Stepping out of my comfort zone felt like jumping off a cliff, heart pounding, and the unknown stretching before me—Join me, Jennifer, as I share how I built a successful advanced imaging venture from the ground up. I pull back the curtain on the raw, personal experiences that shaped my business, from the stomach-churning fears to the exhilarating moments that come with venturing into the world of ultrasound entrepreneurship. Every sonographer who’s ever dreamt of owning their business knows the daunting feeling that precedes the first step. As I recount the early days of my company, you’ll hear about the challenges faced and the resilience it took to not just survive, but thrive in the competitive imaging landscape.

So, if you’re ready to transform your aspirations into action, keep your earbuds in and heart open as we explore what it means to not only dream big but to achieve those dreams with unwavering tenacity. And don’t forget, our conversation continues beyond this podcast—join us on social media and become part of a community that celebrates every step of the entrepreneurial journey.

P.S. Whenever you’re ready, here are 3 ways we can help you start your new ultrasound business, or grow your existing one…

1. Download our free guide. It’s an incredible overview on the ins and outs of creating revenue for your ultrasound business. Grab it here.
2. Join our Ultrasound Business Academy Program and be a Case Study. We’ve got the blueprint for $20k/months (and beyond). Get strategic step-by-step help starting and growing your ultrasound business. No biz experience required. Learn more HERE.
3. Get personalized “best next steps”. And if you ever want to get some 1:1 help on your best next steps in starting or scaling your ultrasound business, fill out the questionnaire and we’ll chat through what to do next and how we might be able to help.

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Transcript:

00:03 – Jennifer Lindsey (Host)

Hey, sonographers, grab a seat and a cup of coffee. Welcome to Ultrasound Business School. I’m your host, Jennifer Lindsay. This is Talking Tech, a sonographer’s guide to entrepreneurship. Hello, my friends, welcome back to another episode of Talking Tech, where we dive deep into the heart of ultrasound entrepreneurship. Today we are peeling back the curtain a bit to reveal some untold stories of starting and growing an ultrasound business. It is the sweats, the tears, and the triumphs that don’t always make it to the highlight reel. Now, I’ll talk a little bit about our kind of raw start two decades ago. 

00:45

Still cannot believe it’s been that long. Advanced imaging was just a dream and it was an unstoppable drive. But let’s be honest, we all know dreams are scary, right, especially when they push us into those uncharted territories, right, those places that feel so uncomfortable. I want you to think back to a time where you stood on the edge of a decision, your heart pounding, right, your mind racing. That was us at the beginning of our journey, and that might be you today. You may be standing on the precipice, thinking about starting your own ultrasound business, or you may have started your business and nervous about growth and what it takes to actually get where you want to go. I want to ask you; have you ever taken that leap of faith that scared you and what pushed you to jump? For us, it really was the belief in something greater, right, a vision of what could be. And that’s the first step, that’s the leap that sets everything in motion. So if there is a dream that’s tugging at your heart right now, let it be real. Let it be real. Write it down. I am a true believer that those dreams in your heart are put there for a reason. For me, I really and truly believe our calling in life lies in those scary dreams. Now for us to get on the other side of that dream, right, and create reality and success out of that dream that’s in our heart, we have to embrace failure as a stepping stone. 

02:22

Failure is a word that we’re all terrified of, right, but here is the truth. Failure is not the opposite of success, it’s a part of it. Failure is not the opposite of success, it’s a part of it. We made mistakes, loads of them, but each one was a lesson in disguise. We get so scared to fail, don’t we? What will others think? You know what if this thing doesn’t work? Like, our mind goes in these terrible negative spaces. But when we come up on an obstacle, it’s so easy to shrink back when we stay in that mindset. But what if we realize that on the other side of that obstacle is the path forward? And I can tell you from 20 years of experience in business, 20 years of navigating quote unquote failures, that every time we made it through the tunnel on the other side of those was something incredible. Every failure is a stepping stone and a learning experience. It’s an opportunity in disguise. 

03:31

So I want you to think of a time you failed and think about what it taught you. Did you shrink back and think, why is this happening to me, right, and never move past it or forward? Or did you take a deep breath and push through, because you won’t ever learn the lesson that that obstacle could have taught you if you give up, you have to see it as a hidden success, right? You never see that in the beginning, but after you push through and on the other side of those obstacles is that success that you’re after. Our failures taught us resilience. They taught us patience and, most importantly, the courage to keep going. 

04:15

Now, I wanna talk a little bit as well about the learning curve in business, right? Learning is endless. It truly is. And in business, it really is your best ally. So, whether it’s mastering the ins and outs of the ultrasound industry in our market or trying to understand how to best connect with our clients, every day was a school day, right, and today we’re still learning. One of, I think, the biggest assets is that I truly understand that, no matter how much our business grows, how much success, we encounter obstacles, issues, failures they always come. No matter- whether you are just starting out or you’re 20 years in like we are, and so does learning, growing, and that next-level person that we need to be to see that level of success. So I want you to think about what’s something new you’ve been wanting to learn but have been putting off, right? 

05:15

Why? Why have you been putting it off? Is it because it’s uncomfortable? Was it because it was uncomfortable? Here’s really the hard truth. Success lies on the other side of that fear, and it’s about doing the things that scare you until they don’t, you guys. I used to sit in my car near tears, sometimes in tears, right, making sure my mascara wasn’t messed up before I’d walk in to pitch our service to a potential physician client. Fear was a constant companion and until I did it enough times that it became second nature, it still felt terrible. It still felt uncomfortable. And that’s why I think that I can connect so well with our coaching clients, right, sonographers that we work with to help them start and grow their business; because I know exactly how they feel doing something new, getting out there, past our comfort zone, and I understand fully how our mind wants to keep us safe. Right when we feel uncomfortable, our brain tells us it’s dangerous and that we need to shrink back. But what we need to do in reality is push forward. And so, if you do it enough times, if you do that scary thing enough times, and this goes for anything, right? We’re talking about business today. But it literally goes for anything in our lives. Do it enough times and it becomes second nature. It becomes second nature, right? 

06:50

Think about back to when you started ultrasound school. Right when you were in your sonography program, you had a huge knowledge gap. You wanted to learn something new. Right when you were in your sonography program, you had a huge knowledge gap. You wanted to learn something new right To create a successful career, and in the beginning, you didn’t know what you were doing, you were putting yourself in an uncomfortable situation. Right, to do it repetitively enough times that now, the things that were scary back then, or the things that you felt not confidence in knowing how to do, you feel complete confidence in now, right now, right. So think of it that way. It’s the exact same concept. It’s doing something new, doing it often enough, and pushing through the uncomfortable times to get to a place where now this is second nature and it feels comfortable. 

07:42

Today I could walk into a room with you know 10 physicians and pitch our service and not have any qualms about that at all. Service, and not have any qualms about that at all because I’ve done it over and over and over and over again. So I’m here to tell you the difference between someone who makes it and someone who doesn’t is the willingness to push through the discomfort and do the thing that’s going to get you the result. I want to ask you what’s one thing you’re scared to do and what’s holding you back, and then I want you to imagine for a moment what would happen if you faced that fear head-on. So this week, this is your homework. I want to challenge you to take one step toward that fear, right, it doesn’t have to be big, but it has to push you forward. And trust me when I tell you the feeling on the other side of that is worth every single bit of discomfort. 

08:42

Now, as we wrap up today, I want you to remember this: behind every successful entrepreneur is a story filled with failures, lessons, fears they faced head-on, and it’s these stories that make the success so sweet. It’s why I like to talk about them a lot. It’s why I like to talk about me being scared to get out there and market our business right Me being nervous to add on new service opportunities to our company, right? Being scared to add things into our business that we knew would make it grow. Because when you see the issues that people have, right, you can see someone now, 20 years later. But if you put that same person from 20 years ago in my same seat, it’s not the same person, right, I am a completely different person than I was 20 years ago in multiple ways business-wise, personal, so many ways. Because as you continue to grow personally and professionally, you become that next level of person that needs to be there for that next level of business or that next level of personal development right? 

10:01

What I want to invite you as well to do is join our upcoming free workshop. You can DM me the word workshop on any of our social platforms. I am diving into the basics that you need to know to start or scale your ultrasound business. And trust me when I tell you part of the fear of doing something completely unknown is what drives us to step back right. So we are here to change that and to give you the tools guidance information through so many things we have right. We are here to change that and to give you the tools guidance information through so many things we have right Our free guides, our free workshops, our client programs. 

10:36

We’re working one-on-one with sonographers. Our goal is to help you feel confident in your best next steps in chasing those dreams. So I want to thank you for joining me today. Please don’t forget to register for our free workshop. We are going to close that knowledge gap, help you feel more confident and comfortable in creating that next level version of your business, whether it’s starting, whether it’s scaling. 

10:59

I want to thank you for joining me today. DM me the word workshop over on any of our social platforms. We have those down in the show notes If you’re not already following us on social, I want to thank you for joining me today. Remember, you have the power to create your story, one step, one day, one challenge at a time. And until next time, I want you to keep dreaming, keep fighting, and keep believing in the beauty of your dreams. Thank you so much for tuning into today’s episode. If you enjoyed the information, make sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode, and help us reach other sonographers by leaving us a review. We truly appreciate it and until next time, I’m over here cheering you on.