Overwhelmed Growing Your Business? Here's Your Step-by-Step Guide to Change That

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, you have grown your business. You have a lot of team members, but you're overwhelmed by managing them, right? Like managing their schedules, managing when somebody's out doing the one on one meetings, doing the team meetings, doing all of that stuff and you're like, this is so overwhelming. I want to throw it away. But the truth of the matter is, if you look at it, 10 people reporting to one person is too many people. And so bring it in one single thing, like, what's the problem? Problem is you need another layer of management that is not you, right? Like you don't have that layer. That's the problem. 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. One of the things that shocks entrepreneurs the most when they start getting successful is that there is burnout, there is overwhelm, there is stress that can be associated with success. So much so that they no longer want to grow, they don't want to get bigger, they don't want to succeed anymore. And in fact, sometimes they're like, I just want to throw, throw this business away. Today I'm going to show you what to do if you start feeling overwhelmed by the success of your business. Now, a lot of this came out of a number of conversations I've had with doctors over the years. And it doesn't matter whether you are, you know, in the early stages of your business or you have already hit the $1 million mark. The challenges that come to, you know, come with success are almost inevitable, except, you know, what to do. The way we say it in the entrepreneur business school is that the reward for solving problem problems is new problems, right? And so these things show up, but they're problems that, you know, go with the territory. There are some that are just a result of things that we don't know. But today I'm going to show you how to fix the ones that as a result of things you don't know. So I had a conversation with the doctor who was in the earlier phases of her business, and she was probably at a tenth of capacity, but she had just started experiencing growth. And she says, oh, my goodness, I am so overwhelmed by the few clients that I do have. And so when I think, think about getting any bigger, I don't even know how I handle it. And when she said that, I knew without a shadow of a doubt that it also meant that day to day, she was sabotaging her growth by herself every single day, whether she was doing it consciously or unconsciously. And so when there are opportunities to increase her visibility, I know she won't take it or she just do it a little bit. I know when there are opportunities to make big ask, I know she'll hold back because she doesn't really want the new clients anyway. And so, you know, I told her, I said, okay, so this is something that we absolutely need to fix because it is too expensive. It is too expensive to spend your hours as a CEO of your company, trying to not grow your company, like, actively not growing your company. And I'll take this to the other side. I have another. Another friend I was talking with, and she's grown her business, and her business is at full capacity for her, like, not bringing in any other team members and things like that, at full capacity for her. But then she's in tears because she's like, it is so overwhelming. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I wish I could just quit all my business. I don't want to do this anymore. You know, there's so many clients to serve, and now that we're at full capacity, we're no longer able to give them that great experience. I'm burning the candle at both ends. I don't want this anymore. I'm showing you how deadly. Being overwhelmed or, you know, like, by the success of your business, how deadly that is. And so here is somebody who wants. Wanted to build a business who is doing something that many people don't get to pull off. And she's like, I just wish I could throw it all away. Okay, all right, so it's critical that we understand what to, what to do with this. Okay? So I'm going to give you three things to do. And at the end of this, you're going to build this into a framework that you use all the time. And it just make your life so much better. It will make you come to a position where other people are wondering how you're so calm and they think, you know, like, this is chaos and you're cool and you're thriving in the middle of it. Okay, so step number one, step number one is identify the problem. So when you find yourself saying, I'm so overwhelmed, nothing is working, everything, everything is falling apart. And all of that stuff, it's not necessarily true, right? Like, when you see that, I want you to think of it as mental clutter. It's like showing up in a house, maybe owned by a hoarder. And there are things everywhere. It is overwhelming, right? Like, it's just stuff everywhere. Now what the seasoned entrepreneur will do will then say, okay, in the midst of all of these things, what is the actual problem? Right? And so I've done this many, many times with different entrepreneurs. I'll just throw up, you know, random examples. So for instance, I've talked to people who have private practices and they're like, oh my goodness, I'm so overwhelmed, blah, blah, blah. I'm like, okay, great. And I'm like, okay, when you think about it, what is the thing that is actually stressing you out? And a number of things will come up. So, you know, let's, let's use examples here. And I may have a doc say, well, you know, I have all these people calling out. Like my medical assistant's calling out. My front desk person is calling out. I'm like, okay, so because that's happening, what is the consequence of that? And then they would say something like, so prior authorizations that need to be done are not done. The reminder calls that are supposed to be done are not done. So there's so many no shows the next day, or the fundamental people calling for records or whatever they need to do over and over again because these things are not done. Co pays are not collected appropriately on all of those things, right? And so, yes, there are all these things going on. But if you break it down all the way. It's a team problem, right? And it's really the MA on the front desk, right? Because it could be physicians, it could be an office man, it could be all kinds of things, but it's really that, right? And this specific situation, I said, okay, well, I'll tell you what we did. When the great resignation hit, when it hit, we realized that, you know, until we got a more stable team, that we were not going to be able to rely on people to be there every single day. And so we outsourced those things that were critical things that needed to happen. Collecting the CO pays, the prior authorizations, making sure medical records are sent out, all of those things. We outsourced it to a team that we could rely on, right? So we had virtual medical assistants and we knew day in, day out they would be there doing the things. So even though we were having this turnover thing, which I am so grateful is resolved at this point, but even though we were having that, we were in a position where the critical functions that needed to happen were happening every single day. She's like, oh. And breathed such a heavy sigh of relief, smile back on her face as like, I can do this, right? I can do this. So you see how something that is so overwhelming, you can dwindle it down to what's the real thing that what is, you know, like, and, and then take it from there, right? So the, the first thing is to identify that now it'll be different for different people. It may be that you have, you know, you're, you have grown your business, you have a lot of team members, but you're overwhelmed by managing them, right? Like managing their schedules, managing when somebody's out doing the one on one meetings, doing the team meetings, doing all of that stuff. And you're like, this is so overwhelming. I want to throw it away. But the truth of the matter is, if you look at it, 10 people reporting to one person's too many people. And so bring it in. One single thing, like, what's the problem? Problem is you need another layer of management that is not you, right? Like you don't have that layer. That's the problem, right? And so you just want to kind of do an audit. What is the actual problem here? Right? I'm so overwhelmed, I'm trying all the things, I'm not getting new clients and all of those things. It could be many things, right? But maybe the thing is you're talking to the, you're talking to the same old people. Maybe the problem is there's no visibility, none. Like, you're not going anywhere to be a guest. You're not going to build referral base, you're not going to into other communities and speaking. There's nothing happening to bring new people into your world. So that's why you're doing all this work. And it seems like nothing is happening. But the issue is that nothing's happening, right? Or you find yourself. I mean, I could go on and on and on, but the thing is this. When you seem, when it seems like everything is overwhelming, remember that there is one thing that is the most significant problem. There's one thing that if you fix that one thing, it fixes most of the other things. Your job is to find that thing. So every time you feel overwhelmed, you're just like, okay, what is actually the problem here? You run a diagnosis, you run diagnostics. What is the actual problem here? Okay. Doing this alone will make you this person who could be in the midst of chaos. And, and you're completely okay, completely okay because you found that critical thing, okay? Now someone else may be super overwhelmed and they're like, I'm working hard, I'm seeing a lot of clients, we're not making enough money, right? And sometimes I will look into their business and I'm like, okay, we have a business model problem here, right? Like, that's the problem. The problem is you are offering a service for a little amount of money and you are serving like, relatively a few patients or a few clients. And because of that, the number you're trying to create, you just can't create it. You can't create it. So that means you either change your price or you change your volume or you change your goal. But it's an equation, right? Like something has to give. So again, it all goes back to running diagnostics, finding the one thing. Like this one thing. If I change this one thing, it brings the biggest change in my business. So that's the very first thing, okay? Now the second thing is, now that you know the problem and finding the problem is like 90, 90% of the solution, in fact, by the time you find the problem, you, you'll feel so much better, you'll no longer feel overwhelmed or feel the need to be overwhelmed. Like in the entrepreneur business school, we have this saying, we don't do overwhelm. We just don't. We don't do overwhelm. Now, we may have feelings of overwhelm, but then we walk through a process to walk, work our way out of it. We just refuse to sit in it. Okay, all right. So after you find the, what the problem is, the next thing you want to do is you want to create the solution. Okay? You want to create the solution. You want to create a plan to solve the problem. So, for instance, if it is a virtual assistant, becomes very simple. You know, it's a medical VA like in the initial example I gave. And it's very simple. You, you, you find the companies, There are many of them, right? You find the companies, you can get some referrals, like who are you using or whatever. And then you call them up and you make an appointment with them and you do the interview with your people and you bring that person on board, right? Like that. It's a very simple plan. Well, before that, you create that job description all but it's a very simple plan. The problem may be that, oh, my goodness, you know, I have, I have 14 people answering to me. And so I need another layer of management. And so you want to bring in a practice administrator. You want to bring in an office manager. Okay, great. What are the outcomes they'll be responsible for? What are the tasks that will get them? What is their job description? Right? Where am I going to put these ads? Who are the people I need to tell about this position so that, you know, I can get this position filled? Start interviewing, fill the position, right? Like, that becomes your plan. It may be your business model. So maybe you are, you know, you are low tickets, low volume. And then your plan could be, I, you know, for my values, I don't want to serve a lot of people. I want to serve few people for the thing that I do. And so what your, your plan is, then I have to raise my prices, right? And if you're like, no, I want the prices to be low because I want this to go to everybody, then it has to go to everybody. You have to raise your volume, right? So either or you're like, okay, this is the plan. So if it's the pricing, maybe there's mindset drama that's kept you all out. You say like, okay, we're going to work the mindset drama. We're going to pick a date for when we're going to raise the price. We're going to decide on what the price is going to be. We're going to work the numbers and take a look. Okay, the numbers work, right? That becomes the plan. Or if it's volume, you're like, okay, I have to like 10x my visibility. I have to 10x my nurture. I have to 10x the number of times I'm asking people to work with me. Like, I have to multiply all of this, right? Like, multiply that volume. Right? Okay. So again, we can go on and on and on, but you identify the problem, you create a solution, right? You create a plan to solve the problem. And then the third thing is really where the rubber meets the road, and that is to execute relentlessly until you solve the problem. Right? Because finding out the problem is really good. And the thing that was so good for your mental health and so good for living above overwhelm and all of that stuff, it's amazing. But, you know, identifying the problem does not. It's like, probably 80% of the solution, at least, but it does not create the solution right? Now, until you identify the problem, you can't actually create a plan, right. To solve it. You can't create the solution until you. You identify what the problem is. Okay? But it doesn't matter how good your plan is. Your plan will do nothing until you do number three, which is relentlessly execute until. Okay, so we live in a time where, you know, hard work, you know, is now made synonymous with hustle and everybody's. I don't want to hustle and things like that. But I'm telling you, in entrepreneurship, if you want to have great results, hard work is required. Okay? Now, there's hard work and there's toiling. Let me talk. Let me. Let me digress a little bit and talk about that. So toiling is like, I do a whole lot of work, and I see a little bit of a reward, and I have to sacrifice so much, like, so much of the critical things. So my family, my. My health, my faith, like, significant things that are not worth giving up for any business in this universe, right? I have to give up all that to get some reward, right? That's my version. That's my definition of toiling. Okay? Hard work is. I do the critical work that is required. It's a requirement for the goals that I want to hit. Hard work is required. It's like saying, I'm going to go to medical school and I'm not going to work hard. It doesn't work. It doesn't work. You can work smart, you can work strategically, you can do all of that, but hard work will be required. In entrepreneurship, hard work is required, but there is a way to do it where, again, you're not giving up your family, you're not giving up your health, you're not giving up your faith, because those are things that are not worth giving up for. Any business. Okay. All right. So back to relentlessly executing. So let's say. Let's say my thing is I need to bring in an office manager, okay? That's the thing that will get rid of this overwhelm. I cannot tell you how many people. They know this, and, you know, like, this is the plan. They know this, but it's been months, and they've not created a job description. Or maybe they have that. They've not created the ad that. Maybe they do, but they don't put the ad anywhere. They don't tell anybody about it. They don't do anything. And I understand that. How do I know this? Well, of course, I've. You know, I've coached thousands of doctors at this time at this point, but I. I've done this, right? Like, remember, I own multiple businesses, so I've made almost every mistake there is in the book. Now, there may be mindset drama around, and sometimes we don't readily identify, but maybe you've never hired that level of team before. So you're like, well, I don't know if you may not use this language, but that's what it is. I don't know if I'm worthy of this caliber of person working with me, right? I don't know that I can lead this kind of person. Or I hired somebody like this before and they left. And before they left, they gave me feedback and told me I sucked as a boss. Um, and there are all these things that come up, right? But the thing is this. We want to see them and address them so they don't stop us from taking action, right? So if it's office manager, let's say I'm like, I've never hired somebody like that. I don't feel worthy or, you know, like, I don't know if I can lead somebody like that or whatever. But until I do it, I've never. I would have never done it. And so, you know, people ask me, like, how do you go when you feel the inertia? I'm like, I don't wait for motivation. Motivation is not required, right? Like, if this is something, Something I need to do is something I need to do, and I may do it. Feeling afraid, I may do it. Feeling unsure, I may do it. And it's messy. But this is a deal. Even if I don't get it right, guess what? I have experience, and I can do it better next time. And so I don't let that stop me, right? And so the idea is I will go at it until. So which Means I will take the time to say, okay, These are the KPIs, the key performance indicators or the outcomes that this person will be responsible for, right? So I identify those, I create their job description. I create the ad, I put the ad out there, I tell everybody I'm hiring, right? And I start interviewing. And you've. You've heard our podcast episodes on interviewing. So I'm doing three interviews with three different people asking those questions. You know, I did a podcast episode, and the questions you want to make sure that you ask on an interview. And I'm doing all of those things until I get my office manager, right? And once I get that person in, then all of a sudden I can have three core people reporting to me. Everybody else reports to that person. I would have bought back hours and hours and hours of my time back. I'm back to peace. I'm back to having a great time, balancing my dream business and my dream life and all of those things. But if I do not act relentlessly until I get the result, that is not going to happen, right? So you identify the problem, you create a plan to solve the problem. You relentlessly execute that plan until you create the results, right? And, and, and I will say that, you know, in doing all of these things, of course, you can see that patience is required because I can choose not to be overwhelmed, because I know that I'm working on the thing that will get this, that will make this end. It will make the things that are making me feel overwhelmed have a deadline, have a timeline, like you can, you can bother me until this day and not a second after, right? And so I can choose that I'm going to be at peace even though the chaos is still there, because I'm solving the problem, right? Okay. So, so patience will be required. But this is the deal, right? This is the deal. Maybe this is more like a warning. So when you start this, you'll find out that this is a process. You always be working. I tell people all the time, your business is a construction site, and the reward for solving problems is new problems. So let's say, you know, I was the one that had 14 people reporting to me, did all this stuff. Now, I brought in the office manager, right? And I brought in the office manager. She was doing her stuff, and it created growth. Guess what happens when you grow? Chances are the systems that worked before you grew don't work anymore. So things start falling through the cracks and all those things. And I have another thing that could make me overwhelmed. So what's my Job. I identify what the true problem is. I create a plan. I solve the problem, and I do all of these things while being patient. Right? So it shows you that this process never ends. This is identify, create the plan, Work the plan. Identify, create the plan, Work the plan. This is just what we do. Why? Because you're an entrepreneur. You are the owner of a business. You are a CEO. Your job is to solve problems. And so when problems appear, don't let it drive you nuts. This is your job. So do your job. Right. Our job is. Our job is to. Is to solve problems. That's what we do. Okay. All right, so what do I want you to do with this? I want to invite you to choose, like, people in entrepreneur business school. I've chosen. Like, I don't do overwhelm. Like, when. When something comes and it makes me have this feeling like you're overwhelmed and stuff like that, I stop and I'm like, okay, what exactly is the problem here? How can I solve this problem? Then I go solve the problem. But I'm like, I refuse to sit and overwhelm. I refuse to live in that neighborhood. It's a bad neighborhood. I don't want to be there. Right. It's so easy to stay there and be paralyzed and. And, you know, like, have palpitations and have so much anxiety and all that, and I just choose not to do it. Right. And guess what? You will always have opportunities to be overwhelmed in your business. So then you choose. I'm going to do it or I'm not going to do it. Right. You have choices. Okay? Anyway, so. So here's the deal. I want to invite you to practice this, like, right now. Pick the thing that may be overwhelming or make you feel like you might be overwhelmed in your business. Pick it and go, like, okay, I'm just like, oh, you know, nothing's working. I'm just overwhelmed. Okay, great. What exactly is the problem? What's the true problem here? Okay. What is the plan to solve this problem? Boom. All right, let's start acting the plan. Okay? And you can send me a dm, a private message on Facebook, Instagram, wherever, and just say, oh, my goodness, Dr. Unai did. That is, like, the best thing since sliced bread. I'd been walking around overwhelmed, and now I'm, like, a total piece. I know exactly what to do. I'm working the plan. So even though everything hasn't fallen in place, I know it has a deadline. I know this will be over soon. Okay? I would love to see you do that. And if you're like, oh, my goodness, like, now I understand what has been happening in my business this whole time. And you're like, and I can do this, but I hear you. And I want to be part of the community where people are just. Do they. This is their MO. This is what they do. And they've decided they're not living with over overwhelm and they're building their dream businesses and their dream lives at the same time. As always, I invite you to check out the Entrepreneur Business School. It is the only school of its kind for physician entrepreneurs, producing more six, seven, or multiple seven figure businesses than any other business school. Okay? So schedule a call with my team. They'll be happy to walk you through. Walk you through it, give you the details, and then you can decide if this is your best next step or not. So ontremd.com forward/call. That's. That's where you want to go make that appointment is ontramd.com forward/call. Okay. All right. I'm rooting for you because now you have a framework that you can use whenever, so you can go through your journey as an entrepreneur without the overwhelm. Okay. Inviting you to do that. I'm celebrating you. I'm so glad. I want you to share this episode with another doctor in your life to say, hey, let's do this together. We are not doing overwhelm anywhere anymore. And I'll see you on the next episode of the Entrepreneur podcast.