Birthday Episode - Conversations With My Future Self

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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. Unna. Well, hello. Hello and welcome to another episode of the Entre MD podcast. And this is totally off schedule because you do not get episodes on Sundays. But today is my birthday and I turn 42 and I have been doing a lot of thinking. I have been doing a lot of analyzing, reflecting, and I kind of just wanted to take you behind the scenes and share my thought process. And I think that it would be very helpful for you. So this is totally unlike any episode that we would usually do, but I think you're going to get a lot of value out of it. All right, so here it goes. You know, so I'm turning 42 and, you know, the first thing I do is I kind of take a step back to take a look at what life has been like. It's so easy to look at what's not working, especially if you're someone who works on a lot of projects and you're chasing these big goals. And there's so many setbacks and disappointments that go with that. And if you're not careful, you think about that and you forget about all the great things that are happening. And so usually when I hit any milestones, I stop and I'm like, okay, let's do a highlight reel here. Let's forget about the challenges, the setbacks, the disappointments, the things we're scared of. Let's just look at what has happened, you know, what outcomes we've had. And when I pause to think about it, I'm filled with nothing but gratitude. First of all, I'm here. I'm alive, you know, and, you know, sometimes it's like, yeah, yeah, whatever, you're alive. But, I mean, I'm here. I'm still here, you know, And I don't want to take that for granted. I want to celebrate that. So today I'm celebrating the fact that I'm here. I still get to fight. I still get to dream. I still get to push. I still get to do what I can to be the best version of myself. I still have another chance. I have another opportunity. I have a fresh 24, like a. Like a basketball player. So I'm grateful. I'm going to treat it like the gift that it is, and that's something that I'm grateful. I'm grateful for my family, my husband and I, we've been married for 14 years. It will be 15 years in two months. And it's been a fun ride, really been a great ride. We're better friends than, you know, when we first met. We have a much better, better marriage than when we started out. And I'm grateful for that. I'm grateful for my kids. I have four of them. You guys hear me talk about them a lot on. On the podcast, and they're four completely different individuals. They have their own strengths. My first is Cheta. She's. She's a little warrior. She had a congenital diaphragmatic hernia. She had surgery the day she was born. She's my little miracle baby. And she's been fine. She left the hospital after nine days. She truly was. Her story is really impressive. And she's a nurturer at heart. She's always been that way. I mean, I first noticed it when she was a year old. She's always been a nurturer. And sometimes she acts like my mom. Yeah. Sometimes she's. She makes sure I don't forget my lunch when I go. Go to work. And, you know, she'll do all kinds of stuff and almost look after me.

It's.

It's a gift, you know, that she has. And. And my son, Chidi, he's the second. And, you know, he's a. He's a boy. Boy. He's a boy. And he likes that goofy and all that, but he really is like an old wise soul. You know what I mean? Really old. I think one of these days I'll get him on the podcast. Really old. And he listens to a lot of, you know, motivational speakers and stuff like that. So sometimes when he says something, you're like, gol, where did you come up with that? You know, how did you come up with that? But he's a wise old soul. And my third is Chi Chi. And, you know, she's bold and fearless. Like, doesn't know that she's the third kid. She probably thinks she's the first. And she will make her voice heard. And she's funny, too. Her teacher is like, you know, my fourth teacher was like, you know, I want to meet your mom. She's like, you don't know my mom. My mom is Dr. Una of Entre MD. You should Google her. That's my child. Okay, so she's bold and fearless, and she runs the show. She thinks the show is just for her. She runs the show. And then my fourth is Esther. And Esther is. She's like a natural born leader, and she's willing to try stuff, and she thinks nothing can stop her. And in fact, when she was in pre K, her complaint every day was, this is fake work. There's no way. This is real work. This is fake work. Can someone put me in a real class with real work? That's Esther for you. But so there's so much, you know, joy and laughter in my home. And. And I'm grateful for four of them. And I'm grateful for what I get to do as work. I mean, you know, I get to see kids for a living. You know, as a pediatrician, I still go into Steve patients, you know, the day a week. And I'm grateful that I get to be the CEO of my pediatric practice. And I can do all kinds of creative things. We have a podcast, and we can do that. And, you know, we have some other fun projects coming up, and we can do all kinds of stuff, and, you know, we can innovate any way we want. It's so cool. I'm grateful I get to be the founder of Entre md, where it's all about helping doctors. It's all about you. You know, you're listening on this podcast. This is. This is all for you. This is all to empower you so you can build a profitable business, so you can live life, so you can practice medicine on your own terms, so you can get in the driver's seat of your career so you can build your own table or at least get to the head of the table even if you didn't build it. And it's been my honor to do this. I get so excited about this. And you know, I'm grateful for the podcast. I'm grateful for the business school. I mean the business school has had me in tears many times. Happy tears to watch people launch private practices and launch their own brands and, and take steps they've never taken before. And it's, is just too good. It's too good. And I'm, and I'm honored that I get to do that. And you know, my one on one clients, I just love working with them. It's, it's, it's been so good. It really has my health. I've been in the best shape of my life. I, you know, recently taken up fitness to another level, you know, has me really uncomfortable. But I'm doing it and I'm grateful that I can do it and I'm grateful I'm doing it now because if I'm going to stay here long enough, I have to take care of my earth suit, you know, that's what we call our bodies. But because if I don't, then I have to leave. So I'm, you know, I'm grateful for that. I'm grateful for health and it's been great. It has been. And after the gratitude, the next thing I do is I talk to the 90 year old version of me. You know, if you're a listener on the podcast, you've heard me talk about this a lot and I Talked to the 90 year old version of me. And the reason why I do that is, you know, I want to keep things in perspective. I want to stay focused. We live in such a noisy world. I mean, think of it, you wake up, you know, first things first, there's your phone. And it's not just a phone, it's a device that connects you to the billions of people on planet Earth, right? So you have email, you have social media, you have people texting, you have. All this kind of stuff is so much noise that is so easy to be busy doing nothing. Like nothing that will matter in the grand scheme of events. So I hang out with the 90 year old version of me quite a bit and that's just to stay focused. That's to, you know, stay on track. And so I had a conversation with the 90 year old version of me and I believe if I could sit with her, there five things that she would tell me. And I wanted to share those with you. And I think the 90 year old version of me, the version I talked to, is the version that accomplished everything she was supposed to do, right? Like all the, you know, you're not supposed to do everything, but you're wired to do certain things. The 90 year old version of me did it all. Did it all. She literally looks back at me and said, girl, we did it. Like, we did it. And from that point, I think she would tell me a number of things. One of the things I think she'll tell me is don't be afraid. In the end, we won. In the end, we did it at night. You won't care about all those fears. I think it was, it may have been Joyce Meyer who said, you know, when, you know, when you're in your 20s, you think everybody's, you care what everybody thinks about you. And then when you get to your 40s, that you don't care what people think about you anyway. And then you get to your 60s and you really realize nobody was thinking about you. You know, like nobody was thinking about you in the same ways. I think in your 60s and 70s, you realize those fears, it wasn't real. Like, I could have done those things. You know what I mean? Like, I could have, I could have done it. I could have said yes to starting that business. I could have said yes to making my marriage a masterpiece. I could have said yes to all this stuff, to writing that book, to starting that podcast, to doing that first video, for asking for a promotion, for to say yes to a position. Like, I could have just, I could have just done that. I could have done it. Like, why did I let my fear stop me? I never wanted, I don't want to think that at 90, I want to say at 90, like, I'm so glad I didn't let my fear stop me. So I think she'll say, don't be afraid. Say yes to your dreams. And you know, I have dreams in every aspect of my life. But as far as what I do with Entre MD my dream is to help 80,000 doctors learn to build profitable businesses and get back the control. My dream for this year, the next 12 months is to amplify, amplify the doctors in my world, like, help them win. I tell them in the business school all the time, like, I'm here to help you win. I want to see you build a successful business. I want you to see you scale your business beyond what you thought you could do. I am here to help you win. That's my agenda. And that really is my agenda. That's what I'll be celebrating my next birthday. Like all the mind blowing results that people got. And I'm saying yes to that. I'm saying yes to all of that. And I'm not going to be afraid. I mean, fear is going to come, but I'm not going to let it stop me. I think the second thing she'll tell me is you have to build your social capital. Now this is something that I've worked on, but it's not an area of strength per se for me yet. But I think she'll tell me like, I know you know this, your network is your net worth, but I need you to know it at a higher dimension. I need you to really lean into that, tap into that, because people will make all the difference. And I think she would say you need to build, you know, your social capital on all sides. So there are relationships I need to build with people who are ahead of me, who would help me with what I'm trying to accomplish, who would show me the way, who would be my shortcuts to success. Right. I need to insert myself in those people's worlds. And over the last 12 months, I had the privilege of building relationships with some really impressive people. And those relationships transformed my life. They gave me speed that I didn't know I had. They helped me go further, faster. They opened my eyes to possibilities. It was huge. And that's something I need to work on. And the other kind of relationship will be like, you know, my colleagues, people who are in it with me and who are trying to build their own businesses and, and I can be support for them. I can help them. I could give them resources that I have, I can give them encouragement because being an entrepreneur, they're bumps. You know, it's lovely to have someone who has your back and you can call and say, man, like, you know, this day kind of went kind of weird. And someone who can say, no, no, no, no, you got this. Okay? You've been, this is not your first rodeo. You've done this before. And to have that, it's amazing. And the third kind of relationship would be people who I would help become the best version of themselves. And, and I mean, like helping people just win and helping open doors for them and creating collaborations and all that kind of stuff to help them. And I try. I sometimes think of, you know, life, because life here is going to end, you know, So I kind of think of it like being on the Titanic and Someone who's on a higher level is grabbing somebody el who's on a lower level, and that person on a lower level is grabbing the person beneath him. Like, we just need to help each other win. And so I think she'll say, yeah, you need to focus on building social capital. And the third thing I think she would say to me is winning is simple, and you win by helping other people win. I think this is Zig Ziglar, you know, that had the quote that you can succeed if you, if you help other people succeed, you can have everything you want if you help people get what they want. And. And if I destroy that quote, it's something like that. But the bottom line is winning is simple. Winning is simple. You just have to create wins for others. And, you know, I started working on that, you know, the second half of last year, where I started really focusing on helping people win. And that's my driving force, is helping people win, helping. And if I can do that, then my winning is taken care of, you know, so with, you know, for instance, the people in the, in the entremde business school, my agenda is to help them win because their win is my win, you know, and then that way I can just focus on that. If you're a listener to the podcast, I put a lot in it, and it's because I want you to win. I want you to be able to experience mindset shifts. I want you to be able to take action that would transform your business or transform your life. I want you to be able to take up your place as an intrapreneur and rock your personal brand. I want you to do that. And if I can help people win, then I win. The fourth thing I think she'll tell me is to have a laser focus. Laser, Laser focus. Don't get distracted in the grand scheme of events. Think about it. If I. If I have Netflix binges and I'm not, I mean, I have Netflix, okay, so. And I watch certain shows, so I'm not saying not watch it at all, but when you're binging, when you have a dream you're supposed to be chasing, then you're not focused, right? When you're busy, you know, the kind of busy work you create because you're really procrastinating. Like, you know, you need to make this call for a collaboration or call, or you need to ask somebody to work with you, and instead of that, you start making lead magnets and tweaking website and picking out new paint for your office and all this stuff. You appear busy, but you know that you're doing all of the wrong things. The one thing you're supposed to do, you're not doing it. And I think she would say be laser focused. Be focused on where you're going and keep your eyes on the price and go there. I think that's what she would say. And, you know, it goes in line with, you know, my words for, for this year, My words for this year, it's simplify and maximize. Like, simplify, get all the fluff out, get all the extra stuff out. Just simplify and maximize. I think she'll say stay laser focused. Don't let things distract you. Don't let difficulties even distract you. Don't let people speaking bad about you distract you. Keep your eyes on the prize. Kind of like what we did in med school, right? Keep your eyes on the prize. I think she would say that, and I think the last thing she would say is keep the main thing, the main thing. I love being an entrepreneur. I never knew I would. I love being an entrepreneur. I love creating, I love helping. I love coaching. I love watching people win. I love all of it. And there's a legacy that's going to come from that. There's a richness to life that's going to come from that. And that's wonderful. But there are also other things, though, right? For me, my relationship with God is one of the main things. And I have to keep the main thing, the main thing. My family is one of the main things. And I have to keep the main thing, the main thing. I cannot build a company at the expense of my family. My health is one of the main things. You know, I had a mentor who would say, you know, your body's, your Earth suits, just like, you know, an astronaut. An astronaut needs a spacesuit to stay in space. You need an Earth suit to stay on Earth. And if you don't take care of it, you have to leave. And I have to pay attention to it. I have to pay attention to what I eat. I have to pay attention to. I'm staying physically active. I have to pay attention to managing stress and all of that stuff so that my body can. Can be healthy for the long run. And I need to keep those in perspective. And, you know, I have some strategies and stuff like that, but I need to. So I think these are the things she would tell me. I think so. She'd say, don't be afraid. Build your social capital. Help people win. Keep a laser focus and keep the main thing, the main thing. So Those are my reflections on that. And on this day, on my birthday, my commitment is to do just that. My commitment is to keep the main thing. The main thing. My commitment is to keep a laser focus. My commitment is to not be afraid to just say yes to my dreams and go for it. And if any of this resonated with you, I invite you to take it and run with it. I think this is good advice for anyone, anybody, and just take it and run. And I'm committed to see you win. I want you to be committed to see you win. And there's no telling what we can do. I know that as doctors, we live in a very weird space. And I don't know, I never thought, you know, it would look the way it looks now. But the point is, you. You're in control, though, and you can take back the steering wheel and you can get back in the driver's seat and you can get to the head of the table. You can build your own table. You're not trapped. You're not. I mean, the circumstances are there, but you can create your own. You can create your own stuff, and I'd love for you to commit to do just that. So these are my thoughts. I just wanted to take you behind the scenes. Like I said, this is not a traditional episode, and I just wanted to share that with you. And if this resonated with you in any way, I just want you to take a screenshot and I want you to, you know, post it on social media and tell me happy Birthday or whatever. That would be great. And I would say the next 12 months are going to be amazing. And you can agree that they'll be. It will be amazing for you, too. And, you know, let's just go do this stuff. Let's go take back control. Let's live out our dreams. Let's live lives that are meaningful and fulfilling and satisfying. And a year from now, we can be celebrating a completely different reality. So thank you for listening to my reflections on my birthday, and I will see you guys on the very next episode of the EntreMD podcast. Hey, if you love listening to the Entre MD podcast, I want to invite you to join Entre MD on demand.

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