Revenue is a Poor Motivator: 5 Others to Tap into Instead

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.ontrend.com 7Figurebook. And let's rewrite the narrative for physicians starting today.

Hello. Hello my friend. Welcome back to another episode of the On Tremd podcast. I am so excited because the day after this recording goes live will be the release date for my new book, the Visibility Formula. And the reason why I'm super pumped about it is because the starting point of any successful business, the starting point of any quantum leap in your business is really the visibility formula. Because if people can't see you, if they can't find you, they can't know you, like you and trust you, like, that's the starting point of everything. And so this is a book that is really going to change the trajectory of thousands of physician owned businesses. And I just can't wait. I can't wait. So super excited about that. Really grateful for that today. But today I wanted to come on and talk about something that can really change your business, change the way you feel about it, change the way you show up for it. And that is really this concept of why your revenue goals don't motivate you. Right? Like, yeah, you can set a goal. You know, I'm going to hit my first million, I'm going to hit my first 5 million or 10 million, whatever. But, but you may find that even though that's a really great goal, it's a big, hairy, audacious goal, it's something you want to do, it just doesn't keep you motivated enough to do what is required to pull it off, right? So what really got me thinking about this was my process with my, you know, my fitness journey. So, you know, I'd been trying for a number of years to really add strength training to my routine because, you know, I'm 44 at this point and 44 years old and. And I know that, you know, as you get older, you start losing muscle and, you know, you should do some strength training, all of that stuff. So I've known it, but I always struggled to do it. And I think the reason why I struggled to do it is because, you know, I had no, yeah, it would be nice. I have some extra pounds I could lose, but I was not that bothered about it. Yes, I could be stronger, but I wasn't bothered about that. I had never been in the gym for two days back to back, because I would walk and I would eat, right? So I got away with, you know, not strength training and all of those things, but none of those things were enough to motivate me, right? Like, losing weight was not enough. Being strong was not enough. However, when I looked in the mirror, I didn't hate what I saw. I didn't say, oh, man, I just need to get this, you know, extra weight off or whatever I. That, you know, that's just not. It's just not a thing for me. But what I did see was a place in my life where I was not in control. A place in my life where I did not have discipline, I was not in charge. Like, I just had the result I had, but it was not the result I wanted or the result I intentionally created. So I would see in discipline, right? And so when I set a different kind of goal, my goal was I'm going to go to the gym for four days a week for 50 weeks in a row. Now, that goal gave me a sense of control. It meant I was in charge. It meant I was doing what I wanted to do for my health. And, you know, one of my, you know, I think a motivator for me is just this feeling of accomplishment, if you will. Like, I'm doing what I set out to do now, you see, that goal is. Is motivating for me. And so if you follow me on social media, you see where I'm like, yeah, five weeks, you know, five weeks done, 10 weeks done. Now I'm at 12 weeks, 12 weeks done, right? And for me, that's motivated, being able to check that off and. And all of those things. And so even though I still get the mind drama of, you know, sometimes I'm like, yeah, I don't know. I mean, I guess it's working. You know, I do feel stronger, but I can't tell. Even though people are like, oh, my goodness, what are you doing? Right. But I can't really see it. And that's the same thing with our businesses. Sometimes you're doing a lot of work, making a lot of progress, things are moving forward, but you may not see it as much. You need a driver that helps you to keep going in spite of that. Right. And so for me, I'm just not going to quit before 50 weeks. Like, it's not happening. And of course, I chose 50 weeks because after you do something for 50 weeks, you're kind of done. You're just going to keep doing it. Right. So that's kind of the concept that got me thinking even more about what the motivators are for business. And for me, like, revenue is great, but it's not enough. To take me through the harder times or to do the difficult things or take those bold, audacious steps is just not enough. Right. Okay. So I want us to look at what some of the motivators are. I've talked to thousands of physicians over the years, and, you know, so let's. Let's look at what those are. And again, the reason why this is super important is because the really big, big transformations you're looking for, they take time. And in the middle of that time, you're going to go through times where there are challenges or it looks like it's not working, or discouraged and all of that. You need something that will keep pushing you until you get where you need to go. So, for instance, the entrepreneur business school has been in existence now for almost four years. Okay. And in those four years, I have had the pleasure of walking, you know, like, watching doctors who've been in the school for two years, three years, four years. Like, we have doctors who've been there since it started and just never left. And watching their goals over time is very fascinating, right? Because, you know, they have this big leap, then they have bigger leaps, then they have quantum leaps. And so it's like the longer they work at their business, the longer they strategically work at their business, the bigger, Bigger their wins get. The thing is that you have to be able to. You have to figure out how to stay in the game long enough. And I don't mean stay in business. I mean stay actively and strategically working on your business. And so when I read their wins now, I'm like, oh, my goodness. And then I think, what Would it be like in seven years? What would it be like in 10 years? What it will be like in 20 years? Right. Revenue is just not enough of a motivator to keep you doing it for that long.

Right, Right.

And so let's look at some of those. All right, so number one, number one is agency, right? It's we, we want to have control. We want to feel like our fate, our outcomes, our results in life, our destiny is not in the hand of somebody else. Like, we're in control. We're in control. We decide where we want to go and we have the freedom to go there. Right? And that is something that entrepreneurship gives you. Right? It gives you that as you build it, as you build that sustainable business, as you build that business that can work without you. And all of that, it puts you in the driver's seat. You can come up with ideas and you can execute on your ideas. You can have convictions and you can build a business system around those convictions. So for instance, I have a conviction. Like the entire on trend is all about conviction. I'm like, as doctors, um, we can take back our careers. We don't have to be victims of the healthcare space. We don't have to be victim. Victims of the insurance companies. We can build businesses that will give us freedom, that will give us time freedom, money, you know, financial freedom. It would let us impact the world in a big way, which is what we wanted when we went to medical school anyway. Right? Like, so it is that conviction that drives me. The revenue is really great. And you know, I'm not saying we don't create revenue because of course I talk about that all day, every day. Right. But it is not enough of a driver. My driver is helping 100,000 doctors experience time and financial freedom using the vehicle of business. Right? Okay, so just so I can I decide that's what I want to do, I build a business system around it, and I'm doing exactly that. I've been doing that for five years now. Right. But I have the freedom to do it. Right? And so just feeling like you're in control, that is, you're, you're building your own, you're taking charge of your own life. That is a motivator, Right. The second motivator is time freedom. You know, when I think about, you know, us as physicians, you have, we have given up so much, right. Like in high school, you know, we're trying to do really good so we can get into a good pre med program and then we get into a pre med program and we're working so hard and then we get into a great medical school and then we work so hard and then we get into residency and we work so hard and we get into fellowship and then we think we're going to hold out, you know, like now finally we can breathe because we're attending. I know. We keep working so hard, right? And sometimes we put our family, we put our friends, we put off all of these things. But we can't do that forever, right? We can't do that forever. And so being in a position where you now have control of your time, you can do what you want to do with your time. It is your choice, it is your life, right? That is a motivator to then build the business, you know, do what is required because the, the business is simply a vehicle that makes that possible for you, right? So when I look at a lot of my CL. Right, in the entrepreneur business school now, they're like, I want to take a vacation, a quarter and they're pulling it off. I want to be able to go for my kids trips and go have lunch with them at school and they're pulling it off. I want to do date night with my spouse every week and they're pulling it off. I want to go like they're able to do these things. You know, they want to volunteer in certain capacities. They want to do other things outside of medicine. They have created the time freedom to be able to do that, to be able to do that. And that is wanting to create that for yourself is a motivator, right? Then there's financial freedom. There's financial freedom. I. I don't want to have to work. I don't want to have to do something I don't like because I need the money. I don't want to not be able to leave an inheritance for my kids. I don't want to be a burden to anybody at retirement. I don't want to think about money. I don't want to make decisions based on money. Right now, if that is a goal, then when you're building your business, right? So this is different from revenue. Revenue is what you make from the business. But this is this concept of I can do what I want to do and money is not a factor that stops me, right? And so that becomes a motivator that will make you pay whatever price you need to pay. And now I'm not talking about illegal stuff, but you know, to pull off the business because it creates that for you, right? So that's, that's another. Another motivator. Number four is significance. Another word for that is impact. And, you know, again, for. For many doctors, doctors typically don't go into medicine because they want to make money. They go into medicine because they want to help people, because they want to bring some change to the world, to bring some change to a certain people group and things like that. It. And not significance. Like, I'm all that. Everybody bow and worship me. Not that, but it means my life had a significant impact. My life made a difference in the world. My life made a difference in a certain group of people's world. Right? And so that is a motivator. It's a driver. So much more than revenue. And so if you can tap into that, like, what is that for you? And how does your business help you do that? Right? And it's not just the people you serve. Like, it's your clients, it's your team, it's your philanthropy. It's your example. Like, for instance, one of my, you know, one of my drivers is, I want to be a billboard for physicians. I want to be a walking vision board. And so when people tell you doctors can't do this, doctors can look at my life and say, no, that's not true. She's a doctor and she's doing it. If they say, oh, I'm a lowly pediatrician. Pediatricians can never do xyz, you're like, yeah, no, she's over there. She's a pediatrician. She's doing it. If they say foreign grads can't do this, you could go like, she's a foreign grad. She's doing it. Like, that's part of significance, impact, all of those things. And sometimes when I strive to shatter glass ceilings, the revenue is simply not enough of a driver to make me do that. Now, being a vision board for somebody else, that is. That is okay. And then number five. Number five is just. Yeah. And this is my favorite motivator, is developing. Developing your full potential. Right? Because this is the deal. You are probably never going to be, quote, unquote, fully developed before you die. Like, if you decide, I'm going to keep going at this, I'm going to keep exploring my potential. I'm going to keep stacking on new skill sets. I'm going to keep, you know, trying for bigger and bigger impact and all of those, you're going to do it till the day you die. And so for me, I feel like this may sound weird, but just roll with me. I feel like I'm an orange. Okay. I feel like I'M orange. I just keep squeezing and squeezing. There's just more juice where that came from, right? And so I want to explore all of my potentials and explore all of it in the service of my generation, of my world, of the physician community and beyond, right? And so business is one of the best personal development programs, like being an entrepreneur. I think the only thing that will develop you more is marriage. But entrepreneurship will. And so embracing all the skills I need to learn, I was not a speaker. It's a skill I developed. I was not a writer. It's a skill I developed. I was not somebody who would own a message. I was not somebody who built a multimillion dollar business. I was not somebody who could lead a movement. I was not any of those. Right? But these are skills that I just kept stacking on and stacking on and stacking on. And so I always wonder, what else is in me? What else can I be? What else can I do? What other impact can I have right now that is such a driver for me, and that is what makes me continue to read the books, continue to invest six figures in my development every year, continue to do all those things. Why? Because I want to be the best, best version of me and serve my world at the highest capacity. I really want to go to my grave empty. Like, this is an empty body. You can have it. Because everything that was in me came out right. And that's the driver. So I want you to think about this. Having agency, time, freedom, financial freedom, significance, and developing my full potentials. Those are motivators that when the hard times come, I mean, the hard times come, but there are a million physicians that I have made a commitment to serve, to serve, right? And so because of that, I am going to show up even though times get hard, right? There is a version of me the world has never met, I have never met, right? And the challenge is not going to stop me from pursuing that person and becoming that person. Right? The time, freedom I want. I'm at a stage where I can take my kids to school. I homeschool. I have four. So the younger two go to school, the older two are homeschooled. I can homeschool my kids, like, really do the work of, you know, developing them. I have the time to explore my passions. I have the time to explore, you know, new developments in business. I have the. The time to go on vacation with my family. I have the time to do that. I have the time to take, you know, two, three hour walks if I want to. Just think right and all of those, like all these things, drive me to keep going in the face of challenges. Now, the reason why I'm sharing this is because revenue is not a good enough motivator. Business is a means to an end, right? So all five of these motivators, these things that we want, we can get them leveraging the vehicle of business, right? And so if all we look at is the revenue, when we get discouraged, it's so easy to stop. But if we look at our true why, if we look at the true things that are really driving us, if we tap into that, yes, the challenges will still hurt, but it'll be so much easier to go through them. And you can actually get to a point where quitting is not an option. It's not a theme, it's not a thought you entertain. Um, and when I say quitting, I don't just mean shutting your doors. I also mean quiet quitting, where you're still there. You're still an entrepreneur. You. But you are a thousand percent on cruise control. You're not growing, you're not striving. You're not leading your team. You're just doing the bare minimum so the business has enough money in the account to hit pay, to make payroll. That's it. That's all you're doing, right? So I want to challenge you. This is your homework today. You may have all five of these motivators. I have all five. I want all five, right? But maybe it's not. Maybe it's two, maybe it's three, maybe it's one. It doesn't matter. But I want you to tap into it. Is it control? Is it the quest for control? Is it for time, freedom, financial freedom, significance? Or to develop? You're like, I have never met the best version of me. I want to meet her. I want to meet him, right? I want you to tap into what that is and then see your business for what it truly is. It is a means to an end. It is something taking you somewhere. So we don't quit on it because it got hard, because we have somewhere else we're going, and it's so great. That, of course, is going to be hard. Not that you can't do it, but as long as you resist the resistance, you're not going to move forward, right? But when you know the resistance is there and it's only going to make me better, you keep going at it. So I want you to tap into that, and I want you to think of, like, after you're done with this, you come to this point where you fall in love with your business, you fall in love with what you do. You're able to weather storms when the challenges, the disappointments, and all of that show up. You can handle it. Everything you need to do to make your business work feels easier, feels lighter. Why? Because you've tapped into a motivation, a why that is so much higher than revenue. That is so much higher than, oh, I'm an entrepreneur. Is so much higher. And that, my friend, is where you get to the place where this becomes so much fun. And I love for you to have that experience. So what I want you to do is go do your homework, and I want you to share this episode with the doctors in your life. Tell them, hey, go take a listen to this. Because as physicians, this is what we truly want. This is what we truly want. And I want you to help somebody else have just that. If this was a gift to you and you were like, Dr. Una, you just spoke my language. I want you to send me a private message on Facebook or Instagram, wherever, and just let me know how much of an impact this episode had for you. Okay? And I'll see you on the next episode of the OnTremd podcast.