3 sneaky lies we tell ourselves that sabotage our businesses

If your business isn't working the way you expected, it's not because you're bad at business. It's because no one ever taught you how it actually works. We were trained to master algorithms in medicine, but when it comes to revenue teams and growth, we were never taught anything. We weren't even told to figure it out. We just assumed somehow we'd know. Like it would magically make sense. But it doesn't. The era of the seven Figure Physician CEO is here. And it's not about working harder. It's about learning entrepreneurship as a system. The same way you mastered ACLs and pals, you can master the algorithm of building a profitable scalable business. That's why I recorded the Seven Figure Physician CEO audiobook. Whether you're building a medical or non medical business, and whether your goal is your first million, first 2 million, first 5 million, first 10 million, this is where the journey starts. There is no Calvary coming to save us. We are the Calvary.

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Hi docs. Welcome to the Entre MD Podcast where it is all about helping amazing physicians just like you. Embrace entrepreneurship so you can have the freedom to live life and and practice medicine on your terms. I'm your host, Dr. Una.

Welcome back to another amazing episode of the Entre MD Podcast. As always, I want to start by saying thank you. Thank you for listening. Thank you for sharing the podcast. Some of you have sent me messages and have reached out to me on social media to let me know how this podcast is helping you. And for me, that's my big why. I love to hear that you're being helped. I love to hear that you're starting a business or you're up leveling your business or you've overcome a challenge because of something you've listened to. So I want to read a review from one of our listeners. He says this is from Gerald says. This is an inspirational podcast. Great inspiration for aspiring physician entrepreneurs or any physician interested in exploring options outside of the traditional clinical path. And it's inspired me to work harder on my business. Thank you for this resource. Thank you so much for listening. Dr. Gerald. This literally made my day and I'm just happy to hear that it's making you work harder. I'd love to hear how it's helping you help more people and bring in more revenue into your business and giving you that freedom to live life and practice medicine on your own terms. So thank you so much for sharing. And if you're on here and you haven't had an opportunity to leave us a review on itunes. And hey, let me know what you think about the podcast. Let me know how it's helping. Okay? Now today we are going to be looking at something that is so critical. And this is for you. Whether you're starting out in business, whether you're a veteran in business, whether you don't have any mindset issues or you do. I mean, this is one of these sneaky things that just tends to catch up with us. And that's three major lies we tell ourselves that sabotage our businesses. And this is critical. And I want you to listen, knowing I may have fallen victim to this. Even if you overcame it in the past, I want you to take another look because it's a sneaky little thing. Okay, before we do that, I do want to let you know about Entre MD Live, which is our annual business of medicine events that's gonna be happening June 13, 2020 in Atlanta, Georgia. It's an all day event from 10am to 5pm and it's a total game changer. It is like this podcast to 100 times bigger and better. There is so much networking, there is so much direction and it's not fluffy stuff. I mean, you listen to the podcast, you know, it's not about fluff, it's about practical things that you can apply right away that will change your mind, change your business, change everything. There are a lot of people and you're going to get to meet some of them in Atlanta who started off this journey a year ago. Their first encounter with anything to do with the business of medicine was Entre MD Live. And in just one year, some of them have 10x their income, some of them have 15x their income. Some of them have positioned themselves where their partners in practices, some of them have positioned themselves where they were laying other people off and they couldn't lay them off because of what they've done. Many went on to start businesses. One doc just had her first launch of a virtual program and it was a five figure launch and it is just mind boggling to think of all the things that have happened in a year and this could be the beginning of your transformation or this could be the beginning of a new phase of your transformation. But I, I want to see you in Atlanta. If you have any questions, just email us. Dr. Una so d r u n a tre md.com, you know we'll be happy to get you the information you need, but I really want to see you in Atlanta. Okay. All right, so let's go back to those three sneaky lies we tell ourselves that sabotage our businesses. Now, a few episodes ago, in episode 14, I told the story about a test that I scored 43% on, right? And if you didn't listen to it, it's a really powerful episode. It's. You want to go listen to it. And what had happened was I had this class, chemical pathology, and I just decided I didn't like it. Like, I didn't like it. I didn't think I'd be good at it, whatever. So I came up with a brilliant plan to not study for it. I mean, this is a medical student. I don't know what I was thinking, but I was like, I'm not going to study for it. I didn't even buy the books. I didn't do any of that. And after everything was done, I had 43 on that test. Now, of course, I put my act together, did what I was supposed to do, and ended up with an A on it. But medical school, nobody has time to be getting 43% right. It's not a. It's not a passing score, a great score in any part of the universe. But I'll tell you what happened when I sat in on the test, okay? So I. For me, I had a valid excuse. I didn't like the class. I didn't like the teacher. I didn't like the textbook. I didn't think I was good at it. It was just too much. I wasn't going to read. I had all these very valid excuses. But the second I sat down to take that test and open up my exam book. We did books those days, not computers. All of a sudden, I realized that every excuse is a lie. Every. I realized that, you know, the reason why I'm not going to pass this is because I didn't do what I was supposed to do. And there's no excuse that really holds water. And if you think about it, this has probably happened to you. Either a test you wanted to take, and you had all these excuses, and when you got there, you're like, you know what? I should have just studied. Or maybe you were throwing a birthday party for your spouse or something, and you're like, oh, I don't have time. Whatever. And then you got there and you're like, wow, this is great. But maybe I shouldn't have held onto those excuses. Maybe I should have just made it as good as it could have been. You know what I mean? So. Or you've done some work, or you're, you know, some product you're creating or a service for a client, and you're like, I could have done better. Right? So those excuses just go away because they're not valid. Like, they're just part of the lies that we tell ourselves. And no one is immune to this stuff. No matter how far you've gone in business. You want to take a critical look at what are the lies I've been telling myself. What are those? So what I want us to look at is what those three lies are. The most common ones that I found, and the very first one is, I don't have time. Why haven't you started a business? I don't have time. Why have you not taken your business to the next level? Why are you in cruise control? Because I don't have time. You know, this applies to every aspect of life. But, you know, we'll keep it to business for now. But the truth of the matter is, is that really true? I did a survey in one of our Facebook groups, and I asked how many hours people were spending on Facebook or social media in general every day. And I kid you not, most people are spending as much as five hours. Most people are spending as much as five hours. So you need to look like when you say, I don't have time to start a business, or I don't have time to build out a new division, or I don't have time to scale this business isn't really true, because if you have two hours a day to spend on Facebook, I mean, that's literally 14 hours a week. That's 64 hours a month. If you put that towards a business, you could start it. You could scale it, right? So is it really true in the US the average person is spending four to five hours watching tv? You know, maybe you're not spending four to five hours, but maybe you're spending two. And the question becomes, if I spend those two working on a business, what kind of business could I build? So when you find yourself saying things like, I don't have time, you want to stop and you want to really critically look at it and say, am I telling the truth or am I lying to myself? Right? Because when it matters, you'll go like, yeah, that was an excuse that didn't make any sense. I mean, it'll be found out. And the question becomes, what kind of business could I build? What kind of financial reserves could I build? What kind of capital would I have had to Invest in maybe real estate or something, Right? I gave all that up because I was lying to myself about not having time. So I want you to take a second and think about it. Like, when you say you don't have time, are you telling the truth? Are you just so used to saying that line that you're just rolling with it, but it's not true anymore? The second thing that I find we tell ourselves lies about a lot is I can't afford my training. Right? Okay? So now if you're going to go from physician to physician entrepreneur, or if you're going to become an entrepreneur that is thriving, regardless, one of the things you're going to have to do is you're going to have to get some training. Some of it will be books, some of it will be courses, some of it will be coaching, some of it will be conferences that you have to go to. And one of our favorite things is I can't afford it. Okay, Now I'm talking to myself as well, so I don't want you to hear judgment. It's just that the more truth we can tell ourselves, the better we'll be. Okay? Most of the time when we say we can't afford it, it's not true. Okay? And I want you to think of it this way. If your friend called you and said, we've been trying to have a baby for the last six years, I mean, you were my wedding. You remember this? And I kept this as a secret, but we're actually six months pregnant. And usually baby showers, you know, people don't. It's supposed to be a surprise and all that, but I'm planning my own baby shower because I waited too long for this. And I want you to come to Arizona for my child's baby shower. Right? And you live in Atlanta, chances are that you're gonna figure it out and go for the baby shower. It's gonna cost you money for tickets. It may cost you money for a hotel, rental car gift you're going to get her and lost revenue for the time you didn't go to work, but you still go. You can afford it. So can you really not afford your training? Right? Or if, you know, you go to. You're an attendee now, and you go to the Lexus dealership and you see a car you really like. A lot of times we tell ourselves, I deserve that. Right? And you spend whatever it takes to get it. So the question is, can you really not afford your training? You probably could. Maybe you started off a business and, you know, you've been working hard because you've been working the job and starting the business on the side and you feel like you haven't spent enough time with your kids. And finally the business is to the point where you can pay some of the bills and all of that stuff. And then you plan a vacation for everybody to go to Hawaii because you sacrifice so much of your family time. And they deserve it, which they do, right? But guess how much that's going to cost, right? So when you have to buy a book or you have to do a course or you have to invest in a coach and you say, I don't, I can't afford it, you're not really telling the truth most of the time. Most of the time, what it is, is you in order of priorities, just not high on the priority, right? And I want to encourage you to make that higher priority. Because until you change, nothing changes. You know, the biggest problem with your business is an internal problem. It's you, it's me. Like I'm the biggest problem. The second I get better, my business gets better, everything around me gets better. So my training is something that needs to be top, top, top, top, top on the list. So have you been holding yourself back because you haven't invested in yourself? Because you've been telling a lie that you can't afford it? Right. So I just want you to start thinking about that and remember again, you may have invested in yourself before and you may have stopped and adopted this lie, you know? So look at it. Are you telling that lie? If you are, stop telling it. Okay? So that's the second lie. The third lie is I don't know how to do it. Right. So why haven't you started a business? I don't know how to do it. Why haven't you skilled a business? I don't know how to do it. Why haven't you hired somebody to work with you in your business? I don't know how to do it. Why haven't you hired a practice administrator? Maybe if you own a practice, right? Which will make your life infinitely easier. I don't know how to do it. Why are you marketing? Don't know how to do it. Why aren't you speaking? Don't know how to do it. Okay? It's a lie, okay? And I'm gonna show you why it's a lie. So you're here again, you know, found out you're pregnant and you're due in three weeks and all this stuff. And as a responsible parent, you are. You go get a crib and you're looking at Amazon and you're like, that will fit perfectly in Johnny's little nursery. This is so amazing. It gets delivered, but it comes in a flat box. It literally looks nothing like what you saw on Amazon. But let me tell you what you don't do. You don't say, I don't know how to put this together and not put it together. You don't do that. You figure it out. So you either read the manual and figure it out or you get somebody and pay them to do it. But one way or another, it's gonna get done. I don't know how to do it is not an excuse that we accept for some people I've met. I actually have a lot of friends and parents in my life and patients that are in cross cultural marriages. So cute. They're in cross cultural marriages and some of them can make some really cool meals from a culture they were never part of. They didn't say, I don't know how to do it right. They figured it out. They went and met somebody who's from that country. It's like, how do you cook this? How do you make that? What kind of outfits? Just to. In an effort to create a more blended home and respecting their spouse's culture, they learn all this stuff. They don't say, I don't know how to do it. All right, let's say, you know, you're an iPhone person, but you listen to Dave Ramsey. So I love Dave Ramsey, by the way. But you're listening to Dave Ramsey and you're like, I'm not gonna get every single new phone that comes out because, you know, I'm trying to pay off this debt or whatever. So you have the iPhone 6 and then somebody sends you a gift, the iPhone 11, which, you know, operates a little, not a little, a lot differently. You don't look at the box and say, oh my gosh, I don't know how to use this iPhone 11, so I'm going to return it. That's not what you do. You figure it out. You figure it out. You read the manual if you must. You tinker with it, play with it, do whatever you need to do to figure out how to use the phone. So when you say, I don't know how to do it when it comes to business, the question is, are you lying because you figured everything else out, right? Let's say, you know, you're the car kind of person. I'm not a car kind of person, I'm a truck kind of person. But let's say you're a car person and you know, you love the environment and all this stuff, and somebody on your birthday sends you a Tesla, you've never driven an electric car before, you've never driven a Tesla before, but they send you a Tesla, they send you the next gen Tesla, okay? Gives you 650 miles on one charge. Like super amazing, right? And so they park it in front of your house. What are the odds that you're gonna look at a Tesla and go like, oh, man, I guess I'm not gonna drive that car because I don't know how to drive it? No, you're gonna figure it out. You're gonna read every manual. You're gonna watch 100 YouTube videos. You're gonna take it to the dealership and ask your questions. You're gonna do whatever you need to do to figure it out. So in business, when we say, I don't have time, I can't afford it, I don't know how to do it, the truth of the matter is we're telling ourselves lies that stop us. We have been so great at figuring out how to make time to make things happen. We've been great at figuring out how to afford other stuff so we can really afford our training. And we figured out how to do stuff we didn't know how to do. We learn, we Adapt, we will YouTube, we do whatever we have to. So when we say those things, we're lying now, is a lie the issue. That's not really the issue. The issue is the opportunity cost, right? So what if you started that business? What if that business replaced your physician salary? Or maybe you wanted to do both. What if that business gave you an extra hundred thousand to invest in real estate, right? So that, you know, if you're doing that every year, I mean, come on, think about it. In 10 years, that's a million in real estate, and not just full equity, but what you were able to use to leverage, to build an empire. So think about the opportunity cost. What if you built a business and it let you work two days a week, that you maybe never work weekends, never work nights? So every time you tell yourself a lie, you're stealing that opportunity away. That's the opportunity cost of your life. So these are the lies we tell ourselves. And notice I said we. And I want you to take a critical look at what you're telling yourself. The things you're saying no to that you should be saying yes to because you're not telling yourself the truth. I want you to Take a look at those. And I want you to commit to tell the truth. So just imagine if you undid all those lies, what would it look like? I mean, think about it for a minute. It will make you stop lying, right? So commit to creating the time you need to start or scale that business. Commit to getting the training that you need. And if you have to buy a book or you have to go for a conference, if you need to apply for a conference, I mean, if you need to be at Entre MD Live, which you need to be if you're a physician, but, you know, do it. Do it. Commit to learn new things. Don't ever let the fact that you don't know how to do something stop you. It hasn't stopped you for tons of things. You figure it out, you know? So figure it out. Now, the reason why I did this episode is because these sneaky little lies, they catch up with everybody. And I found myself in certain situations where I started stalling in my business where, you know, I was like, it's doing what it's supposed to. I'm comfy. Like, I'm good, right? But the good is a lot of times the enemy of the best. And we need to push to be better. We need to push to improve ourselves. You know, there's. There's so much out there that we haven't yet accomplished. So I saw myself telling those lies. Oh, I can't do this because I'm so busy. I'm like, listen to yourself. You see patients twice a week, right? Like, granted, you have all these other things going on, and you're a serial entrepreneur and all that stuff, but you are not too busy, right? Or, you know, I can't afford to do that. Really? Really? Yes, you can. And I'll tell you something funny. This was probably three years ago. I have committed to read 50 books, 52 books that year, mostly business books, but I had committed to read 52 books that year. And I got to November, and I was at 40, you know, and I was like, you know, yeah, it's two months. Who's expecting me to read 12 books in two months? Like, well, I mean, 40 is not bad. And many people haven't read 40 books. We're good. And I had this thought come to me. Like, when you're in medical school, you valued your medical degree so much that you were willing to burn the midnight candle, as they say. I mean, like, think about the size of the books we read, the volume of information we had to consume. So this thought was, you were willing to do that to become a doctor, but you're not willing to read 12 extra books in two months to become a better entrepreneur. Like, what are you doing? And I realized I'd been telling myself a lie. I mean, like, the great future you want, do you want it or don't you want it? So I sat down, I figured out a strategy, and I finished those books. I finished those 12 books. Now, truth be told, I didn't look for the biggest books in the world to read, but I finished those 12 books. And I'm grateful that I did, because it makes a huge difference. And success leaves clues. The people who are successful, they're things that they do. So I said all this to say that I want you to look at these three lies. I want you to stop telling yourself these lies. Stop telling yourself you don't have time. Make time. Stop telling yourself you can't afford your training. Yes, you can. Figure it out. Stop saying you don't know how to do it. Most things in business, most skills are learnable skills. Learn them. Okay? So thank you again for listening and stop telling yourselves a lie. Start taking action where you need to take it. And I will see you next week for another amazing episode of the Entre Enemy podcast.

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