Navigating The Negative Side of Business

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. Unna.

Hello, hello, hello. Welcome to another episode of the Entre MD podcast. Oh, my word. I am so excited that you're listening and of course, I want to tell you thank you for sharing and reviewing. That helps to get the word out there about the podcast. It really is changing lives. We are on a mission to help 80,000 physicians learn how to build profitable businesses so they can live life and practice medicine on their terms. And you, my friend, are really helping that movement. I appreciate it and I want to encourage you to continue to share with the doctors in your life. You never know. Okay, Now I want to talk to you about something today that will help you be a person who really enjoys the journey of being an entrepreneur. Now, being an entrepreneur, I think, is one of the. One of the hardest things out there, maybe one of the scariest things out there. And there are lots of challenges, but oh, my goodness, you can enjoy it, right? With the challenges, you can enjoy all of it. And we're going to look at the negative side of business. And trust me, this is a very positive episode. Okay, it sounds negative, but it's very positive, I promise. You know, so let's get into it. I remember this Was a year ago, I was speaking at a conference and the conference host was like, you know, if somebody tells me that's Dr. Uno over there and, and he looks at the person and the person is not smiling, he's like, there's no way that's Dr. Una. He's like, you're an amazing, positive person. And I was like, yeah, that is true. But there is a mindset that has made me that way and I want to share that with you. Okay, so before we do that, a few weeks ago, a few months ago, at the time of this recording, I got accepted into the Forbes Business Council. And I listen, I had never had it on my radar to have anything to do with Forbes. I was just like, oh, that's Forbes out there. That's amazing, right? And so when this happened, I was mind blown. I was like, this is so amazing. My name and Forbes in one sentence, right? That is just so crazy, so wild. And I'm very grateful, right, Because I'm like, this is amazing. And I had the opportunity to kind of, you know, contribute and all of that stuff. And so this, you know, a week ago, I'm at home, I open my email and I get, I see an email and it says, you're featured on Forbes. And I had forgotten that I contributed, right? I'm like, what featured on Forbes? What? What did I mean? And then I clicked in there and I saw this graphic. It's an expert panel kind of article. So the number of people made contributions to this article, it was about, you know, what to do when the old marketing tricks don't seem to be working anymore or strategies don't seem to be working anymore. And so they had this graphic with all the, all the experts that contributed to this article and yours truly was the first picture and my contribution was the first one. And I'm going like, this is so wild and crazy and cool at the same time. I just shut the email and left alone for an hour or so because I like, I don't know what to do with this, right? And so that was just amazing. And you know, first of all, which has nothing to do with what we're talking about today, but it did make me realize more and more the power of saying yes and taking little steps. I have never been a very big dreamer. I've been a dreamer, but not a very big dreamer. And I've had a lot of self doubt and I've had a lot of fears and insecurities. But one of my superpowers is I don't let the Fear stop me. Like, I feel the fear and I go ahead anyway. I feel like other people be like, what are you doing? And I do it anyway. I'm like, you might fall on your face, and I still do it anyway. I may not take the biggest, boldest steps, but, oh, I will be taking steps. And so it made me realize, like, you know, those little steps, they add up. They add up. You taking steps in the. In spite of fear. Like, the worst is just to sit and do nothing. But if even in spite of the fear, you'll take some steps, you'll do some stuff, you're uncomfortable, you'll say yes to some things that you normally say no to. If you can just do that, there's no telling where you find yourself, right? Okay, so that's the first thing. But so here I am enjoying all of that. Okay, I'm enjoying all of that. And the same day, I had a call from my office, and there's somebody who was supposed to start working in the office that we had prepared for months for, right? To fill up the schedule to get support staff to do credentialing, all of that. And she just sends an email and says, decide to take another offer. I'm not coming. And I'm quiet on purpose. So you can let that sink in. Two months of work, filling up the schedule in the midst of a pandemic, right? Because we are. I mean, we're pretty aggressive with marketing and doing all of that stuff, right? The pandemics has taught us we know what to do. And I was just like, the same day, so Forbes and someone backing out on a contract, a whole contract, but backing out on a contract on the same day. And I had two choices. I can decide to fall apart and say, this is not fair and this is crazy. I act out and do all the things, or I can decide it is what it is, we'll figure it out and then celebrate the good, right? Well, I took the second option and I was like, well, I mean, I'm not. Not going to celebrate Forbes, and I'm not going to be thrown off by somebody else's decision. I don't have control over that, right? I have control over what I do. So what am I going to do? What do I need to do? What do I need to do to make sure that my office is okay and the patients who are scheduled okay, and all this stuff. What do I need to do? Well, I need to start doing. And so if somebody watched me or listened to me or saw me, I was with me. They would never know something as potentially devastating as that had happened. And it's all based on. It's not denial of the challenges, but it's choosing to focus on the wins and the progress that's happening in spite of the challenges. If you've been in entrepreneurship for more than two seconds, you know there will always be challenges. We don't run out of those. Always be there. The question is, what do you choose to focus on? Right? What's your focus? So let's look at some things in the natural, right? Things that make sense to us. For instance, well, when a woman is pregnant, at the end of it, she's going to have the positive, a baby. And the negative, the process of having the baby called labor. She's not thrown off by labor. She knows that these two things go together. So we recognize them and embrace both of them, right? We don't fall apart because we're in labor, because we know that's the way to have a baby. Okay? Now, someone may have a son who's 25 who's, you know, healthy, wealthy, happy. That's a positive. But, oh, my goodness, you have to go through the terrible twos. You have to go through the teenage years. You have to go all of that to get there. Well, raising the kid is the quote, unquote negative. And then the child on the other side is the positive, right? I'll tell you something funny that happened. I saw a picture of a classmate of mine. We're classmates in elementary school, and it was a picture of her and her five children, okay? But I looked at the picture and I was like, oh, isn't that a beautiful family? And then I stopped and I was like, well, isn't that interesting? All her kids were like 18 and older. And the last one was maybe 8 or 9, right? And that's why I said, what a beautiful family. Right? Because if there were five kids under the age of eight, I was like, bless her heart, what was she thinking? And I have four children, so clearly I'm not judging here, but what was she thinking? Because I'm thinking of diapers. I'm thinking of terrible twos. I'm thinking of all these things, right? But they're grown. And I'm like, that's a beautiful family. And then it dawned on me. Most people don't have problems with five children. We just don't want to birth them and change the diapers and do all this other stuff, right? So it's positive and negative. So you see somebody, you know, if I have a six pack that's the positive. Well, the working out is the negative. And both of them kind of go hand in hand. I'm a pediatrician. Someone comes up to me, my child has an ear infection. I'm like, here's a prescription for amoxicillin. And I tell them ahead of time, this may give you diarrhea, may give you diarrhea, but it's going to fix the ear, though. So the, the ear infection being resolved is a positive, the diarrhea is the negative. You embrace them both. When you first came out as an attending, you're attending job, your first real job with real dollars, right? Because residency dollars are like, I don't know, but real dollars. And that's the positive. Now don't worry about where we are and all that kind of stuff, Right? Not talking about that, but your excitement. First paycheck is intending, then the 80 hour work weeks throughout residency. Well, that's the negative. You see what I'm saying? Like, so just recognize it's part of it. So I give the example of the, you know, the person who walked away on her contract. Well, the thing is, in business, you're going to build a team. And if you're going to build a team is made up of people and people. That's all. I'll leave it at that. Okay. All right, so let's talk about some of the negatives that it's part of business. Don't get thrown off with, thrown off by it when it happens. Just, you know, troubleshoot and do what you can do and keep it moving. But choose to focus on the positive. Choose to focus on the progress you're making in spite of it. So let's look at a few of those negatives. So number one, people telling you no. Why are people not making offers? Why are people not saying, come work with me. Why are people not charging what they think they should charge? People are afraid of people saying no. And a lot of times that's because we make no. We make that mean something's wrong with me, something's wrong with my offer. Nobody wants to work with me, nobody wants to be part of my practice. Nobody. We make all these stories up. It's a numbers game. Like literally, if you talk to salespeople, they know if you're starting out as a salesperson, your conversion ratio will be about 10%. So which means for every hundred people you talk to, 10 will say yes, 90 will say no. The salesperson knows 90. 90 people will say no. And they sign themselves up for that every single day. It's a numbers game. So, right, so if someone tells you no, you're like, next, right? Because I've had one no, I'm closer to my one that's going to say yes. And they know that, you know, the better salespeople, they have about a 30% conversion. So if they have a 30% conversion, that's great. But what that means is for every 100 people they talk to, 70 or 70 are going to say no. It's a numbers game. So if you're not hearing enough no's, it's not. Is because you're not telling people to come work with you. You're not telling people to come join your practice. You're not telling people to buy your product. You're not telling them. If you're telling them, you will hear a lot of no's. And that's okay because it's part of it is the negative side. But it doesn't need. I mean, like, we don't need to make it negative. It's just something that happens and it's okay. It's part of the process. You know what I mean? Like, how many med schools do you apply to? How many residency programs did you apply to? How many job interviews did you go to? Is all a numbers game. This is all numbers, okay? So that's number one. What's the second thing? Negative reviews. Okay, listen, the first time I got my negative review on my private practice, which was like my brand new baby, I almost died. I was sad for days. Well, two days. But I was sad maybe a day and a half, but I'm so sad. And it was a false. I mean, like, oh, my goodness. Well, anyway, so negative reviews, what are the odds? What are the odds that you'd own a business that doesn't have any negative reviews? I can tell you there is no chance, no chance whatsoever, okay? Because if you look at the companies that do so well, guess what? They have negative reviews too, okay? Disney, the Happiest Place on Earth has 4.7 stars, okay? And they have tons of negative reviews. Tons of times, like, don't go there. It's the worst place ever. Disney, Apple has tons and tons of negative reviews, okay? I mean, they have a lot more positive ones, but they still have negative ones. And so if you look at that and you're like, okay, well, if these people are having these kind of reviews, I don't know that I can satisfy anybody. Seems like this is kind of the way it goes. So what do you do with negative reviews? Well, one is you're like, what can I learn from this? Right? This is a gift. What can I learn from this? Is anything I need to tweak in my company, is there anything I need to change? Right? That's what you do with it. And there may or may not be, but, you know, objectively look at it, what do I do with this? And then make sure you don't make this mean anything. Don't make this mean, well, you know, my company's inferior or whatever. No, if there's something to fix, fix it. If it's just something that was written maliciously, I mean, it hurts. I'm not going to say it doesn't hurt, but then you kind of, you know, it's part of it. You know what I mean? Like, look at the great things that you do do. Look at the value that you do offer. Look at the lives that your business has changed. And if it hurts, it hurts. But don't make it mean a thing. You know, move on. Okay, so that's the second one. The third one is fun, right? It's fun. It's people unsubscribing, right? You have an email list, whether this is for your private practice or coaching or you have products or whatever, and you send an email and people unsubscribe. So guess what? Then people stop sending emails because they don't want people to unsubscribe. Okay, Come on, right? Let's. Let's look at this. And trust me, I'm not judging because I almost had palpitations when I would click on the stats after sending an email because, oh, this person's unsubscribed. And then I'll go click and go look and say who? I'm like, why did they unsubscribe? What's wrong with the email and all that stuff, Then maybe they're not your people. Maybe they don't want what you offer. Maybe they've. They're working with somebody else. Maybe they're in the middle of a divorce. I don't know. Like, we can't figure out why people unsubscribe, but guess what? People are going to unsubscribe. And the bigger your list gets and the more emails you send, they're going to unsubscribe. If you're in the middle of a launch and you're like, oh, I know I should send three emails on the day, on the last day of the launch, but I don't want people to unsubscribe. You. Your people will not unsubscribe the people who are not your people are not your people yet will unsubscribe. And that's okay. They're helping you clean up your list. Otherwise you have to clean it up yourself, right? So if you get all bent out of shape like I used to, like, don't look at them, don't look at the unsubscribes anymore. Just let it be right? And you know, or you get your VA to, you know, schedule it and all that stuff and give you stats excluding the unsubscribe stats. But understand that you're not talking to the people who unsubscribe. You're talking to your people and they stay there. So if you're talking to your people and your people are listening and the people who came in are like, oops, wrong room, walk out. Well, let them walk out. It was the wrong room, right? So don't make it mean a thing. Don't make it seem like, oh my God, 10 people unsubscribe. Well, they are going to and it's okay is part of it, right? For anybody who sends out emails every week, people unsubscribe. So go, stay consistent, Stay true to your message. Talk to your people. Invite your people into your world, right? So they're coming in and the people who are not supposed to be there go out. I mean, think about it. Come on. If I was in the fifth grade and I walked into a class and I'm like, oh, wait a minute, this is a kindergarten class. Do you really want me to just stay there so the teacher doesn't get upset? I'm in the wrong class, right? So some people walked into your email list and is the wrong email list. They're not supposed to be there and they're leaving. And that's okay, right? That's okay. It's part of it. So people saying no, it's part of it. People leaving you negative reviews, part of it. People unsubscribing part of it. It's just it. It just is. Number four, people asking for refunds. Oh my word. Okay, so this may not be like in private practice, but maybe you're a coach or. Well, private practice, if you're a self pay or whatever and someone's like, well, I don't want your program anymore, it's crap, I want a refund or I change my mind or, you know, I just realized I need to use the money to go on vacation or whatever again. That's one of those things that used to drive me up the wall. It's part of business. People ask for refunds. It just is. So have your refund policy and whatever that is. Do that and don't worry about it. It's part of it, right? It's part of entrepreneurship. There are people who get refunds all the time and there's still multimillion dollar businesses. It's okay. It's part of it. Am I saying it won't hurt at all? No, that's not what I'm saying. But what I am saying is we're not going to focus on that. Right? We're not going to focus on that. Okay? So people ask for refunds. You know, don't get bent out of shape. Just, you know, it is what it is. Okay, number five, and this is especially my private practice peeps. This is everybody, but especially my private practice peeps, team members leaving at critical times. Like, it's back to school and one of your dogs says, okay, I'm moving, I'm done. Like, right, and here's your two week notice, like right in the middle of back to school where everybody and their pets want physicals. And you're like, oh my goodness, we are the middle of a launch. And then your virtual assistant's like, I'm done. Oh my goodness. Right, Listen, if you've not been an entrepreneurship, you've not been an entrepreneur for long enough, maybe you haven't experienced this. If you've been an entrepreneur long enough, you have experienced this. And so it kind of is. So you have to ask, you ask yourself the question, what do I need to do? Okay, well, I need to set it up where there's some kind of decentralization of power and stuff so that if one person leaves, there's accommodations for other people to pick up while we try to, you know, navigate that situation. All that stuff. You just decide, what will I do next time so this won't be as disruptive. That's really all you can do. If you need to have conversations with them. Maybe you're like, well, I need to work on my team culture, or maybe I need to work on investing more in my people one on one so I know what's going on with them. I can troubleshoot things earlier, you know, rather than letting them blow up and stuff like that. You can do that. Like you ask yourself, what could I have done to make this better? You may not be able to do anything. It may just be. It is what it is. But if there's something to learn, learn it right. If there's something to learn, learn it but don't make it mean a thing and don't fall out. This is everybody, you know what I mean? Like, when I look at companies like, oh, the VP of Pepsi just moved to this company and this, I was like, well, all right, I guess everybody's kind of dealing with this kind of stuff. You know what I mean? Like, it's part of entrepreneurship, okay? It's part of it. So these are like five negative things, okay? People saying no, people leaving negative reviews, people unsubscribing for your email list, people asking for refunds, team members leaving at critical times. It's all part of it. It's like there's labor, quote, unquote, negative. And here's the baby. If you want the baby, you do the labor. So what is the positive of your business? The positive is you're able to impact people. You're able to help people. The positive is you're able to make money, more money than you would have made as an employee, even if you're a high paying specialty. What is the impact? It's, well, financial freedom, the ability to then take funds and reinvest in real estate. It is time. The most important thing about entrepreneurship is not the money it makes you, but the time that you're able to buy back. You're able to buy time, right? You have time, freedom. You can take time off, you can spend time with the kids. You can use your time to pursue other passions. You can sleep, okay, whichever. It's time. That's what you buy back, right? And so those are the positives. So the question is, can I deal with people unsubscribing so I can have time to take my mother on one last trip to our home country? The question is, can I deal with team members leaving at critical times so I can have money to invest in real estate so that my money can be working for me? So I don't have to depend on a 401k. I don't have to depend on Ira because I have this thing going on. Like, okay, me being able to work part time, is that important enough to me that I'm willing to deal with so many people telling me no. And if it is, then you look at these quote unquote negatives and you embrace it because you're like, that's the price for my freedom. That's my price. That's the price. And then it makes you approach it so differently. So differently. So if you are not supposed to focus on the negatives, right, we don't deny them. We're not crazy people. We don't deny they are there. Well, we can choose what to focus on. We can acknowledge that they're there, move on. You see what I'm saying? Like, what I choose to focus on, I choose to focus on the impact my business is making. I choose to focus on the wins that we've created because it's phenomenal. Like, on that day, I chose to be like, wow, Forbes. You know what I mean? Like, I'd already troubleshot what I'm going to do with the, you know, with the office and all that. But wow, Forbes, isn't that wild. I chose to focus. You know, it's my choice. It's my mind. I can choose what to focus on. Right. I chose to focus on the wins that the docs in the Ontario MD Business School are getting. And they're so wild. Like, I literally have people going like, Dr. Una. It's different. Like, our wins are bigger and faster. Yeah. You know, and I chose to focus on that. I chose to focus on the retreat that I'm working on for, for next month for the students in the Ontario Business School. I chose. And I had a great day in spite of a great challenge, because I just acknowledge that there is a negative, negative side to business. There's nothing you can do about it. Okay? So. So that's what I would like for you to do. One is to acknowledge that there's these quote unquote negatives, and then two, to realize I can focus on what I want to focus on. Right. So you can choose what you want to focus. And don't let this. Don't. Don't get sidelined, sidetracked by like, hey, wait, what happened? No, no, no. This is part. This is part of what happens. I mean, I could go on and on. I only gave you five. But you can choose what you can focus on. So choose. Choose what you want to focus on. Okay. Choose what you want to focus on and become that person who you don't look like what you're going through. Right. And you enjoy your journey. A woman would. I mean, she would make an attempt to enjoy her pregnancy. She would go through the labor, but she has her eyes on the price. So keep your eyes on the price. Keep your eyes on your freedom. Keep your eyes on the legacy that you're leaving. Keep your eyes on the price. That's where you want to be. Okay? All right, So I want you to do this. This is such a profound episode that I want you to take a screenshot of this and I want you to write your type up your biggest aha moment. Like, what dawned on you? What did you learn from this? I want you to Tag me, hashtag EntreMD on your social media, okay. And share it with your world. Like, oh, my goodness, this is what I got. And you need to go listen to the full episode, okay? And listen, we're going to be those people, you and I, we're going to be those people who we enjoy the right of entrepreneurship. We don't deny the pain. We don't deny the negative stuff there. We just choose not to focus on it. We're going to celebrate, and we're going to keep on moving and keep on making progress every single day. All right? So thank you for listening. Go share the episode, keep your eyes on the prize, and I will see you, my friend, on the next episode of the EntreMD podcast.

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