September 22, 2025 • 19 mins
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It's not working.Â
One of the thoughts that challenged me the most and put me in a position where things I could have accomplished in three months took me years to accomplish was this thought: it's not working.Â
This one thought slowed me down more than I like to admit. I second-guessed myself, held back from showing up, and even got annoyed with my team... all because of that one paralyzing thought. But it doesn't have to be that way. In this episode, I'll walk you through the 6 strategies I use to shut this thought down and keep moving forward. We’ll talk about doing honest audits, building radical gratitude into your daily routine, and how to celebrate the process even before the outcome arrives.
This is an episode every entrepreneur needs to hear, especially when it feels like nothing's working.Â
So tune in, take notes, and remember: it’s working, it’s always working.
—
Key Takeaways:Â
- 00:00 IntroÂ
- 01:55 It’s always working
- 04:02 Conduct yearly reviewsÂ
- 09:23 Practice radical gratitudeÂ
- 11:14 Value process and outcome goals
- 13:24 Conduct brutally honest auditsÂ
- 15:10 Stay abreast of class working strategiesÂ
- 16:39 Flip the narrative
- 18:14 Your homework and outro
Additional Resources:
- Learn more about my 12-month program.
- Interested in 1-on-1 coaching? Apply here.
- Grab a copy of the "The EntreMD Method" book.
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To get on a call with my team to determine your next best step, go here ...
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The human mind is a very interesting thing.
The default setting is it'slooking for what is not working.
It looks for why things can'twork and all of those things,
and so if you don't disciplineit to do certain things, it's
just not going to do that.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Hi docs, Welcome to the EntreMD podcast, where it's
all about helping amazingphysicians just like you embrace
entrepreneurship so you canhave the freedom to live life
and practice medicine on yourterms.
I'm your host, Dr Imna.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
One of the thoughts that challenged me the most and
put me in a position wherethings I could have accomplished
in three months maybe took meyears to accomplish, was this
thought it's not working, it'snot working.
I can think of times where Igot on stage and I held back
from presenting the way I couldbecause I was like man, it's not
working.
I know times when I could havegone out to be more visible for
(00:56):
my business, shown up on socialmedia, done lives all of those
things where I held myself backbecause of this thought it's not
working.
I know of times where I gotreally annoyed with team members
and, yes, there are some thingsthat they could have done, that
they weren't doing all thosethings but the real thing behind
all of that was this thoughtit's not working.
What I'm doing for my businessis not working the marketing,
(01:18):
the selling, the leading, theteam, the figuring out the
finances and then this is justat baseline.
But on top of it, then certainthings would go wrong.
Maybe something wrong with thesystem or somebody, you know, a
team member functioned in acertain way, or a launch that
didn't do as well as I expectedit to, or having less patients
for a few days in a row than Iwanted to, and it would then
(01:39):
make that thought so much louderlike it is not working and it
is one of the most disablingthoughts.
It is so far from an empoweringthought and a lot of times it
has nothing to do with reality.
Now I am currently in a timewhere this is not a thought that
stops me anymore for the mostpart, and I have a saying, and I
(02:04):
say it all the time in theEntremet Business School.
I say it's working, it's alwaysworking.
Okay, it's always working.
For those of using the 20%Coach Journal, you'll see it in
there it's working, it's alwaysworking and that's what I choose
instead of that thought.
But I'm going to walk you.
I'm going to walk you throughthat process and I would think I
(02:24):
want to start off by sayingthat if you find yourself in a
position where maybe you wantedto hit a milestone and you
didn't hit it, you had a revenuegoal and you didn't hit it.
Or you had a launch and youwanted to welcome a certain
number of clients and you didn't.
We had a month in your cash paypractice where you're like I'm
going to get X number ofpatients and you didn't you know
, and you didn't you know, youbrought on a new EHR or whatever
(02:46):
, a billing system, and you'relike, yes, this is the thing
that's going to make a hugedifference in my practice.
And it didn't.
I want to invite you to tellyou for me, most of the things
that I have set as goals, likemany of them, I never hit.
I mean, they're still ongoing.
I'm still, you know, goingafter them.
I don't let that stop me, like Idon't let that stop me at all.
Now, in spite of that, right,we've done so much, so it's not
(03:07):
as though we're not movingforward.
It's not as though we're notmoving forward significantly,
but I don't sweat it.
Okay, let me walk you throughmy process.
This is a six-part process thatI used to overcome this thought
.
And again, why is thisimportant?
Because it will stop you.
Is this important?
Because it will stop you.
It will stop you from showingup.
It will stop you from showingup at a higher level.
It will make you sabotageyourself all the time and it'll
(03:28):
put you in a place where you'llbe very hard to collaborate with
.
And that is where you're.
Whether you're collaboratingwith people external to your
company, you're collaboratingwith people in your company,
like your team members and allof that stuff, because you are
going to be in a state offrustration, like that's just
where you're going to live.
And for me, I'm like you know,I'm really at a point in my life
where I want to make sure thatwhat I'm doing is what I want to
(03:49):
do and the life I'm living isthe life I want to live.
I definitely do not want towalk around with an underlying
sense of frustration.
That's just too much, way toomuch, okay, all right.
So let's look at this six partseries.
And the first thing I do thefirst thing I do when this
thought comes like it's notworking, or rather a habit I
have that prevents me fromfalling apart when that thought
(04:10):
shows up is this habit of doinga 12 to three year review.
Okay, and it could be fiveyears, 10 years, whatever, but
at least 12 to three years, 12months to three year review.
Okay, it's a review, so it'slooking backwards, okay.
Okay, he's a review, so it'slooking backwards, okay.
And so when I do that, what I'mlooking for is all the things
(04:30):
that I thought were not workingthat have worked, all the things
that took a little longer, butthey played out exactly the way
they were supposed to play out,all the things that I stressed
out about.
And now I'm like, yeah, I knowwhat I know and I wouldn't have
bothered with all of that andreally what that is me pulling
from the to then use that wisdomto have a better experience
this time Right.
And so, for instance, we had,you know, we had a time where we
(04:54):
were going to buy our medicalbuilding, right, like.
So we started off, you know,leasing a space.
It was about three exam rooms.
It was perfect for when westarted, we're able to keep our
overhead low and not deal withany financial pressure and stuff
like that, and so we started itthere.
And it's a building with fourcomplexes, so we started off
there.
And then, as we grew, we neededmore space, right, obviously,
(05:17):
we outgrew that space and therewas an OBGYN who was in a
different suite that had sixexam rooms and this OBGYN had
just moved out, and so we movedinto that space and we leased
that space.
And then we got to this placewhere we're like, okay, well,
we're going to need a place,right, but we're going to need
our own place, and we startedlooking to purchase our own
(05:37):
building and things like that.
You know, finally, my husbandjust got this nudge to go ask
the owner of our building if hewill sell the building, like if
he was looking into selling thebuilding, which is very odd
because he owned a privatepractice within that space as
well and so we approached himand, after a number of
conversations, turned out thathe was open to selling it and
all, and you know.
So we started thoseconversations and it was some
(06:01):
ridiculously long amount of time.
It was like it's not working.
So what are we going to do?
At least it's going to run out,blah, blah, blah.
There are all these thingsgoing on and at the end of the
day, you know, we finally wereable to close on the building.
We acquired the building, onlyto find out Okay, so we found
this out, like close to the timewe closed on the building that
(06:22):
the reason for the delay was theowner of the building was
selling his building to thehospital and he wanted to secure
a five-year lease before hesold it to us.
For us, we were like this is adelay, but what it did was,
instead of giving us a buildingand then we would have this huge
(06:44):
vacant space because that wasthe biggest suite.
We had that and we had afive-year lease with the
hospital, right, and so did thatseem like a delay?
Did it seem like things werenot working fast enough and all
of those things, yes, did itwork out for us royally, like
royally and you know that's justa reminder like, at the end of
(07:05):
the day it's always working.
Like our part is to do our partand do our part, you know, to
the best of our abilities, butit's always working.
I've had a time, you know tothe best of our abilities, but
it's always working.
I've had a time, like you know,when we first opened the
Entremdy Business School so thiswas five years ago and after we
had a whole event, we hadEntremdy Live.
I told everybody about theschool and all of these things.
You know, on day one we had twopeople join the school, like
(07:28):
one two.
I was like oh my goodness, andI was in such shock.
I was like this makes no sense.
I remember feeling like therewas some embarrassment there,
like you just did a thing andyou told people how to sell and
how to market and you could onlysell two people into this stuff
.
But our cart was open for aboutseven days thereabout, and the
(07:49):
next day then nobody joined, andafter that maybe one person
joined and all of those things,and I kept going and kept going
like full speed ahead and stufflike that, and we ended up with
22 doctors the first time weopened the school.
And so I remember that you knowwhat I mean.
I go back, I review, I rememberthat, and so if I'm in a place
where I have two people, itdoesn't mean I can't have 22
(08:10):
people, right, because it'salways working.
But if I stop showing up, thenit's definitely not going to
work, right?
We've had times where in myprivate practice, you know,
we've had, you know, that whenthe great resignation happened,
it was becoming a challenge tohave people who would work, and
you know people who would dogood work, people who would stay
longer than two weeks.
I mean we have people who wouldeven want to be interviewed and
(08:35):
not show up for the interview,or they'd show up to work and
they work for one day in themorning and then not come back,
you know, after lunch, and itwas all kinds of stuff, you know
.
But I remember that's when webuilt out our own training
system and started training, youknow, like pre-meds and pre-PA
and all of those things, andthose became our MAs, and then
we just have this pipeline, andthat's a historical fact, right.
And so at the end of the dayit's all working.
(08:58):
It's always working.
If it's not working for me,it's working on me.
If it's not working right now,it's still working, and you know
when it plays out it will makeup for the quote unquote time
lost.
And so that's what a reviewdoes, and we all have these
stories, right.
And so I try to look back ayear to three years and then
just pull up these things oftimes when I thought it wasn't
(09:19):
working, but it turns out thatit was working for me in the
best possible way.
Okay, so that's the first thingI do.
The second thing I do and Itrain all my clients to do this
is I practice radical gratitude,because the human mind is a
very interesting thing.
The default setting is it'slooking for what is not working
and looks for why things can'twork and all of those things.
And so if you don't disciplineit to do certain things, it's
(09:41):
just not going to do them right.
And so for me in my business.
You know, I may have thistarget, like I want to have a
hundred new clients or whatever,and then two people come in and
it's like what is two comparedto a hundred?
But I've learned to stop doingthat and I've learned to be so
grateful for the two and I'velearned to be so grateful for
the clients I do have.
(10:01):
I learned to be so grateful forthe team members that I have.
I've learned to be so gratefulfor the people who listen to the
podcast or the people who arecommenting on the Facebook group
and the wins that we've had andyou know, the Inc 5000 that we
hit.
And like I just practice beinggrateful for all of it and
practice it daily, because whenI do that then it reminds me
(10:22):
that it's always working right,because there's always something
to be grateful for, so it'salways working Okay.
And so even when I have calls inthe EntreeMD business school,
we start those off withgratitude, Like it's first of
all, like you know, like whatwins do we have?
Let's celebrate some wins andall that.
And we start from there and, asa reminder, one of the slogans
that you always hear in EntremetBusiness School is always
(10:44):
working.
Someone go like, yeah, this iswhere it was and this is what I
was thinking and this is howhard it was for me, and look
highest playing out now.
It's always working.
And then even in the profitableprivate practice movements
which, if you're in privatepractice and you're not part of
it, come join us.
Right, this is where we show upevery Thursday to work on our
businesses and private practicedocs are just winning.
Okay, and where do we startfrom?
We start from wins Like so,between the last week and now,
(11:05):
what's going on?
Right, again, it's a reminderto the people sharing the wins
that it's always working andit's a reminder to the entire
community that it's alwaysworking.
So that's the second thing.
The third thing is that I'velearned to value process and
outcome goals like both of them,and to see them as super
powerful and celebrate them both.
So I'll explain what I mean bythat.
(11:26):
An outcome goal could be likeyou know, we did seven figures
in revenue this year, okay.
A process goal could besomething like we were very
diligent and you know, for myprivate practice, we hit the
recaller twice a week the entireyear and what that means is
that we're putting ourselves ina position where we're
constantly talking to peopleabout, you know, with their
(11:46):
overdue appointments, gettingthem in, getting them scheduled,
getting all of that stuff.
A process win could look like Ihired a practice administrator,
like I haven't had a practicemanager for my office and I
hired one and I went throughthat process now, so immediately
, there's no direct outcome.
That is what sets me up to havemore impact, more time freedom,
more financial freedom,challenging where you're like
(12:11):
okay, I need to do something tomake sure I'm getting paid for
all the work I do and I realizedthat my billing company is just
not the company to take methere.
I need to change billers.
Now, changing billers is apainful process, right, because
you have to put all you know,like all the documentation you
have to put together.
You have to interview thesepeople.
You have to deal with the fearof what if this person is worse
than the people I just had.
(12:32):
You have to deal with thedowntime and cashflow.
Chances are there'll be somedowntime, cashflow and all of
those things.
And so when you do itimmediately you may not I mean
like immediately the immediateresult is actually a cashflow is
a little less, not that it'smore, but it's you're setting
yourself up for it topotentially be a lot more.
And so if I bring on a billingcompany, I'm celebrating that.
(12:52):
If we're consistent with thesystem in the business, I'm
celebrating that.
If we are marketingconsistently, I'm celebrating
that, like I'm celebrating theprocess as much as I'm
celebrating the goal, becausesometimes the process is
thankless and it's followed bypain, not a breakthrough in the
beginning, right.
And so I've learned to valuethem both.
And so I do that with myclients as well.
(13:13):
And so when they do thesedifficult hires or they make
these difficult process changesand all of those things which we
know are gonna make theirpractices better or their
businesses better, we celebratethose.
Okay.
So that's number three.
Number four I give myself thegift of a brutally honest audit.
And when I say brutally honest,I don't mean I judge myself
right, I observe, I don't judge,but I don't lie to myself.
(13:34):
It's so easy to lie to yourself, and the problem with lying to
yourself as an entrepreneur isthat those lies will cost you
progress, they'll cost you yourpeace, they will cost you great
results you can get, they'llcost you team members, it'll
cost you all kinds of stuff, soit's just not worth it to do at
all.
Okay.
So the gift of brutally honestaudit Okay.
(13:56):
And so, for instance, if I'mthinking it's not working
because I'm not hitting myrevenue targets, I have to go
back and say, okay, did Iactually define the pathway to
get hitting that goal?
Because if I didn't, I wasn'treally serious about hitting
that goal.
So what did I say?
Did I break it down?
This is the number of clientsI'll need, you know, based on
our track record.
This is what we can do to bringin those clients.
And I'm showing up on executingthem.
You see what I'm saying.
So did I develop a pathway?
(14:17):
Did I work the pathway?
Did I work the pathway inenough volume?
Did I reach out for help?
Did I like?
You know what I mean.
Like, because it's easy to golike, oh, nothing's working.
It's another thing to audit andsay, okay, self, let's take a
look at what exactly is going onhere, right.
And so I give myself the giftof that, and I call it a gift.
It is, emotionally, it's notsomething we would necessarily
like to do, but it's what isrequired for the business to
(14:39):
thrive.
And so I would do that, and soI can say, well, it could work.
Like this is totally workable.
I just haven't worked it yet,right.
And I would go further to askmyself, like you know, why
haven't you worked it out?
What can we do to audit that?
That's a whole differentconversation.
But you know it's like is itbecause I'm setting it up not to
work and this is not a blanket?
(14:59):
Well, it must be me and theproblem type of things you
actually taking the time to sitand do an honest audit and to
see is it me right and is theresomething I can do differently,
and all of that Okay.
The fifth thing I do is Iconstantly stay abreast of
world-class working strategies.
Okay.
So the energy I used to sayit's not working, it's not
working and I stay in analysis,paralysis and I'm doing nothing.
(15:22):
I'm frustrated.
All of those things is the sameamount of energy that I could
use to go and say okay, thereare people who are winning at
this.
What are they doing?
Do they have books?
Do they have a program?
Do they have whatever?
Or maybe I'm already in aprogram, but I'm not leaning
into it.
I'm like okay, self, this isnot helping you at all.
Maybe I'm not raising my handto ask questions because I don't
want to feel like I don't knowwhat I'm doing.
We're not.
(15:42):
The ego is not serving us atall.
Right, and so I would just leanin to get a world-class
education.
Well, when I say education, Idon't mean certificate.
Oh my goodness, that's not whatI mean.
What I mean is I want to makesure that I understand the best
practices for getting the resultthat I want to get, and I make
sure that I have thatinformation right, and so I
would constantly stay abreast ofthose.
(16:03):
So I'm always looking at what'sworking for marketing or for
selling, or for leading the teamand all of those kinds of stuff
.
And of course, for me, you know, it's a little more than just
my own businesses.
I'm responsible for hundredsand hundreds of physician
entrepreneurs and thousands, ifyou include our workshops and
the podcast and stuff like that,and I cannot afford to not know
.
Like it's too expensive, right.
(16:23):
Okay, I call out the lies.
Okay, by doing this one to threeyear review, I practice daily
radical gratitude.
I value process and outcomegoals, I give myself the gift of
brutally honest audit and Icontinue to stay abreast of
world-class working strategies,and then, finally, what I do is
I just flip the narrative.
It's working even better than Ican imagine, and doing that one
(16:46):
to two year review puts me in aposition to say that, honestly,
it's working even better than Ican imagine.
And doing that one to two yearreview puts me in a position to
say that, like, honestly, it'sworking even better than I
imagined.
It's working even better than Iimagined, and if there are
things I need to fix, I've ownedit, I fixed it and we can keep
it moving right, and so it'sworking even better than I
imagined.
It's working even better than Ican imagine.
It's working even better than Ican imagine.
And instead of letting it's notworking keep running in my mind.
(17:07):
This is what I then let run inmy mind.
Right, that's the way I haveput myself in a position where I
don't let it's not working stopme.
I actually don't believe it'snot working.
I believe all work works, anddoing this work over time has
brought me to this place whereall work works.
All work works, it's allworking, everything is working
right.
(17:27):
And so if you think about thepurpose of the thought it's not
working, like what is thepurpose?
It's to stop you from working.
What is the thing that isguaranteed not to work, not
working right.
So if I am not working on mymarketing, for instance, because
I put out a number of thingsand I'm like this is not working
and then I stop altogether,that is guaranteed not to work
right.
That is guaranteed not to work.
(17:47):
So I just don't.
I just don't do that anymore.
I think it's a very dangerousthought.
I think it's a thought thatcreates paralysis for physician
entrepreneurs and it's a thoughtthat keeps us those same week
to week, month to month, year toyear, where we may get a little
better, but we're not gettingradically better, because we're
too scared to go out there andgo all out, because at the back
of our mind is this thought it'snot working.
(18:08):
So I want to invite you to dothese things, okay.
I want to invite you to do thisthing.
I want to invite you topractice radical gratitude.
I want you to practice owningthe thought it's working even
better than I can imagine.
It's working even better than Ican imagine, and if you look
all through your life, you'llsee so many examples.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
If you look through all the life cycle of your
business, you see so manyexamples of exactly this.
Okay, chapel Rowan cowboy hat,again in black pentagram on it.
Another one who's dressed a lotmore glinda bright pinks,
pastels, lots of silveraccessories.
Next to them we also have justan actual octopus with a little
mustache stuck on, a sort ofsalmonella dolly mustache stuck
(18:49):
on the front of their Do.
Octopuses have a face Stuck ontheir body at some point that
gives the impression of wheretheir face is.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Work this process and then come to this point where
you're like you know what, it'sworking even better than I can
imagine.
And then you go all out.
Listen, you're a physician,you're a physician entrepreneur
(19:23):
no-transcript.
That thought is like it's a badguy, it's like a terrorist.
It's a bad guy Trying to stopyou from doing stuff and just
don't let it anymore.
And every time you think it'snot working, just start thinking
it's working even better than Ican imagine.
Okay, I'm rooting for you asalways.
(19:43):
As always.
And if this episode helped you,send me a DM or PM and say let
me know how it helped you.
And if you have follow-upquestions, send them to me and I
might just make an episode justfor you.
Rooting for you always.
See you on the next episode.
The human mind is a very interesting thing.
The default setting is it'slooking for what is not working.
It looks for why things can'twork and all of those things,
and so if you don't disciplineit to do certain things, it's
just not going to do that.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Hi docs, Welcome to the EntreMD podcast, where it's
all about helping amazingphysicians just like you embrace
entrepreneurship so you canhave the freedom to live life
and practice medicine on yourterms.
I'm your host, Dr Imna.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
One of the thoughts that challenged me the most and
put me in a position wherethings I could have accomplished
in three months maybe took meyears to accomplish, was this
thought it's not working, it'snot working.
I can think of times where Igot on stage and I held back
from presenting the way I couldbecause I was like man, it's not
working.
I know times when I could havegone out to be more visible for
(00:56):
my business, shown up on socialmedia, done lives all of those
things where I held myself backbecause of this thought it's not
working.
I know of times where I gotreally annoyed with team members
and, yes, there are some thingsthat they could have done, that
they weren't doing all thosethings but the real thing behind
all of that was this thoughtit's not working.
What I'm doing for my businessis not working the marketing,
(01:18):
the selling, the leading, theteam, the figuring out the
finances and then this is justat baseline.
But on top of it, then certainthings would go wrong.
Maybe something wrong with thesystem or somebody, you know, a
team member functioned in acertain way, or a launch that
didn't do as well as I expectedit to, or having less patients
for a few days in a row than Iwanted to, and it would then
(01:39):
make that thought so much louderlike it is not working and it
is one of the most disablingthoughts.
It is so far from an empoweringthought and a lot of times it
has nothing to do with reality.
Now I am currently in a timewhere this is not a thought that
stops me anymore for the mostpart, and I have a saying, and I
(02:04):
say it all the time in theEntremet Business School.
I say it's working, it's alwaysworking.
Okay, it's always working.
For those of using the 20%Coach Journal, you'll see it in
there it's working, it's alwaysworking and that's what I choose
instead of that thought.
But I'm going to walk you.
I'm going to walk you throughthat process and I would think I
(02:24):
want to start off by sayingthat if you find yourself in a
position where maybe you wantedto hit a milestone and you
didn't hit it, you had a revenuegoal and you didn't hit it.
Or you had a launch and youwanted to welcome a certain
number of clients and you didn't.
We had a month in your cash paypractice where you're like I'm
going to get X number ofpatients and you didn't you know
, and you didn't you know, youbrought on a new EHR or whatever
(02:46):
, a billing system, and you'relike, yes, this is the thing
that's going to make a hugedifference in my practice.
And it didn't.
I want to invite you to tellyou for me, most of the things
that I have set as goals, likemany of them, I never hit.
I mean, they're still ongoing.
I'm still, you know, goingafter them.
I don't let that stop me, like Idon't let that stop me at all.
Now, in spite of that, right,we've done so much, so it's not
(03:07):
as though we're not movingforward.
It's not as though we're notmoving forward significantly,
but I don't sweat it.
Okay, let me walk you throughmy process.
This is a six-part process thatI used to overcome this thought
.
And again, why is thisimportant?
Because it will stop you.
Is this important?
Because it will stop you.
It will stop you from showingup.
It will stop you from showingup at a higher level.
It will make you sabotageyourself all the time and it'll
(03:28):
put you in a place where you'llbe very hard to collaborate with
.
And that is where you're.
Whether you're collaboratingwith people external to your
company, you're collaboratingwith people in your company,
like your team members and allof that stuff, because you are
going to be in a state offrustration, like that's just
where you're going to live.
And for me, I'm like you know,I'm really at a point in my life
where I want to make sure thatwhat I'm doing is what I want to
(03:49):
do and the life I'm living isthe life I want to live.
I definitely do not want towalk around with an underlying
sense of frustration.
That's just too much, way toomuch, okay, all right.
So let's look at this six partseries.
And the first thing I do thefirst thing I do when this
thought comes like it's notworking, or rather a habit I
have that prevents me fromfalling apart when that thought
(04:10):
shows up is this habit of doinga 12 to three year review.
Okay, and it could be fiveyears, 10 years, whatever, but
at least 12 to three years, 12months to three year review.
Okay, it's a review, so it'slooking backwards, okay.
Okay, he's a review, so it'slooking backwards, okay.
And so when I do that, what I'mlooking for is all the things
(04:30):
that I thought were not workingthat have worked, all the things
that took a little longer, butthey played out exactly the way
they were supposed to play out,all the things that I stressed
out about.
And now I'm like, yeah, I knowwhat I know and I wouldn't have
bothered with all of that andreally what that is me pulling
from the to then use that wisdomto have a better experience
this time Right.
And so, for instance, we had,you know, we had a time where we
(04:54):
were going to buy our medicalbuilding, right, like.
So we started off, you know,leasing a space.
It was about three exam rooms.
It was perfect for when westarted, we're able to keep our
overhead low and not deal withany financial pressure and stuff
like that, and so we started itthere.
And it's a building with fourcomplexes, so we started off
there.
And then, as we grew, we neededmore space, right, obviously,
(05:17):
we outgrew that space and therewas an OBGYN who was in a
different suite that had sixexam rooms and this OBGYN had
just moved out, and so we movedinto that space and we leased
that space.
And then we got to this placewhere we're like, okay, well,
we're going to need a place,right, but we're going to need
our own place, and we startedlooking to purchase our own
(05:37):
building and things like that.
You know, finally, my husbandjust got this nudge to go ask
the owner of our building if hewill sell the building, like if
he was looking into selling thebuilding, which is very odd
because he owned a privatepractice within that space as
well and so we approached himand, after a number of
conversations, turned out thathe was open to selling it and
all, and you know.
So we started thoseconversations and it was some
(06:01):
ridiculously long amount of time.
It was like it's not working.
So what are we going to do?
At least it's going to run out,blah, blah, blah.
There are all these thingsgoing on and at the end of the
day, you know, we finally wereable to close on the building.
We acquired the building, onlyto find out Okay, so we found
this out, like close to the timewe closed on the building that
(06:22):
the reason for the delay was theowner of the building was
selling his building to thehospital and he wanted to secure
a five-year lease before hesold it to us.
For us, we were like this is adelay, but what it did was,
instead of giving us a buildingand then we would have this huge
(06:44):
vacant space because that wasthe biggest suite.
We had that and we had afive-year lease with the
hospital, right, and so did thatseem like a delay?
Did it seem like things werenot working fast enough and all
of those things, yes, did itwork out for us royally, like
royally and you know that's justa reminder like, at the end of
(07:05):
the day it's always working.
Like our part is to do our partand do our part, you know, to
the best of our abilities, butit's always working.
I've had a time, you know tothe best of our abilities, but
it's always working.
I've had a time, like you know,when we first opened the
Entremdy Business School so thiswas five years ago and after we
had a whole event, we hadEntremdy Live.
I told everybody about theschool and all of these things.
You know, on day one we had twopeople join the school, like
(07:28):
one two.
I was like oh my goodness, andI was in such shock.
I was like this makes no sense.
I remember feeling like therewas some embarrassment there,
like you just did a thing andyou told people how to sell and
how to market and you could onlysell two people into this stuff
.
But our cart was open for aboutseven days thereabout, and the
(07:49):
next day then nobody joined, andafter that maybe one person
joined and all of those things,and I kept going and kept going
like full speed ahead and stufflike that, and we ended up with
22 doctors the first time weopened the school.
And so I remember that you knowwhat I mean.
I go back, I review, I rememberthat, and so if I'm in a place
where I have two people, itdoesn't mean I can't have 22
(08:10):
people, right, because it'salways working.
But if I stop showing up, thenit's definitely not going to
work, right?
We've had times where in myprivate practice, you know,
we've had, you know, that whenthe great resignation happened,
it was becoming a challenge tohave people who would work, and
you know people who would dogood work, people who would stay
longer than two weeks.
I mean we have people who wouldeven want to be interviewed and
(08:35):
not show up for the interview,or they'd show up to work and
they work for one day in themorning and then not come back,
you know, after lunch, and itwas all kinds of stuff, you know
.
But I remember that's when webuilt out our own training
system and started training, youknow, like pre-meds and pre-PA
and all of those things, andthose became our MAs, and then
we just have this pipeline, andthat's a historical fact, right.
And so at the end of the dayit's all working.
(08:58):
It's always working.
If it's not working for me,it's working on me.
If it's not working right now,it's still working, and you know
when it plays out it will makeup for the quote unquote time
lost.
And so that's what a reviewdoes, and we all have these
stories, right.
And so I try to look back ayear to three years and then
just pull up these things oftimes when I thought it wasn't
(09:19):
working, but it turns out thatit was working for me in the
best possible way.
Okay, so that's the first thingI do.
The second thing I do and Itrain all my clients to do this
is I practice radical gratitude,because the human mind is a
very interesting thing.
The default setting is it'slooking for what is not working
and looks for why things can'twork and all of those things.
And so if you don't disciplineit to do certain things, it's
(09:41):
just not going to do them right.
And so for me in my business.
You know, I may have thistarget, like I want to have a
hundred new clients or whatever,and then two people come in and
it's like what is two comparedto a hundred?
But I've learned to stop doingthat and I've learned to be so
grateful for the two and I'velearned to be so grateful for
the clients I do have.
(10:01):
I learned to be so grateful forthe team members that I have.
I've learned to be so gratefulfor the people who listen to the
podcast or the people who arecommenting on the Facebook group
and the wins that we've had andyou know, the Inc 5000 that we
hit.
And like I just practice beinggrateful for all of it and
practice it daily, because whenI do that then it reminds me
(10:22):
that it's always working right,because there's always something
to be grateful for, so it'salways working Okay.
And so even when I have calls inthe EntreeMD business school,
we start those off withgratitude, Like it's first of
all, like you know, like whatwins do we have?
Let's celebrate some wins andall that.
And we start from there and, asa reminder, one of the slogans
that you always hear in EntremetBusiness School is always
(10:44):
working.
Someone go like, yeah, this iswhere it was and this is what I
was thinking and this is howhard it was for me, and look
highest playing out now.
It's always working.
And then even in the profitableprivate practice movements
which, if you're in privatepractice and you're not part of
it, come join us.
Right, this is where we show upevery Thursday to work on our
businesses and private practicedocs are just winning.
Okay, and where do we startfrom?
We start from wins Like so,between the last week and now,
(11:05):
what's going on?
Right, again, it's a reminderto the people sharing the wins
that it's always working andit's a reminder to the entire
community that it's alwaysworking.
So that's the second thing.
The third thing is that I'velearned to value process and
outcome goals like both of them,and to see them as super
powerful and celebrate them both.
So I'll explain what I mean bythat.
(11:26):
An outcome goal could be likeyou know, we did seven figures
in revenue this year, okay.
A process goal could besomething like we were very
diligent and you know, for myprivate practice, we hit the
recaller twice a week the entireyear and what that means is
that we're putting ourselves ina position where we're
constantly talking to peopleabout, you know, with their
(11:46):
overdue appointments, gettingthem in, getting them scheduled,
getting all of that stuff.
A process win could look like Ihired a practice administrator,
like I haven't had a practicemanager for my office and I
hired one and I went throughthat process now, so immediately
, there's no direct outcome.
That is what sets me up to havemore impact, more time freedom,
more financial freedom,challenging where you're like
(12:11):
okay, I need to do something tomake sure I'm getting paid for
all the work I do and I realizedthat my billing company is just
not the company to take methere.
I need to change billers.
Now, changing billers is apainful process, right, because
you have to put all you know,like all the documentation you
have to put together.
You have to interview thesepeople.
You have to deal with the fearof what if this person is worse
than the people I just had.
(12:32):
You have to deal with thedowntime and cashflow.
Chances are there'll be somedowntime, cashflow and all of
those things.
And so when you do itimmediately you may not I mean
like immediately the immediateresult is actually a cashflow is
a little less, not that it'smore, but it's you're setting
yourself up for it topotentially be a lot more.
And so if I bring on a billingcompany, I'm celebrating that.
(12:52):
If we're consistent with thesystem in the business, I'm
celebrating that.
If we are marketingconsistently, I'm celebrating
that, like I'm celebrating theprocess as much as I'm
celebrating the goal, becausesometimes the process is
thankless and it's followed bypain, not a breakthrough in the
beginning, right.
And so I've learned to valuethem both.
And so I do that with myclients as well.
(13:13):
And so when they do thesedifficult hires or they make
these difficult process changesand all of those things which we
know are gonna make theirpractices better or their
businesses better, we celebratethose.
Okay.
So that's number three.
Number four I give myself thegift of a brutally honest audit.
And when I say brutally honest,I don't mean I judge myself
right, I observe, I don't judge,but I don't lie to myself.
(13:34):
It's so easy to lie to yourself, and the problem with lying to
yourself as an entrepreneur isthat those lies will cost you
progress, they'll cost you yourpeace, they will cost you great
results you can get, they'llcost you team members, it'll
cost you all kinds of stuff, soit's just not worth it to do at
all.
Okay.
So the gift of brutally honestaudit Okay.
(13:56):
And so, for instance, if I'mthinking it's not working
because I'm not hitting myrevenue targets, I have to go
back and say, okay, did Iactually define the pathway to
get hitting that goal?
Because if I didn't, I wasn'treally serious about hitting
that goal.
So what did I say?
Did I break it down?
This is the number of clientsI'll need, you know, based on
our track record.
This is what we can do to bringin those clients.
And I'm showing up on executingthem.
You see what I'm saying.
So did I develop a pathway?
(14:17):
Did I work the pathway?
Did I work the pathway inenough volume?
Did I reach out for help?
Did I like?
You know what I mean.
Like, because it's easy to golike, oh, nothing's working.
It's another thing to audit andsay, okay, self, let's take a
look at what exactly is going onhere, right.
And so I give myself the giftof that, and I call it a gift.
It is, emotionally, it's notsomething we would necessarily
like to do, but it's what isrequired for the business to
(14:39):
thrive.
And so I would do that, and soI can say, well, it could work.
Like this is totally workable.
I just haven't worked it yet,right.
And I would go further to askmyself, like you know, why
haven't you worked it out?
What can we do to audit that?
That's a whole differentconversation.
But you know it's like is itbecause I'm setting it up not to
work and this is not a blanket?
(14:59):
Well, it must be me and theproblem type of things you
actually taking the time to sitand do an honest audit and to
see is it me right and is theresomething I can do differently,
and all of that Okay.
The fifth thing I do is Iconstantly stay abreast of
world-class working strategies.
Okay.
So the energy I used to sayit's not working, it's not
working and I stay in analysis,paralysis and I'm doing nothing.
(15:22):
I'm frustrated.
All of those things is the sameamount of energy that I could
use to go and say okay, thereare people who are winning at
this.
What are they doing?
Do they have books?
Do they have a program?
Do they have whatever?
Or maybe I'm already in aprogram, but I'm not leaning
into it.
I'm like okay, self, this isnot helping you at all.
Maybe I'm not raising my handto ask questions because I don't
want to feel like I don't knowwhat I'm doing.
We're not.
(15:42):
The ego is not serving us atall.
Right, and so I would just leanin to get a world-class
education.
Well, when I say education, Idon't mean certificate.
Oh my goodness, that's not whatI mean.
What I mean is I want to makesure that I understand the best
practices for getting the resultthat I want to get, and I make
sure that I have thatinformation right, and so I
would constantly stay abreast ofthose.
(16:03):
So I'm always looking at what'sworking for marketing or for
selling, or for leading the teamand all of those kinds of stuff
.
And of course, for me, you know, it's a little more than just
my own businesses.
I'm responsible for hundredsand hundreds of physician
entrepreneurs and thousands, ifyou include our workshops and
the podcast and stuff like that,and I cannot afford to not know
.
Like it's too expensive, right.
(16:23):
Okay, I call out the lies.
Okay, by doing this one to threeyear review, I practice daily
radical gratitude.
I value process and outcomegoals, I give myself the gift of
brutally honest audit and Icontinue to stay abreast of
world-class working strategies,and then, finally, what I do is
I just flip the narrative.
It's working even better than Ican imagine, and doing that one
(16:46):
to two year review puts me in aposition to say that, honestly,
it's working even better than Ican imagine.
And doing that one to two yearreview puts me in a position to
say that, like, honestly, it'sworking even better than I
imagined.
It's working even better than Iimagined, and if there are
things I need to fix, I've ownedit, I fixed it and we can keep
it moving right, and so it'sworking even better than I
imagined.
It's working even better than Ican imagine.
It's working even better than Ican imagine.
And instead of letting it's notworking keep running in my mind.
(17:07):
This is what I then let run inmy mind.
Right, that's the way I haveput myself in a position where I
don't let it's not working stopme.
I actually don't believe it'snot working.
I believe all work works, anddoing this work over time has
brought me to this place whereall work works.
All work works, it's allworking, everything is working
right.
(17:27):
And so if you think about thepurpose of the thought it's not
working, like what is thepurpose?
It's to stop you from working.
What is the thing that isguaranteed not to work, not
working right.
So if I am not working on mymarketing, for instance, because
I put out a number of thingsand I'm like this is not working
and then I stop altogether,that is guaranteed not to work
right.
That is guaranteed not to work.
(17:47):
So I just don't.
I just don't do that anymore.
I think it's a very dangerousthought.
I think it's a thought thatcreates paralysis for physician
entrepreneurs and it's a thoughtthat keeps us those same week
to week, month to month, year toyear, where we may get a little
better, but we're not gettingradically better, because we're
too scared to go out there andgo all out, because at the back
of our mind is this thought it'snot working.
(18:08):
So I want to invite you to dothese things, okay.
I want to invite you to do thisthing.
I want to invite you topractice radical gratitude.
I want you to practice owningthe thought it's working even
better than I can imagine.
It's working even better than Ican imagine, and if you look
all through your life, you'llsee so many examples.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
If you look through all the life cycle of your
business, you see so manyexamples of exactly this.
Okay, chapel Rowan cowboy hat,again in black pentagram on it.
Another one who's dressed a lotmore glinda bright pinks,
pastels, lots of silveraccessories.
Next to them we also have justan actual octopus with a little
mustache stuck on, a sort ofsalmonella dolly mustache stuck
(18:49):
on the front of their Do.
Octopuses have a face Stuck ontheir body at some point that
gives the impression of wheretheir face is.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Work this process and then come to this point where
you're like you know what, it'sworking even better than I can
imagine.
And then you go all out.
Listen, you're a physician,you're a physician entrepreneur
(19:23):
no-transcript.
That thought is like it's a badguy, it's like a terrorist.
It's a bad guy Trying to stopyou from doing stuff and just
don't let it anymore.
And every time you think it'snot working, just start thinking
it's working even better than Ican imagine.
Okay, I'm rooting for you asalways.
(19:43):
As always.
And if this episode helped you,send me a DM or PM and say let
me know how it helped you.
And if you have follow-upquestions, send them to me and I
might just make an episode justfor you.
Rooting for you always.
See you on the next episode.
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