3 Mindset Shifts That Separate 7 Figure Owners from the Rest

Ever wonder why certain dental practice owners effortlessly navigate challenges while others remain perpetually stuck? The answer isn't superior intelligence or working harder—it's a specific mindset that separates extraordinary dental entrepreneurs from the rest.

Through years of coaching dentists, I've identified three crucial characteristics that define the most successful practice owners. First, they absolutely refuse to live in ambiguity. While average owners accept problems as "just how things are," exceptional leaders view uncertainty as unacceptable. They embody the principle that those with the highest standards should lead, refusing to tolerate persistent issues or knowledge gaps. When faced with burnout or inefficiency, they don't resign themselves to it—they methodically find solutions.

Second, successful dentists continuously ask bigger, more ambitious questions throughout their careers. Their inquiries evolve from basic operational concerns to optimization challenges to transformative questions about leadership and delegation. This progression drives continuous growth while others plateau at "good enough." The most successful practitioners regularly examine all aspects of their practice, constantly identifying improvement opportunities rather than becoming complacent.

Finally, extraordinary dental practice owners leverage the right guides to multiply their growth. Whether through coaching relationships, mastermind groups, or mentorship connections, they understand that accelerated development comes from learning through others' experiences. They extend this problem-solving mindset throughout their organization by cultivating a culture of resourcefulness where team members bring solutions rather than just problems.

Ready to transform your practice experience? Implement these three powerful mindset shifts: establish a "no ambiguity rule," dedicate regular time for reflection and bigger-picture thinking, and invest in shortcuts by seeking guidance from those who've already navigated similar challenges. Your path to exceptional practice ownership isn't about working harder—it's about developing the resourcefulness to work smarter. Visit dentalpracticeheroes.com to schedule a strategy call and discover how to fully systemize your office while inspiring your team in ways you never thought possible.

GRAB THE FREE PLAYBOOK HERE - Discover 30 proven strategies top-performing dentists use to increase profits, cut clinical days, and finally enjoy the freedom they originally built their practices for.

https://www.dentalpracticeheroes.com/playbook

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Episode Transcript

Paul Etchison (00:02):
Do you ever wonder why some things look so
easy to others but not to you?
And why do some people justblow through challenges but then
you have the same challengesand sometimes you get stuck?
Or do you ever wonder why somethings in ownership are just so
hard to figure out and you getso frustrated trying to find all
the answers?
Well, if you said yes to any ofthese, this episode is for you

(00:25):
Now.
I've been coaching dentists foryears and I can tell you that I
figured out what that X factoris that makes some of my clients
so easily coachable and whythey have such great results
versus others, who still getresults, but not as profound.
The good news is, I can tellyou exactly what it is, and it's
really that easy, and that'swhat I'm going to share with you

(00:46):
today.
What is it about these peoplethat makes them so special and
what is it about others thatjust keeps them stuck?
Let's get into it Now.
You're listening to the DentalPractice Heroes podcast, where
we teach dental practice ownershow to create a team-driven
practice that doesn't requirethem, that runs without them and

(01:06):
allows them to take a ton oftime off.
I'm your host, dr Paul Etchison.
I'm the author of two books ondental practice management, a
dental coach and the owner of alarge group practice in the
south suburbs of Chicago, I wantto teach you how to create, run
and manage a practice in a waythat completely changes your
life from the inside out and hasechoes through every single

(01:28):
thing that you do.
All right, let's talk aboutwhat makes these successful
owners different than the otherpeople that get stuck.
The first point I want toexpress to you is that these
successful owners, they refuseto live in ambiguity, and what I
mean by this is the ambiguityof not knowing.
Now, average owners, they lookat issues in their practice and

(01:49):
they accept them.
They say you know, that's justhow it is, that's what it is
running a practice, no big deal.
And you know what?
It reminds me of the time Iheard Alex Hormozy speak and he
says that whoever has thehighest standards should be in
charge, and I totally agree withthat, and I loop this back to
this idea of not living inambiguity, because somebody with

(02:10):
high standards would never stay, would never stay in that
ambiguity.
They wouldn't allow it.
Their standards are too high,they're the people that care the
most and they're not gonna saythat's just how it is.
They're gonna say let's figureit out.
I don't like not knowing.
I want to solve this issue.

(02:31):
This is an issue worth solving.
So I'll tell you a story.
In my own practice development,there was a time where I said
you know what?
Practice ownership is stressfuland that's just how it is and
you know what?
To some extent, I do think thatis true, but I just thought you
know, this is the way it is andI can't run my practice without
being completely burnt out.
And as I added the leadershipsystems and built a leadership
team, I realized that it wasn'tme.

(02:53):
It was the way that I wasmanaging my practice, what I was
doing way too much by myself.
That's why I was burning out.
So this is that thing.
This thing is.
I said, you know what?
This can't be true.
It can't be the way it is.
I need to find a solution.
And I tried things and I solvedit with a leadership team.
And I remember back in early inmy career, whenever I had a case
where I got stuck maybe it waslike some complication or I

(03:16):
didn't know, like something wentwrong with the case I would
write down what happened in myphone and then when I went to a
clinical course for whatever wasapplicable to that case maybe
it was ortho, maybe it was endo,maybe it was surgery I would go
up to the instructor in betweenbreaks or at lunch and say, hey
, I had this really weird case.
This happened to me.
I was wondering if you can giveme some advice.
Don't let there be ambiguity inyour life, whether it's

(03:39):
practice ownership or whetherit's clinical.
If you've seen an issue, thereis always a solution, and don't
ever All right.
Moving on, point number two,their questions.
The successful dentists.
Their questions get bigger, notsmaller.
Now, as you grow as a practiceowner, your questions cannot get
smaller.

(03:59):
You need to keep askingquestions and you need to keep
asking bigger questions.
There is this idea that I hearfrom a lot of my coaching
clients.
When they start working withthem and I start sharing stories
from my practice that are veryrecent stories, they're always
surprised Like I can't believeyou have these issues at your
practice.
I would figure all the systems,all that other stuff.
You would have everythingfigured out by now.

(04:19):
That's not how it works.
You don't ask questions, youdon't get solutions and you run
out of problems.
Your questions get bigger.
So let me explain what I meanby that.
At first, when you open up, it'slike how do I send an insurance
claim?
How do I get an insurancebreakdown?
How do we run some reports?
How do we do this and that,make this equipment work?
How do we turn on thecompressors?

(04:40):
Very basic, foundational,operational things.
And then it starts to becomehow do I optimize this system
and how do I optimize thissystem and how do I do this
better?
How do we perform?
How do we make sure that we gethigher case acceptance?
How do we convert more peopleover the phone?
And then it evolves into howcan I delegate more to other

(05:00):
people?
How can I build a leadershipteam so I don't have to manage
it all?
How can I step out of thepractice clinically?
How can I open up morepractices?
So your questions get bigger.
In my practice, one of thebiggest ones I ever did was I
asked myself what do I not likedoing here?
And it was I don't want to seeany more new patients and I
don't want to check hygieneanymore.
I just don't want to put on myhappy face that many times

(05:21):
anymore.
I felt like it was gettingreally hard sometimes I think it
was because I was seeing somany patients and I was doing so
much.
I know that sounds horrible.
I didn't want to smile and talkto my patients, but it's the
truth.
That's where I was.

(05:41):
So I said that was a problem.
How can I stop checking hygiene, how can I stop seeing new
patients?
And most docs would say that'show it is, bro, you got to do it
.
But, dude, I tell you, Ifigured it out.
There was a way to do it.
Some patients didn't like itand some of my team didn't like
it, but they got over it and Ilived a better life because of
it.
So at first you might think youcan't stop doing that.
That's crazy, but you can.

(06:01):
You just have to ask a biggerquestion.
And one of the biggestdifferences I see in my coaching
clients is that the successfulowners keep asking bigger
questions at every stage.
That's why, with a lot of mycoaching clients, I do this
exercise called the sevensystems exercise, where we look
at all seven systems, all theseven system categories in a
dental practice.
This is from my first book.
We ask what's working, what'snot working, and then we pick

(06:25):
one thing in each of those sevensystem categories to improve on
this quarter.
The questions never stop.
They evolve All right.
The last thing that I notice inmy coaching clients that do
really well is they find theright guides to multiply their
growth.
Of course, etch, you're sayingthis is so self-serving.
Hear me out, I know this soundscompletely self-serving.

(06:46):
It doesn't have to be a coach.
You can get a coach.
I suggest you get a coach.
I've had coaches.
I mean I have literally had sixdifferent coaches in the past
year.
Four, I have literally had sixdifferent coaches in the past
year, for I have a speakingcoach, I have a podcasting coach
, I have a mastermind coach, Ihave a marketing coach.
I mean I've been working withtons of people as I lean more

(07:08):
into this podcast, into coachingand trying to transform my
clients.
But I've had coaches indentistry too.
I've worked with consultants andI mean when I had three
associates and I had a huge team, one of the things that always
bothered me is that there is nota lot of help in the dental
industry for bigger practices.
There's just not.
You can talk to people like howdo I make my front desk balance
the responsibilities and like,well, you split it up between

(07:28):
these two or three people andyou're like no dude.
We're open like 65 hours a weekand I have like 11 people
working at my front desk.
That doesn't work.
In my office I have differentproblems.
I've got a bigger team, so Iremember being really frustrated
with that.
But the mentors that I was ableto lean on people like Dr Josh
Cochran, dr Justin Buller weused to do the Dental Business

(07:49):
Mentor episodes together DrSteve Markowitz, dr Jason Tenori
, henry Ernst I mean they wereall ahead of me and they helped
me get to the next level.
And that's why I'm so excitedabout this DPH Mastermind that
we kicked off just this lastSeptember.
I mean we got 15 badass doctorswho are going to transform
their practices in 12 months.

(08:10):
Each of them is now going tohave 14 other people to lean on
for the rest of their careersand the growth that we've
already seen in this group dudeabsolutely awesome and I can't
tell you how excited and howmuch I'm loving being a part of
it.
So find the right guides thathelp your growth.
Maybe it's a coach, maybe it'sa course, maybe it's a book,
maybe it's an online workshop, Idon't know.

(08:31):
Get help, do things so you cantake it to the next level.
It doesn't have to be indentistry.
So here are your tacticaltakeaways for this episode.
I want you to create a noambiguity rule.
Anytime you're unsure, I wantyou to write it down and commit
to finding an answer this week,next week or this month.
Just don't let it sit.
Number two I want you to builda learning habit.

(08:53):
I want you to block 15 minutesto an hour every single week for
just thinking time, to reflect.
Maybe read some books.
Think.
Readers are leaders.
I mean every problem that youface.
There has been somebody who hasstudied it extensively and had
written a book on it.
Make sure you're setting up thetime to do that.
Make sure that you always havea learning habit.

(09:14):
And three invest in theshortcuts.
Read the books.
Hire the coaches, join themasterminds.
Whatever it is, somebodyalready knows the solution.
Learn from them and skip makingall the mistakes that they made
.
You don't have to figure it outon your own, and don't just keep
this mindset for yourself.
Teach it to your team.
I mean, reward them when theybring you solutions instead of
problems.

(09:34):
Encourage them to solve issuesbefore looping you in.
This is how you can slowlybuild a culture of problem
solvers.
The more problem solvers youhave on your team, the less you
have to be the problem solverfor everything.
So, in closing, success doesn'tbelong to the smartest people.
It definitely doesn't belong tothe hardest workers.
It belongs to the mostresourceful people.

(09:56):
So, reflect this week where areyou tolerating ambiguity right
now?
And what's the one questionthat you need to get answered
today?
And if you want some help withyour practice, go to
dentalpracticeheroescom.
Set up a strategy, call with me.
I'd love to talk with you.
I'd love to take you throughfull systemization of your
office and teaching you how tolead and inspire your team in a

(10:16):
way that you never knew waspossible.
I guarantee it.
Give me a chance I can show you.
And thank you so much fortaking the time to listen to the
podcast.
I do appreciate all mylisteners.
Thank you so much and we willtalk to you next time.