The 7 People Quietly Destroying Your Business (Cut Them Off Now)

You can't rise above your environment — and your environment isn't a building or a location. It's the people. In this "come to Jesus" episode, Dr. Una makes the case that your business is a precious thing (think: wearing white in a room full of wet paint, or a newborn you won't let just anyone hold), and that guarding it means being ruthlessly intentional about who gets close to you.

Every win you create, every skill you build, every dollar you earn can be quietly undone by the wrong inner circle. So this episode is a challenge: audit the people around you. Because relationships shouldn't just happen to you — you choose them. You play offense and defense.

Dr. Una breaks down the 7 kinds of people to keep out of your inner circle — the traits that rub off on you whether you notice or not — and how to intentionally insert yourself into the rooms that pull you up instead.

Key Takeaways

• You cannot rise above your environment — and your environment is the people in it.
• Your vision, calling, and business are precious. Guard them like you'd guard a newborn.
• This isn't about eliminating people or being unkind — it's about reducing the proximity of these traits to you and the amount of time you're exposed to them.
• You will encounter these seven people. Sometimes you are one of them. The work is awareness, not judgment.
• Curate your inner circle on purpose: intentionally avoid certain people, and intentionally insert yourself into the rooms that stretch you.

Memorable Quotes

• "The starting point of radical transformation is radical ownership."
• "Leaders are readers. The end."
• "This is your one life. This is not the rehearsal."
• "You wear white and you're hugging somebody with mud on them — the mud is going to get on you."

Let's Connect

Which of these 7 do you have in your inner circle right now? And who should you intentionally add? DM Dr. Una and let her know how this episode landed — all social links are in the show notes.

If this helped you, share it with another physician entrepreneur. It might just save their business.

Ready to Curate Your Circle?

The EntreMD Business School is the room built for exactly this — a community of physician entrepreneurs who see 7-figures as the floor. Come forcefully insert yourself into it.

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 1:40

Before we get into the episode, I am thrilled to announce that the EntreMD Business School is open for enrollment. The EntreMD Business School is the only school of its kind for physicians who want to build six, seven, and multiple seven-figure businesses. Over the last two years, we have had hundreds of doctors go through the school with unbelievable results. Some of them run brands, some of them run private practices, some of them are coaches, some have other kinds of service-based businesses or product-based businesses. And we've had people come in and cross the six-figure milestone, cross the seven-figure milestone, across the multiple seven-figure milestones. You will be in a place where you'll get the coaching, the community, the accountability that you need to thrive as an entrepreneur, especially in the times that we're in. So maybe you've been following me for a while. Maybe you've been getting so much out of the OnTraMD podcast and you've been wondering how can I work with Dr. Una and the community more? Well, this is your chance. Come join us in the OnTraMD Business School. It is application only. So go to entreMD.com forward slash business to turn in your application. I cannot tell you how many doctors have made statements like this. I recovered my investment in the first week. I recovered my investment in my bank account in the first 90 days. This is the best investment I've made in myself ever. I want you to have that kind of story. Not just a story of building a great business that serves a lot and earns a lot, but having a business that gives you the freedom to live life on your terms. So don't wait any longer. OntraMD.com forward slash business. And now for the episode.

Choosing the Right People Is Important

SPEAKER_00 3:23

Hi, ducks. Welcome to the Ontree 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. Hello, hello, hello. Welcome back to another episode of the EntreMD Podcast. Today we are going to have a Come to Jesus meeting. That's what's going to be happening. And the motivation behind this episode is I'm a student of entrepreneurship, as you probably know. And I have been watching entrepreneurs, whether these are people who are starting businesses or these are people who are running multi-eight-figure businesses. And there is a trap that I see people fall into. And I think it's just because they don't know. All right. They don't know. And this is something that destroys businesses. It would, if if you don't understand this, is something that will set you up. You will not enjoy the journey of entrepreneurship. Okay. You will not enjoy the progress that you've made. You will be crippled in so many ways. And chances are you may not make it. You may not make it. Entrepreneurship is not easy. I'll describe it as many things. Easy is not one of them. Doable, absolutely, but not easy, right? And you want to make sure as much as possible that the challenges you're facing are the normal challenges of entrepreneurship as opposed to challenges that are avoidable. Okay. The challenges this concept I'm going to discuss create, the challenges that are created because of it are not, they're not mandatory. These are challenges that are 100% avoidable. Okay. And so we're going to be talking about the seven kinds of people to avoid. Okay. These people will destroy your journey and they will destroy your business. You might say, like, wow, Dr. Una, this is a little dramatic, but this is the deal. Okay. Why do I speak English? I speak English because I grew up in a community of people who speak English. You cannot rise above your environment. You cannot. And when I talk about environment, I don't necessarily mean a building or a location or something like that. It's the people who make up the environment. Okay. I want you to start thinking of yourself in a different way. Like you, you are somebody who's wearing a pretty white dress or white outfit, right? For the guys and the sers who are listening, you have a white outfit on. If you have a white outfit on and you're walking among people who are working on a construction site or they're working at an oil base and they're drilling oil, you don't just go hug them because you have something white on. You're careful, right? You're careful about your interactions because of the way you're dressed. As somebody who is an entrepreneur, I want you to think about yourself. Your business is this precious thing that is going to impact so many people. It's going to help so many people. It's going to create financial freedom for you and it's going to make life different for your family and all of that stuff. It is a precious thing. You are like that person who has a white outfit on and you're careful. You don't just sit anywhere. You don't just hug anybody. That is the way you are when it comes to relationships. Okay. You choose your relationships. You don't just let them happen to you. You don't, you play offense with this, okay? You're careful, you play defense with it as well. You're not just passive, okay? Think about your relationships. Think of like somebody who has a newborn. Maybe you're listening and you're a parent. You have a newborn. We don't just let anybody hug the newborn. We don't let, we don't just let anybody come to the house after there's a newborn. I mean, there are people who maybe you even allowed to come that you no longer allow because now you have a newborn. You don't just take the newborn anywhere. You do that because that is a precious baby. Well, that is the same thing with your business. You don't just take it anywhere and expose it to anybody. You gotta guard it. And guarding it means that there are certain people you allow in and there are other people that you keep out. And this is not a sentimental thing. Okay. So when it comes to relationships, your relationships are intentional. There are certain people you intentionally avoid, and there's certain people who you intentionally insert yourself into their world. I will tell you one of the things I do. When I want to adopt something new, I find a community of people or I find a person who's been there, done that, and has 10 t-shirts, and I insert myself there. Why? You will become like your environment. So instead of letting that principle work against you, it is time to let that principle start working for you. This is going to be one of the most important episodes of the On Tramday podcast ever, because all the other things you're learning and acquiring and the wins you're creating, all of these things can be destroyed by the wrong environment. Okay, seven kinds of people. And this is what I do, okay? Number one is people who love to blame others. People who love to blame others. They do not take personal responsibility for their lives. And so the reason why these things are not working is because of my spouse, is because of my children, is because of my coach, is because of, it's because of everybody except me. The starting point of radical transformation is radical ownership. There may be things that these people you want to blame are doing, but at the end of the day, at the end of the day, you can make a decision that this is going to work. I am going to make this work. So how can I, in the midst of this circumstance, how can I? Even if I didn't get this, how can I? You've heard me talk about this on the on the podcast before, where I signed up for a program that was a terrible, it was a bad fit. There's no way it was going to work. The way the program was set up, you would have to use their materials to do your coaching and their materials to set up your programs and all of that. And I already had the entream d business school at the time, right? I could have pitched to fit. I could have gone and I could have said, oh, it was a fraudulent charge on my account. I could have done all of these things. But one, it was my problem, right? Because I didn't do the proper, I didn't do the proper vetting of what I signed up for, right? That's one. Number two, I don't lose money on stuff because this is a decision. I don't have to blame anybody. And I said, you know what? I'm not going to use this program in the way that it's intended. But I paid 10 grand for this and I'm going to make at least 10x on it. That attitude is what made it possible that in the first 30 days, I had a 10x return on investment. I did. But what was the starting point for that? Radical ownership. I don't walk around blaming people. The reason why this is not working is because of this person. How does that help me? I don't have control over that person. I have control over me. So these things rub off. If you're around people who are blamers, whiners, complainers, they blame everybody, they take no responsibility. I am telling you, it is only a matter of time. You're going to adopt that. You wear white and you're hugging somebody with mud on them, the mud is going to get on you. So I've even gone for events, really great events, high value, high impact, all that. Somebody will corner me and they're like, I was just thinking about this. I think they should have done this better. They should have done that better. I mean, like, I don't like, and it's not about feedback, right? There is feedback, like, oh my goodness, this is amazing. But you can add this, you can add that, you can add that. That's feedback. That's very different from taking something that was so good and just colouring it bad. Like even the food wasn't what I thought it would be. We're higher-level clients. They should treat us in a certain place. Let me tell you what I do with people like that. Arm's length. Arm's length. Like that person started talking to me about that stuff. And that's the last one-on-one conversation we've had. Because I'm like, that's a virus, and I don't want it. Okay. I came here to network with people. I came here to put myself in a position where I can experience possibilities that I didn't know existed. I came here so I could learn. I came here so I can walk away with three things that I can go and start applying in my business. I don't have time for this. So in my world, I avoid blamers, whiners, complainers. I avoid them. This is one life. This is not the rehearsal. Okay. Number one. Number one. Okay. And don't get me wrong. I'm not saying we should not do feedback. There's a difference between that and blaming and whining and complaining, all of that kind of stuff. So that's number one. Number two, people who are ungrateful. And you might say, but this is a business podcast. Why are we talking about gratitude? Because it is one of the things that will set you up to be in the most positive light ever. If you meet someone who is ungrateful, that is a person who by default is just negative, right? Because nothing is working. They're not people who stop to say, wow, right? And this, these people have helped you and you're ungrateful. Rather than be grateful, you turn around and you're like, that person did nothing for me. They did this, but they didn't do that much and all the stuff. I don't do ungrateful people. Gratitude puts you in the right frame of mind. Gratitude opens all these doors for possibilities. Gratitude, people love grateful people. And so if you are someone who constantly shows gratitude for what people do for you, you will open door after door after door after door. Nobody likes ungrateful people. And so that is not a trait I want to pick up from anybody. I want to be grateful for my clients. I want to be grateful for people who refer people to me. I want to be grateful to you. Listen to you, listen to the podcast. You notice how many times I tell you how much I appreciate it, people who send me DMs and all of that stuff. I'm like, thank you so much for sharing your story with me. Because they don't have to do any of that. But the more grateful you are, the more positive you'll be, the more opportunities you attract into your life, the more grateful people you attract. I want to be around grateful people. I don't want anybody's ingratitude to rub off of me. When I know some people who are addicted to ingratitude, I avoid people like that. I don't want it. Okay. Number three, people who are unwilling to pay the price. Now, again, this is I'm telling you from my lens, okay? And you can adapt this for what works for you. But I attend my 90th birthday party a lot. Okay. I know this is one life. I'm trying to go somewhere. I want to die empty, meaning I used up all of my potentials and giftings and all of that to serve my generation. That's what I want to do. Okay. Now, because that's what I want to do, I make sure that I'm building relationships with people like that. Now, somebody who is like that, one of the things you come to terms with is the dream costs what it costs. Okay. So I've met people who are like, oh, I don't read books. I don't have time for that. Those are not people in my inner circle. The people in my inner circle are the people that are like, I read a book a week. They're not because leaders are readers. The end. That's it. It's done. That's it. I want to be a leader. I'm not hanging out with people who are not readers.

Build a Successful Inner Circle

SPEAKER_00 14:47

Okay? The people I hang out with are people who invest in them. They they literally, they literally have a budget for coaching, personal development, all of those things. All right. Some of them as high as 100,000, some of them over 100,000 per year. Because we know that I know I am like Play-Doh. Okay. I don't have everything I need to become all I need to be, but I need to invest in myself to get there. So if I'm like, okay, I have this skill set that is missing. I don't go around like, oh, I suck. I don't have this. I'm like, how do I acquire this skill set? What do I need to do? Where do I need to be? Okay, who do I need to be listening to? Right? And I'm willing to pay the price to become who I need to be. And so for the person who is not willing to do that, I don't want to be like that person. So I avoid that person. There is work required. Listen, if you're going to be an entrepreneur, you're going to be a successful entrepreneur, there are things that are required. Your evolution is required. Selling is required. Asking is required. Building a brand is required. Understanding money is required. Getting over mind drama so you can charge appropriately is required. Leading a team is required. And so if you say, well, I want to build this, but I just want to do it this way. This is not Burger King. You can't have it your way. There are timeless principles required for business to work. And so if you are stuck and you're like, I only want to do it this way, I only want to do this, then we're not doing inner circle here. It's not happening. It's not happening because I don't want that to rub off on me. I don't. Okay. So people who are not willing to pay the price. You're trying to go somewhere, you're paying the price for it. And then your inner circle is full of people who aren't. It's only a matter of time. You cannot rise above your environment. Okay, number four, people who can't see their progress. Now, this is really sad. You would have heard me say on the podcast that the undisciplined mind is an idiot, right? Because it will convince you nothing is working, it will make you sad, it will make you depressed. Everybody sees where you're going and they're excited for you. You can't see it. Because of that, you start sabotaging, you start doing all of those things. A lot of that comes from not being able to see how far you've come. The undisciplined mind will never offer up to you that you're doing well. It will always show you somebody doing better than you or something you should have done or somewhere you should have been, and all of those kind of things. It amazes me, and I'm not saying this about people because this is about people in general, but you'll see somebody who maybe they started working on their business six months ago, brand new entrepreneur. And in six months, they've registered the business, they started serving clients, they brought in $40,000 in revenue and all this stuff, and they're whining that nothing is working. Or you see the person who is having a really rough year, but they're at $2 million. And last year they did $1.5 million. So in the midst of the challenge, they're moving forward. But they're stuck on the challenge. They can't see the fact that, wow, even in the midst of this challenge, I'm moving forward. I'm doing better than I did last year. Or maybe I'm even doing the same. But with this challenge, I should have done a lot worse. But they can't see it. And so because they can't see it, they're stuck in negativity. They're stuck in, well, I don't even know if I should continue doing what I'm doing because it's not working. I don't have people like that in my inner circle. I need all the positivity. I need all the enthusiasm. I need all the momentum I can get. Now, don't misunderstand me. Of course, people have days when they do. I'm talking about people who this is their habit, this is their lifestyle, right? I don't have people like that in my inner circle. I can't. I mean it's too much energy. Too much energy. I can't. Right? Now, if you're having a moment, it will be an honor for me to help you out of that moment, right? Someone in my inner circle having that moment because that's why we're there. We're there for the trials and the triumphs. But this is you every day. We're not doing that. You and I are not doing that. We're not gonna do that because that's gonna rub off of me. And I can't have that. I'm trying to move forward. I'm trying to fulfill this destiny. I'm trying to fulfill my calling. I don't, I'm not doing that. Okay. So that's number four. They don't see the progress. They don't see anything. All they see is what isn't working and what should be. No, not at all. I need people to be in the midst of the challenge and they can see in the midst of what people would call a problem and they can see we're still moving forward, we're still advancing, we're still gonna get this done. This is still gonna happen. That's what I need. Like, oh my goodness, look at how far we've come. Not to sit down and settle there, but to go like to acknowledge it and say, wow, if we could do all of this, I wonder what we can do next, right? See how the energy of that is just different? Okay, number five, people who are addicted to confusion. Okay, people who are addicted to confusion, which means they just love being an indecision. Every time you see them, they're still, they're still, well, I don't, I don't know what name to call, to call my company. I don't know if of these five people, if this is the person that I should hire, I don't know what my next critical hire is. I don't know which building I should buy. I don't know, and it's the same thing over and over and over. And they've researched for six months and they're still there in the same spot. And every time they're talking about the same thing over and over and over and over. It is an addiction to confusion. And one of the things that successful businesses love is speed. Now, that doesn't mean we just go around making decisions without doing the research, but you do enough research to make an educated decision. You're this, you're not gonna know. I mean, like, think about you're you're listening and you're married, right? You made your best decision. Like you did your research, you analyzed it, and you made your best decision. Did you know? I like, is it are you like, I'm definite? This I mean, like, no. But you make your decision, then you make the decision right, right? And so when you have to make a decision, what is the information I need for this decision? Go after the information. Once you get the information, make your best decision and move on. And if it's a mistake, like you you either win or you learn. But if you have this person every time they're just going in circles, I don't know if I should do this. I was thinking about this, and I talked to this person, and I read this book, and I did this podcast, and then they've been doing that for three months. My goodness, tiring. And it's a habit, it's such a bad habit. It's an addiction, an addiction to confusion, right? You want your world filled with people who are decisive. You see them taking the risk, you see them doing that. That's the habit you want. Okay. Number six, people who are not committed to their results. They're not committed to their results. So they set the goal, but they're not doing what the goal requires. You set a goal, it will require a number of things. It will require you to evolve to become the kind of person who pulls that off. It will require you to take the action required to pull that off. It will require that. At baseline, it will require those two things. And so when people talk about their goals and talk about their commitment, it's not about what they say. It's about the price they're paying to become the version of themselves that can accomplish that. And the actions, uncomfortable if they are, messy if they are, that they're taking to pull it off. The ability to weather storms and continue going, the ability to weather difficulty and continue going. That's the proof of commitment. And if it's not there, you're not in my inner circle. Because I'm I'm not playing. This is one life. This is not the rehearsal. Entrepreneurship is serious. This is not a hobby. I'm trying to disrupt a whole industry. I'm trying to serve my community. I'm trying to solve big problems. And so if you're not committed, I mean, we can still be friends and we can do all of that stuff, but inner circle, no. No, no. Most of my time with you, no. I don't want that to rub off on me. I don't want to treat my life like a hobby. I don't want to treat my life like it doesn't matter. I don't want to treat what I think my life's assignment is like it doesn't matter. Because it does. Okay. Number seven, people who don't understand the long game. Oh, I tried that for a month, it didn't work. No, ma'am, no, sir. No, sir. There is nothing great that happens that way. Oh, I did the one post on social media, this didn't happen. Or I hired the person, it wasn't the it was the wrong person. So I had to dehire them. And and so, so yeah, that's not working. I'm not gonna go there again. No, we're here until. What is my timeline? Until that's it. It's not about 30 days, it's not about 60 days. Now we're gonna try to accomplish things in shorter times. Of course we are, but if I don't Hit it? Is that gonna make me stop? No, there's so many goals I set that don't happen in the timeline that I would like. And I'm like, huh, I guess we'll go for the next round. Playing the long game. We're playing on till the point of the game is to keep playing the game. Like with real curiosity, like, if I chase this down, if I play my part, if I do my part, what kind of impact could I have in the world? What kind of business could I be? What kind of inspiration could I be in my my generation? How many people could I help? What kind of freedom could I create for myself? What kind of legacy can I create for my family? What kind of stepping stone would I be for my children? I'm not here to play. So not accomplishing something in 30 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, a year, that's not gonna stop me. And in my inner circle, I fill it with people just like that. Okay? And so I took the time to explain all of this and tell you the why behind it, because I need you to understand your business is precious, your goals are precious, your vision is precious, your purpose, your calling, your destiny, whatever you want to call it. It is precious. And you cannot just keep exposing it to people who are gonna corrupt it, who are gonna get you to quit, who are going to make your put you in a position where your vision is never gonna become a reality. You cannot let your relationships happen to you. You choose. You intentionally avoid and you intentionally insert yourself into certain circles. Okay, so we're talking inner circle now. So when I see people who display this, it doesn't mean I don't talk to them. It doesn't mean I'm not nice to them, it doesn't mean I don't serve them, it doesn't mean any of that. But you see, I'm not spending most of my time with you. I am not sharing my deepest vision with you. I'm not talking to you about my goals at all. We're not talking about that. It's not happening. But I have a curated inner circle. I have curated communities where I'm like, these are the people who are the opposite of this, those are the people in that. You're here, you're a part of a community. Say you're even part of the entree and the business school. You start curating. When you start identifying these things, don't buy into them. They're bad habits. You see what I'm saying? They're they're bad habits. And so this is something I do, and I think it's one of the things that's really, really helped me to continue to stay in momentum and continue to grow every single year. I'm very, very, very, very careful about the people I bring like super close to me because of this. Because of this. I'm very careful. I listen for the traits and stuff like that. I'm like, okay, I don't want to spend most of my time there. You are going to encounter these seven people. In fact, there are times where you are these seven people, right? And so it's not about elimination, it's about reducing the proximity of said people to you and the amount of times you're exposed to it. So this is one of these where I would really like to have a conversation around this. So send me a DM, send me a PM. You can look in the show notes, you see all my social media profiles there, and let me know how this stuck out to you. And it's not about, it's about you thinking, like auditing your inner circle and saying, what which of these people do I have in here? Who is somebody I should intentionally put in there? You're hearing you're an entrepreneur and you want to thrive as a physician entrepreneur. I mean, the entree MD Business School is a perfect circle like that. Like you can forcefully insert yourself into because you're like, I want to become like that. I want to become like that. I want this to be my default. Okay. All right. So so this is what I got. Send me a DM. Let me know how I helped you. Share this with another entrepreneur because it will save entrepreneurs. And I'll see you on the next episode of the Ontree MD Podcast. Hey, if you love listening to the Ontree MD podcast, I want to invite you to join OntreeMD On Demand. It is my signature subscription program that gives you access to a library of business courses designed to help you do one thing as a physician entrepreneur, and that is to thrive. Just head out to ontremd.com forward slash on demand, and I'd love to have you join us. See you on the inside.