The EntreMD Podcast

5 Powerful Lessons I Learned Hosting a Life-Changing Vision Retreat for Doctors

• Dr. Una • Episode 497

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I just got back from hosting the 2025 EntreMD Business School Vision Retreat, and let me tell you… This one hit different. 

I’ve hosted many retreats, but this one impacted me in a way I didn’t see coming at all. I ended up walking away with five powerful lessons that I’m already applying in my business, and now, I’m sharing them with you, too! 

These lessons will give you clarity on your journey, help you correct your course where needed, and inspire you to keep going even when it feels like you're going nowhere. I talk about how much can change in just a few years, what it really takes to reach mastery, how you can make money while being away from your business, and so much more.

This episode is part reflection, part revelation, and all heart. You don’t want to miss it.

Tune in now!

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Key Takeaways: 

  • 00:00 Intro 
  • 01:14 The EntreMD Business School Vision Retreat 
  • 03:26 A lot can change in a few years 
  • 06:29 You can become a master where you are a disaster 
  • 09:34 Time away from your business can be profitable 
  • 14:29 The right people will change your life exponentially
  • 18:00 Share your stories 
  • 24:29 My vision for you 
  • 26:04 Outro 

Additional Resources:


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  • 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_00:

Where I was once was a disaster. I can become a master. Let me put in the reps. Let me read the books. Let me have conversations with people who are crushing this. Let me stop and evaluate. Why? Because I can become a master. Hi Docs. Welcome to the Entre MD 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. Umna. I just got back from hosting the EntreMD Business School Vision Retreat 2025 at the time of this recording. And it was very interesting because this retreat, more than any other one, impacted me in a way that I didn't expect. I learned so many lessons from it. And these are lessons I'm going to use in my business. So I wanted to share it with you because you may not have attended, or maybe you did, but these lessons are things that you can apply in your business right away. It will help you give you a better understanding of your journey as an entrepreneur. It'll be a game changer for you. So I got five big lessons from attending, or rather from hosting the Entrepreneur Business School Vision Retreat in 2025. And I'm going to share those with you. So first of all, the vision retreat is an event that we do in October. It's when we come together, we set our goals for the following year and not just our business goals, but our business and our life. So it's fun for me because I don't have to keep everything I do to the business. We can talk about life, we can talk about family, social capital, intellectual development, health, all of those things. So and set goals and all of that. Because the idea is we want to have a dream business and a dream life. In the entrepreneurial business school, we're very big on that. We focus primarily on business, but we know it spills over to the other areas of life. So this is a very fun retreat for me. This was our fifth one. We had it in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, right by the ocean from my room, from the balcony. I could just sit like for hours and listen to the waves and see how expansive it is. And it's just so good because it puts me in this state where it's easy for me to set big goals for the following year. So this was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun. When I got back, I'm a big believer that you don't want to have experiences and not evaluate them, right? Because if you don't really pull the lessons from it, it's not as powerful as it could be. We went to Dubai. We got back about four days before my vision retreat, actually. I went to Dubai, we're gone for about 11 days. It was so beautiful. It was such a beautiful vacation for me and my family, my husband, my four kids, we all went together. And I remember at the end of that trip, I sat, I was like, okay, so you enjoyed it. You got to see all the sights, the birch Khalifa. You went to Dubai Mall. You went to the desert, you went to the Musk in Abu Dhabi and all of this. We did all of those things. And then I said, okay, so what did you learn from this? And it was so powerful. It was such a powerful experience. The story of Dubai ended up being my opening keynote, if you will, for the entrepreneur business school vision retreat, the lessons that I learned there. And so it's a habit that I have. So after this, the retreat ended by 4 p.m. on Saturday. And usually I'm not able to travel that same Saturday. It's just hard, like really hard for me because of the incredible amount of focus that is required for us to pull off these retreats. And so after the retreat, I remember coming back to my room, resting in, sleeping the next morning, spent about three hours just staring at the beach and unpacking all the things I learned. So you're gonna get, you're gonna get, that's what you're gonna get today. The first lesson I learned is a lot can change in a few years. And this is so important because a lot of times we put so much pressure on a 90-day block or a six-month block or one-year block. But over a period of time, if you're doing the work, if you look back, if you're in the game and you look back, it's fascinating to see what can happen. And so a number of cases stood out to me, so many of them, because this time at the end of the events when put all the data together, we had about 8% of the people who came for the retreat had been in the school for since 2020. About 20% had been since 2021 and 20% since 2022. So we we had a bunch of people who'd been around for years. So I've watched them for years, right? And the number of people that I'm looking at them, I'm like, this person is running a multi-million dollar business. And when they joined the entrepreneurial business school, they were an employed physician. Like, wrap your mind around that. It's such a crazy thought. And I would look at them and I'm like, this is wild. This is so wild. I'd look at doctors, some of them had been running private practices for between eight and 10 years. And then they came into the school and they're like, my best quarter, and then my best quarter, and then my best year, and then my best year, and all of that stuff. And now they're like total bosses. Total bosses. I'm looking at people who are so introverted, and I love introverts. I'm an introvert, right? So introverted, now they're dominating on stage. I have a client, she's so funny. She says, I have a face for radio, right? And now dominating some of the biggest stages. And so I'm just looking at the room, the entire room. And I'm like, my goodness, this is so wild. And so for me, it was my reminder like what you're doing, keep on doing it. It's like fine line. The longer you do it, the bigger these results became, the more they can change. And in the moment when it's not, when it looks like it's not changing, this is very important. In the moment when it looks like it's not changing, don't believe that it is. The work you're working always works. Now, if you're not working, that's different. But the work you're working works. And if it's not working for you, it's working on you, it's working like if it's not the thing, there's a thing that'll lead you to the thing, but you can never go wrong for pushing to go forward. You can never go wrong by going after your dreams. You can never go wrong. And so it's like a lot can change. And when I think about it, I mean, the Untrambi Business School has been around for five years. And the hundreds of doctors that we've served, and oh my goodness, it's a lot of stuff. And I just remember thinking, we should never quit. And I don't mean like I was thinking of quitting or anything, but this is my message to people like, don't quit. It's unbelievable what can happen. And if you have a quarter that looks wonky, or a 30-day period that looks wonky, or a week that looks wonky, like, don't let it throw you off. Don't let it throw you off. A lot can change. Okay. So that was the first thing. The second thing, and this was so good because this is something that I know I talk about. Sometimes that's the challenge of being a visionary, right? There are things that happening now that I could see from the beginning. And I knew people were like, what is she talking about? When I started talking about it. But the second thing is this you can become a master where you were a disaster. You can become a master where you are a disaster. So this is the concept of mastery. Now, this happened because when we come for the visionary treat, we're setting goals in all nine areas of our lives. We're setting the plan to pull off the goal. We're setting like we're doing all of these things. And this time, this is our fifth vision retreat. A number of people walked up to me and they said, well, the first thing I came for the vision retreat, I really struggled to set my goals. I really struggled to define what I wanted in nine areas, doing these exercises where it was just so hard. And they're like, and now I get it. Okay. For some people, it was their third one, for some people their fourth one. Now it's so much easier. I'm able to dream bigger, I'm more confident in my ability to pull it off and all of these things. And it was so fun for me to see. And to see them also tell the people, because we had a number of people who it was their first visionary treat. In fact, we had a doctor who joined the entrepreneur business school two weeks before the visionary treat and registered and came, right? And so in that moment, they're telling the doctors who are newer in the entrepreneur business school, relax and give it your best shot, don't overthink it. But the more you do it, the better you get at it, right? And so these are doctors who are like, I don't know how this goes, I don't know how to do this. And now they're handling like bosses. And they're telling me, okay, I have 2026, I have it mapped out, I have it planned out, I have these big goals, I know what I need to do, I need know who I need to become to do the thing, to pull it off. And I'm just watching them and it's so fun because this is what I know. Goal setting has changed my life. Being intentional about my life has changed my life. Being able to define where I'm going and how what I need to do to get there, who I need to become and whose help I need, all of those things. It's been such a game changer for me. So to watch these doctors sit and do this stuff, I know that 2026 is going to be a blast for them. Okay. But it's that concept. They're like, it was so hard for me to make my CEO calendar, which is our time mastery tool. Like it was so hard for me to make it, and now I get it. And it was hard to do this, and now I get it. The thought I walked away with is it is worth it for me to spend the rest of my life gaining higher, higher level of mastery of the things that will help me become all I can be. This is the conclusion. If I decide, oh, I need this skill to go forward, and I'm not as good as this, I'm not as good as that. There's no point worrying about what I'm not good at. It's like, let me put in the reps, let me read the books, let me put in the reps, let me have conversations with people who are crushing this, let me put in the reps, let me stop and evaluate, let me put in the reps. Why? Because I can become a master where I was once was a disaster. I can become a master. It really put me in this position of I'm chasing mastery. Every skill I need to become all I need to be, I'm chasing mastery of those skills. Okay? Okay, so that was the second thing. The third thing, the third lesson I learned is that time away from your business can be extremely, extremely profitable. Extremely profitable. Where did I pull this lesson from? I'm gonna say construction site, right? This is what you've heard me say this many times on the podcast that your business is and always will be a construction site. So there'll be things to fix, things out of order, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, like fires to put out, new challenges to take on, and all of this thing. So it's almost like when I say it's a war zone, I don't mean your business looks like a war zone, but it's like you're a general, you're getting things done. And it's nice to kind of step away from the war zone and then go to this other place. Like, think about it, like the high-rise building downtown where you have a good feel of the city, and you're looking at the prototypes of your business, and you have a dry erase board and you're making plans and all of that stuff. So you have the construction side and you have the corner office in the high-rise building downtown. Okay. Going for the vision retreat is like going to the high-rise building downtown. And you can make plans and you can think. Oh my goodness, you can think. Okay. So I had one doctor. She was like, I've been a little bit of a funk and things like that with her business and all of that stuff. And her business is already at this point on track for multiple seven figures this year. And we started working the 2026 goals, started working on the math because we work through all these things, right? Working on the math, how do we get here? All of these things, what are the pathways that would take us there? And she walks up to me and she says, Dr. Una, I have found three simple things that are already, I've already laid the foundation for these things. And if I just tap into them, that's an extra million in revenue. And that was one of my heart's desires. I was like, Help, I want people to have seven-finger leaps and they can see how they can pull it off and stuff like that. So when she said that, I was like, Yes. Right. And so walking away from her business, spending three days in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, whatever time, energy, effort she used the revenue, resources to come for this event, she found a million dollars. She found a million dollars, right? And so that was her. And then there was another doctor who she's a surgeon. She does a lot of procedures. And it just dawned on her like, wait a minute, I have these two procedures. I prioritized one, and I didn't prioritize the other, like I barely even talk about it. But surgery number one pays half of what procedure number two pays. And it I can do it in much less time. And she's like, oh my goodness. And I haven't been talking about it. And she's like, My surgeries only come to about 13% of my total revenue. She says, right in the real time, I sent a message to the surgery center. I was like, I want you guys to open up my spots. I'm gonna be doing more surgeries and all of these things. And I have no doubt she's gonna, over the next 12 months, add at least another seven figures to her practice, like just doing these things. Now, does that mean she's offering unnecessary surgery? No, no, it's not about that. She already has the patience, the people already have the issues. She just never thought of it. But she walked away from her practice and then she thought of it, right? There are people who, in that moment, when they're staying there, they got such clarity. So there's a doctor and she's a pediatrician. And she says, as we did one of the exercises, because it's a lot of co-working, right? I'm not just teaching, teaching, it's a lot of co-working. So they're doing the work in real time. And she says, as we did this exercise, I just realized at 90, in this visualization exercise, at 90, I was still wearing scrubs, looking great, seeing my patients and all that stuff. And she was like, You just don't know me. I don't want to retire from being a pediatrician. I want to be a pediatrician, right? And it's just these aha's, right? So it's just this very profitable thing that we do. For some people, they came and life can be challenging and business can be challenging. And in the process of going through what we went through during the retreat, you can see them reconnect with their why, reconnect with why their businesses must succeed, reconnect with the fire that they once had, reconnect with that. And I had one dog who's like, I don't know, maybe I'm gonna have to shut this down and then went to I'm full-blown. This is the goal for 2026. This is exactly how we're gonna pull it off. I mean, so we're talking from no longer shutting, from wanting to shut down to being very profitable and very successful because of a three-day event. And so I what I walked away with is time away is powerful. And so we do two of these events every year. We have the next one coming up in March 13th and 14th of 2026. And just being in a position where you can be away and be in the right community, doing the right exercises, away from the distraction, the frustration, all of that. It could mean seven-figure leaps for you. It could mean rekindling your fire so your business doesn't have to feel like extremely hard work. It could feel like what you have the privilege of doing and things like that, and is just great. And so, opportunities to take some days away, take them. It could be extremely profitable in the right room. Okay. Okay. The fourth thing is surrounding yourself with the right people will change your life exponentially. It would change your life exponentially. So one of the doctors talked about she's in private practice. And when we had our first vision retreat, she was probably nine months into private practice. She's in private practice. And then she says, Somewhere, I think when I'm in year five of my private practice, I'll be able to hire a nurse practitioner to help me. This was the extent of her thinking at the time. And somebody who was next to her, who was not in private practice, by the way, tapped her and said, You need to start looking at hiring a doctor now. And, you know, initially she was like, wait, what? Right? But then she thought about it. And it turned out there was a doctor who had actually emailed her to say, Hey, I'd like to come work with you. And she started running the numbers and all of those things. And she did go on to hire another doctor. But here's the kicker. That was five retreats ago. And this year, she has it's her, it's another doctor, is two other doctors and a nurse practitioner, and she's gonna be hiring another doctor in the next nine months or so. And she hasn't hit year five. Like her business has not, her practice has not hit year five. So, what created this expansive way of thinking? Somebody else who is just like, I think you should hire now. Like, why don't you look into that? Right? Having the right people will change your life exponentially. Like having the right being in the room with the right people, surrounding yourself with the right people, it'll be it'll be a game changer. There was another doc. She had some tough decisions to make in her business. There's somebody that she needs to de-hire. That's the word we use for firing, and all of those things. And so, in writing her goals, she did what we do, having our minds protect us, and she came up with all these other projects to do and all of that. And her entire table came together and is like, you know what you need to do. Let's talk about, let's talk about that. And so she's in a position where she'll go do what is best for her business, right? Which is de-hiring these people so that she can bring in a better team and so she can move her business forward, right? Having the right people around you change your life exponentially. There's another doctor who launched a course, did that really well. And when she was telling her story, it was another person who kept hounding her, another person in the business school. Well, you need to do a course. When are you doing a course? And she's like, Well, somebody else did a course, go do their course. She's like, I don't want to do that course. I want to do your course, I want to do your course. And now she has a course and she's put hundreds of doctors through it. We're talking hundreds of doctors whose lives are transformed and are in a position to serve their patients better because of what one person did. And so for me, it was just this whole ripple effect where one person is supporting another person, is holding another person accountable. Somebody else is just a vision board, right? Because there was a doc who said she joined the school because she saw somebody post on social media how they were crushing it. They just launched their practice and their book and all of that stuff. And they're like, wait, here I am struggling. People still do that. And she joined the school and started doing her thing, and she's a whole boss, like crushing it. We're talking big time. I'm gonna bring her on and have her as a guest on the show, but it's so wild. Okay. So surrounding yourself with the right people will change your life exponentially, not just step by step, but exponentially. Exponentially. Okay. All right. And then the last thing, and this was a very personal lesson for me because I watched the room and I said, first of all, most people in medicine don't believe what is happening in this room is happening. And second of all, when they hear it, sometimes they think it's a scam. They think it's made up. So I had a session where I told the doctors, I said, we've been together, we've worked together, some of you for many years, and your lives are changing. You guys have acknowledged that what we the experience we're having here is like an alternate reality. And I said, I would love to have you guys build the habit of sharing your stories. Because I was like, when I talk about these things, or when I talk about what is possible, a lot of times people don't believe. And they're like, Yeah, there's Dr. Una, you're a unicorn, whatever. And I'm like, there are people, they've listened to the podcast for years. But they're just like, yeah, I don't, I don't know. And so when I said that, I remembered that one of the doctors had just told me about somebody who told her she's just waiting. And I said, Hey, come up here, come tell the group what you told me. Because we did a post on day one, like, hey, we're at the vision retreat and all this stuff. The hashtag is EBS, like on Travis Business School, EBS Vision Retreat. You can actually look at it on Facebook and Instagram, and you can see all this, like all the posts from the doctors during the retreat. And so she said, somebody posted in the comments and said, you know, I've been following her for years and all those things, but I really just wanted to talk to somebody who's in the school. Like, is this like I don't know if she said, is this legit? But like I just wanted to talk to somebody in the school and see if this is something I should do. And I said, So you see, I was like, share your stories because there are people who've been in my world, they hear this, they're using the stuff from the podcast to change their businesses and all, but so much more. And it's maybe it's not for everybody, but for everyone who's committed to a dream business and dream life. Like we have the gift of the on-training business school, it's legitimately a gift. And so I said, share your story. And then one of the doctors raised their hand and said, Hey, I have something to share about that. And so, and so this doctor said, One of we did a workshop and you guys had me come on to share my story. And I remember sharing my story. I'd been in private practice and all this stuff. And I came into the school, I had my biggest revenue quarter like ever in the history of my business. And he said, and then I looked down and I saw a comment. And the comments said, Yeah, right, you must have been paid a ton to say that. And he said, No, I wasn't paid anything to say that this is actually what happened and all that stuff. And if you have any concerns about this, we like we can connect and talk about it and all of that. And I said, So see, so for me, it was seeing what was happening, but it was so it's an alternate reality to see a community of physicians, type A physicians, who choose collaboration over competition, who look out for their classmates and say, hey, you're a little quiet. Is that, you know, like they look out for each other, they open doors for each other, they create opportunities for each other, who are chasing down their dream business and their dream life, who are, I mean, like, and they're winning. They're winning. We had a doc on there, like, big shout out to her, Dr. Sadaf Lodi. She's amazing. And her birthday was the day after the retreat. You know what I mean? And people will come for that. And we've had people come on their wedding anniversaries. We have all kinds of stuff. It's just so good. And so the lesson for me was that I am going to become a storyteller. And I am going to tell the stories of the things that are happening in the school. I'm going to interview more people so you can hear them tell their stories. I think we, you know, the physician community, we need to understand that what is happening, it doesn't have to be that way. It doesn't have to be that way. It could be different. We could be winning in a whole different way. We don't have to be stuck. We don't have to have burnout. We don't have to have a loss of autonomy. We don't have to have businesses that are not working. We don't have to hide our voices. We don't have to shy away from being in the biggest rooms on the biggest stages. We can be the leaders in healthcare, all of these things. And I'm watching it happen. And I'm like, I'm going to become a storyteller. So get ready for a lot of stories. Get ready for a lot of stories. So these are my five things. And for your business, this will serve you. This will serve you so well as well, right? And if you're listening to this and you're like, man, that sounds amazing. And if you're one of my people, you've listened to a podcast for a really long time and you're wondering about it. Okay, here's the deal. I want you to book a call on trendy.com forward slash call. And if your thing, if what will be the deal changer for you is like, I want to talk to somebody who's in the school, maybe even my kind of business or whatever, we'll set that up for you. But I don't want you to be outside of the community if you want to be inside the community and you're ready to do the work. You're like, I'm ready to do the work. And I have a doc there. Oh, she's so amazing. When she joined the school, she had a little kid, I don't remember, four months or something like that. And she's like, Doctor, and I just need to be pointed in the right direction. I was like, I like you. And she's crushing it. And she's building her business. She has a cash pay practice. She has her family going. She's just made associate professor at a university by her because she leveraged some of the principles that we talk about in the business school. She's a paid speaker for pharma and all of this stuff. It's like so beautiful. It's beautiful the life she's created. But she's like, I have an incredible work ethic. I will do what is required. I just don't know what is required. And she's in the school that she's thriving, thriving, right? So you may be that way. I'll do what is required. You know, I just need the mentorship. I need the gift of accountability. I need the community. You can have all of that. I don't want you to do without it if you can have all of that, right? So on traindew.com forward slash call, book the call. If you have questions, if you have concerns, if you're not sure, we're not gonna strong arm you. We're not gonna strong arm you, we're not gonna shame you, we're not gonna do any of those things. We just want to help you come to absolutely or absolutely not, right? Like just come to that ending, you're okay, right? But if there's something like in the way that we can help you work through, we'll help you work through it, right? Okay, so entreamd.com forward slash call. Even if you're not sure, we don't bite people. There are people who we've spoken to on calls and they still join two years later, right? And all that stuff. And maybe they weren't ready and stuff like that, and that's fine, but they're crushing it now, right? I want that to be you too. I really want that to be you too. This is a gift. I wish I had it when I started as an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship would have been so much easier for me, but I didn't. But you do, okay? You do. All right. So, what I want you to do, other than that, is I want you to know that a lot can change in a few years. So start going for your next level now. Because a few years are gonna be here before you know it. Like, think about how old you are, and then think about the fact that in your mind a few years ago, you thought people your age were old, right? It'll be here before you know it. I want you to make up your mind that you're gonna become a master. You have one life. This is not the rehearsal. I'm gonna become a master at the things that are required for me to fulfill my potential. I'm gonna do that. The third thing is take schedule time away from your business. Take schedule time away. And especially if you can put yourself in a community like the entream d business school, and you can be at our vision retreat or our business makeover mastermind, which is our second event. Like, do it. It is so powerful what it does. Do it. One doctor actually described it this way. She's like, I feel like I've been in a desert. And I was like, it's okay because a vision retreat is coming. That's my oasis. I just need to get myself there. Right? Okay. Surround yourself, surround yourself with the right people, people who can be vision boards for you, people who can hold you accountable, people who can call you out, people who will support you when the times are challenging. And then be a storyteller for your business. You are the brand ambassador for your business. Be a storyteller. Okay, let's do it together. I'm gonna do more of that. Okay. But I want you to understand that this can be the least you ever you'll ever be. You can create a business and a life that will blow your own mind. I've done it for myself and I continue to do it for myself. My clients are doing it and they continue to do it. There's so much more. So much more. And you can become all of that. The things you secretly dreamed of, you can become all of that. But it all starts from saying yes now. It all starts from starting to do the work now, it all starts from leaning to the right community now. You can do it. Okay, so I'm rooting for you always. I hope these things were helpful to you. But these are the lessons I'm running with, and I'm so excited for the next 12 months because they're gonna be my best yet, and they're gonna be yours too. So let's go get the work done.