How to Identify Opportunities in the Midst of a Crisis

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'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. Welcome to another episode of the Entre MD podcast. Super excited to be in your ears and thank you so much for listening. And we're going to have an amazing, amazing time. So listen, I have been thinking about what's been going on with the pandemic, and it is so many changes. I think in 2020 we thought we were pivoting, but in 2021 we're kind of pivoting by default. That, you know, that's kind of the change that we're having. And I've been thinking a lot about, okay, this is a crisis. You never waste a crisis. What are the opportunities in this crisis? And I kind of was like, you know what? I'm going to hit record and I'm going to share with you my thoughts, my thought process. I hope you get a lot out of it and it just will help you look at challenges and crises and all of these a little, a little differently. So I remember traveling. Many of you guys know I lost my dad in June, and I went to Nigeria in July for his funeral. And I remember getting to the airport and I mean, it was like a gazillion people. Now the Atlanta airport is pretty busy. But I had never, in all the years I've lived here, seen it as busy as it was. And it turned out that there had been over 3,000 flights. So this is American Airlines and Spirit Airlines. 3,000 flights canceled over the course of two or three days. And so I was like, that is so crazy. Now there are so many things. It was a perfect storm. There were so many reasons why there were so many canceled flights, but it turned out that hundreds, hundreds of these flights were canceled because of staff shortage. I need you to conceptualize this. Hundreds of flights were canceled because they did not have the staff. And I was like, this is so crazy. And I had read about this resignation economy, right? Like, there's never been the amount of staff turnover. I mean, I've never experienced it there. It's never been so difficult to recruit a hire. And I. Of course, there's so many reasons for that. I mean, one is that people, you know, the pandemic hit, they're like 10 years from retirement. They're like, forget it, we'll just retire early. There have been people who stayed at home with the kids, homeschooling them for a year, decided, I'd like this. I'm not going back to work. There are people who try their hands at different things and they're like, you know what? I like this new thing that I do. So I'm not going back to my old industry. And of course there's unemployment, right? So there's just like so many reasons why. And I was like, that's crazy. And in the beginning, I thought, well, we're experiencing this a lot in the medical landscape. But then realized it was a global phenomenon. And so I was like, wow, that's crazy. And then last week, last week I went to the Panda Express by my house and I saw the most bizarre sign. First of all, we get there, this is a Sunday. This is a Sunday afternoon. So it's busy, right? This is peak time for them. And they're right across from a Chick Fil A. Chick Fil A doesn't open on Sunday. So this is peak, peak, peak time for them, right? There are no cars. There are no cars. No cars. I'm like, wait a minute, what's going on? And then we look at the sign. It says, no cook, no food. Sorry. Panda Express was closed because they had no cook. And I'm going like, wait a minute, this is a franchise. There's another panda express a 15 minute drive away. I am sure they called them and say, hey, do you guys have Anybody extra who could come cover for us? I'm sure they asked. They had to shut it down. So I'm thinking, okay, so for the other staff, do they pay them? Since it's not their fault that they had to shut down, so they lost all the revenue for that day, and they, quote, unquote, lost the revenue to pay the staff who it's not their fault that they couldn't work and stuff like that. I mean, I don't know. These are just my thoughts. I was like, this is so crazy, right? And so in the medical space, I mean, private practices and Facebook groups with many, many private practice Facebook groups, and they're hurting, like, no mas. So now the doctors are the ones giving the shots for, like, pediatrics and stuff like that. I mean, like, so crazy people saying, I have never had any problems with staffing, HR, all of that, in 20 years. But now I can't keep them. Some other person, like four people resigned today. It's like so insane. Okay? And maybe there are many reasons, okay? But the bottom line is then how do you think in the midst of a crisis, what do you do? And so I started thinking. I was like, okay, well, we have a problem, and this is a global problem. And this is a really big problem for private practice. So how do I identify the opportunities that are present in a crisis? Right? So what is a business? A business is an entity that solves a problem in a profitable way. That's what a business is. Right? And what are we having in this pandemic era? Problems. Lots of problems. And so what is something else? We could call them opportunities, right? They're opportunities. They're business ideas. That's what they are. Now, when you're in the middle of it, it hurts. It doesn't feel that way. But, you know, sometimes I take a walk and I think about these things. So here I'm just sharing my thoughts with you. Okay? So just roll with me. This is going to be a ride. It's going to be a really fun episode. So I started thinking, I was like, okay, well, what are the ways we can solve this problem? The problem is a staff shortage. Let me use private practice as an example. It's a shortage of staff, the medical assistants, front desk, billers, that kind of stuff. I started thinking, well, if we're having that problem, that means all the private practices in the US A lot of them are having this same problem, and that's a huge market. What if we developed a matchmaking service? Kind of like Fiverr right now. Why does Fiverr work. Why does Fiverr work Fiverr? If you don't know what it is, you can check it. It's f I v e-r r.com Fiverr is kind of a place that is like a marketplace for freelancers, right? So you can go there, you can hire someone to maybe edit your podcast, or you can hire someone to write you a blog, or you can hire somebody to set up your kajabi. You can hire a virtual assistant. You can hire somebody to do your slides. You just send them the words, they do the slides. You can hire all kinds of stuff on Fiverr. Okay? Now why does Fiverr work? Fiverr works because, and this is me looking from the outside, okay? I don't work for Fiverr. I don't know anybody. I don't know the owners of Fiverr. But it works because there's a rating system, right? So if you use someone's services, you can give them five star, four star, two star, whatever. So people tend to be of their best behavior because they want those good reviews, right? So that's on one side. Why else does Fiverr work? Well, Fiverr works as well because they're a middleman, right? So you don't pay the freelancer directly. The money goes through Fiverr. So if they don't deliver, Fiverr hangs onto their money, right? And you can get a refund and all those kind of things. So it's kind of monitored, if you will. Right? And it also works because of the amount of people who use it. So if somebody goes on Fiverr, well, they want to leave a good impression because it gives them access to all these people who use Fiverr, right? So say you have a million entrepreneurs who use Fiverr. If you go on there and you annoy 10 people and get 10 one star reviews, then what you've automatically done is you set yourself up so you have these 10,000, you know, these 1 million people that you can't serve because you messed up, right? And so because of that is controlled, you know, people tend to do a better job than they would have done if you were, you know, working with them directly and all this stuff. And I said, what if you made a Fiverr type model for medical assistance and front desk, right? So let's say I'm in Georgia. So let's say in Georgia we had something like that. We built an audience. So almost all, you know, like, let's say 80% of the private practices would look to this, you know, let's call it the Front DeskMatchMaker. Okay, dot com. Okay, so let's say they would look here first if they wanted to get someone from that front desk, a biller, a medical assistant. Let's say we had 80% of private practices who are active users on this platform, right? So what that means is, well, if you're an MA and you get hired through there, well, you want to do a good job because you want to have a good rating, because if you mess up, then that means these 80, this whole 80% people, they're not looking at you. You know what I mean? And so what if we did that? And that could be a company on its own. So what if instead of complaining about this, I created it? Right? TheMediaCityMatchMaker.com, whatever. Okay, I'm totally making this up. I'm just telling you guys what I'm thinking. So that's one business, right? That's one business that could come out of this. And if I did that, the beautiful thing about it is I would never lack for staff, right? Because I get to cherry pick. Okay, all right, so. And you can even have cool things like, you know, when you're searching for a new MA or a new front desk person, you can actually search by, you know, you know, four stars or higher, you know, just like any other website. But anyway, that's one thought. So if I'm having that problem, what. What's another business that could come out of it? Well, I mean, there are virtual assistants everywhere, and now they're healthcare virtual assistants. And what if I created a company like that and I got, you know, hellorich has a model like this, and there are a number of other companies that have models like this. And I would get nurses from other countries and we would just outsource the jobs. Like if we can't find anybody to do it in the office, well, can I get somebody remotely who could answer the phones, who could send referrals, who could do prior authorizations, who could confirm appointments, who could answer some portal messages. So not clinical stuff, but, you know, could I get that? The answer is yes. So what if I created a company like that? Of course, first of all, I would never laugh because I can always cherry pick, right? I could always cherry pick, but there's such a ripe market for it because everybody's like, oh, my goodness, I cannot find staff for my office. Well, that won't fix the medical assistant problem, but it will fix the front desk problem and it will fix the admin problem. That's something that I could do. So that's number two. That's a whole second company, right? Number three, I could say, okay, well, why don't I go back to my practice and why don't I work with, rework the workflow so that we require less staff, right? I could make that an experiment. I could use my practice as the prototype, right? And I can say, okay, I have a whole human being managing faxes. Like the faxes come in, they link them in the chart and all that stuff. Is there a fax company that is integrated with my ehr, so it comes and can go straight to the chart? Is that there? Because if that's there and then I can reduce the manpower I require by that much, right? If I'm needing to have my staff manually put in vaccines, like manually put in the lot numbers and all of those stuff. Well, can I use a barcode scanner? If I use a barcode scanner, then they can get my mas. Can get more done in less time. Because now they're not requiring that time to manually put those things in. Instead of having the patients come into the office and someone has to have them forms, and someone has to take the forms back and have to review them, then scan them to the chart, then attach them to the patient. Well, what if I can have them do those forms online? So two days before their appointment, they get those forms at home, they fill it, it comes into office in their chart. And so that takes away an extra dependent on patient five to 30 minutes in the office filling out forms and all that. Because that's already done, right? If I have a live person doing reminder calls, well, can I have it automated? Where I can have automated text message reminders going out before the appointment. And maybe phone calls are only made for the people who didn't confirm through the text system. Could I do that? Right? Can I use online scheduling? Right. Can I use, you know, in my office we do, you know, it's pediatrics, we do ear piercings as well. And it used to be people would come into the office. Well, first of all, they'll call with all these questions, Then they will schedule their appointment. Then we'll have to call them to confirm their appointment and when they come in, then we'll have to collect all the payments and all of that. I was like, this doesn't make any sense, right? So we gathered all the questions they would ask and we created frequently asked questions and we put it on the website. And then we picked up an online scheduler we used calendly. And we also had them in a way that they can't schedule the Appointments without making their payment. So guess what? You no longer got the calls or the questions because the answers were on the website. We no longer had to. I needed staff time to make those appointments because they made them. We no longer had to collect money from them when they came into the office because that was already done before they made the appointment. And we didn't have to do call reminders because the system will send them out a reminder. Do you see what I mean? And that made all of that so much more efficient. So what if I went and I did that all over my practice, where now maybe something that required 3fte now requires 2. So guess what I did. I got the equivalent of getting a new ma. Does that make sense? Because I took away the whole thing that one whole person will need to do. And if I did that, then guess what? That becomes a new business. Because now I can consult and tell practices. This is how you can revamp your practice, make it more efficient and more profitable. Right? And you'll need less staff, which is huge. So that's a 3 3rd business, right? That's a third business. And then I could also say, well, you know what? I was thinking of scaling my primary care practice the way it is, but what if with this whole staffing thing, that I started paying attention to a new vehicle, a new. Not new vehicle, new vertical, right? Or a new way of doing things. I know a lot of psychiatrists, they went all telemedicine. Well, for the most part, telemedicine. And a lot of them are like, we're not going back, right? Because what do I need? What do I need for my telemedicine? I need one virtual va, right? And I need a biller. If I take insurance, if I don't take insurance, I need one va. I mean, I need one. That's it. Done. Boom, done, right? If you're a pediatrician and you heard about the ear piece and piece, and you're like, man, I want to add that, well, that's a new vertical that doesn't require the same amount of medical manpower. You see what I'm saying? So the question is, is there something else? Instead of growing my primary business model, is there a second vertical I can do? Use and grow that because the staffing requirement is not as high, right. If I can do that, well, it's not necessarily a new business, but it is. It's a new business within a business. It is multiple streams of income in one business, right? So if you think about it, well, what we just did is we looked at what some will consider a problem. And we have created four options for businesses, right? Because problems are opportunities. So the question becomes, well, which one do you want to do? You know, which one do you want to do? What do you want to do? And it just makes you look at things differently. And so, for instance, in my practice, I'm looking at things differently, and I'm like, what do I do to the workflow to make it more efficient? And are there things that I can outsource? And you best believe that I'm going to be experimenting with that. I'm going to outsource. Are there new verticals I should look at? And you best believe I'm looking at them. And that's just the way I look at things when a crisis shows up, okay? And so I took you backstage, and, you know, when I'm done with it, I'll tell you what I did. But this is just the way I think about those things. And I want to invite you to see it that same way. When you see crises, just go like, okay, what is the opportunity here? What is the thing I need to learn here? This is here. There's no point resisting it. There's no point wishing we could go back. I hear people say, go back. Go back where? We are never going back, ever. You know what I mean? That is the world. The world has changed too dramatically for us to ever go back. That's never happening, right? So don't resist reality. You're here, but the question is, you could. The thing is, you can make a decision. I'm going to thrive. This is going to turn out well for me. This is going to be great. That's a decision that you can make. So you make the decision. Then you ask yourself, okay, what do we need to do? What do we need to tweak? What opportunity? Like, I'm so grateful that I have the opportunity to go back and look at my practice and look at all the workflows, all of it, and go, like, what is inefficient? What needs to come out? What is something we do that takes 30 minutes, but with technology, it can take five hours? Like, I'm literally going with a fine tooth comb and I'm combing through all our processes, and this is a blessing. Of course, it's work, but it's a blessing. And maybe if we didn't have all this stuff going on, maybe I would have done it. Maybe I'd have done it two years from now. I don't know. But it's an opportunity, right? So look at the crises you're facing, whether that's at work or in your business, even at home. And you're like, what opportunity do I have in this? This doesn't mean we celebrate crisis. I mean, crises are crisis. They kind of hurt. But what is the opportunity? What is the opportunity? You may be having a crisis at work, and maybe this is your opportunity to go take inventory. Inventory of you. Like, what are the assets I have? What are the things I've learned? Who am I? Right? What positions me as a leader in the marketplace? What positions me as someone not to fire or someone 100% to hire? Right. Maybe it's your opportunity to look at that, and then you look at it. Right? So I don't know what it is. I'm just taking you behind the scenes so you can see how I think. And I want you to apply this thinking. I understand that these are challenging times, and I just want to say we can do this. Okay? We can do this. If you think about your journey to becoming a physician, you did a lot of hard things, you went through a lot of hard times, and you came out on top. And this is not going to be any different. And I'm not saying that to say there's nothing going on. Of course there are things going on. Of course times are a little difficult, but you can do this. All right? And I'm rooting for you. Okay? I'm rooting for you. I just want you to change the way you think about it. So don't resist reality. Don't complain. Observe. Look at what the problems are, flip them, and look at them as opportunities. And then ask yourself, how am I going to take advantage of. Of this opportunity? Okay. Yay. So that's what I wanted to share with you. I know it's a different kind of episode, but I figured this would be really great to share with you, and if this made a difference, I want you to take a screenshot of this episode. I want you to post it on social media. I want you to say what you got out of it, and tag me Entre md. Okay, thank you so much for listening, and I will see you, my friend, on the next episode of the EntreMD podcast.

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Just head out to entremd.com forward/ondemand and I'd love to have you join us.

See you on the inside, Sam.