Doubt Isn't the Problem — Letting It Drive Is: 7 Lessons from Dr. Una on Beating Business Doubt
Updated: 4 days ago
If you've built a practice, a program, or a business as a physician, you already know the feeling: the moment you're about to do something bigger — raise your rates, launch a new service, put yourself out there publicly — doubt shows up right on cue.
I recently watched a video from Dr. Una (Nneka Unachukwu, MD), founder of EntreMD, on exactly this problem: 7 Ways to Stop Doubt. Her core message stuck with me — doubt doesn't disappear as your business grows, it just shows up wearing a bigger price tag. The goal was never to eliminate it. The goal is to stop letting it be the one making your decisions.
Here's my take on the seven practices she laid out, and why they matter for physicians building something of their own.
1. Decide Your Business Is Good — Right Now
There will always be a next milestone. If you wait for "arrived" before you let yourself feel proud of what you've built, you'll wait forever. You can hold both things at once: pride in what's working today, and ambition for what's next.
2. Spend More Time in the Vision Than in the Gap
Focusing only on what's missing sends yourself one message on repeat: not good enough, not there yet. Dr. Una's counter to this is deliberate: spend real time picturing the practice or business you're building — your ideal caseload, your team, your pricing, the experience you want people to have. Reality matters, but it shouldn't be the only thing you look at.
3. Stay Close to People Already Doing It
Proximity to people ahead of you — in person, on their podcasts, in their programs — does something specific: it shows you that successful people hit the same walls you do. What separates them isn't the absence of difficulty. It's how they respond to it. Watching that up close resets what you believe is possible.
4. Reframe the Setback Instead of Personalizing It
A delay or a disappointment doesn't automatically mean you made the wrong call. Dr. Una's reframe: stop asking what does this say about me, and start asking what do I need to do to move past this. She compares it to an airplane overcoming gravity — the resistance never goes away, you just engage a stronger force against it.
5. Respect the Gestation Period — But Don't Go Passive
Some results just take time you can't compress. You can't force the exact day the right hire shows up or the new revenue stream takes off. What you can control is your volume and speed of action while you wait. Energy spent asking "why hasn't this worked yet" is energy not spent doing the next right thing.
6. Protect New Ideas from the "Fire Extinguishers"
Not everyone in your life is equipped to hold a fragile new idea. Dr. Una's advice: treat a new direction like a newborn — you don't expose it indiscriminately before it's had a chance to develop some strength. You don't have to cut people off; you just don't have to hand them your vision and ask them to weigh in on it before it's ready.
7. Refuse to Let Doubt Make the Call
Doubt may keep showing up. That's not a failure state — it's just part of doing anything meaningful. The line Dr. Una draws is simple: you can feel the uncertainty and still act from conviction. Confidence isn't something you wait to feel; it's something you reinforce on purpose, decision by decision.
A Word of Thanks
I want to say a genuine thank-you to Dr. Una for putting this kind of thinking into the world, consistently and for free, for physicians who were never taught any of it in medical school. I've personally gone through her Profitable Private Practice Movement (PPPM) program, and it's shaped how I think about running my own practice as a business, not just a clinical service. I'm looking forward to continuing to learn from her work as I keep building. EntreMD Business School is the next level, and I am saving for that course - about $ 30,000.
If you're a physician who's ever felt the pull of doubt right before doing something that matters, I'd encourage you to watch her full video here: 7 Ways to Stop Doubt.
About Dr. Kim
Yoon Hang "John" Kim, MD, MPH is board-certified in Preventive Medicine and practices integrative & functional medicine. He completed a University of Arizona Osher Fellowship under Dr. Andrew Weil and holds a UCLA medical acupuncture certification. He has set up integrative & functional medicine programs in institutions and health care systems (aka health care factories). He is the author of four books — including MCAS: Epidemic in Plain Sight and the LDN Primer — and the founder of the LDN Support Group.
Professional: www.yoonhangkim.com
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