Why Smart Doctors Stay Stuck When They Know What to Do

Most physicians are not stuck because they don’t know what to do. They have read the books, made the plans, gotten the coaching, and still find themselves struggling to execute. In this episode, Dr. Una shows why the real issue is often not knowledge, but the stories doctors are carrying from the past, the fear of disappointment, and the identity they have not yet upgraded.

Dr. Una shows physicians how to redefine failure, stop protecting themselves from disappointment, and intentionally become the kind of leader who can build a thriving business. This episode is a powerful reset for the doctor who is ready to stop circling, take ownership, and create the dream business and dream life they know is possible.

Tune in!

Additional Resources:

• Learn more about my 12-month program. 
• Interested in 1-on-1 coaching? Apply here.
• Grab a copy of the "The 7-Figure Physician CEO" book. 

When you are ready to work with us, here are three ways:

•  The Profitable Private Practice Movement - If you want to build a thriving private practice that serves a lot of patients, while creating time and financial freedom for you, come join us here. 
• 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 ...

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

What you have control over is what you make those circumstances mean. You may say it's positive, it's negative, but really it's neutral. It just is. Hi dogs. Welcome to the OnTraMD 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. Well, hello, hello, my friend. Welcome back to another episode of the Entre MD Podcast. I am super pumped we get to have this conversation today. And that is because I am so um intimately aware of how radically we can change when we have access to the right strategies, the right mindset shifts, and all of that. I just had a fun conversation with the doctors who came to the private practice summit that we hosted about a month ago at this point. And it was just a it was a reunion. It was a fun meeting to get together, meet everyone again, hear, you know, the things they're doing and the results they're creating. And if if I tell you I was blown away, I am that is an understatement of understatements. These doctors are radically changing their lives and their businesses. We're talking doctors who have hired, you know, hired and hired a new uh clinician in their practice, hired new medical assistants, getting their time back. One doctor told me the I've gotten rid of the mental load, right? I got rid of the mental load. I can I can really rest, I can take time off, I can have more impact. Another doctor has talked about having difficult conversations with her team members. And now her team members are all revenue generators. So they're serving and earning. They have revenue targets that they're chasing after and they're coming up with ideas and all of this. We had another doctor who, you know, really just walked into this boss identity and is transforming her whole business. I was like, oh my goodness, who are you? And what did you do with this doctor? Right. And and and, you know, is the revenue changes to match and all of that. It was just a thing of beauty to see. And it gives me so much hope because this is what I've always known about physicians. You're a physician, you're listening to this, you're watching this, you're amazing. And you have the ability to change and you have the ability to transform and you are not stuck. And yes, they say all these things about, you know, all these challenges out here, but you are tough. You can overcome challenges. And I don't mean in a hustly way where you don't have a life. I mean in a way where you can build your dream business and you can build your dream life, you can decide the future you want to have, curate it and walk into it. So I'm it's just, you know, it's so exciting for me. But at the time of this recording, we are at the end of June, which means we're at the end of the second quarter of the year, um, end of the second of the first half of the year. And by this time, most people, not you, are completely, you know, like disillusioned, if you will. I came into this year thinking, oh my goodness, I will, you know, throw away the last year. Here's a new year, this new year is going to be amazing, and all of that. And a lot of times at this point, people feel stuck because it didn't turn out to be what they thought it was going to be. And, you know, it and it's particularly challenging when you think about a smart physician, you know what to do, you know what will give you the result, and you still feel stuck. Okay. And you, you know, so you've read the books, you've been coached, you have a written plan, you have all of this stuff. And so clearly it's not, it's not knowledge, right? And you're like, I'm able to take great care care of patients, I'm able to do all this stuff, but in a business, it looks like I'm not sure what's happening here. I'm I'm trying, but it's like I'm knocking my head against the wall. And that's whether you're starting, that's whether you're growing, whether you're scaling, whether you're having these new team members to bring on, whether you have this big opportunity in front of you, whatever it is. Today on this video, I am going to show you how to break through the quote-unquote stuckness and start making progress. I'm going to show you some of the things that I find are getting in the way of physicians the most. Okay. And again, once you figure this out, everything changes for you. Again, I was talking to one of the doctors of the entrepreneurial business school, and she, you know, she was sharing the transformation that she's made. And she's like, it's for her, it's about 60 days, right? And she is so blown away. She has gone from being afraid of business, saying I'm not an entrepreneur, saying I just want to take care of patients, even though she had a private practice, to being something who is show somebody who is showing up like the boss. She just hired a great employee, right? She had tough negotiations with vendors who, if I told you who they were, you're like, what? You don't negotiate with those people. But oh yes, she did, right? And like all of these things happening, revenue is different, practice is transforming, and it's all because of some simple shifts that she made. So we're gonna talk about some of those today. Okay. So I'm gonna show you three reasons why smart doctors stay stuck even when they know what to do. Okay. I'm gonna show you three of those reasons, and I'm gonna show you how to fix them. Okay. And the first one is probably the most important, and that is that a lot of times um the undefined past is still running the show. Okay, the undefined past is still running the show. What does this look like? This looks like, you know, I had a quarter where I wanted to bring in $100,000 in revenue and I brought $75,000. And we look at that and interpret it as a problem. Okay. So we're like, this is a problem. I am $25,000 short, and then we start creating stories. I'm not the kind of person who can make $100,000, you know, like, you know, some people feel shame around it. I wasn't able to hit my goals and all of those things. And so we walk into the new quarter or the new season, the new year, the new week, whatever that is, we walk into it thinking there's a problem. We walk into it ashamed of the mistakes or the failures that we had. And if there is almost nothing that is as crippling and as paralyzing as that, right? So we have this past and we just made up a story to make it terrible. And we're just like, this is the way our lives are, this is the way our businesses are. It just is what it is. So we didn't hit a revenue target, or we had a really good employee that left, and maybe they told us some choice words before they left, or maybe there was a you know vertical you wanted to bring in, and then that didn't work. And maybe you want whatever that is, you got this one-star review, all of these things, all of this undefined past, we let it in, it just keeps continuing. It's like baggage, it's like trying to run a hundred meters when you have 50 pounds on your back. Okay. So what can we do instead of approaching it this way? I want you to think of this this way. Your past is not a story. Your past is just a set of circumstances. Okay, that you don't have control. It's a set of circumstances. What you have control over is what you make those circumstances mean. It is it is the story that you weave. Remember, your past is not a story, it's a set of circumstances. And it you you may say it's positive, it's negative, but really it's neutral. It just is. The past just is. The question is, what does that then mean? Okay, so let me let me pull up a few examples. You wanted to bring in $100,000, you brought in $75,000. Okay, crime a river. A year for a year ago, you were bringing in 20. Five years ago, you didn't even know you'd be an entrepreneur. And so you can choose to see it as okay, I wanted to bring in 100, I didn't bring in 100, I brought in 75. This is amazing. Like that's a story, and it's a story as it's a story, the story of, you know, oh my goodness, we we can't hit 100,000. We tried and we failed. That's also a story. Now, what story paralyzes you and what story inspires you, right? And so if it were me, I'm like, oh, what 75? This is amazing, even though I went after 100 with all my heart. Now, I'm not only going to take that, I'm also going to say, okay, what is the lesson here? The lesson here is if you want to, so let's say maybe it was me, I said this go for 100 and I ended up with 75. But when I look at it critically, I use the same strategies for 75, the same strategies at the same speed and volume I used for 70, um, you know, it's for 75 for I had used in the past on my way to 100. And so, of course, it didn't work. So now I have a story that is actually the win. Like, oh my goodness, look at that. We've never made 75 before, but we made 75. And um, yes, when you want to experience a different result, you're gonna have to do something different. It may be a different strategy or a different volume or different speed or applied at a higher level, like so maybe targeting higher level people, whatever that is. But if I do things the same, I'm gonna get the same result. And so this past, instead of being a past, a story of failure, is a story of progress and a powerful lesson. Okay, now if this were a live session, I'll say if you got it, type in the chat, I got it. But if you got it, I want you to send me a DM and say, Oh my goodness, Dr. Una, the thing about the undefined past, thank you for sharing that. Like I got it now. I've allowed my past to stop me, but now I understand exactly what to do. Okay. Okay, so that's the first thing. We cannot let and we cannot let the undefined past, you know, um um control the show, run the show. And the reason why I'm saying undefined is because left to itself, your undisciplined mind will come up with a story. If you do not curate the story of your past, your mind will come up with a story. And chances are 99.999% of the time, okay, it is going to be a story that will cripple you, not empower you. Okay, so are we saying make things up? No, we're not. We're saying in the midst of the when you look at the past, look for progress. Okay, look for progress, look for lessons, look for all of that, and then curate your own story of the past, one that will empower you to keep going, to keep moving, to keep pressing on. That's number one. Number two, number two. So we're looking at three reasons why smart doctors stay stuck even when they know what to do. Number two, you are protecting yourself from disappointment. Okay, you're protecting like you're protecting yourself from disappointment. You know that if you started a YouTube channel, it will bring transformation to your practice. But you don't want to be disappointed by somebody who comes in the comments and says something nasty about your video. You don't want to be disappointed that you're thinking, oh my goodness, I'll get a thousand views or 200,000 views on this video, and then you only end up with 15. Okay. You don't want to be disappointed by any of any of those things. You don't want to be disappointed in the way you look on camera. And so, because of that, you could start or grow your YouTube channel and you don't. And it turns out you're leaving leaving tens, hundreds of thousands of dollars on the table every single year because you do not have a YouTube channel or you do not have a YouTube channel where you're showing up like the boss you are. Okay. You know that if you build a referral base, if I build a referral base, this is going to be absolutely amazing. I'm gonna have 12 people in my world, 24 people in my world who preferentially refer to me. You know this will change your life, but you think about the disappointment of hearing a no, so you don't talk to them. You think about how people perceive your business. Maybe your business is not good enough, and then they'll find out if they came any closer, so you don't do it. So, because of your fear of disappointment, you do not talk to your referral base, which is a seven-figure strategy, and you're not using it. You could show up on social media, but you think about the trolls, and you're like, oh my goodness, I don't want the disappointment, so you don't do it. You can take your business to five million in revenue, but you're like, what if I set the goal and I don't hit it, then I'll be a failure. And I don't want to feel that energy of being a failure. So I'm not gonna set the $5 million. We've done a million dollars for the last 10 years, and we're just gonna keep it at a million dollars. After all, the million dollars is a good amount of money, and we just keep it moving. So we're afraid of disappointment. And so, because of that, even though we know what will work, we don't do it. We don't do it, right? And so, you know, this comes up a lot when people think about taking that next step. So for us, we get to see it a lot when maybe we're talking to doctors about the entrevine business school and all. And we usually would meet them when they're like, okay, enough is enough. I'm ready to take my business to the next level. That's usually when people reach out to us. Whether they're like, you know, we we've we've been at 300, I really want to take you to a million, or I've taken it to 3 million, but I don't have a life anymore. And I want to know how to continue to grow without losing my life in the process, or we've taken it to 2 million, but we don't have any profits. Clearly, I am missing something, right? Like, so they decided I'm gonna make this big leap. Okay. And so then they come to us and they say, okay, this is what we want to do. And then, you know, and then we talk about the school, we talk about the results we've gotten, we talk, talk, talk, talk about our methods and all of those things. And a lot of times they'll come back and they're like, I don't think now is the time. And I don't think now is the time, and I don't think I can get a result. Like, it's very obvious that this will work. I've even talked to some of my, you know, like like future classmates, my um the doctors in the entrepreneurial business school, but I don't think it would work for me, right? And all these things come up, and I have done this long enough to know exactly what that is. It's fear. Is fear is not, will they deliver? We've been delivering for seven years, right? Like almost seven years at this point. It's not that, it's not um, has this worked for people? Like, does this work? Oh no, no, this works, right? And they're like, I get it, but I can't. And a lot of times what it is is disappointment. If I go all out for my business and say, okay, line in the sand, we're gonna hit five million, line in the sand, we're gonna make this profitable, line in the sand, we're gonna build a team that allows me to get my life back. What if I don't pull it off? I'm gonna be disappointed, and that means I failed, and that means I'm a failure. And usually a lot of times, not usually, we have we have many great doctors who are like, okay, they gulp and they're like, I'm gonna do it. I'm nauseous, but I'm gonna do it. And and and sometimes they hold back, and it's fear, that's what it is, and it's you know, protecting themselves from disappointment. So did they quote unquote disappoint themselves? No, because they never went after it. But the question then becomes, what could that have been? Right. Because I always, you know, would go back to look at the doctors in on-trem business, and I'm not trying to take credit for their results because we our process works if the doctor does the work, right? Like so it's a it's a two-part thing. But I think about a lot of people, you know, we've interviewed Dr. Kuffman on the podcast, you know, many times. And, you know, when we met her, she was an employed physician. Now she's running a multi-million dollar practice and she's building her dream business and her dream life, right? I think about a Dr. Rachel Rubin. Again, when we met, she was an employed physician. And here she is, she's running this phenomenal cash-based surgical practice, and she is doing all she does with advocacy. And she has a course that is like a wonderful course. Everyone I've recommended it to, um, you know, because they want to learn how to prescribe hormone therapy for women in perimenopause and menopause. They're like raving about it, right? And how amazing it is, how practical it is, and all of those things. And she's been on some of the largest stages, Mel Robbins podcast, diary of a CEO, all of those things. And I think, like, but what if she didn't set herself up in such a way that, yeah, she could have been disappointed, quote unquote, like, or whatever. Like, can you actually be disappointed? You know, like you're getting the thing done, right? Yes, she may have had some delays and denials and frustrations and challenges and all of those things, but my goodness, is it worth it or not? Right. And so when I when I look at people who said yes to themselves and what happens on the other end, it never ceases to amaze me when I think about what would have happened if they didn't embrace it at all. The thing is that all those things that then happened wouldn't have happened and they wouldn't have known. Like Dr. Rachel Rubin would not have known that her message is so powerful that these people who have these really big platforms who want her to be on their show. She would never have known. She would never have known. So when I think about the opportunity cost, it is worth fixing this. Okay. So rather than setting ourselves up and protecting ourselves from disappointment, I'm gonna invite you to stop doing that. And instead of that, re like change your relationship with failure, discomfort, and the unknown. Change your relationship. Like I have a very positive, healthy relationship with failure. And I don't mean I go about embracing failure, but for the kind of life I'm trying to live and the kind of impact I'm trying to have in the world and the type of business I'm trying to build, failed projects, not me being a failure, I don't fail. Failed projects are kind of part of the game. It's just part of it. It's like I want to be a great basketball player, but I never want to miss a shot. This is not a thing. You're going to miss a lot of shots, but you're gonna make enough to be an NBA champion, right? Like that's kind of the way it works. Okay, so you want to change your relationship. So I am not a failure for trying to move forward. I may have failed projects that is very different. And now, if you remember the first one, we talked about, you know, not defining the past. So those failed projects, they don't mean you're failure. What they mean is you did something, and along the line, you should you must have had some progress and you learned lessons. So it was great, right? Okay, so so you you didn't hit a milestone, so what? The higher didn't work out, so what? What progress did you make and what progress did you make and what lesson did you learn? That's it, right? Okay, so no, I am not a failure for moving forward. I am never a failure for moving forward. I may have a failed project, but I didn't fail. Okay, there may be something that's uncomfortable, and it's fine, right? No NBA champion goes around looking for comfort, no Olympian goes around looking for comfort, they're looking for the result. And so we can be uncomfortable because we're stretching ourselves and all of that stuff, and it's great, it's fine. It's like going to the gym and you're lifting the weights, and the weights are heavy. Yes, they are going to be heavy, but what happens on the other side of it is amazing. You get to be strong, you get to keep your muscles, you get to lift your grandbabies at 90, all of these things, right? So discomfort is just part of it. It's not a problem, it just is. Okay. And then the unknown, because it's like, well, what will happen? Sometimes people will tell me, well, I need a guarantee. I'm like, there's no such thing as a guarantee, like in in that way, but you can make a guarantee or guarantees that I'm gonna keep at this till I win. And if you if that's your attitude, which that's my attitude, by the way, if that's your attitude, you are going to win. You are going to win, right? And so the unknown, we don't know. But a lot of times, if you keep putting yourself out there and getting the work done and you keep growing and you keep upskilling, you keep doing all of these things, keep putting in the reps, the unknown will not be something that will make you cry. The unknown will be something, well, it may make you cry, but it'll be tears of joy. But the unknown will be something you'll be so amazed at, you're like, oh my goodness, I never knew this could have happened. I never knew starting this YouTube channel will do this to me. I never knew chasing this goal of a million dollars in revenue will get me here. I never knew bringing on this team member will create all these results. I never knew the unknown is desirable when you decide to say yes. Okay. Okay. Third thing that stops doctors, you haven't upgraded your identity. And this is a huge one. This is a huge one. Your results will rarely sustainably be ahead, like significantly ahead of your identity. And so if you think I am not a business owner, chances are you are not going to run a wildly successful, thriving business because your identity doesn't line up with it. If you feel like I'm not the kind of person who can work with higher capacity team members, so I can work with MAs, front desk people, virtual assistants, and stuff like that, but not an office manager, not other doctors, all of that stuff, your be your practice will just line up with that. Your business will just line up with that, right? And we don't upgrade our identity accidentally. This is an intentional process. Like, think about it you don't accidentally go uphill. Or upstream. Now downstream, yes, but up, no. Right. And so if I'm going to go from this identity, like I'm a clinician, to the identity, identity of I'm a physician, uh, physician entrepreneur, to the identity of I'm a person who runs a million-dollar business, to the identity of a person who can build a successful business and have time for the things that matter to me. Like these are all upgrades you're we have to constantly make. And if we if we don't upgrade, we start circling. We're just going, you know, it's like being on a rocking chair, rocking chair. It looks like we're moving, but we're not moving at all. Right. And so if you want to be this person who you know what to do and you're not stuck, you're getting it done and you're getting the results that you need to get, you're going to be a person who upgrades your identity. There are many ways to do this, and we've talked about this on the podcast. In fact, in the on-training business school business school, we spend an extraordinary amount of time doing this. Why? Because once you do this, all the strategies I've been showing you are like, boom, let's go. And you can rewrite the way you think about yourself, right? One of the ways you can do it is with a vision board, like, you know, and you paint a picture of where you're trying to go. And then you come back and you're like, okay, who do I need to become to pull this off? And you start identifying as that person, right? You start identifying as a person. But if you don't take the time to intentionally prioritize upgrading the internal picture you have about yourself, you will almost always malfunction. You will always function at the level of the internal picture you have about yourself. And so if you think I'm not good with money, you're not going to be. If you think I'm not good at leading people, you're not going to be. If you think I'm not the kind of person who can have team meetings, you're not going to have them. I'm not the kind of person who can make 5 million revenue, you're not going to. And it's not because of ability, it's because of identity. Okay. The identity changes first, which gives you what you need to then deploy the ability so you can get the result. Okay. So I want you to shock your own self. Okay. As we go on to this next quarter and next half of the year and all of these things. Or whenever you're listening to this, whatever time block is in front of you, I want you to be this person who knows what to do, does what needs to be done, gets the result, and you're blowing your own mind every 90 days. I would love that for you. This happens all the time in the on-term business school, all the time. And I want to see it happen for you too. So, what do I want you to do? Do not leave your past undefined. Define it. Create your own story and lessons from your past. So when you think about your past, don't say, oh, it sucks. I didn't do this, I didn't do that. No, no, no, no. You define it. We did this, we did this, we moved forward here, we accomplished this and we learned, we learned this, and we learned that, and we learned we learned that. That's what I want you to do. That's the first thing. The second thing is, oh my goodness, don't stop protecting yourself from disappointment because it's not really real. If you protect yourself from disappointment now, it means you're setting yourself up for disappointment later. When you're 90 years old and you're like, child, you were you were deceiving yourself. All those things you got, you could have actually done them, right? So there's gonna be regret then. So why don't we just deploy now? Right. And so what do we need to do to overcome this? Redefine your relationship with fear, with with um, with failure. Failure is not a problem. I'm never a failure. I may have failed projects, I am never a failure. Okay. So, and if I'm going to be great, I'm going to have a number of failed projects along the way. That's just the way this works. Business is an experiment, that's the way it works. Okay, so redefine it with, you know, with with with disappointments, with failures, with the unknown, with problems, just change your relationship with that and allow yourself, embrace it as a part of life on your journey to becoming who you need to be and building the business you need to build. And then the third thing is take the time to upgrade your identity. Always question what you think about yourself, right? Question what you think about yourself. Look at the picture, like how do you not when you decide to think nice about yourself, like what is your default thinking about yourself, right? And if you're like, if this is who I really am, what kind of results am I gonna create? Look at and go like, whoopsie, we don't like that. It's time for an upgrade. You upgrade that, okay? And if you will, if you will do this work, okay, if you will do this work, where you'll find yourself again in the next 90 days will absolutely shock you. So I want to invite you to do that. And if you have the if you're saying, yes, I'm gonna do it, and so yes to my business, yes to this goal, yes to all of that, and you've been thinking about the on-trained business school, or you know that you need the support, okay, reach out to us, on-traemd.com forward slash call. We would be happy to talk with you, to walk you through it, to see if this is your best option. We do not do any kind of high pressure sales. We really are looking for elite physician entrepreneurs. And when we say that, what we mean is you have a growth mindset, you're coachable, you're open, you have a work ethic, you're committed to your goals. If that's you, you're an elite physician entrepreneur. The rest of the stuff, we got you on that. Okay. We got you on the strategy, we got you on the mentorship, the community, the accountability. We we got you on all of that. We need your coachability, your commitment, your willingness to do what is required to pull this off, right? And so entreamd.com forward slash call, book a call with us. We'll be happy to talk with you. And I'm rooting for every single one of you. I'm rooting for you. You're listening to me, you're watching me, I'm rooting for you. Please hear me when I say this. Please don't believe that you're stuck, you're not. Please don't believe you're a victim, you're not. Please don't believe that the challenges you're facing your business right now need to be. Don't believe that the goals that you truly want to pursue in your business are impossible. They're not. But in order for you to have all of that, you are going to need to do these three things. Okay. All right. So I'm rooting for you. Always, always, always remember we're in movement. So share this episode with another doctor in your world. Tell them, oh my goodness, take a listen to this. Let us change our lives over the next 90 days. If any part of it really resonated with you, send me a DM or a PM on Instagram or Facebook. Let me know, my goodness, Dr. Una, this episode. Yes. Okay. Just, you know, that just encourages me to keep going. I will keep going regardless because I'm here for you. But that just encourages me. I lights up my day. Okay. I will see you on the next episode of the All Chandler Podcast.