EP321: How to Set Your 2026 Goals Now (Yes Now!) - A 6 Week Jumpstart for Physician Entrepreneurs

Transcript
YouTube English auto-captions.

========================================================================

Hey guys, this is Dr. Mike Wuang. Welcome to another edition of Bootstrap MD, the podcast for physician and healthc care entrepreneurs. Today I'm going to talk about setting your 2026 goals.

Now, now don't look at your calendar. Yes, at the time of this recording, it's just before Thanksgiving 2025. But what I want to show with you that anytime that I start planning ahead, I'm just much more on the ball and then my subsequent year is so much more productive and I'm able to achieve majority of my goals a lot easier. Because here's the myth.

Most of us who set goals, we'll sit down on January 1st. Maybe we'll get around like in that first week. And the reality is, you know, your kids are home. You probably had some vague midnight resolutions that gets buried until January 15th.

Maybe your post call. you're working, maybe you're dealing with fires on your EMR. And when I planned in November, again, intended to be one of my best years ever, just better direction. I didn't feel like I was working even harder.

When I tended to wait, I usually can get done with my goals or plan my goals until like first or second week in January. And they always seem to be more reactive, always seem to be catching up. So if you plan ahead, you do this six weeks before the end of the year. You look at it as an opportunity.

It's not just you're dealing with a deadline here. And whether you are a business owner, an entrepreneur, or maybe you're just thinking about starting your own business, I think you can take a lot of information from the podcast episode I'm ready to give you here today. So why is the next six weeks are your secret advantage? Well, I think there's three reasons.

One is you have less pressure. And when you have less pressure, you make better decisions. You're not in holiday survival mode just yet. It's just before the holidays and you can actually think about it without that jittery rush that we all seem to get.

Number two, physician work tends to be very seasonal. Usually at this time things are stabilizing. You might be able to open up your bandwidth mentally as well. So I feel this is your window.

When we're trying to do things in January, everything is in motion and momentum beats motivation every time. Momentum can carry you through January through late weeks in January through February, March when the excitement kind of wears off. So early planners win. So I've got two different starting points.

Whether you have a business already or whether you're employed. So if you have a business already, you have data that you could see, you can review how your year went and then you can see what you need to refine. Whether this is the year that this next year is whether you're an employed physician and you're wanting to start a business. If you start 6 weeks early, you're going to have more clarity.

Clarity on determining your niche. You're going to have a starting plan. And both can use the same methodology that I want to give you today. You don't need a business to start planning like an entrepreneur.

I like to think of like your career as your own business. It's you incorporated. You don't have to wait for that perfect LLC. You don't have to wait for the logo.

You don't want to have to wait for your website to get built. So, here's what I want you to do. Let's start off and at this for this podcast, I want you to get out a piece of paper or maybe you're on a computer and use your Microsoft Word and let's start planning our year-end self-re. Okay.

But before I begin, I want to talk to you about some really exciting news. As some of you know, I've been working with Dr. and Trong, a very successful cash practice owner, physician, and we are hosting a event that's coming on January 15th through January 18th. It's called Dr.

Fest 2026. And I know what you're thinking. I'm sure you've been to dozens of physician conferences. I have, too.

Be honest, a lot of them aren't even worth the plane ride going to them. You're sitting in a ballroom, maybe have 500 doctors. A lot of you don't want to be there. You're just collecting CME.

Maybe you're listening to recycled content. Maybe you exchange business cards, but people that you never probably will talk to ever again, maybe. And then you fly home wast wondering you wasted 3 days. So Doctor Fest 2026 is not like this.

It's going to be in January 15th through 18th. It's 4 days at the Podfest Expo and we're capping it at 100 physicians and healthcare professionals and and that's it. Why? because I've built multiple sevenfigure businesses and I can tell you the real money, the real opportunities, they don't happen in auditorium.

They happen in small rooms with people who are actually doing the work. Who's going to be attending? You're going to have 100 plus physician podcasters who are already monetizing their platforms. You're going to meet dentist creators.

You're going to get full access to Podfest, 5,000 plus across industry creators, the producers, the sponsors, the media companies who are looking for medical experts right now. And what we're going to do, we're going to be covering monetization strategies. We're going to cover YouTube growth. We're going to discover podcast blueprints.

And honestly, the real reason why you want to do it is you're going to come for the relationship. These are the conversations that lead to sponsorship deals, to joint ventures, to revenue streams that you didn't know existed. So, when I was building my businesses, nobody handed me a playbook. This is what you're be getting at Podfest 26.

You're going to get a handbook. You're going to have we're going to have VIP network dinners, private community, all the recordings included, and there's even a 30-day money back guarantee because I'm not interested in taking money from doctors who don't get the value. So, go to drpodfest.com, register now. We're limiting it to 100 people.

I think it's going to sell really quickly. No exceptions. This is how you build autonomy. This is how you build leverage.

And I hope to see you at Doctor Fest 2026. All right. So, let's go into the year- end self- review. All right.

The first part that you want to do is look at 2025 and review it like a patient chart. See, look at their symptoms. Okay. You are a business owner.

What felt very heavy during your business? What drains you? What offers in convert for you? If you're an employed doctor, when did you start thinking I should start my own thing?

Okay, so those are your symptoms. Now, let's look at our labs. Let's look at our numbers. For business owners, it's easy.

Look at our revenue. for revenue by offer. Look at our lead sources. Look at our conversions.

How much time did you spend and what was your ROI? What was your return on investment with that time? For if you're an employee doctor wanting to start your own business, look at your available time blocks. Look at your monetization skills.

What skill set you can use that can be of value to other people. What is your realistic bandwidth, your mental bandwidth? Do you have a financial target in mind? I want you to look at all those things.

Now, just like a patient chart, what's your diagnosis? Are there any patterns that are emerging? What needs to be retired, done away with? What needs to be scaled up?

What needs to be simplified? I'm sure you've heard the 8020 rule. Well, it is really true that we spend 80% of our time on offers that really generate 20% of our revenue. So, what's the prognosis?

What is your 2026? If nothing changes, what are you headed to? Are you looking for more freedom or are you getting less freedom? Are you generating more income in 2025 or are you plateauing?

Are you burnt out? and are you okay with that prognosis? So now that you've had the time to think, you've had the time to look at your symptoms, your labs, your diagnosis, and a prognosis, what are you going to do about it? So this is when you're going to define your 2026 vital outcomes.

I want you to avoid random goal list. I want you to focus on two or maybe three core outcomes. So if you're a business owner, goals could be building a predictable lead flow. If you want more patients, how are they going to flow in?

What are you going to be using? You going to be using online advertising? You mean offline advertising? Are you going to network with other like-minded business owners out there?

What's going to happen? Are you going to be hiring? Who are you going to be hiring? Your next team members.

Do you need a nurse, a medical assistant? Do you need to hire more virtual assistants? Another goal will be creating one scalable offer. Okay, just not five, not 10, just one.

What is one scalable offer that you could do that could grow? The goal could be hit that revenue milestone with less burnout on there. So again, just focus on two or three outcomes. Now, if you're an employed physician, here are some two things that you can focus on.

You want to create your niche. What is your niche of your business? You want to choose your first offer. Maybe your goal is to build an email list of 500 to a,000 subscribers.

Maybe your goal is I want to get paid. We all do. I want to get five to 10 paid clients. Maybe a goal could be generating your first $10,000 outside your clinical work or $50,000.

Think a little bit even more. Push yourself. Again, there's a formula to all of this, guys. Your outcome is when it's specific plus being measurable plus emotionally meaningful.

So, your goal can't be, hey, I want to make more money in 2026. A better way would be, I want to replace one clinical day by Q3 so I could do physician coaching instead. Your action steps is what are your two to three vital outcomes for 2026. Okay.

Now that you done that, you defined your 2626 final outcome. I want to now focus on your 6 week pre2026 jump start. All right. You're going to lay the foundation, the runway now.

So you're going to take off in January 2026. So for current entrepreneurs, here's what I want you to do. You can pick three or four of these. Number one, identify and fix one bottleneck in your company.

Number two, I want to clean up your automations, making it more scalable. Number three, a goal could be mapping out your content. We all need content on here. Batch it out.

Now, what is going to be the first 90 days? What's the content going to be? Number four, you can update your flagship offer. Number five could be creating a simple lead magnet.

All right, again, don't have to do all five. Maybe pick three or four of them right now. Now, if you are aspiring to be an entrepreneur, pick three or four goals here. Pick your niche.

One problem, one person. Pick your niche. You don't have to stick to it, but you got to stick to something. Another goal could be creating a simple landing page.

Who do you help? What do they get out of it? How do you help them? How do they work with you?

Choose one content channel. Could be YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn. Build your first valuable piece. What are they going to get?

A PDF, a webinar, a checklist. Another goal could be have five conversations with real humans. Yes, real humans. And then for a more advanced goal, validate your starter offer.

Start selling it to three or five people. Remember guys, you don't need a perfect business. You just need your first reps. Action beats perfection every time.

Every single time. Now, we talked about what you need to add. Here's what I want to do. What can you subtract in this step?

Decide what you're not bringing into 2026. I know doctors, we love complexity. As entrepreneurs, we need to subtract it. So, for you business owners out there, here's what I want you to do.

Can you identify offers that you can stop that are draining you? Marketing channels that why are you even in Tik Tok if you don't have any patience there or whatever channel that is? Get rid of those marketing channels. Are you focusing on services that are low profits, low margins?

Are you being a perfectionist? Are you overbuilding? Stop that. Now, if you're just new to entrepreneurship, stop buying endless courses.

I sell courses. Yes. And I'm just saying with you, maybe you don't need another course. You just need more action.

Stop waiting to get confidence. You've have confidence. You got into medical school. You got into residency.

You've gotten a job. You should have confidence already. Don't wait for it to happen. Stop thinking that the first step to a business is designing a logo or designing a website or incorporating your business.

You just need to do something. And also stop with that mindset that I don't know enough. You do know enough. You can do these things.

Again, for business owners or for entrepreneurs, beginning entrepreneurs, just write three to five things you're not bringing to 2026. What can you subtract? When you subtract, you create more space for yourself. Space creates momentum.

All right, we talked about our goals. We talked about what can subtract. Now, I want you to build your 2026 support system. You don't need more pressure.

You need more foundation. You need more scaffolding. So, what does support look like? This could be reach out to accountability partner, another physician entrepreneur, hire a mentor.

We talked about that in the last podcast episode. a business coach, join a mastermind. Have a minimal tech stack using AI, having an email platform, a scheduler, a payment processor. Have a weekly planning ritual, 30 minutes every Sunday focusing on your business.

And then focus on one metric track to track every week. Are you tracking leads? Are you tracking an offer? Are you tracking revenue?

Are you tracking appointments? What I know from coaching hundreds of doctors that the ones who succeed build systems of support. They don't need to do this alone. You can't build a business alone.

You build it with support. So you can reach out here at bootstrapped MD. You can reach us at dr boss on here. This is what we love to do.

But find somebody. Even if you don't join, find somebody because again entrepreneurship can be a very lonely island. I've said this time and time again. You don't need to do this alone.

Okay. The next step, we talked about you having your support system. Now, simple wins plan. This is your January 1 simple wins plan.

Okay. You're not going to do everything. Just do a few things consistently. So, for business owners, it could be, okay, here's what I'm going to do, you know, every week or every month, a weekly email to my list.

Maybe I'm going to start one content pillar and I'm going to have one content platform where I'm going to be sending out things two to three times a week. One improved offer promoted consistently. One process that's automated, one collaboration per month. Again, simple wins.

We're not asking you to do this all the time. Just simple wins on here. If you're an aspiring entrepreneur, a weekly posting on Facebook or whatever platform that you've chosen for. Design your lead magnet.

Create a simple starter offer. Have a goal to create three to five market conversations per week. And then maybe you have a test launch. Pick a date.

Put something on the calendar. Make it happen. Network. Sell it to three to five people.

This isn't about doing more. It's about choosing wisely because consistency beats complexity every single time. So your action step is write three to five things. You're going to do so consistently in January 2026.

All right, guys. I know this is a lot, but I really want you to get ahead of the game. So, as a quick recap, review your 2025. Look at the symptoms, the labs, diagnosis, and prognosis.

Next, I want you to find two to three vital outcomes for 2026. Number three, use this time from November to the end of December, use a sixe jump start to lay the runway. Number four, what you can subtract. Decide what you're not bringing forward.

Number five, build your support system. your accountability partner. Join that mastermind, whatever you need. Number six, create a simple wins plan.

Three to five consistent actions that you can do regularly. I love to hear how your outcome goes. Feel free to drop me a line at boostupmd.com. I'd love to hear it.

Again, thank you for joining me and I want you to come check out Dr. Podfest at drpodfest.com. I'd love to meet you in person and love to see you grow and scale your business. Remember, as an entrepreneur, you're going to have your ups and your downs.

Do something a little each day to get you closer to your goals and keep moving forward.