How To Build A Successful Business Without Sacrificing Your Family

On this episode of the EntreMD Podcast, I share the steps you can take to be a successful entrepreneur and to maintain healthy bonds with your family.

There are five things you can do to prevent from overextending yourself in the process of building a business and managing a career, and especially to prevent you from damaging your family relationships in the process. 

These lessons will put you in control and help you to enjoy the journey of entrepreneurship.

Listener Spotlight of the Week!

Love this! by idk67733678 – Jul 15, 2020 ★★★★★

Dr Una's podcasts are consistently spot on, real and practical. This podcast is one of my staples for my drive.
 
 Subscribe & Review in iTunes

Have you subscribed to my podcast? If you haven’t, I want to encourage you to do that today. I don’t want you to miss an episode. Great episodes will be coming every week and if you are not subscribed, there’s a good chance you’ll miss out on those.

Click here to subscribe in iTunes!

Also, I would really love it if you left me a review over on iTunes, too. Your glowing reviews help other people find my podcast and I love reading them. Just click here to review, select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” and let me know what your favorite part of the podcast is. Thank you.

Join the EntreMD Private Facebook group here. 

Links mentioned in this episode:
 
EntreMD Business School
Join the mailing list here

Additional Resources:

• Learn more about my 12-month program. 
• Interested in 1-on-1 coaching? Apply here.
• Grab a copy of the "The 7-Figure Physician CEO" book. 

When you are ready to work with us, here are three ways:

•  The Profitable Private Practice Movement - If you want to build a thriving private practice that serves a lot of patients, while creating time and financial freedom for you, come join us here. 
• EntreMD Business School Grow - This is our year-long program with a track record of producing physician entrepreneurs who are building 6, 7 and 7+ figure businesses. They do this while building their dream lives!
• EntreMD Business School Scale - This is our high-level mastermind for physicians who have crossed the seven figure milestone and want to build their businesses to be well oiled machines that can run without them.

To get on a call with my team to determine your next best step, go here ...

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

SPEAKER_00 0:12

So you can have the freedom to live life and practice medicine in your time. I'm your house. Hello, Docs, and welcome back to another amazing episode of the Entre Indy Podcast. As always, I'm super pumped to be here and I'm grateful that you're a listener and I'm grateful for the reviews that you guys leave me on iTunes, on social media, for sharing the results you're getting because you are listening to this podcast. So thank you. Today is going to be a unique episode. I am going to be answering a question from somebody who is a part of the Entre MD private Facebook group. And I figured, hey, you have this question. I'll make it a whole podcast episode and answer it to the best of my ability so you guys get to listen in. If you're not part of the group, it is a private group for dogs just like you who are working on building businesses so they can build the financial freedom to live life and practice medicine on their own terms. So if you haven't joined, you can head over to Facebook, search for Entree MD, and you'll find the group, or you can go to entremd.com slash join, and then you can join us there. Okay. This episode of the Entree MD podcast is sponsored by the Entree MD Business School, which is the business school that makes up for all the business education you did not get in your medical training. It has been running for almost a month at this point, and the results that doctors have been getting have been unbelievable. Lots of firsts, lots of growth, lots of transformation, and it really is only the beginning. So if you haven't had a chance to check it out, go to entremd.com forward slash business, check it out, and I would love to see you in the school the next time it opens for enrollment. So this is a question that the doc asked. She said, What red flags do you look for within yourself and in your life to prevent yourself from becoming overextended at the expense of your family relationships, especially with your spouse and your children? And this is something that people worry about a lot. It's something that I worried about a lot. Like, I don't want to build a big business and, you know, help all these people and have all this money and look back and see that I lost my family in the process. So what do you really do? Okay. So we're going to be answering that question. Now, my first thought for this, Doctor, is we don't want to wait for red flags. You know what I mean? Like by the time red flags show up, you've already accumulated a lot of damage. It's kind of like if you step on the scale and you find out you put on 40 pounds, a lot of stuff has been going wrong for a long time for that to happen, right? So we kind of want to look at prevention. Like, how do we get to that point where we don't overextend ourselves to the point where it affects our family relationships? And the beautiful thing about looking at that is that the things that would prevent it are also the things that would fix it, right? If they're already red flags. So we're going to look at five things. I have five things you can do to prevent yourself from overextending yourself in the process of building a business and managing a career, prevent you from damaging your family in the process. So let's take a look at it, okay? All right. So number one. Now, number one is that you have to own your journey as an entrepreneur, right? Because if you're in the beginning phase of building a business, it is going to require time. If you have a newborn, it's going to put a strain on your time. If you get into medical school, it puts a strain. You start residency, it puts a strain. There's going to be a demand for time. And you have to realize that and you have to accept it and you have to know it is what it is. But the beautiful thing about that is if you invest the time and you do it right, it will give you more time later, right? It's kind of like when you put money in mutual funds. You're not throwing away the money. You're giving up some of your money now so you can have a lot more money later. Okay. So if you own your journey, you're like, okay, I'm starting this journey or I'm up leveling this journey as an entrepreneur, which means I'm going to have to invest the time now. But if I invest the time now and do it right, I'll have more time later. So in the entrepreneur D business school, we did do a laser coaching call on mindset. So a mindset tune up. And the thing of time came up a lot. Like, I don't have the time. I don't have the time. And at the end of the day, after we did all the mindset work, we came up with this conclusion. This is now what we say. Rather than saying I don't have the time, we say I am making the time now so that I'll have time later. Okay. It puts it in perspective. It puts you in a position where you're like, okay, I can pay the price to do this now because I know if I do it, things will be better. Maybe if I do it now, rather than retiring at 65, I can retire at 55. Maybe if I do this now, I can choose to work part-time three, three years from now or two years from now. It puts you in control. So you spend the time knowing that I'm making an investment, I'm not wasting time. Okay. So that's number one. And this is one of the thoughts that is, I mean, it's so freeing to think that way, right? It's so freeing to go like, yeah, I'm, you know, it is what it is, but it is what it is for a short time. So it can be so much better later, right? Okay. So that's number one. Number two is you need to set your priorities. So in the context of this question, we're talking about family here. In the context of this question, the priority is your family. So I love talking to people who are older. And the reason why I do that is because I'm going to get older. And I want to know what they wish they did when they were younger so I can do it now. I want to know what their regrets are so I can work on not making that a regret, right? And for the people that I have spoken to and the books I've read about people who are older, people who are on their deathbeds and stuff like that, it is very rare that somebody will say, Man, I wish I made an extra million in my business, or man, I wish I got that contract. Their regrets are usually about family. I wish I'd restored this relationship. I wish I had spent more time with this. I wish I invested time in my children. I wish I worked it out with my spouse. It's all relationships. And then that what that means is while I'm younger and I'm actively chasing my career, I'm actively chasing business and all of that. I need to pay attention now to what would matter later. Okay, so you want to set your family as a priority. Like, yes, I know I have to invest the time to build a business. Yes, I know I have to do all these other things, but my priority is my priority. Okay, so you are a priority as well. So your self-care and all that comes in, but I'm answering the question here, right? So your family, you want to set that as a priority. Like this is a priority for me. Okay. So that's number two. Number three goes right with number two, and that is schedule your priority. So if your family is truly your priority, don't expect to just spontaneously, you know, by default, just do everything you're supposed to do with them because chances are it won't happen. You're an entrepreneur, and maybe you're an entrepreneur, you started and you have a full-time job, right? So you're not going to do what you need to do by default. You want to schedule it. Okay. So I'll tell you what I do. I have a thing I call the daily five. And you may have heard me talk about it before. And what that is is five things I do. They're not urgent, but they're important. And if you don't schedule those kinds of things, they just don't get done, right? So there is my daily five. And these are five things that I do every day that push me in the direction of my most important goals. Okay. So one of those things is, you know, I spend time and pray and meditate every day. And that's because for me, my relationship with God is important. So I schedule it. It's one of my daily fives. The other thing is exercise because I only got one body, right? I have to be nice with it. If I lose this body, I have to leave, you know, so exercise. The third thing is listening to a podcast or something that would motivate me, inspire me, because I don't know about you, but I'm not always motivated and I'm not always inspired. And I listen to these things so that I start off my day pumped up, like, you know, really pumped up. The other thing I do is I read every day. And it can be 20 minutes, it could be an hour, it can be two hours, but there needs to be some reading, you know. So that's that's on my list. And one of the most important things on my list is my meets week. That's what I call it, M-T-W-K. And it's meaningful time with kids. And what that means is no matter how crazy busy the day is, I need to find some time in the day to spend some kind of meaningful time with my children. So I have four of them. And so not just being in the same room with them, not just looking at them from afar, but actually spending time with them. And it doesn't have to be two hours or three hours or whatever. But if I spend the time, then I'm building that relationship, then I'm investing in them, even though I'm busy and I'm an entrepreneur and I'm doing all these things, right? So schedule your priority. So it's on my daily five, it's something I do every day. Now, you might go, like, yeah, well, what of the spouse? So we have a scheduled date night. Date night is always Tuesday night. Everybody around us in our world knows it's Tuesday night. Don't call us Tuesday night, except it's a really bad emergency. Don't call us. We're not responding to you. That is the time that we spend to work on us because we're both really busy. We're both chasing down our dreams. And if we're gonna work, we have to make the investment. Do you see what I mean? So, number one is realize your journey. I mean, it's an entrepreneur's journey. It is what it is. Own it. The second is it's determine your priorities and your family should be your priority. And then number three is schedule your priorities. So that's how I schedule mine. And there are many high performers that schedule date night. Now, Hollywood would have you believe that it's all this spontaneous stuff, and and you know, you the date nights just happen, and you guys just work on yourself and by default, and that's not quite how it happens. So you might go like it's not romantic to schedule date night. Yes, it is. Okay, but that's what we do. We schedule. All right. So that's number three. Number four is make periodic big deposits. Periodic big deposits. Okay. So what I mean by that is, you know, for the dog who's asking the question, maybe you can have one family vacation or two family vacations scheduled every year where your family knows this is our time. Like mommy's busy, but June we go on vacation and maybe around Thanksgiving or what, we go on vacation, right? And we know that mom spends a lot of time with us. She does all this stuff with us. We get to do all these fun things. And it's a big deposit, right? You can have one couple's vacation. Maybe you just you and your spouse. And that is a time you guys invest in yourselves and work on your marriage and kind of put work to the side and make an investment. Because every time you're not there, you're making withdrawals, you know. And this is almost like topping up the tank, you know, fill up the tank for this journey we're gonna go on. Make big deposits. Now you might go, like, oh, but I don't have the time or I don't have the resources. I'm investing in this business and all of that stuff. Listen, a vacation doesn't have to be you going to Dubai, which is great. You should go to Dubai at some point. But it could be a resort somewhere, right? That's close-ish by. It could be a cabin, a weekend. You guys go spend somewhere. I mean, it could be a road trip, it could be whatever. Do it according to your budget. Don't worry about that. The most important thing is the times you spend and the memories you guys build. But make those big deposits, okay? Make them. All right. So the fifth thing is communicate. Communicate, communicate, communicate, communicate. And it's a two-way thing. Number one is you have to let your family know what's going on with you. Hey, I have a big launch coming up, okay? Or we're starting the practice three weeks from now, or I'm a pediatrician. Back to school is in August. I'm not gonna be there as much. It's not gonna last forever. I anticipate two weeks, three weeks, four weeks, but the next four weeks are gonna be busy. I need you guys to give me grace. I need you guys to cut me some slack. I need to focus and work on this, right? You need to communicate. You need to let people know what's going on with you. Hey, I had a really, you know, bad day in my business. I was expecting this deal to work, but it fell through and all that stuff. I just need a minute to get myself together, you know, and you can tell that to your spouse and say, hey, can you take care of the kid? I just need, I just need a moment to get my mind back in the right place. Communicate. Because otherwise, what ends up happening is you're lashing out at everybody, you're in a bad mood, you're not talking to anybody, and nobody knows what's going on. Nobody knows how they can support you because they don't even know what's going on. You need to communicate. So if you have a big day coming up, let them know. I may not be as available. I have a big day coming up. If you had a disappointment, let them know. Like I know it's gonna be okay. I know we're gonna be fine. But I really worked hard on this. I didn't expect it to play out like this. I just need a moment to recalibrate. Like, I'm just gonna go to the spa. I'll see you guys later, right? But if you communicate, then your family can support you. If you communicate, your family can give you space and it's not a problem. You know, they're they're there for you. They want to see you succeed, they want to see you thrive. So you have to be forthcoming with what's going on with you, right? If you have a time where, hey, we just had this big turnover and I have to hire and I have to put in extra hours and I have to do all this, let them know. Okay, so that's one side of the communication. The second side is talk with your family and hear their side. Hear what their needs are, hear what the impact of you being so busy is having on them and how you guys can meet somewhere in the middle, have conversations. Because when there's no communication, then what happens is a lot of assumptions are made. And sometimes we're hurt for things that don't even exist. They're not even really real. So you have to have those communications. You have to talk about it. You have to talk about it. When I did entree MD Live, I mean, that was a big day for us. We had what, 321 docs, and we're pulling off a virtual event like we'd never done before, and we were launching the business school and all of this kind of stuff. But there was a lot of communication around that. Like this is what is happening in June. This is when it's gonna happen, this is how busy I'm gonna be. This is how I would love for you guys to support me. And they showed up and showed out, and they helped, and they gave me space and they gave me grace and they cut me some slack. You see what I'm saying? But I could have not had that conversation, right? So these are kind of the things that I do. When I graduated from residency, I had this idea of an ideal life, right? Meaning that I'm an attending, I spend all this time at work, I do a great job at work, and then, you know, I come home and I'm doing all the stuff and I'm cooking the meals, I'm doing everything for everybody, and like I'm just a rock star on all sides, right? And then I started a practice, and I was so frustrated because I'm like, I'm not doing what I should at home, I'm I'm not there as much as I think as I should be, you know, and all of this stuff. And one day I had to come to terms with the fact that you're building a brand new business. You have two kids under the age of two, and you have a busy life otherwise. It is what it is. On your journey, but what you're doing, you're doing it now so that you can have more time later. I had to let go of all that pressure that I put on myself and ask for help and take help and give myself grace and cut myself some slack so I could enjoy the journey. Because the truth of the matter is we're never gonna arrive. We're there's no arrival point, right? So the more you can enjoy the journey, the better. The better, you know? So I came to terms with that and I started enjoying it, and I started really depending on people to help. And I can't say that I ever hated my journey. It was busy, it was different, I had to work a lot, but then this is 10 years later, and I work a lot less. I mean, I still work really hard, but I work a lot less, and I have a lot of time with my family, and it's all worth it. Okay, so for my dear dog who's like, what red flags do I look from? How do I for how do I prevent myself, you know, from overextending at the expense of my family? That's how you do it. So own your journey is different. You're gonna look at, you know, my kids were, my kids had a lot of friends whose moms didn't work. And, you know, I used to let it intimidate me because they would, they had the homemade granola bars, and they were always in the gym, and they made their kids clothes, and everything was all prim and proper. And I could barely make it to the meetings, right? Barely make it. And I had to own my journey. It's a different journey, it's an entrepreneur's journey, it's my journey. So own your journey and set your priorities and schedule your priorities and make periodic big deposits and communicate. And you'll end up enjoying your journey and you'll get what you wanted, and you would have invested the time so that you can create time and it will be amazing. It'll be absolutely amazing. So go for it. So I hope this answers your question. And of course, we can always do a follow-up in the group. And like I said, if you're not a part of the group, head over to the group. Who knows? Your question may be a whole podcast episode one of these days. So, for every entrepreneur here listening to me, this is my call to action for you. Okay, this is what I want you to do. I want you to own your journey, which means you know what it is and you choose to enjoy it. Enjoy it. Enjoy it. I wish I enjoyed those days more. Enjoy it. Okay. Set your priorities. Your family should be one of those top priorities. Okay. Set your priorities, schedule your priorities, make some big deposits, do it on purpose, knowing what you're doing, and communicate. Do a lot of talking. Okay. And you can have it all. You can have the business, you can have the family, you can have the self-care, you can have the health, you can have it all. But you're not gonna have it all in equal dimensions at the same time. Okay. So we're, you know, we're gonna do this in sequence, but you can have it all. Okay. All right. So thank you so much for listening. I want you to go on social media. The fastest way to learn is to teach. So take the biggest ha ha moment you got for this from this, share it on your social media platform, tag us, hashtag entreemd. I'll be looking out for it. And I will see you in the group and I will see you in entree and business school when we open up for enrollment again. All right, see you on the next episode. If you love this podcast, please take a moment to subscribe, share, and review it on iTunes. As you go about your week, remember, you're not just an MD, you're an entre MD. Don't forget to tune in next week for another great episode. Until next time.