Design Your Physician Life

72. Entrepreneurship in Times of Great Shift

• Nneka Unachukwu, M.D • Season 2 • Episode 72

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I'm Dr. Myrdalis Diaz-Ramirez. Welcome to Episode #72!

Today, we are very excited to have Dr. Nneka Unachukwu with us! We will be talking all about how entrepreneurship is practiced in times of great shift, especially with the new technologies we see today and the changes on the horizon. Are you ready? Let's go!

Learn more about Dr. Nneka Unachukwu:

Website: https://entremd.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/druna/




Follow Dr. Myrdalis Diaz at these links:

Myrdalis Diaz-Ramirez:

Hi there. I'm Dr. Maris Dra Mi, and this is the Designer Physician Life Podcast brought to you by our Maxillary Mastermind, a personal professional development program for physicians who want to learn about entrepreneurship and talking about entrepreneurship. We have a wonderful entrepreneur physician today in the house. This is the famous Dr. Una. She's gonna be talking to us about entrepreneurship in times of great shift. Are you ready? Let's go. Hey guys, look who's here. Dr. Una finally know that she hasn't been here before. Welcome, good morning.

Dr. Una:

How are you? I am doing great. Thank you so much for having me on this show. I'm looking forward to this this conversation.

Myrdalis Diaz-Ramirez:

So these are third and last attempt at this conversations that it goes live to you somehow. So we're very excited to have you with, let's talk a little bit about what you've done before. You know, everybody knows you're a board certified pediatrician. You founded the Ivy League Pediatrics in Atlanta, which you still, you know, have right now. You graduated from the Nigeria College of Medicine, which is gonna be important for the future here in our conversation. And then you had your residence in New Jersey. Before you went on to, to do your practice, you've, you know, hoping in your practice you developed these entrepreneurial skills and now you have been sharing that and more with your community. Entry MD business school. You have a podcast, you have a community of physicians with, you know, you help them with their personal brands across the university. You have this goal of helping a hundred thousand physicians. And we'll talk a little bit about that. And you've been featured in Forbes and as a member of the Forbes Business Council. So you've helped doctors all over the world leverage entrepreneurship and build lives they love. So that's a lot there,

Dr. Una:

right? That's a lot. And you make it sound really good. You keep talking like that. We'll have to be best friends forever.

Myrdalis Diaz-Ramirez:

Yeah. Well, you're here recording with me on special time of the day and the week, so I'm very excited about that. So today we have, we're gonna have we're gonna talk about different things, guys. Why do I say three times? Because. We've recorded podcasts, this our third time, and we've had basically some technical issues that eventually despite our best attempts and our best you know, interviews didn't happen. So anyways, let's turn on some lights here and off we go. So, today we're gonna be talking about your life and how you're being helping physicians and everything. I also want to interview you with different, as if different personalities we're interviewing you other than you know, other interviews that you might have had. But before we do that, let's go and talk a little bit about when we had this conversation about your books. One of the things is that, you know, you've written already at least two books that have been published and physicians are using all over these books. We then talked about. Send making them audio books and then, and then we talk about your heritage. So let's talk about the process of an audio book for those who want to build an audio book. Right. And then how you felt about your reading when you were reading your book.

Dr. Una:

Yeah. So you know, With the process, I use my book, a lot of it, I use the team, right. And so for the, the audio version of it, it was really come to the studio and you're gonna come for two days and record the book, right? And so you know, I got over there kind of like with PO podcasting and all of that. It's just that on the other side, I had the people who are gonna edit the audio book on the, on the other side of, of the wall, if you will, or, or the glass if you will. And I remember I started reading the book and it dawned on me that there was a little bit of a complication. And that's because I was born in the us. I spent half of my life in Nigeria and. Nigeria was colonized by the British. And so what that means is I have an American accent, a British accent, a Nigerian accent and you know, words, I spent 20 years in Nigeria. So words are spelled differently. They're, they're pronounced differently and all of that. So it just became very fascinating, right, because then I'll read out a sentence and read out a word and then they'll stop me and like, can you say that over again? You'll not believe it. Calvary, I probably said that like 700 times. And they're like, well, this is how it said. I'm like, but this is how I've always said. It was just fascinating. But you know, but I, I thought that was very. Very interesting to hear all three accents as I tried to read the book.

Myrdalis Diaz-Ramirez:

So at the end of the day, which accent pre predominated, which accent ruled your book reading? I

Dr. Una:

don't, I don't know. Cuz it's a very nice, it's a very nice blend, you know, so there it's all in there. It it, it is what it is.

Myrdalis Diaz-Ramirez:

It's funny to me because, you know, I I just can't fake it for more, you know, I can try and this is me, right? I, I cannot have anything else other than this Puerto Rican accent that has been here for over 20 something years in the mainland. And. It is what it is. You get what you get. And if you're gonna get entrepreneur or calvary, you know, like it's, it's, that's it. It

Dr. Una:

is what it is. And I, I think what's funny for me is that having grown up ev in, in multiple places, I never really picked up languages. That's the funny thing. I pick up accents. So I would go to, I would go to the uk and then I'm like, oh, I think it's about time. I have my cup of tea, right? And, and that's what I walk away with. And then I go to Paris. I won't pick up any French words. I will pick up the way the French people speak English. It's so weird. So anyway, but that's that's just a weird thing I do.

Myrdalis Diaz-Ramirez:

So one of the things that, it doesn't matter, you know, where your accent comes from. Your message has been the same for physicians, right? And it's loud and clear. You guys, you know, entrepreneurship helps you, entrepreneurship helps you achieve freedom, emotional freedom, and it frees you from burnout and all these things. So that is clear. Doesn't matter if it comes from Nigeria, from British accent, from from us accent. That's what we are here for. And one of the things that as physicians, we tend to do, because, you know, it, it's the nature of being a physician, is that we are trained to be a physician and we stay with physicians through our life. And then that's how it goes. And we are in this lane without really opening to the world. One of the things that we have to do as entrepreneurs is definitely mingle with other people to learn from, from others. Where do you get your knowledge that's not, you know, in medical conferences and, and in the hospitals or, or with the click clinics and patients? Where is do you go so that you can bring that knowledge to your enter md business school?

Dr. Una:

Well, so, so the first thing for me is I grew up in a, in a home with two, you know, doctor parents. So my dad's a surgeon, my mom's a clinical pharmacist, a pharm d and I noticed this early on as a kid that it doesn't matter. Where they start the conversation from. It always ends up with the patient, right? Oh, and I saw this fascinating patient, or this happened, I read this article, and all those kind of things. And so I remember being a little kid, I made a decision like, I am not going to be married to a physician. I'm going to be married to someone who, when I talk about what I do, they're like, huh, what? You know, like completely confused. So I could have this very different you had and broader, you know, approach to life. So I, I remember making that decision as a kid. So I've always been fascinated by the world outside of medicine, even though I was in medicine. And then I went on to hear somebody say that innovation is not really doing new things. It is taking something that is working in an, in one industry, in another industry and bringing it into your own industry. And I was like, wow, I can be like unbelievably innovative if I just spend. A lot of time outside medicine, I just observe what is working. So that kind of made me a student of business. I study all kinds of, like, I've studied, I studied coaching, I studied product-based businesses. I study all kinds of service-based businesses. I pay attention when people are selling businesses, what made it work, but like from, even from social media posts. And so I'm saying all that to say it put me in this position where I. I learn about business from every kind of business. Like every, I'm always curious what worked. I may not be able to bring it to medicine, that's fine. But what worked, what are the timeless principles? So I would do that on social media, just observing what businesses are doing. Sometimes I'll comb through websites. I'm like, what are they doing? I will comb through people talking at, you know, conferences about funnels, and I don't necessarily do funnels. Right. And I'm like, just trying to get like, what are those principles that are working? I've been to, you know, grant Cardone's, you know, conference, I've been to, you know, conferences where there are no there, you know, there are no physicians at all. These are pure business conferences, and I'm okay. Being uncomfortable there, right? Like maybe they're talking a lot about a lot of things that I don't know, or I've ne they're completely new, so it's uncomfortable. I feel like, wow, I'm back in school and stuff like that. I'm very comfortable being there because I'm like, out of this discomfort, all I need is one or two great ideas, you know? So I, I'm on a lot of them. I listen to a lot of like pure business conferences. I have nothing to do with medicine. I probably spend more time in the business world than I do in the medical world. Yeah, that's

Myrdalis Diaz-Ramirez:

something that if you're an entrepreneur, you really have to expand and you know that that sentiment or that expectation basically of going to one conference, just getting one or two things is something that is very common in entrepreneurship. Like when we go through medicine, like we have to learn it on and absorb it all and do these things, but there's some simplicity to it. In that sense, there's obviously a lot of complexities to entrepreneurship. And there, the other day I saw this question about, you know, what's more difficult going through residency or entrepreneurship, like, you know, or going to medical school entrepreneurship. I'm not thinking like, well, medical school was difficult. You have to observe a lot in a short period of time. But entrepreneurship, if you're involved in entrepreneurship, like it's for a long time, like that's, that's a lifelong thing. And then you have, and in both ways, a lot of people depend from you. But in entrepreneurship, there you go. And this time I'm gonna dedicate, I'm gonna just learn like this one thing and I'm gonna bring that to the business. And then you do your testing and see if it works, and then how you modify. And then you try and you go through the trial and error process where you don't necessarily have that in medicine, where you have you like the C one, do one, teach one type of thing. It has to work when, when it's done. So that's talking about innovation now a little bit, let's move on to 2023. We've had a lot of things, you know, in artificial intelligence coming through and it's, it's gonna be quite the shift. We are certainly concerned that not many are ready for this, not only about implementing simple steps and tools in their businesses, but how the shift is gonna be probably for bus, not not only for medicine, but for the whole world. And in our case, we deal a lot close. To physicians specifically, you are connected to many physicians. Have you seen any trends there with physicians in the way that we're thinking? Or do you have any concerns about the ways that we're thinking regarding the impact that artificial intelligence is gonna have in our industry? I,

Dr. Una:

I have a lot of. I have a lot of concerns about the physician community and I, I think it's it stems from the fact that we're not, when I say we, what I mean is the vast majority of us are not really aware of the level of disruption that we're currently in. Like, we're not aware of this disruption before Covid. Right. And you know that if anything Covid has kind of accelerated everything on every side and throw AI on top of it. It's like, you know, it's a wrap. So I think we're not, we're not, there's not the awareness of the level of disruption happening. There's not an awareness of the level of disruption coming and so we're not preparing. Right. Correct. Like I remember in, you know, in 2016 when my whole journey with, wow, if we stay the way we are, we are in big trouble. I remember when that awareness came. My slogan became adapt or die. Like that's literally what's gonna happen. And I don't mean physical death of course, but like our careers, the dreams we had, our opportunities, all of that. Like we, we can lose all of that if we don't adapt. So I think the world is changing, you know, at a hundred thousand x speed and we're barely changing. Like we're not even seeing the need to do that. So I have a lot of concerns, but then again, that's why I do what I, what I do. That's why you do what you do. And I think part of our job is to work with as many people as possible who are open to it so we can create all these examples of what is possible, right? Because that's what we need in the physician community from my perspective, is we need examples. The more examples we have, the more aha moments the majority will have. And the more people are like, okay, I can do that too, you know? But I'm. Very concerned.

Myrdalis Diaz-Ramirez:

Me too. You know, I see ourselves as connectors. We're trying to connect physicians to opportunities and open their minds because, you know, it's great that we've dedicated our lives to get, gather all this information so that we can translate that into patient care and, and be there for our patients and everything. But in doing so, unfortunately, many things, you know, quite a few things have happened. For example, we can say that just from an advocacy point of view, like we're, I think the best advocates for physicians, for patients is physicians. However, we have given away so much of our of our, you know, things that we could do for, for leadership in our profession. Our profession is not any longer really. Led by physicians, it's led by people that we have allowed to do that because of it was convenient at a point, right? We never saw really that coming. We didn't have the vision as, as physicians say, you know what, this is gonna, they're gonna take over and, and this the new way they're telling us what to do through insurance and all that stuff. Right? And then we don't have the, the, we are really very individually trained. So you are here, you're here, we're competing against each other. We're not necessarily, our teams are not teams. Like of positions. Our team is where there's one position and many other people. And now, right. Our team physician was here and then it's coming down. And in terms of being on the right side of the table, negotiating for things, we're, we're like farther away and way away. Out of that table, we have given our seats away, and then people who had a lot to gain. Not much to lose, but a lot to gain. They have come to the plate and they have taken over. And then talking about artificial intelligence, now we have this huge thing that comes. And then you ask, like I had, I was talking to this physician, telling them, you know, about, about the changes and, and I see them in, in denial. It's like, you know, and they tell me What about experience? It's like experience is knowledge. If you have something that has all the knowledge in the world, you know, how can you compete with that? And then it comes compassion. And then there's these exercises that people are doing where you have, okay, take care of this patient, right? And you have a machine and you have a physician and yes, so who was the physician there and who was the machine? And they answer that. The person or the item, the entity that was taking care of that patient was the machine. Why? Not only because of the knowledge, but because they had more compassion. You can program compassion touch. My husband was doing research for touching years ago at m i t, now you can touch things. So it's really a huge disruption to the system that's coming. And we're not ready. And we have to wake up as

Dr. Una:

physicians. Well, we, we do. And, and the thing is that we've, we've been here before, right? We've been here where we're like, yeah, c v s will never be our competition. Or even if it's competition for primary care, it's not gonna get to surgery. Like we've, we've made this mistake before, not long ago, like recently, where we saw a threat and we didn't pay attention to it, and here we are, right? And so it's kind of like, let's not do that again, you know? And. We'll, we'll get it right. I think they're, they're a good number of people screaming, so we'll get it right.

Myrdalis Diaz-Ramirez:

Well, one message that I would like physicians to really get is right now, this technology is not driven by physicians. It's driven by business people, and it's driven by technology people. And if you take a look at the example of Facebook, where they programmed Facebook, and now there's an algorithm that's actually running on its own where not even, they cannot even control at times, they don't even know where the program is coming from, where you have people being divided. Right. Not necessarily being guided by what's the best for the community, for the world people being guided by this algorithm that was created, not by a sociologist, not by a psychologist, not a, you know, team psychologist. So the same thing is happening here where we have people you know, going for a buck. They can do this. So why not? We don't have regulations in place. Legislations are like too way, way too, you know, far behind. So as physicians, we really need to be involved in all the stages of artificial intelligence right now. Development, you know, like there was last night we were listening to something that happened I think on April, and I believe that as, if I remember correctly, they were talking about this particular, I think it was Chad, g p t that they put it to take, you know, the bar exam. And then it was it. It go gained 10% of the time or something like that, or over 10% of the, of the attorneys. One month later, he did it over 90% of the attendees. So in only one month that that happened. So we cannot sit and wait because then we become obsolete. So talking about Chad g pt, I did an exercise with it and I want to present it here. All right, let's do that. I'm, I'm a fan. I'm a fan of Chad g. Pt. Yes. I use it. And then we can talk about how we're using these tools in our, in our business and stuff. But I wanted to do something fun. So I went to Chad g PT and I made it. Look through your website, look through your podcast, and how do we do that? We have, you know, we can, we can explain people if they want a webinar or something like that, a workshop, we can do that later. But I eventually it, it became knowledgeable of Dr. Ona. So first and your podcast, and then your, your information. And then I said, as Oprah known for her insightful and personal interviewing style, I would ask Dr. Nika un the following questions. And then we have three questions and I'm gonna choose one of the questions. And why? Because the way that she asks, you know, it knows it knows Oprah, it says that these questions aim to delve deeper into Dr. Uno's personal experiences, her impact on others, and how she maintains balance, providing a more holistic view of her journey and work. That was chat GP telling us what these questions do, but I want to do one of them, and it's about impact and legacy.]And this is the question directly. I haven't changed anything. You've helped many physicians embrace entrepreneurship. Can you share a story of how your work has transformed someone's life? And ultimately, what legacy do you hope to live through your work?

Dr. Una:

Wow. Okay. So that's, that's Oprah. That, that's Oprah. And that's, that's a good question, Oprah. Wow. Well, let me pick a, let me pick a doc. There is a doctor in the business school, the re business school, this is her third year. She's about to get into her third year in the school. And when she came into the school she was working a job and did not think that she could run a successful private practice and had a lot of people who doubted her and somehow let it get into her psyche. Like they're not a whole lot of big things that she could do. And so she comes into the school and I'm like, of course you can start a practice, you know, the Krebs cycle, right? Like you could, you can do anything. So she, she started her, she started her private practice within the first five weeks. She was fully booked. Within the first year she crossed a million in revenue. She bought, she outgrew her space. She bought a piece of land, is trying to build her own dream practice. Her team loves her. She's living life on her terms. She has financial freedoms. Last quarter she took two vacations, if you can imagine that without it affecting her revenue. She goes with, she goes to her ski her kids' school for lunch when she wants to. She's in control and the way you do one thing is the way you do everything. So her relationship with her kids is better. Her relationship with her husband is better. In fact, I got to meet her husband. Her husband is like, you have changed our family. And her outlook for the future. I mean, like, you know, she's only two years in practice and she's like, I'm ready to drop three days a week and work on the business and build this system. And so it's changed. Like, you know, like I say, business is it, you will help a lot of people and that's wonderful. You'll create financial freedom and that is wonderful. But the person you become in the, in the process, you can't beat that. And so she's a completely different person. And to think that I had a itty bitty, tiny, bitty, tiny role to, you know, to play in that is mind boggling. Because it's very clear that it's a lot more than me. It's not, I can't take the credit for that. Right? And so that's her. And at this point there are hundreds of people who have stories like that. And so, The legacy, the truthfully, the legacy that I want to leave is a legacy of, you know, physicians taking back control, physicians falling in love with medicine again, because they're doing it the way they want to do it. Physicians who have financial freedom. It makes no sense to me that somebody will give up their youth spend over a decade trying to become a physician, take multiple six figures in loans and not have financial freedom. Like it makes no sense to me. We, we did all of that so we can help our world and live life on our terms, right? Like we, we deserve that roi. And so to see doctors do that and then because we're in this time, we're in the middle of this big shift, then those doctors are now the example, the examples that become the catalyst that create a ripple effect in the entire physician community where we start saying things like, you remember when. Remember when burnout used to, we, like burnout was a buzzword. Do you remember when, like remember when we didn't have financial security where somebody could hold us hostage because of a job or because of insurance company and, and they're negotiating. Like, someone's just like, yeah, I know. Negotiated an insurance company and raised my rate by 20%. Like, so they're, they're, they're fighting all these things. So to see that become something that's mainstream in the physician community, that's the legacy that I'm fighting for. That's legacy that I'm fighting for. And not doing that and sacrificing our lives, but creating our dream businesses and our dream lives concurrently, right? Doing it at the same time. So we love what we do, we work hard, we help our world. We're creating massive change in the world and we're creating financial freedom and we're living our dream lives. That's the legacy I wanna

Myrdalis Diaz-Ramirez:

leave. And we want to thank you for that. You've helped so many people and it really multiplies. It multiplies to their families, it multiplies to their patients. One of the things that in doing this type of work, and I'm pretty sure you shared this, is a concern for who taking care of our communities, right? And if we are able to keep physicians who really practicing for joy where, you know what, in her case it's gonna be three days a week, but that's a physician who could. We have, we do have lost them to not practicing and not being leaders and not having bringing the knowledge that physicians bring to take care of that, of, of our people. So that's, thank you for that. That's a wonderful legacy and we're very grateful. One of the things that we want to tell the listener is that when you're listening to this, these stories, there's hundreds, but there could be more. Why? Because you have to choose, you have to make a choice to, Dr. Unai is getting the message out there, right? But you have to listen. And it's not only to listen, it's to take action, which is what we talk a lot about. And that person in the, that physician in the example, she took massive action as we say. And now in just a couple of years she's not allowing anybody. To lead her life. She's doing it for herself and she's doing it for her family and for her patients. So that's, that's a beautiful, wonderful story that I'm pretty sure Oprah would be very happy with too. Well, thank you Oprah. You're welcome. And I do, do

Dr. Una:

wanna talk about the three days a week thing, cuz sometimes, you know, people are like, well then everybody's leaving medicine. But the truth of the matter is, these are doctors who are building many healthcare systems, right? Like building a practice where it's a business entity that can support other doctors. What? Cuz she's gonna work three days of a week, but there's gonna be more opportunity for patients to be cared by, cared for, by her practice. So you have the patients, that's one person you take care of, and you have the practice as another person you take care of so they can grow. So the practice can grow in this capacity to help others. You see what I'm saying? And so, Even with, with a lot of the doctors, even though they're stepping back a little, the impact their practice is having is multiplying. And we can do that, but we have to learn how to run businesses in order to do that.

Myrdalis Diaz-Ramirez:

And I think one of the big effects that's happening too is probably, I haven't seen numbers related to this, but I would guess that medical errors are less on those practices because the physicians are well rested, they're more focused, they're happier when they come. Their staff is more responsive, they're paying more attention to what's happening there. And they're, as you say, they're able to bring other physicians to those practices, not necessarily people who might have a different training. So it's, it's, it's a win-win, win, win, win all over the place. Yes. There's no win-win. It's like, it's a win-win to the square, to the third room. Okay, so I have another guest today and this more business oriented, like straight down the business, so. Elon Musk is gonna talk to you now, so Oh, wow. As Elon Musk known for his innovative thinking and focus on future technologies, I would ask some questions, and then those questions aim to explore your insights on innovation in healthcare. The challenges of physician entrepreneurship are your vision for the future of the medical field. So, let me see. I have, I think we talked about this a little bit and it was a question that he posed. So, future vision. Looking into the future, how do you envision the role of physicians changing with the advancement of technologies like AI and telemedicine? How can physicians prepare for and adapt to these changes?

Dr. Una:

Yeah, I think you know, it, it has, so when I was in residency the outlook of the physician was patient care. By me putting hands on the patient, the end like that, that's kind of what we did. The evolution required is we steer away from, I take care of patients by putting hands on the patients alone to, I take care of patients by having a stake, by being a leader in the healthcare space. Like we have to think beyond just what we do in the exam room. I'm, and you know, I'd really like for people not to hear what I'm not saying. I'm not saying we all leave the exam room. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with the exam room, but that is one component, right? That's not everything. And so it's kind of like we have to rise to the point where we are influencing the system. We can't just be in it, we have to influence it. Now, for some people that will look like leadership, right? Like why are we not the ones leading, you know, hospitals or leading policy or le like there, there's leadership and we are re we are required to be represented there. We did the most training, we gave up the most, we have the most knowledge, we have the most experience. And that's not to say we don't play, there's no team approach and all of those things. But for the people who are the, have the most expertise to not have a seat at the table and not have their voices heard, it's hurting the system. So I can see patience and I can be a leader. For some others, you alluded to this, they will be the advocates. Somebody needs to be there, somebody needs to do that, right? So there's the advocacy, there's the leadership. And then, you know, my zone is, there's the entrepreneurship people say, Medicine dis business destroyed medicine. I think doctors not engaging in business destroyed medicine, right? Because it, we live in an economic space. We live in an economic world. Like you can't take the economics out of it, right? It exists there. But when you have economics, you have profits leading patients, then that's a disaster, right? But we will always put patience before profits. That's the way it should be. But we need both. And so when we get into that space where we, we understand business, we are building business, we are involved in big businesses, then it puts us in a position where we can influence all of that, right? Like, because at the end of the day, all comes to influence in the positions where the influence is happening. We're not there. We're not the entrepreneurs, we're not the leaders. We're not the advocates. That's the problem, right? So AI is wonderful, but AI without a soul, ai without patience first, that's a disaster. But who's gonna do that? That's our job. And you know, sometimes I think of it this way, if, if you're gonna spend over a decade getting trained, if you're gonna spend multiple six figures getting trained, if you're gonna give up a significant part of your youth getting trained, we are one skill away, right? Like we just have one more skill to layer on that. And again, for some people it's entrepreneurship. For some people it's leadership. For some people it's advocacy. For some people it's two or all three. But in order to use everything we've trained ourselves to be, in order to use all of that, we need one more skill. We do. And it's time to go after that. It's time to embrace it. It's time to look at the people who are making decisions and not saying, oh, that CEO E O who made whatever, whatever, but to say, why can't I be that c e O? Why can't I be on that table? Why can't I have that spot? Right? And sometimes people are like, well, but that's such a big thing. Being a doctor is such a big thing. Like when you think about it, right? You think about the pimply tea teenager who stands up and tells the family, makes the big announcement, I'm gonna be a heart surgeon. Think about how ridiculous that is. Like I'm gonna crack chest open, bring off heart. And everybody celebrates. And everybody celebrates. And so I'm like, it's time for one more ridiculous dream. Why can't I be the c E O? Why can't I be in Washington? Why can't I be making the decision? Why can't I build a wildly successful business that I can negotiate with the insurance companies because it will hurt them if I say I will no longer see your people. Like, why can't we do that? We can, we absolutely can. And it's time for us to, it's time for us to take the reins. We can't roll over and play dead anymore. We can't wait for a calvary. We, we can't. We, we are, we're it, nobody's coming to

Myrdalis Diaz-Ramirez:

say us complain. Like the complaining and complaining, complaining. And they're doing this to me. They're doing this to me. You know, right now nobody's doing anything to you. It's like you're the one who's choosing not to do anything for yourself right now at this point. And it's it's really an emergency. It's not, it's not something to take lightly. And as you say, there's many areas where physicians can go. You can go and you're not gonna be the CEO of a big, huge company tomorrow. But you can start like by learning how to communicate with business people today. Which is a big, huge gap that we have in medicine because we go and we are there like the, the the captains of the ship from the first day knowing nothing about communication or team or leadership or anything like that. So if you learn that today, then maybe, you know, in a few, you know, some time later, then you can be ceo. But it's something that you have to intentionally go ahead and do right now in terms of, you know, get curious or at least, oh, I don't dunno about AI or, or refusing to learn about that. It's like, do it. Like if you don't learn this thing today you're done. And it's, it's not only learning about a user, also learning about developer or where can I in all these, you know in all these continuum of artificial intelligence that's coming. Where can I work? Can I be, as you say, a leader? Can I be somebody advocating? Whatever it is in, in our communities, in, in social, in Washington or whatever it is. Can I be one consultant for these companies in my specialty that they're making these products to make sure that there's ethical use, that there's appropriate use? Because one thing that you said that we put patients first and people have to understand like reading about, and, and that's the third guest that we have today reading his book Simon Sinek's books of the, the the Infinite Game. People are on this for the finite game. People are on this to design a product to sell and make that big juice, sell and make the money. They're not thinking about the physician ne the the physician. They're not thinking about the patient necessarily. They're thinking about, okay, you know, these tools sounds so cool and sounds so great, and I'm pretty sure I'm gonna make tons of money when I sell this thing. But they haven't necessarily thought through all the process and, and, and how it's gonna be used and all implemented and all these things. And we've seen this three years, you know, with when technology comes. But we had the luxury of time before. Right now I don't think we have the luxury of time. So we don't, yeah,

Dr. Una:

we don't. I I thought we were in an emergency in 2016, which was seven years ago. Correct. I saw you screaming from the rooftop seven years ago. So we don't.

Myrdalis Diaz-Ramirez:

Yeah. So, you know, hopefully, you know, they're listening to this thing. And then let's get our third guest here, Simon Sinek, right? I love that book. If you haven't read that book, infinite Gang. Go ahead you guys, and look at it. And then as Simon Sinek known for his focus on leadership purpose and the why behind our actions, I would ask Dr. Una the following questions. And then those questions aim to Del into Dr. Una's motivations, her views on leadership and the role of purpose in the entrepreneurial journey of physicians. So we have three questions, and I'm gonna choose one of them. Let's see here. It's, I think that we've answered some of these things already for them. So let's look at purpose and impact. So how do you help physicians find their own why in their entrepreneurial journey? Can you share a story of how aligning with their purpose has led to greater impact in their work?

Dr. Una:

So the starting point of that really is that in, in, in my containers in the MD business school, we do not have a recommended type of business, right? Like, so we don't say we're all private practice, or we're all direct primary care. We're all coaches or speakers or event planners. I'm like, whatever you wanna do, we're just gonna build a business system around it. My philosophy is, you know, in high school you didn't have a choice. You had to get certain grades because you knew you wanted to go to pre-med. Pre-med, you didn't have a choice. You had to follow the yellow brick road to get to med school, to get to residency, to get to fellowship and all of that. And I'm like, when it comes to entrepreneurship, you can then dig deep and do whatever it is you want. And the only thing is, what gives you the freedom to do that is you build a business system, a profitable business system around it, and then you're free to do that. So for me, for instance, I say, I've never worked in Entre MD because I'm doing why. What I'm doing is what, why I think I'm, what I think I'm alive to do. I just built a business system so I'm free to do it. Right. And so we have a, a doctor in the REM business school, Dr. Rachel Rubin. She is a urology, a urologist you know, fellowship trained in sexual medicine. And she, she's like, On a mission. This has been from the very first day that I met her, that there's so many issues in women's sexual health that's not talked about. You know, the estrogen that has to be used, what happens in menopause, like all of that. That's her, that's her passion. You touch her at 2:00 AM that's what's gonna come out of her. You know, like she's so passionate about it. Now, nobody's gonna say, well, you can't do that. Nobody's gonna say that. Not in EVs. Nobody will say that. We're just like, okay, this is how we build a business system around that. And she's felt like that's her purpose. She has chased that over the last I wanna say two years at this, almost two years at this point. And it's so funny that chasing down that. That passion has led to a private practice a very successful private practice. She talks about how, you know, she, she did her practice, did it really well, was able to pay$260,000 worth of school loans off because that's what she wanted to do, right? Because there's a school of thought, don't pay, pay, whatever. That's what she wanted to do. And I can say that because she's, she's said it publicly before and she's like, that's what I wanted to do. Now her, her constantly talking about, like, she developed the skill of, you know, speaking and showing up on social media, even though she always used to make fun. Like, I have a face for radio I'm not supposed to be on. You know, on video she did that. She has built a massive following. She has like 20,000 followers on Instagram. She has been invited in all kinds of stages. She's even had somebody who's like, oh my goodness, what you do is amazing. You know, connecting her with Mark Cuban. So she's on text message bases or email basis with the Mark Cuban, and she's living out. What she believes is her purpose. What she believes is her why, and she's making a significant dent in a problem. She thinks she's alive to solve. I, I mean, like, we do many things in life, but I don't know that it gets much better than that right now. That bar, of course, there's family and all this stuff that's more important, but from a career perspective, it doesn't get much better than that. She's been invited on, you know, some of the most ridiculously amazing stages. She just did an interview with npr, like, it's, it's just wild. And all she's doing is shouting from the rooftop to fix a problem she believes she's here to solve. It's insane. Well, you know, you,

Myrdalis Diaz-Ramirez:

the way that you put it, and you said it to yourself too, you know about yourself in terms of finding your way. Like it is solving the problem that you believe you're here to solve, that you're alive to solve, that this is your life. That if you don't do this, like what else are you gonna do? That's, that doesn't get any better than that, right? This is your purpose. Your purpose. So that was Simon Sinek. You, you talked about this word, which was the buzz word sometime before it was physician burnout and still a problem. So physician burnout is a significant issue in the medical field. How do you address this in your coaching? And what strategies do you recommend for physicians to manage stress and avoid burnout pursuing entrepreneurial ventures?

Dr. Una:

Amazing question. Okay, so, so this, this may get a little tactical, so let's run down the list here. I, to start with, I'm a firm believer that you can have a life of extraordinary impact and enjoy that life and do it without burnout, right? Like so. For me, the first, the first point is accepting that this is possible, irrespective of what life is like right now. You might go like, Dr. Uno, you don't understand. I have 7,000 kids. I have to, and, and I, I get it. And maybe I should paint a little bit of a picture. Right. So I run three businesses. I've been married for 17 years. I have four children. Two of my older children are homeschooled. I write books. I'm, I'm, I'm on social media a lot. Like I have a, you know, I, I, I help my world through social media. I run three podcasts. I run the Entree MD Business School. I co-pastor a church with my husband, and I could go on and on and on. So when people are like, you don't understand, I'm busy. I'm like, you don't understand, I'm busy. Right? So I'm just saying that to say I get it right. So the first thing is, is, is believing that this is a possibility and making a decision that this is what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna, I'm gonna live a life of profound impact and I'm gonna enjoy it. And, and I'm not gonna do it with burnout, right? Like, so that, so that's the first thing. The second thing is, is really aiming to create a life that is in alignment with your why. I think one of the sources of burnout is doing what you don't think you should be doing or what you don't want to do, or like, like, you can't link it. And that doesn't mean quit your job and chase a passion. That's, you know, like, I wanna be clear. That's not what I'm saying, because you can find a version of your why that you can work with where you are right now, and your job is just to get more and more in alignment. Do you see what I'm saying? Like that, that's, so the more, when you're out of alignment, it creates burnout. It's just crazy because like I'm spending all my time spending all my energy doing all this stuff, and it doesn't matter what you do needs to matter to you. It makes it easier to deal with everything else. So that's the second thing. The third thing and it's like the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, is team, team, team, team, team, team. This whole concept of I can do it, I can do everything I. It, it's, it's a disaster. And when I say team, I'm talking about a personal team. So a home team and a business team. Like everywhere you're doing life, you want a team. So for instance, I listed all the things that I do. Now, let me tell you the things I do not do. I don't cook, I don't clean, I don't do laundry. I don't go grocery shopping. I don't even go clothes shopping cuz I don't like it. If I have an event, my team goes, they get all the outfits I need, they bring them. I'm like, lovely. Sometimes I don't even see it till the morning I'm supposed to wear it. Like I don't do any of those things. I have teams who do all of that. When I had my fourth kid, I was like, been there, done that, have 10 t-shirts and I, I mentor a lot of people, so I was like, you guys go make a roster so you guys know who's with the baby at night. I'm going to bed. I was up with that child nine nights. That was it. The rest of it, I was like, if you need me, call me. I'm, I'm good night. Right? So I was sleeping really, really well with a newborn. And so I'm saying, You want a home team. So you might be going like, well, at this point I'm, I'm working my job, I'm building my brand, all that stuff. You need a home team. One of the reasons, one of the blessings we have as physicians is we have this enormous earning power, right? And we can use that enormous earning power to buy the time of others so we can have peace and quiet, right? So, so you want the, you want the home team, and then you want the business team. And for me, delegation was something that I really struggled with. I think I still struggle with, like, because I'm good at so many things. So I'm like, yeah, I'll just do that. I'll just do that. But one of the best questions you can ask yourself is, is this the be if, if I am showing up as a kind of person who is creating the business, I'm dreaming of creating, is this thing I'm doing right now the best use of my time? Because if it's not, it needs to get off your plate. It just needs to get off your plate so you start taking things off. I haven't, I have been on a sabbatical for my private practice for the last 19 months. I have not set foot in the building. I haven't been there once, and that is delegation at its finest. That is leading through a team at its finest. Because if you are going to do, you know, greater things, you're gonna have to give up the great things so you can do the greater right. Like you, you can't keep aspiring and adding on things without taking things off. So for me, burnout is, is about a decision. It is about alignment, and it is about realizing that it takes a huge team to pull off a life that has a huge impact. So, You could go

Myrdalis Diaz-Ramirez:

on and on, but No, it's, it's amazing and that, you know, that's so true in so many ways and I see like, you know, challenges that we have as physicians to be able to achieve that degree. For example, with the kid sign, you know, feelings of guilt that you have to let go or. With your practice not being there for 19 months, like these feelings of, oh, I, I, nobody can do it better than I can or nobody will care as much as I can. It's like, all these things can be taught so that you can really achieve your dreams. And it's not that, you know, it depends. I would personally not delegate the shopping of my clothing just because I truly enjoy it. I have to confess. But

Dr. Una:

I don't, I don't recommend you, you delegate it if you like it. For me, if you put me in a mall, I break out in hives, I'm like, I don't wanna be here. Get me outta here.

Myrdalis Diaz-Ramirez:

I'll, I'll, I'll enjoy that part. I won't delegate that part. I have to confess, I, the kitchen is not my forte, and that's not something I really enjoy. But that's the truth. If you see, you know, one some years ago, especially during at the beginning of Covid, I we created this group. Called women physicians in pain management investments. And it came out of the question that some physicians were asking, said, you know, how is it that these guys are doing it? How are these guys making it? And then I said, let's find out, because, you know, why are we asking if we don't, you know, if, if we have the questions, let's just, just answer it. And bringing them to the group to answer these questions and everything. They all had their teams, right? They had their teams at home. They had, I'm not telling you not to raise your children, right? But these guys, these men, They had very little to do with that whole pro process of home. They had their wives, the ones that we asked specifically for this project they had their wives doing the things, they, raising the children, the supporting the home. So they didn't have to worry about that. They were supporting them in their dreams. They were going out, going on to all these meetings, doing all the research, spending the time in the lab, negotiating with people, learning the business stuff. So, so it was, and then you, you asked them about their, their companies and everything. It's like, well, yeah, they have their teams in the companies the same way, like, you know, you've been able to do. And that's, that's how it gets done. That's how success happens when you really recognize, and then you're able to communicate and change your hats, you know, from one side to the other and, and do that. So do, do you

Dr. Una:

have, I I wanna say this just because I, I, as a mom, as a young mom, younger mom I dealt a lot with the mom guilt, and I, I wanna put some things in perspective so it doesn't get lost in the communication. Now, to start with, I've been an entrepreneur for 14 years at this point, and I talked about how it was hard you know, to delegate. I am not willing to build a business that will sabotage my family in any way, any way whatsoever. Like, I'm not willing to give up my family for, for a business or for any kind of success. And so in that feeling, you know, as a listener, you're not wrong. Like, no, I. I want my family. But you then have to decide what does that mean? Right? So for me, I don't have to cook for my family to be successful. I do need to spend time with my children. I do need to be there for them. I do need to make sure they learn the skills. So for instance, I don't cook, I haven't cooked in years, but my sister loves to cook and bake and garden, do all these weird things. And so I send my kids to her weeks at, you know, like a week at time, go spend time at Aunt TJ's house. And then I call her, I was like, okay lasagna and joof rice. And all these days she needs how Learn how to cook it. This time she's at your house, right? Like, I, I I, so I get them the training they need. I don't have to do it. Right? The, the things I've learned as an entrepreneur, I was like, I learned this as an adult, but you can learn it as a kid, right? So I take the, the, the wisdom that I have and I install it in them. Right. So I'm hands-off in a lot of things cuz to me that doesn't matter and I don't like doing them, but I'm very hands-on with my family because I've defined what being a successful mom means. It means that I set them up to succeed in life. I set them up that they know there's somebody, that, they have a family that has their back. I set them up. So the faith I have, I can install it in them. That that's what's important, you know, to me. So you, you define what that is. You can keep the core and you delegate the rest. There's some things that are the core that other people can help you do. Let them do that. So, so having your family as number one is a, is a very noble, very, very noble thing. And I've, I've kept it that way. In the beginning I was away a lot, right? Because I was starting to practice and funny enough we're starting practice and in church at the same time. So, you know, I was away a lot. But now I get to homeschool my older two. Now I get to take them on business trips with me. Now in the morning, I can decide for first period we're gonna take a really good book, 10 x is easier than two two x and we're gonna workshop the book. Like I can do all kinds of things with them. I understood. It is gonna be a two or three year period where I'm gonna be away a lot. Oh my goodness. You're gonna get a whole lot of me after that. So there's a dance to it. I just wanted to throw that up there.

Myrdalis Diaz-Ramirez:

Yeah, that's certainly something very important. As, as women physicians, you know, I have to tell you personally, I didn't potty train my kids and it's something that they truly will not remember. So at that time, for me, the priority was, you know, to build our clinic and do all this stuff. And I was away a lot and tons of nights that I wasn't there. But when middle school came, We did ch we made changes so that then we would, could be there. And even through elementary school, we never missed anything that we knew about that was happening at school. Didn't matter the middle of the day or outside the day, like that time that that's, you know, we wanted them and they remember that. So we did things, we focused on things that they will remember because I chose to be a mom. So that's my choice to be a mother. And I believe that if I choose that I really have to do a good job or the best job that I can at it, and that goes over anything else, obviously I have to feed them. And then if I do it through something that I love, then that, you know, a huge plus plus. So that's wonderful. So thank you for bringing that up, which is a hugely important point. So now that we are ending here, our interview, anything any other tips you might want to give people that I haven't asked you about? Yeah,

Dr. Una:

I'd just like to leave one concept and it is the concept of embracing discomfort. We are in the middle of a transition, and this is whether you're already an entrepreneur or not, whether you've crossed seven figures or not, there is a beginner's mindset that's required. Think about when we went into med school, it was uncomfortable, right? There's so many things we didn't know. But we were willing to learn. We were willing to try things, we're willing to quote unquote fail at things and try again. And that is the, that is the kind of attitude that is required for us to evolve so we can become the kind of physicians the healthcare space is desperately looking for. Right? And so I wanna invite everyone to embrace the new learning. Embrace trying things and maybe they didn't work. It's an experiment. Entrepreneurship is the great experiment. You're gonna do a lot of things that won't work. Oh my goodness, the ones that do work will make all the difference. So embrace it because so much can happen in a really short time. Seven years ago, I, I would not be on this podcast. I was that much of a very, very shy, introverted introvert seven years ago. I would never do the entre business school. I would never write, I would write a book. I wouldn't, I wouldn't do any of these things. When I stop to think about the difference, seven years can make it's wild. And so start your journey of a massive evolution today and embrace all the discomfort, all the learnings, try new things. Who knows why you'd be here seven years. Right?

Myrdalis Diaz-Ramirez:

Exactly. You say yes. That's question. Yeah, that's a question. Like if, you know, imagine where you're gonna be in one year in six months. If you don't take action today, like that chat g PT, took action. I need learned to pass the bar over 90% of the people. So where are we gonna be? Right? So thank you for being here today. You're, you're wonderful gracious guest to our podcast in that third time. I think third time's the charm in this case. And I really enjoyed your company and your, your insight, your knowledge and the, with the work that you're doing for, for medicine, for our patients, for our community. So thanks again.

Dr. Una:

Thank you so much for having me. And thank you for what you do. You're, you're a gift to our community.

Myrdalis Diaz-Ramirez:

Well, guys, that was it for today. I hope that you had as much fun as I did with Dr. Una. You can actually find her through her website, intra md e n t R e md.com, and join us next time. We're gonna have tons of wonderful speakers coming up and we're very excited about that. Please share this podcast with others, share the with your friends family, subscribe. Give us five stars and check out our new YouTube channel where you can go and get back to all our episodes, go through our sessions that we have as a follow up for our podcast on our Fridays that we've had for over the last year, and you can learn more and really become involved. Check out our website too, max.com, M A X A L L u R e.com if you want to work with us and I hope that you have a wonderful day. See you then. Bye.

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