The EntreMD Podcast

Results Taking Too Long? These 5 Strategies Will Transform Your Business Forever

• Dr. Una • Episode 464

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Does this sound familiar? 

You set big goals, expect quick results, and end up frustrated and ready to throw in the towel because things didn’t go as planned. I feel you. We’ve all been there. Even the most successful entrepreneurs you know had to deal with the reality of delayed results. So, before you throw it all away and quit, hear me out… 

It’s how you respond in situations like these that makes all the difference!

In this episode, I’ll walk you through 5 strategies that will help you deal with slow progress, overcome the inevitable discouragement you will experience, and foster sustainable growth for your business. 

If you’re constantly questioning your progress, this episode is for you. 

Tune in! 

—

Key Takeaways: 

  • 00:00 Intro 
  • 01:36 When the results take too long  
  • 04:11 Protect your vision 
  • 11:10 Define your path 
  • 13:12 Are you working on the plan? 
  • 16:02 Choose patience in advance 
  • 18:29 Lean on your community 
  • 21:29 Don’t quit on your dream
  • 24:27 Outro 

Additional Resources:


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  • 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:

This 1 million I said I'm going to make. How am I going to do it? I cannot tell you how many people cannot tell me an answer to that. But if you ask them, oh yeah, this is the year I'm going to build a seven figure business. I'm going to add seven figures to my business All of a sudden. How will this happen? They don't know. I'll sell more. That is not a strategy.

Speaker 2:

This is a math problem. We need to have the math equation. What is 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.

Speaker 1:

Have you found yourself in a position where you have set a goal. You're like this is going to be amazing. You had a vision of, maybe, what your business would look like the revenue goals you were going to hit, the team you were going to have, and all of that stuff. And you started off and things just did not go the way you expected and you went from this wonderful honeymoon season to this place of almost pure desperation, like what am I going to do now? Maybe you're a seasoned entrepreneur and so, because of that, you're not at that point where you're like I want to quit or anything like that, but you just want to throw it away. You're like you know, I set this goal. Maybe you wanted to hit Amelia, you wanted to add Amelia, you wanted to finally build that team so you can separate yourself a little bit from the business and you start going at it and no matter what you throw at it, it's just not hitting. What do you do then? How do you stay patient? How do you not quit? We're going to talk about what to do when results take too long, and this is the deal you are either in a season where results are taking too long or you're about to get into a season where results take too long, and so this is something that is just part of the journey of an entrepreneur. But the people who are ultra successful know how to navigate those seasons, whereas everybody else is like I just want to quit, I want to throw it away. They're depressed, they quite quit on their business for five, six months a year at a time, and you just cannot make significant traction that way. There, six months a year at a time, and you just cannot make significant traction that way. There isn't a way to do that, okay, all right. So big shout out to Dr Catherine Tumor. So if you're listening to this, you can go let her know in the chat. Like you're amazing. You're the reason that Dr Una did this whole podcast episode, because she asked a question like how can you be patient with yourself and with your team when results are taking longer than you expect? Okay, so she posted this in the EntreeMD Facebook group and if you're not a part of the group, come join us, okay, so just search for EntreeMD physicians in business and you will find that on Facebook and you can come join us. We talk shop all the time there, all right? So let's say, you had this, this goal, your vision. Like man, you know we're going to. We're going to cross the seven figure mark because of what this means. Right, what it means for, let's say what it means for you is that there are a certain number of people you have to serve to pull it off, and so you'll be almost doubling your impact. Maybe it also means that you'll be able to, you know, hire a higher capacity staff, so that that means you can get some of your time back and spend more time with your family or your health and all these other things that matter to you.

Speaker 1:

You know, maybe you want to prove to yourself that you can do this. You, you know, like, maybe you unsubscribed from the lie that physicians can't build great businesses and you're like I'm going to do this because it's something I've wanted to do and I want to prove to myself that I can do it. Also, the financial freedom you know that that sets the stage for you to accomplish all of these things. Right, like so, for so many reasons, you're like this is the year we crossed that and you started off going down and you're full of expectation. Maybe you've hired a whole team to handle all the stuff that's coming and the thing is not coming Okay, and even the things that seemed like they were working before, and maybe some of them are not working, or things are going great and you're growing, but not at the speed that you want it. Whichever, it is Okay.

Speaker 1:

So let's talk about you know, I will tell you five things that I would do, and I have had this cycle over and over and over again, right, like where things did not go the way I planned for them to go, and you know maybe you're like me, I'm a speedy Gonzales, so I'm like wait, you know, I want this and I want I've already mapped out the timeframes and all of that stuff but the only thing you really have control over is what you do. You don't have control over the timing of the result, and that's not to say we don't get the result, but just lean into this, okay. So the first thing, the very first thing, and this is a trap that I see all the time, and I see this as the trap of 2025, which is the time I'm recording this and it's something we have to guard against. Hear me, dear entrepreneur, you must guard against this. And what is that trap?

Speaker 1:

It's a trap of giving up your vision. It's a trap of giving up your vision and sometimes it sneaks up on you. You won't even know. You may have heard me say that You're like I would never. I would never give up on my vision. No-transcript bank account. By the middle of the year, this is how much will come in. These are the like if I, if I'm a coach and I do a launch and I have people come into my program and say I have a group coaching program, it's usually I'm making up numbers here it's usually 20 people I expect. So your subconscious expectation is 20. The fact that you say you want a million doesn't make you go to 45. Your subconscious setting is 20. So if you get to 20, you're okay, even though your vision is twice that. But you're like okay, the price you believe people pay you is the price that you've charged and all this stuff. So it conditions you.

Speaker 1:

You run a private practice. There's a certain kind of team you've had. The expectation is subconscious. This is the kind of team. You can write whatever you want to write on paper Like, ooh, this is my vision, all of that stuff. But this is right. That's what the expectation is, you know and these are a number of patients we see a day and also as long as what has happened is happening, for the most part you're okay. This is the default.

Speaker 1:

Now let's say you did a lot of work and in the Entrepreneur Business School we do a goal-setting workshop. It's more vision, right, it's just setting the vision for the following year. We do October of every year and so maybe you do something like that, right? So you lean into where exactly I want to go, you lean into the picture of what that looks like. You make a vision board. Your reading book's in line with it.

Speaker 1:

So you do the work of shifting what you think about yourself, the way you show up, what you think about your business, your team, the revenue, all of that. So now your expectation is no longer 41,000. Your subconscious expectation is that you're bringing in 83,000, right, so you can hit that million dollar mark. Your subconscious is patient. These are the kind of people I work with, right, your subconscious is patient. This is the way I show up, like you've elevated all of that, right. So maybe that's you, maybe that's you, maybe you're not even the person who hasn't done this at all.

Speaker 1:

But here comes January, right, and you were like 83 grand. Now, of course there's greatest stuff, right. So I'm just giving a raw example. So you hit 43,000 in January. If you have not done the work of shifting the way you think, you're like, yeah, it's 43,000. We'll try again next month. And if you've done the work, you're like, no, okay, yeah. So what do I tweak? What do I do? What worked, what didn't work, all that stuff, let's go again. And you do it again in February. And so maybe you don't get 43, but you get like 45, like it's marginally different, right. And you do the same thing, right. And then you get to to to March, and then it's like 50,. Right now it's 50 more than 40. Yes, I mean it's a whole $10,000 more than 40. That's a whole six figure. You know six figure growth, right. But it's not, it's not going to take you to a million, right. And so there's something that happens, especially if the people in your world are also not crossing those numbers and all of those things, without you knowing.

Speaker 1:

You may still have the vision board on the wall, but it's on the wall, it's not in your heart, it's on a wall, it's not in you, it's not directing the way you show up. It's not directing how you interview. It's not directing how you sell. It's not directing how you lead. It's not directing anything, because what is on the inside of you is a vision of a $500,000 business, right? And so one of the things that you have to protect is you have to protect the vision. You have to keep the vision top of mind, even in the face of disappointments, even in the face of delays and all of that stuff. Your imagination is free. Your vision is free, like hold onto it. You haven't accomplished it, but you haven't accomplished it yet, right? You haven't accomplished it yet. You still can.

Speaker 1:

If you let that go, what will happen is you show up like the person running a $500,000 business. You build a team that will support a $500,000 business. You will lead them to be people who support a $500,000 business. You will sell, you will price, you will do everything like someone running a $500,000 business. And guess what you're going to get at the end of the year? A $500,000 business. Nothing else we talk about is going to matter if this goes out of the window.

Speaker 1:

So when you have challenges, when you have problems, show up in your business. I want to show you what the real issue is. The real issue is almost never the challenge. The real issue is the way the challenge shapes your vision. It shapes the way you see yourself. It shapes the way you see your leadership ability. It shapes the way you think you sell. Like a one-star review is not great. We don't want a one-star review. But the real problem is not the one-star review. The real problem is are you going to make you think about your business a different way because you got a one-star review? Think about the kind of leader you are. All of that because of the one-star review. That's the bigger problem. That's the more expensive problem.

Speaker 1:

When results are taking longer, your number one job is to guard the vision, is to guard. Your vision is to to preserve that picture, is to keep seeing your business at the light of where you're going. If you see where it's going, you can go there. If you see where it is, you will stay there. I know I beat that up a little bit, but it's important because if this doesn't work, nothing else works. The second life beats the vision out of you. The second your business challenges beat the vision out of you. You're done. You're done Now. Could you not get to 600 doing that? Yeah, you could, but the quantum leap you're looking for you're not going to do it. It's just not possible. You go where your vision is Okay, all right. So that's number one.

Speaker 1:

That's the first thing I would do is I would protect the vision. I would protect the vision Practically. What does that look like? I can have a vision board, but I'm looking at it. I will audit my thoughts through the day, like when I think of my business 80% of the time, what kind of business am I thinking it is? If 80% of the time, I'm thinking it's a $500,000 business, it's a $500,000 business. If 80% of the time, I think it's a million dollar business, it's a million dollar business. Right, so what am I thinking? I have done things like. I would even set alarms three times a day that will remind me to envision the business I'm building. I'm telling you this is full-on warfare, if you want to put it that way, but you got to protect the vision. So I've done that.

Speaker 1:

I have recorded myself reading out the goals that I set for the year as if they've already happened, and I just hit play and it'll play back to me. I've done all kinds of things. Do what you must? You got to preserve the vision? Okay, number two. Number two is another place where I see a lot of mistakes made, and that's this the path is not defined Right. So when it's taking longer, we want to define the path Like this 1 million I said I'm going to make, how am I going to do it?

Speaker 1:

I have spoken and coached thousands of entrepreneurs over the years. I cannot tell you how many people cannot tell me an answer to that. But if you ask them oh yeah, this is a year I'm going to build a seven figure business. I'm going to add seven figures to my business All of a sudden, how will this happen? They don't know. I'll sell more. That is not a strategy. This is a math problem. We need to have the math equation. What is the math equation for a million dollars? For you? I sell something that's $10,000 and I'm going to put a hundred people in it. Okay, that sounds like a million, right, like, and all of that stuff. But if you can't do the math, if you can't show me how, if you're working on the how, that's something right, like I'm still trying to figure it out I get that.

Speaker 1:

But when you have magical thinking and so many entrepreneurs have magical thinking doesn't cease to amaze me. When someone say, oh, you know, I started a private practice and it's slow. What can I do? I'm doing everything, I know what can I do. And when you investigate, there was no strategy and they quit their job and they bought every equipment in sight and they have all these massive bills coming in. I'm like how sway right. Okay, so you got to define the path.

Speaker 1:

Same old, same old will not cut it. If you're applying to accomplish something more, same old, same old will not cut it. You have to know where you're going. Being confused about it will not cut it. Not changing anything will not cut it.

Speaker 1:

The plan that got you to 500 is not the plan that will get you to a million. The plan has to change. The plan has to change. Okay Now, it may not radically change. It may be a price change, it may be a volume change, it may be whatever. Right, like the container may change a little bit, whatever. But we have to have a plan. So if things are taking longer, I have to ask myself is there even a plan? Like I'm saying it's taking longer but I'm not executing on anything strategically to get me there, so it's a good time to audit. Do I have a plan defined?

Speaker 1:

The third thing is is then, you know, this is one of my favorite. It's it's a come to Jesus meeting, right, like are you, are you working the plan? Are you working the plans? Oh, the plan is, you know, we have had we typically would have, you know, 500 patients a month and now we want to have 750, and we have the bandwidth, we have the team to support that number of patients. Great, so what are we doing? Oh, you know, we just. You know, when they call, we just try to get them in and it's not going to cut it. You have the plan. So you created the plan. We're going to do the recall X number of times. We're going to reactivate these referral sources. We're going to go in on social media or YouTube, which, for everyone who owns a private practice I'm going to be screaming about this, I'm going to like even at the entrepreneur business club, hint, hint, guys, hint, if you're listening we're going to do a whole lot with YouTube because, my goodness it is. It is a gold mine for private practice owners, like every other kind of business, but especially for private practice owners. So he said we're going to do all these things.

Speaker 1:

So when it's taking longer, you want to have a come to Jesus moment with yourself. Like, am I actually doing the thing that we defined we're going to do to get the result? Because sometimes I find people who are so stressed out that they're not getting the result. It's not working the way. I want all that stuff and you look and they're not doing what they said they were going to do. They're not even touching it. They're doing a lot of 80% activities that don't matter, but the actual things that will move the needle, they're not doing them. So you want to have a come to Jesus moment with yourself. Am I doing this? Am I doing this? Especially those froggy ones, right? So maybe your private practice. You have a wait list.

Speaker 1:

I had a doc who and she's so amazing she's such a massive action taker. She had over 300 people on a wait list right In her private practice so people can see her, for I don't know whether it would be months or whatever, and so the rate limiting step there she was going to experience massive growth. What was it going to take? She needs to hire another doctor because she was at capacity, right. And so when it seems like it's taking long, you have to stop and say did you hire said doc? Like, have you hired that doc? Right, okay, if you're a coach and you're like man, I'm at, I'm at full capacity with demand out the door, right, and I've been doing one-to-one and I'm going to do one-to-many and you know you're going to need to launch that Now. Have you launched that? No, that, no, okay, but so why? You don't mind, you don't have the million right Like.

Speaker 1:

So it's is that thing of am I working the plan? Am I working the plan? Like, am I even doing it? Because how do I know this? Like, guys, the reason why I can talk about a lot of these things is because I've made almost every one of these mistakes. I've coached people who've made every one of these mistakes, right Like. So you're not unique, like uniquely special because you're making these mistakes. This is just for like, I've taken one for the team, my clients have taken one for the team. Don't take another one for the team. You know what I mean. Like, just understand that this will be a problem and this will set you up and just fix it, Okay, okay.

Speaker 1:

Number four choose patience in advance. Choose that when things are not going my way, I will be patient. And I want to read for you the definition of the word patience. Okay, because if you can't, ahead of time, say I'm not going to let this bother me. You're already so far ahead Now. The word patience means able to accept or tolerate delays, problems or suffering without becoming annoyed or anxious. I'm going to read it again the word patience means able to accept or tolerate delays, problems or suffering without becoming annoyed or anxious. So if there are things that are not going our way, we've decided that we're able to accept or at least tolerate it without becoming annoyed or anxious. I am telling you I have, at this point, been an entrepreneur for 15 years. You're going to have ups and downs and highs and lows and all of that, but at the end of the day you'll come out ahead right, but there is nothing you can do to avoid challenges in business. There's nothing you can do where you don't have mountain valley, mountain valley, up and down, high and low. Like none of that.

Speaker 1:

When I work with the doctors on the on-term to business school, let me tell you some of the things that happen. Our calls are on Wednesday. We'll come on one Wednesday and a doc is like you know, man, you know just having a really value moment. You know we're having a lot of challenges in our business. We had a lot of turnover and stuff like that and we kind of work with them and coach them around it and stuff like that. And the very next day, the very next day, they're like oh, we had our biggest week ever. They've been doing it long enough to see that these two things go together and the more successful they are, the more they see. So it's not unusual for me to hear the doctors who are doing over a million say, oh, this was our most challenging year and this was our best year, whether revenue, team, all of that stuff, right, so they go together.

Speaker 1:

And so if you can choose patience, you can win. You already know you're going to have challenges. You already know you're going to have ups and downs. You already know. So you might as well choose when that time comes. It's not an if. When that time comes, I'm refusing to be annoyed. Now I'm not saying don't be human. Of course you can be annoyed, you can get annoyed, just don't stay annoyed. You can go like, oh my goodness, how is this going to work? But just don't stay there, right, okay?

Speaker 1:

And then the fifth thing, when results are taking longer, is really lean on your community. And when I say community, I don't mean everybody. There are people in your world and if you don't have them, you want to acquire them. And if you're a physician entrepreneur, there's a place where there's over a hundred people like this Physician entrepreneurs it's called the Entrepreneur Business School. Come join us, okay.

Speaker 1:

You want to have a community of people who are living outside their comfort zone. So they get it. They get it, they get you. They understand that there are highs and lows at every point in time. Some of them will be at high highs, some of them will be at low lows. They've been where you are. They can tell you oh, you know, that was me two weeks ago and you know this is what I did to handle it. They'll look out for you because they understand what that season is like, and so you want to lean into that, right? And so that the journey of going through and the results taking longer and all that will be less painful because you're with people who get it. You are with people who will tell you I mean, like, it doesn't take all that, you can just quit, or yeah, nobody got time for that. Like, you want to be in a community of people who are like you got this, you can do it, and they'll send you virtual hugs and they will call you and if they live close to you, they'll stop by and they will encourage you.

Speaker 1:

Now, when I started my private practice, I didn't know anything about anything, and this is why I am so determined to support physicians on this journey. I didn't know anything about anything. And there was a day, you know, there were patients coming and you know we'd been doing a lot of stuff and I was so discouraged, so discouraged, and I remember, I remember that you know, a surgeon came to my office. Now my office was, you know, there were two suites a suite A and suite B. Suite A was the first one, so my office was almost hidden. Right, it was almost hidden. It was a smaller office and so he wasn't strolling by. He came there and so he comes in and he says, wow, are you, dr Una? I'm like, yeah, he's like, you're so brave starting a private practice.

Speaker 1:

When I started mine, I was scared out of my mind. I was scared, spitless, and he was like but don't worry, it gets easier. Sometimes you will have the temptation to quit, and I'm paraphrasing. I don't remember the exact words he said but you're going to feel the temptation to quit. But don't, it gets easier, it gets better. Just hang in there. And if I get referrals and all that stuff, I'm going to send them to you. I will never forget him for as long as I live, because it was almost as though an angel walked in and, like God sent an angel to just say don't quit, I got you Right and that's the power of a community, right? So we all have those.

Speaker 1:

I want to quit. When I say I want to quit, I don't always mean like shut down your business, but sometimes you're like my goodness, like why am I doing this? You start questioning yourself, okay, like I'm even doing this, right, or does it even matter? Right? There's all these things that happen and just having someone who gets it to encourage you he didn't spend up to five minutes in my office, but that was enough to take carry me for months, right? And so you want to lean into that community and whatever you do, don't quit. And sometimes people question me when I say that. But let me tell you what I mean by that. I don't mean quit on the method. You can quit on the method anytime you want. I mean, don't quit on the dream.

Speaker 1:

And if you must quit, if you must change a method, if you must change a business, if you must change a business, if you must pivot your business, if you must do any of that, you want to quit strategically, not because you were frustrated. It didn't work, like in the moments where you're frustrated, second guessing yourself, unsure, discouraged. That is not the time to make a quitting decision. You make a quitting decision from a place of strength and you decide you know what, don't want to do that, don't want to do that, I quit it. I quit stuff all the time, but it's a strategic decision. It's not out of frustration. It is hard to make great decisions when you're frustrated, when you're discouraged, right? So these are the things I want you to do, but I want you to understand their highs and lows. This is like anybody who tells you like business is sipping margaritas on the beach. They lie to you. That's not what it is. That's not what it is at all. And so I want to challenge you. I want to challenge you to decide that no storm is going to take you out. I want you to decide that I'm going to go all in. I want you to decide that when those things come that take longer, I'm going to be able to tolerate it and I'm going to lean on all the resources I need to come out on the other side and just know that I'm rooting for you.

Speaker 1:

When you see this podcast, when you see new episodes air, it is for you. When you see us host workshops, it is for you. We actually, if you're listening to this like right when it's released, we have a workshop coming on called the Revenue Boost Challenge on tramdcom forward slash challenge. Go, save your spot. We host this every other month. I want every other month. When you come for this workshop, like your business experience, it boosts, like your new normal revenue wise changes because of the strategies you learn and you implement during that workshop. So when you see the workshops, it's for you. Okay. So the workshop starts April the 7th, so save your spot. It's for you. When you see us show up on YouTube, it's for you. When you see us write books, it's for you. Please understand that you're supported For those of you who are in the EntreMD Business School. It's for you, those of you who have been thinking about it, come join us. You have questions, come ask, okay. Entremdcom, forward slash business and come check it out. But you have support to win, okay. So, yes, things are taking a little longer and all of those things. It doesn't mean you won't win.

Speaker 1:

I have a friend who did a little over $2 million and he decided, you know, in a year and decided he wanted to build a $10 million business and he started working at that and year one he probably did 2.3. You know, after that he did 2.5, after that maybe 3.2. And then in his fifth year he did 20 million. Right, he did 20 million. So the idea is this right, like, can you do that long enough so you can get where you're going? And I'm not saying hitting your goals will take you five years, especially in the beginning, especially when you're under 2 million. What I am saying is the ultra successful can tolerate delays, they can tolerate problems, they can tolerate those things, they can tolerate the challenges. And I want to invite you to embrace that life Now, while you do it, you're not doing it in just a strong headed way.

Speaker 1:

You're making sure you have the plan. You're making sure you're executing on the plan. You're making sure you're leaning on your community. You're making sure that, whatever happens, you do not let life or challenges steal your vision Right and you keep moving, okay. So I'm rooting for every single one of you. I cannot wait to celebrate you as you become this person who can tolerate delays, who can win in spite of the ups and down. You're no longer as phased by them. That's the path of the ultra successful and that's where all the magic happens. Rooting for you always, and I'll see you on the next episode.