5 Things You NEED to Rebel Against as a Physician Entrepreneur
30 Jan 2026 · 21 min
Dr. Nneka Unachukwu challenges five beliefs holding physicians back: that workplace abuse is normal, doctors can't build seven-figure businesses, they can't lead teams or build brands, and they can't have both a thriving business and a full life. She shares stories from her alumni and practical frameworks for negotiation, leadership, and time management.
Chapters
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. So. So go get your audiobook now. Www.entremd.com 7Figurebook. And let's rewrite the narrative for physicians. Starting today, at every point in time.
There'S a version of your dream business that you can create, and there's a version of your dream life you can create. Like, you can have those things going and you can just keep upping the game, like, the entire time. But no, we are not going to build businesses at the expense of our life. 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. Una. Well, hello. Hello, my friend. Welcome back to another episode of the entremd podcast. I'm going to give you some forewarning. I am in my feelings today. Okay, so we are talking about rebelling against the status quo. And so there's so many things that are going on in the physician space and so many things that have been accepted. And one of the things that we've really tried to do in Entre MD is to kind of rewrite the narrative, to kind of call out things that we've accepted as normal that are really not normal. And so I want to tell you about five of those things. Okay, we're going to look at five of those things I want you to no longer accept from today. All right? So let's just, you know, let's cut to the chase and get right to it. This is going to blow Your mind. And I want you, like, even before you listen to it, I want you to take this episode share with the doc in your life and say, you got to listen to this Dr. Uno and her feelings. Okay? All right. So five things, number one. Number one, one thing that is a status quo that we want to start rebelling against is abuse at work. Okay? When you think about the loss of autonomy, you think about the burnout, you think about being so devalued. You know, this is. It's is happening in so many places that it's considered normal. And I want to invite you to rebel against it. And the reason why this is so critical is because there are a million licensed physicians in the. In the United States. And the more of us who kind of choose to be vision boards and paint pictures of what is possible, the faster this can go away, the more it will spread. Once we hit 10% of the physician population going like, yes, I'm rebelling against that, it's a wrap, okay? And I cannot wait for it to be a wrap. So abuse at work. Okay? Now let me say this, though. There are two extremes. So there's the extreme of, you know, wherever you work or the administration, all that, they're just complete takers. And so you're just giving and there's nothing happening. Like, there's nothing happening there. There are doctors who are working and they have not been paid for months. There are doctors who are working and they're so devalued, they do not have a voice at all. There are doctors who are extreme burnout and all of those things. Right? On the flip side, right, there is, you know, because, you know, there's a way. My husband says that. He says, you know, humans, we love extremes, but either way, you're falling into a ditch. You want to stay in the middle. And so times, sometimes we swing from that all the way to where we become takers, right? And this is how much I want to make, and these are the few hours I want to work and all of this. But the magical place is a place where you're creating a win win situation where you're doing what you need to do and you have full expectation that the, you know, the company that hired you will do what they are supposed to do. So it's a true win, win situation. But just rolling over and playing dead and all of that. It's time for us to start questioning that. It's time for us to start saying no to that. It's time for us to start doing all of those things. And for each of these, you know, probably going to give you an example. So in the Entre MD Business school, one of the things we do is every quarter we kind of look back at the quarter and there's a doc was just kind of thinking about, you know, his last 10 months in the entremd business school. And he's an employed physician, he's building his personal brand and all of that stuff. And, and he says, you, over the last year I have worked and have raised my revenue, my income, right, because he's employed by 47% and I'm working a day less, I'm working four days a week. And I negotiated to work in the office that's closer to where I live, so my commute is less. I want you to think about that right now. Of course he did this because he learned the skills of negotiation and creating those win wins and all of those things. But I want you to think about that. That could be, that could be our narrative. That could be the narrative for the intrapreneur, right? You know, I'm all about all physicians being entrepreneurs, whether you're employed or not. But I want you to think about that, right? I've said the story of this doc many, many times. Who, this is a different doctor and she's an employee physician as well. And she, you know, she took 12, 12 weeks of vacation, she negotiated for it. And at the same time says Dr. Una, this is the most amount of money I've ever made as an employed physician. And so her income went up, her vacation went up, her satisfaction went up, her leadership went up, all went up. And so I want us to start thinking, I don't mean burn down things where you are, but I want you to start thinking, how could I make this a win win situation? How could I advocate for myself? How could I negotiate like a boss? How can I learn the language of business? I can have all of these conversations, but it could look different. Like, let's just rebel against the status quo of abuse at work. Okay? That's the first one. The second one is this narrative, right? This status quo of, you know, doctors cannot build successful seven figure businesses. And you may say, I do not want to build a seven figure business, okay? But some people do want to. But there's this narrative that we don't make, you know, great entrepreneurs. We, we can't do that. And the truth of the matter is that's not true. I mean, there was a time we could not intubate people. There was a time that we could not, you Know, do heart transplants. There was a time that we could not do those things, and we learned how to do them, and we did them. Okay? I, you know, I am, I'm a firm believer in, you know, the thought that physicians, you make, you know, we, we have what it takes to be some of the best entrepreneurs. Now, to be clear, our evolution will be required. We will have to learn new skills. We will have to practice new things. We will have to be beginners at some things, beginners at marketing, beginners at selling, beginners at building a team, which means we will do these things messy. And that is okay. It is okay. But we can learn and we can do this. Okay? Now, again, in the entrepreneur business school, and I say this because these are people that I know, these are people I've worked with personally. These are people who share their stories, many of them, like, I've actually seen their, their books and their numbers and, you know, I cannot tell you the number of people who came into the school as employed physicians knowing, wanted to start businesses, and now they run seven figure businesses. Okay? Now, they did have to learn, they did have to evolve, but they are doing that. And somebody might say, yeah, but, you know, what is the percentage? Well, my question to you is, what is the percentage of, you know, people who apply to a medical school? What percentage gets in on average is 3%? Is 3% like 1%, 3%? Like, you know, like the whole average is 7%. But many schools, they run between 1 and 3%. Okay? So if you, if you had those odds and you were like, I still want to do that, and you pulled it off. Well, it's much easier to do this other stuff now. I'm not saying it's easy. I'm saying it's easier, okay? And so if that's something that you want to do, if, if that's something you want to do, then rebel against the status quo. Like, yes. They say doctors don't make great entrepreneurs. There's so many examples of doctors who are like, choose to look at the examples and choose to believe it and go build it. We need all hands on deck, okay? There's a corporate conglomerate, if you will, that sh down 50 clinics. 50 clinics. Think of all the, all the patients who no longer had doctors. What if we had all these doctors who are thriving in private practice, Right? And it's the same thing, whether you're a coach or a speaker, you host events or you have a product is the same concept. But oh, my goodness, we can. It's time for us to Rebel against that status quo. Of course we can. Of course we can. The third thing is that we can't lead a teams. We cannot lead rock star teams because, you know, many of us are perfectionists and we're introverts and all of those things and we just want to put our heads down and do the work work. But this is the thing though, right? Why do we need great teams? For many reasons, right? It is. How are you going to have a huge impact without people helping you get the work done? How are you going to be able to separate yourself from your business if you don't have a team that can run the business? How are you going to amplify what you are good at if you don't have people with complementary skill sets to work with you? There are things that happen in my company. For instance, at the time of this recording, we're getting ready for the Business Makeover Mastermind, which is the event we do in April for the Entrepreneur Business School. And it's always, oh my goodness, it's always like so amazing, so unbelievably amazing. I'm so excited for what we're about to do. I've told my team, I'm like, nobody's ready for what's coming is going to be so amazing. But let me tell you this. I am so good at creating the content, the experience, the, the that I have to facilitate for people to come into an event one way and leave another way. That is my zone of genius, okay? But there are other things, whether that is the setup of the room, the meals that the people are going to have, the wow factors that they're going to add, that it's not content, right? Like swag and all of those things. Like, I don't speak any of those languages. Like, I'm almost useless when it comes to things like that. But because I have a team, my team is strong where I'm weak. And so at the end of the day, it all looks great, but I just had a portion of it, right? And so all of these things are required. I'm not going to do the photography, I'm not going to do the videos, I'm not going to do the testimony, I'm not going to do any of those things. And I can have a bigger impact and a much better an event that is 10x better because I have a team that is strong where I'm weak, right? And so we have this thing of all, we can't lead teams. I cannot tell you how many people have private practices, have never really had, like, team meetings. Don't meet with their team, don't hold them accountable to outcomes. Don't cast vision. Don't do any of those things. And we just feel like we don't do that. Well, we're physician entrepreneurs. Of course we do. Right? Of course we do those things. And so I just want you to. To think about that and go, like, I rebel against this status quo. Like, I can have, you know, solid team meetings. I can cast visions, like, vision like a champ. I can hold my people accountable. I can sell them on the vision. I can do all of these things. And really, again, you know, I've worked with many people who are like, I've never done anything like this. And now they are having quarterly retreats for their team, and they're having all these training meetings, and their teams are, like, ignited and so ready. Ready to run with the vision and do all of those things they have. Now I have clients who, when they have events, their team is like, okay, this is a date of the event. These are the things I've been done. These are the people I got to pay for the food and the swag and all of these things. And literally, they're just showing up, like, how beautiful is that? Right? But then what does this team also make possible for you? Now, I have people who take a vacation a quarter. Like, they're just like, forget it. You know, this is what I want to do. I want to take a vacation a quarter. And their teams are running their businesses. Their teams are able to put it together so that they can do this stuff. And so they're also living their best lives. Why? Because they have a team. So when you think, oh, I can't lead a team, I don't know what to do. I can't lead. You know, maybe if it's private practice, I can't lead other doctors and all of these. I am telling you, it is time to rebel against that status quo. Of course you can. Now, you are going to need to learn leadership skills, because those are skills, but they're learnable. And if there's anything physicians know how to do, we know how to learn. Have you seen the size of our textbooks? We know how to learn. Okay? So just rebel against it. Okay. Okay. The. The fourth thing is I can't build, you know, like, it can't build a professional and profitable brand. I can't build a professional, profitable brand. And, oh, my goodness, rebel against that. Rebel against that. So. So this is the deal, right? Every physician, whether you work a job or you Have a multi seven figure business. You have a business that is usually the most ignored business and that is your personal brand. Okay? With your personal brand, you can start nine companies on the strength of your personal brand. You can open all kinds of doors, you can attract all kinds of 18 players. You can attract opportunities for collaboration, brand ambassadors, like all kinds of things. If you recognize your brand as a business, as if you recognize it as a business asset. If you go like, oh, wow, my brand has grown by default, you know, it's just random and haphazard and all of those things. And if you say, oh, this is a business, I want to. It's a, it's a business, is a business asset, I want to curate it, your brand can open so many doors for you that will translate to so many lives changed and so much revenue. Okay? And people are like, well, you know, but I don't want to dance on, you know, on videos. I don't. It's not about that, okay? We, I mean, there's so many things you can do to curate a brand. You don't have to dance, I don't think I've never danced on a video, you know, like a TikTok style. I haven't done that yet. But I still have a very professional, very profitable brand. Okay, so we can do that and it can open doors for you. I have, there's from the alumni from the entrepreneur business school who built a personal brand, even though at the time he was working a job and all of those and there was a quarter where he's like, we're not even at the end of the quarter. I've already done six figures and brand ambassador spots. And this is not about sleazy stuff, selling his soul, because sometimes that's what we think. No, these are brands that he actually believed in for products that he actually used for his first patients and all of those things. And he was already at six figures. Right? And so you can have a professional brand that is also profitable and imagine what, oh my goodness, the physician community will be like if we normalize that. If we rebelled at the, at the fact that we couldn't. Because it's not true. Of course we can. Right? Of course we can. And the fifth one is this whole concept of I cannot have my dream business and my dream life. If I have a dream life, then I have to give up my dream business. If I have a dream business, I have to give up my dream life. In the entrepreneur business school, one of the things I'm very clear about is we are building Our dream businesses and we are building our dream lives at the same time. Because I want you to think about this. Many of us, we kind of put our lives on hold to go through our medical training, right? We put our lives on hold, you know, like, so we can do really well in pre med and then so we can do really well in med school and we can do really well in residency and fellowship, and the list goes on and on and on. And the last thing I want to do is help people build businesses in such a way that they have to continue to put their life on hold. I'm like, no, at every point in time, there's a version of your dream business that you can create, and there's a version of your dream life you can create. Like, you can have those things going and you can just keep upping the game like the entire time. But no, we are not going to build businesses at the expense of our lives. We are not going to sacrifice. You know, if you follow me on social media, you see where I'm like, I'm, I am not going to sacrifice my faith, my family or my fitness for my business. I'm not going to do it. And I run multiple businesses and I run businesses that are multiple, multiple seven figures. And I'm like, I'm not going to do it right now. The thing about that is it does require that you learn how to, first of all, that you prioritize it, right? Because, because when you think about people at the end of their lives, right, most people are not saying, oh, my good. I, you know, I wish I started that second business. I wish I made us, you know, an extra 7 million. All that, a lot of the regret has to do with family and relationships and things like that. And for me, I'm like, well, since I'm going there anyway, right, I'm. Every day I'm getting closer to the end of my life. Like, since I'm going there anyway, why don't I pay attention to what matter, what will matter then now, right? And so the first thing is to really prioritize it, right? Like, my life is important, my family is important, me taking care of myself. This is important, right? Like, because once you make that decision, you prioritize, then you become very creative as far as figuring out how to pull it off. So that's one thing is a priority, but the other thing really is really becoming a master of time management. And, you know, for me and the way, you know, I teach my clients and all that, a lot of that has to do with living in the 20% life, like, what are the most important things that move the needle the most in my business? That move the needle the most in my life. And I do all I can to live in the 20%, not wasting my time on fluff, not wasting my time on the 80%. And that's what puts me in a position where, for me, even though I run multiple businesses, my husband and I pastor church and all of those things, I still have the time to homeschool my kids. I have the time to go on trips with them. I have time to invest in them. Because for me, I mean, you can leave your kids things, but you can also leave your kids the things that created the things, right? Which is the real wealth. The real wealth is not the things they can blow that. The real wealth is installing in them, the things in you that creates the things. And so I'm still able to do all of those things because I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm relentless about my, you know, like, my decision to live in the 20%, the most critical activities. I stay focused on doing those right. And so you can have your dream business in your dream life. And I want you to think about what the physician community will look like if most physicians where, you know, like, they had their dream business, they had their dream life. Burnout is not a thing. Loss of autonomy is not a thing. They truly enjoy what they do and they truly enjoy their relationships. And I mean, like, I want you to think about it. So if you think about these things and you're like, man, that would be nice, then what I want to do is, is invite you to rebel against the status quo. Like, just rebel against it and say, enough. Like, we're not, we're not doing this anymore. And if you do, you're an early adopter. And what that means is, yes, there may not be many people like you doing that, but in the entremd community, we're doing that. Like, so you have a lot of company, but you are literally rewriting history. You are the one that other people are going to look at and say, wait a minute, like, like, wow, life can look like that. I want to do that. Right? You're an early adopter, so you will be in the minority, but you'll be in a community of thousands of doctors just like that. And I invite you to be part of the team who will do this because the physician community desperately needs it. So let's rebel. No more abuse at work. Of course, of course we can build seven figure businesses of course we can lead a teams. Of course we can build professional and profitable brands. Of course we can build our dream business and our dream life at the same time. Just imagine 10% of the physician community going like, huh, that sounds about right. I'm inviting you to do that. Okay? So if you do make that decision, I want you to, you know, take a screenshot of this episode and post it on social media and said, I've decided I'm rebelling against the status quo. And tag us, okay? Hashtag Entre md. I want to give you a big shout out and, and welcome to you, to the community of people who are doing this because this is the time and this is, this is what we're going to do. Okay? All right. Now. And of course, you know, the decision, after the decision, the next thing is getting in to do the work. Okay. It is work that is doable, but it will require that you evolve it, require that you learn new skills. But absolutely you can learn these skills. Okay? You can. And if you need help learning it, you know, I want to invite you to come check out the ontremd business school. Maybe that is what you're looking. It's our year long program where we help people make that transition from physician to physician entrepreneur. You get the skills and you can start walking in the reality of this. Everything that I've talked about here, the entre, the doctors in the entre business school have rebelled against these stats school. They're like, yeah, we're not doing that. Okay? And you'll be in a community of people just like you who are doing that. Okay? So make the decision. Put that screenshot up there. Let us know, like, I'm rebelling against the status quo. Share this with the doctors in your life, okay? And I want you to just imagine what your reality is, can look like. And I can give you example after example, example to show you that this is possible. It can be your exact experience. So go do this and I'll see you on the next episode of the Entre Angry podcast.
More from Dr.
The Business Of Coaching With Physician, Lawyer And Executive Coach Dr. Adam Harrison