Social Media Boundaries for Entrepreneurs

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So go get your audiobook now. Www.entremd.com sevenfigurebook 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. Umn. Well, hello. Hello, my friend. Welcome back to another episode of the entrevi podcast. As always, super pumped to be your ears and again, thank you. I know I say it a lot, but thank you so much for coming back week after week. Thank you for sending me all those, you know, direct messages letting me know how you're using this podcast to change your business. And thank you for the reviews you leave us on itunes. So thank you, thank you, thank you. And today, you know, I came to talk about something that I think will be so helpful. It's been so helpful for me and that's, you know, like, you know, boundaries around social media. Right? Boundaries around social media. And I'm not here to this social media. Like, when I look back and I think about it, social media was really the platform that I used to build my business on. Trendy is the platform I used to create massive growth for my private practice. And so it's a platform I've used to bring in millions and millions and millions of dollars. In fact, I had a lot of, you know, clients and people in the physician community who really felt that their businesses were not working because they couldn't afford to do Facebook ads or their Facebook ads weren't working the way they should. And I decided in Entre MD that until I hit a million dollars in revenue in a year, I was not going to do any ads. Just so people understand the power of social media, the power of organic marketing. So I really didn't use ads until. Until after that, after that milestone. And so it's, you know, it's something that is, you know, social media is something that's really powerful for entrepreneurs. If it's not something that you use, I want to highly suggest you consider stepping into it. And even if you're building a wildly successful business, please understand this, that this could amplify that, that this could be like fuel to the fire. And, you know, many entrepreneurs don't realize this, but it's not unusual for you to start from one business going to another business. Want to make some, you know, like pivots and things like that. And what allows you to do that very, you know, much easier is your personal brand, right? And social media is a great place to build that. So it's kind of the gift that keeps giving us. Amazing. Okay, but the thing is this. There is some, you know, there's some balance that's required, right? Like, it is a. It is a tool that you can use to grow your business. It is a weapon you can use to destroy, you know, your life, your family life and all of those things. And the funny thing is that you can. It's not as though some people use it as a tool and some people use it as a weapon. Every point in time, you could be using it as a tool or a weapon, right? Like, so you want to get a feel for, you know, how do I create boundaries around this thing? How do I manage it in such a way that it doesn't take over my life? You know, how do I use it responsibly? Right? Okay, so I'm going to give you four things, four things you can do to create a healthy boundary around your social media usage. Okay? The first thing is creating time blocks, right? The thing about time is that, I mean, it can just expand. Like, you can just be on social media and you realize that you've been there for two hours just scrolling and watching one funny cat video after the other, or one reel of people getting their hair braided after the other, right? Like, it's not hard to do that if you don't predefine what you're going to be doing with your social media time. And when you're going to use that Time, right? And so the first thing is creating time blocks where you're like, I'm not on social media at these times, right? That's creating a healthy break for you. For some people it's easier than others, depending on what your usage is right now. And so for instance, I don't, I try, I'm not going to say this is something I do perfectly, but I try to make sure the first hour of the day, for sure, sure. There's no email, there's no social media, there's none of that because that is like waking up and your entire family, like your parents, your siblings, your first cousins, your second cousins, your third cousins and their spouses and their kids all lived in your house and you woke up and there was a gathering, you just went into it, right? Like you want to take control of your day, you want to be proactive with your day, not reactive, right? And so if you start off with email, social media, all of those kind of things, whatever conversation is there kind of directs your day, right? Like, so you open up your email and you get, you know, something from, you know, a team member quit, okay, they already quit, right? But you can see it after you've decided what you want your day to be like and you've done your, you know, daily routine that creates mental toughness for you and all these things before you get that right, or you open up social media and you know, some client has left you a one star review because of something or you know, tagged you on something, said how awful your services. I mean, it's already there, you're still going to see it, but you might as well take control of your day first, right? And so time blocking, where, you know, this time of the day, I don't go in, you know, this time for my business, this is time I work on my business. So I'm not really showing up there. You can decide this is a time, you know, like 5pm is the end of my workday and then I'm off of social media then. And you might be like, Doctor, I can't be off of social media from 5 to fine. But create some blocks there in the evening where you're like, this is family time or this is whatever time and I'm not doing this there, you know what I mean? And so you want to create these blocks that interrupt your usage. That's, that's the bottom line, right? That interrupt your usage. You don't want social media to have access to you 24 7, right? So that's the first thing the Second thing is be clear on your intent per time. Okay? Now, you notice I talked about creating millions of dollars in revenue and all these things on social media. That's me showing on social media as an entrepreneur, right? I'm showing up there, you know, to build relationships, to let people know what I do, to share testimonies of the amazing wins we've created for our clients and things like that. You know, to serve, really, to serve my community. Do a lot of Facebook lives and all those kind of things. And, you know, when I'm in. When I'm doing that, I'm working, right? I'm not. I'm not just aimlessly scrolling and stuff like that, which is. And it's strategic, right? Like, I have specific, you know, content that I put up. I have, you know, specific things. I do. I have specific people. I engage with all of that, which is very different from pulling up the thing. Look at what's on your feed, watching video after video, just wait. Not. I mean, for some people, they may decide that's relaxing, right? But you're. You're just. It's just random. It's not strategic. It's random, right? Like, so when it's your random time, you want to be very clear, this is random time. When you go in there and you are networking, right? Because everything, almost everything you do in real life as an entrepreneur, you can do on social media, right? You can do virtually. So you're networking with people who could be referral sources, with people who could be clients or people who are in your community. You're doing market research. You're finding out, like, what are the pain points of my people? So I can. I can better direct my content so it's solving problems for them. You could be on there, you know, selling, telling people, this is what I do, and this is how you can work with me, I guess. All strategic. Okay? So you want to be clear I'm working or I'm playing, right? You just want to be clear on what exactly it is you're doing. And when you're doing the working piece, do that. When you're doing the playing piece, do that. And then you can say, wow, like, you know, I was on social media for four hours today, but three of those hours I was working. Or two of those hours I worked in two hours I was playing. Like, maybe I should play less, you know, on social media, play more with the people around me. But you want to be clear. You want to be crystal clear on the intent, okay? Even as an entrepreneur, I'll put This out here, you know, it's also part of the boundary you want to also look like. When I'm on there, am I being reactive? Like, I'm just showing up and responding to whatever is happening. Am I being proactive? Like, am I showing up? Am I controlling the narrative around my brand? Am I taking responsibility for my online reputation? Am I showing the marketplace who I am? Or am I just responding to stuff? Right? Like, I'm just passively there. You know, someone asks a question, that I answer it and things like that. Or am I building a dominant brand? I. Be clear on your intent so that you know, like, you're not confused by the results you get. Like, if you're playing there the whole time, then you're. You're not going to get business results from that. If you're showing up strategically with the volume and consistent consistency, you are going to get results from that. If you are reactive, you get some results. But if you're proactive, you get even bigger results, right? So just be clear on your intent, okay? So that you can use your time there properly. The third thing, and this is really huge, is to keep it in its place, you know, like in the virtual. Like, Facebook has been good to me, okay? I have built some of the most phenomenal relationships that are even, like, real, you know, like relationships we've now met in person or not built a deeper relationship that we've taken offline and things like that. So I am not knocking social media. However. However, there are relationships that are more real than what you have on social media. You are here, you have a spouse, you have kids, you have siblings, you have friends like you've had over the years. These are your ride and dies. Want to make sure that you're not. Not invested in those relationships because you have all these relationships online that you're spending time on 24 7, right? Because when the chips are down, these are your people. You know what I mean? These are your people. And you may say, oh, but you haven't met my family, okay? So if your family is out of this world, dysfunctional, maybe that's a little different. But if it is, you also want to build an alternate family, right? You want to build relationships with people who can stand in because we all need families, right? And you want to have that because it is so grounding. It is. It's something. Because, yes, there are real relationships that you're going to build virtually, but the bigger your brand gets, the more you're going to have people who, I mean, they'll like they'll click and all of that. Well, all it takes is for you to say one politically correct thing and they're gone. You know what I mean? Like, it is not as real as these other relationships. So you want to make sure you have real relationships with people who will be with you through the thick and thin and all those things. And you're taking the time to cultivate those relationships. Like if you have to take time off of social media so you can spend time building these, you want to build them because you're going to need them. I haven't been alive for too long, but at least I've been alive for 44 years. And there will always be challenges. There will always be times when you'll need people. Make sure you're building the relationships with those people before you need them. Right? Like, so make sure you're doing that. So put social media in its place. Don't be confused by the likes and the clicks and the comments. And please don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying that those are all fake. Some of them are, right, but I'm not saying they're all fake. I have built many really deep, great relationships that started on social media. But that's the thing, we build them deeper, right? Like, so they're your people, right? Okay, so I think I've hit that enough. But keeping it in place on the fourth thing is, especially in the times we live in, actively protect your mental. Your mental space. Actively. You. Your mental space is like your real estate, right? It is like your home. When you look at your home, you have doors, and those doors have locks, and you have. Many of you have security systems. And so if a door that's not supposed to be open gets open, there are alarms that go on, right? You have kids, you protect them. There are people you allow into their lives, they're people you don't allow into their lives, right? In the same way, your mental space is not just. It's not a highway. You don't just let anything go into it. It's not a highway. It's something you guard jealously. You guard actively knowing that the things you allow in there are going to affect you. Like, it is the height of deception to think that it won't. So those things are going to affect you. And so if that's the case, you protect what you allow into it. Okay? So what that means is if you know that there's a group or profile that you follow or you're part of, and every time you go there, you get Triggered, right? Like, you get totally triggered. You don't have to be there. You can exit the group, right? There are groups you go into, and it makes it so difficult for you to believe in your dream. For instance, you know, early in my journey, there were many Facebook groups that were physician groups, and they would bash entrepreneurship. Like, if you're people, you know, all these doctors getting entrepreneurship to deceive other doctors and take advantage of them and take their money and things like that and all that. And while I'm like, yeah, everybody's entitled to their opinion and stuff like that, and I'm building what I'm building, that's just unnecessary baggage. Like, once I'm done reading that one sentence, then I go off, and then I have to do all the work to rewire my brain and say, oh, but. And have all these arguments. Nobody doesn't matter at all. I'm just like, forget it. I just leave, Right? Especially in the beginning part, because you have to fight for your dreams. You have to fight for what you believe in. And sometimes you're dealing with your own doubt. I don't need my doubt and your doubt and everybody else's doubt. So there are places where, you know, when you come out of these places, you need recovery time, and that's a marker. If you are in a group or you follow somebody and every time you see their post, you need recovery time. Unfollow, exit the group. Protect your mental space. And you may have heard me say this before because I talked about this on our episodes on Comparitis and things like that. And I'm like, listen, if you have comparitis, right, where maybe you're a coach and you see other coaches doing really well and you don't want to. You don't want this to be your response, but it makes you feel really bad. It makes you feel like you suck and things like that. Granted, you're gonna have to work through that, but in the meantime, unfollow them. Like, unfollow the person while you build this and you get to this point where you're no longer comparing and things like that. But in the meantime, if you're noticing every time you see someone's post, it takes you 24 hours to rec. Unfollow them. Protect your mental space. Guard your mental space. You don't have to be friends with everybody. You don't have to be acquaintances with everybody. And it doesn't mean that it's for some of them. Maybe it's not a permanent thing. Maybe you'll follow them for 90 days, six months, a year, or whatever. And after that you're in a space to follow them and be inspired what they're doing by what they're doing rather than being offended by what they're doing or, or you know, like it make you feel like you're not doing the job. So when it comes to protecting your mental space, it may be good or bad, right? Like, so the example of somebody doing better, that's not a bad thing. They're not saying anything bad against you, so it's not a bad thing. But if it's messing up with your mind, unfollow, okay? And you know, and if you're like, I don't know if there are any groups like that. If you walk out of a group and every time you walk out of the group, every time you see someone's post, feel some kind of way, and it's very discouraging and you have this chatter that keeps going on in your mind back and forth. May start feeling bad because of the way you feel about them, which you're like, I shouldn't feel that way. And you have to go read up another book or you have to go meet with your coach or you have to go do anything like that. Unpower them. That's a sign that they're messing with your mental space. It doesn't mean they're bad. It may just be there's something you haven't developed. It doesn't matter. Protect your mental space. Okay, so, so those are the things creating those time blocks. Be clear on the intents while you're on there. Keep it in its place. And please, please, please protect your mental space. And so this is one of those episodes where, you know, maybe you're listening to this as you are working out or you're driving to work or whatever. It's a good one to go back to and listen, listen to again and really, you know, workshop it. Right? Workshop it. Do your analysis, you know, look at where you can create some time blocks. This doesn't have to be perfect. Start from somewhere. The important thing is to start. And, you know, I'd really love for everyone to be at a point where you are leveraging social media as a tool and not a weapon. Right? Leveraging social media as a tool, not a weapon. So go do this. And I would love for you to build a dominant brand on there. I would love for you to be able to reach all the, you know, clients who would love to work with you. Love to work with you. And, and you do that. All the while you're building, you know, you're taking time for yourself and you're protecting your mental space, and you're taking time to build high quality relationships because we all need them desperately. Okay. All right. So share this with another doctor in your life. They'll be excited you did. And I will see you on the next episode of the Ontarian Podcast. Hey, if you love listening to the Ontarianity Podcast, I want to invite you to join Entre MD On Demand. It is my signature subscription program that gives you access to a library of business courses designed to help you do one thing as a physician entrepreneur, and that is to thrive. Just head out to entremd.com ondemand and I'd love to have you join us. See you on the inside.