Top three mistakes entrepreneurs make in a recession

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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. Unna.

Well, welcome back to another episode of the On Trendy podcast, my friend. We are going to have an absolute blast. Everybody's talking about the recession, and in the untrendy world, we decide in recessions that we are going to thrive. Okay? We make the decision first and then we figure it out, okay? So I want you to join me, make this decision. I am going to thrive in the middle of this recession. This is going to be my best of times, okay? And let's talk a little bit about strategy, what we're going to do. Now, a lot of physician entrepreneurs are going through this as well. And so what I want you to do is I want you to take the time after you're done listening to this to share this episode with another doctor and say, hey, let's listen to this, because this is gonna be our time to thrive. Okay? Don't do this alone. Realize that, I mean, there are a million physicians, a number of them are entrepreneurs all going through it, but we can thrive in the midst of it. All right? So I wanna talk about the top three mistakes that entrepreneurs make in a recession. Okay? So the thing about recessions is that they've always been they will always be okay. And so you'll see people who are seasoned entrepreneurs, they're going like, yeah, we've been over. We are. We're due for a recession. Like, I was thinking we would get one sooner that you would hear them say things like that, because they realize that these are cycles that come. And so when these cycles come, there are mistakes that they notice people make. There are studies that have been done on the people who thrive in the midst of recessions and what they do. So I'm not going to give you 700 things to do. I'm going to give you three things to do, and you start embracing them now. Now, we also talk in the entremd world about a disease or called learnitis, right? Where we just learn things to learn. And this is one episode where I really, really want you to stand guard against learnitis and decide that I'm going to learn to do. Okay. Nothing changes until we do something different, okay? So we're not going to learn to learn. We're going to learn to do. And these things, they're really simple, okay? They're really simple. But again, the problem with simple things is they're simple to do, they're simple not to do. Okay? All right, so let's take a look at these things that you're going to do. The first mistake I see is that they shrink back. They shrink back. So, oh, my goodness, there's a recession. And then they put pause, right? So there's a pause on promoting marketing. There's a pause on showing up and relentlessly making offers. There's a pause on. On constantly serving. The clients that we do have is just like, let's hold our breath. There is a recession, okay? Now, majority of people are going to do this. And so what that means is if you want to be in the minority, the minority are the people who are going to thrive in it. Then you want to do the exact opposite, okay? When you see where the quote unquote masses are going to, a lot of times the smart thing to do is the opposite direction, okay? So you're going to see shrinking. It's so much so that the people who run who are really big on ads, they're really excited when a recession hits because a lot of people pull back their ad dollars. And so the cost of ads goes lower. And the playing field is, you know, is there's a lot less people there. So it's the best of times for them, right? And so you are going to be tempted to shrink back, to hold back, to hold your breath to say, okay, let's just hold off and see what happens with this recession. But that is the time to play full on offense. Okay? So shrinking back is a mistake. When the pandemic hit, there were practices that, the second it hit, they're like, oh, we're just going to. This is before. This is before anybody said anything about shutting doors or whatever. They're just like, oh, there's this thing going on. We're just going to close the office for a few weeks. I have enough, enough cash flow to take care of that and we'll just see where things go. Now the problem with that is, well, things went south, really south, right? And so think about closing weeks before the pandemic really hit. And then the pandemic hit and all of that. The process of recovery from that is like, it's almost impossible, right? But there are others who are like, full offense, okay? How do we have to educate our people so we can still continue to serve them? How do we promote? How do we do all of these things? Do not shrink back. Don't shrink back. Don't hold back, don't go into hiding. Don't just say, okay, I'm just going to wait and weather the storm. This is the time to play all offense. Most people won't be doing that. That's where the magic is. Okay? So that's the first mistake that I see. The second mistake I see is that people do not prepare mentally, right? People do not prepare mentally. They do not realize how much of a challenge it will be to go through the recession, right? And so what that looks like is, you know, when we sabotage ourselves, a lot of times it's not something external that causes it, right? Is something internal. Is the doubts, is the limiting beliefs, is the fears, the, you know, the narratives that we pick up, all of those things. And if you are. If you know that you're going into a recession or you're in a recession, it's like knowing that I'm at war, right? You prepare for that, right? You prepare. You're like, okay, what, you know, what equipment do I need? What kind of outfits do I need to wear? All of that. Like you would do that if you're in a war. And so in a recession, we. What do you do to take care of yourself internally so you can weather the storm? Okay, so for instance, if you know that, okay, I have a lot of fears around something, then now is the time to start tackling that. Now is the time to start dealing with that. If you know that you're not in control of your mind. Maybe you had habits like meditation and all of these things that you used to use, but you've kind of thrown them away because know, times were good then. Now is the time to bring those things back. Now is the time to get back to meditation. Right now is the time to get back. Maybe you're like me and you, you know, the long walks are therapeutic. Right? Now is the time to get back to that because you need to be mentally strong to go through a recession. Now, one of the most powerful things you can do to prepare internally is to be build a community around you. So there is this proverb that says, walk with the wise and become wise. Right? Walk with the wise and become wise. For some reason in our time, we think that I'm a complete individual. I'm not affected by the people around me and all of those things. And it's such dangerous thinking because that means you let the wrong people around you thinking that they don't influence you and you don't strategically put yourself around the right people so they can influence you. Right? And so one of the things you, you want to do in, in preparation is you want to have a community of people who are also going through the recession and are like, we got this and we are going to thrive and we are going to stay abreast of the facts and we are going to unlock the strategies we need to use in this time. And these are the breaks I'm getting, and this is how I did it. You need to be in that kind of space because the opposite space is woe is me. Nothing is working. Everything was fine till this recession hit. Oh, my goodness. You cannot be in that kind of environment if you're going through a recession and you want to thrive. Okay, now build a community. Some of you listening, you are in the entrepreneur business school. I will say take full advantage of your community because in the community, you have people who are having their biggest months, you have people who are having their biggest breaks. They're having the biggest opportunities show up. You have people who are having, you know, challenges because there is a recession and they are going through it and they're debriefing you and giving you, you know, the exact things they're doing to go through. Like, you're watching it in real time. These are fighters. These are, you know, entrepreneurial warriors, if you will. Right? You want to take full advantage of that because you walk with the wise, you become wise. You walk with the people thriving in the recession. You thrive in the recession. You want to be in the right rooms. You want to keep yourself away from the naysayers. That is something that we just cannot afford to do. It's too expensive in a recession. If you're not in the on trendy business school, build your own community. Find people like that, build that. If you've, you've thought about it, you're like, you know, I do want to do my business. Like, I mean it. I want to cross my first six figures, seven figures, or multiple seven figures, then come join us on trendy.com forward/business. Come join us in the business school. But even if you don't build a community, don't just let the relationships in your life happen to you because you are going to mirror the people you hang out with, okay? So in a recession is not the time to hang out with people who are woe is me people, okay? So that's the second mistake, not preparing mentally. And a huge part of that is community, okay? Now the third mistake that I see is not preparing to seize opportunities. So what happens in a recession? In a recession, there are a lot of problems. A lot. Okay? Now what do entrepreneurs do? They solve problems and they get a thank you note called money, right? And so in a way, a recession, if you can put on the right lens, is like one of the best times for an entrepreneur, okay? I'm not saying it's not challenging or it doesn't have all those things. It does. I just talked about how we mentally prepare for it. But it's also one of the best times. So you can look and you can see problems or you can look and see problems that really are opportunities. And I want it. And one of the mistakes is not seeing the opportunity, okay? Not seeing the opportunity. So let's look at this in a number of ways. So number one, let's say you have a, a business and you've been putting away money, right? So you've been paying yourself, quote, unquote, like putting away money, save saving money, and you're saving money for investments, right? In a recession, that would be a time where you could get deals, for instance, in real estate, that make no sense. That's like, like, you know, amazing deals because that's what's happening with the market, right? And you're, you're, you're not in a position to take advantage of those of that opportunity. Somebody may decide, I want to sell my business, right? Cause the recession, all these things are going on. And this is something that is, you know, like almost like a turnkey type type Business and it's, you know, well staffed and all of those things. And it's a good opportunity and you're in a purpose, in a position to acquire something that will be a great asset in your business. There are businesses that are shutting down and laying people off and you may be able to hire people that you may never have been able to hire at any other time, right? You, you have your clients who now have new problems that you solve, right? Like their problems you solve because of the recession. There's new problems. And as an entrepreneur, what do you do? You solve problems. This may be your opportunity to build a vertical in your business that captures another aspect of the market. And I can go on and on and on and on. The bottom line is there are a lot of opportun and so you want to prepare yourself to seize the opportunities which will require that you change the lens through which you see the world. When you look at problems, you need to be asking, where is the opportunity in this problem? It is a new way of thinking. Where is the opportunity in this problem? Are you going to take every opportunity? No. But if you identify, if you learn to identify them and just get good, build that muscle, get really good at it, then you just become this person who can identify opportunities. And when your opportunity shows up, you'll be ready, right? So you, you want to train yourself to see them and you want to be putting away money so that you can take advantage of them. And so just these three things, right? Just these three things will make a huge difference, huge difference in the way the recession happens for you. So mistakes to avoid. Number one, shrinking back. Do not shrink back. Do not stop promoting. Do not say people, there's a recession. People must not be buying. So I'm not talking about my stuff anymore. Don't say any of that. Full on offense. Now you will find that even if your full off offense is not bringing as much as you would expect it to, because there's a recession, one is that you'll thrive in the midst of the recession. Two is that when, when the tides turn, you are so far ahead of the others in your industry that your boom is going to be a big loud boom. Okay? Second mistake, not preparing mentally. Okay? So prepare. Understand that it's going to be tough times and you have to have tough thinking and you have to be able to weather the storms. So this is that time to start working on your mindset, working on your belief. Go back to meditation, go back to being around people who have decided to thrive in the recession. Okay? You have to be around those people. Your network is your net worth. Okay? And you will look like the people you hang out with. So you hang out. You build that community intentionally. Okay?

All right.

And then the third thing, the third mistake is not prepping to seize opportunities. So you get yourself ready to seize opportunity. You start practicing. People are saying, that's a problem. What is the opportunity in that? These people are saying, that's a problem. What's the opportunity in that? The more you do that, the bigger your muscle, that muscle of seeing opportunity, the bigger it becomes. And, oh, my goodness, you will go like, the recession was awful, but it was the best of times for me. And I would love. Oh, my goodness, would I love to hear physicians say that. That would be amazing. Okay, so I want you to take a moment, look at your life. Go like, okay, have I started shrinking back? Am I doing anything to prepare mentally? Have I built a community, a tribe that I can run through this recession with? Do I see problems or do I see opportunities? Ask yourself these critical questions. Reflect, and then flip switch. Okay? Decide. I'm not making these mistakes. This is going to be the best of times, and I cannot wait to celebrate. Okay, so I want you to think about it on the other side of this. We could be people who have grown so much as entrepreneurs. Our businesses have grown so much. We took advantage of opportunities. We built an unbelievable network, and we will be in a position to really, really, really explode even more after the recession. That could be you. Okay, so what I want you to do is take this episode, share it with another physician entrepreneur. They will thank you forever. And together, we'll rise. Together, we'll weather this. Together, we'll thrive in the midst of it. And I cannot wait to celebrate it all with you. So go share with a friend, and I will see you on the next episode of the EntreMD podcast.

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See you on the inside.