The EntreMD Podcast

Stuck on Autopilot? Answer These 6 Questions to GROW Every Month

• Dr. Una • Episode 457

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Before we get into this episode, I want to ask you one question…

Do you really have X years of experience, or did you have the same yearly experience for X years?

There’s a big difference. If you’re living on autopilot, you’re not actually gaining any new experiences. You’re just doing the same things over and over again, hoping they will somehow generate different results. 

But that’s not how growth works. That’s why today, I’m sharing my antidote to autopilot with you!

In this episode, I’ll walk you through how to spark growth with monthly audits and the 6 key questions you need to ask to make them effective. These questions will help you scale your business faster than you ever thought possible! 

Tune in!

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Key Takeaways: 

  • 00:00 Intro 
  • 01:45 Do you REALLY have experience? 
  • 02:57 The antidote to autopilot
  • 06:48 The 1st question 
  • 08:56 The 2nd question 
  • 11:45 The 3rd question 
  • 13:41 The 4th question 
  • 14:51 The 5th question 
  • 18:44 The final question
  • 21:48 The mission of EntreMD 
  • 25:57 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:

Once you start thinking like that, then every 30 days you can be different. You can be completely different. You could be getting different results. I'm not talking about hustle, hustle, hustle that you can't think, because you're working so hard you can't even sleep and all that. The truth of the matter is, you probably will use the same amount of energy and the same amount of time, but get bigger results. Like who doesn't love that?

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 Una. This episode of the EntreMD podcast is going to be a game changer for you, because one of the things I get asked a lot about is, you know, being stuck, not being able to make a lot of progress month to month or year to year, not seeing that radical transformation, and things like that. But there is something that most people avoid doing that makes this possible, and I'm going to show that thing to you right now. Now, this is the thing that has made it possible for us to take a business that has only been in existence, from you know, for six years, from startup all the way to being on the Inc 5000 list of fastest growing companies in the United States for two years in a row. This is the same thing that has taken a super shy, socially awkward, introverted introvert from that person to someone who is, you know, can show up dominantly on stage, can network like a champ, who hosts multiple podcasts, who loves showing up live. What brought that change? This one thing I'm going to show you. Okay, and this is not something that just works in your business. Truth be told, it works in every aspect of your life. It's very simple People avoid it, but if you do it, it will change everything.

Speaker 1:

Okay, now I want to start off by sharing this concept with you that I learned a few years ago, and is this concept of do you have 20 years experience, for instance, or do you have the same experience, the same yearly experience, 20 times? Right? And there is something that is required for you to go from I'm living the same year year to year to every year is different. So I truly have 20 years experience, and that has to do with stopping to actually edit what you're doing, stopping to actually notice what you're doing, stopping to actually see what is creating the results. And these are things people avoid, because, when you look at them, if you have not evolved to become the kind of person who can do that, who enjoys doing that, you see it as well.

Speaker 1:

If I didn't do this right, then that means something is wrong with me. You know, I never get it wrong. I'm never consistent, I never follow through. I'm not good at selling, I'm not good at marketing, I'm not good at networking. There's like that. You can become good at what you need to become good at to pull off the result. You need to pull off right. And so is this concept of change, this concept of constantly evolving, which is the concept that we must embrace. Okay, so I'm getting very excited, very ahead of myself. So let me stop here for a second and take us back Now.

Speaker 1:

What is the number one enemy of progress? Okay, one of the very powerful enemies of progress, let's put it that way. What is it? What is the thing that will keep you the same month to month, quarter to quarter, year to year, decade to decade? What is that? And unfortunately, it is true, you can be the same for a decade or you can get a little better, but you can go through a decade and not experience any significant change at all, which is my definition of a nightmare. That is a nightmare I want it to be like the way I've set up my life. I've set it up such that when you look at me, when you look at my business, when you look at my family, look at my life, every 90 days is different. There's tangible differences that people, humans, can see, and what I do is I very, very consistently take the antidote for autopilots right, because I don't know what can be as hurtful as being 90 and thinking about all the things you could do.

Speaker 1:

And at that point you do the exercise I'm telling you about, because that's what happens as we get older. And then you're like I should have just done those things, like it was not that serious, like I shouldn't have been afraid of those things, right, like who wants to do that at 90 when you can do that today? Okay, so I want you to promise me that you're going to do this today. You can send me a DM or a PM on Facebook or Instagram and say okay, dr Unai, I promise I'm going to do this. Okay, the enemy is autopilot. And what is the antidote? The antidote is the monthly audit. Okay, I call it the monthly audit because you know I mostly do it monthly, but it's an audit, right, it's a mostly audit. So I want you to think about that. What comes up when you think about audits? It's like oh you know, things will be found out and it'll be penalized, and things like that. That's not this.

Speaker 1:

What this audit does is it helps you tap into your wisdom. It helps you tap into the wisdom that you could have because of the experiences you have had. So people will sometimes say you know, like, wisdom comes with age. And I think it was John Maxwell who said, yeah, that he's heard that people say wisdom comes with age, but he's like but unfortunately, many times, wisdom comes alone, like it's alone, like the people who got older, they didn't get any wisdom right. It's a huge loss that you have an experience of.

Speaker 1:

So 30 days, 30 days have gone by, you've had this experience and you can't look at it and pull out of it wisdom because you're like okay, since I've gone through this, I now have this observation this is what works, this is what doesn't work, these are the kind of things that get in my way, all this stuff. So, based on that I will face the next 30 days in this new way, right? And so once you start thinking like that, then every 30 days, you can be different. You can be completely different. You could be getting different results. And I'm not talking about hustle, hustle, hustle that you can't think, because you're working so hard you can't even sleep and all that. The truth of the matter is, you probably will use the same amount of energy and the same amount of time, but get bigger results. Like who doesn't want that?

Speaker 1:

So this is the deal with a monthly audit and I'll tell you. I just did it. So I'll tell you exactly how I did it, and it's going to be such a game changer for you. Okay, so, first of all, I prep for it and this is how I prep for it. So I have my journal, I have a pen, I have my 2025 goals. At the time of this recording, we're in 2025. So I have my yearly goals.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so I have my yearly goals in front of me, I have my journal, my pen and I have an attitude. Okay, I talk about this in the entrepreneur business school all the time. I have an attitude, and the attitude is the attitude of observe, don't judge, observe, don't judge. And so I'm not allowed to judge myself, I'm not allowed to say, oh you suck, you didn't do this or you did that, or you always do this. You never do that, like I'm looking at it like an outside party, just examining what happened in that time period, okay, so, which for me is a 30 day time period. Okay. Now, when I do that, I ask myself these six questions Again. I know this sounds simple, I know it's just like six questions, but the truth of the matter is, if you do this, like I did it in the last 30 days, maybe I'll tell you what happened. Okay, I'll tell you what happened. Okay, all right.

Speaker 1:

So let's look at the six questions. So the first question what progress have I made? And people are like, yeah, well, nothing much happened. Don't ever say that, look for it. What progress did I make? So you pull out those yearly goals and you're like what portion of these goals did I capture in the last 30 days?

Speaker 1:

If you follow our teachings, you know that there's nine areas of life. So there's spiritual, there's family, there's legacy, there's health, there's finances, there's business or career or academics, there's, you know, fun, there's intellectual development, social capital, like. So we have all these nine, nine areas of life. Now I'm measuring for each one, so this is going to take you a minute. It took me about an hour and a half to do it Best hour and a half I spent. So you know, like, for each one, like, what portion of this did I capture? Okay, and that to me, like, but I miss, but I miss. This is not, but I miss. This is not, but I miss time. This is looking for progress time. Okay, so for each of those areas, right, I write out the area and then I write what progress I had when I match it up to my 2025 goals. Okay, all right, so I'm doing that.

Speaker 1:

Now, what is the biggest reason for doing this? Well, gratitude is such an amplifier right At the end of the day, and then it also puts you in this frame of mind that it's working right, and this is something like in the Entrepreneurial Business School we push so hard. I remember when we first started, when I had people celebrate wins. They're like I don't have any wins. I'm like you have wins and we're going to find them Right, and now it's just such a natural thing that people do like reporting on progress and things like that. If you don't learn to build that muscle of finding them, you won't find them and you will be in the middle of one of the most magical times in your business and you'll completely miss it because to you, nothing's working Right. So that's something we want to avoid. So what progress do we make? And you're like, wow, if we could do this, and I didn't even know all that happened. What could happen if I focus on this? Like it just puts you in this space and this state where it's like all things are possible, everything is possible, right, like, yeah, okay. So that's the first thing. The second thing, the second question, is what actions were responsible for the progress I made? So, again, I would write out those nine areas again and I'm now looking at the progress that was made and I'm now auditing.

Speaker 1:

Okay, in my relationship with my kids, it was better. Why was that? Okay, I scheduled these days and stuff with them. Okay, great In my health. Why was that better? Oh, I went on this 30 day no sugar thing, you know, because that's what I wanted to do and I did intermittent fasting Wonderful, okay. Great In my business, we had our biggest, we had our highest grossing month.

Speaker 1:

How come? What happened? Oh, we went to town with selling right. We became we had this one hour block in our business. Every day we're doing the askathon and we were just, you know, either inviting people to workshops, inviting people to work with us, or nurturing relationships, helping people with resources, serving people, all of those kinds of things. And so, because we did that, the result was you know X number of new clients or whatever.

Speaker 1:

Just going down right, like, what were the things that worked, the results I did get the progress I did make. What actions created that? Now, this is super important because if we don't audit it, we don't know what actions are working. We don't know what our 20% is, we don't know. And so, because of that, you know, like again, let me take you to the 80-20 principle. So the 80-20 principle states that 80% of your results will come from 20% of your activities and 20% of your results come from 80% of the activity. So there's a lot of activities that could give you an itty bitty result. That's the bottom line.

Speaker 1:

Now, when you do this audit, you then discover what are those 20% things that I'm already doing? What are the things moving the needle the most? And you find that out of 10 things, there are two things or three things that are doing the most, then you can do more of what works Then most. Then you can do more of what works. Then you can turn up the volume, you can turn up the frequency, you can optimize it, you can get better at it. But if you don't evaluate, you will never know.

Speaker 1:

And what that means is you will trade 80% activities and 20% activities the same, which is a definition of a nightmare, right? Because what that means is you're going to be tired, you're going to be burnt out, you're not going to have time for the things that matter for you and you're not going to be creating the results. Worse still, you could be procrastinating on the 20% and all in on the 80%, which again, is another nightmare. But you will know till you stop and think. And so, if you look at this, this is not something you're like oh yeah, you're listening to the podcast episode. You're not going to get the answers from listening to a podcast episode. You're going to go workshop this.

Speaker 1:

In fact, I would probably say you know, get a pod, get one of these EntreeMD pods, so get a number of friends together, like, okay, we're the EntreeMD pod and you sit down and you guys hold yourself accountable Like you do each of these questions. So 10 minutes for each question and then 10 minute discussion. 10 minute for another question, 10 minute discussion. You will get so much wisdom, so much out of this. Okay, that's the second question. Okay, and this is so that we can do more of what works and less of what doesn't.

Speaker 1:

The third question what did I neglect to do? Okay, now, remember, we talked about observe, don't judge. So we're going back there. We're not judging, we're just looking like, what didn't I do? Like I had this great goal for 2025 and I had all these plans, but I didn't do these things Right. And so what are those things? You got to identify them. And if you think of it, like if I can identify, I can tap into my wisdom, then this is so much better than looking at it and say, okay, this means I'm bad. It doesn't mean you're bad. Everybody neglects to do something right. Okay, it means you're human, congratulations, okay. So now what does that mean? You know, for my family?

Speaker 1:

I can say, man, we were supposed to go on a vacation we could have, but we didn't because I just didn't schedule it. So that just didn't happen. Or I can say, with my health I was also going to take 10,000 steps a day, but I didn't really pull it off, so I didn't do that. I did the sugar and all that. That's great, but this one I didn't do. That I can say for my business.

Speaker 1:

I had a critical hire. I could have hired that person, but it's kind of you know, I'm just kind of, you know, like dragging my feet on the process and so because of that, I didn't hire this person Right. So what did I neglect to do? Maybe for you it's like your team. You were like this is finally the year I'll start having those team meetings so I can enroll my team, so we're all on the same page serving and earning, but you didn't do it Right. Or maybe you decided this month you know, this time in my team I'm going to be doing the ask-a-thon and you just didn't do it. You may even be here and you're like, oh man, I've been meaning to get into the Entree MD Business School, I'm going to do this because this is going to create a big difference in my business, and you just didn't do it. You're looking at these things. What did I neglect to do. Okay, now that you've identified that, and please don't skip that, because there's no other way to access the wisdom you should have because of the experiences you've been through without doing this. Okay, all right.

Speaker 1:

So the next question, number four, is what obstacles limited me? What obstacles limited me? What obstacles stopped me? So, the things I neglected to do why, why did I neglect to do them? Okay, so I didn't take my family on the vacation. Why? Because I didn't schedule it.

Speaker 1:

Okay, I didn't take the 10,000 steps. Why? Because I didn't pick a place in my day where the steps will be taken, and so that didn't happen. Right, I didn't have the meeting with my team. How come? Because I was terrified. I don't feel worthy of a team like that. I think they're going to look at me like who is she? They're going to look at me like who am I bossing around and stuff like that. Like, that was the obstacle. Right, I said I was going to sell. I didn't. How come? Because I think selling is sleazy, and you know I'm a doctor. Like, when is enough enough? Like, isn't it greed that I still want to get more stuff, make more money? Right, didn't join the EntreMD business school. What could it be? I see it working for people. I don't know if it worked for me. I don't know if I can pull it off. If I can do it, I don't know if I can pay for it, right, okay, this is important. Why? Because you're going to tap into the wisdom. Okay.

Speaker 1:

Now, once you identify the obstacles, the next question, number five, is how will I then stop these obstacles from stopping me over the next month? How am I going to stop them from stopping me? Okay, so what does that mean? That means we then go to those obstacles. What do we need to do? So, for instance, if my thing with didn't take my family on vacation this is hypothetical. They take my family on vacation and the issue was scheduling how am I going to stop that from stopping me? I'm going to put a time on my calendar, I'm going to sit with my husband, we're going to map all the vacations for the year and then that's done, so that, even if I'm busy or whatever, all the vacations are happening. That's something, okay.

Speaker 1:

So, for my steps I didn't take those 10,000 steps a day for my health, because I just didn't find a point in the day. And then I come back, I look at my calendar, like, okay, knowing what I now know, if I leave it on autopilot, I'm never going to take these steps. I'm not going to see the benefit in my health. I want to see. So I'm going to look at my calendar and I'm going to say look at my day like a regular day. Where in my day am I going to put this? Because if I put it in that place and assign it a home, then chances are it gets done and I get the benefit I want, and so that obstacle no longer stopped me.

Speaker 1:

So maybe the team I didn't feel worthy of a team like that and they'll look at me weird and all of those things. Well then, maybe you're like, okay, I'm going to, you know, like, is this some mindset work that I need to do? And so I am going to. I'm going to visualize it right. I'm going to visualize the meeting, me showing up confidently, doing all of those those kinds of things. I'm going to do the mindset work, right, I'm going to do the mindset work so I can show up, and I'm going to do it, irrespective of how I feel I'm going to do it. So I'm going to put it, I'm going to call my office manager, call whoever, and say, okay, we're going to have our team meeting on this day at this time, right, and so like, okay, that's what I'm going to do. So the obstacle doesn't stop me. You were like I'm going to join the untrained business, me, and all of those kinds of things, and you're going to come back here and you're like I'm a whole physician.

Speaker 1:

I was able to get into medical school, I was able to graduate from medical school, I was able to complete a residency and all of those things at some point in time. They were terrifying. I had never done them before and I wasn't completely sure I could pull it off. And so this is no different, right, this is no different. This is even less, you know, like less demanding than medical school. So that's that and I'm like, okay, but what of my type of business? Am I the only one who's afraid? We actually have a podcast. It's called Inside the Entree MD Business School and it's stories of doctor after doctor after doctor in the Entree MD Business School.

Speaker 1:

I'm going to go binge on that, so I can see that, whether it's my stage of life or whether it's my kind of business or whether it's my kind of specialty, like there is representation, and so if they could do it then I could do it Right, I'm just going to get on a call with the team on Trinitycom for such call and I'm just going to go schedule my stuff and get myself in the school. So it can't stop me. So I get the advantage of the mentorship, I get the advantage of the community, I get the advantage of the community, I get the advantage of the accountability, so I can pull off the results I want to pull off for this year. Do you guys see what I'm saying? Like, what was the progress? What were the actions? Why? So we can do more of it?

Speaker 1:

What did we neglect to do? What are the obstacles that stopped us from doing it? How do we stop the thing that stopped us from stopping us? So by the time you're done with this, you walk away right. So when I did it, when I did it, it was very interesting. So again, remember, you're doing it for all nine areas of life.

Speaker 1:

Okay, all nine areas, because in Entremet you were about the dream business and the dream life. There are so many people in the Entremet Business School. They will tell you like their businesses are amazing, their business wins are amazing, their teams are amazing, but some of the most meaningful results they've gotten from the business school have been in their dream life. Their marriage is being better than being able to spend more time with their kids, than being able to go on extended vacations with their kids. The level of confidence they have when they show up in all areas of their lives being able to go on mission trips, being able to speak confidently, like being able to be a philanthropist, like all kinds of stuff, all kinds of stuff, right. And so this is why we do it in all nine areas of life.

Speaker 1:

Okay, now that you've answered these five questions, the final question, which is kind of the point of all the questions, is how am I now deciding to show up? How am I now deciding to show up now that I know all these things? So Brian Tracy calls it a quink analysis K-W-I-N-K quink analysis, which is knowing what I now know. It's an acronym knowing what I now know. What will I do differently? So this is you tapping into the wisdom you can have because of experience. So how are you now going to show? How are you now deciding to show up?

Speaker 1:

So, when I did this exercise and I did it for all nine areas of life. It's very strange. It's very strange because I noticed the theme in all the things I neglected to do. So, first of all, we made a lot of progress. We got a lot of things done. Like, when I was done putting it all together, I was like I cannot believe all these things happened in 30 days. Like it's just so crazy, right. So so much progress took note of what worked, I was like, oh, we're going to, we're just going to put the gas on on this one, right.

Speaker 1:

And I looked at the things that I neglected to do and when I saw it and I started looking at the theme all through, the funny thing is, for all nine areas of my life, it was three things. It's either I didn't schedule the thing or I didn't talk to my team, because I have rockstar teams and all my businesses and I mean they're movers and shakers but I didn't have a conversation with them. I didn't get it off my plate, so it was still in my brain somewhere. So it's either I didn't schedule, I didn't delegate, or I didn't prep. I didn't prep so that when it was time I'd be able to pull it off. And so, in all nine areas. These three things just came up over, over, over, over and over again. So what did I immediately do? I went, went back to my calendar, did a deep audit and then made sure everything had a home. I scheduled all these meetings with my team and made sure my calendar, those meetings were represented and with things that need to happen in them. And then I made accommodations for prep time, especially not so much business, but in my life I made accommodations, like you know, for prep time, especially not so much business, but in my life I made accommodations, like you know, for prep time.

Speaker 1:

And I know like the next 30 days is just going to be crazy. So because of that, how did I then decide? I would show up for the next 30 days With intention. I would be intentional, right, so it's not going to cost me more time, it's not going to cost me more energy. Chances are it may cost me less time and less energy, but if I pay the price of intention, I'm going to get far superior results over the next 30 days. And then guess what I'm going to do when those 30 days are over? I'm going to go back to the drawing board and do this process all over again. So when you think about this, you can then see how January will be amazing, but February will be like oh my goodness. And then February will be like oh my goodness. And then February will be amazing, and then March will be like oh my goodness, why? Because I'm growing in wisdom every month, like I'm becoming so much wiser, I understand so much better how to create results, I am so clear on what works and doesn't work.

Speaker 1:

And it all starts from sitting down to think this activity right here. If you will do it, it will change everything for you. I mean it will, and in all areas of your life, right, and so I want to challenge you to do it. That's one thing I want to challenge you to do. The second thing I want to challenge you to do is please hear me when I say this okay, entreemd exists to give doctors three gifts no-transcript boards. I know that, and so I have to continually invest heavily in myself. Okay, so that we can provide the mentorship that is required. That's gift number one. Gift number two is community, okay.

Speaker 1:

So back in the day, when we first started the business school, people were like, oh man, I just want one-on-one. I'm like, trust me, that's not what you want, because I was very clear. I was very clear that the power of your environment is more powerful than most things. You're gonna reflect your environment. And so, in the business school people powerful than most things. You're going to reflect your environment. And so, in the business school people, they handle challenges like bosses. And so when people experience challenges, they have so many examples of so many people who went through more difficult things and came up on top. So guess what they don't do. They don't quit, they don't quit. You see examples of people who normalize, serving people at a high level and making a lot of money and not feeling guilty about it, not being apologetic about it. So guess what they can do. They can tap into that. They're in a community where we value and not just as a statement that's on a cute wall, but this is the way it is we value collaboration, okay, collaboration over competition. And so guess what they can collaborate. They're not intimidated by competition. They're not intimidated because of that. They're in a community where people understand that marketing, selling, building a brand building team, all of that that's just what you do in business. So guess what they do. They start adopting that and they just start doing that. I know that. So we built the community so you can have a community where you can thrive.

Speaker 1:

And then the third thing is accountability. Why accountability? Because people sometimes say you're always motivated. No, I have built systems that drive motivation. I've built systems of accountability, and we do that in so many ways. We have so many different strategies we use to make sure that you can stay in momentum even when you don't want to. It doesn't mean we're forcing you to do anything, but you're kind of just. You know like, you're going with the flow, and the flow is accountability. Right and it is just. It's such a beautiful place and I believe every physician deserves to be in a community like that, deserves to have access to a world-class business education. Okay, now we've had people say you know, I was thinking about going to do an MBA, it was going to cost me a hundred grand or 120 grand and stuff like that, but I'm glad I came to the business school instead. We have a number of people who are MBAs and, like you know, I finished my MBA.

Speaker 1:

The next logical step was to come to the EntreMD Business School. So this is the deal. One of the things you can do that will be most transformational for your year is to put yourself in a place where you get the mentorship, community, accountability. You listen to the podcast, you've created wins from it, you've experienced such mindset shifts and all that. It's time. It is time, okay.

Speaker 1:

So what I want you to do is I want you to go apply. Okay, I want you to go apply Entremdycom forward slash business Okay, apply, and even if it's just like man, okay, let me. Let me do this. I have some questions. The team will be happy to take care of you. Entremdycom forward slash business Okay, go turn in your application and set yourself up to be the kind of entrepreneur who can build the business that you dream of, the kind of entrepreneur who can have a dream business and a dream life. You're not needing to sacrifice your family, your fitness or your faith because you want to be an entrepreneur. You get to have it all. That's what we do, okay, so do that. It's one of the most magical things you can do for your business. Okay, all right. So I want you to go do this exercise. I want you to go apply to the business school, and not just progress in your business, but progress in your life as well.

Speaker 1:

Whether you are running a fee-for-service private practice, a direct primary care practice, direct specialty care practice, you're a coach, you're a consultant, you're an event plan, like whatever that is, whatever that is, there's so much that is available and the things you've dreamt about they're available. You may have been surrounded by people who are like, oh, forget that. Things like that don't work. Businesses don't work, private practice is dead the whole nine yards. But I want you to imagine you being in a space where there's so many examples of what is possible, and now you're in that place where you're an example for other people because you've now made it possible for you and that's available, and I want you to have that. Okay, all right. So I'm rooting for you. I'm rooting for you. Go do the exercise. Send me a DM, let me know how mind blown you were and how differently you're going to show up over the next 30 days, and I cannot wait to celebrate all the wins that you're going to create, because when you do this, everything is going to change.