How I Reinvented Myself and Built My Dream Private Practice with Dr. Cheruba Prabakar

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. 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. Umna. Well, hello. Hello. Welcome back to another episode of the On Tremd podcast. And you are in for a treat because I have Dr. Shiruba Prabhaka here and my goodness, we're going to have. She's had a phenomenal journey as an entrepreneur and I'm so grateful that she's here to share it with you. So, Dr. Shruba, welcome to the show.

Thank you so much. Dr. Ona, it really is a pleasure and an honor to be here. Thank you so much.

Yeah, and likewise. Likewise. Okay, so I'm going to give you a moment to introduce yourself to the listeners so they know why I'm so excited that you're on the show today.

Yes. So I am Dr. Cheruba Prabhakar and I'm a board certified OB GYN and also a minimally invasive surgeon. And I trained the east coast in New York and then met my husband, moved out here to the west coast and started practice in a big employed institution. As a lot of the job opportunities out here were like that and, you know, things were great for quite a few years. I learned a lot, I saw a lot, met great people, and after about five years, you know, I Started feeling like, this, this can't be it. Like, you know, this is it. Like, oh, I'm just. I'm still so young in my career. There's gotta be more. I mean, the practice of, you know, the patients and the medical aspect is fine, but, gosh, I'm really not having that much control over my schedule and my life and, you know, things. There's. There's gotta be something more. And so I started searching for that. And it took me a couple years to kind of, you know, figure out what I wanted to do. But then I. Then I finally opened my doors in fall of 2022 to my own private practice.

Yikes. Okay. And. Oh, man.

So.

So let me ask you this, though. Did you ever plan to open a practice?

You know, when I went to medical school, that was actually my dream. And that's what I thought I would do. I would finish my medical training, open up our own practice. And that's the model that I saw around me. And even in residency, I did my OBGYN residency in New York, and I saw a lot of private pract groups of two, three, you know, sometimes larger, six, seven. And I was like, okay, you know, this is kind of what I'm going to do. But interestingly, when I came out here to the West Coast, I looked around and I didn't see those models of practice anymore. And I think that could be a geographical difference as well as kind of the times are rapidly changing and a lot of practices were being bought up by big, you know, kind of corporate medical entities. And so when I was looking for my first job, I couldn't find those groups of two or three or six. It was all these, you know, join this big institution, joins the corporation. And so I thought, okay, well, I mean, I guess this is my first job. And, you know, I didn't. I didn't really know any better. And I was like, well, I need experience. Let me just, you know, get started. And then the more I. As time went on, I realized that there were, you know, maybe two or three small practices, but they were also being rapidly absorbed by the big institutions. So this dream of opening a practice was kind of fleeing away from me, so to speak. You know, I thought, maybe there's a way I could make it happen. But then I sort of, you know, resigned to the fact that, okay, I guess, you know, that's just never going to be for me.

Yeah. Wow. So. So opening your doors really is like a dream come true. Like, it's not. It is what it is. It's a dream come true.

Yeah, it really is. This is how I saw myself. And then I. In the intervening years, I didn't think was possible, and certainly it wasn't possible for me because, you know, I don't have any connections. I don't have a parent, you know, as a practice who can hand off a practice to me or anything like that. So even if it was possible in my mind, I couldn't do it. It wasn't for me. And there's no way I could pull that off, you know.

Wow.

Yeah. Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

So. So where was the turning point? Right? So you moved to the West Coast. You have the job you're doing that you'd even gotten to a point where you're like, there must be more. But you thought that for a year or two years, at what point did. Did the switch start? Did the switch go on?

Yeah. So. And I think in 2020, during the pandemic, I think a lot of people were reevaluating what they wanted to do, including myself. And I started reaching out to. To other people who had private practices again in this area, there were only a handful, and many people just discouraged me. And they were like, I don. You know, it's really hard these days, and this and that. And then I. The summer of 2021, I joined the entre mt business school. And, you know, I saw examples of people doing it. You know, I saw examples of doing people doing private practice and more. And I was like, huh, you know, if it's possible for them, maybe it's possible for me. And I think that was the switch for me and getting that kind of coaching and really, in real life, seeing other women physicians killing it out there and creating the practice of their dreams. And I said, you know, I have the desire. I know I have what it takes, so why not me? And so then my whole narrative started turning, and I started, instead of saying, like, well, there's no way that can be me, I started saying, how can that be me? And I spent the next year figuring that out, and it was extremely scary, but I did it, and I opened my doors. October 2022.

Okay, so there's so much to unpack here. But there is something about seeing examples, right? Like, real life examples. That's part of why you're on the podcast. So somebody listening could go, like, wait a minute, right? So this is not a theory. This is not someone who fell from the sky. This is a doctor like me. And they did what? Right? And so the power of an example, right? Which means Two things, really. One is that we should do what you did, which is find a place where the examples of what is possible and insert ourselves there. You know what I mean? And then we should also aspire to be examples for someone else. Like there is somebody, Dr. Sharuba, who's going to go like, you know what? I never thought I could. And I listened to this episode of the Entremd podcast and Dr. Sharuba shared her story, and it occurred to me that I can switch from, oh, well, that can never be me to how can I?

Right?

And that was the, that was the statement that changed everything. So, so examples are so powerful. And I'm glad you put yourself in a room of examples and I'm glad you're being an example, you know.

Yes, that is so true. And I think, you know, when I first floated this idea, and we've talked about this before, but so many well meaning people, including my attending from residency, and other people are like, nah, that's not going to, oh, be careful, that's a bad idea. And, you know, they probably try to protect me from how they see medical practice today. But we know that things are rapidly changing. There are new ways to doing things. And so I essentially had to reinvent myself and put myself in a room where people were as forward thinking as I wanted to be and were even ahead of the curve than as I want it to be. And so, as you said, you know, seeing those real life examples, you know, being able to talk to them and say, hey, how did you do this? Like, you know, what, what do you think about this idea and having those examples and mentors with other physicians who have, you know, kind of risen against the odds. And, you know, I'm in the Bay Area, like I said, where private practice in the true sense is just not really existing anymore. And so it was even harder for me. I felt like I was really kind of pushing against gravity here, you know, compared to the east coast where I trained. So that was an additional thing. But, you know, I didn't, you know, let that stop me. I said, here are people who have done amazing things and I'm just in a different area, maybe in a different specialty or different field, but why not let me see how I can do it?

Oh, man, this is, this is good. Okay, now I'm going to take you back to something you said, because you said you came into the community, you found other people doing it, because when you came in, it wasn't quite at that point. We're working on the business before the Business, you're building out your brand as the fibroid doc and things like that. And you said it took you a year, you start asking the question, how can I? And it took you a year to when you now figured it out and then opened your doors. So how did you manage that year? Right, because sometimes in entrepreneurship people are like, you know, we want instant gratification. We want the results now. And there's some things that happen really quickly, there's some things that happen not as quickly, but at the end, they're all good. So how did you not quit over the year? How did you stay the course?

Yeah, that's a great question. I think that has been one of the hardest years for me, actually. You know, work was easy. I went in and I saw my 20, 25 patients, whatever, that was easy. But kind of balancing that security, you know, I had insurance for my job, for my family. I have three kids. You know, my husband runs a startup, so he is busy in himself. So, you know, I had to a lot of questions like, is this the right time? Like, is it really worth starting up something? And you know, facing a lot of these uncertainties at this time when we're in a busy part of our lives, you know, what would I do for medical insurance? You know, what if I can't make that kind of salary, you know, in the first few years, what are my backups? How do I start a practice? Right? Like I, you know, how. I don't know the first thing about that. Opening a business, bank account. You know, there's so many things I had to figure out. But, you know, as I learned in Ontario Business School, you know, we don't do overwhelm and we just. It's progress over perfection. So as you said, I first, the first few months, I just, you know, learned how to build my brand, to make videos, get out there. You know, as a very private person, never put myself on social media, but actually enjoy. I actually enjoy doing it. And I just kind of use that momentum to get going. Then I started YouTube channel, then I started doing podcasts. Then I talked to a lawyer to figure out, okay, how would this work? How would I open a practice?

What.

What kinds of funds do I need? Then I started talking to my husband about, you know, could we get on medical insurance from his job? What are the other types of backup revenue sources that I could have? Can I take some ER call? Can I take some OB call? So I just started working on one thing at a time, you know, and finally after about, you know, eight Months, I said, okay, still don't have all the pieces, but in order to move forward, I need to let my job know that I am leaving. And that was very scary. You know, call after call in the entrepreneur business school, I. I'd come on and people would be like, yay, I left my job. And I'm like, oh, I wish I was. I wish I was there. I wish, like, I, you know, had all the pieces. But, you know, I knew when the right time was and I had to give in my notice. And then I was able to free up mental energy and space to really work on what I wanted to do, which was start my practice. And so the next three or four months, I really started to, you know, figure out all those pieces. And when I opened my doors, I still didn't have everything figured out, but I had enough to see a patient, you know, write a note, keep my chart. You know, I was a solopreneur. I had no employees, but I had a phone number, I had a website, and that's it. And then every day I just. I just moved on and did a little bit more. And it's still a work in progress. But you know what? It's my fourth month in business. I'm seeing patients, and I'm doing it.

Oh, man. Okay, so. So this is so powerful because what you're describing is the. Is a process of not doing overwhelm. Right. Like, you feel the feelings, you know, all the things that needs to be done, but looking at all of them and saying, hmm, well, my next thing is this, and we're just going to do it one thing at a time. That is so good.

Right, Right. You know, I. I put a big. I put a big poster board on my. In my closet. I wrote down in little blocks all the things I had to do just to get, you know, get things open. And I just started checking things off, you know, one week at a time. And then I opened, and then you just kind of go with it. And I knew I had that community. I could quickly text somebody and say, oh, my gosh, I forgot all about this. Like, you know, how do I get employee insurance? And, you know, five people will respond. And so leaning on that community, you know, that back and forth was. Was so helpful rather than just me being. Trying to figure this all out on my own.

Yeah, I usually say there's no reward for doing it all on your own. Like, there's no special award. Like, you know, you did it all by yourself. So let's talk about the community piece. Right because there's one thing about being in the right community and there's another thing about leveraging the community. Right. And so if somebody is in a community, somebody listening is even in ebs. Right. What are the things that you've done? When I say take advantage, it sounds bad, right? But take advantage of the fact that you're in this community of a group of physicians in all kinds of businesses, at all stage of business and all of those things. How do you leverage that for business success?

Yeah. So, I mean, the first thing is I really show up to as many calls as I can, you know, at the live sessions. And if not, I listen to it, you know, right away. The next day I show up to the events, the live events. And that's, that's quite a bit, you know, coming all the way from the west coast, the east coast, finding childcare for three of my kids and, and all of that. But, you know, I plan it well in advance and I, and I make sure I'm there because it's, it's just magical and being able to talk to these doctors that I only see on calls and, you know, I can just get so much more information in 10 minutes than I would, you know, techn texting back and forth. So I definitely do that. And then I try to look at who I can speak to to answer that particular question that I need for that week. Because otherwise it's very easy to get overwhelmed and there's a lot of chats and a lot of side groups and it's very easy to be like, oh my gosh, I'm so behind. So I just say, okay, what is the one question I need to figure out this week? And let me see who's done it and let me like DM them, give them a call. And you know, the community is just so supportive and so that's sort of how done it. And it's been working really well. And at the same time it's been working. And at the same time I, you know, unknowingly, I've been helping other people. They're like, oh, that's exactly what I needed to hear. I'm so glad, like you, you did that. Can you tell me how you did it? And so it's a win, win all around.

I love it. I love it. And we're all about the win, win. Okay, so we are four months in practice. Talk to us. How is life on the other side of your decision?

Yeah, so I mean, I really, there's really no words. I mean, it is, it is a lot of work. It is some stress, of course, because it is my thing now. And no one's giving me a paycheck. I have to figure out how to. How to get that. But I was just telling my husband this week when we were out on a date, that I can't even recognize who I am this 2023. Like, the intentions that I have for this year, who I've become, the things I've accomplished not just in my business, but the skills that I have learned to start this business and run it have poured over to all other areas of my life. And that to me is, I mean, invaluable. Like, you know, how. How I. How I eat, how I exercise, how I spend time with my kids, how I prioritize things. So these are. These are things that, you know, I didn't know I was getting when I signed up, you know, but here. Here I am. And probably the best part is the control I have over my schedule. I mean, I'll be honest, if I know that I have to take my kids to a piano lesson. I end my day at 4:00, and no one's telling me that I have three more patients to see. None of that. It's all on me. And that's really invaluable.

So good. It's so funny. Okay, so for instance, in the entremity business school, we did our 2022 in review posts, like, you know, people just came out to talk about their wins over the year, lessons they learned, and all those things. And it's amazing how much our business stuff spilled over to our personal lives. Like, I just had a lot of fun watching that, because the thing about businesses, you know, like, you've experienced, you have the opportunity to serve a lot of people, you have the opportunity to earn and all of these things. And if I remember you correctly, you started making money from day one. People were swiping cards from day one. And. But it's almost like the most rewarding part ends up being the person you become.

Absolutely.

Is just the person you become in the process. And it does spill over, because the way you do one thing is the way you do everything. So it spills over to your entire life. And you just like, I like this version of me. Like, what else could I pull out of me?

Yeah, seriously. I mean, I think back to other new Years, and, you know, I think, like, as December 30, it would approach, I'm like, huh? I guess I should come up with a resolution for this year. You know, that's kind of how, you know, I was rolling. Not now, not now. You know, now I have it all planned out, you know, several weeks in advance. And I am hitting the ground running January 1st. You know, I'm not waking up thinking, what shall I do today? No, you know, I have it all planned out. And that's kind of how I approach life. And people look at me often. I think people looked at me even before and said, how do you do it all? You know, three kids, married, you know, you're involved in your church, you do all the activities, your doctor. You know, people ask that of me then, but, boy, they're not ready for. For me next year. Then.

They're not ready. They are not ready. Oh, my goodness. So what would you tell the doc who's where you were? Right? Like, so this is when you're just like, there's more. So that even uncertain, they may not even be crystal clear what more is. But maybe they don't know what next steps to take, or they know, but they're super scared. What would you tell that person?

Yeah, I think the first thing I would say is, you know, anything is possible. Like, your dream is possible and not just to look around you and say, well, no one's doing it, or it's never going to fly in this market. Or, you know, everybody's saying it's a bad idea. You know, if you really can't get it out of you, like it's, you know, you wake up every day with that thoughts stirring in you, like, you know, go for it. And the way you accomplish that is by, you know, if you're a physician, you're joining a community like the entrepreneur business school, where people have done probably what you want to do and more or something very similar and can really help you along that path. And I think, you know, people have said there's no shortcuts to life, but, you know, there is. Right? Like, EDS for me has essentially been a shortcut. I don't have to learn all these lessons over a period of years. So that's what I would say. You know, find yourself in a room where people are like you, where they're going to lift you up and not say, oh, that's not going to work, or be a downer. But again, be realistic. You know, people are going to give you real realistic advice. It's just not like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, anything is possible. But, you know, okay, here are the ways you can do it and, you know, here's what not to do. Like, give you, you know, Real, tangible advice. And so that's what I would say. And really, the sky is. The sky is the limit.

And if you're listening to the podcast, you should. You should come watch the video on YouTube because she's just lining up. She's like, the sky's the limit. And I. I think you're. I think you've hit that place where you start playing the infinity game. It's kind of like, so what else is here? What else. What else can I be? Like, what. What else is hidden on the inside of me?

Right?

And. And it becomes more fun, even though there are challenges and all of that. But you're like, this is exciting. Let. Let's do it.

Yes. Yes. I mean, I'm practicing medicine with a much more, I think with. And just knowing that I can serve my patients in very creative ways now because it's my own business. And, you know, I could have a masterclass one day, I could do a podcast another day. I could see a patient in the office one day. You know, however it is that I. That I want to reach patients. And so that is really exciting. And, you know, I was sharing my experience with EBS, with a physician who, you know, is in his 60s probably, and has had a practice, you know, all his life. And he was like, man, I wish I had that when I was starting out, you know, I had to learn everything through the school of hard knocks, you know, and he's like, yeah, every. Everything that you're learning is, like, spot on. But, you know, I wish I had had that. So I'm so glad I found the community, you know, when I did. And I'm just really excited to see what's. What's up for the. For this year.

Yeah, I'm excited too. I've been yelling from the rooftops like, this year is not ready, as I think some people think I'm kidding. But we'll see. This is so good. So good. So listen, if you are. If you're listening to this podcast episode and you're like, man, I want to build. I want to build a real business that will give me the freedom to live life, practice medicine on my terms, like I am committed to it. I want to do that. Ben, the Entre business school is almost custom made for you. Okay? So I want you to head over to entremd.com forward/business, go fill out an application. The team will meet with you and walk you through the details and all of that stuff, and if it's a great fit, we'll welcome you in if it's not, we'll be like, yeah, maybe this is not what you're looking for. So we're not trying to manipulate anybody into coming. But if you're like, this is what I want to do. I want to be in a room full of people like Dr. Shruba, then. Then EVS is for you. So entre md.com forward/business, Dr. Shiruba, where can people find you? And people listen for her Instagram, because you need to. You need to follow her. She's a.

Yes, she's a force of nature. So my Instagram, my handle, and my YouTube handle, both are the fibroid doc. T H E F I B R O I D D O C. And my practice is in Lafayette, California, in the Bay Area.

Love it, love it, love it. I can. I. I'm just rooting for you because this is gonna. This is gonna be really, really good. So everyone, thank you for. For listening. Dr. Shruba, thank you for coming on. And I want you to be a part of the change in medicine by sharing this episode with another doctor. Because you can never tell who's been there, is wanting to do more, has an idea where to start from, doesn't even know their options, doesn't even know that these things exist. And you will be the bridge that set that opens the door for all kinds of possibilities for that person. So share the episode and I will see you on the next episode of the EntreMD podcast. Hey, if you love listening to the EntreMD podcast, I want to invite you to join Entre MD 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 entremd.com forward/ondemand and I love to have you join us. See you on the inside.