#161 From Physician to Entrepreneur: Navigating the Career Shift

Hey, everyone. This week we're going to talk about the mindset necessary to shift from medicine to entrepreneurship. We're going to talk about a ton of stories. I've heard about my own stories, and I know you're going to enjoy this. All right, stay tuned. Welcome to the Passive Income MD Podcast, where we talk about creating your ideal life through multiple streams of income. If you enjoy hearing about this stuff, make sure to hit subscribe. Now, let's get on with the show. So if you've ever been part of our community, you know that I love stories. I about physicians who have turned to entrepreneurs now, the stories of how they experienced a challenge, or maybe they thought about a challenge or had some challenge in their own lives. And then with a ton of determination, they used a lot of creativity, resourcefulness, and they went after it right? With a passion. They solved the problem and they created a business at the core. That is what entrepreneurship is all about. It's simply solving a problem. Again, I've shared stories in the past, especially on the Leverage of Growth Summit. I about pediatricians, anesthesiologists, radiologists who have found a problem, discovered a problem, especially in medicine, that they were able to solve. Whether it's invention of a device, a consumer product, good. Whether it's an app, whatever it might be, they've taken their passion and created all of these things. Now, when you've heard some of these stories, you might think that's an amazing story. But how are they able to do that? That's for them, but maybe that's not for me. We often see that other side of success and we just see where they're at today. And they don't. We, we don't remember what it took to get there, or it seems impossible to figure out how we can get there. But there is a shift and a mindset necessary to get there. And it doesn't come easy. That's why I like calling it not always a shift, but I like calling it a transition because it takes time to get from here to there. So in today's episode, we talk about four ways to navigate this transition into entrepreneurship. Number one, you have to simply identify what is driving you to do this. Like, what's the driving force behind this career addition or this career shift or career transition? Is it a desire for financial freedom? Do you want that flexibility? Do you want to live in another country for three months? Is your current job not what you thought it'd be? Are you looking for that flexibility to spend time more with your family? Is it a Desire to make a bigger impact. Maybe you love treating patients one on one, but you'd love to make a global impact or a country impact or at least a huge community impact. Maybe that's what's driving you. Maybe it's like you always thought in yourself that you wanted to create something more in terms of a product or an invention. That's something that you always wanted to do. But because you were along this medical track and you just took it, you know, as far as it could go, you just didn't have the time or the energy or the opportunity to do so. Now I'll tell you, for me, I've always wanted to be in business in some way. I mean, I loved medicine and I always, again, I grew up in a family of people in medicine, and I always thought that I'd be a doctor. But there was some time around college, even a little bit before that, I found myself being involved in little businesses and helping them start. It started when I was a kid and. And when I used to live near a golf course, I used to take the golf balls in the woods. I used to go hunting, hunting them down. I used to clean them up and I used to sell them right off, right off of the first te. And I sell them for, I think, like quarter each or whatever it was. And it wasn't necessarily about the money, but it was the concept of taking something, creating value out of nothing. And it was a lot of fun for me. And I did different things like that where I would sell things on ebay, even in college. I helped create this, like, college coupon book. You probably hadn't seen those in college, where you go around and you get discounts at different restaurants or different stores. By being part of a college, you show flash a card. Well, I helped create one of those at my own particular college, at least helped grow that network. And I really love that because you're able to impact so many people around you and create a win. I create, I'll call it the triple win. Win for the company, win for yourself, win for the people that it affects. And that's something that really drove me, and I absolutely love that. But as I got older in medicine, actually, one of the big driving factors for me was to have another stream of income. I saw what happens when you depend solely on medicine. Now that happened to me where I was relying solely on medicine for my income in my career, and I found that somebody else can control that. And at that point, I felt like I was captive to that job. I didn't have the flexibility. I didn't have the freedom to make the choices that I wanted. And so I decided that I was going to create other income streams outside of medicine, both through investing wisely and through creating businesses. One of my very first businesses that I created was a company called Curbside Real Estate and it's still active today. I know many of you have taken advantage. It's where we help connect physicians to agents and lenders all over the country to help you buy especially your first home. As a physician, it's hard to navigate that world of physician home loans. Sometimes when you relocate, it's hard to know where to buy a home or a good agent to help you out. Well, Curbside Real Estate helps you solve all that. Again, that was born out of a difficulty buying my own home the first time and I wanted to help so many other people around me. I want to create that other income stream and it's still a business that's around today and creates new nice income for me as I built up a team to help us do this. And we've impacted and we've helped hundreds of physicians all around the country in pretty much every state available. And it's something that really brought a lot of joy to my life because I knew that I was impacting and helping my, my fellow community while at the same time creating another stream of income so I could have a hedge against anything that happened in medicine. And obviously that led me to creating other businesses like Passive Income, md, Ascent Equity Group and other businesses that I've become advisors of and I've been helping to grow as well. Now for yourself, like knowing why you want to do these things help you create opportunities. In fact, it'll help you see opportunities that are out there for yourself. And the way you're going to come across a lot of these opportunities, number two is you need to build a network around you. Your network is your net worth. You probably heard that saying before and I think it's absolutely true. The more you interact with like minded people, put your intentions out there, let them know what you're looking for. I'm trying to create a business like this or I want to do this type of thing. People will latch onto that, they will remember and they'll find ways to connect you in the future. And, and so I'm all about putting out that intention and I believe that it comes back to you in some way. So networking with other entrepreneurs, with mentors, with other like minded people, going to conferences like pimdcon. Right. We have an entrepreneurship track there, finding People who are thinking that way will help you in terms of, you know, expand your mindset, but also help you find those opportunities. Hey everyone. Today I want to tell you about Triumph Properties. They're a company that's doing some pretty amazing things in the world of passive real estate investing. Do you know that Tryon Properties has a portfolio of properties valued at over $500 million? They're a reputable firm with a proven track record of generating strong returns for their investors. Now they specialize in buying and renovating multifamily properties to provide high yielding passive income for accredited investors. But what really sets apart Tryon Properties, it's a resident focused approach to renovation. What that means is that they concentrate on cosmetic upgrades, more mild infrastructure repairs, while adding high value amenities and communal spaces designed to appeal to higher paying residents. What's more is that they take what's called a vertically integrated approach to maximize return on investment for you, for them, and to minimize unforeseen costs and construction delays. This makes for a smooth investment experience. So if you want to learn more about try on properties, go to tryonproperties.com that's T R I O N properties.com again, that's tryon properties.com now back to the show. Thanks. So change that mindset of just trying to figure out what you want to do, but understand that it's just as important, if not more important, to find out who you want to surround yourself with is key to ultimately getting where you want in terms of business. That mindset of realizing that that community is extremely important to surround yourself with the right people and help you get there will absolutely change and accelerate your path to get you where you want to be. Also, part of that mindset transition is being able to embrace new skills. Now, we all have learned new skills over the last 10, 15, 20 years of your medical training. How many little procedures have you learned over time? We are great continuous learners and sometimes we've already forgotten that we're able to develop new skill sets beyond those required as simply a physician. That might include marketing, finance, business development. Right. Communication, sales. As physicians, we're absolutely capable of doing these things. Maybe a lot of these things we don't, you know, flex in terms of being a physician. But we're able to do these because we're continuous learners and we're able to pick up those skills. We're ambitious, we're resourceful, we're able to do these things. But having that mindset of understanding that learning new skills is important and required to move into entrepreneurship is something that will carry you a long way, that might push you to take courses or read books, find mentorship, join masterminds. All these things will help you succeed in this area. When I talk to physicians who have created new businesses, whether it's services or whether it's online apps or whatever it might be, many of them realize that hey, they have to pick up a brand new skill to be successful in that area. Maybe it's in the area of marketing again like I mentioned. And it's something that once they started learning, they actually had a lot of fun with it because it's something different in terms of the identity than what they've done before. But once they embrace that, and of course it's daunting initially, the obstacle may seem kind of fierce at this some point, especially when you're first starting. But they realize that they can learn these things. And once they took that first step, it became more and more fun because they were growing in a lot of ways. Probably something that a lot of you are looking forward to. When you start your businesses, you know you want to take on a new challenge, you want to learn new things. You know, if you see that learning as fun, like an opportunity to expand your horizons and that mindset will carry you so far in terms of being able to be a successful entrepreneur. Hey everyone have a quick question for you. Are you looking for a secure and reliable long term investment strategy? Meet Eckerd Enterprises. It's a family owned and operated firm with over 35 years of experience specializing in US energy and alternative investments. Here at Passive Income MD, you often hear me talk about the need to diversify. One of the safest investment strategies available today are mineral rights. And with Eckert Enterprises you can diversify your portfolio. Their team is committed to helping private investors like you and me identify and develop successful diversified portfolios. With an average return on investment of over 24% across their portfolios, the Eckerd team is dedicated to helping you build and protect your wealth through long term passive income. All of this while minimizing the risks associated with traditional investments. So check out Eckerd Enterprises. If you want that great investment experience, go to eckerd enterprises.com again, that's eckerd enterprises.com thanks. And back to the show. Lastly, I tell people in terms of the mindset, to transition there, you've got to actually think of yourself as being an entrepreneur. I know it sounds a little weird for a lot of physicians to say I am a business person, I'm an entrepreneur. Most of us just identify by being a doctor. How do you introduce yourself when someone asks, what do you do? You say, I am a doctor. Or I'm in this type of field. I'm an anesthesiologist. Maybe some of us actually don't even like saying that we're doctors. When we speak to people, what's usually the first question is, what's your name? What's usually the second question? What do you and I know? There's so much tied up in that as doctors. I want people to realize that there is so much more to us than just being doctors. We have other hats that we can wear, and there are other identities that we can take on. Not only can we be a doctor, we can be a great entrepreneur. We can be a great husband, wife, spouse, partner, you know, father, mother. There's so much in us in terms of identities that we can take on. And I discovered that the more we can diversify that identity and be comfortable with the concept that there are so many identities within us, then we can really go at these things full force. It'll give us the confidence to go out there and try new things, and we won't be scared of losing that medical identity. And there's so much diversification in terms of our identity. So this week, I actually want to challenge you. I wanted to challenge you to think about what drives you, who do you need in your life? Who can you network with? Think about how you can commit to developing those new skills, what steps can you take to do that? And what are some of those new identities that you're okay with taking on, that you should take on? Now, if you go to the Show Notes this week, by the way, we've created this downloadable PDF that you can work through, a little worksheet to help you through this. We hope that it'll help you develop a stronger entrepreneurial mindset, help you with that transition. Because having that right mindset is absolutely essential in the long run. It's going to aid you in constantly shifting your attitude, behavior, and approach to the challenges you face, especially in your business. So that's it for this week's episode. Hope you take that and do something with it. Have an amazing week. Take care. Talk again soon. Hey, everyone. I'm excited to tell you about PIMDCON, the Physician Real Estate and Entrepreneurship Conference happening on September 21st through 23rd. This year, as always, we're bringing together some of the smartest minds in real estate, investing and entrepreneurship to speak at this event. Now, what sets this conference apart from others goes way beyond the speakers. It's being part of the community that's created at our live events. Now, this year we're offering specific tracks focused on real estate investing or entrepreneurship acceleration so you can customize your experience and focus on what matters to you the most. Now, our expert speakers, coaches and workshops. They're going to help you gain the knowledge and confidence you need to take your next steps forward and towards achieving financial success and independence way beyond medicine. And it's not just about the information you're going to learn from the speakers. It's about the conversations you'll have with other attendees that I know will spark new ideas, inspire you to take action. So every year people leave PIM Nikon and they launch their real estate investing careers while others grow their portfolio in exponential ways. I mean ways you wouldn't have even imagined. Now, this year is going to be no different as you leverage your big ideas to expand your vision for what's possible. So join us in person in Los Angeles on September 21st through 23rd. There's also a virtual option available for those who can come live, so don't miss out on this opportunity to connect with a community of like minded individuals and gain practical skills and knowledge to help you achieve your financial goals. Save that date September 21st to 23rd, 2023. I'll see you there. Thanks everyone. Bye.