The EntreMD Podcast

Evolve or Become Obsolete—The Critical Shift Physicians MUST Make NOW

• Dr. Una • Episode 456

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The world of healthcare is changing at an unprecedented speed. 

On one side, AI and robotics are changing healthcare as we know it. On the other, giants like Amazon and CVS are jumping in, offering cheaper services that pull patients away from traditional physician-run practices. And this is just the tip of the iceberg! 

A lot of doctors are holding onto hope that things will go back to "normal." But here’s the harsh truth—they probably won’t. That’s why today, I’m breaking down the radical changes you need to make today to prepare for tomorrow. 

Tune in and avoid becoming obsolete! 

—

Key Takeaways: 

  • 00:00 Intro 
  • 00:42 Things won’t go back to “normal”
  • 03:44 Marketing and business education are NOT optional 
  • 07:20 Why you NEED to invest in education 
  • 10:05 Not evolving is fatal 
  • 12:36 3 things to think about 
  • 18:40 The urgent need to change in medicine 
  • 22:00 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:

Back in the day, not evolving was a problem. Now that the world is evolving at such a speed, not evolving is fatal. Just go down the rabbit hole of AI and just take a look at what is going on everywhere. The whole world is going to need to upskill. We're gonna have to upgrade what we know, what we can do and all of those things our creativity and all of that to thrive in this new world that AI is creating.

Speaker 2:

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 when you think about Blockbuster and you think about the taxi industry. What do they have in common?

Speaker 1:

The truth of the matter is both of them like one, is completely extinct. Blockbuster at this point is a historical fact, and the taxi industry has experienced almost the same thing. What does this matter? How does this matter to physicians? Well, if we don't adapt, if we don't change and I'm talking about radical change if we don't do that, we're going to end up being historical facts.

Speaker 1:

Many of you who listen to the podcast know that I'm a very optimistic person, and so there's still optimism in this. We're still going to have so many people exempt from this. But if we do not adapt, we're going to be on the wrong side of history. We're going to have careers that are historical facts, businesses that are historical facts. We'll go remember the good old days when the truth of the matter is it doesn't have to be that way. You can have an alternate reality. But I'm very, very, very concerned about us as a community, the physician community. I am so concerned. I am so concerned that I went live in the EntreMD Facebook group and talked about this today and I still came back and I'm like, okay, I have to talk about this on the podcast as well. I hope you would listen to this with a really open mind. I hope you would listen to this, knowing that this is something that can completely change your trajectory, and so you can go on to experience the alternate reality. I hope that this will be something that you would choose to share with every physician in your world and just say just listen to this and just listen to this with an open mind.

Speaker 1:

I am meeting a lot of physicians who, subconsciously or consciously, have decided that they're going to wait it out, whatever it is that's going on. Who are deciding. Hope is their strategy who are deciding. You know, I'm going to pick and choose how I'm going to evolve, and it is so concerning because, even in the entrepreneurial space not physician entrepreneurs, just entrepreneurship in general so much has changed, so much change has been required. The people who refuse to change. Many of them have gone out of business or many of them have gone from oh, we used to do 5 million, but we did 1 million this year. There are 22,000 businesses that filed for bankruptcy in 2024. And there are other people who are thriving. It's the best of years in their businesses and all of that. But for the ones that I've been in touch with, every single one has evolved. Everyone has evolved in their strategy. Everyone has evolved in the way they show up. Everyone has recognized that. Oh, my goodness, it was a little harder of a year as an entrepreneur, but my response to that was coming out harder and stronger, not backing down or playing the victim or any of that. And so I want to kind of paint this picture because I want us to be set up to succeed, to thrive. Whatever is going on doesn't mean we can't thrive, it just means we cannot do things the way we've always done them.

Speaker 1:

So I'll give you some examples, and if you find yourself in this like this is you know, I say this all the time in the entrepreneur business school we observe, we don't judge, we observe, we don't judge. This is not about oh, you know, I did this, I did that. No, it's about really listening to this and putting your life and your modus operandi side by side and saying, okay, what do I need to adjust here? Like, I really want to invite you to think of this in terms of what do I need to adjust, what do I need to change? What do I need to do to get ready? You're so blessed and fortunate that you're listening to this now, because we can make changes.

Speaker 1:

I don't think things are going to get better. I think they're going to get tougher and I think people are going to win. Think they're going to get tougher and I think people are going to win. I totally plan to win. I totally plan to set my clients up to win. I'm trying to set you up to win, but if we do not change, we can't. We just can't.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so I hear people still to this day deciding you know, like I don't like what's happening in healthcare, I'm going to start my own business and I choose not to market. Oh, I don't want to market. Is Dr Una going to talk about you know, social media? Are we going to talk about referral sources? I just want to hire a marketing company. Please hear me when I say this. Marketing companies can play you and you'll be out hundreds of thousands of dollars because you don't even know. You don't know what the marketing is, you don't know what your marketing message is, you don't know the right metrics to check. You don't know if they're doing their job or not. You cannot direct them. You cannot do any of those things. You got to learn to market. You got to learn to understand like. What is my voice? People can't find your voice for you, you're going to find your voice as you use it strategically and all of those things. I mean okay, dr Una, calm down. But we cannot do that anymore. We are literally the brand ambassadors, our companies, and we, as the brand ambassadors, we chose to quit that position and our businesses don't have a brand ambassador. We cannot do that anymore.

Speaker 1:

Okay, I would see people who have made a quality decision that they're not going to focus on profits, like I just don't really want to talk about the money, I just want to take care of my clients, I want to take care of my patients. You do not have that luxury. This is not how business works. You cannot choose not to look at the profits. So I would see people who are running very successful businesses. You have a physician running a $3 million business, still doing locums to pay the bills. No-transcript. The problem here the math is not mathing. Something needs to change. We cannot afford to run businesses like that anymore. I see people who say I'm going to start a business, I'm going to run this business, I'm going to scale my business and all, and then think I'm going to do this without a business education. So let me stop here and talk about this for a second.

Speaker 1:

Your medical education is wonderful and it did amazing things because it took you from a non-clinical person and made you a whole physician. Some of you are replacing hearts, you're replacing joints. You're able to make all these diagnoses. You're able to run hearts. You're replacing joints. You're able to make all these diagnoses. You're able to run codes. You're able to intubate, you know preemie babies. You're able to do all these amazing things. It did nothing to prepare you for entrepreneurship.

Speaker 1:

And so sometimes people say things well, just go Google it and you'll be fine. Entrepreneurship is an economic sport and it is an expensive sport. I know you've heard that ignorance is bliss. Ignorance is not bliss in entrepreneurship. So, for instance, the investment in the Entremity Business School for the year is, you know, $30,000 for the year. And sometimes people will say, well, I started my practice two years ago and my practice is not making any money and so because of that I cannot afford to be in the Entree and New Business School and I'm like, okay, but what if your practice was making a hundred thousand, 250,000, 500,000, a million? What if in your first year you built it to where you know it didn't do too shabby. You brought in a couple of hundred thousand dollars. And what if the next year you are at 500 or 750 on track for a million in your third year? Because you knew what to do, because you had access to the right strategy, had access to mentorship, you had access of a community of people who were like little vision boards that you can look at and understand that your challenges are not unique, that this is what everyone goes through and they help you walk through it and all of those things. What if you had that? So instead you're losing hundreds of thousands of dollars that you could have created in revenue and you're saving 30,000.

Speaker 1:

This is the deal If you're running a business and the business is running you. Now it is a pointer that you need an education and you can say you know, like, I hear you, I don't want to do the Entree MD Business School. You can substitute this with whatever you want to substitute it, for. I know that the Entree MD Business School is the premier school. It's in a category of its own for physicians, because what you have is you have a world-class education, you have unbelievable accountability, you have a mastermind almost built in because of the community that you have and you're with a mentor who has done multiple businesses in multiple industries and has built multiple seven figure businesses, has built businesses on the Inc 5000 and has a track record of people who have built great businesses and are building great lives at the same time. There is nothing to compare to it. But if you decided something else, that's okay. Regardless, you need a business education. You need a business education.

Speaker 1:

Ignorance in entrepreneurship is expensive. It costs money and a lot of it. Okay, this is why I'm concerned. At the same time, when we're stuck in this, I'm not going to do this, I'm not going to do that. Like, we think these things are optional. Marketing is not optional. Selling is not optional. Understanding your profits is not optional. None of these things are optional. Oh, my goodness, dr Una, calm down. Okay, none of them are optional. Getting a business education is not optional. It's too expensive to do it any other way. It's too expensive.

Speaker 1:

So at the same time when this is happening, the world is changing at such a speed. Like, if you want to get any clue how fast it is, just go down the rabbit hole of AI and just take a look at what is going on everywhere. Take a look at the number of jobs that, in a few years, will not exist. Like they will not exist to the point where we're wondering like, wow, people used to do that. Like the whole world is going to need to upskill, like we're going to have to upgrade what we know, what we can do and all of those things, our creativity and all of that to thrive in this new world that AI is creating.

Speaker 1:

Back in the day, not evolving was a problem. Now that the world is evolving at such a speed, not evolving is like fatal, right, like it's fatal. We don't have the luxury. Okay, so there's real transformation happening that we need to keep up with. There's real change in the world that's happening that we need to keep up with. Right, and we were already, as a community, in a vulnerable spot before this.

Speaker 1:

We don't have the luxury. Please hear me when I say this we don't have the luxury. Please hear me when I say this we don't have the luxury. We need to get ahead of it. We need to be asking ourselves questions like okay, this is 2025, 2027, 2028, 2030. What do I need to be doing now to position myself so I'm ahead of what is coming? Where, yes, there's this massive disruption. So I'm ahead of what is coming, where, yes, there's this massive disruption, but I'm not being disrupted because I'm ahead of it. How do I get in front of it? These are the questions we need to ask.

Speaker 1:

And so the idea of staying stuck in our ways, deciding that, you know, thinking these things are optional, I'm going to do this thing, I'm not going to do that, and all this stuff, like we don't have that luxury. This is a time for full offense. Please hear me when I say this. This is not a time to roll over and play dead. This is not a time to dabble. This is not a time to kind of sort of do stuff. This is a time to play full offense, like this is what I want to build. This is the legacy I want to leave. This is what I want to generate as far as revenue. This is the time freedom I want to create for myself.

Speaker 1:

I understand that the times are different. I understand that times are challenging. I understand we're in the middle of a disruption, but I will win. That is the attitude. And when I look at the people who are winning in entrepreneurship now, that is the attitude they're not waiting for things to get better. They're not waiting for someone to hand them something. They're not waiting for the Calvary. They're showing up as the Calvary. They're showing up as the Calvary. They're showing up like full speed ahead. We gotta be full speed ahead. I'm telling you this because you listen to the podcast. You've got wins out of it. You love the ideas and all of these things full offense.

Speaker 1:

Now, when I talk about full offense, I wanna give you three things to think about, and one is full offense when it comes to evolution. See, one of the things that I've done over the years be ahead of the disruption is I am constantly evolving. My plan is every 90 days. If someone met me 90 days ago and they meet me today, they should go like what's going on with Dr Una? Right, why? Because it's required. It's required Even if the world is not changing that fast, but I want to become everything that I'm called to be. I have to do that If I'm going to say that I'm responsible for leading people, like I have hundreds of clients, like I cannot show up and I'm not changing, I'm not evolving, I'm not positioning myself to be the best possible version for them. Like I can't do that, and in this marketplace. It's a requirement. So for me, for instance you know you've heard me say this on the podcast many times that my master skill I'm working on this year is persuasive speaking.

Speaker 1:

It takes a lot of humility for someone like me to say that I'm going to work on my speaking. I'll tell you why. Over the years I have done thousands of videos. Over the years I have done over a hundred like webinars, masterclasses, workshops and all of those things. I've done tons of them. Over the years I have been able to generate millions of dollars by speaking. Over the years I have dominated all stages. I've had standing ovations, I've had, you know, like crazy amounts from stage, like I've been able to do all kinds of things. And for me to say I'm going to spend a whole year and work on my ability to speak, set myself up to practice, so since January 1st I've been doing the equivalent of one life. So I've been showing up, live every day, every day since the beginning of the year so I can hone that skill. That is the level of a growth mindset and humility that's required to thrive now, because I think about.

Speaker 1:

I'm like okay, what is the thing that can move the domino the most? In my business. I lead teams that's speaking. I have a podcast. That's speaking. I have YouTube channels. That's speaking. I lead a daily prayer meeting that's speaking. I have clients that's speaking. It's all speaking. And I'm like, if I can take this skill up, make it 10% better, 15% better, the ripple effect in my entire life will be off the chain and I humble myself and I'm reading the books and I'm showing up live and I'm doing all of these things. I practice. When I come up, I'm practicing Let me do this 1% better. Let me do this 1% better. Let me practice this 1% better. Let me do this 1% better. Let me practice this hook. Let me practice this teaching point. Let me practice this storytelling piece. Let me practice all of these things.

Speaker 1:

For instance, I was somebody who didn't want to talk about profit and loss statements and balance sheets and all of these things, but I'm like, do you want it or not? How can you lead people in entrepreneurship? You have a whole entre-md business school and you're deciding like you're not going to be great at that. You don't have a choice and you want to run a business that can work without you. You want to run a business like. It is irresponsible to run a business in a way that, if you needed to sell it, you can't, because you don't even know what your books are. Your books are not clean. You don't know what's going on there, so I have to evolve. So listen to me, you don't know what's going on there, so I have to evolve. So listen to me, it doesn't matter what skill you don't have. You got to learn the skill now. It doesn't matter if it is a skill required for you to get to the top, for you to make that dream business and dream life a reality. You got to learn the skill. It really is as simple as that. So, evolution that's one place where we have to evolve, where we have to play full offense.

Speaker 1:

The second place is living in the 20%. You've heard me talk about the 20% a lot. What is the 20%? The 20% are those most important activities that will move you in the direction of your goals and they're the ones you're most likely to procrastinate on. And for physician entrepreneurs, it's usually selling, it's usually marketing, it is usually speaking, recruiting team members, building a referral base, like we would rather do Canva. We would rather hire a marketing team. We'd rather tweak our website, our business plan. We'd rather do all those things rather than do the things that actually move the needle right. Those are the things we would do.

Speaker 1:

And so now I started practicing this I want to say, two years ago like in this way, where I'm like I spend 80% of my time living in the 20% right and if you put yourself in that position, it forces you to be this person. You're so strategic and you use your time so well, like you literally invest your time. Your business has to succeed, it has to right, and so playing full offense is there too. Like I spend 80% of my time doing 20% activity. Again, this is why a community like the Entremedy Business School is so powerful because you are in a place where people are doing the 20%. People are coming up, they'll even post oh my goodness, I was so nauseous today but I did it. And people say, oh my goodness, I did that and I didn't die. And we're celebrating people eating. We call it eating frogs. We're celebrating people eating frogs, doing the 20% and all, and it just becomes this thing that you do. We're like oh my goodness, looks like you're having a frog fest this month. And they're like yeah, that's exactly what I'm doing. Hear me when I say this playing full offense. Part of it is living in the 20%. You do not have the luxury of time to live in the 80%, doing things that don't matter, like we don't have the time to do that, not if we're going to thrive in the space that we find ourselves in.

Speaker 1:

Okay, third place where we're going to play full offense being strong against resistance. Because, for instance, if you're a private practice, insurance companies are doing what they're doing, the administrators are doing what they're doing, some patients are doing what they're doing, and all of those things. It's a lot of resistance. You're a coach and people come up with stuff. You're a DPC, people are fighting your pricing, all of those kinds of things. But you gotta be strong in the face of resistance. You can't quit because of resistance, because there will be resistance and there may be more resistance and you surviving and thriving is tied to you. Playing full offense even though there's resistance right, and so we gotta play full offense even though there's resistance right. And so we got to play full offense. We got to evolve, we got to live in the 20% and we need to play full offense even if there's resistance right. So I don't want you to be to have a blockbuster story. I don't want you to have a taxi industry story.

Speaker 1:

You've heard me talk about it many times in 2016,. At this point, almost nine years ago, when I was sitting in my office and it dawned on me that medicine as we know it has changed. People laughed at me when I said that People would drag me on social media when I'd post about it. But we're living in it now. It was really urgent in 2016. It is critical in 2025. It is fatal to ignore the warning. It has been there for nine years.

Speaker 1:

Medicine as we know it has changed. We need to evolve. What used to be is no longer is. We cannot do things the way we used to. We need to let that go completely. We even need to embrace entrepreneurship as if we're not physician entrepreneurs, like we're just entrepreneurs. We need to understand business. We need to function like CEOs. We need to give up all these labels we've been given we're bad entrepreneurs, you know bad deals or doctor deals stay in your lane and all that. We need to give all that stuff up and show up and own the space and be savvy and build our own health systems and build our own businesses and create our own legacies. And when we're done with all of that and we have enough empowered physicians, then we can go after the whole system. We can, but we can't until we have enough empowered ones.

Speaker 1:

So what I wanted, I mean, like I'm super concerned, I'm going to be fine, I'm going to be great, my clients are going to be great. You're going to be great too, if, if you make the adjustment, if you make the change, if you make the decision that I'm going to play full offense. I'm not going to wait for things to go back to the way they were, any of those kind of things. I'm not going to pick and choose. I'm going to do what is required. It is pride to think you can just pick what you're going to do. It's a sport. It already has rules. Business is an economic sport. It already has rules. You got to play by the rules, okay. So I want you to start today. I want you to start today. I want you to start making the transition today. I want you to start saying yes today. I want you to start doing what is required today. I want you to get out of thinking you can pick and choose. This is not a buffet. This is an economic sport and it has rules. It has rules. So, unfortunately or fortunately, I don't know that it matters, it just is I think harder times are coming and if you say yes to this process of playing full offense when it comes to your evolution, when it comes to living 20%, when it comes to staying strong in the midst of resistance, it's going to be great. If you say yes, it'll be great. If you say no, it will be awful. Don't say no, it will be awful.

Speaker 1:

Okay, some of you have thought about the Entreedy Business School for years, and for years you've been saying I'm going to join one day Today's, one day Today's, that one day Entremdycom forward, slash business, go, apply, the team will take care of you. If it's not a right fit, we'll let you know, but the team will take care of you. One day's today, stop putting it off. Except I mean like, if you're getting the result and you're killing it and all this stuff, okay, fine. If you're not, stop putting it off. The whole idea of the school is to be this container where physician entrepreneurs can come and get the help they need to thrive. We have had doctor after doctor after doctor after doctor radically turn their businesses and their lives around, and that was built for you too. So no more procrastination. Entremdcom forward, slash business, go apply, go apply.

Speaker 1:

But regardless of how you choose to do this, say yes to playing full offense. Say yes to paying the price. Say yes to being the person who's going to win in these times. Say yes to being a vision board for physicians everywhere. Say yes. No is too expensive and no may be fatal, not for you as a human, but for your career, for your business, for your dream life. It may be fatal. So say yes. Let's create that alternate reality together. Let's show physicians what's possible and let's thrive in the times that are coming. They may be challenging, but we're tougher. All right, I'll see you on the next episode.