful is resolved at this point but even though we were having that, we were in a position where the critical functions that needed to happen were happening every single day.

Speaker 1:

She's like oh, and breathes such a heavy sigh of relief, smile back on her face as, like I can do this Right, I can do this. So you see how something that is so overwhelming, you can dwindle it down to what's the real thing, what is you know like, and then take it from there, right. So the first thing is to identify that Now it will be different for different people. It may be that you have, you know, you have grown your business, you have a lot of team members, but you're overwhelmed by managing them, right, like managing their schedules, managing when somebody's out, doing the one-on-one meetings, doing the team meetings, doing all of that stuff, and you're like this is so overwhelming I want to throw it away.

Speaker 1:

But the truth of the matter is, if you look at it, 10 people reporting to one person is too many people, and so bringing in one single thing, like what's the problem? Problem is, you need another layer of management. That is not you, right, like you don't have that layer. That's the problem, right. And so you just want to kind of do an audit. What is the actual problem here? Right, I'm so overwhelmed. I'm trying all the things, I'm not getting new clients, and all of those things.

Speaker 1:

It could be many things, right, but maybe the thing is you're talking to the same old people. Maybe the problem is there's no visibility, none, like you're not going anywhere to be a guest, you're not going to build referral base, you're not going into other communities and speaking. There's nothing happening to bring new people into your world. So that's why you're doing all this work and it seems like nothing is happening. But the issue is that nothing's happening, right? Or you find yourself I mean I could go on and on and on, but the thing is this when it seems like everything is overwhelming, remember that there is one thing that is the most significant problem. It is one thing that if you fix that one thing, it fixes most of the other things. Your job is to find that thing.

Speaker 1:

So every time you feel overwhelmed, you're just like okay, what is actually the problem here? You run a diagnosis, you run diagnostics. What is the actual problem here? Okay, doing this alone will make you this person who could be in the midst of chaos, and you're completely okay. Completely okay, because Now someone else may be super overwhelmed and they're like I'm working hard, I'm seeing a lot of clients.

Speaker 1:

We're not making enough money, right. And sometimes I will look into their business and I'm like okay, we have a business model problem here, right, like that's the problem. The problem is you're offering a service for a little amount of money and you are serving like relatively, a few patients or a few clients and because of that, the number you're trying to create, you just can't create it. You can't create it. So that means you either change your price, or you change your volume, or you change your goal. But it's an equation, right. Something has to give. So again, it all goes back to running diagnostics finding the one thing Like this one thing. If I change this one, again it all goes back to running diagnostics finding the one thing like this one thing. If I change this one thing, it brings the biggest change in my business. So that's the very first thing. Okay.

Speaker 1:

Now the second thing is now that you know the problem and finding the problem is like 90% of the solution, in fact, by the time you find the problem, you'll feel so much better. You'll no longer feel overwhelmed or feel the need to be overwhelmed, like in the Entremet Business School we have this saying we don't do overwhelm, we just don't, we don't do overwhelm. Now we may have feelings of overwhelm, but then we walk through a process to work our way out of it. We just refuse to sit in it. Okay, all right. So after you find what the problem is.

Speaker 1:

The next thing you want to do is you want to create the solution. Okay, you want to create the solution. You want to create a plan to solve the problem. So, for instance, if it is a virtual assistant, it becomes very simple. You know it's a medical VA, like in the initial example I gave, and it's very simple. You find the companies. There are many of them. You find the companies. You can get some referrals like who are you using, or whatever, and then you call them up and you make an appointment with them and you do the interview with your people and you bring that person on board, right, it's a very simple plan. Well before that, you create that job description and all, but it's a very simple plan.

Speaker 1:

The problem may be that, oh, my goodness, I have 14 people answering to me and so I need another layer of management, and so you want to bring in a practice administrator. You want to bring in an office manager? Okay, great. What are the outcomes they'll be responsible for? What are the tasks that will get them? What is their job description? Right? Where am I going to put these ads? Who are the people I need to tell about this position? So that you know I can get this position filled.

Speaker 1:

Start interviewing, fill the position right, like that becomes your plan. It may be your business model. So maybe you are, you know you are low tickets, low volume. And then your plan could be I, you know, for my values, I don't want to serve a lot of people, I want to serve few people for the thing that I do. And so what your plan is then I have to raise my prices right. And if you're like, no, I want the prices to be low because I want this to go to everybody, then it has to go to everybody. You have to raise your volume right. So either, or you're like okay, this is the plan. So if it's the pricing, maybe there's mindset drama that's kept you all it out you say like okay, we're going to work the mindset drama, we're going to pick a date for when we're going to raise the price. We're going to decide on what the price is going to be. We're going to work the numbers and take a look Okay, the numbers work right. That becomes the plan. Or, if it's volume, you're like okay, I have to like 10x my visibility. I have to 10X the number of times I'm asking people to work with me. I have to multiply all of this, right, like, multiply that volume, right, okay? So again, we can go on and on and on.

Speaker 1:

But you identify the problem, you create a solution, right, you create a plan to solve the problem, and then the third thing is really where the rubber meets the road, and that is to execute relentlessly until you solve the problem right. Because finding out the problem is really good and the thing that would be so good for your mental health and so good for living above overwhelm and all of that stuff is amazing. But you know, identifying the problem does not. It's like probably 80% of the solution at least, but it does not create the solution right Now. Until you identify the problem, you can't actually create a plan right To solve it. You can't create the solution until you identify what the problem is. Okay, but it doesn't matter how good your plan is, your plan will do nothing until you do number three, which is relentlessly execute until okay.

Speaker 1:

So we live in a time where you know hard work, you know, is now made synonymous with hustle and everybody's. I don't want to hustle and things like that, but I am telling you, in entrepreneurship, if you want to have great results, hard work is required. Okay, now there's hard work and there's toiling. Let me talk. Let me let me digress a little bit and talk about that. So toiling is like I do a whole lot of work and I see a little bit of a reward and I have to sacrifice so much, like so much of the critical things so my family, my health, my faith, like significant things that are not worth giving up for any business in this universe. Right, I have to give up all that to get some reward. Right, that's my version, that's my definition of toileting. Okay, hard work is I do. The Critical work that is required is a requirement for the goals that I want to hit. Okay, so hard work is required. It's like saying I'm going to go to medical school and I'm not going to work hard, it doesn't work. Like it doesn't work. You can work smart, you can work strategically, you can do all of that, but hard work will be required. In entrepreneurship, hard work is required, okay, but there is a way to do it where, again, you're not giving up your family, you're not giving up your health, you're not giving up your faith, because those are things that are not worth giving up for any business. Okay, all right.

Speaker 1:

So back to relentlessly executing. So let's say, let's say, my thing is I need to bring in an office manager. Okay, that's the thing that will get rid of this overwhelm. I cannot tell you how many people. They know this and you know like this is the plan. They know this, but it's been months and they've not created a job description, or maybe they have that. They've not created the ad that. Maybe they do, but they don't put the ad anywhere, they don't tell anybody about it, they don't do anything, and I understand that. How do I know this? Well, of course, I've coached thousands of doctors at this point, but I've done this right. Remember, I own multiple businesses, so I've made almost every mistake there is in the book.

Speaker 1:

Now, there may be mindset drama around and sometimes we don't readily identify, but maybe you've never hired that level of team before. So you're like well, I don't know if you may not use this language, but that's what it is. I don't know if I'm worthy of this caliber of person working with me, right, I don't know that I can lead this kind of person. Or I hired somebody like this before and they left, and before they left, they gave me feedback and told me I sucked as a boss, all these things that come up, right, but the thing is this we want to see them and address them, so they don't stop us from taking action, right? So if it's office manager, let's say I'm like I've never hired somebody like that, I don't feel worthy, or I don't know if I can lead somebody like that, or whatever, but until I do it, I've never, I would have never done it.

Speaker 1:

And so, you know, people ask me like, how do you go when you feel the inertia? I'm like I don't wait for motivation. Motivation is not required, right? Like if this is something I need to do, it's something I need to do, is something I need to do, and I may do it feeling afraid, I may do it feeling unsure, I may do it and it's messy, but this is a deal. Even if I don't get it right, guess what? I have experience and I can do it better the next time, and so I don't let that stop me, right? And so the idea is I will go at it until so, which means I will take the time to say, okay, these are the KPIs, the key performance indicators, or the outcomes that this person will be responsible for right.

Speaker 1:

So I identify those, I create their job description, I create the ad, I put the ad out there, I tell everybody I'm hiring right and I start interviewing. And you've heard our podcast episodes on interviewing. So I'm doing three interviews with three different people asking those questions. I did a podcast episode on the questions you want to make sure that you ask on an interview. And I'm doing all of those things until I get my office manager. And once I get that person in, then all of a sudden I can have three core people reporting to me. Everybody else reports to that person. I would have bought back hours and hours and hours of my time back. I'm back to peace, I'm back to having a great time balancing my dream business and my dream life and all of those things.

Speaker 1:

But if I do not act relentlessly until I get the result, that is not going to happen, right. So you identify the problem, you create a plan to solve the problem, you relentlessly execute that plan until you create the result. And I will say that in doing all of these things, of course you can see that patience is required, because I can choose not to be overwhelmed, because I know that I'm working on the thing that will make this end. It will make the things that are making me feel overwhelmed have a deadline, have a timeline. You can bother me until this day and not a second after, right, and so I can choose that I'm going to be at peace even though the chaos is still there, because I'm solving the problem, right. Okay, so patience will be required, but this is the deal, right, this is the deal. Maybe this is more like a warning. So when you start this, you'll find out that this is a process. You'll always be working.

Speaker 1:

I tell people all the time your business is a construction site and the reward for solving problems is new problems. So, let's say, I was the one that had 14 people reporting to me, did all this stuff. Now I brought in the office manager. Right, and I brought in the office manager and she was doing her stuff and it created growth. Guess what happens when you grow? Chances are the systems that worked before you grew don't work anymore. So things start falling through the cracks and all of those things, and I have another thing that could make me overwhelmed.

Speaker 1:

So what's my job? I identify what the true problem is. I create a plan, I solve the problem. And I do all of these things while being patient. Right, so it shows you that this process never ends. This is identify, create the plan, work the plan. Identify, create the plan, work the plan. This is just what we do. Why? Because you're an entrepreneur, you are the owner of a business, you are a CEO. Your job is to solve problems, and so, when problems appear, don't let it drive you nuts. This is your job, so do your job right. Our job is to solve problems. That's what we do. Okay, all right. So what do I want you to do with this?

Speaker 1:

I want to invite you to choose, like the people in the Entrepreneur Business School have chosen like I don't do overwhelm. Like when, when something comes and it makes me have this feeling like you're overwhelmed and stuff like that, I stop and I'm like okay, what exactly is the problem here? How can I solve this problem? Then I go solve the problem, but I'm like I refuse to sit in overwhelm, I refuse to live in that neighborhood. It's a bad neighborhood. I don't want to be there, right? It's so easy to stay there and be paralyzed and you know like have palpitations and have so much anxiety and all that and I just choose not to do it right, and guess what? You will always have opportunities to be overwhelmed in your business. So then you choose I'm going to do it or I'm not going to do it. Right, you have choices, okay, anyway. So here's the deal.

Speaker 1:

I want to invite you to practice this right now. Pick the thing that may be overwhelming or make you feel like you might be overwhelmed in your business. Pick it and go like okay, I'm just like, oh, nothing's working. I'm just overwhelmed. Okay, great, what exactly is the problem? What's the true problem here? Okay, what is the plan to solve this problem? Boom, all right, let's start acting.

Speaker 1:

The plan, okay, and you can send me a DM, a private message on Facebook, instagram, wherever, and just say oh my goodness, dr Una, I did that. It was like the best thing since sliced bread. I'd been walking around overwhelmed and now I'm like a total piece. I know exactly what to do. I'm working the plan. So, even though everything hasn't fallen in place, I know it has a deadline, I know this will be over soon. Okay, I would love to see you do that.

Speaker 1:

And if you're like, oh, oh, my goodness, like now I understand what has been happening in my business this whole time and you're like, and I can do this, but I hear you and I want to be part of the community where people are just doing like this is their MO, this is what they do and they've decided they're not living with overwhelm and they're building their dream businesses and their dream lives. At the same time, as always, I invite you to check out the EntreMD Business School. It is the only school of its kind for physician entrepreneurs producing more six, seven or multiple seven figure businesses than any other business school. Okay, so schedule a call with my team. They'll be happy to walk you through. Walk you through it, give you the details and then you can decide if this is your best next step or not.

Speaker 1:

So EntreeMDcom forward slash call. That's where you want to go. Make that appointment is entremdcom forward slash call? Okay, all right, I'm rooting for you because now you have a framework that you can use whenever so you can go through your journey as an entrepreneur without the overwhelm. Okay, Invite me to do that. I'm celebrating you, I'm so glad. I want you to share this episode with another doctor in your life to say, hey, let's do this together. We are not doing overwhelm anymore and I'll see you on the next episode of the Entree Department.