The Secret to Shattering Self-Imposed Glass Ceilings as a Physician Entrepreneur

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. If you want to build an asset, you can build an asset. If you want to build a great team, you can build a team. If you want to set the stage so you can work two days a week without sacrificing profits, without sacrificing revenue, you can choose to do that and you can do that, whatever that is. I am trying to tell you that it's time to get your hopes up. It's time to dream again. It's time to own that vision, whatever it is that is tugging at your heart, it's time to own it and say, okay, I'm ready to do it. 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. Dr. Una. One of the best things that will happen in your business is that your business will succeed. One of the most challenging things that will happen in your business is that your business will succeed. When I think about it, amongst, you know, physician, business owners, entrepreneurs, you know, sometimes we think, well, I just want to take my business to six figures, or I just want to take my business to a point where it replaces my physician salary, or I want to take my business to seven figures. Multiple seven figures, all of that. But the thing is, once we hit what it is that we wanted to hit, sometimes there's this boredom that creeps in because you're like, okay, then what do I just sit around and do nothing and not continue to advance and stuff like that. And sometimes it makes us stall, it makes us sabotage, it makes us go backwards. It makes us get so bored with our business that we follow some shiny object, you know, some distraction, and actually almost destroy the business that's taken us so long to create and to build up to its level and to today. I want to paint a picture of the kinds of things that are possible. There are bigger things that are out there, and I just want you to have that picture in front of you. Because if you are a visionary, if you are a serial entrepreneur, if you're someone who wants to disrupt an industry, if you're someone who wants to change the narrative for a particular group of people, chances are that drive to keep going is going to be there and you kind of want to know which way to go. So I'm just gonna thr some stories in front of you because I want you to see this and I want you to honor who you are and get ready to shatter some more glass ceilings. So I'm going to start off by, you know, like talking a little bit about my philosophy as someone who supports physician entrepreneurs. So you've heard my story. So you know that I started off as a super shy, socially awkward, introverted introvert and a very private person. And I still am am a very private person. Like, left to me, I will not talk about the inner workings of my business. I will not talk about my results. I definitely will not talk about any revenue numbers. I wouldn't talk about any of that. However, there is a reason I talk about it. There is a reason why I would come out and say, you know, we crossed a million in revenue. We cost 2 million in revenue. I'm leading multiple seven figure businesses. There's a reason why I'll say, oh, we hit the Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing companies in the United States two years in a row. There's a reason why I would share it. That and the reason why I share that is I understand that in my role as somebody who supports physician entrepreneurs, I get to teach the mindset. I need to get to teach the strategy, I get to coach the people through it. I get to give them the gift of accountability. But I also hold up almost like a vision board in front of the people to say, this is what is possible. You can and you know, especially because I'm female, I am a person of color because I have Four children. Because I trained, you know, I'm an IMG or fmg. I trained in another country, I trained in Nigeria and all of these things. And I'm saying, okay, guys, and I'm peds, where people say opeds is the lowest paying specialty. And people are like, I am a lowly pediatrician, which I would never describe myself that way. And if you're a pediatrician, go peds. Please never describe yourself that way. Entrepreneurship is a great equalizer, okay? So we don't, we don't have to identify with that at all. Okay. So to say. And yes, you can build a six figure, seven figure, multiple seven figure business. Yes, you can build a practice as an asset that can work without you. And to say, yes, you can own your dreams of what you feel like your calling is, like what I do with Entre md. That is my calling. It is my calling to help physicians build profitable seven and multiple seven figure businesses so they have the freedom to live life and practice medicine on their terms. Like, you can do this. You want to homeschool your kids? You can homeschool your kids. Like, why am I doing all of that? Because the vision board, so if you want that, you can say, oh my goodness, I want that. And apparently people can do that. And I want to do that too, right? So that is the reason why I share all of that. That's the reason why I give all that information. I want you to know what is possible. I want you to know that you can rise above the system. I want you to understand that you can leverage entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is a tool. It is a gift. It is a system that you can use to create your own pathway, create your own autonomy, create your own way out of burnouts, create your own financial freed them. Create your own pay scale. Like they can pay anybody whatever they want to pay them. You can choose what you want to earn, right? And I want to show you that you can do this. Show you that you can be a serial entrepreneur. If that's the thing you've been thinking about. It doesn't make you crazy. You're not crazy. There's absolutely nothing wrong with you. You can do that if that's what you want to do. You are not a one trick pony. You are not, you know, like, I'm a physician. That's all I am. No, no, you can stack whatever skill, whatever expertise you want to stack on top of it. And in addition to all of this, you can live your dream life, whatever that is to you. For me, a huge part of my Dream is I want to homeschool my kids. That's what I wanted to do. I wanted to be available to transfer all of the wisdom, the insight and all of these things have made me who I am into them. And I don't want them to do it as adults. I want them to do it as kids. Right? And so that I would have given them such a powerful starting point and then they can do whatever is authentic to them and whatever they want to do with it. I've been talking about this in entrepreneurship MD for the last six years. I've been talking about this in the Entre MD business school for the last four years. Like we just clocked four years a few months ago. And I have been talking about this in the tier of the Entre business school called scale. And this is for physicians who are doing a million or over in revenue and still interested in hyper growth and want to build companies that are team led that can work without them. So I've been doing this and something happened on the last call with EBS Scale that made me go like, my goodness, like now I get to watch this playing out. Okay, so I want to give you a couple of these stories now before we start whatever strategy or whatever it is that we need to do. People would share their wins. And as they shared their wins, I was like, this is my dream. Like the things I've been talking about are now reality. Not just, not in my life, not in my business, but in the, in the lives and the businesses of others. So this is just a regular Thursday. We have our sessions on Thursday and they're sharing their wins. And I want you to listen to this. Okay. All right. So first of all, a doc comes up and she says that she's been in practice for a little over three years at this point and she has had a new doctor that is starting in her practice. And you might go like, okay, new doctor, whatever. But I need you to understand this. There are many people who go years and years and years, a decade, they don't hire another physician because they can't find the physician. They feel they can't afford the physician. There's so much mind drama against another about another physician's salary. And she's three years in practice and so she's like, she has a part time doctor, she has a part time nurse practitioner. Now she's bringing on a full time doc. So she comes to share her win and she's like, the full time doc is here filling up his schedule. You know, team is working great with him, he's having a great experience. The onboarding is going really well. This is just amazing. And I'm looking at her, her and you know, she's built her systems, her processes, she's bringing in the team and this is like a, a well oiled machine. And when she needs to step away from the practice for a week, two weeks or whatever, it runs so smoothly without her. It's like so fantastic. Three years in practice. Three years. And then at the same time she's like, can we sign the contract? We're switching EHRs and you know, we're getting a new EHR, we've signed the contract with them. We have a new location because of the expansion, we're moving to that new location and so many good things happening. Just another Thursday and so you may be here and you're like, how do I hire? How do I find the right person to hire? Can I find that person? Can my practice work without me for any length of time? Can we find that new location? I'm trying to tell you they're doing it. It's within reach. This is not me. This is not a theory. This is not me. This is another doc. And I'm, I'm saying three years, a little over three years in practice. Okay, so, so that's the first document. The second doc is like, you know, I just finished my meeting with my accountant and it's been so amazing that I've been working less, I have been putting in less hours, I've been putting in less clinical days and my revenue grew. Now, not that her revenue went down, but it was proportional. So it's okay. Not that her revenue stayed the same. No, her revenue grew. I want you to think about it. Working less, making more, working less, making more. Is it an impossible thing? No, but there's strategies, strategies around it. I just want to show you, like if you've been thinking of this, it's within, it is within the realm of possibility. Okay, so that's the second doc. The third doc comes up and it's like, you know, business is going well and all of that and I just had someone to reach out to me for an opportunity to do another TED Talk. And I'm like, well, that's fantastic. Well, that's fantastic. And this is somebody who TED talks, has worked amazing for her business model and it's created so many opportunities. She's done one time for a second one. Unbelievable, Amazing. Okay, third doc gets up and I mean when she was done I was like, okay, fine, now this person has been Trying to hire someone. And in the beginning she's like, nobody will want to come here. You know where my practice is. I don't know if I can find somebody. I don't know if I can match what other people are offering. And this is something we talk about a lot. Like, you know, like your offer is so much better than, you know, and you want to pay attention, you know, to not just a traditional offer, but what makes your offer unique, why your practice is the best place to work. But anyway, she had been looking for someone. She had found somebody that didn't quite work out and all of that. And I was like, you'll find what you're looking for. So here she comes and she says, you know, I was talking to a hospital that I could work with, and the hospital decided that they would hire me somebody, they would do the income guarantee and they will give me a new location. What? And so here I am going like, I'm 45 years old, man. Otherwise I would do cartwheels. This is so insane. I want you to think about this going from I don't know if I can get a doc to I'm getting a doc. They have their whole recruiting team, that's what it's going to be behind me, working on that. They're going to get me a doc, they're going to do the income guarantee for a year, and they're going to give me a new location. They're going to pay for that. That is insane. Okay? That is called hashtag insane. So that's the fourth doc. Now, remember, this is not the call. This is just them sharing the wins before we start the call. Okay? The fifth doctor, she's just amazing. And so she says, you know, I had Reuters journalists come to my office for the day to come, you know, interview, you know, follow us around, whatever journalists do when they go into people's private practices. And that person was there for a day, totally blown away, you know, flew in from la, spent the whole day there. It's like, I've not seen a practice like yours. Like, all the things you do, you know, to help your patients get the result that you want them to get and all of that. So amazing. Okay, so that's number one. Now, remember, this is a private practice. Then I'm like, oh, yeah, and I saw you post this stuff about, you know, vacation you're taking with your family. So she's going to be gone for two weeks. Now, I want you to understand, this person's practice is less than two years old. Okay? But she has built the systems and processes and all of those things and built the team that less than two years. Her practice is not two years old. She gets to walk away for two weeks, just have a great time with her family. And she's looking forward to it, right? She's looking forward to it. Okay. And as if that's not enough, and she says, oh, and then I had a meeting with my team, and come January, I'm going to be able to drop to two clinical days a week. At that point, I was like, okay, woman, okay, stop right there. Stop. And I said, in January, when you go to two days a week, how old will your practice be? 21 months. Her practice will be 21 months old when she would have done the work to build the systems, build the processes, build the team, and she can drop to two clinical days a week. Now, are we saying everybody should drop to two clinical days a week? No, but entrepreneurship is about building what you want so you can live the way you want. And this is what she wants to do, right? And I'm like, this is phenomenal. Now there are more wins. I just can't go through all of them. Okay. And this is just another Thursday. If I could go into their plans. These are people building multiple verticals. These are people who are, you know, going to exit their practices to go on to do other things. These are people who are building practices that work without them so they can choose. I want to work four days a week, five days a week, two days a week, no day a week. Like, whatever it is they want to do, they are not done. One of the things I've said a lot since we started. Well, I didn't say it in the beginning when we started the Entrepreneur Business School, because I, you know, I didn't think people were ready for it. I don't even think people are ready for it now. But. But I say it, they. They can handle it. And that is, many of you are gonna go on to be serial entrepreneurs. Many of you are gon go on to do things that will absolutely blow your mind. Because in the Entrepreneur Business School, we don't just say, here are the frameworks. Here's the. Here's the manual. Here's all the things you need to start a practice go away. What we do is a harder job. And the harder job is to take a great clinician and make them a great clinician and a savvy entrepreneur. And once you're an entrepreneur, you're. You're a person who. Entrepreneurs. You're a person who builds businesses. You're a person who sees solutions where people see problems. You're a person who sees opportunities when people see locked do yours. That's just who you are. And because you have a heart to solve problems, you're just going to keep solving problems. But anyway, they're not done. And why am I telling you this? I am telling you this because I want you to unlock the glass ceiling that you've accepted. I want you to look at the obstacles in front of you and say, apparently I can knock this out of the park. Apparently I can handle this. Apparently this is not the end. Now, if you've arrived and you're like, I don't want to grow anymore. I don't want to do anything and not grow anymore because I don't want the pain of it. But, you know, like, this is just what I want, that's fine, that's fine. I, I hope you're inspired by this and, you know, it helps you innovate with what you're doing and keep it at that level. But you're here and you're like, okay, hang on, hang on. I want to have a team. I want to have a team that can run my business when I'm not there. I want to build my business such that if I wanted to sell it, I could actually sell it. People say something all the time, which is private practice are worthless. Like, you can't sell them them right now. If you own your job, that statement is true. But if you build a business asset, it is not true. I have not stepped foot in my private practice in the last two and a half years. We're going on three years. And so there is documented evidence that the practice can work with me, that it can bring in over seven figures every year without me. There is documented evidence. So guess what? It is worth something. It's worth a whole lot. Because it is not an entity where if I walk away, it falls apart because I'm not there there, right? And so if you want to build an asset, you can build an asset. If you want to build a great team, you can build a team. If you want to set the stage so you can work two days a week without sacrificing profits, without sacrificing revenue, you can choose to do that. And you can do that. You decide, I want to create more revenue. I haven't hit the seven figure mark. I want to do it. I haven't hit the multiple seven figure mark. I want to do it like, whatever that is. I am trying to tell you that it's time to get your hopes up. It's time to dream again. It's time to own that vision, whatever it is that is tugging at your heart, it's time to own it and say, okay, I'm ready to do it. I'm ready to do it. I'm ready to do the work. I'm ready to invest in myself. I'm ready to get this stuff done. But I cannot tell you how proud I am of these physicians and how excited I am for them, because I know there is so much more to come. I don't think they even know how much more there is to come, but there's so much more to come. Okay. Now, of course, if you're like, what, There's a room like that? There's a room like that. Well, I want to invite you to come check out the room. Okay? So entrepreneur.com forward/call. You can talk with my team and say, I heard Dr. Una talk about a scale. EBS scale. Entrepreneur business School scale. What is that? I want to be in that room. Okay. And my team will take care of you. You. Okay? But I want you to get your hopes up, and I want you to not accept any glass ceiling except you intentionally built it. So that means it's a roof, like you built a roof. But I don't want you to accept any glass ceilings. We need to shatter them. And just the way I'm a vision board for you, vision board for the people in the Entrepreneur Business School. You have your call to be a vision board for the people behind you, for the people who are looking up to you. So shatter some glass ceilings already, okay? But I want to leave you with this. And I will tell you this, because this is something that I say to the students in the Entrepreneur Business School, at the end of every call, I say this to them, and I want you to kind of piggyback off of that and hear it for yourself. I say to them, I want to remind you of who you are. You are ebs. You are the doctors who are building the most innovative, most impactful, and most profitable businesses inside and outside of healthcare. You are the literal vision boards for the physician community, and is my one of my life's greatest honors to work alongside you. So I'm leaving you with that. This is what is possible for you. You can be that person who is building one of the most impactful, innovative, and profitable businesses inside and outside of healthcare. You can be the person who's a vision board for physicians everywhere. And I want you to invite you to say yes to the call. And don't hold back. Don't let obstacles stop you. You don't let fear stop you. Don't let what if stop you. Don't let mistakes from the past stop you. It's time to move forward. It's time to forge ahead. Healthcare is waiting on you. Your patients are waiting on you. Your team is waiting on you. Your family is waiting on you. You are waiting on you. You deserve to see who you can become when you say yes to your dreams. Okay, so if you're saying yes to your dreams, you can send me a private message and say, oh, my goodness, Dr. Una, that is me. I'm saying yes. Yes. I am rooting for you. I am absolutely rooting for you. Take this episode. Take the link. Share with another doctor in there in your world. Tell them you just need to go listen to this and I'll see you on the next episode of the Entre podcast.