Three Ways To Get The Most of Attending A Conference

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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. Umna.

Hello, hello, hello. Welcome to another episode of the Ontramity podcast. I just feel like I needed to come talk to you today. Okay. This is not regularly scheduled. Like, this is not my scheduled recording time. I'm actually away in Arizona for a conference, but I did something today that was like, I absolutely have to share this with my people. So I'm here. And, you know, I talk a lot about progress over perfection and all of that. So I don't have my professional mic, I don't have my professional setup. I'm literally sitting in a closet in my hotel room. But I'm like, what I'm trying to get across to you is so valuable that it's worth it to just come talk to you, okay? So if you're an audio engineer, I want you to bear with me, okay? But this is going to be so worth it. And the reason is because I came for a conference. And this is a conference for female CEOs, or female entrepreneurs who have crossed at least seven figures in their businesses, which happens to be 2% of, you know, population, if you will. And I'm like, okay, great, I'm coming for this event. And I started going through My routine for preparing for an event.

I was like, wait a minute, I.

Have to share this. Because back in the day, I used to go to events and go like, oh, you know, this is going to be a game changer for me. But I didn't have a checklist, I didn't have a way of preparing, but now I do. And I was like, this is such a beautiful framework. I just have to share with my people. Okay? So that's why I'm on here. And if you think about it, if you go for a conference, you are maybe leaving family at home. I left my four children, my husband at home. And you have to buy your tickets. You have to buy, you know, get your hotel reservations. You have to register for the conference. You have all this time that is lost or could be invested depending on how you use it, right? And so we are entrepreneurs, which means when we do things, when we make investments, we expect a return on investments. And I want to share with you what I do. And I do this so that every time I go for a conference, every time I go to an event, I have a big return on investment. In fact, to be honest, I have attended an event where one idea, one idea for that event, produce multiple six figures in my business in one year. One idea. All right, okay. So this is, this is real deep stuff. So let me share with you, I shared with you three things I do before I set foot out of my house to go to any conference, okay? The same way people take the time to reserve their hotels and buy their tickets, I add this to that process as a non negotiable. This has to happen. So number one is that I set goals for my desired outcome. I set goals for my desired outcome. So I'm going for this event, I'm going to be there for three days. What do I want to walk away with? I determine that before I leave my house. I determine that. So, for instance, with this one, turns out I've been a little sleep deprived. And so one of the things I'm going to be away from home. I have the opportunity to sleep in a little bit. I have the opportunity to go to bed earlier and all that. So actually my number one outcome is rest. Like, I want to rest, I want to go back home refreshed, right? So I'm, you know, I'm going to, I'm going to sleep, I'm going to eat properly, I'm going to exercise, I'm going to do all those things, I'm going to rest. And while that may not be Something that sounds so entrepreneurial. The truth of the matter is you, you don't function as well as an entrepreneur if you're sleep deprived, right? If you're not rested. And I can still function, but I know my reserves are low. And it's one of those things, you know, with the quadrants you have the not urgent but important. This falls in that category. So if I don't do it, nothing bad is going to happen right away, but it's going to catch up with me. So number one thing is I'm going to rest. And the second thing I'm going to do is I'm going to network. And I'm going to network because I want to add something, three people to my social circle that would dramatically change my life and my business. Three new relationships, okay? And this is intentional. This is not, you know, we'll see what happens. No, this is my desired outcome. Three new networks, three new relationships that are going to absolutely explode my life and my, and my business. And then the third thing is I'm going to leave with a few good.

Ideas, a few great ideas that are.

Going to take my business to the next level. And you know, of course I have that defined as to what it is, but that's what I'm going to do. So I have this written. This is not a figment of my imagination. This is written. I'm going to get a lot of rest. I'm going to develop three new relationships, high level relationships that will take my life and business to the next level. And I'm going to get a few good ideas, a few great ideas that once implemented in my business will create radical, dramatic growth. So that's already predetermined, it's already written out. And I show up that way, right? So, so that's the first thing, you know, set that goal. What do you want to get out of it? You can decide it before you go. Okay? Now, so the first, that's the first thing. The second thing is I show up, right? Like there's nothing as intriguing to me as seeing someone travel. And now granted, their goals may be different, right? So of course I'm not judging. It's just intriguing to me, right? Like you travel, you go for a conference, you come late for all the sessions, you don't talk to anybody, you don't make any connections.

You. And I'm just like, why?

I mean, you got on a plane, you paid for a room, you know what I mean? So for me, I show up. So I'm there on time because I Didn't fly all that way to miss anything. I'm there on time for the sessions. I show up, I network. And you guys know I'm an introvert. So it's not as though I'm like, oh my goodness, what a great thing, let's go network. Clearly that's not what I'm thinking, but. But then again, what a great thing it is. Let's go, let's go network. Why? Because I am looking for those three people, right? And it doesn't mean I don't really talk to anybody. I'm just looking for three people. I mean, I network with everybody, but I'm looking for these three people and if I don't talk to many people, I can't find them, right? So I network. I network a lot. And then I show up with this attitude of openness. I'm teachable, I'm in explorer mode. I don't say, oh, I don't agree with that. I explore, I explore different thoughts, right? Because the thoughts I have now have created the results I have now. And if I want to have much bigger results, I'm going to have to accept much bigger thoughts. Maybe different thoughts, different ways of looking at things. I may be listening to people who are in different industries who I feel like, oh, they don't understand the healthcare industry or whatever, or they don't understand the coaching industry, whatever. I stay open, I listen to all of them, I listen to all the ideas. I'm not going to use all of them. They're not all going to prove to be, you know, million dollar ideas. But if I stay open, then maybe I can get those few good ideas, right? So I show up that way, I show up on time, I show up to network and I'm open, I'm teachable. I literally call myself Dora the Explorer. Like I'm exploring. That's what I'm doing. Okay, so that's the second thing. This is my routine, this is what I do. This is predetermined before I leave my house. And the third thing I do is now this part I do, wherever the conference is, is I don't leave the conference without an execution plan. I don't leave without an execution plan. So I remember this must have been four years ago. I went for a conference hosted by People pcc, that's Physicians computer company. Amazing company. They're an EHR company. And I mean it was so many things or so many great concepts. I went with the person who worked my front desk at the time and.

You know, we divvied.

Up sessions. She went to some admin sessions, I went to some clinical ones and CEO ones and all of that. And then when it was done, she was like, oh, this was amazing. I was like, yeah, but it's not over yet. So we found a quiet place. We sat down, of course, in nature, you know, me was outside somewhere, and we sat down and we're like, okay, so we heard so many amazing concepts and so many things. What are we going to do with it? Right? So we're like, okay, we're going to implement these ones.

Great.

What's the timeline for it? Like, let's put in order, priority. Which one are we going to do first? Which one are we going to do second? All of that. And we did all that. So we didn't walk away from the conference, just inspired. We walked away from the conference inspired and with the game plan and. And with the game plan so we could hit the ground running. Do you see what I'm saying? I was in a conference earlier this year, and the conference ended. And the following morning before, this was at the beach. So this was in Miami, okay? And we were right by the beach. So the following morning, I put my sneakers on, I put my headphones in.

And I just walked the beach.

I walked the beach for two hours, okay?

And what was I doing? I was pulling out what we were going to do.

What is it?

What am I going to do?

There's a particular decision I needed to make, but my mindset couldn't handle it. So I sat and I thought and I imagined and I dreamed. And I was like, I have to expand my concept to get this so.

I can implement it.

And I left the beach with my action plan. And I'll tell you what I do, and I do this with everything is, you know, when I have an action plan, I always quote, unquote, cheat, right? And so what that means is I start doing it before I need to. And so after I left the beach and I went back to my hotel room, I did one or two things from the action plan. So it's kind of like, look, I'm not even back in Atlanta yet. And I started, you know, started taking action. It just created momentum and all of that for me, right? So I don't leave a conference without an execution plan. I don't do it. Why? Because being inspired is not enough. It's a great first step, but, you know, the people who are going to have the biggest results are the people who are going to be inspired are going to change their mindset. And all that, and they're going to.

Do something with it, right?

So I leave with a plan to execute. Now, I want you to think about this for a second, okay? Think about this with me. You go for an event before you go for the event you've already planned. This is what I'm going to get out of it. And you decide. I'm going to show up on time, I'm going to network, I'm going to be open, I'm going to be teachable. I'm going to be like Dr. Una. I'm going to be Dora the Explorer. And once the event is done, you crystallize everything. You've gone from the event into a few action steps and you even start.

Implementing from the conference before you go home. What do you think happens to you.

If you attended three conferences a year doing it that way, Right? So it cost me quite a bit to be here. Whether that's the ticket, whether that's the hotel, whether that's the time I could have been using to do other things. My family, oh, my goodness, my family I left behind. And so I totally plan to get at least a 10x return on investment for this. That's my plan, you know, like 100%. That's my plan. And I'm going to execute. I'm going to do what I need to do. I'm going to do my part. And the beautiful thing about this is you plan this and you execute it. You almost always end up with a lot more than you planned for in the long run. Like the event I went for earlier in Miami, I was like, yeah, this is going to be, this is going to be amazing because I don't want to be here. You know what I mean? So if I'm going to be here, if I'm going to leave my family, it was, it was right after my birthday, you know, and all this stuff, I was like, if I'm going to be here, I'm going to get a lot out of it. I cannot. You know what? I need to do the math. Some days, a lot more than 10x, it's like really insane. And it was just one good idea, right? So that could be you, right? So I'm going to challenge you and I'm going to ask you to become this person who never just attends events, like for fun or is who's kind of like, oh, you know, I want to see what about the content? If you notice, a little bit of it is content, right? A few good ideas, but really everything else is not necessarily directly Related to the content. You don't just go for the content. You go there for the people. Like, for instance, the one that I'm attending, this is for female CEOs who run seven figure companies. I mean, like, so it's not just the content, is the people that you have access to, the relationships. You can build the network. I mean, like, it's a different kind of room. This is not an everyday room. Right? So you don't. I'm not going to go there just for the content. I'm going to go there for all of it. And so I was like, I have to come tell my people about this and I want you to adopt this.

Now.

You attend events like an entrepreneur. You calculate for a return on investment. And the reason for this is great. Men and women are made in meetings. One event can change the trajectory of your life and your business forever. Like forever and ever. And so when you walk into an event, I want you to start going.

There like you understand that one relationship.

One can change your business forever. One conversation. I went to an event and the keynote speaker was Kara Golden. And Kara golden is the founder of Hint Water. They do about 150 million in revenue. And she wrote a book. Undaunted is such a good book. You should look for it on Amazon and buy it and read it and it will change your life. It is so good. And I had the opportunity to speak.

With her and it was so crazy.

Because I'm here, I am saying hi to her, and your keynote was amazing. You know, I'm an introvert, but I don't stay at the back of the room anymore. So I go up, I talk to the speakers, I do all the stuff.

And it was so weird.

It was almost like she had known.

Me because she's like, oh, what do you do?

And you know, so I'm telling her, you know, this is my mission and all this stuff. And about the entrepreneur business school. And so she looks at me, she's.

Like, you know, don't be worried about anything anybody else is doing. Don't worry about how big, big their businesses look. Don't worry about how experienced it seems they are. Stay in your lane. I work your lane. And don't worry about throwing so much money at marketing, all that stuff. In the beginning, I had no money for marketing. What sold my brand was the story. It's only recently I started throwing dollars at marketing was the story. You tell the story, you own the story. And whatever you do, don't quit, outlast them.

And it was like perfect.

Advice.

It's like, exactly what I needed to hear.

It resonated with me in a way.

That I cannot even begin to describe.

That was maybe two minutes, maybe three minutes, and that's it. An event can change your life. So I want you to change the.

Way you look at events.

It's no longer this thing that I do, but when you go there, you plan for return on investment. You plan for. You know, this is going to be a game changer for me. You can decide that. And if you decide that, you can make it happen 100%.

Okay?

So that's what I got for you.

But I'm telling you, if you adopt.

This, if you adopt this, everything changes. And no matter how much an event is, you're willing to pay for it. Knowing that the return on investment that.

I'm going to generate from it essentially makes this event free, right? Essentially. No matter how expensive the hotel room was, no matter how expensive the flight was, no matter how much time I could have been working local, whatever, right?

Okay.

So that's what I have with for you. I am going to go execute my plan thoroughly, and I'll be happy to give you updates three months from now and tell you, listen, that was a hundred x people. Hundred x. All right? But I want you to adopt this. I want you to do this as well. And listen, you know, we're part of a movement, right? We're 80,000 doctors building profitable businesses so we can live life and practice medicine on our own terms. So I want you to go tell.

Another doctor, hey, take a screenshot of this.

Tell them, hey, go listen to this. Okay? Now I know how to show up in events.

Now I know how to make the most out of events and all of this stuff and let their lives be changed, too.

And I'll leave you with this little secret.

Even if the event sucks, if you make this decision, you still get your return on investment.

That's the thing.

You can decide, and you can go.

Get what you want out of it.

All right?

All right. Thank you for listening. Go share the episode and I will see you, my friends, on the next episode of the EntreMD podcast.

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