Latest / DPC Life: Direct Primary Care Podcast / Dr. Una on Physician Entrepreneurship: Mindset Shifts Every Doctor Needs Now

Transcript

Dr. Una on Physician Entrepreneurship: Mindset Shifts Every Doctor Needs Now · DPC Life: Direct Primary Care Podcast

• 0:00
  Your backup plan is your real plan.
• 0:01
  Do you have to pay attention to your dissatisfaction?
• 0:04
  And you have to say yes to the scary things.
• 0:06
  The gravitational pull of your formal self is real.
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  You must respect it. Like you think, oh, I read a
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  book and now I'm going to do things differently.
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  Oh no, you won't. Not except you're very
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  intentional about it because you may do it differently for two
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  weeks and you will go back to the way you've always done it
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  because you've done it maybe for years, right?
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  There's no award category for mom that did it all.
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  If we choose discomfort, like the right discomfort, then we're
• 0:33
  setting the stage for. Welcome to DPC Life, the podcast
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  where independent doctors share real stories, bold ideas, and
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  the freedom of doing medicine on your own terms.
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  I'm your host, Doctor Ann Gonzalez, and together we'll
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  explore the winds, the struggles, and everything in
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  between. Let's dive in.
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  Welcome back to DPC Life, the podcast where we talk about all
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  things DPC and life beyond. And today because we are in the
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  holiday season, I'm doing replays of our most popular
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  episodes and this one is absolutely one of my favorite
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  episodes that we recorded this season.
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  This is my interview with Doctor Luna, the founder of Entree MD
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  Business School and we learned so much about business mindset
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  and ways to promote your private practice and also ways to
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  support your practice as it's growing.
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  Doctor Una is such an inspiration and I always tell
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  people when they are starting out their DPCS, if people ask
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  what books that they need to read, I tell them to read all of
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  the DPC startup books and then also to read Andre MD by Doctor
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  Una because that was really and instrumental.
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  That was an such an eye opening book for me when I read it, when
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  we opened our DPC and it really helped shift my mindset about
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  money and entrepreneurship and help me understand that as a
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  physician, as an independent physician, I do have a lot of
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  value for patients and it's not just tied to the insurance
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  system or tied to an employed position.
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  So I do encourage all of you to read Doctor Una's books,
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  especially if you are thinking about your opening your own DPC
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  or independent practice. Please enjoy the replay of this
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  episode with Doctor Una. Let's get into it.
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  I'm so super excited and honored to introduce my guest today.
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  She is a renowned author, speaker, pastor, mom, wife,
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  physician, entrepreneur. You know you're famous when you
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  have one name. Doctor Una.
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  Doctor Nika Unichuko, thank you so much for being with me today.
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  Thank you so much for having me. I've been looking forward to
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  this. I actually signed up an hour
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  early. I was like.
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  Oh my gosh. Wow.
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  So yeah, this is going to be a great conversation.
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  It is. It is.
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  There's so much to talk about, so let's start with talking with
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  us about how coming from employed position and how you
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  became a physician entrepreneur and those big mindset shifts
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  that you had to make to get there.
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  Yeah. I mean, when I started off as a
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  physician, if you will, pediatrician just got my first
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  job and all that, entrepreneurship was not a thing
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  on my mind, not not even remotely.
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  And I think that's important for people to here because for many
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  physicians, that's not where we start from.
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  And so, but I remember seeing my first patient, right?
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  And there's something about being a tender, you see your
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  first patient, take care of them, write the script, all that
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  stuff. I walked out of the room and I
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  had this feeling. It will feel like, yeah, like
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  we're the big league now. But it was very anti climatic.
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  It was like, So what I just did, I'm going to do this 20 times a
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  day till I'm 65 or whatever, then I'll retire.
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  I was like, this is not happening.
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  Like there has to be something else again.
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  I didn't know it was entrepreneurship.
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  I didn't know it was anything. And so for someone who just has
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  that nudge, like don't ignore it, you know what I mean?
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  Like don't quiet down, just pay attention to it.
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  And so I made a decision. I was like, I have to find what
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  that is. I'm only going to give this 10
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  years of my life. I have to figure out what it is.
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  And you know, I worked my job. It was a great experience.
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  My boss came and he says after the first year, he's like,
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  here's a five year contract. And I was like, wait, I was
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  like, I've been married for three years.
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  I just finished a three-year residency.
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  My idea forever is 3 years and five years sounds like a very
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  long time. And so he was the one who
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  planted the seed because he said when I told him I wasn't going
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  to renew my contract, he said, well, if you're not going to
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  renew your contract, start your own practice.
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  I was like, first of all, nine months out of presidency, this
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  is not a thing that people think.
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  Just in case you don't know, this is not a thing that people
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  think. And then I said, second of all,
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  in case you missed this ginormous bump here, I'm
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  pregnant. Like this is not the time to
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  start a practice. And then he said, no.
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  Like when the baby's little baby will need you a lot, but the
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  practice will be little, won't need you as much.
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  And when the baby's older and doesn't need you as much, the
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  practice will need you more and you'll be ready to be needed
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  more. And he's like, if you have
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  questions, you can ask me. OK, so this was the best and the
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  most deceptive conversation that I had at the same time, right?
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  Because I walked away going like, I'm going to start a
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  practice. And then I also thought, and all
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  I'll have is some questions. That's it.
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  It's going to be great. I'm going to hang the shingle.
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  They're going to come. So where we moved to was
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  ultimately 45 minutes away. So it's not attracting any
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  patients from that practice or anything like that.
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  And I had this philosophy, I'll hang the shingle and they will
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  come. I hung the shingle and they did
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  not come. It was the most terrifying
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  thing. And when that happened, then I
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  found myself in a challenging situation because I couldn't get
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  out of the lease and all these things.
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  I just signed a bunch of a bunch of contracts, but I was like, I
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  don't know how to make this work.
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  And I think like marketing, all these things will need to, but
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  I'm a professional. I don't do things like that.
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  And that's really, I was there for a few weeks, a few months
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  and I read a book by Brian Tracy, Eat That Frog.
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  And he said all business skills are learnable.
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  If you see a business doing better than yours, they're not
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  better than you. They just know things you don't
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  know. And that was the starting point
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  of all things entrepreneurship for me because I was like, I may
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  not know how to market, sell, hire team, do any of those
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  things, but I do know how to learn.
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  And so I started this lifelong journey of learning marketing
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  and sales and service delivery and operations on all of these
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  things. And the business took off and we
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  hit our first million, I think of the third year, built the
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  practice. We could work without me.
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  I haven't seen patients, they are like in a really long time,
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  but the practice exists still doing some figures, doing all
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  the things that it does. We're very grateful for that.
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  Then I went on to build Andre MD, which is a company where I
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  serve physicians and help them build profitable businesses.
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  So they can live life for practice medicine on their
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  terms. And the rest they say is
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  history. And I like to tell those pieces
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  because a lot of times people feel I'm not like that person.
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  You don't have to be. You just have to honor their
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  nudges. You have to pay attention to
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  your dissatisfaction and you have to say yes to the scary
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  things. I yes, I did not ever think, you
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  know, if you'd asked me five years ago that said you're going
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  to have a practice and you're going to be doing a podcast,
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  you're going to be doing all these things.
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  I always said, you're crazy. Yeah, we have.
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  My husband's a pediatrician as well.
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  And yes, so he's a partner in his practice.
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  And I always thought, well, that's enough.
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  One partner is enough in a family.
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  And our kids were little and I heard about DPC in 2013 but
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  didn't open for eight years. So yes, a part of the reason for
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  this podcast is I'm one of your minions, I will say because I've
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  taken up the mission, right? The mission to get doctors out
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  of employed practice and doing their own thing.
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  So that's why I want to do this too, is because I don't want
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  people to wait eight years to start their own practice because
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  you don't have time to wait. You've taken one for the team,
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  the. Clock.
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  The clock is ticking, so one of the things that I tell DPC's
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  when they're first opening is read the DPC books and then the
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  next book you have to read is Entree MD by Doctor Una.
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  Well, thank you, I. Oh my gosh, I've told that to so
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  many people. And the reason why is because
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  you talk about the mind shifts towards money and selling.
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  And that was the biggest eye opening in your book that I got
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  out of it when I read it. So tell us more about how you
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  always talk about how you're an introvert.
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  How did you get past that? So I think the starting point
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  for that was really redefining that word, right?
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  So I used to think being an introvert meant I'm super shy.
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  I'll never be able to speak while on stage, I'll never be
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  able to network like a pro. I would not be a go getter if
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  there was competition I had to come up against, right?
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  Like Med school, I can do that because I'm taking my own exams
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  in my own space. But if I had to compete, I
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  couldn't. And but that's not really what
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  an introvert is, right? If you think about it, 50% of
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  the population, if they're introverts, we can't all be bad,
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  you know what I mean? You can't all have a defect.
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  And so I started studying it and I found one thing about
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  introverts are they are people who recharge in solitude.
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  I was like, aha, I can get behind that.
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  I can. I like, yes, I recharge the
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  solitude. So if I went somewhere was an
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  event on all of those things at this stage of my life, I can
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  enjoy an event. I can network, I can speak
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  effectively, I can do all those things, but that is not an
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  inner. It's energizing in the moment,
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  but I'll be drained when I'm done and I need to go take a
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  walk by myself, take a long shower, do any of those things.
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  I get to the point where I'm like, I've recharged myself,
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  right? So if that's the case, then it
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  also means if you look at it, speaking is a skill, networking
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  is a skill, confidence is something you build over time.
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  These are not personality types, these are skills.
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  So I brought myself to this place where I was like, no,
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  these are learnable skills. I will learn the skills and
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  master the skills. And then I'll also honor who I
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  am by always acknowledging that I recharge in solitude.
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  So for instance, I host a three day events for my clients every
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  year, a vision retreat where we plan the year and we do all of
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  those things. And I do quite a bit of speaking
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  for those three days. And I'm with like maybe 50 of my
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  clients and like stuff like that.
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  I know if I start hanging out with them on day one, I'll be
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  out. I'll be out by day 2A day
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  through they'll have like 75% of me, then 50% of me and stuff
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  like that. I know that.
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  So what do I do? I'm in solitude, right Then I
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  come out, do my sessions, maybe hang out for 30 minutes or so,
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  go back to my room, solitude to recharge and all of that.
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  And day three, they know after day three, they all know we're
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  going to all hang out with Doctor Una.
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  If he needs to stay for hours, we can because she's delivered
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  what she needs to deliver. And even if she's so tired
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  after, that's fine. She's going home.
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  This is what I mean. So I honor how I recharge, but I
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  don't accept that there's anything I can't do because I'm
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  an introvert. So I can be a rock star
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  entrepreneur. I could be a dominant speaker, I
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  can network like a boss, I could lead high quality teams.
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  I can have difficult conversations with people.
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  I can do all of that as an introvert because those are
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  skills. But then I also honor, if you're
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  gonna go do this big events, you have to figure out where you're
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  gonna recharge because you're gonna need to recharge.
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  So I don't let it stop me. And in fact, I do see it as a
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  superpower because one thing about introverts is they're in
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  their heads a lot. They think a lot, they analyze,
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  they observe a lot. And so for me, when I think
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  about the frameworks I developed for this is how, for instance,
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  you can take your business to seven figures, all this stuff.
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  Part of it is because I study everything.
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  I study businesses, I study them in different industries, I study
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  entrepreneurs and what they do, I observe a lot of things.
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  I'm playing around with these frameworks in my mind.
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  So actually, I think being an introvert is a superpower at
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  this point. I wouldn't trade it for.
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  Anything. Yeah, absolutely.
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  It's your social battery. Someone told me that recently.
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  So yeah, social battery. And that's kind of goes into one
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  of the questions that I wanted to ask you, because you're very
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  measured with your time and you protect your time.
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  And so one of my questions was, what kind of things are you
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  saying no to to make room for other things in your life?
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  That's a great question. Well, so this is the way I think
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  about it, right? I have one life and let's say I
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  have a 12 block, well, 12 month period I'm looking at.
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  So I have this 12 month block and in this 12 month block I
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  have defined what I want to accomplish.
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  OK, so let's say I'm making this up that I wanted to help 1000
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  doctors in this 12 month block and I wanted to help them do
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  their first or next 7 figures in revenue.
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  This is my agenda from a business perspective.
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  OK? Now in order to do that, I'm
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  like OK, we need to work the marketing, we need to work the
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  sales, we need this kind of team.
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  And these are my core roles. These are the things only I can
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  do. Once I've defined that, then it
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  becomes very clear what I should spend most of my time doing.
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  And I take it a step further where I also define these things
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  you used to do, you no longer do.
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  So for instance, maybe I used to manage my own social media.
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  And it's like, well, if you're gonna do that, you're not gonna
• 13:52
  be able to manage your own social media.
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  But because I've done it for so long, then I put on there like,
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  this is an 80% activity. This is an activity I no longer
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  do, right? Maybe I used to manage my own
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  e-mail and calendar. I'm like, no, you have an
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  executive assistant now that you hired this person takes care of
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  all of that for you. I used to do my own sales calls.
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  You can't do that anymore. Now you have this person who
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  like I literally document it because it's a habit.
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  It's something I've done as a habit.
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  I have to stop it. I have to.
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  And this list, I look at it every day like, hello, Doctor
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  Una, these are the things you do not do.
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  These are the things you do right?
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  And so I have to rewire my brain because this is what I tell my
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  clients. I say the gravitational pull of
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  your formal self, Israel. You must respect it like you
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  think, oh, I read a book and now I'm gonna do things differently.
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  Oh, no, you won't. Not except you're very
• 14:42
  intentional about it because you may do it differently for two
• 14:45
  weeks and you will go back to the way you've always done it
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  because you've done it maybe for years, right?
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  So I have a list of these are the things you do.
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  These are the things that are good.
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  There's nothing wrong with them. In fact, they got you where you
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  are now, but you no longer do. Now I'm gonna make mistakes and
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  all of that stuff, but I don't even see them as mistakes.
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  I see them. I'm wearing training wheels,
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  right? I'm trying to function at this
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  higher level. And then because I've defined
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  where I'm going, when somebody comes with an opportunity that
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  doesn't line up with where I'm going, it doesn't matter how
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  good it is, it's not taking me where I'm going.
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  So the answer is no. This is, I mean, when someone
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  comes, I want to be a part of your team and I look and there's
• 15:25
  nothing you're doing that takes us where we're going.
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  So the answer to that is going to be enough.
• 15:31
  It becomes so much easier. But there's no way to get there
• 15:35
  where it's crystal clear what is a shiny object and crystal clear
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  what is a distraction, except you define with clarity where
• 15:43
  you're going. And I have talked to a lot of
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  people, physicians included, and I say this respectfully, I was
• 15:49
  there as well, is you would think most physician
• 15:52
  entrepreneurs have goals for their business.
• 15:54
  They don't. They don't.
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  And so if you don't, it becomes hard to say no because you don't
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  know what is a good opportunity and what it's not.
• 16:03
  You do not know who you need on your team and who you don't.
• 16:06
  You don't know what you should spend most of your time doing
• 16:08
  all what you shouldn't because it's almost like you have the
• 16:11
  GPS, but you didn't put the address in, so there's no
• 16:14
  direction. And so it starts from defining
• 16:17
  what that is. Many other things become very
• 16:20
  clear, and the things you should say no to become very clear.
• 16:23
  Yeah, yeah. It's like Simon Sinek.
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  What's your why? What's your purpose?
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  And then you kind of work backwards from there, right?
• 16:32
  Always. Always reverse centenarian.
• 16:34
  Always. Well, a lot of the listeners are
• 16:37
  either just starting out their DPC or I call them DPC dreamers.
• 16:42
  They're thinking about it, they're getting ready to to
• 16:45
  leap. And so they're solo, and a lot
• 16:48
  of the people who listen are also moms, and they carry a lot
• 16:52
  of weight at home as well. What kinds of suggestions do you
• 16:57
  have for people who are starting out that are alone?
• 16:59
  They don't have a wonderful team like you do.
• 17:02
  What kinds of things can they do to help move themselves along?
• 17:08
  Yeah. So there many ways to look at
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  that. So I'm going to start from where
• 17:13
  I start from and if you want some clarification, just point
• 17:16
  me in the direction and we'll go there.
• 17:17
  Let me say two things. The first is especially to the
• 17:20
  moms you you talked about moms. When I started my private
• 17:24
  practice, I had a 2 year old and a four month old, OK.
• 17:31
  And I did not qualify for a loan because I was born in the USI
• 17:36
  left when I was 6. I came back after medical
• 17:38
  school. OK.
• 17:39
  So I had no credit history and all of these kind of things.
• 17:42
  And so when I got when I was time, I didn't qualify for a
• 17:46
  loan. So I self funded.
• 17:47
  So I was working about 12 to 20 hours in the local urgent care
• 17:51
  in addition to all of this, OK. And then because that is not
• 17:55
  enough, at the same time, my husband and I planted a church.
• 17:59
  So this is called chaos of the highest order.
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  OK, let me define what that is. Now I'm telling you what I
• 18:07
  didn't know then, but I learned, OK.
• 18:09
  It took me a few years, but I learned.
• 18:12
  When you decide to become ACEO of physician entrepreneur, one
• 18:17
  of the best things you can do for yourself is see yourself as
• 18:21
  the CEO of your life, meaning your business on your home, not
• 18:26
  the CEO at business. I'm regular mom.
• 18:28
  When I say regular mom, I don't mean that in a disparate
• 18:30
  respectful way, like status quo, what you've always done.
• 18:33
  Because in order to take on new things, you have to let go of
• 18:38
  some old things. OK, so if for the moms, consider
• 18:43
  getting a home team, not just the getting a team at home
• 18:48
  because there's so much you do. There's no award for doing it
• 18:52
  all by yourself right now. That team would include your
• 18:56
  family, your kids. I was talking to a lady at a
• 19:00
  conference I was speaking at and she said her 15 year old, she
• 19:03
  was doing his laundry or something.
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  I was like 15 years old. And no, ma'am, this will be a
• 19:09
  hard no, OK or no. So it includes getting your
• 19:14
  teen, your family on board. They will help you if you ask
• 19:17
  them. Your children will help you if
• 19:18
  you hold them accountable to it, right?
• 19:20
  OK, so it includes that. It includes volunteers like I
• 19:25
  had in my world, A lot of people I mentored, right?
• 19:29
  A lot of people I mentored. When I had my fourth child, I
• 19:32
  was like, listen, y'all go make a roster, okay?
• 19:37
  Who's gonna come spend time with the baby so I could take a nap?
• 19:41
  They literally had a roster because I'm like, I spent my
• 19:44
  whole life with you guys mentoring, doing all this stuff.
• 19:46
  No, you're gonna come hang with the baby.
• 19:47
  That's what you gonna do. They had a roster.
• 19:49
  My life with the 4th baby, if she was my first and that's the
• 19:52
  way I did, I probably have 10 kids.
• 19:53
  It was so fun. I was up with the baby at night.
• 19:55
  It was amazing. So they're people in your world
• 19:59
  who will help you. So these are like your unpaid
• 20:01
  team, if you will, right? Because you've put things in the
• 20:04
  reciprocity bank so you can withdraw, right?
• 20:06
  And then people you pay like, Oh my goodness, if you can pay a
• 20:09
  teenager to do your laundry, pay the teenager, teenager's happy,
• 20:13
  you're happy, everybody's happy. But I, you know, start thinking
• 20:16
  of yourself as the CEO of your home.
• 20:19
  It will give you so much peace and quiet.
• 20:21
  And there's no award category for Mom that did it all.
• 20:26
  Yeah, it's in a category like that, right.
• 20:28
  So that's on that side. Now, when it comes to the
• 20:30
  practice itself, one of the things that has helped me
• 20:33
  accomplish so much more in the quote UN quote middle time that
• 20:37
  I have like multiplied my output is spending 80% of my time doing
• 20:44
  what I consider 20% activities. What are 20% activities?
• 20:47
  These are the needle movers, right?
• 20:50
  Like tweaking your business plan for the 700 time is not a needle
• 20:53
  mover playing on canvas, not a needle mover picking paint for
• 20:57
  the office. Like must you pick paint?
• 20:58
  Yes, but it's not a needle mover, right?
• 21:00
  And you got to be clear on what is the needle mover and what is
• 21:03
  not. Now when you are starting your
• 21:07
  marketing is the needle mover of needle movers.
• 21:12
  And so every time we avoid, I'll tell you what I used to do
• 21:15
  because nobody else does this right when I have something
• 21:18
  important to do like marketing that I don't want to do that at
• 21:21
  the time. Do you want to do right?
• 21:23
  I would do everything else. My To Do List will be full.
• 21:26
  But it that is all procrastination, like all 12
• 21:28
  things are just my method of procrastinating.
• 21:32
  That's all that it is, right. And so getting your patience is
• 21:37
  like the most important thing to do, even if you haven't opened
• 21:40
  yet, building the brand, having an e-mail list and saying sign
• 21:44
  up for my VIP wait list or whatever.
• 21:46
  So when I start, you'll be the first to know.
• 21:48
  And all of those things is the most important activity.
• 21:51
  So the more you avoid it, the more work you'll have to do.
• 21:55
  And and that's the truth right now.
• 21:57
  You might say, oh, it's nerve racking, it's uncomfortable,
• 22:00
  it's all the things. And you know which it is.
• 22:02
  But so was putting in IV lines at some point.
• 22:05
  So is intubating babies at some point.
• 22:07
  So is running codes at one some point.
• 22:09
  But you did it afraid and you put in enough reps and you
• 22:13
  learned how to do it and you became really good at it.
• 22:16
  It's the same thing with marketing and the rest of the
• 22:18
  things, right? And so I would say home team, I
• 22:21
  would say go all in on marketing and don't avoid the
• 22:24
  uncomfortable things in business because discomfort is where the
• 22:28
  greatness is. Your comfort zone is where the
• 22:30
  status quo is. So we get to, we can only choose
• 22:33
  one. If you choose comfort, you're
• 22:35
  choosing status quo. We're not moving forward.
• 22:37
  Nothing's happening. Nothing is happening.
• 22:39
  If we choose discomfort like the right discomfort, then we're
• 22:45
  setting the stage for greatness, right?
• 22:46
  And so, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yes.
• 22:50
  And I think a lot of times, especially because DPC doctors,
• 22:53
  they're always like bootstrappers trying to do
• 22:56
  everything with as little money as possible because you know how
• 23:00
  it works. You just don't have a lot then,
• 23:03
  especially if you're coming out of residency, right?
• 23:05
  There's some people coming out that are doing this, which is
• 23:07
  amazing. It's wonderful, Yeah.
• 23:09
  But they want to do everything. They want to answer all the
• 23:11
  phone calls. They want to call everyone back
• 23:13
  and explain DPC. And I say, well, you know, maybe
• 23:16
  you could get a VA because you need to go out and you need to
• 23:21
  talk to business owners and you need to be showing your face and
• 23:25
  networking at the Chamber and B and I or whatever it is, because
• 23:29
  no one else can do that for you because it's you.
• 23:33
  You're the brand, right? So.
• 23:35
  Yeah. Absolutely.
• 23:37
  And I don't think I bootstrap, right?
• 23:40
  I told you I couldn't qualify for a loan or do anything.
• 23:42
  And actually as an insurance based practice, I did it all.
• 23:45
  I answered my own phones. I was the medical assistant,
• 23:49
  worked up the patient, saw the patient, gave my own vaccines
• 23:51
  and get this, I build the insurance company.
• 23:54
  I did everything and I did it not because I couldn't, because
• 24:00
  I had a fundamental reason, like I don't want to hire, I want a
• 24:02
  bootstrap. I was afraid.
• 24:04
  I was like, I don't even know what I'm doing.
• 24:06
  If I hire somebody and they come in here, they'll figure out I
• 24:08
  don't even know what I'm doing, right?
• 24:10
  And I'm like, where will the money come from?
• 24:11
  Like I'm asking where will the money come from for a medical
• 24:14
  assistant, right? So I get it.
• 24:17
  However, the opportunity cost of not hiring that person means
• 24:22
  that I don't get to go out and market.
• 24:24
  So I could have now had 200 patients on my panel as ADPC doc
• 24:28
  and I have 50 because I was answering the phone.
• 24:32
  Get off the phone and go get the other 150.
• 24:34
  You see what I'm saying? Like it's too expensive.
• 24:37
  So you can still do things in a cost effective way, right?
• 24:40
  One of the things I teach about a lot is the profitable team.
• 24:43
  Like, how do you bring on team members in such a way that as
• 24:46
  you bring them all, your profit grows?
• 24:48
  It doesn't disappear, right? But doing it all yourself is not
• 24:53
  necessarily the answer. There is a better way.
• 24:57
  And with you talking about how you didn't have a loan and you
• 25:00
  had to work in the, you had to moonlight and that's what a lot
• 25:03
  of people have to do with their practices.
• 25:05
  They're kind of half DPC, half hospital or half urgent care.
• 25:10
  Did you feel like that hindered your growth?
• 25:13
  I mean, you had to, but obviously you would have
• 25:16
  preferred to just work on your practice.
• 25:18
  But what do you think it would have been like if you hadn't
• 25:21
  done that? Well, I don't know that it would
• 25:24
  have hindered my growth. I think it's because of the way
• 25:27
  I handled it, Like some people did half and do half and half.
• 25:30
  That's not what I did. What I did was I need the
• 25:35
  revenue. I need to fund this.
• 25:38
  Like literally was my funding strategy.
• 25:41
  Like if I had taken a loan, I would have had to pay back
• 25:44
  interest and do all of that stuff.
• 25:45
  There's stuff that, and to me, I just saw it like, this is me
• 25:48
  paying interest. That's what that was.
• 25:50
  And so I started with, in the beginning, we're not really
• 25:54
  busy, so I could do as many shifts as possible.
• 25:56
  And every time I added on more patience, I decreased my shifts,
• 26:01
  it was a titration like, yeah, my priority was not working the
• 26:05
  job. Like, I'm going to do both.
• 26:07
  It was not about doing both. It was about funding my practice
• 26:11
  because of the intention. It never became a distraction
• 26:15
  that never came a place where this is safe.
• 26:17
  Do I hold on to this? It was never that because the
• 26:20
  job was. It was not a safety net.
• 26:23
  It was not something I do. So I just have revenue because
• 26:26
  what that does is then you don't put pressure on the business,
• 26:29
  right, to grow and stuff like that.
• 26:30
  So it was never 1/2 and half. It was never a safety net.
• 26:35
  It was literally I have to pay the rent for my practice.
• 26:38
  I have to pay this, I have to pay that, pay a few bills.
• 26:40
  So I don't put pressure on the newborn, right, Because the the
• 26:43
  practice was a newborn. But yeah, this newborn is going
• 26:46
  to pay bills in a second. And so I probably overall
• 26:50
  probably did that for a year and a half.
• 26:52
  And of course, it started off heavy and just kept dropping
• 26:56
  that since maybe 2 * a month. And it got to a place I was
• 26:59
  like, forget it. I'm not, I'm not doing it
• 27:01
  anymore. So it didn't hinder my growth.
• 27:02
  But if that is not the intent, it can, right?
• 27:05
  If we're like, I have two sources of revenue, my practice
• 27:08
  on my job that yeah, that's, that's gonna hinder stuff big
• 27:11
  time. Yeah.
• 27:12
  I think that you what you said, the safety net, I think that's
• 27:16
  what a lot of people are doing is because they're just like, I
• 27:18
  don't know if I can get the patients, let me just kind of
• 27:21
  keep this. And in that situation, I think
• 27:24
  it is a hindrance. I think you really have to.
• 27:27
  I like the way that you said you, you've just balanced it
• 27:29
  out. I don't think people think of it
• 27:31
  that way. Yeah, because it was not, I
• 27:34
  didn't see it as a source of income.
• 27:36
  I saw it as self funding my practice.
• 27:38
  Yeah, like, and you bring up a interesting point because and
• 27:42
  it's important is if you're not committed, it is hard to win an
• 27:49
  entrepreneurship. For instance, in my program
• 27:51
  someone said can I come try it out?
• 27:54
  I was like, no, and I would love for you to try it out, but this
• 27:58
  is what I know. If you try entrepreneurship, it
• 28:01
  doesn't work. It's like try medical school.
• 28:04
  Like it's not going to work because that's going to require
• 28:07
  commit. Like I'm all in because tough
• 28:09
  times are going to come and it's going to require a version of
• 28:13
  you that doesn't exist now, right?
• 28:15
  And so if you have a safety net, you can have a philosophy that I
• 28:19
  don't want to market, but if you knew you had to grow it, you go
• 28:22
  like, OK, how do we figure this stuff out?
• 28:25
  Right? If you had a safety net, you
• 28:28
  know your pricing is wrong. You know, you should raise your
• 28:30
  prices, but you're like, I just get them and I just work an
• 28:33
  extra shift here to make up for it.
• 28:36
  But if you didn't have that, then you're like, OK, how do I
• 28:40
  raise my prices? They get rid of the mind drama,
• 28:44
  raise my prices and offer it confidently knowing people will
• 28:49
  say yes to it. If you have a safety net, you
• 28:52
  won't do that, right? And so it doesn't mean throw
• 28:54
  away reason because sometimes people go like, I quit my job
• 28:57
  three months ago. I'm ready to start my business.
• 28:59
  I'm like, Lord have mercy. No, that's not the way this
• 29:01
  works. Please don't.
• 29:02
  You're still going to have to. The newborn is not going to be
• 29:04
  right. So I'm not saying throw away
• 29:06
  reason, but what I am saying is if you're like, I'm gonna keep
• 29:10
  this job just in case this doesn't work.
• 29:14
  Like your backup plan is your real plan.
• 29:16
  That's the way humans are, right?
• 29:18
  And so you wanna go all in and if you could learn to run codes,
• 29:24
  intubate people, literally, like running a code is like raising
• 29:27
  people from the dead. They died.
• 29:29
  You got them back up. Like, think about what you learn
• 29:31
  to do. If you can do that, you can
• 29:33
  learn marketing, you can learn selling.
• 29:35
  You can learn operations. You can learn to, you know, look
• 29:38
  at profit and loss statements and not break out in hives.
• 29:40
  You can learn all these things, right?
• 29:42
  Yeah. So you can learn, but commitment
• 29:45
  is required. If you're like, let me test it
• 29:47
  out. That doesn't work.
• 29:48
  Yeah. It doesn't work.
• 29:48
  Yeah, definitely. And that also brings me to
• 29:51
  another question I had. I think entrepreneurs, physician
• 29:54
  entrepreneurs particularly, they have a growth mindset, right?
• 29:59
  Because like you said, do it scared that you have to learn
• 30:03
  all these new things. And so you have to have a growth
• 30:05
  mindset. But some people think that they
• 30:09
  have a growth mindset, think that they're this is what they
• 30:14
  want. And maybe they're just not
• 30:17
  educated, like they hadn't educated themselves enough about
• 30:20
  what goes into opening a practice and they get into it
• 30:23
  and they're like, I don't want, I either I can't do this or I
• 30:27
  don't want to do this. What kinds of things if people
• 30:31
  really take a hard look at themselves, right?
• 30:34
  What kinds of things would you say?
• 30:36
  Maybe this is not for you? Certain.
• 30:40
  Yeah, yeah. So there are a number of things.
• 30:43
  First of all, if you are unwilling to change, and this is
• 30:48
  what I mean by that, we had to do a lot of work to become
• 30:51
  physicians. We're talking a decade of
• 30:54
  evolution. And sometimes we get to this
• 30:56
  point where we're like, I'm pretty much done, Like I don't
• 30:59
  want to have to change anymore. I don't like I've arrived.
• 31:03
  We almost feel like I study too hard to still need to study
• 31:07
  marketing. You know what I mean?
• 31:08
  Like this should just work. I take great care of patients.
• 31:11
  Medicine shouldn't be a business and stuff like that.
• 31:14
  Like we should just take care of patients and everything should
• 31:17
  be good. I only want to take care of
• 31:18
  patients. Then I would say especially
• 31:21
  private practice, like a DPC is probably not for you because
• 31:25
  there's going to be a lot of pain and suffering.
• 31:27
  Now, can you flip the attitude? You can.
• 31:31
  But if you want to keep the attitude and you can, there's
• 31:33
  there's no right or wrong, but if you want to keep the
• 31:36
  attitude, you probably want to leave DPC alone, right, And work
• 31:40
  a job so you can see the patients and then somebody else
• 31:42
  would do all the things you want to do.
• 31:44
  That's a decision. You can make that decision.
• 31:46
  You can decide that this doesn't align with my life and that's
• 31:48
  fine, you know, So that's one. The other thing is maybe not so
• 31:54
  much don't start, but it will make it challenging if you don't
• 31:57
  have a why like somebody. OK, I'll give you an example.
• 32:00
  A client of mine said this to me once.
• 32:02
  She said I want to start a coaching program for doctors so
• 32:07
  they can kick the insurance companies away and start cash
• 32:10
  pay practices. I said OK.
• 32:13
  I said wonderful. If she runs a private practice,
• 32:15
  thriving private practice, I think she'll hit seven figures
• 32:17
  this year. I said why do you want to start
• 32:22
  it? Because you are mad at the
• 32:23
  insurance companies? Or do you want to start it
• 32:25
  because this is the legacy you want to leave?
• 32:29
  She said I'm mad at the insurance companies.
• 32:31
  I said, OK, that anger will not be enough for you to weather the
• 32:36
  storms that come with building this business.
• 32:39
  Like I'm doing that. So I of course I can help you do
• 32:41
  that. But what I'm telling you is that
• 32:43
  this why is going to wear out. It's a negative.
• 32:48
  Why, if you will, right? I'm mad at you.
• 32:49
  So I'm going to say right, I'm like, so, so you sit with it.
• 32:53
  If it's legacy, let's go. If it's anger, you're going to
• 32:57
  hate it, you're going to build it, you're going to hate it.
• 32:59
  You're still going to hate the insurance company, everything.
• 33:02
  It's not going to be fun. And so we look at the motive.
• 33:06
  If the motive is look at how much my boss is making off of
• 33:09
  me, I'm going to go do it myself.
• 33:11
  It doesn't work because it's not going to be like your job
• 33:15
  because this is your job. The technician, if you will, the
• 33:18
  physician, plus the job of the manager and the job of the
• 33:21
  entrepreneur. Now you acquire 2 new jobs, so
• 33:24
  now you work 3 jobs, right? It's not going to be enough.
• 33:28
  So that's the motive. Then being an entrepreneur is
• 33:32
  going to be painful, right? That's, that's the second one.
• 33:34
  I would say the third is if you're not, there's a part of
• 33:40
  having a growth mindset, but if you're not willing to do the
• 33:44
  work to learn and evolve, then you don't want to do it right?
• 33:49
  Because it's all learning. If you think about it, right?
• 33:52
  We had to learn marketing, we had to learn selling.
• 33:55
  We now realize we had a mind and that mind is full of mind drama
• 33:58
  that we need to manage and we have to think of pricing and
• 34:02
  leading team and Oh my goodness, leading more team and all that.
• 34:05
  So when you think about it, it's a whole lot of evolution.
• 34:08
  And if you're like, I've paid my dues, I just want to stay at
• 34:12
  home with my babies. I have time for my then maybe
• 34:15
  not now. Could you still, could you do
• 34:18
  this? I have time frame, of course.
• 34:19
  I mean, I homeschool my kids. Of course you can.
• 34:21
  There's a way to do it. But if you're not willing to pay
• 34:24
  the price to do that, then maybe not.
• 34:27
  It'll be painful because you're resisting the inevitable, right?
• 34:32
  Like so it would just be so painful.
• 34:34
  Yeah, we do aesthetics at our practice as well.
• 34:37
  So it's DPC and aesthetics. And so people say, well, I'm
• 34:40
  thinking about getting into aesthetics.
• 34:42
  I'm like, are you really? Because you're going to have to
• 34:45
  think very hard about that one. It is not regular medicine.
• 34:51
  It is completely different ball game.
• 34:53
  So you know, you have to learn marketing.
• 34:56
  You have to. If you think you're putting
• 34:57
  yourself out there now, we'll just wait. 10 exits, that's what
• 35:04
  you mean. Exactly, exactly.
• 35:06
  Well, Doctor Una, I do not want to take up too much of your time
• 35:09
  and I really, really appreciate you.
• 35:11
  I feel like I just got a whole like coaching list is like
• 35:14
  personal. I am so excited.
• 35:18
  Well, I'm. I'm happy to hear that.
• 35:20
  I know I didn't realize that's what was coming so I got tons
• 35:24
  out of this, but I really, really appreciate you being here
• 35:28
  and it. Do you have any last thoughts
• 35:31
  that you want to give to those moms out there who are thinking
• 35:34
  about DPC? This is what I will say if
• 35:39
  you're thinking about it and you're scared because you're
• 35:41
  like, you know what? If it doesn't work, I don't know
• 35:43
  what to do. This is very different.
• 35:45
  I want to remind you of who you are.
• 35:48
  You are a physician, which means at some point in time, the 300
• 35:54
  things you can do now that make you special, You couldn't make
• 35:59
  you special as a career. You couldn't do that.
• 36:02
  And sometimes we hang out with ourselves so much that we don't
• 36:05
  realize how cool we are. Like there's over 330 million
• 36:08
  people in the US. There's 1,000,000 physicians.
• 36:11
  That's you. So you were able to have a
• 36:15
  dramatic transformation that took you from a person to a
• 36:20
  person who can bring people back from the dead.
• 36:22
  OK, thank you for use that analogy.
• 36:24
  You can make any transition that is required for you to be a
• 36:27
  successful entrepreneur. Any will it be uncomfortable?
• 36:31
  Yes, but it's a good discomfort. It's like lifting weights at the
• 36:34
  gym doesn't feel good when you do.
• 36:35
  It feels excellent when you're done and you can learn every
• 36:39
  skill and you can thrive at this.
• 36:43
  And I'm not saying it to like flattery or anything like that.
• 36:46
  I've watched hundreds of doctors do this.
• 36:49
  You can thrive at this. You can become a version of
• 36:52
  yourself that you're not now. You could market confidently.
• 36:55
  You could sell confidently. You could do your pricing
• 36:58
  company. You could lead a team.
• 36:59
  You can manage your time in such a way that you have more time
• 37:03
  for your family. You can run your business in
• 37:05
  such a way that you create financial freedom, right?
• 37:09
  The vacations that you've been thinking about, you can fund
• 37:12
  them. You can change your life using
• 37:15
  entrepreneurship. Will you need to change?
• 37:17
  Yes. Will you need to do
• 37:18
  uncomfortable things? Yes.
• 37:20
  But that is not new to you. There's a lot of evidence.
• 37:22
  You have evidence that you've done this before.
• 37:24
  You can just do it one more time.
• 37:26
  And so don't let the fears hold you back.
• 37:29
  Fear, except of falling off a Cliff, has never been your
• 37:32
  friend. It never has been.
• 37:34
  So don't build a relationship with it.
• 37:36
  Now instead, go like, huh, what if?
• 37:39
  What if I could do that practice?
• 37:40
  What if I could do that practice and I had time for my family?
• 37:44
  What if I could do that practice and it worked financially?
• 37:47
  What if I could do that practice and do it confidently?
• 37:50
  What if I could do then it'll be the best thing that ever
• 37:52
  happened to me. Like allow yourself go there,
• 37:55
  find the next steps you need to take and start taking them.
• 37:58
  But if you look and you've waited for two years, guess
• 38:01
  what? 2 years has come and gone.
• 38:02
  The question becomes, will the next 12 months come and go?
• 38:06
  Will the next two years come and go?
• 38:08
  Or will those two years come and then you're like, you know, look
• 38:11
  what happened over the last two years, right?
• 38:14
  So we don't even if you live to be 200, life is short.
• 38:19
  We we don't have all the time in the world.
• 38:21
  Someday we're going to be celebrating our 90th birthday
• 38:23
  parties, right? What do you what do you think 90
• 38:26
  year old you is saying? Probably saying, come on girl,
• 38:29
  you could do it, right? So maybe listen to her and stop
• 38:34
  waiting. Find the next step.
• 38:36
  Take that. Let's go, let's go.
• 38:39
  Yeah, I like it. Let's go.
• 38:40
  Let's go. Doctor Guna, thank you so much.
• 38:43
  I appreciate you. Before we wrap up, I just wanted
• 38:46
  to mention Harmony OPS for DPC, the CRM that I did develop for
• 38:51
  to write primary care doctors and specifically for DPC doctors
• 38:55
  who are solo in micro practices or maybe they're just about to
• 38:59
  open and they're still getting out of their fee for service
• 39:01
  contract. This is ideal for people who
• 39:04
  need help with answering the phone, answering questions, busy
• 39:09
  work that does not take your medical degree to answer these
• 39:13
  questions. And Harmony OPS for DPC includes
• 39:16
  tools to help you answer those questions and also to reach out
• 39:19
  to your potential ideal patience and nurture those relationships
• 39:24
  so that when you do get out of your fee for service contract
• 39:27
  that you'll have plenty of people who are interested and
• 39:30
  waiting to join your practice. So if you're interested in
• 39:34
  learning more, go to harmonyopsfordpc.com.
• 39:37
  And because it is the end of the year, we do have special
• 39:39
  founders rates until the end of the year.
• 39:42
  So please go take a look and book a demo or give reach out to
• 39:46
  me if you wanted to learn more. Thank you for listening.
• 39:49
  I appreciate each and everyone of you listening, and I look
• 39:52
  forward to bringing you more interviews with DPC doctors in
• 39:55
  the coming year. Happy holidays to all of you.
• 39:59
  Thank you for listening to DPC Life.
• 40:02
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• 40:06
  Leave a review and share it with a friend who's ready for change.
• 40:11
  Remember, wherever you are in the journey, your DPC family has
• 40:15
  your back. Until next time, keep building a
• 40:19
  practice and a life that truly fits you.
• 40:24
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• 40:28
  OPS Health, helping independent doctors like you grow and
• 40:32
  thrive.